Spectral degradation and carrier sentences increase age-related temporal processing deficits in a cue-specific manner.

Advancing age is associated with decreased sensitivity to temporal cues in word segments, particularly when target words follow non-informative carrier sentences or are spectrally degraded (e.g., vocoded to simulate cochlear-implant stimulation).

A mental workload and biomechanical assessment during split-belt locomotor adaptation with and without optic flow.

Adaptive human performance relies on the central nervous system to regulate the engagement of cognitive-motor resources as task demands vary. Despite numerous studies which employed a split-belt induced perturbation to examine biomechanical outcomes during locomotor adaptation, none concurrently examined the cerebral cortical dynamics to assess changes in mental workload. Additionally, while prior work suggests that optic flow provides critical information for walking regulation, a few studies have manipulated visual inputs during adaption to split-belt walking.

Age-Related Compensation Mechanism Revealed in the Cortical Representation of Degraded Speech.

Older adults understand speech with comparative ease in quiet, but signal degradation can hinder speech understanding much more than it does in younger adults. This difficulty may result, in part, from temporal processing deficits related to the aging process and/or high-frequency hearing loss that can occur in listeners who have normal- or near-normal-hearing thresholds in the speech frequency range. Temporal processing deficits may manifest as degraded neural representation in peripheral and brainstem/midbrain structures that lead to compensation, or changes in response strength in auditory cortex.

Age-Related Temporal Processing Deficits in Word Segments in Adult Cochlear-Implant Users.

Aging may limit speech understanding outcomes in cochlear-implant (CI) users. Here, we examined age-related declines in auditory temporal processing as a potential mechanism that underlies speech understanding deficits associated with aging in CI users. Auditory temporal processing was assessed with a categorization task for the words dish and ditch (i.

Age Effects on Neural Representation and Perception of Silence Duration Cues in Speech.

Purpose Degraded temporal processing associated with aging may be a contributing factor to older adults' hearing difficulties, especially in adverse listening environments. This degraded processing may affect the ability to distinguish between words based on temporal duration cues. The current study investigates the effects of aging and hearing loss on cortical and subcortical representation of temporal speech components and on the perception of silent interval duration cues in speech.

Effects of Aging on Perceptual and Electrophysiological Responses to Acoustic Pulse Trains as a Function of Rate.

Purpose As pulse rate increases beyond a few hundred Hertz, younger normal-hearing (NH) participants' ability to encode temporal information in band-limited acoustic pulse trains decreases, demonstrating a rate limitation in processing rapid temporal information. Rate discrimination abilities, however, have yet to be investigated in older NH participants-a population that experiences age-related temporal processing deficits. It was hypothesized that age-related temporal processing deficits lead to decreased temporal rate discrimination abilities in older compared with younger NH participants, which could be observed in both perceptual and electrophysiological measurements.

Age-Related Differences in the Processing of Temporal Envelope and Spectral Cues in a Speech Segment.

Objectives: As people age, they experience reduced temporal processing abilities. This results in poorer ability to understand speech, particularly for degraded input signals. Cochlear implants (CIs) convey speech information via the temporal envelopes of a spectrally degraded input signal.

Estimation of inbreeding and effective population size of full-blood Wagyu cattle registered with the American Wagyu Cattle Association.

The objective of this research was to examine the population structure of full-blood (100%) Wagyu cattle registered in the United States with the American Wagyu Association, with the aim of estimating and comparing the levels of inbreeding from both pedigree and genotypic data. A total of 4132 full-blood Wagyu cattle pedigrees were assessed and used to compute the inbreeding coefficients (FIT and FST ) and the effective population size (Ne ) from pedigree data for the period 1994 to 2011. In addition to pedigree analysis, 47 full-blood Wagyu cattle representing eight prominent sire lines in the American Wagyu cattle population were genotyped using the Illumina BovineSNP50 BeadChip.

Quantitative genomics of 30 complex phenotypes in Wagyu x Angus F₁ progeny.

In the present study, a total of 91 genes involved in various pathways were investigated for their associations with six carcass traits and twenty-four fatty acid composition phenotypes in a Wagyu×Angus reference population, including 43 Wagyu bulls and their potential 791 F(1) progeny. Of the 182 SNPs evaluated, 102 SNPs that were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium with minor allele frequencies (MAF>0.15) were selected for parentage assignment and association studies with these quantitative traits.

Teacher-student interactions and attachment states of mind as predictors of early romantic involvement and risky sexual behaviors.

Adolescents' capacities to negotiate sexual behavior in romantic relationships have important implications for their reproductive and health outcomes. This study examined adolescents' interactions with teachers and attachment states of mind as predictors of their romantic involvement and risky sexual behavior in an economically disadvantaged sample. Negative interactions with teachers predicted increased sexual risk-taking behaviors and females' early romantic involvement.

Delaware School Climate Survey-Student: its factor structure, concurrent validity, and reliability.

The Delaware School Climate Survey-Student (DSCS-S) was developed to provide schools with a brief and psychometrically sound student survey for assessing school climate, particularly the dimensions of social support and structure. Confirmatory factor analyses, conducted on a sample of 11,780 students in 85 schools, showed that a bifactor model consisting of five specific factors and one general factor (School Climate) best represented the data. Those five factors are represented in five subscales of the DSCS-S: Teacher-Student Relations, Student-Student Relations, Fairness of Rules, Liking of School, and School Safety.

Academic and behavioral characteristics of students at a secondary residential school.

This study examined academic and behavioral characteristics of 423 adolescents who had attended a residential school over a seven-year period. Students represented diverse demographic backgrounds. Student academic achievement was examined at admissions and over time in reading, mathematics, written language, and fluency.

Stigma and sexual health risk in HIV-positive African American young men who have sex with men.

Understanding the multiple forms of stigma experienced by young HIV-positive African American men who have sex with men and how they relate to sexual risk behaviors is essential to design effective HIV prevention programs. This study of 40 African American young MSM found that 90% of those surveyed experienced sexual minority stigma, 88% experienced HIV stigma, and 78% experienced dual stigma. Sexual minority stigma was characterized by experiences of social avoidance, and HIV stigma, by shame.

Discovery of novel genetic networks associated with 19 economically important traits in beef cattle.

Quantitative or complex traits are determined by the combined effects of many loci, and are affected by genetic networks or molecular pathways. In the present study, we genotyped a total of 138 mutations, mainly single nucleotide polymorphisms derived from 71 functional genes on a Wagyu x Limousin reference population. Two hundred forty six F(2) animals were measured for 5 carcass, 6 eating quality and 8 fatty acid composition traits.

Genome assembly anchored QTL map of bovine chromosome 14.

Bovine chromosome 14 (BTA14) has been widely explored for quantitative trait loci (QTL) and genes related to economically important traits in both dairy and beef cattle. We reviewed more than 40 investigations and anchored 126 QTL to the current genome assembly (Btau 4_0). Using this anchored QTL map, we observed that, in dairy cattle, the region spanning 0 - 10 Mb on BTA14 has the highest density QTL map with a total of 56 QTL, mainly for milk production traits.

The effect of a shortened dry period on intramammary infections during the subsequent lactation.

Several recent studies have investigated the effect of shortened dry periods on milk production in the subsequent lactation. What is lacking from these studies is an understanding of the effect that a shortened dry period has on udder health. Four herds, 156 cows, were studied to determine if a shortened dry period (30 d) had a negative effect on mammary gland health during the subsequent lactation as opposed to cows assigned to a long, 45 or 60 d, dry period.

A direct method for fatty acid methyl ester synthesis: application to wet meat tissues, oils, and feedstuffs.

A simplified protocol to obtain fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) directly from fresh tissue, oils, or feedstuffs, without prior organic solvent extraction, is presented. With this protocol, FAME synthesis is conducted in the presence of up to 33% water. Wet tissues, or other samples, are permeabilized and hydrolyzed for 1.

The bovine fatty acid binding protein 4 gene is significantly associated with marbling and subcutaneous fat depth in Wagyu x Limousin F2 crosses.

Fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4), which is expressed in adipose tissue, interacts with peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors and binds to hormone-sensitive lipase and therefore, plays an important role in lipid metabolism and homeostasis in adipocytes. The objective of this study was to investigate associations of the bovine FABP4 gene with fat deposition. Both cDNA and genomic DNA sequences of the bovine gene were retrieved from the public databases and aligned to determine its genomic organization.

Effects of prepartum intramammary antibiotic therapy on udder health, milk production, and reproductive performance in dairy heifers.

Preparturient heifers (n = 561) from 9 herds in 6 US states and 1 Canadian province were enrolled in a study to test the hypothesis that prepartum intramammary therapy would cure existing intramammary infections (IMI) and lead to increased milk production, reduced linear somatic cell count (LSCC), and improved reproductive performance. Mammary secretions were collected 10 to 21 d before expected calving from each quarter. Heifers were then assigned by identification number to receive intramammary therapy consisting of infusion of one tube per mammary quarter of a lactating cow commercial antibiotic preparation containing cephapirin or to a nontreated control group.

Reproductive characteristics of grass-fed, luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone-immunocastrated Bos indicus bulls.

Two field trials were conducted in Brazil to evaluate LHRH immunocastration of Bos indicus bulls (d 0 = 2 yr of age). In Study I, 72 bulls were assigned randomly to one of three treatment groups: LHRH0-immunized, castrated, and intact. Immunized animals (n = 25) received a primary and two booster injections of ovalbumin-LHRH-7 and thioredoxin-LHRH-7 fusion proteins on d 0, 141, and 287.

Evaluation of candidate gene effects for beef backfat via Bayesian model selection.

Candidate gene approaches provide tools for exploring and localizing causative genes affecting quantitative traits and the underlying variation may be better understood by determining the relative magnitudes of effects of their polymorphisms. Diacyglycerol O-acyltransferase 1 (DGAT1), fatty acid binding protein (heart) 3 (FABP3), growth hormone 1 (GH1), leptin (LEP) and thyroglobulin (TG) have been previously identified as genes contributing to genetic control of subcutaneous fat thickness (SFT) in beef cattle. In the present research, Bayesian model selection was used to evaluate effects of these five candidate genes by comparing competing non-nested models and treating candidate gene effects as either random or fixed.

Significant associations of the mitochondrial transcription factor A promoter polymorphisms with marbling and subcutaneous fat depth in Wagyu x Limousin F2 crosses.

Mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM), a nucleus-encoded protein, regulates the initiation of transcription and replication of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Decreased expression of nuclear-encoded mitochondrial genes has been associated with onset of obesity in mice. Therefore, we hypothesized genetic variants in TFAM gene influence mitochondrial biogenesis consequently affecting body fat deposition and energy metabolism.