Closed-loop control of complex networks : A trade-off between time and energy

W. L. is supported by the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grants No. 11322111 and No. 61773125). Y.-Z. S. is supported by the NSFC (Grant No. 61403393). Y.-C. L. acknowledges support from the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship program sponsored by the Basic Research Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and funded by the Office of Naval Research through Grant No. N00014-16-1-2828. Y.-Z. S. and S.-Y. L. contributed equally to this work.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Aging-associated Alteration in the Cardiac MIF-AMPK Cascade in Response to Ischemic Stress

An important role for a macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF)-AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signaling pathway in ameliorating myocardial damage following ischemia/reperfusion has been described. An aging-associated reduction in AMPK activity may be associated with a decline in the ability of cardiac cells to activate the MIF-AMPK cascade, thereby resulting in reduced tolerance to ischemic insults. To test this hypothesis, _in vivo_ regional ischemia was induced by occlusion of the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery in young (4-6 months) and aged (24-26 months) mice. The ischemic AMPK activation response was impaired in aged hearts compared to young ones (p<0.01). Notably, cardiac MIF expression in aged hearts was lower than in young hearts (p<0.01). Dual staining data clearly demonstrated larger infarct size in aged hearts following ischemia and reperfusion compared to young hearts (p<0.05). Ischemia-induced AMPK activation in MIF knock out (MIF KO) hearts was blunted, leading to greater contractile dysfunction of MIF KO cardiomyocytes during hypoxia than that of wild type (WT) cardiomyocytes. Finally exogenous recombinant MIF significantly reversed the contractile dysfunction of aged cardiomyocytes in response to hypoxia. We conclude that an aging-associated reduction in ischemic AMPK activation contributes to ischemic intolerance in aged hearts

Basin stability in delayed dynamics

Acknowledgements S.L. was supported by the China Scholarship Council (CSC) scholarship (Grant No. 501100004543). W.L. was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation (NNSF) of China (Grants No. 61273014 and No. 11322111).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

How do non-native speakers perceive Japanese phrase final prosody? An experiment on the perception of pitch and rhythm by Chinese and German subjects

International audienceThis study which supports the claim of a prosodic interference between L1 and L2, examines the perception of pitch and rhythm of Japanese by Chinese and German students. The experiment reported here, used 4 sentences selected from dialogues of role plays recorded by 10 female Tokyo speakers. Stimuli were presented to 45 Japanese and to 77 Chinese students from Beijing. Each stimuli was played 4 times to listeners through headsets. They were asked in two different tasks to determine whether the last syllable was, (1) rising or falling, (2) short or long. Variance analysis reveals a significant difference between subjects for the perception of melodic variation but no interference effect for rhythm.Afin d'examiner l'interférence prosodique entre L1 - L2, nous avons effectué une expérience de perception sur la hauteur et le rythme du japonais auprès de sujets chinois et allemands. Le corpus de la première partie de l'expérience présentée ici est composé de 4 phrases qui sont extraites des dialogues de jeux de rôle interprétés par 10 locutrices de Tokyo. Il a été soumis à 45 étudiants japonais et 77 étudiants chinois de Pékin. Chaque phrase a été présentée 4 fois. Lors de 2 sessions distinctes deux tâches ont été demandées aux sujets : déterminer si la dernière syllable est (1) montante ou descendante; (2) brève ou longue. L'analyse de variance montre une différence significative entre les sujets pour la perception de la variation mélodique mais aucun effet d'interférence pour le rythme. L'analyse en cours pour les sujets allemands semble fournir des conclusions différentes