Botulinum toxin type A plus rehabilitative training for improving the motor function of the upper limbs and activities of daily life in patients with stroke and brain injury

BACKGROUND:Botulinum toxin type A(BTX-A)is mostly to be used to treat various diseases of motor disorders,whereas its effect on muscle spasm after stroke and brain injury needs further observation.OBJECTIVE:To observe the effect of BTX-A plus rehabilitative training on treating muscle spasm after stroke and brain injury.DESIGN:A randomized controlled observation.SETTINGS:Department of Rehabilitation,Department of Neurology and Department of Neurosurgery,the Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University.PARTICIPANTS:Sixty inpatients with brain injury and stroke were selected from the Department of Rehabilitation,Department of Neurology and Department of Neurosurgery,the Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University from January 2001 to August 2006.They were all confirmed by CT and MRI,and had obvious increase of spastic muscle strength in upper limbs,their Ashworth grades were grade 2 or above.The patients were randomly divided into treatment group(n=30)and control group(n=30).METHODS:①Patients in the treatment group undertook comprehensive rehabilitative trainings,and they were administrated with domestic BTX-A,which was provided by Lanzhou Institute of Biological Products,Ministry of Health(S10970037),and the muscles of flexion spasm were selected for upper limbs,20-25 IU for each site.②Patients in the treatment group were assessed before injection and at 1 and 2 weeks,1 and 3 months after injection respectively,and those in the control group were assessed at corresponding time points.The recovery of muscle spasm was assessed by modified Ashworth scale(MAS,grade 0-Ⅳ;Grade 0 for without increase of muscle strength;GradeⅣfor rigidity at passive flexion and extension);The recovery of motor function of the upper limbs was evaluated with Fugl-Meyer Assessment(FMA,total score was 226 points,including 100 for exercise,14 for balance,24 for sense,44 for joint motion,44 for pain and 66 for upper limb);The ADL were evaluated with Barthel index,the total score was 100 points,60 for mild dysfunction,60-41 for moderate dysfunction,<40 for severe dysfunction).MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:Changes of MAS grade,FMA scores and Barthel index before and after BTX-A injection.RESULTS:All the 60 patients with brain injury and stroke were involved in the analysis of results.①FMA scores of upper limbs:The FMA score in the treatment group at 2 weeks after treatment was higher than that before treatment[(14.98±10.14),(13.10±9.28)points,P<0.05],whereas there was no significant difference at corresponding time point in the control group.The FMA scores at 1 and 3 months in the treatment group[(23.36±10.69),(35.36±11.36)points]were higher than those in the control group[(20.55±10.22),(30.33±10.96)points,P<0.01].②MAS grades of upper limbs:There were obviously fewer cases of gradeⅢin MAS at 2 weeks after treatment than before treatment in the treatment group(0,9 cases,P<0.05),whereas there was no obvious difference in the control group.There were obviously fewer cases of gradeⅢin MAS at 2 weeks and 1 month after treatment in the treatment group(0,0 case)than the control group(5,2 cases,P<0.01).③Barthel index of upper limbs:The Barthel index at 2 weeks after treatment was higher than that before treatment in the treatment group[(30.36±22.25),(28.22±26.21)points,P<0.05],whereas there was no significant difference in the control group.The Barthel indexes at 1 and 3 months after treatment in the treatment group were obviously higher than those in the control group[(20.55±10.22),(30.33±10.96)points,P<0.01].CONCLUSION:BTX-A has obvious efficacy on decreasing muscle tension after stroke and brain injury,and relieving muscle spasm;Meanwhile,the combination with rehabilitative training can effectively ameliorate the motor function of upper limbs and ADL of the patients.

