bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Factors Associated with Postoperative Prolonged Mechanical Ventilation in Pediatric Liver Transplant Recipients
Authors: Nafiu Olubukola O. , Carello Katari , Lal Anjana , Magee John , Picton Paul
Published: July 2017

Introduction. Almost all pediatric orthotopic liver transplant (OLT) recipients require mechanical ventilation in the early postoperative period. Prolonged postoperative mechanical ventilation (PPMV) may be a marker of severe disease and may be associated with morbidity and mortality. We determined the incidence and risk factors for PPMV in children who underwent OLT. Methods. This was a retrospective analysis of data collected on 128 pediatric OLT recipients. PPMV was defined as postoperative ventilation ≥ 4 days. Perioperative characteristics were compared between cases and control groups. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to calculate odds ratios for PPMV after controlling for relevant cofactors. Results. An estimated 25% (95% CI, 17.4%–32.6%) required PPMV. The overall incidence of PPMV varied significantly by age group with the highest incidence among infants. PPMV was associated with higher postoperative mortality (p=0.004) and longer intensive care unit (p<0.001) and hospital length of stay (p<0.001). Multivariable analysis identified young patient age, preoperative hypocalcemia, and increasing duration of surgery as independent predictors of PPMV following OLT. Conclusion. The incidence of PPMV is high and it was associated with prolonged ICU and hospital LOS and higher posttransplant mortality. Surgery duration appears to be the only modifiable predictor of PPMV.
Some Properties of Serre Subcategories in the Graded Local Cohomology Modules
Authors: Hassani Feysal , Rasuli Rasul
Published: July 2017

LetR=⊕n≥0Rnbe a standard homogeneous Noetherian ring with local base ring(R0,m0)and letMbe a finitely generated gradedR-module. LetHR+i(M)be theith local cohomology module ofMwith respect toR+=⊕n>0Rn. LetSbe a Serre subcategory of the category ofR-modules and letibe a nonnegative integer. In this paper, ifdim⁡R0≤1,then we investigate some conditions under which theR-modulesR0/m0  ⊗R0 HR+i(M),Γm0R(HR+i(M))andHm0R1(HR+i(M))are inSfor alli≥0. Also, we prove that ifdim⁡R0≤2, then the gradedR-moduleHm01(HR+i(M))is inSfor alli≥0. Finally, we prove that ifnis the biggest integer such thatHai(M)∉S, thenHR+i(M)/m0HR+i(M)∈Sfor alli≥n.
Rhodiolae Kirliowii Radix et Rhizoma and Crataegus pinnatifida Fructus Extracts Effectively Inhibit BK Virus and JC Virus Infection of Host Cells
Authors: Chen San-Yuan , Teng Ru-Hsiou , Wang Meilin , Chen Pei-Lain , Lin Mien-Chun , Shen Cheng-Huang , Chao Chun-Nun , Chiang Ming-Ko , Fang Chiung-Yao , Chang Deching
Published: July 2017

The human polyomaviruses BK (BKPyV) and JC (JCPyV) are ubiquitous pathogens long associated with severe disease in immunocompromised individuals. BKPyV causes polyomavirus‐associated nephropathy and hemorrhagic cystitis, whereas JCPyV is the causative agent of the fatal demyelinating disease progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. No effective therapies targeting these viruses are currently available. The goal of this study was to identify Chinese medicinal herbs with antiviral activity against BKPyV and JCPyV. We screened extracts of Chinese medicinal herbs for the ability to inhibit hemagglutination by BKPyV and JCPyV virus‐like particles (VLPs) and the ability to inhibit BKPyV and JCPyV binding and infection of host cells. Two of the 40 herbal extracts screened, Rhodiolae Kirliowii Radix et Rhizoma and Crataegus pinnatifida Fructus, had hemagglutination inhibition activity on BKPyV and JCPyV VLPs and further inhibited infection of the cells by BKPyV and JCPyV, as evidenced by reduced expression of viral proteins in BKPyV‐infected and JCPyV‐infected cells after treatment with Rhodiolae Kirliowii Radix et Rhizoma or Crataegus pinnatifida Fructus extract. The results in this work show that both Rhodiolae Kirliowii Radix et Rhizoma and Crataegus pinnatifida Fructus may be sources of potential antiviral compounds for treating BKPyV and JCPyV infections.
Full-Wave Analysis of the Shielding Effectiveness of Thin Graphene Sheets with the 3D Unidirectionally Collocated HIE-FDTD Method
Authors: Van Londersele Arne , De Zutter Daniël , Vande Ginste Dries
Published: July 2017

