Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Unconscious Local Motion Alters Global Image Speed

Accurate motion perception of self and object speed is crucial for successful interaction in the world. The context in which we make such speed judgments has a profound effect on their accuracy. Misperceptions of motion speed caused by the context can have drastic consequences in real world situations, but they also reveal much about the underlying mechanisms of motion perception. Here we show that motion signals suppressed from awareness can warp simultaneous conscious speed perception. In Experiment 1, we measured global speed discrimination thresholds using an annulus of 8 local Gabor elements. We show that physically removing local elements from the array attenuated global speed discrimination. However, removing awareness of the local elements only had a small effect on speed discrimination. That is, unconscious local motion elements contributed to global conscious speed perception. In Experiment 2 we measured the global speed of the moving Gabor patterns, when half the elements moved at different speeds. We show that global speed averaging occurred regardless of whether local elements were removed from awareness, such that the speed of invisible elements continued to be averaged together with the visible elements to determine the global speed. These data suggest that contextual motion signals outside of awareness can both boost and affect our experience of motion speed, and suggest that such pooling of motion signals occurs before the conscious extraction of the surround motion speed.
Origin of intraradicular infection with Enterococcus faecalis in endodontically treated teeth

The reported prevalence of Enterococcus faecalis, both a commensal of the gastro-intestinal tract and a common nosocomial pathogen, ranges from 24% to 77% in post-treatment root canal infections. To date it has not been possible to explain this prevalence, since its origin remains unknown. Its exceptional array of intrinsic and easily acquired traits, including resistance to a multitude of antibiotics, enables an adaptation to a wide variety of different environmental settings and poses a challenge in treatments. The aim of the research was to elucidate the origin of E. faecalis in root canal infections to enable a means of preventing costly and time-consuming treatment failures. The potential for acquisition from the endogenous flora, a nosocomial transmission from contaminated surfaces during a root canal procedure and a food-borne route of infection were evaluated by measuring its occurrence on environmental surfaces, comparing genetic relatedness, distribution of putative virulence factors and antibiotic resistance between isolates from different sources. DNA fingerprinting by PFGE concluded that E. faecalis retrieved from eight (16%) secondary root canal infections in 50 consecutively treated patients were genetically unrelated to those recovered from the patients’ own intestinal tract. E. faecalis could not be retrieved from any of the saliva samples pertaining to the patients with the microorganism in the root canal sample, validating its transient presence in the oral cavity. Analysis of a total of 320 collected samples from 10 high-touch surfaces in six general dentistry clinics and two specialist clinics displayed a very low occurrence (0.9%) of E. faecalis on surfaces despite clear deficiencies in decontamination procedures. Determination of the distribution of putative virulence genes and susceptibility to clinically relevant antibiotics amongst strains isolated from root canals, foods, stool and blood culture samples by PCR and the agar dilution method, respectively, detected an association between endodontic isolates and isolates from food and stool based on a common gene pattern, consisting of gelE, efaA and gelE. The linkage could be corroborated by MLST analysis, demonstrating that 66.7% of the root canal isolates, 42.1% of the food strains, 34.5% of the stool isolates but only 10% of the blood isolates shared genetic lineages. Correlation of detected virulence determinants to MLST data revealed distinctive features of the resulting major genetic lineages. All isolates in CC25 were impaired to express gelatinase and all strains in CC6 lacked the gene ace but were enriched with antibiotic resistance and the ability to express cytolysin. In conclusion, E. faecalis in root canal infections is most likely not derived from the endogenous flora or nosocomially transmitted but instead food-borne. It presumably gains access to the treated canals via micro-leakage, which stresses the need for better ways of sealing endodontically treated teeth. ISBN 978-91-7549-875-1
War on women: interlocking conflicts within The Vagina Monologues in China

ABSTRACT Chinese university students’ promotion and performance of the feminist play The Vagina Monologues in 2013 triggered a heated debate and a strain of misogyny in social media, which demonstrate how people perceive feminism in China. Through quantitative content analysis and qualitative text analysis of 533 online comments on this feminist activity, this paper investigates the conflicts and contradictions within feminism in China and four frames (meaning packages) are identified. Three of them, namely the ‘public–private conflict’ frame, the ‘Western-Chinese conflict’ frame, the ‘class conflict’ frame, were employed to express opposition, whereas only one feminist frame held a supportive stance. Feminism in China is found to be perceived as morally deviant, foreign-rooted, and intertwined with issues like nationalism, social polarization, and a modernization-tradition contradiction. In this event, social media facilitated the diffusion of misogyny as well as served as public sphere wherein diverse and deliberative discussion was allowed.
Long noncoding RNA HOTTIP as a novel predictor of lymph node metastasis and survival in human cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

