Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prefrontal cortical volume in childhood-onset major depression: preliminary findings.

BACKGROUND Abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex have been implicated in the pathogenesis of major depressive disorder (MDD). To our knowledge, no prior study has examined prefrontal cortical anatomy in pediatric patients with MDD near the onset of illness before receiving treatment. METHODS Volumetric magnetic resonance imaging studies were conducted in 22 psychotropic-naive patients with MDD, aged 9 to 17 years (10 males and 12 females), and 22 case-matched healthy comparison control subjects. Twelve of the 22 patients with MDD had at least 1 first-degree relative with MDD (familial MDD), whereas 10 had no clear family history of MDD (nonfamilial MDD). RESULTS Patients with nonfamilial MDD had significantly larger left-sided but not right-sided prefrontal cortical volumes than patients with familial MDD (17% larger) and controls (11% larger). Left-sided and right-sided prefrontal cortical volumes did not differ significantly between patients with familial MDD and controls. CONCLUSIONS These results provide new evidence of prefrontal cortical alterations in pediatric MDD that may differ in familial and nonfamilial subtypes of MDD. Our findings must be considered preliminary, however, in view of the small sample size.
Comparison of Direct Fluorescence Assay and Real-Time RT-PCR as Diagnostics for Respiratory Syncytial Virus in Young Children

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the major cause of lower respiratory tract infections in children worldwide. Early detection of RSV is critical to initiate proper care. Two methods, the direct fluorescence assay (DFA) and the real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (rt-RT-PCR), that are used for RSV detection were compared. A total of 451 nasopharyngeal aspirates from children 5 years of age or less were tested for RSV using both methods. The overall prevalence rate of the RSV among the children was 23.7% with a significantly higher prevalence among children under the age of 6 months of age when compared to other age groups. The sensitivity of DFA in comparison to rt-RT-PCR was highest (86%) during the first 3 days of symptoms onset and decreased gradually till it reached 65% after the first week. The specificity of DFA in comparison to rt-RT-PCR ranged between 99 and 100% irrespective of the date of collection. We concluded that, although the rt-RT-PCR is more sensitive for RSV detection, the DFA offers a reliable point-of-care alternative detection method especially during the first few days of illness.
Achievement goals, emotions, learning, and performance : A process model

The present study evaluates the relations between achievement goals, emotions, learning strategies, and performance as informed by Pekrun’s control-value theory of emotions. Undergraduates from various disciplines (N 203) completed domaingeneral, self-report measures in the fall and winter semesters with sessional GPAs evaluated over a 2-year period. Results from cross-lagged and latent growth structural equation models illustrate the benefits of mastery-approach goals for students’ emotions, with performance-approach goals predicting less critical thinking, and performance-avoidance goals predicting more anxiety, boredom, critical thinking, and lower achievement gains. Whereas enjoyment was beneficial for most learning strategies, boredom predicted poorer time management, and anxiety predicted lower selfmonitoring and overall GPA. Learning strategies impacted subsequent achievement only in the second semester, with elaboration predicting achievement gains and critical thinking predicting lower overall GPA. Study results provide empirical support for Pekrun’s control-value theory and achievement goal theory in showing both direct and indirect effects of students’ goals on academic achievement through their emotions and learning strategies.
Comparison of Kalman Filter Estimation Approaches for State Space Models with Nonlinear Measurements

The Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) has long been the de-facto standard for nonlinear state space estimation [11], primarily due to its simplicity, robustness and suitability for realtime implementations. However, an alternative approach has emerged over the last few years, namely the unscented Kalman filter (UKF). This filter claims both higher accuracy and robustness for nonlinear models. Several papers have investigated the accuracy of UKF for nonlinear process models, but none has addresses the accuracy for nonlinear measurement models in particular. This paper claims to bridge this gap by comparing the performance of EKF to UKF for two tracking models having nonlinear measurements.
Intraoperative predictors of early tracheal extubation after living-donor liver transplantation

