Brain evoked potentials reflect how emotional faces influence our decision making.

Emotion is usually not discussed as a relevant variable in rational models of decision making—but may be one. The present electroencephalographic study demonstrates the influence of emotional primes (angry, happy faces) on purchase decisions. In a within-subject design, pictures of an apartment were shown to participants who then had to make Go/NoGo decisions on whether to rent it. Their decision should be based either on its price or on its brightness. In two thirds of the trials, emotional prime pictures of happy versus unhappy faces preceded the purchase target (apartment); in one third of the trials no prime was given. Response certainty was evaluated by means of reaction times (RT) and peak amplitude of the event-related potential N200. Facial primes accelerated decisions (RT) irrespective of affective expression. Positive face primes elicited larger N200 amplitudes during purchase decision compared to negative ones. Price-based decisions were made faster and elicited larger N200 than brightness-based decisions. These results support the cognitive-tuning model of decision making and validate the N200 as sensitive measure for the interplay of cognitive and affective aspects in decision making. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changing Housing for Elderly People and Co-ordination Issues in Europe

The inter-sectoral policy systems of housing for elderly people in the EU-countries change with the implementation of ageing in place and by general processes of modernisation of society and welfare state. For implementation of the innovations the relevance of co-ordination between the sector housing, care and social services depends on the state of development of the sectors in a country. However, modernisation threatens co-ordination by decentralisation, privatisation and transfer of choices and responsibilities to the individual. This paper is an international comparative study describing how countries of the European Union are dealing with the topic of co-ordination. Nowadays especially policy actors at the regional and local level have the responsibility for inter-sectoral co-ordination. Looking at the practices of these actors the development of a shared vision on ageing in place seems to be very important. Central government should facilitate this approach and control the results. The term 'managed co-operation' describes very well this new way of management of co-ordination.     

Quality of comminuted sausages formulated from mechanically deboned poultry meat

Comminuted sausages formulated with mechanically deboned poultry meat-MDPM (turkey or chicken, frame or neck) treated in different ways before production (vacuum packed MDPM or air packed skeletons deboned at production) and stored frozen for 6 or 18 weeks have been studied using a full-factorial design and chemical, physical and sensory analysis. MDPM was obtained from a Beehive separator. Comminuted sausages with MDPM from turkey frames, stored at -25?°C as skeletons, packed in air for 18 weeks developed marked rancid odour and flavour which could also be detected by thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and the concentration of volatile compounds. Vacuum packed mechanically deboned meat irrespective of species and carcass part could be stored for up to 18 weeks and used in formulation of sausages without any serious changes in their sensory profiles. Instrumental colour differences between sausages were mainly due to species. Turkey sausages were darker, redder and less yellow than chicken sausages. Moisture and fat contents were influenced by carcass part and to a lesser extent depended on species and storage time. Principal least squares regression (PLS2) showed close relationships between instrumental parameters and sensory attributes. TBARS, hexanal and volatile compounds were highly correlated with rancid flavour while redness (a(?)) was strongly related to sensory colour hue and colour strength.     

Effect of trisodium phosphate on slip and textural properties of hog and sheep natural sausage casings

The defective gliding of certain natural casings during the stuffing of sausages is an important problem in the meat processing industry. The gliding behaviour of (defective) hog and sheep casings was assessed with a newly developed instrument, and by a technologist during the stuffing of sausages. Casings were treated with 0.01 M trisodium phosphate; control casings were untreated. Cooked and smoked sausages were made in hog casings treated or untreated with phosphate and subjected to compression tests. In all cases the treatment with phosphate clearly facilitated the gliding of the casings over the test pipes, as compared to the control casings. The instrument to measure the casing gliding properties did not provide reliable information about the actual stuffing of sausages. The phosphate-treated casings had a lower shear force than the control casings after being used as skins for cooked and smoked sausages. If confirmed, the finding that mild phosphate treatment can diminish the force required to shear a casing will be of interest to the sausage industry because the toughness of certain hog casings is considered a problem.     

