Augmented Modality Exclusivity Norms for Concrete and Abstract Italian Property Words

How perceptual information is encoded into language and conceptual knowledge is a debated topic in cognitive (neuro)science. We present modality norms for 643 Italian adjectives, which referred to one of the five perceptual modalities or were abstract. Overall, words were rated as mostly connected to the visual modality and least connected to the olfactory and gustatory modality. We found that words associated to visual and auditory experience were more unimodal compared to words associated to other sensory modalities. A principal components analysis highlighted a strong coupling between gustatory and olfactory information in word meaning, and the tendency of words referring to tactile experience to also include information from the visual dimension. Abstract words were found to encode only marginal perceptual information, mostly from visual and auditory experience. The modality norms were augmented with corpus-based (e.g., Zipf Frequency, Orthographic Levenshtein Distance 20) and ratings-based psycholinguistic variables (Age of Acquisition, Familiarity, Contextual Availability). Split-half correlations performed for each experimental variable and comparisons with similar databases confirmed that our norms are highly reliable. This database thus provides a new important tool for investigating the interplay between language, perception and cognition

Stepping out of the Chinese Room: Word meaning with and without consciousness

What is the role of consciousness in language processing? Unconscious priming experiments show that words can prime other words with related meanings (cat \u2013 dog), and these priming effects are assumed to reflect the activation of conceptual knowledge in semantic memory. Alternatively, however, unconscious priming effects could reflect predictive relationships between the words\u2019 forms, since words that are semantically related are also statistically related in language use. Therefore, unconscious \u201csemantic\u201d priming effects could be due to relationships between words\u2019 forms mimicking conceptual relationships, as in Searle\u2019s Chinese Room thought experiment. To distinguish wordform-based and semantics-based accounts of priming we conducted an experiment in which temporal words (e.g., earlier, later) were preceded by spatial words that were processed either consciously or unconsciously. Time is typically conceptualized as a spatial continuum extending along either the sagittal (front-back) or the lateral (left-right) axis, but only the sagittal space-time mapping is encoded in language (e.g. the future is ahead, not to the right). Results showed that temporal words were primed both by sagittal words (back, front) and lateral words (left, right) when primes were perceived consciously, as predicted by both wordformbased and semantics-based accounts. Yet, only sagittal words produced an unconscious priming effect, as predicted by the wordform-based account. Unconscious word processing appears to be limited to relationships between words\u2019 forms, and consciousness may be needed to activate words\u2019 meanings

Influencia de las fuerzas alternativas de inercia en el diseño y resistencia de bielas en motores de elevadas vueltas

Los motores alternativos de cuatro cilindros y cuatro tiempos generan en su sistema biela manivela fuerzas de inercia alternativas como consecuencia de la aceleración de las masas del pistón, aros, pernos y parte de la biela en movimiento alternativo, estas fuerzas cambian de signo en función del ángulo de giro del eje cigüeñal, haciendo positiva o negativa a la aceleración del pistón. Es conocida la fuerza máxima que ejerce el gas sobre el pistón al completarse la combustión. La composición de estas dos fuerzas genera principalmente esfuerzos de tracción y compresión sobre la biela, que deben ser tenidos en cuenta en su diseño. El diagrama abierto de presiones dentro del cilindros grafica los efectos de la presión del gas sobre el sistema biela manivela. Las fuerzas de inercia alternativamente obrantes sobre el sistema también pueden graficarse. La superposición de ambas representaciones graficas da como resultado esfuerzos máximos de tracción y compresión. Se analizan empíricamente los esfuerzos de tracción y compresión sobre la biela y se verifican sus valores con el método de elementos finitos-FEM. Sus resultados deben ser tenidos en cuenta a la hora de rediseñar bielas por potenciación de motores de competición.Eje: Motores de combustión interna.Facultad de Ingenierí

Influencia de las fuerzas alternativas de inercia en el diseño y resistencia de bielas en motores de elevadas vueltas

Los motores alternativos de cuatro cilindros y cuatro tiempos generan en su sistema biela manivela fuerzas de inercia alternativas como consecuencia de la aceleración de las masas del pistón, aros, pernos y parte de la biela en movimiento alternativo, estas fuerzas cambian de signo en función del ángulo de giro del eje cigüeñal, haciendo positiva o negativa a la aceleración del pistón. Es conocida la fuerza máxima que ejerce el gas sobre el pistón al completarse la combustión. La composición de estas dos fuerzas genera principalmente esfuerzos de tracción y compresión sobre la biela, que deben ser tenidos en cuenta en su diseño. El diagrama abierto de presiones dentro del cilindros grafica los efectos de la presión del gas sobre el sistema biela manivela. Las fuerzas de inercia alternativamente obrantes sobre el sistema también pueden graficarse. La superposición de ambas representaciones graficas da como resultado esfuerzos máximos de tracción y compresión. Se analizan empíricamente los esfuerzos de tracción y compresión sobre la biela y se verifican sus valores con el método de elementos finitos-FEM. Sus resultados deben ser tenidos en cuenta a la hora de rediseñar bielas por potenciación de motores de competición.Eje: Motores de combustión interna.Facultad de Ingenierí

Influencia de las fuerzas alternativas de inercia en el diseño y resistencia de bielas en motores de elevadas vueltas

Los motores alternativos de cuatro cilindros y cuatro tiempos generan en su sistema biela manivela fuerzas de inercia alternativas como consecuencia de la aceleración de las masas del pistón, aros, pernos y parte de la biela en movimiento alternativo, estas fuerzas cambian de signo en función del ángulo de giro del eje cigüeñal, haciendo positiva o negativa a la aceleración del pistón. Es conocida la fuerza máxima que ejerce el gas sobre el pistón al completarse la combustión. La composición de estas dos fuerzas genera principalmente esfuerzos de tracción y compresión sobre la biela, que deben ser tenidos en cuenta en su diseño. El diagrama abierto de presiones dentro del cilindros grafica los efectos de la presión del gas sobre el sistema biela manivela. Las fuerzas de inercia alternativamente obrantes sobre el sistema también pueden graficarse. La superposición de ambas representaciones graficas da como resultado esfuerzos máximos de tracción y compresión. Se analizan empíricamente los esfuerzos de tracción y compresión sobre la biela y se verifican sus valores con el método de elementos finitos-FEM. Sus resultados deben ser tenidos en cuenta a la hora de rediseñar bielas por potenciación de motores de competición.Eje: Motores de combustión interna.Facultad de Ingenierí

Space and time in the sighted and blind

Across many cultures people conceptualize time as extending along a horizontal Mental Time Line (MTL). This spatial mapping of time has been shown to depend on experience with written text, and may also depend on other graphic conventions such as graphs and calendars. All of this information is typically acquired visually, suggesting that visual experience may play an important role in the development of the MTL. Do blind people develop a MTL? If so, how does it compare with the MTL in sighted? In this study we tested early blind, late blind and sighted participants in a space-time congruity task. Participants had to classify temporal words by pressing a right and a left key, either with crossed or uncrossed hands. We found that the MTL develops in the absence of vision, and that it is based on the same external frame of reference in sighted and blind people. Reading braille may provide the same experiential link between space and time in the manual modality as reading printed text provides in the visual modality. These results showing a similar MTL in sighted and blind participants contrast with previous results showing that the Mental Number Line (MNL) depends on different spatial coordinates in the sighted and the blind, and suggest that spatial representations of time and number may have different experiential bases

PTP4A1 promotes TGFβ signaling and fibrosis in systemic sclerosis.

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune disease characterized by fibrosis of skin and internal organs. Protein tyrosine phosphatases have received little attention in the study of SSc or fibrosis. Here, we show that the tyrosine phosphatase PTP4A1 is highly expressed in fibroblasts from patients with SSc. PTP4A1 and its close homolog PTP4A2 are critical promoters of TGFβ signaling in primary dermal fibroblasts and of bleomycin-induced fibrosis in vivo. PTP4A1 promotes TGFβ signaling in human fibroblasts through enhancement of ERK activity, which stimulates SMAD3 expression and nuclear translocation. Upstream from ERK, we show that PTP4A1 directly interacts with SRC and inhibits SRC basal activation independently of its phosphatase activity. Unexpectedly, PTP4A2 minimally interacts with SRC and does not promote the SRC-ERK-SMAD3 pathway. Thus, in addition to defining PTP4A1 as a molecule of interest for TGFβ-dependent fibrosis, our study provides information regarding the functional specificity of different members of the PTP4A subclass of phosphatases

Grape pomace and grape pomace extract improve insulin signaling in high-fat-fructose fed rat-induced metabolic syndrome

In this study the effect of diet supplementation with grape pomace (GP) and grape pomace extract (GPE) on insulin sensitive tissues (adipose, liver and muscle) was evaluated in an experimental model of metabolic syndrome (MetS). MetS was developed by giving a high-fat-fructose (HFF) diet to Wistar rats. Six weeks of HFF diet induced weight gain, which was partially attenuated by GP (1 g per kg per day) and GPE (300 mg per kg per day) supplementation. HFF diet increased systolic blood pressure, triglycerides, insulin resistance (HOMA:IR) and inflammation (c-reactive protein (CRP)). Supplementation with GP prevented SBP, triglycerides and CRP increased and partially attenuated insulin resistance. On the other hand, GPE partially reduced SBP and triglycerides and significantly prevented insulin resistance and inflammation. Also, HFF diet induced higher triglycerides content and enhanced NADPH oxidase activity in the liver. Also, HFF diet increased the epididymal adipose tissue weight, enlarged adipocyte size, and c-jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) activation, probably contributing to a pro-inflammatory cytokine pattern (higher resistin) and lower adiponectin protein expression. These alterations may result in an impairment of insulin signaling cascade observed in adipose, liver and muscle tissue (IRS1, Akt, and extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK1/2)) from HFF rats. Supplementation with GP and to a greater extent GPE attenuated liver triglyceride content and adiposity and restored adipose, liver and muscle response to insulin. These findings show that supplementation with GP and GPE to a greater extent can counteract adiposity, inflammation, liver damage and impaired insulin signaling associated to MetS, supporting the utilization of winemaking residues in food industry/human health due to their high amount of bioactive compounds.Fil: Rodriguez Lanzi, Maria Cecilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Medicina y Biología Experimental de Cuyo; ArgentinaFil: Perdicaro, Diahann Jeanette. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Medicina y Biología Experimental de Cuyo; ArgentinaFil: Antoniolli, Andrea Noelia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Fontana, Ariel Ramón. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Miatello, Roberto Miguel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Medicina y Biología Experimental de Cuyo; ArgentinaFil: Bottini, Ambrosio Rubén. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Vazquez, Marcela Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Medicina y Biología Experimental de Cuyo; Argentin

Structural and Functional Network-Level Reorganization in the Coding of Auditory Motion Directions and Sound Source Locations in the Absence of Vision

Epub 2022 May 2hMT+/V5 is a region in the middle occipitotemporal cortex that responds preferentially to visual motion in sighted people. In cases of early visual deprivation, hMT+/V5 enhances its response to moving sounds. Whether hMT+/V5 contains information about motion directions and whether the functional enhancement observed in the blind is motion specific, or also involves sound source location, remains unsolved. Moreover, the impact of this cross-modal reorganization of hMT+/V5 on the regions typically supporting auditory motion processing, like the human planum temporale (hPT), remains equivocal. We used a combined functional and diffusion-weighted MRI approach and individual in-ear recordings to study the impact of early blindness on the brain networks supporting spatial hearing in male and female humans. Whole-brain univariate analysis revealed that the anterior portion of hMT+/V5 responded to moving sounds in sighted and blind people, while the posterior portion was selective to moving sounds only in blind participants. Multivariate decoding analysis revealed that the presence of motion direction and sound position information was higher in hMT+/V5 and lower in hPT in the blind group. While both groups showed axis-of-motion organization in hMT+/V5 and hPT, this organization was reduced in the hPT of blind people. Diffusion-weighted MRI revealed that the strength of hMT+/V5-hPT connectivity did not differ between groups, whereas the microstructure of the connections was altered by blindness. Our results suggest that the axis-of-motion organization of hMT+/V5 does not depend on visual experience, but that congenital blindness alters the response properties of occipitotemporal networks supporting spatial hearing in the sighted.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Spatial hearing helps living organisms navigate their environment. This is certainly even more true in people born blind. How does blindness affect the brain network supporting auditory motion and sound source location? Our results show that the presence of motion direction and sound position information was higher in hMT+/V5 and lower in human planum temporale in blind relative to sighted people; and that this functional reorganization is accompanied by microstructural (but not macrostructural) alterations in their connections. These findings suggest that blindness alters cross-modal responses between connected areas that share the same computational goals.The project was funded in part by a European Research Council starting grant MADVIS (Project 337573) awarded to O.C., the Belgian Excellence of Science (EOS) program (Project 30991544) awarded to O.C., a Flagship ERA-NET grant SoundSight (FRS-FNRS PINT-MULTI R.8008.19) awarded to O.C., and by the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 701250 awarded to V.O. Computational resources have been provided by the supercomputing facilities of the Université catholique de Louvain (CISM/UCL) and the Consortium des Équipements de Calcul Intensif en Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles (CÉCI) funded by the Fond de la Recherche Scientifique de Belgique (F.R.S.-FNRS) under convention 2.5020.11 and by the Walloon Region. A.G.-A. is supported by the Wallonie Bruxelles International Excellence Fellowship and the FSR Incoming PostDoc Fellowship by Université Catholique de Louvain. O.C. is a research associate, C.B. is postdoctoral researcher, and M.R. is a research fellow at the Fond National de la Recherche Scientifique de Belgique (FRS-FNRS)