Behavioral and Neuroimaging Evidence for Facial Emotion Recognition in Elderly Korean Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Frontotemporal Dementia

PubMed Central

Park, Soowon; Kim, Taehoon; Shin, Seong A; Kim, Yu Kyeong; Sohn, Bo Kyung; Park, Hyeon-Ju; Youn, Jung-Hae; Lee, Jun-Young

2017-01-01

Background: Facial emotion recognition (FER) is impaired in individuals with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) when compared to healthy older adults. Since deficits in emotion recognition are closely related to caregiver burden or social interactions, researchers have fundamental interest in FER performance in patients with dementia. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the performance profiles of six facial emotions (i.e., fear, anger, disgust, sadness, surprise, and happiness) and neutral faces measured among Korean healthy control (HCs), and those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), AD, and FTD. Additionally, the neuroanatomical correlates of facial emotions were investigated. Methods: A total of 110 (33 HC, 32 MCI, 32 AD, 13 FTD) older adult participants were recruited from two different medical centers in metropolitan areas of South Korea. These individuals underwent an FER test that was used to assess the recognition of emotions or absence of emotion (neutral) in 35 facial stimuli. Repeated measures two-way analyses of variance were used to examine the distinct profiles of emotional recognition among the four groups. We also performed brain imaging and voxel-based morphometry (VBM) on the participants to examine the associations between FER scores and gray matter volume. Results: The mean score of negative emotion recognition (i.e., fear, anger, disgust, and sadness) clearly discriminated FTD participants from individuals with MCI and AD and HC [F(3,106) = 10.829, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.235], whereas the mean score of positive emotion recognition (i.e., surprise and happiness) did not. A VBM analysis showed negative emotions were correlated with gray matter volume of anterior temporal regions, whereas positive emotions were related to gray matter volume of fronto-parietal regions. Conclusion: Impairment of negative FER in patients with FTD is cross-cultural. The discrete neural correlates of FER indicate that emotional recognition processing is a multi-modal system in the brain. Focusing on the negative emotion recognition is a more effective way to discriminate healthy aging, MCI, and AD from FTD in older Korean adults. PMID:29249960

Impaired facial emotion recognition in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy associated with hippocampal sclerosis (MTLE-HS): Side and age at onset matters.

PubMed

Hlobil, Ulf; Rathore, Chaturbhuj; Alexander, Aley; Sarma, Sankara; Radhakrishnan, Kurupath

2008-08-01

To define the determinants of impaired facial emotion recognition (FER) in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy associated with hippocampal sclerosis (MTLE-HS), we examined 76 patients with unilateral MTLE-HS, 36 prior to antero-mesial temporal lobectomy (AMTL) and 40 after AMTL, and 28 healthy control subjects with a FER test consisting of 60 items (20 each for anger, fear, and happiness). Mean percentages of the accurate responses were calculated for different subgroups: right vs. left MTLE-HS, early (age at onset <6 years) vs. late-onset, and before vs. after AMTL. After controlling for years of education, duration of epilepsy and number of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) taken, on multivariate analysis, fear recognition was profoundly impaired in early-onset right MTLE-HS patients compared to other MTLE patients and control subjects. Happiness recognition was significantly better in post-AMTL MTLE-HS patients compared to pre-AMTL patients while anger and fear recognition did not differ. We conclude that patients with right MTLE-HS with age at seizure onset <6 years are maximally predisposed to impaired fear recognition. In them, right AMTL does not further worsen FER abilities. Longitudinal studies comparing FER in the same patients before and after AMTL will be required to refine and confirm our cross-sectional observations.

"Now I see it, now I don't": Determining Threshold Levels of Facial Emotion Recognition for Use in Patient Populations.

PubMed

Chiu, Isabelle; Gfrörer, Regina I; Piguet, Olivier; Berres, Manfred; Monsch, Andreas U; Sollberger, Marc

2015-08-01

The importance of including measures of emotion processing, such as tests of facial emotion recognition (FER), as part of a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment is being increasingly recognized. In clinical settings, FER tests need to be sensitive, short, and easy to administer, given the limited time available and patient limitations. Current tests, however, commonly use stimuli that either display prototypical emotions, bearing the risk of ceiling effects and unequal task difficulty, or are cognitively too demanding and time-consuming. To overcome these limitations in FER testing in patient populations, we aimed to define FER threshold levels for the six basic emotions in healthy individuals. Forty-nine healthy individuals between 52 and 79 years of age were asked to identify the six basic emotions at different intensity levels (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%, and 125% of the prototypical emotion). Analyses uncovered differing threshold levels across emotions and sex of facial stimuli, ranging from 50% up to 100% intensities. Using these findings as "healthy population benchmarks", we propose to apply these threshold levels to clinical populations either as facial emotion recognition or intensity rating tasks. As part of any comprehensive social cognition test battery, this approach should allow for a rapid and sensitive assessment of potential FER deficits.

Overexpression of native ferritin gene MusaFer1 enhances iron content and oxidative stress tolerance in transgenic banana plants

PubMed Central

Yadav, Karuna; Patel, Prashanti; Srivastava, Ashish Kumar

2017-01-01

Iron is an indispensable element for plant growth and defense and hence it is essential to improve the plant’s ability to accumulate iron. Besides, it is also an important aspect for human health. In view of this, we attempted to increase the iron content in banana cultivar Rasthali using MusaFer1 as a candidate gene. Initially, the expression of all five genes of the MusaFer family (MusaFer1-5) was quantified under iron-excess and -deficient conditions. The supplementation of 250 and 350 μM iron enhanced expression of all MusaFer genes; however, MusaFer1 was increased maximally by 2- and 4- fold in leaves and roots respectively. Under iron deficient condition, all five MusaFer genes were downregulated, indicating their iron dependent regulation. In MusaFer1 overexpressing lines, iron content was increased by 2- and 3-fold in leaves and roots respectively, as compared with that of untransformed lines. The increased iron was mainly localized in the epidermal regions of petiole. The analysis of MusaFer1 promoter indicated that it might control the expression of iron metabolism related genes and also other genes of MusaFer family. MusaFer1 overexpression led to downregulated expression of MusaFer3, MusaFer4 and MusaFer5 in transgenic leaves which might be associated with the plant’s compensatory mechanism in response to iron flux. Other iron metabolism genes like Ferric reductase (FRO), transporters (IRT, VIT and YSL) and chelators (NAS, DMAS and NAAT) were also differentially expressed in transgenic leaf and root, suggesting the multifaceted impact of MusaFer1 towards iron uptake and organ distribution. Additionally, MusaFer1 overexpression increased plant tolerance against methyl viologen and excess iron which was quantified in terms of photosynthetic efficiency and malondialdehyde content. Thus, the study not only broadens our understanding about iron metabolism but also highlights MusaFer1 as a suitable candidate gene for iron fortification in banana. PMID:29190821

Emotion Recognition and Social/Role Dysfunction in Non-Clinical Psychosis

PubMed Central

Pelletier, Andrea L.; Dean, Derek J.; Lunsford-Avery, Jessica R.; Smith, Ashley K.; Orr, Joseph M.; Gupta, Tina; Millman, Zachary B.; Mittal, Vijay A.

2013-01-01

As researchers continue to understand non-clinical psychosis (NCP- brief psychotic-like experiences occurring in 5–7% of the general population; van Os et al., 2009), it is becoming evident that functioning deficits and facial emotion recognition (FER) impairment characterize this phenomenon. However, the extent to which these domains are related remains unclear. Social/role functioning and FER were assessed in 65 adolescents/young adults exhibiting Low and High-NCP. Results indicate that FER and social/role functioning deficits were present in the High-NCP group, and that the domains were associated in this group alone. Taken together, findings suggest that a core emotive deficit is tied to broader social/role dysfunction in NCP. PMID:23182437

FES-related tyrosine kinase activates the insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor at sites of cell adhesion.

PubMed

Stanicka, Joanna; Rieger, Leonie; O'Shea, Sandra; Cox, Orla; Coleman, Michael; O'Flanagan, Ciara; Addario, Barbara; McCabe, Nuala; Kennedy, Richard; O'Connor, Rosemary

2018-06-01

IGF-1 receptor (IGF-1R) and integrin cooperative signaling promotes cancer cell survival, proliferation, and motility, but whether this influences cancer progression and therapy responses is largely unknown. Here we investigated the non-receptor tyrosine adhesion kinase FES-related (FER), following its identification as a potential mediator of sensitivity to IGF-1R kinase inhibition in a functional siRNA screen. We found that FER and the IGF-1R co-locate in cells and can be co-immunoprecipitated. Ectopic FER expression strongly enhanced IGF-1R expression and phosphorylation on tyrosines 950 and 1131. FER phosphorylated these sites in an IGF-1R kinase-independent manner and also enhanced IGF-1-mediated phosphorylation of SHC, and activation of either AKT or MAPK-signaling pathways in different cells. The IGF-1R, β1 Integrin, FER, and its substrate cortactin were all observed to co-locate in cell adhesion complexes, the disruption of which reduced IGF-1R expression and activity. High FER expression correlates with phosphorylation of SHC in breast cancer cell lines and with a poor prognosis in patient cohorts. FER and SHC phosphorylation and IGF-1R expression could be suppressed with a known anaplastic lymphoma kinase inhibitor (AP26113) that shows high specificity for FER kinase. Overall, we conclude that FER enhances IGF-1R expression, phosphorylation, and signaling to promote cooperative growth and adhesion signaling that may facilitate cancer progression.

Downregulation of feline sarcoma-related protein inhibits cell migration, invasion and epithelial-mesenchymal transition via the ERK/AP-1 pathway in bladder urothelial cell carcinoma.

PubMed

Hu, Xudong; Zhang, Zhiqiang; Liang, Zhaofeng; Xie, Dongdong; Zhang, Tao; Yu, Dexin; Zhong, Caiyun

2017-02-01

Feline sarcoma-related protein (Fer) is a nuclear and cytoplasmic non-receptor protein tyrosine kinase and Fer overexpression is associated with various biological processes. However, the clinicopathological characteristics and molecular mechanisms of Fer expression in bladder urothelial cell carcinoma (UCC) have yet to be elucidated. The present study demonstrated that Fer was significantly upregulated in bladder UCC tissues and cell lines. A clinicopathological analysis suggested that Fer expression was significantly associated with tumor stage, histological grade and lymph node status, and Fer expression was a prognostic factor for overall survival in a multivariate analysis. Furthermore, small interfering RNA (siRNA) was used to silence the expression of the Fer gene in human bladder UCC T24 cells, and was shown to significantly reduce the migration and invasion of the cells. It was also observed that Fer-siRNA caused the T24 cells to acquire an epithelial cobblestone phenotype, and was able to reverse the epithelial-mesenchymal transition of the cells. Subsequently, Fer-knockdown was shown to deactivate the extracellular signal-regulated kinase/activator protein-1 signaling pathway in T24 cells. These results indicated, for the first time, that Fer has a critical role in bladder UCC progression and may be a potential therapeutic target for bladder UCC metastasis.

Ferritin Assembly in Enterocytes of Drosophila melanogaster

PubMed Central

Rosas-Arellano, Abraham; Vásquez-Procopio, Johana; Gambis, Alexis; Blowes, Liisa M.; Steller, Hermann; Mollereau, Bertrand; Missirlis, Fanis

2016-01-01

Ferritins are protein nanocages that accumulate inside their cavity thousands of oxidized iron atoms bound to oxygen and phosphates. Both characteristic types of eukaryotic ferritin subunits are present in secreted ferritins from insects, but here dimers between Ferritin 1 Heavy Chain Homolog (Fer1HCH) and Ferritin 2 Light Chain Homolog (Fer2LCH) are further stabilized by disulfide-bridge in the 24-subunit complex. We addressed ferritin assembly and iron loading in vivo using novel transgenic strains of Drosophila melanogaster. We concentrated on the intestine, where the ferritin induction process can be controlled experimentally by dietary iron manipulation. We showed that the expression pattern of Fer2LCH-Gal4 lines recapitulated iron-dependent endogenous expression of the ferritin subunits and used these lines to drive expression from UAS-mCherry-Fer2LCH transgenes. We found that the Gal4-mediated induction of mCherry-Fer2LCH subunits was too slow to effectively introduce them into newly formed ferritin complexes. Endogenous Fer2LCH and Fer1HCH assembled and stored excess dietary iron, instead. In contrast, when flies were genetically manipulated to co-express Fer2LCH and mCherry-Fer2LCH simultaneously, both subunits were incorporated with Fer1HCH in iron-loaded ferritin complexes. Our study provides fresh evidence that, in insects, ferritin assembly and iron loading in vivo are tightly regulated. PMID:26861293

Face emotion recognition is related to individual differences in psychosis-proneness.

PubMed

Germine, L T; Hooker, C I

2011-05-01

Deficits in face emotion recognition (FER) in schizophrenia are well documented, and have been proposed as a potential intermediate phenotype for schizophrenia liability. However, research on the relationship between psychosis vulnerability and FER has mixed findings and methodological limitations. Moreover, no study has yet characterized the relationship between FER ability and level of psychosis-proneness. If FER ability varies continuously with psychosis-proneness, this suggests a relationship between FER and polygenic risk factors. We tested two large internet samples to see whether psychometric psychosis-proneness, as measured by the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief (SPQ-B), is related to differences in face emotion identification and discrimination or other face processing abilities. Experiment 1 (n=2332) showed that psychosis-proneness predicts face emotion identification ability but not face gender identification ability. Experiment 2 (n=1514) demonstrated that psychosis-proneness also predicts performance on face emotion but not face identity discrimination. The tasks in Experiment 2 used identical stimuli and task parameters, differing only in emotion/identity judgment. Notably, the relationships demonstrated in Experiments 1 and 2 persisted even when individuals with the highest psychosis-proneness levels (the putative high-risk group) were excluded from analysis. Our data suggest that FER ability is related to individual differences in psychosis-like characteristics in the normal population, and that these differences cannot be accounted for by differences in face processing and/or visual perception. Our results suggest that FER may provide a useful candidate intermediate phenotype.

First comparative characterization of three distinct ferritin subunits from a teleost: Evidence for immune-responsive mRNA expression and iron depriving activity of seahorse (Hippocampus abdominalis) ferritins.

PubMed

Oh, Minyoung; Umasuthan, Navaneethaiyer; Elvitigala, Don Anushka Sandaruwan; Wan, Qiang; Jo, Eunyoung; Ko, Jiyeon; Noh, Gyeong Eon; Shin, Sangok; Rho, Sum; Lee, Jehee

2016-02-01

Ferritins play an indispensable role in iron homeostasis through their iron-withholding function in living beings. In the current study, cDNA sequences of three distinct ferritin subunits, including a ferritin H, a ferritin M, and a ferritin L, were identified from big belly seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis, and molecularly characterized. Complete coding sequences (CDS) of seahorse ferritin H (HaFerH), ferritin M (HaFerM), and ferritin L (HaFerL) subunits were comprised of 531, 528, and 522 base pairs (bp), respectively, which encode polypeptides of 177, 176, and 174 amino acids, respectively, with molecular masses of ∼20-21 kDa. Our in silico analyses demonstrate that these three ferritin subunits exhibit the typical characteristics of ferritin superfamily members including iron regulatory elements, domain signatures, and reactive centers. The coding sequences of HaFerH, M, and L were cloned and the corresponding proteins were overexpressed in a bacterial system. Recombinantly expressed HaFer proteins demonstrated detectable in vivo iron sequestrating (ferroxidase) activity, consistent with their putative iron binding capability. Quantification of the basal expression of these three HaFer sequences in selected tissues demonstrated a gene-specific ubiquitous spatial distribution pattern, with abundance of mRNA in HaFerM in the liver and predominant expression of HaFerH and HaFerL in blood. Interestingly, the basal expression of all three ferritin genes was found to be significantly modulated against pathogenic stress mounted by lipopolysaccharides (LPS), poly I:C, Streptococcus iniae, and Edwardsiella tarda. Collectively, our findings suggest that the three HaFer subunits may be involved in iron (II) homeostasis in big belly seahorse and that they are important in its host defense mechanisms. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Facial Recognition of Happiness Is Impaired in Musicians with High Music Performance Anxiety.

PubMed

Sabino, Alini Daniéli Viana; Camargo, Cristielli M; Chagas, Marcos Hortes N; Osório, Flávia L

2018-01-01

Music performance anxiety (MPA) can be defined as a lasting and intense apprehension connected with musical performance in public. Studies suggest that MPA can be regarded as a subtype of social anxiety. Since individuals with social anxiety have deficits in the recognition of facial emotion, we hypothesized that musicians with high levels of MPA would share similar impairments. The aim of this study was to compare parameters of facial emotion recognition (FER) between musicians with high and low MPA. 150 amateur and professional musicians with different musical backgrounds were assessed in respect to their level of MPA and completed a dynamic FER task. The outcomes investigated were accuracy, response time, emotional intensity, and response bias. Musicians with high MPA were less accurate in the recognition of happiness ( p  = 0.04; d  = 0.34), had increased response bias toward fear ( p  = 0.03), and increased response time to facial emotions as a whole ( p  = 0.02; d  = 0.39). Musicians with high MPA displayed FER deficits that were independent of general anxiety levels and possibly of general cognitive capacity. These deficits may favor the maintenance and exacerbation of experiences of anxiety during public performance, since cues of approval, satisfaction, and encouragement are not adequately recognized.

Alternative expression of vacuolar iron transporter and ferritin genes leads to blue/purple coloration of flowers in tulip cv. 'Murasakizuisho'.

PubMed

Shoji, Kazuaki; Momonoi, Kazumi; Tsuji, Tosiaki

2010-02-01

Flowers of tulip cv. 'Murasakizuisho' have a purple perianth except for the bottom region, which is blue in color even though it has the same anthocyanin, delphinidin 3-O-rutinoside, as the entire perianth. The development of the blue coloration in the perianth bottom is due to complexation by anthocyanin, flavonol and iron (Fe), as well as a vacuolar iron transporter, TgVit1. Although transient expression of TgVit1 in the purple cells led to a color change to light blue, the coloration of the transformed cells did not coincide with the dark blue color of the cells of the perianth bottom. We thought that another factor is required for the blue coloration of the cells of perianth bottom. To examine the effect of ferritin (FER), an Fe storage protein, on blue color development, we cloned an FER gene (TgFER1) and performed expression analyses. TgFER1 transcripts were found in the cells located in the upper region of the petals along with purple color development by anthocyanin and were not found in the blue cells of the perianth bottom. This gene expression is in contrast to that of TgVit1, expressed only in the cells of the perianth bottom. Co-expression of TgVIT1 and TgFER-RNAi, constructed for suppressing endogenous TgFER1 by RNA interference (RNAi), changed the purple petal cells to a dark blue color similar to that of the natural perianth bottom. These results strongly suggest that TgVit1 expression and TgFER1 suppression are critical for the development of blue color in the perianth bottom.

Selective amygdalohippocampectomy versus standard temporal lobectomy in patients with mesiotemporal lobe epilepsy and unilateral hippocampal sclerosis: post-operative facial emotion recognition abilities.

PubMed

Wendling, Anne-Sophie; Steinhoff, Bernhard J; Bodin, Frédéric; Staack, Anke M; Zentner, Josef; Scholly, Julia; Valenti, Maria-Paula; Schulze-Bonhage, Andreas; Hirsch, Edouard

2015-03-01

Surgical treatment of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE) patients involves the removal either of the left or the right hippocampus. Since the mesial temporal lobe is responsible for emotion recognition abilities, we aimed to assess facial emotion recognition (FER) in two homogeneous patient cohorts that differed only in the administered surgery design since anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL) or selective amygdalohippocampectomy (SAH) were performed independently of the underlying electroclinical conditions. The patient selection for the two respective surgical procedures was carried out retrospectively between 2000 and 2009 by two independent epilepsy centres, the Kork Epilepsy Centre, Germany and the University Hospital of Strasbourg, France. All included patients had presented with unilateral hippocampus sclerosis (HS) without associated dysplasia or white matter blurring and had become seizure-free postoperatively. Psychometric evaluation was carried out with the Ekman 60 Faces Test and screened for depression and psychosomatic symptoms with the SCL-90 R and the BDI. Thirty healthy volunteers participated as control subjects. Sixty patients were included, 27 had undergone SAH and 33 ATL. Patients and controls obtained comparable scores in FER for surprise, happiness, anger and sadness. Concerning fear and disgust the patient group scored significantly worse. Left-sided operations led to the the most pronounced impairment. The ATL group scored significantly worse for recognition of fear compared with SAH patients. Inversely, after SAH scores for disgust were significantly lower than after ATL, independently of the side of resection. Unilateral temporal damage impairs FER. Different neurosurgical procedures may affect FER differently. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Specific Patterns of Emotion Recognition from Faces in Children with ASD: Results of a Cross-Modal Matching Paradigm

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Golan, Ofer; Gordon, Ilanit; Fichman, Keren; Keinan, Giora

2018-01-01

Children with ASD show emotion recognition difficulties, as part of their social communication deficits. We examined facial emotion recognition (FER) in intellectually disabled children with ASD and in younger typically developing (TD) controls, matched on mental age. Our emotion-matching paradigm employed three different modalities: facial, vocal…

Facial emotion recognition in alcohol and substance use disorders: A meta-analysis.

PubMed

Castellano, Filippo; Bartoli, Francesco; Crocamo, Cristina; Gamba, Giulia; Tremolada, Martina; Santambrogio, Jacopo; Clerici, Massimo; Carrà, Giuseppe

2015-12-01

People with alcohol and substance use disorders (AUDs/SUDs) show worse facial emotion recognition (FER) than controls, though magnitude and potential moderators remain unknown. The aim of this meta-analysis was to estimate the association between AUDs, SUDs and FER impairment. Electronic databases were searched through April 2015. Pooled analyses were based on standardized mean differences between index and control groups with 95% confidence intervals, weighting each study with random effects inverse variance models. Risk of publication bias and role of potential moderators, including task type, were explored. Nineteen of 70 studies assessed for eligibility met the inclusion criteria, comprising 1352 individuals, of whom 714 (53%) had AUDs or SUDs. The association between substance related disorders and FER performance showed an effect size of -0.67 (-0.95, -0.39), and -0.65 (-0.93, -0.37) for AUDs and SUDs, respectively. There was no publication bias and subgroup and sensitivity analyses based on potential moderators confirmed core results. Future longitudinal research should confirm these findings, clarifying the role of specific clinical issues of AUDs and SUDs. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia: An exploratory study on the role of comorbid alcohol and substance use disorders and COMT Val158Met.

PubMed

Carrà, Giuseppe; Nicolini, Gabriella; Lax, Annamaria; Bartoli, Francesco; Castellano, Filippo; Chiorazzi, Alessia; Gamba, Giulia; Bava, Mattia; Crocamo, Cristina; Papagno, Costanza

2017-11-01

To explore whether facial emotion recognition (FER), impaired in both schizophrenia and alcohol and substance use disorders (AUDs/SUDs), is additionally compromised among comorbid subjects, also considering the role of catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met. We conducted a cross-sectional study, randomly recruiting 67 subjects with a DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of schizophrenia, and rigorously assessing AUDs/SUDs and COMT Val158Met polymorphism. FER was assessed using the Ekman 60 Faces Test- EK-60F. As a whole, the sample scored significantly lower than normative data on EK-60F. However, subjects with comorbid AUDs/SUDs did not perform worse on EK-60F than those without, who had a better performance on EK-60F if they carried the COMT Val/Met variant. This study is the first to date examining the impact of AUDs/SUDs and COMT variants on FER in an epidemiologically representative sample of subjects with schizophrenia. Our findings do not suggest an additional impairment from comorbid AUDs/SUDs on FER among subjects with schizophrenia, whilst COMT Val158Met, though based on a limited sample, might have a role just among those without AUDs/SUDs. Based on our results, additional research is needed also exploring differential roles of various substances. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

FER mediated HGF-independent regulation of HGFR/MET activates RAC1-PAK1 pathway to potentiate metastasis in ovarian cancer.

PubMed

Fan, Gaofeng

2017-11-03

Uncontrolled metastasis significantly contributes to high lethality of patients suffering from ovarian cancer. To date, the detailed molecular mechanisms which account for ovarian tumor cell spreading and metastasis remain largely unknown. In a recent study, we have demonstrated that aberrantly high expression of the non-receptor tyrosine kinase FER is responsible for ovarian tumor cell metastasis both in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, we indentified Hepatocyte Growth Factor Receptor HGFR/MET as a novel substrate of FER, and through which the kinase FER modulates ovarian cancer cell motility and invasiveness in a ligand-independent manner. We also observed aberrantly high expression of PAK1 kinase in cancer cells, and RNAi-mediated knockdown of FER kinase inactivated the RAC1-PAK1 signaling pathway and decreased metastatic potential of CAOV4 ovarian cancer cells. Overall, our study revealed a previously uncharacterized, pro-metastatic role of the kinase FER in ovarian cancer through the MET-RAC1-PAK1 pathway. Further efforts are essential to investigating beneficial outcomes towards targeting the RAC1-PAK1 signaling pathway in reducing metastatic burden of this deadly disease.

Facial emotion recognition ability: psychiatry nurses versus nurses from other departments.

PubMed

Gultekin, Gozde; Kincir, Zeliha; Kurt, Merve; Catal, Yasir; Acil, Asli; Aydin, Aybike; Özcan, Mualla; Delikkaya, Busra N; Kacar, Selma; Emul, Murat

2016-12-01

Facial emotion recognition is a basic element in non-verbal communication. Although some researchers have shown that recognizing facial expressions may be important in the interaction between doctors and patients, there are no studies concerning facial emotion recognition in nurses. Here, we aimed to investigate facial emotion recognition ability in nurses and compare the abilities between nurses from psychiatry and other departments. In this cross-sectional study, sixty seven nurses were divided into two groups according to their departments: psychiatry (n=31); and, other departments (n=36). A Facial Emotion Recognition Test, constructed from a set of photographs from Ekman and Friesen's book "Pictures of Facial Affect", was administered to all participants. In whole group, the highest mean accuracy rate of recognizing facial emotion was the happy (99.14%) while the lowest accurately recognized facial expression was fear (47.71%). There were no significant differences between two groups among mean accuracy rates in recognizing happy, sad, fear, angry, surprised facial emotion expressions (for all, p>0.05). The ability of recognizing disgusted and neutral facial emotions tended to be better in other nurses than psychiatry nurses (p=0.052 and p=0.053, respectively) Conclusion: This study was the first that revealed indifference in the ability of FER between psychiatry nurses and non-psychiatry nurses. In medical education curricula throughout the world, no specific training program is scheduled for recognizing emotional cues of patients. We considered that improving the ability of recognizing facial emotion expression in medical stuff might be beneficial in reducing inappropriate patient-medical stuff interaction.

Overexpression of wheat ferritin gene TaFER-5B enhances tolerance to heat stress and other abiotic stresses associated with the ROS scavenging.

PubMed

Zang, Xinshan; Geng, Xiaoli; Wang, Fei; Liu, Zhenshan; Zhang, Liyuan; Zhao, Yue; Tian, Xuejun; Ni, Zhongfu; Yao, Yingyin; Xin, Mingming; Hu, Zhaorong; Sun, Qixin; Peng, Huiru

2017-01-14

The yield of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), an important crop, is adversely affected by heat stress in many regions of the world. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying thermotolerance are largely unknown. A novel ferritin gene, TaFER, was identified from our previous heat stress-responsive transcriptome analysis of a heat-tolerant wheat cultivar (TAM107). TaFER was mapped to chromosome 5B and named TaFER-5B. Expression pattern analysis revealed that TaFER-5B was induced by heat, polyethylene glycol (PEG), H 2 O 2 and Fe-ethylenediaminedi(o-hydroxyphenylacetic) acid (Fe-EDDHA). To confirm the function of TaFER-5B in wheat, TaFER-5B was transformed into the wheat cultivar Jimai5265 (JM5265), and the transgenic plants exhibited enhanced thermotolerance. To examine whether the function of ferritin from mono- and dico-species is conserved, TaFER-5B was transformed into Arabidopsis, and overexpression of TaFER-5B functionally complemented the heat stress-sensitive phenotype of a ferritin-lacking mutant of Arabidopsis. Moreover, TaFER-5B is essential for protecting cells against heat stress associated with protecting cells against ROS. In addition, TaFER-5B overexpression also enhanced drought, oxidative and excess iron stress tolerance associated with the ROS scavenging. Finally, TaFER-5B transgenic Arabidopsis and wheat plants exhibited improved leaf iron content. Our results suggest that TaFER-5B plays an important role in enhancing tolerance to heat stress and other abiotic stresses associated with the ROS scavenging.

FERONIA interacts with ABI2-type phosphatases to facilitate signaling cross-talk between abscisic acid and RALF peptide in Arabidopsis

PubMed Central

Chen, Jia; Yu, Feng; Liu, Ying; Du, Changqing; Li, Xiushan; Zhu, Sirui; Wang, Xianchun; Lan, Wenzhi; Rodriguez, Pedro L.; Liu, Xuanming; Li, Dongping; Chen, Liangbi; Luan, Sheng

2016-01-01

Receptor-like kinase FERONIA (FER) plays a crucial role in plant response to small molecule hormones [e.g., auxin and abscisic acid (ABA)] and peptide signals [e.g., rapid alkalinization factor (RALF)]. It remains unknown how FER integrates these different signaling events in the control of cell growth and stress responses. Under stress conditions, increased levels of ABA will inhibit cell elongation in the roots. In our previous work, we have shown that FER, through activation of the guanine nucleotide exchange factor 1 (GEF1)/4/10-Rho of Plant 11 (ROP11) pathway, enhances the activity of the phosphatase ABA Insensitive 2 (ABI2), a negative regulator of ABA signaling, thereby inhibiting ABA response. In this study, we found that both RALF and ABA activated FER by increasing the phosphorylation level of FER. The FER loss-of-function mutant displayed strong hypersensitivity to both ABA and abiotic stresses such as salt and cold conditions, indicating that FER plays a key role in ABA and stress responses. We further showed that ABI2 directly interacted with and dephosphorylated FER, leading to inhibition of FER activity. Several other ABI2-like phosphatases also function in this pathway, and ABA-dependent FER activation required PYRABACTIN RESISTANCE (PYR)/PYR1-LIKE (PYL)/REGULATORY COMPONENTS OF ABA RECEPTORS (RCAR)–A-type protein phosphatase type 2C (PP2CA) modules. Furthermore, suppression of RALF1 gene expression, similar to disruption of the FER gene, rendered plants hypersensitive to ABA. These results formulated a mechanism for ABA activation of FER and for cross-talk between ABA and peptide hormone RALF in the control of plant growth and responses to stress signals. PMID:27566404

Concholepas concholepas Ferritin H-like subunit (CcFer): Molecular characterization and single nucleotide polymorphism associated to innate immune response.

PubMed

Chávez-Mardones, Jacqueline; Valenzuela-Muñoz, Valentina; Núñez-Acuña, Gustavo; Maldonado-Aguayo, Waleska; Gallardo-Escárate, Cristian

2013-09-01

Ferritin has been identified as the principal protein of iron storage and iron detoxification, playing a pivotal role for the cellular homeostasis in living organisms. However, recent studies in marine invertebrates have suggested its association with innate immune system. In the present study, one Ferritin subunit was identified from the gastropod Concholepas concholepas (CcFer), which was fully characterized by Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends technique. Simultaneously, a challenge test was performed to evaluate the immune response against Vibrio anguillarum. The full length of cDNA Ccfer was 1030 bp, containing 513 bp of open reading frame that encodes to 170 amino acid peptide, which was similar to the Ferritin H subunit described in vertebrates. Untranslated Regions (UTRs) were identified with a 5'UTR of 244 bp that contains iron responsive element (IRE), and a 3'UTR of 273 bp. The predicted molecular mass of deduced amino acid of CcFer was 19.66 kDa and isoelectric point of 4.92. Gene transcription analysis revealed that CcFer increases against infections with V. anguillarum, showing a peak expression at 6 h post-infection. Moreover, a single nucleotide polymorphism was detected at -64 downstream 5'UTR sequence (SNP-64). Quantitative real time analysis showed that homozygous mutant allele (TT) was significantly associated with higher expression levels of the challenged group compared to wild (CC) and heterozygous (CT) variants. Our findings suggest that CcFer is associated to innate immune response in C. concholepas and that the presence of SNPs may involve differential transcriptional expression of CcFer. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Characteristics of carboxylesterase genes and their expression-level between acaricide-susceptible and resistant Tetranychus cinnabarinus (Boisduval).

PubMed

Wei, Peng; Shi, Li; Shen, Guangmao; Xu, Zhifeng; Liu, Jialu; Pan, Yu; He, Lin

2016-07-01

Carboxylesterases (CarEs) play important roles in metabolism and detoxification of dietary and environmental xenobiotics in insects and mites. On the basis of the Tetranychuscinnabarinus transcriptome dataset, 23 CarE genes (6 genes are full sequence and 17 genes are partial sequence) were identified. Synergist bioassay showed that CarEs were involved in acaricide detoxification and resistance in fenpropathrin- (FeR) and cyflumetofen-resistant (CyR) strains. In order to further reveal the relationship between CarE gene's expression and acaricide-resistance in T. cinnabarinus, we profiled their expression in susceptible (SS) and resistant strains (FeR, and CyR). There were 8 and 4 over-expressed carboxylesterase genes in FeR and CyR, respectively, from which the over-expressions were detected at mRNA level, but not DNA level. Pesticide induction experiment elucidated that 4 of 8 and 2 of 4 up-regulated genes were inducible with significance in FeR and CyR strains, respectively, but they could not be induced in SS strain, which indicated that these genes became more enhanced and effective to withstand the pesticides' stress in resistant T. cinnabarinus. Most expression-changed and all inducible genes possess the Abhydrolase_3 motif, which is a catalytic domain for hydrolyzing. As a whole, these findings in current study provide clues for further elucidating the function and regulation mechanism of these carboxylesterase genes in T. cinnabarinus' resistance formation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Comparison of Facial Emotion Processing in Neurological and Psychiatric Conditions

PubMed Central

Bediou, Benoit; Brunelin, Jérôme; d’Amato, Thierry; Fecteau, Shirley; Saoud, Mohamed; Hénaff, Marie-Anne; Krolak-Salmon, Pierre

2012-01-01

Patients suffering from various neurological and psychiatric disorders show different levels of facial emotion recognition (FER) impairment, sometimes from the early phases of the disease. Investigating the relative severity of deficits in FER across different clinical and high-risk populations has potential implications for the diagnosis and treatment of these diseases, and could also allow us to understand the neurobiological mechanisms of emotion perception itself. To investigate the role of the dopaminergic system and of the frontotemporal network in FER, we reanalyzed and compared data from four of our previous studies investigating FER performance in patients with frontotemporal dysfunctions and/or dopaminergic system abnormalities at different stages. The performance of patients was compared to the performance obtained by a specific group of matched healthy controls using Cohen’s d effect size. We thus compared emotion and gender recognition in patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), Alzheimer’s disease (AD) at the mild dementia stage, major depressive disorder, Parkinson’s disease treated by l-DOPA (PD-ON) or not (PD-OFF), remitted schizophrenia (SCZ-rem), first-episode schizophrenia treated by antipsychotic medication (SCZ-ON), and drug-naïve first-episode schizophrenia (SCZ-OFF), as well as in unaffected siblings of patients with schizophrenia (SIB). The analyses revealed a pattern of differential impairment of emotion (but not gender) recognition across pathological conditions. On the one hand, dopaminergic medication seems not to modify the moderate deficits observed in SCZ and PD groups (ON vs. OFF), suggesting that the deficit is independent from the dopaminergic system. On the other hand, the observed increase in effect size of the deficit among the aMCI, AD, and FTD groups (and also among the SIB and SCZ-rem groups) suggests that the deficit is dependent on neurodegeneration of the frontotemporal neural networks. Our transnosographic approach combining clinical and high-risk populations with the impact of medication provides new information on the trajectory of impaired emotion perception in neuropsychiatric conditions, and on the role of the dopaminergic system and the frontotemporal network in emotion perception. PMID:22493587

A Conserved Role for p48 Homologs in Protecting Dopaminergic Neurons from Oxidative Stress

PubMed Central

Bou Dib, Peter; Gnägi, Bettina; Daly, Fiona; Sabado, Virginie; Tas, Damla; Glauser, Dominique A.; Meister, Peter; Nagoshi, Emi

2014-01-01

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the most common neurodegenerative movement disorder characterized by the progressive loss of dopaminergic (DA) neurons. Both environmental and genetic factors are thought to contribute to the pathogenesis of PD. Although several genes linked to rare familial PD have been identified, endogenous risk factors for sporadic PD, which account for the majority of PD cases, remain largely unknown. Genome-wide association studies have identified many single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with sporadic PD in neurodevelopmental genes including the transcription factor p48/ptf1a. Here we investigate whether p48 plays a role in the survival of DA neurons in Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans. We show that a Drosophila p48 homolog, 48-related-2 (Fer2), is expressed in and required for the development and survival of DA neurons in the protocerebral anterior medial (PAM) cluster. Loss of Fer2 expression in adulthood causes progressive PAM neuron degeneration in aging flies along with mitochondrial dysfunction and elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, leading to the progressive locomotor deficits. The oxidative stress challenge upregulates Fer2 expression and exacerbates the PAM neuron degeneration in Fer2 loss-of-function mutants. hlh-13, the worm homolog of p48, is also expressed in DA neurons. Unlike the fly counterpart, hlh-13 loss-of-function does not impair development or survival of DA neurons under normal growth conditions. Yet, similar to Fer2, hlh-13 expression is upregulated upon an acute oxidative challenge and is required for the survival of DA neurons under oxidative stress in adult worms. Taken together, our results indicate that p48 homologs share a role in protecting DA neurons from oxidative stress and degeneration, and suggest that loss-of-function of p48 homologs in flies and worms provides novel tools to study gene-environmental interactions affecting DA neuron survival. PMID:25340742

Famous landmark identification in amnestic mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Sheardova, Katerina; Laczó, Jan; Vyhnalek, Martin; Andel, Ross; Mokrisova, Ivana; Vlcek, Kamil; Amlerova, Jana; Hort, Jakub

2014-01-01

Identification of famous landmarks (FLI), famous faces (FFI) and recognition of facial emotions (FER) is affected early in the course of Alzheimer's disease (AD). FFI, FER and FLI may represent domain specific tasks relying on activation of distinct regions of the medial temporal lobe, which are affected successively during the course of AD. However, the data on FFI and FER in MCI are controversial and FLI domain remains almost unexplored. To determine whether and how are these three specific domains impaired in head to head comparison of patients with amnestic MCI (aMCI) single domain (SD-aMCI) and multiple domain (MD-aMCI). We propose that FLI might be most reliable in differentiating SD-aMCI, which is considered to be an earlier stage of AD pathology spread out, from the controls. A total of 114 patients, 13 with single domain (SD-aMCI) and 30 with multiple domains (MD-aMCI), 29 with mild AD and 42 controls underwent standard neurological and neuropsychological evaluations as well as tests of FLI, FER and FFI. Compared to the control group, AD subjects performed worse on FFI (p = 0.020), FER (p<0.001) and FLI (p<0.001), MD-aMCI group had significantly worse scores only on FLI (p = 0.002) and approached statistical significance on FER (0.053). SD-aMCI group performed significantly worse only on FLI (p = 0.028) compared to controls. Patients with SD-aMCI had an isolated impairment restricted to FLI, while patients with MD-aMCI showed impairment in FLI as well as in FER. Patients with mild dementia due to AD have more extensive impairment of higher visual perception. The results suggest that FLI testing may contribute to identification of patients at risk of AD. We hypothesize that clinical examination of all three domains might reflect the spread of the disease from transentorhinal cortex, over amygdala to fusiform gyrus.

Famous Landmark Identification in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease

PubMed Central

Sheardova, Katerina; Laczó, Jan; Vyhnalek, Martin; Andel, Ross; Mokrisova, Ivana; Vlcek, Kamil; Amlerova, Jana; Hort, Jakub

2014-01-01

Background Identification of famous landmarks (FLI), famous faces (FFI) and recognition of facial emotions (FER) is affected early in the course of Alzheimer's disease (AD). FFI, FER and FLI may represent domain specific tasks relying on activation of distinct regions of the medial temporal lobe, which are affected successively during the course of AD. However, the data on FFI and FER in MCI are controversial and FLI domain remains almost unexplored. Objectives To determine whether and how are these three specific domains impaired in head to head comparison of patients with amnestic MCI (aMCI) single domain (SD-aMCI) and multiple domain (MD-aMCI). We propose that FLI might be most reliable in differentiating SD-aMCI, which is considered to be an earlier stage of AD pathology spread out, from the controls. Patients and Methods A total of 114 patients, 13 with single domain (SD–aMCI) and 30 with multiple domains (MD–aMCI), 29 with mild AD and 42 controls underwent standard neurological and neuropsychological evaluations as well as tests of FLI, FER and FFI. Results Compared to the control group, AD subjects performed worse on FFI (p = 0.020), FER (p<0.001) and FLI (p<0.001), MD-aMCI group had significantly worse scores only on FLI (p = 0.002) and approached statistical significance on FER (0.053). SD-aMCI group performed significantly worse only on FLI (p = 0.028) compared to controls. Conclusions Patients with SD-aMCI had an isolated impairment restricted to FLI, while patients with MD–aMCI showed impairment in FLI as well as in FER. Patients with mild dementia due to AD have more extensive impairment of higher visual perception. The results suggest that FLI testing may contribute to identification of patients at risk of AD. We hypothesize that clinical examination of all three domains might reflect the spread of the disease from transentorhinal cortex, over amygdala to fusiform gyrus. PMID:25144755

Molecular Characterization and Functional Analysis of a Ferritin Heavy Chain Subunit from the Eri-Silkworm, Samia cynthia ricini

PubMed Central

Yu, Hai-Zhong; Zhang, Shang-Zhi; Ma, Yan; Fei, Dong-Qiong; Li, Bing; Yang, Li-Ang; Wang, Jie; Li, Zhen; Muhammad, Azharuddin; Xu, Jia-Ping

2017-01-01

Ferritins are conserved iron-binding proteins that are primarily involved in iron storage, detoxification and the immune response. Despite the importance of ferritin in organisms, little is known about their roles in the eri-silkworm (Samia cynthia ricini). We previously identified a ferritin heavy chain subunit named ScFerHCH in the S. c. ricini transcriptome database. The full-length S. c. ricini ferritin heavy chain subunit (ScFerHCH) was 1863 bp and encoded a protein of 231 amino acids with a deduced molecular weight of 25.89 kDa. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that ScFerHCH shared a high amino acid identity with the Bombyx mori and Danaus plexippus heavy chain subunits. Higher ScFerHCH expression levels were found in the silk gland, fat body and midgut of S. c. ricini by reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and Western blotting. Injection of Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa was associated with an upregulation of ScFerHCH in the midgut, fat body and hemolymph, indicating that ScFerHCH may contribute to the host’s defense against invading pathogens. In addition, the anti-oxidation activity and iron-binding capacity of recombinant ScFerHCH protein were examined. Taken together, our results suggest that the ferritin heavy chain subunit from eri-silkworm may play critical roles not only in innate immune defense, but also in organismic iron homeostasis. PMID:29036914

Neural Correlates of Explicit versus Implicit Facial Emotion Processing in ASD

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luckhardt, Christina; Kröger, Anne; Cholemkery, Hannah; Bender, Stephan; Freitag, Christine M.

2017-01-01

The underlying neural mechanisms of implicit and explicit facial emotion recognition (FER) were studied in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to matched typically developing controls (TDC). EEG was obtained from N = 21 ASD and N = 16 TDC. Task performance, visual (P100, N170) and cognitive (late positive…

Features of the broader autism phenotype in people with epilepsy support shared mechanisms between epilepsy and autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Richard, Annie E; Scheffer, Ingrid E; Wilson, Sarah J

2017-04-01

Richard, A.E., I.E. Scheffer and S.J. Wilson. Features of the broader autism phenotype in people with epilepsy support shared mechanisms between epilepsy and autism spectrum disorder. NEUROSCI BIOBEHAV REV 21(1) XXX-XXX, 2016. To inform on mechanisms underlying the comorbidity of epilepsy and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we conducted meta-analyses to test whether impaired facial emotion recognition (FER) and theory of mind (ToM), key phenotypic traits of ASD, are more common in people with epilepsy (PWE) than controls. We contrasted these findings with those of relatives of individuals with ASD (ASD-relatives) compared to controls. Furthermore, we examined the relationship of demographic (age, IQ, sex) and epilepsy-related factors (epilepsy onset age, duration, seizure laterality and origin) to FER and ToM. Thirty-one eligible studies of PWE (including 1449 individuals: 77% with temporal lobe epilepsy), and 22 of ASD-relatives (N=1295) were identified by a systematic database search. Analyses revealed reduced FER and ToM in PWE compared to controls (p<0.001), but only reduced ToM in ASD-relatives (p<0.001). ToM was poorer in PWE than ASD-relatives. Only weak associations were found between FER and ToM and epilepsy-related factors. These findings suggest shared mechanisms between epilepsy and ASD, independent of intellectual disability. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A RhABF2/Ferritin module affects rose (Rosa hybrida) petal dehydration tolerance and senescence by modulating iron levels.

PubMed

Liu, Jitao; Fan, Youwei; Zou, Jing; Fang, Yiqun; Wang, Linghao; Wang, Meng; Jiang, Xinqiang; Liu, Yiqing; Gao, Junping; Zhang, Changqing

2017-12-01

Plants often develop the capacity to tolerate moderate and reversible environmental stresses, such as drought, and to re-establish normal development once the stress has been removed. An example of this phenomenon is provided by cut rose (Rosa hybrida) flowers, which experience typical reversible dehydration stresses during post-harvest handling after harvesting at the bud stages. The molecular mechanisms involved in rose flower dehydration tolerance are not known, however. Here, we characterized a dehydration- and abscisic acid (ABA)-induced ferritin gene (RhFer1). Dehydration-induced free ferrous iron (Fe 2+ ) is preferentially sequestered by RhFer1 and not transported outside of the petal cells, to restrict oxidative stresses during dehydration. Free Fe 2+ accumulation resulted in more serious oxidative stresses and the induction of genes encoding antioxidant enzyme in RhFer1-silenced petals, and poorer dehydration tolerance was observed compared with tobacco rattle virus (TRV) controls. We also determined that RhABF2, an AREB/ABF transcription factor involved in the ABA signaling pathway, can activate RhFer1 expression by directly binding to its promoter. The silencing of RhABF2 decreased dehydration tolerance and disrupted Fe homeostasis in rose petals during dehydration, as did the silencing of RhFer1. Although both RhFer1 and Fe transporter genes are induced during flower natural senescence in plants, the silencing of RhABF2 or RhFer1 accelerates the petal senescence processes. These results suggest that the regulatory module RhABF2/RhFer1 contributes to the maintenance of Fe levels and enhances dehydration tolerance through the action of RhFer1 locally sequestering free Fe 2+ under dehydration conditions, and plays synergistic roles with transporter genes during flower senescence. © 2017 The Authors The Plant Journal © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Ferritin Is Required in Multiple Tissues during Drosophila melanogaster Development.

PubMed

González-Morales, Nicanor; Mendoza-Ortíz, Miguel Ángel; Blowes, Liisa M; Missirlis, Fanis; Riesgo-Escovar, Juan R

2015-01-01

In Drosophila melanogaster, iron is stored in the cellular endomembrane system inside a protein cage formed by 24 ferritin subunits of two types (Fer1HCH and Fer2LCH) in a 1:1 stoichiometry. In larvae, ferritin accumulates in the midgut, hemolymph, garland, pericardial cells and in the nervous system. Here we present analyses of embryonic phenotypes for mutations in Fer1HCH, Fer2LCH and in both genes simultaneously. Mutations in either gene or deletion of both genes results in a similar set of cuticular embryonic phenotypes, ranging from non-deposition of cuticle to defects associated with germ band retraction, dorsal closure and head involution. A fraction of ferritin mutants have embryonic nervous systems with ventral nerve cord disruptions, misguided axonal projections and brain malformations. Ferritin mutants die with ectopic apoptotic events. Furthermore, we show that ferritin maternal contribution, which varies reflecting the mother's iron stores, is used in early development. We also evaluated phenotypes arising from the blockage of COPII transport from the endoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi apparatus, feeding the secretory pathway, plus analysis of ectopically expressed and fluorescently marked Fer1HCH and Fer2LCH. Overall, our results are consistent with insect ferritin combining three functions: iron storage, intercellular iron transport, and protection from iron-induced oxidative stress. These functions are required in multiple tissues during Drosophila embryonic development.

Directed plant cell-wall accumulation of iron: Embedding co-catalyst for efficient biomass conversion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lin, Chien -Yuan; Jakes, Joseph E.; Donohoe, Bryon S.

Plant lignocellulosic biomass is an abundant, renewable feedstock for the production of biobased fuels and chemicals. Previously, we showed that iron can act as a co-catalyst to improve the deconstruction of lignocellulosic biomass. However, directly adding iron catalysts into biomass prior to pretreatment is diffusion limited, and increases the cost of biorefinery operations. Recently, we developed a new strategy for expressing iron-storage protein ferritin intracellularly to accumulate iron as a catalyst for the downstream deconstruction of lignocellulosic biomass. In this study, we extend this approach by fusing the heterologous ferritin gene with a signal peptide for secretion into Arabidopsis cellmore » walls (referred to here as FerEX). The transgenic Arabidopsis plants. FerEX. accumulated iron under both normal and iron-fertilized growth conditions; under the latter (iron-fertilized) condition, FerEX transgenic plants showed an increase in plant height and dry weight by 12 and 18 %, respectively, compared with the empty vector control plants. The SDS- and native-PAGE separation of cell-wall protein extracts followed by Western blot analyses confirmed the extracellular expression of ferritin in FerEX plants. Meanwhile, Perls' Prussian blue staining and X-ray fluorescence microscopy (XFM) maps revealed iron depositions in both the secondary and compound middle lamellae cell-wall layers, as well as in some of the corner compound middle lamella in FerEX. Remarkably, their harvested biomasses showed enhanced pretreatability and digestibility, releasing, respectively, 21 % more glucose and 34 % more xylose than the empty vector control plants. These values are significantly higher than those of our recently obtained ferritin intracellularly expressed plants. This study demonstrated that extracellular expression of ferritin in Arabidopsis can produce plants with increased growth and iron accumulation, and reduced thermal and enzymatic recalcitrance. Here, the results are attributed to the intimate colocation of the iron co-catalyst and the cellulose and hemicellulose within the plant cell-wall region, supporting the genetic modification strategy for incorporating conversion catalysts into energy crops prior to harvesting or processing at the biorefinery.« less

Directed plant cell-wall accumulation of iron: Embedding co-catalyst for efficient biomass conversion

DOE PAGES

Lin, Chien -Yuan; Jakes, Joseph E.; Donohoe, Bryon S.; ...

2016-10-21

Plant lignocellulosic biomass is an abundant, renewable feedstock for the production of biobased fuels and chemicals. Previously, we showed that iron can act as a co-catalyst to improve the deconstruction of lignocellulosic biomass. However, directly adding iron catalysts into biomass prior to pretreatment is diffusion limited, and increases the cost of biorefinery operations. Recently, we developed a new strategy for expressing iron-storage protein ferritin intracellularly to accumulate iron as a catalyst for the downstream deconstruction of lignocellulosic biomass. In this study, we extend this approach by fusing the heterologous ferritin gene with a signal peptide for secretion into Arabidopsis cellmore » walls (referred to here as FerEX). The transgenic Arabidopsis plants. FerEX. accumulated iron under both normal and iron-fertilized growth conditions; under the latter (iron-fertilized) condition, FerEX transgenic plants showed an increase in plant height and dry weight by 12 and 18 %, respectively, compared with the empty vector control plants. The SDS- and native-PAGE separation of cell-wall protein extracts followed by Western blot analyses confirmed the extracellular expression of ferritin in FerEX plants. Meanwhile, Perls' Prussian blue staining and X-ray fluorescence microscopy (XFM) maps revealed iron depositions in both the secondary and compound middle lamellae cell-wall layers, as well as in some of the corner compound middle lamella in FerEX. Remarkably, their harvested biomasses showed enhanced pretreatability and digestibility, releasing, respectively, 21 % more glucose and 34 % more xylose than the empty vector control plants. These values are significantly higher than those of our recently obtained ferritin intracellularly expressed plants. This study demonstrated that extracellular expression of ferritin in Arabidopsis can produce plants with increased growth and iron accumulation, and reduced thermal and enzymatic recalcitrance. Here, the results are attributed to the intimate colocation of the iron co-catalyst and the cellulose and hemicellulose within the plant cell-wall region, supporting the genetic modification strategy for incorporating conversion catalysts into energy crops prior to harvesting or processing at the biorefinery.« less

Identification and characterization of a ferritin gene and its product from the multicellular green alga Ulva pertusa.

PubMed

Morimoto, Shin-Ichiro; Masuda, Taro; Sugihara, Itaru; Toyohara, Haruhiko

2012-01-01

Iron is an essential element for virtually all kingdoms of life, and especially for primary producers in ocean ecosystems. To date, the molecular mechanism of iron utilization by macroalgae remains largely unknown. To elucidate the strategy of iron acquisition and storage in macroalgae, we focused on the function of the iron storage protein ferritin in the sea lettuce, Ulva pertusa, which has abundant iron content. Judging from the primary structure, U. pertusa ferritin (UpFer) can be classified as a land-plant-type ferritin, which is usually found in plastids. The gene of UpFer was expressed in the peripheral, central and rhizoid parts. Western blot analysis showed that UpFER was present and functioned in processed 26- and 22-kDa forms. Furthermore, recombinant UpFER had iron incorporation activity comparable to other ferritins. These results suggest that ferritin also functions as an iron storage protein as in unicellular algae and land plants.

The E3 Ubiquitin Ligase MIB-1 Is Necessary To Form the Nuclear Halo in Caenorhabditis elegans Sperm.

PubMed

Herrera, Leslie A; Starr, Daniel A

2018-05-18

Unlike the classical nuclear envelope with two membranes found in other eukaryotic cells, most nematode sperm nuclei are not encapsulated by membranes. Instead, they are surrounded by a nuclear halo of unknown composition. How the halo is formed and regulated is unknown. We used forward genetics to identify molecular lesions behind three classical fer (fertilization defective) mutations that disrupt the ultrastructure of the Caenorhabditis elegans sperm nuclear halo. We found fer-2 and fer-4 alleles to be nonsense mutations in mib-1. fer-3 was caused by a nonsense mutation in eri-3 GFP::MIB-1 was expressed in the germline during early spermatogenesis, but not in mature sperm. mib-1 encodes a conserved E3 ubiquitin ligase homologous to vertebrate Mib1 and Mib2, which function in Notch signaling. Here, we show that mib-1 is important for male sterility and is involved in the regulation or formation of the nuclear halo during nematode spermatogenesis. Copyright © 2018, G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics.

Tyrosine phosphorylation of LRP6 by Src and Fer inhibits Wnt/β-catenin signalling

PubMed Central

Chen, Qing; Su, Yi; Wesslowski, Janine; Hagemann, Anja I; Ramialison, Mirana; Wittbrodt, Joachim; Scholpp, Steffen; Davidson, Gary

2014-01-01

Low-density lipoprotein receptor-related proteins 5 and 6 (LRP5/6) function as transmembrane receptors to transduce Wnt signals. A key mechanism for signalling is Wnt-induced serine/threonine phosphorylation at conserved PPPSPxS motifs in the LRP6 cytoplasmic domain, which promotes pathway activation. Conserved tyrosine residues are positioned close to all PPPSPxS motifs, which suggests they have a functional significance. Using a cell culture-based cDNA expression screen, we identified the non-receptor tyrosine kinases Src and Fer as novel LRP6 modifiers. Both Src and Fer associate with LRP6 and phosphorylate LRP6 directly. In contrast to the known PPPSPxS Ser/Thr kinases, tyrosine phosphorylation by Src and Fer negatively regulates LRP6-Wnt signalling. Epistatically, they function upstream of β-catenin to inhibit signalling and in agreement with a negative role in regulating LRP6, MEF cells lacking these kinases show enhanced Wnt signalling. Wnt3a treatment of cells enhances tyrosine phosphorylation of endogenous LRP6 and, mechanistically, Src reduces cell surface LRP6 levels and disrupts LRP6 signalosome formation. Interestingly, CK1γ inhibits Fer-induced LRP6 phosphorylation, suggesting a mechanism whereby CK1γ acts to de-represses inhibitory LRP6 tyrosine phosphorylation. We propose that LRP6 tyrosine phosphorylation by Src and Fer serves a negative regulatory function to prevent over-activation of Wnt signalling at the level of the Wnt receptor, LRP6. Subject Categories Membrane & Intracellular Transport; Post-translational Modifications, Proteolysis & Proteomics PMID:25391905

Lentivirus-mediated bifunctional cell labeling for in vivo melanoma study

PubMed Central

Day, Chi-Ping; Carter, John; Bonomi, Carrie; Esposito, Dominic; Crise, Bruce; Ortiz-Conde, Betty; Hollingshead, Melinda; Merlino, Glenn

2009-01-01

SUMMARY Lentiviral vectors (LVs) are capable of labeling a broad spectrum of cell types, achieving stable expression of transgenes. However, for in vivo studies, the duration of marker gene expression has been highly variable. We have developed a series of LVs harboring different promoters for expressing reporter gene in mouse cells. Long-term culture and colony formation of several LV-labeled mouse melanoma cells showed that promoters derived from mammalian house-keeping genes, especially those encoding RNA polymerase II (Pol2) and ferritin (FerH), provided the highest consistency for reporter expression. For in vivo studies, primary B16BL6 mouse melanoma were infected with LVs whose luciferase-GFP fusion gene (Luc/GFP) was driven by either Pol2 or FerH promoters. When transplanted into syngeneic C57BL/6 mice, Luc/GFP-labeled B16BL6 mouse melanoma cells can be monitored by bioluminescence imaging in vivo, and GFP-positive cells can be isolated from the tumors by FACS. Pol2-Luc/GFP labeling, while lower in activity, was more sustainable than FerH-Luc/GFP labeling in B16BL6 over consecutive passages into mice. We conclude that Pol-2-Luc/GFP labeling allows long-term in vivo monitoring and tumor cell isolation in immunocompetent mouse melanoma models. SIGNIFICANCE In this study we have developed and identified lentiviral vectors that allow labeled mouse melanoma cells to maintain long-term and consistent expression of a bifunctional luciferase-GFP marker gene, even in syngeneic mice with an intact immune function. This cell-labeling system can be used to build immunocompetent mouse melanoma models that permit both tumor monitoring and FACS-based tumor cell isolation from tissues, greatly facilitating the in vivo study of melanoma. PMID:19175523

Fuzzy-cellular neural network for face recognition HCI Authentication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoomod, Haider K.; ali, Ahmed abd

2018-05-01

Because of the rapid development of mobile devices technology, ease of use and interact with humans. May have found a mobile device most uses in our communications. Mobile devices can carry large amounts of personal and sensitive data, but often left not guaranteed (pin) locks are inconvenient to use and thus have seen low adoption while biometrics is more convenient and less susceptible to fraud and manipulation. Were propose in this paper authentication technique for using a mobile face recognition based on cellular neural networks [1] and fuzzy rules control. The good speed and get recognition rate from applied the proposed system in Android system. The images obtained in real time for 60 persons each person has 20 t0 60 different shot face images (about 3600 images), were the results for (FAR = 0), (FRR = 1.66%), (FER = 1.66) and accuracy = 98.34

Multiple ferritins are vital to successful blood feeding and reproduction of the hard tick Haemaphysalis longicornis.

PubMed

Galay, Remil Linggatong; Aung, Kyaw Min; Umemiya-Shirafuji, Rika; Maeda, Hiroki; Matsuo, Tomohide; Kawaguchi, Hiroaki; Miyoshi, Noriaki; Suzuki, Hiroshi; Xuan, Xuenan; Mochizuki, Masami; Fujisaki, Kozo; Tanaka, Tetsuya

2013-05-15

Ticks are obligate hematophagous parasites and important vectors of diseases. The large amount of blood they consume contains great quantities of iron, an essential but also toxic element. The function of ferritin, an iron storage protein, and iron metabolism in ticks need to be further elucidated. Here, we investigated the function a newly identified secreted ferritin from the hard tick Haemaphysalis longicornis (HlFER2), together with the previously identified intracellular ferritin (HlFER1). Recombinant ferritins, expressed in Escherichia coli, were used for anti-serum preparation and were also assayed for iron-binding activity. RT-PCR and western blot analyses of different organs and developmental stages of the tick during blood feeding were performed. The localization of ferritins in different organs was demonstrated through an indirect immunofluorescent antibody test. RNA interference (RNAi) was performed to evaluate the importance of ferritin in blood feeding and reproduction of ticks. The midgut was also examined after RNAi using light and transmission electron microscopy. RT-PCR showed differences in gene expression in some organs and developmental stages. Interestingly, only HlFER2 was detected in the ovary during oviposition and in the egg despite the low mRNA transcript. RNAi induced a reduction in post-blood meal body weight, high mortality and decreased fecundity. The expression of vitellogenin genes was affected by silencing of ferritin. Abnormalities in digestive cells, including disrupted microvilli, and alteration of digestive activity were also observed. Taken altogether, our results show that the iron storage and protective functions of ferritin are crucial to successful blood feeding and reproduction of H. longicornis.

5 CFR 839.621 - Can I cancel my FERS election if I was in the wrong retirement plan at the time I elected FERS...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Can I cancel my FERS election if I was in the wrong retirement plan at the time I elected FERS coverage and I have an election opportunity under... ERRONEOUS RETIREMENT COVERAGE CORRECTIONS ACT Making an Election Fers Elections § 839.621 Can I cancel my...

5 CFR 841.706 - Increases on combined CSRS/FERS annuities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... Adjustments § 841.706 Increases on combined CSRS/FERS annuities. (a) COLA's on combined CSRS/FERS annuities... amount of COLA's under § 841.703(a). (b) The initial monthly rate is computed by— (1) Applying CSRS rules... retiree is due a full dollar increase on the FERS component with the next COLA. An employee with less than...

5 CFR 841.706 - Increases on combined CSRS/FERS annuities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... Adjustments § 841.706 Increases on combined CSRS/FERS annuities. (a) COLA's on combined CSRS/FERS annuities... amount of COLA's under § 841.703(a). (b) The initial monthly rate is computed by— (1) Applying CSRS rules... retiree is due a full dollar increase on the FERS component with the next COLA. An employee with less than...

5 CFR 841.706 - Increases on combined CSRS/FERS annuities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... Adjustments § 841.706 Increases on combined CSRS/FERS annuities. (a) COLA's on combined CSRS/FERS annuities... amount of COLA's under § 841.703(a). (b) The initial monthly rate is computed by— (1) Applying CSRS rules... retiree is due a full dollar increase on the FERS component with the next COLA. An employee with less than...

5 CFR 841.706 - Increases on combined CSRS/FERS annuities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... Adjustments § 841.706 Increases on combined CSRS/FERS annuities. (a) COLA's on combined CSRS/FERS annuities... amount of COLA's under § 841.703(a). (b) The initial monthly rate is computed by— (1) Applying CSRS rules... retiree is due a full dollar increase on the FERS component with the next COLA. An employee with less than...

