bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Attention Differentially Affects Acoustic and Phonetic Feature Encoding in a Multispeaker Environment
Authors: Teoh Emily S. , Ahmed Farhin , Lalor Edmund C. 
Published: December 2021

Humans have the remarkable ability to selectively focus on a single talker in the midst of other competing talkers. The neural mechanisms that underlie this phenomenon remain incompletely understood. In particular, there has been longstanding debate over whether attention operates at an early or late stage in the speech processing hierarchy. One way to better understand this is to examine how attention might differentially affect neurophysiological indices of hierarchical acoustic and linguistic speech representations. In this study, we do this by using encoding models to identify neural correlates of speech processing at various levels of representation. Specifically, we recorded EEG from fourteen human subjects (nine female and five male) during a “cocktail party” attention experiment. Model comparisons based on these data revealed phonetic feature processing for attended, but not unattended speech. Furthermore, we show that attention specifically enhances isolated indices of phonetic feature processing, but that such attention effects are not apparent for isolated measures of acoustic processing. These results provide new insights into the effects of attention on different prelexical representations of speech, insights that complement recent anatomic accounts of the hierarchical encoding of attended speech. Furthermore, our findings support the notion that, for attended speech, phonetic features are processed as a distinct stage, separate from the processing of the speech acoustics.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTHumans are very good at paying attention to one speaker in an environment with multiple speakers. However, the details of how attended and unattended speech are processed differently by the brain is not completely clear. Here, we explore how attention affects the processing of the acoustic sounds of speech as well as the mapping of those sounds onto categorical phonetic features. We find evidence of categorical phonetic feature processing for attended, but not unattended speech. Furthermore, we find evidence that categorical phonetic feature processing is enhanced by attention, but acoustic processing is not. These findings add an important new layer in our understanding of how the human brain solves the cocktail party problem.
Synaptic Input and ACh Modulation Regulate Dendritic Ca2+Spike Duration in Pyramidal Neurons, Directly Affecting Their Somatic Output
Authors: Dudai Amir , Doron Michael , Segev Idan , London Michael 
Published: December 2021

Nonlinear synaptic integration in dendrites is a fundamental aspect of neural computation. One such key mechanism is the Ca2+spike at the apical tuft of pyramidal neurons. Characterized by a plateau potential sustained for tens of milliseconds, the Ca2+spike amplifies excitatory input, facilitates somatic action potentials (APs), and promotes synaptic plasticity. Despite its essential role, the mechanisms regulating it are largely unknown. Using a compartmental model of a layer 5 pyramidal cell (L5PC), we explored the plateau and termination phases of the Ca2+spike under input current perturbations, long-step current-injections, and variations in the dendritic high-voltage-activated Ca2+conductance (that occur during cholinergic modulation). We found that, surprisingly, timed excitatory input can shorten the Ca2+spike duration while inhibitory input can either elongate or terminate it. A significant elongation also occurs when the high-voltage-activated Ca2+channels (CaHVA) conductance is increased. To mechanistically understand these phenomena, we analyzed the currents involved in the spike. The plateau and termination phases are almost exclusively controlled by the CaHVAinward current and the Imoutward K+current. We reduced the full model to a single-compartment model that faithfully preserved the responses of the Ca2+spike to interventions and consisted of two dynamic variables: the membrane potential and the K+-channel activation level. A phase-plane analysis of the reduced model provides testable predictions for modulating the Ca2+spike and reveals various dynamical regimes that explain the robust nature of the spike. Regulating the duration of the Ca2+spike significantly impacts the cell synaptic-plasticity window and, as we show, its input-output relationship.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTPyramidal neurons are the cortex's principal projection neurons. In their apical tuft, dendritic Ca2+spikes significantly impact information processing, synaptic plasticity, and the cell's input-output relationship. Therefore, it is essential to understand the mechanisms regulating them. Using a compartmental model of a layer 5 pyramidal cell (L5PC), we explored the Ca2+spike responses to synaptic perturbations and cholinergic modulation. We showed a counterintuitive phenomenon: early excitatory input shortens the spike, whereas weak inhibition elongates it. Also, we demonstrated that acetylcholine (ACh) extends the spike. Through a reduced model containing only the membrane potential and the K+-channel activation level, we explained these phenomena using a phase-plane analysis. Our work provides new information about the robustness of the Ca2+spike and its controlling mechanisms.
Genetic Reduction of Mitochondria Complex I Subunits is Protective against Cisplatin-Induced Neurotoxicity inDrosophila
Authors: Groen Christopher M. , Podratz Jewel L. , Pathoulas Joe , Staff Nathan , Windebank Anthony J. 
Published: December 2021

