மௌனராகம்... (காதலர் தின சிறப்பு சிறுகதை)

"என்னங்க, இன்னைக்கி ஆபீஸ்ல என்ன நியூஸ்?"

"ஆபீஸ்ல என்ன... எப்பவும் போல தான், ஒண்ணுமில்ல'ம்மா"

"என்னைக்கு சொல்லி இருக்கீங்க இன்னிக்கி சொல்றதுக்கு... ஹ்ம்ம்..." என அவள் பெருமூச்சு விட

"அது..."

"சரி விடுங்க... எங்க ஆபீஸ்ல இன்னைக்கி புதுசா ஒரு பொண்ணு ஜாயின் பண்ணி இருக்கு. இப்ப தான் காலேஜ் முடிச்சுருக்கும் போல, செம ஸ்மார்ட்"

"அப்படியா?"

"ஆமா... பாக்கறதுக்கு அசப்புல எங்க அத்த பொண்ணு ரஞ்சனி மாதிரியே இருக்கு"

"அவ்ளோ கொடுமயாவா?" என அவன் சிரிக்க

"என்ன கிண்டலா? ரஞ்சனியும் நானும் சின்னதுலே இருந்தே எவ்ளோ க்ளோஸ் தெரியுமா? லீவுக்கு அத்தை வீட்டுக்கு போனா விடிய விடிய அரட்டை தான், வாயே மூட மாட்டோம்"

"இப்ப மட்டும் என்ன?" என மனதிற்குள் நினைத்து கொண்டான்

"ரஞ்சனியோட தம்பி ரமேஷ் இருக்கானே, அவன் செம வாலு சின்னதுல, ஒரு தடவ நானும் ரஞ்சனியும் மருதாணி அரைச்சு வெச்சுருந்தோம், இவன் எங்களுக்கு தெரியாம அதுல மொளகா பொடிய போட்டுட்டான் கொரங்கு. அது தெரியாம நாங்க ஆசை ஆசையா கைல காலுல எல்லாம் மருதாணி வெச்சோம். வெச்சு கொஞ்ச நேரத்துல எல்லாம் ஒரே எரிச்சல். அன்னைக்கி அத்தைகிட்ட செம அடி வாங்கினான் அவன்" என சொல்லி சிரித்தாள்

"ம்"

"நீங்க இப்படி எல்லாம் ஒண்ணும் ரகளை பண்ணினதில்லையா சின்னதுல?"

"பெருசா ஒண்ணும் சொல்லிக்கறா மாதிரி இல்ல"

"ம்... இன்னொருவாட்டி இப்படிதான் எங்க பேமிலி எல்லாம் சேந்து பழனிக்கு ட்ரிப் போய் இருந்தோம். அங்க மலை ஏறும் போது ஒரு செம காமடி" என தன் காமடியை நினைத்து தானே சிரித்து கொண்டாள் மாளவிகா

"ம்"

"எவ்ளோ இண்டரெஸ்ட்டா சொல்லிட்டு இருக்கேன், நீங்க சுவாரஷ்யமே இல்லாம ம் கொட்டறீங்க" என அவள் முறைக்க

"சொல்லு சொல்லு ரெம்ப ஆர்வமாத்தான் கேட்டுட்டு இருக்கேன்" என்றான் வழிய வரவழைத்து கொண்ட சிரிப்புடன்

உற்சாகமாகி "என் ரெண்டாவது அத்தையோட பொண்ணு ராதாவுக்கு கொரங்குன்னா ரெம்ப பயம்..."

"உன்னை பாத்த பின்னாடியுமா?" என மனதிற்குள் நினைத்து கொண்டான், சத்தமாய் சொல்லி சொந்த செலவில் சூனியம் வைத்து கொள்ள விரும்பவில்லை

"என்ன மாயமோ தெரில, அங்க இருந்த கொரங்கு எல்லாமும் அவளையே வெரட்டுச்சு, இனம் இனத்தோட சேரும்னு சொல்லி அவளை செம ஓட்டு ஓட்டினோம். என் பக்கம் ஒண்ணு கூட வர்ல தெரியுமா?" என்றாள் பெருமையாய்

"அப்படியா? அது கூட உன்னை பாத்து பயந்திருக்கு பாரேன்" என அவன் உள் அர்த்தத்துடன் கூற

அவள் அதை புரிந்து கொள்ளாமல் "தேங்க்ஸ்" என்றாள் மகிழ்வாய், ஏதோ ஜனாதிபதி விருது வாங்கியது போல்

"போன மாசம் ரமேஷ் கல்யாணத்துல பாத்தப்ப கூட இதை சொல்லி ராதாவை ஓட்டினோம், ஹ்ம்ம்... அதெல்லாம் ஒரு காலம். அப்புறம் ராதாவோட அண்ணா ரவி இருக்கானே, எனக்கும் அவனுக்கும் எப்பவும் ஏழாம் பொருத்தம் தான். எப்பவும் சண்டை போட்டுட்டே இருப்போம்" என்றாள் சிரிப்புடன்

