Digit ratio (2D:4D) and prosocial behavior in economic games: No direct correlation with generosity, bargaining, or trust-related behaviors

Prenatal exposure to sex hormones exerts organizational effects on the brain which have observable behavioural correlates in adult life. There are reasons to expect that social behaviours—fundamental for the evolutionary success of humans—might be related to biological factors such as prenatal sex hormone exposure. Nevertheless, the existing literature is inconclusive as to whether and how prenatal exposure to testosterone and oestrogen, proxied by the second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D : 4D), may predict non-selfish behaviour. Here, we investigate this question using economic experiments with real monetary stakes and analyse five different dimensions of social behaviour in a comparatively large sample of Caucasian participants (n = 560). For both males and females, our results show no robust association between right- or left-hand 2D : 4D and generosity, bargaining or trust-related behaviours. Moreover, no differences in behaviour were found according to sex. We conclude that there is no direct correlation between 2D : 4D and these social behaviours

Lack of detectable genetic isolation in the cyclic rodent Microtus arvalis despite large landscape fragmentation owing to transportation infrastructures

Abstract Although roads are widely seen as dispersal barriers, their genetic consequences for animals that experience large fluctuations in population density are poorly documented. We developed a spatially paired experimental design to assess the genetic impacts of roads on cyclic voles (Microtus arvalis) during a high-density phase in North-Western Spain. We compared genetic patterns from 15 paired plots bisected by three different barrier types, using linear mixed models and computing effect sizes to assess the importance of each type, and the influence of road features like width or the age of the infrastructure. Evidence of effects by roads on genetic diversity and differentiation were lacking. We speculate that the recurrent (each 3–5 generations) episodes of massive dispersal associated with population density peaks can homogenize populations and mitigate the possible genetic impact of landscape fragmentation by roads. This study highlights the importance of developing spatially replicated experimental designs that allow us to consider the large natural spatial variation in genetic parameters. More generally, these results contribute to our understanding of the not well explored effects of habitat fragmentation on dispersal in species showing “boom-bust” dynamics

Formalization of gene regulation knowledge using ontologies and gene ontology causal activity models

Gene regulation computational research requires handling and integrating large amounts of heterogeneous data. The Gene Ontology has demonstrated that ontologies play a fundamental role in biological data interoperability and integration. Ontologies help to express data and knowledge in a machine processable way, which enables complex querying and advanced exploitation of distributed data. Contributing to improve data interoperability in gene regulation is a major objective of the GREEKC Consortium, which aims to develop a standardized gene regulation knowledge commons. GREEKC proposes the use of ontologies and semantic tools for developing interoperable gene regulation knowledge models, which should support data annotation. In this work, we study how such knowledge models can be generated from cartoons of gene regulation scenarios. The proposed method consists of generating descriptions in natural language of the cartoons; extracting the entities from the texts; finding those entities in existing ontologies to reuse as much content as possible, especially from well known and maintained ontologies such as the Gene Ontology, the Sequence Ontology, the Relations Ontology and ChEBI; and implementation of the knowledge models. The models have been implemented using Protégé, a general ontology editor, and Noctua, the tool developed by the Gene Ontology Consortium for the development of causal activity models to capture more comprehensive annotations of genes and link their activities in a causal framework for Gene Ontology Annotations. We applied the method to two gene regulation scenarios and illustrate how to apply the models generated to support the annotation of data from research articles

Chryseobacterium indologenes infection in a newborn: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p><it>Chryseobacterium indologenes </it>is an uncommon human pathogen. Most infections have been detected in hospitalized patients with severe underlying diseases who had indwelling devices implanted. Infection caused by <it>C. indologenes </it>in a newborn has not been previously reported.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We present a case of ventilator-associated pneumonia caused by <it>C. indologenes </it>in a full-term Caucasian newborn baby boy with congenital heart disease who was successfully treated with piperacillin-tazobactam.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p><it>C. indologenes </it>should be considered as a potential pathogen in newborns in the presence of invasive equipment or treatment with long-term broad-spectrum antibiotics. Appropriate choice of effective antimicrobial agents for treatment is difficult because of the unpredictability and breadth of antimicrobial resistance of these organisms, which often involves resistance to many of the antibiotics chosen empirically for serious Gram-negative infections.</p

INT reduction is a valid proxy for eukaryotic plankton respiration despite the inherent toxicity of INT and differences in cell wall structure

The reduction of 2-para (iodophenyl)-3(nitrophenyl)-5(phenyl) tetrazolium chloride (INT) is increasingly being used as an indirect method to measure plankton respiration. Its greater sensitivity and shorter incubation time compared to the standard method of measuring the decrease in dissolved oxygen concentration, allows the determination of total and size-fractionated plankton respiration with higher precision and temporal resolution. However, there are still concerns as to the method’s applicability due to the toxicity of INT and the potential differential effect of plankton cell wall composition on the diffusion of INT into the cell, and therefore on the rate of INT reduction. Working with cultures of 5 marine plankton (Thalassiosira pseudonana CCMP1080/5, Emiliania huxleyi RCC1217, Pleurochrysis carterae PLY-406, Scrippsiella sp. RCC1720 and Oxyrrhis marina CCMP1133/5) which have different cell wall compositions (silica frustule, presence/absence of calcite and cellulose plates), we demonstrate that INT does not have a toxic effect on oxygen consumption at short incubation times. There was no difference in the oxygen consumption of a culture to which INT had been added and that of a replicate culture without INT, for periods of time ranging from 1 to 7 hours. For four of the cultures (T. pseudonana CCMP1080/5, P. carterae PLY-406, E. huxleyi RCC1217, and O. marina CCMP1133/5) the log of the rates of dissolved oxygen consumption were linearly related to the log of the rates of INT reduction, and there was no significant difference between the regression lines for each culture (ANCOVA test, F = 1.696, df = 3, p = 0.18). Thus, INT reduction is not affected by the structure of the plankton cell wall and a single INT reduction to oxygen consumption conversion equation is appropriate for this range of eukaryotic plankton. These results further support the use of the INT technique as a valid proxy for marine plankton respiration

