Factors affecting conspiracy theory endorsement in paranoia

Paranoia and conspiracy thinking are known to be distinct but correlated constructs, but it is unknown whether certain types of conspiracy thinking are more common in paranoia than others. In a large (n = 1000), pre-registered online study we tested if endorsement of items on a new Components of Conspiracy Ideation Questionnaire varied according to whether harm was described as being (a) intentional and (b) self-referential. Our predictions were supported: paranoia was positively associated with endorsement of items on this questionnaire overall and more paranoid individuals were more likely to endorse items describing intentional and self-referential harm. Belief in any item on the Components of Conspiracy Ideation Questionnaire was associated with belief in others and items describing incidental harm and harm to others were found to be more believable overall. Individuals who endorsed conspiracy theory items on the questionnaire were more likely to state that people similar to them would as well, although this effect was not reduced in paranoia, counter to our expectations

Benthic Carbon fixation and cycling in diffuse hydrothermal and background sediments in the Bransfield Strait, Antarctica

Sedimented hydrothermal vents are likely to be widespread compared to hard substrate hot vents. They host chemosynthetic microbial communities which fix inorganic carbon (C) at the seafloor, as well as a wide range of macroinfauna, including vent-obligate and background non-vent taxa. There are no previous direct observations of carbon cycling at a sedimented hydrothermal vent. We conducted 13C isotope tracing experiments at three sedimented sites in the Bransfield Strait, Antarctica, which showed different degrees of hydrothermalism. Two experimental treatments were applied, with 13C added as either algal detritus (photosynthetic C), or as bicarbonate (substrate for benthic C fixation). Algal 13C was taken up by both bacteria and metazoan macrofaunal, but its dominant fate was respiration, as observed at deeper and more food-limited sites elsewhere. Rates of 13C uptake and respiration suggested that the diffuse hydrothermal site was not the hot spot of benthic C cycling that we hypothesised it would be. Fixation of inorganic C into bacterial biomass was observed at all sites, and was measurable at two out of three sites. At all sites, newly fixed C was transferred to metazoan macrofauna. Fixation rates were relatively low compared with similar experiments elsewhere; thus, C fixed at the seafloor was a minor C source for the benthic ecosystem. However, as the greatest amount of benthic C fixation occurred at the “Off Vent” (non-hydrothermal) site (0.077±0.034 mg C m−2 fixed during 60 h), we suggest that benthic fixation of inorganic C is more widespread than previously thought, and warrants further study

Binary and Millisecond Pulsars at the New Millennium

We review the properties and applications of binary and millisecond pulsars. Our knowledge of these exciting objects has greatly increased in recent years, mainly due to successful surveys which have brought the known pulsar population to over 1300. There are now 56 binary and millisecond pulsars in the Galactic disk and a further 47 in globular clusters. This review is concerned primarily with the results and spin-offs from these surveys which are of particular interest to the relativity community.Comment: 59 pages, 26 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in Living Reviews in Relativity (http://www.livingreviews.org

Renormalisation of heavy-light light ray operators

We calculate the renormalisation of different light ray operators with one light degree of freedom and a static heavy quark. Both $2\to2$- and $2\to3$-kernels are considered. A comparison with the light-light case suggests that the mixing with three-particle operators is solely governed by the light degrees of freedom. Additionally we show that conformal symmetry is already broken at the level of the one loop counterterms due to the additional UV-renormalisation of a cusp in the two contributing Wilson-lines. This general feature can be used to fix the $2\to2$-renormalisation kernels up to a constant. Some examples for applications of our results are given.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figures; v2: changed some wording, added a few references and one appendix concerning some subtleties related to gauge fixing and ghost terms; v3: clarified calculation in section 3.2., added an explicit calculation in section 5.2, corrected a few typos and one figure, added a few comments, results unchanged, except for typesetting matches version to appear in JHE

VEZF1 elements mediate protection from DNA methylation

There is growing consensus that genome organization and long-range gene regulation involves partitioning of the genome into domains of distinct epigenetic chromatin states. Chromatin insulator or barrier elements are key components of these processes as they can establish boundaries between chromatin states. The ability of elements such as the paradigm β-globin HS4 insulator to block the range of enhancers or the spread of repressive histone modifications is well established. Here we have addressed the hypothesis that a barrier element in vertebrates should be capable of defending a gene from silencing by DNA methylation. Using an established stable reporter gene system, we find that HS4 acts specifically to protect a gene promoter from de novo DNA methylation. Notably, protection from methylation can occur in the absence of histone acetylation or transcription. There is a division of labor at HS4; the sequences that mediate protection from methylation are separable from those that mediate CTCF-dependent enhancer blocking and USF-dependent histone modification recruitment. The zinc finger protein VEZF1 was purified as the factor that specifically interacts with the methylation protection elements. VEZF1 is a candidate CpG island protection factor as the G-rich sequences bound by VEZF1 are frequently found at CpG island promoters. Indeed, we show that VEZF1 elements are sufficient to mediate demethylation and protection of the APRT CpG island promoter from DNA methylation. We propose that many barrier elements in vertebrates will prevent DNA methylation in addition to blocking the propagation of repressive histone modifications, as either process is sufficient to direct the establishment of an epigenetically stable silent chromatin stat

