Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevalence and Associated Factors of Psychological Distress among a National Sample of In-School Adolescents in Bhutan

The goal of the study was to estimate the prevalence and correlates of psychological distress (=PD) among adolescent school children in Bhutan. Nationally representative cross-sectional data were analysed from 7,576 adolescents (16 years median age) that took part in the “2016 Bhutan Global School-Based Student Health Survey (GSHS). ” PD was assessed with a 2-item screening measure (BMC Psychiatry. DOI: 10.1186/s12888-020-02888-3). Results indicate that the prevalence of PD was 15.8%, 12.8% among males and 18.4% among females. In adjusted logistic regression analysis, female sex, having no close friends, older age, bullying victimization, infrequently physically attacked, parental emotional neglect, parents never check home work, passive smoking trouble from alcohol use, ever had sex, high sedentary behaviour and having sustained a single or multiple serious injuries (past year) were associated with PD. In addition, adequate fruit and vegetable consumptions was protective against PD. Almost one in six students reported PD and several associated factors were identified which can aid prevention and control strategies.
The Impact of Personality Traits on Attitude to Financial Risk

While the effects of emotions on attitudes to investment risk are now well documented, the influence of personality factors has been much less researched. This paper examines the role of personality traits in determining financial risk tolerance. Using an extensive survey of UK-based retail investors, we show that personality traits and characteristics are more important than emotions in determining attitude to risk. We also observe that the widely adopted ‘Big Five’ framework is insufficient to characterise this relationship adequately, with significant roles for financial self-efficacy, resilience, trait anger and intolerance of uncertainty. Since some of these characteristics can be modified, our findings are suggestive that appropriate training and support for those making financial decisions could lead to better outcomes over the longer term.
Improving pandemic preparedness and management : Lessons learned and ways forward : independent expert report

Epidemics and pandemics have shaped human history and will continue to do so. The COVID-19 crisis has shown that there is need to understand how Europe can ensure better management of and preparedness for them. This joint advice builds on lessons learned from the current and from previous pandemics. It analyses their complexity, drawing on insights from research and scholarship and taking Europeanvalues and respect for fundamental rights as critical orientation. It is developed jointly by the European Commission’s independent Group of Chief Scientific Advisors, the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE) and Peter Piot, Special Advisor to the President of the European Commission on the response to COVID-19. Their recommendations include strengthened European and global solidarity and coordination in governance, research and community efforts to improve pandemic preparedness and management. This should address all aspects and causes of pandemics in their complex interplay, from biomedical and health to social and environmental ones. The advice covers efforts to prevent and pre-empt future pandemics; more coordinated response structures and mechanisms; the strengthening of essential systems, including healthcare, supply chains, public health, information and education; and protecting fundamental rights and social justice. (Less)
Integration of Adaptive Control and Reinforcement Learning for Real-Time Control and Learning

This article considers the problem of real-time control and learning in dynamic systems subjected to parameteric uncertainties. We propose a combination of a reinforcement learning (RL)-based policy in the outer loop suitably chosen to ensure stability and optimality for the nominal dynamics, together with adaptive control (AC) in the inner loop so that in real-time AC contracts the closed-loop dynamics toward a stable trajectory traced out by RL. In total, two classes of nonlinear dynamic systems are considered, both of which are control affine. The first class of dynamic systems utilizes equilibrium points and a Lyapunov approach, whereas second class of nonlinear systems uses contraction theory. AC-RL controllers are proposed for both classes of systems and shown to lead to online policies that guarantee stability using a high-order tuner and accommodate parameteric uncertainties and magnitude limits on the input. In addition to establishing a stability guarantee with real-time control, the AC-RL controller is also shown to lead to parameter learning with persistent excitation for the first class of systems. Numerical validations of all algorithms are carried out using a quadrotor landing task on a moving platform.
Standing Handball Throwing Velocity Estimation with a Single Wrist-Mounted Inertial Sensor