Cognitive and behavioral predictors of light therapy use

Objective: Although light therapy is effective in the treatment of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and other mood disorders, only 53-79% of individuals with SAD meet remission criteria after light therapy. Perhaps more importantly, only 12-41% of individuals with SAD continue to use the treatment even after a previous winter of successful treatment. Method: Participants completed surveys regarding (1) social, cognitive, and behavioral variables used to evaluate treatment adherence for other health-related issues, expectations and credibility of light therapy, (2) a depression symptoms scale, and (3) self-reported light therapy use. Results: Individuals age 18 or older responded (n = 40), all reporting having been diagnosed with a mood disorder for which light therapy is indicated. Social support and self-efficacy scores were predictive of light therapy use (p's<.05). Conclusion: The findings suggest that testing social support and self-efficacy in a diagnosed patient population may identify factors related to the decision to use light therapy. Treatments that impact social support and self-efficacy may improve treatment response to light therapy in SAD. © 2012 Roecklein et al

Evolutionary and pulsational properties of white dwarf stars

Abridged. White dwarf stars are the final evolutionary stage of the vast majority of stars, including our Sun. The study of white dwarfs has potential applications to different fields of astrophysics. In particular, they can be used as independent reliable cosmic clocks, and can also provide valuable information about the fundamental parameters of a wide variety of stellar populations, like our Galaxy and open and globular clusters. In addition, the high densities and temperatures characterizing white dwarfs allow to use these stars as cosmic laboratories for studying physical processes under extreme conditions that cannot be achieved in terrestrial laboratories. They can be used to constrain fundamental properties of elementary particles such as axions and neutrinos, and to study problems related to the variation of fundamental constants. In this work, we review the essentials of the physics of white dwarf stars. Special emphasis is placed on the physical processes that lead to the formation of white dwarfs as well as on the different energy sources and processes responsible for chemical abundance changes that occur along their evolution. Moreover, in the course of their lives, white dwarfs cross different pulsational instability strips. The existence of these instability strips provides astronomers with an unique opportunity to peer into their internal structure that would otherwise remain hidden from observers. We will show that this allows to measure with unprecedented precision the stellar masses and to infer their envelope thicknesses, to probe the core chemical stratification, and to detect rotation rates and magnetic fields. Consequently, in this work, we also review the pulsational properties of white dwarfs and the most recent applications of white dwarf asteroseismology.Comment: 85 pages, 28 figures. To be published in The Astronomy and Astrophysics Revie

Photoswitchable diacylglycerols enable optical control of protein kinase C.

Increased levels of the second messenger lipid diacylglycerol (DAG) induce downstream signaling events including the translocation of C1-domain-containing proteins toward the plasma membrane. Here, we introduce three light-sensitive DAGs, termed PhoDAGs, which feature a photoswitchable acyl chain. The PhoDAGs are inactive in the dark and promote the translocation of proteins that feature C1 domains toward the plasma membrane upon a flash of UV-A light. This effect is quickly reversed after the termination of photostimulation or by irradiation with blue light, permitting the generation of oscillation patterns. Both protein kinase C and Munc13 can thus be put under optical control. PhoDAGs control vesicle release in excitable cells, such as mouse pancreatic islets and hippocampal neurons, and modulate synaptic transmission in Caenorhabditis elegans. As such, the PhoDAGs afford an unprecedented degree of spatiotemporal control and are broadly applicable tools to study DAG signaling

Maternal corticotropin-releasing hormone is associated with LEP DNA methylation at birth and in childhood: an epigenome-wide study in Project Viva

BackgroundCorticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) plays a central role in regulating the secretion of cortisol which controls a wide range of biological processes. Fetuses overexposed to cortisol have increased risks of disease in later life. DNA methylation may be the underlying association between prenatal cortisol exposure and health effects. We investigated associations between maternal CRH levels and epigenome-wide DNA methylation of cord blood in offsprings and evaluated whether these associations persisted into mid-childhood.MethodsWe investigated mother-child pairs enrolled in the prospective Project Viva pre-birth cohort. We measured DNA methylation in 257 umbilical cord blood samples using the HumanMethylation450 Bead Chip. We tested associations of maternal CRH concentration with cord blood cells DNA methylation, adjusting the model for maternal age at enrollment, education, maternal race/ethnicity, maternal smoking status, pre-pregnancy body mass index, parity, gestational age at delivery, child sex, and cell-type composition in cord blood. We further examined the persistence of associations between maternal CRH levels and DNA methylation in children's blood cells collected at mid-childhood (n = 239, age: 6.7-10.3 years) additionally adjusting for the children's age at blood drawn.ResultsMaternal CRH levels are associated with DNA methylation variability in cord blood cells at 96 individual CpG sites (False Discovery Rate &lt;0.05). Among the 96 CpG sites, we identified 3 CpGs located near the LEP gene. Regional analyses confirmed the association between maternal CRH and DNA methylation near LEP. Moreover, higher maternal CRH levels were associated with higher blood-cell DNA methylation of the promoter region of LEP in mid-childhood (P &lt; 0.05, β = 0.64, SE = 0.30).ConclusionIn our cohort, maternal CRH was associated with DNA methylation levels in newborns at multiple loci, notably in the LEP gene promoter. The association between maternal CRH and LEP DNA methylation levels persisted into mid-childhood