Moral Competence and Brain Connectivity: A Resting-State fMRI Study

Moral competence (MC) refers to the ability to apply certain moral orientations in a consistent and differentiated manner when judging moral issues. People greatly differ in terms of MC, however, little is known about how these differences are implemented in the brain. To investigate this question, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging and examined resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) in n = 31 individuals with MC scores in the highest 15% of the population and n = 33 individuals with MC scores in the lowest 15%, selected from a large sample of 730 Master of Business Administration (MBA) students. Compared to individuals with lower MC, individuals with higher MC showed greater amygdala-ventromedial prefrontal connectivity, which may reflect better ability to cope with emotional conflicts elicited by moral dilemmas. Moreover, individuals with higher MC showed less inter-network connectivity between the amygdalar and fronto-parietal networks, suggesting a more independent operation of these networks. Our findings provide novel insights into how individual differences in moral judgment are associated with RSFC in brain circuits related to emotion processing and cognitive control

Post-Conventional Moral Reasoning is Associated With Increased Ventral Striatal Activity at Rest and During Task

People vary considerably in moral reasoning. According to Kohlberg’s theory, individuals who reach the highest level of post-conventional moral reasoning judge moral issues based on deeper principles and shared ideals rather than self-interest or adherence to laws and rules. Recent research has suggested the involvement of the brain’s frontostriatal reward system in moral judgments and prosocial behaviors. However, it remains unknown whether moral reasoning level is associated with differences in reward system function. Here, we combined arterial spin labeling perfusion and blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging and measured frontostriatal reward system activity both at rest and during a sequential risky decision making task in a sample of 64 participants at different levels of moral reasoning. Compared to individuals at the pre-conventional and conventional level of moral reasoning, post-conventional individuals showed increased resting cerebral blood flow in the ventral striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Cerebral blood flow in these brain regions correlated with the degree of post-conventional thinking across groups. Post-conventional individuals also showed greater task-induced activation in the ventral striatum during risky decision making. These findings suggest that high-level post-conventional moral reasoning is associated with increased activity in the brain’s frontostriatal system, regardless of task-dependent or task-independent states

Scaling of the Equilibrium Magnetization in the Mixed State of Type-II Superconductors

We discuss the analysis of mixed-state magnetization data of type-II superconductors using a recently developed scaling procedure. It is based on the fact that, if the Ginzburg-Landau parameter kappa does not depend on temperature, the magnetic susceptibility is a universal function of H/H_c2(T), leading to a simple relation between magnetizations at different temperatures. Although this scaling procedure does not provide absolute values of the upper critical fieldH_c2(T), its temperature variation can be established rather accurately. This provides an opportunity to validate theoretical models that are usually employed for the evaluation of H_c2(T) from equilibrium magnetization data. In the second part of the paper we apply this scaling procedure for a discussion of the notorious first order phase transition in the mixed state of high temperature superconductors. Our analysis, based on experimental magnetization data available in the literature, shows that the shift of the magnetization accross the transition may adopt either sign, depending on the particular chosen sample. We argue that this observation is inconsistent with the interpretation that this transition always represents the melting transition of the vortex lattice.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figure

A foodborne outbreak of gastroenteritis caused by vibrio parahaemolyticus and norovirus through non-seafood vehicle

Foodborne outbreaks caused by a mixed infection of Vibrio parahaemolyticus and norovirus have rarely been described. We reported a mixed outbreak of Vibrio parahaemolyticus and norovirus causing acute gastroenteritis in 99 staff members of a company in Guangdong, China, in May 2013, following consumption of roasted duck, an uncommon non-seafood vehicle for such mixed infection, in one meal served in the company's catering service. Epidemiological and laboratory findings indicated that a single asymptomatic food handler was the source of both pathogens, and the high rate of infection of both pathogens was exacerbated by the setting's suboptimal food hygiene practice. © 2015 Liu et al.published_or_final_versio

Friend or foe? The current epidemiologic evidence on selenium and human cancer risk.

Scientific opinion on the relationship between selenium and the risk of cancer has undergone radical change over the years, with selenium first viewed as a possible carcinogen in the 1940s then as a possible cancer preventive agent in the 1960s-2000s. More recently, randomized controlled trials have found no effect on cancer risk but suggest possible low-dose dermatologic and endocrine toxicity, and animal studies indicate both carcinogenic and cancer-preventive effects. A growing body of evidence from human and laboratory studies indicates dramatically different biological effects of the various inorganic and organic chemical forms of selenium, which may explain apparent inconsistencies across studies. These chemical form-specific effects also have important implications for exposure and health risk assessment. Overall, available epidemiologic evidence suggests no cancer preventive effect of increased selenium intake in healthy individuals and possible increased risk of other diseases and disorders

Critical behaviour of a surface reaction model with infinitely many absorbing states

In a recent letter [J. Phys. A26, L801 (1993)], Yaldram et al. studied the critical behaviour of a simple lattice gas model of the CO-NO catalytic reaction. The model exhibits a second order nonequilibrium phase transition from an active state into one out of infinitely many absorbing states. Estimates for the critical exponent $\beta$ suggested that the model belongs to a new universality class. The results reported in this article contradict this notion, as estimates for various critical exponents show that the model belongs to the universality class of directed percolation.Comment: 10p+5fig, LaTeX+fig in uuencoded P

Self-Consistent Relativistic Calculation of Nucleon Mean Free Path

We present a fully self-consistent and relativistic calculation of the nucleon mean free path in nuclear matter and finite nuclei. Starting from the Bonn potential, the Dirac-Brueckner-Hartree-Fock results for nuclear matter are parametrized in terms of an effective $\sigma$-$\omega$ Lagrangian suitable for the relativistic density-dependent Hartree-Fock (RDHF) approximation. The nucleon mean free path in nuclear matter is derived from this effective Lagrangian taking diagrams up to fourth-order into account. For the nucleon mean free path in finite nuclei, we make use of the density determined by the RDHF calculation in the local density approximation. Our microscopic results are in good agreement with the empirical data and predictions by Dirac phenomenology.Comment: 16 pages RevTex and 6 figures (paper, available upon request from [email protected]) UI-NTH-931

Live Bird Exposure among the General Public, Guangzhou, China, May 2013

Background A novel avian-origin influenza A(H7N9) caused a major outbreak in Mainland China in early 2013. Exposure to live poultry was believed to be the major route of infection. There are limited data on how the general public changes their practices regarding live poultry exposure in response to the early outbreak of this novel influenza and the frequency of population exposure to live poultry in different areas of China. Methodology This study investigated population exposures to live birds from various sources during the outbreak of H7N9 in Guangzhou city, China in 2013 and compared them with those observed during the 2006 influenza A(H5N1) outbreak. Adults were telephone-interviewed using two-stage sampling, stratified by three residential areas of Guangzhou: urban areas and two semi-rural areas in one of which (Zengcheng) A(H7N9) virus was detected in a chicken from wet markets. Logistic regression models were built to describe practices protecting against avian influenza, weighted by age and gender, and then compare these practices across residential areas in 2013 with those from a comparable 2006 survey. Principal Findings Of 1196 respondents, 45% visited wet markets at least daily and 22.0% reported buying live birds from wet markets at least weekly in April-May, 2013, after the H7N9 epidemic was officially declared in late March 2013. Of those buying live birds, 32.3% reported touching birds when buying and 13.7% would slaughter the poultry at home. Although only 10.1% of the respondents reported raising backyard birds, 92.1% of those who did so had physical contact with the birds they raised. Zengcheng respondents were less likely to report buying live birds from wet markets, but more likely to buy from other sources when compared to urban respondents. Compared with the 2006 survey, the prevalence of buying live birds from wet markets, touching when buying and slaughtering birds at home had substantially declined in the 2013 survey. Conclusion/Significance Although population exposures to live poultry were substantially fewer in 2013 compared to 2006, wet markets and backyard poultry remained the two major sources of live bird exposures for the public in Guangzhou in 2013. Zengcheng residents seemed to have reduced buying live birds from wet markets but not from other sources in response to the detection of H7N9 virus in wet markets.published_or_final_versio

Serum microRNA array analysis identifies miR-140-3p, miR-33b-3p and miR-671-3p as potential osteoarthritis biomarkers involved in metabolic processes.

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) in circulation have emerged as promising biomarkers. In this study, we aimed to identify a circulating miRNA signature for osteoarthritis (OA) patients and in combination with bioinformatics analysis to evaluate the utility of selected differentially expressed miRNAs in the serum as potential OA biomarkers. Methods: Serum samples were collected from 12 primary OA patients, and 12 healthy individuals were screened using the Agilent Human miRNA Microarray platform interrogating 2549 miRNAs. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the deregulated miRNAs. Expression levels of selected miRNAs were validated by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) in all serum and in articular cartilage samples from OA patients (n = 12) and healthy individuals (n = 7). Bioinformatics analysis was used to investigate the involved pathways and target genes for the above miRNAs. Results: We identified 279 differentially expressed miRNAs in the serum of OA patients compared to controls. Two hundred and five miRNAs (73.5%) were upregulated and 74 (26.5%) downregulated. ROC analysis revealed that 77 miRNAs had area under the curve (AUC) > 0.8 and p < 0.05. Bioinformatics analysis in the 77 miRNAs revealed that their target genes were involved in multiple signaling pathways associated with OA, among which FoxO, mTOR, Wnt, pI3K/akt, TGF-β signaling pathways, ECM-receptor interaction, and fatty acid biosynthesis. qRT-PCR validation in seven selected out of the 77 miRNAs revealed 3 significantly downregulated miRNAs (hsa-miR-33b-3p, hsa-miR-671-3p, and hsa-miR-140-3p) in the serum of OA patients, which were in silico predicted to be enriched in pathways involved in metabolic processes. Target-gene analysis of hsa-miR-140-3p, hsa-miR-33b-3p, and hsa-miR-671-3p revealed that InsR and IGFR1 were common targets of all three miRNAs, highlighting their involvement in regulation of metabolic processes that contribute to OA pathology. Hsa-miR-140-3p and hsa-miR-671-3p expression levels were consistently downregulated in articular cartilage of OA patients compared to healthy individuals. Conclusions: A serum miRNA signature was established for the first time using high density resolution miR-arrays in OA patients. We identified a three-miRNA signature, hsa-miR-140-3p, hsa-miR-671-3p, and hsa-miR-33b-3p, in the serum of OA patients, predicted to regulate metabolic processes, which could serve as a potential biomarker for the evaluation of OA risk and progression.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio