Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The long-term effectiveness of the Family Check-Up on school-age conduct problems: Moderation by neighborhood deprivation

Abstract Several studies suggest that neighborhood deprivation is a unique risk factor in child and adolescent development of problem behavior. We sought to examine whether previously established intervention effects of the Family Check-Up (FCU) on child conduct problems at age 7.5 would persist through age 9.5, and whether neighborhood deprivation would moderate these effects. In addition, we examined whether improvements in parent–child interaction during early childhood associated with the FCU would be related to later reductions in child aggression among families living in the highest risk neighborhoods. Using a multisite cohort of at-risk children identified on the basis of family, child, and socioeconomic risk and randomly assigned to the FCU, intervention effects were found to be moderated by neighborhood deprivation, such that they were only directly present for those living at moderate versus extreme levels of neighborhood deprivation. In addition, improvements in child aggression were evident for children living in extreme neighborhood deprivation when parents improved the quality of their parent–child interaction during the toddler period (i.e., moderated mediation). Implications of the findings are discussed in relation to the possibilities and possible limitations in prevention of early problem behavior for those children living in extreme and moderate levels of poverty.
The Retina-Attached SCN Slice Preparation: An In Vitro Mammalian Circadian Visual System

The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), the mammalian circadian pacemaker, receives information about ambient light levels through the retinohypothalamic tract. This information resets the molecular clock of SCN neurons, thereby entraining overt animal behavior and physiology to the solar cycle. Progress toward functional characterization of retinal influences on the SCN has been hampered by limitations of established experimental paradigms. To overcome this hurdle, the authors have developed a novel in vitro preparation of the rat retinohypothalamic circuit that maintains functional connectivity between the retinas and the SCN. This method permits whole-cell patch-clamp recordings from visually identified, light-responsive SCN neurons. Using this preparation, the authors have found that in the SCN, light-evoked responses are partly driven by the melanopsin photosensory system of the intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells and that SCN neurons exhibit light adaptation. The authors have also been able to generate this preparation from mice, demonstrating the feasibility of applying this method to transgenic mice.
Is hybridization driving the evolution of climatic niche in Alyssum montanum.

PREMISE OF THE STUDY After decades of interest, the contribution of hybridization to ecological diversification remains unclear. Hybridization is a potent source of novelty, but nascent hybrid lineages must overcome reproductive and ecological competition from their parental species. Here, we assess whether hybrid speciation is advantageous over alternative modes of speciation, by comparing the geographical and ecological ranges and climatic niche evolutionary rates of stabilized allopolyploid vs. autopolyploids in the Alyssum montanum species complex. METHODS We combined an extensive review of studies addressing the systematics and genetic diversity of A. montanum s.l. , with flow cytometry and cloning of nuclear markers, to establish the ploidy level and putative hybrid nature of 205 populations. The respective geographic distribution and climatic niche evolution dynamics of the allo- and autopolyploids were investigated using multivariate analyses and comparative phylogenetic approaches. KEY RESULTS As expected by theory, allopolyploids occur mainly along contact zones and are generally spatially overlapping with their diploid counterparts. However, they demonstrate higher rates of niche evolution and expand into different climatic conditions than those of their diploid congeners. In contrast, autopolyploids show lower rates of niche evolution, occupy ecological niches similar to their ancestors and are restricted to less competitive and peripheral geographic areas. CONCLUSIONS Hybridization thus seems advantageous by promoting ecological niche evolution and more readily allowing escape from competitive exclusion.
Early Lactation and Infant Feeding Practices Differ by Maternal Gestational Diabetes History

Background: Detailed data on lactation practices by gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) history are lacking, precluding potential explanations and targets for interventions to improve lactation intensity and duration and, ultimately, long-term maternal and child health. Objective: This study aimed to examine breastfeeding practices through 12 months postpartum by GDM history. Methods: Women who delivered a singleton, liveborn infant at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center (Columbus, OH), in 2011 completed a postal questionnaire to assess lactation and infant feeding practices and difficulties. Bivariate and multivariate associations between GDM history and lactation and infant feeding practices were examined. Results: The sample included 432 women (62% response rate), including 7.9% who had GDM during the index pregnancy. Women with GDM initiated breastfeeding (at-the-breast or pumping) as often as women without any diabetes but were more likely to report introduction of formula within the first 2 days of life (79.4% vs 53.8%, P < .01; adjusted odds ratio: 3.48; 95% confidence interval, 1.47-8.26). Women with GDM initiated pumping 4 days earlier than women without diabetes (P < .05), which was confirmed in adjusted analyses. There was no difference in the proportion of women reporting breastfeeding difficulty (odds ratio: 2.08; 95% confidence interval, 0.78-5.52). However, there was a trend toward women with GDM reporting more formula feeding and less at-the-breast feeding as strategies to address difficulty compared with women without diabetes. Conclusion: Additional research is needed to understand why women with GDM engage in different early lactation and infant feeding practices, and how best to promote and sustain breastfeeding among these women.
A self-optimizing adaptive LQG control scheme for input-output systems

