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What might explain our instinctual attraction to certain individuals, aside from visible factors such as appearance? We examined possible biologically-driven selection for immunology genes, specifically preferences for Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC)-dissimilarity, through the ecologically-valid method of speed-dating. Two-hundred-and-sixty-two single Asian Americans went on speed-dates ( N observations = 2215) with participants of the other sex, making second date offers and rating each other on measures of mate desirability, facial attractiveness, and body scent attractiveness. Using a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis, women, but not men, showed preferences for speed-dating partners based on MHC-complementarity. The direction of findings varied by single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), such that SNPs closer to the major HLA (Human Leukocyte Antigen) genes supported dissimilarity preferences, whereas those farther away supported similarity preferences. The relative effects of MHC-based measures in comparison to an array of behavioral predictors were examined via random forests. Results indicated that for both men and women, the importance of MHC-based indices was comparable to that of a partner's self-reported personality attributes in predicting second date offers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies have shown that pterostilbene (Pte) confers protection against myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury. The oxidative/nitrative stress and inflammation induce injury after myocardial ischemia/reperfusion. The present study was designed to evaluate whether treatment with Pte attenuates oxidative/nitrative stress and inflammation in myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (MI/R). Rats were subjected to 30 min of myocardial ischemia and 3 h of reperfusion, and the rats were administered with vehicle or Pte. The results showed that Pte (10 mg/kg) dramatically improved cardiac function and reduced myocardial infarction and myocardial apoptosis following MI/R. As an indicator of oxidative/nitrative stress, myocardial ONOO − content was markedly reduced after Pte treatment. And, Pte led to a dramatic decrease in superoxide generation and malondialdehyde (MDA) content and a dramatic increase in superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity. In addition, Pte treatment significantly reduced p38 MAPK activation and the expression of iNOS and gp91 phox and increased phosphorylated eNOS expression. Pte treatment dramatically decreased myocardial TNF-α, and IL-1β levels and myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity. Furthermore, ONOO − suppression by either Pte or uric acid (UA), an ONOO − scavenger, reduced myocardial injury. In conclusion, Pte exerts a protective effect against MI/R injury by suppressing oxidative/nitrative stress. These results provide evidence that Pte might be a therapeutic approach for the treatment of MI/R injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cerebral vasospasm is a devastating complication after subarachnoid hemorrhage. The use of cerebral tissue oxygen saturation (SctO 2 ) to non-invasively assess changes in cerebral tissue perfusion induced by intra-arterial (IA) verapamil treatment has not been described to our knowledge. A total of 21 consecutive post-craniotomy patients scheduled for possible IA verapamil treatment of cerebral vasospasm were recruited. The effect of IA verapamil injection on SctO 2 being continuously monitored on both the left and right forehead was investigated. Comparisons between changes in SctO 2 monitored on the ipsilateral and contralateral forehead in relationship to the side of internal carotid artery (ICA) injection were performed. A total of 47 IA verapamil injections (15 left ICA, 18 right ICA, and 14 vertebral artery injections) during 18 neurointerventional procedures in 13 patients were analyzed. IA verapamil administration led to both increases and decreases in SctO 2 . Changes in SctO 2 ipsilateral to the ICA injection side were more pronounced (p = 0.02 and 0.07 for left and right ICA injections, respectively) and favored compared to contralateral SctO 2 changes. We were unable to obtain reliable measurements on the side ipsilateral to the craniotomy during four procedures in three patients, presumably secondary to pneumocephalus. The local cerebral vasodilating effect of IA verapamil injection is suggested by the differential changes in SctO 2 ipsilateral and contralateral to the ICA injection side. The inconsistent changes in SctO 2 and the limitations of applying cerebral oximetry in this patient population needs to be recognized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] A model based on the van der Waals force is established using a cohesive method. [•] A cohesive law for nanograined metal–ceramic interfaces is proposed for the first time. [•] The atomic forces play a part in metal–ceramic interfaces based on this model. [•] The strength of metal–ceramic interfaces is described quantitatively. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

With the increasing popularity of calcium imaging in neuroscience research, choosing the right methods to analyze calcium imaging data is critical to address various scientific questions. Unlike spike trains measured using electrodes, fluorescence intensity traces provide an indirect and noisy measurement of the underlying neuronal activities. The observed calcium traces are either analyzed directly or deconvolved to spike trains to infer neuronal activities. When both approaches are applicable, it is unclear whether deconvolving calcium traces is a necessary step. In this article, we compare the performance of using calcium traces or their deconvolved spike trains for three common analyses: clustering, principal component analysis (PCA), and population decoding. We found that (1) the two approaches lead to diverging results; (2) estimated spike trains, when smoothed or binned appropriately, usually lead to satisfactory performances, such as more accurate estimation of cluster membership; (3) although estimate spike train produce results more similar to true spike data than trace data, we found that the PCA results from trace data might better reflect the underlying neuronal ensembles (clusters); and (4) for both approaches, decobability can be improved by using denoising or smoothing methods. Our simulations and applications to real data suggest that estimated spike data outperform trace data in cluster analysis and give comparable results for population decoding. In addition, the decobability of estimated spike data can be slightly better than that of calcium trace data with appropriate filtering / smoothing methods. We conclude that spike detection might be a useful pre-processing step for certain problems such as clustering; however, the continuous nature of calcium imaging data provides a natural smoothness that might be helpful for problems such as dimensional reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]