How Much Does Effortful Thinking Underlie Observers’ Reactions to Victimization?

From blaming to helping innocent victims, just-world research has revealed that observers react to victimization in a variety of ways. Recent research suggests that such responses to victimization require effortful thought, whereas other research has shown that people can react to these situations intuitively. Along with manipulating just-world threat, across seven experiments, we manipulated or measured participants’ level of mental processing before assessing judgments of victim derogation, blame, willingness to help, and ultimate justice reasoning. The effect of just-world threat on these responses held constant over a range of manipulations/measures, suggesting that the processes involved in maintaining a belief in a just world are not restricted to the rational, deliberative level of mental processing but also occur intuitively

A formally verified compiler back-end

This article describes the development and formal verification (proof of semantic preservation) of a compiler back-end from Cminor (a simple imperative intermediate language) to PowerPC assembly code, using the Coq proof assistant both for programming the compiler and for proving its correctness. Such a verified compiler is useful in the context of formal methods applied to the certification of critical software: the verification of the compiler guarantees that the safety properties proved on the source code hold for the executable compiled code as well

Design and Validation of a Novel Method to Measure Cross-Sectional Area of Neck Muscles Included during Routine MR Brain Volume Imaging

Low muscle mass secondary to disease and ageing is an important cause of excess mortality and morbidity. Many studies include a MR brain scan but no peripheral measure of muscle mass. We developed a technique to measure posterior neck muscle cross-sectional area (CSA) on volumetric MR brain scans enabling brain and muscle size to be measured simultaneously.We performed four studies to develop and test: feasibility, inter-rater reliability, repeatability and external validity. We used T1-weighted MR brain imaging from young and older subjects, obtained on different scanners, and collected mid-thigh MR data.After developing the technique and demonstrating feasibility, we tested it for inter-rater reliability in 40 subjects. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) between raters were 0.99 (95% confidence intervals (CI) 0.98-1.00) for the combined group (trapezius, splenius and semispinalis), 0.92 (CI 0.85-0.96) for obliquus and 0.92 (CI 0.85-0.96) for sternocleidomastoid. The first unrotated principal component explained 72.2% of total neck muscle CSA variance and correlated positively with both right (r = 0.52, p = .001) and left (r = 0.50, p = .002) grip strength. The 14 subjects in the repeatability study had had two MR brain scans on three different scanners. The ICC for between scanner variation for total neck muscle CSA was high at 0.94 (CI 0.86-0.98). The ICCs for within scanner variations were also high, with values of 0.95 (CI 0.86-0.98), 0.97 (CI 0.92-0.99) and 0.96 (CI 0.86-0.99) for the three scanners. The external validity study found a correlation coefficient for total thigh CSA and total neck CSA of 0.88.We present a feasible, valid and reliable method for measuring neck muscle CSA on T1-weighted MR brain scans. Larger studies are needed to validate and apply our technique with subjects differing in age, ethnicity and geographical location

Noncoding human Y RNAs are overexpressed in tumours and required for cell proliferation

Noncoding Y RNAs have recently been identified as essential factors for chromosomal DNA replication in human cell nuclei. Here, we investigate the expression of human Y RNAs in tumours and test their requirement for cell proliferation. Relative expression levels of all four human Y RNAs (hY1, hY3, hY4 and hY5 RNA) were determined by quantitative RT–PCR in extracts from human solid tumours, corresponding nonmalignant normal tissues and derived cultured cells. On average, all four hY RNAs are significantly overexpressed in solid tumours between 4- and 13-fold, compared to the corresponding normal tissues. In particular, hY1 and hY3 RNAs are overexpressed in carcinomas (and adenocarcinomas) of the bladder, cervix, colon, kidney, lung and prostate with extremely high statistical significance (ANOVA, between groups, P<10e-22). A functional requirement of all four hY RNAs for cell proliferation was investigated in a systematic survey for loss-of-function by RNA interference (RNAi). Degradation of hY1 and hY3 RNAs in human cell lines resulted in a significant cytostatic inhibition of cell proliferation. We conclude that noncoding hY RNAs have potential both as new cancer biomarkers and as molecular targets for anti-proliferative intervention

Eye movements and brain oscillations to symbolic safety signs with different comprehensibility

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate eye movements and brain oscillations to symbolic safety signs with different comprehensibility. Methods: Forty-two young adults participated in this study, and ten traffic symbols consisting of easy-to-comprehend and hard-to-comprehend signs were used as stimuli. During the sign comprehension test, real-time eye movements and spontaneous brain activity [electroencephalogram (EEG) data] were simultaneously recorded. Results: The comprehensibility level of symbolic traffic signs significantly affects eye movements and EEG spectral power. The harder to comprehend the sign is, the slower the blink rate, the larger the pupil diameter, and the longer the time to first fixation. Noticeable differences on EEG spectral power between easy-to-comprehend and hard-to-comprehend signs are observed in the prefrontal and visual cortex of the human brain. Conclusions: Sign comprehensibility has significant effects on real-time nonintrusive eye movements and brain oscillations. These findings demonstrate the potential to integrate physiological measures from eye movements and brain oscillations with existing evaluation methods in assessing the comprehensibility of symbolic safety signs.open

Axl/Gas6/NFκB signalling in schwannoma pathological proliferation, adhesion and survival.