"நீ யார் கூட தான் சண்டை போடாம இருந்தே" என மனதிற்குள் நினைத்து கொண்டான்

"ஐயையோ...மறந்தே போய்ட்டேங்க..." எனவும்

"என்ன? உன் மாமா பொண்ணு மஞ்சு கூட மெட்ராஸ் பீச்ல மணல் வீடு கட்டினது தானே...அதை நீ ஏற்கனவே மூணு வாட்டி சொல்லிட்டியே மாலு" என்றான் பாவமாய் முகத்தை வைத்தபடி

"ஐயோ அதில்லைங்க... எங்க சித்தி பொண்ணு சுதாவுக்கு கல்யாணம் பிக்ஸ் ஆகி இருக்காம். சித்தி இன்னிக்கி போன் பண்ணி இருந்தாங்க, மாப்ளகிட்டயும் சொல்லிடுனு சொன்னாங்க"

"மாப்ளைக்கே இனி தான் சொல்லணுமா? அப்புறம் எப்படி கல்யாணம்?" என பிரதாப் புரியாமல் விழிக்க

"ஐயோ... அவங்க மாப்ளனு சொன்னது உங்கள"

"ச்சே ச்சே... நீ இருக்கும் போது நான் எப்படி இன்னொரு கல்யாணம்...அதெல்லாம் தப்பு மாலு..."

"ஓஹோ...அப்படி வேற ஒரு நெனப்பு இருக்கா..." என அவள் முறைக்க

"ஐயோ... நீ தான சொன்ன"

"சொல்றத ஒழுங்கா காதுல வாங்கினா தானே, அந்த லாப்டாப்பை மொதல்ல தூக்கி வீசணும். எங்க சித்திக்கு நீங்களும் மாப்ள முறை தானே, அந்த அர்த்ததுல சொன்னாங்க. போதுமா?"

"ஹ்ம்ம், நான் கூட ஒரு நிமிஷம் என்ன என்னமோ..." என பெருமூச்சு விட

"நெனப்பீங்க நெனப்பீங்க... அப்புறம் என் பிரெண்ட் கீதா இருக்காளே...ப்ச்... நான் சொல்றத கவனிக்காம எப்ப பாரு இந்த லாப்டாப் ஒண்ணு" என முறைக்கிறாள்

"இல்லம்மா... கேட்டுட்டு தான் இருக்கேன் சொல்லு... உன் பிரெண்ட் கீதாவுக்கு என்ன?" என்றான் பிரதாப் பொறுமையை இழுத்து பிடித்து

"கீதாவோட ஹஸ்பன்ட்'க்கு அவங்க கம்பெனில இருந்து சிங்கப்பூர் ட்ரிப் போயிட்டு வர்றதுக்கு டிக்கெட் தந்து இருக்காங்களாம்"

"ஓ... நல்ல விஷயம்"

"அப்புறம்..." என அவள் ஆரம்பிக்க

"மாலு, நான் ஒண்ணு கேப்பேன், நீ தப்பா நெனச்சுக்க மாட்டியே" என்றான் தயக்கமாய்

"என்ன?"

"இல்ல, நீ சொல்றதுக்கு 'ம்' போட்ட எனக்கே வாய் வலிக்குது, உனக்கு வாயே வலிக்காதா?" என்றான் பின்னால் வரப்போகும் விபரீதத்தை உணராமல்

ஒரு நிமிடம் ஒன்றும் பேசாமல் அவனை பார்த்தவள், "என்ன பண்றது, எங்க வீட்ல என்னை சூது வாது தெரியாம வளத்துட்டாங்க மனசுல எதையும் வெச்சுக்க தெரியாம பேசிடறேன். உங்க குடும்பம் மாதிரி, மனசுக்குள்ள ஆயிரம் வெச்சுக்கிட்டு பேசறதுக்கே காசு கேக்கற பழக்கம் எங்களுக்கு இல்ல. ஒண்ணு தெரியுமா உங்களுக்கு, அளவா பேசறவங்க எல்லாம் அறிவாளியும் இல்ல, வாய் மூடாம பேசறவங்க எல்லாம் வெட்டி ஆபிசர்களும் இல்ல" என்றபடி எழுந்து உள்ளே சென்றாள்

"என்ன சொன்னாலும் ஒரு பதில ரெடியா வெச்சுருக்காளே, ச்சே..." என தனக்கு தானே புலம்பி கொண்டிருந்தான் பிரதாப்

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"என்ன டாக்டர் சொல்றீங்க?" என்றாள் மாளவிகா அதிர்ச்சியின் உச்சத்தில்

"கொஞ்சம் அளவா பேசுன்னா கேட்டாதானே, சொன்னா அதுக்கும் சேத்து எனக்கு பல்ப் தரமட்டும் தெரியும், இப்ப எங்க வந்து முடிஞ்சுருக்கு பாரு" என்றான் பிரதாப் கோபமாய்

"நான் என்ன..." என மாளவிகா குரலை உயர்த்த

"ஷ்... மிசஸ் மாளவிகா, ஜஸ்ட் காம் டௌன். இப்ப ஒண்ணும் ஆய்டல. உங்க வோகல் கார்ட்ல (Vocal Cord) ஏதோ இன்பெக்சன் காரணமா ஒரு சின்ன கிரேக்(crack) மாதிரி இருக்கு. பயப்பட ஒண்ணுமில்ல, ஒரு மாசம் நான் குடுக்கற மெடிசன்ஸ் எடுத்து நான் சொல்ற அட்வைஸ் பாலோ பண்ணினா கிரேக் சரி ஆய்டும்..."

