6,984 research outputs found
A sensitive and specific neural signature for picture-induced negative affect
Neuroimaging has identified many correlates of emotion but has not yet yielded brain representations predictive of the intensity of emotional experiences in individuals. We used machine learning to identify a sensitive and specific signature of emotional responses to aversive images. This signature predicted the intensity of negative emotion in individual participants in cross validation (n =121) and test (n = 61) samples (highâlow emotion = 93.5% accuracy). It was unresponsive to physical pain (emotionâpain = 92% discriminative accuracy), demonstrating that it is not a representation of generalized arousal or salience. The signature was comprised of mesoscale patterns spanning multiple cortical and subcortical systems, with no single system necessary or sufficient for predicting experience. Furthermore, it was not reducible to activity in traditional âemotion-relatedâ regions (e.g., amygdala, insula) or resting-state networks (e.g., âsalience,â âdefault modeâ). Overall, this work identifies differentiable neural components of negative emotion and pain, providing a basis for new, brain-based taxonomies of affective processes
Does psychosocial stress impact cognitive reappraisal? Behavioral and neural evidence
Cognitive reappraisal (CR) is regarded as an effective emotion regulation strategy. Acute stress, however, is believed to impair the functioning of prefrontal-based neural systems, which could result in lessened effectiveness of CR under stress. This study tested the behavioral and neurobiological impact of acute stress on CR. While undergoing fMRI, adult participants (n = 54) passively viewed or used CR to regulate their response to negative and neutral pictures and provided ratings of their negative affect in response to each picture. Half of the participants experienced an fMRI-adapted acute psychosocial stress manipulation similar to the Trier Social Stress Test, and a contr ol group received parallel manipulations without the stressful components. Relative to the control group, the stress group exhibited heightened stress as indexed by self-report, heart rate, and salivary cortisol throughout the scan. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found that reappraisal success was equivalent in the control and stress groups, as was electrodermal response to the pictures. Heart rate deceleration, a physiological response typically evoked by aversive pictures, was blunted in response to negative pictures and heightened in response to neutral pictures in the stress group. In the brain, we found weak evidence of stress-induced increases of reappraisalrelated activity in parts of the PFC and left amygdala, but these relationships were statistically fragile. Together, these findings suggest that both the self-reported and neural effects of CR may be robust to at least moderate levels of stress, informing theoretical models of stress effects on cognition and emotion
Parental social contact in the work place and the risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia
To study the possible relation between parental social contact through occupation, a marker for a child's risk of infection, and childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), the parents of 294 children with ALL aged 0â14.9 years and 376 matched controls were interviewed about their jobs after their child's birth up to the age of 3 years. Job titles were assigned to a level of social contact, and an index of occupational social contact months was created using the level and the job duration. Positive interactions between this index and rural residence associated with an increased risk of childhood ALL and common ALL (c-ALL) were observed (interaction P-value=0.02 for both, using tertiles of contact months; interaction P-value=0.05 and 0.02 for ALL and c-ALL, respectively, using continuous contact months); such findings were not observed when job durations were ignored. Our data suggest that duration of parental occupation may be important when examining the association between parental social contact in the workplace and childhood leukaemia
Spinor-Vector Duality in Heterotic String Orbifolds
The three generation heterotic-string models in the free fermionic
formulation are among the most realistic string vacua constructed to date,
which motivated their detailed investigation. The classification of free
fermion heterotic string vacua has revealed a duality under the exchange of
spinor and vector representations of the SO(10) GUT symmetry over the space of
models. We demonstrate the existence of the spinor-vector duality using
orbifold techniques, and elaborate on the relation of these vacua to free
fermionic models.Comment: 20 pages. v2 minor corrections. Version to appear on JHEP. v3
misprints correcte
Quantum gravity effects on statistics and compact star configurations
The thermodynamics of classical and quantum ideal gases based on the
Generalized uncertainty principle (GUP) are investigated. At low temperatures,
we calculate corrections to the energy and entropy. The equations of state
receive small modifications. We study a system comprised of a zero temperature
ultra-relativistic Fermi gas. It turns out that at low Fermi energy
, the degenerate pressure and energy are lifted. The
Chandrasekhar limit receives a small positive correction. We discuss the
applications on configurations of compact stars. As increases,
the radius, total number of fermions and mass first reach their nonvanishing
minima and then diverge. Beyond a critical Fermi energy, the radius of a
compact star becomes smaller than the Schwarzschild one. The stability of the
configurations is also addressed. We find that beyond another critical value of
the Fermi energy, the configurations are stable. At large radius, the increment
of the degenerate pressure is accelerated at a rate proportional to the radius.Comment: V2. discussions on the stability of star configurations added, 17
pages, 2 figures, typos corrected, version to appear in JHE
Field Deployment of an Ambient Vibration-Based Scour Monitoring System at Baildon Bridge, UK
Scour, the loss of material around bridge foundations due to hydraulic action, is the main cause of bridge failures in the United
Kingdom and in many other parts of the world. Various techniques have been used to monitor bridge scour, ranging from scuba divers using
crude depth measuring instrumentation to high-tech sonar and radar-based systems. In contrast to most other techniques, vibration-based scour
monitoring uses accelerometers to provide real-time monitoring whilst also being robust and relatively simple to install. This is an indirect
technique that aims to measure changes in the dynamic response of the structure due to the effects of scour, rather than attempting to measure
scour directly. To date, research on vibration-based scour monitoring has been limited to laboratory-based experiments and numerical
simulations, both of which have indicated that the natural frequencies of bridges should indeed be sensitive to scour. Due to pre-existing
scouring, and planned repair work, Baildon Bridge in Shipley, Yorkshire provided a rare opportunity to validate vibration-based scour
monitoring in both a scoured and a repaired state. A sensor system was deployed with 10 Epson low-noise, high-sensitivity accelerometers to
measure the ambient vibration of the bridge before, during, and after the repair. This paper describes the installation of the accelerometer-based
system, the numerical modelling of the bridge and the model updating carried out with the initial findings. Initial operational modal analysis
has found two consistent vibration modes of the bridge that were scour sensitive according to the updated numerical model. But the variability
of the measured frequencies, compared to the expected scour induced change in frequency, indicates a potential challenge for monitoring scour
of small span bridges with vibration-based methods
Low-temperature muon spin rotation studies of the monopole charges and currents in Y doped Ho2Ti2O7
In the ground state of Ho2Ti2O7 spin ice, the disorder of the magnetic moments follows the same rules as the proton disorder in water ice. Excitations take the form of magnetic monopoles that interact via a magnetic Coulomb interaction. Muon spin rotation has been used to probe the low-temperature magnetic behaviour in single crystal Ho2âxYxTi2O7 (x = 0, 0.1, 1, 1.6 and 2). At very low temperatures, a linear field dependence for the relaxation rate of the muon precession λ(B), that in some previous experiments on Dy2Ti2O7 spin ice has been associated with monopole currents, is observed in samples with x = 0, and 0.1. A signal from the magnetic fields penetrating into the silver sample plate due to the magnetization of the crystals is observed for all the samples containing Ho allowing us to study the unusual magnetic dynamics of Y doped spin ice
The promise of microarrays in the management and treatment of breast cancer
Breast cancer is the most common malignancy afflicting women from Western cultures. Developments in breast cancer molecular and cellular biology research have brought us closer to understanding the genetic basis of this disease. Recent advances in microarray technology hold the promise of further increasing our understanding of the complexity and heterogeneity of this disease, and providing new avenues for the prognostication and prediction of breast cancer outcomes. These new technologies have some limitations and have yet to be incorporated into clinical use, for both the diagnosis and treatment of women with breast cancer. The most recent application of microarray genomic technologies to studying breast cancer is the focus of this review
Significance of somatic mutations and content alteration of mitochondrial DNA in esophageal cancer
BACKGROUND: The roles of mitochondria in energy metabolism, the generation of ROS, aging, and the initiation of apoptosis have implicated their importance in tumorigenesis. In this study we aim to establish the mutation spectrum and to understand the role of somatic mtDNA mutations in esophageal cancer. METHODS: The entire mitochondrial genome was screened for somatic mutations in 20 pairs (18 esophageal squamous cell carcinomas, one adenosquamous carcinoma and one adenocarcinoma) of tumor/surrounding normal tissue of esophageal cancers, using temporal temperature gradient gel electrophoresis (TTGE), followed by direct DNA sequencing to identify the mutations. RESULTS: Fourteen somatic mtDNA mutations were identified in 55% (11/20) of tumors analyzed, including 2 novel missense mutations and a frameshift mutation in ND4L, ATP6 subunit, and ND4 genes respectively. Nine mutations (64%) were in the D-loop region. Numerous germline variations were found, at least 10 of them were novel and five were missense mutations, some of them occurred in evolutionarily conserved domains. Using real-time quantitative PCR analysis, the mtDNA content was found to increase in some tumors and decrease in others. Analysis of molecular and other clinicopathological findings does not reveal significant correlation between somatic mtDNA mutations and mtDNA content, or between mtDNA content and metastatic status. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate that somatic mtDNA mutations in esophageal cancers are frequent. Some missense and frameshift mutations may play an important role in the tumorigenesis of esophageal carcinoma. More extensive biochemical and molecular studies will be necessary to determine the pathological significance of these somatic mutations
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Ultrafast valley-resolved carrier dynamics in group IV semiconductors
Attosecond transient absorption spectroscopy at the M4,5-edge of Ge following ultrafast photoexcitation reveals valley-resolved hot electron and hole relaxation, carrier recombination and trapping in Ge and Si-Ge alloy in unprecedented clarity and simultaneously
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