Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.
rail gun harrisburg top chef texas great pacific garbage patch ben affleck and jennifer garner google privacy changes windows 8 preview
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Songbirds' brains coordinate singing with intricate timing
Thursday, February 28, 2013
As a bird sings, some neurons in its brain prepare to make the next sounds while others are synchronized with the current notes?a coordination of physical actions and brain activity that is needed to produce complex movements, new research at the University of Chicago shows.
In an article in the current issue of Nature, neuroscientist Daniel Margoliash and colleagues show, for the first time, how the brain is organized to govern skilled performance?a finding that may lead to new ways of understanding human speech production.
The new study shows that birds' physical movements actually are made up of a multitude of smaller actions. "It is amazing that such small units of movements are encoded, and so precisely, at the level of the forebrain," said Margoliash, a professor of organismal biology and anatomy and psychology at UChicago.
"This work provides new insight into how the physics of producing vocal signals are represented in the brain to control vocalizations," said Howard Nusbaum, a professor of psychology at UChicago and an expert on speech.
By decoding the neural representation of communication, Nusbaum explained, the research may shed light on speech problems such as stuttering or aphasia (a disorder following a stroke). And it offers an unusual window into how the brain and body carry out other kinds of complex movement, from throwing a ball to doing a backflip.
"A big question in muscle control is how the motor system organizes the dynamics of movement," said Margoliash. Movements like reaching or grasping are difficult to study because they entail many variables, such as the angles of the shoulder, elbow, wrist and fingers; the forces of many muscles; and how these change over time" he said.
"With all this complexity, it has been difficult to determine which of the many variables that describe movements are the ones that are represented in the brain and used to control movements," he said.
It's difficult to find a natural framework with which to analyze the activity of single neurons. The bird study provided us a perfect opportunity," Margoliash said. Margoliash is a pioneer in the study of brain function in birds, with studies that include how learning occurs when a bird sleeps and recalls singing a song.
For the current study, he worked with Ana Amador, a post-doctoral researcher at UChicago, and University of Buenos Aires scholars Yonatan Sanz Perl and Gabriel Mindlin. The four are co-authors of the Nature paper "Elementary Gesture Dynamics are Encoded by Song Premotor Cortical Neurons."
For the study, the team studied zebra finches while the birds sang and while they slept (when songs were broadcast through a speaker). Researchers recorded the activity of single neurons through tiny wires connected to the birds' brains.
Mindlin, professor of physics at the University of Buenos Aires, and his students have created a mathematical model of the mechanics of the movement of the syrinx, the avian vocal organ. The team used that information to track the connections between brain responses and the physical actions needed to produce a song.
They reduced the description of a song to only two variables?the pressure pushing air through the syrinx and the tension of the vibrating membranes of the syrinx that are needed to produce the song. They also compared the timing predicted by the model with the timing of responses of the neurons in the bird's "song system."
The study revealed how activity at higher levels of the brain tracks basic motor functions. The team also avoided a problem scholars previously encountered. In the past, investigators did not know how to relate song with the variables of pressure and tension, and so they had an incomplete understanding of how neurons controlled song, Margoliash said. For example, a previous theory of song control contended that these complex movements are governed by a clock in the brain that runs independent of the song.
By looking at the physiological variables that the bird uses to control singing, the team was able to find something others had not noticed before: the precise timing between the firing of the neuron and the action connected with it.
"One fascinating observation we made really surprised us: that the forebrain neurons fire precisely at the time a sound transition is being produced," Margoliash explained. "But it takes far too much time for the activity in the forebrain to influence the bird's sound box in the periphery," Margoliash continued. The neurons that the team investigated are tracking and encoding particular moments in song but are not directly controlling them. "Lower levels of the brain are controlling the sound output, but the timing of these neurons suggest that they are helping to evaluate feedback from the produced sound."
Similar feedback plays an essential role in coordinating human speech, and in the skilled performance of athletes and musicians. Now, for the first time, there is a mathematical description that matches brain activity for highly skilled behavior, in the beautiful songs of birds.
###
University of Chicago: http://www-news.uchicago.edu
Thanks to University of Chicago for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
This press release has been viewed 36 time(s).
Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127052/Songbirds__brains_coordinate_singing_with_intricate_timing_
heart transplant the international preppers geraldo obama trayvon martin pietrus cheney
Putin submits election law condemned by opponents
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Vladimir Putin has submitted legislation to change the way the Russian parliament is elected, a move he says will advance democracy but critics say is aimed at bolstering his United Russia party.
The bill calls for half of the 450 seats in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, to be filled by voters choosing individual candidates in districts. Currently all seats are filled by voting for parties.
The legislation is expected to pass. The United Russia party, loyal to Putin, has a majority in parliament despite losing seats in the December 2011 election that set off the biggest protests of his 13-year rule.
Putin, who returned to the presidency for a six-year term last May and could run for re-election in 2018, pointed to the legislation as part of efforts to improve democracy in his state of the nation speech in December.
But opponents say the bill is aimed at ensuring United Russia wins as many seats as possible. The party is much less popular than Putin and had its reputation damaged by allegations of fraud in the 2011 election.
The next Duma election is to be held late in 2016.
Kremlin critics say the party-list system has become dangerous for United Russia, which won less than 50 percent of the vote in 2011.
They say the party and the Kremlin could use the levers of power they hold nationwide to win seats, through methods ranging from pressuring state employees to vote and backing wealthy businessmen with the cash to mount effective campaigns.
"Practically everything in this law is aimed at preserving the monopoly of the 'party of power'," the leader of liberal opposition party Yabloko, Sergei Mitrokhin, said in a comment posted on the party's website.
Sergei Udaltsov, an opposition leader who is under house arrest on charges of plotting unrest that he says are part of a Kremlin crackdown, criticized the bill on Twitter for its lack of a provision allowing the creation of electoral blocs, which would increase the ability of Kremlin opponents to win seats.
Igor Lebedev, a Duma deputy from Vladimir Zhirinovsky's LDPR party, called the bill "a step back" and told the daily Vedomosti he believed United Russia would seek to boost its Duma presence by naming popular figures such as athletes and actors as candidates in district races.
(Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/putin-submits-election-law-condemned-opponents-105357226.html
steve jones emily maynard kola boof burmese python ferris bueller god bless america earned income credit
Jerusalem marathon spurs political saber-rattling
FILE - In this March 16, 2012 file photo, runners are seen passing the Tower of David during the second annual marathon in Jerusalem. The Palestinians called for a boycott since the route includes a segment in the walled Old City - part of their hoped-for capital - while hardline Israeli lawmakers are planning to run it for just the opposite reason, to assert Israeli sovereignty over the entire city (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner, File)
FILE - In this March 16, 2012 file photo, runners are seen passing the Tower of David during the second annual marathon in Jerusalem. The Palestinians called for a boycott since the route includes a segment in the walled Old City - part of their hoped-for capital - while hardline Israeli lawmakers are planning to run it for just the opposite reason, to assert Israeli sovereignty over the entire city (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner, File)
JERUSALEM (AP) ? It's the crown jewel of Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat's ambitious grand plan to promote his ancient city: a scenic, world-class marathon winding through historic hills and religious sites.
But like many things in Jerusalem, even Friday's marathon has become fraught with politics, a magnet for opposing claims by Israelis and Palestinians.
The Palestinians have called for a boycott of the race because the route goes through east Jerusalem, their hoped-for capital. On the other side of the political divide, a hard-line Israeli lawmaker plans to run the course to assert Israeli sovereignty over the entire city.
The competing claims, even over a seemingly innocuous sporting event, reflect the deep emotions over Jerusalem.
Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war and considers the whole city its capital, though the claim is not recognized internationally. The Palestinians say there cannot be peace without shared sovereignty in east Jerusalem.
The fate of the area, and particularly the ancient Old City, which is home to sensitive Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy sites, has long been the most explosive issue in peace efforts.
Since taking office 4 1/2 years ago, Barkat has looked to unite the city's Arab and Jewish residents by linking them with a light rail system and hosting sporting and cultural events.
"The Jerusalem International Marathon is a symbol of coexistence and of the unique power of sport to bridge social, ethnic, and political divides," his spokesman Barak Cohen said. "The marathon will cross through many neighborhoods of Jerusalem, on all sides of the city, and is open to all residents regardless of religion, race, politics or any other personal trait or belief."
Some 20,000 participants are expected to run in the third annual Jerusalem marathon, which will include a full marathon, which is 42 kilometers (26.2 miles), a half marathon and two shorter races. The event has attracted dozens of Arab residents and more than 1,750 runners from 54 countries.
