Environmental Policy and Equity Prices

in PLoS ONE (2023)

Categorical consistency facilitates implicit learning of color-number associations

in PLoS ONE (2023)

In making sense of the environment, we implicitly learn to associate stimulus attributes that frequently occur together. Is such learning favored for categories over individual items? Here, we introduce a ... [more ▼]

In making sense of the environment, we implicitly learn to associate stimulus attributes that frequently occur together. Is such learning favored for categories over individual items? Here, we introduce a novel paradigm for directly comparing category- to item-level learning. In a category-level experiment, even numbers (2,4,6,8) had a high-probability of appearing in blue, and odd numbers (3,5,7,9) in yellow. Associative learning was measured by the relative performance on trials with low-probability (p = .09) to high-probability (p = .91) number colors. There was strong evidence for associative learning: low-probability performance was impaired (40ms RT increase and 8.3% accuracy decrease relative to high-probability). This was not the case in an item-level experiment with a different group of participants, in which high-probability colors were non-categorically assigned (blue: 2,3,6,7; yellow: 4,5,8,9; 9ms RT increase and 1.5% accuracy increase). The categorical advantage was upheld in an explicit color association report (83% accuracy vs. 43% at the item-level). These results support a conceptual view of perception and suggest empirical bases of categorical, not item-level, color labeling of learning materials. [less ▲]

CCT196969 effectively inhibits growth and survival of melanoma brain metastasis cells

in PLoS ONE (2022)

Melanomas frequently metastasize to the brain. Despite recent progress in the treatment of melanoma brain metastasis, therapy resistance and relapse of disease remain unsolved challenges. CCT196969 is a ... [more ▼]

Melanomas frequently metastasize to the brain. Despite recent progress in the treatment of melanoma brain metastasis, therapy resistance and relapse of disease remain unsolved challenges. CCT196969 is a SRC family kinase (SFK) and Raf proto-oncogene, serine/thre onine kinase (RAF) inhibitor with documented effects in primary melanoma cell lines in vitro and in vivo. Using in vitro cell line assays, we studied the effects of CCT196969 in multiple melanoma brain metastasis cell lines. The drug effectively inhibited proliferation, migration, and survival in all examined cell lines, with viability IC50 doses in the range of 0.18–2.6 μM. Western blot analysis showed decreased expression of p-ERK, p-MEK, p-STAT3 and STAT3 upon CCT196969 treatment. Furthermore, CCT196969 inhibited viability in two B Raf Proto-Oncogene (BRAF) inhibitor resistant metastatic melanoma cell lines. Further in vivo studies should be performed to determine the treatment potential of CCT196969 in patients with treatment-naïve and resistant melanoma brain metastasis. [less ▲]

Number transcoding in bilinguals—A transversal developmental study

in PLoS ONE (2022), 17(8), 0273391

Number transcoding is the cognitive task of converting between different numerical codes (i.e. visual “42”, verbal “forty-two”). Visual symbolic to verbal transcoding and vice versa strongly relies on ... [more ▼]

Number transcoding is the cognitive task of converting between different numerical codes (i.e. visual “42”, verbal “forty-two”). Visual symbolic to verbal transcoding and vice versa strongly relies on language proficiency. We evaluated transcoding of German-French bilinguals from Luxembourg in 5th, 8th, 11th graders and adults. In the Luxembourgish educational system, children acquire mathematics in German (LM1) until the 7th grade, and then the language of learning mathematic switches to French (LM2). French `70s `80s `90s are less transparent than `30s `40s `50s numbers, since they have a base-20 structure, which is not the case in German. Transcoding was evaluated with a reading aloud and a verbal-visual number matching task. Results of both tasks show a cognitive cost for transcoding numbers having a base-20 structure (i.e. `70s, `80s and `90s), such that response times were slower in all age groups. Furthermore, considering only base-10 numbers (i.e. `30s `40s `50s), it appeared that transcoding in LM2 (French) also entailed a cost. While participants across age groups tended to read numbers slower in LM2, this effect was limited to the youngest age group in the matching task. In addition, participants made more errors when reading LM2 numbers. In conclusion, we observed an age-independent language effect with numbers having a base-20 structure in French, reflecting their reduced transparency with respect to the decimal system. Moreover, we find an effect of language of math acquisition such that transcoding is less well mastered in LM2. This effect tended to persist until adulthood in the reading aloud task, while in the matching task performance both languages become similar in older adolescents and young adults. This study supports the link between numbers and language, especially highlighting the impact of language on reading numbers aloud from childhood to adulthood. [less ▲]

Potential of phenothiazines to synergistically block calmodulin and reactivate PP2A in cancer cells

in PLoS ONE (2022)

From communities to protein complexes: A local community detection algorithm on PPI networks

in PLoS ONE (2022), 17(1), 1-17

Subjective age, worry and risk-related perceptions in older adults in times of a pandemic

in PLoS ONE (2022), 17(9), 0274293

During the Covid-19 pandemic, older people have been in the spotlight of the public debate. Given their higher risk of severe outcomes of the disease, they have been described as especially vulnerable and ... [more ▼]

During the Covid-19 pandemic, older people have been in the spotlight of the public debate. Given their higher risk of severe outcomes of the disease, they have been described as especially vulnerable and as a burden to others and society. We thus wanted to investigate how older people’s perception of their own age, that is their subjective age, as well as their Covid-19 related risks and worries were related during the pandemic and whether these relationships varied according to participants’ subjective health. We used data from the longitudinal CRISIS study which was conducted in the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg in June and October 2020. Participants were aged 60–98 and responded on questionnaires regarding their subjective age, worry of falling ill with Covid-19, perceived risk of contracting the virus, perceived risk of falling seriously ill if they contracted Covid-19, as well as their subjective health and covariates. Three cross-lagged panel models were constructed to explore the longitudinal, bidirectional relationships between the variables. Cross-sectionally, a higher subjective age was related to more perceived risk of a serious course of disease. Longitudinally, subjective age and worry did not show any significant association over time, and neither did subjective age and perceived risk of contracting the virus. However, subjective health significantly moderated the relationship of worry and subjective age, showing different trajectories in the relationship depending on whether subjective health was good or bad. Higher perceived risk of falling seriously ill increased subjective age over time. Again, subjective health moderated this relationship: the perceived risk of falling seriously ill affected subjective age only for those with better subjective health. Our findings show the interactive relationship between subjective age and Covid-19 related cognitions and emotions and provide guidance for identifying older people that are most susceptible for negative age-related communication during the pandemic. [less ▲]

Digital twinning of Cellular Capsule Technology: emerging outcomes from the perspective of porous media mechanics

in PLoS ONE (2021)

Spheroids encapsulated within alginate capsules are emerging as suitable in vitro tools to investigate the impact of mechanical forces on tumor growth since the internal tumor pressure can be retrieved ... [more ▼]

Spheroids encapsulated within alginate capsules are emerging as suitable in vitro tools to investigate the impact of mechanical forces on tumor growth since the internal tumor pressure can be retrieved from the deformation of the capsule. Here we focus on the particular case of Cellular Capsule Technology (CCT). We show in this contribution that a modeling approach accounting for the triphasic nature of the spheroid (extracellular matrix, tumor cells and interstitial fluid) offers a new perspective of analysis revealing that the pressure retrieved experimentally cannot be interpreted as a direct picture of the pressure sustained by the tumor cells and, as such, cannot therefore be used to quantify the critical pressure which induces stress-induced phenotype switch in tumor cells. The proposed multiphase reactive poro-mechanical model was cross-validated. Parameter sensitivity analyses on the digital twin revealed that the main parameters determining the encapsulated growth configuration are different from those driving growth in free condition, confirming that radically different phenomena are at play. Results reported in this contribution support the idea that multiphase reactive poro-mechanics is an exceptional theoretical framework to attain an in-depth understanding of CCT experiments, to confirm their hypotheses and to further improve their design. We show in this contribution that a modeling approach accounting for the triphasic nature of the spheroid (extracellular matrix, tumor cells and interstitial fluid) offers a new perspective of analysis revealing that the pressure retrieved experimentally cannot be interpreted as a direct picture of the pressure sustained by the tumor cells and, as such, cannot therefore be used to quantify the critical pressure which induces stress-induced phenotype switch in tumour cells. The proposed multiphase reactive poro-mechanical model was cross-validated. Parameter sensitivity analyses on the digital twin revealed that the main parameters determining the encapsulated growth configuration are different from those driving growth in free condition, confirming that radically different phenomena are at play.Results reported in this contribution support the idea that multiphase reactive poro-mechanics is an exceptional theoretical framework to attain an in-depth understanding of CCT experiments, to confirm their hypotheses and to further improve their design. [less ▲]

Latent Dirichlet Allocation Models for World Trade Analysis

in PLoS ONE (2021), 16(2), 0245393

The international trade is one of the classic areas of study in economics. Nowadays, given the availability of data, the tools used for the analysis can be complemented and enriched with new methodologies ... [more ▼]

The international trade is one of the classic areas of study in economics. Nowadays, given the availability of data, the tools used for the analysis can be complemented and enriched with new methodologies and techniques that go beyond the traditional approach. The present paper shows the application of the Latent Dirichlet Allocation Models, a well known technique from the area of Natural Language Processing, to search for latent dimensions in the product space of international trade, and their distribution across countries over time. We apply this technique to a dataset of countries' exports of goods from 1962 to 2016. The findings show the possibility to generate higher level classifications of goods based on the empirical evidence, and also allow to study the distribution of those classifications within countries. The latter show interesting insights about countries' trade specialisation. [less ▲]

Social representations and interface layout: A new way of enhancing persuasive technology applied to organ donation

in PLoS ONE (2020)

Although campaigns promoting organ donation have proved their effectiveness, increasing the number of people who explicitly agree to become donors is still difficult. Based on the social marketing notion ... [more ▼]

Although campaigns promoting organ donation have proved their effectiveness, increasing the number of people who explicitly agree to become donors is still difficult. Based on the social marketing notion of persuasive technology, we reasoned that it was timely to focus on the design of this persuasive technology and to analyze its contribution in particularly challenging contexts such as organ donation. More specifically, the originality of the present study lay in the way we linked the field of persuasive technology to the theory of social representations, and combined them with an analysis of the ergonomic aspects of interface layout. This study had two complementary goals. The first was to determine whether the sociocognitive salience of the central elements of social representations (i.e., the most frequent and important themes related to the subject—here, organ donation—for individuals), can be used to achieve persuasive outcomes. The second was to determine whether interface layout, in terms of information location and background characteristics (color and contrast), can strengthen the persuasive impact. University students (N > 200) were exposed to a computer screen displaying a message involving either central or peripheral elements of the social representations of organ donation (status), placed either in the middle or on one side of the screen (location), and shown against either a white or a blue background (background). Eye-tracking data were recorded, in addition to self-reported data. In line with the elaboration likelihood model, results showed that participants who were exposed to central (vs. peripheral) elements of the social representations of organ donation followed the central route in processing information. Moreover, they had stronger attitudes, and more of them stated that they were actual organ donors. Importantly, however, at least for some variables, these status-related effects were not independent of the interface layout. More specifically, the persuasive impact of the central elements was enhanced when the information was displayed in the middle (vs. the side) of the screen and when it was displayed on a white (vs. blue) background. We discuss the theoretical and practical issues raised by these results. [less ▲]