Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adverse childhood experiences and fronto-subcortical structures in the developing brain

The impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) differs between individuals and depends on the type and timing of the ACE. The aim of this study was to assess the relation between various recently occurred ACEs and morphology in the developing brain of children between 8 and 11 years of age. We measured subcortical volumes, cortical thickness, cortical surface area and fractional anisotropy in regions of interest in brain scans acquired in 1,184 children from the YOUth cohort. ACEs were based on parent-reports of recent experiences and included: financial problems; parental mental health problems; physical health problems in the family; substance abuse in the family; trouble with police, justice or child protective services; change in household composition; change in housing; bereavement; divorce or conflict in the family; exposure to violence in the family and bullying victimization. We ran separate linear models for each ACE and each brain measure. Results were adjusted for the false discovery rate across regions of interest. ACEs were reported for 83% of children in the past year. Children were on average exposed to two ACEs. Substance abuse in the household was associated with larger cortical surface area in the left superior frontal gyrus, t(781) = 3.724, pFDR = 0.0077, right superior frontal gyrus, t(781) = 3.409, pFDR = 0.0110, left pars triangularis, t(781) = 3.614, pFDR = 0.0077, left rostral middle frontal gyrus, t(781) = 3.163, pFDR = 0.0195 and right caudal anterior cingulate gyrus, t(781) = 2.918, pFDR = 0.0348. Household exposure to violence (was associated with lower fractional anisotropy in the left and right cingulum bundle hippocampus region t(697) = −3.154, pFDR = 0.0101 and t(697) = −3.401, pFDR = 0.0085, respectively. Lower household incomes were more prevalent when parents reported exposure to violence and the mean parental education in years was lower when parents reported substance abuse in the family. No other significant associations with brain structures were found. Longer intervals between adversity and brain measurements and longitudinal measurements may reveal whether more evidence for the impact of ACEs on brain development will emerge later in life.
Research on the social capital, knowledge quality and product innovation performance of knowledge-intensive firms in China

Given the importance of social capital for the success of knowledge-intensive firms (KIFs), scholars have investigated how social capital promotes product innovation through knowledge transfer. However, in contrast to the quantity of transferred knowledge, the role of knowledge quality has been largely ignored. Drawing on the knowledge-based view (KBV) of the firm, this study explores the influences of structural, relational, and cognitive social capital on product innovation and the mediating role of knowledge quality. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted from firm executives and core members of R&D department and data of 159 Chinese KIFs were obtained. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling was used for hypotheses testing. The results reveal that relational capital and cognitive capital have positive effects on product innovation performance, which are mediated by knowledge quality. However, the effect of structural social capital on knowledge quality is not significant. The results contribute to literature on firm innovation by examining how social capital indirectly affects product innovation performance through the quality of transferred knowledge. Moreover, the conclusions can help top management of KIFs to design more effective informal knowledge management approaches according to differentiated effects of three types of social capital on knowledge quality.
Improving the maximum transmission distance of four-state continuous-variable quantum key distribution by using a noiseless linear amplifier

A modified four-state CVQKD protocol is proposed to increase the maximum transmission distance and tolerable excess noise in the presence of Gaussian lossy and noisy channel by using a noiseless linear amplifier (NLA). A NLA with amplitude gain g can increase the maximum admission losses by 20log(g) dB.
“Blood lead level among battery factory workers in low and middle-income countries: Systematic review and meta-analysis”

Introduction Lead is one of the most health-hazardous causes of acute and chronic poisoning at workplaces. A limited study was conducted on the blood lead concentration among battery factory workers in low and middle-income countries. Therefore, this study will improve workplace health and safety conditions of workers in this sector and serve as baseline data for further studies in this segment of the working setup. Objective This review aims to identify the pooled mean blood lead level among battery factory workers in low and middle-income countries. Methods The search methods considered the following electronic bibliographic databases: google scholar, PubMed, and other gray literature. A funnel plot and Begg test were used to see the publication bias. The heterogeneity of studies was checked using I-square statistics with a cut of point 75% and the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) quality assessment tool was applied to ensure the quality of the included articles. A random-effect model was applied to pool the blood lead level intoxication. The sub-group analysis and Meta-regression analysis were conducted by country and year of publication to control heterogeneity and to show variation. We included the articles published from 2000 to 2021 year in the English language. Results Through the search strategies, 135 articles were identified and 43 full-text articles were selected for evaluation, and finally, eighteen (18) articles fit the inclusion criteria. From the 18 studies included in the meta-analysis, the mean pooled blood lead level of workers was 37.996 μg/dl (95% CI: 30.680–45.312) which is higher than the threshold limit value set by American conference of governmental industrial hygienists (20 μg/dl). In subgroup analysis by year in the random effect model, the pooled mean of blood lead level from 2006 to 2011= 43.20 μg/dL (35.91–50.50), 2012–2015 = 37.78 μg/dl (25.23–50.29), and 2016–2020 = 36.53 μg/dl (19.44–53.62). Conclusions This review showed that the pooled mean blood lead level of workers exposed to lead battery factories was (37.996 μg/dl) which is above the threshold limit value (20 μg/dl). Therefore, attention should be given by employers, government, and researchers to improve the health of working populations exposed to lead exposure in low and middle-income countries through the provision of occupational health and safety services like periodical medical checkups, treatments, and provision of training and adequate and appropriate personal protective equipment. Systematic review registration: Identifier: CRD42022322827.
MV-3DT: Multi-View 3D Object Tracking via Cross-Camera 3D Fusion

