The automaticity of visual perspective-taking in autism spectrum conditions

The thesis investigated visual perspective-taking differences between adults on the autism spectrum and a neurotypical control group. In Experiment 1, participants were required to explicitly make a left/right judgement to the spatial location of a target object from two different perspectives, one’s own perspective (self) and the actor’s perspective (other). The two perspectives were interleaved in a block of trials. The reaction time findings revealed that the ASC were slower overall compared to the matched control group. In Experiment 2, participants explicitly judged the spatial location of the target object from only the other perspective. The reaction time findings showed that there was no difference between the ASC group and the matched control group when making a judgement from the other perspective. Experiment 3 was conducted online to measure the proportion of spontaneous self or other responses to three pictures, each with a corresponding question. The findings suggest that there was no difference between the proportion of self or other response for the ASC group and control group. There was no evidence found for impaired explicit and spontaneous perspective-taking in ASC. However, the findings demonstrate that when ASC participants have to devote more cognitive resources to shift between the two perspectives, consequently their reaction time suffers. This suggests that visual perspective level 2 appears to be intact, although poorer executive functioning in ASC could partially contribute to worse performance on tasks that are more cognitively demanding

Autistic Adults Show Similar Performance and Sensitivity to Social Cues on a Visual Perspective Taking Task as Non-autistic Adults

Autistic and non-autistic adults completed a visual perspective taking (VPT) task, reporting an object’s location from an actor’s perspective, or their own. On half the trials the actor looked at and reached for the object, and on half did not. Accuracy and reaction time were measured. In Experiment 1, both groups (N = 34, mean age = 24 years) responded slower when reporting the actor’s perspective, with no group differences in this effect. Experiment 2 included “other” VPT trials only. Both groups (N = 30, mean age = 25 years) showed sensitivity to the actor’s behaviour, more accurately reporting his perspective when he acted upon the object. No group differences were observed. In contrast to developmental studies, these experiments suggest similar VPT abilities in autistic and non-autistic adults

Signal Detection on the Battlefield: Priming Self-Protection vs. Revenge-Mindedness Differentially Modulates the Detection of Enemies and Allies

Detecting signs that someone is a member of a hostile outgroup can depend on very subtle cues. How do ecology-relevant motivational states affect such detections? This research investigated the detection of briefly-presented enemy (versus friend) insignias after participants were primed to be self-protective or revenge-minded. Despite being told to ignore the objectively nondiagnostic cues of ethnicity (Arab vs. Western/European), gender, and facial expressions of the targets, both priming manipulations enhanced biases to see Arab males as enemies. They also reduced the ability to detect ingroup enemies, even when these faces displayed angry expressions. These motivations had very different effects on accuracy, however, with self-protection enhancing overall accuracy and revenge-mindedness reducing it. These methods demonstrate the importance of considering how signal detection tasks that occur in motivationally-charged environments depart from results obtained in conventionally motivationally-inert laboratory settings.National Institute of Mental Health (U.S.) (Grant MH64734)U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (Grant W74V8H-05-K-0003)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant BCS-0642873

Progesterone Receptor Activates Msx2 Expression by Downregulating TNAP/Akp2 and Activating the Bmp Pathway in EpH4 Mouse Mammary Epithelial Cells

Previously we demonstrated that EpH4 mouse mammary epithelial cells induced the homeobox transcription factor Msx2 either when transfected with the progesterone receptor (PR) or when treated with Bmp2/4. Msx2 upregulation was unaffected by Wnt inhibitors s-FRP or Dkk1, but was inhibited by the Bmp antagonist Noggin. We therefore hypothesized that PR signaling to Msx2 acts through the Bmp receptor pathway. Herein, we confirm that transcripts for Alk2/ActR1A, a non-canonical BmpR Type I, are upregulated in mammary epithelial cells overexpressing PR (EpH4-PR). Increased phosphorylation of Smads 1,5, 8, known substrates for Alk2 and other BmpR Type I proteins, was observed as was their translocation to the nucleus in EpH4-PR cells. Analysis also showed that Tissue Non-Specific Alkaline Phosphatase (TNAP/Akp2) was also found to be downregulated in EpH4-PR cells. When an Akp2 promoter-reporter construct containing a ½PRE site was transfected into EpH4-PR cells, its expression was downregulated. Moreover, siRNA mediated knockdown of Akp2 increased both Alk2 and Msx2 expression. Collectively these data suggest that PR inhibition of Akp2 results in increased Alk2 activity, increased phosphorylation of Smads 1,5,8, and ultimately upregulation of Msx2. These studies imply that re-activation of the Akp2 gene could be helpful in downregulating aberrant Msx2 expression in PR+ breast cancers

