Bilingual toddlers show increased attention capture by static faces compared to monolinguals

Bilingual infants rely differently than monolinguals on facial information, such as lip patterns, to differentiate their native languages. This may explain, at least in part, why young monolinguals and bilinguals show differences in social attention. For example, in the first year, bilinguals attend faster and more often to static faces over non-faces than do monolinguals (Mercure et al., 2018). However, the developmental trajectories of these differences are unknown. In this pre-registered study, data were collected from 15- to 18-month-old monolinguals (English) and bilinguals (English and another language) to test whether group differences in face-looking behaviour persist into the second year. We predicted that bilinguals would orient more rapidly and more often to static faces than monolinguals. Results supported the first but not the second hypothesis. This suggests that, even into the second year of life, toddlers’ rapid visual orientation to static social stimuli is sensitive to early language experience

Bilingual toddlers show increased attention capture by static faces compared to monolinguals

Bilingual infants rely differently than monolinguals on facial information, such as lip patterns, to differentiate their native languages. This may explain, at least in part, why young monolinguals and bilinguals show differences in social attention. For example, in the first year, bilinguals attend faster and more often to static faces over non-faces than do monolinguals (Mercure et al., 2018). However, the developmental trajectories of these differences are unknown. In this pre-registered study, data were collected from 15- to 18-month-old monolinguals (English) and bilinguals (English and another language) to test whether group differences in face-looking behaviour persist into the second year. We predicted that bilinguals would orient more rapidly and more often to static faces than monolinguals. Results supported the first but not the second hypothesis. This suggests that, even into the second year of life, toddlers’ rapid visual orientation to static social stimuli is sensitive to early language experience

Proteolytic processing of human prorenin in renal and non-renal tissues

Proteolytic processing of human prorenin in renal and non-renal tissues. Previous studies have demonstrated that the mouse proprotein convertase PC1 (mPC1) accurately cleaves human prorenin to generate active renin and that this processing event appears to require co-packaging in secretory granules. In the current study, we have tested human PC1 (hPC1; also called PC3) for its ability to activate human prorenin. Our results suggest that while hPC1 is capable of carrying out the specific cleavage of human prorenin, it does so at a reduced efficiency as compared to mPC1. This difference is due to sequences in the carboxy-terminus of PC1 as demonstrated by the activity of hybrid hPC1/mPC1 molecules. These studies demonstrate that PC1 cleavage of prorenin can occur in humans and identify a functionally important region in the hPC1 protein for this interaction. Moreover, the localization of PC1 in human tissues suggests that it may participate in the generation of active renin in the adrenal medulla and possibly in certain adrenal tumors

Modelling innovation and the macroeconomics of low-carbon transitions: theory, perspectives and practical use

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis (Routledge) via the DOI in this record.Energy and climate policies may have significant economy-wide impacts, which are regularly assessed based on quantitative energy-environment-economy models. These tend to vary in their conclusions on the scale and direction of the likely macroeconomic impacts of a low-carbon transition. This paper traces the characteristic discrepancies in models’ outcomes to their origins in different macro-economic theories, most importantly their treatment of technological innovation and finance. We comprehensively analyse the relevant branches of macro-innovation theory and group them into two classes: ‘Equilibrium’ and ‘Non-equilibrium’. While both approaches are rigorous and self-consistent, they frequently yield opposite conclusions for the economic impacts of low-carbon policies. We show that model outcomes are mainly determined by their representations of monetary and finance dimensions, and their interactions with investment, innovation and technological change. Improving these in all modelling approaches is crucial for strengthening the evidence base for policy making and gaining a more consistent picture of the macroeconomic impacts of achieving emissions reductions objectives. The paper contributes towards the ongoing effort of enhancing the transparency and understanding of sophisticated model mechanisms applied to energy and climate policy analysis. It helps tackle the overall “black box” critique, much-cited in policy circles and elsewhere

Evidence for intracellular generation of angiotensin II in rat juxtaglomerular cells

AbstractThe formation of the vasoactive peptide angiotensin II (AII) is dependent on the sequential action of two enzymes, renin and angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE), on the substrate angiotensinogen. Although the renin-producing cells of the kidney do not express angiotensinogen, they contain large amounts of AII in the same storage granules that contain renin. When renin expression is suppressed in these cells, AII also disappears. In the current study, we have tested whether the renin-associated disappearance of AII in renal juxtaglomerular (JG) cells is due to a renin-dependent down-regulation of granule biosynthesis and whether receptor-mediated internalization of AII could account for its concentration in these cells. Our results support a model whereby AII peptides are generated within JG cells, presumably by a mechanism which involves the action of endogenous renin on internalized, exogenous angiotensinogen

Photoemission Spectroscopy and the Unusually Robust One Dimensional Physics of Lithium Purple Bronze

Temperature dependent photoemission spectroscopy in Li0.9Mo6O17 contributes to evidence for one dimensional physics that is unusually robust. Three generic characteristics of the Luttinger liquid are observed, power law behavior of the k-integrated spectral function down to temperatures just above the superconducting transition, k-resolved lineshapes that show holon and spinon features, and quantum critical (QC) scaling in the lineshapes. Departures of the lineshapes and the scaling from expectations in the Tomonaga Luttinger model can be partially described by a phenomenological momentum broadening that is presented and discussed. The possibility that some form of 1d physics obtains even down to the superconducting transition temperature is assessed.Comment: submitted to JPCM, Special issue article "Physics in one dimension

Language experience influences audiovisual speech integration in unimodal and bimodal bilingual infants