Background. It is well known that overarm throwing is one of the most performed activities in the handball. Shoulder and glenohumeral injuries incidence are high in handball because of both pass, and shooting activity was executed repeatedly in high angular speed. Objectives. This study set out to investigate the usefulness of inexpensive commercial inertial movement sensors for prediction of throwing velocity in handball. Methods. After the IMU sensor (500 Hz) placed to the wrist of the dominant arm, players (n=4; 24.4 ±1.4 years, 181.75 ±11 cm height, 84.58 ±16 kg weight) performed 30 standing overarm throwing from a seven-meter distance with 1-minute rest between trials. Throwing velocity compared between radar speed gun and estimations of accelerometer data. Recorded acceleration data filtered (Butterworth 20 Hz 2nd order) than the acceleration vector magnitude calculated. Each throwing data aligned such as 125 data points of before and after the peak acceleration (250ms). Performance metrics of prediction models (Generalized Linear Model, Gradient Boosted Trees, and Support Vector Machine) calculated with root mean square, absolute error, and correlation coefficient parameters. Results. There were reasonably small absolute errors and root mean square values of the machine learning models. Also, there was a very high correlation between measured and predicted velocities with all three models. Conclusion. This is the first study to examined machine learning models to predict handball throwing velocity using a high-frequency triaxial accelerometer. The finding of the present study revealed that the wrist-attached accelerometer precisely estimates the throwing velocity in handball. Further research is required to quantifying the overarm activities in handball, which included block, defensive contact, passing, or shooting. Therefore, the accelerometer-based collected data may provide detection of movement in game-play automatically so that the upper extremity load of players can be monitored and avoid the possible overuse injury risk.
Priors in Bayesian Deep Learning: A Review

While the choice of prior is one of the most critical parts of the Bayesian inference workflow, recent Bayesian deep learning models have often fallen back on vague priors, such as standard Gaussians. In this review, we highlight the importance of prior choices for Bayesian deep learning and present an overview of different priors that have been proposed for (deep) Gaussian processes, variational autoencoders and Bayesian neural networks. We also outline different methods of learning priors for these models from data. We hope to motivate practitioners in Bayesian deep learning to think more carefully about the prior specification for their models and to provide them with some inspiration in this regard.
Electronic and carrier transport properties of small molecule donors

As electron donor/acceptor materials for organic photovoltaic cells, small-molecules donors/acceptor are attracting more and more attention. In this work, we investigated the electronic structures, electrochemical properties, and charge carrier transport properties of four recently-synthesized small-molecule donors/acceptor, namely, DPDCPB (A), DPDCTB (B), DTDCPB (A1), and DTDCTB (B1), by a series of ab initio calculations. The calculations look into the electronic structure of singly oxidized and reduced molecules, the first anodic and cathodic potentials, and the electrochemical gaps. Results of our calculations were in accord with those from experiments. Using Marcus theory, we also computed the reorganization energies of hole/electron hoppings, as well as hole/electron transfer integrals of multiple possible molecular dimer configurations. Our calculations indicated that the electron/hole transport properties are very sensitive to the relative separations/orientations between neighboring molecules. Due to high reorganization energies for electron hopping, the hole mobilities in the molecular crystals are at least an order of magnitude higher than the electron mobilities.
Physical Fitness and Cardiometabolic Risk in Seven to Nine Years Old Children

Background: Obesity and lower physical fitness levels in children are related to the development of cardiometabolic risk. The objective of the study was to determine the relationship of cardio-metabolic risk and physical fitness in school children from Santiago de Chile.Methods: Physical fitness was assessed as cardiorespiratory fitness and muscle strength. Fitness was measured using the six-minute-walk-test and muscle strength was assessed by hand grip and standing lung jump. Overweight (≥ 1 SD) and obesity (≥ 2 SD) were determined by body mass index. A cross sectional study was done in 452 children (185 boys and 267 girls), age range (7-9 years). Cardio-metabolic-risk (serum glucose, triglycerides, HDL, insulin) and waist for height ratio was expressed as z score. Data was analyzed using bivariate analysis and multiple and logistic regression.Results: A 21% were obese and 27% overweight. Children with high body fat and low cardiorespiratory fitness and muscle strength had an OR of 6.8-fold (IC 95% 3.4 to 13.9) cardiometabolic risk z-score, compared to those most fit.Conclusion: School children with higher body fat and lower physical fitness had increased cardio-metabolic-risk-score. No significant difference in cardio-metabolic risk in the non-obese children was found independent of their physical fitness.
Ground-based Transmission Spectroscopy with VLT FORS2: Evidence for Faculae and Clouds in the Optical Spectrum of the Warm Saturn WASP-110b

We present a ground-based optical transmission spectrum for the warm Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-110b from two transit observations made with the FOcal Reducer and Spectrograph on the Very Large Telescope. The spectrum covers the wavelength range from 4000–8333 Å, which is binned in 46 transit depths measured to an averaged precision of 220 parts per million (ppm) over an averaged 80 Å bin for a Vmag = 12.8 star. The measured transit depths are unaffected by a dilution from a close A-type field dwarf, which was fully resolved. The overall main characteristic of the transmission spectrum is an increasing radius with wavelength and a lack of the theoretically predicted pressure-broadened sodium and potassium absorption features for a cloud-free atmosphere. We analyze archival high-resolution optical spectroscopy and find evidence for low to moderate activity of the host star, which we take into account in the atmospheric retrieval analysis. Using the AURA retrieval code, we find that the observed transmission spectrum can be best explained by a combination of unocculted stellar faculae and a cloud deck. Transmission spectra of cloud-free and hazy atmospheres are rejected at a high confidence. With a possible cloud deck at its terminator, WASP-110b joins the increasing population of irradiated hot-Jupiter exoplanets with cloudy atmospheres observed in transmission.
Creditor Monitoring and Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from Covenant Violations

We examine whether and how creditor monitoring affects corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities through the observable event of debt covenant violations. Covenant violations shift the control rights to creditors, allowing creditors to strengthen monitoring on firm policies. Employing a quasi-regression discontinuity design, we document differential effects of creditor monitoring on various components of CSR activities: firms tend to reduce CSR activities related to employee and community welfare, while leaving activities largely intact on the components that can have long-term adverse reputational effects on the firm. We also find that the reduction in CSR activities occurs primarily in situations where managerial agency problems in CSR activities tend to be more severe. Our findings provide evidence that creditors play a role in shaping CSR.
An Analysis of Higher Order Thinking Skills Realization in Reading Comprehension Questions

The significance of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) has led many educational stakeholders to include the skill in educational curriculum and more specifically in the subjects that students learn. In the context of learning English, HOTS should be instilled in four language skills, especially reading skill. This skill is vital since students are demanded to be critical of what they read. Therefore, this research aimed at investigating how the reading comprehension questions in English textbooks for three different grades (X, XI, and XII) published by the Ministry of Education and Culture facilitate HOTS. By employing cognitive level of Bloom’s revised taxonomy (2001) and critical thinking task type of Numrich’s sequence (Beaumont, 2010), the questions are analyzed qualitatively. The results reveal that HOTS are realized adequately in the textbook for grade XI. In the textbooks for grade X and XII, HOTS are found in small quantity. Besides, based on Numrich’s sequence, the majority of the questions focus on the text which means that critical thinking-based questions are found in small number. Thus, it is expected that this result assists teachers, textbook writers, and future researchers to engage more on the implementation of HOTS.
Effect of the COVID-19 Outbreak on Pediatric Patients’ Admissions to the Emergency Department in an Italian Orthopedic Trauma Hub

Background: The rapid diffusion of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Northern Italy led the Italian government to dictate a national lockdown from 12 March 2020 to 5 May 2020. The aim of this observational cohort study is to analyze the differences in the number of pediatric patients’ admission to the Emergency Room (ER) and in the type and causes of injury. Methods: The pediatric population during the pandemic was compared to a similar group of patients admitted to the ER in 2019. Sex, age, triage color-code at admission, cause of trauma and presence of symptoms related to COVID-19 infection, discharge diagnosis and discharge modes were investigated. Results: The lockdown period led to a reduction of 87.0% in ER admissions with a particular decrease in patients older than 12 years old. Moreover, a trend towards more severe codes and an increase in home-related injuries were observed during the pandemic, whereas the diagnosis of fracture was less frequent in the pre-pandemic group (p < 0.0001). Conclusions: A significant decrease in the ER attendances was reported during the lockdown. A shift in the cause and type of injury was observed; only the most serious traumas sought medical care with a higher percentage of severe triage codes and fractures.
Future of EEG Based Hybrid Visual Brain Computer Interface Systems in Rehabilitation of People with Neurological Disorders

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are technologies that make it possible for humans to control external devices merely using their cortical potentials rather than normal output pathways such as muscles or peripheral nerves. BCIs present a hope towards restoration of independence for people affected by neurological disorders or disable individuals. Hybrid visual BCI (V-BCI) i.e. BCIs those are using two or more types of visual evoked potential for its operation, are providing promising results than other all BCI systems types. Over past two decades research and development in hybrid V-BCI systems have grown tremendously. Recently lot of efforts has been placed to make laboratory validated hybrid V-BCI systems to work in real life applications for disables. In this paper we argue on possible futuristic applications of hybrid V-BCI systems and its clinical relevance. We will present existing restrictions of hybrid V-BCI technology and its futuristic expectations.
Neoantigen landscape in metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Background: Reportedly, nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients with MHC I Class aberration are prone to poor survival outcomes, which indicates that the deficiency of tumor neoantigens might represent a mechanism of immune surveillance escape in NPC. Methods: To clearly delineate the landscape of neoantigens in NPC, we performed DNA and RNA sequencing on paired primary tumor, regional lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis samples from 26 patients. Neoantigens were predicted using pVACseq pipeline. Subtype prediction model was built using random forest algorithm. Results: Portraying the landscape of neoantigens in NPC for the first time, we found that the neoantigen load of NPC was above average compared to that of other cancers in The Cancer Genome Atlas program. While the quantity and quality of neoantigens were similar among primary tumor, regional lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis samples, neoantigen depletion was more severe in metastatic sites than in primary tumors. Upon tracking the clonality change of neoantigens, we found that neoantigen reduction occurred during metastasis. Building a subtype prediction model based on reported data, we observed that subtype I lacked T cells and suffered from severe neoantigen depletion, subtype II highly expressed immune checkpoint molecules and suffered from the least neoantigen depletion, and subtype III was heterogenous. Conclusions: These results indicate that neoantigens are conducive to the guidance of clinical treatment, and personalized therapeutic vaccines for NPC deserve deeper basic and clinical investigations to make them feasible in the future.
Perspectives on metals-based radioimmunotherapy (RIT): moving forward

Radioimmunotherapy (RIT) is FDA-approved for the clinical management of liquid malignancies, however, its use for solid malignancies remains a challenge. The putative benefit of RIT lies in selective targeting of antigens expressed on the tumor surface using monoclonal antibodies, to systemically deliver cytotoxic radionuclides. The past several decades yielded dramatic improvements in the quality, quantity, recent commercial availability of alpha-, beta- and Auger Electron-emitting therapeutic radiometals. Investigators have created new or improved existing bifunctional chelators. These bifunctional chelators bind radiometals and can be coupled to antigen-specific antibodies. In this review, we discuss approaches to develop radiometal-based RITs, including the selection of radiometals, chelators and antibody platforms (i.e. full-length, F(ab')2, Fab, minibodies, diabodies, scFv-Fc and nanobodies). We cite examples of the performance of RIT in the clinic, describe challenges to its implementation, and offer insights to address gaps toward translation.
Molecular mechanisms of radioactive iodine refractoriness in differentiated thyroid cancer: Impaired sodium iodide symporter (NIS) expression owing to altered signaling pathway activity and intracellular localization of NIS

The advanced, metastatic differentiated thyroid cancers (DTCs) have a poor prognosis mainly owing to radioactive iodine (RAI) refractoriness caused by decreased expression of sodium iodide symporter (NIS), diminished targeting of NIS to the cell membrane, or both, thereby decreasing the efficacy of RAI therapy. Genetic aberrations (such as BRAF, RAS, and RET/PTC rearrangements) have been reported to be prominently responsible for the onset, progression, and dedifferentiation of DTCs, mainly through the activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT signaling pathways. Eventually, these alterations result in a lack of NIS and disabling of RAI uptake, leading to the development of resistance to RAI therapy. Over the past decade, promising approaches with various targets have been reported to restore NIS expression and RAI uptake in preclinical studies. In this review, we summarized comprehensive molecular mechanisms underlying the dedifferentiation in RAI-refractory DTCs and reviews strategies for restoring RAI avidity by tackling the mechanisms.
Inner retinal injury in experimental glaucoma is prevented upon AAV mediated Shp2 silencing in a caveolin dependent manner

SH2 domain containing tyrosine phosphatase 2 (Shp2; PTPN11) regulates several intracellular pathways downstream of multiple growth factor receptors. Our studies implicate that Shp2 interacts with Caveolin-1 (Cav-1) protein in retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and negatively regulates BDNF/TrkB signaling. This study aimed to investigate the mechanisms underlying the protective effects of shp2 silencing in the RGCs in glaucomatous conditions. Methods: Shp2 was silenced in the Cav-1 deficient mice and the age matched wildtype littermates using adeno-associated viral (AAV) constructs. Shp2 expression modulation was performed in an acute and a chronic mouse model of experimental glaucoma. AAV2 expressing Shp2 eGFP-shRNA under a strong synthetic CAG promoter was administered intravitreally in the animals' eyes. The contralateral eye received AAV-eGFP-scramble-shRNA as control. Animals with Shp2 downregulation were subjected to either microbead injections or acute ocular hypertension experimental paradigm. Changes in inner retinal function were evaluated by measuring positive scotopic threshold response (pSTR) while structural and biochemical alterations were evaluated through H&E staining, western blotting and immunohistochemical analysis of the retinal tissues. Results: A greater loss of pSTR amplitudes was observed in the WT mice compared to Cav-1-/- retinas in both the models. Silencing of Shp2 phosphatase imparted protection against inner retinal function loss in chronic glaucoma model in WT mice. The functional rescue also translated to structural preservation of ganglion cell layer in the chronic glaucoma condition in WT mice which was not evident in Cav-1-/- mice retinas. Conclusions: This study indicates that protective effects of Shp2 ablation under chronic experimental glaucoma conditions are dependent on Cav-1 in the retina, suggesting in vivo interactions between the two proteins.