: Autonomous vehicles need to be aware of the 3D locations and trajec-1 tories of the other traffic participants at any given time to safely navigate in the 2 real world. Yet, camera-based 3D object tracking methods prioritize optimizing 3 the single-camera setup and resort to post-hoc fusion in a multi-camera setup. In 4 this paper, we propose a cross-camera 3D fusion method, called MV-3DT , that 5 associates objects both temporally and across cameras, and improves the overall 6 tracking consistency. In particular, our method fuses 3D detection results from 7 multiple cameras before association and reduces identity switches significantly. 8 Our experiments on large-scale driving datasets show that fusion before associa-9 tion leads to a large margin of improvement on multiple base models. Accord-10 ingly, we set a new state of the art among all camera-based methods on the com-11 petitive NuScenes 3D tracking benchmark, outperforming previously published 12 methods by 8.7% points in average multi-object tracking accuracy (AMOTA). 13
Mediterranean Diet and Its Association with Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors: A Scoping Review

Atherosclerosis is the underlying cause of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and is interrelated to stroke, heart attack, and heart failure. The Mediterranean Diet (MedDiet) has been closely associated with reduced CVD morbidity and mortality, but research is not well explored for this relationship in individuals with diabetes (who experience greater CVD morbidity and mortality than individuals without diabetes). The aim of this review was to explore the literature related to the MedDiet and atherosclerosis and associated risk factors in individuals with and without diabetes. In total, 570 articles were identified, and 36 articles were included. The articles were published between 2011 and 2021. Platforms used for the search were PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library, and ProQuest. Our literature search included clinical and observational studies. Clinical studies revealed the MedDiet was associated with improved biomarkers, plaque, and anthropometric measurements that are associated with atherosclerosis and CVD. Observational studies identified associations between the MedDiet and lower presence of atherosclerosis, improved vascular aging, and increased endothelial progenitor cells. However, most of the studies took place in Mediterranean countries. Further research is needed to better understand the long-term effects the MedDiet on atherosclerosis and its associated risk factors in diverse populations to include individuals with and without diabetes.
Sunspot Group Tilt Angles and the Strength of the Solar Cycle

Context. It is well known that the tilt angles of active regions increase with their latitude (Joy’s law). It has never been checked before, however, whether the average tilt angles change from one cycle to the next. Flux transport models show the importance of tilt angles for the reversal and build up of magnetic flux at the poles, which is in turn correlated to the strength of the next cycle. Aims. Here we analyse time series of tilt angle measurements and look for a possible relationship of the tilt angles with other solar cycle parameters, in order to glean information on the solar dynamo and to estimate their potential for predicting solar activity. Methods. We employed tilt angle data from Mount Wilson and Kodaikanal observatories covering solar cycles 15 to 21. We analyse the latitudinal distribution of the tilt angles (Joy’s law), their variation from cycle to cycle, and their relationship to other solar cycle parameters, such as the strength (or total area covered by sunspots in a cycle), amplitude, and length. Results. The two main results of our analysis follow. 1. We find an anti-correlation between the mean normalised tilt angle of a given cycle and the strength (or amplitude) of that cycle, with a correlation coefficient of rc = −0.95 (99.9% confidence level) and rc = −0.93 (99.76% confidence level) for Mount Wilson and Kodaikanal data, respectively. 2. The product of the cycle’s averaged tilt angle and the strength of the same cycle displays a significant correlation with the strength of the next cycle (rc = 0.65 at 89% confidence level and rc = 0.70 at 92% confidence level for Mount Wilson and Kodaikanal data, respectively). An even better correlation is obtained between the source term of the poloidal flux in Babcock-Leighton-type dynamos (which contains the tilt angle) and the amplitude of the next cycle. Further we confirm the linear relationship (Joy’s law) between the tilt angle and latitude with slopes of 0.26 and 0.28 for Mount Wilson and Kodaikanal data, respectively. In addition, we obtain good positive correlations between the normalised-areaweighted tilt angle and the length of the following cycle, whereas the strength or the amplitude of the next cycle does not appear to be correlated to the tilt angles of the current cycle alone. Conclusions. The results of this study indicate that, in combination with the cycle strength, the active region tilt angles play an important role in building up the polar fields at cycle minimum.
Within-Dataset Graph Enhancement for Short Text Classiﬁcation

