Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Do Deep Nets Really Need to be Deep?

Currently, deep neural networks are the state of the art on problems such as speech recognition and computer vision. In this paper we empirically demonstrate that shallow feed-forward nets can learn the complex functions previously learned by deep nets and achieve accuracies previously only achievable with deep models. Moreover, in some cases the shallow nets can learn these deep functions using the same number of parameters as the original deep models. On the TIMIT phoneme recognition and CIFAR-10 image recognition tasks, shallow nets can be trained that perform similarly to complex, well-engineered, deeper convolutional models.
Maternal perinatal mental health and offspring academic achievement at age 16: the mediating role of childhood executive function

Background Elucidating risk pathways for under‐achieving at school can inform strategies to reduce the number of adolescents leaving school without passing grades in core subjects. Maternal depression can compromise the quality of parental care and is associated with multiple negative child outcomes. However, only a few small studies have investigated the association between perinatal maternal depression and poor academic achievement in adolescence. The pathways to explain the risks are also unclear. Method Prospective observational data from 5,801 parents and adolescents taking part in a large UK population cohort (Avon‐Longitudinal‐Study‐of‐Parents‐and‐Children) were used to test associations between maternal and paternal depression and anxiety in the perinatal period, executive function (EF) at age 8, and academic achievement at the end of compulsory school at age 16. Results Adolescents of postnatally depressed mothers were 1.5 times (1.19, 1.94, p = .001) as likely as adolescents of nondepressed mothers to fail to achieve a ‘pass’ grade in math; antenatal anxiety was also an independent predictor of poor math. Disruption in different components of EF explained small but significant proportions of these associations: attentional control explained 16% (4%, 27%, p < .001) of the association with postnatal depression, and working memory explained 17% (13%, 30%, p = .003) of the association with antenatal anxiety. A similar pattern was seen for language grades, but associations were confounded by maternal education. There was no evidence that paternal factors were independently associated with impaired child EF or adolescent exams. Conclusion Maternal postnatal depression and antenatal anxiety are risk factors for adolescents underachieving in math. Preventing, identifying, and treating maternal mental health in the perinatal period could, therefore, potentially increase adolescents’ academic achievement. Different aspects of EF partially mediated these associations. Further work is needed, but if these pathways are causal, improving EF could reduce underachievement in math.
Olfactory Dysfunction and Cognitive Impairment

Background: The aim of the current study was to investigate the changes of the olfactory function in the Korean elderly population related to cognitive decline by using the CDR (Clinical Dementia Rating scale) and KVSS Test (Korean Version of Sniffin’ Sticks Test). Methods: 41 subjects between the ages of 65-85 years, were included in this study. All subjects were screened to exclude conditions affecting olfactory functions. These subjects were divided into three groups according to CDR. 23 subjects belonged to the CDR 0 group, 9 to the CDR 0.5 group and 9 to the CDR 1 group. The KVSS Test consisted of the olfactory threshold test and olfactory identification test. Results: Significant differences were found among the CDR 0 group, CDR 0.5 group and CDR 1 group (p 0.05). Conclusions: These results suggest that the cognitive deficits were associated with the decrease of scores in the olfactory identification test and that the olfactory identification test may have clinical utility in the diagnosis of the dementia. J Korean Neurol Assoc 25(3):287-292, 2007
Results of the two incidence screenings in the National Lung Screening Trial.

BACKGROUND The National Lung Screening Trial was conducted to determine whether three annual screenings (rounds T0, T1, and T2) with low-dose helical computed tomography (CT), as compared with chest radiography, could reduce mortality from lung cancer. We present detailed findings from the first two incidence screenings (rounds T1 and T2). METHODS We evaluated the rate of adherence of the participants to the screening protocol, the results of screening and downstream diagnostic tests, features of the lung-cancer cases, and first-line treatments, and we estimated the performance characteristics of both screening methods. RESULTS At the T1 and T2 rounds, positive screening results were observed in 27.9% and 16.8% of participants in the low-dose CT group and in 6.2% and 5.0% of participants in the radiography group, respectively. In the low-dose CT group, the sensitivity was 94.4%, the specificity was 72.6%, the positive predictive value was 2.4%, and the negative predictive value was 99.9% at T1; at T2, the positive predictive value increased to 5.2%. In the radiography group, the sensitivity was 59.6%, the specificity was 94.1%, the positive predictive value was 4.4%, and the negative predictive value was 99.8% at T1; both the sensitivity and the positive predictive value increased at T2. Among lung cancers of known stage, 87 (47.5%) were stage IA and 57 (31.1%) were stage III or IV in the low-dose CT group at T1; in the radiography group, 31 (23.5%) were stage IA and 78 (59.1%) were stage III or IV at T1. These differences in stage distribution between groups persisted at T2. CONCLUSIONS Low-dose CT was more sensitive in detecting early-stage lung cancers, but its measured positive predictive value was lower than that of radiography. As compared with radiography, the two annual incidence screenings with low-dose CT resulted in a decrease in the number of advanced-stage cancers diagnosed and an increase in the number of early-stage lung cancers diagnosed. (Funded by the National Cancer Institute; NLST ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00047385.).
Involvement of the Cra Global Regulatory Protein in the Expression of the iscRSUA Operon, Revealed during Studies of Tricarballylate Catabolism in Salmonella enterica

