Perceptual training improves audiovisual integration by enhancing alpha-band oscillations and functional connectivity in older adults.

Numerous studies on perceptual training exist, however, most have focused on the precision of temporal audiovisual perception, while fewer have concentrated on ability promotion for audiovisual integration (AVI). To investigate these issues, continuous 5-day audiovisual perceptual training was applied, during which electroencephalography was performed in response to auditory-only (A), visual-only (V) and audiovisual (AV) stimuli before and after training. The results showed that the perceptual sensitivity was greater for training group than for control group and was greater in the posttest than in the pretest. The response to the AV stimulus was significantly faster in the posttest than in the pretest for the older training group but was significantly greater for A and V stimuli for the younger training group. Electroencephalography analysis found higher P3 AVI amplitudes [AV-(A + V)] in the posttest than in the pretest for training group, which were subsequently reflected by an increased alpha (8-12 Hz) oscillatory response and strengthened global functional connectivity (weighted phase lag index). Furthermore, these facilitations were greater for older training groups than for younger training groups. These results confirm the age-related compensatory mechanism for AVI may be strengthened as audiovisual perceptual training progresses, providing an effective candidate for cognitive intervention in older adults.

Expressions of Type I-III Interferons in Sjögren's Syndrome and Non-Sjögren's Dry Eye.

INTRODUCTION: Systemic implications create a critical need for identification of dry eye patients with Sjögren syndrome (SS). Herein, we aimed to determine expressions of type I-III interferons (IFNs) in dry eye patients with or without underlying SS and their differential diagnosis. METHODS: A prospective, observational, case-control study was performed on 140 dry eye patients among which 78 patients were diagnosed with SS. Clinical evaluations included ELISA detections of serum type I IFN (IFN-α and IFN-ß, type II IFN (IFN-γ), and type III IFN (IFN-λ1/IL-29, IFN-λ2/IL-28, and IFN-λ3/IL-28B), as well as reporter cell assay for serum type I IFN activity. RESULTS: The serum levels of IFN-α and IFN-ß were notably higher in dry eye patients with SS than those without underlying SS (p < 0.0001). The functional assay for serum type I IFN activity showed the mean summed scores in dry eye patients with SS were remarkably increased compared to those without underlying SS (p < 0.0001). The serum levels of IFN-γ and IFN-λ1/IL-29 seemed higher in dry eye patients with SS than those without underlying SS (p < 0.0001). The serum levels of type I IFN (IFN-α combined with IFN-ß), type II IFN (IFN-γ level), and type III IFN (IFN-λ1/IL-29) used as a test to predict underlying SS among dry eye patients produced an area under the curve of 0.86, 0.73, and 0.94, respectively. CONCLUSION: Serum levels of type I-III IFNs, especially IFN-α, IFN-ß, and IFN-λ1/IL-29, may serve as a useful biomarker for identification of SS dry eye from non-SS dry eye.

A Double Twisted Nanographene with a Contorted Pyrene Core.

The mature synthetic methodologies enable us to rationally design and produce chiral nanographenes (NGs), most of which consist of multiple helical motifs. However, inherent chirality originating from twisted geometry has just emerged to be employed in chiral NGs. Herein, we report a red-emissive chiral NG constituted of orthogonally arranged two-fold twisted π-skeletons at a contorted pyrene core which contributes to optical transitions of S0→S1 and vice versa. The thus-obtained NG exhibited a robustness on its redox properties through 2e- uptake/release. The chemical oxidation generated stable radical cation whose absorption covers near-infrared I and II regions. Overall, the contorted pyrene core governs electronic nature of the chiral NG. The twist operation on NGs would be, therefore, a design strategy to alter conventional chirality induction on NGs.

Affective Norms for Chinese Words of Typical Life Scenes Rated by Older Adults (ANCO).

The present study provides an affective norm collected from older adults for 1,050 Chinese words that are closely related to the typical life scenes commonly encountered by older adults. Data were collected for key affective dimensions of valence and arousal using the method of adapted Self-Assessment Manikin (Bradley & Lang, 1994) in a paper-and-pencil procedure. The results showed that the current database (ANCO) was of high reliability and validity. Valence and arousal were in an asymmetrically quadratic relationship in the valence-by-arousal space; i.e., older adults rated negative words as the highest arousing, followed by positive and neutral words. In addition, by comparing affective ratings of the shared words between the present norm collected from older Chinese adults and previous norms collected from young Chinese adults (Wang et al., 2008; Yao et al., 2017; Yu et al., 2016), we found that compared with young adults, older ones perceived negative words as more negative and more arousing, and perceived positive words as more positive and less arousing. ANCO can serve as a valuable source of information for age-related affective research and help explicate the effects of emotion on linguistic and cognitive processes.

