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This paper conducted a preliminary study of reviewing and exploring bias strategies using a framework of a different discipline: change management. The hypothesis here is: If the major problem of implicit bias strategies is that they do not translate into actual changes in behaviors, then it could be helpful to learn from studies that have contributed to successful change interventions such as reward management, social neuroscience, health behavioral change, and cognitive behavioral therapy. The result of this integrated approach is: (1) current bias strategies can be improved and new ones can be developed with insight from adjunct study fields in change management; (2) it could be more sustainable to invest in a holistic and proactive bias strategy approach that targets the social environment, eliminating the very condition under which biases arise; and (3) while implicit biases are automatic, future studies should invest more on strategies that empower people as “change agents” who can act proactively to regulate the very environment that gives rise to their biased thoughts and behaviors.

The cyclic nature of specific conversions in the nitrogen cycle imposes strict limitations to the conversions observed in nature and explains for example why anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) bacteria can only use nitrite – and not nitrate – as electron acceptor in catabolism, and why nitrite is required as additional electron donor for inorganic carbon fixation in anabolism. Furthermore, the biochemistry involved in nitrite-dependent anaerobic methane oxidation excludes the feasibility of using nitrate as electron acceptor. Based on the cyclic nature of these nitrogen conversions, we propose two scenarios that may explain the ecological role of recently discovered complete ammonia-oxidizing (comammox) Nitrospira spp., some of which were initially found in a strongly oxygen limited environment: (i) comammox Nitrospira spp. may actually catalyze an anammox-like metabolism using a biochemistry similar to intra-oxic nitrite-dependent methane oxidation, or (ii) scavenge all available oxygen for ammonia activation and use nitrate as terminal electron acceptor. Both scenarios require the presence of the biochemical machinery for ammonia oxidation to nitrate, potentially explaining a specific ecological niche for the occurrence of comammox bacteria in nature.

Morality constructs the relationship between the self and others, providing a sense of appropriateness that facilitates and coordinates social behaviors. We start from Moral Foundation Theory (MFT), and argue that multiple moral domains can shape the meaning of public service and engender Public Service Motivation (PSM). From the lens of cognitive science, we develop a causal map for PSM by understanding the social cognition process underlying PSM, focusing on five innate moralities as the potential antecedents of PSM: Care, Fairness, Authority, Loyalty, and Sanctity. Extending moral domains beyond compassion and justice can provide a disaggregated view of PSM, which may help to identify institutional and cultural variation in the meaning of PSM. We discuss the theoretical implications of synthesizing MFT and PSM literatures, and provide directions for future research that could improve our understanding of PSM.

Understanding pre-mRNA splicing is crucial to accurately diagnosing and treating genetic diseases. However, mutations that alter splicing can exert highly diverse effects. Of all the known types of splicing mutations, perhaps the rarest and most difficult to predict are those that activate pseudoexons, sometimes also called cryptic exons. Unlike other splicing mutations that either destroy or redirect existing splice events, pseudoexon mutations appear to create entirely new exons within introns. Since exon definition in vertebrates requires coordinated arrangements of numerous RNA motifs, one might expect that pseudoexons would only arise when rearrangements of intronic DNA create novel exons by chance. Surprisingly, although such mutations do occur, a far more common cause of pseudoexons is deep-intronic single nucleotide variants, raising the question of why these latent exon-like tracts near the mutation sites have not already been purged from the genome by the evolutionary advantage of more efficient splicing. Possible answers may lie in deep intronic splicing processes such as recursive splicing or poison exon splicing. Because these processes utilize intronic motifs that benignly engage with the spliceosome, the regions involved may be more susceptible to exonization than other intronic regions would be. We speculated that a comprehensive study of reported pseudoexons might detect alignments with known deep intronic splice sites and could also permit the characterisation of novel pseudoexon categories. In this report, we present and analyse a catalogue of over 400 published pseudoexon splice events. In addition to confirming prior observations of the most common pseudoexon mutation types, the size of this catalogue also enabled us to suggest new categories for some of the rarer types of pseudoexon mutation. By comparing our catalogue against published datasets of non-canonical splice events, we also found that 15.7% of pseudoexons exhibit some splicing activity at one or both of their splice sites in non-mutant cells. Importantly, this included seven examples of experimentally confirmed recursive splice sites, confirming for the first time a long-suspected link between these two splicing phenomena. These findings have the potential to improve the fidelity of genetic diagnostics and reveal new targets for splice-modulating therapies.

Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and ventricular-arterial coupling (VAC) [VAC = Ea/Ees; Ea: effective arterial elastance; Ees: left ventricle (LV) elastance] are both dimensionless ratios with important limitations, especially in heart failure setting. The LVEF to VAC relationship is a divergent non-linear function, having a point of intersection at the specific value of 0.62, where V0 = 0 ml (V0: the theoretical extrapolated value of the volume-axis intercept at end-systolic pressure 0 mmHg). For the dilated LV, both LVEF and VAC are highly dependent on V0 which is inconclusive when derived from single-beat Ees formulas. VAC simplification should be avoided. Revisiting the relationship between systolic time intervals (STI), pressure, and volumes could provide simple-to-use guiding formulas, affordable for daily clinical practice. We have analyzed by echocardiography the hemodynamics of 21 patients with severe symptomatic heart failure with reduced ejection (HFrEF) compared to 12 asymptomatic patients (at risk of heart failure with mild structural disease). The groups were unequivocally separated by ‘classic’ measures (LVEF, LV end-systolic volume (ESV), LV mass, STI). Chen's Ees formula was weakly correlated with LVEF and indexed ESV (ESVi) but better correlated to the pre-ejection period (PEP); PEP/total ejection time (PEP/TET); systolic blood pressure/PEP (SBP/PEP) (P < 0.001). Combining the predictability of the LVEF to the determinant role of SBP/PEP on the Ees variations, we obtained: (SBP*LVEF)/PEP mm Hg/ms, with an improved R2 value (R2 = 0.848; P < 0.001). The strongest correlations to VAC were for LVEF (R = −0.849; R2 = 0.722) and PEP/TET (R = 0.925; R2 = 0.857). By multiple regression, the VAC was strongly predicted (N = 33): (R = 0.975; R2 = 0.95): VAC = 0.553–0.009*LVEF + 3.463*PEP/TET, and natural logarithm: Ln (VAC) = 0.147–1.4563*DBP/SBP*0.9–0.010*LVEF + 4.207*PEP/TET (R = 0.987; R2 = 0.975; P = 0) demonstrating its exclusive determinants: LVEF, PEP/TET, and DBP/SBP. Considering Ea as a known value, the VAC-derived Ees formula: Ees_d ≈ Ea/(0.553–0.009*LVEF+3.463*PEP/TET) was strongly correlated to Chen's Ees formula (R = 0.973; R2 = 0.947) being based on SBP, ESV, LVEF, and PEP/TET and no exponential power. Thus, the new index supports our hypothesis, in the limited sample of patients with HFrEF. Indices like SBP/PEP, (SBP*LVEF)/PEP, PEP/TET, and DBP/SBP deserve further experiments, underlining the major role of the forgotten STI.

