A frontopolar-temporal circuit determines the impact of social information in macaque decision making.

When choosing, primates are guided not only by personal experience of objects but also by social information such as others' attitudes toward the objects. Crucially, both sources of information-personal and socially derived-vary in reliability. To choose optimally, one must sometimes override choice guidance by personal experience and follow social cues instead, and sometimes one must do the opposite. The dorsomedial frontopolar cortex (dmFPC) tracks reliability of social information and determines whether it will be attended to guide behavior. To do this, dmFPC activity enters specific patterns of interaction with a region in the mid-superior temporal sulcus (mSTS). Reversible disruption of dmFPC activity with transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) led macaques to fail to be guided by social information when it was reliable but to be more likely to use it when it was unreliable. By contrast, mSTS disruption uniformly downregulated the impact of social information on behavior.

GeSbSeTe-based high extinction ratio optical modulator.

In this paper, a design for a high extinction ratio Mach-Zehnder optical modulator is proposed. The switchable refractive index of the germanium-antimony-selenium-tellurium (GSST) phase change material is employed to induce destructive interference between the waves passing through Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) arms and to realize amplitude modulation. A novel, to the best of our knowledge, asymmetric input splitter is designed for the MZI to compensate for unwanted amplitude differences between MZI arms and increase the modulator performance. Three-dimensional finite-difference-time-domain simulations show a very high extinction ratio (ER) and low insertion loss (IL) of 45 and 2 dB, respectively, for the designed modulator at the wavelength of 1550 nm. Moreover, the ER is above 22 dB, and the IL is below 3.5 dB in the wavelength range of 1500-1600 nm. The thermal excitation process of GSST is also simulated using the finite-element method, and the speed and energy consumption of the modulator are estimated.

Causal role of a neural system for separating and selecting multidimensional social cognitive information.

People are multi-faceted, typically good at some things but bad at others, and a critical aspect of social judgement is the ability to focus on those traits relevant for the task at hand. However, it remains unknown how the brain supports such context-dependent social judgement. Here, we examine how people represent multidimensional individuals, and how the brain extracts relevant information and filters out irrelevant information when comparing individuals within a specific dimension. Using human fMRI, we identify distinct neural representations in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and anterior insula (AI) supporting separation and selection of information for context-dependent social judgement. Causal evaluation using non-invasive brain stimulation shows that AI disruption alters the impact of relevant information on social comparison, whereas dmPFC disruption only affects the impact of irrelevant information. This neural circuit is distinct from the one supporting integration across, as opposed to separation of, different features of a multidimensional cognitive space.

Distinct neurocomputational mechanisms support informational and socially normative conformity.

A change of mind in response to social influence could be driven by informational conformity to increase accuracy, or by normative conformity to comply with social norms such as reciprocity. Disentangling the behavioural, cognitive, and neurobiological underpinnings of informational and normative conformity have proven elusive. Here, participants underwent fMRI while performing a perceptual task that involved both advice-taking and advice-giving to human and computer partners. The concurrent inclusion of 2 different social roles and 2 different social partners revealed distinct behavioural and neural markers for informational and normative conformity. Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) BOLD response tracked informational conformity towards both human and computer but tracked normative conformity only when interacting with humans. A network of brain areas (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and temporoparietal junction (TPJ)) that tracked normative conformity increased their functional coupling with the dACC when interacting with humans. These findings enable differentiating the neural mechanisms by which different types of conformity shape social changes of mind.

New white light-emitting halochromic stilbenes with remarkable quantum yields and aggregation-induced emission.

Highly efficient single-component white light emitters (SWLEs), are attractive candidates for the simple and cost-effective fabrication of high-performance lighting devices. This study introduced a donor-π-acceptor and a donor-π-donor stilbene-based chromophores, representing pH-responsive fluorescence. The emitters showed yellow and green fluorescence in their neutral form. At the same time, protonation of the chromophores caused blue fluorescence color with a strong hypsochromic shift. The white light emission (WLE) for these chromophores was observed at approximately pH 3 due to the simultaneous presence of the neutral and protonated forms of the chromophores, covering almost all the emission spectra in the visible region (400-700 nm). These chromophores presented exceptional white light quantum yields (Φ) between 31 and 54%, which was desirable for producing white light-emitting devices. Density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent (TD)-DFT were applied to study the structural and electronic properties of the chromophores.

Social prediction modulates activity of macaque superior temporal cortex.

The ability to attribute thoughts to others, also called theory of mind (TOM), has been extensively studied in humans; however, its evolutionary origins have been challenged. Computationally, the basis of TOM has been interpreted within the predictive coding framework and associated with activity in the temporoparietal junction (TPJ). Here, we revealed, using a nonlinguistic task and functional magnetic resonance imaging, that activity in a region of the macaque middle superior temporal cortex was specifically modulated by the predictability of social situations. As in human TPJ, this region could be distinguished from other temporal regions involved in face processing. Our result suggests the existence of a precursor for the TOM ability in the last common ancestor of human and Old World monkeys.

The association between serum levels of micronutrients and the severity of disease in patients with COVID-19.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to compare the serum level of micronutrients with normal amounts, and assess their association with the severity of disease and inflammatory cytokines in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). METHODS: The present cross-sectional study included 60 patients admitted to the intensive care unit with COVID-19. We recorded data on demographic characteristics, anthropometric information, and medical history. Serum levels of inflammatory markers (erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein, interferon-gamma, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-6), vitamins (A, B9, B12, C, D, E), and minerals (magnesium, zinc, iron) were measured. A radiologist assessed the severity of lung involvement according to patient computed tomography scans. The severity of illness was evaluated with the Acute Physiologic Assessment and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) score, oxygen saturation, and body temperature. Independent associations among the serum levels of micronutrients with the severity of COVID-19 were measured. RESULTS: Median patient age was 53.50 years (interquartile range, 12.75 years). Except for vitamin A and zinc, serum levels of other micronutrients were lower than the minimum normal. Patients with APACHE score ≥25 had a higher body mass index (P = 0.044), body temperature (P = 0.003), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (P = 0.008), C-reactive protein (P = 0.003), and lower oxygen saturation (P = 0.005), serum levels of vitamin D (P = < 0.001), and zinc (P = < 0.001) compared with patients with APACHE score <25. We found that lower serum levels of vitamin D, magnesium, and zinc were significantly and independently associated with higher APACHE scores (P = 0.001, 0.028, and < 0.001, respectively) and higher lung involvement (P = 0.002, 0.045, and < 0.001, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Lower serum levels of vitamin D, zinc, and magnesium were involved in severe COVID-19.

Synthesis of some new distyrylbenzene derivatives using immobilized Pd on an NHC-functionalized MIL-101(Cr) catalyst: photophysical property evaluation, DFT and TD-DFT calculations.

In this study the catalytic application of a heterogeneous Pd-catalyst system based on metal organic framework [Pd-NHC-MIL-101(Cr)] was investigated in the synthesis of distyrylbenzene derivatives using the Heck reaction. The Pd-NHC-MIL-101(Cr) catalyst showed high efficiency in the synthesis of these π-conjugated materials and products were obtained in high yields with low Pd-contamination based on ICP analysis. The photophysical behaviors for some of the synthesized distyrylbenzene derivatives were evaluated. The DFT and TD-DFT methods were employed to determine the optimized molecular geometry, band gap energy, and the electronic absorption and emission wavelengths of the new synthesized donor-π-acceptor (D-π-A) molecules in the gas phase and in various solvents using the chemical model B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p) level of theory.

Impact of vitamins A, B, C, D, and E supplementation on improvement and mortality rate in ICU patients with coronavirus-19: a structured summary of a study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES: This study will evaluate the main hypothesis that supplementation with vitamins A, B, C, D, and E significantly improves the severity and mortality rate in ICU patients with COVID-19. TRIAL DESIGN: This study is a randomized, single-blinded, two-arm (1:1 ratio) parallel group clinical trial. PARTICIPANTS: We are conducting this study in patients with COVID-19 admitted to intensive care units at the Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex in Tehran, Iran. The inclusion criteria are as follows: (1) aged between 20 and 60 years, (2) both male and female patients with COVID-19, (3) clinical or definitive diagnosis (using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test), (4) patients have not participated in other clinical trials, and (5) no renal or hepatic abnormalities. The exclusion criteria are as follows: (1) patients with specific and rare viral diseases such as HIV and (2) patients who have been undergoing chemotherapy for the past month. INTERVENTION AND COMPARATOR: Duration of intervention: 7 days from randomization Intervention in the treatment group: Vitamin A 25,000 IU daily Vitamin D 600,000 IU once during study Vitamin E 300 IU twice daily Vitamin C is taken four times per day B vitamins are taken as a daily Soluvit [which included thiamine nitrate 3.1 mg, sodium riboflavin phosphate 4.9 mg (corresponding to vitamin B2 3.6 mg), nicotinamide 40 mg, pyridoxine hydrochloride 4.9 mg (corresponding to vitamin B6 4.0 mg), sodium pantothenate 16.5 mg (corresponding to pantothenic acid 15 mg), sodium ascorbate 113 mg (corresponding to vitamin C 100 mg), biotin 60 µg, folic acid 400 µg, and cyanocobalamin 5 µg] The control group will not receive any supplements or placebo. All supplements are made in Iran except for Soluvit (from Fresenius Kabi, New Zealand). MAIN OUTCOMES: 1. Weight, height, and BMI 2. Severity of pulmonary involvement according to CT scan 3. Respiratory support (invasive or non-invasive) 4. Percentage of oxygen saturation (SpO2 level) 5. Serum levels of WBC, CRP, ESR, IL6, IFN-G, and TNF-α 6. The patient's body temperature 7. The presence or absence of involvement of organs other than the lungs (e.g., heart, liver, kidneys) 8. Duration of hospitalization 9. Mortality rate RANDOMIZATION: At baseline, eligible patients were randomly assigned to a 1:1 ratio to one of two groups: intervention and control. Block randomization is used based on the gender of patients. BLINDING (MASKING): Patients are unaware of being placed in the intervention or control groups after signing consent. All treatment staff will be aware of which group each of the patients is in due to the specific conditions of the ICU and the absence of placebo for the control group. NUMBERS TO BE RANDOMIZED (SAMPLE SIZE): The researchers plan to include 60 patients in total, with 30 patients in each group. TRIAL STATUS: This is the first version of the protocol which started on April 2, 2020. Recruitment began April 2, 2020, and is expected to be complete by July 4, 2020. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials IRCT20200319046819N1 . Registered on April 4, 2020 FULL PROTOCOL: The full protocol is attached as an additional file, accessible from the Trials website (Additional file 1). In the interest in expediting dissemination of this material, the familiar formatting has been eliminated; this letter serves as a summary of the key elements of the full protocol (Fig. 1, Table 1).

A novel donor-π-acceptor halochromic 2,6-distyrylnaphthalene chromophore: synthesis, photophysical properties and DFT studies.

In this study a new 2,6-distyryl naphthalene [2-((4-((E)-2-(6-((E)-2,4-bis(methylsulfonyl)styryl)naphthalen-2-yl)vinyl)phenyl)(ethyl)amino)ethan-1-ol; ASDSN] was synthesized successfully using Heck chemistry as the main reaction. The ASDSN compound is a donor-pi-acceptor (D-π-A) conjugated system with amino as electron donating and sulfonyl as electron withdrawing groups. The UV-vis absorption of ASDSN was observed in the range of 403-417 nm with high molar extinction coefficients (ε = 15 300-56 200 M-1 cm-1) in some different solvents. This new fluorescent 2,6-distyryl naphthalene compound emits in the yellow region of the visible spectrum (557 nm) with Stokes shifts of 5930 cm-1. ASDSN is a pH-responsive fluorescence compound that shows yellow fluorescence in neutral form and blue fluorescence in the protonated form. A white light emission (WLE) for the chromophore was observed at pH = 3.0. The ASDSN chromophore presented a satisfactory white light quantum yield (Φ) of 13% which was desirable for producing white light emitting devices. Density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent (TD)-DFT were applied to study structural and electronic properties of the chromophore.

High-Strength, Low-Permeable, and Light-Protective Nanocomposite Films Based on a Hybrid Nanopigment and Biodegradable PLA for Food Packaging Applications.

Herein, a multifunctional filler, a dye (organic)-clay (inorganic) hybrid nanopigment (DCNP), was embedded into polylactic acid (PLA) to fabricate a colored biodegradable/biocompatible film, which is explored as a high thermomechanical resistant as well as a superior light and mass transport barrier for food packaging applications. In this respect, the DCNP was synthesized through a wet chemical process with a reaction yield of 76% and incorporated into a PLA matrix at various concentrations using a solution casting method. The morphological characterizations revealed partially intercalated/exfoliated structure for PLA-DCNP films. The samples filled with DCNP showed up to 20% and 12 °C improvements in storage modulus (E') and glass transition temperature (T g), respectively, compared to those with neat PLA. Incorporation of a small amount of DCNP into the PLA matrix significantly declined the water vapor and gas permeability of PLA by 36 and 54%, respectively. The optical property investigations indicated remarkable color characteristics and light protection performance of the samples containing DCNP. The results also showed better performance of the PLA-DCNP film compared to that of the PLA-Cloisite 20A sample at an identical filler loading. In conclusion, the desirable properties of the resulting films highlighted the potential application of such nanocomposite films as a promising option for food packaging materials.

Reciprocity of social influence.

Humans seek advice, via social interaction, to improve their decisions. While social interaction is often reciprocal, the role of reciprocity in social influence is unknown. Here, we tested the hypothesis that our influence on others affects how much we are influenced by them. Participants first made a visual perceptual estimate and then shared their estimate with an alleged partner. Then, in alternating trials, the participant either revised their decisions or observed how the partner revised theirs. We systematically manipulated the partner's susceptibility to influence from the participant. We show that participants reciprocated influence with their partner by gravitating toward the susceptible (but not insusceptible) partner's opinion. In further experiments, we showed that reciprocity is both a dynamic process and is abolished when people believed that they interacted with a computer. Reciprocal social influence is a signaling medium for human-to-human communication that goes beyond aggregation of evidence for decision improvement.

Gene expression study of mitochondrial complex I in schizophrenia and paranoid personality disorder.

OBJECTIVES: The aetiology and molecular mechanisms of schizophrenia (SCZ) and paranoid personality disorder (PPD) are not yet clarified. The present study aimed to assess the role of mitochondrial complex I and cell bioenergetic pathways in the aetiology and characteristics of SCZ and PPD. METHODS: mRNA levels of all genomic and mitochondrial genes which encode mitochondrial complex I subunits (44 genes) were assessed in blood in 634 SCZ, 340 PPD patients and 528 non-psychiatric subjects using quantitative real-time PCR, and associated comprehensive psychiatric, neurological and biochemical assessments. RESULTS: Significant expression changes of 18 genes in SCZ patients and 11 genes in PPD patients were detected in mitochondrial complex I. Most of these genes were novel candidate genes for SCZ and PPD. Several correlations between mRNA levels and severity of symptoms, drug response, deficits in attention, working memory, executive functions and brain activities were found. CONCLUSIONS: Deregulations of both core and supernumerary subunits of complex I are involved in the aetiology of SCZ and PPD. These deregulations have effects on brain activity as well as disorder characteristics.

Spectral response, dark current, and noise analyses in resonant tunneling quantum dot infrared photodetectors.

Reduction of dark current at high-temperature operation is a great challenge in conventional quantum dot infrared photodetectors, as the rate of thermal excitations resulting in the dark current increases exponentially with temperature. A resonant tunneling barrier is the best candidate for suppression of dark current, enhancement in signal-to-noise ratio, and selective extraction of different wavelength response. In this paper, we use a physical model developed by the authors recently to design a proper resonant tunneling barrier for quantum infrared photodetectors and to study and analyze the spectral response of these devices. The calculated transmission coefficient of electrons by this model and its dependency on bias voltage are in agreement with experimental results. Furthermore, based on the calculated transmission coefficient, the dark current of a quantum dot infrared photodetector with a resonant tunneling barrier is calculated and compared with the experimental data. The validity of our model is proven through this comparison. Theoretical dark current by our model shows better agreement with the experimental data and is more accurate than the previously developed model. Moreover, noise in the device is calculated. Finally, the effect of different parameters, such as temperature, size of quantum dots, and bias voltage, on the performance of the device is simulated and studied.

Orf virus infection in human ecthyma contagiosum: a report of two cases in the West of Iran.

Ecthyma contagiosum is caused by the orf virus, a member of the genus Parapoxvirus in the family Poxviridae. Humans acquire the infection from contact with infected or recently vaccinated animals in conjunction with skin trauma. In this study, we report two cases of orf infection in two women who had contact with animals. Diagnosis was based, apart from the clinical signs, on histological examination, virus isolation using fetal bovine esophagus cells, electron microscopy and PCR.

Equality bias impairs collective decision-making across cultures.

We tend to think that everyone deserves an equal say in a debate. This seemingly innocuous assumption can be damaging when we make decisions together as part of a group. To make optimal decisions, group members should weight their differing opinions according to how competent they are relative to one another; whenever they differ in competence, an equal weighting is suboptimal. Here, we asked how people deal with individual differences in competence in the context of a collective perceptual decision-making task. We developed a metric for estimating how participants weight their partner's opinion relative to their own and compared this weighting to an optimal benchmark. Replicated across three countries (Denmark, Iran, and China), we show that participants assigned nearly equal weights to each other's opinions regardless of true differences in their competence-even when informed by explicit feedback about their competence gap or under monetary incentives to maximize collective accuracy. This equality bias, whereby people behave as if they are as good or as bad as their partner, is particularly costly for a group when a competence gap separates its members.

Learning to make collective decisions: the impact of confidence escalation.

Little is known about how people learn to take into account others' opinions in joint decisions. To address this question, we combined computational and empirical approaches. Human dyads made individual and joint visual perceptual decision and rated their confidence in those decisions (data previously published). We trained a reinforcement (temporal difference) learning agent to get the participants' confidence level and learn to arrive at a dyadic decision by finding the policy that either maximized the accuracy of the model decisions or maximally conformed to the empirical dyadic decisions. When confidences were shared visually without verbal interaction, RL agents successfully captured social learning. When participants exchanged confidences visually and interacted verbally, no collective benefit was achieved and the model failed to predict the dyadic behaviour. Behaviourally, dyad members' confidence increased progressively and verbal interaction accelerated this escalation. The success of the model in drawing collective benefit from dyad members was inversely related to confidence escalation rate. The findings show an automated learning agent can, in principle, combine individual opinions and achieve collective benefit but the same agent cannot discount the escalation suggesting that one cognitive component of collective decision making in human may involve discounting of overconfidence arising from interactions.