Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Maternal thyroid function in the first twenty weeks of pregnancy and subsequent fetal and infant development: a prospective population-based cohort study in China.

CONTEXT There are a few prospective population-based cohort studies evaluating the effects of maternal thyroid dysfunctions on fetal and infant developments, but they are inconsistent. OBJECTIVE The objective of the study was to investigate the effects of maternal thyroid dysfunction on fetal and infant development. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS The study was nested within a prospective population-based China-Anhui Birth Defects and Child Development study. A total of 1017 women with singleton pregnancies participated in this study. Maternal serum samples in the first 20 wk of pregnancy were tested for thyroid hormones (TSH and free T(4)). Pregnant women were classified by hormone status into percentile categories based on laboratory assay and were compared accordingly. MAIN OUTCOMES Outcomes included fetal loss, malformation, birth weight, preterm delivery, fetal stress, neonatal death, and infant development. RESULTS Clinical hypothyroidism was associated with increased fetal loss, low birth weight, and congenital circulation system malformations; the adjusted odds ratios [95% confidence interval (CI)] were 13.45 (2.54-71.20), 9.05 (1.01-80.90), and 10.44 (1.15-94.62), respectively. Subclinical hypothyroidism was associated with increased fetal distress, preterm delivery, poor vision development, and neurodevelopmental delay; the adjusted odds ratios (95% CI) were 3.65 (1.44-9.26), 3.32 (1.22-9.05), 5.34 (1.09-26.16), and 10.49 (1.01-119.19), respectively. Isolated hypothyroxinemia was related to fetal distress, small for gestational age, and musculoskeletal malformations; the adjusted odds ratios (95% CI) were 2.95 (1.08-8.05), 3.55 (1.01-12.83), and 9.12 (1.67-49.70), respectively. Isolated hyperthyroxinemia was associated with spontaneous abortion; the adjusted odds ratio (95% CI) was 6.02 (1.25-28.96). Clinical hyperthyroidism was associated with hearing dysplasia; the adjusted odds ratio (95% CI) was 12.14 (1.22-120.70). CONCLUSIONS Thyroid dysfunction in the first 20 wk of pregnancy may result in fetal loss and dysplasia and some congenital malformations.
Pinning of polymers and interfaces by random potentials

We consider a polymer, with monomer locations modeled by the trajectory of a Markov chain, in the presence of a potential that interacts with the polymer when it visits a particular site 0. Disorder is introduced by, for example, having the interaction vary from one monomer to another, as a constant $u$ plus i.i. d. mean-0 randomness. There is a critical value of $u$ above which the polymer is pinned, placing a positive fraction of its monomers at 0 with high probability. This critical point may differ for the quenched, annealed and deterministic cases. We show that self-averaging occurs, meaning that the quenched free energy and critical point are nonrandom, off a null set. We evaluate the critical point for a deterministic interaction ($u$ without added randomness) and establish our main result that the critical point in the quenched case is strictly smaller. We show that, for every fixed $u\in\mathbb{R}$, pinning occurs at sufficiently low temperatures. If the excursion length distribution has polynomial tails and the interaction does not have a finite exponential moment, then pinning occurs for all $u\in\mathbb{R}$ at arbitrary temperature. Our results apply to other mathematically similar situations as well, such as a directed polymer that interacts with a random potential located in a one-dimensional defect, or an interface in two dimensions interacting with a random potential along a wall.
Stan: A Probabilistic Programming Language.

Stan is a probabilistic programming language for specifying statistical models. A Stan program imperatively defines a log probability function over parameters conditioned on specified data and constants. As of version 2.14. 0, Stan provides full Bayesian inference for continuous-variable models through Markov chain Monte Carlo methods such as the No-U-Turn sampler, an adaptive form of Hamiltonian Monte Carlo sampling. Penalized maximum likelihood estimates are calculated using optimization methods such as the limited memory Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno algorithm. Stan is also a platform for computing log densities and their gradients and Hessians, which can be used in alternative algorithms such as variational Bayes, expectation propagation, and marginal inference using approximate integration. To this end, Stan is set up so that the densities, gradients, and Hessians, along with intermediate quantities of the algorithm such as acceptance probabilities, are easily accessible. Stan can be called from the command line using the cmdstan package, through R using the rstan package, and through Python using the pystan package. All three interfaces support sampling and optimization-based inference with diagnostics and posterior analysis. rstan and pystan also provide access to log probabilities, gradients, Hessians, parameter transforms, and specialized plotting.
Unmanaged sexual reproduction and the dynamics of genetic diversity of a vegetatively propagated crop plant, cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz), in a traditional farming system

