Effect of formant frequency spacing on perceived gender in pre-pubertal children's voices

<div><p>Background</p><p>It is usually possible to identify the sex of a pre-pubertal child from their voice, despite the absence of sex differences in fundamental frequency at these ages. While it has been suggested that the overall spacing between formants (formant frequency spacing - ΔF) is a key component of the expression and perception of sex in children's voices, the effect of its continuous variation on sex and gender attribution has not yet been investigated.</p><p>Methodology/Principal findings</p><p>In the present study we manipulated voice ΔF of eight year olds (two boys and two girls) along continua covering the observed variation of this parameter in pre-pubertal voices, and assessed the effect of this variation on adult ratings of speakers' sex and gender in two separate experiments. In the first experiment (sex identification) adults were asked to categorise the voice as either male or female. The resulting identification function exhibited a gradual slope from male to female voice categories. In the second experiment (gender rating), adults rated the voices on a continuum from “masculine boy” to “feminine girl”, gradually decreasing their masculinity ratings as ΔF increased.</p><p>Conclusions/Significance</p><p>These results indicate that the role of ΔF in voice gender perception, which has been reported in adult voices, extends to pre-pubertal children's voices: variation in ΔF not only affects the perceived sex, but also the perceived masculinity or femininity of the speaker. We discuss the implications of these observations for the expression and perception of gender in children's voices given the absence of anatomical dimorphism in overall vocal tract length before puberty.</p></div

Is the outer Solar System chaotic?

The existence of chaos in the system of Jovian planets has been in question for the past 15 years. Various investigators have found Lyapunov times ranging from about 5 millions years upwards to infinity, with no clear reason for the discrepancy. In this paper, we resolve the issue. The position of the outer planets is known to only a few parts in 10 million. We show that, within that observational uncertainty, there exist Lyapunov timescales in the full range listed above. Thus, the ``true'' Lyapunov timescale of the outer Solar System cannot be resolved using current observations.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

Beeldcultuur, een drieluik.I: Deconstructie van het fenomeen culturele studies

An important process in glass manufacture is the forming of the product. The forming process takes place at high rate, involves extreme temperatures and is characterised by large deformations. The process can be modelled as a coupled thermodynamical/mechanical problem including the interaction between glass, air and equipment. In this paper a general mathematical model for glass forming is derived, which is specified for different forming processes, in particular pressing and blowing. The model should be able to correctly represent the flow of the glass and the energy exchange during the process. Various modelling aspects are discussed for each process, while several key issues, such as the motion of the plunger and the evolution of the glass-air interfaces, are examined thoroughly. Finally, some examples of process simulations for existing simulation tools are provided

African Malaria Control Programs Deliver ITNs and Achieve What the Clinical Trials Predicted

Thomas Eisele and Richard Steketee discuss new research in PLoS Medicine by Stephen Lim and colleagues that examined the association of insecticide-treated nets with the reduction of P. falciparum prevalence in children under 5 and all-cause post-neonatal mortality

Natural course of behavioral addictions: A 5-year longitudinal study

BACKGROUND: Resolving the theoretical controversy on the labeling of an increasing number of excessive behaviors as behavioral addictions may also be facilitated by more empirical data on these behavioral problems. For instance, an essential issue to the classification of psychiatric disorders is information on their natural course. However, longitudinal research on the chronic vs. episodic nature of behavioral addictions is scarce. The aim of the present study, therefore, was to provide data on prevalence, substance use comorbidity, and five-year trajectories of six excessive behaviors—namely exercising, sexual behavior, shopping, online chatting, video gaming, and eating. METHODS: Analyses were based on the data of the Quinte Longitudinal Study, where a cohort of 4,121 adults from Ontario, Canada was followed for 5 years (2006 to 2011). The response rate was 21.3%, while retention rate was 93.9%. To assess the occurrence of each problem behavior, a single self-diagnostic question asked people whether their over-involvement in the behavior had caused significant problems for them in the past 12 months. To assess the severity of each problem behavior reported, the Behavioral Addiction Measure was administered. A mixed design ANOVA was used to investigate symptom trajectories over time for each problem behavior and whether these symptom trajectories varied as a function of sex. RESULTS: The large majority of people reported having problematic over-involvement for just one of these behaviors and just in a single time period. A main effect of time was found for each problem behavior, indicating a moderately strong decrease in symptom severity across time. The time x sex interaction was insignificant in each model indicating that the decreasing trend is similar for males and females. The data also showed that help seeking was very low in the case of excessive sexual behavior, shopping, online chatting, and video gaming but substantially more prevalent in the case of excessive eating and exercising. CONCLUSIONS: The present results indicate that self-identified excessive exercising, sexual behavior, shopping, online chatting, video gaming, and/or eating tend to be fairly transient for most people. This aspect of the results is inconsistent with conceptualizations of addictions as progressive in nature, unless treated. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12888-015-0383-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Quetiapine in the treatment of schizophrenia and related disorders

