153 results on '"Gabriel, J. L."'
Search Results
2. COMET Phase-I Technical Design Report
- Author
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The COMET Collaboration, Abramishvili, R., Adamov, G., Akhmetshin, R. R., Allin, A., Angélique, J. C., Anishchik, V., Aoki, M., Aznabayev, D., Bagaturia, I., Ban, G., Ban, Y., Bauer, D., Baygarashev, D., Bondar, A. E., Cârloganu, C., Carniol, B., Chau, T. T., Chen, J. K., Chen, S. J., Cheung, Y. E., da Silva, W., Dauncey, P. D., Densham, C., Devidze, G., Dornan, P., Drutskoy, A., Duginov, V., Eguchi, Y., Epshteyn, L. B., Evtoukhovich, P., Fayer, S., Fedotovich, G. V., Finger Jr, M., Finger, M., Fujii, Y., Fukao, Y., Gabriel, J. L., Gay, P., Gillies, E., Grigoriev, D. N., Gritsay, K., Hai, V. H., Hamada, E., Hashim, I. H., Hashimoto, S., Hayashi, O., Hayashi, T., Hiasa, T., Ibrahim, Z. A., Igarashi, Y., Ignatov, F. V., Iio, M., Ishibashi, K., Issadykov, A., Itahashi, T., Jansen, A., Jiang, X. S., Jonsson, P., Kachelhoffer, T., Kalinnikov, V., Kaneva, E., Kapusta, F., Katayama, H., Kawagoe, K., Kawashima, R., Kazak, N., Kazanin, V. F., Kemularia, O., Khvedelidze, A., Koike, M., Kormoll, T., Kozlov, G. A., Kozyrev, A. N., Kravchenko, M., Krikler, B., Kumsiashvili, G., Kuno, Y., Kuriyama, Y., Kurochkin, Y., Kurup, A., Lagrange, B., Lai, J., Lee, M. J., Li, H. B., Litchfield, R. P., Li, W. G., Loan, T., Lomidze, D., Lomidze, I., Loveridge, P., Macharashvili, G., Makida, Y., Mao, Y. J., Markin, O., Matsuda, Y., Melkadze, A., Melnik, A., Mibe, T., Mihara, S., Miyamoto, N., Miyazaki, Y., Idris, F. Mohamad, Azmi, K. A. Mohamed Kamal, Moiseenko, A., Moritsu, M., Mori, Y., Motoishi, T., Nakai, H., Nakai, Y., Nakamoto, T., Nakamura, Y., Nakatsugawa, Y., Nakazawa, Y., Nash, J., Natori, H., Niess, V., Nioradze, M., Nishiguchi, H., Noguchi, K., Numao, T., O'Dell, J., Ogitsu, T., Ohta, S., Oishi, K., Okamoto, K., Okamura, T., Okinaka, K., Omori, C., Ota, T., Pasternak, J., Paulau, A., Picters, D., Ponariadov, V., Quémener, G., Ruban, A. A., Rusinov, V., Sabirov, B., Sakamoto, H., Sarin, P., Sasaki, K., Sato, A., Sato, J., Semertzidis, Y. K., Shigyo, N., Shoukavy, Dz., Slunecka, M., Stöckinger, D., Sugano, M., Tachimoto, T., Takayanagi, T., Tanaka, M., Tang, J., Tao, C. V., Teixeira, A. M., Tevzadze, Y., Thanh, T., Tojo, J., Tolmachev, S. S., Tomasek, M., Tomizawa, M., Toriashvili, T., Trang, H., Trekov, I., Tsamalaidze, Z., Tsverava, N., Uchida, T., Uchida, Y., Ueno, K., Velicheva, E., Volkov, A., Vrba, V., Abdullah, W. A. T. Wan, Warin-Charpentier, P., Wong, M. L., Wong, T. S., Wu, C., Xing, T. Y., Yamaguchi, H., Yamamoto, A., Yamanaka, M., Yamane, T., Yang, Y., Yano, T., Yao, W. C., Yeo, B., Yoshida, H., Yoshida, M., Yoshioka, T., Yuan, Y., Yudin, Yu. V., Zdorovets, M. V., Zhang, J., Zhang, Y., and Zuber, K.
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Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors ,High Energy Physics - Experiment - Abstract
The Technical Design for the COMET Phase-I experiment is presented in this paper. COMET is an experiment at J-PARC, Japan, which will search for neutrinoless conversion of muons into electrons in the field of an aluminium nucleus ($\mu-e$ conversion, $\mu^- N \to e^- N$); a lepton flavor violating process. The experimental sensitivity goal for this process in the Phase-I experiment is $3.1\times10^{-15}$, or 90 % upper limit of branching ratio of $7\times 10^{-15}$, which is a factor of 100 improvement over the existing limit. The expected number of background events is 0.032. To achieve the target sensitivity and background level, the 3.2 kW 8 GeV proton beam from J-PARC will be used. Two types of detectors, CyDet and StrECAL, will be used for detecting the \mue conversion events, and for measuring the beam-related background events in view of the Phase-II experiment, respectively. Results from simulation on signal and background estimations are also described., Comment: A minor correction applied in Eq. 3
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- 2018
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- View/download PDF
3. Efficacy of an Immunotherapy Combining Immunogenic Chimeric Protein Plus Adjuvant and Amphotericin B against Murine Visceral Leishmaniasis
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Danniele L. Vale, Camila S. Freitas, Vívian T. Martins, Gabriel J. L. Moreira, Amanda S. Machado, Fernanda F. Ramos, Isabela A. G. Pereira, Raquel S. Bandeira, Marcelo M. de Jesus, Grasiele S. V. Tavares, Fernanda Ludolf, Miguel A. Chávez-Fumagalli, Alexsandro S. Galdino, Ricardo T. Fujiwara, Lílian L. Bueno, Bruno M. Roatt, Myron Christodoulides, Eduardo A. F. Coelho, and Daniela P. Lage
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Leishmania ,visceral leishmaniasis ,immunotherapy ,chimera vaccine ,T cell response ,mouse ,Biology (General) ,QH301-705.5 - Abstract
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in the Americas is a chronic systemic disease caused by infection with Leishmania infantum parasites. The toxicity of antileishmanial drugs, long treatment course and limited efficacy are significant concerns that hamper adequate treatment against the disease. Studies have shown the promise of an immunotherapeutics approach, combining antileishmanial drugs to reduce the parasitism and vaccine immunogens to activate the host immune system. In the current study, we developed an immunotherapy using a recombinant T cell epitope-based chimeric protein, ChimT, previously shown to be protective against Leishmania infantum, with the adjuvant monophosphoryl lipid A (MPLA) and amphotericin B (AmpB) as the antileishmanial drug. BALB/c mice were infected with L. infantum stationary promastigotes and later they received saline or were treated with AmpB, MPLA, ChimT/Amp, ChimT/MPLA or ChimT/MPLA/AmpB. The combination of ChimT/MPLA/AmpB significantly reduced the parasite load in mouse organs (p < 0.05) and induced a Th1-type immune response, which was characterized by higher ratios of anti-ChimT and anti-parasite IgG2a:IgG1 antibodies, increased IFN-γ mRNA and IFN-γ and IL-12 cytokines and accompanied by lower levels of IL-4 and IL-10 cytokines, when compared to other treatments and controls (all p < 0.05). Organ toxicity was also lower with the ChimT/MPLA/AmpB immunotherapy, suggesting that the inclusion of the vaccine and adjuvant ameliorated the toxicity of AmpB to some degree. In addition, the ChimT vaccine alone stimulated in vitro murine macrophages to significantly kill three different internalized species of Leishmania parasites and to produce Th1-type cytokines into the culture supernatants. To conclude, our data suggest that the combination of ChimT/MPLA/AmpB could be considered for further studies as an immunotherapy for L. infantum infection.
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- 2023
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- View/download PDF
4. Efficacy of an Immunotherapy Combining Immunogenic Chimeric Protein Plus Adjuvant and Amphotericin B against Murine Visceral Leishmaniasis
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Lage, Danniele L. Vale, Camila S. Freitas, Vívian T. Martins, Gabriel J. L. Moreira, Amanda S. Machado, Fernanda F. Ramos, Isabela A. G. Pereira, Raquel S. Bandeira, Marcelo M. de Jesus, Grasiele S. V. Tavares, Fernanda Ludolf, Miguel A. Chávez-Fumagalli, Alexsandro S. Galdino, Ricardo T. Fujiwara, Lílian L. Bueno, Bruno M. Roatt, Myron Christodoulides, Eduardo A. F. Coelho, and Daniela P.