Infants as young as 2 months can integrate audio and visual aspects of speech articulation. A shift of attention from the eyes towards the mouth of talking faces occurs around 6 months of age in monolingual infants. However, it is unknown whether this pattern of attention during audiovisual speech processing is influenced by speech and language experience in infancy. The present study investigated this question by analysing audiovisual speech processing in three groups of 4‐ to 8‐month‐old infants who differed in their language experience: monolinguals, unimodal bilinguals (infants exposed to two or more spoken languages) and bimodal bilinguals (hearing infants with Deaf mothers). Eye‐tracking was used to study patterns of face scanning while infants were viewing faces articulating syllables with congruent, incongruent and silent auditory tracks. Monolinguals and unimodal bilinguals increased their attention to the mouth of talking faces between 4 and 8 months, while bimodal bilinguals did not show any age difference in their scanning patterns. Moreover, older (6.6 to 8 months), but not younger, monolinguals (4 to 6.5 months) showed increased visual attention to the mouth of faces articulating audiovisually incongruent rather than congruent faces, indicating surprise or novelty. In contrast, no audiovisual congruency effect was found in unimodal or bimodal bilinguals. Results suggest that speech and language experience influences audiovisual integration in infancy. Specifically, reduced or more variable experience of audiovisual speech from the primary caregiver may lead to less sensitivity to the integration of audio and visual cues of speech articulation

Interaction of consumer preferences and climate policies in the global transition to low-carbon vehicles

Burgeoning demands for mobility and private vehicle ownership undermine global efforts to reduce energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. Advanced vehicles powered by low-carbon sources of electricity or hydrogen offer an alternative to conventional fossil-fuelled technologies. Yet, despite ambitious pledges and investments by governments and automakers, it is by no means clear that these vehicles will ultimately reach mass-market consumers. Here, we develop state-of-the-art representations of consumer preferences in multiple, global energy- economy models, specifically focusing on the non-financial preferences of individuals. We employ these enhanced model formulations to analyse the potential for a low-carbon vehicle revolution up to mid-century. Our analysis shows that a diverse set of measures targeting vehicle buyers is necessary for driving widespread adoption of clean technologies. Carbon pricing alone is insufficient for bringing low-carbon vehicles to mass market, though it can certainly play a supporting role in ensuring a decarbonised energy supply

Climate-carbon cycle uncertainties and the Paris Agreement

The Paris Agreement aims to address the gap between existing climate policies and policies consistent with ‘holding the increase in global average temperature to well below 2C’. The feasibility of meeting the target has been questioned both in terms of the possible requirement for negative emissions, and ongoing debate on the sensitivity of the climate-carbon cycle system. Using a sequence of ensembles of a fully dynamic three-dimensional climate-carbon cycle model, forced by emissions from an integrated assessment model of regional-level climate policy, economy, and technological transformation, we show that a reasonable interpretation of the Paris Agreement is still technically achievable. Specifically, limiting peak (decadal) warming to less than 1.7°C, or end-century warming to less than 1.54°C, occurs in 50% of our simulations in a policy scenario without net negative emissions or excessive stringency in any policy domain. We evaluate two mitigation scenarios, with 200 GTC and 307 GTC post-2017 emissions, quantifying spatio-temporal variability of warming, precipitation, ocean acidification and marine productivity. Under rapid decarbonisation decadal variability dominates the mean response in critical regions, with significant implications for decision making, demanding impact methodologies that address non-linear spatio-temporal responses. Ignoring carbon-cycle feedback uncertainties (explaining 47% of peak warming uncertainty) becomes unreasonable under strong mitigation conditions.We acknowledge C-EERNG and Cambridge Econometrics for support, and funding from EPSRC (to J.-F.M., fellowship number EP/ K007254/1); the Newton Fund (to J.-F.M., P.S. and J.E.V., EPSRC grant number EP/N002504/1 and ESRC grant number ES/N013174/1), NERC (to N.R.E., P.H. and H.P., grant number NE/P015093/1), CONICYT (to P.S.), the Philomathia Foundation (to J.E.V.) and Horizon 2020 (to H.E.P. and J.-F.M., the Sim4Nexus project)

Autism diagnosis differentiates neurophysiological responses to faces in adults with tuberous sclerosis complex

- Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a common and highly heritable neurodevelopmental disorder that is likely to be the outcome of complex aetiological mechanisms. One strategy to provide insight is to study ASD within tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), a rare disorder with a high incidence of ASD, but for which the genetic cause is determined. Individuals with ASD consistently demonstrate face processing impairments, but these have not been examined in adults with TSC using event-related potentials (ERPs) that are able to capture distinct temporal stages of processing. - Methods: For adults with TSC (n = 14), 6 of which had a diagnosis of ASD, and control adults (n = 13) passively viewed upright and inverted human faces with direct or averted gaze, with concurrent EEG recording. Amplitude and latency of the P1 and N170 ERPs were measured. - Results: Individuals with TSC + ASD exhibited longer N170 latencies to faces compared to typical adults. Typical adults and adults with TSC-only exhibited longer N170 latency to inverted versus upright faces, whereas individuals with TSC + ASD did not show latency differences according to face orientation. In addition, individuals with TSC + ASD showed increased N170 latency to averted compared to direct gaze, which was not demonstrated in typical adults. A reduced lateralization was shown for the TSC + ASD groups on P1 and N170 amplitude. - Conclusions: The findings suggest that individuals with TSC + ASD may have similar electrophysiological abnormalities to idiopathic ASD and are suggestive of developmental delay. Identifying brain-based markers of ASD that are similar in TSC and idiopathic cases is likely to help elucidate the risk pathways to ASD