QSAR investigation of NaV1.7 active compounds using the SVM/Signature approach and the Bioclipse Modeling platform.

A quantitative structure-activity relationship investigation of some NaV1.7 active compounds has been performed by repeated, random, external test set experiments employing structural descriptors (fingerprints) of signature type in combination with support vector machine (SVM) analysis using the radial basis function (RBF) kernel. The results from the investigation show remarkably stable performance from the derived in silico models in terms of statistical measures such as correlation coefficients as well as root mean squared errors (RMSEs) for the randomly selected external test sets.

902 MHz mobile phone does not affect short term memory in humans.

We studied the effects of an electromagnetic field (EMF) as emitted by a 902 MHz mobile phone on human short term memory. This study was a replication with methodological improvements to our previous study. The improvements included multi-centre testing and a double blind design.

Blind individuals show enhanced perceptual and attentional sensitivity for identification of speech sounds.

We report on enhanced processing of speech sounds in congenitally and early blind individuals compared with normally seeing individuals. Two different consonant-vowel (CV) syllables were presented via headphones on each presentation. We used a dichotic listening (DL) procedure with pairwise presentations of CV syllables.

Native and foreign vowel discrimination as indexed by the mismatch negativity (MMN) response.

The development of a new vowel category was studied by measuring both automatic mismatch negativity and conscious behavioural target discrimination. Three groups, nai;ve Finns, advanced Finnish students of English, and native speakers of English, were presented with one pair of Finnish and three pairs of English synthetic vowels. The aim was to determine whether the advanced student group would show native-like responses to the unfamiliar vowel contrasts of the target language.

Effect of a 902 MHz electromagnetic field emitted by mobile phones on human cognitive function: A replication study.

Our study was a replication and extension with methodological improvements to a previous study on effects of the electromagnetic field (EMF) emitted by a 902 MHz mobile phone on human cognitive functioning. Improvements on the previous study included multicentre testing and a double blind design. A total of 64 subjects (32 men and 32 women) in two independent laboratories performed a battery of 9 cognitive tasks twice: while the EMF was on and while it was off.

The mismatch negativity and reaction time as indices of the perceptual distance between the corresponding vowels of two related languages.

Two experiments were conducted to determine whether vowel familiarity affects automatic and conscious vowel discrimination. Familiar (Finnish) and unfamiliar (Komi) vowels were presented to Finnish subjects. The good representatives of Finnish and Komi mid vowels were grouped into three pairs: front /e- epsilon /, central /ø-oe/, and back /o-o/.