Walk to me when I smile, step back when I’m angry: emotional faces modulate whole-body approach–avoidance behaviors

Facial expressions are potent social cues that can induce behavioral dispositions, such as approach–avoidance tendencies. We studied these tendencies by asking participants to make whole-body forward (approach) or backward (avoidance) steps on a force plate in response to the valence of social cues (happy or angry faces) under affect-congruent and incongruent mappings. Posturographic parameters of the steps related to automatic stimulus evaluation, step initiation (reaction time), and step execution were determined and analyzed as a function of stimulus valence and stimulus–response mapping. The main result was that participants needed more time to initiate a forward step towards an angry face than towards a smiling face (which is evidence of a congruency effect), but with backward steps, this difference failed to reach significance. We also found a reduction in spontaneous body sway prior to the step with the incongruent mapping. The results provide a crucial empirical link between theories of socially induced action tendencies and theories of postural control and suggest a motoric basis for socially guided motivated behavior

Enchytraeus albidus Microarray: Enrichment, Design, Annotation and Database (EnchyBASE)

Enchytraeus albidus (Oligochaeta) is an ecologically relevant species used as standard test organisms for risk assessment. Effects of stressors in this species are commonly determined at the population level using reproduction and survival as endpoints. The assessment of transcriptomic responses can be very useful e.g. to understand underlying mechanisms of toxicity with gene expression fingerprinting. In the present paper the following is being addressed: 1) development of suppressive subtractive hybridization (SSH) libraries enriched for differentially expressed genes after metal and pesticide exposures; 2) sequencing and characterization of all generated cDNA inserts; 3) development of a publicly available genomic database on E. albidus. A total of 2100 Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) were isolated, sequenced and assembled into 1124 clusters (947 singletons and 177 contigs). From these sequences, 41% matched known proteins in GenBank (BLASTX, e-value≤10-5) and 37% had at least one Gene Ontology (GO) term assigned. In total, 5.5% of the sequences were assigned to a metabolic pathway, based on KEGG. With this new sequencing information, an Agilent custom oligonucleotide microarray was designed, representing a potential tool for transcriptomic studies. EnchyBASE (http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/enchybase/) was developed as a web freely available database containing genomic information on E. albidus and will be further extended in the near future for other enchytraeid species. The database so far includes all ESTs generated for E. albidus from three cDNA libraries. This information can be downloaded and applied in functional genomics and transcription studies

Application of ecological momentary assessment in stress-related diseases

Many physical diseases have been reported to be associated with psychosocial factors. In these diseases, assessment relies mainly on subjective symptoms in natural settings. Therefore, it is important to assess symptoms and/or relationships between psychosocial factors and symptoms in natural settings. Symptoms are usually assessed by self-report when patients visit their doctors. However, self-report by recall has an intrinsic problem; "recall bias". Recently, ecological momentary assessment (EMA) has been proposed as a reliable method to assess and record events and subjective symptoms as well as physiological and behavioral variables in natural settings. Although EMA is a useful method to assess stress-related diseases, it has not been fully acknowledged, especially by clinicians. Therefore, the present brief review introduces the application and future direction of EMA for the assessment and intervention for stress-related diseases

The Role of Repetitive Negative Thoughts in the Vulnerability for Emotional Problems in Non-Clinical Children

The current study examined the role of repetitive negative thoughts in the vulnerability for emotional problems in non-clinical children aged 8–13 years (N = 158). Children completed self-report questionnaires for assessing (1) neuroticism and behavioral inhibition as indicators of general vulnerability (2) worry and rumination which are two important manifestations of repetitive negative thoughts, and (3) emotional problems (i.e., anxiety, depression, and sleep difficulties). Results demonstrated that there were positive correlations between measures of general vulnerability, repetitive negative thoughts, and emotional problems. Further, support was found for a model in which worry and rumination acted as partial mediators in the relation between neuroticism and symptoms of anxiety and depression. In the case of sleep difficulties, no evidence was obtained for such a mediation model. In fact, data suggested that sleeping difficulties are better conceived as an epiphenomenon of high symptom levels of anxiety and depression or as a risk factor for the development of other types of psychopathology. Finally, besides neuroticism, the temperamental trait of behavioral inhibition appeared to play a unique direct role in the model predicting anxiety symptoms but not in the models predicting depressive symptoms or sleep difficulties. To conclude, the current findings seem to indicate that worry and rumination contribute to children’s vulnerability for anxiety and depression

Exposure to Candida albicans Polarizes a T-Cell Driven Arthritis Model towards Th17 Responses, Resulting in a More Destructive Arthritis