TAM family receptor tyrosine kinases comprising Tyro3 (Sky), Axl, and Mer are overexpressed in some cancers, correlate with multidrug resistance and contribute to tumourigenesis by regulating invasion, angiogenesis, cell survival and tumour growth. Mutations in the gene coding for a tumour suppressor merlin cause development of multiple tumours of the nervous system such as schwannomas, meningiomas and ependymomas occurring spontaneously or as part of a hereditary disease neurofibromatosis type 2. The benign character of merlin-deficient tumours makes them less responsive to chemotherapy. We previously showed that, amongst other growth factor receptors, TAM family receptors (Tyro3, Axl and Mer) are significantly overexpressed in schwannoma tissues. As Axl is negatively regulated by merlin and positively regulated by E3 ubiquitin ligase CRL4DCAF1, previously shown to be a key regulator in schwannoma growth we hypothesized that Axl is a good target to study in merlin-deficient tumours. Moreover, Axl positively regulates the oncogene Yes-associated protein, which is known to be under merlin regulation in schwannoma and is involved in increased proliferation of merlin-deficient meningioma and mesothelioma. Here, we demonstrated strong overexpression and activation of Axl receptor as well as its ligand Gas6 in human schwannoma primary cells compared to normal Schwann cells. We show that Gas6 is mitogenic and increases schwannoma cell-matrix adhesion and survival acting via Axl in schwannoma cells. Stimulation of the Gas6/Axl signalling pathway recruits Src, focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and NFκB. We showed that NFκB mediates Gas6/Axl-mediated overexpression of survivin, cyclin D1 and FAK, leading to enhanced survival, cell-matrix adhesion and proliferation of schwannoma. We conclude that Axl/FAK/Src/NFκB pathway is relevant in merlin-deficient tumours and is a potential therapeutic target for schwannoma and other merlin-deficient tumours

Keldysh technique and non-linear sigma-model: basic principles and applications

The purpose of this review is to provide a comprehensive pedagogical introduction into Keldysh technique for interacting out-of-equilibrium fermionic and bosonic systems. The emphasis is placed on a functional integral representation of underlying microscopic models. A large part of the review is devoted to derivation and applications of the non-linear sigma-model for disordered metals and superconductors. We discuss such topics as transport properties, mesoscopic effects, counting statistics, interaction corrections, kinetic equation, etc. The sections devoted to disordered superconductors include Usadel equation, fluctuation corrections, time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau theory, proximity and Josephson effects, etc. (This review is a substantial extension of arXiv:cond-mat/0412296.)Comment: Review: 103 pages, 19 figure

Persistence of viral reservoirs in multiple tissues after antiretroviral therapy suppression in a macaque RT-SHIV model

Although antiretroviral therapy (ART) can suppress HIV-1 replication sufficiently to eliminate measurable plasma viremia, infected cells remain and ensure viral recrudescence after discontinuation of ART. We used a macaque model of HIV-1/AIDS to evaluate the location of infected cells during ART. Twelve macaques were infected with RT-SHIVmne, a SIV containing HIV-1 reverse transcriptase, conferring sensitivity to non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs). Ten to fourteen weeks post-infection, 6 animals were treated with 3 or 4 antiretroviral drugs for 17-20 weeks; 6 control animals remained untreated. Viral DNA (vDNA) and RNA (vRNA) were measured in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and at necropsy in multiple tissues by quantitative PCR and RT-PCR. The majority of virally infected cells were located in lymphoid tissues with variable levels in the gastrointestinal tract of both treated and untreated animals. Tissue viral DNA levels correlated with week 1 plasma viremia, suggesting that tissues that harbor proviral DNA are established within the first week of infection. PBMC vDNA levels did not correlate with plasma viremia or tissue levels of vDNA. vRNA levels were high in lymphoid and gastrointestinal tissues of the untreated animals; animals on ART had little vRNA expressed in tissues and virus could not be cultured from lymph node resting CD4+ cells after 17-20 weeks on ART, indicating little or no ongoing viral replication. Strategies for eradication of HIV-1 will need to target residual virus in ART suppressed individuals, which may not be accurately reflected by frequencies of infected cells in blood. © 2013 Kline et al

It's not too Late for the Harpy Eagle (Harpia harpyja): High Levels Of Genetic Diversity and Differentiation Can Fuel Conservation Programs

Article on the harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja) and how high levels of genetic diversity and differentiation can fuel conservation programs