Integration of word meaning and world knowledge in language comprehension

Although the sentences that we hear or read have meaning, this does not necessarily mean that they are also true. Relatively little is known about the critical brain structures for, and the relative time course of, establishing the meaning and truth of linguistic expressions. We present electroencephalogram data that show the rapid parallel integration of both semantic and world knowledge during the interpretation of a sentence. Data from functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed that the left inferior prefrontal cortex is involved in the integration of both meaning and world knowledge. Finally, oscillatory brain responses indicate that the brain keeps a record of what makes a sentence hard to interpret.     

A NEW TYPE OF RADIOGRAPHIC BONE REMODELING IN THE DISTAL RADIAL AND ULNAR METAPHYSIS IN 54 NEWFOUNDLAND DOGS

In this longitudinal observational study, 118 growing Newfoundland dogs were followed with sequential radiographic examination of the right front limb, which were scheduled at ages 3, 4, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months to record evidence of skeletal changes. All affected dogs had evidence of changes at 6 months and dogs included in this study had radiographic examination at 6 months and at least two other scheduled examinations that included either 4 or 12 months. The dogs were privately owned and had individualized nutrition and environment with no maintenance protocol required by the project leaders. Irregularities in bone remodeling in the distal radius and ulna were seen in radiographs of 54 of 118 (45.8%) dogs. These irregularities differ from changes previously described in the Newfoundland dog. The reported irregularities were seen as islands of reduced opacity outlined by thickened, radiopaque osseous trabeculae, which were aligned with the axis of stress. All the 54 dogs with irregularities during some phase of development consistently had changes at 6 months of age. Reorganization of the changes in the bone was slow, and residual changes were visible at 18-24 months of age in many cases. The significance of these findings may lie in their potential for misinterpretation if they had been discovered in the presence of clinical signs such as any lameness or growth arrest. Radiographic appearance indicates disturbances in the bone maturation. The etiopathogenesis is unclear. Nutritional, environmental and genetic factors have to be studied.     

Socially induced stress and behavioural inhibition in response to angling exposure in rainbow trout

It is well known that fish can learn to avoid angling gear after experiencing a catch‐and‐release event, that is, after a private hooking experience. However, the possible importance of social information cues and their influence on an individual's vulnerability to angling remains largely unexplored, that is, social experience of a conspecific capture. The effects of private and social experience of hooking on the stress response of fish and subsequent catch rates were examined. Hatchery‐reared rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum), were implanted with heart rate loggers and experimentally subjected to private or social experience of hooking. Private and social experience of angling induced an increased heart rate in fish compared with naïve control fish. While private experience of hooking explained most of the reduced vulnerability to capture, no clear evidence was found that social experience of hooking affected angling vulnerability in fish that had never been hooked before. While both private and social experiences of angling constitute significant physiological stressors for rainbow trout, only the private experience reduces an individual's vulnerability to angling and in turn affecting population‐level catchability.     

Hearth Bread Characteristics: Effect of Protein Quality,Protein Content,Whole Meal Flour,DATEM, Proving Time,and Their Interactions

The effects of protein quality, protein content, ingredients, and baking process of flour blends on hearth loaves were studied. The flour blends varied in protein composition and content. Flours of strong protein quality produced hearth loaves with larger loaf volume, larger bread slice area, and higher form ratio (height/width) than flours of weak protein quality. The effect of protein content on hearth loaf depended on the size distribution of the proteins. Increasing protein content was associated with increased percentage of the largest glutenin polymers, and loaf volume and slice area increased significantly. The form ratio, however, remained unchanged with increasing flour protein content. Strong protein quality flours tolerated addition of whole meal flour better than weak protein quality flours. Increased amount of flour with strong protein quality improved hearth bread characteristics to a larger extent than increased protein content. Diacetyl tartaric acid ester of monoglycerides (DATEM) improved hearth bread characteristics, but the effect was small compared with the effect of protein composition.     

