Notes

Pseudodesulfovibrio alkaliphilus, sp. nov., the alkaliphilic sulfate-reducing micro-organism isolated coming from a terrestrial off-road volcano.
Geogenic or anthropogenic origin of the elements is discussed. The associated health risk on human health and terrestrial ecological receptors (plant, avian, mammalian) is assessed. BACKGROUND Studies with behavioural and neuropsychological tests have supported the developmental taxonomy theory of antisocial behaviour, which specifies abnormal brain development as a fundamental aspect of life-course-persistent antisocial behaviour, but no study has characterised features of brain structure associated with life-course-persistent versus adolescence-limited trajectories, as defined by prospective data. We aimed to determine whether life-course-persistent antisocial behaviour is associated with neurocognitive abnormalities by testing the hypothesis that it is also associated with brain structure abnormalities. METHODS We used structural MRI data collected at 45 years of age from participants in the Dunedin Study, a population-representative longitudinal birth cohort of 1037 individuals born between April 1, 1972, and March 31, 1973, in Dunedin, New Zealand, who were resident in the province and who participated in the first assessment at 3 years of age. Participants underwent MRI, and mean gs in brain surface morphometry are associated with life-course-persistent, but not adolescence-limited, antisocial behaviour. As such, the analyses are consistent with the developmental taxonomy theory of antisocial behaviour and highlight the importance of using prospective longitudinal data to define different patterns of antisocial behaviour development. FUNDING US National Institute on Aging, Health Research Council of New Zealand, New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, UK Medical Research Council, Avielle Foundation, and Wellcome Trust. Social group membership modulates the neural processing of emotional facial expressions, which, in turn, recruits part of the neural production system. However, little is known about how mixed - and potentially conflicting - social identity cues affect this mechanism. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that incongruent cues of two group memberships (ethnic and experimentally created minimal groups) elicit conflict processing for neutral and, in particular, angry facial expressions. We further expected this interaction of ethnic group, minimal group and emotion to also modulate activation in an emotional production-perception network. Twenty-two healthy German subjects saw dynamic angry and neutral facial expressions, presented in short video clips during functional MRI scanning. All depicted actors belonged to an ethnic in- or outgroup (German or Turkish descent) as well as an ad hoc experimentally created minimal in- or outgroup. Additionally, subjects produced angry or neutral expressions themselves. The whole-brain interaction of ethnic group, minimal group and emotion revealed activity in the right parietal lobule and left cerebellum. Both showed strongest activation for angry faces with conflicting group memberships (e.g., 'ethnic outgroup/minimal ingroup'). In addition, a sub-region of the left cerebellum cluster was also activated for both perceiving and producing angry versus neutral expressions. These results suggest that incongruent group members displaying angry facial expressions elicit conflict processing. Group interaction effects in an emotional production-perception network further indicate stronger neural resonance for incongruent group members. Grapheme-colour synaesthesia is a neurological trait that causes lifelong colour associations for letter and numbers. Synaesthesia studies have demonstrated differences between synaesthetes and non-synaesthetes in ways that extend beyond synaesthesia itself (e.g., differences in their cognition, personality, and creativity). This research has focused almost exclusively on adult synaesthetes, and little is known about the profiles of synaesthetic children. By and large, findings suggest advantages for synaesthetes (e.g., Chun & Hupé, 2016; Havlik, Carmichael, & Simner, 2015; Rothen, Meier, & Ward, 2012; Rouw & Scholte, 2016; Simner & Bain, 2018) although differences in mathematical ability are unclear some research indicates advantages (e.g., Green & Goswami, 2008) whilst others suggest difficulties (e.g., Rich et al., 2005). In the current study, we tested numerical cognition in a large group of children with grapheme-colour synaesthesia. Synaesthetes with coloured numbers showed advantages over their peers in their sense of numerosity, but not in their curriculum mathematics ability. We discuss how our findings speak to models for synaesthesia, to methodologies for assessing number cognition (e.g., dot numerosity tasks), and to the wider educational practice of using coloured number-tools in schools (e.g., Numicon; Oxford University Press, 2018). BACKGROUND Pesticides used in agriculture may expose populations living nearby. Costa Rica is a major banana-exporting country, its production depends on extensive pesticide use. OBJECTIVES To evaluate environmental pesticide exposure, we measured levels of current-use pesticides in air and dust from 12 schools in Matina County, Costa Rica, with passive sampling methods. METHODS We selected ten proximal and two non-proximal schools and placed polyurethane foam passive air samplers outdoors at each school, during four consecutive periods. At three of these schools, we also placed an active air sampler during the first 24 h of each sampling period. We collected passive dust samples by placing a glass Petri Dish at the inside of each school. We subsequently performed a chemical