Inferring Emotions from Speech Prosody: Not So Easy at Age Five

Previous research has suggested that children do not rely on prosody to infer a speaker''s emotional state because of biases toward lexical content or situational context. We hypothesized that there are actually no such biases and that young children simply have trouble in using emotional prosody. Sixty children from 5 to 13 years of age had to judge the emotional state of a happy or sad speaker and then to verbally explain their judgment. Lexical content and situational context were devoid of emotional valence. Results showed that prosody alone did not enable the children to infer emotions at age 5, and was still not fully mastered at age 13. Instead, they relied on contextual information despite the fact that this cue had no emotional valence. These results support the hypothesis that prosody is difficult to interpret for young children and that this cue plays only a subordinate role up until adolescence to infer others’ emotions.     

Seeing Life through Positive-Tinted Glasses: Color–Meaning Associations

There is a growing body of literature to show that color can convey information, owing to its emotionally meaningful associations. Most research so far has focused on negative hue–meaning associations (e.g., red) with the exception of the positive aspects associated with green. We therefore set out to investigate the positive associations of two colors (i.e., green and pink), using an emotional facial expression recognition task in which colors provided the emotional contextual information for the face processing. In two experiments, green and pink backgrounds enhanced happy face recognition and impaired sad face recognition, compared with a control color (gray). Our findings therefore suggest that because green and pink both convey positive information, they facilitate the processing of emotionally congruent facial expressions (i.e., faces expressing happiness) and interfere with that of incongruent facial expressions (i.e., faces expressing sadness). Data also revealed a positive association for white. Results are discussed within the theoretical framework of emotional cue processing and color meaning.     

Some glucosinolates of Farsetia aegyptia and Farsetia ramosissima

Air-dried leaves of Farsetia aegyptia and F. ramosissima have been analysed for their glucosinolates; the former was shown to contain at least six but chiefly allylglucosinolate, whilst the latter contains at least five but mainly but-3-enylglucosinolate with some 4-(methylthio)butylglucosinolate. Without the addition of extraneous thioglucosidase enzyme, both species gave predominantly nitrile degradation products of glucosinolates; but if extra enzyme were added, corresponding isothiocyanates became the major products instead. Varying the pH from the natural level for the plant also considerably affected the ratios of glucosinolate products.     

Neutrophil Extracellular Traps Identification in Tegumentary Lesions of Patients with Paracoccidioidomycosis and Different Patterns of NETs Generation In Vitro

Paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM) is a systemic mycosis, endemic in most Latin American countries, especially in Brazil. It is caused by the thermo-dimorphic fungus of the genus Paracoccidioides (Paracoccidioides brasiliensis and Paracoccidioides lutzii). Innate immune response plays a crucial role in host defense against fungal infections, and neutrophils (PMNs) are able to combat microorganisms with three different mechanisms: phagocytosis, secretion of granular proteins, which have antimicrobial properties, and the most recent described mechanism called NETosis. This new process is characterized by the release of net-like structures called Neutrophil Extracellular Traps (NETs), which is composed of nuclear (decondensed DNA and histones) and granular material such as elastase. Several microorganisms have the ability of inducing NETs formation, including gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, viruses and some fungi. We proposed to identify NETs in tegumentary lesions of patients with PCM and to analyze the interaction between two strains of P. brasiliensis and human PMNs by NETs formation in vitro. In this context, the presence of NETs in vivo was evidenced in tegumentary lesions of patients with PCM by confocal spectrum analyzer. Furthermore, we showed that the high virulent P. brasiliensis strain 18 (Pb18) and the lower virulent strain Pb265 are able to induce different patterns of NETs formation in vitro. The quantification of extracellular DNA corroborates the idea of the ability of P. brasiliensis in inducing NETs release. In conclusion, our data show for the first time the identification of NETs in lesions of patients with PCM and demonstrate distinct patterns of NETs in cultures challenged with fungi in vitro. The presence of NETs components both in vivo and in vitro open new possibilities for the detailed investigation of immunity in PCM.     