"மண்டைல தான் கிராக்னு நெனச்சேன், தொண்டைலயுமா?" என பிரதாப் முணுமுணுக்க, மாளவிகா முறைத்தாள்

டாக்டர் தொடர்ந்தார் "ஒரு மாசத்துக்கு நீங்க முடிஞ்ச வரை லிக்விட் டயட் இல்லைனா நல்லா குழைவா செஞ்ச சாதம் தான் சாப்பிடணும், இந்த நிமிசத்துல இருந்து ஒரு மாசத்துக்கு நீங்க பேசவே கூடாது"

"ஐயோ..." என மாளவிகா அலற

"ப்ச்... இப்ப தானே சொன்னேன் பேசாதீங்கன்னு" என டாக்டர் கண்டிப்புடன் கூற, வாய் மீது கை வைத்து சரி என்பது போல் தலை அசைத்தாள் மாளவிகா. அதை நம்ப இயலாமல் பார்த்தான் பிரதாப்

"ஆஹா... இப்படி ஒரு ஜாக்பாட் அடிக்கும்னு நான் கனவுல கூட நினைக்கலையே" என மனதிற்குள் சந்தோசமாய் சிரித்து கொண்டான்

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அதன் பின் வந்த ஒரு ஒரு நாளும் ஒரு சவாலாகவே அமைந்தது. முதல் இரண்டு நாட்கள் தான் பேச நினைப்பதை ஒரு பேப்பரில் எழுதி காண்பித்தாள் மாளவிகா

பின் அது சலித்து போக, அடுத்த இரண்டு நாட்கள் சைன் லேங்க்வேஜ் (கை அசைவால்) மூலம் சொல்ல முயன்றாள்

பின் அதுவும் வெறுத்து போக, அமைதியாய் எதுவும் செய்யாமல் அறைக்குள் அடைந்து கொண்டாள்

அன்று வேலன்டைன்ஸ் டே(Valentines Day). காலையில் கண் விழித்தவள் படுக்கையின் அருகில் இருந்த மேஜையில் ஒரு வாழ்த்து அட்டையை பார்த்ததும் ஆர்வமாய் பிரித்தாள்

அதில் பிரதாப் எழுதி இருந்தது....

"டியர் மாலு,
 மொதல்ல உண்மைய சொல்லிடறேன், நீ ஒரு மாசம் பேசக் கூடாதுன்னு டாக்டர் சொன்னப்ப நான் கொஞ்சம் சந்தோசப்பட்டேன். இதை படிக்கறப்ப உனக்கு கோபம் வரும், இந்த கிரீடிங் கார்டை கிழிச்சு வீசலாம்னு நெனப்ப, என்னை கன்னா பின்னானு திட்டனும்னு கூட உனக்கு தோணும். அப்படி திட்டனாலும் பரவால்ல, உன் குரல் கேட்க மாட்டோமானு இருக்கு இப்போ எனக்கு 

சிலருக்கு சினிமா பிடிக்கும், சிலருக்கு ஊர் சுத்த பிடிக்கும், சிலருக்கு படிக்க புடிக்கும், ஆனா உனக்கு பேச பிடிக்கும், இப்ப.... எனக்கு கேட்க பிடிக்கும்னு புரியுது, அதுக்கு காரணமும் நீ தான்...:)

மத்தவங்க சாதாரணமா சொல்ற ஒரு விசயத்த கூட நீ சொல்லி கேட்கும் போது அதுக்கு தனி அழகு வந்துடுதோனு தோணுது. சாக்லேட்டை பத்தி பேசினாலும் சாக்ரடீஸை பத்தி பேசினாலும் ஒரே மாதிரி அனுபவிச்சு ரசனயோட நீ பேசற அந்த அழகை நான் வேற யார்கிட்டயும் பாத்ததில்ல

மழலையின் பேச்சை போல மனைவியின் பேச்சிலும் ஒரு தனி அழகு இருக்குனு அதை இழந்த இந்த ஒரு வாரத்துல நான் உணர்ந்துட்டேன்

Yes, I confess now, I miss listening to your stories, I miss our sweet nothings my love. So, whether it is your childhood stories or complaints or just non-stop nonsense, I don't care, I just want to hear you. Get well soon and bring back the joy in my life. Happy Valentines Day

I love you...

Yours,
Pratap"


படித்து முடித்து கண்ணில் நீர் வழிய நிமிர்ந்தவள், அறையின் வாயிலில் பிரதாப் நிற்பதை பார்த்ததும், விசும்பலுடன் ஓடி சென்று கட்டி கொண்டாள்

"ஐ லவ் யு மாலு" என நெகிழ்வுடன் அவளை அணைத்து கொண்டான் பிரதாப்

(முற்றும்)    

:)))

அப்பாவி தங்கமணி

Saudi Arabia || BO Core PS Engineer || Urgent

Saudi Intelligent Solutions (SiS) is currently looking for BO Core PS Engineer//E for long term contract. Below is the Job Description...

 

Functional Role: MS Engineer BO PS Core

Skill Set: Experienced

Location: Riyadh,Saudi Arabia

Duration: 12 months extendable

Responsibilities:

The Service Engineer is responsible to his manager for ensuring that all assigned O&M tasks are fulfilled in time with the highest quality standards in accordance with WLA and SLA.

