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Listeners’ use of social information during speech perception was investigated by measuring transcription accuracy of Chinese-accented speech in noise while listeners were presented with a congruent Chinese face, an incongruent Caucasian face, or an uninformative silhouette. When listeners were presented with a Chinese face they transcribed more accurately than when presented with the Caucasian face. This difference existed both for listeners with a relatively high level of experience and for listeners with a relatively low level of experience with Chinese-accented English. Overall, these results are inconsistent with a model of social speech perception in which listener bias reduces attendance to the acoustic signal. These results are generally consistent with exemplar models of socially indexed speech perception predicting that activation of a social category will raise base activation levels of socially appropriate episodic traces, but the similar performance of more and less experienced listeners suggests the need for a more nuanced view with a role for both detailed experience and listener stereotypes.

The influence of social knowledge on speech perception is a question of interest to a range of disciplines of language research. This study combines experimental and qualitative approaches to investigate whether the various methodological and disciplinary threads of research on this topic are truly investigating the same phenomenon to provide converging evidence in our understanding of social listening. This study investigates listeners’ perceptions of Spanish and Quechua speakers speaking Spanish in the context of a contact zone between these two languages and their speakers in central Bolivia. The results of a pair of matched-guise vowel discrimination tasks and subsequent interviews demonstrate that what people PERCEIVE, as measured by experimental tasks, is not necessarily what they BELIEVE they hear, as reported in narrative responses to interview prompts. Multiple methodological approaches must be employed in order to fully understand the way that we perceive language at diverging levels of sociolinguistic awareness.

Understanding the relation between speech production and perception is foundational to phonetic theory, and is similarly central to theories of the phonetics of sound change. For sound changes that are arguably perceptually motivated, it is particularly important to establish that an individual listener's selective attention—for example, to the redundant information afforded by coarticulation—is reflected in that individual's own productions. This study reports the results of a pair of experiments designed to test the hypothesis that individuals who produce more consistent and extensive coarticulation will attend to that information especially closely in perception. The production experiment used nasal airflow to measure the time course of participants' coarticulatory vowel nasalization; the perception experiment used an eye-tracking paradigm to measure the time course of those same participants' attention to coarticulated nasality. Results showed that a speaker's coarticulatory patterns predicted, to some degree, that individual's perception, thereby supporting the hypothesis: participants who produced earlier onset of coarticulatory nasalization were, as listeners, more efficient users of nasality as that information unfolded over time. Thus, an individual's perception of coarticulated speech is made public through their productions.

Molecular glue degraders (MGDs) are small molecules that co-opt the ubiquitin-proteasome system to induce degradation of target proteins, including those considered undruggable. Their discovery remains challenging due to the lack of rational design strategies and limited throughput of unbiased proteome-wide screening approaches. To address this gap, we develop a high-throughput proteomics platform based on label-free, data-independent acquisition mass spectrometry (DIA-MS), enabling integrated proteomics and ubiquitinomics profiling. Screening a diverse set of 100 cereblon (CRBN)-recruiting ligands on this platform leads to identification of a broad array of novel degraders and neosubstrates. Subsequent hit validation and structure-degradation relationship analyses guided by global proteomics reveal highly selective and potent phenyl glutarimide-based degraders targeting previously uncharacterized neosubstrates such as KDM4B, G3BP2 and VCL; none of which contain the classical CRBN β-hairpin degron. These findings underscore the power of unbiased high-throughput proteomics in MGD drug discovery and reveal a substantially expanded CRBN neosubstrate landscape beyond that defined by classical immunomodulatory imid drugs (IMiDs). Molecular glue degraders (MGD) offer a way to target undruggable proteins, but their discovery is challenging. Here, the authors develop a high-throughput proteomics platform for MGD drug discovery, revealing a much larger cereblon neosubstrate space than initially thought.

Early increased sophistication of human tools is thought to be underpinned by adaptive morphology for efficient tool manipulation. Such adaptive specialisation is unknown in nonhuman primates but may have evolved in the New Caledonian crow, which has sophisticated tool manufacture. The straightness of its bill, for example, may be adaptive for enhanced visually-directed use of tools. Here, we examine in detail the shape and internal structure of the New Caledonian crow’s bill using Principal Components Analysis and Computed Tomography within a comparative framework. We found that the bill has a combination of interrelated shape and structural features unique within Corvus and possibly birds generally. The upper mandible is relatively deep and short with a straight cutting edge and the lower mandible is strengthened and upturned. These novel combined attributes would be functional for (i) counteracting the unique loading patterns acting on the bill when manipulating tools, (ii) a strong precision grip to hold tools securely and (iii) enhanced visually-guided tool use. Our findings indicate that the New Caledonian crow’s innovative bill has been adapted for tool manipulation to at least some degree. Early increased sophistication of tools may require the co-evolution of morphology that provides improved manipulatory skills.

In urbanized areas, many adult birds find sufficient foods to survive, but the anthropogenic foods that are abundant there may be detrimental to nestling growth. In fact, American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) nestlings are smaller in suburban than rural areas, possibly because of nutrient limitation. Here, we seek to identify possible causes of size differences by comparing both size and blood chemistry measures in rural and suburban crow nestlings. We quantified land use in known crow territories and distinguished three distinct environments: suburban-residential, suburban-managed (e.g., golf courses), and rural. We measured nestlings near fledging age in each environment and bled them for determination of unbound plasma calcium, total protein, and corticosterone. We supplemented a subset of broods in suburban-residential and rural areas with a food high in protein and calcium. Rural nestlings were significantly larger than suburban-residential crows and had higher total serum protein. Nestlings in suburban-managed areas were intermediate in size and serum protein but had the lowest plasma calcium levels. Nestling corticosterone levels did not differ significantly among habitats, indicating that, although suburban nestlings may be food-limited, they were not starving. Supplemented nestlings in suburban-residential areas were significantly larger in some growth measures than their unsupplemented counterparts. Unexpectedly, supplemented rural nestlings were significantly smaller than unsupplemented rural ones, suggesting that parents use easily accessible food even when it is nutritionally suboptimal. Our results indicate that nestlings in suburban areas are nutrient restricted, rather than calorie restricted.