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Leishmania ,visceral leishmaniasis ,immunotherapy ,chimera vaccine ,T cell response ,mouse ,monophosphoryl lipid A ,amphotericin B - Abstract
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in the Americas is a chronic systemic disease caused by infection with Leishmania infantum parasites. The toxicity of antileishmanial drugs, long treatment course and limited efficacy are significant concerns that hamper adequate treatment against the disease. Studies have shown the promise of an immunotherapeutics approach, combining antileishmanial drugs to reduce the parasitism and vaccine immunogens to activate the host immune system. In the current study, we developed an immunotherapy using a recombinant T cell epitope-based chimeric protein, ChimT, previously shown to be protective against Leishmania infantum, with the adjuvant monophosphoryl lipid A (MPLA) and amphotericin B (AmpB) as the antileishmanial drug. BALB/c mice were infected with L. infantum stationary promastigotes and later they received saline or were treated with AmpB, MPLA, ChimT/Amp, ChimT/MPLA or ChimT/MPLA/AmpB. The combination of ChimT/MPLA/AmpB significantly reduced the parasite load in mouse organs (p < 0.05) and induced a Th1-type immune response, which was characterized by higher ratios of anti-ChimT and anti-parasite IgG2a:IgG1 antibodies, increased IFN-γ mRNA and IFN-γ and IL-12 cytokines and accompanied by lower levels of IL-4 and IL-10 cytokines, when compared to other treatments and controls (all p < 0.05). Organ toxicity was also lower with the ChimT/MPLA/AmpB immunotherapy, suggesting that the inclusion of the vaccine and adjuvant ameliorated the toxicity of AmpB to some degree. In addition, the ChimT vaccine alone stimulated in vitro murine macrophages to significantly kill three different internalized species of Leishmania parasites and to produce Th1-type cytokines into the culture supernatants. To conclude, our data suggest that the combination of ChimT/MPLA/AmpB could be considered for further studies as an immunotherapy for L. infantum infection.
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- 2023
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
5. Spectral Properties of Brain Activity Under Two Anesthetics and Their Potential for Inducing Natural Sleep in Birds
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Ryan K. Tisdale, Laura Tieri, Niels C. Rattenborg, Gabriel J. L. Beckers, and John A. Lesku
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EEG ,pigeon ,isoflurane ,urethane ,slow wave sleep ,burst suppression ,Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry ,RC321-571 - Abstract
Both mammals and birds exhibit two sleep states, slow wave sleep (SWS) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Studying certain aspects of sleep-related electrophysiology in freely behaving animals can present numerous methodological constraints, particularly when even fine body movements interfere with electrophysiological signals. Interestingly, under light general anesthesia, mammals and birds also exhibit slow waves similar to those observed during natural SWS. For these reasons, slow waves occurring under general anesthesia are commonly used in the investigation of sleep-related neurophysiology. However, how spectral properties of slow waves induced by anesthesia correspond to those occurring during natural SWS in birds has yet to be investigated systematically. In this study, we systematically analyzed spectral properties of electroencephalographic (EEG) patterns of pigeons (Columba livia) occurring under two commonly used anesthetics, isoflurane and urethane. These data were compared with EEG patterns during natural sleep. Slow waves occurring during spontaneous SWS, and those induced with isoflurane and urethane all showed greatest absolute power in the slowest frequencies (
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- 2018
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- View/download PDF
6. The slings and arrows of comparative linguistics.
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Johan J Bolhuis, Gabriel J L Beckers, Marinus A C Huybregts, Robert C Berwick, and Martin B H Everaert
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Biology (General) ,QH301-705.5 - Abstract
In this Formal Comment the authors respond to objections to their previous Essay, reiterating that comparative linguistics is not an easy undertaking.
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- 2018
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7. Meaningful syntactic structure in songbird vocalizations?
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Johan J Bolhuis, Gabriel J L Beckers, Marinus A C Huybregts, Robert C Berwick, and Martin B H Everaert
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Biology (General) ,QH301-705.5 - Abstract
The faculty of language is thought to be uniquely human. Recently, it has been claimed that songbirds are able to associate meaning with sound, comparable to the way that humans do. In human language, the meaning of expressions (semantics) is dependent on a mind-internal hierarchical structure (syntax). Meaning is associated with structure through the principle of compositionality, whereby the meaning of a complex expression is a function of the meaning of its constituent parts and the mode of composition. We argue that while recent experimental findings on songbird call sequences offer exciting novel insights into animal communication, despite claims to the contrary, they are quite unlike what we find in human language. There are indeed remarkable behavioral and neural parallels in auditory-vocal imitation learning between songbirds and human infants that are absent in our closest evolutionary relatives, the great apes. But so far, there is no convincing evidence of syntax-determined meaning in nonhuman animals.
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- 2018
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8. Efficacy of an Immunotherapy Combining Immunogenic Chimeric Protein Plus Adjuvant and Amphotericin B against Murine Visceral Leishmaniasis.
- Author
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Vale, Danniele L., Freitas, Camila S., Martins, Vívian T., Moreira, Gabriel J. L., Machado, Amanda S., Ramos, Fernanda F., Pereira, Isabela A. G., Bandeira, Raquel S., de Jesus, Marcelo M., Tavares, Grasiele S. V., Ludolf, Fernanda, Chávez-Fumagalli, Miguel A., Galdino, Alexsandro S., Fujiwara, Ricardo T., Bueno, Lílian L., Roatt, Bruno M., Christodoulides, Myron, Coelho, Eduardo A. F., and Lage, Daniela P.
- Subjects
VISCERAL leishmaniasis ,AMPHOTERICIN B ,CHIMERIC proteins ,NEGLECTED diseases ,IMMUNOGLOBULINS ,LEUCOCYTES ,T cells - Abstract
Simple Summary: Visceral leishmaniasis is a tropical neglected disease caused by infection with Leishmania parasites. There are no human vaccines and the current drug treatments for infected patients are hampered by toxicity and the development of resistance. In our study, we have used an immunotherapeutic approach, which combines a vaccine and drug, to treat mice infected with the parasite. This involved injecting a candidate Leishmania vaccine ChimT with the adjuvant monophosphoryl lipid A (MPLA, which enhances the immune response) and a treatment drug amphotericin B (AmpB). We found that the combined immunotherapy of ChimT/MPLA/AmpB significantly reduced the number of parasites within infected internal organs of the animals and increased the production of protective antibodies. Organ toxicity was also lower with the ChimT/MPLA/AmpB immunotherapy, suggesting that the inclusion of the vaccine and adjuvant reduced the inherent toxicity of the drug. In addition, the ChimT vaccine stimulated in vitro mouse white cells to kill three different Leishmania parasites that had invaded the cells. We conclude that the combination of ChimT/MPLA/AmpB could be considered for further studies as an immunotherapy for Leishmania infection. Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in the Americas is a chronic systemic disease caused by infection with Leishmania infantum parasites. The toxicity of antileishmanial drugs, long treatment course and limited efficacy are significant concerns that hamper adequate treatment against the disease. Studies have shown the promise of an immunotherapeutics approach, combining antileishmanial drugs to reduce the parasitism and vaccine immunogens to activate the host immune system. In the current study, we developed an immunotherapy using a recombinant T cell epitope-based chimeric protein, ChimT, previously shown to be protective against Leishmania infantum, with the adjuvant monophosphoryl lipid A (MPLA) and amphotericin B (AmpB) as the antileishmanial drug. BALB/c mice were infected with L. infantum stationary promastigotes and later they received saline or were treated with AmpB, MPLA, ChimT/Amp, ChimT/MPLA or ChimT/MPLA/AmpB. The combination of ChimT/MPLA/AmpB significantly reduced the parasite load in mouse organs (p < 0.05) and induced a Th1-type immune response, which was characterized by higher ratios of anti-ChimT and anti-parasite IgG2a:IgG1 antibodies, increased IFN-γ mRNA and IFN-γ and IL-12 cytokines and accompanied by lower levels of IL-4 and IL-10 cytokines, when compared to other treatments and controls (all p < 0.05). Organ toxicity was also lower with the ChimT/MPLA/AmpB immunotherapy, suggesting that the inclusion of the vaccine and adjuvant ameliorated the toxicity of AmpB to some degree. In addition, the ChimT vaccine alone stimulated in vitro murine macrophages to significantly kill three different internalized species of Leishmania parasites and to produce Th1-type cytokines into the culture supernatants. To conclude, our data suggest that the combination of ChimT/MPLA/AmpB could be considered for further studies as an immunotherapy for L. infantum infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2023
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- View/download PDF
9. Bird Speech Perception and Vocal Production: A Comparison with Humans
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BECKERS, GABRIËL J. L.