Product Area:

The MS BO Services Engineer shall be able to handle Ericsson's PS Core products for Managed Services·

The candidate is expected to have at least minimum 4-6 years solid background and experience on PS Core network Ericsson product portfolio, which may include following:

Mandatory (Essentials, A Must):

• Excellent knowledge of GPRS/UMTS network architecture, Topology and Interfaces
• Sound knowledge and troubleshooting (O&M) skills in DNS, NTP, AAA, SGSN/GGSN 2010B, MKIV&VI HW/SW Architecture & Product knowledge
• Excellent knowledge of SS7 protocol and procedures (SCCP, MTP2, MTP3b, MAP, RANAP, BSSGP, BSSGP+ and SIGTRAN), ATM and Frame Relay technologies.
• Good understanding of following interfaces Configuration (Gr, Gn, Gb, GboIP, Iu, Gi)
• Good Linux/Solaris expertise
• Good understanding of AAA& DNS functionality
• Sound Troubleshooting skills for TCP/IP
• Good Understanding IP Routing protocols
• O&M Routine maintenance (both preventive and corrective) for SGSN/GGSN nodes
• Coordination and Liaising with all concerned stake holders
• Internal and external escalations as required
• Familiar with System Acceptance Testing: Ensure functionality of all test cases, and troubleshoot and isolate any faults encountered

Desired (Good to have):

• Basic knowledge of E1 configurations
• Basic Knowledge of 3G WCDMA KPIs/Performance issues
• Basic knowledge and Trouble shooting skills for transmission issues for both IP & ATM
• Ericsson Organizational and business knowledge

Education and Experience:

• Vendor or Operator certified candidate who already participated in official trainings courses.
• Degree within Electrical Engineering/Telecommunication Engineering/Computer Science / Computer Engineering or equivalent.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in Operation & Maintenance implementation / integration / operation / support.

Submit Resumes to hk@sis-limited.com for immediate Consideration

Kind Regards,

Hasan Kaji
Recruitment Consultant

Mob     +966 53 306 4046

Tel       +966   1 455 7549

Fax       +966   1 455 6300 

Skype   sis-hasan

Email    hk@sis-limited.com

Primary care program helps obese teen girls manage weight, improve body image and behavior

Teenage girls gained less weight, improved their body image, ate less fast food, and had more family meals after participating in a 6- month program that involved weekly peer meetings, consultations with primary care providers and separate meetings for parents. Those results from a study published online today in the journal Pediatrics.

Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the study is the first to report long-term results from a weight management program designed specifically for teenage girls. Most other programs have included younger children and interventions focused on the entire family. This program included separate meetings for parents with the rationale that teens are motivated more by peer acceptance than parental influence. Unlike previous programs, this one was conducted in a primary-care setting, rather than an academic or specialty-care environment.

"Nearly one-third of teenage girls are overweight or obese, and many of them are likely to become obese adults," said Lynn DeBar, PhD, MPH, lead author and senior investigator with the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research. "Our study shows that intervention programs can help these girls achieve long-term success managing their weight and also learning new habits that will hopefully carry over into their adult life."

"Many teenage girls are still growing taller, so for them, maintaining weight or slowing weight gain is an acceptable goal," said Phil Wu, MD, a pediatrician who leads Kaiser Permanente's effort to prevent and treat childhood obesity and is also a co-author of the study. "Girls in the program gained less weight than those who weren't in the program, and they reduced their overall body mass index, improved their self-image and developed healthy lifestyle habits, so all of these are successes."

The study included 208 girls, ages 12-17, in Oregon and Washington during 2005-2009. All of the girls were classified as overweight or obese, according to standards set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention standards. Half of the girls were assigned to the intervention group and half to usual care.

Girls in the intervention group met weekly with their peers and a behavioral counselor during the first three months, and then every other week during months four and six. The girls were weighed and asked to keep a food and activity diary, which they discussed during each meeting. The program focused on decreasing portion size, limiting consumption of energy-rich foods, establishing regular meal patterns, substituting water for sugar-sweetened beverages, reducing fast food, increasing fruit and vegetable consumption, and having more family meals.

The girls were encouraged to exercise at least 5 days a week for 30-60 minutes, and to limit screen time to 2 hours a day. They also received yoga instruction, and a physical-activity video game to use at home. Discussion topics included ways to avoid disordered eating, coping with family and peer teasing and developing strategies to combat negative self-talk.

Parents attended separate weekly meetings to learn how to support their daughters. The girls' health care providers received summaries of the girls' current health habits, including meal and physical activity patterns. After receiving training in motivational techniques, the providers met with the girls at the beginning of the study to help them choose one or two behaviors to work on. The providers had a second visit with the girls at the end of the six-month intervention to check their progress.

Girls assigned to the usual-care group received a packet of materials that included a list of online reading about lifestyle changes. They also met with their primary care provider at the beginning of the study, but the providers were not given health habit summaries for these girls.

Both groups had health assessments and lab tests at the beginning of the study, at six months, and then again at 12 months. The girls started out with an average weight in the 190 lb. range, and an average body mass index in the 97th percentile, which by CDC standards is considered to be obese. At the end of the study, girls who participated in the program were in the 95th percentile, while girls in the usual-care group were in the 96th percentile.

