Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Weight Gain During Treatment of Bipolar Disorder (BD)—Facts and Therapeutic Options

Bipolar disorder (BPD) is a mood disorder, which is characterized by alternating affective states, namely (hypo)mania, depression, and euthymia. Evidence is growing that BPD has indeed a biologic substrate characterized by chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, and disturbed energy metabolism. Apart from this, there is obviously a hereditary component of this disease with multi-genetic factors. Most probably a susceptibility threshold favors the outbreak of clinical disease after a cascade of stress events that remain to be elucidated in more detail. Evidence is also growing that weak points in brain energy metabolism contribute to outbreak and severity of BPD. Conventional psychopharmacologic therapy must be reassessed under the aspects of weight cycling and development of central obesity as a deterioration factor for a worse clinical course leading to early cardiovascular events in BPD subgroups.
Global Change Sharpens the Double-Edged Sword Effect of Aquatic Alien Plants in China and Beyond

Many alien aquatic plants are deliberately introduced because they have economic, ornamental, or environmental values; however, they may also negatively affect aquatic ecosystems, by blocking rivers, restricting aquatic animals and plants by decreasing dissolved oxygen, and reducing native biodiversity. These positive and/or negative ecological effects may be enhanced under global change. Here, we examine the impacts of global change on aquatic alien plant introduction and/or invasions by reviewing their introduction pathways, distributions, and ecological effects. We focus on how climate change, aquatic environmental pollution, and China’s rapid economic growth in recent decades affect their uses and invasiveness in China. Among 55 species of alien aquatic plants in China, 10 species are invasive, such as Eichhornia crassipes, Alternanthera philoxeroides, and Pistia stratiotes. Most of these invaders were intentionally introduced and dispersed across the country but are now widely distributed and invasive. Under climate warming, many species have expanded their distributions to areas where it was originally too cold for their survival. Thus, these species are (and will be) considered to be beneficial plants in aquaculture and for the restoration of aquatic ecosystems (for water purification) across larger areas. However, for potential invasive species, climate warming is (and will be) increasing their invasion risk in more areas. In addition, nitrogen deposition and phosphorus inputs may also alter the status of some alien species. Furthermore, climate warming has shifted the interactions between alien aquatic plants and herbivores, thus impacting their future spreads. Under climate change, more precipitation in North China and more frequent flooding in South China will increase the uncertainties of ecological effects of alien aquatic plants in these regions. We also predict that, under the continuing booming economy in China, more and more alien aquatic plants will be used for aquatic landscaping and water purification. In conclusion, our study indicates that both human activities under rapid economic growth and climate change can either increase the potential uses of alien aquatic plants or make the aquatic invaders worse in China and other areas in the world. These findings are critical for future risk assessment of aquatic plant introduction and aquatic ecosystem restoration.
Assessing the Dynamics and Complexity of Disease Pathogenicity Using 4-Dimensional Immunological Data

Investigating disease pathogenesis and personalized prognostics are major biomedical needs. Because patients sharing the same diagnosis can experience different outcomes, such as survival or death, physicians need new personalized tools, including those that rapidly differentiate several inflammatory phases. To address these topics, a pattern recognition-based method (PRM) that follows an inverse problem approach was designed to assess, in <10 min, eight concepts: synergy, pleiotropy, complexity, dynamics, ambiguity, circularity, personalized outcomes, and explanatory prognostics (pathogenesis). By creating thousands of secondary combinations derived from blood leukocyte data, the PRM measures synergic, pleiotropic, complex and dynamic data interactions, which provide personalized prognostics while some undesirable features—such as false results and the ambiguity associated with data circularity-are prevented. Here, this method is compared to Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and evaluated with data collected from hantavirus-infected humans and birds that appeared to be healthy. When human data were examined, the PRM predicted 96.9 % of all surviving patients while PCA did not distinguish outcomes. Demonstrating applications in personalized prognosis, eight PRM data structures sufficed to identify all but one of the survivors. Dynamic data patterns also distinguished survivors from non-survivors, as well as one subset of non-survivors, which exhibited chronic inflammation. When the PRM explored avian data, it differentiated immune profiles consistent with no, early, or late inflammation. Yet, PCA did not recognize patterns in avian data. Findings support the notion that immune responses, while variable, are rather deterministic: a low number of complex and dynamic data combinations may be enough to, rapidly, unmask conditions that are neither directly observable nor reliably forecasted.
Likelihood Evaluation of Jump-Diffusion Models Using Deterministic Nonlinear Filters

