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The use of synthetic nanomaterials as contrast agents, sensors, and drug delivery vehicles in biological research primarily requires effective approaches for intracellular delivery. Recently, the well-accepted microelectrophoresis technique has been reported to exhibit the ability to deliver nanomaterials, quantum dots (QDs) as an example, into live cells, but information about cell viability and intracellular fate of delivered nanomaterials is yet to be provided. Here we show that cell viability following microelectrophoresis of QDs is strongly correlated with the amount of delivered QDs, which can be finely controlled by tuning the ejection duration to maintain long-term cell survival. We reveal that microelectrophoretic delivered QDs distribute homogeneously and present pure Brownian diffusion inside the cytoplasm without endosomal entrapment, having great potential for the study of dynamic intracellular events. We validate that microelectrophoresis is a powerful technique for the effective intracellular delivery of QDs and potentially various functional nanomaterials in biological research., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Aphantasia describes the experience of individuals who self-report a lack of voluntary visual imagery. It is not yet known whether individuals with aphantasia show deficits in cognitive and neuropsychological tasks thought to relate to aspects of visual imagery, including Spatial Span, One Touch Stocking of Cambridge, Pattern Recognition Memory, Verbal Recognition Memory and Mental Rotation. Twenty individuals with congenital aphantasia (VVIQ < 25) were identified and matched on measures of age and IQ to twenty individuals with typical imagery (VVIQ > 35). A group difference was found in the One Touch Stocking of Cambridge task for response time, but not accuracy, when the number of imagined moves that participants had to hold in their heads to complete the task increased. Similarly, a group difference in response time was apparent in the mental rotation task, but only in the subgroup of aphantasic participants who reported a severe deficit in visual imagery (VVIQ score of 16). These results suggest that the cognitive profile of people without imagery does not greatly differ from those with typical imagery when examined by group. In addition, the severity of aphantasia (and VVIQ criterion) may be an important factor to consider when investigating differences in imagery experience. Overall, this study raises questions about whether or not aphantasia represents a difference in cognitive function or in conscious experience., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The ability to construct, synthesize, and edit genes and genomes at scale and with speed enables, in synergy with other tools of engineering biology, breakthrough applications with far-reaching implications for society. As SARS-CoV-2 spread around the world in early spring of 2020, researchers rapidly mobilized, using these tools in the development of diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines for COVID-19. The sharing of knowledge was crucial to making rapid progress. Several publications described the use of reverse genetics for the de novo construction of SARS-CoV-2 in the laboratory, one in the form of a protocol. Given the demonstrable harm caused by the virus, the unequal distribution of mitigating vaccines and therapeutics, their unknown efficacy against variants, and the interest in this research by laboratories unaccustomed to working with highly transmissible pandemic pathogens, there are risks associated with such publications, particularly as protocols. We describe considerations and offer suggestions for enhancing security in the publication of synthetic biology research and techniques. We recommend: (1) that protocol manuscripts for the de novo synthesis of certain pathogenic viruses undergo a mandatory safety and security review; (2) that if published, such papers include descriptions of the discussions or review processes that occurred regarding security considerations in the main text; and (3) the development of a governance framework for the inclusion of basic security screening during the publication process of engineering biology/synthetic biology manuscripts to build and support a safe and secure research enterprise that is able to maximize its positive impacts and minimize any negative outcomes.

Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs)-or hearing voices-occur in clinical and non-clinical populations, but their mechanisms remain unclear. Predictive processing models of psychosis have proposed that hallucinations arise from an over-weighting of prior expectations in perception. It is unknown, however, whether this reflects (i) a sensitivity to explicit modulation of prior knowledge or (ii) a pre-existing tendency to spontaneously use such knowledge in ambiguous contexts. Four experiments were conducted to examine this question in healthy participants listening to ambiguous speech stimuli. In experiments 1a ( n  = 60) and 1b ( n  = 60), participants discriminated intelligible and unintelligible sine-wave speech before and after exposure to the original language templates (i.e. a modulation of expectation). No relationship was observed between top-down modulation and two common measures of hallucination-proneness. Experiment 2 ( n  = 99) confirmed this pattern with a different stimulus-sine-vocoded speech (SVS)-that was designed to minimize ceiling effects in discrimination and more closely model previous top-down effects reported in psychosis. In Experiment 3 ( n  = 134), participants were exposed to SVS without prior knowledge that it contained speech (i.e. naïve listening). AVH-proneness significantly predicted both pre-exposure identification of speech and successful recall for words hidden in SVS, indicating that participants could actually decode the hidden signal spontaneously. Altogether, these findings support a pre-existing tendency to spontaneously draw upon prior knowledge in healthy people prone to AVH, rather than a sensitivity to temporary modulations of expectation. We propose a model of clinical and non-clinical hallucinations, across auditory and visual modalities, with testable predictions for future research., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press.)

Purpose: Many children have difficulties understanding speech. At present, there are few assessments that test for subtle impairments in speech perception with normative data from U.K. children. We present a new test that evaluates children's ability to identify target words in background noise by choosing between minimal pair alternatives that differ by a single articulatory phonetic feature. This task (a) is tailored to testing young children, but also readily applicable to adults; (b) has minimal memory demands; (c) adapts to the child's ability; and (d) does not require reading or verbal output., Method: We tested 155 children and young adults aged from 5 to 25 years on this new test of single word perception., Results: Speech-in-noise abilities in this particular task develop rapidly through childhood until they reach maturity at around 9 years of age., Conclusions: We make this test freely available and provide associated normative data. We hope that it will be useful to researchers and clinicians in the assessment of speech perception abilities in children who are hard of hearing or have developmental language disorder, dyslexia, or auditory processing disorder., Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.17155934.

