Casting a wide net: use of diverse model organisms to advance toxicology

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Hahn, M. E., & Sadler, K. C. Casting a wide net: use of diverse model organisms to advance toxicology. Disease Models & Mechanisms, 13, (2020): dmm.043844, doi: 10.1242/dmm.043844.Toxicology – the study of how chemicals interact with biological systems – has clear relevance to human health and disease. Persistent exposure to natural and synthetic chemicals is an unavoidable part of living on our planet; yet, we understand very little about the effects of exposure to the vast majority of chemicals. While epidemiological studies can provide strong statistical inference linking chemical exposure to disease, research in model systems is essential to elucidate the mechanisms of action and to predict outcomes. Most research in toxicology utilizes a handful of mammalian models that represent a few distinct branches of the evolutionary tree. This narrow focus constrains the understanding of chemical-induced disease processes and systems that have evolved in response to exposures. We advocate for casting a wider net in environmental toxicology research to utilize diverse model systems, including zebrafish, and perform more mechanistic studies of cellular responses to chemical exposures to shift the perception of toxicology as an applied science to that of a basic science. This more-inclusive perspective will enrich the field and should remain central to research on chemical-induced disease.K.C.S. acknowledges support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)(5R01AA018886). M.E.H. acknowledges support from the National Institute ofEnvironmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) through the Boston University SuperfundResearch Program (P42ES007381) and the Woods Hole Center for Oceans andHuman Health (NIEHS grant P01ES028938 and National Science Foundation grantOCE-1840381)

Launch Operations: Prelaunch Activities

Prelaunch activities, countdown and launch for Nimbus 3 satellite

Do partnered women discriminate men's faces less along the attractiveness dimension?

Romantic relationships can have positive effects on health and reproductive fitness. Given that attractive potential alternative mates can pose a threat to romantic relationships, some researchers have proposed that partnered individuals discriminate opposite-sex individuals less along the physical attractiveness dimension than do unpartnered individuals. This effect is proposed to devalue attractive (i.e., high quality) alternative mates and help maintain romantic relationships. Here we investigated this issue by comparing the effects of men's attractiveness on partnered and unpartnered women's performance on two response measures for which attractiveness is known to be important: memory for face photographs (Study 1) and the reward value of faces (Study 2). Consistent with previous research, women's memory was poorer for face photographs of more attractive men (Study 1) and more attractive men's faces were more rewarding (Study 2). However, in neither study were these effects of attractiveness modulated by women's partnership status or partnered women's reported commitment to or happiness with their romantic relationship. These results do not support the proposal that partnered women discriminate potential alternative mates along the physical attractiveness dimension less than do unpartnered women

Properties of Dark Matter Haloes in Clusters, Filaments, Sheets and Voids

Using a series of high-resolution N-body simulations of the concordance cosmology we investigate how the formation histories, shapes and angular momenta of dark-matter haloes depend on environment. We first present a classification scheme that allows to distinguish between haloes in clusters, filaments, sheets and voids in the large-scale distribution of matter. This method is based on a local-stability criterion for the orbits of test particles and closely relates to the Zel'dovich approximation. Applying this scheme to our simulations we then find that: i) Mass assembly histories and formation redshifts strongly depend on environment for haloes of mass M<M* (haloes of a given mass tend to be older in clusters and younger in voids) and are independent of it for larger masses; ii) Low-mass haloes in clusters are generally less spherical and more oblate than in other regions; iii) Low-mass haloes in clusters have a higher median spin than in filaments and present a more prominent fraction of rapidly spinning objects; we identify recent major mergers as a likely source of this effect. For all these relations, we provide accurate functional fits as a function of halo mass and environment. We also look for correlations between halo-spin directions and the large-scale structures: the strongest effect is seen in sheets where halo spins tend to lie within the plane of symmetry of the mass distribution. Finally, we measure the spatial auto-correlation of spin directions and the cross-correlation between the directions of intrinsic and orbital angular momenta of neighbouring haloes. While the first quantity is always very small, we find that spin-orbit correlations are rather strong especially for low-mass haloes in clusters and high-mass haloes in filaments.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures. Version accepted for publication in MNRAS (references added). Version with high-resolution figures available at http://www.exp-astro.phys.ethz.ch/hahn/pub/HPCD06.pd

The relative contributions of facial shape and surface information to perceptions of attractiveness and dominance

Although many studies have investigated the facial characteristics that influence perceptions of others’ attractiveness and dominance, the majority of these studies have focused on either the effects of shape information or surface information alone. Consequently, the relative contributions of facial shape and surface characteristics to attractiveness and dominance perceptions are unclear. To address this issue, we investigated the relationships between ratings of original versions of faces and ratings of versions in which either surface information had been standardized (i.e., shape-only versions) or shape information had been standardized (i.e., surface-only versions). For attractiveness and dominance judgments of both male and female faces, ratings of shape-only and surface-only versions independently predicted ratings of the original versions of faces. The correlations between ratings of original and shape-only versions and between ratings of original and surface-only versions differed only in two instances. For male attractiveness, ratings of original versions were more strongly related to ratings of surface-only than shape-only versions, suggesting that surface information is particularly important for men’s facial attractiveness. The opposite was true for female physical dominance, suggesting that shape information is particularly important for women’s facial physical dominance. In summary, our results indicate that both facial shape and surface information contribute to judgments of others’ attractiveness and dominance, suggesting that it may be important to consider both sources of information in research on these topics

Should You Be Allowed to Use Your Cellular Phone While Driving?

Regulation of the use of cellular phones by individuals while driving is now commonplace outside the United States and has been proposed in a number of jurisdictions in the United States. There is growing concern that using cellular phones while driving leads to increases in accidents and fatalities. This paper provides an economic analysis of regulatory options for addressing cellular phone usage by drivers of vehicles. While large uncertainties surrounding both benefits and costs exist, a key conclusion is that banning drivers from using cellular phones is a bad idea. Our best estimate is that the costs of a ban are likely to exceed benefits by about $20 billion annually. Less intrusive regulation, such as requiring the use of a hands-free device that would allow a driver to use both hands for steering also is not likely to be economically justified.