Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Counterfactual Explanations Without Opening the Black Box: Automated Decisions and the GDPR

There has been much discussion of the right to explanation in the EU General Data Protection Regulation, and its existence, merits, and disadvantages. Implementing a right to explanation that opens the black box of algorithmic decision-making faces major legal and technical barriers. Explaining the functionality of complex algorithmic decision-making systems and their rationale in specific cases is a technically challenging problem. Some explanations may offer little meaningful information to data subjects, raising questions around their value. Explanations of automated decisions need not hinge on the general public understanding how algorithmic systems function. Even though such interpretability is of great importance and should be pursued, explanations can, in principle, be offered without opening the black box. Looking at explanations as a means to help a data subject act rather than merely understand, one could gauge the scope and content of explanations according to the specific goal or action they are intended to support. From the perspective of individuals affected by automated decision-making, we propose three aims for explanations: (1) to inform and help the individual understand why a particular decision was reached, (2) to provide grounds to contest the decision if the outcome is undesired, and (3) to understand what would need to change in order to receive a desired result in the future, based on the current decision-making model. We assess how each of these goals finds support in the GDPR. We suggest data controllers should offer a particular type of explanation, unconditional counterfactual explanations, to support these three aims. These counterfactual explanations describe the smallest change to the world that can be made to obtain a desirable outcome, or to arrive at the closest possible world, without needing to explain the internal logic of the system.
May I Cut in? Gene Editing Approaches in Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

In the decade since Yamanaka and colleagues described methods to reprogram somatic cells into a pluripotent state, human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) have demonstrated tremendous promise in numerous disease modeling, drug discovery, and regenerative medicine applications. More recently, the development and refinement of advanced gene transduction and editing technologies have further accelerated the potential of hiPSCs. In this review, we discuss the various gene editing technologies that are being implemented with hiPSCs. Specifically, we describe the emergence of technologies including zinc-finger nuclease (ZFN), transcription activator-like effector nuclease (TALEN), and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 that can be used to edit the genome at precise locations, and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each of these technologies. In addition, we present the current applications of these technologies in elucidating the mechanisms of human development and disease, developing novel and effective therapeutic molecules, and engineering cell-based therapies. Finally, we discuss the emerging technological advances in targeted gene editing methods.
Minimizing power consumption in HetNets with packet delay constraints

Heterogeneous cellular networks can improve network capacity by co-deployment of macro and femto base stations (BSs). The capacity improvement comes with a higher power consumption. This paper proposes a method to minimize the power consumption without compromising the quality-of-service demand which is measured in terms of packet delay. First, we derive a closed-form expression for the packet delay as a function of macro and femto BS densities. Then, we determine the BS densities that minimize the network power consumption under a packet delay constraint. Evaluation results show that heterogeneous networks always outperforms a homogeneous network in terms of power-delay characteristics. With the optimal BS densities for a given packet delay requirement, the minimum power consumption of a heterogeneous network is always lower than that of a homogeneous network.
Higher order elicitability and Osband’s principle

A statistical functional, such as the mean or the median, is called elicitable if there is a scoring function or loss function such that the correct forecast of the functional is the unique minimizer of the expected score. Such scoring functions are called strictly consistent for the functional. The elicitability of a functional opens the possibility to compare competing forecasts and to rank them in terms of their realized scores. In this paper, we explore the notion of elicitability for multi-dimensional functionals and give both necessary and sufficient conditions for strictly consistent scoring functions. We cover the case of functionals with elicitable components, but we also show that one-dimensional functionals that are not elicitable can be a component of a higher order elicitable functional. In the case of the variance this is a known result. However, an important result of this paper is that spectral risk measures with a spectral measure with finite support are jointly elicitable if one adds the `correct' quantiles. A direct consequence of applied interest is that the pair (Value at Risk, Expected Shortfall) is jointly elicitable under mild conditions that are usually fulfilled in risk management applications.
Walks with small steps in the quarter plane

Let S be a subset of {-1,0,1}^2 not containing (0,0). We address the enumeration of plane lattice walks with steps in S, that start from (0,0) and always remain in the first quadrant. A priori, there are 2^8 problems of this type, but some are trivial. Some others are equivalent to a model of walks confined to a half-plane: such models can be solved systematically using the kernel method, which leads to algebraic generating functions. We focus on the remaining cases, and show that there are 79 inherently different problems to study. To each of them, we associate a group G of birational transformations. We show that this group is finite in exactly 23 cases. We present a unified way of solving 22 of the 23 models associated with a finite group. For each of them, the generating function is found to be D-finite. The 23rd model, known as Gessel's walks, has recently been proved by Bostan et al. to have an algebraic (and hence D-finite) solution. We conjecture that the remaining 56 models, associated with an infinite group, have a non-D-finite generating function. Our approach allows us to recover and refine some known results, and also to obtain new results. For instance, we prove that walks with N, E, W, S, SW and NE steps have an algebraic generating function.
Analysis of results according to the Aristotle scoring system in congenital heart surgery Konjenital kalp cerrahisinde sonuçlarin Aristotle skorlama sistemine göre analizi

Background:­In this study, we evaluated our one-year results of congenital heart surgery according to the Aristotle scoring system. Methods: Between January 2012 and December 2012, a total of 167 procedures in 163 patients who were operated by a single surgeon were analyzed. Early mortality rates were calculated. Intensive care unit stay more than one week was identified as the marker of morbidity. We adopted a threshold duration of 120 min of cardiopulmonary bypass time to evaluate the surgical technical difficulty. The patients were divided into six complexity levels based on the Aristotle basic scores (ABC) and Aristotle comprehensive scores (ACC). Complications for each procedure were classified. Results:­The mean ABC and ACC scores were calculated as 7.5±2.7 and 8.6±3.5, respectively. Thirty three patients were neonates (23.9%) and 46 patients were infants (28.2%). The overall hospital mortality rate was 12.5% (n=21 procedures). Based on the complexity level, 3.7% at ACC level 1, 4.5% for level 2, 13.6% for level 3, 18.8% for level 4, 66.6% for level 5, and 100% for level 6 (only one patient). The overall morbidity index was 33.5% (n=56 procedures). It increased form 3.7% at level 1 to 100% at level 5. The index of surgical difficulty was estimated to be 31.7% (n=53 procedures) and zero at level 1 and it increased up to 66% at level 5. A strong correlation was found between the ACC scores and mortality (p<0.019), indices of morbidity (p<0.001) and surgical difficulty (p<0.001). We detected 155 complications in 43.5% (n=71 patients) of the patients. Conclusion:­ Our study confirms that the Aristotle scoring system offers an opportunity for a detailed analysis to evaluate the surgical results in congenital heart surgery. It is possible to compare the results yearly in a center or among the centers across the world. These data can be used to improve the quality of care.
Films based on soy protein-agar blends for wound dressing: Effect of different biopolymer proportions on the drug release rate and the physical and antibacterial properties of the films

No single material can provide all requirements for wound dressings. Here, we evaluated the influence of different soy protein isolate and agar proportions (3:1, 1:1, and 1:3) in blend films on some of their physical-chemical and antibacterial properties to elucidate their potential as wound dressings. The films were synthesized by the gel casting method and ciprofloxacin hydrochloride was incorporated into the films. Films were characterized based on their surface morphology, water uptake ability, and weight loss profile. Also, the ciprofloxacin hydrochloride release kinetics was quantified spectrophotometrically. The antibacterial effect was evaluated against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains. The soy protein isolate-agar ratio affected the water uptake of the films and the release profile of ciprofloxacin hydrochloride but not the weight loss profile. The amount of drug released decreased near 80% because of the decrease in agar content in the films. The release kinetics of ciprofloxacin hydrochloride data best fitted to the Korsmeyer–Peppas model, suggesting that the mechanism of drug release was mainly of the diffusion type. All ciprofloxacin hydrochloride-releasing soy protein isolate-agar films strongly inhibited the cell viability of the bacterial strains studied. We concluded that water uptake and ciprofloxacin hydrochloride release can be controlled by changing the soy protein isolate-agar proportion. The proportions did not lead to changes in the antibacterial strength of the films.
Multi-view Metric Learning in Vector-valued Kernel Spaces