Psychedelic medicine is an emerging field that examines entheogens, psychoactive substances that produce non-ordinary states of consciousness (NOSC). 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is currently in phase-3 FDA clinical trials in the United States (US) and Canada to treat the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). MDMA is used in conjunction with manualized therapy, because of its effectiveness in reducing fear-driven stimuli that contribute to trauma and anxiety symptoms. In 2017, the FDA designated MDMA as a “breakthrough therapy,” signaling that it has advantages in safety, efficacy, and compliance over available medication for the treatment of trauma-, stress-, and anxiety-related disorders such as PTSD. In the US and Canada, historical and contemporary racial mistreatment is frequently experienced by Black people via a variety of macro and micro insults. Such experiences trigger physiological responses of anxiety and fear, which are associated with chronically elevated stress hormone levels (e.g., cortisol and epinephrine), similar to levels documented among those diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. This paper will explore the benefits of entheogens within psychedelic assisted-therapy and their potential benefits in addressing the sequelae of pervasive and frequent negative race-based experiences and promoting healing and thriving among Black, Indigenous and other People of Color (BIPOC). The author(s) discuss the ethical responsibility for providing psychedelic-assisted therapy within a culturally competent provider framework and the importance of psychedelic researchers to recruit and retain BIPOC populations in research and clinical training.

As an important influencing factor of construction workers' safety performance, safety stressor has received increasing attention. However, no consensus has been reached on the relationship between different types of safety stressors and the subdimensions of safety performance, and the mechanism by which safety stressors influence safety performance remains unclear. This study proposed a multiple mediation model with ego depletion and self-efficacy as mediators between safety stressors and workers' safety performance. Data were collected from 335 construction workers in China. Results demonstrated that: (1) the three types of safety stressors (i.e., safety role ambiguity, safety role conflict, and interpersonal safety conflict) all had negative effects on workers' safety performance (i.e., safety compliance and safety participation); (2) self-efficacy mediated all the relationships between the three safety stressors and safety performance; (3) ego depletion only mediated part of the relationships between the three safety stressors and safety performance; and (4) only part of the multiple-step mediating effects through ego depletion and self-efficacy were supported. This study made contributions by shedding light on the mechanism by which safety stressors influence workers' safety performance and providing more empirical evidence for the relationship between various safety stressors and the subdimensions of safety performance. Additionally, targeted strategies for improving workers' safety performance were proposed according to the findings.

This work was supported by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013)/ERC Grant 609819 (SOMICS). Communication, when defined as an act intended to affect the psychological state of another individual, demands the use of inference. Either the signaler, the recipient, or both must make leaps of understanding which surpass the semantic information available and draw from pragmatic clues to fully imbue and interpret meaning. While research into human communication and the evolution of language has long been comfortable with mentalistic interpretations of communicative exchanges, including rich attributions of mental state, research into animal communication has balked at theoretical models which describe mentalized cognitive mechanisms. We submit a new theoretical perspective on animal communication: the model of inferential communication. For use when existing proximate models of animal communication are not sufficient to fully explain the complex, flexible, and intentional communication documented in certain species, specifically non-human primates, we present our model as a bridge between shallower, less cognitive descriptions of communicative behavior and the perhaps otherwise inaccessible mentalistic interpretations of communication found in theoretical considerations of human language. Inferential communication is a framework that builds on existing evidence of referentiality, intentionality, and social inference in primates. It allows that they might be capable of applying social inferences to a communicative setting, which could explain some of the cognitive processes that enable the complexity and flexibility of primate communication systems. While historical models of animal communication focus on the means-ends process of behavior and apparent cognitive outcomes, inferential communication invites consideration of the mentalistic processes that must underlie those outcomes. We propose a mentalized approach to questions, investigations, and interpretations of non-human primate communication. We include an overview of both ultimate and proximate models of animal communication, which contextualize the role and utility of our inferential communication model, and provide a detailed breakdown of the possible levels of cognitive complexity which could be investigated using this framework. Finally, we present some possible applications of inferential communication in the field of non-human primate communication and highlight the role it could play in advancing progress toward an increasingly precise understanding of the cognitive capabilities of our closest living relatives. Publisher PDF

Since the beginning of signed language research, the linguistic units have been divided into conventional, standard and fixed signs, all of which were considered as the core of the language, and iconic and productive signs, put at the edge of language. In the present paper, we will review different models proposed by signed language researchers over the years to describe the signed lexicon, showing how to overcome the hierarchical division between standard and productive lexicon. Drawing from the semiotic insights of Peirce we proposed to look at signs as a triadic construction built on symbolic, iconic, and indexical features. In our model, the different iconic, symbolic, and indexical features of signs are seen as the three sides of the same triangle, detectable in the single linguistic sign (Capirci, 2018;Puupponen, 2019). The key aspect is that the dominance of the feature will determine the different use of the linguistic unit, as we will show with examples from different discourse types (narratives, conference talks, poems, a theater monolog).

Since the appearance of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) in 2003 in China, diabetes mellitus (DM) and hyperglycemia in patients infected with SARS-CoV, represent independent predictors of mortality. Therefore, metabolic control has played a major role in the prognosis of these patients. In the current pandemic of coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), multiple studies have shown that DM is one of the main comorbidities associated with COVID-19 and higher risk of complications and death. The incidence and prevalence of COVID-19 complications and death related with hyperglycemia in patients with or without DM are high. There are many hypotheses related with worse prognosis and death related to COVID-19 and/or hyperglycemia. However, the information about the interplay between hyperglycemia and angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), the critical receptor for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), in the context of SARS-CoV-2 infection, is almost null, but there is enough information to consider the possible participation of hyperglycemia in the glycation of this protein, unleashing a pool of reactions leading to acute respiratory distress syndrome and death in patients with COVID-19. In this document we investigated the current evidence related with ACE2 as a key element within the pathophysiological mechanism related with hyperglycemia extrapolating it to context of SARS-CoV-2 infection and its relationship with worse prognosis and death for COVID-19.

International audience; In the field theories in physics, any particular region of the presumed space-time continuum and all interactions between elementary objects therein can be objectively measured and/or accounted for mathematically. Since this does not apply to any of the field theories, or any other neural theory, of consciousness, their explanatory power is limited. As discussed in detail herein, the matter is complicated further by the facts than any scientifically operational definition of consciousness is inevitably partial, and that the phenomenon has no spatial dimensionality. Under the light of insights from research on meditation and expanded consciousness, chronic pain syndrome, healthy ageing, and eudaimonic well-being, we may conceive consciousness as a source of potential energy that has no clearly defined spatial dimensionality, but can produce significant changes in others and in the world, observable in terms of changes in time. It is argued that consciousness may have evolved to enable the human species to generate such changes in order to cope with unprecedented and/or unpredictable adversity. Such coping could, ultimately, include the conscious planning of our own extinction when survival on the planet is no longer an acceptable option.

Tschacher and Haken have recently applied a systems-based approach to modeling psychotherapy process in terms of potentially beneficial tendencies toward deterministic as well as chaotic forms of change in the client’s behavioral, cognitive and affective experience during the course of therapy. A chaotic change process refers to a greater exploration of the states that a client can be in, and it may have a potential positive role to play in their development. A distinction is made between on the one hand, specific instances of instability which are due to techniques employed by the therapist, and on the other, a more general instability which is due to the therapeutic relationship, and a key, necessary result of a successful therapeutic alliance. Drawing on Friston’s systems-based model of free energy minimization and predictive coding, it is proposed here that the increase in the instability of a client’s functioning due to therapy can be conceptualized as a reduction in the precisions (certainty) with which the client’s prior beliefs about themselves and their world, are held. It is shown how a good therapeutic alliance (characterized by successful interpersonal synchrony of the sort described by Friston and Frith) results in the emergence of a new hierarchical level in the client’s generative model of themselves and their relationship with the world. The emergence of this new level of functioning permits the reduction of the precisions of the client’s priors, which allows the client to ‘open up’: to experience thoughts, emotions and experiences they did not have before. It is proposed that this process is a necessary precursor to change due to psychotherapy. A good consilience can be found between this approach to understanding the role of the therapeutic alliance, and the role of epistemic trust in psychotherapy as described by Fonagy and Allison. It is suggested that beneficial forms of instability in clients are an underappreciated influence on psychotherapy process, and thoughts about the implications, as well as situations in which instability may not be beneficial (or potentially harmful) for therapy, are considered.

