Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by severe deficits with facial identity recognition. It is unclear which cortical areas contribute to face processing ...deficits in DP, and no previous studies have investigated whether other category-selective areas function normally in DP. To address these issues, we scanned 22 DPs and 27 controls using a dynamic localizer consisting of video clips of faces, scenes, bodies, objects, and scrambled objects. We then analyzed category selectivity, a measure of the tuning of a cortical area to a particular visual category. DPs exhibited reduced face selectivity in all 12 face areas, and the reductions were significant in three posterior and two anterior areas. DPs and controls showed similar responses to faces in other category-selective areas, which suggests the DPs’ behavioral deficits with faces result from problems restricted to the face network. DPs also had pronounced scene-selectivity reductions in four of six scene-selective areas and marginal body-selectivity reductions in two of four body-selective areas. Our results demonstrate that DPs have widespread deficits throughout the face network, and they are inconsistent with a leading account of DP which proposes that posterior face-selective areas are normal in DP. The selectivity reductions in other category-selective areas indicate many DPs have deficits spread across high-level visual cortex.
Electronic skins have received increasing attention in biomedical areas. Current efforts about electronic skins are focused on the development of multifunctional materials to improve their ...performance. Here, the authors propose a novel natural‐synthetic polymers composite structural color hydrogel film with high stretchability, flexibility, conductivity, and superior self‐reporting ability to construct ideal multiple‐signal bionic electronic skins. The composite hydrogel film is prepared by using the mixture of polyacrylamide (PAM), silk fibroin (SF), poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene):poly (4‐styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS, PP), and graphene oxide (GO) to replicate colloidal crystal templates and construct inverse opal scaffolds, followed by subsequent acid treatment. Due to these specific structures and components, the resultant film is imparted with vivid structural color and high conductivity while retaining the composite hydrogel's original stretchability and flexibility. The authors demonstrate that the composite hydrogel film has obvious color variation and electromechanical properties during the stretching and bending process, which could thus be utilized as a multi‐signal response electronic skin to realize real‐time color sensing and electrical response during human motions. These features indicate that the proposed composite structural color hydrogel film can widen the practical value of bionic electronic skins.
A stretchable and conductive composite structural color hydrogel film with superior self‐reporting ability can be utilized as an intelligent multiple‐signal bionic electronic skin. The composite hydrogel film exhibits obvious color and electrical variation during the stretching and bending process, which makes it feasible to realize real‐time color sensing and electrical response during human motions.
In recent decades, artificial nerve scaffolds have become a promising substitute for peripheral nerve repair. Considerable efforts have been devoted to improving the therapeutic effectiveness of ...artificial scaffolds. Among numerous biomaterials for tissue engineering scaffolds fabrication, natural polymers are considered as tremendous candidates because of their excellent biocompatibility, low toxicity, high cell affinity, wide source, and environmental protection. With the development of engineering technology, a variety of natural polymer‐derived nerve scaffolds have emerged, which are endowed with biological properties and appropriate physicochemical performances to gradually adapt to the needs of nerve regeneration. Significantly, the intergradation of exogenous biomolecules onto the artificial scaffolds is able to avoid low stability, rapid degradation, and redistribution of direct therapeutic drugs in vivo, thereby enhancing nerve regeneration and functional reconstruction. Here, the development of nerve scaffolds derived from natural polymers, and their applications in continuous administration and peripheral nerve regeneration are comprehensively and carefully reviewed, providing an advanced perspective of the field.
Natural polymers‐derived nerve scaffolds possess unique biological properties and appropriate physicochemical characteristics, performing positive effects on promoting nerve regeneration. Especially, the integration of exogenous biomolecules into scaffolds can avoid the limitations of direct drug administration, thereby improving the therapeutic outcomes. The development of natural polymer‐derived nerve scaffolds is reviewed, emphasizing their applications in drug delivery and peripheral nerve regeneration.
