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This study evaluates the representation of tropical cyclone precipitation (TCP) in reforecasts from the Subseasonal to Seasonal (S2S) Prediction Project. The global distribution of precipitation in S2S models shows relevant biases in the multimodel mean ensemble that are characterized by wet biases in total precipitation and TCP, except for the Atlantic. The TCP biases can contribute more than 50% of the total precipitation biases in basins such as the southern Indian Ocean and South Pacific. The magnitude and spatial pattern of these biases exhibit little variation with lead time. The origins of TCP biases can be attributed to biases in the frequency of tropical cyclone occurrence. The S2S models simulate too few TCs in the Atlantic and western North Pacific and too many TCs in the Southern Hemisphere and eastern North Pacific. At the storm scale, the average peak precipitation near the storm center is lower in the models than observations due to a too high proportion of weak TCs. However, this bias is offset in some models by higher than observed precipitation rates at larger radii (300–500 km). An analysis of the mean TCP for each TC at each grid point reveals an overestimation of TCP rates, particularly in the near-equatorial Indian and western Pacific Oceans. These findings suggest that the simulation of TC occurrence and the storm-scale precipitation require better representation in order to reduce TCP biases and enhance the subseasonal prediction skill of mean and extreme total precipitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liposomes have been used to improve therapeutic efficacy of drugs by increasing their bioavailability and altering biodistribution. The loading capacity of small molecules in liposomes remains a critical issue. Besides, the manufacturing process of liposomes requires multi-step procedures which hinders the clinical development. In this study, we developed a promising lipid-based nanocarriers (LN) delivery system for hydrophilic charged compounds using doxycycline (Doxy) as a model drug. This Doxy-loaded lipid nanocarrier (LN-Doxy) was fabricated by microfluidic technology. Design of experiments (DoE) was constructed to outline the interactions among the critical attributes of formulation, the parameters of microfluidic systems and excipient compositions. Response surface methodology (RSM) was furthered used for the optimization of LN-Doxy formulation. The LN-Doxy developed in this study showed high drug to lipid ratio and uniform distribution of particle size. Compared to Doxy solution, this LN-Doxy has reduced in vitro cellular toxicity and significant therapeutic efficacy which was verified in a peritonitis animal model. These results show the feasibility of using microfluidic technology combined with QbD approach to develop the LN formulation with high loading efficiency for ionizable hydrophilic drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior studies involving adults have shown that words can elicit emotional processing, with emotion-label (e.g., happiness) and emotion-laden words (e.g., gift) having distinct processes. However, limited studies have explored the developmental changes in these processes in relation to emotional valence. To address this question, this exploratory study measured event-related potentials (ERPs) in 11–14-year-old children/adolescents (N = 25) and adults (N = 23) while performing an emotional categorization task. The stimuli used were two-character Chinese words, with factors for word type (emotion-label versus emotion-laden) and valence (positive versus negative). To confirm word emotionality, neutral words were also included and compared with all emotional words. The results showed that adults exhibited reduced N400 amplitudes to emotion-label words compared to emotion-laden ones in both positive and negative valence contexts. The differentiation was only sustained for negative valence in the late positive component (LPC). Similar scalp distributions of the effects of word type were found in children/adolescents; however, they exhibited a more prolonged processing of all emotional words than adults. These results suggest that the processing of emotion-label and emotion-laden words are distinct in late childhood, and this discrepancy varies with emotional valence and increasing age. • Emotion-label and emotion-laden words are differently processed in late childhood. • The process of negative words is more modulated by word type than positive words. • Children/adolescents have a more prolonged process of emotional words than adults. • The processing of negative words is less frontalized in the N400 in late childhood than in adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we present a machine learning–based wind reconstruction model. The model reconstructs hurricane surface winds with XGBoost, which is a decision-tree-based ensemble predictive algorithm. The model treats the symmetric and asymmetric wind fields separately. The symmetric wind field is approximated by a parametric wind profile model and two Bessel function series. The asymmetric field, accounting for asymmetries induced by the storm and its ambient environment, is represented using a small number of Laplacian eigenfunctions. The coefficients associated with Bessel functions and eigenfunctions are predicted by XGBoost based on storm and environmental features taken from NHC best-track and ERA-Interim data, respectively. We use HWIND for the observed wind fields. Three parametric wind profile models are tested in the symmetric wind model. The wind reconstruction model's performance is insensitive to the choice of the profile model because the Bessel function series correct biases of the parametric profiles. The mean square error of the reconstructed surface winds is smaller than the climatological variance, indicating skillful reconstruction. Storm center location, eyewall size, and translation speed play important roles in controlling the magnitude of the leading asymmetries, while the phase of the asymmetries is mainly affected by storm translation direction. Vertical wind shear impacts the asymmetry phase to a lesser degree. Intended applications of this model include assessing hurricane risk using synthetic storm event sets generated by statistical–dynamical downscaling hurricane models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a new storm surge hazard potential index (SSHPI) for estimating tropical cyclone (TC) induced peak surge levels at a coast. The SSHPI incorporates parameters that are often readily available at real-time: intensity in 10-min maximum wind speed, radius of 50-kt wind, translation speed, coastal geometry, and bathymetry information. The inclusion of translation speed and coastal geometry information lead to improvements of the SSHPI to other existing surge indices. A retrospective analysis of SSHPI using data from 1978–2019 in Japan suggests that this index captures historical events reasonably well. In particular, it explains ~ 66% of the observed variance and ~ 74% for those induced by TCs whose landfall intensity was larger than 79-kt. The performance of SSHPI is not sensitive to the type of coastal geometry (open coasts or semi-enclosed bays). Such a prediction methodology can decrease numerical computation requirements, improve public awareness of surge hazards, and may also be useful for communicating surge risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across languages, age of acquisition (AoA) is a critical psycholinguistic factor in lexical processing, reflecting the influence of learning experience. Early-acquired words tend to be processed more quickly and accurately than late-acquired words. Recently, an integrated view proposed that both the mappings between representations and the construction of semantic representations contribute to AoA effects, thus, predicting larger AoA effects for words with arbitrary mappings between representations as well as for tasks requiring greater semantic processing. We investigated how these predictions generalize to the Chinese language system that differs from alphabetic languages regarding the ease of mappings and semantic involvement in lexical processing. A cross-task investigation of differential psycholinguistic effects was conducted with large character naming and lexical decision datasets to establish the extent to which semantics is involved in the two tasks. We focused on examining the effect sizes of lexical-semantic variables and AoA, and the interaction between AoA and consistency. The results demonstrated that semantics influenced Chinese character naming more than lexical decision, which is in contrast with the findings related to English