Interviewing in virtual environments: Towards understanding the impact of rapport-building behaviours and retrieval context on eyewitness memory.

Given the complexities of episodic memory and necessarily social nature of in-person face-to-face interviews, theoretical and evidence-based techniques for collecting episodic information from witnesses, victims, and survivors champion rapport-building. Rapport is believed to reduce some of the social demands of recalling an experienced event in an interview context, potentially increasing cognitive capacity for remembering. Cognitive and social benefits have also emerged in remote interview contexts with reduced anxiety and social pressure contributing to improved performance. Here, we investigated episodic memory in mock-eyewitness interviews conducted in virtual environments (VE) and in-person face-to-face (FtF), where rapport-building behaviours were either present or absent. Main effects revealed when rapport was present and where interviews were conducted in a VE participants recalled more correct event information, made fewer errors and were more accurate. Moreover, participants in the VE plus rapport-building present condition outperformed participants in all other conditions. Feedback indicated both rapport and environment were important for reducing the social demands of a recall interview, towards supporting effortful remembering. Our results add to the emerging literature on the utility of virtual environments as interview spaces and lend further support to the importance of prosocial behaviours in applied contexts. [Abstract copyright: © 2022. The Author(s).

TOX3 mutations in breast cancer

TOX3 maps to 16q12, a region commonly lost in breast cancers and recently implicated in the risk of developing breast cancer. However, not much is known of the role of TOX3 itself in breast cancer biology. This is the first study to determine the importance of TOX3 mutations in breast cancers. We screened TOX3 for mutations in 133 breast tumours and identified four mutations (three missense, one in-frame deletion of 30 base pairs) in six primary tumours, corresponding to an overall mutation frequency of 4.5%. One potentially deleterious missense mutation in exon 3 (Leu129Phe) was identified in one tumour (genomic DNA and cDNA). Whilst copy number changes of 16q12 are common in breast cancer, our data show that mutations of TOX3 are present at low frequency in tumours. Our results support that TOX3 should be further investigated to elucidate its role in breast cancer biology.Breast Cancer Research Foundation grant; University of Cambridge; Cancer Research UK; Hutchison Whampoa Limited; NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre; Marie Curie Career Integration Grant; Cancer Research UK [16942]; National Institute for Health Research [NF-SI-0611-10154

New ADS Functionality for the Curator

In this paper we provide an update concerning the operations of the NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS), its services and user interface, and the content currently indexed in its database. As the primary information system used by researchers in Astronomy, the ADS aims to provide a comprehensive index of all scholarly resources appearing in the literature. With the current effort in our community to support data and software citations, we discuss what steps the ADS is taking to provide the needed infrastructure in collaboration with publishers and data providers. A new API provides access to the ADS search interface, metrics, and libraries allowing users to programmatically automate discovery and curation tasks. The new ADS interface supports a greater integration of content and services with a variety of partners, including ORCID claiming, indexing of SIMBAD objects, and article graphics from a variety of publishers. Finally, we highlight how librarians can facilitate the ingest of gray literature that they curate into our system.Comment: Submitted to the Proceedings of Library and Information Services in Astronomy VIII, Strasbourg, Franc

Activation of matrix metalloproteinases following anti-Aβ immunotherapy; implications for microhemorrhage occurrence

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Anti-Aβ immunotherapy is a promising approach to the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) currently in clinical trials. There is extensive evidence, both in mice and humans that a significant adverse event is the occurrence of microhemorrhages. Also, vasogenic edema was reported in phase 2 of a passive immunization clinical trial. In order to overcome these vascular adverse effects it is critical that we understand the mechanism(s) by which they occur.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We have examined the matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) protein degradation system in two previously published anti-Aβ immunotherapy studies. The first was a passive immunization study in which we examined 22 month old APPSw mice that had received anti-Aβ antibodies for 1, 2 or 3 months. The second is an active vaccination study in which we examined 16 month old APPSw/NOS2-/- mice treated with Aβ vaccination for 4 months.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There is a significant activation of the MMP2 and MMP9 proteinase degradation systems by anti-Aβ immunotherapy, regardless of whether this is delivered through active vaccination or passive immunization. We have characterized this activation by gene expression, protein expression and zymography assessment of MMP activity.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Since the MMP2 and MMP9 systems are heavily implicated in the pathophysiology of intracerbral hemorrhage, these data may provide a potential mechanism of microhemorrhage due to immunotherapy. Increased activity of the MMP system, therefore, is likely to be a major factor in increased microhemorrhage occurrence.</p

Stellar cosmic rays as an important source of ionization in protoplanetary discs: a disc mass-dependent process

We assess the ionizing effect of low-energy protostellar cosmic rays in protoplanetary discs around a young solar mass star for a wide range of disc parameters. We assume a source of low-energy cosmic rays located close to the young star that travels diffusively through the protoplanetary disc. We use observationally inferred values from nearby star-forming regions for the total disc mass and the radial density profile. We investigate the influence of varying the disc mass within the observed scatter for a solar mass star. We find that for a large range of disc masses and density profiles that protoplanetary discs are ‘optically thin’ to low-energy (∼3 GeV) cosmic rays. At R ∼ 10 au, for all of the discs that we consider (Mdisc = 6.0 × 10−4– 2.4 × 10−2M), the ionization rate due to low-energy stellar cosmic rays is larger than that expected from unmodulated galactic cosmic rays. This is in contrast to our previous results that assumed a much denser disc that may be appropriate for a more embedded source. At R ∼ 70 au, the ionization rate due to stellar cosmic rays dominates in ∼50 per cent of the discs. These are the less massive discs with less steep density profiles. At this radius, there is at least an order of magnitude difference in the ionization rate between the least and most massive disc that we consider. Our results indicate, for a wide range of disc masses, that low-energy stellar cosmic rays provide an important source of ionization at the disc mid-plane at large radii (∼70 au)

Associations among personal care product use patterns and exogenous hormone use in the NIEHS Sister Study

It is hypothesized that certain chemicals in personal care products may alter the risk of adverse health outcomes. The primary aim of this study was to use a data-centered approach to classify complex patterns of exposure to personal care products and to understand how these patterns vary according to use of exogenous hormone exposures, oral contraceptives (OCs) and post-menopausal hormone therapy (HT). The NIEHS Sister Study is a prospective cohort study of 50,884 US women. Limiting the sample to non-Hispanic blacks and whites (N = 47,019), latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify groups of individuals with similar patterns of personal care product use based on responses to 48 survey questions. Personal care products were categorized into three product types (beauty, hair, and skincare products) and separate latent classes were constructed for each type. Adjusted prevalence differences (PD) were calculated to estimate the association between exogenous hormone use, as measured by ever/never OC or HT use, and patterns of personal care product use. LCA reduced data dimensionality by grouping of individuals with similar patterns of personal care product use into mutually exclusive latent classes (three latent classes for beauty product use, three for hair, and four for skin care. There were strong differences in personal care usage by race, particularly for haircare products. For both blacks and whites, exogenous hormone exposures were associated with higher levels of product use, especially beauty and skincare products. Relative to individual product use questions, latent class variables capture complex patterns of personal care product usage. These patterns differed by race and were associated with ever OC and HT use. Future studies should consider personal care product exposures with other exogenous exposures when modeling health risks

Microsphere-Based Osteochondral Scaffolds Carrying Opposing Gradients Of Decellularized Cartilage And Demineralized Bone Matrix

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://doi.org/10.1021/acsbiomaterials.6b00071.Extracellular matrix (ECM) “raw materials” such as demineralized bone matrix (DBM) and cartilage matrix have emerged as leading scaffolding materials for osteochondral regeneration owing to their capacity to facilitate progenitor/resident cell recruitment, infiltration, and differentiation without adding growth factors. Scaffolds comprising synthetic polymers are sturdy yet generally lack cues for guiding cell differentiation. We hypothesized that opposing gradients of decellularized cartilage (DCC) and DBM in polymeric microsphere-based scaffolds would provide superior regeneration compared to polymer-only scaffolds in vivo. Poly(D,L-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) microsphere-based scaffolds were fabricated, either with opposing gradients of DCC and DBM encapsulated (GRADIENT) or without DCC and DBM (BLANK control), and implanted into rabbit osteochondral defects in medial femoral condyles. After 12 weeks, gross morphological evaluation showed that the repair tissue in about 30% of the implants was either slightly or significantly depressed, hinting toward rapid polymer degradation in scaffolds from both of the groups. Additionally, no differences were observed in gross morphology of the repair tissue between the BLANK and GRADIENT groups. Mechanical testing revealed no significant differences in model parameter values between the two groups. Histological observations demonstrated that the repair tissue in both of the groups was fibrous in nature with the cells demonstrating notable proliferation and matrix deposition activity. No adverse inflammatory response was observed in any of the implants from the two groups. Overall, the results emphasize the need to improve the technology in terms of altering the DBM and DCC concentrations, and tailoring the polymer degradation to these concentrations.R01 AR056347Kansas Bioscience Authority Rising Star Awar

Defining normal IgG changes throughout pregnancy

Immunoglobulin G (IgG) is the major serum immunoglobulin, accounting for roughly 75% of all immunoglobulin. IgG is the only class of immunoglobulin that crosses the placenta and it serves as the main immunologic barrier between the fetus and external environments. There has not been a clear consensus on what the normal values of IgG are throughout pregnancy. The aim of this study is to measure serum immunoglobulin G in each trimester of the pregnant female to determine a normal IgG profile throughout all trimesters in normal pregnancy