Quantitative analysis of asymmetrical cortical activity in motor areas during sequential finger movement

Brain asymmetry is a phenomenon well known for handedness and has been studied in motor cortices. However, few quantitative studies on asymmetrical cortical activity in motor areas have been conducted. In this study, we systematically investigated asymmetrical cortical activity in motor areas during sequential finger movement by quantitatively analyzing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) responses. The norm of BOLD signal percentage of change was introduced to quantitatively measure the BOLD signal intensity change difference between the left and right motor areas. The results of the data collected from six subjects show that the norm of BOLD signal percentage of change in the right motor area is higher than that in the left motor area for two-hand movement (P=.0059) and single-hand movement (P=.0279) with right-handedness. These results from fMRI show the asymmetry of motor areas and may suggest that the left hemisphere motor area comes into being as an adaptation system that needs few neuron cells only to finish any movement task for right-handedness. The activation intensity in the left motor area is reduced with normal right finger movement. The activation intensity in the right motor area is obviously higher than that in the left motor area.     

Microalgae separation by inertia-enhanced pinched flow fractionation

To improve the accuracy and efficiency of ships’ ballast water detection, the separation of microalgae according to size is significant. In this article, a method to separate microalgae based on inertia-enhanced pinched flow fractionation (iPFF) was reported. The method utilized the inertial lift force induced by flow to separate microalgae according to size continuously. The experimental results show that, as the Reynolds number increases, the separation effect becomes better at first, but then stays unchanged. The best separation effect can be obtained when the Reynolds number is 12.3. In addition, with the increase of the flow rate ratio between sheath fluid and microalgae mixture, the separation effect becomes better and the best separation effect can be obtained when the flow rate ratio reaches 10. In this case, the recovery rate of Tetraselmis sp. is about 90%, and the purity is about 86%; the recovery rate of Chlorella sp. is as high as 99%, and the purity is about 99%. After that, the separation effect keeps getting better but very slowly. In general, this study provides a simple method for the separation of microalgae with different sizes, and lays a foundation for the accurate detection of microalgae in the ballast water.     

Back contact–absorber interface modification by inserting carbon intermediate layer and conversion efficiency improvement in Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 solar cell

Carbon layers have been employed as intermediate layers between Mo back contact and Cu₂ZnSn(S_1–xSe_x)₄(CZTSSe) absorber film prepared by sol–gel and post‐selenization method. Carbon layers with appropriate thickness can significantly inhibit the formation of MoSe₂ and voids at bottom region of the absorber, and therefore reduce the series resistance remarkably. The conversion efficiency can be boosted by the introducing of the carbon layer from 6.20% to 7.24% by enhancement in short current density, fill factor and open voltage in comparison to the reference sample without carbon layer. However, excess thickness of carbon layer will worse device performance due to the deteriorated absorber crystallinity. In addition, the time‐resolved photoluminescence analysis shows that inserting the carbon layer with suitable thickness does not introduce recombination and lower minority lifetime. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Phase transitions in a holographic s $$$$ p model with back-reaction

In a previous paper (Nie et al. in JHEP 1311:087, arXiv:1309.2204 [hep-th], 2013), we presented a holographic s \(+\) p superconductor model with a scalar triplet charged under an SU(2) gauge field in the bulk. We also study the competition and coexistence of the s-wave and p-wave orders in the probe limit. In this work we continue to study the model by considering the full back-reaction. The model shows a rich phase structure and various condensate behaviors such as the “n-type” and “u-type” ones, which are also known as reentrant phase transitions in condensed matter physics. The phase transitions to the p-wave phase or s \(+\) p coexisting phase become first order in strong back-reaction cases. In these first order phase transitions, the free energy curve always forms a swallow tail shape, in which the unstable s \(+\) p solution can also play an important role. The phase diagrams of this model are given in terms of the dimension of the scalar order and the temperature in the cases of eight different values of the back-reaction parameter, which show that the region for the s \(+\) p coexisting phase is enlarged with a small or medium back-reaction parameter but is reduced in the strong back-reaction cases.     

Magnolol and honokiol included green emissive terbium sol–gel materials and their recognition behaviors

Magnolol and honokiol as pharmaceutical ligands have been introduced into terbium complex systems for the first time and two hybrid organic–inorganic materials were successfully prepared. Both of them can sensitize terbium characteristic green emission effectively based on intra-molecular energy transfer channel. Moreover, they selectively recognized Cu²⁺ and Fe³⁺ through luminescence quenching effects. The photophysical properties and morphological structures were extensively investigated.     

A Complete Switch of the Directional Selectivity in the Annulation of 2‐Hydroxybenzaldehydes with Alkynes

Controlling reaction selectivity is an eternal pursuit for chemists working in chemical synthesis. As part of this endeavor, our group has been exploring the possibility of constructing different natural product skeletons from the same simple starting materials by using different catalytic systems. In our previous work, an isoflavanone skeleton was obtained from the annulation of a salicylaldehyde and an alkyne when a gold catalyst was employed. In this paper, it is shown that a coumarin skeleton can be efficiently obtained through an annulation reaction with the same starting materials, that is, terminal alkynes and salicylaldehydes, by simply switching to a rhodium catalyst. A plausible reaction mechanism is proposed for this new annulation based on isotopic substitution experiments.