Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Child-care nutrition environments: results from a survey of policy and practice in New Zealand early childhood education services

Abstract Objective: To describe nutrition environments in formal child care for 3- and 4-year-olds. Design: Cross-sectional online survey of nutrition-related child-care policy and practice. Written nutrition policies were analysed using the Wellness Child Care Assessment Tool. Setting: Licensed child-care services in the Auckland, Counties Manukau and Waikato regions of New Zealand. Subjects: Eight hundred and forty-seven services (private and community day care, kindergartens and playcentres). Results: Managers/head teachers of 257 child-care services completed the survey. Of services, 82·4 % had a written food, nutrition or wellness policy. Most policies did not refer to the national Food and Nutrition Guidelines and lacked directives for staff regarding recommended behaviours to promote healthy eating. Food was provided daily to children in 56·4 % of child-care services, including 33·5 % that provided lunch and at least two other meals/snacks every day. Teachers talked to children about food, and cooked with children, at least weekly in 60 % of child-care services. Nearly all services had an edible garden (89·5 %). Foods/beverages were sold for fundraising in the past 12 months by 37·2 % of services. The most commonly reported barrier to promoting nutrition was a lack of support from families (20·6 %). Conclusions: Although the majority of child-care services had a written nutrition policy, these were not comprehensive and contained weak statements that could be difficult to action. Foods served at celebrations and for fundraising were largely high in sugar, salt and/or saturated fat. Most services promoted some healthy eating behaviours but other widespread practices encouraged children to overeat or form unhealthy food preferences.
The concept of chronotypes and its clinical importance for depressive disorders

Chronobiology and chronobiological research deal with time-dependent physiological processes and behavioral correlates as well as their adaptation to environmental conditions. Chronobiological research is presently focused on the impact of circadian rhythms on human behavior. In the last three decades, chronobiology has established itself as an independent area of research evolving to an important field of clinical psychology and psychiatry. In this overview, the results of studies on the clinical importance of chronotypes are summarized. The main focus is on the role of chronotype in depressive disorders.
The Natural History of Scoliosis in Females With Rett Syndrome

Study Design. Population-based longitudinal observational study. Objective. To describe the prevalence of scoliosis in Rett syndrome, structural characteristics and progression, taking into account the influences of age, genotype, and ambulatory status. Summary of Background Data. Scoliosis is the most common orthopedic comorbidity in Rett syndrome yet very little is known about its natural history and influencing factors such as age, genotype, and ambulatory status. Methods. The infrastructure of the Australian Rett Syndrome Database was used to identify all cases with confirmed Rett syndrome in Australia and collect data on genotype and walking status. We identified radiological records and described the Cobb angle of each curve. Time to event analysis was used to estimate the median age of onset of scoliosis and the log-rank test to compare by mutation type. Latent class group analysis was used to identify groups for the trajectory of walking status over time and a multilevel linear model used to assess trajectories of scoliosis development by mutation type and walking status. We used a logistic regression model to estimate the probability of developing a scoliosis with a Cobb angle >60° at 16 years in relation to Cobb angle and walking status at 10 years of age. Results. The median age of scoliosis onset was 11 years with earliest onset in those with a p.Arg255* mutation or large deletion. Scoliosis was progressive for all mutation types except for those with the p.Arg306Cys mutation. Scoliosis progression was reduced when there was capacity to walk independently or with assistance. Cobb angle and walking ability at age 10 can be reliably used to identify those who will develop a very severe scoliosis by age 16. Conclusion. These data on prognosis of scoliosis inform clinical decision making about the likelihood of progression to very severe scoliosis and the need for surgical management. Level of Evidence: 4
Blood pressure response to renal denervation is correlated with baseline blood pressure variability: a patient-level meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND Sympathetic tone is one of the main determinants of blood pressure (BP) variability and treatment-resistant hypertension. The aim of our study was to assess changes in BP variability after renal denervation (RDN). In addition, on an exploratory basis, we investigated whether baseline BP variability predicted the BP changes after RDN. METHODS We analyzed 24-h BP recordings obtained at baseline and 6 months after RDN in 167 treatment-resistant hypertension patients (40% women; age, 56.7 years; mean 24-h BP, 152/90 mmHg) recruited at 11 expert centers. BP variability was assessed by weighted SD [SD over time weighted for the time interval between consecutive readings (SDiw)], average real variability (ARV), coefficient of variation, and variability independent of the mean (VIM). RESULTS Mean office and 24-h BP fell by 15.4/6.6 and 5.5/3.7 mmHg, respectively (P < 0.001). In multivariable-adjusted analyses, systolic/diastolic SDiw and VIM for 24-h SBP/DBP decreased by 1.18/0.63 mmHg (P ≤ 0.01) and 0.86/0.42 mmHg (P ≤ 0.05), respectively, whereas no significant changes in ARV or coefficient of variation occurred. Furthermore, baseline SDiw (P = 0.0006), ARV (P = 0.01), and VIM (P = 0.04) predicted the decrease in 24-h DBP but not 24-h SBP after RDN. CONCLUSION RDN was associated with a decrease in BP variability independent of the BP level, suggesting that responders may derive benefits from the reduction in BP variability as well. Furthermore, baseline DBP variability estimates significantly correlated with mean DBP decrease after RDN. If confirmed in younger patients with less arterial damage, in the absence of the confounding effect of drugs and drug adherence, baseline BP variability may prove a good predictor of BP response to RDN.
Biologically Plausible Artificial Neural Networks

Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are based on an abstract and simplified view of the neuron. Artificial neurons are connected and arranged in layers to form large networks, where learning and connections determine the network function. Connections can be formed through learning and do not need to be ’programmed. ’ Recent ANN models lack many physiological properties of the neuron, because they are more oriented to computational performance than to biological credibility [41].
Hepatitis B virus and risk of non‐Hodgkin lymphoma: An updated meta‐analysis of 58 studies

Previous studies have focused on the relationship between hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and non‐Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). However, the results remain inconsistent and somehow conflicting in different subgroups. The aim of this study was to combine the findings of independent studies to comprehensively assess the association between HBV and NHL using a meta‐analysis. Relevant studies were identified through structured keyword searches in PubMed, EMBASE and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database, and 58 studies with a total of 53 714 NHL cases and 1 778 591 controls were finally included. Pooled estimates indicated a significantly increased NHL risk in HBV‐infected individuals (summary odds ratio [sOR]: 2.50; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.20‐2.83) regardless of the study design (case–control studies: sOR: 2.47; 95% CI: 2.16‐2.82; cohort studies: sOR: 2.64; 95% CI: 1.78‐3.91). Considerable heterogeneity was observed across studies that was primarily attributed to the NHL subtypes (meta‐regression: P < .05). Overall, B‐cell NHL (sOR: 2.46; 95% CI: 1.97‐3.07) presented a stronger association with HBV infection than T‐cell NHL (sOR: 1.67; 95% CI: 1.34‐2.10). Within the B‐cell NHL subtypes, HBV infection was significantly associated with diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma (DLBCL, sOR: 2.06; 95% CI: 1.48‐2.88) and follicular lymphoma (FL, sOR: 1.54; 95% CI: 1.11‐2.12), but not with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL) and Burkitt lymphoma. The results of this meta‐analysis support a positive link between HBV infection and NHL development. Further investigations for the mechanisms underlying HBV‐induced NHL are warranted.
Validation of the Brief Pain Inventory in Patients With Low Back Pain

Study Design. Cross-sectional psychometric testing in a sample of patients with low back pain (LBP). Objective. The aim of this study was to examine the construct, convergent, and discriminative validity of the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) in patients with LBP. Summary of Background Data. The BPI was originally developed to assess cancer pain. Currently, it is commonly used to measure pain intensity and pain interference in patients with malignant or nonmalignant pain. However, the two-factor construct of the BPI has not been confirmed in an LBP population. Methods. A total of 271 patients with LBP completed the BPI and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) questionnaires. The construct validity (i.e., the two-factor structure: intensity scale and interference scale) of the BPI was determined by confirmatory factor analysis. The convergent validity was investigated by examining the relationships between the BPI scales and the ODI scores. The discriminative validity of the BPI was examined by testing if the BPI scale scores differed among groups of patients with different levels of disability. Results. Confirmatory factor analysis partially confirmed the two-factor structure of the BPI for use in patients with LBP. The convergent validity of the BPI was supported by its moderate correlation between the interference scale and the ODI score (&rgr; = 0.66, P < 0.001), and by its low correlation between the intensity scale and the ODI score (&rgr; = 0.39, P < 0.001). Finally, both the intensity scale and the interference scale discriminated among patients with varying levels of disability (both P < 0.001). Conclusion. The two-factor structure of the BPI as a measure of pain intensity and interference in patients with LBP was partially confirmed. Furthermore, our results lend some supports to the convergent validity and discriminative validity of the BPI. Level of Evidence: N/A
Gas Generation from Incinerator Bottom Ash: Potential Aerating Agent for Lightweight Concrete Production

AbstractIncinerator bottom ash (IBA) has great potential to be utilized for civil engineering applications. This paper is to investigate the characteristic of gas generation from IBA and to study the potential of IBA as an aerating agent. Results show the aeration capacity of IBA used in this study is approximately 1% that of pure aluminum powder by mass. Finer particles, higher alkali molarity, and higher reaction temperature encourage the reaction and more gas is generated per gram of IBA. Type of alkaline solution does not seem to be an important factor for gas generation from IBA. Several exemplary lightweight mortars were produced by incorporating IBA as an aerating agent. It is highly plausible IBA can be used as an aerating agent to replace pure aluminum powder in the production of aerated concrete.
Tracking the gradients using the Hessian: A new look at variance reducing stochastic methods

Our goal is to improve variance reducing stochastic methods through better control variates. We first propose a modification of SVRG which uses the Hessian to track gradients over time, rather than to recondition, increasing the correlation of the control variates and leading to faster theoretical convergence close to the optimum. We then propose accurate and computationally efficient approximations to the Hessian, both using a diagonal and a low-rank matrix. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our method on a wide range of problems.
An integrative review exploring black men of African and Caribbean backgrounds, their fears of prostate cancer and their attitudes towards screening

Evidence suggests that black men are disproportionately more affected than any other ethnicity by prostate cancer. The aim of this review is to identify studies exploring black men of African and Caribbean descent, their fears of prostate cancer and their attitudes towards screening. Four databases were searched and reference lists of relevant papers were hand searched. The inclusion criteria were studies exploring attitudes towards screening and fear of prostate cancer in black men of African and Caribbean backgrounds, peer-reviewed research, qualitative studies, surveys, questionnaires and English language publications. Qualitative findings were synthesized using a thematic framework to which quantitative findings were integrated. Of the 16 papers, 10 were quantitative and 6 were qualitative, all of which were conducted in the United States of America. Poorer and less educated black men were reluctant to seek help for prostate cancer. They may not visit their doctors for fear of intrusion into their personal lives. Moreover, they were fearful of being emasculated as a result of the digital rectal examination. The review identifies a paucity of UK literature on black men's fears and perceptions of prostate cancer. Further studies are needed in the United Kingdom to address this gap in the literature.
Dedekind's Treatment of Galois Theory in the Vorlesungen

