Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
When the half-full glass is appraised as half empty and memorised as completely empty: Mood-congruent true and false recognition in depression is modulated by salience

Since the 1980s a large body of empirical effort has been devoted to mood-congruent memory (MCM) biases in clinical depression. Whereas there is broad, albeit not unequivocal, evidence that depressive patients retain negative-valenced memory items better than neutral material, few studies have investigated false memories in depression. In a pilot study we gathered support for both enhanced true and false memory for emotional material in depression. The present study aimed to extend these preliminary findings. In view of investigations suggesting that arousing and meaningful stimuli have facilitated access to memory, personal salience was considered a moderator for MCM. In the present study 21 depressed and 22 healthy participants were presented six false memory lists dealing with neutral, negative, and positive themes. At recognition, each item had to be appraised for its degree of valence subsequent to an old–new judgement. Pre-categorised and subjective valence did not discriminate groups. However, relative to controls depressed patients showed both more veridical as well as false recognition for items that concurrently elicited higher salience ratings in patients. In contrast, group differences in recognition performance did not significantly affect salience ratings. Results indicate that salience modulates MCM and may account for discrepancies in the literature.
Size Effect on Free Transverse Vibration of Cracked Nano-beams using Couple Stress Theory

In this paper, the transverse vibration of cracked nano-beam has been studied based on modified couple stress theory. Crack is modeled by a rotational spring that creates a discontinuity. Frequency equations of cracked nano-beam with some typical boundary conditions are derived and the frequency parameter for different crack positions, crack parameter and length scale parameters value are calculated. According to the results, it can be found that the effects of the crack parameter and crack location on transverse frequency of the cracked nano-beam are significant. In addition, scale effect parameter is one of the important parameter in nanoscale that must be obtained. Finally, the results of special cases show good agreement with the results available in the literature.
Wait-free synchronization

A wait-free implementation of a concurrent data object is one that guarantees that any process can complete any operation in a finite number of steps, regardless of the execution speeds of the other processes. The problem of constructing a wait-free implementation of one data object from another lies at the heart of much recent work in concurrent algorithms, concurrent data structures, and multiprocessor architectures. First, we introduce a simple and general technique, based on reduction to a concensus protocol, for proving statements of the form, “there is no wait-free implementation of X by Y. ” We derive a hierarchy of objects such that no object at one level has a wait-free implementation in terms of objects at lower levels. In particular, we show that atomic read/write registers, which have been the focus of much recent attention, are at the bottom of the hierarchy: thay cannot be used to construct wait-free implementations of many simple and familiar data types. Moreover, classical synchronization primitives such astest&set and fetch&add, while more powerful than read and write, are also computationally weak, as are the standard message-passing primitives. Second, nevertheless, we show that there do exist simple universal objects from which one can construct a wait-free implementation of any sequential object.
Quality guarantees for region optimal DCOP algorithms

k- and t-optimality algorithms [9, 6] provide solutions to DCOPs that are optimal in regions characterized by its size and distance respectively. Moreover, they provide quality guarantees on their solutions. Here we generalise the k- and t-optimal framework to introduce C-optimality, a flexible framework that provides reward-independent quality guarantees for optima in regions characterised by any arbitrary criterion. Therefore, C-optimality allows us to explore the space of criteria (beyond size and distance) looking for those that lead to better solution qualities. We benefit from this larger space of criteria to propose a new criterion, the so-called size-bounded-distance criterion, which outperforms k-and t-optimality.
Leaky-mode characteristics of silica-substrate supported circular-cylinder silver nanowire

Waveguide modes propagating along the circular-cylinder silver nanowire on a silica substrate are calculated and studied using an in-house developed full-vector finite-element imaginary-distance beam propagation method (FV-FE-IDBPM). In particular, leaky-mode characteristics for the mode with field guided mainly at the top air-silver interface and that with field distributed mainly near the silver-substrate interface are presented and discussed based on high-resolution numerical analysis. Complex effective indices are accurately solved from which the modal propagation lengths are determined.
Mopra observations of G305.2+0.2: massive star formation at different evolutionary stages?

