2,308 research outputs found
The Affective Impact of Financial Skewness on Neural Activity and Choice
Few finance theories consider the influence of “skewness” (or large and asymmetric but unlikely outcomes) on financial choice. We investigated the impact of skewed gambles on subjects' neural activity, self-reported affective responses, and subsequent preferences using functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI). Neurally, skewed gambles elicited more anterior insula activation than symmetric gambles equated for expected value and variance, and positively skewed gambles also specifically elicited more nucleus accumbens (NAcc) activation than negatively skewed gambles. Affectively, positively skewed gambles elicited more positive arousal and negatively skewed gambles elicited more negative arousal than symmetric gambles equated for expected value and variance. Subjects also preferred positively skewed gambles more, but negatively skewed gambles less than symmetric gambles of equal expected value. Individual differences in both NAcc activity and positive arousal predicted preferences for positively skewed gambles. These findings support an anticipatory affect account in which statistical properties of gambles—including skewness—can influence neural activity, affective responses, and ultimately, choice
Preparation and Characterization of Multimodal Hybrid Organic and Inorganic Nanocrystals of Camptothecin and Gold
We demonstrate a novel inorganic-organic crystalline nanoconstruct, where gold atoms were imbedded in the crystal lattices as defects of camptothecin nanocrystals, suggesting its potential use as simultaneous agents for cancer therapy and bioimaging. The incorporation of gold, a potential computed tomography (CT) contrast agent, in the nanocrystals of camptothecin was detected by transmission electron microscope (TEM) and further quantified by energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS) and inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometers (ICP-OES). Due to gold\u27s high attenuation coefficient, only a relatively small amount needs to be present in order to create a good noise-to-contrast ratio in CT imaging. The imbedded gold atoms and clusters are expected to share the same biological fate as the camptothecin nanocrystals, reaching and accumulating in tumor site due to the enhanced permeation and retention (EPR) effect
Self‐reported sleep quality is more closely associated with mental and physical health than chronotype and sleep duration in young adults: A multi‐instrument analysis
Sleep and circadian rhythms are considered to be important determinants of mental and physical health. Epidemiological studies have established the contribution of self‐reported sleep duration, sleep quality and chronotype to health outcomes. Mental health and sleep problems are more common in women and men are more likely to be evening types. Few studies have compared the relative strength of these contributions and few studies have assessed these contributions separately in men and women. Furthermore, sleep and circadian characteristics are typically assessed with a limited number of instruments and a narrow range of variables is considered, leaving the understanding of the relative contribution of different predictors somewhat fractionary. We compared sleep quality, sleep duration and chronotype as predictors for self‐reported mental and physical health and psychological characteristics in 410 men and 261 women aged 18 to 30. To ascertain that results were not dependent on the use of specific instruments we used a multitude of validated instruments including the Morningness‐Eveningness‐Questionnaire, Munich‐ChronoType‐Questionnaire, Pittsburgh‐Sleep‐Quality‐Index, British‐Sleep‐Survey, Karolinska‐Sleep‐Diary, Insomnia‐Severity‐Index, SF‐36‐Health Survey, General‐Health‐Questionnaire, Dutch‐Eating‐Behaviour‐Questionnaire, Big‐Five‐Inventory, Behaviour‐Inhibition‐System‐Behaviour‐Activation‐System, and the Positive‐Affect‐Negative‐Affect‐Schedule. Relative contributions of predictors were quantified as local effect sizes derived from multiple regression models. Across all questionnaires, sleep quality was the strongest independent predictor of health and in particular mental health and more so in women than in men. The effect of sleep duration and social jetlag was inconspicuous. A greater insight into the independent contributions of sleep quality and chronotype may aid the understanding of sleep‐health interactions in women and men
The EVIL-MC Model for Ellipsoidal Variations of Planet-Hosting Stars and Applications to the HAT-P-7 System
We present a new model for Ellipsoidal Variations Induced by a Low-Mass
Companion, the EVIL-MC model. We employ several approximations appropriate for
planetary systems to substantially increase the computational efficiency of our
model relative to more general ellipsoidal variation models and improve upon
the accuracy of simpler models. This new approach gives us a unique ability to
rapidly and accurately determine planetary system parameters. We use the
EVIL-MC model to analyze Kepler Quarter 0-2 (Q0-2) observations of the HAT-P-7
system, an F-type star orbited by a nearly Jupiter-mass companion. Our analysis
corroborates previous estimates of the planet-star mass ratio q = (1.10 +/-
0.06) x 10^(-3), and we have revised the planet's dayside brightness
temperature to 2680 +10/-20 K. We also find a large difference between the day-
and nightside planetary flux, with little nightside emission. Preliminary
dynamical+radiative modeling of the atmosphere indicates this result is
qualitatively consistent with high altitude absorption of stellar heating.
