Sexual Orientation, Sexual Arousal, and Finger Length Ratios in Women

In general, women show physiological sexual arousal to both sexes. However, compared with heterosexual women, homosexual women are more aroused to their preferred sex, a pattern typically found in men. We hypothesized that homosexual women’s male-typical arousal is due to their sex-atypical masculinization during prenatal development. We measured the sexual responses of 199 women (including 67 homosexual women) via their genital arousal and pupil dilation to female and male sexual stimuli. Our main marker of masculinization was the ratio of the index to ring finger, which we expected to be lower (a masculine pattern) in homosexual women due to increased levels of prenatal androgens. We further measured observer- and self-ratings of psychological masculinity–femininity as possible proxies of prenatal androgenization. Homosexual women responded more strongly to female stimuli than male stimuli and therefore had more male-typical sexual responses than heterosexual women. However, they did not have more male-typical digit ratios, even though this difference became stronger if analyses were restricted to white participants. Still, variation in women's digit ratios did not account for the link between their sexual orientation and their male-typical sexual responses. Furthermore, homosexual women reported and displayed more masculinity than heterosexual women, but their masculinity was not associated with their male-typical sexual arousal. Thus, women’s sexual and behavioral traits, and potential anatomical traits, are possibly masculinized at different stages of gestation

Patterns of Genital Sexual Arousal in Transgender Men

Most men show genital sexual arousal to one preferred gender. Most women show genital arousal to both genders, regardless of their sexual preferences. There is limited knowledge of whether this difference is driven by biological sex or gender identity. Transgender individuals, whose birth sex and gender identity are incongruent, provide a unique opportunity to address this question. We tested whether the genital responses of 25 (female-to-male) transgender men followed their female birth sex or male gender identity. Depending on their surgical status, arousal was assessed with penile gauges or vaginal plethysmographs. Transgender men’s sexual arousal showed both male-typical and female-typical patterns. Across measures, they responded more strongly to their preferred gender than to the other gender, similar to (but not entirely like) 145 cisgender (nontransgender) men. However, they still responded to both genders, similar to 178 cisgender women. In birth-assigned women, both gender identity and biological sex may influence sexual-arousal patterns

A survey of owners' perceptions of fear of fireworks in a sample of dogs and cats in New Zealand

AIMS: To establish reliable information regarding the behavioural responses of dogs and cats to fireworks in New Zealand; record interventions used by owners, and their perceived efficacies; and establish the prevalence of firework-related injury, and quantify owners' attitudes towards fireworks. METHODS: A questionnaire targeting dog and cat owners was distributed via the Auckland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) Animals Voice magazine and 25 veterinary clinics. The questionnaire covered demographics of animals, fear of fireworks, severity of the fear, and behaviours exhibited. Also included were treatments tried, source and perceived efficacy, prevalence of injury, and owners' attitudes towards the sale of fireworks for private use. RESULTS: From a total of 8,966 questionnaires distributed, 1,007 valid questionnaires were returned, representing 3,527 animals. Of these 1,635 (46%) animals displayed a level of fear of fireworks recognisable to their owners. Owners of dogs identified a significantly higher fear response than owners of cats but the duration of these fear responses did not differ between species. Fear of fireworks frequently resulted in dogs exhibiting active fear behaviours, whereas cats were more likely to exhibit hiding and cowering behaviours. A significantly increased severity and duration of fear response over time in dogs and cats was associated with owners who comforted them when they displayed a fearful response. Only 141/890 (15.8%) of owners sought professional treatment from a veterinarian, animal behaviourist or animal trainer for their animals, with variable efficacy. Six percent (51/923) of animals had received physical injuries from fireworks. The majority (837/1,007; 83%) of respondents, regardless of whether they owned a fearful animal or not, supported a ban on the sale of fireworks for private use. CONCLUSIONS: The results provide valuable information that is, as yet, unsubstantiated in New Zealand, although potential biases exist due to the non-random selection of respondents. Differences between dogs and cats were likely due to differing responses to fear-provoking stimuli between the species. Owner-reported increase in fearful response over time for comforted animals may indicate a negative impact on the longer-term psychological welfare of their animal. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The greater the awareness of effective treatment plans for animals that suffer from a fear of fireworks, the greater the possibility that this fear can be reduced. Wider dissemination of effective owner behaviour and treatment programmes for firework fears is needed to improve levels of professional treatment for dogs and cats

Are lay people good at recognising the symptoms of schizophrenia?

