Auditory Affective Norms for German: Testing the Influence of Depression and Anxiety on Valence and Arousal Ratings

BACKGROUND: The study of emotional speech perception and emotional prosody necessitates stimuli with reliable affective norms. However, ratings may be affected by the participants' current emotional state as increased anxiety and depression have been shown to yield altered neural responding to emotional stimuli. Therefore, the present study had two aims, first to provide a database of emotional speech stimuli and second to probe the influence of depression and anxiety on the affective ratings. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We selected 120 words from the Leipzig Affective Norms for German database (LANG), which includes visual ratings of positive, negative, and neutral word stimuli. These words were spoken by a male and a female native speaker of German with the respective emotional prosody, creating a total set of 240 auditory emotional stimuli. The recordings were rated again by an independent sample of subjects for valence and arousal, yielding groups of highly arousing negative or positive stimuli and neutral stimuli low in arousal. These ratings were correlated with participants' emotional state measured with the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS). Higher depression scores were related to more negative valence of negative and positive, but not neutral words. Anxiety scores correlated with increased arousal and more negative valence of negative words. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These results underscore the importance of representatively distributed depression and anxiety scores in participants of affective rating studies. The LANG-audition database, which provides well-controlled, short-duration auditory word stimuli for the experimental investigation of emotional speech is available in Supporting Information S1

How stress transfer between volcanic and seismic zones affects volcanic and earthquake

Oceanic transform faults and ridge segments form a network where mechanical interaction is to be expected. In particular, dike emplacement in ridge segments is likely to affect earthquake activity in the adjacent transform faults through processes such as stress transfer. Similarly, strike-slip displacement across transform faults may trigger dike injections and, eventually, eruptions in the adjacent ridge segments. For obvious reasons, direct observations of the possible mechanical interaction between submarine transform zones and ridge segments at mid-ocean ridges are difficult. The subaerial seismic zones of Iceland, however, are in clear spatial connections with the adjacent volcanic zones. These zones, therefore, provide excellent opportunities to study stress transfer between volcanic and seismic zones (Gudmundsson 2000)...conferenc

Gypsum veins as hydrofractures in layered and faulted mudstones: implications for reservoir permeability

Mineral veins form when water solutions passing through fluid-transporting fractures gradually seal the fractures as minerals precipitate. Many mineral veins are hydrofractures, that is, fractures generated at least partly by an internal fluid pressure. For most mineral veins, the fluid generating the hydrofracture is geothermal water. Other hydrofractures include fractures generated by magma (dykes, sills, inclined sheets), oil, gas and groundwater (many joints), as well as manmade hydraulic fractures in petroleum engineering. Hydrofractures are primarily extension fractures (Gudmundsson et al. 2002). The formation of hydrofractures is one of the two basic mechanisms for the generation and maintenance of permeability, particularly in fluid-filled heterogeneous reservoirs such as those commonly associated with petroleum, groundwater, volcanic and geothermal fields. The other, and better-known, mechanism for permeability development is the formation of shear fractures, that is, faults. The permeability development in fractured reservoirs, such as those for groundwater, geothermal water and petroleum, depends on fluid overpressure and transport in hydrofractures (Aguilera 1995). It has been proposed that a high fluid pressure in a reservoir can create high temporary permeability through hydrofracturing (Aguilera 1995; Gudmundsson et al. 2002). This hydrofracturing may result in mineral vein networks. Such palaeohydrofractures give information about past fluid flow and flow networks. Studying mineral veins is thus important for understanding fluid and mineral transport in rocks and reservoirs...conferenc

Dyke emplacement in Tenerife (Canary Islands): Field studies and numerical models

Dykes are magma-driven extension fractures and the main conduits for magma in volcanic eruptions. To understand the mechanics of dyke emplacement is thus essential to assess volcanic hazards. To improve the understanding of the processes of dyke initiation from shallow magma chambers and dyke propagation through a mechanicallylayered crust, field measurements and observations from Tenerife (Canary Islands) are used and compared with the results from numerical models. Careful studies of 550 dykes in three profiles in the Anaga massif (Tenerife) include measurements of dyke geometry and orientation. The results of these measurements show that dykes have been injected from a deep-seated reservoir during the shield-building phase. Furthermore, the dyke attitudes agree with the main axial trends of Tenerife that are preserved in the old massifs of Teno, Anaga, and Roque del Conde...conferenc

Mass vaccination and educational attainment: evidence from the 1967–68 Measles Eradication Campaign

We show that the first nationwide mass vaccination campaign against measles increased educational attainment in the United States. Our empirical strategy exploits variation in exposure to the childhood disease across states right before the Measles Eradication Campaign of 1967–68, which reduced reported measles incidence by 90 percent within two years. Our results suggest that mass vaccination against measles increased the years of education on average by about 0.1 years in the affected cohorts. We also find tentative evidence that the college graduation rate of men increased

