Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Novel Method for Modeling Hierarchical Developmental Toxicity Data and Calculating Joint Risk BMDs Based on the Plackett-Dale Distribution

In developmental toxicity studies, multiple levels of correlation exist between multiple outcomes of interest, complicating the estimation of models and risk assessment for data collected from these studies. The first chapter describes these multiple layers of correlation, the problems that arise from them, and provides a detailed literature review of the statistical methodology developed in order to address these problems. The second chapter presents a method for modeling death and malformation outcomes based on the bivariate Plackett-Dale distribution. The method defines three association parameters to describe all litter-level correlations, and then derives bivariate Plackett-Dale distributions based on these three associations. A pseudolikelihood based on the probability mass functions of these distributions is used as a basis for estimating the model parameters for death and malformation as well as the three association parameters. The model relaxes the conditional independence assumption and, unlike methods assuming an underlying latent normal distribution, allows for assuming death and malformation following a Bernoulli distribution. The method is applied to two different datasets and compared to other methods. The third chapter examines the small sample behavior of the proposed model in chapter two with simulations. A comparison to other methods, as well as an examination of the robustness of the model to misspecification of second order parameters is also presented. The fourth chapter proposes a method for joint risk estimation for the proposed
Attitudes, Behavior, and Comfort of Emergency Medicine Residents in Caring for LGBT Patients: What Do We Know?

Although lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) patients are ubiquitous in emergency medicine (EM), little education is provided to EM physicians on LGBT health care needs and disparities. There is also limited information on EM physician behavior, comfort, and attitudes toward LGBT patients. The objective of this study was to assess EM residents behavior, comfort, and attitudes in LGBT health.
Factors predicting weight loss and weight gain in bariatric surgery patients

Obesity has become an epidemic in the United States that can result in problems in multiple areas o f an individual’s life. Bariatric surgery has been shown to be an effective weight loss treatment for obese and morbidly obese individuals; however, although many individuals obtain long-term weight loss success after surgery, there is a percentage of patients who do not obtain the expected weight loss or end up regaining the weight they had initially lost. In an attempt to identify those who may be at risk for poorer results after bariatric surgery, most surgeons require that an individual undergo a psychological evaluation before they are approved for surgery. Previous research has attempted to identify specific factors assessed in the psychological evaluation that may be used to identify those patients who are at risk for poorer surgery outcomes; however, results have been contradictory. This study examined whether specific psychological variables obtained during the psychological evaluation for gastric bypass surgery, specifically, scores on measures of disordered eating behavior, anxiety, and depression, could be used to predict short and long-term success post-surgery, as measured by the percentage of excess weight loss (EWL). This study also examined the role that behaviors engaged in after surgery: binge eating, night eating, grazing, and alcohol use play in longer term bariatric surgery success. The results o f the present study did not support the majority o f the hypotheses. Anxiety and depression was not found to be a predictor o f EWL in the majority o f hypotheses; however, anxiety post-surgery was found to predict EWL at two points post-surgery. There were some interesting significant findings when examining the variables measuring disordered eating and health. Results showed that the Binge Eating Scale and the Night Eating Questionnaire were negatively correlated with the percentage o f excess weight loss at various points post-surgery. The results also showed that excess weight loss was correlated with physical and mental health. Additionally, the Grazing Questionnaire was found to be positively correlated with the Binge Eating Scale. APPROVAL FOR SCHOLARLY DISSEMINATION The author grants to the Prescott Memorial Library o f Louisiana Tech University the right to reproduce, by appropriate methods, upon request, any or all portions of this Dissertation. It is understood that “proper request” consists o f the agreement, on the part o f the requesting party, that said reproduction is for his personal use and that subsequent reproduction will not occur without written approval o f the author o f this Dissertation. Further, any portions of the Dissertation used in books, papers, and other works must be appropriately referenced to this Dissertation. Finally, the author o f this Dissertation reserves the right to publish freely, in the literature, at any time, any or all portions o f this Dissertation. Author I , \ i n j)ScQ
On internal language representations in deep learning: an analysis of machine translation and speech recognition

