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Objective: Positive symptoms, such as delusion and hallucination, commonly include negative emotional content in schizophrenia. We investigated the neural basis implicated during the processing of strong negative emotional words in patients with schizophrenia. Methods: In our study, 35 patients with schizophrenia and 19 healthy controls were recruited, and the participants were asked to passively view the words that contained swearing and neutral content during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Results: Patients with schizophrenia, compared to healthy controls, showed hypoactivation to the swear and neutral words stimuli in the left inferior frontal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, and left angular/supramarginal gyrus. More specifically, patients with remitted schizophrenia were found to have greater activation to the stimuli in the left middle/inferior frontal gyrus than patients with active schizophrenia. Furthermore, in the analysis of regions of interests, the left inferior and middle frontal gyrus activity was related to the severity of positive symptoms, including delusion and suspiciousness. Conclusion: Our results suggest that patients with schizophrenia have difficulty in semantic processing and inhibitory control of swear words, and these abnormalities may be connected with the severity of positive symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Auditory hallucinations (AHs) are a core symptom of schizophrenia. We investigated the neural signature of AHs by comparing hallucinating patients with schizophrenia with non-hallucinating patients with schizophrenia. Methods: We recruited hallucinating patients with schizophrenia meeting the criteria for persistent, prominent, and predominant AHs (n=10) and non-hallucinating patients with schizophrenia (n=12). Various clinical assessments were performed incluing Psychotic Symptom Rating Scale for Auditory Hallucinations. Using fludeoxyglucose (18F) positron emission tomography, regional differences in neural activity between the groups were analyzed. Results: The regions of interest analysis showed significantly lower standardized uptake value ratio (SUVR) in the superior, middle, and inferior frontal gyri, and higher SUVR in the putamen in patients with AHs versus patients without AHs. These findings were confirmed in the voxel-wise analysis. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that hypoactivity in the frontal and cingulate gyri, coupled with hyperactivity in the temporal gyrus and putamen, may contribute to the pathophysiology of AHs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clinical and cognitive symptoms domain-based subtyping in schizophrenia (Sz) has been critiqued due to the lack of neurobiological correlates and heterogeneity in symptom scores. We, therefore, present a novel data-driven framework using biclustered independent component analysis to detect subtypes from the reliable and stable gray matter concentration (GMC) of patients with Sz. The developed methodology consists of the following steps: source-based morphometry (SBM) decomposition, selection and sorting of two component loadings, subtype component reconstruction using group information-guided ICA (GIG-ICA). This framework was applied to the top two group discriminative components namely the insula/superior temporal gyrus/inferior frontal gyrus (I-STG-IFG component) and the superior frontal gyrus/middle frontal gyrus/medial frontal gyrus (SFG-MiFG-MFG component) from our previous SBM study, which showed diagnostic group difference and had the highest effect sizes. The aggregated multisite dataset consisted of 382 patients with Sz regressed of age, gender, and site voxelwise. We observed two subtypes (i.e., two different subsets of subjects) each heavily weighted on these two components, respectively. These subsets of subjects were characterized by significant differences in positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS) positive clinical symptoms (p = 0.005). We also observed an overlapping subtype weighing heavily on both of these components. The PANSS general clinical symptom of this subtype was trend level correlated with the loading coefficients of the SFG-MiFG-MFG component (r = 0.25; p = 0.07). The reconstructed subtype-specific component using GIG-ICA showed variations in voxel regions, when compared to the group component. We observed deviations from mean GMC along with conjunction of features from two components characterizing each deciphered subtype. These inherent variations in GMC among patients with Sz could possibly indicate the need for personalized treatment and targeted drug development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human computer interaction is a growing field in terms of helping people in their daily life to improve their living. Especially, people with some disability may need an interface which is more appropriate and compatible with their needs. Our research is focused on similar kinds of problems, such as students with some mental disorder or mood disruption problems. To improve their learning process, an intelligent emotion recognition system is essential which has an ability to recognize the current emotional state of the brain. Nowadays, in special schools, instructors are commonly use some conventional methods for managing special students for educational purposes. In this paper, we proposed a novel computer aided method for instructors at special schools where they can teach special students with the support of our system using wearable technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vehicle analysis involves license-plate recognition (LPR), vehicle-type classification (VTC), and vehicle make and model recognition (MMR). Among these tasks, MMR plays an important complementary role in respect to LPR. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for MMR using local tiled deep networks. The frontal views of vehicle images are first extracted and fed into the local tiled deep networks for training and testing. A local tiled convolutional neural network (LTCNN) is proposed to alter the weight sharing scheme of CNN with local tiled structure. The LTCNN unties the weights of adjacent units and then ties the units k steps from each other within a local map. This architecture provides the translational, rotational, and scale invariance as well as locality. In addition, to further deal with the colour and illumination variation, we applied the histogram oriented gradient (HOG) to the frontal view of images prior to the LTCNN. The experimental results show that our LTCNN framework achieved a 98% accuracy rate in terms of vehicle MMR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Face recognition under controlled settings, such as limited viewpoint and illumination change, can achieve good performance nowadays. However, real world application for face recognition is still challenging. In this paper, we propose using the combination of Affine Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) and Probabilistic Similarity for face recognition under a large viewpoint change. Affine SIFT is an extension of SIFT algorithm to detect affine invariant local descriptors. Affine SIFT generates a series of different viewpoints using affine transformation. In this way, it allows for a viewpoint difference between the gallery face and probe face. However, the human face is not planar as it contains significant 3D depth. Affine SIFT does not work well for significant change in pose. To complement this, we combined it with probabilistic similarity, which gets the log likelihood between the probe and gallery face based on sum of squared difference (SSD) distribution in an offline learning process. Our experiment results show that our framework achieves impressive better recognition accuracy than other algorithms compared on the FERET database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyses of gray matter concentration (GMC) deficits in patients with schizophrenia (Sz) have identified robust changes throughout the cortex. We assessed the relationships between diagnosis, overall symptom severity, and patterns of gray matter in the largest aggregated structural imaging dataset to date. We performed both sourcebased morphometry (SBM) and voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analyses on GMC images from 784 Sz and 936 controls (Ct) across 23 scanning sites in Europe and the United States. After correcting for age, gender, site, and diagnosis by site interactions, SBM analyses showed 9 patterns of diagnostic differences. They comprised separate cortical, subcortical, and cerebellar regions. Seven patterns showed greater GMC in Ct than Sz, while 2 (brainstem and cerebellum) showed greater GMC for Sz. The greatest GMC deficit was in a single pattern comprising regions in the superior temporal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, and medial frontal cortex, which replicated over analyses of data subsets. VBM analyses identified overall cortical GMC loss and one small cluster of increased GMC in Sz, which overlapped with the SBM brainstem component. We found no significant association between the component loadings and symptom severity in either analysis. This mega-analysis confirms that the commonly found GMC loss in Sz in the anterior temporal lobe, insula, and medial frontal lobe form a single, consistent spatial pattern even in such a diverse dataset. The separation of GMC loss into robust, repeatable spatial patterns across multiple datasets paves the way for the application of these methods to identify subtle genetic and clinical cohort effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Therapeutic interventions in the insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF-1R) pathway were expected to provide clinical benefits; however, IGF-1R tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have shown limited antitumor efficacy, and the mechanisms conveying resistance to these agents remain elusive. Methods: The expression and activation of the IGF-1R and Src were assessed via the analysis of a publicly available dataset, as well as immunohistochemistry, Western blotting, RT-PCR, and in vitro kinase assays. The efficacy of IGF-1R TKIs alone or in combination with Src inhibitors was analyzed using MTT assays, colony formation assays, flow cytometric analysis, and xenograft tumor models. Results: The co-activation of IGF-1R and Src was observed in multiple human NSCLC cell lines as well as in a tissue microarray (n = 353). The IGF-1R and Src proteins mutually