Background: Neonatal Arterial Ischemic Stroke (NAIS) is a common form of paediatric stroke often affecting classical language areas. The post-stroke reorganization of functional language networks may provide insight into later-emerging language deficits and may help to identify at-risk children with NAIS. Methods: A cross-sectional study of fourteen children with left (n=8; 2M; 11.1±2.2 years) or right (n=6; 3M; 12.4±4 years) middle cerebral artery (MCA) NAIS, as well as seven neurotypical children (5M; 13.4±2.7 years), was conducted. Children listened to correct/incorrect syntactic sentences while MEG was recorded, and task-related functional connectivity in the time window and frequency band of interest was determined. Language outcomes were assessed using a battery of neuropsychological tests. Results: A network-based analysis of syntactic language processing (4-7 Hz, 1.2-1.4s) revealed a dysfunctional bilateral frontal-temporal network involving language areas in patients (p=0.01). Patients with right-MCA stroke exhibited a positive correlation between left hemispheric connectivity and measures of language skill (p<0.01), resembling the neurotypical children. In left-MCA stroke patients, greater bilateral connectivity or right laterality in the language network is correlated with good outcome (p<0.05). Conclusions: Depending on the hemispheric location of stroke, certain patterns of language network reorganization may account for impairments in a bilateral frontal-temporal language subnetwork and support language outcome.

In this article, Si nanoparticle (NP) films were prepared by pulsed laser ablation (PLA) in the argon atmosphere of 10 Pa at room temperature under different pulse repetition rates from 1 to 40 Hz without the baffle. Different from the conventional PLA method, the substrates were placed below and parallel to the ablated plume axis. The obtained films containing NPs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectrometer. The experimental results under constant laser fluence demonstrate the strong dependence of the mean size and the area number density of NPs on the repetition rate. Specifically, with the increase of pulse repetition rate, the mean size of the NPs in the film first decreases and reaches its minimum at 20 Hz, and then increases after 20 Hz, and decreases again till 40 Hz. The area number density shows the contrary trend versus mean size. The in situ diagnostic results of Langmuir probe denote the ablated Si ion density increases monotonously with the increase of repetition rate, while the temperature is almost constant. Combining with the nucleation probability, the growth/aggregation duration of NPs in the “nucleation region” and the effect of the baffle, the influence of pulse repetition rate on the formation of NPs is addressed. It is found that the repetition rate impacts the growth modes of NPs (i.e., growth and aggregation). 1–20, 20–30, and 30–40 Hz, respectively, correspond to growth-, aggregation-, and growth-controlled rate ranges without the baffle; however, 1–10, 10–20, and 20–40 Hz, respectively, correspond to growth-controlled, aggregation/growth-coexisted, and aggregation-controlled rate ranges with the baffle.

The COllaborative project of Development of Anthropometrical measures in Twins (CODATwins) project is a large international collaborative effort to analyze individual-level phenotype data from twins in multiple cohorts from different environments. The main objective is to study factors that modify genetic and environmental variation of height, body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) and size at birth, and additionally to address other research questions such as long-term consequences of birth size. The project started in 2013 and is open to all twin projects in the world having height and weight measures on twins with information on zygosity. Thus far, 54 twin projects from 24 countries have provided individual-level data. The CODATwins database includes 489,981 twin individuals (228,635 complete twin pairs). Since many twin cohorts have collected longitudinal data, there is a total of 1,049,785 height and weight observations. For many cohorts, we also have information on birth weight and length, own smoking behavior and own or parental education. We found that the heritability estimates of height and BMI systematically changed from infancy to old age. Remarkably, only minor differences in the heritability estimates were found across cultural–geographic regions, measurement time and birth cohort for height and BMI. In addition to genetic epidemiological studies, we looked at associations of height and BMI with education, birth weight and smoking status. Within-family analyses examined differences within same-sex and opposite-sex dizygotic twins in birth size and later development. The CODATwins project demonstrates the feasibility and value of international collaboration to address gene-by-exposure interactions that require large sample sizes and address the effects of different exposures across time, geographical regions and socioeconomic status.

