Conflict structure moderates associations between cardiovascular reactivity and negative marital interaction.

This study examined the role of marital conflict structure--who desires and requests change versus who responds to the change request--in spouses' cardiovascular responses to marital interactions. Forty-one couples discussed 2 marital topics: one in which the wife desired change in the husband, and one in which the husband desired change in the wife. Cardiovascular responses were assessed at 2-min intervals. Results indicated that marital conflict structure moderates cardiovascular reactivity during negative marital interactions: Husbands and wives whose interactions were characterized by high levels of negative behavior showed the most pronounced diastolic blood pressure reactivity, but only when they were in the role of desiring change in their spouses. Implications for gender differences in marital conflict physiology are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The ontogeny and significance of infants' facial expressions in the first 9 months of life.

Four studies examined aspects of the differential emotions theory (DET) hypothesis of expressive behavior development. In Study 1, facial-expressive movements of 108 2.5–9-mo-old infants were video recorded in positive and negative mother–infant interactions (conditions). As expected, Max-specified full-face and partial expressions of interest, joy, sadness, and anger were morphologically stable between the 2 ages. Studies 1 and 2 confirmed predicted differential responding to mother sadness and anger expressions and to composite positive and negative conditions. Discrete negative expressions exceeded negative blends, and the amount of both expression types remained stable across ages. Studies 3 and 4 provided varying degrees of support for the social validity of Max-specified infant negative affect expressions. Conclusions include revisions and clarifications of DET. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Saturation of subjective reward magnitude as a function of current and pulse frequency.

In 6 rats with electrodes in the medial forebrain bundle, the upper portion of the function relating the experienced magnitude of the reward to pulse frequency was determined at currents ranging from 100 to 1,000 μA. The pulse frequency required to produce an asymptotic level of reward was inversely proportional to current except at the lowest currents and highest pulse frequencies. At a given current, the subjective reward magnitude functions decelerated to an asymptote over an interval in which the pulse frequency doubled or tripled. The asymptotic level of reward was approximately constant for currents between 200 and 1,000 μA but declined substantially at currents at or below 100 μA and pulse frequencies at or above 250 to 400 pulses per second. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that the magnitude of the experienced reward depends only on the number of action potentials generated by the train of pulses in the bundle of reward-relevant axons. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Target Score—A Proteomics Data Selection Tool Applied to Esophageal Cancer Identifies GLUT1-Sialyl Tn Glycoforms as Biomarkers of Cancer Aggressiveness

Esophageal cancer (EC) is a life-threatening disease, demanding the discovery of new biomarkers and molecular targets for precision oncology. Aberrantly glycosylated proteins hold tremendous potential towards this objective. In the current study, a series of esophageal squamous cell carcinomas (ESCC) and EC-derived circulating tumor cells (CTCs) were screened by immunoassays for the sialyl-Tn (STn) antigen, a glycan rarely expressed in healthy tissues and widely observed in aggressive gastrointestinal cancers. An ESCC cell model was glycoengineered to express STn and characterized in relation to cell proliferation and invasion in vitro. STn was found to be widely present in ESCC (70% of tumors) and in CTCs in 20% of patients, being associated with general recurrence and reduced survival. Furthermore, STn expression in ESCC cells increased invasion in vitro, while reducing cancer cells proliferation. In parallel, an ESCC mass spectrometry-based proteomics dataset, obtained from the PRIDE database, was comprehensively interrogated for abnormally glycosylated proteins. Data integration with the Target Score, an algorithm developed in-house, pinpointed the glucose transporter type 1 (GLUT1) as a biomarker of poor prognosis. GLUT1-STn glycoproteoforms were latter identified in tumor tissues in patients facing worst prognosis. Furthermore, healthy human tissues analysis suggested that STn glycosylation provided cancer specificity to GLUT1. In conclusion, STn is a biomarker of worst prognosis in EC and GLUT1-STn glycoforms may be used to increase its specificity on the stratification and targeting of aggressive ESCC forms.     

Extended bisection method for parameter identification of the transient heat conduction equation for thermo-elastic deformations during drilling

A new interdisciplinary approach is discribed to identifying unknown parameters using an extended version of the known interval bisection method. This developed method is based on the use of finite elements for calibrating the simulation calculation. The resulting thermo-elastic deformations which occur in drilling processes with impaired cooling lubrication are to be used as correction values for tool positioning in the NC control. Based on the strong impact on workpiece temperature of machining, a simulation approach is presented for calculating the temperature fields and their thermo-elastic consequences. In addition, methods are presented to correct these effects. This paper particularly deals with the temperature fields of drilling operations. Special attention is paid to the technique employed for iterative numerical determination of the unknown heat flux η _w and heat transfer coefficient \(\bar {\gamma }\) values. Finally, the data obtained from experiments are compared with those achieved by numerical simulation in order to verify the efficiency of simulation and determination of parameters.     

Feature-based statistical analysis of combustion simulation data

We present a new framework for feature-based statistical analysis of large-scale scientific data and demonstrate its effectiveness by analyzing features from Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) of turbulent combustion. Turbulent flows are ubiquitous and account for transport and mixing processes in combustion, astrophysics, fusion, and climate modeling among other disciplines. They are also characterized by coherent structure or organized motion, i.e. nonlocal entities whose geometrical features can directly impact molecular mixing and reactive processes. While traditional multi-point statistics provide correlative information, they lack nonlocal structural information, and hence, fail to provide mechanistic causality information between organized fluid motion and mixing and reactive processes. Hence, it is of great interest to capture and track flow features and their statistics together with their correlation with relevant scalar quantities, e.g. temperature or species concentrations. In our approach we encode the set of all possible flow features by pre-computing merge trees augmented with attributes, such as statistical moments of various scalar fields, e.g. temperature, as well as length-scales computed via spectral analysis. The computation is performed in an efficient streaming manner in a pre-processing step and results in a collection of meta-data that is orders of magnitude smaller than the original simulation data. This meta-data is sufficient to support a fully flexible and interactive analysis of the features, allowing for arbitrary thresholds, providing per-feature statistics, and creating various global diagnostics such as Cumulative Density Functions (CDFs), histograms, or time-series. We combine the analysis with a rendering of the features in a linked-view browser that enables scientists to interactively explore, visualize, and analyze the equivalent of one terabyte of simulation data. We highlight the utility of this new framework for combustion science; however, it is applicable to many other science domains.     

