Important Channel Research Articles

The complex regulation of Slo1 potassium channels from a structural perspective.

Fast and regulated potassium efflux by Slo1 channels is crucial in many tissues in animals including neurons, the kidney and smooth muscle. During the last decade, structures have revealed many details about the gating mechanism and regulation of these large and complex molecular machines. This review summarizes these findings and the current knowledge about the intricate regulation of these important channels. Slo1 integrates sensing of the membrane potential via a voltage-sensor domain that undergoes subtle but significant structural rearrangements with a calcium-induced expansion of parts of the intracellular gating ring. Together, these two signals synergistically lead to changes in the conformation and chemical nature of the pore domain, allowing potassium ions to be translocated. In many native tissues, Slo1 channels are assembled with at least three classes of auxiliary subunits that change the gating kinetics or allow the channel to open also in absence of one of the two signals. Finally, Slo1 is inhibited, activated or deregulated by natural toxins and synthetic compounds, underlining the importance of the channel for the organism and as a potential target for drugs and other molecules.

Multiscale and multiperception feature learning for pancreatic lesion detection based on noncontrast CT

Background. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most malignant tumours, demonstrating a poor prognosis and nearly identically high mortality and morbidity, mainly because of the difficulty of early diagnosis and timely treatment for localized stages. Objective. To develop a noncontrast CT (NCCT)-based pancreatic lesion detection model that could serve as an intelligent tool for diagnosing pancreatic cancer early, overcoming the challenges associated with low contrast intensities and complex anatomical structures present in NCCT images. Approach. We design a multiscale and multiperception (MSMP) feature learning network with ResNet50 coupled with a feature pyramid network as the backbone for strengthening feature expressions. We added multiscale atrous convolutions to expand different receptive fields, contextual attention to perceive contextual information, and channel and spatial attention to focus on important channels and spatial regions, respectively. The MSMP network then acts as a feature extractor for proposing an NCCT-based pancreatic lesion detection model with image patches covering the pancreas as its input; Faster R-CNN is employed as the detection method for accurately detecting pancreatic lesions. Main results. By using the new MSMP network as a feature extractor, our model outperforms the conventional object detection algorithms in terms of the recall (75.40% and 90.95%), precision (40.84% and 68.21%), F1 score (52.98% and 77.96%), F2 score (64.48% and 85.26%) and Ap50 metrics (53.53% and 70.14%) at the image and patient levels, respectively. Significance.The good performance of our new model implies that MSMP can mine NCCT imaging features for detecting pancreatic lesions from complex backgrounds well. The proposed detection model is expected to be further developed as an intelligent method for the early detection of pancreatic cancer.

Racial diversity, child stunting and underweight: Policies design and promotion in South Africa

We examine the effect of racial diversity on child stunting and underweight in post-apartheid South Africa, which has a strong history of systemic racial segregation. Using five waves of longitudinal data from the National Income Dynamics Survey (NIDS), and employing instrumental variable and propensity score matching methods, we find that racial diversity significantly reduces child stunting and underweight. This result is consistent across alternative measures of racial diversity, child stunting and underweight, and is also robust to different endogeneity-correction methods. The negative effect of racial diversity on child stunting and underweight is more pronounced among children under 5 years of age. Further analyses highlight increased employment opportunities, food expenditure per capita and financial inclusion as important channels through which racial diversity decreases stunting and underweight. We discuss the policy implications of these findings.

Evaluation of features and channels of electroencephalographic signals for biometric systems

Biometric systems are essential tools in modern society where most of our personal information lives in digital form. Although there is a significant variety of biometrics, electroencephalogram (EEG) signals are a useful technique to guarantee that the person is alive, they are universal, and not falsifiable. Nevertheless, EEG processing needs to address some challenges to become a viable technique to build production-ready biometric systems. These challenges include the adequate selection of features and channels that maximize the quality of the results and optimize resources. This work provides an analysis of which are the most important features and channels for the correct operation of a biometric system. The experimental analysis worked with two datasets and evaluated 19 features belonging to three groups, wavelet-based, spectral, and complexity. Five classifiers were trained: multilayer perceptron, AdaBoost, random forest, support vector machine, and K-nearest neighbors. The results found that the best feature for developing a biometric system is the standard deviation extracted from the coefficients of a three-level discrete wavelet transform. Additionally, the experimental results with the two datasets showed that the proposed method for channel selection can reduce the necessary number of channels while maintaining its performance. Our results, from one of the datasets, showed a reduction of 21 channels (from 32 to 11) and indicated that the best channels to develop biometric systems seem to be those located on the central area of the scalp.

