284 research outputs found
EEG source-space synchrostate transitions and Markov modeling in the math-gifted brain during a long-chain reasoning task
To reveal transition dynamics of global neuronal networks of mathâgifted adolescents in handling longâchain reasoning, this study explores momentary phaseâsynchronized patterns, that is, electroencephalogram (EEG) synchrostates, of intracerebral sources sustained in successive 50âms time windows during a reasoning task and nonâtask idle process. Through agglomerative hierarchical clustering for functional connectivity graphs and nested iterative cosine similarity tests, this study identifies seven general and one reasoningâspecific prototypical functional connectivity patterns from all synchrostates. Markov modeling is performed for the timeâsequential synchrostates of each trial to characterize the interstate transitions. The analysis reveals that default mode network, central executive network (CEN), dorsal attention network, cinguloâopercular network, left/right ventral frontoparietal network, and ventral visual network aperiodically recur over nonâtask or reasoning process, exhibiting high predictability in interactively reachable transitions. Compared to nonâgifted subjects, mathâgifted adolescents show higher fractional occupancy and mean duration in CEN and reasoningâtriggered transient right frontotemporal network (rFTN) in the time course of the reasoning process. Statistical modeling of Markov chains reveals that there are more selfâloops in CEN and rFTN of the mathâgifted brain, suggesting robust state durability in temporally maintaining the topological structures. Besides, mathâgifted subjects show higher probabilities in switching from the other types of synchrostates to CEN and rFTN, which represents more adaptive reconfiguration of connectivity pattern in the largeâscale cortical network for focused taskârelated information processing, which underlies superior executive functions in controlling goalâdirected persistence and high predictability of implementing imagination and creative thinking during longâchain reasoning
Integration of the Confucian Culture on Cross-Cultural Conflict Management: The Role of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Cross-culture conflict management is the major challenge for the Chinese enterprises going global along the Belt and Road Initiative. This study explores the feasibility of integrating the Confucian culture into cross-culture conflict management, and a special role is given to the COVID-19 pandemic. We combine the Confucian culture values and Hofstedeâs cultural dimension theory and adopt the questionnaire survey methods on the Chinese multinational enterprisesâ employees. The Cronbachâs Alpha method is also deployed to test the reliability and validity of the data. We find the significant integration of the Confucian culture into cross-culture conflict management. Furthermore, 16 sub-values of the Confucian culture are suggested to mitigate the cross-culture conflicts in multinational enterprises effectively. The findings imply that Chinese enterprises should consider new strategies to manage the cross-culture conflicts, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic
HpSlyD inducing CDX2 and VIL1 expression mediated through TCTP protein may contribute to intestinal metaplasia in the stomach
Helicobacter pylori infection is the most important risk factor for gastric intestinal metaplasia (IM). Our previous study demonstrated that infection with H. pylori HpslyD-positive strains associated with IM. To further investigate the signalling pathway involved in HpSlyD-induced IM, CDX2 and VIL1 expressions were determined before and after HpSlyD application. TCTP was knocked down by siRNA or overexpressed by plasmid transfection. An HpSlyD binding protein was used to block HpSlyDâs enzymatic activity. The expression of CDX2 and TCTP in gastric diseases was measured by immunohistochemistry. Our results showed HpSlyD induced CDX2 and VIL1 expressions. TCTP protein expression was markedly increased after application of HpSlyD and in an HpSlyD-expressing stable cell line. Downregulation of TCTP protein led to decreased HpSlyD-induced CDX2 and VIL1. Overexpression of TCTP protein improved the expression of CDX2 and VIL1. Co-application of HpSlyD and FK506 led to significant reductions in CDX2, VIL1, and TCTP expression. Immunohistochemistry demonstrated that CDX2 and TCTP expression was higher in HpslyD-positive specimens compared with HpslyD-negative ones. Expression of CDX2 was positively correlated with TCTP in HpslyD-positive cells. Our study is the first to show that HpSlyD induction of CDX2 and VIL1 expression mediated through TCTP may contribute to IM in the stomach
The art of defense: letting networks fool the attacker
Some deep neural networks are invariant to some input transformations, such
