BackgroundBody mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), visceral adiposity index (VAI), triglyceride glucose index (TyG), TyG-BMI, and TyG-WC have been reported as markers of insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, little is known about the associations between the aforementioned markers and the risk of prediabetes and diabetes in first-degree relatives (FDRs) of T2DM patients.Methods1544 FDRs of T2DM patients (635 men and 909 women) were enrolled in the initial cross-sectional study and all of them finished corresponding examinations. Logistic regression analysis and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were used to compare and identify the associations of the six parameters (BMI, WC, VAI, TyG, TyG-BMI and TyG-WC) with the prevalence of prediabetes and diabetes. Subsequently, 452 of them were followed-up for an average of 5 years. Cox proportional hazard regression model was applied to confirm the predictive value of the optimal marker.ResultsAmong the indices, TyG-WC was more strongly associated with the prevalence of prediabetes and diabetes. Compared with participants in the lowest quartile of TyG-WC, the adjusted odds ratio and 95 % CIs for prediabetes and diabetes was 11.19 (7.62–16.42) for those in the top quartile of TyG-WC. Moreover, the largest AUC was also observed in TyG-WC (0.765, 95 % CIs 0.741–0.789, P < 0.001). The robust predictive value of TyG-WC was further confirmed in the follow-up study (HR: 7.13, 95 % CIs 3.41–14.90, P < 0.001).ConclusionsTyG-WC is a novel and clinically effective marker for early identifying the risks of prediabetes and diabetes in FDRs of T2DM patients.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12967-016-1020-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Measurement invariance, Satisfaction with life scale, Life satisfaction, Subjective well-being,

BackgroundOn May 12, 2008, an earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale jolted Wenchuan, China, leading to 69,227 deaths and 374,643 injured, with 17,923 listed as missing as of Sept. 25, 2008, and shook the whole nation. We assessed the devastating effects on people's post-earthquake concern about safety and health.Methodology/Principal FindingsFrom June 4 to July 15, 2008, we surveyed a convenience sample of 2,262 adults on their post-earthquake concern about safety and health. Residents in non-devastated areas (Fujian and Hunan Provinces, and Beijing) and devastated areas (Sichuan and Gansu Provinces) responded to a questionnaire of 5 questions regarding safety measures, epidemic disease, medical workers, psychological workers, and medication. The ANOVAs showed a significant effect of residential devastation level on the estimated number of safety measures needed, the estimated probability of the outbreak of an epidemic, and the estimated number of medical and psychological workers needed (Ps<0.001). The post-earthquake concern decreased significantly as the level of residential devastation increased. Because of the similarity with the meteorological phenomenon of the eye of a typhoon, we dubbed these findings a “Psychological Typhoon Eye”: the closer to the center of the devastated areas, the less the concern about safety and health a resident felt.Conclusions/SignificanceContrary to common perception and ripple effect that the impact of an unfortunate event decays gradually as ripples spread outward from a center, a “Psychological Typhoon Eye” effect was observed where the post-earthquake concern was at its lowest level in the extremely devastated areas. The resultant findings may have implications for Chinese governmental strategies for putting “psychological comfort” into effect.

and two anonymous reviewers of JCCP, for providing helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper, and to Can Ouyang and Junyi Huang for producing the illustrative map of China in Figure 2. Collectivism across China 2 AbstractA still unsolved question is why humans create collectivism. New theory proposes that poorer populations coping with more demanding winters or summers become more collectivist.Preliminary support comes from a province-level analysis of survey data from 1662 native residents of 15 Chinese provinces. Collectivism is weakest in provinces with temperate climates irrespective of income (e.g., Guangdong), negligibly stronger in higher-income provinces with demanding climates (e.g., Hunan), and strongest in lower-income provinces with demanding climates (e.g., Heilongjiang). Multilevel analysis consolidates the results by demonstrating that collectivism at the provincial level fully mediates the interactive impact of climato-economic hardships on collectivist orientations at the individual level, suggesting that culture building is a collective top-down rather than bottom-up process.Keywords: collectivism, climatic demands, climato-economic, China, environmental livability Collectivism across China 3 Climato-Economic Imprints on Chinese CollectivismChinese are more collectivist than most other populations on earth. This cultural trait is traced back predominantly to Confucian heritage (Bond & Hwang, 2008;Li, 1986;Nisbett, 2003).But Confucianism falls short in explaining why some Chinese are more collectivist than others. In Japan (Kitayama, Ishii, Imada, Takemura, & Ramaswamy, 2006), and in the United States (Kitayama, Conway, Pietromonaco, Park, & Plaut, 2010; Varnum & Kitayama, 2010), voluntary settlement patterns in frontier regions have created areas where present-day inhabitants are still more independent and less collectivist. However, China hardly has a history of voluntary settlement. Granted, China does have vast rural areas where inhabitants tend to be more collectivist than in urban areas (Freeman, 1997), and some Chinese may be more collectivist than others because of a greater parasitic disease burden (Fincher & Thornhill, 2012;Schaller & Murray, 2011), but single-factor explanations are seldom useful for understanding complex phenomena such as variation in collectivism (Georgas, Van de Vijver, & Berry, 2004;Van de Vliert & Postmes, 2012). This paper is the first attempt to map and explain geographic differences in the strength of collectivist orientations within the oldest and largest continuous civilization on earth.Going beyond single-factor explanations, we modify climatic determinism (for reviews, see Feldman, 1975;Sommers & Moos, 1976), we amend economic determinism (e.g., Inglehart & Baker, 2000;Inglehart & Welzel, 2005), and we surpass the ecocultural viewpoint that climatic and economic determinants have mutually independent effects on human functioning (Berry, 2011;Georgas et al., 2004). Instead, we set out to examine interactive impacts of climatic and economic hardsh...

m6A RNA modification is implicated in multiple cellular responses. However, its function in the innate immune cells is poorly understood. Here, we identified major m6A “writers” as the top candidate genes regulating macrophage activation by LPS in an RNA binding protein focused CRISPR screening. We have confirmed that Mettl3-deficient macrophages exhibited reduced TNF-α production upon LPS stimulation in vitro. Consistently, Mettl3flox/flox;Lyzm-Cre mice displayed increased susceptibility to bacterial infection and showed faster tumor growth. Mechanistically, the transcripts of the Irakm gene encoding a negative regulator of TLR4 signaling were highly decorated by m6A modification. METTL3 deficiency led to the loss of m6A modification on Irakm mRNA and slowed down its degradation, resulting in a higher level of IRAKM, which ultimately suppressed TLR signaling–mediated macrophage activation. Our findings demonstrate a previously unknown role for METTL3-mediated m6A modification in innate immune responses and implicate the m6A machinery as a potential cancer immunotherapy target.