Le Petit Prince Hong Kong (LPPHK): Naturalistic fMRI and EEG data from older Cantonese speakers.

Currently, the field of neurobiology of language is based on data from only a few Indo-European languages. The majority of this data comes from younger adults neglecting other age groups. Here we present a multimodal database which consists of task-based and resting state fMRI, structural MRI, and EEG data while participants over 65 years old listened to sections of the story The Little Prince in Cantonese.

Mild and Catalytic Synthesis of Pyrroles from Vinyl Ethynylethylene Carbonates.

A tandem remote propargylic amination/ring closure/aromatization reaction of vinyl ethynylethylene carbonates and amines has been developed, successfully constructing pyrrole derivatives. The reaction features mild conditions, high regioselectivity, high yields, and good functional group tolerance, making it an efficient method for pyrrole synthesis. Importantly, a variety of substrates containing natural product skeletons could also be compatibly and efficiently converted into pyrroles under the reaction conditions.

A self-sustaining effect induced by iron sulfide generation and reuse in pyrite-woodchip mixotrophic bioretention systems: An experimental and modeling study.

Dual electron donor bioretention systems have emerged as a popular strategy to enhance dissolved nitrogen removal from stormwater runoff. Pyrite-woodchip mixotrophic bioretention systems showed a promoted and stabilized removal of dissolved nutrients under complex rainfall conditions, but the sulfate reduction process that can induce iron sulfide generation and reuse was overlooked. In this study, experiments and models were applied to investigate the effects of filler configuration and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) dissolution rate on treatment performance and iron sulfide generation in pyrite-woodchip bioretention systems.

Network pharmacology, molecular docking and experimental study of CEP in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: The Stephania cephalantha Hayata is an important traditional medicinal plant widely used in traditional medicine to treat cancer. Cepharanthine (CEP) was extracted from the roots of Stephania cephalantha Hayata. It has been found to exhibit anticancer activity in different types of cancer cells.

Copper-Catalyzed Enantioselective Formal [4 + 1] and [3 + 3] Cycloaddition of Ethynylethylene Carbonates.

Herein we employed ethynylethylene carbonates (EECs) to achieve formal [4 + 1] and [3 + 3] cycloaddition with cyclic 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds. On one hand, EECs with styryl substitution could undergo a remotely controlled enantioselective [4 + 1] cycloaddition reaction. This reaction exhibits good chemoselectivity, regioselectivity, and enantioselectivity.

Synthesis of medium-sized heterocycles from oxetanes based on an allylic amination/ring-opening strategy.

The construction of medium-sized ring compounds has been a prominent research area in synthetic chemistry. In this study, we developed a tandem strategy that combines allylic amination and ring-opening of oxetanes to synthesize medium-sized heterocycles. Specifically, -aryl oxetan-3-amines undergo allylic amination with zwitterionic π-allylpalladium, followed by intramolecular ring-opening, resulting in the formation of medium-sized heterocycles.

A social-semantic working-memory account for two canonical language areas.

Language and social cognition are traditionally studied as separate cognitive domains, yet accumulative studies reveal overlapping neural correlates at the left ventral temporoparietal junction (vTPJ) and the left lateral anterior temporal lobe (lATL), which have been attributed to sentence processing and social concept activation. We propose a common cognitive component underlying both effects: social-semantic working memory. We confirmed two key predictions of our hypothesis using functional MRI.

Snail-inspired AFG/GelMA hydrogel accelerates diabetic wound healing via inflammatory cytokines suppression and macrophage polarization.

Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are a severe and rapidly growing diabetic complication, but treating DFUs remains a challenge for the existing therapies are expensive and highly non-responsive. Recently, we discovered that a natural adhesive from snail mucus can promote skin wound healing. Herein, inspired by the finding, we developed a double-network hydrogel biomaterial that composed of snail glycosaminoglycan (AFG) and methacrylated gelatin (GelMA), in which AFG is the main bioactive component of snail mucus and GelMA provides a scaffold mimicking the proteins in snail mucus.

SCCNet: Self-correction boundary preservation with a dynamic class prior filter for high-variability ultrasound image segmentation.

The highly ambiguous nature of boundaries and similar objects is difficult to address in some ultrasound image segmentation tasks, such as neck muscle segmentation, leading to unsatisfactory performance. Thus, this paper proposes a two-stage network called SCCNet (self-correction context network) using a self-correction boundary preservation module and class-context filter to alleviate these problems. The proposed self-correction boundary preservation module uses a dynamic key boundary point (KBP) map to increase the capability of iteratively discriminating ambiguous boundary points segments, and the predicted segmentation map from one stage is used to obtain a dynamic class prior filter to improve the segmentation performance at Stage 2.

Le Petit Prince multilingual naturalistic fMRI corpus.

Neuroimaging using more ecologically valid stimuli such as audiobooks has advanced our understanding of natural language comprehension in the brain. However, prior naturalistic stimuli have typically been restricted to a single language, which limited generalizability beyond small typological domains. Here we present the Le Petit Prince fMRI Corpus (LPPC-fMRI), a multilingual resource for research in the cognitive neuroscience of speech and language during naturalistic listening (OpenNeuro: ds003643).

