Compositionality in the language of emotion

Emotions are signaled by complex arrays of face and body actions. The main point of contention in contemporary treatments is whether these arrays are discrete, holistic constellations reflecting emotion categories, or whether they are compositional-comprised of smaller components, each of which contributes some aspect of emotion to the complex whole. We address this question by investigating spontaneous face and body displays of athletes and place it in the wider context of human communicative signals and, in particular, of language. A defining property of human language is compositionality-the ability to combine and recombine a relatively small number of elements to create a vast number of complex meaningful expressions, and to interpret them. We ask whether this property of language can be discerned in a more ancient communicative system: intense emotional displays. In an experiment, participants interpreted a range of emotions and their strengths in pictures of athletes who had just won or lost a competition. By matching participants' judgements with minutely coded features of face and body, we find evidence for compositionality. The distribution of participants' responses indicates that most of the athletes' face and body features contribute to displays of dominance or submission. More particular emotional components related, for example, to positive valence (e.g. happy) or goal obstruction (e.g. frustrated), were also found to significantly correlate with certain face and body features. We propose that the combination of features linked to broader components (i.e, dominant or submissive) and to more particular emotions (e.g, happy or frustrated) reflects more complex emotional states. In sum, we find that the corporeal expression of intense, unfiltered emotion has compositional properties, potentially providing an ancient scaffolding upon which, millions of years later, the abstract and constrained compositional system of human language could build

Identification of two divergent swine Noroviruses detected at the slaughterhouse in North East Italy

Norovirus (NoV) has emerged as one of the major causative agents of non-bacterial, food- and water-borne gastroenteritis in humans, with the main genogroup involved in human outbreaks (GII), which has been detected worldwide in different animal species including swine. A four-month investigation at the slaughterhouse aiming to examine the presence of NoV in the swine in North-Eastern Italy, enabled the detection of two divergent Noroviruses (NoVs) (GII.P11) in two swine farms. This represents the first study in the swine population of North-Eastern Italy, which has paved the way for future integrated virological and epidemiological investigations on swine NoVs

Norovirus in Captive Lion Cub (Panthera leo)

African lions (Panthera leo) are susceptible to viral diseases of domestic carnivores, including feline calicivirus infection. We report the identification of a novel enteric calicivirus, genetically related to human noroviruses of genogroup IV, in a lion cub that died of severe hemorrhagic enteritis

Optimizing the order of taxon addition in phylogenetic tree construction using genetic algorithm

Abstract. Phylogenetics has gained in public favor for the analysis of DNA sequence data as molecular biology has advanced. Among a number of algorithms for phylogenetics, the fastDNAml is considered to have reasonable computational cost and performance. However, it has a defect that its performance is likely to be significantly affected by the order of taxon addition. In this paper, we propose a genetic algorithm for optimizing the order of taxon addition in the fastDNAml. Experimental results show that the fastDNAml with the optimized order of taxon addition constructs more probable evolutionary trees in terms of the maximum likelihood.

Expression of costimulatory molecules in the bovine corpus luteum

BACKGROUND: Bovine luteal parenchymal cells express class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules and stimulate class II MHC-dependent activation of T cells in vitro. The ability of a class II MHC-expressing cell type to elicit a response from T cells in vivo is also dependent on expression of costimulatory molecules by the antigen presenting cell and delivery of a costimulatory signal to the T cell. Whether bovine luteal parenchymal cells express costimulatory molecules and can deliver the costimulatory signal is currently unknown. METHODS: Bovine luteal tissue was collected during the early (day 5; day of estrus = day 0), mid (day 11–12), or late (day 18) luteal phase of the estrous cycle, and at 0, 0.5, 1, 4, 12 or 24 hours following administration of PGF2alpha to cows on day 10 of the estrous cycle. Northern analysis was used to measure CD80 or CD86 mRNA concentrations in luteal tissue samples. Mixed luteal parenchymal cell cultures and purified luteal endothelial cell cultures were prepared, and real-time RT-PCR was used to examine the presence of CD80 and CD86 mRNA in each culture type. Monoclonal antibodies to CD80 and CD86 were added to a mixed luteal parenchymal cell-T cell co-culture in vitro T cell proliferation assay to assess the functional significance of costimulatory molecules on activation of T lymphocytes by luteal parenchymal cells. RESULTS: Northern analysis revealed CD80 and CD86 mRNAs in luteal tissue, with greatest steady-state concentrations at midcycle. CD80 and CD86 mRNAs were detected in mixed luteal parenchymal cell cultures, but only slight amounts of CD80 (and not CD86) mRNA were detected in cultures of luteal endothelial cells. Luteinizing hormone, PGF2alpha and TNF-alpha were without effect on concentrations of CD80 or CD86 mRNA in mixed luteal parenchymal cells cultures. Anti-CD80 or anti-CD86 monoclonal antibodies inhibited T cell proliferation in the in vitro T cell proliferation assay. CONCLUSION: It can be concluded from this study that parenchymal cells within the bovine CL express functional costimulatory molecules that facilitate interactions between with T cells, and these components of the antigen presentation pathway are expressed maximally in the midcycle CL

EXPERIMENTAL-INFECTION IN CHICKENS WITH LARVAE OF BAYLISASCARIS-TRANSFUGA (NEMATODA, ASCARIDOIDEA)

The larvae of Baylisascaris transfuga (Rudolphi, 1819) were able to penetrate the liver, lungs, carcass and brain of infected chickens, but a great number of larvae accumulated in the liver. No clinical signs were seen. Birds may serve as paratenic hosts of the parasite, but B. transfuga seems not to be a possible agent of avian cerebrospinal nematodosis

IN-VIVO OVICIDAL EFFECT OF MEBENDAZOLE ON BAYLISASCARIS TRANSFUGA EGGS

Mebenzadole was tested for in vivo effect on the eggs of B. transfuga recovered from polar bears treated with the drug. A marked reduction of the number of eggs that developed to the larval stage was observed. The pre-treatment percentage of incubated eggs that developed to the larval stage was 80 %-92 %. On day 1, after treatment was starting, the percentage was 26 %-70 %, on day 2 the number was 0 %-9 % and on day 3 it was 0 %-1 %. No eggs developed on day 4 and thereafter. Coprological examinations were negative after 4-7 days the treatment was starting

Some Alcohol-Related Consequences for Women May Signal an Escape from Interpersonal Violence

Alcohol-related negative consequences can be very costly and emotionally devastating for those with Alcohol Use Disorder and those around them. Such, consequences include driving under the influence motor vehicle accident fatalities, other accidental deaths, and cirrhosis. We investigate two main queries using the data from Project COMBINE (Anton et al., 2006) to determine which negative consequences are most frequent for women, and to determine whether there are differences across ethnicity (for women) on negative consequences. The research method is secondary data analysis. An interpretation of the results turns the typical perspective on its head: We posit that results suggest women are escaping from interpersonal violence, which is of course an excellent outcome