Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Re-Examining Phonetic Variability in Native and Non-Native Speech

Abstract Background/Aims: Non-native speech is frequently characterized as being more variable than native speech. However, the few studies that have directly investigated phonetic variability in the speech of second language learners have considered a limited subset of native/non-native language pairings and few linguistic features. Methods: The present study examines group-level withinspeaker variability and central tendencies in acoustic properties of vowels andstops produced by learners of Japanese from two native language backgrounds, English and Mandarin, as well as native Japanese speakers. Results: Results show that non-native speakers do not always exhibit more phonetic variability than native speakers, but rather that patterns of variability are specific to individual linguistic features and their instantiations in L1 and L2. Conclusion: Adopting this more nuanced approach to variability offers important enhancements to several areas of linguistic theory.
Patient Functional Status at Transplant and Its Impact on Posttransplant Survival of Adult Deceased-donor Kidney Recipients

Background. Recorded at the time of transplant and reported to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, patient’s functional status is measured using the Karnofsky performance score (KPS), ranging 0 to 100. Functional status analysis may provide insights on candidate listing and posttransplant survival outcomes for deceased-donor kidney transplants. Methods. The cohort consisted of adult deceased-donor kidney transplant recipients transplanted beginning January 2007. One-year and 3-year Cox models for posttransplant survival were fitted with current Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) variables and KPS. Comparative analyses were performed between the SRTR model without KPS and augmented model with it. Using the augmented model, we examined the impact of Kidney Donor Profile Index on posttransplant survivals for 5 different KPS strata: 10 to 30, 40 to 50, 60 to 70, 80 to 90, and 100. Results. Comparative analyses showed that KPS was a statistically significant predictor for posttransplant survival: it improved model calibration, discrimination, and predictive accuracy. From the augmented model, the survival curves illustrated that recipients with KPS 40 to 50 and kidneys with Kidney Donor Profile Index as high as 99 have expected survival probabilities of above 90% in 1 year and above 80% in 3 years. The expected survival probabilities improve as KPS increases. Recipients with KPS 10 to 30 have the worst survival probability, even if they received high-quality kidneys. Conclusions. Insights from the survival analyses recommend possible inclusion of functional status into SRTR’s risk-adjusted models. Moreover, they invite further examination of its use to improve current listing and transplantation strategies at transplant centers and potentially reduce deceased-donor kidney discard rate.
The effect of shift work on eating habits: a systematic review.

Objective This systematic review aimed to evaluate the association between shift work and eating habits. Methods The protocol was registered in PROSPERO (number 42015024680). PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched for published reports. Of 2432 identified articles, 33 observational studies met the inclusion criteria. Their methodological approaches were assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Data were extracted using a standardized form. Studies were considered to have a low or a high risk of bias according to a percentage score of quality. Results The majority of the studies presented a quality score of <70% and a high risk of bias for comparability, sample selection and non-respondents. Shift workers show changes in meal patterns, skipping more meals and consuming more food at unconventional times. They also show higher consumption of unhealthy foods, such as saturated fats and soft drinks. Conclusions This review suggests that shift work can affect the quality of workers' diets, but new studies, especially longitudinal studies, which examine the time of exposure to shift work, the duration of the workday and sleep patterns, are necessary to confirm this association.
Communicating Using Spatial Mode Multiplexing: Potentials, Challenges, and Perspectives

Time, polarization, and wavelength multiplexing schemes have been used to satisfy the growing need of transmission capacity. Using space as a new dimension for communication systems has been recently suggested as a versatile technique to address future bandwidth issues. We review the potentials of harnessing the space as an additional degree of freedom for communication applications including free space optics, optical fiber installation, underwater wireless optical links, on-chip interconnects, data center indoor connections, radio frequency, and acoustic communications. We focus on the orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes and equally identify the challenges related to each of the applications of spatial modes and the particular OAM modes in communication. We further discuss the perspectives of this emerging technology. Finally, we provide the open research directions and discuss the practical deployment of OAM communication links for different applications.
Age at puberty and risk of asthma: A Mendelian randomisation study

