Neural differences in self-perception during illness and after weight-recovery in anorexia nervosa

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a severe mental illness characterized by problems with self-perception. Whole-brain neural activations in healthy women, women with AN and women in long-term weight recovery following AN were compared using two functional magnetic resonance imaging tasks probing different aspects of self-perception. The Social Identity-V2 task involved consideration about oneself and others using socially descriptive adjectives. Both the ill and weight-recovered women with AN engaged medial prefrontal cortex less than healthy women for self-relevant cognitions, a potential biological trait difference. Weight-recovered women also activated the inferior frontal gyri and dorsal anterior cingulate more for direct self-evaluations than for reflected self-evaluations, unlike both other groups, suggesting that recovery may include compensatory neural changes related to social perspectives. The Faces task compared viewing oneself to a stranger. Participants with AN showed elevated activity in the bilateral fusiform gyri for self-images, unlike the weight-recovered and healthy women, suggesting cognitive distortions about physical appearance are a state rather than trait problem in this disease. Because both ill and recovered women showed neural differences related to social self-perception, but only recovered women differed when considering social perspectives, these neurocognitive targets may be particularly important for treatment

Intracisternal administration of NR2 subunit antagonists attenuates the nociceptive behavior and p-p38 MAPK expression produced by compression of the trigeminal nerve root

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We investigated the role of the central NMDA receptor NR2 subunits in the modulation of nociceptive behavior and p-p38 MAPK expression in a rat model with compression of the trigeminal nerve root. To address this possibility, changes in air-puff thresholds and pin-prick scores were determined following an intracisternal administration of NR2 subunit antagonists. We also examined effects of NR2 subunit antagonists on the p-p38 MAPK expression.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Experiments were carried out using male Sprague-Dawley rats weighing (200-230 g). Compression of the trigeminal nerve root was performed under pentobarbital sodium (40 mg/kg) anesthesia. Compression of the trigeminal nerve root produced distinct nociceptive behavior such as mechanical allodynia and hyperalgesia. Intracisternal administration of 10 or 20 μg of D-AP5 significantly increased the air-puff threshold and decreased the pin-prick scores in a dose-dependent manner. The intracisternal administration of PPPA (1, 10 μg), or PPDA (5, 10 μg) increased the air-puff threshold and decreased the pin-prick scores ipsilateral as well as contralateral to the compression of the trigeminal root. Compression of the trigeminal nerve root upregulated the expression of p-p38 MAPK in the ipsilateral medullary dorsal horn which was diminished by D-AP5, PPPA, PPDA, but not Ro25-6981.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our findings suggest that central NMDA receptor NR2 subunits play an important role in the central processing of trigeminal neuralgia-like nociception in rats with compression of the trigeminal nerve root. Our data further indicate that the targeted blockade of NR2 subunits is a potentially important new treatments strategy for trigeminal neuralgia-like nociception.</p

Socially-mediated arousal and contagion within domestic chick broods

Emotional contagion – an underpinning valenced feature of empathy – is made up of simpler, potentially dissociable social processes which can include socially-mediated arousal and behavioural/physiological contagion. Previous studies of emotional contagion have often conflated these processes rather than examining their independent contribution to empathic response. We measured socially-mediated arousal and contagion in 9-week old domestic chicks (n = 19 broods), who were unrelated but raised together from hatching. Pairs of observer chicks were exposed to two conditions in a counterbalanced order: air puff to conspecifics (AP) (during which an air puff was applied to three conspecifics at 30 s intervals) and control with noise of air puff (C) (during which the air puff was directed away from the apparatus at 30 s intervals). Behaviour and surface eye temperature of subjects and observers were measured throughout a 10-min pre-treatment and 10-min treatment period. Subjects and observers responded to AP with increased freezing, and reduced preening and ground pecking. Subjects and observers also showed reduced surface eye temperature - indicative of stress-induced hyperthermia. Subject-Observer behaviour was highly correlated within broods during both C and AP conditions, but with higher overall synchrony during AP. We demonstrate the co-occurrence of socially-mediated behavioural and physiological arousal and contagion; component features of emotional contagion

Creation of multiple nanodots by single ions

In the challenging search for tools that are able to modify surfaces on the nanometer scale, heavy ions with energies of several 10 MeV are becoming more and more attractive. In contrast to slow ions where nuclear stopping is important and the energy is dissipated into a large volume in the crystal, in the high energy regime the stopping is due to electronic excitations only. Because of the extremely local (< 1 nm) energy deposition with densities of up to 10E19 W/cm^2, nanoscaled hillocks can be created under normal incidence. Usually, each nanodot is due to the impact of a single ion and the dots are randomly distributed. We demonstrate that multiple periodically spaced dots separated by a few 10 nanometers can be created by a single ion if the sample is irradiated under grazing angles of incidence. By varying this angle the number of dots can be controlled.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

The Burden of Selected Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases and Their Risk Factors in Malawi: Nationwide STEPS Survey

