EXPRESS: Don’t blame yourself: Conscious source monitoring modulates feedback control during speech production

Sensory feedback plays an important role in speech motor control. One of the main sources of evidence for this are studies where online auditory feedback is perturbed during ongoing speech. In motor control, it is therefore crucial to distinguish between sensory feedback and externally generated sensory events. This is called source monitoring. Previous altered feedback studies have taken non-conscious source monitoring for granted, as automatic responses to altered sensory feedback imply that the feedback changes are processed as self-caused. However, the role of conscious source monitoring is unclear. The current study investigated whether conscious source monitoring modulates responses to unexpected pitch changes in auditory feedback. During a first block, some participants spontaneously attributed the pitch shifts to themselves (self-blamers) while others attributed them to an external source (other-blamers). Before block 2, all participants were informed that the pitch shifts were experimentally induced. The self-blamers then showed a reduction in response magnitude in block 2 compared with block 1, while the other-blamers did not. This suggests that conscious source monitoring modulates responses to altered auditory feedback, such that consciously ascribing feedback to oneself leads to larger compensation responses. These results can be accounted for within the dominant comparator framework, where conscious source monitoring could modulate the gain on sensory feedback. Alternatively, the results can be naturally explained from an inferential framework, where conscious knowledge may bias the priors in a Bayesian process to determine the most likely source of a sensory event.

Effectiveness of the use of hearing aids in the rehabilitation of patients with tinnitus: a systematic review

Introduction: Tinnitus is a symptom reported by the individual as a sound sensation, perceived in the ears or head, continuously or intermittently without external source of stimulation. This alteration has variable causes and may be associated with patients with hearing loss or normal hearing. Among main methods cited as treatment possibilities, hearing aids has been presented as a widely used resource. Objective: To carry out an integrative literature review on the effectiveness of hearing aids in rehabilitation of patients with tinnitus. Method: A search for articles was carried out in electronic databases: PubMed, Scielo, Scopus, Lilacs, Web of Science, with publication date from 2000 to 2020. Results: The sample consisted of 16 works where all concluded that somehow, in most cases, hearing aids associated or not with other resources used in treatment, contributes to a satisfactory result in improvement or disappearance of the symptom. Seven of sixteen articles related hearing aids to some type of guidance. The combination of these two factors could be considered an excellent combination as it favors the reduction of tinnitus sensation relatively quickly and efficiently. None of the articles analyzed showed an opposite or unsatisfactory result regarding its use.

Comparison of an Air-Fed Mask System with Hospital-Issued Personal Protection Equipments for Dental Aerosol Protection During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Aim: A pilot study was conducted with the aim of developing a system to protect the eyes, nose, and mouth from the aerosol generated from a high-speed dental handpiece during the COVID-19 pandemic. Background: The SARS-CoV-2 virus is known to be present in the saliva of an infected individual during the contagious viral shedding phase of the disease. The use of rotary dental instruments places oral health practitioners at risk of contracting COVID-19 from infected individuals. In particular, it is very difficult to protect the mucous membranes of the face against the extremely fine aerosol produced from a high-speed dental handpiece. Objectives: This study aimed to develop and test a novel PPE system for use during the COVID-19 pandemic. An air-fed spray-painting mask was used under a plastic hood to protect against the aerosol from a high-speed dental handpiece. This was found to be superior compared to hospital-issued N-95 masks and eye protection in our test model. Methods: Subjects donned various forms of PPE whilst using a high-speed dental handpiece in a confined cubicle. The efficacy of each form of PPE was evaluated by adding fluorescein to the water coolant supply line of a high-speed dental handpiece before checking for facial contamination with an ophthalmology slit lamp. Results: Under our test conditions, the N-95 mask did not prevent nasal and mouth contaminations, but the combination of an air-fed mask with a sealed hood prevented these contaminations. Although goggles worn tightly did prevent contamination, the air-fed mask system was far more comfortable and did not fog up. Discussion: Under the rigorous test conditions of our model, we found hospital-issued PPE ineffective. We also found the single strategy of using positive airflow into a face mask ineffective, even with extremely high levels of airflow. Complete protection was only achieved reliably by the combination of physically sealing off the face from the surrounding airspace and using the air-fed system to provide an external source of air to breathe. We effectively made the clinical equivalent of a dive bell helmet. The air-fed mask is supplied by a standard dental air compressor and is simple to install for someone familiar with the technical aspects of compressors. The compressor does not rely on a filter and proves effective with cheap and easily accessible disposable items. Conclusion: Under rigorous testing conditions, the developed air-fed mask system with a sealed hood on low flow performed better than hospital-issued PPE against high-speed dental aerosol protection. The developed system protects the operators from the air of the room contaminated with aerosol and brings in safe air from the outside for them to breathe.

