Display performance optimization method for light field displays based on a neural network.

Crosstalk between adjacent views, lens aberrations, and low spatial resolution in light field displays limit the quality of 3D images. In the present study, we introduce a display performance optimization method for light field displays based on a neural network. The method pre-corrects the encoded image from a global perspective, which means that the encoded image is pre-corrected according to the light field display results. The display performance optimization network consists of two parts: the encoded image pre-correction network and the display network. The former realizes the pre-correction of the original encoded image (OEI), while the latter completes the modeling of the display unit and realizes the generation from the encoded image to the viewpoint images (VIs). The pre-corrected encoded image (PEI) obtained through the pre-correction network can reconstruct 3D images with higher quality. The VIs are accessible through the display network. Experimental results suggest that the proposed method can reduce the graininess of 3D images significantly without increasing the complexity of the system. It is promising for light field displays since it can provide improved 3D display performance.

Re-Shaping the Pancreatic Cancer Tumor Microenvironment: A New Role for the Metastasis Suppressor NDRG1.

Pancreatic cancer (PaC) is a highly aggressive disease, with poor response to current treatments and 5-year survival rates of 10-15%. PaC progression is facilitated by its interaction with the complex and multifaceted tumor microenvironment (TME). In the TME, cancer cells and surrounding stromal cells constantly communicate with each other via the secretion and uptake of factors including cytokines, chemokines, growth factors, metabolites, and extracellular vesicles (EVs), reshaping the landscape of PaC. Recent studies demonstrated that the metastasis suppressor N-myc downstream regulated 1 (NDRG1) not only inhibits oncogenic signaling pathways in PaC cells but also alters the communication between PaC cells and the surrounding stroma. In fact, NDRG1 was found to influence the secretome of PaC cells, alter cancer cell metabolism, and interfere with intracellular trafficking and intercellular communication between PaC cells and surrounding fibroblasts. This review will present recent advancements in understanding the role of NDRG1 in PaC progression, with a focus on how this molecule influences PaC-stroma communication and its potential for re-shaping the PaC TME.

Application of symptom-based mind mapping combined with PBL teaching method in emergency trauma standardized resident training in MDT model.

Explore the feasibility and effectiveness of accepting mind mapping combined with problem-based learning (PBL) teaching method in the standardized training of emergency surgery residents in the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) model of emergency trauma. Eighty-nine doctors under training who rotated in the Department of Emergency Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University from January 2021 to January 2022 were selected as the study subjects, and randomly divided into a group receiving mind mapping combined with PBL teaching and a group receiving traditional lecture-based learning teaching. Mini-clinical evaluation exercise (Mini-CEX), direct observation of procedural skills (DOPS), teaching adherence, and satisfaction assessments were completed at the time of discharge from the department. There were no significant differences between the observation and control group trainees in terms of gender, age, education, and entry grades. Both groups of doctors were better able to participate in their respective teaching modes and made significant progress. The participants in the observation group had significantly higher Mini-CEX, DOPS, and teaching satisfaction scores than the control group (P < .05). Under the MDT model of emergency trauma, the combination of mind mapping and PBL teaching can improve the comprehensive clinical ability of the trainees more than participating in the traditional lecture-based learning teaching, which is worth promoting and implementing in the clinical standardized training.

Effects of the Wnt/ß-Catenin Signaling Pathway on Proliferation and Apoptosis of Gastric Cancer Cells.

