Idiom comprehension in French-speaking children and adolescents with Williams syndrome

This study looks at idiom comprehension by French-speaking people with Williams’ syndrome (WS) and metapragmatic knowledge is examined. Idiomatic expressions are a nonliteral form of language where there is a considerable difference between what is said (literal interpretation) and what is meant (idiomatic interpretation). WS is characterized by a relatively preserved formal language, social interest and poor conversational skills. Using this framework, the present study aims to explore the comprehension of idiomatic expressions by 20 participants with WS. Participants performed a story completion task (comprehension task), and a task of metapragmatic knowledge to justify their chosen answers. WS performances were compared to typically developing children with the same verbal mental age. The main results can be summarized as follows: (1) People with WS have difficulties to understand idioms; (3) WS group seems to perform partly as typically developing children for the acquisition of metapragmatic knowledge of linguistic convention: there is a progressive increase in metapragmatic knowledge of linguistic convention as age increased. Our results indicate a delay of acquisition in idiom comprehension in Williams’ syndrome.

Changing state disruption of lip-reading by irrelevant sound in perceptual and memory tasks

Three experiments investigated irrelevant sound interference of lip-read lists. In Experiment 1, an acoustically changing sequence of nine irrelevant utterances was more disruptive to spoken immediate identification of lists of nine lip-read digits than nine repetitions of the same utterances (the changing-state effect; Jones, Madden, & Miles, 1992). Experiment 2 replicated this finding when lip-read items were sampled with replacement from the nine digits to form the lip-read lists. In Experiment 3, when the irrelevant sound was confined to the retention interval of a delayed recall task, a changing-state pattern of disruption also occurred. Results confirm a changing-state effect in memory for lip-read items but also point to the possibility that, for lip-reading, changing-state effects may occur at an earlier, perceptual stage.

Studies on particulate matter (PM10) and its precursors over urban environment of Reading, UK

The extent to which airborne particles penetrate into the human respiratory system is determined mainly by their size, with possible health effects. The research over the scientific evidence of the role of airborne particles in adverse health effects has been intensified in recent years. In the present study, seasonal variations of PM10 and its relation with anthropogenic activities have been studied by using the data from UK National Air Quality Archive over Reading, UK. The diurnal variation of PM10 shows a morning peak during 7:00-10:00 LT and an evening peak during 19:00-22:00 LT. 3 The variation between 12:00 and 17:00 LT remains more or less steady for PM10 with the minimum value of similar to 16 mu g m(-3). PM10 and black smoke (BS) concentrations during weekdays were found to be high compared to weekends. A reduction in the concentration of PM10 has been found during the Christmas holidays compared to normal days during December. Seasonal variations of PM10 showed high values during spring compared to other seasons. A linear relationship has been found between PM10 and NO, during March, July, November and December suggesting that most of the PM10 is due to local traffic exhaust emissions. PM10 and SO2 concentrations showed positive correlation with the correlation coefficient of R-2 = 0.65 over the study area. Seasonal variations of SO2 and NOx showed high concentrations during winter and low concentrations during spring. Fraction of BS in PM10 has been found to be 50% during 2004 over the study area. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Combining representations in working memory: A brief report

A task combining both digit and Corsi memory tests was administered to a group of 75 children. The task is shown to share variance with standardized reading and maths attainments, even after partialling out performance on component tasks separately assessed. The emergent task property may reflect coordination skills, although several different refinements can be made to this general conclusion.

Sequence-selective assembly of tweezer-molecules on linear templates enables frameshift-reading of sequence information

Monomer-sequence information in synthetic copolyimides can be recognised by tweezer-type molecules binding to adjacent triplet-sequences on the polymer chains. In the present paper different tweezer-molecules are found to have different sequence-selectivities, as demonstrated in solution by 1H NMR spectroscopy and in the solid state by single crystal X-ray analyses of tweezer-complexes with linear and macrocyclic oligo-imides. This work provides clear-cut confirmation of polyimide chain-folding and adjacent-tweezer-binding. It also reveals a new and entirely unexpected mechanism for sequence-recognition which, by analogy with a related process in biomolecular information processing, may be termed "frameshift-reading". The ability of one particular tweezer-molecule to detect, with exceptionally high sensitivity, long-range sequence-information in chain-folding aromatic copolyimides, is readily explained by this novel process.

Differences between naïve and expert observers’ vergence and accommodative responses to a range of targets

Purpose: Vergence and accommodation studies often use adult participants with experience of vision science. Reports of infant and clinical responses are generally more variable and of lower gain, with the implication that differences lie in immaturity or sub-optimal clinical characteristics but expert/naïve differences are rarely considered or quantified. Methods: Sixteen undergraduates, naïve to vision science, were individually matched by age, visual acuity, refractive error, heterophoria, stereoacuity and near point of accommodation to second- and third-year orthoptics and optometry undergraduates (‘experts’). Accommodation and vergence responses were assessed to targets moving between 33 cm, 50 cm, 1 m and 2 m using a haploscopic device incorporating a PlusoptiX SO4 autorefractor. Disparity, blur and looming cues were separately available or minimised in all combinations. Instruction set was minimal. Results: In all cases, vergence and accommodation response slopes (gain) were steeper and closer to 1.0 in the expert group (p = 0.001), with the largest expert/naïve differences for both vergence and accommodation being for near targets (p = 0.012). For vergence, the differences between expert and naïve response slopes increased with increasingly open-loop targets (linear trend p = 0.025). Although we predicted that proximal cues would drive additional response in the experts, the proximity-only cue was the only condition that showed no statistical effect of experience. Conclusions: Expert observers provide more accurate responses to near target demand than closely matched naïve observers. We suggest that attention, practice, voluntary and proprioceptive effects may enhance responses in experienced participants when compared to a more typical general population. Differences between adult reports and the developmental and clinical literature may partially reflect expert/naïve effects, as well as developmental change. If developmental and clinical studies are to be compared to adult normative data, uninstructed naïve adult data should be used.

Haploids in flowering plants: origins and exploitation

The first haploid angiosperm, a dwarf form of cotton with half the normal chromosome complement, was discovered in 1920, and in the ninety years since then such plants have been identified in many other species. They can occur either spontaneously or can be induced by modified pollination methods in vivo, or by in vitro culture of immature male or female gametophytes. Haploids represent an immediate, one-stage route to homozygous diploids and thence to F(1) hybrid production. The commercial exploitation of heterosis in such F(1) hybrids leads to the development of hybrid seed companies and subsequently to the GM revolution in agriculture. This review describes the range of techniques available for the isolation or induction of haploids and discusses their value in a range of areas, from fundamental research on mutant isolation and transformation, through to applied aspects of quantitative genetics and plant breeding. It will also focus on how molecular methods have been used recently to explore some of the underlying aspects of this fascinating developmental phenomenon.

Farming systems methodology for efficient resource management at the farm level: a review from an Indian perspective

Farming systems research is a multi-disciplinary holistic approach to solve the problems of small farms. Small and marginal farmers are the core of the Indian rural economy Constituting 0.80 of the total farming community but possessing only 0.36 of the total operational land. The declining trend of per capita land availability poses a serious challenge to the sustainability and profitability of farming. Under such conditions, it is appropriate to integrate land-based enterprises such as dairy, fishery, poultry, duckery, apiary, field and horticultural cropping within the farm, with the objective of generating adequate income and employment for these small and marginal farmers Under a set of farm constraints and varying levels of resource availability and Opportunity. The integration of different farm enterprises can be achieved with the help of a linear programming model. For the current review, integrated farming systems models were developed, by Way Of illustration, for the marginal, small, medium and large farms of eastern India using linear programming. Risk analyses were carried out for different levels of income and enterprise combinations. The fishery enterprise was shown to be less risk-prone whereas the crop enterprise involved greater risk. In general, the degree of risk increased with the increasing level of income. With increase in farm income and risk level, the resource use efficiency increased. Medium and large farms proved to be more profitable than small and marginal farms with higher level of resource use efficiency and return per Indian rupee (Rs) invested. Among the different enterprises of integrated farming systems, a chain of interaction and resource flow was observed. In order to make fanning profitable and improve resource use efficiency at the farm level, the synergy among interacting components of farming systems should be exploited. In the process of technology generation, transfer and other developmental efforts at the farm level (contrary to the discipline and commodity-based approaches which have a tendency to be piecemeal and in isolation), it is desirable to place a whole-farm scenario before the farmers to enhance their farm income, thereby motivating them towards more efficient and sustainable fanning.

Association between ovarian follicle development and pregnancy rates in dairy cows undergoing spontaneous oestrous cycles

Ovarian follicle development continues in a wave-like manner during the bovine oestrous cycle giving rise to variation in the duration of ovulatory follicle development. The objectives of the present study were to determine whether a relationship exists between the duration of ovulatory follicle development and pregnancy rates following artificial insemination (AI) in dairy cows undergoing spontaneous oestrous cycles, and to identify factors influencing follicle turnover and pregnancy rate and the relationship between these two variables. Follicle development was monitored by daily transrectal ultrasonography from 10 days after oestrus until the subsequent oestrus in 158 lactating dairy cows. The cows were artificially inseminated following the second observed oestrus and pregnancy was diagnosed 35 days later. The predominant pattern of follicle development was two follicle waves (74.7%) with three follicle waves in 22.1% of oestrous cycles and four or more follicle waves in 3.2% of oestrous cycles. The interval from ovulatory follicle emergence to oestrus (EOI) was 3 days longer (P < 0.0001) in cows with two follicle waves than in those with three waves. Ovulatory follicles from two-wave oestrous cycles grew more slowly but were approximately 2 mm larger (P < 0.0001) on the day of oestrus. Twin ovulations were observed in 14.2% of oestrous cycles and occurred more frequently (P < 0.001) in three-wave oestrous cycles; consequently EOI was shorter in cows with twin ovulations. Overall, 57.0% of the cows were diagnosed pregnant 35 days after AI. Linear logistic regression analysis revealed an inverse relationship between EOI and the proportion of cows diagnosed pregnant, among all cows (n = 158; P < 0.01) and amongst those with single ovulations (n = 145; P < 0.05). Mean EOI was approximately I day shorter (P < 0.01) in cows that became pregnant than in non-pregnant cows; however, pregnancy rates did not differ significantly among cows with different patterns of follicle development. These findings confirm and extend previous observations in pharmacologically manipulated cattle and show, for the first time, that in dairy cows undergoing spontaneous oestrous cycles, natural variation in the duration of post-emergence ovulatory follicle development has a significant effect on pregnancy rate, presumably reflecting variation in oocyte developmental competence.