Limits of cross-modal plasticity? Short-term visual deprivation does not enhance cardiac interoception, thermosensation, or tactile spatial acuity

In the present study, we investigated the effect of short-term visual deprivation on discriminative touch, cardiac interoception, and thermosensation by asking 64 healthy volunteers to perform four behavioral tasks. The experimental group contained 32 subjects who were blindfolded and kept in complete darkness for 110 minutes, while the control group consisted of 32 volunteers who were not blindfolded but were otherwise kept under identical experimental conditions. Both groups performed the required tasks three times: before and directly after deprivation (or control) and after an additional washout period of 40 minutes, in which all participants were exposed to normal light conditions. Our results showed that short-term visual deprivation had no effect on any of the senses tested. This finding suggests that short-term visual deprivation does not modulate basic bodily senses and extends this principle beyond tactile processing to the interoceptive modalities of cardiac and thermal sensations.

Sustainable and invisible anti-counterfeiting inks based on waterborne polyurethane and upconversion nanoparticles for leather products

Counterfeit leather products infringe the intellectual property rights of the business, cause enormous economic loss, and negatively influence the business enthusiasm for innovation. However, traditional anti-counterfeiting materials for leather products suffer from complicated fabrication procedures, photobleaching, and high volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions. Here, a sustainable and invisible anti-counterfeiting ink composed of waterborne polyurethane and water-dispersible lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) featuring ease of preparation, high photostability, non-toxicity, low VOC emissions, and strong adhesion strength for leather products is designed and synthesized. After decorating on the surface of leather products, the obtained patterns are invisible under normal light conditions. Upon irradiation at 808 nm, the invisible patterns can be observed by naked eyes due to the visible light emitted by 808 nm excited UCNPs. Our approach described here opens a new pathway to realize the long-term, stable anti-counterfeiting function of leather products. Graphical Abstract

Normal light dispersion in laboratory experiments

We propose a laboratory experiment on the quantitative study of the normal dispersion of light. A triangular isosceles prism made of flint glass TF3 is used as the object of study, and we describe a simple and affordable device for observing and photographing the dispersion spectrum on a smartphone. A possibility of the quantitative investigation of light dispersion is provided by using a modern miniature mercury lamp emitting a line spectrum of mercury vapour against the background of a solid spectrum of white light. The method of processing experimental results is stated.

Simulated Environmental Tests for Selected ATF Cladding Solutions

Current development on advanced technology fuel (ATF) claddings is aiming at improved high temperature integrity of new cladding solutions that are based on the existing zirconium claddings. To assess their performance for commercial use, their thorough characterization is essential. The primary requirement for the cladding materials is the ability to tolerate loss of cooling for a significant period without failing. The tests in this work were performed on different types of coated Zr-alloys in a high temperature furnace in flowing steam conditions at 1100 °C/ 60 min, 1200 °C/ 30 min and 1300 °C / 5 min. In addition, exposures were performed in pressurized water reactor (PWR) water chemistry to confirm the material viability in normal light water reactor (LWR) operating conditions. After PWR and steam tests, the exposed specimens were studied using a Zeiss Crossbeam 540 field emission gunscanning electron microscope (FEG-SEM) equipped with a semi-quantitative energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS). Most of the tested specimens indicated detached coating layer. Varying amounts of cracking in the coatings were present. Some of the cracks extended into the base material. Based on this study, further development is needed.

White Appearance for Optimal Text-Background Lightness Combination Document Layout on a Tablet Display under Normal Light Levels

In the study, two psychophysical experiments are carried out to understand the visual comfort and white appearance of a tablet display. Twenty-four observers assess the visual comfort of document layouts, and eleven observers rate the whiteness percentage of the stimulus under normal light levels with a CCT of 6500 K. The result of the experiment for visual comfort indicates that a combination of black text with a light grey background presents the better visual comfort. On the other hand, the finding of the white appearance experiment shows that the observers rate the stimulus with CCT of 6515 K and a Duv of 0 as the whitest.

Patient dose monitoring using exposure index against body mass index level on chest X-ray examination

The image quality factor is not merely a matter of whether the image is repeated or not, but also has a wide range of information and also has to maintain the protection method for the patient is the reception of the dose due to radiographic action. So it is necessary to monitor the patient's dose using the EI value. The factors that determine the EI value are the exposure factor and the thickness of the object or BMI (Body Mass Index). Exposure factors (kV and mAs) are factors that have been commonly used as patient dose monitoring, where the tube voltage is a component that changes more often with a relatively constant tube current. The study used data on patients with Thoracic examination at the age of 20-65 years which were then categorized into BMI. The analysis was carried out on the EI value contained in the radiographic image. The results showed that BMI in the normal, Light Grade Fat (LGF), Heavy Grade Fat (HGF) categories, respectively, the EI values were 1562, 1679, and 1955 for the female sex, and 1266, 1600, and 1821 for the male gender. Significantly (P?0.05) the EI value showed difference between female and male sexes.

