Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Bayesian model for repeated measures zero-inflated count data with application to outpatient psychiatric service use

In applications involving count data, it is common to encounter an excess number of zeros. For example, in the study of outpatient service utilization, the number of utilization days will take on integer values, with many subjects having no utilization (zero values). Mixed distribution models, such as the zero-inflated Poisson and zero-inflated negative binomial, are often used to fit such data. A more general class of mixture models, called hurdle models, can be used to model zero deflation as well as zero inflation. Several authors have proposed frequentist approaches to fitting zero-inflated models for repeated measures. We describe a practical Bayesian approach which incorporates prior information, has optimal small-sample properties and allows for tractable inference. The approach can be easily implemented using standard Bayesian software. A study of psychiatric outpatient service use illustrates the methods.
Natural history of contralateral residual hearing in binaural-bimodal hearing

Conclusions. The range of evaluation tools used in deciding which ear to implant and which to designate for a hearing aid (HA) should be expanded to include additional aspects to those tested by audiometry and basic speech perception. Residual hearing in non-implanted ears remains stable for at least 3 years after unilateral cochlear implantation, but regular refitting and monitoring of the HA function combined with cochlear implant (CI) mapping are mandatory for maximizing benefit from binaural-bimodal hearing. Objectives. To examine whether the clinical decision-making tools currently used to assess hearing are reliable guides when choosing the preferred ear for CI, and to determine the rate of residual hearing deterioration in the non-implanted ear over 36 months post-CI as a guide to recommending subsequent continued use of a contralateral HA as opposed to CI. Patients and methods. This was a retrospective evaluation of patients’ charts. The pre-CI choice of the ear for implantation in a group of 37 binaural-bimodal users was re-evaluated. In a second group of 22 patients, residual hearing deterioration was followed for 36 months post-implantation. Results. In the group of 37 patients, subjective identification of the worse-hearing ear was in agreement with audiometric results in 28 cases, but disagreed with the unaided audiometric results in the other 9. Mean threshold values for the group of 22 patients remained stable over 36 months post-CI, except for the aided threshold at 4.0kHz, which deteriorated by 10.9dB (p=0.003).
Evaluation of Measles Surveillance Systems in Afar Region, Ethiopia: A Descriptive Evaluative Study, 2017

The prevalence of measles was 55% in Afar region. Measles vaccination coverage was more than 85% in most of district of the region. But Recurrent here & there measles outbreak was reported. This might be hypothesized that low herd immunity in the community. Expanded programme on immunization is one of systems involved in measles surveillance in Afar region. Thus, the aim of the study was to evaluate performance of measles surveillance systems in the Afarregion.Descriptive evaluative study was conducted in Afar region from Feb 15-May 30/ 2017. A total of twenty three (n=23): one region, three districts, ten health centers and nine health posts were included by purposive sampling technique based on their involvement in and relevance to the measles surveillance system. Data was collected by trained nurses (n=12) using structured interviewer administered questionnaire adopted from “Centers of Disease Control (CDCs) Updated Guidelines for the Evaluation of Surveillance Systems.Data was analyzed by SPSS version 20 software. The study revealed that the Performance of surveillance systems core activities relatively were 100% at regional level. But, at district and health facility level were still far from the 80% target. Performance of surveillance systems supportive function at health facility levels were still far from the 80% target, but relatively 100% at regional and district level. Timelines & completeness both at regional and district level was low which was still far from the 80% target. So,the system found to be simple and flexible. It is inadequate completeness and timeliness. There were Poor mechanisms of feedback from central to peripheral health system. System has low stability, which led system to be not very useful and not representative. Predictive value positive found to be low. Surveillance system appears to be not meeting its objectives. Hence, the region should expand a web based reporting system.
End-to-End Deep Reinforcement Learning for Lane Keeping Assist

Reinforcement learning is considered to be a strong AI paradigm which can be used to teach machines through interaction with the environment and learning from their mistakes, but it has not yet been successfully used for automotive applications. There has recently been a revival of interest in the topic, however, driven by the ability of deep learning algorithms to learn good representations of the environment. Motivated by Google DeepMind's successful demonstrations of learning for games from Breakout to Go, we will propose different methods for autonomous driving using deep reinforcement learning. This is of particular interest as it is difficult to pose autonomous driving as a supervised learning problem as it has a strong interaction with the environment including other vehicles, pedestrians and roadworks. As this is a relatively new area of research for autonomous driving, we will formulate two main categories of algorithms: 1) Discrete actions category, and 2) Continuous actions category. For the discrete actions category, we will deal with Deep Q-Network Algorithm (DQN) while for the continuous actions category, we will deal with Deep Deterministic Actor Critic Algorithm (DDAC). In addition to that, We will also discover the performance of these two categories on an open source car simulator for Racing called (TORCS) which stands for The Open Racing car Simulator. Our simulation results demonstrate learning of autonomous maneuvering in a scenario of complex road curvatures and simple interaction with other vehicles. Finally, we explain the effect of some restricted conditions, put on the car during the learning phase, on the convergence time for finishing its learning phase.
Understanding the Great Gatsby Curve

The Great Gatsby Curve, the observation that for OECD countries greater cross-sectional income inequality is associated with lower mobility, has become a prominent part of scholarly and policy discussions because of its implications for the relationship between inequality of outcomes and inequality of opportunities. We explore this relationship by focusing on evidence and interpretation of an intertemporal Gatsby Curve for the United States. We consider inequality/mobility relationships that are derived from nonlinearities in the transmission process of income from parents to children and the relationship that is derived from the effects of inequality of socioeconomic segregation, which then affects children. Empirical evidence for the mechanisms we identify is strong. We find modest reduced-form evidence and structural evidence of an intertemporal Gatsby Curve for the United States as mediated by social influences.
Systematic Review and Consensus Guidelines for Environmental Sampling of Burkholderia pseudomallei

Background Burkholderia pseudomallei, a Tier 1 Select Agent and the cause of melioidosis, is a Gram-negative bacillus present in the environment in many tropical countries. Defining the global pattern of B. pseudomallei distribution underpins efforts to prevent infection, and is dependent upon robust environmental sampling methodology. Our objective was to review the literature on the detection of environmental B. pseudomallei, update the risk map for melioidosis, and propose international consensus guidelines for soil sampling. Methods/Principal Findings An international working party (Detection of Environmental Burkholderia pseudomallei Working Party (DEBWorP)) was formed during the VIth World Melioidosis Congress in 2010. PubMed (January 1912 to December 2011) was searched using the following MeSH terms: pseudomallei or melioidosis. Bibliographies were hand-searched for secondary references. The reported geographical distribution of B. pseudomallei in the environment was mapped and categorized as definite, probable, or possible. The methodology used for detecting environmental B. pseudomallei was extracted and collated. We found that global coverage was patchy, with a lack of studies in many areas where melioidosis is suspected to occur. The sampling strategies and bacterial identification methods used were highly variable, and not all were robust. We developed consensus guidelines with the goals of reducing the probability of false-negative results, and the provision of affordable and ‘low-tech’ methodology that is applicable in both developed and developing countries. Conclusions/Significance The proposed consensus guidelines provide the basis for the development of an accurate and comprehensive global map of environmental B. pseudomallei.
Effect of Oxandrolone on Glucose Metabolism in Growth Hormone-Treated Girls with Turner Syndrome

Background: The weak androgen oxandrolone (Ox) may increase height but may also affect glucose metabolism in girls with Turner syndrome (TS). Methods: In a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study, we assessed the effect of Ox at a dosage of either 0.06 or 0.03 mg/kg/day on glucose metabolism in 133 growth hormone (GH)-treated girls with TS. Patients were treated with GH (1.33 mg/m2/day) from baseline, combined with placebo (Pl) or Ox from the age of 8, and estrogens from the age of 12. Oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTT) were performed, and HbA1c levels were measured before, during, and after discontinuing Ox/Pl therapy. Results: Insulin sensitivity, assessed by the whole-body insulin sensitivity index (WBISI) decreased during GH+Ox/Pl (p = 0.003) without significant differences between the dosage groups. Values returned to pre-treatment levels after discontinuing GH+Ox/Pl. On GH+Ox, fasting glucose was less frequently impaired (Ox 0.03, p = 0.001; Ox 0.06, p = 0.02) and HbA1c levels decreased more (p = 0.03 and p = 0.001, respectively) than on GH+Pl. Conclusions: We conclude that in GH-treated girls with TS, Ox at a dosage of 0.03 or 0.06 mg/kg/day does not significantly affect insulin sensitivity. Insulin sensitivity decreases during GH therapy, to return to a pre-treatment level after discontinuing therapy.
Migration Timing of Atlantic Salmon Smolts Relative to Environmental and Physiological Factors

Abstract We determined the migration timing of fry-stocked smolts of Atlantic salmon Salmo salar relative to environmental and physiological factors, by using net weirs and counting fences in three tributaries of the West River, Vermont. Smolt migration began in late April and early May when water temperature was 5°C, peak movements occurred in early and mid-May at temperatures exceeding 8°C, and migration was complete by early June. Within this seasonal window, significant differences in migration timing and gill Na+,K+-ATPase activity occurred among tributaries. In both years of the study, smolts tended to migrate earlier and exhibit greater gill Na+,K+-ATPase activity in the warmest tributary than in the coolest tributary. Smolt migration timing differed most among tributaries in mid-May when (1) water temperatures were more than 8°C, (2) smolts peaked in gill Na+,K+-ATPase activity, and (3) discharge peaked, stimulating smolt migration. Smolts captured after the migratory period had lower gill Na+,K+-.
Modeling Sentence Processing in ACT-R

We present a series of simulations of behavioral data by casting a simple parsing model in the cognitive architecture ACT-R. We show that constraints defined in ACT-R, specifically those relating to activation, can account for a range of facts about human sentence processing. In doing so, we argue that resource limitation in working memory is better defined as an artefact of very general and independently motivated principles of cognitive processing.
Partisan Priorities and Public Budgeting

We explore budget data from twenty-nine Western countries from 1948 to 2012 to investigate the impact of partisan control of government on spending patterns. We use a variety of empirical methods, but the central element of analysis is to code spending allocations as “consistent” or “inconsistent” based on the partisanship of the majority party in government. Looking across the board, we show that inconsistent allocations occur at almost exactly the same rate as consistent ones. The implication is that budgets are best understood not as an expression of partisan priorities but as a reaction to changing contextual circumstances.
Pleistocene megafaunal interaction networks became more vulnerable after human arrival

The end of the Pleistocene was marked by the extinction of almost all large land mammals worldwide except in Africa. Although the debate on Pleistocene extinctions has focused on the roles of climate change and humans, the impact of perturbations depends on properties of ecological communities, such as species composition and the organization of ecological interactions. Here, we combined palaeoecological and ecological data, food-web models and community stability analysis to investigate if differences between Pleistocene and modern mammalian assemblages help us understand why the megafauna died out in the Americas while persisting in Africa. We show Pleistocene and modern assemblages share similar network topology, but differences in richness and body size distributions made Pleistocene communities significantly more vulnerable to the effects of human arrival. The structural changes promoted by humans in Pleistocene networks would have increased the likelihood of unstable dynamics, which may favour extinction cascades in communities facing extrinsic perturbations. Our findings suggest that the basic aspects of the organization of ecological communities may have played an important role in major extinction events in the past. Knowledge of community-level properties and their consequences to dynamics may be critical to understand past and future extinctions.
Correlated preferences for facial masculinity and ideal or actual partner's masculinity

Studies of women's preferences for male faces have variously reported preferences for masculine faces, preferences for feminine faces and no effect of masculinity–femininity on male facial attractiveness. It has been suggested that these apparently inconsistent findings are, at least partly, due to differences in the methods used to manipulate the masculinity of face images or individual differences in attraction to facial cues associated with youth. Here, however, we show that women's preferences for masculinity manipulated in male faces using techniques similar to the three most widely used methods are positively inter-related. We also show that women's preferences for masculine male faces are positively related to ratings of the masculinity of their actual partner and their ideal partner. Correlations with partner masculinity were independent of real and ideal partner age, which were not associated with facial masculinity preference. Collectively, these findings suggest that variability among studies in their findings for women's masculinity preferences reflects individual differences in attraction to masculinity rather than differences in the methods used to manufacture stimuli, and are important for the interpretation of previous and future studies of facial masculinity.
Structural and functional analyses of disease-causing missense mutations in Bloom syndrome protein

Bloom syndrome (BS) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by genomic instability and the early development of many types of cancer. Missense mutations have been identified in the BLM gene (encoding a RecQ helicase) in affected individuals, but the molecular mechanism and the structural basis of the effects of these mutations remain to be elucidated. We analysed five disease-causing missense mutations that are localized in the BLM helicase core region: Q672R, I841T, C878R, G891E and C901Y. The disease-causing mutants had low ATPase and helicase activities but their ATP binding abilities were normal, except for Q672, whose ATP binding activity was lower than that of the intact BLM helicase. Mutants C878R, mapping near motif IV, and G891E and C901Y, mapping in motif IV, displayed severe DNA-binding defects. We used molecular modelling to analyse these mutations. Our work provides insights into the molecular basis of BLM pathology, and reveals structural elements implicated in coupling DNA binding to ATP hydrolysis and DNA unwinding. Our findings will help to explain the mechanism underlying BLM catalysis and interpreting new BLM causing mutations identified in the future.
Ball-Larus path profiling across multiple loop iterations

Identifying the hottest paths in the control flow graph of a routine can direct optimizations to portions of the code where most resources are consumed. This powerful methodology, called path profiling, was introduced by Ball and Larus in the mid 90's [4] and has received considerable attention in the last 15 years for its practical relevance. A shortcoming of the Ball-Larus technique was the inability to profile cyclic paths, making it difficult to mine execution patterns that span multiple loop iterations. Previous results, based on rather complex algorithms, have attempted to circumvent this limitation at the price of significant performance losses even for a small number of iterations. In this paper, we present a new approach to multi-iteration path profiling, based on data structures built on top of the original Ball-Larus numbering technique. Our approach allows the profiling of all executed paths obtained as a concatenation of up to k Ball-Larus acyclic paths, where k is a user-defined parameter. We provide examples showing that this method can reveal optimization opportunities that acyclic-path profiling would miss. An extensive experimental investigation on a large variety of Java benchmarks on the Jikes RVM shows that our approach can be even faster than Ball-Larus due to fewer operations on smaller hash tables, producing compact representations of cyclic paths even for large values of k.
Toxoplasma gondii Syntaxin 6 Is Required for Vesicular Transport Between Endosomal-Like Compartments and the Golgi Complex

Apicomplexans are obligate intracellular parasites that invade the host cell in an active process that relies on unique secretory organelles (micronemes, rhoptries and dense granules) localized at the apical tip of these highly polarized eukaryotes. In order for the contents of these specialized organelles to reach their final destination, these proteins are sorted post‐Golgi and it has been speculated that they pass through endosomal‐like compartments (ELCs), where they undergo maturation. Here, we characterize a Toxoplasma gondii homologue of Syntaxin 6 (TgStx6), a well‐established marker for the early endosomes and trans Golgi network (TGN) in diverse eukaryotes. Indeed, TgStx6 appears to have a role in the retrograde transport between ELCs, the TGN and the Golgi, because overexpression of TgStx6 results in the development of abnormally shaped parasites with expanded ELCs, a fragmented Golgi and a defect in inner membrane complex maturation. Interestingly, other organelles such as the micronemes, rhoptries and the apicoplast are not affected, establishing the TGN as a major sorting compartment where several transport pathways intersect. It therefore appears that Toxoplasma has retained a plant‐like secretory pathway.
Some observations on astaxanthin distribution in marine crustacea.

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Multi-directed animals, connected heaps of dimers and Lorentzian triangulations

Bousquet-Melou and Rechnitzer have introduced the class of multi-directed animals, as an extension of the classical 2D directed animals. They gave an explicit expression for their generating function. In the case of directed animals, the corresponding generating function is algebraic and various ''combinatorial explanations'' (bijective proofs) have been given, in particular using the so-called model of heaps of dimers. Although the generating function for multi-directed animals is not algebraic, even worst not D-finite, we give a bijective proof of Bousquet-Melou and Rechnitzer's formula, introducing the ''Nordic decomposition'' of a connected heap of dimers. One possible interest of this bijective proof is in relation with 2D Lorentzian quantum gravity. Ambjorn, Loll, Di Francesco, Guitter and Kristjansen have introduced and studied the notion of Lorentzian triangulations. There exist correspondences between these triangulations, connected heaps of dimers and multi-directed animals.
Ontogeny of the projections from the anteroventral periventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus in the female rat

Neurons in the anteroventral periventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (AVPV) mediate a variety of autonomic functions. In adults they primarily innervate neuroendocrine nuclei in the periventricular zone of the hypothalamus, including the paraventricular and arcuate nuclei (PVH, ARH). Ascending projections from the AVPV also provide inputs to the ventrolateral septum (LSv) and the principal division of the bed nuclei of the stria terminalis (BSTp). Consistent with a role in regulating preovulatory luteinizing hormone secretion, rostral projections from the AVPV contact gonadotropin‐releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons surrounding the vascular organ of the lamina terminalis (OVLT). To study the development of these pathways, we placed implants of the lipophilic tracers DiI and CMDiI into the AVPV of female rats ranging in age from embryonic day 19 (E19) through adulthood. The earliest projections targeted a population of GnRH neurons, with apparent contacts from labeled fibers observed as early as E19. These connections appeared to be fully developed before birth, as similar numbers of appositions from AVPV projections onto the GnRH‐immunoreactive cells were observed at all ages examined. Caudal projections were delayed relative to projections to the OVLT. Labeled AVPV fibers reached the PVH during the first postnatal week, and fibers targeting the BSTp and LSv were not observed until the second and third postnatal weeks, respectively. Labeled AVPV fibers were not seen in the ARH of animals at any age. Our results demonstrate that projections from the AVPV develop with both spatial and temporal specificity, innervating each target with a unique developmental profile. J. Comp. Neurol. 495:122–132, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.