Simulating Early Phonetic and Word Learning Without Linguistic Categories.

Before they even talk, infants become sensitive to the speech sounds of their native language and recognize the auditory form of an increasing number of words. Traditionally, these early perceptual changes are attributed to an emerging knowledge of linguistic categories such as phonemes or words. However, there is growing skepticism surrounding this interpretation due to limited evidence of category knowledge in infants.

Optomechanical micro-rheology of complex fluids at ultra-high frequency.

We present an optomechanical method for locally measuring the rheological properties of complex fluids in the ultra-high frequency range (UHF). A mechanical disk of microscale volume is used as an oscillating probe that monitors a liquid at rest, while the oscillation is optomechanically transduced. An analytical model for fluid-structure interactions is used to deduce the rheological properties of the liquid.

Faithful interpretation of protein structures through weighted persistent homology improves evolutionary distance estimation.

Phylogenetic inference is mainly based on sequence analysis and requires reliable alignments. This can be challenging, especially when sequences are highly divergent. In this context, the use of three-dimensional protein structures is a promising alternative.

Digital Transformation of Rheumatology Care in Germany: Cross-Sectional National Survey.

Background: In recent years, health care has undergone a rapid and unprecedented digital transformation. In many fields of specialty care, such as rheumatology, this shift is driven by the growing number of patients and limited resources, leading to increased use of digital health technologies (DHTs) to maintain high-quality clinical care. Previous studies examined user acceptance of individual DHTs in rheumatology, such as telemedicine, video consultations, and mHealth.

Hypereosinophilia and Hypereosinophilic Syndromes: First Findings From a Nationwide Multicenter Cohort.

Background: Hypereosinophilic syndromes (HES) are a heterogenous group of eosinophilic disorders. To date, only retrospective studies of limited sample-size and/or follow-up duration are available.

Methods: The COHESion study is a national prospective multicenter multidisciplinary cohort recruiting both adults or children with the spectrum of eosinophilic disorders (including reactive HE/HES [HE/HES-R], idiopathic HES [HES-I], lymphocytic HES [HES-L], neoplastic HE/HES [HE/HES-N], HE of unknown significance [HE-US], as well as IgG4-related disease [IgG4RD] or ANCA-negative eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis [EGPA] overlaps).

How well is the female population represented in clinical trials with infusion therapies for Parkinson's disease? A systematic review and metanalysis.

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder affecting both sexes, but differences exist between male and female in clinical manifestations, functional impact of symptoms and hormonal influences. Therefore, representativeness of females in PD trials indirectly determines the external validity of the clinical research in this field.

Objective: To estimate the representativeness of female in infusion therapy trials for advanced PD.

Formation and Evolution of the Solid Electrolyte Interphase on Silicon Electrodes from Fluorine-Free Electrolytes.

With the increasing attention to energy storage solutions, a growing emphasis has been placed on environmentally compatible electrolytes tailored for lithium-ion batteries. This study investigates the surface behavior of Si wafers as model systems cycled with a fluorine-free electrolyte based on lithium bis(oxalato)borate (LiBOB), with and without the additive vinylene carbonate (VC). By utilizing operando X-ray reflectivity (XRR) and ex situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), the intricate processes involved in solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) formation is elucidated, SiO/Si (de)lithiation, and the impact of the VC additive.

Effectiveness of complement inhibitors against refractory antibody-mediated rejection of lung transplantation: Two clinical cases.

Antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) has been recognized as a significant cause of acute and chronic lung allograft dysfunction after lung transplantation. Some treatments, eculizumab, an anti-complement (C)5 component monoclonal antibody (Mab), seem to have a promising effect in the management of some patients with AMR. We present two patients with acute AMR after lung transplantation who received the anti-C5 Mab therapy.

Preclinical and clinical study on type 3 metabotropic glutamate receptors in Parkinson's disease.

Metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) receptors are candidate drug targets for therapeutic intervention in Parkinson's disease (PD). Here we focused on mGlu3, a receptor subtype involved in synaptic regulation and neuroinflammation. mGlu3 mice showed an enhanced nigro-striatal damage and microglial activation in response to 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP).

Climate, not land-use, drives a recent acceleration of larch expansion at the forest-grassland ecotone in the southern French alps.

In recent decades significant forest expansion into treeless alpine zones has been observed across global mountain ranges, including the Alps, driven by a complex interplay of global warming and land-use changes. The upward shift of treelines has far-reaching implications for ecosystem functioning, biodiversity, and biogeochemical cycles. However, climate variables alone account for only a fraction of treeline dynamics, highlighting substantial research gaps concerning the influence of non-climatic factors.

Does the stop-signal P3 reflect inhibitory control?

The ability to stop already-initiated actions is paramount to adaptive behavior. In psychology and neuroscience alike, action-stopping is a popular model behavior to probe inhibitory control - the underlying cognitive control process that is purportedly vital to regulating thoughts and actions. Starting with seminal work in the 1990s, the frontocentral stop-signal P3 - an event-related potential derived from scalp EEG - has been proposed as a neurophysiological index of inhibitory control during action-stopping.

Accelerated aging modulates the toxicological properties of the diazo tattoo pigment PO13.

Pigment particles used in tattooing may exert long terms effect by releasing diffusible degradation products. In the present work, aqueous suspensions of the organic orange diazo pigment PO13 were aged by exposure to simulated sunlight at 40 °C. The morphology and the surface charge of PO13 particles were barely modified upon aging, but primary particles were released by de-agglomeration.

Disentangling Sources of Momentum Fluctuations in Xe+Xe and Pb+Pb Collisions with the ATLAS Detector.

