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Motivated by theories of music-to-language transfer, we investigated whether and how musicianship benefits phonological and lexical prosodic awareness in first language (L1) Cantonese and second language (L2) English. We assessed 86 Cantonese-English bilingual children on rhythmic sensitivity, pitch sensitivity, nonverbal intelligence, inhibitory control, working memory, Cantonese phonological awareness, Cantonese tone awareness, English phonological awareness, and English stress awareness. Based on their prior music learning experience, we classified the children as musicians and non-musicians. The musicians performed better than the non-musicians on Cantonese phonological awareness, Cantonese tone awareness, and English phonological awareness. In addition, the musicians had superior pitch sensitivity, nonverbal intelligence, inhibitory control, and working memory than the non-musicians. For Cantonese and English phonological awareness, neither cognitive abilities nor pitch and rhythmic sensitivities turned out to be a unique predictor. However, working memory uniquely predicted Cantonese tone awareness, with age, rhythmic sensitivity, and pitch sensitivity controlled. From a theoretical perspective, our findings on Cantonese tone awareness favors the cognitive perspective of music-to-language transfer, in which working memory enhancement could explain the musicians' superior performance in Cantonese tone awareness. However, our findings on phonological awareness do not favor the cognitive perspective, nor do they favor the perceptual perspective, in which enhanced rhythmic and pitch sensitivities could explain musicians' advantage.

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Historically, the wind-up delivery is considered a more biomechanically advantageous pitching motion compared to the stretch. Recently, some pitchers have shifted to pitching exclusively from the stretch regardless of the game situation. The goal of this study was to compare temporal, kinematic and kinetic variables between the wind-up and stretch deliveries. Professional pitchers (n = 52, 189.1 ± 4.8 cm, 92.8 ± 8.4 kg) threw fastballs evaluated by 3D-motion capture (480 Hz) from both the wind-up and stretch deliveries. Within a pitcher, there was no significant difference in ball velocity between the two deliveries (p = 0.15). The stretch delivery was significantly quicker to ball release at toe off 2 (p < 0.001) (the last frame the pitcher's foot contacts the ground before progressing to maximum knee height) and maximum knee height (p < 0.001). The majority of differences occurred prior to foot contact. The wind-up delivery produced greater maximum shoulder external rotation (p < 0.001) and lead knee flexion at ball release (p < 0.001). Pitching from the stretch incurred greater shoulder superior force (p < 0.001). It remains unknown if this is clinically significant as pooled means show only a 2% difference. Therefore, pitching a fastball from either the wind-up or stretch delivery provides comparable mechanics and throwing arm load with likely comparable risk of injury.

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Estonian is a quantity language with both a primary duration cue and a secondary pitch cue, whereas Chinese is a tonal language with a dominant pitch use. Using a mismatch negativity experiment and a behavioral discrimination experiment, we investigated how native language background affects the perception of duration only, pitch only, and duration plus pitch information. Chinese participants perceived duration in Estonian as meaningless acoustic information due to a lack of phonological use of duration in their native language; however, they demonstrated a better pitch discrimination ability than Estonian participants. On the other hand, Estonian participants outperformed Chinese participants in perceiving the non-speech pure tones that resembled the Estonian quantity (i.e., containing both duration and pitch information). Our results indicate that native language background affects the perception of duration and pitch and that such an effect is not specific to processing speech sounds.

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Coal tar pitch (CTP) has become an ideal choice in the preparation of anode precursors for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) because of its abundant carbon content, competitive pricing and adjustable structure properties. In this paper, sulfurized pitch-based carbon (SPC-800) was obtained by allowing CTP to react with sulfur at 350 °C and subsequently achieve carbonization at 800 °C. SPC-800 was more disordered and had a larger layer spacing than carbonized CTP (PC-800). Upon utilization as an anode for LIBs, SPC-800 possessed a higher reversible specific capacity (478.1 mAh g-1 at 0.1 A g-1), while utilization in SIBs displayed a capacity of 220.9 mAh g-1 at 20 mA g-1. This work is an important guide to the design of high-performance anodes suitable for use with both LIBs and SIBs.

