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As a potential preclinical stage of Alzheimer's dementia, subjective cognitive decline (SCD) reveals a higher risk of future cognitive decline and conversion to dementia. However, it has not been clear whether SCD status increases the clinical progression of older adults in the context of amyloid deposition, cerebrovascular disease (CeVD), and psychiatric symptoms. We identified 99 normal controls (NC), 15 SCD individuals who developed mild cognitive impairment in the next 2 years (P‐SCD), and 54 SCD individuals who did not (S‐SCD) from ADNI database with both baseline and 2‐year follow‐up data. Total white matter hyperintensity (WMH), WMH in deep (DWMH) and periventricular (PWMH) regions, and voxel‐wise grey matter volumes were compared among groups. Furthermore, using structural equation modelling method, we constructed path models to explore SCD‐related brain changes longitudinally and to determine whether baseline SCD status, age, and depressive symptoms affect participants' clinical outcomes. Both SCD groups showed higher baseline amyloid PET SUVR, baseline PWMH volumes, and larger increase of PWMH volumes over time than NC. In contrast, only P‐SCD had higher baseline DWMH volumes and larger increase of DWMH volumes over time than NC. No longitudinal differences in grey matter volume and amyloid was observed among NC, S‐SCD, and P‐SCD. Our path models demonstrated that SCD status contributed to future WMH progression. Further, baseline SCD status increases the risk of future cognitive decline, mediated by PWMH; baseline depressive symptoms directly contribute to clinical outcomes. In conclusion, both S‐SCD and P‐SCD exhibited more severe CeVD than NC. The CeVD burden increase was more pronounced in P‐SCD. In contrast with the direct association of depressive symptoms with dementia severity progression, the effects of SCD status on future cognitive decline may manifest via CeVD pathologies. Our work highlights the importance of multi‐modal longitudinal designs in understanding the SCD trajectory heterogeneity, paving the way for stratification and early intervention in the preclinical stage. Practitioner Points: Both S‐SCD and P‐SCD exhibited more severe CeVD at baseline and a larger increase of CeVD burden compared to NC, while the burden was more pronounced in P‐SCD.Baseline SCD status increases the risk of future PWMH and DWMH volume accumulation, mediated by baseline PWMH and DWMH volumes, respectively.Baseline SCD status increases the risk of future cognitive decline, mediated by baseline PWMH, while baseline depression status directly contributes to clinical outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extraction process optimization of anthocyanins from sea red rice and its hypoglycemic effect in vitro were investigated in this study. A series of single-factor experiments and orthogonal experimental designs were used to optimize the extraction process of anthocyanins from sea red rice. The contents of anthocyanins were determined by the pH difference method, and the inhibitory activities of anthocyanins against α-glucosidase and α-amylase were also analyzed. In addition, the enzyme inhibition mode of anthocyanins was studied by the enzyme inhibition kinetics model (α-glucosidase and α-amylase). The optimal extraction conditions of anthocyanins were as follows: pH 0.75, 85% of ethanol, 45 °C of extraction temperature, 30 min of extraction time, and the content of anthocyanins was 1.66 mg/mL under these conditions. Anthocyanins of sea red rice had strong inhibition against α-glucosidase (IC50 of 0.11 mg/mL) and α-amylase (IC50 of 0.05 mg/mL). The enzyme inhibition kinetics analysis indicated that anthocyanins of sea red rice showed mixed inhibition mode against two enzymes (α-glucosidase and α-amylase), namely including competitive inhibition and non-competitive inhibition. This study provides a simple method for ultrasonic-assisted extraction of anthocyanins from sea red rice, and the extracted anthocyanins could play a hypoglycemic effect in vitro with mixed inhibition mode. This study would provide a theoretical direction for the development and utilization of sea red rice resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Identifying significant predictors of behavioral outcomes is of great interest in many psychological studies. Lasso regression, as an alternative to stepwise regression for variable selection, has started gaining traction among psychologists. Yet, further investigation is valuable to fully understand its performance across various psychological data conditions. Using a Monte Carlo simulation and an empirical demonstration, we compared Lasso regression to stepwise regression in typical psychological datasets varying in sample size, predictor size, sparsity, and signal-to-noise ratio. We found that: (1) Lasso regression was more accurate in within-sample selection and yielded more consistent out-of-sample prediction accuracy than stepwise regression; (2) Lasso with a harsher shrinkage parameter was more accurate, parsimonious, and robust to sampling variability than the prediction-optimizing Lasso. Finally, we concluded with cautious notes and recommendations in practice on the application of Lasso regression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vector autoregressive (VAR) modelling is widely employed in psychology for time series analyses of dynamic processes. However, the typically short time series in psychological studies can lead to overfitting of VAR models, impairing their predictive ability on unseen samples. Cross‐validation (CV) methods are commonly recommended for assessing the predictive ability of statistical models. However, it is unclear how the performance of CV is affected by characteristics of time series data and the fitted models. In this simulation study, we examine the ability of two CV methods, namely,10‐fold CV and blocked CV, in estimating the prediction errors of three time series models with increasing complexity (person‐mean, AR, and VAR), and evaluate how their performance is affected by data characteristics. We then compare these CV methods to the traditional methods using the Akaike (AIC) and Bayesian (BIC) information criteria in their accuracy of selecting the most predictive models. We find that CV methods tend to underestimate prediction errors of simpler models, but overestimate prediction errors of VAR models, particularly when the number of observations is small. Nonetheless, CV methods, especially blocked CV, generally outperform the AIC and BIC. We conclude our study with a discussion on the implications of the findings and provide helpful guidelines for practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This longitudinal study examined the role of narrative skills in English reading comprehension, after controlling for vocabulary and decoding, with a sample of 112 dual language learners (DLLs), including both Spanish-English and Cantonese-English children. Decoding, vocabulary, and narrative samples were collected in the winter of first grade and reading comprehension skills were assessed on the same children 1 year later in second grade. Spanish-English DLLs had significantly lower English receptive vocabulary but higher L1 receptive vocabulary than their Cantonese peers. At the same time, Spanish-English DLLs scored lower than Cantonese-English DLLs on English reading comprehension. There were no differences in English reading comprehension between DLL children in bilingual programs and those in mainstream English programs after controlling for L1. Multiple regression results show that English decoding and English vocabulary explain a significant portion of the variance in English reading comprehension. Regression results also revealed a significant, albeit small, effect of narrative quality (both within- and cross-language) on English reading comprehension 1 year later, after controlling for English decoding and English vocabulary. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Most family-system research on triangulation processes has been undertaken in the West, with little known about this family dynamic in the East. The present cross-sectional study analysed 1,073 Chinese 3rd-12th-graders' self-reported exposure to three kinds of triangulation--cross-generation coalition, scapegoating, and parentification--in relation to family and child factors and with respect to children's school and social adjustment. Age-related analyses generally indicated that older children were less frequently exposed to all three dimensions of triangulation than younger ones. Children residing with only their parents experienced more scapegoating than those living in extended families; and boys were exposed to cross-generation coalition and scapegoating more than were girls. Higher levels of coalition and scapegoating exposure were related to poorer school adjustment and greater depression of children. Higher levels of parentification exposure, however, were associated with better school adjustment and social functioning. Findings are discussed in terms of theory and research on parent-child triangulation and cultural differences between East and West.

To analyze the damage characteristics of rocks during high-voltage pulse fragmentation (HVPF), two kinds of loads, shockwave and cavity, are determined by optical observation, and the pressure–time characteristics of these two and their mechanism of damage to rocks in mesoscopic view are analyzed. A model of dynamic damage characteristics of brittle rock under multiple loads is established, which includes numerical calculation and discrete element simulation. In the discrete element simulation, the rock is simplified as a circular region without reflection boundary with a certain size of the circular hole inside, and the grains in the region are discretized as rigid spheres with a definite bonding relationship. The shockwave is considered the time-varying pressure loaded to the grains of the circular hole, and the cavity is considered the quasi-static pressure loaded to the grains on both sides of the fracture. The results of the model show that shear cracks and tensile cracks are produced during the shockwave action, but tensile cracks are predominant. The shockwave acts as a preload for the expansion of cracks, and the damage radius is small. Most of the cracks in HVPF are caused by the cavity. A comparison of the numerical calculation results with the discrete element simulation results shows that the model can describe the distribution characteristics of cracks under multiple loads, which lays a foundation for further analysis of the internal mechanism of HVPF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the COVID-19 epidemic more patients presented with persistent postural-perceptual dizziness (PPPD), but it has received little attention by the doctors in China and many patients reject psychological measurements or scales. Therefore, there is an urgent need for an objective method to diagnose and evaluate PPPD. To investigate the effect of the COVID-19 epidemic on elderly PPPD patients and define the relationship between prefrontal alpha rhythm asymmetry (FAA) by Electroencephalography (EEG) and PPPD. This case–control study was conducted to discuss the differences of elderly outpatients (>60 years) with PPPD during the peak period of COVID-19 in 2020 and the corresponding period in 2019, and collect the prefrontal FAA value in PPPD during COVID-19 outbreak, which were compared to its FAA in healthy control. Compared with the same period in 2019, the number of elderly PPPD patients during the epidemic period in 2020 increased significantly (16.4%, p = 0.000, x2 =31.802). The left alpha wave signal power (F3) was significantly higher than the right alpha wave signal power (F4) (Z= −3.073, p = 0.002). In PPPD patients FAA were significantly lower in patients compared to control group (Z = −11.535, p = 0.000). There was a negative correlation between FAA and HAMA scores (R2 =0.906, p < 0.05) and a negative correlation between FAA and HAMD scores (R2 =0.859, p < 0.05), too. The increase in cases of elderly PPPD patients is most likely attributed to the mental health in older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Less left frontal brain activity in EEG may be related to elderly PPPD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]