Action ability modulates time‑to‑collision judgments

Time-to-collision (TTC) underestimation has been interpreted as an adaptive response that allows observers to have more time to engage in a defensive behaviour. This bias seems, therefore, strongly linked to action preparation. There is evidence that the observer’s physical fitness modulates the underestimation effect so that people who need more time to react (i.e. those with less physical fitness) show a stronger underestimation effect. Here we investigated whether this bias is influenced by the momentary action capability of the observers. In the first experiment, participants estimated the time-to-collision of threatening or non-threatening stimuli while being mildly immobilized (with a chin rest) or while standing freely. Having reduced the possibility of movement led participants to show more underestimation of the approaching stimuli. However, this effect was not stronger for threatening relative to non-threatening stimuli. The effect of the action capability found in the first experiment could be interpreted as an expansion of peripersonal space (PPS). In the second experiment, we thus investigated the generality of this effect using an established paradigm to measure the size of peripersonal space. Participants bisected lines from different distances while in the chin rest or standing freely. The results replicated the classic left-to-right gradient in lateral spatial attention with increasing viewing distance, but no effect of immobilization was found. The manipulation of the momentary action capability of the observers influenced the participants’ performance in the TTC task but not in the line bisection task. These results are discussed in relation to the different functions of PPS

Diuretics as Antiepileptic Drugs: Should We Go with the Flow?

Recent epidemiological and experimental studies have suggested that certain diuretics may have significant anticonvulsant actions. Potential anticonvulsant mechanisms are discussed in light of the effects of these diuretics on electrolyte balance and synaptic signaling

The effects of the Omagh bomb on adolescent mental health: a school-based study

BACKGROUND: The main objective of this study was to assess psychiatric morbidity among adolescents following the Omagh car bombing in Northern Ireland in 1998. METHODS: Data was collected within schools from adolescents aged between 14 and 18 years via a self-completion booklet comprised of established predictors of PTSD; type of exposure, initial emotional response, long-term adverse physical problems, predictors derived from Ehlers and Clark’s (2000) cognitive model, a PTSD symptoms measure (PDS) and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). RESULTS: Those with more direct physical exposure were significantly more likely to meet caseness on the GHQ and the PDS. The combined pre and peri trauma risk factors highlighted in previous meta-analyses accounted for 20% of the variance in PDS scores but the amount of variance accounted for increased to 56% when the variables highlighted in Ehlers and Clark’s cognitive model for PTSD were added. CONCLUSIONS: High rates of chronic PTSD were observed in adolescents exposed to the bombing. Whilst increased exposure was associated with increased psychiatric morbidity, the best predictors of PTSD were specific aspects of the trauma (‘seeing someone you think is dying’), what you are thinking during the event (‘think you are going to die’) and the cognitive mechanisms employed after the trauma. As these variables are in principle amenable to treatment the results have implications for teams planning treatment interventions after future traumas

Elevated tissue plasminogen activator as a potential marker of endothelial dysfunction in pre-eclampsia: correlation with proteinuria

Objective To clarify the role played by endothelial cell production of fibrinolytic factors in normal pregnancy and pre- eclampsia. Design A longitudinal study performed during normal pregnancy and a cross sectional study performed in healthy and pre-eclamptic pregnant women in the third trimester of pregnancy. Setting Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University Hospital of S.Jodo, Porto, Portugal. Population Fourteen normal pregnant women followed through the three trimesters of gestation. Two groups of women (normal, n = 56; pre-eclamptic, n = 37) evaluated at the third trimester of gestation. Methods Measurement of platelet number, plasma levels of fibrinogen, tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) antigen, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) activity, and fibrin fragment D-dimer. Main outcome measures Pre- eclampsia, proteinuria. Results All the substances, except platelet count, increased significantly throughout normal pregnancy. Comparison of the values in the third trimesters of normal and pre-eclamptic pregnancies showed similar values for the fibrinogen and platelet counts, and higher values of t-PA (almost twice normal median value; P lt 0.0001), PAI-1 and D- dimer in the pre-eclamptic women. t-PA cot-related positively and significantly with the degree of proteinuria in pre- eclamptic women (r = 0.575, P = 0.0002). Conclusion These findings suggest that elevated t-PA antigen may reflect endothelial disturbance in pre-eclampsia, and may be a potential biomarker of risk

Probabilistic modelling of chromatin code landscape reveals functional diversity of enhancer-like chromatin states

Interpreting the functional state of chromatin from the combinatorial binding patterns of chromatin factors, that is, the chromatin codes, is crucial for decoding the epigenetic state of the cell. Here we present a systematic map of Drosophila chromatin states derived from data-driven probabilistic modelling of dependencies between chromatin factors. Our model not only recapitulates enhancer-like chromatin states as indicated by widely used enhancer marks but also divides these states into three functionally distinct groups, of which only one specific group possesses active enhancer activity. Moreover, we discover a strong association between one specific enhancer state and RNA Polymerase II pausing, linking transcription regulatory potential and chromatin organization. We also observe that with the exception of long-intron genes, chromatin state transition positions in transcriptionally active genes align with an absolute distance to their corresponding transcription start site, regardless of gene length. Using our method, we provide a resource that helps elucidate the functional and spatial organization of the chromatin code landscape