Fear extinction across development: The involvement of the medial prefrontal cortex as assessed by temporary inactivation and immunohistochemistry

Extinction in adult animals, including humans, appears to involve the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). However, the role of mPFC in extinction across development has not yet been studied. Given several recent demonstrations of developmental differences in extinction of conditioned fear at a behavioral level, different neural circuitries may mediate fear extinction across development. In all experiments, noise conditioned stimulus (CS) and shock unconditioned stimulus (US) were used. In experiment 1A, temporary unilateral inactivation of the mPFC during extinction training impaired long-term extinction the following day in postnatal day 24 (P24) rats but not in P17 rats. In experiment 1B, bilateral inactivation of them PFC again failed to disrupt long-term extinction in P17 rats. In experiment 2, extinction training increased phosphorylated mitogen-activated protein kinase (pMAPK) in the mPFC for P24 rats but not for P17 rats, whereas rats of both ages displayed elevated pMAPK in the amygdala. Across both ages, "not trained," "reactivated, " and "no extinction" control groups expressed very low numbers of pMAPK immunoreactive (IR) neurons across both neural structures. This result indicates that the mere conditioning experience, the exposure to the CS, or the expression of CS-elicited fear in and of itself is not sufficient to explain the observed increase in pMAPK-IR neurons in them PFC and/or the amygdala after extinction. Together, these findings show that extinction in P17 rats does not involve the mPFC, which has important theoretical and clinical implications for the treatment of anxiety disorders in humans

Exploring the movement dynamics of deception

Both the science and the everyday practice of detecting a lie rest on the same assumption: hidden cognitive states that the liar would like to remain hidden nevertheless influence observable behavior. This assumption has good evidence. The insights of professional interrogators, anecdotal evidence, and body language textbooks have all built up a sizeable catalog of non-verbal cues that have been claimed to distinguish deceptive and truthful behavior. Typically, these cues are discrete, individual behaviors—a hand touching a mouth, the rise of a brow—that distinguish lies from truths solely in terms of their frequency or duration. Research to date has failed to establish any of these non-verbal cues as a reliable marker of deception. Here we argue that perhaps this is because simple tallies of behavior can miss out on the rich but subtle organization of behavior as it unfolds over time. Research in cognitive science from a dynamical systems perspective has shown that behavior is structured across multiple timescales, with more or less regularity and structure. Using tools that are sensitive to these dynamics, we analyzed body motion data from an experiment that put participants in a realistic situation of choosing, or not, to lie to an experimenter. Our analyses indicate that when being deceptive, continuous fluctuations of movement in the upper face, and somewhat in the arms, are characterized by dynamical properties of less stability, but greater complexity. For the upper face, these distinctions are present despite no apparent differences in the overall amount of movement between deception and truth. We suggest that these unique dynamical signatures of motion are indicative of both the cognitive demands inherent to deception and the need to respond adaptively in a social context

Fear extinction across development: The involvement of the medial prefrontal cortex as assessed by temporary inactivation and immunohistochemistry

Extinction in adult animals, including humans, appears to involve the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). However, the role of mPFC in extinction across development has not yet been studied. Given several recent demonstrations of developmental differences in extinction of conditioned fear at a behavioral level, different neural circuitries may mediate fear extinction across development. In all experiments, noise conditioned stimulus (CS) and shock unconditioned stimulus (US) were used. In experiment 1A, temporary unilateral inactivation of the mPFC during extinction training impaired long-term extinction the following day in postnatal day 24 (P24) rats but not in P17 rats. In experiment 1B, bilateral inactivation of them PFC again failed to disrupt long-term extinction in P17 rats. In experiment 2, extinction training increased phosphorylated mitogen-activated protein kinase (pMAPK) in the mPFC for P24 rats but not for P17 rats, whereas rats of both ages displayed elevated pMAPK in the amygdala. Across both ages, "not trained," "reactivated, " and "no extinction" control groups expressed very low numbers of pMAPK immunoreactive (IR) neurons across both neural structures. This result indicates that the mere conditioning experience, the exposure to the CS, or the expression of CS-elicited fear in and of itself is not sufficient to explain the observed increase in pMAPK-IR neurons in them PFC and/or the amygdala after extinction. Together, these findings show that extinction in P17 rats does not involve the mPFC, which has important theoretical and clinical implications for the treatment of anxiety disorders in humans

Eduardo Mujica con Universidad Católica de Chile -Corporación de Televisión

<p>Mean (SEM) percent pre-CS freezing for Experiment 1.</p

Policy analysis: Compressed workweek

Today the economy has slowed down and inflation has risen to near record highs. Corporations, governments, and agencies are looking at ways to save costs. Budget expenditures on payroll are addressed as well as the cost of utilities, resources, and the costs of doing business. One implicated method to help solve these problems is for the use of compressed workweeks. Compressed workweeks are both beneficial to the agencies and the employees. The employee can have more time for home life while putting in the same amount of hours at work, and save money on commuting to work. Additionally the agency is saving on the budget, because of an extended weekend for the worker. An employer can shorten its workweek and lower operational costs, while improving employee attendance through the use of compressed workweeks. This study is going to examine the different workweeks for differences in attendance, the best measurable variable in favor for the agency. The study will focus on the Clark County, Nevada, the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJS), which has an identical job classification working both traditional workweeks and compressed workweeks. This type of study is rare in that the comparison group is within the same agency and job classification as the experimental group. This examination of compressed work weeks comes at a time where most work in the area of compressed work weeks remain exploratory (Pierce & Dunham 1992), and current agencies, and even entire government agencies are moving radically toward compressed workweeks because of the slowing of the economy and increased inflation