We have successfully used a new on-the-fly mapping technique with the Mopra radio telescope to image G305.2+0.2 in transitions of 13CO, HCO+, N2H+, CH3CN and CH3OH. All these species appear to be concentrated towards the infrared-quiet methanol maser site G305A (G305.21+0.21). We suggest that this region contains an extremely deeply embedded site of massive star formation, with comparable qualities to the low-mass Class 0 stage. The infrared bright methanol maser site G305B (G305.21+0.20) also exhibits emission in all the mapped transitions, but always at a lower level.We suggest this is because it harbours a site of massive star formation older and more developed than G305.21+0.21. All transitions appear to be extended beyond the size of the Mopra beam (30 arcsec). 13CO and HCO+ line wings are suggestive of an outflow in the region, but the spatial resolution of these data is insufficient to identify the powering source. A narrow-lined (1.6 km s−1 compared to a typical line FWHM of 6.4 km s−1) N2H+ source (G305SW) is found 90 arcsec to the south-west of the main star-forming centres, which does not correspond to any CH3CN or CH3OH source, nor does it correspond well to 13CO or HCO+ emission in the vicinity.We suggest this may be a massive, cold, quiescent and possibly pre-stellar core.
Thermostable Bacterial Bioflocculant Produced by Cobetia Spp. Isolated from Algoa Bay (South Africa)

A novel bioflocculant-producing bacteria was isolated from sediment samples of Algoa Bay in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa and the effect of culture conditions on the bioflocculant production was investigated. Analysis of the partial nucleotide sequence of the 16S rDNA of the bacteria revealed 99% similarity to Cobetia sp. L222 and the sequence was deposited in GenBank as Cobetia sp. OAUIFE (accession number JF799092). Cultivation condition studies revealed that bioflocculant production was optimal with an inoculum size of 2% (v/v), initial pH of 6.0, Mn2+ as the metal ion, and glucose as the carbon source. Metal ions, including Na+, K+, Li+, Ca2+and Mg2+ stimulated bioflocculant production, resulting in flocculating activity of above 90%. This crude bioflocculant is thermally stable, with about 78% of its flocculating activity remaining after heating at 100 °C for 25 min. Analysis of the purified bioflocculant revealed it to be an acidic extracellular polysaccharide.
Feed intake pattern of group-housed growing-finishing pigs monitored using a computerized feed intake recording system.

The feed intake pattern and growth performance of boars, barrows, and gilts fed diets differing in lysine and protein content were measured on 120 crossbred pigs from 27 (SD 3.7) to 81.5 (SD 9.2) kg live weight. The pigs were housed in eight mixed-sex groups with five pigs of each sex in each group. They were fed from an electronic feed station that recorded individual meal sizes and the time and duration of visits to the feeder for each animal in the group. Four dietary treatments were compared. During the grower period (27 to 55 kg), diets ranged in lysine content form . 98 to 1.31%; for the remainder of the study, lysine content was . 88 to 1.18%. Barrows had a greater (P < .01) number of meals per day than the other two sexes (7.4 vs 7.0 vs 7.0 +/- .10, respectively), but there were no significant differences among sexes for daily feed intake or other feed intake traits. Daily feed intake increased with dietary lysine content, largely because of increased meal sizes resulting from longer feeder occupation times at each visit. Visits to the feeder were greatest between 0900 and 1100 and lowest between 2000 and 0400. Correlations between feeding pattern and growth traits were relatively low. Repeatabilities of feeding pattern traits were generally higher when measured over shorter time periods. These results suggest a change in feeding behavior with increasing dietary lysine levels and a relatively small effect of sex on feeding pattern for mixed-sex groups of 15 pigs fed from a single electronic feed station.
Effects of hypoxia on cochlear blood flow in mice evaluated using Doppler optical microangiography

Abstract. Reduced cochlear blood flow (CoBF) is a main contributor to hearing loss. Studying CoBF has remained a challenge due to the lack of available tools. Doppler optical microangiography (DOMAG), a method to quantify single-vessel absolute blood flow, and laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF), a method for measuring the relative blood flow within a large volume of tissue, were used for determining the changes in CoBF due to systemic hypoxia in mice. DOMAG determined the change in blood flow in the apical turn (AT) with single-vessel resolution, while LDF averaged the change in the blood flow within a large volume of the cochlea (hemisphere with ∼1 to 1.5 mm radius). Hypoxia was induced by decreasing the concentration of oxygen-inspired gas, so that the oxygen saturation was reduced from >95% to ∼80%. DOMAG determined that during hypoxia the blood flow in two areas of the AT near and far from the helicotrema were increased and decreased, respectively. The LDF detected a decrease in blood flow within a larger volume of the cochlea (several turns averaged together). Therefore, the use of DOMAG as a tool for studying cochlear blood flow due to its ability to determine absolute flow values with single-vessel resolution was proposed.
Simultaneous X-ray/optical observations of GX 9+9 (4U 1728−16)

We report on the results of the first simultaneous X-ray (RXTE) and optical [South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO)] observations of the luminous low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) GX 9+9 in 1999 August. The high-speed optical photometry revealed an orbital period of 4.1958 h and confirmed previous observations, but with greater precision. No X-ray modulation was found at the orbital period. On shorter time-scales, a possible 1.4-h variability was found in the optical light curves which might be related to the MHz quasi-periodic oscillations seen in other LMXBs. We do not find any significant X-ray/optical correlation in the light curves. In X-rays, the colour-colour and hardness-intensity diagrams indicate that the source shows characteristics of an atoll source in the upper banana state, with a correlation between intensity and spectral hardness. Time-resolved X-ray spectroscopy suggests that two-component spectral models give a reasonable fit to the X-ray emission. Such models consist of a blackbody component which can be interpreted as the emission from an optically thick accretion disc or an optically thick boundary layer, and a hard Comptonized component for an extended corona.
Relationship between deep medullary veins in susceptibility-weighted imaging and ipsilateral cerebrovascular reactivity of middle cerebral artery in patients with ischemic stroke

Deep cerebral veins have been recently associated with the severity of hemodynamic impairment in moyamoya disease. The aim of the current study was to determine the correlation of deep medullary veins (DMVs) in susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) with ipsilateral cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) of and anterior cecebrocervical artery stenosis in patients with ischemic stroke. Patients with unilateral TIA or infarction who underwent 3.0 T magnetic resonance imaging SWI, digital subtraction angiography and transcranial Doppler with CO2 stimulation within the first 7 days of hospitalization were retrospectively selected. CVR and stenosis of anterior cerebrocervical arteries were compared between different DMVs stages in symptomatic hemispheres (SHs) and asymptomatic hemispheres (AHs). A total of 61 patients were subsequently included in the present study. A univariate analysis was conducted and results for age (PAHs=0.004, PSHs=0.006), hypertension (PAHs=0.008, PSHs=0.020), current smoking (PAHs=0.006, PSHs=0.021), CVR (PAHs=0.000, PSHs=0.000), and artery stenosis (PAHs=0.000, PSHs=0.000) were obtained. The results suggested statistically significant differences between DMVs grades in SHs and AHs. A subsequent multivariate analysis revealed that CVR (ORAHs=0.925, 95% CIAHs: 0.873–0.981; ORSHs=0.945, 95% CISHs: 0.896–0.996), and artery stenosis (ORAH=3.147, 95% CIAH: 1.010–9.806; ORSHs=2.882, 95% CISHs: 1.017–8.166) were independent risk factors of DMVs. In conclusion, 3.0 T SWI was useful in detecting the DMVs around the lateral ventricle in patients with atherosclerotic ischemic stroke. CVR and stenosis of anterior cerebrocervical arteries were independent risk factors for ipsilateral DMVs in SHs and AHs.
Towards Resolving Unidentifiability in Inverse Reinforcement Learning

