A Probe Study on Vocal Development in Two Infants at Risk for Cerebral Palsy.

The present work examined canonical babbling ratios longitudinally as a measure of onset and consolidation of canonical babbling in two infants at risk of cerebral palsy (CP) between 5 and 16 months. Ten typically developing infants were included for comparison at 6, 9, 12, and 16-19 months. Canonical babbling ratios (CBRs) were calculated from 5-min segments, and follow-up diagnostic outcomes were collected between 24 and 33 months.

Repeating patterns: Predictive processing suggests an aesthetic learning role of the basal ganglia in repetitive stereotyped behaviors.

Recurrent, unvarying, and seemingly purposeless patterns of action and cognition are part of normal development, but also feature prominently in several neuropsychiatric conditions. Repetitive stereotyped behaviors (RSBs) can be viewed as exaggerated forms of learned habits and frequently correlate with alterations in motor, limbic, and associative basal ganglia circuits. However, it is still unclear how altered basal ganglia feedback signals actually relate to the phenomenological variability of RSBs.

Craniovascular variation in four late Holocene human samples from southern South America.

Craniovascular traits in the endocranium (traces of middle meningeal vessels and dural venous sinuses, emissary foramina) provide evidence of vascular anatomy in osteological samples. We investigate the craniovascular variation in four South American samples and the effect of artificial cranial modifications (ACM). CT scans of human adult crania from four archeological samples from southern South America (including skulls with ACM) are used for the analyses.

Willingness to receive an annual COVID-19 booster vaccine in the German-speaking D-A-CH region in Europe: A cross-sectional study.

Background: Emergence of new coronavirus variants and waning immunity may necessitate regular COVID-19 vaccine boosters, but empirical data on population willingness for regular vaccination are limited.

Methods: In August 2021, we surveyed 3,067 quota-sampled German-speaking adults residing in the D-A-CH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). Using multivariable adjusted ordered logistic regression models we calculated odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) to assess factors associated with willingness to vaccinate annually against COVID-19.

Ethical microbiome research with Indigenous communities.

Human-microbiome interactions have been associated with evolutionary, cultural and environmental processes. With clinical applications of microbiome research now feasible, it is crucial that the science conducted, particularly among Indigenous communities, adheres to principles of inclusion. This necessitates a transdisciplinary dialogue to decide how biological samples are collected and who benefits from the research and any derived products.

Metagenomic sequencing reveals time, host, and body compartment-specific viral dynamics after lung transplantation.

Background: The virome of lung transplant recipients (LTRs) under immunosuppressive therapy is dominated by non-pathogenic Anelloviridae and further includes several pathogenic viruses such as Herpesviruses or respiratory viruses. It is unclear whether the donor-derived virome in the transplanted lung influences recipient virome dynamics in other body compartments and if so, to which degree. Likewise, it is unknown whether dependencies exist among virus populations that mutually shape viral loads and kinetics.

I share because of who I am: values, identities, norms, and attitudes explain sharing intentions.

To promote sustainable consumption, predictors of individuals' intentions need to be understood. Focusing on the example of collaborative consumption, we look at facilitating and inhibiting factors in a preregistered correlational study ( = 378). We hypothesized the Value-Identity-Personal norm (VIP) model to explain variance in sharing intention.

Diversity regained: Precautionary approaches to COVID-19 as a phenomenon of the total environment.

As COVID-19 emerged as a phenomenon of the total environment, and despite the intertwined and complex relationships that make humanity an organic part of the Bio- and Geospheres, the majority of our responses to it have been corrective in character, with few or no consideration for unintended consequences which bring about further vulnerability to unanticipated global events. Tackling COVID-19 entails a systemic and precautionary approach to human-nature relations, which we frame as regaining diversity in the Geo-, Bio-, and Anthropospheres. Its implementation requires nothing short of an overhaul in the way we interact with and build knowledge from natural and social environments.

Beyond the divide between indigenous and academic knowledge: Causal and mechanistic explanations in a Brazilian fishing community.

Transdisciplinary research challenges the divide between Indigenous and academic knowledge by bringing together epistemic resources of heterogeneous stakeholders. The aim of this article is to explore causal explanations in a traditional fishing community in Brazil that provide resources for transdisciplinary collaboration, without neglecting differences between Indigenous and academic experts. Semi-structured interviews were carried out in a fishing village in the North shore of Bahia and our findings show that community members often rely on causal explanations for local ecological phenomena with different degrees of complexity.

Lipid synthesis at the trophic base as the source for energy management to build complex structures.

The review explores the ecological basis for bacterial lipid metabolism in marine and terrestrial ecosystems. We discuss ecosystem stressors that provoked early organisms to modify their lipid membrane structures, and where these stressors are found across a variety of environments. A major role of lipid membranes is to manage cellular energy utility, including how energy is used for signal propagation.

Association of bacterial community types, functional microbial processes and lung disease in cystic fibrosis airways.

Bacterial infection and inflammation of the airways are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in persons with cystic fibrosis (CF). The ecology of the bacterial communities inhabiting CF airways is poorly understood, especially with respect to how community structure, dynamics, and microbial metabolic activity relate to clinical outcomes. In this study, the bacterial communities in 818 sputum samples from 109 persons with CF were analyzed by sequencing bacterial 16S rRNA gene amplicons.