as Pointnet is permutation invariant to the input point cloud. In this paper,
we demonstrated this property could be powerful in defense of gradient-based
attacks. Specifically, we apply random input transformation which is invariant
to the networks we want to defend. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the
proposed scheme defeats various gradient-based attackers in the targeted attack
setting, and breaking the attack accuracy into nearly zero. Our code is
available at: {\footnotesize{\url{https://github.com/cuge1995/IT-Defense}}}
p21-activated kinase is involved in the sporulation, pathogenicity, and stress response of Arthrobotrys oligospora under the indirect regulation of Rho GTPase-activating protein
The p21-GTPase-activated protein kinases (PAKs) participate in signal transduction downstream of Rho GTPases, which are regulated by Rho GTPase-activating proteins (Rho-GAP). Herein, we characterized two orthologous Rho-GAPs (AoRga1 and AoRga2) and two PAKs (AoPak1 and AoPak2) through bioinformatics analysis and reverse genetics in Arthrobotrys oligospora, a typical nematode-trapping (NT) fungus. The transcription analyses performed at different development stages suggested that Aopaks and Aorga1 play a crucial role during sporulation and trap formation, respectively. In addition, we successfully deleted Aopak1 and Aorga1 via the homologous recombination method. The disruption of Aopak1 and Aorga1 caused a remarkable reduction in spore yield and the number of nuclei per cell, but did not affect mycelial growth. In âAopak1 mutants, the trap number was decreased at 48âh after the introduction of nematodes, but nematode predatory efficiency was not affected because the extracellular proteolytic activity was increased. On the contrary, the number of traps in âAorga1 mutants was significantly increased at 36âh and 48âh. In addition, Aopak1 and Aorga1 had different effects on the sensitivity to cell-wall-disturbing reagent and oxidant. A yeast two-hybrid assay revealed that AoPak1 and AoRga1 both interacted with AoRac, and AoPak1 also interacted with AoCdc42. Furthermore, the Aopaks were up-regulated in âAorga1 mutants, and Aorga1 was down-regulated in âAopak1 mutants. These results reveal that AoRga1 indirectly regulated AoPAKs by regulating small GTPases
Analysis of influential factors for the relationship between PM_(2.5) and AOD in Beijing
The relationship between aerosol optical depth (AOD) and PM_(2.5) is often investigated in order to obtain surface PM_(2.5) from satellite observation of AOD with a broad area coverage. However, various factors could affect the AODâPM_(2.5) regressions. Using both ground and satellite observations in Beijing from 2011 to 2015, this study analyzes the influential factors including the aerosol type, relative humidity (RH), planetary boundary layer height (PBLH), wind speed and direction, and the vertical structure of aerosol distribution. The ratio of PM_(2.5) to AOD, which is defined as η, and the square of their correlation coefficient (R^2) have been examined. It shows that η varies from 54.32 to 183.14, 87.32 to 104.79, 95.13 to 163.52, and 1.23 to 235.08âŻÂ”gâŻm^(â3) with aerosol type in spring, summer, fall, and winter, respectively. η is smaller for scattering-dominant aerosols than for absorbing-dominant aerosols, and smaller for coarse-mode aerosols than for fine-mode aerosols. Both RH and PBLH affect the η value significantly. The higher the RH, the smaller the η, and the higher the PBLH, the smaller the η. For AOD and PM2.5 data with the correction of RH and PBLH compared to those without, R^2 of monthly averaged PM_(2.5) and AOD at 14:00âŻLT increases from 0.63 to 0.76, and R^2 of multi-year averaged PM_(2.5) and AOD by time of day increases from 0.01 to 0.93, 0.24 to 0.84, 0.85 to 0.91, and 0.84 to 0.93 in four seasons respectively. Wind direction is a key factor for the transport and spatialâtemporal distribution of aerosols originated from different sources with distinctive physicochemical characteristics. Similar to the variation in AOD and PM_(2.5), η also decreases with the increasing surface wind speed, indicating that the contribution of surface PM_(2.5) concentrations to AOD decreases with surface wind speed. The vertical structure of aerosol exhibits a remarkable change with seasons, with most particles concentrated within about 500âŻm in summer and within 150âŻm in winter. Compared to the AOD of the whole atmosphere, AOD below 500âŻm has a better correlation with PM_(2.5), for which R^2 is 0.77. This study suggests that all the above influential factors should be considered when we investigate the AODâPM_(2.5) relationships
Corrigendum: Efficacy of resveratrol supplementation on glucose and lipid metabolism: A meta-analysis and systematic review
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