Ironic and overcompensating processes under avoidance instructions in motor tasks: An attention imbalance model with golf-putting evidence.

Thought-suppression research showed, when asked to suppress a given thought (e.g., a white bear), people ironically report thinking more of the suppressed thought. Testing motor performance given avoidance goals (e.g., avoid putting the ball short of the target in golf) represents an interest to transfer thought-suppression findings to motor tasks. However, instead of revealing an ironic process, motor studies showed mixed results, suggesting a coexistence of ironic and overcompensating processes. The present study investigates the coexistence of ironic and overcompensating processes induced by avoidance goals in motor tasks. Adopting a dual-process framework, an attention imbalance model (AIM) was proposed to conceptualize such a coexistence. Four golf-putting experiments were conducted to test the AIM by manipulating the degree of attentional imbalance. Results indicated the factor of attentional imbalance moderates the likelihood between ironic and overcompensating processes in golf putting, and such a moderating effect exists in both between- and within-individual variation of task performance but demands task-specific considerations. In addition, performance feedback confounded the putting performance by reducing the likelihood of overcompensating process. The implications of the AIM are discussed in an extended context of motor performance under avoidance goals and thought suppression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Well-differentiated inflammatory liposarcoma with metastasis in a 6-y-old cat.

Liposarcomas are rare malignant tumors showing adipocytic differentiation. We report a well-differentiated liposarcoma in a 6-y-old, male neutered cat with a prominent inflammatory component and metastatic spread to the lungs. The patient was initially presented because of fever, lethargy, and a firm subcutaneous inguinal mass. A Tru-cut biopsy of the mass revealed a mixture of well-differentiated adipocytes and lymphoplasmacytic-histiocytic inflammation, interpreted as panniculitis. The mass was surgically excised but recurred 4 mo later. A second excisional biopsy yielded similar histologic findings. A third recurrence of the mass was associated with lung nodules. Histopathology of the recurring and metastatic masses confirmed the diagnosis of well-differentiated inflammatory liposarcoma with pulmonary metastases. The neoplasm had an intense inflammatory component, which obscured the underlying features of liposarcoma and made differentiation from steatitis difficult. This inflammatory variant of a well-differentiated liposarcoma should be considered as a differential in tumorous steatitis-like lesions.

Prospective study evaluating the incidence of bacteraemia and bacteruria in afebrile and febrile neutropaenic dogs undergoing chemotherapy.

The purpose of this prospective study was to determine the incidence and character of bacteraemia and bacteruria in afebrile and febrile neutropaenic dogs undergoing cytotoxic chemotherapy. Fifty-five neutropaenic dogs presenting to the University of Wisconsin Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital were enrolled for a total of 57 neutropaenic episodes. The overall incidence of bacteraemia was 12.3% (n = 7/57). Three afebrile dogs and four febrile dogs were bacteraemic; this difference was not significant (P = 0.6968). The overall incidence of bacteruria was 7.5% (n = 4/53). Two afebrile dogs and two febrile dogs were bacteruric; this difference was not significant (P = 1.0). Of the positive blood cultures, the majority of organisms cultured (n = 6/7) were gram-positive organisms with one gram-negative organism. Three of the positive blood cultures showed in vitro resistance to more than one antimicrobial agent. Clinical parameters (age, body weight, heart rate, rectal temperature, neutrophil count, haematocrit and platelet count) were not predictive of bacteraemia. The results of this study were not sufficient to justify the use of blood cultures as a first-line diagnostic test for neutropaenic patients. Blood cultures may have utility in individual case management for a minority of patients in guiding antibiotic choice in the case of resistant bacterial infections. Blood cultures may serve as a tool for antimicrobial de-escalation, although further study is needed.

How locusts breathe.

Insect tracheal-respiratory systems achieve high fluxes and great dynamic range with low energy requirements and could be important models for bioengineers interested in developing microfluidic systems. Recent advances suggest that insect cardiorespiratory systems have functional valves that permit compartmentalization with segment-specific pressures and flows and that system anatomy allows regional flows. Convection dominates over diffusion as a transport mechanism in the major tracheae, but Reynolds numbers suggest viscous effects remain important.

Evolution of cold-tolerant fungal symbionts permits winter fungiculture by leafcutter ants at the northern frontier of a tropical ant-fungus symbiosis.

The obligate mutualism between leafcutter ants and their Attamyces fungi originated 8 to 12 million years ago in the tropics, but extends today also into temperate regions in South and North America. The northernmost leafcutter ant Atta texana sustains fungiculture during winter temperatures that would harm the cold-sensitive Attamyces cultivars of tropical leafcutter ants. Cold-tolerance of Attamyces cultivars increases with winter harshness along a south-to-north temperature gradient across the range of A. texana, indicating selection for cold-tolerant Attamyces variants along the temperature cline. Ecological niche modeling corroborates winter temperature as a key range-limiting factor impeding northward expansion of A. texana. The northernmost A. texana populations are able to sustain fungiculture throughout winter because of their cold-adapted fungi and because of seasonal, vertical garden relocation (maintaining gardens deep in the ground in winter to protect them from extreme cold, then moving gardens to warmer, shallow depths in spring). Although the origin of leafcutter fungiculture was an evolutionary breakthrough that revolutionized the food niche of tropical fungus-growing ants, the original adaptations of this host-microbe symbiosis to tropical temperatures and the dependence on cold-sensitive fungal symbionts eventually constrained expansion into temperate habitats. Evolution of cold-tolerant fungi within the symbiosis relaxed constraints on winter fungiculture at the northern frontier of the leafcutter ant distribution, thereby expanding the ecological niche of an obligate host-microbe symbiosis.