Neural correlates of semantic number: A cross-linguistic investigation.

One aspect of natural language comprehension is understanding how many of what or whom a speaker is referring to. While previous work has documented the neural correlates of number comprehension and quantity comparison, this study investigates semantic number from a cross-linguistic perspective with the goal of identifying cortical regions involved in distinguishing plural from singular nouns. Three fMRI datasets are used in which Chinese, French, and English native speakers listen to an audiobook of a children's story in their native language.

Decoding the silence: Neural bases of zero pronoun resolution in Chinese.

Chinese is one of many languages that can drop subjects. We report an fMRI study of language comprehension processes in these "zero pronoun" cases. The fMRI data come from Chinese speakers who listened to an audiobook.

Arthriniumsteroids A-D, four new steroids from the soft coral-derived fungus Simplicillium lanosoniveum SCSIO41212.

Four new steroids derivatives, namely arthriniumsteroids A - D (1-4), together with two known compounds, were isolated from the soft coral-derived fungus Simplicillium lanosoniveum SCSIO41212. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic analysis and by comparison with those reported in the literature. The absolute configuration of 2 was confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction.

Two new bioactive polyphenols from the soft coral-derived fungus sp. SCSIO 041201.

Two new polyphenols, talaversatilis A () and B (), together with fifteen known compounds (-) were isolated from the extract of the culture broth of a soft coral-derived fungus sp. SCSIO 041201. The structures of these compounds were elucidated by the extensive analyses of spectroscopic data and by comparison with the reported literature.

Rh(iii)-Catalyzed regioselective mono- and di-iodination of azobenzenes using alkyl iodide.

A new approach for highly regioselective iodination of azobenzenes with alkyl iodide as the iodinating reagent enabled by Rh-catalyzed oxidative C-H activation has been developed. By changing the oxidant, various mono- and di-iodinated azobenzenes were smoothly obtained in moderate to excellent yields, respectively. The preliminary mechanistic study reveals that the reaction process might undergo electrophilic substitution of the directed ortho metalated five-membered rhodacycle compound by an iodine cationic species generated in situ from alkyl iodide and oxidant.

What drives sound symbolism? Different acoustic cues underlie sound-size and sound-shape mappings.

Sound symbolism refers to the non-arbitrary mappings that exist between phonetic properties of speech sounds and their meaning. Despite there being an extensive literature on the topic, the acoustic features and psychological mechanisms that give rise to sound symbolism are not, as yet, altogether clear. The present study was designed to investigate whether different sets of acoustic cues predict size and shape symbolism, respectively.

Assembly of Diversely Substituted Quinolines via Aerobic Oxidative Aromatization from Simple Alcohols and Anilines.

An aerobic oxidative aromatization of simple aliphatic alcohols and anilines under the Pd(OAc)/2,4,6-Collidine/Brønsted acid catalytic system has been established, providing a direct approach for the preparation of diverse substituted quinoline derivatives in high yields with wide functional group tolerance. Practically, the protocol can be easily scaled up to gram-scale and was utilized in the concise formal synthesis of a promising herbicide candidate.

A Green Aerobic Oxidative Synthesis of Pyrrolo[1,2-a]quinoxalines from Simple Alcohols without Metals and Additives.

A practical and concise protocol for the efficient preparation of pyrrolo[1,2-a]quinoxalines through a cascade of alcohol oxidation/imine formation/intramolecular cyclization/oxidative dehydrogenation has been established. A series of substituted pyrrolo[1,2-a]quinoxaline derivatives were constructed readily in yields of 53-93% from the cheap primary alcohols by using dioxygen as the terminal oxidant. Remarkably, the fact that no extra metals and additives were necessary makes this unprecedented aerobic oxidation process highly step- and atom-economical.

AgNO3 as nitrogen source for rhodium(iii)-catalyzed synthesis of 2-aryl-2H-benzotriazoles from azobenzenes.

A new approach has been established for Rh(iii)-catalyzed direct aza oxidative cyclization of non-prefunctionalized azobenzenes to provide 2-aryl-2H-benzotriazoles in good yields, in which AgNO3 instead of conventional azide reagents for the first time functions as the nitrogen source for the nitrogenation reaction. Preliminary mechanistic studies suggest that the Rh(iii)-catalyst could account for the nitration reaction, and subsequently cationic silver species might both play a vital role in the fission of the nitrogen-oxygen bonds in nitro groups and promote aza oxidative cyclization.

Triarylphosphines as Aryl Donors for Pd(II)-Catalyzed Aromatic Coupling of Oxabenzonorbornadienes.

A new approach was developed for Pd(II)-catalyzed aromatic coupling of oxabenzonorbornadienes with triarylphosphines as both ligands and aryl donors. Diverse functional groups including halo- (F-, Cl-, and Br-), CF3(-), and furyl groups are well tolerated. For unsymmetrical triarylphosphines, the migration ability of aryls is consistent with the electronic property of substituents and maintains the order EDG-Ar > H-Ar > EWD-Ar (EDG means electron-donating group, EWG means electron-withdrawing group).