Authors say the weight changes were statistically significant but modest compared to some other weight loss interventions. They point out that the girls were severely obese to begin with and possibly treatment-resistant due to previous involvement in other weight loss programs. The program purposely de-emphasized calorie counting, focusing instead on lifestyle changes, and the authors acknowledge that this approach may have produced more modest weight changes than they had expected.

This study is part of ongoing Kaiser Permanente research into weight loss. Previous studies include:

-- A Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research study published in the International Journal of Obesity last year found that people trying to lose at least 10 pounds were more likely to reach that goal if they had lower stress levels and slept more than six hours, but not more than eight hours, a night.

-- Another Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research study published in 2010 found that the more people logged on to an interactive weight management website, the more weight they kept off.

-- Researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research also reported in a 2008 study that keeping a food diary can double a person's weight loss and that both personal contact and Web-based support can help with long-term weight management.

Provided by Kaiser Permanente

"Primary care program helps obese teen girls manage weight, improve body image and behavior." February 13th, 2012.http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-primary-obese-teen-girls-weight.html

 

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

Neuron memory key to taming chronic pain

For some, the pain is so great that they can't even bear to have clothes touch their skin. For others, it means that every step is a deliberate and agonizing choice. Whether the pain is caused by arthritic joints, an injury to a nerve or a disease like fibromyalgia, research now suggests there are new solutions for those who suffer from chronic pain.

A team of researchers led by McGill neuroscientist Terence Coderre, who is also affiliated with the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, has found the key to understanding how memories of pain are stored in the brain. More importantly, the researchers are also able to suggest how these memories can be erased, making it possible to ease chronic pain.

It has long been known that the central nervous system "remembers" painful experiences, that they leave a memory trace of pain. And when there is new sensory input, the pain memory trace in the brain magnifies the feeling so that even a gentle touch can be excruciating.

"Perhaps the best example of a pain memory trace is found with phantom limb pain," suggests Coderre. "Patients may have a limb amputated because of gangrene, and because the limb was painful before it was amputated, even though the limb is gone, the patients continue to feel they are suffering from pain in the absent limb. That's because the brain remembers the pain. In fact, there's evidence that any pain that lasts more than a few minutes will leave a trace in the nervous system." It's this memory of pain, which exists at the neuronal level, that is critical to the development of chronic pain. But until now, it was not known how these pain memories were stored at the level of the neurons.

Recent work has shown that the protein kinase PKMzeta plays a crucial role in building and maintaining memory by strengthening the connections between neurons. Now Coderre and his colleagues have discovered that PKMzeta is also the key to understanding how the memory of pain is stored in the neurons. They were able to show that after painful stimulation, the level of PKMzeta increases persistently in the central nervous system (CNS).

Even more importantly, the researchers found that by blocking the activity of PKMzeta at the neuronal level, they could reverse the hypersensitivity to pain that neurons developed after irritating the skin by applying capsaicin – the active ingredient in hot peppers. Moreover, erasing this pain memory trace was found to reduce both persistent pain and heightened sensitivity to touch.

Coderre and his colleagues believe that building on this study to devise ways to target PKMzeta in pain pathways could have a significant effect for patients with chronic pain. "Many pain medications target pain at the peripheral level, by reducing inflammation, or by activating analgesia systems in the brain to reduce the feeling of pain," says Coderre. "This is the first time that we can foresee medications that will target an established pain memory trace as a way of reducing pain hypersensitivity. We believe it's an avenue that may offer new hope to those suffering from chronic pain."

More information: The full article can be found at: http://www.molecul … ntent/7/1/99

 

Provided by McGill University

"Neuron memory key to taming chronic pain." February 13th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-neuron-memory-key-chronic-pain.html

 

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

6- to 9-month-olds understand the meaning of many spoken words

At an age when "ba-ba" and "da-da" may be their only utterances, infants nevertheless comprehend words for many common objects, according to a new study.

In research focused on 6-to-9-month-old babies, University of Pennsylvania psychologists Elika Bergelson and Daniel Swingley demonstrated that the infants learned the meanings of words for foods and body parts through their daily experience with language.

Bergelson is a doctoral student and Swingley an associate professor in Penn's Department of Psychology. Their study will be published the week of February 13th in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

These findings unseat a previously held consensus about infant learning. It was widely believed that infants between 6 and 9 months, while able to perceive and understand elements of the sounds of their native language, did not yet possess the ability to grasp the meanings conveyed though speech. Most psychologists believed word comprehension didn't emerge until closer to a child's first birthday.

In fact, infants are often referred to as "pre-linguistic," according to Bergelson. But there have been few attempts to determine just when infants begin understanding what is meant by specific words. The belief that infants do not comprehend language for most of the first year is easy to understand, given that infants do not often speak in words, or even gesture meaningfully, before 10 or 11 months.

To test this belief, Bergelson and Swingley recruited caregivers to bring their children to a lab to complete two different kinds of test. In the first, a child sat on the caregiver's lap facing a screen on which there were images of one food item and one body part.

The caregiver wore headphones and heard a statement such as, "Look at the apple," or, "Where's the apple?" and then repeated it to the child. The caregiver also wore a visor to avoid seeing the screen. An eye-tracking device, which can distinguish precisely where a child is looking and when, then followed the child's gaze.

