Acoustic characteristics of velar stops and velar softening in German, Polish and Catalan

Two hypotheses have been proposed in order to account for velar softening, i.e., a process through which /k/ changes to an affricate. Whereas one hypothesis states that for the process to apply the velar stop has to be realized as an (alveolo) palatal stop (articulation-based hypothesis), the other claims that velar softening is triggered by acoustic similarity between the input and output segments (acoustic equivalence hypothesis). The present paper investigates the acoustic equivalence hypothesis by comparing several acoustic properties of /k/ in various vowel contexts with those of /ts , ts , tc / for three languages differing in stop burst aspiration, i.e., German, Polish and Catalan. Results suggest that the acoustic equivalence hypothesis could account for velar softening in aspirated velar stops but not in unaspirated velar stops. The results also provide an explanation as to why aspirated velar stops are prone to undergo softening more easily when followed by front vocalic segments than in other contexts and position

Estudi experimental de les consonants fricatives del mallorquí i del valencià

Dades electropalatogràfiques i acústiques indiquen que /s/ i /ʃ/són més anteriors en valencià que en mallorquí. A més a més, la /s/ valenciana és menys palatalitzada que la mallorquina per tal com s'articula amb menys contacte dorsopalatal i una constricció lingual més ampla en el primer dialecte. En qualsevol cas, els parlants valencians distingeixen les dues fricatives, sobretot pel que fa al grau de contacte dorsopalatal i a l'indret i a la llargada de la constricció alveolar, si bé aquesta diferència és clarament inferior a la que exhibeixen els parlants mallorquins. En valencià (però no pas en mallorquí), la realització de /s/ final de mot darrera de consonant palatal en mots com alls i anys està generalment a mig camí entre la corresponent a la /s/ de permís i a la /ʃ/ de guix. El fet que, en relació amb el mallorquí, la /s/ valenciana sigui menys palatalitzada de forma general però més palatalitzada (sense igualarse amb /ʃ/) en posició final de mot darrera de consonant palatal, suggereix que els grups finals de alls i anys experimenten coarticulació retardatòria en valencià. S'adiu amb aquesta possibilitat el fet que l'epèntesi d'oclusiva pugui actuar més freqüentment en el grup /s/ que en la seqüència /ʃs/ en aquest dialecte. A la llum de les dades articulatòries i acústiques d'aquest estudi, proposem una interpretació d'alguns aspectes relatius a l'evolució històrica de les dues fricatives linguals en català dialectal.Electropalatographic and acoustic data show that /s/ and /ʃ/ are fronter in Valencian than in Majorcan. Moreover, Valencian /s/ is less palatalized than Majorcan /s/ because it is articulated with less dorso-palatal contact and the tongue constriction is produced over a wider area. In any case, Valencian speakers distinguish the two fricatives, especially as regards the degree of dorso-palatal contact, and the place and length of the alveolar constriction, although this difference is clearly less pronounced than for Majorcan speakers. In Valencian (but not Majorcan), the realization of word-final /s/ after a palatal consonant, as in alls and anys, is generally half way between that of the /s/ of permís and the /ʃ/ of guix. The fact that, in comparison with Majorcan, Valencian /s/ is less palatalized on the whole, but more palatalized (without merging with /ʃ/) in word-final position after a palatal consonant, suggests that the final clusters of alls and anys undergo carryover co-articulation in Valencian. This possibility is supported by the fact that stop epenthesis operates more frequently in the cluster /_s/ than in the sequence /ʎs/ in this dialect. In the light of the articulatory and acoustic data in this study, we propose an interpretation of some aspects about the historical evolution of lingual fricatives in Catalan dialects

Estudi experimental de les consonants fricatives del mallorquí i del valencià

Dades electropalatogràfiques i acústiques indiquen que /s/ i /ʃ/són més anteriors en valencià que en mallorquí. A més a més, la /s/ valenciana és menys palatalitzada que la mallorquina per tal com s'articula amb menys contacte dorsopalatal i una constricció lingual més ampla en el primer dialecte. En qualsevol cas, els parlants valencians distingeixen les dues fricatives, sobretot pel que fa al grau de contacte dorsopalatal i a l'indret i a la llargada de la constricció alveolar, si bé aquesta diferència és clarament inferior a la que exhibeixen els parlants mallorquins. En valencià (però no pas en mallorquí), la realització de /s/ final de mot darrera de consonant palatal en mots com alls i anys està generalment a mig camí entre la corresponent a la /s/ de permís i a la /ʃ/ de guix. El fet que, en relació amb el mallorquí, la /s/ valenciana sigui menys palatalitzada de forma general però més palatalitzada (sense igualarse amb /ʃ/) en posició final de mot darrera de consonant palatal, suggereix que els grups finals de alls i anys experimenten coarticulació retardatòria en valencià. S'adiu amb aquesta possibilitat el fet que l'epèntesi d'oclusiva pugui actuar més freqüentment en el grup que en la seqüència /ʃs/ en aquest dialecte. A la llum de les dades articulatòries i acústiques d'aquest estudi, proposem una interpretació d'alguns aspectes relatius a l'evolució històrica de les dues fricatives linguals en català dialectal.Electropalatographic and acoustic data show that /s/ and /ʃ/ are fronter in Valencian than in Majorcan. Moreover, Valencian /s/ is less palatalized than Majorcan /s/ because it is articulated with less dorso-palatal contact and the tongue constriction is produced over a wider area. In any case, Valencian speakers distinguish the two fricatives, especially as regards the degree of dorso-palatal contact, and the place and length of the alveolar constriction, although this difference is clearly less pronounced than for Majorcan speakers. In Valencian (but not Majorcan), the realization of word-final /s/ after a palatal consonant, as in alls and anys, is generally half way between that of the /s/ of permís and the /ʃ/ of guix. The fact that, in comparison with Majorcan, Valencian /s/ is less palatalized on the whole, but more palatalized (without merging with /ʃ/) in word-final position after a palatal consonant, suggests that the final clusters of alls and anys undergo carryover co-articulation in Valencian. This possibility is supported by the fact that stop epenthesis operates more frequently in the cluster /s/ than in the sequence /ʎs/ in this dialect. In the light of the articulatory and acoustic data in this study, we propose an interpretation of some aspects about the historical evolution of lingual fricatives in Catalan dialects