We present a translation of §§160–166 of Dedekind’s Supplement XI to Dirichlet’s Vorlesungen uber Zahlentheorie, which contain an investigation of the subfields of C. In particular, Dedekind explores the lattice structure of these subfields, by studying isomorphisms between them. He also indicates how his ideas apply to Galois theory. After a brief introduction, we summarize the translated excerpt, emphasizing its Galois-theoretic highlights. We then take issue with Kiernan’s characterization of Dedekind’s work in his extensive survey article on the history of Galois theory; Dedekind has a nearly complete realization of the modern “fundamental theorem of Galois theory” (for subfields of C), in stark contrast to the picture presented by Kiernan at points. We intend a sequel to this article of an historical and philosophical nature. With that in mind, we have sought to make Dedekind’s text accessible to as wide an audience as possible. Thus we include a fair amount of background and exposition.
Cost and mortality impact of an algorithm-driven sepsis prediction system

Abstract Aims: To compute the financial and mortality impact of InSight, an algorithm-driven biomarker, which forecasts the onset of sepsis with minimal use of electronic health record data. Methods: This study compares InSight with existing sepsis screening tools and computes the differential life and cost savings associated with its use in the inpatient setting. To do so, mortality reduction is obtained from an increase in the number of sepsis cases correctly identified by InSight. Early sepsis detection by InSight is also associated with a reduction in length-of-stay, from which cost savings are directly computed. Results: InSight identifies more true positive cases of severe sepsis, with fewer false alarms, than comparable methods. For an individual ICU with 50 beds, for example, it is determined that InSight annually saves 75 additional lives and reduces sepsis-related costs by $560,000. Limitations: InSight performance results are derived from analysis of a single-center cohort. Mortality reduction results rely on a simplified use case, which fixes prediction times at 0, 1, and 2 h before sepsis onset, likely leading to under-estimates of lives saved. The corresponding cost reduction numbers are based on national averages for daily patient length-of-stay cost. Conclusions: InSight has the potential to reduce sepsis-related deaths and to lead to substantial cost savings for healthcare facilities.
Microtubule Regulation and Function during Virus Infection

ABSTRACT Microtubules (MTs) form a rapidly adaptable network of filaments that radiate throughout the cell. These dynamic arrays facilitate a wide range of cellular processes, including the capture, transport, and spatial organization of cargos and organelles, as well as changes in cell shape, polarity, and motility. Nucleating from MT-organizing centers, including but by no means limited to the centrosome, MTs undergo rapid transitions through phases of growth, pause, and catastrophe, continuously exploring and adapting to the intracellular environment. Subsets of MTs can become stabilized in response to environmental cues, acquiring distinguishing posttranslational modifications and performing discrete functions as specialized tracks for cargo trafficking. The dynamic behavior and organization of the MT array is regulated by MT-associated proteins (MAPs), which include a subset of highly specialized plus-end-tracking proteins (+TIPs) that respond to signaling cues to alter MT behavior. As pathogenic cargos, viruses require MTs to transport to and from their intracellular sites of replication. While interactions with and functions for MT motor proteins are well characterized and extensively reviewed for many viruses, this review focuses on MT filaments themselves. Changes in the spatial organization and dynamics of the MT array, mediated by virus- or host-induced changes to MT regulatory proteins, not only play a central role in the intracellular transport of virus particles but also regulate a wider range of processes critical to the outcome of infection.
Risk Factors for Suicidal Ideation of the General Population

The aim of this study was to investigate risk factors of suicide ideation in general population. A total of 1,116 adults were sampled with randomization in an urban area. After excluding 116 participants due to incomplete answer, 1,000 participants (500 males; mean age 39.6 ± 11.6) completed self-report questionnaire including the Center for Epidemiologic Study Depression Scale (CES-D), the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSI), the Spielberger State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI), the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS), and questions on weekday sleep duration. Results showed higher scores on the BSI were related with higher scores on the STAXI, CES-D, a family history of psychiatric illness, and short or long sleep duration (≤ 5 or ≥ 10 hr) (adjusted R2 = 0.151, P < 0.001, P < 0.001, P = 0.001, and P = 0.008, respectively). The predictive power of the STAXI scores, the presence of psychiatric family history and short or long sleep duration was stronger in the high CES-D group with scores of 16 or higher (adjusted R2 = 0.275, P < 0.001, P < 0.001, and P < 0.001, respectively). These findings suggest that suicide idea in general population may be related with the presence of family history for psychiatric illness, depressive mood, high anger and short or long sleep duration.
Observation of Ocean Colour Beyond Chlorophyll-a: From Particulate Organic Carbon Content and Size Distribution to Phytoplankton Functional Groups