Abstract In this study, we develop a deterministic nonlinear filtering algorithm based on a high-dimensional version of Kitagawa’s method to evaluate the likelihood function of models that allow for stochastic volatility and jumps whose arrival intensity is also stochastic. We show numerically that the deterministic filtering method is precise and much faster than the particle filter, in addition to yielding a smooth function over the parameter space. We then find the maximum likelihood estimates of various models that include stochastic volatility, jumps in the returns and variance, and also stochastic jump arrival intensity with the S&P 500 daily returns. During the Great Recession, the jump arrival intensity increases significantly and contributes to the clustering of volatility and negative returns.
The Relationship Between the Dark Triad Personality Traits, Motivation at Work, and Burnout Among HR Recruitment Workers

We focus on the Dark Triad personality traits (Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy) and their relationships to the mechanisms of motivation and level of burnout that people experience at work. From the motivational perspective, the needs associated with the Dark Triad traits might be satisfied in work environments by selecting different goals or motives. Moreover, the selection of different goals and motives may be related to the level of burnout syndrome that some people develop. We use the Short Dark Triad Personality Test, Barbuto’s Motivation Sources Inventory, and Oldenburg Burnout Inventory to measure triad traits, preferred work motives, and level of burnout, respectively. The results show that in general, some part of the relationship between the Dark Triad traits and burnout is mediated by the motivational sources. As expected, the Dark Triad traits are more closely related to external sources of motivation (especially instrumental motivation), which are in turn partly associated with higher levels of burnout. The results also suggest that the trajectory of the relationship between the Dark Triad traits and burnout via motivation sources is different from expected, presenting a background for discussion.
X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Emission from Core-collapse Supernovae: Comparison of Three-dimensional Neutrino-driven Explosions with SN 1987A

During the first few hundred days after the explosion, core-collapse supernovae (SNe) emit down-scattered X-rays and gamma-rays originating from radioactive line emissions, primarily from the 56Ni → 56Co → 56Fe chain. We use supernova (SN) models based on three-dimensional neutrino-driven explosion simulations of single stars and mergers to compute this emission and compare the predictions with observations of SN 1987A. A number of models are clearly excluded, showing that high-energy emission is a powerful way of discriminating between models. The best models are almost consistent with the observations, but differences that cannot be matched by a suitable choice of viewing angle are evident. Therefore, our self-consistent models suggest that neutrino-driven explosions are able to produce, in principle, sufficient mixing, although remaining discrepancies may require small changes to the progenitor structures. The soft X-ray cutoff is primarily determined by the metallicity of the progenitor envelope. The main effect of asymmetries is to vary the flux level by a factor of ∼3. For the more asymmetric models, the shapes of the light curves also change. In addition to the models of SN 1987A, we investigate two models of SNe II-P and one model of a stripped-envelope SN IIb. The Type II-P models have observables similar to those of the models of SN 1987A, but the stripped-envelope SN model is significantly more luminous and evolves faster. Finally, we make simple predictions for future observations of nearby SNe.
Using a Gratitude Intervention to Improve the Lives of Women With Breast Cancer: A Daily Diary Study