Elevated brain temperature under severe heat exposure impairs cortical motor activity and executive function

Background:Excessive heat exposure can lead to hyperthermia in humans,which impairs physical performance and disrupts cognitive function.While heat is a known physiological stressor,it is unclear how severe heat stress affects brain physiology and function.Methods:Eleven healthy participants were subjected to heat stress from prolonged exercise or warm water immersion until their rectal temperatures(T_(re))attained 39.5℃,inducing exertional or passive hyperthermia,respectively.In a separate trial,blended ice was ingested before and during exercise as a cooling strategy.Data were compared to a control condition with seated rest(normothermic).Brain temperature(T_(br)),cerebral perfusion,and task-based brain activity were assessed using magnetic resonance imaging techniques.Results:T_(br)in motor cortex was found to be tightly regulated at rest(37.3℃±0.4℃(mean±SD))despite fluctuations in T_(re).With the development of hyperthermia,T_(br)increases and dovetails with the rising T_(re).Bilateral motor cortical activity was suppressed during high-intensity plantarflexion tasks,implying a reduced central motor drive in hyperthermic participants(T_(re)=38.5℃±0.1℃).Global gray matter perfusion and regional perfusion in sensorimotor cortex were reduced with passive hyperthermia.Executive function was poorer under a passive hyperthermic state,and this could relate to compromised visual processing as indicated by the reduced activation of left lateral-occipital cortex.Conversely,ingestion of blended ice before and during exercise alleviated the rise in both T_(re)and T_(bc)and mitigated heat-related neural perturbations.Conclusion:Severe heat exposure elevates T_(br),disrupts motor cortical activity and executive function,and this can lead to impairment of physical and cognitive performance.

Artificial Neural Network Modeling for Predicting Thermal Conductivity of EG/Water-Based CNC Nanofluid for Engine Cooling Using Different Activation Functions

A vehicle engine cooling system is of utmost importance to ensure that the engine operates in a safe temperature range.In most radiators that are used to cool an engine,water serves as a cooling fluid.The performance of a radiator in terms of heat transmission is significantly influenced by the incorporation of nanoparticles into the cooling water.Concentration and uniformity of nanoparticle distribution are the two major factors for the practical use of nanofluids.The shape and size of nanoparticles also have a great impact on the performance of heat transfer.Many researchers are investigating the impact of nanoparticles on heat transfer.This study aims to develop an artificial neural network(ANN)model for predicting the thermal conductivity of an ethylene glycol(EG)/waterbased crystalline nanocellulose(CNC)nanofluid for cooling internal combustion engine.The implementation of an artificial neural network considering different activation functions in the hidden layer is made to find the bestmodel for the cooling of an engine using the nanofluid.Accuracies of the model with different activation functions in artificial neural networks are analyzed for different nanofluid concentrations and temperatures.In artificial neural networks,Levenberg–Marquardt is an optimization approach used with activation functions,including Tansig and Logsig functions in the training phase.The findings of each training,testing,and validation phase are presented to demonstrate the network that provides the highest level of accuracy.The best result was obtained with Tansig,which has a correlation of 0.99903 and an error of 3.7959×10^(–8).It has also been noticed that the Logsig function can also be a good model due to its correlation of 0.99890 and an error of 4.9218×10^(–8).Thus ourANNwith Tansig and Logsig functions demonstrates a high correlation between the actual output and the predicted output.

Microbial community structure and functional metabolic diversity are associated with organic carbon availability in an agricultural soil

