Anatomy of word and sentence meaning

Reading and listening involve complex psychological processes that recruit many brain areas. The anatomy of processing English words has been studied by a variety of imaging methods. Although there is widespread agreement on the general anatomical areas involved in comprehending words, there are still disputes about the computations that go on in these areas. Examination of the time relations (circuitry) among these anatomical areas can aid in under-standing their computations. In this paper we concentrate on tasks which involve obtaining the meaning of a word in isolation or in relation to a sentence. Our current data support a finding in the literature that frontal semantic areas are active well before posterior areas. We use the subject’s attention to amplify relevant brain areas involved either in semantic classification or in judging the relation of the word to a sentence in order to test the hypothesis that frontal areas are concerned with lexical semantics while posterior areas are more involved in comprehension of propositions that involve several words

A state-space partitioned time integration algorithm for real-time hybrid simulation with nonlinear numerical subdomains

This paper describes a state-space partitioned algorithm for real-time hybrid simulation. The state-space modeling is proposed to represent nonlinear numerical substructures. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated for a virtual bridge case study equipped with seismic isolation devices

Comparative insight into the interfacial phase evolutions during solution treatment of dissimilar friction stir welded AA2198-AA7475 and AA2198-AA6013 aluminum sheets

In the current research, dissimilar friction stir welded (FSW) sheets of AA2198-AA7475 and AA2198-AA6013 were solution treated at 460–580◦C for 1 h. Annealing at 580◦C led to complete degradation of both dissimilar weldments from the AA2198 side. According to the microstructure inspection, solution treatment triggered abnormal grain growth within the stir zone (SZ), and applying higher treatment temperatures enhanced the fraction of transformed grains. SEM analysis revealed that the pre-melting of grain boundaries (GBs) over 540◦C encouraged the diffusion of solute atoms to the GBs. The massive diffusion of Cu to the GBs led to the formation of Cu-rich eutectic phases in AA7475 and AA2198 and dense Cu-rich particles in AA6013. In the meantime, the diffusion of Mg and Zn to the GBs of AA7475 and Fe and Si to the GBs of AA6013 eventuated in the formation of coarse particles at the GBs which, in return, attenuated the bonding adhesion of the grains at SZ. The formation of remarkable Cu-rich phases in the pre-melted regions and significant contraction of the eutectic phase while cooling as well as the formation of particles at GBs resulted in intergranular failure of the joints from the AA2198 side of the SZ

LAPW frozen-phonon calculation, shell model lattice dynamics and specific-heat measurement of SnO

An ab-initio Linear Augmented Plane-Wave (LAPW) calculation of the zone-centered phonon frequencies of SnO has been performed. E$_g$ symmetry has been ascribed to the mode observed at 113 cm$^{-1}$ in Raman measurements, discarding a previous B$_{1g}$ assignement. The other phonon modes measured by Raman spectroscopy are also well reproduced. A new shell-model has also been developed, that gives good agreement of the zone-centered frequencies compared to the measured data and the LAPW results. Specific heat measurements have been performed between 5 K and 110 K. Computation of the specific heat and the M\"{o}ssbauer recoilless fraction with the improved shell-model shows a good agreement with the experimental data as a function of temperature.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure. to appear in Phys. Rev. B (November 1999

The role of Italy in the use of advanced plant breeding techniques on fruit trees: state of the art and future perspectives

Climate change is deeply impacting the food chain production, lowering quality and yield. In this context, the international scientific community has dedicated many efforts to enhancing resilience and sustainability in agriculture. Italy is among the main European producers of several fruit trees; therefore, national research centers and universities undertook several initiatives to maintain the specificity of the ‘Made in Italy’ label. Despite their importance, fruit crops are suffering from difficulties associated with the conventional breeding approaches, especially in terms of financial commitment, land resources availability, and long generation times. The ‘new genomic techniques’ (NGTs), renamed in Italy as ‘technologies for assisted evolution’ (TEAs), reduce the time required to obtain genetically improved cultivars while precisely targeting specific DNA sequences. This review aims to illustrate the role of the Italian scientific community in the use of NGTs, with a specific focus on Citrus, grapevine, apple, pear, chestnut, strawberry, peach, and kiwifruit. For each crop, the key genes and traits on which the scientific community is working, as well as the technological improvements and advancements on the regeneration of local varieties, are presented. Lastly, a focus is placed on the legal aspects in the European and in Italian context

Elevated Pontine and Putamenal GABA Levels in Mild-Moderate Parkinson Disease Detected by 7 Tesla Proton MRS

Background: Parkinson disease (PD) is characterized by the degeneration of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons. However, postmortem evidence indicates that the pathology of lower brainstem regions, such as the pons and medulla, precedes nigral involvement. Consistently, pontomedullary damage was implicated by structural and PET imaging in early PD. Neurochemical correlates of this early pathological involvement in PD are unknown. Methodology/Principal Finding: To map biochemical alterations in the brains of individuals with mild-moderate PD we quantified neurochemical profiles of the pons, putamen and substantia nigra by 7 tesla (T) proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Thirteen individuals with idiopathic PD (Hoehn & Yahr stage 2) and 12 age- and gender-matched healthy volunteers participated in the study. c-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) concentrations in the pons and putamen were significantly higher in patients (N = 11, off medications) than controls (N = 11, p,0.001 for pons and p,0.05 for putamen). The GABA elevation was more pronounced in the pons (64%) than in the putamen (32%). No other neurochemical differences were observed between patients and controls. Conclusion/Significance: The GABA elevation in the putamen is consistent with prior postmortem findings in patients with PD, as well as with in vivo observations in a rodent model of PD, while the GABA finding in the pons is novel. The more significant GABA elevation in the pons relative to the putamen is consistent with earlier pathological involvement of th

A multi-targeted approach to suppress tumor-promoting inflammation

Cancers harbor significant genetic heterogeneity and patterns of relapse following many therapies are due to evolved resistance to treatment. While efforts have been made to combine targeted therapies, significant levels of toxicity have stymied efforts to effectively treat cancer with multi-drug combinations using currently approved therapeutics. We discuss the relationship between tumor-promoting inflammation and cancer as part of a larger effort to develop a broad-spectrum therapeutic approach aimed at a wide range of targets to address this heterogeneity. Specifically, macrophage migration inhibitory factor, cyclooxygenase-2, transcription factor nuclear factor-κB, tumor necrosis factor alpha, inducible nitric oxide synthase, protein kinase B, and CXC chemokines are reviewed as important antiinflammatory targets while curcumin, resveratrol, epigallocatechin gallate, genistein, lycopene, and anthocyanins are reviewed as low-cost, low toxicity means by which these targets might all be reached simultaneously. Future translational work will need to assess the resulting synergies of rationally designed antiinflammatory mixtures (employing low-toxicity constituents), and then combine this with similar approaches targeting the most important pathways across the range of cancer hallmark phenotypes