Effects of orthographic consistency and homophone density on Chinese spoken word recognition

Studies of alphabetic language have shown that orthographic knowledge influences phonological processing during spoken word recognition. This study utilized the Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) to differentiate two types of phonology-to-orthography (P-to-O) mapping consistencies in Chinese, namely homophone density and orthographic consistency. The ERP data revealed an orthographic consistency effect in the frontal-centrally distributed N400, and a homophone density effect in central-posteriorly distributed late positive component (LPC). Further source analyses using the standardized low-resolution electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) demonstrated that the orthographic effect was not only localized in the frontal and temporal-parietal regions for phonological processing, but also in the posterior visual cortex for orthographic processing, while the homophone density effect was found in middle temporal gyrus for lexical-semantic selection, and in the temporal-occipital junction for orthographic processing. These results suggest that orthographic information not only shapes the nature of phonological representations, but may also be activated during on-line spoken word recognition

The feedback consistency effect in Chinese character recognition:evidence from a psycholinguistic norm

Researchers have demonstrated the importance of phonology in literacy acquisition and in visual word recognition. For example, the spelling-to-sound consistency effect has been observed in visual word recognition tasks, in which the naming responses are faster and more accurate for words with the same letters that also have the same pronunciation (e.g. -ean is always pronounced /in/, as in lean, dean, and bean). In addition, some studies have reported a much less intuitive feedback consistency effect when a rime can be spelled in different ways (e.g. /ip/ in heap and deep) in lexical decision tasks. Such findings suggest that, with activation flowing back and forth between orthographic and phonological units during word processing, any inconsistency in the mappings between orthography and phonology should weaken the stability of the feedback loop, and, thus, should delay recognition. However, several studies have failed to show reliable feedback consistency in printed word recognition. One possible reason for this is that the feedback consistency is naturally confounded with many other variables, such as orthographic neighborhood or bigram frequency, as these variables are difficult to tease apart. Furthermore, there are challenges in designing factorial experiments that perfectly balance lexical stimuli on all factors besides feedback consistency. This study aims to examine the feedback consistency effect in reading Chinese characters by using a normative data of 3,423 Chinese phonograms. We collected the lexical decision time from 180 college students. A linear mixed model analysis was used to examine the feedback consistency effect by taking into account additional properties that may be confounded with feedback consistency, including character frequency, number of strokes, phonetic combinability, semantic combinability, semantic ambiguity, phonetic consistency, noun-to-verb ratios, and morphological boundedness. Some typical effects were observed, such as the more frequent and familiar a character, the faster one can decide it is a real character. More importantly, the linear mixed model analysis revealed a significant feedback consistency effect while controlling for other factors, which indicated that the pronunciation of phonograms might accommodate the organization of Chinese orthographic representation. Our study disentangled the feedback consistency from the many other factors, and supports the view that phonological activation would reverberate to orthographic representation in visual word recognition

Room-temperature biphoton source with a spectral brightness near the ultimate limit

The biphotons, generated from a hot atomic vapor via the process of spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM), have the following merits: stable and tunable frequencies as well as linewidth. Such merits are very useful in the applications of long-distance quantum communication. However, the hot-atom SFWM biphoton sources previously had far lower values of generation rate per linewidth, i.e., spectral brightness, as compared with the sources of biphotons generated by the spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC) process. Here, we report a hot-atom SFWM source of biphotons with a linewidth of 960 kHz and a generation rate of 3.7$\times$ $10^5$ pairs/s. The high generation rate, together with the narrow linewidth, results in a spectral brightness of 3.8$\times$ $10^5$ pairs/s/MHz, which is 17 times of the previous best result with atomic vapors and also better than all known results with all kinds of media. The all-copropagating scheme together with a large optical depth (OD) of the atomic vapor is the key improvement, enabling the achieved spectral brightness to be about one quarter of the ultimate limit. Furthermore, this biphoton source had a signal-to-background ratio (SBR) of 2.7, which violated the Cauchy-Schwartz inequality for classical light by about 3.6 folds. Although an increasing spectral brightness usually leads to a decreasing SBR, our systematic study indicates that both of the present spectral brightness and SBR can be enhanced by further increasing the OD. This work demonstrates a significant advancement and provides useful knowledge in the quantum technology using photons