We consider the optimal control problem of an unknown linear system in input-output form based on the linear quadratic Gaussian (LQG) control design method. A self-tuning LQG control scheme is proposed which is shown to be stable and self-optimizing. Optimality is achieved by using an identification algorithm which incorporates a cost-biasing term favoring the parameters with smaller LQG optimal cost and a second term aiming at moderating the time-variability of the estimate.
Selecting R&D projects for technology-based innovation: An application of the core model approach

To optimize the use of knowledge when selecting R&D projects for technology-based innovation, all possible techniques - whether based on mathematical programming, or behavior, organization and information, or strategic consistency and integration - should be considered. We present a readily operationalized and flexible approach to this task, under which different project selection techniques are rendered comparable with reference to the normative methodology in economics and relevance to a core-model description of the real world in any application.
Diverse plant extracts and trans-resveratrol inhibit biofilm formation and swarming of Escherichia coli O157:H7

Infection with enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157:H7 (EHEC) is a worldwide problem. Of the 498 plant extracts screened against EHEC, 16 inhibited the formation of biofilm of EHEC by >85% without inhibiting the growth of planktonic cells, and 14 plant extracts reduced the swarming motility of EHEC. The most active extract, Carex dimorpholepis, decreased swimming and swarming motilities and curli formation. Transcriptional analyses showed that the extract of C. dimorpholepis repressed curli genes, various motility genes, and AI-2 quorum sensing genes, which was corroborated by reduction in the production of fimbria, motility, and biofilm by EHEC. Trans-resveratrol at 10 μg ml−1 in the extract of C. dimorpholepis was found to be a new anti-biofilm compound against EHEC, but importantly, the extract of C. dimorpholepis and trans-resveratrol did not inhibit the fomation of biofilm in four commensal E. coli strains. Furthermore, the extract of C. dimorpholepis decreased the adhesion of EHEC cells to human epithelial cells without affecting the viability of these cells.
Confidence Distribution, the Frequentist Distribution Estimator of a Parameter: A Review

Il est courant, en inférence fréquentielle, d'utiliser un point unique (une estimation ponctuelle) ou un intervalle (intervalle de confiance) dans le but d'estimer un paramètre d'intér^t. Une question très simple se pose: peut‐on également utiliser, dans le même but, et dans la même optique fréquentielle, à la façon dont les Bayésiens utilisent une loi a posteriori, une distribution de probabilité? La réponse est affirmative, et les distributions de confiance apparaissent comme un choix naturel dans ce contexte. Le concept de distribution de confiance a une longue histoire, longtemps associée, à tort, aux théories d'inférence fiducielle, ce qui a compromis son développement dans l'optique fréquentielle. Les distributions de confiance ont récemment attiré un regain d'intérêt, et plusieurs résultats ont mis en évidence leur potentiel considérable en tant qu'outil inférentiel. Cet article présente une définition moderne du concept, et examine les ses évolutions récentes. Il aborde les méthodes d'inférence, les problèmes d'optimalité, et les applications. A la lumière de ces nouveaux développements, le concept de distribution de confiance englobe et unifie un large éventail de cas particuliers, depuis les exemples paramétriques réguliers (distributions fiducielles), les lois de rééchantillonnage, les p‐valeurs et les fonctions de vraisemblance normalisées jusqu'aux a priori et posteriori bayésiens. La discussion est entièrement menée d'un point de vue fréquentiel, et met l'accent sur les applications dans lesquelles les solutions fréquentielles sont inexistantes ou d'une application difficile. Bien que nous attirions également l'attention sur les similitudes et les différences que présentent les approches fréquentielle, fiducielle, et Bayésienne, notre intention n'est pas de rouvrir un débat philosophique qui dure depuis près de deux cents ans. Nous espérons bien au contraire contribuer à combler le fossé qui existe entre les différents points de vue.
To Track or Not to Track: User Reactions to Concepts in Longitudinal Health Monitoring

