Search

Animal vocalizations and human speech are typically characterized by a complex spectrotemporal structure, composed of multiple harmonics, and patterned as temporally organized sequences. However, auditory research often employed simple artificial acoustic stimuli or their combinations. Here we addressed the question of whether the neuronal responses to natural echolocation call sequences can be predicted by manipulated sequences of incomplete constituents at the midbrain inferior colliculus (IC). We characterized the extracellular single-unit activity of IC neurons in the great roundleaf bat, Hipposideros armiger (both sexes), using natural call sequences, various manipulated sequences of incomplete vocalizations, and pure tones. We report that approximately two-thirds of IC neurons exhibited a harmonic interaction. Neurons with high harmonic interactions exhibited greater selectivity to natural call sequences, and the degree of harmonic interaction was robust to the natural amplitude variations between call harmonics. For 81% of the IC neurons, the responses to the natural echolocation call sequence could not be predicted by altered sequences of missing call components. Surprisingly, nearly 70% of the neurons that showed a harmonic interaction were characterized by a single excitatory response peak as revealed by pure tones. Our results suggest that prevalent harmonic processing has already emerged in the auditory midbrain IC in the echolocating bat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, Ti-based materials are used as the construction materials of anode porous transport layers (PTLs) in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEM WE). The major limiting factors of Ti anodes include passivation and corrosion. Herein, the challenges are addressed by using selective pulsed electrodeposition (PE), preparing orientated Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) and a degradable polypyrrole (PPy) composite coating (PE-Au/PPy coating) on Ti-based PTLs. The PTL treatment consists of four steps: electropolymerizing of PPy, mechanical polishing of PPy outside the pores of Ti felts, acid etching, and final electrodepositing AuNPs. Testing results show that etched Ti enables AuNPs to be preferentially deposited on the active surface to make the PE-Au/PPy coating highly conductive, effectively inhibiting Ti passivation. PPy formed a conductivity difference with highly active acid-etched Ti, promoting the preferential deposition of AuNPs on the active Ti surface, which improves noble metal utilization. The PE-Au/PPy coating presents a low interfacial contact resistance (ICR) (ca. 0.9 mΩ cm² at 140 N cm-2) and excellent corrosion resistance (0.17 μA cm-2) in the simulated PEM WE environments. Significantly, the PE-Au/PPy coating exhibits high electrochemical properties and ultralong lifespans of over 1000 h, still with a low ICR (1.5 mΩ cm²), further validating the usefulness of the protective layer. In addition, here the preferential deposition process of AuNPs on the Ti surface is analyzed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), clarifying the protective mechanisms in PE-Au/PPy coating. Overall, this work not only shows the great potential of PE-Au/PPy coating as PTL anode materials but also optimizes noble metal utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study leverages novel machine learning techniques to quantify the complex empirical relationship between mortgage default and its drivers. The primary model employed is the authors' newly developed shape-constrained GAMI-Net, which introduces lattice-function-based main effects and pairwise interactions that take user-defined shape constraints. Their approach of adding shape constraints to a lattice module enhances the interpretability and applicability of the model in real-world scenarios. The authors compare the performance of shape-constrained GAMI-Net with alternative machine learning and traditional statistical methods using Freddie Mac's publicly available mortgage dataset. The results demonstrate competitive predictive performance and high interpretability for the shape-constrained GAMI-Net model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Total organic carbon (TOC) content is one of the most important parameters for characterizing the quality of source rocks and assessing the hydrocarbon-generating potential of shales. The Lucaogou Formation shale reservoirs in the Jimusaer Sag, Junggar Basin, NW China, is characterized by extremely complex lithology and a wide variety of mineral compositions with source rocks mainly consisting of carbonaceous mudstone and dolomitic mudstone. The logging responses of organic matter in the shale reservoirs is quite different from those in conventional reservoirs. Analyses show that the traditional ΔlogR method is not suitable for evaluating the TOC content in the study