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Abstract Facial expression recognition (FER) is crucial for understanding the emotional state of others during human social interactions. It has been assumed that humans share universal visual sampling strategies to achieve this task. However, recent studies in face identification have revealed striking idiosyncratic fixation patterns, questioning the universality of face processing. More importantly, very little is known about whether such idiosyncrasies extend to the biological relevant recognition of static and dynamic facial expressions of emotion (FEEs). To clarify this issue, we tracked observers’ eye movements categorizing static and ecologically valid dynamic faces displaying the six basic FEEs, all normalized for time presentation (1 s), contrast and global luminance across exposure time. We then used robust data-driven analyses combining statistical fixation maps with hidden Markov Models to explore eye-movements across FEEs and stimulus modalities. Our data revealed three spatially and temporally distinct equally occurring face scanning strategies during FER. Crucially, such visual sampling strategies were mostly comparably effective in FER and highly consistent across FEEs and modalities. Our findings show that spatiotemporal idiosyncratic gaze strategies also occur for the biologically relevant recognition of FEEs, further questioning the universality of FER and, more generally, face processing.

Resumo Introdução: o sistema funerário público paulistano é um dos maiores da América Latina. Durante a pandemia de COVID-19, a cidade de São Paulo, particularmente em 2021, bateu recordes de óbitos e sepultamentos. Tal situação repercutiu significativamente no trabalho desenvolvido pelos servidores públicos vinculados à autarquia. Objetivo: esta investigação objetivou conhecer as condições e situações de trabalho de trabalhadores do serviço funerário municipal paulistano no contexto pandêmico, observando suas repercussões na atividade laboral e na saúde de seus(suas) trabalhadores(as). Métodos: a pesquisa, de abordagem qualitativa, exploratória quanto aos objetivos, fez uso de entrevistas semiestruturadas. Contou com 16 participantes, contatados por critério de acessibilidade, vinculados a diferentes atividades laborais, lotados em dois cemitérios e em um polo administrativo, que trabalharam presencialmente durante a pandemia. Resultados: como resultado de pesquisa, observou-se a acentuação de condições e situações de trabalho precarizadas preexistentes, mas agravadas pela pandemia. Constatou-se recorrente indicação de carga emocional relacionada à atividade laboral, assim como sentimento de desvalorização profissional. Conclusão: destaca-se o fato de ser uma atividade laboral complexa, que requer saberes específicos, muitos deles associados ao trabalho de cuidado, ainda que se evidencie, nos depoimentos, a precarização das condições de trabalho e o sentimento de desvalorização profissional.

Pelo estudo do desenvolvimento de novas ligas metálicas, com propriedades eletromagnéticas específicas e de novas ligas magnéticas à base de NdFeB, a sistemática de funcionamento de motores elétricos é apresentada. Nesse escopo, as atuais soluções aos problemas de baixa autonomia e eficiência energética, inerentes aos motores síncronos e assíncronos, são explicadas. Sendo assim, este artigo pretende revisar as tecnologias de disposição e montagem das peças do conjunto motor, diminuindo os custos de fabricação relacionados a essa categoria, e aumentando a atratividade de veículos elétricos nos cenários mundial e brasileiro. Palavras-chave: ligas de NdFeB; veículos elétricos; motores elétricos

Reports on the origin of European wine grapes are controversial. Here, the authors perform population genetics analyses on a large set of representative wine-making varieties and reveal a single domestication event at the origin of the entire germplasm followed by repeated introgression from wild populations.

γ-Secretase is a multi-subunit enzyme whose aberrant activity is associated with Alzheimer’s disease and cancer. While its structure is atomically resolved, γ-secretase localization in the membrane in situ relies mostly on biochemical data. Here, we combined fluorescent tagging of γ-secretase subunits with super-resolution microscopy in fibroblasts. Structured illumination microscopy revealed single γ-secretase complexes with a monodisperse distribution and in a 1:1 stoichiometry of PSEN1 and nicastrin subunits. In living cells, sptPALM revealed PSEN1/γ-secretase mainly with directed motility and frequenting ‘hotspots’ or high track-density areas that are sensitive to γ-secretase inhibitors. We visualized γ-secretase association with substrates like amyloid precursor protein and N-cadherin, but not with its sheddases ADAM10 or BACE1 at the cell surface, arguing against pre-formed megadalton complexes. Nonetheless, in living cells PSEN1/γ-secretase transiently visits ADAM10 hotspots. Our results highlight the power of super-resolution microscopy for the study of γ-secretase distribution and dynamics in the membrane.