Graphene-based electrical components are inherently multiscale, which poses a real challenge for finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) solvers due to the stringent time step upper bound. Here, a unidirectionally collocated hybrid implicit-explicit (UCHIE) FDTD method is put forward that exploits the planar structure of graphene to increase the time step by implicitizing the critical dimension. The method replaces the traditional Yee discretization by a partially collocated scheme that allows a more accurate numerical description of the material boundaries. Moreover, the UCHIE-FDTD method preserves second-order accuracy even for nonuniform discretization in the direction of collocation. The auxiliary differential equation (ADE) approach is used to implement the graphene sheet as a dispersive Drude medium. The finite grid is terminated by a uniaxial perfectly matched layer (UPML) to permit open-space simulations. Special care is taken to elaborate on the efficient implementation of the implicit update equations. The UCHIE-FDTD method is validated by computing the shielding effectiveness of a typical graphene sheet.
Metabolomics and Cardiology: Toward the Path of Perinatal Programming and Personalized Medicine
Authors: Pintus Roberta , Bassareo Pier Paolo , Dessì Angelica , Deidda Martino , Mercuro Giuseppe , Fanos Vassilios
Published: July 2017

Heart diseases are one of the leading causes of death in Western Countries and tend to become chronic, lowering the quality of life of the patients and ending up in a massive cost for the Health Systems and the society. Thus, there is a growing interest in finding new technologies that would allow the physician to effectively treat and prevent cardiac illnesses. Metabolomics is one of the new “omics” sciences enabling creation of a photograph of the metabolic state of an individual exposed to different environmental factors and pathologies. This review analyzed the most recent literature about this technology and its application in cardiology in order to understand the metabolic shifts that occur even before the manifestation of these pathologies to find possible early predictive biomarkers. In this way, it could be possible to find better treatments, ameliorate the patient’s quality of life, and lower the death rate. This technology seems to be so promising that several industries are trying to set up kits to immediately assess the metabolites variations in order to provide a faster diagnosis and the best treatment specific for that patient, offering a further step toward the path of the development of a tailored medicine.
Antihyperglycemic and Antihyperlipidemic Activity of HydroponicStevia rebaudianaAqueous Extract in Hyperglycemia Induced by Immobilization Stress in Rabbits
Authors: Aghajanyan Anush , Movsisyan Zaruhi , Trchounian Armen
Published: July 2017

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a serious worldwide problem related to human hyperglycemia. Thus, herbal preparations with antihyperglycemic properties especially leaf extracts of hydroponicStevia rebaudiana(SR) would be useful in hyperglycemia treatment. The antihyperglycemic potential of this medicinal plant grown using hydroponics methods has been evaluated. Significant reduction of some biochemical characteristics for sugars and fatty acids in blood, liver, and muscle especially fasting glucose levels, serum triglycerides, LDL-cholesterol, total cholesterol levels, and increased HDL-cholesterol ones was shown with SR aqueous extract treatment. Therefore, the aqueous extract of SR is suggested to have antihyperglycemic and antihyperlipidemic activity and to restore liver and muscle glycogen levels (hepatoprotective effects) in hyperglycemia induced by immobilization stress in rabbits and might be recommended for treatment of DM (hyperglycemia).
On Fluid and Thermal Dynamics in a Heterogeneous CO2 Plume Geothermal Reservoir
Authors: Xu Tianfu , Zhu Huixing , Feng Guanhong , Yuan Yilong , Tian Hailong
Published: July 2017

CO2 is now considered as a novel heat transmission fluid to extract geothermal energy. It can achieve both the energy exploitation and CO2 geological sequestration. The migration pathway and the process of fluid flow within the reservoirs affect significantly a CO2 plume geothermal (CPG) system. In this study, we built three-dimensional wellbore-reservoir coupled models using geological and geothermal conditions of Qingshankou Formation in Songliao Basin, China. The performance of the CPG system is evaluated in terms of the temperature, CO2 plume distribution, flow rate of production fluid, heat extraction rate, and storage of CO2. For obtaining a deeper understanding of CO2-geothermal system under realistic conditions, heterogeneity of reservoir’s hydrological properties (in terms of permeability and porosity) is taken into account. Due to the fortissimo mobility of CO2, as long as a highly permeable zone exists between the two wells, it is more likely to flow through the highly permeable zone to reach the production well, even though the flow path is longer. The preferential flow shortens circulation time and reduces heat-exchange area, probably leading to early thermal breakthrough, which makes the production fluid temperature decrease rapidly. The analyses of flow dynamics of CO2-water fluid and heat may be useful for future design of a CO2-based geothermal development system.
Predictors of Inappropriate Use of Diagnostic Tests and Management of Bronchiolitis
Authors: Sarmiento Lorena , Rojas-Soto Gladys E. , Rodríguez-Martínez Carlos E.
Published: July 2017

