Abstract images and words can convey the same meaning

Intuitively, deriving meaning from an abstract image is a uniquely human, idiosyncratic experience. Here we show that, despite having no universally recognised lexical association, abstract images spontaneously elicit specific concepts conveyed by words, with a consistency akin to that of concrete images. We presented a group of naïve participants with abstract picture–word pairs construed as ‘related’ or ‘unrelated’ according to a preliminary norming procedure conducted with different participants. Surprisingly, the naïve participants with no prior exposure to the abstract images or any hints regarding their possible meaning, displayed a reaction time priming effect for ‘related’ versus ‘unrelated’ picture-word pairs. Critically, this behavioural priming effect, and an associated decrease in N400 mean amplitude indexing semantic priming, both correlated significantly with the degree of relatedness established in the preliminary norming procedure. Given that ratings and electrophysiological measures were obtained in different groups of individuals, our results show that abstract images evoke consistent meaning across observers, as has been shown in the case of music

Languages flex cultural thinking

Recent studies have revealed remarkable interactions between language and emotion. Here, we show that such interactions influence judgments made regarding cultural information. Balanced Welsh–English bilinguals categorized statements about their native Welsh culture as true or false. Whilst participants categorized positive statements as true when they were true, they were biased towards categorizing them as true also when they were false, irrespective of the language in which they read them. Surprisingly, participants were unbiased when categorizing negative statements presented in their native language Welsh, but showed a reverse bias - categorizing sentences as false, even when they were true - for negative statements when they read them in English. The locus of this behavior originated from online semantic evaluation of the statements, shown in corresponding modulations of the N400 peak of event-related brain potentials. These findings suggest that bilinguals perceive and react to cultural information in a language-dependent fashion.</jats:p

Anomalous Transfer of Syntax between Languages

Each human language possesses a set of distinctive syntactic rules. Here, we show that balanced Welsh-English bilinguals reading in English unconsciously apply a morphosyntactic rule that only exists in Welsh. The Welsh soft mutation rule determines whether the initial consonant of a noun changes based on the grammatical context (e.g., the feminine noun cath-"cat" mutates into gath in the phrase y gath-"the cat"). Using event-related brain potentials, we establish that English nouns artificially mutated according to the Welsh mutation rule (e.g., "goncert" instead of "concert") require significantly less processing effort than the same nouns implicitly violating Welsh syntax. Crucially, this effect is found whether or not the mutation affects the same initial consonant in English and Welsh, showing that Welsh syntax is applied to English regardless of phonological overlap between the two languages. Overall, these results demonstrate for the first time that abstract syntactic rules transfer anomalously from one language to the other, even when such rules exist only in one language

Predictive value of nonspecific bronchial responsiveness in occupational asthma

BACKGROUND: The diagnosis of occupational asthma (OA) can be challenging and needs a stepwise approach. However, the predictive value of the methacholine challenge has never been addressed specifically in this context. OBJECTIVE: We sought to evaluate the sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of the methacholine challenge in OA. METHODS: A Canadian database was used to review 1012 cases of workers referred for a suspicion of OA between 1983 and 2011 and having had a specific inhalation challenge. We calculated the sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of methacholine challenges at baseline of the specific inhalation challenge, at the workplace, and outside work. RESULTS: At baseline, the methacholine challenge showed an overall sensitivity of 80.2% and a specificity of 47.1%, with positive and negative predictive values of 36.5% and 86.3%, respectively. Among the 430 subjects who were still working, the baseline measures displayed a sensitivity of 95.4%, a specificity of 40.1%, and positive and negative predictive values of 41.1% and 95.2%, respectively. Among the 582 subjects tested outside work, the baseline measures demonstrated a sensitivity and specificity of 66.7% and 52%, respectively, and positive and negative predictive values of 31.9% and 82.2%, respectively. When considering all subjects tested by a methacholine challenge at least once while at work (479), the sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were 98.1%, 39.1%, and 44.0% and 97.7%, respectively. CONCLUSION: A negative methacholine challenge in a patient still exposed to the causative agent at work makes the diagnosis of OA very unlikely

Implicit detection of poetic harmony by the naïve brain

The power of poetry is universally acknowledged, but it is debatable whether its appreciation is reserved for experts. Here we show that readers with no particular knowledge of a traditional form of Welsh poetry unconsciously distinguish phrases conforming to its complex poetic construction rules from those that violate them. We studied the brain response of native speakers of Welsh as they read meaningful sentences ending in a word that either complied with strict poetic construction rules, violated rules of consonantal repetition, violated stress pattern, or violated both these constraints. Upon reading the last word of each sentence, participants indicated sentence acceptability. As expected, our inexperienced participants did not explicitly distinguish between sentences that conformed to the poetic rules from those that violated them. However, in the case of orthodox sentences, the critical word elicited a distinctive brain response characteristic of target detection –the P3b– as compared to the other conditions, showing that speakers of Welsh with no expertise of this particular form of poetry implicitly detect poetic harmony. These results show for the first time that before we even consider literal meaning, the musical properties of poetry speak to the human mind in ways that escape consciousness

Myocardial infarction primes autoreactive T cells through activation of dendritic cells

