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軍隊與軍校強調高效完成任務，易引發軍事領域人員的身心壓力，近年為緩解壓力，嘗試結合虛擬實境（VR）進行心理治療，然實證研究仍在起步階段。正向心理與教育心理領域認為虛擬實境創造沉浸體驗，有助於協助個體舒緩負向情緒與提升正向心理特性，尤其是在日常生活中難以營造的敬畏情緒（awe）體驗。本研究採實驗法與受試者間設計，探討沉浸性虛擬實境對軍校生正向情緒與行為的影響效果，將100名軍校大學生區分實驗組（採用3D虛擬實境）與對照組（採用2D投影），在觀賞敬畏情緒誘發影片後，填答心理評量並接受利社會行為測量。本研究結果認為：一、全體研究參與者（不論組別）經敬畏情緒激發後，皆能引發感恩情緒、靈性幸福感與利社會行為傾向等正向心理特性；二、虛擬實境體驗後所提升敬畏情緒，產生兩條影響路徑，第一條為「敬畏情緒、感恩情緒、靈性幸福感」，第二條為「敬畏情緒、靈性幸福感、利社會行為」，感恩情緒與靈性幸福感分別具有中介效果；三、僅有虛擬實境情境所激發的敬畏情緒與利社會行為傾向才能預測具體利社會行動；四、虛擬實境適合運用於低年級軍校生提升正向情緒與行為之用。本研究根據上述研究結果，提供軍校教育與心理輔導具體建議，以促進軍校生的心理健康。 Introduction Virtual reality (VR) is an established medium that effectively elicits positive emotions by inducing a variety of authentic emotional responses. This technology offers an interactive, immersive, and realistic experience that enables vivid presentation of emotion-inducing stimuli, which are typically difficult to replicate in real-life scenarios. Given the challenge of replicating awe-inducing scenarios in traditional laboratory settings, few studies have investigated the concept of awe emotions (Silvia et al., 2015). However, advancements in VR technology have enabled researchers to overcome these obstacles. The military field is an early adopter of VR technology. Traditional military training requires substantial human and material resources to be effective. In this context, VR technology can be employed to address limitations such as budget constraints and disparities between training environments and actual battlefields. It enables soldiers to train in a comparatively safe environment, thereby reducing the likelihood of personnel and equipment damage, increasing self-efficacy, and eliciting near-realistic cognitive and emotional responses. Immersive VR with three-dimensional imaging is a technology that enables users to experience sensory perceptions, emotions, and physiological responses (Chirico et al., 2016). It facilitates body ownership through virtual cues, influencing both cognitive and sensory experiences (Slater & Banakou, 2021). VR induces the Proteus effect, in which virtual roles and behaviors become integrated into an individual’s self-concept and affect their real-life behavior (Yee & Bailenson, 2007). Awe emotions promote the development of social cohesion by aligning individual goals with group values (Keltner & Haidt, 2003). Stellar et al. (2017) argued that emotions such as gratitude foster social commitment and prosocial behavior. Awe reduces an individual’s sense of self-importance and facilitates group integration and positive social interactions. These emotions not only improve spiritual well-being but also enhance prosocial behaviors. Generally, research has reported that VR involves technological challenges and variable efficacy in terms of eliciting awe emotions (Saredakis et al., 2020). The present study investigated the potential of VR in the military context, specifically its effect on the psychological attributes (e.g., awe, gratitude, and spiritual well-being) and prosocial behaviors of military cadets. The following research questions were posed: 1. Can exposure to natural environments in VR elicit awe, gratitude, spiritual well-being, and prosocial behaviors in military cadets? 2. Does VR enhance these emotional and behavioral tendencies in this group? 3. Can VR effectively promote specific prosocial behaviors among this group? Methods In this quasi-experimental study, university students were recruited through social media platforms from a military school in northern Taiwan. After completing an online pretest questionnaire on awe emotions, the participants were stratified by grade and gender. Subsequently, they were randomly assigned to either an experimental group or a control group to ensure the comparability of their pretest scores. Each participant received an NT$150 voucher as a token of appreciation for their participation. After the participants were briefed at scheduled times and locations, they engaged in their respective activities. The control group was asked to watch a two-dimensional awe-inspiring video on a large screen and complete a questionnaire that was used to obtain informed consent and for a psychological assessment and analysis of prosocial behavior. After completing similar briefing and consent procedures, the experimental group was asked to use VR devices to watch the same video and complete the same questionnaire. Prosocial behavior was assessed as part of the experiment, and all participants received their vouchers at the end of the study, regardless of the amount they originally donated. A total of 184 cadets were initially included in the study. After excluding cadets with incomplete responses, scheduling conflicts, and those who were unreachable, 100 military cadets were finally included in the study. These cadets were equally divided into an experimental group and a control group, with 50 cadets in each. The experimental group comprised 14 freshmen and 12 cadets each in their sophomore, junior, and senior years, with an equal number of male and female participants. The control group comprised 16 freshmen, 12 sophomores, and 11 students each in their junior and senior years, with 26 male and 24 female participants. Results and Discussion Exposure to awe-inspiring stimuli enhance the positive emotions and increase the resources of military cadets. The benefits of these effects include increased feelings of gratitude, a heightened sense of spiritual well-being, and a boost in motivation and concrete behaviors that are beneficial to group and societal welfare. Military academy training often induces negative emotions in students. The current study suggests that integrating positive emotions such as awe into military education can improve the physical and mental well-being of military cadets. Military educators should encourage their students to actively adopt positive emotions and altruistic thinking. Such a shift toward fostering positive emotions, rather than solely mitigating negative ones, can improve the psychological health and adaptability of military cadets. Overall, awe can be elicited in military cadets through natural environments characterized by vastness. This effect is prominent in the context of VR. These awe emotions can further induce feelings of gratitude and spiritual well-being in the cadets, with gratitude serving as a mediating factor. With a sense of spiritual well-being, awe emotions typically lead to prosocial tendencies, indicating a mediating effect. However, gratitude did not play a significant mediating role in the effect of awe on prosocial behavior. This suggests that awe emotions induced through VR for promoting prosocial behavior are not only related to connecting with others but also to an enhanced sense of life meaning. Therefore, awe is an emotion capable of self-transcendence and is beneficial in promoting group welfare (Keltner & Haidt, 2003; Stellar et al., 2017). In this study, although the proposed awe model was also valid for the control group, the total effect size was more favorable in the experimental group. Only the prosocial behavioral tendencies induced in the VR environment led to an increase in the volume of donations and the decision to donate among military cadets. These findings indicate that the utilization of VR in military academy settings fosters concrete prosocial behaviors among students. Overall, this study confirms the prosocial behavior pathway of awe proposed by Perlin and Li (2020), who employed the “quiet ego theory of awe”. According to this theory, after an awe emotion is elicited in a military cadet, cognitive adaptation does not lead to a diminution of the self (disproving the small-self theory) but rather to robust development, thereby achieving balance between the self and the group. This process triggers interdependent self, which leads to the development of altruistic and prosocial behaviors. Therefore, the pathway to prosocial behavior in military cadets may not be solely stimulated by feelings of gratitude. As awe intensifies, self-oriented and other-oriented perspectives lose their mutual exclusivity. Specifically, awe increases the collective concern and awareness of “us” in military cadets, which closely aligns with the values of unity and collective well-being emphasized in military education. Rather than the small-self theory, the prosocial behavior stimulated by awe in military cadets aligns with quiet ego theory and the objectives of military academy education.