Pledging to harm:A linguistic appraisal analysis of judgment comparing realized and non-realized violent fantasies

Intent is a psychological quality that threat assessors view as a required step on a threatener’s pathway to action. Recognizing the presence of intent in threatening language is therefore crucial to determining whether a threat is credible. Nevertheless, a ‘lack of empirical guidance’ (p. 326) is available concerning how violent intent is expressed linguistically. Using the subsystem of judgment in Appraisal analysis, this study compares realized with non-realized ‘pledges to harm’, revealing occasionally counterintuitive patterns of stancetaking by both author types – for example, that the non-realized texts are both prosodically more violent and more threatening, while the realized pledges are more ethically nuanced – which may begin to shed light on which attitudinal markers reliably correlate with an author’s intention to do future harm

Are Interaction-free Measurements Interaction Free?

In 1993 Elitzur and Vaidman introduced the concept of interaction-free measurements which allowed finding objects without ``touching'' them. In the proposed method, since the objects were not touched even by photons, thus, the interaction-free measurements can be called as ``seeing in the dark''. Since then several experiments have been successfully performed and various modifications were suggested. Recently, however, the validity of the term ``interaction-free'' has been questioned. The criticism of the name is briefly reviewed and the meaning of the interaction-free measurements is clarified.Comment: 11 pages, 3 eps figures. Contribution to the ICQO 2000, Raubichi, Belaru

Influence of host phylogeny and water physicochemistry on microbial assemblages of the fish skin microbiome

This is the final version. Available on open access from Oxford University Press via the DOI in this recordThe skin of fish contains a diverse microbiota that has symbiotic functions with the host, facilitating pathogen exclusion, immune system priming, and nutrient degradation. The composition of fish skin microbiomes varies across species and in response to a variety of stressors, however, there has been no systematic analysis across these studies to evaluate how these factors shape fish skin microbiomes. Here, we examined 1922 fish skin microbiomes from 36 studies that included 98 species and nine rearing conditions to investigate associations between fish skin microbiome, fish species, and water physiochemical factors. Proteobacteria, particularly the class Gammaproteobacteria, were present in all marine and freshwater fish skin microbiomes. Acinetobacter, Aeromonas, Ralstonia, Sphingomonas and Flavobacterium were the most abundant genera within freshwater fish skin microbiomes, and Alteromonas, Photobacterium, Pseudoalteromonas, Psychrobacter and Vibrio were the most abundant in saltwater fish. Our results show that different culturing (rearing) environments have a small but significant effect on the skin bacterial community compositions. Water temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen concentration, and salinity significantly correlated with differences in beta-diversity but not necessarily alpha-diversity. To improve study comparability on fish skin microbiomes, we provide recommendations for approaches to the analyses of sequencing data and improve study reproducibility.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC

Dual EZH2 and EHMT2 histone methyltransferase inhibition increases biological efficacy in breast cancer cells

Background: Many cancers show aberrant silencing of gene expression and overexpression of histone methyltransferases. The histone methyltransferases (HKMT) EZH2 and EHMT2 maintain the repressive chromatin histone methylation marks H3K27me and H3K9me, respectively, which are associated with transcriptional silencing. Although selective HKMT inhibitors reduce levels of individual repressive marks, removal of H3K27me3 by specific EZH2 inhibitors, for instance, may not be sufficient for inducing the expression of genes with multiple repressive marks. Results: We report that gene expression and inhibition of triple negative breast cancer cell growth (MDA-MB-231) are markedly increased when targeting both EZH2 and EHMT2, either by siRNA knockdown or pharmacological inhibition, rather than either enzyme independently. Indeed, expression of certain genes is only induced upon dual inhibition. We sought to identify compounds which showed evidence of dual EZH2 and EHMT2 inhibition. Using a cell-based assay, based on the substrate competitive EHMT2 inhibitor BIX01294, we have identified proof-of-concept compounds that induce re-expression of a subset of genes consistent with dual HKMT inhibition. Chromatin immunoprecipitation verified a decrease in silencing marks and an increase in permissive marks at the promoter and transcription start site of re-expressed genes, while Western analysis showed reduction in global levels of H3K27me3 and H3K9me3. The compounds inhibit growth in a panel of breast cancer and lymphoma cell lines with low to sub-micromolar IC50s. Biochemically, the compounds are substrate competitive inhibitors against both EZH2 and EHMT1/2. Conclusions: We have demonstrated that dual inhibition of EZH2 and EHMT2 is more effective at eliciting biological responses of gene transcription and cancer cell growth inhibition compared to inhibition of single HKMTs, and we report the first dual EZH2-EHMT1/2 substrate competitive inhibitors that are functional in cells