Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of Early Life Adversity on Reward Processing in Young Adults: EEG-fMRI Results from a Prospective Study over 25 Years

Several lines of evidence have implicated the mesolimbic dopamine reward pathway in altered brain function resulting from exposure to early adversity. The present study examined the impact of early life adversity on different stages of neuronal reward processing later in life and their association with a related behavioral phenotype, i.e. attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). 162 healthy young adults (mean age = 24.4 years; 58% female) from an epidemiological cohort study followed since birth participated in a simultaneous EEG-fMRI study using a monetary incentive delay task. Early life adversity according to an early family adversity index (EFA) and lifetime ADHD symptoms were assessed using standardized parent interviews conducted at the offspring's age of 3 months and between 2 and 15 years, respectively. fMRI region-of-interest analysis revealed a significant effect of EFA during reward anticipation in reward-related areas (i.e. ventral striatum, putamen, thalamus), indicating decreased activation when EFA increased. EEG analysis demonstrated a similar effect for the contingent negative variation (CNV), with the CNV decreasing with the level of EFA. In contrast, during reward delivery, activation of the bilateral insula, right pallidum and bilateral putamen increased with EFA. There was a significant association of lifetime ADHD symptoms with lower activation in the left ventral striatum during reward anticipation and higher activation in the right insula during reward delivery. The present findings indicate a differential long-term impact of early life adversity on reward processing, implicating hyporesponsiveness during reward anticipation and hyperresponsiveness when receiving a reward. Moreover, a similar activation pattern related to lifetime ADHD suggests that the impact of early life stress on ADHD may possibly be mediated by a dysfunctional reward pathway.
Delivery of improved oncolytic adenoviruses by mesenchymal stromal cells for elimination of tumorigenic pancreatic cancer cells

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is one of the most aggressive malignancies and has poor therapeutic options. We evaluated improved oncolytic adenoviruses (OAds), in which the adenoviral gene E1B19K was deleted or a TRAIL transgene was inserted. Bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) served as carriers for protected and tumor-specific virus transfers. The infection competence, tumor migration, and oncolysis were measured in cancer stem cell (CSC) models of primary and established tumor cells and in tumor xenografts. All OAds infected and lysed CSCs and prevented colony formation. MSCs migrated into PDA spheroids without impaired homing capacity. Xenotransplantation of non-infected PDA cells mixed with infected tumor cells strongly reduced the tumor volume and the expression of the proliferation marker Ki67 along with a necrotic morphology. Adenoviral capsid protein was detected in tumor xenograft tissue after intravenous injection of infected MSCs, but not in normal tissue, implying tumor-specific migration. Likewise, direct in vivo treatment correlated with a strongly reduced tumor volume, lower expression of Ki67 and CD24, and enhanced activity of caspase 3. These data demonstrate that the improved OAds induced efficient oncolysis with the OAd-TRAIL as most promising candidate for future clinical application.
Values in China as Compared to Africa: Two Conceptions of Harmony

Abstract:Acknowledging a twenty-first-century context of sophisticated market economies and other Western influences such as Christianity, what similarities and differences are there between characteristic indigenous values of sub-Saharan Africa and China, and how do they continue to influence everyday life in these societies? After establishing that ideals of harmonious relationships are central to both non-Western value systems, traditional African and Chinese conceptions of harmony are compared and contrasted, and a number of aspects are analyzed in which the appreciation of this value affects contemporary political, economic, and social interaction.
Deflowering the voting virgin: Piety, political advertising, and the pleasure prerogative

ABSTRACT In this essay, the author examines political advertisements that employ the tropology of sex and romance in order to promote voter participation. The ads appear initially to be humorous attempts at “perspective by incongruity,” disrupting U.S. political culture by seeking to activate otherwise disengaged young women as a formidable political constituency. Although the ads challenge standards of political propriety, they leave intact the pieties of postfeminism and patriarchy which govern political dialogue on both the left and the right. Furthermore, the ads foster a “pleasure prerogative” which conflates female political agency with romantic engagement, (hetero)sexual consummation, and consumer consciousness. By valorizing the instant gratification of fleeting contact with the ballot box over the subdued satisfaction of a long-term commitment to deliberative democracy, these ads ultimately are corrosive to democratic culture.
Galaxy morphologies and environment in the Abell 901/902 supercluster from COMBO-17