Objective: To explore the effect of the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway on the proliferation and apoptosis of gastric cancer cells. Methods: An MTT colorimetric assay was used to detect the inhibitory effect of the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway inhibitor FH535 on the proliferation of MKN45 gastric cancer cells. The cell proliferation index (PI) and apoptosis index (AI) were measured by flow cytometry. The expression levels of ß-catenin, c-myc, and cleaved caspase-3 in MKN45 gastric cancer cells were detected. Results: After using the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway inhibitor FH535, MKN45 gastric cancer cells showed obvious shrinkage, death, and cell density decrease. MTT showed that the A value of MKN45 gastric cancer cells in FH535 group was significantly lower than that in the control group (P < 0.05). The survival rate of MKN45 gastric cancer cells in FH535 group was significantly lower than that in the control group (P < 0.05). The cell cycle of gastric cancer was arrested in G0/G1 phase. The expression levels of ß-catenin and c-myc protein in MKN45 gastric cancer cells in FH535 group decreased significantly (P < 0.05), while the expression level of cleaved caspase-3 protein increased significantly (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The Wnt/ß-catenin signal molecule can maintain the proliferation of gastric cancer cells. Inhibition of the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway can inhibit the proliferation of gastric cancer cells and promote the apoptosis of MKN45 gastric cancer cells.

Research on Chinese Speech Emotion Recognition Based on Deep Neural Network and Acoustic Features.

In recent years, the use of Artificial Intelligence for emotion recognition has attracted much attention. The industrial applicability of emotion recognition is quite comprehensive and has good development potential. This research uses voice emotion recognition technology to apply it to Chinese speech emotion recognition. The main purpose of this research is to transform gradually popularized smart home voice assistants or AI system service robots from a touch-sensitive interface to a voice operation. This research proposed a specifically designed Deep Neural Network (DNN) model to develop a Chinese speech emotion recognition system. In this research, 29 acoustic characteristics in acoustic theory are used as the training attributes of the proposed model. This research also proposes a variety of audio adjustment methods to amplify datasets and enhance training accuracy, including waveform adjustment, pitch adjustment, and pre-emphasize. This study achieved an average emotion recognition accuracy of 88.9% in the CASIA Chinese sentiment corpus. The results show that the deep learning model and audio adjustment method proposed in this study can effectively identify the emotions of Chinese short sentences and can be applied to Chinese voice assistants or integrated with other dialogue applications.

Applying attention-based BiLSTM and technical indicators in the design and performance analysis of stock trading strategies.

With the development of the Internet, information on the stock market has gradually become transparent, and stock information is easy to obtain. For investors, investment performance depends on the amount of capital and effective trading strategies. The analysis tool commonly used by investors and securities analysts is technical analysis (TA). Technical analysis is the study of past and current financial market information, and a large amount of statistical data is used to predict price trends and determine trading strategies. Technical indicators (TIs) are a type of technical analysis that summarizes possible future trends of stock prices based on historical statistical data to assist investors in making decisions. The stock price trend is a typical time series data with special characteristics such as trend, seasonality, and periodicity. In recent years, time series deep neural networks (DNNs) have demonstrated their powerful performance in machine translation, speech processing, and natural language processing fields. This research proposes the concept of attention-based BiLSTM (AttBiLSTM) applied to trading strategy design and verified the effectiveness of a variety of TIs, including stochastic oscillator, RSI, BIAS, W%R, and MACD. This research also proposes two trading strategies that suitable for DNN, combining with TIs and verifying their effectiveness. The main contributions of this research are as follows: (1) As our best knowledge, this is the first research to propose the concept of applying TIs to the LSTM-attention time series model for stock price prediction. (2) This study introduces five well-known TIs, which reached a maximum of 68.83% in the accuracy of stock trend prediction. (3) This research introduces the concept of exporting the probability of the deep model to the trading strategy. On the backtest of TPE0050, the experimental results reached the highest return on investment of 42.74%. (4) This research concludes from an empirical point of view that technical analysis combined with time series deep neural network has significant effects in stock price prediction and return on investment.

High-performance triboelectric nanogenerators based on the organic semiconductor copper phthalocyanine.

In this work, we fabricated triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) with the triboelectric friction layer made of the organic semiconductor copper phthalocyanine (CuPc). Iodine was incorporated into CuPc to tune the work function of the CuPc films. With 10 wt% iodine doping concentration, the TENG showed an excellent output performance with a voltage output of 300 V, a current density of 110 mA m-2, and a power density of 8.68 W m-2 compared to those reported for inorganic semiconductor-based TENGs. Leveraging the ethanol sensitivity of CuPc, a self-powered ethanol sensor was also demonstrated. The successful demonstration of organic semiconductors as the triboelectric friction layer will enable the development of fully flexible high performance semiconductor-based TENGs, as well as direct current TENGs based on semiconducting heterojunctions.