Prior work on short text classiﬁcation has mainly focused on augmenting short texts with features obtained from external sources, which often leads to topic drift and ambiguity. Instead, this paper explores internal knowledge within dataset to enhance short text classiﬁ-cation. In particular, we construct a single directed graph on the dataset where nodes denote words and edges represent the order between words. We treat a short text as a path and then propose a novel graph-based model, which aggregates graph topological features of each word into themselves. Compared with previous work, we focus on enhancing the representation of short texts based on geometry-based neighbors, regarded as internal knowledge from the dataset. Furthermore, we construct two new Chinese short text datasets and develop a simple method for short text classiﬁcation. Experimental results on nine benchmark datasets validate the eﬀectiveness of the proposed method and show improvements in classiﬁcation accuracy.
VIRIAL INFECTIONS: REPLICATION AND PATHOGENESIS MECHANISMS TO THERAPY

Changes in metabolic pathways are often associated with the development of a wide range of pathologies. Increased glycolysis under conditions of sufficient tissue oxygen supply and its dissociation from the Krebs cycle, known as aerobic glycolysis or the Warburg effect, is a hallmark of many malignant neoplasms. Identification of specific metabolic shifts can characterize the metabolic programming of individual types of tumor cells, the stage of their transformation, and predict their metastatic potential. Viral infection can also alter the metabolism of cells to support the process of viral replication. Infection with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is associated with an increased incidence of various cancers, and for some viral proteins a direct oncogenic effect was demonstrated. In particular, we showed that the expression of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (RT) in 4T1 breast adenocarcinoma cells increases the tumorigenic and metastatic potential of cells in vitro and in vivo by a mechanism associated with the ability of RT to induce reactive oxygen species in cells (ROS). The aim of this work was to study the molecular mechanism of this process, namely the effect of HIV-1 RT on the key metabolic pathways associated with tumor progression: glycolysis and mitochondrial respiration. Expression of HIV-1 RT had no effect on the glycolysis process. At the same time, it led to an increase in mitochondrial respiration and the level of ATP synthesis in the cell, while not affecting the availability of the substrates, carbon donors for the Krebs cycle, which excludes the effect of RT on the metabolic enzymes of cells. Increased mitochondrial respiration was associated with restoration of the mitochondrial network despite the RT-induced reduction in mitochondrial mass. Increased mitochondrial respiration may increase cell motility, which explains their increased tumorigenicity and metastatic potential. These data are important for understanding the pathogenesis of HIV-1 infection, including the stimulation of the formation and spread of HIV-1 associated malignancies.
Italy: No country for highly educated immigrant workers

This paper estimates the returns of education on the ﬁrst generation of immigrants in Italy and measures the education pay gap between immigrants and natives. The analysis, drawn on two comparable cross-sectional surveys conducted by the Italian Institute of Statistics in 2009, shows that an immigrant with a tertiary education degree has a 20% increase in hourly wage compared to immigrant workers with a postsecondary education degree. The absence of a legal recognition of the education degree does not produce any return to education for the immigrants. Relevant diﬀerences in educational returns are found between immigrants and natives, with an education wage gap of approximately 61%. These results shed new light on the two channels that may contribute to the wage gap between highly educated immigrants and natives in Italy. The ﬁrst channel moves behind the heterogeneity of highly educated immigrants with respect to their education quality and comparability and on relevant diﬀerences in the formal process of recognition of the education degree. The second channel is linked to the job mismatch of the immigrant workforce.
FILTERING THE SPECTRAL PARAMETERS TO MITIGATE THE INFLUENCE OF TRANSMISSION ERRORS ON ASR SYSTEMS

