Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Spread of Metals into the Low-redshift Intergalactic Medium

We investigate the association between galaxies and metal-enriched and metal-deficient absorbers in the local universe (z < 0.16) using a large compilation of far-ultraviolet spectra of bright active galactic nuclei targets observed with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. In this homogeneous sample of 18 O vi detections at and 18 nondetections at using absorbers with , the maximum distance O vi extends from galaxies of various luminosities is ∼0.6 Mpc, or ∼5 virial radii, confirming and refining earlier results. This is an important value that must be matched by numerical simulations, which input the strength of galactic winds at the sub-grid level. We present evidence that the primary contributors to the spread of metals into the circum- and intergalactic media are sub-L* galaxies ( ). The maximum distances that metals are transported from these galaxies is comparable to, or less than, the size of a group of galaxies. These results suggest that, where groups are present, the metals produced by the group galaxies do not leave the group. Since many O vi nondetections in our sample occur at comparably close impact parameters as those of the metal-bearing absorbers, some more pristine intergalactic material appears to be accreting onto groups where it can mix with metal-bearing clouds.
The Use of Computer Algebra in Maxwell's Theory

We present a small computer algebra program for use in Maxwell's theory. The Maxwell equations and the energy-momentum current of the electromagnetic field are formulated in the language of exterior differential forms. The corresponding program can be applied (in the presence of a gravitational field) in curved Riemannian spacetime as well as in flat Minkowski spacetime in inertial or {\em non-inertial} frames. Our program is written for the computer algebra system REDUCE with the help of the EXCALC package for exterior differential forms. \par The two major advantages of this modern approch to electrodynamics --- the natural formulation, free of both metric and coordinates, and the straightforward programming of problems --- are illustrated by examining a number of examples ranging from the Coulomb field of a static point charge to the Kerr--Newman solution of the Einstein--Maxwell equations.
Identifying and categorizing compounds that reduce corneal transforming growth factor beta induced protein levels: a scoping review

ABSTRACT Introduction Transforming growth factor beta induced (TGFBI) gene mutations have been reported as the cause of a group of genetically inherited, visually debilitating, corneal dystrophies (CD). A scoping literature review to identify and categorize compounds that inhibit corneal TGFBI expression and/or promote TGFBIp degradation was performed. Emphasis was given to their potential to be used as a cost-effective approach via drug repurposing. Areas covered We performed a thorough search of original peer-reviewed literature using electronic bibliographic databases and selected articles according to a set of criteria. The total number of articles retrieved from the search terms applied to the databases was 2344. The number of relevant full-text articles included added up to 19. We identified 16 compounds that can theoretically reduce the levels of mutant TGFBIp in human corneal cells. Expert opinion Currently, the only temporary treatments available for this condition are lubricant drops and surgery. Here, we explored the crosstalk between cascades that regulate TGFBI expression and identified compounds that target these pathways. Compounds that inhibit DNA synthesis and function, increase elimination of TGFBIp or bind to mutant TGFBIp were also explored with the aim of highlighting promising compounds that can be used in future cost-effective drug-repurposing studies.
A pilot study of the metabolic profiles of apheresis platelets modified by donor age and sex and in vitro short‐term incubation with sex hormones

Platelets are part of innate immunity and comprise the cellular portion of hemostasis. Platelets express sex hormone receptors on their plasma membrane and sex hormones can alter their function in vitro. Little is known about how age and sex may affect platelet biology; thus, we hypothesized that platelets from males and females have different metabolomic profiles, which may be altered by age and in vitro treatment with sex hormones.
High degree atrio-ventricular block following COVID-19 vaccination.

BACKGROUND The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in more than four million deaths globally. In addition to the lower respiratory system, a wide range of major organ injuries have been reported among patients infected with COVID-19. These injuries include cardiac involvement. The spectrum of cardiac manifestations includes cardiac injury, heart failure, cardiogenic shock, acute coronary syndrome, myocarditis, tachyarrhythmias, and bradyarrhythmia [1]. Different degrees of atrioventricular blocks have been reported [2]. The pathogenesis of these complications is not fully understood. Different mechanisms are proposed, including direct myocyte injury, interstitial inflammation and fibrosis, cytokine storm, plaque destabilization, and and/or hypoxia [3]. Many countries have worked toward mass vaccination using the Pfizer BioNTech (BNT162b2) COVID-19 vaccine, including Israel. We report a case of high degree atrioventricular block (AVB) following vaccination with the COVID-19 BNT162b2 vaccine.
Mergers and the Formation of Disk Galaxies in Hierarchically Clustering Universes

It is commonly accepted, that galaxies acquire their angular momentum from tidal torques due to surrounding matter (Hoyle 1949). Most of the angular momentum is gained during the linear phase of the collapse (White 1984). After the turnaround point is reached, any further gain of angular momentum is strongly suppressed because it is increasingly difficult for the tidal field to act on the shrinking radius of the forming dark halo.
Cultural differences in caring for people with dementia: a pilot study of concern about losing face and loneliness in Chinese American and European American caregivers

ABSTRACT Objectives Heavy demands upon dementia caregivers can lead to a number of poor health outcomes including declines in physical, mental, and brain health. Although dementia affects people from all backgrounds, research in the US has largely focused on European American caregivers. This has made providing culturally-competent care more difficult. This study begins to address this issue by empirically examining how culturally-shaped beliefs can influence loneliness in family caregivers of people with dementia. Methods We conducted a preliminary questionnaire study with Chinese American and European American family caregivers of people with dementia (N = 72). Results Chinese American caregivers were more concerned than European American caregivers about losing face, which in turn, was associated with greater loneliness. This pattern remained when accounting for caregiver gender, age, and relationship to the person with dementia. Conclusions These preliminary findings highlight the role that cultural beliefs can play in adverse caregiver outcomes, and suggest that addressing concerns about losing face may be an important way for healthcare providers to help reduce loneliness among Chinese American caregivers. Clinical Implications Understanding how cultural beliefs influence caregiver outcomes is critical as healthcare professionals work to provide culturally-competent care and design culturally-sensitive interventions.
Enhancing inclusivity of older Black and African American adults in mental health research

Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Alabama Research Institute on Aging and Department of Psychology, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Minnesota, USA; Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA; VA New England Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center, VA Boston Healthcare System, and Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Mental health challenges during COVID-19: perspectives from parents with children with neurodevelopmental disabilities

ABSTRACT Background The global pandemic and subsequent denials, delays, and disruptions in essential daily activities created significant challenges for children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) and their parents. Public health restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic limited access to supports and services required by children with NDDs to maintain their health and well-being. Objective This study sought to understand the impacts of these public health measures and restrictions on mental health from the perspective of parents with children with NDDs to inform pathways for public health policies responsive to the needs of this population. Method Interpretive descriptive design was used to guide data collection and data analysis. Forty caregivers were interviewed about their experience with pandemic restrictions. Findings Generic policy measures contributed to many gaps in families’ social support systems and contributed to mental health challenges for children and their parents. Four themes emerged: 1) lack of social networks and activities, 2) lack of access to health and social supports, 3) tension in the family unit, and 4) impact on mental health for children and their parents. Recommendations Emergency preparedness planning requires a disability inclusive approach allocating resources for family supports in the home and community. Families identified supports to minimize further pandemic disruptions and enhance recovery.
Postnatal development of hippocampal CA2 structure and function during the emergence of social recognition of peers

It is now well‐established that the hippocampal CA2 region plays an important role in social recognition memory in adult mice. The CA2 is also important for the earliest social memories, including those that mice have for their mothers and littermates, which manifest themselves as a social preference for familiarity over novelty. The role of the CA2 in the development of social memory for recently encountered same‐age conspecifics, that is, peers, has not been previously reported. Here, we used a direct social interaction test to characterize the emergence of novelty preference for peers during development and found that at the end of the second postnatal week, pups begin to significantly prefer novel over familiar peers. Using chemogenetic inhibition at this time, we showed that CA2 activity is necessary for the emergence of novelty preference and for the ability to distinguish never encountered from recently encountered peers. In adulthood, the CA2 region is known to integrate a large number of inputs from various sources, many of which participate in social recognition memory, but previous studies have not determined whether these afferents are present at adult levels by the end of the second postnatal week. To explore the development of CA2 inputs, we used immunolabeling and retrograde adenovirus circuit tracing and found that, by the end of the second postnatal week, the CA2 is innervated by many regions, including the dentate gyrus, supramammillary nucleus of the hypothalamus, the lateral entorhinal cortex, and the median raphe nucleus. Using retroviral labeling of postnatally generated granule cells in the dentate gyrus, we found that mossy fiber projections to the CA2 mature faster during development than those generated in adulthood. Together, our findings indicate that the CA2 is partially mature in afferent connectivity by the end of the second postnatal week, connections that likely facilitate the emergence of social recognition memory and preference for novel peers.
The tachyon potential in open Neveu-Schwarz string field theory

A classical action for open superstring field theory has been proposed which does not suffer from contact term problems. After generalizing this action to include the non-GSO projected states of the Neveu-Schwarz string, the pure tachyon contribution to the tachyon potential is explicitly computed. The potential has a minimum of V = −1/32g2 which is 60% of the predicted exact minimum of V = −1/2π2g2 from D-brane arguments.
The Metallicities of Star-forming Galaxies at Intermediate Redshifts 0.47 < z < 0.92

Estimates of the [O/H] metallicity of the star-forming gas in a sample of 66 Canada-France Redshift Survey galaxies in the range 0.47 < z < 0.92 have been made based on the flux ratios of bright emission lines. The spectra of the galaxies are very similar to those of typical galaxies in the local universe. Most galaxies (>75%) have the [O/H] ~ 8.9 metallicities that are seen locally in galaxies of similar luminosities. However, a minority (<25%) appear to have significantly lower metallicities [O/H] < 8.6, as indicated by high values of the Pagel R23 parameter. The fraction of the sample at these lower [O/H] values would be reduced if the reddening in these objects were lower than the EB-V ~ 0.3 assumed. The high metallicities of the majority of the galaxies suggest that they do not fade to be low-metallicity dwarf galaxies today. Only one of the 66 galaxies has an optical emission-line spectrum similar to the few Lyman break galaxies recently observed at z ~ 3, emphasizing the differences from that population. The inferred emission-line gas [O/H] metallicity broadly correlates with luminosity in both the rest B and J bands but with considerable scatter introduced, especially at lower luminosities, by the range in [O/H] observed. The metallicity does not appear to correlate well with galaxy size, Hβ strength, or, with the very limited data available, kinematics. The metallicity does correlate well with the continuum optical and optical to infrared colors in a way that could be explained as a combination of photospheric effects, differing ages of the stellar population, and/or different amounts of reddening. None of these should produce large variations in the M/L ratio. These results support a "downsizing" picture of galaxy evolution, in which the manifestations of star-forming evolutionary activity appear in progressively more massive galaxies at earlier epochs, rather than a "fading dwarf" picture in which the luminous active galaxies at high redshift are highly brightened dwarf galaxies. The overall change in metallicity of star-forming galaxies over the last half of the age of the universe appears to have been modest, Δ[O/H] = 0.08 ± 0.06. This is consistent with the age-metallicity relation in the Galactic disk and is broadly consistent with models for the chemical evolution of the universe, especially those that consider different environments.
Observational and clinical evidence that plant-based nutrition reduces dietary acid load

Abstract Contemporary diets in Western countries are largely acid-inducing and deficient in potassium alkali salts, resulting in low-grade metabolic acidosis. The chronic consumption of acidogenic diets abundant in animal-based foods (meats, dairy, cheese and eggs) poses a substantial challenge to the human body's buffering capacities and chronic retention of acid wherein the progressive loss of bicarbonate stores can cause cellular and tissue damage. An elevated dietary acid load (DAL) has been associated with systemic inflammation and other adverse metabolic conditions. In this narrative review, we examine DAL quantification methods and index observational and clinical evidence on the role of plant-based diets, chiefly vegetarian and vegan, in reducing DAL. Quantitation of protein and amino acid composition and of intake of alkalising organic potassium salts and magnesium show that plant-based diets are most effective at reducing DAL. Results from clinical studies and recommendations in the form of expert committee opinions suggest that for a number of common illnesses, wherein metabolic acidosis is a contributing factor, the regular inclusion of plant-based foods offers measurable benefits for disease prevention and management. Based on available evidence, dietary shifts toward plant-based nutrition effectively reduces dietary-induced, low-grade metabolic acidosis.
Neural differences between internal and external episodic counterfactual thoughts

Episodic counterfactual thoughts (eCFT) consist of imagining alternative outcomes to past experiences. A common sub-class of eCFT—upward eCFT—involves imagining how past negative experiences could have been better, either because one could have done something differently (internal) or because something about the circumstances could have been different (external). Although previous neuroimaging research has shown that the brain's default mode network (DMN) supports upward eCFT, it is unclear how it is differentially recruited during internal versus external upward eCFT. We collected functional magnetic resonance imaging data while participants remembered negative autobiographical memories, generated either internal or external upward eCFT for the memory, and then rated the plausibility, perceived control and difficulty of eCFT generation. Both internal and external eCFT engaged midline regions of cingulate cortex, a central node of the DMN. Most activity differentiating eCFT, however, occurred outside the DMN. External eCFT engaged cuneus, angular gyrus and precuneus, whereas internal eCFT engaged posterior cingulate and precentral gyrus. Angular gyrus and precuneus were additionally sensitive to perceived plausibility of external eCFT, while postcentral gyrus and insula activity scaled with perceived plausibility of internal eCFT. These results highlight the key brain regions that might be involved in cases of maladaptive mental simulations. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Thinking about possibilities: mechanisms, ontogeny, functions and phylogeny’.
Imagination as a fundamental function of the hippocampus

Imagination is a biological function that is vital to human experience and advanced cognition. Despite this importance, it remains unknown how imagination is realized in the brain. Substantial research focusing on the hippocampus, a brain structure traditionally linked to memory, indicates that firing patterns in spatially tuned neurons can represent previous and upcoming paths in space. This work has generally been interpreted under standard views that the hippocampus implements cognitive abilities primarily related to actual experience, whether in the past (e.g. recollection, consolidation), present (e.g. spatial mapping) or future (e.g. planning). However, relatively recent findings in rodents identify robust patterns of hippocampal firing corresponding to a variety of alternatives to actual experience, in many cases without overt reference to the past, present or future. Given these findings, and others on hippocampal contributions to human imagination, we suggest that a fundamental function of the hippocampus is to generate a wealth of hypothetical experiences and thoughts. Under this view, traditional accounts of hippocampal function in episodic memory and spatial navigation can be understood as particular applications of a more general system for imagination. This view also suggests that the hippocampus contributes to a wider range of cognitive abilities than previously thought. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Thinking about possibilities: mechanisms, ontogeny, functions and phylogeny’.
NuSTAR and Swift Observations of Swift J1357.2–0933 During an Early Phase of Its 2017 Outburst

We present a detailed spectral analysis of Swift and NuSTAR observations of the very faint X-ray transient and black hole system, Swift J1357.2–0933, during an early, low-hard state of its 2017 outburst. Swift J1357.2–0933 was observed at ∼0.02% of the Eddington luminosity (for a distance of 2.3 kpc and a mass of ). Despite the low luminosity, the broadband X-ray spectrum between 0.3 and 78 keV requires the presence of a disk blackbody component with an inner disk temperature of in addition to a thermal Comptonization component with a photon index of . Using a more physical model, which takes strong relativistic effects into account, and assuming a high inclination of 70°, which is motivated by the presence of dips in optical light curves, we find that the accretion disk is truncated within a few from the black hole, independent of the spin.
Counterfactual thinking elicits emotional change in young children

Adults often reason about what might have happened had they chosen an alternative course of action in the past, which can elicit the counterfactual emotion of regret. It is unclear whether young children's emotions are similarly impacted by counterfactual thinking about past possibilities. In this study, 4- to 9-year-old children (N = 160) opened one of two boxes, which concealed small and large prizes, respectively. Some children had the means to open either box, whereas other children only had the means to open one box. After seeing that the prize they did not obtain was larger than the one they did obtain, children were significantly more likely to report a negative change in emotion when the non-obtained prize had been a straightforward counterfactual possibility than when it had not. This shows that even young children experience counterfactual emotions following choices, which may ultimately drive them to make better choices in the future. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Thinking about possibilities: mechanisms, ontogeny, functions and phylogeny’.
Waiting for a better possibility: delay of gratification in corvids and its relationship to other cognitive capacities

Self-control, the ability to resist temptation and wait for better but delayed possibilities, is an important cognitive skill that underpins decision-making and planning. The capacity to exert self-control has been linked to intelligence in humans, chimpanzees and most recently cuttlefish. Here, we presented 10 Eurasian jays, Garrulus glandarius, with a delayed maintenance task, which measured the ability to choose a preferred outcome as well as the ability to sustain the delay prior to that outcome. Jays were able to wait for better possibilities, but maximum wait times varied across the subjects. We also presented them with five cognitive tasks that assessed spatial memory, spatial relationships and learning capacity. These tasks are commonly used as measures of general intelligence within an ecological context. Individual performance was correlated across the cognitive tasks, which suggests that there was a general intelligence factor underlying their performance. Performance in these tasks was correlated significantly with the jays' capacity to wait for better possibilities. This study demonstrates that self-control and intelligence are correlated in jays. The fact that this correlation exists in diverse species suggests that self-control is a fundamental feature of cognition. Our results are discussed in the context of convergent evolution. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Thinking about possibilities: mechanisms, ontogeny, functions and phylogeny’.
Continuous tensor network renormalization for quantum fields

On the lattice, a renormalization group (RG) flow for two-dimensional partition functions expressed as a tensor network can be obtained using the tensor network renormalization (TNR) algorithm [G. Evenbly, G. Vidal, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115 (18), 180405 (2015)]. In this work we explain how to extend TNR to field theories in the continuum. First, a short-distance length scale $1/\Lambda$ is introduced in the continuum partition function by smearing the fields. The resulting object is still defined in the continuum but has no fluctuations at distances shorter than $1/\Lambda$. An infinitesimal coarse-graining step is then generated by the combined action of a $rescaling$ operator $L$ and a $disentangling$ operator $K$ that implements a quasi-local field redefinition. As demonstrated for a free boson in two dimensions, continuous TNR exactly preserves translation and rotation symmetries and can generate a proper RG flow. Moreover, from a critical fixed point of this RG flow one can then extract the conformal data of the underlying conformal field theory.