Electroencephalography (EEG) in the Study of Equivalence Class Formation. An Explorative Study

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked FilesTeaching arbitrary conditional discriminations and testing for derived relations may be essential for understanding changes in cognitive skills. Such conditional discrimination procedures are often used within stimulus equivalence research. For example, the participant is taught AB and BC relations and tested if emergent relations as BA, CB, AC and CA occur. The purpose of the current explorative experiment was to study stimulus equivalence class formation in older adults with electroencephalography (EEG) recordings as an additional measure. The EEG was used to learn about whether there was an indication of cognitive changes such as those observed in neurocognitive disorders (NCD). The present study included four participants who did conditional discrimination training and testing. The experimental design employed pre-class formation sorting and post-class formation sorting of the stimuli used in the experiment. EEG recordings were conducted before training, after training and after testing. The results showed that two participants formed equivalence classes, one participant failed in one of the three test relations, and one participant failed in two of the three test relations. This fourth participant also failed to sort the stimuli in accordance with the experimenter-defined stimulus equivalence classes during post-class formation sorting. The EEG indicated no cognitive decline in the first three participants but possible mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in the fourth participant. The results suggest that equivalence class formation may provide information about cognitive impairments such as those that are likely to occur in the early stages of NCD. The study recommends replications with broader samples.Oslo and Akershus University Colleg

Atferdsanalytisk forskning på demens: fokus på hvordan betingete diskriminasjonsprosedyrer kan anvendes

Demens er en samling sykdommer som rammer omtrent 3% av befolkningen over 65 år. Av de som er 85 år eller eldre blir 20% diagnostisert med sykdommen. I denne artikkelen beskriver vi demens, samt hvordan man kartlegger om personer har demens eller ikke. Deretter diskuterer vi eksempler på typer av rehabilitering og beskriver betingete diskriminasjonsprosedyrer og kompleks atferd. Videre diskuterer vi delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS) og stimulusekvivalens og vi redegjør mer inngående inn på enkelte eksperimenter som er gjennomført med demenspasienter. Vi argumenterer for at betingete diskriminasjonsprosedyrer kan være nyttige når det gjelder (1) å kartlegge sykdommens progresjon og (2) å vedlikeholde de ferdigheter som blir betegnet som hukommels

Plant-derived recombinant F1, V, and F1-V fusion antigens of Yersinia pestis activate human cells of the innate and adaptive immune system

Plague is still endemic in different regions of the world. Current vaccines raise concern for their side effects and limited protection, highlighting the need for an efficacious and rapidly producible vaccine. F1 and V antigens of Yersinia pestis, and F1-V fusion protein produced in Nicotiana benthamiana administered to guinea pigs resulted in immunity and protection against an aerosol challenge of virulent h pestis. We examined the effects of plant-derived F1, V, and F1-V on human cells of the innate immunity. F1, V, and F1-V proteins engaged TLR2 signalling and activated IL-6 and CXCL-8 production by monocytes, without affecting the expression of TNF-alpha, IL-12, IL-10, IL-1 beta, and CXCL10. Native F1 antigen and recombinant plant-derived F1 (rF1) and rF1-V all induced similar specific T-cell responses, as shown by their recognition by T-cells from subjects who recovered from E pestis infection. Native F1 and rF1 were equally well recognized by serum antibodies of Y. pestis-primed donors, whereas serological reactivity to rF1-V hybrid was lower, and that to rV was virtually absent. In conclusion, plant-derived F1, V, and F1-V antigens are weakly reactogenic for human monocytes and elicit cell-mediated and humoral responses similar to those raised by Y pestis infection