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a prevalent side effect of widely used platinum-based anticancer agents. There are few predictable risk factors with which to identify susceptible patients. Effective preventive measures or treatments are not available. Here, we have used a model of CIPN inDrosophila melanogasterto identify genetic changes that confer resistance to cisplatin-induced neuronal damage but not in the rapidly dividing cells of the ovary. TheDrosophilastrainattP40, used as a genetic background for the creation of RNAi lines, is resistant to cisplatin damage compared with the similarattP2background strain.attP40flies have reduced mRNA expression ofND-13A, a component of the mitochondria electron transport chain complex I. Reduction ofND-13Avia neuron-specific RNAi leads to resistance to the dose-dependent climbing deficiencies and neuronal apoptosis observed in control flies. These flies are also resistant to acute oxidative stress, suggesting a mechanism for resistance to cisplatin. The mitochondria ofattP40flies function similarly to controlattP2mitochondria under normal conditions. Mitochondria are damaged by cisplatin, leading to reduced activity, butattP40mitochondria are able to retain function and even increase basal respiration rates in response to this stress. This retained mitochondrial activity is likely mediated by Sirt1 and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator-1α, and is key to cisplatin resistance. Our findings represent the potential for both identification of susceptible patients and prevention of CIPN through the targeting of mitochondria.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTChemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy is a major, debilitating side effect of many platinum-based cancer drugs. There are few available screening tools to identify patients at risk, and there are no effective treatments. Here, we report a novel genetic change that confers resistance to cisplatin-induced neurotoxicity in aDrosophilamodel while preserving the toxic effect in rapidly dividing cells. This work has the potential to influence patient susceptibility testing and development of novel CIPN preventive treatments.
TETRALOGY OF FALLOT: ESPECIALLY THE CARE OF THE CYANOTIC INFANT AND CHILD
Authors: TAUSSIG HELEN B. 
Published: December 2021

A patient with a tetralogy of Fallot may be greatly improved by operation. Childhood is the ideal time for operation. In infancy the mortality rate is high and the long-time results are less satisfactory. Therefore, whenever possible it is wise to postpone operation until childhood.
An infant with a tetralogy of Fallot may not be cyanotic at birth. Difficulty in feeding may be the initial complaint. Digestion is difficult; small and frequent feedings are usually indicated.
Attacks of cyanosis and paroxysmal dyspnea are prone to occur as the ductus arteriosus undergoes obliteration. Paroxysmal dyspnea is best treated by placing the child in a kneechest position. If this does not give immediate relief, morphine should be used. A dose of 1.0 mg./5 kg. body weight is almost specific for the relief of paroxysmal dyspnea.
Anemia is treated by blood transfusions.
Cerebral thromboses when they occur in an infant with polycythemia should be treated with oxygen, venesection and the replacement of blood by plasma, 5% glucose or saline solution. Heparin may be a great help in the prevention of residual cerebral thrombosis.
If an infant is in great danger of dying of anoxemia, surgery holds the possibility of tremendous benefit. Two such cases are cited.
REVIEW OF PRIVATE PRACTICE: PEDIATRICIANS AND GENERAL PRACTITIONERS
Authors: HUBBARD JOHN P. , ZIBIT SAMUEL 
Published: December 2021

THE preceding paper has described a composite picture of the total volume of medical service for children in eight selected states. This summary has induded medical care and health supervision given to children in hospitals, clinics, health conferences and by physicians in private practice. We may now examine in more detail one part of this total picture: private practice of pediatricians and general practitioners.
It should be kept clearly in mind that we are dealing only with physicians in private practice. Medical care rendered to children by those who are engaged in full-time academic positions is, for the most part, inseparable from hospital services; and, therefore, has not been included as a part of private practice. Excluded, also, are those physicians in administrative and research activities and those employed by federal, state and local health agencies.
For the purposes of this Study we have defined a pediatrician as a physician who says that he limits his practice to children. According to this definition, the Study listed 3,487 pediatricians in private practice in the United States; nearly one-half of these are members of the Academy, Table I. As of January 1947 the membership of the Academy within the United States was 1,909. Eighty per cent of this membership was engaged in private practice. An item which may be of considerable interest to the American Board of Pediatrics is the fact that of all pediatricians practicing in the country 51% are certified.
The distribution of pediatricians, indicated on a map of the United States (Fig. 1), shows a heavy concentration in the northeastern part of the United States. New York,[See Fig. 1 in Source Pdf] New Jersey and Pennsylvania combined account for 1,152, or approximately one-third of the pediatricians of the country. The concentration of pediatricians in urban centers is emphasized further by the fact that 75% of those in private practice are located in cities of 50,000 or more population.
A STUDY OF AN ENRICHED CEREAL IN CHILD FEEDING
Authors: URBACH CHARLES , MACK PAULINE BEERY , STOKES JOSEPH 
Published: December 2021