Germline adenomatous polyposis coli ( APC ) mutation in patients with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) promotes gastrointestinal polyposis, including the formation of frequent gastric fundic gland polyps (FGPs). In this study, we investigated how dysregulated Wnt signaling promotes FGPs and why they localize to the corpus region of the stomach. We developed a biobank of FGP and surrounding nonpolyp corpus biopsies and organoids from patients with FAP for comparative studies. Polyp biopsies and polyp-derived organoids exhibited enhanced Wnt target gene expression. Polyp-derived organoids with intrinsically upregulated Wnt signaling showed poor tolerance to further induction, suggesting that high Wnt restricts growth. Targeted genomic sequencing revealed that most gastric polyps did not arise via APC loss of heterozygosity. Studies in genetic mouse models demonstrated that heterozygous Apc loss increased epithelial cell proliferation in the corpus but not the antrum, while homozygous Apc loss was not maintained in the corpus yet induced hyperproliferation in the antrum. Our findings suggest that heterozygous APC mutation in patients with FAP may be sufficient to drive polyp formation in the corpus region while subsequent loss of heterozygosity to further enhance Wnt signaling is not tolerated. This finding contextualizes the abundant yet benign nature of gastric polyps in FAP patient corpus compared with the rare, yet adenomatous polyps in the antrum.

Over the past century, the Javan rhinoceroses' (Rhinoceros sondaicus) secluded nature and low population size have led to a gap in knowledge of their ecology. With fewer than 80 individuals surviving in a single population in West Java, Indonesia, the Javan rhinoceros is one of the most critically endangered mammals in the world. As part of a pilot bioacoustics study of the Javan rhinoceros in 2019, we systematically reviewed camera trap footage from the core Javan rhinoceros range in Ujung Kulon National Park (UKNP). In doing so, we discovered a previously unknown interaction between the Javan rhinoceros and the slender‐billed crow (Corvus enca), in which the crow finds and eats ectoparasites from the rhinoceros (Figure 1). We describe this interaction and suggest that it may represent a cleaning mutualism with benefits for both the crow and the rhinoceros. As part of a pilot bioacoustics study of the Javan rhinoceros in 2019, we systematically reviewed camera trap footage from the core Javan rhinoceros range in Ujung Kulon National Park (UKNP) and discovered a previously unknown interaction between the Javan rhinoceros and the slender‐billed crow (Corvus enca), in which the crow finds and eats ectoparasites from the rhinoceros (Figure 1). We describe this interaction, investigate it through an ecological and evolutionary lens, and suggest that it may represent a cleaning mutualism with conservation benefits for both the crow and the rhinoceros.

The idea that extrapair paternity (EPP) in birds is part of a mixed reproductive strategy driven primarily by females is controversial. In cooperatively breeding American crows, we compared predictions of four female benefits hypotheses—the genetic diversity, good genes, genetic compatibility, and direct benefits hypotheses—to our predictions if EPP was primarily male driven. We found that genetically diverse broods were not more successful, extrapair young were not in better condition and did not have a higher survival probability, and, contrary to prediction, offspring sired by within‐group extrapair males were more inbred than within‐pair offspring. There was evidence of direct benefits, however: provisioning rate and number of surviving offspring were higher in groups containing within‐group extrapair sires. Females therefore derived no apparent benefits from extragroup extrapair males but both direct benefits and genetic costs from within‐group extrapair males. We suggest that males and females both influence the distribution of EPP in this system.

Introduction Despite the growing use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) in cancer treatment, data regarding ICI-associated pericardial disease are primarily derived from case reports and case series. ICI related pericardial disease can be difficult to diagnose and is associated with significant morbidity. We conducted a systematic review to further characterize the epidemiology, clinical presentation, and outcomes of this patient population. Methods A search of four databases resulted in 31 studies meeting inclusion criteria. Patients > 18 years old who presented with ICI mediated pericardial disease were included. Intervention was medical + surgical therapy and outcomes were development of cardiac tamponade, morbidity, and mortality. Results Thirty- eight patients across 31 cases were included. Patients were majority male (72%) with a median age of 63. Common symptoms included dyspnea (59%) and chest pain (32%), with 41% presenting with cardiac tamponade. Lung cancer (81%) was the most prevalent, and nivolumab (61%) and pembrolizumab (34%) were the most used ICIs. Pericardiocentesis was performed in 68% of patients, and 92% experienced symptom improvement upon ICI cessation. Overall mortality was 16%. Discussion This study provides the most comprehensive analysis of ICI-mediated pericardial disease to date. Patients affected were most commonly male with lung cancer treated with either Nivolumab or Pembrolizumab. Diagnosis may be challenging in the setting of occult presentation with normal EKG and physical exam as well as delayed onset from therapy initiation. ICI-associated pericardial disease demonstrates high morbidity and mortality, as evidenced by a majority of patients requiring pericardiocentesis.