Background Advances in ubiquitous computing, smart homes, and sensor technologies enable novel, longitudinal health monitoring applications in the home. Many home monitoring technologies have been proposed to detect health crises, support aging-in-place, and improve medical care. Health professionals and potential end users in the lay public, however, sometimes question whether home health monitoring is justified given the cost and potential invasion of privacy. Objective The aim of the study was to elicit specific feedback from health professionals and laypeople about how they might use longitudinal health monitoring data for proactive health and well-being. Methods Interviews were conducted with 8 health professionals and 26 laypeople. Participants were asked to evaluate mock data visualization displays that could be generated by novel home monitoring systems. The mock displays were used to elicit reactions to longitudinal monitoring in the home setting as well as what behaviors, events, and physiological indicators people were interested in tracking. Results Based on the qualitative data provided by the interviews, lists of benefits of and concerns about health tracking from the perspectives of the practitioners and laypeople were compiled. Variables of particular interest to the interviewees, as well as their specific ideas for applications of collected data, were documented. Conclusions Based upon these interviews, we recommend that ubiquitous “monitoring” systems may be more readily adopted if they are developed as tools for personalized, longitudinal self-investigation that help end users learn about the conditions and variables that impact their social, cognitive, and physical health.
Robust Parsing, Meaning Composition, and Evaluation Integrating Grammar Approximation, Default Unification, and Elementary Semantic Dependencies

In the larger context of parsing for semantic interpretation, we present and evaluate a novel approach to corpus-driven approximation of linguistically rich, constraint-based grammars. We obtain an unlexicalized probabilistic context-free grammar (PCFG) from a very large corpus that is automatically annotated with the fine-grained syntacto-semantic analyses of a broad-coverage Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). PCFG parsing with the resulting approximation greatly improves robustness, while also increasing formal and computational simplicity. Different ways of encoding relevant syntactic context in the approximating PCFG are proposed and compared empirically, and a comparison to state-of-the-art latent-variable PCFG techniques suggests that our approach is more suitable for grammar approximation with massive amounts of training data. To recover logical-form meaning representations from the analyses of the robust PCFG parser, we develop a technique for robust semantic composition based on default unification. For evaluation of the semantic accuracy of the resulting robust analysis system, we propose a method of reducing the logical forms in the representation language predominant in computational HPSG to semantic dependency triples. Under various evaluation perspectives, parsing with the approximated grammar delivers competitive analysis quality.
The effect of strain rate, temperature, and molecular mass on the tensile deformation of polyethylene

Conventional tensile testing applied to high density polyethylene can lead to erroneous impressions of the tensile response of the material due to a local reduction in cross section of the sample. Several workers have developed novel tensile testing techniques to measure the response of a small element as it deforms. The true stress true strain curve that results describes tensile deformation of the material in a geometry-independent manner. Here, results from previous workers, together with some of our own, are interpreted in terms of the Haward-Thackray spring-dashpot model, in which the spring defines a strain hardening process according to the theories of high elasticity and the dashpot describes a strain-independent viscous process. The effects that temperature, strain rate, and molecular mass have on each process are investigated. For a pipe-grade, modified high density ethylene copolymer, sufficient data have been measured to interpret the effects of strain rate and temperature in accordance with an Eyring flow process, where the parameters for the two mechanisms are found to be similar.
Decision Making by Burglars: A Qualitative Study in a Korean Context - TI Journals

Abstract: The relation between crime and its physical context continues to be the focus of a growing body of research within environmental criminology. The research design and methodology employed in the study consisted mainly of qualitative research techniques adjusted to suit the specific needs of the study. A purposive sampling method was used to select the fifty-two subjects interviewed. The majority of the subjects came from the Incheon Metropolitan City area, and all of them had committed one or more residential burglaries. A central focus of the study was the subjects’ target-selection methodology, and they were queried as to how they went about identifying a suitable residential target for burglary. Special attention was given to the extent to which the subjects in the study sample utilised rational processes to select a potential burglary target, and what territorial conditions and features they used as discriminative cues in this target-selection process.
WIDESPREAD AND STRUCTURED DISTRIBUTIONS OF BLOOD PARASITE HAPLOTYPES ACROSS A MIGRATORY DIVIDE OF THE SWAINSON'S THRUSH (CATHARUS USTULATUS)

We examined the phylogenetic distribution of cytochrome b haplotypes of the avian blood parasite genera Haemoproteus and Plasmodium across the migratory divide of the Swainson's thrush (Catharus ustulatus) in British Columbia, Canada. From 87 host individuals, we identified 8 parasite haplotypes; 4 of Plasmodium and 4 of Haemoproteus. Six haplotypes were novel; 1 Haemoproteus haplotype was identical to H. majoris found in the blue tit (Parus caeruleus) in Sweden, and another halotype was identical to a Plasmodium haplotype found in the white-crowned sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) in Oregon. The 2 most abundant parasite haplotypes were widely distributed across the contact zone, whereas 2 other parasite haplotypes seem to have structured distributions. Compared with 74 Plasmodium and Haemoproteus haplotypes published in GenBank, haplotypes recovered from Swainson's thrushes do not form monophyletic groups, and they are closely related to haplotypes from a variety of other hosts and localities. In addition, we recovered 2 Swainson's thrush Plasmodium haplotypes from the nonmigratory orange-billed nightingale thrush (Catharus aurantiirostris) in Costa Rica. This study is the first to elucidate avian blood parasite transmission, distribution, and phylogenetic relationships in an avian contact zone in North America.
Impact Resistance of Recycled Aggregate Concrete with Single and Hybrid Fibers

