Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dual N-Back Working Memory Training in Healthy Adults: A Randomized Comparison to Processing Speed Training

Enhancing cognitive ability is an attractive concept, particularly for middle-aged adults interested in maintaining cognitive functioning and preventing age-related declines. Computerized working memory training has been investigated as a safe method of cognitive enhancement in younger and older adults, although few studies have considered the potential impact of working memory training on middle-aged adults. This study investigated dual n-back working memory training in healthy adults aged 30–60. Fifty-seven adults completed measures of working memory, processing speed, and fluid intelligence before and after a 5-week web-based dual n-back or active control (processing speed) training program. Results: Repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance failed to identify improvements across the three cognitive composites, working memory, processing speed, and fluid intelligence, after training. Follow-up Bayesian analyses supported null findings for training effects for each individual composite. Findings suggest that dual n-back working memory training may not benefit working memory or fluid intelligence in healthy adults. Further investigation is necessary to clarify if other forms of working memory training may be beneficial, and what factors impact training-related benefits, should they occur, in this population.
On Large Games with a BioSocial Typology ∗

We present a comprehensive theory of large non-anonymous games in which agents have a name and a determinate social-type and/or biological trait to resolve the dissonance of a (matching-pennies type) game with an exact pure-strategy Nash equilibrium with finite agents, but without one when modeled on the Lebesgue unit interval. We (i) establish saturated player spaces as both necessary and sufficient for an existence result for Nash equilibrium in pure strategies, (ii) clarify the relationship between pure, mixed and behavioral strategies via the exact law of large numbers in a framework of Fubini extension, (iii) illustrate corresponding asymptotic results. (99 words)
Seroepidemiology of Human Bocavirus Infection in Jamaica

Background Human bocavirus (HBoV) is a newly identified human parvovirus. HBoV is associated with upper and lower respiratory tract infections and gastroenteritis in children. Little is known about the seroepidemiology of HBoV in populations in the Caribbean. Methods In a cross-sectional study conducted at the University Hospital of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, 287 blood samples were collected from pediatric patients and tested for the presence of HBoV-specific antibody using a virus-like-particle based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results HBoV-specific antibodies were found to be present in 220/287 (76.7%) of samples collected from the pediatric population. Seroprevalence of HBoV was highest in those ≥2 years old. The seroepidemiological profile suggests that most children are exposed to HBoV during the first two years of life in Jamaica. Conclusion HBoV infection is common in children in Jamaica. HBoV seroprevalence rates in the Caribbean are similar to those previously reported in other areas of the world.
Development of E-government Services in Iran: A Comparison of Adoption Constructs

This survey has been conduced to observe what factors effect e-government adoption in Iran. The considered research constructs includes Demographic factors i.e. age, gender and education, IT knowledge, Internet access, Trust, Perceived usefulness, Perceived ease of use and System and Web characteristics i.e. Reliability, Self-Service and linkage. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is used to examine the relations. The results indicate that IT knowledge, Internet access, Perceived usefulness and Self-Service have significant direct effect on e-government adoption. The results are significantly useful for successful deployment of e- government. Further research can also be applied using the obtained results to identify the indirect effects of the constructs. At the end some suggestions offered to governors to good implementing e-government in Iran.
Whole-arm impedance of a serial-chain manipulator

In this paper, we propose a mechanical impedance for the whole arm of a serial-chain manipulator. The proposed impedance has a geometrically natural property owing to use of a spatial curve which describes a virtual reference of the impedance. The proposed impedance is useful for geometric task planning in whole-arm manipulation. Illustrative examples are shown for understanding of the impedance.
In pursuit of happiness: Life satisfaction drives political support

It is argued in this article that citizens in democracies use their subjective well‐being (SWB) as an evaluative criterion when deciding how willing they are to support and comply with government dictates (political system support). When life is satisfactory, government authorities are rewarded with support, when it is not, citizens punish authorities by withholding their support. To make sense of the relationship, it is suggested that citizens act as if they have signed a happiness contract with ‘those in power’. In support of this argument, comparative survey data shows that SWB predicts attitudes on political system support across country contexts and under strong control conditions. Establishing that the relationship is causal, panel data documents that attitudes on political system support can be undermined following the termination of a close personal relationship, and that the causal effect is mediated via changes in SWB. Finally, as predicted, the happiness‐support relationship is weaker among individuals who are high on spirituality/religiousness and attribute blame for external events to both worldly and non‐worldly powers.
Black Holes on Cylinders

