Reader responses to literary depictions of rape

This study explored reader responses to different literary depictions of rape. Four literary excerpts were used and divided as aesthetic versus nonaesthetic (style) and allusive versus explicit (detail). The general question was how readers would react to literary fragments depicting rape and whether the level of aesthetics and the level of explicitness influenced readers' thoughts and feelings. An open-ended question asked readers to report how the style had influenced their thoughts and feelings, whereas 7-point scales addressed the following variables: experienced distance, perceptions of realism and of beauty, emotional versus intellectual reaction, empathy, tension, and arousal. In a 2 (detail: explicit vs. allusive) × 2 (style: aesthetic vs. nonaesthetic) within-participant design (N = 34), gender functioned as a between-participants variable. Results indicate that the personal tendency to feel engaged with fiction overrides effects of aesthetics and explicitness. Principal-components factor analysis suggests that readers who are easily engaged with the characters feel unsettled when reading rape scenes they find brutal and intellectualize to handle these feelings. These “high empathizers” are not likely to be detached or to appreciate the fragment negatively: once absorbed, they will try to take something positive even from an unsettling experience

Metabolic reprogramming and membrane glycan remodeling as potential drivers of zebrafish heart regeneration

The ability of the zebrafish heart to regenerate following injury makes it a valuable model to deduce why this capability in mammals is limited to early neonatal stages. Although metabolic reprogramming and glycosylation remodeling have emerged as key aspects in many biological processes, how they may trigger a cardiac regenerative response in zebrafish is still a crucial question. Here, by using an up-to-date panel of transcriptomic, proteomic and glycomic approaches, we identify a metabolic switch from mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation to glycolysis associated with membrane glycosylation remodeling during heart regeneration. Importantly, we establish the N- and O-linked glycan structural repertoire of the regenerating zebrafish heart, and link alterations in both sialylation and high mannose structures across the phases of regeneration. Our results show that metabolic reprogramming and glycan structural remodeling are potential drivers of tissue regeneration after cardiac injury, providing the biological rationale to develop novel therapeutics to elicit heart regeneration in mammals

SPARK: A US Cohort of 50,000 Families to Accelerate Autism Research

The Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI) has launched SPARKForAutism. org, a dynamic platform that is engaging thousands of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and connecting them to researchers. By making all data accessible, SPARK seeks to increase our understanding of ASD and accelerate new supports and treatments for ASD