Distinct contributions of Brodmann areas 1 and 2 to body ownership.

Although body ownership-i.e. the feeling that our bodies belong to us-modulates activity within the primary somatosensory cortex (S1), it is still unknown whether this modulation occurs within a somatotopically defined portion of S1. We induced an illusory feeling of ownership for another person's finger by asking participants to hold their palm against another person's palm and to stroke the two joined index fingers with the index and thumb of their other hand. This illusion (numbness illusion) does not occur if the stroking is performed asynchronously or by the other person. We combined this somatosensory paradigm with ultra-high field functional magnetic resonance imaging finger mapping to study whether illusory body ownership modulates activity within different finger-specific areas of S1. The results revealed that the numbness illusion is associated with activity in Brodmann area (BA) 1 within the representation of the finger stroking the other person's finger and in BA 2 contralateral to the stroked finger. These results show that changes in bodily experience modulate the activity within certain subregions of S1, with a different finger-topographical selectivity between the representations of the stroking and of the stroked hand, and reveal that the high degree of somatosensory specialization in S1 extends to bodily self-consciousness.

On the use of an appropriate TdT-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labeling assay to identify apoptotic cells.

Apoptosis is an essential cellular mechanism involved in many processes such as embryogenesis, metamorphosis, and tissue homeostasis. DNA fragmentation is one of the key markers of this form of cell death. DNA fragmentation is executed by endogenous endonucleases such as caspase-activated DNase (CAD) in caspase-dependent apoptosis. The TUNEL (TdT-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labeling) technique is the most widely used method to identify apoptotic cells in a tissue or culture and to assess drug toxicity. It is based on the detection of 3'-OH termini that are labeled with dUTP by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase. Although the test is very reliable and sensitive in caspase-dependent apoptosis, it is completely useless when cell death is mediated by pathways involving DNA degradation that generates 3'-P ends as in the LEI/L-DNase II pathway. Here, we propose a modification in the TUNEL protocol consisting of a dephosphorylation step prior to the TUNEL labeling. This allows the detection of both types of DNA breaks induced during apoptosis caspase-dependent and independent pathways, avoiding underestimating the cell death induced by the treatment of interest.

Managing the crises : how did local governments react to the financial crisis in 2008 and what explains the differences ? The case of Swiss municipalities

Swiss municipalities are, to a large extent, responsible for their financial resources. Since these resources primarily depend on income and property taxes from individuals and enterprises, municipality budgets are likely to be directly affected by the current crisis in the financial sector and the economy. This article investigates how municipalities perceived this threat and how they reacted to it. In a nationwide survey conducted at the end of 2009 in all 2596 Swiss municipalities, we asked local secretaries which measures had been launched in order to cope with expected losses in tax income and a possible increase in welfare spending. Did the municipalities rely on Keynesian measures increasing public spending and accepting greater deficits, or did they try to avoid further deficits by using austerity measures and a withdrawal of planned investments? Our results show that only a few municipalities - mainly the bigger ones - expected to be greatly affected by the crisis. Their reactions, however, did not reveal any clear patterns that theory would lead one to expect. Preferences for austerity measures and deficit spending become visible but many municipalities took measures from both theories. The strongest explanatory factors for determining how/why municipalities react are: the municipality's level of affectedness followed by whether or not the municipality belongs to the French-speaking part of the country. Size also has an impact, whereas the strength of the Social Democrat party is negligible. Explaining what kind of measures municipalities are likely to take is more difficult. However, the more a municipality is affected, the more likely it is to stick to austerity measures.