Individual differences in the discrimination of novel speech sounds: effects of sex, temporal processing, musical and cognitive abilities

This study examined whether rapid temporal auditory processing, verbal working memory capacity, non-verbal intelligence, executive functioning, musical ability and prior foreign language experience predicted how well native English speakers (N = 120) discriminated Norwegian tonal and vowel contrasts as well as a non-speech analogue of the tonal contrast and a native vowel contrast presented over noise. Results confirmed a male advantage for temporal and tonal processing, and also revealed that temporal processing was associated with both non-verbal intelligence and speech processing. In contrast, effects of musical ability on non-native speech-sound processing and of inhibitory control on vowel discrimination were not mediated by temporal processing. These results suggest that individual differences in non-native speech-sound processing are to some extent determined by temporal auditory processing ability, in which males perform better, but are also determined by a host of other abilities that are deployed flexibly depending on the characteristics of the target sounds

Xenon combined with therapeutic hypothermia is not neuroprotective after severe hypoxia-ischemia in neonatal rats

Therapeutic hypothermia (TH) is standard treatment following perinatal asphyxia in newborn infants. Experimentally, TH is neuroprotective after moderate hypoxia-ischemia (HI) in seven-day-old (P7) rats. However, TH is not neuroprotective after severe HI. After a moderate HI insult in newborn brain injury models, the anesthetic gas xenon (Xe) doubles TH neuroprotection. The aim of this study was to examine whether combining Xe and TH is neuroprotective as applied in a P7 rat model of severe HI.120 P7 rat pups underwent a severe HI insult; unilateral carotid artery ligation followed by hypoxia (8% O2 for 150min at experimental normothermia (NT-37: Trectal 37°C). Surviving pups were randomised to immediate NT-37 for 5h (n = 36), immediate TH-32: Trectal 32°C for 5h (n = 25) or immediate TH-32 plus 50% inhaled Xe for 5h (n = 24). Pups were sacrificed after one week of survival. Relative area loss of the ligated hemisphere was measured, and neurons in the subventricular zone of this injured hemisphere were counted, to quantify brain damage.Following the HI insult, median (interquartile range, IQR) hemispheric brain area loss was similar in all groups: 63.5% (55.5-75.0) for NT-37 group, 65.0% (57.0-65.0) for TH-32 group, and 66.5% (59.0-72.0) for TH-32+Xe50% group (not significant). Correspondingly, there was no difference in neuronal cell count (NeuN marker) in the subventricular zone across the three treatment groups.Immediate therapeutic hypothermia with or without additional 50% inhaled Xe, does not provide neuroprotection one week after severe HI brain injury in the P7 neonatal rat. This model aims to mimic the clinical situation in severely asphyxiated neonates and treatment these newborns remains an ongoing challenge

Acute stress affects peripersonal space representation in cortisol stress responders.

Peripersonal space is the representation of the space near the body. It is implemented by a dedicated multisensory-motor network, whose purpose is to predict and plan interactions with the environment, and which can vary depending on environmental circumstances. Here, we investigated the effect on the PPS representation of an experimentally induced stress response and compared it to a control, non-stressful, manipulation. We assessed PPS representation in healthy humans, before and after a stressful manipulation, by quantifying visuotactile interactions as a function of the distance from the body, while monitoring salivary cortisol concentration. While PPS representation was not significantly different between the control and experimental group, a relation between cortisol response and changes in PPS emerged within the experimental group. Participants who showed a cortisol stress response presented enhanced visuotactile integration for stimuli close to the body and reduced for far stimuli. Conversely, individuals with a less pronounced cortisol response showed a reduced difference in visuotactile integration between the near and the far space. In our interpretation, physiological stress resulted in a freezing-like response, where multisensory-motor resources are allocated only to the area immediately surrounding the body

Requirements for contractility in disordered cytoskeletal bundles

Actomyosin contractility is essential for biological force generation, and is well understood in highly organized structures such as striated muscle. Additionally, actomyosin bundles devoid of this organization are known to contract both in vivo and in vitro, which cannot be described by standard muscle models. To narrow down the search for possible contraction mechanisms in these systems, we investigate their microscopic symmetries. We show that contractile behavior requires non-identical motors that generate large enough forces to probe the nonlinear elastic behavior of F-actin. This suggests a role for filament buckling in the contraction of these bundles, consistent with recent experimental results on reconstituted actomyosin bundles.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures; text shortene

Comparison of techniques for computing shell-model effective operators

Different techniques for calculating effective operators within the framework of the shell model using the same effective interaction and the same excitation spaces are presented. Starting with the large-basis no-core approach, we compare the time-honored perturbation-expansion approach and a model-space truncation approach. Results for the electric quadrupole and magnetic dipole operators are presented for $^6$Li. The convergence trends and dependence of the effective operators on differing excitation spaces and Pauli Q-operators is studied. In addition, the dependence of the electric-quadrupole effective charge on the harmonic-oscillator frequency and the mass number, for A=5,6, is investigated in the model-space truncation approach.Comment: 18 pages. REVTEX. 4 PostScript figure

The inequality effects of a dual income tax system

Abstracts with downloadable Discussion Papers in PDF are available on the Internet: http://www.ssb.noAbstract: The overall inequality effects of a dual income tax (DIT) system, combining progressive taxation of labor income with proportional taxation of income from capital, are investigated. Simple examples show that correlations between distributions of wage and capital income, the degree of tax rate differentiation in the DIT, and reranking of tax-payers can be expected to complicate the analysis. We trace out what can be said definitively, obtaining sufficient conditions for unambiguous inequality reduction and identifying the nature of the implicit redistribution between labor and capital income which is involved, with the help of Norwegian income tax data. ____________Keywords: Personal income tax; dual income tax; redistributive effectThis work is part of the evaluation of the Norwegian tax reform of 2006, initiated and sponsored by the Norwegian Ministry of Finance

Nitrogen storage and use of biochemical indices to assess nitrogen deficiency and growth rate in natural plankton populations

Various newly developed indicators of N deficiency, physiological state (approximate growth rate), and N source for growth were measured during five cruises to Dabob Bay, Washington from early spring to summer. Although nitrate and ammonium in the surface layer were depleted early in the spring, the plankton populations never became extremely N deficient, as indicated by high intracellular amino acid/protein ratios. However, growth rates, estimated from protein/DNA or RNA/DNA ratios, were usually low unless nitrate concentrations were high or had recently been high, as indicated by large intracellular nitrate pools or high nitrate reductase activities. High growth rates were observed during the spring bloom or as a result of the sporadic supply of nitrate to the euphotic zone, which was inferred from measurements of biochemical indicators on several cruises after the spring bloom. The sporadic supply of nitrate could account for the lack of N deficiency in these populations and mask diel periodicity in N utilization. These results demonstrate that biochemical indicators can be easily measured in the field and that variations in indicators such as intracellular amino acid/protein, protein/DNA, RNA/DNA ratios, NR activities and intracellular nitrate concentrations are an aid in understanding plankton dynamics

Examples of individual supported living for adults with intellectual disability

Background: This article provides a qualitative account of four models of support for adults with intellectual disability in individual supported living (ISL) arrangements. Materials and Methods: Completion of the first 50 evaluations of 150 arrangements for the third phase of the ISL project provided the examples. Results: Four approaches are described: living alone, co-residency, relationship and host family. Within each type, wide variations occur particularly based on security of tenure, formal and informal support and management variations. Conclusion: Fifty evaluations so far illustrated a wide range of approaches to ISL, providing evidence of the critical importance of the formal and informal support environment and reinforcing the contention that ISL is appropriate for people with high support needs