ABSTRACT We present a morphological study of galaxies in the A901/902 supercluster from theCOMBO-17 survey. A total of 570 galaxies with photometric redshifts in the range 0:155 1:5 a classical morphology-density relation isfound. A correlation is also found between morphology and local projected surface mass den-sity, but no trend is observed with distance to the nearest cluster. This supports the ﬁnding thatlocal environment is more important to galaxy morphology than global cluster properties. Thebreakdown of the morphological catalogue by colour shows a dominance of blue galaxies inthe galaxies displaying late-type morphologies and a corresponding dominance of red galax-ies in the early-type population. Using the 17-band photometry from COMBO-17, we furthersplit the supercluster red sequence into old passive galaxies and galaxies with young stars anddust according to the prescription of Wolf et al. (2005). We ﬁnd that the dusty star-formingpopulation describes an intermediate morphological group between late-type and early-typegalaxies, supporting the hypothesis that ﬁeld and group spiral galaxies are transformed intoS0s and, perhaps, ellipticals during cluster infall.Key words: galaxies: clusters: general — galaxies: evolution — galaxies: interactions
Improving Cell Edge Energy Efficiency through CoMP Beam-Forming

In this paper, we analyze the performance of a CoMP BF scheme in improving cell edge energy efficiency. We use established concepts in MIMO and CoMP to build a system model and simulate it with measured MIMO channel data and SLS SINR values. The CoMP BF simulation results indicate a doubling of energy efficiencies for the cell edge user with minimal impact on the coordinating user. The CoMP BF performance degrades only gradually even with long system delays.
On the Nature of Andromeda IV

Lying at a projected distance of 40′ or 9 kpc from the center of M31, Andromeda IV is an enigmatic object first discovered during van den Bergh's search for dwarf spheroidal companions to M31. Since it is bluer, more compact, and has a higher surface brightness than other known dwarf spheroidals, it has been suggested that And IV is either a relatively old "star cloud" in the outer disk of M31 or a background dwarf galaxy. We present deep Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 observations of And IV and the surrounding field, which, along with ground-based long-slit spectroscopy and Hα imagery, are used to decipher the true nature of this puzzling object. We find compelling evidence that And IV is a background galaxy seen through the disk of M31. The moderate surface brightness ( ∼ 24), very blue color (V-I ≲ 0.6), low current star formation rate (∼0.001 M⊙ yr-1), and low metallicity (∼10% Z⊙) reported here are consistent with And IV being a small dwarf irregular galaxy, perhaps similar to Local Group dwarfs such as IC 1613 and Sextans A. Although the distance to And IV is not tightly constrained with the current data set, various arguments suggest it lies in the range 5 ≲ D ≲ 8 Mpc, placing it well outside the confines of the Local Group. It may be associated with a loose group of galaxies, containing major members UGC 64, IC 1727, and NGC 784. We report an updated position and radial velocity for And IV.
Warm Temperature-sensitive Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid 4 (TRPV4) Plays an Essential Role in Thermal Hyperalgesia*

Animals sense various ranges of temperatures by cutaneous thermal stimuli. Transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 (TRPV4) is a cation channel activated at a warm temperature (over 30 °C) in exogenously expressed cells. We found in the present study that TRPV4 is essential in thermal hyperalgesia at a warm temperature in vivo. TRPV4–/– and TRPV4+/+ mice exhibited the same latency of escape from 35–50 °C hotplates. Neuronal activity in the femoral nerve, however, revealed that the number and activity level of neurons decreased in response to a warm temperature in TRPV4–/– mice. TRPV4–/– mice displayed a significantly longer latency to escape from the plates at 35– 45 °C when hyperalgesia was induced by carrageenan without changes in foot volumes. TRPV4 therefore determines the sensitivity rather than the threshold of painful heat detection and plays an essential role in thermal hyperalgesia.
A Study of a Social Behavior inside the Online Black Markets

Illegal activities in cyberspace involving software vulnerabilities have resulted in tangible damage on computer-based environments. Lately, online black market sites for trading stolen goods, credentials, malware and exploit kits have been intensively examined. The market players are identifiably a group of loosely tied individuals but posses shared interests. However, their social behavior has only been discussed in a limited manner. This paper examines the arrangement of the market insiders’ social behavior that enables such forums to continue or discontinue their operation and become a meaningful threat to security. The results reveal that particular formal and informal regulations and procedures, forum lifecycle and common norms of black market participants contributing to keeping the markets running.
Loss Aversion in Politics

We study loss aversion in majority voting. First, we show a status quo bias. Second, loss aversion implies a moderating effect. Third, in a dynamic setting, the effect of loss aversion diminishes with the length of the planning horizon of voters; however, in the presence of a projection bias, majorities are partially unable to understand how fast they will adapt. Fourth, in a stochastic environment, loss aversion yields a significant distaste for risk, but also a smaller attachment to the status quo. The application of these results to a model of redistribution leads to empirically plausible implications.
The Dynamics of ageing: Evidence from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing 2002-2016 (Wave 8)

