High Functional Load Research Articles

Functional load of fundamental frequency in the native language predicts learning and use of these cues in second-language speech segmentation

This study investigates whether second-language (L2) learners make greater use of prosodic cues to word boundaries if these cues have a higher functional load in the native language (L1). It examines the use of fundamental-frequency (F0) rise in the segmentation of French speech by English- and Dutch-speaking L2 learners of French matched in French proficiency and experience (and native French listeners). In both English and Dutch, an F0 rise tends to signal word-initial boundaries in pitch-accented words with initial stress, but English has more vowel reduction than Dutch, and thus full vowels also signal word-initial boundaries in English. By contrast, in French, an F0 rise tends to signal word-final boundaries. Participants completed an eye-tracking experiment: They heard sentences where the monosyllabic target ended or did not end with an F0 rise (duration being held constant), and saw four orthographic words in the display, including the target (bal “ball“) and a disyllabic competitor (balcon “balcon...

Perspectives of cytomeres use in biology and medicine.

The law of the information structuregenesis is formulated: the information transforms into interaction, interaction into connection (link), and link into a new element. There is a dependence: the more signal is structured, the more informational potential it has. At a cell-like level greatest remote informogenesis have the fragments of the cytoplasm of cells surrounded by a cell-like membrane, i.e. cytomers. These are produced by many cells and migrate in all environments of an organism. The cytomers play an important role in immunological responses, inflammation, and tumor transformation. They are the predecessors of viruses, together with which they fulfill the role of universal informational code and provide informational integration between different levels of biosphere’s life organization into the united system.The new intercellular, intertissue and interorganic regeneration mechanism by the cytomers flow from regions of high functional load to regions with minimal functional load is described. The cytomers serve as an extracellular reserve to fulfill the needs of the cytoplasm regeneration of the cells. New pathogenetic algorithms of diseases development are based on a blockage of extravascular transport ways due to local informational (citomeric, trophical, immune etc.) deficit. A "pathogenic field" is formed because of extravasal transport ways blockage. This field limits the adaptive morphogenesis due to impossibility of structuring and proper arrangement of the informational streams.

A Novel Malonamide Periodic Mesoporous Organosilica (PMO) for Tuneable Ibuprofen Release

Incorporation of organic functionalities within porous materials is a very elegant manner to control the administration of therapeutic drugs. Delayed drug-release profile originates from weak and reversible interactions (e.g., electrostatic, hydrophobic–hydrophobic and H-bonding interaction) between the modified carrier and the drug molecule. Two new silsesquioxane PMO precursors were synthesized in a quick and facile Schotten-Baumann reaction of (3-aminopropyltriethoxy)silane and (N-methyl-3-aminopropyltrimethoxy)-silane with malonylchloride, respectively. Based on these bis(3-(triethoxysilyl)propyl)malonamide (MA) and N,N-dimethyl-N,N-bis(3-(triethoxysilyl)propyl)malonamide (mMA) precursors, an extensive range of 2D hexagonal PMOs with high functional loading was obtained by the co-condensation with tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) in a typical PMO synthesis (acidic medium, P123, KCl). The materials showed good ordering up to 20 mol% of functional loading, a large surface area (up to 550 m2/g) and wide pores (∼7 nm). The malonamide-type PMOs are capable to adsorb large amounts of ibuprofen (130 mg/g) as a hydrophobic model drug. Release experiments are performed in a phosphate buffer solution at pH 7.4 and show a controlled desorption of Ibuprofen over 24 hours; a largely expanded times pan compared to mesoporous silicas. Moreover, we are able to tune the release profile by varying the content of organic bridges in the PMO pores.

Selectivity of Second Language Attrition

The aim of this article is to provide an overview of second language attrition and its selective features. Second language attrition is reviewed from two different perspectives: from perspective of linguistic components as well as of language skills. Selectivity of second language attrition is analyzed in light of Markedness Theory, Retrieval Fail Hypothesis, Functional Load Theory and Regression Hypothesis. Following conclusions are obtained: 1) from the perspective of linguistic components, at intra-component level (within phonology, lexicon, morphology and syntax), second language attrition is selective: linguistic items, which are of high frequency, of high functional load and less marked, are maintained better during second language attrition; At inter-component level, generally, lexicon is more subjective to attrition than morphology and syntax, while phonology can be quite robust to attrition. 2) As for the perspective of language skills, productive skills are more subject to attrition than receptive skills.