Exploration of soil environmental characteristics governing soil microbial community structure and activity may improve our understanding of biogeochemical processes and soil quality. The impact of soil environmental characteristics especially organic carbon availability after 15-yr different organic and inorganic fertilizer inputs on soil bacterial community structure and functional metabolic diversity of soil microbial communities were evaluated in a 15-yr fertilizer experiment in Changping County, Beijing, China. The experiment was a wheat-maize rotation system which was established in 1991 including four different fertilizer treatments. These treatments included： a non-amended control（CK）, a commonly used application rate of inorganic fertilizer treatment（NPK）; a commonly used application rate of inorganic fertilizer with swine manure incorporated treatment（NPKM）, and a commonly used application rate of inorganic fertilizer with maize straw incorporated treatment（NPKS）. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis（DGGE） of the 16 S r RNA gene was used to determine the bacterial community structure and single carbon source utilization profiles were determined to characterize the microbial community functional metabolic diversity of different fertilizer treatments using Biolog Eco plates. The results indicated that long-term fertilized treatments significantly increased soil bacterial community structure compared to CK. The use of inorganic fertilizer with organic amendments incorporated for long term（NPKM, NPKS） significantly promoted soil bacterial structure than the application of inorganic fertilizer only（NPK）, and NPKM treatment was the most important driver for increases in the soil microbial community richness（S） and structural diversity（H）. Overall utilization of carbon sources by soil microbial communities（average well color development, AWCD） and microbial substrate utilization diversity and evenness indices（H＇ and E） indicated that long-term inorganic fertilizer with organic amendments incorporated（NPKM, NPKS） could significantly stimulate soil microbial metabolic activity and functional diversity relative to CK, while no differences of them were found between NPKS and NPK treatments. Principal component analysis（PCA） based on carbon source utilization profiles also showed significant separation of soil microbial community under long-term fertilization regimes and NPKM treatment was significantly separated from the other three treatments primarily according to the higher microbial utilization of carbohydrates, carboxylic acids, polymers, phenolic compounds, and amino acid, while higher utilization of amines/amides differed soil microbial community in NPKS treatment from those in the other three treatments. Redundancy analysis（RDA） indicated that soil organic carbon（SOC） availability, especially soil microbial biomass carbon（Cmic） and Cmic/SOC ratio are the key factors of soil environmental characteristics contributing to the increase of both soil microbial community structure and functional metabolic diversity in the long-term fertilization trial. Our results showed that long-term inorganic fertilizer and swine manure application could significantly improve soil bacterial community structure and soil microbial metabolic activity through the increases in SOC availability, which could provide insights into the sustainable management of China＇s soil resource.

Altered intrinsic functional connectivity of the primary visual cortex in youth patients with comitant exotropia: a resting state fMRI study

AIM： To evaluate the differences in the functional connectivity（FC） of the primary visual cortex（V1） between the youth comitant exotropia（CE） patients and health subjects using resting functional magnetic resonance imaging（f MRI） data.METHODS： Totally, 32 CEs（25 males and 7 females） and 32 healthy control subjects（HCs）（25 males and 7 females） were enrolled in the study and underwent the MRI scanning. Two-sample t-test was used to examine differences in FC maps between the CE patients and HCs. RESULTS： The CE patients showed significantly less FC between the left brodmann area（BA17） and left lingual gyrus/cerebellum posterior lobe, right middle occipital gyrus, left precentral gyrus/postcentral gyrus and right inferior parietal lobule/postcentral gyrus. Meanwhile, CE patients showed significantly less FC between right BA17 and right middle occipital gyrus（BA19, 37）.CONCLUSION： Our findings show that CE involves abnormal FC in primary visual cortex in many regions, which may underlie the pathologic mechanism of impaired fusion and stereoscopic vision in CEs.

A Universal Activation Function for Deep Learning

Recently,deep learning has achieved remarkable results in fields that require human cognitive ability,learning ability,and reasoning ability.Activation functions are very important because they provide the ability of artificial neural networks to learn complex patterns through nonlinearity.Various activation functions are being studied to solve problems such as vanishing gradients and dying nodes that may occur in the deep learning process.However,it takes a lot of time and effort for researchers to use the existing activation function in their research.Therefore,in this paper,we propose a universal activation function(UA)so that researchers can easily create and apply various activation functions and improve the performance of neural networks.UA can generate new types of activation functions as well as functions like traditional activation functions by properly adjusting three hyperparameters.The famous Convolutional Neural Network(CNN)and benchmark datasetwere used to evaluate the experimental performance of the UA proposed in this study.We compared the performance of the artificial neural network to which the traditional activation function is applied and the artificial neural network to which theUA is applied.In addition,we evaluated the performance of the new activation function generated by adjusting the hyperparameters of theUA.The experimental performance evaluation results showed that the classification performance of CNNs improved by up to 5%through the UA,although most of them showed similar performance to the traditional activation function.