Atmospheric Sampling on Ascension Island Using Multirotor UAVs

As part of an NERC-funded project investigating the southern methane anomaly, a team drawn from the Universities of Bristol, Birmingham and Royal Holloway flew small unmanned multirotors from Ascension Island for the purposes of atmospheric sampling. The objective of these flights was to collect air samples from below, within and above a persistent atmospheric feature, the Trade Wind Inversion, in order to characterise methane concentrations and their isotopic composition. These parameters allow the methane in the different air masses to be tied to different source locations, which can be further analysed using back trajectory atmospheric computer modelling. This paper describes the campaigns as a whole including the design of the bespoke eight rotor aircraft and the operational requirements that were needed in order to collect targeted multiple air samples up to 2.5 km above the ground level in under 20 min of flight time. Key features of the system described include real-time feedback of temperature and humidity, as well as system health data. This enabled detailed targeting of the air sampling design to be realised and planned during the flight mission on the downward leg, a capability that is invaluable in the presence of uncertainty in the pre-flight meteorological data. Environmental considerations are also outlined together with the flight plans that were created in order to rapidly fly vertical transects of the atmosphere whilst encountering changing wind conditions. Two sampling campaigns were carried out in September 2014 and July 2015 with over one hundred high altitude sampling missions. Lessons learned are given throughout, including those associated with operating in the testing environment encountered on Ascension Island

Infant/Weanling Mortality in Tennessee\u27s Prehistory: A Comparative Approach

Although there is general agreement among many researchers concerning the decline in health and nutrition which accompanied the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture, few studies have directly addressed the differences in infant\weanling mortality between these two distinct cultural adaptational strategies. This research focuses on infant mortality as an indicator of general health and nutritional status. Results from the present study, which utilizes more than 1,200 skeletal samples from eight sites, indicate a significant difference in infant mortality between prehistoric hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists in Tennessee. Demographic comparisons were made between six Archaic sites and two Mississippian sites using the mortality profile method. Non-statistically significant differences in infant\weanling mortality were noted between the Archaic sites having shell middens and those without. These differences, while not significant, are believed to be due to a combination of better bone preservation in shell middens and density dependant diseases affecting individuals in the 0-5 year age intervals at Archaic summer base camps. Statistically significant differences in infant\weanling mortality were found between the Archaic and Mississippian sites. This difference suggests a better health and nutritional status for the Archaic hunter-gatherers than for the later Mississippian agriculturalists. The higher infant\weanling mortality among the Mississippian peoples is believed to result from an intensive reliance on a high carbohydrate, low protein maize diet and density dependant diseases brought about by population increase and sedentism. Results from a paleopathological analysis of the remains utilized in the study show a statistically significant difference in frequencies of porotic hyperostosis between the Archaic and Mississippian periods. This pathology is used as and indicator of nutritional stress and is the result of iron deficiency anemia. Previous research has shown a correlation between porotic hyperostosis and maize reliance. The results show a much higher frequency of porotic hyperostosis in the Mississippian sample compared to the Archaic series analyzed. These findings support the conclusions drawn from the paleodemographic results

Microservice Transition and its Granularity Problem: A Systematic Mapping Study

Microservices have gained wide recognition and acceptance in software industries as an emerging architectural style for autonomic, scalable, and more reliable computing. The transition to microservices has been highly motivated by the need for better alignment of technical design decisions with improving value potentials of architectures. Despite microservices' popularity, research still lacks disciplined understanding of transition and consensus on the principles and activities underlying "micro-ing" architectures. In this paper, we report on a systematic mapping study that consolidates various views, approaches and activities that commonly assist in the transition to microservices. The study aims to provide a better understanding of the transition; it also contributes a working definition of the transition and technical activities underlying it. We term the transition and technical activities leading to microservice architectures as microservitization. We then shed light on a fundamental problem of microservitization: microservice granularity and reasoning about its adaptation as first-class entities. This study reviews state-of-the-art and -practice related to reasoning about microservice granularity; it reviews modelling approaches, aspects considered, guidelines and processes used to reason about microservice granularity. This study identifies opportunities for future research and development related to reasoning about microservice granularity.Comment: 36 pages including references, 6 figures, and 3 table

Riding the ‘O’ Train: Comparing the Effects of Ostracism and Verbal Dispute on Targets and Sources

In the present study we examined the effects of social ostracism (being excluded and ignored in the presence of others) on those who ostracize (sources) and those who are ostracized (targets). Unlike previous research that compared ostracism to social inclusion, the present study also compared ostracism to verbal dispute (i.e. an argument). A role-play method was used such that participants acted out a five-minute train ride in which two sources ignored or argued with a target sitting between them. In three studies, ostracism was shown to be a unique form of social conflict, with targets of ostracism reporting lower need satisfaction levels than targets of argument, whereas sources of ostracism reported higher need satisfaction levels than did sources of argument