Influence of Poor Fit Vowels on Perception of Consonants

The present study investigated native English listeners' perception of an ambiguous fricative noise from a [s]-[ʃ] continuum followed/preceded by a poor fit vowel—either one of the [i]s that have higher/lower formant frequencies than a good exemplar of English [i], or [u]s that have higher/lower formant frequencies than a good exemplar of English [u]. The main questions that the present study intended to address were, i) whether listeners would show perceptual contextual dissimilation (a.k.a. compensation for coarticulation, Mann & Repp, 1980, 1981) or listeners would show perceptual contextual assimilation (a.k.a. parsing, Fowler, 1984); and ii) whether listeners would respond to the stimuli according to their phonological analysis of the segments (Kingston et al., 2011) or according to the actual phonetic details of the segments (Whalen, 1989). The results were that the listeners showed perceptual contextual dissimilation for their broad (more abstract) phonological categorization of [i] and [u]. However, when the listeners were sensitive to the phonetic details of the segments, the listeners showed perceptual contextual assimilation. The listeners somehow, however, were not sensitive to the phonetic details of poor fit vowels when the stimuli were identified as [si] and [ʃi]. Although it is hard to come to a solid conclusion from these response patterns, the results at least indicate that listeners may be able to parse vowels using their native language knowledge, and dynamically adjust the acoustic discrepancy by showing perceptual contextual assimilation.Master of Art

Gal4 turnover and transcription activation

Growing evidence supports the notion that proteasome-mediated destruction of transcriptional activators can be intimately coupled to their function. Recently, Nalley et al. challenged this view by reporting that the prototypical yeast activator Gal4 does not dynamically associate with chromatin, but rather 'locks in' to stable promoter complexes that are resistant to competition. Here we present evidence that the assay used to reach this conclusion is unsuitable, and that promoter-bound, active Gal4 is indeed susceptible to competition in vivo. Our data challenge the key evidence that Nalley et al. used to reach their conclusion, and indicate that Gal4 functions in vivo within the context of dynamic promoter complexes

Male mice, caged in the International Space Station for 35 days, sire healthy offspring

Matsumura, T., Noda, T., Muratani, M. et al. Male mice, caged in the International Space Station for 35 days, sire healthy offspring. Sci Rep 9, 13733 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-50128-

Mapping of histone-binding sites in histone replacement-completed spermatozoa

The majority of histones are replaced by protamines during spermatogenesis, but small amounts are retained in mammalian spermatozoa. Since nucleosomes in spermatozoa influence epigenetic inheritance, it is important to know how histones are distributed in the sperm genome. Conflicting data, which may result from different conditions used for micrococcal nuclease (MNase) digestion, have been reported: retention of nucleosomes at either gene promoter regions or within distal gene-poor regions. Here, we find that the swim-up sperm used in many studies contain about 10% population of sperm which have not yet completed the histone-to-protamine replacement. We develop a method to purify histone replacement-completed sperm (HRCS) and to completely solubilize histones from cross-linked HRCS without MNase digestion. Our results indicate that histones are retained at specific promoter regions in HRCS. This method allows the study of epigenetic status in mature sperm

Male mice, caged in the International Space Station for 35 days, sire healthy offspring

The effect on the reproductive system and fertility of living in a space environment remains unclear. Here, we caged 12 male mice under artificial gravity (approximate to 1 gravity) (AG) or microgravity (MG) in the International Space Station (ISS) for 35 days, and characterized the male reproductive organs (testes, epididymides, and accessory glands) after their return to earth. Mice caged on earth during the 35 days served as a "ground" control (GC). Only a decrease in accessory gland weight was detected in AG and MG males; however, none of the reproductive organs showed any overt microscopic defects or changes in gene expression as determined by RNA-seq. The cauda epididymal spermatozoa from AG and MG mice could fertilize oocytes in vitro at comparable levels as GC males. When the fertilized eggs were transferred into pseudo-pregnant females, there was no significant difference in pups delivered (pups/transferred eggs) among GC, AG, and MG spermatozoa. In addition, the growth rates and fecundity of the obtained pups were comparable among all groups. We conclude that short-term stays in outer space do not cause overt defects in the physiological function of male reproductive organs, sperm function, and offspring viability

Molecular and proteomic analyses highlight the importance of ubiquitination for the stress resistance, metabolic adaptation, morphogenetic regulation and virulence of Candida albicans

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