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- 2011
10. Zebra finches exhibit speaker-independent phonetic perception of human speech
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Ohms, Verena R., Gill, Arike, Van Heijningen, Caroline A. A., Beckers, Gabriel J. L., and Cate, Carel ten
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- 2010
11. Author response for 'Divergent neuronal activity patterns in the avian hippocampus and nidopallium'
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J. Van der Meij, Gabriel J. L. Beckers, and Niels Christian Rattenborg
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Hippocampus ,Premovement neuronal activity ,Nidopallium ,Biology ,Neuroscience - Published
- 2019
12. What do animals learn in artificial grammar studies?
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Robert C. Berwick, Johan J. Bolhuis, Gabriel J. L. Beckers, Kazuo Okanoya, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Berwick, Robert C
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0301 basic medicine ,animal structures ,Speech perception ,Echoic memory ,Artificial grammar learning ,Cognitive Neuroscience ,media_common.quotation_subject ,education ,Stimulus (physiology) ,03 medical and health sciences ,Behavioral Neuroscience ,0302 clinical medicine ,Animals ,Humans ,Learning ,Animal cognition ,Language ,media_common ,Communication ,Grammar ,business.industry ,Brain ,Syntax ,030104 developmental biology ,Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology ,Research Design ,Speech Perception ,Grammaticality ,Cues ,Psychology ,business ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Cognitive psychology - Abstract
Artificial grammar learning is a popular paradigm to study syntactic ability in nonhuman animals. Subjects are first trained to recognize strings of tokens that are sequenced according to grammatical rules. Next, to test if recognition depends on grammaticality, subjects are presented with grammar-consistent and grammar-violating test strings, which they should discriminate between. However, simpler cues may underlie discrimination if they are available. Here, we review stimulus design in a sample of studies that use particular sounds as tokens, and that claim or suggest their results demonstrate a form of sequence rule learning. To assess the extent of acoustic similarity between training and test strings, we use four simple measures corresponding to cues that are likely salient. All stimulus sets contain biases in similarity measures such that grammatical test stimuli resemble training stimuli acoustically more than do non- grammatical test stimuli. These biases may contribute to response behaviour, reducing the strength of grammatical explanations. We conclude that acoustic confounds are a blind spot in artificial grammar learning studies in nonhuman animals., Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) (grant number 024.001.003)
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- 2017
13. Divergent neuronal activity patterns in the avian hippocampus and nidopallium
- Author
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Niels Christian Rattenborg, Gabriel J. L. Beckers, and Jacqueline van der Meij
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Hippocampus ,Neocortex ,Biology ,Hippocampal formation ,Sleep, Slow-Wave ,Non-rapid eye movement sleep ,Birds ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,medicine ,Premovement neuronal activity ,Animals ,Zebra finch ,030304 developmental biology ,Neurons ,0303 health sciences ,General Neuroscience ,Electroencephalography ,Sleep in non-human animals ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,nervous system ,Nidopallium ,Female ,Sleep ,Neuroscience ,psychological phenomena and processes ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
Sleep-related brain activity occurring during non-rapid eye-movement (NREM) sleep is proposed to play a role in processing information acquired during wakefulness. During mammalian NREM sleep, the transfer of information from the hippocampus to the neocortex is thought to be mediated by neocortical slow-waves and their interaction with thalamocortical spindles and hippocampal sharp-wave ripples (SWRs). In birds, brain regions composed of pallial neurons homologous to neocortical (pallial) neurons also generate slow-waves during NREM sleep, but little is known about sleep-related activity in the hippocampus and its possible relationship to activity in other pallial regions. We recorded local field potentials (LFP) and analogue multiunit activity (AMUA) using a 64-channel silicon multi-electrode probe simultaneously inserted into the hippocampus and medial part of the nidopallium (i.e., caudal medial nidopallium; NCM) or separately into the caudolateral nidopallium (NCL) of adult female zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) anesthetized with isoflurane, an anesthetic known to induce NREM sleep-like slow-waves. We show that slow-waves in NCM and NCL propagate as waves of neuronal activity. In contrast, the hippocampus does not show slow-waves, nor sharp-wave ripples, but instead displays localized gamma activity. In conclusion, neuronal activity in the avian hippocampus differs from that described in mammals during NREM sleep, suggesting that hippocampal memories are processed differently during sleep in birds and mammals.
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- 2019
14. Spectral Properties of Brain Activity Under Two Anesthetics and Their Potential for Inducing Natural Sleep in Birds
- Author
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Tisdale, Ryan K, Tieri, Laura, Rattenborg, Niels C, Beckers, Gabriel J L, Lesku, John A, Leerstoel Bolhuis, Experimental Psychology (onderzoeksprogramma PF), Helmholtz Institute, Leerstoel Bolhuis, Experimental Psychology (onderzoeksprogramma PF), and Helmholtz Institute
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,urethane ,Electroencephalography ,lcsh:RC321-571 ,03 medical and health sciences ,pigeon ,isoflurane ,0302 clinical medicine ,medicine ,slow wave sleep ,EEG ,60801 Animal Behaviour ,lcsh:Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry ,Slow-wave sleep ,Original Research ,medicine.diagnostic_test ,Chemistry ,General Neuroscience ,Eye movement ,Neurophysiology ,Sleep in non-human animals ,coherence ,Electrophysiology ,Burst suppression ,030104 developmental biology ,Isoflurane ,FOS: Biological sciences ,60603 Animal Physiology - Systems ,burst suppression ,unihemispheric ,Neuroscience ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,medicine.drug - Abstract
Both mammals and birds exhibit two sleep states, slow wave sleep (SWS) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Studying certain aspects of sleep-related electrophysiology in freely behaving animals can present numerous methodological constraints, particularly when even fine body movements interfere with electrophysiological signals. Interestingly, under light general anesthesia, mammals and birds also exhibit slow waves similar to those observed during natural SWS. For these reasons, slow waves occurring under general anesthesia are commonly used in the investigation of sleep-related neurophysiology. However, how spectral properties of slow waves induced by anesthesia correspond to those occurring during natural SWS in birds has yet to be investigated systematically. In this study, we systematically analyzed spectral properties of electroencephalographic (EEG) patterns of pigeons (Columba livia) occurring under two commonly used anesthetics, isoflurane and urethane. These data were compared with EEG patterns during natural sleep. Slow waves occurring during spontaneous SWS, and those induced with isoflurane and urethane all showed greatest absolute power in the slowest frequencies (
- Published
- 2018
15. Bird-like propagating brain activity in anesthetized Nile crocodiles
- Author
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Tisdale, Ryan K, Lesku, John A, Beckers, Gabriel J L, Rattenborg, Niels C, Leerstoel Bolhuis, Experimental Psychology (onderzoeksprogramma PF), Helmholtz Institute, Leerstoel Bolhuis, Experimental Psychology (onderzoeksprogramma PF), and Helmholtz Institute
- Subjects
Male ,0301 basic medicine ,Dorsum ,Brain activity and meditation ,Neuronal membrane ,Sleep, REM ,propagating ,Electrophysiological Phenomena ,traveling ,high-voltage sharp waves ,Biology ,Electroencephalography ,Sleep, Slow-Wave ,Membrane Potentials ,Birds ,isoflurane ,03 medical and health sciences ,slow waves ,0302 clinical medicine ,Crocodylus niloticus ,Physiology (medical) ,evolution ,medicine ,Animals ,Humans ,dorsal ventricular ridge ,Neurons ,Alligators and Crocodiles ,medicine.diagnostic_test ,Brain ,Eye movement ,Brain Waves ,Sleep in non-human animals ,030104 developmental biology ,Neurology (clinical) ,Sharp wave ,Neuroscience ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
Study Objectives: The changes in electroencephalogram (EEG) activity that characterize sleep and its sub-states-slow-wave sleep (SWS) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep-are similar in mammals and birds. SWS is characterized by EEG slow waves resulting from the synchronous alternation of neuronal membrane potentials between hyperpolarized down-states with neuronal quiescence and depolarized up-states associated with action potentials. By contrast, studies of non-avian reptiles report the presence of high-voltage sharp waves (HShW) during sleep. How HShW relate to EEG phenomena occurring during mammalian and avian sleep is unclear. We investigated the spatiotemporal patterns of electrophysiological phenomena in Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus) anesthetized with isoflurane to determine whether they share similar spatiotemporal patterns to mammalian and avian slow waves. Methods: Recordings of anesthetized crocodiles were made using 64-channel penetrating arrays with electrodes arranged in an 8 × 8 equally spaced grid. The arrays were placed in the dorsal ventricular ridge (DVR), a region implicated in the genesis of HShW. Various aspects of the spatiotemporal distribution of recorded signals were investigated. Results: Recorded signals revealed the presence of HShW resembling those reported in earlier studies of naturally sleeping reptiles. HShW propagated in complex and variable patterns across the DVR. Conclusions: We demonstrate that HShW within the DVR propagate in complex patterns similar to those observed for avian slow waves recorded from homologous brain regions. Consequently, sleep with HShW may represent an ancestral form of SWS, characterized by up-states occurring less often and for a shorter duration than in mammals and birds.