Abstract Background This study aims to investigate the morphologic features of the crystalline lens in Primary Angle Closure Disease (PACD) patients with zonular instability during cataract surgery using the swept-source CASIA 2 Anterior Segment-Optical Coherence Tomography (AS-OCT) system. Methods A total of 398 eyes (125 PACD eyes with zonular instability, 133 PACD eyes with zonular stability, and 140 cataract patient controls) of 398 patients who underwent cataract surgery combined or not glaucoma surgery between January 2021 and January 2023 were enrolled. The crystalline lens parameters were measured by CASIA2 AS-OCT. Then, logistic regression was performed to evaluate the risk factors associated with zonular instability. Results The results revealed that PACD eyes had a more anterior lens equator position, a steeper anterior curvature of lens, shorter Axial Length (AL), shallower Anterior Chamber Distance (ACD), higher Lens Vault (LV) and thicker Lens Thickness (LT), when compared to eyes in the cataract control group. Furthermore, PACD eyes in the zonular instability group had steeper front R, front Rs and Front Rf, flatter back Rf, thicker lens anterior part thickness, higher lens anterior-to-posterior part thickness ratios, shallower ACD, and greater LV, when compared to PACD eyes with zonular stability. The logistic regression analysis, which was adjusted for age and gender, revealed that zonular instability was positively correlated with anterior part thickness, lens anterior-to-posterior part thickness ratio, and LV, but was negatively correlated with lens anterior radius and ACD. Conclusion Steeper anterior curvature, increased lens anterior part thickness, higher anterior-to-posterior part thickness ratio, shallower ACD, and greater LV are the anatomic features of PACD eyes associated with zonular instability.

Abstract Artificial selection has been widely applied to genetically fix rare phenotypic features in ornamental domesticated animals. For many of these animals, the mutated loci and alleles underlying rare phenotypes are known. However, few studies have explored whether these rare genetic mutations might have been fixed due to competition among related mutated alleles or if the fixation occurred due to contingent stochastic events. Here, we performed genetic crossing with twin-tail ornamental goldfish and CRISPR/Cas9-mutated goldfish to investigate why only a single mutated allele—chdS with a E127X stop codon (also called chdA E127X )—gives rise to the twin-tail phenotype in the modern domesticated goldfish population. Two closely related chdS mutants were generated with CRISPR/Cas9 and compared with the E127X allele in F2 and F3 generations. Both of the CRISPR/Cas9-generated alleles were equivalent to the E127X allele in terms of penetrance/expressivity of the twin-tail phenotype and viability of carriers. These findings indicate that multiple truncating mutations could have produced viable twin-tail goldfish. Therefore, the absence of polymorphic alleles for the twin-tail phenotype in modern goldfish likely stems from stochastic elimination or a lack of competing alleles in the common ancestor. Our study is the first experimental comparison of a singular domestication-derived allele with CRISPR/Cas9-generated alleles to understand how genetic fixation of a unique genotype and phenotype may have occurred. Thus, our work may provide a conceptual framework for future investigations of rare evolutionary events in domesticated animals.

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a chronic progressive disease with high mortality. There has been more and more research focusing on the role of AMPK in PH. AMPK consists of three subunits—α, β, and γ. The crosstalk among these subunits ultimately leads to a delicate balance to affect PH, which results in conflicting conclusions about the role of AMPK in PH. It is still unclear how these subunits interfere with each other and achieve balance to improve or deteriorate PH. Several signaling pathways are related to AMPK in the treatment of PH, including AMPK/eNOS/NO pathway, Nox4/mTORC2/AMPK pathway, AMPK/BMP/Smad pathway, and SIRT3-AMPK pathway. Among these pathways, the role and mechanism of AMPK/eNOS/NO and Nox4/mTORC2/AMPK pathways are clearer than others, while the SIRT3-AMPK pathway remains still unclear in the treatment of PH. There are drugs targeting AMPK to improve PH, such as metformin (MET), MET combination, and rhodiola extract. In addition, several novel factors target AMPK for improving PH, such as ADAMTS8, TUFM, and Salt-inducible kinases. However, more researches are needed to explore the specific AMPK signaling pathways involved in these novel factors in the future. In conclusion, AMPK plays an important role in PH.

