Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stillbirths at Term: Case Control Study of Risk Factors, Growth Status and Placental Histology

Objective To investigate the proportion of stillbirths at term associated with abnormal growth using customized birth weight percentiles and to compare histological placental findings both in underweight stillborn fetuses and in live births. Methods A retrospective case-control study of 150 singleton term stillbirths. The livebirth control groups included 586 cases of low-risk pregnancies and 153 late fetal growth restriction fetuses. Stillbirths and livebirths from low-risk pregnancies were classified using customized standards for fetal weight at birth, as adequate for gestational age (AGA; 10-90th percentile), small (SGA; <10th percentile) or large for gestational age (LGA; >90th percentile). Placental characteristics in stillbirth were compared with those from livebirths using four categories: inflammation, disruptive, obstructive and adaptive lesions. Results There was a higher rate of SGA (26% vs 6%, p<0.001) and LGA fetuses (10.6% vs 5.6%, p<0.05) in the stillbirth group. Among stillbirth fetuses, almost half of the SGA were very low birthweight (≤3°percentile) (12% vs 0.3%, p<0.001). The disruptive (7.3% vs 0.17%;p<0.001), obstructive (54.6% vs 7.5%;p<0.001) and adaptive (46.6% vs 35.8%;p<0.001) findings were significantly more common in than in livebirth-low risk. Placental characteristics of AGA and SGA stillbirth were compared with those of AGA and FGR livebirth. In stillbirths-SGA we found a higher number of disruptive (12.8% vs 0%; p<0.001), obstructive (58.9% vs 23.5%;p<0.001) and adaptive lesions (56.4% vs 49%; p 0.47) than in livebirth-FGR. Conclusion The assessment of fetal weight with customized curves can identify fetuses which have not reached their genetically determined growth potential and are therefore at risk for adverse outcomes. Placental evaluation in stillbirths can reveal chronic histological signs that might be useful to clinical assessment, especially in underweight fetuses.
Scene Character Detection by an Edge-Ray Filter

Edge is a type of valuable clues for scene character detection task. Generally, the existing edge-based methods rely on the assumption of straight text line to prune away the non-character candidates. This paper proposes a new edge-based method, called edge-ray filter, to detect the scene character. The main contribution of the proposed method lies in filtering out complex backgrounds by fully utilizing the essential spatial layout of edges instead of the assumption of straight text line. Edges are extracted by a combination of Canny and Edge Preserving Smoothing Filter (EPSF). To effectively boost the filtering strength of the designed edge-ray filter, we employ a new Edge Quasi-Connectivity Analysis (EQCA) to unify complex edges as well as contour of broken character. Label Histogram Analysis (LHA) then filters out non-character edges and redundant rays through setting proper thresholds. Finally, two frequently-used heuristic rules, namely aspect ratio and occupation, are exploited to wipe off distinct false alarms. In addition to have the ability to handle special scenarios, the proposed method can accommodate dark-on-bright and bright-on-dark characters simultaneously, and provides accurate character segmentation masks. We perform experiments on the benchmark ICDAR 2011 Robust Reading Competition dataset as well as scene images with special scenarios. The experimental results demonstrate the validity of our proposal.
Clinical Outcome and Genetic Differences within a Monophyletic Dengue Virus Type 2 Population

The exact mechanisms of interplay between host and viral factors leading to severe dengue are yet to be fully understood. Even though previous studies have implicated specific genetic differences of Dengue virus (DENV) in clinical severity and virus attenuation, similar studies with large-scale, whole genome screening of monophyletic virus populations are limited. Therefore, in the present study, we compared 89 whole genomes of DENV-2 cosmopolitan clade III isolates obtained from patients diagnosed with dengue fever (DF, n = 58), dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF, n = 30) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS, n = 1) in Singapore between July 2010 and January 2013, in order to determine the correlation of observed viral genetic differences with clinical outcomes. Our findings showed no significant difference between the number of primary and secondary infections that progressed to DHF and DSS (p>0.05) in our study cohort. Despite being highly homogenous, study isolates possessed 39 amino acid substitutions of which 10 substitutions were fixed in three main groups of virus isolates. None of those substitutions were specifically associated with DHF and DSS. Notably, two evolutionarily unique virus groups possessing C-P43T+NS1-S103T+NS2A-V83I+NS3-R337K+ NS3-I600T+ NS5-P136S and NS2A-T119N mutations were exclusively found in patients with DF, the benign form of DENV infections. Those mutants were significantly associated with mild disease outcome. These observations indicated that disease progression into DHF and DSS within our patient population was more likely to be due to host than virus factors. We hypothesize that selection for potentially less virulent groups of DENV-2 in our study cohort may be an evolutionary adaptation of viral strains to extend their survival in the human-mosquito transmission cycle.
Iranian Nurses' Attitudes and Perception towards Patient Advocacy

