Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Structure-Activity Relationship of Synthetic 2-Phenylnaphthalenes with Hydroxyl Groups that Inhibit Proliferation and Induce Apoptosis of MCF-7 Cancer Cells

In this study, six 2-phenylnaphthalenes with hydroxyl groups were synthesized in high yields by the demethylation of the corresponding methoxy-2-phenylnaphthalenes, and one 2-phenylnaphthalene with an amino group was obtained by hydrogenation. All of the 2-phenylnaphthalene derivatives were evaluated for cytotoxicity, and the structure-activity relationship (SAR) against human breast cancer (MCF-7) cells was also determined. The SAR results revealed that cytotoxicity was markedly promoted by the hydroxyl group at the C-7 position of the naphthalene ring. The introduction of hydroxyl groups at the C-6 position of the naphthalene ring and the C-4' position of the phenyl ring fairly enhanced cytotoxicity, but the introduction of a hydroxyl group at the C-3' position of the phenyl ring slightly decreased cytotoxicity. Overall, 6,7-dihydroxy-2-(4'-hydroxyphenyl)naphthalene (PNAP-6h) exhibited the best cytotoxicity, with an IC50 value of 4.8 μM against the MCF-7 cell line, and showed low toxicity toward normal human mammary epithelial cells (MCF-10A). PNAP-6h led to cell arrest at the S phase, most likely due to increasing levels of p21 and p27 and decreasing levels of cyclin D1, CDK4, cyclin E, and CDK2. In addition, PNAP-6h decreased CDK1 and cyclin B1 expression, most likely leading to G2/M arrest, and induced morphological changes, such as nuclear shrinkage, nuclear fragmentation, and nuclear hypercondensation, as observed by Hoechst 33342 staining. PNAP-6h induced apoptosis, most likely by the promotion of Fas expression, increased PARP activity, caspase-7, caspase-8, and caspase-9 expression, the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, and the phosphorylation of p38, and decreased the phosphorylation of ERK. This study provides the first demonstration of the cytotoxicity of PNAPs against MCF-7 cells and elucidates the mechanism underlying PNAP-induced cytotoxicity.
An evaluation of melanopsin function and light exposure in depressive disorders

Melanopsin cells in the eye signal environmental light to multiple brain areas including those for circadian rhythms, for controlling the pupil light reflex and mood. Melanopsin function and daylight exposure in humans with non-seasonal depression was determined to investigate the role of light on depression. Normal melanopsin and light exposure was found in patients with non-seasonal depression and there was no relationship between hours in daylight and melanopsin. This novel finding advances our current understanding on the relationship between environmental light and melanopsin in depressive disorders.
Online audio background determination for complex audio environments

We present a method for foreground/background separation of audio using a background modelling technique. The technique models the background in an online, unsupervised, and adaptive fashion, and is designed for application to long term surveillance and monitoring problems. The background is determined using a statistical method to model the states of the audio over time. In addition, three methods are used to increase the accuracy of background modelling in complex audio environments. Such environments can cause the failure of the statistical model to accurately capture the background states. An entropy-based approach is used to unify background representations fragmented over multiple states of the statistical model. The approach successfully unifies such background states, resulting in a more robust background model. We adaptively adjust the number of states considered background according to background complexity, resulting in the more accurate classification of background models. Finally, we use an auxiliary model cache to retain potential background states in the system. This prevents the deletion of such states due to a rapid influx of observed states that can occur for highly dynamic sections of the audio signal. The separation algorithm was successfully applied to a number of audio environments representing monitoring applications.
Low-Frequency Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation over Left Dorsal Premotor Cortex Improves the Dynamic Control of Visuospatially Cued Actions

Left rostral dorsal premotor cortex (rPMd) and supramarginal gyrus (SMG) have been implicated in the dynamic control of actions. In 12 right-handed healthy individuals, we applied 30 min of low-frequency (1 Hz) repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over left rPMd to investigate the involvement of left rPMd and SMG in the rapid adjustment of actions guided by visuospatial cues. After rTMS, subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while making spatially congruent button presses with the right or left index finger in response to a left- or right-sided target. Subjects were asked to covertly prepare motor responses as indicated by a directional cue presented 1 s before the target. On 20% of trials, the cue was invalid, requiring subjects to readjust their motor plan according to the target location. Compared with sham rTMS, real rTMS increased the number of correct responses in invalidly cued trials. After real rTMS, task-related activity of the stimulated left rPMd showed increased task-related coupling with activity in ipsilateral SMG and the adjacent anterior intraparietal area (AIP). Individuals who showed a stronger increase in left-hemispheric premotor–parietal connectivity also made fewer errors on invalidly cued trials after rTMS. The results suggest that rTMS over left rPMd improved the ability to dynamically adjust visuospatial response mapping by strengthening left-hemispheric connectivity between rPMd and the SMG–AIP region. These results support the notion that left rPMd and SMG–AIP contribute toward dynamic control of actions and demonstrate that low-frequency rTMS can enhance functional coupling between task-relevant brain regions and improve some aspects of motor performance.
A Theory of Asset Prices based on Heterogeneous Investor Information and Limits to Arbitrage ∗

We propose a theory of asset prices that emphasizes heterogeneous investor beliefs and limits to arbitrage as the main elements determining prices and returns of different securities. In our theory, the noisy aggregation of heterogeneous investor beliefs drives a systematic wedge between the impact of fundamentals on an asset price, and the corresponding impact on cash flow expectations. From this information aggregation wedge, we derive testable predictions for prices and returns, both conditional on the realized states, and unconditionally, as a function of an asset’s cash flow characteristics and the parameters that summarize the information aggregation frictions. Concretely, assets that are dominated by upside risks trade at a premium, while assets that are dominated by downside risks trade at a discount, on average. These premia and discounts are increasing in the asymmetry in payoff risks and the severity of market frictions. We also use our theory to reconsider the Modigliani-Miller Theorem, the excess volatility puzzle, and the effects of disclosures on market prices.
Stability analysis in order-preserving systems in the presence of symmetry

Given an equation with a certain symmetry, such as symmetry with respect to rotation or translation, one of the most fundamental questions to ask is whether or not the symmetry of the equation is inherited by its solutions. We first discuss this question in a general framework of order-preserving dynamical systems under a group action and establish a theory concerning symmetry or monotonicity properties of stable equilibrium points. We then apply this general theory to nonlinear partial differential equations. Among other things, we prove the rotational symmetry of solutions for a class of nonlinear elliptic equations and the monotonicity of travelling waves of some nonlinear diffusion equations. We also discuss the stability of stationary or periodic solutions for equations of surface motion.
Prejudice and Politics: Symbolic Racism Versus Racial Threats to the Good Life

Although theories of prejudice have been extensively catalogued, empirical confrontations between competing theories are surprisingly rare. The primary goal of the present research was to test two major theoretical approaches to prejudice by whites against blacks: realistic group conflict theory, which emphasizes the tangible threats blacks might pose to whites' private lives; and a sociocultural theory of prejudice termed symbolic racism, which emphasizes abstract, moralistic resentments of blacks, presumably traceable to preadult socialization. The main dependent variable in our analysis is suburban whites' voting behavior in two mayoral elections in Los Angeles, both strongly influenced by racial issues, that matched the same two candidates, one black and one white. In both elections, symbolic racism (sociocultural prejudice) was the major determinant of voting against the black candidate for people removed from possible personal threats posed by blacks as well as for those at risk. Direct racial threats to whites' private lives (to their jobs, their neighborhoods, their children's schooling, their families' safety) had little effect on either antiblack voting behavior or symbolic racism. The article closes by developing the implications of these results for theories of prejudice and, more speculatively, for interpretations of the effects of voters' private lives on their political behavior. Theories of racial prejudice suffer from benign neglect. Although the theories themselves have been extensively and ably catalogued (most notably, by Allport, 1954; Ashmore & DelBoca, 1976; LeVine & Campbell, 1972), empirical confrontations between alternative theories occupy surprisingly little
Measuring learning: discrepancies between conceptions of and approaches to learning