We consider the problem of metric learning for multi-view data and present a novel method for learning within-view as well as between-view metrics in vector-valued kernel spaces, as a way to capture multi-modal structure of the data. We formulate two convex optimization problems to jointly learn the metric and the classifier or regressor in kernel feature spaces. An iterative three-step multi-view metric learning algorithm is derived from the optimization problems. In order to scale the computation to large training sets, a block-wise Nystr{\"o}m approximation of the multi-view kernel matrix is introduced. We justify our approach theoretically and experimentally, and show its performance on real-world datasets against relevant state-of-the-art methods.
Associations between seasonal influenza and meteorological parameters in Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Seasonal influenza affects a considerable proportion of the global population each year. We assessed the association between subnational influenza activity and temperature, specific humidity and rainfall in three Central America countries, i.e. Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua. Using virologic data from each country's national influenza centre, rainfall from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and air temperature and specific humidity data from the Global Land Data Assimilation System, we applied logistic regression methods for each of the five sub-national locations studied. Influenza activity was represented by the weekly proportion of respiratory specimens that tested positive for influenza. The models were adjusted for the potentially confounding co-circulating respiratory viruses, seasonality and previous weeks' influenza activity. We found that influenza activity was proportionally associated (P<0.05) with specific humidity in all locations [odds ratio (OR) 1.21-1.56 per g/kg], while associations with temperature (OR 0.69-0.81 per °C) and rainfall (OR 1.01-1.06 per mm/day) were location-dependent. Among the meteorological parameters, specific humidity had the highest contribution (~3-15%) to the model in all but one location. As model validation, we estimated influenza activity for periods, in which the data was not used in training the models. The correlation coefficients between the estimates and the observed were ≤0.1 in 2 locations and between 0.6-0.86 in three others. In conclusion, our study revealed a proportional association between influenza activity and specific humidity in selected areas from the three Central America countries.
Representations of Codeine Misuse on Instagram: Content Analysis

Background Prescription opioid misuse has doubled over the past 10 years and is now a public health epidemic. Analysis of social media data may provide additional insights into opioid misuse to supplement the traditional approaches of data collection (eg, self-report on surveys). Objective The aim of this study was to characterize representations of codeine misuse through analysis of public posts on Instagram to understand text phrases related to misuse. Methods We identified hashtags and searchable text phrases associated with codeine misuse by analyzing 1156 sequential Instagram posts over the course of 2 weeks from May 2016 to July 2016. Content analysis of posts associated with these hashtags identified the most common themes arising in images, as well as culture around misuse, including how misuse is happening and being perpetuated through social media. Results A majority of images (50/100; 50.0%) depicted codeine in its commonly misused form, combined with soda (lean). Codeine misuse was commonly represented with the ingestion of alcohol, cannabis, and benzodiazepines. Some images highlighted the previously noted affinity between codeine misuse and hip-hop culture or mainstream popular culture images. Conclusions The prevalence of codeine misuse images, glamorizing of ingestion with soda and alcohol, and their integration with mainstream, popular culture imagery holds the potential to normalize and increase codeine misuse and overdose. To reduce harm and prevent misuse, immediate public health efforts are needed to better understand the relationship between the potential normalization, ritualization, and commercialization of codeine misuse.
Addition of External Organic Carbon and Native Soil Organic Carbon Decomposition: A Meta-Analysis

Background Extensive studies have been conducted to evaluate the effect of external organic Carbon on native soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition. However, the direction and extent of this effect reported by different authors is inconsistent. Objective The objective was to provide a synthesis of existing data that comprehensively and quantitatively evaluates how the soil chemical properties and incubation conditions interact with additional external organic C to affect the native SOC decomposition. Data Source A meta-analysis was conducted on previously published empirical studies that examined the effect of the addition of external organic carbon on the native SOC decomposition through isotopic techniques. Results and Conclusions The addition of external organic C, when averaged across all studies, enhanced the native SOC decomposition by 26.5%. The soil with higher SOC content and fine texture showed significantly higher priming effects, whereas the soil with higher total nitrogen content showed an opposite trend. The soils with higher C:N ratios had significantly stronger priming effects than those with low C:N ratios. The decomposition of native SOC was significantly enhanced more at early stage of incubation (<15d) than at the later stages (>15d). In addition, the incubation temperature and the addition rate of organic matter significantly influenced the native SOC decomposition in response to the addition of external organic C.
Avian Community Responses to Variability in River Hydrology