The bird cherry-oat aphid Rhopalosiphum padi (L.) is one of the most important wheat pests with polyphagia and autumn migrants. And, chemosensory genes were thought to play a key role in insect searching their hosts, food and mate. However, a systematic identification of the chemosensory genes in this pest has not been reported. Thus, in this study, we identified 14 odorant-binding proteins, nine chemosensory proteins, one sensory neuron membrane protein, 15 odorant receptors, 19 gustatory receptors and 16 ionotropic receptors from R. padi transcriptomes with a significantly similarity (E-value < 10−5) to known chemosensory genes in Acyrthosiphon pisum and Aphis gossypii. In addition, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was employed to determine the expression profiles of obtained genes. Among these obtained genes, we selected 23 chemosensory genes to analyze their expression patterns in different tissues, wing morphs and host plants. We found that except RpOBP1, RpOBP3, RpOBP4 and RpOBP5, the rest of the selected genes were highly expressed in the head with antennae compared with body without head and antennae. Besides that, the stimulation and depression of chemosensory genes by plant switch indicated that chemosensory genes might be involved in the plant suitability assessment. These results not only provide insights for the potential roles of chemosensory genes in plant search and perception of R. padi but also provide initial background information for the further research on the molecular mechanism of the polyphagia and autumn migrants of it. Furthermore, these chemosensory genes are also the candidate targets for pest management control in future.

Galeruca daurica (Joannis) is a new outbreak pest in the Inner Mongolia grasslands in northern China. Heat shock protein 10 and 60 (Hsp10 and Hsp60) genes of G. daurica, designated as GdHsp10 and GdHsp60, were cloned by rapid amplification of cDNA ends techniques. Sequence analysis showed that GdHsp10 and GdHsp60 encoded polypeptides of 104 and 573 amino acids, respectively. Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis clearly revealed that the amino acids of GdHsp10 and GdHsp60 had high homology and were clustered with other Hsp10 and Hsp60 genes in insects which are highly relative with G. daurica based on morphologic taxonomy. The mRNA expression analysis by real-time PCR revealed that GdHsp10 and GdHsp60 were expressed at all development stages and in all tissues examined, but expressed highest in eggs and in adults’ abdomen; both heat and cold stresses could induce mRNA expression of GdHsp10 and GdHsp60 in the 2nd instar larvae; the two Hsp genes were expressed from high to low with the extension of treatment time in G. daurica eggs exposed to freezing point. Overall, our study provides useful information to understand temperature stress responses of Hsp60 and Hsp10 in G. daurica, and provides a basis to further study functions of Hsp60/Hsp10 relative to thermotolerance and cold hardiness mechanism.

Miniature pigs have been recognized as valuable experimental animals in medical research. However, porcine models related to gene knockout of human diseases are not widely available. The objective of this study was to establish Mx1-Cre pigs using somatic cell nuclear transfer. In this study, we created transgenic pigs using somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). Transfer of 210, 230, 250 and 215 zygotes to four surrogates produced 10 piglets. The Cre recombinase expression in transgenic pigs was studied using reverse transcriptase (RT)-PCR and immunohistochemistry. Mx1-Cre swine were shown to harbor the Cre gene in their genomic DNA using the PCR. In conclusion, Mx1-Cre transgenic piglets were successfully produced by SCNT. These transgenic swine, in conjunction with inducible systems for controlling Cre expression and function, are likely to have a profound impact on the study of human diseases.

High purity Ni films from 200Å down to 40Å on p-type Si (100) substrates are treated by rapid thermal annealing to form the metastable and stable phases of nickel silicides. The stoichiometric composition of NiSi determined by Rutherford backscattering is independent of the initial Ni thickness under 500°C annealing. Channeling RBS results reveal that the NiSi growth on Si (100) has no preferred orientation. The sheet resistance as well as surface roughness of thinner films starts to increase at a lower temperature, indicating that thinner films are thermally less stable. Agglomeration of NiSi film agrees with the grain boundary grooving model and occurs more easily within thinner films. The transformation from the NiSi phase to the NiSi2 phase is studied by micro-Raman spectroscopy. This phase transition of thinner films begins at a lower temperature than that of thicker ones.