We take steps toward constructing explicit solutions that describe non-extremal charged dilatonic branes of string/M-theory with a transverse circle. Using a new coordinate system we find an ansatz for the solutions with only one unknown function. We show that this function is independent of the charge and our ansatz can therefore also be used to construct neutral black holes on cylinders and near-extremal charged dilatonic branes with a transverse circle. For sufficiently large mass M > Mc these solutions have a horizon that connects across the cylinder but they are not translationally invariant along the circle direction. We argue that the neutral solution has larger entropy than the neutral black string for any given mass. This means that for M > Mc the neutral black string can gain entropy by redistributing its mass to a solution that breaks translational invariance along the circle, despite the fact that it is classically stable. We furthermore explain how our construction can be used to study the thermodynamics of Little String Theory.
Association of glycogen synthase kinase-3β with Parkinson’s disease (Review)

Glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) is a pleiotropic serine/threonine protein kinase found in almost all eukaryotes. It is structurally highly conserved and has been identified as a multifaceted enzyme affecting a wide range of biological functions, including gene expression and cellular processes. There are two closely related isoforms of GSK-3; GSK-3α and GSK-3β. The latter appears to play crucial roles in regulating the pathogenesis of diverse diseases, including neurodegenerative disease. The present review focuses on the involvement of this protein in Parkinson’s disease (PD), a common neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the gradually progressive and selective loss of dopaminergic neurons, and by intracellular inclusions known as Lewy bodies (LBs) expressed in surviving neurons of the substantia nigra (SN). GSK-3β is involved in multiple signaling pathways and has several phosphorylation targets. Numerous apoptotic conditions can be facilitated by the GSK-3β signaling pathways. Studies have shown that GSK-3β inhibition protects the dopaminergic neurons from various stress-induced injuries, indicating the involvement of GSK-3β in PD pathogenesis. However, the underlying mechanisms of the protective effect of GSK-3β inhibition on dopaminergic neurons in PD is not completely understood. Multiple pathological events have been recognized to be responsible for the loss of dopaminergic neurons in PD, including mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, protein aggregation and neuroinflammation. The present review stresses the regulatory roles of GSK-3β in these events and in dopaminergic neuron degeneration, in an attempt to gain an improved understanding of the underlying mechanisms and to provide a potential effective therapeutic target for PD.
An Extensive Collection of Stellar Wind X-Ray Source Region Emission Line Parameters, Temperatures, Velocities, and Their Radial Distributions as Obtained from Chandra Observations of 17 OB Stars

Chandra high energy resolution observations have now been obtained from numerous nonpeculiar O and early B stars. The observed X-ray emission line properties differ from prelaunch predictions, and the interpretations are still problematic. We present a straightforward analysis of a broad collection of OB stellar line profile data to search for morphological trends. X-ray line emission parameters and the spatial distributions of derived quantities are examined with respect to luminosity class. The X-ray source locations and their corresponding temperatures are extracted by using the He-like f/i line ratios and the H-like-to-He-like line ratios, respectively. Our luminosity class study reveals line widths increasing with luminosity. Although the majority of the OB emission lines are found to be symmetric, with little central line displacement, there is evidence for small, but finite, blueward line shifts that also increase with luminosity. The spatial X-ray temperature distributions indicate that the highest temperatures occur near the star and steadily decrease outward. This trend is most pronounced in the OB supergiants. For the lower density wind stars, both high and low X-ray source temperatures exist near the star. However, we find no evidence of any high-temperature X-ray emission in the outer wind regions for any OB star. Since the temperature distributions are counter to basic shock model predictions, we call this the ``near-star high-ion problem" for OB stars. By invoking the traditional OB stellar mass-loss rates, we find a good correlation between the fir-inferred radii and their associated X-ray continuum optical depth unity radii. We conclude by presenting some possible explanations of the X-ray source problems that have been revealed by this study.
Retention of Spanish vocabulary over 8 years.

Thirty-five individuals who had learned and relearaed 50 English-Spanish word pairs were tested for recall and recognition after an interval of 8 years. Two variables, the spacing between successive releaming sessions and the number of presentations required to encode individual word pairs, are excellent predictors of the likelihood of achieving permastore retention. Optimum recall occurs for words encoded in 1 -2 presentations and accessed at intervals of 30 days. Both variables yield monotonic retention functions that account for a range of variation from 0% to 23% recall. These variables also have very significant effects on the recognition of unrecalled words. A recent investigation of the retention of Spanish language learned in school (Bahrick, 1984) shows that a portion of the acquired knowledge has a life span of more than 25 years even if the knowledge is not rehearsed or accessed during that long interval. Another part of the originally acquired knowledge is lost within 5 years after training terminates, and virtually no knowledge is lost during the interval between 5 and 25 years following acquisition. This finding suggests the challenging possibilities of identifying conditions of learning and/or characteristics of material associated with a prospective life span of more than 25 years and of differentiating these conditions and characteristics from those associated with material destined to have a relatively short life span (less than 5 years). Such information would augment the very limited knowledge of life span memory currently available and make memory research more relevant to the needs of educators who have an obvious interest in prolonging the life span of transmitted knowledge. However, the research is arduous because it requires longitudinal investigations to extend substantially beyond the 5-year period during which material with a short life span is likely to be forgotten. The foregoing considerations led us to search for relevant longitudinal data, and we realized that such data might be available to us if we conducted a follow-up to an earlier investigation (Bahrick, 1979). The aim of the earlier investigation was to establish the effect of various rehearsal schedules on maintaining access to learned material over periods of 1 -9 months. One part of that investigation required college students to learn and relearn 50 English-Spanish word pairs in successive training sessions, spaced at intervals varying from a few seconds
Toll-like receptor 3 and 4 signalling through the TRIF and TRAM adaptors in haematopoietic cells promotes atherosclerosis.

AIMS Members of the Toll-like receptor (TLR) family initiate innate immune responses and were recently shown to play a role in atherosclerosis. However, the mechanisms that link TLR ligation to vascular inflammation and atherogenesis remain unclear. To identify which signalling pathways downstream of TLRs in immune cells are pro-atherogenic, we analysed the role of the TLR-specific adaptors MyD88 adaptor-like (MAL), TRIF-related adaptor molecule (TRAM), and TIR-domain-containing adaptor-inducing interferon-β (TRIF) in atherosclerosis. METHODS AND RESULTS Using a bone-marrow transplantation strategy into low-density lipoprotein receptor-deficient (Ldlr(-/-)) mice, we could specifically study the absence of the TLR adaptors in immune cells. We showed that haematopoietic deficiency of TRAM and TRIF, but not MAL, reduces atherosclerosis without affecting cholesterol metabolism. This was mediated by decreased aortic inflammation, indicated by lower aortic levels of pro-inflammatory mediators, and reduced influx of macrophages and T cells. Furthermore, by studying Tlr3(-/-) chimeric Ldlr(-/-) mice, we found that deleting TLR3 in immune cells significantly reduced both aortic inflammation and atherosclerotic burden. CONCLUSIONS By studying hypercholesterolaemic mice with defects in TLR-signalling adaptors, we demonstrated that deleting either TRAM or TRIF in immune cells is sufficient to attenuate vessel inflammation and protect against atherosclerosis. In addition, these adaptors elicit partly different sets of inflammatory mediators and can independently inhibit the disease process. Furthermore, we identify TLR3 as a pro-atherogenic receptor in haematopoietic immune cells. The identification of these pro-atherogenic pathways downstream of TLR3 and TLR4 contributes to a better understanding of TLRs and their signalling pathways in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis.
Ciclos reales en economías abiertas: una aplicación al caso español

This paper analyzes the ciclical behaviour of the main real variables of the spanish ee norny. To do tbat, we use a simple dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model fOI ~ sIIJ 11 open economy, wich is parameterized, caJibrated aud simulated to evaluate. its co~nce with sorne empírical regularities of the spanish economic fluctuatiofiS. We find that the model proposed is consistent with the cyclical volatilities and correlations of the natiaDal iueome account components, as well as the countercyclícal character of the trade balance.
Exploring Codon Optimization and Response Surface Methodology to Express Biologically Active Transmembrane RANKL in E. coli

Receptor activator of nuclear factor (NF)-κB ligand (RANKL), a master cytokine that drives osteoclast differentiation, activation and survival, exists in both transmembrane and extracellular forms. To date, studies on physiological role of RANKL have been mainly carried out with extracellular RANKL probably due to difficulties in achieving high level expression of functional transmembrane RANKL (mRANKL). In the present study, we took advantage of codon optimization and response surface methodology to optimize the soluble expression of mRANKL in E. coli. We optimized the codon usage of mRANKL sequence to a preferred set of codons for E. coli changing its codon adaptation index from 0.64 to 0.76, tending to increase its expression level in E. coli. Further, we utilized central composite design to predict the optimum combination of variables (cell density before induction, lactose concentration, post-induction temperature and post-induction time) for the expression of mRANKL. Finally, we investigated the effects of various experimental parameters using response surface methodology. The best combination of response variables was 0.6 OD600, 7.5 mM lactose, 26°C post-induction temperature and 5 h post-induction time that produced 52.4 mg/L of fusion mRANKL. Prior to functional analysis of the protein, we purified mRANKL to homogeneity and confirmed the existence of trimeric form of mRANKL by native gel electrophoresis and gel filtration chromatography. Further, the biological activity of mRANKL to induce osteoclast formation on RAW264.7 cells was confirmed by tartrate resistant acid phosphatase assay and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction assays. Importantly, a new finding from this study was that the biological activity of mRANKL is higher than its extracellular counterpart. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time to report heterologous expression of mRANKL in soluble form and to perform a comparative study of functional properties of both forms of RANKL.
Detecting users’ online knowledge sharing behavioral patterns in a knowledge management system: Using sequential analysis to explore online knowledge construction process of an online teacher community

Promoting knowledge sharing behaviors of online community members is a crucial issue for knowledge management(KM) systems, and detecting of users’ knowledge sharing behavioral patterns will be able to find out the limitations instantly during their knowledge sharing process and provide a good reference for KM system to provide intelligent guidance to the process instantly. This research adopted the sequential analysis calculation, which can individually examine whether the sequential relationship between each knowledge sharing behavior has been achieved significantly, aiming to infer the knowledge construction behavioral patterns of online communities through analysis of actual behaviors. This research conducted an empirical observation and analyzed online knowledge sharing of a teacher community in Taiwan. The study detected the teachers’ sequential knowledge construction patterns and also proposed further suggestions for online intelligent KM systems according to the analysis method and the patterns we found out.
Evaluation of the Differences of Myocardial Fibers between Acute and Chronic Myocardial Infarction: Application of Diffusion Tensor Magnetic Resonance Imaging in a Rhesus Monkey Model

Objective To understand microstructural changes after myocardial infarction (MI), we evaluated myocardial fibers of rhesus monkeys during acute or chronic MI, and identified the differences of myocardial fibers between acute and chronic MI. Materials and Methods Six fixed hearts of rhesus monkeys with left anterior descending coronary artery ligation for 1 hour or 84 days were scanned by diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), fractional anisotropy (FA) and helix angle (HA). Results Comparing with acute MI monkeys (FA: 0.59 ± 0.02; ADC: 5.0 ± 0.6 × 10-4 mm2/s; HA: 94.5 ± 4.4°), chronic MI monkeys showed remarkably decreased FA value (0.26 ± 0.03), increased ADC value (7.8 ± 0.8 × 10-4mm2/s), decreased HA transmural range (49.5 ± 4.6°) and serious defects on endocardium in infarcted regions. The HA in infarcted regions shifted to more components of negative left-handed helix in chronic MI monkeys (-38.3 ± 5.0°–11.2 ± 4.3°) than in acute MI monkeys (-41.4 ± 5.1°–53.1 ± 3.7°), but the HA in remote regions shifted to more components of positive right-handed helix in chronic MI monkeys (-43.8 ± 2.7°–66.5 ± 4.9°) than in acute MI monkeys (-59.5 ± 3.4°–64.9 ± 4.3°). Conclusion Diffusion tensor MRI method helps to quantify differences of mechanical microstructure and water diffusion of myocardial fibers between acute and chronic MI monkey's models.
Detection of a strongly negative surface potential at Saturn's moon Hyperion

On 26 September 2005, Cassini conducted its only close targeted flyby of Saturn's small, irregularly shaped moon Hyperion. Approximately 6 min before the closest approach, the electron spectrometer (ELS), part of the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) detected a field‐aligned electron population originating from the direction of the moon's surface. Plasma wave activity detected by the Radio and Plasma Wave instrument suggests electron beam activity. A dropout in energetic electrons was observed by both CAPS‐ELS and the Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument Low‐Energy Magnetospheric Measurement System, indicating that the moon and the spacecraft were magnetically connected when the field‐aligned electron population was observed. We show that this constitutes a remote detection of a strongly negative (~ −200 V) surface potential on Hyperion, consistent with the predicted surface potential in regions near the solar terminator.
Modulation of Ca2+ channels by PTX-sensitive G-proteins is blocked by N- ethylmaleimide in rat sympathetic neurons

The actions of N-ethylmaleimide (NEM), a sulfhydryl alkylating agent, on G-protein-mediated inhibition of N-type Ca2+ channels in adult rat superior cervical ganglion (SCG) neurons were studied using whole-cell voltage clamp. In SCG neurons, inhibition of ICa occurs by at least three separable pathways: one pertussis toxin (PTX) sensitive and voltage dependent, and two PTX insensitive and voltage independent. NEM blocked PTX-sensitive inhibition nearly completely, with only small effects on PTX-insensitive inhibition. Somatostatin inhibition is completely PTX sensitive and was wholly blocked by a 120 sec exposure to 50 microM NEM, with shorter exposure times producing a less complete block. Inhibition of ICa by norepinephrine (NE) is approximately half PTX sensitive and was also approximately half NEM sensitive. One component of muscarinic inhibition is PTX insensitive, voltage independent, and mediated by a diffusible cytoplasmic messenger; this pathway was largely spared by NEM treatment. Another pathway is also PTX insensitive and voltage independent, used by substance P, and was also largely NEM insensitive. Hence, in SCG neurons, NEM selectively inactivates PTX-sensitive G-proteins. We also find evidence that the PTX-insensitive action of NE is distinct from the other PTX-insensitive pathways, and therefore assign it to a fourth signaling pathway.