33 CFR 80.835 - Point Au Fer, LA to Calcasieu Pass, LA.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Point Au Fer, LA to Calcasieu... SECURITY INTERNATIONAL NAVIGATION RULES COLREGS DEMARCATION LINES Eighth District § 80.835 Point Au Fer, LA to Calcasieu Pass, LA. (a) A line drawn from Point Au Fer to Atchafalaya Channel Light 34, to Point...

33 CFR 80.835 - Point Au Fer, LA to Calcasieu Pass, LA.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Point Au Fer, LA to Calcasieu... SECURITY INTERNATIONAL NAVIGATION RULES COLREGS DEMARCATION LINES Eighth District § 80.835 Point Au Fer, LA to Calcasieu Pass, LA. (a) A line drawn from Point Au Fer to Atchafalaya Channel Light 34, to Point...

78 FR 41961 - Submission for Review: 3206-0170, Application for Refund of Retirement Deductions/FERS (SF 3106...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-07-12

... Retirement Deductions/FERS (SF 3106) and Current/Former Spouse(s) Notification of Application for Refund of Retirement Deductions Under FERS (SF 3106A) AGENCY: U.S. Office of Personnel Management. ACTION: 30-Day... Current/Former Spouse(s) Notification of Application for Refund of Retirement Deductions Under FERS (SF...

5 CFR 875.203 - Am I eligible if I separated under the FERS MRA+10 provision?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... FERS MRA+10 provision? 875.203 Section 875.203 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT....203 Am I eligible if I separated under the FERS MRA+10 provision? If you have separated from service under the FERS Minimum Retirement Age and 10 years of service (MRA+10) provision of 5 U.S.C. 8412(g...

5 CFR 875.203 - Am I eligible if I separated under the FERS MRA+10 provision?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... FERS MRA+10 provision? 875.203 Section 875.203 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT....203 Am I eligible if I separated under the FERS MRA+10 provision? If you have separated from service under the FERS Minimum Retirement Age and 10 years of service (MRA+10) provision of 5 U.S.C. 8412(g...

5 CFR 875.203 - Am I eligible if I separated under the FERS MRA+10 provision?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... FERS MRA+10 provision? 875.203 Section 875.203 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT....203 Am I eligible if I separated under the FERS MRA+10 provision? If you have separated from service under the FERS Minimum Retirement Age and 10 years of service (MRA+10) provision of 5 U.S.C. 8412(g...

5 CFR 875.203 - Am I eligible if I separated under the FERS MRA+10 provision?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... FERS MRA+10 provision? 875.203 Section 875.203 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT....203 Am I eligible if I separated under the FERS MRA+10 provision? If you have separated from service under the FERS Minimum Retirement Age and 10 years of service (MRA+10) provision of 5 U.S.C. 8412(g...

5 CFR 875.203 - Am I eligible if I separated under the FERS MRA+10 provision?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... FERS MRA+10 provision? 875.203 Section 875.203 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT....203 Am I eligible if I separated under the FERS MRA+10 provision? If you have separated from service under the FERS Minimum Retirement Age and 10 years of service (MRA+10) provision of 5 U.S.C. 8412(g...

Ferritin (FER), isoferritins and aluminum

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fleming, J.; Cho, S.W.; Clauberg, M.

FER from Alzheimer's brain contains more Al. One source of Al is beverages. Of the several common beverages analyzed, Pepsi, sold in bottles but not in cans, contained the highest conc. of Al (10..mu..M). Male albino rats were fed 10..mu..M Al in drinking water for one year. They were then sacrificed and their brain homogenates were analyzed for FER, Al and several enzymes. The results: compared to controls, the homogenates of the Al fed rats had 276.5% more Al bound to Fer (114.2 +/- 25.3 g atoms/mol) and 30% less hexokinase activity (150 units/mg protein). Acetyl choline esterase and alkalinemore » ribonuclease levels remained unchanged. Isoelectrofocusing (pH 4-6.5) of human-brain FER yielded at least five bands. None corresponded with those from human liver FER or horse spleen FER. Horse spleen FER was applied to DEAE sephadex and eluted by NaCl-batchwise gradient. Five distinct fractions were obtained. The most acidic eluted last. It contained least Fe, tended to precipitate on standing and required less Al or Be to ppt. Thus, isoferritins may differ in their metal binding capacity and perhaps in their related physiological functions.« less

Transcriptome profile analysis of young floral buds of fertile and sterile plants from the self-pollinated offspring of the hybrid between novel restorer line NR1 and Nsa CMS line in Brassica napus

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background The fertile and sterile plants were derived from the self-pollinated offspring of the F1 hybrid between the novel restorer line NR1 and the Nsa CMS line in Brassica napus. To elucidate gene expression and regulation caused by the A and C subgenomes of B. napus, as well as the alien chromosome and cytoplasm from Sinapis arvensis during the development of young floral buds, we performed a genome-wide high-throughput transcriptomic sequencing for young floral buds of sterile and fertile plants. Results In this study, equal amounts of total RNAs taken from young floral buds of sterile and fertile plants were sequenced using the Illumina/Solexa platform. After filtered out low quality data, a total of 2,760,574 and 2,714,441 clean tags were remained in the two libraries, from which 242,163 (Ste) and 253,507 (Fer) distinct tags were obtained. All distinct sequencing tags were annotated using all possible CATG+17-nt sequences of the genome and transcriptome of Brassica rapa and those of Brassica oleracea as the reference sequences, respectively. In total, 3231 genes of B. rapa and 3371 genes of B. oleracea were detected with significant differential expression levels. GO and pathway-based analyses were performed to determine and further to understand the biological functions of those differentially expressed genes (DEGs). In addition, there were 1089 specially expressed unknown tags in Fer, which were neither mapped to B. oleracea nor to B. rapa, and these unique tags were presumed to arise basically from the added alien chromosome of S. arvensis. Fifteen genes were randomly selected and their expression levels were confirmed by quantitative RT-PCR, and fourteen of them showed consistent expression patterns with the digital gene expression (DGE) data. Conclusions A number of genes were differentially expressed between the young floral buds of sterile and fertile plants. Some of these genes may be candidates for future research on CMS in Nsa line, fertility restoration and improved agronomic traits in NR1 line. Further study of the unknown tags which were specifically expressed in Fer will help to explore desirable agronomic traits from wild species. PMID:23324545

Transcriptome profile analysis of young floral buds of fertile and sterile plants from the self-pollinated offspring of the hybrid between novel restorer line NR1 and Nsa CMS line in Brassica napus.

PubMed

Yan, Xiaohong; Dong, Caihua; Yu, Jingyin; Liu, Wanghui; Jiang, Chenghong; Liu, Jia; Hu, Qiong; Fang, Xiaoping; Wei, Wenhui

2013-01-16

The fertile and sterile plants were derived from the self-pollinated offspring of the F1 hybrid between the novel restorer line NR1 and the Nsa CMS line in Brassica napus. To elucidate gene expression and regulation caused by the A and C subgenomes of B. napus, as well as the alien chromosome and cytoplasm from Sinapis arvensis during the development of young floral buds, we performed a genome-wide high-throughput transcriptomic sequencing for young floral buds of sterile and fertile plants. In this study, equal amounts of total RNAs taken from young floral buds of sterile and fertile plants were sequenced using the Illumina/Solexa platform. After filtered out low quality data, a total of 2,760,574 and 2,714,441 clean tags were remained in the two libraries, from which 242,163 (Ste) and 253,507 (Fer) distinct tags were obtained. All distinct sequencing tags were annotated using all possible CATG+17-nt sequences of the genome and transcriptome of Brassica rapa and those of Brassica oleracea as the reference sequences, respectively. In total, 3231 genes of B. rapa and 3371 genes of B. oleracea were detected with significant differential expression levels. GO and pathway-based analyses were performed to determine and further to understand the biological functions of those differentially expressed genes (DEGs). In addition, there were 1089 specially expressed unknown tags in Fer, which were neither mapped to B. oleracea nor to B. rapa, and these unique tags were presumed to arise basically from the added alien chromosome of S. arvensis. Fifteen genes were randomly selected and their expression levels were confirmed by quantitative RT-PCR, and fourteen of them showed consistent expression patterns with the digital gene expression (DGE) data. A number of genes were differentially expressed between the young floral buds of sterile and fertile plants. Some of these genes may be candidates for future research on CMS in Nsa line, fertility restoration and improved agronomic traits in NR1 line. Further study of the unknown tags which were specifically expressed in Fer will help to explore desirable agronomic traits from wild species.

[A place in the macrocosmos: Paracelsus in Bad Pfäfers].

PubMed

Pörksen, G

1994-03-29

The script about Bad Pfäfers is an exception within the entire work of Paracelsus: It is short, completely worked over and has been printed already during his lifetime. It contains an unique list of comments on latin termini in his native language, hints about the context of their origin and may be read like a concentrate of his philosophy. Biography and personality of Paracelsus are briefly outlined; thereafter, the dark preface of the script on Bad Pfäfers is commented on. The latter turned out to be a stenograph of his central ideas on natural philosophy and cosmology as expressed in other scripts of the thirties, in the 'Astronomia magna' in particular (1536). The concept of the human body, of his macrocosmic derivation and of the 'source' as natural testimony of the healing nature of Christ becomes clear. Finally, from circumstantial evidence in text and context of the script, it is concluded, that it must have derived from the dialogue with the personnel of the spa uneducated in a humanistic sense, and may be understood as an abbreviated draft ("aide-mémoire") of Paracelsic instructions.

Receptor kinase complex transmits RALF peptide signal to inhibit root growth in Arabidopsis.

PubMed

Du, Changqing; Li, Xiushan; Chen, Jia; Chen, Weijun; Li, Bin; Li, Chiyu; Wang, Long; Li, Jianglin; Zhao, Xiaoying; Lin, Jianzhong; Liu, Xuanming; Luan, Sheng; Yu, Feng

2016-12-20

A number of hormones work together to control plant cell growth. Rapid Alkalinization Factor 1 (RALF1), a plant-derived small regulatory peptide, inhibits cell elongation through suppression of rhizosphere acidification in plants. Although a receptor-like kinase, FERONIA (FER), has been shown to act as a receptor for RALF1, the signaling mechanism remains unknown. In this study, we identified a receptor-like cytoplasmic kinase (RPM1-induced protein kinase, RIPK), a plasma membrane-associated member of the RLCK-VII subfamily, that is recruited to the receptor complex through interacting with FER in response to RALF1. RALF1 triggers the phosphorylation of both FER and RIPK in a mutually dependent manner. Genetic analysis of the fer-4 and ripk mutants reveals RIPK, as well as FER, to be required for RALF1 response in roots. The RALF1-FER-RIPK interactions may thus represent a mechanism for peptide signaling in plants.

Synthesis of butenes through 2-butanol dehydration over mesoporous materials produced from ferrierite

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jeong, Soyeon; Kim, Hyeonjoo; Bae, Jung A.

2012-05-20

Mesoporous materials synthesized from commercial ferrierite (MMZ-FER) were applied to butanol dehydration. The MMZ-FER was produced by disassembling ferrierite into unit structures in the presence of an alkali solution, adding a surfactant as a templating material, followed by hydrothermal treatment. The effect of the alkali/(Si+Al) ratio in the disassembling step on the characteristics of the catalyst and butanol dehydration performance were investigated. The MMZ-FER materials, synthesized in a condition in which the NaOH/(Si + Al) mole ratio in the disassembling step was 0.67 and 1.0, demonstrated similar textural properties to those of MCM-41. Many weak acid sites developed on themore » MMZ-FER(0.67) and MMZ-FER(1.0) samples, which is attributed to the creation of ferrierite-induced acid sites. The MMZ-FER materials showed excellent catalytic activity, selectivity, and stability during the dehydration of 2-butanol.« less

Intrinsic Functional Connectivity in Salience and Default Mode Networks and Aberrant Social Processes in Youth at Ultra-High Risk for Psychosis.

PubMed

Pelletier-Baldelli, Andrea; Bernard, Jessica A; Mittal, Vijay A

2015-01-01

Social processes are key to navigating the world, and investigating their underlying mechanisms and cognitive architecture can aid in understanding disease states such as schizophrenia, where social processes are highly impacted. Evidence suggests that social processes are impaired in individuals at ultra high-risk for the development of psychosis (UHR). Understanding these phenomena in UHR youth may clarify disease etiology and social processes in a period that is characterized by significantly fewer confounds than schizophrenia. Furthermore, understanding social processing deficits in this population will help explain these processes in healthy individuals. The current study examined resting state connectivity of the salience (SN) and default mode networks (DMN) in association with facial emotion recognition (FER), an integral aspect of social processes, as well as broader social functioning (SF) in UHR individuals and healthy controls. Consistent with the existing literature, UHR youth were impaired in FER and SF when compared with controls. In the UHR group, we found increased connectivity between the SN and the medial prefrontal cortex, an area of the DMN relative to controls. In UHR youth, the DMN exhibited both positive and negative correlations with the somatosensory cortex/cerebellum and precuneus, respectively, which was linked with better FER performance. For SF, results showed that sensory processing links with the SN might be important in allowing for better SF for both groups, but especially in controls where sensory processing is likely to be unimpaired. These findings clarify how social processing deficits may manifest in psychosis, and underscore the importance of SN and DMN connectivity for social processing more generally.

Intrinsic Functional Connectivity in Salience and Default Mode Networks and Aberrant Social Processes in Youth at Ultra-High Risk for Psychosis

PubMed Central

Pelletier-Baldelli, Andrea; Bernard, Jessica A.; Mittal, Vijay A.

2015-01-01

Social processes are key to navigating the world, and investigating their underlying mechanisms and cognitive architecture can aid in understanding disease states such as schizophrenia, where social processes are highly impacted. Evidence suggests that social processes are impaired in individuals at ultra high-risk for the development of psychosis (UHR). Understanding these phenomena in UHR youth may clarify disease etiology and social processes in a period that is characterized by significantly fewer confounds than schizophrenia. Furthermore, understanding social processing deficits in this population will help explain these processes in healthy individuals. The current study examined resting state connectivity of the salience (SN) and default mode networks (DMN) in association with facial emotion recognition (FER), an integral aspect of social processes, as well as broader social functioning (SF) in UHR individuals and healthy controls. Consistent with the existing literature, UHR youth were impaired in FER and SF when compared with controls. In the UHR group, we found increased connectivity between the SN and the medial prefrontal cortex, an area of the DMN relative to controls. In UHR youth, the DMN exhibited both positive and negative correlations with the somatosensory cortex/cerebellum and precuneus, respectively, which was linked with better FER performance. For SF, results showed that sensory processing links with the SN might be important in allowing for better SF for both groups, but especially in controls where sensory processing is likely to be unimpaired. These findings clarify how social processing deficits may manifest in psychosis, and underscore the importance of SN and DMN connectivity for social processing more generally. PMID:26252525

The FERONIA Receptor Kinase Maintains Cell-Wall Integrity during Salt Stress through Ca2+ Signaling.

PubMed

Feng, Wei; Kita, Daniel; Peaucelle, Alexis; Cartwright, Heather N; Doan, Vinh; Duan, Qiaohong; Liu, Ming-Che; Maman, Jacob; Steinhorst, Leonie; Schmitz-Thom, Ina; Yvon, Robert; Kudla, Jörg; Wu, Hen-Ming; Cheung, Alice Y; Dinneny, José R

2018-03-05

Cells maintain integrity despite changes in their mechanical properties elicited during growth and environmental stress. How cells sense their physical state and compensate for cell-wall damage is poorly understood, particularly in plants. Here we report that FERONIA (FER), a plasma-membrane-localized receptor kinase from Arabidopsis, is necessary for the recovery of root growth after exposure to high salinity, a widespread soil stress. The extracellular domain of FER displays tandem regions of homology with malectin, an animal protein known to bind di-glucose in vitro and important for protein quality control in the endoplasmic reticulum. The presence of malectin-like domains in FER and related receptor kinases has led to widespread speculation that they interact with cell-wall polysaccharides and can potentially serve a wall-sensing function. Results reported here show that salinity causes softening of the cell wall and that FER is necessary to sense these defects. When this function is disrupted in the fer mutant, root cells explode dramatically during growth recovery. Similar defects are observed in the mur1 mutant, which disrupts pectin cross-linking. Furthermore, fer cell-wall integrity defects can be rescued by treatment with calcium and borate, which also facilitate pectin cross-linking. Sensing of these salinity-induced wall defects might therefore be a direct consequence of physical interaction between the extracellular domain of FER and pectin. FER-dependent signaling elicits cell-specific calcium transients that maintain cell-wall integrity during salt stress. These results reveal a novel extracellular toxicity of salinity, and identify FER as a sensor of damage to the pectin-associated wall. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

5 CFR 841.701 - Purpose and scope.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... adjustments (COLA's) for basic benefits under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). (b) This subpart provides the methodology for— (1) Computing COLA's on each type of FERS basic benefit subject to COLA's; and (2) Computing COLA's on annuities partially computed under FERS and partially computed under the...

5 CFR 841.701 - Purpose and scope.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... adjustments (COLA's) for basic benefits under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). (b) This subpart provides the methodology for— (1) Computing COLA's on each type of FERS basic benefit subject to COLA's; and (2) Computing COLA's on annuities partially computed under FERS and partially computed under the...

5 CFR 841.701 - Purpose and scope.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... adjustments (COLA's) for basic benefits under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). (b) This subpart provides the methodology for— (1) Computing COLA's on each type of FERS basic benefit subject to COLA's; and (2) Computing COLA's on annuities partially computed under FERS and partially computed under the...

5 CFR 841.701 - Purpose and scope.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... adjustments (COLA's) for basic benefits under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). (b) This subpart provides the methodology for— (1) Computing COLA's on each type of FERS basic benefit subject to COLA's; and (2) Computing COLA's on annuities partially computed under FERS and partially computed under the...

5 CFR 841.701 - Purpose and scope.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... adjustments (COLA's) for basic benefits under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). (b) This subpart provides the methodology for— (1) Computing COLA's on each type of FERS basic benefit subject to COLA's; and (2) Computing COLA's on annuities partially computed under FERS and partially computed under the...

Comparison among Magnus/Floquet/Fer expansion schemes in solid-state NMR.

PubMed

Takegoshi, K; Miyazawa, Norihiro; Sharma, Kshama; Madhu, P K

2015-04-07

We here revisit expansion schemes used in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) for the calculation of effective Hamiltonians and propagators, namely, Magnus, Floquet, and Fer expansions. While all the expansion schemes are powerful methods there are subtle differences among them. To understand the differences, we performed explicit calculation for heteronuclear dipolar decoupling, cross-polarization, and rotary-resonance experiments in solid-state NMR. As the propagator from the Fer expansion takes the form of a product of sub-propagators, it enables us to appreciate effects of time-evolution under Hamiltonians with different orders separately. While 0th-order average Hamiltonian is the same for the three expansion schemes with the three cases examined, there is a case that the 2nd-order term for the Magnus/Floquet expansion is different from that obtained with the Fer expansion. The difference arises due to the separation of the 0th-order term in the Fer expansion. The separation enables us to appreciate time-evolution under the 0th-order average Hamiltonian, however, for that purpose, we use a so-called left-running Fer expansion. Comparison between the left-running Fer expansion and the Magnus expansion indicates that the sign of the odd orders in Magnus may better be reversed if one would like to consider its effect in order.

Comparison among Magnus/Floquet/Fer expansion schemes in solid-state NMR

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takegoshi, K.; Miyazawa, Norihiro; Sharma, Kshama; Madhu, P. K.

2015-04-01

We here revisit expansion schemes used in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) for the calculation of effective Hamiltonians and propagators, namely, Magnus, Floquet, and Fer expansions. While all the expansion schemes are powerful methods there are subtle differences among them. To understand the differences, we performed explicit calculation for heteronuclear dipolar decoupling, cross-polarization, and rotary-resonance experiments in solid-state NMR. As the propagator from the Fer expansion takes the form of a product of sub-propagators, it enables us to appreciate effects of time-evolution under Hamiltonians with different orders separately. While 0th-order average Hamiltonian is the same for the three expansion schemes with the three cases examined, there is a case that the 2nd-order term for the Magnus/Floquet expansion is different from that obtained with the Fer expansion. The difference arises due to the separation of the 0th-order term in the Fer expansion. The separation enables us to appreciate time-evolution under the 0th-order average Hamiltonian, however, for that purpose, we use a so-called left-running Fer expansion. Comparison between the left-running Fer expansion and the Magnus expansion indicates that the sign of the odd orders in Magnus may better be reversed if one would like to consider its effect in order.

Comparison among Magnus/Floquet/Fer expansion schemes in solid-state NMR

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Takegoshi, K., E-mail: takeyan@kuchem.kyoto-u.ac.jp; Miyazawa, Norihiro; Sharma, Kshama

2015-04-07

We here revisit expansion schemes used in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) for the calculation of effective Hamiltonians and propagators, namely, Magnus, Floquet, and Fer expansions. While all the expansion schemes are powerful methods there are subtle differences among them. To understand the differences, we performed explicit calculation for heteronuclear dipolar decoupling, cross-polarization, and rotary-resonance experiments in solid-state NMR. As the propagator from the Fer expansion takes the form of a product of sub-propagators, it enables us to appreciate effects of time-evolution under Hamiltonians with different orders separately. While 0th-order average Hamiltonian is the same for the three expansion schemes withmore » the three cases examined, there is a case that the 2nd-order term for the Magnus/Floquet expansion is different from that obtained with the Fer expansion. The difference arises due to the separation of the 0th-order term in the Fer expansion. The separation enables us to appreciate time-evolution under the 0th-order average Hamiltonian, however, for that purpose, we use a so-called left-running Fer expansion. Comparison between the left-running Fer expansion and the Magnus expansion indicates that the sign of the odd orders in Magnus may better be reversed if one would like to consider its effect in order.« less

5 CFR 837.202 - Annuities that terminate on reemployment.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Annuities that terminate on reemployment... Annuities that terminate on reemployment. (a) FERS annuitants. (1) The annuity of a FERS annuitant who is a... terminates on reemployment. (2) The annuity of a FERS annuitant who is a former military reserve technician...

HGF-independent regulation of MET and GAB1 by nonreceptor tyrosine kinase FER potentiates metastasis in ovarian cancer

PubMed Central

Fan, Gaofeng; Zhang, Siwei; Gao, Yan; Greer, Peter A.; Tonks, Nicholas K.

2016-01-01

Ovarian cancer cells disseminate readily within the peritoneal cavity, which promotes metastasis, and are often resistant to chemotherapy. Ovarian cancer patients tend to present with advanced disease, which also limits treatment options; consequently, new therapies are required. The oncoprotein tyrosine kinase MET, which is the receptor for hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), has been implicated in ovarian tumorigenesis and has been the subject of extensive drug development efforts. Here, we report a novel ligand- and autophosphorylation-independent activation of MET through the nonreceptor tyrosine kinase feline sarcoma-related (FER). We demonstrated that the levels of FER were elevated in ovarian cancer cell lines relative to those in immortalized normal surface epithelial cells and that suppression of FER attenuated the motility and invasive properties of these cancer cells. Furthermore, loss of FER impaired the metastasis of ovarian cancer cells in vivo. Mechanistically, we demonstrated that FER phosphorylated a signaling site in MET: Tyr1349. This enhanced activation of RAC1/PAK1 and promoted a kinase-independent scaffolding function that led to recruitment and phosphorylation of GAB1 and the specific activation of the SHP2–ERK signaling pathway. Overall, this analysis provides new insights into signaling events that underlie metastasis in ovarian cancer cells, consistent with a prometastatic role of FER and highlighting its potential as a novel therapeutic target for metastatic ovarian cancer. PMID:27401557

Inter-relationships between the heterotrimeric Gβ subunit AGB1, the RLK FERONIA and RALF1 in salinity response.

PubMed

Yu, Yunqing; Assmann, Sarah M

2018-06-15

Plant heterotrimeric G proteins modulate numerous developmental stress responses. Recently, receptor-like kinases (RLKs) have been implicated as functioning with G proteins, and may serve as plant G-protein-coupled-receptors (GPCRs). The RLK FERONIA (FER), in the Catharantus roseus RLK1-like subfamily, is activated by a family of polypeptides called Rapid Alkalinization Factors (RALFs). We previously showed that the Arabidopsis G protein β subunit, AGB1, physically interacts with FER, and that RALF1 regulation of stomatal movement through FER requires AGB1. Here, we investigated genetic interactions of AGB1 and FER in plant salinity response by comparing salt responses in the single and double mutants of agb1 and fer. We show that AGB1 and FER act additively or synergistically depending on the conditions of the NaCl treatments. We further show that the synergism likely occurs through salt-induced ROS production. In addition, we show that RALF1 enhances salt toxicity through increasing Na + accumulation and decreasing K + accumulation rather than by inducing ROS production, and that the RALF1 effect on salt response occurs in an AGB1-independent manner. Our results indicate that RLK epistatic relationships are not fixed, as AGB1 and FER display different genetic relationships to RALF1 in stomatal vs. salinity responses. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Fer-Ho Anaphora in Catalan: Semantic and Discourse Properties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Busquets, Joan

2018-01-01

This paper considers the anaphoric status of the pro-form "fer-ho" (do it) in Catalan [This paper contains some ideas included in Busquets (2005)]. I discuss some anaphoric properties of "fer-ho" as deep anaphora. I also compare these properties to those of other types of anaphora, like VPE and pseudogapping (pg). I show that…

Conceptual design study of Fusion Experimental Reactor (FY86 FER): Safety

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seki, Yasushi; Iida, Hiromasa; Honda, Tsutomu

1987-08-01

This report describes the study on safety for FER (Fusion Experimental Reactor) which has been designed as a next step machine to the JT-60. Though the final purpose of this study is to have an image of design base accident, maximum credible accident and to assess their risk or probability, etc., as FER plant system, the emphasis of this years study is placed on fuel-gas circulation system where the tritium inventory is maximum. The report consists of two chapters. The first chapter summarizes the FER system and describes FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect Analysis) and related accident progression sequence for FER plant system as a whole. The second chapter of this report is focused on fuel-gas circulation system including purification, isotope separation and storage. Probability of risk is assessed by the probabilistic risk analysis (PRA) procedure based on FMEA, ETA and FTA.

5 CFR 839.622 - Can I cancel my FERS election if my qualifying retirement coverage error was previously corrected...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Can I cancel my FERS election if my qualifying retirement coverage error was previously corrected and I now have an election opportunity under... ERRONEOUS RETIREMENT COVERAGE CORRECTIONS ACT Making an Election Fers Elections § 839.622 Can I cancel my...

75 FR 35091 - Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request for Review of a Revised Information Collection

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-06-21

... information collection. ``Application for Death Benefits--FERS'' (OMB Control No. 3206-0172; Standard Form 3104), is used by persons applying for death benefits which may be payable under FERS because of the death of an employee, former employee, or retiree who was covered by FERS at the time of his/her death...

Differents aspects du fer dans l'organisme

PubMed Central

Bessis, Marcel; Breton-Gorius, Janine

1959-01-01

On voit des molécules de ferritine apparaitre dans le cytoplasme des cellules réticulaires au cours de la digestion des érythrocytes, autour des stromas phagocytés. Cette ferritine s'accumule en amas dans lesquels entrent d'autres substances, en particulier des lipides, provenant aussi des stromas globulaires et qui apparaissent sous forme myélinique. Souvent la ferritine se dispose d'une manière cristalline. Parfois la ferritine et l'apoferritine alternent dans ces cristaux. Parfois l'hémosidérine contient des cristaux qui semblent bien être de l'apoferritine pure. L'injection de sels de fer donne lieu à l'apparition de ferritine dans les cellules réticulaires. Dans les conditions de nos expériences, la plus grande partie du fer injecté était sous forme de ferritine dans un délai de 3 jours. Un aspect intermédiaire entre celui du fer injecté et celui de la ferritine a été trouvé. Dans le cas des injections de saccharate de fer ce sont de fines aiguilles; dans le cas des injections de lactate de fer, il s'agit de masses fibreuses. PMID:13800106

5 CFR 839.1102 - How are my retirement benefits computed if I elect FERS under this part?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false How are my retirement benefits computed... Provisions § 839.1102 How are my retirement benefits computed if I elect FERS under this part? OPM will compute your retirement benefit as if you were properly put in FERS on the effective date of the error...

5 CFR 841.706 - Increases on combined CSRS/FERS annuities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... chapter) based on the CSRS service; then (2) Applying FERS rules to FERS service to obtain the annual rate of annuity determined under § 842.403, § 842.405, § 842.406, or § 842.407 of this chapter based on... obtain the annual rate of the self-only annuity (as defined in § 831.603 of this chapter) based on the...

The memory of iron stress in strawberry plants.

PubMed

Gama, Florinda; Saavedra, Teresa; da Silva, José Paulo; Miguel, Maria Graça; de Varennes, Amarilis; Correia, Pedro José; Pestana, Maribela

2016-07-01

To provide information towards optimization of strategies to treat Fe deficiency, experiments were conducted to study the responses of Fe-deficient plants to the resupply of Fe. Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) was used as model plant. Bare-root transplants of strawberry (cv. 'Diamante') were grown for 42 days in Hoagland's nutrient solutions without Fe (Fe0) and containing 10 μM of Fe as Fe-EDDHA (control, Fe10). For plants under Fe0 the total chlorophyll concentration of young leaves decreased progressively on time, showing the typical symptoms of iron chlorosis. After 35 days the Fe concentration was 6% of that observed for plants growing under Fe10. Half of plants growing under Fe0 were then Fe-resupplied by adding 10 μM of Fe to the Fe0 nutrient solution (FeR). Full Chlorophyll recovery of young leaves took place within 12 days. Root ferric chelate-reductase activity (FCR) and succinic and citric acid concentrations increased in FeR plants. Fe partition revealed that FeR plants expressively accumulated this nutrient in the crown and flowers. This observation can be due to a passive deactivation mechanism of the FCR activity, associated with continuous synthesis of succinic and citric acids at root level, and consequent greater uptake of Fe. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Enhanced terrestrial carbon preservation promoted by reactive iron in deltaic sediments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shields, Michael R.; Bianchi, Thomas S.; Gélinas, Yves; Allison, Mead A.; Twilley, Robert R.

2016-02-01

We examined the role of reactive iron (FeR) in preserving organic carbon (OC) across a subaerial chronosequence of the Wax Lake Delta, a prograding delta within the Mississippi River Delta complex. We found that ~15.0% of the OC was bound to FeR, and the dominant binding mechanisms varied from adsorption in the youngest subaerial region to coprecipitation at the older, vegetated sites. The δ13C of the iron-associated OC was more negative than the total OC (mean = -2.6‰), indicating greater preference for terrestrial material and/or compounds with more negative δ13C values. However, only the adsorbed OC displayed preferential binding of lignin phenols. We estimate that ~8% of the OC initially deposited in deltaic systems is bound to FeR (equivalent to 6 × 1012 gC yr-1), and this percentage increases postdepositionally, as coprecipitation of FeR and OC allows for an even greater amount of OC to be bound to FeR.

The plasma parameter log (TG/HDL-C) as an atherogenic index: correlation with lipoprotein particle size and esterification rate in apoB-lipoprotein-depleted plasma (FER(HDL)).

PubMed

Dobiásová, M; Frohlich, J

2001-10-01

To evaluate if logarithm of the ratio of plasma concentration of triglycerides to HDL-cholesterol (Log[TG/HDL-C]) correlates with cholesterol esterification rates in apoB-lipoprotein-depleted plasma (FER(HDL)) and lipoprotein particle size. We analyzed previous data dealing with the parameters related to the FER(HDL) (an indirect measure of lipoprotein particle size). In a total of 1433 subjects from 35 cohorts with various risk of atherosclerosis (cord plasma, children, healthy men and women, pre- and postmenopausal women, patients with hypertension, type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia and patients with positive or negative angiography findings) were studied. The analysis revealed a strong positive correlation (r = 0.803) between FER(HDL) and Log(TG/HDL-C). This parameter, which we propose to call "atherogenic index of plasma" (AIP) directly related to the risk of atherosclerosis in the above cohorts. We also confirmed in a cohort of 35 normal subjects a significant inverse correlation of LDL size with FER(HDL) (r = -0.818) and AIP (r = -0.776). Values of AIP correspond closely to those of FER(HDL) and to lipoprotein particle size and thus could be used as a marker of plasma atherogenicity.

Immunofluorescent detection in the ovary of host antibodies against a secretory ferritin injected into female Haemaphysalis longicornis ticks.

PubMed

Galay, Remil Linggatong; Matsuo, Tomohide; Hernandez, Emmanuel Pacia; Talactac, Melbourne Rio; Kusakisako, Kodai; Umemiya-Shirafuji, Rika; Mochizuki, Masami; Fujisaki, Kozo; Tanaka, Tetsuya

2018-04-01

Due to the continuous threat of ticks and tick-borne diseases to human and animal health worldwide, and the drawbacks of chemical acaricide application, many researchers are exploring vaccination as an alternative tick control method. Earlier studies have shown that host antibodies can circulate in the ticks, but it has not been confirmed whether these antibodies can be passed on to the eggs. We previously reported that ticks infesting rabbits immunized with a recombinant secretory ferritin of Haemaphysalis longicornis (HlFER2) had reduced egg production and hatching. Here we attempted to detect the presence of antibodies against HlFER2 in the ovary and eggs of female ticks through immunofluorescent visualization. Purified anti-HlFER2 antibodies or rabbit IgG for control was directly injected to engorged female H. longicornis. Ovaries and eggs after oviposition were collected and prepared for an indirect immunofluorescent antibody test. Positive fluorescence was detected in ovaries one day post-injection of anti-HlFER2 antibodies. Through silencing of Hlfer2 gene, we also determined whether the injected antibodies can specifically bind to native HlFER2. Immunofluorescence was observed in the oocytes of dsLuciferase control ticks injected with anti-HlFER2 antibodies, but not in the oocytes of Hlfer2-silenced ticks also injected with anti-HlFER2 antibodies. Our current findings suggest that host antibodies can be passed on to the oocytes, which is significant in formulating a vaccine that can disrupt tick reproduction. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The FER rs4957796 TT genotype is associated with unfavorable 90-day survival in Caucasian patients with severe ARDS due to pneumonia.

PubMed

Hinz, José; Büttner, Benedikt; Kriesel, Fabian; Steinau, Maximilian; Frederik Popov, Aron; Ghadimi, Michael; Beissbarth, Tim; Tzvetkov, Mladen; Bergmann, Ingo; Mansur, Ashham

2017-08-29

A recent genome-wide association study showed that a genetic variant within the FER gene is associated with survival in patients with sepsis due to pneumonia. Because severe pneumonia is the main cause of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), we aimed to investigate the effect of the FER polymorphism rs4957796 on the 90-day survival in patients with ARDS due to pneumonia. An assessment of a prospectively collected cohort of 441 patients with ARDS admitted to three intensive care units at the University Medical Centre identified 274 patients with ARDS due to pneumonia. The 90-day mortality risk was recorded as the primary outcome parameter. Sepsis-related organ failure assessment (SOFA) scores and organ support-free days were used as the secondary variables. FER rs4957796 TT-homozygous patients were compared with C-allele carriers. The survival analysis revealed a higher 90-day mortality risk among T homozygotes than among C-allele carriers (p = 0.0144) exclusively in patients with severe ARDS due to pneumonia. The FER rs4957796 TT genotype remained a significant covariate for the 90-day mortality risk in the multivariate analysis (hazard ratio, 4.62; 95% CI, 1.58-13.50; p = 0.0050). In conclusion, FER rs4957796 might act as a prognostic variable for survival in patients with severe ARDS due to pneumonia.

Natural gas fugitive emissions rates constrained by global atmospheric methane and ethane.

PubMed

Schwietzke, Stefan; Griffin, W Michael; Matthews, H Scott; Bruhwiler, Lori M P

2014-07-15

The amount of methane emissions released by the natural gas (NG) industry is a critical and uncertain value for various industry and policy decisions, such as for determining the climate implications of using NG over coal. Previous studies have estimated fugitive emissions rates (FER)--the fraction of produced NG (mainly methane and ethane) escaped to the atmosphere--between 1 and 9%. Most of these studies rely on few and outdated measurements, and some may represent only temporal/regional NG industry snapshots. This study estimates NG industry representative FER using global atmospheric methane and ethane measurements over three decades, and literature ranges of (i) tracer gas atmospheric lifetimes, (ii) non-NG source estimates, and (iii) fossil fuel fugitive gas hydrocarbon compositions. The modeling suggests an upper bound global average FER of 5% during 2006-2011, and a most likely FER of 2-4% since 2000, trending downward. These results do not account for highly uncertain natural hydrocarbon seepage, which could lower the FER. Further emissions reductions by the NG industry may be needed to ensure climate benefits over coal during the next few decades.

QTL mapping and candidate genes for resistance to Fusarium ear rot and fumonisin contamination in maize.

PubMed

Maschietto, Valentina; Colombi, Cinzia; Pirona, Raul; Pea, Giorgio; Strozzi, Francesco; Marocco, Adriano; Rossini, Laura; Lanubile, Alessandra

2017-01-21

Fusarium verticillioides is a common maize pathogen causing ear rot (FER) and contamination of the grains with the fumonisin B1 (FB1) mycotoxin. Resistance to FER and FB1 contamination are quantitative traits, affected by environmental conditions, and completely resistant maize genotypes to the pathogen are so far unknown. In order to uncover genomic regions associated to reduced FER and FB1 contamination and identify molecular markers for assisted selection, an F 2:3 population of 188 progenies was developed crossing CO441 (resistant) and CO354 (susceptible) genotypes. FER severity and FB1 contamination content were evaluated over 2 years and sowing dates (early and late) in ears artificially inoculated with F. verticillioides by the use of either side-needle or toothpick inoculation techniques. Weather conditions significantly changed in the two phenotyping seasons and FER and FB1 content distribution significantly differed in the F 3 progenies according to the year and the sowing time. Significant positive correlations (P < 0.01) were detected between FER and FB1 contamination, ranging from 0.72 to 0.81. A low positive correlation was determined between FB1 contamination and silking time (DTS). A genetic map was generated for the cross, based on 41 microsatellite markers and 342 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) derived from Genotyping-by-Sequencing (GBS). QTL analyses revealed 15 QTLs for FER, 17 QTLs for FB1 contamination and nine QTLs for DTS. Eight QTLs located on linkage group (LG) 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 and 9 were in common between FER and FB1, making possible the selection of genotypes with both low disease severity and low fumonisin contamination. Moreover, five QTLs on LGs 1, 2, 4, 5 and 9 located close to previously reported QTLs for resistance to other mycotoxigenic fungi. Finally, 24 candidate genes for resistance to F. verticillioides are proposed combining previous transcriptomic data with QTL mapping. This study identified a set of QTLs and candidate genes that could accelerate breeding for resistance of maize lines showing reduced disease severity and low mycotoxin contamination determined by F. verticillioides.

The Role of Margin in Link Design and Optimization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cheung, K.

2015-01-01

Link analysis is a system engineering process in the design, development, and operation of communication systems and networks. Link models that are mathematical abstractions representing the useful signal power and the undesirable noise and attenuation effects (including weather effects if the signal path transverses through the atmosphere) that are integrated into the link budget calculation that provides the estimates of signal power and noise power at the receiver. Then the link margin is applied which attempts to counteract the fluctuations of the signal and noise power to ensure reliable data delivery from transmitter to receiver. (Link margin is dictated by the link margin policy or requirements.) A simple link budgeting approach assumes link parameters to be deterministic values typically adopted a rule-of-thumb policy of 3 dB link margin. This policy works for most S- and X-band links due to their insensitivity to weather effects. But for higher frequency links like Ka-band, Ku-band, and optical communication links, it is unclear if a 3 dB link margin would guarantee link closure. Statistical link analysis that adopted the 2-sigma or 3-sigma link margin incorporates link uncertainties in the sigma calculation. (The Deep Space Network (DSN) link margin policies are 2-sigma for downlink and 3-sigma for uplink.) The link reliability can therefore be quantified statistically even for higher frequency links. However in the current statistical link analysis approach, link reliability is only expressed as the likelihood of exceeding the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) threshold that corresponds to a given bit-error-rate (BER) or frame-error-rate (FER) requirement. The method does not provide the true BER or FER estimate of the link with margin, or the required signalto-noise ratio (SNR) that would meet the BER or FER requirement in the statistical sense. In this paper, we perform in-depth analysis on the relationship between BER/FER requirement, operating SNR, and coding performance curve, in the case when the channel coherence time of link fluctuation is comparable or larger than the time duration of a codeword. We compute the "true" SNR design point that would meet the BER/FER requirement by taking into account the fluctuation of signal power and noise power at the receiver, and the shape of the coding performance curve. This analysis yields a number of valuable insights on the design choices of coding scheme and link margin for the reliable data delivery of a communication system - space and ground. We illustrate the aforementioned analysis using a number of standard NASA error-correcting codes.

Serum ferritin, hematocrit and mean corpuscular volume in hemodialysis.

PubMed

Goldwasser, P; Koutelos, T; Abraham, S; Avram, M M

1994-01-01

Prior to beginning to administration erythropoietin (EPO) in 1989, we examined the relationships of hematocrit (HCT), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), and serum ferritin (FER) in one group of hemodialysis patients (group A, n = 117) and replicated the findings in a second group (group B, n = 73). The groups had similar mean (+/- SD) HCT (A: 25.7 +/- 5.3%; B: 25.2 +/- 5.1%), MCV (A: 83.3 +/- 6.5 fl; B: 83.5 +/- 7.5 fl) and FER (A: 607 +/- 1446 micrograms/l; B: 374 +/- 601 micrograms/l). For group A, iron stores [log (FER)] correlated inversely with HCT (r = -0.44, p < 10(-4)) and directly with MCV (r = 0.32, p < 10(-3)). After dividing group A into octiles by the FER level, the lowest octile (mean FER 17.8 +/- 6.2 micrograms/l) had the highest mean HCT (29.5 +/- 6.4%) and lowest mean MCV (80.8 +/- 7.1 fl), while the highest octile (mean FER 3,312 +/- 3,005 micrograms/l) had the lowest mean HCT (21.9 +/- 2.8%) and the second-highest mean MCV (86.4 +/- 4.9 fl). The trends were similar in group B. We conclude that increased erythropoiesis appeared to cause or, at least, unmask iron deficiency in HD patients even prior to the advent of EPO therapy. Variations in the level of erythropoiesis among these patients (presumably due to variation in EPO levels, chronic inflammation) strongly influenced the determinants of iron stores (i.e., marrow utilization of iron, transfusion need); iron stores, in turn, influenced MCV.

Possibilité d'une nouvelle technologie de traitement des minerais de fer de l'Ouenza par radiométrie

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Idres, A.; Bounouala, M.

2005-05-01

En l'absence d'une technologie fiable de traitement des haldes de minerais de fer, les caractéristiques minéralogiques et chimiques complexes et les effets néfastes des résidus miniers posent réellement un problème environnemental. A cet effet, une étude minéralogique et chimique du minerai de fer a été menée en utilisant des techniques multiples (microscopie optique, DRX, FX, MEB). En tenant compte de la nature des résidus, des échantillons représentatifs ont été testés par séparation radiométrique. Plusieurs paramètres ont été caractérisés tels que la vitesse de la bande transporteuse, le temps d'émission des rayons gamma et la granulométrie d'alimentation du procédé. Les résultats ainsi obtenus par cette méthode de séparation sont très significatifs en récupération et en teneur fer. Cependant, cette nouvelle technologie permet d'une part une meilleure valorisation des minerais de fer et d'autre part une réduction du tonnage stocké sur le carreau de la mine.

Changes in 42K efflux produced by alterations in transmembrane calcium movements in turtle cardiac pace-maker tissue.

PubMed Central

Fleming, B P; Giles, W

1981-01-01

1. 42K efflux has been measured from small strips of turtle sinus venosus which were electrically paced. Three different procedures for altering transmembrane calcium influx have been utilized to test whether changes in 42K efflux may be modulated by changes in intracellular calcium levels. 2. No significant changes in the 42K fractional escape rate (FER) were observed when external calcium was reduced to O mM or increased to 4 x normal (10 mM). In these experiments extracellular divalent cation concentration was held constant by adding or removing magnesium ions. 3. Application of 10 mM-Ba2+ also failed to alter 42K FER consistently. In red blood cells and snail neurones addition of barium ions has been shown to reduce significantly the calcium-mediated potassium current. 4. A tenfold increase in pacing rate (0.5-5 Hz) resulted in an augmented 42K FER, but repetition of this rate change in O mM-Ca2+ indicated that this increase in 42K FER was not strongly dependent on the amount of calcium entry. 5. Attempts to load the pace-maker cells with calcium by using the ionophore A23187 (10 micrograms ml . -1 of 2.0 x 10(-5) M) consistently resulted in very large increases in 42K FER. However, this effect (i) was blocked by atropine and (ii) was markedly reduced by pretreating the tissues with hemicholinium, indicating that A23187-induced release of acetylcholine from the endogenous nerve terminals was responsible for the observed increase in 42K FER. 6. In summary, three different experimental tests indicate that the majority of the 42K efflux is not tightly linked to transmembrane calcium movement in sinus venosus pace-maker tissue. PMID:6796675

Perinatal outcome of singleton siblings born after assisted reproductive technology and spontaneous conception: Danish national sibling-cohort study.

PubMed

Henningsen, Anna-Karina Aaris; Pinborg, Anja; Lidegaard, Øjvind; Vestergaard, Christina; Forman, Julie Lyng; Andersen, Anders Nyboe

2011-03-01

To compare the perinatal outcome of singleton siblings conceived differently. National population-based registry study. Denmark, from 1994 to 2008. Pairs of siblings (13,692 pairs; n = 27,384 children) conceived after IVF, intracytoplasmatic sperm injection (ICSI), frozen embryo replacement (FER), or spontaneous conception subcategorized into five groups according to succession: [1] IVF-ICSI vs. spontaneous conception (n = 7,758), [2] IVF-ICSI vs. FER (n = 716), [3] FER vs. FER (n = 34), [4] IVF-ICSI vs. IVF-ICSI (n = 2,876), and [5] spontaneous conception vs. spontaneous conception (n = 16,000). Observations were obtained from national registries. Birth weight, gestational age, low birth weight (<2,500 g), preterm birth (<37 weeks' gestation) and perinatal deaths. Mean birth weight was 65 g (95% confidence interval [CI], 41-89] lower in all assisted reproductive technology children compared with their spontaneously conceived siblings. FER children were 167 g (95% CI, 90-244] heavier than siblings born after replacement of fresh embryos. The difference in birth weight between firstborn and second born sibling depended on order of conception method. Higher risk of low birth weight with (odds ratio [OR], 1.4; 95%CI, 1.1-1.7] and preterm birth (OR, 1.3; 95% CI, 1.1-1.6] was observed in IVF/ICSI compared with spontaneous conception. When differentiating between order and mode of conception, it seems that assisted reproductive technology plays a role in mean birth weight and risk of low birth weight and preterm birth. Birth weight was higher in siblings born after FER compared with fresh embryos replacement. Copyright © 2011 American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Insights into Resistance to Fe Deficiency Stress from a Comparative Study of In Vitro-Selected Novel Fe-Efficient and Fe-Inefficient Potato Plants

PubMed Central

Boamponsem, Georgina A.; Leung, David W. M.; Lister, Carolyn

2017-01-01

Iron (Fe) deficiency induces chlorosis (IDC) in plants and can result in reduced plant productivity. Therefore, development of Fe-efficient plants is of great interest. To gain a better understanding of the physiology of Fe-efficient plants, putative novel plant variants were regenerated from potato (Solanum tubersosum L. var. ‘Iwa’) callus cultures selected under Fe deficient or low Fe supply (0–5 μM Fe). Based on visual chlorosis rating (VCR), 23% of callus-derived regenerants were classified as Fe-efficient (EF) and 77% as Fe-inefficient (IFN) plant lines when they were grown under Fe deficiency conditions. Stem height was found to be highly correlated with internodal distance, leaf and root lengths in the EF plant lines grown under Fe deficiency conditions. In addition, compared to the IFN plant lines and control parental biotype, the EF plants including the lines named A1, B2, and B9, exhibited enhanced formation of lateral roots and root hairs as well as increased expression of ferritin (fer3) in the leaf and iron-regulated transporter (irt1) in the root. These morphological adaptations and changes in expression the fer3 and irt1 genes of the selected EF potato lines suggest that they are associated with resistance to low Fe supply stress. PMID:28955367

5 CFR 842.602 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... employee's, Member's, or retiree's death. Current spouse annuity means a recurring benefit under FERS that is payable (after the employee's, Member's or retiree's death) to a current spouse who meets the... initially adjudicated the regular rate of annuity payable under FERS and has paid the annuity accrued since...

5 CFR 842.602 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... employee's, Member's, or retiree's death. Current spouse annuity means a recurring benefit under FERS that is payable (after the employee's, Member's or retiree's death) to a current spouse who meets the... initially adjudicated the regular rate of annuity payable under FERS and has paid the annuity accrued since...

5 CFR 842.602 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... employee's, Member's, or retiree's death. Current spouse annuity means a recurring benefit under FERS that is payable (after the employee's, Member's or retiree's death) to a current spouse who meets the... initially adjudicated the regular rate of annuity payable under FERS and has paid the annuity accrued since...

5 CFR 842.602 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... employee's, Member's, or retiree's death. Current spouse annuity means a recurring benefit under FERS that is payable (after the employee's, Member's or retiree's death) to a current spouse who meets the... initially adjudicated the regular rate of annuity payable under FERS and has paid the annuity accrued since...

5 CFR 842.602 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... employee's, Member's, or retiree's death. Current spouse annuity means a recurring benefit under FERS that is payable (after the employee's, Member's or retiree's death) to a current spouse who meets the... initially adjudicated the regular rate of annuity payable under FERS and has paid the annuity accrued since...

5 CFR 1600.22 - Maximum contributions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Maximum contributions. 1600.22 Section... ELECTIONS AND CONTRIBUTION ALLOCATIONS Program of Contributions § 1600.22 Maximum contributions. (a) Regular...) FERS percentage limit. The maximum employee contribution from basic pay for a FERS participant for 2005...

Tuning microtubule dynamics to enhance cancer therapy by modulating FER-mediated CRMP2 phosphorylation.

PubMed

Zheng, Yiyan; Sethi, Ritika; Mangala, Lingegowda S; Taylor, Charlotte; Goldsmith, Juliet; Wang, Ming; Masuda, Kenta; Karaminejadranjbar, Mohammad; Mannion, David; Miranda, Fabrizio; Herrero-Gonzalez, Sandra; Hellner, Karin; Chen, Fiona; Alsaadi, Abdulkhaliq; Albukhari, Ashwag; Fotso, Donatien Chedom; Yau, Christopher; Jiang, Dahai; Pradeep, Sunila; Rodriguez-Aguayo, Cristian; Lopez-Berestein, Gabriel; Knapp, Stefan; Gray, Nathanael S; Campo, Leticia; Myers, Kevin A; Dhar, Sunanda; Ferguson, David; Bast, Robert C; Sood, Anil K; von Delft, Frank; Ahmed, Ahmed Ashour

2018-02-02

Though used widely in cancer therapy, paclitaxel only elicits a response in a fraction of patients. A strong determinant of paclitaxel tumor response is the state of microtubule dynamic instability. However, whether the manipulation of this physiological process can be controlled to enhance paclitaxel response has not been tested. Here, we show a previously unrecognized role of the microtubule-associated protein CRMP2 in inducing microtubule bundling through its carboxy terminus. This activity is significantly decreased when the FER tyrosine kinase phosphorylates CRMP2 at Y479 and Y499. The crystal structures of wild-type CRMP2 and CRMP2-Y479E reveal how mimicking phosphorylation prevents tetramerization of CRMP2. Depletion of FER or reducing its catalytic activity using sub-therapeutic doses of inhibitors increases paclitaxel-induced microtubule stability and cytotoxicity in ovarian cancer cells and in vivo. This work provides a rationale for inhibiting FER-mediated CRMP2 phosphorylation to enhance paclitaxel on-target activity for cancer therapy.

5 CFR 841.702 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... of this chapter and payable to retirees. Basic employee death benefit means the basic employee death... receiving a recurring benefit under FERS that is payable (after the employee's, Members, or retiree's death... COLA begin to accrue at the higher rate. FERS means the Federal Employees Retirement System as defined...

5 CFR 841.702 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... of this chapter and payable to retirees. Basic employee death benefit means the basic employee death... receiving a recurring benefit under FERS that is payable (after the employee's, Members, or retiree's death... COLA begin to accrue at the higher rate. FERS means the Federal Employees Retirement System as defined...

5 CFR 841.702 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... of this chapter and payable to retirees. Basic employee death benefit means the basic employee death... receiving a recurring benefit under FERS that is payable (after the employee's, Members, or retiree's death... COLA begin to accrue at the higher rate. FERS means the Federal Employees Retirement System as defined...

5 CFR 841.702 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... of this chapter and payable to retirees. Basic employee death benefit means the basic employee death... receiving a recurring benefit under FERS that is payable (after the employee's, Members, or retiree's death... COLA begin to accrue at the higher rate. FERS means the Federal Employees Retirement System as defined...

5 CFR 847.911 - Is an employee who elects to credit NAFI service to qualify for an immediate FERS retirement...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... annuity supplement under 5 CFR 842 subpart E? 847.911 Section 847.911 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF....911 Is an employee who elects to credit NAFI service to qualify for an immediate FERS retirement under...

5 CFR 847.911 - Is an employee who elects to credit NAFI service to qualify for an immediate FERS retirement...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... annuity supplement under 5 CFR 842 subpart E? 847.911 Section 847.911 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF....911 Is an employee who elects to credit NAFI service to qualify for an immediate FERS retirement under...

5 CFR 847.911 - Is an employee who elects to credit NAFI service to qualify for an immediate FERS retirement...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... annuity supplement under 5 CFR 842 subpart E? 847.911 Section 847.911 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF....911 Is an employee who elects to credit NAFI service to qualify for an immediate FERS retirement under...

5 CFR 847.911 - Is an employee who elects to credit NAFI service to qualify for an immediate FERS retirement...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... annuity supplement under 5 CFR 842 subpart E? 847.911 Section 847.911 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF....911 Is an employee who elects to credit NAFI service to qualify for an immediate FERS retirement under...

5 CFR 847.911 - Is an employee who elects to credit NAFI service to qualify for an immediate FERS retirement...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... annuity supplement under 5 CFR 842 subpart E? 847.911 Section 847.911 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF....911 Is an employee who elects to credit NAFI service to qualify for an immediate FERS retirement under...

Assessing pigmented pericarp of maize kernels as possible source of resistance to fusarium ear rot, Fusarium spp. infection and fumonisin accumulation.

PubMed

Venturini, Giovanni; Babazadeh, Laleh; Casati, Paola; Pilu, Roberto; Salomoni, Daiana; Toffolatti, Silvia L

2016-06-16

One of the purposes of maize genetic improvement is the research of genotypes resistant to fusarium ear rot (FER) and fumonisin accumulation. Flavonoids in the pericarp of the kernels are considered particularly able to reduce the fumonisin accumulation (FUM). The aim of this field study was to assess the effect of flavonoids, associated with anti-insect protection and Fusarium verticillioides inoculation, on FER symptoms and fumonisin contamination in maize kernels. Two isogenic hybrids, one having pigmentation in the pericarp (P1-rr) and the other without it (P1-wr), were compared. P1-rr showed lower values of FER symptoms and FUM contamination than P1-wr only if the anti-insect protection and the F. verticillioides inoculations were applied in combination. Fusarium spp. kernel infection was not influenced by the presence of flavonoids in the pericarp. Artificial F. verticillioides inoculation was more effective than anti-insect protection in enhancing the inhibition activity of flavonoids toward FUM contamination. The interactions between FUM contamination levels and FER ratings were better modeled in the pigmented hybrid than in the unpigmented one. The variable role that the pigment played in kernel defense against FER and FUM indicates that flavonoids alone may not be completely effective in the resistance of fumonisin contamination in maize. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

5 CFR 847.902 - How does an election to credit NAFI service for immediate CSRS or FERS retirement under subpart H...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... elects to use NAFI service to qualify for an immediate CSRS or FERS retirement benefit will be reduced to ensure the present value of the benefits payable will be actuarially equivalent to those that would have...

5 CFR 847.502 - Transfers to the CSR Fund.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Transfers to the CSR Fund. 847.502 Section 847.502 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT (CONTINUED) CIVIL SERVICE... to the CSR Fund. For elections of CSRS or FERS coverage under § 847.411 or FERS coverage and service...

Frame error rate for single-hop and dual-hop transmissions in 802.15.4 LoWPANs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Biswas, Sankalita; Ghosh, Biswajit; Chandra, Aniruddha; Dhar Roy, Sanjay

2017-08-01

IEEE 802.15.4 is a popular standard for personal area networks used in different low-rate short-range applications. This paper examines the error rate performance of 802.15.4 in fading wireless channel. An analytical model is formulated for evaluating frame error rate (FER); first, for direct single-hop transmission between two sensor nodes, and second, for dual-hop (DH) transmission using an in-between relay node. During modeling the transceiver design parameters are chosen according to the specifications set for both the 2.45 GHz and 868/915 MHz bands. We have also developed a simulation test bed for evaluating FER. Some results showed expected trends, such as FER is higher for larger payloads. Other observations are not that intuitive. It is interesting to note that the error rates are significantly higher for the DH case and demands a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) penalty of about 7 dB. Also, the FER shoots from zero to one within a very small range of SNR.

Networks and Spanning Trees: The Juxtaposition of Prüfer and Boruvka

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lodder, Jerry

2014-01-01

This paper outlines a method for teaching topics in undergraduate mathematics or computer science via historical curricular modules. The contents of one module, "Networks and Spanning Trees," are discussed from the original work of Arthur Cayley, Heinz Prüfer, and Otakar Boruvka that motivates the enumeration and application of trees in…

75 FR 33366 - Submission for OMB Review; Request for Comments on a Revised Information Collection: (OMB Control...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-06-11

... Information Collection: (OMB Control No. 3206-0170; Standard Forms 3106 and 3106A) AGENCY: Office of Personnel... Retirement System (FERS),'' (OMB Control No. 3206-0170; Standard Form 3106), is used by former Federal... Retirement Deductions Under FERS,'' (OMB Control No. 3206-0170; Standard Form 3106A) is used by refund...

Federal Employees' Retirement System Act of 1986.

PubMed

Kerns, W L

1986-11-01

In June, President Reagan signed the Federal Employees' Retirement System Act of 1986 (Public Law 99-335), which establishes the Federal Employees' Retirement System (FERS) for employees hired after December 31, 1983. The program, which goes into effect on January 1, 1987, features a defined benefit retirement plan to augment mandatory coverage under social security. It also permits FERS participants to contribute up to 10 percent of their earnings, on a tax-deferred basis, to a thrift savings plan, with partial matching by the Government. This article describes the provisions of the new system, including survivor annuities and disability benefits. It also explains how employees covered under the Civil Service Retirement System may freeze their earned benefits under that program and transfer to FERS during the period July-December 1987.

Error Control Coding Techniques for Space and Satellite Communications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Costello, Daniel J., Jr.; Takeshita, Oscar Y.; Cabral, Hermano A.

1998-01-01

It is well known that the BER performance of a parallel concatenated turbo-code improves roughly as 1/N, where N is the information block length. However, it has been observed by Benedetto and Montorsi that for most parallel concatenated turbo-codes, the FER performance does not improve monotonically with N. In this report, we study the FER of turbo-codes, and the effects of their concatenation with an outer code. Two methods of concatenation are investigated: across several frames and within each frame. Some asymmetric codes are shown to have excellent FER performance with an information block length of 16384. We also show that the proposed outer coding schemes can improve the BER performance as well by eliminating pathological frames generated by the iterative MAP decoding process.

Comparing replacement rates under private and federal retirement systems.

PubMed

Martin, Patricia P

One measure of the adequacy of retirement income is replacement rate - the percentage of pre-retirement salary that is available to a worker in retirement. This article compares salary replacement rates for private-sector employees of medium and large private establishments with those for federal employees under the Civil Service Retirement System and the Federal Employees Retirement System. Because there is no standard benefit formula to represent the variety of formulas available in the private sector, a composite defined benefit formula was developed using the characteristics of plans summarized in the Bureau of Labor Statistics Medium and Large Employer Plan Survey. The resulting "typical" private-sector defined benefit plan, with an accompanying defined contribution plan, was then compared with the two federal systems. The Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) is a stand-alone defined benefit plan whose participants are not covered by Social Security. Until passage of the 1983 Amendments to Social Security Act, it was the only retirement plan for most federal civilian employees. Provisions of the 1983 Amendments were designed to restore long-term financial stability to the Social Security trust funds. One provision created the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), which covers federal employees hired after 1983. It was one of the provisions designed to restore long-term financial stability to the Social Security trust funds. FERS employees contribute to and are covered by Social Security. FERS, which is a defined benefit plan, also includes a basic benefit and a 401(k)-type plan known as the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). To compare how retirees would fare under the three different retirement systems, benefits of employees retiring at age 65 with 35 years of service were calculated using hypothetical workers with steady earnings. Workers were classified according to a percentage of the average wage in the economy: low earners (45 percent), average earners (100 percent) high earners (160 percent), and maximum earners (earnings at the taxable maximum amount). Overall, this analysis found that: Excluding Social Security benefits and TSP and defined contribution annuities, CSRS retirees have a higher pre-retirement salary replacement rate than either FERS or private-sector retirees. Private-sector retirees, however, have higher replacement rate than their FERS counterparts. Including Social Security benefits but not TSP and defined contribution plan annuities, CSRS retirees who are maximum earners have a higher pre-retirement salary replacement rate (despite receiving no Social Security benefits) than FERS retirees with the same earnings. Private-sector retirees in all earnings categories have a higher replacement rate than federal retirees with the same earnings. Including Social Security and TSP and defined contribution plan annuities, private-sector retirees in all earnings categories have a higher replacement rate than federal retirees, but their rate is close to that of FERS retirees. The rate is higher for FERS retirees than for CSRS retirees in all earnings categories. This analysis shows that replacement creates could exceed 100 percent for FERS employees who contribute who contribute 6 percent of earnings to the TSP over full working career. Private-sector replacement rates were quite similar for those with both a defined benefit and a defined contribution pension plan. Social Security replacement rates make up the highest proportion of benefits for th private sector's lowest income quartile group. The replacement rate for 401(k) plans and the TSP account for a higher proportion of benefits than does Social Security for all other income groups, assuming the absence of a defined benefit plan.

System for face recognition under expression variations of neutral-sampled individuals using recognized expression warping and a virtual expression-face database

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petpairote, Chayanut; Madarasmi, Suthep; Chamnongthai, Kosin

2018-01-01

The practical identification of individuals using facial recognition techniques requires the matching of faces with specific expressions to faces from a neutral face database. A method for facial recognition under varied expressions against neutral face samples of individuals via recognition of expression warping and the use of a virtual expression-face database is proposed. In this method, facial expressions are recognized and the input expression faces are classified into facial expression groups. To aid facial recognition, the virtual expression-face database is sorted into average facial-expression shapes and by coarse- and fine-featured facial textures. Wrinkle information is also employed in classification by using a process of masking to adjust input faces to match the expression-face database. We evaluate the performance of the proposed method using the CMU multi-PIE, Cohn-Kanade, and AR expression-face databases, and we find that it provides significantly improved results in terms of face recognition accuracy compared to conventional methods and is acceptable for facial recognition under expression variation.

