The analysis of embodied communicative feedback in multimodal corpora: a prerequisite for behavior simulation

Communicative feedback refers to unobtrusive (usually short) vocal or bodily expressions whereby a recipient of information can inform a contributor of information about whether he/she is able and willing to communicate, perceive the information, and understand the information. This paper provides a theory for embodied communicative feedback, describing the different dimensions and features involved. It also provides a corpus analysis part, describing a first data coding and analysis method geared to find the features postulated by the theory. The corpus analysis part describes different methods and statistical procedures and discusses their applicability and the possible insights gained with these methods.     

Multifunctional Magnetic Optical Sensor Particles with Tunable Sizes for Monitoring Metabolic Parameters and as a Basis for Nanotherapeutics

Magnetic optical sensor particles with multifunctional cores and shells are synthesized via a facile nanoprecipitation method and the subsequent modification of the particle shell. The hydrophobic particle core includes optical oxygen indicators, a light harvesting system, photosensitizers, and magnetic nanoparticles. Further functionalities are introduced by modifying the shell with enzymes, antibodies, multiple layers of polyelectrolytes, stimuli‐responsive polymers, and luminescent indicator dyes. The hydrodynamic diameter is tunable by varying different precipitation parameters.     

Biochemistry of postmortem muscle — Lessons on mechanisms of meat tenderization

It is certain that meat tenderness is a highly valued consumer trait and thus definition of the multiple processes that influence meat tenderness will provide clues toward improving meat quality and value. The natural process by which meat becomes tender is complex. Tenderness development is dependent on the architecture and the integrity of the skeletal muscle cell and on events that modify those proteins and their interaction. Specifically protein degradation and protein oxidation have been identified as processes that modify proteins as well as the tenderness of meat. The intracellular environment is a major factor that controls these events. Ultimately, the interplay between these events determines the rate and extent of tenderization. Given the intricacy of the structure of the muscle cell, coupled with the complexity of the regulation of protein modification and the ever-changing intracellular environment it is not surprising that this area of research is a very dynamic field. Just as the overall integrity and function of muscle cells does not depend on a single protein, but rather on the coordinated interaction of several proteins, the structural weakening of muscle cells during postmortem aging also must not depend on the degradation of a single myofibrillar or other cytoskeletal protein. The proteins mentioned in this review are located in different regions of the muscle cell, and most have been implicated in some manner as being important in maintaining the structure and function of the muscle cell. Oxidation of myosin heavy chain, a predominant protein in the myofibril, is known to promote aggregation and toughening of meat. Degradation of proteins such as desmin, filamin, dystrophin, and talin (all located at the periphery of the Z-line) may disrupt the lateral register and integrity of the myofibril themselves as well as the attachments of the peripheral layer of myofibril to the sarcolemma. Degradation of the proteins within the myofibril that are associated with the thick and thin filaments may allow lateral movement or breaks to occur within the sarcomeres of postmortem aged samples. Titin, nebulin, and troponin-T, by their ability to directly interact with, or modulate the interaction between, major proteins of the thick and thin filaments and (or) the Z-line, play key roles in muscle cell integrity. Disruption of these proteins, especially titin and nebulin, could initiate further physicochemical and structural changes that result in myofibril fragmentation and loss of muscle cell integrity, and ultimately in tenderization of the muscle. In order to make real progress in this area, the scientific community must have a global appreciation of how both the structural proteins and the key proteases are influenced by the vast changes that occur during the conversion of muscle to meat.     

Variation in the human lipidome associated with coffee consumption as revealed by quantitative targeted metabolomics

The effect of coffee consumption on human health is still discussed controversially. Here, we report results from a metabolomics study of coffee consumption, where we measured 363 metabolites in blood serum of 284 male participants of the Cooperative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg study population, aged between 55 and 79 years. A statistical analysis of the association of metabolite concentrations and the number of cups of coffee consumed per day showed that coffee intake is positively associated with two classes of sphingomyelins, one containing a hydroxy‐group (SM(OH)) and the other having an additional carboxy‐group (SM(OH,COOH)). In contrast, long‐ and medium‐chain acylcarnitines were found to decrease with increasing coffee consumption. It is noteworthy that the concentration of total cholesterol also rises with an increased coffee intake in this study group. The association observed here between these hydroxylated and carboxylated sphingolipid species and coffee intake may be induced by changes in the cholesterol levels. Alternatively, these molecules may act as scavengers of oxidative species, which decrease with higher coffee intake. In summary, we demonstrate strong positive associations between coffee consumption and two classes of sphingomyelins and a negative association between coffee consumption and long‐ and medium‐chain acylcarnitines.     

Response of pocket gophers (Thomomys talpoides) to an operational application of synthetic semiochemicals of stoat (Mustela erminea)

This paper reports on laboratory bioassays and a large-scale field trial of synthetic mustelid anal-gland compounds in controlled-release devices designed for operational application to burrow systems of northern pocket gophers (Thomomys talpoides). The field study was conducted in an apple orchard in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. In laboratory bioassays, a 1∶1 mixture of 2-propylthietane and 3-propyl-1,2-dithiolane from the stoat (Mustela erminea) and 3,3-dimethyl-1,2-dithiolane from the ferret (M. putorius), dispensed in clay pellets (activated alumina), produced a significant avoidance response by gophers. All resident gophers were permanently removed from 4-ha control and treatment blocks prior to placement of stoat odor in burrows. As indexed by soil mounds, significantly fewer gophers colonized the treatment (40) than the control (68) removal area during a 5.5-month overwinter experiment. There was also a significant difference when comparing the number of mounds between pre-(79) and posttreatment (40) censuses. In addition, most gopher activity tended to occur on the perimeter of the treatment block. Abundance of gophers showed little difference between additional 4-ha control and treatment blocks where gophers had not been removed. The results of this study provide an alternative technique to toxicants for pocket gopher control on forest and agricultural land.     

Effects of traumatic brain injury on working memory-related brain activation in adolescents.

Eight adolescents (ages 13-18 years) who sustained traumatic brain injury (TBI) and eight gender- and age-matched typically developing (TD) adolescents underwent event-related functional MRI (fMRI) while performing a Sternberg letter recognition task. Encoding, maintenance, and retrieval were examined with memory loads of one or four items during imaging. Both groups performed above a 70% accuracy criterion and did not differ in performance. TD adolescents showed greater increase in frontal and parietal activation during high-load relative to low-load maintenance than the TBI group. The TBI patients showed greater increase in activation during high-load relative to low-load encoding and retrieval than the TD group. Results from this preliminary study suggest that the capability to differentially allocate neural resources according to memory load is disrupted by TBI for the maintenance subcomponent of working memory. The overrecruitment of frontal and extrafrontal regions during encoding and retrieval following TBI may represent a compensatory process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interaction of ventral and orbital prefrontal cortex with inferotemporal cortex in conditional visuomotor learning.

Five rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) were trained to learn novel conditional visuomotor associations, to perform this task with familiar stimuli, and to perform a visual matching-to-sample task with the same familiar stimuli. Removal of the orbital and ventral prefrontal cortex (PFv+o) in 1 hemisphere and inferotemporal cortex (IT) in the other, thus completing a surgical disconnection of these 2 regions, yielded an impairment on all 3 tasks. Addition of a premotor cortex lesion to the hemisphere containing the PFv+o lesion did not worsen the impairments. The results indicate that PFv+o interacts with IT in both the learning and retention of conditional visuomotor associations. In addition to those associations, which might be considered lower order rules for choosing a response, frontotemporal interaction also appears to be important for higher order rules, such as those involved in the matching task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)