Network Biology of Tumor Stem-like Cells Identified a Regulatory Role of CBX5 in Lung Cancer

Mounting evidence links cancers possessing stem-like properties with worse prognosis. Network biology with signal processing mechanics was explored here using expression profiles of a panel of tumor stem-like cells (TSLCs). The profiles were compared to their parental tumor cells (PTCs) and the human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), for the identification of gene chromobox homolog 5, CBX5, as a potential target for lung cancer. CBX5 was found to regulate the stem-like properties of lung TSLCs and was predictive of lung cancer prognosis. The investigation was facilitated by finding target genes based on modeling epistatic signaling mechanics via a predictive and scalable network-based survival model. Topologically-weighted measurements of CBX5 were synchronized with those of BIRC5, DNMT1, E2F1, ESR1, MLH1, MSH2, RB1, SMAD1 and TAF5. We validated our findings in another Taiwanese lung cancer cohort, as well as in knockdown experiments using sh-CBX5 RNAi both in vitro and in vivo.National Science Council (China) (NSC grant 100-2325-B-010-010-MY3/98-2314-B-010-024-MY2/97-3111-B075-001-MY3/ 96-2314-075-056-MY3)National Yang-Ming University (Ministry of Education, Aim for the Top University Plan: 96ADD122, 96ADD125, 96ADT191, 97ACD113, 97ACT302, 98ACT302, 98ACD107, 98ACT192 and Brain Research Center-3T-MRI project)))Taipei Veterans General Hospital (98-C1-099/E1-003/ER3-001)Taipei Veterans General Hospital (Joint Projects of VGHUST (98-G6-6/ 98-P1-01/99-P6-39)Chi Mei Medical Center (CMYM9801)Yen-Tjing-Ling Medical Foundation (96/97/98)Taipei City Hospital (96-002-62-092)Technology Development Program for Academia (TDPA; 98-EC-17-A-19-S2-0107)Taiwan. Department of Industrial Technology, Ministry of Economic AffairsNational Science Council (China) (NSC 101-2325-B-010 -009)Taiwan. Department of Health. Cancer Research Center of Excellence (DOH101-TD-C-111-007

Effect of single-walled carbon nanotube sub-carbon additives and graphene oxide coating for enhancing the 5 V LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 cathode material performance in lithium-ion batteries

High-voltage spinel LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 (LNMO) is a promising cathode material for next-generation lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), but its poor cycle performance has impeded its commercialization. In this study, we developed highly stable LNMO cathode materials having an octahedral morphology through a solid-state high-energy ball-mill–cum–spray-drying method. We also developed a novel strategy for modifying this cathode material with two kinds of carbon materials, thereby improving the electrochemical cycling performance. Introducing single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) as a sub-carbon conductive additive during the slurry preparation process improved the conductivity of electrons between the particles of the cathode material. The LNMO electrode modified with the SWCNT sub-carbon additives exhibited an average Coulombic efficiency of 99.4% after 500 cycles at 1C, compared with 98.9% for the pristine LNMO-based electrode. Furthermore, we used a wet-chemical method to coat graphene oxide (GO) onto the post-sintered LNMO cathode material to act as a protective layer, preventing corrosion induced by HF in the electrolyte. The capacity retention of the GO-coated LNMO electrode after 500 cycles at 1C (91.8%) was higher than that of the pristine LNMO (52.5%). The corresponding dual-modification strategy, combining the SWCNTs and GO, provided LNMO cathode materials exhibiting superior rate performance and cyclability, with an average Coulombic efficiency of 99.3% and capacity retention of 92.9% after 500 cycles at 1C. Thus, the LNMO cathode materials prepared in this study possessed excellent electrochemical properties favoring their marketability, applicability, and competitiveness for application in high-voltage LIBs

Efficacy and safety of splenic artery embolization for intractable ascites using Amplatzer vascular plug versus coil after living donor liver transplantation

