The Body as a Tool for Anger Awareness—Differential Effects of Angry Facial and Bodily Expressions on Suppression from Awareness

Emotional signals are perceived whether or not we are aware of it. The evidence so far mostly came from studies with facial expressions. Here, we investigated whether the pattern of non-conscious face expression perception is found for whole body expressions. Continuous flash suppression (CFS) was used to measure the time for neutral, fearful, and angry facial or bodily expressions to break from suppression. We observed different suppression time patterns for emotions depending on whether the stimuli were faces or bodies. The suppression time for anger was shortest for bodily expressions, but longest for the facial expressions. This pattern indicates different processing and detection mechanisms for faces and bodies outside awareness, and suggests that awareness mechanisms associated with dorsal structures might play a role in becoming conscious of angry bodily expressions.     

Functional changes of the SCN in spontaneous hypertension but not after the induction of hypertension

ABSTRACT

The present study investigates the circadian behavior of spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) during the pre-hypertensive and hypertensive stage, with the aim to gain insight into whether observed changes in the functionality of suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in the hypertensive state are cause or consequence of hypertension. Four types of animals were used in this study: (1) SHRs which develop hypertension genetically; (2) their normotensive controls, Wistar Kyoto rats (WKYs); (3) Wistar rats whereby hypertension was surgically induced (2 Kidney 1 Clamp (2K1C) method); and (4) sham-operated control Wistar rats. Period length and activity levels and amplitude changes of locomotor and wheel running activity were determined, in constant conditions, as a measure of the functionality of the SCN. Hereto two conditions were used, constant darkness (0 lux) and constant dim (5 lux) light. SHRs showed a shortened period of their locomotor and running wheel activity rhythms in constant darkness during both pre-hypertensive and hypertensive stages and exhibited period lengthening in constant dim light conditions, only during hypertensive stages. Total amount as well as the amplitude of daily running wheel rhythms showed an inverse correlation with the period length, and this relation was significantly different in SHRs compared to WKYs. None of the aforementioned changes in circadian rhythms were observed after the surgical induction of hypertension. The present findings suggest early functional changes of the SCN in the etiology of spontaneous hypertension.     

Outer membrane protein gene expression traced by immunogold labelling in Rhizobium Leguminosarum bv. viciae strain 248 in Vicia sativa ssp. nigra.

During differentiation from bacterium into nitrogen fixing bacteroid, the outer membrane protein RopA decreases in density. Comparison between size increase of the rhizobia and density decrease of a RopA protein epitope after immuno-gold labelling, indicates that although ropA gene expression stops at the onset of nitrogen fixation, the amount of RopA protein probably remains the same.     

Same-Day Diagnosis Based on Histology for Women Suspected of Breast Cancer: High Diagnostic Accuracy and Favorable Impact on the Patient

Background

Same-day diagnosis based on histology is increasingly being offered to patients suspected of breast cancer. We evaluated to which extent same-day diagnosis affected diagnostic accuracy and patients'' anxiety levels during the diagnostic phase.

Patients and methods

All 759 women referred for same-day evaluation of suspicious breast lesions between November 2011–March 2013 were included. Diagnostic accuracy was assessed by linking all patients to the national pathology database to identify diagnostic discrepancies, in which case slides were reviewed. Patients'' anxiety was measured in 127 patients by the State Trait and Anxiety Inventory on six moments during the diagnostic workup and changes over time (< = 1 week) were analyzed by mixed effect models.

Results

Core-needle biopsy was indicated in 374/759 patients (49.3%) and in 205/759 (27%) patients, invasive or in situ cancer was found. Final diagnosis on the same day was provided for 606/759 (79.8%) patients. Overall, 3/759 (0.4%) discordant findings were identified. Anxiety levels decreased significantly over time from 45.2 to 30.0 (P = <0.001). Anxiety levels decreased from 44.4 to 25.9 (P = <0.001) for patients with benign disease, and remained unchanged for patients diagnosed with malignancies (48.6 to 46.7, P = 0.933). Time trends in anxiety were not affected by other patient or disease characteristics like age, education level or (family) history of breast cancer.