Effect of Preparation Process of Functional Polymer Active Materials on Properties of Gadolinium Ion Selective Electrode

Recently we have studied the rare earth ion-selective electrodes with active materials of the func-tional polymers and found that the process chosen for the functional polymers had an effect on the propertiesof gadolinium ion selective electrode besides the effects of their structures.1.Effect of preparation process of the grafted polymers on the properties ofgadolinium ion selective electrodesThe electrode membranes which consist of functional polymers as active materials were prepared by re-action of gadolinium chloride with the radiation grafted clmer of acrlic acid and polystyrene of which

Evidence of cortical reorganization of language networks after stroke with subacute Broca's aphasia:a blood oxygenation level dependent-functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Aphasia is an acquired language disorder that is a common consequence of stroke.The pathogenesis of the disease is not fully understood,and as a result,current treatment options are not satisfactory.Here,we used blood oxygenation level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging to evaluate the activation of bilateral cortices in patients with Broca＇s aphasia 1 to 3 months after stroke.Our results showed that language expression was associated with multiple brain regions in which the right hemisphere participated in the generation of language.The activation areas in the left hemisphere of aphasia patients were significantly smaller compared with those in healthy adults.The activation frequency,volumes,and intensity in the regions related to language,such as the left inferior frontal gyrus（Broca＇s area）,the left superior temporal gyrus,and the right inferior frontal gyrus（the mirror region of Broca＇s area）,were lower in patients compared with healthy adults.In contrast,activation in the right superior temporal gyrus,the bilateral superior parietal lobule,and the left inferior temporal gyrus was stronger in patients compared with healthy controls.These results suggest that the right inferior frontal gyrus plays a role in the recovery of language function in the subacute stage of stroke-related aphasia by increasing the engagement of related brain areas.

Multistability of delayed complex-valued recurrent neural networks with discontinuous real-imaginarytype activation functions

In this paper, the multistability issue is discussed for delayed complex-valued recurrent neural networks with discontinuous real-imaginary-type activation functions. Based on a fixed theorem and stability definition, sufficient criteria are established for the existence and stability of multiple equilibria of complex-valued recurrent neural networks. The number of stable equilibria is larger than that of real-valued recurrent neural networks, which can be used to achieve high-capacity associative memories. One numerical example is provided to show the effectiveness and superiority of the presented results.

Activation Functions Effect on Fractal Coding Using Neural Networks

Activation functions play an essential role in converting the output of the artificial neural network into nonlinear results,since without this nonlinearity,the results of the network will be less accurate.Nonlinearity is the mission of all nonlinear functions,except for polynomials.The activation function must be dif-ferentiable for backpropagation learning.This study’s objective is to determine the best activation functions for the approximation of each fractal image.Different results have been attained using Matlab and Visual Basic programs,which indi-cate that the bounded function is more helpful than other functions.The non-lin-earity of the activation function is important when using neural networks for coding fractal images because the coefficients of the Iterated Function System are different according to the different types of fractals.The most commonly cho-sen activation function is the sigmoidal function,which produces a positive value.Other functions,such as tansh or arctan,whose values can be positive or negative depending on the network input,tend to train neural networks faster.The coding speed of the fractal image is different depending on the appropriate activation function chosen for each fractal shape.In this paper,we have provided the appro-priate activation functions for each type of system of iterated functions that help the network to identify the transactions of the system.

