Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Psychopathic traits and social reward

Psychopathy is a personality disorder defined by atypical affective and interpersonal functioning, and impulsive and antisocial behaviour. This thesis explored associations between psychopathic traits and social reward processing in adults, and callous-unemotional (CU) traits and social reward processing in adolescents. The goal was to investigate what could potentially explain the atypical social behaviour seen in these individuals. In this thesis, five research questions were proposed. Firstly, in Chapter 2: What types of social interactions and relationships are valued by individuals with high levels of psychopathic traits? Secondly, in Chapter 3: What is the structure of social reward? Thirdly, in Chapter 4: In what way are psychopathic traits in adults associated with self-report and experimental measures of social reward? Finally, in Chapter 5: What is socially rewarding for adolescents, and in what way is this associated with callous-unemotional traits? The principal findings were as follows. In Chapter 2, I found that individuals with high levels of psychopathic traits were not motivated to have affiliative, long-term relationships. In Chapter 3, I developed and validated the Social Reward Questionnaire, a measure of individual differences in social reward value. In Chapter 4, I found that adults with high levels of psychopathic traits showed a pattern of ‘inverted’ social reward, in which being cruel was enjoyable and being kind was not. Additionally, social approval may have reward value for individuals with high levels of interpersonal psychopathic traits. In Chapter 5, I validated the Social Reward Questionnaire – Adolescent Version for use with 11-16 year olds. Like adults with high levels of psychopathic traits, adolescents with high levels of CU traits displayed a pattern of ‘inverted’ social reward. Together, these studies are an important initial exploration of the role that atypical social reward processing may play in explaining the problematic social behaviour seen in psychopathy.
Evolutionary ARMA modelling for aeronautical communications

This contribution deals with modelling and equalization for the aeronautical channel. This channel is subject to multipath and is characterized by a time-variant impulse response. An evolutionary ARMA model is proposed for such a non stationary channel. Evolutionary ARMA models are presented, they are used to derive a parameter estimator which is based upon an eigenformulation for a minimization criteria. A technique is presented for an equalizer design, based on the above model.
Interception and cooperative rendezvous between autonomous vehicles

The rendezvous problem between autonomous vehicles is formulated as an optimal cooperative control problem with terminal constraints. A major approach to the solution of optimal control problems is to seek solutions which satisfy the first order necessary conditions for an optimum. Such an approach is based on a Hamiltonian formulation, which leads to a difficult two-point boundary-value problem. In this paper, a different approach is used in which the control history is found directly by a genetic algorithm search method. The main advantage of the method is that it does not require the development of a Hamiltonian formulation and consequently, it eliminates the need to deal with an adjoint problem. This method has been applied to the solution of interception and rendezvous problems in an underwater environment, where the direction of the thrust vector is used as the control. The method is first tested on an interception chaser-target problem where the passive target vehicle moves along a straight line at constant speed. We then treat a cooperative rendezvous problem between two active autonomous vehicles. The effects of gravity, thrust and viscous drag are considered and the rendezvous location is treated as a terminal constraint.
Evaluation of fluoride release from experimental TiF4 and NaF varnishes in vitro

Fluoride varnishes play an important role in the prevention of dental caries, promoting the inhibition of demineralization and the increase of remineralization. Objective This study aimed to analyze the amount of fluoride released into water and artificial saliva from experimental TiF4 and NaF varnishes, with different concentrations, for 12 h. Material and Methods Fluoride varnishes were applied on acrylic blocks and then immersed in 10 ml of deionized water and artificial saliva in polystyrene bottles. The acrylic blocks were divided in seven groups (n=10): 1.55% TiF4 varnish (0.95% F, pH 1.0); 3.10% TiF4 varnish (1.90% F, pH 1.0); 3.10% and 4% TiF4 varnish (2.45% F, pH 1.0); 2.10% NaF varnish (0.95% F, pH 5.0); 4.20% NaF varnish (1.90% F, pH 5.0); 5.42% NaF varnish (2.45% F, pH 5.0) and control (no treatment, n=5). The fluoride release was analyzed after 1/2, 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 h of exposure. The analysis was performed using an ion-specific electrode coupled to a potentiometer. Two-way ANOVA and Bonferroni's test were applied for the statistical analysis (p<0.05). Results TiF4 varnishes released larger amounts of fluoride than NaF varnishes during the first 1/2 h, regardless of their concentration; 4% TiF4 varnish released more fluoride than NaF varnishes for the first 6 h. The peak of fluoride release occurred at 3 h. There was a better dose-response relationship among the varnishes exposed to water than to artificial saliva. Conclusions The 3.10% and 4% TiF4 -based varnishes have greater ability to release fluoride into water and artificial saliva compared to NaF varnish; however, more studies must be conducted to elucidate the mechanism of action of TiF4 varnish on tooth surface.
Problem Behaviors, Childhood Victimization, and Attachment Quality in Croatian Sample of Community and Referred Psychopathic-Like Adolescents