Background. The aim of the present study was to determine predictors of inappropriate use of diagnostic tests and management of bronchiolitis in a population of hospitalized infants. Methods. In an analytical cross-sectional study, we determined independent predictors of the inappropriate use of diagnostic tests and management of bronchiolitis in a population of hospitalized infants. We defined a composite outcome score as the main outcome variable. Results. Of the 303 included patients, 216 (71.3%) experienced an inappropriate use of diagnostic tests and treatment of bronchiolitis. After controlling for potential confounders, it was found that atopic dermatitis (OR 5.30; CI 95% 1.14–24.79; p=0.034), length of hospital stay (OR 1.48; CI 95% 1.08–2.03; p=0.015), and the number of siblings (OR 1.92; CI 95% 1.13–3.26; p=0.015) were independent predictors of an inappropriate use of diagnostic tests and treatment of the disease. Conclusions. Inappropriate use of diagnostic tests and treatment of bronchiolitis was a highly prevalent outcome in our population of study. Participants with atopic dermatitis, a longer hospital stay, and a greater number of siblings were at increased risk for inappropriate use of diagnostic tests and management of the disease.
Surveillance Recommendations for Children with Overgrowth Syndromes and Predisposition to Wilms Tumors and Hepatoblastoma
Authors: Kalish Jennifer M. , Doros Leslie , Helman Lee J. , Hennekam Raoul C. , Kuiper Roland P. , Maas Saskia M. , Maher Eamonn R. , Nichols Kim E. , Plon Sharon E. , Porter Christopher C. , Rednam Surya , Schultz Kris Ann P. , States Lisa J. , Tomlinson Gail E. , Zelley Kristin , Druley Todd E.
Published: July 2017

A number of genetic syndromes have been linked to increased risk for Wilms tumor (WT), hepatoblastoma (HB), and other embryonal tumors. Here, we outline these rare syndromes with at least a 1% risk to develop these tumors and recommend uniform tumor screening recommendations for North America. Specifically, for syndromes with increased risk for WT, we recommend renal ultrasounds every 3 months from birth (or the time of diagnosis) through the seventh birthday. For HB, we recommend screening with full abdominal ultrasound and alpha-fetoprotein serum measurements every 3 months from birth (or the time of diagnosis) through the fourth birthday. We recommend that when possible, these patients be evaluated and monitored by cancer predisposition specialists. At this time, these recommendations are not based on the differential risk between different genetic or epigenetic causes for each syndrome, which some European centers have implemented. This differentiated approach largely represents distinct practice environments between the United States and Europe, and these guidelines are designed to be a broad framework within which physicians and families can work together to implement specific screening. Further study is expected to lead to modifications of these recommendations. Clin Cancer Res; 23(13); e115–e22. ©2017 AACR.

See all articles in the online-only CCR Pediatric Oncology Series.
Genetic Counselor Recommendations for Cancer Predisposition Evaluation and Surveillance in the Pediatric Oncology Patient
Authors: Druker Harriet , Zelley Kristin , McGee Rose B. , Scollon Sarah R. , Kohlmann Wendy K. , Schneider Katherine A. , Wolfe Schneider Kami
Published: July 2017

As the understanding of the genetic etiology of childhood cancers increases, the need for the involvement of experts familiar with the provision of genetic counseling for this population is paramount. In October 2016, the American Association for Cancer Research organized the AACR Childhood Cancer Predisposition Workshop in which international experts in pediatric cancer predisposition met to establish surveillance guidelines for children with cancer predisposition. Identifying for whom, when, why, and how these cancer predisposition surveillance guidelines should be implemented is essential. Genetic counselors invited to this workshop provide a genetic counseling framework for oncology professionals in this article. Points of entry and recommendations regarding the provision and timing of the initial and subsequent genetic counseling sessions are addressed. The genetic counseling and testing processes are reviewed, and the psychologic impact related to surveillance is explored. Pediatric cancer genetics will continue to grow and evolve as a field, and genetic counseling services will be vital to ensure appropriate identification and management of at-risk children moving forward. Clin Cancer Res; 23(13); e91–e97. ©2017 AACR.

See all articles in the online-only CCR Pediatric Oncology Series.
Identifying Biomarkers to Select Patients with Early Breast Cancer Suitable for Extended Adjuvant Endocrine Therapy
Authors: Sestak Ivana
Published: July 2017

Postmenopausal women with early oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancer who have received 5 years of endocrine therapy are at increased risk of developing a recurrence. An important clinical question is how to identify women who are at highest (or lowest) risk of a recurrence. The use of prognostic biomarkers allows individualised breast cancer therapy but correct identification of patients who will benefit most from extended endocrine therapy is essential. Several multigene assays have been developed to determine the likelihood of overall recurrence but so far none exist specifically for the prediction of late recurrence. Recent results from large clinical trials have shown that biomarker assays that include clinical information in their tests might be useful to predict and risk stratify patients for late recurrence. However, further research is needed to specifically offer multigene assays for the identification of late recurrence and thus justify routine use of these tests in the clinical setting.
Extended Adjuvant Endocrine Therapy in Hormone Receptor-Positive Early Breast Cancer
Authors: Bracken-Clarke Dara B. , Lucas Mairi W. , Higgins Michaela J.
Published: July 2017

Despite meaningful, incremental improvements in detection, local treatment and adjuvant systemic treatments for breast cancer, there remains a significant risk of late relapse in hormone receptor (HR)-positive disease. 5 years of tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor for all patients with HR-positive early breast cancer is considered standard; however, there are now data to support an extended approach using up to 10 years of treatment. This review will provide some historical background on endocrine therapy and summarize the key clinical trials that demonstrate the small absolute benefit of extended adjuvant therapy. We provide suggested treatment algorithms for both premenopausal and postmenopausal patients and an overview of ongoing adjuvant trials.
Disputa de Davos entre Ernst Cassirer e Martin Heidegger
Authors: Cassirer Ernst , Heidegger Martin , Perez André Rodrigues Ferreira
Published: July 2017

