Modulation of facial mimicry by attitudes

The current experiment explored the influence of attitudes on facial reactions to emotional faces. The participants’ attitudes (positive, neutral, and negative) towards three types of characters were manipulated by written reports. Afterwards participants saw happy, neutral, and sad facial expressions of the respective characters while their facial muscular reactions (M. Corrugator supercilii and M. Zygomaticus major) were recorded electromyografically. Results revealed facial mimicry reactions to happy and sad faces of positive characters, but less and even incongruent facial muscular reactions to happy and sad faces of negative characters. Overall, the results show that attitudes, formed in a few minutes, and only by reports and not by own experiences, can moderate automatic non-verbal social behavior, i.e. facial mimicry

Exciton localization in semipolar ( 112¯2) InGaN multiple quantum wells

The exciton localization in semipolar (112⎯⎯2112¯2) InxGa1−xN (0.13 ≤ x ≤ 0.35) multiple-quantum-well (MQW) structures has been studied by excitation power density and temperature dependent photoluminescence. A strong exciton localization was found in the samples with a linear dependence with In-content and emission energy, consistent with the Stokes-shift values. This strong localization was found to cause a blue-shift of the MQW exciton emission energy at temperature above 100 K, which was found to linearly increase with increasing In-content

Brain Activations to Emotional Pictures are Differentially Associated with Valence and Arousal Ratings

Several studies have investigated the neural responses triggered by emotional pictures, but the specificity of the involved structures such as the amygdala or the ventral striatum is still under debate. Furthermore, only few studies examined the association of stimuli's valence and arousal and the underlying brain responses. Therefore, we investigated brain responses with functional magnetic resonance imaging of 17 healthy participants to pleasant and unpleasant affective pictures and afterwards assessed ratings of valence and arousal. As expected, unpleasant pictures strongly activated the right and left amygdala, the right hippocampus, and the medial occipital lobe, whereas pleasant pictures elicited significant activations in left occipital regions, and in parts of the medial temporal lobe. The direct comparison of unpleasant and pleasant pictures, which were comparable in arousal clearly indicated stronger amygdala activation in response to the unpleasant pictures. Most important, correlational analyses revealed on the one hand that the arousal of unpleasant pictures was significantly associated with activations in the right amygdala and the left caudate body. On the other hand, valence of pleasant pictures was significantly correlated with activations in the right caudate head, extending to the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. These findings support the notion that the amygdala is primarily involved in processing of unpleasant stimuli, particularly to more arousing unpleasant stimuli. Reward-related structures like the caudate and NAcc primarily respond to pleasant stimuli, the stronger the more positive the valence of these stimuli is

HALON-hysterectomy by transabdominal laparoscopy or natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery : a randomised controlled trial (study protocol)

Acknowledgments The authors acknowledge the NOTES Investigators' team for taking care of the study participants; and Amanda McPhail for language correction and editing of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Transvaginal natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (vNOTES) adnexectomy for benign pathology compared with laparoscopic excision (NOTABLE) : A protocol for a randomised controlled trial

M1 - 018059 Acknowledgments We thank the vNOTES investigators’ team for taking care of the study participants. We also thank Amanda McPhail for language correction and editing of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Adnexectomy by vaginal Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery versus laparoscopy : results of a first randomised controlled trial (NOTABLE trial)

Peer reviewedPostprin

Role of substrate quality on the performance of semipolar (11 2 - 2) InGaN light-emitting diodes

We compare the optical properties and device performance of unpackaged InGaN/GaN multiple-quantum-well light-emitting diodes (LEDs) emitting at ∼430 nm grown simultaneously on a high-cost small-size bulk semipolar (11 2 - 2) GaN substrate (Bulk-GaN) and a low-cost large-size (11 2 - 2) GaN template created on patterned (10 1 - 2) r-plane sapphire substrate (PSS-GaN). The Bulk-GaN substrate has the threading dislocation density (TDD) of ∼ and basal-plane stacking fault (BSF) density of 0 cm-1, while the PSS-GaN substrate has the TDD of ∼2 × 108cm-2 and BSF density of ∼1 × 103cm-1. Despite an enhanced light extraction efficiency, the LED grown on PSS-GaN has two-times lower internal quantum efficiency than the LED grown on Bulk-GaN as determined by photoluminescence measurements. The LED grown on PSS-GaN substrate also has about two-times lower output power compared to the LED grown on Bulk-GaN substrate. This lower output power was attributed to the higher TDD and BSF density

Stop looking angry and smile, please: start and stop of the very same facial expression differentially activate threat- and reward-related brain networks

Static pictures of emotional facial expressions have been found to activate brain structures involved in the processing of emotional stimuli. However, in everyday live, emotional expressions are changing rapidly, and the processing of the onset vs the offset of the very same emotional expression might rely on different brain networks, presumably leading to different behavioral and physiological reactions (e.g. approach or avoidance). Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, this was examined by presenting video clips depicting onsets and offsets of happy and angry facial expressions. Subjective valence and threat ratings clearly depended on the direction of change. Blood oxygen level dependent responses indicate both reward- and threat-related activations for the offset of angry expressions. Comparing onsets and offsets, angry offsets were associated with stronger ventral striatum activation than angry onsets. Additionally, the offset of happy and the onset of angry expressions showed strong common activity in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex bilaterally, the left amygdala and the left insula, whereas the onset of happy and the offset of angry expressions induced significant activation in the left dorsal striatum. In sum, the results confirm different activity in motivation-related brain areas in response to the onset and offset of the same emotional expression and highlight the importance of temporal characteristics of facial expressions for social communication

Tumor classification: molecular analysis meets Aristotle

BACKGROUND: Traditionally, tumors have been classified by their morphologic appearances. Unfortunately, tumors with similar histologic features often follow different clinical courses or respond differently to chemotherapy. Limitations in the clinical utility of morphology-based tumor classifications have prompted a search for a new tumor classification based on molecular analysis. Gene expression array data and proteomic data from tumor samples will provide complex data that is unobtainable from morphologic examination alone. The growing question facing cancer researchers is, "How can we successfully integrate the molecular, morphologic and clinical characteristics of human cancer to produce a helpful tumor classification?" DISCUSSION: Current efforts to classify cancers based on molecular features ignore lessons learned from millennia of experience in biological classification. A tumor classification must include every type of tumor and must provide a unique place for each tumor within the classification. Groups within a classification inherit the properties of their ancestors and impart properties to their descendants. A classification was prepared grouping tumors according to their histogenetic development. The classification is simple (reducing the complexity of information received from the molecular analysis of tumors), comprehensive (providing a place for every tumor of man), and consistent with recent attempts to characterize tumors by cytogenetic and molecular features. The clinical and research value of this historical approach to tumor classification is discussed. SUMMARY: This manuscript reviews tumor classification and provides a new and comprehensive classification for neoplasia that preserves traditional nomenclature while incorporating information derived from the molecular analysis of tumors. The classification is provided as an open access XML document that can be used by cancer researchers to relate tumor classes with heterogeneous experimental and clinical tumor databases