A Comparative Study on Spin-Orbit Torque Efficiencies from W/ferromagnetic and W/ferrimagnetic Heterostructures

It has been shown that W in its resistive form possesses the largest spin-Hall ratio among all heavy transition metals, which makes it a good candidate for generating efficient dampinglike spin-orbit torque (DL-SOT) acting upon adjacent ferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic (FM) layer. Here we provide a systematic study on the spin transport properties of W/FM magnetic heterostructures with the FM layer being ferromagnetic Co$_{20}$Fe$_{60}$B$_{20}$ or ferrimagnetic Co$_{63}$Tb$_{37}$ with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. The DL-SOT efficiency $|\xi_{DL}|$, which is characterized by a current-induced hysteresis loop shift method, is found to be correlated to the microstructure of W buffer layer in both W/Co$_{20}$Fe$_{60}$B$_{20}$ and W/Co$_{63}$Tb$_{37}$ systems. Maximum values of $|\xi_{DL}|\approx 0.144$ and $|\xi_{DL}|\approx 0.116$ are achieved when the W layer is partially amorphous in the W/Co$_{20}$Fe$_{60}$B$_{20}$ and W/Co$_{63}$Tb$_{37}$ heterostructures, respectively. Our results suggest that the spin Hall effect from resistive phase of W can be utilized to effectively control both ferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic layers through a DL-SOT mechanism

THE EFFECTS OF UNSTABLE EXERCISE TRAINING ON DYNAMIC BALANCE AND ABDOMINAL MUSCLE STRENGTH IN YOUNG FEMALE INDIVIDUALS

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of unstable exercise training (UET) on dynamic balance (DB) and abdominal muscle strength in young female individuals. 22 healthy collegiate female students underwent a series of UET sessions. DB was evaluated by the 8-direction limits of stability (LOS) test. Abdominal strength was measured using 60s sit-up test. The UET combined the Both Sides Utilized (BOSU) and Swiss ball exercises, undertaken for 90mins, twice per week, for 6 weeks. The LOS performance in overall, forward, right, forward-left, backward-right, and backward-left at level 6 also significantly improved post-training. Further, significant improvements were observed in the 60s sit-up test. It is concluded that regular UET can improve DB and abdominal muscle strength in young female individuals

ESTIMATION THE PREFERENCE OF ECOTOURISM FOR GAOMEI WETLAND IN TAIWAN

Gaomei Wetland is not only the biggest grassy coastal wetland, but also a wild‐animal protecting area, located on the west‐central coast of Taiwan.Wetlands are considered as one of the most important natural resource, which offer a lot of benefits for human and other creatures. However, it is believed that over-intensive recreational activities in Gaomei Wetland should be responsible for serious damages on natural environment and ecosystem. This study takes Gaomei wetland as an example, and aims to estimate its landscape and ecological services values through Choice experiment. The results of this research showed that Gaomei landscape’s economic value is $2.06 million (USD) per year, and$1.54 million (USD) for its value of ecological services. These findings can help to bring up the awareness of natural resource preservation, and hopefully to keep Gaomei Wetland substantial. The results also indicated that visitors with undergraduate degree or above were willing to pay $6.43 (USD) per year for entry fee to enjoy sunset scenery in Gaomei wetland

PGT-Net: Progressive Guided Multi-task Neural Network for Small-area Wet Fingerprint Denoising and Recognition

Fingerprint recognition on mobile devices is an important method for identity verification. However, real fingerprints usually contain sweat and moisture which leads to poor recognition performance. In addition, for rolling out slimmer and thinner phones, technology companies reduce the size of recognition sensors by embedding them with the power button. Therefore, the limited size of fingerprint data also increases the difficulty of recognition. Denoising the small-area wet fingerprint images to clean ones becomes crucial to improve recognition performance. In this paper, we propose an end-to-end trainable progressive guided multi-task neural network (PGT-Net). The PGT-Net includes a shared stage and specific multi-task stages, enabling the network to train binary and non-binary fingerprints sequentially. The binary information is regarded as guidance for output enhancement which is enriched with the ridge and valley details. Moreover, a novel residual scaling mechanism is introduced to stabilize the training process. Experiment results on the FW9395 and FT-lightnoised dataset provided by FocalTech shows that PGT-Net has promising performance on the wet-fingerprint denoising and significantly improves the fingerprint recognition rate (FRR). On the FT-lightnoised dataset, the FRR of fingerprint recognition can be declined from 17.75% to 4.47%. On the FW9395 dataset, the FRR of fingerprint recognition can be declined from 9.45% to 1.09%

Nanotargeted Radionuclides for Cancer Nuclear Imaging and Internal Radiotherapy

Current progress in nanomedicine has exploited the possibility of designing tumor-targeted nanocarriers being able to deliver radionuclide payloads in a site or molecular selective manner to improve the efficacy and safety of cancer imaging and therapy. Radionuclides of auger electron-, α-, β-, and γ-radiation emitters have been surface-bioconjugated or after-loaded in nanoparticles to improve the efficacy and reduce the toxicity of cancer imaging and therapy in preclinical and clinical studies. This article provides a brief overview of current status of applications, advantages, problems, up-to-date research and development, and future prospects of nanotargeted radionuclides in cancer nuclear imaging and radiotherapy. Passive and active nanotargeting delivery of radionuclides with illustrating examples for tumor imaging and therapy are reviewed and summarized. Research on combing different modes of selective delivery of radionuclides through nanocarriers targeted delivery for tumor imaging and therapy offers the new possibility of large increases in cancer diagnostic efficacy and therapeutic index. However, further efforts and challenges in preclinical and clinical efficacy and toxicity studies are required to translate those advanced technologies to the clinical applications for cancer patients