The term phytoplankton encompasses all microscopic plant-like organisms living in the illuminated surface layers of the ocean. The existence of phytoplankton is of fundamental interest as they form the base of the aquatic food web, providing an essential ecological function for all aquatic life. Phytoplankton also play an important role in the biological pump of carbon and CO2 sequestration. During the process of photosynthesis, phytoplankton take up dissolved CO2 and convert it into organic compounds, using energy from the sun. This transformation is of biogeochemical importance for two reasons: firstly the resulting organic carbon no longer participates in the equilibrium of the carbonate system, thus increasing the ocean’s ability to dissolve carbon dioxide. Secondly, the particulate organic carbon sinks from surface waters to deeper layers, removing carbon from the surface layer. The biological pump thus plays a very important role in the Earth’s carbon cycle, and the evolution of the biological pump will play a key role in understanding climate change scenarios. Like terrestrial plants, phytoplankton use pigment antennae to capture the energy of photons. Among these phytoplankton pigments is chlorophyll-a, which is used as an index of the phytoplankton biomass. Chlorophyll-a selectively modifies the flux of photons that penetrate the ocean’s surface layer. It absorbs the red and blue wavelengths and scatters the green ones. For this reason, the colour of the ocean will range from blue-green to green depending on the type and density of phytoplankton populations. Thus, by studying the colour of light reflected from the oceans, in other words ocean colour, optical sensors can quantify the amount of chlorophyll and other constituents.
Neural correlates of fine‐grained meaning distinctions: An fMRI investigation of scalar quantifiers

Communication involves successfully deriving a speaker's meaning beyond the literal expression. Using fMRI, it was investigated how the listener's brain realizes distinctions between enrichment‐based meanings and literal semantic meanings. The neural patterns of the Mandarin scalar quantifier you‐de (similar to some in English) which implies the meanings not all and not most via scalar enrichment, with the specific quantifier shao‐shu‐de (similar to less than half in English) which lexico‐semantically encodes the meanings not all and not most, were compared. Listeners heard sentences using either quantifier, paired with pictures in which either less than half, more than half, or all of the people depicted in the picture were doing the described activity; thus, the conditions included both implicature‐based and semantics‐based picture‐sentence mismatches. Imaging results showed bilateral ventral IFG was activated for both kinds of mismatch, whereas basal ganglia and left dorsal IFG were activated uniquely for implicature‐based mismatch. These findings suggest that resolving conflicts involving inferential aspects of meaning employs different neural mechanisms than the processing based on literal semantic meaning, and that the dorsal prefrontal/basal ganglia pathway makes a contribution to implicature‐based interpretation. Furthermore, within the implicature‐based conditions, different neural generators were implicated in the processing of strong implicature mismatch (you‐de in the context of a picture in which “all” would have been true) and weak implicature mismatch (you‐de in the context of a picture in which “most” would have been true), which may have important implications for theories of pragmatic comprehension. Hum Brain Mapp 38:3848–3864, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Answering Visuo-Semantic Queries with IMGpedia

IMGpedia is a linked dataset that provides a public SPARQL endpoint where users can answer queries that combine the visual similarity of images from Wikimedia Commons and semantic information from existing knowledge-bases. Our demo will show example queries that capture the potential of the current data stored in IMGpedia. We also plan to discuss potential use-cases for the dataset and ways in which we can improve the quality of the information it captures and the expressiveness of the queries.