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Premodern medicine used a variety of mineral substances for therapeutic purposes. The present article deals with pitch-asphalt, and, in particular, a precious kind of it called mumiya' originating in Persia. It was first described in detail in the Arabic pharmacological tradition, and its fame spread throughout the medieval Mediterranean, including Byzantium. By editing and examining for the first time a previously unexplored medieval Greek text on mumiya', this study offers new insights into the medicinal uses of this substance. It also significantly increases our understanding of the intense cross-cultural transfer of medical knowledge from the Islamicate world to Byzantium by showing that this was not merely based on the translation of a few Arabic medical works into Greek, but was a multifaceted phenomenon involving a complex nexus of sources that require further investigation.

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Memory for isolated absolute pitches is extremely rare in Western, English-speaking populations. However, past research has found that people can voluntarily reproduce well-known songs in the original key much more often than chance. It is unknown whether this requires deliberate effort or if it manifests in involuntary musical imagery (INMI, or earworms). Participants (N = 30, convenience sample) were surveyed at random times over a week and asked to produce a sung recording of any music they were experiencing in their heads. We measured the "pitch error" of each recording to the nearest semitone by comparing participants' recordings to the original song. We found that 44.7% of recordings had a pitch error of 0 semitones, and 68.9% of recordings were within ± 1 semitone of the original song. Our results provide novel evidence that a large proportion of the population has access to absolute pitch, as revealed in their INMI.

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Background and Objectives: This study's objective was to investigate the influence of increased scan speed and pitch on image quality and nodule volumetry in patients who underwent ultra-low-dose chest computed tomography (CT). Material and Methods: One hundred and two patients who had lung nodules were included in this study. Standard-speed, standard-pitch (SSSP) ultra-low-dose CT and high-speed, high-pitch (HSHP) ultra-low-dose CT were obtained for all patients. Image noise was measured as the standard deviation of attenuation. One hundred and sixty-three nodules were identified and classified according to location, volume, and nodule type. Volume measurement of detected pulmonary nodules was compared according to nodule location, volume, and nodule type. Motion artifacts at the right middle lobe, the lingular segment, and both lower lobes near the lung bases were evaluated. Subjective image quality analysis was also performed. Results: The HSHP CT scan demonstrated decreased motion artifacts at the left upper lobe lingular segment and left lower lobe compared to the SSSP CT scan (p < 0.001). The image noise was higher and the radiation dose was lower in the HSHP scan (p < 0.001). According to the nodule type, the absolute relative volume difference was significantly higher in ground glass opacity nodules compared with those of part-solid and solid nodules (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Our study results suggest that HSHP ultra-low-dose chest CT scans provide decreased motion artifacts and lower radiation doses compared to SSSP ultra-low-dose chest CT. However, lung nodule volumetry should be performed with caution for ground glass opacity nodules.

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Glycerine pitch is a highly alkaline residue from the oleochemical industry that contains glycerol and contaminants, such as water, soap, salt and ash. In this study, acidic heterogeneous glycerol-based carbon catalysts were synthesised for biodiesel production via single-step partial carbonisation and sulfonation using pure glycerol and glycerine pitch, producing products labelled as SGC and SGPC, respectively. Carbon materials were obtained by heating glycerol and concentrated sulfuric acid (1:3) at 200℃ for 1 h. The produced SGC and SGPC displayed high densities of sulfonic group (-SO3H), i.e. 1.49 and 1.00 mmol·g-1, respectively, alongside carboxylic (-COOH) and phenolic (-OH) acid. In the catalytic evaluation, excellent oleic acid conversions of 96.0 ± 0.4 % and 92.4 ± 0.5 % were achieved using SGC and SGPC, respectively, under optimised reaction conditions: 1:10 M ratio of oleic acid to methanol, 5 % (w/w) catalyst, 64℃ and 5 h. SGPC was found to be recyclable with 68.5 % conversion after the 6th cycle, which was attributed to the loss of -SO3H and catalyst deactivation by the deposition of oleic acid on its surface. Remarkably, despite the impurities present in the glycerine pitch, the obtained results demonstrated that the reactivity of SGPC is comparable to SGC and superior to that of commercial solid acid catalysts, which demonstrated that the presence of impurities appears to have minimal impact on the production of carbon materials and their properties.