©2013 Erritty, Wydell. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the general public’s perception of schizophrenia symptoms and the need to seekhelp for symptoms. The recognition (or ‘labelling’) of schizophrenia symptoms, help-seeking behaviours and public awareness of schizophrenia have been suggested as potentially important factors relating to untreated psychosis. Method: Participants were asked to rate to what extent they believe vignettes describing classic symptoms (positive and negative) of schizophrenia indicate mental illness. They were also asked if the individuals depicted in the vignettes required help or treatment and asked to suggest what kind of help or treatment. Results: Only three positive symptoms (i.e., Hallucinatory behaviour, Unusual thought content and Suspiciousness) of schizophrenia were reasonably well perceived (above 70%) as indicating mental illness more than the other positive or negative symptoms. Even when the participants recognised that the symptoms indicated mental illness, not everyone recommended professional help. Conclusion: There may be a need to improve public awareness of schizophrenia and psychosis symptoms, particularly regarding an awareness of the importance of early intervention for psychosis

A Virtual School Environment for Enhancing College Preparation And Retaining Highly Qualified Teachers In Rural School Districts

Abstract This article introduces a concept for increasing the number of high school students in rural areas that seek college education by restructuring current concepts of how school infrastructure is defined and implemented. The underlying assumption for this paper is that every child of the Xbox generation can have access to a caring, competent, highly qualified teacher in every subject he/she studies when schools cooperate in a larger educational entity (a virtual cooperative school district) that can take advantage of the benefits of both existing infrastructure and modern telecomputing technology. The anticipated result is that high school students who might not attend college because of lack of preparation, understanding, and support will have the opportunity to effectively prepare, attend, and be successful in college

Pleiotropic functions of the tumor- and metastasis-suppressing Matrix Metalloproteinase-8 in mammary cancer in MMTV-PyMT transgenic mice

Matrix metalloproteinase-8 (MMP-8; neutrophil collagenase) is an important regulator of innate immunity which has onco-suppressive actions in numerous tumor types

Demography and disorders of German Shepherd Dogs under primary veterinarycare in the UK

The German Shepherd Dog (GSD) has been widely used for a variety of working roles. However, concerns for the health and welfare of the GSD have been widely aired and there is evidence that breed numbers are now in decline in the UK. Accurate demographic and disorder data could assist with breeding and clinical prioritisation. The VetCompassTM Programme collects clinical data on dogs under primary veterinary care in the UK. This study included all VetCompassTM dogs under veterinary care during 2013. Demographic, mortality and clinical diagnosis data on GSDs were extracted and reported

Human Proteome Project Mass Spectrometry Data Interpretation Guidelines 3.0

The Human Proteome Organization’s (HUPO) Human Proteome Project (HPP) developed Mass Spectrometry (MS) Data Interpretation Guidelines that have been applied since 2016. These guidelines have helped ensure that the emerging draft of the complete human proteome is highly accurate and with low numbers of false-positive protein identifications. Here, we describe an update to these guidelines based on consensus-reaching discussions with the wider HPP community over the past year. The revised 3.0 guidelines address several major and minor identified gaps. We have added guidelines for emerging data independent acquisition (DIA) MS workflows and for use of the new Universal Spectrum Identifier (USI) system being developed by the HUPO Proteomics Standards Initiative (PSI). In addition, we discuss updates to the standard HPP pipeline for collecting MS evidence for all proteins in the HPP, including refinements to minimum evidence. We present a new plan for incorporating MassIVE-KB into the HPP pipeline for the next (HPP 2020) cycle in order to obtain more comprehensive coverage of public MS data sets. The main checklist has been reorganized under headings and subitems, and related guidelines have been grouped. In sum, Version 2.1 of the HPP MS Data Interpretation Guidelines has served well, and this timely update to version 3.0 will aid the HPP as it approaches its goal of collecting and curating MS evidence of translation and expression for all predicted ∼20 000 human proteins encoded by the human genome.This work was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health grants R01GM087221 (EWD/RLM), R24GM127667 (EWD), U54EB020406 (EWD), R01HL133135 (RLM), U19AG02312 (RLM), U54ES017885 (GSO), U24CA210967-01 (GSO), R01LM013115 (NB) and P41GM103484 (NB); National Science Foundation grants ABI-1759980 (NB), DBI-1933311 (EWD), and IOS-1922871 (EWD); Canadian Institutes of Health Research 148408 (CMO); Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare HI13C2098 (YKP); French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, ProFI project, ANR-10-INBS-08 (YV); also in part by the National Eye Institute (NEI), National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), and National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number U24HG007822 (SO) (the content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health)

Direct Visualization of Protease Action on Collagen Triple Helical Structure

Enzymatic processing of extracellular matrix (ECM) macromolecules by matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) is crucial in mediating physiological and pathological cell processes. However, the molecular mechanisms leading to effective physiological enzyme-ECM interactions remain elusive. Only scant information is available on the mode by which matrix proteases degrade ECM substrates. An example is the enzymatic degradation of triple helical collagen II fragments, generated by the collagenase MMP-8 cleavage, during the course of acute inflammatory conditions by gelatinase B/MMP-9. As is the case for many other matrix proteases, it is not clear how MMP-9 recognizes, binds and digests collagen in this important physiological process. We used single molecule imaging to directly visualize this protease during its interaction with collagen fragments. We show that the initial binding is mediated by the diffusion of the protease along the ordered helix on the collagen ¾ fragment, with preferential binding of the collagen tail. As the reaction progressed and prior to collagen degradation, gelatin-like morphologies resulting from the denaturation of the triple helical collagen were observed. Remarkably, this activity was independent of enzyme proteolysis and was accompanied by significant conformational changes of the working protease. Here we provide the first direct visualization of highly complex mechanisms of macromolecular interactions governing the enzymatic processing of ECM substrates by physiological protease