Since the inception of the study in 2002, the ELSA sample has been re-surveyed biennially. Understanding the complex dynamics of the ageing process is made possible in ELSA owing to the availability of these repeated measures of economic circumstances, behaviour, lifestyle and social connections in the same individuals over time. These measures are important in their own right but may also infl uence health, mortality, retirement and well-being. Findings from the study therefore have utility in informing policy and improving the lives of older adults.
Laser Speckle Flowmetry for the Study of Cerebrovascular Physiology in Normal and Ischemic Mouse Cortex

Laser speckle flowmetry (LSF) is useful to assess noninvasively two-dimensional cerebral blood flow (CBF) with high temporal and spatial resolution. The authors show that LSF can image the spatiotemporal dynamics of CBF changes in mice through an intact skull. When measured by LSF, peak CBF increases during whisker stimulation closely correlated with simultaneous laser-Doppler flowmetry (LDF) measurements, and were greater within the branches of the middle cerebral artery supplying barrel cortex than within barrel cortex capillary bed itself. When LSF was used to study the response to inhaled CO2 (5%), the flow increase was similar to the response reported using LDF. For the upper and lower limits of autoregulation, mean arterial pressure values were 110 and 40 mm Hg, respectively. They also show a linear relationship between absolute resting CBF, as determined by [14C]iodoamphetamine technique, and 1/τc values obtained using LSF, and used 1/τc values to compare resting CBF between different animals. Finally, the authors studied CBF changes after distal middle cerebral artery ligation, and developed a model to investigate the spatial distribution and hemodynamics of moderate to severely ischemic cortex. In summary, LSF has distinct advantages over LDF for CBF monitoring because of high spatial resolution.
It’s Not Just What You Have, but Who You Know: Networks, Social Proximity to Elites, and Voting in State and Local Elections

Individual-level studies of electoral turnout and vote choice have focused largely on personal attributes as explanatory variables. We argue that scholars should also consider the social network in which individuals are embedded, which may influence voting through variation in individuals’ social proximity to elites. Our analysis rests on newly discovered historical records revealing the individual votes of all electors in the 1859 statewide elections in Alexandria, Virginia and the 1874 municipal elections in Newport, Kentucky, paired with archival work identifying the social relations of the cities’ populations. We also replicate our core findings using survey data from a modern municipal election. We show that individuals more socially proximate to elites turn out at a higher rate and individuals more socially proximate to a given political party’s elites vote disproportionately for that party. These results suggest an overlooked social component of voting and provide a rare nineteenth-century test of modern voting theories.
Seamless video handoff in session mobility over the IMS network

Providing seamless handoff in session mobility is a challenging, and vital, issue relating to the heterogeneous next generation All-IP networks. The research work outlined by this paper describes a solution to support seamless video handoff in session mobility over IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) networks. Our system is built on top of an IMS network, which we believe to be the best platform for session mobility deployment, as it merges mobility and Internet services. The system combines two techniques to achieve seamless video handoff: It uses the SIP REFER method, with a proposed Prediction Handoff Manager that predicts the required handoff time to transfer the session completely. The proposed system is implemented using PJSIP framework, an open source of SIP. Results show effective seamless handover in session mobility over IMS networks.
Misleading Information in Social Media News: How Bias Affects Perceptions

Correcting misinformation is challenging because of the difficulty in changing biases (Ecker et al., 2013). Biased decisions are learned behaviors. People choose information that they are more frequently exposed to and from which they gather rewards (Sali, Anderson, & Courtney, 2016). Social media has become a new reward system for biased information (Neubaum et al, 2016). The difficulty of correcting misinformation multiplies as people have begun choosing social media as their preferred news platform. Social media news has recently focused its reporting on police (Sela-Shayovitz, 2015). Among participants who saw a misleading clip before a longer video of a police/suspect interaction, those with negative perceptions of police would be less likely to change their perspectives after seeing the full video. This study utilized results from 23 adults ages 18 to 77. Participants were given surveys on media consumption and a modified Global Attitudes Toward Police Scale (Hurst & Frank, 2000). Participants were directed towards one of two scenarios: 1) viewing a short, misleading clip from a longer video or 2) viewing a short, representative clip from a longer video. Participants were then given a survey to record their impression of their video clip. Participants were then shown the full video, followed by the survey. Results demonstrated that participants’ personal bias did not have a significant influence on their perceptions of what occurred during the videos until viewing the full video. Results of showed the prevalence of confirmation bias over personal bias. Results also found that the representative video had a positive impact on participants’ perceptions despite previously held biases, mirroring the findings of previous research on the impact of positive messages in television (Brown, 1992). As social media news expands, and information becomes easier to send and receive, it is important to explore its uses as a positive tool.
Prevalence of co-morbidity in different European RRT populations and its effect on access to renal transplantation.

