Neural correlates of intrusion of emotion words in a modified Stroop task

Behavioural studies have demonstrated that the emotional Stroop task is a valuable tool for investigating emotion-attention interactions in a variety of healthy and clinical populations, showing that participants are typically more distracted by negative stimuli as compared to neutral or positive stimuli. The main aim of this study was to find and examine the neural correlates of this greater intrusion from negative emotional stimuli. Reliable reaction time (RT) and event-related potential (ER-P) data were collected from 23 participants who performed a manual emotional Stroop, task with short (40 ins) and long (500 ms) inter-trial intervals. In the short interval condition, participants were found to produce longer RTs for negative than neutral words, suggesting that these stimuli were more difficult to ignore. This RT effect disappeared in the long interval condition, although larger PI amplitudes were found for the negative words. This suggests that differences in early attention allocation may be unrelated to the degree of intrusion at the behavioural level. In addition, a larger negative slow wave around 300-700 ms post-stimulus was observed in the long interval condition, but only for those negative words that produced prolonged RTs as compared to their matched controls. This late and broadly distributed effect is believed to reflect suppression of meaning representations

An ultrasound evaluation of the relationship between changes in the lumbar perimuscular layer and Body Mass Index in people with non-specific lower back pain

BACKGROUND Mechanisms underlying non-specific lower back pain are still poorly understood. In an ultrasound-based study, Langevin et al. [1] found differences in the lumbar connective tissue structures in people with non-specific lower back pain (LBP) compared to people without (no-LBP). The aim of this study is to extend the work of Langevin and colleagues, and evaluate the relationship between the lumbar perimuscular layer and Body Mass Index (BMI) in LBP and no-LBP people. METHODS This study is a cross-sectional study design. Ultrasound imaging was used to investigate the echogenicity and thickness of the lumbar perimuscular layer in 45 participants (31 LBP, 14 no-LBP). The outcome measures were the thickness and echogenicity of the lumbar perimuscular layer. Longitudinal B-Mode ultrasound images were taken bi-laterally on an area 2 cm lateral to the midpoint between the spinous processes of L2-3,at a frequency of 18MHz, depth of 3 cm, (EsoateMyLab 25Gold, Firenze, Italy) using a 4 cm linear probe (Esaote LA435, Firenze, Italy) . Images were converted to grey-scale in Matlab (Mathworks, USA). The borders of the perimuscular layer were identified by a blinded investigator. Thickness was calculated in pixels and echogenicity as the average grey-scale value. Data was analysed using ANCOVA and linear regression. RESULTS The LBP and no-LBP groups did not significantly differ in age, sex, BMI or level of physical activity. Age (r= .452, p =.002) and BMI (r= .374, p =.013) showed significant positive correlations with perimuscular thickness, but not with perimuscular echogenicity. BMI significantly predicted perimuscular thickness (ANCOVA: p = .016), whereas group membership did not (ANCOVA:p=.168). Perimuscular echogenicity could be significantly predicted only by considering the interaction between group membership and BMI. The interaction between BMI and group membership accounted for 16% of the observed changes in perimuscular echogenicity (ANCOVA:p=.006). The interaction arose because in the no-LBP group, echogenicity significantly decreased as BMI increased (Regression:p = .005). In contrast, there was no systematic relationship between perimuscular echogenicity and BMI in the LBP group (Regression:p = .391). CONCLUSIONS Measurements of echogenicity can only be accounted for by considering group membership (LBP and no-LBP) and BMI values jointly. The relationship between BMI and echogenicity (negative correlation) in the no-LBP group is not found in participants with LBP. Possible causes, which require further investigation, include: sub-failure, changes in movement patterns, chronic inflammation, fibrosis, and/or fatty tissue infiltration

Evaluating progestogens for prevention of preterm birth international collaborative (EPPPIC) individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis : protocol

