Distortion of the Local Magnetic Field Appears to Neither Disrupt Nocturnal Navigation nor Cue Shelter Recognition in the Amblypygid \u3ci\u3eParaphrynus laevifrons\u3c/i\u3e

Many arthropods are known to be sensitive to the geomagnetic field and exploit the field to solve spatial problems. The polarity of the geomagnetic field is used, for instance, as an orientation cue by leafcutter ants as they travel on engineered trails in a rainforest and by Drosophila larvae as they move short distances in search of food. A ubiquitous orientation cue like the geomagnetic field may be especially useful in complex, cluttered environments like rainforests, where the reliability of celestial cues used to navigate in more open environments may be poor. The neotropical amblypygid Paraphrynus laevifrons is a nocturnal arachnid that wanders nightly in the vicinity of its shelter and occasionally travels 30 m or more in the rainforest understory before it returns to its shelter. Here, we conducted a field experiment to determine whether navigation by P. laevifrons is guided by the ambient magnetic field and a complementary laboratory experiment to assess whether a magnetic anomaly could be used to pinpoint the entrance of a shelter. In the field experiment, subjects were fitted with a radio transmitter and a small, powerful magnet or a similar-sized brass disk and displaced 10 m from their shelter. The return rate of magnet-fitted subjects was similar to that of brass-fitted subjects and to that of subjects in an earlier study fitted with only a radio transmitter. In the laboratory experiment, we trained P. laevifrons with a protocol under which the amblypygid Phrynus marginemaculatus rapidly learns—in 1–14 trials over two daily sessions—to associate an olfactory stimulus with access to a shelter. The conditioned stimulus here was a magnetic anomaly characterized by a high total field intensity and a 180° reversal of the polarity of the ambient magnetic field. The magnetic anomaly–shelter contingency was not learned in 50 trials conducted over 10 daily sessions. These results imply prima facie that P. laevifrons does not rely on a magnetic compass to locate or recognize a shelter and, perhaps, that the magnetic field cannot be detected, but alternative explanations are discussed

Recognizing Speech in a Novel Accent: The Motor Theory of Speech Perception Reframed

The motor theory of speech perception holds that we perceive the speech of another in terms of a motor representation of that speech. However, when we have learned to recognize a foreign accent, it seems plausible that recognition of a word rarely involves reconstruction of the speech gestures of the speaker rather than the listener. To better assess the motor theory and this observation, we proceed in three stages. Part 1 places the motor theory of speech perception in a larger framework based on our earlier models of the adaptive formation of mirror neurons for grasping, and for viewing extensions of that mirror system as part of a larger system for neuro-linguistic processing, augmented by the present consideration of recognizing speech in a novel accent. Part 2 then offers a novel computational model of how a listener comes to understand the speech of someone speaking the listener's native language with a foreign accent. The core tenet of the model is that the listener uses hypotheses about the word the speaker is currently uttering to update probabilities linking the sound produced by the speaker to phonemes in the native language repertoire of the listener. This, on average, improves the recognition of later words. This model is neutral regarding the nature of the representations it uses (motor vs. auditory). It serve as a reference point for the discussion in Part 3, which proposes a dual-stream neuro-linguistic architecture to revisits claims for and against the motor theory of speech perception and the relevance of mirror neurons, and extracts some implications for the reframing of the motor theory

Effects of acute hypoglycemia on working memory and language processing in adults with and without type 1 diabetes

OBJECTIVE To examine the effects of hypoglycemia on language processing in adults with and without type 1 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Forty adults were studied (20 with type 1 diabetes and 20 healthy volunteers) using a hyperinsulinemic glucose clamp to lower blood glucose to 2.5 mmol/L (45 mg/dL) (for 60 min, or to maintain blood glucose at 4.5 mmol/L (81 mg/dL) (euglycemia), on separate occasions. Language tests were applied to assess the effects of hypoglycemia on the relationship between working memory and language (reading span), grammatical decoding (self-paced reading), and grammatical encoding (subject-verb agreement). RESULTS Hypoglycemia caused a significant deterioration in reading span (P < 0.001; eta(2) = 0.37; Cohen d = 0.65) and a fall in correct responses (P = 0.005; eta(2) = 0.19; Cohen d = 0.41). On the self-paced reading test, the reading time for the first sentence fragment increased during hypoglycemia (P = 0.039; eta(2) = 0.11; Cohen d = 0.25). For the reading of the next fragment, hypoglycemia affected the healthy volunteer groupmore than the adults with type 1 diabetes (P = 0.03; eta(2) = 0.12; Cohen d = 0.25). However, hypoglycemia did not significantly affect the number of errors in sentence comprehension or the time taken to answer questions. Hypoglycemia caused a deterioration of subject-verb agreement (correct responses: P = 0.011; eta(2) = 0.159; Cohen d = 0.31). CONCLUSIONS Hypoglycemia caused a significant deterioration in reading span and in the accuracy of subject-verb agreement, both of which are practical aspects of language involved in its everyday use. Language processing is therefore impaired during moderate hypoglycemia

Consortium for the Study of Pregnancy Treatments (Co-OPT): An international birth cohort to study the effects of antenatal corticosteroids

BACKGROUND: Antenatal corticosteroids (ACS) are widely prescribed to improve outcomes following preterm birth. Significant knowledge gaps surround their safety, long-term effects, optimal timing and dosage. Almost half of women given ACS give birth outside the "therapeutic window" and have not delivered over 7 days later. Overtreatment with ACS is a concern, as evidence accumulates of risks of unnecessary ACS exposure. METHODS: The Consortium for the Study of Pregnancy Treatments (Co-OPT) was established to address research questions surrounding safety of medications in pregnancy. We created an international birth cohort containing information on ACS exposure and pregnancy and neonatal outcomes by combining data from four national/provincial birth registers and one hospital database, and follow-up through linked population-level data from death registers and electronic health records. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The Co-OPT ACS cohort contains 2.28 million pregnancies and babies, born in Finland, Iceland, Israel, Canada and Scotland, between 1990 and 2019. Births from 22 to 45 weeks' gestation were included; 92.9% were at term (≥ 37 completed weeks). 3.6% of babies were exposed to ACS (67.0% and 77.9% of singleton and multiple births before 34 weeks, respectively). Rates of ACS exposure increased across the study period. Of all ACS-exposed babies, 26.8% were born at term. Longitudinal childhood data were available for 1.64 million live births. Follow-up includes diagnoses of a range of physical and mental disorders from the Finnish Hospital Register, diagnoses of mental, behavioural, and neurodevelopmental disorders from the Icelandic Patient Registers, and preschool reviews from the Scottish Child Health Surveillance Programme. The Co-OPT ACS cohort is the largest international birth cohort to date with data on ACS exposure and maternal, perinatal and childhood outcomes. Its large scale will enable assessment of important rare outcomes such as perinatal mortality, and comprehensive evaluation of the short- and long-term safety and efficacy of ACS

Insulin degludec is not associated with a delayed or diminished response to hypoglycaemia compared with insulin glargine in type 1 diabetes: a double-blind randomised crossover study

Aims/hypothesis: Insulin degludec (Des(B30)LysB29(γ-Glu Nε-hexadecandioyl) human insulin; IDeg) is a new basal insulin with an ultra-long flat action profile. The acute physiological responses to hypoglycaemia with IDeg and insulin glargine (A21Gly,B31Arg,B32Arg human insulin; IGlar) were compared. Methods: Twenty-eight adult type 1 diabetic patients with normal hypoglycaemia awareness (age = 41 ± 12 years, HbA1c = 7.8 ± 0.6% [62.8 ± 7 mmol/mol]) were randomised to once-daily IDeg or IGlar for 5 days in a two-period crossover design. Participants and research staff were blinded to group assignment. Patients were assigned the lowest available randomisation number from a set of blinded randomisation codes provided by the trial sponsor. Hypoglycaemia was induced by administering three times the usual daily insulin dose at midnight on day 5. Plasma glucose (PG) was stabilised by glucose clamp (5.5 mmol/l) for 7–9 h post dosing. Next morning, PG was allowed to decrease stepwise from 5.5 to 3.5 mmol/l (maintained for 30 min) to 2.5 mmol/l (for 15 min). PG was then increased to 3.9 mmol/l (for 120 min), before being returned to baseline. Hypoglycaemic symptom score (HSS), hypoglycaemic awareness, cognitive function, counter-regulatory hormones and vital signs were assessed during each glucose plateau. The primary analysis was to compare IDeg vs IGlar with respect to HSS at nadir PG concentration (2.5 mmol/l). Results: The full analysis set for treatment comparisons comprised data from all 28 exposed patients. Rates of PG decline and PG at nadir were similar for IDeg and IGlar. No treatment differences in HSS (estimated difference: 0.17 [95% CI −1.71, 2.05]; p > 0.05), cognitive function or awareness were observed at any time. Growth hormone and cortisol responses during hypoglycaemia were greater with IDeg than IGlar (AUC treatment ratio [IDeg/IGlar]: 2.44 [1.30, 4.60], p < 0.01; and 1.23 [1.01, 1.50]; p < 0.05), and adrenaline (epinephrine) responses trended higher (1.40 [0.96, 2.04], p = 0.07). The rates of recovery from hypoglycaemia were similar. Conclusions/interpretation: IDeg and IGlar elicit comparable symptomatic and cognitive responses to induced hypoglycaemia. IDeg may elicit a moderately greater endocrine response, but times to PG recovery were similar for the two insulins

Consortium for the Study of Pregnancy Treatments (Co-OPT) : An international birth cohort to study the effects of antenatal corticosteroids

Acknowledgments We are grateful to the Co-OPT collaborators from Finland, Iceland, Israel, Nova Scotia, and Scotland, who have provided high-quality patient data, without which the Co-OPT ACS cohort would not have been possible. We acknowledge Public Health Scotland for providing us with a secure data analytical platform in which to undertake this research and are particularly grateful to Anna Schneider who has been the data controller for this project. Co-OPT collaborators: Karel Allegaert (Belgium), Jasper Been (Netherlands), David Burgner (Australia), Sohinee Bhattacharya (UK), Kate Duhig (UK), Kristjana Einarsdóttir (Iceland), John Fahey (Canada), Lani Florian (UK), Abigail Fraser (UK), Mika Gissler (Finland), Cynthia Gyamfi-Bannerman (USA), Bo Jacobsson (Sweden), Eyal Krispin (Israel), Stefan Kuhle (Canada), Marius Lahti-Pulkkinen (Finland), Jessica Miller (Australia), Ben Mol (Australia), Sarah Murray (UK), Jane Norman (UK), Lars Henning Pedersen (Denmark), Richard Riley (UK), Devender Roberts (UK), Ewoud Schuit (Netherlands), Aziz Sheikh (UK), Ting Shi (UK), Joshua Vogel (Australia), Rachael Wood (UK), John Wright (UK), Helga Zoega (Australia). Funding Information: The Co-OPT ACS study is funded through a Wellcome Trust Clinical Career Development Fellowship grant (Funding Reference number 209560/Z/17) awarded to Sarah J Stock. The funders had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The Sponsor of the study is the University of Edinburgh (www.ed.ac. uk), Sponsor reference AC19119. For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The Equifinality of Archaeological Networks: an Agent-Based Exploratory Lab Approach

When we find an archaeological network, how can we explore the necessary versus contingent processes at play in the formation of that archaeological network? Given a set of circumstances or processes, what other possible network shapes could have emerged? This is the problem of equifinality, where many different means could potentially arrive at the same end result: the networks that we observe. This paper outlines how agent-based modelling can be used as a laboratory for exploring different processes of archaeological network formation. We begin by describing our best guess about how the (ancient) world worked, given our target materials (here, the networks of production and patronage surrounding the Roman brick industry in the hinterland of Rome). We then develop an agent-based model of the Roman extractive economy which generates different kinds of networks under various assumptions about how that economy works. The rules of the simulation are built upon the work of Bang (2006; 2008) who describes a model of the Roman economy which he calls the ‘imperial Bazaar’. The agents are allowed to interact, and the investigators compare the kinds of networks this description generates over an entire landscape of economic possibilities. By rigorously exploring this landscape, and comparing the resultant networks with those observed in the archaeological materials, the investigators will be able to employ the principle of equifinality to work out the representativeness of the archaeological network and thus the underlying processes