Daily Archives: October 24, 2024

Science Says We Like When People Flirt With Our Partner — Up Until This Point

Thomas Barwick via Getty ImagesWhen we see others flirt with our long-term partners, our desire for them as well as our desire to invest further in the relationship diminish. There’s a social phenomenon that psychology professor Gurit Birnbaum often sees play out among people she knows and couples in the wild: Thinking they’re sly, one partner will try to make the other jealous or get a rise out of them by flirting or seeking attention elsewhere.“It made me wonder: Does this strategy actually work? Does it make the partner feel more desired, or does it prove counterproductive and damage the relationship?” she told HuffPost. Advertisement

With her interest piqued, she and her research team at Reichman University in Herzliya, Israel, teamed up with researchers at the University of Rochester in New York to explore that very premise. A new study published in the Journal of Sex Research reveals their findings. “Prior research suggests that seeing someone flirt with our partners is actually a positive thing, up to a certain point.”Advertisement

Estonian scientists: Extinction of mammoths not caused by climate change

Extinction of mammoths not caused by climate change, Estonian scientists said. Photo: Sille Annuk / Tartu PostimeesResearchers from the Department of Geology of Tallinn University of Technology together with an international working group have made new discoveries about the life of Siberian mammoths at the peak of the last ice age, considered one of the coldest periods in the recent history of the Earth, and their research casts doubt on the assumption that environmental conditions became unsurvivable for mammoths.The research findings, published in the scientific journal Quaternary Science Reviews, focus on the southeastern part of Western Siberia, a region that has been little studied to date. The study analyzed the isotopic compositions of mammoth teeth and tusks, which provided scientists with valuable information about the climate and living environment at the time.The lead researcher, Ivan Krivokorin, explained that for a long time it was believed that the last glacial maximum was so cold and inhospitable that mammoths had to constantly struggle for survival.”However, our results suggest that the climate warmed between 28,000 and 22,000 years ago, and the living conditions in the southeastern part of Western Siberia were not as harsh as previously thought. Thus, mammoths were able to live there in conditions that did not differ significantly from those of their European peers at the time,” he said.The researchers discovered that the habitat of mammoths in Western Siberia was much more diverse than previously thought. The climate there became warmer over time, which could have provided more suitable living conditions for mammoths. This finding challenges the hypothesis that climate change alone led to the extinction of mammoths.The study highlights diet as another important aspect of mammoths’ demise. Krivokorin and his colleagues believe that climate change was not the sole cause of the extinction of mammoths, but that the availability of nutrients also played a significant role.”Our research suggests that diet and nutrient availability may have been a key factor influencing the extinction of mammoths,” Krivokorin added. “Further analyses, such as studies of carbon and nitrogen isotopes, will help to clarify whether nutrient deficiency may have been one of the causes of the disappearance of these large animals.”The study not only sheds light on the life of mammoths and the history of climate change but also helps us understand how climate change affects large herbivores today. Studying the life of mammoths can provide us with valuable insights into how climate change has impacted ecosystems in the past and how it may affect large animals today, Krivokorin says.In addition to exploring the lives of mammoths, these new discoveries may also provide clues as to how people lived and migrated in the same area at the time. Were they able to survive in these climatic conditions? How far did they migrate and how did they coexist with mammoths? These are questions that the scientists plan to look for answers to in further research.

Political Science Professor Publishes Book on Campaign Finance Oversight

Oct. 24, 2024

Karen Sebold, assistant professor of political science, published Evaluating Campaign Finance Oversight: An Assessment of the Federal Election Commission through publisher Lexington Books in September. 

In the book, Sebold explores changes in campaign finance laws, underfunding of the FEC, untimely commissioner appointments and how these factors have affected the enforcement of campaign finance laws between 2002 and 2020. 

The book discusses these topics to understand why the FEC has such a poor reputation and why the commission struggles to hold campaign finance violators accountable.

“The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is the primary agency enforcing campaign finance laws in the U.S., and it has long been portrayed as a toothless tiger. Given the importance of campaign finance laws in protecting democracy, the characterization of the FEC as an ineffective regulator is problematic.” In the book summary, Sebold adds, “Furthermore, the empty commissioner seats have led to a partisan imbalance that has favored the Republicans and allowed them to dominate decision-making. Now, the outcomes of allegations of wrongdoing are increasingly closing by default rather than bipartisan consensus.”

To Sebold, there is no better time to share her study than now, when many Arkansans are actively casting ballots in the 2024 presidential election. If you would like to learn where you can vote, visit the state election website’s polling location resource.

About Karen Sebold: Sebold (B.S. Rogers State University, 2005; M.A. University of Arkansas, 2008; Ph.D. University of Arkansas 2013) is an assistant professor of political science at the U of A. Her book Evaluating Campaign Finance Oversight: An Assessment of the Federal Election Commission was published in 2024. She has published several articles and books in her various areas of research in International Organizations, Politique Americaine, PS: Political Science and White House Studies. She has taught in the Political Science Department at the U of A since 2011.

Groundbreaking 3D Brain Atlas Helps Scientists Track Developmental Disorders in Stunning Detail

Researchers developed a 3D atlas of the developing mouse brain, offering insights into brain growth and disorders. The atlas, available online, was created using advanced imaging techniques across seven developmental stages.
New high-resolution maps of the mouse brain provide researchers with valuable insights into brain development and offer a powerful tool for studying neurodevelopmental disorders.
Researchers at Penn State College of Medicine, in collaboration with five other institutes, have developed a 3D atlas of developing mouse brains using advanced imaging and microscopy techniques. This innovative atlas offers a comprehensive, 360-degree view of the entire mammalian brain during embryonic and early postnatal stages. It serves as a valuable reference and anatomical framework, aiding researchers in studying brain development and neurodevelopmental disorders.
They recently published their work in Nature Communications.
“Maps are a fundamental infrastructure to build knowledge upon but we don’t have a high-resolution 3D atlas of the developing brain,” said Yongsoo Kim, associate professor of neural and behavioral sciences at Penn State College of Medicine and senior author on the paper. “We are generating high-resolution maps that we can use to understand how the brain grows under normal circumstances and what happens when a brain disorder emerges.”
The Importance of Brain Atlases
Geographical atlases are a collection of maps that provide a comprehensive view of the Earth’s geography including boundaries between regions and countries, features like mountains and rivers, and thoroughfares like roads and highways. Importantly, they provide a common understanding that allows users to pinpoint specific locations and understand the spatial relationship between regions.
Similarly, brain atlases are foundational for understanding the architecture of the brain. They help researchers visualize how the brain is organized spatially and understand brain structure, function, and how different regions and neurons are connected. Previously, scientists have been limited to 2D histology-based snapshots, which makes it challenging to interpret anatomical regions in three dimensions and any changes that may occur, Kim said.
Researchers developed a 3D atlas of the developing mouse brain, with such images as this. Credit: Provided by the Kim Lab / Penn State
In recent years, there has been tremendous progress in whole brain imaging techniques that let researchers look at the whole brain at high resolution and produce large-scale 3D datasets. To analyze this data, Kim explained, scientists have developed 3D reference atlases of the adult mouse brain, which is a model for the mammalian brain. The atlases provide a universal anatomical framework that allows researchers to overlay diverse datasets and conduct comparative analyses. However, there’s no equivalent for the developing mouse brain, which undergoes rapid changes in shape and volume during the embryonic and post-natal stages.
“Without this 3D map of the developing brain, we cannot integrate data from emerging 3D studies into a standard spatial framework or analyze the data in a consistent manner,” Kim said. In other words, the lack of a 3D map hinders the advancement of neuroscience research.
The research team created a multimodal 3D common coordinate framework of the mouse brain across seven developmental timepoints — four points of time during the embryonic period and three periods during the immediate postnatal phase. Using MRI, they captured images of the brain’s overall form and structure. They then employed light sheet fluorescence microscopy, an imaging technique that enables visualization of the whole brain at a single-cell resolution. These high-resolution images were then matched to the shape of the MRI templates of the brain to create the 3D map. The team pooled samples from both male and female mice.
Creation of the 3D Brain Atlas
To demonstrate how the atlas can be used to analyze different datasets and track how individual cell types emerge in the developing brain, the team focused on GABAergic neurons, which are nerve cells that play a key communication role in the brain. This cell type has been implicated in schizophrenia, autism and other neurological disorders.
While scientists have studied GABAergic neurons in the outermost region of the brain called the cortex, not much is known about how these cells arise in the whole brain during development, according to the researchers. Understanding how these clusters of cells develop under normal conditions may be key to assessing what happens when something goes awry.
To facilitate collaboration and further advancement in neuroscience research, the team created an interactive web-based version that is publicly available and free. The aim is to significantly lower technical barriers for researchers around the world to access this resource.
“This provides a roadmap that can integrate a lot of different data — genomic, neuroimaging, microscopy, and more — into the same data infrastructure. It will drive the next evolution of brain research driven by machine learning and artificial intelligence,” Kim said.
Reference: “Developmental mouse brain common coordinate framework” by Fae N. Kronman, Josephine K. Liwang, Rebecca Betty, Daniel J. Vanselow, Yuan-Ting Wu, Nicholas J. Tustison, Ashwin Bhandiwad, Steffy B. Manjila, Jennifer A. Minteer, Donghui Shin, Choong Heon Lee, Rohan Patil, Jeffrey T. Duda, Jian Xue, Yingxi Lin, Keith C. Cheng, Luis Puelles, James C. Gee, Jiangyang Zhang, Lydia Ng and Yongsoo Kim, 21 October 2024, Nature Communications.DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-53254-w
Other Penn State College of Medicine authors on the paper include: Fae Kronman, joint degree student in the MD/PhD Medical Scientist Training Program; Josephine Liwang, doctoral student; Rebecca Betty, research technologist; Daniel Vanselow, research project manager; Steffy Manjila, postdoctoral scholar; Jennifer Minteer, research technologist; Donghui Shin, research technologist; Rohan Patil, student; and Keith Cheng, distinguished professor, department of pathology.
Nicholas Tustison at the University of Virginia School of Medicine; Ashwin Bhandiwad and Lydia Ng at the Allen Institute for Brain Science; Choong Heon Lee and Jiangyang Zhang at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine; Jeffrey Duda and James Gee at the University of Pennsylvania; Jian Xue and Yingxi Lin at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center; Luis Puelles at the Universidad de Murcia; and Yuan-Ting Wu, who was previously research scientist at Penn State and currently project scientist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, also contributed to the paper.
The National Institutes of Health’s grants RF1MH12460501 from the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, R01NS108407, R01MH116176 and R01EB031722 supported this work.