Quetiapine was developed in 1985 by scientists at AstraZeneca (formerly Zeneca) Pharmaceuticals. It received official US Food and Drug Administration approval in September 1997 and approval in Germany in 2000. Since then, quetiapine has been used in the treatment of severe mental illness in approximately 70 countries including Canada, most Western European countries, and Japan. Quetiapine is a dibenzothiazepine derivative with a relatively broad receptor binding profile. It has major affinity to cerebral serotonergic (5HT2A), histaminergic (H1), and dopaminergic D1 and D2 receptors, moderate affinity to α1- und α2-adrenergic receptors, and minor affinity to muscarinergic M1 receptors; it demonstrates a substantial selectivity for the limbic system. This receptor occupancy profile with relatively higher affinity for the 5HT2A receptor compared with the D2 receptor is in part responsible for the antipsychotic characteristics and low incidence of extrapyramidal side-effects of quetiapine. The efficacy of quetiapine in reducing positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia has been proven in several clinical trials with placebo-controlled comparators. Quetiapine has also demonstrated robust efficacy for treatment of cognitive, anxious-depressive, and aggressive symptoms in schizophrenia. Long-term trials show sustained tolerability for a broad spectrum of symptoms. Quetiapine has also proven efficacy and tolerability in the treatment of moderate to severe manic episodes, and in the treatment of juveniles with oppositional-defiant or conduct disorders, and in the geriatric dementia population. Recent data indicate that quetiapine may also be effective in the treatment of bipolar depressive symptoms without increasing the risk of triggering manic episodes, and in borderline personality disorder. In comparison with other antipsychotics, quetiapine has a favorable side-effect profile. In clinical trials only small insignificant prolongations of the QT interval were observed. Weight-gain liabilities and new-onset metabolic side-effects occupy a middle-ground among newer antipsychotics. As a result of its good efficacy and tolerability profile quetiapine has become well established in the treatment of schizophrenia and manic episodes

Suppression of apoptosis inhibitor c-FLIP selectively eliminates breast cancer stem cell activity in response to the anti-cancer agent, TRAIL

Introduction It is postulated that breast cancer stem cells (bCSCs) mediate disease recurrence and drive formation of distant metastases - the principal cause of mortality in breast cancer patients. Therapeutic targeting of bCSCs however, is hampered by their heterogeneity and resistance to existing therapeutics. In order to identify strategies to selectively remove bCSCs from breast cancers, irrespective of their clinical subtype, we sought an apoptosis mechanism that would target bCSCs yet would not kill normal cells. Suppression of the apoptosis inhibitor cellular FLICE-Like Inhibitory Protein (c-FLIP) partially sensitizes breast cancer cells to the anti-cancer agent Tumour Necrosis Factor-Related Apoptosis Inducing Ligand (TRAIL). Here we demonstrate in breast cancer cell lines that bCSCs are exquisitely sensitive to the de-repression of this pro-apoptotic pathway, resulting in a dramatic reduction in experimental metastases and the loss of bCSC self-renewal. Methods Suppression c-FLIP was performed by siRNA (FLIPi) in four breast cancer cell lines and by conditional gene-knockout in murine mammary glands. Sensitivity of these cells to TRAIL was determined by complementary cell apoptosis assays, including a novel heterotypic cell assay, while tumour-initiating potential of cancer stem cell subpopulations was determined by mammosphere cultures, aldefluor assay and in vivo transplantation. Results Genetic suppression of c-FLIP resulted in the partial sensitization of TRAIL-resistant cancer lines to the pro-apoptotic effects of TRAIL, irrespective of their cellular phenotype, yet normal mammary epithelial cells remained refractory to killing. While 10%-30% of the cancer cell populations remained viable after TRAIL/FLIPi treatment, subsequent mammosphere and aldefluor assays demonstrated that this pro-apoptotic stimulus selectively targeted the functional bCSC pool, eliminating stem cell renewal. This culminated in an 80% reduction in primary tumours and a 98% reduction in metastases following transplantation. The recurrence of residual tumour initiating capacity was consistent with the observation that post-treated adherent cultures re-acquired bCSC-like properties in vitro. Importantly however this recurrent bCSC activity was attenuated following repeated TRAIL/FLIPi treatment. Conclusions We describe an apoptotic mechanism that selectively and repeatedly removes bCSC activity from breast cancer cell lines and suggest that a combined TRAIL/FLIPi therapy could prevent metastatic disease progression in a broad range of breast cancer subtypes. [PROVISIONAL

