Age differences in sentence production

This is an electronic version of an article published in J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci (2003) 58 (5): P260-P268. doi: 10.1093/geronb/58.5.P260Two experiments have been completed using experimental techniques to study language production under controlled conditions. In Experiment 1, young and older adults were given two, three, or four words and asked to compose a sentence. Older adults' responses were similar to those of young adults when given two or three words. When given four words, the older adults made more errors and their responses were shorter and less elaborate than those of the young adults. In Experiment 2, simple intransitive verbs (smiled), transitive verbs (replaced), and complement-taking verbs (expected) were contrasted. The responses of older adults were similar to those of young adults given intransitive and transitive verbs. Given complement-taking verbs, young adults produced complex sentences, whereas the older adults produced simpler, less complex sentences; the older adults also made many errors. Both experiments found that older adults respond more slowly than young adults

The Costs of Doing Two Things at Once for Young and Older Adults: Talking while Walking, Finger Tapping, and Ignoring Speech or Noise

This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of recordYoung and older adults provided language samples in response to questions while walking, finger tapping, and ignoring speech or noise. The language samples were scored on 3 dimensions: fluency, complexity, and content. The hypothesis that working memory limitations affect speech production by older adults was tested by comparing baseline samples with those produced while the participants were performing the concurrent tasks. There were baseline differences: Older adults' speech was less fluent and less complex than young adults' speech. Young adults adopted a different strategy in response to the dual-task demands than older adults: They reduced sentence length and grammatical complexity. In contrast, older adults shifted to a reduced speech rate in the dual-task conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved

Genotypic and phenotypic characterization of Escherichia coli isolated from indigenous individuals in Malaysia

Objective(s): The occurrence of asymptomatic verocytotoxin (VT)-producing Escherichia coli (VTEC) infections among humans in recent years is posing a high risk to public health. Thus, the role of asymptomatic human carriers as a source of dissemination should not be underestimated. This study aimed to elucidate the phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of E. coli in the stool samples collected from indigenous individuals in Malaysia. Materials and Methods: E. coli strains (n=108) were isolated from stool samples obtained from 41 indigenous individuals. All strains were subjected to Repetitive Extragenic Palindromic-Polymerase Chain Reaction (REP-PCR) typing and confirmation of VTEC variants. Non-duplicate strains were selected based on REP-PCR profiles and further subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility test (AST). The genotypic and phenotypic characteristics of the strains were then correlated with the demographic data of the subjects. Results: A total of 66 REP-PCR profiles grouped in 53 clusters (F=85%) were obtained. Four genetically distinct strains were confirmed as VTEC (eaeA-positive). The predominant resistance was against ampicillin (34.2%), followed by trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (32.9%), ampicillin-sulbactam (5.5%), and ciprofloxacin (1.4%). All isolates were sensitive to amoxicillin-clavulanate, cefuroxime, ceftriaxone, imipenem, and meropenem. Conclusion: Genetically diverse E. coli and VTEC strains were found to colonize the intestines of the indigenous populations. This study is important for the prospective surveillance of E. coli among the indigenous individuals in Malaysia, especially in asymptomatic VTEC infection and antimicrobial resistance phenomenon

Human Embryonic and Fetal Mesenchymal Stem Cells Differentiate toward Three Different Cardiac Lineages in Contrast to Their Adult Counterparts

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) show unexplained differences in differentiation potential. In this study, differentiation of human (h) MSCs derived from embryonic, fetal and adult sources toward cardiomyocytes, endothelial and smooth muscle cells was investigated. Labeled hMSCs derived from embryonic stem cells (hESC-MSCs), fetal umbilical cord, bone marrow, amniotic membrane and adult bone marrow and adipose tissue were co-cultured with neonatal rat cardiomyocytes (nrCMCs) or cardiac fibroblasts (nrCFBs) for 10 days, and also cultured under angiogenic conditions. Cardiomyogenesis was assessed by human-specific immunocytological analysis, whole-cell current-clamp recordings, human-specific qRT-PCR and optical mapping. After co-culture with nrCMCs, significantly more hESC-MSCs than fetal hMSCs stained positive for α-actinin, whereas adult hMSCs stained negative. Furthermore, functional cardiomyogenic differentiation, based on action potential recordings, was shown to occur, but not in adult hMSCs. Of all sources, hESC-MSCs expressed most cardiac-specific genes. hESC-MSCs and fetal hMSCs contained significantly higher basal levels of connexin43 than adult hMSCs and co-culture with nrCMCs increased expression. After co-culture with nrCFBs, hESC-MSCs and fetal hMSCs did not express α-actinin and connexin43 expression was decreased. Conduction velocity (CV) in co-cultures of nrCMCs and hESC-MSCs was significantly higher than in co-cultures with fetal or adult hMSCs. In angiogenesis bioassays, only hESC-MSCs and fetal hMSCs were able to form capillary-like structures, which stained for smooth muscle and endothelial cell markers.Human embryonic and fetal MSCs differentiate toward three different cardiac lineages, in contrast to adult MSCs. Cardiomyogenesis is determined by stimuli from the cellular microenvironment, where connexin43 may play an important role