language, though, critically, AoA effects were more pronounced for character naming than for lexical decision. Additionally, an interaction between AoA and consistency was found in character naming. Our findings provide cross-linguistic evidence supporting the view of multiple origins of AoA effects in the language-processing system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tropical cyclone (TC) activity is examined using the Columbia Hazard model (CHAZ), a statistical–dynamical downscaling system, with environmental conditions taken from simulations from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) for both the historical period and a future scenario under the representative concentration pathway 8.5. Projections of individual global and basin TC frequency depend sensitively on the choice of moisture variable used in the tropical genesis cyclone index (TCGI) component of CHAZ. Simulations using column relative humidity show an increasing trend in the future, while those using saturation deficit show a decreasing trend, although both give similar results in the historical period. While the projected annual TC frequency is also sensitive to the choice of model used to provide the environmental conditions, the choice of humidity variable in the TCGI is more important. Changes in TC frequency directly affect the projected TCs' tracks and the frequencies of strong storms on both basin and regional scales. This leads to large uncertainty in assessing regional and local storm hazards. The uncertainty here is fundamental and epistemic in nature. Increases in the fraction of major TCs, rapid intensification rate, and decreases in forward speed are insensitive to TC frequency, however. The present results are also consistent with prior studies in indicating that those TC events that do occur will, on average, be more destructive in the future because of the robustly projected increases in intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Probabilistic tropical cyclone (TC) occurrence, at lead times of week 1–4, in the Subseasonal to Seasonal (S2S) dataset are examined here. Forecasts are defined over 15° in latitude × 20° in longitude regions, and the prediction skill is measured using the Brier skill score with reference to climatological reference forecasts. Two types of reference forecasts are used: a seasonally constant one and a seasonally varying one, with the latter used for forecasts of anomalies from the seasonal climatology. Models from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), Australian Bureau of Meteorology, and Météo-France/Centre National de Recherche Météorologiques have skill in predicting TC occurrence four weeks in advance. In contrast, only the ECMWF model is skillful in predicting the anomaly of TC occurrence beyond one week. Errors in genesis prediction largely limit models' skill in predicting TC occurrence. Three calibration techniques, removing the mean genesis and occurrence forecast biases, and a linear regression method, are explored here. The linear regression method performs the best and guarantees a higher skill score when applied to the in-sample dataset. However, when applied to the out-of-sample data, especially in areas where the TC sample size is small, it may reduce the models' prediction skill. Generally speaking, the S2S models are more skillful in predicting TC occurrence during favorable Madden–Julian oscillation phases. Last, we also report accumulated cyclone energy predictions skill using the ranked probability skill score. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mismatch negativity (MMN) is an event-related potential component used to index automatic auditory change detection. Thus, MMN provides an excellent tool to assess the speech sensitivity of infants and children. Although MMN is well established in adults, the polarity and latency of mismatch responses (MMRs) in infants are highly inconsistent across studies. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of MMN studies of speech perception in early infancy. In particular, data from a series of MMN studies of Mandarin lexical tone, vowels, and initial consonants will be presented to demonstrate how phonological saliency, size of deviance, and neural maturation modulate MMRs in early infancy. These data suggest that MMN and positive MMRs index different functional characteristics and may provide information on when and how children's speech perception becomes automatic at different developmental stages. By using MMN to index sensitivity to speech discrimination, dyslexic children usually show reduced or absent MMN, which supports the relationship between phonological sensitivity and literacy. However, children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder showed the typical MMN, but attenuated P3a and enhanced late discriminative negativity. Taken together, the MMR characteristics, including amplitude, peak latency, and the transition of polarity, may be used to index the maturation of speech development and for the early identification of children with atypical language development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hazard to the city of Mumbai, India, from a possible severe tropical cyclone under the recent historical climate is considered. The authors first determine, based on a review of primary sources, that the Bombay Cyclone of 1882, documented in a number of print and Internet sources and claimed to have caused 100 000 or more deaths, did not occur. Two different tropical cyclone hazard models, both of which generate large numbers of synthetic cyclones using environmental data—here taken from reanalyses in the satellite era—as input, are then used to quantify the hazard, in conjunction with historical observations. Both models indicate that a severe cyclone landfall at or near Mumbai is possible, though unlikely in any given year. Return periods for wind speeds exceeding 100 kt (1 kt = 0.5144 m s−1) (the threshold for category 3 in the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale) at Mumbai itself are estimated to be in the range of thousands to greater than 10 000 years, while the return period for a storm with maximum wind speed of 100 kt or greater passing within 150 km of Mumbai (possibly close enough to generate a substantial storm surge at the city) is estimated to be around 500 years. Return periods for winds exceeding 65 kt (hurricane intensity on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale) are estimated to be around 200 years at Mumbai itself, and 50–90 years within 150 km. Climate change is not explicitly considered in this study, but the hazard to the city is likely to be increasing because of sea level rise as well as changes in storm climatology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Words are considered semantically ambiguous if they have more than one meaning and can be used in multiple contexts. A number of recent studies have provided objective ambiguity measures by using a corpus-based approach and have demonstrated ambiguity advantages in both naming and lexical decision tasks. Although the predictive power of objective ambiguity measures has been examined in several alphabetic language systems, the effects in logographic languages remain unclear. Moreover, most ambiguity measures do not explicitly address how the various contexts associated with a given word relate to each other. To explore these issues, we computed the contextual diversity (Adelman, Brown, & Quesada, Psychological Science, 17; 814-823, 2006) and semantic ambiguity (Hoffman, Lambon Ralph, & Rogers, Behavior Research Methods, 45; 718-730, 2013) of traditional Chinese single-character words based on the Academia Sinica Balanced Corpus, where contextual diversity was used to evaluate the present semantic space. We then derived a novel ambiguity measure, namely semantic variability, by computing the distance properties of the distinct clusters grouped by the contexts that contained a given word. We demonstrated that semantic variability was superior to semantic diversity in accounting for the variance in naming response times, suggesting that considering the substructure of the various contexts associated with a given word can provide a relatively fine scale of ambiguity information for a word. All of the context and ambiguity measures for 2,418 Chinese single-character words are provided as supplementary materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subseasonal probabilistic prediction of tropical cyclone (TC) genesis is investigated here using models from the Seasonal to Subseasonal (S2S) Prediction dataset. Forecasts are produced for basin-wide TC occurrence at weekly temporal resolution. Forecast skill is measured using the Brier