Binaural advantages in users of bimodal and bilateral cochlear implant devices

This is the published version, also available here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.4831955.This paper investigates to what extent users of bilateral and bimodal fittings should expect to benefit from all three different binaural advantages found to be present in normal-hearing listeners. Head-shadow and binaural squelch are advantages occurring under spatially separated speech and noise, while summation emerges when speech and noise coincide in space. For 14 bilateral or bimodal listeners, speech reception thresholds in the presence of four-talker babble were measured in sound-field under various speech and noise configurations. Statistical analysis revealed significant advantages of head-shadow and summation for both bilateral and bimodal listeners. Squelch was significant only for bimodal listeners

Online Learning From Input Versus Offline Memory Evolution in Adult Word Learning: Effects of Neighborhood Density and Phonologically Related Practice

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The original publication is available at http://jslhr.pubs.asha.org/article.aspx?articleid=1851189Purpose. This study investigates adult word learning to determine how neighborhood density and practice across phonologically-related training sets influence on-line learning from input during training versus off-line memory evolution during no-training gaps. Method. Sixty-one adults were randomly assigned to learn low or high density nonwords. Within each density condition, participants were trained on one set of words and then were trained on a second set of words, consisting of phonological neighbors of the first set. Learning was measured in a picture-naming test. Data were analyzed using multilevel modeling and spline regression. Results. Steep learning during input was observed, with new words from dense neighborhoods and new words that were neighbors of recently learned words (i.e., second set words) being learned better than other words. In terms of memory evolution, large and significant forgetting was observed during 1-week gaps in training. Effects of density and practice during memory evolution were opposite of those during input. Specifically, forgetting was greater for high density and second set words than for low density and first set words. Conclusion. High phonological similarity, regardless of source (i.e., known words or recent training), appears to facilitate on-line learning from input but seems to impede off-line memory evolution

Quiet Spike(TradeMark) Build-up Ground Vibration Testing Approach

Flight tests of Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation s Quiet Spike(TradeMark) hardware were recently completed on the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center F-15B airplane. NASA Dryden uses a modified F-15B airplane as a testbed aircraft to cost-effectively fly flight research experiments that are typically mounted underneath the F-15B airplane, along the fuselage centerline. For the Quiet Spike(TradeMark) experiment, however, instead of a centerline mounting, a relatively long forward-pointing boom was attached to the radar bulkhead of the F-15B airplane. The Quiet Spike(TradeMark) experiment is a stepping-stone to airframe structural morphing technologies designed to mitigate the sonic-boom strength of business jets over land. The Quiet Spike(TradeMark) boom is a concept in which an aircraft s noseboom would be extended prior to supersonic acceleration. This morphing effectively lengthens the aircraft, thus reducing the peak sonic-boom amplitude, but is also expected to partition the otherwise strong bow shock into a series of reduced-strength, noncoalescing shocklets. Prior to flying the Quiet Spike(TradeMark) experiment on the F-15B airplane several ground vibration tests were required to understand the Quiet Spike(TradeMark) modal characteristics and coupling effects with the F-15B airplane. However, due to the flight hardware availability and compressed schedule requirements, a "traditional" ground vibration test of the mated F-15B Quiet Spike(TradeMark) ready-for- flight configuration did not leave sufficient time available for the finite element model update and flutter analyses before flight testing. Therefore, a "nontraditional" ground vibration testing approach was taken. This paper provides an overview of each phase of the "nontraditional" ground vibration testing completed for the Quiet Spike(TradeMark) project which includes the test setup details, instrumentation layout, and modal results obtained in support of the structural dynamic modeling and flutter analyses

Dissociating morphological and form priming with novel complex word primes: Evidence from masked priming, overt priming, and event-related potentials