This paper presents a recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) mix that has been modified by adding treated recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) and various types of fiber-reinforced systems. The effectiveness of these modifications in terms of energy absorption and impact resistance was evaluated and compared with that of the corresponding regular concrete, as well as with unmodified RAC specimens. Results clearly indicate that although modification of the RAC mix with treated RCA significantly enhances the impact resistance of RAC, further diversification with additional fiber, particularly those in hybrid form, can optimize the results.
A study on distance between two sequences by the logistic map over integers with slightly different parameters

One of our investigation purposes is to give a design guide of a pseudorandom number generator using the logistic map with finite precision. In the present paper, we show that two sequences for slightly different parameters are completely different from each other, even if the logistic map has the same computational precision and the same initial values. First, we decide the arithmetic precision and the initial value. Second, we obtain two sequences by the logistic map for slightly different parameters. Last, we estimate a correlation of them by measuring the distance between two elements.
Small Cell Lung Cancer: Will Recent Progress Lead to Improved Outcomes?

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is an aggressive neuroendocrine malignancy with a unique natural history characterized by a short doubling time, high growth fraction, and early development of widespread metastases. Although a chemotherapy- and radiation-sensitive disease, SCLC typically recurs rapidly after primary treatment, with only 6% of patients surviving 5 years from diagnosis. This disease has been notable for the absence of major improvements in its treatment: Nearly four decades after the introduction of a platinum–etoposide doublet, therapeutic options have remained virtually unchanged, with correspondingly little improvement in survival rates. Here, we summarize specific barriers and challenges inherent to SCLC research and care that have limited progress in novel therapeutic development to date. We discuss recent progress in basic and translational research, especially in the development of mouse models, which will provide insights into the patterns of metastasis and resistance in SCLC. Opportunities in clinical research aimed at exploiting SCLC biology are reviewed, with an emphasis on ongoing trials. SCLC has been described as a recalcitrant cancer, for which there is an urgent need for accelerated progress. The NCI convened a panel of laboratory and clinical investigators interested in SCLC with a goal of defining consensus recommendations to accelerate progress in the treatment of SCLC, which we summarize here. Clin Cancer Res; 21(10); 2244–55. ©2015 AACR. See all articles in this CCR Focus section, “Progress in Lung Cancer. ”
Response to Comment on Grimaldi et al. Association of Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Rapid Eye Movement Sleep With Reduced Glycemic Control in Type 2 Diabetes: Therapeutic Implications. Diabetes Care 2014;37:355–363

We read with great interest the article by Grimaldi et al. (1) focusing on how rapid eye movement (REM) sleep deprivation due to obstructive sleep apnea affects glycemic control in type 2 diabetes. The study meritoriously investigates the effect of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) on HbA1c levels. However, selected limitations deserve to be cited. Indeed, the authors aimed at determining the metabolic effect of reversing apneas by calculating the mean profiles of cumulative minutes of REM and non-REM (NREM) …
Costs of treating primary open-angle glaucoma and ocular hypertension: a retrospective, observational two-year chart review of newly diagnosed patients in Sweden and the United States.

PURPOSE The objective of this study was to investigate what treatment strategies prevail in different countries for patients newly diagnosed with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) or ocular hypertension (OH) only and initiated on treatment with beta-blockers, and to estimate the total direct cost of treatment for two years. In addition, differences in costs between and within the countries and the determinants of variations in costs across patients were examined. MATERIALS AND METHODS The authors performed a retrospective medical record analysis in several academic and office-based study centers in Sweden and the United States. Standard costs for each resource item were determined and applied to all centers within the country. Differences in treatment costs within the countries are thus the effect of differences in treatment strategies, not of differences in prices. RESULTS There was considerable variation between the centers of each country. Sweden had a higher number of surgical interventions, which may be explained by the fact that the Swedish cohort had a higher mean intraocular pressure (IOP) at baseline and a higher proportion of patients with definite POAG and exfoliation glaucoma. However, in both countries the mean IOP at study end was approximately 18 mm Hg. Total direct costs for two years were 15,119 SEK (US$2,160; $1US = 7 SEK) and $2,109, respectively. In a multiple regression analysis, the estimated effects of baseline IOP and of IOP change after treatment initiation on treatment costs were positively and negatively significant, respectively, in both countries. CONCLUSION Despite differences in baseline diagnosis and in treatment strategies, mean IOP was decreased to 18 mm Hg in both countries. Baseline IOP was positively correlated with treatment costs, while the initial IOP-lowering effect of treatment was negatively correlated with two-year costs.