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Objective. Meta-analysis is used to analyze the treatment of early glottic laryngeal carcinoma by cryogenic plasma radiofrequency ablation combined with CO2 laser surgery. Methods. Retrieval of PubMed, Embase, Medline, VIP, Wanfang, and CNKI databases using a computer. The retrieval period is from the creation of the database until August 31, 2021. References to the included literature were also searched at the same time. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, literatures are screened independently, relevant data were extracted, and meta-analysis was conducted. Results. Recurrence rates are reported in seven literatures. In interstudy heterogeneity test: P = 0.624 , I 2 = 0 % , fixed effect model analysis shows that there is no significant difference in recurrence rate between low temperature plasma radiofrequency ablation and CO2 laser ablation ( OR = 0.80 , 95% CI (0.35, 1.29), P = 0.371 ). Intraoperative blood loss is reported in 5 literatures, and heterogeneity test of each study is as follows: P = 0.03 , I 2 = 67 % . Low temperature plasma radiofrequency ablation results in more intraoperative blood loss than CO2 laser ablation ( SMD = − 0.71 , 95% CI (0.08, 0.82), P = 0.01 ). There are five reports on postoperative pain in two treatments: P = 0.04 , I 2 = 64 % . There is no significant difference in postoperative pain between low temperature plasma radiofrequency ablation and CO2 laser ablation ( SMD = − 0.21 , 95% CI (-0.44, 0.10), P = 0.134 ). Operative time is reported in nine articles: P < 0.01 , I 2 = 95 % . The operative time of low temperature plasma radiofrequency ablation is significantly shorter than CO2 laser ablation ( SMD = − 2.38 , 95% CI (-3.91, -1.62), P < 0.01 ). There are two reports on postoperative mucosal recovery: P = 0.328 , I 2 = 2 % . Low temperature plasma radiofrequency ablation was significantly better than CO2 laser ablation in postoperative mucosal recovery ( OR = 5.49 , 95% CI (2.36, 10.18), P < 0.01 ). Conclusion. Low temperature plasma radiofrequency ablation is superior to CO2 laser surgery in the treatment of early glottic laryngeal carcinoma in terms of operative time and postoperative mucosal recovery. Low-temperature plasma radiofrequency ablation, on the other hand, results in higher intraoperative blood loss, with no discernible difference in recurrence rate or postoperative pain severity between the two treatments.

In recent years, the growing popularity of smart speakers (e.g., Google Home and Alexa) has facilitated young children’s interaction with internet-based devices and provided them with more opportunities to obtain access to online information. This review summarizes the current state of the research by examining smart speakers’ core characteristics, children’s conceptualization and interaction with smart speakers, and the influences on children’s learning and habits. Our review shows that (a) the natural language processing technology and central computing system (Internet) contribute to the uniqueness of smart speakers; (b) although children tend to attribute human characteristics (e.g., smart and friendly) to smart speakers, they might judge these voice assistant devices as neither explicitly living nor nonliving in ontological perception; (c) children’s overattributing certain knowledge (e.g., questions about personal information) to smart speakers does not necessarily mean that this device is believed to be omniscient; and (d) in terms of promoting children’s learning, smart speakers might not be more effective than a real human, and the interaction with smart speakers may not be conducive to children’s maintenance of civilized social norms. Implications for children’s conceptualization and interaction of smart speakers and the design of children-oriented smart agents are also discussed.

