Automatic Recognition of Auditory Brainstem Response Waveforms Using a Deep Learning-Based Framework.

OBJECTIVE: Recognition of auditory brainstem response (ABR) waveforms may be challenging, particularly for older individuals or those with hearing loss. This study aimed to investigate deep learning frameworks to improve the automatic recognition of ABR waveforms in participants with varying ages and hearing levels. STUDY DESIGN: The research used a descriptive study design to collect and analyze pure tone audiometry and ABR data from 100 participants. SETTING: The research was conducted at a tertiary academic medical center, specifically at the Clinical Audiology Center of Tsinghua Chang Gung Hospital (Beijing, China). METHODS: Data from 100 participants were collected and categorized into four groups based on age and hearing level. Features from both time-domain and frequency-domain ABR signals were extracted and combined with demographic factors, such as age, sex, pure-tone thresholds, stimulus intensity, and original signal sequences to generate feature vectors. An enhanced Wide&Deep model was utilized, incorporating the Light-multi-layer perceptron (MLP) model to train the recognition of ABR waveforms. The recognition accuracy (ACC) of each model was calculated for the overall data set and each group. RESULTS: The ACC rates of the Light-MLP model were 97.8%, 97.2%, 93.8%, and 92.0% for Groups 1 to 4, respectively, with a weighted average ACC rate of 95.4%. For the Wide&Deep model, the ACC rates were 93.4%, 90.8%, 92.0%, and 88.3% for Groups 1 to 4, respectively, with a weighted average ACC rate of 91.0%. CONCLUSION: Both the Light-MLP model and the Wide&Deep model demonstrated excellent ACC in automatic recognition of ABR waveforms across participants with diverse ages and hearing levels. While the Wide&Deep model's performance was slightly poorer than that of the Light-MLP model, particularly due to the limited sample size, it is anticipated that with an expanded data set, the performance of Wide&Deep model may be further improved.

Effect of Oxidant Concentration on the Oxide Layer Thickness of 304 Stainless Steel.

Ultra-thin 304 stainless steel can be used to flexibly display substrates after they have been subjected to chemical mechanical polishing (CMP). The thickness of the chemical oxide layer directly affects the polishing efficiency and surface quality of 304 stainless steel. In the study presented in the following paper, the thickness variation of the chemical oxide layer of 304 stainless steel was analyzed following electrochemical corrosion under different oxidant concentration conditions. Furthermore, the impact of the oxidant concentration on the grooves, chips, and scratch depth-displacement-load curves was investigated during a nano-scratching experiment. Through this process, we were able to reveal the chemical reaction mechanism between 304 stainless steel materials and oxidizers. The corrosion rate was found to be faster at 8% oxidant content. The maximum values of the scratch depth and elastic-plastic critical load were determined to be 2153 nm and 58.47 mN, respectively.

Arsenic removal in flue gas through anaerobic denitrification and sulfate reduction cocoupled arsenic oxidation.

Arsenic in flue gas from municipal solid waste incineration can damage to human health and ecological environment. A sulfate-nitrate-reducing bioreactor (SNRBR) for flue gas arsenic removal was investigated. Arsenic removal efficiency attained 89.4%. An integrated metagenomic and metaproteomic investigation showed that three nitrate reductases (NapA, NapB and NarG), three sulfate reductases (Sat, AprAB and DsrAB), and arsenite oxidase (ArxA) regulated nitrate reduction, sulfate reduction and bacterial As(III)-oxidation, respectively. Citrobacter and Desulfobulbus could synthetically regulate the expression of arsenite-oxidizing gene, nitrate reductases and sulfate reducatases, which involved in As(III) oxidation, nitrate and sulfate reduction. A bacterial consortium containing Citrobacter, UG_Enterobacteriaceas, Desulfobulbus and Desulfovibrio could capable of simultaneously arsenic oxidation, sulfate reduction and denitrification. Anaerobic denitrification and sulfate reduction were cocoupled to arsenic oxidation. The biofilm was characterized by FTIR, XPS, XRD, EEM, and SEM. XRD and XPS spectra verified the formation of aarsenic species (As(V)) from flue gas As(III) conversion. Arsenic speciation in biofilms of SNRBR consisted of 77% residual arsenic, 15.9% organic matter-bound arsenic, and 4.3% strongly absorbed arsenic. Flue gas arsenic was bio-stabilized in the form of Fe-As-S and As-EPS through biodeposition, biosorption and biocomplexation. This provides a new way of flue gas arsenic removal using the sulfate-nitrate-reducing bioreactor.

