316 research outputs found
Lending a hand: Social regulation of the neural response to threat
ABSTRACT-Social contact promotes enhanced health and well-being, likely as a function of the social regulation of emotional responding in the face of various life stressors. For this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, 16 married women were subjected to the threat of electric shock while holding their husband's hand, the hand of an anonymous male experimenter, or no hand at all. Results indicated a pervasive attenuation of activation in the neural systems supporting emotional and behavioral threat responses when the women held their husband's hand. A more limited attenuation of activation in these systems occurred when they held the hand of a stranger. Most strikingly, the effects of spousal hand-holding on neural threat responses varied as a function of marital quality, with higher marital quality predicting less threatrelated neural activation in the right anterior insula, superior frontal gyrus, and hypothalamus during spousal, but not stranger, hand-holding
Sugarcoated isolation: Evidence that social avoidance is linked to higher basal glucose levels and higher consumption of glucose
Objective: The human brain adjusts its level of effort in coping with various life stressors as a partial function of perceived access to social resources. We examined whether people who avoid social ties maintain a higher fasting basal level of glucose in their bloodstream, reflecting a strategy to draw more on personal resources when threatened.Methods: For Study 1, we obtained fasting blood glucose and adult attachment orientations data from 60 undergraduate women at the University of Virginia. For Study 2, we collected measures of fasting blood glucose, self-reported trait anxiety, DHEA-cortisol, hypertension, and adult attachment orientations from 285 older adults of mixed gender, using a measure of attachment style different from study 1.Results: In study 1, fasting blood glucose levels corresponded with higher attachment avoidance scores after statistically adjusting for interpersonal anxiety. For study 2, fasting blood glucose continued to correspond with higher adult attachment avoidance even after statistically adjusting for interpersonal anxiety, trait anxiety, DHEA-cortisol and hypertension. Conclusions: Results suggest socially avoidant individuals upwardly adjust their basal glucose levels with the expectation of increased personal effort because of limited access to social resources
Soothing the Threatened Brain: Leveraging Contact Comfort with Emotionally Focused Therapy
Social relationships are tightly linked to health and well-being. Recent work suggests that social relationships can even serve vital emotion regulation functions by minimizing threat-related neural activity. But relationship distress remains a significant public health problem in North America and elsewhere. A promising approach to helping couples both resolve relationship distress and nurture effective interpersonal functioning is Emotionally Focused Therapy for couples (EFT), a manualized, empirically supported therapy that is strongly focused on repairing adult attachment bonds. We sought to examine a neural index of social emotion regulation as a potential mediator of the effects of EFT. Specifically, we examined the effectiveness of EFT for modifying the social regulation of neural threat responding using an fMRI-based handholding procedure. Results suggest that EFT altered the brain\u27s representation of threat cues in the presence of a romantic partner. EFT-related changes during stranger handholding were also observed, but stranger effects were dependent upon self-reported relationship quality. EFT also appeared to increase threat-related brain activity in regions associated with self-regulation during the no-handholding condition. These findings provide a critical window into the regulatory mechanisms of close relationships in general and EFT in particular
Measuring the Weak Phase gamma in Color Allowed B->DKpi Decays
We present a method to measure the weak phase gamma in the three-body decay
of charged B mesons to the final states D K pi0. These decays are mediated by
interfering amplitudes which are color-allowed and hence relatively large. As a
result, large CP violation effects that could be observed with high statistical
significance are possible. In addition, the three-body decay helps resolve
discrete ambiguities that are usually present in measurements of the weak
phase. The experimental implications of conducting these measurements with
three-body decays are discussed, and the sensitivity of the method is evaluated
using a simulation.Comment: 18 pages, LaTex, 15 eps and ps figure
Measurement of the Strong Coupling Constant from Inclusive Jet Production at the Tevatron Collider
We report a measurement of the strong coupling constant, ,
extracted from inclusive jet production in collisions at
1800 GeV. The QCD prediction for the evolution of with
jet transverse energy is tested over the range 40<<450 GeV using
for the renormalization scale. The data show good agreement with QCD in
the region below 250 GeV. In the text we discuss the data-theory comparison in
the region from 250 to 450 GeV. The value of at the mass of the
boson averaged over the range 40<<250 GeV is found to be
. The associated theoretical uncertainties are mainly due to the choice
of renormalization scale (^{+6%}_{-4%}) and input parton distribution
functions (5%).Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, using RevTeX. Submitted to Physical Review
Letter
Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) and Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) Conceptual Design Report Volume 2: The Physics Program for DUNE at LBNF
The Physics Program for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) at
the Fermilab Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) is described
Hydrophobicity and Charge Shape Cellular Metabolite Concentrations