EFFECT OF STRUCTURE OF FUNCTIONAL POLYMER ACTIVE MATERIALS ON PROPERTIES OF GADOLINIUM ION SELECTIVE ELECTRODE

In this paper,the functional polymeric active materials were prepared by the grafting copolymerization and their structure and properties were studied.The results show that the structure and properties of these ac- tive materials have the relative large effects on the properties of gadolinium ion selective electrodes.

Correlation of cognitive function with acetylcholinesterase activity and P300 event-related potential of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

BACKGROUND： At present, central cholinergic neuron system is regarded the most major structural basis of cognitive function. Changes in structure of cholinergic neuron system of brain and receptor expression after brain injury can cause cognitive impairment. OBJECTIVE＂ To comparatively observe the intelligence quotient （IQ）, latent period and wave amplitude of P300 event-related potential and the difference of activity of acetylcholinesterase （ACHE） in blood and cerebrospinal fluid between patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and with non-diabetes mellitus, and analyze the correlation of IQ of cognitive impairment patients with diabetes mellitus with AChE activity, latent period and wave amplitude of P300 event-related potential in cerebrospinal fluid. DESIGN： Correlation analysis of contrast observation SETTING： Department of Endocrinology, Affiliated Hospital of Binzhou Medical College PARTICIPANTS： Totally 32 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who received the treatment in the Department of Endocrinology, Affiliated Hospital of Binzhou Medical College between April 2004 and April 2005 were recruited, serving as diabetes mellitus group. They, including 19 male and 13 female, aged 49 to 73 years, with disease course of 4 to 11 years, all met the diagnostic criteria of diabetes mellitus revised by World Health Organization in 1999. Another 30 patients with non-diabetes mellitus who homeochronously underwent lumbar anesthesia in the Department of Surgery and Department of Gynecology were recruited, serving as non-diabetes mellitus group. The 30 patients included 18 male and 12 female, and their age ranged from 46 to 71 years. Informed consents of detected items were obtained from the involved patients. METHODS： ① Evaluation,on IQ： The IQ of involved subjects was evaluated with Chinese Version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale revised by Gong Yao-xian （WAIS-RC）. WAIS-RC included 6 verbal subscales and 5 performance subscales. The test scores of the 11 subscales integrated into the scores of the whole scale, and the scores on the WAIS-RC included verbal IQ （VlQ）, performance IQ （PIQ） and full scale IQ （FIQ）. FIQ ≤79 scores indicated low IQ and FIQ≤69 indicated intelligence impairment. ② Detection of P300 wave： P300 wave was detected with evoked potential instrument （MYTOPRO, Italian）, and data of latent period and amplitude of P300 event-related potential were automatically shown by computer. ③ Detection of AChE activity in blood and cerebrospinal fluid： Activity of AChE of blood and cerebrospinal fluid was measured with biochemical methods by using CORNING-560 autoanalyzer.④Correlation analysis： Correlation of FIQ with AChE of cerebrospinal fluid and P300 wave of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus was analyzed, t test was used in intergroup comparison and linear correlation analysis for relevant treatment. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES： ① Comparison of IQ, latent period and wave amplitude of P300 wave as well as the activity of AChE between two groups. ② Analysis on the correlation of FIQ of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus with AChE of cerebrospinal fluid and P300 wave. RESULTS： Thirty-two patients with diabetes mellitus and 30 non-diabetes mellitus participated in the result analysis. ①Comparison of IQ, latent period and wave amplitude of P300 wave as well as the activity of AChE between two groups： The scores of VIP, PIQ and FIQ of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus were （97.4±10.4）. （92.6±8.4） and （95.2±9.7） scores, respectively; and those of patients with non-diabetes mellitus were （104.7±9.6）, （102.5±8.5）and（102.7±8.9） scores, respectively, and P 〈 0.05-0.01 was set in intergroup comparison. The latent period of P300 wave at points Fz , Cz and Pz of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus was （370.8±41.8）.（371.5±39.1）and （375.1±43.1） ms, respectively, and that of patients with non-diabetes mellitus was （ 332.1 ±28.3 ）, （335.7 ±29.4）and （339.7 ±27.3） ms, respectively, and P 〈 0.01 was set in intergroup comparison; Wave amplitude of P300 of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus was （8.6±4.1）,（8.6±4.0） and （7.7±4.0） μV, respectively and that of patients with non-diabetes mellitus was （11.9±4.1）,（11.5±4.4） and （10.9±5.0） μV, respectively , and P 〈 0.05-0.01 was set in intergroup comparison; The level of AChE in blood and cerebrospinal fluid of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus was （235.61 ±50.34）and （17.89±4.46） μkat/L, respectively, which was significantly higher than that of patients with non-diabetes mellitus [（205.03±44.15）and （14.63±0.48） μkat /L, respectively], and P 〈 0.05-0.01 was set in the intergroup comparison. ② Correlation of FIQ value of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus with AChE of cerebrospinal fluid and P300 wave： The value of FIQ was significantly negatively correlated with the AChE activity of cerebrospinal fluid （r=-0.588 1, P 〈 0.01 ）, significantly negatively correlated with the latent period at points Fz. C and Pz of P300 wave （r= -0.700 5, -0.689 4, -0.688 5, P 〈 0.01 ）, and significantly positively correlated with the amplitude at points Fz . Cz and Pz of P300 wave（r= 0.607 4,0.616 1,0.592 0,P 〈 0.01 ）. CONCLUSION： ① Cognitive impairment of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus might be related to the increase of activity of AChE in cerebrospinal fluid. ②Combined application of examination of P300 wave and evaluation of IQ is more useful in deciding the state of cognitive function of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Neural Networks on an FPGA and Hardware-Friendly Activation Functions

