Priming Analogical Reasoning with False Memories

Like true memories, false memories are capable of priming answers to insight-based problems. Recent research has attempted to extend this paradigm to more advanced problem-solving tasks, including those involving verbal analogical reasoning. However, these experiments are constrained inasmuch as problem solutions could be generated via spreading activation mechanisms (much like false memories themselves) rather than using complex reasoning processes. In three experiments we examined false memory priming of complex analogical reasoning tasks in the absence of simple semantic associations. In Experiment 1, we demonstrated the robustness of false memory priming in analogical reasoning when backward associative strength among the problem terms was eliminated. In Experiments 2a and 2b, we extended these findings by demonstrating priming on newly created homonym analogies that can only be solved by inhibiting semantic associations within the analogy. Overall, the findings of the present experiments provide evidence that the efficacy of false memory priming extends to complex analogical reasoning problems

Contact Manifolds, Contact Instantons, and Twistor Geometry

Recently, Kallen and Zabzine computed the partition function of a twisted supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory on the five-dimensional sphere using localisation techniques. Key to their construction is a five-dimensional generalisation of the instanton equation to which they refer as the contact instanton equation. Subject of this article is the twistor construction of this equation when formulated on K-contact manifolds and the discussion of its integrability properties. We also present certain extensions to higher dimensions and supersymmetric generalisations.Comment: v3: 28 pages, clarifications and references added, version to appear in JHE

Coxiella burnetii Phagocytosis Is Regulated by GTPases of the Rho Family and the RhoA Effectors mDia1 and ROCK

The GTPases belonging to the Rho family control the actin cytoskeleton rearrangements needed for particle internalization during phagocytosis. ROCK and mDia1 are downstream effectors of RhoA, a GTPase involved in that process. Coxiella burnetii, the etiologic agent of Q fever, is internalized by the host´s cells in an actin-dependent manner. Nevertheless, the molecular mechanism involved in this process has been poorly characterized. This work analyzes the role of different GTPases of the Rho family and some downstream effectors in the internalization of C. burnetii by phagocytic and non-phagocytic cells. The internalization of C. burnetii into HeLa and RAW cells was significantly inhibited when the cells were treated with Clostridium difficile Toxin B which irreversibly inactivates members of the Rho family. In addition, the internalization was reduced in HeLa cells that overexpressed the dominant negative mutants of RhoA, Rac1 or Cdc42 or that were knocked down for the Rho GTPases. The pharmacological inhibition or the knocking down of ROCK diminished bacterium internalization. Moreover, C. burnetii was less efficiently internalized in HeLa cells overexpressing mDia1-N1, a dominant negative mutant of mDia1, while the overexpression of the constitutively active mutant mDia1-ΔN3 increased bacteria uptake. Interestingly, when HeLa and RAW cells were infected, RhoA, Rac1 and mDia1 were recruited to membrane cell fractions. Our results suggest that the GTPases of the Rho family play an important role in C. burnetii phagocytosis in both HeLa and RAW cells. Additionally, we present evidence that ROCK and mDia1, which are downstream effectors of RhoA, are involved in that processFil: Salinas Ojeda, Romina Paola. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Cienicas Médicas. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos; ArgentinaFil: Ortiz Flores, Rodolfo Matias. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Cienicas Médicas. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos; ArgentinaFil: Distel, Jesús Sebastián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Cienicas Médicas. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos; ArgentinaFil: Aguilera, Milton Osmar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Cienicas Médicas. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos; ArgentinaFil: Colombo, Maria Isabel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Cienicas Médicas. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos; ArgentinaFil: Beron, Walter. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Cienicas Médicas. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos; Argentin

Off-shell superconformal nonlinear sigma-models in three dimensions

We develop superspace techniques to construct general off-shell N=1,2,3,4 superconformal sigma-models in three space-time dimensions. The most general N=3 and N=4 superconformal sigma-models are constructed in terms of N=2 chiral superfields. Several superspace proofs of the folklore statement that N=3 supersymmetry implies N=4 are presented both in the on-shell and off-shell settings. We also elaborate on (super)twistor realisations for (super)manifolds on which the three-dimensional N-extended superconformal groups act transitively and which include Minkowski space as a subspace.Comment: 67 pages; V2: typos corrected, one reference added, version to appear on JHE

Modelling the public health impact of male circumcision for HIV prevention in high prevalence areas in Africa

Background: Recent clinical trials in Africa, in combination with several observational epidemiological studies, have provided evidence that male circumcision can reduce HIV female-to-male transmission risk by 60% or more. However, the public health impact of large-scale male circumcision programs for HIV prevention is unclear. Methods: Two mathematical models were examined to explore this issue: a random mixing model and a compartmental model that distinguishes risk groups associated with sex work. In the compartmental model, two scenarios were developed, one calculating HIV transmission and prevalence in a context similar to the country of Botswana, and one similar to Nyanza Province, in western Kenya. Results: In both models, male circumcision programs resulted in large and sustained declines in HIV prevalence over time among both men and women. Men benefited somewhat more than women, but prevalence among women was also reduced substantially. With 80% male circumcision uptake, the reductions in prevalence ranged from 45% to 67% in the two "countries", and with 50% uptake, from 25% to 41%. It would take over a decade for the intervention to reach its full effect. Conclusion: Large-scale uptake of male circumcision services in African countries with high HIV prevalence, and where male circumcision is not now routinely practised, could lead to substantial reductions in HIV transmission and prevalence over time among both men and women

