Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Specification of covariance structure in longitudinal data analysis for randomized clinical trials

Misspecification of the covariance structure for repeated measurements in longitudinal analysis may lead to biased estimates of the regression parameters and under or overestimation of the corresponding standard errors in the presence of missing data. The so‐called sandwich estimator can ‘correct’ the variance, but it does not reduce the bias in point estimates. Removing all assumptions from the covariance structure (i.e. using an unstructured (UN) covariance) will remove such biases. However, an excessive amount of missing data may cause convergence problems for iterative algorithms, such as the default Newton–Raphson algorithm in the popular SAS PROC MIXED. This article examines, both through theory and simulations, the existence and the magnitude of these biases. We recommend the use of UN covariance as the default strategy for analyzing longitudinal data from randomized clinical trials with moderate to large number of subjects and small to moderate number of time points. We also present an algorithm to assist in the convergence when the UN covariance is used. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
SCANMail: browsing and searching speech data by content

Increasing amounts of public, corporate, and private audio data are available for use, but limited in usefulness by the lack of tools to permit their browsing and search. In this paper, we describe SCANMail, a system that employs automatic speech recognition, information retrieval, information extraction, and human computer interaction technology to permit users to browse and search their voicemail messages by content through a graphical user interface interface. The SCANMail client also provides note-taking capabilities as well as browsing and querying features. A CallerId server also proposes caller names from existing caller acoustic models and is trained from user feedback. An Email server sends the original message plus its transcription to a mailing address specified in the user’s profile.
The USUS Evaluation Framework for Human-Robot Interaction

To improve the way humans are interacting with robots various factors have to be taken into account. An evaluation framework for Human-Robot Collaboration with humanoid robots addressing usability, social acceptance, user experience, and societal impact (abb. USUS) as evaluation factors is proposed (see figure 1). The theoretical framework USUS is based on a multi-level indicator model to operationalize the evaluation factors. Evaluation factors are described and split up into several indicators, which are extracted and justified by literature review. The theoretical factor indicator framework is then combined with a methodological framework consisting of a mix of methods derived and borrowed from various disciplines (HRI, HCI, psychology, and sociology). The proposed method mix allows addressing all factors within the USUS framework and lays a basis for understanding the interrelationship of the USUS Factors.
Milan Systemic Family Therapy: Conversations In Theory And Practice

* From Psychoanalysis to Systems The Crying Boy * Introduction * The Case: Consultation and Conversation The Family With A Secret * Introduction * The Case: Consultation and Conversation The Anorectic Store * Introduction * The Case: Consultation and Conversation The Girl Who Got Stuck To Her Mother * Introduction * The Case: Consultation and Conversation
Reciprocal modulation of Aβ42 aggregation by copper and homocysteine

Hyperhomocysteinemia is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Both homocysteine (Hcy) and amyloid β (Aβ), which accumulates in the brain of AD patients, bind copper. Aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that the association of Hcy and AD results from a molecular interaction between Hcy and Aβ that is mediated by copper. We established a microtiter plate format thioflavin T aggregation assay to monitor Aβ42 fibrillization. Copper (5 μM) completely prevented Aβ42 (5 μM) fibrillization. Homocysteine in the absence of copper did not impact Aβ42 fibrillization, but physiological concentrations of Hcy (10–100 μM) attenuated the inhibitory effect of copper on Aβ42 fibril formation. These results were qualitatively confirmed by electron microscopy, which did not reveal morphological differences. To compare the toxicity of fibrillar and non-fibrillar Aβ42 exposed to copper or Hcy, rat primary cortical neurons were treated in vitro with 5 μM Aβ42 for 72 h. After incubation with 5 μM Aβ42 that had been aggregating in the absence of Hcy or copper, cell viability was reduced to 40%. Incubation with 5 μM Aβ42, in which fibril formation had been prevented or reverted by the addition of 5 μM copper, resulted in cell viability of approximately 25%. Accordingly, viability was reduced to 25% after incubation with 5 μM monomeric, i.e., non-fibrillized, Aβ42. The addition of Hcy plus copper to 5 μM Aβ42 yielded 50% viability. In conclusion, copper prevents and reverts Aβ fibril formation leading rather to formation of lower order oligomers or amorphous aggregates, and Hcy reduces these effects. Such mechanisms may explain the association of hyperhomocysteinemia and AD, leading to novel therapeutic strategies in the prevention and treatment of this disease.
Interspecific variations in the faecal microbiota of Procellariiform seabirds.

Despite the enormous amount of data available on the importance of gut microbiota in vertebrates (especially mammals), there is no information available on the microbiota of seabirds. Procellariiformes are long-lived seabirds that consume a diet high in lipids and are characterised by their ability to produce and store large amount of stomach oils through the partial digestion of prey (with the exception of the Pelecanoididae). Examining the faecal microbiota of three Procellariiform species (short-tailed shearwater, common diving petrel and fairy prion) provided a unique opportunity to not only characterise the gastrointestinal (GI) microbial composition of seabirds but to also examine the influence of stomach oils on the microbial community. The results indicated that Procellariiform seabirds host a highly diverse community of faecal microorganisms, dominated by three phyla (Firmicutes, Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes) and that each species has its own species-specific GI microbiota. In addition, significant differences were observed in the microbial communities of oil-producing and non-oil-producing seabirds. This study is the first whole-community examination and classification of the faecal microbiota of Procellariiform seabirds.
Stent Thrombosis With Ticagrelor Versus Clopidogrel in Patients With Acute Coronary Syndromes: An Analysis From the Prospective, Randomized PLATO Trial

Background— We aimed to describe the effects of ticagrelor versus clopidogrel on stent thrombosis in the Platelet Inhibition and Patient Outcomes (PLATO) trial. Methods and Results— Of 18 624 patients hospitalized for acute coronary syndromes, 11 289 (61%) had at least 1 intracoronary stent. Ticagrelor reduced stent thrombosis compared with clopidogrel across all definitions: definite, 1.37% (n=71) versus 1.93% (n=105; hazard ratio [HR], 0.67; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.50–0.90; P=0.0091); definite or probable, 2.21% (n=118) versus 2.87% (n=157; HR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.59–0.95; P=0.017); and definite, probable, and possible, 2.94% (n=154) versus 3.77 (n=201; HR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.62–0.95). The reduction in definite stent thrombosis was consistent regardless of acute coronary syndrome type, presence of diabetes mellitus, stent type (drug-eluting or bare metal stent), CYP2C19 genetic status, loading dose of aspirin, dose of clopidogrel before randomization, and use of glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors at randomization. The reduction in stent thrombosis with ticagrelor was numerically greater for late (>30 days; HR, 0.48; 95% CI, 0.24–0.96) and subacute (4 hours–30 days; HR, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.39–0.93) compared with acute (<24 hours; HR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.43–2.05) stent thrombosis or for patients compliant to therapy (ie, taking blinded study treatment ≥80% of the time) compared with less compliant patients. Randomization to ticagrelor was a strong independent inverse predictor of definite stent thrombosis (HR, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.48–0.88). Conclusion— Ticagrelor compared with clopidogrel reduces the incidence of stent thrombosis in patients with acute coronary syndromes, with consistent benefit across a broad range of patient, stent, and treatment characteristics. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT00391872.
Exact quantification of the variance of estimated zeros

This paper is concerned with quantification of noise induced errors in estimates of zeros of dynamic systems. Preceding work on this problem has provided variance expressions that are asymptotic in data length and model order for non-minimum phase zeros. This paper presents expressions that are asymptotic only in data length and they are therefore `exact' for arbitrarily small true model orders. These expressions are also valid for both minimum phase and non-minimum phase zeros. A key insight is that the variance error quantification problem is equivalent to deriving a reproducing kernel for a space that depends on the employed model structure.
Assessing communicative intents in maltreated toddlers