Summary: Male infertility is a recognized side effect of chemoradiotherapy. Extant spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) may act as originators for any subsequent recovery. However, which type of SSCs, the mechanism by which they survive and resist toxicity, and how they act to restart spermatogenesis remain largely unknown. Here, we identify a small population of Set domain-containing protein 4 (Setd4)-expressing SSCs that occur in a relatively dormant state in the mouse seminiferous tubule. Extant beyond high-dose chemoradiotherapy, these cells then activate to recover spermatogenesis. Recovery fails when Setd4+ SSCs are deleted. Confirmed to be of fetal origin, these Setd4+ SSCs are shown to facilitate early testicular development and also contribute to steady-state spermatogenesis in adulthood. Upon activation, chromatin remodeling increases their genome-wide accessibility, enabling Notch1 and Aurora activation with corresponding silencing of p21 and p53. Here, Setd4+ SSCs are presented as the originators of both testicular development and spermatogenesis recovery in chemoradiotherapy-induced infertility.

The liver, a complex parenchymal organ, possesses a distinctive microcirculatory system crucial for its physiological functions. An intricate interplay exists between hepatic microcirculatory disturbance and the manifestation of pathological features in diverse liver diseases. This review updates the main characteristics of hepatic microcirculatory disturbance, including hepatic sinusoidal capillarization, narrowing of sinusoidal space, portal hypertension, and pathological angiogenesis, as well as their formation mechanisms. It also summarized the detection methods for hepatic microcirculation. Simultaneously, we have also reviewed the characteristics of microcirculatory disturbance in diverse liver diseases such as acute liver failure, hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury, viral hepatitis, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, hepatic fibrosis, hepatic cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Finally, this review also summarizes the advancement in hepatic microcirculation attributed to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and its active metabolites, providing novel insights into the application of TCM in treating liver diseases.

Recently, photothermoelectric effect of thermoelectric materials has been hotly explored to develop self-powered and large bandwidth photodetectors working at ambient conditions. However, the key parameters for optimized photothermoelectric effect are still elusive. Here, based on the two-temperature model under static condition, we theoretically studied the key parameters to optimize the photothermoelectric performance of thermoelectric materials. Results verify that when the incident electromagnetic wave only generates electronic intra-band excitation, there is an ideal carrier concentration to optimize the photothermoelectric voltage; when the wavelength of a detected electromagnetic wave can resonantly excite quasi-particle (like phonons) except electrons, the photothermoelectric voltage can be enhanced significantly around the resonant wavelength regime; and when the electronic inter-band transition can be excited by an electromagnetic wave, photothermoelectric voltage is significantly increased due to the high optical absorption. As an example, the theoretical dependence of the photothermoelectric voltage of SnSe on wavelength is in line with the experimental result. This work elucidates the crucial parameters of thermoelectric materials to achieve the ideal photothermoelectric performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tuberculosis (TB) and COVID-19 were leading infectious causes of illness and death globally in 2020. In the United States, >17 million COVID-19 cases and [approximately equal to] 7,000 TB cases [...]

Abstract Background Based on a longitudinal cohort design, the aim of this study was to investigate whether individual-based 18F fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18F-FDG-PET) regional signals can predict dementia conversion in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods We included 44 MCI converters (MCI-C), 38 non-converters (MCI-NC), 42 patients with Alzheimer’s disease with dementia, and 40 cognitively normal controls. Data from annual cognitive measurements, 3D T1 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, and 18F-FDG-PET scans were used for outcome analysis. An individual-based FDG-PET approach was applied using seven volumes of interest (VOIs), Z transformed using a normal FDG-PET template. Hypometabolism was defined as a Z score < -2 of regional standard uptake value ratio. For the longitudinal cognitive test scores, generalized estimating equations were used. A linear mixed-effects model was used to compare the temporal impact of cortical hypometabolism and cortical thickness degeneration. Results The clinical follow-up period was 6.6 ± 3.8 years (range 3.1 to 16.0 years). The trend of cognitive decline could differentiate MCI-C from MCI-NC after 3 years of follow-up. In the baseline 18F-FDG-PET scan of the patients with MCI, medial temporal lobe (MTL; 94.7% sensitivity, 80.5% specificity) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC; 89.5% sensitivity, 73.1% specificity) hypometabolism predicted conversion with high accuracy. 18F-FDG-PET hypometabolism preceded dementia conversion at an interval of 3.70 ± 1.68 years and was earlier than volumetric changes, with the exception of the MTL. Conclusions Our finding supports the use of individual-based 18F-FDG-PET analysis to predict MCI conversion to dementia. Reduced FDG-PET metabolism in the MTL and PCC were strongly associated with future cognitive decline in the MCI-C group. Changes in 18F-FDG-PET occurred 1 to 8 years prior to conversion to dementia. Progressive hypometabolism in the PCC, precuneus and lateral temporal lobe, but not MTL, preceded MRI findings at the MCI stage.