The value of a special enriched breakfast cereal in feeding elementary school children was studied during the school year 1943 to 1944 and again during 1944 to 1945. The children used in the investigation were among those receiving a school lunch upon the advice of a physician or nurse in the school system of which the children were a part, because they had been found to be more than 10% underweight during the fall routine medical examination. Their home dietaries were inadequate, as shown by calculations and by medical and nutritional observations on the children themselves, and the school lunches failed to compensate for the poor home food intake. The duration of the study during each school year was seven months. None of the persons making the technical evaluations knew to which experimental group individual children belonged.
Methods of the Study
Experimental Subjects: During each of the two years during which the study proceeded, three groups of children constituted the experimental subjects, as stated; these averaged slightly over 11 years of age, and were matched initially as to age, sex, response to the medical observations and nutrition tests, family economic status, and type of school lunch received. The children were grouped as follows in this investigation: In addition to the school lunch, Group A received the enriched cereal; Group B received a common farina of equal caloric value; and Group C received no cereal at school. Of 55 children initially in each of the three experimental groups during the first
PENICILLIN THERAPY OF LATE CONGENITAL SYPHILIS
Authors: PLATOU RALPH V. , KOMETANI JOHN T. 
Published: December 2021

Though no valid comparisons can be made until more patients have been treated and followed for a longer time, it seems to us that penicillin used alone is at least as effective as any other single agent for the treatment of late congenital syphilis. To what extent treatment or time alone contribute to improvements cannot yet be stated. Most of the clinical and serologic indications of healing developed rather slowly; in only a few patients with the most superficial lesions were there objective signs of improvement during therapy.
The treatment schedules we employed are similar to those previously recommended for infants. At present we advise a total dosage comprising at least 100,000 units commercial penicillin per kilogram body weight, divided into 100 equal intramuscular injections and given at two to three hour intervals around the clock for eight or more days. Therapeutic reactions, entirely febrile in nature, have all been transient and benign. There were no deaths. We believe that the simplicity, safety and convenience of these plans make them preferable to the more costly, hazardous, and time-consuming older methods; further-more, they effectively curtail the appallingly high delinquency rates formerly prevailing.
Results were significantly better for children treated under six years of age than they were for older children, and also for those who had normal spinal fluid before treatment; they were suggestively but not significantly better among those for whom the larger dosage schedules were used. Outcome was significantly worse in those who had received previous treatment of any sort. There were just three relapse—two defined only serologically, and one by a questionable recurrence of interstitial keratitis.
About a quarter of those with latent congenital syphilis have become seronegative. The poorest results ensued for patients with clinical neurosyphilis; two children from this group continued to exhibit definite deterioration. For interstitial keratitis, results were most gratifying in two patients treated within a month of onset. Seventy-two per cent of all patients with late congenital syphilis so far treated with penicillin and followed for more than two months are clinically well and have negative serologic reactions or progressively declining titers.
THE COMMITTEE FOR IMPROVEMENT OF CHILD HEALTH
Authors: WILSON JAMES L. 
Published: December 2021

It seems to me that it is best this afternoon that I do not simply read to you the formal report of the Committee for Improvement of Child Health, since that has already been submitted to the Executive Board of the American Academy of Pediatrics, accepted by it, and will soon be published. I would rather spend this time to develop further the ideas that are stated there. I believe that whatever I say will represent the general consensus of the members of the Committee, but the formal expression of their views I leave, as I have said, to the printed report, and only I am responsible for the details of this afternoon's report.
As information resulting from the Academy's Study of Child Health Services became available, and as we grew in our understanding of the problems involved, it became more and more apparent that this work of the Academy concerned with the health of our nation's children could not stop with the end of the survey without great loss, particularly to the Academy itself. It was clear that the Academy was being projected into a position of great influence and authority because of the completeness and uniqueness of the information which it had gathered, but that this position of authority, with the influence it might give us towards directing future activities regarding child health in this country, could soon be lost.
Information such as we have obtained becomes quickly obsolete. Changes are going on constantly in our dynamic nation, and in a very short time any opinion which we might have based on this survey could be considered out-dated. It was apparent also that the demand for assistance by various organizations having common purposes with our own, the demand for technical and professional advice, would be greatly increased by the gradual dissemination of knowledge that would result from the survey and that we would be constantly approached for advice and for assistance, especially in the field of medical education with which the survey dealt most importantly.
This idea was transmitted to the Executive Board. The result was ultimately the formation of the Committee for Improvement of Child Health.
THE ROUTINE USE OF SEDATIVES IN INFANT FEEDING
Authors: ALDRICH C. ANDERSON 
Published: December 2021

ON FEBRUARY 24, 1948, Dr. Stewart H. Clifford, Chairman of the Committee on Care of the Fetus and Newborn of the American Academy of Pediatrics, wrote me a letter as follows:
"On Ocober 15, 1947, . . . Health Officer, Department of Health, . . . Washington, wrote to the American Academy of Pediatrics through Dr. Grulee as follows: `Thank you for your opinion regarding the use of phenobarbital in the baby's feeding. As we gather more word of mouth information, it would seem that this is a common practice among certain physicians in this community, and is not based on individual problems but is established as a routine procedure.'
"At Dr. Grulee's suggestion Dr. . . . wrote to me on October 23, 1947, as follows: `Dr. Grulee, Secretary-Treasurer of the American Academy of Pediatrics, has suggested that we refer our question regarding infant sleeping habits to you.
SOME EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH RESPIRATORY INSUFFICIENCY IN POLIOMYELITIS
Authors: GRULEE CLIFFORD G. 
Published: December 2021

EVERY physician who has cared for a patient acutely ill with poliomyelitis is necessarily impressed with the psychologic impact of this disease. Yet if a search is made for writings on this subject, little information is found. There may be several reasons for this. Poliomyelitis as an acute disease is of relatively short duration, and in a general sense the issue is promptly determined. As a consequence, the physician has little opportunity to collaborate with the psychiatrist, or to evaluate the emotional status of his patients with a view toward clinical investigation of the point. Probably of greater importance is the physician's knowledge that psychologic problems differ only in degree from those associated with other diseases. Stated another way, he is on familiar, though very difficult and perplexing ground.
Since poliomyelitis is an epidemic disease, it frequently follows that the work-load of the physician does not permit allocation of time necessary for proper handling of emotional problems. This becomes particularly true if the diagnosis automatically means admission to a "Polio Unit." Facilities in such units are primarily geared to specialized care of a few complicated and severe cases, but may become overcrowded and understaffed by the unselective and routine admission of any affected individual. Only the "don'ts" of dealing with social and psychologic problems can be recorded from such experiences.
In this discussion, interest is chiefly in the respiratory complications of poliomyelitis, but from the standpoint of the patient's emotional reactions we cannot disregard a compounding of anxiety-producing factors. First, we are dealing with a sick individual and the constellation of his family and community.
PRESSURE-TIME RELATIONS IN THE SAFE CORRECTION OF ATELECTASIS IN ANIMAL LUNGS
Authors: DAY RICHARD , GOODFELLOW ALICE M. , APGAR VIRGINIA , BECK GUSTAV J. 
Published: December 2021

Observations on animal lungs have been made which support the following statements: Injury to lungs is caused by overdistention.
Distention is related to time as well as to the pressure exerted.
A certain minimum pressure must be exerted to correct atelectasis. To employ this pressure safely, its duration must be limited.
The combinations of pressure and time which produce satisfactory inflation in rat, rabbit and pig lungs are very similar to each other. Research is needed to find the combinations which are utilized by the normal newborn infant and which might be suitable in positive pressure resuscitation.
No practical application has so far been attempted of the methods of inflation which have been described. Small differences in the duration of each positive pressure inflation determine the safety of the procedure. Clinical application is a subject for future research.
IMPORTANCE OF EARLY SURGICAL TREATMENT OF CRANIOSYNOSTOSIS
Authors: MCLAURIN ROBERT L. , MATSON DONALD D. 
Published: December 2021

One hundred and twenty children have been treated surgically for premature fusion of the cranial sutures in this clinic.
Thirty-six of these have been operated on in the first six months of life and constitute the material on which this report is based. These have included 19 instances of sagittal suture closure, 10 of coronal closure, 5 of multiple suture involvement and 2 miscellaneous cases.
The marked reduction in incidence and degree of mental retardation, the prevention of visual impairment, and the improvement in cosmetic appearance which can be achieved by recognition and surgical treatment of this lesion in early infancy are emphasized.
The operation of choice in this clinic is linear craniectomy parallel to the suture which is prematurely fused with insertion of polyethylene film over the bony margins to delay closure.
With proper precautions and supportive treatment this type of surgery is well tolerated and the complications are negligible during the first few months of life.