Response To Light Intensity of Sun And Shade On Two Cool Season Turfgrass

Background: Obtaining superior performance of SupraNova and Lark C3 turfgrasses under shade conditions is a challenging task. Both durability and performance of turfgrass are significantly affected by shade. In particular, morphological and physiological adaptation to low light is critical for maintaining quality and overall performance in turfgrass plants. Results: The purpose of this study was to study the response of SupraNova and Lark turfgrass morphology and photo-physiological potential to shading. The plants of 'SupraNova' and 'Lark' were collected from the lawn plots of the Horticulture Research Center of Northeast Agricultural University of China for 2 years and treated with gradient shading 35.62% after 2 months of culture, normal light intensity 70.79 % and 93.45% with full sun as the contrast represented by CK for comparison. Lark showed TQ and TCI in shady stage compared with SupraNova. Lark showed strong resistance to MDA, H2O2, O2-, SOD, POD, CAT and AsA, indicating that the antioxidant system of C3 turfgrass at 35.6% shade level. Under 70.79% shade treatment, MDA, H2O2, O2-, SOD, POD, CAT and AsA of the two cultivars decreased the most, and the longer the shading time, the average daily growth of the two turfgrasses increased first and then decreased. Lark outperformed SupraNova throughout the shading treatment, with 70.79% and 93.45%, respectively. Lark showed increased Chl A and Chl (A/B) in response to different shading levels, while SupraNova had the highest concentrations of Chl B and total Chl. Chlorophyll fluorescence qP, ETR, and Fv/Fm decreased significantly when shaded at 93.45%;Conclusion: The results of this study proved that decrease was more significant in SupraNova than Lark, and shading caused more severe changes in leaf morphology and anatomical structure than Lark turfgrass has the highest negative tolerance than SupraNova turfgrass, which is due to the better photosynthetic product transport capacity of Lark plants. In its anatomical structure, and" vascular bundle sheath structure, which enables it to have higher photosynthetic efficiency to adapt to negative stress. SupraNova and Lark first increased and then decreased with the increase of shade degree

Response of Lignin Metabolism to Light Quality in Wheat Population

The low red/far-red (R/FR) light proportion at the base of the high-density wheat population leads to poor stem quality and increases lodging risk. We used Shannong 23 and Shannong 16 as the test materials. By setting three-light quality treatments: normal light (CK), red light (RL), and far-red light (FRL), we irradiated the base internodes of the stem with RL and FRL for 7h. Our results showed that RL irradiation enhanced stem quality, as revealed by increased breaking strength, stem diameter, wall thickness and, dry weight per unit length, and the total amount of lignin and related gene expression increased, at the same time. The composition of lignin subunits was related to the lodging resistance of wheat. The proportion of S+G subunits and H subunits played a key role in wheat lodging resistance. RL could increase the content of S subunits and G subunits and the proportion of S+G subunits, reduce the proportion of H subunits. We described here, to the best of our knowledge, the systematic study of the mechanism involved in the regulation of stem breaking strength by light quality, particularly the effect of light quality on lignin biosynthesis and its relationship with lodging resistance in wheat.

Functional Characterization of Lycopene Epsilon-Cyclase Genes in Nicotiana Tabacum

Background:Lycopene epsilon-cyclase (ε-LCY) is a key enzyme in the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway (CBP) of higher plants. In previous work, we cloned two Ntε-LCY genes from allotetraploid tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), Ntε-LCY2 and Ntε-LCY1, and demonstrated the overall effect of Ntε-LCY genes on carotenoid biosynthesis and stress resistance. However, their genetic and functional characteristics require further research in polyploid plants.Results: Here, we used CRISPR/Cas9 to obtain Ntε-LCY2 and Ntε-LCY1 mutants in allotetraploid N.tabacum K326. Ntε-LCY2 and Ntε-LCY1 had similar promoter cis-acting elements, including light-responsive elements. The Ntε-LCY genes were expressed in roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and young fruit, and their highest expression levels were found in leaves. Ntε-LCY2 and Ntε-LCY1 genes responded differently to normal light and high light stress. Both the Ntε-LCY2 and the Ntε-LCY1 mutants had a more rapid leaf growth rate, especially ntε-lcy2-1. The expression levels of CBP genes were increased in the ntε-lcy mutants, and their total carotenoid content was higher. Under both normal light and high light stress, the ntε-lcy mutants had higher photosynthetic capacities and heat dissipation levels than the wild type, and this was especially true of ntε-lcy2-1. The reactive oxygen species content was lower in leaves of the ntε-lcy mutants.Conclusion: In summary, the expression patterns and biological functions of the Ntε-LCY genes Ntε-LCY1 and Ntε-LCY2 differed in several respects. The mutation of Ntε-LCY2 was associated with a greater increase in the content of chlorophyll and various carotenoid components, and it enhanced the stress resistance of tobacco plants under high light.

Enhance Image as You Like with Unpaired Learning

Low-light image enhancement exhibits an ill-posed nature, as a given image may have many enhanced versions, yet recent studies focus on building a deterministic mapping from input to an enhanced version. In contrast, we propose a lightweight one-path conditional generative adversarial network (cGAN) to learn a one-to-many relation from low-light to normal-light image space, given only sets of low- and normal-light training images without any correspondence. By formulating this ill-posed problem as a modulation code learning task, our network learns to generate a collection of enhanced images from a given input conditioned on various reference images. Therefore our inference model easily adapts to various user preferences, provided with a few favorable photos from each user. Our model achieves competitive visual and quantitative results on par with fully supervised methods on both noisy and clean datasets, while being 6 to 10 times lighter than state-of-the-art generative adversarial networks (GANs) approaches.