Deconstructing and reconstructing turn-taking in caregiver-infant interactions: a platform for embodied models of early cooperation.

Despite recent advances in AI, building systems that can engage in natural and realistic cooperative interactions with human partners remains a challenge. In this article, we argue that as a precursor to modelling sophisticated cooperation in adults, it's useful to build a model of how cooperation develops in infants. We present a simple initial model of infant cooperation, embodied in BabyX - a hyperrealistic virtual simulation of an 18-month-old infant that can interact with human partners in real time.

The Interaction Between Timescale and Pitch Contour at Pre-attentive Processing of Frequency-Modulated Sweeps.

Speech comprehension across languages depends on encoding the pitch variations in frequency-modulated (FM) sweeps at different timescales and frequency ranges. While timescale and spectral contour of FM sweeps play important roles in differentiating acoustic speech units, relatively little work has been done to understand the interaction between the two acoustic dimensions at early cortical processing. An auditory oddball paradigm was employed to examine the interaction of timescale and pitch contour at pre-attentive processing of FM sweeps.

Suppressive activities and mechanisms of ugonin J on vascular smooth muscle cells and balloon angioplasty-induced neointimal hyperplasia.

Neointimal hyperplasia (or restenosis) is primarily attributed to excessive proliferation and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). In this study, we investigated the inhibitory effects and mechanisms of ugonin J on VSMC proliferation and migration as well as neointimal formation. Cell viability and the cell-cycle distribution were, respectively, analyzed using an MTT assay and flow cytometry.

Alpinia zerumbet potentially elevates high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level in hamsters.

In folkloric plant medicines, Alpinia zerumbet (AZ) has been popularly recognized as an exellent hepatoprotector. To search for a good high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) elevating herbal preparation, we examined AZ for its antioxidant and hypolipidaemic bioactivities, especially its HDL-C elevating activity. AZ seeds contain 0.