Faces are categorized by gender and race very quickly, seemingly without regard to perceivers’ goals or motivations, suggesting an automaticity to these judgments that has downstream consequences for evaluations, stereotypes, and social interactions. The current study investigated the extent to which early neurocognitive processes involved in the categorization of faces vary when participants’ tasks goals were to categorize faces by race or by gender. In contrast to previous findings, task-related differences were found, such that differentiation in the P2 event-related potential (ERP) according to perceived gender was facilitated by having an explicit task goal of categorizing faces by gender; however, the P2 was sensitive to race regardless of task goals. Use of principal components analysis (PCA) revealed two underlying components that comprised the P2 and that were differentially sensitive to the gender and race of the faces, depending on participants’ top-down task goals. Results suggest that top-down task demands facilitate discrimination of faces along the attended dimension within less than 200 ms, but that the effect of top-down task demands may not be evident when examining early ERP components that reflect more than one distinct underlying process.NEHA strives to provide up-to-date and relevant information on environmental health and to build partnerships in the profession. In pursuit of these goals, we feature this column on environmental health services from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in every issue of the Journal. In these columns, authors from CDC’s Water, Food, and Environmental Health Services Branch, as well as guest authors, will share insights and information about environmental health programs, trends, issues, and resources. The conclusions in these columns are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position of CDC. Vivi Siegel is the crisis and emergency risk communication lead for CDC’s Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice in the National Center for Environmental Health.This research addresses the intersection of two key domains of adolescents’ lives religion and peer networks. Religion scholars argue that religion is multi-faceted and better understood by focusing on combinations of indicators (i.e. mosaics), versus a variable-centered approach. We adopt this framework and investigate the interplay between religion and peer networks, both in how religious mosaics are shaped by friends and how religious profiles affect friend selection dynamics. With data from two schools in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we estimate religious mosaics using latent class analysis (LCA) to identify profiles consisting of combinations of commonly available survey-based measures of religious attitudes, behaviors, and identities. Finding evidence of theoretically-expected profiles, we then use stochastic actor based models (SABMs) to investigate network dynamics for these LCA-based religious profiles. We demonstrate how the profile data can be integrated within the SABM framework to evaluate processes of friend selection and influence. Results show evidence of adolescents influencing one another’s religious mosaics, but not selecting friends on that basis.Structural transitions in some rod-like biological macromolecules under tension are known to proceed by the propagation through the length of the molecule of an interface separating two phases. A continuum mechanical description of the motion of this interface, or phase boundary, takes the form of a kinetic law which relates the thermodynamic driving force across it with its velocity in the reference configuration. For biological macromolecules immersed in a heat bath, thermally activated kinetics described by the Arrhenius law is often a good choice. Here we show that 'stick-slip’ kinetics, characteristic of friction, can also arise in an overdamped bistable bar immersed in a heat bath. To mimic a rod-like biomolecule we model the bar as a chain of masses and bistable springs moving in a viscous fluid. We conduct Langevin dynamics calculations on the chain and extract a temperature dependent kinetic relation by observing that the dissipation at a phase boundary can be estimated by performing an energy balance. Using this kinetic relation we solve boundary value problems for a bistable bar immersed in a constant temperature bath and show that the resultant force-extension relation matches very well with the Langevin dynamics results. We estimate the force fluctuations at the pulled end of the bar due to thermal kicks from the bath by using a partition function. We also show rate dependence of hysteresis in cyclic loading of the bar arising from the stick-slip kinetics. Our kinetic relation could be applied to rod-like biomolecules, such as, DNA and coiled-coil proteins which exhibit structural transitions that depend on both temperature and loading rate.Uncontrolled hypertension is a major risk factor for myriad cardiovascular diseases. Among its many effects, hypertension increases central artery stiffness which in turn is both an initiator and indicator of disease. Despite extensive clinical, animal, and basic science studies, the biochemomechanical mechanisms by which hypertension drives aortic stiffening remain unclear. In this paper, we show that a new computational model of aortic growth and remodeling can capture differential effects of induced hypertension on the thoracic and abdominal aorta in a common mouse model of disease. Because the simulations treat the aortic wall as a constrained mixture of different constituents having different material properties and rates of turnover, one can gain increased insight into underlying constituent-level mechanisms of aortic remodeling. Model results suggest that the aorta can mechano-adapt locally to blood pressure elevation in the absence of marked inflammation, but large increases in inflammation drive a persistent maladaptive phenotype characterized primarily by adventitial fibrosis. Moreover, this fibrosis appears to occur via a marked increase in the rate of deposition of collagen having different material properties in the absence of a compensatory increase in the rate of matrix degradation. Controlling inflammation thus appears to be key to reducing fibrosis, but therapeutic strategies should not compromise the proteolytic activity of the wall that is essential to mechanical homeostasis.This paper presents a comprehensive review of the far-field-based methodology of estimation of the effective properties of multi-phase composites that was pioneered by Maxwell in 1873 in the context of effective electrical conductivity of a particle-reinforced material. Maxwell suggested that a cluster of particles embedded in an infinite medium subjected to a uniform electrical field has the same far-field asymptotic as an equivalent sphere whose conductivity is equal to the effective one; this yields closed-form formula for the effective conductivity. Our review focuses on subsequent developments of Maxwell’s idea in various applications and on its range of applicability. The conclusion is that, 145 years later, the methodology is still alive and well.The reaction between the antimalarial drug artesunate (ATS) and ferriprotoporphyrin_(IX) (FPIX) in the presence of glutathione (GSH) has been monitored by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. By following the disappearance of resonances of protons near the endoperoxide group in ATS, the rate at which the drug is activated can be directly measured. In an aqueous medium, the rate of ATS activation is limited by the rate of reduction of the FPIX Fe(III) center by GSH. The reaction is observed to slow dramatically in the presence of other heme binding antimalarial drugs. These findings explain the long observed antagonism between artemisinin derivatives and quinoline-based drugs. This discovery suggests that combination therapy that involves artemisinin or any of its derivatives and a quinoline-based drug may be compromised.Scleromyxedema is an uncommon disease, affecting the skin mainly and other internal organs sometimes, characterized by fibroblasts proliferation, fibrosis, and mucous deposition in the absence of thyroid disorder. It is associated with monoclonal gammopathy in most cases. We are reporting a case with a rare presentation of tumoral scleromyxedema in the neck, with a mass mimicking other tumoral lesions, highlighting the importance of diagnosis and histopathologic correlation.Secondary syphilis represents a diagnostic challenge due to its varied clinical manifestations. Co-infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) adds to the diversity of the clinical presentation of syphilis. We herein report a case of secondary syphilis as an arthropod bite-like eruption in a previously undiagnosed HIV-coinfected patient. A 24-year-old homosexual male presented with multiple corticosteroid-resistant insect bite-like nodules on his trunk and bilateral arms. Skin biopsy disclosed plasma cell infiltration and positive Treponema pallidum staining. His symptoms got dramatic remission after benzathine penicillin G therapy. The presented case extends the clinical spectrum of secondary syphilis in HIV patient.Crusted scabies is a rare and extremely contagious infestation by Sarcoptes scabiei. Kaposi’s varicelliform eruption (KVE) refers to herpes simplex virus infection superimposed on pre-existing dermatosis such as atopic dermatitis, Darier’s disease, and pemphigus. We report a case of KVE superimposed on crusted scabies in a middle-aged woman. Her condition was complicated with sepsis. She was treated with IV meropenem, vancomycin, and acyclovir and was released 2 weeks later in good condition. To our knowledge, only rare cases of crusted scabies complicated by KVE have been reported.Lack of pain sensation in children involves a rare group of heritable disorders; hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy (HSAN). Till date, eight types of HSAN have been described depending on the clinical phenotype and the underlying gene mutation. We report a new variant of HSAN (Type IX) in two siblings (of Indian origin) with a novel mutation of SCN11A gene and a distinct clinical phenotype.A 30-year-old female patient presented with progressive reticulate pigmentation of the neck, upper chest, back, cubital fossa, and axillae since the age of 15 years. The patient also complained of recurrent multiple tender nodules and plaques associated with sinuses and pus discharge over the axillae, groins, and buttocks which healed with scarring for 4 years. There were multiple pitted scars and hyperpigmented macules over the perioral area and cheeks. Scattered comedo-like lesions were present over the upper back, chest, cubital fossae, and buttocks. Histopathology from the pigmented lesion revealed thinning of the suprapapillary epidermis, epidermal hyperplasia with finger-like elongation of the rete ridges, and increased pigmentation of their lower part, suggestive of Dowling-Degos disease (DDD). Biopsy section from comedonal lesion showed dilated infundibulum and antler-like rete ridges suggestive of follicular DDD. We report a case of DDD with follicular involvement and hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) which is a rare association and can be explained on the basis of single underlying defect in follicular epithelial proliferation.