We consider a setting for Inverse Reinforcement Learning (IRL) where the learner is extended with the ability to actively select multiple environments, observing an agent's behavior on each environment. We first demonstrate that if the learner can experiment with any transition dynamics on some fixed set of states and actions, then there exists an algorithm that reconstructs the agent's reward function to the fullest extent theoretically possible, and that requires only a small (logarithmic) number of experiments. We contrast this result to what is known about IRL in single fixed environments, namely that the true reward function is fundamentally unidentifiable. We then extend this setting to the more realistic case where the learner may not select any transition dynamic, but rather is restricted to some fixed set of environments that it may try. We connect the problem of maximizing the information derived from experiments to submodular function maximization and demonstrate that a greedy algorithm is near optimal (up to logarithmic factors). Finally, we empirically validate our algorithm on an environment inspired by behavioral psychology.
Ethnic differences in maternal dietary patterns are largely explained by socio-economic score and integration score: a population-based study

Background The impact of socio-economic position and integration level on the observed ethnic differences in dietary habits has received little attention. Objectives To identify and describe dietary patterns in a multi-ethnic population of pregnant women, to explore ethnic differences in odds ratio (OR) for belonging to a dietary pattern, when adjusted for socio-economic status and integration level and to examine whether the dietary patterns were reflected in levels of biomarkers related to obesity and hyperglycaemia. Design This cross-sectional study was a part of the STORK Groruddalen study. In total, 757 pregnant women, of whom 59% were of a non-Western origin, completed a food frequency questionnaire in gestational week 28±2. Dietary patterns were extracted through cluster analysis using Ward's method. Results Four robust clusters were identified where cluster 4 was considered the healthier dietary pattern and cluster 1 the least healthy. All non-European women as compared to Europeans had higher OR for belonging to the unhealthier dietary patterns 1–3 vs. cluster 4. Women from the Middle East and Africa had the highest OR, 21.5 (95% CI 10.6–43.7), of falling into cluster 1 vs. 4 as compared to Europeans. The ORs decreased substantially after adjusting for socio-economic score and integration score. A non-European ethnic origin, low socio-economic and integration scores, conduced higher OR for belonging to clusters 1, 2, and 3 as compared to cluster 4. Significant differences in fasting and 2-h glucose, fasting insulin, glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c), insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), and total cholesterol were observed across the dietary patterns. After adjusting for ethnicity, differences in fasting insulin (p=0.015) and HOMA-IR (p=0.040) across clusters remained significant, despite low power. Conclusion The results indicate that socio-economic and integration level may explain a large proportion of the ethnic differences in dietary patterns.
Semi-supervised Classification for Natural Language Processing

Semi-supervised classification is an interesting idea where classification models are learned from both labeled and unlabeled data. It has several advantages over supervised classification in natural language processing domain. For instance, supervised classification exploits only labeled data that are expensive, often difficult to get, inadequate in quantity, and require human experts for annotation. On the other hand, unlabeled data are inexpensive and abundant. Despite the fact that many factors limit the wide-spread use of semi-supervised classification, it has become popular since its level of performance is empirically as good as supervised classification. This study explores the possibilities and achievements as well as complexity and limitations of semi-supervised classification for several natural langue processing tasks like parsing, biomedical information processing, text classification, and summarization.
Pentamidine inhibits catalytic activity of group I intron Ca.LSU by altering RNA folding

The antimicrobial agent pentamidine inhibits the self-splicing of the group I intron Ca.LSU from the transcripts of the 26S rRNA gene of Candida albicans, but the mechanism of pentamidine inhibition is not clear. We show that preincubation of the ribozyme with pentamidine enhances the inhibitory effect of the drug and alters the folding of the ribozyme in a pattern varying with drug concentration. Pentamidine at 25 microM prevents formation of the catalytically active F band conformation of the precursor RNA and alters the ribonuclease T1 cleavage pattern of Ca.LSU RNA. The effects on cleavage suggest that pentamidine mainly binds to specific sites in or near asymmetric loops of helices P2 and P2.1 on the ribozyme, as well as to the tetraloop of P9.2 and the loosely paired helix P9, resulting in an altered structure of helix P7, which contains the active site. Positively charged molecules antagonize pentamidine inhibition of catalysis and relieve the drug effect on ribozyme folding, suggesting that pentamidine binds to a magnesium binding site(s) of the ribozyme to exert its inhibitory effect.
Salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase levels during an assessment procedure correlate differently with risk-taking measures in male and female police recruits