Abstract This study is framed under the student approaches to learning tradition. The aim was to identify convergence in quantitative and qualitative responses of individuals when measuring their conceptions of and approaches to learning with a mixed methods design. A sample of 1110 Spanish Master’s level teacher education students completed a scale on approaches to learning (R-SPQ-2F), and a randomly selected subsample of 111 answered an open-ended question on how they learned. Overall, the qualitative and quantitative data did not support each other, as inventory responses showed a clear predominance of a deep, non-surface approach to learning, whereas qualitative answers reflected a tendency towards lower-order conceptions of learning. Inconsistencies in the results suggest future research ought to use a combination of techniques when exploring constructs such as learning should they wish to draw valid conclusions.
Numerical Validation of CHT method for simulation of Anti-/ de-Icing Piccolo System

Anti-/de-icing CHT method based on ANSYS-CFX flow solver and FENSAP-ICE software is presented. The ANSYS-CFX flow solver is used as the flow solver module with the SST turbulence model. DROP3D is used as the droplet impingement module. ICE3D is used as the ice accretion and water film runback module. CHT3D/CFX is used for the thermal coupling of all modules. Before solving for the temperature distribution in a 3D anti-icing system geometry based on a piccolo tube with three jet rows, a test case consisting of a two stream parallel gas to gas micro heat exchanger will validate the CHT3D/CFX procedure. For the anti-icing system in wet air mode temperature results at corresponding experimental locations are presented and compared to results from literature.
A Study on the Bootstrapping Architectures for Scalable Private Reappearing Overlay Network

There has been a tremendous growth in the adoption of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) systems for media distribution and file sharing. However, P2P is now also being used as underlying technology for other purposes such as the distribution of software updates or as infrastructure for a distributed information repository. The research introduced in this paper is motivated by a use case in the latter area. This use case addresses the problem of document and information sharing between educational institutions in Malaysia. The additional challenge is that apart from not having any central instance peers have regular, daily down-times. During the night all peers disappear altogether. Hence the challenge is to find an effective way to set-up a P2P information and document sharing system taking into account the special characteristic of the dis- and re-appearing peers. In this paper, we investigate various bootstrapping architectures for the proposed Scalable Private Reappearing Overlay Network (SPRON). The bootstrapping needs to be self-organize, scalable and handle deterministic churn rate during its network formation period for peers (or computers) in various operational levels of the ministry of education. The deterministic churn rate is defined as the continuous process of node arrival and departure pattern of a P2P system. Within this paper we present the background information of the research theme, problem statements, and a proposed Scalable Private Reappearing Overlay Network (SPRON) design to illustrate a specialized P2P network and its unique set of requirements. The main focus of the paper is the presentation of the finding of our investigation regarding the bootstrapping performance of Chord, Chord with Aggressive Join, and Kademlia in order to establish the most appropriate P2P structure to base our system on. Through this we determine the suitability of these structured networks as the foundation in the proposed Scalable Private Reappearing Overlay Network design.
The Polyfunctionality of Human Memory CD8+ T Cells Elicited by Acute and Chronic Virus Infections Is Not Influenced by Age