Sensory activity,chemical structure,and synthesis of Maillard generated bitter-tasting 1-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-indolizinium-6-olates

Thermal treatment of aqueous solutions of xylose, rhamnose, and l-alanine led to a rapid development of a bitter taste of the reaction mixture. To characterize the key compounds causing this bitter taste, the recently developed taste dilution analysis (TDA), which is based on the determination of the taste threshold of reaction products in serial dilutions of HPLC fractions, was performed to locate the most intense taste compounds in the complex mixture of Maillard reaction products. By application of this TDA, 26 fractions were obtained, among which seven fractions were evaluated with a high taste impact. LC/MS and NMR spectroscopy as well as synthetic experiments revealed the 1-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-indolizinium-6-olates 1-5 as the key compounds contributing the most to the intense bitter taste of the Maillard mixture. Calculation of the taste impact of these compounds based on a dose/activity relationship indicated that these five compounds already accounted for 56.8% of the overall bitterness of the Maillard mixture, thus demonstrating this class of 1-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-indolizinium-6-olates as the key bitter compounds. First synthetic studies on the relationship between the chemical structure and the human psychobiological activity of 1-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-indolizinium-6-olates revealed that substitution of the furan rings of 1 by 5-methylfuryl moieties (compounds 3-5) or by 5-(hydroxymethyl)furyl groups (compound 6) led to a significant increase of the bitter threshold. In contrast, the substitution of the oxygen atoms in the furan rings of 1 by sulfur atoms induced a significant decrease of the detection threshold of the 1-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-indolizinium-6-olate; for example, the thiophene derivative 7 showed the extraordinarily low bitter detection threshold of 6.3 x 10(-5) mmol/kg (water).     

Quantitation of 3-aminopropionamide in potatoes-a minor but potent precursor in acrylamide formation

3-Aminopropionamide (3-APA) has recently been suggested as a transient intermediate in acrylamide (AA) formation during thermal degradation of asparagine initiated by reducing carbohydrates or aldehydes, respectively. 3-APA may also be formed in foods by an enzymatic decarboxylation of asparagine. Using a newly developed method to quantify 3-APA based on liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry, it could be shown that the biogenic amine was present in several potato cultivars in different amounts. Further experiments indicated that 3-APA is formed during storage of intact potatoes (20 or 35 degrees C) or after crushing of the cells. The heating of 3-APA under aqueous or low water conditions at temperatures between 100 and 180 degrees C in model systems always generated more AA than in the same reaction of asparagine, thereby pointing to 3-APA as a very effective precursor of AA. While the highest yields measured were about 28 mol % in the presence of carbohydrates (170 degrees C; aqueous buffer), in the absence of carbohydrates, 3-APA was even converted by about 63 mol % into AA upon heating at 170 degrees C under aqueous conditions. Propanoic acid amides bearing an amino or hydroxy group in the alpha-position, such as 2-hydroxypropionamide and l-alaninamide, were ineffective in AA generation indicating that elimination occurs only from the beta-position.     

Is the endangered Fennoscandian arctic fox (Alopex lagopus) population genetically isolated?

The arctic fox population in Fennoscandia is on the verge of going extinct after not being able to recover from a severe bottleneck at the end of the 19th century. The Siberian arctic fox population, on the other hand, is large and unthreatened. In order to resolve questions regarding gene flow between, and genetic variation within the populations, a 294 bp long part of the mitochondrial hypervariable region 1 was sequenced. This was done for 17 Swedish, 15 Siberian and two farmed foxes. Twelve variable nucleotide sites were observed, which resulted in 10 different haplotypes. Three haplotypes were found in Sweden and seven haplotypes were found in Siberia. An analysis of molecular variance showed a weak, but significant, differentiation between the populations. No difference in haplotype diversity was found between the populations. A phylogenetic analysis revealed that the three Swedish haplotypes were not monophyletic compared to the Siberian haplotypes. These results indicate a certain amount of gene flow between the two populations, both before and after the bottleneck. Restocking the Fennoscandian population with arctic foxes from Siberia might therefore be a viable option.     

When is it biological control? A framework of definitions,mechanisms, and classifications

Journal of Pest Science - Biological control, or biocontrol, is the exploitation of living agents (incl. viruses) to combat pestilential organisms (incl. pathogens, pests, and weeds) for diverse...     

Correction to: When is it biological control? A framework of definitions,mechanisms, and classifications

Journal of Pest Science - A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-021-01386-z