Chloroplastic Os3BGlu6 contributes significantly to cellular ABA pools and impacts drought tolerance and photosynthesis in rice.

Cellular abscisic acid (ABA) concentration is determined by both de novo biosynthesis and recycling via ß-glucosidase(s). However, which rice ß-glucosidase(s) are involved in this process remains unknown. Here, we report on a chloroplastic ß-glucosidase isoenzyme, Os3BGlu6, that functions in ABA recycling in rice. Disruption of Os3BGlu6 in rice resulted in dwarfism, lower ABA content in leaves, drought-sensitivity, lower photosynthesis rate and higher intercellular CO2 concentration. Os3BGlu6 could hydrolyze ABA-GE to ABA in vitro. The reversion and overexpression rice lines restored or increased the drought tolerance as shown by the higher ß-glucosidase activity, ABA concentrations and expressions of ABA- and drought-responsive genes. Drought induced Os3BGlu6 to form dimers, and the degree of polymerization correlated well with the increase in cellular ABA concentrations and drought tolerance in rice. Os3BGlu6 was responsive to drought and ABA treatments, and the protein was localized to the chloroplast. Disruption of Os3BGlu6 resulted in the increased stomatal density and impaired stomatal movement. Transcriptomics revealed that disruption of Os3BGlu6 resulted in chloroplastic oxidative stress and lowered Rubisco activity even under normal conditions. Taken together, these results suggest that chloroplastically localized Os3BGlu6 significantly affects cellular ABA pools, thereby affecting drought tolerance and photosynthesis in rice.

On the predictive validity of various corpus-based frequency norms in L2 English lexical processing.

The predictive validity of various corpus-based frequency norms in first-language lexical processing has been intensively investigated in previous research, but less attention has been paid to this issue in second-language (L2) processing. To bridge the gap, in the present study we took English as a case in point and compared the predictive power of a large set of corpus-based frequency norms for the performance of an L2 English visual lexical decision task (LDT). Our results showed that, in general, the frequency norms from SUBTLEX-US and WorldLex-Blog tended to predict L2 performance better in reaction times, whereas the frequency norms from corpora with a mixture of written and spoken genres (CELEX, WorldLex-Blog, BNC, ANC, and COCA) tended to predict L2 accuracy better. Although replicated in both low- and high-proficiency L2 English learners, these patterns were not exactly the same as those found in LDT data from native English speakers. In addition, we only observed some limited advantages of the lemma frequency and contextual diversity measures over the wordform frequency measure in predicting L2 lexical processing. The results of the present study, especially the detailed comparisons among the different corpora, provide methodological implications for future L2 lexical research.

Directed Evolution of Dunaliella salina Ds-26-16 and Salt-Tolerant Response in Escherichia coli.

Identification and evolution of salt tolerant genes are crucial steps in developing salt tolerant crops or microorganisms using biotechnology. Ds-26-16, a salt tolerant gene that was isolated from Dunaliella salina, encodes a transcription factor that can confer salt tolerance to a number of organisms including Escherichia coli (E. coli), Haematococcus pluvialis and tobacco. To further improve its salt tolerance, a random mutagenesis library was constructed using deoxyinosine triphosphate-mediated error-prone PCR technology, and then screened using an E. coli expression system that is based on its broad-spectrum salt tolerance. Seven variants with enhanced salt tolerance were obtained. Variant EP-5 that contained mutation S32P showed the most improvement with the E. coli transformant enduring salt concentrations up to 1.54 M, in comparison with 1.03 M for the wild type gene. Besides, Ds-26-16 and EP-5 also conferred E. coli transformant tolerance to freezing, cold, heat, Cu2+ and alkaline. Homology modeling revealed that mutation S32P in EP-5 caused the conformational change of N- and C-terminal α-helixes. Expression of Ds-26-16 and EP-5 maintained normal cellular morphology, increased the intracellular antioxidant enzymatic activity, reduced malondialdehyde content, and stimulated Nitric Oxide synthesis, thus enhancing salt tolerance to E. coli transformants.

Nocardioides deserti sp. nov., an actinobacterium isolated from desert soil.

