Beyond Speciesism

Current primate research has yielded stunning results that not only threaten our underlying assumptions about the cognitive and communicative abilities of nonhuman primates, but also bring into question what it means to be human. At the forefront of this research, Sue Savage-Rumbaugh recently has achieved a scientific breakthrough of impressive proportions. Her work with Kanzi, a laboratory-reared bonobo, has led to Kanzi\u27s acquisition of linguistic and cognitive skills similar to those of a two and a half year-old human child. Apes, Language, and the Human Mind skillfully combines a fascinating narrative of the Kanzi research with incisive critical analysis of the research\u27s broader linguistic, psychological, and anthropological implications. The first part of the book provides a detailed, personal account of Kanzi\u27s infancy, youth, and upbringing, while the second part addresses the theoretical, conceptual, and methodological issues raised by the Kanzi research. The authors discuss the challenge to the foundations of modern cognitive science presented by the Kanzi research; the methods by which we represent and evaluate the abilities of both primates and humans; and the implications which ape language research has for the study of the evolution of human language. Sure to be controversial, this exciting new volume offers a radical revision of the sciences of language and mind, and will be important reading for all those working in the fields of primatology, anthropology, linguistics, philosophy of mind, and cognitive and developmental psychology.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/asbookchapters/1129/thumbnail.jp

Parent education interventions designed to support the transition to parenthood: A realist review

AbstractBackgroundPublic health nurses use parent education programmes to support individuals’ transition to parenthood. A wide array of these programmes exists; however, the approach must be accommodated by resources available in a publicly funded system. For example, some new-parent education approaches use 1:1 home visiting (with a nurse or trained lay-home visitor) but the costs of this intensive approach can be prohibitive. Because of this limitation there is an interest in identifying effective and efficient new parent educational approaches that can realistically be provided at a universal level. Unfortunately, there is a lack of high-quality evaluation identifying programmes or educational processes that meet these criteria.ObjectivesTo identify potentially effective new-parenting education interventions that could be implemented at a population level during the transition to parenthood period.DesignRealist synthesis.Data sourcesMedline, CINAHL, ERIC, PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts, grey literature.Review methodsA realist review method generated a total of 72 papers that were used to inform the results. A three-pronged approach was used incorporating an initial search (6), a database search using applicable keywords and MeSH headings (58), and review of literature identified by advisory group (8 grey literature). An ‘implementation chain’ was developed to outline the overall logic and process behind parent education interventions and to guide the analysis.ResultsSeventy-two papers informed this review: 13 systematic reviews/meta-analyses, 34 intervention studies, 9 opinion papers, 8 programme reviews, and 8 grey literature reports. There was no compelling evidence to suggest that a single educational programme or delivery format was effective at a universal level. Some inherent issues were identified. For example, adult learning principles were overlooked and theories of parent–child interaction were not in evidence. No direct links between universal new-parent education programmes and child development outcomes were established. Programme reach and attrition were key challenges. Programme evaluation criteria were inconsistent, with an over-reliance on parent satisfaction or self-reported intention to change behaviour. There was evidence that effective facilitators helped increase parents’ perceived satisfaction with programmes.ConclusionsIt is unlikely that a single standardized format or programme will meet all the specific learning needs of parents. Multiple approaches that will allow people to access information or education at a time and in a format that suits them may be of value. The importance of the transition to parenthood and its impact on parent and child wellbeing warrant careful consideration of current programming and careful evaluation of future initiatives

Bounds on Vector Leptoquarks

We derive bounds on vector leptoquarks coupling to the first generation, using data from low energy experiments as well as from high energy accelerators. Similarly to the case of scalar leptoquarks, we find that the strongest indirect bounds arise from atomic parity violation and universality in leptonic pi decays. These bounds are considerably stronger than the first direct bounds of HERA, restricting vector leptoquarks that couple with electromagnetic strength to right-handed quarks to lie above 430 GeV or 460 GeV, and leptoquarks that couple with electromagnetic strength to left-handed quarks to lie above 1.3 TeV, 1.2 TeV and 1.5 TeV for the SU(2)_W singlet, doublet and triplet respectively.Comment: 14 Pages (LaTeX), including 1 uufiled postscript figure. WIS-93/119/Dec-P

A Comprehensive Study of Leptoquark Bounds

We make a comprehensive study of indirect bounds on scalar leptoquarks that couple chirally and diagonally to the first generation by examining available data from low energy experiments as well as from high energy e+ e- and p pbar accelerators. The strongest bounds turn out to arise from low energy data: For leptoquarks that couple to right--handed quarks, the most stringent bound comes from atomic parity violation. For leptoquarks that couple to left--handed quarks, there are two mass regions: At low masses the bounds arise from atomic parity violation or from universality in leptonic pi decays. At masses above a few hundred GeV's, the dominant bounds come from the FCNC processes that are unavoidable in these leptoquarks: The FCNC bound of the up sector, that arises from D-Dbar mixing, combines with the FCNC bounds from the down sector, that arise from rare K decays and K-Kbar mixing, to a bound on the flavour CONSERVING coupling to the first generation. The bounds restrict leptoquarks that couple with electromagnetic strength to lie above 600 GeV or 630 GeV for leptoquarks that couple to RH quarks, and above 1040 GeV, 440 GeV, and 750 GeV for the SU(2)_W scalar, doublet and triplet leptoquarks that couple to LH quarks. These bounds are considerably stronger than the first results from the direct searches at HERA. Our bounds also already exclude large regions in the parameter space that could be examined by various methods proposed for indirect leptoquark searches.Comment: 23 Pages (LaTeX), including 3 uufiled postscript figures. WIS--93/90/Sept--PH. To appear in PRD. Changes: updated numbers ---> stronger bound

Excitotoxicity Triggered by Neurobasal Culture Medium

Neurobasal defined culture medium has been optimized for survival of rat embryonic hippocampal neurons and is now widely used for many types of primary neuronal cell culture. Therefore, we were surprised that routine medium exchange with serum- and supplement-free Neurobasal killed as many as 50% of postnatal hippocampal neurons after a 4 h exposure at day in vitro 12–15. Minimal Essential Medium (MEM), in contrast, produced no significant toxicity. Detectable Neurobasal-induced neuronal death occurred with as little as 5 min exposure, measured 24 h later. D-2-Amino-5-phosphonovalerate (D-APV) completely prevented Neurobasal toxicity, implicating direct or indirect N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor-mediated neuronal excitotoxicity. Whole-cell recordings revealed that Neurobasal but not MEM directly activated D-APV-sensitive currents similar in amplitude to those gated by 1 µM glutamate. We hypothesized that L-cysteine likely mediates the excitotoxic effects of Neurobasal incubation. Although the original published formulation of Neurobasal contained only 10 µM L-cysteine, commercial recipes contain 260 µM, a concentration in the range reported to activate NMDA receptors. Consistent with our hypothesis, 260 µM L-cysteine in bicarbonate-buffered saline gated NMDA receptor currents and produced toxicity equivalent to Neurobasal. Although NMDA receptor-mediated depolarization and Ca2+ influx may support survival of young neurons, NMDA receptor agonist effects on development and survival should be considered when employing Neurobasal culture medium

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

The Role of Affect in Language Development

This paper presents the Functional/Emotional approach to language development, which explains the process leading up to the core capacities necessary for language (e.g., pattern-recognition, joint attention); shows how this process leads to the formation of internal symbols; and how it shapes and is shaped by the child’s development of language. The heart of this approach is that, through a series of affective transfor-mations, a child develops these core capacities and the capacity to form meaningful symbols. Far from being a sudden jump, the transition from pre-symbolic communication to language is enabled by the advances taking place in the child’s affective gesturing