Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tarsal‐carpal coalition syndrome: Report of a novel missense mutation in NOG gene and phenotypic delineation

We report a family of Indian origin presenting with Tarsal‐carpal coalition syndrome (TCC), which is a rare genetic disorder of skeletal abnormalities, inherited in autosomal dominant manner. In this family, three individuals (mother and two children) were found to be similarly affected with slight intrafamilial individual variability in the phenotype. Sanger sequencing revealed a novel heterozygous missense mutation in NOG gene (NM_005450.4:c.611G>A) in all the affected individuals of the family. Until now only six mutations have been reported in different families affected with TCC syndrome worldwide. This report further delineates the phenotypic spectrum of this rare disorder with the addition of a new variant to the mutation spectrum.
Relative cohort size and inequality in the United States.

The work presented here has attempted to test the hypothesis that changing [U.S.] demographic structure has been a major factor in the changes in relative wages that have occurred over the last 30 years leading to the observed sharp decline in the wages of young adults and those approaching retirement relative to prime-age workers as well as to the decline and then steep increase in the wages of the college-educated relative to high-school graduates. The analysis has identified pronounced effects of changing age structure on wages. (EXCERPT)
Toward Multimodal Image-to-Image Translation

Many image-to-image translation problems are ambiguous, as a single input image may correspond to multiple possible outputs. In this work, we aim to model a \emph{distribution} of possible outputs in a conditional generative modeling setting. The ambiguity of the mapping is distilled in a low-dimensional latent vector, which can be randomly sampled at test time. A generator learns to map the given input, combined with this latent code, to the output. We explicitly encourage the connection between output and the latent code to be invertible. This helps prevent a many-to-one mapping from the latent code to the output during training, also known as the problem of mode collapse, and produces more diverse results. We explore several variants of this approach by employing different training objectives, network architectures, and methods of injecting the latent code. Our proposed method encourages bijective consistency between the latent encoding and output modes. We present a systematic comparison of our method and other variants on both perceptual realism and diversity.
Australian Art Market Prices during the Global Financial Crisis and Two Earlier Decades

This study constructs a quarterly hedonic price index using 64,203 artworks, by seventy-one well-known modern and contemporary Australian artists, sold at auction houses over the period 1986-2009. The hedonic regression model includes characteristics such as name and living status of the artist, the size and medium of the painting, and the auction house, quarter and year in which the painting was sold. The resulting index indicates that returns on Australian fine-art averaged one percent in nominal terms over the period from quarter one 1986 to quarter four 2009 with a standard deviation of seventeen percent. During the global financial crisis spanning quarter one 2008 and quarter four 2009, the average art returns declined in nominal terms by close to six percent with a standard deviation of twenty-one percent. This study also shows that over the entire period the art market only marginally underperformed the stock and housing markets. The low correlations between these markets suggest the benefits of portfolio diversification.
Improving the peer review process: an examination of commonalities between scholarly societies and knowledge networks

Whilst peer review is the common form of scholarly refereeing, there are many differing aspects to this process. There is a view that the system is not without it’s faults and this has given rise to increasing discussion and examination of the process as a whole. Since the importance of peer review is based on the primary way in which quality control is asserted within the academic world, the concern is what impact this is having on an ever increasing diversity of scholarship, in particular, within and between science and engineering disciplines. The peer review process as is commonly understood is increasingly considered as a conservative approach which is failing to adequately deal with the challenges of assessing interdisciplinary research, publications and outputs.
Monitoring and management of antituberculosis drug induced hepatotoxicity

Background: Hepatotoxicity to antituberculosis therapy (ATT) poses a major challenge. This often results in inadequate therapy. The risk of fulminant hepatic failure and mortality is high once icteric hepatitis develops. There is no consensus on monitoring protocols and for the reintroduction of ATT.
Smoking increases the risk of panic: findings from a prospective community study.

BACKGROUND We examined prospectively determined bidirectional associations between smoking and panic and other anxiety disorders and their temporal ordering of onset in a representative community sample of adolescents and young adults. METHODS Baseline and 4-year follow-up data were used from the Early Developmental Stages of Psychopathology Study, a prospective longitudinal study of adolescents and young adults in Munich, Germany. We assessed smoking (occasional and regular), nicotine dependence, panic attacks, panic disorder, other anxiety disorders, and other mental disorders using the Munich-Composite International Diagnostic Interview. RESULTS At baseline, panic attacks and panic disorder were strongly associated with occasional and regular smoking and nicotine dependence (odds ratio [OR] range, 3.0-28.0). In the prospective analyses, we found increased risk for new onset of panic attacks with prior regular smoking (OR, 2.9; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.0-8.4) and nicotine dependence (OR, 3.6; 95% CI, 1.2-10.5). Prior nicotine dependence increased also the risk for onset of panic disorder (OR, 3.3; 95% CI, 1.0-10.5), whereas preexisting panic was not associated with subsequent smoking or nicotine dependence. When using Cox regression with time-dependent covariates, prior nicotine dependence was confirmed to be related to subsequent panic attacks (hazard ratio, 2.7; 95% CI, 1.7-4.2), but not panic disorder (hazard ratio, 1.7; 95% CI, 0.7-3.9). Rather, we found indications that prior panic attacks/disorder might also have an effect on secondary development of nicotine dependence. CONCLUSIONS In young adults, prospective analyses revealed a fairly unique and specific, unidirectional relationship between prior smoking and increased risk for subsequent panic attacks/disorder. However, we could not exclude the existence of a second, less frequent, reverse pathway of prior panic and secondary nicotine dependence.
Voluntary Contributions and Collective Redistribution

I study a multilateral bargaining game in which committee members invest in a common project prior to redistributing the total value of production. The game corresponds to a Baron and Ferejohn (1989) legislative bargaining model preceded by a production stage that is similar to a voluntary contribution mechanism. In this game, contributions reach almost full efficiency in a random rematching experimental design. Bargaining outcomes tend to follow an equity standard of proportionality: higher contributors obtain higher shares. Unlike other bargaining experiments with an exogenous fund, allocations involving payments to all members are modal instead of minimum winning coalitions, and proposer power is quite low.
Early nutritional supplementation and skeletal maturation in Guatemalan adolescents.

The effect of early childhood nutritional supplementation on skeletal maturation at adolescence was investigated in 663 rural Guatemalans, aged 11-18 y. Skeletal maturation was assessed by the Tanner-Whitehouse-2 method. The subjects were former participants in the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama longitudinal study of growth and development (1969-77) residing in four villages (two large and two small) in eastern Guatemala. The villages were randomized within pairs to receive either a high energy, high protein supplement (Atole) or a low energy supplement with no protein (Fresco). Skeletal maturity was observed across all villages to be delayed significantly relative to a British reference for boys < 14 y of age, but not for older boys or for girls < 14 y of age. Delays in girls > 14 years could not be determined reliably because many had reached maturity. Girls < 14 years from Atole villages were more advanced in skeletal maturity than similar age girls from Fresco villages but these differences were found only in comparisons of the large villages. The relationship between early nutrition and biological maturation at adolescence may be obscured in this sample by the advanced age at which the subjects were examined in adolescence.
Communicative Language Teaching in Georgia: From Theory to Practice

In a globalizing world, the majority of language learners need to study foreign languages for real-life purposes, in order to be able to communicate beyond the bounds of their own country. This is especially important for the populations of smaller countries such as Georgia, whose native language is spoken only within its own territory. Strongly prioritizing foreign language education since post-Soviet times, successive governments of Georgia have been making efforts to transform language teaching in such a way as to meet Georgian learners’ practical, communicative needs. Ambitious efforts to this end have been visible in recent years. However, the extent to which the policies implemented have had an effect upon the actual classroom setting is a largely under-researched question. The present investigation aims at exploring whether the instruction provided at secondary schools in the capital city of Georgia meets the requirements of CLT and whether the aims of improving learners’ communicative proficiency are met. As the study reveals, even though at the theoretical level the imposed teaching methodology is well accepted, many difficulties are observed in practice. Moreover, it is established that at private schools the situation is more promising than at public ones.
Patients’ and nurses’ views on providing psychological support within cardiac rehabilitation programmes: a qualitative study

Objective To explore patients’ and nurses’ views on the feasibility and acceptability of providing psychological care within cardiac rehabilitation services. Design In-depth interviews analysed thematically. Participants 18 patients and 7 cardiac nurses taking part in a pilot trial (CADENCE) of an enhanced psychological care intervention delivered within cardiac rehabilitation programmes by nurses to patients with symptoms of depression. Setting Cardiac services based in the South West of England and the East Midlands, UK. Results Patients and nurses viewed psychological support as central to good cardiac rehabilitation. Patients’ accounts highlighted the significant and immediate adverse effect a cardiac event can have on an individual’s mental well-being. They also showed that patients valued nurses attending to both their mental and physical health, and felt this was essential to their overall recovery. Nurses were committed to providing psychological support, believed it benefited patients, and advocated for this support to be delivered within cardiac rehabilitation programmes rather than within a parallel healthcare service. However, nurses were time-constrained and found it challenging to provide psychological care within their existing workloads. Conclusions Both patients and nurses highly value psychological support being delivered within cardiac rehabilitation programmes but resource constraints raise barriers to implementation. Consideration, therefore, should be given to alternative forms of delivery which do not rely solely on nurses to enable patients to receive psychological support during cardiac rehabilitation. Trial registration number ISCTRN34701576.
The linkages between organizational behavior and characteristics of donor capital flow: The case of microfinance capital flow in Sierra Leone

Capital, in the form of foreign aid, is a very substantial revenue form for many developing nations. Foreign aid is integral to strategies of nations working to relieve human suffering and achieve a secure, stable world. One of the greatest impediments to foreign aid effectiveness is unpredictability, or capital volatility. At a macro level, capital volatility’s impact in developing nations is multiples of that in the industrialized world. Capital volatility has been shown to substantially impact social welfare costs and both the efficiency and effectiveness of aid. Thus, volatility reduces the value of foreign aid. This investigation explored linkages between organizational behavior and capital volatility by analyzing the promises and disbursement conditions agreed to by donors and microfinance recipient organizations: capital investment deals. Capital volatility is defined as the difference between commitments and disbursements. The examination utilized a case study of a donor collaborative project—Microfinance Institution Technical Assistance Facility in Sierra Leone—the first of over 20 created to develop an inclusive, pro-poor financial sector by assisting microfinance institutions. Disbursement conditions and bureaucracy alone are not sufficient explanations of capital volatility. A deeper analysis revealed the role of each party’s perceptions and expectations in their respective understandings of a performance based agreement that defines the deal as a relationship, not just a legal document. These understandings are the bases of each party’s decisions and actions, often with ethical implications and consequences. This project has produced a theoretical lens – the Capitalflow Bureaucratic Triad - to understand this complexity and plan future volatility reducing strategies.
Behavioral and brain oscillatory correlates of affective processing in subclinical depression

ABSTRACT Named among the most dangerous diseases of the modern era, depression is characterized primarily by distortions in the affective sphere. Despite extensive investigations of underlying the neural background, mechanisms of the distortion still remain unknown. The current study analyzed brain oscillatory dynamics in different frequencies during resting state and presentation of affective stimuli in nonclinical individuals with high Beck Depression Inventory–II (BDI–II) scores (HB) versus controls. Both behavioral and electrocortical “markers” of clinical depression were apparent at subclinical level. A resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG) of HB revealed increased power in low frequencies, predominantly in the frontal cortical areas, that is in accordance with a “spatio-temporal dysfunction” model of depression. Related to that, transition from an eyes-closed to eyes-open condition was associated with diminished alpha blockade in HB, suggesting difficulties with the relocation of attention focus from inner processes toward environmental stimuli. Subsequently, independently of a sign of emotion, five out of six discrete emotions were evaluated as less valenced and four out of six as less intense by HB than by controls, corroborating the view of emotion context insensitivity (ECI) associated with depression. Underlying brain oscillatory dynamics revealed that depression was associated with deficits in the early, implicit, processing stages of emotional stimuli. Later processing stages were characterized by prominent power surges in low and alpha frequencies, presumably indicating emotion upregulation processes and increased engagement of cognitive mechanisms in affective tasks. The study provides brain oscillatory-based mechanisms of emotion processing distortions associated with depression.
Monitoring Changes in Bone Density

The relationship between declining bone density and increasing fracture risk is firmly established; the relationship between increasing bone density and decreasing fracture risk is less clear. Because of this, the clinical utility of assessing the therapeutic efficacy of prescription therapies to reduce fracture risk by measuring changes in bone density has been called into question. However, there is substantial clinical trial data to support this approach. Nevertheless, an apparent increase or decrease in the bone density may be misinterpreted without an understanding of the statistical concepts of precision and least significant change. These concepts are not difficult and are of profound clinical importance. If the least significant change is not known, serial measurements of bone density cannot be interpreted. These concepts will be discussed and illustrated, and the rationale for the importance of changes in bone mineral density on therapy will be explored.
An analysis of reasonableness models for research assessments

An Analysis of Reasonableness Models for Research Assessments by William D. Kight MSEE, University of Maryland, College Park, 1984 BS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1980 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Applied Management and Decision Sciences Walden University February 2010
Closing the loop: a self-consistent model of optical, X-ray and Sunyaev–Zel'dovich scaling relations for clusters of Galaxies