Occurrence of intervarietal or interspecific natural crosses has been reported for many crop plants in traditional farming systems, underlining the potential importance of this source of genetic exchange for the dynamics of genetic diversity of crop plants. In this study, we use microsatellite loci to investigate the role of volunteer seedlings (plants originating from unmanaged sexual reproduction) in the dynamics of genetic diversity of cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz), a vegetatively propagated crop, in a traditional farming system in Guyana. A previous field study showed that farmers incorporate such plants into the germplasm for vegetative propagation, and that many of them are likely to be assigned by farmers to recognized varieties. Under strict vegetative propagation clonality of varieties is expected. The high proportion of polyclonal varieties observed suggests that incorporation of seedlings into the germplasm for propagation is a frequent event. The molecular variability assessed with microsatellite markers shows that there is high differentiation among heterozygous varieties, whereas populations of seedlings do not depart from the proportions expected under Hardy–Weinberg assumptions. Assignment of seedlings to a recognized variety on the basis of morphological similarity greatly increases genetic diversity within the variety. We argue that recombination and gene flow play a major role in the dynamics of genetic diversity of cassava in traditional farming systems. Documenting unmanaged sexual reproduction and its genetic consequences is a prerequisite for defining strategies of in situ conservation of crop plant genetic resources.
Internet Addiction Among Students of the Medical University of Białystok

The objective of this research was to assess Internet addiction among students of the Faculty of Health Prevention at the Medical University of Białystok. The present study included 358 students—nursing (n = 232), midwifery (n = 71), and medical rescue (n = 55). The following instruments were administered to the participants:the Young test, a test of the intensity of the abstinence syndrome, and a test of “online” addiction. Students who did not have a computer at home spent 3 hours a day on the Internet; students who did have a computer at home spent 0.5 to 8hours. On average, all respondents spent 1.8 ± 1.3 hours daily online. Internet addiction was confirmed among 24 (10.3%) nursing, 7 (9.9%) midwifery, and 5(9.1%) medical rescue students. The abstinence syndrome was noted among 11 (4.7%) nursing, 7(9.9%) obstetrics, and 7 (12.7%) medical rescue students. Several students had both an Internet addiction and the abstinence syndrome.
Peer Influence on Children’s Reading Skills: A Social Network Analysis of Elementary School Classrooms

Research has found that peers influence the academic achievement of children. However, the mechanisms through which peers matter remain underexplored. The present study examined the relationship between peers’ reading skills and children’s own reading skills among 4,215 total second- and third-graders in 294 classrooms across 41 schools. One innovation of the study was the use of social network analysis to directly assess who children reported talking to or seeking help from and whether children who identified peers with stronger reading skills experienced higher reading skills. The results indicated that children on average identified peers with stronger reading skills and the positive association between peer reading skills and children’s own reading achievement was strongest for children with lower initial levels of reading skills. The study has implications for how teachers can leverage the advantages of peers via in-class activities.
METODOLOGÍA: Validación de dos escalas breves para evaluar la adicción a Internet y el abuso de móvil

Validation of two brief scales for Internet addiction and mobile phone problem use. This study describes the construction and validation process of two questionnaires designed to assess the addictive use of Internet and mobile phones. The scales were applied to a sample of 1,879 students. Results support a two-factor model, presenting an acceptable internal consistency and indices of convergent and discriminant validity. The Questionnaire of Experiences Related to Internet was found to assess intra- and interpersonal conflicts related to Internet use. The Questionnaire of Experiences Related to the Mobile Phone was found to assess conflicts related to mobile phone abuse and to maladaptive emotional and communicational patterns. Our results indicate that the mobile phone does not produce the same degree of addictive behavior as Internet; it could rather be interpreted as problematic use. Men displayed more addictive use of Internet, whilst women seemed to use the mobile phone as a means for emotional communication. It seems that the use of both technologies is more problematic during adolescence and normalizes with age toward a more professional and less playful use, and with fewer negative consequences.
Scheduling and mapping: software pipelining in the presence of structural hazards

Recently, software pipelining methods based on an ILP (Integer Linear Programming) framework have been successfully applied to derive rate-optimal schedules for architectures involving clean pipelines - pipelines without structural hazards. The problem for architectures beyond such clean pipelines remains open. One challenge is how, under a unified ILP framework, to simultaneously represent resource constraints for unclean pipelines, and the assignment or mapping of operations from a loop to those pipelines. In this paper we provide a framework which does exactly this, and in addition constructs rate-optimal software pipelined schedules. The proposed formulation and a solution method have been implemented and tested on a set of 1006 loops taken from various scientific and integer benchmark suites. The formulation found a rate-optimal schedule for 75% of the loops, and required a median time of only 2 seconds per loop on a Sparc 10/30.
Dissociating the Effect of Noise on Sensory Processing and Overall Decision Difficulty

