Scientific Reports最新文献

Quantal synaptic transmission in vestibular endorgans is glutamatergic. Here, we investigated the vestibular phenotype of deaf Vglut3^-/- (Slc17a8^-/-) mice from the cellular to behavioral levels. In Vglut3^-/- mice, quantal synaptic transmission in utricular calyces was reduced in rate and amplitude by > 95%. In vivo recordings of spontaneous activity in the vestibular nerve revealed no significant effect of VGLUT3 deletion on afferent rate and regularity, suggesting a divergent underlying mechanism compared to the silent Vglut3^-/- auditory nerve. In behavioral studies, Vglut3^-/- mice did not exhibit considerable sensorimotor or balance deficits. Type-II vestibular hair cells (VHCs) in Vglut3^+/+ mice were strongly immunoreactive for VGLUT3, while type-I VHCs showed weak immunoreactivity. Collectively, these data support the view that non-quantal transmission is the predominant mode of neurotransmission between type-I VHCs and vestibular calyceal afferent neurons. We propose that non-quantal transmission is sufficient to support vestibular nerve physiology and behavioral function in Vglut3^-/- mice.

Pattern-coupled Bayesian compressive sensing shows great potential in sound field reconstruction by leveraging structural sparsity, but its fixed coupling patterns for sparsity hyperparameters limit adaptability to non-uniform correlation distributions. To overcome this limitation, this paper proposes an enhanced method termed data-adaptive pattern-coupled Bayesian compressive sensing for high-accuracy sound field reconstruction. In this method, a hierarchical Gaussian-Gamma prior model is established based on the equivalent source method within the compressive sensing framework, achieving reconstruction by solving for the sparse coefficient vector of equivalent source strengths. A set of adaptive coupling parameters is introduced via a learnable transformation matrix, dynamically regulating the interrelationships between hyperparameters and thereby substantially enhancing the adaptability of the prior model. Furthermore, both the coupling parameters and hyperparameters are iteratively updated with a data-driven method, enabling adaptive mutual influence of sparsity patterns among elements within the sparse coefficient vector. This process promotes clustering of non-zero coefficients and concentration of zero-valued coefficients, inducing a physically meaningful block-sparse structure reflecting the spatial continuity of actual sound sources. By fully exploiting the intrinsic statistical correlations between elements of the sparse coefficient vector without requiring knowledge of the block structure, it achieves superior sound field reconstruction accuracy. Numerical simulations and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms existing approaches in terms of reconstruction accuracy and noise robustness, thereby validating its effectiveness and superiority in sound field reconstruction.

Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) in office settings plays a critical role in occupant satisfaction and well-being, directly influencing health, productivity, and overall quality of life. Current research, however, lacks an integrated understanding of the mechanisms linking sensory IEQ comfort to satisfaction and well-being. Furthermore, many studies overlook the interactive effects of IEQ across different functional spaces, which may lead to biased estimations of IEQ's impact on well-being. To address these gaps, this study collected 264 valid questionnaires from employees across nine floors in four office buildings. The survey encompassed sensory IEQ Comfort, Total Environmental Comfort Vote (TECV), Work Environmental Satisfaction (WESA), Work Satisfaction (WSA), and Life Satisfaction (LSA). A multi-group Structural Equation Model (SEM) was employed for multi-spatial integrated analysis. The results indicate that Sensory IEQ comfort in Leisure Space (LS) exhibits more significant pathways to LSA compared to Work Space (WS). In both WS and LS, IEQ comfort promotes WESA and WSA primarily through the mediation of TECV; notably, the impact of WESA is more pronounced in LS. WSA serves as a stronger driver of LSA than WESA in the office. The multi-spatial model significantly reduced the effect sizes of independent pathways compared to single-space models, suggesting that neglecting spatial diversity may lead to result errors. Furthermore, computer usage time was identified as a core factor influencing WESA and WSA, and indirectly affecting LSA. This study provides explicit design guidance for optimizing sensory IEQ to enhance occupant well-being and emphasizes the necessity of multi-spatial considerations in office design.

A performance-efficient compact, highly selective 24 GHz SIW-based bandpass filter (BPF) is proposed for automotive radar and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). The key contribution is a single-layer SIW-DGS-CPW co-design in which SIW cavities provide a high-Q passband, an open-rectangular DGS introduces transmission zeros to steepen the skirts and reinforce the stopband, and a CPW feeding transition improves matching and practical integration. Implemented on a substrate of Rogers RO4003C with [Formula: see text] and thickness of 0.508 mm, the prototype occupies [Formula: see text], achieving a pronounced miniaturization while maintaining strong spectral selectivity. Full-wave simulations and measurements confirm a center frequency of 23.97 GHz and a 450-MHz 3-dB bandwidth, with return loss better than 24 dB and an in-band insertion loss of 1.6-2.0 dB ([Formula: see text]). The filter exhibits sharp roll-off with a measured 40-dB rejection within ± (0.8-1.2) GHz from [Formula: see text], and 30-35 dB suppression across 20-30 GHz. A compact equivalent-circuit model captures the passband behavior and transmission zeros. Thermal analysis (25-105 °C) shows only a slight downshift (~ 30 MHz) with minimal performance degradation, supporting automotive reliability. Compared with prior 24-GHz BPFs, the proposed co-integration simultaneously improves skirt selectivity and wide stopband suppression within a compact footprint.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive condition characterized by airway remodeling, including emphysema and fibrosis. Proteoglycans and their glycosaminoglycan (GAG) chains are key components of the extracellular matrix and may be altered as the disease advances. This study analyzed lung tissue from COPD patients (GOLD stages II-III and IV), non-COPD smokers, and non-smokers to assess proteoglycan and GAG changes. While LC-MS revealed no alterations in chondroitin/dermatan sulfate (CS/DS) or heparan sulfate (HS) proteoglycan core proteins, the total GAG level increased in GOLD II-IV patients. HS displayed increased N- and 2-O-sulfation in GOLD IV, while CS/DS levels and 4-O-sulfation were enhanced across GOLD II-IV. These findings were supported by transcriptomic data indicating upregulation of CHST11, the main CS/DS 4-O-sulfotransferase. In line with previous findings, TGF-β signaling was shown to be enriched in COPD patients and to regulate the CHST11 expression. These results were confirmed by TGF-β stimulation of lung fibroblasts showing increased CS/DS levels, 4-O-sulfation, and CHST11 expression. In conclusion, COPD is associated with disease-stage-specific changes in GAG sulfation, particularly enhanced CS/DS 4-O-sulfation that is likely to be driven by TGF-β. These alterations may contribute to extracellular matrix remodeling and represent potential targets for therapeutic intervention to mitigate disease progression.