Affective responses by adults with autism are reduced to social images but elevated to images related to circumscribed interests

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) demonstrate increased visual attention and elevated brain reward circuitry responses to images related to circumscribed interests (CI), suggesting that a heightened affective response to CI may underlie their disproportionate salience and reward value in ASD. To determine if individuals with ASD differ from typically developing (TD) adults in their subjective emotional experience of CI object images, non-CI object images and social images, 213 TD adults and 56 adults with ASD provided arousal ratings (sensation of being energized varying along a dimension from calm to excited) and valence ratings (emotionality varying along dimension of approach to withdrawal) for a series of 114 images derived from previous research on CI. The groups did not differ on arousal ratings for any image type, but ASD adults provided higher valence ratings than TD adults for CI-related images, and lower valence ratings for social images. Even after co-varying the effects of sex, the ASD group, but not the TD group, gave higher valence ratings to CI images than social images. These findings provide additional evidence that ASD is characterized by a preference for certain categories of non-social objects and a reduced preference for social stimuli, and support the dissemination of this image set for examining aspects of the circumscribed interest phenotype in ASD.     

Quantitative DNA analysis of low grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and human papillomavirus infection by static and flow cytometry.

Quantitative deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) analysis of cervical biopsy specimens from 26 women with cytological, colposcopic, and histological evidence of mild cervical atypia consistent with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade I, reactive atypia, or human papillomavirus infection alone or in combination was performed in a comparative evaluation of Feulgen microspectrophotometry, the fast interval processor image analysis system, and flow cytometry. The fast interval processor image analysis system showed a distinct advantage over the other methods, being faster and allowing the operator to see the cells that were selected for measurement. The three methods of measurement together showed that the DNA content of at least 2% of the cells measured exceeded 5C (C being the haploid amount of DNA in a normal cell and 2C representing the diploid complement of a normal cell) in all cases of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade I and reactive atypia and in 87% of those reported as showing human papillomavirus infection alone. In contrast, the DNA content of cervical biopsy specimens from the transformation zone of 11 normal controls did not exceed 4C. This study shows the value of using a DNA threshold--that is, the "5C exceeding rate"--to distinguish between normal and neoplastic appearances of the cervix. These results support the view that cervical infection by human papillomavirus is a true precursor of neoplasia.     

Protamine withdrawal from human sperm nuclei following heterologous ICSI into hamster oocytes

During late stages of spermatogenesis in mammals, most histones bound to DNA are replaced by protamines (PRM), which results in formation of supercondensed and genetically inert sperm chromatin. At fertilization, mature spermatozoon penetrates oocyte and chromatin is remodeled "back" from nucleoprotamine to nucleohistone state. While being crucial for activation of male genome and ultimately for initiation of embryonic development, this process is poorly studied, especially in humans. Data on model animals concerning PRM to histones exchange post fertilization are few and contradictory. As direct experimentation with human embryos is impossible due to ethical, legal and technical reasons, we evaluate the timing and mode of PRM removal in a heterologous ICSI system using hamster ova injected with human sperm. Localization of human PRM 1 and 2 in hybrid zygotes was established using immunofluorescence. We observed a marked zygote to zygote variability in male pronuclei size for any time point post ICSI and demonstrated that PRM removal correlates with the developing pronuclei area rather than time after injection. Overall, the disappearance of protamines from sperm is rather rapid and most likely completed within 1 hr. We propose that the critical characteristic influencing PRM removal after heterologous fertilization is the intrinsic heterogeneity of the human sperm population. The same yet unexplored variance may be one of the reasons for canceled, delayed or aberrant early embryonic development during natural or artificial fertilization in humans.     

Images of Alu-sequence in 7 DNA clones from the human genome

Information theory methods were used for computer search of Alu-like sequences in human DNA and RNA. Eight new regions related to the Alu repeat sequence was revealed in 85 clones from the EMBL-5 data bank. Some of these regions are purine-pyrimidine images of Alu repeats sequence, the rest are more complex images of Alu repeat sequence. A new definition for the likeness of different sequences--information image of sequence--was introduced. This information theory application greatly increases the power of DNA sequences computer analysis.     

A positive effect of flowers rather than eye images in a large-scale, cross-cultural dictator game

People often consider how their behaviour will be viewed by others, and may cooperate to avoid gaining a bad reputation. Sensitivity to reputation may be elicited by subtle social cues of being watched: previous studies have shown that people behave more cooperatively when they see images of eyes rather than control images. Here, we tested whether eye images enhance cooperation in a dictator game, using the online labour market Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT). In contrast to our predictions and the results of most previous studies, dictators gave away more money when they saw images of flowers rather than eye images. Donations in response to eye images were not significantly different to donations under control treatments. Dictator donations varied significantly across cultures but there was no systematic variation in responses to different image types across cultures. Unlike most previous studies, players interacting via AMT may feel truly anonymous when making decisions and, as such, may not respond to subtle social cues of being watched. Nevertheless, dictators gave away similar amounts as in previous studies, so anonymity did not erase helpfulness. We suggest that eye images might only promote cooperative behaviour in relatively public settings and that people may ignore these cues when they know their behaviour is truly anonymous.     