skill score relative to a seasonal climatology that varies monthly through the TC season. Skill depends on models’ characteristics, lead time, and ensemble prediction design. Most models show skill for week 1 (days 1–7), the period when initialization is important. Among the six S2S models examined here, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) model has the best performance, with skill in the Atlantic, western North Pacific, eastern North Pacific, and South Pacific at week 2. Similarly, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) model is skillful in the western North Pacific, South Pacific, and across northern Australia at week 2. The Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) modulates observed TC genesis, and there is a relationship, across models and lead times, between models’ skill scores and their ability to accurately represent the MJO and the MJO–TC relation. Additionally, a model’s TC climatology also influences its performance in subseasonal prediction. The dependence of the skill score on the simulated climatology, MJO, and MJO–TC relationship, however, varies from one basin to another. Skill scores increase with the ensemble size, as found in previous weather and seasonal prediction studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigates how the brain processes self-adaptors, semantically-unrelated emblems, and iconic gestures along with speech. The three types of gestures give rise to a continuum of semantic distinctions in relation to the accompanying speech. The overall N400 component occurred between 500 and 800 msec after the simultaneous gesture and speech onsets. In comparison to the speech-only condition, the reduced N400 evidenced the facilitation effect of iconic gestures at the centro-parietal sites. The meaningful yet non-speech-related emblems elicited enhanced N400 s at the left frontal-parietal sites; the meaningless self-adaptors produced the largest N400 effect over the scalp at the frontal-parietal sites. Self-adaptors had produced a larger negativity of N400 than emblems did at the centro-parietal regions. The results evidence the automatic integration of gesture and speech, and the diverse influence of gesture on processing. Only iconic gestures facilitate the semantic integration with speech. For a linguistic meaning to integrate with a semantically-unrelated emblem is less effortful than with a self-adaptor, suggesting that the processing of meanings proceeds more readily than the processing of a meaningless gesture occurring at the same time with speech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An open‐source, physics‐based tropical cyclone (TC) downscaling model is developed, in order to generate a large climatology of TCs. The model is composed of three primary components: (a) a random seeding process that determines genesis, (b) an intensity‐dependent beta‐advection model that determines the track, and (c) a non‐linear differential equation set that determines the intensification rate. The model is entirely forced by the large‐scale environment. Downscaling ERA5 reanalysis data shows that the model is generally able to reproduce observed TC climatology, such as the global seasonal cycle, genesis locations, track density, and lifetime maximum intensity distributions. Inter‐annual variability in TC count and power‐dissipation is also well captured, on both basin‐wide and global scales. Regional TC hazard estimated by this model is also analyzed using return period maps and curves. In particular, the model is able to reasonably capture the observed return period curves of landfall intensity in various sub‐basins around the globe. The incorporation of an intensity‐dependent steering flow is shown to lead to regionally dependent changes in power dissipation and return periods. Advantages and disadvantages of this model, compared to other downscaling models, are also discussed. Plain Language Summary: Tropical cyclones (TCs) are rare and extreme weather systems that can cause a lot of damage to society. Because the most intense of TCs are exceedingly rare, it is difficult to ascertain not only the frequency with which they occur, but how this frequency might change in the future. This problem is also compounded by the fact that even state‐of‐the‐art climate models have trouble representing strong TCs. This study presents the development of a new, physics‐based, TC model. The model can rapidly simulate a large number of TCs given a mean climate, and is shown to reasonably reproduce the general behavior of TCs observed over the past 43 years. The model is open‐source and freely available online. Key Points: The development of an open‐source physics‐based tropical cyclone (TC) downscaling model, based on random seeding, is describedSteering of the TC that is intensity‐dependent can change TC hazard on both local and regional scalesThe model reproduces the observed climatology of TCs, including the seasonal cycle, inter‐annual variability, and hazard [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern GPGPU's have enabled massively parallel computing with programmability that can exploit the highly parallel nature of LDPC decoding. Previous works customized the design on a GPGPU towards specific execution attributes of a particular LDPC decoding matrix. Supporting different LDPC decoding matrices requires either substantial rework on the current program, or a brand new parallel design. This paper proposes two unified designs that can achieve high performance for both regular and irregular LDPC decoding on a GPGPU. The first design introduces a node-based scheme with a versatile translation array mechanism that can efficiently handle the complex data access patterns of different LDPC decoding matrices. The second design proposes an edge-based parallel paradigm that uses more intuitive data layout. More edges than nodes in a Tanner graph also give the edge-based design higher computation parallelism when there are limited concurrent codewords. With the proposed unified designs, designers can be ignorant of the types of LDPC matrices and achieve high performance LDPC decoding. The experiments on a GTX 470 GPGPU have demonstrated up to 134.56x runtime improvement, when compared with designs on a high-end CPU. The maximum throughput can reach 80.25 Mbps. When compared with the previous customized designs, the proposed systematic designs can reach better performance while relieving the effort of customization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An autoregressive model is developed to simulate the climatological distribution of global tropical cyclone (TC) intensity. The model consists of two components: a regression-based deterministic component that advances the TC intensity in time and depends on the storm state and surrounding large-scale environment and a stochastic forcing. Potential intensity, deep-layer mean vertical shear, and midlevel relative humidity are the environmental variables included in the deterministic component. Given a storm track and its environment, the model is initialized and then iterated along the track. Model performance is evaluated by its ability to represent the observed global and basin distributions of TC intensity as well as lifetime maximum intensity (LMI). The deterministic model alone captures the spatial features of the climatological TC intensity distribution but with intensities that remain below 100 kt (1 kt ≈ 0.51 m s−1). Addition of white (uncorrelated in time) stochastic forcing reduces this bias by improving the simulated intensification rates and the frequency of major storms. The model simulates a realistic range of intensities, but the frequency of major storms remains too low in some basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Mismatch negativity (MMN) is a component of event-related potentials (ERPs). Conventional approaches to measuring MMN include recording a large number of trials (e.g., 1000 trials per participant) and extracting signals within a low frequency band, e.g., between 2 Hz and 8 Hz. New Method Ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) is a method to decompose time series data into intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). Each IMF has a dominant frequency. Similar to ERP measurement, averaging IMFs across trials allows measurement of event-related modes (ERMs). This paper demonstrates a protocol that adopts EEMD and Hilbert spectral analyses and uses ERMs to extract MMN-related activity based on electroencephalography data recorded from 18 participants in an MMN paradigm. The effect of deviants was demonstrated by manipulating changes in lexical tones. Results The mean amplitudes of ERMs revealed a significant effect of lexical tone on MMN. Based