Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gene and Executive Function in Children With ADHD Catechol-O-Methyltransferase

Objective: To examine the association between functional haplotypes in the catechol-o-methyltransferase (COMT) gene and ADHD diagnosis, and executive function (EF) in children with ADHD. Method: COMT single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs; rs6269, rs4633, rs4818, and rs4680) were genotyped in 445 ADHD children. EF was assessed using Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Tower of London, and self-ordered pointing task. COMT haplotypes were tested for association using family-based association testing (fBAT) and quantitative trait analyses. Results: fBAT analysis showed no association between COMT alleles/haplotypes and ADHD diagnosis and EF parameters. Using ANCOVA in the Caucasian only sample, significant associations between COMT haplotypes, and WCST indices were observed. However, after correction for multiple testing, the only significant effect observed was between rs6269 and the number of categories completed (a measure of concept formation ability) on the WCST, F(1,285) = 8.92, p = . 003. Conclusion: These results tentatively implicate COMT gene in modulating EF in children with ADHD. (J. of Att. Dis. 2014; 18(3) 202-211)
Portable Compiler Optimization Across Embedded Programs and Microarchitectures using Machine Learning

Building an optimizing compiler is a difficult and time consuming task which must be repeated for each generation of a microprocessor. As the underlying microarchitecture changes from one generation to the next, the compiler must be retuned to optimize specifically for that new system. It may take several releases of the compiler to effectively exploit a processor’s performance potential, by which time a new generation has appeared and the process starts again. We address this challenge by developing a portable optimizing compiler. Our approach employs machine learning to automatically learn the best optimizations to apply for any new program on a new microarchitectural configuration. It achieves this by learning a model off-line which maps a microarchitecture description plus the hardware counters from a single run of the program to the best compiler optimization passes. Our compiler gains 67% of the maximum speedup obtainable by an iterative compiler search using 1000 evaluations. We achieve, on average, a 1.16x speedup over the highest default optimization level across an entire microarchitecture configuration space, achieving a 4.3x speedup in the best case. We demonstrate the robustness of this technique by applying it to an extended microarchitectural space where we achieve comparable performance.
"Theory of mind" impairments and their relationship to executive functioning following frontal lobe excisions.

It has been suggested that mental states play an important role in determining behaviour and that mental state attributions ("theory of mind") underlie the ability to understand and predict other peoples' behaviour. Theory of mind was investigated in 31 patients with unilateral frontal lobe lesions (15 right-sided and 16 left-sided) by comparing their performance with that of 31 matched control subjects. The ability to infer first- and second-order beliefs was tested by requiring subjects to listen to stories in which a protagonist acted upon a false belief. Both patient groups exhibited significantly impaired performance on the two theory of mind measures. Both frontal lobe groups also exhibited a range of deficits in tests of executive functions, but analyses revealed that these seemed to be independent of theory of mind impairments. These findings are discussed in terms of the hypothesis of a specialized, adaptive brain system underlying theory of mind reasoning ability, and are related to observed difficulties in social functioning among patients with frontal lobe damage.
Automatic design of nonlinear filters by nearest neighbor learning

Nonlinear filters have been used not only in noise elimination but in a wide variety of image processing applications. Traditionally the design of a digital filter is a manual task and the user accomplishes it based on previous experiences. Unfortunately often this is not a trivial task. Thus some works try to overcome this difficulty constructing the filters automatically by computational learning neural networks, genetic algorithms and statistical estimation. These works use typical input-output images of the application as the training samples. Many different kinds of filters can be easily constructed using this approach. This paper proposes the use of nearest neighbor (NN) learning to automatic filter construction. The kd-tree (k-dimensional binary tree) is used to accelerate the NN searching. A texture recognition application example is depicted.
Perceived Stress among Public School Music Educators: Stress over Time, Demographic Differences, Common Self-Identified Factors of Stress, and Relationships between Demographic Differences and Emergent Stress Themes