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Due to the low degree of automation of the existing arc droop measurement device, the tension line digital twin system is not yet able to simulate the change of arc droop in the actual engineering situation in a high degree of real time. To this end, a kind of arc droop automatic measuring equipment applicable to the working condition of tension frame line tightening construction is developed. In terms of hardware, firstly, the STC microcontroller is used to control the motor to achieve free movement of the equipment on the wire. Secondly, the Beidou positioning module is used to collect the spatial coordinates of each point on the wire, thereby obtaining the spatial attitude of the wire and calculating the final sag. Finally, LoRa technology with long transmission distance and low power consumption is selected for wireless transmission of controlled data and collected data. The software system of the device is equipped with the motor's action logic, which cooperates with the hardware to respond to the control commands issued by the terminal. The developed arc droop measurement equipment has been successfully applied in the project, compared with the traditional arc droop observation construction method construction efficiency increased by 28%, the difference between the observation file arc droop and the design arc droop after erection of the line is 1.96%. Digital simulation and remote guidance of arc sag variations by the digital twin system for tension racking lines was realized while ensuring the engineering requirements.

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Long non-coding RNA (LncRNA) plays an important role in malignant transformation of cells. This study aimed to explore the role of Lnc-ENST00000535078 in the malignant transformation of immortalized human bronchial epithelial cells (BEAS-2B) induced by coal tar pitch extract (CTPE). The malignant transformation model of BEAS-2B cells exposed to CTPE. Cell proliferation was examined by Cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay. Colony formation assay was used to assess the colony of cells. Cell migration and invasion were detected by Transwell analysis. Cell cycle progression and apoptotic status were assessed by flow cytometry. Differentially expressed genes were screened by RNA sequencing. The results showed that Lnc-ENST00000535078 expression was highest in malignantly transformed BEAS-2B cells passaged to the 30th generation. Knockdown of Lnc-ENST00000535078 inhibited the migration, invasion and anti-apoptotic abilities of malignantly transformed BEAS-2B cells. Transcriptome analysis found 608 differential genes. CCND1 and FOS genes were screened out because of their levels were positive correlation with the expression of Lnc-ENST00000535078, which were consistent with the RNA sequencing results. In conclusion, Low expression of Lnc-ENST00000535078 inhibits the migration and invasion of malignant transformed BEAS-2B cells and promotes apoptosis in these cells. Lnc-ENST00000556926 might affect the malignant transformation of cells through the regulation of CCND1 and FOS. This study may provide a potential target for intervention in CTPE-induced lung cancer.

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Hard carbons derived from pitch are considered a competitive low-cost anode for sodium-ion batteries. However, the preparation of pitch-based hard carbon (PHC) requires the aid of a pre-oxidation strategy, which introduces unnecessary defects and oxygen elements, which leads to low initial Coulombic efficiency (ICE) and poor cycling stability. Herein, we demonstrate a new surface engineering strategy by grafting chemically active glucose molecules on the PHC surface via esterification reactions, which can achieve low-cost nano-scaled carbon coating. Thin glucose coating can be carbonized at a lower temperature, which results in a more closed pore structure and fewer functional groups. The as prepared PHC exhibits a high reversible capacity of 328.5 mAh/g with a high ICE of 92.08 % at 0.02 A/g. It is noteworthy that the PHC can be adapted to a variety of cathode materials for full-cell assembling without pre-sodiation, which maintains the characteristics of high capacity and excellent cycling stability. The performance of resin-based hard carbon coated with a similar method was also improved, demonstrating the universality of the technique.