on effect size statistics, a significant effect of lexical tone on MMN could be observed using ERM measurements over fewer trials (about 300 trials per participant) in a small sample size (five to six participants). Comparison with Existing Method(s) The EEMD method provided ERMs with remarkably high signal-to-noise ratios and yielded a strong effect size. Furthermore, the experimental requirements for recording MMN (i.e., the number of trials and the sample size) could be reduced while using the suggested analytic method. Conclusions ERMs may be useful for applying the MMN paradigm in clinical populations and children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predictability effect on N400, in which low predictability words elicited a larger N400 than high predictability words did over central to posterior electrodes, has been used to index difficulty of lexical retrieval and semantic integration of words in sentence comprehension. This study examined predictability effect on N400 in aphasic patients to determine if the properties of N400 are suited to indexing the severity of reading comprehension deficits. Patients with aphasia were divided into high and low ability groups based on scores on the reading comprehension subtest in the Chinese Concise Aphasia Test (CCAT). The two aphasia groups, a group of healthy elders who were age-matched to the aphasic participants, and a group of young adults, were requested to read sentences that either ended with highly predictable words or unexpected but plausible words, while undergoing electroencephalography (EEG). The young adult and healthy elderly groups exhibited the typical centro-parietal distributed effect of predictability on N400; however, healthy elders exhibited a reduced N400 effect in a delayed time window compared to the young adults. Compared with the elderly control, the high ability aphasia group exhibited a comparable N400 effect in a more restricted time window; by contrast, the low ability aphasia group exhibited a frontal distributed N400 in a much later time window (400–700 ms). These data suggest that the severity of reading comprehension deficits affects predictability effect on a set of N400 characteristics (i.e., amplitude, time window, and topographic distribution), which may be effective as ERP signatures in the evaluation of language recovery in aphasia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors describe the development and verification of a statistical model relating tropical cyclone (TC) intensity to the local large-scale environment. A multiple linear regression framework is used to estimate the expected intensity of a tropical cyclone given the environmental and storm conditions. The uncertainty of the estimate is constructed from the empirical distribution of model errors. NCEP-NCAR reanalysis fields and historical hurricane data from 1981 to 1999 are used for model development, and data from 2000 to 2012 are used to evaluate model performance. Seven predictors are selected: initial storm intensity, the change of storm intensity over the past 12 h, the storm translation speed, the difference between initial storm intensity and its corresponding potential intensity, deep-layer (850-200 hPa) vertical shear, atmospheric stability, and 200-hPa divergence. The system developed here models storm intensity changes in response to changes in the surrounding environment with skill comparable to existing operational forecast tools. Since one application of such a model is to predict changes in TC activity in response to natural or anthropogenic climate change, the authors examine the performance of the model using data that is most readily available from global climate models, that is, monthly averages. It is found that statistical models based on monthly data (as opposed to daily) with only a few essential predictors, for example, the difference between storm intensity and potential intensity, perform nearly as well at short leads as when daily predictors are used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging have indicated that activities in the left inferior frontal cortex and left temporoparietal regions are associated with orthographic neighborhood size. To elucidate the temporal dynamics of reading-related cortical activities, we manipulated two types of neighborhood properties for Chinese phonograms, phonetic combinability and consistency. By using source analysis techniques in combination with magnetoencephalography, the results demonstrated a combinability effect in the right fusiform gyrus at ∼170 ms, which may reflect perceptual expertise in processing Chinese orthography. During 200 ms to 250 ms, the left anterior insula showed larger activity in reading small combinability characters than in reading large combinability characters, and the left inferior parietal cortex showed greater activity in reading low consistency characters than in reading high consistency characters. These results indicate that the left anterior insula cortex and left inferior parietal cortex may play important roles in the early stages of reading Chinese phonograms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective This study examined the impact of spectral resolution on the processing of lexical tones and the number of frequency channels required for a cochlear implant (CI) to transmit Chinese tonal information to the brain. Methods ERPs were recorded in an auditory oddball task. Normal-hearing participants listened to speech sounds of two tones and their CI simulations in 1, 4, 8, or 32 channels. The mismatch response elicited by speech sounds and CI simulations in different numbers of channels were compared. Results The mismatch negativity (MMN) was observed for speech sounds. For the 1-channel CI simulations, deviants elicited a more positive waveform than standard stimuli. No MMN response was observed with the 4-channel simulations. A reliable MMN response was observed for the 8- and 32-channel simulations. The MMN responses elicited by the 8- and 32-channel simulations were equivalent in magnitudes and smaller than that elicited by speech sounds. Conclusions More than eight frequency channels are required for a CI to transmit Chinese tonal information. The presence of both positive and negative mismatch responses suggests multiple mechanisms underlying auditory mismatch responses. Significance The current findings of spectral resolution constraints on the transmission of tonal information should be taken into account in the design of the CI devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The atmospheric boundary layer (BL) in tropical cyclones (TCs) connects deep convection within rainbands and the eyewall to the air-sea interface. Although the importance of the BL in TCs has been widely recognized in recent studies, how physical processes affect TC structure and intensity are still not well understood. This study focuses on a particular physical mechanism through which a TC-induced upper-ocean cooling within the core circulation of the TC can affect the BL and TC structure. A coupled atmosphere-ocean model forecast of Typhoon Choi-Wan (2009) is used to better understand the physical processes of air-sea interaction in TCs. A persistent stable boundary layer (SBL) is found to form over the cold wake within the TC's right-rear quadrant, which influences TC structure by suppressing convection in rainbands downstream of the cold wake and enhancing the BL inflow into the inner core by increasing inflow angles over strong SST and pressure gradients. Tracer and trajectory analyses show that the air in the SBL stays in the BL longer and gains extra energy from surface heat and moisture fluxes. The enhanced inflow helps transport air in the SBL into the eyewall. In contrast, in the absence of a TC-induced cold wake and an SBL in an uncoupled atmosphere model forecast, the air in the right-rear quadrant within the BL tends to rise into local rainbands. The SBL formed over the cold wake in the coupled model seems to be a key feature that enhances the transport of high energy air into the TC inner core and may increase the storm efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We focus on the role of CD8+ Treg cell in Intravenous methyl-prednisolone (IVMP) pulse therapy in forty patients with active Class III/IV childhood lupus nephritis (LN) with heavy proteinuria. IVMP therapy for five days. From peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and renal tissues, we saw IVMP therapy definitely restoring both CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ and CD8+CD25+Foxp3+ Treg cell number plus greater expression with intracellular IL-10 and granzyme B in CD8+FoxP3+ Treg from PBMCs. IVMP-treated CD8+CD25+ Treg cells directly