Single Crystalline Transparent Conducting F, Al, and Ga Co-Doped ZnO Thin Films with High Photoelectrical Performance.

Transparent conductive film (TCF) is a material that integrates electrical conductivity and optical transparency. It is widely used as an electrode material in thin-film solar cells. However, considerable progress is needed to facilitate its high performance and low-cost preparation. In this study, a preparation scheme for AlF3 and GaF3 co-doped ZnO (FAGZO) thin films was designed and implemented by magnetron sputtering (MS). The mutual restraint between the electrical properties and the wide-spectrum transmission performance of ZnO films was resolved. First-principles calculations showed that the doped ZnO system had n-type conductivity and that the most stable structure was the FO-AlZn-GaZn system. The experimental results verified the theoretical predictions. Single crystalline ZnO transparent conducting films (ZnO-TCFs) of high quality were achieved by MS. After rapid thermal annealing (RTA) treatment, the mobility reached 49.6 cm2/V s, and the resistivity decreased to 3.82 × 10-4 Ω cm. The AT was 90% between 380 and 1200 nm. Furthermore, the application of the prepared FAGZO film in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) has been verified. Compared to the reference indium tin oxide film, the PSCs using the FAGZO film showed higher JSC and power conversion efficiency. These results demonstrate that MS combined with anion and cation co-doping provides an effective means of exploring high-quality and high-performance ZnO-TCFs.

Pb0 flue gas biosorption in denitrifying MBfR: Characteristics and binding ability of extracellular polymeric substances.

Pb0 in flue gas which is ubiquitous in the environment, poses a certain threat to human and ecology, but the study on EPS-dependent stabilization of lead to remove Pb0 from flue gas remains insufficient. In this investigation, the characteristics and heavy metals-binding ability of four EPS fractions were evaluated. The EPS were extracted from denitrifying membrane biofilm reactor (MBfR) and divided into slime EPS (S-EPS), loosely-bound EPS (LB-EPS), tightly-bound EPS (TB-EPS) and EPS in circulating flow (Y-EPS). The S, LB, TB-EPS related to Pb stabilization on biofilm need more attention. Compared to Pb-S-EPS (0.013 mg g-1) and Pb-LB-EPS (0.13 mg g-1), the Pb-TB-EPS (0.26 mg g-1) was mainly stable form of vapor Pb0, since TB-EPS's higher content (30.67-82.44 mg g-1 VSS), proteins (13.47-36.32 mg g-1 VSS) and polysaccharides (9.37-32.48 mg g-1 VSS) concentration. Particularly, proteins related ligands were more effective in S, LB, TB-EPS dependent adsorption of Pb, complexing with hydrophobic acid ligands further strengthened in TB-EPS adsorption. The Pb-EPS complex formed via binding with functional groups (such as O-H, N-H, C-H and CC) on EPS, also facilitated by loose structure of proteins. This study enlightens the researchers on the bio-treatment and EPS-dependent biosorption of Pb0 in flue gas in denitrifying MBfR.

Lead removal in flue gas from sludge incineration by denitrification: Insights from metagenomics and metaproteomics.