Language technology has become pervasive in everyday life. Neural networks are a key component in this technology thanks to their ability to model large amounts of data. Contrary to traditional systems, models based on deep neural networks (a.k.a. deep learning) can be trained in an end-to-end fashion on input-output pairs, such as a sentence in one language and its translation in another language, or a speech utterance and its transcription. The end-to-end training paradigm simplifies the engineering process while giving the model flexibility to optimize for the desired task. This, however, often comes at the expense of model interpretability: understanding the role of different parts of the deep neural network is difficult, and such models are sometimes perceived as “black-box”, hindering research efforts and limiting their utility to society. This thesis investigates what kind of linguistic information is represented in deep learning models for written and spoken language. In order to study this question, I develop a unified methodology for evaluating internal representations in neural networks, consisting of three steps: training a model on a complex end-to-end task; generating feature representations from different parts of the trained model; and training classifiers on simple supervised learning tasks using the representations. I demonstrate the approach on two core tasks in human language technology: machine translation and speech recognition. I perform a battery of experiments comparing different layers, modules, and architectures in end-to-end models that are trained on these tasks, and evaluate their quality at different linguistic levels. First, I study how neural machine translation models learn morphological information. Second, I compare lexical semantic and part-of-speech information in neural machine translation. Third, I investigate where syntactic and semantic structures are captured
The effect of soluble guanylate cyclase activators and a nitric oxide releasing PDE 5 inhibitor on cavernosal and anococcygeal smooth muscle function in conditions of nitric oxide deficiency

Introduction: PDE5 inhibitors improve erections by potentiating nitric oxide (NO)- cyclic guanosine monophosphate system. However, long-term diabetic patients have reduced efficacy secondary to dysfunction of NO system. The aim of this thesis was to investigate in-vitro effects of a PDE5 inhibitor (sildenafil), a soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) activator (BAY41-2272) and an NO-releasing PDE5 inhibitor (NCX-911) on urogenital smooth muscle in conditions of NO deficiency. Method: The effect of these compounds was investigated on tone and electrical field stimulation-induced nitrergic relaxation of cavernosal (human and rabbit) and anococcygeal (rat) smooth muscle and compared to an NO donor (spermine-NONOate) and non-specific sGC activator (YC-1) in the absence/presence of inhibitor of NO synthesis (L-NAME) or inhibitor of sGC (ODQ). In a diabetic rat model, these compounds were assessed in untreated and L-NAME-treated tissues from non-diabetic and diabetic animals. Results: BAY41-2272 was more potent than YC-1 and spermine-NONOate at relaxing rabbit/human cavernosum. ODQ significantly decreased the potency of BAY41-2272 whereas L-NAME did not. BAY41-2272 potentiated nitrergic responses and partially reversed the inhibition of nitrergic responses by L-NAME. NCX-911 and sildenafil were equally potent at relaxing rabbit and human cavernosum. In presence of L-NAME the potency of sildenafil decreased significantly. Both compounds potentiated nitrergic relaxations equally but failed to induce relaxation in the presence of ODQ. Nitrergic relaxation was significantly decreased in the diabetic rats but still potentiated by BAY41-2272 but not by sildenafil or NCX-911. The potencies of NCX-911 and BAY41- 2272 were unaltered but that of sildenafil was significantly reduced in the diabetic animals. Conclusion: The rank of potency in control tissues was BAY41-2272 > NCX-11 = sildenafil; whereas in NO deficiency BAY 41-2272 > NCX-911 > sildenafil. Endogenous NO derived from nitrergic nerves is significantly decreased in diabetes. NO-releasing PDE5 inhibitors and sGC activators may be effective in management of diabetic erectile dysfunction.
It’s Like Scanning the Spoon: Problems and Interventions in Insulin Pen Safety

This paper describes a multifaceted patient safety project undertaken to address the complex medication safety issues of single-patient insulin pens in the hospital setting. The project makes the following contributions: a) provides observation- and data-based insight into root causes for the wrong pen/wrong patient problem; b) provides multiple solutions that can work together to significantly reduce the incidence of insulin pen-related safety events; c) shows how Quality and Safety methodologies can work hand-in-hand with human factors and human computer interaction methodologies to produce richer, more in depth results, and d) confirm expert recommendations for best practices that can reduce risks.
How anti-angiogenic drugs are able to induce resistance to their own therapeutic effect in human metastatic renal carcinoma

Anti-angiogenic drugs have proven to be efficient in most types of cancers, but secondary resistance is constantly observed, and mechanisms of resistance remain poorly understood in patients. In studies on human samples of renal cell carcinoma, our team recently demonstrated that sunitinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, was able to generate resistance to its own therapeutic effect in cancer stem cells via induced hypoxia. This review highlights the main perspectives for innovative therapeutic strategies to overcome acquired resistance to anti-angiogenic drugs: i) Should we adjust our protocols on the basis of the moment of onset of necrosis in the tumor? ii) Using hyperoxia to decrease the number of cancer stem-cells in the resistant metastasis and resensitize the tumor could be another innovative therapeutic perspective. iii) Why not directly target cancer stem-cells? Although many questions remain, the results of our study support cancer stem-cell evaluation in biopsies of patients treated with sunitinib, and further research on the role of hypoxia in tumors resistant to anti-angiogenic drugs.
Counselling and Therapy With Refugees: Psychological Problems of Victims of War, Torture, and Repression