HOXA transcript at the distal tip (HOTTIP), a functional lncRNA transcribed from the 5′ tip of the HOXA locus, has been functionally characterized as an oncogene in various cancers. To further explore the clinical value of HOTTIP in cancer, we collected all relevant studies and investigated the association between HOTTIP level and lymph node metastasis (LNM) or overall survival (OS). Literature collection was conducted by searching electronic databases PubMed, Cochrane Library, OVID, Web of Science and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI)(up to July 7, 2016). Seven studies with 652 cancer patients were included in the meta-analysis according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The results showed a significant positive association between HOTTIP levels and LNM (Odds ratio, OR = 2.30, 95 % CI: 1.58-3.35, p < 0.0001) in a fixed-effects model (I2 = 0 %, p = 0.949) and it could also predict poor OS in cancer patients (Hazard ratio HR = 2.24, 95% CI: 1.74–2.90, p < 0.00001) in a fixed-effects model (I2 = 0%, p = 0.925). In conclusion, this meta-analysis demonstrated that the higher expression level of HOTTIP is correlated with positive LNM and poor OS in different types of cancer and HOTTIP might serve as a novel predictor of LNM and survival in human cancer.
Synergism between cAMP and PPARγ Signalling in the Initiation of UCP1 Gene Expression in HIB1B Brown Adipocytes

Expression of the brown adipocyte-specific gene, uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1), is increased by both PPARγ stimulation and cAMP activation through their ability to stimulate the expression of the PPAR coactivator PGC1α. In HIB1B brown preadipocytes, combination of the PPARγ agonist, rosiglitazone, and the cAMP stimulator forskolin synergistically increased UCP1 mRNA expression, but PGC1α expression was only increased additively by the two drugs. The PPARγ antagonist, GW9662, and the PKA inhibitor, H89, both inhibited UCP1 expression stimulated by rosiglitazone and forskolin but PGC1α expression was not altered to the same extent. Reporter studies demonstrated that combined rosiglitazone and forskolin synergistically activated transcription from a full length 3.1 kbp UCP1 luciferase promoter construct, but the response was only additive and much reduced when a minimal 260 bp proximal UCP1 promoter was examined. Rosiglitazone and forskolin in combination were able to synergistically stimulate promoters comprising of tandem repeats of either PPREs or CREs. We conclude that rosiglitazone and forskolin act together to synergistically activate the UCP1 promoter directly rather than by increasing PGC1α expression and by a mechanism involving cross-talk between the signalling systems regulating the CRE and PPRE on the promoters.
Does Media Concentration Lead to Biased Coverage ? Evidence from Movie Reviews ∗

Fueled by the need to cut costs in a competitive industry, media companies have become increasingly concentrated. But is this consolidation without costs for the quality of information? Concentrated media companies generate a conflict of interest: a media outlet can bias its coverage to benefit companies in the same group. We test empirically for bias by examining movie reviews by media outlets owned by News Corp.–such as the Wall Street Journal–and by Time Warner–such as Time. We find a statistically significant, if small, bias in the review score for 20th Century Fox movies in the News Corp. outlets. We detect no bias for Warner Bros. movies in the reviews of the Time Warner outlets, but find instead some evidence of bias by omission: the media in this group are more likely to review highly-rated movies by affiliated studios. Using the wealth of detail in the data, we present evidence regarding bias by individual reviewer, and also biases in the editorial assignment of review tasks. We conclude that reputation limits the extent of bias due to conflict of interest, but that nonetheless powerful biasing forces are at work due to consolidation in the media industry. ∗Preliminary, do not cite without permission. Ivan Balbuzanov, Tristan Gagnon-Bartsch, and Xiaoyu Xia provided excellent research assistance. We thank Marianne Bertrand, Saurabh Bhargava, Lucas Davis, Matthew Gentzkow, Austan Goolsbee, Jesse Shapiro, Noam Yuchtman, and audiences at Brown University, Boston University, Chicago Booth, and UC Berkeley for very helpful comments. We also thank Bruce Nash for access to data from the-numbers, as well as helpful clarifications about the industry.
Everyday racism and discrimination in France and Britain : a comparative study of the educational and professional experiences of second generation graduate women