The second kind of test had the same set-up, except that, instead of the screen displaying a food item and a body part, it displayed objects in natural contexts, such as a few foods laid out on a table, or a human figure. For both kinds of test, the question was whether hearing a word for something on the screen would lead children to look at that object more, indicating that they understood the word.

In total, Bergelson and Swingley tested 33 6-to-9-month olds. The researchers also had 50 children from 10 to 20 months complete the same tests to see how their abilities compared with the younger group.

As part of their analysis, Bergelson and Swingley corrected for eye movements not related to caregivers' speech. Bergelson pointed out that to infants some objects are more interesting than others, whatever their parents might say.

"So if you have a boring cup and a really colorful cup, they're going to look at the more interesting thing, all else being equal."

To eliminate this potential source of error, the researchers subtracted the amount of time that the babies gazed at a given object when it was not being named from the time they looked when it was named.

"The idea there is that they have some sort of baseline for how much they like to look at the thing, so when you take that away, what's left is their word recognition," Bergelson said.

In both the two-picture and scene tests, the researchers found that the 6- to 9-month-old babies fixed their gaze more on the picture that was named than on the other image or images, indicating that they understood that the word was associated with the appropriate object.

This is the first demonstration that children of this age can understand such words.

"There had been a few demonstrations of understanding before, involving words like mommy and daddy," Swingley said. "Our study is different in looking at more generic words, words that refer to categories."

"We're testing things that look different every time you see them," Bergelson said. "There's some variety in apples and noses, and 'nose' doesn't just mean your nose; it could mean anybody's nose. This is one of the things that makes word learning complicated: words often refer to categories, not just individuals."

Bergelson and Swingley were also curious to know whether they could observe a pattern of learning during the months from 6 to 9. But, when they compared the performance of 6- and 7-month-old babies with that of 8- and 9-month olds, they found no improvements.

"That is a surprising result. We don't know why it is that performance remains flat for so long," Swingley said.

Factoring in the results of the older babies, the researchers found little improvement until the children reached roughly 14 months, at which point word recognition jumped markedly.

"Maybe what is going on with the 14-month olds is they understand the nature of the task as a kind of game and they're playing it," Swingley said. "Or the dramatic increase in performance at 14 months may be due to aspects of language development we did not measure specifically, including better categorization of the speech signal, or better understanding of syntax."

He noted that it is also possible that children do improve between 6 and 14 months, but that that improvement is countered by the fact that older babies in this range may be more distractable and less attentive.

The study's novel results contribute to an ongoing debate about infant language acquisition and cognitive development.

"I think it's surprising in the sense that the kids at this age aren't saying anything, they're not pointing, they're not walking," Bergelson said. "But actually, under the surface, they're trying to put together the things in the world with the words that go with them."

"I think this study presents a great message to parents: You can talk to your babies and they're going to understand a bit of what you're saying," Swingley said. "They're not going to give us back witty repartee, but they understand some of it. And the more they know, the more they can build on what they know."

Provided by University of Pennsylvania

"6- to 9-month-olds understand the meaning of many spoken words: research." February 13th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-month-olds-spoken-words.html

 

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

'Very promising' treatment for Huntington disease discovered

Medical researchers at the University of Alberta have discovered a promising new therapy for Huntington disease that restores lost motor skills and may delay or stop the progression of the disease based on lab model tests, says the lead researcher. Because the new therapy uses a molecule already being used in clinical trials for other diseases, it could be used in a clinical trial for Huntington disease within the next one to two years.

"We didn't expect to see such dramatic changes after administering this therapy," said Simonetta Sipione, the Principal Investigator "We expected to see improvement, but not complete restoration of motor skills. When we saw this, we were jumping with excitement in the lab. This is very promising and should give hope to those with Huntington disease. I think it's a treatment that deserves to go to clinical trials because it could have huge potential."

Those with this inherited brain disorder, where a mutant protein triggers brain cell death causing loss of motor and cognitive skills and eventually death, have slightly lower levels of a brain molecule known as GM1. When U of A medical researchers restored GM1 to normal levels in lab models with the disease, motor skills in the lab models returned to normal within days, said Sipione, a researcher in the Department of Pharmacology and the Centre for Neuroscience, both within the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry.

Her team's research was published in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today.

The molecule used in the lab tests at the U of A was produced both naturally and synthetically through chemical production. This same molecule has been used in clinical trials for the treatment of Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases, so using this molecule to treat patients with Huntington disease in a small first stage clinical trial could happen relatively quickly. Details are still being worked out about where the trial would take place, but researchers are hoping it will be at the U of A and are in discussions with a University of Alberta Hospital neurologist.

During the research stage, lab models at the U of A were given the GM1 molecule therapy for four weeks. During the first two weeks after the treatment finished, the lab models still had normal motor function. But after that, motor function started to decline and return to pre-treatment levels by the end of the fourth week. So a potential treatment with this molecule would involve repeated treatments over the long-term, says Sipione.

Sipione and her team are continuing their research to see if restored levels of the GM1 molecule can also reverse cognitive damage in lab models with Huntington disease. They hope to publish the results from these tests within one year. It seems the GM1 therapy improves the way neurons work and makes the mutant huntingtin protein less toxic.