I eagerly read this book written by a psychologist after seven years on the team of Social Psychiatric Services for Refugees in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. With the massive influx of refugees into the western world and the horrendous political repression, imprisonment, torture, violence, and killing, there is an urgent need for helping professionals and government officials to understand how totalitarian governments destroy hppe for democracy. This book is a welcome overview of healing attempts for refugees. We must look closely at the effect of torture on men, women, and children. No more copouts like the euphemistic oxymoron "compassion fatigue," the buzzword in Washington. There are islands of dedicated people at torture centers for legal and illegal refugees in Europe and throughout the United States. This book covers a vast area of psychological theory and treatment methods for traumatized, uprooted people. It is readable but is an almost overwhelming condensation for
Pterygium excision with suture-free, glue-free conjunctival autograft (SFGF-CAG): Experience of a tertiary care hospital of the Northern India

Aim: To evaluate and analyze the surgical outcome of suture-free, glue-free conjunctival autograft (SFGF-CAG) after pterygium excision. Design: Prospective, interventional, hospital-based study. Materials and Methods: Sixty eyes of sixty patients with primary pterygium were graded, and excision was performed by the single surgeon. To prevent recurrence, free CAG was taken from inferotemporal or inferior quadrant from the same eye and bare sclera was covered without the use of sutures or fibrin glue, allowing natural autologous coagulum of the recipient bed to act as a bioadhesive. The eye was patched for 24 h. Postoperatively, patients were put on topical eye drops (moxifloxacin 0.5%, loteprednol etabonate 0.5%, and carboxymethyl cellulose 1%) for 6 weeks. The outcomes were assessed in terms of any recurrence, complication(s), and operative time at each follow-up visit on day 1, 7, 15, 30, 120, and 180. Results: There were 44 females (73%) and 16 males (27%). The mean age of all the patients was 38.92 ± 11.2 years, range 18–60 years. Cosmetic blemish was the chief indication of surgery (42 eyes, 70%). Recurrence occurred in one eye (2%) and graft-related complication took place in one eye (2%; graft dehiscence). Resurgery was required in the latter (2%) as the former refused the same. No other complication was noted. An average surgical time was 16 ± 2 min. Conclusion: The recurrence, complication rate, and the operative time of SFGF CAG seem to be comparable with the current techniques in practice, without adding possible potential hazard of the surgical adjunct.
Beyond Lateralization: Sensory-Motor Control of Speech Production.

Author(s): Kort, Naomi Sophia | Advisor(s): Nagarajan, Srikantan S | Abstract: The task of speaking is the translation of thoughts into an acoustic wave through the coordination of hundreds of muscles. Sensory-motor transformations are continuously occurring during ongoing speech as feedback is monitored and errors in production are rapidly recognized and corrected. While it is known that auditory feedback is used to monitor and maintain proper pitch production, the neural control of this important aspect of speech production remains poorly understood. Modulation of the timing and frequency of vocal pitch conveys important semantic and affective information during speaking. The goal of this thesis was to study sensory-motor control of speech production by examining the neural circuits involved in the auditory feedback control of pitch. In order to achieve this aim we used a combination of magnetoencephalography (MEG) and real-time pitch altered auditory feedback. To this end, we conducted a series of experiments to understand the real-time cortical monitoring of one's own speech production, the recognition of errors in auditory feedback, the cortical processing of these errors, and the motor (and subsequently acoustic) compensatory change. In this series of studies we have described the cortical networks and their mechanisms in monitoring auditory feedback during speech production. We have demonstrated that the cortical monitoring of the onset of a vocalization occurs with the suppression of auditory, cerebellar and frontal regions in both the left and right hemisphere. We showed this suppression is released when the perceived auditory feedback does not match the expected auditory feedback. We investigated the cortical networks involved in monitoring ongoing productions for errors in feedback, and the behavioral and cortical response when an error is perceived. We have shown that while the cortical networks monitoring the onset of speech and mid-utterance are overlapping, that these networks have distinct timing, patterns of response, and anatomical locations. Importantly, both feedback monitoring and motor control of speech at onset and mid-utterance show changes in cortical dynamics in both hemispheres. Feedback control of pitch during a mid-utterance error has corresponding increased inter-hemispheric communication. The work in this thesis provides evidence that inter-hemispheric communication is important for the feedback control of vocal pitch production.
Addressing the Challenges of Ageing in Africa