This paper presents results from high-resolution climate change simulations that permit convection and resolve mesoscale orography at 3-km grid spacing over Fenno-Scandinavia using the HARMONIE-Climate (HCLIM) model. Two global climate models (GCMs) have been dynamically down-scaled for the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 emission scenarios and for both near and far future periods in the 21st century. The warmer and moister climate conditions simulated in the GCMs lead to changes in precipitation characteristics. Higher precipitation amounts are simulated in fall, winter and spring, while in summer, precipitation increases in northern Fenno-Scandinavia and decreases in the southern parts of the domain. Both daily and sub-daily intense precipitation over Fenno-Scandinavia become more frequent at the expense of low-intensity events, with most pronounced shifts in summer. In the Scandinavian mountains, pronounced changes occur in the snow climate with a shift in precipitation falling as snow to rain, reduced snow cover and less days with a significant snow depth. HCLIM at 3-km grid spacing exhibits systematically different change responses in several aspects, e.g. a smaller shift from snow to rain in the western part of the Scandinavian mountains and a more consistent decrease in the urban heat island effect by the end of the 21st century. Most importantly, the high-resolution HCLIM shows a significantly stronger increase in summer hourly precipitation extremes compared to HCLIM at the intermediate 12-km grid spacing. In addition, an analysis of the statistical significance of precipitation changes indicates that simulated time periods of at least a couple of decades is recommended to achieve statistically robust results, a matter of important concern when running such high-resolution climate model experiments. The results presented here emphasizes the importance of using “convection-permitting” models to produce reliable climate change information over the Fenno-Scandinavian region.

The hippocampal neurogenesis occurs constitutively throughout adulthood in mammalian species, but declines with age. In this study, we overtly found that the neuroblast proliferation and differentiation in the subgranular zone and the maturation into fully functional and integrated neurons in the granule-cell layer in young gerbils following cerebral ischemia/reperfusion was much more than those in old gerbils. The neurological function and cognitive and memory-function rehabilitation in the young gerbils improved faster than those in the old one. These results demonstrated that, during long term after cerebral ischemia/reperfusion, the ability of neurogenesis and recovery of nerve function in young animals were significantly higher than that in the old animals. We found that, after 14- and 28-day cerebral ischemia/reperfusion, the phosphorylation of MEK1/2, ERK1/2, p90RSK, and MSK1/2 protein levels in the hippocampus of young gerbils was significantly much higher than that of old gerbils. The levels of autophagy-related proteins, including Beclin-1, Atg3, Atg5, and LC3 in the hippocampus were effectively maintained and elevated at 28 days after cerebral ischemia/reperfusion in the young gerbils compared with those in the old gerbils. These results indicated that an increase or maintenance of the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 signal pathway and autophagy-related proteins was closely associated with the neuroblast proliferation and differentiation and the process of maturation into neurons. Further, we proved that neuroblast proliferation and differentiation in the dentate gyrus and cognitive function were significantly reversed in young cerebral ischemic gerbils by administering the ERK inhibitor (U0126) and autophagy inhibitor (3MA). In brief, following experimental young ischemic stroke, the long-term promotion of the neurogenesis in the young gerbil’s hippocampal dentate gyrus by upregulating the phosphorylation of ERK signaling pathway and maintaining autophagy-related protein levels, it overtly improved the neurological function and cognitive and memory function.

Previous studies have shown that students learn better from an online lesson when a gesturing pedagogical agent is added (Mayer & DaPra, 2012; Wang, Li, Mayer, & Liu, 2018). The goal of this study is to pinpoint which aspect of a gesturing pedagogical agent causes an improvement in learning from an online lesson. College students learned about neural transmission in an online multimedia lesson that included a pedagogical agent who displayed specific pointing gestures (i.e., pointing to the specific component in the diagram being mentioned in the narration), general pointing gestures (i.e., pointing in the general direction of the diagram), nonpointing gestures (moving hands as beats, moving an arm up or down, or crossing two hands), or no gestures. An analysis of students’ eye movements during learning showed that students in the specific-pointing group paid more attention to task-related elements than did students in the other groups (as indicated by fixation time and fixation count on the target area of interest). Students in the specific-pointing group also performed better than the other groups on retention and transfer tests administered immediately after the lesson and after a 1-week delay. The results show that an active ingredient in effective pedagogical agents is the use of specific pointing gestures. This work helps clarify the embodiment principle and image principle by isolating specific pointing (or deictic gestures) as a key feature that makes gesturing effective in multimedia lessons. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

In the cultural context of rapidly increasing internet access, two experiments examine how 5- to 8-year-old Chinese children and adults evaluate information from an unspecified internet source or a known human informant (a teacher or a peer). In Experiment 1, when evaluating statements from a variety of domains, adults regarded the internet and a teacher as more trustworthy than a peer. Younger children did not show differential endorsement of statements by any source, and older children endorsed statements attributed to a teacher over those from the internet. In Experiment 2, when the statements involved scientific and historical facts only, all age groups sought out and endorsed information from the internet or a teacher more often than from a peer, but only adults trusted the internet more than the teacher. These results demonstrate that children can reason about the reliability of informants across different categories and that their trust in information sources is contingent on the type of information being presented.