Similar analyses of Kepler and CoRoT photometry of other planets using EVIL-MC
will play a key role in providing constraints on the properties of many
extrasolar systems, especially given the limited resources for follow-up and
characterization of these systems. However, as we highlight, there are
important degeneracies between the contributions from ellipsoidal variations
and planetary emission and reflection. Consequently, for many of the hottest
and brightest Kepler and CoRoT planets, accurate estimates of the planetary
emission and reflection, diagnostic of atmospheric heat budgets, will require
accurate modeling of the photometric contribution from the stellar ellipsoidal
variation.Comment: Accepted to ApJ; minor revisions to original submission; An IDL
version of the EVIL-MC model is publicly available at
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~bjackson/idl_code/index.htm
More Evidence for Variable Helium Absorption from HD 189733b
We present a new Keck/NIRSPEC observation of metastable helium absorption
from the upper atmosphere of HD 189733b, a hot Jupiter orbiting a nearby
moderately active star. We measure an average helium transit depth of % integrated over the [-20, 20] km/s velocity range. Comparing this
measurement to eight previously published transit observations with different
instruments, we find that our depth is 32% (9) lower than the average
of the three CARMENES transits, but only 16% (4.4) lower than the
average of the five GIANO transits. We perform 1D hydrodynamical simulations of
the outflow, and find that XUV variability on the order of 33%--common for this
star--can change the helium absorption depth by 60%. We conclude that changes
in stellar XUV flux can explain the observational variability in helium
absorption. 3D models are necessary to explore other sources of variability,
such as shear instability and changing stellar wind conditions.Comment: Published by A
Synergistic Induction of Apoptosis in Primary B-CLL Cells after Treatment with Recombinant Tumor Necrosis Factor-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand and Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors
Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) is currently being investigated as a therapeutic agent for a variety of malignancies, as it triggers apoptosis specifically in transformed cells. However, TRAIL use as a stand alone therapeutic is hampered by the fact that many primary tumor cells are resistant to TRAIL-mediated apoptosis. Here, we investigated the extent to which pretreatment of TRAIL-resistant primary B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) cells with histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACis) could render them susceptible to killing by TRAIL. We found that HDAC inhibition in B-CLL cells led to increased TRAIL receptor expression, increased caspase activation, decreased expression of antiapoptotic regulators such as Bcl-2, and ultimately, enhanced TRAIL-induced apoptosis. Importantly, untransformed peripheral blood mononuclear cells remained largely resistant to TRAIL, even in the presence of HDACis. These results suggest that combination therapies using HDAC inhibition and TRAIL could prove beneficial for the treatment of B-CLL
HST PanCET program: A Cloudy Atmosphere for the promising JWST target WASP-101b
We present results from the first observations of the Hubble Space Telescope
(HST) Panchromatic Comparative Exoplanet Treasury (PanCET) program for
WASP-101b, a highly inflated hot Jupiter and one of the community targets
proposed for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Early Release Science (ERS)
program. From a single HST Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) observation, we find that
the near-infrared transmission spectrum of WASP-101b contains no significant
HO absorption features and we rule out a clear atmosphere at 13{\sigma}.
Therefore, WASP-101b is not an optimum target for a JWST ERS program aimed at
observing strong molecular transmission features. We compare WASP-101b to the
well studied and nearly identical hot Jupiter WASP-31b. These twin planets show
similar temperature-pressure profiles and atmospheric features in the
near-infrared. We suggest exoplanets in the same parameter space as WASP-101b
and WASP-31b will also exhibit cloudy transmission spectral features. For
future HST exoplanet studies, our analysis also suggests that a lower count
limit needs to be exceeded per pixel on the detector in order to avoid unwanted
instrumental systematics.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, Accepted to ApJ
Future changes in tropical cyclone activity in the North Indian Ocean projected by high-resolution MRI-AGCMs
Open Access at publisher's web site: http://www.springerlink.com/content/b682734237171631
Cross-Sectional Associations Between Measures of Sleep and Markers of Glucose Metabolism Among Subjects With and Without Diabetes: The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Sleep Study
Conditioning bounds for traveltime tomography in layered media
This paper revisits the problem of recovering a smooth, isotropic, layered
wave speed profile from surface traveltime information. While it is classic
knowledge that the diving (refracted) rays classically determine the wave speed
in a weakly well-posed fashion via the Abel transform, we show in this paper
that traveltimes of reflected rays do not contain enough information to recover
the medium in a well-posed manner, regardless of the discretization. The
counterpart of the Abel transform in the case of reflected rays is a Fredholm
kernel of the first kind which is shown to have singular values that decay at
least root-exponentially. Kinematically equivalent media are characterized in
terms of a sequence of matching moments. This severe conditioning issue comes
on top of the well-known rearrangement ambiguity due to low velocity zones.
Numerical experiments in an ideal scenario show that a waveform-based model
inversion code fits data accurately while converging to the wrong wave speed
profile
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