Innate Origin Research Articles

Origin and Full Characterization of the Secondary (Assembly) Halo Bias

The clustering of dark matter halos depends not only on their mass, the so-called primary bias, but also on their internal properties, the so-called secondary bias. While the former effect is well understood within the Press–Schechter and excursion set models of structure formation, the latter is not. In those models, protohalos are fully characterized by their height and scale, which determine the halo mass and collapse time, so there is no room for any other halo property. This is why the secondary bias was believed not to be innate but due to the distinct merger rate of halos lying in different backgrounds, and dubbed assembly bias. However, it has now been determined that mergers leave no imprint in the inner halo properties. In fact, the innate origin of the secondary bias cannot be discarded because, in the more realistic peak model of structure formation, halo seeds are characterized by one additional property: the peak curvature. Here, we use the confluent system of peak trajectory formalism to show that peaks lying in different backgrounds have different mean curvatures, which in turn cause them to evolve into halos with different typical inner properties. The dependence we find of the properties on halo background (or halo clustering) reproduces the results of simulations.

How to Tell a Dualist?

People exhibit conflicting intuitions concerning the mind/body links. Here, I explore a novel explanation for these inconsistencies: Dualism is a violable constraint that interacts with Essentialism. Two experiments probe these interactions. In Experiment 1, participants evaluated the emergence of psychological traits in either a replica of one's body, or in the afterlife-after the body's demise. In line with Dualism, epistemic (i.e., disembodied) traits (e.g., knowing the contrast between good/bad) were considered more likely to emerge (relative to sensorimotor/affective traits) only in the afterlife. However, so were innate traits (in line with Essentialism). To further gauge Essentialism, Experiment 2 presented the same traits to innateness judgments. Here, sensorimotor/affective (i.e., embodied) traits were considered more likely to be innate, suggesting that innateness intuitions are informed by embodiment. Moreover, innateness judgments (in Experiment 2) and embodiment intuitions (in Experiment 1) correlated. These results suggest that Dualism tacitly constrains reasoning about one's innate origins and its persistence after death. But since Dualism is "soft" and interacts with Essentialism, supernatural intuitions are chimeric, not purely ethereal.

Where the Id was, the shared ego must now be: the acquisition of symbolic function, language and conscious

ABSTRACT The author contemplates the nature of symbolic function and reviews the most important theories on the topic, proposing developments of thought. While it has variously been argued that the symbols appearing in dreams and insanity are the same as those that occur in art, religion and folklore, symbolism has never been approached systematically. Freud came across symbolism during the 1910 to 1916 period, and he suggested it had an innate origin. Though psychoanalysis has analysed the nature of creativity, it hasn't outlined the process of developing and learning symbolism in the neonatal mind. Recently, in infant observation and neuroscience, it has been argued that the newborn starts to learn symbolism from the moment he/she begins sharing a “hypercathectic” emotional state with the mother. Through maternal “hypercathexis” and identification, the newborn learns both the mechanism that creates symbols and the process of presentation, thus developing the working-through pathway that will form the preconscious, consciousness, and the sense of reality. Understanding the development of symbolism is greatly important for the treatment of severe pathologies and psychosis, which are likely caused by an altered development of symbolic functioning.

The cultural learning account of first impressions.

Humans spontaneously attribute character traits to strangers based on their facial appearance. Although these 'first impressions' typically have no basis in reality, some authors have assumed that they have an innate origin. By contrast, the Trait Inference Mapping (TIM) account proposes that first impressions are products of culturally acquired associative mappings that allow activation to spread from representations of facial appearance to representations of trait profiles. According to TIM, cultural instruments, including propaganda, illustrated storybooks, art and iconography, ritual, film, and TV, expose many individuals within a community to common sources of correlated face-trait experience, yielding first impressions that are shared by many, but typically inaccurate. Here, we review emerging empirical findings, many of which accord with TIM, and argue that future work must distinguish first impressions based on invariant facial features (e.g., shape) from those based on facial behaviours (e.g., expressions).