Teaching frequently has been identified as a stressful occupation, warranting numerous studies of teacher burnout, attrition, and stress. Levels of professional burnout and attrition among educators have been shown to correlate with general levels of stress across all aspects of life. As rates of such issues continue to function as a source of concern within the profession, efforts to help educators manage stress and maintain balance are of critical importance. Additionally, music educators tend to face unique occupational stressors when compared with teachers in other content areas. Using Cohen and Williamson’s (1988) 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), combined with open-ended questions based on the PSS, this mixed method study was designed to track music educators’ perceived stress across a three month period, identify
Regional Ejection Fraction A Quantitative Radionuclide Index of Regional Left Ventricular Performance

Radionuclide measurements of regional left ventricular ejection fraction were evaluated as a quantitative index of regional left ventricular function. Left ventricular regional ejection fractions were derived from background-corrected, time-activity curves in 43 patients assessed by both gated equilibrium radionuclide angiocardiography left ventricular contrast angiography. From a single, modified left anterior oblique projection, the regional change in background corrected counts was determined in each of three anatomic regions. The normal range for regional radionuclide ejection fraction was determined in 10 patients with normal contrast ventriculograms without obstructive coronary artery disease at coronary arteriography. Regional ejection fraction was compared with percent segmental axis shortening extent of akinetic segments in corresponding regions of thecontrast ventriculogram. Radionuclide roentgenographic methods were in agreement as to the presence or absence of abnormal wall motion in 83 of 99 left ventricular regions (84%) in 33 patients evaluated prospectively. Comparison of regional ejection fraction demonstrated significant differences between regions with roentgenographically determined normokinesis (75 ± 3%, mean ± SEM), hypokinesis (44 ± 3%, p ≤ 0.0005) akinesis (24 ± 5%, p ≤ 0.005). We conclude that the left ventricular regional ejection fraction provides a reliable quantitative assessment of regional left ventricular performance.
A geometric model for on-line social networks

We study the link structure of on-line social networks (OSNs), and introduce a new model for such networks which may help infer their hidden underlying reality. In the geo-protean (GEO-P) model for OSNs nodes are identified with points in Euclidean space, and edges are stochastically generated by a mixture of the relative distance of nodes and a ranking function. With high probability, the GEO-P model generates graphs satisfying many observed properties of OSNs, such as power law degree distributions, the small world property, densification power law, and bad spectral expansion. We introduce the dimension of an OSN based on our model, and examine this new parameter using actual OSN data. We discuss how the dimension parameter of an OSN may eventually be used as a tool to group users with similar attributes using only the link structure of the network.
Generation of task-specific architecture documentation for developers

To utilize the potential of software architecture it is essential to make it explicit. Architects produce architecture documentation when designing systems and provide it to developers who use it as the basis for their implementation tasks. However, the views of architects and developers on the system diverge: architects look at the system as a whole, developers have a more local perspective, focusing on the elements and context they are responsible for. The comprehensive architecture documentation produced by architects does not take this divergence into account. Although all needed information may be included, the information overhead and suboptimal representation render such generic architecture documentation inadequate to be used without adaptation for all implementation tasks. To overcome this deficiency, the doctoral thesis presented in this paper proposes an approach for the creation of architecture documentation that is tailored to specific implementation tasks. Such documentation shall contain all relevant, but only a minimum of overhead information and present it in a way that allows developers to perform their implementation tasks efficiently, with high-quality results. By using automated generation techniques that derive the task-specific architecture documentation from the general documentation, it is possible to largely avoid impacts on architects' normal way of working. To achieve applicability of the approach in practice, ideas for tool support, integrated into an existing modeling environment are highlighted. Finally, ideas for the validation of the expected benefits, the current status of the doctoral thesis, as well as next steps and possible future extensions are presented.
Capturing the dynamics of a work day : ecological momentary assessment of work stressors on the health of long-term caregivers

1 Capturing the Dynamics of a Work Day 2 Stressors, stress and strains experienced by healthcare workers 4 Blood pressure at work and its implication for health 7 Pathways of psychosomatic symptoms 8 Method 11 Participants 11 Equipment 11 Pre-data collection questionnaire 13 Procedures 13 Analyses 14 Results 21 Hypothesis 1 21 Workplace stressors and ambulatory cardiovascular reactivity at work 21 Workplace stressors and ambulatory perceived stress at work 25 Hypothesis 2 28 Workplace stressors an4 ambulatory affectivity at work 28 CAPTURING THE DYNAMICS iii Hypothesis 3 31 Ambulatory affect, arousal and cardiovascular reactivity at work 31 Ambulatory affect, arousal and perceived stress at work 34 Ambulatory affect and arousal at work, and cardiovascular recovery after work 36 Ambulatory affect and arousal at work, and perceived stress recovery after work. 39 Discussion 41 Full-scope model of long-term care stressors revealed unique predictors of caregivers' outcomes 41 Physical environment 41 Work overload 42 Residents interactions 43 Leisure breaks 44 Affect and arousal as predictors of psychological and physiological stress 44 Blood pressure reactivity 44 Perceived stress 45
Synchronization of speech and hand gestures during multimodal human-computer interaction

In this paper, we describe an experiment that studies temporal synchronization between speech (Japanese) and hand pointing gestures. Gesture (G) is shown to be synchronized with either the nominal or deictic (“this”, “that”, ‘here”, etc.) expression of a phrase. It is also shown that G is predictable in the [-200 ms, 400 ms] interval around the beginning of its related expression. The use of such a quantitative model of natural speech and gesture integration (in the multimodal interface and the speech recognition system), is also discussed
Correlates of Non-Clinical Facial Asymmetry and Facial Sexual Dimorphism in a Sub-Saharan African Population

A substantial body of literature has reported on correlates of facial symmetry and facial masculinity/femininity including the role these two traits play in human mate choice. However, major gaps persist, with nearly all data originating from Western industrialised populations, and results remaining largely equivocal when compared across studies. This thesis has two parts: the 1st part sets out to explore if human variation in measures of socioeconomic and health status is reflected in variation in facial asymmetry as a measure of developmental stability, or reflected in variation in facial masculinity/femininity as a measure of facial sexual dimorphism. The faces of 426 participants (215 males, 211 females) from the Hausa ethnic group of northern Nigeria were scanned using a 3D surface laser scanner. This population could potentially provide greater variation in developmental and other environmental factors than studies based on Western industrialised populations. Facial asymmetry and masculinity data were generated from the resulting virtual 3D models, individual biometric data were recorded, and socioeconomic and past medical history data were acquired through questionnaires. For the 2nd part of the thesis, 179 raters (98 males, 81 females) were recruited in order to determine their perceptions and judgements of standardised facial images with different levels of asymmetry and masculinity/femininity using questionnaires. Data were analysed using bivariate and multivariate methods. Significant correlates of whole face asymmetry included age, body height, whole face surface area (WFSA), education and diastolic blood pressure (BP). Significant correlates of asymmetry in the eye region alone included weight, sex, body mass index (BMI), and diastolic BP. Significant correlates of facial masculinity/femininity included body height, number of siblings, income, and total disease loads (TOTDX) in females, and WFSA, occupation and TOTDX in males. In the 2nd part of the study, individuals with higher facial symmetry and facial femininity were perceived as more attractive, more suitable as marriage partners and more caring, whereas less symmetrical and more masculine individuals were perceived as more aggressive. Although the amount of variation explained by statistically significant correlates was routinely low, the results of this study are consistent with an evolutionary psychological perspec¬tive on the link between physical attractiveness, health and environment. The study can also conclusively assert that facial symmetry or masculinity preferences were not just dependent on single, but rather on multiple facial features; thus the study supports that physical attractiveness is not just an arbitrary social construct, but at least in part a cue to general health and related to environmental context.
Socio-demographic Differences in Toxic Release Inventory Siting and Emissions in Metro Atlanta

Prior research has found that low socioeconomic status (SES) populations and minorities in some areas reside in communities with disproportionate exposure to hazardous chemicals. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the relevance of socio-demographic characteristics on the presence of Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) facilities, air releases, and prevalence and resolution of air quality complaints in the 20-county Atlanta Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). We found that there were 4.7% more minority residents in census tracts where TRI facilities were located. The odds ratio (OR) for the presence of a TRI facility was 0.89 (p < 0.01) for each 1% increase of females with a college degree and 2.4 (p < 0.01) for households with an income of $22,000–$55,000. The estimated reduction in the amount of chemicals emitted per release associated with population of females with a college degree was 18.53 pounds (p < 0.01). Complaints took longer to resolve in census tracts with higher Hispanic populations (OR = 1.031, 95% CI: 1.010–1.054). Overall, results indicate that SES and race/ethnicity are related to TRI facility siting, releases, and complaints in the Atlanta area. These findings have not been documented previously and suggest that lower SES and non-White communities may be disproportionately exposed.
De novo design of the hydrophobic cores of proteins

We have developed and experimentally tested a novel computational approach for the de novo design of hydrophobic cores. A pair of computer programs has been written, the first of which creates a “custom” rotamer library for potential hydrophobic residues, based on the backbone structure of the protein of interest. The second program uses a genetic algorithm to globally optimize for a low energy core sequence and structure, using the custom rotamer library as input. Success of the programs in predicting the sequences of native proteins indicates that they should be effective tools for protein design.
Association and distribution of the ciliate Orchitophrya stellarum with asteriid sea stars on the west coast of North America.

The association of the scuticociliate Orchitophrya stellarum with 3 species of asteriid sea stars from the west coast of North America was studied by flushing the gonopore region with seawater and spawning the sea stars, along a latitudinal gradient of 2549 km between Pigeon Point, California, and Kodiak, Alaska. Asterias forbesii and A. rubens from the Isles of Shoals, New Hampshire (east coast), were also sampled. The ciliate was found on the aboral surface of both sexes of reproductively ripe Evasterias troschelii, Leptasterias spp. , and Pisaster ochraceus with a maximum intensity of association occurring at Cape Arago, Oregon, and Clallum Bay and Manchester Dock, Washington. A survey of gonad smears and hematoxylin and eosin-stained sections indicated that the ciliate was only present in males. Spring-spawning E. troschelii and P. ochraceus are more negatively impacted by the ciliate than are winter-spawning Leptasterias spp. as judged by a skewed sex ratio and sex size differences, which may be associated with seasonal differences in water temperature affecting the growth rate of O. stellarum. The external morphology of O. stellarum appears to be similar throughout the geographical range surveyed.
Prioritizing Environmental Chemicals for Obesity and Diabetes Outcomes Research: A Screening Approach Using ToxCast™ High-Throughput Data

Background: Diabetes and obesity are major threats to public health in the United States and abroad. Understanding the role that chemicals in our environment play in the development of these conditions is an emerging issue in environmental health, although identifying and prioritizing chemicals for testing beyond those already implicated in the literature is challenging. This review is intended to help researchers generate hypotheses about chemicals that may contribute to diabetes and to obesity-related health outcomes by summarizing relevant findings from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ToxCast™ high-throughput screening (HTS) program. Objectives: Our aim was to develop new hypotheses around environmental chemicals of potential interest for diabetes- or obesity-related outcomes using high-throughput screening data. Methods: We identified ToxCast™ assay targets relevant to several biological processes related to diabetes and obesity (insulin sensitivity in peripheral tissue, pancreatic islet and β cell function, adipocyte differentiation, and feeding behavior) and presented chemical screening data against those assay targets to identify chemicals of potential interest. Discussion: The results of this screening-level analysis suggest that the spectrum of environmental chemicals to consider in research related to diabetes and obesity is much broader than indicated by research papers and reviews published in the peer-reviewed literature. Testing hypotheses based on ToxCast™ data will also help assess the predictive utility of this HTS platform. Conclusions: More research is required to put these screening-level analyses into context, but the information presented in this review should facilitate the development of new hypotheses. Citation: Auerbach S, Filer D, Reif D, Walker V, Holloway AC, Schlezinger J, Srinivasan S, Svoboda D, Judson R, Bucher JR, Thayer KA. 2016. Prioritizing environmental chemicals for obesity and diabetes outcomes research: a screening approach using ToxCast™ high-throughput data. Environ Health Perspect 124:1141–1154; http://dx.doi. org/10.1289/ehp.1510456
Investigating HUDs for the Presentation of Choice Lists in Car Navigation Systems

It has been established that head-down displays (HDDs), such as those commonly placed in the dashboard of commercial automobiles, can draw drivers’ attention away from the primary driving task (Bach et al., 2008). This problem can be exacerbated when screens are “busy” with graphics or rich information. In this paper, the authors present the results of a driving simulator-based user study where they examined two potential alternatives to HDDs for presenting textual lists. Subjects conducted a series of street name finding tasks using each of three system variants: one with a HDD, one with a head-up display (HUD), and one with only an auditory display. They found that the auditory display had the least impact on mental load, but at the expense of task completion efficiency. The HUD variant also had a low impact on mental load and scored highest in user satisfaction, and therefore appears to be the most viable target for future study.
Becoming a Principal: Access Factors for Females

Guided by Standpoint Theory, researchers conducted this case study to identify factors influencing access to Oklahoma’s secondary school principalship for four female first-time principals. Regardless of equity legislation and increasing numbers of females with advanced degrees, the numbers of men and women who hold secondary school administration positions continue to be disproportionate to their numbers in the teaching profession. Three standpoints emerged: In the transition from teacher to administrator, each participant was nurtured by another individual; male sponsors were their primary encouragers; and participants had strong emotional investments in the schools and communities of their employment. Aspiring female principals should cultivate strong support systems, seek out mentors, and strengthen their professional networks. Accepting stepping-stone administrative positions may be an essential starting point for aspiring female secondary principals; administrative skills can be gained through internships, assistant principal positions, and administrative positions in lower grade levels.
Quantification of Intramyocardial Metabolites by Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

Purpose To define intramyocardial triglyceride (TG), creatine (Cr), and choline (Cho) in healthy volunteers, and determine the feasibilities, scan durations and agreements between cardiac proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ([1H]-MRS) performed with fewer signal averages versus a reference standard with 128 signal averages. Materials and methods Thirty-one participants underwent [1H]-MRS using 16, 32, 64, and 128 signal averages. Intramyocardial TG, Cr, or Cho contents relative to water were calculated and expressed as a percentage. Results Mean intramyocardial TG, Cr, and Cho were 1.30 ± 1.13, 0.19 ± 0.18, and 0.24 ± 0.28%, respectively. The feasibilities for quantifying intramyocardial TG, Cr, and Cho using fewer signal averages ranged from 93.5 to 100, 90.3 to 93.5, and 90.3 to 96.8%, respectively. Scan durations for 16, 32, 64, and 128 signal averages were 1.1 ± 0.5, 2.6 ± 0.9, 5.9 ± 2.0, and 13.2 ± 4.5 min, respectively (p < 0.001). Agreements with the reference standard 128 signal average was higher for quantification of intramyocardial TG compared to Cr and Cho. Conclusion Quantification of intramyocardial TG with [1H]-MRS with only 64 signal averages was highly feasible, showed excellent agreement with 128 signal averages, and had significantly shorter scan duration. By contrast, quantifying Cr and Cho using fewer signal averages had lower feasibilities and agreements compared to 128 signal averages.