It is still elusive to explain the emergence of behavior and understanding based on its neural mechanisms. One renowned proposal is the Free Energy Principle (FEP), which uses an information-theoretic framework derived from thermodynamic considerations to describe how behavior and understanding emerge. FEP starts from a whole-organism approach, based on mental states and phenomena, mapping them into the neuronal substrate. An alternative approach, the Energy Homeostasis Principle (EHP), initiates a similar explanatory effort but starts from single-neuron phenomena and builds up to whole-organism behavior and understanding. In this work, we further develop the EHP as a distinct but complementary vision to FEP and try to explain how behavior and understanding would emerge from the local requirements of the neurons. Based on EHP and a strict naturalist approach that sees living beings as physical and deterministic systems, we explain scenarios where learning would emerge without the need for volition or goals. Given these starting points, we state several considerations of how we see the nervous system, particularly the role of the function, purpose, and conception of goal-oriented behavior. We problematize these conceptions, giving an alternative teleology-free framework in which behavior and, ultimately, understanding would still emerge. We reinterpret neural processing by explaining basic learning scenarios up to simple anticipatory behavior. Finally, we end the article with an evolutionary perspective of how this non-goal-oriented behavior appeared. We acknowledge that our proposal, in its current form, is still far from explaining the emergence of understanding. Nonetheless, we set the ground for an alternative neuron-based framework to ultimately explain understanding.

This report integrates knowledge of in situ macromolecular structures and synaptic protein biochemistry to propose a unified hypothesis for the regulation of certain vesicle trafficking events (i.e., docking, priming, Ca2+-triggering, and membrane fusion) that lead to neurotransmitter secretion from specialized “active zones” of presynaptic axon terminals. Advancements in electron tomography, to image tissue sections in 3D at nanometer scale resolution, have led to structural characterizations of a network of different classes of macromolecules at the active zone, called “Active Zone Material’. At frog neuromuscular junctions, the classes of Active Zone Material macromolecules “top-masts”, “booms”, “spars”, “ribs” and “pins” direct synaptic vesicle docking while “pins”, “ribs” and “pegs” regulate priming to influence Ca2+-triggering and membrane fusion. Other classes, “beams”, “steps”, “masts”, and “synaptic vesicle luminal filaments’ likely help organize and maintain the structural integrity of active zones. Extensive studies on the biochemistry that regulates secretion have led to comprehensive characterizations of the many conserved proteins universally involved in these trafficking events. Here, a hypothesis including a partial proteomic atlas of Active Zone Material is presented which considers the common roles, binding partners, physical features/structure, and relative positioning in the axon terminal of both the proteins and classes of macromolecules involved in the vesicle trafficking events. The hypothesis designates voltage-gated Ca2+ channels and Ca2+-gated K+ channels to ribs and pegs that are connected to macromolecules that span the presynaptic membrane at the active zone. SNARE proteins (Syntaxin, SNAP25, and Synaptobrevin), SNARE-interacting proteins Synaptotagmin, Munc13, Munc18, Complexin, and NSF are designated to ribs and/or pins. Rab3A and Rabphillin-3A are designated to top-masts and/or booms and/or spars. RIM, Bassoon, and Piccolo are designated to beams, steps, masts, ribs, spars, booms, and top-masts. Spectrin is designated to beams. Lastly, the luminal portions of SV2 are thought to form the bulk of the observed synaptic vesicle luminal filaments. The goal here is to help direct future studies that aim to bridge Active Zone Material structure, biochemistry, and function to ultimately determine how it regulates the trafficking events in vivo that lead to neurotransmitter secretion.

BackgroundAlthough genetic diseases are rare, children with such conditions who get infected with COVID-19 tend to have a severe illness requiring hospitalization. Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a rare genetic disorder of collagen resulting in fractures and skeletal deformities. Kyphoscoliosis, restrictive lung disease, and pneumonia worsen the prognosis of patients with OI. The use of bisphosphonate improves bone mineral density (BMD) and reduces fractures in OI. There is no literature describing the impact of COVID-19 in patients with OI.MethodologyA retrospective multi-center study was performed in three hospitals in Jeddah and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from March 1st, 2020, until August 31st, 2021, aiming to evaluate the outcome of COVID-19 in patients with OI. Demographics, vaccination status, underlying kyphoscoliosis, functional status, use of bisphosphonate, BMD, and COVID-19 severity, and course were recorded for all patients.ResultsTwelve cases of confirmed COVID-19 were identified among 146 patients with OI. 9 (75%) of patients were less than 18 years, 6 (50%) were male, 5 (41%) had kyphoscoliosis, and 5 (41%) were wheelchair-bound. 6 (50%) received bisphosphonate, and 7(58%) had normal BMD. All patients had mild disease and did not require hospitalization. None of OI the patients with COVID-19 were fully vaccinated before the infection, and some were ineligible for vaccination.ConclusionPatients with OI and COVID-19 in our study recovered without complications, unlike patients with other genetic diseases. Young age and mild illness contributed to the favorable outcome. Half of the patients received bisphosphonate and had normal BMD.

Cognitive processes involve precisely coordinated neuronal communications between multiple cerebral cortical structures in a task specific manner. Rich new evidence now implicates the cerebellum in cognitive functions. There is general agreement that cerebellar cognitive function involves interactions between the cerebellum and cerebral cortical association areas. Traditional views assume reciprocal interactions between one cerebellar and one cerebral cortical site, via closed-loop connections. We offer evidence supporting a new perspective that assigns the cerebellum the role of a coordinator of communication. We propose that the cerebellum participates in cognitive function by modulating the coherence of neuronal oscillations to optimize communications between multiple cortical structures in a task specific manner.

There has been considerable progress in investigating collective actions in the last decades. However, the real progress is different from what many scholars take it to be. It lies in the fact that there is by now a wealth of different approaches from a variety of fields. Each approach has carved out fruitful mechanisms for explaining collective action, but is also faced with limitations. Given that situation, we submit that the next step in investigating collective action is to acknowledge the plurality of approaches and bring them into dialogue. With this aim in mind, the present article discusses the strengths and weaknesses of some of the to our mind most relevant approaches to collective action in current debates. We begin with the collective intentionality framework, the team reasoning approach, and social identity theory. Then, we move to ecological social psychology, participatory sense-making, and, through the lenses of those frameworks, dynamical systems theory. Finally, we discuss practice theory. Against this background, we provide a proposal for a synthesis of the successful explanatory mechanisms as they have been carved out by the different research programs. The suggestion is, roughly, to understand collective action as dynamical interaction of a self-organizing system with its environment, shaped by a process of collective sense-making.

Krabbe disease is a lysosomal storage disease that is caused by a deficiency in galactosylceramidase. Infantile onset disease is the most common presentation, which includes progressive neurological deterioration with corresponding demyelination, development of globoid cells, astrocyte gliosis, etc. Hemopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is a disease modifying therapy, but this intervention is insufficient with many patients still experiencing developmental delays and progressive deterioration. Preclinical studies have used animal models, e.g., twitcher mice, to test different experimental therapies resulting in developments that have led to progressive improvements in the therapeutic impact. Some recent advances have been in the areas of gene therapy and substrate reduction therapy (SRT), as well as using these in combination with HSCT. Unfortunately, new experimental approaches have encountered obstacles which have impeded the translation of novel therapies to human patients. In an effort to identify a safe adjunct therapy, D-cycloserine was tested in preliminary studies in twitcher mice. When administered as a standalone therapy, D-cycloserine was shown to lengthen the lifespan of twitcher mice in a small but significant manner. D-Cycloserine is an FDA approved antibiotic used for drug resistant tuberculosis. It also acts as a partial agonist of the NMDA receptor, which has led to numerous human studies for a range of neuropsychiatric and neurological conditions. In addition, D-cycloserine may inhibit serine palmitoyltransferase (SPT), which catalyzes the rate-limiting step in sphingolipid production. The enantiomer, L-cycloserine, is a much more potent inhibitor of SPT than D-cycloserine. Previously, L-cycloserine was found to act as an effective SRT agent in twitcher mice as both a standalone therapy and as part of combination therapies. L-Cycloserine is not approved for human use, and its potent inhibitory properties may limit its ability to maintain a level of partial inactivation of SPT that is also safe. In theory, D-cycloserine would encompass a much broader dosage range to achieve a safe degree of partial inhibition of SPT, which increases the likelihood it could advance to human studies in patients with Krabbe disease. Furthermore, additional properties of D-cycloserine raise the possibility of other therapeutic mechanisms that could be exploited for the treatment of this disease.

This manuscript explores intersubjectivity through a conceptual construct for meaning-making that emphasizes three major interrelated elements–meaning making in interaction, making meaning with the body as well as the mind, and meaning making within an open dynamic system. These three elements are present in the literature on intersubjectivity with a wide range of terms used to describe various theoretical formulations. One objective of this manuscript is to illustrate how such a construct can be useful to understand the meaning-making observed in psychoanalysis, such as in the treatment of a young child on the autistic spectrum. The challenges in establishing an intersubjective state with a child on the autistic spectrum serve to highlight important features of intersubjectivity. As an important background to this clinical illustration, we illustrate the construct with the scientific paradigm of the well-known face-to-face still-face.

Increasingly, people interact with embodied machine communicators and are challenged to understand their natures and behaviors. The Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE, sometimes referred to as the correspondence bias) is the tendency for individuals to over-emphasize personality-based or dispositional explanations for other people’s behavior while under-emphasizing situational explanations. This effect has been thoroughly examined with humans, but do people make the same causal inferences when interpreting the actions of a robot? As compared to people, social robots are less autonomous and agentic because their behavior is wholly determined by humans in the loop, programming, and design choices. Nonetheless, people do assign robots agency, intentionality, personality, and blame. Results of an experiment showed that participants made correspondent inferences when evaluating both human and robot speakers, attributing their behavior to underlying attitudes even when it was clearly coerced. However, they committed a stronger correspondence bias in the case of the robot–an effect driven by the greater dispositional culpability assigned to robots committing unpopular behavior–and they were more confident in their attitudinal judgments of robots than humans. Results demonstrated some differences in the global impressions of humans and robots based on behavior valence and choice. Judges formed more generous impressions of the robot agent when its unpopular behavior was coerced versus chosen; a tendency not displayed when forming impressions of the human agent. Implications of attributing robot behavior to disposition, or conflating robot actors with their actions, are addressed.

Being able to correctly predict the future and to adjust own actions accordingly can offer a great survival advantage. In fact, this could be the main reason why brains evolved. Consciousness, the most mysterious feature of brain activity, also seems to be related to predicting the future and detecting surprise: a mismatch between actual and predicted situation. Similarly at a single neuron level, predicting future activity and adapting synaptic inputs accordingly was shown to be the best strategy to maximize the metabolic energy for a neuron. Following on these ideas, here we examined if surprise minimization by single neurons could be a basis for consciousness. First, we showed in simulations that as a neural network learns a new task, then the surprise within neurons (defined as the difference between actual and expected activity) changes similarly to the consciousness of skills in humans. Moreover, implementing adaptation of neuronal activity to minimize surprise at fast time scales (tens of milliseconds) resulted in improved network performance. This improvement is likely because adapting activity based on the internal predictive model allows each neuron to make a more “educated” response to stimuli. Based on those results, we propose that the neuronal predictive adaptation to minimize surprise could be a basic building block of conscious processing. Such adaptation allows neurons to exchange information about own predictions and thus to build more complex predictive models. To be precise, we provide an equation to quantify consciousness as the amount of surprise minus the size of the adaptation error. Since neuronal adaptation can be studied experimentally, this can allow testing directly our hypothesis. Specifically, we postulate that any substance affecting neuronal adaptation will also affect consciousness. Interestingly, our predictive adaptation hypothesis is consistent with multiple ideas presented previously in diverse theories of consciousness, such as global workspace theory, integrated information, attention schema theory, and predictive processing framework. In summary, we present a theoretical, computational, and experimental support for the hypothesis that neuronal adaptation is a possible biological mechanism of conscious processing, and we discuss how this could provide a step toward a unified theory of consciousness.

This extended literature review proposes to present the trends in the therapeutic alliance, outcomes, and measures in the last decade within the premises of individual cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) and its innovations, used as an interventional measure in the context of child and adolescent mental health setting. A brief background of the rationale for conducting this literature search is presented at the start. This is followed by the methodology and design which incorporates the inclusion and exclusion criteria and the basis for the same. The critical appraisal of the primary studies is presented in the literature review section with a brief description of the summary features of the studies in the study tables followed by the results and discussion of the study findings. To summarise, the literature review of primary studies conducted in the last decade demonstrates the need for further research to be conducted both in the field of CBT in children and therapeutic alliance, competence, and therapy outcomes, integrating perspectives in child development, carer alliance, and the social construct theory in children, to allow for further innovations in CBT in the context of increasing challenges in the current times of exponentially developing technology and its utility without compromising the quality of therapy. In conclusion, recommendations are made as a guideline for future studies and research in this field.

Recent reports of rare ChAdOx1-S vaccine-related venous thrombosis led to the suspension of its usage in several countries. Vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) is characterized by thrombocytopenia and thrombosis in association with anti-platelet factor 4 (PF4) antibodies. Herein, we propose five potential anionic substances of the ChAdOx1-S vaccine that can combine with PF4 and trigger VITT, including (1) the proteins on the surface of adenovirus, e.g., negative charged glycoprotein, (2) the adjuvant components of the vaccine, e.g., Tween 80, (3) the DNA of adenovirus, (4) the S protein antigen expressed by the vaccine, and (5) the negatively charged impurity proteins expressed by the vaccine, e.g., adenovirus skeleton proteins. After analysis of each case, we consider the most possible trigger to be the negatively charged impurity proteins expressed by the vaccine. Then, we display the possible extravascular route and intravascular route of the formation of PF4 autoantibodies triggered by the negatively charged impurity proteins, which is accordant with the clinical situation. Accordingly, the susceptible individuals of VITT after ChAdOx1-S vaccination may be people who express negatively charged impurity proteins and reach a certain high titer.

An intuitive view is that creativity involves bringing together what is already known and familiar in a way that produces something new. In cognitive science, this intuition is typically formalized in terms of computational processes that combine or associate internally represented information. From this computationalist perspective, it is hard to imagine how non-representational approaches in embodied cognitive science could shed light on creativity, especially when it comes to abstract conceptual reasoning of the kind scientists so often engage in. The present article offers an entry point to addressing this challenge. The scientific project of embodied cognitive science is a continuation of work in the functionalist tradition in psychology developed over a century ago by William James and John Dewey, among others. The focus here is on how functionalist views on the nature of mind, thought, and experience offer an alternative starting point for cognitive science in general, and for the cognitive science of scientific creativity in particular. The result may seem paradoxical. On the one hand, the article claims that the functionalist conceptual framework motivates rejecting mainstream cognitive views of creativity as the combination or association of ideas. On the other hand, however, the strategy adopted here—namely, revisiting ideas from functionalist psychology to inform current scientific theorizing—can itself be described as a process of arriving at new, creative ideas from combinations of old ones. As is shown here, a proper understanding of cognition in light of the functionalist tradition resolves the seeming tension between these two claims.

Digital technological innovation is reshaping the pattern of industrial development. Due to the shortage of digital talents and the frequent mobility of these people, the competition for talents will be very fierce for organizations to realize digital transformation. The digitization transformation of China’s service industry is far ahead of that of industry and agriculture. It is of great significance to study the organizational management and talent management of service enterprises to reduce the negative impact of insufficient talent reserve and meet the needs of digital development. Based on 378 valid questionnaires from China’s service industry, this paper applied polynomial regression and a response surface model to analyze the impact of two kinds of person-environment fit on work engagement and individual creativity. The results show that: (1) under the combination of high morality and high talent, work engagement and individual creativity are the highest; (2) individual creativity is stronger under the condition of high morality and low talent than under low morality and high talent; and (3) work engagement mediates the influence of morality and talent on individual creativity. The research reveals the internal mechanism by which morality and talent cooperatively promote individual creativity, which provides theoretical guidance for management practice of service firms to improve individual creativity in the process of digital transformation.

During history humans have developed a large variety of contemplative practices, in many different areas of life, and as part of many different traditions and contexts. Although some contemplative practices are very old, the research field of Contemplation Studies is young, and there are no agreed-upon definitions of central concepts such as contemplative practices and contemplative experiences. The present paper focuses on contemplative practices, defined as practices that are engaged in for the sake of the contemplative experiences they afford (e.g., the contemplation of nature, or the contemplation of various aspects of being-in-the world). The purpose of the present paper is to discuss the potential of experimental phenomenology to contribute to the development of the research field of Contemplation Studies. Experimental phenomenology is defined as the investigation of phenomenological practices and their effects on experience. Phenomenological practices involve intentional variations of experiencing by means of changes in the direction of attention and the choice of attitude, typically as guided by verbal instructions or self-instructions. It is suggested that contemplative practices represent a subcategory of phenomenological practices. Two different varieties of experimental phenomenology are described and illustrated in the present paper: (1) an informal variety which involves the development of new phenomenological practices by creative variation of procedures and observation of effects; and (2) a more rigorously scientific variety, which involves the systematic variation of phenomenological practices in accordance with experimental designs to study their experiential effects. It is suggested that the development of contemplative practices during the ages is the result of an informal experimenting of the first kind; this variety of experimental phenomenology can also be used to develop personalized health interventions in a clinical setting. As to the more rigorously scientific experimental phenomenology, it is possible that it may lead not only to an improved understanding of general principles underlying contemplative practices, but also to a more systematic development of new contemplative practices. The experimental-phenomenological approach to contemplative practices is illustrated by various examples involving mindfulness, gratitude, receiving and giving.

Mucilage is a gelatinous high-molecular-weight substance produced by almost all plants, serving numerous functions for plant and soil. To date, research has mainly focused on hydraulic and physical functions of mucilage in the rhizosphere. Studies on the relevance of mucilage as a microbial habitat are scarce. Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) are similarly gelatinous high-molecular-weight substances produced by microorganisms. EPS support the establishment of microbial assemblages in soils, mainly through providing a moist environment, a protective barrier, and serving as carbon and nutrient sources. We propose that mucilage shares physical and chemical properties with EPS, functioning similarly as a biofilm matrix covering a large extent of the rhizosphere. Our analyses found no evidence of consistent differences in viscosity and surface tension between EPS and mucilage, these being important physical properties. With regard to chemical composition, polysaccharide, protein, neutral monosaccharide, and uronic acid composition also showed no consistent differences between these biogels. Our analyses and literature review suggest that all major functions known for EPS and required for biofilm formation are also provided by mucilage, offering a protected habitat optimized for nutrient mobilization. Mucilage enables high rhizomicrobial abundance and activity by functioning as carbon and nutrient source. We suggest that the role of mucilage as a biofilm matrix has been underestimated, and should be considered in conceptual models of the rhizosphere., Frontiers in Plant Science, 12, ISSN:1664-462X

This paper discusses the ethical nature of empathetic and sympathetic engagement with social robots, ultimately arguing that an entity which is engaged with through empathy or sympathy is engaged with as an “experiencing Other” and is as such due at least “minimal” moral consideration. Additionally, it is argued that extant HRI research often fails to recognize the complexity of empathy and sympathy, such that the two concepts are frequently treated as synonymous. The arguments for these claims occur in two steps. First, it is argued that there are at least three understandings of empathy, such that particular care is needed when researching “empathy” in human-robot interactions. The phenomenological approach to empathy—perhaps the least utilized of the three discussed understandings—is the approach with the most direct implications for moral standing. Furthermore, because “empathy” and “sympathy” are often conflated, a novel account of sympathy which makes clear the difference between the two concepts is presented, and the importance for these distinctions is argued for. In the second step, the phenomenological insights presented before regarding the nature of empathy are applied to the problem of robot moral standing to argue that empathetic and sympathetic engagement with an entity constitute an ethical engagement with it. The paper concludes by offering several potential research questions that result from the phenomenological analysis of empathy in human-robot interactions.

Psychedelic-assisted therapy research for depression and PTSD has been fast tracked in the United States with the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) granting breakthrough designations for MDMA (post-traumatic stress disorder) and psilocybin (major depressive disorder). The psychotherapeutic treatments accompanying these psychedelics have not been well-studied and remain controversial. This article reviews the challenges unique to psychedelic-assisted therapy and introduces a newly optimised psychological flexibility model that adapts Contextual Behavioural Science (CBS)/Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to those multiple challenges, including ego inflation, traumatic memories, and the perceived presence of entities. A methodology aligned with biological mechanisms, psychological processes and therapeutic contexts may be advantageous for improving outcomes. This model expands ACT by integrating practices and data from psychedelic-assisted therapy research into a Contextual Behavioural Science framework, allowing both fields to inform each other. Psychological flexibility processes are questioned and adapted to a psychedelic context, and interventions that operationalise these processes are considered. The principle through-line of the paper is to consider varied constructs of Self, as understood by these fields, and integrates respective elements of varied self-models, interventions and data into a Spectrum of Selves model for psychedelic-assisted therapy. Secondly the paper examines how to select and retain new self-perspectives and their corresponding behaviours systemically, drawing from evolutionary science principles. A case example of such behavioural reinforcement is provided, as well as a psychedelic integration checklist to guide the practical implementation of such an approach. This method can enable a coherent therapeutic framework with clear operational relationships between (1) problematic behaviour patterns that an individual wishes to address (2) the guided psychedelic experiences of that individual, and (3) the barriers to maintaining any changes, thus increasing theoretical-practical coherence, broadening treatment benefits and reducing relapse in psychedelic-assisted therapy. Research questions for further developing a CBS-consistent psychedelic-assisted therapy are offered.

The Air Force research programs envision developing AI technologies that will ensure battlespace dominance, by radical increases in the speed of battlespace understanding and decision-making. In the last half century, advances in AI have been concentrated in the area of machine learning. Recent experimental findings and insights in systems neuroscience, the biophysics of cognition, and other disciplines provide converging results that set the stage for technologies of machine understanding and machine-augmented Situational Understanding. This paper will review some of the key ideas and results in the literature, and outline new suggestions. We define situational understanding and the distinctions between understanding and awareness, consider examples of how understanding—or lack of it—manifest in performance, and review hypotheses concerning the underlying neuronal mechanisms. Suggestions for further R&D are motivated by these hypotheses and are centered on the notions of Active Inference and Virtual Associative Networks.

The ontological status of autism has been a subject of considerable debate and philosophical approaches of it have been recent and sparse. On the one hand, from its conception, autism has been historically heavily located in the fields of psychiatry, psychology and neuroscience, which often assume access to an “objective,” neutral and infallible reality that is external to the research process and is based on the autistic person’s biology and behavioural characteristics, which can be scientifically observed and studied. On the other, proponents of the neurodiversity movement argue against medicalised and pathologising approaches to autism and toward approaches that consider social constructions of autism and relations of power. The Critical Realist philosophy can help reconcile the two positions. Critical Realism conceptualises objectivity as a statement about an object, rather than a neutral and infallible reality. Consequently, Critical Realism suggests that access to reality can only occur through fallible theories. It also suggests that effective theorising goes beyond appearances and phenomena and may even contradict them, which can help challenge dominant behaviourist approaches on autism. I then explore how the tenets of Critical Realism can help strengthen autistic-led theories of autism, the arguments they make, as well as how they support the importance of community autism knowledge. Finally, I present how Critical Realism’s approach to knowledge itself as well as the process of knowledge creation can strengthen autistic theorising, autistic participation in autism research and autistic emancipation. In the last part of the article, I explore how the concepts of Critical Realism apply to autistic sociability. I start with the debate between structure and agency, how Critical Realism reconciles this debate and the implications for autistic emancipation and autism research. I then present Critical Realism’s process of critique and explanation, how they connect to human emancipation and how they can lead to impactful change in autism research by requiring clear links from research to practice, enhancing practices with strong theoretical underpinnings and thus aiding the aims of emancipatory autism research.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is one of the most severe public health crises in recent history. Therefore, in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and its negative effects on the health of rural tourist hosts and the rural community, it is necessary to pay attention to the conservation and health behaviors of rural tourist hosts. This study was conducted with the purpose of analyzing preventive behaviors of rural tourism hosts in the face of COVID-19 pandemic with the application of the health belief model (HBM) that is one of the most widely used models to study behavior to prevent and control diseases. In this study, all 80 tourism hosts of tourism target villages in Kermanshah province (the west of Iran), were studied as study population. A questionnaire was used to collect data which its validity and reliability were confirmed. Structural equation modeling (SEM) using Smart PLS software was used to analyze the data. The results of SEM indicated that perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, self- efficacy, perceived benefits, and cues to action accounted for 56% of the variance of “COVID-19 preventive health behavior” among the hosts of rural tourists in Kermanshah province. Moreover, the perceived susceptibility was the strongest predictor of preventive health behavior, while perceived barriers were not significant on behavior. Therefore, planning based on the HBM with emphasis on increasing awareness to improve and modify the health behavior of rural tourist hosts is recommended.

The aim of this paper is to present principles of constraint-based sound-motion objects in music performance.Sound-motion objectsare multimodal fragments of combined sound and sound-producing body motion, usually in the duration range of just a few seconds, and conceived, produced, and perceived as intrinsically coherent units. Sound-motion objects have a privileged role as building blocks in music because of their duration, coherence, and salient features and emerge from combined instrumental, biomechanical, and motor control constraints at work in performance. Exploring these constraints and the crucial role of the sound-motion objects can enhance our understanding of generative processes in music and have practical applications in performance, improvisation, and composition.

We describe the utility of a standardized index (Z-score) in quantitative EEG (QEEG) capable of when referenced to a resting-state, sex- and age-differentiated QEEG normative database (ISB-NormDB). Our ISB-NormDB comprises data for 1,289 subjects (553 males, 736 females) ages 4.5 to 81 years that met strict normative data criteria. A de-noising process allowed stratification based on QEEG variability between normal healthy men and women at various age ranges. The ISB-NormDB data set that is stratified by sex provides a unique, highly accurate ISB-NormDB model (ISB-NormDB: ISB-NormDB-Male, ISB-NormDB-Female). To evaluate the trends and accuracy of the ISB-NormDB, we used actual data to compare Z-scores obtained through the ISB-NormDB with those obtained through a traditional QEEG normative database to confirm that basic trends are maintained in most bands and are sensitive to abnormal test data. Finally, we demonstrate the value of our standardized index of QEEG, and highlight it’s capacity to minimize the confounding variables of sex and age in any analysis.

Pathological Internet use will have a serious impact on normal individual study and work and has become one of the most important factors hindering the growth and development of contemporary college students. The purpose of this study was to examine the mechanisms of loneliness and depression in the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and pathological Internet use (PIU). A total of 1,179 college students were studied using the Chinese version of the Big Five Personality Scale, Loneliness Scale, Depression Scale, and Pathological Internet Use Scale. The results showed that loneliness partially mediated the relationship between extraversion and PIU and completely mediated the relationship between agreeableness and PIU and neuroticism and PIU. Depression completely mediated the relationship between agreeableness and PIU, neuroticism completely mediated the relationship with PIU, and sense of responsibility partially mediated the relationship with PIU. This study revealed the relationship between different personality traits and PIU and the mediating role of loneliness and depression, suggesting that we should carry out targeted interventions on PIU for college students with different personality traits.

In a modern world, both tick-borne diseases and alcohol consumption are among major public health threats. In the present opinion article, we pose the question, whether these two health problems: alcohol consumption and tick-borne diseases prevalence can be related. We hypothesize that it is possible due to at least three factors: outdoor places chosen for alcohol consumption, behavioral changes induced by alcohol, and possible stronger attraction of human hosts after alcohol consumption to ticks. Many important clues are coming from social studies about people’s preference of places to consume alcohol and from studies regarding the attraction of people consuming alcohol to mosquitos. These data, however, cannot be directly transferred to the case of alcohol consumption and ticks. Therefore, we suggest that more detailed studies are needed to better understand the possible individual attractiveness of people to ticks and ways alcohol may influence it.

Eating disorders (EDs) can be viewed as “embodied acts” that help to cope with internal and external demands that are perceived as overwhelming. The maintenance of EDs affects the entire identity of the person; the lack of a defined; or valid sense of self is expressed in terms of both physical body and personal identity. According to attachment theory, primary relationships characterized by insecurity, traumatic experiences, poor mirroring, and emotional attunement lead to the development of dysfunctional regulatory strategies. Although the literature shows an association between attachment style or states of mind, trauma, behavioral strategies, and various EDs, the debate is still ongoing and the results are still conflicting. Therefore, we believe it is important to examine and treat EDs by understanding which narrative trajectory intercepts distress in relation to narrative and embodied self-concept. Drawing on clinical observation and a narrative review of the literature, we focus on the construction and organization of bodily and narrative identity. Because bodily representations are the primary tools for generating meaning, organizing experience, and shaping social identity from the earliest stages of life, we focus on the role that bodily interactions and sensorimotor and proprioceptive patterns have played in the development of EDs. We consider the role that lack of attunement, insecure attachment, and relational trauma play in mentalizing, affecting self-representation and emotion regulation strategies. The paper also considers a semantic mode of trauma in EDs that involves a top-down pathway through beliefs and narratives about oneself based on lack of amiability, on devaluation, and on humiliation memories. Finally, we would like to highlight the proposal of an integrated model with multiple access model to psychotherapy that takes into account the complexity of ED patients in whom aspects related to dysregulation, body image disintegration, and post-traumatic symptoms are associated with a suffering sense of self and a retraumatizing narrative.

A challenge to developing a model for testing animal consciousness is the pull of opposite intuitions. On one extreme, the anthropocentric view holds that consciousness is a highly sophisticated capacity involving self-reflection and conceptual categorization that is almost certainly exclusive to humans. At the opposite extreme, an anthropomorphic view attributes consciousness broadly to any behavior that involves sensory responsiveness. Yet human experience and observation of diverse species suggest that the most plausible case is that consciousness functions between these poles. In exploring the middle ground, we discuss the pros and cons of “high level” approaches such as the dual systems approach. According to this model, System 1 can be thought of as unconscious; processing is fast, automatic, associative, heuristic, parallel, contextual, and likely to be conserved across species. Consciousness is associated with System 2 processing that is slow, effortful, rule-based, serial, abstract, and exclusively human. An advantage of this model is the clear contrast between heuristic and decision-based responses, but it fails to include contextual decision-making in novel conditions which falls in between these two categories. We also review a “low level” model involving trace conditioning, which is a trained response to the first of two paired stimuli separated by an interval. This model highlights the role of consciousness in maintaining a stimulus representation over a temporal span, though it overlooks the importance of attention in subserving and also disrupting trace conditioning in humans. Through a critical analysis of these two extremes, we will develop the case for flexible behavioral response to the stimulus environment as the best model for demonstrating animal consciousness. We discuss a methodology for gauging flexibility across a wide variety of species and offer a case study in spatial navigation to illustrate our proposal. Flexibility serves the evolutionary function of enabling the complex evaluation of changing conditions, where motivation is the basis for goal valuation, and attention selects task-relevant stimuli to aid decision-making processes. We situate this evolutionary function within the Temporal Representation Theory of consciousness, which proposes that consciousness represents the present moment in order to facilitate flexible action.

Glutamine metabolism (GM) plays a critical role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, a comprehensive methodology to quantify GM activity is still lacking. We developed a transcriptome-based GMScore to evaluate GM activity and investigated the association of GMScore with prognosis and therapeutic resistance. Two independent HCC cohorts with transcriptome data were selected from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA, n = 365) and the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC, n = 231). The expression of 41 GM-associated genes were used to construct and validate GMScore. Several genomic or transcriptomic biomarkers were also estimated. Tumor response to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) was predicted using the tumor immune dysfunction and exclusion algorithm. GMScore was closely correlated with patient characteristics, including stage, histology grade, alpha-fetoprotein level, and vascular invasion. High GMScore was an independent risk factor for overall survival (OS) in both cohorts (HR = 4.2 and 3.91, both p < 0.001), superior to clinical indices and other biomarkers. High GMScore presented transcriptome features to indicate cell growth advantages and genetic stability, which was associated with poor OS of patients who received transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE). High GMScore was also related to high expression of immune checkpoint genes, increased infiltration of regulatory T cells, and decreased infiltration of M1 macrophages. More importantly, high GMScore indicated poor predicted responses to ICIs, which could be verified in an ICI-treated melanoma cohort. In conclusion, GMScore is a strong prognostic index that may be integrated into existing clinical algorithms. A high GMScore may indicate resistance to TACE and ICIs based on its transcriptome and immune features. Validations using other HCC cohorts, especially ICI-treated HCC cohorts, are necessary.

The Candida albicans agglutinin-like sequence (ALS) family is studied because of its contribution to cell adhesion, fungal colonization, and polymicrobial biofilm formation. The goal of this work was to derive an accurate census and sequence for ALS genes in pathogenic yeasts and other closely related species, while probing the boundaries of the ALS family within the Order Saccharomycetales. Bioinformatic methods were combined with laboratory experimentation to characterize 47 novel ALS loci from 8 fungal species. AlphaFold predictions suggested the presence of a conserved N-terminal adhesive domain (NT-Als) structure in all Als proteins reported to date, as well as in S. cerevisiae alpha-agglutinin (Sag1). Lodderomyces elongisporus, Meyerozyma guilliermondii, and Scheffersomyces stipitis were notable because each species had genes with C. albicans ALS features, as well as at least one that encoded a Sag1-like protein. Detection of recombination events between the ALS family and gene families encoding other cell-surface proteins such as Iff/Hyr and Flo suggest widespread domain swapping with the potential to create cell-surface diversity among yeast species. Results from the analysis also revealed subtelomeric ALS genes, ALS pseudogenes, and the potential for yeast species to secrete their own soluble adhesion inhibitors. Information presented here supports the inclusion of SAG1 in the ALS family and yields many experimental hypotheses to pursue to further reveal the nature of the ALS family.

Despite the relative consensus in the self-management literature that personal resolutions are not an effective stand-alone tactic for self-control, some individuals seem capable of using them to exert a remarkable level of control over their behavior. One such individual was Mahatma Gandhi, the famous Indian statesman. Gandhi often used personal resolutions—or “vows”—to commit himself to a range of challenging behaviors, such as extreme diets, sexual abstinence, and fasting. Similarly, Prince Pückler-Muskau, a celebrated 19th-Century adventurer, landscape designer and travel author, described using personal resolutions to unfailingly accomplish numerous tasks in his everyday life. In this article, we examine the historical writings of Gandhi and Pückler-Muskau concerning their use of resolutions. We describe three defining characteristics of their resolutions, which we will refer to as unbreakable resolutions, and outline Gandhi’s advice for making and keeping such resolutions. Our analysis suggests that the effectiveness of unbreakable resolutions may be primarily due to the temporally extended contingencies of reinforcement associated with their use, and can be usefully interpreted from the perspective of delay-discounting and say-do correspondence models of self-control. The implications of this examination for understanding the concept of willpower and for enhancing modern research into self-control training are also discussed. Based on this analysis, we additionally offer a tentative set of guidelines on how to make and keep unbreakable resolutions.

Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) are known to play an essential part in tumor progression under chronic stress settings through their manipulation of adaptive and innate immune systems. Previous researches mainly focus on MDSC's role in the chronic tumor immune environment. In addition, surgery can also serve as a form of acute stress within the patient's internal environment. Nevertheless, the part that MDSCs play in post-surgical tumor development has not gained enough attention yet. Although surgery is known to be an effective definite treatment for most localized solid tumors, there are still plenty of cancer patients who experience recurrence or metastasis after radical resection of the primary tumor. It is believed that surgery has the paradoxical capability to enhance tumor growth. Many possible mechanisms exist for explaining post-surgical metastasis. We hypothesize that surgical resection of the primary tumor can also facilitate the expansion of MDSCs and their pro-tumor role since these surgery-induced MDSCs can prepare the pre-metastatic niche (the “soil”) and at the same time interact with circulating tumor cells (the “seeds”). This vicious, reciprocal mechanism is a crucial point in the emergence of post-surgical metastasis. According to our hypothesis, MDSCs can be the precise target to prevent cancer patients from post-surgical recurrence and metastasis during the perioperative phase to break the wretched cycle and provide better long-term survival for these patients. Future studies are needed to validate this hypothesis.