Automated image-based cytometry with fluorescence-stained specimens

The combination of digitized microscopy, algorithms for object recognition and fluorescent labeling is a promising approach for reliable, quick, automated and cost-effective screening of clinical specimens. We describe two conceptually different algorithms for detecting objects in fluorescence microscopic images. One, which is partially automated, compares a mask that represents a typical object with every position in the image; the other, which is fully automated, calculates threshold intensities to segment the image into regions of objects and background. Applications of the algorithms in conjunction with a prototype image-based cytometer are demonstrated for determining the DNA ploidy distribution of cultured human endometrial cells and determining the DNA ploidy distribution and the fraction of cells expressing the E6 antigen of human papilloma virus serotypes 16 and 18 in a PAP smear. The encouraging results from this study suggest that automated image-based cytometry utilizing fluorescent stains will be a valuable asset for clinical screening.     

Fear Conditioning to Subliminal Fear Relevant and Non Fear Relevant Stimuli

A growing body of evidence suggests that conscious visual awareness is not a prerequisite for human fear learning. For instance, humans can learn to be fearful of subliminal fear relevant images – images depicting stimuli thought to have been fear relevant in our evolutionary context, such as snakes, spiders, and angry human faces. Such stimuli could have a privileged status in relation to manipulations used to suppress usually salient images from awareness, possibly due to the existence of a designated sub-cortical ‘fear module’. Here we assess this proposition, and find it wanting. We use binocular masking to suppress awareness of images of snakes and wallabies (particularly cute, non-threatening marsupials). We find that subliminal presentations of both classes of image can induce differential fear conditioning. These data show that learning, as indexed by fear conditioning, is neither contingent on conscious visual awareness nor on subliminal conditional stimuli being fear relevant.     

Three-dimensional DNA image cytometry by confocal scanning laser microscopy in thick tissue blocks.

A method for the quantification of nuclear DNA in thick tissue blocks by confocal scanning laser microscopy is presented. Tissues were stained en bloc for DNA by chromomycin A3. Three-dimensional images, 60 microns deep, were obtained by stacking up confocal fluorescent images obtained with an MRC-500 (Bio-Rad, Richmond, CA). The effects due to bleaching and attenuation by depth of fluorescence emission were corrected mathematically. The DNA contents were estimated by summing up the detected emission intensities (discretized into pixel gray levels) from each segmented nucleus. Applications to an adult rat liver and to a human in situ carcinoma of theesophagus are shown to demonstrate, respectively, the precision of the method and its potential usefulness in histopathology. Comparisons are made with DNA histograms obtained on the same materials by image cytometry on smears and by flow cytometry. Ploidy peaks obtained with the confocal method, although wider than with other methods, are well separated. Confocal image cytometry offers the invaluable advantage of preserving the tissue architecture and therefore allowing, for instance, the selection of histological regions and the evaluation of the degree of heterogeneity of a tumor.     

Differences Help Recognition: A Probabilistic Interpretation

This paper presents a computational model to address one prominent psychological behavior of human beings to recognize images. The basic pursuit of our method can be concluded as that differences among multiple images help visual recognition. Generally speaking, we propose a statistical framework to distinguish what kind of image features capture sufficient category information and what kind of image features are common ones shared in multiple classes. Mathematically, the whole formulation is subject to a generative probabilistic model. Meanwhile, a discriminative functionality is incorporated into the model to interpret the differences among all kinds of images. The whole Bayesian formulation is solved in an Expectation-Maximization paradigm. After finding those discriminative patterns among different images, we design an image categorization algorithm to interpret how these differences help visual recognition within the bag-of-feature framework. The proposed method is verified on a variety of image categorization tasks including outdoor scene images, indoor scene images as well as the airborne SAR images from different perspectives.     

What Image Properties Regulate Eye Growth?

The growth of the eye, unlike other parts of the body, is not ballistic. It is guided by visual feedback with the eventual aim being optimal focus of the retinal image or emmetropization . It has been shown in animal models that interference with the quality of the retinal image leads to a disruption to the normal growth pattern, resulting in the development of refractive errors and defocused retinal images . While it is clear that retinal images rich in pattern information are needed to control eye growth, it is unclear what particular aspect of image structure is relevant. Retinal images comprise a range of spatial frequencies at different absolute and relative contrasts and in different degrees of spatial alignment. Here we show, by using synthetic images, that it is not the local edge structure produced by relative spatial frequency alignments within an image but rather the spatial frequency composition per se that is used to regulate the growth of the eye. Furthermore, it is the absolute energy at high spatial frequencies regardless of the spectral slope that is most effective. Neither result would be expected from currently accepted ideas of how human observers judge the degree of image "blur" in a scene where both phase alignments and the relative energy distribution across spatial frequency (i.e., spectral slope) are important.     

A framework for the automated analysis of subcellular patterns in human protein atlas images

The systematic study of subcellular location patterns is required to fully characterize the human proteome, as subcellular location provides critical context necessary for understanding a protein's function. The analysis of tens of thousands of expressed proteins for the many cell types and cellular conditions under which they may be found creates a need for automated subcellular pattern analysis. We therefore describe the application of automated methods, previously developed and validated by our laboratory on fluorescence micrographs of cultured cell lines, to analyze subcellular patterns in tissue images from the Human Protein Atlas. The Atlas currently contains images of over 3000 protein patterns in various human tissues obtained using immunohistochemistry. We chose a 16 protein subset from the Atlas that reflects the major classes of subcellular location. We then separated DNA and protein staining in the images, extracted various features from each image, and trained a support vector machine classifier to recognize the protein patterns. Our results show that our system can distinguish the patterns with 83% accuracy in 45 different tissues, and when only the most confident classifications are considered, this rises to 97%. These results are encouraging given that the tissues contain many different cell types organized in different manners, and that the Atlas images are of moderate resolution. The approach described is an important starting point for automatically assigning subcellular locations on a proteome-wide basis for collections of tissue images such as the Atlas.     

水稻双受精过程的共聚焦显微镜观察

(郑州大学离子束生物工程省重点实验室,郑州450052)摘要:首次利用核特异荧光染色与整体透明技术并利用激光扫描共聚焦显微镜(LSCM)对水稻双受精过程进行了观察。激光扫描共聚焦显微镜具有"组织与细胞CT"的功能,可以对整体组织进行扫描并构建三维结构。经荧光染色及透明处理后,在激光扫描共聚焦显微镜下经488nm激光激发,胚囊内各细胞的细胞核以及核仁发出明亮荧光,细胞核轮廓比较清晰,层次感强,并能清晰观察到胚囊内各细胞的结构特点和空间位置关系。不论是对开花前较小的成熟胚囊材料还是开花后较大的胚囊材料都取得了较好的观察效果。同传统的光学显微镜和荧光显微镜相比,其观察到的图像更清晰、更直观、更具立体感。     

New Data on the Problem of Social Perception (A Person's Perception and Conception of Another Person)

Throughout the world at the present time more and more scientists are working on the problem of social perception. Though they are interested in different aspects of this problem, all are helping to elucidate the more or less complex features that characterize the process of how a human being forms images of other people and how he develops conceptions of their personalities. It was no slip of the pen when we included as a part of "social perception" the evolution of one's conception of another human being as a personality, for today the term "social perception" has been extended by most psychologists working on this problem to include the whole range of phenomena involved in one person's knowledge of another on the level of feeling as well as on the rational plane.     

Apoptose dans le sperme éjaculé: Revue

It has become clear in recent years that programmed cell death occurs spontaneously in the cycle of the seminiferous epithelium. Although apoptosis is a key phenomenon in the control of sperm production, the existence and role of apoptosis in ejaculated sperm cells remain controversial. Apoptosis — as determined by DNA fragmentation and ultrastructural analysis — is abnormally frequent in the sperm cells of the ejaculate of sterile men. In this review, we discuss the possible origins of DNA damage in ejaculated human spermatozoa and the consequences of this DNA damage when apoptotic spermatozoa are used for ICSI. Percentages of DNA fragmentation in human ejaculated sperm are correlated with fertilization rates after IVF or ICSI assay. Detection of DNA fragmentation in human sperm could provide additional information about the biochemical integrity of sperm and may be used in future studies for fertilization failures not explained by conventional sperm parameters. However, the analysis of new markers of apoptosis (Fas, ANNEXINE V) and molecular mechanisms is now necessary to assess the role of apoptosis in human ejaculated sperm cells.     

