Correction to: ‘Robert Provine: the critical human importance of laughter, connections and contagion’ (2022) by Scott et al

One of the authors' names was spelt incorrectly as Addsion Billing instead of Addison Billing. This has now been corrected on the publisher's website

Pushing the envelope: Evaluating speech rhythm with different envelope extraction techniques

The amplitude of the speech signal varies over time, and the speech envelope is an attempt to characterise this variation in the form of an acoustic feature. Although tacitly assumed, the similarity between the speech envelope-derived time series and that of phonetic objects (e.g., vowels) remains empirically unestablished. The current paper, therefore, evaluates several speech envelope extraction techniques, such as the Hilbert transform, by comparing different acoustic landmarks (e.g., peaks in the speech envelope) with manual phonetic annotation in a naturalistic and diverse dataset. Joint speech tasks are also introduced to determine which acoustic landmarks are most closely coordinated when voices are aligned. Finally, the acoustic landmarks are evaluated as predictors for the temporal characterisation of speaking style using classification tasks. The landmark that performed most closely to annotated vowel onsets was peaks in the first derivative of a human audition-informed envelope, consistent with converging evidence from neural and behavioural data. However, differences also emerged based on language and speaking style. Overall, the results show that both the choice of speech envelope extraction technique and the form of speech under study affect how sensitive an engineered feature is at capturing aspects of speech rhythm, such as the timing of vowels

The interplay of intrinsic and extrinsic bounded noises in genetic networks

After being considered as a nuisance to be filtered out, it became recently clear that biochemical noise plays a complex role, often fully functional, for a genetic network. The influence of intrinsic and extrinsic noises on genetic networks has intensively been investigated in last ten years, though contributions on the co-presence of both are sparse. Extrinsic noise is usually modeled as an unbounded white or colored gaussian stochastic process, even though realistic stochastic perturbations are clearly bounded. In this paper we consider Gillespie-like stochastic models of nonlinear networks, i.e. the intrinsic noise, where the model jump rates are affected by colored bounded extrinsic noises synthesized by a suitable biochemical state-dependent Langevin system. These systems are described by a master equation, and a simulation algorithm to analyze them is derived. This new modeling paradigm should enlarge the class of systems amenable at modeling. We investigated the influence of both amplitude and autocorrelation time of a extrinsic Sine-Wiener noise on: $(i)$ the Michaelis-Menten approximation of noisy enzymatic reactions, which we show to be applicable also in co-presence of both intrinsic and extrinsic noise, $(ii)$ a model of enzymatic futile cycle and $(iii)$ a genetic toggle switch. In $(ii)$ and $(iii)$ we show that the presence of a bounded extrinsic noise induces qualitative modifications in the probability densities of the involved chemicals, where new modes emerge, thus suggesting the possibile functional role of bounded noises

Erratum to: Synthesis and Magnetic Properties of Nearly Monodisperse CoFe2O4 Nanoparticles Through a Simple Hydrothermal Condition

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Nearly monodisperse cobalt ferrite (CoFe₂O₄) nanoparticles without any size-selection process have been prepared through an alluring method in an oleylamine/ethanol/water system. Well-defined nanospheres with an average size of 5.5 nm have been synthesized using metal chloride as the law materials and oleic amine as the capping agent, through a general liquid&#8211;solid-solution (LSS) process. Magnetic measurement indicates that the particles exhibit a very high coercivity at 10 K and perform superparamagnetism at room temperature which is further illuminated by ZFC/FC curves. These superparamagnetic cobalt ferrite nanomaterials are considered to have potential application in the fields of biomedicine. The synthesis method is possible to be a general approach for the preparation of other pure binary and ternary compounds.</p

Observation of a ppb mass threshoud enhancement in \psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p}) decay

The decay channel $\psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p})$ is studied using a sample of $1.06\times 10^8$ $\psi^\prime$ events collected by the BESIII experiment at BEPCII. A strong enhancement at threshold is observed in the $p\bar{p}$ invariant mass spectrum. The enhancement can be fit with an $S$-wave Breit-Wigner resonance function with a resulting peak mass of $M=1861^{+6}_{-13} {\rm (stat)}^{+7}_{-26} {\rm (syst)} {\rm MeV/}c^2$ and a narrow width that is $\Gamma<38 {\rm MeV/}c^2$ at the 90% confidence level. These results are consistent with published BESII results. These mass and width values do not match with those of any known meson resonance.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Chinese Physics

Vacancy and Doping States in Monolayer and bulk Black Phosphorus.

The atomic geometries and transition levels of point defects and substitutional dopants in few-layer and bulk black phosphorus are calculated. The vacancy is found to reconstruct in monolayer P to leave a single dangling bond, giving a negative U defect with a +/- transition level at 0.24 eV above the valence band edge. The V(-) state forms an unusual 4-fold coordinated site. In few-layer and bulk black P, the defect becomes a positive U site. The divacancy is much more stable than the monovacancy, and it reconstructs to give no deep gap states. Substitutional dopants such as C, Si, O or S do not give rise to shallow donor or acceptor states but instead reconstruct to form non-doping sites analogous to DX or AX centers in GaAs. Impurities on black P adopt the 8-N rule of bonding, as in amorphous semiconductors, rather than simple substitutional geometries seen in tetrahedral semiconductors

Suggestion for linkage of chromosome 1p35.2 and 3q28 to plasma adiponectin concentrations in the GOLDN Study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Adiponectin is inversely associated with obesity, insulin resistance, and atherosclerosis, but little is known about the genetic pathways that regulate the plasma level of this protein. To find novel genes that influence circulating levels of adiponectin, a genome-wide linkage scan was performed on plasma adiponectin concentrations before and after 3 weeks of treatment with fenofibrate (160 mg daily) in the Genetics of Lipid Lowering Drugs and Diet Network (GOLDN) Study. We studied Caucasian individuals (n = 1121) from 190 families in Utah and Minnesota. Of these, 859 individuals from 175 families had both baseline and post-fenofibrate treatment measurements for adiponectin. Plasma adiponectin concentrations were measured with an ELISA assay. All participants were typed for microsatellite markers included in the Marshfield Mammalian Genotyping Service marker set 12, which includes 407 markers spaced at approximately 10 cM regions across the genome. Variance components analysis was used to estimate heritability and to perform genome-wide scans. Adiponectin was adjusted for age, sex, and field center. Additional models also included BMI adjustment.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Baseline and post-fenofibrate adiponectin measurements were highly correlated (r = 0.95). Suggestive (LOD > 2) peaks were found on chromosomes 1p35.2 and 3q28 (near the location of the adiponectin gene).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Two candidate genes, <it>IL22RA1 </it>and <it>IL28RA</it>, lie under the chromosome 1 peak; further analyses are needed to identify the specific genetic variants in this region that influence circulating adiponectin concentrations.</p