Enhancing skin lesion segmentation with a fusion of convolutional neural networks and transformer models

Accurate segmentation is crucial in diagnosing and analyzing skin lesions. However, automatic segmentation of skin lesions is extremely challenging because of their variable sizes, uneven color distributions, irregular shapes, hair occlusions, and blurred boundaries. Owing to the limited range of convolutional networks receptive fields, shallow convolution cannot extract the global features of images and thus has limited segmentation performance. Because medical image datasets are small in scale, the use of excessively deep networks could cause overfitting and increase computational complexity. Although transformer networks can focus on extracting global information, they cannot extract sufficient local information and accurately segment detailed lesion features. In this study, we designed a dual-branch encoder that combines a convolution neural network (CNN) and a transformer. The CNN branch of the encoder comprises four layers, which learn the local features of images through layer-wise downsampling. The transformer branch also comprises four layers, enabling the learning of global image information through attention mechanisms. The feature fusion module in the network integrates local features and global information, emphasizes important channel features through the channel attention mechanism, and filters irrelevant feature expressions. The information exchange between the decoder and encoder is finally achieved through skip connections to supplement the information lost during the sampling process, thereby enhancing segmentation accuracy. The data used in this paper are from four public datasets, including images of melanoma, basal cell tumor, fibroma, and benign nevus. Because of the limited size of the image data, we enhanced them using methods such as random horizontal flipping, random vertical flipping, random brightness enhancement, random contrast enhancement, and rotation. The segmentation accuracy is evaluated through intersection over union and duration, integrity, commitment, and effort indicators, reaching 87.7 % and 93.21 %, 82.05 % and 89.19 %, 86.81 % and 92.72 %, and 92.79 % and 96.21 %, respectively, on the ISIC 2016, ISIC 2017, ISIC 2018, and PH2 datasets, respectively (code: https://github.com/hyjane/CCT-Net).

Feedback and ionized gas outflows in four low-radio power AGN at z ∼ 0.15

An increasing number of observations and simulations suggests that low-power (< 1044 erg s−1) jets may be a significant channel of feedback produced by active galactic nuclei (AGN), but little is known about their actual effect on their host galaxies from the observational point of view. We targeted four luminous type 2 AGN hosting moderately powerful radio emission (∼1044 erg s−1), two of which and possibly a third are associated with jets, with optical integral field spectroscopy observations from the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to analyze the properties of their ionized gas as well as the properties and effects of ionized outflows. We combined these observations with Very Large Array (VLA) and e-MERLIN data to investigate the relations and interactions between the radio jets and host galaxies. We detected ionized outflows as traced by the fast bulk motion of the gas. The outflows extended over kiloparsec scales in the direction of the jet, when present. In the two sources with resolved radio jets, we detected a strong enhancement in the emission-line velocity dispersion (up to 1000 km s−1) perpendicular to the direction of the radio jets. We also found a correlation between the mass and the energetics of this high-velocity dispersion gas and the radio power, which supports the idea that the radio emission may cause the enhanced turbulence. This phenomenon, which is now being observed in an increasing number of objects, might represent an important channel for AGN feedback on galaxies

How overloaded employees can use resilience and forgiveness resources to overcome dissatisfaction and maintain their knowledge-sharing efforts

Purpose Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this study aims to examine how employees’ experiences of excessive workloads may direct them away from efforts to share knowledge with other organizational members, as well as the circumstances in which this process is more or less likely. To untangle the process, the authors predict a mediating role of job dissatisfaction and moderating roles of two complementary resources that help employees cope with failure: resilience as a personal resource and organizational forgiveness as an organizational resource. Design/methodology/approach Survey data were gathered from employees of an organization that operates in the construction retail sector. The Process macro provides an empirical test of the moderated mediation dynamic that underpins the proposed conceptual framework. Findings The statistical findings affirm that an important channel through which employees’ perceptions that their work demands are unreasonable escalate into a diminished propensity to share knowledge is their lack of enthusiasm about their jobs. Their ability to recover from challenging work situations and their beliefs that the organization does not hold grudges against people who commit mistakes both mitigate this harmful effect. Practical implications For organizational practitioners, this research shows that when employees feel frustrated about extreme work pressures, the resource-draining situation may escalate into diminished knowledge sharing, which might inadvertently undermine their ability to receive valuable feedback for dealing with the challenges. From a positive perspective, individual resilience and organizational forgiveness represent resources that can protect employees against this negative spiral. Originality/value This study explicates an unexplored harmful effect of strenuous workloads on knowledge sharing, which is explained by employees’ beliefs that their organization fails to provide satisfactory job experiences. This effect also is mitigated to the extent that employees can draw from valuable personal and organizational resources.