Pain impacts the lives of billions of people around the world - both directly and indirectly. It is complex and transcends beyond an unpleasant sensory experience to encompass emotional experiences. To date, there are no successful treatments for sufferers of chronic pain. Although opioids do not provide any benefit to chronic pain sufferers, they are still prescribed, often resulting in more complications such as hyperalgesia and dependence. In order to develop effective and safe medications to manage, and perhaps even treat pain, it is important to evaluate novel contributors to pain pathologies. As such, in this chapter we review the role of Toll-like receptor 4, a receptor of the innate immune system, that continues to gain substantial attention in the field of pain research. Positioned in the nexus of the neuro and immune systems, TLR4 may provide one of the missing pieces in understanding the complexities of pain. Here we consider how TLR4 enables a mechanistical understanding of pain as a multidimensional biopsychosocial state from molecules to cells to systems and back again., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.)

Nanoparticles with specific properties and functions have been developed for various biomedical research applications, such as in vivo and in vitro sensors, imaging agents and delivery vehicles of therapeutics. The development of an effective delivery method of nanoparticles into the intracellular environment is challenging and success in this endeavor would be beneficial to many biological studies. Here, the well-established microelectrophoresis technique was applied for the first time to deliver nanoparticles into living cells. An optimal protocol was explored to prepare semiconductive quantum dots suspensions having high monodispersity with average hydrodynamic diameter of 13.2-35.0 nm. Micropipettes were fabricated to have inner tip diameters of approximately 200 nm that are larger than quantum dots for ejection but less than 500 nm to minimize damage to the cell membrane. We demonstrated the successful delivery of quantum dots via small electrical currents (-0.2 nA) through micropipettes into the cytoplasm of living human embryonic kidney cells (roughly 20-30 μm in length) using microelectrophoresis technique. This method is promising as a simple and general strategy for delivering a variety of nanoparticles into the cellular environment., (© 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Recent neuroimaging studies suggest that monolingual infants activate a left-lateralized frontotemporal brain network in response to spoken language, which is similar to the network involved in processing spoken and signed language in adulthood. However, it is unclear how brain activation to language is influenced by early experience in infancy. To address this question, we present functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) data from 60 hearing infants (4 to 8 months of age): 19 monolingual infants exposed to English, 20 unimodal bilingual infants exposed to two spoken languages, and 21 bimodal bilingual infants exposed to English and British Sign Language (BSL). Across all infants, spoken language elicited activation in a bilateral brain network including the inferior frontal and posterior temporal areas, whereas sign language elicited activation in the right temporoparietal area. A significant difference in brain lateralization was observed between groups. Activation in the posterior temporal region was not lateralized in monolinguals and bimodal bilinguals, but right lateralized in response to both language modalities in unimodal bilinguals. This suggests that the experience of two spoken languages influences brain activation for sign language when experienced for the first time. Multivariate pattern analyses (MVPAs) could classify distributed patterns of activation within the left hemisphere for spoken and signed language in monolinguals (proportion correct = 0.68; p = 0.039) but not in unimodal or bimodal bilinguals. These results suggest that bilingual experience in infancy influences brain activation for language and that unimodal bilingual experience has greater impact on early brain lateralization than bimodal bilingual experience., Competing Interests: Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

High silicon (Si) electrical steel has the potential for efficient use in applications such as electrical motors and generators with cost-effective in processing, but it is difficult to manufacture. Increasing the Si content beyond 3 wt.% improves magnetic and electrical properties, with 6.5 wt.% being achievable. The main goal of this research is to design, develop, and implement a scalable additive manufacturing process to fabricate Fe with 6.5 wt.% Si (Fe-6Si) steel with high magnetic permeability, high electrical resistivity, low coercivity, and low residual induction that other methods cannot achieve because of manufacturing limitations. Binder jet additive manufacturing was used to deposit near net shape components that were subsequently sintered via solid-state sintering to achieve near full densification. Here, it is shown that the use of solid-state sintering mitigates cracking since no rapid solidification occurs unlike fusion-based additive technologies. The Fe-6Si samples demonstrated an ultimate tensile strength of 434 MPa, electrical resistivity of 98 μΩ cm, and saturation magnetization of 1.83 T with low coercivity and high permeability. The results strongly supports to replace the only available 0.1 mm thick chemical vapor deposition (CVD) produced Si steel using the cost effective AM method with good mechanical and magnetic properties for motor applications.