Recent research suggests that visually-presented words are initially morphologically segmented whenever the letter-string can be exhaustively assigned to existing morphological representations, but not when an exhaustive parse is unavailable; e.g., priming is observed for both hunter→HUNT and brother →BROTH, but not for brothel→BROTH. Few studies have investigated whether this pattern extends to novel complex words, and the results to date (all from novel suffixed words) are mixed. In the current study, we examine whether novel compounds (drugrack→RACK) yield morphological priming which is dissociable from that in novel pseudoembedded words (slegrack→RACK). Using masked priming, we find significant and comparable priming in reaction times for word-final elements of both novel compounds and novel pseudoembedded words. Using overt priming, however, we find greater priming effects (in both reaction times and N400 amplitudes) for novel compounds compared to novel pseudoembedded words. These results are consistent with models assuming across-the-board activation of putative constituents, while also suggesting that morpheme activation may persevere despite the lack of an exhaustive morpheme-based parse when an exhaustive monomorphemic analysis is also unavailable. These findings highlight the critical role of the lexical status of the pseudoembedded prime in dissociating morphological and orthographic priming

Micronutrients attenuate progression of prostate cancer by elevating the endogenous inhibitor of angiogenesis, Platelet Factor-4

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Longstanding evidence implicates an inadequate diet as a key factor in the onset and progression of prostate cancer. The purpose herein was to discover, validate and characterize functional biomarkers of dietary supplementation capable of suppressing the course of prostate cancer <it>in vivo</it>.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The <it>Lady </it>transgenic mouse model that spontaneously develops prostate cancer received a diet supplemented with a micronutrient cocktail of vitamin E, selenium and lycopene ad libitum. A proteomic analysis was conducted to screen for serum biomarkers of this dietary supplementation. Candidate peptides were validated and identified by sequencing and analyzed for their presence within the prostates of all mice by immunohistochemistry.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Dietary supplementation with the combined micronutrients significantly induced the expression of the megakaryocyte-specific inhibitor of angiogenesis, platelet factor-4 (P = 0.0025). This observation was made predominantly in mice lacking tumors and any manifestations associated with progressive disease beyond 37 weeks of life, at which time no survivors remained in the control group (P < 0.0001). While prostates of mice receiving standard chow were enlarged and burdened with poorly differentiated carcinoma, those of mice on the supplemented diet appeared normal. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed marked amplifications of both platelet binding and platelet factor-4 within the blood vessels of prostates from mice receiving micronutrients only.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We present unprecedented data whereby these combined micronutrients effectively promotes tumor dormancy in early prostate cancer, following initiation mutations that may drive the angiogenesis-dependent response of the tumor, by inducing platelet factor-4 expression and concentrating it at the tumor endothelium through enhanced platelet binding.</p

Membrane vesicles from Pseudomonas aeruginosa activate the non-canonical inflammasome through caspase-5 in human monocytes

Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) are constitutively produced by Gram-negative bacteria both in vivo and in vitro. These lipid-bound structures carry a range of immunogenic components derived from the parent cell, which are transported into host target cells and activate the innate immune system. Recent advances in the field have shed light on some of the multifaceted roles of OMVs in host-pathogen interactions. In this study, we investigated the ability of OMVs from two clinically important pathogens, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Helicobacter pylori, to activate canonical and non-canonical inflammasomes. P.\ua0aeruginosa OMVs induced inflammasome activation in mouse macrophages, as evidenced by "speck" formation, as well as the cleavage and secretion of interleukin-1β and caspase-1. These responses were independent of AIM2 and NLRC4 canonical inflammasomes, but dependent on the non-canonical caspase-11 pathway. Moreover, P.\ua0aeruginosa OMVs alone were able to activate the inflammasome in a TLR-dependent manner, without requiring an exogenous priming signal. In contrast, H.\ua0pylori OMVs were not able to induce inflammasome activation in macrophages. Using CRISPR/Cas9 knockout THP-1 cells lacking the human caspase-11 homologs, caspase-4 and -5, we demonstrated that caspase-5 but not caspase-4 is required for inflammasome activation by P. aeruginosa OMVs in human monocytes. In contrast, free P.\ua0aeruginosa LPS transfected into cells induced inflammasome responses via caspase-4. This suggests that caspase-4 and caspase-5 differentially recognize LPS depending on its physical form or route of delivery into the cell. These findings have relevance to Gram-negative infections in humans and the use of OMVs as novel vaccines. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms