Are All “Basic Emotions” Emotions? A Problem for the (Basic) Emotions Construct

Despite decades of challenges to the idea that a small number of emotions enjoys the special status of “basic emotions,” the idea continues to have considerable influence in psychology and beyond. However, different theorists have proposed substantially different lists of basic emotions, which suggests that there exists no stable criterion of basicness. To some extent, the basic-emotions enterprise is bedeviled by an overreliance on English affective terms, but there also lurks a more serious problem—the lack of agreement as to what emotions are. To address this problem, three necessary conditions are proposed as a minimal requirement for a mental state to be an emotion. A detailed analysis of surprise, a widely accepted basic emotion, reveals that surprise violates even this minimal test, raising the possibility that it and perhaps other would-be basic emotions might not be emotions at all. An approach that combines ideas such as undifferentiated affect and cognitive appraisal is briefly proposed as a way of theorizing about emotions that is less dependent on the vagaries of language and incoherent notions of basic emotions. Finally, it is suggested that the perennial question of what an emotion is should be given more serious attention.

Soluble CD14 and Th 17-Related Interleukins in Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid are Potential Triage Biomarkers for Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Background: Soluble CD14 (sCD14) and T helper 17-related interleukins (IL-17 and IL-22) in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) are preliminarily reported to be increased in pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB). Their significances to the bacteriological confirmation and activity differentiation of PTB, however, are not completely clarified. Methods: A observational study was conducted in 154 consecutive adult patients who were primarily diagnosed with PTB based on radiographic abnormalities. Bacteriological confirmation was made using sputum/BALF smearing, TB-DNA, Xpert test and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) culture. BALF and serum sCD14, IL-17 and IL-22 were measured using ELISA assays. Their associations with clinical/bacteriological characteristics were analyzed. Results: Finally, 103, 16, 7 and 28 patients were diagnosed with active, inactive, gray zone and non-PTB, respectively. Among active PTB patients, 82 (79.6%) cases, 33 (32.0%) based on sputum and additional 49 (47.6%) depended on BALF were bacteriologically confirmed. BALF levels of sCD14, IL-17 and IL-22 were similar between patients with PTB and non-PTB, but significantly higher in active PTB and bacteriologically-confirmed patients. The BALF levels of these biomarkers to some extent predicted bacteriological confirmation failure (AUC of IL-22 = 0.866), nonresponders to empiric antibacterial therapy, Xpert test (AUC of IL-22 = 0.760) and Mtb cultures. When the sensitivities were set at ³ 90% (WHO's minimal requirement for a triage test), the specificities of bacteriological confirmation failure prediction and empiric antibacterial therapy nonresponder prediction in interferon-g release assay-positive patients were about 67%, very close to the WHO's minimal requirement (³ 70%) for a triage test. In addition, serum levels of sCD14, IL-17 and IL-22 were relatively lower and had no predictive values. Conclusions: BALF levels of sCD14, IL-17 and IL-22, superior to their serum levels, are potential triage biomarkers and may be used to replace the expensive Xpert test in particular occasions or refer proper patients to conduct lung biopsy and expensive molecular tests in the first week or to start nondelayed anti-TB therapy bypassing empiric antibacterial therapy and time-consuming Mtb culture.

Isochorismate-derived biosynthesis of the plant stress hormone salicylic acid

The phytohormone salicylic acid (SA) controls biotic and abiotic plant stress responses. Plastid-produced chorismate is a branch-point metabolite for SA biosynthesis. Most pathogen-induced SA derives from isochorismate, which is generated from chorismate by the catalytic activity of ISOCHORISMATE SYNTHASE1. Here, we ask how and in which cellular compartment isochorismate is converted to SA. We show that in Arabidopsis, the pathway downstream of isochorismate requires only two additional proteins: ENHANCED DISEASE SUSCEPTIBILITY5, which exports isochorismate from the plastid to the cytosol, and the cytosolic amidotransferase avrPphB SUSCEPTIBLE3 (PBS3). PBS3 catalyzes the conjugation of glutamate to isochorismate to produce isochorismate-9-glutamate, which spontaneously decomposes into SA and 2-hydroxy-acryloyl-N-glutamate. The minimal requirement of three compartmentalized proteins controlling unidirectional forward flux may protect the pathway against evolutionary forces and pathogen perturbations.

Introduction

This brief introductory chapter begins by providing some notation. This is followed by a reminder on the convolution (moving average) operation, which is presented here as a regularisation procedure. The notion of a regionalised variable is then introduced, with both its structured and its random aspects. The definition of a regionalised variable requires the data of its support and of its field. The chapter ends by comparing the deterministic approach, which uses transitive methods, and the stochastic approach, which uses intrinsic theory. Note that both approaches lead to equivalent results. Indeed, they mainly differ by their domains of application, the first one being more adapted to global questions, and the second to local ones. However, both techniques involve some statistical inference, and here the minimal requirement turns out to be the quasi-intrinsic assumption.

Semi-automated process of adaptation of platform dependent parts of embedded operating systems

Each year manufacturers develop new processors. As a reaction to this continuous development, the developers of software have to adapt their software to those new processors. As a minimal requirement, the code of an operating system has to be changed to enable the execution of other user applications. This change is a complicated process during which incompatible parts of an operating system have to be redesigned and missing parts have to be implemented. Complications arise when there is a need to adapt an operating system to completely different processor architecture. In this paper we present a novel adaptation process that has preconditions to reduce the impact of these complications. This process uses a file for the formal description of a processor, which is also described in this paper. The formal description could act as a standard for processor manufacturers and could allow the generation of a platform dependent code of an operating system. This paper presents concepts, definitions and ideas of the adaptation process and shows possible solutions for an automatic generation of code parts of an operating system.