- Published
- 2018
16. The low-down on sleeping down low: pigeons shift to lighter forms of sleep when sleeping near the ground
- Author
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Tisdale, Ryan K, Lesku, John A, Beckers, Gabriel J L, Vyssotski, Alexei L, Rattenborg, Niels C, Leerstoel Bolhuis, Experimental Psychology (onderzoeksprogramma PF), Helmholtz Institute, Leerstoel Bolhuis, Experimental Psychology (onderzoeksprogramma PF), and Helmholtz Institute
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Male ,Food Chain ,Physiology ,Rapid eye movement sleep ,Zoology ,Predation ,Aquatic Science ,Nocturnal ,Environment ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Animals ,60801 Animal Behaviour ,Columbidae ,Molecular Biology ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,Slow-wave sleep ,Mammals ,Perch ,Evolutionary Biology ,SWS ,biology ,Eye movement ,Electroencephalography ,Sleep architecture ,biology.organism_classification ,Sleep in non-human animals ,030104 developmental biology ,Sleep site ,Insect Science ,FOS: Biological sciences ,Animal Science and Zoology ,REM sleep ,Sleep ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,psychological phenomena and processes - Abstract
Sleep in birds is composed of two distinct sub-states, remarkably similar to mammalian slow-wave sleep (SWS) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. However, it is unclear whether all aspects of mammalian sleep are present in birds. We examined whether birds suppress REM sleep in response to changes in sleeping conditions that presumably evoke an increase in perceived predation risk, as observed previously in rodents. Although pigeons sometimes sleep on the ground, they prefer to sleep on elevated perches at night, probably to avoid nocturnal mammalian ground predators. Few studies to date have investigated how roosting sites affect sleep architecture. We compared sleep in captive pigeons on days with and without access to high perches. On the first (baseline) day, low and high perches were available; on the second day, the high perches were removed; and on the third (recovery) day, the high perches were returned. The total time spent sleeping did not vary significantly between conditions; however, the time spent in REM sleep declined on the low-perch night and increased above baseline when the pigeons slept on the high perch during the recovery night. Although the amount of SWS did not vary significantly between conditions, SWS intensity was lower on the low-perch night, particularly early in the night. The similarity of these responses between birds and mammals suggests that REM sleep is influenced by at least some ecological factors in a similar manner in both groups of animals.
- Published
- 2018
17. Coral snake mimicry: live snakes not avoided by a mammalian predator
- Author
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Beckers, Gabriel J. L., Leenders, Twan A. A. M., and Strijbosch, Henk
- Published
- 1996
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
18. Molecular characterization of the putative T-cell receptor cavity of the superantigen staphylococcal enterotoxin B
- Author
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GARCIA, C., BRIGGS, C., ZHANG, L., GUAN, L., GABRIEL, J. L., and ROGERS, T. J.
- Published
- 1998
19. Mutations affecting the superantigen activity of staphylococcal enterotoxin B
- Author
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BRIGGS, C., GARCIA, C., ZHANG, L., GUAN, L., GABRIEL, J. L., and ROGERS, T. J.
- Published
- 1997
20. The slings and arrows of comparative linguistics
- Author
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Bolhuis, Johan J., primary, Beckers, Gabriel J. L., additional, Huybregts, Marinus A. C., additional, Berwick, Robert C., additional, and Everaert, Martin B. H., additional
- Published
- 2018
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
21. Meaningful syntactic structure in songbird vocalizations?
- Author
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Bolhuis, Johan J., primary, Beckers, Gabriel J. L., additional, Huybregts, Marinus A. C., additional, Berwick, Robert C., additional, and Everaert, Martin B. H., additional
- Published
- 2018
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
22. Large-Scale Synchronized Activity during Vocal Deviance Detection in the Zebra Finch Auditory Forebrain
- Author
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Gabriel J. L. Beckers and Manfred Gahr
- Subjects
Auditory Pathways ,Signal Detection, Psychological ,Time Factors ,Electroencephalography Phase Synchronization ,Auditory area ,Action Potentials ,Mismatch negativity ,Stimulus (physiology) ,Prosencephalon ,Animals ,Neural system ,Attention ,Zebra finch ,Neurons ,Brain Mapping ,Communication ,biology ,business.industry ,General Neuroscience ,Electroencephalography ,Articles ,Response bias ,biology.organism_classification ,Acoustic Stimulation ,Forebrain ,Auditory Perception ,Evoked Potentials, Auditory ,Linear Models ,Voice ,Female ,Finches ,Vocalization, Animal ,Psychology ,business ,Neuroscience ,Taeniopygia ,Psychoacoustics - Abstract
Auditory systems bias responses to sounds that are unexpected on the basis of recent stimulus history, a phenomenon that has been widely studied using sequences of unmodulated tones (mismatch negativity; stimulus-specific adaptation). Such a paradigm, however, does not directly reflect problems that neural systems normally solve for adaptive behavior. We recorded multiunit responses in the caudomedial auditory forebrain of anesthetized zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) at 32 sites simultaneously, to contact calls that recur probabilistically at a rate that is used in communication. Neurons in secondary, but not primary, auditory areas respond preferentially to calls when they are unexpected (deviant) compared with the same calls when they are expected (standard). This response bias is predominantly due to sites more often not responding to standard events than to deviant events. When two call stimuli alternate between standard and deviant roles, most sites exhibit a response bias to deviant events of both stimuli. This suggests that biases are not based on a use-dependent decrease in response strength but involve a more complex mechanism that is sensitive to auditory deviance per se. Furthermore, between many secondary sites, responses are tightly synchronized, a phenomenon that is driven by internal neuronal interactions rather than by the timing of stimulus acoustic features. We hypothesize that this deviance-sensitive, internally synchronized network of neurons is involved in the involuntary capturing of attention by unexpected and behaviorally potentially relevant events in natural auditory scenes.
- Published
- 2012
23. The slings and arrows of comparative linguistics
- Author
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Martin Everaert, Gabriel J. L. Beckers, Robert C. Berwick, Johan J. Bolhuis, and Marinus A. C. Huybregts
- Subjects
musculoskeletal diseases ,0301 basic medicine ,Lexical semantics ,General Immunology and Microbiology ,QH301-705.5 ,General Neuroscience ,education ,Biology ,16. Peace & justice ,Semantics ,Syntax ,humanities ,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology ,Psycholinguistics ,Linguistics ,stomatognathic diseases ,03 medical and health sciences ,030104 developmental biology ,0302 clinical medicine ,Biology (General) ,General Agricultural and Biological Sciences ,Comparative linguistics ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
In this Formal Comment the authors respond to objections to their previous Essay, reiterating that comparative linguistics is not an easy undertaking.
