Derrida's Open and Its Closure: The Aporia of Différance and the Only Logic of Thinking

Derrida’s thought on “trace,” “différance,” “writing,” and “supplement” is always thought the breaking of logocentrism, the essence, the positive meaning, and the closure of the metaphysics of presence; this thinking is accordingly regarded the thinking with the fundamental structure of difference and openness. By tracking back to Saussure, Husserl and Levinas, this fundamental difference breaks the myth of ideal meaning as well as the illusion of the absolute open; its lack of ideality and absoluteness contains the fundamental difference within itself and thus has the structure of open. However, from a broader perspective, I will re-ask the question “Whether or not Derrida’s ‘trace,’ ‘différance,’ ‘writing,’ and ‘supplement’ have a structure of open.” When the web of differences encompasses everything even its own “exit,” this “open” thus conceals and denies other modes of thinking. With the impossibility of going out of this mode of thinking, the structure of différance is closed

RIO: A Benchmark for Reasoning Intention-Oriented Objects in Open Environments

Intention-oriented object detection aims to detect desired objects based on specific intentions or requirements. For instance, when we desire to "lie down and rest", we instinctively seek out a suitable option such as a "bed" or a "sofa" that can fulfill our needs. Previous work in this area is limited either by the number of intention descriptions or by the affordance vocabulary available for intention objects. These limitations make it challenging to handle intentions in open environments effectively. To facilitate this research, we construct a comprehensive dataset called Reasoning Intention-Oriented Objects (RIO). In particular, RIO is specifically designed to incorporate diverse real-world scenarios and a wide range of object categories. It offers the following key features: 1) intention descriptions in RIO are represented as natural sentences rather than a mere word or verb phrase, making them more practical and meaningful; 2) the intention descriptions are contextually relevant to the scene, enabling a broader range of potential functionalities associated with the objects; 3) the dataset comprises a total of 40,214 images and 130,585 intention-object pairs. With the proposed RIO, we evaluate the ability of some existing models to reason intention-oriented objects in open environments.Comment: NeurIPS 2023 D&B accepted. See our project page for more details: https://reasonio.github.io

Association between cystatin C and the interaction of pulmonary tuberculosis with chronic diseases

Purpose: To determine the association between Cystatin C (Cys C) levels and the interaction of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) with chronic diseases (CD).Methods: Participants (n = 356) were selected randomly from The First Affiliated Hospital of Wannan Medical College, China, and divided into 4 groups: normal control group (n = 80), PTB group (n = 98), chronic disease group (n = 146), and PTB combined with chronic disease group (PTB+CD, n = 31). The investigation included information on demographics and analysis of blood samples for Cys C, liver function, renal function, blood glucose and other biochemical indices.Results: The highest level of Cys C was obtained in PTB + CD group. Before and after adjusting eGFR, there was no association between Cys C and PTB or/and chronic disease. However abnormal levels of Cys C were significantly higher in PTB+CD group after adjusting eGFR (OR = 4.014, p = 0.0125).Conclusion: Higher levels of Cys C may be associated with chronic diseases co existing with PTB.Keywords: Cystatin C, Pulmonary tuberculosis, Chronic diseases, Inflammatio

A curve model for association of serum homocysteine with carotid artery hemodynamics

Purpose: To investigate the correlation between carotid artery hemodynamics and serum homocysteine.Methods: A total of 894 participants made up of 439 male (49.11 %) and 455 female (50.89 %) from Ma’anshan, China, enrolled in the cross-sectional study. Data collection included demographics, blood sample and carotid ultrasonography. Piecewise linear regression analysis was used to analyze the relationship between serum homocysteine and carotid artery hemodynamics.Results: Homocysteine (Hcy) levels were divided into four groups by quartiles. The populations of the groups were 226, 220, 222, 226; and their mean ages were 56.52 ± 10.49, 62.27 ± 10.06, 63.42 ± 9.81 and 65.38 ± 10.56 years, respectively. After adjustment for blood biochemical and demographics factors, U-shaped and S-shaped curves were as observed between Hcy and carotid artery hemodynamics. The adjusted regression analysis showed that the threshold values of Hcy with end diastolic velocity (EDV) of right common carotid artery (CCA) were 12.50 and 19.00, while for the EDV of right internal carotid artery (ICA), the values were 11.50 and 22.00. U-shaped curves were observed between Hcy and peak systolic velocity (PSV) of left CCA, EDV of left CCA, PSV of left ICA and EDV of left ICA. The threshold values of Hcy with PSV of left CCA, EDV of left CCA, PSV of left ICA and EDV of left ICA were 14.00, 14.00, 14.00 and 13.50, respectively.Conclusion: These results indicate that a significant correlation exists between homocysteine at different concentrations and carotid artery hemodynamics.Keywords: Homocysteine, Hemodynamics, End diastolic velocity, Peak systolic velocit

Isolation, Identification, Screening and Fermentation Process Optimization of Bacillus Producing High Antimicrobial Lipopeptide