A rod- or coccus-shaped, non-spore-forming actinobacterium, designated strain SC8A-24(T), was isolated from a soil sample collected from the rhizosphere of Alhagi sparsifolia on the southern edge of the Taklimakan desert, Xinjiang, China, and examined by a polyphasic approach to clarify its taxonomic position. This actinobacterium was Gram-staining-positive and aerobic. Substrate and aerial mycelia were not observed, and no diffusible pigments were observed on the media tested. Strain SC8A-24(T) grew optimally without NaCl at 28-30 °C and pH 7.0-8.0. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain SC8A-24(T) belonged to the genus Nocardioides and shared the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with Nocardioides salarius CL-Z59(T) (96.51%), N. pyridinolyticus OS4(T) (96.43%) and N. ginsengagri BX5-10(T) (96.37%). The DNA G+C content of strain SC8A-24(T) was 71 mol%. The cell-wall peptidoglycan contained ll-2,6-diaminopimelic acid, and MK-8(H4) was the predominant menaquinone. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, an unidentified glycolipid and an unidentified phospholipid. The major fatty acids were C17 : 1ω8c, 10-methyl C17 : 0 and C18 : 1ω9c. On the basis of phylogenetic analysis and phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics, strain SC8A-24(T) represents a novel species of the genus Nocardioides , for which the name Nocardioides deserti sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is SC8A-24(T) ( =DSM 26045(T)  = CGMCC 4.7183(T)).

Discovery, synthesis and biological evaluation of 2-(4-(N-phenethylsulfamoyl)phenoxy)acetamides (SAPAs) as novel sphingomyelin synthase 1 inhibitors.

Sphingomyelin synthase (SMS) has been proved to be a potential drug target for the treatment of atherosclerosis. However, few SMS inhibitors have been reported. In this paper, structure-based virtual screening was performed on hSMS1. SAPA 1a was discovered as a novel SMS1 inhibitor with an IC50 value of 5.2 µM in enzymatic assay. A series of 2-(4-(N-phenethylsulfamoyl)phenoxy)acetamides (SAPAs) were synthesized and their biological activities toward SMS1 were evaluated. Among them, SAPA 1j was found to be the most potent SMS1 inhibitor with an IC50 value of 2.1 µM in in vitro assay. The molecular docking studies suggested the interaction modes of SMS1 inhibitors and PC with the active site of SMS1. Site-directed mutagenesis validated the involvement of residues Arg342 and Tyr338 in enzymatic sphingomyelin production. The discovery of SAPA derivatives as a novel class of SMS1 inhibitors would advance the development of more effective SMS1 inhibitors.

Exploring the Cause of English Pronoun Gender Errors by Chinese Learners of English: Evidence from the Self-paced Reading Paradigm.

To locate the underlying cause of biological gender errors of oral English pronouns by proficient Chinese-English learners, two self-paced reading experiments were conducted to explore whether the reading time for each 'he' or 'she' that matched its antecedent was shorter than that in the corresponding mismatch situation, as with native speakers of English. The critical manipulation was to see whether highlighting the gender information of an antecedent with a human picture would make a difference. The results indicate that such manipulation did make a difference. Since oral Chinese does not distinguish 'he' and 'she', the findings suggest that Chinese speakers probably do not usually process biological gender for linguistic purposes and the mixed use of 'he' and 'she' is probably a result of deficient processing of gender information in the conceptualizer. Theoretical and pedagogical implications are discussed.

Effects of note-taking on the accuracy and fluency of consecutive interpreters' immediate free recall of source texts: A three-stage developmental study.

Note-taking for consecutive interpreting (CI) is a special type of note-taking in that selective notes are taken in a highly multi-tasking condition under time pressure during a CI speech segment but are used to enable a complete recall of the source speech immediately. Given the specialty of interpreters' note-taking, it is still unclear in what ways note-taking affects interpreters' memory performance. Moreover, the effect of note-taking is theoretically assumed to depend on interpreting expertise, which has not been substantiated by empirical research. This study addresses these questions by investigating the effect of note-taking on the accuracy and fluency of interpreters' memory of the source text at different training stages. An oral recall experiment was administered to student interpreters at three critical note-taking training stages: the initial stage (with one-month training in note-taking), after the critical development stage (with six-month training in note-taking), and the advanced stage (with two-year training in note-taking), with a sample size of 53, 53 and 35 at each stage respectively. Participants listened to and immediately recalled speech segments consecutively in two note-taking conditions: with and without note-taking. Recall accuracy was measured by completeness of information recalled, and recall fluency was measured by oral fluency during recall. Results showed that note-taking significantly enhanced both accuracy and fluency of interpreters' recall of the source text at all the three stages, revealing a facilitative effect of note-taking on source text memory. The size of the note-taking effect increased as interpreting training experience accumulated, indicating that interpreting training enhanced the facilitative role of note-taking. However, the developmental trajectories of the note-taking effect on recall accuracy and fluency differed. As interpreting training proceeded, the note-taking effect on recall fluency was first improved (from Stage 1 to Stage 2), and later was the note-taking effect on recall accuracy (from Stage 1 to Stage 3). The findings shed light on the cognitive mechanisms of how note-taking functions for consecutive interpreters. A potential practical implication for interpreter training is that a step-by-step note-taking training approach may be beneficial.

