Most oxytocin administration studies are statistically underpowered to reliably detect (or reject) a wide range of effect sizes.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Quintana DS
PROVIDER: S-EPMC9216440 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Speech deepfakes are artificial voices generated by machine learning models. Previous literature has highlighted deepfakes as one of the biggest security threats arising from progress in artificial intelligence due to their potential for misuse. However, studies investigating human detection capabilities are limited. We presented genuine and deepfake audio to n = 529 individuals and asked them to identify the deepfakes. We ran our experiments in English and Mandarin to understand if language affects detection performance and decision-making rationale. We found that detection capability is unreliable. Listeners only correctly spotted the deepfakes 73% of the time, and there was no difference in detectability between the two languages. Increasing listener awareness by providing examples of speech deepfakes only improves results slightly. As speech synthesis algorithms improve and become more realistic, we can expect the detection task to become harder. The difficulty of detecting speech deepfakes confirms their potential for misuse and signals that defenses against this threat are needed.
| S-EPMC10395974 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND:Structural variations (SVs) have been reported to play an important role in genetic diversity and trait regulation. Many computer algorithms detecting SVs have recently been developed, but the use of multiple algorithms to detect high-confidence SVs has not been studied. The most suitable sequencing depth for detecting SVs in pear is also not known. RESULTS:In this study, a pipeline to detect SVs using next-generation and long-read sequencing data was constructed. The performances of seven types of SV detection software using next-generation sequencing (NGS) data and two types of software using long-read sequencing data (SVIM and Sniffles), which are based on different algorithms, were compared. Of the nine software packages evaluated, SVIM identified the most SVs, and Sniffles detected SVs with the highest accuracy (> 90%). When the results from multiple SV detection tools were combined, the SVs identified by both MetaSV and IMR/DENOM, which use NGS data, were more accurate than those identified by both SVIM and Sniffles, with mean accuracies of 98.7 and 96.5%, respectively. The software packages using long-read sequencing data required fewer CPU cores and less memory and ran faster than those using NGS data. In addition, according to the performances of assembly-based algorithms using NGS data, we found that a sequencing depth of 50× is appropriate for detecting SVs in the pear genome. CONCLUSION:This study provides strong evidence that more than one SV detection software package, each based on a different algorithm, should be used to detect SVs with higher confidence, and that long-read sequencing data are better than NGS data for SV detection. The SV detection pipeline that we have established will facilitate the study of diversity in other crops.
| S-EPMC6972009 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) is widely used for the analysis of large biomolecules in numerous applications. The technique utilizes nanosecond-long laser pulses at various spot sizes to eject and ionize large molecules embedded in a highly absorptive chemical matrix. Despite the methods name, 'molecular desorption' from the matrix crystal surface is not the sole mechanism discussed for material ejection in MALDI, but additional ablation of larger clusters has been reported. Here we present results on the influence of laser fluence and spot size on the mechanisms of the initial material ejection in MALDI and subsequent plume development. We used a laser-based postionization (MALDI-2) as well as a complementary photoacoustic method to monitor the material ejection step. The photoacoustic data reveal a quasi-thermal sublimation process up to a transition fluence. Above this threshold fluence additional ablation processes are observed. Complementary investigations on plume dynamics by MALDI-2 showed an ejection of predominantly fast particles for desorption conditions while ablation produces considerably slower ejecta. Additionally the presented results revealed a peculiar influence of the spot size on analyte fragmentation as well as plume development and allows for new insights into the unexplained spot size effect reported for MALDI.
| S-EPMC5958139 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The relationship between farm size and productivity has been studied extensively in the agricultural and development economics literature. However, most of the documented evidence in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is based on samples of small-scale farms operating 5 ha or less, with very little evidence assessing this relationship over a wider range of farm sizes. This omission is especially important considering the rapid expansion of medium-scale farms in much of Africa. This study examines the farm size-productivity relationship over a range of farms between zero and 40 ha in Nigeria. It also tests whether there is heterogeneity in productivity within medium-scale farms depending on how they came into being. Using four measures of productivity, empirical estimates reveal a U-shaped relationship where the IR holds between zero and about 22 ha, turning positive afterwards. Moreover, when medium-scale farms are distinguished between those who were actively engaged as small-scale farmers and stepped up/expanded their scale of operation and those who were primarily in non-farm employment and later stepped into medium-scale farming, the turning point for farmers who stepped up into medium-scale farming is at 11 ha, in contrast to 22 ha for those who stepped in. Further evidence suggests heterogeneity in productivity within medium-scale farms depending on whether the owner-operators stepped up or stepped into medium-scale farming. These findings imply that policies facilitating smallholders' ability to expand the scale of their activities could contribute substantially to growth in farm productivity, agricultural commercialization and increase in food security in Nigeria, although in most areas only a small proportion of smallholder households are in a position to do this.
| S-EPMC8350315 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Intracellular polarity is an important parameter of pathological and biological phenomena of cells; abnormal polarities are associated with diabetes, neurological diseases, and cancer. However, previously reported polarity probes have issues with quantitatively detecting intracellular polarities, can measure only a limited range of polarities, and can only detect specific intracellular regions. Here, we developed a novel two-dye system, RPS-1, that contains a new "turn-on" polarity probe (Dye1) based on a spiropyran intramolecular ring closing-opening system activated in polar protic solvents, and a benzothiadiazole containing dye (Dye3), which emits only in non-polar solvents with a large stoke shift. Individually, Dye1 and Dye3 selectively localized to lysosome and lipid droplets, respectively; however, combining these dyes, which have completely different characteristics, via a piperazine linker resulted in the staining of various intracellular organelles. Therefore, as Dye1 and Dye3 have the same absorption but different emissions, combining them resulted in a ratiometric polarity probe that could quantitatively measure a wider polarity range inside the cell using a single excitation source. In addition, ratiometric imaging using our RPS-1 probe to quantitatively detect the distribution of polarity in different cell lines indicated that lysosomes were the most polar organelles in the cell.
| S-EPMC7069515 | biostudies-literature
Project description:It has been demonstrated that secretion of several hormones can be classically conditioned, however, the underlying brain responses of such conditioning have never been investigated before. In this study we aimed to investigate how oxytocin administration and classically conditioned oxytocin influence brain responses. In total, 88 females were allocated to one of three groups: oxytocin administration, conditioned oxytocin, or placebo, and underwent an experiment consisting of three acquisition and three evocation days. Participants in the conditioned group received 24 IU of oxytocin together with a conditioned stimulus (CS) during three acquisition days and placebo with the CS on three evocation days. The oxytocin administration group received 24 IU of oxytocin and the placebo group received placebo during all days. On the last evocation day, fMRI scanning was performed for all participants during three tasks previously shown to be affected by oxytocin: presentation of emotional faces, crying baby sounds and heat pain. Region of interest analysis revealed that there was significantly lower activation in the right amygdala and in two clusters in the left superior temporal gyrus in the oxytocin administration group compared to the placebo group in response to observing fearful faces. The activation in the conditioned oxytocin group was in between the other two groups for these clusters but did not significantly differ from either group. No group differences were found in the other tasks. Preliminary evidence was found for brain activation of a conditioned oxytocin response; however, despite this trend in the expected direction, the conditioned group did not significantly differ from other groups. Future research should, therefore, investigate the optimal timing of conditioned endocrine responses and study whether the findings generalize to other hormones as well.
| S-EPMC7082015 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background:In medicine, effect sizes (ESs) allow the effects of independent variables (including risk/protective factors or treatment interventions) on dependent variables (e.g., health outcomes) to be quantified. Given that many public health decisions and health care policies are based on ES estimates, it is important to assess how ESs are used in the biomedical literature and to investigate potential trends in their reporting over time. Results:Through a big data approach, the text mining process automatically extracted 814 120 ESs from 13 322 754 PubMed abstracts. Eligible ESs were risk ratio, odds ratio, and hazard ratio, along with their confidence intervals. Here we show a remarkable decrease of ES values in PubMed abstracts between 1990 and 2015 while, concomitantly, results become more often statistically significant. Medians of ES values have decreased over time for both "risk" and "protective" values. This trend was found in nearly all fields of biomedical research, with the most marked downward tendency in genetics. Over the same period, the proportion of statistically significant ESs increased regularly: among the abstracts with at least 1 ES, 74% were statistically significant in 1990-1995, vs 85% in 2010-2015. Conclusions:whereas decreasing ESs could be an intrinsic evolution in biomedical research, the concomitant increase of statistically significant results is more intriguing. Although it is likely that growing sample sizes in biomedical research could explain these results, another explanation may lie in the "publish or perish" context of scientific research, with the probability of a growing orientation toward sensationalism in research reports. Important provisions must be made to improve the credibility of biomedical research and limit waste of resources.
| S-EPMC5765564 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) modulates social cognition by increasing attention to social cues and may have therapeutic potential for impaired social attention in conditions such as autism spectrum disorder. Intranasal administration of OXT is widely used to examine the drug's functional effects in both adults and children and is assumed to enter the brain directly via this route. However, OXT can also influence brain function through increased blood concentrations, and we have recently shown that orally (lingual) administered OXT also modulates neural responses to emotional faces and may be better tolerated for therapeutic use. Here, we examine whether 24 IU OXT administered orally can facilitate social attention.MethodsIn a randomized, placebo-controlled pharmacologic study, we used a validated emotional antisaccade eye-tracking paradigm to explore the effects of oral OXT on bottom-up and top-down attention processing in 80 healthy male participants.ResultsOur findings showed that in terms of top-down attention, oral OXT increased errors for both social (angry, fearful, happy, sad, and neutral emotion faces) and nonsocial stimuli (oval shapes) in the antisaccade condition but increased response latencies only in the social condition. It also significantly reduced post-task state anxiety, but this reduction was not correlated with task performance. A comparison with our previous intranasal OXT study using the same task revealed that both routes have a similar effect on increasing antisaccade errors and response latencies and on reducing state anxiety.ConclusionsOverall, our findings suggest that oral administration of OXT produces similar effects on top-down social attention control and anxiety to intranasal administration and may therefore have therapeutic utility.
| S-EPMC9670742 | biostudies-literature
Project description:It has been suggested that the degree of compassion-the feeling of warmth, understanding and kindness that motivates the desire to help others, is modulated by observers' views regarding the target's vulnerability and suffering. This study tested the hypothesis that as compassion developed to protect vulnerable kinships, hormones such as oxytocin, which have been suggested as playing a key role in 'tend-and-befriend' behaviors among women, will enhance compassion toward women but not toward men. Thirty subjects participated in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subject study. Following administration of oxytocin/placebo, participants listened to recordings of different female/male protagonists describing distressful emotional conflicts and were then asked to provide compassionate advice to the protagonist. The participants' responses were coded according to various components of compassion by two clinical psychologists who were blind to the treatment. The results showed that in women and men participants oxytocin enhanced compassion toward women, but did not affect compassion toward men. These findings indicate that the oxytocinergic system differentially mediates compassion toward women and toward men, emphasizing an evolutionary perspective that views compassion as a caregiving behavior designed to help vulnerable individuals.
| S-EPMC4350475 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Traditionally, the welfare assessment of farm animals has focused on health and production outcomes. Positive welfare is, however, not merely the absence of negative welfare and is an important part of a life worth living. Play behaviour is widely considered to be an indicator of positive emotions because it is a "luxury" behaviour. Direct visual observation is considered the most accurate method of behavioural analysis, but it is time consuming and laborious. There is increasing interest in the use of remote monitoring technology to quantify behaviour. We compared the data output ("motion index" (MI)) from a commercially available tri-axial accelerometer fitted to newborn dairy calves to video footage of the same calves, with a focus on play behaviour. The motion index values over 48 h were positively correlated with both the duration of play behaviour and the number of play bouts. The motion index threshold in each sample interval with the optimal sensitivity and specificity for the identification of play behaviour was MI ? 2.5 at a 1 min resolution (sensitivity (Se) = 98.0%; specificity (Sp) = 92.9%) and MI ? 24.5 at a 15 min resolution (Se = 98.0%; Sp = 89.9%), but these values consistently overestimated the overall proportion of sample intervals in which play was observed. The MI that best reflected the results obtained from visual one-zero sampling was MI ? 23 for 1 min intervals and MI ? 62 for 15 min intervals-this may therefore be the basis of a more conservative approach to the identification of play behaviour from accelerometer-generated data. Our results indicate that accelerometer-generated data can usefully indicate the amount of play behaviour shown by newborn calves for up to 48 h, providing an efficient method for identifying this important parameter in future work.
| S-EPMC7401565 | biostudies-literature