Flue gas lead emission during sludge incineration damages to human health and ecological environment seriously. Therefore, a denitrifying bio-trickling filter (DNBTF) for lead removal in flue gas from sludge incineration was investigated. Lead removal efficiency was up to 90.7% in 60 days' operation. Lead speciation in biofilms of DNBTF consists of 84.27% residue lead, 15.18% organic bound lead, and less than 1% exchangeable and reducible lead. Lead resistant bacteria and lead resistant-denitrifying bacteria accounted for 85.04% and 58.25%, respectively. Lead resistant microorganisms(Pseudomonas, Azoarcus, Stappia, Pararhodobacter, Paracoccus, Azospirillum, Hyphomonas, Rhodobacter, Polymorphum, Brevunimonas, Stenotrophomonas) could resist the toxicity of Pb2+ in flue gas by transport protein and binding protein, and detoxify Pb2+ in flue gas by extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) adsorption, protein binding and precipitation under the action of resistance genes, such as pbrAB, golT, troABCD, znuABC, czcABCD, pcoB, copA, as shown by integrated metagenomic and metaproteomic analyses. The biofilm was characterized by FTIR, XRD, 3D-EEM, and SEM-EDS. XRD and SEM-EDS spectra indicated the formation of pyromorphite from bioconversion of lead in flue gas. Lead-containing flue gas was bio-stabilized in the form of pyromorphite and HA-Pb via complexation of humic acids in extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), biosorption and biodeposition. This provides a new way of sludge incineration flue gas lead removal using a denitrifying biotricking filter.

Evaluating the filtration efficiency of close-coupled catalyzed gasoline particulate filter (cGPF) over the WLTC and simulated RDE cycles.

Gasoline particulate filter (GPF) is a cost-effective solution to particle number emissions from gasoline direct injection vehicles. Filtration efficiency, as a key parameter of GPF, was usually assessed at chassis level over regulatory drive cycles. However, the promulgation of real driving emission (RDE) requirements in the EU and Chinese regulations necessitates evaluations based on non-legislative cycles to guarantee the on-road emissions are compliant to regulatory requirements. In this research, two aggressive drive cycles, RTS95 at 23degC and modified RDE at 0degC, were complemented to the WLTC to evaluate the filtration efficiency of a catalyzed GPF (cGPF) in fresh conditions to obtain the so-called "worst-case" filtration efficiency. In the WLTC, RTS95, and simulated RDE tests, the filtration efficiency of the test cGPF was 51.1%, 41.3%, and 85.1% respectively. In the simulated RDE test, the test cGPF filtrated solid particles with a diameter above 23 nm and 10 nm at a similar efficiency. Increased filtration efficiency with heavier soot load could offset the relatively low filtration efficiency in cold-start and warm-up durations, hence the filtration efficiency for a clean cGPF showed higher sensitivity to cycle length over driving dynamics and testing temperature. In acceleration events with cGPF mounted, the particle diameter where number concentration peaked decreased as the engine warmed up. In deceleration events, bimodal and trimodal particle number size distributions with much lower concentrations were observed.

Benzoxazines in the Root Exudates Responsible for Nonhost Disease Resistance of Maize to Phytophthora sojae.

It has been reported that the root exudates of nonhost maize inhibit Phytophthora sojae because of the presence of benzoxazines in maize roots. To understand the concentrations of benzoxazines (Bxs) in maize root exudates and the molecular mechanism of P. sojae being inhibited, the transcriptomes of P. sojae responding to three different Bxs, 2,4-dihydroxy-7-methoxy-2H-1,4-benzoxazin-3(4H)-one (DIMBOA), 6-methoxy-2-benzoxazolinone (MBOA), and benzoxazolinone (BOA), were analyzed by RNA sequencing method. We detected DIMBOA, MBOA, and BOA with a concentration range of 7 to 126 µg/ml in root exudates of three tested maize cultivars (A6565, Pengyu 1, and Xianyu 696). DIMBOA, MBOA, and BOA inhibited chemotaxis and invasiveness of P. sojae zoospores and mycelial growth. The inhibition was regulated mainly by endocytosis and the calcium signaling pathway, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, and mTOR signaling pathway; meanwhile, the glutathione signaling pathway was activated to increase the antioxidant capacity and efflux of toxic substances. It was speculated that endocytosis plays an important role in the response of P. sojae to Bxs, and the specific functions of genes in this pathway must be further studied. This result provides new insights into the response mechanisms of P. sojae response to Bxs.

