The Biosynthesis of Enzymatically Oxidized Lipids

Enzymatically oxidized lipids are a specific group of biomolecules that function as keysignaling mediators and hormones, regulating various cellular and physiological processesfrom metabolism and cell death to inflammation and the immune response. They arebroadly categorized as either polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) containing (free acidoxygenated PUFA “oxylipins”, endocannabinoids, oxidized phospholipids) or cholesterolderivatives (oxysterols, steroid hormones, and bile acids). Their biosynthesis isaccomplished by families of enzymes that include lipoxygenases (LOX),cyclooxygenases (COX), cytochrome P450s (CYP), and aldo-keto reductases (AKR). Incontrast, non-enzymatically oxidized lipids are produced by uncontrolled oxidation andare broadly considered to be harmful. Here, we provide an overview of the biochemistryand enzymology of LOXs, COXs, CYPs, and AKRs in humans. Next, we presentbiosynthetic pathways for oxylipins, oxidized phospholipids, oxysterols, bile acids andsteroid hormones. Last, we address gaps in knowledge and suggest directions forfuture work

Achieving robustness to aleatoric uncertainty with heteroscedastic Bayesian optimisation

Bayesian optimisation is a sample-efficient search methodology that holds great promise for accelerating drug and materials discovery programs. A frequently-overlooked modelling consideration in Bayesian optimisation strategies however, is the representation of heteroscedastic aleatoric uncertainty. In many practical applications it is desirable to identify inputs with low aleatoric noise, an example of which might be a material composition which consistently displays robust properties in response to a noisy fabrication process. In this paper, we propose a heteroscedastic Bayesian optimisation scheme capable of representing and minimising aleatoric noise across the input space. Our scheme employs a heteroscedastic Gaussian process (GP) surrogate model in conjunction with two straightforward adaptations of existing acquisition functions. First, we extend the augmented expected improvement (AEI) heuristic to the heteroscedastic setting and second, we introduce the aleatoric noise-penalised expected improvement (ANPEI) heuristic. Both methodologies are capable of penalising aleatoric noise in the suggestions and yield improved performance relative to homoscedastic Bayesian optimisation and random sampling on toy problems as well as on two real-world scientific datasets. Code is available at: \url{https://github.com/Ryan-Rhys/Heteroscedastic-BO

The Road to Quantum Computational Supremacy

We present an idiosyncratic view of the race for quantum computational supremacy. Google's approach and IBM challenge are examined. An unexpected side-effect of the race is the significant progress in designing fast classical algorithms. Quantum supremacy, if achieved, won't make classical computing obsolete.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figur

Compulsive Internet use and workaholism: An exploratory two-wave longitudinal study

Workaholism refers to the uncontrollable need to work and comprises working compulsively (WC) and working excessively (WE). Compulsive Internet Use (CIU), involves a similar behavioural pattern although in specific relation to Internet use. Since many occupations rely upon use of the Internet, and the lines between home and the workplace have become increasingly blurred, a self-reinforcing pattern of workaholism and CIU could develop from those vulnerable to one or the other. The present study explored the relationship between these compulsive behaviours utilizing a two-wave longitudinal study over six months. A total of 244 participants who used the Internet as part of their occupational role and were in full-time employment completed the online survey at each wave. This survey contained previously validated measures of each variable. Data were analysed using cross-lagged analysis. Results indicated that Internet usage and CIU were reciprocally related, supporting the existence of tolerance in CIU. It was also found that CIU at Time 1 predicted WC at Time 2 and that WE was unrelated to CIU. It is concluded that a masking mechanism appears a sensible explanation for the findings. Although further studies are needed, these findings encourage a more holistic evaluation and treatment of compulsive behaviours

Interfacing External Quantum Devices to a Universal Quantum Computer

We present a scheme to use external quantum devices using the universal quantum computer previously constructed. We thereby show how the universal quantum computer can utilize networked quantum information resources to carry out local computations. Such information may come from specialized quantum devices or even from remote universal quantum computers. We show how to accomplish this by devising universal quantum computer programs that implement well known oracle based quantum algorithms, namely the Deutsch, Deutsch-Jozsa, and the Grover algorithms using external black-box quantum oracle devices. In the process, we demonstrate a method to map existing quantum algorithms onto the universal quantum computer

A Unifying Theory of Biological Function

A new theory that naturalizes biological function is explained and compared with earlier etiological and causal role theories. Etiological theories explain functions from how they are caused over their evolutionary history. Causal role theories analyze how functional mechanisms serve the current capacities of their containing system. The new proposal unifies the key notions of both kinds of theories, but goes beyond them by explaining how functions in an organism can exist as factors with autonomous causal efficacy. The goal-directedness and normativity of functions exist in this strict sense as well. The theory depends on an internal physiological or neural process that mimics an organism’s fitness, and modulates the organism’s variability accordingly. The structure of the internal process can be subdivided into subprocesses that monitor specific functions in an organism. The theory matches well with each intuition on a previously published list of intuited ideas about biological functions, including intuitions that have posed difficulties for other theories

Prenatal Vitamin D Supplementation and Child Respiratory Health: A Randomised Controlled Trial

PMCID: PMC3691177This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Self-concept clarity, social support, and compulsive internet use: a study of the US and the UAE

Compulsive Internet Use (CIU) has been mostly studied among adolescents, yet some studies reveal that this can be a problem for the adult population, too. The lack of agreement on diagnostic tools and cut-off points results in markedly different prevalence figures. Building on Charlton’s (2002) distinction between core CIU and positive engagement dimensions, the first objective was to confirm that prevalence figures including the core dimensions of CIU were lower than those including the engagement dimensions as well. Second, building on Davis’s (2001) diathesis-stress model, we tested the role that self-concept clarity (SCC) and social support play in predicting core CIU in US subjects (NUS = 268). Finally, we expected that, because self-concept clarity is mostly linked to well-being in Western countries, the association between this variable and core CIU would be weak in the Eastern culture sample (NUAE = 270). Our findings confirmed that prevalence figures were 20–40% lower when including the core dimensions only, and that SCC is a key predictor of CIU at low levels of social support in the US. We also confirmed that this is not the case in the UAE. Future research opportunities to advance this study were discussed

Clinical-pathological study on β-APP, IL-1β, GFAP, NFL, Spectrin II, 8OHdG, TUNEL, miR-21, miR-16, miR-92 expressions to verify DAI-diagnosis, grade and prognosis

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the most important death and disability cause, involving substantial costs, also in economic terms, when considering the young age of the involved subject. Aim of this paper is to report a series of patients treated at our institutions, to verify neurological results at six months or survival; in fatal cases we searched for βAPP, GFAP, IL-1β, NFL, Spectrin II, TUNEL and miR-21, miR-16, and miR-92 expressions in brain samples, to verify DAI diagnosis and grade as strong predictor of survival and inflammatory response. Concentrations of 8OHdG as measurement of oxidative stress was performed. Immunoreaction of β-APP, IL-1β, GFAP, NFL, Spectrin II and 8OHdG were significantly increased in the TBI group with respect to control group subjects. Cell apoptosis, measured by TUNEL assay, were significantly higher in the study group than control cases. Results indicated that miR-21, miR-92 and miR-16 have a high predictive power in discriminating trauma brain cases from controls and could represent promising biomarkers as strong predictor of survival, and for the diagnosis of postmortem traumatic brain injury