Forgetting having denied: The "amnesic" consequences of denial

The concept of denial has its roots in psychoanalysis. Denial has been assumed to be effective in blocking unwanted memories. In two experiments, we report that denial has unique consequences for remembering. In two experiments, participants viewed a video of a theft and half of the participants had to deny seeing certain details in the video whereas the other half had to tell the truth. One day later, all participants were given a source monitoring recognition or recall task. In these tasks, they were instructed to indicate (1) whether they could remember talking about certain details and (2) whether they could recollect seeing those details in the video. In both experiments, we found that denial made participants forget that they talked about these details while leaving memory for the video unaffected. This denial-induced forgetting was evident for both the source monitoring recognition and recall tests. Furthermore, when we asked participants after the experiment whether they could still not remember talking about these details, participants who had to deny were most likely to report that they forgot this. In contrast to a widely held belief, we show that denial does not impair memory for the experienced stimuli, but that it has a unique ability to undermine memory for what was talked about

Haptic Edge Detection Through Shear

Most tactile sensors are based on the assumption that touch depends on measuring pressure. However, the pressure distribution at the surface of a tactile sensor cannot be acquired directly and must be inferred from the deformation field induced by the touched object in the sensor medium. Currently, there is no consensus as to which components of strain are most informative for tactile sensing. Here, we propose that shape-related tactile information is more suitably recovered from shear strain than normal strain. Based on a contact mechanics analysis, we demonstrate that the elastic behavior of a haptic probe provides a robust edge detection mechanism when shear strain is sensed. We used a jamming-based robot gripper as a tactile sensor to empirically validate that shear strain processing gives accurate edge information that is invariant to changes in pressure, as predicted by the contact mechanics study. This result has implications for the design of effective tactile sensors as well as for the understanding of the early somatosensory processing in mammals

Polygenic risk scores for coronary artery disease and subsequent event risk amongst established cases

BACKGROUND: There is growing evidence that polygenic risk scores (PRS) can identify individuals with elevated lifetime risk of coronary artery disease (CAD). Whether they can also be used to stratify risk of subsequent events among those surviving a first CAD event remains uncertain, with possible biological differences between CAD onset and progression, and the potential for index event bias. METHODS: Using two baseline subsamples of UK Biobank; prevalent CAD cases (N = 10 287) and individuals without CAD (N = 393 108), we evaluated associations between a CAD PRS and incident cardiovascular and fatal outcomes. RESULTS: A 1 S.D. higher PRS was associated with increased risk of incident MI in participants without CAD (OR 1.33; 95% C.I. 1.29, 1.38), but the effect estimate was markedly attenuated in those with prevalent CAD (OR 1.15; 95% C.I. 1.06, 1.25); heterogeneity P = 0.0012. Additionally, among prevalent CAD cases, we found evidence of an inverse association between the CAD PRS and risk of all-cause death (OR 0.91; 95% C.I. 0.85, 0.98) compared to those without CAD (OR 1.01; 95% C.I. 0.99, 1.03); heterogeneity P = 0.0041. A similar inverse association was found for ischaemic stroke (Prevalent CAD (OR 0.78; 95% C.I. 0.67, 0.90); without CAD (OR 1.09; 95% C.I. 1.04, 1.15), heterogeneity P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Bias induced by case stratification and survival into UK Biobank may distort associations of polygenic risk scores derived from case-control studies or populations initially free of disease. Differentiating between effects of possible biases and genuine biological heterogeneity is a major challenge in disease progression research

Stormwater harvesting from landscaped areas:effect of herbicide application on water quality and usage

The suitability of stormwater harvested from pervious pavement system (PPS) structures for reuse purposes was investigated in conditions where glyphosate-containing herbicides (GCH) are applied as part of PPS maintenance procedure. The experiment was based on the four-layered design previously described as detailed in CIRIA C582. Results indicated that the highest sodium absorption ratio (SAR) of 1.6 recorded in this study, was less than that at which loss of permeability begins to occur as well as deterioration of matrix structure. Furthermore, the maximum electrical conductivity (ECw) of 2990 μS cm−1, recorded for 7200 mg L−1 concentration (GCH) was slightly below the unstable classification range at which salinity problems related to water quality occur such that salts accumulate in the root zone to the extent that crop yields are adversely affected. However, GCH concentration of 720 mg L−1 was within ‘permissible’ range while that of 72 mg L−1 was within ‘excellent’ range. Current study raises some environmental concerns owing to the overall impact that GCH at concentrations above 72 mg L−1 exerts on the net performance of the organic decomposers, heavy metal and hydrocarbon release from the system and thus, should be further investigated. However, effluent from all the test models including those dosed with high GCH concentration of 7200 mg L−1 do not pose any threat in terms of infiltration or deterioration associated with salinity although, there are indications that high dosage of the herbicide could lead to an elevated electrical conductivity of the recycled water.<br/

Using WormBase: A Genome Biology Resource for Caenorhabditis elegans and Related Nematodes

WormBase (www.wormbase.org) provides the nematode research community with a centralized database for information pertaining to nematode genes and genomes. As more nematode genome sequences are becoming available and as richer data sets are published, WormBase strives to maintain updated information, displays, and services to facilitate efficient access to and understanding of the knowledge generated by the published nematode genetics literature. This chapter aims to provide an explanation of how to use basic features of WormBase, new features, and some commonly used tools and data queries. Explanations of the curated data and step-by-step instructions of how to access the data via the WormBase website and available data mining tools are provided