suppressed CD4+ T proliferation and induced CD4+CD45RO+ apoptosis. Histologically, CD4+FoxP3+ as well as CD8+FoxP3+ Treg cells appeared in renal tissue of LN patients before IVMP by double immunohistochemical stain. CD8+FoxP3+ Treg cells increased in 10 follow-up renal biopsy specimens after IVMP. Reverse correlation of serum anti-C1q antibody and FoxP3+ Treg cells in PBMNCs (r = −0.714, P<0.01). After IVMP, serum anti-C1q antibody decrease accompanied increase of CD4+FoxP3+ Treg cells. CD8+Treg cells reduced interferon-r response in PBMCs to major peptide autoepitopes from nucleosomes after IVMP therapy; siRNA of FoxP3 suppressed granzyme B expression while decreasing CD8+CD25+Treg-induced CD4+CD45RO+ apoptosis. Renal activity of LN by SLEDAI-2k in childhood LN was significantly higher than two weeks after IVMP (P<0.01). CD8+FoxP3+ Treg cells return in post-IVMP therapy and exert crucial immune modulatory effect to control autoimmune response in LN. Trial Registration: DMR97-IRB-259 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the cloud system developed for mobile medical services for the provision of the traditional Chinese medicine practice of acupuncture to sample patients at the Lukang Branch of the Changhua Christian Hospital (CCH) in Taiwan. Topics discussed include the website set up for database information sharing, the Android mobile devices with the PC cloud server and the need for medical cloud system compatibility with the different operating systems such as Android or iOs.

Introduction: Mitral regurgitation (MR) is characterized by systolic blood flow reversal from the left ventricle to the left atrium. A 2019 study indicated that in the USA, clinically significant MR (sMR) is associated with a substantial healthcare cost burden. In Taiwan, few data are available to describe the clinical characteristics, treatment patterns, and economic burden of patients with sMR. Methods: Using the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD), a national, detailed claims database of all 23 million residents of Taiwan, we conducted a retrospective cohort study to identify patients with sMR and quantify the impact of the disease on Taiwan's healthcare system. We classified patients with sMR into three cohorts based on disease etiology: functional MR (sFMR), degenerative MR (sDMR), and uncharacterized MR (sUMR). Results: We compared patient characteristics across cohorts and estimated attributable healthcare utilization and costs during the 12-month follow-up period. Our research shows that in Taiwan, patients with sFMR were older, sicker, and presented at casualty (emergency department) more frequently than those with sDMR and sUMR. Meanwhile, patients with sDMR had the highest 12-month healthcare expenditures across the cohorts. Conclusion: These findings are inconsistent with what has been shown in the USA, which warrants further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Silver vanadium phosphorous oxides (Ag w V x P y O z ) are notable battery cathode materials due to their high energy density and demonstrated ability to form in-situ Ag metal nanostructured electrically conductive networks within the cathode. While analogous silver vanadium diphosphate materials have been prepared, electrochemical evaluations of these diphosphate based materials have been limited. We report here the first electrochemical study of a silver vanadium diphosphate, Ag2VP2O8, where the structural differences associated with phosphorous oxides versus diphosphates profoundly affect the associated electrochemistry. Reminiscent of Ag2VO2PO4 reduction, in-situ formation of silver metal nanoparticles was observed with reduction of Ag2VP2O8. However, counter to Ag2VO2PO4 reduction, Ag2VP2O8 demonstrates a significant decrease in conductivity upon continued electrochemical reduction. Structural analysis contrasting the crystallography of the parent Ag2VP2O8 with that of the proposed Li2VP2O8 reduction product is employed to gain insight into the observed electrochemical reduction behavior, where the structural rigidity associated with the diphosphate anion may be associated with the observed particle fracturing upon deep electrochemical reduction. Further, the diphosphate anion structure may be associated with the high thermal stability of the partially reduced Ag2VP2O8 materials, which bodes well for enhanced safety of batteries incorporating this material. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: Continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) and intermittent hemodialysis (IHD) offer diverse benefits and drawbacks for critically ill children with acute kidney injury (AKI). Sustained low-efficiency daily diafiltration (SLEDD-f) involves a conceptual and technical hybrid of CRRT and IHD. We report our SLEDD-f application to critically ill children in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Methods: SLEDD-f was delivered by the new Fresenius 5008 therapy system with blood flow 5 ml/kg/min, dialysate flow 260 ml/min, hemofiltration 35 ml/kg/h for 8-10 h daily. Changes in blood pressure, blood gas, electrolyte, hemoglobulin (Hb), and hematocrit (Hct) were closely monitored. Results: From February 2010 to June 2011, 14 critical patients with a total of 60 SLEDD-f sessions were studied retrospectively. Heparin was used in 46 sessions (76.6%) with no bleeding complications. Hypertension above 135 mmHg returned to normal, hypotension below 90 mmHg showed no drop. Metabolic acidosis and hyperkalemia normalized. Elevated Hb, Hct, and their ratio revealed improving hemodilution. Three episodes of intradialytic hypotension (5.0%) and one of circuit clotting (1.7%) led to premature termination. The 28-day survival rate was 71.4%. Conclusions: This pilot investigation demonstrates that SLEDD-f provides good hemodynamic tolerance and correction of fluid overload, pH, and electrolyte imbalance for critically ill children with AKI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The present study investigates how age, phonological saliency, and deviance size affect the presence of mismatch negativity (MMN) and positive mismatch response (P-MMR). This work measured the auditory mismatch responses to Mandarin lexical tones, initial consonants, and vowels in 4- to 6-year-old preschoolers using the multiple-deviant oddball paradigm. The data showed the coexistence of MMN and P-MMR in the same age group when responding to the three types of syllabic features in Mandarin. The transition from a predominantly positive response to a predominantly negative response supported the multiple MMN mechanisms. Congruent with the phonological saliency hypothesis and the phonetic acquisition order of Mandarin in behavioral studies, for the compulsory elements of Mandarin syllables, lexical tones, and vowels, the larger deviants elicited adult-like MMNs, whereas the smaller deviants elicited P-MMRs. The optional elements of the Mandarin syllables, the initial consonant, only elicited P-MMR in preschoolers. These findings suggest that MMN and P-MMR index different functional characteristics and may provide information on when and how children''s speech perception becomes automatic at different developmental stages. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The current study manipulated the visual field and the number of senses of the first character in Chinese disyllabic compounds to investigate how the related senses (polysemy) of the constituted character in the compounds were represented and processed in the two hemispheres. The ERP results in experiment 1 revealed crossover patterns in the left hemisphere (LH) and the right hemisphere (RH). The sense facilitation in the LH was in favor of the assumption of single-entry representation for senses. However, the patterns in the RH yielded two possible interpretations: (1) the nature of hemispheric processing in dealing with sublexical sense ambiguity; (2) the semantic activation from the separate-entry representation for senses. To clarify these possibilities, experiment 2 was designed to push participants to a deeper level of lexical processing by the word class judgment. The results revealed the sense facilitation effect in the RH. In sum, the current study was in support of the single-entry account for related senses and demonstrated that two hemispheres processed sublexical sense ambiguity in a complementary way. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: For Chinese compounds, neighbors can share either both orthographic forms and meanings, or orthographic forms only. In this study, central presentation and visual half-field (VF) presentation methods were used in conjunction with ERP measures to investigate how readers solve the sublexical semantic ambiguity of the first constituent character in reading a disyllabic compound. The sublexical ambiguity of the first character was manipulated while the orthographic neighborhood sizes of the first and second character (NS1, NS2) were controlled. Subjective rating of number of meanings corresponding to a character was used as an index of sublexical ambiguity. Results showed that low sublexical ambiguity words elicited a more negative N400 than high sublexical ambiguity words when words were centrally presented. Similar patterns were found when words were presented to the left VF. Interestingly, different patterns were observed for pseudowords. With left VF presentation, high sublexical ambiguity psudowords showed a more negative N400 than low sublexical ambiguity pseudowords. In contrast, with right VF presentation, low sublexical ambiguity pseudowords showed a more negative N400 than high sublexical ambiguity pseudowords. These findings indicate that a level of morphological representation between form and meaning needs to be established and refined in Chinese. In addition, hemispheric asymmetries in the use of word information in ambiguity resolution should be taken into account, even at sublexical level. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We employ a linear mixed-effects model to estimate the effects of visual form and the linguistic properties of Chinese characters on M100 and M170 MEG responses from single-trial data of Chinese and English speakers in a Chinese lexical decision task. Cortically constrained minimum-norm estimation is used to compute the activation of M100 and M170 responses in functionally defined regions of interest. Both Chinese and English participants’ M100 responses tend to increase in response to characters with a high numbers of strokes. English participants’ M170 responses show a posterior distribution and only reflect the effect of the visual complexity of characters. On the other hand, the Chinese participants’ left hemisphere M170 is increased when reading characters with high number of strokes, and their right hemisphere M170 is increased when reading characters with small combinability of semantic radicals. Our results suggest that expertise with words and the decomposition of word forms underlies processing in the left and right occipitotemporal regions in the reading of Chinese characters by Chinese speakers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: As a part of our on-going study on silver vanadium phosphorous oxides (Ag x V y O z PO4), we report here the first study of the electrochemical reduction of a low Ag/V ratio silver vanadium phosphorous oxide, Ag0.48VOPO4·1.9H2O. Reminiscent of Ag2VO2PO4 reduction, in situ formation of silver metal nanoparticles along with an associated increase in conductivity were observed after reduction of Ag0.48VOPO4·1.9H2O with 0.37 electron equivalents. However, in contrast to our lithium/Ag2VO2PO4 cells, our lithium/Ag0.48VOPO4·1.9H2O cells displayed an even higher voltage on discharge and a characteristic multi-plateau voltage profile, where vanadium reduction was the first reduction step. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: To understand why ionic liquids are efficient solvents for the phase transfer of metal nanoparticles, we added a small amount of ILs to dichloromethane and studied the behaviors of ILs in the phase transfer. The proposed mechanism of phase transfer is the formation of a hydrophobic ion-pair between the cation of the stabilizer on the particle surface and the anion of the ILs, which cause the change in the surface hydrophilic properties and facilitate the phase transfer of aqueous nanoparticles into an organic phase. This mechanism was supported by NMR, FT-IR, XPS and ESI-MS. Furthermore, we investigated the effects of parameters on the phase transfer and found that phase-transferring efficiency increases with the extraction time and the concentration and hydrophobicity of the ILs. The results indicate that ILs play the roles of phase-transfer agents and solvents in the phase transfer of aqueous metal nanoparticles with ILs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study aims to investigate the underlying cognitive mechanisms of Chinese orthography-to-phonology transformation and its neural correlates. A behavioral study demonstrated that the phonetic radical can be used to suggest the pronunciation of a Chinese pseudocharacter based on the type frequency of the pronunciations associated with its constituent phonetic radical, rather than just to sound out its constituent phonetic radical. The follow-up event-related fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) study further manipulated the lexicality and the phonetic consistency and showed higher brain activations in the left inferior and middle frontal gyrus, the left temporoparietal region (inferior parietal gyrus and supramarginal gyrus), and the left temporooccipital junction for reading low consistency characters compared to high consistency ones. A similar activation pattern can be observed when distinguishing between the brain activation involved when reading pseudocharacters and characters. However, the angular gyrus appears to be activated under the consistency effect in reading pseudocharacters but not for reading words. The contributions of these regions to Chinese orthography-to-phonology transformation are discussed and compared with those of the alphabetic writing system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A large number of Chinese characters are made up by pairing a semantic radical and a phonetic radical. The phonetic radical usually gives a phonological clue for the pronunciation of the whole character but does not contribute to its meaning. Using an event-related potential (ERP) measurement, the present study was able to trace the very intricate interplay between phonological and semantic information embedded in the phonetic radical. It was found that, within the first 50 to 100 ms of perceiving the character, the semantic information of the phonetic radical was better preserved when the constituent phonetic radical provided a valid phonological clue (e.g., regular phonogram) than when it contained an invalid phonetic cue (e.g., irregular phonogram). However, no trace of semantic information from the phonetic radical was preserved after 300 ms. These ERP results detail the neuropsychological steps in reading Chinese and support the framework of the lexical constituent model. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (efMRI) study aims to investigate the central representations of Chinese orthography-to-phonology transformation (OPT) by simultaneously manipulating character frequency and consistency. Bilateral inferior frontal cortices (including Broca''s area and insula), the left temporoparietal region (superior parietal gyrus and supramarginal gyrus), and the left temporal–occipital junction showed greater activation, especially in low-frequency conditions, when naming inconsistent characters as compared to consistent ones. These findings suggest that these regions are involved in the sublexical conversion of orthographic input into phonological codes in naming Chinese. The similar activation pattern found in these three regions suggests a distributed process, rather than separate neural routes, for lexical and sublexical OPT. In addition, the regions involved in Chinese OPT are congruent with the findings for reading alphabetic scripts and indicate that the neuronal mechanisms for orthography-to-phonology transformation is domain universal across different writing systems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The role of phonological coding for character identification was examined with the benefit of processing parafoveal characters in eye fixations while reading Chinese sentences. In Experiment 1, the orthogonal manipulation of phonological and orthographic similarity can separate two types of phonological benefits for homophonic previews, according to whether these previews share the same phonetic radical with the targets or not. The significant phonological benefits indicate that phonological coding is activated early when the character is in the parafovea. Experiment 2 manipulated the character's consistency value and found that the phonological preview benefits are reliable only when the targets are high consistency characters. The results of two experiments suggest that phonological computation is rapid and early at both character and radical levels for Chinese character identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on the research of Parkinson's disease, and the object-based and location-based shifting of attention. Information on methodology used; Indepth look at the disease.

