Stress and Prosocial Decision Making: The Influence of Acute Stress on Trust Behavior

While acute stress exposure has been associated with modulation of risk-taking in decision making, the influence of stress on social decision making and trust has not been well-researched. The current study aims to advance scientific understanding of how stress influences trust behavior. Ninety-six participants (49 male and 47 female) engaged in an adapted Trust Game task, randomly assigned between-subjects to either an acute stress (cold pressor test or socially evaluative cold pressor test) or control group. The Trust Game was administered at different time points with respect to stress exposure to examine the potential differential roles of temporally distinct stress pathways (i.e., sympatho-adrenomedullary versus hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis reactivity). Stress-related sympathetic activation and HPA activation was observed for both acute stress groups compared to the control as well as subjective ratings of stress and affect. Participants exposed to acute stress (with or without a social evaluative component) exhibited reduced trust investing significantly less money in their Trust Game counterparts. No significant difference in investment was observed by timing of stress. Further, across all groups males invested significantly more money than females. Overall, exposure to acute stress elicited lower levels of trust suggesting stress may lead to “socially” risk-averse decision making. This finding replicates observations from a recent study on stress effects on trust decisions, though given limited research strong conclusions are premature. Additionally, lack of significant investment differences between stress groups involving social evaluation (or not) suggests social evaluation is not required to elicit reduced trust

OPENING UP THE BOX: EXPLORING THE SCALING OUT OF THE GOOD FOOD BOX ACROSS CANADA

The Good Food Box (GFB) program holds a great deal of promise to expand our understanding of Community Food Security (CFS). CFS represents a vision for solving hunger and other problems with the food system through an integrated approach that improves access to good and appropriate food for all while at the same time building community, strengthening local agricultural economies, and maximizing social justice. The GFB, one type of CFS program, is a community-based initiative found across Canada that provides a box of healthy food to customers at near wholesale prices; it has the potential to increase access to healthy food, develop alternative distribution channels, link producers more closely with consumers, build community connections, and more. Yet despite the fact that over 50 unique GFB programs exist across Canada, little research has been done on how these myriad programs are structured and function, how this program model has spread to and been adapted by communities across Canada, and how individual programs operate while balancing multiple goals and priorities. This paper, based on qualitative interviews with managers at 21 GFB programs across Canada, explores the diversity of GFB programs in Canada, and how these programs balance multiple priorities along with day-to-day logistical constraints. GFB programs functioning across Canada have diverse goals, tensions sometimes arise when balancing multiple goals, and programs have found various ways to resolve these tensions. Moreover, GFB programs are educating and empowering people in their communities, as well as networking and learning among themselves. This is one of the first studies describing the breadth of GFB programs across Canada, and some of the findings have not been identified in previous scholarship. I describe the variety of program structures, the main priorities and goals that the programs identify, and some of the tensions and innovations that arise when working to balance the multiple goals and dimensions of CFS. I also discuss how programs communicate and learn from each other, and how the GFB in Canada can help us understand the CFS movement more generally

Brief Report: Assessment of Intervention Effects on In Vivo Peer Interactions in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a randomized controlled trial of a social skills intervention, the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS: Laugeson et al. in J Autism Dev Disord 39(4): 596–606, 2009), by coding digitally recorded social interactions between adolescent participants with ASD and a typically developing adolescent confederate. Adolescent participants engaged in a 10-min peer interaction at pre- and post-treatment. Interactions were coded using the Contextual Assessment of Social Skills (Ratto et al. in J Autism Dev Disord 41(9): 1277–1286, 2010). Participants who completed PEERS demonstrated significantly improved vocal expressiveness, as well as a trend toward improved overall quality of rapport, whereas participants in the waitlist group exhibited worse performance on these domains. The degree of this change was related to knowledge gained in PEERS

The Grizzly, February 2, 1999

Wash Your Worries Away • February is Black History Month • Centralization of Academic Computing • The Class of 1999 Leaves Behind a Comfortable Legacy • Post-Graduation Opportunities • Ursinusites Named to Who\u27s Who • Opinion: Tom Daschle and Partisanship Redefined; Follow, Lead or Get Out of the Way: Conformity as a Social Disease • Artful Lives: Living Portraits of Women Artists • Reginald Pindell to Perform • Swimming Suffers Loss to F&M • UC Men\u27s Basketball First in Conference • Women\u27s Basketball Snaps Losing Streak • UC Wrestlers Win Two Out of Three • UC Gymnastics Overcomes Navyhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1432/thumbnail.jp

