The role of short-time intensity and envelope power for speech intelligibility and psychoacoustic masking

2017 ◽  
Vol 142 (2) ◽  
pp. 1098-1111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Biberger ◽  
Stephan D. Ewert
Keyword(s):  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Short Time

scholarly journals Impact of tumor-parenchyma biomechanics on liver metastatic progression: a multi-model approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yafei Wang ◽  
Erik Brodin ◽  
Kenichiro Nishii ◽  
Hermann B. Frieboes ◽  
Shannon M. Mumenthaler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Scales ◽  
Constitutive Relations ◽  
Elastic Tissue ◽  
Metastatic Progression ◽  
Patient Death ◽  
Metastatic Growth ◽  
Tumor Parenchyma ◽  
Short Time ◽  
Model Approach

AbstractColorectal cancer and other cancers often metastasize to the liver in later stages of the disease, contributing significantly to patient death. While the biomechanical properties of the liver parenchyma (normal liver tissue) are known to affect tumor cell behavior in primary and metastatic tumors, the role of these properties in driving or inhibiting metastatic inception remains poorly understood, as are the longer-term multicellular dynamics. This study adopts a multi-model approach to study the dynamics of tumor-parenchyma biomechanical interactions during metastatic seeding and growth. We employ a detailed poroviscoelastic model of a liver lobule to study how micrometastases disrupt flow and pressure on short time scales. Results from short-time simulations in detailed single hepatic lobules motivate constitutive relations and biological hypotheses for a minimal agent-based model of metastatic growth in centimeter-scale tissue over months-long time scales. After a parameter space investigation, we find that the balance of basic tumor-parenchyma biomechanical interactions on shorter time scales (adhesion, repulsion, and elastic tissue deformation over minutes) and longer time scales (plastic tissue relaxation over hours) can explain a broad range of behaviors of micrometastases, without the need for complex molecular-scale signaling. These interactions may arrest the growth of micrometastases in a dormant state and prevent newly arriving cancer cells from establishing successful metastatic foci. Moreover, the simulations indicate ways in which dormant tumors could “reawaken” after changes in parenchymal tissue mechanical properties, as may arise during aging or following acute liver illness or injury. We conclude that the proposed modeling approach yields insight into the role of tumor-parenchyma biomechanics in promoting liver metastatic growth, and advances the longer term goal of identifying conditions to clinically arrest and reverse the course of late-stage cancer.

scholarly journals COVID-19: systematic learning across boundaries requires a conceptual agreement

2021 ◽  
pp. 140349482110270
Author(s):  
Knut Ole Sundnes ◽  
Geir Sverre Braut
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Knowledge Base ◽  
External Validity ◽  
Evaluation Research ◽  
The Other ◽  
Basic Knowledge ◽  
Early Publication ◽  
Number Of Publications ◽  
Short Time

The COVID-19 epidemic has revealed a shortage of basic knowledge and understanding of pandemics, especially regarding their dynamics and how to contain them. The results are a host of governments’ decrees and instructions, one replacing the other, often within the same week. It has further, in a truly short time, resulted in an overwhelming number of publications, many of them prioritising early publication over quality. This commentary addresses the concept of structured research related to disasters and how the use of endorsed guidelines will facilitate well-designed evaluation research with improved rigour and external validity, even if applied retrospectively. The outcome should be a solidified knowledge base. Further, the important role of public health efforts is to be highlighted, as their role has proved crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chairman’s remarks

1989 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-98
Keyword(s):  
Civil Wars ◽  
Fine Arts ◽  
Intellectual Life ◽  
Cultural Hegemony ◽  
Territorial Expansion ◽  
Isaac Newton ◽  
Mathematical School ◽  
Christiaan Huygens ◽  
Short Time

It was our plan that this meeting should consider some aspects of the changes in material civilization and intellectual life in Britain and the United Provinces resulting from the union of the two Crowns in 1688. A parallel meeting in Amsterdam will devote more attention to politics and the fine arts. In a short time it is impossible to cover many topics and we thought it right to pay some attention to the role of the Stadtholder while not omitting the two great scientific figures of this age, Christiaan Huygens and Isaac Newton. It is tempting to suppose that the replacement of James II on the throne of England by William and Mary, as it ensured the ascendancy of Protestantism, so also it introduced a strong Dutch influence to replace the Frenchification characteristic of the reigns of Charles and James. Did not William, in stemming the territorial expansion of France, also check its cultural hegemony? So far as Britain is concerned the proposition is dubious, for our cultural links with The Netherlands were already strong before 1688, not least because of earlier migrations and the relationships formed during the Civil Wars and their aftermath. In the scientific realm one thinks especially of van Schooten and the Dutch mathematical school, of De Graaf, Swammerdam, Leeuwenhoek and especially Christiaan Huygens.