River flow is a major driver of morphological structure and community dynamics in riverine-floodplain ecosystems. Flow influences in-stream communities through changes in water velocity, depth, temperature, turbidity and nutrient fluxes, and perturbations in the organisation of lower trophic levels are cascaded through the food web, resulting in shifts in food availability for consumer species. River birds are sensitive to spatial and phenological mismatches with aquatic prey following flow disturbances; however, the role of flow as a determinant of riparian ecological structure remains poorly known. This knowledge is crucial to help to predict if, and how, riparian communities will be influenced by climate-induced changes in river flow characterised by more extreme high (i.e. flood) and/or low (i.e. drought) flow events. Here, we combine national-scale datasets of river bird surveys and river flow archives to understand how hydrological disturbance has affected the distribution of riparian species at higher trophic levels. Data were analysed for 71 river locations using a Generalized Additive Model framework and a model averaging procedure. Species had complex but biologically interpretable associations with hydrological indices, with species’ responses consistent with their ecology, indicating that hydrological-disturbance has implications for higher trophic levels in riparian food webs. Our quantitative analysis of river flow-bird relationships demonstrates the potential vulnerability of riparian species to the impacts of changing flow variability and represents an important contribution in helping to understand how bird communities might respond to a climate change-induced increase in the intensity of floods and droughts. Moreover, the success in relating parameters of river flow variability to species’ distributions highlights the need to include river flow data in climate change impact models of species’ distributions.
Continuity of care with physicians and risk of subsequent hospitalization and end-stage renal disease in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus patients

Purpose Effective management for type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) can slow the progression of kidney outcomes and reduce hospital admissions. Better continuity of care (COC) was found to improve patients’ adherence and self-management. This study examined the associations between COC, hospitalization, and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in DM patients. Patients and methods In the cohort study, data from 1996 to 2012 were retrieved from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database, using inverse probability weighted analysis. A total of 26,063 patients with newly diagnosed type 2 DM who had been treated with antihyperglycemic agents were included. COC is to assess the extent to which a DM patient visited the same physician during the study period. This study categorized COC into 3 groups – low, intermediate, and high, – according to the distribution of scores in our sample. Results The number of ESRD patients in the high, intermediate, and low COC groups were 92 (22.33%), 130 (31.55%), and 190 (46.12%), respectively, and the mean follow-up periods for the 3 groups were 7.13, 7.12, and 7.27 years, respectively. After using inverse probability weighting, the intermediate and low COC groups were significantly associated with an increased risk of ESRD compared with the high COC group (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) 1.36 [95% CI, 1.03–1.80] and aHR 1.76 [95% CI, 1.35–2.30], respectively). The intermediate and low COC groups were also significantly associated with the subsequent hospitalization compared with the high COC group (aHR 1.15 [95% CI, 0.99–1.33] and aHR 1.72 [95% CI, 1.50–1.97], respectively). Conclusion COC is related to ESRD onset and subsequent hospitalization among patients with DM. This study suggested that when DM patients keep visiting the same physician for managing their diseases, the progression of renal disease can be prevented.
Initial Amino Acid Intake Influences Phosphorus and Calcium Homeostasis in Preterm Infants – It Is Time to Change the Composition of the Early Parenteral Nutrition

Background Early aggressive parenteral nutrition (PN), consisting of caloric and nitrogen intake soon after birth, is currently proposed for the premature baby. Some electrolyte disturbances, such as hypophosphatemia and hypercalcemia, considered unusual in early life, were recently described while using this PN approach. We hypothesize that, due to its impact on cell metabolism, the initial amino acid (AA) amount may specifically influence the metabolism of phosphorus, and consequently of calcium. We aim to evaluate the influence of AA intake on calcium-phosphorus metabolism, and to create a calculation tool to estimate phosphorus needs. Methods Prospective observational study. Phosphate and calcium plasma concentrations and calcium balance were evaluated daily during the first week of life in very preterm infants, and their relationship with nutrition was studied. For this purpose, infants were divided into three groups: high, medium and low AA intake (HAA, MAA, LAA). A calculation formula to assess phosphorus needs was elaborated, with a theoretical model based on AA and calcium intake, and the cumulative deficit of phosphate intake was estimated. Results 154 infants were included. Hypophosphatemia (12.5%) and hypercalcemia (9.8%) were more frequent in the HAA than in the MAA (4.6% and 4.8%) and in the LAA group (0% and 1.9%); both p<0.001. Discussion Calcium-phosphorus homeostasis was influenced by the early AA intake. We propose to consider phosphorus and calcium imbalances as being part of a syndrome, related to incomplete provision of nutrients after the abrupt discontinuation of the placental nutrition at birth (PI-ReFeeding syndrome). We provide a simple tool to calculate the optimal phosphate intake. The early introduction of AA in the PN soon after birth might be completed by an early intake of phosphorus, since AA and phosphorus are (along with potassium) the main determinants of cellular growth.