Speech errors in consecutive interpreting: Effects of language proficiency, working memory, and anxiety.

Interpreting can be seen as a form of language production, where interpreters extract conceptual information from the source language and express it in the target language. Hence, like language production, interpreting contains speech errors at various (e.g., conceptual, syntactic, lexical and phonological) levels. The current study delved into the impact of language proficiency, working memory, and anxiety on the occurrence of speech errors across these linguistic strata during consecutive interpreting from English (a second language) into Chinese (a first language) by student interpreters. We showed that speech errors in general decreased as a function of the interpreter's proficiency in the source (second) language and increased as a function of the interpreter's anxiety. Conceptual errors, which result from mistaken comprehension of the source language, decreased as a function of language proficiency and working memory. Lexical errors increased as a function of the interpreter's tendency of anxiety. Syntactic errors also decreased as a function of language proficiency and increased as a function of anxiety. Phonological errors were not sensitive to any of the three cognitive traits. We discussed implications for the cognitive processes underlying interpreting and for interpreting training.

Neural correlates of contributions of interpreting training to second language semantic integration.

How interpreting training may enhance semantic integration in general language processing (instead of language processing during interpreting) was not clear, and its neural correlates remained unexplored. Two groups of university students with different amounts of interpreting training experience (more-IE and less-IE) performed a second language (L2) reading task, in which the target sentence ended with three types of lateralized words: expected words, words of related semantic violation (related violation), and words of unrelated semantic violation (unrelated violation). N400 responses elicited by the final words were used to index semantic integration. Two major findings suggested potential contributions of interpreting training to L2 semantic integration. First, the more-IE group exhibited smaller N400 amplitudes than the less-IE group for expected words, and no group differences were obtained for the two violations. Second, N400 amplitudes for related violations were generally smaller than those for unrelated violations in the right visual field, and this difference was more fully captured (more broadly distributed over the scalp) in the more-IE group than in the less-IE group. Therefore, smaller N400 amplitudes for expected words but not for violations, and broader scalp distribution of the differences between related and unrelated violations constitute the neural correlates for the potential contributions of interpreting training to general L2 semantic integration. The results also suggest possible connections between different types of language experience.

The influences of ambient fine particulate matter constituents on plasma hormones, circulating TMAO levels and blood pressure: A panel study in China.

Considerable investigations have been carried out to address the relationship between ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and blood pressure (BP) in patients with hypertension. However, few studies have explored the influence of PM2.5 and its constituents on Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), an established risk factor for hypertension and cardiovascular disease (CVD), particularly in severely air-polluted areas. To explore the potential impact of PM2.5 constituents on BP, plasma hormones, and TMAO, a panel study was conducted to investigate changes in BP, plasma hormones, and TMAO in response to ambient air pollution exposure in stage 1 hypertensive young adults. Linear mixed effect models were used to estimate the cumulative effects of fine particulate matters (PM2.5) and its constituents on BP, plasma hormones and TMAO. We found that one interquartile range (IQR) (35 µg/m3) increase in 0-1 day moving-average PM2.5 concentrations was statistically significantly associated with elevated systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and mean arterial pressure (MAP) with estimated values of 0.13 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.03 to 0.23) mmHg, 0.18 (95% CI: 0.08 to 0.28) mmHg, and 0.17 (95% CI: 0.09 to 0.26) mmHg, respectively. Hormone disturbance in the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system was also associated with PM2.5 exposure. Elevated TMAO levels with an IQR increase for 0-4, 0-5, 0-6 moving-average concentrations of PM2.5 were found, and the increased values ranged from 26.28 (95% CI: 2.92 to 49.64) to 60.78 (31.95-89.61) ng/ml. More importantly, the PM2.5-bound metal constituents, such as manganese (Mn), titanium (Ti), and selenium (Se) showed robust associations with elevated BP and plasma TMAO levels. This study demonstrates associations between PM2.5 metal constituents and increased BP, changes in plasma hormones and TMAO, in stage 1 hypertensive young adults. Source control, aiming to reduce the emission of PM2.5-bound metals should be implemented to reduce the risk of hypertension and CVD.

[Microscopic identification and UV-Vis spectrum identification on Sapium sebiferum].