Cross-domain expression recognition based on sparse coding and transfer learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Yong; Zhang, Weiyi; Huang, Yong

2017-05-01

Traditional facial expression recognition methods usually assume that the training set and the test set are independent and identically distributed. However, in actual expression recognition applications, the conditions of independent and identical distribution are hardly satisfied for the training set and test set because of the difference of light, shade, race and so on. In order to solve this problem and improve the performance of expression recognition in the actual applications, a novel method based on transfer learning and sparse coding is applied to facial expression recognition. First of all, a common primitive model, that is, the dictionary is learnt. Then, based on the idea of transfer learning, the learned primitive pattern is transferred to facial expression and the corresponding feature representation is obtained by sparse coding. The experimental results in CK +, JAFFE and NVIE database shows that the transfer learning based on sparse coding method can effectively improve the expression recognition rate in the cross-domain expression recognition task and is suitable for the practical facial expression recognition applications.

[Prosopagnosia and facial expression recognition].

PubMed

Koyama, Shinichi

2014-04-01

This paper reviews clinical neuropsychological studies that have indicated that the recognition of a person's identity and the recognition of facial expressions are processed by different cortical and subcortical areas of the brain. The fusiform gyrus, especially the right fusiform gyrus, plays an important role in the recognition of identity. The superior temporal sulcus, amygdala, and medial frontal cortex play important roles in facial-expression recognition. Both facial recognition and facial-expression recognition are highly intellectual processes that involve several regions of the brain.

Effects of exposure to facial expression variation in face learning and recognition.

PubMed

Liu, Chang Hong; Chen, Wenfeng; Ward, James

2015-11-01

Facial expression is a major source of image variation in face images. Linking numerous expressions to the same face can be a huge challenge for face learning and recognition. It remains largely unknown what level of exposure to this image variation is critical for expression-invariant face recognition. We examined this issue in a recognition memory task, where the number of facial expressions of each face being exposed during a training session was manipulated. Faces were either trained with multiple expressions or a single expression, and they were later tested in either the same or different expressions. We found that recognition performance after learning three emotional expressions had no improvement over learning a single emotional expression (Experiments 1 and 2). However, learning three emotional expressions improved recognition compared to learning a single neutral expression (Experiment 3). These findings reveal both the limitation and the benefit of multiple exposures to variations of emotional expression in achieving expression-invariant face recognition. The transfer of expression training to a new type of expression is likely to depend on a relatively extensive level of training and a certain degree of variation across the types of expressions.

ISS 7A.1 Flight Control Team Photo in BFCR

NASA Image and Video Library

2001-08-16

JSC2001-02229 (16 August 2001) --- The members of the STS-105/ISS 7A.1 Orbit 1 team pose for a group portrait in the International Space Station (ISS) flight control room (BFCR) in Houston’s Mission Control Center (MCC). Flight director Mark Ferring is kneeling as he holds the Expedition Three mission logo. Astronaut Stephanie D. Wilson, ISS spacecraft communicator (CAPCOM), is standing behind Ferring.

Equivalence of the Floquet-Magnus and Fer Expansions to Investigate the Dynamics of a Spin System in the Three-Level System.

PubMed

Mananga, Eugene Stephane

2017-08-17

In this work, we investigated the orders to which the Floquet-Magnus expansion (FME) and Fer expansion (FE) are equivalent or different for the three-level system. Specifically, we performed the third-order calculations of both approaches based on elegant integrations formalism. We present an important close relationship between the Floquet-Magnus and Fer expansions. As the propagator from the FME takes the form of the evolution operator, which removes the constraint of a stroboscopic observation, we appreciated the effects of time-evolution under Hamiltonians with different orders separately. Our work unifies and generalizes existing results of Floquet-Magnus and Fer approaches and delivers illustrations of novel springs that boost previous applications that are based on the classical information. Due to the lack of an unequivocal relationship between the FME and FE, some disagreements between the results produced by these theories will be found, especially in NMR experiments. Our results can find applications in the optimization of NMR spectroscopy, quantum computation, quantum optical control, and coherence in optics and might bear new awareness in fundamental perusals of quantum spin dynamics. This work is an important theoretical and numerical contribution in the general field of spin dynamics.

EDTA Shuttle Effect vs. Lignosulfonate Direct Effect Providing Zn to Navy Bean Plants (Phaseolus vulgaris L ‘Negro Polo’) in a Calcareous Soil

PubMed Central

Cieschi, María T.; Benedicto, Ana; Hernández-Apaolaza, Lourdes; Lucena, Juan J.

2016-01-01

Zn-Lignosulfonates (LS) fertilizers are used as an eco-friendly alternative to chelate formulations. The mechanisms of Zn release in the rhizosphere by both types of products are compared. The ability to provide Zn to Phaseolus vulgaris L of non-modified and chemically modified ZnLS and ZnEDTA is compared in a hydroponic assay. Stable isotope 67Zn was used to study Zn source (fertilizer, ZnFer, or native, ZnNat) uptake and distribution in plants in two soil pot experiments. ZnEDTA was the best treatment to provide both ZnFer and ZnNat to navy bean plants. A shuttle effect mechanism and an isotopic exchange may occur. ZnLS from eucalyptus (ZnLSE) provides more Zn to the plant than LS from spruce. Chemical modifications of ZnLSE does not improve its efficiency. A double dose of ZnLSE provides similar ZnFer in leaves and similar soluble ZnFer content in soil than ZnEDTA. A model for the Zn fertilizers behavior in the soil and plant system is presented, showing the shuttle effect for the synthetic chelate and the direct delivery in the rhizosphere for the ZnLS complex. PMID:28018367

[Association between intelligence development and facial expression recognition ability in children with autism spectrum disorder].

PubMed

Pan, Ning; Wu, Gui-Hua; Zhang, Ling; Zhao, Ya-Fen; Guan, Han; Xu, Cai-Juan; Jing, Jin; Jin, Yu

2017-03-01

To investigate the features of intelligence development, facial expression recognition ability, and the association between them in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A total of 27 ASD children aged 6-16 years (ASD group, full intelligence quotient >70) and age- and gender-matched normally developed children (control group) were enrolled. Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Fourth Edition and Chinese Static Facial Expression Photos were used for intelligence evaluation and facial expression recognition test. Compared with the control group, the ASD group had significantly lower scores of full intelligence quotient, verbal comprehension index, perceptual reasoning index (PRI), processing speed index（PSI), and working memory index (WMI) (P<0.05). The ASD group also had a significantly lower overall accuracy rate of facial expression recognition and significantly lower accuracy rates of the recognition of happy, angry, sad, and frightened expressions than the control group (P<0.05). In the ASD group, the overall accuracy rate of facial expression recognition and the accuracy rates of the recognition of happy and frightened expressions were positively correlated with PRI (r=0.415, 0.455, and 0.393 respectively; P<0.05). The accuracy rate of the recognition of angry expression was positively correlated with WMI (r=0.397; P<0.05). ASD children have delayed intelligence development compared with normally developed children and impaired expression recognition ability. Perceptual reasoning and working memory abilities are positively correlated with expression recognition ability, which suggests that insufficient perceptual reasoning and working memory abilities may be important factors affecting facial expression recognition ability in ASD children.

Calculation of former ELA depressions in the Himalaya - a comparative analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wagner, M.

2009-04-01

For the reconstruction of former Equilibrium Line Altitudes (ELA) and ELA depressions in the Himalaya, the group of the Toe-to-Summit-Altitude-Methods (TSAM) is most suited. In this investigation the Kuhle (1986) method that is particularly tailored to the extreme high mountain relief, as well as the widely used Höfer (1879) method and Louis (1954/55) method, have been applied. Applying the relief specific correction factor FSD (Factor for snowline deviation) in the Kuhle method, it is thereby possible to simulate the shifting position of the ELA within the vertical extension of the glacier in dependence on the relief characteristics and glacial type. The results of this work, carried out along the Kali Gandaki in central Nepal, illustrate that as a rule, the Louis method results in the highest ELAs and the lowest ELA depressions, while the Höfer method yields the lowest ELAs and the highest ELA depressions. In affirmation of the literature, the Louis method tends to overestimate the ELA, since using the maximum peak height, especially for large glaciers in mountain ranges with high relief energy, leads to an overly high position of the glacier upper limit. With respect to the Höfer method, the suspicion already voiced by Höfer (1879) himself, that with the use of his method, the for the Himalaya typically high elevated, and with marginal gradient toward the valley moving ridge progressions, would lead to a too low ELA, can be affirmed. Clearly to be disputed, however, is the statement of Gross et al. (1976) that the Höfer method leads to an overestimation of the ELA. The reason for this can be found in a wrong computation of the mean ridge height above the ELA and consequently of the ELA itself within the Höfer method, based on the erroneous assumption that otherwise the ELA could not be calculated due to a circular conclusion (Gross et al. 1976). As is evidenced by this study, the Kuhle method mediates between the empiric overly high values of the Louis method and the overly low values of the Höfer method, because of a mediating definition of the accumulation zone upper limit. Additionally, over the FSD, Kuhle allows for a high degree of adaptation to the extreme Himalaya relief, and within limitations from the change of the relief constellation, which stems from transverse valley's characteristics of the Kali Gandaki. Therefore, the results of the Kuhle method must be affirmed as reflecting the greatest conformity with the actual values of the ELA and the ELA depression. References: Gross, G., H. Kerschner, G. Patzelt (1976): Methodische Untersuchungen über die Schneegrenze in alpinen Gletschergebieten. Zeitschrift für Gletscherkunde und Glazialgeologie 12 (2): 223-251. Höfer von Heimhalt, H. (1879): Gletscher- und Eiszeitstudien. Sitzungsberichte der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteilung I, Biologie, Mineralogie, Erdkunde 79: 331-367. Kuhle, M. (1986): Schneegrenzberechnung und typologische Klassifikation von Gletschern anhand spezifischer Reliefparameter. Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen 130: 41-51. Louis, H. (1954/55): Schneegrenze und Schneegrenzbestimmung. Geographisches Taschenbuch 1954/55: 414-418.

Behavioral decline and premature lethality upon pan-neuronal ferritin overexpression in Drosophila infected with a virulent form of Wolbachia

PubMed Central

Kosmidis, Stylianos; Missirlis, Fanis; Botella, Jose A.; Schneuwly, Stephan; Rouault, Tracey A.; Skoulakis, Efthimios M. C.

2014-01-01

Iron is required for organismal growth. Therefore, limiting iron availability may be a key part of the host’s innate immune response to various pathogens, for example, in Drosophila infected with Zygomycetes. One way the host can transiently reduce iron bioavailability is by ferritin overexpression. To study the effects of neuronal-specific ferritin overexpression on survival and neurodegeneration we generated flies simultaneously over-expressing transgenes for both ferritin subunits in all neurons. We used two independent recombinant chromosomes bearing UAS-Fer1HCH, UAS-Fer2LCH transgenes and obtained qualitatively different levels of late-onset behavioral and lifespan declines. We subsequently discovered that one parental strain had been infected with a virulent form of the bacterial endosymbiont Wolbachia, causing widespread neuronal apoptosis and premature death. This phenotype was exacerbated by ferritin overexpression and was curable by antibiotic treatment. Neuronal ferritin overexpression in uninfected flies did not cause evident neurodegeneration but resulted in a late-onset behavioral decline, as previously reported for ferritin overexpression in glia. The results suggest that ferritin overexpression in the central nervous system of flies is tolerated well in young individuals with adverse manifestations appearing only late in life or under unrelated pathophysiological conditions. PMID:24772084

Bibliography of Ground-Water References for All 254 Counties in Texas, 1886-2001

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-01-01

ATLAS FOR BAILEY COUNTY, TEXAS: HIGH PLAINS UNDERGROUND WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT NO. 1, 1987. HYDROGEOLOGY AND HYDROCHEMISTRY OF CRETACEOUS AQUI- FERS... UNDERGROUND WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT NO. 1, 1987. HYDROGEOLOGY AND HYDROCHEMISTRY OF CRETACEOUS AQUI- FERS, TEXAS PANHANDLE AND EASTERN NEW MEXICO: UNI...Counties in Texas, 1886–2001 Compiled By E.T. Baker, Jr. ANDERSON COUNTY UNDERGROUND WATERS OF THE COASTAL PLAIN OF TEXAS: USGS WATER -SUPPLY PAPER 190

Diffraction de rayons X sur les plaquettes de fer durcies par cyanuration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Popescu, M.; Hoyer, W.; Stegarescu, M.; Cornet, A.; Broll, N.

2004-11-01

Une méthode de cyanuration a été developpée pour les surfaces des plaquettes de fer, basée sur une réaction thermochimique qui conduit à la formation des couches dures sur le métal. Les échantillons ont été analysés, pour de temps différents de traitement, par diffraction de rayons X et par mesures de dureté.

Diagnosing the Internal Architecture of Zeolite Ferrierite

PubMed Central

Schmidt, Joel E.; Hendriks, Frank C.; Lutz, Martin; Post, L. Christiaan; Fu, Donglong

2017-01-01

Abstract Large crystals of zeolite ferrierite (FER) are important model systems for spatially resolved catalysis and diffusion studies, though there is considerable variation in crystal habit depending on the chemical composition and employed synthesis conditions. A synergistic combination of techniques has been applied, including single crystal X‐ray diffraction, high‐temperature in situ confocal fluorescence microscopy, fluorescent probe molecules, wide‐field microscopy and atomic force microscopy to unravel the internal architecture of three distinct FER zeolites. Pyrolyzed template species can be used as markers for the 8‐membered ring direction as they are trapped in the terraced roof of the FER crystals. This happens as the materials grow in a layer‐by‐layer, defect‐free manner normal to the large crystal surface, and leads to a facile method to diagnose the pore system orientation, which avoids tedious single crystal X‐ray diffraction experiments. PMID:28809081

Simulation design of uniform low turn-on voltage and high reverse blocking AlGaN/GaN power field effect rectifier with trench heterojunction anode

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Fangzhou; Chen, Wanjun; Wang, Zeheng; Sun, Ruize; Wei, Jin; Li, Xuan; Shi, Yijun; Jin, Xiaosheng; Xu, Xiaorui; Chen, Nan; Zhou, Qi; Zhang, Bo

2017-05-01

To achieve uniform low turn-on voltage and high reverse blocking capability, an AlGaN/GaN power field effect rectifier with trench heterojunction anode (THA-FER) is proposed and investigated in this work which includes only simulated data and no real experimental result. VT has a low saturation value when trench height (HT) is beyond 300 nm, confirming it is possible to control the VT accurately without precisely controlling the HT in the THA-FER. Meanwhile, high HT anode reduces reverse leakage current and yields high breakdown voltage (VB). A superior high Baliga's Figure of Merits (BFOM = VB2/Ron,sp, Ron,sp is specific-on resistance) of 1228 MW/cm2 reveals the THA-FER caters for the demands of high efficiency GaN power applications.

Logistic Support and Insurgency. Guerrilla Sustainment and Applied Lessons of Soviet Insurgent Warfare: Why it Should Still be Studied

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-10-01

In su rgen t War fa re : Why I t Shou ld S t i l l Be S tud ied Graham H. Turbivi l le, J r. The views expressed in this publication are...Department of the Army, Office of the Chief of Military Histo- ry, draft translation of an assessment by D . Karov and V . Voizhanin, “Supply of Partisan...commanded by Hero of the Soviet Union V . S . Grizodubov. They carried out landings at partisan airfields, trans- ferred wounded soldiers, women and children

Efficacy of iron supplementation may be misinterpreted using conventional measures of iron status in iron-depleted, nonanemic women undergoing aerobic exercise training.

PubMed

Pompano, Laura M; Haas, Jere D

2017-12-01

Background: Despite its known detrimental effects, iron deficiency remains the most common micronutrient deficiency in the world. Many interventions that aim to improve iron status involve physically active populations. Intense aerobic exercise training negatively affects iron status; however, the impact of regular moderate aerobic exercise on the effectiveness of iron supplementation remains unclear. Objective: This study aimed to determine whether aerobic training modifies the assessment of the effectiveness of iron supplementation in improving conventional iron status measures. Design: Seventy-two iron-depleted, nonanemic Chinese women [serum ferritin (sFer) <25 μg/L and hemoglobin >110 g/L] were included in an 8-wk, partially blinded, randomized controlled trial with a 2 × 2 factorial design including iron supplements (42 mg elemental Fe/d) or placebo and aerobic training (five 25-min sessions/wk at 75-85% of maximum heart rate) or no training. Linear mixed models were used to evaluate the relation between supplement type, training, and changes in iron status over time, measured by sFer, hemoglobin, soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR), and estimated total body iron. Results: After treatment, both the iron-supplemented trained and untrained groups showed significantly improved sFer, sTfR, and body iron values compared with either of the placebo groups. Similarly, trained participants had significantly higher aerobic fitness measures than untrained participants. Training modified the sFer response to supplementation (training by supplement interaction, P = 0.07), with the iron-supplemented trained group having significantly lower sFer than the iron-supplemented untrained group at week 8 (mean ± SD: 31.8 ± 13.5 and 47.6 ± 15.7 μg/L, respectively; P = 0.042), whereas there was no significant difference between the placebo trained and untrained groups (21.3 ± 12.2 and 20.3 ± 7.0 μg/L, respectively; P = 1.00). Conclusions: Regular aerobic training reduces the apparent effectiveness of iron supplementation in improving sFer and calls into question whether conventional measures of iron status accurately reflect iron metabolism in physically active, nonanemic women. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03002090. © 2017 American Society for Nutrition.

[Emotional facial expression recognition impairment in Parkinson disease].

PubMed

Lachenal-Chevallet, Karine; Bediou, Benoit; Bouvard, Martine; Thobois, Stéphane; Broussolle, Emmanuel; Vighetto, Alain; Krolak-Salmon, Pierre

2006-03-01

some behavioral disturbances observed in Parkinson's disease (PD) could be related to impaired recognition of various social messages particularly emotional facial expressions. facial expression recognition was assessed using morphed faces (five emotions: happiness, fear, anger, disgust, neutral), and compared to gender recognition and general cognitive assessment in 12 patients with Parkinson's disease and 14 controls subjects. facial expression recognition was impaired among patients, whereas gender recognitions, visuo-perceptive capacities and total efficiency were preserved. Post hoc analyses disclosed a deficit for fear and disgust recognition compared to control subjects. the impairment of emotional facial expression recognition in PD appears independent of other cognitive deficits. This impairment may be related to the dopaminergic depletion in basal ganglia and limbic brain regions. They could take a part in psycho-behavioral disorders and particularly in communication disorders observed in Parkinson's disease patients.

Facial expression recognition based on improved deep belief networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Yao; Qiu, Weigen

2017-08-01

In order to improve the robustness of facial expression recognition, a method of face expression recognition based on Local Binary Pattern (LBP) combined with improved deep belief networks (DBNs) is proposed. This method uses LBP to extract the feature, and then uses the improved deep belief networks as the detector and classifier to extract the LBP feature. The combination of LBP and improved deep belief networks is realized in facial expression recognition. In the JAFFE (Japanese Female Facial Expression) database on the recognition rate has improved significantly.

Federal Retirement: Use of Contractors to Implement the Federal Employees Retirement System

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-02-01

incurred by the principal agencies responsible for implementing the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) Act of 1986 (P.L. 99-335). We-also...services. The act provided.(t- a new retirement system for all federal civilian employees hired after December 1983 ancan opportunity for about 2.1...million employees covered by existing retirement systems, primarily the Civil Service Retirement System (csRs), to transfer to FERS during aD T1C July

An Historical Analysis and Comparison of the Military Retirement System and the Federal Employee Retirement system

DTIC Science & Technology

1998-06-01

retirement programs in existence. This thesis concentrates on the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and its successor the Federal Employee Retirement...federal employees at the beginning of fiscal year 1995. (Ref. 11, p. 2) The basic objective of the CSRS and FERS programs is to attract quality...and FERS both provide pensions for retired federal employees , the programs are designed differently. CSRS was established in 1920 and predates the

Increased circulating cell-derived microparticle count is associated with recurrent implantation failure after IVF and embryo transfer.

PubMed

Martínez-Zamora, M Angeles; Tàssies, Dolors; Reverter, Juan Carlos; Creus, Montserrat; Casals, Gemma; Cívico, Salvadora; Carmona, Francisco; Balasch, Juan

2016-08-01

Cell-derived microparticles (cMPs) are small membrane vesicles that are released from many different cell types in response to cellular activation or apoptosis. Elevated cMP counts have been found in almost all thrombotic diseases and pregnancy wastage, such as recurrent spontaneous abortion and in a number of conditions associated with inflammation, cellular activation and angiogenesis. cMP count was investigated in patients experiencing unexplained recurrent implantation failure (RIF). The study group was composed of 30 women diagnosed with RIF (RIF group). The first control group (IVF group) (n = 30) comprised patients undergoing a first successful IVF cycle. The second control group (FER group) included 30 healthy women who had at least one child born at term and no history of infertility or obstetric complications. cMP count was significantly higher in the RIF group compared with the IVF and FER groups (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01, respectively) (RIF group: 15.8 ± 6.2 nM phosphatidylserine equivalent [PS eq]; IVF group: 10.9 ± 5.3 nM PS eq; FER group: 9.6 ± 4.0 nM PS eq). No statistical difference was found in cMP count between the IVF and FER groups. Increased cMP count is, therefore, associated with RIF after IVF and embryo transfer. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Emotional facial expressions differentially influence predictions and performance for face recognition.

PubMed

Nomi, Jason S; Rhodes, Matthew G; Cleary, Anne M

2013-01-01

This study examined how participants' predictions of future memory performance are influenced by emotional facial expressions. Participants made judgements of learning (JOLs) predicting the likelihood that they would correctly identify a face displaying a happy, angry, or neutral emotional expression in a future two-alternative forced-choice recognition test of identity (i.e., recognition that a person's face was seen before). JOLs were higher for studied faces with happy and angry emotional expressions than for neutral faces. However, neutral test faces with studied neutral expressions had significantly higher identity recognition rates than neutral test faces studied with happy or angry expressions. Thus, these data are the first to demonstrate that people believe happy and angry emotional expressions will lead to better identity recognition in the future relative to neutral expressions. This occurred despite the fact that neutral expressions elicited better identity recognition than happy and angry expressions. These findings contribute to the growing literature examining the interaction of cognition and emotion.

Impact of Childhood Maltreatment on the Recognition of Facial Expressions of Emotions.

PubMed

Ardizzi, Martina; Martini, Francesca; Umiltà, Maria Alessandra; Evangelista, Valentina; Ravera, Roberto; Gallese, Vittorio

2015-01-01

The development of the explicit recognition of facial expressions of emotions can be affected by childhood maltreatment experiences. A previous study demonstrated the existence of an explicit recognition bias for angry facial expressions among a population of adolescent Sierra Leonean street-boys exposed to high levels of maltreatment. In the present study, the recognition bias for angry facial expressions was investigated in a younger population of street-children and age-matched controls. Participants performed a forced-choice facial expressions recognition task. Recognition bias was measured as participants' tendency to over-attribute anger label to other negative facial expressions. Participants' heart rate was assessed and related to their behavioral performance, as index of their stress-related physiological responses. Results demonstrated the presence of a recognition bias for angry facial expressions among street-children, also pinpointing a similar, although significantly less pronounced, tendency among controls. Participants' performance was controlled for age, cognitive and educational levels and for naming skills. None of these variables influenced the recognition bias for angry facial expressions. Differently, a significant effect of heart rate on participants' tendency to use anger label was evidenced. Taken together, these results suggest that childhood exposure to maltreatment experiences amplifies children's "pre-existing bias" for anger labeling in forced-choice emotion recognition task. Moreover, they strengthen the thesis according to which the recognition bias for angry facial expressions is a manifestation of a functional adaptive mechanism that tunes victim's perceptive and attentive focus on salient environmental social stimuli.

Impact of Childhood Maltreatment on the Recognition of Facial Expressions of Emotions

PubMed Central

Ardizzi, Martina; Martini, Francesca; Umiltà, Maria Alessandra; Evangelista, Valentina; Ravera, Roberto; Gallese, Vittorio

2015-01-01

The development of the explicit recognition of facial expressions of emotions can be affected by childhood maltreatment experiences. A previous study demonstrated the existence of an explicit recognition bias for angry facial expressions among a population of adolescent Sierra Leonean street-boys exposed to high levels of maltreatment. In the present study, the recognition bias for angry facial expressions was investigated in a younger population of street-children and age-matched controls. Participants performed a forced-choice facial expressions recognition task. Recognition bias was measured as participants’ tendency to over-attribute anger label to other negative facial expressions. Participants’ heart rate was assessed and related to their behavioral performance, as index of their stress-related physiological responses. Results demonstrated the presence of a recognition bias for angry facial expressions among street-children, also pinpointing a similar, although significantly less pronounced, tendency among controls. Participants’ performance was controlled for age, cognitive and educational levels and for naming skills. None of these variables influenced the recognition bias for angry facial expressions. Differently, a significant effect of heart rate on participants’ tendency to use anger label was evidenced. Taken together, these results suggest that childhood exposure to maltreatment experiences amplifies children’s “pre-existing bias” for anger labeling in forced-choice emotion recognition task. Moreover, they strengthen the thesis according to which the recognition bias for angry facial expressions is a manifestation of a functional adaptive mechanism that tunes victim’s perceptive and attentive focus on salient environmental social stimuli. PMID:26509890

Dynamic facial expression recognition based on geometric and texture features

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Ming; Wang, Zengfu

2018-04-01

Recently, dynamic facial expression recognition in videos has attracted growing attention. In this paper, we propose a novel dynamic facial expression recognition method by using geometric and texture features. In our system, the facial landmark movements and texture variations upon pairwise images are used to perform the dynamic facial expression recognition tasks. For one facial expression sequence, pairwise images are created between the first frame and each of its subsequent frames. Integration of both geometric and texture features further enhances the representation of the facial expressions. Finally, Support Vector Machine is used for facial expression recognition. Experiments conducted on the extended Cohn-Kanade database show that our proposed method can achieve a competitive performance with other methods.

Complete genome sequence of Fer-de-Lance Virus reveals a novel gene in reptilian Paramyxoviruses

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kurath, G.; Batts, W.N.; Ahne, W.; Winton, J.R.

2004-01-01

The complete RNA genome sequence of the archetype reptilian paramyxovirus, Fer-de-Lance virus (FDLV), has been determined. The genome is 15,378 nucleotides in length and consists of seven nonoverlapping genes in the order 3??? N-U-P-M-F-HN-L 5???, coding for the nucleocapsid, unknown, phospho-, matrix, fusion, hemagglutinin-neuraminidase, and large polymerase proteins, respectively. The gene junctions contain highly conserved transcription start and stop signal sequences and tri-nucleotide intergenic regions similar to those of other Paramyxoviridae. The FDLV P gene expression strategy is like that of rubulaviruses, which express the accessory V protein from the primary transcript and edit a portion of the mRNA to encode P and I proteins. There is also an overlapping open reading frame potentially encoding a small basic protein in the P gene. The gene designated U (unknown), encodes a deduced protein of 19.4 kDa that has no counterpart in other paramyxoviruses and has no similarity with sequences in the National Center for Biotechnology Information database. Active transcription of the U gene in infected cells was demonstrated by Northern blot analysis, and bicistronic N-U mRNA was also evident. The genomes of two other snake paramyxovirus genotypes were also found to have U genes, with 11 to 16% nucleotide divergence from the FDLV U gene. Pairwise comparisons of amino acid identities and phylogenetic analyses of all deduced FDLV protein sequences with homologous sequences from other Paramyxoviridae indicate that FDLV represents a new genus within the subfamily Paramyxovirinae. We suggest the name Ferlavirus for the new genus, with FDLV as the type species.

Facial expression recognition based on improved local ternary pattern and stacked auto-encoder

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Yao; Qiu, Weigen

2017-08-01

In order to enhance the robustness of facial expression recognition, we propose a method of facial expression recognition based on improved Local Ternary Pattern (LTP) combined with Stacked Auto-Encoder (SAE). This method uses the improved LTP extraction feature, and then uses the improved depth belief network as the detector and classifier to extract the LTP feature. The combination of LTP and improved deep belief network is realized in facial expression recognition. The recognition rate on CK+ databases has improved significantly.

Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army, on Civil Works Activities 1961. Volume 1

DTIC Science & Technology

1961-01-01

dollars) Classification Total Active De - Ink Total Active De - In- ferred active ferred active Navigation..------------------ 2,604 2,450 42 112 6,138...Sioux City, Iowa.... New York and New Jersey Channels, N.Y. and N.J.. Pike Island Locks and Dam, Ohio River, W. Va..... Playa Del Rey Inlet and Harbor...Jun 61 -1965 Do. Hall Meadow Brook, Conn __ . ___------- - Oct 60 1962 Reservoir. Hunt and Lima Lake Drainage District, Illinois

Support vector machine-based facial-expression recognition method combining shape and appearance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, Eun Jung; Kang, Byung Jun; Park, Kang Ryoung; Lee, Sangyoun

2010-11-01

Facial expression recognition can be widely used for various applications, such as emotion-based human-machine interaction, intelligent robot interfaces, face recognition robust to expression variation, etc. Previous studies have been classified as either shape- or appearance-based recognition. The shape-based method has the disadvantage that the individual variance of facial feature points exists irrespective of similar expressions, which can cause a reduction of the recognition accuracy. The appearance-based method has a limitation in that the textural information of the face is very sensitive to variations in illumination. To overcome these problems, a new facial-expression recognition method is proposed, which combines both shape and appearance information, based on the support vector machine (SVM). This research is novel in the following three ways as compared to previous works. First, the facial feature points are automatically detected by using an active appearance model. From these, the shape-based recognition is performed by using the ratios between the facial feature points based on the facial-action coding system. Second, the SVM, which is trained to recognize the same and different expression classes, is proposed to combine two matching scores obtained from the shape- and appearance-based recognitions. Finally, a single SVM is trained to discriminate four different expressions, such as neutral, a smile, anger, and a scream. By determining the expression of the input facial image whose SVM output is at a minimum, the accuracy of the expression recognition is much enhanced. The experimental results showed that the recognition accuracy of the proposed method was better than previous researches and other fusion methods.

Two Ways to Facial Expression Recognition? Motor and Visual Information Have Different Effects on Facial Expression Recognition.

PubMed

de la Rosa, Stephan; Fademrecht, Laura; Bülthoff, Heinrich H; Giese, Martin A; Curio, Cristóbal

2018-06-01

Motor-based theories of facial expression recognition propose that the visual perception of facial expression is aided by sensorimotor processes that are also used for the production of the same expression. Accordingly, sensorimotor and visual processes should provide congruent emotional information about a facial expression. Here, we report evidence that challenges this view. Specifically, the repeated execution of facial expressions has the opposite effect on the recognition of a subsequent facial expression than the repeated viewing of facial expressions. Moreover, the findings of the motor condition, but not of the visual condition, were correlated with a nonsensory condition in which participants imagined an emotional situation. These results can be well accounted for by the idea that facial expression recognition is not always mediated by motor processes but can also be recognized on visual information alone.

False recognition of facial expressions of emotion: causes and implications.

PubMed

Fernández-Dols, José-Miguel; Carrera, Pilar; Barchard, Kimberly A; Gacitua, Marta

2008-08-01

This article examines the importance of semantic processes in the recognition of emotional expressions, through a series of three studies on false recognition. The first study found a high frequency of false recognition of prototypical expressions of emotion when participants viewed slides and video clips of nonprototypical fearful and happy expressions. The second study tested whether semantic processes caused false recognition. The authors found that participants made significantly higher error rates when asked to detect expressions that corresponded to semantic labels than when asked to detect visual stimuli. Finally, given that previous research reported that false memories are less prevalent in younger children, the third study tested whether false recognition of prototypical expressions increased with age. The authors found that 67% of eight- to nine-year-old children reported nonpresent prototypical expressions of fear in a fearful context, but only 40% of 6- to 7-year-old children did so. Taken together, these three studies demonstrate the importance of semantic processes in the detection and categorization of prototypical emotional expressions.

Characterization of external potential for field emission resonances and its applications on nanometer-scale measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Shin-Ming; Chan, Wen-Yuan; Su, Wei-Bin; Pai, Woei Wu; Liu, Hsiang-Lin; Chang, Chia-Seng

2018-04-01

The form of the external potential (FEP) for generating field emission resonance (FER) in a scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) junction is usually assumed to be triangular. We demonstrate that this assumption can be examined using a plot that can characterize FEP. The plot is FER energies versus the corresponding distances between the tip and sample. Through this energy–distance relationship, we discover that the FEP is nearly triangular for a blunt STM tip. However, the assumption of a triangular potential form is invalid for a sharp tip. The disparity becomes more severe as the tip is sharper. We demonstrate that the energy–distance plot can be exploited to determine the barrier width in field emission and estimate the effective sharpness of an STM tip. Because FERs were observed on Pb islands grown on the Cu(111) surface in this study, determination of the tip sharpness enabled the derivation of the subtle expansion deformation of Pb islands due to electrostatic force in the STM junction.

Multi-layer sparse representation for weighted LBP-patches based facial expression recognition.

PubMed

Jia, Qi; Gao, Xinkai; Guo, He; Luo, Zhongxuan; Wang, Yi

2015-03-19

In this paper, a novel facial expression recognition method based on sparse representation is proposed. Most contemporary facial expression recognition systems suffer from limited ability to handle image nuisances such as low resolution and noise. Especially for low intensity expression, most of the existing training methods have quite low recognition rates. Motivated by sparse representation, the problem can be solved by finding sparse coefficients of the test image by the whole training set. Deriving an effective facial representation from original face images is a vital step for successful facial expression recognition. We evaluate facial representation based on weighted local binary patterns, and Fisher separation criterion is used to calculate the weighs of patches. A multi-layer sparse representation framework is proposed for multi-intensity facial expression recognition, especially for low-intensity expressions and noisy expressions in reality, which is a critical problem but seldom addressed in the existing works. To this end, several experiments based on low-resolution and multi-intensity expressions are carried out. Promising results on publicly available databases demonstrate the potential of the proposed approach.

Perceptual and affective mechanisms in facial expression recognition: An integrative review.

PubMed

Calvo, Manuel G; Nummenmaa, Lauri

2016-09-01

Facial expressions of emotion involve a physical component of morphological changes in a face and an affective component conveying information about the expresser's internal feelings. It remains unresolved how much recognition and discrimination of expressions rely on the perception of morphological patterns or the processing of affective content. This review of research on the role of visual and emotional factors in expression recognition reached three major conclusions. First, behavioral, neurophysiological, and computational measures indicate that basic expressions are reliably recognized and discriminated from one another, albeit the effect may be inflated by the use of prototypical expression stimuli and forced-choice responses. Second, affective content along the dimensions of valence and arousal is extracted early from facial expressions, although this coarse affective representation contributes minimally to categorical recognition of specific expressions. Third, the physical configuration and visual saliency of facial features contribute significantly to expression recognition, with "emotionless" computational models being able to reproduce some of the basic phenomena demonstrated in human observers. We conclude that facial expression recognition, as it has been investigated in conventional laboratory tasks, depends to a greater extent on perceptual than affective information and mechanisms.

Facilitated citrate-dependent iron translocation increases rice endosperm iron and zinc concentrations.

PubMed

Wu, Ting-Ying; Gruissem, Wilhelm; Bhullar, Navreet K

2018-05-01

Iron deficiency affects one third of the world population. Most iron biofortification strategies have focused on genes involved in iron uptake and storage but facilitating internal long-distance iron translocation has been understudied for increasing grain iron concentrations. Citrate is a primary iron chelator, and the transporter FERRIC REDUCTASE DEFECTIVE 3 (FRD3) loads citrate into the xylem. We have expressed AtFRD3 in combination with AtNAS1 (NICOTIANAMINE SYNTHASE 1) and PvFER (FERRITIN) or with PvFER alone to facilitate long-distance iron transport together with efficient iron uptake and storage in the rice endosperm. The citrate and iron concentrations in the xylem sap of transgenic plants increased two-fold compared to control plants. Iron and zinc levels increased significantly in polished and unpolished rice grains to more than 70% of the recommended estimated average requirement (EAR) for iron and 140% of the recommended EAR for zinc in polished rice grains. Furthermore, the transformed lines showed normal phenotypic growth, were tolerant to iron deficiency and aluminum toxicity, and had grain cadmium levels similar to control plants. Together, our results demonstrate that deploying FRD for iron biofortification has no obvious anti-nutritive effects and should be considered as an effective strategy for reducing human iron deficiency anemia. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A framework for the recognition of 3D faces and expressions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Chao; Barreto, Armando

2006-04-01

Face recognition technology has been a focus both in academia and industry for the last couple of years because of its wide potential applications and its importance to meet the security needs of today's world. Most of the systems developed are based on 2D face recognition technology, which uses pictures for data processing. With the development of 3D imaging technology, 3D face recognition emerges as an alternative to overcome the difficulties inherent with 2D face recognition, i.e. sensitivity to illumination conditions and orientation positioning of the subject. But 3D face recognition still needs to tackle the problem of deformation of facial geometry that results from the expression changes of a subject. To deal with this issue, a 3D face recognition framework is proposed in this paper. It is composed of three subsystems: an expression recognition system, a system for the identification of faces with expression, and neutral face recognition system. A system for the recognition of faces with one type of expression (happiness) and neutral faces was implemented and tested on a database of 30 subjects. The results proved the feasibility of this framework.

Impaired recognition of happy facial expressions in bipolar disorder.

PubMed

Lawlor-Savage, Linette; Sponheim, Scott R; Goghari, Vina M

2014-08-01

The ability to accurately judge facial expressions is important in social interactions. Individuals with bipolar disorder have been found to be impaired in emotion recognition; however, the specifics of the impairment are unclear. This study investigated whether facial emotion recognition difficulties in bipolar disorder reflect general cognitive, or emotion-specific, impairments. Impairment in the recognition of particular emotions and the role of processing speed in facial emotion recognition were also investigated. Clinically stable bipolar patients (n = 17) and healthy controls (n = 50) judged five facial expressions in two presentation types, time-limited and self-paced. An age recognition condition was used as an experimental control. Bipolar patients' overall facial recognition ability was unimpaired. However, patients' specific ability to judge happy expressions under time constraints was impaired. Findings suggest a deficit in happy emotion recognition impacted by processing speed. Given the limited sample size, further investigation with a larger patient sample is warranted.

Recognition of facial expressions and prosodic cues with graded emotional intensities in adults with Asperger syndrome.

PubMed

Doi, Hirokazu; Fujisawa, Takashi X; Kanai, Chieko; Ohta, Haruhisa; Yokoi, Hideki; Iwanami, Akira; Kato, Nobumasa; Shinohara, Kazuyuki

2013-09-01

This study investigated the ability of adults with Asperger syndrome to recognize emotional categories of facial expressions and emotional prosodies with graded emotional intensities. The individuals with Asperger syndrome showed poorer recognition performance for angry and sad expressions from both facial and vocal information. The group difference in facial expression recognition was prominent for stimuli with low or intermediate emotional intensities. In contrast to this, the individuals with Asperger syndrome exhibited lower recognition accuracy than typically-developed controls mainly for emotional prosody with high emotional intensity. In facial expression recognition, Asperger and control groups showed an inversion effect for all categories. The magnitude of this effect was less in the Asperger group for angry and sad expressions, presumably attributable to reduced recruitment of the configural mode of face processing. The individuals with Asperger syndrome outperformed the control participants in recognizing inverted sad expressions, indicating enhanced processing of local facial information representing sad emotion. These results suggest that the adults with Asperger syndrome rely on modality-specific strategies in emotion recognition from facial expression and prosodic information.

Eye-Gaze Analysis of Facial Emotion Recognition and Expression in Adolescents with ASD.

PubMed

Wieckowski, Andrea Trubanova; White, Susan W

2017-01-01

Impaired emotion recognition and expression in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may contribute to observed social impairment. The aim of this study was to examine the role of visual attention directed toward nonsocial aspects of a scene as a possible mechanism underlying recognition and expressive ability deficiency in ASD. One recognition and two expression tasks were administered. Recognition was assessed in force-choice paradigm, and expression was assessed during scripted and free-choice response (in response to emotional stimuli) tasks in youth with ASD (n = 20) and an age-matched sample of typically developing youth (n = 20). During stimulus presentation prior to response in each task, participants' eye gaze was tracked. Youth with ASD were less accurate at identifying disgust and sadness in the recognition task. They fixated less to the eye region of stimuli showing surprise. A group difference was found during the free-choice response task, such that those with ASD expressed emotion less clearly but not during the scripted task. Results suggest altered eye gaze to the mouth region but not the eye region as a candidate mechanism for decreased ability to recognize or express emotion. Findings inform our understanding of the association between social attention and emotion recognition and expression deficits.

The nonverbal expression of pride: evidence for cross-cultural recognition.

PubMed

Tracy, Jessica L; Robins, Richard W

2008-03-01

The present research tests whether recognition for the nonverbal expression of pride generalizes across cultures. Study 1 provided the first evidence for cross-cultural recognition of pride, demonstrating that the expression generalizes across Italy and the United States. Study 2 found that the pride expression generalizes beyond Western cultures; individuals from a preliterate, highly isolated tribe in Burkina Faso, West Africa, reliably recognized pride, regardless of whether it was displayed by African or American targets. These Burkinabe participants were unlikely to have learned the pride expression through cross-cultural transmission, so their recognition suggests that pride may be a human universal. Studies 3 and 4 used drawn figures to systematically manipulate the ethnicity and gender of targets showing the expression, and demonstrated that pride recognition generalizes across male and female targets of African, Asian, and Caucasian descent. Discussion focuses on the implications of the findings for the universality of the pride expression.

Joint recognition-expression impairment of facial emotions in Huntington's disease despite intact understanding of feelings.

PubMed

Trinkler, Iris; Cleret de Langavant, Laurent; Bachoud-Lévi, Anne-Catherine

2013-02-01

Patients with Huntington's disease (HD), a neurodegenerative disorder that causes major motor impairments, also show cognitive and emotional deficits. While their deficit in recognising emotions has been explored in depth, little is known about their ability to express emotions and understand their feelings. If these faculties were impaired, patients might not only mis-read emotion expressions in others but their own emotions might be mis-interpreted by others as well, or thirdly, they might have difficulties understanding and describing their feelings. We compared the performance of recognition and expression of facial emotions in 13 HD patients with mild motor impairments but without significant bucco-facial abnormalities, and 13 controls matched for age and education. Emotion recognition was investigated in a forced-choice recognition test (FCR), and emotion expression by filming participants while they mimed the six basic emotional facial expressions (anger, disgust, fear, surprise, sadness and joy) to the experimenter. The films were then segmented into 60 stimuli per participant and four external raters performed a FCR on this material. Further, we tested understanding of feelings in self (alexithymia) and others (empathy) using questionnaires. Both recognition and expression were impaired across different emotions in HD compared to controls and recognition and expression scores were correlated. By contrast, alexithymia and empathy scores were very similar in HD and controls. This might suggest that emotion deficits in HD might be tied to the expression itself. Because similar emotion recognition-expression deficits are also found in Parkinson's Disease and vascular lesions of the striatum, our results further confirm the importance of the striatum for emotion recognition and expression, while access to the meaning of feelings relies on a different brain network, and is spared in HD. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Facial Expression Recognition Deficits and Faulty Learning: Implications for Theoretical Models and Clinical Applications

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sheaffer, Beverly L.; Golden, Jeannie A.; Averett, Paige

2009-01-01

The ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion is integral in social interaction. Although the importance of facial expression recognition is reflected in increased research interest as well as in popular culture, clinicians may know little about this topic. The purpose of this article is to discuss facial expression recognition literature…

Mismatched expressions decrease face recognition and corresponding ERP old/new effects in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Guillaume, Fabrice; Guillem, François; Tiberghien, Guy; Stip, Emmanuel

2012-09-01

The objective was to investigate the electrophysiological (ERP) correlates of mismatched expression on face recognition in schizophrenia. Expression-change effects and associated ERPs were explored in patients with schizophrenia (n = 20) and paired comparison participants (n = 20) on a long-term face-recognition task. A facial-expression change decreased discriminability for patients with schizophrenia than for healthy participants. The patients' recognition deficit was accompanied by the absence of the midfrontal FN400 and late parietal ERP old/new effects in the mismatched-expression condition. By contrast, preserved midfrontal FN400 and late parietal ERP old/new effects were found in both groups in the unchanged-expression condition. Thus, the preserved parietal old/new effect previously observed in schizophrenia was no longer found here in the situation in which expression changes took place between the study and recognition phases. These findings suggest that, when they are not supposed to take the change of expression into account, the recognition deficit observed here in patients with schizophrenia resulted from an impairment in the mechanisms underlying the emergence, assessment, or utilization of familiarity--as indexed by the ERP old/new effects. In these natural conditions, the impact of the expression change on the implementation of retrieval processes offers new insight into schizophrenia-linked deficits in face recognition, with substantial phenomenological differences with respect to the emergence of familiarity.

Online handwritten mathematical expression recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Büyükbayrak, Hakan; Yanikoglu, Berrin; Erçil, Aytül

2007-01-01

We describe a system for recognizing online, handwritten mathematical expressions. The system is designed with a user-interface for writing scientific articles, supporting the recognition of basic mathematical expressions as well as integrals, summations, matrices etc. A feed-forward neural network recognizes symbols which are assumed to be single-stroke and a recursive algorithm parses the expression by combining neural network output and the structure of the expression. Preliminary results show that writer-dependent recognition rates are very high (99.8%) while writer-independent symbol recognition rates are lower (75%). The interface associated with the proposed system integrates the built-in recognition capabilities of the Microsoft's Tablet PC API for recognizing textual input and supports conversion of hand-drawn figures into PNG format. This enables the user to enter text, mathematics and draw figures in a single interface. After recognition, all output is combined into one LATEX code and compiled into a PDF file.

Falsifiability is not optional.

PubMed

LeBel, Etienne P; Berger, Derek; Campbell, Lorne; Loving, Timothy J

2017-08-01

Finkel, Eastwick, and Reis (2016; FER2016) argued the post-2011 methodological reform movement has focused narrowly on replicability, neglecting other essential goals of research. We agree multiple scientific goals are essential, but argue, however, a more fine-grained language, conceptualization, and approach to replication is needed to accomplish these goals. Replication is the general empirical mechanism for testing and falsifying theory. Sufficiently methodologically similar replications, also known as direct replications, test the basic existence of phenomena and ensure cumulative progress is possible a priori. In contrast, increasingly methodologically dissimilar replications, also known as conceptual replications, test the relevance of auxiliary hypotheses (e.g., manipulation and measurement issues, contextual factors) required to productively investigate validity and generalizability. Without prioritizing replicability, a field is not empirically falsifiable. We also disagree with FER2016's position that "bigger samples are generally better, but . . . that very large samples could have the downside of commandeering resources that would have been better invested in other studies" (abstract). We identify problematic assumptions involved in FER2016's modifications of our original research-economic model, and present an improved model that quantifies when (and whether) it is reasonable to worry that increasing statistical power will engender potential trade-offs. Sufficiently powering studies (i.e., >80%) maximizes both research efficiency and confidence in the literature (research quality). Given that we are in agreement with FER2016 on all key open science points, we are eager to start seeing the accelerated rate of cumulative knowledge development of social psychological phenomena such a sufficiently transparent, powered, and falsifiable approach will generate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Sex differences in facial emotion recognition across varying expression intensity levels from videos.

PubMed

Wingenbach, Tanja S H; Ashwin, Chris; Brosnan, Mark

2018-01-01

There has been much research on sex differences in the ability to recognise facial expressions of emotions, with results generally showing a female advantage in reading emotional expressions from the face. However, most of the research to date has used static images and/or 'extreme' examples of facial expressions. Therefore, little is known about how expression intensity and dynamic stimuli might affect the commonly reported female advantage in facial emotion recognition. The current study investigated sex differences in accuracy of response (Hu; unbiased hit rates) and response latencies for emotion recognition using short video stimuli (1sec) of 10 different facial emotion expressions (anger, disgust, fear, sadness, surprise, happiness, contempt, pride, embarrassment, neutral) across three variations in the intensity of the emotional expression (low, intermediate, high) in an adolescent and adult sample (N = 111; 51 male, 60 female) aged between 16 and 45 (M = 22.2, SD = 5.7). Overall, females showed more accurate facial emotion recognition compared to males and were faster in correctly recognising facial emotions. The female advantage in reading expressions from the faces of others was unaffected by expression intensity levels and emotion categories used in the study. The effects were specific to recognition of emotions, as males and females did not differ in the recognition of neutral faces. Together, the results showed a robust sex difference favouring females in facial emotion recognition using video stimuli of a wide range of emotions and expression intensity variations.

Sex differences in facial emotion recognition across varying expression intensity levels from videos

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

There has been much research on sex differences in the ability to recognise facial expressions of emotions, with results generally showing a female advantage in reading emotional expressions from the face. However, most of the research to date has used static images and/or ‘extreme’ examples of facial expressions. Therefore, little is known about how expression intensity and dynamic stimuli might affect the commonly reported female advantage in facial emotion recognition. The current study investigated sex differences in accuracy of response (Hu; unbiased hit rates) and response latencies for emotion recognition using short video stimuli (1sec) of 10 different facial emotion expressions (anger, disgust, fear, sadness, surprise, happiness, contempt, pride, embarrassment, neutral) across three variations in the intensity of the emotional expression (low, intermediate, high) in an adolescent and adult sample (N = 111; 51 male, 60 female) aged between 16 and 45 (M = 22.2, SD = 5.7). Overall, females showed more accurate facial emotion recognition compared to males and were faster in correctly recognising facial emotions. The female advantage in reading expressions from the faces of others was unaffected by expression intensity levels and emotion categories used in the study. The effects were specific to recognition of emotions, as males and females did not differ in the recognition of neutral faces. Together, the results showed a robust sex difference favouring females in facial emotion recognition using video stimuli of a wide range of emotions and expression intensity variations. PMID:29293674

A novel plant ferredoxin-like protein and the regulator Hor are quorum-sensing targets in the plant pathogen Erwinia carotovora.

PubMed

Sjöblom, Solveig; Harjunpää, Heidi; Brader, Günter; Palva, E Tapio

2008-07-01

Quorum sensing (QS), a population-density-sensing mechanism, controls the production of the main virulence determinants, the plant cell-wall-degrading enzymes (PCWDEs) of the soft-rot phytopathogen Erwinia carotovora subsp. carotovora. In this study, we used random transposon mutagenesis with a gusA reporter construct to identify two new QS-controlled genes encoding the regulator Hor and a plant ferredoxin-like protein, FerE. The QS control of the identified genes was executed by the QS regulators ExpR1 and ExpR2 and mediated by the global repressor RsmA. Hor was shown to contribute to bacterial virulence at least partly through its control of PCWDE production. Our results showed that FerE contributes to oxidative stress tolerance and in planta fitness of the bacteria and suggest that QS could be central to control of oxidative stress tolerance. The presence of the FerE protein appears to be rather unique in heterotrophic bacteria and suggests an acquisition of the corresponding gene from plant host by horizontal gene transfer.

Investigations and application in piezoelectric phenol sensor of Langmuir-Schäfer films of a copper phthalocyanine derivative functionalized with bulky substituents.

PubMed

Giancane, G; Basova, T; Hassan, A; Gümüş, G; Gürek, A G; Ahsen, V; Valli, L

2012-07-01

An octa-substituted copper phthalocyanine was dissolved in chloroform and spread on ultrapure water subphase in a Langmuir trough. The floating films were characterized at the air-water interface by the Langmuir isotherm, Brewster angle microscopy, and UV-Vis reflection spectroscopy and transferred by Langmuir-Schäfer technique on a silicon substrate, and thickness, refractive index, and extinction coefficient of the phthalocyanine derivative thin film were calculated by means of spectroscopic ellipsometry. A different number of layers were deposited using Langmuir-Schäfer method onto QCM crystals, and the active layers were tested as sensors for the detection of phenols in aqueous solution. The piezoelectric sensor response, totally reversible, is influenced by the number of transferred layers and by the nature of the substituent; on the contrary, the pK(a) value of the injected analytes slightly affects the device performances. Repeatability of the sensor responses was tested, and the frequency variation appears unchanged at least for 100 days. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Quantitative Expression and Immunogenicity of MAGE-3 and -6 in Upper Aerodigestive Tract Cancer

PubMed Central

Andrade Filho, Pedro A.; López-Albaitero, Andrés; Xi, Liqiang; Gooding, William; Godfrey, Tony; Ferris, Robert L.

2009-01-01

The MAGE antigens are frequently expressed cancer vaccine targets. However, quantitative analysis of MAGE expression in upper aero-digestive tract (UADT) tumor cells and its association with T cell recognition has not been performed, hindering the selection of appropriate candidates for MAGE specific immunotherapy. Using quantitative RT-PCR (QRT-PCR), we evaluated the expression of MAGE-3/6 in 65 UADT cancers, 48 normal samples from tumor matched sites and 7 HLA-A*0201+squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) cell lines. Expression results were confirmed using western blot. HLA-A*0201:MAGE-3(271–279) specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (MAGE-CTL) from SCCHN patients and healthy donors showed that MAGE-3/6 expression was highly associated with CTL recognition in vitro. Based on MAGE-3/6 expression we could identify 31 (47%) of the 65 UADT tumors which appeared to express MAGE-3/6 at levels that correlated with efficient CTL recognition. To confirm that the level of MAGE-3 expression was responsible for CTL recognition, two MAGE-3/6 mRNAhigh SCCHN cell lines, PCI-13 and PCI-30, were subjected to MAGE-3/6 specific knockdown. RNAi–transfected cells showed that MAGE expression, and MAGE-CTL recognition, were significantly reduced. Furthermore, treatment of cells expressing low MAGE-3/6 mRNA with a demethylating agent, 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (DAC), increased the expression of MAGE-3/6 and CTL recognition. Thus, using QRT-PCR UADT cancers frequently express MAGE-3/6 at levels sufficient for CTL recognition, supporting the use of a QRT-PCR based assay for the selection of candidates likely to respond to MAGE-3/6 immunotherapy. Demethylating agents could increase the number of patients amenable for targeting epigenetically modified tumor antigens in vaccine trials. PMID:19610063

Quantitative expression and immunogenicity of MAGE-3 and -6 in upper aerodigestive tract cancer.

PubMed

Filho, Pedro A Andrade; López-Albaitero, Andrés; Xi, Liqiang; Gooding, William; Godfrey, Tony; Ferris, Robert L

2009-10-15

The MAGE antigens are frequently expressed cancer vaccine targets. However, quantitative analysis of MAGE expression in upper aerodigestive tract (UADT) tumor cells and its association with T-cell recognition has not been performed, hindering the selection of appropriate candidates for MAGE-specific immunotherapy. Using quantitative RT-PCR (QRT-PCR), we evaluated the expression of MAGE-3/6 in 65 UADT cancers, 48 normal samples from tumor matched sites and 7 HLA-A*0201+ squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) cell lines. Expression results were confirmed using Western blot. HLA-A*0201:MAGE-3- (271-279) specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (MAGE-CTL) from SCCHN patients and healthy donors showed that MAGE-3/6 expression was highly associated with CTL recognition in vitro. On the basis of the MAGE-3/6 expression, we could identify 31 (47%) of the 65 UADT tumors, which appeared to express MAGE-3/6 at levels that correlated with efficient CTL recognition. To confirm that the level of MAGE-3 expression was responsible for CTL recognition, 2 MAGE-3/6 mRNA(high) SCCHN cell lines, PCI-13 and PCI-30, were subjected to MAGE-3/6-specific knockdown. RNAi-transfected cells showed that MAGE expression and MAGE-CTL recognition were significantly reduced. Furthermore, treatment of cells expressing low MAGE-3/6 mRNA with a demethylating agent, 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (DAC), increased the expression of MAGE-3/6 and CTL recognition. Thus, using QRT-PCR UADT cancers frequently express MAGE-3/6 at levels sufficient for CTL recognition, supporting the use of a QRT-PCR-based assay for the selection of candidates likely to respond to MAGE-3/6 immunotherapy. Demethylating agents could increase the number of patients amenable for targeting epigenetically modified tumor antigens in vaccine trials.

Facial recognition in education system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krithika, L. B.; Venkatesh, K.; Rathore, S.; Kumar, M. Harish

2017-11-01

Human beings exploit emotions comprehensively for conveying messages and their resolution. Emotion detection and face recognition can provide an interface between the individuals and technologies. The most successful applications of recognition analysis are recognition of faces. Many different techniques have been used to recognize the facial expressions and emotion detection handle varying poses. In this paper, we approach an efficient method to recognize the facial expressions to track face points and distances. This can automatically identify observer face movements and face expression in image. This can capture different aspects of emotion and facial expressions.

Emotional recognition from dynamic facial, vocal and musical expressions following traumatic brain injury.

PubMed

Drapeau, Joanie; Gosselin, Nathalie; Peretz, Isabelle; McKerral, Michelle

2017-01-01

To assess emotion recognition from dynamic facial, vocal and musical expressions in sub-groups of adults with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) of different severities and identify possible common underlying mechanisms across domains. Forty-one adults participated in this study: 10 with moderate-severe TBI, nine with complicated mild TBI, 11 with uncomplicated mild TBI and 11 healthy controls, who were administered experimental (emotional recognition, valence-arousal) and control tasks (emotional and structural discrimination) for each domain. Recognition of fearful faces was significantly impaired in moderate-severe and in complicated mild TBI sub-groups, as compared to those with uncomplicated mild TBI and controls. Effect sizes were medium-large. Participants with lower GCS scores performed more poorly when recognizing fearful dynamic facial expressions. Emotion recognition from auditory domains was preserved following TBI, irrespective of severity. All groups performed equally on control tasks, indicating no perceptual disorders. Although emotional recognition from vocal and musical expressions was preserved, no correlation was found across auditory domains. This preliminary study may contribute to improving comprehension of emotional recognition following TBI. Future studies of larger samples could usefully include measures of functional impacts of recognition deficits for fearful facial expressions. These could help refine interventions for emotional recognition following a brain injury.

Dual Temporal Scale Convolutional Neural Network for Micro-Expression Recognition.

PubMed

Peng, Min; Wang, Chongyang; Chen, Tong; Liu, Guangyuan; Fu, Xiaolan

2017-01-01

Facial micro-expression is a brief involuntary facial movement and can reveal the genuine emotion that people try to conceal. Traditional methods of spontaneous micro-expression recognition rely excessively on sophisticated hand-crafted feature design and the recognition rate is not high enough for its practical application. In this paper, we proposed a Dual Temporal Scale Convolutional Neural Network (DTSCNN) for spontaneous micro-expressions recognition. The DTSCNN is a two-stream network. Different of stream of DTSCNN is used to adapt to different frame rate of micro-expression video clips. Each stream of DSTCNN consists of independent shallow network for avoiding the overfitting problem. Meanwhile, we fed the networks with optical-flow sequences to ensure that the shallow networks can further acquire higher-level features. Experimental results on spontaneous micro-expression databases (CASME I/II) showed that our method can achieve a recognition rate almost 10% higher than what some state-of-the-art method can achieve.

Anodal tDCS targeting the right orbitofrontal cortex enhances facial expression recognition

PubMed Central

Murphy, Jillian M.; Ridley, Nicole J.; Vercammen, Ans

2015-01-01

The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) has been implicated in the capacity to accurately recognise facial expressions. The aim of the current study was to determine if anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) targeting the right OFC in healthy adults would enhance facial expression recognition, compared with a sham condition. Across two counterbalanced sessions of tDCS (i.e. anodal and sham), 20 undergraduate participants (18 female) completed a facial expression labelling task comprising angry, disgusted, fearful, happy, sad and neutral expressions, and a control (social judgement) task comprising the same expressions. Responses on the labelling task were scored for accuracy, median reaction time and overall efficiency (i.e. combined accuracy and reaction time). Anodal tDCS targeting the right OFC enhanced facial expression recognition, reflected in greater efficiency and speed of recognition across emotions, relative to the sham condition. In contrast, there was no effect of tDCS to responses on the control task. This is the first study to demonstrate that anodal tDCS targeting the right OFC boosts facial expression recognition. This finding provides a solid foundation for future research to examine the efficacy of this technique as a means to treat facial expression recognition deficits, particularly in individuals with OFC damage or dysfunction. PMID:25971602

Relative preservation of the recognition of positive facial expression "happiness" in Alzheimer disease.

PubMed

Maki, Yohko; Yoshida, Hiroshi; Yamaguchi, Tomoharu; Yamaguchi, Haruyasu

2013-01-01

Positivity recognition bias has been reported for facial expression as well as memory and visual stimuli in aged individuals, whereas emotional facial recognition in Alzheimer disease (AD) patients is controversial, with possible involvement of confounding factors such as deficits in spatial processing of non-emotional facial features and in verbal processing to express emotions. Thus, we examined whether recognition of positive facial expressions was preserved in AD patients, by adapting a new method that eliminated the influences of these confounding factors. Sensitivity of six basic facial expressions (happiness, sadness, surprise, anger, disgust, and fear) was evaluated in 12 outpatients with mild AD, 17 aged normal controls (ANC), and 25 young normal controls (YNC). To eliminate the factors related to non-emotional facial features, averaged faces were prepared as stimuli. To eliminate the factors related to verbal processing, the participants were required to match the images of stimulus and answer, avoiding the use of verbal labels. In recognition of happiness, there was no difference in sensitivity between YNC and ANC, and between ANC and AD patients. AD patients were less sensitive than ANC in recognition of sadness, surprise, and anger. ANC were less sensitive than YNC in recognition of surprise, anger, and disgust. Within the AD patient group, sensitivity of happiness was significantly higher than those of the other five expressions. In AD patient, recognition of happiness was relatively preserved; recognition of happiness was most sensitive and was preserved against the influences of age and disease.

EMOTION RECOGNITION OF VIRTUAL AGENTS FACIAL EXPRESSIONS: THE EFFECTS OF AGE AND EMOTION INTENSITY

PubMed Central

Beer, Jenay M.; Fisk, Arthur D.; Rogers, Wendy A.

2014-01-01

People make determinations about the social characteristics of an agent (e.g., robot or virtual agent) by interpreting social cues displayed by the agent, such as facial expressions. Although a considerable amount of research has been conducted investigating age-related differences in emotion recognition of human faces (e.g., Sullivan, & Ruffman, 2004), the effect of age on emotion identification of virtual agent facial expressions has been largely unexplored. Age-related differences in emotion recognition of facial expressions are an important factor to consider in the design of agents that may assist older adults in a recreational or healthcare setting. The purpose of the current research was to investigate whether age-related differences in facial emotion recognition can extend to emotion-expressive virtual agents. Younger and older adults performed a recognition task with a virtual agent expressing six basic emotions. Larger age-related differences were expected for virtual agents displaying negative emotions, such as anger, sadness, and fear. In fact, the results indicated that older adults showed a decrease in emotion recognition accuracy for a virtual agent's emotions of anger, fear, and happiness. PMID:25552896

Impaired recognition of body expressions in the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia.