Gratitude can be understood in two ways: as a state of being grateful for things and people, and as a disposition. Research suggests that focusing on reasons for being grateful promotes various aspects of well-being. The present study examined the effectiveness of a gratitude intervention for women with breast cancer. Each day for 2 weeks, 42 women with breast cancer described their psychological well-being, social support, and coping strategies. Women in the intervention condition reported the reasons why they felt grateful that day. Moreover, all participants took part in a pre-test session where trait measures were taken to control for dispositional differences. Listing the reasons for gratitude led to higher levels of daily psychological functioning, greater perceived support, and greater use of adaptive coping strategies. These results suggest that gratitude interventions may improve the lives of oncological patients.
Towards Automatic Concept-based Explanations

Interpretability has become an important topic of research as more machine learning (ML) models are deployed and widely used to make important decisions. Most of the current explanation methods provide explanations through feature importance scores, which identify features that are important for each individual input. However, how to systematically summarize and interpret such per sample feature importance scores itself is challenging. In this work, we propose principles and desiderata for \emph{concept} based explanation, which goes beyond per-sample features to identify higher-level human-understandable concepts that apply across the entire dataset. We develop a new algorithm, ACE, to automatically extract visual concepts. Our systematic experiments demonstrate that \alg discovers concepts that are human-meaningful, coherent and important for the neural network's predictions.
Theoretical evidence for adversarial robustness through randomization: the case of the Exponential family

This paper investigates the theory of robustness against adversarial attacks. It focuses on the family of randomization techniques that consist in injecting noise in the network at inference time. These techniques have proven effective in many contexts, but lack theoretical arguments. We close this gap by presenting a theoretical analysis of these approaches, hence explaining why they perform well in practice. More precisely, we provide the first result relating the randomization rate to robustness to adversarial attacks. This result applies for the general family of exponential distributions, and thus extends and unifies the previous approaches. We support our theoretical claims with a set of experiments.
Dipeptidyl Peptidase 4 Inhibitors and the Risk of Bullous Pemphigoid Among Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE There are uncertainties regarding the association between dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitors and bullous pemphigoid (BP), a potentially severe autoimmune skin disease. Thus, we conducted a population-based study to determine whether use of DPP-4 inhibitors, when compared with other second- to third-line antidiabetic drugs, is associated with an increased risk of BP in patients with type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Using the U.K. Clinical Practice Research Datalink, we conducted a cohort study among 168,774 patients initiating antidiabetic drugs between January 2007 and March 2018. Using time-dependent Cox proportional hazards models, we estimated adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% CIs of incident BP associated with current use of DPP-4 inhibitors, compared with current use of other second- to third-line antidiabetic drugs. We also conducted a propensity score–matched analysis to assess the impact of residual confounding. RESULTS During 711,311 person-years of follow-up, 150 patients were newly diagnosed with BP (crude incidence rate, 21.1 per 100,000 person-years). Current use of DPP-4 inhibitors was associated with an increased risk of BP (47.3 vs. 20.0 per 100,000 person-years; HR 2.21 [95% CI 1.45–3.38]). HRs gradually increased with longer durations of use, reaching a peak after 20 months (HR 3.60 [95% CI 2.11–6.16]). Similar results were obtained in the propensity score–matched analysis (HR 2.40 [95% CI 1.13–4.66]). CONCLUSIONS In this large population-based study, use of DPP-4 inhibitors was associated with an at least doubling of the risk of BP in patients with type 2 diabetes, albeit the absolute risk was low.
Alzheimer’s Disease Associated Genes Ankyrin and Tau Cause Shortened Lifespan and Memory Loss in Drosophila