Bile Acids and Their Value for Central Nervous System

Aim. A review to highlight the bile acids importance as steroid mediators of nervous system activity and show the nervous system involvement in cholesterol metabolism and bile acids production.Key points. Presence of bile acid membrane and nuclear receptors and their activation role in mediating manifold metabolic processes have been established in various organs and tissues. Bile acid transporters are discovered in CNS. The animal brain under physiological conditions was found to contain about 20 bile acid types of likely innate origin suggested by their high contents; the bile acids spectrum in CNS differs significantly from blood plasma. Clinical and experimental works are conclusive about the CNS bile acids influence on mitochondrial membrane, their antioxidative role and, probably, steroid-mediator involvement in indirect regulation of memory, attention, motor functions and appetite.Conclusion. Bile acids act as pleiotropic signalling molecules affecting various tissues. The presence in CNS of various bile acid synthesis-related receptors and enzymes indicates their value in brain functioning and warrants research into their metabolism.

OUTSTANDING SCIENTIST

The article describes the life and work of Kulmat Omiraliev, a scientist who was able to explore the issues of language and literature in a large social and humanitarian process. In his research in four published books, the scientist explored various topical issues of literary language, which is a common form of language and literature. He showed the ways of creating the historical poetics of the Kazakh people, revealed its historical, innate origins. He prepared the necessary research sites for future applicants. Undoubtedly, the research of the great scientist, who worked all his short life for the benefit of his country, will be useful for many generations.

Culturally learned first impressions occur rapidly and automatically and emerge early in development.

Previous research indicates that first impressions from faces are the products of automatic and rapid processing and emerge early in development. These features have been taken as evidence that first impressions have a phylogenetic origin. We examine whether first impressions acquired through learning can also possess these features. First, we confirm that adults rate a person as more intelligent when they are wearing glasses (Study 1). Next, we show this inference persists when participants are instructed to ignore the glasses (Study 2) and when viewing time is restricted to 100ms (Study 3). Finally, we show that 6-year-old, but not 4-year-old, children perceive individuals wearing glasses to be more intelligent, indicating that the effect is seen relatively early in development (Study 4). These data indicate that automaticity, rapid access and early emergence are not evidence that first impressions have an innate origin. Rather, these features are equally compatible with a learning model.

Multikulturalisme dan Politik Identitas: Catatan Reflektif atas Gagasan Politik Will Kymlicka

Keberagaman merupakan fakta sosiologis bangsa Indonesia yang tidak dapat disangkal. Keberagaman merupakan bawaan asali dari bangsa Indonesia, bahkan jauh sebelum negara-bangsa Indonesia terbentuk. Artinya, secara tradisional, sesungguhnya bangsa Indonesia telah terbiasa dengan keberagaman. Namun dalam konteks negara-bangsa Indonesia modern, keberagaman memiliki makna dan tuntutan sosio-politik yang jauh berbeda dari keberagaman yang dikenal oleh para puak pendiri bangsa Indonesia. Dalam konteks tersebut, artikel ini akan mendiskusikan gagasan politik multikulturalisme yang diusulkan Will Kymlicka. Dengan menggunakan studi pustaka artikel ini membicarakan beberapa pandangan tentang multikulturalisme, serta poin utama dan kerangka umum gagasan politik multikulturalisme Kymlicka serta posisinya dalam diskursus tentang demokrasi dan masyarakat plural. Dari analisis literatur tersebut, kami berpendapat bahwa setidaknya ada dua dilema yang dihadapi oleh teori-teori multikulturalisme dalam memandang kebudayaan dan perbedaan budaya. Pertama, pemahaman esensialis terhadap kebudayaan yang mengandaikan bahwa kebudayaan sebagai entitas yang fixed, tidak berubah, dan berdiri sendiri. Kedua kuatnya klaim universitas nilai dalam berbagai pemahaman mengenai multikulturalisme merupakan sebuah tantangan tersendiri, sekaligus mengindikasikan jalan panjang yang masih harus ditempuh dalam merumuskan teori untuk mengatasi problem perbedaan budaya atas dasar prinsip-prinsip liberalisme.