Abstract In the past, the elderly in African societies performed very important roles, which facilitated societal growth and development. They were regarded as major contributors to virtually all aspects of their societies. However, over the years, they lost the recognition traditionally accorded them in the general scheme of things. This has created some negative impacts on the aging population in the region. This paper, therefore, examines the problems facing the elderly in contemporary African societies in view of the ongoing social change and transformation in the area. Review shows that the elderly face a number of challenges. It is recommended that governments of African countries should create welfare programmes for the elderly in their respective countries through appropriate legislations.
Writing titles in applied linguistics: A comparative study of theses and research articles

Title is the proof of identity of any academic work without which the work would hardly find space in the intended discourse community. Despite studies on their nature, the generic characteristics of titles have not been adequately considered. Realizing the need for more empirical investigation, this study focused on the titles of theses and articles in Applied Linguistics. Assuming that titles of theses and articles have little in common as far as their communicative purposes are concerned, the study took into account as many as 1871 thesis and article titles. The titles were categorized according to their varying structural constructions and informativeness. The thesis titles appeared to be more informative while the article titles demonstrated greater variation in their structures. The marked differences in writing titles and the dearth of accepted norms for title writing suggest provision of more comprehensive guidelines would be of benefit to researchers.
City brain: practice of large‐scale artificial intelligence in the real world

A city is an aggregate of a huge amount of heterogeneous data. However, extracting meaningful values from that data remains a challenge. City Brain is an end-to-end system whose goal is to glean irreplaceable values from big city data, specifically from videos, with the assistance of rapidly evolving artificial intelligence technologies and fast-growing computing capacity. From cognition to optimisation, to decision-making, from search to prediction and ultimately, to intervention, City Brain improves the way to manage the city, as well as the way to live in it. In this study, the authors introduce current practices of the City Brain platform in a few cities in China, including what they can do to achieve the goal and make it a reality. Then they focus on the system overview and key technical details of each component of the City Brain system, from cognition to intervention. Lastly, they present a few deployment cases of City Brain in various cities in China.
Dietary Intake Adequacy of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Rural Communities of Imo State, Nigeria

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) among rural dwellers depletes quality of agricultural labour, and reduces quality of life. Use of Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) has not significantly reduced consequences of infection, as the effort is being compromised by inadequate dietary intake. This study analysed the dietary intake of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in rural communities of Imo State, Nigeria. Data was collected from 114 PLWHA randomly selected from members of two rural support groups with high prevalence of HIV in Imo State using interview schedule. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson product moment correlation, and t-test at α 0.05 . Mean involvement in agriculture was 12.7 and reduced to 7.0 after infection. Extent of involvement in agriculture significantly reduced after infection in Imo (t=8.1). Health status of 42.1% of PLWHA was perceived as poor. Diet diversity score (4.3±1.6) was low among majority (62.3%) of the PLWHA, with diet of 76.3% being inadequate. However, perceived health status had no significant correlation with dietary intake (r=0.09). The study concluded that diet of PLWHA in Imo State was inadequate, thus there is need for extension to collaborate with the health sector to develop nutritional guideline for PLWHA in rural communities.
Development of the tensor model of multipath qоe-routing in an infocommunication network with providing the required quality rating

This work has solved a relevant task to ensure the required level of quality of experience in an infocommunication network, which implied the development of a mathematical model of the multipath QoE-routing while maintaining the required quality rating. In this case, quality rating calculation requires the introduction to the mathematical model of routing of additional conditions for obtaining the indicators of an end-to-end delay and a packet loss probability. To this end, it is advisable to use the tensor formalization of these conditions when implementing a multipath routing strategy. Such a technique for expanding the mathematical models (introduction of additional analytical conditions) is more flexible and would full account for the complexity of relationship between network parameters within QoE. Given this, the quality of experience of speech transmission is not defined by the absolute values of delays and loss probabilities, but rather by their relationship. The result of studying the proposed model is the calculated quantitative indicator for a quality rating, which, compared to recommended indicators according to existing recommendations, makes it possible to evaluate the execution of the predefined level of QoE. In other words, given the preset intensity of traffic in a network, we calculated indicators for the average end-to-end delay and a packet loss probability, which make it possible to assess the quality of experience in terms of a quality rating and indicate the efficiency of the proposed solution. And, on the contrary, owing to the developed model of QoE-routing, it has become possible to control the probability of losses and the average end-to-end packet delay in an infocommunication network in order to ensure meeting the specified QoE-requirements. In addition, a comparative analysis was performed of a flow model of multipath routing based on using the IGRP metric, which made it possible to assess the effectiveness of the proposed solution and demonstrated better performance in terms of a quality rating by 12 to 25 % depending on the source data.