Mandarin speech perception in combined electric and acoustic stimulation.

For deaf individuals with residual low-frequency acoustic hearing, combined use of a cochlear implant (CI) and hearing aid (HA) typically provides better speech understanding than with either device alone. Because of coarse spectral resolution, CIs do not provide fundamental frequency (F0) information that contributes to understanding of tonal languages such as Mandarin Chinese. The HA can provide good representation of F0 and, depending on the range of aided acoustic hearing, first and second formant (F1 and F2) information. In this study, Mandarin tone, vowel, and consonant recognition in quiet and noise was measured in 12 adult Mandarin-speaking bimodal listeners with the CI-only and with the CI+HA. Tone recognition was significantly better with the CI+HA in noise, but not in quiet. Vowel recognition was significantly better with the CI+HA in quiet, but not in noise. There was no significant difference in consonant recognition between the CI-only and the CI+HA in quiet or in noise. There was a wide range in bimodal benefit, with improvements often greater than 20 percentage points in some tests and conditions. The bimodal benefit was compared to CI subjects' HA-aided pure-tone average (PTA) thresholds between 250 and 2000 Hz; subjects were divided into two groups: "better" PTA (<50 dB HL) or "poorer" PTA (>50 dB HL). The bimodal benefit differed significantly between groups only for consonant recognition. The bimodal benefit for tone recognition in quiet was significantly correlated with CI experience, suggesting that bimodal CI users learn to better combine low-frequency spectro-temporal information from acoustic hearing with temporal envelope information from electric hearing. Given the small number of subjects in this study (n = 12), further research with Chinese bimodal listeners may provide more information regarding the contribution of acoustic and electric hearing to tonal language perception

5-(Pyridinium-4-yl)-1H-1,2,3,4-tetra­zol-1-ide

In the title zwitterionic mol­ecule, C6H5N5, the tetra­zole and pyridine rings are nearly coplanar, making a dihedral angle of 2.08 (1)°. In the crystal, mol­ecules are connected by classical N—H⋯N and weak C—H⋯N hydrogen bonds

5-(Pyridinium-4-yl)-1H-1,2,3,4-tetra­zol-1-ide

In the title zwitterionic mol­ecule, C6H5N5, the tetra­zole and pyridine rings are nearly coplanar, making a dihedral angle of 2.08 (1)°. In the crystal, mol­ecules are connected by classical N—H⋯N and weak C—H⋯N hydrogen bonds

Enhancing SCF with Privacy-Preserving and Splitting-Enabled E-Bills on Blockchain

Electronic Bill (E-Bill) is a rucial negotiable instrument in the form of data messages, relying on the Electronic Bill System (EB System). Blockchain technology offers inherent data sharing capabilities, so it is increasingly being adopted by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the supply chain to build EB systems. However, the blockchain-based E-Bill still face significant challenges: the E-Bill is difficult to split, like non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and sensitive information such as amounts always be exposed on the blockchain. Therefore, to address these issues, we propose a novel data structure called Reverse-HashTree for Re-storing transactions in blockchain. In addition, we employ a variant of the Paillier public-key cryptosystem to ensure transaction validity without decryption, thus preserving privacy. Building upon these innovations, we designed BillChain, an EB system that enhances supply chain finance by providing privacy-preserving and splitting-enabled E-Bills on the blockchain. This work offers a comprehensive and innovative solution to the challenges faced by E-Bills applied in blockchain in the context of supply chain finance

Collective synchronization induced by epidemic dynamics on complex networks with communities

Much recent empirical evidence shows that \textit{community structure} is ubiquitous in the real-world networks. In this Letter, we propose a growth model to create scale-free networks with the tunable strength (noted by $Q$) of community structure and investigate the influence of community strength upon the collective synchronization induced by SIRS epidemiological process. Global and local synchronizability of the system is studied by means of an order parameter and the relevant finite-size scaling analysis is provided. The numerical results show that, a phase transition occurs at $Q_c\simeq0.835$ from global synchronization to desynchronization and the local synchronization is weakened in a range of intermediately large $Q$. Moreover, we study the impact of mean degree $$ upon synchronization on scale-free networks.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. to appeared in Phys. Rev. E 75 (2007

Changes in transforming growth factor (TGF)-β and mothers against decapentaplegic homolog (Smad) expression in chronic asthmatic rats induced by ovalbumin and aluminum hydroxide

The aim of this study was to investigate the transforming growth factor (TGF)-β 1/mothers against decapentaplegic homolog (Smad) signaling pathway associated with airway reconstruction in chronic asthmatic rats by studying mRNA and protein expression. Twenty-four (24) Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into two groups: a normal control group treated with 0.9% saline and an OVE+ALU group treated with a mixture of 10% ovalbumin and 10% aluminum hydroxide. Hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining was used to observe the pathomorphological changes, and the locations of TGF-β and Smad 2, 4 and 7 were determined by immunohistochemistry. The mRNA expression of TGF-β and Smad 2, 4 and 7 was determined by real time-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The protein expression of TGF-β was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), whereas that of Smad 2, 4 and 7 was determined by western blotting. HE staining revealed that the OVE+ALU group displayed obvious signs of bleeding and expansion of lung alveolar and inflammatory cells. Immunofluorescence showed that TGF-β and Smad 2, 4 and 7 proteins were located in the bronchial wall or alveolar wall. RT-PCR showed that mRNA expression of Smad 2 was significantly higher in the OVE+ALU group than in the control group (P < 0.05) and that mRNA expression of Smad 7 was significantly lower in the OVE+ALU group than in the control group (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in Smad 4 mRNA expression between the two groups (P > 0.05). Western blotting showed that TGF-β 1 and Smad 2 protein expression was significantly higher in the OVE+ALU group than in the control group (P < 0.05), whereas, in contrast, Smad 4 and 7 protein expression was significantly lower in the OVE+ALU group than in the control group (P < 0.05). The process of chronic asthma rats, TGF-β  and Smad 2, 4 and 7 expressions were changeable, thus the TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway may play a role in chronic asthma.Keywords: Chronic asthma, Smad 2, 4 and 7, real time-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 11(29), pp. 7528-7534, 10 April, 201