area. Analysis of the sensitivity characteristics of TOC content to well logs reveals that the TOC content has good correlation with the separation degree of porosity logs. After a dimension reduction processing by the principal component analysis technology, the principal components are determined through correlation analysis of porosity logs. The results show that the TOC values obtained by the new method are in good agreement with that measured by core analysis. The average absolute error of the new method is only 0.555, much less when compared with 1.222 of using traditional ΔlogR method. The proposed method can be used to produce more accurate TOC estimates, thus providing a reliable basis for source rock mapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A central aim of neuroethological research is to discover the mechanisms of natural behaviors in controlled laboratory studies. This goal, however, comes with challenges, namely the selection of experimental paradigms that allow full expression of natural behaviors. Here, we explore this problem in echolocating bats that evolved Doppler shift compensation (DSC) of sonar vocalizations to yield close matching between echo frequency and hearing sensitivity. We ask if behavioral tasks influence the precision of DSC in Pratt's roundleaf bat, Hipposideros pratti, in three classic laboratory paradigms evoking audio-vocal adjustments: Stationary bats listening to echo playbacks, bats transported on a moving pendulum, and bats flying freely. We found that experimental conditions had a strong influence on the expression of the audiovocal frequency adjustments in bats. H. pratti exhibited robust DSC in both free-flying and moving-pendulum experiments but did not exhibit consistent audiovocal adjustments in echo playback experiments. H. pratti featured a maximum compensation magnitude of 87% and a compensation precision of 0.27% in the free flight experiment. Interestingly, in the moving pendulum experiment H. pratti displayed surprisingly highprecision DSC, with an 84% maximum compensation magnitude and a 0.27% compensation precision. Such DSC performance places H. pratti among the bat species exhibiting the most precise audio-vocal control of echo frequency. These data support the emerging view that Hipposiderid bats have a high-precision DSC system and highlight the importance of selecting experimental paradigms that yield the expression of robust natural behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study aimed to identify frontiers for further studies via brief understanding in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) for substance use disorders (SUDs). Materials and Methods: Publications on the use of CAM for treating SUDs were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection from 2001 to 2020 on July 12, 2020, and visualized by CiteSpace V. Results: A total of 3,807 publications were obtained. The USA, China, and England were the leading research centers. However, India and Pakistan have recently focused on assessing CAM for the treatment of SUDs. Frederick L Altice was found to be the most productive author. Addiction ranked first among the frequently cited journals, which exceeded 1,000. The most common CAM therapies were acupuncture and CAM psychotherapies, such as mindfulness meditation. Conclusion: CAM is gaining attention globally for treating SUDs. CAM psychotherapy and acupuncture are hotspots and deserve further study. Researchers should strengthen peer cooperation in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electrochemical behaviour of TEM based on SiC particle reinforced magnesium matrix composites has been investigated. The research result indicates that the corrosion rate of SiCp/AZ91 MMCs was significantly higher than AZ91 magnesium alloy, and increases with the increase of the volume fraction of SiC particles; the corrosion morphology mainly along the micro-galvanic corrosion occurs around SiC particles, with the increasing of SiC volume fraction, the micro-galvanic corrosion of SiC particles and AZ91 interface of SiC and AZ91 particles are not serious; the micro-galvanic matrix directly, but the addition of SiC particles changed the micro-structure of SiCp/AZ91 MMCs can increase the corrosion rate. The main reasons are: with the addition of SiC particles of α phase grain refinement, the effect of α on cathodic hydrogen phase enhancement, thus accelerating the micro-galvanic corrosion of α phase and β phase; furthermore, the addition of SiC particles to make a large number of α phase at the interface of SiC particles and AZ91 matrix at first recrystallization, causing to accelerate the micro-galvanic corrosion of α phase interface and β phase and SiCp/AZ91 MMCs, indirectly lead to accelerated corrosion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A field investigation was conducted on the new generation of migrant