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia and is characterized by intracellular neurofibrillary tangles of hyperphosphorylated Tau, including the 0N4R isoform and accumulation of extracellular amyloid beta (Aβ) plaques. However, less than 5% of AD cases are familial, with many additional risk factors contributing to AD including aging, lifestyle, the environment and epigenetics. Recent epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) of AD have identified a number of loci that are differentially methylated in the AD cortex. Indeed, hypermethylation and reduced expression of the Ankyrin 1 (ANK1) gene in AD has been reported in the cortex in numerous different post-mortem brain cohorts. Little is known about the normal function of ANK1 in the healthy brain, nor the role it may play in AD. We have generated Drosophila models to allow us to functionally characterize Drosophila Ank2, the ortholog of human ANK1 and to determine its interaction with human Tau and Aβ. We show expression of human Tau 0N4R or the oligomerizing Aβ 42 amino acid peptide caused shortened lifespan, degeneration, disrupted movement, memory loss, and decreased excitability of memory neurons with co-expression tending to make the pathology worse. We find that Drosophila with reduced neuronal Ank2 expression have shortened lifespan, reduced locomotion, reduced memory and reduced neuronal excitability similar to flies overexpressing either human Tau 0N4R or Aβ42. Therefore, we show that the mis-expression of Ank2 can drive disease relevant processes and phenocopy some features of AD. Therefore, we propose targeting human ANK1 may have therapeutic potential. This represents the first study to characterize an AD-relevant gene nominated from EWAS.
BDNF association study with obsessive-compulsive disorder, its clinical characteristics, and response to fluvoxamine-treatment in Iranian patients.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic neuropsychiatric disorder with complex genetic inheritance. Findings suggest a role for brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in OCD, but reports are limited. Here we studied the association of BDNF polymorphisms rs6265 and rs2883187 with OCD and its clinical characteristics in Iranian patients as well as the fluvoxamine-treatment outcome of OCD patients. Iranian OCD patients who were diagnosed according to DSM-IV-TR entered the study. DNAs were extracted from blood samples and were genotyped by means of PCR-RFLP. A total of 200 OCD cases and 225 controls for rs6265 and 219 cases and 224 controls for rs2883187 were studied in the genetic association analysis. Pharmacotherapy was defined as 12 weeks treatment with fluvoxamine (daily dose: 150-300 mg), and patients were classified into 3 groups (responders, nonresponders, and refractory) based on the reduction in their Y-BOCS severity scores. Data of 94 patients for rs6265 and 106 patients for rs2883187 was analyzed to evaluate the association of these single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) with treatment response. A significant association was detected between the BDNF polymorphism rs2883187 and OCD (p = .00). The other BDNF polymorphism, rs6265, was not associated with OCD, but a weak association with the cleaning-contamination subtype was detected (p = .038). No association was detected between BDNF SNPs and sex, age of onset, and family history. None of the studied BDNF SNPs or their haplotypes were associated with fluvoxamine treatment response. Results propose BDNF SNP, rs2883187, as a candidate genetic factor in OCD but not in OCD treatment response with fluvoxamine. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
Spatial Resolution and Imaging Encoding fMRI Settings for Optimal Cortical and Subcortical Motor Somatotopy in the Human Brain

There is much controversy about the optimal trade-off between blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) sensitivity and spatial precision in experiments on brain’s topology properties using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The sparse empirical evidence and regional specificity of these interactions pose a practical burden for the choice of imaging protocol parameters. Here, we test in a motor somatotopy experiment the impact of fMRI spatial resolution on differentiation between body part representations in cortex and subcortical structures. Motor somatotopy patterns were obtained in a block-design paradigm and visually cued movements of face, upper and lower limbs at 1.5, 2, and 3 mm spatial resolution. The degree of segregation of the body parts’ spatial representations was estimated using a pattern component model. In cortical areas, we observed the same level of segregation between somatotopy maps across all three resolutions. In subcortical areas the degree of effective similarity between spatial representations was significantly impacted by the image resolution. The 1.5 mm 3D EPI and 3 mm 2D EPI protocols led to higher segregation between motor representations compared to the 2 mm 3D EPI protocol. This finding could not be attributed to differential BOLD sensitivity or delineation of functional areas alone and suggests a crucial role of the image encoding scheme – i.e., 2D vs. 3D EPI. Our study contributes to the field by providing empirical evidence about the impact of acquisition protocols for the delineation of somatotopic areas in cortical and sub-cortical brain regions.
Magic entanglement renormalization for quantum fields