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification Assay for Detection of Generic and Verocytotoxin-Producing Escherichia coli among Indigenous Individuals in Malaysia

We have successfully developed a Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay that could specifically detect generic Escherichia coli (E. coli). This assay was tested on 85 bacterial strains and successfully identified 54 E. coli strains (average threshold time, Tt = 21.26). The sensitivity of this assay was evaluated on serial dilutions of bacterial cultures and spiked faeces. The assay could detect 102 CFU/mL for bacterial culture with Tt = 33.30 while the detection limit for spiked faeces was 103 CFU/mL (Tt = 31.12). We have also detected 46 generic E. coli from 50 faecal samples obtained from indigenous individuals with 16% of the positive samples being verocytotoxin-producing E. coli (VTEC) positive. VT1/VT2 allele was present in one faecal sample while the ratio of VT1 to VT2 was 6 : 1. Overall, our study had demonstrated high risk of VTEC infection among the indigenous community and most of the asymptomatic infection occurred among those aged below 15 years. The role of asymptomatic human carriers as a source of dissemination should not be underestimated. Large scale screening of the VTEC infection among indigenous populations and the potential contamination sources will be possible and easy with the aid of this newly developed rapid and simple LAMP assay

Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification Assay for Detection of Generic and Verocytotoxin-Producing Escherichia coli among Indigenous Individuals in Malaysia

We have successfully developed a Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay that could specifically detect generic Escherichia coli (E. coli). This assay was tested on 85 bacterial strains and successfully identified 54 E. coli strains (average threshold time, Tt = 21.26). The sensitivity of this assay was evaluated on serial dilutions of bacterial cultures and spiked faeces. The assay could detect 10 2 CFU/mL for bacterial culture with Tt = 33.30 while the detection limit for spiked faeces was 10 3 CFU/mL (Tt = 31.12). We have also detected 46 generic E. coli from 50 faecal samples obtained from indigenous individuals with 16% of the positive samples being verocytotoxin-producing E. coli (VTEC) positive. VT1/VT2 allele was present in one faecal sample while the ratio of VT1 to VT2 was 6 : 1. Overall, our study had demonstrated high risk of VTEC infection among the indigenous community and most of the asymptomatic infection occurred among those aged below 15 years. The role of asymptomatic human carriers as a source of dissemination should not be underestimated. Large scale screening of the VTEC infection among indigenous populations and the potential contamination sources will be possible and easy with the aid of this newly developed rapid and simple LAMP assay

Lucy.

“Lucy” is one of the 6 thesis film project, produced by Class of 2011, Digital Filmmaking student from School of Art, Design and Media (Nanyang Techonological University). LUCY will be a science fiction drama set against the backdrop of mid 21st century Singapore. An out-of-job husband buys a second-hand android helper only to discover that it is more than what he thought it was intended for. As he struggles to rekindle his ailing marriage, he represses his growing attraction towards his this new appliance – Lucy.Bachelor of Fine Art

Gate-Tunable Optical Anisotropy in Wafer-Scale, Aligned Carbon-Nanotube Films

Telecommunications and polarimetry both require the active control of the polarization of light, Currently, this is done by combining intrinsically anisotropic materials with tunable isotropic materials into heterostructures using complicated fabrication techniques due to the lack of scalable materials that possess both properties. Tunable birefringent and dichromic materials are scarce and rarely available in high-quality thin films over wafer scales. In this paper, we report semiconducting, highly aligned, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) over 4" wafers with normalized birefringence and dichroism values 0.09 and 0.58, respectively. The real and imaginary parts of the refractive index of the SWCNT films are tuned by up to 5.9% and 14.3% in the infrared at 2200 nm and 1660 nm, respectively, using electrostatic doping. Our results suggest that aligned SWCNTs are among the most anisotropic and tunable optical materials known and opens new avenues for their application in integrated photonics and telecommunications