Patient advocacy is an inherent component of professional nursing ethics; in other words, nurses' enough knowledge would be essential to gain a positive attitude towards nursing advocacy. Using a descriptive-analytic design, this study aimed to assess the correlation between nurses' perception and attitudes towards patient advocacy, amongst 385 nurses in Kerman, Iran; hence, a three-part questionnaire was applied: part I, a demographic data sheet, part II, attitude measuring instrument, and part III, perception measuring instrument in nursing advocacy. The results implied that fairly positive attitudes and perception were found amongst the participants, and nurses' attitudes, in general, were positively correlated to their perception toward nursing advocacy. This means that with an improvement in perception, the attitude would also improve. In addition to our findings, it seems that these nurses needed more advocacy educational programs and support from responsible employers.
The impact of mobile learning on students' learning behaviours and performance: Report from a large blended classroom

Chinese classrooms, whether on school grounds or online, have long suffered from a lack of interactivity. Many online classes simply provide recorded instructor lectures, which only reinforces the negative effects of passive nonparticipatory learning. At Shanghai Jiaotong University, researchers and developers actively seek technologic interventions that can greatly increase
Earlier depression and later-life self-reported chewing difficulties: results from the Whitehall II study

This study aimed to assess, whether depression in adulthood was associated with self-reported chewing difficulties at older age, and examine whether the strength of the association differed according to the number of depression episodes in earlier adult life. We used Whitehall II study data from 277 participants who completed a questionnaire in 2011. Depression was measured with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) in 2003 and 2008. The association between CES-D depression and self-reported chewing ability was assessed using regression models adjusted for some socio-demographic factors. Participants with depression at some point in their earlier adulthood had an odds ratio (95% CI) of 2·01 (1·06, 3·82) for reporting chewing difficulties in older adulthood, compared to those without depression. The respective odds ratios were 1·42 (0·66, 3·04) for individuals with depression in only one phase, but 3·53 (1·51, 8·24) for those with depression in two phases. In conclusion, while further research is required, there was an association between depression and chewing difficulty that was independent of demographic and socio-economic characteristics. Furthermore, this increased odds for chewing difficulties was primarily among adults that experienced two episodes or a prolonged period of depression.
Counseling Instruction in the Online Classroom: A Survey of Student and Faculty Perceptions

This article will review the design, procedures, and results of a recent study conducted to survey the perceptions of counseling students and professionals regarding the delivery of counseling instruction in online courses. Few studies have addressed the appropriateness, effectiveness, and evaluation procedures of counseling skills instruction via the online classroom (Trepal, Haberstroh, Duffey, & Evans, 2007). Counseling skills courses, especially those requiring field experiences, typically involve intensive and ongoing communication among counselors-in-training, their faculty supervisors, peers, and clinical or on-site supervisors. The frequent exchange of information among learners, faculty, and evaluators is primarily centered on critiquing and improving specific counseling skills and techniques. Exercises such as role-playing and mock counseling sessions are viewed as appropriate and necessary for the healthy development and practice of core counseling skills. Such skills are viewed as hierarchical, from basic attending skills to advanced development of personal theory (Ivey, Ivey, & Zalaquett, 2010). Essentially, courses that teach counseling skills provide opportunities for practice, review, and assessment of core and advanced skills and the interpersonal skills that are prerequisites for their development. The study described in this article utilized a researcher-made survey instrument to obtain the perceptions of counselors-in-training, counseling faculty, and active practitioners on the instructional procedures, learning, and evaluation of counseling skill development within the online classroom. Many participants offered suggestions for the improvement of instruction within online courses and the incorporation of live interaction to supplement strictly asynchronous exchanges. The results of the survey revealed participants' concerns about the opportunities for students to practice skills sufficiently in online courses and the ethical responsibilities of academic program faculty to confirm skill mastery prior to graduation. Study findings also hold implications for pedagogues on the importance of considering learning styles in online classrooms (Cicco, 2009).
Physical Bias of Galaxies from Large-Scale Hydrodynamic Simulations