Gene expression changes in a transgenic mouse model overexpressing human wildtype and mutant torsinA

Primary torsion dystonia is an autosomal-dominantly inherited, neurodevelopmental movement disorder caused by a GAG deletion (ΔGAG) in the DYT1 gene, encoding torsinA. This mutation is responsible for approximately 70% of cases of early-onset primary torsion dystonia. The function of wildtype torsinA is still unknown, and it is unsolved how the deletion in the DYT1 gene contributes to the development of the disease. To better understand the molecular processes involved in torsinA pathology, we used genome-wide oligonucleotide microarrays to characterize gene expression patterns in the striatum of mouse models overexpressing the human wildtype and mutant torsinA. By this approach we were able to detect gene expression changes that seem to be specific for torsinA pathology. We found an impact of torsinA, independent from genotype, on vesicle trafficking, exocytosis, and neurotransmitter release in our mouse model. In addition, we were able to identify several new pathways and processes involved in the development of the nervous system that are affected by wildtype and mutant torsinA. Furthermore, we have striking evidence from our gene expression data that glutamate receptor mediated synaptic plasticity in the striatum is the affected underlying cellular process for impaired motor learning in human ΔGAG torsinA transgenic mice.     

A Convergent-Divergent Approach to Context Processing, General Intellectual Functioning, and the Genetic Liability to Schizophrenia.

Convergent and divergent validity are critically important in developing psychological measures that reveal interpretable deficits in disordered populations. This article reports on 2 studies that evaluated the validity of context processing measures. In Experiment 1, a confirmatory factor analysis of data from 481 healthy adults established the convergent validity of 2 context processing measures and showed that context processing accounted for significant amounts of variance in standard IQ and working memory measures. In Experiment 2, 20 schizophrenia patients, 16 of their healthy siblings, and 28 controls were evaluated using a novel, short context processing measure, the dot pattern expectancy (DPX) task. The DPX was sensitive to specific deficits in schizophrenia patients and their healthy siblings. These findings support the construct validity of context processing measures, suggest context processing is a component of intellectual functioning, and demonstrate that brief context processing measures remain sensitive to psychopathological deficits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Human Host Defense Ribonucleases 1, 3 and 7 Are Elevated in Patients with Sepsis after Major Surgery—A Pilot Study

Sepsis is the most common cause of death in intensive care units and associated with widespread activation of host innate immunity responses. Ribonucleases (RNases) are important components of the innate immune system, however the role of RNases in sepsis has not been investigated. We evaluated serum levels of RNase 1, 3 and 7 in 20 surgical sepsis patients (Sepsis), nine surgical patients (Surgery) and 10 healthy controls (Healthy). RNase 1 and 3 were elevated in Sepsis compared to Surgery (2.2- and 3.1-fold, respectively; both p < 0.0001) or compared to Healthy (3.0- and 15.5-fold, respectively; both p < 0.0001). RNase 1 showed a high predictive value for the development of more than two organ failures (AUC 0.82, p = 0.01). Patients with renal dysfunction revealed higher RNase 1 levels than without renal dysfunction (p = 0.03). RNase 1 and 3 were higher in respiratory failure than without respiratory failure (p < 0.0001 and p = 0.02, respectively). RNase 7 was not detected in Healthy patients and only in two patients of Surgery, however RNase 7 was detected in 10 of 20 Sepsis patients. RNase 7 was higher in renal or metabolic failure than without failure (p = 0.04 and p = 0.02, respectively). In conclusion, RNase 1, 3 and 7 are secreted into serum under conditions with tissue injury, such as major surgery or sepsis. Thus, RNases might serve as laboratory parameters to diagnose and monitor organ failure in sepsis.     

Effect of sugar, citric acid and egg white type on the microstructural and mechanical properties of meringues

Meringues are characterized by a predominant air phase and their overall quality is intimately related with microstructure. The formation of meringues microstructure relies on the capacity of egg white (EW) proteins to form voluminous and stable foams and it is ultimately related with the chemical properties of proteins and with the addition of ingredients such as sugars, salts, acids and surfactants.The study aimed at assessing the influence of sugar/EW ratio, citric acid and EW type on the microstructural and mechanical properties of meringues. Meringues prepared with different sugar/EW, citric acid level and different EW type were subjected to microstructural analysis by X-ray microtomography and to mechanical assessment by compression tests.Results demonstrate the ability of X-ray microtomography to reconstruct the 3D microstructure of meringues allowing the measurement of porosity, size, shape and distribution of pores. Citric acid, sugar concentration and EW type play a fundamental role on meringues microstructural parameters and mechanical properties. Low sugar/EW ratios as well as increasing citric acid levels increase the air phase and result in a softer texture of meringues. Moreover, low sugar/EW ratios and increasing citric acid in the meringue result in a reduction of pore size and also influence the shape of pores. Meringues microstructural and mechanical properties are affected by the EW quality: fresh and pasteurized EWs and EWs stored at refrigerated temperatures scored the highest structural and mechanical performances, while powdered and frozen EWs and albumens from old eggs showed the worst results. Not only the balance among ingredients but also the choice of raw materials can strongly affect the final quality of meringues.