PubMed

Van den Stock, Jan; De Winter, François-Laurent; de Gelder, Beatrice; Rangarajan, Janaki Raman; Cypers, Gert; Maes, Frederik; Sunaert, Stefan; Goffin, Karolien; Vandenberghe, Rik; Vandenbulcke, Mathieu

2015-08-01

Progressive deterioration of social cognition and emotion processing are core symptoms of the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). Here we investigate whether bvFTD is also associated with impaired recognition of static (Experiment 1) and dynamic (Experiment 2) bodily expressions. In addition, we compared body expression processing with processing of static (Experiment 3) and dynamic (Experiment 4) facial expressions, as well as with face identity processing (Experiment 5). The results reveal that bvFTD is associated with impaired recognition of static and dynamic bodily and facial expressions, while identity processing was intact. No differential impairments were observed regarding motion (static vs. dynamic) or category (body vs. face). Within the bvFTD group, we observed a significant partial correlation between body and face expression recognition, when controlling for performance on the identity task. Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM) analysis revealed that body emotion recognition was positively associated with gray matter volume in a region of the inferior frontal gyrus (pars orbitalis/triangularis). The results are in line with a supramodal emotion recognition deficit in bvFTD. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Altered Kinematics of Facial Emotion Expression and Emotion Recognition Deficits Are Unrelated in Parkinson's Disease.

PubMed

Bologna, Matteo; Berardelli, Isabella; Paparella, Giulia; Marsili, Luca; Ricciardi, Lucia; Fabbrini, Giovanni; Berardelli, Alfredo

2016-01-01

Altered emotional processing, including reduced emotion facial expression and defective emotion recognition, has been reported in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, few studies have objectively investigated facial expression abnormalities in PD using neurophysiological techniques. It is not known whether altered facial expression and recognition in PD are related. To investigate possible deficits in facial emotion expression and emotion recognition and their relationship, if any, in patients with PD. Eighteen patients with PD and 16 healthy controls were enrolled in this study. Facial expressions of emotion were recorded using a 3D optoelectronic system and analyzed using the facial action coding system. Possible deficits in emotion recognition were assessed using the Ekman test. Participants were assessed in one experimental session. Possible relationship between the kinematic variables of facial emotion expression, the Ekman test scores, and clinical and demographic data in patients were evaluated using the Spearman's test and multiple regression analysis. The facial expression of all six basic emotions had slower velocity and lower amplitude in patients in comparison to healthy controls (all P s < 0.05). Patients also yielded worse Ekman global score and disgust, sadness, and fear sub-scores than healthy controls (all P s < 0.001). Altered facial expression kinematics and emotion recognition deficits were unrelated in patients (all P s > 0.05). Finally, no relationship emerged between kinematic variables of facial emotion expression, the Ekman test scores, and clinical and demographic data in patients (all P s > 0.05). The results in this study provide further evidence of altered emotional processing in PD. The lack of any correlation between altered facial emotion expression kinematics and emotion recognition deficits in patients suggests that these abnormalities are mediated by separate pathophysiological mechanisms.

Protein Tyrosine Kinase Signaling During Oocyte Maturation and Fertilization

PubMed Central

McGinnis, Lynda K.; Carroll, David J.; Kinsey, William H.

2011-01-01

The oocyte is a highly specialized cell capable of accumulating and storing energy supplies as well as maternal transcripts and pre-positioned signal transduction components needed for zygotic development, undergoing meiosis under control of paracrine signals from the follicle, fusing with a single sperm during fertilization, and zygotic development. The oocyte accomplishes this diverse series of events by establishing an array of signal transduction pathway components that include a select collection of protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) that are expressed at levels significantly higher than most other cell types. This array of PTKs includes cytosolic kinases such as SRC-family PTKs (FYN and YES), and FAK kinases, as well as FER. These kinases typically exhibit distinct patterns of localization and in some cases are translocated from one subcellular compartment to another during meiosis. Significant differences exist in the extent to which PTK-mediated pathways are used by oocytes from species that fertilize externally versus internally. The PTK activation profiles as well as calcium signaling pattern seems to correlate with the extent to which a rapid block to polyspermy is required by the biology of each species. Suppression of each of the SRC-family PTKs as well as FER kinase results in failure of meiotic maturation or zygote development, indicating that these PTKs are important for oocyte quality and developmental potential. Future studies will hopefully reveal the extent to which these factors impact clinical assisted reproductive techniques in domestic animals and humans. PMID:21681843

Facial Emotion Recognition in Bipolar Disorder and Healthy Aging.

PubMed

Altamura, Mario; Padalino, Flavia A; Stella, Eleonora; Balzotti, Angela; Bellomo, Antonello; Palumbo, Rocco; Di Domenico, Alberto; Mammarella, Nicola; Fairfield, Beth

2016-03-01

Emotional face recognition is impaired in bipolar disorder, but it is not clear whether this is specific for the illness. Here, we investigated how aging and bipolar disorder influence dynamic emotional face recognition. Twenty older adults, 16 bipolar patients, and 20 control subjects performed a dynamic affective facial recognition task and a subsequent rating task. Participants pressed a key as soon as they were able to discriminate whether the neutral face was assuming a happy or angry facial expression and then rated the intensity of each facial expression. Results showed that older adults recognized happy expressions faster, whereas bipolar patients recognized angry expressions faster. Furthermore, both groups rated emotional faces more intensely than did the control subjects. This study is one of the first to compare how aging and clinical conditions influence emotional facial recognition and underlines the need to consider the role of specific and common factors in emotional face recognition.

Comparison of emotion recognition from facial expression and music.

PubMed

Gaspar, Tina; Labor, Marina; Jurić, Iva; Dumancić, Dijana; Ilakovac, Vesna; Heffer, Marija

2011-01-01

The recognition of basic emotions in everyday communication involves interpretation of different visual and auditory clues. The ability to recognize emotions is not clearly determined as their presentation is usually very short (micro expressions), whereas the recognition itself does not have to be a conscious process. We assumed that the recognition from facial expressions is selected over the recognition of emotions communicated through music. In order to compare the success rate in recognizing emotions presented as facial expressions or in classical music works we conducted a survey which included 90 elementary school and 87 high school students from Osijek (Croatia). The participants had to match 8 photographs of different emotions expressed on the face and 8 pieces of classical music works with 8 offered emotions. The recognition of emotions expressed through classical music pieces was significantly less successful than the recognition of emotional facial expressions. The high school students were significantly better at recognizing facial emotions than the elementary school students, whereas girls were better than boys. The success rate in recognizing emotions from music pieces was associated with higher grades in mathematics. Basic emotions are far better recognized if presented on human faces than in music, possibly because the understanding of facial emotions is one of the oldest communication skills in human society. Female advantage in emotion recognition was selected due to the necessity of their communication with the newborns during early development. The proficiency in recognizing emotional content of music and mathematical skills probably share some general cognitive skills like attention, memory and motivation. Music pieces were differently processed in brain than facial expressions and consequently, probably differently evaluated as relevant emotional clues.

Subject independent facial expression recognition with robust face detection using a convolutional neural network.

PubMed

Matsugu, Masakazu; Mori, Katsuhiko; Mitari, Yusuke; Kaneda, Yuji

2003-01-01

Reliable detection of ordinary facial expressions (e.g. smile) despite the variability among individuals as well as face appearance is an important step toward the realization of perceptual user interface with autonomous perception of persons. We describe a rule-based algorithm for robust facial expression recognition combined with robust face detection using a convolutional neural network. In this study, we address the problem of subject independence as well as translation, rotation, and scale invariance in the recognition of facial expression. The result shows reliable detection of smiles with recognition rate of 97.6% for 5600 still images of more than 10 subjects. The proposed algorithm demonstrated the ability to discriminate smiling from talking based on the saliency score obtained from voting visual cues. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first facial expression recognition model with the property of subject independence combined with robustness to variability in facial appearance.

Younger and Older Users’ Recognition of Virtual Agent Facial Expressions

PubMed Central

Beer, Jenay M.; Smarr, Cory-Ann; Fisk, Arthur D.; Rogers, Wendy A.

2015-01-01

As technology advances, robots and virtual agents will be introduced into the home and healthcare settings to assist individuals, both young and old, with everyday living tasks. Understanding how users recognize an agent’s social cues is therefore imperative, especially in social interactions. Facial expression, in particular, is one of the most common non-verbal cues used to display and communicate emotion in on-screen agents (Cassell, Sullivan, Prevost, & Churchill, 2000). Age is important to consider because age-related differences in emotion recognition of human facial expression have been supported (Ruffman et al., 2008), with older adults showing a deficit for recognition of negative facial expressions. Previous work has shown that younger adults can effectively recognize facial emotions displayed by agents (Bartneck & Reichenbach, 2005; Courgeon et al. 2009; 2011; Breazeal, 2003); however, little research has compared in-depth younger and older adults’ ability to label a virtual agent’s facial emotions, an import consideration because social agents will be required to interact with users of varying ages. If such age-related differences exist for recognition of virtual agent facial expressions, we aim to understand if those age-related differences are influenced by the intensity of the emotion, dynamic formation of emotion (i.e., a neutral expression developing into an expression of emotion through motion), or the type of virtual character differing by human-likeness. Study 1 investigated the relationship between age-related differences, the implication of dynamic formation of emotion, and the role of emotion intensity in emotion recognition of the facial expressions of a virtual agent (iCat). Study 2 examined age-related differences in recognition expressed by three types of virtual characters differing by human-likeness (non-humanoid iCat, synthetic human, and human). Study 2 also investigated the role of configural and featural processing as a possible explanation for age-related differences in emotion recognition. First, our findings show age-related differences in the recognition of emotions expressed by a virtual agent, with older adults showing lower recognition for the emotions of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and neutral. These age-related difference might be explained by older adults having difficulty discriminating similarity in configural arrangement of facial features for certain emotions; for example, older adults often mislabeled the similar emotions of fear as surprise. Second, our results did not provide evidence for the dynamic formation improving emotion recognition; but, in general, the intensity of the emotion improved recognition. Lastly, we learned that emotion recognition, for older and younger adults, differed by character type, from best to worst: human, synthetic human, and then iCat. Our findings provide guidance for design, as well as the development of a framework of age-related differences in emotion recognition. PMID:25705105

Dual Temporal Scale Convolutional Neural Network for Micro-Expression Recognition

PubMed Central

Peng, Min; Wang, Chongyang; Chen, Tong; Liu, Guangyuan; Fu, Xiaolan

2017-01-01

Facial micro-expression is a brief involuntary facial movement and can reveal the genuine emotion that people try to conceal. Traditional methods of spontaneous micro-expression recognition rely excessively on sophisticated hand-crafted feature design and the recognition rate is not high enough for its practical application. In this paper, we proposed a Dual Temporal Scale Convolutional Neural Network (DTSCNN) for spontaneous micro-expressions recognition. The DTSCNN is a two-stream network. Different of stream of DTSCNN is used to adapt to different frame rate of micro-expression video clips. Each stream of DSTCNN consists of independent shallow network for avoiding the overfitting problem. Meanwhile, we fed the networks with optical-flow sequences to ensure that the shallow networks can further acquire higher-level features. Experimental results on spontaneous micro-expression databases (CASME I/II) showed that our method can achieve a recognition rate almost 10% higher than what some state-of-the-art method can achieve. PMID:29081753

Evidence for Anger Saliency during the Recognition of Chimeric Facial Expressions of Emotions in Underage Ebola Survivors

PubMed Central

Ardizzi, Martina; Evangelista, Valentina; Ferroni, Francesca; Umiltà, Maria A.; Ravera, Roberto; Gallese, Vittorio

2017-01-01

One of the crucial features defining basic emotions and their prototypical facial expressions is their value for survival. Childhood traumatic experiences affect the effective recognition of facial expressions of negative emotions, normally allowing the recruitment of adequate behavioral responses to environmental threats. Specifically, anger becomes an extraordinarily salient stimulus unbalancing victims’ recognition of negative emotions. Despite the plethora of studies on this topic, to date, it is not clear whether this phenomenon reflects an overall response tendency toward anger recognition or a selective proneness to the salience of specific facial expressive cues of anger after trauma exposure. To address this issue, a group of underage Sierra Leonean Ebola virus disease survivors (mean age 15.40 years, SE 0.35; years of schooling 8.8 years, SE 0.46; 14 males) and a control group (mean age 14.55, SE 0.30; years of schooling 8.07 years, SE 0.30, 15 males) performed a forced-choice chimeric facial expressions recognition task. The chimeric facial expressions were obtained pairing upper and lower half faces of two different negative emotions (selected from anger, fear and sadness for a total of six different combinations). Overall, results showed that upper facial expressive cues were more salient than lower facial expressive cues. This priority was lost among Ebola virus disease survivors for the chimeric facial expressions of anger. In this case, differently from controls, Ebola virus disease survivors recognized anger regardless of the upper or lower position of the facial expressive cues of this emotion. The present results demonstrate that victims’ performance in the recognition of the facial expression of anger does not reflect an overall response tendency toward anger recognition, but rather the specific greater salience of facial expressive cues of anger. Furthermore, the present results show that traumatic experiences deeply modify the perceptual analysis of philogenetically old behavioral patterns like the facial expressions of emotions. PMID:28690565

Evidence for Anger Saliency during the Recognition of Chimeric Facial Expressions of Emotions in Underage Ebola Survivors.

PubMed

Ardizzi, Martina; Evangelista, Valentina; Ferroni, Francesca; Umiltà, Maria A; Ravera, Roberto; Gallese, Vittorio

2017-01-01

One of the crucial features defining basic emotions and their prototypical facial expressions is their value for survival. Childhood traumatic experiences affect the effective recognition of facial expressions of negative emotions, normally allowing the recruitment of adequate behavioral responses to environmental threats. Specifically, anger becomes an extraordinarily salient stimulus unbalancing victims' recognition of negative emotions. Despite the plethora of studies on this topic, to date, it is not clear whether this phenomenon reflects an overall response tendency toward anger recognition or a selective proneness to the salience of specific facial expressive cues of anger after trauma exposure. To address this issue, a group of underage Sierra Leonean Ebola virus disease survivors (mean age 15.40 years, SE 0.35; years of schooling 8.8 years, SE 0.46; 14 males) and a control group (mean age 14.55, SE 0.30; years of schooling 8.07 years, SE 0.30, 15 males) performed a forced-choice chimeric facial expressions recognition task. The chimeric facial expressions were obtained pairing upper and lower half faces of two different negative emotions (selected from anger, fear and sadness for a total of six different combinations). Overall, results showed that upper facial expressive cues were more salient than lower facial expressive cues. This priority was lost among Ebola virus disease survivors for the chimeric facial expressions of anger. In this case, differently from controls, Ebola virus disease survivors recognized anger regardless of the upper or lower position of the facial expressive cues of this emotion. The present results demonstrate that victims' performance in the recognition of the facial expression of anger does not reflect an overall response tendency toward anger recognition, but rather the specific greater salience of facial expressive cues of anger. Furthermore, the present results show that traumatic experiences deeply modify the perceptual analysis of philogenetically old behavioral patterns like the facial expressions of emotions.

Effect of ovary induction on bread wheat anther culture: ovary genotype and developmental stage, and candidate gene association

PubMed Central

Castillo, Ana M.; Sánchez-Díaz, Rosa A.; Vallés, María P.

2015-01-01

Ovary pre-conditioned medium and ovary co-culture increased the efficiency of green doubled haploid plant production in bread wheat anther culture. The positive effect of this medium led to a 6- and 11-fold increase in the numbers of embryos and green plants, respectively, having a greater effect on a medium-low responding cultivar. Ovary genotype and developmental stage significantly affected microspore embryogenesis. By the use of Caramba ovaries it was possible to reach a 2-fold increase in the number of embryos and green plants, and to decrease the rate of albinism. Mature ovaries from flowers containing microspores at a late binucleate stage raised the number of embryos and green plants by 25–46% as compared to immature ovaries (excised from flowers with microspores at a mid-late uninucleate stage). The highest numbers of embryos and green plants were produced when using mature Caramba ovaries. Ovaries from Galeón, Tigre, and Kilopondio cultivars successfully induced microspore embryogenesis at the same rate as Caramba ovaries. Moreover, Tigre ovaries raised the percentage of spontaneous chromosome doubling up to 71%. Attempts were made to identify molecular mechanisms associated to the inductive effect of the ovaries on microspore embryogenesis. The genes TAA1b, FLA26, and WALI6 associated to wheat microspore embryogenesis, the CGL1 gene involved in glycan biosynthesis or degradation, and the FER gene involved in the ovary signaling process were expressed and/or induced at different rates during ovary culture. The expression pattern of FLA26 and FER could be related to the differences between genotypes and developmental stages in the inductive effect of the ovary. Our results open opportunities for new approaches to increase bread wheat doubled haploid production by anther culture, and to identify the functional components of the ovary inductive effect on microspore embryogenesis. PMID:26150821

Domain Regeneration for Cross-Database Micro-Expression Recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zong, Yuan; Zheng, Wenming; Huang, Xiaohua; Shi, Jingang; Cui, Zhen; Zhao, Guoying

2018-05-01

In this paper, we investigate the cross-database micro-expression recognition problem, where the training and testing samples are from two different micro-expression databases. Under this setting, the training and testing samples would have different feature distributions and hence the performance of most existing micro-expression recognition methods may decrease greatly. To solve this problem, we propose a simple yet effective method called Target Sample Re-Generator (TSRG) in this paper. By using TSRG, we are able to re-generate the samples from target micro-expression database and the re-generated target samples would share same or similar feature distributions with the original source samples. For this reason, we can then use the classifier learned based on the labeled source samples to accurately predict the micro-expression categories of the unlabeled target samples. To evaluate the performance of the proposed TSRG method, extensive cross-database micro-expression recognition experiments designed based on SMIC and CASME II databases are conducted. Compared with recent state-of-the-art cross-database emotion recognition methods, the proposed TSRG achieves more promising results.

Mapping correspondence between facial mimicry and emotion recognition in healthy subjects.

PubMed

Ponari, Marta; Conson, Massimiliano; D'Amico, Nunzia Pina; Grossi, Dario; Trojano, Luigi

2012-12-01

We aimed at verifying the hypothesis that facial mimicry is causally and selectively involved in emotion recognition. For this purpose, in Experiment 1, we explored the effect of tonic contraction of muscles in upper or lower half of participants' face on their ability to recognize emotional facial expressions. We found that the "lower" manipulation specifically impaired recognition of happiness and disgust, the "upper" manipulation impaired recognition of anger, while both manipulations affected recognition of fear; recognition of surprise and sadness were not affected by either blocking manipulations. In Experiment 2, we verified whether emotion recognition is hampered by stimuli in which an upper or lower half-face showing an emotional expression is combined with a neutral half-face. We found that the neutral lower half-face interfered with recognition of happiness and disgust, whereas the neutral upper half impaired recognition of anger; recognition of fear and sadness was impaired by both manipulations, whereas recognition of surprise was not affected by either manipulation. Taken together, the present findings support simulation models of emotion recognition and provide insight into the role of mimicry in comprehension of others' emotional facial expressions. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved.

Expression intensity, gender and facial emotion recognition: Women recognize only subtle facial emotions better than men.

PubMed

Hoffmann, Holger; Kessler, Henrik; Eppel, Tobias; Rukavina, Stefanie; Traue, Harald C

2010-11-01

Two experiments were conducted in order to investigate the effect of expression intensity on gender differences in the recognition of facial emotions. The first experiment compared recognition accuracy between female and male participants when emotional faces were shown with full-blown (100% emotional content) or subtle expressiveness (50%). In a second experiment more finely grained analyses were applied in order to measure recognition accuracy as a function of expression intensity (40%-100%). The results show that although women were more accurate than men in recognizing subtle facial displays of emotion, there was no difference between male and female participants when recognizing highly expressive stimuli. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The look of fear and anger: facial maturity modulates recognition of fearful and angry expressions.

PubMed

Sacco, Donald F; Hugenberg, Kurt

2009-02-01

The current series of studies provide converging evidence that facial expressions of fear and anger may have co-evolved to mimic mature and babyish faces in order to enhance their communicative signal. In Studies 1 and 2, fearful and angry facial expressions were manipulated to have enhanced babyish features (larger eyes) or enhanced mature features (smaller eyes) and in the context of a speeded categorization task in Study 1 and a visual noise paradigm in Study 2, results indicated that larger eyes facilitated the recognition of fearful facial expressions, while smaller eyes facilitated the recognition of angry facial expressions. Study 3 manipulated facial roundness, a stable structure that does not vary systematically with expressions, and found that congruency between maturity and expression (narrow face-anger; round face-fear) facilitated expression recognition accuracy. Results are discussed as representing a broad co-evolutionary relationship between facial maturity and fearful and angry facial expressions. (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved

Transfer between pose and expression training in face recognition.

PubMed

Chen, Wenfeng; Liu, Chang Hong

2009-02-01

Prior research has shown that recognition of unfamiliar faces is susceptible to image variations due to pose and expression changes. However, little is known about how these variations on a new face are learnt and handled. We aimed to investigate whether exposures to one type of variation facilitate recognition in the untrained variation. In Experiment 1, faces were trained in multiple or single pose but were tested with a new expression. In Experiment 2, faces were trained in multiple or single expression but were tested in a new pose. We found that higher level of exposure to pose information facilitated recognition of the trained face in a new expression. However, multiple-expression training failed to transfer to a new pose. The findings suggest that generalisation of pose training may be extended to different types of variation whereas generalisation of expression training is largely confined within the trained type of variation.

Emotional Faces in Context: Age Differences in Recognition Accuracy and Scanning Patterns

PubMed Central

Noh, Soo Rim; Isaacowitz, Derek M.

2014-01-01

While age-related declines in facial expression recognition are well documented, previous research relied mostly on isolated faces devoid of context. We investigated the effects of context on age differences in recognition of facial emotions and in visual scanning patterns of emotional faces. While their eye movements were monitored, younger and older participants viewed facial expressions (i.e., anger, disgust) in contexts that were emotionally congruent, incongruent, or neutral to the facial expression to be identified. Both age groups had highest recognition rates of facial expressions in the congruent context, followed by the neutral context, and recognition rates in the incongruent context were worst. These context effects were more pronounced for older adults. Compared to younger adults, older adults exhibited a greater benefit from congruent contextual information, regardless of facial expression. Context also influenced the pattern of visual scanning characteristics of emotional faces in a similar manner across age groups. In addition, older adults initially attended more to context overall. Our data highlight the importance of considering the role of context in understanding emotion recognition in adulthood. PMID:23163713

Slowing down presentation of facial movements and vocal sounds enhances facial expression recognition and induces facial-vocal imitation in children with autism.

PubMed

Tardif, Carole; Lainé, France; Rodriguez, Mélissa; Gepner, Bruno

2007-09-01

This study examined the effects of slowing down presentation of facial expressions and their corresponding vocal sounds on facial expression recognition and facial and/or vocal imitation in children with autism. Twelve autistic children and twenty-four normal control children were presented with emotional and non-emotional facial expressions on CD-Rom, under audio or silent conditions, and under dynamic visual conditions (slowly, very slowly, at normal speed) plus a static control. Overall, children with autism showed lower performance in expression recognition and more induced facial-vocal imitation than controls. In the autistic group, facial expression recognition and induced facial-vocal imitation were significantly enhanced in slow conditions. Findings may give new perspectives for understanding and intervention for verbal and emotional perceptive and communicative impairments in autistic populations.

Impaired Facial Expression Recognition in Children with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy: Impact of Early Seizure Onset on Fear Recognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Golouboff, Nathalie; Fiori, Nicole; Delalande, Olivier; Fohlen, Martine; Dellatolas, Georges; Jambaque, Isabelle

2008-01-01

The amygdala has been implicated in the recognition of facial emotions, especially fearful expressions, in adults with early-onset right temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). The present study investigates the recognition of facial emotions in children and adolescents, 8-16 years old, with epilepsy. Twenty-nine subjects had TLE (13 right, 16 left) and…

Recognition of face identity and emotion in expressive specific language impairment.

PubMed

Merkenschlager, A; Amorosa, H; Kiefl, H; Martinius, J

2012-01-01

To study face and emotion recognition in children with mostly expressive specific language impairment (SLI-E). A test movie to study perception and recognition of faces and mimic-gestural expression was applied to 24 children diagnosed as suffering from SLI-E and an age-matched control group of normally developing children. Compared to a normal control group, the SLI-E children scored significantly worse in both the face and expression recognition tasks with a preponderant effect on emotion recognition. The performance of the SLI-E group could not be explained by reduced attention during the test session. We conclude that SLI-E is associated with a deficiency in decoding non-verbal emotional facial and gestural information, which might lead to profound and persistent problems in social interaction and development. Copyright © 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Identifying and detecting facial expressions of emotion in peripheral vision.

PubMed

Smith, Fraser W; Rossit, Stephanie

2018-01-01

Facial expressions of emotion are signals of high biological value. Whilst recognition of facial expressions has been much studied in central vision, the ability to perceive these signals in peripheral vision has only seen limited research to date, despite the potential adaptive advantages of such perception. In the present experiment, we investigate facial expression recognition and detection performance for each of the basic emotions (plus neutral) at up to 30 degrees of eccentricity. We demonstrate, as expected, a decrease in recognition and detection performance with increasing eccentricity, with happiness and surprised being the best recognized expressions in peripheral vision. In detection however, while happiness and surprised are still well detected, fear is also a well detected expression. We show that fear is a better detected than recognized expression. Our results demonstrate that task constraints shape the perception of expression in peripheral vision and provide novel evidence that detection and recognition rely on partially separate underlying mechanisms, with the latter more dependent on the higher spatial frequency content of the face stimulus.

Identifying and detecting facial expressions of emotion in peripheral vision

PubMed Central

Rossit, Stephanie

2018-01-01

Facial expressions of emotion are signals of high biological value. Whilst recognition of facial expressions has been much studied in central vision, the ability to perceive these signals in peripheral vision has only seen limited research to date, despite the potential adaptive advantages of such perception. In the present experiment, we investigate facial expression recognition and detection performance for each of the basic emotions (plus neutral) at up to 30 degrees of eccentricity. We demonstrate, as expected, a decrease in recognition and detection performance with increasing eccentricity, with happiness and surprised being the best recognized expressions in peripheral vision. In detection however, while happiness and surprised are still well detected, fear is also a well detected expression. We show that fear is a better detected than recognized expression. Our results demonstrate that task constraints shape the perception of expression in peripheral vision and provide novel evidence that detection and recognition rely on partially separate underlying mechanisms, with the latter more dependent on the higher spatial frequency content of the face stimulus. PMID:29847562

Decreased acetylcholine release delays the consolidation of object recognition memory.

PubMed

De Jaeger, Xavier; Cammarota, Martín; Prado, Marco A M; Izquierdo, Iván; Prado, Vania F; Pereira, Grace S

2013-02-01

Acetylcholine (ACh) is important for different cognitive functions such as learning, memory and attention. The release of ACh depends on its vesicular loading by the vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT). It has been demonstrated that VAChT expression can modulate object recognition memory. However, the role of VAChT expression on object recognition memory persistence still remains to be understood. To address this question we used distinct mouse lines with reduced expression of VAChT, as well as pharmacological manipulations of the cholinergic system. We showed that reduction of cholinergic tone impairs object recognition memory measured at 24h. Surprisingly, object recognition memory, measured at 4 days after training, was impaired by substantial, but not moderate, reduction in VAChT expression. Our results suggest that levels of acetylcholine release strongly modulate object recognition memory consolidation and appear to be of particular importance for memory persistence 4 days after training. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Facial emotion recognition, socio-occupational functioning and expressed emotions in schizophrenia versus bipolar disorder.

PubMed

Thonse, Umesh; Behere, Rishikesh V; Praharaj, Samir Kumar; Sharma, Podila Sathya Venkata Narasimha

2018-06-01

Facial emotion recognition deficits have been consistently demonstrated in patients with severe mental disorders. Expressed emotion is found to be an important predictor of relapse. However, the relationship between facial emotion recognition abilities and expressed emotions and its influence on socio-occupational functioning in schizophrenia versus bipolar disorder has not been studied. In this study we examined 91 patients with schizophrenia and 71 with bipolar disorder for psychopathology, socio occupational functioning and emotion recognition abilities. Primary caregivers of 62 patients with schizophrenia and 49 with bipolar disorder were assessed on Family Attitude Questionnaire to assess their expressed emotions. Patients of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder performed similarly on the emotion recognition task. Patients with schizophrenia group experienced higher critical comments and had a poorer socio-occupational functioning as compared to patients with bipolar disorder. Poorer socio-occupational functioning in patients with schizophrenia was significantly associated with greater dissatisfaction in their caregivers. In patients with bipolar disorder, poorer emotion recognition scores significantly correlated with poorer adaptive living skills and greater hostility and dissatisfaction in their caregivers. The findings of our study suggest that emotion recognition abilities in patients with bipolar disorder are associated with negative expressed emotions leading to problems in adaptive living skills. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

More Pronounced Deficits in Facial Emotion Recognition for Schizophrenia than Bipolar Disorder

PubMed Central

Goghari, Vina M; Sponheim, Scott R

2012-01-01

Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are typically separated in diagnostic systems. Behavioural, cognitive, and brain abnormalities associated with each disorder nonetheless overlap. We evaluated the diagnostic specificity of facial emotion recognition deficits in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder to determine whether select aspects of emotion recognition differed for the two disorders. The investigation used an experimental task that included the same facial images in an emotion recognition condition and an age recognition condition (to control for processes associated with general face recognition) in 27 schizophrenia patients, 16 bipolar I patients, and 30 controls. Schizophrenia and bipolar patients exhibited both shared and distinct aspects of facial emotion recognition deficits. Schizophrenia patients had deficits in recognizing angry facial expressions compared to healthy controls and bipolar patients. Compared to control participants, both schizophrenia and bipolar patients were more likely to mislabel facial expressions of anger as fear. Given that schizophrenia patients exhibited a deficit in emotion recognition for angry faces, which did not appear due to generalized perceptual and cognitive dysfunction, improving recognition of threat-related expression may be an important intervention target to improve social functioning in schizophrenia. PMID:23218816

Face to face: blocking facial mimicry can selectively impair recognition of emotional expressions.

PubMed

Oberman, Lindsay M; Winkielman, Piotr; Ramachandran, Vilayanur S

2007-01-01

People spontaneously mimic a variety of behaviors, including emotional facial expressions. Embodied cognition theories suggest that mimicry reflects internal simulation of perceived emotion in order to facilitate its understanding. If so, blocking facial mimicry should impair recognition of expressions, especially of emotions that are simulated using facial musculature. The current research tested this hypothesis using four expressions (happy, disgust, fear, and sad) and two mimicry-interfering manipulations (1) biting on a pen and (2) chewing gum, as well as two control conditions. Experiment 1 used electromyography over cheek, mouth, and nose regions. The bite manipulation consistently activated assessed muscles, whereas the chew manipulation activated muscles only intermittently. Further, expressing happiness generated most facial action. Experiment 2 found that the bite manipulation interfered most with recognition of happiness. These findings suggest that facial mimicry differentially contributes to recognition of specific facial expressions, thus allowing for more refined predictions from embodied cognition theories.

[Recognition of facial expression of emotions in Parkinson's disease: a theoretical review].

PubMed

Alonso-Recio, L; Serrano-Rodriguez, J M; Carvajal-Molina, F; Loeches-Alonso, A; Martin-Plasencia, P

2012-04-16

Emotional facial expression is a basic guide during social interaction and, therefore, alterations in their expression or recognition are important limitations for communication. To examine facial expression recognition abilities and their possible impairment in Parkinson's disease. First, we review the studies on this topic which have not found entirely similar results. Second, we analyze the factors that may explain these discrepancies and, in particular, as third objective, we consider the relationship between emotional recognition problems and cognitive impairment associated with the disease. Finally, we propose alternatives strategies for the development of studies that could clarify the state of these abilities in Parkinson's disease. Most studies suggest deficits in facial expression recognition, especially in those with negative emotional content. However, it is possible that these alterations are related to those that also appear in the course of the disease in other perceptual and executive processes. To advance in this issue, we consider necessary to design emotional recognition studies implicating differentially the executive or visuospatial processes, and/or contrasting cognitive abilities with facial expressions and non emotional stimuli. The precision of the status of these abilities, as well as increase our knowledge of the functional consequences of the characteristic brain damage in the disease, may indicate if we should pay special attention in their rehabilitation inside the programs implemented.

Dissociation between recognition and detection advantage for facial expressions: a meta-analysis.

PubMed

Nummenmaa, Lauri; Calvo, Manuel G

2015-04-01

Happy facial expressions are recognized faster and more accurately than other expressions in categorization tasks, whereas detection in visual search tasks is widely believed to be faster for angry than happy faces. We used meta-analytic techniques for resolving this categorization versus detection advantage discrepancy for positive versus negative facial expressions. Effect sizes were computed on the basis of the r statistic for a total of 34 recognition studies with 3,561 participants and 37 visual search studies with 2,455 participants, yielding a total of 41 effect sizes for recognition accuracy, 25 for recognition speed, and 125 for visual search speed. Random effects meta-analysis was conducted to estimate effect sizes at population level. For recognition tasks, an advantage in recognition accuracy and speed for happy expressions was found for all stimulus types. In contrast, for visual search tasks, moderator analysis revealed that a happy face detection advantage was restricted to photographic faces, whereas a clear angry face advantage was found for schematic and "smiley" faces. Robust detection advantage for nonhappy faces was observed even when stimulus emotionality was distorted by inversion or rearrangement of the facial features, suggesting that visual features primarily drive the search. We conclude that the recognition advantage for happy faces is a genuine phenomenon related to processing of facial expression category and affective valence. In contrast, detection advantages toward either happy (photographic stimuli) or nonhappy (schematic) faces is contingent on visual stimulus features rather than facial expression, and may not involve categorical or affective processing. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Contributions of feature shapes and surface cues to the recognition of facial expressions.

PubMed

Sormaz, Mladen; Young, Andrew W; Andrews, Timothy J

2016-10-01

Theoretical accounts of face processing often emphasise feature shapes as the primary visual cue to the recognition of facial expressions. However, changes in facial expression also affect the surface properties of the face. In this study, we investigated whether this surface information can also be used in the recognition of facial expression. First, participants identified facial expressions (fear, anger, disgust, sadness, happiness) from images that were manipulated such that they varied mainly in shape or mainly in surface properties. We found that the categorization of facial expression is possible in either type of image, but that different expressions are relatively dependent on surface or shape properties. Next, we investigated the relative contributions of shape and surface information to the categorization of facial expressions. This employed a complementary method that involved combining the surface properties of one expression with the shape properties from a different expression. Our results showed that the categorization of facial expressions in these hybrid images was equally dependent on the surface and shape properties of the image. Together, these findings provide a direct demonstration that both feature shape and surface information make significant contributions to the recognition of facial expressions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Not on the Face Alone: Perception of Contextualized Face Expressions in Huntington's Disease

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aviezer, Hillel; Bentin, Shlomo; Hassin, Ran R.; Meschino, Wendy S.; Kennedy, Jeanne; Grewal, Sonya; Esmail, Sherali; Cohen, Sharon; Moscovitch, Morris

2009-01-01

Numerous studies have demonstrated that Huntington's disease mutation-carriers have deficient explicit recognition of isolated facial expressions. There are no studies, however, which have investigated the recognition of facial expressions embedded within an emotional body and scene context. Real life facial expressions are typically embedded in…

Discriminability effect on Garner interference: evidence from recognition of facial identity and expression

PubMed Central

Wang, Yamin; Fu, Xiaolan; Johnston, Robert A.; Yan, Zheng

2013-01-01

Using Garner’s speeded classification task existing studies demonstrated an asymmetric interference in the recognition of facial identity and facial expression. It seems that expression is hard to interfere with identity recognition. However, discriminability of identity and expression, a potential confounding variable, had not been carefully examined in existing studies. In current work, we manipulated discriminability of identity and expression by matching facial shape (long or round) in identity and matching mouth (opened or closed) in facial expression. Garner interference was found either from identity to expression (Experiment 1) or from expression to identity (Experiment 2). Interference was also found in both directions (Experiment 3) or in neither direction (Experiment 4). The results support that Garner interference tends to occur under condition of low discriminability of relevant dimension regardless of facial property. Our findings indicate that Garner interference is not necessarily related to interdependent processing in recognition of facial identity and expression. The findings also suggest that discriminability as a mediating factor should be carefully controlled in future research. PMID:24391609

Support vector machine for automatic pain recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Monwar, Md Maruf; Rezaei, Siamak

2009-02-01

Facial expressions are a key index of emotion and the interpretation of such expressions of emotion is critical to everyday social functioning. In this paper, we present an efficient video analysis technique for recognition of a specific expression, pain, from human faces. We employ an automatic face detector which detects face from the stored video frame using skin color modeling technique. For pain recognition, location and shape features of the detected faces are computed. These features are then used as inputs to a support vector machine (SVM) for classification. We compare the results with neural network based and eigenimage based automatic pain recognition systems. The experiment results indicate that using support vector machine as classifier can certainly improve the performance of automatic pain recognition system.

Facial Emotions Recognition using Gabor Transform and Facial Animation Parameters with Neural Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harit, Aditya; Joshi, J. C., Col; Gupta, K. K.

2018-03-01

The paper proposed an automatic facial emotion recognition algorithm which comprises of two main components: feature extraction and expression recognition. The algorithm uses a Gabor filter bank on fiducial points to find the facial expression features. The resulting magnitudes of Gabor transforms, along with 14 chosen FAPs (Facial Animation Parameters), compose the feature space. There are two stages: the training phase and the recognition phase. Firstly, for the present 6 different emotions, the system classifies all training expressions in 6 different classes (one for each emotion) in the training stage. In the recognition phase, it recognizes the emotion by applying the Gabor bank to a face image, then finds the fiducial points, and then feeds it to the trained neural architecture.

Age-related differences in emotion recognition ability: a cross-sectional study.

PubMed

Mill, Aire; Allik, Jüri; Realo, Anu; Valk, Raivo

2009-10-01

Experimental studies indicate that recognition of emotions, particularly negative emotions, decreases with age. However, there is no consensus at which age the decrease in emotion recognition begins, how selective this is to negative emotions, and whether this applies to both facial and vocal expression. In the current cross-sectional study, 607 participants ranging in age from 18 to 84 years (mean age = 32.6 +/- 14.9 years) were asked to recognize emotions expressed either facially or vocally. In general, older participants were found to be less accurate at recognizing emotions, with the most distinctive age difference pertaining to a certain group of negative emotions. Both modalities revealed an age-related decline in the recognition of sadness and -- to a lesser degree -- anger, starting at about 30 years of age. Although age-related differences in the recognition of expression of emotion were not mediated by personality traits, 2 of the Big 5 traits, openness and conscientiousness, made an independent contribution to emotion-recognition performance. Implications of age-related differences in facial and vocal emotion expression and early onset of the selective decrease in emotion recognition are discussed in terms of previous findings and relevant theoretical models.

Coastal single-beam bathymetry data collected in 2015 from Raccoon Point to Point Au Fer Island, Louisiana

USGS Publications Warehouse

Stalk, Chelsea A.; DeWitt, Nancy T.; Kindinger, Jack L.; Flocks, James G.; Reynolds, Billy J.; Kelso, Kyle W.; Fredericks, Joseph J.; Tuten, Thomas M.

2017-03-10

As part of the Barrier Island Comprehensive Monitoring Program (BICM), scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center conducted a nearshore single-beam bathymetry survey along the south-central coast of Louisiana, from Raccoon Point to Point Au Fer Island, in July 2015. The goal of the BICM program is to provide long-term data on Louisiana’s coastline and use this data to plan, design, evaluate, and maintain current and future barrier island restoration projects. The data described in this report will provide baseline bathymetric information for future research investigating island evolution, sediment transport, and recent and long-term geomorphic change, and will support modeling of future changes in response to restoration and storm impacts. The survey area encompasses more than 300 square kilometers of nearshore environment from Raccoon Point to Point Au Fer Island. This data series serves as an archive of processed single-beam bathymetry data, collected from July 22–29, 2015, under USGS Field Activity Number 2015-320-FA. Geographic information system data products include a 200-meter-cell-size interpolated bathymetry grid, trackline maps, and point data files. Additional files include error analysis maps, Field Activity Collection System logs, and formal Federal Geographic Data Committee metadata.

Influence of Emotional Facial Expressions on 3-5-Year-Olds' Face Recognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Freitag, Claudia; Schwarzer, Gudrun

2011-01-01

Three experiments examined 3- and 5-year-olds' recognition of faces in constant and varied emotional expressions. Children were asked to identify repeatedly presented target faces, distinguishing them from distractor faces, during an immediate recognition test and during delayed assessments after 10 min and one week. Emotional facial expression…

Replicability and other features of a high-quality science: Toward a balanced and empirical approach.

PubMed

Finkel, Eli J; Eastwick, Paul W; Reis, Harry T

2017-08-01

Finkel, Eastwick, and Reis (2015; FER2015) argued that psychological science is better served by responding to apprehensions about replicability rates with contextualized solutions than with one-size-fits-all solutions. Here, we extend FER2015's analysis to suggest that much of the discussion of best research practices since 2011 has focused on a single feature of high-quality science-replicability-with insufficient sensitivity to the implications of recommended practices for other features, like discovery, internal validity, external validity, construct validity, consequentiality, and cumulativeness. Thus, although recommendations for bolstering replicability have been innovative, compelling, and abundant, it is difficult to evaluate their impact on our science as a whole, especially because many research practices that are beneficial for some features of scientific quality are harmful for others. For example, FER2015 argued that bigger samples are generally better, but also noted that very large samples ("those larger than required for effect sizes to stabilize"; p. 291) could have the downside of commandeering resources that would have been better invested in other studies. In their critique of FER2015, LeBel, Campbell, and Loving (2016) concluded, based on simulated data, that ever-larger samples are better for the efficiency of scientific discovery (i.e., that there are no tradeoffs). As demonstrated here, however, this conclusion holds only when the replicator's resources are considered in isolation. If we widen the assumptions to include the original researcher's resources as well, which is necessary if the goal is to consider resource investment for the field as a whole, the conclusion changes radically-and strongly supports a tradeoff-based analysis. In general, as psychologists seek to strengthen our science, we must complement our much-needed work on increasing replicability with careful attention to the other features of a high-quality science. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Ferroptosis-inducing agents compromise in vitro human islet viability and function.

PubMed

Bruni, Antonio; Pepper, Andrew R; Pawlick, Rena L; Gala-Lopez, Boris; Gamble, Anissa F; Kin, Tatsuya; Seeberger, Karen; Korbutt, Gregory S; Bornstein, Stefan R; Linkermann, Andreas; Shapiro, A M James

2018-05-22

Human islet transplantation has been hampered by donor cell death associated with the islet preparation procedure before transplantation. Regulated necrosis pathways are biochemically and morphologically distinct from apoptosis. Recently, ferroptosis was identified as a non-apoptotic form of iron-dependent regulated necrosis implicated in various pathological conditions. Mediators of islet oxidative stress, including glutathione peroxidase-4 (GPX4), have been identified as inhibitors of ferroptosis, and mechanisms that affect GPX4 function can impact islet function and viability. Ferroptosis has not been investigated directly in human islets, and its relevance in islet transplantation remains unknown. Herein, we sought to determine whether in vitro human islet viability and function is compromised in the presence of two distinct ferroptosis-inducing agents (FIA), erastin or RSL3, and whether these effects could be rescued with ferroptosis inhibitors, ferrostatin-1 (Fer-1), or desferrioxamine (DFO). Viability, as assessed by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release, revealed significant death in erastin- and RSL3-treated islets, 20.3% ± 3.8 and 24.4% ± 2.5, 24 h post culture, respectively. These effects were ameliorated in islets pre-treated with Fer-1 or the iron chelator, desferrioxamine (DFO). Stimulation index, a marker of islet function revealed a significant reduction in function in erastin-treated islets (control 1.97 ± 0.13 vs. 50 μM erastin 1.32 ± 0.1) (p < 0.05). Fer-1 and DFO pre-treatment alone did not augment islet viability or function. Pre-treatment of islets with erastin or Fer-1 did not impact in vivo engraftment in an immunodeficient mouse transplant model. Our data reveal that islets are indeed susceptible to ferroptosis in vitro, and induction of this novel cell death modality leads to compromised islet function, which can be recoverable in the presence of the ferroptosis inhibitors. The in vivo impact of this pathway in islet transplantation remains elusive given the constraints of our study, but warrants continued investigation.

Recognition of emotional facial expressions and broad autism phenotype in parents of children diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Kadak, Muhammed Tayyib; Demirel, Omer Faruk; Yavuz, Mesut; Demir, Türkay

2014-07-01

Research findings debate about features of broad autism phenotype. In this study, we tested whether parents of children with autism have problems recognizing emotional facial expression and the contribution of such an impairment to the broad phenotype of autism. Seventy-two parents of children with autistic spectrum disorder and 38 parents of control group participated in the study. Broad autism features was measured with Autism Quotient (AQ). Recognition of Emotional Face Expression Test was assessed with the Emotion Recognition Test, consisting a set of photographs from Ekman & Friesen's. In a two-tailed analysis of variance of AQ, there was a significant difference for social skills (F(1, 106)=6.095; p<.05). Analyses of variance revealed significant difference in the recognition of happy, surprised and neutral expressions (F(1, 106)=4.068, p=.046; F(1, 106)=4.068, p=.046; F(1, 106)=6.064, p=.016). According to our findings, social impairment could be considered a characteristic feature of BAP. ASD parents had difficulty recognizing neutral expressions, suggesting that ASD parents may have impaired recognition of ambiguous expressions as do autistic children. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Emotion recognition in borderline personality disorder: effects of emotional information on negative bias.

PubMed

Fenske, Sabrina; Lis, Stefanie; Liebke, Lisa; Niedtfeld, Inga; Kirsch, Peter; Mier, Daniela

2015-01-01

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is characterized by severe deficits in social interactions, which might be linked to deficits in emotion recognition. Research on emotion recognition abilities in BPD revealed heterogeneous results, ranging from deficits to heightened sensitivity. The most stable findings point to an impairment in the evaluation of neutral facial expressions as neutral, as well as to a negative bias in emotion recognition; that is the tendency to attribute negative emotions to neutral expressions, or in a broader sense to report a more negative emotion category than depicted. However, it remains unclear which contextual factors influence the occurrence of this negative bias. Previous studies suggest that priming by preceding emotional information and also constrained processing time might augment the emotion recognition deficit in BPD. To test these assumptions, 32 female BPD patients and 31 healthy females, matched for age and education, participated in an emotion recognition study, in which every facial expression was preceded by either a positive, neutral or negative scene. Furthermore, time constraints for processing were varied by presenting the facial expressions with short (100 ms) or long duration (up to 3000 ms) in two separate blocks. BPD patients showed a significant deficit in emotion recognition for neutral and positive facial expression, associated with a significant negative bias. In BPD patients, this emotion recognition deficit was differentially affected by preceding emotional information and time constraints, with a greater influence of emotional information during long face presentations and a greater influence of neutral information during short face presentations. Our results are in line with previous findings supporting the existence of a negative bias in emotion recognition in BPD patients, and provide further insights into biased social perceptions in BPD patients.

The recognition of emotional expression in prosopagnosia: decoding whole and part faces.

PubMed

Stephan, Blossom Christa Maree; Breen, Nora; Caine, Diana

2006-11-01

Prosopagnosia is currently viewed within the constraints of two competing theories of face recognition, one highlighting the analysis of features, the other focusing on configural processing of the whole face. This study investigated the role of feature analysis versus whole face configural processing in the recognition of facial expression. A prosopagnosic patient, SC made expression decisions from whole and incomplete (eyes-only and mouth-only) faces where features had been obscured. SC was impaired at recognizing some (e.g., anger, sadness, and fear), but not all (e.g., happiness) emotional expressions from the whole face. Analyses of his performance on incomplete faces indicated that his recognition of some expressions actually improved relative to his performance on the whole face condition. We argue that in SC interference from damaged configural processes seem to override an intact ability to utilize part-based or local feature cues.

Emotional face recognition deficits and medication effects in pre-manifest through stage-II Huntington's disease.

PubMed

Labuschagne, Izelle; Jones, Rebecca; Callaghan, Jenny; Whitehead, Daisy; Dumas, Eve M; Say, Miranda J; Hart, Ellen P; Justo, Damian; Coleman, Allison; Dar Santos, Rachelle C; Frost, Chris; Craufurd, David; Tabrizi, Sarah J; Stout, Julie C

2013-05-15

Facial emotion recognition impairments have been reported in Huntington's disease (HD). However, the nature of the impairments across the spectrum of HD remains unclear. We report on emotion recognition data from 344 participants comprising premanifest HD (PreHD) and early HD patients, and controls. In a test of recognition of facial emotions, we examined responses to six basic emotional expressions and neutral expressions. In addition, and within the early HD sample, we tested for differences on emotion recognition performance between those 'on' vs. 'off' neuroleptic or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) medications. The PreHD groups showed significant (p<0.05) impaired recognition, compared to controls, on fearful, angry and surprised faces; whereas the early HD groups were significantly impaired across all emotions including neutral expressions. In early HD, neuroleptic use was associated with worse facial emotion recognition, whereas SSRI use was associated with better facial emotion recognition. The findings suggest that emotion recognition impairments exist across the HD spectrum, but are relatively more widespread in manifest HD than in the premanifest period. Commonly prescribed medications to treat HD-related symptoms also appear to affect emotion recognition. These findings have important implications for interpersonal communication and medication usage in HD. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Incongruence Between Observers’ and Observed Facial Muscle Activation Reduces Recognition of Emotional Facial Expressions From Video Stimuli

PubMed Central

Wingenbach, Tanja S. H.; Brosnan, Mark; Pfaltz, Monique C.; Plichta, Michael M.; Ashwin, Chris

2018-01-01

According to embodied cognition accounts, viewing others’ facial emotion can elicit the respective emotion representation in observers which entails simulations of sensory, motor, and contextual experiences. In line with that, published research found viewing others’ facial emotion to elicit automatic matched facial muscle activation, which was further found to facilitate emotion recognition. Perhaps making congruent facial muscle activity explicit produces an even greater recognition advantage. If there is conflicting sensory information, i.e., incongruent facial muscle activity, this might impede recognition. The effects of actively manipulating facial muscle activity on facial emotion recognition from videos were investigated across three experimental conditions: (a) explicit imitation of viewed facial emotional expressions (stimulus-congruent condition), (b) pen-holding with the lips (stimulus-incongruent condition), and (c) passive viewing (control condition). It was hypothesised that (1) experimental condition (a) and (b) result in greater facial muscle activity than (c), (2) experimental condition (a) increases emotion recognition accuracy from others’ faces compared to (c), (3) experimental condition (b) lowers recognition accuracy for expressions with a salient facial feature in the lower, but not the upper face area, compared to (c). Participants (42 males, 42 females) underwent a facial emotion recognition experiment (ADFES-BIV) while electromyography (EMG) was recorded from five facial muscle sites. The experimental conditions’ order was counter-balanced. Pen-holding caused stimulus-incongruent facial muscle activity for expressions with facial feature saliency in the lower face region, which reduced recognition of lower face region emotions. Explicit imitation caused stimulus-congruent facial muscle activity without modulating recognition. Methodological implications are discussed. PMID:29928240

Incongruence Between Observers' and Observed Facial Muscle Activation Reduces Recognition of Emotional Facial Expressions From Video Stimuli.

PubMed

Wingenbach, Tanja S H; Brosnan, Mark; Pfaltz, Monique C; Plichta, Michael M; Ashwin, Chris

2018-01-01

According to embodied cognition accounts, viewing others' facial emotion can elicit the respective emotion representation in observers which entails simulations of sensory, motor, and contextual experiences. In line with that, published research found viewing others' facial emotion to elicit automatic matched facial muscle activation, which was further found to facilitate emotion recognition. Perhaps making congruent facial muscle activity explicit produces an even greater recognition advantage. If there is conflicting sensory information, i.e., incongruent facial muscle activity, this might impede recognition. The effects of actively manipulating facial muscle activity on facial emotion recognition from videos were investigated across three experimental conditions: (a) explicit imitation of viewed facial emotional expressions (stimulus-congruent condition), (b) pen-holding with the lips (stimulus-incongruent condition), and (c) passive viewing (control condition). It was hypothesised that (1) experimental condition (a) and (b) result in greater facial muscle activity than (c), (2) experimental condition (a) increases emotion recognition accuracy from others' faces compared to (c), (3) experimental condition (b) lowers recognition accuracy for expressions with a salient facial feature in the lower, but not the upper face area, compared to (c). Participants (42 males, 42 females) underwent a facial emotion recognition experiment (ADFES-BIV) while electromyography (EMG) was recorded from five facial muscle sites. The experimental conditions' order was counter-balanced. Pen-holding caused stimulus-incongruent facial muscle activity for expressions with facial feature saliency in the lower face region, which reduced recognition of lower face region emotions. Explicit imitation caused stimulus-congruent facial muscle activity without modulating recognition. Methodological implications are discussed.

Dissociable roles of internal feelings and face recognition ability in facial expression decoding.

PubMed

Zhang, Lin; Song, Yiying; Liu, Ling; Liu, Jia

2016-05-15

The problem of emotion recognition has been tackled by researchers in both affective computing and cognitive neuroscience. While affective computing relies on analyzing visual features from facial expressions, it has been proposed that humans recognize emotions by internally simulating the emotional states conveyed by others' expressions, in addition to perceptual analysis of facial features. Here we investigated whether and how our internal feelings contributed to the ability to decode facial expressions. In two independent large samples of participants, we observed that individuals who generally experienced richer internal feelings exhibited a higher ability to decode facial expressions, and the contribution of internal feelings was independent of face recognition ability. Further, using voxel-based morphometry, we found that the gray matter volume (GMV) of bilateral superior temporal sulcus (STS) and the right inferior parietal lobule was associated with facial expression decoding through the mediating effect of internal feelings, while the GMV of bilateral STS, precuneus, and the right central opercular cortex contributed to facial expression decoding through the mediating effect of face recognition ability. In addition, the clusters in bilateral STS involved in the two components were neighboring yet separate. Our results may provide clues about the mechanism by which internal feelings, in addition to face recognition ability, serve as an important instrument for humans in facial expression decoding. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Gaze Dynamics in the Recognition of Facial Expressions of Emotion.

PubMed

Barabanschikov, Vladimir A

2015-01-01

We studied preferably fixated parts and features of human face in the process of recognition of facial expressions of emotion. Photographs of facial expressions were used. Participants were to categorize these as basic emotions; during this process, eye movements were registered. It was found that variation in the intensity of an expression is mirrored in accuracy of emotion recognition; it was also reflected by several indices of oculomotor function: duration of inspection of certain areas of the face, its upper and bottom or right parts, right and left sides; location, number and duration of fixations, viewing trajectory. In particular, for low-intensity expressions, right side of the face was found to be attended predominantly (right-side dominance); the right-side dominance effect, was, however, absent for expressions of high intensity. For both low- and high-intensity expressions, upper face part was predominantly fixated, though with greater fixation of high-intensity expressions. The majority of trials (70%), in line with findings in previous studies, revealed a V-shaped pattern of inspection trajectory. No relationship, between accuracy of recognition of emotional expressions, was found, though, with either location and duration of fixations or pattern of gaze directedness in the face. © The Author(s) 2015.

Recognition of Immaturity and Emotional Expressions in Blended Faces by Children with Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gross, Thomas F.

2008-01-01

The recognition of facial immaturity and emotional expression by children with autism, language disorders, mental retardation, and non-disabled controls was studied in two experiments. Children identified immaturity and expression in upright and inverted faces. The autism group identified fewer immature faces and expressions than control (Exp. 1 &…

Violent Media Consumption and the Recognition of Dynamic Facial Expressions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kirsh, Steven J.; Mounts, Jeffrey R. W.; Olczak, Paul V.

2006-01-01

This study assessed the speed of recognition of facial emotional expressions (happy and angry) as a function of violent media consumption. Color photos of calm facial expressions morphed to either an angry or a happy facial expression. Participants were asked to make a speeded identification of the emotion (happiness or anger) during the morph.…

Facial expressions recognition with an emotion expressive robotic head

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Doroftei, I.; Adascalitei, F.; Lefeber, D.; Vanderborght, B.; Doroftei, I. A.

2016-08-01

The purpose of this study is to present the preliminary steps in facial expressions recognition with a new version of an expressive social robotic head. So, in a first phase, our main goal was to reach a minimum level of emotional expressiveness in order to obtain nonverbal communication between the robot and human by building six basic facial expressions. To evaluate the facial expressions, the robot was used in some preliminary user studies, among children and adults.

Oxytocin, vasopressin and estrogen receptor gene expression in relation to social recognition in female mice

PubMed Central

Clipperton-Allen, Amy E.; Lee, Anna W.; Reyes, Anny; Devidze, Nino; Phan, Anna; Pfaff, Donald W.; Choleris, Elena

2012-01-01

Inter- and intra-species differences in social behavior and recognition-related hormones and receptors suggest that different distribution and/or expression patterns may relate to social recognition. We used qRT-PCR to investigate naturally occurring differences in expression of estrogen receptor-alpha (ERα), ER-beta (ERβ), progesterone receptor (PR), oxytocin (OT) and receptor, and vasopressin (AVP) and receptors in proestrous female mice. Following four 5 min exposures to the same two conspecifics, one was replaced with a novel mouse in the final trial (T5). Gene expression was examined in mice showing high (85–100%) and low (40–60%) social recognition scores (i.e., preferential novel mouse investigation in T5) in eight socially-relevant brain regions. Results supported OT and AVP involvement in social recognition, and suggest that in the medial preoptic area, increased OT and AVP mRNA, together with ERα and ERβ gene activation, relate to improved social recognition. Initial social investigation correlated with ERs, PR and OTR in the dorsolateral septum, suggesting that these receptors may modulate social interest without affecting social recognition. Finally, increased lateral amygdala gene activation in the LR mice may be associated with general learning impairments, while decreased lateral amygdala activity may indicate more efficient cognitive mechanisms in the HR mice. PMID:22079582

Specific Impairments in the Recognition of Emotional Facial Expressions in Parkinson’s Disease

PubMed Central

Clark, Uraina S.; Neargarder, Sandy; Cronin-Golomb, Alice

2008-01-01

Studies investigating the ability to recognize emotional facial expressions in non-demented individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) have yielded equivocal findings. A possible reason for this variability may lie in the confounding of emotion recognition with cognitive task requirements, a confound arising from the lack of a control condition using non-emotional stimuli. The present study examined emotional facial expression recognition abilities in 20 non-demented patients with PD and 23 control participants relative to their performances on a non-emotional landscape categorization test with comparable task requirements. We found that PD participants were normal on the control task but exhibited selective impairments in the recognition of facial emotion, specifically for anger (driven by those with right hemisphere pathology) and surprise (driven by those with left hemisphere pathology), even when controlling for depression level. Male but not female PD participants further displayed specific deficits in the recognition of fearful expressions. We suggest that the neural substrates that may subserve these impairments include the ventral striatum, amygdala, and prefrontal cortices. Finally, we observed that in PD participants, deficiencies in facial emotion recognition correlated with higher levels of interpersonal distress, which calls attention to the significant psychosocial impact that facial emotion recognition impairments may have on individuals with PD. PMID:18485422

Annotation: Development of facial expression recognition from childhood to adolescence: behavioural and neurological perspectives.

PubMed

Herba, Catherine; Phillips, Mary

2004-10-01

Intact emotion processing is critical for normal emotional development. Recent advances in neuroimaging have facilitated the examination of brain development, and have allowed for the exploration of the relationships between the development of emotion processing abilities, and that of associated neural systems. A literature review was performed of published studies examining the development of emotion expression recognition in normal children and psychiatric populations, and of the development of neural systems important for emotion processing. Few studies have explored the development of emotion expression recognition throughout childhood and adolescence. Behavioural studies suggest continued development throughout childhood and adolescence (reflected by accuracy scores and speed of processing), which varies according to the category of emotion displayed. Factors such as sex, socio-economic status, and verbal ability may also affect this development. Functional neuroimaging studies in adults highlight the role of the amygdala in emotion processing. Results of the few neuroimaging studies in children have focused on the role of the amygdala in the recognition of fearful expressions. Although results are inconsistent, they provide evidence throughout childhood and adolescence for the continued development of and sex differences in amygdalar function in response to fearful expressions. Studies exploring emotion expression recognition in psychiatric populations of children and adolescents suggest deficits that are specific to the type of disorder and to the emotion displayed. Results from behavioural and neuroimaging studies indicate continued development of emotion expression recognition and neural regions important for this process throughout childhood and adolescence. Methodological inconsistencies and disparate findings make any conclusion difficult, however. Further studies are required examining the relationship between the development of emotion expression recognition and that of underlying neural systems, in particular subcortical and prefrontal cortical structures. These will inform understanding of the neural bases of normal and abnormal emotional development, and aid the development of earlier interventions for children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders.

The Right Place at the Right Time: Priming Facial Expressions with Emotional Face Components in Developmental Visual Agnosia

PubMed Central

Aviezer, Hillel; Hassin, Ran. R.; Perry, Anat; Dudarev, Veronica; Bentin, Shlomo

2012-01-01

The current study examined the nature of deficits in emotion recognition from facial expressions in case LG, an individual with a rare form of developmental visual agnosia (DVA). LG presents with profoundly impaired recognition of facial expressions, yet the underlying nature of his deficit remains unknown. During typical face processing, normal sighted individuals extract information about expressed emotions from face regions with activity diagnostic for specific emotion categories. Given LG’s impairment, we sought to shed light on his emotion perception by examining if priming facial expressions with diagnostic emotional face components would facilitate his recognition of the emotion expressed by the face. LG and control participants matched isolated face components with components appearing in a subsequently presented full-face and then categorized the face’s emotion. Critically, the matched components were from regions which were diagnostic or non-diagnostic of the emotion portrayed by the full face. In experiment 1, when the full faces were briefly presented (150 ms), LG’s performance was strongly influenced by the diagnosticity of the components: His emotion recognition was boosted within normal limits when diagnostic components were used and was obliterated when non-diagnostic components were used. By contrast, in experiment 2, when the face-exposure duration was extended (2000 ms), the beneficial effect of the diagnostic matching was diminished as was the detrimental effect of the non-diagnostic matching. These data highlight the impact of diagnostic facial features in normal expression recognition and suggest that impaired emotion recognition in DVA results from deficient visual integration across diagnostic face components. PMID:22349446

Behavioral dissociation between emotional and non-emotional facial expressions in congenital prosopagnosia

PubMed Central

Daini, Roberta; Comparetti, Chiara M.; Ricciardelli, Paola

2014-01-01

Neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies have shown that facial recognition and emotional expressions are dissociable. However, it is unknown if a single system supports the processing of emotional and non-emotional facial expressions. We aimed to understand if individuals with impairment in face recognition from birth (congenital prosopagnosia, CP) can use non-emotional facial expressions to recognize a face as an already seen one, and thus, process this facial dimension independently from features (which are impaired in CP), and basic emotional expressions. To this end, we carried out a behavioral study in which we compared the performance of 6 CP individuals to that of typical development individuals, using upright and inverted faces. Four avatar faces with a neutral expression were presented in the initial phase. The target faces presented in the recognition phase, in which a recognition task was requested (2AFC paradigm), could be identical (neutral) to those of the initial phase or present biologically plausible changes to features, non-emotional expressions, or emotional expressions. After this task, a second task was performed, in which the participants had to detect whether or not the recognized face exactly matched the study face or showed any difference. The results confirmed the CPs' impairment in the configural processing of the invariant aspects of the face, but also showed a spared configural processing of non-emotional facial expression (task 1). Interestingly and unlike the non-emotional expressions, the configural processing of emotional expressions was compromised in CPs and did not improve their change detection ability (task 2). These new results have theoretical implications for face perception models since they suggest that, at least in CPs, non-emotional expressions are processed configurally, can be dissociated from other facial dimensions, and may serve as a compensatory strategy to achieve face recognition. PMID:25520643

Behavioral dissociation between emotional and non-emotional facial expressions in congenital prosopagnosia.