High-energy nuclear collisions create a quark-gluon plasma, whose initial condition and subsequent expansion vary from event to event, impacting the distribution of the eventwise average transverse momentum [P([p_{T}])]. Disentangling the contributions from fluctuations in the nuclear overlap size (geometrical component) and other sources at a fixed size (intrinsic component) remains a challenge. This problem is addressed by measuring the mean, variance, and skewness of P([p_{T}]) in ^{208}Pb+^{208}Pb and ^{129}Xe+^{129}Xe collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.

The importance of shear on the collective charge transport in CDWs revealed by an XFEL source.

Charge transport in materials has an impact on a wide range of devices based on semiconductor, battery, or superconductor technology. Charge transport in sliding charge density waves (CDW) differs from all others in that the atomic lattice is directly involved in the transport process. To obtain an overall picture of the structural changes associated to the collective transport, the large coherent x-ray beam generated by an x-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) source was used.

Modelling the Impact of HIF on Metabolism and the Extracellular Matrix: Consequences for Tumour Growth and Invasion.

The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a complex structure involved in many biological processes with collagen being the most abundant protein. Density of collagen fibers in the matrix is a factor influencing cell motility and migration speed. In cancer, this affects the ability of cells to migrate and invade distant tissues which is relevant for designing new therapies.

Care trajectories and adherence to respiratory management recommendations in persons living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a ten-year cohort study in a French tertiary university centre.

: This study determined real-life care trajectories before and after initiation of noninvasive ventilation (NIV) in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Caregiver adherence to respiratory management recommendations and the associated survival rate of people with ALS were also assessed. : Data were obtained from a tertiary center prospective ALS database that included 10 years of follow-up data for people with ALS.

Human Footprint and Forest Disturbance Reduce Space Use of Brown Bears (Ursus arctos) Across Europe.

Three-quarters of the planet's land surface has been altered by humans, with consequences for animal ecology, movements and related ecosystem functioning. Species often occupy wide geographical ranges with contrasting human disturbance and environmental conditions, yet, limited data availability across species' ranges has constrained our understanding of how human pressure and resource availability jointly shape intraspecific variation of animal space use. Leveraging a unique dataset of 758 annual GPS movement trajectories from 375 brown bears (Ursus arctos) across the species' range in Europe, we investigated the effects of human pressure (i.

Human asthenozoospermia: Update on genetic causes, patient management, and clinical strategies.

Background: In mammals, sperm fertilization potential relies on efficient progression within the female genital tract to reach and fertilize the oocyte. This fundamental property is supported by the flagellum, an evolutionarily conserved organelle, which contains dynein motor proteins that provide the mechanical force for sperm propulsion and motility. Primary motility of the sperm cells is acquired during their transit through the epididymis and hyperactivated motility is acquired throughout the journey in the female genital tract by a process called capacitation.

FTDMP: A Framework for Protein-Protein, Protein-DNA, and Protein-RNA Docking and Scoring.

FTDMP is a software framework for biomolecular docking and scoring. It can perform docking of subunits containing one or more protein, DNA, or RNA chains, followed by subsequent scoring of the resulting models. FTDMP can also be used for the ranking of user-provided models of biomolecular complexes, generated by any structure prediction method.

Microstrip plastic scintillating detector system for quality assurance in synchrotron microbeam radiotherapy.

Synchrotron microbeam radiotherapy (MRT), which has entered the clinical transfer phase, requires the development of appropriate quality assurance (QA) tools due to very high dose rates and spatial hyperfractionation. A microstrip plastic scintillating detector system with associated modules was proposed in the context of real-time MRT QA. A prototype of such a system with 105 scintillating microstrips was developed and tested under MRT conditions.

Structural and electronic features enabling delocalized charge-carriers in CuSbSe.

Inorganic semiconductors based on heavy pnictogen cations (Sb and Bi) have gained significant attention as potential nontoxic and stable alternatives to lead-halide perovskites for solar cell applications. A limitation of these novel materials, which is being increasingly commonly found, is carrier localization, which substantially reduces mobilities and diffusion lengths. Herein, CuSbSe is investigated and discovered to have delocalized free carriers, as shown through optical pump terahertz probe spectroscopy and temperature-dependent mobility measurements.

Single-cell data reveal heterogeneity of investment in ribosomes across a bacterial population.

Ribosomes are responsible for the synthesis of proteins, the major component of cellular biomass. Classical experiments have established a linear relationship between the fraction of resources invested in ribosomal proteins and the rate of balanced growth of a microbial population. Very little is known, however, about how the investment in ribosomes varies over individual cells in a population.

Binding mechanisms of intrinsically disordered proteins: Insights from experimental studies and structural predictions.

Advances in the characterization of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) have unveiled a remarkably complex and diverse interaction landscape, including coupled folding and binding, highly dynamic complexes, multivalent interactions, and even interactions between entirely disordered proteins. Here we review recent examples of IDP binding mechanisms elucidated by experimental techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer, and stopped-flow fluorescence. These techniques provide insights into the structural details of transition pathways and complex intermediates, and they capture the dynamics of IDPs within complexes.

A Prospective Non-interventional Real-World Study of cabozantinib in Pretreated Patients With Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma Refractory to Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor-Targeted Therapy (CASSIOPE).

Background: There is a lack of published data on real-world cabozantinib use in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma after prior vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-targeted therapy.

Methods: CASSIOPE was a real-world, prospective, multicenter, non-interventional postauthorization safety study of cabozantinib in adult patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma in Europe following prior VEGF-targeted treatment (NCT03419572). Endpoints included cabozantinib utilization (dose modifications due to adverse events [AEs; primary endpoint], dose, dose modifications, and treatment duration), safety, effectiveness (progression-free survival [PFS], overall survival [OS], best overall response [BOR]), and healthcare resource utilization.