The evolution of pelvic canal shape and rotational birth in humans.

Background: The human foetus typically needs to rotate when passing through the tight birth canal because of the complex shape of the pelvis. In most women, the upper part, or inlet, of the birth canal has a round or mediolaterally oval shape, which is considered ideal for parturition, but it is unknown why the lower part of the birth canal has a pronounced anteroposteriorly oval shape.

Results: Here, we show that the shape of the lower birth canal affects the ability of the pelvic floor to resist the pressure exerted by the abdominal organs and the foetus.

Early Vocal Development in Tuberous Sclerosis Complex.

Background: Our goal was to assess for the first time early vocalizations as precursors to speech in audio-video recordings of infants with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC).

Methods: We randomly selected 40 infants with TSC from the TSC Autism Center of Excellence Research Network dataset. Using human observers, we analyzed 74 audio-video recordings within a flexible software-based coding environment.

The origin of language and relative roles of voice and gesture in early communication development.

Both vocalization and gesture are universal modes of communication and fundamental features of language development. The gestural origins theory proposes that language evolved out of early gestural use. However, evidence reported here suggests vocalization is much more prominent in early human communication than gesture is.

Beyond the "information deficit model" - understanding vaccine-hesitant attitudes of midwives in Austria: a qualitative study.

Background: Healthcare workers are considered key stakeholders in efforts to address vaccine hesitancy. Midwives' influence in advising expectant parents on early-childhood vaccinations is unquestioned, yet they remain an understudied group. The literature on midwives' attitudes towards vaccinations is also inconclusive.

Protophones, the precursors to speech, dominate the human infant vocal landscape.

Human infant vocalization is viewed as a critical foundation for vocal learning and language. All apes share distress sounds (shrieks and cries) and laughter. Another vocal type, speech-like sounds, common in human infants, is rare but not absent in other apes.

Cross-species parallels in babbling: animals and algorithms.

A key feature of vocal ontogeny in a variety of taxa with extensive vocal repertoires is a developmental pattern in which vocal exploration is followed by a period of category formation that results in a mature species-specific repertoire. Vocal development preceding the adult repertoire is often called 'babbling', a term used to describe aspects of vocal development in species of vocal-learning birds, some marine mammals, some New World monkeys, some bats and humans. The paper summarizes the results of research on babbling in examples from five taxa and proposes a unifying definition facilitating their comparison.

The gut microbiome buffers dietary adaptation in Bronze Age domesticated dogs.

In an attempt to explore the role of the gut microbiome during recent canine evolutionary history, we sequenced the metagenome of 13 canine coprolites dated ca. 3,600-3,450 years ago from the Bronze Age archaeological site of Solarolo (Italy), which housed a complex farming community. The microbiome structure of Solarolo dogs revealed continuity with that of modern dogs, but it also shared some features with the wild wolf microbiome, as a kind of transitional state between them.

Multi-omics profiling predicts allograft function after lung transplantation.

Rationale: Lung transplantation is the ultimate treatment option for patients with end-stage respiratory diseases but bears the highest mortality rate among all solid organ transplantations due to chronic lung allograft dysfunction (CLAD). The mechanisms leading to CLAD remain elusive due to an insufficient understanding of the complex post-transplant adaptation processes.

Objectives: To better understand these lung adaptation processes after transplantation and to investigate their association with future changes in allograft function.

Why We Will Continue to Lose Our Battle with Cancers If We Do Not Stop Their Triggers from Environmental Pollution.

Besides our current health concerns due to COVID-19, cancer is a longer-lasting and even more dramatic pandemic that affects almost a third of the human population worldwide. Most of the emphasis on its causes has been posed on genetic predisposition, chance, and wrong lifestyles (mainly, obesity and smoking). Moreover, our medical weapons against cancers have not improved too much during the last century, although research is in progress.

Dental wear patterns reveal dietary ecology and season of death in a historical chimpanzee population.

Dental wear analyses have been widely used to interpret the dietary ecology in primates. However, it remains unclear to what extent a combination of wear analyses acting at distinct temporal scales can be beneficial in interpreting the tooth use of primates with a high variation in their intraspecific dietary ecology. Here, we combine macroscopic tooth wear (occlusal fingerprint analysis, long-term signals) with microscopic 3D surface textures (short-term signals) exploring the tooth use of a historical western chimpanzee population from northeastern Liberia with no detailed dietary records.

Working from home, quality of life, and perceived productivity during the first 50-day COVID-19 mitigation measures in Austria: a cross-sectional study.

Objectives: To explore changes in quality of life and perceived productivity, focusing on the effects of working from home during the first COVID-19 50-day mitigation period in Austria.

Methods: We conducted an Austrian-representative online survey (N = 1010) of self-reported life- and work-related changes during the first COVID-19 50-day mitigation period (March 16 through May 1 2020) compared to the situation before. We used multinominal logistic regression models to identify correlates of improved/decreased quality of life in the entire sample, and of improved/decreased productivity in a subsample of the working population (N = 686).