Oxygen-Bearing Functionalities Enhancing NO2, NH3, and Acetone Electronic Response and Response Variation by Polythiophenes in Organic Field-Effect Transistor Sensors

We investigated the enhanced vapor responses and altered response ratios of a series of thiophene (co)polymers with oxygenated side chains (CH2OH, linear polyethylene glycol, and crown ether), including the novel...

Taking A Closer Look At The Bayesian Truth Serum: A Registered Report

Over the past decades, psychology and its cognate disciplines have undergone substantial reform, ranging from advances in statistical methodology to significant changes in academic norms. One aspect of experimental design that has received comparatively little attention is incentivisation, i.e. the way that participants are rewarded and incentivised monetarily for their participation. While incentive-compatible designs are in use in disciplines like economics, the majority of studies in psychology and experimental philosophy are constructed such that individuals’ incentives to maximise their payoffs in many cases counteract their incentives to state their true preferences honestly. This is in part because the subject matter is often self-report data about subjective topics. One mechanism that allows for the introduction of an incentive-compatible design in such circumstances is the Bayesian Truth Serum (Prelec, 2004), which rewards participants based on how surprisingly common their answer are. Recently, Schoenegger (2021) applied this mechanism in the context of Likert-scale self-reports, finding that the introduction of this mechanism significantly altered response behaviour. In this registered report, we further investigate this mechanism by (i) replicating the original result and (ii) teasing out whether the effect may be explainable by an increase in expected earnings or the addition of a prediction task. We take this project to help introduce incentivisation mechanisms into fields where they were not widely used before.

Crosstalk among Calcium ATPases: PMCA, SERCA and SPCA in Mental Diseases

Calcium in mammalian neurons is essential for developmental processes, neurotransmitter release, apoptosis, and signal transduction. Incorrectly processed Ca2+ signal is well-known to trigger a cascade of events leading to altered response to variety of stimuli and persistent accumulation of pathological changes at the molecular level. To counterbalance potentially detrimental consequences of Ca2+, neurons are equipped with sophisticated mechanisms that function to keep its concentration in a tightly regulated range. Calcium pumps belonging to the P-type family of ATPases: plasma membrane Ca2+-ATPase (PMCA), sarco/endoplasmic Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA) and secretory pathway Ca2+-ATPase (SPCA) are considered efficient line of defense against abnormal Ca2+ rises. However, their role is not limited only to Ca2+ transport, as they present tissue-specific functionality and unique sensitive to the regulation by the main calcium signal decoding protein—calmodulin (CaM). Based on the available literature, in this review we analyze the contribution of these three types of Ca2+-ATPases to neuropathology, with a special emphasis on mental diseases.

An Insight into Pyogenic Granuloma with Ossification: Exploring a Unique Association

Pyogenic Granulomas (PG) are reactive hyperplastic lesions that are formed in relation to some chronic irritation, physical trauma or hormonal factors. The PG may present in various clinical and histological forms. These often present as a smooth lobulated exophytic lesions and at times may show a marked resemblance to Peripheral Ossifying Fibroma (POF). However, the characteristic histologic presentation helps in differentiating both the lesions. Microscopically, presence of ossification in pyogenic granuloma is not common and could possibly indicate an altered response of the connective tissue stroma. The present case report shows occurrence of pyogenic granuloma in a 12-year-old female which on histological examination not only exhibited proliferating blood vessels, endothelial cells and inflammatory cells which are typical features of pyogenic granuloma but also exhibited areas of ossifications which are not frequently encountered in PG. It is important to explore the underlying aetiological factors that could lead to formation of such ossifications. It has been suggested that pyogenic granuloma and peripheral ossifying fibroma could represent part of same spectrum of focal reactive lesions. However, it is still considered that these two lesions are separate clinical entities and the histologic presentations are different and unique to both of them.

Chemical Intolerance Is Associated With Altered Response Bias, not Greater Sensory Sensitivity

Chemical intolerance is a surprisingly prevalent condition or affliction characterized by adverse reactions to low levels of chemical, often odorous stimulation. Sufferers often assume that their plight is due to an uncommon sensory acuteness, yet studies repeatedly fail to reveal altered detection thresholds. Here, we investigated whether self-reported chemical intolerance is associated with altered sensory sensitivity or response bias. The sensory acuity (sensitivity; A) and sensory decision rule (criterion; B) to n-butanol was assessed using the method of constant stimuli in 82 participants with different degrees of chemical intolerance (low to high). Higher self-reported chemical intolerance was associated with a lower criterion, but not with sensitivity.