Tradução de André Rodrigues Ferreira Perez da Davoser Disputation zwischen Ernst Cassirer und Martin Heidegger, com apresentação de Rafael Rodrigues Garcia.
Gnaphosa serzonshteini, a replacement name for Gnaphosa zonsteini Fomichev & Marusik, 2017 (Araneae: Gnaphosidae)
Authors: FOMICHEV ALEXANDER A. , MARUSIK YURI M.
Published: July 2017

Gnaphosa zonsteini Fomichev & Marusik, 2017, belonging to the rasnitsyni-group, was recently described from western Mongolia based on both sexes (Fomichev & Marusik 2017). This species was named in honour of our colleague and friend Sergei L. Zonstein (Tel Aviv, Israel) on occasion of his 60th birthday. While describing it, we overlooked that this species name already existed: Gnaphosa zonsteini Ovtsharenko, Platnick & Song, 1992. That species belongs to the muscorum-group, its description was based on several females collected in Kyrgyzstan (Ovtsharenko et al. 1992), which is the only country from where it is recorded so far (Mikhailov 2013). It was also named after Sergei Zonstein, who collected the holotype. Both species are known from a single taxonomic entry (World Spider Catalog 2017).
A new species of the genus Protopolybia Ducke, 1905 (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Polistinae), with taxonomic contributions to the exigua species-group
Authors: SANTOS JOSÉ N. A. DOS JUNIOR , SILVEIRA ORLANDO T. , CARPENTER JAMES M.
Published: July 2017

A new species of Neotropical social wasp, Protopolybia lidiae Santos & Silveira, sp. nov. (Brazil: Pará) is described and illustrated. The hitherto unknown male of P. minutissima (Spinola, 1851) and the nest of P. clypeata Santos, Silveira & Carpenter, 2015, are described. Additional information on nest variation and new collection records are presented for other species of the exigua species-group.
A new species of Ascidiacea (Herdmania andamanensis sp. nov.) from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India
Authors: MONDAL JHIMLI , RAGHUNATHAN C. , CHANDRA KAILASH
Published: July 2017

Ascidians are the least explored fauna in Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India; only 85 species have been recorded from this area. The present paper describes a new species of ascidian, Herdmania andamanensis sp. nov. from Andaman and Nicobar Islands collected from two localities at the depth of 8–10 m. The species closely resembles Herdmania coutieri C. Monniot, 2002 and Herdmania mauritiana (Drasche, 1884), however differs in several anatomical characters which distinguishes it as a new species of the genus Herdmania.
A Simple Derivation of Tropical Cyclone Ventilation Theory and Its Application to Capped Surface Entropy Fluxes
Authors: Chavas Daniel R.
Published: July 2017

In a recent study, a theory was presented for the dependence of tropical cyclone intensity on the ventilation of dry air by environmental vertical wind shear. This theory was found to successfully capture the statistics of intensity dynamics in the historical record. This theory is rederived here from a simple three-term power budget and extended to analytical solutions for the complete phase space, including the change in storm intensity itself. The derivation is then generalized to the case of a capped surface entropy flux wind speed, including analytical solutions defined relative to both the traditional potential intensity and the capped-flux potential intensity. The results demonstrate that a cap on the surface entropy flux wind speed reduces the potential intensity of the system and effectively amplifies the detrimental effect of ventilation on the tropical cyclone heat engine. However, such a cap does not alter the qualitative structure of the phase-space solution for intensity change phrased relative to the capped-flux potential intensity. Thus, the wind speed dependence of surface entropy fluxes is important for intensity change in real-world storms, though it is not a necessary condition for intensification in general. Indeed, a residual power surplus may remain available to intensify a storm even in the presence of a cap, though intensification may be fully suppressed for sufficiently strong ventilation. This work complements a recent numerical simulation study and provides further evidence that there is no disconnect between extant tropical cyclone theory and the finding in numerical simulations that a storm may intensify in the presence of capped surface entropy fluxes.
The Changing Character of Twenty-First-Century Precipitation over the Western United States in the Variable-Resolution CESM
Authors: Huang Xingying , Ullrich Paul A.
Published: July 2017

The changing characters of precipitation frequency and intensity have been comprehensively investigated from the recent historical period to the end of the twenty-first century over the western United States. Variable-resolution Community Earth System Model (VR-CESM) ensemble simulations are applied with a fine grid resolution of ~0.25° over the study area. Simulations are forced with prescribed sea surface temperatures, sea ice extent, and greenhouse gas concentrations from the representative concentration pathway 8.5 (RCP8.5) scenario. VR-CESM is shown to be effective at accurately capturing the spatial patterns of the historical precipitation climatology. The results of VR-CESM output provide significantly regional details with crucial enhancement of precipitation representations over complex terrain. In the Intermountain West and U.S. Southwest, a statistically significant increase in mean precipitation and rainy days through midcentury is observed, although this trend is tempered by the end of the century in response to a decrease in relative humidity. Over the Pacific Northwest, extreme precipitation events are observed to increase significantly as a result of increased cool season integrated vapor transport associated with a moistening of the cool seasons and drying through the warm seasons. In particular, extreme precipitation in this region appears to increase more rapidly than would be predicted by the Clausius–Clapeyron relationship. No clear climate signal emerges in mean precipitation or extreme events in the majority of California, where the precipitation climatology is attributed to large interannual variabilities that are tied closely to ENSO patterns.
Global Atmospheric Teleconnections and Multidecadal Climate Oscillations Driven by Southern Ocean Convection
Authors: Cabré Anna , Marinov Irina , Gnanadesikan Anand
Published: July 2017