Se determinó la influencia ejercida por el termoperíodo y fotoperíodo en el desarrollo fenológico de cultivares correspondientes a los GM II al V, Para poder generar diferencias en estos últimos factores se realizaron 5 fechas de siembra desde octubre a diciembre. Para todos los cultivares y fechas de siembra se realizó el seguimiento fenológico, se midió el número de nudos (N°N) en R1, R5 y R8 y en este estado también la producción de MS, Se determinaron los componentes de rendimiento: número de vainas por planta (NVPP), peso de mil semillas (PMS), rendimiento de grano por hectárea (R) e índice de cosecha (IC). La etapa más afectada en su duración, en número de días por la fecha de siembra corresponde a Vc-RI, acentuándose este efecto cuando mayor es el GM. Se puede observar menor diferencia en la duración de ciclo entre los cultivares de GM II, con los de mayor GM a medida que se atrasa la fecha de siembra. Las variedades más precoces presentan los mejores valores de MS. La MS total muestra un ajuste de 43,7% con el rendimiento. A las variedades de GM II y III le corresponde los mejores valores de rendimiento. Todos los resultados se encuentran muy afectados por el estrés hídrico sufrido durante el ciclo de cultivo.

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Epidemiological studies suggest that obstetric complications, particularly those related to hypoxia during labor and delivery, are a risk factor for development of schizophrenia. The impact of perinatal asphyxia on postnatal life has been studied in a rodent model of global hypoxia, which is accompanied by cesarean section birth. This asphyxia model shows several behavioral, pharmacological, neurochemical, and neuroanatomical abnormalities in adulthood that have relevance to schizophrenia. Further, it is suggested that schizophrenia has a strong genetic component, and indeed novel candidate genes were recently identified by a genome-wide association study. Here, we examined alteration in the novel schizophrenia risk genes, CNNM2, CSMD1, and MMP16 in the brains of rats undergoing cesarean section with or without global hypoxia. The brain regions studied were the prefrontal cortex, striatum, and hippocampus, which are all relevant to schizophrenia. Risk gene expression was measured at three time periods: neonatal, adolescence, and adulthood. We also performed an in vitro analysis to determine involvement of these genes in CNS maturation during differentiation of human neuronal and glial cell lines. Cnnm2 expression was altered in the brains of asphyxia model rats. However, Csmd1 and Mmp16 showed altered expression by exposure to cesarean section only. These findings suggest that altered expression of these risk genes via asphyxia and cesarean section may be associated, albeit through distinct pathways, with the pathobiology of schizophrenia.

O objetivo deste estudo é analisar, a partir da manifestação de piora ou melhora de capacidade para o trabalho, os aspectos condicionantes de mudanças na relação entre trabalho e voz, segundo o discurso de docentes da rede municipal de ensino de São Paulo. Participaram as professoras que, em comparação com pesquisa anterior, apresentaram maior diferença tanto para piora (Grupo A) como para melhora (Grupo B) nos resultados do Índice de Capacidade para o Trabalho. Elas foram convidadas a discutir quais aspectos poderiam explicar a melhora ou piora desses resultados, em um contexto de grupo focal. Os relatos foram transcritos e analisados qualitativamente, segundo a recorrência dos enunciados. Constatou-se que o grupo A apresentou condição mais adoecida e maior necessidade de falar sobre as dificuldades no trabalho. O Grupo B apresentou mais força para enfrentar os problemas referentes ao trabalho, inclusive propostas criativas. A favor do Grupo B, também foram registradas melhores relações no trabalho quanto ao apoio social e autonomia.

Low oxygen stress often occurs during the life of green organisms, mostly due to the environmental conditions affecting oxygen availability. Both plants and algae respond to low oxygen by resetting their metabolism. The shift from mitochondrial respiration to fermentation is the hallmark of anaerobic metabolism in most organisms. This involves a modified carbohydrate metabolism coupled with glycolysis and fermentation. For a coordinated response to low oxygen, plants exploit various molecular mechanisms to sense when oxygen is either absent or in limited amounts. In Arabidopsis thaliana, a direct oxygen sensing system has recently been discovered, where a conserved N-terminal motif on some ethylene responsive factors (ERFs), targets the fate of the protein under normoxia/hypoxia. In Oryza sativa, this same group of ERFs drives physiological and anatomical modifications that vary in relation to the genotype studied. The microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii responses to low oxygen seem to have evolved independently of higher plants, posing questions on how the fermentative metabolism is modulated. In this review, we summarize the most recent findings related to these topics, highlighting promising developments for the future.