"Because of the way it works, we think it will work on cognitive symptoms of the disease too," says Sipione, a Canada Research Chair Tier 2 in Neurobiology of Huntington disease and an Alberta Innovates-Health Solutions Scholar.

The Huntington Society of Canada funded the research and the CEO said she is excited about the promising results.

"The Huntington Society of Canada is proud to support the excellent research of Dr. Sipione," said Bev Heim-Myers, CEO, Huntington Society of Canada. "Dr. Sipione, for the first time, has demonstrated that in a Huntington disease laboratory model, the treatment reverts the lab model back to normal, not just slightly better.

"It is important to understand that some treatments may work in laboratory models, but not in people. The applicability of the treatment discovered by Dr. Sipione to Huntington disease patients will be determined in clinical trials. We are optimistic that this research demonstrates real potential for a Huntington disease therapy."

Provided by University of Alberta

"'Very promising' treatment for Huntington disease discovered." February 13th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-treatment-huntington-disease.html

 

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

Challenges of identifying cognitive abilities in severely brain-injured patients

Only by employing complex machine-learning techniques to decipher repeated advanced brain scans were researchers at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell able to provide evidence that a patient with a severe brain injury could, in her way, communicate accurately.

Their study, published in the Feb. 13 issue of the Archives of Neurology, demonstrates how difficult it is to determine whether a patient can communicate using only measured brain activity, even if it is possible for them to generate reliable patterns of brain activation in response to instructed commands. Patients in a minimally conscious state or who have locked-in syndrome (normal cognitive function with severe motor impairment) and can follow commands in the absence of a motor response may not generate clearly interpretable communications using the same patterns of brain activity, the researchers say.

While less sophisticated methods have been shown successful, the authors say their new approach provides important new insights into brain function and level of consciousness. It also identifies mechanisms of variation in brain activity supporting cognitive function after injury.

"In these studies we have reanalyzed earlier published data that demonstrated an effort to communicate using brain activations alone that apparently failed but was nonetheless a clear effort to generate a response," says Dr. Nicholas D. Schiff, professor of neurology and neuroscience and professor of public health at Weill Cornel Medical College, and a neurologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. "Importantly, the reanalysis with new, more sensitive methods provides evidence that the problem with communication may reflect a mismatch of our expectations in designing the assessment, rather than a failure on the subject's part in an attempt to accurately communicate with us."

"Our study shows that multivariate, machine-learning methods can be useful in determining whether patients are attempting to communicate, specifically when applied to data that already show evidence of a signal in univariate, more standard methods of analysis," says the study's lead author, Jonathan Bardin, a fourth-year neuroscience graduate student at Weill Cornell Medical College.

"It is our clinical and ethical imperative to learn as much as possible about their ability to communicate," he says. "A simple bedside exam is not good enough."

"We need a set of methods that are both powerful and simple, and we are not there yet, as this study shows," adds Dr. Schiff. "We are using quite complex tasks to perhaps detect just the few of many patients who are conscious."

Patients Differ in Abilities

This study is a continuation of NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell research into how fMRI can establish a line of communication with brain-injured patients in order to understand if they can benefit from rehabilitation, and to gauge their level of pain and other clinical parameters that would improve care and quality of life.

It specifically follows up on a study published in the journal Brain last February that demonstrated use of fMRI to detect consciousness in six patients (either locked-in or minimally conscious) resulted in a wide, and largely unpredictable, variation in the ability of patients to respond to a simple command (such as "imagine swimming -- now stop") and then using the same command to answer simple yes/no or multiple-choice questions. This variation was apparent when compared with their ability to interact at the bedside using gestures or voice.

Some patients unable to communicate by gestures or voice were unable to do the mental tests, while others unable to communicate by gestures or voice were intermittently able to answer the researchers' questions using mental imagery. And, intriguingly, some patients with the ability to communicate through gestures or voice were unable to do the mental tasks.

The researchers say these findings suggest that no exam yet exists at this time that can accurately assess the higher-level functioning that may be, and certainly seems to be, occurring in a number of severely brain-injured patients.

"There are people whose personal autonomy is abridged because they don't have a good motor channel to express themselves despite, in some cases, having a clear mind and opinions and desires about themselves and the world," Dr. Schiff says about those results.

"Not all minimally conscious patients are the same, and not all patients with locked-in syndrome are the same," he says.

Sensitive and Flexible Methods Are Needed

This main new result of this study is a reinterpretation of findings from a 25-year-old patient who was the only one of six who showed an ability to use the fMRI signal for communication in the earlier research. But her results were confusing because it seemed that she was consistently responding to the answer that was directly after the correct answer, Bardin says.

"It's often seen in patients like this -- she had a stroke that damaged her brain -- that there can be a cognitive delay in some area of the brain. FMRI is a readout of blood flow instead of actual neural activity, so these delays could be caused by an interruption of blood flow due to damage or could just mean they are working on the problem more slowly, and the answer looks wrong because it is given in the next response period."

To understand this, Bardin employed a newer technique, which he says has sprung out of machine-learning research, to instruct a computer to evaluate multiple fMRI scans from the patient after she answered the two questions a number of times.

This so-called multivariate approach used the same data gathered for the first study, which, in the typical "univariate" analysis, specifically looks at functioning in the brain's Supplementary Motor Area (SMA), which is active when "normal" subjects imagine doing something.

