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A language family is a group of languages which have descended from a common mother language. Since the ancestor is common, these languages are expected to be similar in some respect and manifest the similarity in scientific experiments. In language identification, language-specific features are extracted from speech and a model is created which represents the language. This work extends the language identification framework to capture features common to language families and create models which can efficiently represent the language families. Mel frequency cepstral coefficient (MFCC) and speech signal-based frequency cepstral coefficient (SFCC) are used as primary feature extraction tools. A combination of these along with shifted delta coefficient (SDC) gives the final set of features. The work uses Gaussian mixture model (GMM) and support vector machines (SVM) as modelling tools. Different combinations of these feature extraction and modelling techniques are used to get four different systems: MFCC + SDC + GMM, SFCC + SDC + GMM, MFCC + SDC + SVM and SFCC + SDC + SVM. Experiments with these systems show that the language families can be identified with reasonable accuracy. Further, the work tests the influence of one language family on the other and finds that in most cases, the languages which are spoken in areas lying on the boundary of two families are more influenced by the other family. A deviation from it can relate to geopolitical isolation of two neighbouring regions and thus can give new insights or corroborate investigations of historians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article ‘'Identification of the major language families of India and evaluation of their mutual influence'' by D.Sengupta and G. Saha in the December 25, 2016 issue.

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) largely excludes antibodies from entering the central nervous system, thus limiting the potential of therapeutic antibodies to treat conditions such as neurodegenerative diseases and neuro-psychiatric disorders. Here, we demonstrate that the transport of human antibodies across the BBB in mice can be enhanced by modulating their interactions with the neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn). When M252Y/S254T/T246E substitutions are introduced on the antibody Fc domain, immunohistochemical assays reveal widespread distribution of the engineered antibodies throughout the mouse brain. These engineered antibodies remain specific for their antigens and retain pharmacological activity. We propose that novel brain-targeted therapeutic antibodies can be engineered to differentially engage FcRn for receptor-mediated transcytosis across the BBB in order to improve neurological disease therapeutics in the future.

Objectives: The objective was to evaluate variation in the current estimated radiation dose index for pediatric cervical spine (c-spine) computed tomography (CT) examinations., Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of pediatric (age younger than 19 years) c-spine CT examinations from the American College of Radiology Dose Index Registry, July 2011 through December 2014. We used the volume CT dose index (CTDIvol) as the radiation dose estimate and used summary statistics to describe patient and hospital characteristics., Results: There were 12,218 pediatric CT c-spine examinations performed across 296 participating hospitals. Fifty-six percent were in male patients, and 79% were in children older than 10 years. Most hospitals (55%) were community hospitals without trauma designations, and the largest proportion of examinations (41%) were performed at these hospitals. The median CTDIvol was 15 mGy (interquartile range = 9 to 23 mGy) representing a more than 2.5-fold difference between the 25th and 75th percentiles. Pediatric hospitals (both trauma and nontrauma centers) delivered the lowest CTDIvol across all age groups and showed the least amount of variability in dose., Conclusions: There is significant variation in the radiation dose index for pediatric c-spine CT examinations. Pediatric hospitals practice at lower CT dose estimates than other hospitals. Individual hospitals should examine their practices in an effort to ensure standardization and optimization of CT parameters to minimize radiation exposures to pediatric patients., (© 2015 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.)