White matter (WM) asymmetries of the human brain have been well documented using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). However, the relationship between WM asymmetry pattern and cognitive performance is poorly understood. By means of tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) and voxel-based analyses of whole brain, this study examined the WM asymmetries and the correlations between WM integrity/asymmetries and three distinct components of attention, namely alerting, orienting, and executive control (EC), which were assessed by attention network test (ANT). We revealed a number of WM anisotropy asymmetries, including leftward asymmetry of cingulum, corticospinal tract and cerebral peduncle, rightward asymmetry of internal capsule, superior longitudinal fasciculus and posterior corona radiata, as well as heterogeneous asymmetries in anterior corpus callosum and anterior corona radiata (ACR). Moreover, specific correlation was found between asymmetric pattern of inferior frontal ACR and EC performance. Additionally, this study also proposed that there were no significant relationships of WM anisotropy asymmetries to alerting and orienting functions. Further clusters of interest analyses and probabilistic fiber tracking validated our findings. In conclusion, there are a number of differences in WM integrity between human brain hemispheres. Specially, the anisotropy asymmetry in inferior frontal ACR plays a crucial role in EC function. Our finding is supportive of the functional studies of inferior frontal regions and in keeping with the theory of the brain lateralization on human ventral attention system.

With compelling virtues of a large specific surface area, abundant active sites, and fast interfacial transport, nanomaterials have been demonstrated to be indispensable tools for water remediation applications. Accordingly, micro/nanomotors made by nanomaterials would also benefit from these properties. Though tuning the surface architecture on demand becomes a hot topic in the field of nanomaterials, there are still limited reports on the design of active surface architectures in chemically driven tubular micro/nanomachines. Here, a unique architecture composed of a fish-scale-like intercalated (FSI) surface structure and an active layer with 5 nm nanoparticles is constructed, which composes of Fe 2 O 3 and ramsdellite MnO 2 , Mn 2 O 3 , in the tubular micromotor using a versatile electrodeposition protocol. Tailoring the electrodeposition parameters enables us to modulate the active MnO 2 surface structure on demand, giving rise to a pronounced propulsion performance and catalytic activity. Upon exposure to the azo-dye waste solution, the degradation efficacy greatly raises by around 22.5% with FSI micromotor treatment when compared to the normal compact motors, owing to the synergistic effect between the Fe-related Fenton reaction and a large catalytic area offered by the hierarchically rough inner surface. Such unique micromachines with a large active surface area have great potential for environmental and biomedical applications.

Both neuropsychological and functional neuroimaging studies have identified that the posterior parietal lobe (PPL) is critical for the attention function. However, the unique role of distinct parietal cortical subregions and their underlying white matter (WM) remains in question. In this study, we collected both magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data in normal participants, and evaluated their attention performance using attention network test (ANT), which could isolate three different attention components: alerting, orienting and executive control. Cortical thickness, surface area and DTI parameters were extracted from predefined PPL subregions and correlated with behavioural performance. Tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) was used for the voxel-wise statistical analysis. Results indicated structure-behaviour relationships on multiple levels. First, a link between the cortical thickness and WM integrity of the right inferior parietal regions and orienting performance was observed. Specifically, probabilistic tractography demonstrated that the integrity of WM connectivity between the bilateral inferior parietal lobules mediated the orienting performance. Second, the scores of executive control were significantly associated with the WM diffusion metrics of the right supramarginal gyrus. Finally, TBSS analysis revealed that alerting performance was significant correlated with the fractional anisotropy of local WM connecting the right thalamus and supplementary motor area. We conclude that distinct areas and features within PPL are associated with different components of attention. These findings could yield a more complete understanding of the nature of the PPL contribution to visuospatial attention.

Our study for the first time demonstrated a significant correlation between HS ILAE types and long-term postoperative seizure outcome in patients with MTLE due to HS. Therefore, HS ILAE types have predictive value in long-term seizure outcome following epilepsy surgery.

