Noncontact evaluation of articular cartilage degeneration using a novel ultrasound water jet indentation system

Author name used in this publication: Y. P. ZhengAuthor name used in this publication: A. MakAuthor name used in this publication: Q.-H. HuangAuthor name used in this publication: M.-H. Lu2008-2009 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalAccepted ManuscriptPublishe

The dissipation of the system and the atom in two-photon Jaynes-Cummings model with degenerate atomic levels

The method of perturbative expansion of master equation is employed to study the dissipative properties of system and of atom in the two-photon Jaynes-Cummings model (JCM) with degenerate atomic levels. The numerical results show that the degeneracy of atomic levels prolongs the period of entanglement between the atom and the field. The asymptotic value of atomic linear entropy is apparently increased by the degeneration. The amplitude of local entanglement and disentanglement is suppressed. The better the initial coherence property of the degenerate atom, the larger the coherence loss.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

The effect of symmetrical and asymmetrical hearing impairment on the music quality perception

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of symmetrical, asymmetrical and unilateral hearing impairment on music quality perception. Six validated music pieces in the categories of classical music, folk music and pop music were used to assess music quality in terms of its ‘pleasantness’, ‘naturalness’, ‘fullness’, ‘roughness’ and ‘sharpness’. 58 participants with sensorineural hearing loss [20 with unilateral hearing loss (UHL), 20 with bilateral symmetrical hearing loss (BSHL) and 18 with bilateral asymmetrical hearing loss (BAHL)] and 29 normal hearing (NH) subjects participated in the present study. Hearing impaired (HI) participants had greater difficulty in overall music quality perception than NH participants. Participants with BSHL rated music pleasantness and naturalness to be higher than participants with BAHL. Moreover, the hearing thresholds of the better ears from BSHL and BAHL participants as well as the hearing thresholds of the worse ears from BSHL participants were negatively correlated to the pleasantness and naturalness perception. HI participants rated the familiar music pieces higher than unfamiliar music pieces in the three music categories. Music quality perception in participants with hearing impairment appeared to be affected by symmetry of hearing loss, degree of hearing loss and music familiarity when they were assessed using the music quality rating test (MQRT). This indicates that binaural symmetrical hearing is important to achieve a high level of music quality perception in HI listeners. This emphasizes the importance of provision of bilateral hearing assistive devices for people with asymmetrical hearing impairment

recount3: summaries and queries for large-scale RNA-seq expression and splicing

We present recount3, a resource consisting of over 750,000 publicly available human and mouse RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) samples uniformly processed by our new Monorail analysis pipeline. To facilitate access to the data, we provide the recount3 and snapcount R/Bioconductor packages as well as complementary web resources. Using these tools, data can be downloaded as study-level summaries or queried for specific exon-exon junctions, genes, samples, or other features. Monorail can be used to process local and/or private data, allowing results to be directly compared to any study in recount3. Taken together, our tools help biologists maximize the utility of publicly available RNA-seq data, especially to improve their understanding of newly collected data. recount3 is available from http://rna.recount.bio

A Catalog of Luminous Infrared Galaxies in the IRAS Survey and the Second Data Release of the SDSS

We select the Luminous Infrared Galaxies by cross-correlating the Faint Source Catalogue (FSC) and Point Source Catalogue (PSC) of the IRAS Survey with the Second Data Release of the SDSS for studying their infrared and optical properties. The total number of our sample is 1267 for FSC and 427 for PSC by using 2$\sigma$ significance level cross-section. The "likelihood ratio" method is used to estimate the sample's reliability and for a more reliable subsample (908 for FSC and 356 for PSC) selection. Then a Catalog with both the infrared, optical and radio informations is presented and will be used in further works. Some statistical results show that the Luminous Infrared Galaxies are quite different from the Ultra-Luminous Infrared Galaxies. The AGN fractions of galaxies with different infrared luminosities and the radio to infrared correlations are consist with previous studies.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures. Accepted by ChJAA. Reference adde

An efficient framework for estimation of muscle fiber orientation using ultrasonography

2013-2014 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Glucocorticoid Receptor Confers Resistance to Antiandrogens by Bypassing Androgen Receptor Blockade

SummaryThe treatment of advanced prostate cancer has been transformed by novel antiandrogen therapies such as enzalutamide. Here, we identify induction of glucocorticoid receptor (GR) expression as a common feature of drug-resistant tumors in a credentialed preclinical model, a finding also confirmed in patient samples. GR substituted for the androgen receptor (AR) to activate a similar but distinguishable set of target genes and was necessary for maintenance of the resistant phenotype. The GR agonist dexamethasone was sufficient to confer enzalutamide resistance, whereas a GR antagonist restored sensitivity. Acute AR inhibition resulted in GR upregulation in a subset of prostate cancer cells due to relief of AR-mediated feedback repression of GR expression. These findings establish a mechanism of escape from AR blockade through expansion of cells primed to drive AR target genes via an alternative nuclear receptor upon drug exposure

Chalcogenide Glass-on-Graphene Photonics

Two-dimensional (2-D) materials are of tremendous interest to integrated photonics given their singular optical characteristics spanning light emission, modulation, saturable absorption, and nonlinear optics. To harness their optical properties, these atomically thin materials are usually attached onto prefabricated devices via a transfer process. In this paper, we present a new route for 2-D material integration with planar photonics. Central to this approach is the use of chalcogenide glass, a multifunctional material which can be directly deposited and patterned on a wide variety of 2-D materials and can simultaneously function as the light guiding medium, a gate dielectric, and a passivation layer for 2-D materials. Besides claiming improved fabrication yield and throughput compared to the traditional transfer process, our technique also enables unconventional multilayer device geometries optimally designed for enhancing light-matter interactions in the 2-D layers. Capitalizing on this facile integration method, we demonstrate a series of high-performance glass-on-graphene devices including ultra-broadband on-chip polarizers, energy-efficient thermo-optic switches, as well as graphene-based mid-infrared (mid-IR) waveguide-integrated photodetectors and modulators

Dysregulation of glucose metabolism is an early event in sporadic Parkinson's disease

AbstractUnlike most other cell types, neurons preferentially metabolize glucose via the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) to maintain their antioxidant status. Inhibiting the PPP in neuronal cell models causes cell death. In rodents, inhibition of this pathway causes selective dopaminergic cell death leading to motor deficits resembling parkinsonism. Using postmortem human brain tissue, we characterized glucose metabolism via the PPP in sporadic Parkinson's disease (PD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), and controls. AD brains showed increased nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) production in areas affected by disease. In PD however, increased NADPH production was only seen in the affected areas of late-stage cases. Quantifying PPP NADPH-producing enzymes glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, showed a reduction in the putamen of early-stage PD and interestingly in the cerebellum of early and late-stage PD. Importantly, there was no decrease in enzyme levels in the cortex, putamen, or cerebellum of AD. Our results suggest that down-regulation of PPP enzymes and a failure to increase antioxidant reserve is an early event in the pathogenesis of sporadic PD