This paper describes our implementation of several neural networks built on a field programmable gate array (FPGA) and used to recognize a handwritten digit dataset—the Modified National Institute of Standards and Technology (MNIST) database. We also propose a novel hardware-friendly activation function called the dynamic Rectifid Linear Unit (ReLU)—D-ReLU function that achieves higher performance than traditional activation functions at no cost to accuracy. We built a 2-layer online training multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network on an FPGA with varying data width. Reducing the data width from 8 to 4 bits only reduces prediction accuracy by 11%, but the FPGA area decreases by 41%. Compared to networks that use the sigmoid functions, our proposed D-ReLU function uses 24% - 41% less area with no loss to prediction accuracy. Further reducing the data width of the 3-layer networks from 8 to 4 bits, the prediction accuracies only decrease by 3% - 5%, with area being reduced by 9% - 28%. Moreover, FPGA solutions have 29 times faster execution time, even despite running at a 60× lower clock rate. Thus, FPGA implementations of neural networks offer a high-performance, low power alternative to traditional software methods, and our novel D-ReLU activation function offers additional improvements to performance and power saving.

Characterization and Functionalisation of Activated Carbon for the Enhancement of Enzyme Catalyst Activity

Background and objective:Activated carbon is commonly used as an immobilisation matrix due to its large surface area,making it a highly desirable matrix for use in immobilising enzymes as preparation for use on the industrial scale.The objective of this research is to determine the effectiveness of different acids for functionalisation on immobilisation capacity and also to characterize the functionalized activated carbon for the functional groups present.Materials and methods:Activated carbon was functionalised with three acids(hydrochloric acid,nitric acid and sulphuric acid)along with a control sample washed with distilled water.Immobilisation capacity was calculated with hydrochloric acid functionalized activated carbon(HCl-FAC)giving the highest immobilization capacity(6.022 U/g).Characterisation of the functionalised activated carbon was conducted using FT-IR(Fourier Transform Infra-Red)spectroscopy analysis of the samples with the aim of analyzing the various functional groups present to determine the sample with distinct characteristics thus telling the degree of adsorption of lipase onto the activated carbon powder.Results:HNO3-FAC(functionalized activated carbon)showed a very distinct pattern as a larger number of surface functional groups emerged.The immobilisation on a matrix ensures thermal stability and increased reusability of the enzyme.Therefore,in this research,lipase sourced from Candida antarctica was immobilised on acid functionalised activated carbon.The best acid for functionalisation was found to be hydrochloric acid.Conclusion:Due to the very distinct patterns shown by the FT-IR spectrum of the HNO3-FAC after a fair comparison with others,it allows for a larger number of surface functional groups which will definitely enhance the stability of the enzyme lipase.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging evidence for activated functional brain areas following acupoint needling in the extremities

