Arachidonic acid-induced release of calcium in permeabilized human neutrophils

AbstractThe addition of arachidonic acid to a suspension of digitonin-permeabilized human neutrophils was found to induce, in a dose-dependent manner (ED50 about 15 μM), the release of calcium from internal stores. Arachidic acid was without effect, while linoleic acid and linolenic acid were (on a concentration basis) at least 5-times less active than arachidonic acid. The activity of arachidonic acid appears to be due to the fatty acid itself and not to one of its metabolites. The pool of calcium mobilized by arachidonic acid includes that sensitive to inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate. These results demonstrate a significant intracellular role for arachidonic acid at the level of the internal mobilization of calcium in human neutrophils

A novel bocavirus in canine liver

Background: Bocaviruses are classified as a genus within the Parvoviridae family of single-stranded DNA viruses and are pathogenic in some mammalian species. Two species have been previously reported in dogs, minute virus of canines (MVC), associated with neonatal diseases and fertility disorders; and Canine bocavirus (CBoV), associated with respiratory disease. Findings: In this study using deep sequencing of enriched viral particles from the liver of a dog with severe hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, necrotizing vasculitis, granulomatous lymphadenitis and anuric renal failure, we identified and characterized a novel bocavirus we named Canine bocavirus 3 (CnBoV3). The three major ORFs of CnBoV3 (NS1, NP1 and VP1) shared less than 60% aa identity with those of other bocaviruses qualifying it as a novel species based on ICTV criteria. Inverse PCR showed the presence of concatemerized or circular forms of the genome in liver. Conclusions: We genetically characterized a bocavirus in a dog liver that is highly distinct from prior canine bocaviruses found in respiratory and fecal samples. Its role in this animal’s complex disease remains to be determined. Keywords: Canine bocavirus 3; Episome; Coinfectio

Evaluation of oxacillin and cefoxitin disk diffusion and microbroth dilution methods for detecting mecA-mediated β-lactam resistance in contemporary Staphylococcus epidermidis isolates

Methicillin (β-lactam) resistance i

Activity in Face-Responsive Brain Regions is Modulated by Invisible, Attended Faces: Evidence from Masked Priming

It is often assumed that neural activity in face-responsive regions of primate cortex correlates with conscious perception of faces. However, whether such activity occurs without awareness is still debated. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in conjunction with a novel masked face priming paradigm, we observed neural modulations that could not be attributed to perceptual awareness. More specifically, we found reduced activity in several classic face-processing regions, including the “fusiform face area,” “occipital face area,” and superior temporal sulcus, when a face was preceded by a briefly flashed image of the same face, relative to a different face, even when 2 images of the same face differed. Importantly, unlike most previous studies, which have minimized awareness by using conditions of inattention, the present results occurred when the stimuli (the primes) were attended. By contrast, when primes were perceived consciously, in a long-lag priming paradigm, we found repetition-related activity increases in additional frontal and parietal regions. These data not only demonstrate that fMRI activity in face-responsive regions can be modulated independently of perceptual awareness, but also document where such subliminal face-processing occurs (i.e., restricted to face-responsive regions of occipital and temporal cortex) and to what extent (i.e., independent of the specific image)

Trading-Off Type-Inference Memory Complexity against Communication

While bringing considerable flexibility and extending the horizons of mobile computing, mobile code raises major security issues. Hence, mobile code, such as Java applets, needs to be analyzed before execution. The byte-code verifier checks low-level security properties that ensure that the downloaded code cannot bypass the virtual machine's security mechanisms. One of the statically ensured..

The Flexible Nature of Unconscious Cognition

The cognitive signature of unconscious processes is hotly debated recently. Generally, consciousness is thought to mediate flexible, adaptive and goal-directed behavior, but in the last decade unconscious processing has rapidly gained ground on traditional conscious territory. In this study we demonstrate that the scope and impact of unconscious information on behavior and brain activity can be modulated dynamically on a trial-by-trial basis. Participants performed a Go/No-Go experiment in which an unconscious (masked) stimulus preceding a conscious target could be associated with either a Go or No-Go response. Importantly, the mapping of stimuli onto these actions varied on a trial-by-trial basis, preventing the formation of stable associations and hence the possibility that unconscious stimuli automatically activate these control actions. By eliminating stimulus-response associations established through practice we demonstrate that unconscious information can be processed in a flexible and adaptive manner. In this experiment we show that the same unconscious stimulus can have a substantially different effect on behavior and (prefrontal) brain activity depending on the rapidly changing task context in which it is presented. This work suggests that unconscious information processing shares many sophisticated characteristics (including flexibility and context-specificity) with its conscious counterpart

Opposing effects of attention and consciousness on afterimages

The brain's ability to handle sensory information is influenced by both selective attention and consciousness. There is no consensus on the exact relationship between these two processes and whether they are distinct. So far, no experiment has simultaneously manipulated both. We carried out a full factorial 2 × 2 study of the simultaneous influences of attention and consciousness (as assayed by visibility) on perception, correcting for possible concurrent changes in attention and consciousness. We investigated the duration of afterimages for all four combinations of high versus low attention and visible versus invisible. We show that selective attention and visual consciousness have opposite effects: paying attention to the grating decreases the duration of its afterimage, whereas consciously seeing the grating increases the afterimage duration. These findings provide clear evidence for distinctive influences of selective attention and consciousness on visual perception