Perception of English Prominence by Native Mandarin Chinese Speakers

Native-like perception of intonational prominence is important for spoken language competency. Non-native speakers may have trouble interpreting prosodic variation in a second language like English, where intonational variation can critically influence utterance semantics. By identifying types of prosody non-native learners find difficult to perceive, we can improve our ability to teach L2 speakers a language. In this paper we present results of a perception study in which Mandarin speakers with knowledge of English were tested on their ability to identify prosodic prominence in English in a variety of contexts. Through this analysis we identify particular contexts which make it difficult for Mandarin speakers to recognize pitch accent in English

Perception of English Prominence by Native Mandarin Chinese Speakers

Native-like perception of intonational prominence is important for spoken language competency. Non-native speakers may have trouble interpreting prosodic variation in a second language like English, where intonational variation can critically influence utterance semantics. By identifying types of prosody non-native learners find difficult to perceive, we can improve our ability to teach L2 speakers a language. In this paper we present results of a perception study in which Mandarin speakers with knowledge of English were tested on their ability to identify prosodic prominence in English in a variety of contexts. Through this analysis we identify particular contexts which make it difficult for Mandarin speakers to recognize pitch accent in English

Narrative writing, reading and cognitive processes in middle childhood: what are the links?

This study investigated the relationship between measures of reading and writing, and explored whether cognitive measures known to be related to reading ability were also associated with writing performance in middle childhood. Sixty-Four children, aged between 8 years 9 months and 11 years 9 months, took part in a battery of writing, reading, and cognitive ability tasks. Reading fluency emerged as having a strong relationship to written language performance, after controlling for age and verbal reasoning. While children with reading difficulties were weak at spelling accuracy, they were otherwise found to produce written compositions of similar quality to typical readers. Boys produced less written text than girls, but did not demonstrate weaker written language abilities. Collectively the results demonstrate that writing skills can be separated into transcription and composition processes, and highlight the need for further research on the relationship between reading fluency and children’s writing

The Role of Innate APOBEC3G and Adaptive AID Immune Responses in HLA-HIV/SIV Immunized SHIV Infected Macaques

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Dorsal cochlear nucleus responses to somatosensory stimulation are enhanced after noise-induced hearing loss

Multisensory neurons in the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN) achieve their bimodal response properties [Shore (2005) Eur. J. Neurosci. , 21 , 3334–3348] by integrating auditory input via VIIIth nerve fibers with somatosensory input via the axons of cochlear nucleus granule cells [Shore et al. (2000) J. Comp. Neurol. , 419 , 271–285; Zhou & Shore (2004) J. Neurosci. Res. , 78 , 901–907]. A unique feature of multisensory neurons is their propensity for receiving cross-modal compensation following sensory deprivation. Thus, we investigated the possibility that reduction of VIIIth nerve input to the cochlear nucleus results in trigeminal system compensation for the loss of auditory inputs. Responses of DCN neurons to trigeminal and bimodal (trigeminal plus acoustic) stimulation were compared in normal and noise-damaged guinea pigs. The guinea pigs with noise-induced hearing loss had significantly lower thresholds, shorter latencies and durations, and increased amplitudes of response to trigeminal stimulation than normal animals. Noise-damaged animals also showed a greater proportion of inhibitory and a smaller proportion of excitatory responses compared with normal. The number of cells exhibiting bimodal integration, as well as the degree of integration, was enhanced after noise damage. In accordance with the greater proportion of inhibitory responses, bimodal integration was entirely suppressive in the noise-damaged animals with no indication of the bimodal enhancement observed in a sub-set of normal DCN neurons. These results suggest that projections from the trigeminal system to the cochlear nucleus are increased and/or redistributed after hearing loss. Furthermore, the finding that only neurons activated by trigeminal stimulation showed increased spontaneous rates after cochlear damage suggests that somatosensory neurons may play a role in the pathogenesis of tinnitus.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73500/1/j.1460-9568.2007.05983.x.pd

Ikaros controls isotype selection during immunoglobulin class switch recombination

Class switch recombination (CSR) allows the humoral immune response to exploit different effector pathways through specific secondary antibody isotypes. However, the molecular mechanisms and factors that control immunoglobulin (Ig) isotype choice for CSR are unclear. We report that deficiency for the Ikaros transcription factor results in increased and ectopic CSR to IgG2b and IgG2a, and reduced CSR to all other isotypes, regardless of stimulation. Ikaros suppresses active chromatin marks, transcription, and activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) accessibility at the γ2b and γ2a genes to inhibit class switching to these isotypes. Further, Ikaros directly regulates isotype gene transcription as it directly binds the Igh 3′ enhancer and interacts with isotype gene promoters. Finally, Ikaros-mediated repression of γ2b and γ2a transcription promotes switching to other isotype genes by allowing them to compete for AID-mediated recombination at the single-cell level. Thus, our results reveal transcriptional competition between constant region genes in individual cells to be a critical and general mechanism for isotype specification during CSR. We show that Ikaros is a master regulator of this competition

Natural Killer Cells from Patients with Recombinase-Activating Gene and Non-Homologous End Joining Gene Defects Comprise a Higher Frequency of CD56bright NKG2A+++ Cells, and Yet Display Increased Degranulation and Higher Perforin Content.

Mutations of the recombinase Activating Genes 1 and 2 (RAG1, RAG2) in humans are associated with a broad range of phenotypes. For patients with severe clinical presentation, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) represents the only curative treatment, however high rates of graft failure and incomplete immune reconstitution have been observed, especially after unconditioned haploidentical transplantation. Studies in mice have shown that Rag-/- NK cells have a mature phenotype, reduced fitness and increased cytotoxicity. We aimed to analyze NK cell phenotype and function in patients with mutations in RAG and in non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) genes. Here we provide evidence that NK cells from these patients have an immature phenotype, with significant expansion of CD56bright CD16-/int CD57- cells, yet increased degranulation and high perforin content. Correlation was observed between in vitro recombinase activity of the mutant proteins, NK cell abnormalities, and in vivo clinical phenotype. Addition of serotherapy in the conditioning regimen, with the aim of depleting the autologous NK cell compartment, may be important to facilitate engraftment and immune reconstitution in patients with RAG and NHEJ defects treated by HSCT