Totally three articles focusing on functional magnetic resonance imaging features of brain function in the activated brain regions of stroke patients undergoing acupuncture on the healthy limbs and healthy controls undergoing acupuncture on the lower extremities are published in three issues. We hope that our readers find these papers useful to their research.

FUNCTIONALIZED CYCLODEXSTRINS BEARING AM INOALKYLIMINO GROUPS AS ACTIVE CENTERS TO CATALYZE ALDOL CONDENSATIONS

Efficient catalysis of functinnatized β-cyctodextrins bearing aninoatkytimino groups for atdot condensations of nitrobenzatdehydes and acetone has been effected and substantiated by preparative experiments

Theoretical Study on the C-H Activation in Decarbonylation of Acetaldehyde by NiL_2(L=SO_3CH_3) Using Density Functional Theory

Density functional theory calculations were carried out to explore the potential energy surface（PES） associated with the gas-phase reaction of Ni L2（L=SO3CH3） with acetone. The geometries and energies of the reactants, intermediates, products and transition states of the triplet ground potential energy surfaces of [Ni, O, C2, H4] were obtained at the B3LYP/6-311＋＋G（d,p） levels in C,H,O atoms and B3LYP/ Lanl2 dz in Ni atom. It was found through our calculations that the decabonylation of acetaldehyde contains four steps including encounter complexation, C-C activation, aldehyde H-shift and nonreactive dissociation. The results revealed that C-C activation induced by Ni L2（L=SO3CH3） led to the decarbonylation of acetaldehyde.

INHIBITORY EFFECTS OF ADENOSINE 5' -TRIPHOSPHATE ON COCHLEAR FUNCTION OF GUINEA PIG

Objective To study effects of adenosine 5’-triphosphate (ATP) on cochlear function of guineapig. Methods After perfusion of ATP into perilymphatic spaces of the guinea pig cochlea, summating potential(SP) , cochlear microphonic ( CM) , auditory nerve compound action potential ( CAP) , distortion product otoa-coustic emission (DPOAE) and auditory brainstem response (ABR) were measured. Results The resultsshowed concentration-dependent effect of ATP on the response alterations of bioelectric activity in cochlea. Adminis-tration of Immol/L ATP caused an increase both in the amplitude of the SP and in the threshold of ABR, a decreasein amplitude of the CAP and DPOAE. In addition, response alterations of the CAP and DPOAE showed in an inten-sity- and frequency-dependent manner, respectively. At levels of 20 - 70dB nHL sound intensity, lmmol/L ATPcaused a significant decrease in the CAP amplitude, while at moderate and high frequency ranges of 2 -8kHz it re-duced DPOAE amplitude significantly. 330μmol/L ATP also increased the threshold of ABR. Conclusion ATPthrough perilymphatic perfusion could inhibit cochlear function of guinea pig.

What Information Gap Activities can Teach Us in TESOL

Starting from presenting and analyzing some information gap activities during the previous teaching experience, this article has inferred the major roles of information gap activities. Some strategies to implement the information gap activities are also recommended together with the functions of the instructors via these activities. What information gap activities can teach us in TESOL （teaching English for speakers of other languages） is that information gap activities contribute to setting up a climate of a mutual autonomous learning style both for the learners and the instructors, and these activities activate a diversity in the learning atmosphere.