Infection of swine ex vivo tissues with avian viruses including H7N9 and correlation with glycomic analysis

OBJECTIVES: Swine have been regarded as intermediate hosts in the spread of influenza from birds to humans but studies of the sialylated glycans that comprise their respiratory tract have not been extensively studied in the past. This study analyzed the sialylated N-glycan and O-glycan profile of swine trachea and lung and correlated this with ex-vivo infection of swine explants with avian influenza viruses. SAMPLE: Lungs and tracheal samples were obtained from normal farm and laboratory raised swine and used for ex vivo infection as well as mass spectrometric analysis. Infection of the ex vivo tissues used high pathogenic and low pathogenic avian viruses including the novel H7N9 virus that emerged in China in early 2013. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Assessment of successful replication was determined by TCID50 as well as virus immunohistochemistry. The N-glycan and O-glycan profiles were measured by MALDI-TOF and sialylated linkages were determined by sialidase treatment. Lectin binding histochemistry was also performed on formalin fixed tissue samples with positive binding detected by chromogen staining. RESULTS: The swine respiratory tract glycans differed from the human respiratory tact glycans in two main areas. There was a greater abundance of Gal-α-Gal linkages resulting in a relative decrease in sialylated glycans. The swine respiratory tract also had a greater proportion of glycans containing Neu5Gc and Siaα2-6 glycans than the human respiratory tract. Infection with avian viruses was confined primarily to lung bronchioles rather than trachea and parenchyma. CONCLUSIONS: In contrast to previous studies we found that there was not as much expression of Siaα2-3 glycans on the surface of the trachea. Infection of Siaα2-3 binding avian viruses was restricted to the lower respiratory tract bronchioles. This finding may diminish the ability of the swine to act as an intermediary in the transmission of avian viruses to humans.published_or_final_versio

Having a lot of a good thing: multiple important group memberships as a source of self-esteem.

Copyright: © 2015 Jetten et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are creditedMembership in important social groups can promote a positive identity. We propose and test an identity resource model in which personal self-esteem is boosted by membership in additional important social groups. Belonging to multiple important group memberships predicts personal self-esteem in children (Study 1a), older adults (Study 1b), and former residents of a homeless shelter (Study 1c). Study 2 shows that the effects of multiple important group memberships on personal self-esteem are not reducible to number of interpersonal ties. Studies 3a and 3b provide longitudinal evidence that multiple important group memberships predict personal self-esteem over time. Studies 4 and 5 show that collective self-esteem mediates this effect, suggesting that membership in multiple important groups boosts personal self-esteem because people take pride in, and derive meaning from, important group memberships. Discussion focuses on when and why important group memberships act as a social resource that fuels personal self-esteem.This study was supported by 1. Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT110100238) awarded to Jolanda Jetten (see http://www.arc.gov.au) 2. Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (LP110200437) to Jolanda Jetten and Genevieve Dingle (see http://www.arc.gov.au) 3. support from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Social Interactions, Identity and Well-Being Program to Nyla Branscombe, S. Alexander Haslam, and Catherine Haslam (see http://www.cifar.ca)

Diffuse Gamma Rays: Galactic and Extragalactic Diffuse Emission

"Diffuse" gamma rays consist of several components: truly diffuse emission from the interstellar medium, the extragalactic background, whose origin is not firmly established yet, and the contribution from unresolved and faint Galactic point sources. One approach to unravel these components is to study the diffuse emission from the interstellar medium, which traces the interactions of high energy particles with interstellar gas and radiation fields. Because of its origin such emission is potentially able to reveal much about the sources and propagation of cosmic rays. The extragalactic background, if reliably determined, can be used in cosmological and blazar studies. Studying the derived "average" spectrum of faint Galactic sources may be able to give a clue to the nature of the emitting objects.Comment: 32 pages, 28 figures, kapproc.cls. Chapter to the book "Cosmic Gamma-Ray Sources," to be published by Kluwer ASSL Series, Edited by K. S. Cheng and G. E. Romero. More details can be found at http://www.gamma.mpe-garching.mpg.de/~aws/aws.htm

Impact Factor: outdated artefact or stepping-stone to journal certification?

A review of Garfield's journal impact factor and its specific implementation as the Thomson Reuters Impact Factor reveals several weaknesses in this commonly-used indicator of journal standing. Key limitations include the mismatch between citing and cited documents, the deceptive display of three decimals that belies the real precision, and the absence of confidence intervals. These are minor issues that are easily amended and should be corrected, but more substantive improvements are needed. There are indications that the scientific community seeks and needs better certification of journal procedures to improve the quality of published science. Comprehensive certification of editorial and review procedures could help ensure adequate procedures to detect duplicate and fraudulent submissions.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures, 6 table

A Social Identity Approach to Sport Psychology: Principles, Practice, and Prospects.