BACKGROUND: Preterm birth is the most common cause of death and harm to newborn babies. Babies that are born early may have difficulties at birth and experience health problems during early childhood. Despite extensive study, there is still uncertainty about the effectiveness of progestogen (medications that are similar to the natural hormone progesterone) in preventing or delaying preterm birth, and in improving birth outcomes. The Evaluating Progestogen for Prevention of Preterm birth International Collaborative (EPPPIC) project aims to reduce uncertainty about the specific conditions in which progestogen may (or may not) be effective in preventing or delaying preterm birth and improving birth outcomes. METHODS: The design of the study involves international collaborative individual participant data meta-analysis comprising systematic review, re-analysis, and synthesis of trial datasets. Inclusion criteria are as follows: randomized controlled trials comparing progestogen versus placebo or non-intervention, or comparing different types of progestogen, in asymptomatic women at risk of preterm birth. Main outcomes are as follows; fetal/infant death, preterm birth or fetal death (<=37 weeks, <=34 weeks, <= 28 weeks), serious neonatal complications or fetal/infant death, neurosensory disability (measured at 18 months or later) or infant/child death, important maternal morbidity, or maternal death. In statistical methods, IPD will be synthesized across trials using meta-analysis. Both 'two-stage' models (where effect estimates are calculated for each trial and subsequently pooled in a meta-analysis) and 'one-stage' models (where all IPD from all trials are analyzed in one step, while accounting for the clustering of participants within trials) will be used. If sufficient suitable data are available, a network meta-analysis will compare all types of progesterone and routes of administration extending the one-stage models to include multiple treatment arms. DISCUSSION: EPPPIC is an international collaborative project being conducted by the forming EPPPIC group, which includes trial investigators, an international secretariat, and the research project team. Results, which are intended to contribute to improvements in maternal and child health, are expected to be publicly available in mid 2018. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42017068299

Pilot testing of a sampling methodology for assessing seed attachment propensity and transport rate in a soil matrix carried on boot soles and bike tires

Land managers of natural areas are under pressure to balance demands for increased recreation access with protection of the natural resource. Unintended dispersal of seeds by visitors to natural areas has high potential for weedy plant invasions, with initial seed attachment an important step in the dispersal process. Although walking and mountain biking are popular nature-based recreation activities there are few studies quantifying propensity for seed attachment and transport rate on boot soles and none for bike tires. Attachment and transport rate can potentially be affected by a wide range of factors for which field testing can be time-consuming and expensive. We pilot tested a sampling methodology for measuring seed attachment and transport rate in a soil matrix carried on boot soles and bike tires traversing a known quantity and density of a seed analog (beads) over different distances and soil conditions. We found % attachment rate on boot soles was much lower overall than previously reported but that boot soles had a higher propensity for seed attachment than bike tires in almost all conditions. We believe our methodology offers a cost-effective option for researchers seeking to manipulate and test effects of different influencing factors on these two dispersal vectors

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Towards a competitive learning model of mirror effects in yes/no recognition memory tests

Manipulations of encoding strength and stimulus class can lead to a simultaneous increase in hits and decrease in false alarms for a given condition in a yes/no recognition memory test. Based on signal detection theory, the strength-based `mirror effect' is thought to involve a shift in response criterion/threshold (Type I), whereas the stimulus class effect derives from a specific ordering of the memory strength signals for presented items (Type II). We implemented both suggested mechanisms in a simple, competitive feed-forward neural network model with a learning rule related to Bayesian inference. In a single-process approach to recognition, the underlying decision axis as well as the response criteria/thresholds were derived from network activation. Initial results replicated findings in the literature and are a first step towards a more neurally explicit model of mirror effects in recognition memory tests

Using event-related potentials to distinguish mirror effect types: Evidence from a modified directed forgetting procedure (item-method) {A}bstract.

Mirror effects --- simultaneous increases in recognition accuracy for old and new items in a given condition --- provide an important benchmark for memory models, but only if they arise from memory-related differences between conditions. We present a novel approach to distinguish between decision-related (type I) and memory-related (type II) mirror effects in simple yes/no recognition paradigms using event-related potentials (ERPs). We modified a directed forgetting procedure (item-method) to specify and test a relationship between encoding differences (as measured by study phase ERPs), mirror effects (as measured by behavioural data) and ERP retrieval set effects (as measured by test phase ERPs) from the perspective of a strength-based signal detection model of recognition memory. New words were once blocked with old words cued to-be-forgotten (forget retrieval context) and once with old words cued to-be-remembered (remember retrieval context), which produced a mirror effect. In the forget retrieval context, recognition accuracy decreased and ERPs for correctly identified new words were less negative-going in the \overline{\mbox{N400}} time-window (300--500~ms). This ERP retrieval set effect was unrelated to response-criterion shifts between conditions and may instead reflect changes in retrieval orientation, implying a type II mirror effect. Our results suggest that combining behavioural and ERP data can arbitrate between different theoretical explanations of mirror effects and thus memory models