Position of phonetic components may influence how written words are processed in the brain: Evidence from Chinese phonetic compound pronunciation

Previous studies have shown a right-visual-field (RVF)/left-hemisphere (LH) advantage in Chinese phonetic compound pronunciation. Here, we contrast the processing of two phonetic compound types: a dominant structure in which a semantic component appears on the left and a phonetic component on the right (SP characters), and a minority structure with the opposite arrangement (PS characters). We show that this RVF/LH advantage was observed only in SP character pronunciation, but not in PS character pronunciation. This result suggests that SP character processing is more LH lateralized than is PS character processing and is consistent with corresponding ERP N170 data. This effect may be due to the dominance of SP characters in the lexicon, which makes readers opt to obtain phonological information from the right of the characters. This study thus shows that the overall information distribution of word components in the lexicon may influence how written words are processed in the brain. Supplemental materials for this article may be downloaded from http://cabn.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental. © 2010 The Psychonomic Society, Inc.postprin

How do different training tasks modulate our perception and hemispheric lateralization in the development of perceptual expertise?

Conference Theme: Mind, Technology, and SocietyHolistic processing (HP) and hemispheric lateralization are both expertise markers of object recognition. For example, expertise in face and sub-ordinate object perception is shown to be associated with HP and stronger right hemispheric lateralization. However, HP is modulated by experiences of selective attention to parts such as writing experiences of Chinese characters (Tso, Au, & Hsiao, 2014) and drawing experiences of faces (Zhou et al., 2011). Meanwhile, hemispheric lateralization is associated with the decoding strategy employed in object recognition, such as left hemispheric lateralization for reading alphabetic scripts and right hemispheric lateralization for reading logographic scripts. This study aims at training participants to recognize the same sets of artificially-created scripts using either whole-word (Logographic) or grapheme-to-phoneme (Alphabetic) approaches. We found that both approaches induced strong HP, though the alphabetic approach induced stronger left hemisphere advantage than the logographic approach. This training study demonstrates that HP and hemispheric lateralization are separate processes that are associated with different perceptual mechanisms.postprin

Expertise modulates hemispheric asymmetry in holistic processing: evidence from Chinese character processing

Conference Theme: Mind, Technology, and SocietyHolistic processing (HP) has been proposed to be a character-istic of right hemisphere (RH) processing. Here we test this claim using the divided visual field paradigm with Chinese character stimuli. HP is assessed through the composite para-digm, which is commonly used in perceptual expertise re-search. We found that in novice Chinese readers, a standard HP pattern emerged only in the left visual field/RH but not in the right visual field/left hemisphere, consistent with the ana-lytic/holistic hemispheric dichotomy in the literature. However, in expert Chinese readers, neither visual field showed the HP pattern, consistent with the finding that re-duced HP is an expertise maker for Chinese character recog-nition. Thus, the RH does not always employ holistic process-ing; it depends on the perceivers’ experience with the stimuli. This is the first study demonstrating that expertise with a vis-ual object type can modulate hemispheric difference in HP.postprin

Eye movement pattern in face recognition is associated with cognitive decline in the elderly

Conference Theme: Mind, Technology, and SocietyThe present study investigated the relationship between eye movement pattern in face recognition and cognitive perform-ance during natural aging through modeling and comparing eye movement of young (18-24 years) and older (65-81 years) adults using Hidden Markov Model (HMM) based approach. Young adults recognized faces better than older adults, particularly when measured by the false alarm rate. Older adults’ recognition performance, on the other hand, correlated with their cognitive status assessed by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Eye movement analysis with HMM revealed two different strategies, namely “analytic” and “holistic”. Participants using the analytic strategy had better recognition performance (particularly in the false alarm rate) than those using the holistic strategy. Significantly more young adults adopted the analytic strategy; whereas more older adults adopted the holistic strategy. Interestingly, older adults with lower cognitive status were associated with higher likelihood of using the holistic strategy. These results suggest an association between holistic eye movement patterns and cognitive decline in the elderly.postprin

Molecular basis of FIR-mediated c-myc transcriptional control

The far upstream element (FUSE) regulatory system promotes a peak in the concentration of c-Myc during cell cycle. First, the FBP transcriptional activator binds to the FUSE DNA element upstream of the c-myc promoter. Then, FBP recruits its specific repressor (FIR), which acts as an on/off transcriptional switch. Here we describe the molecular basis of FIR recruitment, showing that the tandem RNA recognition motifs of FIR provide a platform for independent FUSE DNA and FBP protein binding and explaining the structural basis of the reversibility of the FBP-FIR interaction. We also show that the physical coupling between FBP and FIR is modulated by a flexible linker positioned sequentially to the recruiting element. Our data explain how the FUSE system precisely regulates c-myc transcription and suggest that a small change in FBP-FIR affinity leads to a substantial effect on c-Myc concentration.MRC Grant-in-aid U11757455

Wake up, wake up! It's me! It's my life! patient narratives on person-centeredness in the integrated care context: a qualitative study

Person-centered care emphasizes a holistic, humanistic approach that puts patients first, at the center of medical care. Person-centeredness is also considered a core element of integrated care. Yet typologies of integrated care mainly describe how patients fit within integrated services, rather than how services fit into the patient's world. Patient-centeredness has been commonly defined through physician's behaviors aimed at delivering patient-centered care. Yet, it is unclear how 'person-centeredness' is realized in integrated care through the patient voice. We aimed to explore patient narratives of person-centeredness in the integrated care context

Pelvic actinomycosis presenting as a malignant pelvic mass: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Pelvic actinomycosis constitutes 3% of all human actinomycosis infections. It is usually insidious, and is often mistaken for other conditions such as diverticulitis, abscesses, inflammatory bowel disease and malignant tumors, presenting a diagnostic challenge pre-operatively; it is identified post-operatively in most cases. Here we present a case that presented as pelvic malignancy and was diagnosed as pelvic actinomycosis post-operatively.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 48-year-old Caucasian Turkish woman presented to our clinic with a three-month history of abdominal pain, weight loss and difficulty in defecation. She had used an intra-uterine device for 16 years, however it had recently been removed. The rectosigmoidoscopy revealed narrowing of the lumen at 12 cm due to a mass lesion either in the wall or due to an extrinsic lesion that prevented the passage of the endoscope. On examination, there was no gynecological pathology. Magnetic resonance imaging showed a mass, measuring 5.5 × 4 cm attached to the rectum posterior to the uterus. The ureter on that side was dilated. Surgically there was a pelvic mass adhered to the rectum and uterine adnexes, measuring 10 × 12 cm. It originated from uterine adnexes, particularly ones from the left side and formed a conglomerated mass with the uterus and nearby organs; the left ureter was also dilated due to the pelvic mass. Because of concomitant tubal abscess formation and difficulty in dissection planes, total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salphingo-oophorectomy was performed (our patient was 48 years old and had completed her childbearing period). The cytology revealed inflammatory cells with aggregates of <it>Actinomyces</it>. Penicillin therapy was given for six months without any complication.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Pelvic actinomycosis should always be considered in patients with a pelvic mass especially in ones using intra-uterine devices, and who have a history of appendectomy, tonsillectomy or dental infection. Surgeons should be aware of this infection in order to avoid excessive surgical procedures.</p

Metabolomics demonstrates divergent responses of two Eucalyptus species to water stress

Past studies of water stress in Eucalyptus spp. generally highlighted the role of fewer than five “important” metabolites, whereas recent metabolomic studies on other genera have shown tens of compounds are affected. There are currently no metabolite profiling data for responses of stress-tolerant species to water stress. We used GC–MS metabolite profiling to examine the response of leaf metabolites to a long (2 month) and severe (Ψpredawn < −2 MPa) water stress in two species of the perennial tree genus Eucalyptus (the mesic Eucalyptus pauciflora and the semi-arid Eucalyptus dumosa). Polar metabolites in leaves were analysed by GC–MS and inorganic ions by capillary electrophoresis. Pressure–volume curves and metabolite measurements showed that water stress led to more negative osmotic potential and increased total osmotically active solutes in leaves of both species. Water stress affected around 30–40% of measured metabolites in E. dumosa and 10–15% in E. pauciflora. There were many metabolites that were affected in E. dumosa but not E. pauciflora, and some that had opposite responses in the two species. For example, in E. dumosa there were increases in five acyclic sugar alcohols and four low-abundance carbohydrates that were unaffected by water stress in E. pauciflora. Re-watering increased osmotic potential and decreased total osmotically active solutes in E. pauciflora, whereas in E. dumosa re-watering led to further decreases in osmotic potential and increases in total osmotically active solutes. This experiment has added several extra dimensions to previous targeted analyses of water stress responses in Eucalyptus, and highlights that even species that are closely related (e.g. congeners) may respond differently to water stress and re-waterin

Type Ia Supernovae as Stellar Endpoints and Cosmological Tools

Empirically, Type Ia supernovae are the most useful, precise, and mature tools for determining astronomical distances. Acting as calibrated candles they revealed the presence of dark energy and are being used to measure its properties. However, the nature of the SN Ia explosion, and the progenitors involved, have remained elusive, even after seven decades of research. But now new large surveys are bringing about a paradigm shift --- we can finally compare samples of hundreds of supernovae to isolate critical variables. As a result of this, and advances in modeling, breakthroughs in understanding all aspects of SNe Ia are finally starting to happen.Comment: Invited review for Nature Communications. Final published version. Shortened, update

A Genome-Wide Approach to Discovery of Small RNAs Involved in Regulation of Virulence in Vibrio cholerae

Small RNAs (sRNAs) are becoming increasingly recognized as important regulators in bacteria. To investigate the contribution of sRNA mediated regulation to virulence in Vibrio cholerae, we performed high throughput sequencing of cDNA generated from sRNA transcripts isolated from a strain ectopically expressing ToxT, the major transcriptional regulator within the virulence gene regulon. We compared this data set with ToxT binding sites determined by pulldown and deep sequencing to identify sRNA promoters directly controlled by ToxT. Analysis of the resulting transcripts with ToxT binding sites in cis revealed two sRNAs within the Vibrio Pathogenicity Island. When deletions of these sRNAs were made and the resulting strains were competed against the parental strain in the infant mouse model of V. cholerae colonization, one, TarB, displayed a variable colonization phenotype dependent on its physiological state at the time of inoculation. We identified a target of TarB as the mRNA for the secreted colonization factor, TcpF. We verified negative regulation of TcpF expression by TarB and, using point mutations that disrupted interaction between TarB and tpcF mRNA, showed that loss of this negative regulation was primarily responsible for the colonization phenotype observed in the TarB deletion mutant