In order to screen out Bacillus sp. with high production of antimicrobial lipopeptide and determine its optimal fermentation conditions, the study isolated and identified antimicrobial lipopeptide-producing Bacillus sp. strains from traditional fermented soybean paste, and adopted orthogonal test to investigate how lipopeptide production by Bacillus sp was affected by fermentation conditions, such as fermentation inoculum amount, fermentation filling volume, fermentation time and fermentation temperature. The results showed that 27 strains of Bacillus sp. were isolated and screened out from 9 portions traditional fermented soybean paste of the Northeast, among which 6 strains were identified by 16S rDNA as having the genes sfp, fenB and ituA for synthesizing lipopeptide. According to the determination of lipopeptide yield and inhibition effect, Bacillus subtilis SN-20 and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens SN-46 showed excellent performance with the yield of 106 and 72 mg of lipopeptide per unit, and strong inhibition effect on both gram-positive and negative indicator bacteria. The optimal fermentation process of Bacillus subtilis SN-20 was found to be 3% inoculum, 20% fermentation filler, 36 h fermentation time and 32 ℃. The optimal fermentation process of Bacillus subtilis SN-46 was 2% inoculum, 40% fermentation filler, 24 h fermentation time and 32 ℃. Under these conditions, the unit biomass yields of lipopeptides for the two strains of Bacillus before optimization were 106.11 and 76.23 mg/g, respectively. After optimization, they increased by 21.85% and 23.84%, respectively. The study results effectively increased the production of antimicrobial lipopeptides from Bacillus

Whole Genome Sequencing of Bacillus subtilis SNBS-3 and Prediction of Its Antimicrobial Substances

As an extension of the previous research, this study aimed to comprehensively characterize the genome of Bacillus subtilis SNBS-3. Illumina second-generation sequencing technology and the third-generation high-throughput Pacbio sequencing platform were used for whole-genome sequencing of B. subtilis SNBS-3 isolated from traditional bean paste to obtain the key information of genome characteristics, gene function annotation and classification, phylogenetic evolution, and secondary metabolites. The results showed that the genome of SNBS-3 was a closed circular DNA of 4 076 387 bp in length containing 4 000 protein-coding genes. A total of 3 209, 2 824, 2 560, 147, 12 and 4 functional genes were annotated in the Clusters of Orthologous Groups (COG), Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes (CAZyme), Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database (CARD) and Virulence Factor Database (VFDB), respectively. Using the online software AntiSMASH and Bagel4, we found that it contained genes related to the synthesis of surfactin, mycosubtilin, plipastatin, bacilysin and bacillaene, as well as a complete gene cluster for the synthesis of the bacteriocin subtilosin A. Based on the results of antimicrobial test and proteinase K test, it was hypothesized that B. subtilis SNBS-3 had the ability to synthesize subtilosin A. In conclusion, the whole genome sequencing results of B. subtilis SNBS-3 show that it can produce a variety of bacteriostatic substances and thus have biocontrol potential. The results from this study provide a theoretical basis for further development and application of various bacteriostatic substances including the bacteriocin subtilosin A

LARGE ROOT ANGLE1, encoding OsPIN2, is involved in root system architecture in rice

Root system architecture is very important for plant growth and crop yield. It is essential for nutrient and water uptake, anchoring, and mechanical support. Root growth angle (RGA) is a vital constituent of root system architecture and is used as a parameter for variety evaluation in plant breeding. However, little is known about the underlying molecular mechanisms that determine root growth angle in rice (Oryza sativa). In this study, a rice mutant large root angle1 (lra1) was isolated and shown to exhibit a large RGA and reduced sensitivity to gravity. Genome resequencing and complementation assays identified OsPIN2 as the gene responsible for the mutant phenotypes. OsPIN2 was mainly expressed in roots and the base of shoots, and showed polar localization in the plasma membrane of root epidermal and cortex cells. OsPIN2 was shown to play an important role in mediating root gravitropic responses in rice and was essential for plants to produce normal RGAs. Taken together, our findings suggest that OsPIN2 plays an important role in root gravitropic responses and determining the root system architecture in rice by affecting polar auxin transport in the root tip

DEVELOPMENT OF ENGINEERED MICROSPHERE FOR OPTICAL FOCUSING AND APPLICATIONS IN SUPER-RESOLUTION IMAGINING

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Gel/Space Ratio Evolution in Ternary Composite System Consisting of Portland Cement, Silica Fume, and Fly Ash

In cement-based pastes, the relationship between the complex phase assemblage and mechanical properties is usually described by the “gel/space ratio” descriptor. The gel/space ratio is defined as the volume ratio of the gel to the available space in the composite system, and it has been widely studied in the cement unary system. This work determines the gel/space ratio in the cement-silica fume-fly ash ternary system (C-SF-FA system) by measuring the reaction degrees of the cement, SF, and FA. The effects that the supplementary cementitious material (SCM) replacements exert on the evolution of the gel/space ratio are discussed both theoretically and practically. The relationship between the gel/space ratio and compressive strength is then explored, and the relationship disparities for different mix proportions are analyzed in detail. The results demonstrate that the SCM replacements promote the gel/space ratio evolution only when the SCM reaction degree is higher than a certain value, which is calculated and defined as the critical reaction degree (CRD). The effects of the SCM replacements can be predicted based on the CRD, and the theological predictions agree with the test results quite well. At low gel/space ratios, disparities in the relationship between the gel/space ratio and the compressive strength are caused by porosity, which has also been studied in cement unary systems. The ratio of cement-produced gel to SCM-produced gel ( G C to G S C M ratio) is introduced for use in analyzing high gel/space ratios, in which it plays a major role in creating relationship disparities