Abstract Purpose This study was aimed to investigate the risk factors of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in twin preterm infants. Methods The clinical data of 67 pairs of twin preterm infants admitted to the neonatal department of our hospital from January 2010 to December 2021 were retrospectively collected. One of the twins had NEC (Bell II and above) and the other twin without NEC. They were divided into NEC group and control group according to whether NEC occurred or not. Results Univariate analysis showed that NEC was associated with congenital heart disease, small for gestational age, mild asphyxia at birth and feeding intolerance (P

This study uses a coupled atmosphere-ocean model with different numerical settings to investigate the mean and eddy momentum transfer processes responsible for Typhoon Muifa's (2011) early rapid intensification (RI). Three experiments are conducted. Two use the coupled model with a horizontal resolution of either 1 km (HRL) or 3 km (LRL). The third (NoTCFB) is the same as LRL but excludes tropical cyclone (TC)-induced sea-surface temperature (SST) cooling. HRL reasonably reproduces Muifa's intensity during its rapid intensification and weakening periods. The azimuthal mean tangential and radial momentum budgets are analysed before the RI rates diverge between HRL and LRL. Results show that the dominant processes responsible for Muifa's intensification are different in HRL and LRL. For HRL, the net eddy effect intensifies the storm's circulation and contracts the eyewall during early RI, and it dominates the net mean-flow effect inside the radius of maximum wind (RMW), except near the surface and between 2 and 5 km close to the RMW. In contrast, the mean and eddy effects in LRL almost cancel inside the RMW, while the mean-flow effects dominate and intensify tangential winds outside. Without TC-induced SST cooling, Muifa in NoTCFB reaches a similar storm intensity as in HRL but its rapid weakening rate is substantially underestimated. The dominant mechanisms for tangential wind intensification in NoTCFB are similar to those in LRL, but their magnitudes are larger, implying a misrepresentation of the dominant momentum transfer processes in NoTCFB during RI. For the radial momentum budget analysis, the dominant processes are similar among the three experiments except for some differences in their locations and strengths.

Purpose: This study examines how professional technicians' teaching styles and students' learning readiness affect cooking skills performance in culinary inheritance. Design/methodology/approach: This study constructed a learning performance model from the situated cognition perspective using a sample of students at universities and vocational colleges on a professional technician course. A total of 4,000 questionnaires were mailed to students, of which 2,018 were returned. Findings: Students regard technical professors as teaching experts and expect them to care for their learning, while professional technicians' knowledge sharing significantly increases students' learning performance. The findings provide insight into professional technicians' teaching styles for academics. Originality/value: This study focuses on the situated cognition perspective and its correlation with students' learning performance and discusses professional technicians' knowledge sharing as an important influencing factor.

Recent advances have revealed that the role of the immune system is prominent in the antitumor response. In the present study, it is aimed to provide an expression profile of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), including mature B cells, plasma cells, and their clinical relevance in neuroblastoma. The expression of CD20 and CD138 was analyzed in the Cangelosi786 dataset (n = 769) as a training dataset and in our cohort (n = 120) as a validation cohort. CD20 high expression was positively associated with favorable overall survival (OS) and event-free survival (EFS) (OS: P