BACKGROUND: Fungal components have been shown very effective in generating Th17 responses. We investigated whether exposure to a minute amount of C. albicans in the arthritic joint altered the local cytokine environment, leading to enhanced Th17 expansion and resulting in a more destructive arthritis. METHODOLOGY: Chronic SCW arthritis was induced by repeated injection with Streptococcus pyogenes (SCW) cell wall fragments into the knee joint of C57Bl/6 mice, alone or in combination with the yeast of C. albicans or Zymosan A. During the chronic phase of the arthritis, the cytokine levels, mRNA expression and histopathological analysis of the joints were performed. To investigate the phenotype of the IL-17 producing T-cells, synovial cells were isolated and analyzed by flowcytometry. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Intra-articular injection of either Zymosan A or C. albicans on top of the SCW injection both resulted in enhanced joint swelling and inflammation compared to the normal SCW group. However, only the addition of C. albicans during SCW arthritis resulted in severe chondrocyte death and enhanced destruction of cartilage and bone. Additionally, exposure to C. albicans led to increased IL-17 in the arthritic joint, which was accompanied by an increased synovial mRNA expression of T-bet and RORgammaT. Moreover, the C. albicans-injected mice had significantly more Th17 cells in the synovium, of which a large population also produced IFN-gamma. CONCLUSION: This study clearly shows that minute amounts of fungal components, like C. albicans, are very potent in interfering with the local cytokine environment in an arthritic joint, thereby polarizing arthritis towards a more destructive phenotype

Fatigue and physical disability in patients with multiple sclerosis: a structural equation modeling approach

Although fatigue is one of the most common and disabling symptoms in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), its pathogenesis is still poorly understood and it is difficult to treat. The aim of the current study was to test the assumptions of a cognitive-behavioral model that explains fatigue and physical disability in MS patients, by comparing this approach with a more traditional biomedical approach. Structural equation modeling was applied to a sample of 262 MS patients. Neither the cognitive-behavioral, nor the biomedical model showed an adequate fit of our data. The modification indices supported an integration of both models, which showed a better fit than those of the separate models. This final model, is notable for at least three features: (1) fatigue is associated with depression and physical disability, (2) physical disability is associated with disease severity and fatigue-related fear and avoidance behavior, and (3) catastrophic interpretations about fatigue, fueled by depression, mediated the relationship between fatigue and fatigue-related fear and avoidance behavior. Our results suggest that an integrated approach, including the modification of catastrophic thoughts about fatigue, would be beneficial in the treatment of fatigue in MS patients

A Host Defense Mechanism Involving CFTR-Mediated Bicarbonate Secretion in Bacterial Prostatitis

BACKGROUND: Prostatitis is associated with a characteristic increase in prostatic fluid pH; however, the underlying mechanism and its physiological significance have not been elucidated. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In this study a primary culture of rat prostatic epithelial cells and a rat prostatitis model were used. Here we reported the involvement of CFTR, a cAMP-activated anion channel conducting both Cl(-) and HCO(3)(-), in mediating prostate HCO(3)(-) secretion and its possible role in bacterial killing. Upon Escherichia coli (E. coli)-LPS challenge, the expression of CFTR and carbonic anhydrase II (CA II), along with several pro-inflammatory cytokines was up-regulated in the primary culture of rat prostate epithelial cells. Inhibiting CFTR function in vitro or in vivo resulted in reduced bacterial killing by prostate epithelial cells or the prostate. High HCO(3)(-) content (>50 mM), rather than alkaline pH, was found to be responsible for bacterial killing. The direct action of HCO(3)(-) on bacterial killing was confirmed by its ability to increase cAMP production and suppress bacterial initiation factors in E. coli. The relevance of the CFTR-mediated HCO(3)(-) secretion in humans was demonstrated by the upregulated expression of CFTR and CAII in human prostatitis tissues. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The CFTR and its mediated HCO(3)(-) secretion may be up-regulated in prostatitis as a host defense mechanism

The significance of genome-wide transcriptional regulation in the evolution of stress tolerance.

It is widely recognized that stress plays an important role in directing the adaptive adjustment of an organism to changing environments. However, very little is known about the evolution of mechanisms that promote stress-induced variation. Adaptive transcriptional responses have been implicated in the evolution of tolerance to natural and anthropogenic stressors in the environment. Recent technological advances in transcriptomics provide a mechanistic understanding of biological pathways or processes involved in stress-induced phenotypic change. Furthermore, these studies are (semi) quantitative and provide insight into the reaction norms of identified target genes in response to specific stressors. We argue that plasticity in gene expression reaction norms may be important in the evolution of stress tolerance and adaptation to environmental stress. This review highlights the consequences of transcriptional plasticity of stress responses within a single generation and concludes that gene promoters containing a TATA box are more capable of rapid and variable responses than TATA-less genes. In addition, the consequences of plastic transcriptional responses to stress over multiple generations are discussed. Based on examples from the literature, we show that constitutive over expression of specific stress response genes results in stress adapted phenotypes. However, organisms with an innate capacity to buffer stress display plastic transcriptional responses. Finally, we call for an improved integration of the concept of phenotypic plasticity with studies that focus on the regulation of transcription. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010

Constraints on black-hole charges with the 2017 EHT observations of M87*

Our understanding of strong gravity near supermassive compact objects has recently improved thanks to the measurements made by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). We use here the M87* shadow size to infer constraints on the physical charges of a large variety of nonrotating or rotating black holes. For example, we show that the quality of the measurements is already sufficient to rule out that M87* is a highly charged dilaton black hole. Similarly, when considering black holes with two physical and independent charges, we are able to exclude considerable regions of the space of parameters for the doubly-charged dilaton and the Sen black holes