Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genetic and environmental contributions to the inverse association between specific autistic traits and experience seeking in adults

Autistic traits are characterized by social and communication problems, restricted, repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests and activities. The relation between autistic traits and personality characteristics is largely unknown. This study focused on the relation between five specific autistic traits measured with the abridged version of the Autism Spectrum Quotient (“social problems,” “preference for routine,” “attentional switching difficulties,” “imagination impairments,” “fascination for numbers and patterns”) and Experience Seeking (ES) in a general population sample of adults, and subsequently investigated the genetic and environmental etiology between these traits. Self‐reported data on autistic traits and ES were collected in a population sample (n = 559) of unrelated individuals, and in a population based family sample of twins and siblings (n = 560). Phenotypic, genetic and environmental associations between traits were examined in a bivariate model, accounting for sex and age differences. Phenotypically, ES correlated significantly with “preference for routine” and “imagination impairments” in both samples but was unrelated to the other autistic traits. Genetic analyses in the family sample revealed that the association between ES and “preference for routine” and “imagination impairments” could largely be explained by a shared genetic factor (89% and 70%, respectively). Our analyses demonstrated at a phenotypic and genetic level an inverse relationship between ES and specific autistic traits in adults. ES is associated with risk taking behavior such as substance abuse, antisocial behavior and financial problems. Future research could investigate whether autistic traits, in particular strong routine preference and impaired imagination skills, serve as protective factors for such risky behaviors. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A novel meta-cognitive-based scaffolding classifier to sequential non-stationary classification problems

A novel meta-cognitive-based scaffolding classifier, namely Generic-Classifier (gClass), is proposed in this paper to handle non-stationary classification problems in the single-pass learning mode. Meta-cognitive learning is a breakthrough in the machine learning where the learning process is not only directed to craft learning strategies to exacerbate the classification rates, i.e., how-to-leam aspect, but also is focused to accommodate the emotional reasoning and commonsense of human being in terms of what-to-leam and when-to-learn facets. The crux of gClass is to synergize the scaffolding learning concept, which constitutes a well-known tutoring theory in the psychological literatures, in the how-to-learn context of meta-cognitive learning, in order to boost the learner's performance in dealing with complex data. A comprehensive empirical studies in time-varying datasets is carried out, where gClass numerical results are benchmarked with other state-of-the-art classifiers. gClass is, generally speaking, capable of delivering the most encouraging numerical results where a trade-off between predictive accuracy and classifier's complexity can be achieved.
Integration of Routine Parameters of Glycemic Variability in a Simple Screening Method for Partial Remission in Children with Type 1 Diabetes

Although different criteria were used to define partial remission in type 1 diabetes, the IDAA1C formula has prevailed as it correlates with stimulated C-peptide levels. Our retrospective study evaluated clinical variables associated with the occurrence of IDAA1C-defined partial remission in a series of 239 pediatric patients. Diabetic ketoacidosis and age at diagnosis, but no other clinical feature, influenced the occurrence of remission. We then evaluated whether parameters of glycemic variability used in clinical routine may reliably define partial remission, as these would alleviate confounding factors related to insulin treatment. Using multiple linear regression, we observed that HbA1C levels and percentage of normoglycemia were efficient and sufficient to predict partial remission. These parameters were entered into a formula, called glycemic target-adjusted HbA1C (GTAA1C), that corresponded to HbA1C(%) − (3 × % of normoglycemic values(70–180 mg/dL)). With a threshold of 4.5, this alternative formula predicted partial remission with a sensitivity and a specificity of 72.3% and 92%, respectively, and yielded strong correlation with IDAA1C levels and BETA-2 score, which is a correlate of β-cell function after islet transplantation. We propose GTAA1C, based on routine and objective markers of glycemic variability, as a valid alternative for definition of partial remission in type 1 diabetes.
Isolation and Characterization of a Single-Stranded DNA Virus Infecting the Marine Diatom Chaetoceros sp. Strain SS628-11 Isolated from Western JAPAN

Diatoms are significant organisms for primary production in the earth's aquatic environment. Hence, their dynamics are an important focus area in current studies. Viruses are a great concern as potential factors of diatom mortality, along with other physical, chemical, and biological factors. We isolated and characterized a new diatom virus (Csp07DNAV) that lyses the marine planktonic diatom Chaetoceros sp. strain SS628-11. This paper examines the physiological, morphological, and genomic characteristics of Csp07DNAV. The virus was isolated from a surface water sample that was collected at Hiroshima Bay, Japan. It was icosahedral, had a diameter of 34 nm, and accumulated in the nuclei of host cells. Rod-shaped virus particles also coexisted in the host nuclei. The latent period and burst size were estimated to be <12 h and 29 infectious units per host cell, respectively. Csp07DNAV had a closed circular single-stranded DNA genome (5,552 nucleotides), which included a double-stranded region and 3 open reading frames. The monophyly of Csp07DNAV and other Bacilladnavirus group single-stranded DNA viruses was supported by phylogenetic analysis that was based on the amino acid sequence of each virus protein. On the basis of these results, we considered Csp07DNAV to be a new member of the genus Bacilladnavirus.
ObjectSkin

Augmenting everyday objects with interactive input and output surfaces is a long-standing topic in ubiquitous computing and HCI research. Existing approaches, however, fail to leverage the objects' full potential, particularly in highly curved organic geometries and in diverse visuo-haptic surface properties. We contribute ObjectSkin, a fabrication technique for adding conformal interactive surfaces to rigid and flexible everyday objects. It enables multi-touch sensing and display output that seamlessly integrates with highly curved and irregular geometries. The approach is based on a novel water-transfer process for interactive surfaces. It leverages off-the-shelf hobbyist equipment to fabricate thin, conformal, and translucent electronic circuits that preserve the surface characteristics of everyday objects. It offers two methods, for rapid low-fidelity and versatile high-fidelity prototyping, and is applicable to a wide variety of materials. Results from a series of technical experiments provide insights into the supported object geometries, compatible object materials, and robustness. Seven example cases demonstrate how ObjectSkin makes it possible to leverage geometries, surface properties, and unconventional objects for prototyping novel interactions for ubiquitous computing.
Student perspective on outcomes and process – Recommendations for implementing competency-based medical education

Abstract Purpose: Competency-based medical education (CBME) seeks to prepare undergraduate and postgraduate trainees for clinical practice. Its major emphasis is on outcomes, but questions about how best to reach these remain. One key issue is the need to integrate what matters most to students when setting educational goals: this is crucial if we are to design curricula that trainees understand and engage with, and that promote successful achievement of competencies. Method: We interviewed medical students in years 4 and 6 of a 6-year medical degree and used thematic analysis to understand their main educational priorities and how these fit with the aims of CBME. Results: Two major themes emerged: features of content and process. For content, students wanted clear guidance on what constitutes competence, finding broad outcome statements abstract and difficult to understand as novices. They also attach critical importance to features of process such as being welcomed, included in clinical teams and being known personally – these promote motivation, understanding, and professional development. Conclusions: We present recommendations for those designing CBME curricula to emphasize the student perspective: what kind of guidance on outcomes is required, and features of process that must not be neglected if competence is to be achieved.
Behavioral Responses to Inequity in Reward Distribution and Working Effort in Crows and Ravens

Sensitivity to inequity is considered to be a crucial cognitive tool in the evolution of human cooperation. The ability has recently been shown also in primates and dogs, raising the question of an evolutionary basis of inequity aversion. We present first evidence that two bird species are sensitive to other individuals' efforts and payoffs. In a token exchange task we tested both behavioral responses to inequity in the quality of reward (preferred versus non-preferred food) and to the absence of reward in the presence of a rewarded partner, in 5 pairs of corvids (6 crows, 4 ravens). Birds decreased their exchange performance when the experimental partner received the reward as a gift, which indicates that they are sensitive to other individuals' working effort. They also decreased their exchange performance in the inequity compared with the equity condition. Notably, corvids refused to take the reward after a successful exchange more often in the inequity compared with the other conditions. Our findings indicate that awareness to other individuals' efforts and payoffs may evolve independently of phylogeny in systems with a given degree of social complexity.
Strengthening mechanisms and mechanical properties of high interstitial stainless steel for drill collar and its corrosion resistance

iii LIST OF FIGURES . vii LIST OF TABLES . x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . xii CHAPTER
Challenges and demands in the population-based work of public health nurses

Aims: Government programs and the Norwegian Directorate of Health give public health nurses in Norway an explicit role in population-based health promotion and disease-prevention work. The aim of this paper is to explore Norwegian public health nurses’ experiences with population-based work. Methods: A phenomenological hermeneutic approach was adopted, involving face-to-face interviews with a purposeful sample of 23 public health nurses from urban and rural districts in two counties in Norway. Results: Three themes were identified: the predominance of work at the individual level, a lack of resources, and adherence to administrative directives. The interviews revealed that the public health nurses were mostly occupied with individual problem-solving activities. Population-based work was hardly prioritized, mostly because of a lack of resources and a lack of recognition of the population-based role of public health nurses. Conclusions: The study indicates contradictions between the public health nursing practice related to population-based work and the direction outlined by the government and the public health nursing curriculum, which may mean that the public health nursing role is not sufficiently clarified. The implementation of practice models and administrative directives and resources, as well as an explicit emphasis on population health in public health nursing education, can contribute to increased population-based interventions. Greater knowledge of and emphasis on population-based work in public health nursing are needed.
Optimising crowdsourcing efficiency: Amplifying human computation with validation

Abstract Crowdsourcing has revolutionised the way tasks can be completed but the process is frequently inefficient, costing practitioners time and money. This research investigates whether crowdsourcing can be optimised with a validation process, as measured by four criteria: quality; cost; noise; and speed. A validation model is described, simulated and tested on real data from an online crowdsourcing game to collect data about human language. Results show that by adding an agreement validation (or a like/upvote) step fewer annotations are required, noise and collection time are reduced and quality may be improved.
Improving Low Resource Machine Translation using Morphological Glosses (Non-archival Extended Abstract)

Low-resource machine translation is a challenging problem, especially when the source language is morphologically complex. We describe a simple procedure for constructing glosses, or mappings between complex, inﬂected source-language words and equivalent multi-word English expressions. We demonstrate the utility of glosses, especially compared to entries in bilingual dictionaries, across several data-augmentation strategies designed to mitigate a lack of training data. In our experiments, we achieve improvements of up to 1 BLEU point in a Russian-English translation task and 2.4 BLEU points in a Spanish-English translation task over a strong baseline translation system.
Estimation of Survival Probabilities for Use in Cost-effectiveness Analyses: A Comparison of a Multi-state Modeling Survival Analysis Approach with Partitioned Survival and Markov Decision-Analytic Modeling

Modeling of clinical-effectiveness in a cost-effectiveness analysis typically involves some form of partitioned survival or Markov decision-analytic modeling. The health states progression-free, progression and death and the transitions between them are frequently of interest. With partitioned survival, progression is not modeled directly as a state; instead, time in that state is derived from the difference in area between the overall survival and the progression-free survival curves. With Markov decision-analytic modeling, a priori assumptions are often made with regard to the transitions rather than using the individual patient data directly to model them. This article compares a multi-state modeling survival regression approach to these two common methods. As a case study, we use a trial comparing rituximab in combination with fludarabine and cyclophosphamide v. fludarabine and cyclophosphamide alone for the first-line treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia. We calculated mean Life Years and QALYs that involved extrapolation of survival outcomes in the trial. We adapted an existing multi-state modeling approach to incorporate parametric distributions for transition hazards, to allow extrapolation. The comparison showed that, due to the different assumptions used in the different approaches, a discrepancy in results was evident. The partitioned survival and Markov decision-analytic modeling deemed the treatment cost-effective with ICERs of just over £16,000 and £13,000, respectively. However, the results with the multi-state modeling were less conclusive, with an ICER of just over £29,000. This work has illustrated that it is imperative to check whether assumptions are realistic, as different model choices can influence clinical and cost-effectiveness results.
Association between depressive symptoms, CD4 count and HIV viral suppression among HIV-HCV co-infected people

ABSTRACT Depressive symptoms are associated with poor HIV viral control and immune recovery among people living with HIV. However, no prior studies assessed this association exclusively among people co-infected with HIV-hepatitis C virus (HCV). While people with HIV only and those with HIV-HCV co-infection share many characteristics, co-infected people may become more susceptible to the effects of depressive symptoms on health outcomes. We assessed this association exclusively among people co-infected with HIV-HCV in Canada using data from the Food Security & HIV-HCV Sub-Study (FS Sub-Study) of the Canadian Co-Infection Cohort (CCC). Stabilized inverse probability weighted marginal structural model was used to account for potential time-varying confounders. A total of 725 participants were enrolled between 2012 and 2015. At baseline, 52% of participants reported depressive symptoms, 75% had undetectable HIV viral load, and median CD4 count was 466 (IQR 300–665). People experiencing depressive symptoms had 1.32 times (95% CI: 1.07, 1.63) the risk of having detectable HIV viral load, but had comparable CD4 count to people who did not experience depressive symptoms (fold change of CD4 = 0.96, 95% CI: 0.91, 1.03). Presence of depressive symptoms is a risk factor for incomplete short-term HIV viral suppression among people co-infected with HIV-HCV. Therefore, depressive symptoms screening and related counseling may improve HIV related health outcomes and reduce HIV transmission.
Effect of multi-walled carbon nanotube reinforcement on the physical properties of poly(thiourea-azo-ether)-based nanocomposites

In the current effort, heteroaromatic azo-polymer, poly(thiourea-azo-ether) was prepared using 4,4′-oxydiphenyl bis(thiourea) and diazonium salt solution of 2,6-diaminopyridine. Poly(thiourea-azo-ether) was then exploited as a matrix to synthesize new hybrid materials. Varying carbon nanotube content was melt blended with the azo-matrix. The effect of filler loading on processing and other thermo-physical properties of poly(thiourea-azo-ether)/multi-walled carbon nanotube was investigated. Homogeneous dispersion of multi-walled carbon nanotube in a polymer matrix plays a crucial role in the preparation of polymer composites based on interfacial interaction between multi-walled carbon nanotube and the polymer matrix. Field emission scanning electron microscopy micrographs revealed fine dispersal of filler and adhesion of matrix on the surface of nanotube. Accordingly, filler content from 1 to 5 wt. % increased the electrical conductivity from 2.3 to 4.8 S cm−1. Ultimate tensile strength of functional hybrids 37.39–41.23 MPa was improved relative to non-functional multi-walled carbon nanotube in matrix. Furthermore, the tensile modulus considerably increased from 9.9 to 13.3 GPa. A connection between filler loading and thermal stability of the materials was also observed. Ten percent gravimetric loss was increased from 592 to 599℃, while glass transition was enhanced from 201 to 221℃. The addition of small amount of functional multi-walled carbon nanotube strongly improved the electrical, thermal and mechanical properties of nanocomposites. The melt processing technology was so found outstanding for the improvement of the properties of multi-walled carbon nanotube-reinforced polymer nanocomposites.
A Novel Method of Combined DC and Harmonic Overcurrent Protection for Rectifier Converters of Monopolar HVDC Systems

This paper presents a novel protection method for monopolar high-voltage direct current (HVDC) converters. This method uses the secondary and tertiary currents of the converter transformers and based on dc and harmonic contents of the currents decides for the security of the converter. The new protection method detects the location of the fault inside the converter and based on that issues a signal for single-phase disconnection in the ac system to eliminate the fault. It will be shown that the new method is not only faster compared to the conventional protection methods but also can be easily applied to the existing HVDC systems without imposing any significant requirement. The Hydro-Quebec HVDC test system is used to present the simulation results and to ensure the validity and functionality of the proposed protection method.
Added sugars in the diet are positively associated with diastolic blood pressure and triglycerides in children.

BACKGROUND Hypertension and dyslipidemia have traditionally been associated with dietary sodium and fat intakes, respectively; however, they have recently been associated with the consumption of added sugars in adults and older adolescents, but there is no clear indication of how early in the life span this association manifests. OBJECTIVE This study explored the cross-sectional association between added sugar (sugars not naturally occurring in foods) consumption in children, blood pressure (BP), and fasting blood lipids [triglycerides and total, low-density lipoprotein, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol]. DESIGN BP, blood lipids, and dietary intakes were obtained in a multiethnic pediatric sample aged 7-12 y of 122 European American (EA), 106 African American (AA), 84 Hispanic American (HA), and 8 mixed-race children participating in the Admixture Mapping of Ethnic and Racial Insulin Complex Outcomes (AMERICO) study-a cross-sectional study conducted in the Birmingham, AL, metro area investigating the effects of racial-ethnic differences on metabolic and health outcomes. Multiple regression analyses were performed to evaluate the relations of added sugars and sodium intakes with BP and of added sugars and dietary fat intakes with blood lipids. Models were controlled for sex, race-ethnicity, socioeconomic status, Tanner pubertal status, percentage body fat, physical activity, and total energy intake. RESULTS Added sugars were positively associated with diastolic BP (P = 0.0462, β = 0.0206) and serum triglycerides (P = 0.0206, β = 0.1090). Sodium was not significantly associated with either measure of BP nor was dietary fat with blood lipids. HA children had higher triglycerides but lower added sugar consumption than did either the AA or EA children. The AA participants had higher BP and HDL but lower triglycerides than did either the EA or HA children. CONCLUSIONS These data suggest that increased consumption of added sugars may be associated with adverse cardiovascular health factors in children, specifically elevated diastolic BP and triglycerides. Identification of dietary factors influencing cardiovascular health during childhood could serve as a tool to reduce cardiovascular disease risk. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00726778.
Insecticide resistance and genetic variability in natural populations of Aedes (Stegomyia) aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) from Colombia

Mosquito control prevails as the most efficient method to protect humans from the dengue virus, despite recent efforts to find a vaccine for this disease. We evaluated insecticide resistance and genetic variability in natural populations of Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus, 1762) from Colombia. This is the first Colombian study examining kdr mutations and population structure. Bioassays with larvae of three mosquito populations (Armenia, Calarca and Montenegro) were performed according to the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, using Temephos. For the analysis of the Val1016Ile mutation and genetic diversity, we sampled recently-emerged adults from four mosquito populations (Armenia, Calarca, Montenegro and Barcelona). Following the WHO protocol, bioassays implemented with larvae showed resistance to Temephos in mosquito populations from Armenia (77% ± 2) and Calarca (62% ± 14), and an incipient altered susceptibility at Montenegro (88% ± 8). The RR95 of mosquito populations ranged from 3.7 (Montenegro) to 6.0 (Calarca). The Val1016Ile mutation analysis of 107 genotyped samples indicates that 94% of the specimens were homozygous for the wild allele (1016Val) and 6% were heterozygous (Val1016Ile). The 1016Ile allele was not found in Barcelona. Genetic variability analysis found three mitochondrial lineages with low genetic diversity and gene flow. In comparison with haplotypes from the American continent, those from this study suggest connections with Mexican and North American populations. These results confirm that a continuous monitoring and managing program of A. aegypti resistance in the state of Quindio is required.