Maize and Common Bean Seed Exudates Mediate Part of Nonhost Resistance to Phytophthora sojae Prior to Infection.

Phytophthora sojae does not infect nonhost maize (Zea mays) but infects nonhost common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) under inoculation. Soybean seed exudates participate in mediating host resistance to P. sojae before infection. This study aims to elucidate the role of seed exudates in mediating the nonhost resistance of maize and common bean to P. sojae before infection. The behaviors of P. sojae zoospores in response to the seed exudates were determined using an assay chamber and a concave slide. The proteomes of P. sojae zoospores in response to the seed exudates were analyzed with the tandem mass tag method. The key proteins were quantitatively verified by parallel reaction monitoring. Maize seed exudates exerted a repellent effect on zoospores of P. sojae. This result explains why zoospores sense repelling signaling molecules in maize seed exudates that weaken and strongly inhibit chemotaxis signals in the phosphatidylinositol signaling pathway and arachidonic acid metabolism pathway. Common bean seed exudates did not exhibit any attraction to the zoospores because the guanine nucleotide-binding protein signaling pathway, which is responsible for transmitting chemotactic signals, had no significant change. The proteins protecting the cell membrane structure were significantly downregulated, and the early apoptosis signal glutathione was enhanced in zoospores responding to common bean seed exudates, which resulted in dissolution of the cysts. Maize and common bean seed exudates mediate part of the nonhost resistance to P. sojae via different mechanisms before infection. The immunity of maize to P. sojae is caused by the repellent effect of maize seed exudates on zoospores. Common bean seed exudates participate in mediating nonhost resistance by dissolving the cysts.

Combination of Developmental Behaviors and Transcriptome Reveals Differential Response Mechanisms of Phytophthora sojae to Aspartic Acid and Glucose in Seed Exudates.

Isoflavones in soybean seed and root exudates are host-specific signal molecules for Phytophthora sojae to recognize host soybean. G protein and calcium signaling pathway are involved in the chemotaxis of zoospores in the recognition of isoflavones. To investigate the role of host nonspecific signaling molecules (sugars and amino acids) in seed and root exudates in zoospore chemotaxis and mycelial growth, the transcriptome of P. sojae responding to aspartic acid (Asp) and glucose (Glc) was analyzed by the RNA-seq method. We found that the relative in situ concentrations of amino acids and sugars significantly promoted zoospore chemotaxis, as do isoflavones. Transcriptomics showed that both similarity and difference existed in response mechanisms of P. sojae to Asp and Glc. Asp and Glc activated mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathway and phosphatidylinositol signaling system but not G-protein signaling pathway, which have been reported to be responsible for zoospore chemotaxis. In addition, ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis and ATP binding cassette transporters were also activated by Asp and Glc. Meanwhile, glutathione signaling pathway uniquely participated in the response of P. sojae to Asp but not involved in the response process to Glc, which is waiting for further study. Our results provide new insights into the molecular mechanism of zoospore response to Asp and Glc.

Electric cyclist injury of the collision between right turn of truck and electric bicycle.

In order to focus on the injury mechanism of electric cyclists in the collision accident between right turn of truck and electric bicycle, Pc-Crash is used to value the injury of the electric cyclist in this paper. Through repeated tests in Pc-Crash, it was found that two dynamic response process were existed. The electric bicycle and cyclist collided with truck, and the electric bicycle and cyclist were thrown to the ground due to the impact force. Finally, they were crushed under certain conditions. The multi-rigid-body truck model is built on the theories of multi-rigid-body modeling and multi-rigid-body collision to get the value of the crushed part which the single rigid model can't calculate. After that, we analyze HIC, continuous 3 ms resultant acceleration of chest, the shear force of femur and leg, based on the electric bicycle speed, the mass of electric bicycle and cyclist, the height of cyclist's seat. We found that when the electric cyclist is not crushed by the truck, the value of each damage index is below the threshold. But when the cyclist is crushed by the truck, the damage index of the part where the cyclist is crushed exceeds the threshold, and causes fatal injury to the cyclist. So, reducing the possibility of crushing can improve the safety level of electric cyclists.