Distal Femoral Varization Osteotomy

Distal femoral varization osteotomy is performed for treatment of lateral compartment osteoarthritis of the knee associated with valgus deformity for relief of pain and improvement of functional status. Careful selection of patients is the key to the success of this procedure. Distal femoral varus osteotomy is indicated for patients with isolated lateral compartment knee arthritis with a valgus deformity; candidates must have a range of motion arc of at least 90 degrees and less than 20 degrees of flexion-contracture. The indications of distal femoral varization osteotomy must be considered before surgery. Contraindications include patients with diffuse and nonspecific knee pain, primary complaint of patellofemoral pain, history of medial meniscectomy, and bicompartmental degeneratvie osteoarthritis. The success of an osteotomy is dependent on adequate correction of limb malalignment; therefore, accurate determination of the desired angle of correction is essential during preoperative planning. In recent years with the advent of new anatomical locking plate designs, medial closed wedge osteotomy has become popular. Compared to lateral opening wedge osteotomy, with medial closing wedge osteotomy, earlier union is expected and it provides stable fixation even with poor bone quality. Nevertheless, arthroplasty offers rapid pain relief and short-term rehabilitation period; however, risk of wear, difficulty and poor outcome of revision surgery, possible complication of infection or prosthetic failure in young and active patients, demanding high functional loading, is a cause for concern. Because this joint preserving procedure is not associated with prosthesis-related complication, it can be a good alternative option for young and active patients.

Genetic robustness and functional evolution of gene duplicates

Gene duplications are a major source of evolutionary innovations. Understanding the functional divergence of duplicates and their role in genetic robustness is an important challenge in biology. Previously, analyses of genetic robustness were primarily focused on duplicates essentiality and epistasis in several laboratory conditions. In this study, we use several quantitative data sets to understand compensatory interactions between Saccharomyces cerevisiae duplicates that are likely to be relevant in natural biological populations. We find that, owing to their high functional load, close duplicates are unlikely to provide substantial backup in the context of large natural populations. Interestingly, as duplicates diverge from each other, their overall functional load is reduced. At intermediate divergence distances the quantitative decrease in fitness due to removal of one duplicate becomes smaller. At these distances, yeast duplicates display more balanced functional loads and their transcriptional control becomes significantly more complex. As yeast duplicates diverge beyond 70% sequence identity, their ability to compensate for each other becomes similar to that of random pairs of singletons.

High functional load inhibits phonological contrast loss: A corpus study

For nearly a century, linguists have suggested that diachronic merger is less likely between phonemes with a high functional load – that is, phonemes that distinguish many words in the language in question. However, limitations in data and computational power have made assessing this hypothesis difficult. Here we present the first larger-scale study of the functional load hypothesis, using data from sound changes in a diverse set of languages. Our results support the functional load hypothesis: phoneme pairs undergoing merger distinguish significantly fewer minimal pairs in the lexicon than unmerged phoneme pairs. Furthermore, we show that higher phoneme probability is positively correlated with merger, but that this effect is stronger for phonemes that distinguish no minimal pairs. Finally, within our dataset we find that minimal pair count and phoneme probability better predict merger than change in system entropy at the lexical or phoneme level.

Quantity constraints on the temporal implementation of phrasal prosody in Northern Finnish

This study investigated interactions between vowel quantity and two types of prosodic lengthening (accentual lengthening and the combined effect of accentual and utterance-final lengthening) in disyllabic words in Northern Finnish. Two quantity-related constraints were observed. First, in both types of prosodic lengthening, vowels were lengthened less when they were next to a syllable containing a double vowel than when they were next to a syllable containing a single vowel (a quantity neighbour constraint). Second, a durational ceiling effect was observed for the phonologically single, half-long vowel under the combined effect of accentual and utterance-final lengthening. These findings can be seen to support the view that quantity languages regulate the non-phonemic use of duration because of the high functional load of duration at the phonemic level. Additionally, the combined effect of accentual and utterance-final lengthening appeared to have its own lengthening profile, distinct from the simple sum of the two lengthening effects suggested previously. Implications for speech timing research will be discussed.

Metabolic changes in the lymphocytes during influenza

Aim. To assess the nature and intensity of metabolic processes in lymphocytes of patients with influenza according to the activity of intracellular enzymes in comparison to the severity of the disease. Methods. Determined were the enzymatic parameters of lymphocytes of 45 patients aged 18 to 42 years with a diagnosis of «influenza». Two groups of patients were formed: with moderate (24 patients) and severe (21 patients) course of the disease. Used as controls were the values the activity of intracellular enzymes of lymphocytes of 37 practically healthy individuals of comparable age. Results. In patients with a moderately severe course of the influenza compared with the controls noted was a significant increase in activity of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (3.17±0.53 and 2.74±0.31 mkE/10 000 cells, p 0.05) and glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (57.33±±5.65 and 0.84±0.16 mkE/10 000 cells respectively, p 0.001). The activity of lactate dehydrogenase was lower in patients than in controls (0.40±0.08 and 0.84±0.08 mkE/10 000 cells respectively, p 0.001). Indicators of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate dependant isocitrate dehydrogenases in lymphocytes of patients were lower than in the controls: the first indicator in the patients was 0.17±0.02 mkE/10 000 cells, in controls - 1.95±0.25 mkE/10 000 cells (p 0.001), and for the second indicator these values were respectively 0.09±0.01 and 31.02±±2.20 mkE/10 000 cells (p 0.001). In patients with a moderately severe course of influenza the activity of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate dependant glutamate dehydrogenases was significantly higher compared with healthy individuals: 63.67±5.32 and 0.34±0.06 mkE/10 000 cells, 1.45±0.18 and 0.11±0.02 mkE/10 000 cells respectively (p 0.001). The activity of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide dependant malate dehydrogenase in patients was equal to 86.46±12.30 mkE/10 000 cells (in the control group 84.16±13.70 mkE/10 000 cells), and the activity of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate dependant malate dehydrogenase was equal to 1.34±±0.25 mkE/10 000 cells (in the control group 0.33±0.07 mkE/10 000 cells, p 0.001). The activity of glutathione reductase was also higher in patients with the moderately severe course of the influenza: 5.86±0.25 mkE/10 000 cells, while the value in healthy individuals was 1.28±0.30 mkE/10 000 cells (p 0.001). In the group of patients with a severe course of influenza the activity of almost all (except for glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase) enzymes was higher than during the moderately severe course of disease. Conclusion. At the peak of the diseases noted were opposite changes in the activity of reactions of the pentose phosphate cycle and glycolysis. With a high functional load on the cells there is a significant reduction in the intensity of the reactions of the initial phase of the tricarboxylic acid cycle, which reduces the energy efficiency of the cycle, while the intense influx of metabolites to supply the tricarboxylic acid cycle with substrates of the amino acid metabolism provides enhanced transport of amino acids into the lymphocytes.

Javanese - aké and - akən : A Short History

Evidence from various Javanese dialects is presented to show that the standard Javanese transitive suffixes - aké and - akən have only recently become part of the Javanese morpheme inventory. They have replaced an earlier transitive suffix *-(ʔ)ən, which is still reflected in Tengger Javanese and in marginal positions in standard Javanese. The acquisition of - aké and - akən in standard Javanese happened independently of the acquisition of - akən in Old Javanese. This allows a different perspective on the position of Old Javanese in the classification of Javanese dialects: it is most likely not a direct predecessor of standard Javanese. The spread of - akən to Javanese and other languages is an areal feature. The replacement of *-(ʔ)ən by - akən may have been motivated by a need to reduce the high functional load of *-(ʔ)ən. The form - aké is tentatively explained as a low register back-formation from - akən .

Electron microscopic study of intestinal epithelium of Saccoglossus mereschkowskii (Enteropneusta, Hemichordata)

Epithelium of the hepatic region of the intestine in Saccoglossus mereschkowskii, a representative of enteropneusts (Enteropneusta, Hemichordata) standing at the base of Chordata, has been investigated using electron microscope. The ultrastructure of ciliated and granular epithelial cells, elements of the intraepithelial nerve layer, and intercellular junctions have been characterized. The data concerning details of the organization of the ciliary apparatus and rootlets system are presented. It is justified the presence of complicated supporting construction of cilia which performs a mechanical stabilizing function and possibly also provide synchronization of ciliary movements. The presence of cilia with two centrioles is considered as an adaptation to high functional load on ciliary apparatus. Well developed bundles of myofilaments are found in the cytoplasm of the basal portions of ciliary cells that characterizes these cells as myoepithelial. The features indicating the role of ciliary cells in absorption are described. The capability of these cells to balloon-like secretion is considered. Data on the accumulation of food reserves in the form of lipid droplets and glycogen in the cell cytoplasm are presented. Ciliated cells are characterized by their function as ciliated secretory-absorptive myoepithelial cells. Based on the location of secretory granules both in the apical and basal portions of granular cells, an exocrine-endocrine function of these cells has been suggested. Typical endocrine cells in the intestinal epithelium of S. mereschkowskii are absent. Several types of granules in the nerve fibers cytoplasm are described. Junctions between the nerve fibers and basal portions of ciliary and granular epithelial cells are found. Nerve regulation of contractile and secretory functions of epithelial cells is supposed. The presence of the regulatory nerve-endocrine system that includes receptor cells of open type, secretory endocrine-like cells and nerve elements of nerve layer is supposed in the intestinal epithelium of enteropneusts.

CAD/CAM fabricated single-unit all-ceramic post-core-crown restoration

This case report explains about an innovative treatment strategy for the management of damaged anterior teeth with reduced incisal clearance by means of a single-unit all-ceramic post–core–crown zirconia ceramic restoration fabricated by Computer-aided designing and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) technology. The reinforced zirconia ceramics allow fabrication of durable esthetic restorations in cases with high functional loading and the unification of the post, core, and crown in a single unit decreases the frequency of failure by creating a monobloc effect. In addition, the use of CAD/CAM technology for designing and fabricating ceramic restorations offers the option of expeditiously preparing these high-strength all-ceramic restorations.

Bisphosphonat-assoziierte Osteonekrosen des Kieferknochens

Intravenous application of bisphosphonates (BP) represents an established therapeutic strategy of tumor-associated bone metastasis and severe hypercalcemia. Patients can develop osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) as a side effect of this therapy. The diagnosis of ONJ is based on three criteria: a) patients have been or are currently treated with BP; b) a deficiency in wound healing, which is in 70-80% associated with necrotic alveolar bone, characteristically exposed, is present for at least 8 weeks and c) no radiotherapy of the head and neck was performed. The suppression of bone turnover, concomitant with high functional load of the alveolar bone, and the subsequent accumulation of microfractures are considered the main pathologic factors of this disease. The cumulative incidence of ONJ lies approximately between 1 and 10% in oncologic patients, being associated with the antiresorptive potency and the respective molecular structure of the BPs. Patients with multiple myeloma develop ONJ more frequently than patients with other oncological diseases such as metastasizing breast- and prostate cancer, a fact that may also be due to the higher transfusion/injection frequency of BP in these patients. Dental treatment strategies are responsible for the occurrence of ONJ in approximately 80% of cases. Based on a clinical staging, patients can be grouped into three categories and should receive the corresponding treatment regime. Prospective clinical studies are required for a better understanding of etiology and pathogenesis of ONJ to make treatment, risk estimation and prognosis of ONJ more accurate.

Adolescent Intonation in Canada: Talk Units in In-group Conversations

The present study addresses teenage intonation in a larger context. Not so much the question which patterns are common is of interest but primarily the question how intonation interacts with other devices such as syntax and discourse particles in structuring the casual conversation of Canadian teenagers. On the basis of the model of the Talk Unit set up in Halford (1996), it is shown that the 21 recorded teenagers structure their conversation turns in characteristic ways using the uptalk pattern and a potentially exclusively Canadian pattern (the wiggle) very frequently. Prosodic structuring is not only employed within turns but also across speaker turns in a cooperative way. Acoustic measurements of fundamental frequency using the PRAAT programme confirm and complement the auditory analysis. In the interplay between syntax and intonation, the prosodic structuring of Talk Units carries a high functional load – partly in cooperation with but more typically beyond syntax.

The functional load principle in ESL pronunciation instruction: An exploratory study

Although it is recognized that ESL students often need assistance to become more comprehensible speakers, their teachers usually have limited time to devote to pronunciation instruction. Research should help teachers set priorities for pronunciation teaching to address these students’ needs as efficiently as possible. Here we test the usefulness of the theoretical notion of functional load (FL) as a means of determining which consonant distinctions have the greatest impact on listeners’ perceptions of accentedness and comprehensibility. Although this principle has been proposed by several pronunciation experts, its predictions have not been empirically tested. Thirteen native English listeners judged 23 Cantonese-accented sentences that exhibited various combinations of high and low FL errors. The high FL errors had relatively large effects on both perceptual scales, while the low FL errors had only a minimal impact on comprehensibility. The only cumulative effects of errors seen in the data occurred with high FL errors in the judgments of accentedness. These results not only shed light on the distinction between accentedness and comprehensibility, but also suggest that the functional load principle can be effectively employed in guiding some aspects of pronunciation instruction.

Modified Electrodes Prepared from Ferrocene Functionalized Silicate Xerogels: Analysis of the Electrochemical Response in Isotropic and Fractal Structural Systems

New xerogels functionalized by ferrocenes as redox probes have been prepared using various types of catalysis. The analysis of the electrochemical response in the case of modified electrodes allows us to get an insight into the gel nanostructure which has been found to be isotropic in the case of acidic catalysis, and fractal in the case of fluoride catalysis, provided that the amount of functionalized silanes is not too high. Indeed the results of electrochemical measurement prove that the fractality of functionalized hybrid silica is general in the case of basic catalysis, except in the case of very high functional moieties loading, where the electrode become essentially organic and isotropic. On the other hand, in the case of acidic catalysis, whatever the amount of organic material, the hybrid gel remains isotropic, and a classical electron pseudo-diffusive behaviour is observed. The diffusion coefficient values extracted from the current-time slopes do not vary monotonically with the amount of redox probe in the case of fractal xerogel structures, which is indicative that not all the functional moieties are electroactive in that case.