phosphorylate on their autophosphorylation sites. In high-pSrc-expressing NSCLC cells, linsitinib treatment initially inactivated the IGF-1R pathway but led a Src-dependent reactivation of downstream effectors. In low-pSrc-expressing NSCLC cells, linsitinib treatment decreased the turnover of the IGF-1R and Src proteins, ultimately amplifying the reciprocal co-activation of IGF-1R and Src. Co-targeting IGF-1R and Src significantly suppressed the proliferation and tumor growth of both high-pSrc-expressing and low-pSrc-expressing NSCLC cells in vitro and in vivo and the growth of patient-derived tissues in vivo. Conclusions: Reciprocal activation between Src and IGF-1R occurs in NSCLC. Src causes IGF-1R TKI resistance by acting as a key downstream modulator of the cross-talk between multiple membrane receptors. Targeting Src is a clinically applicable strategy to overcome resistance to IGF-1R TKIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Therapeutic interventions in the insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF-1R) pathway were expected to provide clinical benefits; however, IGF-1R tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have shown limited antitumor efficacy, and the mechanisms conveying resistance to these agents remain elusive. Methods: The expression and activation of the IGF-1R and Src were assessed via the analysis of a publicly available dataset, as well as immunohistochemistry, Western blotting, RT-PCR, and in vitro kinase assays. The efficacy of IGF-1R TKIs alone or in combination with Src inhibitors was analyzed using MTT assays, colony formation assays, flow cytometric analysis, and xenograft tumor models. Results: The co-activation of IGF-1R and Src was observed in multiple human NSCLC cell lines as well as in a tissue microarray (n = 353). The IGF-1R and Src proteins mutually phosphorylate on their autophosphorylation sites. In high-pSrc-expressing NSCLC cells, linsitinib treatment initially inactivated the IGF-1R pathway but led a Src-dependent reactivation of downstream effectors. In low-pSrc-expressing NSCLC cells, linsitinib treatment decreased the turnover of the IGF-1R and Src proteins, ultimately amplifying the reciprocal co-activation of IGF-1R and Src. Co-targeting IGF-1R and Src significantly suppressed the proliferation and tumor growth of both high-pSrc-expressing and low-pSrc-expressing NSCLC cells in vitro and in vivo and the growth of patient-derived tissues in vivo. Conclusions: Reciprocal activation between Src and IGF-1R occurs in NSCLC. Src causes IGF-1R TKI resistance by acting as a key downstream modulator of the cross-talk between multiple membrane receptors. Targeting Src is a clinically applicable strategy to overcome resistance to IGF-1R TKIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The annealing textures of copper interconnects depend upon their deposition textures and geometries. The copper interconnects are subjected to tensile stresses even at room temperature, which in turn gives rise to strain energies. The stress distributions in interconnects are not homogeneous due to trenches, resulting in non-fiber-type textures after annealing. To better understand the formation of the non-fiber-type textures, the textures of specimens of 0.2-6 µm in trench width with 0.2 µm in space were measured, and the strain energy and stress distributions have been simulated. The simulation results indicate that strain energy density is highest at the upper corners of trench. Therefore, the grain growth rate at the upper corners is fastest, resulting in the {111}<110> annealing texture. As the trench width increases, the influence of stresses in the trench increases, even though the strain energy density in the trench is relatively low. In this case the {111}<112> component increases, even though the formation of the {111}<110> orientation cannot be excluded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Influence of annealing on the textural and microstructural transformation of Cu interconnects having various line widths is investigated. Two types of annealing steps have been considered here: room temperature over 6 months and 200°C for 10 min. The texture was determined by x-ray diffraction (XRD) of various cross-sectional profiles after electropolishing, and the surface, microstructure, and grain boundary character distribution (GBCD) of Cu interconnects were characterized using electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) techniques. In order to analyze a relationship between the stress distribution and textural evolution in the samples, microstresses were calculated with decreasing line widths at 200°C using finite element modeling (FEM). In this investigation, it was found that the inhomogeneity of stress distribution in Cu interconnects is an important factor, which is necessary for understanding textural transformation after annealing. A new interpretation of textural evolution in damascene interconnects lines after annealing is suggested, based on the state of stress and the growth mechanisms of Cu electrodeposits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the effect of serum on the viability of bovine in vitro produced embryos from IVM/IVC medium. Nuclear maturation status of the embryos; Cleavage rates of the embryos; Cell number of blastocysts with serum.