Large In-Plane Anisotropic Terahertz Emission Induced by Asymmetric Polarization in Low-Symmetric PdSe2.

Palladium diselenide (PdSe2) exhibits air stability, low symmetry, and high carrier mobility, resulting in unique in-plane anisotropy for polarized optoelectronic devices. However, the relationship of the symmetry and the terahertz (THz) radiation remains elusive yet significant for both the THz source in technology and nonlinear optical physics in science. Herein, we observed large in-plane anisotropic THz radiation from multilayer PdSe2 under femtosecond laser excitation. The THz emission demonstrates 2α dependence on the optical polarization angle from the resonant optical rectification combined with a background from the photocarrier acceleration under the surface depletion field. Interestingly, the in-plane THz emission along and perpendicular to the puckered direction demonstrates large anisotropy. Furthermore, the THz time-domain signals exhibit reversed polarities along the positive and negative puckered directions. This asymmetric polarization could relate to the bonding of Pd-Se, resulting in the unidirectional photon-induced current. Our results bridge the gap between the low-symmetry two-dimensional materials and the THz technology, which could promote the development of THz-polarized devices based on low-symmetry layered materials.

Coherent Elliptically Polarized Terahertz Wave Generation in WSe2 by Linearly Polarized Femtosecond Laser Excitation.

Coherent polarization control of terahertz (THz) wave radiation in both the time-domain and the frequency-domain is significant in information technology, material science, and spectroscopic analysis. Elliptically polarized THz radiation is generally limited to chiral materials induced by circularly polarized light excitation. Herein, we demonstrate the coherent elliptically polarized THz radiation from few-layer tungsten diselenide (WSe2) in both the time-domain and the frequency-domain under linearly polarized femtosecond laser excitation. This coherent elliptical THz radiation is mainly dominated by in-plane anisotropic shift current and out-of-plane drift current, which is verified by the THz radiation dependence on the pump laser polarization angles, incident angles, and sample azimuthal angles systematically. The ellipticity and major axis direction of the elliptical THz wave can be efficiently controlled by either pump light polarization or sample azimuthal angle due to the controllable amplitudes and phases of two coherent orthogonal THz wave components. Our finding provides a method to distinguish drift and shift photocurrents in different directions and offers a unique design concept for elliptical THz generation with two-dimensional (2D) material physics.

Characterization of the metabolite of cabozantinib generated from liver microsomes and hepatocytes by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole/orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometry.

Cabozantinib is a potent inhibitor of tyrosine kinase receptor that plays key role in tumor pathogenesis. Cabozantinib has been approved by U. S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of cancer. The present work was aimed to explore the in vitro metabolism of cabozantinib using liver microsomes and hepatocytes from animal species and humans through ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole/orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometer. The metabolites were characterized by their elemental compositions, MS and MS/MS spectra. As a result, a total of 26 metabolites were identified, and 15 metabolites were newly reported. Among these metabolites, M12 (oxidative defluorination), M19 and M22 (demethylation), M21 (hydroxylation) and M26 (N-oxygenation) were the major metabolites in all species. Our data revealed that cabozantinib was metabolized via the following pathways: oxidative defluorination, hydroxylation, amide hydrolysis, O-dealkylation, N-oxygenation, demethylation and glucuronidation. Human recombinant cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzyme analysis revealed that metabolism of cabozantinib was mainly catalyzed by CYP3A4, while other CYP enzymes played negligible role. The current study provided valuable metabolic data of cabozantinib from different animal species and humans, which would aid in safety and efficacy assessment.

Novel Strategy for Organic Cocrystals of n-Type and p-Type Organic Semiconductors with Advanced Optoelectronic Properties.

