Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Interactive Child Distress Screener: Development and Preliminary Feasibility Testing

Background Early identification of child emotional and behavioral concerns is essential for the prevention of mental health problems; however, few suitable child-reported screening measures are available. Digital tools offer an exciting opportunity for obtaining clinical information from the child’s perspective. Objective The aim of this study was to describe the initial development and pilot testing of the Interactive Child Distress Screener (ICDS). The ICDS is a Web-based screening instrument for the early identification of emotional and behavioral problems in children aged between 5 and 12 years. Methods This paper utilized a mixed-methods approach to (1) develop and refine item content using an expert review process (study 1) and (2) develop and refine prototype animations and an app interface using codesign with child users (study 2). Study 1 involved an iterative process that comprised the following four steps: (1) the initial development of target constructs, (2) preliminary content validation (face validity, item importance, and suitability for animation) from an expert panel of researchers and psychologists (N=9), (3) item refinement, and (4) a follow-up validation with the same expert panel. Study 2 also comprised four steps, which are as follows: (1) the development of prototype animations, (2) the development of the app interface and a response format, (3) child interviews to determine feasibility and obtain feedback, and (4) refinement of animations and interface. Cognitive interviews were conducted with 18 children aged between 4 and 12 years who tested 3 prototype animated items. Children were asked to describe the target behavior, how well the animations captured the intended behavior, and provide suggestions for improvement. Their ability to understand the wording of instructions was also assessed, as well as the general acceptability of character and sound design. Results In study 1, a revised list of 15 constructs was generated from the first and second round of expert feedback. These were rated highly in terms of importance (mean 6.32, SD 0.42) and perceived compatibility of items (mean 6.41, SD 0.45) on a 7-point scale. In study 2, overall feedback regarding the character design and sounds was positive. Children’s ability to understand intended behaviors varied according to target items, and feedback highlighted key objectives for improvements such as adding contextual cues or improving character detail. These design changes were incorporated through an iterative process, with examples presented. Conclusions The ICDS has potential to obtain clinical information from the child’s perspective that may otherwise be overlooked. If effective, the ICDS will provide a quick, engaging, and easy-to-use screener that can be utilized in routine care settings. This project highlights the importance of involving an expert review and user codesign in the development of digital assessment tools for children.
Effect of genetic cancer risk assessment on surgical decisions at breast cancer diagnosis.

HYPOTHESIS Breast cancer gene (BRCA) mutation status affects patients' surgical decisions when genetic cancer risk assessment is offered at the time of breast cancer diagnosis, prior to definitive treatment. PATIENTS AND INTERVENTIONS Outcomes following genetic cancer risk assessment were studied for women newly diagnosed as having breast cancer who were prospectively enrolled in an institutional review board-approved hereditary cancer registry during a 1-year sampling frame. BRCA gene analysis was offered to subjects with a calculated mutation probability of 10% or higher. Review of medical records and telephone survey were used to document surgical treatment decisions following genetic cancer risk assessment. RESULTS Thirty-seven of 233 women in the registry were enrolled at the time of a breast cancer diagnosis. The interval from diagnosis to genetic cancer risk assessment ranged from 3 to 60 days. The mean calculated probability of a BRCA gene mutation was 21% across the cohort. Two women were not tested because of low prior probabilities of mutation detection, and 3 declined owing to intercurrent psychological stressors. Of the remaining 32 patients, no BRCA gene mutation was detected in 22 (69%), 3 (9%) were found to carry a variant of uncertain significance, and 7 (22%) had a deleterious mutation. All 7 subjects with a deleterious mutation opted for bilateral mastectomy, whereas 20 of 22 patients with negative test results chose stage-appropriate treatment (P<.001). CONCLUSIONS Genetic cancer risk assessment at the time of breast cancer diagnosis significantly affected women's treatment decisions. Although need and feasibility are demonstrated, the logistics of genetic cancer risk assessment during breast cancer diagnosis prove challenging.
Tei Index in a Sample of Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis

Background and objectives: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is an inflammatory disease of immunological origin which has been correlated with higher cardiovascular risk. Although the risk factors are not clear, many cardiac alterations have been described, such as conduction disturbances, coronary heart disease, aortic root dilation, cardiac valve alterations, and ventricular diastolic dysfunction. The objective of this study was to evaluate echocardiographic findings in AS patients who were asymptomatic for cardiac disorders, and to compare them with findings from healthy subjects. Materials and methods: This study compared echocardiographic findings for 22 patients diagnosed with AS who had no previous cardiac abnormalities and 22 healthy subjects. We evaluated the cardiac cavities, left ventricular mass index, indices of systolic and diastolic ventricular function, the function and anatomy of the heart valves, and the myocardial performance index. Some of these measurements were correlated with disease duration and BASDAI (Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index). Results: There was no statistical difference between groups with regards to the size of cardiac chambers, ventricular mass index, and relative thickness of the ventricular wall. As for the ejection fraction, individuals in the AS group had lower levels for this parameter (p=0.02). The myocardial performance index (Tei index), considering TEI ≥ 0.44 as abnormal, was altered in 31.82% of the patient group, while no patient in the control group had an altered Tei index (p=0.009), reflecting poorer ventricular performance in patients with AS.
Interference Mitigation in CR-Enabled Heterogeneous Networks

The heterogeneous network (HetNet), which deploys small cells such as picocells, femotcells, and relay nodes within macrocell, is regarded as a cost-efficient and energy-efficient approach to resolve increasing demand for data bandwidth and thus has received a lot of attention from research and industry. Since small cells share the same licensed spectrum with macrocells, concurrent transmission induces severe interference, which causes performance degradation, particularly when coordination among small cell base stations (BSs) is infeasible. Given the dense, massive, and unplanned deployment of small cells, mitigating interference in a distributed manner is a challenge and has been explored in recent papers. An efficient and innovative approach is to apply cognitive radio (CR) into HetNet, which enables small cells to sense and to adapt to their surrounding environments. Consequently, stations in each small cell are able to acquire additional information from surrounding environments and opportunistically operate in the spectrum hole, constrained by minimal inducing interference. This paper summarizes and highlights the CR-based interference mitigation approaches in orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)-based HetNet networks. With special discussing the role of sensed information at small cells for the interference mitigation, this paper presents the potential cross-layer facilitation of the CR-enable HetNet. key words: heterogeneous networks (HetNet), small cell, interference management, interference mitigation, cognitive radio
Revealing the Inhibition Efficiencies of Artesunate and Rutin for Corrosion of Steel: A Theoretical Study

Corrosion inhibition characteristics of artesunate and rutin on carbon steel in water has been studied using density functional theory (DFT). Quantum chemical parameters such as highest occupied molecular orbital energy (EHOMO), lowest unoccupied molecular orbital energy (ELUMO), energy gap (ΔE), and global reactivity properties have been calculated at the B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) basis set. The results of theoretical calculations confirm the experimental findings on the superiority of rutin to protect the corrosion of steel in aqueous media compared to artesunate.
PPAR-gamma activation is associated with reduced liver ischemia-reperfusion injury and altered tissue-resident macrophages polarization in a mouse model