Neuroprotective Effects of San-Huang-Xie-Xin-Tang in the MPP+/MPTP Models of Parkinson's Disease In Vitro and In Vivo

San-Huang-Xie-Xin-Tang (SHXT), composed of Coptidis rhizoma, Scutellariae radix, and Rhei rhizoma, is a traditional Chinese medicine used for complementary and alternative therapy of cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases via its anti-inflammatory and antioxidative effects. The aim of this study is to investigate the protective effects of SHXT in the 1–methyl–4–phenylpyridinium (MPP+)/1–methyl–4–phenyl–1,2,3,6–tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) models of Parkinson's disease. Rat primary mesencephalic neurons and mouse Parkinson disease model were used in this study. Oxidative stress was induced by MPP+ in vitro and MPTP in vivo. In MPP+-treated mesencephalic neuron cultures, SHXT significantly increased the numbers of TH-positive neurons. SHXT reduced apoptotic signals (cytochrome and caspase) and apoptotic death. MPP+-induced gp91phox activation and ROS production were attenuated by SHXT. In addition, SHXT increased the levels of GSH and SOD in MPP+-treated neurons. In MPTP animal model, SHXT markedly increased TH-positive neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) and improved motor activity of mice. In conclusion, the present results reveal the evidence that SHXT possesses beneficial protection against MPTP-induced neurotoxicity in this model of Parkinson's disease via its antioxidative and antiapoptotic effects. SHXT might be a potentially alternative and complementary medicine for neuroprotection

Shifts in stream hydrochemistry in responses to typhoon and non-typhoon precipitation

Climate change is projected to increase the intensity and frequency of extreme climatic events such as tropical cyclones. However, few studies have examined the responses of hydrochemical processes to climate extremes. To fill this knowledge gap, we compared the relationship between stream discharge and ion input–output budget during typhoon and non-typhoon periods in four subtropical mountain watersheds with different levels of agricultural land cover in northern Taiwan. The results indicated that the high predictability of ion input–output budgets using stream discharge during the non-typhoon period largely disappeared during the typhoon periods. For ions such as Na+, NH+4, and PO3−4, the typhoon period and non-typhoon period exhibited opposite discharge–budget relationships. In other cases, the discharge–budget relationship was driven by the typhoon period, which consisted of only 7 % of the total time period. The striking differences in the discharge–ion budget relationship between the two periods likely resulted from differences in the relative contributions of surface runoff, subsurface runoff and groundwater, which had different chemical compositions, to stream discharge between the two periods. Watersheds with a 17–22 % tea plantation cover showed large increases in NO−3 export with increases in stream discharge. In contrast, watersheds with 93–99 % forest cover showed very mild or no increases in NO−3 export with increases in discharge and very low levels of NO−3 export even during typhoon storms. The results suggest that even mild disruption of the natural vegetation could largely alter hydrochemical processes. Our study clearly illustrates significant shifts in hydrochemical responses between regular and typhoon precipitation. We propose that hydrological models should separate hydrochemical processes into regular and extreme conditions to better capture the whole spectrum of hydrochemical responses to a variety of climate conditions

Game Solving with Online Fine-Tuning

Game solving is a similar, yet more difficult task than mastering a game. Solving a game typically means to find the game-theoretic value (outcome given optimal play), and optionally a full strategy to follow in order to achieve that outcome. The AlphaZero algorithm has demonstrated super-human level play, and its powerful policy and value predictions have also served as heuristics in game solving. However, to solve a game and obtain a full strategy, a winning response must be found for all possible moves by the losing player. This includes very poor lines of play from the losing side, for which the AlphaZero self-play process will not encounter. AlphaZero-based heuristics can be highly inaccurate when evaluating these out-of-distribution positions, which occur throughout the entire search. To address this issue, this paper investigates applying online fine-tuning while searching and proposes two methods to learn tailor-designed heuristics for game solving. Our experiments show that using online fine-tuning can solve a series of challenging 7x7 Killall-Go problems, using only 23.54% of computation time compared to the baseline without online fine-tuning. Results suggest that the savings scale with problem size. Our method can further be extended to any tree search algorithm for problem solving. Our code is available at https://rlg.iis.sinica.edu.tw/papers/neurips2023-online-fine-tuning-solver.Comment: Accepted by the 37th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2023

Risk factors for subsidence in anterior cervical fusion with stand-alone polyetheretherketone (PEEK) cages: a review of 82 cases and 182 levels

INTRODUCTION: To determine risk factors for subsidence in patients treated with anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) and stand-alone polyetheretherketone (PEEK) cages. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Records of patients with degenerative spondylosis or traumatic disc herniation resulting in radiculopathy or myelopathy between C2 and C7 who underwent ACDF with stand-alone PEEK cages were retrospectively reviewed. Cages were filled with autogenous cancellous bone harvested from iliac crest or hydroxyapatite. Subsidence was defined as a decrease of 3 mm or more of anterior or posterior disc height from that measured on the postoperative radiograph. Eighty-two patients (32 males, 50 females; 182 treatment levels) were included in the analysis. RESULTS: Most patients had 1–2 treatment levels (62.2 %), and 37.8 % had 3–4 treatment levels. Treatment levels were from C2–7. Of the 82 patients, cage subsidence occurred in 31 patients, and at 39 treatment levels. Multivariable analysis showed that subsidence was more likely to occur in patients with more than two treatment levels, and more likely to occur at treatment levels C5–7 than at levels C2–5. Subsidence was not associated with postoperative alignment change but associated with more disc height change (relatively oversized cage). CONCLUSION: Subsidence is associated with a greater number of treatment levels, treatment at C5–7 and relatively oversized cage use