This study compares differences between community-based psychopathic-like adolescents (n = 78, 72% males) and referred psychopathic-like adolescents (n = 67, 70% males) in means, variances, and covariation between problem behaviors, adverse childhood experiences, parental conflict, physical and sexual victimization, and perceived parent–adolescent attachment quality. The psychopathic-like adolescents were identified among a larger pool of 1,346 community-based adolescents and 381 adolescents referred to institutional correctional treatment. Relative to the community group, referred adolescents presented with a distinct profile exhibiting higher levels of impulsive and irresponsible behavioral style, higher rates of problem behaviors and childhood victimization, and lower perceived parent–adolescent attachment quality. However, striking similarities in variances, and, in particular, of the covariation between problem behaviors, victimization, and attachment suggest that comparable processes link familial factors to problem behavior in psychopathic-like adolescents who have avoided contact with juvenile justice system and referred psychopathic-like adolescents.
Out in the Country: Rural Sexual Minority Mothers

Rural and urban sexual minority mothers’ parenting experiences related to sexual orientation were compared. Participants were 414 mothers in same-sex relationships with at least one child under the age of 18 years living in their home who was planned with their current partner. Rural mothers were more likely to be biological parents and not adoptive parents. Rural mothers reported higher rates of discrimination from strangers and people in service or helping professions. Although outness for rural and urban mothers did not differ, for children, classmates’ parents and neighbors were less likely to know the family's status in rural areas. Rural and urban mothers did not differ on internalized homophobia, social support, or stigma consciousness. Clinical and policy implications are discussed.
Estimation of Peer Effects with Predicted Social Ties: Evidence from Two Universities in Brazil and Russia

Social interactions with peers during learning have a significant impact on university students’ academic achievement. As social ties are voluntary, an empirical estimation of peer effects is exposed to a potential endogeneity problem. To overcome this issue, we propose to define the peer group of an individual as their predicted friends. The specific features of the learning environment in higher education institutions may affect dimensions along which friendship ties form. To test the presence of peer effects in different educational and cultural contexts, we use data on students studying in two universities located in two different countries, Brazil and Russia. We assume that friendship is affected by homophily in student attributes, such as having the same region of origin, the same gender, and sharing the same study group. In both institutions, we find positive externalities from having high-ability peers.
Metabolic profiling assisted quality control of phorbolesters in Jatropha curcas seed by high-performance liquid chromatography using a fused-core column.

In this work, fast and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with multivariate analysis was utilized to evaluate the metabolic profiling of Jatropha curcas seed and screen the marker compounds of phorbolesters (PEs), which significantly contributed to the metabolic profiling for quality control of PEs in J. curcas seed. Thirty-two peaks were separated and detected in J. curcas seed on a fused-core C(18) column between 2 and 25 min. Principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) of the chromatographic data demonstrated that 12 batches of J. curcas seed could be well-differentiated and categorized into 5 groups. Especially, one sample obtained from Lijiang Yunan was significantly different from the others. Partial least-squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) showed that the metabolic profiling differentiation might be explained by 9 components including J.factors C(1)-C(5) of PEs, peak 21 (similar to J.factor C(1)) and 3 peaks (peaks 1, 9, and 10) significantly different in retention time from the PEs. The observation that the content levels of J.factors C(1) and C(2) plus peak 21 (equivalent to J.factor C(1)) were more relevant to the multivariate chromatographic data than the ones of J.factors C(3)-C(5) was confirmed by the PLS prediction models. The results of the present study indicated not only that J.factors C(1) and C(2) were the more rational markers representing the comprehensive quality of PEs in J. curcas seed but also that peak 21 (similar to J.factor C(1)) was a rational marker, too.
The ACL Anthology Searchbench

We describe a novel application for structured search in scientific digital libraries. The ACL Anthology Searchbench is meant to become a publicly available research tool to query the content of the ACL Anthology. The application provides search in both its bibliographic metadata and semantically analyzed full textual content. By combining these two features, very efficient and focused queries are possible. At the same time, the application serves as a showcase for the recent progress in natural language processing (NLP) research and language technology. The system currently indexes the textual content of 7,500 anthology papers from 2002--2009 with predicate-argument-like semantic structures. It also provides useful search filters based on bibliographic metadata. It will be extended to provide the full anthology content and enhanced functionality based on further NLP techniques.
“Let’s Talk About Children” resource: A parallel mixed method evaluation