Do job crafting opportunities help to win talent? Disentangling and contextualizing the effects of job crafting opportunities on applicant attraction

We argue that job crafting opportunities are not only helpful to motivate and enable the existing workforce but that they can also function as a signal to attract talent. With the help of two empirical studies (Study 1 – a conjoint experiment and Study 2 – a vignette study), we show that (a) a signaled opportunity for job crafting helps to attract job seekers; (b) job crafting signals can trigger positive as well as negative expectations of central job demands and resources that inform job acceptance intentions, and; (c) a proactive personality strengthens most of the positive expectations of job crafting signals while buffering adverse effects

Loss of phosphatase activity in myotubularin-related protein 2 is associated with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 4B1

Mutations in the gene encoding myotubularin-related protein 2 (MTMR2) are responsible for autosomal recessive Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 4B1 (CMT4B1), a severe hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy characterized by focally folded myelin sheaths and demyelination. MTMR2 belongs to the myotubularin family, which is characterized by the presence of a phosphatase domain. Myotubularin (MTM), the archetype member of this family, is mutated in X-linked myotubular myopathy. Although MTMR2 and MTM are closely related, they are likely to have different functions. Recent studies revealed that MTM dephosphorylates specifically phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate. Here we analyze the biochemical properties of the mouse Mtmr2 protein, which shares 97% amino acid identity with human MTMR2. We show that phosphatidylinositol-3-phosphate is also a substrate for Mtmr2, but, unlike myotubularin, Mtmr2 dephosphorylates phosphatidylinositol 3,5-bisphosphate with high efficiency and peak activity at neutral pH. We demonstrate that the known disease-associated MTMR2 mutations lead to dramatically reduced phosphatase activity, suggesting that the MTMR2 phosphatase activity is crucial for the proper function of peripheral nerves in CMT4B1. Expression analysis of Mtmr2 suggests particularly high levels in neurons. Thus, the demyelinating neuropathy CMT4B1 might be triggered by the malfunction of neural membrane recycling, membrane trafficking, and/or endocytic or exocytotic processes, combined with altered axon-Schwann cell interactions. Furthermore, the different biochemical properties of MTM and MTMR2 offer a potential explanation for the different human diseases caused by mutations in their respective gene

A semifluorinated alkane (F4H5) as novel carrier for cyclosporine A: a promising therapeutic and prophylactic option for topical treatment of dry eye

Cyclosporine A (Cs) has been used as effective topical therapy for inflammatory dry eye disease since more than a decade. However, due to its lipophilic character, Cs is formulated as emulsions or oily solutions for topical application. This experimental study aimed to test if the use of semifluorinated alkanes (SFAs) as a preservative-free, well-tolerated non-stinging or burning vehicle maintains or even improves the benefits of Cs in the topical therapy of dry-eye disease. Desiccating stress was applied to C57BL/6 mice for 14 consecutive days to induce experimental dry-eye. Cs dissolved in SFA (perfluorobutylpentane = F4H5with 0.5% Ethanol), F4H5 with 0.5% ethanol only, 0.05% Cs (RestasisA (R)), and dexamethasone (MonodexA (R)) were applied three times daily beginning either at day 4 or day 11 of desiccating stress for up to 3 weeks after end of dry-eye induction. In comparison to other groups, Cs/F4H5 demonstrated high efficacy and earlier reduction of corneal staining. In this study, Cs/F4H5 had the ability to maintain conjunctival goblet cell density once applied on day 4. Flow cytometry analysis from cervical lymphnodes demonstrated a significantly lower CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells in the Cs/F4H5 group following 3 weeks of therapy than at baseline, but no difference in regulatory T cells from regional lymphnodes were seen. Overall, compared to a commercially available Cs formulation (RestasisA (R)) and dexamethasone, Cs/F4H5 was shown to be equally effective but with a significantly faster therapeutic response in reducing signs of dry-eye disease in an experimental mouse model

Emotional salience but not valence impacts anterior cingulate cortex conflict processing

Stimuli that evoke emotions are salient, draw attentional resources, and facilitate situationally appropriate behavior in complex or conflicting environments. However, negative and positive emotions may motivate different response strategies. For example, a threatening stimulus might evoke avoidant behavior, whereas a positive stimulus may prompt approaching behavior. Therefore, emotional stimuli might either elicit differential behavioral responses when a conflict arises or simply mark salience. The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate valence-specific emotion effects on attentional control in conflict processing by employing an adapted flanker task with neutral, negative, and positive stimuli. Slower responses were observed for incongruent than congruent trials. Neural activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex was associated with conflict processing regardless of emotional stimulus quality. These findings confirm that both negative and positive emotional stimuli mark salience in both low (congruent) and high (incongruent) conflict scenarios. Regardless of the conflict level, emotional stimuli deployed greater attentional resources in goal directed behavior