A low-energy perspective on the minimal left-right symmetric model

We perform a global analysis of the low-energy phenomenology of the minimal left-right symmetric model (mLRSM) with parity symmetry. We match the mLRSM to the Standard Model Effective Field Theory Lagrangian at the left-right-symmetry breaking scale and perform a comprehensive fit to low-energy data including mesonic, neutron, and nuclear $\beta$-decay processes, $\Delta F=1$ and $\Delta F=2$ CP-even and -odd processes in the bottom and strange sectors, and electric dipole moments (EDMs) of nucleons, nuclei, and atoms. We fit the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa and mLRSM parameters simultaneously and determine a lower bound on the mass of the right-handed $W_R$ boson. In models where a Peccei-Quinn mechanism provides a solution to the strong CP problem, we obtain $M_{W_R} \gtrsim 5.5$ TeV at $95\%$ C.L. which can be significantly improved with next-generation EDM experiments. In the $P$-symmetric mLRSM without a Peccei-Quinn mechanism we obtain a more stringent constraint $M_{W_R} \gtrsim 17$ TeV at $95\%$ C.L., which is difficult to improve with low-energy measurements alone. In all cases, the additional scalar fields of the mLRSM are required to be a few times heavier than the right-handed gauge bosons. We consider a recent discrepancy in tests of first-row unitarity of the CKM matrix. We find that, while TeV-scale $W_R$ bosons can alleviate some of the tension found in the $V_{ud,us}$ determinations, a solution to the discrepancy is disfavored when taking into account other low-energy observables within the mLRSM.Comment: 42 pages plus appendices. Published versio

A database of whole-body action videos for the study of action, emotion, and untrustworthiness

We present a database of high-definition (HD) videos for the study of traits inferred from whole-body actions. Twenty-nine actors (19 female) were filmed performing different actions—walking, picking up a box, putting down a box, jumping, sitting down, and standing and acting—while conveying different traits, including four emotions (anger, fear, happiness, sadness), untrustworthiness, and neutral, where no specific trait was conveyed. For the actions conveying the four emotions and untrustworthiness, the actions were filmed multiple times, with the actor conveying the traits with different levels of intensity. In total, we made 2,783 action videos (in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional format), each lasting 7 s with a frame rate of 50 fps. All videos were filmed in a green-screen studio in order to isolate the action information from all contextual detail and to provide a flexible stimulus set for future use. In order to validate the traits conveyed by each action, we asked participants to rate each of the actions corresponding to the trait that the actor portrayed in the two-dimensional videos. To provide a useful database of stimuli of multiple actions conveying multiple traits, each video name contains information on the gender of the actor, the action executed, the trait conveyed, and the rating of its perceived intensity. All videos can be downloaded free at the following address: http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~neb506/databases.html. We discuss potential uses for the database in the analysis of the perception of whole-body actions

Right ventricular peak systolic longitudinal strain is a sensitive marker for right ventricular deterioration in adult patients with tetralogy of Fallot

The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of right ventricular (RV) longitudinal peak systolic strain (LPSS) assessment for the follow-up of adult patients with corrected tetralogy of Fallot (TOF). Adult patients (n = 18) with corrected TOF underwent echocardiography and CMR twice with a time interval of 4.2 ± 1.7 years. RV performance was derived from CMR, and included RV volumes and ejection fraction (EF). LPSS was calculated globally (GLPSS) and in the RV free wall (LPSS FW), with echocardiographic speckle-tracking strain-analysis. Baseline (G)LPSS values were compared between patients and healthy controls; the relation between (G)LPSS and CMR parameters was evaluated and the changes in (G)LPSS and CMR parameters during follow-up were compared. GLPSS and LPSS FW were significantly reduced in patients as compared to controls (−14.9 ± 0.7% vs. −21.6 ± 0.9% and −15.5 ± 0.9% vs. −22.7 ± 1.5%, P < 0.01). Moderate agreement between LPSS and CMR parameters was observed. RV EF remained unchanged during follow-up, whereas GLPSS and LPSS FW demonstrated a significant reduction. RVEF showed a 1% increase, whereas GLPSS decreased by 14%, and LPSS FW by 27%. RV LPSS is reduced in TOF patients as compared to controls; during follow-up RV EF remained unchanged whereas LPSS decreased suggesting that RV LPSS may be a sensitive marker to detect early deterioration in RV performance

The safety and feasibility of extracorporeal high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) for the treatment of liver and kidney tumours in a Western population

High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) provides a potential noninvasive alternative to conventional therapies. We report our preliminary experience from clinical trials designed to evaluate the safety and feasibility of a novel, extracorporeal HIFU device for the treatment of liver and kidney tumours in a Western population. The extracorporeal, ultrasound-guided Model-JC Tumor Therapy System (HAIFU™ Technology Company, China) has been used to treat 30 patients according to four trial protocols. Patients with hepatic or renal tumours underwent a single therapeutic HIFU session under general anaesthesia. Magnetic resonance imaging 12 days after treatment provided assessment of response. The patients were subdivided into those followed up with further imaging alone or those undergoing surgical resection of their tumours, which enabled both radiological and histological assessment. HIFU exposure resulted in discrete zones of ablation in 25 of 27 evaluable patients (93%). Ablation of liver tumours was achieved more consistently than for kidney tumours (100 vs 67%, assessed radiologically). The adverse event profile was favourable when compared to more invasive techniques. HIFU treatment of liver and kidney tumours in a Western population is both safe and feasible. These findings have significant implications for future noninvasive image-guided tumour ablation

Voice-based assessments of trustworthiness, competence, and warmth in blind and sighted adults

The study of voice perception in congenitally blind individuals allows researchers rare insight into how a lifetime of visual deprivation affects the development of voice perception. Previous studies have suggested that blind adults outperform their sighted counterparts in low-level auditory tasks testing spatial localization and pitch discrimination, as well as in verbal speech processing; however, blind persons generally show no advantage in nonverbal voice recognition or discrimination tasks. The present study is the first to examine whether visual experience influences the development of social stereotypes that are formed on the basis of nonverbal vocal characteristics (i.e., voice pitch). Groups of 27 congenitally or early-blind adults and 23 sighted controls assessed the trustworthiness, competence, and warmth of men and women speaking a series of vowels, whose voice pitches had been experimentally raised or lowered. Blind and sighted listeners judged both men’s and women’s voices with lowered pitch as being more competent and trustworthy than voices with raised pitch. In contrast, raised-pitch voices were judged as being warmer than were lowered-pitch voices, but only for women’s voices. Crucially, blind and sighted persons did not differ in their voice-based assessments of competence or warmth, or in their certainty of these assessments, whereas the association between low pitch and trustworthiness in women’s voices was weaker among blind than sighted participants. This latter result suggests that blind persons may rely less heavily on nonverbal cues to trustworthiness compared to sighted persons. Ultimately, our findings suggest that robust perceptual associations that systematically link voice pitch to the social and personal dimensions of a speaker can develop without visual input

Dynamic control of proinflammatory cytokines Il-1β and Tnf-α by macrophages in zebrafish spinal cord regeneration

Spinal cord injury leads to a massive response of innate immune cells in non-regenerating mammals, but also in successfully regenerating zebrafish. However, the role of the immune response in successful regeneration is poorly defined. Here we show that inhibiting inflammation reduces and promoting it accelerates axonal regeneration in spinal-lesioned zebrafish larvae. Mutant analyses show that peripheral macrophages, but not neutrophils or microglia, are necessary for repair. Macrophage-less irf8 mutants show prolonged inflammation with elevated levels of Tnf-α and Il-1β. Inhibiting Tnf-α does not rescue axonal growth in irf8 mutants, but impairs it in wildtype animals, indicating a pro-regenerative role of Tnf-α. In contrast, decreasing Il-1β levels or number of Il-1β+ neutrophils rescue functional regeneration in irf8 mutants. However, during early regeneration, interference with Il-1β function impairs regeneration in irf8 and wildtype animals. Hence, inflammation is dynamically controlled by macrophages to promote functional spinal cord regeneration in zebrafish

Adults' Awareness of Faces Follows Newborns' Looking Preferences

From the first days of life, humans preferentially orient towards upright faces, likely reflecting innate subcortical mechanisms. Here, we show that binocular rivalry can reveal face detection mechanisms in adults that are surprisingly similar to inborn face detection mechanism. We used continuous flash suppression (CFS), a variant of binocular rivalry, to render stimuli invisible at the beginning of each trial and measured the time upright and inverted stimuli needed to overcome such interocular suppression. Critically, specific stimulus properties previously shown to modulate looking preferences in neonates similarly modulated adults' awareness of faces presented during CFS. First, the advantage of upright faces in overcoming CFS was strongly modulated by contrast polarity and direction of illumination. Second, schematic patterns consisting of three dark blobs were suppressed for shorter durations when the arrangement of these blobs respected the face-like configuration of the eyes and the mouth, and this effect was modulated by contrast polarity. No such effects were obtained in a binocular control experiment not involving CFS, suggesting a crucial role for face-sensitive mechanisms operating outside of conscious awareness. These findings indicate that visual awareness of faces in adults is governed by perceptual mechanisms that are sensitive to similar stimulus properties as those modulating newborns' face preferences

Automatic Prediction of Facial Trait Judgments: Appearance vs. Structural Models

Evaluating other individuals with respect to personality characteristics plays a crucial role in human relations and it is the focus of attention for research in diverse fields such as psychology and interactive computer systems. In psychology, face perception has been recognized as a key component of this evaluation system. Multiple studies suggest that observers use face information to infer personality characteristics. Interactive computer systems are trying to take advantage of these findings and apply them to increase the natural aspect of interaction and to improve the performance of interactive computer systems. Here, we experimentally test whether the automatic prediction of facial trait judgments (e.g. dominance) can be made by using the full appearance information of the face and whether a reduced representation of its structure is sufficient. We evaluate two separate approaches: a holistic representation model using the facial appearance information and a structural model constructed from the relations among facial salient points. State of the art machine learning methods are applied to a) derive a facial trait judgment model from training data and b) predict a facial trait value for any face. Furthermore, we address the issue of whether there are specific structural relations among facial points that predict perception of facial traits. Experimental results over a set of labeled data (9 different trait evaluations) and classification rules (4 rules) suggest that a) prediction of perception of facial traits is learnable by both holistic and structural approaches; b) the most reliable prediction of facial trait judgments is obtained by certain type of holistic descriptions of the face appearance; and c) for some traits such as attractiveness and extroversion, there are relationships between specific structural features and social perceptions