Envelope regularity discrimination

© 2019 Acoustical Society of America. The ability to discriminate irregular from regular amplitude modulation was assessed using the "envelope regularity discrimination" test. The amount of irregularity was parametrically varied and quantified by an "irregularity index." Normative data were gathered for young subjects with normal audiometric thresholds. Parameters varied were the carrier and modulation frequencies, f c and f m , and the baseline modulation index, m. All tests were performed using a background threshold-equalizing noise. The main findings were (1) using f c = 4000 Hz, f m = 8 Hz, and m = 0.3, performance improved over the first two threshold runs and then remained roughly stable, and there was a high correlation between thresholds obtained at 80 dB sound pressure level (SPL) and at 20 dB sensation level; (2) using f m = 8 Hz and m = 0.3 with a level of 80 dB SPL, thresholds did not vary significantly across f c = 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz; (3) using f m = 8 Hz and f c = 4000 Hz with a level of 80 dB SPL, thresholds did not vary significantly for m from 0.2 to 0.5; and (4) using m = 0.3 and f c = 4000 Hz with a level of 80 dB SPL, thresholds improved with increasing f m from 2 to 16 Hz. For all conditions, there was substantial individual variability, probably resulting from differences in "processing efficiency.

Exploring a Mediterranean mesozooplankton 13 year time-series.

Zooplankton plays diverse crucial roles within the marine ecosystem and can also be used as bio- indicator of climate changes since it is very sensitive to environmental changes. Therefore it is essential to consider long-term plankton series. Given the analysis of plankton samples is time- consuming, it requires an effective and rapid analytical method. We have used in this work a supervised learning approach adapted for the semi-automatic classification of digital images of the mesozooplankton of the Bay of Calvi (Corsica, France) by using the Zoo/PhytoImage software. Together with a 11-years long zooplankton time-series, a set of nine environmental variables were monitored in order to identify controlling factors and determine whether the communities were sensitive to global environmental changes. The main components of the mesozooplankton community were characterized by both seasonal and inter-annual variability. Additionally, variation of holoplankton and meroplankton differentiated one from each other. The holoplanktonic community could be split into two subgroups according to its variation in function of the environment: cladocerans and appendicularians, and to a lesser extent, copepods on one hand, and cnidarians, chaetognathes and thaliaceans, on the other hand. Regarding inter-annual variation, one year (2007) showed particularly low production of total zooplankton which was also the case for all the different holoplanktonic taxa. Accounting for that phenomenon were identified some potentially underlying environmental factors. Finally, although water temperature increased significantly over the last years along with the frequency of marine heat wave events, no evident change in the global zooplankton composition was observed yet.STARECAPME

Investigating the effect of one year of learning to play a musical instrument on speech-in-noise perception and phonological short-term memory in 5-to-7-year-old children

The benefits in speech-in-noise perception, language and cognition brought about by extensive musical training in adults and children have been demonstrated in a number of cross-sectional studies. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate whether one year of school-delivered musical training, consisting of individual and group instrumental classes, was capable of producing advantages for speech-in-noise perception and phonological short-term memory in children tested in a simulated classroom environment. Forty-one children aged 5-7 years at the first measurement point participated in the study and either went to a music-focused or a sport-focused private school with an otherwise equivalent school curriculum. The children's ability to detect number and color words in noise was measured under a number of conditions including different masker types (speech-shaped noise, single-talker background) and under varying spatial combinations of target and masker (spatially collocated, spatially separated). Additionally, a cognitive factor essential to speech perception, namely phonological short-term memory, was assessed. Findings were unable to confirm that musical training of the frequency and duration administered was associated with a musicians' advantage for either speech in noise, under any of the masker or spatial conditions tested, or phonological short-term memory

Does training with amplitude modulated tones affect tone-vocoded speech perception?