When voice-enabled remote access to information and services is considered, new sources of distortions -due to modern communication networks-should be taken into account. Focusing on mobile communication systems, speech coding distortion and transmission errors severely affect the performance of automatic speech recognition systems. Inthis paper, we propose a filtering technique to mitigate the influence of transmission errors on recognition performance. In particular, considering the temporal evolution of each spectral parameter used for recognition as a temporal signal, we postulate that artificial high frequencies are generated in theses signals due to transmission errors. We suggest filtering them out. The proposed technique is assessed for two different parameterisations (type of spectral parameters): MFCC ( Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients ) and LSP parameters ( Line Spectral Pairs ). The results show that filtering is clearly effective.
Plan and Then Act: The Moderated Moderation Effects of Profession Identity and Action Control for Students at Arts Universities during the Career Development Process

Preservice teachers at universities of arts have more than 10 years of professional training before admission, but in their senior year, they face the pressure of the graduation exhibition and performances and the teacher certification examination at the same time. This process is dissimilar to that for preservice teachers at general universities. Such a difference, however, has not been taken seriously in the past. In order to avoid burnout, preservice teachers at universities of arts, when they are under the pressure of limited time, may choose to identify with the departments they are more familiar with for their future careers, rather than identifying with their educational program, in order to increase hope for their career and reduce the chance of burnout. In addition, we believe that the use of action control/state control would also show different adaptation situations in the face of pressure. Therefore, this study focuses on the role of profession identity and action control as moderating variables in the process of becoming preservice teachers at arts universities. We recruited 304 art-major preservice teachers to establish a path model to explore their future time perspective and grit, detecting how the mediation of career decision self-efficacy affects learning burnout and career hope. Secondly, we inspected the moderating effect of profession identity and action control on learning burnout and career hope. We found that profession identity moderates the relationships between future time perspective and career decision self-efficacy as well as between career decision self-efficacy and learning burnout, all of which exhibited ordinal interactions. Furthermore, preservice teachers with high decision-making efficacy had lower burnout than those with low efficacy, but the high-efficacy advantage in preservice teachers under state control in reducing burnout would disappear. Lastly, although professional identification was important, action control regulated the relationship between career decision self-efficacy and learning burnout with ordinal interaction; that is, action control could effectively reduce their learning burnout.
Constraining duty cycles through a Bayesian technique

The duty cycle (DC) of astrophysical sources is generally defined as the fraction of time during which the sources are active. However, DCs are generally not provided with statistical uncertainties, since the standard approach is to perform Monte Carlo bootstrap simulations to evaluate them, which can be quite time consuming for a large sample of sources. As an alternative, considerably less time-consuming approach, we derived the theoretical expectation value for the DC and its error for sources whose state is one of two possible, mutually exclusive states, inactive (off) or flaring (on), as based on a finite set of independent observational data points. Following a Bayesian approach, we derived the analytical expression for the posterior, the conjugated distribution adopted as prior, and the expectation value and variance. We applied our method to the specific case of the inactivity duty cycle (IDC) for supergiant fast X-ray transients. We also studied IDC as a function of the number of observations in the sample. Finally, we compare the results with the theoretical expectations. We found excellent agreement with our findings based on the standard bootstrap method. Our Bayesian treatment can be applied to all sets of independent observations of two-state sources, such as active galactic nuclei, X-ray binaries, etc. In addition to being far less time consuming than bootstrap methods, the additional strength of this approach becomes obvious when considering a well-populated class of sources ($N_{\rm src} \geq 50$) for which the prior can be fully characterized by fitting the distribution of the observed DCs for all sources in the class, so that, through the prior, one can further constrain the DC of a new source by exploiting the information acquired on the DC distribution derived from the other sources. [Abridged]
Measurements of $\alpha_s$ in $pp$ Collisions at the LHC

The coupling of the strong force, $\alpha_s$, is deemed to be a fundamental parameter of Nature, and, beyond the quark masses, constitutes the only free parameter in the QCD Lagrangian. Provided is an overview of CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) measurements of $\alpha_s(M_Z)$ evaluated at the $Z$-boson mass and of the running of $\alpha_s(Q)$ as a function of energy-momentum transfer $Q$. The measurements were performed by the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations using proton-proton ($pp$) collisions with centre-of-mass energies of 7 TeV and data samples with time-integrated luminosities up to 5 fb$^{-1}$. Four different categories of observable were used in the described extractions of $\alpha_s$: inclusive jet cross sections, 3-jet to 2-jet inclusive cross-section ratios, 3-jet mass cross sections, and top-quark pair production cross sections. These results, which include the first NNLO measurement of $\alpha_s$ at a hadron collider and the first determinations of $\alpha_s$ at energy scales above 1 TeV, are consistent with each other, with the world-average value, and with QCD predictions of their running with $Q$.