Litter accumulates yearly since vegetations were widely planted for reforestation, and it plays an important role in hydrologic cycling. There is little information on the effects of litter on re-allocation of rainfall processes. Eight runoff plots were established in the Pinus tabulaeformis stand with four litter (needle-leaf) masses (0, 0.6, 1.2, 1.8 kg/m2), and the surface runoff (R), evaporation (E), infiltration and soil moisture dynamics were measured throughout the mainly rainy season from August 4 to September 28 in the Loess Plateau. The results showed that, soil evaporation mainly occurred in daytime for bare soil, and decreased with increasing litter masses, and litter cover is prone to hinder the heat and water exchange between soil and atmosphere, especially for the soil layer 0~5 cm. Litter cover greatly decreased surface runoff, and it may hinder infiltration at the beginning of rainy season, but increasing soil water storage (SWS) with deeper infiltration depth for the long run, especially for the litter masses 1.2 and 1.8 kg/m2. With the litter covered, the ratio of R to precipitation (P) was less than 10%, no matter it was heavy rain or light rain. However, the proportion of R was amplified when the rainfall was intense for the bare soil. And the ratio of E to P was always below 10% for all treatments, except for light rainfall. With the increased litter masses, the proportion of R and E all decreased, and the SWS/P has well nonlinear positive relationship with litter masses, and it was proved that more than a half of rainfall was stored even for bare soil. This study may helpful to better understanding the effects of litter on hydrological response, and promotes practical measurements to the management of precipitation in a forest stand view.

Ethnopharmacological relevance Tanshinone-Ⅰ (TSNⅠ), a member of the mainly active components of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge (Dan Shen), which is widely used for the treatment for modern clinical diseases including cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, has been reported to show the properties of anti-oxidation, anti-inflammation, neuroprotection and other pharmacological actions. However, whether TSNⅠ can improve neuron survival and neurological function against transient focal cerebral ischemia (tMCAO) in mice is still a blank field. Aim of the study This study aims to investigate the neuroprotective effects of TSNⅠ on ischemic stroke (IS) induced by tMCAO in mice and explore the potential mechanism of TSNⅠ against IS by combining network pharmacology approach and experimental verification. Materials and methods In this study, the pivotal candidate targets of TSNⅠ against IS were screened by network pharmacology firstly. Enrichment analysis and molecular docking of those targets were performed to identify the possible mechanism of TSNⅠ against IS. Afterwards, experiments were carried out to further verify the mechanism of TSNⅠ against IS. The infarct volume and neurological deficit were evaluated by 2, 3, 5-triphenyl tetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining and Longa respectively. Immunohistochemistry was used to observe neuronal death in the hippocampus and cortical regions by detecting the change of NeuN. The predicting pathways of signaling-related proteins were assessed by Western blot in vitro and in vivo experiments. Results In vivo, TSNⅠ was found to dose-dependently decrease mice's cerebral infarct volume induced by tMCAO. In vitro, pretreatment with TSNⅠ could increase cell viability of HT-22 cell following oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD/R). Moreover, the results showed that 125 candidate targets were identified, Protein kinase B (AKT) signaling pathway was significantly enriched by Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis and mitogen-activated protein kinases 1 (MAPK1) and AKT1 could be bound to TSNⅠ more firmly by molecular docking analysis, which implies that TSNⅠ may play a role in neuroprotection through activating AKT and MAPK signaling pathways. Meanwhile, TSNⅠ was confirmed to significantly protect neurons from injury induced by IS through activating AKT and MAPK signaling pathways. Conclusion In conclusion, our study clarifies that the mechanism of TSNⅠ against IS might be related to AKT and MAPK signaling pathways, which may provide the basic evidence for further development and utilization of TSNⅠ.