Conceptual knowledge is fundamental to human cognition. Yet, the extent to which it is influenced by language is unclear. Studies of semantic processing show that similar neural patterns are evoked by the same concepts presented in different modalities (e.g., spoken words and pictures or text) [1-3]. This suggests that conceptual representations are "modality independent." However, an alternative possibility is that the similarity reflects retrieval of common spoken language representations. Indeed, in hearing spoken language users, text and spoken language are co-dependent [4, 5], and pictures are encoded via visual and verbal routes [6]. A parallel approach investigating semantic cognition shows that bilinguals activate similar patterns for the same words in their different languages [7, 8]. This suggests that conceptual representations are "language independent." However, this has only been tested in spoken language bilinguals. If different languages evoke different conceptual representations, this should be most apparent comparing languages that differ greatly in structure. Hearing people with signing deaf parents are bilingual in sign and speech: languages conveyed in different modalities. Here, we test the influence of modality and bilingualism on conceptual representation by comparing semantic representations elicited by spoken British English and British Sign Language in hearing early, sign-speech bilinguals. We show that representations of semantic categories are shared for sign and speech, but not for individual spoken words and signs. This provides evidence for partially shared representations for sign and speech and shows that language acts as a subtle filter through which we understand and interact with the world., (Copyright © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Studies of classical musicians have demonstrated that expertise modulates neural responses during auditory perception. However, it remains unclear whether such expertise-dependent plasticity is modulated by the instrument that a musician plays. To examine whether the recruitment of sensorimotor regions during music perception is modulated by instrument-specific experience, we studied nonclassical musicians-beatboxers, who predominantly use their vocal apparatus to produce sound, and guitarists, who use their hands. We contrast fMRI activity in 20 beatboxers, 20 guitarists, and 20 nonmusicians as they listen to novel beatboxing and guitar pieces. All musicians show enhanced activity in sensorimotor regions (IFG, IPC, and SMA), but only when listening to the musical instrument they can play. Using independent component analysis, we find expertise-selective enhancement in sensorimotor networks, which are distinct from changes in attentional networks. These findings suggest that long-term sensorimotor experience facilitates access to the posterodorsal "how" pathway during auditory processing.

Current dental restorations have short longevity, and consequently, there is a need for novel tissue engineering strategies that aim to regenerate the dentin-pulp complex. Dentin matrix contains a myriad of bioactive growth factors and extracellular matrix proteins associated with the recruitment, proliferation, and differentiation of dental pulp progenitor cells. In this study, we show that demineralized dentin matrix (DDM), from noncarious dentine, can be encapsulated into liposomes for delivery to dental tissue to promote regeneration. Liposomes were formulated to encapsulate 0-100 μg/mL DDM, lysed with Triton X, and used in vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays to quantify release. The encapsulation efficiencies were calculated to be 25.9% and 28.8% (VEGF/TGF-β1) for 50 μg/mL DDM liposomes and 39% and 146.7% (VEGF/TGF-β1) for 100 μg/mL DDM liposomes. All liposome formulations had no cytotoxic effects on a dental pulp stem cell (DPSC) clone, as shown by MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltertrazolium bromide), Caspase 3/7 assays, and cell counts. The ability of the liposomes to stimulate DPSC chemotactic recruitment was tested by Boyden chamber chemotaxis assays. Unloaded liposomes alone stimulated significant progenitor cell recruitment, while DDM-loaded liposomes further promoted chemotactic recruitment in a dose-dependent manner. DDM liposomes promoted the upregulation of "osteodentin" markers osteocalcin and RUNX2 (Runt-related transcription factor 2) in DPSCs after 9 days of treatment, determined by real-time quantitative PCR. Furthermore, Alizarin Red S staining showed that unloaded liposomes alone induced biomineralization of DPSCs, and DDM liposomes further increased the amount of mineralization observed. DDM liposomes were more effective than free DDM (10 μg/mL) at activating recruitment and osteogenic differentiation of DPSC, which are key events in the endogenous repair of the dentin-pulp complex. The study has highlighted the therapeutic potential of bioactive DDM liposomes in activating dental tissue repair in vitro, suggesting that liposomal delivery from biomaterials could be a valuable tool for reparative dentistry and hard-tissue engineering applications.

We present the first genome-wide molecular phylogeny of jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae), inferred from Anchored Hybrid Enrichment (AHE) sequence data. From 12 outgroups plus 34 salticid taxa representing all but one subfamily and most major groups recognized in previous work, we obtained 447 loci totalling 96,946 aligned nucleotide sites. Our analyses using concatenated likelihood, parsimony, and coalescent methods (ASTRAL and SVDQuartets) strongly confirm most previous results, resolving as monophyletic the Spartaeinae, Salticinae (with the hisponines sister), Salticoida, Amycoida, Saltafresia, and Simonida. The agoriines, previously difficult to place beyond subfamily, are finally placed confidently within the saltafresians as relatives of the chrysillines and hasariines. Relationships among the baviines, astioids, marpissoids, and saltafresians remain uncertain, though our analyses tentatively conclude the first three form a clade together. Deep relationships, among the seven subfamilies, appear to be largely resolved, with spartaeines, lyssomanines, and asemoneines forming a clade. In most analyses, Onomastus (representing the onomastines) is strongly supported as sister to the hisponines plus salticines. Overall, the much-improved resolution of many deep relationships despite a relatively sparse taxon sample suggests AHE is a promising technique for salticid phylogenetics.