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Global change is exacerbating the prevalence of plant diseases caused by pathogenic fungi in forests worldwide. The conventional use of chemical fungicides, which is commonplace in agricultural settings, is not sanctioned for application in forest ecosystems, so novel control strategies are imperative. SIGS (Spray-Induced Gene Silencing) is a promising approach that can modulate the expression of target genes in eukaryotes in response to double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) present in the environment that triggers the RNA interference (RNAi) mechanism. SIGS exhibited notable success in reducing virulence when deployed against some crop fungal pathogens, such as Fusarium graminearum, Botrytis cinerea and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, among others. However, there is a conspicuous dearth of studies evaluating the applicability of SIGS for managing forest pathogens. This research aimed to determine whether SIGS could be used to control Fusarium circinatum, a widely impactful forest pathogen that causes Pine Pitch Canker disease. Through a bacterial synthesis, we produced dsRNA molecules to target fungal essential genes involved to vesicle trafficking (Vps51, DCTN1, and SAC1), signal transduction (Pp2a, Sit4, Ppg1, and Tap42), and cell wall biogenesis (Chs1, Chs2, Chs3b, Gls1) metabolic pathways. We confirmed that F. circinatum is able to uptake externally applied dsRNA, triggering an inhibition of the pathogen's virulence. Furthermore, this study pioneers the demonstration that recurrent applications of dsRNAs in SIGS are more effective in protecting plants than single applications. Therefore, SIGS emerges as an effective and sustainable approach for managing plant pathogens, showcasing its efficacy in controlling a globally significant forest pathogen subject to quarantine measures.

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Background: Kinematic parameters predictive of pitch velocity have been evaluated in adolescent and collegiate baseball pitchers; however, they have not been established for high school or professional pitchers. Purpose: To create multiregression models using anthropometric and kinematics features most predictive for pitch velocity in high school and professional pitchers and compare them with prior multiregression models evaluating other playing levels. Study Design: Descriptive laboratory study. Methods: High school (n = 59) and professional (n = 337) baseball pitchers threw 8 to 12 fastballs while being evaluated with 3-dimensional motion capture (480 Hz). Using anthropometric and kinematic variables, multiregression models for pitch velocity were created for each group. A systematic review was conducted to determine previous studies that established kinematic models for ball velocity in youth, high school, and collegiate pitchers. Results: Leg length was predictive of pitch velocity for high school and professional pitchers (P < .001 for both). When compared with previously established models for pitch velocity, almost all groups were distinct from one another when assessing age (P maximum < .001), weight (P max = .0095), and pitch velocity (P max < .001). Stride length was a significant predictor for the youth/high school pitchers, as well as the current study's high school and professional pitchers (P < .001 for all). Maximal shoulder external rotation (collegiate: P = .001; professional: P < .001) and maximal elbow extension velocity (high school/collegiate: P = .024; collegiate: P < .001; professional: P = .006) were shared predictors for the collegiate and current study's professional group multiregression models. Trunk flexion at ball release was a commonly shared predictor in the youth/high school (P = .04), high school/collegiate (P = .003), collegiate (P < .001), and the current study's professional group (P < .001). Conclusion: Youth, high school, collegiate, and professional pitchers had unique, predictive kinematic and anthropometric features predictive of pitch velocity. Leg length, stride length, trunk flexion at ball release, and maximal shoulder external rotation were predictive features that were shared between playing levels. Clinical Relevance: Coaches, clinicians, scouts, and pitchers can consider both the unique and the shared predictive features at each playing level when attempting to maximize pitch velocity.