Background Observational studies on pubertal timing and asthma, mainly performed in females, have provided conflicting results about a possible association of early puberty with higher risk of adult asthma, possibly due to residual confounding. To overcome issues of confounding, we used Mendelian randomisation (MR), i.e., genetic variants were used as instrumental variables to estimate causal effects of early puberty on post-pubertal asthma in both females and males. Methods and findings MR analyses were performed in UK Biobank on 243,316 women using 254 genetic variants for age at menarche, and on 192,067 men using 46 variants for age at voice breaking. Age at menarche, recorded in years, was categorised as early (<12), normal (12–14), or late (>14); age at voice breaking was recorded and analysed as early (younger than average), normal (about average age), or late (older than average). In females, we found evidence for a causal effect of pubertal timing on asthma, with an 8% increase in asthma risk for early menarche (odds ratio [OR] 1.08; 95% CI 1.04 to 1.12; p = 8.7 × 10−5) and an 8% decrease for late menarche (OR 0.92; 95% CI 0.89 to 0.97; p = 3.4 × 10−4), suggesting a continuous protective effect of increasing age at puberty. In males, we found very similar estimates of causal effects, although with wider confidence intervals (early voice breaking: OR 1.07; 95% CI 1.00 to 1.16; p = 0.06; late voice breaking: OR 0.93; 95% CI 0.87 to 0.99; p = 0.03). We detected only modest pleiotropy, and our findings showed robustness when different methods to account for pleiotropy were applied. BMI may either introduce pleiotropy or lie on the causal pathway; secondary analyses excluding variants associated with BMI yielded similar results to those of the main analyses. Our study relies on self-reported exposures and outcomes, which may have particularly affected the power of the analyses on age at voice breaking. Conclusions This large MR study provides evidence for a causal detrimental effect of early puberty on asthma, and does not support previous observational findings of a U-shaped relationship between pubertal timing and asthma. Common biological or psychological mechanisms associated with early puberty might explain the similarity of our results in females and males, but further research is needed to investigate this. Taken together with evidence for other detrimental effects of early puberty on health, our study emphasises the need to further investigate and address the causes of the secular shift towards earlier puberty observed worldwide.
Emotional intelligence and anxiety, stress, and depression in Iranian resident physicians

Background: Residency is one of the most critical periods of medical education. Residents are susceptible in high risk for mental problems which can affect the doctor–patient relationship. Emotional intelligence (EI) correlates closely with stress and mental health. Considering the important role of EI in medical education and with regard to lack of studies in this group in Iran, this study conducted to determine the relationship between EI and stress, anxiety, and depression in a sample of resident physician in our university of medical sciences. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 245 residents were invited, but only100 questionnaires were analyzed, and the response rate was 41%. From this, 26 were men and 74 were women. Bar-on EI questionnaire, Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21, for evaluating the stress, anxiety, and depression and demographic characteristics were used. Results: The mean score of EI in resident physician was 330.24 ± 38.5. The mean score of stress, anxiety, and depression was 17.8 ± 8.6, 10.04 ± 7.99, and 10.49 ± 8.67 respectively. There was a negative relation between mean score of anxiety (R = −0.0525), stress (R = −0.639), and depression (R = −0.644) with a mean score of EI. Conclusion: Higher EI appears to be good predictors of lower stress, anxiety, and depression in resident physician.
Healing Effects of Dried and Acellular Human Amniotic Membrane and Mepitelas for Coverage of Skin Graft Donor Areas; A Randomized Clinical Trial

Objective: To compare the healing effects of dried and acellular human amniotic membrane and Mepitel for coverage of split-thickness graft donor site (STGDS). Methods: Twenty patients who underwent STGDS regeneration surgery in identical anatomic regions were enrolled in this randomized controlled clinical trial conducted in Hazrate Fatemeh hospital (Iran). Patients were randomly assigned in 3 groups of wound dressing; group A by Mepitel, group B AmiCare (Dried amniotic membrane) and group C OcuReg-A (Acellular amniotic membrane). Re-epithelization rate (healing time), pain sensation, scar formation and infection rate were assessed till complete healing was achieved. Results: Our results showed no significant difference between Amicare, OcuReg-A and Mepitel in the features analyzed by us including: Re-epithelization rate (healing time) P value; 0.573, Pain sensation P value: day 4 th: 0.131, day8 th: 0.93 and day 12 th: 0.365, Scar formation P value>0.05and Infection rate. Conclusion: Our findings confirmed the safety and efficacy of AmiCare (dried amniotic membrane) and OcuReg-A (Acellular amniotic membrane) in treatment of split-thickness donor site in comparison with Mepitel as a standard wound dressing. Trial registration number: IRCT201511118177N12
Liquid Biopsy in Endometrial Cancer: New Opportunities for Personalized Oncology

The identification of new molecular targets and biomarkers associated with high risk of recurrence and response to therapy represents one of the main clinical challenges in the management of advanced disease in endometrial cancer. In this sense, the field of liquid biopsy has emerged as a great revolution in oncology and is considered “the way” to reach personalised medicine. In this review, we discuss the promising but already relatively limited advances of liquid biopsy in endometrial cancer compared to other types of tumours like breast, colorectal or prostate cancer. We present recent data analysing circulating tumour material in minimally-invasive blood samples, but also in alternative forms of liquid biopsy like uterine aspirates. Proteomic and genomic studies focused on liquid-based uterine samples are resulting not only in optimal diagnostic tools but also in reliable approaches to address tumour heterogeneity. Likewise, circulating tumour cells (CTCs) and circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) represent an opportunity for the correct stratification of patients, for the assessment of early recurrent disease or for the real-time monitoring of therapy responses. Appropriately designed studies and implementation in clinical trials will determine the value of liquid biopsy for precision oncology in endometrial cancer.
Reintervention Rates After Myomectomy, Endometrial Ablation, and Uterine Artery Embolization for Patients with Uterine Fibroids

Abstract Background: Women with uterine fibroids (UF) may undergo less invasive procedures than hysterectomy, including myomectomy, endometrial ablation (EA), and uterine artery embolization (UAE); however, long-term need for reintervention is not well characterized. We estimated reintervention rates for 5 years and identified predictors of reintervention. Materials and Methods: A longitudinal retrospective cohort study was conducted in women in MarketScan® Commercial Claims and Encounters (Truven Health Analytics) aged 18–49 years with UF diagnosis before myomectomy, EA, or UAE from 2008 to 2014. Patients were categorized by initial procedure (index date) and required to have ≥12 months of continuous coverage before and after. Kaplan–Meier analyses and Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate survival without reintervention and hazard of reintervention for 5 years. Results: The study included 35,631 women with myomectomy (n = 13,804: 8,018 abdominal, 941 hysteroscopic, and 4,845 laparoscopic), EA (n = 17,198), and UAE (n = 4,629). Myomectomy had the lowest 12-month reintervention rate (4.2%), followed by UAE (7.0%), then EA (12.4%; both p < 0.001 relative of myomectomy). Estimates of 5-year reintervention rates were 19% for myomectomy (17%, 28%, and 20% for abdominal, hysteroscopic, and laparoscopic, respectively), 33% for EA, and 24% for UAE. EA and UAE had adjusted hazard ratios of 2.63 (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.44–2.83) and 1.56 (95% CI, 1.42–1.72). Prior anemia, bleeding, pelvic inflammatory disease, and abdominal and pelvic pain increased the hazard of reintervention. Conclusion: Reintervention rate estimates ranged from 17% to 33% for 5 years after myomectomy, EA, and UAE for patients with UF. Risk of requiring reintervention should be considered during treatment selection.
The Changing Face of Primary Hyperparathyroidism

There has been a considerable change in the expression of PHPT over the past eight decades. Initially, there has been an increase and subsequently a decrease in the apparent incidence and prevalence of PHPT in western countries. [1] Yeh et al. later noted that the prevalence of PHPT had tripled after the use of biochemistry autoanalyzers. [2] The clinical spectrum of PHPT has undergone a striking change with asymptomatic form being more prevalent in the developed countries, whereas symptomatic form being more prevalent in the developing countries.
Promising therapeutic effect of gold nanoparticles against dinitrobenzene sulfonic acid-induced colitis in rats.

AIM The aim of this study is to evaluate the therapeutic effect of two different doses of naked gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) in the experimental colitis in rats. MATERIALS & METHODS Colitis was induced in rats by single intracolonic instillation of dinitro-benzene sulfonic acid (250 μl DNBS-25 mg/rat). Four days later the rats were intravenously injected with a single dose of AuNPs 40 and 400 μg/kg of size 16-25 nm. RESULTS In comparison with dinitro-benzene sulfonic acid-colitis group, the exposure to AuNPs for 72 h ameliorated the liver and kidney functions, increased the regenerative capacity of damaged colon tissues, suppressed the inflammatory cytokine response and diminished the colonic malondialdehyde and myeloperoxidase activities. In addition, there was a remarkable improvement in the antioxidant defense system. CONCLUSION Our study suggested a new therapy for experimental colitis without noticeable drawbacks.
Limitations of P-Values and R-squared for Stepwise Regression Building: A Fairness Demonstration in Health Policy Risk Adjustment

ABSTRACT Stepwise regression building procedures are commonly used applied statistical tools, despite their well-known drawbacks. While many of their limitations have been widely discussed in the literature, other aspects of the use of individual statistical fit measures, especially in high-dimensional stepwise regression settings, have not. Giving primacy to individual fit, as is done with p-values and R2, when group fit may be the larger concern, can lead to misguided decision making. One of the most consequential uses of stepwise regression is in health care, where these tools allocate hundreds of billions of dollars to health plans enrolling individuals with different predicted health care costs. The main goal of this “risk adjustment” system is to convey incentives to health plans such that they provide health care services fairly, a component of which is not to discriminate in access or care for persons or groups likely to be expensive. We address some specific limitations of p-values and R2 for high-dimensional stepwise regression in this policy problem through an illustrated example by additionally considering a group-level fairness metric.
Homeostatic impact of sulfite and hydrogen sulfide on cysteine catabolism

Cysteine is one of the two key sulfur‐containing amino acids with important functions in redox homeostasis, protein functionality and metabolism. Cysteine is taken up by mammals via their diet and can also be derived from methionine via the transsulfuration pathway. The cellular concentration of cysteine is kept within a narrow range by controlling its synthesis and degradation. There are two pathways for the catabolism of cysteine leading to sulfate, taurine and thiosulfate as terminal products. The oxidative pathway produces taurine and sulfate, while the H2S pathway involves different enzymatic reactions leading to the formation and clearance of H2S, an important signalling molecule in mammals, resulting in thiosulfate and sulfate. Sulfite is a common intermediate in both catabolic pathways. Sulfite is considered as cytotoxic and produces neurotoxic S‐sulfonates. As a result, a deficiency in the terminal steps of cysteine or H2S catabolism leads to severe forms of encephalopathy with the accumulation of sulfite and H2S in the body. This review links the homeostatic regulation of both cysteine catabolic pathways to sulfite and H2S.
Cognitive Interference Alignment Schemes for IoT Oriented Heterogeneous Two-Tier Networks