BACKGROUND: Chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are becoming significant causes of morbidity and mortality, particularly in sub-Saharan African countries, although local, high-quality data to inform evidence-based policies are lacking. OBJECTIVES: To determine the magnitude of NCDs and their risk factors in Malawi. METHODS: Using the WHO STEPwise approach to chronic disease risk factor surveillance, a population-based, nationwide cross-sectional survey was conducted between July and September 2009 on participants aged 25-64 years. Socio-demographic and behaviour risk factors were collected in Step 1. Physical anthropometric measurements and blood pressure were documented in Step 2. Blood cholesterol and fasting blood glucose were measured in Step 3. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: A total of 5,206 adults (67% females) were surveyed. Tobacco smoking, alcohol drinking and raised blood pressure (BP) were more frequent in males than females, 25% vs 3%, 30% vs 4% and 37% vs 29%. Overweight, physical inactivity and raised cholesterol were more common in females than males, 28% vs 16%, 13% vs 6% and 11% vs 6%. Tobacco smoking was more common in rural than urban areas 11% vs 7%, and overweight and physical inactivity more common in urban than rural areas 39% vs 22% and 24% vs 9%, all with p<0.05. Overall (both sexes) prevalence of tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, overweight and physical inactivity was 14%, 17%, 22%, 10% and prevalence of raised BP, fasting blood sugar and cholesterol was 33%, 6% and 9% respectively. These data could be useful in the formulation and advocacy of NCD policy and action plan in Malawi

An Antireflective Nanostructure Array Fabricated by Nanosilver Colloidal Lithography on a Silicon Substrate

An alternative method is presented for fabricating an antireflective nanostructure array using nanosilver colloidal lithography. Spin coating was used to produce the multilayered silver nanoparticles, which grew by self-assembly and were transformed into randomly distributed nanosilver islands through the thermodynamic action of dewetting and Oswald ripening. The average size and coverage rate of the islands increased with concentration in the range of 50–90 nm and 40–65%, respectively. The nanosilver islands were critically affected by concentration and spin speed. The effects of these two parameters were investigated, after etching and wet removal of nanosilver residues. The reflection nearly disappeared in the ultraviolet wavelength range and was 17% of the reflection of a bare silicon wafer in the visible range

No Evidence for Emotional Empathy in Chickens Observing Familiar Adult Conspecifics

The capacity of animals to empathise is of high potential relevance to the welfare of group-housed domestic animals. Emotional empathy is a multifaceted and multilayered phenomenon which ranges from relatively simple processes such as emotional matching behaviour to more complex processes involving interaction between emotional and cognitive perspective taking systems. Our previous research has demonstrated that hens show clear behavioural and physiological responses to the mild distress of their chicks. To investigate whether this capacity exists outside the mother/offspring bond, we conducted a similar experiment in which domestic hens were exposed to the mild distress of unrelated, but familiar adult conspecifics. Each observer hen was exposed to two replicates of four conditions, in counterbalanced order; control (C); control with noise of air puff (CN); air puff to conspecific hen (APC); air puff to observer hen (APH). During each test, the observer hens' behaviour and physiology were measured throughout a 10 min pre-treatment and a 10 min treatment period. Despite showing signs of distress in response to an aversive stimulus directed at themselves (APH), and using methodology sufficiently sensitive to detect empathy-like responses previously, observer hens showed no behavioural or physiological responses to the mild distress of a familiar adult conspecific. The lack of behavioural and physiological response indicates that hens show no basis for emotional empathy in this context

Gradient lithography of engineered proteins to fabricate 2D and 3D cell culture microenvironments

Spatial patterning of proteins is a valuable technique for many biological applications and is the prevailing tool for defining microenvironments for cells in culture, a required procedure in developmental biology and tissue engineering research. However, it is still challenging to achieve protein patterns that closely mimic native microenvironments, such as gradient protein distributions with desirable mechanical properties. By combining projection dynamic mask lithography and protein engineering with non-canonical photosensitive amino acids, we demonstrate a simple, scalable strategy to fabricate any user-defined 2D or 3D stable gradient pattern with complex geometries from an artificial extracellular matrix (aECM) protein. We show that the elastic modulus and chemical nature of the gradient profile are biocompatible and allow useful applications in cell biological research

The Healing Process of Intracorporeally and In Situ Devitalized Distal Femur by Microwave in a Dog Model and Its Mechanical Properties In Vitro

Background: Limb-salvage surgery has been well recognized as a standard treatment and alternative to amputation for patients with malignant bone tumors. Various limb-sparing techniques have been developed including tumor prosthesis, allograft, autograft and graft-prosthesis composite. However, each of these methods has short- and long-term disadvantages such as nonunion, mechanical failures and poor limb function. The technique of intracorporeal devitalization of tumor-bearing bone segment in situ by microwave-induced hyperthermia after separating it from surrounding normal tissues with a safe margin is a promising limb-salvage method, which may avoid some shortcomings encountered by the above-mentioned conventional techniques. The purpose of this study is to assess the healing process and revitalization potential of the devitalized bone segment by this method in a dog model. In addition, the immediate effect of microwave on the biomechanical properties of bone tissue was also explored in an in vitro experiment. Methods: We applied the microwave-induced hyperthermia to devitalize the distal femurs of dogs in situ. Using a monopole microwave antenna, we could produce a necrotic bone of nearly 20 mm in length in distal femur. Radiography, bone scintigraphy, microangiography, histology and functional evaluation were performed at 2 weeks and 1, 2, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months postoperatively to assess the healing process. In a biomechanical study, two kinds of bone specimens, 3 and 6 cm in length, were used for compression and three-point bending test respectively immediately after extracorporeall