OBJECTIVE: To study the microscopic and UV-Vis spectrum characteristic of Sapium sebiferum. METHODS: The microscopic identification and UV-Vis spectrum identification were adopted. RESULTS: There were cluster crystals in cortical cells of roots and stems and parenchyma cells of the leaves. A few stone cells were found in cortex of the stem. The vascular bundles arranged in the form of a circle in the main vein of the leaves. It could be observed that many crystals and crystal fibers in the powder. Six kinds of solvent of crude drug had absorption peaks between 200 - 800 nm. CONCLUSION: These results can provide the scientific evidence for the establishment of standard for quality control and further study.

Cross-script phonological activation in Chinese-English bilinguals: The effect of SOA from masked priming.

The issue of bilingual phonological access remains unclear for bilinguals with cross-script language systems, which is especially true when the time course of phonological activation is involved. To investigate the time course of cross-script phonological activation, the present study asked Chinese-English bilinguals to complete a word naming task that was conducted in a forward-masked phonological priming paradigm in three stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) conditions. By comparing the interlingual and intralingual phonological priming effects in a within-subjects design, we found that (a) target naming in Chinese and English was facilitated by a phonologically similar English or Chinese prime in the three SOA conditions (43 ms, 75 ms, and 150 ms) and the facilitation effect of the prime reached the peak when the pronunciation of the prime-target pair most resembled each other and (b) manipulation of the SOAs affected both the naming latencies of target words and the sizes of the phonological priming effect. In particular, naming latencies in each prime-target type displayed an increasing tendency as the SOA prolonged. Moreover, despite the varied sizes of the priming effect in the three SOA conditions, we found a consistent pattern that the priming effects in two interlingual conditions resembled their respective intralingual conditions along the time course. Taken together, these findings provide strong support for an integrated phonological representation of bilinguals and further extend the language nonselective access hypothesis to language pairs with very different orthographic systems. Implications for the manipulation of the SOAs in the masked priming paradigm are also discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

A Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube/Covalent Organic Framework Nanocomposite Ultrathin Membrane with High Organic Solvent Resistance for Molecule Separation.

Covalent organic framework (COF)-based membranes are burgeoning candidates for separation technologies owing to their well-ordered channel structures. The exponential interest in the stability of the COF membrane on exposure to harsh organic solvents is directed to develop a composite membrane for dye separations in polar aprotic solvents. Here, we reported a nanocomposite membrane composing of a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT)/COF (an imine-based COF) hybrid on a commercial polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) substrate, with a thickness of ∼58 nm prepared in a diffusion cell. This membrane displayed high permeability and stability toward nonpolar and aprotic solvents. It exhibited high permeability for lower viscous organic solvents such as hexane (66 L m-2 h-1 bar-1), acetone (60 L m-2 h-1 bar-1), and acetonitrile (59 L m-2 h-1 bar-1) with a desirable dye rejection (92.8% for Brilliant blue in acetone). The long-time operation demonstrated the excellent stability of the nanocomposite membrane. We herein reported a facile and mild method to prepare an ultrathin COF-based nanocomposite membrane with a porous, robust structure coupled with solvent durability capable of efficient dye separation.

A Dy2 dimer derived from a two-dimensional network with a high Ueff value.

A new Dy2-dimer-based two-dimensional network Dy(L)(HL)(phen) (1-Dy) has been synthesized by a hydrothermal method. 1-Dy displays an obvious single-molecule magnet (SMM) behavior with a high Ueff value of approximately 160 K under a zero dc field.

How Does Consecutive Interpreting Training Influence Working Memory: A Longitudinal Study of Potential Links Between the Two.

With an intention to contribute to the issue of how language experience may influence working memory (WM), we focused on consecutive interpreting (CI), analyzed its potential links with WM functions and tested these links in a longitudinal experiment, trying to answer the specific question of how CI training may influence WM. Two comparable groups of Chinese learners of English received either CI or general second language (L2) training for one semester, and were tested before and after the training with the tasks of n-back (non-verbal updating), L2 listening span, and letter running span (verbal spans). CI performance was tested in the posttest. The results showed that (1) updating efficiency in both the pretest and posttest predicted CI performance, and CI training enhanced updating efficiency while general L2 training did not; (2) the relationship between verbal spans and CI performance was weaker (i.e., only pretest L2 listening span correlated with CI performance and predicted CI performance with marginal significance), and CI training did not make a unique contribution to these spans (i.e., no group differences). The results indicated an "interpreter advantage" in updating, which was probably due to that updating was more central in the CI task than WM spans. Theoretically, we believe that updating and CI are closely related because they share the same underlying mechanism, or more specifically updating and the recalling process in the CI task share the same attentional control process, a unique link between updating and the CI task. Methodological implications are discussed.