A 1000-yr control simulation in a low-resolution coupled atmosphere–ocean model from the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) family of climate models shows a natural, highly regular multidecadal oscillation between periods of Southern Ocean (SO) open-ocean convection and nonconvective periods. It is shown here that convective periods are associated with warming of the SO sea surface temperatures (SSTs), and more broadly of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) SSTs and atmospheric temperatures. This SO warming results in a decrease in the meridional gradient of SSTs in the SH, changing the large-scale pressure patterns, reducing the midlatitude baroclinicity and thus the magnitude of the southern Ferrel and Hadley cells, and weakening the SO westerly winds and the SH tropical trade winds. The rearrangement of the atmospheric circulation is consistent with the global energy balance. During convective decades, the increase in incoming top-of-the-atmosphere radiation in the SH is balanced by an increase in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) outgoing radiation. The energy supplying this increase is carried by enhanced atmospheric transport across the equator, as the intertropical convergence zone and associated wind patterns shift southward, toward the anomalously warmer SH. While the critical role of the SO for climate on long, paleoclimate time scales is now beyond debate, the strength and global scale of the teleconnections observed here also suggest an important role for the SO in global climate dynamics on the shorter interannual and multidecadal time scales.
Classifications of Winter Euro-Atlantic Circulation Patterns: An Intercomparison of Five Atmospheric Reanalyses
Authors: Stryhal Jan , Huth Radan
Published: July 2017

Atmospheric reanalyses have been widely used to study large-scale atmospheric circulation and its links to local weather and to validate climate models. Only little effort has so far been made to compare reanalyses over the Euro-Atlantic domain, with the exception of a few studies analyzing North Atlantic cyclones. In particular, studies utilizing automated classifications of circulation patterns—one of the most popular methods in synoptic climatology—have paid little or no attention to the issue of reanalysis evaluation. Here, five reanalyses [ERA-40; NCEP-1; JRA-55; Twentieth Century Reanalysis, version 2 (20CRv2); and ECMWF twentieth-century reanalysis (ERA-20C)] are compared as to the frequency of occurrence of circulation types (CTs) over eight European domains in winters 1961–2000. Eight different classifications are used in parallel with the intention to eliminate possible artifacts of individual classification methods. This also helps document how substantial effect a choice of method can have if one quantifies differences between reanalyses. In general, ERA-40, NCEP-1, and JRA-55 exhibit a fairly small portion of days (under 8%) classified to different CTs if pairs of reanalyses are compared, with two exceptions: over Iceland, NCEP-1 shows disproportionately high frequencies of CTs with cyclones shifted south- and eastward; over the eastern Mediterranean region, ERA-40 and NCEP-1 disagree on classification of about 22% of days. The 20CRv2 is significantly different from other reanalyses over all domains and has a clearly suppressed frequency of zonal CTs. Finally, validation of 32 CMIP5 models over the eastern Mediterranean region reveals that using different reanalyses can considerably alter errors in the CT frequency of models and their rank.
Determining Near-Surface Soil Heat Flux Density Using the Gradient Method: A Thermal Conductivity Model–Based Approach
Authors: Peng Xiaoyang , Heitman Joshua , Horton Robert , Ren Tusheng
Published: July 2017

In the gradient method, soil heat flux density at a known depth G is determined as the product of soil thermal conductivity λ and temperature T gradient. While measuring λ in situ is difficult, many field studies readily support continuous, long-term monitoring of soil T and water content θ in the vadose zone. In this study, the performance of the gradient method is evaluated for estimating near-surface G using modeled λ and measured T. Hourly λ was estimated using a model that related λ to θ, soil bulk density ρb, and texture at 2-, 6-, and 10-cm depths. Soil heat flux Gm was estimated from modeled λ and measured T gradient (from thermocouples). The Gm results were evaluated with heat flux data GHP determined using independent measured λ and T gradient from heat-pulse probes. The λ model performed well at the three depths with 3.3%–7.4% errors. The Gm estimates were similar to GHP (agreed to within 15.1%), with the poorest agreement at the 2-cm soil depth, which was caused mainly by the relatively greater variability in ρb. Accounting for temporal variations in ρb (with core method) improved the accuracies of λ and Gm at the 2-cm depth. Automated θ monitoring approaches (e.g., time domain reflectometry), rather than gravimetric sampling, captured the temporal dynamics of near-surface λ and G well. It is concluded that with continuous θ and T measurements, the λ model–based gradient method can provide reliable near-surface G. Under conditions of soil disturbance or deformation, including temporally variable ρb, data improves the accuracy of G data.
Diurnal Preconditioning of Subtropical Coastal Convective Storm Environments
Authors: Soderholm Joshua S. , McGowan Hamish A. , Richter Harald , Walsh Kevin , Wedd Tony , Weckwerth Tammy M.
Published: July 2017