We analyze a new large-scale (100 h-1 Mpc) numerical hydrodynamic simulation of the popular ΛCDM cosmological model, including in our treatment dark matter, gas, and star formation, on the basis of standard physical processes. The method, applied with a numerical resolution of <200 h-1 kpc (which is still quite coarse for following individual galaxies, especially in dense regions), attempts to estimate where and when galaxies form. We then compare the smoothed galaxy distribution with the smoothed mass distribution to determine the "bias," defined as b ≡ (δM/M)gal/(δM/M)total, on scales that are large compared to the code numerical resolution (on the basis of resolution tests given in the Appendix of this paper). We find that (holding all variables constant except the quoted one) bias increases with decreasing scale, with increasing galactic age or metallicity, and with increasing redshift of observations. At the 8 h-1 Mpc fiducial comoving scale, bias (for bright regions) is 1.35 at z = 0, reaching to 3.6 at z = 3, both numbers being consistent with extant observations. We also find that (10-20) h-1 Mpc voids in the distribution of luminous objects are as observed (i.e., observed voids are not an argument against cold dark matter [CDM]-like models), and finally that the younger systems should show a colder Hubble flow than do the early-type galaxies (a testable proposition). Surprisingly, little evolution is found in the amplitude of the smoothed galaxy-galaxy correlation function (as a function of comoving separation). Testing this prediction against observations will allow a comparison between this work and that of Kauffmann et al., which is based on a different physical modeling method.
Transitions of young migrants to initial vocational education and training in Germany: the significance of social origin and gender

Abstract The topic of the present paper is how successful young people from a migration background in Germany are in making the transition to initial vocational education and training (VET). Particular emphasis is placed on interactions with social origin and gender. The analyses are based on the 2011 BIBB Transitional Study, a representative survey of over 5000 young people living in Germany from the birth cohorts between 1987 and 1993. It is revealed that a migration background exerts a negative effect on the chances of progressing to company-based or fully qualifying training. For a successful transition to VET the school-leaving qualification achieved is very important and migrants often achieve only lower school-leaving qualifications. Interaction effects occur between migration background, social origin and gender. The transition chances of young migrants are, however, also worse when a multitude of relevant factors are controlled for. The results indicate that migrants in German society still have to contend with reservations.
Working Paper Series an Economic Analysis of Simulation Selection Problems Insead-wharton Alliance Center for Global Research & Development an Economic Analysis of Simulation Selection Problems 3 Selection as a Multi-armed Bandit Problem 3.1 the Multi-armed Bandit Problem

This paper presents a new approach to the simulation ranking and selection problem, one that maximizes the expected NPV of decisions made when using stochastic simulation. Our formulation assumes that facilities exist to simulate a fixed number of alternative projects, and we pose the problem as a " stop-pable " version of a Bayesian bandit problem. We show that, under relatively general conditions, a Gittins index can be used to indicate which system to simulate or implement. We then provide an asymptotic approximation for the index that is appropriate when simulation outputs are normally distributed with known but potentially different variances for the different systems. We conclude with a discussion that relaxes some of those assumptions. Managers must decide the operating characteristics of their companies' manufacturing, supply chain, or service delivery systems. Often the decision reflects the choice of one among a number of competing designs. System designs may differ in the numbers or types of resources employed, as well as operating procedures used. To aid their decision-making managers may use stochastic or discrete event simulation. Simulation represents a widely-used and relatively low cost 'insurance' mechanism to estimate the performance of alternative systems and to improve the chances that the best system is implemented. The simulation selection problem formalizes the tradeoffs to be made when using simulation to evaluate a fixed number of competing design alternatives. For a fixed set of k alternative designs, one must decide how long to simulate each alternative and, given the simulation results, which design to implement. The most common approach for selecting the best of a finite set of simulated systems uses ranking and selection procedures, and the last 10 years have seen exciting progress in the development of this approach. Kim and Nelson (2005b) describe an indifference-zone approach which seeks to provides a probabilistic guarantee that the system with the best performance is ultimately selected, given that the best system is at least some amount (δ * > 0) better than the others and that the procedure is applied repeatedly to the same p. 1 Submitted for review. Chick and Gans problem. This objective is often called the probability of correct selection (PCS), and their paper summarizes recent breakthroughs, based upon Brownian-motion approximations and sequential screening, that reduce the amount of simulation time required to guarantee a sufficiently high PCS. Chick (2005) reviews Bayesian approaches that allocate simulation time to systems to improve …
Regulation of mRNA translation during mitosis

Passage through mitosis is driven by precisely-timed changes in transcriptional regulation and protein degradation. However, the importance of translational regulation during mitosis remains poorly understood. Here, using ribosome profiling, we find both a global translational repression and identified ∼200 mRNAs that undergo specific translational regulation at mitotic entry. In contrast, few changes in mRNA abundance are observed, indicating that regulation of translation is the primary mechanism of modulating protein expression during mitosis. Interestingly, 91% of the mRNAs that undergo gene-specific regulation in mitosis are translationally repressed, rather than activated. One of the most pronounced translationally-repressed genes is Emi1, an inhibitor of the anaphase promoting complex (APC) which is degraded during mitosis. We show that full APC activation requires translational repression of Emi1 in addition to its degradation. These results identify gene-specific translational repression as a means of controlling the mitotic proteome, which may complement post-translational mechanisms for inactivating protein function. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.07957. 001
Grid cell firing may arise from interference of theta frequency membrane potential oscillations in single neurons

