Dangerous Speech: A Cross-Cultural Study of Dehumanization and Revenge

Dehumanization is routinely invoked in social science and law as the primary factor in explaining how propaganda encourages support for, or participation in, violence against targeted outgroups. Yet the primacy of dehumanization is increasingly challenged by the apparent influence of revenge on collective violence. This study examines critically how various propaganda influence audiences. Although previous research stresses the dangers of dehumanizing propaganda, a recently published study found that only revenge propaganda significantly lowered outgroup empathy. Given the importance of these findings for law and the behavioral sciences, this research augments that recent study with two additional samples that were culturally distinct from the prior findings, showing again that only revenge propaganda was significant. To explore this effect further, we also conducted a facial electromyography (fEMG) among a small set of participants, finding that revenge triggered significantly stronger negative emotions against outgroups than dehumanization

Evaluating goal threat in football using player and ball locations

Goal scoring in football is relatively low but vitally important, hence research has considered how goals are created and scored with measures such as expected goals prevalent. The dynamical systems theoretical perspective, considers a collective system, such as football, as existing in two states, stable (no substantive advantage for either team) or unstable (advantage present). Hence, goal scoring events occur when the system has become unstable, with a “perturbation” the event causing the system state change. Here, a “goal threat” value was calculated every second (scaled from 0 to 100) using the XY coordinates of players and the ball, weighted in relation to proximity to the goal (a potential proxy for the degree of system instability). Video recordings and synchronised Amisco 2D representations of goals (n=64) scored in Swansea City AFC English Premier League 2012/2013 matches (n=20) were analysed using Dartfish v10 Pro software. Each goal was analysed from when the play was judged to be stable (no obvious goal scoring opportunity), or the start of possession, until the goal had been scored. Goals were not always preceded by high goal threat values (maximum goal threat values ranged from 13.4 to 99.0). The authors independently subjectively determined that perturbations occurred up to 7 seconds from when the goal threat value increased by at least 40%. Thus, perturbations were not directly related to goal scoring opportunities. This novel method provides a useful, quantifiable, and simple measure of goal threat that may also aid audience engagement and measure defensive effectiveness

Crystal Structures of the structure-selective nuclease Mus81-Eme1 bound to flap DNA substrates

The Mus81-Eme1 complex is a structure-selective endonuclease with a critical role in the resolution of recombination intermediates during DNA repair after interstrand cross-links, replication fork collapse, or double-strand breaks. To explain the molecular basis of 3 ' flap substrate recognition and cleavage mechanism by Mus81-Eme1, we determined crystal structures of human Mus81-Eme1 bound to various flap DNA substrates. Mus81-Eme1 undergoes gross substrate-induced conformational changes that reveal two key features: (i) a hydrophobic wedge of Mus81 that separates pre- and post-nick duplex DNA and (ii) a 5 ' end binding pocket that hosts the 5 ' nicked end of post-nick DNA. These features are crucial for comprehensive protein-DNA interaction, sharp bending of the 3 ' flap DNA substrate, and incision strand placement at the active site. While Mus81-Eme1 unexpectedly shares several common features with members of the 5 ' flap nuclease family, the combined structural, biochemical, and biophysical analyses explain why Mus81-Eme1 preferentially cleaves 3 ' flap DNA substrates with 5 ' nicked ends.X11119Ysciescopu

AXTAR: Mission Design Concept

The Advanced X-ray Timing Array (AXTAR) is a mission concept for X-ray timing of compact objects that combines very large collecting area, broadband spectral coverage, high time resolution, highly flexible scheduling, and an ability to respond promptly to time-critical targets of opportunity. It is optimized for submillisecond timing of bright Galactic X-ray sources in order to study phenomena at the natural time scales of neutron star surfaces and black hole event horizons, thus probing the physics of ultradense matter, strongly curved spacetimes, and intense magnetic fields. AXTAR's main instrument, the Large Area Timing Array (LATA) is a collimated instrument with 2-50 keV coverage and over 3 square meters effective area. The LATA is made up of an array of supermodules that house 2-mm thick silicon pixel detectors. AXTAR will provide a significant improvement in effective area (a factor of 7 at 4 keV and a factor of 36 at 30 keV) over the RXTE PCA. AXTAR will also carry a sensitive Sky Monitor (SM) that acts as a trigger for pointed observations of X-ray transients in addition to providing high duty cycle monitoring of the X-ray sky. We review the science goals and technical concept for AXTAR and present results from a preliminary mission design study.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, to be published in Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2010: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, Proceedings of SPIE Volume 773

Joint association between ambient air pollutant mixture and pediatric asthma exacerbations

Background: Exposure to air pollutants is known to exacerbate asthma, with prior studies focused on associations between single pollutant exposure and asthma exacerbations. As air pollutants often exist as a complex mixture, there is a gap in understanding the association between complex air pollutant mixtures and asthma exacerbations. We evaluated the association between the air pollutant mixture (52 pollutants) and pediatric asthma exacerbations. Method: This study focused on children (age ≤ 19 years) who lived in Douglas County, Nebraska, during 2016–2019. A seasonal- scale joint association between the outdoor air pollutant mixture adjusting for potential confounders (temperature, precipitation, wind speed, and wind direction) in relation to pediatric asthma exacerbation-related emergency department (ED) visits was evaluated using the generalized weighted quantile sum (qWQS) regression with repeated holdout validation. Results: We observed associations between air pollutant mixture and pediatric asthma exacerbations during spring (lagged by 5 days), summer (lag 0–5 days), and fall (lag 1–3 days) seasons. The estimate of the joint outdoor air pollutant mixture effect was higher during the summer season (adjusted-βWQS = 1.11, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.66, 1.55), followed by spring (adjusted-βWQS = 0.40, 95% CI: 0.16, 0.62) and fall (adjusted-βWQS = 0.20, 95% CI: 0.06, 0.33) seasons. Among the air pollutants, PM2.5, pollen, and mold contributed higher weight to the air pollutant mixture. Conclusion: There were associations between outdoor air pollutant mixture and pediatric asthma exacerbations during the spring, summer, and fall seasons. Among the 52 outdoor air pollutant metrics investigated, PM2.5, pollen (sycamore, grass, cedar), and mold (Helminthosporium, Peronospora, and Erysiphe) contributed the highest weight to the air pollutant mixture

