Vowels of Beryozovka Ewen: An Acoustic Phonetic Study

This study acoustically analyzes 13,540 vowel tokens of Beryozovka Ewen with the aid of automated post-transcriptional processing technique. The focus of the analysis is on the acoustic correlates of [RTR], which is the harmonic feature of the language. In addition to the first three formants, acoustic values representing spectral tilt such as H1−H2, H1−A2, and B1 are measured as potential acoustic cues of [RTR]. The results show that F1, F3, and B1 are the most reliable cues of the feature and that H1− H2 and H1−A2 are nearly reliable. These acoustic cues are also shown to interact with length and position. In general, the acoustic distance between [−RTR] and [+RTR] vowels are farther in long and word-initial vowels than in short and non-initial vowels, respectively. We claim that [RTR] is more appropriate for the harmonic feature of Ewen than [ATR], and that the greater perceptibility of word-initial vowels is understood as a means to facilitate the lexical access in a language with vowel harmony

AuthCropper: Authenticated Image Cropper for Privacy Preserving Surveillance Systems

As surveillance systems are popular, the privacy of the recorded video becomes more important. On the other hand, the authenticity of video images should be guaranteed when used as evidence in court. It is challenging to satisfy both (personal) privacy and authenticity of a video simultaneously, since the privacy requires modifications (e.g., partial deletions) of an original video image while the authenticity does not allow any modifications of the original image. This paper proposes a novel method to convert an encryption scheme to support partial decryption with a constant number of keys and construct a privacy-aware authentication scheme by combining with a signature scheme. The security of our proposed scheme is implied by the security of the underlying encryption and signature schemes. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme can handle the UHD video stream with more than 17 fps on a real embedded system, which validates the practicality of the proposed scheme

Rapid Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction for Salmonella Serotyping Based on Novel Unique Gene Markers by Pangenome Analysis

An accurate diagnostic method for Salmonella serovars is fundamental to preventing the spread of associated diseases. A diagnostic polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based method has proven to be an effective tool for detecting pathogenic bacteria. However, the gene markers currently used in real-time PCR to detect Salmonella serovars have low specificity and are developed for only a few serovars. Therefore, in this study, we explored the novel unique gene markers for 60 serovars that share similar antigenic formulas and show high prevalence using pangenome analysis and developed a real-time PCR to detect them. Before exploring gene markers, the 535 Salmonella genomes were evaluated, and some genomes had serovars different from the designated serovar information. Based on these analyses, serovar-specific gene markers were explored. These markers were identified as genes present in all strains of target serovar genomes but absent in strains of other serovar genomes. Serovar-specific primer pairs were designed from the gene markers, and a real-time PCR method that can distinguish between 60 of the most common Salmonella serovars in a single 96-well plate assay was developed. As a result, real-time PCR showed 100% specificity for 199 Salmonella and 29 non-Salmonella strains. Subsequently, the method developed was applied successfully to both strains with identified serovars and an unknown strain, demonstrating that real-time PCR can accurately detect serovars of strains compared with traditional serotyping methods, such as antisera agglutination. Therefore, our method enables rapid and economical Salmonella serotyping compared with the traditional serotyping method.</p&gt

Spectroscopic Interpretation of PAH-Spectra in Minerals and Its Possible Application to Soil Monitoring

In order to properly assess the feasibility of using Laser-Induced Fluorescence (LIF) spectroscopy for soil monitoring, the variation of fluorescence intensity due to the heterogeneity and complexity of soil media was investigated. Different soil minerals showed fluorescence spectral structures distinguishable from the contaminants, implying dissimilar interactions or the binding of contaminants on mineral surfaces. More interestingly, solvent and water addition showed different responses in the fluorescence spectral structure showing their effect on the interactions between contaminants and minerals. These results support the claim that the spectral structure contains information on contaminant-mineral interactions; therefore contaminants can be used as a fluorescence probe for these interactions

Large-Area, Highly Sensitive SERS Substrates with Silver Nanowire Thin Films Coated by Microliter-Scale Solution Process