Microrobots that could perform precise manipulations in micro/nano scales have attracted a tremendous recent attention towards past decades for helping human beings to explore Dynamic assembly and cooperation represent future frontiers for next generations of advanced micro/nano robots, but the required local interaction and communication cannot be directly translated from macroscale robots through the minimization because of tremendous technological challenges. Here, an ultrafast growth and locomotion methodology is presented for dandelion-like microswarms assembled from catalytic tubular micromotors. With ultrasound oscillation of self-generated bubbles, such microswarms could overcome the tremendous and chaotic drag force from extensive and disordered bubble generation in single units. Tubular MnO 2 micromotor individuals headed by selfgenerated oxygen bubbles are ultrasonically driven to swim rapidly in surfactantfree H 2 O 2 solutions. A large bubble core fused from multiple microbubbles is excited to oscillate and the resultant local intensified acoustic field attracts the individual micromotors to school around it, leading to a simultaneous growth of dandelion-like microswarms. The bubble-carried micromotor groups driven by ultrasound could swarm at a zigzag pattern with an average speed of up to 50 mm s −1 , which is validated in low H 2 O 2 concentrations. Additionally, such superfast locomotion could be ultrasonically modulated on demand. The ultrafast microswarm growth and locomotion strategy offers a new paradigm for constructing distinct dynamic assemblies and rapid transmission of artificial microrobots, paving the way to a myriad of promising applications. the unknown nanoworld. [1] With intensive efforts devoted from multidisciplinary fields, diverse propulsion mechanisms for microrobots have been unlocked to develop numerous microrobot platforms activated by internal chemical reactions or external physical fields (magnetic, acoustic, optic, electrostatic, or thermo, etc.). [2] In addition, versatile utilizations have demonstrated that single or few number of functionalized microrobots could efficiently undertake fantastic missions in a precise and active manner, such as targeted cargo delivery, nanosurgery, and molecular imaging, etc. [3] However, their limited capacity for payloads embedment and poor motility in harsh environment (e.g., strong ambient flow, high ionic environment, etc.) have significantly hindered such promising platform from the proof-of-concept research to practical applications. Inspired by the global collective behaviors of living creature groups in nature, [4] such as shoaling fish and flocking birds, self-organized aggregation, or swarming of micromotor groups have been coming under the spotlight. These group behaviors could realize the reinforced mobility, load capacity, and robustness that individual ones cannot offer, thereby illuminating more prospects in fulfilling complex tasks. [5] Among several representative geometries of micromotors, tubular micromotors have arou...

Artificial micro/nanomotors that could perform diverse tasks autonomously at the micro/nanoscale have been emerging as promising tools in many practical applications. Electrochemical synthesis is one of the dominating methods to fabricate these micro/nanodevices with diverse geometries and material components. By changing the conditions of electrochemical deposition, the surface morphology, crystal structure, and hence the resultant performance of deposited material could be tailored. In the current work, a feasible fabrication strategy is presented in terms of three unique electrodeposition types (i.e., potentiodynamic, potentiostatic (PS), and galvanostatic) to synthesize different MnO2‐based micromotors. Distinct propulsion behavior as well as the catalytic degradation of azo‐dye organic waste (with methylene blue as the representative), between three kinds of MnO2‐based micromotors is clearly displayed, owing to the distinctive chemical composition and morphology designs. The activated R‐MnO2‐based micromotors in PS mode exhibit fast motion speed (up to 12 body length per second), leading to the highest degradation efficiency. Such propulsion performance is comparable with the microrockets made by noble metals such as Pt and Ag. The new protocol will have a profound impact on the design of synthetic micro/nanomotors and hold a considerable promise for their diverse applications.

No abstract

The proteome of the photosynthetic model organism Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 has been extensively analyzed in the last 15 years for the purpose of identifying proteins specifically expressed in subcellular compartments or differentially expressed in different environmental or internal conditions. This review summarizes the progress achieved so far with the emphasis on the impact of different techniques, both in sample preparation and protein identification, on the increasing coverage of proteome identification. In addition, this review evaluates the current completeness of proteome identification, and provides insights on the potential factors that could affect the complete identification of the Synechocystis proteome.