- Published
- 2018
24. Zebra finches exhibit speaker-independent phonetic perception of human speech
- Author
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Gabriel J. L. Beckers, Arike Gill, Verena R. Ohms, Caroline A. A. van Heijningen, and Carel ten Cate
- Subjects
Male ,Speech perception ,media_common.quotation_subject ,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology ,Phonetics ,Research articles ,Vowel ,Perception ,Animals ,Humans ,Learning ,Speech ,Language ,General Environmental Science ,media_common ,Communication ,General Immunology and Microbiology ,biology ,business.industry ,General Medicine ,biology.organism_classification ,Feature (linguistics) ,Formant ,Categorization ,Speech Perception ,Female ,Finches ,General Agricultural and Biological Sciences ,Psychology ,business ,Taeniopygia - Abstract
Humans readily distinguish spoken words that closely resemble each other in acoustic structure, irrespective of audible differences between individual voices or sex of the speakers. There is an ongoing debate about whether the ability to form phonetic categories that underlie such distinctions indicates the presence of uniquely evolved, speech-linked perceptual abilities, or is based on more general ones shared with other species. We demonstrate that zebra finches ( Taeniopygia guttata ) can discriminate and categorize monosyllabic words that differ in their vowel and transfer this categorization to the same words spoken by novel speakers independent of the sex of the voices. Our analysis indicates that the birds, like humans, use intrinsic and extrinsic speaker normalization to make the categorization. This finding shows that there is no need to invoke special mechanisms, evolved together with language, to explain this feature of speech perception.
- Published
- 2009
25. Comparative analyses of speech and language converge on birds
- Author
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Robert C. Berwick, Johan J. Bolhuis, Gabriel J. L. Beckers, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
- Subjects
Communication ,Physiology ,business.industry ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Yield (finance) ,Behavioral Neuroscience ,Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology ,otorhinolaryngologic diseases ,Key (cryptography) ,Imitation ,business ,Psychology ,media_common ,Cognitive psychology - Abstract
Unlike nonhuman primates, thousands of bird species have articulatory capabilities that equal or surpass those of humans, and they develop their vocalizations through vocal imitation in a way that is very similar to how human infants learn to speak. An understanding of how speech mechanisms have evolved is therefore unlikely to yield key insights into how the human brain is special.
- Published
- 2014
26. A Bird’s Eye View of Human Language Evolution
- Author
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Johan J. Bolhuis, Robert C. Berwick, Kazuo Okanoya, and Gabriel J. L. Beckers
- Subjects
Cognitive science ,Auditory perception ,Communication ,Echoic memory ,Speech acquisition ,Syntax (programming languages) ,business.industry ,General Neuroscience ,media_common.quotation_subject ,birdsong ,speech ,Review Article ,phonological syntax ,brain evolution ,Common descent ,Regular language ,Convergent evolution ,Perception ,Neurology (clinical) ,business ,Psychology ,media_common ,Neuroscience - Abstract
Comparative studies of linguistic faculties in animals pose an evolutionary paradox: language involves certain perceptual and motor abilities, but it is not clear that this serves as more than an input–output channel for the externalization of language proper. Strikingly, the capability for auditory–vocal learning is not shared with our closest relatives, the apes, but is present in such remotely related groups as songbirds and marine mammals. There is increasing evidence for behavioral, neural, and genetic similarities between speech acquisition and birdsong learning. At the same time, researchers have applied formal linguistic analysis to the vocalizations of both primates and songbirds. What have all these studies taught us about the evolution of language? Is the comparative study of an apparently species-specific trait like language feasible? We argue that comparative analysis remains an important method for the evolutionary reconstruction and causal analysis of the mechanisms underlying language. On the one hand, common descent has been important in the evolution of the brain, such that avian and mammalian brains may be largely homologous, particularly in the case of brain regions involved in auditory perception, vocalization, and auditory memory. On the other hand, there has been convergent evolution of the capacity for auditory–vocal learning, and possibly for structuring of external vocalizations, such that apes lack the abilities that are shared between songbirds and humans. However, significant limitations to this comparative analysis remain. While all birdsong may be classified in terms of a particularly simple kind of concatenation system, the regular languages, there is no compelling evidence to date that birdsong matches the characteristic syntactic complexity of human language, arising from the composition of smaller forms like words and phrases into larger ones.
- Published
- 2012
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
27. Birdsong neurolinguistics: songbird context-free grammar claim is premature
- Author
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Johan J. Bolhuis, Kazuo Okanoya, Robert C. Berwick, and Gabriel J. L. Beckers
- Subjects
Speech acquisition ,Computer science ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Songbirds ,Neurolinguistics ,Animals ,Humans ,Learning ,Speech ,media_common ,Cognitive science ,Communication ,Grammar ,business.industry ,General Neuroscience ,Brain ,Infant ,Linguistics ,Context-free grammar ,Syntax ,Biological Evolution ,Auditory Perception ,Vocal learning ,Syllable ,Vocalization, Animal ,business ,Sentence - Abstract
There are remarkable behavioral, neural, and genetic similarities between song learning in songbirds and speech acquisition in human infants. Previously, we have argued that this parallel cannot be extended to the level of sentence syntax. Although birdsong can indeed have a complex structure, it lacks the combinatorial complexity of human language syntax. Recently, this conclusion has been challenged by a report purporting to show that songbirds can learn so-called context-free syntactic rules and then use them to discriminate particular syllable patterns. Here, we demonstrate that the design of this study is inadequate to draw such a conclusion, and offer alternative explanations for the experimental results that do not require the acquisition and use of context-free grammar rules or a grammar of any kind, only the simpler hypothesis of acoustic similarity matching. We conclude that the evolution of vocal learning involves both neural homologies and behavioral convergence, and that human language reflects a unique cognitive capacity.
- Published
- 2012
28. Vocal tract articulation revisited: the case of the monk parakeet
- Author
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Carel ten Cate, Gabriel J. L. Beckers, Roderick A. Suthers, and Verena R. Ohms
- Subjects
Speech production ,Physiology ,Aquatic Science ,Tongue ,biology.animal ,medicine ,otorhinolaryngologic diseases ,Animals ,Molecular Biology ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,Research Articles ,biology ,Parakeets ,Parakeet ,Anatomy ,respiratory system ,biology.organism_classification ,Songbird ,Trachea ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Beak ,Insect Science ,Animal Science and Zoology ,Vocal learning ,Vocalization, Animal ,Articulation (phonetics) ,Vocal tract - Abstract
SUMMARYBirdsong and human speech share many features with respect to vocal learning and development. However, the vocal production mechanisms have long been considered to be distinct. The vocal organ of songbirds is more complex than the human larynx, leading to the hypothesis that vocal variation in birdsong originates mainly at the sound source, while in humans it is primarily due to vocal tract filtering. However, several recent studies have indicated the importance of vocal tract articulators such as the beak and oropharyngeal–esophageal cavity. In contrast to most other bird groups, parrots have a prominent tongue, raising the possibility that tongue movements may also be of significant importance in vocal production in parrots, but evidence is rare and observations often anecdotal. In the current study we used X-ray cinematographic imaging of naturally vocalizing monk parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus) to assess which articulators are possibly involved in vocal tract filtering in this species. We observed prominent tongue height changes, beak opening movements and tracheal length changes, which suggests that all of these components play an important role in modulating vocal tract resonance. Moreover, the observation of tracheal shortening as a vocal articulator in live birds has to our knowledge not been described before. We also found strong positive correlations between beak opening and amplitude as well as changes in tongue height and amplitude in several types of vocalization. Our results suggest considerable differences between parrot and songbird vocal production while at the same time the parrot's vocal articulation might more closely resemble human speech production in the sense that both make extensive use of the tongue as a vocal articulator.
- Published
- 2012
29. Evaluation of nitrate leaching in a vulnerable zone: effect of irrigation water and organic manure application
- Author
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Ruiz-Ramos, M., Gabriel, J. L., Vazquez, N., and Quemada, M.