analysis of 18 pesticides, using gas chromatography with mass detector. RESULTS With passive air samplers we detected ten different pesticides two insecticides, two nematicides, and six fungicides, of which nine reported to be used on banimes for passive samplers. School environments near banana plantations are contaminated with multiple pesticides that include insecticides, nematicides, and fungicides, which is of concern. The health risks of coastal areas have long been researched, but the potential benefits for health are only recently being explored. The present study compared the general health of Belgian citizens a) according to the EU's definition of coastal (50-100 km. Four commonly hypothesized mechanisms were considered but no indirect associations were found scores for mental health, physical activity levels and social contacts were not higher at 0-5 km from the coast, and air pollution (PM10 concentrations) was lower at 0-5 km from the coast but not statistically associated with better health. L-Mimosine in vitro Results are controlled for typical variables such as age, sex, income, neighbourhood levels of green and freshwater blue space, etc. The spatial urban-rural-nature mosaic at the Belgian coast and alternative explanations are discussed. The positive associations between the ocean and human health observed in this study encourage policy makers to manage coastal areas sustainably to maintain associated public health benefits into the future. BACKGROUND Current efficacy studies of a mosaic HIV-1 prophylactic vaccine require four vaccination visits over one year, which is a complex regimen that could prove challenging for vaccine delivery at the community level, both for recipients and clinics. In this study, we evaluated the safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of shorter, simpler regimens of trivalent Ad26.Mos.HIV expressing mosaic HIV-1 Env/Gag/Pol antigens combined with aluminium phosphate-adjuvanted clade C gp140 protein. METHODS We did this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 1 trial (IPCAVD010/HPX1002) at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA, USA. We included healthy, HIV-uninfected participants (aged 18-50 years) who were considered at low risk for HIV infection and had not received any vaccines in the 14 days before study commencement. We randomly assigned participants via a computer-generated randomisation schedule and interactive web response system to one of three study groups (111) testing different reger final vaccination. INTERPRETATION Short, 6-month regimens of a mosaic HIV-1 prophylactic vaccine elicited robust HIV-specific immune responses that were similar to responses elicited by a longer, 12-month schedule. Preclinical data showed partial protective efficacy of one of the short vaccine regimens in rhesus monkeys. Further clinical studies are required to test the suitability of the shortened vaccine regimens in humans. Such shortened regimens would be valuable to increase vaccine delivery at the community level, particularly in resource-limited settings. FUNDING Ragon Institute (Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University; Cambridge, MA, USA) and Janssen Vaccines & Prevention (Leiden, Netherlands). BACKGROUND Patients with Ewing sarcoma or osteosarcoma have a median overall survival of less than 12 months after diagnosis, and a standard treatment strategy has not yet been established. Pharmacological inhibition of MET signalling and aberrant angiogenesis has shown promising results in several preclinical models of Ewing sarcoma and osteosarcoma. We aimed to investigate the activity of cabozantinib, an inhibitor of MET and VEGFR2, in patients with advanced Ewing sarcoma and osteosarcoma. METHODS We did a multicentre, single-arm, two-stage, phase 2 trial in patients with advanced Ewing sarcoma or osteosarcoma recruited from ten centres in the French Sarcoma Group. Key eligibility criteria were aged 12 years or older, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0-1, and documented disease progression (according to Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors version 1.1) before study entry. The number of previous lines of treatment was not limited. Patients received cabozantinib (adults 60 mg,bozantinib has antitumor activity in patients with advanced Ewing sarcoma and osteosarcoma and was generally well tolerated. Cabozantinib could represent a new therapeutic option in this setting, and deserves further investigation. FUNDING Institut Bergonié; French National Cancer Institute; Association pour la Recherche contre le Cancer. Research on how humans understand the relative magnitude of symbolic fractions presents a unique case of the symbol-grounding problem with numbers. Specifically, how do people access a holistic sense of rational number magnitude from decimal fractions (e.g. 0.125) and common fractions (e.g. 1/8)? Researchers have previously suggested that people cannot directly access magnitude information from common fraction notation, but instead must use a form of calculation to access this meaning. Questions remain regarding the nature of calculation and whether a division-like conversion to decimals is a necessary process that permits access to fraction magnitudes. To test whether calculation is necessary to access fractions magnitudes, we carried out a series of six parallel experiments in which we examined how adults access the magnitude of rational numbers (decimals and common fractions) under varying task demands. We asked adult participants to indicate which of two fractions was larger in three different conditions decimal-decimal, fraction-fraction, and mixed decimal-fraction pairs.
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