Does industrial relocation impact green economic efficiency? Evidence from China’s energy-intensive industries

Utilizing the latest multi-regional input-output (MRIO) tables and spatial econometric model, this paper measures the inter-provincial relocations of energy-intensive industries (REI) in China and investigates its impact on regional green economic efficiency (RGE). The results indicate that the primary inflow areas of energy-intensive industries are northern coastal, central, and northwestern China, while the main outflow areas are southeastern coastal and southwestern China. The net inflow of energy-intensive industries negatively affects local RGE but positively affects neighboring provinces. However, at the national, REI contributes to improving the overall RGE. This improvement effect varies regionally and has been notably attenuated after the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Additionally, this paper verifies that the crowding-out effect on R&D investment is an important channel through which REI affects RGE.

Analysis of Network Public Opinion from the Perspective of Social Psychology

Online public opinion refers to the behavior of individuals or groups of people discussing, commenting, and expressing their views on a particular topic or event on the Internet through various forms of social media. With the popularity of the Internet and the rise of social media, online public opinion plays an important role in today’s society. It is not only an important channel for information dissemination but also an influence on social trends, public opinions, and values. Therefore, the analysis of network public opinion has important theoretical and practical significance.

A Multidimensional Exploration of the Visual Arts: History, Impact and Future Trends

This article explores the multidimensional nature of the visual arts, tracing their trends and challenges from antiquity to the present day. The article begins by defining the visual arts and emphasising their importance in reflecting and shaping human culture and society. The study aims to analyse the historical development of the visual arts, examining the origins and characteristics of ancient art, the artistic changes from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, and the progress of modern art movements such as Impressionism and Expressionism. The research delves into key elements and techniques in the visual arts, including the use of colour, shape and line, and how these are used in different media such as painting, sculpture and digital art. The article discusses how style and subject matter express the artist's unique perspective and emotions, contributing to the richness of visual expression. In addition, the article analyses the far-reaching impact of visual art on society and culture, showing how art reflects and influences social change, as well as its role in education and social ideology, and explores the intersection of art and politics through examples of propaganda art and protest art. The article also examines contemporary trends and challenges facing the visual arts, in particular the integration of digital technologies and new media, the impact of globalization on artistic style and expression, and the continuing struggle in the contemporary art market between commercialisation and artistic values. In the concluding section, the article outlines the historical course of the visual arts and their importance in contemporary society, as well as providing an outlook on future trends in the visual arts. This comprehensive exploration underscores the enduring value and dynamism of the visual arts as a fundamental part of human history and an important channel for cultural and social evolution.

Research on the Historical Experience of the Northwest Ancient Silk Road under the Background of "The Belt and Road" Construction

"Belt and Road" represents a corridor of collaboration and mutual gain, aimed at facilitating balanced growth and widespread prosperity. It is a peaceful road to enhance understanding and trust and strengthen all-round exchanges. After Zhang Qian's departure, the ancient Silk Road in the Northwest after the Western Regions was unblocked, political and economic ties between China and foreign countries under normal conditions were established, and the Silk Road trade was further developed. Today, the "Belt and Road" is not a replica of the "Silk Road" but a continuation of the "Silk Road", The "Belt and Road" initiative not only brings huge economic extension to China's economic construction, but also promotes the economic prosperity of countries in the world, strengthens political exchanges among countries in the world, and makes great contributions to the construction of world civilization. In this context, we need to deepen our understanding and understanding of the ancient Silk Road from history, and study the historical value brought by this ancient important channel from more angles. The important role is to learn from historical experience so that it can be used forever.

The Necessity and Strategy Analysis of Cultural Introduction in Teaching Chinese Reading as a Foreign Language

Since the reform and opening-up policy, China has undergone an unprecedented transformation, not only economically, but also in education and teaching, particularly in the field of teaching Chinese as a foreign language.Due to the increasing influence of our country in the international community, it has attracted a lot of curiosity from foreigners towards China, so they have started learning Chinese one after another. Of course, learning Chinese is not just about learning a language, the most important thing is to learn more about Chinese culture through learning Chinese, so that they can communicate smoothly with Chinese people. Chinese reading textbooks for foreign students contain a large amount of cultural information about historical figures, customs, geographical knowledge, and other aspects, so reading teaching has become an important channel for foreign students to learn and understand Chinese culture. This article takes cultural introduction as the starting point, analyzes the necessity and strategies of cultural introduction in Chinese reading classes as a foreign language, and provides some useful references for the current situation of teaching Chinese as a foreign language.