- Subjects
GIS ,good agricultural practices ,nitrogen ,STICS ,vineyards ,buenas prácticas agrícolas ,nitrógeno ,SIG ,viñedos - Abstract
Sustainable agricultural practices are needed to minimize nitrate leaching. The crop-soil simulation model STICS coupled with a geographic information system was used to estimate the amount of NO3 – leaching and to assess the ability of alternative management practices to reduce NO3 – leaching in a nitrate vulnerable zone (NVZ) in La Rioja, Spain. Model performance was examined by comparing the simulations and measurements of irrigated grapevine crops (variety Tempranillo) over various soil types. The measurements were obtained from five pilot plots over a period of three years and included the mineral nitrogen, the water content of the soil profiles and the nitrogen content of the crops. The simulated and measured values were in satisfactory agreement with each other. Then, eight management scenarios were simulated, combining two NO3 – concentrations of irrigation water and four levels of organic manure applications. The simulations identified good agricultural practices (GAP) for mitigating NO3 – pollution. High soil mineral nitrogen (SMN) and water pollution were driven by both the NO3 – concentration of irrigation water and the level of organic manure application. The use of aquifer water for irrigation would lead to diminish aquifer pollution at the expense of maintaining high SMN, non desirable for grape quality production. River water would offer an opportunity for the recovery of soils and the improvement of underground water quality if the application of organic manure was limited according to soil type. Differences in NO3 - leaching of the NVZ soils depended more on their ability to store N than on their annual drainage., Las prácticas agrícolas sostenibles son necesarias para minimizar el lavado de nitratos (NO3 –). Se utilizó el modelo de simulación de cultivos STICS para estimar el lavado de NO3 – y evaluar prácticas de manejo para reducirlo en una zona vulnerable (NZV) en La Rioja, España. Se compararon las simulaciones con las medidas en cultivos de vid en regadío (variedad Tempranillo) en distintos tipos de suelo. Las medidas de nitrógeno mineral, contenido en agua en el suelo y contenido en nitrógeno de los cultivos se obtuvieron en cinco parcelas piloto durante tres años. Las simulaciones mostraron una coincidencia satisfactoria con las medidas. Después, se simularon ocho escenarios de manejo, combinando dos concentraciones de NO3 – en el agua de riego y cuatro niveles de abonado orgánico. Las simulaciones permitieron identificar buenas prácticas agrícolas (GAP) para la mitigación de la contaminación por NO3 –. Tanto la concentración de NO3 – en el agua de riego como el nivel de abonado orgánico determinaron la contaminación del agua y el alto nitrógeno mineral del suelo. Regar con agua del acuífero reduciría la contaminación del acuífero a expensas de mantener alto el nitrógeno mineral del suelo, no deseable para la producción de uva de calidad. Regar con agua del río permitiría recuperar los suelos mejorando la calidad del agua subterránea, si el abonado orgánico se limitase en función del tipo de suelo. Las diferencias en el lavado de NO3 – de los suelos de la NVZ dependieron más de su capacidad para almacenar N que de su drenaje anual.
- Published
- 2011
30. Bird speech perception and vocal production: a comparison with humans
- Author
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Gabriel J. L. Beckers
- Subjects
Motor theory of speech perception ,Categorical perception ,Speech perception ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Phonetics ,Birds ,Evolution, Molecular ,Categorization ,Perception ,Models, Animal ,Genetics ,Speech Perception ,Animals ,Humans ,Vocalization, Animal ,Psychology ,Articulation (phonetics) ,Coarticulation ,Genetics (clinical) ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,media_common ,Cognitive psychology - Abstract
Research into speech perception by nonhuman animals can be crucially informative in assessing whether specific perceptual phenomena in humans have evolved to decode speech, or reflect more general traits. Birds share with humans not only the capacity to use complex vocalizations for communication but also many characteristics of its underlying developmental and mechanistic processes; thus, birds are a particularly interesting group for comparative study. This review first discusses commonalities between birds and humans in perception of speech sounds. Several psychoacoustic studies have shown striking parallels in seemingly speech-specific perceptual phenomena, such as categorical perception of voice-onset-time variation, categorization of consonants that lack phonetic invariance, and compensation for coarticulation. Such findings are often regarded as evidence for the idea that the objects of human speech perception are auditory or acoustic events rather than articulations. Next, I highlight recent research on the production side of avian communication that has revealed the existence of vocal tract filtering and articulation in bird species-specific vocalization, which has traditionally been considered a hallmark of human speech production. Together, findings in birds show that many of characteristics of human speech perception are not uniquely human but also that a comparative approach to the question of what are the objects of perception--articulatory or auditory events--requires careful consideration of species-specific vocal production mechanisms.
- Published
- 2011
31. Songs to syntax: the linguistics of birdsong
- Author
-
Gabriel J. L. Beckers, Kazuo Okanoya, Johan J. Bolhuis, and Robert C. Berwick
- Subjects
Speech acquisition ,Cognitive Neuroscience ,Experimental and Cognitive Psychology ,Cognition ,Linguistics ,Semantics ,Syntax ,Biological Evolution ,Songbirds ,Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology ,Formal language ,Auditory Perception ,Animals ,Humans ,Vocal learning ,Vocalization, Animal ,Psychology ,Parallels ,Spoken language ,Language - Abstract
Unlike our primate cousins, many species of bird share with humans a capacity for vocal learning, a crucial factor in speech acquisition. There are striking behavioural, neural and genetic similarities between auditory-vocal learning in birds and human infants. Recently, the linguistic parallels between birdsong and spoken language have begun to be investigated. Although both birdsong and human language are hierarchically organized according to particular syntactic constraints, birdsong structure is best characterized as 'phonological syntax', resembling aspects of human sound structure. Crucially, birdsong lacks semantics and words. Formal language and linguistic analysis remains essential for the proper characterization of birdsong as a model system for human speech and language, and for the study of the brain and cognition evolution.
- Published
- 2010
32. Vocal tract articulation in zebra finches
- Author
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Carel ten Cate, Gabriel J. L. Beckers, Peter Snelderwaard, and Verena R. Ohms
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,Male ,animal structures ,lcsh:Medicine ,010603 evolutionary biology ,01 natural sciences ,Songbirds ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,otorhinolaryngologic diseases ,Animals ,lcsh:Science ,Zebra finch ,Evolutionary Biology ,Multidisciplinary ,Evolutionary Biology/Animal Behavior ,Neuroscience/Behavioral Neuroscience ,biology ,Cineradiography ,lcsh:R ,Anatomy ,biology.organism_classification ,Vocal production ,Beak ,Energy shift ,lcsh:Q ,Female ,Singing ,Vocalization, Animal ,Articulation (phonetics) ,Neuroscience ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Vocal tract ,Taeniopygia ,Research Article - Abstract
BACKGROUND: Birdsong and human vocal communication are both complex behaviours which show striking similarities mainly thought to be present in the area of development and learning. Recent studies, however, suggest that there are also parallels in vocal production mechanisms. While it has been long thought that vocal tract filtering, as it occurs in human speech, only plays a minor role in birdsong there is an increasing number of studies indicating the presence of sound filtering mechanisms in bird vocalizations as well. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Correlating high-speed X-ray cinematographic imaging of singing zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) to song structures we identified beak gape and the expansion of the oropharyngeal-esophageal cavity (OEC) as potential articulators. We subsequently manipulated both structures in an experiment in which we played sound through the vocal tract of dead birds. Comparing acoustic input with acoustic output showed that OEC expansion causes an energy shift towards lower frequencies and an amplitude increase whereas a wide beak gape emphasizes frequencies around 5 kilohertz and above. CONCLUSION: These findings confirm that birds can modulate their song by using vocal tract filtering and demonstrate how OEC and beak gape contribute to this modulation.
