Dimensionality of ICA in Resting-State fMRI Investigated by Feature Optimized Classification of Independent Components with SVM

Different machine learning algorithms have recently been used for assisting automated classification of independent component analysis (ICA) results from resting-state fMRI data. The success of this approach relies on identification of artifact components and meaningful functional networks. A limiting factor of ICA is the uncertainty of the number of independent components (NIC). We aim to develop a framework based on support vector machines (SVM) and optimized feature-selection for automated classification of independent components (ICs) and use the framework to investigate the effects of input NIC on the ICA results. Seven different resting-state fMRI datasets were studied. 18 features were devised by mimicking the empirical criteria for manual evaluation. The five most significant (p40. For a given IC, its changes with increasing NIC are individually specific irrespective whether the component is a potential resting-state functional network or an artifact component. Using FOCIS, we investigated experimentally the ICA dimensionality of resting-state fMRI datasets and found that the input NIC can critically affect the ICA results of resting-state fMRI data

Studying Sub-dendrograms of Resting-state Functional Networks with Voxel-wise Hierarchical Clustering

Hierarchical clustering is a useful data-driven approach to classify complex data and has been used to analyze resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data and derive functional networks of the human brain at very large scale, such as the entire visual or sensory-motor cortex. In this study, we developed a voxel-wise, whole-brain hierarchical clustering framework to perform multi-stage analysis of group-averaged resting-state fMRI data in different levels of detail. With the framework we analyzed particularly the somatosensory motor and visual systems in fine details and constructed the corresponding sub-dendrograms, which corroborate consistently with the known modular organizations from previous clinical and experimental studies. The framework provides a useful tool for data-driven analysis of resting-state fMRI data to gain insight into the hierarchical organization and degree of functional modulation among the sub-units

Co-expression of xerophyte Zygophyllum xanthoxylum ZxNHX and ZxVP1-1 confers enhanced salinity tolerance in chimeric sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.)

Salinity is one of the major abiotic stresses that limit the growth and productivity of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.). To improve sugar beet’s salinity tolerance, the ZxNHX and ZxVP1-1 genes encoding tonoplast Na+/H+ antiporter and H+-PPase from xerophyte Zygophyllum xanthoxylum were co-expressed by Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation. It is showed here that co-expression of ZxNHX and ZxVP1-1 confers enhanced salinity tolerance to the transformed sugar beet plants compared with the wild-type (WT) plants. The chimeric plants grew well in the presence of high salinity (400 mM NaCl), whereas WT plants displayed chlorosis and died within 8 days. Compared to WT plants, the chimeric plants co-expressing ZxNHX and ZxVP1-1 accumulated more proline, Na+ and K+ in their leaves and petioles when exposed to high salinity, which caused lower solute potential, retained more water and thus subjected to lesser cell membrane damage. Interestingly, the chimeric plants accumulated higher sucrose, glucose and fructose contents in their storage roots than WT plants in the absence or presence of high salinity. Our results suggested that co-expression of ZxNHX and ZxVP1-1 improved the osmoregulatory capacity in chimeric sugar beet through increased compartmentalization of ions into the vacuoles by enhancing the activity of proton pumps and thus mitigated Na+-toxicity for plants

Current Status and Outlook in the Application of Microalgae in Biodiesel Production and Environmental Protection

Microalgae have been currently recognized as one group of the most potential feedstocks for biodiesel production due to high productivity potential, efficient biosynthesis of lipids and less competition with food production. Moreover, utilization of microalgae with environmental purposes (CO2 fixation, NOX and wastewater treatment) and biorefinery have been reported. However, there are still challenges that need to be addressed to ensure stable large-scale production with positive net energy balance. This review gives an overview of the current status of the application of microalgae in biodiesel production and environmental protection. The practical problems not only facing the microalgae biodiesel production but also associated with microalgae application for environmental pollution control, in particular biological fixation of greenhouse gas (CO2 and NOX) and wastewater treatment are described in detail. Notably, the synergistic combination of various applications (e.g. food, medicine, wastewater treatment and flue gas treatment) with biodiesel production could enhance the sustainability and economics of the algal biodiesel production system