Boundary layer evolution in response to diurnal forcing is manifested at the mesobeta and smaller scales of the atmosphere. Because this variability resides on subsynoptic scales, the potential influence upon convective storm environments is often not captured in coarse observational and modeling datasets, particularly for complex physical settings such as coastal regions. A detailed observational analysis of diurnally forced preconditioning for convective storm environments of South East Queensland, Australia (SEQ), during the Coastal Convective Interactions Experiment (2013–15) is presented. The observations used include surface-based measurements, aerological soundings, and dual-polarization Doppler radar. The sea-breeze circulation was found to be the dominant influence; however, profile modification by the coastward advection of the continental boundary layer was found to be an essential mechanism for favorable preconditioning of deep convection. This includes 1) enhanced moisture in the city of Brisbane, potentiality due to an urban heat island–enhanced land–sea thermal contrast, 2) significant afternoon warming and moistening above the sea breeze resulting from the advection of the inland convective boundary layer coastward under prevailing westerly flow coupled with the sea-breeze return flow, and 3) substantial variations in near-surface moisture likely associated with topography and land use. For the 27 November 2014 Brisbane hailstorm, which caused damages exceeding $1.5 billion Australian dollars (AUD), the three introduced diurnal preconditioning processes are shown to favor a mesoscale convective environment supportive of large hailstone growth. The hybrid high-precipitation supercell storm mode noted for this event and previous similar events in SEQ is hypothesized to be more sensitive to variations in near-surface and boundary layer instability in contrast to contemporary supercell storms.
Brain Disorders and Language Analysis
Authors: Luria A. R.
Published: July 2017

Separate regions of the cortex form complicated systems for the analysis and synthesis of visual, auditory, kinaesthetic and motor stimuli. Focal lesions of the brain produce a break-down in such analysis and synthesis and lead to a secondary disturbance of a whole complex of functions.

Lesions in the left temporal zone cause a break-down in the discrimination and generalisation of sound patterns, and above all in phonemic auditory perception. This in turn affects pronunciation and writing, and also the structure of word-meanings. This failure at the lexical level affects the various parts of a word in different degrees: the roots of words, which carry the more concrete meaning, are lost, while suffixes, with their more abstract meaning, are retained.

Clinical observation of different cases throws light on the distinction between the “communication of events” and the “communication of relations”. Lesions in the parietal and parieto-occipital areas produce a failure in dealing with “communications of relations”, a failure to combine a number of elements into a single whole. When these lesions extend to the borders of the speech area, they entail a further break-down in operations that require the abstraction of a scheme of reference. “Communication of relations” necessitates precisely this operation and this explains why patients with parieto-occipital lesions are often unable to deal with such communications.

Lesions in the fronto-temporal areas affect the synthesis of successive elements and hence lead to a failure in “propositionizing”.

In all cases of parieto-occipital lesion the “regulating” function of speech remains intact. Animal experiments have shown that ablation of the frontal sections of the cortex completely upsets the regulation of the animal's behaviour. In man, frontal lesions interfere with the regulating function of speech without affecting other speech functions.
Some Effects of Word Learning in Imbeciles
Authors: O'Connorb N. , Hermelin B.
Published: July 2017

Two experiments concerned with generalisation between words in imbecile children were carried out. The first of these compared the effects of learning three word lists, differently connected with a common list of test words, for amount and direction of transfer on the second task. It was found that while no difference in rates of learning occurred in the control group, negative transfer effects were evident with subjects who learned two lists of near synonyms. A group who learned two lists of near homonyms needed fewer trials on the second task. Transfer was found to be independent of I.Q. level. It was concluded that learning sets, leading to generalisation along semantic as well as physical dimensions, could be built up in imbeciles. In the second experiment word associations to the words in the common test list were related to previous learning experience. Word associations were shown to fall into two main classes of either meaningfully related or unconnected responses. Only a small number of “clang” associations were given. While such tendencies were not significantly altered by previous training in either neutral or sound connected word learning, learning of near synonyms significantly strengthened the tendency to give meaningfully connected word associations.
A Quantitative Typology of Languages
Authors: Krámský Jiři
Published: July 2017

This paper discusses the necessity for a quantitative investigation of qualitative linguistic facts, mentions several conceptions of typology and deals in detail with the classification into vocalic and consonantal languages. The main task of the paper is to attempt to classify languages according to the manner in which they exploit particular kinds of consonants. The exploitation of the sounds of a language is given by the relation of the sounds of the inventory to their relative occurrence in texts. Having examined 23 languages, the author distinguishes, on the basis of the distribution of consonant articulations, three types of language according to the manner of articulation and similarly three types of language according to the place of articulation.
Word Length and Intelligibility
Authors: Rubenstein H. , Decker L. , Pollack I.
Published: July 2017

Intelligibility tests were conducted with monosyllabic, bisyllabic and trisyllabic words under conditions of known and unknown message sets. Longer words were found to be more intelligible than shorter words in both known and unknown message sets. Differences in intelligibility among the different lengths are interpreted in terms of acoustic discriminability and relative word frequency.
Defining Linear Context to Resolve Lexical Ambiguity
Authors: Koutsoudas Andreas
Published: July 2017

This paper sets out a mechanical procedure for eliminating ambiguities in machine translation in cases where a word in the source language has a number of equivalents in the target language. The procedure depends on the inspection of linear word context and the establishing of “diagnostic environments” for the ambiguous words. In the experiment described, the context was restricted to one word before and one following the ambiguous word. It demonstrated that considerable reduction in the number of ambiguities can be achieved by the procedure and that the word following the ambiguous word is more effective than the word preceding in resolving the ambiguity.
Some Effects of Semantic and Grammatical Context on the Production and Perception of Speech
Authors: Lieberman Philip
Published: July 2017

Three speakers read aloud meaningful grammatical English sentences at a fast rate. Some of these sentences contained common maxims and stereotyped phrases. Other sentences which were less familiar contained, in similar phonetic environments, certain test words that also occurred in the stereotyped sentences. The test words were “excised”, i.e., gated out of all the sentences, and listening tests were performed by 43 listeners. Quite apart from these listening tests two operational measures of redundancy were derived. One measure was based on a Markovian model of perception and readers were asked to guess what word n would be after they had read all the words through word n–1 in a sentence. The second measure was based on the hypothesis that people reserve their final decision on the recognition of each word until they perceive an entire sentence. Readers read an entire sentence in the midst of which a word was represented by a dash. They were then asked to guess what the missing word was. Two groups of thirty readers each performed these written tests on the sentences from which the test words had been excised. Indexes of redundancy were computed for each test word from the percent of correct guesses that occurred for the two written tests.

The results of the listening tests show that the intelligibility of the excised words is inversely proportional to the redundancy index obtained from the total sentence context. Two acoustic correlates of linguistic stress (duration and amplitude) were measured for each excised word. Stress is also apparently inversely proportional to the sentence context redundancy measure. The results of this experiment support the hypothesis that both the acoustic realization and auditory perception of a given word in a meaningful sentence may be a function of the speaker's and listener's knowledge of the semantic and grammatical information contained in the entire sentence. The experimental results also indicate that, in some circumstances, a listener may be able to identify a word only after he adapts to the speaker's voice.
The Relation between Identification and Discrimination along Speech and Non-Speech Continua
Authors: Eimas Peter D.
Published: July 2017

In order to investigate the perception of simple unidimensional non-speech stimuli and synthetic speech stimuli in a manner permitting direct comparisons, identification and discrimination functions were obtained by the method of ABX for three series of duration stimuli, one series of reflectance stimuli, and a series of speech sounds, the stop consonants /b, d, g/. These results were also compared with those from earlier studies investigating synthetic vowels (/i, e, ε, æ/) and consonants (/d, t/).

Identification of the consonants was marked by abrupt transitions between phonemic categories and small context effects, while discrimination functions demonstrated greater discriminability between rather than within categories. Moreover, discrimination functions predicted from identification responses were close approximations of the obtained discrimination. Thus, perception of the consonants was essentially categorical. Vowel perception, however, was continuous: the identification functions showed less steep boundaries, discriminability was quite acute for all stimuli, and, unlike the stops, considerably better than identification. in addition, identification of the vowels was found to be greatly influenced by context. Perception of non-speech stimuli was much like that of the vowels, though category boundaries were more abrupt and context effects were less. The data were in accord with a motor theory of speech perception whereby the perceptual event is cued directly by neural representations of feedback stimulation arising from articulatory movements. This is in contrast to perception of non-speech stimuli which is cued directly by the external stimulation.
The Effect of Subject Sex, Verbal Interaction and Topical Focus on Speech Disruption
Authors: Feldstein Stanley , Brenner Marcia S. , Jaffe Joseph
Published: July 2017

Forty-eight men and forty-eight women participated in four consecutive 5 minute subinterviews, two of which were concerned with personal problem content and two which were concerned with non-problem topics. in one problem and one non-problem subinterview the subject and experimenter engaged in naturalistic verbal interaction; in the other problem and non-problem subinterviews the talking was done only by the subject. The obtained speech samples were scored for proportions of Ah (filled pauses) and non-Ah speech disturbances. Statistical analysis indicated that the Ah ratio differentiated the sex groups although the non-Ah ratio did not. Higher non-Ah ratios were elicited by the interactive and problem subinterviews than by the non-interactive and non-problem subinterviews and there was a significant interaction effect. The male group emitted higher proportions of filled pauses in the interactive and problem subinterviews while the female group emitted higher proportions only in the interactive subinterviews and was not differentially affected by the problem and non-problem subinterviews. A post hoc analysis of verbal rate revealed that, like the non-Ah ratio, it differentiates interactive and non-interactive and problem and non-problem sub-interviews and shows a significant interaction effect. in addition, comparisons were made of the dependent variables with age, educational level, and a brief estimate of verbal intelligence.
Voice Quality Changes in Depression
Authors: Hargreaves William A. , Starkweather John A.
Published: July 2017

Voice spectra are utilised to track daily shifts in mood in eight acutely disturbed psychiatric patients. Two mood criteria, a self-description and an interviewer rating, were obtained. Multiple regression of voice spectra on to these two criterion measures, using a cross validation design, yielded moderately good prediction for some patients.
The Perception of Timing in Natural Speech I: Compensation Within the Syllable
Authors: Huggins A.W.F.
Published: July 2017

It has been shown that errors in the timing of one phoneme in natural speech tend to be compensated in the next phoneme. The experiments reported here looked for similar effects in perception. Just-noticeable-differences were measured for increases and decreases in the duration of a [p]-closure in a naturally produced sentence. The measurements were made on two versions of the sentence that were identical except for the duration of the stressed vowel that followed the [p]-closure. A 50 msec. change in the duration of the vowel produced no compensatory change in the preferred duration of the [p]-closure.
Effects of Feedback Availability Upon Generation of Left- and Right-Branching Sentence Structures
Authors: Tannenbaum Percy H. , Wood Barbara Sundene , Williams Frederick
Published: July 2017

It was reasoned that the capacity of short-term memory places limitations upon the syntactic structures produced by the human speaker, but that such limitations would be compensated for if the encoder had a continuous record (feedback) of his production during the creation of a sentence. Accordingly, this experiment involved having subjects create left-branching and right-branching sentence patterns (the former presumed to impose more demands upon short-term memory than the latter) under typewriting conditions where feedback was either available or was denied. Results indicated that although left-branching took relatively more processing time than right-branching, the anticipated interaction with feedback conditions was not realized. Moreover, in terms of error-rate, it was found that right-branching, rather than the predicted left-branching, was facilitated by the presence of feedback.
Distinctive Features in the Pluralization Rules of English Speakers
Authors: Anisfeld Moshe , Barlow Judith , Frail Catherine M.
Published: July 2017

First and second graders, given CVC singulars (e.g., NAR) orally and asked to choose between two plurals (NARF-NARK), preferred final sounds sharing with /z/ the stridency or continuance features. This suggests that their pluralization rules are formulated in terms of distinctive features rather than sound segments. Kindergarten children and adults showed no such preferences.
Experimentally-Elicited Articulatory Behaviour
Authors: Locke John L.
Published: July 2017

One hundred and six English-speaking young children attempted to learn the production of three non-English phones. In their struggles to learn difficult new articulations, these children revealed interesting phonetic-phonemic behaviour, some of which seems to parallel natural articulation development and some which is not ordinarily observable outside an experimental setting. Observations and discussion relate specifically to vowel and consonant learning, age differences in sound learning, and certain characteristic resolutions of phonetic difficulties considered within a distinctive-feature framework.
Rate Alterations in Oral Reading
Authors: Gilbert John H. , Burk Kenneth W.
Published: July 2017

The present investigation represented an attempt to evaluate perceptual alterations in reading rate employing a ratio scaling technique.

The volunteer subjects of the study were 12 young adult undergraduate women with demonstrated normal speech and hearing. The mean age was 21 years one month. The subjects participated for a total of six hours over a period of ten days testing.

In order to establish a standard reading rate for each subject the mean word per minute rate for 15 readings of a set passage was first determined. The one reading where the word per minute rate mostly closely approximated that mean was selected as subject Standard.

One hundred and twenty reading samples were then obtained from each subject using the Standard stimulus. These samples represented an equal number of multiplications of the Standard (one-quarter and one-half faster) and an equal number of fractionations of the Standard (three-quarters, one-half and one-quarter of the Standard).

The readings were analysed for total time and phonation time. From these measurements, word per minute rates and phonation time ratios were computed. Mean and variability and measures of the per cent absolute differences between Standards and Ratio Productions (multiplication and fractionation) were then determined.

A single factor analysis of variance procedure for repeated measures was applied to the data. When significant F-ratios were obtained, further probing of data was accomplished using the Newman-Keuls test.

The results indicated that there is a significant increase in word per minute rate for the range of ratio productions studied; that is, in going from the slowest to the fastest reading rate. It was noted, however, that in no case did the observed difference in reading rate equal the expected differences. A statistically significant difference was observed between the phonation time ratios for multiplications and fractionations; however, there were no significant differences within multiplications or within fractionations. The following conclusions are suggested:

(1) Significant alterations occur in the reading output of subjects while making perceptual judgements of their oral reading rate. In faster than normal alterations less perceptual change in rate is necessary than in comparable slower than normal alterations.

(2) No significant changes in phonation time ratio are associated with changes within the levels of multiplication or fractionation although a significant change is observed between multiplication and fractionation suggesting that within limits phonation time ratio may not reflect extreme alterations in reading rate.