Communications Biophysics

Contains reports on three research projects.National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 PO1 GM14940-04)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NGL 22-009-304

Nonlinear Dynamics of the Perceived Pitch of Complex Sounds

We apply results from nonlinear dynamics to an old problem in acoustical physics: the mechanism of the perception of the pitch of sounds, especially the sounds known as complex tones that are important for music and speech intelligibility

The Expression of NTAL and Its Protein Interactors Is Associated With Clinical Outcomes in Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Non–T cell activation linker (NTAL) membrane protein depletion from lipid rafts by alkylphospholipids or downregulation by shRNA knockdown decreases cell viability through regulation of the Akt/PI3K pathway in mantle cell lymphoma and acute promyelocytic leukemia cells. Here, we confirmed that the knockdown of NTAL in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cell lines was associated with decreased cell proliferation and survival. Similarly, a xenograft model using AML cells transduced with NTAL–shRNA and transplanted into immunodeficient mice led to a 1.8-fold decrease in tumor burden. Using immunoprecipitation, LC–MS/MS analysis, and label-free protein quantification, we identified interactors of NTAL in two AML cell lines. By evaluating the gene expression signatures of the NTAL protein interactors using the PREdiction of Clinical Outcomes from Genomic Profiles database, we found that 12 NTAL interactors could predict overall survival in AML, in at least two independent cohorts. In addition, patients with AML exhibiting a high expression of NTAL and its interactors were associated with a leukemic granulocyte–macrophage progenitor–like state. Taken together, our data provide evidence that NTAL and its protein interactors are relevant to AML cell proliferation and survival and represent potential therapeutic targets for granulocyte–macrophage progenitor–like leukemias

Children's game library as a Unique Extracurricular Educational Establishment in the USSR (the middle of the 20th century)

The article reveals the history of emergence and work of children's game libraries in the USSR in the middle of the 20th century. The first children's game libraries, which were educational establishments where children could come and play different games, using various game and sport equipment free of charge, appeared in the 1930th and became wide spread in the USSR in the 1930th - 1950th. Children's game libraries had different tasks of their work (organizing children's cultural leisure time, increasing the educational and political levels of children's games and entertainments which were conducted in schools, summer camps and extracurricular educational establishments). They also had different directions of their work, namely: organizational, methodic, educational, experimental, instructive and consultative directions. It has been shown in the article that children’s game libraries had great results of their work (they involved a lot of children and adults in their activities; the network of children's game libraries began to grow; a lot of new toys and games were created and produced by them). However, children's game libraries faced certain difficulties in their work, namely: absence of own premises of children’s game libraries, lack of enough support for their activities by some educational institutions and teaching staff, lack of the required amount of toys and games, insufficient instructive and publishing activities of children’s game libraries

Communications Biophysics

COntains reports on six research projects.National Institutes of Health (Grant 2 P01 MH-04737-06)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 ROl NB-05462-02)Joint Services Electronics Programs (U. S. Army, U. S. Navy, and U. S. Air Force) under Contract DA 36-039-AMC-03200(E)National Science Foundation (Grant GK-835)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NsG-496

Pitch Enumeration: Failure to Subitize in Audition

Background: Subitizing involves recognition mechanisms that allow effortless enumeration of up to four visual objects, however despite ample resolution experimental data suggest that only one pitch can be reliably enumerated. This may be due to the grouping of tones according to harmonic relationships by recognition mechanisms prior to fine pitch processing. Poorer frequency resolution of auditory information available to recognition mechanisms may lead to unrelated tones being grouped, resulting in underestimation of pitch number. Methods, Results and Conclusion: We tested whether pitch enumeration is better for chords of full harmonic complex tones, where grouping errors are less likely, than for complexes with fewer and less accurately tuned harmonics. Chords of low familiarity were used to mitigate the possibility that participants would recognize the chord itself and simply recall the number of pitches. We found that accuracy of pitch enumeration was less than the visual system overall, and underestimation of pitch number increased for stimuli containing fewer harmonics. We conclude that harmonically related tones are first grouped at the poorer frequency resolution of the auditory nerve, leading to poor enumeration of more than one pitch

Communications Biophysics

Contains research objectives and summary of research.National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 PO1 GM14940-07)National Institutes of Health (Grant 1 RO1 NS11000-01)Clarence J. LeBel FundNational Institutes of Health (Grant 1 RO1 NS10737-01)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NGL 22-009-304)Boston City Hospital Purchase Order 1176-21335B-D Electrodyne Division, Becton Dickinson and Company (Grant)Chicago Musical Instrument Company (Grant

The variant T allele of PvuII in ESR1 gene is a prognostic marker in early breast cancer survival

The PvuII (rs2234693) Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) in the gene coding for the estrogen receptor-1 (ESR1), has been found associated with outcome in tamoxifen treated patients with early hormone-receptor positive breast cancer. However, it remains unclear whether this SNP is a predictive marker for tamoxifen efficacy or a prognostic marker for breast cancer outcome. The aim of this study was to examine the prognostic potential of this SNP in postmenopausal early breast cancer patients treated with adjuvant exemestane. Dutch postmenopausal patients randomised to 5 years of adjuvant exemestane of whom tissue was available (N=807) were selected from the Tamoxifen Exemestane Adjuvant Multinational (TEAM) trial database. The SNP rs2234693 in the ESR1 gene was genotyped on DNA from formalin-fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tumor tissue using Taqman assays and related to the primary endpoint disease-free survival (DFS) and secondary endpoint overall survival (OS). Survival analyses were performed using Cox regression analysis. In total 805 patients were included in the analyses (median follow up of 5.22 years) and genotypes were obtained in 97% of the samples. The variant T allele of PvuII in ESR1 (rs2234693) was associated with a better DFS (hazard ratio (HR) 0.689, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.480-0.989, P=0.044) in univariate analysis only, and a better OS in both univariate (HR 0.616, 95%, CI 0.411-0.923, P=0.019) and multivariate analyses (HR 0.571, 95% CI 0.380-0.856, P=0.007), consistent with a prognostic rather than a predictive drug response effect. Variation of PvuII in the ESR1 gene is related to OS in postmenopausal, early HR+breast cancer patients treated with exemestane in the TEAM study. Variation in the ESR1 gene may therefore be a prognostic marker of early breast cancer survival, and warrants further research.Surgical oncolog