In situ surface modification of forward osmosis membrane by polydopamine/polyethyleneimine-silver nanoparticle for anti-fouling improvement in municipal wastewater treatment.

In this work, we demonstrate the surface functionalization of cellulose triacetate membrane with co-deposition of polydopamine (PDA)/polyethyleneimine (PEI) and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) for antifouling property in municipal wastewater treatment. PDA/PEI was first coated on the membrane surface by single-step co-deposition, while AgNPs were formed in situ through catechol groups of PDA immobilizing silver ions and subsequently reducing. The successful surface modification was verified by different membrane characterization techniques.

Center-surround velocity-based segmentation: Speed, eccentricity, and timing of visual stimuli interact to determine interocular dominance.

We used a novel method to capture the spatial dominance pattern of competing motion fields at rivalry onset. When rivaling velocities were different, the participants reported center-surround segmentation: The slower stimuli often dominated in the center while faster motion persisted along the borders. The size of the central static/slow field scaled with the stimulus size.

Microsleep is associated with brain activity patterns unperturbed by auditory inputs.

Microsleeps are brief episodes of arousal level decrease manifested through behavioral signs. Brain activity during microsleep in the presence of external stimulus remains poorly understood. In this study, we sought to understand neural responses to auditory stimulation during microsleep.

Speed-size illusion correlates with retinal-level motion statistics.

It is a common perceptual experience that smaller objects appear to move faster than larger ones when their physical speeds are the same in either the laboratory or daily life. In this study, we show that the speed-size illusion is correlated with retinal image speed distribution bias. The illusion was quantified with a two-alternative, forced choice speed comparison paradigm, and retinal image speed distributions for different image sizes were obtained by simulation.

Seeing the sound after visual loss: functional MRI in acquired auditory-visual synesthesia.

Acquired auditory-visual synesthesia (AVS) is a rare neurological sign, in which specific auditory stimulation triggers visual experience. In this study, we used event-related fMRI to explore the brain regions correlated with acquired monocular sound-induced phosphenes, which occurred 2 months after unilateral visual loss due to an ischemic optic neuropathy. During the fMRI session, 1-s pure tones at various pitches were presented to the patient, who was asked to report occurrence of sound-induced phosphenes by pressing one of the two buttons (yes/no).