Beyond Rational Information Security Decisions: An Alternate View

Extant work has examined users’ security behavior in both individual and organizational contexts by mainly applying theories that assume users’ rationality. While this has enhanced our understanding of the conscious factors that underlie security behaviors, the assumption of conscious rationality bounds the theoretical lens. Addressing this limitation would facilitate expanding the knowledge ecology in the information security literature. Information security studies have started to recognize this assumption. To evaluate this milieu of disparate approaches, we conduct a preliminary literature review and identify several nonconscious factors that may shape security behaviors. In this ERF paper, we discuss herd behavior, cognitive biases, automatic cognition (also termed system 1 thinking), affect, risk homeostasis, and framing effects perception. We discuss future plans to develop a research framework that integrates the alternate nonconscious factors that may underlie security behavior, thereby providing a comprehensive alternate approach to studying behavioral information security

Zebrafish Behavioral Profiling Links Drugs to Biological Targets and Rest/Wake Regulation

A major obstacle for the discovery of psychoactive drugs is the inability to predict how small molecules will alter complex behaviors. We report the development and application of a high-throughput, quantitative screen for drugs that alter the behavior of larval zebrafish. We found that the multidimensional nature of observed phenotypes enabled the hierarchical clustering of molecules according to shared behaviors. Behavioral profiling revealed conserved functions of psychotropic molecules and predicted the mechanisms of action of poorly characterized compounds. In addition, behavioral profiling implicated new factors such as ether-a-go-go–related gene (ERG) potassium channels and immunomodulators in the control of rest and locomotor activity. These results demonstrate the power of high-throughput behavioral profiling in zebrafish to discover and characterize psychotropic drugs and to dissect the pharmacology of complex behaviors

Transcription factor YY1 is essential for regulation of the Th2 cytokine locus and for Th2 cell differentiation

The Th2 locus control region (LCR) has been shown to be important in efficient and coordinated cytokine gene regulation during Th2 cell differentiation. However, the molecular mechanism for this is poorly understood. To study the molecular mechanism of the Th2 LCR, we searched for proteins binding to it. We discovered that transcription factor YY1 bound to the LCR and the entire Th2 cytokine locus in a Th2-specific manner. Retroviral overexpression of YY1 induced Th2 cytokine expression. CD4-specific knockdown of YY1 in mice caused marked reduction in Th2 cytokine expression, repressed chromatin remodeling, decreased intrachromosomal interactions, and resistance in an animal model of asthma. YY1 physically associated with GATA-binding protein-3 (GATA3) and is required for GATA3 binding to the locus. YY1 bound to the regulatory elements in the locus before GATA3 binding. Thus, YY1 cooperates with GATA3 and is required for regulation of the Th2 cytokine locus and Th2 cell differentiation

Dynamics of embryonic stem cell differentiation inferred from single-cell transcriptomics show a series of transitions through discrete cell states

The complexity of gene regulatory networks that lead multipotent cells to acquire different cell fates makes a quantitative understanding of differentiation challenging. Using a statistical framework to analyze single-cell transcriptomics data, we infer the gene expression dynamics of early mouse embryonic stem (mES) cell differentiation, uncovering discrete transitions across nine cell states. We validate the predicted transitions across discrete states using flow cytometry. Moreover, using live-cell microscopy, we show that individual cells undergo abrupt transitions from a naïve to primed pluripotent state. Using the inferred discrete cell states to build a probabilistic model for the underlying gene regulatory network, we further predict and experimentally verify that these states have unique response to perturbations, thus defining them functionally. Our study provides a framework to infer the dynamics of differentiation from single cell transcriptomics data and to build predictive models of the gene regulatory networks that drive the sequence of cell fate decisions during development. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.20487.00

25th annual computational neuroscience meeting: CNS-2016

The same neuron may play different functional roles in the neural circuits to which it belongs. For example, neurons in the Tritonia pedal ganglia may participate in variable phases of the swim motor rhythms [1]. While such neuronal functional variability is likely to play a major role the delivery of the functionality of neural systems, it is difficult to study it in most nervous systems. We work on the pyloric rhythm network of the crustacean stomatogastric ganglion (STG) [2]. Typically network models of the STG treat neurons of the same functional type as a single model neuron (e.g. PD neurons), assuming the same conductance parameters for these neurons and implying their synchronous firing [3, 4]. However, simultaneous recording of PD neurons shows differences between the timings of spikes of these neurons. This may indicate functional variability of these neurons. Here we modelled separately the two PD neurons of the STG in a multi-neuron model of the pyloric network. Our neuron models comply with known correlations between conductance parameters of ionic currents. Our results reproduce the experimental finding of increasing spike time distance between spikes originating from the two model PD neurons during their synchronised burst phase. The PD neuron with the larger calcium conductance generates its spikes before the other PD neuron. Larger potassium conductance values in the follower neuron imply longer delays between spikes, see Fig. 17.Neuromodulators change the conductance parameters of neurons and maintain the ratios of these parameters [5]. Our results show that such changes may shift the individual contribution of two PD neurons to the PD-phase of the pyloric rhythm altering their functionality within this rhythm. Our work paves the way towards an accessible experimental and computational framework for the analysis of the mechanisms and impact of functional variability of neurons within the neural circuits to which they belong

3D Electrodes for Bioelectronics

In recent studies related to bioelectronics, significant efforts have been made to form 3D electrodes to increase the effective surface area or to optimize the transfer of signals at tissue-electrode interfaces. Although bioelectronic devices with 2D and flat electrode structures have been used extensively for monitoring biological signals, these 2D planar electrodes have made it difficult to form biocompatible and uniform interfaces with nonplanar and soft biological systems (at the cellular or tissue levels). Especially, recent biomedical applications have been expanding rapidly toward 3D organoids and the deep tissues of living animals, and 3D bioelectrodes are getting significant attention because they can reach the deep regions of various 3D tissues. An overview of recent studies on 3D bioelectronic devices, such as the use of electrical stimulations and the recording of neural signals from biological subjects, is presented. Subsequently, the recent developments in materials and fabrication processing to 3D micro- and nanostructures are introduced, followed by broad applications of these 3D bioelectronic devices at various in vitro and in vivo conditions.11Nsciescopu

<i>Poseidonibacter ostreae</i> sp. nov., Isolated from the Gut of <i>Ostrea</i> from the Seomjin River

Three Gram-negative strains, SJOD-M-6T, SJOD-M-5, and SJOD-M-33, were isolated from Ostrea denselamellosa. These strains are oxidase- and catalase-positive coccoids that thrive aerobically. The three strains shared 100.0% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity and showed average nucleotide identity (ANI) and digital DNA–DNA hybridization (dDDH) values of 99.7–99.8% and 93.8–96.8%, suggesting that they belonged to the same species. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene revealed that all three isolates belong to the genus Poseidonibacter. Their closest neighbors were Poseidonibacter parvus LPB0137T (98.8%), Poseidonibacter antarcticus SM1702T (98.7%), and Poseidonibacter lekithochrous LFT 1.7T (95.5%). However, the ANI and dDDH values between SJOD-M-6T (the representative strain of the novel species) and its closest phylogenetic relatives fell well below the established cut-off values of T, SJOD-M-5, and SJOD-M-33 are classified as novel species within the genus Poseidonibacter. We propose the name Poseidonibacter ostreae sp. nov. for this novel species, with the type strain being SJOD-M-6T (=KCTC 72758T = NBRC 114334T = FBCC-B685)