Recent laboratory studies have shown that men display more risk-taking behavior in decision-making tasks following stress, whilst women are more risk-aversive or become more task-focused. In addition, these studies have shown that sex differences are related to levels of the stress hormone cortisol (indicative of activation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenocortical-axis): the higher the levels of cortisol the more risk-taking behavior is shown by men, whereas women generally display more risk-aversive or task-focused behavior following higher levels of cortisol. Here, we assessed whether such relationships hold outside the laboratory, correlating levels of cortisol obtained during a job-related assessment procedure with decision-making parameters in the Cambridge Gambling Task (CGT) in male and female police recruits. The CGT allows for discriminating different aspects of reward-based decision-making. In addition, we correlated levels of alpha-amylase [indicative of activation of the sympatho-adrenomedullary-axis (SAM)] and decision-making parameters. In line with earlier studies men and women only differed in risk-adjustment in the CGT. Salivary cortisol levels correlated positively and strongly with risk-taking measures in men, which was significantly different from the weak negative correlation in women. In contrast, and less strongly so, salivary alpha-amylase levels correlated positively with risk-taking in women, which was significantly different from the weak negative correlation with risk-taking in men. Collectively, these data support and extend data of earlier studies indicating that risky decision-making in men and women is differently affected by stress hormones. The data are briefly discussed in relation to the effects of stress on gambling.
Role of trehalose phosphate synthase and trehalose during hypoxia: from flies to mammals

SUMMARY Trehalose is a nonreducing disaccharide in which the two glucose units are linked in an α,α-1,1-glycosidic linkage. The best known and most widely distributed pathway of trehalose synthesis involves the transfer of glucose from UDP-glucose to glucose 6-phosphate to form trehalose-6-phosphate and UDP via the trehalose-6-phosphate synthase (TPS1). Trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase (TPS2) then converts trehalose-6-phosphate to free trehalose. This sugar is present in a wide variety of organisms, including bacteria, yeast, fungi, insects, invertebrates and plants, and because of its particular physical features, trehalose is able to protect the integrity of cells against a variety of environmental stresses such as desiccation, dehydration, heat, cold and oxidation. Our current studies described here indicate that trehalose protects Drosophila and mammalian cells from hypoxic and anoxic injury. The mechanism of this protection is probably related to a decrease in protein denaturation through protein–trehalose interactions.
High Glucose Induces Human Endothelial Cell Apoptosis Through a Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase–Regulated Cyclooxygenase-2 Pathway

Objectives—Diabetes mellitus causes endothelial dysfunction. The precise molecular mechanisms by which hyperglycemia causes apoptosis in endothelial cells are not yet well understood. The aim of this study was to explore the role of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and the possible involvement of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling in high glucose (HG)–induced apoptosis in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Methods and Results—For detection of apoptosis, the morphological Hoechst staining and Annexin V/propidium iodide staining were used. Glucose upregulated COX-2 protein expression, which was associated with the induction of prostaglandin (PG) E2 (PGE2), caspase-3 activity, and apoptosis. Unexpectedly, we found that PI3K inhibitors could suppress COX-2 expression, PGE2 production, caspase-3 activity, and the subsequent apoptosis under HG condition. Glucose-induced activation of PI3K resulted in the downstream effector Akt phosphorylation. PI3K inhibitors effectively attenuated the intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and nuclear factor &kgr;B (NF-&kgr;B) activation. Blocking the PI3K and Akt activities with the dominant-negative vectors greatly diminished the HG-triggered NF-&kgr;B activation and COX-2 expression and apoptosis. Conclusions—These results suggest that HG, via PI3K/Akt signaling, induces NF-&kgr;B–related upregulation of COX-2, which in turn triggers the caspase-3 activity that facilitates HUVEC apoptosis. Also, HG may cause ROS generation in HUVECs through a PI3K/Akt–dependent pathway.