Temporal-envelope cues are essential for successful speech perception. We asked here whether training on stimuli containing temporal-envelope cues without speech content can improve the perception of spectrally-degraded (vocoded) speech in which the temporal-envelope (but not the temporal fine structure) is mainly preserved. Two groups of listeners were trained on different amplitude-modulation (AM) based tasks, either AM detection or AM-rate discrimination (21 blocks of 60 trials during two days, 1260 trials; frequency range: 4Hz, 8Hz, and 16Hz), while an additional control group did not undertake any training. Consonant identification in vocoded vowel-consonant-vowel stimuli was tested before and after training on the AM tasks (or at an equivalent time interval for the control group). Following training, only the trained groups showed a significant improvement in the perception of vocoded speech, but the improvement did not significantly differ from that observed for controls. Thus, we do not find convincing evidence that this amount of training with temporal-envelope cues without speech content provide significant benefit for vocoded speech intelligibility. Alternative training regimens using vocoded speech along the linguistic hierarchy should be explored

SETD2 transcriptional control of ATG14L/S isoforms regulates autophagosome-lysosome fusion

Macroautophagy/autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved and tightly regulated catabolic process involved in the maintenance of cellular homeostasis whose dysregulation is implicated in several pathological processes. Autophagy begins with the formation of phagophores that engulf cytoplasmic cargo and mature into double-membrane autophagosomes; the latter fuse with lysosomes/vacuoles for cargo degradation and recycling. Here, we report that yeast Set2, a histone lysine methyltransferase, and its mammalian homolog, SETD2, both act as positive transcriptional regulators of autophagy. However, whereas Set2 regulates the expression of several autophagy-related (Atg) genes upon nitrogen starvation, SETD2 effects in mammals were found to be more restricted. In fact, SETD2 appears to primarily regulate the differential expression of protein isoforms encoded by the ATG14 gene. SETD2 promotes the expression of a long ATG14 isoform, ATG14L, that contains an N-terminal cysteine repeats domain, essential for the efficient fusion of the autophagosome with the lysosome, that is absent in the short ATG14 isoform, ATG14S. Accordingly, SETD2 loss of function decreases autophagic flux, as well as the turnover of aggregation-prone proteins such as mutant HTT (huntingtin) leading to increased cellular toxicity. Hence, our findings bring evidence to the emerging concept that the production of autophagy-related protein isoforms can differentially affect core autophagy machinery bringing an additional level of complexity to the regulation of this biological process in more complex organisms.Peer reviewe

The contribution of individual differences in memory span and language ability to spatial release from masking in young children

Purpose Working memory capacity and language ability modulate speech reception; however, the respective roles of peripheral and cognitive processing are unclear. The contribution of individual differences in these abilities to utilization of spatial cues when separating speech from informational and energetic masking backgrounds in children has not yet been determined. Therefore, this study explored whether speech reception in children is modulated by environmental factors, such as the type of background noise and spatial configuration of target and noise sources, and individual differences in the cognitive and linguistic abilities of listeners. Method Speech reception thresholds were assessed in 39 children aged 5-7 years in simulated school listening environments. Speech reception thresholds of target sentences spoken by an adult male consisting of number and color combinations were measured using an adaptive procedure, with speech-shaped white noise and single-talker backgrounds that were either collocated (target and back-ground at 0°) or spatially separated (target at 0°, background noise at 90° to the right). Spatial release from masking was assessed alongside memory span and expressive language. Results and Conclusion Significant main effect results showed that speech reception thresholds were highest for informational maskers and collocated conditions. Significant interactions indicated that individual differences in memory span and language ability were related to spatial release from masking advantages. Specifically, individual differences in memory span and language were related to the utilization of spatial cues in separated conditions. Language differences were related to auditory stream segregation abilities in collocated conditions that lack helpful spatial cues, pointing to the utilization of language processes to make up for losses in spatial information

Restoration of anthropogenic patches in Posidonia oceanica meadows

REPAI

Climate Change Impact on Water Column in Corsica

peer reviewedSTARECAPME

mTOR independent alteration in ULK1 Ser758 phosphorylation following chronic LRRK2 kinase inhibition

Unc-51 Like Kinase 1 (ULK1) is a critical regulator of the biogenesis of autophagosomes, the central component of the catabolic macroautophagy pathway. Regulation of ULK1 activity is dependent upon several phosphorylation events acting to repress or activate the enzymatic function of this protein. Phosphorylation of Ser758 ULK1 has been linked to repression of autophagosome biogenesis and was thought to be exclusively dependent upon mTOR complex 1 kinase activity. In this study, a novel regulation of Ser758 ULK1 phosphorylation is reported following prolonged inhibition of the Parkinson's disease linked protein Leucine Rich Repeat Kinase 2 (LRRK2). Here, modulation of Ser758 ULK1 phosphorylation following LRRK2 inhibition is decoupled from the repression of autophagosome biogenesis and independent of mTOR complex 1 activity