Study on the Spatial Narrative of Li Changdong's Green Film "Trilogy"

Space is one of the important areas of film industry research. It is not only an important medium to simply understand the relationship between film and social reality, but also an important channel to read artists' thoughts and analyze what artists want to express and how to express them. South Korean director Lee Chang-dong is known as the "poet who asks for life" and his unique spatial awareness builds a personal influence vein full of writing. The space in Lee Chang-dong's films not only records the growth of individuals and the changes of cities, but also becomes a place where various powers compete with each other, showing the painful memories of the oppression of individuals by The Times.First of all, the paper divides the film space of Li Changdong into visual narrative space and auditory supplementary narrative space. By studying different spatial characteristics and presentation ways, it brings people's thinking behind it. Secondly, starting from the narrative function of the film, this paper studies how the space successfully participates in the narrative and becomes the narrative driving force of the film, thus affecting the narrative structure of the film and participating in the character modeling in the film. Thirdly, through some artistic languages such as sound and color, an orderly space environment is created. Finally, the paper combines the realistic point of view to study the unique spatial consciousness of director Li Changdong from his own point of view to analyze the significance behind the spatial narrative.In this paper, the spatial types, narrative functions, narrative techniques and the meaning behind Li Changdong's films are studied. Through the study of spatial narrative, I want to understand the film style and main ideas of director Li Changdong, and understand personal survival mode and living soil behind it through the entry point of space.

Overseas-Returned Executives, R&D and Innovation

ABSTRACT Hiring overseas-returned executives is increasingly regarded by researchers and society as an important business strategy. This paper investigates the effects of overseas-returned executives in the top management team on firms in China. We propose a mechanism-based framework to study how overseas-returned executives affect firm innovation. Using listed companies in China’s manufacturing industry, we find that overseas-returned executives have a positive effect on firm innovation, especially for high-tech firms, large firms, state-owned firms and returned executives with foreign work experience. Increase in research and development investment is an important channel through which overseas-returned executives affect firm innovation.

The Impact of Personalized Recommendations on Consumer Purchase Decisions on TikTok – A Case Study of College Students

With the rapid rise of social media and short video platforms, TikTok has become an important channel for young people, especially college students, to acquire information and entertainment. Personalized recommendation, as one of the core functions of the TikTok platform, has a significant impact on consumers’ purchasing decisions. This study investigates how TikTok’s personalized recommendation mechanism affects users’ purchasing desires and actual buying behavior by matching content filtering with user preferences, based on surveys and in-depth interviews with the college student group. The research finds that personalized recommendations play a positive role in improving purchase conversion rates but may also exacerbate users’ tendencies towards impulsive buying. The paper further analyzes key factors affecting the effectiveness of the recommendations, including the relevance of recommended content, user engagement, and trust. On this basis, suggestions for optimizing personalized recommendation strategies and balancing user experience with commercial interests are proposed. This study is of theoretical and practical significance for understanding consumer behavior in the new media environment and provides insights and strategic references for platforms like TikTok.

BmNPV p35 regulates apoptosis in Bombyx mori via a novel target of interaction with the BmVDAC2-BmRACK1 complex