Oxidative stress, an imbalance between reactive oxygen species and antioxidants, has been seen in the pathological states of many disorders such as ischemic diseases and cancers. Many natural compounds (NCs) have long been recognized to ameliorate oxidative stress due to their inherent antioxidant activities. The modulation of oxidative stress by NCs via activating the Nrf2 signaling pathway is summarized in the review. Three NCs, ursolic acid, betulinic acid, and curcumin, and the mechanisms of their cytoprotective effects are investigated in myocardial ischemia, cerebral ischemia, skin cancer, and prostate cancer. To promote the therapeutic performance of NCs with poor water solubility, the formulation approach, such as the nano drug delivery system, is elaborated as well in this review.

Steroid hormones are essential in stress response, immune system regulation, and reproduction in mammals. Steroids with 3-oxo-Δ4 structure, such as testosterone or progesterone, are catalyzed by steroid 5α-reductases (SRD5As) to generate their corresponding 3-oxo-5α steroids, which are essential for multiple physiological and pathological processes. SRD5A2 is already a target of clinically relevant drugs. However, the detailed mechanism of SRD5A-mediated reduction remains elusive. Here we report the crystal structure of PbSRD5A from Proteobacteria bacterium, a homolog of both SRD5A1 and SRD5A2, in complex with the cofactor NADPH at 2.0 Å resolution. PbSRD5A exists as a monomer comprised of seven transmembrane segments (TMs). The TM1-4 enclose a hydrophobic substrate binding cavity, whereas TM5-7 coordinate cofactor NADPH through extensive hydrogen bonds network. Homology-based structural models of HsSRD5A1 and -2, together with biochemical characterization, define the substrate binding pocket of SRD5As, explain the properties of disease-related mutants and provide an important framework for further understanding of the mechanism of NADPH mediated steroids 3-oxo-Δ4 reduction. Based on these analyses, the design of therapeutic molecules targeting SRD5As with improved specificity and therapeutic efficacy would be possible., Steroid 5α-reductase 2 (SRD5A2), a testosterone metabolism enzyme, is implicated in human disease. Structural and biochemical analyses of PbSRD5A, a bacterial homolog, reveal SRD5A2 substrate binding pocket and provide framework for the design of new drugs targeting this enzyme.

Providing single-modality cueing (either visual cueing or auditory cueing) in multimedia lessons does not consistently improve learning outcomes. In 3 eye-tracking experiments, some students learned an onscreen lesson with an oral explanation of graphics and then took a posttest on the material (no cues group). Across all 3 experiments, students spent more time attending to the relevant portion of the graphic and performed better on posttests if coordinated cues were added to the lesson (coordinated dual cues group), in which key elements were spoken with deeper intonation (auditory cue) at the same time the element turned red in the graphic (visual cue). Presenting coordinated visual and auditory cues also resulted in better posttest performance than presenting only a visual cue (visual-only cues group) or auditory cue alone (auditory-only cues group) in Experiment 1, or presenting visual and auditory cues that were unmatched (mismatched dual cues group) in Experiment 2 or unsynchronized (visual-before-auditory cues group and visual-after-auditory cues group) in Experiment 3. These findings extend and sharpen the signaling principle concerning how best to highlight instructional material in multimedia learning, using coordinated auditory and visual cues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

© 2020 The Authors. Plant Biotechnology Journal published by Society for Experimental Biology and The Association of Applied Biologists and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Terrestrial plants must cope with drought stress to survive. Under drought stress, plants accumulate the phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) by increasing its biosynthesis and decreasing its catabolism. However, the regulatory pathways controlling ABA catabolism in response to drought remain largely unclear. Here, we report that the flowering repressor SHORT VEGETATIVE PHASE (SVP) is induced by drought stress and associates with the promoter regions of the ABA catabolism pathway genes CYP707A1, CYP707A3 and AtBG1, causing decreased expression of CYP707A1 and CYP707A3 but enhanced expression of AtBG1 in Arabidopsis leaves. Loss-of-function mutations in CYP707A1 and CYP707A3 or overexpression of AtBG1 could rescue the drought-hypersensitive phenotype of svp mutant plants by increasing cellular ABA levels. Collectively, our results suggest that SVP is a central regulator of ABA catabolism and that a regulatory pathway involving SVP, CYP707A1/3, and AtBG1 plays a critical role in plant response to water deficit and plant drought resistance.