Continuous tensor networks are variational wavefunctions proposed in recent years to efficiently simulate quantum field theories (QFTs). Prominent examples include the continuous matrix product state (cMPS) and the continuous multi-scale entanglement renormalization ansatz (cMERA). While the cMPS can approximate ground states of a class of QFT Hamiltonians that are both local and interacting, cMERA is only well-understood for QFTs that are quasi-local and non-interacting. In this paper we propose the magic cMERA, a concrete realization of cMERA for a free boson QFT that simultaneously satisfies four remarkable properties: (i) it is the exact ground state of a strictly local Hamiltonian; (ii) in the massless case, its spectrum of scaling operators is exactly soluble in real space; (iii) it has the short-distance structure of a cMPS; (iv) it is generated by a quasi-local entangler that can be written as a continuous matrix product operator. None of these properties is fulfilled by previous cMERA proposals. Properties (iii)-(iv) establish a firm connection between cMERA and cMPS wavefunctionals, opening the path to applying powerful cMPS numerical techniques, valid for interacting QFTs, also to cMERA calculations.
Sex-dependent effects of MC4R genotype on HPA axis tone: implications for stress-associated cardiometabolic disease

Abstract The melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) facilitates hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenocortical (HPA) axis responses to acute stress in male rodents and is a well known to regulator of energy balance. Mutations in the MC4R is the most common monogenic cause of obesity in humans and has been associated with sex-specific effects, but whether stress regulation by the MC4R is sex-dependent, and whether the MC4R facilitates HPA responses to chronic stress, is unknown. We hypothesized that MC4R-signaling contributes to HPA axis dysregulation and metabolic pathophysiology following chronic stress exposure. We measured changes in energy balance, HPA axis tone, and vascular remodeling during chronic variable stress (CVS) in male and female rats with MC4R loss-of-function. Rats were placed into three groups (n = 9–18/genotype/sex) and half of each group was subjected to CVS for 30 days or were non-stressed littermate controls. All rats underwent an acute restraint stress challenge on Day 30. Rats were euthanized on Day 31, adrenals collected for weight, and descending aortas fixed for morphological indices of vascular pathophysiology. We observed a marked interaction between Mc4r genotype and sex for basal HPA axis tone and acute stress responsivity. MC4R loss-of-function blunted both endpoints in males but exaggerated them in females. Contrary to our hypothesis, Mc4r genotype had no effect on either HPA axis responses or metabolic responses to chronic stress. Heightened stress reactivity of females with MC4R mutations suggests a possible mechanism for the sex-dependent effects associated with this mutation in humans and highlights how stress may differentially regulate metabolism in males and females. Lay summary The hypothalamic melanocortin system is an important regulator of energy balance and stress responses. Here, we report a sex-difference in the stress reactivity of rats with a mutation in this system. Our findings highlight how stress may regulate metabolism differently in males and females and may provide insight into sex-differences associated with this mutation in humans
Actives, passives and power: heteronormative gender norms and their implications for intimate partner violence among men who have sex with men in Tajikistan

Abstract Global research reveals that gender-role norms have a profound effect on socio- and psycho-sexual expression (e.g. sexual positioning) among gay and bisexual men, which in turn may affect mental health and sexual risks. However, little is known about these factors among gay and bisexual men in Muslim-majority countries such as Tajikistan. Using a combination of in-depth individual interviews and focus-group assessments, this exploratory, qualitative study examined how gender roles might function as a social determinant for the practice of sexual positioning, which in turn may influence intimate partner violence (IPV), sexual risk and relational power. Results suggest that being the ‘active’ partner in sexual relationships closely aligns with the construct of hegemonic masculinity, affording actives more power in male–male relationships which may in some cases result in IPV directed against ‘passives’. Despite this imbalance, passives also hold power in some cases, such as easier access to public resources such as the police and gay and bisexual focused services. Further research should examine gender norms and sexual positioning relative to IPV and sexual risks among Muslim men in Tajikistan.