Response to : 'Domestic use of bleach and infections in children: a multicentre cross-sectional study' Response

Non peer reviewe

Genotoxic Effects in Swimmers Exposed to Disinfection By-products in Indoor Swimming Pools

37 páginas, 1 figura, 4 tablas.-- PDF con material suplementario.[BACKGROUND]: Exposure to disinfection by-products (DBPs) in drinking water has been associated with cancer risk. A recent study found an increased bladder cancer risk among subjects attending swimming pools relative to those not attending.[OBJECTIVES]: To evaluate whether swimming in pools is associated with biomarkers of genotoxicity.[METHODS]: We collected blood, urine, and exhaled air samples from 49 non-smoking adult volunteers before and after they swam for 40 min in an indoor chlorinated pool. We estimated associations between the concentrations of four trihalomethanes in exhaled breath and changes in the following biomarkers: micronuclei and DNA damage (comet assay) in peripheral blood lymphocytes before and 1 h after swimming, urine mutagenicity (Ames assay) before and 2 h after swimming, and micronuclei in exfoliated urothelial cells before and 2 weeks after swimming. We also estimated associations and interactions with polymorphisms in genes related to DNA repair or DBP metabolism.[RESULTS]: After swimming, the total concentration of the four trihalomethanes in exhaled breath was seven times higher than before swimming. The change in the frequency of micronucleated lymphocytes after swimming increased in association with exhaled concentrations of the brominated trihalomethanes (p = 0.03 for CHCl2Br, p = 0.05 for CHClBr2, p = 0.01 for CHBr3) but not chloroform. Swimming was not associated with DNA damage detectable by the comet assay. Urine mutagenicity increased significantly after swimming in association with the concentration of exhaled CHBr3 (p = 0.004). No significant associations with changes in micronucleated urothelial cells were observed.[CONCLUSIONS]: Our findings support potential genotoxic effects of exposure to DBPs from swimming pools. The positive health effects gained by swimming could be increased by reducing the potential health risks of pool water.Research supported by Plan Nacional Grant SAF2005-07643-C03-01/02/03, Spain and FIS CP06/00341, Spain. CM Villanueva supported by the ISCIII (CP06/00341), Spain, L Font-Ribera by a predoctoral fellowship (FI06/00651), Spain, and D Liviac by a postgraduate fellowship UAB (PIF409-009), Barcelona.Peer reviewe

Blood cytokine, chemokine and growth factor profiling in a cohort of pregnant women from tropical countries

The immune status of women changes during and after pregnancy, differs between blood compartments at delivery and is affected by environmental factors particularly in tropical areas endemic for multiple infections. We quantified the plasma concentration of a set of thirty-one TH1, TH2, TH17 and regulatory cytokines, pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, and growth factors (altogether biomarkers), in a cohort of 540 pregnant women from five malaria-endemic tropical countries. Samples were collected at recruitment (first antenatal visit), delivery (periphery, cord and placenta) and postpartum, allowing a longitudinal analysis. We found the lowest concentration of biomarkers at recruitment and the highest at postpartum, with few exceptions. Among them, IL-6, HGF and TGF-β had the highest levels at delivery, and even higher concentrations in the placenta compared to peripheral blood. Placental concentrations were generally higher than peripheral, except for eotaxin that was lower. We also compared plasma biomarker concentrations between the tropical cohort and a control group from Spain at delivery, presenting overall higher biomarker levels the tropical cohort, particularly pro-inflammatory cytokines and growth factors. Only IL-6 presented lower levels in the tropical group. Moreover, a principal component analysis of biomarker concentrations at delivery showed that women from Spain grouped more homogenously, and that IL-6 and IL-8 clustered together in the tropical cohort but not in the Spanish one. Plasma cytokine concentrations correlated with Plasmodium antibody levels at postpartum but not during pregnancy. This basal profiling of immune mediators over gestation and in different compartments at delivery is important to subsequently understand response to infections and clinical outcomes in mothers and infants in tropical areas

