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The auditory brainstem response to complex sounds (cABR) could be evoked using speech sounds such as the 40 ms synthetic consonant-vowel syllable /da/ (CV-da) that was commonly used in basic and clinical research. cABR consists of responses to formant energy as well as the energy of fundamental frequency. The co-existence of the two energy makes cABR a mixed response. We introduced a new stimulus of click-sawtooths (CSW) with similar time-lock patterns but without formant or harmonic energy. Ten young healthy volunteers were recruited and the cABRs of CV-da and CSW of their 20 ears were acquired. The response latencies, amplitudes, and frequency-domain analytic results were compared pairwisely between stimuli. The response amplitudes were significantly greater for CSW and the latencies were significantly shorter for CSW. The latency-intensity functions were also greater for CSW. For CSW, adjustments of energy component can be made without causing biased changes to the other. CSW may be used in future basic research and clinical applications.

This study drew on existing research and three behavioral intention models to develop the beginning of a new model to explain why college students share their locations on Facebook. Findings showed that students were more likely to disclose their location on Facebook if their friends did so, a concept called subjective norm. Results also showed that subjective norm had an indirect effect on whether people disclosed their location, mediated through people’s attitude toward disclosure, while controlling for usefulness of disclosing. Collectively, this model explained 61% of the variance in why college students share locations on Facebook. Findings are discussed in relation to behavioral-intention models, and practical implications for social media companies are offered.

Several clinical and animal studies of different pain models reported that motor cortex stimulation (MCS) has an antinociceptive effect. In our previous study, the response of the primary somatosensory cortex (SI) to peripheral stimuli decreased after MCS. The aim of the present study was to investigate involvement of the periaqueductal gray (PAG) in this inhibitory effect of MCS. Responses of the SI to electrical stimuli applied to both forepaws of anesthetized rats were monitored to evaluate the effect of MCS. After sensory-evoked potentials (SEPs) were stable, either saline, opioid, or dopamine receptor antagonists were locally microinjected into the PAG. After drug or saline administration, MCS was applied to the forepaw area of the right motor cortex. SEPs after MCS were compared to those before MCS. In the saline group, SEPs ipsilateral to MCS decreased, but SEPs contralateral to MCS did not. The decrease in SEPs was prevented by pretreatment of the PAG with naloxone. Application of a nonspecific dopamine receptor antagonist (α-flupenthixol) to the PAG also blocked the inhibition of SEPs after MCS. Inhibition of SEPs after MCS was blocked by local application of a D1 antagonist (SCH-23390) in the PAG, but not by a D2 antagonist (eticlopride). These results suggest that the PAG participates in the inhibitory effect of MCS, and this effect of MCS may be mediated by opioid and dopamine D1 receptors within thePAG.

To facilitate the enzymatic saccharification of widely available lignocellulosic biomass, napiergrass was subjected to a two-stage pretreatment process consisting of steam explosion (SE) followed by alkaline delignification. SE was performed under various reaction temperatures, reaction times, and particle sizes. The experimental results show that the two-stage pretreatment process was effective at removing xylan and lignin and significantly enhanced the enzymatic digestibility of napiergrass. Up to 85% of the lignin in the original material was removed, leaving a cellulose-rich residue that was highly susceptible to enzymatic hydrolysis; the enzymatic digestibility reached 96.1%. SE alone was not sufficient, because considerable amount of lignin still remained in the steam-exploded solids. In addition to experimental work, models predicting digestibility as a function of SE conditions were developed using artificial neural network and regression techniques, and their performance was compared. Three different methods were used, i.e. , the back-propagation neural network (BPNN), the multiple linear regression (MLR), and the partial least-square regression (PLS). The input of the model was the three parameters of steam explosion (temperature, time, and particle size), while the enzymatic digestibility was the output. The results show that the BPNN model provided reasonable predictive performance. In addition, the SE temperature was found to be the most significant factor among the three parameters studied, followed by the SE time.

In this paper, small-scale microprocessor-based human-machine interface (HMI) and programmable logic controller (PLC) standard software libraries are applied to plan, design, implement, and construct models for creating the modular application software. The graphical user interface (GUI) functions used in a specific biomass steam-explosion process, intended to be integrated with the PLC device for HMI, thereby providing excellent GUI-based supervision and control functions. Reviewing these specific case study results, we find that the major advantage is maximum system operating performance at minimum cost. Also, the GUI/HMI operation effectively provides user-friendly and reliable interactions. This GUI/HMI approach is a very cost-effective technique.

Angiogenesis is a highly regulated physiological process in animals. Angiopoietin-1 (Angpt1) induces the signaling pathways related to vessel maturation in late phase of angiogenesis, which recruits pericyte supplements to make compact interaction with vessel tubes. There are only few data showing Angpt1 functions in fish. By using degenerate primers, partial sequence (812 bp) of Angpt1 was cloned from Anguilla japonica , and deduced amino acids showed 80% similarity to those of zebrafish. Physiological functions of cloned eel Angpt1 were studied by in vitro and in vivo manipulations with gas glands ( rete mirabile ) taken as the tested target tissues. RT-PCR and immunofluorescent staining techniques were performed to examine the expression patterns of Angpt1 as well as VEGF-Flk . Experimental data showed that, in vitro , bFGF, PPAR beta agonist, and estradiol affected Angpt1 expression; while cobalt ions, a VEGF expression-inducer, did not affect Angpt1 expression. In vivo , expression levels of Angpt1 increased with body growth. Furthermore, Angpt1 expressions increased significantly in the late stage of gas glands in the stimulated eel. Successive expression patterns on VEGF-Flk , and Angpt1 on different development stages of gas glands were observed. Our results suggest that the original function of angiopoietin-1 on angiogenesis is conserved during evolution.

Astragali is a herbal medicine used as an adjuvant extensively in the treatment of various cancers of lung, digestive tract, urinary system, etc. Statistics-based experimental designs were applied to optimize the extraction conditions for Astragalus polysaccharides (AP). The optimum conditions were found to be: the values of extraction time 3 h, ratio of liquid to solid 4 and particle size 33.8 mesh. Under these optimized conditions, the maximum AP extraction rate was 16.32 (%), which well matches with the predicted value. Furthermore, the chemical composition was analyzed with HPLC, and the pharmacological effect of the AP was evaluated. Results showed that AP could significantly decreased CD40 expression rate and protein expression in rats with stomach cancer.