ATP-dependent DNA binding, unwinding, and resection by the Mre11/Rad50 complex

ATP-dependent DNA end recognition and nucleolytic processing are central functions of the Mre11/Rad50 (MR) complex in DNA double-strand break repair. However, it is still unclear how ATP binding and hydrolysis primes the MR function and regulates repair pathway choice in cells. Here, Methanococcus jannaschii MR-ATP gamma S-DNA structure reveals that the partly deformed DNA runs symmetrically across central groove between two ATP gamma S-bound Rad50 nucleotide-binding domains. Duplex DNA cannot access the Mre11 active site in the ATP-free full-length MR complex. ATP hydrolysis drives rotation of the nucleotide-binding domain and induces the DNA melting so that the substrate DNA can access Mre11. Our findings suggest that the ATP hydrolysis-driven conformational changes in both DNA and the MR complex coordinate the melting and endonuclease activity.1120Ysciescopu

Visible-Light-Initiated Thiol−Acrylate Photopolymerization of Heparin-Based Hydrogels

An in situ heparin-based forming hydrogel that cures under visible-light is formulated using eosin Y as a photoinitiator with triethanolamine as an electron donor to initiate reaction of thiolated-heparin with acrylate-ended poly(ethylene glycol). Formulations and irradiation conditions are presented for control of heparin content (1.6 to 3.3% w/v), modulus (100–10 000 Pa), and gelation time (30–600 s). Encapsulation of 3T3 fibroblasts in the hydrogel gave over 96% viability for all conditions examined. In vitro characterization of epidermal growth factor released from the hydrogel confirmed that the growth factor remains bioactive. The ability to deliver growth factors, fast gelation kinetics under visible light, and independent control of physical and biochemical properties makes this system a promising candidate for use in regenerative medicine. In particular, irradiation conditions that achieve gelation in 150s are compatible with the stringent light exposure limits of the retina, which affords a wide safety margin for use with other tissues

Three Millisecond Pulsars in FERMI LAT Unassociated Bright Sources

We searched for radio pulsars in 25 of the non-variable, unassociated sources in the Fermi LAT Bright Source List with the Green Bank Telescope at 820 MHz. We report the discovery of three radio and gamma-ray millisecond pulsars (MSPs) from a high Galactic latitude subset of these sources. All of the pulsars are in binary systems, which would have made them virtually impossible to detect in blind gamma-ray pulsation searches. They seem to be relatively normal, nearby (<=2 kpc) millisecond pulsars. These observations, in combination with the Fermi detection of gamma-rays from other known radio MSPs, imply that most, if not all, radio MSPs are efficient gamma-ray producers. The gamma-ray spectra of the pulsars are power-law in nature with exponential cutoffs at a few GeV, as has been found with most other pulsars. The MSPs have all been detected as X-ray point sources. Their soft X-ray luminosities of ~10^{30-31} erg/s are typical of the rare radio MSPs seen in X-rays.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Eight gamma-ray pulsars discovered in blind frequency searches of Fermi LAT data

We report the discovery of eight gamma-ray pulsars in blind frequency searches using the LAT, onboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Five of the eight pulsars are young (tau_c10^36 erg/s), and located within the Galactic plane (|b|<3 deg). The remaining three are older, less energetic, and located off the plane. Five pulsars are associated with sources included in the LAT bright gamma-ray source list, but only one, PSR J1413-6205, is clearly associated with an EGRET source. PSR J1023-5746 has the smallest characteristic age (tau_c=4.6 kyr) and is the most energetic (Edot=1.1E37 erg/s) of all gamma-ray pulsars discovered so far in blind searches. PSRs J1957+5033 and J2055+25 have the largest characteristic ages (tau_c~1 Myr) and are the least energetic (Edot~5E33 erg/s) of the newly-discovered pulsars. We present the timing models, light curves, and detailed spectral parameters of the new pulsars. We used recent XMM observations to identify the counterpart of PSR J2055+25 as XMMU J205549.4+253959. In addition, publicly available archival Chandra X-ray data allowed us to identify the likely counterpart of PSR J1023-5746 as a faint, highly absorbed source, CXOU J102302.8-574606. The large X-ray absorption indicates that this could be among the most distant gamma-ray pulsars detected so far. PSR J1023-5746 is positionally coincident with the TeV source HESS J1023-575, located near the young stellar cluster Westerlund 2, while PSR J1954+2836 is coincident with a 4.3 sigma excess reported by Milagro at a median energy of 35 TeV. Deep radio follow-up observations of the eight pulsars resulted in no detections of pulsations and upper limits comparable to the faintest known radio pulsars, indicating that these can be included among the growing population of radio-quiet pulsars in our Galaxy being uncovered by the LAT, and currently numbering more than 20.Comment: Submitted to Ap

Risk Factors for Stroke During Surgery for Carotid Body Tumors

Vascular Surger