The goal of the present study is to determine how to incorporate social cues such as gesturing in animated pedagogical agents (PAs) for online multimedia lessons in ways that promote student learning. In 3 experiments, college students learned about synaptic transmission from a multimedia narrated presentation while their eye movements were tracked and subsequently took learning outcome tests. In Experiments 1 and 2, students who had a gesturing PA added to the screen performed significantly better on learning outcome tests of transfer (ds = 0.77 and 0.80) and retention (ds = 1.16 and 1.00) and spent more time attending to target material based on eye-tracking measures including fixation time (ds = 1.53 and 2.27) and number of fixations (ds = 1.54 and 1.70). In Experiments 2 and 3, students who learned with a gesturing PA outperformed those who learned with a static PA on transfer (ds = 0.72 and 1.02), retention (ds = 0.96 and 0.93), fixation time (ds = 2.07 and 1.82), and number of fixations (ds = 1.64 and 2.99). In Experiment 2, adding a static PA to the screen did not improve performance. In Experiment 3, adding signaling such as color coding did not improve performance for students who received a gesturing PA. Results support the embodiment principle that people learn better from onscreen multimedia lessons when a gesturing PA is added to the screen, and social agency theory, which posits that social cues can prime learners to process the material more actively and develop better learning outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)

Young children learn about the properties of foods, such as taste and healthiness, from others. By using selective trust tasks in which a familiar cartoon character and an unfamiliar informant provided different testimony about food safety, this study examined how an informant's familiarity affected 4- to 6-year-old children's selective social learning about food safety. In Experiment 1, when judging the safety of foods from the familiar cartoon character and the unfamiliar character, children across all age groups showed a preference for asking the familiar character for information. For endorse questions, 4- and 5-year-olds did not consistently accept or reject either character's statements, while 6-year-olds endorsed the unfamiliar cartoon character's statements more often than the familiar character's statements. In Experiment 2, when the unfamiliar informant was a real adult instead of a fictional cartoon character, children sought out information from the familiar character more often than from the adult, and they did not differentially endorse statements by either informant. Moreover, children who had less advanced theory of mind skills and who viewed cartoon characters as more real were more likely to ask the cartoon character. These results suggest that although children prefer to obtain information from familiar characters, they accept information about food safety from multiple kinds of sources and their social-cognitive skills play a role in their decisions.

There is an increased need for more detailed climate information from impact researchers, stakeholders and policy makers for regional-to-local climate change assessments. In order to design relevant and informative planning strategies on these scales it is important to have reliable climate data and information on high spatial O(1km) and temporal (daily to sub-daily) scales. Such high-resolution data is also beneficial for climate impact modellers as input to their models, e.g. hydrological or urban models that operate on regional to local scales. It has been established that regional climate models (RCMs) provide added value compared to coarser global climate models (GCMs) or re-analysis (e.g. ERA-Interim). However, RCMs with standard spatial resolution O(10 − 50km) still suffer from inadequacies in representing important regional-to-local climate phenomena and characteristics, both from the implied ”smoothening” effect within each grid cell which limits the representation of fine scale surface forcings, and the need to parameterize small-scale processes like atmospheric convection. The latter particularly invokes uncertainties in future climate responses of short-duration precipitation extremes such as flash-floods. Here, we compare 20-year simulations with a very high resolution (3 km grid spacing) convection permitting regional climate model (CPRCM) with a standard high-resolution (12 km grid spacing) convection parameterized RCM and their abilities to simulate the climate characteristics of the Nordic region in Europe, with particular focus on precipitation extremes. The study covers both recent past (with boundary data from ERA-Interim and the EC-Earth GCM) and the end of the 21st century (boundary data from EC-Earth using the RCP8.5 radiative forcing scenario). The high model grid resolution combined with the extensive simulated time period which enables assessment on climatological time scales makes this study one of very few for this region.