Specific MHC-I Peptides Are Induced Using PROTACs

Peptides presented by the class-I major histocompatibility complex (MHC-I) are important targets for immunotherapy. The identification of these peptide targets greatly facilitates the generation of T-cell-based therapeutics. Herein, we report the capability of proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTAC) compounds to induce the presentation of specific MHC class-I peptides derived from endogenous cellular proteins. Using LC-MS/MS, we identified several BET-derived MHC-I peptides induced by treatment with three BET-directed PROTAC compounds. To understand our ability to tune this process, we measured the relative rate of presentation of these peptides under varying treatment conditions using label-free mass spectrometry quantification. We found that the rate of peptide presentation reflected the rate of protein degradation, indicating a direct relationship between PROTAC treatment and peptide presentation. We additionally analyzed the effect of PROTAC treatment on the entire immunopeptidome and found many new peptides that were displayed in a PROTAC-specific fashion: we determined that these identifications map to the BET pathway, as well as, potential off-target or unique-to-PROTAC pathways. This work represents the first evidence of the use of PROTAC compounds to induce the presentation of MHC-I peptides from endogenous cellular proteins, highlighting the capability of PROTAC compounds for the discovery and generation of new targets for immunotherapy

Application of benchtop micro-XRF to geological materials

Recent developments in X-ray optics have allowed the development of a range of commercially available benchtop micro-XRF (μ-XRF) instruments that can produce X-ray spot sizes of 20-30 μm on the sample, allowing major- and trace-element analysis on a range of sample types and sizes with minimal sample preparation. Such instruments offer quantitative analysis using fundamental parameter based 'standardless' quantification algorithms. The accuracy and precision of this quantitative analysis on geological materials, and application of micro-XRF to wider geological problems is assessed using a single benchtop micro-XRF instrument. Quantitative analysis of internal reference materials and international standards shows that such instruments can provide highly reproducible data but that, for many silicate materials, standardless quantification is not accurate. Accuracy can be improved, however, by using a simple type-calibration against a reference material of similar matrix and composition. Qualitative analysis with micro-XRF can simplify and streamline sample characterization and processing for subsequent geochemical and isotopic analysis

Quantifying nectar production by flowering plants in urban and rural landscapes

Floral resources (nectar and pollen) provide food for insect pollinators but have declined in the countryside due to land use change. Given widespread pollinator loss, it is important that we quantify their food supply to help develop conservation actions. While nectar resources have been measured in rural landscapes, equivalent data are lacking for urban areas, an important knowledge gap as towns and cities often host diverse pollinator populations. We quantified the nectar supply of urban areas, farmland and nature reserves in the UK by combining floral abundance and nectar sugar production data for 536 flowering plant taxa, allowing us to compare landscape types and assess the spatial distribution of nectar sugar among land uses within cities. The magnitude of nectar sugar production did not differ significantly among the three landscapes. In urban areas the nectar supply was more diverse in origin and predominantly delivered by non-native flowering plants. Within cities, urban land uses varied greatly in nectar sugar production. Gardens provided the most nectar sugar per unit area and 85% of all nectar at a city scale, while gardens and allotments produced the most diverse supplies of nectar sugar. Floral abundance, commonly used as a proxy for pollinators’ food supply, correlated strongly with nectar resources, but left a substantial proportion of the variation in nectar supply unexplained. Synthesis. We show that urban areas are hotspots of floral resource diversity rather than quantity and their nectar supply is underpinned by the contribution of residential gardens. Individual gardeners have an important role to play in pollinator conservation as ornamental plants, usually non-native in origin, are a key source of nectar in towns and cities

MFA09 (MFA 2009)

Catalogue of a culminating student exhibition held at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum in 2009. Content includes A new paradigm / Carmon Colangelo -- Evolving practices / Patricia Olynyk -- Stephanie Barenz -- Carolyn Dawn Bendel -- Jacob Cruzen -- Rachel Ann Dennis -- Bryan Eaton -- Maya Escobar -- Meredith Foster -- Morgan Gehris -- Gina Grafos -- Stephen Hoskins -- Amelia Jones -- Hye Young Kim -- Anne Lindberg -- Goran Maric -- Kelda Martensen -- Erica L. Millspaugh -- Carianne Noga -- Joel Parker -- Rebecca C. Potts -- Shannon Randol -- Elaine Rickles -- Michael Kenneth Smith -- Dan Solberg -- Natalie Toney -- Glenn Tramantano -- Kathryn Trout -- J. Taylor Wallace.https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/books/1006/thumbnail.jp