Song complexity and stereotypy in the song sparrow {Melospiza melodia) as indicators of constitutive immune function

Indicator models of sexual selection predict that ornaments may reliably advertise male quality and in particular, viability. Songbird song is a well-studied ornament used by females to evaluate potential mates. In this thesis I examine the reliability of two different aspects of song, thought to develop over different timescales, in indicating immune function of breeding male song sparrows [Melospiza melodia). Immunity was assessed through multiple measures of constitutive innate immune function. Overall, I observed a pattern of constitutive immunity that suggests within- system trade-offs. Moreover, this pattern was associated with measures of song complexity. Male song sparrows with more complex song had significantly higher levels of circulating protective proteins (natural antibody, haptoglobin and lysozyme), but showed decreased levels and/or activity of peripheral blood cellular immunity. I observed no significant association between measures of song stereotypy and constitutive immune function. Ultimately, this study suggests that song complexity (although not song stereotypy) may be associated with individual variation in self-maintenance strategies, rather than a simple indicator of quality as originally hypothesize

Comprehensive Monosynaptic Rabies Virus Mapping of Host Connectivity with Neural Progenitor Grafts after Spinal Cord Injury.

Neural progenitor cells grafted to sites of spinal cord injury have supported electrophysiological and functional recovery in several studies. Mechanisms associated with graft-related improvements in outcome appear dependent on functional synaptic integration of graft and host systems, although the extent and diversity of synaptic integration of grafts with hosts are unknown. Using transgenic mouse spinal neural progenitor cell grafts expressing the TVA and G-protein components of the modified rabies virus system, we initiated monosynaptic tracing strictly from graft neurons placed in sites of cervical spinal cord injury. We find that graft neurons receive synaptic inputs from virtually every known host system that normally innervates the spinal cord, including numerous cortical, brainstem, spinal cord, and dorsal root ganglia inputs. Thus, implanted neural progenitor cells receive an extensive range of host neural inputs to the injury site, potentially enabling functional restoration across multiple systems

P-210: Beta-blockade with nebivolol enhances the acetylcholine-induced vasodilation in the cutaneaous vascular bed of normotensive volunteers

This study was undertaken to assess whether the beta1-adrenoceptor blocker nebivolol(N) increases the vasodilatory response to acetylcholine(Ach) when administered orally to healthy subjects. To this end 12 volunteers were randomly allocated to a 8-day treatment with nebivolol (n), 5 mg once a day, and atenolol(A),50 mg once a day, according to a cross-over design, with a 1 week wash-out period between the two treatment phases. The forearm skin blood flow(SBF) response to Ach applied by iontophoresis was determined using a laser-Doppler scanner imaging system before(T0) and 3 hours(T3) after N or A dosing, both on the first (Day 1) and the last day (Day 8) of treatment. The following Table shows the responses of SBF (perfusion units) (means±SD; *p<0.05 versus T0): Day 1 Day 8 T0 T3 T0 T3 Nebivolol 98±93 441±109* 393±110 426±105* Atenolol 396±97 410±99 380±109 394±98 Iontophoresis of 0.09% NaCl had no effect on SBF. These data indicate that nebivolol (administered at a dose commonly used in clinical practice), but not atenolol, enhances in humans the vasorelaxant activity of Ach in the skin vascular bed, which is compatible with a facilitation by this beta-blocker of the endothelium-dependent vasodilatio

ChatGPT Outperforms Crowd-Workers for Text-Annotation Tasks

Many NLP applications require manual data annotations for a variety of tasks, notably to train classifiers or evaluate the performance of unsupervised models. Depending on the size and degree of complexity, the tasks may be conducted by crowd-workers on platforms such as MTurk as well as trained annotators, such as research assistants. Using a sample of 2,382 tweets, we demonstrate that ChatGPT outperforms crowd-workers for several annotation tasks, including relevance, stance, topics, and frames detection. Specifically, the zero-shot accuracy of ChatGPT exceeds that of crowd-workers for four out of five tasks, while ChatGPT's intercoder agreement exceeds that of both crowd-workers and trained annotators for all tasks. Moreover, the per-annotation cost of ChatGPT is less than $0.003 -- about twenty times cheaper than MTurk. These results show the potential of large language models to drastically increase the efficiency of text classification