- Published
- 2010
33. Neutron flux measurements in the TRADE experiment : Critical configuration
- Author
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Ban, G., Bregeault, J., Gabriel, J. L., Gautier, J. M., Lecolley, F. R., Lecolley, J. F., Lecouey, J. L., Nathalie Marie, Skrzypeck, L., Steckmeyer, J. C., Rosa, R., Imel, G., Andriamonje, S., Guesnon, Sandrine, K. Ichihara, A. Serizawa, Laboratoire de physique corpusculaire de Caen (LPCC), Université de Caen Normandie (UNICAEN), Normandie Université (NU)-Normandie Université (NU)-École Nationale Supérieure d'Ingénieurs de Caen (ENSICAEN), Normandie Université (NU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3), TRADE, and Normandie Université (NU)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Subjects
[PHYS.NEXP] Physics [physics]/Nuclear Experiment [nucl-ex] ,Accelerator driven system ,TRIGA ,Activation ,[PHYS.NEXP]Physics [physics]/Nuclear Experiment [nucl-ex] ,Neutron flux measurement - Abstract
The TRiga Accelerator Driven Experiment (TRADE) to be performed in the existing TRIGA reactor of the ENEA Casaccia centre had the objective of coupling a spallation target, a proton accelerator and a sub-critical reactor core. On the way of the transmutation of minor actinides in dedicated facilities, the TRADE experiment represents the intermediate step between the validation of each component of an Accelerator Driven System (ADS), i.e. the spallation target, the high intensity accelerator and the sub-critical core, and the final facility aiming to incinerate radioactive nuclear waste. Measurements have been performed in the TRIGA - RC1 reactor of the ENEA Casaccia centre in the second semester of 2004 to characterize the neutron flux in a critical configuration. Gold and Indium samples were introduced in the core with the help of a "fast rabbit" pneumatic device. Bare samples and samples covered with Cadmium foils were successively irradiated to estimate the thermal and epithermal fluxes. Measurements have been carried out along a traverse of the core. Samples were put inside Aluminium shuttles travelling in stainless steel tubes. Trains composed of five shuttles allowed for simultaneous measurements in five different axial positions. γ spectrometry of the radioactive nuclides has been performed with two HPGe detectors.
- Published
- 2005
34. Coral snake mimicry: live snakes not avoided by a mammalian predator
- Author
-
Henk Strijbosch, Gabriel J. L. Beckers, and Twan A. A. M. Leenders
- Subjects
food.ingredient ,biology ,Ecology ,Zoology ,Nasua ,Procyonidae ,Aposematism ,biology.organism_classification ,Predation ,food ,Elapidae ,Mimicry ,Micrurus ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,Coral snake - Abstract
The occurrence of coral snake coloration among unrelated venomous and non-venomous New World snake species has often been explained in terms of warning coloration and mimicry. The idea that snake predators would avoid coral snakes in nature seems widely established and is postulated in many discussions on coral snake mimicry. However, the few workers that have tested a potential aposematic function of the conspicuous colour pattern focused exclusively on behaviour of snake predators towards coloured abstract models. Here we report on behaviour of temporarily caged, wild coatis (Nasua narica) when confronted with co-occurring live snakes, among which were two species of venomous coral snakes. Five different types of responses have been observed, ranging from avoidance to predation, yet none of the coatis avoided either of the two coral snake species or other species resembling these. As in earlier studies coatis appeared to avoid coral snake models, our findings show that results from studies with abstract snake models cannot unconditionally serve as evidence for an aposematic function of coral snake coloration.
- Published
- 1996
35. Quantitative characterization of five cover crop species
- Author
-
RAMIREZ-GARCIA, J., primary, GABRIEL, J. L., additional, ALONSO-AYUSO, M., additional, and QUEMADA, M., additional
- Published
- 2014
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
36. Integrating Water, Nitrogen, and Salinity in Sustainable Irrigated Systems: Cover Crops versus Fallow
- Author
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Gabriel, J. L., primary, Vanclooster, M., additional, and Quemada, M., additional
- Published
- 2014
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
37. Book review
- Author
-
Gabriel J. L. Beckers
- Subjects
Animal Science and Zoology ,Psychology ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics - Published
- 2009
38. Book review
- Author
-
Gabriel J. L. Beckers
- Subjects
Cognitive science ,Animal Science and Zoology ,Humanities ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics - Published
- 2006
39. SPEAKER-INDEPENDENT PERCEPTION OF HUMAN SPEECH BY ZEBRA FINCHES
- Author
-
OHMS, VERENA R., primary, VAN HEIJNINGEN, CAROLINE A. A., additional, GILL, ARIKE, additional, BECKERS, GABRIEL J. L., additional, and TEN CATE, CAREL, additional
- Published
- 2010
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
40. Zebra finches exhibit speaker-independent phonetic perception of human speech
- Author
-
Ohms, Verena R., primary, Gill, Arike, additional, Van Heijningen, Caroline A. A., additional, Beckers, Gabriel J. L., additional, and ten Cate, Carel, additional
- Published
- 2009
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
41. Microclimate of daytime den sites in a tropical possum: implications for the conservation of tropical arboreal marsupials
- Author
-
Isaac, J. L., primary, De Gabriel, J. L., additional, and Goodman, B. A., additional
- Published
- 2008
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
42. Quantitative characterization of five cover crop species.
- Author
-
RAMIREZ-GARCIA, J., GABRIEL, J. L., ALONSO-AYUSO, M., and QUEMADA, M.
- Abstract
The introduction of cover crops in the intercrop period may provide a broad range of ecosystem services derived from the multiple functions they can perform, such as erosion control, recycling of nutrients or forage source. However, the achievement of these services in a particular agrosystem is not always required at the same time or to the same degree. Thus, species selection and definition of targeted objectives is critical when growing cover crops. The goal of the current work was to describe the traits that determine the suitability of five species (barley, rye, triticale, mustard and vetch) for cover cropping. A field trial was established during two seasons (October to April) in Madrid (central Spain). Ground cover and biomass were monitored at regular intervals during each growing season. A Gompertz model characterized ground cover until the decay observed after frosts, while biomass was fitted to Gompertz, logistic and linear-exponential equations. At the end of the experiment, carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and fibre (neutral detergent, acid and lignin) contents, and the N fixed by the legume were determined. The grasses reached the highest ground cover (83–99%) and biomass (1226–1928 g/m2) at the end of the experiment. With the highest C:N ratio (27–39) and dietary fibre (527–600 mg/g) and the lowest residue quality (~680 mg/g), grasses were suitable for erosion control, catch crop and fodder. The vetch presented the lowest N uptake (2·4 and 0·7 g N/m2) due to N fixation (9·8 and 1·6 g N/m2) and low biomass accumulation. The mustard presented high N uptake in the warm year and could act as a catch crop, but low fodder capability in both years. The thermal time before reaching 30% ground cover was a good indicator of early coverage species. Variable quantification allowed finding variability among the species and provided information for further decisions involving cover crop selection and management. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2015
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
43. SEX DIFFERENCES IN THE MOTOR PERFORMANCE OF ELITE YOUNG DIVERS
- Author
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Geithner, C. A., primary, O'Brien, Ron, additional, Gabriel, J. L., additional, and Malina, R. M., additional
- Published
- 1999
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
44. Synthesis and processing in vivo of the novel mouse thyrotropin beta-presubunit that contains an NH2-terminal extension sequence.
- Author
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Januszeski, M M, primary, Gabriel, J L, additional, Shennan, K I, additional, Docherty, K, additional, and Gurr, J A, additional
- Published
- 1994
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
45. Large-Scale Synchronized Activity during Vocal Deviance Detection in the Zebra Finch Auditory Forebrain.
- Author
-
Beckers, Gabriel J. L. and Gahr, Manfred
- Subjects
- *
ZEBRA finch , *ANESTHESIA , *PROSENCEPHALON , *AUDITORY perception , *ACOUSTIC nerve , *ADAPTABILITY (Personality) , *DORSAL ventricular ridge - Abstract
Auditory systems bias responses to sounds that are unexpected on the basis of recent stimulus history, a phenomenon that has been widely studied using sequences of unmodulated tones (mismatch negativity; stimulus-specific adaptation). Such a paradigm, however, does not directly reflect problems that neural systems normally solve for adaptive behavior. We recorded multiunit responses in the caudomedial auditory forebrain of anesthetized zebra finches {Taeniopygia guttata) at 32 sites simultaneously, to contact calls that recur probabilistically at a rate that is used in communication. Neurons in secondary, but not primary, auditory areas respond preferentially to calls when they are unexpected (deviant) compared with the same calls when they are expected (standard). This response bias is predominantly due to sites more often not responding to standard events than to deviant events. When two call stimuli alternate between standard and deviant roles, most sites exhibit a response bias to deviant events of both stimuli. This suggests that biases are not based on a use-dependent decrease in response strength but involve a more complex mechanism that is sensitive to auditory deviance per se. Furthermore, between many secondary sites, responses are tightly synchronized, a phenomenon that is driven by internal neuronal interactions rather than by the timing of stimulus acoustic features. We hypothesize that this deviance-sensitive, internally synchronized network of neurons is involved in the involuntary capturing of attention by unexpected and behaviorally potentially relevant events in natural auditory scenes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2012