Non-invasive rapid harvest time determination of oil-producing microalgae cultivations for bio-diesel production by using Chlorophyll fluorescence

For the large-scale cultivation of microalgae for biodiesel production, one of the key problems is the determination of the optimum time for algal harvest when algae cells are saturated with neutral lipids. In this study, a method to determine the optimum harvest time in oil-producing microalgal cultivations by measuring the maximum photochemical efficiency of photosystem II (PSII), also called Fv/Fm, was established. When oil-producing Chlorella strains were cultivated and then treated with nitrogen starvation, it not only stimulated neutral lipid accumulation, but also affected the photosynthesis system, with the neutral lipid contents in all four algae strains – Chlorella sorokiniana C1, Chlorella sp. C2, C. sorokiniana C3, C. sorokiniana C7 – correlating negatively with the Fv/Fm values. Thus, for the given oil-producing algae, in which a significant relationship between the neutral lipid content and Fv/Fm value under nutrient stress can be established, the optimum harvest time can be determined by measuring the value of Fv/Fm. It is hoped that this method can provide an efficient way to determine the harvest time rapidly and expediently in large-scale oil-producing microalgae cultivations for biodiesel production

High-Throughput Multiple Dies-to-Wafer Bonding Technology and III/V-on-Si Hybrid Lasers for Heterogeneous Integration of Optoelectronic Integrated Circuits

Integrated optical light source on silicon is one of the key building blocks for optical interconnect technology. Great research efforts have been devoting worldwide to explore various approaches to integrate optical light source onto the silicon substrate. The achievements so far include the successful demonstration of III/V-on-Si hybrid lasers through III/V-gain material to silicon wafer bonding technology. However, for potential large-scale integration, leveraging on mature silicon complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication technology and infrastructure, more effective bonding scheme with high bonding yield is in great demand considering manufacturing needs. In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a high-throughput multiple dies-to-wafer (D2W) bonding technology which is then applied for the demonstration of hybrid silicon lasers. By temporarily bonding III/V dies to a handle silicon wafer for simultaneous batch processing, it is expected to bond unlimited III/V dies to silicon device wafer with high yield. As proof-of-concept, more than 100 III/V dies bonding to 200 mm silicon wafer is demonstrated. The high performance of the bonding interface is examined with various characterization techniques. Repeatable demonstrations of 16-III/V-die bonding to pre-patterned 200 mm silicon wafers have been performed for various hybrid silicon lasers, in which device library including Fabry-Perot (FP) laser, lateral-coupled distributed feedback (LC-DFB) laser with side wall grating, and mode-locked laser (MLL). From these results, the presented multiple D2W bonding technology can be a key enabler towards the large-scale heterogeneous integration of optoelectronic integrated circuits (H-OEIC)

Neural Responses to Central and Peripheral Objects in the Lateral Occipital Cortex

Human object recognition and classification depend on the retinal location where the object is presented and decrease as eccentricity increases. The lateral occipital complex (LOC) is thought to be preferentially involved in the processing of objects, and its neural responses exhibit category biases to objects presented in the central visual field. However, the nature of LOC neural responses to central and peripheral objects remains largely unclear. In the present study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a wide-view presentation system to investigate neural responses to four categories of objects (faces, houses, animals, and cars) in the primary visual cortex (V1) and the lateral visual cortex, including the LOC and the retinotopic areas LO-1 and LO-2. In these regions, the neural responses to objects decreased as the distance between the location of presentation and center fixation increased, which is consistent with the diminished perceptual ability that was found for peripherally presented images. The LOC and LO-2 exhibited significantly positive neural responses to all eccentricities (0°-55°), but LO-1 exhibited significantly positive responses only to central eccentricities (0°-22°). By measuring the ratio relative to V1 (RRV1), we further demonstrated that eccentricity, category and the interaction between them significantly affected neural processing in these regions. LOC, LO-1, and LO-2 exhibited larger RRV1s when stimuli were presented at an eccentricity of 0º compared to when they were presented at the greater eccentricities. In LOC and LO-2, the RRV1s for images of faces, animals and cars showed an increasing trend when the images were presented at eccentricities of 11º to 33º. However, the RRV1s for houses showed a decreasing trend in LO-1 and no difference in the LOC and LO-2. We hypothesize that when houses and the images in the other categories were presented in the peripheral visual field, they were processed via different strategies in the lateral visual cortex

