Recent neuroimaging studies have revealed distinct functional roles of left and right temporal lobe structures in the processing of lexical tones in Chinese. In the present study, we ask whether knowledge of a second language (English) modulates this pattern of activation in the perception of tonal contrasts. Twenty-four native Chinese speakers were recruited from undergraduate and graduate stu...

The effect on lung function and radiographic indices of exposure to chrysotile asbestos was investigated by cross-sectional studies in two groups of men at Havelock Mine, Swaziland. The first group consisted of 214 employees and ex-employees, mean age 52, who had been employed for at least 10 years, and whose dust exposure ranged from minimal for surface workers to very heavy for those in the g...

BACKGROUND Urinary schistosomiasis has been a major public health problem in Zambia for many years. However, the disease profile may vary in different locale due to the changing ecosystem that contributes to the risk of acquiring the disease. The objective of this study was to quantify risk factors associated with the intensity of urinary schistosomiasis infection in school children in Lusaka P...

In this paper, some categorical properties of the category ${bf Cpo}_{{bf Act}text{-}S}$ of all {cpo $S$-acts}, cpo's equipped with actions of a monoid $S$ on them, and strict continuous action-preserving maps between them is considered. In particular, we describe products and coproducts in this category, and consider monomorphisms and epimorphisms. Also, we show that the forgetful functor from...

This study investigated the relation between the internal structure of phonetic categories and consonant intelligibility. For two phonetic contrasts (/s/-/ʃ/ and /b/-/p/), 32 iterations per category were elicited for each of 40 talkers from a same accent group and age range, and measures of cross-category distance and within-category dispersion were obtained. These measures varied substantially...

background: we presumed that the surgeon himself has an impact on the results after coronary artery bypass grafting (cabg) as there is no unique protocol for the discharge of post-operative cardiac patients at our institution. therefore, we examined whether the surgeon himself has an impact on the intensive care unit (icu) stay of isolated cabg patients. methods: we prospectively studied a tota...

in this paper we construct the category of coverings of fundamental generalized lie group-groupoid associatedwith a connected generalized lie group. we show that this category is equivalent to the category of coverings of aconnected generalized lie group. in addition, we prove the category of coverings of generalized lie groupgroupoidand the category of actions of this generalized lie group-gro...

OBJECTIVE Diabetes is a risk factor for an accelerated rate of cognitive decline and dementia. However, the relationship between cognitive function and the subsequent development of diabetes is unclear. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We conducted a historical-prospective cohort study merging data collected at premilitary recruitment assessment with information collected at the Staff Periodic Exa...

background: surgery is usually the first treatment for breast cancer which is followed by some complications such as chronic pain. post mastectomy pain syndrome (pmps) is a common complication among breast cancer survivors and is considered as a chronic neuropathic pain in the side of surgery which persists more than three months. the exact mechanisms and related risk factors of the chronic pai...