Joint Association of Combined Healthy Lifestyle Factors and Hearing Loss With Cognitive Impairment in China.

Background: Hearing loss and lifestyle factors have been associated with cognitive impairment. We aimed to explore the joint association of combined healthy lifestyle factors and hearing loss with cognitive impairment, which has been scarcely studied.

Methods: This baseline study used data from the CHOICE-Cohort study (Chinese Hearing Solution for Improvement of Cognition in Elders).

Combination of suitable planting density and nitrogen rate for high yield maize and their source-sink relationship in Northwest China.

Background: Increasing crop yield per unit area by increasing planting density is essential to ensure food security. However, the optimal combination of planting density and nitrogen (N) application for high-yielding maize and its source-sink characteristics need to be more clearly understood.

Results: A 2-year field experiment was conducted combining three planting densities (D1: 70 000 plants ha ; D2: 100 000 plants ha ; D3: 130 000 plants ha ) and three nitrogen rates (N1: 150 kg hm ; N2: 350 kg hm ; N3: 450 kg hm ).

Chemical Characterization and Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Bufotenine by Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) and Density Functional Theory (DFT).

Bufotenine (5-hydroxy-,-dimethyltryptamine) is a natural tryptamine derivative with hallucinogenic activity. In this paper, we present novel chemical and molecular conformational analyses of bufotenine based on an experimental and theoretical approach integrating surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and density functional theory (DFT). For the first time, low concentrations of bufotenine in acetonitrile solutions were analyzed by SERS using two types of silver nanoparticle substrates synthesized via one- or two-step reduction processes.

RAVA: Region-Based Average Video Quality Assessment.

Video has become the most popular medium of communication over the past decade, with nearly 90 percent of the bandwidth on the Internet being used for video transmission. Thus, evaluating the quality of an acquired or compressed video has become increasingly important. The goal of video quality assessment (VQA) is to measure the quality of a video clip as perceived by a human observer.

Carminic Acid Based Red Dye from Scale Insects Detected in Red Ruby-Crowned Kinglet Feathers by Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering.

In most birds, red feather color is linked to diet and attributed to carotenoids contained in plants and fruits. In the red crown feathers of the Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula), a new biopigment was identified based on carminic acid, the main coloring compound of cochineal (Dactylopius coccus) and other scale insects. This has revealed a potential new class of carminic acid-based biopigments, not previously identified in feathers.