What governs the concentrations of metabolites within living cells? Beyond specific metabolic and enzymatic considerations, are there global trends that affect their values? We hypothesize that the physico-chemical properties of metabolites considerably affect their in-vivo concentrations. The recently achieved experimental capability to measure the concentrations of many metabolites simultaneously has made the testing of this hypothesis possible. Here, we analyze such recently available data sets of metabolite concentrations within E. coli, S. cerevisiae, B. subtilis and human. Overall, these data sets encompass more than twenty conditions, each containing dozens (28-108) of simultaneously measured metabolites. We test for correlations with various physico-chemical properties and find that the number of charged atoms, non-polar surface area, lipophilicity and solubility consistently correlate with concentration. In most data sets, a change in one of these properties elicits a ∼100 fold increase in metabolite concentrations. We find that the non-polar surface area and number of charged atoms account for almost half of the variation in concentrations in the most reliable and comprehensive data set. Analyzing specific groups of metabolites, such as amino-acids or phosphorylated nucleotides, reveals even a higher dependence of concentration on hydrophobicity. We suggest that these findings can be explained by evolutionary constraints imposed on metabolite concentrations and discuss possible selective pressures that can account for them. These include the reduction of solute leakage through the lipid membrane, avoidance of deleterious aggregates and reduction of non-specific hydrophobic binding. By highlighting the global constraints imposed on metabolic pathways, future research could shed light onto aspects of biochemical evolution and the chemical constraints that bound metabolic engineering efforts
The Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment: Exploring Fundamental Symmetries of the Universe
The preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early Universe, the
dynamics of the supernova bursts that produced the heavy elements necessary for
life and whether protons eventually decay --- these mysteries at the forefront
of particle physics and astrophysics are key to understanding the early
evolution of our Universe, its current state and its eventual fate. The
Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) represents an extensively developed
plan for a world-class experiment dedicated to addressing these questions. LBNE
is conceived around three central components: (1) a new, high-intensity
neutrino source generated from a megawatt-class proton accelerator at Fermi
National Accelerator Laboratory, (2) a near neutrino detector just downstream
of the source, and (3) a massive liquid argon time-projection chamber deployed
as a far detector deep underground at the Sanford Underground Research
Facility. This facility, located at the site of the former Homestake Mine in
Lead, South Dakota, is approximately 1,300 km from the neutrino source at
Fermilab -- a distance (baseline) that delivers optimal sensitivity to neutrino
charge-parity symmetry violation and mass ordering effects. This ambitious yet
cost-effective design incorporates scalability and flexibility and can
accommodate a variety of upgrades and contributions. With its exceptional
combination of experimental configuration, technical capabilities, and
potential for transformative discoveries, LBNE promises to be a vital facility
for the field of particle physics worldwide, providing physicists from around
the globe with opportunities to collaborate in a twenty to thirty year program
of exciting science. In this document we provide a comprehensive overview of
LBNE's scientific objectives, its place in the landscape of neutrino physics
worldwide, the technologies it will incorporate and the capabilities it will
possess.Comment: Major update of previous version. This is the reference document for
LBNE science program and current status. Chapters 1, 3, and 9 provide a
comprehensive overview of LBNE's scientific objectives, its place in the
landscape of neutrino physics worldwide, the technologies it will incorporate
and the capabilities it will possess. 288 pages, 116 figure
A Pilot Study of IL-2Rα Blockade during Lymphopenia Depletes Regulatory T-cells and Correlates with Enhanced Immunity in Patients with Glioblastoma
Preclinical studies in mice have demonstrated that the prophylactic depletion of immunosuppressive regulatory T-cells (T(Regs)) through targeting the high affinity interleukin-2 (IL-2) receptor (IL-2Rα/CD25) can enhance anti-tumor immunotherapy. However, therapeutic approaches are complicated by the inadvertent inhibition of IL-2Rα expressing anti-tumor effector T-cells.To determine if changes in the cytokine milieu during lymphopenia may engender differential signaling requirements that would enable unarmed anti-IL-2Rα monoclonal antibody (MAbs) to selectively deplete T(Regs) while permitting vaccine-stimulated immune responses.A randomized placebo-controlled pilot study was undertaken to examine the ability of the anti-IL-2Rα MAb daclizumab, given at the time of epidermal growth factor receptor variant III (EGFRvIII) targeted peptide vaccination, to safely and selectively deplete T(Regs) in patients with glioblastoma (GBM) treated with lymphodepleting temozolomide (TMZ).Daclizumab treatment (n = 3) was well-tolerated with no symptoms of autoimmune toxicity and resulted in a significant reduction in the frequency of circulating CD4+Foxp3+ TRegs in comparison to saline controls (n = 3)( p = 0.0464). A significant (p<0.0001) inverse correlation between the frequency of TRegs and the level of EGFRvIII specific humoral responses suggests the depletion of TRegs may be linked to increased vaccine-stimulated humoral immunity. These data suggest this approach deserves further study.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00626015
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