Valuing Ecosystem Services in Semi-arid Rangelands through Stochastic Simulation

Ecosystem services and economic returns from semi-arid rangelands are threatened by land degradation. Policies to improve ecosystem service delivery often fail to consider uncertainty in economic returns gained through different land uses and management practices. We apply an analytical framework using stochastic simulation to estimate the range of potential monetary outcomes of rangeland ecosystem services under different land uses, including consideration of the uncertainty and variability of model parameters. We assess monetary and non-monetary dimensions, including those ecosystem services with uncertain and missing information, for communal rangelands, commercial ranches, game farms and Wildlife Management Areas in southern Kgalagadi District, Botswana. Public land uses (communal grazing areas and protected conservation land in Wildlife Management Areas) provide higher economic value than private land uses (commercial ranches and game farms), despite private land uses being more profitable in their returns from meat production. Communal rangelands and protected areas are important for a broader range of ecosystem services (cultural/spiritual services, recreation, firewood, construction material and wild food), which play a key role in sustaining the livelihoods of the largest share of society. The full range of ecosystem services should therefore be considered in economic assessments, while policies targeting sustainable land management should value and support their provision and utilisation. By forecasting the range of plausible ecosystem values of different rangeland land uses in monetary terms, our analysis provides policymakers with a tool to assess outcomes of land use and management decisions and policies

The Near East as a cradle of biodiversity: a phylogeography of banded newts (genus Ommatotriton) reveals extensive inter- and intraspecific genetic differentiation

The banded newt (genus Ommatotriton) is widely distributed in the Near East (Anatolia, Caucasus and the Levant) - an understudied region from the perspective of phylogeography. The genus is polytypic, but the number of species included and the phylogenetic relationships between them are not settled. We sequenced two mitochondrial and two nuclear DNA markers throughout the range of Ommatotriton. For mtDNA we constructed phylogenetic trees, estimated divergence times using fossil calibration, and investigated changes in effective population size with Bayesian skyline plots and mismatch analyses. For nuDNA we constructed phylogenetic trees and haplotype networks. Species trees were constructed for all markers and nuDNA only. Species distribution models were projected on current and Last Glacial Maximum climate layers. We confirm the presence of three Ommatotriton species: O. nesterovi, O. ophryticus and O. vittatus. These species are genetically distinct and their most recent common ancestor was dated at ∼25Ma (Oligocene). No evidence of recent gene flow between species was found. The species show deep intraspecific genetic divergence, represented by geographically structured clades, with crown nodes of species dated ∼8-13Ma (Miocene to Early Quaternary); evidence of long-term in situ evolution and survival in multiple glacial refugia. While a species tree based on nuDNA suggested a sister species relationship between O. vittatus and O. ophryticus, when mtDNA was included, phylogenetic relationships were unresolved, and we refrain from accepting a particular phylogenetic hypothesis at this stage. While species distribution models suggest reduced and fragmented ranges during the Last Glacial Maximum, we found no evidence for strong population bottlenecks. We discuss our results in the light of other phylogeographic studies from the Near East. Our study underlines the important role of the Near East in generating and sustaining biodiversity

Imaging in population science: cardiovascular magnetic resonance in 100,000 participants of UK Biobank - rationale, challenges and approaches

PMCID: PMC3668194SEP was directly funded by the National Institute for Health Research Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit at Barts. SN acknowledges support from the Oxford NIHR Biomedical Research Centre and from the Oxford British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence. SP and PL are funded by a BHF Senior Clinical Research fellowship. RC is supported by a BHF Research Chair and acknowledges the support of the Oxford BHF Centre for Research Excellence and the MRC and Wellcome Trust. PMM gratefully acknowledges training fellowships supporting his laboratory from the Wellcome Trust, GlaxoSmithKline and the Medical Research Council

Genetic traces of hybrid zone movement across a fragmented habitat

Animal science

Efficient screening for ‘genetic pollution’ in an anthropogenic crested newt hybrid zone

Genetic admixture between endangered native and non-native invasive species poses a complex conservation problem. Decision makers often need to quickly screen large numbers of individuals and distinguish natives from morphologically similar invading species and their genetically admixed offspring. We describe a protocol using the fast and economical Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR (KASP) technology for genotyping on a large scale. We apply this protocol to a case study of hybridization between a native and an invasive crested newt species. Using previously published data, we designed a panel of ten nuclear and one mitochondrial diagnostic SNP markers. We observed only minor differences between KASP and next-generation sequencing data previously produced with the Ion Torrent platform. We briefly discuss practical considerations for tackling the insidious conservation problem of genetic admixture between native and invasive species. The KASP genotyping protocol facilitates policy decision making for the crested newt case and is generally applicable to invasive hybridization with endangered taxa