This thesis investigates the work experiences of second generation, children of Muslim immigrants, in France and Britain. In particular, it focuses on how Pakistani and Algerian women negotiate their social and professional positions. The thesis takes a qualitative approach involving two interviews with twenty-four female participants (six Pakistanis and six Algerians in each country), all of whom are graduates. It takes an intersectional lens to illuminate how the factors of ethnicity, gender, religion, education, social class and nationality construct the women’s employment trajectories. By comparing the experiences of women from well-established groups – Pakistanis in the United Kingdom (UK) and Algerians in France – to those of recent minority ethnic groups – Algerians in the UK and Pakistanis in France – the thesis explores experiences of racism and discrimination in educational institutions, the labour market and society as a whole. Framed within this comparative perspective, I show how others’ fixation on (visible) ethnic and/or religious identities constructs a similar sense of exclusion for both French and British women. In particular, I illustrate how the women’s experience of othering, ‘materialised’ through everyday racism, produces a sense of non-belonging in society as a whole and ‘caps’ equality in the labour market. I argue that the second generation graduate women in this study experience social mobility and achieve economic inclusion through academic success and accessing highly skilled professional jobs. They do not, however, experience social inclusion and equality in either multicultural Britain or republican France. By ‘de-constructing’ the category ‘second generation’, the research reported here contributes to the understanding of the social and professional positions of second generation graduates and Muslim women in Western Europe.
Axonal Transport Defects in a Mitofusin 2 Loss of Function Model of Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease in Zebrafish

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) represents a group of neurodegenerative disorders typically characterised by demyelination (CMT1) or distal axon degeneration (CMT2) of motor and sensory neurons. The majority of CMT2 cases are caused by mutations in mitofusin 2 (MFN2); an essential gene encoding a protein responsible for fusion of the mitochondrial outer membrane. The mechanism of action of MFN2 mutations is still not fully resolved. To investigate a role for loss of Mfn2 function in disease we investigated an ENU-induced nonsense mutation in zebrafish MFN2 and characterised the phenotype of these fish at the whole organism, pathological, and subcellular level. We show that unlike mice, loss of MFN2 function in zebrafish leads to an adult onset, progressive phenotype with predominant symptoms of motor dysfunction similar to CMT2. Mutant zebrafish show progressive loss of swimming associated with alterations at the neuro-muscular junction. At the cellular level, we provide direct evidence that mitochondrial transport along axons is perturbed in Mfn2 mutant zebrafish, suggesting that this is a key mechanism of disease in CMT. The progressive phenotype and pathology suggest that zebrafish will be useful for further investigating the disease mechanism and potential treatment of axonal forms of CMT. Our findings support the idea that MFN2 mutation status should be investigated in patients presenting with early-onset recessively inherited axonal CMT.
RHex: A Simple and Highly Mobile Hexapod Robot

In this paper, the authors describe the design and control of RHex, a power autonomous, untethered, compliant-legged hexapod robot. RHex has only six actuators—one motor located at each hip— achieving mechanical simplicity that promotes reliable and robust operation in real-world tasks. Empirically stable and highly maneuverable locomotion arises from a very simple clock-driven, open-loop tripod gait. The legs rotate full circle, thereby preventing the common problem of toe stubbing in the protraction (swing) phase. An extensive suite of experimental results documents the robot’s significant “intrinsic mobility”—the traversal of rugged, broken, and obstacle-ridden ground without any terrain sensing or actively controlled adaptation. RHex achieves fast and robust forward locomotion traveling at speeds up to one body length per second and traversing height variations well exceeding its body clearance.
Pharmacology : Evidence Meets Practice Making Sense of Hypertension Guidelines

In the United States, one-third of all adults have hypertension (HTN), and 35.8 million of those are uncontrolled. As a leading risk factor, high blood pressure (BP) is a predisposing factor for almost 80% of all cardiovascular chronic illnesses. The risk for major, debilitating cardiovascular disease (CVD) events (heart failure, myocardial infarction [MI], and stroke) drops significantly when BP reaches the guideline-based target (140 mm Hg systolic) or lower. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have found that lowering BP by as little as 10 mm Hg in patients with HTN can reduce a person"s lifetime risk for cardiovascular and stroke death by 25% to 40%. Over the last 50 years, extensive effort has been given to determining the optimal BP target for adults with HTN. Despite recent improvements in prescribing practices for evidencebased antihypertensive medication therapy, many diagnosed cases remain ‘‘uncontrolled. ’’ Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey showed that, of those people 20 years or older with HTN, 76.5% were under current treatment, 54.1% had their BP controlled, and 45.9% did not have it controlled. Even when HTN is detected and appropriate treatment is prescribed, medication and lifestyle nonadherence can undermine success. Ample opportunity exists for improvement in the management of HTN in the United States. The purpose of this article is to review recent guidelines directed toward prevention, detection, evaluation, and management of high BP in adults and provide easily accessible guidelinebased comparisons and recommendations for identifying BP treatment targets, lifestyle, and medication management of patients with HTN.
Behavioral Law and Economics

