Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Early predictors of language and social communication impairments at ages 9-11 years: a follow-up study of early-referred children.

PURPOSE In this study, the authors aimed to evaluate hypotheses that early sociocognition will predict later social communication and early phonology will predict later morphosyntax in clinically referred preschoolers. METHOD Participants were 108 children ages 9-11 years who had been referred to clinical services with concerns about language at age 2½-3½ years. Predictors at Time 1 (T1) were measures of sociocognition, word/nonword repetition, and receptive language. Outcome measures at Time 3 (T3) included a social communication questionnaire completed by parents and tests of nonword repetition, morphosyntax, and receptive language. RESULTS Group- and case-level analyses revealed early sociocognition to be the strongest predictor of social communication problems, which by T3 affected almost one third of the sample. At the group level, early phonology, which was a significant problem for the majority of children at T1, was a weak predictor of morphosyntax at T3. However, at the case level the majority of children with poor morphosyntax and nonword repetition at outcome had had very low repetition scores at T1. CONCLUSIONS In early language referrals, it is important to identify and address sociocognitive problems, a considerable risk for later social communication and autism spectrum disorders. The majority of early-referred children had phonological problems, often severe, but these require further investigation to determine their longer term significance for language.
Conservative Chemotherapy in Gestational Trophoblastic Disease: Experience With Etoposide, Methotrexate, and Dactinomycin Chemotherapy

Objective The goal of this study was to evaluate the efficacy, toxicity, and survival of patients in our institution treated by EMA (etoposide, methotrexate [MTX], and dactinomycin) chemotherapy for 3 groups of patients: ones that had low-risk gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD) that was resistant to MTX (group A), those with high-risk GTD (group B), and the group having low-risk GTD but the cancer being metastatic (group C). Methods The medical records of 58 patients who received EMA chemotherapy in groups A, B, and C in the 2000 to 2012 period at St Mary’s Hospital were examined. Clinical characteristics, chemotherapy responses, causes of treatment failure, and cases of drug toxicity were analyzed retrospectively. Results Treatment with the EMA regimen resulted in primary remission in 52 (96%) of 54 patients and resistance in 2 of the patients (3%). In the resistance group, one belonged to group B and was treated with etoposide, MTX, and actinomycin D with cyclophosphamide and vincristine (EMA-EP) and the other belonged to group A and died of refractory disease. World Health Organization (WHO) grade 4 leukocytopenia and thrombocytopenia with the EMA regimen occurred in 6% and 0.4% of the cycles, respectively; the other toxic effects were acceptable and manageable. Median cycles of EMA chemotherapy during the treatment were 7, 8, and 8 in groups A, B, and C, respectively. There was some reduction in total chemo cycle and toxicity, as compared with a previously reported study using the alternative cyclophosphamide and vincristine regimen. Among the EMA treated patients, 1 patient with a second malignancy of breast cancer was documented. In addition, 5 child births for the treated patients were recorded during the follow-up period of mostly 10 years. Conclusions The EMA chemotherapy seemed to reduce treatment duration and the relapse rate without increasing the adverse effects in patients with MTX resistance and low-risk GTD, but having confirmed metastatic lesions. Although this study had some limitations regarding the high-risk GTD, our findings will provide a basis for the use of EMA chemotherapy when cyclophosphamide and vincristine is contraindicated due to toxicity.
Security of Attachment as a Predictor of Symbolic and Mentalising Abilities: A Longitudinal Study

The development of symbolic and mentalising abilities was examined in 33 children whose security of attachment had been assessed in infancy. It was found that securely attached children: (i) were better able to incorporate an experimenter’s play suggestions into their sequences of symbolic play at 31 months; and (ii) performed better on a version of Wimmer and Perner’s (1983) unexpected transfer task at age 4. There was also evidence of superior mentalising abilities among the secure group at age 5, despite no group differences being found in general cognitive ability. We suggest that these security-related differences might be related to mothers’ propensity to treat their securely attached children as individuals with minds. In support of this hypothesis, mothers in the secure group adopted more sensitive tutoring strategies, and were more likely to describe their children in terms of their mental characteristics. Possible developmental pathways linking security of attachment in infancy with subsequent development were investigated using path analyses.
Intracellular Transport of Small Hydrophobic Compounds by the Hepatocyte

