Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Anxiety and depression: toward overlapping and distinctive features

ABSTRACT This Special Issue of Cognition and Emotion addresses one of the cardinal concerns of affective science, which is overlapping and distinctive features of anxiety and depression. A central finding in the study of anxiety and depression is that they are moderately highly correlated with each other. This leads us to the question: What is behind this co-occurrence? Possible explanations relate to poor discriminant validity of measures; both emotional states are associated with negative affect; stressful life events; impaired cognitive processes; they share a common biological/genetic diathesis. However, despite a set of common (nonspecific) features, anxiety and depression are clearly not identical emotional states. Differences between them might be best viewed, for example, through their heterogeneous and multi-layered nature, adaptive functions and relations with regulatory processes, positive affect, and motivation or complex cognitive processes. In this introduction we consider several approaches (e.g. functional approach; tripartite model and content-specificity hypothesis) to which most research in this Special Issue is relevant. In addition, we have asked contributors to this Special Issue to indicate how their own studies on comparisons between anxiety and depression and models on anxiety and depression move this area of research to more mature science with applicability.
Circulating Tumor Cells Were Associated with the Number of T Lymphocyte Subsets and NK Cells in Peripheral Blood in Advanced Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer

In this study, we aim to investigate the correlation between circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and the T lymphocyte subsets and NK cells in peripheral blood in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The peripheral blood CTCs were determined by SET-iFISH. Flow cytometry was used to determine the distribution of T lymphocyte subsets and NK cells. Forty-one (49%) patients showed positivity for CTCs. Logistic regression analysis revealed CTC number was negatively correlated with the ratio of CD3+, CD4+, CD4+/CD8+, and NK % in patients at stage IV, while in a positive correlation was noticed between CTC number and regulatory T cell (Tregs) ratio in these patients. Multivariate analysis was performed in combination with the clinical-pathological materials to identify the risk factors for CTC positivity. Differentiation, NSCLC stage, percentages of CD3+CD4+ cells, Tregs, and NK cells were the independent risk factors for CTCs. CTCs were associated with the decrease of immune surveillance in the peripheral blood in NSCLC patients. The decrease of immune surveillance contributed to the escape of CTCs from the killing effects of the immunocytes, as well as the formation of metastasized lesions in the target organs.
Can eye-tracking technology improve situational awareness in paramedic clinical education?

Human factors play a significant part in clinical error. Situational awareness (SA) means being aware of one’s surroundings, comprehending the present situation, and being able to predict outcomes. It is a key human skill that, when properly applied, is associated with reducing medical error: eye-tracking technology can be used to provide an objective and qualitative measure of the initial perception component of SA. Feedback from eye-tracking technology can be used to improve the understanding and teaching of SA in clinical contexts, and consequently, has potential for reducing clinician error and the concomitant adverse events.
Feasibility and acceptability of a web-based HIV/STD prevention program for adolescent girls targeting sexual communication skills

Adolescent girls are at substantial risk of sexually transmitted diseases including HIV. To reduce these risks, we developed Health Education And Relationship Training (HEART), a web-based intervention focused on developing sexual assertiveness skills and enhancing sexual decision-making. This study assessed the feasibility and acceptability of this new program and examined if perceived acceptability varied according to participant ethnicity, sexual orientation or sexual activity status. Participants were part of a randomized controlled trial of 222 10th-grade girls (Mage = 15.26). The current analyses included those in the intervention condition (n = 107; 36% white, 27% black and 29% Hispanic). HEART took approximately 45 min to complete and was feasible to administer in a school-based setting. Participants found the program highly acceptable: 95% liked the program and learned from the program, 88% would recommend the program to a friend and 94% plan to use what they learned in the future. The primary acceptability results did not vary by the ethnicity, sexual orientation or sexual activity status of participants, suggesting broad appeal. Results indicate that this new online program is a promising method to reach and engage adolescents in sexual health education.
Nonlinear-Adaptive Mathematical System Identification

By reversing paradigms that normally utilize mathematical models as the basis for nonlinear adaptive controllers, this article describes using the controller to serve as a novel computational approach for mathematical system identification. System identification usually begins with the dynamics, and then seeks to parameterize the mathematical model in an optimization relationship that produces estimates of the parameters that minimize a designated cost function. The proposed methodology uses a DC motor with a minimum-phase mathematical model controlled by a self-tuning regulator without model pole cancelation. The normal system identification process is briefly articulated by parameterizing the system for least squares estimation that includes an allowance for exponential forgetting to deal with time-varying plants. Next, towards the proposed approach, the Diophantine equation is derived for an indirect self-tuner where feedforward and feedback controls are both parameterized in terms of the motor’s math model. As the controller seeks to nullify tracking errors, the assumed plant parameters are adapted and quickly converge on the correct parameters of the motor’s math model. Next, a more challenging non-minimum phase system is investigated, and the earlier implemented technique is modified utilizing a direct self-tuner with an increased pole excess. The nominal method experiences control chattering (an undesirable characteristic that could potentially damage the motor during testing), while the increased pole excess eliminates the control chattering, yet maintains effective mathematical system identification. This novel approach permits algorithms normally used for control to instead be used effectively for mathematical system identification.
The paradigm of cytokine networks in allergic airway inflammation

Purpose of reviewCytokines are immunomodulatory proteins important in cell signaling. Complex interactions of innate and adaptive immune cells, as well as structural cells and their cytokines, play crucial roles in regulating allergic airway inflammation. Here, we summarize current knowledge about the potential roles of known and newly identified helper T cells and epithelial cell-derived cytokines [interleukin (IL)-9, IL-17, IL-22, IL-25, and IL-33] in allergic rhinitis and asthma. Recent findingsAlthough T-helper (Th)2 cells were considered to be the main orchestrators of allergic airway inflammation, recent studies have revealed the potential interaction of other helper T cells and their cytokines in this process. Th17 cells may have a role in allergic rhinitis and asthma, and chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps. An IL-9-producing subset called Th9 cells, Th22 cells which primarily secrete IL-22, IL-13, tumor necrosis factor-&agr;, Th25 cells via producing IL-25 and epithelial cell-derived thymic stromal lymphopoietin, IL-33, IL-31, and IL-25 are believed to be important for the initiation of allergic reactions and inducing airway inflammation. SummaryA new paradigm of an interplay of cytokines is important in allergic rhinitis and asthma in orchestrating the allergic inflammatory response. Potential therapeutic applications emerging from the roles of these cytokines are promising, but need further research.
The Effect of Eu Doping on Microstructure, Morphology and Methanal-Sensing Performance of Highly Ordered SnO2 Nanorods Array

Layered Eu-doped SnO2 ordered nanoarrays constructed by nanorods with 10 nm diameters and several hundred nanometers length were synthesized by a substrate-free hydrothermal route using alcohol and water mixed solvent of sodium stannate and sodium hydroxide at 200 °C. The Eu dopant acted as a crystal growth inhibitor to prevent the SnO2 nanorods growth up, resulting in tenuous SnO2 nanorods ordered arrays. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) revealed the tetragonal rutile-type structure with a systematic average size reduction and unit cell volume tumescence, while enhancing the residual strain as the Eu-doped content increases. The surface defects that were caused by the incorporation of Eu ions within the surface oxide matrix were observed by high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM). The results of the response properties of sensors based on the different levels of Eu-doped SnO2 layered nanoarrays demonstrated that the 0.5 at % Eu-doped SnO2 layered nanorods arrays exhibited an excellent sensing response to methanal at 278 °C. The reasons of the enhanced sensing performance were discussed from the complicated defect surface structure, the large specific surface area, and the excellent catalytic properties of Eu dopant.
Interhemispheric Transfer Time Asymmetry of Visual Information Depends on Eye Dominance: An Electrophysiological Study

The interhemispheric transfer of information is a fundamental process in the human brain. When a visual stimulus appears eccentrically in one visual-hemifield, it will first activate the contralateral hemisphere but also the ipsilateral one with a slight delay due to the interhemispheric transfer. This interhemispheric transfer of visual information is believed to be faster from the right to the left hemisphere in right-handers. Such an asymmetry is considered as a relevant fact in the context of the lateralization of the human brain. We show here using current source density (CSD) analyses of visually evoked potential (VEP) that, in right-handers and, to a lesser extent in left-handers, this asymmetry is in fact dependent on the sighting eye dominance, the tendency we have to prefer one eye for monocular tasks. Indeed, in right-handers, a faster interhemispheric transfer of visual information from the right to left hemisphere was observed only in participants with a right dominant eye (DE). Right-handers with a left DE showed the opposite pattern, with a faster transfer from the left to the right hemisphere. In left-handers, albeit a smaller number of participants has been tested and hence confirmation is required, only those with a right DE showed an asymmetrical interhemispheric transfer with a faster transfer from the right to the left hemisphere. As a whole these results demonstrate that eye dominance is a fundamental determinant of asymmetries in interhemispheric transfer of visual information and suggest that it is an important factor of brain lateralization.
Clinical signs in young patients with stroke related to FAST: results of the sifap1 study

Objectives The present study aimed to evaluate the frequency of warning signs in younger patients with stroke with a special regard to the ‘FAST’ scheme, a public stroke recognition instrument (face, arm, speech, timely). Setting Primary stroke care in participating centres of a multinational European prospective cross-sectional study (Stroke in Young Fabry Patients; sifap1). Forty-seven centres from 15 European countries participate in sifap1. Participants 5023 acute patients with stroke (aged 18–55 years) patients (96.5% Caucasians) were enrolled in the study between April 2007 and January 2010. Primary and secondary outcome measures sifap1 was originally designed to investigate the relation of juvenile stroke and Fabry disease. A secondary aim of sifap1 was to investigate stroke patterns in this specific group of patients. The present investigation is a secondary analysis addressing stroke presenting symptoms with a special regard to signs included in the FAST scheme. Results 4535 patients with transient ischaemic attack (TIA; n=1071), ischaemic stroke (n=3396) or other (n=68) were considered in the presented analysis. FAST symptoms could be traced in 76.5% of all cases. 35% of those with at least one FAST symptom had all three symptoms. At least one FAST symptom could be recognised in 69.1% of 18–24 years-old patients, in 74% of those aged 25–34 years, in 75.4% of those aged 35–44 years, and 77.8% in 45–55 years-old patients. With increasing stroke severity signs included in the FAST scheme were more prevalent (National Institute of Health Stroke Scale, NIHSS<5: 69%, NIHSS 6–15: 98.9%, NIHSS>15: 100%). Clustering clinical signs according to FAST lower percentages of strokes in the posterior circulation (65.2%) and in patients with TIA (62.3%) were identified. Conclusions FAST may be applied as a useful and rapid tool to identify stroke symptoms in young individuals aged 18–55 years. Especially in patients eligible for thrombolysis FAST might address the majority of individuals. Study registration The study was registered in http://www.clinicaltrials. gov (No. NCT00414583).
Clinimetric properties of hip abduction strength measurements obtained using a handheld dynamometer in individuals with a lower extremity amputation

Introduction Suitable handheld dynamometer (HHD)-techniques to test hip abduction strength in individuals with a lower extremity amputation, irrespective of their amputation level are absent. The aim of this study was to optimise a HHD-technique and to test its reproducibility and validity. Methods This study involved three phases, in which two techniques were evaluated. Both HHD-techniques used a lever-arm of 22 centimetre. HHD-technique 1 used a break-technique. After obtaining within-session test-retest reproducibility (phase 1) we optimised the HHD-technique by adding a fixation-belt and using a make-technique (HHD-technique 2). We tested the within-session test-retest and inter-rater reproducibility (phase 2) and the validity (phase 3) of HHD-technique 2 using an isokinetic dynamometer. New cohorts of participants were recruited for each phase. Results Phase 1: we tested HHD-technique 1 in 26 participants with a lower extremity amputation. It was test-retest reproducible (ICC3.1agreement: 0.80–0.92, standard error of measurement (SEM): 3.1–4.4 Nm and smallest detectable change (SDC): 8.6–12.3 Nm). There were questions regarding the validity of the measurement, because the mean muscle torque of the residual limb and sound limb were similar, which is uncommon. Phase 2: reproducibility of HHD-technique 2 was tested in 44 participants with a lower extremity amputation. It was test-retest reproducible (ICC3.1agreement: 0.96–0.97, SEM: 3.9–4.7 Nm and SDC: 10.9–12.9 Nm) but not inter-rater reproducible despite having good reliability (ICC3.1agreement: 0.92, SEM: 6.9–7.6 Nm and SDC: 19.2–21.2 Nm). Systematic bias and bias related to the magnitude of the muscle torque was suspected. Phase 3: the concurrent validity was established in 30 healthy participants (r = 0.84). Systematic bias in measurement error was present, including a consistent overestimation of the muscle torque of 28% using the HHD. Conclusion HHD-technique 2 is a test-retest reproducible and valid measuring technique The technique may be further optimised by the use of an external device to stabilise the HHD.
Multidrug-Resistant Escherichia albertii: Co-occurrence of β-Lactamase and MCR-1 Encoding Genes

Escherichia albertii is an emerging member of the Enterobacteriaceae causing human and animal enteric infections. Antimicrobial resistance among enteropathogens has been reported to be increasing in the past years. The purpose of this study was to investigate antibiotic resistance and resistance genes in E. albertii isolated from Zigong city, Sichuan province, China. The susceptibility to 21 antimicrobial agents was determined by Kirby–Bauer disk diffusion method. The highest prevalence was tetracycline resistance with a rate of 62.7%, followed by resistance to nalidixic acid and streptomycin with a rate of 56.9 and 51.0%, respectively. All isolates were sensitive or intermediate susceptible to imipenem, meropenem, amoxicillin–clavulanic acid, and levofloxacin. Among 51 E. albertii isolates, 15 were extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing as confirmed by the double disk test. The main β-lactamase gene groups, i.e., blaTEM, blaSHV, and blaCTX-M, were detected in17, 20, and 22 isolates, respectively. Furthermore, four colistin-resistant isolates with minimum inhibitory concentrations of 8 mg/L were identified. The colistin-resistant isolates all harbored mcr-1 and blaCTX-M-55. Genome sequencing showed that E. albertii strain SP140150 carried mcr-1 and blaCTX-M-55 in two different plasmids. This study provided significant information regarding antibiotic resistance profiles and identified the co-occurrence of β-lactamase and MCR-1 encoding genes in E. albertii isolates.
Tighter Variational Bounds are Not Necessarily Better

We provide theoretical and empirical evidence that using tighter evidence lower bounds (ELBOs) can be detrimental to the process of learning an inference network by reducing the signal-to-noise ratio of the gradient estimator. Our results call into question common implicit assumptions that tighter ELBOs are better variational objectives for simultaneous model learning and inference amortization schemes. Based on our insights, we introduce three new algorithms: the partially importance weighted auto-encoder (PIWAE), the multiply importance weighted auto-encoder (MIWAE), and the combination importance weighted auto-encoder (CIWAE), each of which includes the standard importance weighted auto-encoder (IWAE) as a special case. We show that each can deliver improvements over IWAE, even when performance is measured by the IWAE target itself. Moreover, PIWAE can simultaneously deliver improvements in both the quality of the inference network and generative network, relative to IWAE.
Improving the methodologic and ethical validity of best supportive care studies in oncology: lessons from a systematic review.

PURPOSE To systematically review the best supportive care (BSC) literature and to evaluate the ethical and methodologic validity issues by using widely acknowledged criteria. METHODS Two search strings that included both cancer and supportive as terms (with random article type, or review or meta-analysis) explored databases from 1966 to 2008. Citations, abstracts, and papers were reviewed for inclusion criteria, and relevant data were extracted by two independent researchers. Data were validated for accuracy. Ethical and methodologic validity were evaluated by using the criteria derived from the Helsinki Requirements of the WMA; CONSORT statements for the evaluation of reports of randomized, controlled trials; and the universal requirements for ethical clinical research. RESULTS Forty-three published papers were identified that described 32 studies, 20 of which incorporated the design of treatment plus supportive care (SC) versus SC alone, and 12 of which incorporated the design of treatment versus SC. Most of the studies had poor compliance to critical Helsinki requirements, to methodologic precautions derived from the CONSORT statement for studies involving a nonpharmacologic arm, and to four of seven universal requirements for ethical clinical research. CONCLUSION Lack of rigor in BSC studies has contributed to a generation of research with widespread ethical and methodologic shortcomings. Ad hoc SC and lack of standardization of SC delivery may be sources of systematic bias or error in BSC trials. Rectifying these shortcomings in future studies demands greater vigilance toward these issues by researchers, institutional review boards, editors, and peer reviewers. Given the prevalence of overlooked problems that are later identified, currently open BSC studies should be reevaluated by institutional review boards and researchers to check for ethical and methodologic validity, and identified shortcomings should be addressed.
- CONSTRUCTION AND C LASSIFICATION

Deep dictionary learning seeks multiple dictionaries at different image scales to capture complementary coherent characteristics. We propose a method for learning a hierarchy of synthesis dictionaries with an image classification goal. The dictionaries and classification parameters are trained by a classification objective, and the sparse features are extracted by reducing a reconstruction loss in each layer. The reconstruction objectives in some sense regularize the classification problem and inject source signal information in the extracted features. The performance of the proposed hierarchical method increases by adding more layers, which consequently makes this model easier to tune and adapt. The validation of the proposed approach is based on its classification performance using four benchmark datasets and is compared to a CNN of similar size.
Efficient 3D aerial base station placement considering users mobility by reinforcement learning

This paper considers an aerial base station (aerial-BS) assisted terrestrial network where user mobility is taken into account. User movement changes the network dynamically which may result in performance loss. To avoid this loss, guarantee a minimum quality-of-service (QoS) and possibly increase the QoS, we add an aerial-BS to the network. For fair comparison between the conventional terrestrial network and the aerial-BS assisted one, we keep the total number of BSs identical in both networks. Obtaining the best performance in such networks highly depends on the optimal placement of the aerial-BS. To this end, an algorithm which can rely on general and realistic assumptions and can decide where to go based on the past experiences is required. The proposed approach for this goal is based on a discounted reward reinforcement learning which is known as Q-learning. Simulation results show this method provides an effective placement strategy which increases the QoS of wireless networks when it is needed and promises to find the optimum position of the aerial-BS in discrete environments.
Serum and gene expression levels of CT‐1, IL‐6, and TNF‐α after a lifestyle intervention in obese children

Inflammation related molecules such as tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α), interleukin 6 (IL‐6), and cardiotrophin‐1 (CT‐1) are highly expressed in obese individuals and could partly explain some comorbidities associated to obesity. In obese children, lifestyle interventions are able to lower inflammation and reduce cardiovascular risk factors associated with obesity. The aim of the present work was to study changes in inflammation‐related molecules serum and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) transcript levels after a 10‐week lifestyle intervention in obese children and asses their potential association with glucose metabolism.