9.2%-efficient core-shell structured antimony selenide nanorod array solar cells.

Antimony selenide (Sb2Se3) has a one-dimensional (1D) crystal structure comprising of covalently bonded (Sb4Se6)n ribbons stacking together through van der Waals force. This special structure results in anisotropic optical and electrical properties. Currently, the photovoltaic device performance is dominated by the grain orientation in the Sb2Se3 thin film absorbers. Effective approaches to enhance the carrier collection and overall power-conversion efficiency are urgently required. Here, we report the construction of Sb2Se3 solar cells with high-quality Sb2Se3 nanorod arrays absorber along the [001] direction, which is beneficial for sun-light absorption and charge carrier extraction. An efficiency of 9.2%, which is the highest value reported so far for this type of solar cells, is achieved by junction interface engineering. Our cell design provides an approach to further improve the efficiency of Sb2Se3-based solar cells.

[Temperature-Dependent Photoluminescence Property Studies of SiN(x) Films with nc-Si].

Silicon nitride (SiN(x)) films containing nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) were deposited on crystalline silicon substrate by facing-target sputtering technique. Thermal annealing process was performed at 450 degrees C for 50 min in a conventional furnace under FG(10% H2, 90% N2) ambient. The photoluminescece (PL) properties of the SiN(x) films with nc-Si were investigated by steady/transient PL spectra measurements by Fluorescence spectrometer with different temperatures. The PL processes could be attributed to the quantum confinement effect of nc-Si and the defects in the film. The PL peak position exhibits a small blue shift with the increasing of the excitation energy, which indicates that the PL portion of the nc-Si increased with smaller size. In addition, the PL lifetime increases and the PL intensity exhibits exponential increase as a result of the decreased temperature which supressed the nonradiative recombination process and then improved the radiative recombination. The PL lifetime of the film significantly reduces with the decreasing of the detection wavelength, which indicates that the PL process related to the the quantum confinement effect strongly depends on temperature.

[The Influence of Oxygen Incorporation on the Microstructure and Band Gap Properties of the nc-Si Films].

The authors prepared nc-SiOx: H thin films using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition methods (PECVD) and investigated the influence of oxygen incorporation on the microstructure and band gap properties of the films. The results indicated that with the increase in oxygen mixing ratio (CO2/SiH4), the grain size of the nanocrystal-silicon grain as well as the crystallinity of the film reduced, and the surface tensile stress of the nanocrystal-silicon grain first increased and then decreased. Fourier infrared absorption spectra analysis indicated that, with the increase in oxygen mixing ratio, the intensity of the oxygen rich Si--O bond increased while that of the silicon rich Si--O bond decreased and the structure factor reduced in the meantime accompanied by the improved order degree of thin films. The structure factor increased when the oxygen mixing ratio exceeded 0.08, which shows that the order degree of thin films dropped. In addition, the optical gap increased and the band tail width first increased and then decreased as a result of the incorporation of the oxygen. As a result, the microstructure and band gap properties of the films can be controlled by incorporating oxygen. And the crystallinity and optical gap of the material was high, and the microstructure of the films was improved at the same time when the oxygen mixing ratio was 0. 08, so it can be used as intrinsic layer of the thin-film solar cells.

Robust block sparse discriminative classification framework.

In this paper, a block sparse discriminative classification framework (BSDC) is proposed under the assumption that a block or group structure exists in sparse coefficients on classification. First, we propose a block discriminative dictionary-learning (BDDL) algorithm, which learns class-specific subdictionaries and forces the sparse coefficients to be block sparse. An efficient gradient-based optimization strategy of BDDL also is developed, and the block sparse constraint of the sparse coefficient leads to a least-squares solution of nonzero entries in the sparse coding stage of dictionary learning. Second, to take advantage of the structures when a new test sample is given, conventional sparse coding algorithms are discarded, and structured sparse coding methods are adopted. Experiments validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework in face recognition and texture classification. We also show that BSDC is robust to noise.