Intracellular recording and computational modelling suggest that interactions of subthreshold membrane potential oscillation frequency in different dendritic branches of entorhinal cortex stellate cells could underlie the functional coding of continuous dimensions of space and time. Among other things, these interactions could underlie properties of grid cell field spacing. The relationship between experimental data on membrane potential oscillation frequency (f) and grid cell field spacing (G) indicates a constant scaling factor H = fG. This constant scaling factor between temporal oscillation frequency and spatial periodicity provides a starting constraint that is used to derive the model of Burgess et al. (Hippocampus, 2007). This model provides a consistent quantitative link between single cell physiological properties and properties of spiking units in awake behaving animals. Further properties and predictions of this model about single cell and network physiological properties are analyzed. In particular, the model makes quantitative predictions about the change in membrane potential, single cell oscillation frequency, and network oscillation frequency associated with speed of movement, about the independence of single cell properties from network theta rhythm oscillations, and about the effect of variations in initial oscillatory phase on the pattern of grid cell firing fields. These same mechanisms of subthreshold oscillations may play a more general role in memory function, by providing a method for learning arbitrary time intervals in memory sequences. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Motivational Consequences of Life Satisfaction

Previous research indicates that high levels of life satisfaction are associated with positive outcomes in various life domains, but the mechanisms underlying these associations are largely unclear. In this article, we argue that life satisfaction is associated with motivational consequences that may explain its positive effects on major life outcomes. This hypothesis was tested in 7 correlational and experimental studies that examined desire for change and goal orientation as motivational and volitional outcomes. Across studies, people low in life satisfaction reported a greater desire to change their life circumstances as well as a greater orientation toward change and a weaker orientation toward stability than people high in life satisfaction, statistically controlling for affect. These findings contribute to life-satisfaction research by providing initial evidence on the motivational consequences of life satisfaction and adding to the growing literature on the functional distinction between life satisfaction and affect. Furthermore, these findings contribute to motivation science by showing that motivational processes do not just arise in the presence, but also in the absence of a perceived negative discrepancy between one’s desired and one’s actual state. Together, these studies suggest that life satisfaction is an important factor in motivating people to influence their life circumstances through the adoption of personal goals.
Perception of artificial agents and utterance friendliness in dialogue

The present contribution investigates the construction of dialogue structure for the use in human-machine interaction especially for robotic systems and embodied conversational agents. We are going to present a methodology and findings of a pilot study for the design of task-specific dialogues. Specifically, we investigated effects of dialogue complexity on two levels: First, we examined the perception of the embodied conversational agent, and second, we studied participants’ performance following HRI. To do so, we manipulated the agent’s friendliness during a brief conversation with the user in a receptionist scenario. The paper presents an overview of the dialogue system, the process of dialogue construction, and initial evidence from an evaluation study with naive users (N = 40). These users interacted with the system in a task-based dialogue in which they had to ask for the way in a building unknown to them. Afterwards participants filled in a questionnaire. Our findings show that the users prefer the friendly version of the dialogue which scored higher values both in terms of data collected via a questionnaire and in terms of data collected during the run of the experiment. Implications of the present research for follow-up studies are discussed, specifically focusing on the effects that dialogue features have on agent perception and on the user’s evaluation and performance.
Three-dimensional MHD Simulation of the 2003 October 28 Coronal Mass Ejection: Comparison with LASCO Coronagraph Observations

We numerically model the coronal mass ejection (CME) event of 2003 October 28 that erupted from AR 10486 and propagated to Earth in less than 20 hr, causing severe geomagnetic storms. The magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model is formulated by first arriving at a steady state corona and solar wind employing synoptic magnetograms. We initiate two CMEs from the same active region, one approximately a day earlier that preconditions the solar wind for the much faster CME on the 28th. This second CME travels through the corona at a rate of over 2500 km s−1, driving a strong forward shock. We clearly identify this shock in an image produced by the Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) C3 and reproduce the shock and its appearance in synthetic white-light images from the simulation. We find excellent agreement with both the general morphology and the quantitative brightness of the model CME with LASCO observations. These results demonstrate that the CME shape is largely determined by its interaction with the ambient solar wind and may not be sensitive to the initiation process. We then show how the CME would appear as observed by wide-angle coronagraphs on board the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft. We find complex time evolution of the white-light images as a result of the way in which the density structures pass through the Thomson sphere. The simulation is performed with the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF).