Individuals’ preference on reading pathways influences the involvement of neural pathways in phonological learning

IntroductionExisting behavioral and neuroimaging studies revealed inter-individual variability in the selection of the two phonological routes in word reading. However, it is not clear how individuals’ preferred reading pathways/strategies modulate the involvement of a certain brain region for phonological learning in a new language, and consequently affect their behavioral performance on phonological access.MethodsTo address this question, the present study recruited a group of native Chinese speakers to learn two sets of artificial language characters, respectively, in addressed-phonology training (i.e., whole-word mapping) and assembled-phonology training conditions (i.e., grapheme-to-phoneme mapping).ResultsBehavioral results showed that the more lexical pathways participants preferred, the better they performed on newly-acquired addressed characters relative to assembled characters. More importantly, neuroimaging results showed that participants who preferred lexical pathway in phonological access show less involvement of brain regions for addressed phonology (e.g., the bilateral orbitofrontal cortex and right pars triangularis) in the processing of newly-acquired addressed characters.ConclusionThese results indicated that phonological access via the preferred pathway required less neural resources to achieve better behavioral performance. These above results provide direct neuroimaging evidence for the influence of reading pathway preference on phonological learning

Survivin overexpression is potentially associated with pituitary adenoma invasiveness

Background and objective Survivin is an inhibitor of apoptosis. Its role in guiding the treatment of neoplasms, making diagnosis and predicting prognosis has been reported. However, there is little information on the implications and uses of survivin in predicting pituitary adenoma (PA) invasiveness. Existing information is unclear and controversial. We thus conducted this meta-analysis to explore whether the surviving expression levels in invasive PAs (IPA) and regular PAs are different or not. We considered both non-secreting and secreting tumors together. Methods: A global search strategy was systematically applied among five databases including Cochrane Library, Embase, PubMed, Web of Science, and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) up to June 18th, 2017. With a specially designed form including PAs’ invasive features, etc., data was collected. The included studies should present the data representing the surviving levels in IPA groups and regular PA groups, respectively. Differences were expressed as standard mean differences (SMDs) or odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence interval (CI). To estimate the heterogeneities, I2 test, Cochran's Q-test and Galbr figure were all conducted. A sensitivity-analysis and potential-publication bias were also performed. Results: In the present meta-analysis, 9 studies containing 489 patients were included. Seven studies with dichotomous-data showed that survivin over-expression in PA tissue was closely associated with a high invasive tendency (OR 6.226, 95% CI 3.970, 9.765; P<0.001), but 2 continuous-data studies revealed that there was no significant association (SMD −5.043, 95% CI-10.965, 0.878; p=0.095). A sensitivity-analysis suggested a statistically stable result. We did not find publication bias. Conclusion: We suggest that survivin overexpression is potentially associated with PA invasiveness. More research based on medical big data is needed to confirm this finding

Biochemical and Structural Insights into the Mechanisms of SARS Coronavirus RNA Ribose 2′-O-Methylation by nsp16/nsp10 Protein Complex

The 5′-cap structure is a distinct feature of eukaryotic mRNAs, and eukaryotic viruses generally modify the 5′-end of viral RNAs to mimic cellular mRNA structure, which is important for RNA stability, protein translation and viral immune escape. SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) encodes two S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM)-dependent methyltransferases (MTase) which sequentially methylate the RNA cap at guanosine-N7 and ribose 2′-O positions, catalyzed by nsp14 N7-MTase and nsp16 2′-O-MTase, respectively. A unique feature for SARS-CoV is that nsp16 requires non-structural protein nsp10 as a stimulatory factor to execute its MTase activity. Here we report the biochemical characterization of SARS-CoV 2′-O-MTase and the crystal structure of nsp16/nsp10 complex bound with methyl donor SAM. We found that SARS-CoV nsp16 MTase methylated m7GpppA-RNA but not m7GpppG-RNA, which is in contrast with nsp14 MTase that functions in a sequence-independent manner. We demonstrated that nsp10 is required for nsp16 to bind both m7GpppA-RNA substrate and SAM cofactor. Structural analysis revealed that nsp16 possesses the canonical scaffold of MTase and associates with nsp10 at 1∶1 ratio. The structure of the nsp16/nsp10 interaction interface shows that nsp10 may stabilize the SAM-binding pocket and extend the substrate RNA-binding groove of nsp16, consistent with the findings in biochemical assays. These results suggest that nsp16/nsp10 interface may represent a better drug target than the viral MTase active site for developing highly specific anti-coronavirus drugs

Comprehensive Ocean Information-Enabled AUV Motion Planning Based on Reinforcement Learning

Motion planning based on the reinforcement learning algorithms of the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) has shown great potential. Motion planning algorithms are primarily utilized for path planning and trajectory-tracking. However, prior studies have been confronted with some limitations. The time-varying ocean current affects algorithmic sampling and AUV motion and then leads to an overestimation error during path planning. In addition, the ocean current makes it easy to fall into local optima during trajectory planning. To address these problems, this paper presents a reinforcement learning-based motion planning algorithm with comprehensive ocean information (RLBMPA-COI). First, we introduce real ocean data to construct a time-varying ocean current motion model. Then, comprehensive ocean information and AUV motion position are introduced, and the objective function is optimized in the state-action value network to reduce overestimation errors. Finally, state transfer and reward functions are designed based on real ocean current data to achieve multi-objective path planning and adaptive event triggering in trajectorytracking to improve robustness and adaptability. The numerical simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has a better path planning ability and a more robust trajectory-tracking effect than those of traditional reinforcement learning algorithms