Examines the effects of follicular fluid on the enhancement of sperm attraction and chemotaxis of spermatozoa. Ovulatory process of sperm transport in the oviduct; Components of sperm chemoattractant; Role of progesterone in the spermatozoa of oligozoospermic.

We report the electrical characteristics of vertical and lateral type light emitting diodes (LEDs) grown with CrN buffer layer. The LED with CrN buffer showed lower reverse leakage current than the reference sample grown with conventional low-temperature GaN buffer. It was also observed that the density of open core screw dislocation was smaller by one order of magnitude, which was thought to relate to the leakage current of devices. The vertical type LED fabricated by chemical etching of CrN buffer showed lower series resistance, lower turn-on voltage, and larger light output power than those of the conventional LEDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microphotoluminescence spectroscopy is used to investigate local strain in GaN films grown on c-sapphire with CrN buffer, where the CrN buffer is partly etched. Biaxial compressive strain dominates GaN films grown on CrN buffer/c-plane sapphire. The emission energies of D0X, FXA, and FXA-1LO emission lines shift gradually from a high value to a low one, as the excitation laser beam scans from the unetched side of the sample to the etched side, while the emission intensities show only a slight change. No cracking occurs in the GaN film during etching except a change in bending of the detached part of the GaN film from convex to concave as determined by surface profiler. Both the lattice parameter and the energy position of the bound exciton emission peaks from a completely detached GaN are almost the same as those reported for strain-free GaN. The line width of the (0002) ω scan of a GaN film is narrowed from 352 to 331 arc sec through detaching presumably due to decrease in bending. Those properties suggest that gradual lattice strain relaxation takes place in GaN layers grown on CrN buffer as etching of CrN buffer proceeds and that the chemical lift-off enables to detach a GaN film from a sapphire substrate without generating defects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stepwise cross-sectional crystallographic measurement was performed on the stress-induced void (SIV) of copper interconnect and it was possible to investigate the three-dimensional crystallographic structures near the submicron scale void. The void mainly happened at a triple junction of grain boundaries and there were at least two grains with high biaxial elastic modulus near the triple junction. The preferred site for the SIV could well be understood by considering the elastic anisotropy of each grain and the grain boundary type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report significant reduction of threading dislocations in GaN films grown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy on AlN/sapphire templates by employing CrN nanoislands on the AlN. High quality GaN films with very small twist mosaic as well as small tilt mosaic have been grown on the AlN/sapphire templates, which had small tilt but very large twist mosaic. The CrN nanoislands were formed by nitridation of a thin Cr film deposited by sputtering on the AlN/sapphire template, where the AlN/sapphire template was prepared by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy. The full width at half maximum values of x-ray rocking curves from the GaN film with the CrN were 114, 209, and 243 arc sec for (0002), (10-12), and (11-20) reflections, respectively, while those of the GaN film without the CrN were 129, 1130, and 1364 arc sec, respectively. Evaluation of total dislocation density of the GaN films by plan view transmission electron microscopy revealed that the dislocation density was reduced to 2.7×108 from 6.4×109 cm-2 by employing the CrN nanoislands. The CrN nanoislands play a key role in reducing the threading dislocations by masking the propagation of dislocations as well as by bending the dislocations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The grain growth which occurs during the self-annealing in copper electrodeposits was investigated by in situ observation with an electron backscattered diffraction technique. From these observations, it was found that a newly created twin was initiated on the front interface of growing twin and that the transverse direction for the growth was <110>. Most of the twins had the Σ3 twin boundary of {111}<110>. The formation of the twin and its peculiar growth direction could be explained quite well based on the hypothesis that the growth front interface is one of the {111} planes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]