julilili42/papers huggingface dataset:
Time pressure changes how people explore and respond to uncertainty
2021-07-29

How does time pressure influence exploration and decision-making? We investigated this question with several four-armed bandit tasks manipulating (within subjects) expected reward, uncertainty, and time pressure (limited vs. unlimited). With limited time, people have less opportunity to perform costly computations, thus shifting the cost-benefit balance of different exploration strategies. Through behavioral, reinforcement learning (RL), reaction time (RT), and evidence accumulation analyses, we show that time pressure changes how people explore and respond to uncertainty. Specifically, participants reduced their uncertainty-directed exploration under time pressure, were less value-directed, and repeated choices more often.Since our analyses relate uncertainty to slower responses and dampened evidence accumulation (i.e., drift rates), this demonstrates a resource-rational shift towards simpler, lower-cost strategies under time pressure. These results shed light on how people adapt their exploration and decision-making strategies to externally imposed cognitive constraints.
Disease expression caused by different variants in the BEST1 gene: genotype and phenotype findings in bestrophinopathies
2021-07-29

Abstract Purpose To analyse the spectrum of clinical features and molecular genetic data in a series of patients carrying likely disease‐associated variants in the BEST1 gene. Methods Retrospective observational analysis of clinical data extracted from the medical records of visual function, multimodal imaging and electrophysiology of 62 eyes of 31 patients. Molecular genetic analysis was performed by means of panel‐based NGS or Sanger sequencing. Results The spectrum of variants in the BEST1 gene comprised 19 different variants and three of which are novel. Fundus photographs and OCT images allowed categorization of 52 eyes as Best vitelliform macular dystrophy (BVMD) with stages 1 to 5 and 10 eyes with autosomal recessive bestrophinopathy (ARB), with more severe phenotype. One patient was shown to be heterozygous for a variant, which has so far been described only in ARB, but this patient had the BVMD phenotype. There was no significant progression of the visual acuity during the follow‐up period of 5 years both in BVMD and ARB. The most prevalent pattern of fundus autofluorescence (FAF) in BVMD was ‘patchy’. There were diverse visual field defects in static automated perimetry (SAP) depending on the stage. The Arden ratio was significantly lower in ARB patients and in eyes with stage 5 of BVMD. Conclusions The genotype does not always predict the phenotype in patients with BVMD and ARB; however, having two mutations in the BEST1 gene causes a more severe phenotype. FAF helped to distinguish ARB from BVMD. Most of the observed eyes did not progress functionally during the follow‐up. ARB and the atrophic stage of BVMD as the disease end‐stage had the worst visual functions and EOG results.
Lunate morphology: association with the severity of scapholunate ligament injuries and carpal instability patterns
2021-07-29

Type II lunate has been associated with a lower incidence of dorsal intercalated segment instability (DISI) in the case of scapholunate dissociation. We aimed to evaluate the frequency of different lunate types and their influence on the prevalence and severity of scapholunate ligament (SLIL) injuries and the development of DISI. The surgical records of 414 arthroscopies were reviewed retrospectively. Lunate types were diagnosed based on radiograms and MRI examinations. The Type II lunate had a facet between hamate and lunate; in the Type I lunate, this facet is lacking. We additionally included the assessment of the capitate-triquetrum distance (CTD), which defines Type I, Intermediate, and Type II lunates. We adopted the DISI when the scapholunate angle was more than 80° and/or the radiolunate angle less than -15°. Fisher's exact test was applied to compare the distribution frequency of SLIL lesions and DISI deformity of patients with different lunate types. To quantify the inter- and the intra-rater reliability of lunate type assessment Cohen's kappa was calculated and, for CTD measurements, a Bland-Altman plot was created. Up to 77.1% patients had Type II lunates. Regarding MRI and CTD classification in patients with Type I lunates, Grade 4 SLIL injuries were more common than in those with Intermediate and Type II (<i>p</i> < 0.05). In the case of Grade 4 SLIL lesions, DISI was more common in patients with Type I lunates (<i>p</i> < 0.05). There were, however, only 25 patients with Type I lunates, and Grade 4 SLIL lesions according to MRI, and 6 according to CTD measurement.
Effects of screen-based retinal light stimulation measured with a novel contrast sensitivity test
2021-07-29

Myopia is increasing worldwide hence it exists a pressing demand to find effective myopia control strategies. Previous studies have shown that light, spectral composition, spatial frequencies, and contrasts play a critical role in refractive development. The effects of light on multiple retinal processes include growth regulation, but also visual performance and perception. Changes in subjective visual performance can be examined by contrast sensitivity (CS). This study was conducted to investigate whether retinal light stimulation of different wavelength ranges is able to elicit changes in CS and, therefore, may be used for myopia control purposes. In total, 30 right eyes were stimulated with the light of different wavelength ranges, including dominant wavelengths of ∼480 nm, ∼530 nm, ∼630 nm and polychromatic light via a commercial liquid crystal display (LCD) screen. Stimulation was performed screen full-field and on the optic nerve head only. CS was measured before any stimulation and after each stimulation condition using a novel and time-efficient CS test. Post-stimulation CS changes were analyzed by ANOVA regarding the influencing factors spatial frequency, stimulation wavelength and stimulation location. A priorly conducted verification study on a subset of five participants compared the newly developed CS test to a validated CS test. The novel CS test exhibited good reliability of 0.94 logCS and repeatability of 0.13 logCS with a duration of 92 sec ± 17 sec. No clinically critical change between pre- and post-stimulation CS was detected (all p&gt;0.05). However, the results showed that post-stimulation CS differed significantly at 18 cpd after stimulation with polychromatic light from short-wavelength light (p&lt;0.0001). Location of illumination (screen full-field vs. optic nerve head) or any interactions with other factors did not reveal significant influences (all p&gt;0.05). To summarize, a novel CS test measures the relationship between retinal light stimulation and CS. However, using retinal illumination via LCD screens to increase CS is inconclusive.
Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of a Radiolabeled PET (Positron Emission Tomography) Probe for Visualization of In Vivo α-Fucosidase Expression
2021-07-29

The acidic hydrolase α-fucosidase (AF) is a biomarker for maladies such as cancer and inflammation. The most advanced probes for α-fucosidase are unfortunately constrained to ex vivo or in vitro applications. The in vivo detection and quantification of AF using positron emission tomography would allow for better discovery and diagnosis of disease as well as provide better understanding of disease progression. We synthesized, characterized, and evaluated a radiolabeled small molecule inhibitor of AF based on a known molecule. The radiosynthesis involved the 11C methylation of a phenoxide, which was generated in situ by ultrasonification of the precursor with sodium hydride. The tracer was produced with a decay corrected yield of 41.7 ± 16.5% and had a molar activity of 65.4 ± 30.3 GBq/μmol. The tracer was shown to be stable in mouse serum at 60 min. To test the new tracer, HCT116 colorectal carcinoma cells were engineered to overexpress human AF. In vitro evaluation revealed 3.5-fold higher uptake in HCT116AF cells compared to HCT116 controls (26.4 ± 7.8 vs. 7.5 ± 1.0 kBq/106 cells). Static PET scans 50 min post injection revealed 2.5-fold higher tracer uptake in the HCT116AF tumors (3.0 ± 0.8%ID/cc (n = 6)) compared with the controls (1.2 ± 0.8 (n = 5)). Dynamic scans showed higher uptake in the HCT116AF tumors at all time-points (n = 2). Ex vivo analysis of the tumors, utilizing fluorescent DDK2 antibodies, confirmed the expression of human AF in the HCT116AF xenografts. We have developed a novel PET tracer to image AF in vivo and will now apply this to relevant disease models.
An Ad-Hoc Semantics to Study Structural Properties of Types
2021-07-29

The paper illustrates a sound and complete semantics with a classifying model for Martin-Löf type theory, which can be easily extended to a large fragment of homotopy type theory (HoTT). The semantics is ad-hoc in the sense that it is not intended to provide a meaning to the system, but to study its proof-theoretical properties using the classifying model, allowing to derive that Π is injective, and no universe is equivalent to a function space, in analogy with the PER models by Abel, Coquand, and Dybjer, but including an infinite hierarchy of universes.
Photoexcitation Dynamics in Strongly Interacting Donor/Acceptor Blends Probed by Time-Resolved Photoluminescence Spectroscopy
2021-07-29

In organic semiconductors, strong acceptor molecules represent versatile building blocks to tailor their electronic properties and it is of particular interest how they modify the transport of charge carriers or excitons. Here, we study the low-temperature photoexcitation dynamics of a donor/acceptor system comprised of tetracene (Tc) and the strong acceptor F4-TCNQ using time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. Tc/F4-TCNQ blends reveal both relatively pure domains of Tc and a mixed phase, where strong interactions in the ground state lead to the formation of charge transfer complexes. The mixed phase can efficiently quench excitons from Tc domains either by charge or by energy transfer, which becomes apparent as a faster PL decay with respect to neat Tc. We analyze the low-temperature dynamics by means of global and target analysis and find that the photoexcited population relaxes into lower-energetic states on a time scale of 10 to several 100 ps. This relaxation process is efficient in neat Tc but seems to be suppressed to a certain extent in the Tc domains of the mixtures, potentially due to lower exciton mobility. Our study emphasizes the important role of thermal energy for efficient exciton transport in organic devices with high dopant concentrations.
Electrochemical Oxidation of 6:2 Polyfluoroalkyl Phosphate Diester—Simulation of Transformation Pathways and Reaction Kinetics with Hydroxyl Radicals
2021-07-30

Polyfluoroalkyl phosphate diesters (diPAPs) are widely used for paper and cardboard impregnation and discharged via waste streams from production processes and consumer products. To improve the knowledge about the environmental fate of diPAPs, electrochemical oxidation (EO) was used to characterize the transformation pathways and reaction kinetics. 6:2 diPAP was transformed electrochemically to perfluorocarboxylic acids (C<sub>5</sub>-C<sub>7</sub> PFCAs) and two intermediates (6:2 fluorotelomer carboxylic acid, FTCA, and 6:2 fluorotelomer unsaturated carboxylic acid, FTUCA). EO of potential intermediates 6:2 monoPAP and 6:2 fluorotelomer alcohol (FTOH) showed similar transformation products but with different ratios. We show that 6:2 diPAP is initiated by OH radical (<sup>•</sup>OH) reactions, as evidenced by the measured steady-state concentrations of <sup>•</sup>OH with the probe molecule terephthalic acid, quenching experiments, and pH dependency of the reaction. PFHpA was the main product of 6:2 diPAP oxidation, and it was formed in a pseudo-first-order reaction for which a bimolecular rate constant was estimated to be <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:msubsup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>k</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mmultiscripts><mml:mrow><mml:mi>O</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mprescripts></mml:mprescripts><mml:none></mml:none><mml:mrow><mml:mo>•</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:mmultiscripts><mml:mi>H</mml:mi><mml:mo>,</mml:mo><mml:mi>diPAP</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>form</mml:mi><mml:mspace></mml:mspace><mml:mi>PFHpA</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msubsup></mml:math> = 9.4(±1.4) × 10<sup>7</sup> M<sup>-1</sup> s<sup>-1</sup> by an initial rate approach. This can be utilized to estimate the environmental half-life of 6:2 diPAP for the reaction with <sup>•</sup>OH and the formation kinetics of persistent PFCAs.
Stable Atlantic Deep Water Mass Sourcing on Glacial‐Interglacial Timescales
2021-07-30

Abstract Increased deep ocean carbon storage is often invoked as the major sink for lower atmospheric CO 2 concentrations during past ice ages. In order to improve the understanding of the changes in ocean dynamics facilitating such increased oceanic carbon storage, we assess the variability of deep water provenance in the Atlantic by reconstructing authigenic Nd isotopes from North Atlantic site U1313 over the past ∼100 kyr. Under consideration of these new constraints for the northern Nd isotope end‐member, we find only limited long‐term variations in the meridional and intra‐basin water‐mass gradients suggesting a prevalence of northern‐sourced water (NSW) throughout the past 100 kyr. Tentative results suggest that during the glacial period of Marine Isotope Stage 4 NSW proportions even increased by additional ∼15% in the equatorial and Northeast Atlantic, calling into question the notion that cold climates promote the expansion of southern‐sourced water.
Using the Effective Sample Size as the Stopping Criterion in Markov Chain Monte Carlo with the Bayes Module in Mplus
2021-07-30

Bayesian modeling using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) estimation requires researchers to decide not only whether estimation has converged but also whether the Bayesian estimates are well-approximated by summary statistics from the chain. On the contrary, software such as the Bayes module in Mplus, which helps researchers check whether convergence has been achieved by comparing the potential scale reduction (PSR) with a prespecified maximum PSR, the size of the MCMC error or, equivalently, the effective sample size (ESS), is not monitored. Zitzmann and Hecht (2019) proposed a method that can be used to check whether a minimum ESS has been reached in Mplus. In this article, we evaluated this method with a computer simulation. Specifically, we fit a multilevel structural equation model to a large number of simulated data sets and compared different prespecified minimum ESS values with the actual (empirical) ESS values. The empirical values were approximately equal to or larger than the prespecified minimum ones, thus indicating the validity of the method.
Systematic, Modifying Group-Assisted Strategy Expanding Coverage of Metabolite Annotation in Liquid Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry-Based Nontargeted Metabolomics Studies
2021-07-30

From microbes to human beings, nontargeted metabolic profiling by liquid chromatography (LC)-mass spectrometry (MS) has been commonly used to investigate metabolic alterations. Still, a major challenge is the annotation of metabolites from thousands of detected features. The aim of our research was to go beyond coverage of metabolite annotation in common nontargeted metabolomics studies by an integrated multistep strategy applying data-dependent acquisition (DDA)-based ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC)-high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) analysis followed by comprehensive neutral loss matches for characteristic metabolite modifications and database searches in a successive manner. Using pooled human urine as a model sample for method establishment, we found 22% of the detected compounds having modifying structures. Major types of metabolite modifications in urine were glucuronidation (33%), sulfation (20%), and acetylation (6%). Among the 383 annotated metabolites, 100 were confirmed by standard compounds and 50 modified metabolites not present in common databases such as human metabolite database (HMDB) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) were structurally elucidated. Practicability was tested by the investigation of urines from pregnant women diagnosed with gestational diabetes mellitus vs healthy controls. Overall, 83 differential metabolites were annotated and 67% of them were modified metabolites including five previously unreported compounds. To conclude, the systematic modifying group-assisted strategy can be taken as a useful tool to extend the number of annotated metabolites in biological and biomedical nontargeted studies.
The new unbounded number line estimation task: A systematic literature review
2021-07-30

In 2011, Cohen and Blanc-Goldhammer introduced a new unbounded version of the number line estimation task which they argued to overcome limitations of its 'traditional' bounded counterpart. In line with this proposition, there is increasing evidence that the unbounded number line estimation task may indeed reflect a purer measure of the underlying representation of number magnitude. However, only few studies used this task version yet. In the present literature review, we aimed at evaluating all studies employing the unbounded task version so far to provide an overview of the current state of research. To identify all relevant articles and to evaluate the validity of the task, we conducted a systematic literature search in different databases following the PRISMA guidelines in May 2021. Methodological differences and commonalities of the 16 studies that met the inclusion criteria are discussed here. Our evaluation indicated considerable differences between studies with respect to the number range covered or methodological features such as display size. Additionally, five studies observed evidence for estimation biases in the unbounded task as well. Nevertheless, this review also substantiated the claim that the unbounded task version might indeed be a more valid and purer measure of the mental representation of number magnitude as the results of 14 studies confirmed this hypothesis.
Physical conditions in the warped accretion disk of a massive star
2021-07-30

Young massive stars warm up the large amount of gas and dust that condenses in their vicinity, exciting a forest of lines from different molecular species. Their line brightness is a diagnostic tool of the gas’s physical conditions locally, which we use to set constraints on the environment where massive stars form. We made use of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array at frequencies near 349 GHz, with an angular resolution of 0′′.1, to observe the methyl cyanide (CH 3 CN) emission which arises from the accretion disk of a young massive star. We sample the disk midplane with twelve distinct beams, where we get an independent measure of the gas’s (and dust’s) physical conditions. The accretion disk extends above the midplane, showing a double-armed spiral morphology projected onto the plane of the sky, which we sample with ten additional beams: Along these apparent spiral features, gas undergoes velocity gradients of about 1 km s −1 per 2000 au. The gas temperature ( T ) rises symmetrically along each side of the disk, from about 98 K at 3000 au to 289 K at 250 au, following a power law with radius R −0.43 . The CH 3 CN column density ( N ) increases from 9.2 × 10 15 cm −2 to 8.7 × 10 17 cm −2 at the same radii, following a power law with radius R −1.8 . In the framework of a circular gaseous disk observed approximately edge-on, we infer an H 2 volume density in excess of 4.8 ×10 9 cm −3 at a distance of 250 au from the star. We study the disk stability against fragmentation following the methodology by Kratter et al. (2010, ApJ, 708, 1585), which is appropriate under rapid accretion, and we show that the disk is marginally prone to fragmentation along its whole extent.
Auditory and olfactory findings in patients with USH2A‐related retinal degeneration—Findings at baseline from the rate of progression in USH2A‐related retinal degeneration natural history study (RUSH2A)
2021-07-30

Abstract Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) is characteristic of Usher syndrome type 2 (USH2), but less is known about SNHL in nonsyndromic autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa (ARRP) and olfaction in USH2A ‐associated retinal degeneration. The Rate of Progression of USH2A ‐related Retinal Degeneration (RUSH2A) is a natural history study that enrolled 127 participants, 80 with USH2 and 47 with ARRP. Hearing was measured by pure‐tone thresholds and word recognition scores, and olfaction by the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT). SNHL was moderate in 72% of USH2 participants and severe or profound in 25%, while 9% of ARRP participants had moderate adult‐onset SNHL. Pure‐tone thresholds worsened with age in ARRP but not in USH2 participants. The degree of SNHL was not associated with other participant characteristics in either USH2 or ARRP. Median pure‐tone thresholds in ARRP participants were significantly higher than the normative population ( p &lt; 0.001). Among 14 USH2 participants reporting newborn hearing screening results, 7 reported passing. Among RUSH2A participants, 7% had mild microsmia and 5% had moderate or severe microsmia. Their mean (± SD ) UPSIT score was 35 (±3), similar to healthy controls (34 [±3]; p = 0.39). Olfaction differed by country ( p = 0.02), but was not significantly associated with clinical diagnosis, age, gender, race/ethnicity, smoking status, visual measures, or hearing. Hearing loss in USH2A ‐related USH2 did not progress with age. ARRP patients had higher pure‐tone thresholds than normal. Newborn hearing screening did not identify all USH2A ‐related hearing loss. Olfaction was not significantly worse than normal in participants with USH2A‐ related retinal degeneration.
To Regulate or Not to Regulate: Emotion Regulation in Participants With Low and High Impulsivity
2021-07-30

Successful emotion regulation plays a key role in psychological health and well-being. This study examines (1) whether cognitive control and corresponding neural connectivity are associated with emotion regulation and (2) to what extent external instructions can improve emotion regulation in individuals with low vs. high cognitive control capacity. For this, emotion regulation capabilities and the impact of emotion regulation on a subsequent emotional Stroop task was tested in participants with low ( N = 25) vs. high impulsivity ( N = 32). The classification according to impulsivity is based upon the stable correlation between high impulsivity and reduced cognitive control capacity. A negative emotion inducing movie scene was presented with the instruction to either suppress or allow all emotions that arose. This was followed by an emotional Stroop task. Electromyography (EMG) over the corrugator supercilii was used to assess the effects of emotion regulation. Neurophysiological mechanisms were measured using functional near-infrared spectroscopy over frontal brain areas. While EMG activation was low in the low-impulsive group independent of instruction, high-impulsive participants showed increased EMG activity when they were not explicitly instructed to suppress arising emotions. Given the same extent of functional connectivity within frontal lobe networks, the low-impulsive participants controlled their emotions better (less EMG activation) than the high-impulsive participants. In the Stroop task, the low-impulsive subjects performed significantly better. The emotion regulation condition had no significant effect on the results. We conclude that the cognitive control network is closely associated with emotion regulation capabilities. Individuals with high cognitive control show implicit capabilities for emotion regulation. Individuals with low cognitive control require external instructions (= explicit emotion regulation) to achieve similarly low expressions of emotionality. Implications for clinical applications aiming to improve emotion regulation are discussed.