The participants include Annalisa Minetti, a blind Italian model, singer, Paralympic medalist and recent parliamentary candidate for Mario Monti's party. Barkat, a 53-year-old running buff, plans to run the half marathon.
The city has been spiffed up for the occasion. The finish line at Jerusalem's main park has been adorned with flags and banners from the many sponsors. For the Palestinians, though, the event marks a provocation.
"This marathon is part and parcel of other Israeli policies and practices in Jerusalem that are aimed at exerting Israeli control over the occupied city and isolate it from the rest of Palestine," the Palestine Liberation Organization said in a statement. "Sponsoring or participating in the marathon implies recognition and active participation by the individual or company in Israel's illegal annexation and racist policies in Jerusalem."
On Thursday, two senior clerics, one Muslim and one Christian, voiced their opposition to the race. And Omar Shalabi, an official with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, said a group of activists would hoist Palestinian flags as runners pass through the Old City. He said there were no plans to block the runners.
Among the sponsors are U.S. footwear company New Balance and the Crowne Plaza hotel chain, which is owned by U.K.-based InterContinental Hotels Group PLC. New Balance did not immediately return a message seeking comment. A spokeswoman for InterContinental said the company was not aware of any boycott efforts. Adidas, which has sponsored the marathon before despite political pressure to drop its affiliation, is not sponsoring the event this year. A spokesman did not return a message asking why the company is no longer a sponsor.
Danny Danon, a hawkish lawmaker with the ruling Likud Party, said he was running to provide a counter statement to the Palestinians.
"I think it marks a clear message: When we talk about the city being united, we mean it," he told The Associated Press.
As Barkat himself can attest, any development in the city, no matter how well meaning, can be politically explosive. The new light rail was opposed by Palestinians as an encroachment because it included the eastern part of the city in its path, though Arab residents now heavily use the train service.
His plan to develop an Arab neighborhood outside the walls of the Old City also ran into fierce opposition from residents, while archaeological excavations and even road construction have frequently sparked religious or ethnic strife.
Since capturing east Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has ringed the sector with a series of settlements that are now home to roughly 200,000 Jews, in addition to about 300,000 Palestinians in the area.
The international community bitterly opposes these developments, saying they are illegal settlements on occupied land. Some 300,000 Jews live in the western part of Jerusalem. Under Israeli control, though, the city is open, and the lines between east and west have become blurred.
The marathon route will take the runners through the Old City, past the president's residence and past Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem to the campus of the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus.
One of the foreign participants is Raef Guirges, a 56-year-old Egyptian-American who plans to run draped in a tricolor flag bearing the message "God is love" in English, Hebrew and Arabic.
"I don't like politics. I am a very simple person with a very simple message: Let's try to love each other the same way God loves us," said Guirges, a Christian who has run more than 100 marathons worldwide.
____
On the Web: http://www.jerusalem-marathon.com/
____
Associated Press Writer Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.
____
Follow Heller on Twitter (at)aronhellerap
Associated Pressjay cutler applebees jeff gordon veterans day mike brown bcs rankings When Is Veterans Day 2012
Friday, March 1, 2013
Arkansas Isn't Done with Abortion Bans Yet ? Not Even Close
MADRID, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Lionel Messi has rarely been accused of failing to deliver in big games, having scored in two European Cup finals, but after subdued performances against AC Milan and Real Madrid, questions are being asked. The four-times World Player of the Year and leading scorer in one of the greatest club teams of all time, was a shadow of his usual self at the San Siro in a Champions League last-16 first leg last week, when Barcelona slumped to a 2-0 defeat. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/arkansas-isnt-done-abortion-bans-yet-not-even-172604695.html
Pumpkin Pie Jack Taylor Apple Pie Recipe black friday How long to cook a turkey green bean casserole green bean casserole recipe
Health roundup: Breast cancer up among younger women
Women ages 25 to 39 might be developing advanced breast cancer at a slightly higher rate, according to an analysis published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The report, led by a Seattle doctor, noted that young women who get breast cancer tend to have a more aggressive form of the disease than older women, with a lower chance of survival.