Cell surface protein and lipid molecules are organized in various patterns: randomly, along gradients, or clustered when segregated into discrete micro- and nano-domains. Their distribution is tightly coupled to events such as polarization, endocytosis, and intracellular signaling, but challenging to quantify using traditional techniques. Here we present a novel approach to quantify the distribution of plasma membrane proteins and lipids. This approach describes spatial patterns in degrees of inhomogeneity and incorporates an intensity-based correction to analyze images with a wide range of resolutions; we have termed it Quantitative Analysis of the Spatial distributions in Images using Mosaic segmentation and Dual parameter Optimization in Histograms (QuASIMoDOH). We tested its applicability using simulated microscopy images and images acquired by widefield microscopy, total internal reflection microscopy, structured illumination microscopy, and photoactivated localization microscopy. We validated QuASIMoDOH, successfully quantifying the distribution of protein and lipid molecules detected with several labeling techniques, in different cell model systems. We also used this method to characterize the reorganization of cell surface lipids in response to disrupted endosomal trafficking and to detect dynamic changes in the global and local organization of epidermal growth factor receptors across the cell surface. Our findings demonstrate that QuASIMoDOH can be used to assess protein and lipid patterns, quantifying distribution changes and spatial reorganization at the cell surface. An ImageJ/Fiji plugin of this analysis tool is provided.

Transgenic mice expressing the human superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD-1) mutant at position 93 (G93A) develop a phenotype resembling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In fact, G93A mice develop progressive motor deficits which finally lead to motor palsy and death. This is due to the progressive degeneration of motor neurons in the ventral horn of the spinal cord. Although a similar loss is reported for specific cranial motor nuclei, only a few studies so far investigated degeneration in a few brainstem nuclei. We recently reported that chronic lithium administration delays onset and duration of the disease, while reducing degeneration of spinal motor neuron. In the present study, we extended this investigation to all somatic motor nuclei of the brain stem in the G93A mice and we evaluated whether analogous protective effects induced by lithium in the spinal cord were present at the brain stem level. We found that all motor but the oculomotor nuclei were markedly degenerated in G93A mice, and chronic treatment with lithium significantly attenuated neurodegeneration in the trigeminal, facial, ambiguus, and hypoglossal nuclei. Moreover, in the hypoglossal nucleus, we found that recurrent collaterals were markedly lost in G93A mice while they were rescued by chronic lithium administration.

The noradrenergic nucleus Locus Coeruleus (LC) densely innervates limbic structures. In rats, the damage to LC by the neurotoxin DSP-4, converts episodic limbic seizures induced by bicuculline infusion in the anterior piriform cortex (APC) into self-sustaining status epilepticus (SE). SE induced by this approach is similar to SE induced by co-infusing cyclothiazide and bicuculline into APC in rats bearing an intact LC. As opposed to other commonly used rat SE models (e.g. systemic kainate or pilocarpine), this approach allows one to analyze the effects of SE on brain regions which are solely due to spreading of seizure activity, rather than to direct effect of systemic chemoconvulsant.We evaluated the expression of Fos protein (an immediate early gene product), and the local cerebral metabolic rates for [14C] 2-deoxyglucose (lCMRglc), in rats following SE induced either by cyclothiazide+bicuculline or by DSP-4+bicuculline.We demonstrated that regional Fos expression after SE does not parallel the increase in lCMRglc, in LC-lesioned rats. In DSP-4+bicuculline rats there is an overall lower expression of the protein as compared with the cyclothiazide+bicuculline or bicuculline alone groups; even more, such a difference co-exists with an higher lCMRglc in the DSP-4+bicuculline-treated rats in some regions, as compared with the other groups.These data show that LC neurons play an important role in determining immediate early genes expression even in conditions of strong pathological activation, such as limbic SE. This might have relevant effects in the plastic mechanisms related with epileptogenesis.