PubMed

Daini, Roberta; Comparetti, Chiara M; Ricciardelli, Paola

2014-01-01

Neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies have shown that facial recognition and emotional expressions are dissociable. However, it is unknown if a single system supports the processing of emotional and non-emotional facial expressions. We aimed to understand if individuals with impairment in face recognition from birth (congenital prosopagnosia, CP) can use non-emotional facial expressions to recognize a face as an already seen one, and thus, process this facial dimension independently from features (which are impaired in CP), and basic emotional expressions. To this end, we carried out a behavioral study in which we compared the performance of 6 CP individuals to that of typical development individuals, using upright and inverted faces. Four avatar faces with a neutral expression were presented in the initial phase. The target faces presented in the recognition phase, in which a recognition task was requested (2AFC paradigm), could be identical (neutral) to those of the initial phase or present biologically plausible changes to features, non-emotional expressions, or emotional expressions. After this task, a second task was performed, in which the participants had to detect whether or not the recognized face exactly matched the study face or showed any difference. The results confirmed the CPs' impairment in the configural processing of the invariant aspects of the face, but also showed a spared configural processing of non-emotional facial expression (task 1). Interestingly and unlike the non-emotional expressions, the configural processing of emotional expressions was compromised in CPs and did not improve their change detection ability (task 2). These new results have theoretical implications for face perception models since they suggest that, at least in CPs, non-emotional expressions are processed configurally, can be dissociated from other facial dimensions, and may serve as a compensatory strategy to achieve face recognition.

Dissociation between facial and bodily expressions in emotion recognition: A case study.

PubMed

Leiva, Samanta; Margulis, Laura; Micciulli, Andrea; Ferreres, Aldo

2017-12-21

Existing single-case studies have reported deficit in recognizing basic emotions through facial expression and unaffected performance with body expressions, but not the opposite pattern. The aim of this paper is to present a case study with impaired emotion recognition through body expressions and intact performance with facial expressions. In this single-case study we assessed a 30-year-old patient with autism spectrum disorder, without intellectual disability, and a healthy control group (n = 30) with four tasks of basic and complex emotion recognition through face and body movements, and two non-emotional control tasks. To analyze the dissociation between facial and body expressions, we used Crawford and Garthwaite's operational criteria, and we compared the patient and the control group performance with a modified one-tailed t-test designed specifically for single-case studies. There were no statistically significant differences between the patient's and the control group's performances on the non-emotional body movement task or the facial perception task. For both kinds of emotions (basic and complex) when the patient's performance was compared to the control group's, statistically significant differences were only observed for the recognition of body expressions. There were no significant differences between the patient's and the control group's correct answers for emotional facial stimuli. Our results showed a profile of impaired emotion recognition through body expressions and intact performance with facial expressions. This is the first case study that describes the existence of this kind of dissociation pattern between facial and body expressions of basic and complex emotions.

Emotion-independent face recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Silva, Liyanage C.; Esther, Kho G. P.

2000-12-01

Current face recognition techniques tend to work well when recognizing faces under small variations in lighting, facial expression and pose, but deteriorate under more extreme conditions. In this paper, a face recognition system to recognize faces of known individuals, despite variations in facial expression due to different emotions, is developed. The eigenface approach is used for feature extraction. Classification methods include Euclidean distance, back propagation neural network and generalized regression neural network. These methods yield 100% recognition accuracy when the training database is representative, containing one image representing the peak expression for each emotion of each person apart from the neutral expression. The feature vectors used for comparison in the Euclidean distance method and for training the neural network must be all the feature vectors of the training set. These results are obtained for a face database consisting of only four persons.

The effects of alcohol on the recognition of facial expressions and microexpressions of emotion: enhanced recognition of disgust and contempt.

PubMed

Felisberti, Fatima; Terry, Philip

2015-09-01

The study compared alcohol's effects on the recognition of briefly displayed facial expressions of emotion (so-called microexpressions) with expressions presented for a longer period. Using a repeated-measures design, we tested 18 participants three times (counterbalanced), after (i) a placebo drink, (ii) a low-to-moderate dose of alcohol (0.17 g/kg women; 0.20 g/kg men) and (iii) a moderate-to-high dose of alcohol (0.52 g/kg women; 0.60 g/kg men). On each session, participants were presented with stimuli representing six emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust and contempt) overlaid on a generic avatar in a six-alternative forced-choice paradigm. A neutral expression (1 s) preceded and followed a target expression presented for 200 ms (microexpressions) or 400 ms. Participants mouse clicked the correct answer. The recognition of disgust was significantly better after the high dose of alcohol than after the low dose or placebo drinks at both durations of stimulus presentation. A similar profile of effects was found for the recognition of contempt. There were no effects on response latencies. Alcohol can increase sensitivity to expressions of disgust and contempt. Such effects are not dependent on stimulus duration up to 400 ms and may reflect contextual modulation of alcohol's effects on emotion recognition. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Social appraisal influences recognition of emotions.

PubMed

Mumenthaler, Christian; Sander, David

2012-06-01

The notion of social appraisal emphasizes the importance of a social dimension in appraisal theories of emotion by proposing that the way an individual appraises an event is influenced by the way other individuals appraise and feel about the same event. This study directly tested this proposal by asking participants to recognize dynamic facial expressions of emotion (fear, happiness, or anger in Experiment 1; fear, happiness, anger, or neutral in Experiment 2) in a target face presented at the center of a screen while a contextual face, which appeared simultaneously in the periphery of the screen, expressed an emotion (fear, happiness, anger) or not (neutral) and either looked at the target face or not. We manipulated gaze direction to be able to distinguish between a mere contextual effect (gaze away from both the target face and the participant) and a specific social appraisal effect (gaze toward the target face). Results of both experiments provided evidence for a social appraisal effect in emotion recognition, which differed from the mere effect of contextual information: Whereas facial expressions were identical in both conditions, the direction of the gaze of the contextual face influenced emotion recognition. Social appraisal facilitated the recognition of anger, happiness, and fear when the contextual face expressed the same emotion. This facilitation was stronger than the mere contextual effect. Social appraisal also allowed better recognition of fear when the contextual face expressed anger and better recognition of anger when the contextual face expressed fear. 2012 APA, all rights reserved

An investigation of the effect of race-based social categorization on adults' recognition of emotion.

PubMed

Reyes, B Nicole; Segal, Shira C; Moulson, Margaret C

2018-01-01

Emotion recognition is important for social interaction and communication, yet previous research has identified a cross-cultural emotion recognition deficit: Recognition is less accurate for emotions expressed by individuals from a cultural group different than one's own. The current study examined whether social categorization based on race, in the absence of cultural differences, influences emotion recognition in a diverse context. South Asian and White Canadians in the Greater Toronto Area completed an emotion recognition task that required them to identify the seven basic emotional expressions when posed by members of the same two groups, allowing us to tease apart the contributions of culture and social group membership. Contrary to our hypothesis, there was no mutual in-group advantage in emotion recognition: Participants were not more accurate at recognizing emotions posed by their respective racial in-groups. Both groups were more accurate at recognizing expressions when posed by South Asian faces, and White participants were more accurate overall compared to South Asian participants. These results suggest that in a diverse environment, categorization based on race alone does not lead to the creation of social out-groups in a way that negatively impacts emotion recognition.

An investigation of the effect of race-based social categorization on adults’ recognition of emotion

PubMed Central

Reyes, B. Nicole; Segal, Shira C.

2018-01-01

Emotion recognition is important for social interaction and communication, yet previous research has identified a cross-cultural emotion recognition deficit: Recognition is less accurate for emotions expressed by individuals from a cultural group different than one’s own. The current study examined whether social categorization based on race, in the absence of cultural differences, influences emotion recognition in a diverse context. South Asian and White Canadians in the Greater Toronto Area completed an emotion recognition task that required them to identify the seven basic emotional expressions when posed by members of the same two groups, allowing us to tease apart the contributions of culture and social group membership. Contrary to our hypothesis, there was no mutual in-group advantage in emotion recognition: Participants were not more accurate at recognizing emotions posed by their respective racial in-groups. Both groups were more accurate at recognizing expressions when posed by South Asian faces, and White participants were more accurate overall compared to South Asian participants. These results suggest that in a diverse environment, categorization based on race alone does not lead to the creation of social out-groups in a way that negatively impacts emotion recognition. PMID:29474367

Utterance independent bimodal emotion recognition in spontaneous communication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tao, Jianhua; Pan, Shifeng; Yang, Minghao; Li, Ya; Mu, Kaihui; Che, Jianfeng

2011-12-01

Emotion expressions sometimes are mixed with the utterance expression in spontaneous face-to-face communication, which makes difficulties for emotion recognition. This article introduces the methods of reducing the utterance influences in visual parameters for the audio-visual-based emotion recognition. The audio and visual channels are first combined under a Multistream Hidden Markov Model (MHMM). Then, the utterance reduction is finished by finding the residual between the real visual parameters and the outputs of the utterance related visual parameters. This article introduces the Fused Hidden Markov Model Inversion method which is trained in the neutral expressed audio-visual corpus to solve the problem. To reduce the computing complexity the inversion model is further simplified to a Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) mapping. Compared with traditional bimodal emotion recognition methods (e.g., SVM, CART, Boosting), the utterance reduction method can give better results of emotion recognition. The experiments also show the effectiveness of our emotion recognition system when it was used in a live environment.

Emotional face processing deficit in schizophrenia: A replication study in a South African Xhosa population.

PubMed

Leppänen, J M; Niehaus, D J H; Koen, L; Du Toit, E; Schoeman, R; Emsley, R

2006-06-01

Schizophrenia is associated with a deficit in the recognition of negative emotions from facial expressions. The present study examined the universality of this finding by studying facial expression recognition in African Xhosa population. Forty-four Xhosa patients with schizophrenia and forty healthy controls were tested with a computerized task requiring rapid perceptual discrimination of matched positive (i.e. happy), negative (i.e. angry), and neutral faces. Patients were equally accurate as controls in recognizing happy faces but showed a marked impairment in recognition of angry faces. The impairment was particularly pronounced for high-intensity (open-mouth) angry faces. Patients also exhibited more false happy and angry responses to neutral faces than controls. No correlation between level of education or illness duration and emotion recognition was found but the deficit in the recognition of negative emotions was more pronounced in familial compared to non-familial cases of schizophrenia. These findings suggest that the deficit in the recognition of negative facial expressions may constitute a universal neurocognitive marker of schizophrenia.

Age, gender, and puberty influence the development of facial emotion recognition.

PubMed

Lawrence, Kate; Campbell, Ruth; Skuse, David

2015-01-01

Our ability to differentiate between simple facial expressions of emotion develops between infancy and early adulthood, yet few studies have explored the developmental trajectory of emotion recognition using a single methodology across a wide age-range. We investigated the development of emotion recognition abilities through childhood and adolescence, testing the hypothesis that children's ability to recognize simple emotions is modulated by chronological age, pubertal stage and gender. In order to establish norms, we assessed 478 children aged 6-16 years, using the Ekman-Friesen Pictures of Facial Affect. We then modeled these cross-sectional data in terms of competence in accurate recognition of the six emotions studied, when the positive correlation between emotion recognition and IQ was controlled. Significant linear trends were seen in children's ability to recognize facial expressions of happiness, surprise, fear, and disgust; there was improvement with increasing age. In contrast, for sad and angry expressions there is little or no change in accuracy over the age range 6-16 years; near-adult levels of competence are established by middle-childhood. In a sampled subset, pubertal status influenced the ability to recognize facial expressions of disgust and anger; there was an increase in competence from mid to late puberty, which occurred independently of age. A small female advantage was found in the recognition of some facial expressions. The normative data provided in this study will aid clinicians and researchers in assessing the emotion recognition abilities of children and will facilitate the identification of abnormalities in a skill that is often impaired in neurodevelopmental disorders. If emotion recognition abilities are a good model with which to understand adolescent development, then these results could have implications for the education, mental health provision and legal treatment of teenagers.

Age, gender, and puberty influence the development of facial emotion recognition

PubMed Central

Lawrence, Kate; Campbell, Ruth; Skuse, David

2015-01-01

Our ability to differentiate between simple facial expressions of emotion develops between infancy and early adulthood, yet few studies have explored the developmental trajectory of emotion recognition using a single methodology across a wide age-range. We investigated the development of emotion recognition abilities through childhood and adolescence, testing the hypothesis that children’s ability to recognize simple emotions is modulated by chronological age, pubertal stage and gender. In order to establish norms, we assessed 478 children aged 6–16 years, using the Ekman-Friesen Pictures of Facial Affect. We then modeled these cross-sectional data in terms of competence in accurate recognition of the six emotions studied, when the positive correlation between emotion recognition and IQ was controlled. Significant linear trends were seen in children’s ability to recognize facial expressions of happiness, surprise, fear, and disgust; there was improvement with increasing age. In contrast, for sad and angry expressions there is little or no change in accuracy over the age range 6–16 years; near-adult levels of competence are established by middle-childhood. In a sampled subset, pubertal status influenced the ability to recognize facial expressions of disgust and anger; there was an increase in competence from mid to late puberty, which occurred independently of age. A small female advantage was found in the recognition of some facial expressions. The normative data provided in this study will aid clinicians and researchers in assessing the emotion recognition abilities of children and will facilitate the identification of abnormalities in a skill that is often impaired in neurodevelopmental disorders. If emotion recognition abilities are a good model with which to understand adolescent development, then these results could have implications for the education, mental health provision and legal treatment of teenagers. PMID:26136697

Processing environmental stimuli in paranoid schizophrenia: recognizing facial emotions and performing executive functions.

PubMed

Yu, Shao Hua; Zhu, Jun Peng; Xu, You; Zheng, Lei Lei; Chai, Hao; He, Wei; Liu, Wei Bo; Li, Hui Chun; Wang, Wei

2012-12-01

To study the contribution of executive function to abnormal recognition of facial expressions of emotion in schizophrenia patients. Abnormal recognition of facial expressions of emotion was assayed according to Japanese and Caucasian facial expressions of emotion (JACFEE), Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST), positive and negative symptom scale, and Hamilton anxiety and depression scale, respectively, in 88 paranoid schizophrenia patients and 75 healthy volunteers. Patients scored higher on the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale and the Hamilton Anxiety and Depression Scales, displayed lower JACFEE recognition accuracies and poorer WCST performances. The JACFEE recognition accuracy of contempt and disgust was negatively correlated with the negative symptom scale score while the recognition accuracy of fear was positively with the positive symptom scale score and the recognition accuracy of surprise was negatively with the general psychopathology score in patients. Moreover, the WCST could predict the JACFEE recognition accuracy of contempt, disgust, and sadness in patients, and the perseverative errors negatively predicted the recognition accuracy of sadness in healthy volunteers. The JACFEE recognition accuracy of sadness could predict the WCST categories in paranoid schizophrenia patients. Recognition accuracy of social-/moral emotions, such as contempt, disgust and sadness is related to the executive function in paranoid schizophrenia patients, especially when regarding sadness. Copyright © 2012 The Editorial Board of Biomedical and Environmental Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Self-organized Evaluation of Dynamic Hand Gestures for Sign Language Recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buciu, Ioan; Pitas, Ioannis

Two main theories exist with respect to face encoding and representation in the human visual system (HVS). The first one refers to the dense (holistic) representation of the face, where faces have "holon"-like appearance. The second one claims that a more appropriate face representation is given by a sparse code, where only a small fraction of the neural cells corresponding to face encoding is activated. Theoretical and experimental evidence suggest that the HVS performs face analysis (encoding, storing, face recognition, facial expression recognition) in a structured and hierarchical way, where both representations have their own contribution and goal. According to neuropsychological experiments, it seems that encoding for face recognition, relies on holistic image representation, while a sparse image representation is used for facial expression analysis and classification. From the computer vision perspective, the techniques developed for automatic face and facial expression recognition fall into the same two representation types. Like in Neuroscience, the techniques which perform better for face recognition yield a holistic image representation, while those techniques suitable for facial expression recognition use a sparse or local image representation. The proposed mathematical models of image formation and encoding try to simulate the efficient storing, organization and coding of data in the human cortex. This is equivalent with embedding constraints in the model design regarding dimensionality reduction, redundant information minimization, mutual information minimization, non-negativity constraints, class information, etc. The presented techniques are applied as a feature extraction step followed by a classification method, which also heavily influences the recognition results.

Effects of dietary soy isoflavones on feed intake, growth performance and digestibility in juvenile Japanese flounder ( Paralichthys olivaceus)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mai, Kangsen; Zhang, Yanjiao; Chen, Wei; Xu, Wei; Ai, Qinghui; Zhang, Wenbing

2012-12-01

An 8-week feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary soy isoflavones on feeding intake, growth performance, and digestion of juvenile Japanese flounder ( Paralichthys olivaceus). Four isonitrogenous (49% crude protein) and isoenergetic (20.1 MJ kg-1) diets were formulated to contain four graded levels of soy isoflavones, namely, 0, 1, 4 and 8 g soy isoflavones in 1 kg of diet. Each diet was randomly fed to triplicate tanks of fish (Initial average weight: 2.58 g ± 0.01 g), and each tank was stocked with 35 fish. No significant difference was observed among diets with levels of 0, 1 and 4 g kg-1 soy isoflavones in feed intake, weight gain, feed efficiency ratio (FER), proximate composition of fish whole body and apparent digestibility coefficients (ADC) of nutrients and energy ( P>0.05). However, high dietary soy isoflavones level (8 g kg-1) significantly depressed weight gain, FER, whole-body crude lipid content of fish and ADC of nutrients ( P<0.05). These results indicate that high level of dietary soy isoflavones (above 4 g kg-1) significantly depresses growth responses and FER of Japanese flounder. However, as the content of soy isoflavones in soybean meal is around 1 to 3 g kg-1, the adverse effects might be neglected when soybean products are used as a fish feed ingredient.

Multimedia Content Development as a Facial Expression Datasets for Recognition of Human Emotions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mamonto, N. E.; Maulana, H.; Liliana, D. Y.; Basaruddin, T.

2018-02-01

Datasets that have been developed before contain facial expression from foreign people. The development of multimedia content aims to answer the problems experienced by the research team and other researchers who will conduct similar research. The method used in the development of multimedia content as facial expression datasets for human emotion recognition is the Villamil-Molina version of the multimedia development method. Multimedia content developed with 10 subjects or talents with each talent performing 3 shots with each capturing talent having to demonstrate 19 facial expressions. After the process of editing and rendering, tests are carried out with the conclusion that the multimedia content can be used as a facial expression dataset for recognition of human emotions.

Recognition of Facial Expressions and Prosodic Cues with Graded Emotional Intensities in Adults with Asperger Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doi, Hirokazu; Fujisawa, Takashi X.; Kanai, Chieko; Ohta, Haruhisa; Yokoi, Hideki; Iwanami, Akira; Kato, Nobumasa; Shinohara, Kazuyuki

2013-01-01

This study investigated the ability of adults with Asperger syndrome to recognize emotional categories of facial expressions and emotional prosodies with graded emotional intensities. The individuals with Asperger syndrome showed poorer recognition performance for angry and sad expressions from both facial and vocal information. The group…

Characterization of two porcine macrophage cell lines for the expression of pathogen-recognition receptors, defensins, cytokines, chemokines, and surface sialic acid

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Macrophages express various pathogen-recognition receptors (PRRs) which recognize pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and activate genes responsible for host defense. The aim of this study was to characterize two porcine macrophage cell lines (Cdelta+ and Cdelta–) for the expression of P...

Stereotypes and prejudice affect the recognition of emotional body postures.

PubMed

Bijlstra, Gijsbert; Holland, Rob W; Dotsch, Ron; Wigboldus, Daniel H J

2018-03-26

Most research on emotion recognition focuses on facial expressions. However, people communicate emotional information through bodily cues as well. Prior research on facial expressions has demonstrated that emotion recognition is modulated by top-down processes. Here, we tested whether this top-down modulation generalizes to the recognition of emotions from body postures. We report three studies demonstrating that stereotypes and prejudice about men and women may affect how fast people classify various emotional body postures. Our results suggest that gender cues activate gender associations, which affect the recognition of emotions from body postures in a top-down fashion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Slowing down Presentation of Facial Movements and Vocal Sounds Enhances Facial Expression Recognition and Induces Facial-Vocal Imitation in Children with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tardif, Carole; Laine, France; Rodriguez, Melissa; Gepner, Bruno

2007-01-01

This study examined the effects of slowing down presentation of facial expressions and their corresponding vocal sounds on facial expression recognition and facial and/or vocal imitation in children with autism. Twelve autistic children and twenty-four normal control children were presented with emotional and non-emotional facial expressions on…

The recognition of facial emotion expressions in Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Assogna, Francesca; Pontieri, Francesco E; Caltagirone, Carlo; Spalletta, Gianfranco

2008-11-01

A limited number of studies in Parkinson's Disease (PD) suggest a disturbance of recognition of facial emotion expressions. In particular, disgust recognition impairment has been reported in unmedicated and medicated PD patients. However, the results are rather inconclusive in the definition of the degree and the selectivity of emotion recognition impairment, and an associated impairment of almost all basic facial emotions in PD is also described. Few studies have investigated the relationship with neuropsychiatric and neuropsychological symptoms with mainly negative results. This inconsistency may be due to many different problems, such as emotion assessment, perception deficit, cognitive impairment, behavioral symptoms, illness severity and antiparkinsonian therapy. Here we review the clinical characteristics and neural structures involved in the recognition of specific facial emotion expressions, and the plausible role of dopamine transmission and dopamine replacement therapy in these processes. It is clear that future studies should be directed to clarify all these issues.

Oxytocin, vasopressin and estrogen receptor gene expression in relation to social recognition in female mice.

PubMed

Clipperton-Allen, Amy E; Lee, Anna W; Reyes, Anny; Devidze, Nino; Phan, Anna; Pfaff, Donald W; Choleris, Elena

2012-02-28

Inter- and intra-species differences in social behavior and recognition-related hormones and receptors suggest that different distribution and/or expression patterns may relate to social recognition. We used qRT-PCR to investigate naturally occurring differences in expression of estrogen receptor-alpha (ERα), ER-beta (ERβ), progesterone receptor (PR), oxytocin (OT) and receptor, and vasopressin (AVP) and receptors in proestrous female mice. Following four 5 min exposures to the same two conspecifics, one was replaced with a novel mouse in the final trial (T5). Gene expression was examined in mice showing high (85-100%) and low (40-60%) social recognition scores (i.e., preferential novel mouse investigation in T5) in eight socially-relevant brain regions. Results supported OT and AVP involvement in social recognition, and suggest that in the medial preoptic area, increased OT and AVP mRNA, together with ERα and ERβ gene activation, relate to improved social recognition. Initial social investigation correlated with ERs, PR and OTR in the dorsolateral septum, suggesting that these receptors may modulate social interest without affecting social recognition. Finally, increased lateral amygdala gene activation in the LR mice may be associated with general learning impairments, while decreased lateral amygdala activity may indicate more efficient cognitive mechanisms in the HR mice. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Amelioration of chronic fluoride toxicity by calcium and fluoride-free water in rats.

PubMed

Shankar, Priyanka; Ghosh, Sudip; Bhaskarachary, K; Venkaiah, K; Khandare, Arjun L

2013-07-14

The study was undertaken to explore the amelioration of chronic fluoride (F) toxicity (with low and normal Ca) in rats. The study was conducted in two phases. In phase I (6 months), seventy-six Wistar, weanling male rats were assigned to four treatment groups: normal-Ca (0·5 %) diet (NCD), Ca+F - ; low-Ca (0·25 %) diet (LCD), Ca - F - ; NCD +100 parts per million (ppm) F water, Ca+F+; LCD +100 ppm F water, Ca - F+. In phase II (reversal experiment, 3 months), LCD was replaced with the NCD. Treatment groups Ca+F+ and Ca - F+ were divided into two subgroups to compare the effect of continuation v. discontinuation along with Ca supplementation on reversal of chronic F toxicity. In phase I, significantly reduced food efficiency ratio (FER), body weight gain (BWG), faecal F excretion, serum Ca and increased bone F deposition were observed in the treatment group Ca - F+. Reduced serum 25-hydroxy-vitamin D3, increased 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D3 and up-regulation of Ca-sensing receptor, vitamin D receptor and S100 Ca-binding protein G (S100G) were observed in treatment groups Ca - F - and Ca - F+. In phase II (reversal phase), FER, BWG and serum Ca in treatment groups Ca - F+/Ca+F - and Ca - F+/Ca+F+ were still lower, as compared with other groups. However, other variables were comparable. Down-regulation of S100G was observed in F-fed groups (Ca+F+/Ca+F+ and Ca - F+/Ca+F+) in phase II. It is concluded that low Ca aggravates F toxicity, which can be ameliorated after providing adequate Ca and F-free water. However, chronic F toxicity can interfere with Ca absorption by down-regulating S100G expression irrespective of Ca nutrition.

Low-resolution expression recognition based on central oblique average CS-LBP with adaptive threshold

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, Sheng; Xi, Shi-qiong; Geng, Wei-dong

2017-11-01

In order to solve the problem of low recognition rate of traditional feature extraction operators under low-resolution images, a novel algorithm of expression recognition is proposed, named central oblique average center-symmetric local binary pattern (CS-LBP) with adaptive threshold (ATCS-LBP). Firstly, the features of face images can be extracted by the proposed operator after pretreatment. Secondly, the obtained feature image is divided into blocks. Thirdly, the histogram of each block is computed independently and all histograms can be connected serially to create a final feature vector. Finally, expression classification is achieved by using support vector machine (SVM) classifier. Experimental results on Japanese female facial expression (JAFFE) database show that the proposed algorithm can achieve a recognition rate of 81.9% when the resolution is as low as 16×16, which is much better than that of the traditional feature extraction operators.

The right place at the right time: priming facial expressions with emotional face components in developmental visual agnosia.

PubMed

Aviezer, Hillel; Hassin, Ran R; Perry, Anat; Dudarev, Veronica; Bentin, Shlomo

2012-04-01

The current study examined the nature of deficits in emotion recognition from facial expressions in case LG, an individual with a rare form of developmental visual agnosia (DVA). LG presents with profoundly impaired recognition of facial expressions, yet the underlying nature of his deficit remains unknown. During typical face processing, normal sighted individuals extract information about expressed emotions from face regions with activity diagnostic for specific emotion categories. Given LG's impairment, we sought to shed light on his emotion perception by examining if priming facial expressions with diagnostic emotional face components would facilitate his recognition of the emotion expressed by the face. LG and control participants matched isolated face components with components appearing in a subsequently presented full-face and then categorized the face's emotion. Critically, the matched components were from regions which were diagnostic or non-diagnostic of the emotion portrayed by the full face. In experiment 1, when the full faces were briefly presented (150 ms), LG's performance was strongly influenced by the diagnosticity of the components: his emotion recognition was boosted within normal limits when diagnostic components were used and was obliterated when non-diagnostic components were used. By contrast, in experiment 2, when the face-exposure duration was extended (2000 ms), the beneficial effect of the diagnostic matching was diminished as was the detrimental effect of the non-diagnostic matching. These data highlight the impact of diagnostic facial features in normal expression recognition and suggest that impaired emotion recognition in DVA results from deficient visual integration across diagnostic face components. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Orienting to face expression during encoding improves men's recognition of own gender faces.

PubMed

Fulton, Erika K; Bulluck, Megan; Hertzog, Christopher

2015-10-01

It is unclear why women have superior episodic memory of faces, but the benefit may be partially the result of women engaging in superior processing of facial expressions. Therefore, we hypothesized that orienting instructions to attend to facial expression at encoding would significantly improve men's memory of faces and possibly reduce gender differences. We directed 203 college students (122 women) to study 120 faces under instructions to orient to either the person's gender or their emotional expression. They later took a recognition test of these faces by either judging whether they had previously studied the same person or that person with the exact same expression; the latter test evaluated recollection of specific facial details. Orienting to facial expressions during encoding significantly improved men's recognition of own-gender faces and eliminated the advantage that women had for male faces under gender orienting instructions. Although gender differences in spontaneous strategy use when orienting to faces cannot fully account for gender differences in face recognition, orienting men to facial expression during encoding is one way to significantly improve their episodic memory for male faces. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Image ratio features for facial expression recognition application.

PubMed

Song, Mingli; Tao, Dacheng; Liu, Zicheng; Li, Xuelong; Zhou, Mengchu

2010-06-01

Video-based facial expression recognition is a challenging problem in computer vision and human-computer interaction. To target this problem, texture features have been extracted and widely used, because they can capture image intensity changes raised by skin deformation. However, existing texture features encounter problems with albedo and lighting variations. To solve both problems, we propose a new texture feature called image ratio features. Compared with previously proposed texture features, e.g., high gradient component features, image ratio features are more robust to albedo and lighting variations. In addition, to further improve facial expression recognition accuracy based on image ratio features, we combine image ratio features with facial animation parameters (FAPs), which describe the geometric motions of facial feature points. The performance evaluation is based on the Carnegie Mellon University Cohn-Kanade database, our own database, and the Japanese Female Facial Expression database. Experimental results show that the proposed image ratio feature is more robust to albedo and lighting variations, and the combination of image ratio features and FAPs outperforms each feature alone. In addition, we study asymmetric facial expressions based on our own facial expression database and demonstrate the superior performance of our combined expression recognition system.

In-the-wild facial expression recognition in extreme poses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Fei; Zhang, Qian; Zheng, Chi; Qiu, Guoping

2018-04-01

In the computer research area, facial expression recognition is a hot research problem. Recent years, the research has moved from the lab environment to in-the-wild circumstances. It is challenging, especially under extreme poses. But current expression detection systems are trying to avoid the pose effects and gain the general applicable ability. In this work, we solve the problem in the opposite approach. We consider the head poses and detect the expressions within special head poses. Our work includes two parts: detect the head pose and group it into one pre-defined head pose class; do facial expression recognize within each pose class. Our experiments show that the recognition results with pose class grouping are much better than that of direct recognition without considering poses. We combine the hand-crafted features, SIFT, LBP and geometric feature, with deep learning feature as the representation of the expressions. The handcrafted features are added into the deep learning framework along with the high level deep learning features. As a comparison, we implement SVM and random forest to as the prediction models. To train and test our methodology, we labeled the face dataset with 6 basic expressions.

Addendum to "Charm and bottom quark masses: An update"

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chetyrkin, Konstantin G.; Kühn, Johann H.; Maier, Andreas; Maierhöfer, Philipp; Marquard, Peter; Steinhauser, Matthias; Sturm, Christian

2017-12-01

We update the experimental moments for the charm quark as computed in [J. H. Kühn, M. Steinhauser, and C. Sturm, Nucl. Phys. B778, 192 (2007), 10.1016/j.nuclphysb.2007.04.036] and used in [K. G. Chetyrkin, J. H. Kühn, A. Maier, P. Maierhöfer, P. Marquard, M. Steinhauser, and C. Sturm, Phys. Rev. D 80, 074010 (2009),, 10.1103/PhysRevD.80.074010 K. Chetyrkin, J. H. Kühn, A. Maier, P. Maierhöfer, P. Marquard, M. Steinhauser, and C. Sturm, Theor. Math. Phys. 170, 217 (2012), 10.1007/s11232-012-0024-7] for the determination of the charm-quark mass. The new value for the MS ¯ charm-quark mass reads mc(3 GeV )=0.993 ±0.008 GeV .

Photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes by a stable and biocompatible Zn(II) MOF having ferulic acid: Experimental findings and theoretical correlation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, En-Hong; Li, Bao-Hong; Chen, Wei-Xin; Luo, Zhidong; Liu, Jianqiang; Singh, Amita; Kumar, Abhinav; Jin, Jun-Cheng

2017-12-01

The photocatalytic properties of d10-based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been developed as a potential technology in the photo-degradation of organic dyes. Herein, a biocompatible metal-organic framework (MOF) {[Zn2(fer)2]•0.5H2O}n (1) (fer = ferulic acid) has been selected which shows photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methyl violet (MV) and Rhodamine B (Rh B) in aqueous solution under UV irradiation. The photocatalytic results indicated the 1 exhibit 88% photocatalytic efficiency against Rh B in 100 min, while its against MV was only 54% under the identical experimental conditions. Moreover, a possible mechanism for the photocatalytic activity has proposed by density of states (DOS) calculations.

Recognition of Emotion from Facial Expressions with Direct or Averted Eye Gaze and Varying Expression Intensities in Children with Autism Disorder and Typically Developing Children

PubMed Central

Tell, Dina; Davidson, Denise; Camras, Linda A.

2014-01-01

Eye gaze direction and expression intensity effects on emotion recognition in children with autism disorder and typically developing children were investigated. Children with autism disorder and typically developing children identified happy and angry expressions equally well. Children with autism disorder, however, were less accurate in identifying fear expressions across intensities and eye gaze directions. Children with autism disorder rated expressions with direct eyes, and 50% expressions, as more intense than typically developing children. A trend was also found for sad expressions, as children with autism disorder were less accurate in recognizing sadness at 100% intensity with direct eyes than typically developing children. Although the present research showed that children with autism disorder are sensitive to eye gaze direction, impairments in the recognition of fear, and possibly sadness, exist. Furthermore, children with autism disorder and typically developing children perceive the intensity of emotional expressions differently. PMID:24804098

[Neural mechanisms of facial recognition].

PubMed

Nagai, Chiyoko

2007-01-01

We review recent researches in neural mechanisms of facial recognition in the light of three aspects: facial discrimination and identification, recognition of facial expressions, and face perception in itself. First, it has been demonstrated that the fusiform gyrus has a main role of facial discrimination and identification. However, whether the FFA (fusiform face area) is really a special area for facial processing or not is controversial; some researchers insist that the FFA is related to 'becoming an expert' for some kinds of visual objects, including faces. Neural mechanisms of prosopagnosia would be deeply concerned to this issue. Second, the amygdala seems to be very concerned to recognition of facial expressions, especially fear. The amygdala, connected with the superior temporal sulcus and the orbitofrontal cortex, appears to operate the cortical function. The amygdala and the superior temporal sulcus are related to gaze recognition, which explains why a patient with bilateral amygdala damage could not recognize only a fear expression; the information from eyes is necessary for fear recognition. Finally, even a newborn infant can recognize a face as a face, which is congruent with the innate hypothesis of facial recognition. Some researchers speculate that the neural basis of such face perception is the subcortical network, comprised of the amygdala, the superior colliculus, and the pulvinar. This network would relate to covert recognition that prosopagnosic patients have.

"Falsifiability is not optional": Correction to LeBel et al. (2017).

PubMed

2017-11-01

Reports an error in "Falsifiability is not optional" by Etienne P. LeBel, Derek Berger, Lorne Campbell and Timothy J. Loving ( Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 2017[Aug], Vol 113[2], 254-261). In the reply, there were two errors in the References list. The publishing year for the 14th and 21st articles was cited incorrectly as 2016. The in-text acronym associated with these citations should read instead as FER2017 and LCL2017. The correct References list citations should read as follows, respectively: Finkel, E. J., Eastwick, P. W., & Reis, H. T. (2017). Replicability and other features of a high-quality science: Toward a balanced and empirical approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 113, 244-253. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000075 LeBel, E. P., Campbell, L., & Loving, T. J. (2017). Benefits of open and high-powered research outweigh costs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 113, 230-243. http://dx.doi.org/10 .1037/pspi0000049. The online version of this article has been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2017-30567-003.) Finkel, Eastwick, and Reis (2016; FER2016) argued the post-2011 methodological reform movement has focused narrowly on replicability, neglecting other essential goals of research. We agree multiple scientific goals are essential, but argue, however, a more fine-grained language, conceptualization, and approach to replication is needed to accomplish these goals. Replication is the general empirical mechanism for testing and falsifying theory. Sufficiently methodologically similar replications, also known as direct replications, test the basic existence of phenomena and ensure cumulative progress is possible a priori. In contrast, increasingly methodologically dissimilar replications, also known as conceptual replications, test the relevance of auxiliary hypotheses (e.g., manipulation and measurement issues, contextual factors) required to productively investigate validity and generalizability. Without prioritizing replicability, a field is not empirically falsifiable. We also disagree with FER2016's position that "bigger samples are generally better, but . . . that very large samples could have the downside of commandeering resources that would have been better invested in other studies" (abstract). We identify problematic assumptions involved in FER2016's modifications of our original research-economic model, and present an improved model that quantifies when (and whether) it is reasonable to worry that increasing statistical power will engender potential trade-offs. Sufficiently powering studies (i.e., >80%) maximizes both research efficiency and confidence in the literature (research quality). Given that we are in agreement with FER2016 on all key open science points, we are eager to start seeing the accelerated rate of cumulative knowledge development of social psychological phenomena such a sufficiently transparent, powered, and falsifiable approach will generate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Cognitive penetrability and emotion recognition in human facial expressions

PubMed Central

Marchi, Francesco

2015-01-01

Do our background beliefs, desires, and mental images influence our perceptual experience of the emotions of others? In this paper, we will address the possibility of cognitive penetration (CP) of perceptual experience in the domain of social cognition. In particular, we focus on emotion recognition based on the visual experience of facial expressions. After introducing the current debate on CP, we review examples of perceptual adaptation for facial expressions of emotion. This evidence supports the idea that facial expressions are perceptually processed as wholes. That is, the perceptual system integrates lower-level facial features, such as eyebrow orientation, mouth angle etc., into facial compounds. We then present additional experimental evidence showing that in some cases, emotion recognition on the basis of facial expression is sensitive to and modified by the background knowledge of the subject. We argue that such sensitivity is best explained as a difference in the visual experience of the facial expression, not just as a modification of the judgment based on this experience. The difference in experience is characterized as the result of the interference of background knowledge with the perceptual integration process for faces. Thus, according to the best explanation, we have to accept CP in some cases of emotion recognition. Finally, we discuss a recently proposed mechanism for CP in the face-based recognition of emotion. PMID:26150796

Reduced Recognition of Dynamic Facial Emotional Expressions and Emotion-Specific Response Bias in Children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Evers, Kris; Steyaert, Jean; Noens, Ilse; Wagemans, Johan

2015-01-01

Emotion labelling was evaluated in two matched samples of 6-14-year old children with and without an autism spectrum disorder (ASD; N = 45 and N = 50, resp.), using six dynamic facial expressions. The Emotion Recognition Task proved to be valuable demonstrating subtle emotion recognition difficulties in ASD, as we showed a general poorer emotion…

Exploring Cultural Differences in the Recognition of the Self-Conscious Emotions.

PubMed

Chung, Joanne M; Robins, Richard W

2015-01-01

Recent research suggests that the self-conscious emotions of embarrassment, shame, and pride have distinct, nonverbal expressions that can be recognized in the United States at above-chance levels. However, few studies have examined the recognition of these emotions in other cultures, and little research has been conducted in Asia. Consequently the cross-cultural generalizability of self-conscious emotions has not been firmly established. Additionally, there is no research that examines cultural variability in the recognition of the self-conscious emotions. Cultural values and exposure to Western culture have been identified as contributors to variability in recognition rates for the basic emotions; we sought to examine this for the self-conscious emotions using the University of California, Davis Set of Emotion Expressions (UCDSEE). The present research examined recognition of the self-conscious emotion expressions in South Korean college students and found that recognition rates were very high for pride, low but above chance for shame, and near zero for embarrassment. To examine what might be underlying the recognition rates we found in South Korea, recognition of self-conscious emotions and several cultural values were examined in a U.S. college student sample of European Americans, Asian Americans, and Asian-born individuals. Emotion recognition rates were generally similar between the European Americans and Asian Americans, and higher than emotion recognition rates for Asian-born individuals. These differences were not explained by cultural values in an interpretable manner, suggesting that exposure to Western culture is a more important mediator than values.

Exploring Cultural Differences in the Recognition of the Self-Conscious Emotions

PubMed Central

Chung, Joanne M.; Robins, Richard W.

2015-01-01

Recent research suggests that the self-conscious emotions of embarrassment, shame, and pride have distinct, nonverbal expressions that can be recognized in the United States at above-chance levels. However, few studies have examined the recognition of these emotions in other cultures, and little research has been conducted in Asia. Consequently the cross-cultural generalizability of self-conscious emotions has not been firmly established. Additionally, there is no research that examines cultural variability in the recognition of the self-conscious emotions. Cultural values and exposure to Western culture have been identified as contributors to variability in recognition rates for the basic emotions; we sought to examine this for the self-conscious emotions using the University of California, Davis Set of Emotion Expressions (UCDSEE). The present research examined recognition of the self-conscious emotion expressions in South Korean college students and found that recognition rates were very high for pride, low but above chance for shame, and near zero for embarrassment. To examine what might be underlying the recognition rates we found in South Korea, recognition of self-conscious emotions and several cultural values were examined in a U.S. college student sample of European Americans, Asian Americans, and Asian-born individuals. Emotion recognition rates were generally similar between the European Americans and Asian Americans, and higher than emotion recognition rates for Asian-born individuals. These differences were not explained by cultural values in an interpretable manner, suggesting that exposure to Western culture is a more important mediator than values. PMID:26309215

The automaticity of emotion recognition.

PubMed

Tracy, Jessica L; Robins, Richard W

2008-02-01

Evolutionary accounts of emotion typically assume that humans evolved to quickly and efficiently recognize emotion expressions because these expressions convey fitness-enhancing messages. The present research tested this assumption in 2 studies. Specifically, the authors examined (a) how quickly perceivers could recognize expressions of anger, contempt, disgust, embarrassment, fear, happiness, pride, sadness, shame, and surprise; (b) whether accuracy is improved when perceivers deliberate about each expression's meaning (vs. respond as quickly as possible); and (c) whether accurate recognition can occur under cognitive load. Across both studies, perceivers quickly and efficiently (i.e., under cognitive load) recognized most emotion expressions, including the self-conscious emotions of pride, embarrassment, and shame. Deliberation improved accuracy in some cases, but these improvements were relatively small. Discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for the cognitive processes underlying emotion recognition.

Fashioning the Face: Sensorimotor Simulation Contributes to Facial Expression Recognition.

PubMed

Wood, Adrienne; Rychlowska, Magdalena; Korb, Sebastian; Niedenthal, Paula

2016-03-01

When we observe a facial expression of emotion, we often mimic it. This automatic mimicry reflects underlying sensorimotor simulation that supports accurate emotion recognition. Why this is so is becoming more obvious: emotions are patterns of expressive, behavioral, physiological, and subjective feeling responses. Activation of one component can therefore automatically activate other components. When people simulate a perceived facial expression, they partially activate the corresponding emotional state in themselves, which provides a basis for inferring the underlying emotion of the expresser. We integrate recent evidence in favor of a role for sensorimotor simulation in emotion recognition. We then connect this account to a domain-general understanding of how sensory information from multiple modalities is integrated to generate perceptual predictions in the brain. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Weighted Feature Gaussian Kernel SVM for Emotion Recognition

PubMed Central

Jia, Qingxuan

2016-01-01

Emotion recognition with weighted feature based on facial expression is a challenging research topic and has attracted great attention in the past few years. This paper presents a novel method, utilizing subregion recognition rate to weight kernel function. First, we divide the facial expression image into some uniform subregions and calculate corresponding recognition rate and weight. Then, we get a weighted feature Gaussian kernel function and construct a classifier based on Support Vector Machine (SVM). At last, the experimental results suggest that the approach based on weighted feature Gaussian kernel function has good performance on the correct rate in emotion recognition. The experiments on the extended Cohn-Kanade (CK+) dataset show that our method has achieved encouraging recognition results compared to the state-of-the-art methods. PMID:27807443

FERS Redeposit Act

THOMAS, 111th Congress

Rep. Moran, James P. [D-VA-8

2009-02-03

House - 05/04/2009 Referred to the Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Post Office, and the District of Columbia. (All Actions) Tracker: This bill has the status IntroducedHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Automatic Facial Expression Recognition and Operator Functional State

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blanson, Nina

2012-01-01

The prevalence of human error in safety-critical occupations remains a major challenge to mission success despite increasing automation in control processes. Although various methods have been proposed to prevent incidences of human error, none of these have been developed to employ the detection and regulation of Operator Functional State (OFS), or the optimal condition of the operator while performing a task, in work environments due to drawbacks such as obtrusiveness and impracticality. A video-based system with the ability to infer an individual's emotional state from facial feature patterning mitigates some of the problems associated with other methods of detecting OFS, like obtrusiveness and impracticality in integration with the mission environment. This paper explores the utility of facial expression recognition as a technology for inferring OFS by first expounding on the intricacies of OFS and the scientific background behind emotion and its relationship with an individual's state. Then, descriptions of the feedback loop and the emotion protocols proposed for the facial recognition program are explained. A basic version of the facial expression recognition program uses Haar classifiers and OpenCV libraries to automatically locate key facial landmarks during a live video stream. Various methods of creating facial expression recognition software are reviewed to guide future extensions of the program. The paper concludes with an examination of the steps necessary in the research of emotion and recommendations for the creation of an automatic facial expression recognition program for use in real-time, safety-critical missions

Automatic Facial Expression Recognition and Operator Functional State

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blanson, Nina

2011-01-01

The prevalence of human error in safety-critical occupations remains a major challenge to mission success despite increasing automation in control processes. Although various methods have been proposed to prevent incidences of human error, none of these have been developed to employ the detection and regulation of Operator Functional State (OFS), or the optimal condition of the operator while performing a task, in work environments due to drawbacks such as obtrusiveness and impracticality. A video-based system with the ability to infer an individual's emotional state from facial feature patterning mitigates some of the problems associated with other methods of detecting OFS, like obtrusiveness and impracticality in integration with the mission environment. This paper explores the utility of facial expression recognition as a technology for inferring OFS by first expounding on the intricacies of OFS and the scientific background behind emotion and its relationship with an individual's state. Then, descriptions of the feedback loop and the emotion protocols proposed for the facial recognition program are explained. A basic version of the facial expression recognition program uses Haar classifiers and OpenCV libraries to automatically locate key facial landmarks during a live video stream. Various methods of creating facial expression recognition software are reviewed to guide future extensions of the program. The paper concludes with an examination of the steps necessary in the research of emotion and recommendations for the creation of an automatic facial expression recognition program for use in real-time, safety-critical missions.

Effects of facial emotion recognition remediation on visual scanning of novel face stimuli.

PubMed

Marsh, Pamela J; Luckett, Gemma; Russell, Tamara; Coltheart, Max; Green, Melissa J

2012-11-01

Previous research shows that emotion recognition in schizophrenia can be improved with targeted remediation that draws attention to important facial features (eyes, nose, mouth). Moreover, the effects of training have been shown to last for up to one month after training. The aim of this study was to investigate whether improved emotion recognition of novel faces is associated with concomitant changes in visual scanning of these same novel facial expressions. Thirty-nine participants with schizophrenia received emotion recognition training using Ekman's Micro-Expression Training Tool (METT), with emotion recognition and visual scanpath (VSP) recordings to face stimuli collected simultaneously. Baseline ratings of interpersonal and cognitive functioning were also collected from all participants. Post-METT training, participants showed changes in foveal attention to the features of facial expressions of emotion not used in METT training, which were generally consistent with the information about important features from the METT. In particular, there were changes in how participants looked at the features of facial expressions of emotion surprise, disgust, fear, happiness, and neutral, demonstrating that improved emotion recognition is paralleled by changes in the way participants with schizophrenia viewed novel facial expressions of emotion. However, there were overall decreases in foveal attention to sad and neutral faces that indicate more intensive instruction might be needed for these faces during training. Most importantly, the evidence shows that participant gender may affect training outcomes. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Chinese Facial Emotion Recognition Database (CFERD): a computer-generated 3-D paradigm to measure the recognition of facial emotional expressions at different intensities.

PubMed

Huang, Charles Lung-Cheng; Hsiao, Sigmund; Hwu, Hai-Gwo; Howng, Shen-Long

2012-12-30

The Chinese Facial Emotion Recognition Database (CFERD), a computer-generated three-dimensional (3D) paradigm, was developed to measure the recognition of facial emotional expressions at different intensities. The stimuli consisted of 3D colour photographic images of six basic facial emotional expressions (happiness, sadness, disgust, fear, anger and surprise) and neutral faces of the Chinese. The purpose of the present study is to describe the development and validation of CFERD with nonclinical healthy participants (N=100; 50 men; age ranging between 18 and 50 years), and to generate normative data set. The results showed that the sensitivity index d' [d'=Z(hit rate)-Z(false alarm rate), where function Z(p), p∈[0,1

Astrocytic expression of HIV-1 Nef impairs spatial and recognition memory

PubMed Central

Chompre, Gladys; Cruz, Emmanuel; Maldonado, Lucianette; Rivera-Amill, Vanessa; Porter, James T.; Noel, Richard J.

2012-01-01

Despite the widespread use of antiretroviral therapy that effectively limits viral replication, memory impairment remains a dilemma for HIV infected people. In the CNS, HIV infection of astrocytes leads to the production of the HIV-1 Nef protein without viral replication. Post mortem studies have found Nef expression in hippocampal astrocytes of people with HIV associated dementia suggesting that astrocytic Nef may contribute to HIV associated cognitive impairment even when viral replication is suppressed. To test whether astrocytic expression of Nef is sufficient to induce cognitive deficits, we examined the effect of implanting primary rat astrocytes expressing Nef into the hippocampus on spatial and recognition memory. Rats implanted unilaterally with astrocytes expressing Nef showed impaired novel location and novel object recognition in comparison with controls implanted with astrocytes expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP). This impairment was correlated with an increase in chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2) expression and the infiltration of peripheral macrophages into the hippocampus at the site of injection. Furthermore, the Nef exposed rats exhibited a bilateral loss of CA3 neurons. These results suggest that Nef protein expressed by the implanted astrocytes activates the immune system leading to neuronal damage and spatial and recognition memory deficits. Therefore, the continued expression of Nef by astrocytes in the absence of viral replication has the potential to contribute to HIV associated cognitive impairment. PMID:22926191

Individual differences in the recognition of facial expressions: an event-related potentials study.

PubMed

Tamamiya, Yoshiyuki; Hiraki, Kazuo

2013-01-01

Previous studies have shown that early posterior components of event-related potentials (ERPs) are modulated by facial expressions. The goal of the current study was to investigate individual differences in the recognition of facial expressions by examining the relationship between ERP components and the discrimination of facial expressions. Pictures of 3 facial expressions (angry, happy, and neutral) were presented to 36 young adults during ERP recording. Participants were asked to respond with a button press as soon as they recognized the expression depicted. A multiple regression analysis, where ERP components were set as predictor variables, assessed hits and reaction times in response to the facial expressions as dependent variables. The N170 amplitudes significantly predicted for accuracy of angry and happy expressions, and the N170 latencies were predictive for accuracy of neutral expressions. The P2 amplitudes significantly predicted reaction time. The P2 latencies significantly predicted reaction times only for neutral faces. These results suggest that individual differences in the recognition of facial expressions emerge from early components in visual processing.

Recognition and Posing of Emotional Expressions by Abused Children and Their Mothers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Camras, Linda A.; And Others

1988-01-01

A total of 20 abused and 20 nonabused pairs of children of three-seven years and their mothers participated in a facial expression posing task and a facial expression recognition task. Findings suggest that abused children may not observe as often as nonabused children do the easily interpreted voluntary displays of emotion by their mothers. (RH)

Positive, but Not Negative, Facial Expressions Facilitate 3-Month-Olds' Recognition of an Individual Face

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brenna, Viola; Proietti, Valentina; Montirosso, Rosario; Turati, Chiara

2013-01-01

The current study examined whether and how the presence of a positive or a negative emotional expression may affect the face recognition process at 3 months of age. Using a familiarization procedure, Experiment 1 demonstrated that positive (i.e., happiness), but not negative (i.e., fear and anger) facial expressions facilitate infants' ability to…

Automatic integration of social information in emotion recognition.

PubMed

Mumenthaler, Christian; Sander, David

2015-04-01

This study investigated the automaticity of the influence of social inference on emotion recognition. Participants were asked to recognize dynamic facial expressions of emotion (fear or anger in Experiment 1 and blends of fear and surprise or of anger and disgust in Experiment 2) in a target face presented at the center of a screen while a subliminal contextual face appearing in the periphery expressed an emotion (fear or anger) or not (neutral) and either looked at the target face or not. Results of Experiment 1 revealed that recognition of the target emotion of fear was improved when a subliminal angry contextual face gazed toward-rather than away from-the fearful face. We replicated this effect in Experiment 2, in which facial expression blends of fear and surprise were more often and more rapidly categorized as expressing fear when the subliminal contextual face expressed anger and gazed toward-rather than away from-the target face. With the contextual face appearing for 30 ms in total, including only 10 ms of emotion expression, and being immediately masked, our data provide the first evidence that social influence on emotion recognition can occur automatically. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Effect of Acting Experience on Emotion Expression and Recognition in Voice: Non-Actors Provide Better Stimuli than Expected.

PubMed

Jürgens, Rebecca; Grass, Annika; Drolet, Matthis; Fischer, Julia

Both in the performative arts and in emotion research, professional actors are assumed to be capable of delivering emotions comparable to spontaneous emotional expressions. This study examines the effects of acting training on vocal emotion depiction and recognition. We predicted that professional actors express emotions in a more realistic fashion than non-professional actors. However, professional acting training may lead to a particular speech pattern; this might account for vocal expressions by actors that are less comparable to authentic samples than the ones by non-professional actors. We compared 80 emotional speech tokens from radio interviews with 80 re-enactments by professional and inexperienced actors, respectively. We analyzed recognition accuracies for emotion and authenticity ratings and compared the acoustic structure of the speech tokens. Both play-acted conditions yielded similar recognition accuracies and possessed more variable pitch contours than the spontaneous recordings. However, professional actors exhibited signs of different articulation patterns compared to non-trained speakers. Our results indicate that for emotion research, emotional expressions by professional actors are not better suited than those from non-actors.

Object-Place Recognition Learning Triggers Rapid Induction of Plasticity-Related Immediate Early Genes and Synaptic Proteins in the Rat Dentate Gyrus

PubMed Central

Soulé, Jonathan; Penke, Zsuzsa; Kanhema, Tambudzai; Alme, Maria Nordheim; Laroche, Serge; Bramham, Clive R.

2008-01-01

Long-term recognition memory requires protein synthesis, but little is known about the coordinate regulation of specific genes. Here, we examined expression of the plasticity-associated immediate early genes (Arc, Zif268, and Narp) in the dentate gyrus following long-term object-place recognition learning in rats. RT-PCR analysis from dentate gyrus tissue collected shortly after training did not reveal learning-specific changes in Arc mRNA expression. In situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry were therefore used to assess possible sparse effects on gene expression. Learning about objects increased the density of granule cells expressing Arc, and to a lesser extent Narp, specifically in the dorsal blade of the dentate gyrus, while Zif268 expression was elevated across both blades. Thus, object-place recognition triggers rapid, blade-specific upregulation of plasticity-associated immediate early genes. Furthermore, Western blot analysis of dentate gyrus homogenates demonstrated concomitant upregulation of three postsynaptic density proteins (Arc, PSD-95, and α-CaMKII) with key roles in long-term synaptic plasticity and long-term memory. PMID:19190776

Eye-movement assessment of the time course in facial expression recognition: Neurophysiological implications.

PubMed

Calvo, Manuel G; Nummenmaa, Lauri

2009-12-01

Happy, surprised, disgusted, angry, sad, fearful, and neutral faces were presented extrafoveally, with fixations on faces allowed or not. The faces were preceded by a cue word that designated the face to be saccaded in a two-alternative forced-choice discrimination task (2AFC; Experiments 1 and 2), or were followed by a probe word for recognition (Experiment 3). Eye tracking was used to decompose the recognition process into stages. Relative to the other expressions, happy faces (1) were identified faster (as early as 160 msec from stimulus onset) in extrafoveal vision, as revealed by shorter saccade latencies in the 2AFC task; (2) required less encoding effort, as indexed by shorter first fixations and dwell times; and (3) required less decision-making effort, as indicated by fewer refixations on the face after the recognition probe was presented. This reveals a happy-face identification advantage both prior to and during overt attentional processing. The results are discussed in relation to prior neurophysiological findings on latencies in facial expression recognition.

Food-Induced Emotional Resonance Improves Emotion Recognition.

PubMed

Pandolfi, Elisa; Sacripante, Riccardo; Cardini, Flavia

2016-01-01

The effect of food substances on emotional states has been widely investigated, showing, for example, that eating chocolate is able to reduce negative mood. Here, for the first time, we have shown that the consumption of specific food substances is not only able to induce particular emotional states, but more importantly, to facilitate recognition of corresponding emotional facial expressions in others. Participants were asked to perform an emotion recognition task before and after eating either a piece of chocolate or a small amount of fish sauce-which we expected to induce happiness or disgust, respectively. Our results showed that being in a specific emotional state improves recognition of the corresponding emotional facial expression. Indeed, eating chocolate improved recognition of happy faces, while disgusted expressions were more readily recognized after eating fish sauce. In line with the embodied account of emotion understanding, we suggest that people are better at inferring the emotional state of others when their own emotional state resonates with the observed one.

Food-Induced Emotional Resonance Improves Emotion Recognition

PubMed Central

Pandolfi, Elisa; Sacripante, Riccardo; Cardini, Flavia

2016-01-01

The effect of food substances on emotional states has been widely investigated, showing, for example, that eating chocolate is able to reduce negative mood. Here, for the first time, we have shown that the consumption of specific food substances is not only able to induce particular emotional states, but more importantly, to facilitate recognition of corresponding emotional facial expressions in others. Participants were asked to perform an emotion recognition task before and after eating either a piece of chocolate or a small amount of fish sauce—which we expected to induce happiness or disgust, respectively. Our results showed that being in a specific emotional state improves recognition of the corresponding emotional facial expression. Indeed, eating chocolate improved recognition of happy faces, while disgusted expressions were more readily recognized after eating fish sauce. In line with the embodied account of emotion understanding, we suggest that people are better at inferring the emotional state of others when their own emotional state resonates with the observed one. PMID:27973559

Effects of the duration of expressions on the recognition of microexpressions*

PubMed Central

Shen, Xun-bing; Wu, Qi; Fu, Xiao-lan

2012-01-01

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the duration of expressions on the recognition of microexpressions, which are closely related to deception. Methods: In two experiments, participants were briefly (from 20 to 300 ms) shown one of six basic expressions and then were asked to identify the expression. Results: The results showed that the participants’ performance in recognition of microexpressions increased with the duration of the expressions, reaching a turning point at 200 ms before levelling off. The results also indicated that practice could improve the participants’ performance. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that the proper upper limit of the duration of microexpressions might be around 1/5 of a second and confirmed that the ability to recognize microexpressions can be enhanced with practice. PMID:22374615

Risk of developmental delay of children aged between two and 24 months and its association with the quality of family stimulus

PubMed Central

Guimarães, Alessandro Fernandes; de Carvalho, Davi Vilela; Machado, Nathália Ádila A.; Baptista, Regiane Aparecida N.; Lemos, Stela Maris A.

2013-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the association between neurodevelopment and the family environment resources of children from the coverage area of a Basic Health Unit (BHU) of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, using a tool based on the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) strategy. METHODS: Cross-sectional study with a non-probabilistic sample involving 298 children aged between 2-24 months old, who attended a BHU in 2010. The assessment of child development and family resources made at the BHU lasted, in average, 45 minutes and included two tests - an adaptation of the Handbook for Monitoring Child Development in the Context of IMCI and an adapted version of the Family Environment Resource (FER) inventary. The nonparametric tests of Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney were used for the statistical analysis. RESULTS: The sample included 291 assessments, with 18.2% of children between 18 and 24 months old, 53.6% male gender, and 91.4% who did not attend day care centers. According to IMCI, 31.7% of the children were in the risk group for developmental delay. The total average score in FER was 38.0 points. Although it has been found an association between the IMCI outcome and the total FER score, all groups had low scores in the family environment assessment. CONCLUSIONS: The data indicate the need for childhood development screening in the primary health care and for early intervention programs aimed at this age group. PMID:24473949

Functional integration of the posterior superior temporal sulcus correlates with facial expression recognition.

PubMed

Wang, Xu; Song, Yiying; Zhen, Zonglei; Liu, Jia

2016-05-01

Face perception is essential for daily and social activities. Neuroimaging studies have revealed a distributed face network (FN) consisting of multiple regions that exhibit preferential responses to invariant or changeable facial information. However, our understanding about how these regions work collaboratively to facilitate facial information processing is limited. Here, we focused on changeable facial information processing, and investigated how the functional integration of the FN is related to the performance of facial expression recognition. To do so, we first defined the FN as voxels that responded more strongly to faces than objects, and then used a voxel-based global brain connectivity method based on resting-state fMRI to characterize the within-network connectivity (WNC) of each voxel in the FN. By relating the WNC and performance in the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Test across participants, we found that individuals with stronger WNC in the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (rpSTS) were better at recognizing facial expressions. Further, the resting-state functional connectivity (FC) between the rpSTS and right occipital face area (rOFA), early visual cortex (EVC), and bilateral STS were positively correlated with the ability of facial expression recognition, and the FCs of EVC-pSTS and OFA-pSTS contributed independently to facial expression recognition. In short, our study highlights the behavioral significance of intrinsic functional integration of the FN in facial expression processing, and provides evidence for the hub-like role of the rpSTS for facial expression recognition. Hum Brain Mapp 37:1930-1940, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Face recognition using facial expression: a novel approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Singh, Deepak Kumar; Gupta, Priya; Tiwary, U. S.

2008-04-01

Facial expressions are undoubtedly the most effective nonverbal communication. The face has always been the equation of a person's identity. The face draws the demarcation line between identity and extinction. Each line on the face adds an attribute to the identity. These lines become prominent when we experience an emotion and these lines do not change completely with age. In this paper we have proposed a new technique for face recognition which focuses on the facial expressions of the subject to identify his face. This is a grey area on which not much light has been thrown earlier. According to earlier researches it is difficult to alter the natural expression. So our technique will be beneficial for identifying occluded or intentionally disguised faces. The test results of the experiments conducted prove that this technique will give a new direction in the field of face recognition. This technique will provide a strong base to the area of face recognition and will be used as the core method for critical defense security related issues.

Computerized system for recognition of autism on the basis of gene expression microarray data.

