Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Moderating Role of Centrality on the Association Between Internalized Intimate Partner Violence‐Related Stigma and Concealment of Physical IPV

The Intimate Partner Violence Stigmatization Model posits that internalized stigma and centrality of experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) to one's self-concept are two intrapersonal factors that influence concealment of IPV. However, research has yet to empirically examine these relationships. The current study examines whether internalized stigma, centrality, and their interaction are related to how out people are about IPV to others. Participants were 57 men and women who were recruited from a predominately urban Northeast community and indicated that they were concealing experiences of physical IPV from others. Results of a hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed a significant internalized stigma x centrality interaction on general outness about one's experiences of IPV. Centrality was associated with more outness about experiences of IPV when internalized stigma was low, but had no association with general outness when internalized stigma was high. In other words, people low in internalized stigma were more out to others when IPV centrality was high and less out to others when IPV centrality was low. However, people high in internalized stigma were less out to others about their IPV victimization regardless of the centrality of IPV. We did not find evidence that internalized stigma and centrality predict disclosure to specific close others such as one's parents or siblings. Women were more likely than men to be out about experiences of IPV to their mother and closest friend. Findings have implications for understanding when and why people victimized by IPV reveal or conceal their experiences to others.
Risk of Tuberculosis in Children with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis: A Nationwide Population-Based Study in Taiwan

Objective We aimed to determine the risk of tuberculosis in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) in Taiwan. Methods We used the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) to conduct a nested case-control study. We identified a JIA cohort and matched each JIA child with non-JIA children for comparison. Methotrexate (MTX), tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitor administration, and new tuberculosis cases were determined during our study period. To compare tuberculosis (TB) risk among our study groups, Cox proportional regression models were used to determine adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs). Results We identified 1495 children with JIA and 11592 non-JIA children. Majority (68.7%) children with JIA had not received MTX or TNF inhibitors; 23.9% used MTX without TNF inhibitors, and 7.4% received TNF inhibitors, irrespective of MTX administration. In total, 43 children developed tuberculosis. The overall tuberculosis infection rate for children with JIA was two times higher than that for non-JIA children. Compared with non-JIA children, children with JIA who used MTX without TNF inhibitors revealed a significantly increased of tuberculosis infection rate (aHR = 4.67; 95% CI: 1.65–13.17; P = 0.004). Children with JIA who either received TNF inhibitors or never used MTX and TNF inhibitors revealed a tuberculosis infection rate comparable to that of non-JIA children. Conclusions Analysis of nationwide data of Taiwan suggested that children with JIA were at higher risk of tuberculosis compared with those without JIA.
Mutations in Ehrlichia chaffeensis Causing Polar Effects in Gene Expression and Differential Host Specificities

Ehrlichia chaffeensis, a tick-borne rickettsial, is responsible for human monocytic ehrlichiosis. In this study, we assessed E. chaffeensis insertion mutations impacting the transcription of genes near the insertion sites. We presented evidence that the mutations within the E. chaffeensis genome at four genomic locations cause polar effects in altering gene expressions. We also reported mutations causing attenuated growth in deer (the pathogen’s reservoir host) and in dog (an incidental host), but not in its tick vector, Amblyomma americanum. This is the first study documenting insertion mutations in E. chaffeensis that cause polar effects in altering gene expression from the genes located upstream and downstream to insertion sites and the differential requirements of functionally active genes of the pathogen for its persistence in vertebrate and tick hosts. This study is important in furthering our knowledge on E. chaffeensis pathogenesis.
Health-Related Quality of Life After Renal Denervation in Patients With Treatment-Resistant Hypertension

Recent studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of radiofrequency ablation of the renal sympathetic nerves in reducing blood pressure (BP) in patients with resistant hypertension. The effect of renal denervation on health-related quality of life (QoL) has not been evaluated. Using the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey and Beck Depression Inventory-II, we examined QoL before and 3 months after renal denervation in patients with uncontrolled BP. For baseline comparisons, matched data were extracted from the Australian Diabetes, Obesity, and Lifestyle database. Before renal denervation, patients with resistant hypertension (n=62) scored significantly worse in 5 of the eight 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey domains and the Mental Component Summary score. Three months after denervation (n=40), clinic BP was reduced (change in systolic and diastolic BP, −16±4 and −6±2 mm Hg, respectively; P<0.01). The Mental Component Summary score improved (47.6±1.1 versus 52±1; P=0.001) as a result of increases in the vitality, social function, role emotion, and mental health domains. Beck Depression Inventory scores were also improved, particularly with regard to symptoms of sadness (P=0.01), tiredness (P<0.001), and libido (P<0.01). The magnitude of BP reduction or BP level achieved at 3 months bore no association to the change in QoL. Renal denervation was without a detrimental effect on any elements of the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey. These results indicate that patients with severe hypertension resistant to therapy present with a marked reduction in subjective QoL. In this pre- and post-hypothesis generating study, several aspects of QoL were improved after renal denervation; however, this was not directly associated with the magnitude of BP reduction.
Measuring Peer Effects on Youth Smoking Behavior

This paper examines the role of peer effects in smoking behavior using data of middle and high school students in the United States. I present a random utility model that explicitly incorporates complementarity between individual and peer smokings. A Markov process model of smoking interactions between individuals is presented, under the assumption that such interactions occur frequently. I estimate the structural parameters of the model using a steady state distribution that is uniquely determined by the Markov process. The empirical results strongly support the presence of positive peer effects in smoking behavior among young people. Interestingly, peer interactions are found to be stronger within the same gender than across genders. The same result is found for race. Moreover, a multiplier effect is found. The impact of a tax on youth smoking increases by a factor of 1.5 when peer interactions are present.
Viewpoint Paper: EHR Safety: The Way Forward to Safe and Effective Systems

Diverse stakeholders--clinicians, researchers, business leaders, policy makers, and the public--have good reason to believe that the effective use of electronic health care records (EHRs) is essential to meaningful advances in health care quality and patient safety. However, several reports have documented the potential of EHRs to contribute to health care system flaws and patient harm. As organizations (including small hospitals and physician practices) with limited resources for care-process transformation, human-factors engineering, software safety, and project management begin to use EHRs, the chance of EHR-associated harm may increase. The authors propose a coordinated set of steps to advance the practice and theory of safe EHR design, implementation, and continuous improvement. These include setting EHR implementation in the context of health care process improvement, building safety into the specification and design of EHRs, safety testing and reporting, and rapid communication of EHR-related safety flaws and incidents.
A Shared, Flexible Neural Map Architecture Reflects Capacity Limits in Both Visual Short-Term Memory and Enumeration

Human cognition is characterized by severe capacity limits: we can accurately track, enumerate, or hold in mind only a small number of items at a time. It remains debated whether capacity limitations across tasks are determined by a common system. Here we measure brain activation of adult subjects performing either a visual short-term memory (vSTM) task consisting of holding in mind precise information about the orientation and position of a variable number of items, or an enumeration task consisting of assessing the number of items in those sets. We show that task-specific capacity limits (three to four items in enumeration and two to three in vSTM) are neurally reflected in the activity of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC): an identical set of voxels in this region, commonly activated during the two tasks, changed its overall response profile reflecting task-specific capacity limitations. These results, replicated in a second experiment, were further supported by multivariate pattern analysis in which we could decode the number of items presented over a larger range during enumeration than during vSTM. Finally, we simulated our results with a computational model of PPC using a saliency map architecture in which the level of mutual inhibition between nodes gives rise to capacity limitations and reflects the task-dependent precision with which objects need to be encoded (high precision for vSTM, lower precision for enumeration). Together, our work supports the existence of a common, flexible system underlying capacity limits across tasks in PPC that may take the form of a saliency map.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae Modulates Immune Gene Expressions and Inhibits ETEC-Mediated ERK1/2 and p38 Signaling Pathways in Intestinal Epithelial Cells

Background Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) infections result in large economic losses in the swine industry worldwide. ETEC infections cause pro-inflammatory responses in intestinal epithelial cells and subsequent diarrhea in pigs, leading to reduced growth rate and mortality. Administration of probiotics as feed additives displayed health benefits against intestinal infections. Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Sc) is non-commensal and non-pathogenic yeast used as probiotic in gastrointestinal diseases. However, the immuno-modulatory effects of Sc in differentiated porcine intestinal epithelial cells exposed to ETEC were not investigated. Methodology/Principal Findings We reported that the yeast Sc (strain CNCM I-3856) modulates transcript and protein expressions involved in inflammation, recruitment and activation of immune cells in differentiated porcine intestinal epithelial IPEC-1 cells. We demonstrated that viable Sc inhibits the ETEC-induced expression of pro-inflammatory transcripts (IL-6, IL-8, CCL20, CXCL2, CXCL10) and proteins (IL-6, IL-8). This inhibition was associated to a decrease of ERK1/2 and p38 MAPK phosphorylation, an agglutination of ETEC by Sc and an increase of the anti-inflammatory PPAR-γ nuclear receptor mRNA level. In addition, Sc up-regulates the mRNA levels of both IL-12p35 and CCL25. However, measurement of transepithelial electrical resistance displayed that Sc failed to maintain the barrier integrity in monolayer exposed to ETEC suggesting that Sc does not inhibit ETEC enterotoxin activity. Conclusions Sc (strain CNCM I-3856) displays multiple immuno-modulatory effects at the molecular level in IPEC-1 cells suggesting that Sc may influence intestinal inflammatory reaction.
Understanding and Improving Salt Tolerance in Plants

One-fifth of irrigated agriculture is adversely affected by soil salinity. Hence, developing salt-tolerant crops is essential for sustaining food production. Progress in breeding for salt-tolerant crops has been hampered by the lack of understanding of the molecular basis of salt tolerance and lack of availability of genes that confer salt tolerance. Genetic evidence suggests that perception of salt stress leads to a cytosolic calcium-signal that activates the calcium sensor protein SOS3. SOS3 binds to and activates a ser/thr protein kinase SOS2. The activated SOS2 kinase regulates activities of SOS1, a plasma membrane Na + /H + antiporter, and NHX1, a tonoplast Na + /H + anti-porter. This results in Na + efflux and vacuolar compartmentation. A putative osmosensory histidine kinase (AtHKI)-MAPK cascade probably regulates osmotic homeostasis and ROS scavenging. Osmotic stress and ABA (abscisic acid)-mediated regulation of LEA (late-embryogenesis-abundant)-type proteins also play important roles in plant salt tolerance. Genetic engineering of ion transporters and their regulators, and of the CBF (C-repeat-binding factor) regulons, holds promise for future development of salt-tolerant crops.
Hemispherical Power Asymmetry in the Third-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe Sky Maps

We consider the issue of hemispherical power asymmetry in the third-year WMAP data, adopting a previously introduced modulation framework. Computing both frequentist probabilities and Bayesian evidences, we find that the model consisting of an isotropic CMB sky modulated by a dipole field gives a substantially better fit to the observations than the purely isotropic model, even when accounting for the larger prior volume. For the ILC map, the Bayesian log-evidence difference is ~1.8 in favor of the modulated model, and the raw improvement in maximum log likelihood is 6.1. The best-fit modulation dipole axis points toward (l, b) = (225°, -27°), and the modulation amplitude is 0.114, in excellent agreement with the results from the first-year analyses. The frequentist probability of obtaining such a high modulation amplitude in an isotropic universe is ~1%. These results are not sensitive to data set or sky cut. Thus, the statistical evidence for a power asymmetry anomaly is both substantial and robust, although not decisive, for the currently available data. Increased sky coverage through better foreground handling and full-sky and high-sensitivity polarization maps may shed further light on this issue.
Survival Analysis and its Associated Factors of Beta Thalassemia Major in Hamadan Province

Background There currently is a lack of knowledge about the long-term survival of patients with beta thalassemia (BT), particularly in regions with low incidence of the disease. The aim of the present study was to determine the survival rate of the patients with BT major and the factors associated with the survival time. Methods This retrospective cohort study was performed in Hamadan province, located in the west of Iran. The study included patients that referred to the provincial hospitals during 16 year period from 1997 to 2013. The follow up of each subject was calculated from the date of birth to the date of death. Demographic and clinical data were extracted from patients’ medical records using a checklist. Statistical analysis included the Kaplan-Meier method to analyze survivals, log-rank to compare curves between groups, and Cox regression for multivariate prognostic analysis. Results A total of 133 patients with BT major were enrolled, 54.9% of whom were male and 66.2% were urban. The 10-, 20- and 30-year survival rate for all patients were 98.3%, 88.4% and 80.5%, respectively. Based on hazard ratio (HR), we found that accompanied diseases (P=0.01), blood type (P=0.03) and residency status (P=0.01) were significant predictors for the survival time of patients. Conclusion The survival rate of BT patients has improved. Future researches such as prospective designs are required for the estimation of survival rate and to find other prognostic factors, which have reliable sources of data.
Influence of beta-adrenergic blockade on immediate haemodynamic effects of angiocardiography.

Inourexperience, theh.emodynamic reactions taking place within thefirst 60seconds after intracardiac injection ofcontrast mediaarecharacterized byanincrease inheart rateandafall insystemic bloodpressure, withchanges inthemorphology of thearterial pressure pulse reflecting peripheral vasodilatation. Theseearlymodifications, different fromthose observed atalater stage after theinjection(Brownetal., 1965;Friesinger etal., 1965; Rahimtoola, Duffy, andSwan,1966), aresimilar to thehwmodynamic effects ofisoprenaline ororciprenaline, substances that stimulate beta-adrenergic receptors specifically (Engelhardt, Hoefke, and Wick,1961;Whalenetal., 1963). Itistherefore suggested that theimmediate hmmodynamic changes observed after theadministration ofcontrast media are,atleast inpart, mediated byadrenergic betareceptors. Consequently, itshould bepossible to counteract these effects withtheaidofspecific betaadrenergic blocking agents.
Deformations of Modules of Differential Forms

Abstract We study non-trivial deformations of the natural action of the Lie algebra Vect(ℝn) on the space of differential forms on ℝn. We calculate abstractions for integrability of infinitesimal multi-parameter deformations and determine the commutative associative algebra corresponding to the miniversal deformation in the sense of [3].
Response: alpha-2-mu-Globulin Nephropathy, Posed Mechanisms, and White Ravens.

Later, the authors discussed the falsificationist ideas of Karl Popper in relation to the black ravens: "the observation of a single nonblack raven will falsify the hypothesis that all ravens are black. " Huff (2) recently discussed the role of cell proliferation in chemical carcinogenesis. At one point he discussed the ability of certain putatively nongenotoxic chemicals to induce renal cancer in male rats. The section in question is worth quoting in frill.
Rank-one LMIs and Lyapunov's inequality

We describe a new proof of the well-known Lyapunov's matrix inequality about the location of the eigenvalues of a matrix in some region of the complex plane. The proof makes use of standard facts from quadratic and semi-definite programming. Links are established between the Lyapunov matrix, rank-one LMI and the Lagrange multiplier arising in duality theory.
Structure Learning in Nested Effects Models

Nested Effects Models (NEMs) are a class of graphical models introduced to analyze the results of gene perturbation screens. NEMs explore noisy subset relations between the high-dimensional outputs of phenotyping studies, e.g., the effects showing in gene expression profiles or as morphological features of the perturbed cell.In this paper we expand the statistical basis of NEMs in four directions. First, we derive a new formula for the likelihood function of a NEM, which generalizes previous results for binary data. Second, we prove model identifiability under mild assumptions. Third, we show that the new formulation of the likelihood allows efficiency in traversing model space. Fourth, we incorporate prior knowledge and an automated variable selection criterion to decrease the influence of noise in the data.
Joint Cooperation and Multi-Hopping Increase the Capacity of Wireless Networks

The problem of communication among nodes in an \emph{extended network} is considered, where radio power decay and interference are limiting factors. It has been shown previously that, with simple multi-hopping, the achievable total communication rate in such a network is at most $\Theta(\sqrt{N})$. In this work, we study the benefit of node cooperation in conjunction with multi-hopping on the network capacity. We propose a multi-phase communication scheme, combining distributed MIMO transmission with multi-hop forwarding among clusters of nodes. We derive the network throughput of this communication scheme and determine the optimal cluster size. This provides a constructive lower bound on the network capacity. We first show that in \textit{regular networks} a rate of $\omega(N^{{2/3}})$ can be achieved with transmission power scaling of $\Theta(N^{\frac{\alpha}{6}-{1/3}})$, where $\alpha>2$ is the signal path-loss exponent. We further extend this result to \textit{random networks}, where we show a rate of $\omega (N^{2/3}(\log{N})^{(2-\alpha)/6})$ can be achieved with transmission power scaling of $\Theta(N^{\alpha/6-1/3}(\log{N})^{-(\alpha-2)^2/6})$ in a random network with unit node density. In particular, as $\alpha$ approaches 2, only constant transmission power is required. Finally, we study a random network with density $\lambda=\Omega(\log{N})$ and show that a rate of $\omega((\lambda N)^{2/3})$ is achieved and the required power scales as $\Theta(N^{\alpha/6-1/3}/\lambda^{\alpha/3-2/3})$.
Partitioning Composite Code Changes to Facilitate Code Review

Developers expend significant effort on reviewing source code changes. Hence, the comprehensibility of code changes directly affects development productivity. Our prior study has suggested that composite code changes, which mix multiple development issues together, are typically difficult to review. Unfortunately, our manual inspection of 453 open source code changes reveals a non-trivial occurrence (up to 29%) of such composite changes. In this paper, we propose a heuristic-based approach to automatically partition composite changes, such that each sub-change in the partition is more cohesive and self-contained. Our quantitative and qualitative evaluation results are promising in demonstrating the potential benefits of our approach for facilitating code review of composite code changes.
Identification of an aromatase haplotype that is associated with gene expression and postmenopausal osteoporosis.

CONTEXT Osteoporosis has a significant genetic component. The aromatase-dependent conversion of androgenic precursors is the main source of estrogens in postmenopausal women. OBJECTIVE The objective of the investigation was to study the relationship of a set of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the aromatase gene with osteoporosis and determine their functional influence on gene transcription. DESIGN, PARTICIPANTS, AND METHODS This was a case-control study including 135 women with vertebral fractures due to postmenopausal osteoporosis and 312 controls. Alleles at four SNPs situated between exons I.2 and 3 were determined by Taqman assays. Total aromatase RNA and differential allelic-specific expression were studied by RT-real time PCR in adipose tissue samples taken from 50 individuals. RESULTS The SNPs studied were in strong linkage disequilibrium. A common haplotype, present in about half of the population, was identified as being associated with an increased risk of fractures (odds ratio 1.8, 95% confidence interval 1.2-2.8, P = 0.006). There was evidence of differential allelic expression. In heterozygous individuals, transcripts bearing T alleles at rs700518 SNP (which were included in the risk haplotype) were less abundant than those with the alternative C alleles (P < 0.001). Total aromatase expression was four times lower in fat samples from individuals who were homozygotes for the unfavorable alleles than in the opposite homozygotes (P = 0.007). CONCLUSIONS A common haplotype of aromatase associated with gene expression is also associated with the risk of osteoporotic vertebral fractures in postmenopausal women. These data are in line with the hypothesis that the aromatase-dependent synthesis of estrogens plays an important role in bone homeostasis in postmenopausal women.