The role of stimulus comparison in animal perceptual learning: Effects of a distractor placement

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (12) ◽  
pp. 2488-2496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio A Recio ◽  
Adela F Iliescu ◽  
Isabel de Brugada
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Learning ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Time Lapse ◽  
Animal Research ◽  
Learning Effects ◽  
Stimulus Comparison ◽  
Human Research ◽  
Short Time ◽  
Effect Experiment

Research on perceptual learning shows that the way stimuli are presented leads to different outcomes. The intermixed/blocked (I/B) effect is one of these outcomes, and different mechanisms have been proposed to explain it. In human research, it seems that comparison between stimuli is important, and the placement of a distractor between the pre-exposed stimuli interferes with the effect. Results from animal research are usually interpreted in different terms because the type of procedure normally used in animal perceptual learning does not favour comparison. In our experiments, we explore the possibility that a distractor placed between the to-be-discriminated stimuli may interfere with the perceptual learning process in rats. In Experiment 1, two flavoured solutions are presented in an I/B fashion, with a short time lapse between them to favour comparison, showing the typical I/B effect. In Experiment 2, we introduced a distractor in between the solutions, abolishing this effect. Experiment 3 further replicates this by comparing two intermixed groups with or without distractor. The results replicate the findings from human research, suggesting that comparison also plays an important role in animal perceptual learning.

scholarly journals Temporal fine structure influences voicing confusions for consonant identification in multi-talker babble

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vibha Viswanathan ◽  
Barbara G. Shinn-Cunningham ◽  
Michael G. Heinz
Keyword(s):  
Fine Structure ◽  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Background Noise ◽  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Temporal Fine Structure ◽  
Vast Literature ◽  
Listening Environments ◽  
Intact Condition ◽  
Speech Content

To understand the mechanisms of speech perception in everyday listening environments, it is important to elucidate the relative contributions of different acoustics cues in transmitting phonetic content. Previous studies suggest that the energy envelopes of speech convey most speech content, while the temporal fine structure (TFS) can aid in segregating target speech from background noise. Despite the vast literature on TFS and speech intelligibility, the role of TFS in conveying additional speech content over what envelopes convey in complex acoustic scenes is poorly understood. The present study addresses this question using online psychophysical experiments to measure consonant identification in multi-talker babble for intelligibility-matched intact and 64-channel envelope-vocoded stimuli. Consonant confusion patterns revealed that listeners had a greater tendency in the vocoded (versus intact) condition to be biased towards reporting that they heard an unvoiced consonant, despite envelope and place cues being largely preserved. This result was replicated when babble instances were varied across independent experiments, suggesting that TFS conveys important voicing cues over what envelopes convey in multi-talker babble, a masker that is ubiquitous in everyday environments. This finding has implications for assistive listening devices that do not currently provide TFS cues, such as cochlear implants.

scholarly journals Ineffable Cultures or Material Devices: What Valuation Studies can Learn from the Disappearance of Ensured Solidarity in a Health Care Market

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teun Zuiderent-Jerak ◽  
Stans Van Egmond
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Cultural Value ◽  
Health Care Market ◽  
A Value ◽  
Dutch Health ◽  
Short Time ◽  
Regulated Competition ◽  
Made In

Valuation studies addresses how values are made in valuation practices. A next - or rather previous - question becomes: what then makes valuation practices? Two oppositional replies are starting to dominate how that question can be answered: a more materially oriented focus on devices of valuation and a more sociologically inclined focus on ineffable valuation cultures. The debate between proponents of both approaches may easily turn into the kind of leapfrog debates that have dominated many previous discussions on whether culture or materiality would play a decisive role in driving history. This paper explores a less repetitive reply. It does so by analyzing the puzzling case of the demise of solidarity as a core value within the recent Dutch health care system of regulated competition. While “solidarity among the insured” was both a strong cultural value within the Dutch welfare-based health system, and a value that was built into market devices by health economists, within a fairly short time “fairness” became of lesser importance than “competition”. This makes us call for a more historical, relational, and dynamic understanding of the role of economists, market devices, and of culture in valuation studies.