The liver is responsible for the detoxification and biliary excretion of a variety of endogenous and xenobiotic compounds and, therefore, is capable of responding to rapid fluctuations in metabolic demand. In order to accomplish this function, the hepatocyte must efficiently transport a host of substrates with wide-ranging physical-chemical properties to intracellular sites for biotransformation and subsequent secretion into the bile. The trafficking of substrates and metabolites within the liver cell is a complex process, involving the coordinated action of cellular proteins, organellar membranes, the cytoskeleton, vesicular transport pathways, and bulk convective cytoplasmic flow. This review summarizes recent developments in the field of intracellular transport, with particular reference to the metabolism of small hydrophobic and amphipathic molecular species (e.g., bilirubin, bile salts, fatty acids) by the hepatocyte.
An Examination of Testing Effects in a Panel Study of Older Persons

Testing effects have been obtained on attitudinal and cognitive variables in studies typically conducted on college students in which the pretest-posttest interval usually was several days or weeks. In an effort to expand our knowledge of testing effects, an assessment of testing was incorporated into a panel study of the mental health, social and psychological resources, and stressful life events of older persons. Conceivably, prior assessment of life events might produce greater subsequent recollection of events in the pretest-posttest interval. Also, the rapport established in the initial interview together with previous discussion of possible physical and mental health symptoms might yield greater disclosures of illness in a subsequent interview. In a multistage sample survey, seven out of eight dwellings in the selected segments were randomly assigned to be in the panel group; the eighth dwelling was assigned to the control group. A total of 2,042 persons 55 years and older living in the panel dwellings were interviewed on Wave 1 and reinterviewed with the same instruments six months later on Wave 2; 248 persons in the control group were interviewed only on Wave 2. Comparisons between the two groups on six measures of mental health, several measures of physical health, self-esteem and social support scales, and five measures of life events found no evidence for testing effects.
Burning Issues with Prometheus-the Canadian Wildland Fire Growth Simulation Model

The software package Prometheus is Canada’s only operational wildfire growth modelling simulator. The program calculates accurate, fast, multi-day forecasts of moving fire fronts and is currently used in fire fighting situations, in fire risk analysis and in the design of “fire-safe” communities and forests. At the core of Prometheus is an algorithm that calculates the evolution of the fire front in an empirical manner, assuming locally elliptic fire spread and Huygens’ principle in a Lagrangian description of the evolution. This report describes progress made on a set of problems that Prometheus developers brought to the 10th Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS) Industrial Problem Solving Workshop held in June 2006 at Simon Fraser University. In particular, we investigate the mathematical background behind the Prometheus code and suggest a new method (the “outer hull” approach) to remove tangles from the evolving front. Other methods that can reduce tangles and crossings are “smoothing” of data and parameters, and redistribution of vertices on the evolving front. We investigate the use of de Boor’s Algorithm as an automated procedure for redistributing vertices along the front. Finally, we investigate the level set method as a new tool for forest fire spread simulations and show in some simple test cases the excellent potential of this method.
Saúde e população LGBT: demandas e especificidades em questão

The LGBT community - lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders - is vulnerable to achieve the fulfillment of their human rights including the access to public health. Assuming the imminent need for the formation of health workers in LGBT theme, as well as for the development of actions to respond to the specific demands of this population, it is our intention to contribute to the reflection on some of the factors that may interfere substantially in the LGBT process of health. We discuss some of the specific issues to each segment, highlighting the importance of attention of health professionals about the chain reactions that involve the process of vulnerability and that lead to illness in this population.
Reduced Th17 response in patients with tuberculosis correlates with IL-6R expression on CD4+ T Cells.

RATIONALE Although it is well recognized that CD4(+) T cells and T helper (Th) 1 cytokines are critical in the cell-mediated response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, it is also clear that this immunity alone is not enough. Understanding the roles of other T cell subsets and cytokines is essential for vaccine design and clinical immunotherapy against tuberculosis (TB). OBJECTIVES To investigate the clinical significance and possible regulatory mechanism of Th17 responses in human TB. METHODS The frequencies of IFN-gamma-, IL-4-, IL-17-, FoxP3- and IL-6 receptor (IL-6R)-expressing CD4(+) T cells in blood and/or pleural effusion samples of healthy donors, subjects with latent TB infection, and patients with active TB were analyzed by flow cytometry. Cytokines, transforming growth factor-beta and IL-6, in plasma and pleural fluid samples were determined by ELISA. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS The frequency of Th17 cells in patients with active TB is significantly lower than those in healthy donors and individuals with latent TB infection. Correlation analysis showed that reduced Th17 responses observed in patients with active TB was significantly correlated with the decreased expression of IL-6R on CD4(+) T cells, but did not correlate with the concentrations of the cytokines, transforming growth factor-beta and IL-6. Consistently; in vitro study showed that M. tuberculosis products inhibit the expression of IL-6R on CD4(+) T cells. CONCLUSIONS Our results demonstrate that reduced Th17 responses were associated with the clinical outcome of M. tuberculosis infection. Suppression of Th17 response through down-regulation of IL-6R expression may be an important mechanism in the development of active TB.
Metabolomics analysis of saliva from patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome

The recent development of salivary proteomics has led to the identification of potential biomarkers for diagnosing patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS). Here we sought to identify differentially produced salivary metabolites from pSS patients and healthy controls (HCs) that might be used to characterize this disease. We obtained salivary samples from 12 female pSS patients (mean age 44.2 ± 13.01) and 21 age‐matched female HCs. The metabolite profiles of saliva were analysed by gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry. The total metabolite levels in each of the samples were calculated and compared across the study participants. A total of 88 metabolites were detected across the study samples, 41 of which were observed at reduced levels in the samples frompSS patients. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed a loss in salivary metabolite diversity in the pSS patient samples compared to the HC samples. The reduced presence of glycine, tyrosine, uric acid and fucose, which may reflect salivary gland destruction due to chronic sialoadenitis, contributed to the loss of diversity. Comparative PCA of the pSS patients revealed the presence of two subpopulations based on their metabolite profiles, and these two subpopulations showed a significant difference in the prevalence of major salivary glanditis (P = 0·014). In this study, we found that the salivary metabolite profile of pSS patients was less diverse than that of HCs and that the metabolite profiles in pSS patients were affected by the presence of major salivary glanditis.
Nicotine Dependence and Regular Nicotine Use in Adult Children of Alcoholics

In this study the relation between parental alcoholism and tobacco use and nicotine dependence in adult children is explored. Data were used from the National Comorbidity Survey (NCS), a nationwide survey of the US population aged 15 to 54. A sample of 2,728 subjects was selected who could answer all relevant questions about either their father or mother. Regular tobacco use and nicotine dependence are found to be strongly related to having an alcoholic parent. Among subjects who used tobacco regularly at some time, adult children of alcoholics (ACOAs) had a higher risk of developing nicotine dependence (attributable risk: 13.3%), and ACOAs had started regular nicotine use earlier (mean age 18.22 years in ACOAs versus 16.60 in non-ACOAs). The relation between parental alcholism and nicotine dependence in ACOAs can be related to a genetic predisposition or to environmental factors.
Hydration before Cardiopulmonary Bypass

A generous fluid regimen before cardiopulmonary bypass (6% of body weight) combined with a vasodilator (nitroprusside) was described recently. The present study deals with central haemodynamics, pulmonary oxygenation, glomerular filtration rate and the use of blood products before and after bypass in patients given crystalloid fluid corresponding to 3% of b.w. before bypass combined with nitroglycerin in a close that kept pulmonary artery pressure at a constant level. Ten patients with aortic stenosis and/or incompetence were studied. Cardiac output (thermodilution), heart rate, blood pressures, arterial oxygen tension (Pao2) at an inspired oxygen concentration of 30%, the concentration of oxygen in blood and endogenous creatinine clearance were measured. After the induction of neurolept anaesthesia, cardiac index, stroke volume, systemic and pulmonary vascular resistance, pulmonary arteriovenous oxygen difference. Pao2 (Fio2 = 0.3) and glomerular filtration rate were within normal limits. Neither hydration nor the bypass procedure itself caused any change in these parameters. The patients tolerated cannulation of the large vessels well without hypotensive episodes. When compared with a similar group of eight patients treated with a restrictive fluid regimen (0.21 before bypass), no significant differences in the above‐mentioned parameters were found.
Linear cofactor relationships in Boolean functions

This paper describes linear cofactor relationships (LCRs), which are defined as the exclusive sums of cofactors with respect to a pair of variables in Boolean functions. These relationships subsume classical symmetries and single-variable symmetries. The paper proposes an efficient algorithm to detect LCRs and discusses their potential applications in Boolean matching, minimization of decision diagrams, synthesis of regular layout-friendly logic circuits, and detection of support-reducing bound sets
Intrusive versus domiciliated triatomines and the challenge of adapting vector control practices against Chagas disease

Chagas disease prevention remains mostly based on triatomine vector control to reduce or eliminate house infestation with these bugs. The level of adaptation of triatomines to human housing is a key part of vector competence and needs to be precisely evaluated to allow for the design of effective vector control strategies. In this review, we examine how the domiciliation/intrusion level of different triatomine species/populations has been defined and measured and discuss how these concepts may be improved for a better understanding of their ecology and evolution, as well as for the design of more effective control strategies against a large variety of triatomine species. We suggest that a major limitation of current criteria for classifying triatomines into sylvatic, intrusive, domiciliary and domestic species is that these are essentially qualitative and do not rely on quantitative variables measuring population sustainability and fitness in their different habitats. However, such assessments may be derived from further analysis and modelling of field data. Such approaches can shed new light on the domiciliation process of triatomines and may represent a key tool for decision-making and the design of vector control interventions.
Modeling the Effects of Political Information Source Use and Online Expression on Young Adults’ Political Efficacy