Tungsten oxide (WOx) films were fabricated by (i) reactive thermal evaporation (RTE) at room temperature with oxygen ambient pressure PO2 as a parameter, and (ii) reactive magnetron sputtering (RMS) with substrate temperature Ts as a parameter. The film structure revealed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, density measurements, infrared absorption, and atomic force microscopy was correlated with the nanoindentation hardness H. The RTE WOx films deposited at high Po2 were amorphous and porous, while H depended appreciably on normalized penetration depth hD (indentation depth/film thickness) due to the closing of the pores at the point of indentation. Decrease in Po2 from 10 to 2 × 10−3 mtorr led to smaller porosity, weaker hD dependence of H, and higher average H (measured at hD ≈ 0.2 to 0.3, for example). The RMS WOx film deposited at room temperature was amorphous and denser than all RTE films. The rise in substrate temperature Ts first densified the film structure (up to 110 °C) and then induced crystallization with larger grain size for Ts ≥ 300 °C. Correspondingly, the hD dependence of H became weaker. In particular, H of the RMS sample deposited at 110 °C showed a peak at hD slightly above 1 owing to pileup at the contact point of indentation. For higher Ts, pileup occurred at shallower hD and the average H (measured at hD ≈ 0.2 to 0.3, for example) rose, accompanied by the increase of grain size.

Amorphous carbon nitride films (a-CNx) were synthesized by using single ion beam sputtering of a graphite target in argon and nitrogen sputtering gases. This thin film could be used as a novel photovoltaic material. The films were characterized with the technique of laser Raman, spectroscopic ellipsometry and electron spin resonance spectrometer (ESR). In this paper we report the effects of ion impacting and nitrogenation on the microstructure, density of defect states, bonding character, optical and photovoltaic properties. Effective decreasing of intensity of the ESR signal and formation of C-N bonding were observed, which could be attributed to the increment of the impinging ions on the growing films. The nitrogenation of a-CNx films could decrease the Tauc optical gap (0.62∼0.86eV) and the intensity of ESR signal, increase photon absorption coefficient of the films (106∼104cm−1).

The primary photovoltaic values of the devices having Schottky structure of ITO/CNx/Al are Isc 1.56 μ A/cm2 and Voc 250 mV, respectively, when exposed to AM1.5 illumination ( 100mW/cm2, 25°C).

Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) investigation of tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) and the related C60-TCNQ thin films is presented. Periodic molecular chains of the TCNQ on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) substrates were imaged, which demonstrated that the crystalline (001) plane was parallel to the substrate. For the C60-TCNQ thin films, we found that there were grains on the film surface. STM images within the grain revealed that the well-ordered rows and terraces, and the parallel rows in different grains were generally not in the same orientation. Moreover, the grain boundary was also observed. In addition, AFM was employed to modify the organic TCNQ film surface for the application of this type of materials to information recording and storage at the nanometer scale. The nanometer holes were successfully created on the TCNQ thin film by the AFM.

N-(3-nitrobenzylidene)-p-phenylenediamine (NBPDA) was used as ultrahigh density data storage medium by scanning tunneling microscope (STM) technique. Data marks of 1.4nm in diameter were written by applying voltage pulses between the STM tip and the substrate. Structures of single crystal and thin films were characterized by IR, UV–Vis, XRD, STM and verified by DFT quantum chemical calculation.

We report the electrical bistability of C60-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) thin films fabricated by using an ionized-cluster-beam method in a high vacuum system. The films were characterized by transmission electron microscopy and electronic absorption spectroscopy. The spectroscopic results showed evidence of the formation of the charge-transfer complex system in C60-TCNQ thin films, and the TEM results revealed the microstructure of the films. The film thickness is ∼100 nm. The electromotive intensity at the transition point was of the order of 106 V/m. The possible mechanism of the electrical phenomena of the films is discussed in the paper.