Peripheral mechanisms of intestinal dysmotility in rats with salsolinol induced experimental Parkinson's disease.

Gastrointestinal dysmotility in Parkinson's disease (PD) has been attributed in part to peripheral neurotoxine action. Our purpose was the evaluation of the salsolinol effect on intramuscular interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC), duodenal myoelectrical activity (DMA) and vagal afferent activity (VAA) in rats with experimental PD. Twenty rats were divided into 2 equal groups. Experimental PD was produced in one group by 3 weeks of the intraperitoneal salsolinol injections (50 mg/kg/day), whereas the 2-nd group served as control. DMA and VAA were recorded in both groups during fasting and stepwise--gastric distension (GD) of 10 ml. Subsequently fragments of duodenum were removed and intramuscular ICC were assessed as c-Kit antigen percentage in the duodenal muscular zone. Analyses of the fasting DMA and VAA recordings didn't reveal differences between the compared groups. During GD increase of DMA dominant frequency (p=0.04) and VAA frequency (p<0.01) was observed in the controls whereas in the salsolinol group both parameters remained unchanged. Image analysis of duodenum revealed decreased c-Kit expression in the salsolinol-injected animals (p=0.05). The results of our study may suggest the direct effect of salsolinol on both ICC and neuronal pathways of gastro-duodenal reflexes.     

Modulation of rat liver hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA reductase by protein phosphatases: purification of nonspecific hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA reductase phosphatases

Four phosphoprotein phosphatases, with the ability to act upon hydroxymethylglutaryl (HMG)-CoA reductase, phosphorylase, and glycogen synthase have been purified from rat liver cytosol through a process that involves DEAE-cellulose, aminohexyl-Sepharose-4B, and Bio-Gel A 1.5 m chromatographies. Protein phosphatase II (Mr 180,000) was the major enzyme (68%) with a very broad substrate specificity, showing similar activity toward the three substrates. Phosphatases I1 (Mr 180,000) and I3 (Mr 250,000) accounted for only 12 and 15% of the total activity, respectively, and they were also able to dephosphorylate the three substrates. In contrast, phosphatase I2 (Mr 200,000) showed only phosphorylase phosphatase activity with insignificant dephosphorylating capacity toward HMG-CoA reductase and glycogen synthase. Upon ethanol treatment at room temperature, the Mr of all phosphatases changed; protein phosphatases I2, I3, and II were brought to an Mr of 35,000, while phosphatase I1 was reduced to an Mr of 69,000. Glycogen synthase phosphatase activity was decreased in all four phosphatases. There was also a decrease in phosphatase I1 activity toward HMG-CoA reductase and phosphorylase as substrates. The HMG-CoA reductase phosphatase and phosphorylase phosphatase activities of phosphatases I2, I3, and II were increased after ethanol treatment. Each protein phosphatase showed a different optimum pH, which changed depending on the substrate. The four phosphatases increased their activity in the presence of Mn2+ and Mg2+. In general, Mn2+ was a better activator than Mg2+, and phosphatase I1 showed a stronger dependency on these cations than any other phosphatase. Phosphorylase was a competitive substrate in the HMG-CoA reductase phosphatase and glycogen synthase phosphatase reactions of protein phosphatases I1, I3, and II. HMG-CoA reductase was also able to compete with phosphorylase and glycogen synthase for phosphatase activity. Glycogen synthase phosphatase activity presented less inhibition in the low-Mr forms. A comparison has been made with other protein phosphatases previously reported in the literature.     

A case of multiple diagnostic errors

A case of female patient with alimentary functional disorders following cholecystectomy is presented. Erroneously diagnosed cholelithiasis (by ultrasound examination) was the cause of hospitalization. Discordances in laboratory findings caused further examinations. Their false positive results might lead to the treatment of serious impact on patient's health. An emphasis in on careful clinical analysis of each case and criticism in interpretation of widely used clinical imaging techniques.