In contrast, the multivariate analysis examines whether there is a pattern of activity in any part of the brain that is consistent from one scan to the next.

"When there is significant damage to the brain, it can rewire itself so that functions associated with SMA could be processed somewhere else," Bardin says.

Using this complex approach, the researchers found that, indeed, the patient had consistently attempted to communicate answers to both questions -- but at a delayed speed.

The researchers say that one approach to analyze fMRI scans is not better than the other for all patients and that univariate methods should always be carried out first. Multivariate approaches can be especially sensitive to noise, leading to false positives if used on their own. If the standard approach reveals a signal, the multivariate approach could be used to gain further insights and possibly identify response in patients where the univariate results are ambiguous.

"We did all these things to simply show that we think this patient was trying to communicate," Bardin says. "You have to be very careful in your data analysis before saying anything strongly about what a patient can or cannot do."

"Rigid experimental paradigms like those used in the field can very well miss important information about these patients," Dr. Schiff says. "This is all extremely complex and messy, but we should expect that. Given the injuries some of our patients suffer, their cognitive abilities are very difficult to detect behaviorally or through simplistic tests or scans."

Provided by New York- Presbyterian Hospital

"Challenges of identifying cognitive abilities in severely brain-injured patients." February 13th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-cognitive-abilities-severely-brain-injured-patients.html

 

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Robert Karl Stonjek

Why looks can be deceiving: New research points to brain regions that recognize facial expressions

 

It's Valentine's Day, he forgot to bring flowers, and somehow that painfully sad look on her face is simply not registering in his mind. Could be it's a problem in his prefrontal cortex?

Neuropsychology researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital – The Neuro, McGill University, have found that two areas of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) are critical for either detecting or distinguishing emotions from facial expressions. People with damage to these areas cannot understand the wide variety of facial expressions that convey social signals, which are important for anyone trying to navigate their way in society. And not only on Valentine's Day.

Dr. Lesley Fellows, lead investigator, and her student Ami Tsuchida studied a large sample of patients with damage to various regions within the PFC, testing to see where damage had the biggest impact on emotion recognition. The result of their tests led to conclusions about two sub-regions of the PFC that until now had been little studied.

"Patients with damage to the ventromedial PFC had a hard time distinguishing a neutral facial expression from emotional ones," said Dr. Fellows. "Patients with left ventrolateral PFC damage recognized that an emotion was present in the expression, but had difficulty telling one emotion from another.

"The ability to cross-over research and clinical work enables crucial advances in science and medicine, a prime example of the benefits of The Neuro's integrated model as a combined hospital and research institute," adds Dr. Fellows. The research, published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, adds to our understanding of how our brains detect emotional expressions and interpret the meaning of those expressions. The findings could help to understand some of the difficulties in social behaviour seen in neuropsychiatric illnesses including certain forms of dementia, autism, or after a traumatic brain injury.

Provided by McGill University

"Why looks can be deceiving: New research points to brain regions that recognize facial expressions." February 13th, 2012.http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-brain-regions-facial.html

 

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Robert Karl Stonjek

Study finds association between air pollution and cognitive decline in women

A large, prospective study led by a researcher at Rush University Medical Center indicates that chronic exposure to particulate air pollution may accelerate cognitive decline in older adults. The results of the study will be published in the Feb. 13 issue ofArchives of Internal Medicine.

In the study, women who were exposed to higher levels of ambient particulate matter (PM) over the long term experienced more decline in their cognitive functioning over a four-year period. Higher levels of long-term exposure to both coarse PM (PM2.5-10) and fine PM (PM2.5) were associated with significantly faster cognitive decline.

PM air pollution consists of small particles suspended in the air. Particles that are less than 2.5 microns in diameter, which is 1/30th the width of human hair, are called fine PM and particles larger than 2.5-10 microns is called coarse PM.

These associations were present at levels of PM exposure typical in many areas of the United States.

There are few recent studies that analyze air pollution and cognitive function in older adults, but this is the first study to examine change in cognitive function over a period of time and whether exposure to the size of particulate matter is important.

Jennifer Weuve, MPH., ScD, assistant professor of the Rush Institute of Healthy Aging and the principal investigator of the study, along with her colleagues, evaluated air pollution, both coarse and fine, in relation to cognitive decline in older women using a study population from the Nurses' Health Study Cognitive Cohort, which included 19,409 U.S. women ages 70 to 81 for a 14-year period going back as far as 1988.

"Our study explored chronic exposure to particulate air pollution in relation to decline in cognitive functioning among older women," said Weuve. "Very is little known about the role of particulate matter exposure and its association with cognitive decline."

Exposure to particulate air pollution is associated with cardiovascular risk, which itself may play a role in causing or accelerating cognitive decline.

"Unlike other factors that may be involved in dementia such as diet and physical activity, air pollution is something we can intervene on as a society at large through policy, regulation and technology," said Weuve.

"Therefore, if our findings are confirmed in other research, air pollution reduction is a potential means for reducing the future population burden of age-related cognitive decline, and eventually, dementia," said Weuve.

Provided by Rush University Medical Center

"Study finds association between air pollution and cognitive decline in women." February 13th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-association-air-pollution-cognitive-decline.html

 

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek