Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predicting Suicidal Behavior From Longitudinal Electronic Health Records.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this article was to determine whether longitudinal historical data, commonly available in electronic health record (EHR) systems, can be used to predict patients' future risk of suicidal behavior. METHOD Bayesian models were developed using a retrospective cohort approach. EHR data from a large health care database spanning 15 years (1998-2012) of inpatient and outpatient visits were used to predict future documented suicidal behavior (i.e., suicide attempt or death). Patients with three or more visits (N=1,728,549) were included. ICD-9-based case definition for suicidal behavior was derived by expert clinician consensus review of 2,700 narrative EHR notes (from 520 patients), supplemented by state death certificates. Model performance was evaluated retrospectively using an independent testing set. RESULTS Among the study population, 1.2% (N=20,246) met the case definition for suicidal behavior. The model achieved sensitive (33%-45% sensitivity), specific (90%-95% specificity), and early (3-4 years in advance on average) prediction of patients' future suicidal behavior. The strongest predictors identified by the model included both well-known (e.g., substance abuse and psychiatric disorders) and less conventional (e.g., certain injuries and chronic conditions) risk factors, indicating that a data-driven approach can yield more comprehensive risk profiles. CONCLUSIONS Longitudinal EHR data, commonly available in clinical settings, can be useful for predicting future risk of suicidal behavior. This modeling approach could serve as an early warning system to help clinicians identify high-risk patients for further screening. By analyzing the full phenotypic breadth of the EHR, computerized risk screening approaches may enhance prediction beyond what is feasible for individual clinicians.
Dopamine Fluctuations in the Nucleus Accumbens during Maintenance, Extinction, and Reinstatement of Intravenous d-Amphetamine Self-Administration

Moment-to-moment fluctuations of nucleus accumbens dopamine (DA) were determined in rats self-administering or passively receiving “yoked” intravenous infusions of d-amphetamine. The initial lever presses of each session caused elevations in DA concentration, usually to an initial peak that was not maintained throughout the rest of the session. As the initial (“loading”) injections were metabolized, DA levels dropped toward baseline but were sustained at elevated plateaus by subsequent lever pressing that was spaced throughout the remainder of the 3 hr sessions. During this period, DA levels fluctuated phasically, time-locked to the cycle of periodic lever pressing. Consistent with the known pharmacological actions and dynamics of amphetamine, peak DA elevations were seen ∼10–15 min after each injection, and the mean DA level was at a low point in the phasic cycle at the time of each new lever press. During extinction periods when saline was substituted for amphetamine, DA levels dropped steadily toward baseline levels despite a dramatic increase in (now-unrewarded) lever pressing. Noncontingent injections during extinction reinstated lever-pressing behavior and increased nucleus accumbens DA concentrations. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that under the conditions of this experiment—during periods of amphetamine intoxication in well-trained animals—the timing of amphetamine self-administration comes primarily under the control of extracellular DA concentrations. The probability of lever pressing during the maintenance phase is highest when DA concentrations fall near a characteristic trigger point, a trigger point that is significantly elevated above baseline, and falls as DA concentrations fall below or increase above that trigger point.
Response mode, compatibility, and dual-processes in the evaluation of simple gambles: An eye-tracking investigation

We employed simple gambles to investigate information processing in relation to the compatibility effect. Subjects should be more likely to engage in a deliberative thinking strategy when completing a pricing task rather than a rating task. We used eye-tracking methodology to measure information acquisition and processing in order to test the above hypothesis as well as to show that losses and alternatives with uncertain outcomes are more likely than gains and alternatives with sure outcomes to be processed through a deliberative thinking process. Results showed that pupil dilations, fixation duration and number of fixations increased when subjects evaluated the gambles with a pricing task. Additionally, the number of fixations increased as the gamble outcome became increasingly negative and when the outcome was uncertain (vs. sure). Fixations were also predictive of subjects’ final evaluations of the gambles. We discuss our results in light of the cognitive processes underlying different response modes in economic preferences.
Peripheral lung adenocarcinoma: correlation of thin-section CT findings with histologic prognostic factors and survival.

PURPOSE To evaluate the prognostic importance of thin-section computed tomographic (CT) findings of peripheral lung adenocarcinomas. MATERIALS AND METHODS The subjects were 127 patients with adenocarcinomas smaller than 3 cm in largest diameter who underwent at least a lobectomy with hilar and mediastinal lymphadenectomy. The margin characteristics of nodules and the extent of ground-glass opacity (GGO) within the nodules at preoperative thin-section CT were analyzed retrospectively. Regional lymph node metastasis (LNM) and vessel invasion (VI) were histologically examined in surgical specimens. Survival curves were calculated according to the Kaplan-Meier method. RESULTS The frequencies of LNM (4% [1 of 24]) and VI (13% [three of 24]) in adenocarcinomas with GGO components of more than 50% were significantly lower than those with GGO components of less than 10% (LNM, P <.05; VI, P <.01). The patients with GGO components of more than 50% showed a significantly better prognosis than those with GGO components less than 50% (P <.05). All 17 adenocarcinomas smaller than 2 cm with GGO components of more than 50% were free of LNM and VI, and all these patients are alive without recurrence. Coarse spiculation and thickening of bronchovascular bundles around the tumors were observed more frequently in tumors with LNM or VI than in those without LNM or VI (P <.01). CONCLUSION Thin-section CT findings of peripheral lung adenocarcinomas correlate well with histologic prognostic factors.
Grounding linguistic analysis in control applications

This thesis addresses the problem of grounding linguistic analysis in control applications, such as automated maintenance of computers and game playing. We assume access to natural language documents that describe the desired behavior of a control algorithm, either via explicit step-by-step instructions, via high-level strategy advice, or by specifying the dynamics of the control domain. Our goal is to develop techniques for automatically interpreting such documents, and leveraging the textual information to effectively guide control actions. We show that in this setting, langauge analysis can be learnt effectively via feedback signals inherent to the control application, obviating the need for manual annotations. Moreover we demonstrate how information automatically acquired from text can be used to improve the performance of the target control application. We apply our ideas to three applications of increasing linguistic and control complexity – interpreting step-by-step instructions into commands in a graphical user interface; interpreting high-level strategic advice to play a complex strategy game; and leveraging text descriptions of world dynamics to guide high-level planning. In all cases, our methods produce text analyses that agree with human notions of correctness, while yielding significant improvements over strong text-unaware methods in the target control application. Thesis Supervisor: Regina Barzilay Title: Associate Professor
Barriers to Utilization of Antenatal Care Services in Eastern Nepal

Background World Health Organization recommends at least four pregnancy check-ups for normal pregnancies. Ministry of Health and Population Nepal has introduced various strategies to promote prenatal care and institutional delivery to reduce maternal and child deaths. However, maternal health service utilization is low in some selected socio-economic and ethnic groups. Hence, this study aims to assess barriers to the recommended four antenatal care (4ANC) visits in eastern Nepal. Methods A cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted in Sunsari district. A total of 372 randomly selected women who delivered in the last year preceding the survey were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was carried out to identify barriers associated with 4ANC visits. Results More than two-third women (69%) attended at least 4ANC visits. The study revealed that women exposed to media had higher chance of receiving four or more ANC visits with an adjusted odds ratio (aOR = 3.5, 95% CI: 1.2–10.1) in comparison to women who did not. Women from an advantaged ethnic group had more chance of having 4ANC visits than respondents from a disadvantaged ethnic group (aOR = 2.4, 95% CI: 2.1–6.9). Similarly, women having a higher level of autonomy were nearly three times more likely (aOR = 2.9, 95% CI: 1.5–5.6) and richer women were twice (aOR = 2.3, 95% CI: 1.1–5.3) as likely to have at least 4ANC visits compared to women who had a lower level of autonomy and were economically poor. Conclusion Being from disadvantaged ethnicity, lower women’s autonomy, poor knowledge of maternal health service and incentive upon completion of ANC, less media exposure related to maternal health service, and lower wealth rank were significantly associated with fewer than the recommended 4ANC visits. Thus, maternal health programs need to address such socio-cultural barriers for effective health care utilization.
Models of the Unimodal and Multimodal Statistics of Adaptive Wavelet Packet Coefficients

In recent work, it was noted that although the subband histograms for standard wavelet coefficients take on a generalized Gaussian form, this is no longer true for wavelet packet bases adapted to a given texture. Instead, three types of subband statistics are observed: Gaussian, generalized Gaussian, and most interestingly, in some subbands, multimodal histograms with no mode at zero. As will be demonstrated in this report, these latter subbands are closely linked to the structure of the texture, and are thus likely to be important for many applications in which texture plays a role. Motivated by these observations, we extend the approach to texture modelling proposed by to include these subbands. We relax the Gaussian assumption to include generalized Gaussians and constrained Gaussian mixtures. We use a Bayesian methodology, finding MAP estimates for the adaptive basis, for subband model selection, and for subband model parameters. Results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approach, and highlight the importance of multimodal subbands for texture discrimination and modelling.
A Pilot Study of Demographic and Dopaminergic Genetic Contributions to Weight Change in Kidney Transplant Recipients

Kidney transplant recipients often experience a significant amount of weight gain in the first year post-transplantation. While demographic factors such as age, race, and sex have been associated with weight gain in this population, these factors do not explain all of the variability seen. A number of studies have suggested that genetics also plays a critical role in weight changes. Recently, alterations in the activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine have been associated with weight change, and gene expression studies in kidney transplant recipients have supported this association. The purpose of this pilot study is to first examine the feasibility and methodology, and then to examine the associations of age, race, sex, and genotype for 13 SNPs and 3 VNTRs in 9 dopaminergic pathway genes (ANKK1, DRD2, DRD3, DRD4, SLC6A3/DAT1, MAOA, MAOB, COMT, CPE) for associations with percent weight change at 12 months post-transplantation. Seventy kidney transplant recipients had demographic and clinical data collected as a part of a larger observational study. DNA was extracted from repository buffy coat samples taken at the time of transplant, and genotyped using Taqman and PCR based methods. Three SNPs were independently associated with percent weight change: ANKK1 rs1800497 (r = -0.28, p = 0.05), SLC6A3/DAT1 rs6347 (p = 0.046), and CPE rs1946816 (p = 0.028). Stepwise regression modelling confirmed the combined associations of age (p = 0.0021), DRD4 VNTR 4/5 genotype (p = 0.0074), and SLC6A3/DAT1 rs6347 CC genotype (p = 0.0009) and TT genotype (p = 0.0004) with percent weight change in a smaller sample (n = 35) of these kidney transplant recipients that had complete genotyping. These associations indicate that there may be a genetic, and an age component to weight changes post transplantation.
Soft X-ray emission lines from photoionized accretion discs: constraints on their strength and width

We consider the properties of soft X-ray emission lines in the reprocessed emission from a photoionized accretion disc. Observations of these lines will be important in determining the ionization state and metallicity ofthe innermost regions of active galaxies. Calculations of reflection from a constant-density disc with an ionization parameter, ξ, between 250 and 1000 erg cm s - 1 show that emission from O VIII Lya will dominate the soft X-ray emission spectrum. There is also significant emission from C VI, N VII, O VII and Fe XVII-XIX. As ξ is increased these lines become weaker and are broadened by Compton scattering. Significantly increasing the O abundance primarily strengthens the O VII line, making it as large or larger than the O VIII line. The nitrogen and carbon lines are quite weak with equivalent widths (EWs) <30 eV, even with an increase in the N abundance. A hydrostatic ionized disc model has a more realistic density structure and shows a similar spectrum, but with the lines weaker and broader. This is a result of the hot ionized skin at the surface of the disc. We apply these results to the controversial claim of soft X-ray relativistic lines in the XMM-Newton spectrum of MCG-6-30-15. We are unable to find a situation where O VIII has the required EW without substantial emission from O VII. Furthermore, Compton scattering results in the blue wing of the O VIII line being much broader than the «10 eV drop observed in the data. We conclude that soft X-ray accretion disc lines will, in general, be weak and broad features and are unlikely to produce sharp edges in the data.
The Involvement of the Thalamus in Semantic Retrieval: A Clinical Group Study

There is increasing attention about the role of the thalamus in high cognitive functions, including memory. Although the bulk of the evidence refers to episodic memory, it was recently proposed that the mediodorsal (MD) and the centromedian–parafascicular (CM–Pf) nuclei of the thalamus may process general operations supporting memory performance, not only episodic memory. This perspective agrees with other recent fMRI findings on semantic retrieval in healthy participants. It can therefore be hypothesized that lesions to the MD and the CM–Pf impair semantic retrieval. In this study, 10 patients with focal ischemic lesions in the medial thalamus and 10 healthy controls matched for age, education, and verbal IQ performed a verbal semantic retrieval task. Patients were assigned to a target clinical group and a control clinical group based on lesion localization. Patients did not suffer from aphasia and performed in the range of controls in a categorization and a semantic association task. However, target patients performed poorer than healthy controls on semantic retrieval. The deficit was not because of higher distractibility but of an increased rate of false recall and, in some patients, of a considerably increased rate of misses. The latter deficit yielded a striking difference between the target and the control clinical groups and is consistent with anomia. Follow-up high-resolution structural scanning session in a subsample of patients revealed that lesions in the CM–Pf and MD were primarily associated with semantic retrieval deficits. We conclude that integrity of the MD and the CM–Pf is required for semantic retrieval, possibly because of their role in the activation of phonological representations.
Inhibitory effects of hypercholesterolemia and ox-LDL on angiogenesis-like endothelial growth in rabbit aortic explants. Essential role of basic fibroblast growth factor.

Hypercholesterolemic (HC) rabbits exhibit suppressed compensatory vascular growth after restriction of arterial supply. However, neovascularization is commonly found in atheromas containing inflammatory cells. We used an in vitro model to determine the effects of hypercholesterolemia on angiogenesis in the absence or presence of inflammatory cells. HC rabbit aortic explants (1 mm2) with or without (n = 90 each) lesion-forming inflammatory cells were cultured in a collagen matrix with serum-free medium. Explant-derived endothelial cell growth was organized into capillary-like microtubes (CLM) that could be videomicroscopically quantified. CLM growth from lesion-free HC explants was significantly reduced to 13 +/- 4% of the value in explants (n = 90) from normocholesterolemic (NC, n = 15) rabbits (P < .001). In contrast, in lesion-containing HC explants, the matrix was invaded by foam cells, and CLM growth was not inhibited. Immunoassayable basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF, in pg/mL) in the culture medium was significantly lower in lesion-free HC (< 5) than NC explants (11 +/- 2, P < .01) or HC explants with lesions (14 +/- 3). In addition, CLM growth was reduced in NC explants incubated with oxidized LDL (ox-LDL, 50-100 micrograms/mL). Exogenous bFGF (10 ng/mL) reversed the inhibitory effects of hypercholesterolemia and ox-LDL, whereas bFGF-neutralizing antibody (10 micrograms/mL) abolished CLM growth in all groups. In cultured rabbit aortic endothelial cells, ox-LDL reduced DNA synthesis, but this inhibition was reversed by bFGF. We conclude that hypercholesterolemia and ox-LDL inhibit angiogenesis like endothelial growth because of a suppressed availability of endogenous bFGF. Retained responsiveness to exogenous bFGF suggests that inducing bFGF expression at targeted sites may improve collateral growth in hyperlipidemic arterial disease.
Pharmacological modulation of Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-mediated cell death: exploitation in cancer chemotherapy.

Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases (PARPs) are defined as a family of cell-signaling enzymes present in eukaryotes, which are involved in poly(ADP-ribosylation) of DNA-binding proteins. PARP enzymes are activated in response to DNA damage induced by ionizing radiation, oxidative stress, and DNA-binding
On word-of-mouth based discovery of the web

Traditionally, users have discovered information on the Web by browsing or searching. Recently, word-of-mouth has emerged as a popular way of discovering the Web, particularly on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. On these sites, users discover Web content by following URLs posted by their friends. Such word-of-mouth based content discovery has become a major driver of traffic to many Web sites today. To better understand this popular phenomenon, in this paper we present a detailed analysis of word-of-mouth exchange of URLs among Twitter users. Among our key findings, we show that Twitter yields propagation trees that are wider than they are deep. Our analysis on the geolocation of users indicates that users who are geographically close together are more likely to share the same URL.
A Recommendation System to Facilitate Business Process Modeling

This paper presents a system that utilizes process recommendation technology to help design new business processes from scratch in an efficient and accurate way. The proposed system consists of two phases: 1) offline mining and 2) online recommendation. At the first phase, it mines relations among activity nodes from existing processes in repository, and then stores the extracted relations as patterns in a database. At the second phase, it compares the new process under construction with the premined patterns, and recommends proper activity nodes of the most matching patterns to help build a new process. Specifically, there are three different online recommendation strategies in this system. Experiments on both real and synthetic datasets are conducted to compare the proposed approaches with the other state-of-the-art ones, and the results show that the proposed approaches outperform them in terms of accuracy and efficiency.
Depression of the serum protein-bound iodine level by diphenylhydantion.

The mean serum protein-bound iodine (PBI) level in 36 cases of cerebral disease with seizures treated by administration of diphenylhydantoin was 3.81±0.14 (s. e.)μg. per 100 ml. This was significantly lower than the corresponding mean PBI level in 12 cases of cerebral seizure not so treated, viz., 5.39 ± 0.16 μg. per 100 ml. Despite the occurrence of PBI levels as low as 2.4 μg. per 100 ml. in the diphenylhydantoin group, there was no clinical evidence of hypothyroidism in any of the patients and there were no significant alterations in the other parameters of thyroid function. In 7 of 8 euthyroid subjects, diphenylhydantoin also depressed the serum PBI concentration. The mechanism of action of diphenylhydantoin is apparently extrathyroidal, since this drug depressed the PBI level in hypothyroid patients maintained with a constant dosage of desiccated thyroid. Diphenylhydantoin added in vitro consistently increased the uptake of I131-labeled 3,5,3′-triiodothyronine by red blood cells incubated with plasma.
Wear and Friction of Greases Containing Organic and Inorganic Sulfur Carriers

Lithium based grease formulations are the most common lubricants used in industry today. Sulfur containing additives play a key role in improving wear and friction performance of these greases. The current study is focused on developing an understanding of characteristics of chemical bonding between sulfur carriers (MoS 2 , WS 2 , MoDTC and organo tungstate ) and the interacting surfaces and evaluates their effect as anti ‐ wear and anti ‐ friction agents. ASTM D2266 and spectrum loading tests with varying loads while keeping other tests parameters constant were performed on the grease blends to understand effects of cyclic loading on tribochemical degradation of sulfur carriers. Tribofilms formed on the wear surface were analyzed using surface characterization techniques like SEM, EDS and Stereo Optical Microscopes. Wear scar diameter (WSD) and coefficient of friction (COF) were reported for the tests performed. This research aims to gain better insight on the atomic coordination or oxidation states of sulfur atom in additives and their correlation with anti ‐ wear and extreme pressure performance when blended in greases.