It has been proposed that perceptual decision making involves a task-difficulty component, which detects perceptual uncertainty and guides allocation of attentional resources. It is thought to take place immediately after the early extraction of sensory information and is specifically reflected in a positive component of the event related potentials, peaking at ∼220 ms after stimulus onset. However, in the previous research, neural processes associated with the monitoring of overall task difficulty were confounded by those associated with the increased sensory processing demands as a result of adding noise to the stimuli. Here we dissociated the effect of phase noise on sensory processing and overall decision difficulty using a face gender categorization task. Task difficulty was manipulated either by adding noise to the stimuli or by adjusting the female/male characteristics of the face images. We found that it is the presence of noise and not the increased overall task difficulty that affects the electrophysiological responses in the first 300 ms following stimulus onset in humans. Furthermore, we also showed that processing of phase-randomized as compared to intact faces is associated with increased fMRI responses in the lateral occipital cortex. These results revealed that noise-induced modulation of the early electrophysiological responses reflects increased visual cortical processing demands and thus failed to provide support for a task-difficulty component taking place between the early sensory processing and the later sensory accumulation stages of perceptual decision making.
Protection of Tomato Seedlings against Infection by Pseudomonas syringae pv. Tomato by Using the Plant Growth-Promoting Bacterium Azospirillum brasilense

ABSTRACT Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato, the causal agent of bacterial speck of tomato, and the plant growth-promoting bacterium Azospirillum brasilense were inoculated onto tomato plants, either alone, as a mixed culture, or consecutively. The population dynamics in the rhizosphere and foliage, the development of bacterial speck disease, and their effects on plant growth were monitored. When inoculated onto separate plants, the A. brasilense population in the rhizosphere of tomato plants was 2 orders of magnitude greater than the population of P. syringae pv. tomato (107 versus 105 CFU/g [dry weight] of root). Under mist chamber conditions, the leaf population of P. syringae pv. tomato was 1 order of magnitude greater than that of A. brasilense (107 versus 106 CFU/g [dry weight] of leaf). Inoculation of seeds with a mixed culture of the two bacterial strains resulted in a reduction of the pathogen population in the rhizosphere, an increase in the A. brasilense population, the prevention of bacterial speck disease development, and improved plant growth. Inoculation of leaves with the mixed bacterial culture under mist conditions significantly reduced the P. syringae pv. tomato population and significantly decreased disease severity. Challenge with P. syringae pv. tomato after A. brasilense was established in the leaves further reduced both the population of P. syringae pv. tomato and disease severity and significantly enhanced plant development. Both bacteria maintained a large population in the rhizosphere for 45 days when each was inoculated separately onto tomato seeds (105 to 106 CFU/g [dry weight] of root). However, P. syringae pv. tomato did not survive in the rhizosphere in the presence of A. brasilense. Foliar inoculation of A. brasilense after P. syringae pv. tomato was established on the leaves did not alleviate bacterial speck disease, and A. brasilense did not survive well in the phyllosphere under these conditions, even in a mist chamber. Several applications of a low concentration of buffered malic acid significantly enhanced the leaf population of A. brasilense (>108 CFU/g [dry weight] of leaf), decreased the population of P. syringae pv. tomato to almost undetectable levels, almost eliminated disease development, and improved plant growth to the level of uninoculated healthy control plants. Based on our results, we propose that A. brasilense be used in prevention programs to combat the foliar bacterial speck disease caused by P. syringae pv. tomato.
Educational Opportunity Fund Program and Community College Student Retention

Although the existence of state-funded student support services programs dates to the 1960s, studies on how such programs play a role in student success are scarce. By utilizing unique institutional data and a comprehensive conceptual model integrating multiple theories, this study examines the relationship between the New Jersey educational opportunity fund program and first-semester retention at a community college. Results reveal that educational opportunity fund has a positive effect on student retention, and the effect is consistent across different student subgroups. This study provides empirical evidence for greater government commitment needed to fully fund student support services for historically underserved students in community colleges. Future research is suggested to offer additional insight into the effect of government-funded student support services programs on college student retention.
Testing concurrent programs on relaxed memory models

High-performance concurrent libraries, such as lock-free data structures and custom synchronization primitives, are notoriously difficult to write correctly. Such code is often implemented without locks, instead using plain loads and stores and low-level operations like atomic compare-and-swaps and explicit memory fences. Such code must run correctly despite the relaxed memory model of the underlying compiler, virtual machine, and/or hardware. These memory models may reorder the reads and writes issued by a thread, greatly complicating parallel reasoning. We propose Relaxer, a combination of predictive dynamic analysis and software testing, to help programmers write correct, highly-concurrent programs. Our technique works in two phases. First, Relaxer examines a sequentially-consistent run of a program under test and dynamically detects potential data races. These races are used to predict possible violations of sequential consistency under alternate executions on a relaxed memory model. In the second phase, Relaxer re-executes the program with a biased random scheduler and with a conservative simulation of a relaxed memory model in order to create with high probability a predicted sequential consistency violation. These executions can be used to test whether or not a program works as expected when the underlying memory model is not sequentially consistent. We have implemented Relaxer for C and have evaluated it on several synchronization algorithms, concurrent data structures, and parallel applications. Relaxer generates many executions of these benchmarks with violations of sequential consistency, highlighting a number of bugs under relaxed memory models.
Non-invasive monitoring of liver fibrosis.

INTRODUCTION Assessing the formation and regression of fibrosis in chronic liver disease (CLD) is important. Current methods of assessment employed in clinical practice are inadequate. We present a review of the utility of non-invasive biomarkers of liver fibrosis. SOURCES OF DATA Published material on MEDLINE. AREAS OF AGREEMENT Liver biopsy is an imperfect 'gold standard'. Biomarkers are excellent at detecting significant fibrosis across different aetiologies of CLD. There is growing evidence that they also predict clinical outcomes. AREAS OF CONTROVERSY Non-invasive biomarkers can be used in clinical practice to screen for significant fibrosis, but the utility of liver biopsy is retained in answering specific questions. Biomarkers cannot be used robustly in clinical trials as doubts remain over their ability to detect small changes in fibrosis, inflammation and what influences them. AREAS TIMELY FOR DEVELOPING RESEARCH Community screening and algorithms are being developed with biomarkers to more effectively direct resources. Novel imaging techniques have huge potential advantages, particularly in secondary care for risk stratification.
Back to the future: a retroactive study of aspect evolution in operating system code

The FreeBSD operating system more than doubled in size between version 2 and version 4. Many changes to primary modularity are easy to spot at a high-leveL For example, new device drivers account for 38% of the growth. Not surprisingly, changes to crosscutting concerns are more difficult to track. In order to better understand how an aspect-oriented implementation would have fared during this evolution, we introduced several aspects to version 2 code, and then rolled them forward into their subsequent incarnations in versions 3 and 4 respectively. This paper describes the impact evolution had on these concerns, and provides a comparative analysis of the changes required to evolve the tangled versus aspect-oriented implementations.Our results show that for the concerns we chose, the aspect-oriented implementation facilitated evolution in four key ways: (1) changes were better localized, (2) configurability was more explicit, (3) redundancy was reduced, and (4) extensibility aligned with an aspect was more modular. Additionally, we found that the aspect-oriented implementation had negligible impact on performance.
Improving performances of the knee replacement surgery process by applying DMAIC principles

Abstract Rationale, Aims, and Objectives The work is a part of a project about the application of the Lean Six Sigma to improve health care processes. A previously published work regarding the hip replacement surgery has shown promising results. Here, we propose an application of the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, and Control) cycle to improve quality and reduce costs related to the prosthetic knee replacement surgery by decreasing patients' length of hospital stay (LOS) Methods The DMAIC cycle has been adopted to decrease the patients' LOS. The University Hospital “Federico II” of Naples, one of the most important university hospitals in Southern Italy, participated in this study. Data on 148 patients who underwent prosthetic knee replacement between 2010 and 2013 were used. Process mapping, statistical measures, brainstorming activities, and comparative analysis were performed to identify factors influencing LOS and improvement strategies. Results The study allowed the identification of variables influencing the prolongation of the LOS and the implementation of corrective actions to improve the process of care. The adopted actions reduced the LOS by 42%, from a mean value of 14.2 to 8.3 days (standard deviation also decreased from 5.2 to 2.3 days). Conclusions The DMAIC approach has proven to be a helpful strategy ensuring a significant decreasing of the LOS. Furthermore, through its implementation, a significant reduction of the average costs of hospital stay can be achieved. Such a versatile approach could be applied to improve a wide range of health care processes.
Teacher Commitment and Job Satisfaction: A Causal Analysis

This study examined the causal relationship between teacher commitment to the school organization and job satisfaction using longitudinal career ladder data. Two focal measures (commitment and satisfaction) and other demographic predictors from 854 school teachers were analyzed for this study. Cross-lagged correlation/regression analyses were used to determine the causual ordering of teacher commitment and satisfaction in time-lagged situations. Results indicate that satisfaction was causally prioritized to teacher commitment in this study. Theoretical and methodological issues regarding this type of study are discussed. Implications for future research are suggested.