We demonstrate that optical data from SDSS, X-ray data from ROSAT and Chandra, and SZ data from Planck, can be modeled in a fully self-consistent manner. After accounting for systematic errors and allowing for property covariance, we find that scaling relations derived from optical and X-ray selected cluster samples are consistent with one another. Moreover, these clusters scaling relations satisfy several non-trivial spatial abundance constraints and closure relations. Given the good agreement between optical and X-ray samples, we combine the two and derive a joint set of LX-M and YSZ-M relations. Our best fit YSZ-M relation is in good agreement with the observed amplitude of the thermal SZ power spectrum for a WMAP7 cosmology, and is consistent with the masses for the two CLASH galaxy clusters published thus far. We predict the halo masses of the remaining z \leq 0.4 CLASH clusters, and use our scaling relations to compare our results with a variety of X-ray and weak lensing cluster masses from the literature.
Dentin Permeability: Determinants of Hydraulic Conductance

A technique is described which permits measurement of the ease with which fluid permeates dentin. This value, the hydraulic conductance of dentin, increased as surface area increases and/or as dentin thickness decreases. It increased 32-fold when dentin was acid etched due to removal of surface debris occluding the tubules.
Stochastic models of choice behaviour: response probabilities and latencies of finite Markov chain systems.

A general class of stochastic models for choice behaviour is described, which can be regarded as finite Markov chains with absorbing states and which subsumes some particular models discussed by Audley and Pike (1965). The equations for response probabilities and moments of response latency distributions are obtained from the properties of such chains and a very general approach is given in terms of ‘transition-similar’ systems, which includes discrete time and continuous time processes. Generating functions for the systems are obtained and variations in parameters controlling the rate of occurrence of events in time are also considered. A brief discussion centres around some of the problems which arise in such a general treatment and the reasons for its usefulness.
Blood biomarkers of kidney transplant rejection, an endless search?

ABSTRACT Introduction: The tailoring of immunosuppressive treatment is recognized as a promising strategy to improve long-term kidney graft outcome. To guide the standard care of transplant recipients, physicians need objective biomarkers that can identify an ongoing pathology with the graft or low intensity signals that will be later evolved to accelerated transplant rejection. The early identification of ‘high-risk /low-risk’ patients enables the adjustment of standard of caring, including managing the frequency of clinical visits and the immunosuppression dosing. Given their ease of availability and the compatibility with a large technical array, blood-based biomarkers have been widely scrutinized for use as potential predictive and diagnostic biomarkers. Areas covered: Here, the authors report on non-invasive biomarkers, such as modification of immune cell subsets and mRNA and miRNA profiles, identified in the blood of kidney transplant recipients collected before or after transplantation. Expert commentary: Combined with functional tests, the identification of biomarkers will improve our understanding of pathological processes and will contribute to a global improvement in clinical management.
Humidity May Modify the Relationship between Temperature and Cardiovascular Mortality in Zhejiang Province, China

Background: The evidence of increased mortality attributable to extreme temperatures is widely characterized in climate-health studies. However, few of these studies have examined the role of humidity on temperature-mortality association. We investigated the joint effect between temperature and humidity on cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in Zhejiang Province, China. Methods: We collected data on daily meteorological and CVD mortality from 11 cities in Zhejiang Province during 2010–2013. We first applied time-series Poisson regression analysis within the framework of distributed lag non-linear models to estimate the city-specific effect of temperature and humidity on CVD mortality, after controlling for temporal trends and potential confounding variables. We then applied a multivariate meta-analytical model to pool the effect estimates in the 11 cities to generate an overall provincial estimate. The joint effects between them were calculated by the attributable fraction (AF). The analyses were further stratified by gender, age group, education level, and location of cities. Results: In total, 120,544 CVD deaths were recorded in this study. The mean values of temperature and humidity were 17.6 °C and 72.3%. The joint effect between low temperature and high humidity had the greatest impact on the CVD death burden over a lag of 0–21 days with a significant AF of 31.36% (95% eCI: 14.79–38.41%), while in a condition of low temperature and low humidity with a significant AF of 16.74% (95% eCI: 0.89, 24.44). The AFs were higher at low temperature and high humidity in different subgroups. When considering the levels of humidity, the AFs were significant at low temperature and high humidity for males, youth, those with a low level of education, and coastal area people. Conclusions: The combination of low temperature and high humidity had the greatest impact on the CVD death burden in Zhejiang Province. This evidence has important implications for developing CVD interventions.