Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Unmodified and pyroglutamylated amyloid β peptides form hypertoxic hetero‐oligomers of unique secondary structure

Amyloid β (Aβ) peptide plays a major role in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and occurs in multiple forms, including pyroglutamylated Aβ (AβpE). Identification and characterization of the most cytotoxic Aβ species is necessary for advancement in AD diagnostics and therapeutics. While in brain tissue multiple Aβ species act in combination, structure/toxicity studies and immunotherapy trials have been focused on individual forms of Aβ. As a result, the molecular composition and the structural features of “toxic Aβ oligomers” have remained unresolved. Here, we have used a novel approach, hydration from gas phase coupled with isotope‐edited Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, to identify the prefibrillar assemblies formed by Aβ and AβpE and to resolve the structures of both peptides in combination. The peptides form unusual β‐sheet oligomers stabilized by intramolecular H‐bonding as opposed to intermolecular H‐bonding in the fibrils. Time‐dependent morphological changes in peptide assemblies have been visualized by atomic force microscopy. Aβ/AβpE hetero‐oligomers exert unsurpassed cytotoxic effect on PC12 cells as compared to oligomers of individual peptides or fibrils. These findings lead to a novel concept that Aβ/AβpE hetero‐oligomers, not just Aβ or AβpE oligomers, constitute the main neurotoxic conformation. The hetero‐oligomers thus present a new biomarker that may be targeted for development of more efficient diagnostic and immunotherapeutic strategies to combat AD.
Cognitive and Physiological Processes Underlying Written Disclosure

The aim of this research was to examine the underlying cognitive processes as well as the physiological outcomes of disclosing traumatic events. Epstein (1973, 1991, 1994, 1998) has argued the existence of two fundamental modes of cognitive processing: a rational mode that involves higher brain functioning and is reason-oriented, and an experiential mode that involves lower brain functioning and is pleasure-pain oriented. We examined the hypothesis that fact-based disclosure invokes rational processing while emotion-based disclosure invokes experiential processing by examining participants' physiological reactivity during as well as their behavior in a decision-making task following written disclosure. Based on previous findings suggesting that events involving high vs. low brain functioning involve different types of physiological activation (Berntson, Cacioppo, & Quigley, 1991), I proposed the following: First, emotion-based retelling would result in a uniform pattern of autonomic activity across subjects, marked by an increase in sympathetic (SNS) activity coupled with a decrease iIi parasympathetic (PNS) activity. Conversely, fact-based retelling would result in diverse SNS and PNS activity between subjects, including an increase in SNS activity with no change in PNS activity, and a decrease in PNS activity with no change in SNS activity. Second, emotion-based retelling would result in more nonoptimal than optimal choices in the decision-making task, while fact-based retelling would result in more optimal than nonoptimal choices in the task. Sixty undergraduates at a private, liberal arts university wrote about either a personally traumatic life event or a trivial topic for ten minutes and then participated in a decision-making task modeled after Epstein's ratio-bias (RB) paradigm. Impedance cardiography and a blood pressure cuffwere employed to examine
On Free Will and Evolution

The free will debate is concerned with answering two questions: (I) What is free will? (II) Do we have it? The first is a metaethical question about the meaning of the term “free will,” while the second is a metaphysical question about what exists. The debate over question I tends to focus on whether free will is consistent with universal causal determinism, the theory that there is only one possible future, a future necessitated by the past and laws of nature. Compatibilists believe free will is compatible with determinism; incompatibilists believe that free will requires indeterminism, or multiple possible futures. Incompatibilists who believe we have free will are libertarians, and those who believe we lack free will are hard incompatibilists. John Banja (2015) is a revisionist, a hard incompatibilist who believes that we ought to abandon the commonsense, indeterminist, conception of free will for a new definition compatible with our best scientific theories. Revisionists are concerned with answering a third question: (III) What should “free will” mean? This is an applied ethics question about what the term should mean. Revisionists argue that the meaning of the term should be changed to be more consistent with determinism because the scientific method assumes determinism. Revisionists are not compatibilists because compatibilists believe free will is already compatible with determinism; rather, revisionists believe that whatever new definition we adopt ought to be compatible with determinism. Banja contends that we ought to reject our current, libertarian conception of free will for one consistent with the bioevolutionary processes that humanity is a by-product of. There are two problems with this stance. First, Banja equivocates between indeterminism, the theory that there are multiple possible futures, and Cartesian dualism, Ren e Descartes’s ([1641] 1984) theory that there exist two fundamentally different kinds of substances—a physical world where our bodies reside, and a nonphysical world where our minds reside. Second, Banja mistakenly contends that our commonsense conception of free will has no evolutionary benefits. Here I argue that incompatibilist free will has clear evolutionary benefits, as does our belief in it. Banja describes libertarian free will as follows: A person possesses free will at time t only if she could have acted otherwise at t under identical conditions. This indeterminism is necessary, but not sufficient for libertarian free will. A complete metaethical account of free will must pick out how we actually use the term. Consider the following:
Age Differences in Attachment Orientations among Younger and Older Adults: Evidence from Two Self-Report Measures of Attachment

The attachment patterns of younger and older adults were studied using two-dimensional self-report measures of adult attachment. Community-dwelling younger (n = 144, M = 22.5 years, SD = 3.6) and older (n = 106, M = 68.6 years, SD = 8.3) adults completed the Measure of Attachment Qualities (MAQ; Carver, 1997) and the Relationship Style Questionnaire (RSQ; Griffin & Bartholomew, 1994). Although the MAQ and RSQ are believed to be measuring similar constructs, they are derived from different theoretical perspectives. Correlations between the two measures were in the expected directions proving modest evidence for their convergent validity. Regarding cross-sectional results, as was expected, older adults scored lower than younger adults on the ambivalent-worry attachment scale of the MAQ and the preoccupied attachment scale of the RSQ. There were no age differences regarding secure, avoidant, and dismissing attachment. It appears that older adults experience anxious types of attachment less frequently than younger adults. Although these results primarily speak to age differences and possible cohort effects, they also provide some support for socioemotional selectivity theory and its hypothesized improved relationships in later life.
MULTIDRUG RESISTANCE AND INTEGRONS IN ESCHERICHIA COLI ISOLATED FROM CHICKEN IN GREECE

Enteric faecal flora of food-producing animals such as poultry is a potential reservoir for antimicrobial resistance genes which can be transferred to human pathogens via the food chain. The present study investigated 47 strains of Enterobacteriaceae recovered from a variety of chicken specimens for their resistance to 18 antimicrobial agents and the presence of integrons, and analyzed the association between integrons and antimicrobial susceptibility. Multidrug resistance was found in 82.9% of the isolates. The presence of integrons was shown in 68.1% of the strains tested: 42.5% carried a class 1 integron, 10.6% carried a class 2 integron, and 14.9% had both class 1 and 2 integrons. An unusual cassette aacA4-catB3-dfrA1 was revealed in two class 1 integron-positive isolates. The association between the presence of an integron and multidrug resistance was significant (p<0.05). The mercury resistance gene, merA, was found in 44.4% of strains with class 1 integron, indicating the role of Tn21 transposon in dissemination of integrons within the samples studied. The study gives baseline information on the resistance problem and its genetic background in contemporary poultry Enterobacteriaceae in Greece, and suggest the need for the introduction of surveillance programs to monitor antimicrobial resistance that can be potentially transmitted to humans.
CONSTANT-Q TRANSFORM TOOLBOX FOR MUSIC PROCESSING

This paper proposes a computationally efficient method for computing the constant-Q transform (CQT) of a timedomain signal. CQT refers to a time-frequency representation where the frequency bins are geometrically spaced and the Q-factors (ratios of the center frequencies to bandwidths) of all bins are equal. An inverse transform is proposed which enables a reasonable-quality (around 55dB signal-to-noise ratio) reconstruction of the original signal from its CQT coefficients. Here CQTs with high Q-factors, equivalent to 12–96 bins per octave, are of particular interest. The proposed method is flexible with regard to the number of bins per octave, the applied window function, and the Q-factor, and is particularly suitable for the analysis of music signals. A reference implementation of the proposed methods is published as a Matlab toolbox. The toolbox includes user-interface tools that facilitate spectral data visualization and the indexing and working with the data structure produced by the CQT.
Justifying Electronic Banking Network Expansion Using Real Options Analysis

The application of real options analysis to information technology investment evaluation problems recently has been proposed in the IS literature (Chalasani et al. 1997; Dos Santos 1991; Kambil et al. 1993; Kumar 1996; Taudes 1998). The research reported on in this paper illustrates the value of applying real options analysis in the context of a case study involving the deployment of point-of-sale (POS) debit services by the Yankee 24 shared electronic banking network of New England. In the course of so doing, the paper also attempts to operationalize real options analysis concepts by examining claimed strengths of this analysis approach and balancing them against methodological difficulties that this approach is believed to involve. The research employs a version of the Black-Scholes option pricing model that is adjusted for risk-averse investors, showing how it is possible to obtain reliable values for Yankee 24's "investment timing option," even in the absence of a market to price it. To gather evidence for the existence of the timing option, basic scenario assumptions, and the parameters of the adjusted Black-Scholes model, a structured interview format was developed. The results obtained using real options analysis enabled the network's senior management to identify conditions for which entry into the POS debit market would be profitable. These results also indicated that, in the absence of formal evaluation of the timing option, traditional approaches for evaluating information technology investments would have produced the wrong recommendations.
Seamless Mosaicing of Image-Based Texture Maps

Image-based object modeling has emerged as an important computer vision application. Typically, the process starts with the acquisition of the image views of an object. These views are registered within the global coordinate system using structure-and-motion techniques, while on the next step the geometric shape of an object is recovered using stereo and/or silhouette cues. This paper considers the final step, which creates the texture map for the recovered geometry model. The approach proposed in the paper naturally starts by backprojecting original views onto the obtained surface. A texture is then mosaiced from these back projections, whereas the quality of the mosaic is maximized within the process of Markov random field energy optimization. Finally, the residual seams between the mosaic components are removed via seam levelling procedure, which is similar to gradient-domain stitching techniques recently proposed for image editing. Unlike previous approaches to the same problem, intensity blending as well as image resampling are avoided on all stages of the process, which ensures that the resolution of the produced texture is essentially the same as that of the original views. Importantly, due to restriction to non-greedy energy optimization techniques, good results are produced even in the presence of significant errors on image registration and geometric estimation steps.
The role of Religious behaviors in health promotion of Iranian Elderly women: (A qualitative study)

Background and Purpose:Aging is defined as a progressive functional impairment due to reduction in adaptive response to the stress and associated with the risk of developing age-related diseases. An elderly is need of religious methods in order to face the changes and tensions of the life. There are few studies in areaof religious belief and health promotion. The aim of present study was to explore the use of religious behaviors toward health improving in Iranian elderly women. Method:This study was done by a qualitative approach. There were 25 elderly women participants. Totally, data of 25 interviews and observations were analyzed. Alongside the data collection, analysis was achieved through continuous text revision, observation and infield notes. Data were analyzed by Graneheim and Lundman’s content analysis method. Results:According to the findings, totally 625 of the codes appeared about religious strategies for health promotion by elders. By reduction and abstraction of the codes two main themes appeared that were problem focused prayer and emotional focused prayer. Three subcategories constituted problem focused prayer theme that were problem solving, spending leisure times and confrontation. Subcategory of emotional focused prayer was self-control. Each subcategory was formed by more subclasses. Conclusion:According to our findings about the role of Religious practices in health promotion in Iranian Elderly women and by understanding the elderly women needs and their religious behaviors, health-care providers can provide educational preventive measurements in order to improve health promotion of older women.
CITY BRAND PERSONALITY – AN INTERNATIONAL CONCEPT WITH REGIONAL APPLIANCE IN THE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

The personality of a city is an important concept to be created and evaluated by local administrators as this should be part of the touristic strategic approach. The aim of this paper is to create a research instrument that allows researchers to define the brand personality of a Romanian city. In order to use one instrument in a specific geographical area, the instrument has to be created using a qualitative research. Three focus groups were conducted in order to identify items to create the research instrument which is presented at the end of the paper. This research is a preliminary step for a future quantitative research that is intended to measure the city brand personality of the city of Iasi. The created instrument can be applied to any Romanian city.
Traffic Speed Prediction and Congestion Source Exploration: A Deep Learning Method

Traffic speed prediction is a long-standing and critically important topic in the area of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Recent years have witnessed the encouraging potentials of deep neural networks for real-life applications of various domains. Traffic speed prediction, however, is still in its initial stage without making full use of spatio-temporal traffic information. In light of this, in this paper, we propose a deep learning method with an Error-feedback Recurrent Convolutional Neural Network structure (eRCNN) for continuous traffic speed prediction. By integrating the spatio-temporal traffic speeds of contiguous road segments as an input matrix, eRCNN explicitly leverages the implicit correlations among nearby segments to improve the predictive accuracy. By further introducing separate error feedback neurons to the recurrent layer, eRCNN learns from prediction errors so as to meet predictive challenges rising from abrupt traffic events such as morning peaks and traffic accidents. Extensive experiments on real-life speed data of taxis running on the 2nd and 3rd ring roads of Beijing city demonstrate the strong predictive power of eRCNN in comparison to some state-of-the-art competitors. The necessity of weight pre-training using a transfer learning notion has also been testified. More interestingly, we design a novel influence function based on the deep learning model, and showcase how to leverage it to recognize the congestion sources of the ring roads in Beijing.
Addressing the unmet needs of patients with persistent negative symptoms of schizophrenia: emerging pharmacological treatment options

The negative symptoms of schizophrenia represent an impairment of normal emotional responses, thought processes and behaviors, and include blunting or flattening of affect, alogia/aprosody, avolition/apathy, anhedonia, and asociality. Negative symptoms contribute to a reduced quality of life, increased functional disability, increased burden of illness, and poorer long-term outcomes, to a greater degree than positive symptoms. Primary negative symptoms are prominent and persistent in up to 26% of patients with schizophrenia, and they are estimated to occur in up to 58% of outpatients at any given time. Negative symptoms respond less well to medications than positive symptoms, and to date treatment options for negative symptoms have been limited, with no accepted standard treatment. Modest benefits have been reported with a variety of different agents, including second-generation antipsychotics and add-on therapy with antidepressants and other pharmacological classes. Recent clinical research focusing on negative symptoms target novel biological systems, such as glutamatergic neurotransmission. Different approaches include: enhancing N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor function with agents that bind directly to the glycine ligand site or with glycine reuptake inhibitors; influencing the metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR2/3) with positive allosteric modulators; and stimulating nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. In conclusion, the lack of clearly efficacious pharmacological treatments for the management of negative symptoms represents a significant unmet need, especially considering the importance of these symptoms on patient outcomes. Hence, further research to identify and characterize novel pharmacological treatments for negative symptoms is greatly needed.
Hyperoxic Acute Lung Injury

Prolonged breathing of very high FIO2 (FIO2 ≥ 0.9) uniformly causes severe hyperoxic acute lung injury (HALI) and, without a reduction of FIO2, is usually fatal. The severity of HALI is directly proportional to PO2 (particularly above 450 mm Hg, or an FIO2 of 0.6) and exposure duration. Hyperoxia produces extraordinary amounts of reactive O2 species that overwhelms natural anti-oxidant defenses and destroys cellular structures through several pathways. Genetic predisposition has been shown to play an important role in HALI among animals, and some genetics-based epidemiologic research suggests that this may be true for humans as well. Clinically, the risk of HALI likely occurs when FIO2 exceeds 0.7, and may become problematic when FIO2 exceeds 0.8 for an extended period of time. Both high-stretch mechanical ventilation and hyperoxia potentiate lung injury and may promote pulmonary infection. During the 1960s, confusion regarding the incidence and relevance of HALI largely reflected such issues as the primitive control of FIO2, the absence of PEEP, and the fact that at the time both ALI and ventilator-induced lung injury were unknown. The advent of PEEP and precise control over FIO2, as well as lung-protective ventilation, and other adjunctive therapies for severe hypoxemia, has greatly reduced the risk of HALI for the vast majority of patients requiring mechanical ventilation in the 21st century. However, a subset of patients with very severe ARDS requiring hyperoxic therapy is at substantial risk for developing HALI, therefore justifying the use of such adjunctive therapies.
Perceived Organizational Support and Affect: The Moderating Effect of Locus of Control

The aim of this paper was to understand the relationships between perceived organizational support (POS) and positive and negative affect, and to test the moderating effect of locus of control. This study was carried out in a large multi-division Indian organization in the manufacturing space. Sample included 262 employees from different functions and hierarchical levels. Data were collected through questionnaires. The results show that POS is related positively to positive affect and negatively to negative affect. In addition, the results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses support the moderating effect of locus of control on the relationship between POS and negative affect.
The Effects of Participation on Political Efficacy and Political Support: Evidence from a West German Panel

This paper explores the effects of four modes of political participation--voting, campaigning, peaceful protest, and aggressive behavior--on two fundamental attitudes, political efficacy and regime support. Theories of democratic participation argue that positive effects should be seen for at least the first three modes, while little is known about the effects of political violence. Using longitudinal data from the mid-1970s in West Germany, it becomes apparent that these modes of participation have vastly different effects on these political orientations. Voting is found to influence regime support in a positive fashion, while campaign activities influence feelings of political efficacy. Peaceful protest has little effect on either attitude, and aggressive behavior has strong negative effects on regime support. The results are discussed in light of theories of democracy which predict developmental effects of political activity, and in light of previous research which investigates these effects in other countries and in other contexts.
Intuitive Chartist and Chart Intuition

Price charts are pervasively used in today’s security analysis. In this paper, we argue that where there is a chart, there is more or less an intuitive chartist whose forecasts are partly based on his or her chart intuition. Asking subjects to forecast simulated stock price series, we find people normally extrapolate at the same direction to the latest price change, while in some special cases they do not simply extrapolate, but follow the general trend which is determined by their chart intuition of price series' peak and trough. Then we introduce information and test our underlying assumption of intuitive chartist. We find that people do largely rely on their chart intuition when forecast even there is more reliable information. Furthermore, if all investors are intuitive chartists in some degree, efficient market hypothesis might be challenged behaviorally, since “all” market participants make “inefficient” decisions.