Aesthetic preferences for prototypical movements in human actions.

A commonplace sight is seeing other people walk. Our visual system specializes in processing such actions. Notably, we are not only quick to recognize actions, but also quick to judge how elegantly (or not) people walk. What movements appear appealing, and why do we have such aesthetic experiences? Do aesthetic preferences for body movements arise simply from perceiving others' positive emotions? To answer these questions, we showed observers different point-light walkers who expressed neutral, happy, angry, or sad emotions through their movements and measured the observers' impressions of aesthetic appeal, emotion positivity, and naturalness of these movements. Three experiments were conducted. People showed consensus in aesthetic impressions even after controlling for emotion positivity, finding prototypical walks more aesthetically pleasing than atypical walks. This aesthetic prototype effect could be accounted for by a computational model in which walking actions are treated as a single category (as opposed to multiple emotion categories). The aesthetic impressions were affected both directly by the objective prototypicality of the movements, and indirectly through the mediation of perceived naturalness. These findings extend the boundary of category learning, and hint at possible functions for action aesthetics.

Contributions of early and mid-level visual cortex to high-level object categorization.

The complexity of visual features for which neurons are tuned increases from early to late stages of the ventral visual stream. Thus, the standard hypothesis is that high-level functions like object categorization are primarily mediated by higher visual areas because they require more complex image formats that are not evident in early visual processing stages. However, human observers can categorize images as objects or animals or as big or small even when the images preserve only some low- and mid-level features but are rendered unidentifiable ('texforms', Long et al., 2018). This observation suggests that even the early visual cortex, in which neurons respond to simple stimulus features, may already encode signals about these more abstract high-level categorical distinctions. We tested this hypothesis by recording from populations of neurons in early and mid-level visual cortical areas while rhesus monkeys viewed texforms and their unaltered source stimuli (simultaneous recordings from areas V1 and V4 in one animal and separate recordings from V1 and V4 in two others). Using recordings from a few dozen neurons, we could decode the real-world size and animacy of both unaltered images and texforms. Furthermore, this neural decoding accuracy across stimuli was related to the ability of human observers to categorize texforms by real-world size and animacy. Our results demonstrate that neuronal populations early in the visual hierarchy contain signals useful for higher-level object perception and suggest that the responses of early visual areas to simple stimulus features display preliminary untangling of higher-level distinctions.

Near-Infrared Phototheranostic Iron Pyrite Nanocrystals Simultaneously Induce Dual Cell Death Pathways via Enhanced Fenton Reactions in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is considered more aggressive with a poorer prognosis than other breast cancer subtypes. Through systemic bioinformatic analyses, we established the ferroptosis potential index (FPI) based on the expression profile of ferroptosis regulatory genes and found that TNBC has a higher FPI than non-TNBC in human BC cell lines and tumor tissues. To exploit this finding for potential patient stratification, we developed biologically amenable phototheranostic iron pyrite FeS2 nanocrystals (NCs) that efficiently harness near-infrared (NIR) light, as in photovoltaics, for multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) and photothermal ablation with a high photothermal conversion efficiency (PCE) of 63.1%. Upon NIR irradiation that thermodynamically enhances Fenton reactions, dual death pathways of apoptosis and ferroptosis are simultaneously triggered in TNBC cells, comprehensively limiting primary and metastatic TNBC by regulating p53, FoxO, and HIF-1 signaling pathways and attenuating a series of metabolic processes, including glutathione and amino acids. As a unitary phototheranostic agent with a safe toxicological profile, the nanocrystal represents an effective way to circumvent the lack of therapeutic targets and the propensity of multisite metastatic progression in TNBC in a streamlined workflow of cancer management with an integrated image-guided intervention.

Association of hepatitis C virus infection status and genotype with kidney disease risk: A population-based cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Whether there is difference in kidney disease risk between chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and resolved HCV infection remains inconclusive. Additionally, the impact of different HCV genotypes on kidney disease risk is relatively unknown. Accordingly, we conducted a population-based cross-sectional study to investigate the association of HCV infection status and genotype on kidney disease risk. METHODS: The study population were adult participants of 1999-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in the United States. Chronic and resolved infection were defined as HCV seropositivity with and without detectable HCV RNA, respectively. HCV genotypes were classified into genotype 1, genotype 2, and other genotypes. Prevalent estimated glomerular filtration rate < 60 ml/min/1.73 m2 or urinary albumin creatinine ratio ≥ 30 mg/g was defined as kidney disease. RESULTS: The average age of study population (n = 44,998) was 46.7±17.0 years with 49.8% being males. Compared with individuals without HCV infection (n = 44,157), those with resolved (n = 255) or chronic HCV infection (n = 586) had higher prevalence of kidney disease: 14.8%, 23.5%, and 20.1%, respectively (p<0.001). After adjusting for potential confounders, we found that both resolved (adjusted OR: 1.40, 95% CI: 1.02-1.93) and chronic HCV infection (adjusted OR: 1.26, 95% CI: 1.01-1.57) correlated to increased kidney disease risk compared with no HCV infection. Additionally, individuals with HCV genotype 1 (adjusted OR: 1.41, 95% CI: 1.09-1.82) but not genotype 2 or other genotypes had greater kidney disease risk compared with no HCV infection. Furthermore, we observed that genotype 1 had 2-fold higher kidney disease risk (adjusted OR: 2.20, 95% CI: 1.07-4.53) compared with non-genotype 1 HCV infection. CONCLUSION: Both resolved and chronic HCV infection, particularly genotype 1, were associated with higher kidney disease risk.

Studies of high-membered two-dimensional Ruddlesden-Popper Cs7Pb6I19 perovskite nanosheets via kinetically controlled reactions.

Two-dimensional (2D) all-inorganic Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) perovskite Cs7Pb6I19 nanosheets (NSs) were successfully developed for the first time by employing a structural recrystallization process with additional passivation of small organic sulfide molecules. The structure of Cs7Pb6I19 NSs is confirmed by powder X-ray diffraction measurements, atomically-resolved STEM measurements and atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies. Cs7Pb6I19 NSs with a specific n value of 6 exhibits unique absorption and emission spectra with intense excitons at 560 nm due to quantum confinement effects in 2D perovskite slabs. The formation mechanisms of 2D Cs7Pb6I19 NSs and 3D γ-CsPbI3 phases were investigated by in situ photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and the activation energies of their formation reactions were calculated to be 151 kJ mol-1 and 95.3 kJ mol-1, respectively. The phase stability of 2D Cs7Pb6I19 NSs can be maintained at temperatures below 14 °C for more than 4 weeks. The overall results indicate that 2D Cs7Pb6I19 NSs demonstrate unique optical properties and structural stability compared with other 3D perovskite materials. We have opened a new path to the future discovery of 2D perovskite structures with metastable phases by using this recrystallization method and the assistance of sulfur-derived organic molecules.

Serious bacterial infections in young children with fever without source after discharge from emergency department: A National Health Insurance database cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Well-appearing febrile young children discharged from the emergency department (ED) after medical assessment are still at risk for serious bacterial infections (SBI). The incidence of SBI and the effectiveness of laboratory tests in the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine era remain unknown. METHODS: We conducted a study using Taiwan's National Health Insurance claims data from 2004 to 2014. Children aged 2-24 months discharged from the ED with a diagnosis compatible with fever without source (FWS) were enrolled. RESULTS: The study identified 431,884 children from the ED with FWS. 13.53% of the children had revisits, 8.62% needed hospitalization and 1.57% developed SBI. Younger children had a higher SBI rate, but a lower revisit rate. The revisit rate was 12.22% for children aged 2-6 months, 13.61% for children aged 7-12 months and 13.77% for children aged 13-24 months (p < 0.0001). The SBI rate was 4.44% for children aged 2-6 months, 1.85% for children aged 2-6 months and 0.96% for children aged 13-24 months (p < 0.0001). Children with hemogram tests, compared to those without, had a higher revisit rate (16.30% vs. 13.15%, p < 0.0001), and a higher SBI rate in the children aged 13-24 months (1.30% vs. 0.92%, p < 0.0001); furthermore, children with urinalysis had a significantly higher revisit rate (14.42% vs. 13.24%, p < 0.0001) and higher SBI rate (2.10% vs. 1.40%, p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Children with FWS aged 2-24 months who were discharged from ED after blood test and urinalysis were still at risk for SBI, especially those aged 2-6 months.

Accelerated Formation of 2D Ruddlesden-Popper Perovskite Thin Films by Lewis Bases for High Efficiency Solar Cell Applications.

Various types of 2D organic-inorganic perovskite solar cells have been developed and investigated due to better electron transport behavior and environmental stability. Controlling the formation of phases in the 2D perovskite films has been considered to play an important role in influencing the stability of perovskite materials and their performance in optoelectronic applications. In this work, Lewis base urea was used as an effective additive for the formation of 2D Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) perovskite (BA)2(MA)n-1PbnI3n+1 thin film with mixed phases (n = 2~4). The detailed structural morphology of the 2D perovskite thin film was investigated by in situ X-ray diffraction (XRD), grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) and photoluminescence mapping. The results indicated that the urea additive could facilitate the formation of 2D RP perovskite thin film with larger grain size and high crystallinity. The 2D RP perovskite thin films for solar cells exhibited a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 7.9% under AM 1.5G illumination at 100 mW/cm2.

Development of a nested PCR assay for detecting Colletotrichum siamense and Colletotrichum fructicola on symptomless strawberry plants.

Anthracnose is a major disease of strawberry that seriously impacts the strawberry industry. To prevent the spread of anthracnose through symptomless plants, it is important to detect pathogenic Colletotrichum spp. at the latent infection stage in the nursery. Previous PCR-based methods developed for the diagnosis or detection of Colletotrichum acutatum and Colletotrichum gloeosporioides have used primers targeting the internal transcribed spacer region of ribosomal DNA, ß-tubulin gene, or mating type gene. In this study, to specifically detect Colletotrichum siamense and Colletotrichum fructicola, the most predominant and virulent Colletotrichum species causing strawberry anthracnose in Taiwan, we conducted a comparative genomics analysis of 29 Colletotrichum spp. and identified a non-conserved 1157-bp intergenic region suitable for designing specific primers for a nested PCR assay. In silico analysis and actual tests suggested that the new nested PCR assay could detect pathogenic C. siamense and C. fructicola, but not other strawberry pathogens (Botrytis sp., Fusarium spp., Neopestalotiopsis rosae, and Phytophthora sp.) or ubiquitous saprophytes (Fusarium spp. and Trichoderma spp.). The inner to outer primer ratio was optimized to 1:10 to eliminate unexpected bands and enhance the signal. The assay could detect as little as 1 pg of C. siamense genomic DNA, which corresponds to ~15 cells. Application of the new detection assay on 747 leaf samples collected from 18 strawberry nurseries in 2019 and 2020 showed that an average of 20% of strawberry mother plants in Taiwan were latently infected by C. siamense or C. fructicola. The newly developed assay is being applied to facilitate the production of healthy strawberry runner plants in Taiwan.

Aesthetic preferences for causality in biological movements arise from visual processes.

"People watching" is a ubiquitous component of human activities. An important aspect of such activities is the aesthetic experience that arises naturally from seeing how elegant people move their bodies in performing different actions. What makes some body movements look better than others? We examine how the human visual system gives rise to aesthetic experience from observing actions, using "creatures" generated by spatially scrambling locations of a point-light walker's joints. Observers rated how aesthetically pleasing and lifelike creatures were when the trajectories of joints were generated either from an upright walker (thus exhibiting gravitational acceleration) or an inverted walker (thus defying gravity), and were either congruent to the direction of global body displacements or incongruent (as in the moonwalk). Observers gave both higher aesthetic and animacy ratings for creatures with upright compared to inverted trajectories, and congruent compared to incongruent movements. Moreover, after controlling for animacy, aesthetic preferences for causally plausible movements (those in accord with gravity and body displacement) persisted. This systematicity in aesthetic impressions, even in the absence of explicit recognition of the moving agents, suggests an important role of automatic perceptual mechanisms in determining aesthetic experiences.

How big should this object be? Perceptual influences on viewing-size preferences.

When viewing objects depicted in a frame, observers prefer to view large objects like cars in larger sizes and smaller objects like cups in smaller sizes. That is, the visual size of an object that "looks best" is linked to its typical physical size in the world. Why is this the case? One intuitive possibility is that these preferences are driven by semantic knowledge: For example, when we recognize a sofa, we access our knowledge about its real-world size, and this influences what size we prefer to view the sofa within a frame. However, might visual processing play a role in this phenomenon-that is, do visual features that are related to big and small objects look better at big and small visual sizes, respectively, even when observers do not have explicit access to semantic knowledge about the objects? To test this possibility, we used "texform" images, which are synthesized versions of recognizable objects, which critically retain local perceptual texture and coarse contour information, but are no longer explicitly recognizable. To test for visual size preferences, we first used a size adjustment task, and the results were equivocal. However, clear results were obtained using a two-interval forced choice task, in which each texform was presented at the preferred visual size of its corresponding original image, and a visual size slightly bigger or smaller. Observers consistently selected the texform presented at the canonical visual size as the more aesthetically pleasing one. An additional control experiment ruled out alternative explanations related to size priming effects. These results suggest that the preferred visual size of an object depends not only on explicit knowledge of its real-world size, but also can be evoked by mid-level visual features that systematically covary with an object's real-world size.

"Taste typicality" is a foundational and multi-modal dimension of ordinary aesthetic experience.

Aesthetic experience seems both regular and idiosyncratic. On one hand, there are powerful regularities in what we tend to find attractive versus unattractive (e.g., beaches versus mud puddles).1-4 On the other hand, our tastes also vary dramatically from person to person:5-8 what one of us finds beautiful, another might find distasteful. What is the nature of such differences? They may in part be arbitrary-e.g., reflecting specific past judgments (such as liking red towels over blue ones because they were once cheaper). However, they may also in part be systematic-reflecting deeper differences in perception and/or cognition. We assessed the systematicity of aesthetic taste by exploring its typicality for the first time across seeing and hearing. Observers rated the aesthetic appeal of ordinary scenes and objects (e.g., beaches, buildings, and books) and environmental sounds (e.g., doorbells, dripping, and dialtones). We then measured "taste typicality" (separately for each modality) in terms of the similarity between each individual's aesthetic preferences and the population's average. The data revealed two primary patterns. First, taste typicality was not arbitrary but rather was correlated to a moderate degree across seeing and hearing: people who have typical taste for images also tend to have typical taste for sounds. Second, taste typicality captured most of the explainable variance in people's impressions, showing that it is the primary dimension along which aesthetic tastes systematically vary.

Facile Fabrication of Highly Stable and Wavelength-Tunable Tin Based Perovskite Materials with Enhanced Quantum Yield via the Cation Transformation Reaction.

Metal halide perovskites have attracted great attention for their superior light energy conversion applications. Herein, we demonstrated a facile synthesis of zero-dimensional Sn2+ perovskite Cs4-xMxSnBr6(M = K+ and Rb+) material through the cation transformation reaction at room temperature. Cs4SnBr6 NCs was mixed with pure metal bromide salts (KBr and RbBr) via the mechanochemical process to successfully synthesize Cs4-xMxSnBr6 perovskite where transformation of Cs to mixed Cs/Rb and mixed Cs/K was achieved. By substituting different cations, the bright fluorescence of the Cs4-xMxSnBr6 was tuned from dim green to greenish-cyan while achieving the photoluminescence (PL) quantum yield of ∼39%. The crystal structure of Sn based perovskite with the substitution of K+ or Rb+ cations was determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD). Moreover, the Cs4-xMxSnBr6 demonstrated superior air stability and exhibited a better photocatalytic activity for CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) with high selectivity of CH4 gas with a higher yield rate compared to the pristine Cs4SnBr6 NCs.

Electrocatalytic Reduction of NO3- to Ultrapure Ammonia on {200} Facet Dominant Cu Nanodendrites with High Conversion Faradaic Efficiency.

Nitrate (NO3-) reduction reaction (NtRR) is considered as a green alternative method for the conventional method of NH3 synthesis (Haber-Bosch process), which is known as a high energy consuming and large CO2 emitting process. Herein, the copper nanodendrites (Cu NDs) grown along with the {200} facet as an efficient NtRR catalyst have been successfully fabricated and investigated. It exhibited high Faradaic efficiency of 97% at low potential (-0.3 V vs RHE). Furthermore, the 15NO3- isotope labeling method was utilized to confirm the formation of NH3. Both experimental and theoretical studies showed that NtRR on the Cu metal nanostructure is a facet dependent process. Dissociation of NO bonding is supposed to be the rate-determining step as NtRR is a spontaneously reductive and protonation process for all the different facets of Cu. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations revealed that Cu{200} and Cu{220} offer lower activation energy for dissociation of NO compared to that of Cu{111}.

Timing of Bisphosphonate (Alendronate) Initiation after Surgery for Fragility Fracture: A Population-Based Cohort Study.

Bisphosphonates are used as first-line treatment for the prevention of fragility fracture (FF); they act by inhibiting osteoclast-mediated bone resorption. The timing of their administration after FF surgery is controversial; thus, we compared the incidence of second FF, surgery for second FF, and adverse events associated with early initiation of bisphosphonates (EIBP, within 3 months of FF surgery) and late initiation of bisphosphonates (LIBP, 3 months after FF surgery) in bisphosphonate-naïve patients. This retrospective population-based cohort study used data from Taiwan's Health and Welfare Data Science Center (2004-2012). A total of 298,377 patients received surgeries for FF between 2006 and 2010; of them, 1209 (937 EIBP and 272 LIBP) received first-time bisphosphonates (oral alendronate, 70 mg, once a week). The incidence of second FF (subdistribution hazard ratio (SHR) = 0.509; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.352-0.735), second FF surgery (SHR = 0.452; 95% CI: 0.268-0.763), and adverse events (SHR = 0.728; 95% CI: 0.594-0.893) was significantly lower in the EIBP group than in the LIBP group. Our findings indicate that bisphosphonates should be initiated within 3 months after surgery for FF.

Marker-Assisted Development and Evaluation of Monogenic Lines of Rice cv. Kaohsiung 145 Carrying Blast Resistance Genes.

Rice blast is a serious threat to global rice production. Large-scale and long-term cultivation of rice varieties with a single blast resistance gene usually leads to breakdown of resistance. To effectively control rice blast in Taiwan, marker-assisted backcrossing was conducted to develop monogenic lines carrying different blast resistance genes in the genetic background of an elite japonica rice cultivar, Kaohsiung 145 (KH145). Eleven International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)-bred blast-resistant lines (IRBLs) showing broad-spectrum resistance to local Pyricularia oryzae isolates were used as resistance donors. Sequencing analysis revealed that the recurrent parent, KH145, does not carry known resistance alleles at the target Pi2/9, Pik, Pita, and Ptr loci. For each IRBL × KH145 cross, we screened 21 to 370 (average of 108) plants per generation from the BC1F1 to BC3F1/BC4F1 generation. A total of 1,499 BC3F2/BC4F2 lines carrying homozygous resistance alleles were selected and self-crossed for four to six successive generations. The derived lines were also evaluated for background genotype using genotyping by sequencing, for blast resistance under artificial inoculation and natural infection conditions, and for agronomic performance in multiple field trials. In Chiayi and Taitung blast nurseries in 2018 to 2020, Pi2, Pi9, and Ptr conferred high resistance, Pi20 and Pik-h moderate resistance, and Pi1, Pi7, Pik-p, and Pik susceptibility to leaf blast; only Pi2, Pi9, and Ptr conferred effective resistance against panicle blast. The monogenic lines showed agronomic traits, yield, and grain quality similar to those of KH145, suggesting the potential of growing a mixture of lines to achieve durable resistance in the field.

The center cannot hold: Variations of frame width help to explain the "inward bias" in aesthetic preferences.

Although most visual aesthetic preferences are likely driven by a mix of personal, historical, and cultural factors, there are exceptions: some may be driven by adaptive mechanisms of visual processing, and so may be relatively consistent across people, contexts, and time. An especially powerful example is the "inward bias": when a framed image contains a figure (e.g., a face in profile), people prefer arrangements in which the figure faces inward. Although the inward bias has been studied in many contexts, its underlying nature remains unclear. It may be a function of an image's center (as in the "affordance-space" account, in which people prefer to center the implied functional extensions of objects), or it may be a function of the frame's borders (as in the "looking-into-the-future" account, in which people dislike perspectives on scenes that won't allow them to witness predicted future actions). Here we directly contrast these possibilities using a simple novel manipulation. Observers placed a face (in profile) in a frame to maximize the image's aesthetic appeal, and across observers we varied the frame's aspect ratio. We observed a powerful inward bias, and across frame widths observers preferred an approximately constant positive ratio of space in front versus behind the face. This suggests that the inward bias is driven primarily not by the image's center, but by the frame's borders - and it is consistent with the possibility that certain regions of empty space are prioritized because they are where future actions are predicted to occur.

Gaze deflection reveals how gaze cueing is tuned to extract the mind behind the eyes.

Suppose you are surreptitiously looking at someone, and then when they catch you staring at them, you immediately turn away. This is a social phenomenon that almost everyone experiences occasionally. In such experiences-which we will call gaze deflection-the "deflected" gaze is not directed at anything in particular but simply away from the other person. As such, this is a rare instance where we may turn to look in a direction without intending to look there specifically. Here we show that gaze cues are markedly less effective at orienting an observer's attention when they are seen as deflected in this way-even controlling for low-level visual properties. We conclude that gaze cueing is a sophisticated mental phenomenon: It is not merely driven by perceived eye or head motions but is rather well tuned to extract the "mind" behind the eyes.