Understandings of contemporary forest cover loss are critical for policy but have come at the expense of long-term, multidirectional analyses of land cover change. This is a critical gap given (i) profound reconfigurations in land use and land control over the past several decades and (ii) evidence of widespread 'woodland resurgence' throughout the tropics. In this study, we argue that recent advancements within the field of land change science provide new opportunities to address this gap. In turn, we suggest that multidecadal and multidirectional analyses of land cover change can facilitate richer social analyses of land cover change and more relevant conservation policies and practice. Our argument is grounded in a case study from Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. Using a novel analytical platform, Google Earth Engine, and open access to high-quality Landsat data, we map land cover change in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia, from 1972 to 2014. We find that tree cover loss constitutes the single largest net change over the period 1972-2014 but that gross rates of tree cover gain were three times higher than gross loss rates from 1972 to 1995 and equivalent to loss rates from 1995 to 2014. We suggest the smallholder tree crop economy likely produced both forest loss and Imperata grassland restoration in this region. This case points to the need to expand rather than collapse the baselines used to study carbon and biodiversity change in tropical regions. It also demonstrates the possible utility of applying such methods to other regions., (© 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The population in developed countries is ageing and the number of people experiencing joint-related conditions, such as osteoarthritis, is expected to increase. Joint replacements are currently the most effective treatment for severe joint conditions and although many of these procedures are successful, infection developing after the procedure is still an issue, requiring complex and expensive revisions. Whilst incorporating a powdered antibiotic within the bone cement can reduce infection rates, the powder frequently agglomerates, resulting in poor antibiotic release characteristics and compromised mechanical performance of the cement. To overcome these issues, a novel delivery system consisting of antibiotic-loaded nano-sized liposomes was developed for inclusion into polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) bone cement. This system was tested in a commercial cement (Palacos R) and consistently delivered a higher percentage (22%) of the incorporated antibiotic when compared to the powdered antibiotic cement (9%), meaning less antibiotic needs to be incorporated than with conventional cement. The novel system resulted in a controlled and gradual release of antibiotic over a longer, 30-day period and enhanced the toughness, bending strength and Vickers hardness of the cement, without altering its polymerization or molecular structure. This new material has the potential to significantly reduce infections in cemented joint replacements leading to enhanced patient quality of life and reduced healthcare costs. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 104B: 1510-1524, 2016., (© 2015 The Authors Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part B: Applied Biomaterials Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Cocaine is one of the most commonly abused drugs in the United States. Ingestion of cocaine may result in a wide array of disease processes due to its stimulant properties, contaminants, or to downstream effects, such as myo- cardial infarction, stroke, or cardiac arrest. Pulmonary complaints are common in patients seeking treatment for cocaine-associated medical problems and include acute eosinophilic pneumonia, pneumothorax, pneumomediastium, diffuse alveolar hemorrhage (DAH), pulmonary hypertension and granulomatosis. We present a case of DAH due to cocaine abuse and rapid resolution with mechanical ventilation and supportive care. [Full article available at http://rimed.org/rimedicaljournal-2016-08.asp, free with no login].

When talkers speak in masking sounds, their speech undergoes a variety of acoustic and phonetic changes. These changes are known collectively as the Lombard effect. Most behavioural research and neuroimaging research in this area has concentrated on the effect of energetic maskers such as white noise on Lombard speech. Previous fMRI studies have argued that neural responses to speaking in noise are driven by the quality of auditory feedback-that is, the audibility of the speaker's voice over the masker. However, we also frequently produce speech in the presence of informational maskers such as another talker. Here, speakers read sentences over a range of maskers varying in their informational and energetic content: speech, rotated speech, speech modulated noise, and white noise. Subjects also spoke in quiet and listened to the maskers without speaking. When subjects spoke in masking sounds, their vocal intensity increased in line with the energetic content of the masker. However, the opposite pattern was found neurally. In the superior temporal gyrus, activation was most strongly associated with increases in informational, rather than energetic, masking. This suggests that the neural activations associated with speaking in noise are more complex than a simple feedback response.

Spoken conversations typically take place in noisy environments, and different kinds of masking sounds place differing demands on cognitive resources. Previous studies, examining the modulation of neural activity associated with the properties of competing sounds, have shown that additional speech streams engage the superior temporal gyrus. However, the absence of a condition in which target speech was heard without additional masking made it difficult to identify brain networks specific to masking and to ascertain the extent to which competing speech was processed equivalently to target speech. In this study, we scanned young healthy adults with continuous fMRI, while they listened to stories masked by sounds that differed in their similarity to speech. We show that auditory attention and control networks are activated during attentive listening to masked speech in the absence of an overt behavioral task. We demonstrate that competing speech is processed predominantly in the left hemisphere within the same pathway as target speech but is not treated equivalently within that stream and that individuals who perform better in speech in noise tasks activate the left mid-posterior superior temporal gyrus more. Finally, we identify neural responses associated with the onset of sounds in the auditory environment; activity was found within right lateralized frontal regions consistent with a phasic alerting response. Taken together, these results provide a comprehensive account of the neural processes involved in listening in noise.

How humans extract the identity of speech sounds from highly variable acoustic signals remains unclear. Here, we use searchlight representational similarity analysis (RSA) to localize and characterize neural representations of syllables at different levels of the hierarchically organized temporo-frontal pathways for speech perception. We asked participants to listen to spoken syllables that differed considerably in their surface acoustic form by changing speaker and degrading surface acoustics using noise-vocoding and sine wave synthesis while we recorded neural responses with functional magnetic resonance imaging. We found evidence for a graded hierarchy of abstraction across the brain. At the peak of the hierarchy, neural representations in somatomotor cortex encoded syllable identity but not surface acoustic form, at the base of the hierarchy, primary auditory cortex showed the reverse. In contrast, bilateral temporal cortex exhibited an intermediate response, encoding both syllable identity and the surface acoustic form of speech. Regions of somatomotor cortex associated with encoding syllable identity in perception were also engaged when producing the same syllables in a separate session. These findings are consistent with a hierarchical account of how variable acoustic signals are transformed into abstract representations of the identity of speech sounds., (© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press.)