Two conceptions of talent

In the liberal egalitarian literature, the concept of talent is inflected according to its use in broader arguments surrounding the nature of justice. In particular, sometimes talent is understood as a desirable inborn property, while at other times it is understood as a matter of inhabiting a favorable social position. Rawls’s arguments in A Theory of Justice provide useful expressions of these two very different conceptions of talent and their relationship to justice, and much of this paper involves an exploration of those arguments. The former sense of talent informs Rawls’s fair equality of opportunity principle: those with equivalent levels of talent and effort are to face similar prospects. According to the latter, what is significant about talent is not its innate origins, but rather its enabling the possession of desirable goods. This second sense of talent is implicit in Rawls’s difference principle: though it is arbitrary that the talented have the ability to command high wages, it is nonetheless fair to keep those wages because the worst off benefit most from that arrangement. In this paper I explore how the two conceptions of talent operate in these influential arguments, with the broader aims of clarifying the nature of talent and its relevance to social justice.

ESTABILIDAD POSTURAL EN EL NEONATO. REVISION DE LA LITERATURA

Objetivo.
 La presente investigación tiene como finalidad describir los procesos que llevan a cabo los sistemas de retroalimentación sensorial para alcanzar la estabilidad postural en el neonato.
 Estrategia de búsqueda:
 Se efectuó una búsqueda de artículos científicos en SCience Direct, Elsevier, Springer, PUBMED, Annual Reviews, entre los años 1990 y 2018, en los que se revisó lo concerniente a la estabilidad postural del neonato. Las palabras clave fueron Neonato, Estabilidad postural, Control postural.
 Selección de Estudios: 
 Se obtuvieron 53 artículos, de los cuales 13 fueron analíticos y de corte experimental y los 40 restantes correspondieron a revisiones de la literatura y estudios descriptivos. Se ingresó esta información en una base de datos que más tarde se utilizó en el presente documento.
 Síntesis de Resultados:
 
 La estabilidad postural procede de 2 orígenes, el primero relacionado con el control neural (alteraciones en la retroalimentación de los sistemas sensoriales (somatosensorial, vestibular y visual) y el segundo está relacionado con las adaptaciones biomecánicas presentes.El desarrollo postural en el neonato comienza con un repertorio de ajustes específicos que sugieren que el nivel básico de control tiene un origen innato
 Conclusiones:
 
 El control postural en el neonato se da en una representación cefalocaudal teniendo un importante papel, la cabeza, el cuello y el tronco. El sistema vestibular está conectado con los sistemas propioceptivo, visual y motor en la adquisición del control postural, la conexión entre el sistema visual y el sistema vestibular es alcanzada entre el segundo y tercer mes de vida

Dysregulated enzymatic antioxidant network in peripheral neutrophils and monocytes in children with autism

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder where immune cells play an important role. Oxidants and pro-inflammatory cytokines generated by innate immune cells have been implicated in the pathogenesis of ASD. Many previous reports have shown the role of various enzymatic antioxidants in the plasma/red blood cells of ASD subjects, however no study so far has evaluated them in peripheral immune cells of innate origin (neutrophils and monocytes) in ASD patients and typically developing control (TDC) children. With this background, our study explored the expression and activities of major enzymatic antioxidants such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and glutathione reductase (GR) in peripheral neutrophils and monocytes of TDC/ASD subjects. Our data show that expression and activity of SOD is increased in ASD subjects as compared to TDC children in neutrophils and monocytes. On the other hand, GPx/GR activity is either reduced/unaltered in neutrophils and monocytes of ASD subjects as compared to TDC children. Increased SOD expression is associated with upregulated expression of nitrotyrosine (a marker of oxidant damage) in both innate immune cells of ASD subjects. Our study suggests that despite adaptive antioxidant response, there is an increased oxidative burden in peripheral neutrophils and monocytes of ASD subjects. This suggests that dysregulated enzymatic antioxidant network in peripheral innate immune cells could play a significant role in the pathogenesis of autism.

