Correlates of Cooperation in a One-Shot High-Stakes Televised Prisoners' Dilemma

Explaining cooperation between non-relatives is a puzzle for both evolutionary biology and the social sciences. In humans, cooperation is often studied in a laboratory setting using economic games such as the prisoners' dilemma. However, such experiments are sometimes criticized for being played for low stakes and by misrepresentative student samples. Golden balls is a televised game show that uses the prisoners' dilemma, with a diverse range of participants, often playing for very large stakes. We use this non-experimental dataset to investigate the factors that influence cooperation when “playing” for considerably larger stakes than found in economic experiments. The game show has earlier stages that allow for an analysis of lying and voting decisions. We found that contestants were sensitive to the stakes involved, cooperating less when the stakes were larger in both absolute and relative terms. We also found that older contestants were more likely to cooperate, that liars received less cooperative behavior, but only if they told a certain type of lie, and that physical contact was associated with reduced cooperation, whereas laughter and promises were reliable signals or cues of cooperation, but were not necessarily detected

The cytochrome bc1 complex inhibitor Ametoctradin has an unusual binding mode

Ametoctradin is an agricultural fungicide that selectively inhibits the cytochrome bc1 complex of oomycetes. Previous spectrophotometric studies using the purified cytochrome bc1 complex from Pythium sp. showed that Ametoctradin binds to the Qo-site of the enzyme. However, as modeling studies suggested a binding mode like that of the substrate ubiquinol, the possibility for a dual Qo- and Qi-site binding mode was left open. In this work, binding studies and enzyme assays with mitochondrial membrane preparations from Pythium sp. and an S. cerevisiae strain with a modified Qi-site were used to investigate further the binding mode of Ametoctradin. The results obtained argue that the compound could bind to both the Qo- and Qi-sites of the cytochrome bc1 complex and that its position or binding pose in the Qi-site differs from that of Cyazofamid and Amisulbrom, the two Qi-site-targeting, anti-oomycetes compounds. Furthermore, the data support the argument that Ametoctradin prefers binding to the reduced cytochrome bc1 complex. Thus, Ametoctradin has an unusual binding mode and further studies with this compound may offer the opportunity to better understand the catalytic cycle of the cytochrome bc1 complex

Differential associations between patterns of child maltreatment and comorbidity in adult depressed patients

BACKGROUND: Types of maltreatment often co-occur and it is unclear how maltreatment patterns impact on comorbidity in depressed patients. METHODS: We analysed associations of maltreatment patterns with a broad range of comorbidities assessed with diagnostic interviews in 311 treatment-seeking depressed outpatients. RESULTS: Latent class analyses identified a "no maltreatment class" (39%), a "mild to moderate abuse and neglect class" (34%), a "severe abuse and neglect class" (14%) and a "severe neglect class" (13%). We found a dose-response association for the first three classes with comorbid disorders, a general psychopathology factor and an interpersonal insecurity factor. Patients in the "severe abuse and neglect" class had increased odds ratios (OR) of suffering from an anxiety disorder (OR 3.58), PTSD (OR 7.09), Borderline personality disorder (OR 7.97) and suicidality (OR 10.04) compared to those without child maltreatment. Patients in the "severe neglect" class did not have a higher risk for comorbidity than those in the "no maltreatment" class. LIMITATIONS: Class sizes in the "severe abuse and neglect" and the "severe neglect" classes were small and findings should be replicated with other clinical and population samples. CONCLUSIONS: A higher severity rather than the constellation of types of child abuse and neglect was associated with more comorbid disorders. An exception were patients reporting solely severe emotional and physical neglect who had a similar risk for comorbidity as patients without a history of child maltreatment. This may be associated with distinct learning experiences and may inform treatment decisions