workers in Hebei Province to understand their present situation and characteristics, based on which countermeasures and suggestions were put forward to improve the survival and development of the new generation of migrant workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wheat (Tritium aestivum L.) production is essential for global food security. Infection of barley yellow dwarf virus-GAV (BYDV-GAV) results in wheat showing leaf yellowing and plant dwarfism symptom. To explore the molecular and ultrastructural mechanisms underlying yellow dwarf symptom formation in BYDV-GAV-infected wheat, we investigated the chloroplast ultrastructure via transmission electron microscopy (TEM), examined the contents of the virus, H2O2, and chlorophyll in Zhong8601, and studied the comparative transcriptome through microarray analyses in the susceptible wheat line Zhong8601 after virus infection. TEM images indicated that chloroplasts in BYDV-GAV-infected Zhong8601 leaf cells were fragmentized. Where thylakoids were not well developed, starch granules and plastoglobules were rare. Compared with mock-inoculated Zhong8601, chlorophyll content was markedly reduced, but the virus and H2O2 contents were significantly higher in BYDV-GAV-infected Zhong8601. The transcriptomic analyses revealed that chlorophyll biosynthesis and chloroplast related transcripts, encoding chlorophyll a/b binding protein, glucose-6-phosphate/phosphate translocator 2, and glutamyl-tRNA reductase 1, were down-regulated in BYDV-GAV-infected Zhong8601. Some phytohormone signaling-related transcripts, including abscisic acid (ABA) signaling factors (phospholipase D alpha 1 and calcineurin B-like protein 9) and nine ethylene response factors, were up-regulated. Additionally, reactive oxygen species (ROS)-related genes were transcriptionally regulated in BYDV-GAV infected Zhong8601, including three up-regulated transcripts encoding germin-like proteins (promoting ROS accumulation) and four down-regulated transcripts encoding peroxides (scavenging ROS). These results clearly suggest that the yellow dwarf symptom formation is mainly attributed to reduced chlorophyll content and fragmentized chloroplasts caused by down-regulation of the chlorophyll and chloroplast biosynthesis related genes, ROS excessive accumulation, and precisely transcriptional regulation of the above-mentioned ABA and ethylene signaling- and ROS-related genes in susceptible wheat infected by BYDV-GAV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Objective] The aim was to study the high-yield cultivation technique of fodder soybean(Glycine max (L.) Merr.) in autumn idle land. [Methods] Such five influencing factors as line spacing, planting density, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) of fodder soybean seeding in autumn idle land were compared using orthogonal experiment method and LSD method of PASW 18 statistics software. [Results] The results showed that density, line spacing and K2O had important effects on biological yield of fodder soybean in autumn idle land. Moreover, the optimum proposal for high-yield matching cultivation technique of fodder soybean in autumn idle land was determined as follows: planting density was 75×104 plants/hm2; 300 kg/hm2 N, 112.5 kg/hm2 P2O5 and 375 kg/hm2 K2O were viewed as basic fertilizers; the seedling style was sowing in drill with the line spacing of 50 cm. In the proposal, fresh and hay grass yields were 6 661.67 and 2 723.64 kg/hm2, respectively, which increased by 24.17% and 27.63% respectively compared to the second fine combination. [Conclusions] The results provided a theoretical basis and technical support for the production of fodder soybean in autumn idle land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of novel composite membranes was prepared by using poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) with polyimide (PI) as base material and 8-trimethoxysilylpropyl glycerine ether- 1,3,6-pyrenetrisulfonic acid (TSGEPS) as proton conductor for direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). The parameters of membranes, including water sorption, hydrolysis stability, dimensional stability, proton conductivity, and methanol permeability were studied. The proton conductivity of the membranes is in the order of 10-2 S/cm, and the membranes show better resistance to methanol permeability (1.51 × 10-7 cm2 s-1) and better selectivity (20.6 × 104 S cm-3 s) than those of Nafion115 under the same measurement conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel strategy was proposed for Ramos cell detection by combining the expression of enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) with the cell aptamer recognition and the triplex molecular beacons. This system was successfully applied to cancer cell detection with high sensitivity and specificity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]