As humans age, they experience a progressive loss of thymic function and a corresponding shift in the makeup of the circulating CD8+ T cell population from naïve to memory phenotype. These alterations are believed to result in impaired CD8+ T cell responses in older individuals; however, evidence that these global changes impact virus-specific CD8+ T cell immunity in the elderly is lacking. To gain further insight into the functionality of virus-specific CD8+ T cells in older individuals, we interrogated a cohort of individuals who were acutely infected with West Nile virus (WNV) and chronically infected with Epstein Barr virus (EBV) and Cytomegalovirus (CMV). The cohort was stratified into young (<40 yrs), middle-aged (41–59 yrs) and aged (>60 yrs) groups. In the aged cohort, the CD8+ T cell compartment displayed a marked reduction in the frequency of naïve CD8+ T cells and increased frequencies of CD8+ T cells that expressed CD57 and lacked CD28, as previously described. However, we did not observe an influence of age on either the frequency of virus-specific CD8+ T cells within the circulating pool nor their functionality (based on the production of IFNγ, TNFα, IL2, Granzyme B, Perforin and mobilization of CD107a). We did note that CD8+ T cells specific for WNV, CMV or EBV displayed distinct functional profiles, but these differences were unrelated to age. Collectively, these data fail to support the hypothesis that immunosenescence leads to defective CD8+ T cell immunity and suggest that it should be possible to develop CD8+ T cell vaccines to protect aged individuals from infections with novel emerging viruses.
Abnormal Pressure Pain, Touch Sensitivity, Proprioception, and Manual Dexterity in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often display an abnormal reactivity to tactile stimuli, altered pain perception, and lower motor skills than healthy children. Nevertheless, these motor and sensory deficits have been mostly assessed by using clinical observation and self-report questionnaires. The present study aims to explore somatosensory and motor function in children with ASD by using standardized and objective testing procedures. Methods. Tactile and pressure pain thresholds in hands and lips, stereognosis, proprioception, and fine motor performance of the upper limbs were assessed in high-functioning children with ASD (n = 27) and compared with typically developing peers (n = 30). Results. Children with ASD showed increased pain sensitivity, increased touch sensitivity in C-tactile afferents innervated areas, and diminished fine motor performance and proprioception compared to healthy children. No group differences were observed for stereognosis. Conclusion. Increased pain sensitivity and increased touch sensitivity in areas classically related to affective touch (C-tactile afferents innervated areas) may explain typical avoiding behaviors associated with hypersensitivity. Both sensory and motor impairments should be assessed and treated in children with ASD.
The Effects of Variety of Activities on the Social Interaction of Preschool Children with Disabilities

Abstract Analysis of previous research has indicated that restricting the amount of equipment available may be a practical strategy to facilitate peer interaction in childcare, but a disadvantage is a possible increase in aggressive behaviour. An alternative approach is manipulating the variety of activities while holding the quantity and type of equipment consistent. The effect of such an intervention was examined on social interaction of two children with disabilities including severe language problems. A single case alternating treatment design was used to compare the effectiveness of eight activities, as opposed to four activities with the quantity of equipment doubled. There was no consistent clinically significant difference in social interaction when the variety of activities was varied for the children in this study. It is possible that the language delay of the participants may have attenuated the effect of the intervention, and this possibility warrants further investigation.
Investigating the relationship between sleep quality and intrusive memories in post-traumatic stress disorder

The Sleep to Forget, Sleep to Remember model (Walker, 2009) suggests that sleep quality influences emotional memory consolidation. This model has relevance to intrusive memories in PTSD, since theories of PTSD posit that intrusive memories are a product of inadequate processing of emotional memories (Brewin, Dalgleish, & Joseph, 1996; Ehlers & Clark, 2000). The present study aims to investigate the moderating effect of sleep on the relationship between PTSD and intrusive memories. 34 PTSD, 44 trauma exposed (TE) and 40 non-trauma exposed (NTE) participants completed an emotional memory task, where they viewed 60 images (20 positive, 20 negative and 20 neutral) and, two days later, reported how many intrusive memories they had of each valence category. Participants also completed three measures of sleep quality: the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the REM Behaviour Disorder Screening Questionnaire and total hours slept before the second session. The PTSD group reported poorer sleep quality than control groups on all three measures, and significantly more negative intrusive memories than the NTE group. Moderation analyses revealed that hours of sleep before the second session moderated the relationship between PTSD symptomology and intrusive memories, as predicted by Sleep to Forget, Sleep to Remember (Walker, 2009).
Reducing cache misses by application-specific re-configurable indexing