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Timing cues such as interaural time differences (ITDs) and temporal pitch are pivotal for sound localization and source segregation, but their perception is degraded in cochlear-implant (CI) listeners as compared to normal-hearing listeners. In multi-electrode stimulation, intra-aural channel interactions between electrodes are assumed to be an important factor limiting access to those cues. The monaural asynchrony of stimulation timing across electrodes is assumed to mediate the amount of these interactions. This study investigated the effect of the monaural temporal electrode asynchrony (mTEA) between two electrodes, applied similarly in both ears, on ITD-based left/right discrimination sensitivity in five CI listeners, using pulse trains with 100 pulses per second and per electrode. Forward-masked spatial tuning curves were measured at both ears to find electrode separations evoking controlled degrees of across-electrode masking. For electrode separations smaller than 3 mm, results showed an effect of mTEA. Patterns were u/v-shaped, consistent with an explanation in terms of the effective pulse rate that appears to be subject to the well-known rate limitation in electric hearing. For separations larger than 7 mm, no mTEA effects were observed. A comparison to monaural rate-pitch discrimination in a separate set of listeners and in a matched setup showed no systematic differences between percepts. Overall, an important role of the mTEA in both binaural and monaural dual-electrode stimulation is consistent with a monaural pulse-rate limitation whose effect is mediated by channel interactions. Future CI stimulation strategies aiming at improved timing-cue encoding should minimize the stimulation delay between nearby electrodes that need to be stimulated successively.

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BACKGROUND: Individuals with high social interaction anxiety (SIA) and depression often behave submissively in social settings. Few studies have simultaneously examined the associations between objectively assessed submissive behaviors and SIA or depression, despite their high comorbidity and unknown mechanisms regarding submissiveness. METHODS: A sample of 45 young adults self-reported trait SIA and depression, state positive/negative affect (PA/NA) before and after a virtual social interaction. Participants engaged in a four-minute conversation with a confederate who was trained to behave neutrally. Mutual eye gaze, via eye-tracking, and vocal pitch were assessed throughout the interaction. RESULTS: Depression and SIA were positively correlated with NA, poorer self-rated performance, and vocal pitch. Highly socially anxious women engaged in less mutual eye gaze than highly socially anxious men. Also, vocal pitch was inversely associated with mutual eye gaze and positively related to NA and (nonsignificantly) to self-ratings of poor performance. Finally, our data partially replicated past research on the use of vocal pitch during social stress to detect social anxiety disorder. LIMITATIONS: The current sample is relatively homogenous in educational attainment, age, and race. All research confederates were women. Future research should examine whether these archival data replicate with the latest telecommunication technologies. CONCLUSION: Our findings highlight nuanced relationships among SIA, depression, emotions, self-perceptions, and biobehavioral indicators of submissive behavior-in response to an ambiguously negative/positive social interaction. Sex/gender may interact with these effects, emphasizing considerations for research method designs.

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Because of its high specific capacity and superior rate performance, porous carbon is regarded as a potential anode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). However, porous carbon materials with wide pore diameter distributions suffer from low structural stability and low electrical conductivity during the application process. During this study, the calcium carbonate nanoparticle template method is used to prepare coal tar pitch-derived porous carbon (CTP-X). The coal tar pitch-derived porous carbon has a well-developed macroporous-mesoporous-microporous hierarchical porous network structure, which provides abundant active sites for Li+ storage, significantly reduces polarization and charge transfer resistance, shortens the diffusion path and promotes the rapid transport of Li+. More specifically, the CTP-2 anode shows high charge capacity (496.9 mAh g-1 at 50 mA g-1), excellent rate performance (413.6 mAh g-1 even at 500 mA g-1), and high cycling stability (capacity retention rate of about 100 % after 1,000 cycles at 2 A g-1). The clean and eco-friendly large-scale utilization of coal tar pitch will facilitate the development of high-performance anodes in the field of LIBs.

