Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of anticipated group-based emotions on discrimination and collective action

Intergroup behaviour is often regarded as selfish, unethical and immoral. In this thesis I argue against this proposition by stating that intergroup behaviour is guided by moral principles. I propose that negative anticipated group-based emotions serve the social function of promoting moral intergroup behaviour. I argue that aversive anticipated group-based emotions (such as shame) signal the harmful consequences of a future ingroup action and that the desire to avoid these aversive consequences motivates group members to inhibit immoral intergroup behaviour. The research in this thesis investigates the role of anticipated group-based guilt and shame in promoting moral and inhibiting immoral intergroup behaviour. In Chapter 2, I found that anticipated group-based shame and ingroup-directed anger (but not guilt) positively predicted collective action against a proposed ingroup transgression. The research in Chapter 3 assessed the role of anticipated group-based emotions and ingroup identification on discrimination. I found that people with low and high (but not moderate) levels of self-investment reduced discrimination when they anticipated aversive group-based emotions. In Chapter 4, I found that anticipated groupbased shame only moderated discrimination when the ingroup were of high-status and the social hierarchy was stable. In the majority of the studies in this thesis I found that group members are motivated to avoid ingroup transgressions when they anticipate experiencing groupbased shame for this action. I argue that this anticipated emotion signals that undertaking an action is likely to result in a social identity threat and that the desire to maintain a positive social identity motivates group members to avoid the transgression. I conclude by stating that this anticipated emotion serves the social function of promoting moral intergroup behaviour and protecting social identity.
Maternal depression and attachment: the evaluation of mother–child interactions during feeding practice

Internal working models (IWMs) of attachment can moderate the effect of maternal depression on mother–child interactions and child development. Clinical depression pre-dating birthgiving has been found to predict incoherent and less sensitive caregiving. Dysfunctional patterns observed, included interactive modes linked to feeding behaviors which may interfere with hunger–satiation, biological rhythms, and the establishment of children’s autonomy and individuation. Feeding interactions between depressed mothers and their children seem to be characterized by repetitive interactive failures: children refuse food through oppositional behavior or negativity. The aim of this study was to investigate parenting skills in the context of feeding in mothers with major depression from the point of view of attachment theory. This perspective emphasizes parents’ emotion, relational and affective history and personal resources. The sample consisted of 60 mother–child dyads. Mothers were divided into two groups: 30 with Major Depression and 30 without disorders. Children’s age ranged between 12 and 36 months The measures employed were the Adult Attachment Interview and the Scale for the Evaluation of Alimentary Interactions between Mothers and Children. Insecure attachment prevailed in mothers with major depression, with differences on the Subjective Experience and State of Mind Scales. Groups also differed in maternal sensitivity, degrees of interactive conflicts and negative affective states, all of which can hinder the development of adequate interactive patterns during feeding. The results suggest that IWMs can constitute an indicator for the evaluation of the relational quality of the dyad and that evaluations of dyadic interactions should be considered when programming interventions.
Lowering the SNR Wall for Energy Detection Using Cross-Correlation

Spectrum sensing is a key enabler of cognitive radio but generally suffers from what is called a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) wall, i.e., a minimum SNR below which it is impossible to reliably detect a signal. For energy detection, which has the advantage of not requiring knowledge of the signal, the SNR wall is caused by uncertainty in the noise level. Cross-correlation has been suggested as a possible means to obtain higher sensitivity but has received little attention in the context of noise uncertainty. The idea of cross-correlation is to have two receive paths, where each path independently processes the signal before they are combined, such that the noise added to the input signal at the individual paths is largely uncorrelated. In this paper, we mathematically quantify the SNR wall for cross-correlation, showing that it linearly scales with the amount of noise correlation. This lower noise correlation results in higher sensitivity, which is significantly better than that for autocorrelation. Equations that can be used to estimate the benefit over autocorrelation and the measurement time for a required probability of detection and false alarm are derived.
Predicting DNA recognition by Cys2His2 zinc finger proteins

MOTIVATION Cys(2)His(2) zinc finger (ZF) proteins represent the largest class of eukaryotic transcription factors. Their modular structure and well-conserved protein-DNA interface allow the development of computational approaches for predicting their DNA-binding preferences even when no binding sites are known for a particular protein. The 'canonical model' for ZF protein-DNA interaction consists of only four amino acid nucleotide contacts per zinc finger domain. RESULTS We present an approach for predicting ZF binding based on support vector machines (SVMs). While most previous computational approaches have been based solely on examples of known ZF protein-DNA interactions, ours additionally incorporates information about protein-DNA pairs known to bind weakly or not at all. Moreover, SVMs with a linear kernel can naturally incorporate constraints about the relative binding affinities of protein-DNA pairs; this type of information has not been used previously in predicting ZF protein-DNA binding. Here, we build a high-quality literature-derived experimental database of ZF-DNA binding examples and utilize it to test both linear and polynomial kernels for predicting ZF protein-DNA binding on the basis of the canonical binding model. The polynomial SVM outperforms previously published prediction procedures as well as the linear SVM. This may indicate the presence of dependencies between contacts in the canonical binding model and suggests that modification of the underlying structural model may result in further improved performance in predicting ZF protein-DNA binding. Overall, this work demonstrates that methods incorporating information about non-binding and relative binding of protein-DNA pairs have great potential for effective prediction of protein-DNA interactions. AVAILABILITY An online tool for predicting ZF DNA binding is available at http://compbio.cs. princeton.edu/zf/.
Contextualizing the Artistic Dividend

ABSTRACT: Artists have been a central theme in recent debates about the causes of urban development. This article shifts attention to the question of context: in what sorts of places are artist concentrations most likely to stimulate the local economy? To tackle this question, we employ a Canadian national database of local amenities. This database includes roughly 1.8 million total amenities in 1,800 distinct categories, across every Canadian locality. By coding these amenity categories on 16 qualitative dimensions (like self-expression, glamour, or neighborliness), we measure the specific cultural “scene” for each Canadian neighborhood. Our main findings are threefold. First, in general there is a strong correlation between artist populations and rising local wages. Second, this correlation is strengthened in more self-expressive, glamorous, and charismatic scenes. Third, in contrast to artists, “creative professionals” are linked with lower local wage growth generally and in such scenes. Finally, synthesizing these results, we conclude with a comment about what it might mean for “bourgeois” and “bohemian” lifestyle preferences to become more tightly integrated in contemporary postindustrial contexts, offering evidence based on the location of artists, graphic designers, and advertising firms that processes of functional differentiation and interchange may provide a more compelling explanation than processes of fusion and conflict.
STAT3 is required for MiR-17-5p-mediated sensitization to chemotherapy-induced apoptosis in breast cancer cells

Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) controls cell survival, growth, migration, and invasion. Here, we observed that STAT3 exerted anti-apoptotic effects in breast cancer cells. On the other hand, miR-17-5p induced apoptosis in breast cancer cells, and overexpression of miR-17-5p sensitized MCF-7 cells to paclitaxel-induced apoptosis via STAT3. Overexpression of STAT3 in MCF-7 cells decreased paclitaxel-induced apoptosis, but STAT3 knockout abolished the miR-17-5p-induced increases in apoptosis. Finally, miR-17-5p promoted apoptosis by increasing p53 expression, which was inhibited by STAT3. These results demonstrate a novel pathway via which miR-17-5p inhibits STAT3 and increases p53 expression to promote apoptosis in breast cancer cells.
Nanoformulation of paclitaxel to enhance cancer therapy

Paclitaxel is a microtubule inhibitor causing mitotic arrest and is widely used in cancer chemotherapy. However, its poor water solubility restricts its direct clinical applications. In this article, we report paclitaxel-loaded nanoparticles that are water soluble and that can improve the drug’s bio-distribution and therapeutic efficacy. Paclitaxel-loaded nanoparticles were synthesized by using Pluronic copolymers (F-68 and P-123) and surfactant (Span 40) as nanocarrier. The toxicity and cellular uptake of paclitaxel-loaded nanoparticles were evaluated. The paclitaxel-loaded nanoparticles can completely disperse into phosphate buffer saline to produce a clear aqueous suspension. Based on HPLC analysis, the drug-loading rate is 9.0 ± 0.1% while drug encapsulation efficiency is 99.0 ± 1.0%. The cytotoxicity assay was performed using breast cancer MCF-7 and cervical cancer Hela cells. For MCF-7 cells, the half maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC50) of paclitaxel-loaded nanoparticles and paclitaxel are 8.5 ± 0.3 and 14.0 ± 0.7 ng/mL at 48 hours and 3.5 ± 0.4 and 5.2 ± 0.5 ng/mL at 72 hours across several runs. IC50 of paclitaxel-loaded nanoparticles and paclitaxel for Hela cells are 5.0 ± 0.3 and 8.0 ± 0.3 ng/mL at 48 hours and 2.0 ± 0.1 and 6.5 ± 0.3 ng/mL at 72 hours. In-vitro studies show that the drug’s nanoformulation gives obvious enhancements in the drug’s efficiency at killing cancer cells over paclitaxel alone. Materials of the nanocarrier used for nanoformulation are approved with low toxicity according to the result of cell studies. Conclusion: paclitaxel-loaded nanoparticles greatly improved the physicochemical properties of paclitaxel without modifying its chemical structure, allowing for deep-site cancer drug delivery and enhancing the drug therapeutic efficiency.
HBeAg-negative chronic hepatitis B: cost-effectiveness of peginterferon alfa-2a compared to lamivudine in Taiwan.

OBJECTIVE In Taiwan, the carrier rate of hepatitis B surface antigen is 15% to 20%, one of the highest in the world. Among chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients, hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-negative accounts for approximately 40% to 50% of these patients. A recent study found that peginterferon alfa-2a (40 KD) is more effective than lamivudine in treating HBeAg-negative CHB, but its cost-effectiveness has not been evaluated. Our objective is to evaluate the incremental cost-effectiveness of 48 weeks of peginterferon alfa-2a compared to 48 weeks of lamivudine, from the perspective of the Taiwan Bureau of National Health Insurance. METHODS A Markov model was used to simulate the natural history of HBeAg-negative CHB in a cohort of 40-year-old patients. Efficacy, disease progression, economic, and quality-of-life data were derived from published literature and a survey of clinical experts in Taiwan. Life expectancy, quality-adjusted life expectancy, lifetime costs in New Taiwan Dollars (NTD) (1 USD = 31.96 NTD), and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) were calculated. RESULTS The gain in quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) for 48 weeks of peginterferon alfa-2a compared to 48 weeks of lamivudine was 0.45 at an additional cost of 157,000 NTD (4900 USD), resulting in an ICER of 347,000 NTD (10,900 USD) per QALY gained. The 95% central range for the ICER from a probabilistic sensitivity analysis was 228,000-566,000 NTD (7100-17,700 USD). CONCLUSIONS In HBeAg-negative CHB, 48 weeks of treatment with peginterferon alfa-2a compared to 48 weeks of lamivudine appears to offer life expectancy and quality-of-life improvements at an acceptable cost-effectiveness ratio.
VALIDAÇÃO DO QUESTIONÁRIO DE BURNOUT PARA ATLETAS

The burnout syndrome can be defined as a reaction to chronic stress. This study aimed to validate a burnout questionnaire for athletes of Portuguese language. Four methodologically steps were followed: Back Translation of the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire to the Portuguese language, what led to the “Questionario de Burnout para Atletas” (QBA); QBA’s validation, through construct validation (factor analysis), and, finally, the QBA’s reliability. The data found confirmed both the QBA’s construct validity (the instrument represents exactly the interest concept) and reliability (the instrument measures effectively what it purposes to measure). The findings of this investigation let us conclude that QBA is considered an appropriate instrument for the burnout measurement in high level Brazilian athletes.
On merging and dividing of Barabási-Albert-graphs

The Barabási-Albert-model is commonly used to generate scale-free graphs, like social networks. To generate dynamics in these networks, methods for altering such graphs are needed. Growing and shrinking is done simply by doing further generation iterations or undo them. In our paper we present four methods to merge two graphs based on the Barabási-Albert-model, and five strategies to reverse them. First we compared these algorithms by edge preservation, which describes the ratio of the inner structure kept after altering. To check if hubs in the initial graphs are hubs in the resulting graphs as well, we used the node-degree rank correlation. Finally we tested how well the node-degree distribution follows the power-law function from the Barabási-Albert-model.
Understanding the Impact of 3D Stacked Layouts on ILP

D die-stacked chips can alleviate the penalties imposed by long wires within micro- processor circuits. Many recent studies have attempted to partition each microprocessor structure across three dimensions to reduce their access times. In this paper, we implement each microprocessor structure on a single 2D die and leverage 3D to reduce the lengths of wires that communicate data between microprocessor structures within a single core. We begin with a criticality analysis of inter-structure wire delays and show that for most tra- ditional simple superscalar cores, 2D o orplans are already very ecien t at minimizing critical wire delays. For an aggressive wire-constrained clustered superscalar architecture, an exploration of the design space reveals that 3D can yield higher benet. However, this benet may be negated by the higher power density and temperature entailed by 3D in- tegration. Overall, we report a negative result and argue against leveraging 3D for higher ILP.
Succession to traditional Venda leadership in a changing constitutional environment in South Africa

The conflict and ambivalence in the legislative transformation in South Africa, recognising on the one hand the institution of traditional leadership and its concomitant customs and values, and on the other hand enforcing the fundamental value of gender equality entrenched in the South African Constitution, Act 108 of 1996 are debated in this paper. A succession dispute among the Venda of Masia is used to show how untenable the application of the gender equality principle in the Constitution and in Act 4 of 2000 (The Promotion of Equality and the Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act) is as regards succession to traditional leadership in this tribe. The claim to the position of traditional leader of a senior female member of the Royal Council of Masia was refuted by the Council. During a special Royal Council meeting convened to discuss the succession dispute in the royal house of Masia and related issues, senior members of the Council emphasised the fact that the recognition of traditional leadership a.
To Go or Not to Go: A Case for Q-Learning at Unsignalized Intersections

Autonomous driving at intersections with traffic lights and stop signs can be handled by simple rules, however unsignalized intersections remain a challenging problem. We explore the effectiveness of using Deep Q Networks to handle such problems. Combining several recent advances in Deep RL, were we able to learn policies that surpass the performance of a commonly-used rule based approach in several metrics including task completion time and goal success rate. Although the results were promising, the fact that learned policies resulted in collisions, although rarely, suggest a need for further research.
Personal Growth as a Strong Element in the Motivation of Australian University Students to Learn German.

For the last ten years, language learning motivation research has focussed on how learners see knowledge of a language as part of their identity. This article presents the findings of a qualitative interview study that investigated whether personal growth is also a strong element in the motivation of Australian university students to learn German. After first outlining the theoretical framework in which the study is situated and describing the research design and method, the article will present the main findings and argue that personal growth as well as a desire to broaden one’s horizons are strong motives for Australian students of German. The article concludes by discussing the findings and their implications.
Citizenship and Identity

Citizenship and Identity provides an introduction to key debates in sociology and social and political theory on postmodernization and globalization through a critical examination of the often contested concepts of citizenship and identity. The detailed introductory discussion of the relation between the civil and the political, between recognition and redistribution, gives a comprehensive vocabulary for understanding recent and on-going debates. Using the work of T.H. Marshall to frame the discussion of how diasporic, technological, ecological, cosmopolitan, sexual and cultural rights expand the definition of citizenship, the book shows how, in turn, civil, political and social rights have been transformed by postmodernization and globalization. Lucid and comprehensive, Citizenship and Identity will be essential reading for students and researchers in sociology, social and political theory and cultural studies.
IL-7 receptor blockade reverses autoimmune diabetes by promoting inhibition of effector/memory T cells

To protect the organism against autoimmunity, self-reactive effector/memory T cells (TE/M) are controlled by cell-intrinsic and -extrinsic regulatory mechanisms. However, how some TE/M cells escape regulation and cause autoimmune disease is currently not understood. Here we show that blocking IL-7 receptor-α (IL-7Rα) with monoclonal antibodies in nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice prevented autoimmune diabetes and, importantly, reversed disease in new-onset diabetic mice. Surprisingly, IL-7–deprived diabetogenic TE/M cells remained present in the treated animals but showed increased expression of the inhibitory receptor Programmed Death 1 (PD-1) and reduced IFN-γ production. Conversely, IL-7 suppressed PD-1 expression on activated T cells in vitro. Adoptive transfer experiments revealed that TE/M cells from anti–IL-7Rα–treated mice had lost their pathogenic potential, indicating that absence of IL-7 signals induces cell-intrinsic tolerance. In addition to this mechanism, IL-7Rα blockade altered the balance of regulatory T cells and TE/M cells, hence promoting cell-extrinsic regulation and further increasing the threshold for diabetogenic T-cell activation. Our data demonstrate that IL-7 contributes to the pathogenesis of autoimmune diabetes by enabling TE/M cells to remain in a functionally competent state and suggest IL-7Rα blockade as a therapy for established T-cell–dependent autoimmune diseases.
A Study of the Psychosexual Characteristics of Sex Killers: Can we Identify them Before it is Too Late?

Thirty-three sex killers were compared to 80 sexual aggressives, 23 sadists, and 611 general sex offenders on sexual history and preferences, substance abuse crime, violence, mental illness, personality, neurological and endocrine abnormalities. Compared to other groups, sex killers started their criminal careers earlier, more often had been to reform school, were members of criminal gangs, set fires, and were cruel to animals. They tended so show more sadism, fetishism, and voyeurism. They more often collected pornography, but they did not use it in their offenses. They more often abused drugs and some suffered from drug induced psychoses. Their most common diagnosis was antisocial personality disorder, but only 15.2% met criteria for psychopathy. Sex killers showed most signs of neuropsychological impairment, grades failure, and learning disabilities. Results suggest that greater emphasis be placed on studying adolescent sex offenders and conduct disordered children which may help identify potential sex killers.
Substance use in a population-based clinic sample of people with first-episode psychosis

Background Substance use is implicated in the cause and course of psychosis. Aims To characterise substance and alcohol use in an epidemiologically representative treatment sample of people experiencing a first psychotic episode in south Cambridgeshire. Method Current and lifetime substance use was recorded for 123 consecutive referrals to a specialist early intervention service. Substance use was compared with general population prevalence estimates from the British Crime Survey. Results Substance use among people with first-episode psychosis was twice that of the general population and was more common in men than women. Cannabis abuse was reported in 51% of patients (n=62) and alcohol abuse in 43% (n=53). More than half (n=68, 55%) had used Class A drugs, and 38% (n=43) reported polysubstance abuse. Age at first use of cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamine was significantly associated with age at first psychotic symptom. Conclusions Substance misuse is present in the majority of people with first-episode psychosis and has major implications for management. The association between age at first substance use and first psychotic symptoms has public health implications.