A microliter-scale solution process was used to fabricate large-area, uniform films of silver nanowires (AgNWs). These thin films with cross-AgNWs were deposited onto Au substrates by dragging the meniscus of a microliter drop of a coating solution trapped between two plates. The hot spot density was tuned by controlling simple experimental parameters, which changed the optical properties of the resulting films. The cross-AgNW films on the Au surface served as excellent substrates for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, with substantial electromagnetic field enhancement and good reproducibility

Overexpression of cathepsin S exacerbates lupus pathogenesis through upregulation TLR7 and IFN-α in transgenic mice

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease that affects multiple organs. Recent studies suggest relevance between cysteine protease cathepsin S (CTSS) expression and SLE. To investigate the mechanism of CTSS in SLE, CTSS-overexpressing transgenic (TG) mice were generated, and induced lupus-like symptoms. Eight months later, the TG mice spontaneously developed typical SLE symptoms regardless of the inducement. Furthermore, we observed increased toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) expression with increased monocyte and neutrophil populations in the TG mice. In conclusion, overexpression of CTSS in mice influences TLR7 expression, autoantibodies and IFN-α, which leads to an autoimmune reaction and exacerbates lupus-like symptoms. © 2021, The Author(s).1

Search for the Sagittarius Tidal Stream of Axion Dark Matter around 4.55 μ\mueV

We report the first search for the Sagittarius tidal stream of axion dark matter around 4.55 $\mu$eV using CAPP-12TB haloscope data acquired in March of 2022. Our result excluded the Sagittarius tidal stream of Dine-Fischler-Srednicki-Zhitnitskii and Kim-Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov axion dark matter densities of $\rho_a\gtrsim0.184$ and $\gtrsim0.025$ GeV/cm$^{3}$, respectively, over a mass range from 4.51 to 4.59 $\mu$eV at a 90% confidence level.Comment: 6 pages, 7 Figures, PRD Letter accepte

Tailoring surface plasmons of high-density gold nanostar assemblies on metal films for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Plasmonic systems based on metal nanoparticles on a metal film have generated great interest for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) chemical sensors. In this study, we describe the fabrication of ultrasensitive SERS substrates based on high-density gold nanostar assemblies on silver films with tailored surface plasmons, where multiple field enhancements from particle-film and interparticle plasmon couplings and lightening rod effects of sharp tips of nanostars contribute to the enormous Raman enhancements. We show that the interplay between interparticle and particle-film plasmon couplings of high-density gold nanostars (GNSs) on metal and dielectric films as a function of interparticle separation can be tailored to provide maximum SERS effects. We observe that the SERS enhancement factor (EF) of GNSs on a metal film as a function of interparticle separation follows a broken power law function, where the EF increases with the interparticle separation for the strong interparticle coupling range below an interparticle separation of ???0.8 times the GNS size, but decreases for the weak interparticle coupling range (for an interparticle separation of >0.8 times the GNS size). Finally, we demonstrate the use of tailored plasmonic substrates as ultrasensitive SERS chemical sensors with an attomole level of detection capability of 2,4-dinitrotoluene, a model compound of nitroaromatic explosives.close6

JAZF1 heterozygous knockout mice show altered adipose development and metabolism

Background: Juxtaposed with another zinc finger protein 1 (JAZF1) is associated with metabolic disorders, including type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Several studies showed that JAZF1 and body fat mass are closely related. We attempted to elucidate the JAZF1 functions on adipose development and related metabolism using in vitro and in vivo models. Results: The JAZF1 expression was precisely regulated during adipocyte differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocyte and mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs). Homozygous JAZF1 deletion (JAZF1-KO) resulted in impaired adipocyte differentiation in MEF. The JAZF1 role in adipocyte differentiation was demonstrated by the regulation of PPARγ—a key regulator of adipocyte differentiation. Heterozygous JAZF1 deletion (JAZF1-Het) mice fed a normal diet (ND) or a high-fat diet (HFD) had less adipose tissue mass and impaired glucose homeostasis than the control (JAZF1-Cont) mice. However, other metabolic organs, such as brown adipose tissue and liver, were negligible effect on JAZF1 deficiency. Conclusion: Our findings emphasized the JAZF1 role in adipocyte differentiation and related metabolism through the heterozygous knockout mice. This study provides new insights into the JAZF1 function in adipose development and metabolism, informing strategies for treating obesity and related metabolic disorders. © 2021, The Author(s).1