Effects of Spartina alterniflora invasion on the communities of methanogens and sulfate-reducing bacteria in estuarine marsh sediments

The effect of plant invasion on the microorganisms of soil sediments is very important for estuary ecology. The community structures of methanogens and sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) as a function of Spartina alterniflora invasion in Phragmites australis-vegetated sediments of the Dongtan wetland in the Yangtze River estuary, China, were investigated using 454 pyrosequencing and quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) of the methyl coenzyme M reductase A (mcrA) and dissimilatory sulfite-reductase (dsrB) genes. Sediment samples were collected from two replicate locations, and each location included three sampling stands each covered by monocultures of P. australis, S. alterniflora and both plants (transition stands), respectively. qPCR analysis revealed higher copy numbers of mcrA genes in sediments from S. alterniflora stands than P. australis stands (5- and 7.5-fold more in the spring and summer, respectively), which is consistent with the higher methane flux rates measured in the S. alterniflora stands (up to 8.01 ± 5.61 mg m-2 h-1). Similar trends were observed for SRB, and they were up to two orders of magnitude higher than the methanogens. Diversity indices indicated a lower diversity of methanogens in the S. alterniflora stands than the P. australis stands. In contrast, insignificant variations were observed in the diversity of SRB with the invasion. Although Methanomicrobiales and Methanococcales, the hydrogenotrophic methanogens, dominated in the salt marsh, Methanomicrobiales displayed a slight increase with the invasion and growth of S. alterniflora, whereas the later responded differently. Methanosarcina, the metabolically diverse methanogens, did not vary with the invasion of, but Methanosaeta, the exclusive acetate utilizers, appeared to increase with S. alterniflora invasion. In SRB, sequences closely related to the families Desulfobacteraceae and Desulfobulbaceae dominated in the salt marsh, although they displayed minimal changes with the S. alterniflor

Improved Productivity of Neutral Lipids in Chlorella sp. A2 by Minimal Nitrogen Supply

Nitrogen starvation is an efficient environmental pressure for increasing lipid accumulation in microalgae, but it could also significantly lower the biomass productivity, resulting in lower lipid productivity. In this study, green alga Chlorella sp. A2 was cultivated by using a minimal nitrogen supply strategy under both laboratory and outdoor cultivation conditions to evaluate biomass accumulation and lipid production. Results showed that minimal nitrogen supply could promote neutral lipid accumulation of Chlorella sp. A2 without a significant negative effect on cell growth. In laboratory cultivation mode, alga cells cultured with 18 mg L-1 d-1 urea addition could generate 74% and 416% (w/w) more neutral lipid productivity than cells cultured with regular BG11 and nitrogen starvation media, respectively. In outdoor cultivation mode, lipid productivity of cells cultured with 18 mg L-1 d-1 urea addition is approximately 10% and 88% higher than the one with regular BG11 and nitrogen starvation media, respectively. Notably, the results of photosynthetic analysis clarified that minimal nitrogen supply reduced the loss of photosynthetic capacity to keep CO2 fixation during photosynthesis for biomass production. The minimal nitrogen supply strategy for microalgae cultivation could promote neutral lipid accumulation without a significant negative effect on cell growth, resulting in a significant improvement in the lipid productivity