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
46. Vocal tract filtering and the coo of doves .
- Author
-
Neville H. Fletcher, Tobias Riede, Gabriel J. L. Beckers, and Roderick A. Suthers
- Subjects
HARMONICS (Music theory) ,VOCAL tract ,ESOPHAGUS - Abstract
Ring doves (Streptopelia risoria) produce a coo vocalization that is essentially a pure-tone sound at a frequency of about 600 Hz and with a duration of about 1.5 s. While making this vocalization, the dove inflates the upper part of its esophagus to form a thin-walled sac structure that radiates sound to the surroundings. It is a reasonable assumption that the combined influence of the trachea, glottis and inflated upper esophagus acts as an effective band-pass filter to eliminate higher harmonics generated by the vibrating syringeal valve. Calculations reported here indicate that this is indeed the case. The tracheal tube, terminated by a glottal constriction, is the initial resonant structure, and subsequent resonant filtering takes place through the action of the inflated esophageal sac. The inflated esophagus proves to be a more efficient sound radiating mechanism than an open beak. The action of this sac is only moderately affected by the degree of inflation, although an uninflated esophagus is inactive as a sound radiator. These conclusions are supported by measurements and observations that have been reported in a companion paper. 2004 Acoustical Society of America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2004
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
47. Inflation of the esophagus and vocal tract filtering in ring doves.
- Author
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Riede, Tobias, Beckers, Gabriel J. L., Blevins, William, and Suthers, Roderick A.
- Subjects
- *
COLUMBIDAE , *BIRD vocalizations , *ESOPHAGUS , *VOCAL tract , *ANIMAL sound production , *SYRINX (Bird anatomy) - Abstract
Ring doves vocalize with their beaks and nostrils closed, exhaling into inflatable chambers in the head and neck region. The source sound produced at the syrinx contains a fundamental frequency with prominent second and third harmonic overtones, but these harmonics are filtered out of the emitted signal. We show by cineradiography that the upper esophagus, oral and nasal cavities collect the expired air during vocalization and that the inflated esophagus becomes part of the suprasyringeal vocal tract. The level of the second and third harmonics, relative to the fundamental frequency (f0), is reduced in the esophagus and emitted vocalization compared with in the trachea, although these harmonics are still considerably higher in the esophagus than in the emitted signal. When the esophagus is prevented from fully inflating, there is a pronounced increase in the level of higher harmonics in the emitted vocalization. Our data suggest that the trachea and esophagus act in series as acoustically separate compartments attenuating harmonics by different mechanisms. We hypothesize that the trachea behaves as a tube closed at the syringeal end and with a variable, restricted opening at the glottal end that lowers the tracheal first resonance to match the f0 of the coo. The inflated esophagus may function as a Helmholtz resonator in which the elastic walls form the vibrating mass. Such a resonator could support the f0 over a range of inflated volumes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2004
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
48. Design and Synthesis of a Short-Chain Bitistatin Analogue for Imaging Thrombi and Emboli
- Author
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Baidoo, K. E., Knight, L. C., Lin, K.-S., Gabriel, J. L., and Romano, J. E.
- Abstract
Previously, we showed that labeled bitistatin analogues possessed excellent characteristics for imaging both deep-vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. We hypothesized that the N-terminal amino acid sequence of bitistatin, which is different from other disintegrins, likely interacts with the binding site of platelets to confer desirable properties to bitistatin for imaging. In this study, we present the design, synthesis, and initial biological testing of a short-chain analogue of the native 83-amino-acid bitistatin sequence. Our initial molecular modeling of the binding loop of bitistatin showed that the minimal sequence that represented the binding region was a cyclic 10 amino acid sequence cyclo[Cys−Arg−Ile−Ala−Arg−Gly−Asp−Trp−Asn−Cys(S)]. Systematic modeling of a truncated N-terminal sequence of bitistatin fused with the optimized binding region having a thioether sequence through a Gaba spacer ultimately yielded the 24-amino acid peptide, cyclo-[CH
2 CO−Arg−Ile−Ala−Arg−Gly−Asp−Trp−Asn−Cys(S−)]−Gaba−Gly−Asn−Glu−Ile−Leu−Glu−Gln−Gly−Glu−Asp−Ser−Asp−Ser−Lys−OH,1 . The peptide was then coupled to the hydrazino-nicotinic acid bifunctional chelating agent and the purified adduct labeled with 99mTc using tricine as a coligand. Binding of the unlabeled and labeled peptide to stimulated human platelets was assayed in vitro. The 99mTc labeling yield was > 90%. The in vitro binding assays showed that the IC50 for inhibition of platelet aggregation was 3694 nM, while the Kd of the 99mTc labeled peptide was 185 nM, indicating moderate affinity for the receptor. The 99mTc-labeled peptide was able to identify sites of experimental thrombi and emboli in a canine model. The results suggest initial success in attempting to mimic the behavior of bitistatin for imaging thrombi and emboli.- Published
- 2004
49. Mutations in specific I-A(k) alpha(2) and beta(2) domain residues affect surface expression.
- Author
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Lang, M L, Yadati, S, Seeley, E S, Nydam, T, Wade, T K, Gabriel, J L, Yeaman, G, Barisas, B G, and Wade, W F
- Abstract
A previous investigation demonstrated that several mutations in class II dimer-of-dimers contact residues interfere with antigen presentation by transfectants but not with plasma membrane expression of the mutant class II. In the present study we examined other class II mutations in this region that did inhibit plasma membrane expression of mutant class II molecules. Molecules containing both mutations H alpha 181D in the alpha(2) domain and E beta 170K in the beta(2) domain exhibited low plasma membrane expression, but molecules with only one of these mutations were expressed normally. The mutant class II molecules were transported to organelles that were accessible to a fluid-phase protein, hen egg lysozyme (HEL). Culture of transfectants with lysozyme enhanced the amount of class II compact dimer (alpha beta plus peptide; CD), and this was especially marked for the class II mutant H alpha 181D/E beta 170K and for other molecules possessing both mutations. Formation of class II CD was not paralleled by an increase in class II surface expression. Thus the joint mutation of H alpha 181 and E beta 170 has two effects. In the absence o high concentrations of exogenous peptide, it prevents efficient CD formation, possibly by affecting invariant chain (Ii) proteolysis and/or the stability of the class II after Ii/CLIP is removed. At high peptide concentrations supplied by exogenous HEL, the mutations allow CD formation, but not expression of class II on the plasma membrane. Molecular modeling of the possible interaction of class II and Ii suggests that the mutant amino acids H alpha 181D and E beta 170K, besides affecting the overall stability of class II, might also interact with Ii via two loops in class II's alpha(2) and beta(2) domains respectively.
- Published
- 2000
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
50. Molecular and structural properties of three autoimmune IgG monoclonal antibodies to histone H2B.
- Author
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Monestier, M, Decker, P, Briand, J P, Gabriel, J L, and Muller, S
- Abstract
In systemic autoimmune diseases such as lupus the immune system produces autoantibodies to nuclear antigens including DNA and histone molecules. In the present study, we describe three monoclonal IgG antibodies that have been obtained from lupus-prone MRL/lpr mice. These three antibodies react with the amino terminus of histone H2B, a region of the molecule that is accessible in chromatin. Using a series of overlapping H2B synthetic peptides and structural analogues, we have mapped the different epitopes recognized by these antibodies. We have also sequenced the combining sites (variable regions) of the antibodies and modeled their interactions with the corresponding epitopes. Overall, the data suggest that the mechanisms of interaction with antigen are different for each of the three antibodies, even though they all react with the amino-terminal domain of the histone H2B molecule. The results also suggest that the binding between these antibodies and histone H2B is different from that between most antibodies and conventional protein antigens since the heavy chain complementarity-determining region 3 appears to play only a limited role in the three antibodies tested. The study of the interaction between self-antigens and spontaneously occurring autoantibodies may help us elucidate the mechanisms driving the expansion of self-reactive lymphocytes.
- Published
- 2000
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