From a biological point of view, the singing of songs is based on the human vocal learning capacity. It is universally widespread in all cultures. The transmission of songs is an elementary cultural practice, by which members of the older generations introduce both musico-linguistic rules and affect-regulative means to the younger ones. Traditionally, informal singing in familiar settings primarily subserves affect-regulation goals, whereas formal song transmission is embedded in various normative claims and interests, such as preserving cultural heritage and representing collective and national identity. Songs are vocal acts and abstract models that are densely structured and conform to cultural rules. Songs mirror each generations’ wishes, desires, values, hopes, humor, and stories and rest on unfathomable traditions of our cultural and human history. Framed in the emerging scientific field of didactics, I argue that research on formal song transmission needs to make explicit the norms and rules that govern the relationships between song, teacher, and pupils. I investigate these three didactic components, first, by conceptualizing song as rule-governed in terms of a grammar, with songs for children representing the most elementary musico-linguistic genre. The Children’s Song Grammar presented here is based on syllables as elements and on syntactic rules concerning timing, tonality, and poetic language. It makes it possible to examine and evaluate songs in terms of correctness and well-formedness. Second, the pupils’ learning of a target song is exemplified by an acoustical micro-genetic study that shows how vocalization is gradually adapted to the song model. Third, I address the teachers’ role in song transmission with normative accounts and provide exemplary insights into how we study song teaching empirically. With each new song, a teacher teaches the musico-linguistic rules that constitute the respective genre and conveys related cultural feelings. Formal teaching includes self-evaluation and judgments with respect to educational duties and aesthetic norms. This study of the three-fold didactic process shows song transmission as experiencing shared rule-following that induces feelings of well-formedness. I argue that making the inherent normativity of this process more explicit – here systematically at a descriptive and conceptual level – enhances the scientificity of this research domain.

Patients with colorectal carcinoma (CRC) continue to have variable clinical outcomes despite undergoing the same surgical procedure with curative intent and having the same pathologic and clinical stage. This problem suggests the need for better techniques to assess the extent of disease during surgery. We began to address this problem 35 years ago by injecting patients with either primary or recurrent CRC with 125I-labeled murine monoclonal antibodies against the tumor-associated glycoprotein-72 (TAG-72) and using a handheld gamma-detecting probe (HGDP) for intraoperative detection and removal of radioactive, i.e., TAG-72-positive, tissue. Data from these studies demonstrated a significant difference in overall survival data (p < 0.005 or better) when no TAG-72-positive tissue remained compared to when TAG-72-positive tissue remained at the completion of surgery. Recent publications indicate that aberrant glycosylation of mucins and their critical role in suppressing tumor-associated immune response help to explain the cellular mechanisms underlying our results. We propose that monoclonal antibodies to TAG-72 recognize and bind to antigenic epitopes on mucins that suppress the tumor-associated immune response in both the tumor and tumor-draining lymph nodes. Complete surgical removal of all TAG-72-positive tissue serves to reverse the escape phase of immunoediting, allowing a resetting of this response that leads to improved overall survival of the patients with either primary or recurrent CRC. Thus, the status of TAG-72 positivity after resection has a significant impact on patient survival.

This paper investigates the role of group identification in empathic emotion and its behavioral consequences. Our central idea is that group identification is the key to understanding the process in which empathic emotion causes helping behavior. Empathic emotion causes helping behavior because it involves group identification, which motivates helping behavior toward other members. This paper focuses on a hypothesis, which we call “self-other merging hypothesis (SMH),” according to which empathy-induced helping behavior is due to the “merging” between the helping agent and the helped agent. We argue that SMH should be interpreted in terms of group identification. The group identification interpretation of SMH is both behaviorally adequate (i.e., successfully predicts and explains the helping behavior in the experimental settings) and psychologically plausible (i.e., does not posit psychologically unrealistic beliefs, desires, etc.). Empathy-induced helping behavior, according to the group identification interpretation of the SMH, does not fit comfortably into the traditional egoism/altruism dichotomy. We thus propose a new taxonomy according to which empathy-induced helping behavior is both altruistic at the individual level and egoistic at the group level.

The value of understanding patients' illness experience and social contexts for advancing medicine and clinical care is widely acknowledged. However, methodologies for rigorous and inclusive data gathering and integrative analysis of biomedical, cultural, and social factors are limited. In this paper, we propose a digital strategy for large-scale qualitative health research, usingplay(as a state of being, a communication mode or context, and a set of imaginative, expressive, and game-like activities) as a research method for recursive learning and action planning. Our proposal builds on Gregory Bateson's cybernetic approach to knowledge production. Using chronic pain as an example, we show how pragmatic, structural and cultural constraints that define the relationship of patients to the healthcare system can give rise to conflicted messaging that impedes inclusive health research. We then review existing literature to illustrate how different types of play including games, chatbots, virtual worlds, and creative art making can contribute to research in chronic pain. Inspired by Frederick Steier's application of Bateson's theory to designing a science museum, we propose DiSPORA (Digital Strategy for Play-Oriented Research and Action), a virtual citizen science laboratory which provides a framework for delivering health information, tools for play-based experimentation, and data collection capacity, but is flexible in allowing participants to choose the mode and the extent of their interaction. Combined with other data management platforms used in epidemiological studies of neuropsychiatric illness, DiSPORA offers a tool for large-scale qualitative research, digital phenotyping, and advancing personalized medicine.

Symbolic communication is not obvious in the natural communicative repertoires of our closest living relatives, the great apes. However, great apes do show symbolic competencies in laboratory studies. This includes the understanding and the use of human-provided abstract symbols. Given this evidence for the underlying ability, the apparent failure to make use of it in the wild is puzzling. We provide a theoretical framework for identifying basic forms of symbolic signal use in chimpanzee natural communication. In line with the laboratory findings, we concentrate on the most promising domain to investigate, namely gesture, and we provide a case study in this area. We suggest that evidence for basic symbolic signal use would consist of the presence of two key characteristics of symbolic communication, namely arbitrariness and conventionalization. Arbitrariness means that the linkage between the form of the gesture and its meaning shows no obvious logical or otherwise motivated connection. Conventionalization means that the gesture is shared at the group-level and is thus socially learned, not innate. Further, we discuss the emergence and transmission of these gestures. Demonstrating this basic form of symbolic signal use would indicate that the symbolic capacities revealed by laboratory studies also find their expression in the natural gestural communication of our closest living relatives, even if only to a limited extent. This theoretical article thus aims to contribute to our understanding of the developmental origins of great ape gestures, and hence, arguably, of human symbolic communication. It also has a very practical aim in that by providing clear criteria and by pointing out potential candidates for symbolic communication, we give fieldworkers useful prerequisites for identifying and analyzing signals which may demonstrate the use of great apes’ symbolic capacities in the wild.

In the present study, we tested the effectiveness of color coding on the programming learning of students who were learning from video lectures. Effectiveness was measured using multimodal physiological measures, combining eye tracking and electroencephalography (EEG). Using a between-subjects design, 42 university students were randomly assigned to two video lecture conditions (color-coded vs. grayscale). The participants’ eye tracking and EEG signals were recorded while watching the assigned video, and their learning performance was subsequently assessed. The results showed that the color-coded design was more beneficial than the grayscale design, as indicated by smaller pupil diameter, shorter fixation duration, higher EEG theta and alpha band power, lower EEG cognitive load, and better learning performance. The present findings have practical implications for designing slide-based programming learning video lectures; slides should highlight the format of the program code using color coding.