PURPOSEIntractable ascites (IA) is an uncommon but challenging complication after liver transplantation. Splenic artery embolization (SAE) modulates the splenic artery and regulates portal flow. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of SAE using the Amplatzer vascular plug (AVP) versus coil embolization for post-living-donor liver transplantation (LDLT) IA.METHODSThis retrospective study evaluated consecutive patients from 1 center who received LDLT (n=1410) between March 2006 and August 2019. The inclusion criteria for SAE were splenomegaly with IA after LDLT.RESULTSTotally 15 patients underwent SAE for post-LDLT IA. Eleven patients who received AVP embolization (age, 51.2 ± 15.1 years; range, 8-63 years; 5 men and 6 women) were compared with 4 patients receiving coil embolization (age, 30.8 ± 30.8 years; range, 1.5-63 years; 2 men and 2 women). AVP and coil embolization both significantly reduced portal vein hyperflow (plug/ coil; P <.001/.006) and decreased ascites volume (plug/coil; P <.003/.042). The benefits of AVP embolization included shorter procedure time (P =.029), significantly reduced splenic volume (P =.012), increased liver volume (P =.012), decreased spleen/liver ratio (P =.012), and improvement of pancytopenia (P =.008) due to secondary hypersplenism. No significant differences were found between the two groups in the length of hospital stay or complications such as splenic infarction, pancreatitis, or sepsis.CONCLUSIONSAE using AVP and coil embolization provide effective and safe methods for managing patients with IA after LDLT. AVP embolization may be more efficient than coil embolization, providing more effective reduction of ascites volume and the advantages of shortened procedure time and improvement of hypersplenism

ALMA Survey of Orion Planck Galactic Cold Clumps (ALMASOP) : A Hot Corino Survey toward Protostellar Cores in the Orion Cloud

The presence of complex organic molecules (COMs) in the interstellar medium is of great interest since it may link to the origin and prevalence of life in the universe. Aiming to investigate the occurrence of COMs and their possible origins, we conducted a chemical census toward a sample of protostellar cores as part of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array Survey of Orion Planck Galactic Cold Clumps project. We report the detection of 11 hot corino sources, which exhibit compact emissions from warm and abundant COMs, among 56 Class 0/I protostellar cores. All of the hot corino sources discovered are likely Class 0, and their sizes of the warm region (>100 K) are comparable to 100 au. The luminosity of the hot corino sources exhibits positive correlations with the total number of methanol and the extent of its emissions. Such correlations are consistent with the thermal desorption picture for the presence of hot corinos and suggest that the lower-luminosity (Class 0) sources likely have a smaller region with COM emissions. With the same sample selection method and detection criteria being applied, the detection rates of the warm methanol in the Orion cloud (15/37) and the Perseus cloud (28/50) are statistically similar when the cloud distances and the limited sample size are considered. Observing the same set of COM transitions will bring a more informative comparison between the cloud properties.Peer reviewe

Genome-Wide Gene Expression Analysis Suggests an Important Role of Suppressed Immunity in Pathogenesis of Kashin-Beck Disease

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the differences between the gene expression profiles in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from normal controls and patients with Kashin-Beck disease (KBD). METHODS: Twenty KBD patients and 12 normal subjects were selected from a KBD-endemic area and divided into four pairs of KBD vs. control (KBD, n = 5 per pair; control, n = 3 per pair). RNAs were respectively isolated from KBD PBMCs and normal PBMCs. Gene expression profiles were analyzed by oligonucleotide microarray. The gene expression profiles in PBMCs from KBD patients and normal controls were compared and the differentially expressed genes were identified. The obtained microarray data was further confirmed by using quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). RESULTS: Approximately 501 genes, corresponding to 2.4% of the total probe transcripts, showed a 2-fold change in differential expression. 19.4% (97 out of 501)of the differentially expressed genes were commonly detected in all the four pairs. Among the 97 differentially expressed genes, 83 genes were up-regulated and 14 genes were down-regulated, compared with those in the normal controls. Some differentially expressed genes were found to be related to functions such as immunity, metabolism, apoptosis, cystoskeleton and cell movement, and extracellular matrix. The validity of our microarray data were supported by the results of qRT-PCR assay. CONCLUSION: Differences in the PBMC gene expression profile between the KBD patients and the normal controls exhibited a similar pattern among all the four pairs of microarrays examined, indicating that the suppressed immunity may play an important role in the pathogenesis of KBD