HXT5 expression is determined by growth rates in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, hexose transporter (Hxt) proteins transport glucose across the plasma membrane. The Hxt proteins are encoded by a multigene family with 20 members, of which Hxt1-4p and Hxt6-7p are the major hexose transporters. The remaining Hxt proteins have other or unknown functions. In this study, expression of HXT5 under different experimental set-ups is determined. In glucose-grown batch cultures, HXT5 is expressed prior to glucose depletion. Independent of the carbon source used in batch cultures, HXT5 is expressed after 24 h of growth and during growth on ethanol or glycerol, which indicates that growth on glucose is not necessary for expression of HXT5. Increasing the temperature or osmolarity of the growth medium also induces expression of HXT5. In fed-batch cultures, expression of HXT5 is only observed at low glucose consumption rates, independent of the extracellular glucose concentration. The only common parameter in these experiments is that an increase of HXT5 expression is accompanied by a decrease of the growth rate of cells. To determine whether HXT5 expression is determined by the growth rate, cells were grown in a nitrogen-limited continuous culture, which enables modulation of only the growth rate of cells. Indeed, HXT5 is expressed only at low dilution rates. Therefore, our results indicate that expression of HXT5 is regulated by growth rates of cells, rather than by extracellular glucose concentrations, as is the case for the major HXTs. A possible function for Hxt5p and factors responsible for increased expression of HXT5 upon low growth rates is discussed.     

Computer-Assisted Selective Optimization of Side-Activities—from Cinalukast to a PPARα Modulator

Automated computational analogue design and scoring can speed up hit-to-lead optimization and appears particularly promising in selective optimization of side-activities (SOSA) where possible analogue diversity is confined. Probing this concept, we employed the cysteinyl leukotriene receptor 1 (CysLT₁R) antagonist cinalukast as lead for which we discovered peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα) modulatory activity. We automatically generated a virtual library of close analogues and classified these roughly 8000 compounds for PPARα agonism and CysLT₁R antagonism using automated affinity scoring and machine learning. A computationally preferred analogue for SOSA was synthesized, and in vitro characterization indeed revealed a marked activity shift toward enhanced PPARα activation and diminished CysLT₁R antagonism. Thereby, this prospective application study highlights the potential of automating SOSA.     

Biaxial strength and slow crack growth in porous alumina with silica sintering aid

Biaxial strength, fracture toughness and subcritical crack growth are reported for coarse grained porous alumina ceramics. The materials were prepared with a varying amount of a silica sintering aid, which resulted in the formation of a glassy secondary phase at the grain boundaries. Crystalline mullite was additionally found in the material with the highest silica content. The biaxial strength, measured by Ball-on-Ring and Ball-on-3-Balls, was highest for the material without mullite at the grain boundaries, and the biaxial strength decreased with increasing porosity. The fracture toughness of the materials was in the range of 1.7–1.9 MPa m^0.5. Measurements of subcritical crack growth by a modified lifetime method in air and aqueous environments demonstrated a higher crack growth rate in water and acid relative to in air. The effect of porosity and grain boundary phase were discussed in relation to subcritical crack growth and fracture mode in the coarse grained alumina ceramics.     

Concurrent bisimulations in Petri nets

Summary After various attempts, an equivalence relation is defined for labelled Petri nets, on the base of the concurrency semantics of net theory. This relation, called Fully Concurrent bisimulation and abbreviated FC-bisimulation, preserves the level of concurrency of visible operations and, under some conditions, allows to enforce injective labelling on them. Refinements of a visible operation are also defined and we show that, under some conditions, they preserve FC-bisimulation.Research partly supported by ESPRIT Basic Research Action, project 3148: DEMON     

Microvascular effects of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) in man: studies during high and low salt diet

OBJECTIVE: Infusion of ANP in anephric dogs causes a decrease in cardiac output and a rise in peripheral vascular resistance. This reduced cardiac output is possibly related to increased resistance to venous return generated in the microcirculation by venular constriction. The aim of the present study was to evaluate in healthy volunteers the effects of low-dose ANP infusion on both conjunctival and skin microcirculation during high or low salt diet. METHODS: ANP (7.5 ng/kg/min) and placebo were infused (i.v.) for 4 h, in random order on two separate days, in two groups of 10 healthy male volunteers each. One group was studied during high salt (ad libitum), and one group during low salt (55 mmol Na+/24 h) diet. Microvascular density and diameters of both conjunctiva and nailfold were studied using intravital videomicroscopy. Nailfold capillary red blood cell velocity (CBV) was studied using intravital videomicroscopy, and skin (thermoregulatory) blood flow (SBF) was studied using laser-Doppler fluximetry. RESULTS: In the high salt group ANP induced a 43% reduction in basal SBF as compared to an 18% reduction by placebo (P < 0.01). Parallel to SBF, ANP significantly reduced CBV (P < 0.02). Conjunctival capillary density decreased by 5% during ANP, while it increased by 28% during placebo (P < 0.05). No such effects of ANP were observed in the low salt group. Blood pressure and heart rate were not influenced by ANP infusion in neither group. CONCLUSION: Infusion of low doses of ANP into humans on an ad libitum salt diet results in vasoconstriction of the microcirculation, probably on the venular side. The lack of effect of ANP on the microcirculation during low salt diet may be related to a higher vascular tone prior to infusion.