Tracking perception of the sounds of English

Contains fulltext : 127790.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Twenty American English listeners identified gated fragments of all 2288 possible English within-word and cross-word diphones, providing a total of 538 560 phoneme categorizations. The results show orderly uptake of acoustic information in the signal and provide a view of where information about segments occurs in time. Information locus depends on each speech sound's identity and phonological features. Affricates and diphthongs have highly localized information so that listeners' perceptual accuracy rises during a confined time range. Stops and sonorants have more distributed and gradually appearing information. The identity and phonological features (e. g., vowel vs consonant) of the neighboring segment also influences when acoustic information about a segment is available. Stressed vowels are perceived significantly more accurately than unstressed vowels, but this effect is greater for lax vowels than for tense vowels or diphthongs. The dataset charts the availability of perceptual cues to segment identity across time for the full phoneme repertoire of English in all attested phonetic context

Quantitative, multiplexed, targeted proteomics for ascertaining variant specific SARS-CoV-2 antibody response

Determining the protection an individual has to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants of concern (VoCs) is crucial for future immune surveillance, vaccine development, and understanding of the changing immune response. We devised an informative assay to current ELISA-based serology using multiplexed, baited, targeted proteomics for direct detection of multiple proteins in the SARS-CoV-2 anti-spike antibody immunocomplex. Serum from individuals collected after infection or first- and second-dose vaccination demonstrates this approach and shows concordance with existing serology and neutralization. Our assays show altered responses of both immunoglobulins and complement to the Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.351), and Delta (B.1.617.1) VoCs and a reduced response to Omicron (B1.1.1529). We were able to identify individuals who had prior infection, and observed that C1q is closely associated with IgG1 (r > 0.82) and may better reflect neutralization to VoCs. Analyzing additional immunoproteins beyond immunoglobulin (Ig) G, provides important information about our understanding of the response to infection and vaccination

The perception of gated Dutch diphones

Contains fulltext : 62650.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)1 p

Stress effects in vowel perception as a function of language-specific vocabulary patterns

Item does not contain fulltextBackground/Aims: Evidence from spoken word recognition suggests that for English listeners, distinguishing full versus reduced vowels is important, but discerning stress differences involving the same full vowel (as in mu- from music or museum) is not. In Dutch, in contrast, the latter distinction is important. This difference arises from the relative frequency of unstressed full vowels in the two vocabularies. The goal of this paper is to determine how this difference in the lexicon influences the perception of stressed versus unstressed vowels. Methods: All possible sequences of two segments (diphones) in Dutch and in English were presented to native listeners in gated fragments. We recorded identification performance over time throughout the speech signal. The data were here analysed specifically for patterns in perception of stressed versus unstressed vowels. Results: The data reveal significantly larger stress effects (whereby unstressed vowels are harder to identify than stressed vowels) in English than in Dutch. Both language-specific and shared patterns appear regarding which vowels show stress effects. Conclusion: We explain the larger stress effect in English as reflecting the processing demands caused by the difference in use of unstressed vowels in the lexicon. The larger stress effect in English is due to relative inexperience with processing unstressed full vowels.26 p

Phonological processing

Processing is a very general term. Preceded by phonological its domain of reference can be located by presumption in the realm of language (if only because the phonological processing of food, or of passport applications, seems rather improbable). But it remains an unsatisfyingly ambiguous expression, allowing either an interpretation in which information of a phonological nature is processed (cf. mathematical instruction), or one in which unspecified information is processed via the application of phonology (cf. mathematical reasoning). Perhaps for this reason psycholinguists, though they are excessively fond of the general term processing, do not standardly use phonological processing to refer to any aspect of their models

The phonological status of schwa insertion in Dutch : An EMA study

Item does not contain fulltex

Body growth, mitochondrial enzymatic capacities and aspects of the antioxidant system and redox balance under calorie restriction in young turbot (Scophthalmus maximus, L.).

Caloric reduction (cr) without undernutrition has been found to enhance stress resistance and life span in endotherms and ectotherms. We investigated the effect of 30% reduction in food offering on growth, aerobic capacities and oxidative stress parameters in young turbot (Scophthalmus maximus, L.).No differences in body weight, length and hepatosomatic index between the ad libitum fed (AL) and the calorie reduced (CR) group occurred after 55 days of diet application. Of the mitochondrial marker enzymes, only citrate synthase activity in liver was reduced under CR, whereas muscle CS activity and cytochrome oxidase activity in both tissues remained the same in both feeding groups. The concentration of reduced glutathione increased significantly during feeding in muscle of CR fish, resulting in a more reduced glutathione redox ratio (GSH/GSSG) compared to AL fish muscle. TBARS (lipid peroxidation) but not protein carbonyl content (protein oxidation) was significantly reduced in CR fish muscle. Liver oxidative stress parameters did not vary significantly between experimental feeding groups.We conclude that 30% calorie reduction over 8 weeks has no adverse effect on young turbot. On the contrary, cr supports a reduced tissue oxidation state and reduces accumulation of lipid peroxidation products in muscle at sustained muscular aerobic capacity

The phonological status of schwa insertion in Dutch: An EMA study

Articulatory data are used to address the question of whether Dutch schwa insertion is a phonological or a phonetic process. By investigating tongue tip raising and dorsal lowering, we show that /l/ when it appears before inserted schwa is a light /l/, just as /l/ before an underlying schwa is, and unlike the dark /l/ before a consonant in non-insertion productions of the same words. The fact that inserted schwa can condition the light/dark /l/ alternation shows that schwa insertion involves the phonological insertion of a segment rather than phonetic adjustments to articulations