Cocrystallization has been applied widely for material synthesis. Recently cocrystal of organic molecules has been developing rapidly, taking the advantages of the flexibility and self-assembly of organic molecules. Here we report an experimental study of a cocrystal of copper-phthalocyanines and fluorinated ones. We have grown the samples via the vapor-phase deposition of the mixture with different mass ratios from 1:13.5 to 6:1. As suggested by our scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Raman spectroscopy, new crystal structures and morphologies through our novel strategy for the cocrystallization of these molecules have been found. Our work will provide a solid foundation to systematically synthesize the cocrystal of phthalocyanine molecules with new crystal structures, thus providing the opportunity to advance material properties.

Ultrasound Stimulation Suppresses LPS-Induced Proinflammatory Responses by Regulating NF-κB and CREB Activation in Microglial Cells.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects and underlying mechanisms of low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced neuroinflammation. BV-2 microglia subjected to LPS administration (1 µg/mL) were treated with LIPUS stimulation. The levels of inflammatory mediators and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) were quantified using the western blot. The results showed that LIPUS stimulation promoted the associated cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB)/BDNF expression in the LPS-treated microglia. Meanwhile, LIPUS treatment effectively suppressed the LPS-induced production of tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1ß, interleukin-6, inducible nitric oxide synthase, and cyclooxygenase-2 in the microglial cells, in addition to inhibiting the LPS-induced expressions of toll-like receptor 4 and myeloid differentiation factor 88, as well as the LPS-induced activation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase and nuclear factor kappa B. Furthermore, LIPUS significantly decreased the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio in the microglia following LPS treatment. Our data indicated that LIPUS attenuated the proinflammatory responses as well as the decline in BDNF in LPS-treated microglia. This study provides a better understanding of how LIPUS stimulation regulates anti-inflammatory actions in microglia, providing further evidence suggesting that such stimulation may be regarded as a novel strategy for the treatment of neuroinflammation.

Antioxidant and Myocardial Preservation Activities of Natural Phytochemicals from Mung Bean (Vigna radiata L.) Seeds.

Mung bean (Vigna radiata L.) seeds (MBS) contain abundant nutrients with biological activities. This study was aimed to isolate key bioactive components from MBS with antioxidant and myocardial preservation activities. A new flavonoid C-glycoside, isovitexin-6″-O-α-l-glucoside, and 14 known compounds were obtained. Their structures were identified by extensive 1D and 2D NMR and FT-ICR-MS spectroscopic analyses. The antioxidant activities of these compounds were evaluated. Compounds 1-5 and 7-10 displayed 2,2'-azinobis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS(•+)) scavenging activity, but only 5 and 7 exhibited 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH(•)) scavenging activity. The myocardial preservation effect of 2, 3, and MBS were investigated by measuring the serum levels of LDH, CK, and AST as well as the tissue level of MDA and SOD. The results demonstrated that 2, 3, and MBS had a significant protective effect against ISO-induced myocardial ischemia. MBS can be regarded as a potential new source of antioxidants and myocardial preservation agents.

Molecular characterization of mungbean (Vigna radiata L.) starch branching enzyme I.

Mungbean (Vigna radiata L. cv. Tainan no. 5) starch branching enzyme I (SBE, EC 2.4.1.18) cDNA, VrsbeI, was cloned, and its expression was characterized. Conserved regions of the family B SBE were used to amplify a full length cDNA of 2208 bp. Phylogeny was analyzed, and the partial 3D structure and functional features were predicted. Catalytic residues were identified in the (α/ß)(8)-fold, and a unique loop from F365 to F376 between ß3/α3 was located. Gene expression of VrsbeI in seeds during growth showed that the transcript appeared from week 1 and increased substantially at week 3-4. It was cloned into the pET30 vector and expressed in E. coli BL21(DE3) pLysS cells as a soluble recombinant protein. The affinity-purified recombinant VrSBEI exhibited a specific activity of 314.6 U/mg as an active enzyme with 114-fold activity enrichment from the crude extract.