Conclusion

Same-day histological diagnosis is feasible in the vast majority of patients, without impairing diagnostic accuracy. Patients'' anxiety rapidly decreased in patients with a benign diagnosis and remained constant in patients with malignancy.     

The endogenous circadian pacemaker imparts a scale-invariant pattern of heart rate fluctuations across time scales spanning minutes to 24 hours

Heartbeat fluctuations in mammals display a robust temporal structure characterized by scale-invariant/fractal patterns. These scale-invariant patterns likely confer physiological advantage because they change with cardiovascular disease and these changes are associated with reduced survival. Models of physical systems imply that to produce scale-invariant patterns, factors influencing the system at different time scales must be coupled via a network of feedback interactions. A similar cardiac control network is hypothesized to be responsible for the scale-invariant pattern in heartbeat dynamics, although the essential network components have not been determined. Here is shown that scale-invariant cardiac control occurs across time scales from minutes to approximately 24 h, and that lesioning the mammalian circadian pacemaker (suprachiasmatic nucleus; SCN) completely abolishes the scale-invariant pattern at time scales>or approximately 4 h. At time scales相似文献   

The biological clock: the bodyguard of temporal homeostasis

In order for any organism to function properly, it is crucial that it be table to control the timing of its biological functions. An internal biological clock, located, in mammals, in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus (SCN), therefore carefully guards this temporal homeostasis by delivering its message of time throughout the body. In view of the large variety of body functions (behavioral, physiological, and endocrine) as well as the large variety in their preferred time of main activity along the light:dark cycle, it seems logical to envision different means of time distribution by the SCN. In the present review, we propose that even though it presents a unimodal circadian rhythm of general electrical and metabolic activity, the SCN seems to use several sorts of output connections that are active at different times along the light: dark cycle to control the rhythmic expression of different body functions. Although the SCN is suggested to use diffusion of synchronizing factors in the rhythmic control of behavioral functions, it also needs neuronal connections for the control of endocrine functions. The distribution of the time-of-day message to neuroendocrine systems is either directly onto endocrine neurons or via intermediate neurons located in specific SCN targets. In addition, the SCN uses its connections with the autonomic nervous system for spreading its time-of-day message, either by setting the sensitivity of endocrine glands (i.e., thyroid, adrenal, ovary) or by directly controlling an endocrine output (i.e., melatonin synthesis). Moreover, the SCN seems to use different neurotransmitters released at different times along the light: dark cycle for each of the different connection types presented. Clearly, the temporal homeostasis of endocrine functions results from a diverse set of biological clock outputs.     

Tackling speciose genera: species composition and phylogenetic position of Senecio sect. Jacobaea (Asteraceae) based onplastid and nrDNA sequences

The molecular phylogeny of Senecio sect. Jacobaea (Asteraceae; Senecioneae) was studied to clarify species composition and interspecific relationships of Senecio sect. Jacobaea. This information is necessary for studies seeking explanations of the evolutionary success of Senecio, in terms of high species numbers and the evolution of chemical defense mechanisms. Parsimony analyses with 60 species of the tribe Senecioneae, representing 23 genera and 11 sections of Senecio, based on DNA sequence data of the plastid genome (the trnT-L intergenic spacer, the trnL intron, and two parts of the trnK intron, flanking both sides of the matK gene) and nuclear genome (ITS1, 5.8S, and ITS2 gene and spacers) show that sect. Jacobaea is a strongly supported monophyletic group. Fifteen species have been identified as members of section Jacobaea, including three species that have been consistently ascribed to this section in taxonomic literature and 12 species that were either placed in other sections of Senecio or not exclusively ascribed to sect. Jacobaea. This section was traditionally circumscribed as a group of European, biennial, or perennial herbs with pinnately incised leaves, but the results of this study show that one annual species, a species from northeastern Asia, and a species growing in the Himalayas are members of sect. Jacobaea as well. Furthermore, not all species in the section have pinnately incised leaves. The genera Emilia, Packera, and Pseudogynoxys form the sister clade of sect. Jacobaea, but this relationship lacks strong bootstrap support and thus remains provisional.     

Consensus statement understanding health and malnutrition through a systems approach: the ENOUGH program for early life

Nutrition research, like most biomedical disciplines, adopted and often uses experimental approaches based on Beadle and Tatum’s one gene—one polypeptide hypothesis, thereby reducing biological processes to single reactions or pathways. Systems thinking is needed to understand the complexity of health and disease processes requiring measurements of physiological processes, as well as environmental and social factors, which may alter the expression of genetic information. Analysis of physiological processes with omics technologies to assess systems’ responses has only become available over the past decade and remains costly. Studies of environmental and social conditions known to alter health are often not connected to biomedical research. While these facts are widely accepted, developing and conducting comprehensive research programs for health are often beyond financial and human resources of single research groups. We propose a new research program on essential nutrients for optimal underpinning of growth and health (ENOUGH) that will use systems approaches with more comprehensive measurements and biostatistical analysis of the many biological and environmental factors that influence undernutrition. Creating a knowledge base for nutrition and health is a necessary first step toward developing solutions targeted to different populations in diverse social and physical environments for the two billion undernourished people in developed and developing economies.     

Energy metabolism in the cyanobacterium Plectonema boryanum. Participation of the thylakoid photosynthetic electron transfer chain in the dark respiration of NADPH and NADH

The oxidation of NADPH and NADH was studied in the light and in the dark using sonically derived membrane vesicles and osmotically shocked spheroplasts. These two types of cell-free membrane preparations mostly differ in that the cell and thylakoid membranes are scrambled in the former type and that they are more or less separated in the latter type of preparations. In the light, using both kinds of preparations, each of NADPH and NADH donates electrons via the plastoquinone-cytochrome $\text{b}\text{c}$ redox complex (Qbc redox complex) to the thylakoid membrane-bound cytochrome c-553 preoxidized by a light flash and to methylviologen via Photosystem I. NADPH donates electrons to the thylakoid membrane via a weakly rotenone-sensitive dehydrogenase to a site that is situated beyond the 3(3′,4′-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea sensitive site and before plastoquinone. Ferredoxin and easily soluble cytoplasmic proteins are presumably not involved in light-mediated NADPH oxidation. Inhibitors of electron transfer at the Qbc redox complex as the dinitrophenylether of 2-iodo-4-nitrothymol, 2,5-dibromo-3-methyl-6-isopropyl-p-benzoquinone and 2-n-heptyl-4-hydroxy-quinone-N-oxide are effective, but antimycin A and KCN are not. The oxidation of NADH showed comparable sensitivity to these inhibitors. However, the oxidation of NADH is antimycin-A-sensitive regardless of the kind of membrane preparation used, indicating that in this case electrons are donated to a different site on the thylakoid membrane. In the dark, NADPH and NADH donate electrons at sites that behave similar to those of light-mediated oxidation, indicating that the initial steps of electron transfer are situated at the thylakoid membranes. However, NADPH oxidation is in some cases not sensitive to inhibitors active at the Qbc redox complex. It is concluded that O₂ reduction takes place at two different sites, one partly developed in vitro, situated near the rotenone-sensitive NADPH dehydrogenase, and another, highly KCN-sensitive one, situated beyond the Qbc redox complex and used in vivo. The terminal oxygen-reducing step of NADPH and NADH oxidation in the dark showed a preparation-dependent sensitivity for KCN, more than 80% inhibition in sonically derived membrane vesicles and less than 30% inhibition in osmotically shocked spheroplasts. From this result we tentatively conclude that the highly KCN-sensitive oxidase is not necessarily located at the thylakoid membrane and could be located at the cytoplasmic membrane.