ChatGPT outperforms crowd workers for text-annotation tasks

Many NLP applications require manual text annotations for a variety of tasks, notably to train classifiers or evaluate the performance of unsupervised models. Depending on the size and degree of complexity, the tasks may be conducted by crowd workers on platforms such as MTurk as well as trained annotators, such as research assistants. Using four samples of tweets and news articles (n = 6,183), we show that ChatGPT outperforms crowd workers for several annotation tasks, including relevance, stance, topics, and frame detection. Across the four datasets, the zero-shot accuracy of ChatGPT exceeds that of crowd workers by about 25 percentage points on average, while ChatGPT’s intercoder agreement exceeds that of both crowd workers and trained annotators for all tasks. Moreover, the per-annotation cost of ChatGPT is less than $0.003—about thirty times cheaper than MTurk. These results demonstrate the potential of large language models to drastically increase the efficiency of text classification

Drosophila Sex-Peptide Stimulates Female Innate Immune System after Mating via the Toll and Imd Pathways

SummaryInsect immune defense is mainly based on humoral factors like antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) that kill the pathogens directly [1] or on cellular processes involving phagocytosis and encapsulation by hemocytes [2]. In Drosophila, the Toll pathway (activated by fungi and gram-positive bacteria) and the Imd pathway (activated by gram-negative bacteria) lead to the synthesis of AMPs [3]. But AMP genes are also regulated without pathogenic challenge, e.g., by aging, circadian rhythms, and mating [4–8]. Here, we show that AMP genes are differentially expressed in mated females. Metchnikowin (Mtk) expression is strongly stimulated in the first 6 hr after mating. Sex-peptide (SP), a male seminal peptide transferred during copulation, is the major agent eliciting transcription of Mtk and of other AMP genes. Both pathways are needed for Mtk induction by SP. Furthermore, SP induces additional AMP genes via the Toll (Drosomycin) and the Imd (Diptericin) pathways. SP affects the Toll pathway at or upstream of the gene spätzle, the Imd pathway at or upstream of the gene imd. Mating may physically damage females and pathogens may be transferred [9]. Thus, endogenous stimulation of AMP transcription by SP at mating might be considered as a preventive step to encounter putative immunogenic attacks

P-101: Blunted vasodilatory responses in the cutaneous microcirculation of cigarette smokers

Background: To assess the vasodilatory response to acetylcholine (Ach, endothelium-dependent vasodilator) and Na nitroprusside (SNP, endothelium-independent vasodilator) in the skin microcirculation of habitual cigarette smokers. Methods: Male healthy habitual smokers taking no medication acting on the cardiovascular system were included. They were divided in younger (Group 1, n = 10, age: 18 to 35 years; mean = 7 pack-years) and older (Group 2, n = 10, age: 40 to 60 years; mean =30 pack-years). Younger (Group 3, n = 10) and older controls (Group 4, n = 10) consisted of age-matched non-smokers. On the day of the experiment the subjects of Groups 1 and 2 were asked to smoke at least 15 cigarettes starting in the morning. At 4 p.m. they had to smoke within 5 min a filter cigarette containing 1 mg nicotine. Subjects of Groups 3 and 4 had a sham-smoking session at 4 p.m. Ach, 1%, and SNP, 0.1%, were administered transcutaneously for 7 min on the volar face of the right forearm using iontophoresis. This was done 15 min and 40 min after the end of the smoking session for Ach and SNP, respectively. The skin blood flow responses were evaluated using a laser-Doppler flowmeter allowing to scan the surface of Ach and SNP application (circular area, 1 cm diameter). Results: The following Table shows the peak changes induced by Ach and SNP (perfusion units, means±SD): Younger Older Ach SNP Ach SNP Non-smokers 505±65 425±99 473±91 392±71 Smokers 466±102 416±59 302±50** 301±104* *p<0.05; **p<0.01, Smokers versus Non-smokers Conclusion: These data show that the vasodilatory response of the skin microvasculature is impaired in subjects having smoked cigarettes for many years. This abnormality involves both the Ach and the SNP responses, which implies a diminished relaxant capacity of vascular smooth muscle cells, even if an underlying endothelial dysfunction cannot be ruled ou

Simultaneous formation of ferrite nanocrystals and deposition of thin films via a microwave-assisted nonaqueous sol-gel process

Combination of the surfactant-free nonaqueous sol-gel approach with the microwave technique makes it possible to synthesize Fe3O4, CoFe2O4, MnFe2O4, and NiFe2O4 nanoparticles of about 5-6nm and with high crystallinity and good morphological uniformity. The synthesis involves the reaction of metal acetates or acetylacetonates as precursors with benzyl alcohol at 170°C under microwave irradiation of 12min. Immersion of glass substrates in the reaction solution results in the deposition of homogeneous metal ferrite films whose thickness can be adjusted through the precursor concentration. If preformed nickel nanoparticles are used as a type of curved substrate, the ferrite nanoparticles coat the seeds and form core-shell structures. These results extend the microwave-assisted nonaqueous sol-gel approach beyond the simple synthesis of nanoparticles to the preparation of thin films on flat or curved substrate

Social media and policy responses to the COVID‐19 pandemic in Switzerland

We study the role of social media in debates regarding two policy responses to COVID-19 in Switzerland: face-mask rules and contact-tracing apps. We use a dictionary classifier to categorize 612'177 tweets by parties, politicians, and the public as well as 441'458 articles published in 76 newspapers between February and August 2020. We distinguish between “problem” (COVID-19) and “solutions” (face masks and contact-tracing apps) and, using a vector autoregression approach, we analyze the relationship between their salience on social and traditional media, as well as among different groups on social media. We find that overall attention to COVID-19 was not driven by endogenous dynamics between the different actors. By contrast, the debate on face masks was led by the attentive public and by politicians, whereas parties and newspapers followed. The results illustrate how social media challenge the capacity of party and media elites to craft a consensus regarding the appropriateness of different measures as responses to a major crisis. Wir analysieren die Funktion sozialer Medien in Debatten über zwei politische Strategien zur Eindämmung von COVID-19 in der Schweiz: das Maskenpflicht und die Kontaktverfolgungs-App. Wir verwenden einen stichwortbasierten Klassifikationsalgorithmus, um 612177 Tweets von Parteien, Politiker:innen und der Öffentlichkeit sowie 441458 Artikel aus 76 Zeitungen zu kategorisieren, die von Februar bis August 2020 veröffentlicht wurden. Wir unterscheiden zwischen „Problem’“ (COVID-19) und „Lösungen“ (Maskenpflicht und Kontaktverfolgungs-App). Mittels eines Vektor-Autoregressions-Modelles analysieren wir die Wechselbeziehung zwischen der Prävalenz dieser Themen in sozialen und traditionellen Medien sowie zwischen verschiedenen Gruppen in den sozialen Medien. Wir zeigen, dass der Fokus auf COVID-19 nicht von endogenen Dynamiken zwischen den verschiedenen Akteuren angetrieben wurde. Vielmehr wurde die Debatte über Gesichtsmasken von der interessierten Öffentlichkeit und von Politiker:innen angeführt. Die Ergebnisse veranschaulichen, wie soziale Medien die Fähigkeit von Partei- und Medieneliten herausfordern, einen Konsens über die Angemessenheit verschiedener Massnahmen als Reaktion auf eine Krise zu schaffen