Drawing on social identity theory and self-categorization theory, we outline an approach to sport psychology that understands groups not simply as features of sporting contexts but rather as elements that can be, and often are, incorporated into a person's sense of self and, through this, become powerful determinants of their sport-related behavior. The underpinnings of this social identity approach are outlined, and four key lessons for sport that are indicative of the analytical and practical power of the approach are presented. These suggest that social identity is the basis for sports group (1) behavior, (2) formation and development, (3) support and stress appraisal, and (4) leadership. Building on recent developments within sport science, we outline an agenda for future research by identifying a range of topics to which the social identity approach could fruitfully contribute

Genetic and environmental transactions underlying the associationbetween physical fitness/physical exercise and body composition

We examined mean effects and variance moderating effects of measures of physical activity and fitness on six measures of adiposity and their reciprocal effects in a subsample of the population-representative Danish Twin Registry. Consistent with prior studies, higher levels of physical activity suppressed variance in adiposity, but this study provided further insight. Variance suppression appeared to have both genetic and environmental pathways. Some mean effects appeared due to reciprocal influences of environmental circumstances differing among families but not between co-twins, suggesting these reciprocal effects are uniform. Some variance moderating effects also appeared due to biases in individual measures of adiposity, as well as to differences and inaccuracies in measures of physical activity. This suggests a need to avoid reliance on single measures of both physical activity and adiposity in attempting to understand the pathways involved in their linkages, and constraint in interpreting results if only single measures are available. Future research indications include identifying which physical activity-related environmental circumstances have relatively uniform effects on adiposity in everyone, and which should be individually tailored to maximize motivation to continue involvement.</p

Greater number of group identifications is associated with lower odds of being depressed: evidence from a Scottish community sample

Purpose: Group identification has been shown to be associated with reduced risk of depression, but this research has important limitations. Our aim was to establish a robust link between group identification and depression whilst overcoming previous studies’ shortcomings. Methods: 1824 participants, recruited from General Practice throughout Scotland, completed a questionnaire measuring their identification with three groups (family, community, and a group of their choice), as well as their intensity of contact with each group. They also completed a self-rated depression measure and provided demographic information. Their medical records were also accessed in order to determine if they had been prescribed antidepressants in the previous six months. Results: Number of group identifications was associated with both lower self-rated depression and lower odds of having received a prescription for antidepressants, even after controlling for number of contact-intensive groups, level of education, gender, age, and relationship status. Conclusions: Identifying with multiple groups may help to protect individuals against depression. This highlights the potential importance of social prescriptions, where health professionals encourage a depressed patient to become a member of one or more groups with which the patient believes he/she would be likely to identify

Bystander responses to a violent incident in an immersive virtual environment

Under what conditions will a bystander intervene to try to stop a violent attack by one person on another? It is generally believed that the greater the size of the crowd of bystanders, the less the chance that any of them will intervene. A complementary model is that social identity is critical as an explanatory variable. For example, when the bystander shares common social identity with the victim the probability of intervention is enhanced, other things being equal. However, it is generally not possible to study such hypotheses experimentally for practical and ethical reasons. Here we show that an experiment that depicts a violent incident at life-size in immersive virtual reality lends support to the social identity explanation. 40 male supporters of Arsenal Football Club in England were recruited for a two-factor between-groups experiment: the victim was either an Arsenal supporter or not (in-group/out-group), and looked towards the participant for help or not during the confrontation. The response variables were the numbers of verbal and physical interventions by the participant during the violent argument. The number of physical interventions had a significantly greater mean in the ingroup condition compared to the out-group. The more that participants perceived that the Victim was looking to them for help the greater the number of interventions in the in-group but not in the out-group. These results are supported by standard statistical analysis of variance, with more detailed findings obtained by a symbolic regression procedure based on genetic programming. Verbal interventions made during their experience, and analysis of post-experiment interview data suggest that in-group members were more prone to confrontational intervention compared to the out-group who were more prone to make statements to try to diffuse the situation

Correction: Having a Lot of a Good Thing: Multiple Important Group Memberships as a Source of Self-Esteem

This is the final version of the article. Available from Public Library of Science via the DOI in this record.This is the correction to Jetten J, Branscombe NR, Haslam SA, Haslam C, Cruwys T, Jones JM, et al. (2015) Having a Lot of a Good Thing: Multiple Important Group Memberships as a Source of Self-Esteem. PLoS ONE 10(5): e0124609. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0124609The original article for which this is the correction is in ORE at http://hdl.handle.net/10871/26622

Perceived Parenting and Adolescent Cyber-Bullying: Examining the Intervening Role of Autonomy and Relatedness Need Satisfaction, Empathic Concern and Recognition of Humanness

Due to the progress in information technology, cyber-bullying is becoming one of the most common forms of interpersonal harm, especially among teenagers. The present study (N = 548) aimed to investigate the relation between perceived parenting style (in terms of autonomy support and psychological control) and cyber-bullying in adolescence. Thereby, the study tested for the intervening role of adolescent need satisfaction (i.e., autonomy and relatedness), empathic concern towards others, and adolescents' recognition of full humanness to cyber-bullying offenders and victims. Findings revealed both a direct and an indirect relation between parenting and cyber-bullying. More specifically, parental psychological control directly predicted cyber-bullying, whereas parental autonomy support related to less cyber-bullying indirectly, as it was associated with the satisfaction of adolescents' need for autonomy, which predicted more empathic concern towards others, which in turn differentially related to recognition of humanness to victims and bullies. The discussion focuses on the implications of the current findings