Sensory Communication

Contains table of contents for Section 2, an introduction and reports on twelve research projects.National Institutes of Health Grant R01 DC00117National Institutes of Health Grant R01 DC02032National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Grant 2 R01 DC00126National Institutes of Health Grant 2 R01 DC00270National Institutes of Health Contract N01 DC-5-2107National Institutes of Health Grant 2 R01 DC00100U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N61339-96-K-0002U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N61339-96-K-0003U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-97-1-0635U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-97-1-0655U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Subcontract 40167U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-96-1-0379U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research Grant F49620-96-1-0202National Institutes of Health Grant RO1 NS33778Massachusetts General Hospital, Center for Innovative Minimally Invasive Therapy Research Fellowship Gran

Processing BGC-Argo pH data at the DAC level

Seawater proton concentration is a master variable that controls the air-sea gas exchange of CO2, the ability of organisms to produce calcium carbonate shells, and that tracks the production and respiration of organic carbon as CO2 is removed or added to water by biological processes.  The proton concentration in seawater [H+] (mol kg-seawater-1) is typically reported as the pH = -log10 [H+].  The in situ proton concentration ranges from about 3 to 30 nmol kg-seawater-1 (7.5<pH<8.5). Seawater pH is measured from profiling floats using a Deep-Sea DuraFET pH sensor that is manufactured at MBARI (Johnson et al., 2016) or at Sea-Bird Scientific (Float pH).  The core of each sensor is an Ion Sensitive Field Effect Transistor (ISFET), produced by Honeywell, that responds to proton activity and a Ag/AgCl reference electrode that responds to chloride ion activity.  When properly calibrated, the sensor measures the activity of HCl, which is the product of the activities of the two ions aH+ × aCl- (Martz et al., 2010)

Poker Flat high speed auroral video: 2011-03-01 10:43 UTC

High Speed Auroral video captured with the Andor Neo sCMOS camera near Poker Flat Research Range, Chatanika, Alask

Regulation of sumo mRNA during endoplasmic reticulum stress.

The unfolded protein response (UPR) is a collection of pathways that maintains the protein secretory pathway during the many physiological and pathological conditions that cause stress in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). The UPR is mediated in part by Ire1, an ER transmembrane kinase and endoribonuclease that is activated when misfolded proteins accumulate in the ER. Ire1's nuclease initiates the cytosolic splicing of the mRNA encoding X-box binding protein (Xbp1), a potent transcription factor that then upregulates genes responsible for restoring ER function. This same nuclease is responsible for the degradation of many other mRNAs that are localized to the ER, through Regulated Ire1 Dependent Decay (RIDD). Here we show that Smt3, a homolog of small ubiquitin-like modifier (sumo), is a non-canonical RIDD target in Drosophila S2 cells. Unlike other RIDD targets, the sumo transcript does not stably associate with the ER membrane, but instead relies on an Xbp1-like stem loop and a second UPR mediator, Perk, for its degradation during stress

BGC-Argo quality control manual for nitrate concentration

This document is the Argo quality control (QC) manual for nitrate concentration, where the metadata parameter name for the state variable is NITRATE with units μmol kg-1. The document describes two levels of quality control: - The first level is the “real-time” (RT) quality control system, which always includes a set of agreed-upon automatic quality-control tests on each measurement. Data adjustments can also be applied within the real-time system, and quality flags assigned accordingly. - The second level is the “delayed-mode” (DM) quality control system where data quality is assessed in detail by a delayed-mode operator and adjustments (based on comparison to high-quality reference fields) are derived. As mentioned, these adjustments can then be propagated forward and applied to incoming data in real-time until the next delayed-mode assessment is performed