Recent studies have shown that extreme wind gusts are ubiquitous within the eyewall of intense tropical cyclones (TCs). These gusts pose a substantial hazard to human life and property, but both the short-term (i.e., during the passage of a single TC) and long-term (over many years) risk of encountering such a gust at a given location is poorly understood. Here, simulated tower data from large-eddy simulations of idealized TCs in a quiescent (i.e., no mean flow or vertical wind shear) environment are used to estimate these risks for the offshore region of the United States. For both a category 5 TC and a category 3 TC, there is a radial region where nearly all simulated towers experience near-surface (the lowest 200 m) 3-s gusts exceeding 70 m s−1 within a 10-min period; on average, these towers respectively sample peak 3-s gusts of 110 and 80 m s−1. Analysis of an observational dropsonde database supports the idealized simulations, and indicates that offshore structures (such as wind turbines) in the eyewall of a major hurricane are likely to encounter damaging wind speeds. This result is then incorporated into an estimate of the long-term risk, using analyses of the return period for major hurricanes from both a best-track database and a statistical–dynamical model forced by reanalysis. For much of the nearshore region of the Gulf of Mexico and southeastern U.S. coasts, this analysis yields an estimate of a 30%–60% probability of any given point experiencing at least one 70 m s−1 gust within a 30-yr period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyze Atlantic Ocean hurricane activity in the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) monthly hindcasts for the period 1998–2017. The main climatological characteristics of Atlantic tropical cyclone (TC) activity are considered at different lead times and across the entire ECMWF ensemble using three diagnostic variables: the number of tropical cyclones, the number of hurricanes, and the accumulated cyclone energy. The impacts of changing horizontal resolution and stochastic parameterization are clear in these diagnostic variables. The model skill scores for the number of tropical cyclones and accumulated cyclone energy by lead time are also computed. Using cluster analysis, we compare the characteristics of the forecast TC tracks with observations. Although four of the ECMWF clusters have similar characteristics to observed ones, one of the ECMWF clusters does not have a corresponding one in observations. We consider the predictability of each of these clusters, as well the modulation of their frequency by climate modes, such as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation and the Madden–Julian oscillation, taking advantage of the very large sample size of TC datasets in these hindcasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A machine learning‐based bias correction scheme was developed to adjust the simulated Western North Pacific typhoon intensity in a 25‐km regional climate model (RCM). The bias correction scheme, MLERA, consists of a hybrid neural network, which takes modelled atmospheric and oceanic conditions near the storm centre as input. We use air temperature, specific humidity, and relative vorticity at 300 hPa, geopotential height at 700 hPa, wind speed at 850 hPa, sea‐level pressure, 10‐m wind speed, and total air‐sea fluxes. Those predictors are selected using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso) algorithm and principal component analysis (PCA). Because there is no 'ground truth' for RCM simulated storms, we train and test MLERA using ERA‐Interim reanalysis and best‐track data. The intensity statistics estimated from MLERA match well with those from observations. MLERA, when applied to RCM history base period, increases the likelihood of simulated typhoons (with wind speed >33 m/s) from 40.8 to 73.9% in the direct simulation. Meanwhile, the RCM itself produces no C3+ storms (wind speed >50 m/s) in both RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios, while MLERA significantly increases those storms. MLERA suggests an increasing trend of the frequency of violent typhoons from near‐term (2031–2060) to long‐term (2069–2098). Such an increase is consistent with our understanding that a warming climate will increase the storm intensity. The present study shows the potential of the machine learning technique for bias correcting cyclone intensity in RCMs. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm could also be applied to the next generation of high‐resolution global climate models, which may have a spatial grid spacing close to today's RCMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors' reply to a commentary to their article "Symmetric and Asymmetric Structures of Hurricane Boundary Layer in Coupled Atmosphere-Wave-Ocean Models and Observations," which appeared in the 2012 issue is presented.