PubMed

Latkowski, Tomasz; Osowski, Stanislaw

2015-01-01

The aim of this paper is to provide a means to recognize a case of autism using gene expression microarrays. The crucial task is to discover the most important genes which are strictly associated with autism. The paper presents an application of different methods of gene selection, to select the most representative input attributes for an ensemble of classifiers. The set of classifiers is responsible for distinguishing autism data from the reference class. Simultaneous application of a few gene selection methods enables analysis of the ill-conditioned gene expression matrix from different points of view. The results of selection combined with a genetic algorithm and SVM classifier have shown increased accuracy of autism recognition. Early recognition of autism is extremely important for treatment of children and increases the probability of their recovery and return to normal social communication. The results of this research can find practical application in early recognition of autism on the basis of gene expression microarray analysis. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Brief report: accuracy and response time for the recognition of facial emotions in a large sample of children with autism spectrum disorders.

PubMed

Fink, Elian; de Rosnay, Marc; Wierda, Marlies; Koot, Hans M; Begeer, Sander

2014-09-01

The empirical literature has presented inconsistent evidence for deficits in the recognition of basic emotion expressions in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), which may be due to the focus on research with relatively small sample sizes. Additionally, it is proposed that although children with ASD may correctly identify emotion expression they rely on more deliberate, more time-consuming strategies in order to accurately recognize emotion expressions when compared to typically developing children. In the current study, we examine both emotion recognition accuracy and response time in a large sample of children, and explore the moderating influence of verbal ability on these findings. The sample consisted of 86 children with ASD (M age = 10.65) and 114 typically developing children (M age = 10.32) between 7 and 13 years of age. All children completed a pre-test (emotion word-word matching), and test phase consisting of basic emotion recognition, whereby they were required to match a target emotion expression to the correct emotion word; accuracy and response time were recorded. Verbal IQ was controlled for in the analyses. We found no evidence of a systematic deficit in emotion recognition accuracy or response time for children with ASD, controlling for verbal ability. However, when controlling for children's accuracy in word-word matching, children with ASD had significantly lower emotion recognition accuracy when compared to typically developing children. The findings suggest that the social impairments observed in children with ASD are not the result of marked deficits in basic emotion recognition accuracy or longer response times. However, children with ASD may be relying on other perceptual skills (such as advanced word-word matching) to complete emotion recognition tasks at a similar level as typically developing children.

Bihippocampal damage with emotional dysfunction: impaired auditory recognition of fear.

PubMed

Ghika-Schmid, F; Ghika, J; Vuilleumier, P; Assal, G; Vuadens, P; Scherer, K; Maeder, P; Uske, A; Bogousslavsky, J

1997-01-01

A right-handed man developed a sudden transient, amnestic syndrome associated with bilateral hemorrhage of the hippocampi, probably due to Urbach-Wiethe disease. In the 3rd month, despite significant hippocampal structural damage on imaging, only a milder degree of retrograde and anterograde amnesia persisted on detailed neuropsychological examination. On systematic testing of recognition of facial and vocal expression of emotion, we found an impairment of the vocal perception of fear, but not that of other emotions, such as joy, sadness and anger. Such selective impairment of fear perception was not present in the recognition of facial expression of emotion. Thus emotional perception varies according to the different aspects of emotions and the different modality of presentation (faces versus voices). This is consistent with the idea that there may be multiple emotion systems. The study of emotional perception in this unique case of bilateral involvement of hippocampus suggests that this structure may play a critical role in the recognition of fear in vocal expression, possibly dissociated from that of other emotions and from that of fear in facial expression. In regard of recent data suggesting that the amygdala is playing a role in the recognition of fear in the auditory as well as in the visual modality this could suggest that the hippocampus may be part of the auditory pathway of fear recognition.

Postsurgical Disfigurement Influences Disgust Recognition: A Case-Control Study.

PubMed

Lisan, Quentin; George, Nathalie; Hans, Stephane; Laccourreye, Ollivier; Lemogne, Cédric

Little is known about how emotion recognition may be modified in individuals prone to elicit disgust. We sought to determine if subjects with total laryngectomy would present a modified recognition of facial expressions of disgust. A total of 29 patients presenting with a history of advanced-stage laryngeal cancer were recruited, 17 being surgically treated (total laryngectomy) and 12 treated with chemoradiation therapy only. Based on a validated set of images of facial expressions of fear, disgust, surprise, happiness, sadness and anger displayed by 6 actors, we presented participants with expressions of each emotion at 5 levels of increasing intensity and measured their ability to recognize these emotions. Participants with (vs without) laryngectomy showed a higher threshold for the recognition of disgust (3.2. vs 2.7 images needed before emotion recognition, p = 0.03) and a lower success rate of correct recognition (75.5% vs 88.9%, p = 0.03). Subjects presenting with an aesthetic impairment of the head and neck showed poorer performance in disgust recognition when compared with those without disfigurement. These findings might relate either to some perceptual adaptation, habituation phenomenon, or to some higher-level processes related to emotion regulation strategies. Copyright © 2018 Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Facial recognition: a cognitive study of elderly dementia patients and normal older adults.

PubMed

Zandi, T; Cooper, M; Garrison, L

1992-01-01

Dementia patients' and normal elderlies' recognition of familiar, ordinary emotional and facial expressions was tested. In three conditions subjects were required to name the emotions depicted in pictures and to produce them while presented with the verbal labels of the expressions. The dementia patients' best performance occurred when they had access to the verbal labels while viewing the pictures. The major deficiency in facial recognition was found to be dysnomia related. Findings of this study suggest that the connection between the gnostic units of expression and the gnostic units of verbal labeling is not impaired significantly among the dementia patients.

Towards Multimodal Emotion Recognition in E-Learning Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bahreini, Kiavash; Nadolski, Rob; Westera, Wim

2016-01-01

This paper presents a framework (FILTWAM (Framework for Improving Learning Through Webcams And Microphones)) for real-time emotion recognition in e-learning by using webcams. FILTWAM offers timely and relevant feedback based upon learner's facial expressions and verbalizations. FILTWAM's facial expression software module has been developed and…

Embodied emotion impairment in Huntington's Disease.

PubMed

Trinkler, Iris; Devignevielle, Sévérine; Achaibou, Amal; Ligneul, Romain V; Brugières, Pierre; Cleret de Langavant, Laurent; De Gelder, Beatrice; Scahill, Rachael; Schwartz, Sophie; Bachoud-Lévi, Anne-Catherine

2017-07-01

Theories of embodied cognition suggest that perceiving an emotion involves somatovisceral and motoric re-experiencing. Here we suggest taking such an embodied stance when looking at emotion processing deficits in patients with Huntington's Disease (HD), a neurodegenerative motor disorder. The literature on these patients' emotion recognition deficit has recently been enriched by some reports of impaired emotion expression. The goal of the study was to find out if expression deficits might be linked to a more motoric level of impairment. We used electromyography (EMG) to compare voluntary emotion expression from words to emotion imitation from static face images, and spontaneous emotion mimicry in 28 HD patients and 24 matched controls. For the latter two imitation conditions, an underlying emotion understanding is not imperative (even though performance might be helped by it). EMG measures were compared to emotion recognition and to the capacity to identify and describe emotions using alexithymia questionnaires. Alexithymia questionnaires tap into the more somato-visceral or interoceptive aspects of emotion perception. Furthermore, we correlated patients' expression and recognition scores to cerebral grey matter volume using voxel-based morphometry (VBM). EMG results replicated impaired voluntary emotion expression in HD. Critically, voluntary imitation and spontaneous mimicry were equally impaired and correlated with impaired recognition. By contrast, alexithymia scores were normal, suggesting that emotion representations on the level of internal experience might be spared. Recognition correlated with brain volume in the caudate as well as in areas previously associated with shared action representations, namely somatosensory, posterior parietal, posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) and subcentral sulcus. Together, these findings indicate that in these patients emotion deficits might be tied to the "motoric level" of emotion expression. Such a double-sided recognition and expression impairment may have important consequences, interrupting empathy in nonverbal communication both ways (understanding and being understood), independently of intact internal experience of emotion. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of GABAB receptors in the insula on recognition memory observed with intellicage.

PubMed

Wu, Nan; Wang, Feng; Jin, Zhe; Zhang, Zhen; Wang, Lian-Kun; Zhang, Chun; Sun, Tao

2017-04-17

Insular function has gradually become a topic of intense study in cognitive research. Recognition memory is a commonly studied type of memory in memory research. GABA B R has been shown to be closely related to memory formation. In the present study, we used intellicage, which is a new intelligent behavioural test system, and a bilateral drug microinjection technique to inject into the bilateral insula, to examine the relationship between GABA B R and recognition memory. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into control, Sham, Nacl, baclofen and CGP35348 groups. Different testing procedures were employed using intellicage to detect changes in rat recognition memory. The expression of GABA B R (GB1, GB2) in the insula of rats was determined by immunofluorescence and western blotting at the protein level. In addition, the expression of GABA B R (GB 1 , GB 2 ) was detected by RT-PCR at the mRNA level. The results of the intellicage test showed that recognition memory was impaired in terms of position learning, punitive learning and punitive reversal learning by using baclofen and CGP35348. In position reversal learning, no significant differences were found in terms of cognitive memory ability between the control groups and the CGP and baclofen groups. Immunofluorescence data showed GABA B R (GB1, GB2) expression in the insula, while data from RT-PCR and western blot analysis demonstrated that the relative expression of GB1 and GB2 was significantly increased in the baclofen group compared with the control groups. In the CGP35348 group, the expression of GB1 and GB2 was significantly decreased, but there was no significant difference in GB1 or GB2 expression in the control groups. GABA B R expression in the insula plays an important role in the formation of recognition memory in rats.

5 CFR 841.702 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

...) to a person designated to receive such an annuity under § 842.605 of this chapter. COLA means a cost... COLA begin to accrue at the higher rate. FERS means the Federal Employees Retirement System as defined...

Gene expression profiling of pre-eclamptic placentae by RNA sequencing.

PubMed

Kaartokallio, Tea; Cervera, Alejandra; Kyllönen, Anjuska; Laivuori, Krista; Kere, Juha; Laivuori, Hannele

2015-09-21

Pre-eclampsia is a common and complex pregnancy disorder that often involves impaired placental development. In order to identify altered gene expression in pre-eclamptic placenta, we sequenced placental transcriptomes of nine pre-eclamptic and nine healthy pregnant women in pools of three. The differential gene expression was tested both by including all the pools in the analysis and by excluding some of the pools based on phenotypic characteristics. From these analyses, we identified altogether 53 differently expressed genes, a subset of which was validated by qPCR in 20 cases and 19 controls. Furthermore, we conducted pathway and functional analyses which revealed disturbed vascular function and immunological balance in pre-eclamptic placenta. Some of the genes identified in our study have been reported by numerous microarray studies (BHLHE40, FSTL3, HK2, HTRA4, LEP, PVRL4, SASH1, SIGLEC6), but many have been implicated in only few studies or have not previously been linked to pre-eclampsia (ARMS2, BTNL9, CCSAP, DIO2, FER1L4, HPSE, LOC100129345, LYN, MYO7B, NCMAP, NDRG1, NRIP1, PLIN2, SBSPON, SERPINB9, SH3BP5, TET3, TPBG, ZNF175). Several of the molecules produced by these genes may have a role in the pathogenesis of pre-eclampsia, and some could qualify as biomarkers for prediction or detection of this pregnancy complication.

Gene expression profiling of pre-eclamptic placentae by RNA sequencing

PubMed Central

Kaartokallio, Tea; Cervera, Alejandra; Kyllönen, Anjuska; Laivuori, Krista; Laivuori, Hannele; Heinonen, Seppo; Kajantie, Eero; Kere, Juha; Kivinen, Katja; Pouta, Anneli

2015-01-01

Pre-eclampsia is a common and complex pregnancy disorder that often involves impaired placental development. In order to identify altered gene expression in pre-eclamptic placenta, we sequenced placental transcriptomes of nine pre-eclamptic and nine healthy pregnant women in pools of three. The differential gene expression was tested both by including all the pools in the analysis and by excluding some of the pools based on phenotypic characteristics. From these analyses, we identified altogether 53 differently expressed genes, a subset of which was validated by qPCR in 20 cases and 19 controls. Furthermore, we conducted pathway and functional analyses which revealed disturbed vascular function and immunological balance in pre-eclamptic placenta. Some of the genes identified in our study have been reported by numerous microarray studies (BHLHE40, FSTL3, HK2, HTRA4, LEP, PVRL4, SASH1, SIGLEC6), but many have been implicated in only few studies or have not previously been linked to pre-eclampsia (ARMS2, BTNL9, CCSAP, DIO2, FER1L4, HPSE, LOC100129345, LYN, MYO7B, NCMAP, NDRG1, NRIP1, PLIN2, SBSPON, SERPINB9, SH3BP5, TET3, TPBG, ZNF175). Several of the molecules produced by these genes may have a role in the pathogenesis of pre-eclampsia, and some could qualify as biomarkers for prediction or detection of this pregnancy complication. PMID:26388242

Correlations of recognition memory performance with expression and methylation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in rats.

PubMed

Muñoz, Pablo C; Aspé, Mauricio A; Contreras, Luis S; Palacios, Adrián G

2010-01-01

Object recognition memory allows discrimination between novel and familiar objects. This kind of memory consists of two components: recollection, which depends on the hippocampus, and familiarity, which depends on the perirhinal cortex (Pcx). The importance of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) for recognition memory has already been recognized. Recent evidence suggests that DNA methylation regulates the expression of BDNF and memory. Behavioral and molecular approaches were used to understand the potential contribution of DNA methylation to recognition memory. To that end, rats were tested for their ability to distinguish novel from familiar objects by using a spontaneous object recognition task. Furthermore, the level of DNA methylation was estimated after trials with a methyl-sensitive PCR. We found a significant correlation between performance on the novel object task and the expression of BDNF, negatively in hippocampal slices and positively in perirhinal cortical slices. By contrast, methylation of DNA in CpG island 1 in the promoter of exon 1 in BDNF only correlated in hippocampal slices, but not in the Pxc cortical slices from trained animals. These results suggest that DNA methylation may be involved in the regulation of the BDNF gene during recognition memory, at least in the hippocampus.

Deficits in facial affect recognition among antisocial populations: a meta-analysis.

PubMed

Marsh, Abigail A; Blair, R J R

2008-01-01

Individuals with disorders marked by antisocial behavior frequently show deficits in recognizing displays of facial affect. Antisociality may be associated with specific deficits in identifying fearful expressions, which would implicate dysfunction in neural structures that subserve fearful expression processing. A meta-analysis of 20 studies was conducted to assess: (a) if antisocial populations show any consistent deficits in recognizing six emotional expressions; (b) beyond any generalized impairment, whether specific fear recognition deficits are apparent; and (c) if deficits in fear recognition are a function of task difficulty. Results show a robust link between antisocial behavior and specific deficits in recognizing fearful expressions. This impairment cannot be attributed solely to task difficulty. These results suggest dysfunction among antisocial individuals in specified neural substrates, namely the amygdala, involved in processing fearful facial affect.

Development of emotional facial recognition in late childhood and adolescence.

PubMed

Thomas, Laura A; De Bellis, Michael D; Graham, Reiko; LaBar, Kevin S

2007-09-01

The ability to interpret emotions in facial expressions is crucial for social functioning across the lifespan. Facial expression recognition develops rapidly during infancy and improves with age during the preschool years. However, the developmental trajectory from late childhood to adulthood is less clear. We tested older children, adolescents and adults on a two-alternative forced-choice discrimination task using morphed faces that varied in emotional content. Actors appeared to pose expressions that changed incrementally along three progressions: neutral-to-fear, neutral-to-anger, and fear-to-anger. Across all three morph types, adults displayed more sensitivity to subtle changes in emotional expression than children and adolescents. Fear morphs and fear-to-anger blends showed a linear developmental trajectory, whereas anger morphs showed a quadratic trend, increasing sharply from adolescents to adults. The results provide evidence for late developmental changes in emotional expression recognition with some specificity in the time course for distinct emotions.

The Automaticity of Emotional Face-Context Integration

PubMed Central

Aviezer, Hillel; Dudarev, Veronica; Bentin, Shlomo; Hassin, Ran R.

2011-01-01

Recent studies have demonstrated that context can dramatically influence the recognition of basic facial expressions, yet the nature of this phenomenon is largely unknown. In the present paper we begin to characterize the underlying process of face-context integration. Specifically, we examine whether it is a relatively controlled or automatic process. In Experiment 1 participants were motivated and instructed to avoid using the context while categorizing contextualized facial expression, or they were led to believe that the context was irrelevant. Nevertheless, they were unable to disregard the context, which exerted a strong effect on their emotion recognition. In Experiment 2, participants categorized contextualized facial expressions while engaged in a concurrent working memory task. Despite the load, the context exerted a strong influence on their recognition of facial expressions. These results suggest that facial expressions and their body contexts are integrated in an unintentional, uncontrollable, and relatively effortless manner. PMID:21707150

A Genetic Approach to Promoter Recognition during Trans Induction of Viral Gene Expression

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coen, Donald M.; Weinheimer, Steven P.; McKnight, Steven L.

1986-10-01

Viral infection of mammalian cells entails the regulated induction of viral gene expression. The induction of many viral genes, including the herpes simplex virus gene encoding thymidine kinase (tk), depends on viral regulatory proteins that act in trans. Because recognition of the tk promoter by cellular transcription factors is well understood, its trans induction by viral regulatory proteins may serve as a useful model for the regulation of eukaryotic gene expression. A comprehensive set of mutations was therefore introduced into the chromosome of herpes simplex virus at the tk promoter to directly analyze the effects of promoter mutations on tk transcription. The promoter domains required for efficient tk expression under conditions of trans induction corresponded to those important for recognition by cellular transcription factors. Thus, trans induction of tk expression may be catalyzed initially by the interaction of viral regulatory proteins with cellular transcription factors.

Development of Emotional Facial Recognition in Late Childhood and Adolescence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomas, Laura A.; De Bellis, Michael D.; Graham, Reiko; Labar, Kevin S.

2007-01-01

The ability to interpret emotions in facial expressions is crucial for social functioning across the lifespan. Facial expression recognition develops rapidly during infancy and improves with age during the preschool years. However, the developmental trajectory from late childhood to adulthood is less clear. We tested older children, adolescents…

Teaching Emotion Recognition Skills to Children with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ryan, Christian; Charragain, Caitriona Ni

2010-01-01

Autism is associated with difficulty interacting with others and an impaired ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion. Previous teaching programmes have not addressed weak central coherence. Emotion recognition training focused on components of facial expressions. The training was administered in small groups ranging from 4 to 7…

Human and animal sounds influence recognition of body language.

PubMed

Van den Stock, Jan; Grèzes, Julie; de Gelder, Beatrice

2008-11-25

In naturalistic settings emotional events have multiple correlates and are simultaneously perceived by several sensory systems. Recent studies have shown that recognition of facial expressions is biased towards the emotion expressed by a simultaneously presented emotional expression in the voice even if attention is directed to the face only. So far, no study examined whether this phenomenon also applies to whole body expressions, although there is no obvious reason why this crossmodal influence would be specific for faces. Here we investigated whether perception of emotions expressed in whole body movements is influenced by affective information provided by human and by animal vocalizations. Participants were instructed to attend to the action displayed by the body and to categorize the expressed emotion. The results indicate that recognition of body language is biased towards the emotion expressed by the simultaneously presented auditory information, whether it consist of human or of animal sounds. Our results show that a crossmodal influence from auditory to visual emotional information obtains for whole body video images with the facial expression blanked and includes human as well as animal sounds.

Recognition of emotion with temporal lobe epilepsy and asymmetrical amygdala damage.

PubMed

Fowler, Helen L; Baker, Gus A; Tipples, Jason; Hare, Dougal J; Keller, Simon; Chadwick, David W; Young, Andrew W

2006-08-01

Impairments in emotion recognition occur when there is bilateral damage to the amygdala. In this study, ability to recognize auditory and visual expressions of emotion was investigated in people with asymmetrical amygdala damage (AAD) and temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Recognition of five emotions was tested across three participant groups: those with right AAD and TLE, those with left AAD and TLE, and a comparison group. Four tasks were administered: recognition of emotion from facial expressions, sentences describing emotion-laden situations, nonverbal sounds, and prosody. Accuracy scores for each task and emotion were analysed, and no consistent overall effect of AAD on emotion recognition was found. However, some individual participants with AAD were significantly impaired at recognizing emotions, in both auditory and visual domains. The findings indicate that a minority of individuals with AAD have impairments in emotion recognition, but no evidence of specific impairments (e.g., visual or auditory) was found.

Memristive Computational Architecture of an Echo State Network for Real-Time Speech Emotion Recognition

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-05-28

recognition is simpler and requires less computational resources compared to other inputs such as facial expressions . The Berlin database of Emotional ...Processing Magazine, IEEE, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 32– 80, 2001. [15] K. R. Scherer, T. Johnstone, and G. Klasmeyer, “Vocal expression of emotion ...Network for Real-Time Speech- Emotion Recognition 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER IN-HOUSE 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 62788F 6. AUTHOR(S) Q

Impact of severity of drug use on discrete emotions recognition in polysubstance abusers.

PubMed

Fernández-Serrano, María José; Lozano, Oscar; Pérez-García, Miguel; Verdejo-García, Antonio

2010-06-01

Neuropsychological studies support the association between severity of drug intake and alterations in specific cognitive domains and neural systems, but there is disproportionately less research on the neuropsychology of emotional alterations associated with addiction. One of the key aspects of adaptive emotional functioning potentially relevant to addiction progression and treatment is the ability to recognize basic emotions in the faces of others. Therefore, the aims of this study were: (i) to examine facial emotion recognition in abstinent polysubstance abusers, and (ii) to explore the association between patterns of quantity and duration of use of several drugs co-abused (including alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, heroin and MDMA) and the ability to identify discrete facial emotional expressions portraying basic emotions. We compared accuracy of emotion recognition of facial expressions portraying six basic emotions (measured with the Ekman Faces Test) between polysubstance abusers (PSA, n=65) and non-drug using comparison individuals (NDCI, n=30), and used regression models to explore the association between quantity and duration of use of the different drugs co-abused and indices of recognition of each of the six emotions, while controlling for relevant socio-demographic and affect-related confounders. Results showed: (i) that PSA had significantly poorer recognition than NDCI for facial expressions of anger, disgust, fear and sadness; (ii) that measures of quantity and duration of drugs used significantly predicted poorer discrete emotions recognition: quantity of cocaine use predicted poorer anger recognition, and duration of cocaine use predicted both poorer anger and fear recognition. Severity of cocaine use also significantly predicted overall recognition accuracy. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sad people are more accurate at expression identification with a smaller own-ethnicity bias than happy people.

PubMed

Hills, Peter J; Hill, Dominic M

2017-07-12

Sad individuals perform more accurately at face identity recognition (Hills, Werno, & Lewis, 2011), possibly because they scan more of the face during encoding. During expression identification tasks, sad individuals do not fixate on the eyes as much as happier individuals (Wu, Pu, Allen, & Pauli, 2012). Fixating on features other than the eyes leads to a reduced own-ethnicity bias (Hills & Lewis, 2006). This background indicates that sad individuals would not view the eyes as much as happy individuals and this would result in improved expression recognition and a reduced own-ethnicity bias. This prediction was tested using an expression identification task, with eye tracking. We demonstrate that sad-induced participants show enhanced expression recognition and a reduced own-ethnicity bias than happy-induced participants due to scanning more facial features. We conclude that mood affects eye movements and face encoding by causing a wider sampling strategy and deeper encoding of facial features diagnostic for expression identification.

5 CFR 1655.10 - Loan application process.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... request on the TSP Web site: (1) FERS participants or members of the uniformed services requesting a... described in paragraph (b) of this section may use the TSP Web site to submit a loan application and obtain...

Transmission over UWB channels with OFDM system using LDPC coding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dziwoki, Grzegorz; Kucharczyk, Marcin; Sulek, Wojciech

2009-06-01

Hostile wireless environment requires use of sophisticated signal processing methods. The paper concerns on Ultra Wideband (UWB) transmission over Personal Area Networks (PAN) including MB-OFDM specification of physical layer. In presented work the transmission system with OFDM modulation was connected with LDPC encoder/decoder. Additionally the frame and bit error rate (FER and BER) of the system was decreased using results from the LDPC decoder in a kind of turbo equalization algorithm for better channel estimation. Computational block using evolutionary strategy, from genetic algorithms family, was also used in presented system. It was placed after SPA (Sum-Product Algorithm) decoder and is conditionally turned on in the decoding process. The result is increased effectiveness of the whole system, especially lower FER. The system was tested with two types of LDPC codes, depending on type of parity check matrices: randomly generated and constructed deterministically, optimized for practical decoder architecture implemented in the FPGA device.

Reactive oxygen species mediate pollen tube rupture to release sperm for fertilization in Arabidopsis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duan, Qiaohong; Kita, Daniel; Johnson, Eric A.; Aggarwal, Mini; Gates, Laura; Wu, Hen-Ming; Cheung, Alice Y.

2014-01-01

In flowering plants, sperm are transported inside pollen tubes to the female gametophyte for fertilization. The female gametophyte induces rupture of the penetrating pollen tube, resulting in sperm release and rendering them available for fertilization. Here we utilize the Arabidopsis FERONIA (FER) receptor kinase mutants, whose female gametophytes fail to induce pollen tube rupture, to decipher the molecular mechanism of this critical male-female interactive step. We show that FER controls the production of high levels of reactive oxygen species at the entrance to the female gametophyte to induce pollen tube rupture and sperm release. Pollen tube growth assays in vitro and in the pistil demonstrate that hydroxyl free radicals are likely the most reactive oxygen molecules, and they induce pollen tube rupture in a Ca2+-dependent process involving Ca2+ channel activation. Our results provide evidence for a RHO GTPase-based signalling mechanism to mediate sperm release for fertilization in plants.

Reactive oxygen species mediate pollen tube rupture to release sperm for fertilization in Arabidopsis.

PubMed

Duan, Qiaohong; Kita, Daniel; Johnson, Eric A; Aggarwal, Mini; Gates, Laura; Wu, Hen-Ming; Cheung, Alice Y

2014-01-01

In flowering plants, sperm are transported inside pollen tubes to the female gametophyte for fertilization. The female gametophyte induces rupture of the penetrating pollen tube, resulting in sperm release and rendering them available for fertilization. Here we utilize the Arabidopsis FERONIA (FER) receptor kinase mutants, whose female gametophytes fail to induce pollen tube rupture, to decipher the molecular mechanism of this critical male-female interactive step. We show that FER controls the production of high levels of reactive oxygen species at the entrance to the female gametophyte to induce pollen tube rupture and sperm release. Pollen tube growth assays in vitro and in the pistil demonstrate that hydroxyl free radicals are likely the most reactive oxygen molecules, and they induce pollen tube rupture in a Ca(2+)-dependent process involving Ca(2+) channel activation. Our results provide evidence for a RHO GTPase-based signalling mechanism to mediate sperm release for fertilization in plants.

The within-subjects design in the study of facial expressions.

PubMed

Yik, Michelle; Widen, Sherri C; Russell, James A

2013-01-01

The common within-subjects design of studies on the recognition of emotion from facial expressions allows the judgement of one face to be influenced by previous faces, thus introducing the potential for artefacts. The present study (N=344) showed that the canonical "disgust face" was judged as disgusted, provided that the preceding set of faces included "anger expressions", but was judged as angry when the preceding set of faces excluded anger but instead included persons who looked sad or about to be sick. Chinese observers showed lower recognition of the "disgust face" than did American observers. Chinese observers also showed lower recognition of the "fear face" when responding in Chinese than in English.

Impaired recognition of facial emotions from low-spatial frequencies in Asperger syndrome.

PubMed

Kätsyri, Jari; Saalasti, Satu; Tiippana, Kaisa; von Wendt, Lennart; Sams, Mikko

2008-01-01

The theory of 'weak central coherence' [Happe, F., & Frith, U. (2006). The weak coherence account: Detail-focused cognitive style in autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36(1), 5-25] implies that persons with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have a perceptual bias for local but not for global stimulus features. The recognition of emotional facial expressions representing various different levels of detail has not been studied previously in ASDs. We analyzed the recognition of four basic emotional facial expressions (anger, disgust, fear and happiness) from low-spatial frequencies (overall global shapes without local features) in adults with an ASD. A group of 20 participants with Asperger syndrome (AS) was compared to a group of non-autistic age- and sex-matched controls. Emotion recognition was tested from static and dynamic facial expressions whose spatial frequency contents had been manipulated by low-pass filtering at two levels. The two groups recognized emotions similarly from non-filtered faces and from dynamic vs. static facial expressions. In contrast, the participants with AS were less accurate than controls in recognizing facial emotions from very low-spatial frequencies. The results suggest intact recognition of basic facial emotions and dynamic facial information, but impaired visual processing of global features in ASDs.

Early visual experience and the recognition of basic facial expressions: involvement of the middle temporal and inferior frontal gyri during haptic identification by the early blind

PubMed Central

Kitada, Ryo; Okamoto, Yuko; Sasaki, Akihiro T.; Kochiyama, Takanori; Miyahara, Motohide; Lederman, Susan J.; Sadato, Norihiro

2012-01-01

Face perception is critical for social communication. Given its fundamental importance in the course of evolution, the innate neural mechanisms can anticipate the computations necessary for representing faces. However, the effect of visual deprivation on the formation of neural mechanisms that underlie face perception is largely unknown. We previously showed that sighted individuals can recognize basic facial expressions by haptics surprisingly well. Moreover, the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) in the sighted subjects are involved in haptic and visual recognition of facial expressions. Here, we conducted both psychophysical and functional magnetic-resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments to determine the nature of the neural representation that subserves the recognition of basic facial expressions in early blind individuals. In a psychophysical experiment, both early blind and sighted subjects haptically identified basic facial expressions at levels well above chance. In the subsequent fMRI experiment, both groups haptically identified facial expressions and shoe types (control). The sighted subjects then completed the same task visually. Within brain regions activated by the visual and haptic identification of facial expressions (relative to that of shoes) in the sighted group, corresponding haptic identification in the early blind activated regions in the inferior frontal and middle temporal gyri. These results suggest that the neural system that underlies the recognition of basic facial expressions develops supramodally even in the absence of early visual experience. PMID:23372547

Early visual experience and the recognition of basic facial expressions: involvement of the middle temporal and inferior frontal gyri during haptic identification by the early blind.

PubMed

Kitada, Ryo; Okamoto, Yuko; Sasaki, Akihiro T; Kochiyama, Takanori; Miyahara, Motohide; Lederman, Susan J; Sadato, Norihiro

2013-01-01

Face perception is critical for social communication. Given its fundamental importance in the course of evolution, the innate neural mechanisms can anticipate the computations necessary for representing faces. However, the effect of visual deprivation on the formation of neural mechanisms that underlie face perception is largely unknown. We previously showed that sighted individuals can recognize basic facial expressions by haptics surprisingly well. Moreover, the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) in the sighted subjects are involved in haptic and visual recognition of facial expressions. Here, we conducted both psychophysical and functional magnetic-resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments to determine the nature of the neural representation that subserves the recognition of basic facial expressions in early blind individuals. In a psychophysical experiment, both early blind and sighted subjects haptically identified basic facial expressions at levels well above chance. In the subsequent fMRI experiment, both groups haptically identified facial expressions and shoe types (control). The sighted subjects then completed the same task visually. Within brain regions activated by the visual and haptic identification of facial expressions (relative to that of shoes) in the sighted group, corresponding haptic identification in the early blind activated regions in the inferior frontal and middle temporal gyri. These results suggest that the neural system that underlies the recognition of basic facial expressions develops supramodally even in the absence of early visual experience.

Facial Emotion Recognition: A Survey and Real-World User Experiences in Mixed Reality

PubMed Central

Mehta, Dhwani; Siddiqui, Mohammad Faridul Haque

2018-01-01

Extensive possibilities of applications have made emotion recognition ineluctable and challenging in the field of computer science. The use of non-verbal cues such as gestures, body movement, and facial expressions convey the feeling and the feedback to the user. This discipline of Human–Computer Interaction places reliance on the algorithmic robustness and the sensitivity of the sensor to ameliorate the recognition. Sensors play a significant role in accurate detection by providing a very high-quality input, hence increasing the efficiency and the reliability of the system. Automatic recognition of human emotions would help in teaching social intelligence in the machines. This paper presents a brief study of the various approaches and the techniques of emotion recognition. The survey covers a succinct review of the databases that are considered as data sets for algorithms detecting the emotions by facial expressions. Later, mixed reality device Microsoft HoloLens (MHL) is introduced for observing emotion recognition in Augmented Reality (AR). A brief introduction of its sensors, their application in emotion recognition and some preliminary results of emotion recognition using MHL are presented. The paper then concludes by comparing results of emotion recognition by the MHL and a regular webcam. PMID:29389845

Facial Emotion Recognition: A Survey and Real-World User Experiences in Mixed Reality.

PubMed

Mehta, Dhwani; Siddiqui, Mohammad Faridul Haque; Javaid, Ahmad Y

2018-02-01

Extensive possibilities of applications have made emotion recognition ineluctable and challenging in the field of computer science. The use of non-verbal cues such as gestures, body movement, and facial expressions convey the feeling and the feedback to the user. This discipline of Human-Computer Interaction places reliance on the algorithmic robustness and the sensitivity of the sensor to ameliorate the recognition. Sensors play a significant role in accurate detection by providing a very high-quality input, hence increasing the efficiency and the reliability of the system. Automatic recognition of human emotions would help in teaching social intelligence in the machines. This paper presents a brief study of the various approaches and the techniques of emotion recognition. The survey covers a succinct review of the databases that are considered as data sets for algorithms detecting the emotions by facial expressions. Later, mixed reality device Microsoft HoloLens (MHL) is introduced for observing emotion recognition in Augmented Reality (AR). A brief introduction of its sensors, their application in emotion recognition and some preliminary results of emotion recognition using MHL are presented. The paper then concludes by comparing results of emotion recognition by the MHL and a regular webcam.

Early effects of duloxetine on emotion recognition in healthy volunteers

PubMed Central

Bamford, Susan; Penton-Voak, Ian; Pinkney, Verity; Baldwin, David S; Munafò, Marcus R; Garner, Matthew

2015-01-01

The serotonin-noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) duloxetine is an effective treatment for major depression and generalised anxiety disorder. Neuropsychological models of antidepressant drug action suggest therapeutic effects might be mediated by the early correction of maladaptive biases in emotion processing, including the recognition of emotional expressions. Sub-chronic administration of duloxetine (for two weeks) produces adaptive changes in neural circuitry implicated in emotion processing; however, its effects on emotional expression recognition are unknown. Forty healthy participants were randomised to receive either 14 days of duloxetine (60 mg/day, titrated from 30 mg after three days) or matched placebo (with sham titration) in a double-blind, between-groups, repeated-measures design. On day 0 and day 14 participants completed a computerised emotional expression recognition task that measured sensitivity to the six primary emotions. Thirty-eight participants (19 per group) completed their course of tablets and were included in the analysis. Results provide evidence that duloxetine, compared to placebo, may reduce the accurate recognition of sadness. Drug effects were driven by changes in participants’ ability to correctly detect subtle expressions of sadness, with greater change observed in the placebo relative to the duloxetine group. These effects occurred in the absence of changes in mood. Our preliminary findings require replication, but complement recent evidence that sadness recognition is a therapeutic target in major depression, and a mechanism through which SNRIs could resolve negative biases in emotion processing to achieve therapeutic effects. PMID:25759400

Emotion Recognition in Face and Body Motion in Bulimia Nervosa.

PubMed

Dapelo, Marcela Marin; Surguladze, Simon; Morris, Robin; Tchanturia, Kate

2017-11-01

Social cognition has been studied extensively in anorexia nervosa (AN), but there are few studies in bulimia nervosa (BN). This study investigated the ability of people with BN to recognise emotions in ambiguous facial expressions and in body movement. Participants were 26 women with BN, who were compared with 35 with AN, and 42 healthy controls. Participants completed an emotion recognition task by using faces portraying blended emotions, along with a body emotion recognition task by using videos of point-light walkers. The results indicated that BN participants exhibited difficulties recognising disgust in less-ambiguous facial expressions, and a tendency to interpret non-angry faces as anger, compared with healthy controls. These difficulties were similar to those found in AN. There were no significant differences amongst the groups in body motion emotion recognition. The findings suggest that difficulties with disgust and anger recognition in facial expressions may be shared transdiagnostically in people with eating disorders. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.

Encoding conditions affect recognition of vocally expressed emotions across cultures.

PubMed

Jürgens, Rebecca; Drolet, Matthis; Pirow, Ralph; Scheiner, Elisabeth; Fischer, Julia

2013-01-01

Although the expression of emotions in humans is considered to be largely universal, cultural effects contribute to both emotion expression and recognition. To disentangle the interplay between these factors, play-acted and authentic (non-instructed) vocal expressions of emotions were used, on the assumption that cultural effects may contribute differentially to the recognition of staged and spontaneous emotions. Speech tokens depicting four emotions (anger, sadness, joy, fear) were obtained from German radio archives and re-enacted by professional actors, and presented to 120 participants from Germany, Romania, and Indonesia. Participants in all three countries were poor at distinguishing between play-acted and spontaneous emotional utterances (58.73% correct on average with only marginal cultural differences). Nevertheless, authenticity influenced emotion recognition: across cultures, anger was recognized more accurately when play-acted (z = 15.06, p < 0.001) and sadness when authentic (z = 6.63, p < 0.001), replicating previous findings from German populations. German subjects revealed a slight advantage in recognizing emotions, indicating a moderate in-group advantage. There was no difference between Romanian and Indonesian subjects in the overall emotion recognition. Differential cultural effects became particularly apparent in terms of differential biases in emotion attribution. While all participants labeled play-acted expressions as anger more frequently than expected, German participants exhibited a further bias toward choosing anger for spontaneous stimuli. In contrast to the German sample, Romanian and Indonesian participants were biased toward choosing sadness. These results support the view that emotion recognition rests on a complex interaction of human universals and cultural specificities. Whether and in which way the observed biases are linked to cultural differences in self-construal remains an issue for further investigation.

Facial affect recognition in symptomatically remitted patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

PubMed

Yalcin-Siedentopf, Nursen; Hoertnagl, Christine M; Biedermann, Falko; Baumgartner, Susanne; Deisenhammer, Eberhard A; Hausmann, Armand; Kaufmann, Alexandra; Kemmler, Georg; Mühlbacher, Moritz; Rauch, Anna-Sophia; Fleischhacker, W Wolfgang; Hofer, Alex

2014-02-01

Both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (BD) have consistently been associated with deficits in facial affect recognition (FAR). These impairments have been related to various aspects of social competence and functioning and are relatively stable over time. However, individuals in remission may outperform patients experiencing an acute phase of the disorders. The present study directly contrasted FAR in symptomatically remitted patients with schizophrenia or BD and healthy volunteers and investigated its relationship with patients' outcomes. Compared to healthy control subjects, schizophrenia patients were impaired in the recognition of angry, disgusted, sad and happy facial expressions, while BD patients showed deficits only in the recognition of disgusted and happy facial expressions. When directly comparing the two patient groups individuals suffering from BD outperformed those with schizophrenia in the recognition of expressions depicting anger. There was no significant association between affect recognition abilities and symptomatic or psychosocial outcomes in schizophrenia patients. Among BD patients, relatively higher depression scores were associated with impairments in both the identification of happy faces and psychosocial functioning. Overall, our findings indicate that during periods of symptomatic remission the recognition of facial affect may be less impaired in patients with BD than in those suffering from schizophrenia. However, in the psychosocial context BD patients seem to be more sensitive to residual symptomatology. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Does Facial Expression Recognition Provide a Toehold for the Development of Emotion Understanding?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Strand, Paul S.; Downs, Andrew; Barbosa-Leiker, Celestina

2016-01-01

The authors explored predictions from basic emotion theory (BET) that facial emotion expression recognition skills are insular with respect to their own development, and yet foundational to the development of emotional perspective-taking skills. Participants included 417 preschool children for whom estimates of these 2 emotion understanding…

Pharmacologic suppression of target cell recognition by engineered T cells expressing chimeric T-cell receptors.

PubMed

Alvarez-Vallina, L; Yañez, R; Blanco, B; Gil, M; Russell, S J

2000-04-01

Adoptive therapy with autologous T cells expressing chimeric T-cell receptors (chTCRs) is of potential interest for the treatment of malignancy. To limit possible T-cell-mediated damage to normal tissues that weakly express the targeted tumor antigen (Ag), we have tested a strategy for the suppression of target cell recognition by engineered T cells. Jurkat T cells were transduced with an anti-hapten chTCR tinder the control of a tetracycline-suppressible promoter and were shown to respond to Ag-positive (hapten-coated) but not to Ag-negative target cells. The engineered T cells were then reacted with hapten-coated target cells at different effector to target cell ratios before and after exposure to tetracycline. When the engineered T cells were treated with tetracycline, expression of the chTCR was greatly decreased and recognition of the hapten-coated target cells was completely suppressed. Tetracycline-mediated suppression of target cell recognition by engineered T cells may be a useful strategy to limit the toxicity of the approach to cancer gene therapy.

Quantifying facial expression recognition across viewing conditions.

PubMed

Goren, Deborah; Wilson, Hugh R

2006-04-01

Facial expressions are key to social interactions and to assessment of potential danger in various situations. Therefore, our brains must be able to recognize facial expressions when they are transformed in biologically plausible ways. We used synthetic happy, sad, angry and fearful faces to determine the amount of geometric change required to recognize these emotions during brief presentations. Five-alternative forced choice conditions involving central viewing, peripheral viewing and inversion were used to study recognition among the four emotions. Two-alternative forced choice was used to study affect discrimination when spatial frequency information in the stimulus was modified. The results show an emotion and task-dependent pattern of detection. Facial expressions presented with low peak frequencies are much harder to discriminate from neutral than faces defined by either mid or high peak frequencies. Peripheral presentation of faces also makes recognition much more difficult, except for happy faces. Differences between fearful detection and recognition tasks are probably due to common confusions with sadness when recognizing fear from among other emotions. These findings further support the idea that these emotions are processed separately from each other.

Quest Hierarchy for Hyperspectral Face Recognition

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-03-01

numerous face recognition algorithms available, several very good literature surveys are available that include Abate [29], Samal [110], Kong [18], Zou...Perception, Japan (January 1994). [110] Samal , Ashok and P. Iyengar, Automatic Recognition and Analysis of Human Faces and Facial Expressions: A Survey

Pose-variant facial expression recognition using an embedded image system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, Kai-Tai; Han, Meng-Ju; Chang, Shuo-Hung

2008-12-01

In recent years, one of the most attractive research areas in human-robot interaction is automated facial expression recognition. Through recognizing the facial expression, a pet robot can interact with human in a more natural manner. In this study, we focus on the facial pose-variant problem. A novel method is proposed in this paper to recognize pose-variant facial expressions. After locating the face position in an image frame, the active appearance model (AAM) is applied to track facial features. Fourteen feature points are extracted to represent the variation of facial expressions. The distance between feature points are defined as the feature values. These feature values are sent to a support vector machine (SVM) for facial expression determination. The pose-variant facial expression is classified into happiness, neutral, sadness, surprise or anger. Furthermore, in order to evaluate the performance for practical applications, this study also built a low resolution database (160x120 pixels) using a CMOS image sensor. Experimental results show that the recognition rate is 84% with the self-built database.

Determinants of spirometric abnormalities among silicotic patients in Hong Kong.

PubMed

Leung, Chi C; Chang, Kwok C; Law, Wing S; Yew, Wing W; Tam, Cheuk M; Chan, Chi K; Wong, Man Y

2005-09-01

Silicosis is the second commonest notified occupational disease in Hong Kong. To characterize the determinants of spirometric abnormalities in silicosis. The spirometric patterns of consecutive silicotic patients on confirmation by the Pneumoconiosis Medical Board from 1991 to 2002 were correlated with demographic characteristics, occupational history, smoking history, tuberculosis (TB) history and radiographic features by univariate and multiple regression analyses. Of 1576 silicotic patients included, 55.6% showed normal spirometry, 28.5% normal forced vital capacity (FVC>or=80% predicted) but reduced forced expiratory ratio (FER<70%), 7.6% reduced FVC but normal FER, and 8.4% reduced both FVC and FER. Age, ever-smoking, cigarette pack-years, industry, job type, history of TB, size of lung nodules and progressive massive fibrosis (PMF) were all significantly associated with airflow limitation on univariate analysis (all P<0.05), while sex and profusion of nodules were not. Only age, cigarette pack-years, history of TB, size of lung nodules and PMF remained as significant independent predictors of airflow obstruction in multiple logistic regression analysis. After controlling for airflow obstruction, only shorter exposure duration, history of TB and profusion of nodules were significant independent predictors of reduced FVC. As well as age, history of TB, cigarette pack-years, PMF and nodule size contributed comparable effects to airflow obstruction in multiple linear regression analyses, while profusion of nodules was the strongest factor for reduced vital capacity. In an occupational compensation setting, disease indices and history of tuberculosis are independent predictors of both airflow obstruction and reduced vital capacity for silicotic patients.

Estimation of the Magnetic Flux Emergence Rate in the Quiet Sun from Sunrise Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smitha, H. N.; Anusha, L. S.; Solanki, S. K.; Riethmüller, T. L.

2017-03-01

Small-scale internetwork (IN) features are thought to be the major source of fresh magnetic flux in the quiet Sun. During its first science flight in 2009, the balloon-borne observatory Sunrise captured images of the magnetic fields in the quiet Sun at a high spatial resolution. Using these data we measure the rate at which the IN features bring magnetic flux to the solar surface. In a previous paper it was found that the lowest magnetic flux in small-scale features detected using the Sunrise observations is 9 × 1014 Mx. This is nearly an order of magnitude smaller than the smallest fluxes of features detected in observations from the Hinode satellite. In this paper, we compute the flux emergence rate (FER) by accounting for such small fluxes, which was not possible before Sunrise. By tracking the features with fluxes in the range {10}15{--}{10}18 Mx, we measure an FER of 1100 {Mx} {{cm}}-2 {{day}}-1. The smaller features with fluxes ≤slant {10}16 Mx are found to be the dominant contributors to the solar magnetic flux. The FER found here is an order of magnitude higher than the rate from Hinode, obtained with a similar feature tracking technique. A wider comparison with the literature shows, however, that the exact technique of determining the rate of the appearance of new flux can lead to results that differ by up to two orders of magnitude, even when applied to similar data. The causes of this discrepancy are discussed and first qualitative explanations proposed.

Fiber-enhanced Raman multigas spectroscopy: a versatile tool for environmental gas sensing and breath analysis.

PubMed

Hanf, Stefan; Keiner, Robert; Yan, Di; Popp, Jürgen; Frosch, Torsten

2014-06-03

Versatile multigas analysis bears high potential for environmental sensing of climate relevant gases and noninvasive early stage diagnosis of disease states in human breath. In this contribution, a fiber-enhanced Raman spectroscopic (FERS) analysis of a suite of climate relevant atmospheric gases is presented, which allowed for reliable quantification of CH4, CO2, and N2O alongside N2 and O2 with just one single measurement. A highly improved analytical sensitivity was achieved, down to a sub-parts per million limit of detection with a high dynamic range of 6 orders of magnitude and within a second measurement time. The high potential of FERS for the detection of disease markers was demonstrated with the analysis of 27 nL of exhaled human breath. The natural isotopes (13)CO2 and (14)N(15)N were quantified at low levels, simultaneously with the major breath components N2, O2, and (12)CO2. The natural abundances of (13)CO2 and (14)N(15)N were experimentally quantified in very good agreement to theoretical values. A fiber adapter assembly and gas filling setup was designed for rapid and automated analysis of multigas compositions and their fluctuations within seconds and without the need for optical readjustment of the sensor arrangement. On the basis of the abilities of such miniaturized FERS system, we expect high potential for the diagnosis of clinically administered (13)C-labeled CO2 in human breath and also foresee high impact for disease detection via biologically vital nitrogen compounds.

METHOD AND FLUX COMPOSITION FOR TREATING URANIUM

DOEpatents

Foote, F.

1958-08-23

ABS>A flux composition is described fer use with molten uranium or uranium alloys. The flux consists of about 46 weight per cent calcium fiuoride, 46 weight per cent magnesium fluoride and about 8 weight per cent of uranium tetrafiuoride.

Facial Emotion Recognition and Expression in Parkinson's Disease: An Emotional Mirror Mechanism?

PubMed

Ricciardi, Lucia; Visco-Comandini, Federica; Erro, Roberto; Morgante, Francesca; Bologna, Matteo; Fasano, Alfonso; Ricciardi, Diego; Edwards, Mark J; Kilner, James

2017-01-01

Parkinson's disease (PD) patients have impairment of facial expressivity (hypomimia) and difficulties in interpreting the emotional facial expressions produced by others, especially for aversive emotions. We aimed to evaluate the ability to produce facial emotional expressions and to recognize facial emotional expressions produced by others in a group of PD patients and a group of healthy participants in order to explore the relationship between these two abilities and any differences between the two groups of participants. Twenty non-demented, non-depressed PD patients and twenty healthy participants (HC) matched for demographic characteristics were studied. The ability of recognizing emotional facial expressions was assessed with the Ekman 60-faces test (Emotion recognition task). Participants were video-recorded while posing facial expressions of 6 primary emotions (happiness, sadness, surprise, disgust, fear and anger). The most expressive pictures for each emotion were derived from the videos. Ten healthy raters were asked to look at the pictures displayed on a computer-screen in pseudo-random fashion and to identify the emotional label in a six-forced-choice response format (Emotion expressivity task). Reaction time (RT) and accuracy of responses were recorded. At the end of each trial the participant was asked to rate his/her confidence in his/her perceived accuracy of response. For emotion recognition, PD reported lower score than HC for Ekman total score (p<0.001), and for single emotions sub-scores happiness, fear, anger, sadness (p<0.01) and surprise (p = 0.02). In the facial emotion expressivity task, PD and HC significantly differed in the total score (p = 0.05) and in the sub-scores for happiness, sadness, anger (all p<0.001). RT and the level of confidence showed significant differences between PD and HC for the same emotions. There was a significant positive correlation between the emotion facial recognition and expressivity in both groups; the correlation was even stronger when ranking emotions from the best recognized to the worst (R = 0.75, p = 0.004). PD patients showed difficulties in recognizing emotional facial expressions produced by others and in posing facial emotional expressions compared to healthy subjects. The linear correlation between recognition and expression in both experimental groups suggests that the two mechanisms share a common system, which could be deteriorated in patients with PD. These results open new clinical and rehabilitation perspectives.

Facial Expression Recognition using Multiclass Ensemble Least-Square Support Vector Machine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lawi, Armin; Sya'Rani Machrizzandi, M.

2018-03-01

Facial expression is one of behavior characteristics of human-being. The use of biometrics technology system with facial expression characteristics makes it possible to recognize a person’s mood or emotion. The basic components of facial expression analysis system are face detection, face image extraction, facial classification and facial expressions recognition. This paper uses Principal Component Analysis (PCA) algorithm to extract facial features with expression parameters, i.e., happy, sad, neutral, angry, fear, and disgusted. Then Multiclass Ensemble Least-Squares Support Vector Machine (MELS-SVM) is used for the classification process of facial expression. The result of MELS-SVM model obtained from our 185 different expression images of 10 persons showed high accuracy level of 99.998% using RBF kernel.

Facial emotion recognition and borderline personality pathology.

PubMed

Meehan, Kevin B; De Panfilis, Chiara; Cain, Nicole M; Antonucci, Camilla; Soliani, Antonio; Clarkin, John F; Sambataro, Fabio

2017-09-01

The impact of borderline personality pathology on facial emotion recognition has been in dispute; with impaired, comparable, and enhanced accuracy found in high borderline personality groups. Discrepancies are likely driven by variations in facial emotion recognition tasks across studies (stimuli type/intensity) and heterogeneity in borderline personality pathology. This study evaluates facial emotion recognition for neutral and negative emotions (fear/sadness/disgust/anger) presented at varying intensities. Effortful control was evaluated as a moderator of facial emotion recognition in borderline personality. Non-clinical multicultural undergraduates (n = 132) completed a morphed facial emotion recognition task of neutral and negative emotional expressions across different intensities (100% Neutral; 25%/50%/75% Emotion) and self-reported borderline personality features and effortful control. Greater borderline personality features related to decreased accuracy in detecting neutral faces, but increased accuracy in detecting negative emotion faces, particularly at low-intensity thresholds. This pattern was moderated by effortful control; for individuals with low but not high effortful control, greater borderline personality features related to misattributions of emotion to neutral expressions, and enhanced detection of low-intensity emotional expressions. Individuals with high borderline personality features may therefore exhibit a bias toward detecting negative emotions that are not or barely present; however, good self-regulatory skills may protect against this potential social-cognitive vulnerability. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Neurotrophins play differential roles in short and long-term recognition memory.

PubMed

Callaghan, Charlotte K; Kelly, Aine M

2013-09-01

The neurotrophin family of proteins are believed to mediate various forms of synaptic plasticity in the adult brain. Here we have assessed the roles of these proteins in object recognition memory in the rat, using icv infusions of function-blocking antibodies or the tyrosine kinase antagonist, tyrphostin AG879, to block Trk receptors. We report that tyrphostin AG879 impairs both short-term and long-term recognition memory, indicating a requirement for Trk receptor activation in both processes. The effect of inhibition of each of the neurotrophins with activity-blocking neutralising antibodies was also tested. Treatment with anti-BDNF, anti-NGF or anti-NT4 had no effect on short-term memory, but blocked long-term recognition memory. Treatment with anti-NT3 had no effect on either process. We also assessed changes in expression of neurotrophins and their respective receptors in the hippocampus, dentate gyrus and perirhinal cortex over a 24 h period following training in the object recognition task. We observed time-dependent changes in expression of the Trk receptors and their ligands in the dentate gyrus and perirhinal cortex. The data are consistent with a pivotal role for neurotrophic factors in the expression of recognition memory. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Processing dynamic facial affect in frequent cannabis-users: evidence of deficits in the speed of identifying emotional expressions.

PubMed

Platt, Bradley; Kamboj, Sunjeev; Morgan, Celia J A; Curran, H Valerie

2010-11-01

While heavy cannabis-users seem to show various cognitive impairments, it remains unclear whether they also experience significant deficits in affective functioning. Evidence of such deficits may contribute to our understanding of the interpersonal difficulties in cannabis-users, and the link between cannabis-use and psychological disorders (Moore et al., 2007). Emotion recognition performance of heavy cannabis-users and non-using controls was compared. A measure of emotion recognition was used in which participants identified facial expressions as they changed from neutral (open-mouth) to gradually more intense expressions of sadness, neutral, anger or happiness (open or closed mouth). Reaction times and accuracy were recorded as the facial expressions changed. Participants also completed measures of 'theory of mind,' depression and impulsivity. Cannabis-users were significantly slower than controls at identifying all three emotional expressions. There was no difference between groups in identifying facial expressions changing from open-mouth neutral expressions to closed-mouth neutral expressions suggesting that differences in emotion recognition were not due to a general slowing of reaction times. Cannabis-users were also significantly more liberal in their response criterion for recognising sadness. Heavy cannabis-use may be associated with affect recognition deficits. In particular, a greater intensity of emotion expression was required before identification of positive and negative emotions. This was found using stimuli which simulated dynamic changes in emotion expression, and in turn, suggests that cannabis-users may experience generalised problems in decoding basic emotions during social interactions. The implications of these findings are discussed for vulnerability to psychological and interpersonal difficulties in cannabis-users. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

[The Relationship Between Emotion Recognition and the Symptoms of Attention Deficit and Impulsivity in Adult Patients With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder].

PubMed

Baran Tatar, Zeynep; Yargıç, İlhan; Oflaz, Serap; Büyükgök, Deniz

2015-01-01

Interpersonal relationship disorders in adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) can be associated with the impairment of non-verbal communication. The purpose of our study was to compare the emotion recognition, facial recognition and neuropsychological assessments of adult ADHD patients with those of healthy controls, and to thus determine the effect of neuropsychological data on the recognition of emotional expressions. This study, which was based on a case-control model, was conducted with patients diagnosed with ADHD according to the DSM-IV-TR, being followed and monitored at the adult ADHD clinic of the Psychiatry Department of the Istanbul University Istanbul Medical Faculty Hospital. The study group consisted of 40 adults (27.5% female) between the ages of 20-65 (mean age 25.96 ± 6.07; education level: 15.02±2.34 years) diagnosed with ADHD, and 40 controls who were matched/similar with the study group with respect to age, gender, and education level. In the ADHD group, 14 (35%) of the patients had concomitant diseases. Pictures of Facial Affect, the Benton Face Recognition Test, and the Continuous Performance Test were used to respectively evaluate emotion recognition, facial recognition, and attention deficit and impulsivity of the patients. It was determined that, in comparison to the control group, the ADHD group made more mistakes in recognizing all types of emotional expressions and neutral expressions. The ADHD group also demonstrated more cognitive mistakes. Facial recognition was similar in both groups. It was determined that impulsivity had a significant effect on facial recognition. The social relationship disorders observed in ADHD can be affected by emotion recognition processes. In future studies, it may be possible to investigate the effects that early psychopharmacological and psychotherapeutic interventions administered for the main symptoms of ADHD have on the impairment of emotion recognition.

[Neurological disease and facial recognition].

PubMed

Kawamura, Mitsuru; Sugimoto, Azusa; Kobayakawa, Mutsutaka; Tsuruya, Natsuko

2012-07-01

To discuss the neurological basis of facial recognition, we present our case reports of impaired recognition and a review of previous literature. First, we present a case of infarction and discuss prosopagnosia, which has had a large impact on face recognition research. From a study of patient symptoms, we assume that prosopagnosia may be caused by unilateral right occipitotemporal lesion and right cerebral dominance of facial recognition. Further, circumscribed lesion and degenerative disease may also cause progressive prosopagnosia. Apperceptive prosopagnosia is observed in patients with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA), pathologically considered as Alzheimer's disease, and associative prosopagnosia in frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). Second, we discuss face recognition as part of communication. Patients with Parkinson disease show social cognitive impairments, such as difficulty in facial expression recognition and deficits in theory of mind as detected by the reading the mind in the eyes test. Pathological and functional imaging studies indicate that social cognitive impairment in Parkinson disease is possibly related to damages in the amygdalae and surrounding limbic system. The social cognitive deficits can be observed in the early stages of Parkinson disease, and even in the prodromal stage, for example, patients with rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (RBD) show impairment in facial expression recognition. Further, patients with myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM 1), which is a multisystem disease that mainly affects the muscles, show social cognitive impairment similar to that of Parkinson disease. Our previous study showed that facial expression recognition impairment of DM 1 patients is associated with lesion in the amygdalae and insulae. Our study results indicate that behaviors and personality traits in DM 1 patients, which are revealed by social cognitive impairment, are attributable to dysfunction of the limbic system.

Estradiol and luteinizing hormone regulate recognition memory following subchronic phencyclidine: Evidence for hippocampal GABA action.

PubMed

Riordan, Alexander J; Schaler, Ari W; Fried, Jenny; Paine, Tracie A; Thornton, Janice E

2018-05-01

The cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia are poorly understood and difficult to treat. Estrogens may mitigate these symptoms via unknown mechanisms. To examine these mechanisms, we tested whether increasing estradiol (E) or decreasing luteinizing hormone (LH) could mitigate short-term episodic memory loss in a phencyclidine (PCP) model of schizophrenia. We then assessed whether changes in cortical or hippocampal GABA may underlie these effects. Female rats were ovariectomized and injected subchronically with PCP. To modulate E and LH, animals received estradiol capsules or Antide injections. Short-term episodic memory was assessed using the novel object recognition task (NORT). Brain expression of GAD67 was analyzed via western blot, and parvalbumin-containing cells were counted using immunohistochemistry. Some rats received hippocampal infusions of a GABA A agonist, GABA A antagonist, or GAD inhibitor before behavioral testing. We found that PCP reduced hippocampal GAD67 and abolished recognition memory. Antide restored hippocampal GAD67 and rescued recognition memory in PCP-treated animals. Estradiol prevented PCP's amnesic effect in NORT but failed to restore hippocampal GAD67. PCP did not cause significant differences in number of parvalbumin-expressing cells or cortical expression of GAD67. Hippocampal infusions of a GABA A agonist restored recognition memory in PCP-treated rats. Blocking hippocampal GAD or GABA A receptors in ovx animals reproduced recognition memory loss similar to PCP and inhibited estradiol's protection of recognition memory in PCP-treated animals. In summary, decreasing LH or increasing E can lessen short-term episodic memory loss, as measured by novel object recognition, in a PCP model of schizophrenia. Alterations in hippocampal GABA may contribute to both PCP's effects on recognition memory and the hormones' ability to prevent or reverse them. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Deficits in Facial Expression Recognition in Male Adolescents with Early-Onset or Adolescence-Onset Conduct Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fairchild, Graeme; Van Goozen, Stephanie H. M.; Calder, Andrew J.; Stollery, Sarah J.; Goodyer, Ian M.

2009-01-01

Background: We examined whether conduct disorder (CD) is associated with deficits in facial expression recognition and, if so, whether these deficits are specific to the early-onset form of CD, which emerges in childhood. The findings could potentially inform the developmental taxonomic theory of antisocial behaviour, which suggests that…

Emotion Recognition from Congruent and Incongruent Emotional Expressions and Situational Cues in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tell, Dina; Davidson, Denise

2015-01-01

In this research, the emotion recognition abilities of children with autism spectrum disorder and typically developing children were compared. When facial expressions and situational cues of emotion were congruent, accuracy in recognizing emotions was good for both children with autism spectrum disorder and typically developing children. When…

Orientation and Affective Expression Effects on Face Recognition in Williams Syndrome and Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rose, Fredric E.; Lincoln, Alan J.; Lai, Zona; Ene, Michaela; Searcy, Yvonne M.; Bellugi, Ursula

2007-01-01

We sought to clarify the nature of the face processing strength commonly observed in individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) by comparing the face recognition ability of persons with WS to that of persons with autism and to healthy controls under three conditions: Upright faces with neutral expressions, upright faces with varying affective…

Can gaze avoidance explain why individuals with Asperger's syndrome can't recognise emotions from facial expressions?

PubMed

Sawyer, Alyssa C P; Williamson, Paul; Young, Robyn L

2012-04-01

Research has shown that individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have difficulties recognising emotions from facial expressions. Since eye contact is important for accurate emotion recognition, and individuals with ASD tend to avoid eye contact, this tendency for gaze aversion has been proposed as an explanation for the emotion recognition deficit. This explanation was investigated using a newly developed emotion and mental state recognition task. Individuals with Asperger's Syndrome were less accurate at recognising emotions and mental states, but did not show evidence of gaze avoidance compared to individuals without Asperger's Syndrome. This suggests that the way individuals with Asperger's Syndrome look at faces cannot account for the difficulty they have recognising expressions.

