Priming in interpersonal contexts: Implications for affect and behavior

Priming stereotypes can lead to a variety of behavioral outcomes, including assimilation, contrast, and response behaviors. However, the conditions that give rise to each of these outcomes are unspecified. Furthermore, theoretical accounts posit that prime-to-behavior effects are either direct (i.e., unmediated) or mediated by cognitive processes, whereas the role of affective processes has been largely unexplored. The present research directly investigated both of these issues. Three experiments demonstrated that priming a threatening social group ("hoodies") influences both affect and behavior in an interpersonal context. Hoodie priming produced both behavioral avoidance and several affective changes (including social apprehension, threat sensitivity, and self-reported anxiety and hostility). Importantly, avoidance following hoodie priming was mediated by anxiety and occurred only under conditions of other-(but not self-) focus. These results highlight multiple routes through which primes influence affect and behavior, and suggest that attention to self or others determine the nature of priming effects

The Omega Deformation, Branes, Integrability, and Liouville Theory

We reformulate the Omega-deformation of four-dimensional gauge theory in a way that is valid away from fixed points of the associated group action. We use this reformulation together with the theory of coisotropic A-branes to explain recent results linking the Omega-deformation to integrable Hamiltonian systems in one direction and Liouville theory of two-dimensional conformal field theory in another direction.Comment: 96 p

Nekrasov Functions and Exact Bohr-Sommerfeld Integrals

In the case of SU(2), associated by the AGT relation to the 2d Liouville theory, the Seiberg-Witten prepotential is constructed from the Bohr-Sommerfeld periods of 1d sine-Gordon model. If the same construction is literally applied to monodromies of exact wave functions, the prepotential turns into the one-parametric Nekrasov prepotential F(a,\epsilon_1) with the other epsilon parameter vanishing, \epsilon_2=0, and \epsilon_1 playing the role of the Planck constant in the sine-Gordon Shroedinger equation, \hbar=\epsilon_1. This seems to be in accordance with the recent claim in arXiv:0908.4052 and poses a problem of describing the full Nekrasov function as a seemingly straightforward double-parametric quantization of sine-Gordon model. This also provides a new link between the Liouville and sine-Gordon theories.Comment: 10 page

Microclimate model for urban heat island simulation: a prediction tool extension to calculate the ambient temperature of building

Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) is a public university located at Parit Raja, Batu Pahat, which is categorized as a suburban area of Johor, Malaysia and is still in development progress. However, the quick pace of development leads to changing of land use from green surface to hard surface building blocks which tends to increase the temperature level and reduce outdoor comfort level of occupants in UTHM. In addition, the available software simulations that used currently for temperature monitoring is mostly too complicated for educated non-scientist such as urban planners and architects. This research objectives are to predict the ambient building temperature of reference area by using Screening Tool for Estate Environment Evaluation software (STEVE) and to provide comparison for both of field measurements with STEVE results. In order to achieve these objectives, a total of six stations considering different urban morphologies are evaluated to give a better understanding on implication of urban heat island. The daily minimum (Tmin), average (Tavg) and maximum (Tmax) air temperature for six stations in UTHM have been developed and validated based on a long-term field measurement. The pavement (PAVE), building (BDG), green plot area ratio (GnPR), average height area (AvgHT), sky view factor (SVF), total wall area (WALL) and result of the temperature (Tmax, Tmin and Tavg) are automatically calculated by STEVE from the developed 3D models. The results show that the percentage different of temperature between STEVE and field measurement is in a range of 0.9-1.0% and this has strongly indicated that STEVE is suitable to be used as temperature prediction tool

Anticholinesterase activity of endemic plant extracts from Soqotra

A total of 30 chloroform and methanol extracts from the following endemic Soqotran plants Acridocarpus socotranus Olive, Boswellia socotranao Balf.fil, Boswellia elongata Balf. fil., Caralluma socotrana N. Br, Cephalocroton socotranus Balf.f, Croton socotranus Balf. fil.., Dendrosicycos socotrana Balf.f., Dorstenia gigas Schweinf. ex Balf. fil., Eureiandra balfourii Cogn. & Balf. fil., Kalanchoe farinaceae Balf.f, Limonium sokotranum (Vierh) Radcl. Sm), Oldenlandia pulvinata, Pulicaria diversifolia( Balf. and Pulicaria stephanocarpa Balf. were screened for their acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity by using in vitro Ellman method at 50 and 200 μg/ml concentrations. Chloroform extracts of Croton socotranus, Boswellia socotrana, Dorstenia gigas, and Pulicaria stephanocarpa as well as methanol extracts of Eureiandra balfourii exhibited inhibitory activities higher than 50 % at concentration of 200 μg. At a concentrations of 50 μg, the chloroform extract of Croton socotranus exhibited an inhibition of 40.6 %.Key words: plant extracts, acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, Soqotra, Alzheimer’s diseas

How Long It Takes for an Ordinary Node with an Ordinary ID to Output?

In the context of distributed synchronous computing, processors perform in rounds, and the time-complexity of a distributed algorithm is classically defined as the number of rounds before all computing nodes have output. Hence, this complexity measure captures the running time of the slowest node(s). In this paper, we are interested in the running time of the ordinary nodes, to be compared with the running time of the slowest nodes. The node-averaged time-complexity of a distributed algorithm on a given instance is defined as the average, taken over every node of the instance, of the number of rounds before that node output. We compare the node-averaged time-complexity with the classical one in the standard LOCAL model for distributed network computing. We show that there can be an exponential gap between the node-averaged time-complexity and the classical time-complexity, as witnessed by, e.g., leader election. Our first main result is a positive one, stating that, in fact, the two time-complexities behave the same for a large class of problems on very sparse graphs. In particular, we show that, for LCL problems on cycles, the node-averaged time complexity is of the same order of magnitude as the slowest node time-complexity. In addition, in the LOCAL model, the time-complexity is computed as a worst case over all possible identity assignments to the nodes of the network. In this paper, we also investigate the ID-averaged time-complexity, when the number of rounds is averaged over all possible identity assignments. Our second main result is that the ID-averaged time-complexity is essentially the same as the expected time-complexity of randomized algorithms (where the expectation is taken over all possible random bits used by the nodes, and the number of rounds is measured for the worst-case identity assignment). Finally, we study the node-averaged ID-averaged time-complexity.Comment: (Submitted) Journal versio

Quantization of Integrable Systems and a 2d/4d Duality

We present a new duality between the F-terms of supersymmetric field theories defined in two- and four-dimensions respectively. The duality relates N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories in four dimensions, deformed by an Omega-background in one plane, to N=(2,2) gauged linear sigma-models in two dimensions. On the four dimensional side, our main example is N=2 SQCD with gauge group SU(L) and 2L fundamental flavours. Using ideas of Nekrasov and Shatashvili, we argue that the Coulomb branch of this theory provides a quantization of the classical Heisenberg SL(2) spin chain. Agreement with the standard quantization via the Algebraic Bethe Ansatz implies the existence of an isomorphism between the chiral ring of the 4d theory and that of a certain two-dimensional theory. The latter can be understood as the worldvolume theory on a surface operator/vortex string probing the Higgs branch of the same 4d theory. We check the proposed duality by explicit calculation at low orders in the instanton expansion. One striking consequence is that the Seiberg-Witten solution of the 4d theory is captured by a one-loop computation in two dimensions. The duality also has interesting connections with the AGT conjecture, matrix models and topological string theory where it corresponds to a refined version of the geometric transition.Comment: 51 pages, 7 figures. Additional comments, minor improvements and references adde

Relating Gauge Theories via Gauge/Bethe Correspondence

In this note, we use techniques from integrable systems to study relations between gauge theories. The Gauge/Bethe correspondence, introduced by Nekrasov and Shatashvili, identifies the supersymmetric ground states of an N=(2,2) supersymmetric gauge theory in two dimensions with the Bethe states of a quantum integrable system. We make use of this correspondence to relate three different quiver gauge theories which correspond to three different formulations of the Bethe equations of an integrable spin chain called the tJ model.Comment: 30 pages, published in JHEP. LaTeX problem correcte

Proximate and Phytochemical composition and antioxidant properties of indigenous landraces of omani fenugreek seeds.

Background: Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum graecum L) is receiving global attention as a functional food due to its unique nutritional and medicinal properties as anti-diabetic, hypocholesterolemic, antipyretic, anti-carcinogenic and seasoning and flavoring agent.Materials and Methods: Seeds of indigenous fenugreek accessions were collected from three different ecological regions (Al-Dakhaliyah, Al- Dhahirah, and Al-Batinah) of Sultanate of Oman. The samples were analyzed for proximate chemical composition, phytochemical contents and antioxidant properties.Results: Only significant (P<0.05) differences were observed in the crude fiber and gross energy values of fenugreek seeds collected from different regions of Oman. The highest crude fiber content (8.6 %) was observed in samples collected from Al-Dhahirah region whereas the lowest value (7.1%) was found in samples collected from Al-Dakhaliyah region. No significant (P<0.05) differences were however observed in the moisture, crude protein, crude fat, and ash contents of samples collected from the three regions of Oman. The regional variability significantly (P<0.05) affected the phytochemicals composition and the highest amount of total phenolics (139.2 mg GAE/100g) were recorded in samples collected from Al-Batinah, followed by Al-Dhakhliyah (130.0 mg GAE/100g) and Al-Dhahirah (127.8 mg GAE/100g) regions, respectively. A significant correlation was also observed between the total phenolic contents and the antioxidant properties of fenugreek seeds as determined by reducing power potential  (FRAP).Conclusion: Indigenous landraces of Omani fenugreek seeds are a rich source of protein, dietary fiber, and many important bioactive components, which were found to be significantly correlatedwith its antioxidant properties.Keywords: Omani fenugreek, landraces, phytochemical composition, antioxidant properties

A New 2d/4d Duality via Integrability

We prove a duality, recently conjectured in arXiv:1103.5726, which relates the F-terms of supersymmetric gauge theories defined in two and four dimensions respectively. The proof proceeds by a saddle point analysis of the four-dimensional partition function in the Nekrasov-Shatashvili limit. At special quantized values of the Coulomb branch moduli, the saddle point condition becomes the Bethe Ansatz Equation of the SL(2) Heisenberg spin chain which coincides with the F-term equation of the dual two-dimensional theory. The on-shell values of the superpotential in the two theories are shown to coincide in corresponding vacua. We also identify two-dimensional duals for a large set of quiver gauge theories in four dimensions and generalize our proof to these cases.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures, minor corrections and references adde