BACKGROUND This study compared the prevalence of co-morbidity in patients starting renal replacement therapy (RRT) between European countries and further examined how co-morbidity affects access to transplantation. METHODS In this ERA-EDTA registry special study, 17907 patients from Austria, Catalonia (Spain), Lombardy (Italy), Norway, and the UK (England/Wales) were included (1994-2001). Co-morbidity was recorded at the start of RRT. RESULTS The prevalence of co-morbidity was: diabetes mellitus (DM) (primary renal disease and co-morbidity) 28%, ischaemic heart disease (IHD) 23%, peripheral vascular disease (PVD) 24%, cerebrovascular disease (CVD) 14% and malignancy 11%. With exception of malignancy, the prevalence of co-morbidity was highest in Austria, but differences were small among other countries. With exception of DM, males suffered more often from co-morbidity than females. In general, the percentage of haemodialysis was higher in patients with co-morbidity, but treatment modality differed substantially between countries. Using a Cox regression with adjustment for demographics, country, year of start and other co-morbidities, the presence of each of the co-morbid conditions made it less likely [RR; 95%CI] to receive a transplant within 4 years: DM [0.79; 0.70-0.88], IHD [0.59; 0.50-0.70], PVD [0.57; 0.49-0.67], CVD [0.49; 0.39-0.61], and malignancy [0.32; 0.24-0.42]. The age, gender and year of start adjusted relative risk [95%CI] to receive a renal transplant within 4 years ranged from 0.23 [0.19-0.27] for Lombardy (Italy) to 3.86 [3.36-4.45] for Norway (Austria = reference). These international differences existed for patients with and without co-morbidity. CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of co-morbidity was highest in Austria but differences were small among other countries. The access to a renal graft was most affected by the presence of malignancy and least affected by the presence of DM. International differences in access to transplantation were only partly due to co-morbid variability.
Reactive Attachment Disorder in infants in foster care and associated mental health and cognitive functioning

Background: Reactive attachment disorder (RAD) has been described as one of the least researched and most poorly understood psychiatric disorders (Chaffin et al., 2006). Despite this, given what is known about maltreatment and attachment, it is likely that RAD has profound consequences for child development. Very little is known about the prevalence and stability of RAD symptoms over time. Until recently it has been difficult to investigate the presence of RAD due to limited measures for informing a diagnosis. However this study utilised a new observational tool Method: A cross sectional study design with a one-year follow-up explored RAD symptoms in maltreated infants in Scotland (n=55, age range= 16-62 months) and associated mental health and cognitive functioning. The study utilised the Rating of Inhibited Attachment Behavior Scale (Corval, et al., unpublished 2014) that has recently been developed by experts in the field along side The Disturbances of Attachment Interview (Smyke & Zeanah, 1999). Children were recruited as part of the BeST trial, whereby all infants who came in to the care of the local authority in Glasgow due to child protection concerns were invited to participate. The study sample was representative of the larger pool of data in terms of age, gender, mental health and cognitive functioning. Results: The sample was found to be representative of the population of maltreated children from which it was derived. Prevalence of RAD was found to be 7.3% (n=3, 95% CI [0.43 – 14.17]) at T1, when children are first placed in to foster care. At T2, following one year in improved care conditions, 4.3% (n=2, 95% CI [below 0 – 10.16]) met a borderline RAD diagnosis. Levels of observed RAD symptoms decreased significantly at T2 in comparison to T1 but carer reported symptoms of RAD did not. Children whose RAD symptoms did not improve were found to be significantly older and showed less prosocial behaviour. RAD was associated with some mental health and cognitive difficulties. Lower Verbal IQ and unexpectedly, prosocial behaviour were found to predict RAD symptoms. Conclusions: The preliminary findings have added to the developing understanding of RAD symptoms and associated difficulties however further exploration of RAD in larger samples would be invaluable.
Dendrites Have a Rapid Program of Injury-Induced Degeneration That Is Molecularly Distinct from Developmental Pruning

Neurons have two types of processes: axons and dendrites. Axons have an active disassembly program activated by severing. It has not been tested whether dendrites have an analogous program. We sever Drosophila dendrites in vivo and find that they are cleared within 24 h. Morphologically, this clearance resembles developmental dendrite pruning and, to some extent, axon degeneration. Like axon degeneration, both injury-induced dendrite degeneration and pruning can be delayed by expression of Wld(s) or UBP2. We therefore hypothesized that they use common machinery. Surprisingly, comparison of dendrite pruning and degeneration in the same cell demonstrated that none of the specific machinery used to prune dendrites is required for injury-induced dendrite degeneration. In addition, we show that the rapid program of dendrite degeneration does not require mitochondria. Thus, dendrites do have a rapid program of degeneration, as do axons, but this program does not require the machinery used during developmental pruning.