ASSESSING COMMUNICATIVE INTENTS IN MALTREATED TODDLERS SEPTEMBER 1992 SALLY B. CARLTON, B.A., MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE M.Ed., BOSTON COLLEGE Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS Directed by: Professor Maria R. Brassard There is evidence that maltreated school-aged children have an elevated incidence of expressive language delay, which is often attributed to the cumulative effects of maltreatment. Younger children and toddlers do not consistently demonstrate this delay. There is some ambiguity whether language delays can be observed in toddlers since language is not well developed at this age. However, if gestural communication is also studied as part of language development, a broader sample of behavior becomes available. Intentional communication includes the use of words and gestures to express a child's intent or desire. Examining maltreated toddlers' intentional communication provides an opportunity to study how language develops under less than optimal conditions . This study examines communicative intents in maltreated and nonmaltreated toddlers (ages 22 to 31 months) and the caregiving interactions of their mothers. The sample is composed of thirty-nine mother-toddler dyads from a Mid-Western city. Maternal maltreatment was documented on thirteen lower class toddlers, who were matched on sex, age, race and SES. Ten middle class dyads composed another comparison group. The lower class toddlers were given the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID) as part of a larger study. Videotapes of a play session between mother—toddler dyads were coded using The Parent/Caregiver Interaction Scale to rate maternal behaviors plus two child communication inventories to code Intentional Communication and Negotiation of Failed Messages.
THE CALCULADORA ESTATÍSTICA FOR PRESENT AND DISTANCE LEARNING

Discussions about distance learning are not a novel ty. In the last years, several systems to support learning were proposed and developed, some of them based on the Internet. For statistics teaching, as in other areas, there are many systems for distance learning in the web that only present a digital version of the traditional classe s’ content. Besides of the information access, these systems do not present a function to help the student in his doubts or a function to teach step-by-step for some concepts. Systems with this a pproach only present the simulation of some situations, or only detect mistakes, or refuse the operation and provide information about the user mistakes. In this paper we present a system to supp ort statistics teaching that joins all of these features: help students by pointing out his mistake s and by teaching the correct steps. The system can be used for present or distance learning and it is named Calculadora Estatistica (Statistics Calculator).
The relative power of genome scans to detect local adaptation depends on sampling design and statistical method

Although genome scans have become a popular approach towards understanding the genetic basis of local adaptation, the field still does not have a firm grasp on how sampling design and demographic history affect the performance of genome scans on complex landscapes. To explore these issues, we compared 20 different sampling designs in equilibrium (i.e. island model and isolation by distance) and nonequilibrium (i.e. range expansion from one or two refugia) demographic histories in spatially heterogeneous environments. We simulated spatially complex landscapes, which allowed us to exploit local maxima and minima in the environment in ‘pair’ and ‘transect’ sampling strategies. We compared FST outlier and genetic–environment association (GEA) methods for each of two approaches that control for population structure: with a covariance matrix or with latent factors. We show that while the relative power of two methods in the same category (FST or GEA) depended largely on the number of individuals sampled, overall GEA tests had higher power in the island model and FST had higher power under isolation by distance. In the refugia models, however, these methods varied in their power to detect local adaptation at weakly selected loci. At weakly selected loci, paired sampling designs had equal or higher power than transect or random designs to detect local adaptation. Our results can inform sampling designs for studies of local adaptation and have important implications for the interpretation of genome scans based on landscape data.
Semantic Similarity Computation Based on Multi-feature Combination using HowNet