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PURPOSE: In planning transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), retrospective cardiac spiral-CT is recommended to measure aortic annulus with subsequent CT-angiography (CTA) to evaluate access routes. Photon-counting detector (PCD)-CT enables to assess the aortic annulus in desired cardiac phases, using prospective ECG-gated high-pitch CTA. The aim of this study was to evaluate the measurement accuracy of aortic annulus using prospective ECG-gated high-pitch CTA against retrospective spiral-CT reference. METHOD: Thirty patients underwent cardiac spiral-CT and prospective ECG-gated (30% R-R on aortic valve level) high-pitch CTA. Using propensity score matching, another 30 patients were identified whose CTA was performed using high-pitch mode without ECG-synchronization. Two investigators measured annular diameter, perimeter, and area on cardiac spiral-CT and high-pitch CTA. RESULTS: The aortic valve was imaged in systole in 90 % of prospective ECG-gated CTA cases but only 50 % of non-ECG-gated CTA cases (p = 0.002). There was a strong correlation (r ≥ 0.94) without significant differences (p ≥ 0.09) between cardiac spiral-CT and prospective ECG-gated high-pitch CTA for all annulus measurements. In contrast, significant differences were found in annular short-axis diameter and area between cardiac spiral-CT and non-ECG-gated high-pitch CTA (p ≤ 0.03). Furthermore, prospective ECG-gated high-pitch CTA showed significantly reduced radiation exposure compared with cardiac spiral-CT (CTDI 4.52 vs. 24.10 mGy; p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: PCD-CT-based prospective ECG-gated high-pitch scans with targeted systolic acquisition at the level of the aortic valve can simultaneously visualize TAVR access routes and accurately measure systolic annulus size. This approach could aid in optimizing protocols to achieve lower radiation doses in the growing population of younger, low-risk TAVR patients.

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Congenital amusia is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits of music perception and production, which are related to altered pitch processing. The present study used a wide variety of tasks to test potential patterns of processing impairment in individuals with congenital amusia (N = 18) in comparison to matched controls (N = 19), notably classical pitch processing tests (i.e., pitch change detection, pitch direction of change identification, and pitch short-term memory tasks) together with tasks assessing other aspects of pitch-related auditory cognition, such as emotion recognition in speech, sound segregation in tone sequences, and speech-in-noise perception. Additional behavioral measures were also collected, including text reading/copying tests, visual control tasks, and a subjective assessment of hearing abilities. As expected, amusics' performance was impaired for the three pitch-specific tasks compared to controls. This deficit of pitch perception had a self-perceived impact on amusics' quality of hearing. Moreover, participants with amusia were impaired in emotion recognition in vowels compared to controls, but no group difference was observed for emotion recognition in sentences, replicating previous data. Despite pitch processing deficits, participants with amusia did not differ from controls in sound segregation and speech-in-noise perception. Text reading and visual control tests did not reveal any impairments in participants with amusia compared to controls. However, the copying test revealed more numerous eye-movements and a smaller memory span. These results allow us to refine the pattern of pitch processing and memory deficits in congenital amusia, thus contributing further to understand pitch-related auditory cognition. Together with previous reports suggesting a comorbidity between congenital amusia and dyslexia, the findings call for further investigation of language-related abilities in this disorder even in the absence of neurodevelopmental language disorder diagnosis.

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Introduction When cases of idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) are treated successfully, most clinicians assume the normality and symmetry of the auditory processing. This assumption is based on the recovery of the detection ability on the part of the patients, but the auditory processing involves much more than detection alone. Since certain studies have suggested a possible involvement of the central auditory system during the acute phase of sudden hearing loss, the present study hypothesized that auditory processing would be asymmetric in people who have experienced sudden hearing loss. Objective To assess the physiologic and electrophysiological conditions of the cochlea and central auditory system, as well as behavioral discrimination, of three primary aspects of sound (intensity, frequency, and time) in subjects with normal ears and ears treated successfully for SSNHL. Methods The study included 19 SSNHL patients whose normal and treated ears were assessed for otoacoustic emissions, speech auditory brainstem response, intensity and pitch discrimination, and temporal resolution in a within-subject design. Results The otoacoustic emissions were poorer in the treated ears compared to the normal ears. Ear- and sex-dependent differences were observed regarding otoacoustic emissions and pitch discrimination. Conclusion The asymmetrical processing observed in the present study was not consistent with the hearing threshold values, which might suggest that the central auditory system would be affected regardless of the status of the peripheral hearing. Further experiments with larger samples, different recovery scenarios after treatment, and other assessments are required.