Frenchville French: A case study in phonological attrition

This paper investigates the phonetic and phonological properties of a contracting variety of French spoken in Frenchville, PA, a linguistic enclave community. Specifically, we analyze a pattern of convergence versus preservation that cannot be convincingly explained or understood given current proposals of the process of phonological convergence and attrition in a bilingual contact situation. We demonstrate that our speakers preserve some low level information while sacrificing other phonetic details. In the case under investigation, there is a gradient replacement of the French mid front rounded vowels with an English-like rhoticized schwa but our speakers maintain language specific, phonetically distinct rhotic consonants. We argue that the patterns of loss versus maintenance that emerge are not necessarily driven by the need to preserve contrastive features with a high functional load. Equally plausible accounts for these patterns may lie in acoustic salience, the sociolinguistic marking of identity, and competition between articulatory demands.

Consonant inventories: a longitudinal study of Finnish-speaking children

This study reports on a longitudinal study of ten children's consonant productions. Data were analysed to determine the word initial, word medial, and word final consonant inventories of these children at 4-, 15- and 25-word points, as well as the rank order of consonant phonemes. Comparisons were made to Finnish-speaking 2-year-old children and adult speakers. Analysis of the phonetic inventories of the children indicated that the size of early inventories were somewhat smaller than those reported for children acquiring English. The types of consonant phones used in early words were in line with previous findings, as consisting primarily of stops and nasals. Finally, the results indicated a closeness to the adult language in terms of the frequent use of phonemes that carry a high functional load in the language. Thus, both universal and language specific features seem to have a role to play during the early acquisition of consonants.

Myocyte ploidy in heart chambers of birds with different locomotor activity.

The ploidy levels of atrio- and ventriculocytes were determined by means of cytofluorimetry in 31 species of birds. The obtained data were collated with postnatal growth rate, heart mass index, and relative masses of heart chambers. The difference between mean ploidy of cardiomyocytes in the left and right atrium is small (7.9+/-0.6%) and comparable to the difference in the masses of these chambers (10.5+/-0.8%). The difference between mean ploidy of atrio- and ventriculocytes is most pronounced for the left and right parts of heart (23.9+/-1.4% and 24.0+/-1.3%, respectively) and corresponds to considerable differences in the average masses of atria and ventricles (4.5-fold and 2.1-fold, respectively). The mean cardiomyocyte ploidy levels in the left and right ventricles differ only slightly, as in the case of atria (by 8.1+/-0.5%), whereas the average mass of the left ventricle is greater by 237+/-16%. This discord can be explained by peculiarities of the growth, which is nonproportionally faster in the left ventricle during the last stage of proliferative heart growth as compared to other chambers. The cardiomyocyte ploidy is higher in birds with a relatively small heart and lower ability to flight. Birds with a high locomotor activity in the adult state have an athletic heart (mass index >1%); they are fast growing, altricial species with a low heart workload in the early postnatal ontogenesis. Birds with a low locomotor activity at the adult state are precocial; they grow slowly and have a high locomotor activity from the first minutes of life. Thus, notwithstanding the fact that a greater elevation of cardiomyocyte ploidy level is acquired under a higher functional load (ventricles vs. atria, left vs. right part of the heart), it is associated with a lower functional potential of the organ at the adult state. The level of somatic polyploidy can be considered an indicator of developmental tensions arising due to a high workload during the growth of a given organ and deficiency of resources invested into this growth. J. Exp. Zool. 293:427-441, 2002.

Phonological errors and sound changes in Arabic-speaking children

The purpose of this study was to describe articulation/phonological errors and sound changes in a group of normally developing, Arabic-speaking children aged between 2;0 and 4;4. Elicited samples from 50 children were examined to determine the percentages of consonants that were produced in an unacceptable manner (errors) and that were changed from Educated Spoken Arabic, to determine the effect of these sound changes on classes of consonants, and to determine the phonological processes or patterns that would describe these two types of sound changes. Difficulties with emphatic consonants, consonant sequences and /r/ were felt to be due to articulatory difficulty, whereas the early accuracy of back fricatives and /l/ may be due to their high frequency in the language and relatively high functional load.