This online survey conducted at a public university in the Northwest (N = 434) examines the influence of political involvement, information source attention, and online political discussion on young adults’ political efficacy. A factor analysis indicated that political information sources loaded into three factors including conventional and online hard news media such as newspapers, opinion and social media such as blogs or social networking websites, and public affairs websites including government and candidate websites. A path analysis revealed significant differences in their association with online political expression and external efficacy. As an entry point in the theoretical model, involvement in public affairs positively associated with attention to political information sources, online political expression, and external political efficacy. Attention to hard news and to public affairs websites positively predicted political efficacy. Attention to online opinion and social media and to public affairs websites positively predicted online political expression.
Smartphone Usage, Social Media Engagement, and Willingness to Participate in mHealth Weight Management Research Among African American Women

Background. African American women (AAW) are in a unique position to be recruited into mobile (mHealth) weight management research and programs due to their high rates of obesity and their high ownership of smartphones. Aim. This study examined smartphone usage, social media engagement, and willingness to participate in mHealth weight management among AAW in north-central Florida, United States. Methods. A self-administered survey was completed by a convenience sample of 425 smartphone owners in north-central Florida. Results. Mean age was 34.84 ± 13.74, with age distribution of 18 to 29 (45%), 30 to 50 (39%), and 51+ years (17%). Mean body mass index was 29.52 ± 8.18. Most used smartphones to access the Internet daily and were engaged with eight social media sites, such as Facebook (85%), YouTube (75%), and Google+ (57%). Compared to those 51+, those 18 to 29 were more likely to use YouTube (odds ratio [OR] = 2.52, p = .017) and Instagram (OR = 10.90, p < .0001), but they were less likely to use Google+ (OR = 0.40, p = .009). Compared to those 51+, those 30 to 50 were more likely to use Instagram (β = 1.28, OR = 3.61, p = .014) and Facebook (β = 1.04, OR = 2.84, p < .006). Most were willing to participate in research that used text messages (73%), smartwatches/fitness trackers (69%), and smartphone apps (68%). Compared to those 51+, women 18 to 29 were more likely to report willingness to use a smartphone app (OR = 5.45, p < .0001) as were those 30 to 50 (OR = 3.14, p < .0001). Conclusion. AAW’s high ownership of smartphones, use of mHealth apps and tools, and willingness to participate in mHealth research has the potential to curb the obesity epidemic by participating in mHealth weight management programs and research.
Choice of osteoblast model critical for studying the effects of electromagnetic stimulation on osteogenesis in vitro

ABSTRACT The clinical benefits of electromagnetic field (EMF) therapy in enhancing osteogenesis have been acknowledged for decades, but agreement regarding the underlying mechanisms continues to be sought. Studies have shown EMFs to promote osteoblast-like cell proliferation, or contrarily, to induce differentiation and enhance mineralization. Typically these disparities have been attributed to methodological differences. The present paper argues the possibility that the chosen osteoblast model impacts stimulation outcome. Phenotypically immature cells, particularly at low seeding densities, appear to be prone to EMF-amplified proliferation. Conversely, mature cells at higher densities seem to be predisposed to earlier onset differentiation and mineralization. This suggests that EMFs augment ongoing processes in cell populations. To test this hypothesis, mature SaOS-2 cells and immature MC3T3-E1 cells at various densities, with or without osteo-induction, were exposed to sinusoidal 50 Hz EMF. The exposure stimulated the proliferation of MC3T3-E1 and inhibited the proliferation of SaOS-2 cells. Baseline alkaline phosphatase (ALP) expression of SaOS-2 cells was high and rapidly further increased with EMF exposure, whereas ALP effects in MC3T3-E1 cells were not seen until the second week. Thus both cell types responded differently to EMF stimulation, corroborating the hypothesis that the phenotypic maturity and culture stage of cells influence stimulation outcome.
SVM versus Least Squares SVM

We study the relationship between Support Vector Machines (SVM) and Least Squares SVM (LS-SVM). Our main result shows that under mild conditions, LS-SVM for binaryclass classifications is equivalent to the hard margin SVM based on the well-known Mahalanobis distance measure. We further study the asymptotics of the hard margin SVM when the data dimensionality tends to infinity with a fixed sample size. Using recently developed theory on the asymptotics of the distribution of the eigenvalues of the covariance matrix, we show that under mild conditions, the equivalence result holds for the traditional Euclidean distance measure. These equivalence results are further extended to the multi-class case. Experimental results confirm the presented theoretical analysis.