Biocompatibility and Electrical Stimulation of Skeletal and Smooth Muscle Cells Cultured on Piezoelectric Nanogenerators

Nanogenerators are interesting for biomedical applications, with a great potential for electrical stimulation of excitable cells. Piezoelectric ZnO nanosheets present unique properties for tissue engineering. In this study, nanogenerator arrays based on ZnO nanosheets are fabricated on transparent coverslips to analyse the biocompatibility and the electromechanical interaction with two types of muscle cells, smooth and skeletal. Both cell types adhere, proliferate and differentiate on the ZnO nanogenerators. Interestingly, the amount of Zn ions released over time from the nanogenerators does not interfere with cell viability and does not trigger the associated inflammatory response, which is not triggered by the nanogenerators themselves either. The local electric field generated by the electromechanical nanogenerator–cell interaction stimulates smooth muscle cells by increasing cytosolic calcium ions, whereas no stimulation effect is observed on skeletal muscle cells. The random orientation of the ZnO nanogenerators, avoiding an overall action potential aligned along the muscle fibre, is hypothesised to be the cause of the cell-type dependent response. This demonstrates the need of optimizing the nanogenerator morphology, orientation and distribution according to the potential biomedical use. Thus, this study demonstrates the cell-scale stimulation triggered by biocompatible piezoelectric nanogenerators without using an external source on smooth muscle cells, although it remarks the cell type-dependent response.

Kinetic and energetic insights in the dissipative non-equilibrium operation of an autonomous light-powered supramolecular pump

Natural and artificial autonomous molecular machines operate by constantly dissipating energy coming from an external source to maintain a non-equilibrium state. The in-depth study of these dissipative states is highly challenging as they exist only as long as energy is provided. Here we report on the detailed physicochemical characterization of the dissipative operation of a supramolecular pump transducing light energy into chemical energy by shifting the equilibrium of self-assembly reactions. The composition of the system under light irradiation was followed in real-time by 1H NMR and parameters such as the dissipation and the energy storage at the steady state were extracted for four different irradiation intensities. For the first time in an artificial system, we quantitatively probed the relationship between the light energy input and the deviation of the dissipative state from thermodynamic equilibrium. Our results also provide a testing ground for newly developed theoretical models.

INCIDENCE OF TBRV AND ArMV VIRUSES IN NEW CHERRY PLANTATIONS FROM AREA OF ROMANIA

Viral diseases can influence negatively a good evolution of cherry plantations. Two of the viral diseases that attack this species are caused by the ArMV virus, which spreads by multiplying the infected propagating material, by seed and nematodes, and by the TBRV virus, which spreads by multiplying the infected material and nematodes. In order to study the incidence of the two viruses, 10 cherry plantations located in the south of the country were evaluated, in the district of Argeș, Dolj, Ialomița, Ilfov, Călărași, Dâmbovița, Buzău. The planting material used to set up the plantations was both from Romania and from an external source: the Netherlands, Greece, Italy. Viral evaluation performed visually and serologically by DAS-ELISA technique, identified viral infections in 2 of the 10 plantations. In one plantation, TBRV was identified in 20% of the tested samples and in the second, ArMV viruses were identified in 20% of the samples and TBRV in 5% of the samples.

The quantum dynamics of a mesoscopic driven RLC circuit consisting of a linear inductor, a linear resistor and a nonlinear capacitor

The nonlinear capacitor that obeys of a cubic polynomial voltage–charge relation (usually a power series in charge) is introduced. The quantum theory for a mesoscopic electric circuit with charge discreteness is investigated, and the Hamiltonian of a quantum mesoscopic electrical circuit comprised by a linear inductor, a linear resistor and a nonlinear capacitor under the influence of a time-dependent external source is expressed. Using the numerical solution approaches, a good analytic approximate solution for the quantum cubic Duffing equation is found. Based on this, the persistent current is obtained antically. The energy spectrum of such nonlinear electrical circuit has been found. The dependency of the persistent current and spectral property equations to linear and nonlinear parameters is discussed by the numerical simulations method, and the quantum dynamical behavior of these parameters is studied.

Impact of Budget Deficit Financing on Money Demand in Nigeria

The study empirically investigates the impact of budget deficit financing on money demand in Nigeria with an objective of finding the effect of budget deficit financing indicators such as external debt financing, domestic debt as well as debt servicing on money demand. The study is modeled using a framework of Keynesian theory of budget deficit financing and Richadian Equivalent hypothesis. The study adopted an auto redistributive lag model (ARDL) which shows the existence of long run relationship between money demand and indicators of financing budget deficit and ordinary Least Square. The general findings revealed that external source of financing budget deficit, internal source of financing budget deficit as well as debt servicing has a significant effect on money demand in the Nigerian context. Base on this findings, the study recommend that external and internal source of financing deficit should be encouraged for effective demand leading to economic stability reasons and not for political reasons and it should be properly channeled to productive sector of the economy that will enhance economic stability.

Binding Energy of Cubic Carbon Atoms

Energy spectrum of gas particles in plasma is broad, ranging from fractions to 10s of electron volts. Proportion of particles with required energetic parameters, participating in cubic carbon c-C synthesis, is small. External energy deposition can transfer an inert carbon atom to active state and change its electronic configuration. Binding energy of c-C atom depends on energy sources interaction. In this work, the calculations found the binding energy value that was compared with value of energy of the bond between the carbon atoms in ethane. The advisability of external source, activated carbon atoms generator, is marked. It has been established that by adding accelerated carbon atoms with energy of 9,687 eV into reactor it is possible to increase productivity of films, coatings and bulk crystals growth.