Definition of Mafa-A and -B haplotypes in pedigreed cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis)

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I B gene/allelic repertoire was investigated in a pedigreed population of cynomolgus macaques of mixed Indonesian/Malaysian origin. The Mafa-B alleles detected in this cohort are mostly specific for a given geographic area, and only a small number of alleles appears to be shared with other populations. This suggests the fast evolution of Mafa-B alleles due to adaptation to new environments. In contrast to humans, the B locus in Old World monkeys displays extensive copy number variation. The Mafa-B and previously defined -A gene combinations segregate in families and thus allowed the definition of extended haplotypes. In many cases it was possible to assign a particular Mafa-I allele to one of these Mafa-A/B haplotypes as well. The presence of a large number of stable haplotypes in this cohort of animals, which was pedigreed for up to eight generations, looks promising for developing discriminative MHC typing tools that are less cumbersome. Furthermore, the discovery of 53 unreported Mafa-B sequences expands the lexicon of alleles significantly, and may help in understanding the complex organisation of the macaque B region

Streptococcus intermedius causing infective endocarditis and abscesses: a report of three cases and review of the literature

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Streptococcus intermedius </it>is a member of the Streptococcus anginosus group. Clinical disease with <it>S. intermedius </it>is characterized by abscess formation and rarely endocarditis. Identification of <it>Streptococcus intermedius </it>is difficult, leading to the development of molecular methods to more accurately identify and characterize this organism.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>Over a period of 6 months we encountered three cases of invasive <it>Streptococcus intermedius </it>infection presenting as hepatic abscesses, brain abscess, and endocarditis. We confirmed our microbiologic diagnosis through 16S sequencing and found a common virulence gene in each case.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our report illustrates three different clinical manifestations due to <it>Streptococcus intermedius </it>infection that can be encountered in healthy individuals in a community hospital setting. To our knowledge, this is the first case of <it>Streptococcus intermedius </it>endocarditis confirmed by 16S sequencing analysis. The use of molecular methods may allow a better understanding of the epidemiology and pathogenesis of this organism.</p

Sex stereotypes influence adults' perception of babies' cries

Background: Despite widespread evidence that gender stereotypes influence human parental behavior, their potential effects on adults’ perception of babies’ cries have been overlooked. In particular, whether adult listeners overgeneralize the sex dimorphism that characterizes the voice of adult speakers (men are lower-pitched than women) to their perception of babies’ cries has not been investigated. Methods: We used playback experiments combining natural and re-synthesised cries of 3 month-old babies to investigate whether the interindividual variation in the fundamental frequency (pitch) of cries affected adult listeners’ identification of the baby’s sex, their perception the baby’s femininity and masculinity, and whether these biases interacted with their perception of the level of discomfort expressed by the cry. Results: We show that low-pitched cries are more likely to be attributed to boys and high-pitched cries to girls, despite the absence of sex differences in pitch. Moreover, low-pitched boys are perceived as more masculine and high-pitched girls are perceived as more feminine. Finally, adult men rate relatively low-pitched cries as expressing more discomfort when presented as belonging to boys than to girls. Conclusion: Such biases in caregivers’ responses to babies’ cries may have implications on children’s immediate welfare and on the development of their gender identity