To fully exploit the microbial genome resources, a high-throughput experimental platform is needed to associate genes with phenotypes at the genome level. We present here a novel method that enables ...investigation of the cellular consequences of repressing individual transcripts based on the CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) pooled screening in bacteria. We identify rules for guide RNA library design to handle the unique structure of prokaryotic genomes by tiling screening and construct an E. coli genome-scale guide RNA library (~60,000 members) accordingly. We show that CRISPRi outperforms transposon sequencing, the benchmark method in the microbial functional genomics field, when similar library sizes are used or gene length is short. This tool is also effective for mapping phenotypes to non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), as elucidated by a comprehensive tRNA-fitness map constructed here. Our results establish CRISPRi pooled screening as a powerful tool for mapping complex prokaryotic genetic networks in a precise and high-throughput manner.
Quantitatively and accurately monitoring the damage to composites is critical for estimating the remaining life of structures and determining whether maintenance is essential. This paper proposed an ...active sensing method for damage localization and quantification in composite plates. The probabilistic imaging algorithm and the statistical method were introduced to reduce the impact of composite anisotropy on the accuracy of damage detection. The matching pursuit decomposition (MPD) algorithm was utilized to extract the precise TOF for damage detection. The damage localization was realized by comprehensively evaluating the damage probability evaluation results of all sensing paths in the monitoring area. Meanwhile, the scattering source was recognized on the elliptical trajectory obtained through the TOF of each sensing path to estimate the damage size. Damage size was characterized by the Gaussian kernel probability density distribution of scattering sources. The algorithm was validated by through-thickness hole damages of various locations and sizes in composite plates. The experimental results demonstrated that the localization and quantification absolute error are within 11 mm and 2.2 mm, respectively, with a sensor spacing of 100 mm. The algorithm proposed in this paper can accurately locate and quantify damage in composite plate-like structures.
In this work, one-dimensional (1D) NiCo
2
S
4
nanotubes with sulfur vacancies (Vc-NiCo
2
S
4
) were designed effectively via the electrostatic spinning and chemical bath deposition (CBD) process. ...As-spun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers containing surfactant were taken as hard templates. Through the in-situ growth and etching process, NiCo
2
S
4
nanotubes covered with a large number of nanosheets were generated. Sulfur vacancies were introduced by the following chemical reduction. The influence of defects was systematically discussed through structure analyses and electrochemical properties. As-obtained Vc-NiCo
2
S
4
not only maintains the original hierarchical nanotube characteristic, but also boost the electrochemical behaviors. Due to the defect treatment, Vc-NiCo
2
S
4
nanotubes have a higher specific capacity (1046 F g
−1
at a current density of 1 A g
−1
) and enhanced rate capability. A symmetrical supercapacitor (SSCs) device assembled by Vc-NiCo
2
S
4
nanotubes displays a high energy density of 31.8 Wh kg
−1
at the power density of 260 W kg
−1
. These results indicate that the construction of 1D hierarchical nanotubes and sulfur vacancies could provide effective strategy to promote the performance of supercapacitors.
Graphical abstract
1D NiCo
2
S
4
hierarchical nanotubes were prepared by employing PAN nanofibers as sacrificial templates. The Vc-NiCo
2
S
4
nanotubes after NaBH
4
reduction maintain the original morphology and optimize the electrochemical activities. Vc-NiCo
2
S
4
with sulfur vacancies exhibits enhanced electrochemical performance.
Face-selective cortical areas that can be divided into a ventral stream and a dorsal stream. Previous findings indicate selective attention to particular aspects of faces have different effects on ...the two streams. To better understand the organization of the face network and whether deficits in attentional modulation contribute to developmental prosopagnosia (DP), we assessed the effect of selective attention to different face aspects across eight face-selective areas. Our results from normal participants found that ROIs in the ventral pathway (OFA, FFA) responded strongly when attention was directed to identity and expression, and ROIs in the dorsal pathway (pSTS-FA, IFG-FA) responded the most when attention was directed to facial expression. Response profiles generated by attention to different face aspects were comparable in DPs and normals. Our results demonstrate attentional modulation affects the ventral and dorsal steam face areas differently and indicate deficits in attentional modulation do not contribute to DP.
Nickel-iron sulfide has shown attractive activity in electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). However, the effects of low valence sulfur (S
2−
) and metal species on OER in binary ...nickel-iron sulfide have rarely been systematically studied. Works based on post-catalysis characterization have led to the assumption that the real active species are nickel-iron oxyhydroxide, and that nickel-iron sulfide acts only as a precatalyst. Therefore, to study the role of S, Ni, and Fe for the development of nickel-iron sulfide catalyst is of self-evident importance. Herein, a facile solvothermal method is used to synthesize acetylene black coated with nickel-iron sulfide nanosheets. Electrochemical tests show that the presence of low valence S species makes the catalyst have faster OER kinetics, larger active area, and intermediate active species adsorption area. Therefore, the present study reveals the enhancing effect of low valence sulfur species (S
2−
) on OER in binary nickel-iron sulfide.
In situ
Raman spectroscopy shows that the generation of γ-NiOOH intermediate is essential and Fe does not directly participate in the oxygen production. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation shows that Ni-OH deprotonation is a rate-determining step for both binary nickel-iron sulfide and nickel sulfide. The addition of Fe into NiS
x
lightly increases the charge transfer of Ni atom to O atom, which makes deprotonation easier and thereby improves the OER performance.
Upright face perception is thought to involve holistic processing, whereby local features are integrated into a unified whole. Consistent with this view, the top half of one face appears to fuse ...perceptually with the bottom half of another, when aligned spatially and presented upright. This ‘composite face effect’ reveals a tendency to integrate information from disparate regions when faces are presented canonically. In recent years, the relationship between susceptibility to the composite effect and face recognition ability has received extensive attention both in participants with normal face recognition and participants with developmental prosopagnosia. Previous results suggest that individuals with developmental prosopagnosia may show reduced susceptibility to the effect suggestive of diminished holistic face processing. Here we describe two studies that examine whether developmental prosopagnosia is associated with reduced composite face effects. Despite using independent samples of developmental prosopagnosics and different composite procedures, we find no evidence for reduced composite face effects. The experiments yielded similar results; highly significant composite effects in both prosopagnosic groups that were similar in magnitude to the effects found in participants with normal face processing. The composite face effects exhibited by both samples and the controls were greatly diminished when stimulus arrangements were inverted. Our finding that the whole-face binding process indexed by the composite effect is intact in developmental prosopagnosia indicates that other factors are responsible for developmental prosopagnosia. These results are also inconsistent with suggestions that susceptibility to the composite face effect and face recognition ability are tightly linked. While the holistic process revealed by the composite face effect may be necessary for typical face perception, it is not sufficient; individual differences in face recognition ability likely reflect variability in multiple sequential processes.
Electronic skins with distinctive features have attracted remarkable attention from researchers because of their promising applications in flexible electronics. Here, we present novel morphologically ...conductive hydrogel microfibers with MXene encapsulation by using a multi-injection coflow glass capillary microfluidic chip. The coaxial flows in microchannels together with fast gelation between alginate and calcium ions ensure the formation of hollow straight as well as helical microfibers and guarantee the
encapsulation of MXene. The resultant hollow straight and helical MXene hydrogel microfibers were with highly controllable morphologies and package features. Benefiting from the easy manipulation of the microfluidics, the structure compositions and the sizes of MXene hydrogel microfibers could be easily tailored by varying different flow rates. It was demonstrated that these morphologically conductive MXene hydrogel microfibers were with outstanding capabilities of sensitive responses to motion and photothermal stimulations, according to their corresponding resistance changes. Thus, we believe that our morphologically conductive MXene hydrogel microfibers with these excellent features will find important applications in smart flexible electronics especially electronic skins.
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