The predictability of memory access patterns in embedded systems can be successfully exploited to devise effective application-specific cache optimizations. In this work, we propose an improved indexing scheme for direct-mapped caches, which drastically reduces the number of conflict misses by using application-specific information; the scheme is based on the selection of a subset of the address bits. With respect to similar approaches, our solution has two main strengths. First, it models the misses analytically by building a miss equation, and exploits a symbolic algorithm to compute the exact optimum solution (i.e., the subset of address bits to be used as cache index that minimizes conflict misses). Second, we designed a re-configurable bit selector, which can be programmed at run-time to fit the optimal cache indexing to a given application. Results show an average reduction of conflict misses of 24%, measured over a set of standard benchmarks, and for different cache configurations.
Feature Reinforcement Learning: State of the Art

Feature reinforcement learning was introduced five years ago as a principled and practical approach to history-based learning. This paper examines the progress since its inception. We now have both model-based and model-free cost functions, most recently extended to the function approximation setting. Our current work is geared towards playing ATARI games using imitation learning, where we use Feature RL as a feature selection method for high-dimensional domains.
Skeletal Muscle Insulin Resistance Associated with Cholesterol-Induced Activation of Macrophages Is Prevented by High Density Lipoprotein

Background Emerging evidence suggests that high density lipoprotein (HDL) may modulate glucose metabolism through multiple mechanisms including pancreatic insulin secretion as well as insulin-independent glucose uptake into muscle. We hypothesized that HDL may also increase skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity via cholesterol removal and anti-inflammatory actions in macrophages associated with excess adiposity and ectopic lipid deposition. Methods Human primary and THP-1 macrophages were treated with vehicle (PBS) or acetylated low density lipoprotein (acLDL) with or without HDL for 18 hours. Treatments were then removed, and macrophages were incubated with fresh media for 4 hours. This conditioned media was then applied to primary human skeletal myotubes derived from vastus lateralis biopsies taken from patients with type 2 diabetes to examine insulin-stimulated glucose uptake. Results Conditioned media from acLDL-treated primary and THP-1 macrophages reduced insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in primary human skeletal myotubes compared with vehicle (primary macrophages, 168±21% of basal uptake to 104±19%; THP-1 macrophages, 142±8% of basal uptake to 108±6%; P<0.05). This was restored by co-treatment of macrophages with HDL. While acLDL increased total intracellular cholesterol content, phosphorylation of c-jun N-terminal kinase and secretion of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines from macrophages, none were altered by co-incubation with HDL. Insulin-stimulated Akt phosphorylation in human skeletal myotubes exposed to conditioned media was unaltered by either treatment condition. Conclusion Inhibition of insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in primary human skeletal myotubes by conditioned media from macrophages pre-incubated with acLDL was restored by co-treatment with HDL. However, these actions were not linked to modulation of common pro- or anti-inflammatory mediators or insulin signaling via Akt.
Do not Click “Like” When Somebody has Died: The Role of Norms for Mourning Practices in Social Media

Social media constitute new social spaces where the topics of death, loss, and mourning are increasingly encountered and negotiated. Users might either engage in mourning practices themselves or be confronted with other users’ mourning during their everyday social media use. The omnipresence of mourning in social media poses challenges to the users and increases the need for norms on how to engage in online mourning practices and how to react toward expressions of grief and mourning. This article systematically reviews 25 internationally published journal articles on norms guiding mourning practices and (non-)reactions toward these practices in social media. Three different types of norms related to different forms of practices are identified in the review. Results show that norms for mourning in social media are in flux and consistently negotiated between users. However, norms for mourning in social media often adhere to traditional norms that are adapted and reconfigured.