Background Prolonged mechanical ventilation after liver transplantation has been associated with deleterious clinical outcomes, so early tracheal extubation posttransplant is now increasing. However, there is no universal clinical criterion for predicting early extubation in living-donor liver transplantation (LDLT). We investigated specific predictors of early extubation after LDLT. Methods Perioperative data of adult patients undergoing LDLT were reviewed. "Early" extubation was defined as tracheal extubation in the operating room or intensive care unit (ICU) within 1 h posttransplant, and we divided patients into early extubation (EX) and non-EX groups. Potentially significant (P < 0.10) perioperative variables from univariate analyses were entered into multivariate logistic regression analyses. Individual cut-offs of the predictors were calculated by area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) analysis. Results Of 107 patients, 66 (61.7%) were extubated early after LDLT. Patients in the EX group showed shorter stays in the hospital and ICU and lower incidences of reoperation, infection, and vascular thrombosis. Preoperatively, model for end-stage liver disease score, lung disease, hepatic encephalopathy, ascites, and intraoperatively, surgical time, transfusion of packed red blood cell (PRBC), urine output, vasopressors, and last measured serum lactate were associated with early extubation (P < 0.05). After multivariate analysis, only PRBC transfusion of ≤ 7.0 units and last serum lactate of ≤ 8.2 mmol/L were selected as predictors of early extubation after LDLT (AUC 0.865). Conclusions Intraoperative serum lactate and blood transfusion were predictors of posttransplant early extubation. Aggressive efforts to ameliorate intraoperative circulatory issues would facilitate successful early extubation after LDLT.
Comparative Analysis of Quinolone Resistance in Clinical Isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli from Chinese Children and Adults

The objective of this study was to compare quinolone resistance and gyrA mutations in clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli from Chinese adults who used quinolone in the preceding month and children without any known history of quinolone administration. The antimicrobial susceptibilities of 61 isolates from children and 79 isolates from adults were determined. The mutations in the quinolone resistance-determining regions in gyrA gene were detected by PCR and DNA sequencing. Fluoroquinolone resistance and types of gyrA mutations in isolates from children and adults were compared and statistically analyzed. No significant differences were detected in the resistance rates of ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin between children and adults among isolates of the two species (all P > 0.05). The double mutation Ser83→Leu + Asp87→Asn in the ciprofloxacin-resistant isolates occurred in 73.7% isolates from the children and 67.9% from the adults, respectively (P = 0.5444). Children with no known history of quinolone administration were found to carry fluoroquinolone-resistant Enterobacteriaceae isolates. The occurrence of ciprofloxacin resistance and the major types of gyrA mutations in the isolates from the children were similar to those from adults. The results indicate that precautions should be taken on environmental issues resulting from widespread transmission of quinolone resistance.
Novel Robust and Invariant Feature Extraction by Spatio-temporal Decomposition of Images

Feature extraction is a major step in all pattern recognition and image processing applications. Conventional feature extraction methods when used for extracting physical quantities like mean, entropy etc. are not suitable for automation due to complexity of the feature extraction process. In this paper we propose a simple and novel feature extraction technique that decomposes the original image into a series of sparse images using a time varying selection criterion on the spatial plane. Features are then extracted from each of these sparse images. The feature set, when carefully analyzed and interpreted, is seen to perform as well or even better than their conventional counterparts for recognition and classification. The technique is demonstrated to be robust against noise and results in highly discriminatory features. Also, in this paper the technique to obtain shift invariant features is proposed.
Inferring Decision Rules from Evidence, Choice, and Reaction Times

Inferring Decision Rules from Evidence, Choice, and Reaction Times Yul Hyoung Ryul Kang When a decision is made based on noisy evidence, it is often a good strategy to take multiple samples of evidence up to a threshold before committing to a choice. Such process, termed bounded evidence accumulation, have successfully explained human and nonhuman behavior (speed and accuracy of choices) and neural recordings quantitatively. In this thesis, we exploit the quantitative relationship between evidence, choice, and reaction times (inverse of speed), to infer decision rules that are not reported directly. In Part I, we consider decisions based on one stream of evidence. In Chapter 2, we start by examining decisions that are not reported immediately but felt to be made at some point. We show that, in a perceptual decision-making task, we can predict the proportion of choices from the reported timing of covert decisions. We suggest that the awareness of having decided corresponds to the threshold-crossing of the accumulated evidence, rather than a post hoc inference or arbitrary report. For the type of decisions reported in Chapter 2 and many others, it has been suggested that the terminating threshold is not constant but decreases over time. In Chapter 3, we propose a method that estimates the threshold without any assumption on its shape. As a step toward more complex decisions, in Part II we consider decisions based on two streams of evidence. In Chapter 4, we summarize the results from human psychophysics experiments involving simultaneous motion-color judgments. The results suggest that information bearing on two dimensions of a decision can be acquired in parallel, whereas incorporation of information into a combined decision involves serial access to these parallel streams. Here, one natural question is how complete the seriality is. In Chapter 5, we propose a method to estimate the degree of seriality of two evidence accumulation processes. Another question is whether the two streams are acquired in parallel even when the stimulus viewing duration is not limited, and hence there is no apparent advantage to parallel acquisition given the serial evidence accumulation stage. In Chapter 6, we propose a method to estimate the probability of simultaneous acquisition of two evidence streams given the choice and evidence streams. Collectively, the work in this thesis presents new ways to study decision rules quantitatively given noninvasive measures such as the contents of the evidence stream(s), decision times, and the choice.
Blowup for nonlinear wave equations describing boson stars

We consider the nonlinear wave equation $$i \partial_{t}u = \sqrt{-\Delta + m^{2}} \; u - (|{x}|^{-1} \ast |{u}|^{2})u \;\;\; {\rm on}\;\; {\tt R}^{3}$$ modeling the dynamics of (pseudorelativistic) boson stars. For spherically symmetric initial data, u0(x) ∈ C c∞ (ℝ3), with negative energy, we prove blowup of u(t, x) in the H1/2‐norm within a finite time. Physically this phenomenon describes the onset of “gravitational collapse” of a boson star. We also study blowup in external, spherically symmetric potentials, and we consider more general Hartree‐type nonlinearities. As an application, we exhibit instability of ground state solitary waves at rest if m = 0. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Long-term Patterns in Australia’s Terms of Trade

We examine two important aspects of Australia’s terms of trade using 135 years of annual data up to 2003/04. Since Australia predominantly exports commodities and imports manufactures, the Prebisch-Singer hypothesis suggests that there should be a negative trend in the terms of trade. But the trend is no more than –0.1 per cent per annum, less than the trend decline in world commodity prices relative to manufactured goods prices. The weaker trend appears to be the result of Australia exporting, and importantly diversifying toward, commodities with faster price growth. Extending the sample using projections for the terms of trade for the two years to 2005/06 based on commodity price movements to date, the apparent downward trend disappears. Indeed, based on these projections, the terms of trade will have increased by around 50 per cent over the period 1987–2006, unwinding the decline over the preceding 30 years. We also investigate the volatility of the terms of trade and demonstrate that it was significantly higher between 1923 and 1952. This is attributable to substantially higher volatility in the export prices of a few key commodity exports. Volatility declined after 1952 due to smaller shocks to the prices of these goods. The diversification in Australia’s export base since then means that the terms of trade are less susceptible to shocks to prices of individual commodity exports.
Characteristics of goal-scoring possessions in open play: Comparing the top, in-between and bottom teams from professional soccer league

The purpose of this study was to compare how goals were scored from open play possessions between teams from the top three, in-between and bottom three positions of the final league-table in professional soccer. A sample of 997 goals scored from open play in the Norwegian top professional league during 2008, 2009 and 2010 seasons was analysed. Match performance analysis was performed on 10 variables based on four possession characteristics: type, number of passes, duration and starting zone. Results show that goals scored from counter attacks (P=0.001), possessions with 0-4 passes (P=0.005), possessions varied for 12 seconds or more (P=0.001 and P=0.012) and from possessions started in the midfield (P=0.002 and P=0.004) distinguished the bottom three teams. Only goals from possessions started in the midfield (P=0.013) managed to distinguish between the top three and in-between teams. The bottom three teams should consider more counter attacks with 0-4 passes and possessions of 12 seconds or more especially starting from the midfield zone in order to improve their goal scoring ability from open play possessions. And, in-between teams should consider more possessions starting from the midfield zone to raise their goal-scoring efficiency to the level of the top three teams.
Can Reading Self-Efficacy Be Modified? A Meta-Analysis of the Impact of Interventions on Reading Self-Efficacy

Studies of interventions’ impact on reading self-efficacy have been conducted since the 1980s. The purpose of this project was to conduct a systematic review of these studies because the primary studies often yielded divergent results. Included studies entailed an intervention, addressed reading specifically, and reported explicit pre- and postintervention measures of reading self-efficacy. Subjects were students in elementary grades through college. The results of a systematic search and screening procedure found 30 studies in which 2,300 subjects received treatments of various kinds while 1,957 were in control or comparison groups. A meta-analysis of three subsets of study designs revealed that each subset generated a significant effect size: treatment–control (g = 0.24, 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.10, 0.39]); treatment–comparison (g = 0.44, 95% CI [0.04, 0.84]); pretest–posttest (g = 0.36, 95% CI [0.16, 0.57]). Significant heterogeneity was found and modeled using moderator analyses conducted on several variables. The results indicated that significant moderators of effect sizes included grade level, number of sources shaping reading self-efficacy, a reading self-efficacy measurement index, and journal publication. In studies that measured the impact of the intervention on reading comprehension, its relationship with reading self-efficacy was analyzed revealing a strong correlation between the two constructs. Discussion includes an exploration of the importance of these findings to future policy, practice, and research on the design of reading self-efficacy measurement instruments and on interventions that utilize major sources of experiences shaping reading self-efficacy.
An experimental study of user-customized products online: based on regulatory focus theory

With the rapid development of information technology, the simple form of online shopping cannot meet users' personalized needs. Driven by this trend, this paper studies the decision support system for user-customized products online based on regulatory focus theory. This paper compares the differences of consumer behaviors under attribute-based DSS followed by alternative-based DSS (Att-Alt DSS) scheme and the opposite (Alt-Att DSS) via experimental study. In addition, we examine the moderating effect of regulatory focus in online decision support tools. Using the regulatory focus theory and technology acceptance model, we develop a model with four mediate variables (perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, and perceived control) and two dependent variables (intention to purchase and intention to return). We find that users of an Att-Alt DSS show higher perceived usefulness and perceived control than users of Alt-Att DSS. Under both tools, users who are promotion-focused show higher tendency in perceived ease of use than users who are prevention-focused. Besides, when using Att-Alt DSS, users who have promotion focus show higher perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment and perceived control than users with prevention focus. What's more, the effect of Att-Alt DSS on intention to purchase is fully mediated by users' perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment and perceived control, and the effect of Att-Alt DSS on intention to return is mediated by users' perceived usefulness. So, in this paper, we successfully mix the 2 individual DSSs to create 2 new ones. Then we raise and examine some new hypotheses which could be explained by regulatory focus theory.
Development of a Conceptual Query Language: Adopting the User-Centered Methodology

The pervasiveness of end-user computing tools in the home and in workplaces, as well as the linkage of PCs into networks, have led to a convergence of end-user computing and corporate computing. As a result of this phenomenon, and because the productivity of end-users with these tools depends on how well suited the tools are to users, the issue of the suitability of computing tools for end-users is a valid concern for organizations. In the area of databases (DBs), the concern is that of ensuring the suitability of ad hoc querying and reporting tools for end-users. The significance of this concern lies in the realization that organizations and DB users are depending on more and more complex DBs, for example those being placed on the Web. DB researchers therefore argue for the adoption of the user-centered approach in developing these tools, to ensure suitability. The adoption of this approach in the development of the Conceptual Query Language (CQL) is reported in this paper. Also discussed is the series of experimental tests conducted to ascertain the impact of the approach on the usability of CQL. The test results suggest an improvement in user performance with and perception of CQL as a result of user participation in its development process.
Super-resolution acoustic imaging using sparse recovery with spatial priming

In this paper, we propose a new strategy to obtain superresolution maps of the sound field recorded by a spherical microphone array. In recent works, we have demonstrated that sparse recovery (SR) algorithms based on the minimisation of the lp norm with 0<;p≤1 can effectively produce superresolution acoustic maps. The issue with the minimisation of the lp norm when p<;1 is that it is a non-convex optimisation problem, thus it is likely that the algorithm converges to a local minimum. In this paper we show that we can improve the convergence of our SR acoustic imaging methods by providing, to the SR solver, priming information relating to the spatial location of the sound sources. This information can be acquired with a pre-processing, coarse analysis using standard blind source separation or direction-of-arrival techniques. Simulation results indicate that this approach can provide accurate estimates of the positions of multiple, simultaneous sound sources in the presence of noise or reverberation and even in an under-determined situation.
Inaccuracy of Osmometry for Measurement Mellitus

Osmometry is reportedly a relatively imprecise technique for the measurement of plasma water. However, reconsideration of the theoretical backgroundof the test reveals that it is also likelyto be inaccurateand subject to both positive errors as well as viscosity-dependent negative errors simultaneously, when applied to samples from patients admitted in acute diabetes mellitus. This was confirmed by comparison with Waugh’s method of results for 59 specimens from 14 cases. Plasma water was shown to be relatively underestimated at high protein concentrations and overestimated at lower ones.
Cross-Country Analysis of Food Consumption Patterns

Low-income countries spend a greater portion of their budget on food and are more responsive to income and food price changes than middleand highincome countries. Higher value food products undergo greater budget adjustments to price and income shocks, while budgets for staple food products like cereal change the least. 1 Anita Regmi and Jason Bernstein are agricultural economists, and M.S. Deepak was a visiting scholar with the Market and Trade Economics Division, Economic Research Service, USDA. James L. Seale Jr. is professor, Department of Food & Resource Economics, University of Florida. The authors wish to thank Yonas Biru and the Technical Assistance and Statistics Division of the World Bank for the research data and
The impact of emotion upon eating behavior: the role of subliminal visual processing of threat cues.

OBJECTIVE Previous research has demonstrated that subliminal threat cues can influence eating behavior. The present study examined whether this effect is due to general emotional activation (by comparing positive and negative emotional cues), whether it is a product of specific negative emotional activation, and whether it can be achieved by activating appetite-related schemata. METHOD One hundred women avoided food for at least 4 hr and then completed a task where they were exposed to one of five subliminal visual cues. The dependent variable was the amount eaten subsequently. RESULTS Women who were exposed to the abandonment cue (lonely) ate significantly more than those who were exposed to the neutral cue (gallery), the positive emotional cue (happy), or the appetitive cue (hungry). Those with unhealthy eating attitudes also ate more after the hostile emotion cue (angry) than after the neutral cue. CONCLUSIONS The results support cognitive models that stress an important role for threat processing in the facilitation of eating, rather than models advocating the centrality of food-related information. Abandonment schemata appear to be activated at an earlier stage than appetite-related schemata.