Facial Emotion Recognition System – A Machine Learning Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramalingam, V. V.; Pandian, A.; Jayakumar, Lavanya

2018-04-01

Frown is a medium for people correlation and it could be exercised in multiple real systems. Single crucial stage for frown realizing is to exactly select hysterical aspects. This journal proposed a frown realization scheme applying transformative Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) based aspect accumulation. This entity initially employs changed LVP, handles crisscross adjacent picture element contrast, for achieving the selective first frown portrayal. Then the PSO entity inserted with a concept of micro Genetic Algorithm (mGA) called mGA-embedded PSO designed for achieving aspect accumulation. This study, the technique subsumes no disposable memory, a little-populace insignificant flock, a latest acceleration that amends with the approach and a sub dimension-based in-depth local frown aspect examines. Assistance of provincial utilization and comprehensive inspection examine structure of alleviating of an immature concurrence complication of conventional PSO. Numerous identifiers are used to diagnose different frown expositions. Stationed on extensive study within and other-sphere pictures from the continued Cohn Kanade and MMI benchmark directory appropriately. Determination of the application exceeds most advanced level PSO variants, conventional PSO, classical GA and alternate relevant frown realization structures is described with powerful limit. Extending our accession to a motion based FER application for connecting patch-based Gabor aspects with continuous data in multi-frames.

[The effect of the serotonin transporter 5-HTTLPR polymorphism on the recognition of facial emotions in schizophrenia].

PubMed

Alfimova, M V; Golimbet, V E; Korovaitseva, G I; Lezheiko, T V; Abramova, L I; Aksenova, E V; Bolgov, M I

2014-01-01

The 5-HTTLPR SLC6A4 and catechol-o-methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met polymorphisms are reported to be associated with processing of facial expressions in general population. Impaired recognition of facial expressions that is characteristic of schizophrenia negatively impacts on the social adaptation of the patients. To search for molecular mechanisms of this deficit, we studied main and epistatic effects of 5-HTTLPR and Val158Met polymorphisms on the facial emotion recognition in patients with schizophrenia (n=299) and healthy controls (n=232). The 5-HTTLPR polymorphism was associated with the emotion recognition in patients. The ll-homozygotes recognized facial emotions significantly better compared to those with an s-allele (F=8.00; p=0.005). Although the recognition of facial emotions was correlated with negative symptoms, verbal learning and trait anxiety, these variables did not significantly modified the association. In both groups, no effect of the COMT on the recognition of facial emotions was found.

Mapping the impairment in decoding static facial expressions of emotion in prosopagnosia.

PubMed

Fiset, Daniel; Blais, Caroline; Royer, Jessica; Richoz, Anne-Raphaëlle; Dugas, Gabrielle; Caldara, Roberto

2017-08-01

Acquired prosopagnosia is characterized by a deficit in face recognition due to diverse brain lesions, but interestingly most prosopagnosic patients suffering from posterior lesions use the mouth instead of the eyes for face identification. Whether this bias is present for the recognition of facial expressions of emotion has not yet been addressed. We tested PS, a pure case of acquired prosopagnosia with bilateral occipitotemporal lesions anatomically sparing the regions dedicated for facial expression recognition. PS used mostly the mouth to recognize facial expressions even when the eye area was the most diagnostic. Moreover, PS directed most of her fixations towards the mouth. Her impairment was still largely present when she was instructed to look at the eyes, or when she was forced to look at them. Control participants showed a performance comparable to PS when only the lower part of the face was available. These observations suggest that the deficits observed in PS with static images are not solely attentional, but are rooted at the level of facial information use. This study corroborates neuroimaging findings suggesting that the Occipital Face Area might play a critical role in extracting facial features that are integrated for both face identification and facial expression recognition in static images. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press.

Facing the Problem: Impaired Emotion Recognition During Multimodal Social Information Processing in Borderline Personality Disorder.

PubMed

Niedtfeld, Inga; Defiebre, Nadine; Regenbogen, Christina; Mier, Daniela; Fenske, Sabrina; Kirsch, Peter; Lis, Stefanie; Schmahl, Christian

2017-04-01

Previous research has revealed alterations and deficits in facial emotion recognition in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). During interpersonal communication in daily life, social signals such as speech content, variation in prosody, and facial expression need to be considered simultaneously. We hypothesized that deficits in higher level integration of social stimuli contribute to difficulties in emotion recognition in BPD, and heightened arousal might explain this effect. Thirty-one patients with BPD and thirty-one healthy controls were asked to identify emotions in short video clips, which were designed to represent different combinations of the three communication channels: facial expression, speech content, and prosody. Skin conductance was recorded as a measure of sympathetic arousal, while controlling for state dissociation. Patients with BPD showed lower mean accuracy scores than healthy control subjects in all conditions comprising emotional facial expressions. This was true for the condition with facial expression only, and for the combination of all three communication channels. Electrodermal responses were enhanced in BPD only in response to auditory stimuli. In line with the major body of facial emotion recognition studies, we conclude that deficits in the interpretation of facial expressions lead to the difficulties observed in multimodal emotion processing in BPD.

Seeing Life through Positive-Tinted Glasses: Color–Meaning Associations

PubMed Central

Gil, Sandrine; Le Bigot, Ludovic

2014-01-01

There is a growing body of literature to show that color can convey information, owing to its emotionally meaningful associations. Most research so far has focused on negative hue–meaning associations (e.g., red) with the exception of the positive aspects associated with green. We therefore set out to investigate the positive associations of two colors (i.e., green and pink), using an emotional facial expression recognition task in which colors provided the emotional contextual information for the face processing. In two experiments, green and pink backgrounds enhanced happy face recognition and impaired sad face recognition, compared with a control color (gray). Our findings therefore suggest that because green and pink both convey positive information, they facilitate the processing of emotionally congruent facial expressions (i.e., faces expressing happiness) and interfere with that of incongruent facial expressions (i.e., faces expressing sadness). Data also revealed a positive association for white. Results are discussed within the theoretical framework of emotional cue processing and color meaning. PMID:25098167

Seeing life through positive-tinted glasses: color-meaning associations.

PubMed

Gil, Sandrine; Le Bigot, Ludovic

2014-01-01

There is a growing body of literature to show that color can convey information, owing to its emotionally meaningful associations. Most research so far has focused on negative hue-meaning associations (e.g., red) with the exception of the positive aspects associated with green. We therefore set out to investigate the positive associations of two colors (i.e., green and pink), using an emotional facial expression recognition task in which colors provided the emotional contextual information for the face processing. In two experiments, green and pink backgrounds enhanced happy face recognition and impaired sad face recognition, compared with a control color (gray). Our findings therefore suggest that because green and pink both convey positive information, they facilitate the processing of emotionally congruent facial expressions (i.e., faces expressing happiness) and interfere with that of incongruent facial expressions (i.e., faces expressing sadness). Data also revealed a positive association for white. Results are discussed within the theoretical framework of emotional cue processing and color meaning.

Facial expression recognition based on weber local descriptor and sparse representation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ouyang, Yan

2018-03-01

Automatic facial expression recognition has been one of the research hotspots in the area of computer vision for nearly ten years. During the decade, many state-of-the-art methods have been proposed which perform very high accurate rate based on the face images without any interference. Nowadays, many researchers begin to challenge the task of classifying the facial expression images with corruptions and occlusions and the Sparse Representation based Classification framework has been wildly used because it can robust to the corruptions and occlusions. Therefore, this paper proposed a novel facial expression recognition method based on Weber local descriptor (WLD) and Sparse representation. The method includes three parts: firstly the face images are divided into many local patches, and then the WLD histograms of each patch are extracted, finally all the WLD histograms features are composed into a vector and combined with SRC to classify the facial expressions. The experiment results on the Cohn-Kanade database show that the proposed method is robust to occlusions and corruptions.

Emotion recognition deficits associated with ventromedial prefrontal cortex lesions are improved by gaze manipulation.

PubMed

Wolf, Richard C; Pujara, Maia; Baskaya, Mustafa K; Koenigs, Michael

2016-09-01

Facial emotion recognition is a critical aspect of human communication. Since abnormalities in facial emotion recognition are associated with social and affective impairment in a variety of psychiatric and neurological conditions, identifying the neural substrates and psychological processes underlying facial emotion recognition will help advance basic and translational research on social-affective function. Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) has recently been implicated in deploying visual attention to the eyes of emotional faces, although there is mixed evidence regarding the importance of this brain region for recognition accuracy. In the present study of neurological patients with vmPFC damage, we used an emotion recognition task with morphed facial expressions of varying intensities to determine (1) whether vmPFC is essential for emotion recognition accuracy, and (2) whether instructed attention to the eyes of faces would be sufficient to improve any accuracy deficits. We found that vmPFC lesion patients are impaired, relative to neurologically healthy adults, at recognizing moderate intensity expressions of anger and that recognition accuracy can be improved by providing instructions of where to fixate. These results suggest that vmPFC may be important for the recognition of facial emotion through a role in guiding visual attention to emotionally salient regions of faces. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Does vigilance to pain make individuals experts in facial recognition of pain?

PubMed

Baum, Corinna; Kappesser, Judith; Schneider, Raphaela; Lautenbacher, Stefan

2013-01-01

It is well known that individual factors are important in the facial recognition of pain. However, it is unclear whether vigilance to pain as a pain-related attentional mechanism is among these relevant factors. Vigilance to pain may have two different effects on the recognition of facial pain expressions: pain-vigilant individuals may detect pain faces better but overinclude other facial displays, misinterpreting them as expressing pain; or they may be true experts in discriminating between pain and other facial expressions. The present study aimed to test these two hypotheses. Furthermore, pain vigilance was assumed to be a distinct predictor, the impact of which on recognition cannot be completely replaced by related concepts such as pain catastrophizing and fear of pain. Photographs of neutral, happy, angry and pain facial expressions were presented to 40 healthy participants, who were asked to classify them into the appropriate emotion categories and provide a confidence rating for each classification. Additionally, potential predictors of the discrimination performance for pain and anger faces - pain vigilance, pain-related catastrophizing, fear of pain--were assessed using self-report questionnaires. Pain-vigilant participants classified pain faces more accurately and did not misclassify anger as pain faces more frequently. However, vigilance to pain was not related to the confidence of recognition ratings. Pain catastrophizing and fear of pain did not account for the recognition performance. Moderate pain vigilance, as assessed in the present study, appears to be associated with appropriate detection of pain-related cues and not necessarily with the overinclusion of other negative cues.

Does vigilance to pain make individuals experts in facial recognition of pain?

PubMed Central

Baum, Corinna; Kappesser, Judith; Schneider, Raphaela; Lautenbacher, Stefan

2013-01-01

BACKGROUND: It is well known that individual factors are important in the facial recognition of pain. However, it is unclear whether vigilance to pain as a pain-related attentional mechanism is among these relevant factors. OBJECTIVES: Vigilance to pain may have two different effects on the recognition of facial pain expressions: pain-vigilant individuals may detect pain faces better but overinclude other facial displays, misinterpreting them as expressing pain; or they may be true experts in discriminating between pain and other facial expressions. The present study aimed to test these two hypotheses. Furthermore, pain vigilance was assumed to be a distinct predictor, the impact of which on recognition cannot be completely replaced by related concepts such as pain catastrophizing and fear of pain. METHODS: Photographs of neutral, happy, angry and pain facial expressions were presented to 40 healthy participants, who were asked to classify them into the appropriate emotion categories and provide a confidence rating for each classification. Additionally, potential predictors of the discrimination performance for pain and anger faces – pain vigilance, pain-related catastrophizing, fear of pain – were assessed using self-report questionnaires. RESULTS: Pain-vigilant participants classified pain faces more accurately and did not misclassify anger as pain faces more frequently. However, vigilance to pain was not related to the confidence of recognition ratings. Pain catastrophizing and fear of pain did not account for the recognition performance. CONCLUSIONS: Moderate pain vigilance, as assessed in the present study, appears to be associated with appropriate detection of pain-related cues and not necessarily with the overinclusion of other negative cues. PMID:23717826

Mapping parahippocampal systems for recognition and recency memory in the absence of the rat hippocampus

PubMed Central

Kinnavane, L; Amin, E; Horne, M; Aggleton, J P

2014-01-01

The present study examined immediate-early gene expression in the perirhinal cortex of rats with hippocampal lesions. The goal was to test those models of recognition memory which assume that the perirhinal cortex can function independently of the hippocampus. The c-fos gene was targeted, as its expression in the perirhinal cortex is strongly associated with recognition memory. Four groups of rats were examined. Rats with hippocampal lesions and their surgical controls were given either a recognition memory task (novel vs. familiar objects) or a relative recency task (objects with differing degrees of familiarity). Perirhinal Fos expression in the hippocampal-lesioned groups correlated with both recognition and recency performance. The hippocampal lesions, however, had no apparent effect on overall levels of perirhinal or entorhinal cortex c-fos expression in response to novel objects, with only restricted effects being seen in the recency condition. Network analyses showed that whereas the patterns of parahippocampal interactions were differentially affected by novel or familiar objects, these correlated networks were not altered by hippocampal lesions. Additional analyses in control rats revealed two modes of correlated medial temporal activation. Novel stimuli recruited the pathway from the lateral entorhinal cortex (cortical layer II or III) to hippocampal field CA3, and thence to CA1. Familiar stimuli recruited the direct pathway from the lateral entorhinal cortex (principally layer III) to CA1. The present findings not only reveal the independence from the hippocampus of some perirhinal systems associated with recognition memory, but also show how novel stimuli engage hippocampal subfields in qualitatively different ways from familiar stimuli. PMID:25264133

Genetic variations in the dopamine system and facial expression recognition in healthy chinese college students.

PubMed

Zhu, Bi; Chen, Chuansheng; Moyzis, Robert K; Dong, Qi; Chen, Chunhui; He, Qinghua; Stern, Hal S; Li, He; Li, Jin; Li, Jun; Lessard, Jared; Lin, Chongde

2012-01-01

This study investigated the relation between genetic variations in the dopamine system and facial expression recognition. A sample of Chinese college students (n = 478) was given a facial expression recognition task. Subjects were genotyped for 98 loci [96 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 2 variable number tandem repeats] in 16 genes involved in the dopamine neurotransmitter system, including its 4 subsystems: synthesis (TH, DDC, and DBH), degradation/transport (COMT,MAOA,MAOB, and SLC6A3), receptors (DRD1,DRD2,DRD3,DRD4, and DRD5), and modulation (NTS,NTSR1,NTSR2, and NLN). To quantify the total contributions of the dopamine system to emotion recognition, we used a series of multiple regression models. Permutation analyses were performed to assess the posterior probabilities of obtaining such results. Among the 78 loci that were included in the final analyses (after excluding 12 SNPs that were in high linkage disequilibrium and 8 that were not in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium), 1 (for fear), 3 (for sadness), 5 (for anger), 13 (for surprise), and 15 (for disgust) loci exhibited main effects on the recognition of facial expressions. Genetic variations in the dopamine system accounted for 3% for fear, 6% for sadness, 7% for anger, 10% for surprise, and 18% for disgust, with the latter surviving a stringent permutation test. Genetic variations in the dopamine system (especially the dopamine synthesis and modulation subsystems) made significant contributions to individual differences in the recognition of disgust faces. Copyright © 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Recognition profile of emotions in natural and virtual faces.

PubMed

Dyck, Miriam; Winbeck, Maren; Leiberg, Susanne; Chen, Yuhan; Gur, Ruben C; Gur, Rurben C; Mathiak, Klaus

2008-01-01

Computer-generated virtual faces become increasingly realistic including the simulation of emotional expressions. These faces can be used as well-controlled, realistic and dynamic stimuli in emotion research. However, the validity of virtual facial expressions in comparison to natural emotion displays still needs to be shown for the different emotions and different age groups. Thirty-two healthy volunteers between the age of 20 and 60 rated pictures of natural human faces and faces of virtual characters (avatars) with respect to the expressed emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and neutral. Results indicate that virtual emotions were recognized comparable to natural ones. Recognition differences in virtual and natural faces depended on specific emotions: whereas disgust was difficult to convey with the current avatar technology, virtual sadness and fear achieved better recognition results than natural faces. Furthermore, emotion recognition rates decreased for virtual but not natural faces in participants over the age of 40. This specific age effect suggests that media exposure has an influence on emotion recognition. Virtual and natural facial displays of emotion may be equally effective. Improved technology (e.g. better modelling of the naso-labial area) may lead to even better results as compared to trained actors. Due to the ease with which virtual human faces can be animated and manipulated, validated artificial emotional expressions will be of major relevance in future research and therapeutic applications.

Effects of repeated 9 and 30-day exposure to extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields on social recognition behavior and estrogen receptors expression in olfactory bulb of Wistar female rats.

PubMed

Bernal-Mondragón, C; Arriaga-Avila, V; Martínez-Abundis, E; Barrera-Mera, B; Mercado-Gómez, O; Guevara-Guzmán, R

2017-02-01

We investigated the short- and long-term effects of extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields (EMF) on social recognition behavior and expression of α- and β-estrogen receptors (ER). Rats were exposed to 60-Hz electromagnetic fields for 9 or 30 days and tested for social recognition behavior. Immunohistochemistry and western blot assays were performed to evaluate α- and β-ER expression in the olfactory bulb of intact, ovariectomized (OVX), and ovariectomized+estradiol (E2) replacement (OVX+E2). Ovariectomization showed impairment of social recognition after 9 days of EMF exposure and a complete recovery after E2 replacement and so did those after 30 days. Short EMF exposure increased expression of β-ER in intact, but not in the others. Longer exposure produced a decrease in intact but an increase in OVX and OVX+E2. Our findings suggest a significant role for β-estrogen receptors and a lack of effect for α-estrogen receptors on a social recognition task. EMF: extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields; ERs: estrogen receptors; OB: olfactory bulb; OVX: ovariectomized; OVX + E 2 : ovariectomized + estradiol replacement; IEI: interexposure interval; β-ER: beta estrogen receptor; E 2 : replacement of estradiol; GAPDH: glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase; WB: Western blot; PBS: phosphate-buffer saline; PB: phosphate-buffer.

Recognition Profile of Emotions in Natural and Virtual Faces

PubMed Central

Dyck, Miriam; Winbeck, Maren; Leiberg, Susanne; Chen, Yuhan; Gur, Rurben C.; Mathiak, Klaus

2008-01-01

Background Computer-generated virtual faces become increasingly realistic including the simulation of emotional expressions. These faces can be used as well-controlled, realistic and dynamic stimuli in emotion research. However, the validity of virtual facial expressions in comparison to natural emotion displays still needs to be shown for the different emotions and different age groups. Methodology/Principal Findings Thirty-two healthy volunteers between the age of 20 and 60 rated pictures of natural human faces and faces of virtual characters (avatars) with respect to the expressed emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and neutral. Results indicate that virtual emotions were recognized comparable to natural ones. Recognition differences in virtual and natural faces depended on specific emotions: whereas disgust was difficult to convey with the current avatar technology, virtual sadness and fear achieved better recognition results than natural faces. Furthermore, emotion recognition rates decreased for virtual but not natural faces in participants over the age of 40. This specific age effect suggests that media exposure has an influence on emotion recognition. Conclusions/Significance Virtual and natural facial displays of emotion may be equally effective. Improved technology (e.g. better modelling of the naso-labial area) may lead to even better results as compared to trained actors. Due to the ease with which virtual human faces can be animated and manipulated, validated artificial emotional expressions will be of major relevance in future research and therapeutic applications. PMID:18985152

A general framework for face reconstruction using single still image based on 2D-to-3D transformation kernel.

PubMed

Fooprateepsiri, Rerkchai; Kurutach, Werasak

2014-03-01

Face authentication is a biometric classification method that verifies the identity of a user based on image of their face. Accuracy of the authentication is reduced when the pose, illumination and expression of the training face images are different than the testing image. The methods in this paper are designed to improve the accuracy of a features-based face recognition system when the pose between the input images and training images are different. First, an efficient 2D-to-3D integrated face reconstruction approach is introduced to reconstruct a personalized 3D face model from a single frontal face image with neutral expression and normal illumination. Second, realistic virtual faces with different poses are synthesized based on the personalized 3D face to characterize the face subspace. Finally, face recognition is conducted based on these representative virtual faces. Compared with other related works, this framework has the following advantages: (1) only one single frontal face is required for face recognition, which avoids the burdensome enrollment work; and (2) the synthesized face samples provide the capability to conduct recognition under difficult conditions like complex pose, illumination and expression. From the experimental results, we conclude that the proposed method improves the accuracy of face recognition by varying the pose, illumination and expression. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Luminance sticker based facial expression recognition using discrete wavelet transform for physically disabled persons.

PubMed

Nagarajan, R; Hariharan, M; Satiyan, M

2012-08-01

Developing tools to assist physically disabled and immobilized people through facial expression is a challenging area of research and has attracted many researchers recently. In this paper, luminance stickers based facial expression recognition is proposed. Recognition of facial expression is carried out by employing Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) as a feature extraction method. Different wavelet families with their different orders (db1 to db20, Coif1 to Coif 5 and Sym2 to Sym8) are utilized to investigate their performance in recognizing facial expression and to evaluate their computational time. Standard deviation is computed for the coefficients of first level of wavelet decomposition for every order of wavelet family. This standard deviation is used to form a set of feature vectors for classification. In this study, conventional validation and cross validation are performed to evaluate the efficiency of the suggested feature vectors. Three different classifiers namely Artificial Neural Network (ANN), k-Nearest Neighborhood (kNN) and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) are used to classify a set of eight facial expressions. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method gives very promising classification accuracies.

Facial Expression Influences Face Identity Recognition During the Attentional Blink

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Emotional stimuli (e.g., negative facial expressions) enjoy prioritized memory access when task relevant, consistent with their ability to capture attention. Whether emotional expression also impacts on memory access when task-irrelevant is important for arbitrating between feature-based and object-based attentional capture. Here, the authors address this question in 3 experiments using an attentional blink task with face photographs as first and second target (T1, T2). They demonstrate reduced neutral T2 identity recognition after angry or happy T1 expression, compared to neutral T1, and this supports attentional capture by a task-irrelevant feature. Crucially, after neutral T1, T2 identity recognition was enhanced and not suppressed when T2 was angry—suggesting that attentional capture by this task-irrelevant feature may be object-based and not feature-based. As an unexpected finding, both angry and happy facial expressions suppress memory access for competing objects, but only angry facial expression enjoyed privileged memory access. This could imply that these 2 processes are relatively independent from one another. PMID:25286076

Facial expression influences face identity recognition during the attentional blink.

PubMed

Bach, Dominik R; Schmidt-Daffy, Martin; Dolan, Raymond J

2014-12-01

Emotional stimuli (e.g., negative facial expressions) enjoy prioritized memory access when task relevant, consistent with their ability to capture attention. Whether emotional expression also impacts on memory access when task-irrelevant is important for arbitrating between feature-based and object-based attentional capture. Here, the authors address this question in 3 experiments using an attentional blink task with face photographs as first and second target (T1, T2). They demonstrate reduced neutral T2 identity recognition after angry or happy T1 expression, compared to neutral T1, and this supports attentional capture by a task-irrelevant feature. Crucially, after neutral T1, T2 identity recognition was enhanced and not suppressed when T2 was angry-suggesting that attentional capture by this task-irrelevant feature may be object-based and not feature-based. As an unexpected finding, both angry and happy facial expressions suppress memory access for competing objects, but only angry facial expression enjoyed privileged memory access. This could imply that these 2 processes are relatively independent from one another.

The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex plays a causal role in mediating in-group advantage in emotion recognition: A TMS study.

PubMed

Gamond, L; Cattaneo, Z

2016-12-01

Consistent evidence suggests that emotional facial expressions are better recognized when the expresser and the perceiver belong to the same social group (in-group advantage). In this study, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to investigate the possible causal involvement of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and of the right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), two main nodes of the mentalizing neural network, in mediating the in-group advantage in emotion recognition. Participants performed an emotion discrimination task in a minimal (blue/green) group paradigm. We found that interfering with activity in the dmPFC significantly interfered with the effect of minimal group-membership on emotion recognition, reducing participants' ability to discriminate emotions expressed by in-group members. In turn, rTPJ mainly affected emotion discrimination per se, irrespective of group membership. Overall, our results point to a causal role of the dmPFC in mediating the in-group advantage in emotion recognition, favoring intragroup communication. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Change in Facial Emotion Recognition Ability in Inpatients with Treatment Resistant Schizophrenia After Electroconvulsive Therapy.

PubMed

Dalkıran, Mihriban; Tasdemir, Akif; Salihoglu, Tamer; Emul, Murat; Duran, Alaattin; Ugur, Mufit; Yavuz, Ruhi

2017-09-01

People with schizophrenia have impairments in emotion recognition along with other social cognitive deficits. In the current study, we aimed to investigate the immediate benefits of ECT on facial emotion recognition ability. Thirty-two treatment resistant patients with schizophrenia who have been indicated for ECT enrolled in the study. Facial emotion stimuli were a set of 56 photographs that depicted seven basic emotions: sadness, anger, happiness, disgust, surprise, fear, and neutral faces. The average age of the participants was 33.4 ± 10.5 years. The rate of recognizing the disgusted facial expression increased significantly after ECT (p < 0.05) and no significant changes were found in the rest of the facial expressions (p > 0.05). After the ECT, the time period of responding to the fear and happy facial expressions were significantly shorter (p < 0.05). Facial emotion recognition ability is an important social cognitive skill for social harmony, proper relation and living independently. At least, the ECT sessions do not seem to affect facial emotion recognition ability negatively and seem to improve identifying disgusted facial emotion which is related with dopamine enriched regions in brain.

Violent media consumption and the recognition of dynamic facial expressions.

PubMed

Kirsh, Steven J; Mounts, Jeffrey R W; Olczak, Paul V

2006-05-01

This study assessed the speed of recognition of facial emotional expressions (happy and angry) as a function of violent media consumption. Color photos of calm facial expressions morphed to either an angry or a happy facial expression. Participants were asked to make a speeded identification of the emotion (happiness or anger) during the morph. Results indicated that, independent of trait aggressiveness, participants high in violent media consumption responded slower to depictions of happiness and faster to depictions of anger than participants low in violent media consumption. Implications of these findings are discussed with respect to current models of aggressive behavior.

Emotion Recognition in Animated Compared to Human Stimuli in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brosnan, Mark; Johnson, Hilary; Grawmeyer, Beate; Chapman, Emma; Benton, Laura

2015-01-01

There is equivocal evidence as to whether there is a deficit in recognising emotional expressions in Autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study compared emotion recognition in ASD in three types of emotion expression media (still image, dynamic image, auditory) across human stimuli (e.g. photo of a human face) and animated stimuli (e.g. cartoon…

Introduction to Pathogenic Protozoa

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-06-01

hematoxylin suf- fers when the modified fixative, in which zinc or copper is substituted for mercury, is used. Specimens should be first grossly examined...specimens to detect light infections. The two most common procedures are zinc sulfate flotation and formalin-ethyl acetate sedi- mentation. Wet mount

5 CFR 850.101 - Purpose and scope.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... Employees' Retirement System (FERS) by using contemporary, automated business processes and supporting... employing more efficient and effective business systems to respond to increased customer demand for higher levels of customer service and online self-service tools. (b) The provisions of this part authorize...

5 CFR 846.304 - Computing FERS annuities for persons with CSRS service.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

...) and (c). (d)(1) Except as specified in § 846.305, the average pay for computations under paragraphs (b... basic pay in effect over any 3 consecutive years of creditable service or, in the case of an annuity...

5 CFR 846.304 - Computing FERS annuities for persons with CSRS service.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

...) and (c). (d)(1) Except as specified in § 846.305, the average pay for computations under paragraphs (b... basic pay in effect over any 3 consecutive years of creditable service or, in the case of an annuity...

Body Emotion Recognition Disproportionately Depends on Vertical Orientations during Childhood

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balas, Benjamin; Auen, Amanda; Saville, Alyson; Schmidt, Jamie

2018-01-01

Children's ability to recognize emotional expressions from faces and bodies develops during childhood. However, the low-level features that support accurate body emotion recognition during development have not been well characterized. This is in marked contrast to facial emotion recognition, which is known to depend upon specific spatial frequency…

Towards Real-Time Speech Emotion Recognition for Affective E-Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bahreini, Kiavash; Nadolski, Rob; Westera, Wim

2016-01-01

This paper presents the voice emotion recognition part of the FILTWAM framework for real-time emotion recognition in affective e-learning settings. FILTWAM (Framework for Improving Learning Through Webcams And Microphones) intends to offer timely and appropriate online feedback based upon learner's vocal intonations and facial expressions in order…

Neonatal paternal deprivation impairs social recognition and alters levels of oxytocin and estrogen receptor α mRNA expression in the MeA and NAcc, and serum oxytocin in mandarin voles.

PubMed

Cao, Yan; Wu, Ruiyong; Tai, Fadao; Zhang, Xia; Yu, Peng; An, Xiaolei; Qiao, Xufeng; Hao, Ping

2014-01-01

Paternal care is necessary for the healthy development of social behavior in monogamous rodents and social recognition underpins social behavior in these animals. The effects of paternal care on the development of social recognition and underlying neuroendocrine mechanisms, especially the involvement of oxytocin and estrogen pathways, remain poorly understood. We investigated the effects of paternal deprivation (PD: father was removed from neonatal pups and mother alone raised the offspring) on social recognition in mandarin voles (Microtus mandarinus), a socially monogamous rodent. Paternal deprivation was found to inhibit the development of social recognition in female and male offspring according to a habituation-dishabituation paradigm. Paternal deprivation resulted in increased inactivity and reduced investigation during new encounters with other animals. Paternal deprivation reduced oxytocin receptor (OTR) and estrogen receptor α (ERα) mRNA expression in the medial amygdala and nucleus accumbens. Paternal deprivation reduced serum oxytocin (OT) concentration in females, but had no effect on males. Our results provide substantial evidence that paternal deprivation inhibits the development of social recognition in female and male mandarin voles and alters social behavior later in life. This is possibly the result of altered expression of central OTR and ERα and serum OT levels caused by paternal deprivation. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A hyperosmolar-colloidal additive to the CPB-priming solution reduces fluid load and fluid extravasation during tepid CPB.

PubMed

Kvalheim, V; Farstad, M; Haugen, O; Brekke, H; Mongstad, A; Nygreen, E; Husby, P

2008-01-01

Cardiopulmonary bypass(CPB) is associated with fluid overload. We hypothesized that fluid gain during CPB could be reduced by substituting parts of a crystalloid prime with 7.2% hypertonic saline and 6% poly (O-2-hydroxyethyl) starch solution (HyperHaes). 14 animals were randomized to a control group (Group C) or to Group H. CPB-prime in Group C was Ringer's solution. In group H, 4 ml/kg of Ringer's solution was replaced by the hypertonic saline/hydroxyethyl starch solution. After 60 min stabilization, CPB was initiated and continued for 120 min. All animals were allowed drifting of normal temperature (39.0 degrees C) to about 35.0 degrees C. Fluid was added to the CPB circuit as needed to maintain a 300-ml level in the venous reservoir. Blood chemistry, hemodynamic parameters, fluid balance, plasma volume, fluid extravasation rate (FER), tissue water content and acid-base parameters were measured/calculated. Total fluid need during 120 min CPB was reduced by 60% when hypertonic saline/hydroxyethyl starch solution was added to the CPB prime (p < 0.01). The reduction was related to a lowered FER. The effect was most pronounced during the first 30 min on CPB, with 0.6 (0.43) (Group H) compared with 1.5 (0.40) ml/kg/min (Group C) (p < 0.01). Hemodynamics and laboratory parameters were similar in both groups. Serum concentrations of sodium and chloride increased to maximum levels of 148 (1.5) and 112 (1.6) mmol/l in Group H. To conclude: addition of 7.2% hypertonic saline and 6% poly (O-2-hydroxyethyl) starch solution to crystalloid CPB prime reduces fluid needs and FER during tepid CPB.

^1H NMR studies of the diamagnetic gallium (III) and paramagnetic iron (III) complexes of a chiral macrobicyclic ligand of bicapped tris (binaphtol) type

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baret, P.; Beaujolais, V.; Bougault, C.; Gaude, D.; Pierre, J.-L.

1998-01-01

^1H NMR studies of the diamagnetic gallium (III) and paramagnetic iron (III) complexes of a chiral macrobicyclic ligand of bicapped tris (binaphtol) type are described. The study of the gallium complex emphasizes: (i) that the inversion of the octahedral center is not observed and: (ii) the absence of exchange between free ligand and complex, at room temperature. In the case of the iron complex, assignments of the hyperfine shifted resolved resonances are achieved, based on temperature-behavior studies, which evidence the D3 symmetry of the complex. These assignments are in complete agreement with measured T1 values and proton-to-iron distances obtained from molecular modelling. Les complexes du gallium (III) et du fer (III) d'un ligand macrobicyclique chiral impliquant trois sous-unités de type binaphtol sont étudiés en RMN du proton en solution méthanolique. L'étude du complexe (diamagnétique) du gallium permet de montrer que le complexe : (i) ne subit pas d'inversion de la configuration (Δ/Λ) du site octaédrique et : (ii) qu'il n'y a pas d'échange entre ligand libre et complexe à la température ambiante. L'évolution du spectre du complexe paramagnétique du fer avec la température permet une attribution des protons du ligand et met en évidence la symétrie D3 du complexe. Une bonne corrélation est obtenue entre la distance fer-proton (donnée par la modélisation moléculaire) et le T1 du proton considéré.

Two Kinds of Ferritin Protect Ixodid Ticks from Iron Overload and Consequent Oxidative Stress

PubMed Central

Galay, Remil Linggatong; Umemiya-Shirafuji, Rika; Bacolod, Eugene T.; Maeda, Hiroki; Kusakisako, Kodai; Koyama, Jiro; Tsuji, Naotoshi; Mochizuki, Masami; Fujisaki, Kozo; Tanaka, Tetsuya

2014-01-01

Ticks are obligate hematophagous parasites that have successfully developed counteractive means against their hosts' immune and hemostatic mechanisms, but their ability to cope with potentially toxic molecules in the blood remains unclear. Iron is important in various physiological processes but can be toxic to living cells when in excess. We previously reported that the hard tick Haemaphysalis longicornis has an intracellular (HlFER1) and a secretory (HlFER2) ferritin, and both are crucial in successful blood feeding and reproduction. Ferritin gene silencing by RNA interference caused reduced feeding capacity, low body weight and high mortality after blood meal, decreased fecundity and morphological abnormalities in the midgut cells. Similar findings were also previously reported after silencing of ferritin genes in another hard tick, Ixodes ricinus. Here we demonstrated the role of ferritin in protecting the hard ticks from oxidative stress. Evaluation of oxidative stress in Hlfer-silenced ticks was performed after blood feeding or injection of ferric ammonium citrate (FAC) through detection of the lipid peroxidation product, malondialdehyde (MDA) and protein oxidation product, protein carbonyl. FAC injection in Hlfer-silenced ticks resulted in high mortality. Higher levels of MDA and protein carbonyl were detected in Hlfer-silenced ticks compared to Luciferase-injected (control) ticks both after blood feeding and FAC injection. Ferric iron accumulation demonstrated by increased staining on native HlFER was observed from 72 h after iron injection in both the whole tick and the midgut. Furthermore, weak iron staining was observed after Hlfer knockdown. Taken together, these results show that tick ferritins are crucial antioxidant molecules that protect the hard tick from iron-mediated oxidative stress during blood feeding. PMID:24594832

The level of cognitive function and recognition of emotions in older adults

PubMed Central

Singh-Manoux, Archana; Batty, G. David; Ebmeier, Klaus P.; Jokela, Markus; Harmer, Catherine J.; Kivimäki, Mika

2017-01-01

Background The association between cognitive decline and the ability to recognise emotions in interpersonal communication is not well understood. We aimed to investigate the association between cognitive function and the ability to recognise emotions in other people’s facial expressions across the full continuum of cognitive capacity. Methods Cross-sectional analysis of 4039 participants (3016 men, 1023 women aged 59 to 82 years) in the Whitehall II study. Cognitive function was assessed using a 30-item Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), further classified into 8 groups: 30, 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, and <24 (possible dementia) MMSE points. The Facial Expression Recognition Task (FERT) was used to examine recognition of anger, fear, disgust, sadness, and happiness. Results The multivariable adjusted difference in the percentage of accurate recognition between the highest and lowest MMSE group was 14.9 (95%CI, 11.1–18.7) for anger, 15.5 (11.9–19.2) for fear, 18.5 (15.2–21.8) for disgust, 11.6 (7.3–16.0) for sadness, and 6.3 (3.1–9.4) for happiness. However, recognition of several emotions was reduced already after 1 to 2-point reduction in MMSE and with further points down in MMSE, the recognition worsened at an accelerated rate. Conclusions The ability to recognize emotion in facial expressions is affected at an early stage of cognitive impairment and might decline at an accelerated rate with the deterioration of cognitive function. Accurate recognition of happiness seems to be less affected by a severe decline in cognitive performance than recognition of negatively valued emotions. PMID:28977015

Inconsistent emotion recognition deficits across stimulus modalities in Huntington׳s disease.

PubMed

Rees, Elin M; Farmer, Ruth; Cole, James H; Henley, Susie M D; Sprengelmeyer, Reiner; Frost, Chris; Scahill, Rachael I; Hobbs, Nicola Z; Tabrizi, Sarah J

2014-11-01

Recognition of negative emotions is impaired in Huntington׳s Disease (HD). It is unclear whether these emotion-specific problems are driven by dissociable cognitive deficits, emotion complexity, test cue difficulty, or visuoperceptual impairments. This study set out to further characterise emotion recognition in HD by comparing patterns of deficits across stimulus modalities; notably including for the first time in HD, the more ecologically and clinically relevant modality of film clips portraying dynamic facial expressions. Fifteen early HD and 17 control participants were tested on emotion recognition from static facial photographs, non-verbal vocal expressions and one second dynamic film clips, all depicting different emotions. Statistically significant evidence of impairment of anger, disgust and fear recognition was seen in HD participants compared with healthy controls across multiple stimulus modalities. The extent of the impairment, as measured by the difference in the number of errors made between HD participants and controls, differed according to the combination of emotion and modality (p=0.013, interaction test). The largest between-group difference was seen in the recognition of anger from film clips. Consistent with previous reports, anger, disgust and fear were the most poorly recognised emotions by the HD group. This impairment did not appear to be due to task demands or expression complexity as the pattern of between-group differences did not correspond to the pattern of errors made by either group; implicating emotion-specific cognitive processing pathology. There was however evidence that the extent of emotion recognition deficits significantly differed between stimulus modalities. The implications in terms of designing future tests of emotion recognition and care giving are discussed. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Modulation of α power and functional connectivity during facial affect recognition.

PubMed

Popov, Tzvetan; Miller, Gregory A; Rockstroh, Brigitte; Weisz, Nathan

2013-04-03

Research has linked oscillatory activity in the α frequency range, particularly in sensorimotor cortex, to processing of social actions. Results further suggest involvement of sensorimotor α in the processing of facial expressions, including affect. The sensorimotor face area may be critical for perception of emotional face expression, but the role it plays is unclear. The present study sought to clarify how oscillatory brain activity contributes to or reflects processing of facial affect during changes in facial expression. Neuromagnetic oscillatory brain activity was monitored while 30 volunteers viewed videos of human faces that changed their expression from neutral to fearful, neutral, or happy expressions. Induced changes in α power during the different morphs, source analysis, and graph-theoretic metrics served to identify the role of α power modulation and cross-regional coupling by means of phase synchrony during facial affect recognition. Changes from neutral to emotional faces were associated with a 10-15 Hz power increase localized in bilateral sensorimotor areas, together with occipital power decrease, preceding reported emotional expression recognition. Graph-theoretic analysis revealed that, in the course of a trial, the balance between sensorimotor power increase and decrease was associated with decreased and increased transregional connectedness as measured by node degree. Results suggest that modulations in α power facilitate early registration, with sensorimotor cortex including the sensorimotor face area largely functionally decoupled and thereby protected from additional, disruptive input and that subsequent α power decrease together with increased connectedness of sensorimotor areas facilitates successful facial affect recognition.

Understanding amygdala responsiveness to fearful expressions through the lens of psychopathy and altruism.

PubMed

Marsh, Abigail A

2016-06-01

Because the face is the central focus of human social interactions, emotional facial expressions provide a unique window into the emotional lives of others. They play a particularly important role in fostering empathy, which entails understanding and responding to others' emotions, especially distress-related emotions such as fear. This Review considers how fearful facial as well as vocal and postural expressions are interpreted, with an emphasis on the role of the amygdala. The amygdala may be best known for its role in the acquisition and expression of conditioned fear, but it also supports the perception and recognition of others' fear. Various explanations have been supplied for the amygdala's role in interpreting and responding to fearful expressions. They include theories that amygdala responses to fearful expressions 1) reflect heightened vigilance in response to uncertain danger, 2) promote heightened attention to the eye region of faces, 3) represent a response to an unconditioned aversive stimulus, or 4) reflect the generation of an empathic fear response. Among these, only empathic fear explains why amygdala lesions would impair fear recognition across modalities. Supporting the possibility of a link between fundamental empathic processes and amygdala responses to fear is evidence that impaired fear recognition in psychopathic individuals results from amygdala dysfunction, whereas enhanced fear recognition in altruistic individuals results from enhanced amygdala function. Empathic concern and caring behaviors may be fostered by sensitivity to signs of acute distress in others, which relies on intact functioning of the amygdala. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Facial Emotion Recognition and Expression in Parkinson’s Disease: An Emotional Mirror Mechanism?

PubMed Central

Ricciardi, Lucia; Visco-Comandini, Federica; Erro, Roberto; Morgante, Francesca; Bologna, Matteo; Fasano, Alfonso; Ricciardi, Diego; Edwards, Mark J.; Kilner, James

2017-01-01

Background and aim Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients have impairment of facial expressivity (hypomimia) and difficulties in interpreting the emotional facial expressions produced by others, especially for aversive emotions. We aimed to evaluate the ability to produce facial emotional expressions and to recognize facial emotional expressions produced by others in a group of PD patients and a group of healthy participants in order to explore the relationship between these two abilities and any differences between the two groups of participants. Methods Twenty non-demented, non-depressed PD patients and twenty healthy participants (HC) matched for demographic characteristics were studied. The ability of recognizing emotional facial expressions was assessed with the Ekman 60-faces test (Emotion recognition task). Participants were video-recorded while posing facial expressions of 6 primary emotions (happiness, sadness, surprise, disgust, fear and anger). The most expressive pictures for each emotion were derived from the videos. Ten healthy raters were asked to look at the pictures displayed on a computer-screen in pseudo-random fashion and to identify the emotional label in a six-forced-choice response format (Emotion expressivity task). Reaction time (RT) and accuracy of responses were recorded. At the end of each trial the participant was asked to rate his/her confidence in his/her perceived accuracy of response. Results For emotion recognition, PD reported lower score than HC for Ekman total score (p<0.001), and for single emotions sub-scores happiness, fear, anger, sadness (p<0.01) and surprise (p = 0.02). In the facial emotion expressivity task, PD and HC significantly differed in the total score (p = 0.05) and in the sub-scores for happiness, sadness, anger (all p<0.001). RT and the level of confidence showed significant differences between PD and HC for the same emotions. There was a significant positive correlation between the emotion facial recognition and expressivity in both groups; the correlation was even stronger when ranking emotions from the best recognized to the worst (R = 0.75, p = 0.004). Conclusions PD patients showed difficulties in recognizing emotional facial expressions produced by others and in posing facial emotional expressions compared to healthy subjects. The linear correlation between recognition and expression in both experimental groups suggests that the two mechanisms share a common system, which could be deteriorated in patients with PD. These results open new clinical and rehabilitation perspectives. PMID:28068393

Identification of Emotional Facial Expressions: Effects of Expression, Intensity, and Sex on Eye Gaze.

PubMed

Wells, Laura Jean; Gillespie, Steven Mark; Rotshtein, Pia

2016-01-01

The identification of emotional expressions is vital for social interaction, and can be affected by various factors, including the expressed emotion, the intensity of the expression, the sex of the face, and the gender of the observer. This study investigates how these factors affect the speed and accuracy of expression recognition, as well as dwell time on the two most significant areas of the face: the eyes and the mouth. Participants were asked to identify expressions from female and male faces displaying six expressions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise), each with three levels of intensity (low, moderate, and normal). Overall, responses were fastest and most accurate for happy expressions, but slowest and least accurate for fearful expressions. More intense expressions were also classified most accurately. Reaction time showed a different pattern, with slowest response times recorded for expressions of moderate intensity. Overall, responses were slowest, but also most accurate, for female faces. Relative to male observers, women showed greater accuracy and speed when recognizing female expressions. Dwell time analyses revealed that attention to the eyes was about three times greater than on the mouth, with fearful eyes in particular attracting longer dwell times. The mouth region was attended to the most for fearful, angry, and disgusted expressions and least for surprise. These results extend upon previous findings to show important effects of expression, emotion intensity, and sex on expression recognition and gaze behaviour, and may have implications for understanding the ways in which emotion recognition abilities break down.

Identification of Emotional Facial Expressions: Effects of Expression, Intensity, and Sex on Eye Gaze

PubMed Central

Rotshtein, Pia

2016-01-01

The identification of emotional expressions is vital for social interaction, and can be affected by various factors, including the expressed emotion, the intensity of the expression, the sex of the face, and the gender of the observer. This study investigates how these factors affect the speed and accuracy of expression recognition, as well as dwell time on the two most significant areas of the face: the eyes and the mouth. Participants were asked to identify expressions from female and male faces displaying six expressions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise), each with three levels of intensity (low, moderate, and normal). Overall, responses were fastest and most accurate for happy expressions, but slowest and least accurate for fearful expressions. More intense expressions were also classified most accurately. Reaction time showed a different pattern, with slowest response times recorded for expressions of moderate intensity. Overall, responses were slowest, but also most accurate, for female faces. Relative to male observers, women showed greater accuracy and speed when recognizing female expressions. Dwell time analyses revealed that attention to the eyes was about three times greater than on the mouth, with fearful eyes in particular attracting longer dwell times. The mouth region was attended to the most for fearful, angry, and disgusted expressions and least for surprise. These results extend upon previous findings to show important effects of expression, emotion intensity, and sex on expression recognition and gaze behaviour, and may have implications for understanding the ways in which emotion recognition abilities break down. PMID:27942030

Associations between facial emotion recognition and young adolescents’ behaviors in bullying

PubMed Central

Gini, Gianluca; Altoè, Gianmarco

2017-01-01

This study investigated whether different behaviors young adolescents can act during bullying episodes were associated with their ability to recognize morphed facial expressions of the six basic emotions, expressed at high and low intensity. The sample included 117 middle-school students (45.3% girls; mean age = 12.4 years) who filled in a peer nomination questionnaire and individually performed a computerized emotion recognition task. Bayesian generalized mixed-effects models showed a complex picture, in which type and intensity of emotions, students’ behavior and gender interacted in explaining recognition accuracy. Results were discussed with a particular focus on negative emotions and suggesting a “neutral” nature of emotion recognition ability, which does not necessarily lead to moral behavior but can also be used for pursuing immoral goals. PMID:29131871

[Face recognition in patients with schizophrenia].

PubMed

Doi, Hirokazu; Shinohara, Kazuyuki

2012-07-01

It is well known that patients with schizophrenia show severe deficiencies in social communication skills. These deficiencies are believed to be partly derived from abnormalities in face recognition. However, the exact nature of these abnormalities exhibited by schizophrenic patients with respect to face recognition has yet to be clarified. In the present paper, we review the main findings on face recognition deficiencies in patients with schizophrenia, particularly focusing on abnormalities in the recognition of facial expression and gaze direction, which are the primary sources of information of others' mental states. The existing studies reveal that the abnormal recognition of facial expression and gaze direction in schizophrenic patients is attributable to impairments in both perceptual processing of visual stimuli, and cognitive-emotional responses to social information. Furthermore, schizophrenic patients show malfunctions in distributed neural regions, ranging from the fusiform gyrus recruited in the structural encoding of facial stimuli, to the amygdala which plays a primary role in the detection of the emotional significance of stimuli. These findings were obtained from research in patient groups with heterogeneous characteristics. Because previous studies have indicated that impairments in face recognition in schizophrenic patients might vary according to the types of symptoms, it is of primary importance to compare the nature of face recognition deficiencies and the impairments of underlying neural functions across sub-groups of patients.

Degraded Impairment of Emotion Recognition in Parkinson's Disease Extends from Negative to Positive Emotions.

PubMed

Lin, Chia-Yao; Tien, Yi-Min; Huang, Jong-Tsun; Tsai, Chon-Haw; Hsu, Li-Chuan

2016-01-01

Because of dopaminergic neurodegeneration, patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) show impairment in the recognition of negative facial expressions. In the present study, we aimed to determine whether PD patients with more advanced motor problems would show a much greater deficit in recognition of emotional facial expressions than a control group and whether impairment of emotion recognition would extend to positive emotions. Twenty-nine PD patients and 29 age-matched healthy controls were recruited. Participants were asked to discriminate emotions in Experiment  1 and identify gender in Experiment  2. In Experiment  1, PD patients demonstrated a recognition deficit for negative (sadness and anger) and positive faces. Further analysis showed that only PD patients with high motor dysfunction performed poorly in recognition of happy faces. In Experiment  2, PD patients showed an intact ability for gender identification, and the results eliminated possible abilities in the functions measured in Experiment  2 as alternative explanations for the results of Experiment  1. We concluded that patients' ability to recognize emotions deteriorated as the disease progressed. Recognition of negative emotions was impaired first, and then the impairment extended to positive emotions.

Degraded Impairment of Emotion Recognition in Parkinson's Disease Extends from Negative to Positive Emotions

PubMed Central

Tien, Yi-Min; Huang, Jong-Tsun

2016-01-01

Because of dopaminergic neurodegeneration, patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) show impairment in the recognition of negative facial expressions. In the present study, we aimed to determine whether PD patients with more advanced motor problems would show a much greater deficit in recognition of emotional facial expressions than a control group and whether impairment of emotion recognition would extend to positive emotions. Twenty-nine PD patients and 29 age-matched healthy controls were recruited. Participants were asked to discriminate emotions in Experiment  1 and identify gender in Experiment  2. In Experiment  1, PD patients demonstrated a recognition deficit for negative (sadness and anger) and positive faces. Further analysis showed that only PD patients with high motor dysfunction performed poorly in recognition of happy faces. In Experiment  2, PD patients showed an intact ability for gender identification, and the results eliminated possible abilities in the functions measured in Experiment  2 as alternative explanations for the results of Experiment  1. We concluded that patients' ability to recognize emotions deteriorated as the disease progressed. Recognition of negative emotions was impaired first, and then the impairment extended to positive emotions. PMID:27555668

Age differences in right-wing authoritarianism and their relation to emotion recognition.

PubMed

Ruffman, Ted; Wilson, Marc; Henry, Julie D; Dawson, Abigail; Chen, Yan; Kladnitski, Natalie; Myftari, Ella; Murray, Janice; Halberstadt, Jamin; Hunter, John A

2016-03-01

This study examined the correlates of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) in older adults. Participants were given tasks measuring emotion recognition, executive functions and fluid IQ and questionnaires measuring RWA, perceived threat and social dominance orientation. Study 1 established higher age-related RWA across the age span in more than 2,600 New Zealanders. Studies 2 to 4 found that threat, education, social dominance and age all predicted unique variance in older adults' RWA, but the most consistent predictor was emotion recognition, predicting unique variance in older adults' RWA independent of all other variables. We argue that older adults' worse emotion recognition is associated with a more general change in social judgment. Expression of extreme attitudes (right- or left-wing) has the potential to antagonize others, but worse emotion recognition means that subtle signals will not be perceived, making the expression of extreme attitudes more likely. Our findings are consistent with other studies showing that worsening emotion recognition underlies age-related declines in verbosity, understanding of social gaffes, and ability to detect lies. Such results indicate that emotion recognition is a core social insight linked to many aspects of social cognition. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Fear recognition impairment in early-stage Alzheimer's disease: when focusing on the eyes region improves performance.

PubMed

Hot, Pascal; Klein-Koerkamp, Yanica; Borg, Céline; Richard-Mornas, Aurélie; Zsoldos, Isabella; Paignon Adeline, Adeline; Thomas Antérion, Catherine; Baciu, Monica

2013-06-01

A decline in the ability to identify fearful expression has been frequently reported in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). In patients with severe destruction of the bilateral amygdala, similar difficulties have been reduced by using an explicit visual exploration strategy focusing on gaze. The current study assessed the possibility of applying a similar strategy in AD patients to improve fear recognition. It also assessed the possibility of improving fear recognition when a visual exploration strategy induced AD patients to process the eyes region. Seventeen patients with mild AD and 34 healthy subjects (17 young adults and 17 older adults) performed a classical task of emotional identification of faces expressing happiness, anger, and fear in two conditions: The face appeared progressively from the eyes region to the periphery (eyes region condition) or it appeared as a whole (global condition). Specific impairment in identifying a fearful expression was shown in AD patients compared with older adult controls during the global condition. Fear expression recognition was significantly improved in AD patients during the eyes region condition, in which they performed similarly to older adult controls. Our results suggest that using a different strategy of face exploration, starting first with processing of the eyes region, may compensate for a fear recognition deficit in AD patients. Findings suggest that a part of this deficit could be related to visuo-perceptual impairments. Additionally, these findings suggest that the decline of fearful face recognition reported in both normal aging and in AD may result from impairment of non-amygdalar processing in both groups and impairment of amygdalar-dependent processing in AD. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

33 CFR 80.830 - Mississippi Passes, LA to Point Au Fer, LA.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... Caillou. (h) A line drawn on an axis of 103° true through Taylors Bayou Entrance Light 2 across the entrances to Jack Stout Bayou, Taylors Bayou, Pelican Pass, and Bayou de West. [CGD 77-118a, 42 FR 35784...

33 CFR 80.830 - Mississippi Passes, LA to Point Au Fer, LA.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... Caillou. (h) A line drawn on an axis of 103° true through Taylors Bayou Entrance Light 2 across the entrances to Jack Stout Bayou, Taylors Bayou, Pelican Pass, and Bayou de West. [CGD 77-118a, 42 FR 35784...

NOAA Workforce Management Office

Science.gov Websites

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75 FR 35098 - Federal Employees' Retirement System; Normal Cost Percentages

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-06-21

... OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT Federal Employees' Retirement System; Normal Cost Percentages...' Retirement System (FERS) Act of 1986. DATES: The revised normal cost percentages are effective at the... retirement system intended to cover most Federal employees hired after 1983. Most Federal employees hired...

The historical development of modern virus research in Germany, especially in the Kaiser-Wilhelm-/Max-Planck-Society, 1936--1954.

PubMed

Butenandt, A

1977-01-01

This is lecture on the historical development of modern virus research in Germany to introduce a symposium dedicated to Prof. Werner Schäfer, Tübingen, on the occasion of his 65th birthday. The author was set the task of relating from his memories the beginning of modern virus research in Germany. This research has, since 1936, essentially taken place in the Kaiser-Wilhelm/Max-Planck-Society and in 1954 led to the founding of the Max-Planck-Institute for Virus Research in Tübingen, an institute which to the present day owes its scientific reputation in considerable part to the activity of Werner Schäfer. Since the author personally experienced and participated in the Institute's development from 1936-1954, his remarks are predominantly influenced by personal recollections, which have been sharpended by a renewed study of old records in the 'Library and Archive of the History of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft', Berlin-Dahlem.

PSEUDO-CODEWORD LANDSCAPE

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

CHERTKOV, MICHAEL; STEPANOV, MIKHAIL

2007-01-10

The authors discuss performance of Low-Density-Parity-Check (LDPC) codes decoded by Linear Programming (LP) decoding at moderate and large Signal-to-Noise-Ratios (SNR). Frame-Error-Rate (FER) dependence on SNR and the noise space landscape of the coding/decoding scheme are analyzed by a combination of the previously introduced instanton/pseudo-codeword-search method and a new 'dendro' trick. To reduce complexity of the LP decoding for a code with high-degree checks, {ge} 5, they introduce its dendro-LDPC counterpart, that is the code performing identifically to the original one under Maximum-A-Posteriori (MAP) decoding but having reduced (down to three) check connectivity degree. Analyzing number of popular LDPC codes andmore » their dendro versions performing over the Additive-White-Gaussian-Noise (AWGN) channel, they observed two qualitatively different regimes: (i) error-floor sets early, at relatively low SNR, and (ii) FER decays with SNR increase faster at moderate SNR than at the largest SNR. They explain these regimes in terms of the pseudo-codeword spectra of the codes.« less

Life cycle assessment on microalgal biodiesel production using a hybrid cultivation system.

PubMed

Adesanya, Victoria O; Cadena, Erasmo; Scott, Stuart A; Smith, Alison G

2014-07-01

A life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed on a putative biodiesel production plant in which the freshwater alga Chlorella vulgaris, was grown using an existing system similar to a published commercial-scale hybrid cultivation. The hybrid system couples airlift tubular photobioreactors with raceway ponds in a two-stage process for high biomass growth and lipid accumulation. The results show that microalgal biodiesel production would have a significantly lower environmental impact than fossil-derived diesel. Based on the functional unit of 1 ton of biodiesel produced, the hybrid cultivation system and hypothetical downstream process (base case) would have 42% and 38% savings in global warming potential (GWP) and fossil-energy requirements (FER) when compared to fossil-derived diesel, respectively. Sensitivity analysis was performed to identify the most influential process parameters on the LCA results. The maximum reduction in GWP and FER was observed under mixotrophic growth conditions with savings of 76% and 75% when compared to conventional diesel, respectively. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

STS-114: Discovery Day 9 Mission Status Briefing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2005-01-01

Paul Hill, STS-114 Lead Shuttle Flight Director, Mark Ferring, STS-114 Lead ISS Flight Director and Cindy Begley, STS-114 Lead EVA Officer is shown during this 9th day of the Space Shuttle Mission to the International Space Station. Paul Hill talks about the status of the transfers of critical items to the International Space Station and transfers back from the International Space Station into the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM). Hill also presents footage of the crew cabin blanket survey procedure. Mark Ferring talks in detail about the primary International Space Station task on the External Stowage Platform (ESP). The status of the external stowage platform installation, removal of grapple fixture, gap filler removal task, and Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) 5 payload installation is discussed by Cindy Begley. She also presents footage of Steve Robinson's spacewalk before the gap filler task and during the removal of the gap filler. The Capture of ESP-2 is also presented. The presentation ends with a question and answer period from the news media

Is the emotion recognition deficit associated with frontotemporal dementia caused by selective inattention to diagnostic facial features?

PubMed

Oliver, Lindsay D; Virani, Karim; Finger, Elizabeth C; Mitchell, Derek G V

2014-07-01

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder characterized by severely impaired social and emotional behaviour, including emotion recognition deficits. Though fear recognition impairments seen in particular neurological and developmental disorders can be ameliorated by reallocating attention to critical facial features, the possibility that similar benefits can be conferred to patients with FTD has yet to be explored. In the current study, we examined the impact of presenting distinct regions of the face (whole face, eyes-only, and eyes-removed) on the ability to recognize expressions of anger, fear, disgust, and happiness in 24 patients with FTD and 24 healthy controls. A recognition deficit was demonstrated across emotions by patients with FTD relative to controls. Crucially, removal of diagnostic facial features resulted in an appropriate decline in performance for both groups; furthermore, patients with FTD demonstrated a lack of disproportionate improvement in emotion recognition accuracy as a result of isolating critical facial features relative to controls. Thus, unlike some neurological and developmental disorders featuring amygdala dysfunction, the emotion recognition deficit observed in FTD is not likely driven by selective inattention to critical facial features. Patients with FTD also mislabelled negative facial expressions as happy more often than controls, providing further evidence for abnormalities in the representation of positive affect in FTD. This work suggests that the emotional expression recognition deficit associated with FTD is unlikely to be rectified by adjusting selective attention to diagnostic features, as has proven useful in other select disorders. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comprehensive analysis of transcriptome variation uncovers known and novel driver events in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

PubMed

Atak, Zeynep Kalender; Gianfelici, Valentina; Hulselmans, Gert; De Keersmaecker, Kim; Devasia, Arun George; Geerdens, Ellen; Mentens, Nicole; Chiaretti, Sabina; Durinck, Kaat; Uyttebroeck, Anne; Vandenberghe, Peter; Wlodarska, Iwona; Cloos, Jacqueline; Foà, Robin; Speleman, Frank; Cools, Jan; Aerts, Stein

2013-01-01

RNA-seq is a promising technology to re-sequence protein coding genes for the identification of single nucleotide variants (SNV), while simultaneously obtaining information on structural variations and gene expression perturbations. We asked whether RNA-seq is suitable for the detection of driver mutations in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). These leukemias are caused by a combination of gene fusions, over-expression of transcription factors and cooperative point mutations in oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. We analyzed 31 T-ALL patient samples and 18 T-ALL cell lines by high-coverage paired-end RNA-seq. First, we optimized the detection of SNVs in RNA-seq data by comparing the results with exome re-sequencing data. We identified known driver genes with recurrent protein altering variations, as well as several new candidates including H3F3A, PTK2B, and STAT5B. Next, we determined accurate gene expression levels from the RNA-seq data through normalizations and batch effect removal, and used these to classify patients into T-ALL subtypes. Finally, we detected gene fusions, of which several can explain the over-expression of key driver genes such as TLX1, PLAG1, LMO1, or NKX2-1; and others result in novel fusion transcripts encoding activated kinases (SSBP2-FER and TPM3-JAK2) or involving MLLT10. In conclusion, we present novel analysis pipelines for variant calling, variant filtering, and expression normalization on RNA-seq data, and successfully applied these for the detection of translocations, point mutations, INDELs, exon-skipping events, and expression perturbations in T-ALL.

Robust kernel representation with statistical local features for face recognition.

PubMed

Yang, Meng; Zhang, Lei; Shiu, Simon Chi-Keung; Zhang, David

2013-06-01

Factors such as misalignment, pose variation, and occlusion make robust face recognition a difficult problem. It is known that statistical features such as local binary pattern are effective for local feature extraction, whereas the recently proposed sparse or collaborative representation-based classification has shown interesting results in robust face recognition. In this paper, we propose a novel robust kernel representation model with statistical local features (SLF) for robust face recognition. Initially, multipartition max pooling is used to enhance the invariance of SLF to image registration error. Then, a kernel-based representation model is proposed to fully exploit the discrimination information embedded in the SLF, and robust regression is adopted to effectively handle the occlusion in face images. Extensive experiments are conducted on benchmark face databases, including extended Yale B, AR (A. Martinez and R. Benavente), multiple pose, illumination, and expression (multi-PIE), facial recognition technology (FERET), face recognition grand challenge (FRGC), and labeled faces in the wild (LFW), which have different variations of lighting, expression, pose, and occlusions, demonstrating the promising performance of the proposed method.

