High emotional contagion and empathy are associated with enhanced detection of emotional authenticity in laughter

Nonverbal vocalisations such as laughter pervade social interactions, and the ability to accurately interpret them is an important skill. Previous research has probed the general mechanisms supporting vocal emotional processing, but the factors that determine individual differences in this ability remain poorly understood. Here, we ask whether the propensity to resonate with others’ emotions—as measured by trait levels of emotional contagion and empathy—relates to the ability to perceive different types of laughter. We focus on emotional authenticity detection in spontaneous and voluntary laughs: spontaneous laughs reflect a less controlled and genuinely felt emotion, and voluntary laughs reflect a more deliberate communicative act (e.g., polite agreement). In total, 119 participants evaluated the authenticity and contagiousness of spontaneous and voluntary laughs and completed two self-report measures of resonance with others’ emotions: the Emotional Contagion Scale and the Empathic Concern scale of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. We found that higher scores on these measures predict enhanced ability to detect laughter authenticity. We further observed that perceived contagion responses during listening to laughter significantly relate to authenticity detection. These findings suggest that resonating with others’ emotions provides a mechanism for processing complex aspects of vocal emotional information

Perioperative fluid overload increases anastomosis thrombosis in the free TRAM flap used for breast reconstruction

To increase perfusion pressure with vasoactive drugs may be in conflict with the opinion of the reconstructive surgeon who maintains that the systemic administration of vasoactive agents causes vasoconstriction of the pedicle artery and the microvasculature. In free flap surgery, deliberate fluid therapy is used with a minimum of vasoactive drugs. This retrospective study was performed to analyse the perioperative fluid therapy, its effect on hemodynamic parameters and on the outcome of free flap surgery. One hundred and four patients were included in this retrospective study. The muscle sparing free transverse rectus abdominis myocutaneous flap was used for breast reconstruction. Perioperative hemodynamic data was used for this study. Twenty-seven patients had one or two complications requiring return to the operating room (OR). Two cases returned to the OR because of postoperative bleeding; in 11 patients, the anastomosis was revised. The reason for surgery in the latter group was venous stasis, due to thrombus formation at the venous anastomosis. The volume of fluid therapy was significantly higher in patients who returned to the OR due to thrombus formation at the anastomosis. Based on the results of this study, restricted intravenous fluid therapy or guided fluid therapy is recommended. Invasive monitoring such as central venous pressure and invasive arterial monitoring is recommended. Fluid loss should be replaced, and fluid overload should be avoided when the breast is reconstructed using free-tissue transfers

Alternative Complement Pathway Deregulation Is Correlated with Dengue Severity

BACKGROUND:The complement system, a key component that links the innate and adaptive immune responses, has three pathways: the classical, lectin, and alternative pathways. In the present study, we have analyzed the levels of various complement components in blood samples from dengue fever (DF) and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) patients and found that the level of complement activation is associated with disease severity. METHODS AND RESULTS:Patients with DHF had lower levels of complement factor 3 (C3; p = 0.002) and increased levels of C3a, C4a and C5a (p<0.0001) when compared to those with the less severe form, DF. There were no significant differences between DF and DHF patients in the levels of C1q, immunocomplexes (CIC-CIq) and CRP. However, small but statistically significant differences were detected in the levels of MBL. In contrast, the levels of two regulatory proteins of the alternative pathway varied widely between DF and DHF patients: DHF patients had higher levels of factor D (p = 0.01), which cleaves factor B to yield the active (C3bBb) C3 convertase, and lower levels of factor H (p = 0.03), which inactivates the (C3bBb) C3 convertase, than did DF patients. When we considered the levels of factors D and H together as an indicator of (C3bBb) C3 convertase regulation, we found that the plasma levels of these regulatory proteins in DHF patients favored the formation of the (C3bBb) C3 convertase, whereas its formation was inhibited in DF patients (p<0.0001). CONCLUSION:The data suggest that an imbalance in the levels of regulatory factors D and H is associated with an abnormal regulation of complement activity in DHF patients

Regionalização para o cultivo do feijão no Rio Grande do Sul com base na interação genótipo x ambiente¹.

bitstream/item/59171/1/Iraja-V59N002P19810.pd

The methylation status of the embryonic limb skeletal progenitors determines their cell fate in chicken

Digits shape is sculpted by interdigital programmed cell death during limb development. Here, we show that DNA breakage in the periphery of 5-methylcytosine nuclei foci of interdigital precursors precedes cell death. These cells showed higher genome instability than the digit-forming precursors when exposed to X-ray irradiation or local bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) treatments. Regional but not global DNA methylation differences were found between both progenitors. DNA-Methyl-Transferases (DNMTs) including DNMT1, DNMT3B and, to a lesser extent, DNMT3A, exhibited well-defined expression patterns in regions destined to degenerate, as the interdigital tissue and the prospective joint regions. Dnmt3b functional experiments revealed an inverse regulation of cell death and cartilage differentiation, by transcriptional regulation of key genes including Sox9, Scleraxis, p21 and Bak1, via differential methylation of CpG islands across their promoters. Our findings point to a regulation of cell death versus chondrogenesis of limb skeletal precursors based on epigenetic mechanisms.We thank Prof. Miguel Lafarga for helpful comments and advice. We thank Dr Jose E Gomez-Arozamena for helping us with the irradiation experiments. We are grateful to Montse Fernandez Calderon, Susana Dawalibi, and Sonia Perez Mantecon, for excellent technical assistance. This work was supported by a Grant (BFU2017–84046-P) from the Spanish Science and Innovation Ministry to JAM. C.S.F is recipient of a FPI grant (BES-2015–074267)

Assessment of contractility in intact ventricular cardiomyocytes using the dimensionless ‘Frank–Starling Gain’ index

This paper briefly recapitulates the Frank–Starling law of the heart, reviews approaches to establishing diastolic and systolic force–length behaviour in intact isolated cardiomyocytes, and introduces a dimensionless index called ‘Frank–Starling Gain’, calculated as the ratio of slopes of end-systolic and end-diastolic force–length relations. The benefits and limitations of this index are illustrated on the example of regional differences in Guinea pig intact ventricular cardiomyocyte mechanics. Potential applicability of the Frank–Starling Gain for the comparison of cell contractility changes upon stretch will be discussed in the context of intra- and inter-individual variability of cardiomyocyte properties

Higher Expression of CCL2, CCL4, CCL5, CCL21, and CXCL8 Chemokines in the Skin Associated with Parasite Density in Canine Visceral Leishmaniasis

Several previous studies correlated immunopathological aspects of canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL) with tissue parasite load and/or the clinical status of the disease. Recently, different aspects of the immune response in Leishmania-infected dogs have been studied, particularly the profile of cytokines in distinct compartments. However, the role of chemokines in disease progression or parasite burdens of the visceralising species represents an important approach for understanding immunopathology in CVL. We found an increase in inflammatory infiltrate, which was mainly composed of mononuclear cells, in the skin of animals presenting severe forms of CVL and high parasite density. Our data also demonstrated that enhanced parasite density is positively correlated with the expression of CCL2, CCL4, CCL5, CCL21, and CXCL8. In contrast, there was a negative correlation between parasite density and CCL24 expression. These findings represent an advance in the knowledge of the involvement of skin inflammatory infiltrates in CVL and the systemic consequences and may contribute to developing a rational strategy for the design of new and more efficient prophylactic tools and immunological therapies against CVL