Humans can generate mental auditory images of voices or songs, sometimes perceiving them almost as vividly as perceptual experiences. The functional networks supporting auditory imagery have been described, but less is known about the systems associated with interindividual differences in auditory imagery. Combining voxel-based morphometry and fMRI, we examined the structural basis of interindividual differences in how auditory images are subjectively perceived, and explored associations between auditory imagery, sensory-based processing, and visual imagery. Vividness of auditory imagery correlated with gray matter volume in the supplementary motor area (SMA), parietal cortex, medial superior frontal gyrus, and middle frontal gyrus. An analysis of functional responses to different types of human vocalizations revealed that the SMA and parietal sites that predict imagery are also modulated by sound type. Using representational similarity analysis, we found that higher representational specificity of heard sounds in SMA predicts vividness of imagery, indicating a mechanistic link between sensory- and imagery-based processing in sensorimotor cortex. Vividness of imagery in the visual domain also correlated with SMA structure, and with auditory imagery scores. Altogether, these findings provide evidence for a signature of imagery in brain structure, and highlight a common role of perceptual-motor interactions for processing heard and internally generated auditory information., (© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press.)

Decisions concerning future land-use/land cover change stand at the forefront of ongoing debates on how to best mitigate climate change. In this study, we compare the greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation value over a 30-year time frame for a range of forest recovery and biofuel production scenarios on abandoned agricultural land. Carbon sequestration in recovering forests is estimated based on a statistical analysis of tropical and temperate studies on marginal land. GHGs offset by biofuel production are analyzed for five different production pathways. We find that forest recovery is superior to low-yielding biofuel production scenarios such as oil palm and corn. Biofuel production scenarios with high yields, such as sugarcane or high-yielding energy grasses, can be comparable or superior to natural forest succession and to reforestation in some cases. This result stands in contrast to previous research suggesting that restoring degraded ecosystems to their native state is generally superior to agricultural production in terms of GHG mitigation. Further work is needed on carbon stock changes in forests, soil carbon dynamics, and bioenergy crop production on degraded/abandoned agricultural land. This finding also emphasizes the need to consider the full range of social, economic, and ecological consequences of land-use policies.

There is much interest in the idea that musicians perform better than non-musicians in understanding speech in background noise. Research in this area has often used energetic maskers, which have their effects primarily at the auditory periphery. However, masking interference can also occur at more central auditory levels, known as informational masking. This experiment extends existing research by using multiple maskers that vary in their informational content and similarity to speech, in order to examine differences in perception of masked speech between trained musicians (n = 25) and non-musicians (n = 25). Although musicians outperformed non-musicians on a measure of frequency discrimination, they showed no advantage in perceiving masked speech. Further analysis revealed that non-verbal IQ, rather than musicianship, significantly predicted speech reception thresholds in noise. The results strongly suggest that the contribution of general cognitive abilities needs to be taken into account in any investigations of individual variability for perceiving speech in noise.

The role of the two hemispheres in the neurorehabilitation of language is still under dispute. This study explored the changes in language-evoked brain activation over a 2-week treatment interval with intensive constraint induced aphasia therapy (CIAT), which is also called intensive language action therapy (ILAT). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to assess brain activation in perilesional left hemispheric and in homotopic right hemispheric areas during passive listening to high and low-ambiguity sentences and non-speech control stimuli in chronic non-fluent aphasia patients. All patients demonstrated significant clinical improvements of language functions after therapy. In an event-related fMRI experiment, a significant increase of BOLD signal was manifest in right inferior frontal and temporal areas. This activation increase was stronger for highly ambiguous sentences than for unambiguous ones. These results suggest that the known language improvements brought about by intensive constraint-induced language action therapy at least in part relies on circuits within the right-hemispheric homologs of left-perisylvian language areas, which are most strongly activated in the processing of semantically complex language.

Purpose: Totally implantable venous access devices (Ports) represent the mainstay for infusion therapy in patients undergoing chemotherapy, total parenteral nutrition and/or long-term antibiotic treatment. Amongst mechanical complications, lesions of the catheter wall represent a rare but potentially severe condition. We report our experience with the accidental detection of catheter ruptures in a series of ports removed for complication or for end of use., Methods: All ports removed from January 2011 to June 2013 were considered. All removed ports had been inserted according to a standardized protocol including ultrasound-guided percutaneous venipuncture (out-of-plane or in-plane approaches) and electrocardiogram-guided positioning of the tip. Once removed, each catheter was checked by inspection and saline instillation in order to evaluate the integrity of the device itself and rule out possible ruptures., Results: In over 338 removed ports, 12 Groshong catheters out of 65 (18.5%) had evidence of partial rupture of the catheter wall. Amongst considered variables, "out-of-plane" approach and type of port (silicon, closed tip with Groshong valve) were the only ones significantly associated with catheter ruptures (p=0.0003 and 0.0008, respectively). We could detect no evidence of rupture in any silicon open-ended catheter (Celsite ports) or in any catheter inserted by "in-plane" approach to the vein., Conclusions: The actual advantage of using port connected with Groshong silicon catheters should be questioned, since apparently they are more fragile than standard catheters. Furthermore, ultrasound-guided "out-of-plane" puncture of the internal jugular vein should be discouraged.