Behavioral economics has been a growing force in many fields of applied economics, including public economics, labor economics, health economics, and law and economics. This paper describes and assesses the current state of behavioral law and economics. Law and economics had a critical (though underrecognized) early point of contact with behavioral economics through the foundational debate in both fields over the Coase theorem and the endowment effect. In law and economics today, both the endowment effect and other features of behavioral economics feature prominently and have been applied in many important legal domains. The paper concludes with reference to a new emphasis in behavioral law and economics on "debiasing through law" - using existing or proposed legal structures in an attempt to reduce people's departures from the traditional economic assumption of unbounded rationality.
The Price equation and extended inheritance

The presence of various mechanisms of non-genetic inheritance is one of the main problems for current evolutionary theory according to several critics. Sufficient empirical and conceptual reasons exist to take this claim seriously, but there is little consensus on the implications of multiple inheritance systems for evolutionary processes. Here we use the Price Equation as a starting point for a discussion of the differences between four recently proposed categories of inheritance systems; genetic, epigenetic, behavioral and symbolic. Specifically, we address how the components of the Price Equation encompass different non-genetic systems of inheritance in an attempt to clarify how the different systems are conceptually related. We conclude that the four classes of inheritance systems do not form distinct clusters with respect to their effect on the rate and direction of phenotypic change from one generation to the next in the absence or presence of selection. Instead, our analyses suggest that different inheritance systems can share features that are conceptually very similar, but that their implications for adaptive evolution nevertheless differ substantially as a result of differences in their ability to couple selection and inheritance.
Explorer The autophagy protein Atg 7 is essential for hematopoietic stem cell maintenance

The autophagy protein Atg7 is essential for hematopoietic stem cell maintenanceThe autophagy protein Atg7 is essential for hematopoietic stem cell maintenance' This article is distributed under the terms of an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike–No Mirror Sites license for the first six months after the publication date (see http://www.rupress.org/terms). After six months it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, as described at General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact openaccess@ed.ac. uk providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.
Unique semantic space in the brain of each beholder predicts perceived similarity

Significance Everyone is different. Understanding the unique way an individual perceives the world is a fundamental goal of psychology and brain science. Using novel methods for analyzing functional MRI (fMRI) data, we show that each person viewing a set of objects represents the objects uniquely in his or her brain. Moreover, given an individual’s measured brain-activity patterns, idiosyncrasies in his or her perception of the similarities among the objects can be predicted. Prediction accuracy is modest using current technology. However, our results demonstrate that fMRI has the power to reveal individually unique representations of particular objects in the human brain. The novel method might help us understand the biological substrate of individual experience in mental health and disease. The unique way in which each of us perceives the world must arise from our brain representations. If brain imaging could reveal an individual’s unique mental representation, it could help us understand the biological substrate of our individual experiential worlds in mental health and disease. However, imaging studies of object vision have focused on commonalities between individuals rather than individual differences and on category averages rather than representations of particular objects. Here we investigate the individually unique component of brain representations of particular objects with functional MRI (fMRI). Subjects were presented with unfamiliar and personally meaningful object images while we measured their brain activity on two separate days. We characterized the representational geometry by the dissimilarity matrix of activity patterns elicited by particular object images. The representational geometry remained stable across scanning days and was unique in each individual in early visual cortex and human inferior temporal cortex (hIT). The hIT representation predicted perceived similarity as reflected in dissimilarity judgments. Importantly, hIT predicted the individually unique component of the judgments when the objects were personally meaningful. Our results suggest that hIT brain representational idiosyncrasies accessible to fMRI are expressed in an individual's perceptual judgments. The unique way each of us perceives the world thus might reflect the individually unique representation in high-level visual areas.
Extra-solar Planets: Clues to Planetary Formation

Radial velocity surveys have revealed up to now about 115 extra-solar planets, among which a few multi-planetary systems. The discovered planets present a wide variety of orbital elements and masses, which are raising many problems and questions regarding the processes involved in their formation. The statistical analysis of the distributions of orbital elements, planetary masses, and relations between these, is however already giving some strong constraints on the formation of the planetary systems. Furthermore, the study of the planet host stars has revealed the crucial role o{ the stellar metallicity on the giant planet formation. In this paper we will review the current status of the research on this subject.