Counter Regulation of Spic by NF-κB and STAT Signaling Controls Inflammation and Iron Metabolism in Macrophages.

Activated macrophages must carefully calibrate their inflammatory responses to balance efficient pathogen control with inflammation-mediated tissue damage, but the molecular underpinnings of this "balancing act" remain unclear. Using genetically engineered mouse models and primary macrophage cultures, we show that Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling induces the expression of the transcription factor Spic selectively in patrolling monocytes and tissue macrophages by a nuclear factor κB (NF-κB)-dependent mechanism. Functionally, Spic downregulates pro-inflammatory cytokines and promotes iron efflux by regulating ferroportin expression in activated macrophages.

Notes from the Field: Travel-Associated Melioidosis and Resulting Laboratory Exposures - United States, 2016.

In mid-July 2016, a Pennsylvania resident aged 15 years who had recently returned from Thailand was treated by a pediatrician for sore throat, fever, and bilateral thigh abscesses at the sites of mosquito bites (Figure). She had traveled to northeast Thailand with nine other teens as part of an 18-day service-oriented trip run by an Ohio-based youth tour company that arranges travel to Thailand for approximately 500 persons annually. This trip included construction and agricultural activities and recreational mud exposures.

GATA factors promote ER integrity and β-cell survival and contribute to type 1 diabetes risk.

Pancreatic β-cell survival remains poorly understood despite decades of research. GATA transcription factors broadly regulate embryogenesis and influence survival of several cell types, but their role in adult β-cells remains undefined. To investigate the role of GATA factors in adult β-cells, we derived β-cell-inducible Gata4- and Gata6-knockout mice, along with whole-body inducible Gata4 knockouts.

Big secrets do not necessarily cause hills to appear steeper.

Slepian, Masicampo, Toosi, and Ambady (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141, 619-624, 2012, Study 1) found that individuals recalling and writing about a big, meaningful secret judged a pictured hill as steeper than did those who recalled and wrote about a small, inconsequential secret (with estimates unrelated to physical effort unaffected). From an embodied cognition perspective, this result was interpreted as suggesting that important secrets weigh people down. Answering to mounting calls for the crucial need of independent direct replications of published findings to ensure the self-correcting nature of our science, we sought to corroborate Slepian et al.

β-Cells are not generated in pancreatic duct ligation-induced injury in adult mice.

The existence of adult β-cell progenitors remains the most controversial developmental biology topic in diabetes research. It has been reported that β-cell progenitors can be activated by ductal ligation-induced injury of adult mouse pancreas and apparently act in a cell-autonomous manner to double the functional β-cell mass within a week by differentiation and proliferation. Here, we demonstrate that pancreatic duct ligation (PDL) does not activate progenitors to contribute to β-cell mass expansion.

Humor in romantic contexts: do men participate and women evaluate?

Several lines of research illustrate that humor plays a pivotal role in relationship initiation. The current article applies sexual selection theory to argue that humor production is a fitness indicator, allowing men to transmit information tacitly about their underlying qualities. And whereas prior research has emphasized women's appreciation of humor as a signal of interest, the focus here is on how women evaluate prospective suitors' humorous offerings.

A novel anti-WIP monoclonal antibody detects an isoform of WIP that lacks the WASP binding domain.

The majority of Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (WASP) in T cells is in a complex with WASP interacting protein (WIP), a 503 a.a. long proline rich protein.

Are "implicit" attitudes unconscious?

A widespread assumption in recent research on attitudes is that self-reported (explicit) evaluations reflect conscious attitudes, whereas indirectly assessed (implicit) evaluations reflect unconscious attitudes. The present article reviews the available evidence regarding unconscious features of indirectly assessed "implicit" attitudes. Distinguishing between three different aspects of attitudes, we conclude that (a) people sometimes lack conscious awareness of the origin of their attitudes, but that lack of source awareness is not a distinguishing feature of indirectly assessed versus self-reported attitudes, (b) there is no evidence that people lack conscious awareness of indirectly assessed attitudes per se, and (c) there is evidence showing that, under some conditions, indirectly assessed (but not self-reported) attitudes influence other psychological processes outside of conscious awareness.

Finger-length ratios show evidence of prenatal hormone-transfer between opposite-sex twins.

Finger-length ratio (second to fourth finger; 2D:4D) has been associated with various measures thought to be related to prenatal androgens. In addition, hormone-transfer theory posits that hormones can transfer between twins. We examined 2D:4D in same-sex (SS) and opposite-sex (OS) dizygotic twins to test both propositions.

Sexually selective cognition: beauty captures the mind of the beholder.

Across 5 experimental studies, the authors explore selective processing biases for physically attractive others. The findings suggest that (a). both male and female observers selectively attend to physically attractive female targets, (b).