The incidence of breast cancer in the 25-to-39 group rose from 1.53 per 100,000 in 1976 to 2.90 in 2009. That's an increase of 2.07 percent a year over 34 years, but "the trend shows no evidence for abatement," the authors wrote.
What's worse, the increase is happening in an age group that already has a poor prognosis for recovery, has no "routine screening practice" ? mammograms generally aren't recommended for women younger than 40 ? and whose members often don't have health insurance.
The analysis found much smaller increases among older age groups, and there was no statistically significant increase in any group over 55.
Drug restraint urged for ear ills
Parents who have kids with ear infections want something to just make it stop ? the child's pain and discomfort, as well as the sleepless nights.
The feeling that doctors too often give in to desperate parents and overprescribe antibiotics for such infections seems to be at the heart of new guidelines issued this week by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The new guidance, published in the journal Pediatrics, urges doctors to avoid giving antibiotics unless they're sure there really is an infection. Overprescribing drugs to fight bacteria could result in the drug losing its effectiveness the next time, as the bug develops a resistance.
About 70 percent of kids with ear infections get better on their own in two to three days, and about 80 percent recover in seven to 10 days, said Dr. Richard Rosenfeld of the State University of New York's Downstate Medical Center, who helped craft the new guidelines, on National Public Radio.
Weight surgery safety rule studied
In 2006, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services began restricting bariatric operations to medical facilities that had the credentials to become "centers of excellence," often a hospital. The institution must perform at least 125 weight-loss procedures a year, as well as meet other benchmarks.
The goal was to improve the quality of care, but the shift hasn't improved outcomes for those patients, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
A University of Michigan doctor led an analysis of hospital discharge data from 12 states between 2004 and 2009, covering more than 321,000 patients. There was no "measurable improvements" in outcomes after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services put its national coverage decision in place.
Among those studied before the 2006 decision, 3.3 percent had serious complications, compared with 3.6 percent after. Exactly 1 percent of patients underwent a re-operation before the 2006 move, compared with 1.1 percent after.
Contact the writer: 714-796-2221 or lhall@ocregister.com
Source: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/percent-497635-new-breast.html
weather san diego unitarian new black panther party lost in space elizabeth banks battle royale key largo
Wedding Limousine Hire ? Planning for Perfection | Travel and ...
When you are preparing your wedding auto hire, you can?t run the risk of selecting a second rate supplier. Don?t ruin your big day, guarantee every little thing runs efficiently by selecting Hughes Wedding Cars Hire.
If you wish to be welcomed by a professional licensed operator on your big day and guarantee you arrive at the wedding no behind you prepare, you are selected up for your photos at your selected area, then Hughes Wedding Automobiles Hire is your first and only option.
As Australia?s oldest and most prestigeous wedding automobiles hire company, you could rest guaranteed of not just showing up on time, in style and feeling special, you will likewise understand you will not be let down on your most special of days.
Simply by booking your Wedding Automobiles hire needs with Hughes, the following perks are yours:.Specialist, polite and well provided motorists will be there for your comfort on time. You have enough to stress over on the day, you don?t require a second rate wedding auto service to mess up your strategies. With Hughes you could pay with Cabcharge, Credit Card, Money or Account, we offer these versatile options to match your requirements. Should you pay by a bank card, we never include a surcharge. You can get the finest rates readily available from the Hughes Online Booking Kind. Comfort is valuable when it involves waking up on your big day and going with Australia?s finest wedding automobiles company will make sure all will be well. These and numerous other advantages are yours to appreciate when you make a reservation for with confidence. Hughes Wedding Cars Hire are Australia?s only across the country wedding automobile service provider ? this sets us apart from all other companies. Choose the most effective when picking Hughes Wedding Vehicles.
Hughes Limousines are constantly readily available ? 24/7 365 days of the year. Whatever the day or night your wedding is prepared for, we are below to offer the best possible experience. Why not book now?
You have enough to stress about on the day, you do not need a 2nd rate wedding car service to mess up your strategies. Hughes Wedding Autos Hire are Australia?s only nationwide wedding vehicle service carrier ? this sets us apart from all other business. Select the best when picking Hughes Wedding Cars.
This entry was posted in general. Bookmark the permalink.Source: http://garywright.binhoster.com/wedding-limousine-hire-planning-for-perfection/
netanyahu aipac vanessa minnillo super tuesday epidemiology total eclipse of the heart jionni lavalle
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)