454 research outputs found
Early phonetic learning without phonetic categories: Insights from large-scale simulations on realistic input
International audienceBefore they even speak, infants become attuned to the sounds of the language(s) they hear, processing native phonetic contrasts more easily than non-native ones. For example, between 6-8 months and 10-12 months, infants learning American English get better at distinguishing English [ɹ] and [l], as in ‘rock’ vs ‘lock’, relative to infants learning Japanese. Influential accounts of this early phonetic learning phenomenon initially proposed that infants group sounds into native vowel- and consonant-like phonetic categories—like [ɹ] and [l] in English—through a statistical clustering mechanism dubbed ‘distributional learning’. The feasibility of this mechanism for learning phonetic categories has been challenged, however. Here we demonstrate that a distributional learning algorithm operating on naturalistic speech can predict early phonetic learning as observed in Japanese and American English infants, suggesting that infants might learn through distributional learning after all. We further show, however, that contrary to the original distributional learning proposal, our model learns units too brief and too fine-grained acoustically to correspond to phonetic categories. This challenges the influential idea that what infants learn are phonetic categories. More broadly, our work introduces a novel mechanism-driven approach to the study of early phonetic learning, together with a quantitative modeling framework that can handle realistic input. This allows, for the first time, accounts of early phonetic learning to be linked to concrete, systematic predictions regarding infants’ attunement
Superconductivity up to 30 K in the vicinity of quantum critical point in BaFe(AsP)
We report bulk superconductivity induced by an isovalent doping of phosphorus
in BaFe(AsP). The P-for-As substitution results in
shrinkage of lattice, especially for the FeAs block layers. The resistivity
anomaly associated with the spin-density-wave (SDW) transition in the undoped
compound is gradually suppressed by the P doping. Superconductivity with the
maximum of 30 K emerges at =0.32, coinciding with a magnetic quantum
critical point (QCP) which is evidenced by the disappearance of SDW order and
the linear temperature-dependent resistivity in the normal state. The
values were found to decrease with further P doping, and no superconductivity
was observed down to 2 K for 0.77. The appearance of superconductivity
in the vicinity of QCP hints to the superconductivity mechanism in iron-based
arsenides.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures; more data; to appear in Journal of Physics:
Condensed Matte
Effects of Ru Substitution on Dimensionality and Electron Correlations in Ba(Fe_{1-x}Ru_x)_2As_2
We report a systematic angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy study on
Ba(FeRu)As for a wide range of Ru concentrations (0.15
\emph{x} 0.74). We observed a crossover from two-dimension to
three-dimension for some of the hole-like Fermi surfaces with Ru substitution
and a large reduction in the mass renormalization close to optimal doping.
These results suggest that isovalent Ru substitution has remarkable effects on
the low-energy electron excitations, which are important for the evolution of
superconductivity and antiferromagnetism in this system.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Specific xylan activity revealed for AA9 Lytic Polysaccharide Monooxygenases of the thermophilic fungus Malbranchea cinnamomea by functional characterization
The thermophilic biomass-degrader\ua0Malbranchea cinnamomea\ua0exhibits poor growth on cellulose but excellent growth on hemicelluloses as the sole carbon source. This is surprising considering that its genome encodes eight lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) from auxiliary activity family 9 (AA9), enzymes known for their high potential in accelerating cellulose depolymerization. We characterized four of the eight (M. cinnamomea\ua0AA9s)\ua0McAA9s, namely,\ua0McAA9A,\ua0McAA9B,\ua0McAA9F, and\ua0McAA9H, to gain a deeper understanding about their roles in the fungus. The characterized\ua0McAA9s were active on hemicelluloses, including xylan, glucomannan, and xyloglucan, and furthermore, in accordance with transcriptomics data, differed in substrate specificity. Of the\ua0McAA9s,\ua0McAA9H is unique, as it preferentially cleaves residual xylan in phosphoric acid-swollen cellulose (PASC). Moreover, when exposed to cellulose-xylan blends,\ua0McAA9H shows a preference for xylan and for releasing (oxidized) xylooligosaccharides. The cellulose dependence of the xylan activity suggests that a flat conformation, with rigidity similar to that of cellulose microfibrils, is a prerequisite for productive interaction between xylan and the catalytic surface of the LPMO.\ua0McAA9H showed a similar trend on xyloglucan, underpinning the suggestion that LPMO activity on hemicelluloses strongly depends on the polymers’ physicochemical context and conformation. Our results support the notion that LPMO multiplicity in fungal genomes relates to the large variety of copolymeric polysaccharide arrangements occurring in the plant cell wall
Locally Administrated Perindopril Improves Healing in an Ovariectomized Rat Tibial Osteotomy Model
Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors are widely prescribed to regulate blood pressure. High doses of orally administered perindopril have previously been shown to improve fracture healing in a mouse femur fracture model. In this study, perindopril was administered directly to the fracture area with the goal of stimulating fracture repair. Three months after being ovariectomized (OVX), tibial fractures were produced in Sprague–Dawley rats and subsequently stabilized with intramedullary wires. Perindopril (0.4 mg/kg/day) was injected locally at the fractured site for a treatment period of 7 days. Vehicle reagent was used as a control. Callus quality was evaluated at 2 and 4 weeks post-fracture. Compared with the vehicle group, perindopril treatment significantly increased bone formation, increased biomechanical strength, and improved microstructural parameters of the callus. Newly woven bone was arranged more tightly and regularly at 4 weeks post-fracture. The ultimate load increased by 66.1 and 76.9% (p<0.01), and the bone volume over total volume (BV/TV) increased by 29.9% and 24.3% (p<0.01) at 2 and 4 weeks post-fracture, respectively. These findings suggest that local treatment with perindopril could promote fracture healing in ovariectomized rats
Characterization of an Ionization Readout Tile for nEXO
A new design for the anode of a time projection chamber, consisting of a
charge-detecting "tile", is investigated for use in large scale liquid xenon
detectors. The tile is produced by depositing 60 orthogonal metal
charge-collecting strips, 3~mm wide, on a 10~\si{\cm} 10~\si{\cm}
fused-silica wafer. These charge tiles may be employed by large detectors, such
as the proposed tonne-scale nEXO experiment to search for neutrinoless
double-beta decay. Modular by design, an array of tiles can cover a sizable
area. The width of each strip is small compared to the size of the tile, so a
Frisch grid is not required. A grid-less, tiled anode design is beneficial for
an experiment such as nEXO, where a wire tensioning support structure and
Frisch grid might contribute radioactive backgrounds and would have to be
designed to accommodate cycling to cryogenic temperatures. The segmented anode
also reduces some degeneracies in signal reconstruction that arise in
large-area crossed-wire time projection chambers. A prototype tile was tested
in a cell containing liquid xenon. Very good agreement is achieved between the
measured ionization spectrum of a Bi source and simulations that
include the microphysics of recombination in xenon and a detailed modeling of
the electrostatic field of the detector. An energy resolution =5.5\%
is observed at 570~\si{keV}, comparable to the best intrinsic ionization-only
resolution reported in literature for liquid xenon at 936~V/\si{cm}.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, as publishe
Diphenyl Difluoroketone: A Potent Chemotherapy Candidate for Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Diphenyl difluoroketone (EF24), a molecule having structural similarity to curcumin, was recently reported to inhibit proliferation of various cancer cells significantly. Here we try to determine the effect and mechanism of EF24 on hepatocellular carcinoma. 2 µM EF24 was found to inhibit the proliferation of PLC/PRF/5, Hep3B, HepG2, SK-HEP-1 and Huh 7 cell lines. However, even 8 µM EF24 treatment did not affect the proliferation of normal liver LO2 cells. Accordingly, 20 mg/kg/d EF24 inhibited the growth of the tumor xenografts conspicuously while causing no apparent change in liver, spleen or body weight. In addition, significant apoptosis and G2/M phase cell cycle arrest were found using flow cytometry. Besides, caspases and PARP activation and features typical of apoptosis including fragmented nuclei with condensed chromatin were also observed. Furthermore, the mechanism was targeted at the reduction of nuclear factor kappa b (NF-κB) pathway and the NF-κB–regulated gene products Bcl-2, COX-2, Cyclin B1. Our study has offered a strategy that EF24 being a therapeutic agent for hepatocellular carcinoma
Genetic Variation of the Human α-2-Heremans-Schmid Glycoprotein (AHSG) Gene Associated with the Risk of SARS-CoV Infection
Genetic background may play an important role in the process of SARS-CoV
infection and SARS development. We found several proteins that could interact
with the nucleocapsid protein of the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV).
α-2-Heremans-Schmid Glycoprotein (AHSG), which is required for macrophage
deactivation by endogenous cations, is associated with inflammatory regulation.
Cytochrome P450 Family 3A (CYP4F3A) is an ω-oxidase that
inactivates Leukotriene B4 (LTB4) in human neutrophils and the liver. We
investigated the association between the polymorphisms of these two
inflammation-associated genes and SARS development. The linkage disequilibrium
(LD) maps of these two genes were built with Haploview using data on
CHB+JPT (version 2) from the HapMap. A total of ten tag SNPs were selected
and genotyped. In the Guangzhou cohort study, after adjusting for age and sex,
two AHSG SNPs and one CYP4F3 SNP were found to
be associated with SARS susceptibility: rs2248690 (adjusted odds ratio
[AOR] 2.42; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.30-4.51);
rs4917 (AOR 1.84; 95% CI 1.02-3.34); and rs3794987 (AOR 2.01; 95%
CI 1.10–3.68). To further validate the association, the ten tag SNPs were
genotyped in the Beijing cohort. After adjusting for age and sex, only rs2248690
(AOR, 1.63; 95% CI, 1.30–2.04) was found to be associated with SARS
susceptibility. The combined analysis of the two studies confirmed tag SNP
rs2248690 in AHSG as a susceptibility variant (AOR 1.70;
95% CI 1.37–2.09). The statistical analysis of the rs2248690
genotype data among the patients and healthy controls in the HCW cohort, who
were all similarly exposed to the SARS virus, also supported the findings.
Further, the SNP rs2248690 affected the transcriptional activity of the
AHSG promoter and thus regulated the AHSG serum level.
Therefore, our study has demonstrated that the AA genotype of rs2268690, which
leads to a higher AHSG serum concentration, was significantly associated with
protection against SARS development
- …