Peripheral tolerance is crucial for avoiding activation of self-reactive T cells to tissue-restricted antigens. Sterile tissue injury can break peripheral tolerance, but it is unclear how autoreactive T cells get activated in response to self. An example of a sterile injury is myocardial infarction (MI). We hypothesized that tissue necrosis is an activator of dendritic cells (DCs), which control tolerance to self-antigens. DC subsets of a murine healthy heart consisted of IRF8-dependent conventional (c) DC1, IRF4-dependent cDC2, and monocyte-derived DCs. In steady state, cardiac self-antigen alpha-myosin was presented in the heart-draining mediastinal lymph node (mLN) by cDC1s, driving the proliferation of antigen-specific CD4(+) TCR-M T cells and their differentiation into regulatory cells (Tregs). Following MI, all DC subsets infiltrated the heart, whereas only cDCs migrated to the mLN. Here, cDC2s induced TCR-M proliferation and differentiation into interleukin-(IL)-17/interferon-(IFN) gamma-producing effector cells. Thus, cardiac-specific autoreactive T cells get activated by mature DCs following myocardial infarction

Simulation of a geothermal aquifer storage in Brussels showing the need for a better balanced system with regards to the local hydrogeological conditions

An Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) system was started in 2014 in the center of Brussels using the Landenian confined aquifer for heat and cold needs of an administrative building. Unfortunately, the imbalance between the injection of warm and cold water combined with the local hydrogeological conditions, has led rapidly to thermal interferences between the heat plume and the cold wells. A second ATES system located nearby started to operate around August 2017 for the heat and cold needs of another large administrative building. In the scope of the MUSE project (GeoERA/ERA-NET program), a numerical model was built using FEFLOW® to simulate groundwater flow and heat transport in the confined aquifer. After calibration on the available piezometric and temperature data, realistic scenarios were simulated to determine possible interferences and to image the year after year persisting and growing heat plume in the aquifer. Results show that even if the heat plumes of the two systems had come into contact, the influence of the second system on the first one was negligible during the first two years of joint operation. Indeed, for a longer period, simulated results pointed out that due to the thermal imbalance and the limited advection in the aquifer, the groundwater temperature would rise inexorably in the warm and cold wells of both systems. A business as usual scenario will lead to a decrease in efficiency for both systems. This case-study is showing how it could be difficult to find an optimum with regards to the local hydrogeological conditions. If advection is very important, thermal energy cannot actually be stored locally as heat and cold plumes are transported far away from the wells. On the contrary, if advection is limited, a global thermal balance is required for hot and cold injections. If advection is moderate (as in this case study), a detailed simulation of the groundwater flow and heat transport in the aquifer is required to find out if the annual imbalance can be managed in relation to the specific local hydrogeological conditions

Constitutive programmed death ligand 1 expression protects gastric G-cells from Helicobacter pylori–induced inflammation

INTRODUCTION: Gastric intestinal metaplasia (GIM) is a premalignant lesion, highly associated with Helicobacter pylori infection. Previous studies have shown that H. pylori is able to induce the expression of programmed death ligand 1 (PD‐L1), an inhibitory immune modulator, in gastric cells. Our aim was to investigate whether tissues from GIM patients may exploit PD‐L1 expression upon H. pylori infection to evade immunosurveillance. METHODS: Immunohistochemistry was performed for PD‐L1 and enteroendocrine markers somatostatin and gastrin on samples derived from a cohort of patients with known GIM, both before and after H. pylori eradication. To determine the identity of any observed PD‐L1‐positive cells, we performed multiplex immunofluorescent staining and analysis of single‐cell sequencing data. RESULTS: GIM tissue was rarely positive for PD‐L1. In normal glands from GIM patients, PD‐L1 was mainly expressed by gastrin‐positive G‐cells. While the D‐cell and G‐cell compartments were both diminished 2‐fold (p = .015 and p = .01, respectively) during H. pylori infection in the normal antral tissue of GIM patients, they were restored 1 year after eradication. The total number of PD‐L1‐positive cells was not affected by H. pylori, but the percentage of PD‐L1‐positive G‐cells was 30% higher in infected subjects (p = .011), suggesting that these cells are preferentially rescued from destruction. CONCLUSIONS: Antral G‐cells frequently express PD‐L1 during homeostasis. G‐cells seem to be protected from H. pylori‐induced immune destruction by PD‐L1 expression. GIM itself does not express PD‐L1 and is unlikely to escape immunosurveillance via expression of PD‐L1

Apoptosis, G1 Phase Stall, and Premature Differentiation Account for Low Chimeric Competence of Human and Rhesus Monkey Naive Pluripotent Stem Cells

After reprogramming to naive pluripotency, human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) still exhibit very low ability to make interspecies chimeras. Whether this is because they are inherently devoid of the attributes of chimeric competency or because naive PSCs cannot colonize embryos from distant species remains to be elucidated. Here, we have used different types of mouse, human, and rhesus monkey naive PSCs and analyzed their ability to colonize rabbit and cynomolgus monkey embryos. Mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) remained mitotically active and efficiently colonized host embryos. In contrast, primate naive PSCs colonized host embryos with much lower efficiency. Unlike mouse ESCs, they slowed DNA replication after dissociation and, after injection into host embryos, they stalled in the G1 phase and differentiated prematurely, regardless of host species. We conclude that human and non-human primate naive PSCs do not efficiently make chimeras because they are inherently unfit to remain mitotically active during colonization