Voltage-dependent anion channel 2 (VDAC2) is an important channel protein that plays a crucial role in the host response to viral infection. The receptor for activated C kinase 1 (RACK1) is also a key host factor involved in viral replication. Our previous research revealed that Bombyx mori VDAC2 (BmVDAC2) and B. mori RACK1 (BmRACK1) may interact with Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV), though the specific molecular mechanism remains unclear. In this study, the interaction between BmVDAC2 and BmRACK1 in the mitochondria was determined by various methods. We found that BmNPV p35 interacts directly with BmVDAC2 rather than BmRACK1. BmNPV infection significantly reduced the expression of BmVDAC2, and activated the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway. Overexpression of BmVDAC2 in BmN cells inhibited BmNPV-induced cytochrome c (cyto c) release, decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential as well as apoptosis. Additionally, the inhibition of cyto c release by BmVDAC2 requires the involvement of BmRACK1 and protein kinase C. Interestingly, overexpression of p35 inhibited cyto c release during mitochondrial apoptosis in a RACK1 and VDAC2-dependent manner. Even the mutant p35, which loses Caspase inhibitory activity, could still bind to VDAC2 and inhibit cyto c release. In summary, our results indicated that BmNPV p35 interacts with the VDAC2-RACK1 complex to regulate apoptosis by inhibiting cyto c release. These findings confirm the interaction between BmVDAC2 and BmRACK1, the interaction between p35 and the VDAC2-RACK1 complex, and a novel target that BmNPV p35 regulates apoptosis in Bombyx mori via interaction with the BmVDAC2-BmRACK1 complex. The result provide an initial exploration of the function of this interaction in the BmNPV-induced mitochondrial apoptosis pathway.

Clustering-inspired channel selection method for weakly supervised object localization

Weakly Supervised Object Localization (WSOL) aims to utilize the features learned by a classifier on the image-level labels to locate target objects. However, these existing channel selection methods for WSOL still cannot effectively select the important channels and remove the unimportant ones. To address this issue, we propose a Clustering-inspired Channel Selection method based on Class Activation Maps (CCS-CAM). Compared with the traditional methods, the advantage of CCS-CAM is that it is very simple yet effective for channel selection due to the K-means clustering based on Class Activation Maps. It can effectively ensure both object localization and classification accuracy. The effectiveness of the proposed CCS-CAM method has been demonstrated using multiple public datasets, with GT-Know Loc reaching 87.9% and 63.71% on the CUB200-2011 and ImageNet-1k respectively, which is superior to the other state-of-the-art methods.

Effect of short video storytelling on festival attractiveness: the moderating role of temporal orientation and novelty

ABSTRACT Short video storytelling has become an important channel for destination marketing. However, how to take advantage of short video storytelling to enhance festival attractiveness is unclear. Based on narrative transportation theory, this study analysed 494 questionnaires through the hybrid exploration method of structural equation model (SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), to deeply explore the mechanism and conditional configuration of short video storytelling affecting festival attractiveness. The findings reveal that the effect of short video storytelling on festival attractiveness is significant, and partly mediated by narrative transportation. Moreover, compared with future-oriented people, present-oriented people are more likely to immerse themselves in short video storytelling and be attracted by festivals. Additionally, novelty, a core condition for high festival attractiveness, significantly strengthens the effects of storytelling and narrative transportation on attractiveness. Overall, this study expands the theoretical knowledge of short video storytelling in festival marketing and supports destination managers to formulate effective short video marketing strategies for destination festivals.

Disability and risk preferences: Experimental and survey evidence from Vietnam

Abstract We investigate whether experiencing a disability incidence in the household affects economic risk preferences in Vietnam, leveraging (i) ten years of individual-level panel data and (ii) data from a lab-in-the-field experiment. We find that individuals who experience a disability event in the household behave in a more risk-averse manner than individuals without such an experience. Examining potential underlying mechanisms, we demonstrate that a household disability shock leads to lower wealth, which in turn is related to higher levels of risk aversion. Furthermore, we provide evidence that cognitive mechanisms—fearful emotions and the updating of beliefs (becoming more pessimistic about the future)—are another, perhaps even more important channel through which disability shocks affect risk preferences.

A Study on Consumers’ Negative Online Reviews and Merchants’ Responses Discourse Strategies Based on Rapport Management Theory

Online shopping is an important consumption channel, and customers can express reviews about products on the platform. Negative reviews can inform merchants about defects of products and services, providing references for other consumers. Negative reviews and responses reflect merchants’ and customers’ adjustments to interpersonal relationships. Based on Spencer-Oatey’s rapport management theory, this paper collects 400 negative consumer reviews and corresponding merchant responses from Tripadvisor. Then the writer conducts data statistics and case analysis on the corpus, aiming to obtain the proportions of strategies for complaints and responses and to analyze rapport management tendencies of communicators. Research shows that consumers mainly adopt rapport-challenge orientation, and the most commonly used complaint strategies are “explicit complaint”, “expression of annoyance or disapproval” and “below the level of reproach”. Most merchants take rapport-enhancement orientation and rapport-maintenance orientation. They frequently employ strategies of “expressing emotion”, “apologizing”, “committing and acting” etc. This paper intends to provide references for establishing harmonious interpersonal relationships and favorable business environment.