scholarly journals Deciphering the microRNA transcriptome of skeletal muscle during porcine development

PeerJ ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. e1504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miaomiao Mai ◽  
Long Jin ◽  
Shilin Tian ◽  
Rui Liu ◽  
Wenyao Huang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Muscle Development ◽  
Model Organism ◽  
Muscle Disease ◽  
Porcine Muscle ◽  
Development Stages ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Series Expression ◽  
Pig Muscle ◽  
Short Time

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play critical roles in many important biological processes, such as growth and development in mammals. Various studies of porcine muscle development have mainly focused on identifying miRNAs that are important for fetal and adult muscle development; however, little is known about the role of miRNAs in middle-aged muscle development. Here, we present a comprehensive investigation of miRNA transcriptomes across five porcine muscle development stages, including one prenatal and four postnatal stages. We identified 404 known porcine miRNAs, 118 novel miRNAs, and 101 miRNAs that are conserved in other mammals. A set of universally abundant miRNAs was found across the distinct muscle development stages. This set of miRNAs may play important housekeeping roles that are involved in myogenesis. A short time-series expression miner analysis indicated significant variations in miRNA expression across distinct muscle development stages. We also found enhanced differentiation- and morphogenesis-related miRNA levels in the embryonic stage; conversely, apoptosis-related miRNA levels increased relatively later in muscle development. These results provide integral insight into miRNA function throughout pig muscle development stages. Our findings will promote further development of the pig as a model organism for human age-related muscle disease research.

scholarly journals The role of the oral myologist with orthognathic surgery -- A patient/therapist's point of view

1986 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 13-14
Author(s):  
Joy Moeller
Keyword(s):  
Surgical Treatment ◽  
Muscle Function ◽  
Orthognathic Surgery ◽  
Muscle Fibers ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Short Time

Introduction: The trauma of orthognathic surgery on muscle function has frequently been overlooked by oral surgeons. The attitude of many surgeons is that the muscle fibers will adapt to the new structure in a short time. The purpose of this paper is to dispute this attitude and to address the need for the oral rnyologist to assume an important role in the healing and post-surgical treatment of the patient.

scholarly journals Mouse Emi2 is required to enter meiosis II by reestablishing cyclin B1 during interkinesis

2006 ◽  
Vol 174 (6) ◽  
pp. 791-801 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne Madgwick ◽  
David V. Hansen ◽  
Mark Levasseur ◽  
Peter K. Jackson ◽  
Keith T. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Fluorescent Protein ◽  
Polar Body ◽  
Cyclin B1 ◽  
Anaphase Promoting Complex ◽  
Morpholino Knockdown ◽  
Short Time ◽  
Mitotic Inhibitor ◽  
Antisense Morpholino ◽  
Meiosis I

During interkinesis, a metaphase II (MetII) spindle is built immediately after the completion of meiosis I. Oocytes then remain MetII arrested until fertilization. In mouse, we find that early mitotic inhibitor 2 (Emi2), which is an anaphase-promoting complex inhibitor, is involved in both the establishment and the maintenance of MetII arrest. In MetII oocytes, Emi2 needs to be degraded for oocytes to exit meiosis, and such degradation, as visualized by fluorescent protein tagging, occurred tens of minutes ahead of cyclin B1. Emi2 antisense morpholino knockdown during oocyte maturation did not affect polar body (PB) extrusion. However, in interkinesis the central spindle microtubules from meiosis I persisted for a short time, and a MetII spindle failed to assemble. The chromatin in the oocyte quickly decondensed and a nucleus formed. All of these effects were caused by the essential role of Emi2 in stabilizing cyclin B1 after the first PB extrusion because in Emi2 knockdown oocytes a MetII spindle was recovered by Emi2 rescue or by expression of nondegradable cyclin B1 after meiosis I.

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