Individuals defend and rationalize social systems in order to maintain the belief that the world in which they live is fair and good. This justification often involves seeing intergroup inequality as legitimate and holding negative attitudes toward lower status groups. Although research on system justification is plentiful, the effects of perceived threat to the system on intergroup interaction behavior and dynamics have remained unexamined. With ethnic diversity increasing in North America, it is imperative that we understand the factors that promote more positive (and negative) intergroup interactions. Across three studies I examined individuals’ reactions to system threatening information versus low threat in the context of an intragroup or intergroup interaction. In general, priming dominant group members with system threat (versus low threat) led to less negative intergroup interaction behavior. Specifically, being primed with system unfairness led dominant group members in Study 1 to express more positive other-directed remarks during a written exchange with an ostensible outgroup member. Study 2, conducted with a different minority group than Study 1, found that dominant group members feel more guilt when interacting with minority group members versus members of their own group in the face of system threat. Finally, a face-to-face intergroup interaction study replicated the positive behavioral effects of salient system threat found in Study 1, this time manifest in increased nonverbal friendliness and self-disclosure for both pair members. These findings suggest that system threat instantiated in an interaction setting leads dominant group members toward exhibiting more positive behavior to minority group members that benefits both parties involved, rather than toward derogation. Implications for social change initiatives are discussed.

Influenza A virus is well known for its severe clinical consequences. Structurally, this virus is made up of a lipid bilayer embedded with HA, NA and M2 proteins and a core containing eight viral ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes. In a typical RNP complex, the nucleoprotein binds with RNA in a non specific manner. The nucleoprotein plays a vital role in transcription, replication, and packaging of RNA during infection. This study aims that NP of A/PR/8/34(H1N1) virus and A/NY/55/2004(H3N2) virus interact with different host proteins depending on cell lines and virus strains. Monoclonal antibodies targeting the nucleoprotein of these viruses have been used for immunoprecipitation and the interacting proteins were identified by mass spectrometry. Tow proteins from the cytoplasm (elongation factor 1 sigma, and Mov10 protein) and 3 proteins from the nucleus (heat shock protein70, hnRNP K protein, and anti alpha actinin 4) were found in all the viral infected cells, and were chosen for validation study. This study will help to understand the virus-host interactions in a better way and may open the gateway for the synthesis of new antiviral drugs which can block these interactions, hence controlling the infection.

The BTB domain is a well-conserved protein-protein interaction motif. There are 43 BTB-ZF transcription factors in the human proteome. Many of these transcription factors play crucial roles in cancer and developmental processes. The purpose of this project is to identify lists of interactors of the BTB domains of six BTB-ZF proteins with high confidence using a mass spectrometry based approach. The BTB domains BCL6, PLZF, Kaiso, LRF, FAZF, and Miz1 were studied. This study was able to identify 142 putative interactors. The list of putative interactor proteins participates in a wide array of biological functions. Selected putative interactors of the BCL6BTB were also validated using biochemical techniques. In conclusion, this project was able to provide an analysis of the protein-protein interactions mediated by the BTB domains of six BTB-ZF transcription factors. The information generated is valuable to guide future functional and structural studies of the BTB domains.

The BTB domain is a well-conserved protein-protein interaction motif. There are 43 BTB-ZF transcription factors in the human proteome. Many of these transcription factors play crucial roles in cancer and developmental processes. The purpose of this project is to identify lists of interactors of the BTB domains of six BTB-ZF proteins with high confidence using a mass spectrometry based approach. The BTB domains BCL6, PLZF, Kaiso, LRF, FAZF, and Miz1 were studied. This study was able to identify 142 putative interactors. The list of putative interactor proteins participates in a wide array of biological functions. Selected putative interactors of the BCL6BTB were also validated using biochemical techniques. In conclusion, this project was able to provide an analysis of the protein-protein interactions mediated by the BTB domains of six BTB-ZF transcription factors. The information generated is valuable to guide future functional and structural studies of the BTB domains.

No description available.

In designing and evaluating human-robot interactions and interfaces, researchers often use simulated robots because of the high cost of physical robots and time required to program them. However, it is important to consider how interaction with a simulated robot differs from a real robot; that is, do simulated robots provide authentic interaction? We contribute to a growing body of work that explores this question and maps out simulated-versus-real differences, by explicitly investigating empathy: how people empathize with a physical or simulated robot when something bad happens to it. Empathy is particularly relevant to social human-robot interaction (HRI) and is integral to, e.g., companion and care robots. To explore our question, we develop a convincing HRI scenario that induces people’s empathy toward a robot, and explore psychology work for an empathy-measuring instrument. To formally evaluate our scenario and the empathy-measuring instrument in HRI scenario, we conduct a comparative user study: in one condition, participants have the scenario which induces empathy, and for the other condition, we remove any empathy inducing activities of the robot. With the validated scenario and empathy measuring instrument, we conduct another user study to explore the difference between a real and a simulated robot in terms of people’s empathic response. Our results suggest that people empathize more with a physical robot than a simulated one, a finding that has important implications on the generalizability and applicability of simulated HRI work. As part of our exploration, we additionally present an original and reproducible HRI experimental design to induce empathy toward robots, and experimentally validated an empathy-measuring instrument from psychology for use with HRI.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.