This paper considers interference management and capacity improvement for Internet of Things (IoT) oriented two-tier networks by exploiting cognition between network tiers with interference alignment (IA). More specifically, we target our efforts on the next generation two-tier networks, where a tier of femtocell serving multiple IoT devices shares the licensed spectrum with a tier of pre-existing macrocell via a cognitive radio. Aiming to manage the cross-tier interference caused by cognitive spectrum sharing as well as ensure an optimal capacity of the femtocell, two novel self-organizing cognitive IA schemes are proposed. First, we propose an interference nulling based cognitive IA scheme. In such a scheme, both co-tier and cross-tier interferences are aligned into the orthogonal subspace at each IoT receiver, which means all the interference can be perfectly eliminated without causing any performance degradation on the macrocell. However, it is known that the interference nulling based IA algorithm achieves its optimum only in high signal to noise ratio (SNR) scenarios, where the noise power is negligible. Consequently, when the imposed interference-free constraint on the femtocell can be relaxed, we also present a partial cognitive IA scheme that further enhances the network performance under a low and intermediate SNR. Additionally, the feasibility conditions and capacity analyses of the proposed schemes are provided. Both theoretical and numerical results demonstrate that the proposed cognitive IA schemes outperform the traditional orthogonal precoding methods in terms of network capacity, while preserving for macrocell users the desired quality of service.
Underwater Acoustic Ecology Metrics in an Alaska Marine Protected Area Reveal Marine Mammal Communication Masking and Management Alternatives

Vessel-generated underwater noise can affect humpback whales, harbor seals and other marine mammals by decreasing the distance over which they can communicate and detect predators and prey. Emerging analytical methods allow marine protected area managers to use biologically relevant metrics to assess vessel noise in the dominant frequency bands used by each species. Glacier Bay National Park (GBNP) in Alaska controls summer visitation with daily quotas for vessels ranging from cruise ships to yachts and skiffs. Using empirical data (weather, AIS vessel tracks, marine mammal survey data and published behavioral parameters) we simulated the movements and acoustic environment of whales and seals on three days with differing amounts of vessel traffic and natural ambient noise. We modeled communication space (CS) to compare the area over which a vocalizing humpback whale or harbor seal could communicate with conspecifics in the current ambient noise environment (at 10-min intervals) relative to how far it could communicate under naturally quiet conditions, known as the reference ambient noise condition (RA). RA was approximated from the quietest 5th percentile noise statistics based on a year (2011) of continuous audio data from a hydrophone in GBNP, in the frequency bands of whale and seal sounds of interest: humpback “whup” calls (50-700 Hz, 143 dB re 1 µPa source level, SL); humpback song (224-708 Hz, 175 dB SL), and harbor seal roars (40-500 Hz, 144 dB SL). Results indicate that typical summer vessel traffic in GBNP causes substantial CS losses to singing whales (reduced by 13-28%), calling whales (18-51%) and roaring seals (32-61%), especially during daylight hours and even in the absence of cruise ships. Synchronizing the arrival and departure timing of cruise ships did not affect CS for singing whales, but restored 5 – 12% of lost CS for roaring seals and calling whales, respectively. Metrics and visualizations like these create a common currency to describe and explore methods to assess and mitigate anthropogenic noise. Important next steps toward facilitating effective conservation of the underwater sound environments will involve putting modeling tools in the hands of marine protected area managers for ongoing use.
Motorcycle detection and classification in urban Scenarios using a model based on Faster R-CNN

This paper introduces a Deep Learning Convolutional Neutral Network model based on Faster-RCNN for motorcycle detection and classification on urban environments. The model is evaluated in occluded scenarios where more than 60% of the vehicles present a degree of occlusion. For training and evaluation, we introduce a new dataset of 7500 annotated images, captured under real traffic scenes, using a drone mounted camera. Several tests were carried out to design the network, achieving promising results of 75% in average precision (AP), even with the high number of occluded motorbikes, the low angle of capture and the moving camera. The model is also evaluated on low occlusions datasets, reaching results of up to 92% in AP.