Current literature strongly indicates large benefits of convection permitting models for subdaily summer precipitation extremes. There has been less insight about other variables, seasons and weather conditions. We examine new climate simulations over the Nordic region, performed with the HCLIM38 regional climate model at both convection permitting and coarser scales, searching for benefits of using convection permitting resolutions. The Nordic climate is influenced by the North Atlantic storm track and characterised by large seasonal contrasts in temperature and precipitation. It is also in rapid change, most notably in the winter season when feedback processes involving retreating snow and ice lead to larger warming than in many other regions. This makes the area an ideal testbed for regional climate models. We explore the effects of higher resolution and better reproduction of convection on various aspects of the climate, such as snow in the mountains, coastal and other thermal circulations, convective storms and precipitation with a special focus on extreme events. We investigate how the benefits of convection permitting models change with different variables and seasons, and also their sensitivity to different circulation regimes.

Extreme precipitation events have a major impact upon our society. Although many studies have indicated that it is likely that the frequency of such events will increase in a warmer climate, little has been done to assess changes in extreme precipitation at a sub-daily scale. Recently, there is more and more evidence that high-resolution convection-permitting models (CPMs) (grid-mesh typically < 4 km) can represent especially short-duration precipitation extremes more accurately when compared with coarser-resolution regional climate models (RCMs).This study investigates sub-daily and daily precipitation characteristics based on hourly output data from the HARMONIE-Climate model at 3-km and 12-km grid-mesh resolution over the Nordic region between 1998 and 2018. The RCM modelling chain uses the ERA-Interim reanalysis to drive a 12-km grid-mesh simulation which is further downscaled to 3-km grid-mesh resolution using a non-hydrostatic model set-up.The statistical properties of the modeled extreme precipitation are compared to several sub-daily and daily observational products, including gridded and in-situ gauge data, from April to September. We investigate the skill of the model to represent different aspects of the frequency and intensity of extreme precipitation as well as intensity–duration–frequency (IDF) curves that are commonly used to investigate short duration extremes from an urban planning perspective. The high grid resolution combined with the 20-year-long simulation period allows for a robust assessment at a climatological time scale and enables us to examine the added value of high-resolution CPM in reproducing precipitation extremes over the Nordic region. Based on the tentative results, the high-resolution CPM can realistically capture the characteristics of precipitation extremes, for instance, in terms of improved diurnal cycle and maximum intensities of sub-daily precipitation.

Internet language is a creative product of the rapid development of computer-mediated communication. The present study was to investigate whether the use of Internet language enhances creative problem solving. In Study 1, sixty-two selected participants were equally divided into two groups according to their use experience of Chinese Internet language, and then both more and less experienced groups were asked to complete Chinese remote associates test and Chinese chengyu riddles. Results showed that the more experienced group performed significantly better in both the creative tasks. In Study 2, forty-six participants were randomly divided into two groups. The experimental group was asked to learn Chinese Internet Language, while the control group was asked to learn scientific terminology. Two groups completed the aforementioned creative tasks in pretest and post-test. Results showed that the interaction between the group and test order was significant in Chinese chengyu riddle solving, in which the experimental group had a significantly higher average score in post-test than pretest. And there was no difference for the control group. These findings supported that Internet language use benefited creative problem solving, and it might be a convenient way in the practice of promoting creativity.

Over the last 15 years, researchers have been increasingly interested in understanding the nature and development of children's selective trust. Three meta-analyses were conducted on a total of 51 unique studies (88 experiments) to provide a quantitative overview of 3- to 6-year-old children's selective trust in an informant based on the informant's epistemic or social characteristics, and to examine the relation between age and children's selective trust decisions. The first and second meta-analyses found that children displayed medium-to-large pooled effects in favor of trusting the informant who was knowledgeable or the informant with positive social characteristics. Moderator analyses revealed that 4-year-olds were more likely to endorse knowledgeable informants than 3-year-olds. The third meta-analysis examined cases where two informants simultaneously differed in their epistemic and social characteristics. The results revealed that 3-year-old children did not selectively endorse informants who were more knowledgeable but had negative social characteristics over informants who were less knowledgeable but had positive social characteristics. However, 4- to 6-year-olds consistently prioritized epistemic cues over social characteristics when deciding who to trust. Together, these meta-analyses suggest that epistemic and social characteristics are both valuable to children when they evaluate the reliability of informants. Moreover, with age, children place greater value on epistemic characteristics when deciding whether to endorse an informant's testimony. Implications for the development of epistemic trust and the design of studies of children's selective trust are discussed.

The integration of text and picture is the core of multimedia information processing. Relevant theories suggest that text and picture are processed through different channels in the early stage, and integrated in the late stage of processing. Based on these theories, the current study adopted measures of event-related potentials to examine the cognitive and neural processes of text-picture integration. The results showed that in the early stage of text-picture integration, picture processing evoked a more negative N1 over the occipital area and a N300 over the prefrontal area, which might reflect the discrimination process of visual stimuli and the imagery representation of the picture, respectively; in the late stage, the text-picture induced a N400 in the central area and an LPC over the central, parietal and temporal areas, which might be associated with the semantic activation and integration of text and picture, respectively. These results not only provide support for existing theories, but also further elucidate the dynamic neural processing of text-picture integration in terms of its temporal and spatial characteristics.

Chloroplast as the site for photosynthesis is an essential organelle in plants, but little is known about its role in stomatal regulation and drought resistance. In this study, we show that two chloroplastic proteins essential for thylakoid formation negatively regulate drought resistance in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). By screening a mutant pool with T-DNA insertions in nuclear genes encoding chloroplastic proteins, we identified an HCF106 knockdown mutant exhibiting increased resistance to drought stress. The hcf106 mutant displayed elevated levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in guard cells, improved stomatal closure, and reduced water loss under drought conditions. The HCF106 protein was found to physically interact with THF1, a previously identified chloroplastic protein crucial for thylakoid formation. The thf1 mutant phenotypically resembled the hcf106 mutant and displayed more ROS accumulation in guard cells, increased stomatal closure, reduced water loss, and drought resistant phenotypes compared to the wild type. The hcf106thf1 double mutant behaved similarly as the thf1 single mutant. These results suggest that HCF106 and THF1 form a complex to modulate chloroplast function and that the complex is important for ROS production in guard cells and stomatal control in response to environmental stresses. Our results also suggest that modulating chloroplastic proteins could be a way for improving drought resistance in crops.

Detonation is an energetic combustion mode augmenting high flow momentum and thermodynamic efficiency, it has been applied in detonation engines, such as pulse detonation engines (PDEs) and rotating detonation engines (RDEs), they have become potential aerospace propulsion equipment. Recently, fluidic jet-in-cross flow (JICF) has been demonstrated experimentally and numerically that can accelerate the deflagration-to-detonation transition (DDT) process. Nonetheless, most of previous studies focused on the jets using combustible mixture or oxygen, which may bring additional risk for turbulence-generated system in detonation engines. In this study, a more safe and controllable inert gas (i.e., Ar) is applied for JICF, experiments are carried out to investigate effects of argon jet as an enhancement method on promoting the DDT in a stoichiometric methane-oxygen mixture. The effects of local argon concentration, turbulence intensity and injection position on the DDT process are systematically examined. Two-dimensional numerical simulations are also performed to elucidate the details of the injection evolution. The experimental results show that turbulence generated by the argon injection can promote flame acceleration and the onset of detonation only in the fast deflagration regime. The enhancing effect is more prominent at higher turbulence intensity by increasing jet injection pressure and shorter injection time. Too long injection duration increases argon local concentration that leads to an adverse effect prohibiting the DDT occurrence. During the initial laminar flame acceleration, referred to as the slow deflagration regime, no enhancement by the argon jet on DDT can be observed. By looking numerically at the flow structure of the argon jet, the vortical features enhance the transport and mixing between reactants and products. The interaction between the reactive travelling wave and the jet structure further induces turbulence and thus accelerates the chemical reaction rate. With the time elapsed, the injected argon entrains largely and dilutes the ambient combustible mixture, and restrains the DDT. Furthermore, a novel dimensionless criterion and a characteristic parameter Turc are proposed, quantitatively analyzing the dominate mechanism in flame propagation and the initial stage of DDT as inert jet is introduced.

Successful initiation of a detonation in a confined combustor with limited length is a formidable task for designing the detonation-based engines, shortening the length for the run-up distance of a detonation greatly reduces the weight of the detonation engine, rendering the detonation propulsion become possible in the advanced aerospace propulsion systems. In this work, we proposed a new method that using a non-reactive gas jet (CO2) to facilitate the formation of the precursor shock wave and the flame propagation speed in a deflagration wave in a stoichiometric methane-oxygen mixture, by changing a series of the injection parameters, i.e., the initial pressure of mixture, the jet delay time, the jet pressure and its position, the effects of those parameters on the deflagration propagation are systematically investigated. The experimental results show that, the development processes of pressure rise are divided into two stages prior to the DDT: 1) slow deflagration stage, which characterized by two discrete shock waves named as the 1st shock wave and 2nd shock wave; 2) Fast deflagration stage, the two discrete waves merge into a strong precursor shock wave, and the velocities of precursor shock and flame achieve to the “quasi-detonation” state. The experimental results also illustrate that, introducing the CO2 jet in the first stage prior to the DDT promotes the formation of precursor shock wave and accelerates the flame speed, which speeds up the transformation of a detonation in a shorter distance. By comparing different jet parameter combinations, it is found that high jet pressure and long jet time increase the local concentration of CO2, which adversely affect the formation of a detonation. Thereby there exists an optimal condition of injection, whose injection pressure ratio is 15, jet delay time is 20 ms and jet position is found to be 0.6 m, those parameters are verified to have prominent detonation-enhancement effects on DDT, the underlying mechanisms for those optimal conditions are explored and explained in this study. This study provided new experimental evidences supporting the theory of turbulence-enhancement effect on the initiation of a detonation.

We examined the effectiveness of touchscreen media for teaching children to tell time from a clock. Experiment 1 was conducted with 123 preschoolers (M = 70.15 months, SD = 4.41) using two learning media: touchscreen and video, and three test media: iPad, toy, and paper, with between-subjects pre-and post-test design. After 10 min of exposure to the touchscreen or video learning media designed to teach children how to tell time, groups of children were tested with an iPad, a toy clock, or a clock printed on paper, respectively. Results showed that post-test scores across all groups were significantly higher than those at pre-test, for both learning media. Children in touchscreen-learning groups had a greater improvement from pre-test to post-test scores compared with video-learning groups. Moreover, children in iPad and toy test groups, had a greater improvement from pre-test to post-test scores than those in paper-test groups. Experiment 2 aimed to explore whether embodied cognition or the gesture as cues promoted children's learning and was conducted with 79 preschoolers (M = 70.92 months, SD = 4.80) using three learning media: touchscreen, gesture-watching, and nongesture-watching. Results showed that learning performance of the touchscreen group and gesture-watching group was better than that of the nongesture-watching group. Findings suggest that both the touchscreen and gesture-watching learning tools can improve young children's learning; children were able to transfer what they had learned on an iPad touchscreen to other media. Thus, it appears that gesture is a key factor in touchscreen learning.

Aiming at the problem of low voltage gain of traditional boost converter and the incompatibility of tracking speed and tracking accuracy with the traditional incremental conductance algorithm (INC), this paper uses the hybrid boost converter as the DC/DC converter of photovoltaic system, and designs the variable step size INC algorithm control strategy to achieve Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) of photovoltaic. Simulink simulation model verifies the feasibility of the proposed algorithm, which effectively improves the output voltage and power generation efficiency of the photovoltaic system.