Facial expressions depicting compassionate and critical emotions: the development and validation of a new emotional face stimulus set

Attachment with altruistic others requires the ability to appropriately process affiliative and kind facial cues. Yet there is no stimulus set available to investigate such processes. Here, we developed a stimulus set depicting compassionate and critical facial expressions, and validated its effectiveness using well-established visual-probe methodology. In Study 1, 62 participants rated photographs of actors displaying compassionate/kind and critical faces on strength of emotion type. This produced a new stimulus set based on N = 31 actors, whose facial expressions were reliably distinguished as compassionate, critical and neutral. In Study 2, 70 participants completed a visual-probe task measuring attentional orientation to critical and compassionate/kind faces. This revealed that participants lower in self-criticism demonstrated enhanced attention to compassionate/kind faces whereas those higher in self-criticism showed no bias. To sum, the new stimulus set produced interpretable findings using visual-probe methodology and is the first to include higher order, complex positive affect displays

The type II RAF inhibitor tovorafenib in relapsed/refractory pediatric low-grade glioma: the phase 2 FIREFLY-1 trial

\ua9 2023, The Author(s).BRAF genomic alterations are the most common oncogenic drivers in pediatric low-grade glioma (pLGG). Arm 1 (n = 77) of the ongoing phase 2 FIREFLY-1 (PNOC026) trial investigated the efficacy of the oral, selective, central nervous system–penetrant, type II RAF inhibitor tovorafenib (420 mg m−2 once weekly; 600 mg maximum) in patients with BRAF-altered, relapsed/refractory pLGG. Arm 2 (n = 60) is an extension cohort, which provided treatment access for patients with RAF-altered pLGG after arm 1 closure. Based on independent review, according to Response Assessment in Neuro-Oncology High-Grade Glioma (RANO-HGG) criteria, the overall response rate (ORR) of 67% met the arm 1 prespecified primary endpoint; median duration of response (DOR) was 16.6 months; and median time to response (TTR) was 3.0 months (secondary endpoints). Other select arm 1 secondary endpoints included ORR, DOR and TTR as assessed by Response Assessment in Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Low-Grade Glioma (RAPNO) criteria and safety (assessed in all treated patients and the primary endpoint for arm 2, n = 137). The ORR according to RAPNO criteria (including minor responses) was 51%; median DOR was 13.8 months; and median TTR was 5.3 months. The most common treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) were hair color changes (76%), elevated creatine phosphokinase (56%) and anemia (49%). Grade ≥3 TRAEs occurred in 42% of patients. Nine (7%) patients had TRAEs leading to discontinuation of tovorafenib. These data indicate that tovorafenib could be an effective therapy for BRAF-altered, relapsed/refractory pLGG. ClinicalTrials.gov registration: NCT04775485

Male Responses to Conspecific Advertisement Signals in the Field Cricket Gryllus rubens (Orthoptera: Gryllidae)

In many species males aggregate and produce long-range advertisement signals to attract conspecific females. The majority of the receivers of these signals are probably other males most of the time, and male responses to competitors' signals can structure the spatial and temporal organization of the breeding aggregation and affect male mating tactics. I quantified male responses to a conspecific advertisement stimulus repeatedly over three age classes in Gryllus rubens (Orthoptera: Gryllidae) in order to estimate the type and frequency of male responses to the broadcast stimulus and to determine the factors affecting them. Factors tested included body size, wing dimorphism, age, and intensity of the broadcast stimulus. Overall, males employed acoustic response more often than positive phonotactic response. As males aged, the frequency of positive phonotactic response decreased but that of the acoustic response increased. That is, males may use positive phonotaxis in the early stages of their adult lives, possibly to find suitable calling sites or parasitize calling males, and then later in life switch to acoustic responses in response to conspecific advertisement signals. Males with smaller body size more frequently exhibited acoustic responses. This study suggests that individual variation, more than any factors measured, is critical for age-dependent male responses to conspecific advertisement signals

A Novel Copper Chelate Modulates Tumor Associated Macrophages to Promote Anti-Tumor Response of T Cells

At the early stages of carcinogenesis, the induction of tumor specific T cell mediated immunity seems to block the tumor growth and give protective anti-tumor immune response. However, tumor associated macrophages (TAMs) might play an immunosuppressive role and subvert this anti tumor immunity leading to tumor progression and metastasis.The Cu (II) complex, (chelate), copper N-(2-hydroxy acetophenone) glycinate (CuNG), synthesized by us, has previously been shown to have a potential usefulness in immunotherapy of multiple drug resistant cancers. The current study demonstrates that CuNG treatment of TAMs modulates their status from immunosuppressive to proimmunogenic nature. Interestingly, these activated TAMs produced high levels of IL-12 along with low levels of IL-10 that not only allowed strong Th1 response marked by generation of high levels of IFN-gamma but also reduced activation induced T cell death. Similarly, CuNG treatment of peripheral blood monocytes from chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy refractory cancer patients also modulated their cytokine status. Most intriguingly, CuNG treated TAMs could influence reprogramming of TGF-beta producing CD4(+)CD25(+) T cells toward IFN-gamma producing T cells.Our results show the potential usefulness of CuNG in immunotherapy of drug-resistant cancers through reprogramming of TAMs that in turn reprogram the T cells and reeducate the T helper function to elicit proper anti-tumorogenic Th1 response leading to effective reduction in tumor growth

Broad Surveys of DNA Viral Diversity Obtained through Viral Metagenomics of Mosquitoes

Viruses are the most abundant and diverse genetic entities on Earth; however, broad surveys of viral diversity are hindered by the lack of a universal assay for viruses and the inability to sample a sufficient number of individual hosts. This study utilized vector-enabled metagenomics (VEM) to provide a snapshot of the diversity of DNA viruses present in three mosquito samples from San Diego, California. The majority of the sequences were novel, suggesting that the viral community in mosquitoes, as well as the animal and plant hosts they feed on, is highly diverse and largely uncharacterized. Each mosquito sample contained a distinct viral community. The mosquito viromes contained sequences related to a broad range of animal, plant, insect and bacterial viruses. Animal viruses identified included anelloviruses, circoviruses, herpesviruses, poxviruses, and papillomaviruses, which mosquitoes may have obtained from vertebrate hosts during blood feeding. Notably, sequences related to human papillomaviruses were identified in one of the mosquito samples. Sequences similar to plant viruses were identified in all mosquito viromes, which were potentially acquired through feeding on plant nectar. Numerous bacteriophages and insect viruses were also detected, including a novel densovirus likely infecting Culex erythrothorax. Through sampling insect vectors, VEM enables broad survey of viral diversity and has significantly increased our knowledge of the DNA viruses present in mosquitoes

A Model of Mindful Parenting: Implications for Parent–Child Relationships and Prevention Research

This paper introduces a model of “mindful parenting” as a framework whereby parents intentionally bring moment-to-moment awareness to the parent–child relationship. This is done by developing the qualities of listening with full attention when interacting with their children, cultivating emotional awareness and self-regulation in parenting, and bringing compassion and nonjudgmental acceptance to their parenting interactions. First, we briefly outline the theoretical and empirical literature on mindfulness and mindfulness-based interventions. Next, we present an operational definition of mindful parenting as an extension of mindfulness to the social context of parent–child relationships. We discuss the implications of mindful parenting for the quality of parent–child relationships, particularly across the transition to adolescence, and we review the literature on the application of mindfulness in parenting interventions. We close with a synopsis of our own efforts to integrate mindfulness-based intervention techniques and mindful parenting into a well-established, evidence-based family prevention program and our recommendations for future research on mindful parenting interventions

Developmental Stability Covaries with Genome-Wide and Single-Locus Heterozygosity in House Sparrows

Fluctuating asymmetry (FA), a measure of developmental instability, has been hypothesized to increase with genetic stress. Despite numerous studies providing empirical evidence for associations between FA and genome-wide properties such as multi-locus heterozygosity, support for single-locus effects remains scant. Here we test if, and to what extent, FA co-varies with single- and multilocus markers of genetic diversity in house sparrow (Passer domesticus) populations along an urban gradient. In line with theoretical expectations, FA was inversely correlated with genetic diversity estimated at genome level. However, this relationship was largely driven by variation at a single key locus. Contrary to our expectations, relationships between FA and genetic diversity were not stronger in individuals from urban populations that experience higher nutritional stress. We conclude that loss of genetic diversity adversely affects developmental stability in P. domesticus, and more generally, that the molecular basis of developmental stability may involve complex interactions between local and genome-wide effects. Further study on the relative effects of single-locus and genome-wide effects on the developmental stability of populations with different genetic properties is therefore needed

Twenty years of stereotype threat research: A review of psychological mediators

This systematic literature review appraises critically the mediating variables of stereotype threat. A bibliographic search was conducted across electronic databases between 1995 and 2015. The search identified 45 experiments from 38 articles and 17 unique proposed mediators that were categorized into affective/subjective (n = 6), cognitive (n = 7) and motivational mechanisms (n = 4). Empirical support was accrued for mediators such as anxiety, negative thinking, and mind-wandering, which are suggested to co-opt working memory resources under stereotype threat. Other research points to the assertion that stereotype threatened individuals may be motivated to disconfirm negative stereotypes, which can have a paradoxical effect of hampering performance. However, stereotype threat appears to affect diverse social groups in different ways, with no one mediator providing unequivocal empirical support. Underpinned by the multi-threat framework, the discussion postulates that different forms of stereotype threat may be mediated by distinct mechanisms