Cooperation between Epstein-Barr Virus Immune Evasion Proteins Spreads Protection from CD8+ T Cell Recognition across All Three Phases of the Lytic Cycle

PubMed Central

Quinn, Laura L.; Zuo, Jianmin; Abbott, Rachel J. M.; Shannon-Lowe, Claire; Tierney, Rosemary J.; Hislop, Andrew D.; Rowe, Martin

2014-01-01

CD8+ T cell responses to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) lytic cycle expressed antigens display a hierarchy of immunodominance, in which responses to epitopes of immediate-early (IE) and some early (E) antigens are more frequently observed than responses to epitopes of late (L) expressed antigens. It has been proposed that this hierarchy, which correlates with the phase-specific efficiency of antigen presentation, may be due to the influence of viral immune-evasion genes. At least three EBV-encoded genes, BNLF2a, BGLF5 and BILF1, have the potential to inhibit processing and presentation of CD8+ T cell epitopes. Here we examined the relative contribution of these genes to modulation of CD8+ T cell recognition of EBV lytic antigens expressed at different phases of the replication cycle in EBV-transformed B-cells (LCLs) which spontaneously reactivate lytic cycle. Selective shRNA-mediated knockdown of BNLF2a expression led to more efficient recognition of immediate-early (IE)- and early (E)-derived epitopes by CD8+ T cells, while knock down of BILF1 increased recognition of epitopes from E and late (L)-expressed antigens. Contrary to what might have been predicted from previous ectopic expression studies in EBV-negative model cell lines, the shRNA-mediated inhibition of BGLF5 expression in LCLs showed only modest, if any, increase in recognition of epitopes expressed in any phase of lytic cycle. These data indicate that whilst BNLF2a interferes with antigen presentation with diminishing efficiency as lytic cycle progresses (IE>E>>L), interference by BILF1 increases with progression through lytic cycle (IE

Age-congruency and contact effects in body expression recognition from point-light displays (PLD)

PubMed Central

Hermens, Frouke; Willmott, Alexander P.

2016-01-01

Recognition of older people’s body expressions is a crucial social skill. We here investigate how age, not just of the observer, but also of the observed individual, affects this skill. Age may influence the ability to recognize other people’s body expressions by changes in one’s own ability to perform certain action over the life-span (i.e., an own-age bias may occur, with best recognition for one’s own age). Whole body point light displays of children, young adults and older adults (>70 years) expressing six different emotions were presented to observers of the same three age-groups. Across two variations of the paradigm, no evidence for the predicted own-age bias (a cross-over interaction between one’s own age and the observed person’s age) was found. Instead, experience effects were found with children better recognizing older actors’ expressions of ‘active emotions,’ such as anger and happiness with greater exposure in daily life. Together, the findings suggest that age-related changes in one own’s mobility only influences body expression categorization in young children who interact frequently with older adults. PMID:27994986

Antennal transcriptome analysis of the Asian longhorned beetle Anoplophora glabripennis

PubMed Central

Hu, Ping; Wang, Jingzhen; Cui, Mingming; Tao, Jing; Luo, Youqing

2016-01-01

Olfactory proteins form the basis of insect olfactory recognition, which is crucial for host identification, mating, and oviposition. Using transcriptome analysis of Anoplophora glabripennis antenna, we identified 42 odorant-binding proteins (OBPs), 12 chemosensory proteins (CSPs), 14 pheromone-degrading enzymes (PDEs), 1 odorant-degrading enzymes (ODE), 37 odorant receptors (ORs), 11 gustatory receptors (GRs), 2 sensory neuron membrane proteins (SNMPs), and 4 ionotropic receptor (IR). All CSPs and PBPs were expressed in antennae, confirming the authenticity of the transcriptome data. CSP expression profiles showed that AglaCSP3, AglaCSP6, and AglaCSP12 were expressed preferentially in maxillary palps and AglaCSP7 and AglaCSP9 were strongly expressed in antennae. The vast majority of CSPs were highly expressed in multiple chemosensory tissues, suggesting their participation in olfactory recognition in almost all olfactory tissues. Intriguingly, the PBP AglaPBP2 was preferentially expressed in antenna, indicating that it is the main protein involved in efficient and sensitive pheromone recognition. Phylogenetic analysis of olfactory proteins indicated AglaGR1 may detect CO2. This study establishes a foundation for determining the chemoreception molecular mechanisms of A. glabripennis, which would provide a new perspective for controlling pest populations, especially those of borers. PMID:27222053

Functional Connectivity of Multiple Brain Regions Required for the Consolidation of Social Recognition Memory.

PubMed

Tanimizu, Toshiyuki; Kenney, Justin W; Okano, Emiko; Kadoma, Kazune; Frankland, Paul W; Kida, Satoshi

2017-04-12

Social recognition memory is an essential and basic component of social behavior that is used to discriminate familiar and novel animals/humans. Previous studies have shown the importance of several brain regions for social recognition memories; however, the mechanisms underlying the consolidation of social recognition memory at the molecular and anatomic levels remain unknown. Here, we show a brain network necessary for the generation of social recognition memory in mice. A mouse genetic study showed that cAMP-responsive element-binding protein (CREB)-mediated transcription is required for the formation of social recognition memory. Importantly, significant inductions of the CREB target immediate-early genes c-fos and Arc were observed in the hippocampus (CA1 and CA3 regions), medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and amygdala (basolateral region) when social recognition memory was generated. Pharmacological experiments using a microinfusion of the protein synthesis inhibitor anisomycin showed that protein synthesis in these brain regions is required for the consolidation of social recognition memory. These findings suggested that social recognition memory is consolidated through the activation of CREB-mediated gene expression in the hippocampus/mPFC/ACC/amygdala. Network analyses suggested that these four brain regions show functional connectivity with other brain regions and, more importantly, that the hippocampus functions as a hub to integrate brain networks and generate social recognition memory, whereas the ACC and amygdala are important for coordinating brain activity when social interaction is initiated by connecting with other brain regions. We have found that a brain network composed of the hippocampus/mPFC/ACC/amygdala is required for the consolidation of social recognition memory. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Here, we identify brain networks composed of multiple brain regions for the consolidation of social recognition memory. We found that social recognition memory is consolidated through CREB-meditated gene expression in the hippocampus, medial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and amygdala. Importantly, network analyses based on c-fos expression suggest that functional connectivity of these four brain regions with other brain regions is increased with time spent in social investigation toward the generation of brain networks to consolidate social recognition memory. Furthermore, our findings suggest that hippocampus functions as a hub to integrate brain networks and generate social recognition memory, whereas ACC and amygdala are important for coordinating brain activity when social interaction is initiated by connecting with other brain regions. Copyright © 2017 the authors 0270-6474/17/374103-14$15.00/0.

Emotional expression recognition and attribution bias among sexual and violent offenders: a signal detection analysis

PubMed Central

Gillespie, Steven M.; Rotshtein, Pia; Satherley, Rose-Marie; Beech, Anthony R.; Mitchell, Ian J.

2015-01-01

Research with violent offenders has consistently shown impaired recognition of other’s facial expressions of emotion. However, the extent to which similar problems can be observed among sexual offenders remains unknown. Using a computerized task, we presented sexual and violent offenders, and non-offenders, with male and female expressions of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise, morphed with neutral expressions at varying levels of intensity (10, 55, and 90% expressive). Based on signal detection theory, we used hit rates and false alarms to calculate the sensitivity index d-prime (d′) and criterion (c) for each emotional expression. Overall, sexual offenders showed reduced sensitivity to emotional expressions across intensity, sex, and type of expression, compared with non-offenders, while both sexual and violent offenders showed particular reduced sensitivity to fearful expressions. We also observed specific effects for high (90%) intensity female faces, with sexual offenders showing reduced sensitivity to anger compared with non-offenders and violent offenders, and reduced sensitivity to disgust compared with non-offenders. Furthermore, both sexual and violent offenders showed impaired sensitivity to high intensity female fearful expressions compared with non-offenders. Violent offenders also showed a higher criterion for classifying moderate and high intensity male expressions as fearful, indicative of a more conservative response style, compared with angry, happy, or sad. These results suggest that both types of offender show problems in emotion recognition, and may have implications for understanding the inhibition of violent and sexually violent behaviors. PMID:26029137

Emotional expression recognition and attribution bias among sexual and violent offenders: a signal detection analysis.

PubMed

Gillespie, Steven M; Rotshtein, Pia; Satherley, Rose-Marie; Beech, Anthony R; Mitchell, Ian J

2015-01-01

Research with violent offenders has consistently shown impaired recognition of other's facial expressions of emotion. However, the extent to which similar problems can be observed among sexual offenders remains unknown. Using a computerized task, we presented sexual and violent offenders, and non-offenders, with male and female expressions of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise, morphed with neutral expressions at varying levels of intensity (10, 55, and 90% expressive). Based on signal detection theory, we used hit rates and false alarms to calculate the sensitivity index d-prime (d') and criterion (c) for each emotional expression. Overall, sexual offenders showed reduced sensitivity to emotional expressions across intensity, sex, and type of expression, compared with non-offenders, while both sexual and violent offenders showed particular reduced sensitivity to fearful expressions. We also observed specific effects for high (90%) intensity female faces, with sexual offenders showing reduced sensitivity to anger compared with non-offenders and violent offenders, and reduced sensitivity to disgust compared with non-offenders. Furthermore, both sexual and violent offenders showed impaired sensitivity to high intensity female fearful expressions compared with non-offenders. Violent offenders also showed a higher criterion for classifying moderate and high intensity male expressions as fearful, indicative of a more conservative response style, compared with angry, happy, or sad. These results suggest that both types of offender show problems in emotion recognition, and may have implications for understanding the inhibition of violent and sexually violent behaviors.

Improvement of emotional healthcare system with stress detection from ECG signal.

PubMed

Tivatansakul, S; Ohkura, M

2015-01-01

Our emotional healthcare system is designed to cope with users' negative emotions in daily life. To make the system more intelligent, we integrated emotion recognition by facial expression to provide appropriate services based on user's current emotional state. Our emotion recognition by facial expression has confusion issue to recognize some positive, neutral and negative emotions that make the emotional healthcare system provide a relaxation service even though users don't have negative emotions. Therefore, to increase the effectiveness of the system to provide the relaxation service, we integrate stress detection from ECG signal. The stress detection might be able to address the confusion issue of emotion recognition by facial expression to provide the service. Indeed, our results show that integration of stress detection increases the effectiveness and efficiency of the emotional healthcare system to provide services.

Audio-visual affective expression recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Thomas S.; Zeng, Zhihong

2007-11-01

Automatic affective expression recognition has attracted more and more attention of researchers from different disciplines, which will significantly contribute to a new paradigm for human computer interaction (affect-sensitive interfaces, socially intelligent environments) and advance the research in the affect-related fields including psychology, psychiatry, and education. Multimodal information integration is a process that enables human to assess affective states robustly and flexibly. In order to understand the richness and subtleness of human emotion behavior, the computer should be able to integrate information from multiple sensors. We introduce in this paper our efforts toward machine understanding of audio-visual affective behavior, based on both deliberate and spontaneous displays. Some promising methods are presented to integrate information from both audio and visual modalities. Our experiments show the advantage of audio-visual fusion in affective expression recognition over audio-only or visual-only approaches.

Recognition of cyclic-di-GMP by a riboswitch conducts translational repression through masking the ribosome-binding site distant from the aptamer domain.

PubMed

Inuzuka, Saki; Kakizawa, Hitoshi; Nishimura, Kei-Ichiro; Naito, Takuto; Miyazaki, Katsushi; Furuta, Hiroyuki; Matsumura, Shigeyoshi; Ikawa, Yoshiya

2018-06-01

The riboswitch is a class of RNA-based gene regulatory machinery that is dependent on recognition of its target ligand by RNA tertiary structures. Ligand recognition is achieved by the aptamer domain, and ligand-dependent structural changes of the expression platform then usually mediate termination of transcription or translational initiation. Ligand-dependent structural changes of the aptamer domain and expression platform have been reported for several riboswitches with short (<40 nucleotides) expression platforms. In this study, we characterized structural changes of the Vc2 c-di-GMP riboswitch that represses translation of downstream open reading frames in a ligand-dependent manner. The Vc2 riboswitch has a long (97 nucleotides) expression platform, but its structure and function are largely unknown. Through mutational analysis and chemical probing, we identified its secondary structures that are possibly responsible for switch-OFF and switch-ON states of translational initiation. © 2018 Molecular Biology Society of Japan and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

Human fatigue expression recognition through image-based dynamic multi-information and bimodal deep learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Lei; Wang, Zengcai; Wang, Xiaojin; Qi, Yazhou; Liu, Qing; Zhang, Guoxin

2016-09-01

Human fatigue is an important cause of traffic accidents. To improve the safety of transportation, we propose, in this paper, a framework for fatigue expression recognition using image-based facial dynamic multi-information and a bimodal deep neural network. First, the landmark of face region and the texture of eye region, which complement each other in fatigue expression recognition, are extracted from facial image sequences captured by a single camera. Then, two stacked autoencoder neural networks are trained for landmark and texture, respectively. Finally, the two trained neural networks are combined by learning a joint layer on top of them to construct a bimodal deep neural network. The model can be used to extract a unified representation that fuses landmark and texture modalities together and classify fatigue expressions accurately. The proposed system is tested on a human fatigue dataset obtained from an actual driving environment. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method performs stably and robustly, and that the average accuracy achieves 96.2%.

Affective theory of mind inferences contextually influence the recognition of emotional facial expressions.

PubMed

Stewart, Suzanne L K; Schepman, Astrid; Haigh, Matthew; McHugh, Rhian; Stewart, Andrew J

2018-03-14

The recognition of emotional facial expressions is often subject to contextual influence, particularly when the face and the context convey similar emotions. We investigated whether spontaneous, incidental affective theory of mind inferences made while reading vignettes describing social situations would produce context effects on the identification of same-valenced emotions (Experiment 1) as well as differently-valenced emotions (Experiment 2) conveyed by subsequently presented faces. Crucially, we found an effect of context on reaction times in both experiments while, in line with previous work, we found evidence for a context effect on accuracy only in Experiment 1. This demonstrates that affective theory of mind inferences made at the pragmatic level of a text can automatically, contextually influence the perceptual processing of emotional facial expressions in a separate task even when those emotions are of a distinctive valence. Thus, our novel findings suggest that language acts as a contextual influence to the recognition of emotional facial expressions for both same and different valences.

[Emotional facial recognition difficulties as primary deficit in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a systematic review].

PubMed

Rodrigo-Ruiz, D; Perez-Gonzalez, J C; Cejudo, J

2017-08-16

It has recently been warned that children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show a deficit in emotional competence and emotional intelligence, specifically in their ability to emotional recognition. A systematic review of the scientific literature in reference to the emotional recognition of facial expressions in children with ADHD is presented in order to establish or rule the existence of emotional deficits as primary dysfunction in this disorder and, where appropriate, the effect size of the differences against normal development or neurotypical children. The results reveal the recent interest in the issue and the lack of information. Although there is no complete agreement, most of the studies show that emotional recognition of facial expressions is affected in children with ADHD, showing them significantly less accurate than children from control groups in recognizing emotions communicated through facial expressions. A part of these studies make comparisons on the recognition of different discrete emotions; having observed that children with ADHD tend to a greater difficulty recognizing negative emotions, especially anger, fear, and disgust. These results have direct implications for the educational and clinical diagnosis of ADHD; and for the educational intervention for children with ADHD, emotional education might entail an advantageous aid.

Gender differences in facial emotion recognition in persons with chronic schizophrenia.

PubMed

Weiss, Elisabeth M; Kohler, Christian G; Brensinger, Colleen M; Bilker, Warren B; Loughead, James; Delazer, Margarete; Nolan, Karen A

2007-03-01

The aim of the present study was to investigate possible sex differences in the recognition of facial expressions of emotion and to investigate the pattern of classification errors in schizophrenic males and females. Such an approach provides an opportunity to inspect the degree to which males and females differ in perceiving and interpreting the different emotions displayed to them and to analyze which emotions are most susceptible to recognition errors. Fifty six chronically hospitalized schizophrenic patients (38 men and 18 women) completed the Penn Emotion Recognition Test (ER40), a computerized emotion discrimination test presenting 40 color photographs of evoked happy, sad, anger, fear expressions and neutral expressions balanced for poser gender and ethnicity. We found a significant sex difference in the patterns of error rates in the Penn Emotion Recognition Test. Neutral faces were more commonly mistaken as angry in schizophrenic men, whereas schizophrenic women misinterpreted neutral faces more frequently as sad. Moreover, female faces were better recognized overall, but fear was better recognized in same gender photographs, whereas anger was better recognized in different gender photographs. The findings of the present study lend support to the notion that sex differences in aggressive behavior could be related to a cognitive style characterized by hostile attributions to neutral faces in schizophrenic men.

Does Facial Amimia Impact the Recognition of Facial Emotions? An EMG Study in Parkinson’s Disease

PubMed Central

Argaud, Soizic; Delplanque, Sylvain; Houvenaghel, Jean-François; Auffret, Manon; Duprez, Joan; Vérin, Marc; Grandjean, Didier; Sauleau, Paul

2016-01-01

According to embodied simulation theory, understanding other people’s emotions is fostered by facial mimicry. However, studies assessing the effect of facial mimicry on the recognition of emotion are still controversial. In Parkinson’s disease (PD), one of the most distinctive clinical features is facial amimia, a reduction in facial expressiveness, but patients also show emotional disturbances. The present study used the pathological model of PD to examine the role of facial mimicry on emotion recognition by investigating EMG responses in PD patients during a facial emotion recognition task (anger, joy, neutral). Our results evidenced a significant decrease in facial mimicry for joy in PD, essentially linked to the absence of reaction of the zygomaticus major and the orbicularis oculi muscles in response to happy avatars, whereas facial mimicry for expressions of anger was relatively preserved. We also confirmed that PD patients were less accurate in recognizing positive and neutral facial expressions and highlighted a beneficial effect of facial mimicry on the recognition of emotion. We thus provide additional arguments for embodied simulation theory suggesting that facial mimicry is a potential lever for therapeutic actions in PD even if it seems not to be necessarily required in recognizing emotion as such. PMID:27467393

Fer Cryin' Out Loud--There is a Sex Difference.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lombardo, William K.; And Others

1983-01-01

A study found sex differences in: (1) frequency and intensity of crying, (2) likelihood of crying independent of the presence of others, (3) likelihood of crying independent of the level of intimacy of observers or type of crying stimulus, and (4) in postcrying affect. (CMG)

76 FR 32242 - Federal Employees' Retirement System; Normal Cost Percentages

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-06-03

... OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT Federal Employees' Retirement System; Normal Cost Percentages...' Retirement System (FERS) Act of 1986. DATES: The revised normal cost percentages are effective at the..., Public Law 99-335, created a new retirement system intended to cover most Federal employees hired after...

75 FR 39587 - Proposed Collection; Request for Comments on a Revised Information Collection

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-07-09

... collection, ``Health Benefits Election Form'' (OMB Control No. 3206-0160; SF 2809), is used by Federal... Employees Retirement System (FERS) including individuals receiving benefits from the Office of Workers... whose health benefit enrollments are administered by OPM's Retirement Operations. Comments Are...

5 CFR 841.202 - Applications required.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... (CONTINUED) FEDERAL EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT SYSTEM-GENERAL ADMINISTRATION Applications for Benefits § 841.202 Applications required. (a) No benefit is payable under FERS, until after the claimant has applied for the benefit in the form prescribed by OPM. (b) An employee, Member, or survivor may exercise any option or...

5 CFR 839.102 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

..., United States Code. OPM means the Office of Personnel Management. Present value factor has the same... the same meaning as in § 846.702 of this chapter, referring to court orders that affect CSRS or FERS payments following a divorce or legal separation. Qualifying retirement coverage error means an erroneous...

5 CFR 837.301 - Coverage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Coverage. 837.301 Section 837.301...) REEMPLOYMENT OF ANNUITANTS Coverage and Contributions § 837.301 Coverage. (a) When annuity terminates on, or is suspended during, reemployment. Retirement coverage under either CSRS or FERS is governed by subpart B of...

5 CFR 837.301 - Coverage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Coverage. 837.301 Section 837.301...) REEMPLOYMENT OF ANNUITANTS Coverage and Contributions § 837.301 Coverage. (a) When annuity terminates on, or is suspended during, reemployment. Retirement coverage under either CSRS or FERS is governed by subpart B of...

5 CFR 837.301 - Coverage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Coverage. 837.301 Section 837.301...) REEMPLOYMENT OF ANNUITANTS Coverage and Contributions § 837.301 Coverage. (a) When annuity terminates on, or is suspended during, reemployment. Retirement coverage under either CSRS or FERS is governed by subpart B of...

5 CFR 847.415 - OASDI coverage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false OASDI coverage. 847.415 Section 847.415...) ELECTIONS OF RETIREMENT COVERAGE BY CURRENT AND FORMER EMPLOYEES OF NONAPPROPRIATED FUND INSTRUMENTALITIES Elections of Coverage Under the Retroactive Provisions Elections of Csrs Or Fers Coverage Based on A Move...

5 CFR 847.415 - OASDI coverage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false OASDI coverage. 847.415 Section 847.415...) ELECTIONS OF RETIREMENT COVERAGE BY CURRENT AND FORMER EMPLOYEES OF NONAPPROPRIATED FUND INSTRUMENTALITIES Elections of Coverage Under the Retroactive Provisions Elections of Csrs Or Fers Coverage Based on A Move...

5 CFR 837.301 - Coverage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Coverage. 837.301 Section 837.301...) REEMPLOYMENT OF ANNUITANTS Coverage and Contributions § 837.301 Coverage. (a) When annuity terminates on, or is suspended during, reemployment. Retirement coverage under either CSRS or FERS is governed by subpart B of...

5 CFR 847.415 - OASDI coverage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false OASDI coverage. 847.415 Section 847.415...) ELECTIONS OF RETIREMENT COVERAGE BY CURRENT AND FORMER EMPLOYEES OF NONAPPROPRIATED FUND INSTRUMENTALITIES Elections of Coverage Under the Retroactive Provisions Elections of Csrs Or Fers Coverage Based on A Move...

5 CFR 837.301 - Coverage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Coverage. 837.301 Section 837.301...) REEMPLOYMENT OF ANNUITANTS Coverage and Contributions § 837.301 Coverage. (a) When annuity terminates on, or is suspended during, reemployment. Retirement coverage under either CSRS or FERS is governed by subpart B of...

Discovery and characterization of a turf-type triploid seashore paspalum

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum Swartz) is a salt tolerant, predominantly diploid (2n = 2x = 20) species that is well adapted to coastal regions in tropical and subtropical environments. Because a majority of the available cultivars are propagated vegetatively and most genotypes are cross-fer...

Improving Angles-Only Navigation Performance by Selecting Sufficiently Accurate Accelerometers

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-08-01

controller for thrusters and a PID controller for momentum Wheels. Translational control leverages a PD controller for station keeping, and Clohessy ... Wiltshire (CW) equations targeting for trans- fers. Navigation is detailed in Section III.A. III.A. Kalman Filter Development A Square-Root EKF is

5 CFR 841.102 - Regulatory structure for the Federal Employees Retirement System.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... chapter contains information about coverage under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. (10... Employees Retirement System. 841.102 Section 841.102 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT... chapter contains information about basic annuity rights of employees and Members under FERS. (2) Part 843...

Astrocytes contribute to gamma oscillations and recognition memory.

PubMed

Lee, Hosuk Sean; Ghetti, Andrea; Pinto-Duarte, António; Wang, Xin; Dziewczapolski, Gustavo; Galimi, Francesco; Huitron-Resendiz, Salvador; Piña-Crespo, Juan C; Roberts, Amanda J; Verma, Inder M; Sejnowski, Terrence J; Heinemann, Stephen F

2014-08-12

Glial cells are an integral part of functional communication in the brain. Here we show that astrocytes contribute to the fast dynamics of neural circuits that underlie normal cognitive behaviors. In particular, we found that the selective expression of tetanus neurotoxin (TeNT) in astrocytes significantly reduced the duration of carbachol-induced gamma oscillations in hippocampal slices. These data prompted us to develop a novel transgenic mouse model, specifically with inducible tetanus toxin expression in astrocytes. In this in vivo model, we found evidence of a marked decrease in electroencephalographic (EEG) power in the gamma frequency range in awake-behaving mice, whereas neuronal synaptic activity remained intact. The reduction in cortical gamma oscillations was accompanied by impaired behavioral performance in the novel object recognition test, whereas other forms of memory, including working memory and fear conditioning, remained unchanged. These results support a key role for gamma oscillations in recognition memory. Both EEG alterations and behavioral deficits in novel object recognition were reversed by suppression of tetanus toxin expression. These data reveal an unexpected role for astrocytes as essential contributors to information processing and cognitive behavior.

No differences in emotion recognition strategies in children with autism spectrum disorder: evidence from hybrid faces.

PubMed

Evers, Kris; Kerkhof, Inneke; Steyaert, Jean; Noens, Ilse; Wagemans, Johan

2014-01-01

Emotion recognition problems are frequently reported in individuals with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, this research area is characterized by inconsistent findings, with atypical emotion processing strategies possibly contributing to existing contradictions. In addition, an attenuated saliency of the eyes region is often demonstrated in ASD during face identity processing. We wanted to compare reliance on mouth versus eyes information in children with and without ASD, using hybrid facial expressions. A group of six-to-eight-year-old boys with ASD and an age- and intelligence-matched typically developing (TD) group without intellectual disability performed an emotion labelling task with hybrid facial expressions. Five static expressions were used: one neutral expression and four emotional expressions, namely, anger, fear, happiness, and sadness. Hybrid faces were created, consisting of an emotional face half (upper or lower face region) with the other face half showing a neutral expression. Results showed no emotion recognition problem in ASD. Moreover, we provided evidence for the existence of top- and bottom-emotions in children: correct identification of expressions mainly depends on information in the eyes (so-called top-emotions: happiness) or in the mouth region (so-called bottom-emotions: sadness, anger, and fear). No stronger reliance on mouth information was found in children with ASD.

When Early Experiences Build a Wall to Others’ Emotions: An Electrophysiological and Autonomic Study

PubMed Central

Ardizzi, Martina; Martini, Francesca; Umiltà, Maria Alessandra; Sestito, Mariateresa; Ravera, Roberto; Gallese, Vittorio

2013-01-01

Facial expression of emotions is a powerful vehicle for communicating information about others’ emotional states and it normally induces facial mimicry in the observers. The aim of this study was to investigate if early aversive experiences could interfere with emotion recognition, facial mimicry, and with the autonomic regulation of social behaviors. We conducted a facial emotion recognition task in a group of “street-boys” and in an age-matched control group. We recorded facial electromyography (EMG), a marker of facial mimicry, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), an index of the recruitment of autonomic system promoting social behaviors and predisposition, in response to the observation of facial expressions of emotions. Results showed an over-attribution of anger, and reduced EMG responses during the observation of both positive and negative expressions only among street-boys. Street-boys also showed lower RSA after observation of facial expressions and ineffective RSA suppression during presentation of non-threatening expressions. Our findings suggest that early aversive experiences alter not only emotion recognition but also facial mimicry of emotions. These deficits affect the autonomic regulation of social behaviors inducing lower social predisposition after the visualization of facial expressions and an ineffective recruitment of defensive behavior in response to non-threatening expressions. PMID:23593374

Heterogeneity of long-history migration predicts emotion recognition accuracy.

PubMed

Wood, Adrienne; Rychlowska, Magdalena; Niedenthal, Paula M

2016-06-01

Recent work (Rychlowska et al., 2015) demonstrated the power of a relatively new cultural dimension, historical heterogeneity, in predicting cultural differences in the endorsement of emotion expression norms. Historical heterogeneity describes the number of source countries that have contributed to a country's present-day population over the last 500 years. People in cultures originating from a large number of source countries may have historically benefited from greater and clearer emotional expressivity, because they lacked a common language and well-established social norms. We therefore hypothesized that in addition to endorsing more expressive display rules, individuals from heterogeneous cultures will also produce facial expressions that are easier to recognize by people from other cultures. By reanalyzing cross-cultural emotion recognition data from 92 papers and 82 cultures, we show that emotion expressions of people from heterogeneous cultures are more easily recognized by observers from other cultures than are the expressions produced in homogeneous cultures. Heterogeneity influences expression recognition rates alongside the individualism-collectivism of the perceivers' culture, as more individualistic cultures were more accurate in emotion judgments than collectivistic cultures. This work reveals the present-day behavioral consequences of long-term historical migration patterns and demonstrates the predictive power of historical heterogeneity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Mutual information-based facial expression recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hazar, Mliki; Hammami, Mohamed; Hanêne, Ben-Abdallah

2013-12-01

This paper introduces a novel low-computation discriminative regions representation for expression analysis task. The proposed approach relies on interesting studies in psychology which show that most of the descriptive and responsible regions for facial expression are located around some face parts. The contributions of this work lie in the proposition of new approach which supports automatic facial expression recognition based on automatic regions selection. The regions selection step aims to select the descriptive regions responsible or facial expression and was performed using Mutual Information (MI) technique. For facial feature extraction, we have applied Local Binary Patterns Pattern (LBP) on Gradient image to encode salient micro-patterns of facial expressions. Experimental studies have shown that using discriminative regions provide better results than using the whole face regions whilst reducing features vector dimension.

Impaired holistic coding of facial expression and facial identity in congenital prosopagnosia.

PubMed

Palermo, Romina; Willis, Megan L; Rivolta, Davide; McKone, Elinor; Wilson, C Ellie; Calder, Andrew J

2011-04-01

We test 12 individuals with congenital prosopagnosia (CP), who replicate a common pattern of showing severe difficulty in recognising facial identity in conjunction with normal recognition of facial expressions (both basic and 'social'). Strength of holistic processing was examined using standard expression composite and identity composite tasks. Compared to age- and sex-matched controls, group analyses demonstrated that CPs showed weaker holistic processing, for both expression and identity information. Implications are (a) normal expression recognition in CP can derive from compensatory strategies (e.g., over-reliance on non-holistic cues to expression); (b) the split between processing of expression and identity information may take place after a common stage of holistic processing; and (c) contrary to a recent claim, holistic processing of identity is functionally involved in face identification ability. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Impaired holistic coding of facial expression and facial identity in congenital prosopagnosia

PubMed Central

Palermo, Romina; Willis, Megan L.; Rivolta, Davide; McKone, Elinor; Wilson, C. Ellie; Calder, Andrew J.

2011-01-01

We test 12 individuals with congenital prosopagnosia (CP), who replicate a common pattern of showing severe difficulty in recognising facial identity in conjunction with normal recognition of facial expressions (both basic and ‘social’). Strength of holistic processing was examined using standard expression composite and identity composite tasks. Compared to age- and sex-matched controls, group analyses demonstrated that CPs showed weaker holistic processing, for both expression and identity information. Implications are (a) normal expression recognition in CP can derive from compensatory strategies (e.g., over-reliance on non-holistic cues to expression); (b) the split between processing of expression and identity information may take place after a common stage of holistic processing; and (c) contrary to a recent claim, holistic processing of identity is functionally involved in face identification ability. PMID:21333662

Local Context Finder (LCF) reveals multidimensional relationships among mRNA expression profiles of Arabidopsis responding to pathogen infection

PubMed Central

Katagiri, Fumiaki; Glazebrook, Jane

2003-01-01

A major task in computational analysis of mRNA expression profiles is definition of relationships among profiles on the basis of similarities among them. This is generally achieved by pattern recognition in the distribution of data points representing each profile in a high-dimensional space. Some drawbacks of commonly used pattern recognition algorithms stem from their use of a globally linear space and/or limited degrees of freedom. A pattern recognition method called Local Context Finder (LCF) is described here. LCF uses nonlinear dimensionality reduction for pattern recognition. Then it builds a network of profiles based on the nonlinear dimensionality reduction results. LCF was used to analyze mRNA expression profiles of the plant host Arabidopsis interacting with the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae. In one case, LCF revealed two dimensions essential to explain the effects of the NahG transgene and the ndr1 mutation on resistant and susceptible responses. In another case, plant mutants deficient in responses to pathogen infection were classified on the basis of LCF analysis of their profiles. The classification by LCF was consistent with the results of biological characterization of the mutants. Thus, LCF is a powerful method for extracting information from expression profile data. PMID:12960373

Decoding facial expressions based on face-selective and motion-sensitive areas.

PubMed

Liang, Yin; Liu, Baolin; Xu, Junhai; Zhang, Gaoyan; Li, Xianglin; Wang, Peiyuan; Wang, Bin

2017-06-01

Humans can easily recognize others' facial expressions. Among the brain substrates that enable this ability, considerable attention has been paid to face-selective areas; in contrast, whether motion-sensitive areas, which clearly exhibit sensitivity to facial movements, are involved in facial expression recognition remained unclear. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study used multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to explore facial expression decoding in both face-selective and motion-sensitive areas. In a block design experiment, participants viewed facial expressions of six basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise) in images, videos, and eyes-obscured videos. Due to the use of multiple stimulus types, the impacts of facial motion and eye-related information on facial expression decoding were also examined. It was found that motion-sensitive areas showed significant responses to emotional expressions and that dynamic expressions could be successfully decoded in both face-selective and motion-sensitive areas. Compared with static stimuli, dynamic expressions elicited consistently higher neural responses and decoding performance in all regions. A significant decrease in both activation and decoding accuracy due to the absence of eye-related information was also observed. Overall, the findings showed that emotional expressions are represented in motion-sensitive areas in addition to conventional face-selective areas, suggesting that motion-sensitive regions may also effectively contribute to facial expression recognition. The results also suggested that facial motion and eye-related information played important roles by carrying considerable expression information that could facilitate facial expression recognition. Hum Brain Mapp 38:3113-3125, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Identifying significant environmental features using feature recognition.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2015-10-01

The Department of Environmental Analysis at the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has expressed an interest in feature-recognition capability because it may help analysts identify environmentally sensitive features in the landscape, : including those r...

Processing of facial affect in social drinkers: a dose-response study of alcohol using dynamic emotion expressions.

PubMed

Kamboj, Sunjeev K; Joye, Alyssa; Bisby, James A; Das, Ravi K; Platt, Bradley; Curran, H Valerie

2013-05-01

Studies of affect recognition can inform our understanding of the interpersonal effects of alcohol and help develop a more complete neuropsychological profile of this drug. The objective of the study was to examine affect recognition in social drinkers using a novel dynamic affect-recognition task, sampling performance across a range of evolutionarily significant target emotions and neutral expressions. Participants received 0, 0.4 or 0.8 g/kg alcohol in a double-blind, independent groups design. Relatively naturalistic changes in facial expression-from neutral (mouth open) to increasing intensities of target emotions, as well as neutral (mouth closed)-were simulated using computer-generated dynamic morphs. Accuracy and reaction time were measured and a two-high-threshold model applied to hits and false-alarm data to determine sensitivity and response bias. While there was no effect on the principal emotion expressions (happiness, sadness, fear, anger and disgust), compared to those receiving 0.8 g/kg of alcohol and placebo, participants administered with 0.4 g/kg alcohol tended to show an enhanced response bias to neutral expressions. Exploration of this effect suggested an accompanying tendency to misattribute neutrality to sad expressions following the 0.4-g/kg dose. The 0.4-g/kg alcohol-but not 0.8 g/kg-produced a limited and specific modification in affect recognition evidenced by a neutral response bias and possibly an accompanying tendency to misclassify sad expressions as neutral. In light of previous findings on involuntary negative memory following the 0.4-g/kg dose, we suggest that moderate-but not high-doses of alcohol have a special relevance to emotional processing in social drinkers.

Proposal of Self-Learning and Recognition System of Facial Expression

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ogawa, Yukihiro; Kato, Kunihito; Yamamoto, Kazuhiko

We describe realization of more complicated function by using the information acquired from some equipped unripe functions. The self-learning and recognition system of the human facial expression, which achieved under the natural relation between human and robot, are proposed. The robot with this system can understand human facial expressions and behave according to their facial expressions after the completion of learning process. The system modelled after the process that a baby learns his/her parents’ facial expressions. Equipping the robot with a camera the system can get face images and equipping the CdS sensors on the robot’s head the robot can get the information of human action. Using the information of these sensors, the robot can get feature of each facial expression. After self-learning is completed, when a person changed his facial expression in front of the robot, the robot operates actions under the relevant facial expression.

Nuclear factor kappa B-dependent Zif268 expression in hippocampus is required for recognition memory in mice.

PubMed

Zalcman, Gisela; Federman, Noel; de la Fuente, Verónica; Romano, Arturo

2015-03-01

Long-term memory formation requires gene expression after acquisition of new information. The first step in the regulation of gene expression is the participation of transcription factors (TFs) such as nuclear factor kappa B (NF-кB), which are present before the neuronal activity induced by training. It was proposed that the activation of these types of TFs allows a second step in gene regulation by induction of immediate-early genes (IEGs) whose protein products are, in turn, TFs. Between these IEGs, zif268 has been found to play a critical role in long-term memory formation and reprocessing after retrieval. Here we found in mice hippocampus that, on one hand, NF-кB was activated 45 min after training in a novel object recognition (NOR) task and that inhibiting NF-кB immediately after training by intrahippocampal administration of NF-кB Decoy DNA impaired NOR memory consolidation. On the other hand, Zif268 protein expression was induced 45 min after NOR training and the administration of DNA antisense to its mRNA post-training impaired recognition memory. Finally, we found that the inhibition of NF-кB by NF-кB Decoy DNA reduced significantly the training-induced Zif268 increment, indicating that NF-кB is involved in the regulation of Zif268 expression. Thus, the present results support the involvement of NF-кB activity-dependent Zif268 expression in the hippocampus during recognition memory consolidation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Updating schematic emotional facial expressions in working memory: Response bias and sensitivity.

PubMed

Tamm, Gerly; Kreegipuu, Kairi; Harro, Jaanus; Cowan, Nelson

2017-01-01

It is unclear if positive, negative, or neutral emotional expressions have an advantage in short-term recognition. Moreover, it is unclear from previous studies of working memory for emotional faces whether effects of emotions comprise response bias or sensitivity. The aim of this study was to compare how schematic emotional expressions (sad, angry, scheming, happy, and neutral) are discriminated and recognized in an updating task (2-back recognition) in a representative sample of birth cohort of young adults. Schematic facial expressions allow control of identity processing, which is separate from expression processing, and have been used extensively in attention research but not much, until now, in working memory research. We found that expressions with a U-curved mouth (i.e., upwardly curved), namely happy and scheming expressions, favoured a bias towards recognition (i.e., towards indicating that the probe and the stimulus in working memory are the same). Other effects of emotional expression were considerably smaller (1-2% of the variance explained)) compared to a large proportion of variance that was explained by the physical similarity of items being compared. We suggest that the nature of the stimuli plays a role in this. The present application of signal detection methodology with emotional, schematic faces in a working memory procedure requiring fast comparisons helps to resolve important contradictions that have emerged in the emotional perception literature. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

5 CFR 838.103 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... Court Orders § 838.103 Definitions. In this part (except subpart J)— Child abuse creditor means an individual who applies for benefits under CSRS or FERS based on a child abuse judgment enforcement order. Child abuse judgment enforcement order means a court or administrative order requiring OPM to pay a...

Effects of Lexical and Somatosensory Feedback on Long-Term Improvements in Intelligibility of Dysarthric Speech

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Borrie, Stephanie A.; Schäfer, Martina C. M.

2017-01-01

Purpose: Intelligibility improvements immediately following perceptual training with dysarthric speech using lexical feedback are comparable to those observed when training uses somatosensory feedback (Borrie & Schäfer, 2015). In this study, we investigated if these lexical and somatosensory guided improvements in listener intelligibility of…

5 CFR 847.904 - What are Present Value Factors

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false What are Present Value Factors 847.904 Section 847.904 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT (CONTINUED) CIVIL SERVICE... Qualify for an Immediate CSRS or FERS Retirement § 847.904 What are Present Value Factors Present value...

5 CFR 841.503 - Amounts of employee deductions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... Section 841.503 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT (CONTINUED) CIVIL SERVICE... cost of social security. (b) The rate of employee deductions from basic pay for FERS coverage for a... under section 302 of the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1964 for Certain Employees is seven and one...

5 CFR 838.103 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... Court Orders § 838.103 Definitions. In this part (except subpart J)— Child abuse creditor means an individual who applies for benefits under CSRS or FERS based on a child abuse judgment enforcement order. Child abuse judgment enforcement order means a court or administrative order requiring OPM to pay a...

5 CFR 838.103 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... Court Orders § 838.103 Definitions. In this part (except subpart J)— Child abuse creditor means an individual who applies for benefits under CSRS or FERS based on a child abuse judgment enforcement order. Child abuse judgment enforcement order means a court or administrative order requiring OPM to pay a...

5 CFR 838.103 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... Court Orders § 838.103 Definitions. In this part (except subpart J)— Child abuse creditor means an individual who applies for benefits under CSRS or FERS based on a child abuse judgment enforcement order. Child abuse judgment enforcement order means a court or administrative order requiring OPM to pay a...

5 CFR 838.103 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... Court Orders § 838.103 Definitions. In this part (except subpart J)— Child abuse creditor means an individual who applies for benefits under CSRS or FERS based on a child abuse judgment enforcement order. Child abuse judgment enforcement order means a court or administrative order requiring OPM to pay a...

NOAA Workforce Management Office, e-Learning, Commerce Learning Center

Science.gov Websites

Information Long Term Care (FLTCIP) New Employee Benefit Information OPM Retirement Information Premium Duty - FAQs Retirement CSRS and FERS Handbook Military Service Deposit Information Non-foreign Area Retirement Equity Assurance (NAREA) Publications Request for Information Retirement Calculator Retirement

Iron Amendment and Fenton Oxidation of MTBE-Spent Granular Activated Carbon

EPA Science Inventory

Fenton-driven regeneration of Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE)-spent granular activated carbon (GAC) involves Fe amendment to the GAC to catalyze H2O2 reactions and to enhance the rate of MTBE oxidation and GAC regeneration. Four forms of iron (ferric sulfate, ferric chloride, fer...

5 CFR 847.103 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... value are those used by the Board of Actuaries of the Civil Service Retirement System for valuation of CSRS and FERS, based on dynamic assumptions. Age means the number of years an individual has been alive... Retirement System or the Federal Employees Retirement System as described in chapters 83 and 84 of title 5...

5 CFR 847.703 - Reductions in annuity.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Reductions in annuity. 847.703 Section... INSTRUMENTALITIES Computation of Benefits Under the Retroactive Provisions § 847.703 Reductions in annuity. The CSRS or FERS basic annuity of an employee or survivor who has elected retirement coverage under subpart D...

5 CFR 847.704 - Maximum survivor annuity election.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Maximum survivor annuity election. 847... survivor annuity election. The amount of the employee's benefit after reduction for any deficiency under... 8339 (j) or (k) to title 5, United States Code; (b) For FERS, the employee annuity (for survivor...

Improving Re-Enlistment through Decision-Making Modeling and Intervention

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-03-01

everything from politics easily and quickly all useful facts and opinions. It to finance to sports, decisions are not based on then synthesizes these... Disneyland ferred method of evaluating jobs both reliably Disney World and validly. Possibly the greatest benefit of JEBOR Dow Chemical Company to the user

5 CFR 847.602 - Present value factors.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Present value factors. 847.602 Section... INSTRUMENTALITIES Additional Employee Costs Under the Retroactive Provisions § 847.602 Present value factors. (a... present value factors for all CSRS annuities; (2) One table of present value factors for FERS annuities...

5 CFR 841.306 - Reconsideration.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... FERS are affected by an OPM decision (under § 841.305) stating the right to request reconsideration may request OPM to review its initial decision. (b) Actions covered elsewhere. (1) A request for... a decision to collect a debt will be made in accordance with § 845.204(b). (3) A decision on court...

5 CFR 846.303 - Crediting military service.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Crediting military service. 846.303... Become Subject to FERS § 846.303 Crediting military service. (a) Military service performed before the... paragraphs (b) and (c) of this section. (b) Military service described in paragraph (a) of this section which...

Progesterone Impairs Social Recognition in Male Rats

PubMed Central

Auger, Catherine J.

2012-01-01

The influence of progesterone in the brain and on the behavior of females is fairly well understood. However, less is known about the effect of progesterone in the male system. In male rats, receptors for progesterone are present in virtually all vasopressin (AVP) immunoreactive cells in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST) and the medial amygdala (MeA). This colocalization functions to regulate AVP expression, as progesterone and/or progestin receptors (PR)s suppresses AVP expression in these same extrahypothalamic regions in the brain. These data suggest that progesterone may influence AVP-dependant behavior. While AVP is implicated in numerous behavioral and physiological functions in rodents, AVP appears essential for social recognition of conspecifics. Therefore, we examined the effects of progesterone on social recognition. We report that progesterone plays an important role in modulating social recognition in the male brain, as progesterone treatment lead to a significant impairment of social recognition in male rats. Moreover, progesterone appears to act on PRs to impair social recognition, as progesterone impairment of social recognition is blocked by a PR antagonist, RU-486. Social recognition is also impaired by a specific progestin agonist, R5020. Interestingly, we show that progesterone does not interfere with either general memory or olfactory processes, suggesting that progesterone seems critically important to social recognition memory. These data provide strong evidence that physiological levels of progesterone can have an important impact on social behavior in male rats. PMID:22366506

Does cortisol modulate emotion recognition and empathy?

PubMed

Duesenberg, Moritz; Weber, Juliane; Schulze, Lars; Schaeuffele, Carmen; Roepke, Stefan; Hellmann-Regen, Julian; Otte, Christian; Wingenfeld, Katja

2016-04-01

Emotion recognition and empathy are important aspects in the interaction and understanding of other people's behaviors and feelings. The Human environment comprises of stressful situations that impact social interactions on a daily basis. Aim of the study was to examine the effects of the stress hormone cortisol on emotion recognition and empathy. In this placebo-controlled study, 40 healthy men and 40 healthy women (mean age 24.5 years) received either 10mg of hydrocortisone or placebo. We used the Multifaceted Empathy Test to measure emotional and cognitive empathy. Furthermore, we examined emotion recognition from facial expressions, which contained two emotions (anger and sadness) and two emotion intensities (40% and 80%). We did not find a main effect for treatment or sex on either empathy or emotion recognition but a sex × emotion interaction on emotion recognition. The main result was a four-way-interaction on emotion recognition including treatment, sex, emotion and task difficulty. At 40% task difficulty, women recognized angry faces better than men in the placebo condition. Furthermore, in the placebo condition, men recognized sadness better than anger. At 80% task difficulty, men and women performed equally well in recognizing sad faces but men performed worse compared to women with regard to angry faces. Apparently, our results did not support the hypothesis that increases in cortisol concentration alone influence empathy and emotion recognition in healthy young individuals. However, sex and task difficulty appear to be important variables in emotion recognition from facial expressions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Progesterone impairs social recognition in male rats.

PubMed

Bychowski, Meaghan E; Auger, Catherine J

2012-04-01

The influence of progesterone in the brain and on the behavior of females is fairly well understood. However, less is known about the effect of progesterone in the male system. In male rats, receptors for progesterone are present in virtually all vasopressin (AVP) immunoreactive cells in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST) and the medial amygdala (MeA). This colocalization functions to regulate AVP expression, as progesterone and/or progestin receptors (PR)s suppress AVP expression in these same extrahypothalamic regions in the brain. These data suggest that progesterone may influence AVP-dependent behavior. While AVP is implicated in numerous behavioral and physiological functions in rodents, AVP appears essential for social recognition of conspecifics. Therefore, we examined the effects of progesterone on social recognition. We report that progesterone plays an important role in modulating social recognition in the male brain, as progesterone treatment leads to a significant impairment of social recognition in male rats. Moreover, progesterone appears to act on PRs to impair social recognition, as progesterone impairment of social recognition is blocked by a PR antagonist, RU-486. Social recognition is also impaired by a specific progestin agonist, R5020. Interestingly, we show that progesterone does not interfere with either general memory or olfactory processes, suggesting that progesterone seems critically important to social recognition memory. These data provide strong evidence that physiological levels of progesterone can have an important impact on social behavior in male rats. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Cover: Induction of antiviral immunity requires Toll-like receptor signaling in both stromal and dendritic cell compartments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sato, Ayuko; Iwasaki, Akiko

2004-11-01

Pattern recognition by Toll-like receptors (TLRs) is known to be important for the induction of dendritic cell (DC) maturation. DCs, in turn, are critically important in the initiation of T cell responses. However, most viruses do not infect DCs. This recognition system poses a biological problem in ensuring that most viral infections be detected by pattern recognition receptors. Furthermore, it is unknown what, if any, is the contribution of TLRs expressed by cells that are infected by a virus, versus TLRs expressed by DCs, in the initiation of antiviral adaptive immunity. Here we address these issues using a physiologically relevant model of mucosal infection with herpes simplex virus type 2. We demonstrate that innate immune recognition of viral infection occurs in two distinct stages, one at the level of the infected epithelial cells and the other at the level of the noninfected DCs. Importantly, both TLR-mediated recognition events are required for the induction of effector T cells. Our results demonstrate that virally infected tissues instruct DCs to initiate the appropriate class of effector T cell responses and reveal the critical importance of the stromal cells in detecting infectious agents through their own pattern recognition receptors. mucosal immunity | pattern recognition | viral infection

Recognition of DHN-melanin by a C-type lectin receptor is required for immunity to Aspergillus.

PubMed

Stappers, Mark H T; Clark, Alexandra E; Aimanianda, Vishukumar; Bidula, Stefan; Reid, Delyth M; Asamaphan, Patawee; Hardison, Sarah E; Dambuza, Ivy M; Valsecchi, Isabel; Kerscher, Bernhard; Plato, Anthony; Wallace, Carol A; Yuecel, Raif; Hebecker, Betty; da Glória Teixeira Sousa, Maria; Cunha, Cristina; Liu, Yan; Feizi, Ten; Brakhage, Axel A; Kwon-Chung, Kyung J; Gow, Neil A R; Zanda, Matteo; Piras, Monica; Zanato, Chiara; Jaeger, Martin; Netea, Mihai G; van de Veerdonk, Frank L; Lacerda, João F; Campos, António; Carvalho, Agostinho; Willment, Janet A; Latgé, Jean-Paul; Brown, Gordon D

2018-03-15

Resistance to infection is critically dependent on the ability of pattern recognition receptors to recognize microbial invasion and induce protective immune responses. One such family of receptors are the C-type lectins, which are central to antifungal immunity. These receptors activate key effector mechanisms upon recognition of conserved fungal cell-wall carbohydrates. However, several other immunologically active fungal ligands have been described; these include melanin, for which the mechanism of recognition is hitherto undefined. Here we identify a C-type lectin receptor, melanin-sensing C-type lectin receptor (MelLec), that has an essential role in antifungal immunity through recognition of the naphthalene-diol unit of 1,8-dihydroxynaphthalene (DHN)-melanin. MelLec recognizes melanin in conidial spores of Aspergillus fumigatus as well as in other DHN-melanized fungi. MelLec is ubiquitously expressed by CD31 + endothelial cells in mice, and is also expressed by a sub-population of these cells that co-express epithelial cell adhesion molecule and are detected only in the lung and the liver. In mouse models, MelLec was required for protection against disseminated infection with A. fumigatus. In humans, MelLec is also expressed by myeloid cells, and we identified a single nucleotide polymorphism of this receptor that negatively affected myeloid inflammatory responses and significantly increased the susceptibility of stem-cell transplant recipients to disseminated Aspergillus infections. MelLec therefore recognizes an immunologically active component commonly found on fungi and has an essential role in protective antifungal immunity in both mice and humans.

Adaptive weighted local textural features for illumination, expression, and occlusion invariant face recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cui, Chen; Asari, Vijayan K.

2014-03-01

Biometric features such as fingerprints, iris patterns, and face features help to identify people and restrict access to secure areas by performing advanced pattern analysis and matching. Face recognition is one of the most promising biometric methodologies for human identification in a non-cooperative security environment. However, the recognition results obtained by face recognition systems are a affected by several variations that may happen to the patterns in an unrestricted environment. As a result, several algorithms have been developed for extracting different facial features for face recognition. Due to the various possible challenges of data captured at different lighting conditions, viewing angles, facial expressions, and partial occlusions in natural environmental conditions, automatic facial recognition still remains as a difficult issue that needs to be resolved. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to tackling some of these issues by analyzing the local textural descriptions for facial feature representation. The textural information is extracted by an enhanced local binary pattern (ELBP) description of all the local regions of the face. The relationship of each pixel with respect to its neighborhood is extracted and employed to calculate the new representation. ELBP reconstructs a much better textural feature extraction vector from an original gray level image in different lighting conditions. The dimensionality of the texture image is reduced by principal component analysis performed on each local face region. Each low dimensional vector representing a local region is now weighted based on the significance of the sub-region. The weight of each sub-region is determined by employing the local variance estimate of the respective region, which represents the significance of the region. The final facial textural feature vector is obtained by concatenating the reduced dimensional weight sets of all the modules (sub-regions) of the face image. Experiments conducted on various popular face databases show promising performance of the proposed algorithm in varying lighting, expression, and partial occlusion conditions. Four databases were used for testing the performance of the proposed system: Yale Face database, Extended Yale Face database B, Japanese Female Facial Expression database, and CMU AMP Facial Expression database. The experimental results in all four databases show the effectiveness of the proposed system. Also, the computation cost is lower because of the simplified calculation steps. Research work is progressing to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed face recognition method on pose-varying conditions as well. It is envisaged that a multilane approach of trained frameworks at different pose bins and an appropriate voting strategy would lead to a good recognition rate in such situation.

The integration of visual context information in facial emotion recognition in 5- to 15-year-olds.

PubMed

Theurel, Anne; Witt, Arnaud; Malsert, Jennifer; Lejeune, Fleur; Fiorentini, Chiara; Barisnikov, Koviljka; Gentaz, Edouard

2016-10-01

The current study investigated the role of congruent visual context information in the recognition of facial emotional expression in 190 participants from 5 to 15years of age. Children performed a matching task that presented pictures with different facial emotional expressions (anger, disgust, happiness, fear, and sadness) in two conditions: with and without a visual context. The results showed that emotions presented with visual context information were recognized more accurately than those presented in the absence of visual context. The context effect remained steady with age but varied according to the emotion presented and the gender of participants. The findings demonstrated for the first time that children from the age of 5years are able to integrate facial expression and visual context information, and this integration improves facial emotion recognition. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Test battery for measuring the perception and recognition of facial expressions of emotion

PubMed Central

Wilhelm, Oliver; Hildebrandt, Andrea; Manske, Karsten; Schacht, Annekathrin; Sommer, Werner

2014-01-01

Despite the importance of perceiving and recognizing facial expressions in everyday life, there is no comprehensive test battery for the multivariate assessment of these abilities. As a first step toward such a compilation, we present 16 tasks that measure the perception and recognition of facial emotion expressions, and data illustrating each task's difficulty and reliability. The scoring of these tasks focuses on either the speed or accuracy of performance. A sample of 269 healthy young adults completed all tasks. In general, accuracy and reaction time measures for emotion-general scores showed acceptable and high estimates of internal consistency and factor reliability. Emotion-specific scores yielded lower reliabilities, yet high enough to encourage further studies with such measures. Analyses of task difficulty revealed that all tasks are suitable for measuring emotion perception and emotion recognition related abilities in normal populations. PMID:24860528

Enhancement of cell recognition in vitro by dual-ligand cancer targeting gold naoparticles

PubMed Central

Li, Xi; Zhou, Hongyu; Yang, Lei; Du, Guoqing; Pai-Panandiker, Atmaram; Huang, Xuefei; Yan, Bing

2011-01-01

A dual-ligand gold nanoparticle (DLGNP) was designed and synthesized to explore the therapeutic benefits of multivalent interactions between gold nanoparticles (GNPs) and cancer cells. DLGNP was tested on human epidermal cancer cells (KB), which had high expression of folate receptor. The cellular uptake of DLGNP was increased by 3.9 and 12.7 folds compared with GNP-folate or GNP-glucose. The enhanced cell recognition was due to multivalent interactions between both ligands on GNPs and cancer cells as shown by the ligand competition experiments. Furthermore, the multivalent interactions increased contrast between cells with high and low expression of folate receptors. The enhanced cell recognition enabled DLGNP to kill KB cells under X-ray irradiation at a dose that was safe to folate receptor low-expression (such as normal) cells. Thus DLGP has the potential to be a cancer-specific nano-theranostic agent. PMID:21232787

Face memory and face recognition in children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: A systematic review.

PubMed

Romani, Maria; Vigliante, Miriam; Faedda, Noemi; Rossetti, Serena; Pezzuti, Lina; Guidetti, Vincenzo; Cardona, Francesco

2018-06-01

This review focuses on facial recognition abilities in children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A systematic review, using PRISMA guidelines, was conducted to identify original articles published prior to May 2017 pertaining to memory, face recognition, affect recognition, facial expression recognition and recall of faces in children and adolescents with ADHD. The qualitative synthesis based on different studies shows a particular focus of the research on facial affect recognition without paying similar attention to the structural encoding of facial recognition. In this review, we further investigate facial recognition abilities in children and adolescents with ADHD, providing synthesis of the results observed in the literature, while detecting face recognition tasks used on face processing abilities in ADHD and identifying aspects not yet explored. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Characterization and recognition of mixed emotional expressions in thermal face image

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saha, Priya; Bhattacharjee, Debotosh; De, Barin K.; Nasipuri, Mita

2016-05-01

Facial expressions in infrared imaging have been introduced to solve the problem of illumination, which is an integral constituent of visual imagery. The paper investigates facial skin temperature distribution on mixed thermal facial expressions of our created face database where six are basic expressions and rest 12 are a mixture of those basic expressions. Temperature analysis has been performed on three facial regions of interest (ROIs); periorbital, supraorbital and mouth. Temperature variability of the ROIs in different expressions has been measured using statistical parameters. The temperature variation measurement in ROIs of a particular expression corresponds to a vector, which is later used in recognition of mixed facial expressions. Investigations show that facial features in mixed facial expressions can be characterized by positive emotion induced facial features and negative emotion induced facial features. Supraorbital is a useful facial region that can differentiate basic expressions from mixed expressions. Analysis and interpretation of mixed expressions have been conducted with the help of box and whisker plot. Facial region containing mixture of two expressions is generally less temperature inducing than corresponding facial region containing basic expressions.

Altering sensorimotor feedback disrupts visual discrimination of facial expressions.

PubMed

Wood, Adrienne; Lupyan, Gary; Sherrin, Steven; Niedenthal, Paula

2016-08-01

Looking at another person's facial expression of emotion can trigger the same neural processes involved in producing the expression, and such responses play a functional role in emotion recognition. Disrupting individuals' facial action, for example, interferes with verbal emotion recognition tasks. We tested the hypothesis that facial responses also play a functional role in the perceptual processing of emotional expressions. We altered the facial action of participants with a gel facemask while they performed a task that involved distinguishing target expressions from highly similar distractors. Relative to control participants, participants in the facemask condition demonstrated inferior perceptual discrimination of facial expressions, but not of nonface stimuli. The findings suggest that somatosensory/motor processes involving the face contribute to the visual perceptual-and not just conceptual-processing of facial expressions. More broadly, our study contributes to growing evidence for the fundamentally interactive nature of the perceptual inputs from different sensory modalities.

Emotion Recognition in Faces and the Use of Visual Context in Young People with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wright, Barry; Clarke, Natalie; Jordan, Jo; Young, Andrew W.; Clarke, Paula; Miles, Jeremy; Nation, Kate; Clarke, Leesa; Williams, Christine

2008-01-01

We compared young people with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) with age, sex and IQ matched controls on emotion recognition of faces and pictorial context. Each participant completed two tests of emotion recognition. The first used Ekman series faces. The second used facial expressions in visual context. A control task involved…

Using Automatic Speech Recognition to Dictate Mathematical Expressions: The Development of the "TalkMaths" Application at Kingston University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wigmore, Angela; Hunter, Gordon; Pflugel, Eckhard; Denholm-Price, James; Binelli, Vincent

2009-01-01

Speech technology--especially automatic speech recognition--has now advanced to a level where it can be of great benefit both to able-bodied people and those with various disabilities. In this paper we describe an application "TalkMaths" which, using the output from a commonly-used conventional automatic speech recognition system,…

Pathogen recognition in the innate immune response.

PubMed

Kumar, Himanshu; Kawai, Taro; Akira, Shizuo

2009-04-28

Immunity against microbial pathogens primarily depends on the recognition of pathogen components by innate receptors expressed on immune and non-immune cells. Innate receptors are evolutionarily conserved germ-line-encoded proteins and include TLRs (Toll-like receptors), RLRs [RIG-I (retinoic acid-inducible gene-I)-like receptors] and NLRs (Nod-like receptors). These receptors recognize pathogens or pathogen-derived products in different cellular compartments, such as the plasma membrane, the endosomes or the cytoplasm, and induce the expression of cytokines, chemokines and co-stimulatory molecules to eliminate pathogens and instruct pathogen-specific adaptive immune responses. In the present review, we will discuss the recent progress in the study of pathogen recognition by TLRs, RLRs and NLRs and their signalling pathways.

Bringing an Ecological Perspective to the Study of Aging and Recognition of Emotional Facial Expressions: Past, Current, and Future Methods

PubMed Central

Isaacowitz, Derek M.; Stanley, Jennifer Tehan

2011-01-01

Older adults perform worse on traditional tests of emotion recognition accuracy than do young adults. In this paper, we review descriptive research to date on age differences in emotion recognition from facial expressions, as well as the primary theoretical frameworks that have been offered to explain these patterns. We propose that this is an area of inquiry that would benefit from an ecological approach in which contextual elements are more explicitly considered and reflected in experimental methods. Use of dynamic displays and examination of specific cues to accuracy, for example, may reveal more nuanced age-related patterns and may suggest heretofore unexplored underlying mechanisms. PMID:22125354

Identities of P2 and P3 Residues of H-2Kb-Bound Peptides Determine Mouse Ly49C Recognition

PubMed Central

Marquez, Elsa A.; Kane, Kevin P.

2015-01-01

Ly49 receptors can be peptide selective in their recognition of MHC-I-peptide complexes, affording them a level of discrimination beyond detecting the presence or absence of specific MHC-I allele products. Despite this ability, little is understood regarding the properties that enable some peptides, when bound to MHC-I molecules, to support Ly49 recognition, but not others. Using RMA-S target cells expressing MHC-I molecules loaded with individual peptides and effector cells expressing the ectodomain of the inhibitory Ly49C receptor, we found that two adjacent amino acid residues, P2 and P3, both buried in the peptide binding groove of H-2Kb, determine mouse Ly49C specificity. If both are aliphatic residues, this is supportive. Whereas, small amino acids at P2 and aromatic amino acids at the P3 auxiliary anchor residue are detrimental to Ly49C recognition. These results resemble those with a rat Ly49 where the identity of a peptide anchor residue determines recognition, suggesting that dependence on specific peptide residues buried in the MHC-I peptide-binding groove may be fundamental to Ly49 peptide selectivity and recognition. PMID:26147851

Survey on RGB, 3D, Thermal, and Multimodal Approaches for Facial Expression Recognition: History, Trends, and Affect-Related Applications.

PubMed

Corneanu, Ciprian Adrian; Simon, Marc Oliu; Cohn, Jeffrey F; Guerrero, Sergio Escalera

2016-08-01

Facial expressions are an important way through which humans interact socially. Building a system capable of automatically recognizing facial expressions from images and video has been an intense field of study in recent years. Interpreting such expressions remains challenging and much research is needed about the way they relate to human affect. This paper presents a general overview of automatic RGB, 3D, thermal and multimodal facial expression analysis. We define a new taxonomy for the field, encompassing all steps from face detection to facial expression recognition, and describe and classify the state of the art methods accordingly. We also present the important datasets and the bench-marking of most influential methods. We conclude with a general discussion about trends, important questions and future lines of research.