Semantic similarity between words is becoming a generic problems for many applications of computational linguistics and artificial intelligence. The difficulty lies in how to develop a computational method that is capable of generating satisfactory results close to how humans perceive. This paper proposes a semantic similarity approach that is based on multi-feature combination. One of the benchmarks is Miller and Charles’ list of 30 noun pairs which had been manually designated similarity measurements. We correlate our experiments with those computed by several other methods. Experiments on Chinese word pairs show that our approach is close to human similarity judgments.
Ipsative Comparisons of WISC-IV Index Scores

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-4th Edition (Wechsler, 2003a) yields standard scores for four indexes that can be compared when practitioners examine within-child variability. The test manual provides pairwise comparison tables that clinicians can use to examine the scale variability, but it does not adequately caution them about the statistical pitfalls of multiple pairwise comparisons (e.g., inflated error rate). An alternative to the pairwise comparison approach called an ipsative method can be used to compare the 4 WISC-IV standard scores to an individual child's mean of the 4 index scores with more control over the error rate. These values were computed at the . 05 and . 01 levels following the method used by Naglieri (1993) for the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-3rd Edition (WISC-III; Wechsler, 1991) as originally suggested by Davis (1959) and modified by Silverstein (1982) for previous versions of Wechsler's scales and other multiscore intelligence tests. An example of the use of the technique is provided, as are interpretive cautions.
General Service Pricing Strategies Research Based on Dynamic Stochastic Wealth Model

The authors investigate cobweb type service price fluctuations with adaptive learning, and put forward a dynamic service pricing method based on the dynamic stochastic wealth model (DSWM). In this model, authors treat the service market as an expectation feedback system, where the current market equilibrium price of service determined by aggregated individual service providerpsilas expectations of next periodpsilas yield. After several rounds of price adjustment, optimal pricing strategies can be conducted. In order to describe the fluctuations of price in future, authors also developed a set of market impact functions with the technique of dynamic harmonic regression modification to simulate the market impact.
Changes in outlet densities affect violence rates.

BACKGROUND Previous assessments of empirical relationships between alcohol outlets and rates of interpersonal violence have been conducted using cross-sectional spatial data, data collected across small geographic units such as Census Tracts and zip codes. These assessments demonstrate that the availability of alcohol, measured by the number and types of alcohol outlets, is related to violence. These analyses have examined many potential confounds of the outlets-violence connection (i.e., population and place characteristics) and statistically corrected for biases that arise in analyses of spatial data. The current study contributes the first observation of longitudinal relationships between alcohol outlets and violence. METHOD The study examined longitudinal data from 581 consistently defined zip code areas represented in the California Index Locations Database, a geographic information system that coordinates population and ecological data with spatial attributes for areas across the state. Six years of data were collected on features of local populations (e.g., household size) and places (e.g., retail markets) thought to be related to 1 measure of violence (i.e., hospital discharges related to violent assaults). Assault rates were related to changes in population and place characteristics using random effects models with controls for spatial autocorrelation (n x t = 3,486 observations). Changes in population and place characteristics of bordering (spatial lagged) areas were also considered. RESULTS Lower median household income and greater percentages of minorities (African American, Hispanic, and Asian) were related to increased rates of violence. Ten percent increases in numbers of off-premise outlets and bars were related to 1.67 and 2.06% increases in violence rates across local and lagged spatial areas. Every 6 outlets accounted for 1 additional violent assault that resulted in at least 1 overnight stay at hospital. These effects increased with larger male populations, doubling with every 3% increase in percent males. CONCLUSION Assault rates were most strongly related to median household incomes and minority populations within zip code areas. Controlling for changes in assault rates related to these measures, greater numbers of licensed alcohol retail establishments, especially bars and off-premise outlets, were related to rates of assault. Failures to regulate the growth in numbers of bars will increase rates of violence, especially in urban areas.
Relieving the Computational Bottleneck: Joint Inference for Event Extraction with High-Dimensional Features

Several state-of-the-art event extraction systems employ models based on Support Vector Machines (SVMs) in a pipeline architecture, which fails to exploit the joint dependencies that typically exist among events and arguments. While there have been attempts to overcome this limitation using Markov Logic Networks (MLNs), it remains challenging to perform joint inference in MLNs when the model encodes many high-dimensional sophisticated features such as those essential for event extraction. In this paper, we propose a new model for event extraction that combines the power of MLNs and SVMs, dwarfing their limitations. The key idea is to reliably learn and process high-dimensional features using SVMs; encode the output of SVMs as low-dimensional, soft formulas in MLNs; and use the superior joint inferencing power of MLNs to enforce joint consistency constraints over the soft formulas. We evaluate our approach for the task of extracting biomedical events on the BioNLP 2013, 2011 and 2009 Genia shared task datasets. Our approach yields the best F1 score to date on the BioNLP’13 (53.61) and BioNLP’11 (58.07) datasets and the second-best F1 score to date on the BioNLP’09 dataset (58.16).
Marriage & the family

One Challenge for professors is trying to give students the practical how to information along with the sociological research, theory, and data. The Lasswells speak directly to students in this personal and pragmatic overview of marraige and the family. They integrate both socialogical and psychological perspectives to balance their presentation of the dynamics of intimate relationships. In addition to presenting key theories, research and data the authors incluce numerous practical discussions about how this material can be useful in everyday life.
Health of the Nation Outcome Scales for Children and Adolescents (HoNOSCA)

I. Problems with disruptive, antisocial or aggressive behaviour Include behaviour associated with any disorder, such as hyperkinetic disorder, depression, autism, drugs or alcohol. Include physical or verbal aggression (e.g. pushing, hitting, vandalism, teasing), or physical or sexual abuse of other children. Include antisocial behaviour (e.g. thieving, lying, cheating) or oppositional behaviour (e.g. defiance, opposition to authority or tantrums). Do not include overactivity rated at Scale 2. Truancy, rated at Scale 13, selfharm rated at Scale 3.
Computing Rooted and Unrooted Maximum Consistent Supertrees

A chief problem in phylogenetics and database theory is the computation of a maximum consistent tree from a set of rooted or unrooted trees. A standard input are triplets, rooted binary trees on three leaves, or quartets, unrooted binary trees on four leaves. We give exact algorithms constructing rooted and unrooted maximum consistent supertrees in time O(2^n n^5 m^2 log(m)) for a set of m triplets (quartets), each one distinctly leaf-labeled by some subset of n labels. The algorithms extend to weighted triplets (quartets). We further present fast exact algorithms for constructing rooted and unrooted maximum consistent trees in polynomial space. Finally, for a set T of m rooted or unrooted trees with maximum degree D and distinctly leaf-labeled by some subset of a set L of n labels, we compute, in O(2^{mD} n^m m^5 n^6 log(m)) time, a tree distinctly leaf-labeled by a maximum-size subset X of L that all trees in T, when restricted to X, are consistent with.
Development, Alteration and Real Time Dynamics of Conjunctiva-Associated Lymphoid Tissue

Purpose Conjunctiva-associated lymphoid tissue (CALT) is thought to play a key role in initiating ocular surface related immune responses. This study was planned to get first profound insights into the function of CALT related to development, cellular dynamics and morphological alteration using a novel mouse model. Methods Expression and morphology of CALT were investigated using BALB/c mice kept under different housing conditions, after topical antigen-stimulation and following lymphadenectomy and splenectomy. Particles and bacteria were applied topically to study antigen-transport. Intravital visualization was performed using two-photon microscopy. Results Postnatal development and ultrastructure of CALT in the mouse is similar to humans. Topical antigen-challenge significantly alters CALT expression. Bacterial translocation is demonstrated via lymphoepithelium whereas cellular velocities within follicles were approximately 8 µm/min. Conclusions CALT in the mouse is an immunological interface of the ocular surface, featuring dynamic processes such as morphological plasticity, particle/bacteria transport and cellular migration.