Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Beneficial Effects of Dietary Restriction on Cerebral Cortical Synaptic Terminals

Abstract : Recent studies have shown that rats and mice maintained on a dietary restriction (DR) regimen exhibit increased resistance of neurons to excitotoxic, oxidative, and metabolic insults in experimental models of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Huntington's diseases and stroke. Because synaptic terminals are sites where the neurodegenerative process may begin in such neurodegenerative disorders, we determined the effects of DR on synaptic homeostasis and vulnerability to oxidative and metabolic insults. Basal levels of glucose uptake were similar in cerebral cortical synaptosomes from rats maintained on DR for 3 months compared with synaptosomes from rats fed ad libitum. Exposure of synaptosomes to oxidative insults (amyloid β‐peptide and Fe2+) and a metabolic insult (the mitochondrial toxin 3‐nitropropionic acid) resulted in decreased levels of glucose uptake. Impairment of glucose uptake following oxidative and metabolic insults was significantly attenuated in synaptosomes from rats maintained on DR. DR was also effective in protecting synaptosomes against oxidative and metabolic impairment of glutamate uptake. Loss of mitochondrial function caused by oxidative and metabolic insults, as indicated by increased levels of reactive oxygen species and decreased transmembrane potential, was significantly attenuated in synaptosomes from rats maintained on DR. Levels of the stress proteins HSP‐70 and GRP‐78 were increased in synaptosomes from DR rats, consistent with previous data suggesting that the neuroprotective mechanism of DR involves a “preconditioning” effect. Collectively, our data provide the first evidence that DR can alter synaptic homeostasis in a manner that enhances the ability of synapses to withstand adversity.
Piezoelectric nanoelectromechanical resonators based on aluminum nitride thin films

We demonstrate piezoelectrically actuated, electrically tunable nanomechanical resonators based on multilayers containing a 100-nm-thin aluminum nitride (AlN) layer. Efficient piezoelectric actuation of very high frequency fundamental flexural modes up to ~80 MHz is demonstrated at room temperature. Thermomechanical fluctuations of AlN cantilevers measured by optical interferometry enable calibration of the transduction responsivity and displacement sensitivities of the resonators. Measurements and analyses show that the 100 nm AlN layer employed has an excellent piezoelectric coefficient, d_(31)=2.4 pm/V. Doubly clamped AlN beams exhibit significant frequency tuning behavior with applied dc voltage.
The role of patient appraisal and coping in predicting distress in IVF

This study aimed to develop a theoretical understanding of the factors predicting psychological morbidity in patients planning IVF treatments, using Leventhal et al.'s Self Regulation Model. Fifty patients attending assisted conception units completed a demographic questionnaire, the Illness Perception Questionnaire—Revised, the Brief COPE and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Results showed that mean anxiety and depression scores did not fall into the clinically significant range, although 42% of patients did score in the clinical range for anxiety. Hierarchical multiple regressions, examining the relationships between illness perceptions, coping and distress, revealed that both illness perceptions and coping strategies predicted anxiety and depression. Implications of the research are presented with suggestions for clinical interventions.
Perceptions of climate change among members of the House of Peoples’ Representatives, Ethiopia

Climate change has become an issue which touches upon all spheres of life. To combat the problem, understanding the perceptions of all that have stake in it provides with stronger ground for decision-making. Ethiopia is one those countries that are or going to be severely affected by climate change, the solution of which partly depends on how its key decision-makers perceive the problem. In light of this a questionnaire survey was conducted on 195 volunteering members of the House of People’s Representatives in Ethiopia. The results of data analysis reveal that most identified rainfall variability, declining hydrology and increasing temperature as manifestations of climate change, and emission reduction and forest protection as its key solutions.
Long-lasting Cognitive and Social Consequences of Emotion: Social Sharing and Rumination

It is proposed that emotion has long-lasting cognitive and social consequences as it is observed for traumatic events. Indeed, emotion, like trauma, is characterized by a sudden disruption of the normal course of events, challenging people's belief systems about themselves and the world and calling for extensive cognitive and social processing. We propose that mental rumination and social sharing constitute fundamental aspects of this processing. In this chapter, we present the results of an integrated programme of research investigating the nature and functions of mental ruminations and social sharing that follow emotional events. A number of questions are addressed, such as whether people do share their emotions, to what extent, with whom, and for which types of emotion. Culture, sex and age differences are also considered. A functional model of rumination and social sharing in emotion is proposed and tested. Finally, five theoretical arguments relate the empirical findings of our research programme to .
Retrieval Dynamics in Oscillator Neural Networks

We present an analytical approach that allows us to treat the long-time behavior of the recalling process in an oscillator neural network. It is well known that in coupled oscillatory neuronal systems, under suitable conditions, the original dynamics can be reduced to a simpler phase dynamics. In this description, the phases of the oscillators can be regarded as the timings of the neuronal spikes. To attempt an analytical treatment of the recalling dynamics of such a system, we study a simplified model in which we discretize time and assume a synchronous updating rule. The theoretical results show that the retrieval dynamics is described by recursion equations for some macroscopic parameters, such as an overlap with the retrieval pattern. We then treat the noise components in the local field, which arise from the learning of the unretrieved patterns, as gaussian variables. However, we take account of the temporal correlation between these noise components at different times. In particular, we find that this correlation is essential for correctly predicting the behavior of the retrieval process in the case of autoassociative memory. From the derived equations, the maximal storage capacity and the basin of attraction are calculated and graphically displayed. We also consider the more general case that the network retrieves an ordered sequence of phase patterns. In both cases, the basin of attraction remains sufficiently wide to recall the memorized pattern from a noisy one, even near saturation. The validity of these theoretical results is supported by numerical simulations. We believe that this model serves as a convenient starting point for the theoretical study of retrieval dynamics in general oscillatory systems.
‘Stereotype, Attack and Stigmatize those Who Disagree’: Employing Scientific Rhetoric in Debates about Lesbian and Gay Parenting

In this paper, I explore the controversy surrounding lesbian and gay parenting within psychology, focusing on the rhetoric with which ‘authoritative’ accounts of lesbian and gay parenting are produced. Both ‘advocates’ and ‘enemies’ of lesbian and gay parenting have used what Celia Kitzinger (1990) has dubbed the ‘rhetoric of pseudoscience’ to preserve the scientific integrity of their research while, at the same time, undermining the credibility of their opponents’ findings. Authors engage in the rhetoric of pseudoscience when they attempt to persuade readers that a piece of research is bad science and that its results, therefore, cannot be taken seriously: they highlight (among other things) flaws in the methodology and the bias and political motivation of the researchers (Kitzinger, 1990). In the light of recent debates about the merits of essentialism and social constructionism in lesbian and gay psychology (e.g. Dickins, 1999; Kitzinger, 1999; Rahman, 1999), I consider the (political) costs and benefits of using science and scientific rhetoric.
The Retention of Newcomers in Second- and Third-Tier Canadian Cities 1

The federal government of Canada and several provincial governments are anxious to promote a more balanced distribution of immigrants across the country. Currently, 89 percent of all newcomers settle in large cities, 75 percent in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal alone. This study examines the internal migration of refugees destined to second-and third-tier cities in Alberta. Their decisions to stay in or leave these communities have significant policy implications. The economic vitality of urban centers, the existence of compatriot communities, and the recognition of immigrant skills and educational credentials all contribute to the retention of newcomers in second- and third-tier cities.
Literacy: Reading the Word and the World

Literacy wikipedia, literacy data published by unesco displays that since 1950, the adult literacy rate at the world level has increased by 5 percentage points every decade on average, from 557 per cent in 1950 to 862 per cent in 2015 however, for four decades, the population growth was so rapid that the number of illiterate adults kept increasing, rising from 700 million in 1950 to 878 million in 1990. Word walls classroom strategies reading rockets, a word wall is a collection of words which are displayed in large visible letters on a wall, bulletin board, or other display surface in a classroom the word wall is designed to be an interactive tool for students and contains an array of words that can be used during writing and reading.
Application of symmetric spaces and Lie triple systems in numerical analysis

Symmetric spaces are well known in differential geometry from the study of spaces of constant curvature. The tangent space of a symmetric space forms a Lie triple system. Recently these objects have received attention in the numerical analysis community. A remarkable number of different algorithms can be understood and analyzed using the concepts of symmetric spaces and this theory unifies a range of different topics in numerical analysis, such as polar type matrix decompositions, splitting methods for computation of the matrix exponential, composition of self adjoint numerical integrators and time symmetric dynamical systems. In this paper we will give an introduction to the mathematical theory behind these constructions, and review recent results. Furthermore, we are presenting new results related to time reversal symmetries, self adjoint numerical schemes and Yoshida type composition techniques.
Human Dendritic Cells Transduced with Herpes Simplex Virus Amplicons Encoding Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (HIV-1) gp120 Elicit Adaptive Immune Responses from Human Cells Engrafted into NOD/SCID Mice and Confer Partial Protection against HIV-1 Challenge

ABSTRACT Small-animal models are needed to test human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) vaccine efficacy following viral challenge. To this end, we examined HIV-1-specific immune responses following immunization of nonobese diabetic-severe combined immunodeficient mice that were repopulated with human peripheral blood lymphocytes (hu-PBL-NOD/SCID mice). Autologous dendritic cells (DC) were transduced ex vivo with replication-defective, helper virus-free, herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) amplicons that expressed HIV-1 gp120 and were then injected into the hu-PBL-NOD/SCID mice. This resulted in primary HIV-1-specific humoral and cellular immune responses. Serum samples from vaccinated animals contained human immunoglobulin G that reacted with HIV-1 Env proteins by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and neutralized the infectivity of HIV-1 LAI and ADA strains. T cells isolated from the mice responded to viral antigens by producing gamma interferon when analyzed by enzyme-linked immunospot assay. Importantly, exposure of the vaccinated animals to infectious HIV-1 demonstrated partial protection against infectious HIV-1 challenge. This was reflected by a reduction in HIV-1ADA and by protection of the engrafted human CD4+ T lymphocytes against HIV-1LAI-induced cytotoxicity. These data demonstrate that transduction of DC by HSV amplicon vectors expressing HIV-1 gp120 induce virus-specific immune responses in hu-PBL-NOD/SCID mice. This mouse model may be a useful tool to evaluate human immune responses and protection against viral infection following vaccination.
Evidence Accumulator or Decision Threshold – Which Cortical Mechanism are We Observing?

Most psychological models of perceptual decision making are of the accumulation-to-threshold variety. The neural basis of accumulation in parietal and prefrontal cortex is therefore a topic of great interest in neuroscience. In contrast, threshold mechanisms have received less attention, and their neural basis has usually been sought in subcortical structures. Here I analyze a model of a decision threshold that can be implemented in the same cortical areas as evidence accumulators, and whose behavior bears on two open questions in decision neuroscience: (1) When ramping activity is observed in a brain region during decision making, does it reflect evidence accumulation? (2) Are changes in speed-accuracy tradeoffs and response biases more likely to be achieved by changes in thresholds, or in accumulation rates and starting points? The analysis suggests that task-modulated ramping activity, by itself, is weak evidence that a brain area mediates evidence accumulation as opposed to threshold readout; and that signs of modulated accumulation are as likely to indicate threshold adaptation as adaptation of starting points and accumulation rates. These conclusions imply that how thresholds are modeled can dramatically impact accumulator-based interpretations of this data.
The Importance of Practice Learning in Social Work: Do We Practice What We Preach?

This paper reports on themes identified from focus group discussions with practice educators, in which they articulated concerns about factors that limited their work with students on placement. Four key themes are identified from analysis of the data: (1) The absence of workload relief for agency based practice educators; (2) A lack of knowledge about the academic curriculum in qualifying social work programmes; (3) A sense of isolation from universities placing students with them; (4) Concerns about the quality of practice learning experiences they could provide to students. Expressions of guilt and anxiety were a prominent feature of the focus group discussions. Almost all the practice educators felt that their work in this role was not good enough. They were concerned about standards and missed opportunities to work developmentally with students who may be at risk of failing, or conversely to stimulate those who were more able. The findings suggest that universities should consider whether practice educators are sufficiently connected with other parts of the social work education system to fulfil their role.
'The bars, the bogs, and the bushes': The impact of locale on sexual cultures

This paper explores the role of locale and location in understanding gay men's sexual behaviour. Twenty gay men from Glasgow, Scotland took part in semi-structured, in-depth interviews. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was employed to analyse transcripts for recurrent themes. Shared understanding relating to the relationship between locale and sexual activity emerged as important. Findings suggest the existence of distinct sexual cultures associated with locales such as the commercial gay scene (the bars), public toilets (the bogs) and public parks (the bushes). Furthermore, sexual activity was directly affected by its specific location. Sexual behaviour is understood and patterned by the locale (i.e. sexual space) in which it occurs; it is also constrained by location (i.e. specific site). In the light of these findings the appropriateness of traditional psychological approaches to understanding sexual activity and the relevance of other perspectives which map the links between social context and sexual behaviour are discussed.
Intergroup biases in conflict: Reexamination with Arab pre-adolescents and adolescents

This study examined the proposition derived from the integrative developmental contextual theory (IDCT) (Bar-Tal & Teichman, 2005; Teichman & Bar-Tal, in press) that contextual circumstances determining collective self esteem (i.e. conflict and social status), and developmental stage in which identity development is a central issue (pre- and early adolescence) would influence intergroup biases. This proposition was previously examined with Israeli Jewish participants and here is re-examined in three samples, aged 8—17, including Israeli Arabs and two groups from the Palestinian Authority. The three samples were based in different intergroup contexts in which their group status was relatively high, medium or low. The findings demonstrate differences in the relationship between contextually defined collective self-esteem and intergroup attitudes. Results confirmed the hypothesis that in conflict, irrespective of age highest intergroup biases would be displayed by the high status group. However, the hypothesis that the lowest status group would express only more negativity toward the out-group was not confirmed. The developmental hypothesis that pre- and early adolescents from the high status group would express most varied and extreme biases was also confirmed. With some exceptions in the middle status group, all older adolescents displayed moderation in biases.
INTUITION AND CREATIVITY IN PSYCHOTHERAPY

Human beings use cognition creatively. Rather than concepts and schemas forming the structure of mind through which stimuli are filtered and processed, human beings are continually modifying and using concepts to try to deal with everyday life problems. Creativity also arises from tacit, intuitive knowing. Such knowing is grounded in bodily, experiential knowledge, which is nonconceptual. At the most basic level, human beings know the world more in terms of its aesthetics than in terms of the kind of conceptual analysis postulated by those who model the human after a naive scientist. The creative process is one of articulating tacit or experiential knowing in words or symbols, and then revising those words and symbols. Therapists also use this process. Creativity and the use of intuition in therapy are described, and a case history given.
Academic self-management counselling: Preliminary evidence for the importance of learned resourcefulness on program success

ABSTRACT The present study was designed to examine the importance of learned resourcefulness skills as measured by Rosenbaum's Self-Control Schedule (SCS) to perseverance in an academic self-management program. As predicted, students who dropped out of the self-management program scored low on Rosenbaum's SCS; that is, they had a limited repertoire of general learned resourcefulness skills. However, both the high and the low resourceful students completing the self-management program implemented the self-management strategies they were taught, and expected and obtained comparable final grades. The possible long-term gains of high resourceful versus low resourceful students received from the program are discussed.
Taylorism and the logic of learning outcomes

This essay examines the shared philosophical foundations of Fredrick W. Taylor’s scientific management principles and the contemporary learning outcomes movement (LOM). It analyses the shared philosophical ground between the focal point of Taylor’s system—‘the task’—and the conceptualization and deployment of ‘learning outcomes’ in American post-secondary systems. It further critiques Taylor’s principles and the logic of outcomes from the standpoint of John Dewey’s educational philosophy. This essay will show how the contemporary LOM is not only an extension of Taylorism, but also yields the very real possibility of restricting the creative capacities and unique potentials of students.
Why Does the Brain Predict Sensory Consequences of Oculomotor Commands? Optimal Integration of the Predicted and the Actual Sensory Feedback

When the brain initiates a saccade, it uses a copy of the oculomotor commands to predict the visual consequences: for example, if one fixates a reach target, a peripheral saccade will produce an internal estimate of the new retinal location of the target, a process called remapping. In natural settings, the target likely remains visible after the saccade. So why should the brain predict the sensory consequence of the saccade when after its completion, the image of the target remains visible? We hypothesized that in the post-saccadic period, the brain integrates target position information from two sources: one based on remapping and another based on the peripheral view of the target. The integration of information from these two sources could produce a less variable target estimate than is possible from either source alone. Here, we show that reaching toward targets that were initially foveated and remapped had significantly less variance than reaches relying on peripheral target information. Furthermore, in a more natural setting where both sources of information were available simultaneously, variance of the reaches was further reduced as predicted by integration. This integration occurred in a statistically optimal manner, as demonstrated by the change in integration weights when we manipulated the uncertainty of the post-saccadic target estimate by varying exposure time. Therefore, the brain predicts the sensory consequences of motor commands because it integrates its prediction with the actual sensory information to produce an estimate of sensory space that is better than possible from either source alone.
Diversity or Disadvantage? Putnam, Goodhart, Ethnic Heterogeneity, and Collective Efficacy

Recent debates have suggested that increasing social diversity within Western economies is associated with adverse social consequences such as loss of community and decline of civic society, including an erosion of collective efficacy (ie shared expectations of and mutual engagement by residents in social control). In the UK and US, these debates have been given impetus by concerns about the effects of growing ethnic heterogeneity on community life. Here there is an assumption that heterogeneity undermines social cohesion and makes the established population less willing to share resources, trust fellow citizens, so that it eventually ‘hunkers down’ and withdraws from collective life. To date there are few studies that have examined this in detail across England at the small-area level. The research presented here explores this terrain by exploiting information from the British Crime Survey on two recognised dimensions of collective efficacy: namely, social cohesion and trust, and informal social control. Multivariate, multilevel models were used to determine the importance of individual and area characteristics in the possible explanation of these outcomes, and particular attention was paid to the relative importance of neighbourhood disadvantage over and above neighbourhood diversity. Results suggest that both diversity and disadvantage are statistically associated with reduced levels of social cohesion and trust, and informal social control, but greater substantive importance is attached to neighbourhood disadvantage.