Bone cements are extensively employed in orthopaedics for joint arthroplasty, however implant failure in the form of aseptic loosening is known to occur after long-term use. The exact mechanism causing this is not well understood, however it is thought to arise from a combination of fatigue and chemical degradation resulting from the hostile in vivo environment. In this study, two commercial bone cements were aged in an isotonic fluid at physiological temperatures and changes in moisture uptake, microstructure and mechanical and fatigue properties were studied. Initial penetration of water into the cement followed Fickian diffusion and was thought to be caused by vacancies created by leaching monomer. An increase in weight of approximately 2% was experienced after 30 days ageing and was accompanied by hydrolysis of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) in the outermost layers of the cement. This molecular change and the plasticising effect of water resulted in reduced mechanical and fatigue properties over time. Cement ageing is therefore thought to be a key contributor in the long-term failure of cemented joint replacements. The results from this study have highlighted the need to develop cements capable of withstanding long-term degradation and for more accurate test methods, which fully account for physiological ageing., (Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

A complete understanding of the financial impact of patient safety interventions must consider the economic incentives of both payers and providers within the current fee-for-service payment model. This study evaluated the impact of a central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) initiative on costs, reimbursements, and margins for 1 Hawaii hospital and its payers. Intensive care unit patients (January 2009-December 2011) who developed a CLABSI were compared to matched controls. Mean hospital cost, reimbursement, and margin was $222 692 versus $80 144 (P = .01), $259 433 versus $72 543 (P < .01), and $54 906 versus $6506 (P < .01), respectively. Although hospitals and payers reduce costs by preventing CLABSIs, hospitals also would decrease their margins, which creates a perverse incentive to have more line infections. An optimal reimbursement system must reward hospitals and payers for preventing harm rather than treating illness. This study highlights the critical role that health care payers have as patient safety advocates, financial sponsors, and facilitators.

Human bite-mark analyses can play a prominent role in forensic case investigations, including those involving sexual assault. High-quality photographs routinely secure a link between a bite-mark and an individual's dentition. Access to around the clock forensic photography, however, is often limited, resulting in delay and/or missed opportunities to record valuable evidence. The emergence of Smartphone high-quality photographic technology now provides a previously unimagined opportunity to gather timely forensic photographic evidence. Problems can arise, however, due to the relatively poor quality of the photographs, as a result of many of those taking photographs having received little or no forensic photography training. This study compares unassisted photography with assisted photography, by a specifically developed camera application (App), to provide a standardised method for taking forensic photographs. An App, written in Java, was hosted on the Google Android Operating System, on a Samsung Galaxy SII Smartphone. Twenty-four volunteers participated in a study to photograph a pseudo bite-mark using three methods, (1) unassisted (as a control), (2) assisted by an ABFO No.2 right-angled photographic reference scale and (3) assisted by the App. The App, method (3), was shown to consistently outperform methods (1) and (2), demonstrating greater standardisation and precision (p<0.001). Analysis of the data showed the extent to which acquiring an accurate photograph depends on the image being orthogonal to the camera. It appears likely that the relatively inaccurate photographs acquired by methods (1) and (2), were as a result of deviation from the plane, orthogonal to the bite-mark. Therefore, the App was successful in ensuring that the camera was both orthogonal and at an appropriate distance, relative to the bite-mark. Thus, the App enhanced the abilities of non-experts to acquire more accurate photographs and created the potential to significantly improve the quality of forensic photographs., (Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.)

Animals use chemical cues for signaling between species. However, anthropogenic chemicals might interrupt this natural chemical information flow, with potential impacts on predator-prey interactions. Our goal was to explore how Buccaneer® Plus, a common herbicide similar to Round-up® (active ingredient glyphosate), affected the interactions between intraguild predators. The wolf spider Pardosa milvina (Hentz, 1844) is numerically dominant in agricultural systems across the eastern United States, and often falls prey to or competes with the larger wolf spider, Hogna helluo (Walckenaer, 1837) and/or the carabid beetle, Scarites quadriceps (Chaudoir, 1843). We tested the effects of chemical cues from these intraguild predators and exposure to herbicide on the activity, emigration, and survival of P. milvina using a full-factorial laboratory experiment. Both predator cues and herbicide led to a decrease in movement by P. milvina. However, although H. helluo cues alone decreased movement, S. quadriceps cues only decreased movement when combined with herbicide. These results indicate that predation risk and herbicide application likely interact in complex ways to affect the movement of a major arthropod predator in agricultural systems, and thus may have complex effects on the food web., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The question of hemispheric lateralization of neural processes is one that is pertinent to a range of subdisciplines of cognitive neuroscience. Language is often assumed to be left-lateralized in the human brain, but there has been a long running debate about the underlying reasons for this. We addressed this problem with fMRI by identifying the neural responses to amplitude and spectral modulations in speech and how these interact with speech intelligibility to test previous claims for hemispheric asymmetries in acoustic and linguistic processes in speech perception. We used both univariate and multivariate analyses of the data, which enabled us to both identify the networks involved in processing these acoustic and linguistic factors and to test the significance of any apparent hemispheric asymmetries. We demonstrate bilateral activation of superior temporal cortex in response to speech-derived acoustic modulations in the absence of intelligibility. However, in a contrast of amplitude-modulated and spectrally modulated conditions that differed only in their intelligibility (where one was partially intelligible and the other unintelligible), we show a left dominant pattern of activation in STS, inferior frontal cortex, and insula. Crucially, multivariate pattern analysis showed that there were significant differences between the left and the right hemispheres only in the processing of intelligible speech. This result shows that the left hemisphere dominance in linguistic processing does not arise because of low-level, speech-derived acoustic factors and that multivariate pattern analysis provides a method for unbiased testing of hemispheric asymmetries in processing.