ABSTRACT Psycho-education interventions for families affected by parental mental illness have been found to be effective. This study aimed to assess the feasibility of a psycho-educational resource for parents, designed to initiate family discussions about parental mental illness and educate parents about the impact of their illness on children. In a mixed methods design, 19 parents read the “Let’s Talk About Children” psycho-educational resource and completed pre-and-post questionnaires measuring their perspectives of mental illness and awareness of the impact of mental illness on their children and family. 18 of these participated in a follow-up, one hour, individual interview to obtain further feedback on the resource. After viewing the resource, changes in parents’ attitudes and/or behavior in relation to mental illness and parenting were recorded. Interview findings indicate that the resource gave parents an awareness of the skills and knowledge needed for initiating family discussions about parental mental illness. The results of this study can be used to inform future interventions targeting parents who experience mental illness.
Rebuilding Factorized Information Criterion: Asymptotically Accurate Marginal Likelihood

Factorized information criterion (FIC) is a recently developed approximation technique for the marginal log-likelihood, which provides an automatic model selection framework for a few latent variable models (LVMs) with tractable inference algorithms. This paper reconsiders FIC and fills theoretical gaps of previous FIC studies. First, we reveal the core idea of FIC that allows generalization for a broader class of LVMs, including continuous LVMs, in contrast to previous FICs, which are applicable only to binary LVMs. Second, we investigate the model selection mechanism of the generalized FIC. Our analysis provides a formal justification of FIC as a model selection criterion for LVMs and also a systematic procedure for pruning redundant latent variables that have been removed heuristically in previous studies. Third, we provide an interpretation of FIC as a variational free energy and uncover a few previously-unknown their relationships. A demonstrative study on Bayesian principal component analysis is provided and numerical experiments support our theoretical results.
Inhibition of Syk with fostamatinib disodium has significant clinical activity in non-Hodgkin lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Certain malignant B cells rely on B-cell receptor (BCR)-mediated survival signals. Spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk) initiates and amplifies the BCR signal. In in vivo analyses of B-cell lymphoma cell lines and primary tumors, Syk inhibition induces apoptosis. These data prompted a phase 1/2 clinical trial of fostamatinib disodium, the first clinically available oral Syk inhibitor, in patients with recurrent B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL). Dose-limiting toxicity in the phase 1 portion was neutropenia, diarrhea, and thrombocytopenia, and 200 mg twice daily was chosen for phase 2 testing. Sixty-eight patients with recurrent B-NHL were then enrolled in 3 cohorts: (1) diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), (2) follicular lymphoma (FL), and (3) other NHL, including mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), marginal zone lymphoma (MZL), mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma, lymphoplasmacytic lymphomas, and small lymphocytic leukemia/chronic lymphocytic leukemia (SLL/CLL). Common toxicities included diarrhea, fatigue, cytopenias, hypertension, and nausea. Objective response rates were 22% (5 of 23) for DLBCL, 10% (2 of 21) for FL, 55% (6 of 11) for SLL/CLL, and 11% (1/9) for MCL. Median progression-free survival was 4.2 months. Disrupting BCR-induced signaling by inhibiting Syk represents a novel and active therapeutic approach for NHL and SLL/CLL. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials. gov as #NCT00446095.
Suicide Prevention by Lithium SUPLI—Challenges of a Multi-center Prospective Study

Abstract Several studies have shown that there is a significantly increased risk of suicide related mortality in patients with a positive history of suicide attempts. The SUPLI-Study is the first prospective, randomized, double blind, placebo controlled multi-center trial focusing on the proposed suicide preventive effects of lithium in patients with suicidal behavior but not suffering from bipolar disorder or recurrent major depressive disorder. Patients with a recent history of a suicide attempt are treated with lithium versus placebo during a 12 month period. The hypothesis is that lithium treatment will lead to a 50% reduction of suicidal behavior. The protocol of the study and preliminary results are presented.
Structural changes in left fusiform areas and associated fiber connections in children with abacus training: evidence from morphometry and tractography

Evidence supports the notion that the fusiform gyrus (FG), as an integral part of the ventral occipitotemporal junction, is involved widely in cognitive processes as perceiving faces, objects, places or words, and this region also might represent the visual form of an abacus in the abacus-based mental calculation process. The current study uses a combined voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) analysis to test whether long-term abacus training could induce structural changes in the left FG and in the white matter (WM) tracts distribution connecting with this region in school children. We found that, abacus-trained children exhibited significant smaller gray matter (GM) volume than controls in the left FG. And the connectivity mapping identified left forceps major as a key pathway connecting left FG with other brain areas in the trained group, but not in the controls. Furthermore, mean fractional anisotropy (FA) values within left forceps major were significantly increased in the trained group. Interestingly, a significant negative correlation was found in the trained group between the GM volume in left FG and the mean FA value in left forceps major, suggesting an inverse effect of the reported GM and WM structural changes. In the control group, a positive correlation between left FG GM volume and tract FA was found as well. This analysis visualized the group level differences in GM volume, FA and fiber tract between the abacus-trained children and the controls, and provided the first evidence that GM volume change in the left FG is intimately linked with the micro-structural properties of the left forceps major tracts. The present results demonstrate the structural changes in the left FG from the intracortical GM to the subcortical WM regions and provide insights into the neural mechanism of structural plasticity induced by abacus training.
PSYCHOSOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CHALLENGES i Psychosocial and Psychological Challenges Facing Women Diagnosed with Cancer

According to the American Cancer Society (2015), there were approximately 231,840 new cases of breast cancer diagnosed with nearly 40,290 deaths related to this type of cancer in 2015. Furthermore, 67,770 new cases of uterine cancer were diagnosed in 2015 with almost 14,270 related deaths from this form of cancer. Research has shown that women diagnosed with cancer also experience psychosocial issues and psychological distress. Through this paper, we will identify specific psychosocial and mental health challenges women face when diagnosed with cancer. Specifically, we will research depression, anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and ways in which these psychological factors manifest within the cancer diagnosis. Once these psychosocial issues and psychological distress’ are identified, we will research evidenced based therapeutic interventions that can be beneficial in assisting women in processing through their cancer journey throughout many different stages and phases.
A missense variant ( P 10 L ) of the melanopsin ( Opn 4 ) gene is associated with Seasonal Affective Disorder

Background—Melanopsin, a non-visual photopigment, may play a role in aberrant responses to low winter light levels in Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). We hypothesized that functional sequence variation in the melanopsin gene (Opn4) could contribute to increasing the light needed for normal functioning during winter in SAD. Methods—Associations between alleles, genotypes, and haplotypes of Opn4 in SAD participants (n = 130) were performed relative to controls with no history of psychopathology (n = 90). Results—SAD participants had a higher frequency of the homozygous minor genotype (T/T) for the missense variant rs2675703 (P10L) than controls, compared to the combined frequencies of C/ C and C/T. Individuals with the T/T genotype were 5.6 times more likely to be in the SAD group than the control group. Limitations—The study examined only one molecular component of the non-visual light input pathway, and recruitment methods for the comparison groups differed. Conclusion—These findings support the hypothesis that melanopsin variants may predispose some individuals to SAD. Characterizing the genetic basis for deficits in the non-visual light input pathway has the potential to define mechanisms underlying the pathological response to light in SAD, which may improve treatment. *Corresponding author. University of Virginia, Department of Biology, 281 Gilmer Hall, 485 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903 Tel. (434) 924-4412; Fax (801) 729-0866. E-mail address: ip7m@virginia.edu. The opinions and assertions expressed herein are those of the authors and are not to be construed as expressing the views of the USUHS or the United States Department of Defense. Conflict of Interest All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. *Contributors Author Roecklein designed the study, wrote the protocol, managed the literature searches and analyses, undertook the statistical analysis, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Author Rohan supervised the aforementioned activities. Author Duncan managed the data stored at the NIH pertaining to this sample. Author Lipsky designed the protocol and laboratory methods. Author Provencio supervised all activities including manuscript preparation and laboratory methods. Author Rosenthal oversaw the sample collection, clinical assessment, and diagnosis. All authors contributed to and have approved the final manuscript. NIH Public Access Author Manuscript J Affect Disord. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2010 April 1. Published in final edited form as: J Affect Disord. 2009 April ; 114(1-3): 279–285. doi:10.1016/j.jad. 2008.08. 005. N IH PA Athor M anscript N IH PA Athor M anscript N IH PA Athor M anscript
Running Head : RAP FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS University of San Francisco Teaching English as a Second Language through Rap Music : A Curriculum for Secondary School Students

This project provides a sample of the curriculum, Rapping English, which uses rap/hip-hop style music to teach ELLs vocabulary, grammar, discourse and prosody. The rationale for using musical instruction is based on Gardner’s (2006) multiple intelligence theory and Bloom’s (1978) learning domains. This curriculum instructs students through musical intelligence and the affective domain which are often neglected in traditional instruction. Furthermore, this project explores how musical curriculum can be used to lower the affective filter (Krashen, 1981) and provide emotionally appealing and memory stimulating instruction in line with the findings of current neuropsychology, specifically the work of R. Caine and Caine (2011), Sylwester (2006) and Wolfe (2006) The curriculum uses rap/hip-hop style music to demonstrate prosody and an informal register while teaching vocabulary, grammar and discourse explicitly through song. Rapping English is relevant to youth of all cultures while the songs can be used to unconsciously take down cultural barriers of students who may feel disconnected to the American society. The curriculum partially fulfills the Common Core State Standards’ objectives for ELLs to have instruction in English foundational skills in order to create access to grade-level course work. The project concludes with recommendations on how to use the curriculum to supplement other ESL materials. It demonstrates how ESL teachers who are not musically inclined can easily use these materials and methods. RAP FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS 1