The influences of the orthography-to-phonology (O-to-P) mapping consistency as the first-order effect on visual word recognition are well documented. Few studies have investigated the second-order O-to-P consistency effect on spoken word recognition. To address this issue, Experiment 1 asked participants to perform a writing-to-dictation task for 230 Chinese monosyllabic words and found that the response accuracy increased with the homophone density, and the homophone density, O-to-P consistency, and character frequency also affected the generation probability and reaction time of written responses. Experiment 2 involved manipulating the homophone density of the spoken words and the O-to-P consistency of the written characters in writing to dictation with event-related potential measurement. The data revealed an interactive effect between the O-to-P consistency and homophone density on frontal-central N400 and a homophone density effect on the posterior late positivity component. The results support the reverberation effect of the O-to-P consistency on Chinese spoken word recognition. • This study established a database for writing to dictation of 230 Mandarin monosyllabic words. • Homophone density and O-to-P mapping consistency affect the generation probability and reaction time of written responses. • The second-order O-to-P mapping consistency effect is modulated by the homophone density effect on N400. • The results support the reverberation effet of O-to-P mapping consistency in Chinese spoken word recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This study aims to evaluate effects of word-internal variables on reading disyllabic Chinese words by manipulating (a) morphological complexity, defined as the number of morphemes and (b) structural complexity, defined as whether the two syllables relate to each other via the specifier-head-complement structure. In a visual lexical decision task, magnetoencephalography (MEG) was recorded during the reading of four types of Chinese disyllabic words: (1), disyllabic-monomorphemic (e.g., 蚯蚓 " qiu yin " earthworms), used as the control condition; (2) coordinative compounds (such as 花草 " hua cao" flower-grass: plants), which are double-headed, with meanings jointly derived from the two roots; (3) modifier-head compounds (such as 汽車 " qi che " gas-car: an automobile), which are right-headed, with the first root as the modifier; and (4) verb-object compounds (such as 開車 " kai che " operate-car: to drive a car), in which the first and second roots express an action and an object respectively. Our source analysis indicated that, at 200 m s, reading compounds revealed larger activity in left anterior temporal cortex than reading monomorphemic words, which might reflect composition of morphologically complex words during processing. From 300 to 400 m s, reading modifier-head compounds and verb-object compounds revealed larger activity in the left posterior temporal cortex than reading monomorphemic words, but there was no significant difference between reading coordinative compounds and reading monomorphemic words in this time window. These results indicate that morphological complexity and structural complexity substantially modulate activities in left temporal cortex during the reading of disyllabic words. Highlights • The processing of Chinese disyllabic words was investigated with MEG. • Left anterior temporal cortex was sensitive to the number of morphemes. • Left posterior temporal cortex was sensitive to syntactic structures. • Inferior parietal cortex was sensitive to syntactic structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction to the article "Stable Boundary Layer and Its Impact on Tropical Cyclone Structure in a Coupled Atmosphere-Ocean Moder," which appeared in the 2014 issue is presented.

Objective: Aortic stenosis (AS) is a heart valve disease characterized by left ventricular outflow fixed obstruction. It can be managed by surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) or transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). However, real-world evidence for TAVI or SAVR outcomes is lacking in Taiwan. This study aimed to compare the clinical outcomes of TAVI and SAVR for treating of AS in Taiwan. Materials and methods: The National Health Insurance Research Database is a nationally representative cohort that contains detailed registry and claims data from all 23 million residents of Taiwan. This retrospective cohort study used this database to compare patients who underwent SAVR (bioprosthetic valves) or TAVI from 2017 to 2019. Survival outcomes and length of hospital stay (LOS) and intensive care unit (ICU) stay between TAVI and SAVR in the matched cohort. A Cox proportional hazards model was performed to identify the effect of treatment type on survival rates while controlling variables including age, gender, and comorbidities. Results: We identified 475 and 1605 patients who underwent TAVI and SAVR with a bioprosthetic valve, respectively. Patients who underwent TAVI were older (82.19 vs. 68.75 y/o) and more likely to be female (55.79% vs. 42.31%) compared with patients who underwent SAVR. Propensity score matching (PSM) on age, gender, and Elixhauser Comorbidity Index (ECI) score revealed that 375 patients who underwent TAVI were matched with patients who underwent SAVR. A significant difference was found in survival rates between TAVI and SAVR. The 1-year mortality rate was 11.44% with TAVI and 17.55% with SAVR. Both the mean total LOS (19.86 vs. 28.24 days) and mean ICU stay (6.47 vs. 11.12 days) for patients who underwent TAVI were shorter than those who underwent SAVR. Conclusion: Patients who had undergone TAVI had better survival outcomes and shorter LOS compared with patients who had undergone SAVR in Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ag2VP2O8 is prepared by a previously reported method and its structure is confirmed by Rietveld refined powder XRD data (space group P21/c, Z = 4). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orthographic neighborhood ( N ) size effects have been extensively studied in English consistently producing a facilitatory effect in word naming tasks. In contrast, several recent studies on Chinese character naming have demonstrated an inhibitory effect of neighborhood size. Response latencies tend to be inhibited by inconsistent characters with large neighborhoods relative to small neighborhoods. These differences in neighborhood effects between languages may depend on the characteristics (depth) of the mapping between orthography and phonology. To explore this, we first conducted a behavioral experiment to investigate the relationship between neighborhood size, consistency and reading response. The results showed an inhibitory effect of neighborhood size for inconsistent characters but a facilitatory effect for consistent characters. We then developed two computational models based on parallel distributed processing principles to try and capture the nature of the processing that leads to these results in Chinese character naming. Simulations using models based on the triangle model of reading indicated that consistency and neighborhood size interact with the division of labor between semantics and phonology to produce these effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia which afflicts tens of millions of people worldwide. Despite many scientific progresses to dissect the AD's molecular basis from studies on various mouse models, it has been suffered from evolutionary species differences. Here, we report generation of a non-human primate (NHP), common marmoset model ubiquitously expressing Amyloid-beta precursor protein (APP) transgenes with the Swedish (KM670/671NL) and Indiana (V717F) mutations. The transgene integration of generated two transgenic marmosets (TG1&TG2) was thoroughly investigated by genomic PCR, whole-genome sequencing, and fluorescence in situ hybridization. By reprogramming, we confirmed the validity of transgene expression in induced neurons in vitro. Moreover, we discovered structural changes in specific brain regions of transgenic marmosets by magnetic resonance imaging analysis, including in the entorhinal cortex and hippocampus. In immunohistochemistry, we detected increased Aβ plaque-like structures in TG1 brain at 7 years old, although evident neuronal loss or glial inflammation was not observed. Thus, this study summarizes our attempt to establish an NHP AD model. Although the transgenesis approach alone seemed not sufficient to fully recapitulate AD in NHPs, it may be beneficial for drug development and further disease modeling by combination with other genetically engineered models and disease-inducing approaches. • Transgenic (tg) marmosets with APP genes were generated and characterized. • Transgene integration sites were scrutinized by whole genome sequencing. • MRI was performed for the detection of brain structural changes. • Increased Aβ plaque-like structure was discovered in the tg brain. • RNA-seq was performed for deciphering the gene expression changes in the tg brain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]