The DNA-based human karyotype

Image cytometry and computer analysis are used to determine the relative DNA content and the DNA-based centromeric index of the 24 chromosomes of the human karyotype. A two-step procedure is used. Chromosomes of cells in metaphase first are stained with quinacrine and identified visually by their fluorescent Q-band patterns. They then are stained for DNA using gallocyanin-chrome alum. The chromosome images are scanned and recorded as digital values of optical density by an CYDAC image cytometric microscope system, CYDAC. The digital images are processed by computer to measure for each chromosome the relative DNA stain contents of the whole chromosome and of the p and q arms and the DNA-based centromeric index. About ten cells are analyzed for each of the donors, who are phenotypically normal men and women. The chromosome measurements are pooled by chromosome type for each donor and are compared among donors. The means of the chromosome measurements give the DNA-based human karyotype. Analysis of the DNA-based data shows that some chromosomes or portions of chromosomes vary significantly among donors. These variants do not correlate with detectable morphologic polymorphisms, such as Q- or C-band variants; thus they represent new and otherwise undetectable chromosome polymorphisms whose genetic basis and clinical significance are yet to be determined.     

γH2AX foci as a measure of DNA damage: a computational approach to automatic analysis

The γH2AX focus assay represents a fast and sensitive approach for the detection of one of the critical types of DNA damage - double-strand breaks (DSB) induced by various cytotoxic agents including ionising radiation. Apart from research applications, the assay has a potential in clinical medicine/pathology, such as assessment of individual radiosensitivity, response to cancer therapies, as well as in biodosimetry. Given that generally there is a direct relationship between numbers of microscopically visualised γH2AX foci and DNA DSB in a cell, the number of foci per nucleus represents the most efficient and informative parameter of the assay. Although computational approaches have been developed for automatic focus counting, the tedious and time consuming manual focus counting still remains the most reliable way due to limitations of computational approaches. We suggest a computational approach and associated software for automatic focus counting that minimises these limitations. Our approach, while using standard image processing algorithms, maximises the automation of identification of nuclei/cells in complex images, offers an efficient way to optimise parameters used in the image analysis and counting procedures, optionally invokes additional procedures to deal with variations in intensity of the signal and background in individual images, and provides automatic batch processing of a series of images. We report results of validation studies that demonstrated correlation of manual focus counting with results obtained using our computational algorithm for mouse jejunum touch prints, mouse tongue sections and human blood lymphocytes as well as radiation dose response of γH2AX focus induction for these biological specimens.     

Toward objective selection of representative microscope images

Scientists wishing to communicate the essential characteristics of a pattern (such as an immunofluorescence distribution) currently must make a subjective choice of one or two images to publish. We therefore developed methods for objectively choosing a typical image from a set, with emphasis on images from cell biology. The methods involve calculation of numerical features to describe each image, calculation of similarity between images as a distance in feature space, and ranking of images by distance from the center of the feature distribution. Two types of features were explored, image texture measures and Zernike polynomial moments, and various distance measures were utilized. Criteria for evaluating methods for assigning typicality were proposed and applied to sets of images containing more than one pattern. The results indicate the importance of using distance measures that are insensitive to the presence of outliers. For collections of images of the distributions of a lysosomal protein, a Golgi protein, and nuclear DNA, the images chosen as most typical were in good agreement with the conventional understanding of organelle morphologies. The methods described here have been implemented in a web server (http://murphylab.web.cmu.edu/services/TyplC).     

DNA-cytometric detection of euploid polyploidization in oral lichen ruber planus

The DNA distribution was analyzed in 29 cases of oral lichen ruber planus that were negative for human papillomavirus and not suspected of being precancerous. Monolayer smears prepared from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues were automatically Feulgen stained and used for rapid interactive DNA cytometry via a TV-based image analysis system combined with an automated microscope. Nuclei with DNA contents greater than 4c were found in 25 cases (86%). DNA contents greater than 8c were seen in five cases (17%), and small peaks at 8c were found in three cases. These increased DNA values in nonprecancerous lesions must be interpreted as euploid polyploidization and have to be taken into account if DNA measurements are performed for diagnostic purposes in lichen ruber planus lesions that are suspected of having malignant transformation.     

Phase imaging of moving DNA molecules and DNA molecules replicated in the atomic force microscope.

Phase imaging with a tapping mode atomic force microscope (AFM) has many advantages for imaging moving DNA and DNA-enzyme complexes in aqueous buffers at molecular resolution. In phase images molecules can be resolved at higher scan rates and lower forces than in height images from the AFM. Higher scan rates make it possible to image faster processes. At lower forces the molecules are imaged more gently. Moving DNA molecules are also resolved more clearly in phase images than in height images. Phase images in tapping mode AFM show the phase difference between oscillation of the piezoelectric crystal that drives the cantilever and oscillation of the cantilever as it interacts with the sample surface. Phase images presented here show moving DNA molecules that have been replicated with Sequenase in the AFM and DNA molecules tethered in complexes with Escherichia coli RNA polymerase.