Human, Nature, Dynamism: The Effects of Content and Movement Perception on Brain Activations during the Aesthetic Judgment of Representational Paintings

Movement perception and its role in aesthetic experience have been often studied, within empirical aesthetics, in relation to the human body. No such specificity has been defined in neuroimaging studies with respect to contents lacking a human form. The aim of this work was to explore, through functional magnetic imaging (f MRI), how perceived movement is processed during the aesthetic judgment of paintings using two types of content: human subjects and scenes of nature. Participants, untutored in the arts, were shown the stimuli and asked to make aesthetic judgments. Additionally, they were instructed to observe the paintings and to rate their perceived movement in separate blocks. Observation highlighted spontaneous processes associated with aesthetic experience, whereas movement judgment outlined activations specifically related to movement processing. The ratings recorded during aesthetic judgment revealed that nature scenes received higher scored than human content paintings. The imaging data showed similar activation, relative to baseline, for all stimuli in the three tasks, including activation of occipito-temporal areas, posterior parietal, and premotor cortices. Contrast analyses within aesthetic judgment task showed that human content activated, relative to nature, precuneus, fusiform gyrus, and posterior temporal areas, whose activation was prominent for dynamic human paintings. In contrast, nature scenes activated, relative to human stimuli, occipital and posterior parietal cortex/precuneus, involved in visuospatial exploration and pragmatic coding of movement, as well as central insula. Static nature paintings further activated, relative to dynamic nature stimuli, central and posterior insula. Besides insular activation, which was specific for aesthetic judgment, we found a large overlap in the activation pattern characterizing each stimulus dimension (content and dynamism) across observation, aesthetic judgment, and movement judgment tasks. These findings support the idea that the aesthetic evaluation of artworks depicting both human subjects and nature scenes involves a motor component, and that the associated neural processes occur quite spontaneously in the viewer. Furthermore, considering the functional roles of posterior and central insula, we suggest that nature paintings may evoke aesthetic processes requiring an additional proprioceptive and sensori-motor component implemented by “motor accessibility” to the represented scenario, which is needed to judge the aesthetic value of the observed painting

HIGH-PROTEIN MODIFIED TRANSUDATE ABDOMINAL EFFUSION IN DOGS: A PROSPECTIVE COMPARATIVE PILOT STUDY OF THE DIAGNOSTIC POTENTIAL OF EFFUSION PROTEIN ELECTROPHORESIS

In dogs, high-protein modified transudates (HPMT) are primarily a result of post-hepatic disease, such as right-sided congestive heart failure or pericardial disease, lesions obstructing blood flow from the hepatic veins or caudal vena cava into the right side of the heart or rarely post-sinusoidal diseases within the liver itself. This type of effusion is attributed to increased hydrostatic pressure within the liver sinusoids and has a relatively high-protein concentration believed to reflect contributions of protein-rich hepatic lymph. From this unique pathophysiologic mechanism, the assumption can be made that the protein in this type of abdominal effusion could have a particular distribution that influences the pattern of a protein electrophoretogram. In this prospective comparative pilot study, we hypothesized that the protein electrophoretogram of a HPMT abdominal effusion would have its own unique pattern compared to other types of abdominal effusion. A total of nineteen abdominal effusion samples were analyzed by electrophoresis. Electrophoretograms from HPMT and exudate were compared to determine if there was a predictable electrophoretogram pattern that characterized post-hepatic HPMT. A statistically significant difference was identified in the absolute concentration of the total protein (p=0.045), of the albumin (p=0.015) and the proportion of albumin (p=0.047). These values were higher in the HPMT group than the exudate group. Statistically significant differences were also identified in the proportion of alpha2 (p=0.014) and beta globulins (p= 0.035). These values were higher in the exudate group than the HPMT group. When removing cases with presumed intra-abdominal disease from the HPMT group, a significant difference was only seen in the absolute concentration of albumin (p=0.01) and the proportion of albumin (p=0.033) and alpha2 globulins (p=0.031). The absolute concentration and proportion of albumin were still higher in the HPMT group than the exudate group and the proportion of alpha2 globulins was also still higher in the exudate group than the HPMT group. In conclusion, these results can give the clinician some guidance on the possible type of fluid but make it difficult to predict that a type of fluid such as a HPMT can be diagnosed solely through an electrophoresis analysis

Evaluation of changes in the epidemiology of leptospirosis in dogs after introduction of a quadrivalent antileptospiral vaccine in a highly endemic area

Background - Since 2003, a marked increase in leptospirosis serogroup Australis has been observed in dogs in Switzerland. In 2013, a new quadrivalent antileptospiral vaccine (L4) was introduced, adding serogroups Australis and Grippotyphosa to Canicola and Icterohaemorrhagiae of the previous bivalent vaccines (L2). Objective - To examine whether introduction of L4 was associated with decreased incidence of leptospirosis and decreased odds for dogs with acute kidney injury (AKI) to be diagnosed with leptospirosis. Animals - Four hundred and sixty‐nine dogs with AKI presented to a referral hospital, including 269 dogs with leptospirosis and 200 controls with other causes. Methods - Descriptive section: disease incidence was evaluated for 3 consecutive periods: before (PRE, 2011‐2012), transition (TRANS, 2013‐2014), and after introduction of L4 (POST, 2015‐2017). Analytical section: variables associated with a diagnosis of leptospirosis were investigated in a case‐control study using multivariable logistic regression, and focusing on vaccination. Results - The number of dogs diagnosed with leptospirosis (AKI‐L) decreased from 56.5 (PRE) to 15.7 (POST) cases/year while controls increased from 16.5 to 38.0 cases/year. Control dogs (AKI‐nL) showed a decrease in L2 vaccination (100% to 26%) and an increase in L4 vaccination (0% to 70%). The odds ratio for vaccinated dogs to be diagnosed with leptospirosis was 0.11 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.06‐0.22; P < .001) for L4 and 2.08 (0.58‐7.42; P = .26) for L2. Conclusions and Clinical Importance - The introduction of L4 was associated with a marked decrease in dogs with leptospirosis and AKI in Switzerland. Use of the L4 vaccine was associated with significantly decreased odds of disease

FUS-dependent liquid-liquid phase separation is important for DNA repair initiation.

RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) are emerging as important effectors of the cellular DNA damage response (DDR). The RBP FUS is implicated in RNA metabolism and DNA repair, and it undergoes reversible liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) in vitro. Here, we demonstrate that FUS-dependent LLPS is necessary for the initiation of the DDR. Using laser microirradiation in FUS-knockout cells, we show that FUS is required for the recruitment to DNA damage sites of the DDR factors KU80, NBS1, and 53BP1 and of SFPQ, another RBP implicated in the DDR. The relocation of KU80, NBS1, and SFPQ is similarly impaired by LLPS inhibitors, or LLPS-deficient FUS variants. We also show that LLPS is necessary for efficient γH2AX foci formation. Finally, using superresolution structured illumination microscopy, we demonstrate that the absence of FUS impairs the proper arrangement of γH2AX nanofoci into higher-order clusters. These findings demonstrate the early requirement for FUS-dependent LLPS in the activation of the DDR and the proper assembly of DSB repair complexes