How can Sweden’s “trash economy” be explained by international relations theories?

published_or_final_versionInternational and Public AffairsMasterMaster of International and Public Affair

A High SNR Improvement CMOS Analog Accumulator with Charge Compensation Technique

In this paper, a 7.75 kHz line rate analog domain time delay integration (TDI) CMOS analog accumulator with 128-stage is proposed. An adaptive compensation for the charge loss due to parasitic effects is adopted. Based on the influence mechanism of parasitic effects, alternately charging the top and bottom plates of the storage capacitor while cooperate positive feedback capacitor dynamically compensates for the charge loss of the sampling phase and the holding phase. Using the proposed circuit, after the post-layout simulation verification, the SNR of 128 stage accumulation can be improved by as much as 20.9 dB

Reductive Soil Disinfestation Enhances Microbial Network Complexity and Function in Intensively Cropped Greenhouse Soil

Reductive soil disinfestation (RSD) is an effective practice to eliminate plant pathogens and improve the soil microbial community. However, little is known about how RSD treatment affects microbial interactions and functions. Previous study has shown that RSD-regulated microbiomes may degenerate after re-planting with former crops, while the effect of planting with different crops is still unclear. Here, the effects of both RSD treatment and succession planting with different crops on microbial community composition, interactions, and functions were investigated. Results showed that RSD treatment improves the soil microbial community, decreases the relative abundance of plant pathogens, and effectively enhances microbial interactions and functions. The microbial network associated with RSD treatment was more complex and connected. The functions of hydrocarbon (C, H), nitrogen (N), and sulfur (S) cycling were significantly increased in RSD-treated soil, while the functions of bacterial and fungal plant pathogens were decreased. Furthermore, the bacterial and fungal communities present in the RSD-treated soil, and soil succession planted with different crops, were found to be significantly different compared to untreated soil. In summary, we report that RSD treatment can improve soil quality by regulating the interactions of microbial communities and multifunctionality

Molecular simulation on carbon dioxide capture performance for carbons doped with various elements

Among the different types of CO2 capture technologies for post-combustion, sorption CO2 capture technology with carbon-based sorbents have been extensively explored with the purpose of enhancing their sorption performance by doping hetero elements due to the rapid reaction kinetics and low costs. Herein, sorption capacity and selectivity for CO2 and N2 on carbon-based sorbents doped with elements such as nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, and boron, are evaluated and compared using the grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) method, the universal force field (UFF), and transferable potentials for phase equilibria (TraPPE). The sorption capacities of N-doped porous carbons (PCs) at 50 °C were 76.1%, 70.7%, 50.6%, and 35.7% higher than those of pure PCs, S-doped PCs, P-doped PCs, and B-doped PCs, respectively. Its sorption selectivity at 50 °C was approximately 14.0, nearly twice that of pure PCs or other hetero-element-doped PCs. The N-doped PCs showed the largest sorption heat at 50 °C among all the PCs, approximately 20.6 kJ·mol, which was 9.7%−25.5% higher than that of the pure PCs under post-combustion conditions. Additionally, with the product purity of 41.7 vol.%−75.9 vol.% for vacuum pressure swing sorption, and 53.4 vol.%−83.6 vol.% for temperature swing sorption, the latter is more suitable for post-combustion conditions than pressure-swing sorption

Core-Shell Dispersed Polymeric Ionic Liquids as Efficient Heterogeneous Catalyst for CO2 Conversion into Cyclic Carbonates

Core-shell polyionic liquids were successfully constructed to reduce the amount of bulk ionic liquids and realize heterogeneous catalysis in the reaction of CO2 conversion into carbonate. The core-shell polyionic liquid structure is formed by one-step surface polymerization with cheap and readily available SiO2 as the carrier. By optimizing the ratio of ionic liquid monomer to SiO2, PIL@SiO2(1:1.5) of high activity and low ionic liquid dosage was successfully obtained, and only 40% of bulk ionic liquid dosage was used to achieve high activity of quasi-homogeneous phase (PO conversion 95.5%). Combined with the characterization and mechanism study, it was found that at an appropriate ratio (1:1.5), good mesoporous structure and a certain extent dispersion of polyionic liquid can make the active site better dispersed to facilitate the simultaneous activation of multiple molecules, which is the reason for the high activity. In addition, the core-shell structure also has good substrate suitability and recyclability stability. This study provides good ideas for the development of low-cost heterogeneous ionic liquid catalysts. [GRAPHICS]

Impact-induced bonding process of copper at low velocity and room temperature

The impact-induced bonding can be foundation of fast solid-state additive manufacturing. The mechanisms behind impact-induced bonding have not been widely acknowledged due to complexity caused by too transient process and extreme loading conditions. We report a novel impact-induced bonding process of copper flakes. This bonding process possesses attractive features of longer duration, macroscopic characteristic length and low ambient temperature (typically at room temperature). Meanwhile, finite element simulation based on actual grain configurations and crystal plasticity reveals that the bonding strength can reach the strength of bulk material. Three types of bonding modes are observed and corresponding mechanisms are extracted. It is found that the embedding between microstructures and the recrystallization of grains are significant factors of impact-induced bonding. Both microstructure characterization and simulation with material point method support recrystallization but not melting