Chemical communication is important to many arthropod species but the potential exists for anthropogenic chemicals to disrupt information flow. Although glyphosate-based herbicides are not acutely toxic to arthropods, little is known regarding their effects on natural chemical communication pathways. The wolf spider, Pardosamilvina, is abundant in agroecosystems where herbicides are regularly applied and uses air- and substrate-borne chemical signals extensively during mating. The aim of this study was to examine effects of a commercial formulation of a glyphosate-based herbicide on the ability of males to find females. In the field, virgin females, when hidden inside pitfall traps with herbicide, attracted fewer males than females with water. Likewise females in traps with a ring of herbicide surrounding the opening were less likely to attract males than those in traps surrounded by water. We explored the reaction of males to any airborne component of the herbicide in a laboratory two-choice olfactometer experiment. When no female pheromones were present, males were equally likely to select herbicide or water treated corridors and they all moved through the apparatus at similar speeds. When female pheromones were present, the males that selected control corridors moved more slowly than those that selected herbicide and, if we control for the initial decision time, more males selected the control corridors over the herbicide. These data suggest that glyphosate-based herbicides are "info-disruptors" that alter the ability of males to detect and/or react fully to female signals., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) can affect the lung parenchyma and airways. Rarely it involves the pleural space and pericardium, causing inflammatory exudative pleural and/or pericardial effusions. In this report, we describe a 76-year-old patient with recurrent sterile exudative pleuropericarditis that gradually responded to treatment with steroids, and we review the relevant literature. Thoracic serositis in patients with IBD can cause pleuritis, pericarditis, pleuropericarditis, or myopericarditis. This is a relatively rare presentation of the uncommon and probably underreported and underrecognized pulmonary extraintestinal manifestations of IBD. Pleuropericardial inflammatory disease and effusion can be directly related to IBD, its complications, associated infections, or the medications used to treat it. Serositis directly related to IBD is a diagnosis of exclusion. It is important to evaluate the pleural effusion and rule out other etiologies before making this diagnosis. Pleural or pericardial biopsies are rarely necessary, and probably show nonspecific acute and chronic inflammatory changes. Although the specific pathophysiology of pleuropericardial disease in patients with IBD remains unclear, the response to systemic steroids is usually adequate.

Humans commonly apply chemicals to manage agroecosystems. If those chemicals influence the behaviour or survival of non-target arthropods, the food web could be altered in unintended ways. Glyphosate-based herbicides are among the most ubiquitous pesticides used around the world, yet little is known about if and how they might affect the success of terrestrial predatory arthropods in agroecosystems. In this study, we quantified the effects of a commercial formulation of a glyphosate-based herbicide on the activity of three predatory arthropod species that inhabit agricultural fields in the eastern United States. We also measured the survival of the most common species. We tested the reactions of the wolf spider, Pardosa milvina, to either direct application (topical) or contact with a treated substrate (residual). We quantified the reactions of a larger wolf spider, Hogna helluo, and a ground beetle, Scarites quadriceps, to a compound (topical plus residual) exposure. Pardosa milvina reduced locomotion time and distance under topical herbicide exposure, but increased speed and non-locomotory activity time on exposed substrate. Both H. helluo and S. quadriceps increased non-locomotory activity time under compound herbicide exposure. Over a period of 60 days post-exposure, residually exposed P. milvina exhibited lower survivorship compared to topically exposed and control groups. Thus, exposure of terrestrial arthropods to glyphosate-based herbicides affects their behaviour and long-term survival. These results suggest that herbicides can affect arthropod community dynamics separate from their impact on the plant community and may influence biological control in agroecosystems.

Introduction: Biomechanical properties of four different commercially available small fragment cannulated screws (Twin fix (Stryker, Freiburg, Germany), Herbert, (Zimmer, Warsaw, USA), Omnitech (Unimedical, Torino, Italy), Barouk (Depuy, Warsaw, USA)), with variable pitch, used for fracture fixation were compared., Materials and Methods: Polyurethane foam blocks of three different densities with mechanical properties similar to osteoporotic, osteopenic and normal bones were used to conduct the tests. Each screw was tested for pushout and pullout holding power after a primary insertion and for pullout after a repeated insertion into the respective foam blocks., Results: The mean pullout and pushout strengths of all screws correlated to the foam density, and were significantly (p<0.001 and <0.001, respectively) better in foam with higher density. The mean pullout strength of each screw was consistently lower after reinsertion into the osteoporotic, osteopenic and normal bone densities by 4-30%, when compared to the index insertion (Fig. 4b). Yet, this difference was not found to be statistically significant (p=0.23). The Barouk screw performed significantly (p<0.0001) better than the other screws in all three different densities of foam for both for pushout and pullout after index insertion as well as for pullout tests after reinsertion., Conclusion: The holding power of screws is directly correlated to bone density, thread design and number of threads engaging the bone. Reinsertion through the same hole could reduce the ultimate pullout strength. The surgeon should consider the advantages and disadvantages of each implant, depending on the clinical situation and choose accordingly., (Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Prior work has indicated that BMP signals act in concert with FGF8, WNT11 and WNT antagonists to induce the formation of cardiac tissue in the vertebrate embryo. In an effort to understand how these signaling pathways control the expression of key cardiac regulators, we have characterized the cis-regulatory elements of the chick tinman homolog chick Nkx2.5. We find that at least three distinct cardiac activating regions (CARs) of chick Nkx2.5 cooperate to regulate early expression in the cardiac crescent and later segmental expression in the developing heart. In this report, we focus our attention on a 3' BMP-responsive enhancer, termed CAR3, which directs robust cardiac transgene expression. By systematic mutagenesis and gel shift analysis of this enhancer, we demonstrate that GATA4/5/6, YY1 and SMAD1/4 are all necessary for BMP-mediated induction and heart-specific expression of CAR3. Adjacent YY1 and SMAD-binding sites within CAR3 constitute a minimal BMP response element, and interaction of SMAD1/4 with the N terminus of YY1 is required for BMP-mediated induction of CAR3. Our data suggest that BMP-mediated activation of this regulatory region reflects both the induction of GATA genes by BMP signals, as well as modulation of the transcriptional activity of YY1 by direct interaction of this transcription factor with BMP-activated SMADs.

Children raised with extended exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) experience increased cough and wheeze. This study was designed to determine whether extended ETS exposure enhances citric acid-induced cough and bronchoconstriction in young guinea pigs via a neurokinin-1 (NK-1) receptor mechanism at the first central synapse of lung afferent neurons, the nucleus tractus solitarius. Guinea pigs were exposed to ETS from 1 to 6 weeks of age. At 5 weeks of age, guide cannulae were implanted bilaterally in the medial nucleus tractus solitarius at a site that produced apnea in response to the glutamate agonist D,L-homocysteic acid. At 6 weeks of age, either vehicle or a NK-1 receptor antagonist, SR 140333, was injected into the nucleus tractus solitarius of the conscious guinea pigs who were then exposed to citric acid aerosol. ETS exposure significantly enhanced citric acid-induced cough by 56% and maximal Penh (a measure of airway obstruction) by 43%, effects that were attenuated by the NK-1 receptor antagonist in the nucleus tractus solitarius. We conclude that in young guinea pigs extended exposure to ETS increases citric acid-induced cough and bronchoconstriction in part by an NK-1 receptor mechanism in the nucleus tractus solitarius.

Bronchiectasis is primarily the result of airway injury and remodeling attributable to recurrent or chronic inflammation and infection. The underlying etiologies include autoimmune diseases, severe infections, genetic abnormalities, and acquired disorders. Recurrent airway inflammation and infection may also be the result of allergic or immunodeficiency states such as allergic bronchopulmonary mycoses or HIV/AIDS. Bronchiectasis should be included in the differentiation diagnosis of any patient with chronic respiratory complaints such as cough and sputum production. Early clinical manifestations may be subtle. Hallmarks of severe bronchiectasis include fetid breath, chronic cough, and sputum production. The associated chronic respiratory infections and airway sepsis are punctuated by episodes of acute exacerbation. Prompt recognition and treatment of bronchiectasis may allow for prevention of disease progression and irreversible loss of lung function. This review of severe non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis describes the current pathophysiology, clinical presentations, and management of bronchiectasis. We review how impaired airway clearance and the inability to resolve infection and inflammation creates a vicious cycle of recurrent injury. The common clinical features of bronchiectasis and findings are presented and illustrated by radiographic images. The common species and significance of various organisms often recovered from the distal airways including: tuberculous and environmental mycobacteria, aspergillus, and bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa will be covered. Management strategies including sputum surveillance, sputum clearance, antimicrobial therapy including antifungal and antimyobacterial agents as well as the evidence for the use of inhalational and anti-inflammatory therapies such as corticosteroids are also discussed. Recommendations for the work-up and therapy of complications including hemoptysis and respiratory failure are presented.

We have established a heart slice primary culture, which allows us to mechanically separate distinct cardiac cell populations and assay their relative mitogenic and trophic effects on cardiac myocyte proliferation and survival. Using this system, we have found that a signal(s) from the epicardium, but not the trabeculae and endocardium, is required in embryonic day 10 (E10) chick heart slices for continued cardiac myocyte proliferation and survival. An examination of potential epicardial growth or trophic factors has revealed that blockade of either retinoic acid (RA) or erythopoietin (epo) signaling from the epicardium inhibits cardiac myocyte proliferation and survival. The blockade of cardiac myocyte proliferation following administration of an RA antagonist can be rescued by exogenous epo. Conversely, the blockade of cardiac myocyte proliferation following administration of an anti-epo receptor antisera can be rescued by exogenous RA. Thus, our findings suggest that RA and epo signals work in parallel to support myocardial cell proliferation. In addition, we have found that these factors do not act directly on myocardial cells. Rather, they induce another soluble factor(s) in the epicardium that directly regulates proliferation of cardiac myocytes. We therefore postulate that the epicardium controls normal heart growth in ventricular segments of the embryonic chick heart by secreting a cardiac myocyte mitogen whose expression (or activity) is regulated by both RA and erythropoietin signaling.