ABSTRACT In Salmonella enterica, tricarballylate (Tcb) catabolism requires function of TcuB, a membrane-bound protein that contains [4Fe-4S] clusters and heme. TcuB transfers electrons from reduced flavin adenine dinucleotide in the Tcb dehydrogenase (TcuA) to electron acceptors in the membrane. We recently showed that functions needed to assemble [Fe-S] clusters (i.e., the iscRSUA-hscBA-fdx operon) compensate for the lack of ApbC during growth of an apbC strain on Tcb. ApbC had been linked to [Fe-S] cluster metabolism, and we showed that an apbC strain had decreased TcuB activity. Here we report findings that expand our understanding of the regulation of expression of the iscRSUA genes in Salmonella enterica. We investigated why low levels of glucose or other saccharides restored growth of an apbC strain on Tcb. Here we report the following findings. (i) A ≤1 mM concentration of glucose, fructose, ribose, or glycerol restores growth of an apbC strain on Tcb. (ii) The saccharide effect results in increased levels of TcuB activity. (iii) The saccharide effect depends on the global regulatory protein Cra. (iv) Putative Cra binding sites are present in the regulatory region of the iscRSUA operon. (v) Cra protein binds to all three sites in the iscRSUA promoter region in a concentration-dependent fashion. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the involvement of Cra in [Fe-S] cluster assembly.
The Effects of Emotions and Task Frames on Risk Preferences in Self Decision Making and Anticipating Others’ Decisions

Although many researchers explore the effects of decision process emotions and task frames on risk preferences in self decision making (e.g., Clore & Schwarz, 1983; Slovic, 2002; Mayer, Gaschke, Braverman & Evans, 1992; Loewenstein, Weber & Hsee, 2001; Isen & Patrick, 1983; Kahneman & Tversky, 1979), few researchers examine their impacts on risk preferences in anticipating others’ decisions (e.g., Hsee & Weber, 1997; Wallach & Wing, 1968)). In this study, two experiments are presented to compare the effects of emotions and task frames in self decision making and anticipating others’ decisions. Experiment 1 used two film clips as materials to induce 80 undergraduate subjects’ happiness or sadness emotions, then asked subjects to either make choices for themselves or anticipate others’ choices on a risk preference questionnaire including ten items. In experiment 2, task frame variables were introduced to examine the complex relations among emotions, the decision maker’ roles and task frames. The 96 undergraduate subjects were asked to either make choices for themselves or anticipate others’ choices on a risk preference questionnaire including seven items under happiness or sadness emotion, and gain or loss frame conditions. The results of the two experiments showed that (1) In gain frames, the sadness emotion produces stronger risk preferences than the happiness emotion, and making choices for themselves shows stronger risk preferences than anticipating others’ choices. (2) In loss frames, the happiness emotion produces stronger risk preferences than the sadness emotion, and anticipating others’ choices produces stronger risk preferences than making choices for themselves; (3) In making decisions for themselves, the happiness emotion produces stronger risk preferences under the loss frame than under the gain frame, but the sadness emotion produces stronger risk preferences under the gain frame than under the loss frame. In contrast, in anticipating others’ decisions, the loss frame always produces stronger risk preferences than the gain frame, regardless of happiness emotion or sadness emotion. These results do not concur with the general findings about framing effects (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979) and self-other decision bias (Hsee & Weber, 1997; Wallach & Wing, 1968), and suggest that there are complicated interaction among emotions, task frames and the decision maker’ roles. Rather, the effects of emotions and task frames on risk preferences depend on the decision maker’ roles.
Teacher Efficacy: A Study of Construct Dimensions

This study examined the structure of a construct generally labeled teacher efficacy. A sample of 342 prospective and experienced teachers was administered an efficacy questionnaire adapted from the research of Gibson and Dembo (1984). Factor analytic procedures with varimax rotation were used to generate a two-factor solution that accounted for 32 % of the variance in scale scores. Contrary to previous research, these factors corresponded not to a personal versus teaching efficacy distinction, but instead to a simpler internal versus external distinction, similar to locus-of-control measures of causal attribution. Implications of these findings for past and future research involving this construct are discussed.
Vocal Minority and Silent Majority: How Do Online Ratings Reflect Population Perceptions of Quality?

Consumer-generated ratings typically share an objective of illuminating the quality of a product or service for other buyers. While ratings have become ubiquitous and influential on the Internet, surprisingly little empirical research has investigated how these online assessments reflect the opinion of the population at large, especially in the domain of professional services where quality is often opaque to consumers. Building on the word-of-mouth literature, we examine the relationship between online ratings and population perceptions of physician quality. We leverage a unique dataset which includes direct measures of both the offline population's perception of physician quality and consumer-generated online reviews. As a result, we are able to examine how online ratings reflect patients' opinions about physician quality. In sharp contrast to the widely voiced concerns by medical practitioners, we find that physicians who are rated lower in quality by the patient population are less likely to be rated online. Although ratings provided online are positively correlated with patient population opinions, the online ratings tend to be exaggerated at the upper end of the quality spectrum. This study is the first to provide empirical evidence of the relationship between online ratings and the underlying consumer-perceived quality, and extends prior research on online word-of-mouth to the domain of professional services.
Dietary Intervention of Flaxseed: Effect on Serum Levels of IGF-1, IGF-BP3, and C-Peptide

Higher levels of insulin and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) increase cancer risk by stimulating cell proliferation and increasing survival of DNA-damaged cells through antiapoptotic mechanisms. Laboratory studies suggest that flaxseed added to the diet may lower circulating levels of insulin and IGF-1, but there is limited information on the effects of dietary flaxseed on these biomarkers of cancer risk in humans. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of flaxseed supplementation in postmenopausal women on serum levels of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 (IGF-BP3), and C-peptide, a marker of insulin production. Forty-eight postmenopausal women participated in this 12-wk baseline to postintervention study. Participants were asked to consume 7.5 g per day of ground flaxseed for 6 wk and 15 g per day for an additional 6 wk. No significant changes were observed in blood levels of IGF-1, IGF-BP3, or C-peptide over the study intervention. Flaxseed supplementation did not impact circulating levels of IGF-1, IGF-BP3, or C-peptide. Longer duration of intake may be necessary to observe changes in these biomarkers of cancer risk.
Multi-AUV task assignment and path planning with ocean current based on biological inspired self-organizing map and velocity synthesis algorithm

AbstractAn integrated multiple autonomous underwater vehicles (multi-AUV) dynamic task assignment and path planning algorithm is proposed for three-dimensional underwater workspace with ocean current. The proposed algorithm in this paper combines biological inspired self-organizing map (BISOM) and a velocity synthesis algorithm (VS). The goal is to control a team of AUVs to visit all targets, while guaranteeing AUV’s motion can offset the impact of ocean currents. First, the SOM neural network is developed to assign a team of AUVs to achieve multiple target locations in underwater environments. Then to avoid obstacle autonomously for each AUV to visit the corresponding target, the biological inspired neurodynamics model (BINM) is used to update weights of the winner of SOM, and realize AUVs path planning autonomously. Lastly, the velocity synthesis algorithm is applied to optimize a path for each AUV to visit the corresponding target in dynamic environment with the ocean current. To demonstrate the effect.
Charities in Competition: Effects of Accounting Information on Donating Adjustments

ABSTRACT: Following the emergence of high-profile charity comparison websites, donors are increasingly able to evaluate accounting information of several competing charities before they make a donation. Previous literature has primarily examined the effects of accounting information on donations to single charities. This study looks at the giving intentions of individual donors in settings with several charities, where charities directly compete with each other for the individual donation. The study presents an experiment (n = 226) where individuals adjust their donations after studying the program-spending ratios of the charities. The results indicate a flight to extremes—accounting information affects donations to charities at the extreme ends of the shortlist, but charities that are in the middle do not benefit. Threshold information (i.e., information whether each charity meets generally accepted guidelines for program-spending ratios) affects donation adjustments only if this information influences t.
Teaching About Teaching Science

Despite pressing concerns about the need to prepare high-quality teachers and the central role of teacher educators (TEs) in this process, little is known about how TEs teach about teaching specific subject matter, and how they develop their expertise. This empirical study focuses on the specific expertise that science TEs bring into teacher education. Individual interviews and story lines were conducted with 12 experienced science TEs from four different teacher education institutions in Australia and the Netherlands, to gain insight into their aims for teaching about science teaching, and how their expertise has developed on the basis of their professional background and experiences. The findings of this exploratory study reveal similarities among the concerns of these TEs and yet considerable diversity among their approaches. The study aims to contribute to a better understanding of science TEs’ work and the development of a pedagogy of science teacher education.
The effects of palladium nanoparticles on the renal function of female Wistar rats

Abstract A number of studies have shown that palladium nanoparticles are able to exert some adverse health effects, such as concentration-dependent cytotoxicity, induction of apoptosis and alterations of the release and expression of numerous cytokines. Nevertheless, our current knowledge of the potential toxic effects induced by exposure to these nanoparticles is far from being complete. For this reason, the present study assessed the possible renal toxicity of palladium nanoparticles by investigating urinary excretion of retinol binding protein, β2-microglobulin and albumin in female Wistar rats intravenously exposed to different nanoparticle concentrations (0.012, 0.12, 1.2 and 12 µg/kg) and by carrying out a morphological observation of the kidneys of treated animals. Results showed a significant increase in urinary retinol binding protein and β2-microglobulin levels in rats that were administered 12 µg/kg compared to controls. Moreover, an ultrastructural study of the kidneys revealed significant alterations in the proximal and distal tubular epithelium were observed, with a range of severity, in all experimental conditions. Collectively, our findings suggest that exposure to palladium nanoparticles is able to induce a significant renal tubular dysfunction, whereas it does not seem to affect kidney glomerular filtration. However, further studies are needed to confirm our results, to understand the molecular mechanisms of toxic action and to evaluate the potential adverse effects of these nanoparticles also on the glomerular section of the kidney.
Finnish Syntax in Text: Methodology and Some Results of a Quantitative Study

The Paper contains a report on the theory and methodology used in a project on finnish syntax as investigated in (some genres of written) text. 123 texts containing 10,149 clauses (5016 graphical sentences) were analyzed according to a syntactic coding frame containing 63 variables. The variables include sentences structure, clause structure, clause type, clause function, clause length, surface word order, constituent structure, the text semantic and referential properties of nominal constituents, and some movement and deletion transformations. The theoretical considerations behind the selection of the variables are discussed in detail, as are the principles for syntactic sampling. The usefulness of the computer for certain low-level tasks is demonstrated, such as finding correlations between variables. The relevance of quantitative data to ‘qualitative’ syntactic description is stressed.
Aortic Valve Thrombus in a Patient With an Extracorporeal Left Ventricular Assist Device: The Dilemma of Management.

PATIENTS with severely compromised left ventricular output undergo left ventricular assist device (LVAD) placement for a variety of reasons. Intracorporeal (totally implantable) devices are placed either as bridge therapy to cardiac transplantation or as destination therapy in patients ineligible to undergo transplantation. Most modern devices are small and rely on impellers to produce axial, nonpulsatile flow in series with the left ventricle (LV). An example of such a device is the HeartMate II (Thoratec Corporation), which is approved by the FDA for both bridge-to-transplantation and destination therapy. In the setting of cardiogenic shock such as acute myocardial infarction (AMI) or significant insult to the LV during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), temporary extracorporeal devices may be used for circulatory support. In a patient with a sternotomy, typical cannulation sites are the left atrium and ascending aorta, resulting in flow that is in parallel to native LV flow. These devices are meant to be used as a bridge to recovery of myocardial function or as a bridge to a more definitive decision (such as intracorporeal LVAD or termination of care). An example of a device used in this setting is the Centrimags (Thoratecs Corporation) VAD, which also can be used for biventricular support if indicated. High flow through both types of devices can overpower and completely bypass the flow through the native left ventricular outflow tract. As a result, stasis of flow in the ascending aorta can occur, with reduced AV cusp excursion. This can contribute to perivalvular thrombus formation. Possible sequelae may include compromised coronary blood flow, heart failure, and embolic events such as AMI or cerebrovascular accident (CVA). The guidelines released in 2013 for mechanical circulatory support recommend warfarin with the optional addition of aspirin to prevent thrombotic complications in LVAD patients. On the flip side, mechanical shear stress from ventricular assist devices leads to an acquired von Willebrand factor deficiency and platelet dysfunction. This, along with pharmacologic anticoagulation, can place these patients at an increased risk for bleeding complications. Karimi et al have suggested that antiplatelet therapy titration with the utilization of thromboelastography may reduce bleeding risk in this population.
A locus for female discrimination behavior causing sexual isolation in Drosophila

The genetic basis of sexual isolation that contributes to speciation is one of the unsolved questions in evolutionary biology. Drosophila ananassae and Drosophila pallidosa are closely related, and postmating isolation has not developed between them. However, females of both species discriminate their mating partners, and this discrimination contributes to strong sexual isolation between them. By using surgical treatments, we demonstrate that male courtship songs play a dominant role in female mate discrimination. The absence of the song of D. pallidosa dramatically increased interspecies mating with D. ananassae females but reduced intraspecies mating with D. pallidosa females. Furthermore, genetic analysis and chromosomal introgression by repeated backcrosses to D. pallidosa males identified possible loci that control female discrimination in each species. These loci were mapped on distinct positions near the Delta locus on the middle of the left arm of the second chromosome. Because the mate discrimination we studied is well developed and is the only known mechanism that prevents gene flow between them, these loci may have played crucial roles in the evolution of reproductive isolation, and therefore, in the speciation process between these two species.