Background PPAR-gamma (γ) is highly expressed in macrophages and its activation affects their polarization. The effect of PPAR-γ activation on Kupffer cells (KCs) and liver ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) has not yet been evaluated. We investigated the effect of PPAR-γ activation on KC-polarization and IRI. Materials and methods Seventy percent (70%) liver ischemia was induced for 60mins. PPAR-γ-agonist or vehicle was administrated before reperfusion. PPAR-γ-antagonist was used to block PPAR-γ activation. Liver injury, necrosis, and apoptosis were assessed post-reperfusion. Flow-cytometry determined KC-phenotypes (pro-inflammatory Nitric Oxide +, anti-inflammatory CD206+ and anti-inflammatory IL-10+). Results Liver injury assessed by serum AST was significantly decreased in PPAR-γ-agonist versus control group at all time points post reperfusion (1hr: 3092±105 vs 4469±551; p = 0.042; 6hr: 7041±1160 vs 12193±1143; p = 0.015; 12hr: 5746±328 vs 8608±1259; p = 0.049). Furthermore, liver apoptosis measured by TUNEL-staining was significantly reduced in PPAR-γ-agonist versus control group post reperfusion (1hr:2.46±0.49 vs 6.90±0.85%;p = 0.001; 6hr:26.40±2.93 vs 50.13±8.29%; p = 0.048). H&E staining demonstrated less necrosis in PPAR-γ-agonist versus control group (24hr:26.66±4.78 vs 45.62±4.57%; p = 0.032). The percentage of pro-inflammatory NO+ KCs was significantly lower at all post reperfusion time points in the PPAR-γ-agonist versus control group (1hr:28.49±4.99 vs 53.54±9.15%; p = 0.040; 6hr:5.51±0.54 vs 31.12±9.58%; p = 0.009; 24hr:4.15±1.50 vs 17.10±4.77%; p = 0.043). In contrast, percentage of anti-inflammatory CD206+ KCs was significantly higher in PPAR-γ-agonist versus control group prior to IRI (8.62±0.96 vs 4.88 ±0.50%; p = 0.04). Administration of PPAR-γ-antagonist reversed the beneficial effects on AST, apoptosis, and pro-inflammatory NO+ KCs. Conclusion PPAR-γ activation reduces IRI and decreases the pro-inflammatory NO+ Kupffer cells. PPAR-γ activation can become an important tool to improve outcomes in liver surgery through decreasing the pro-inflammatory phenotype of KCs and IRI.
Hiv/aids – Research and Palliative Care Dovepress Magnitude of Opportunistic Infections and Associated Factors in Hiv-infected Adults on Antiretroviral Therapy in Eastern Ethiopia

Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of opportunistic infections (OIs) and associated factors among HIV-infected adults on anti-retroviral therapy (ART) in Hiwot Patients and methods: A hospital-based retrospective study was conducted in 358 HIV-infected adult patients on ART from April to June 2014. Data were collected through review of clinical records. The data was entered and analyzed by using SPSS version 16.0. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to determine the association of each independent variable with occurrence of OIs. A 95% confidence interval (CI) and P-value less than 0.05 were considered as significant association. Results: A total of 358 patients were included in the study, in which majority (68.4%) were females. The mean age of patients was 34 (standard deviation [SD] ±9.8) years. The overall of prevalence of OIs among HIV/AIDS patients on ART was 48%. The highest prevalent rates of OIs observed were tuberculosis (TB) (21.23%), followed by Herpes zoster (11.2%) and oral candidiasis (9.5%). Baseline CD4 cell count ,200 cells/mm 3 (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] =1.645,824) were found to have strong association with acquisition of OIs. Conclusion: There was a high prevalence of OIs observed in this study. Baselines CD4 count of ,200 cells/mm 3 , advanced WHO clinical stages, and not using prophylaxis were found to be predictors of OIs. Interventions were aimed at promoting early HIV testing and enrollment of HIV-infected individuals into ART services needed before CD4 count decreased severely.
Foraging behaviour by gray wolves on salmon streams in coastal British Columbia

Spawning salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) are important resources for terrestrial ecosystems and often shape the ecological strategies of organisms with which they co-evolve. Gray wolves (Canis lupus), primarily predators of ungulates, are sympatric with salmon over large areas, but the relationship between the two remains poorly understood. We report here observations of direct and indirect evidence of salmon predation by wolves in several watersheds of coastal British Columbia and in detail report on the foraging behaviour of four wolves at one river during September and October 2001. Wolves oriented themselves upstream during detection and pursuit of salmon. The pooled mean capture rate was 21.5 salmon/h and mean efficiency (successes/attempt) was 39.4%. In most cases, wolves consumed only heads of salmon, perhaps for nutritional reasons or parasite avoidance. Preying on salmon may be adaptive, as this nutritious and spatially constrained resource imposes lower risks of injury compared with hunting large mammals. We infer from capture rates and efficiencies, as well as stereotypical hunting and feeding behaviour, a history of salmon predation by wolves and, as a corollary, a broad distribution of this foraging ecology where wolves and salmon still co-exist. Resume : Les saumons (Oncorhynchus spp.) en periode de fraye constituent d'importantes ressources pour l'ecosysteme terrestre et influencent souvent les strategies ecologiques des organismes avec lesquels ils sont en coevolution. Les loups gris (Canis lupus), avant tout des predateurs d'ongules, vivent en sympatrie avec les saumons sur de grandes etendues, mais la relation entre les deux reste mal comprise. Nous avons fait des observations directes et indirectes de predation de saumons par les loups dans plusieurs bassins hydrographiques de la region cotiere de la Colombie- Britannique et nous decrivons ici en details le comportement de quete de nourriture de quatre loups a une riviere, en septembre et en octobre 2001. Les loups s'orientaient vers l'amont durant la detection et la poursuite des saumons. Le taux moyen de capture, calcule sur l'ensemble des resultats, etait de 21,5 saumons/h et l'efficacite moyenne (nombre de tentatives reussies/total), de 39,4 %. Dans la plupart des cas, les loups ne consommaient que la tete du saumon, peut-etre pour des raisons nutritives ou pour eviter les parasites. La predation de saumons peut etre adaptative, puisque cette ressource nutritive et limitee dans l'espace est reliee a des risques reduits de blessures comparativement aux ris - ques de la chasse aux gros mammiferes. Etant donne les taux de capture et l'efficacite observes, de meme que les comportements stereotypes de chasse et de prise de nourriture, la predation des saumons par les loups a une longue histoire, et, en corollaire, l'ecologie de la quete de nourriture se fait sur une grande etendue la ou les saumons et les loups coexistent.
Interpretation of recurrent neural networks

This paper addresses techniques for interpretation and characterization of trained recurrent nets for time series problems. In particular, we focus on assessment of effective memory and suggest an operational definition of memory. Further we discuss the evaluation of learning curves. Various numerical experiments on time series prediction problems are used to illustrate the potential of the suggested methods.
A Meta-Analysis of Alzheimer's Disease Incidence and Prevalence Comparing African-Americans and Caucasians.

BACKGROUND Several studies have shown higher Alzheimer's disease (AD) incidence rates are in African-Americans (AAs) than Caucasians (CCs). If this finding is consistent across studies, it raises important etiologic questions regarding factors responsible for this discrepancy. It also affects the likely public health burden of AD in the US in the future, as the non-Caucasian population becomes the majority. OBJECTIVE Estimate the AA/CC rate ratio for AD incidence across all available studies. METHODS We conducted a meta-analysis of population-based studies for the rate ratio (RR) of AD incidence for AAs versus CCs, after identifying six relevant studies from the literature. We calculated an AA/CC rate ratio across all studies using inverse-variance weighting, and assessed inter-study heterogeneity. Using these incidence data, as well as data on survival after diagnosis, and on all-cause mortality, we also estimated the US prevalence of AD among AAs and CCs. RESULTS There were six population-based studies with data comparing AD incidence between AAs and CCs, with an estimated 370 AA and 640 CC incident cases. The meta-analysis RR showed that the AD rate for AAs was 64% higher than for CCs (RR = 1.64 (95% CI 1.35-2.00)) 1.35-2.00)), with no evidence of heterogeneity. We estimated the current US AD prevalence for ages 65-90 to be 5.5% for CCs, and 8.6% for AAs (prevalence ratio 1.56). CONCLUSION AAs have an increased risk of incident and prevalent AD compared to CCs for reasons which are unknown, but are hypothesized to reflect biological, psychological, and socioeconomic factors.
Edinburgh Research Explorer Combining a Mixture of Experts with Transfer Learning in Complex Games

We present a supervised approach for learning policies in a highly complex game from small amounts of human data consisting of state–action pairs. Our Neural Network architecture can adapt to the varying size of the set of legal actions, thus bypassing the need to hardcode the actions in the output layer or iterate over them. This makes the training more data efﬁcient. We use synthetic data created via game simulations among AI agents to show that a mixture of experts, where each expert pre- dicts actions in different portions of the game, improves performance. We then show that this approach applied to human data also improves performance: in particular, using transfer learning to enable one expert to learn from another enhances performance on those portions of the game for which there is relatively little training data compared to other portions. The domain chosen for evaluation is the board game Settlers of Catan .
Validation of automated lobe segmentation on paired inspiratory-expiratory chest CT in 8-14 year-old children with cystic fibrosis

Objectives Densitometry on paired inspiratory and expiratory multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) for the quantification of air trapping is an important approach to assess functional changes in airways diseases such as cystic fibrosis (CF). For a regional analysis of functional deficits, an accurate lobe segmentation algorithm applicable to inspiratory and expiratory scans is beneficial. Materials and methods We developed a fully automated lobe segmentation algorithm, and subsequently validated automatically generated lobe masks (ALM) against manually corrected lobe masks (MLM). Paired inspiratory and expiratory CTs from 16 children with CF (mean age 11.1±2.4) acquired at 4 time-points (baseline, 3mon, 12mon, 24mon) with 2 kernels (B30f, B60f) were segmented, resulting in 256 ALM. After manual correction spatial overlap (Dice index) and mean differences in lung volume and air trapping were calculated for ALM vs. MLM. Results The mean overlap calculated with Dice index between ALM and MLM was 0.98±0.02 on inspiratory, and 0.86±0.07 on expiratory CT. If 6 lobes were segmented (lingula treated as separate lobe), the mean overlap was 0.97±0.02 on inspiratory, and 0.83±0.08 on expiratory CT. The mean differences in lobar volumes calculated in accordance with the approach of Bland and Altman were generally low, ranging on inspiratory CT from 5.7±52.23cm3 for the right upper lobe to 17.41±14.92cm3 for the right lower lobe. Higher differences were noted on expiratory CT. The mean differences for air trapping were even lower, ranging from 0±0.01 for the right upper lobe to 0.03±0.03 for the left lower lobe. Conclusions Automatic lobe segmentation delivers excellent results for inspiratory and good results for expiratory CT. It may become an important component for lobe-based quantification of functional deficits in cystic fibrosis lung disease, reducing necessity for user-interaction in CT post-processing.
A Coded Structured Light Projection Method for High-Frame-Rate 3D Image Acquisition

Three-dimensional measurement technology has recently been used for various applications such as human modeling, cultural properties recording, machine inspection of industrial parts, and robot vision. The light-section method and coded structured light projection method are well-known active measurement methods that can accurately obtain three-dimensional shapes by projecting light patterns on the measurement space. These active measurement methods have been applied to practical systems in real scenes because they are robust regarding texture patterns on the surfaces of the objects to be observed, and have advantages in calculation time and accuracy. Following recent improvements in integration technology, three-dimensional image measurement systems that can operate at a rate of 30 fps or more have already been developed [1, 2]. Inmany application fields, dynamic analysis tools to observe dynamic changes in high-speed phenomena in three-dimensional shapes at high frame rates are required. Off-line high-speed cameras that can capture images at 1000 fps or more have already been put into practical use for analyzing high-speed phenomena; however, many of them can only record high-speed phenomena as two-dimensional image sequences.
Psychometric properties of three instruments to measure recovery.

BACKGROUND The process of recovery is gaining more and more attention within health care for patients with severe mental illness. Therefore, instruments to measure recovery can be useful for clinical and research purposes. AIMS This study evaluates the psychometric properties of three instruments pertaining to recovery for possible application in the Netherlands. The Recovery Attitude Questionnaire and the Recovery Knowledge Inventory were investigated among 210 mental health professionals, and the Recovery Promoting Relationship Scale was administered to 142 mental health consumers. METHODS The factor structure, reliability and internal consistency were examined using the same analysis strategy. First, each questionnaire was submitted to a confirmatory factor analysis based on the factorial structure proposed by the original developers of the questionnaire. In case of a bad fit, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted. Based on factor analyses, subscales were formed for each questionnaire and the internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) was assessed. In all three cases the final principal axes solution was obliquely rotated by means of the OBLIMIN rotation procedure. RESULTS The originally proposed factor structure did not yield an acceptable fit in any of the Dutch samples. After analyses, three instruments are proposed that are suitable for research on recovery-oriented competencies and the recovery-promoting relationship for professionals working with people with serious mental illness in the Netherlands. CONCLUSIONS The results in this study may be a step forward and give a new impulse to stimulate research in mental health recovery.