450 research outputs found
Effects of Current Mood State on the Time-Frame Orientation of Mind-Wandering
The current study examined the effect of mood state on the time-frame orientation (retrospective versus prospective) of mind-wandering (i.e., daydreaming). The mood states of participants were recorded before and after performing a long, repetitive facial emotion discrimination task using the Affect Grid (emotional valence and arousal). Depending on the initial valence reported by participants, various experimental manipulations were selected to attempt to maintain this mood state, such as emotionally provoking images, the brightness of background lighting, and emotion inducing background music. During this task, each participant was prompted 15 times to provide their mind-wandering state and, if mind-wandering at the time, to then provide the time orientation and emotional content of the mind-wandering episode. Results revealed that the time-frame orientation of mind-wandering episodes were more likely to be prospective than retrospective, and the time-frame orientation was affected by both arousal and emotional valence. Depression scores, gathered at an earlier time via mass testing and related to emotional valence, were related to time orientation. Not surprisingly, the emotional content of the mind-wandering episodes matched the participant’s emotional state during the experiment. These results clearly highlight that the time-frame orientation and content of our mind-wandering episodes (daydreams) are not random but rather reflect our current concerns and physiological states
Genomic and Transcriptomic Alterations Associated with STAT3 Activation in Head and Neck Cancer.
BackgroundHyperactivation of STAT3 via constitutive phosphorylation of tyrosine 705 (Y705) is common in most human cancers, including head and neck squamous carcinoma (HNSCC). STAT3 is rarely mutated in cancer and the (epi)genetic alterations that lead to STAT3 activation are incompletely understood. Here we used an unbiased approach to identify genomic and epigenomic changes associated with pSTAT3(Y705) expression using data generated by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA).Methods and findingsMutation, mRNA expression, promoter methylation, and copy number alteration data were extracted from TCGA and examined in the context of pSTAT3(Y705) protein expression. mRNA expression levels of 1279 genes were found to be associated with pSTAT3(705) expression. Association of pSTAT3(Y705) expression with caspase-8 mRNA expression was validated by immunoblot analysis in HNSCC cells. Mutation, promoter hypermethylation, and copy number alteration of any gene were not significantly associated with increased pSTAT3(Y705) protein expression.ConclusionsThese cumulative results suggest that unbiased approaches may be useful in identifying the molecular underpinnings of oncogenic signaling, including STAT3 activation, in HNSCC. Larger datasets will likely be necessary to elucidate signaling consequences of infrequent alterations
Cultural probes and the value of uncertainty
When reason is away, smiles will play. --- Paul Eluard and Benjamin PĂ©re
Chiral Plaquette Polaron Theory of Cuprate Superconductivity
Ab-initio density functional calculations on explicitly doped
La(2-x)Sr(x)CuO4 find doping creates localized holes in out-of-plane orbitals.
A model for superconductivity is developed based on the assumption that doping
leads to the formation of holes on a four-site Cu plaquette composed of the
out-of-plane A1 orbitals apical O pz, planar Cu dz2, and planar O psigma. This
is in contrast to the assumption of hole doping into planar Cu dx2-y2 and O
psigma orbitals as in the t-J model. Interaction of holes with the d9 spin
background leads to chiral polarons with either a clockwise or anti-clockwise
charge current. When the polaron plaquettes percolate through the crystal at
x~0.05 for LaSrCuO, a Cu dx2-y2 and planar O psigma band is formed. Spin
exchange Coulomb repulsion with chiral polarons leads to D-wave
superconductivity. The equivalent of the Debye energy in phonon
superconductivity is the maximum energy separation between a chiral polaron and
its time-reversed partner. An additive skew-scattering contribution to the Hall
effect is induced by chiral polarons and leads to a temperature dependent Hall
effect that fits the measured values for LaSrCuO. The integrated imaginary
susceptibility satisfies omega/T scaling due to chirality and spin-flip
scattering of polarons along with a uniform distribution of polaron energy
splittings. The derived functional form is compatible with experiments. The
static spin structure factor is computed and is incommensurate with a
separation distance from (pi,pi) given by ~(2pi)x. Coulomb scattering of the
x2-y2 band with polarons leads to linear resistivity. Coupling of the x2-y2
band to the undoped Cu d9 spins leads to the ARPES pseudogap and its doping and
temperature dependence.Comment: 32 pages, 17 figure
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