The innate origin of radial and vertical gradients in a simulated galaxy disc

We examine the origin of radial and vertical gradients in the age/metallicity of the stellar component of a galaxy disc formed in the APOSTLE cosmological hydrody- namical simulations. Some of these gradients resemble those in the Milky Way, where they have sometimes been interpreted as due to internal evolution, such as scattering off giant molecular clouds, radial migration driven by spiral patterns, or orbital reso- nances with a bar. Secular processes play a minor role in the simulated galaxy, which lacks strong spiral or bar patterns, and where such gradients arise as a result of the gradual enrichment of a gaseous disc that is born thick but thins as it turns into stars and settles into centrifugal equilibrium. The settling is controlled by the feedback of young stars; which links the star formation, enrichment, and equilibration timescales, inducing radial and vertical gradients in the gaseous disc and its descendent stars. The kinematics of coeval stars evolve little after birth and provide a faithful snapshot of the gaseous disc structure at the time of their formation. In this interpretation, the age-velocity dispersion relation would reflect the gradual thinning of the disc rather than the importance of secular orbit scattering; the outward flaring of stars would result from the gas disc flare rather than from radial migration; and vertical gradients would arise because the gas disc gradually thinned as it enriched. Such radial and vertical trends might just reflect the evolving properties of the parent gaseous disc, and are not necessarily the result of secular evolutionary processes.

Totipotency segregates between the sister blastomeres of two-cell stage mouse embryos

Following fertilization in mammals, it is generally accepted that totipotent cells are exclusive to the zygote and to each of the two blastomeres originating from the first mitotic division. This model of totipotency was inferred from a minority of cases in which blastomeres produced monozygotic twins in mice. Was this due to experimental limitation or biological constraint? Here we removed experimental obstacles and achieved reliable quantification of the prevalence of dual totipotency among mouse two-cell stage blastomeres. We separated the blastomeres of 1,252 two-cell embryos, preserving 1,210 of the pairs. Two classes of monozygotic twins became apparent at the blastocyst stage: 27% formed a functional epiblast in both members (concordant), and 73% did so in only one member of the pair (discordant) – a partition that proved insensitive to oocyte quality, sperm-entry point, culture environment and pattern of cleavage. In intact two-cell embryos, the ability of sister blastomeres to generate epiblast was also skewed. Class discovery clustering of the individual blastomeres’ and blastocysts’ transcriptomes points to an innate origin of concordance and discordance rather than developmental acquisition. Our data place constraints on the commonly accepted idea that totipotency is allocated equally between the two-cell stage blastomeres in mice.

Revisiting the fear of snakes in children: the role of aposematic signalling.

Why humans fear snakes is an old, yet unresolved debate. Its innate origin from evolutionary causes is debated against the powerful influence early experience, culture, media and religion may have on people’s aversion to snakes. Here we show that the aversion to snakes in human beings may have been mistaken for an aversion to aposematic signals that are commonly displayed by snakes. A total of 635 children were asked to rate single item images as “nice” or “mean”. Snakes, pets and smiley emoticon items were not rated as “mean” unless they displayed subtle aposematic signals in the form of triangular (rather than round) shapes. Another 722 children were shown images featuring two items and asked which item was “nice” and which item was “mean”. This context dependent comparison triggered even sharper responses to aposematic signals. We hypothesise that early primates evolved an aversion for aposematic signals in the form of potentially harmful triangular shapes such as teeth, claws or spikes, not for snakes per se. Further, we hypothesise that this adaptation was in turn exploited by snakes in their anti-predatory threat display as a triangular head or dorsal zig-zag pattern, and is currently the basis for efficient international road-danger signalling.

Abstract 19186: Role of Exosomes and Their microRNA Constituents in Mediating the Therapeutic Benefits of Human Cardiosphere-Derived Cells in vitro and in Mice With Myocardial Infarction

Background: Exosomes are nano-sized bilayer vesicles that are secreted by most cell types. Exosomes are rich in microRNAs (mirs) which may function in a paracrine fashion. Cardiosphere-derived cells (CDCs) have been shown to regenerate heart after myocardial infarction (MI) in animal models and in the CADUCEUS clinical trial. However, most of the regenerated muscle is of innate origin, which suggests that CDCs function mainly through indirect pathways. Methods and Results: In vitro and in vivo, we compared three treatment groups: vehicle only (control), CDC-derived exosomes and normal human dermal fibroblast (NHDF)-derived exosomes. Neonatal rat cardiomyocytes (NRCMs) incubated with CDC exosomes were more frequently positive for Ki67 (n=4, p<0.001), and less frequently tunel-positive, compared to NHDF exosomes or control (n=4, p<0.01). CDC exosomes also stimulated tube formation in HUVEC cells compared to NHDF exosomes or control (p<0.05). SCID mice injected with exosomes from CDCs during acute MI showed higher LVEF at two weeks (n=6, p<0.05) and four weeks (n=6, p<0.05) post MI, as well as increased viable mass. The therapeutic benefits of exosomes were equivalent to those of 105 injected human CDCs (p=ns). Inhibition of exosome secretion by ceramide synthesis inhibition abrogated the beneficial effects by CDCs in vivo and in vitro. Mir microarray analysis identified mirs146a as the most highly-up regulated mirs in CDC-exosomes compared to NHDF (262-fold, n=4). Mir-146a-treated NRCMs were more resistant to H2O2-induced stress compared to a mimic control. Array analysis of these NRCMs treated also showed suppression of IRAK1 and TRAF6 transcripts. SCID mice injected with 80 ng of mir-146a during acute MI showed higher LVEF at two weeks (n=6, p<0.05) and four weeks (n=6, p<0.05) post MI, as well as increased viable mass compared to mimic control. Conclusions: Mir-containing exosomes secreted by CDCs exhibit multiple beneficial effects on injured myocardium, suggesting that exosomes may mediate some of the therapeutic effects of CDCs. Most notably mir-146a provides cardioprotection in an acute model of MI.

The cradle of causal reasoning: newborns’ preference for physical causality

Perception of mechanical (i.e. physical) causality, in terms of a cause-effect relationship between two motion events, appears to be a powerful mechanism in our daily experience. In spite of a growing interest in the earliest causal representations, the role of experience in the origin of this sensitivity is still a matter of dispute. Here, we asked the question about the innate origin of causal perception, never tested before at birth. Three experiments were carried out to investigate sensitivity at birth to some visual spatiotemporal cues present in a launching event. Newborn babies, only a few hours old, showed that they significantly preferred a physical causality event (i.e. Michotte's Launching effect) when matched to a delay event (i.e. a delayed launching; Experiment 1) or to a non-causal event completely identical to the causal one except for the order of the displacements of the two objects involved which was swapped temporally (Experiment 3). This preference for the launching event, moreover, also depended on the continuity of the trajectory between the objects involved in the event (Experiment 2). These results support the hypothesis that the human system possesses an early available, possibly innate basic mechanism to compute causality, such a mechanism being sensitive to the additive effect of certain well-defined spatiotemporal cues present in the causal event independently of any prior visual experience.

Innate origins of multiple sclerosis pathogenesis: Implications for computer‐assisted design of disease‐modifying therapies

AbstractThe rational development of disease‐modifying therapies for multiple sclerosis (MS) requires a detailed knowledge of disease pathogenesis, but this remains incomplete. Dynamic computer‐assisted modeling of MS is currently hindered by uncertainties about the connectivity, compartmentalization, and dynamic sequencing of the components of the disease process. The present work presents a simple but versatile model of the mammalian immune system, incorporating both innate and adaptive immunity and innate and adaptive tolerance. The model is applied to MS and its animal model, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), to interrogate the concept of initiation of MS lesions through activation of the peripheral innate immune system, triggering auto‐reactive T cells against myelin antigens in the central nervous system (CNS). The model also addresses the modulation of pro‐inflammatory neurotoxic responses by the generation of regulatory T cells (adaptive tolerance) and clarifies the role of innate tolerance, a part of the immune system that has been little explored in MS to date. Some ramifications of the model are mentioned, including its relevance to existing disease‐modifying therapies and the need to look more closely at the innate immune system for future therapeutic targets. Drug Dev Res 72:674–688, 2011. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Geographical variation in the vocalizations of the suboscine Thorn‐tailed Rayadito Aphrastura spinicauda

Structural variation in acoustic signals may be related either to the factors affecting sound production such as bird morphology, or to vocal adaptations to improve sound transmission in different environments. Thus, variation in acoustic signals can influence intraspecific communication processes. This will ultimately influence divergence in allopatric populations. The study of geographical variation in vocalizations of suboscines provides an opportunity to compare acoustic signals from different populations, without additional biases caused by song learning and cultural evolution typical of oscines. The aim of this study was to compare vocalizations of distinct populations of a suboscine species, the Thorn‐tailed Rayadito. Four types of vocalizations were recorded in five populations, including all three currently accepted subspecies. Comparisons of each type of vocalization among the five populations showed that some variation existed in the repetitive trill, whereas no differences were found among alarm calls and loud trills. Variation in repetitive trills among populations and forest types suggests that sound transmission is involved in vocal differences in suboscines. Acoustic differences are also consistent with distinguishing subspecies bullocki from spinicauda and fulva, but not the two latter subspecies from each other. Our results suggest that the geographical differentiation in vocalizations observed among Thorn‐tailed Rayadito populations is likely to be a consequence of different ecological pressures. Therefore, incipient genetic isolation of these populations is suggested, based on the innate origin of suboscine vocalizations.

The Sexed Brain: Between Science and Ideology

Despite tremendous advances in neuroscience, the topic “brain, sex and gender” remains a matter of misleading interpretations, that go well beyond the bounds of science. In the 19th century, the difference in brain sizes was a major argument to explain the hierarchy between men and women, and was supposed to reflect innate differences in mental capacity. Nowadays, our understanding of the human brain has progressed dramatically with the demonstration of cerebral plasticity. The new brain imaging techniques have revealed the role of the environment in continually re-shaping our brain all along our lifetimes as it goes through new experiences and acquires new knowledge. However, the idea that biology is a major determining factor for cognition and behavioral gender differentiation, is still very much alive. The media are far from being the only guilty party. Some scientific circles actively promote the idea of an innate origin of a gender difference in mental capacities. Experimental data from brain imaging, cognitive tests or genetics are often distorted to serve deterministic ideas. Such abuse of “scientific discourses” have to be counteracted by effective communication of clear and unbiased information to the citizens. This paper presents a critical analysis of selected examples which emphasize sex differences in three fields e.g. skills in language and mathematics, testosterone and financial risk-taking behavior, moral cognition. To shed light on the data and the methods used in some papers, we can now—with today’s knowledge on cerebral plasticity—challenge even more strongly, many false interpretations. Our goal here is double: we want to provide evidence against archaic beliefs about the biological determinism of sex differences but also promote a positive image of scientific research.

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) Cap and Rep proteins are involved in the development of cell-mediated immunity upon PCV2 infection

The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of the capside (Cap) and replicase (Rep) proteins of Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) as well as the whole PCV2 (both PCV2a and PCV2b genotypes) in the induction of cell-mediated immunity upon infection. At 6 weeks of age, six pigs were intranasally inoculated with the Stoon 1010 (Stoon) isolate (PCV2a) and seven with the Sp-7-10-54-13 (Sp) isolate (PCV2b). None of the pigs developed clinical disease but the Sp group had significantly higher proportion of pigs with PCV2-associated lesions and PCV2 load in tissues compared to the Stoon group. In both groups, development of IFN-γ secreting cells (SC) in response to the whole PCV2 and Cap protein was detected by means of an ELISPOT from day 7 post-inoculation (PI) to the end of the study (21 days PI). Significant responses against Rep protein were only detected in Sp-inoculated pigs. No differences in ELISPOT results were seen when either PCV2a or PCV2b was used in vitro to recall peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in any group. Stimulation of PBMC with the whole virus but not with Cap or Rep protein induced IL-10-SC in all pigs regardless of their PCV2 infection status, indicating an innate origin of this response. The results from this study demonstrate that PCV2-infected pigs developed cell-mediated immunity to Cap and Rep proteins and that, in the course of a sub-clinical infection, development and strength of such responses are possibly related to the levels of PCV2 replication.