Exposing and Overcoming Limitations of Clinical Laboratory Tests in COVID-19 by Adding Immunological Parameters; A Retrospective Cohort Analysis and Pilot Study

BackgroundTwo years since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic no predictive algorithm has been generally adopted for clinical management and in most algorithms the contribution of laboratory variables is limited. ObjectivesTo measure the predictive performance of currently used clinical laboratory tests alone or combined with clinical variables and explore the predictive power of immunological tests adequate for clinical laboratories. Methods: Data from 2,600 COVID-19 patients of the first wave of the pandemic in the Barcelona area (exploratory cohort of 1,579, validation cohorts of 598 and 423 patients) including clinical parameters and laboratory tests were retrospectively collected. 28-day survival and maximal severity were the main outcomes considered in the multiparametric classical and machine learning statistical analysis. A pilot study was conducted in two subgroups (n=74 and n=41) measuring 17 cytokines and 27 lymphocyte phenotypes respectively. Findings1) Despite a strong association of clinical and laboratory variables with the outcomes in classical pairwise analysis, the contribution of laboratory tests to the combined prediction power was limited by redundancy. Laboratory variables reflected only two types of processes: inflammation and organ damage but none reflected the immune response, one major determinant of prognosis. 2) Eight of the thirty variables: age, comorbidity index, oxygen saturation to fraction of inspired oxygen ratio, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, C-reactive protein, aspartate aminotransferase/alanine aminotransferase ratio, fibrinogen, and glomerular filtration rate captured most of the combined statistical predictive power. 3) The interpretation of clinical and laboratory variables was moderately improved by grouping them in two categories i.e., inflammation related biomarkers and organ damage related biomarkers; Age and organ damage-related biomarker tests were the best predictors of survival, and inflammatory-related ones were the best predictors of severity. 4) The pilot study identified immunological tests (CXCL10, IL-6, IL-1RA and CCL2), that performed better than most currently used laboratory tests. ConclusionsLaboratory tests for clinical management of COVID 19 patients are valuable but limited predictors due to redundancy; this limitation could be overcome by adding immunological tests with independent predictive power. Understanding the limitations of tests in use would improve their interpretation and simplify clinical management but a systematic search for better immunological biomarkers is urgent and feasible

Jardins per a la salut

Facultat de Farmàcia, Universitat de Barcelona. Ensenyament: Grau de Farmàcia. Assignatura: Botànica farmacèutica. Curs: 2014-2015. Coordinadors: Joan Simon, Cèsar Blanché i Maria Bosch.Els materials que aquí es presenten són el recull de les fitxes botàniques de 128 espècies presents en el Jardí Ferran Soldevila de l’Edifici Històric de la UB. Els treballs han estat realitzats manera individual per part dels estudiants dels grups M-3 i T-1 de l’assignatura Botànica Farmacèutica durant els mesos de febrer a maig del curs 2014-15 com a resultat final del Projecte d’Innovació Docent «Jardins per a la salut: aprenentatge servei a Botànica farmacèutica» (codi 2014PID-UB/054). Tots els treballs s’han dut a terme a través de la plataforma de GoogleDocs i han estat tutoritzats pels professors de l’assignatura. L’objectiu principal de l’activitat ha estat fomentar l’aprenentatge autònom i col·laboratiu en Botànica farmacèutica. També s’ha pretès motivar els estudiants a través del retorn de part del seu esforç a la societat a través d’una experiència d’Aprenentatge-Servei, deixant disponible finalment el treball dels estudiants per a poder ser consultable a través d’una Web pública amb la possibilitat de poder-ho fer in-situ en el propi jardí mitjançant codis QR amb un smartphone

Acoustics and perception of velar softening for unaspirated stops

Abstract This paper provides articulatory, acoustic and perceptual data in support of the hypothesis that the velar softening process through which /k/ becomes /tP/ is based on articulation rather than on acoustic equivalence if operating on unaspirated stops. Production data for unaspirated /k/ are analyzed for five speakers of Majorcan Catalan, where the velar stop phoneme exhibits (alveolo)palatal or velar allophones depending on vowel context and position. Data on several parameters, i.e., contact anteriority and dorsopalatal contact degree, burst spectral peak frequency, energy and duration, and F2 and F3 vowel transition endpoints and ranges, suggest that /tP/ may have originated from (alveolo)palatal stop realizations not only before front vocalic segments but also before low and central vowels and word finally. Perception results are consistent with the production data in indicating that the most significant /tP/ perception cues are burst energy before /], u/ and burst duration word/utterance finally. They also suggest that velar softening for unaspirated /k/ before front vocalic segments is triggered by an increase in burst frication energy and duration resulting from the narrowing of an (alveolo)palatal central channel occurring at stop closure release. These findings are in agreement with the existence of contextual and positional (alveolo)palatal stop allophones of /k/, and with evidence from sound change, in the Romance languages.