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Epilepsy is one of the most common brain disorders and may result in brain dysfunction and cognitive disturbances. Epileptic seizures usually begin in childhood without being accommodated by brain damage and are tolerated by drugs that produce no brain dysfunction. In this study, cognitive function is evaluated in children with mild epileptic seizures controlled with common antiepileptic drugs. Under this prism, we propose a concise technical framework of combining and validating both linear and nonlinear methods to efficiently evaluate (in terms of synchronization) neurophysiological activity during a visual cognitive task consisting of fractal pattern observation. We investigate six measures of quantifying synchronous oscillatory activity based on different underlying assumptions. These measures include the coherence computed with the traditional formula and an alternative evaluation of it that relies on autoregressive models, an information theoretic measure known as minimum description length, a robust phase coupling measure known as phase-locking value, a reliable way of assessing generalized synchronization in state-space and an unbiased alternative called synchronization likelihood. Assessment is performed in three stages; initially, the nonlinear methods are validated on coupled nonlinear oscillators under increasing noise interference; second, surrogate data testing is performed to assess the possible nonlinear channel interdependencies of the acquired EEGs by comparing the synchronization indexes under the null hypothesis of stationary, linear dynamics; and finally, synchronization on the actual data is measured. The results on the actual data suggest that there is a significant difference between normal controls and epileptics, mostly apparent in occipital-parietal lobes during fractal observation tests.

Soil amendments, such as straw mulch, organic fertilizers and superabsorbent polymer (SAP), are extensively applied to improve soil structure and porosity, and we reported the functional consequences of the individual application of these amendments in our previous study. However, whether combined amendments are more effective than their individual applications for improving soil pore structure is unknown. Here, we conducted X-ray computed tomography (CT) scanning on undisturbed soil columns to investigate the efficiency of two-amendment application, including straw mulch and organic manure, SAP and organic manure, or SAP and straw mulch, for improving soil pore properties and pore distribution. The X-ray CT technique allows us to accurately determine the number, morphology, and location of macropores (>1 mm in diameter) and smaller pores (0.13–1.0 mm). Compared to the control treatment, which showed the lowest increase in soil porosity, all the combined treatments led to an increase in the numbers of both macropores and smaller soil pores, causing a significant improvement in soil structure and porosity. Among these treatments, the application of both straw mulch and organic manure was the most effective for improving soil porosity and soil physical structure.

Ribosomal protein L34 (RPL34) was reported to be involved in the regulation of cell proliferation of prokaryotes, plant and animal cells. In the present study, we analyze the expression and function of RPL34 in NSCLC. Immunohistochemical analysis, qPCR and Western blot were used to detect the expression of RPL34 in NSCLC tissues and cells lines. Flow cytometry was used to detect cell activity of NSCLC cell line H1299 under lentivirus-mediated RNAi on RPL34. Cell proliferation and colony formation assays were used to analyze the role of RPL34 in NSCLC cell proliferation. We found that expression of ribosomal protein RPL34 was significantly up-regulated in NSCLC tissues compared to adjacent normal tissues. Lentivirus-mediated shRNA knockdown of RPL34 in NSCLC cell line H1299 resulted in a strong decrease of proliferation, and a moderate but significant increase of apoptosis and S-phase arrest. These data indicate that over-expressed RPL34 may promote malignant proliferation of NSCLC cells, thus playing an important role in development and progress of NSCLC.