Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Partition dependence in development: Are children’s decisions shaped by the arbitrary grouping of options?

The grouping of options into arbitrary categories influences adults’ decisions about allocating choices or resources among those options; this is called “partition dependence. ” Partition dependence has been demonstrated in a wide range of contexts in adults and is often presented as a technique for designing choice architectures that nudge people towards better decisions. Whether children also make partition dependent decisions is unknown, as are potential patterns of developmental change. In this experiment (N = 159), we examined whether children exhibit partition dependence using a novel resource allocation task. This novel task, distributing food tokens to zoo animals, did elicit partition dependence in our developmental sample. Both older children (ages 7-10 years) and younger children (ages 3-6 years) made partition dependent allocations, and younger children exhibited a larger partition dependence effect than did older children. This work provides the first evidence that children’s decisions, like adults’, are influenced by the arbitrary grouping of the options, and suggests that younger children may be more susceptible to this influence, at least in the context explored here.
Observed Type II supernova colours from the Carnegie Supernova Project-I

NSF AST-0306969 AST-0607438 AST-1008343 AST-1211916 AST-1311862 AST-1613472 TABASGO Foundation Christopher R. Redlich Fund Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science (U.C. Berkeley) Ministry of Economy, Development, and Tourism's Millennium Science Initiative IC120009 VILLUM FONDEN 13261 Florida Space Grant Consortium National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) GN-2005A-Q-11 GN-2005B-Q-7 GN-2006A-Q-7 GS-2005A-Q-11 GS-2005B-Q-6 GS-2008B-Q-56
The impact of self-efficacy education based on the health belief model in Iranian patients with type 2 diabetes: a randomised controlled intervention study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Type 2 diabetes is a chronic illness which can be managed by patients' commitment to self-care and self-efficacy behaviors. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN A randomized controlled intervention study was carried out to determine the impact of self-efficacy education based on the Health Belief Model (HBM) in 240 patients with type 2 diabetes at the Golestan Hospital, Ahvaz, Iran between October 2014 and August 2015. The education duration was three months followed by a 24-week follow-up visit to determine the progress of the subjects. In this study, reliable and validated diabetes educational booklet and questionnaires based on knowledge, health beliefs and quality of life were used. The participants were randomly allocated to either the intervention group (n=120) or to the conventional dietary counseling group as controls (n=120), and assessed at the baseline, week 12 and week 36. The study was divided into primary outcome measurements consisting of glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), fasting blood glucose, lipid profile, and anthropometric levels. Secondary outcome measures were related to nutrition knowledge, health beliefs and quality of life. RESULTS The results showed that subjects in the intervention group had significantly better metabolic and glycemic profiles compared with those in the control group. It also showed that knowledge, health belief and quality of life significantly increased in the intervention group. CONCLUSIONS Findings indicate that through tailored self-efficacy education, the quality of life and metabolic profile of diabetes patients can be improved.
Two dd-Carboxypeptidases from Mycobacterium smegmatis Affect Cell Surface Properties through Regulation of Peptidoglycan Cross-Linking and Glycopeptidolipids

ABSTRACT During the peptidoglycan (PG) maturation of mycobacteria, the glycan strands are interlinked by both 3-3 (between two meso-diaminopimelic acids [meso-DAPs]) and 4-3 cross-links (between d-Ala and meso-DAP), though there is a predominance (60 to 80%) of 3-3 cross-links. The dd-carboxypeptidases (dd-CPases) act on pentapeptides to generate tetrapeptides that are used by ld-transpeptidases as substrates to form 3-3 cross-links. Therefore, dd-CPases play a crucial role in mycobacterial PG cross-link formation. However, the physiology of dd-CPases in mycobacteria is relatively unexplored. In this study, we deleted two dd-CPase genes, msmeg_2433 and msmeg_2432, both individually and in combination, from Mycobacterium smegmatis mc2155. Though the single dd-CPase gene deletions had no significant impact on the mycobacterial physiology, many interesting functional alterations were observed in the double-deletion mutant, viz., a predominance in PG cross-link formation was shifted from 3-3 cross-links to 4-3, cell surface glycopeptidolipid (GPL) expression was reduced, and susceptibility to β-lactams and antitubercular agents was enhanced. Moreover, the survival rate of the double mutant within murine macrophages was higher than that of the parent. Interestingly, the complementation with any one of the dd-CPase genes could restore the wild-type phenotype. In a nutshell, we infer that the altered ratio of 4-3 to 3-3 PG cross-links might have influenced the expression of surface GPLs, colony morphology, biofilm formation, drug susceptibility, and subsistence of the cells within macrophages. IMPORTANCE The glycan strands in mycobacterial peptidoglycan (PG) are interlinked by both 3-3 and 4-3 cross-links. The dd-CPases generate tetrapeptides by acting on the pentapeptides, and ld-transpeptidases use tetrapeptides as substrates to form 3-3 cross-links. In this study, we showed that simultaneous deletions of two dd-CPases alter the nature of PG cross-linking from 3-3 cross-links to 4-3 cross-links. The deletions subsequently decrease the expression of glycopeptidolipids (significant surface lipid present in many nontuberculous mycobacteria, including Mycobacterium smegmatis) and affect other physiological parameters, like cell morphology, growth rate, biofilm formation, antibiotic susceptibility, and survival within murine macrophages. Thus, unraveling the physiology of dd-CPases might help us design antimycobacterial therapeutics in the future.
Strategic investment explains patterns of cooperation and cheating in a microbe

Significance Contributing to cooperation is costly, while its rewards are often available to all members of a social group. Therefore, cooperation is vulnerable to exploitation by individuals that do not contribute but nevertheless share the benefits. So why contribute to cooperation? This dilemma can be resolved if individuals modulate their ‟investment” into cooperation dependent on whether benefits go to relatives or nonrelatives, which maximizes the return on investment to their genes. To evaluate this idea, we derived a model for cooperative investment and tested its predictions using a social microbe that cooperatively builds a stalk to facilitate spore dispersal. We find that cooperative investment into stalk closely matches predictions, with strains strategically adjusting investment according to their relatedness to their group. Contributing to cooperation is typically costly, while its rewards are often available to all members of a social group. So why should individuals be willing to pay these costs, especially if they could cheat by exploiting the investments of others? Kin selection theory broadly predicts that individuals should invest more into cooperation if their relatedness to group members is high (assuming they can discriminate kin from nonkin). To better understand how relatedness affects cooperation, we derived the ‟Collective Investment” game, which provides quantitative predictions for patterns of strategic investment depending on the level of relatedness. We then tested these predictions by experimentally manipulating relatedness (genotype frequencies) in mixed cooperative aggregations of the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, which builds a stalk to facilitate spore dispersal. Measurements of stalk investment by natural strains correspond to the predicted patterns of relatedness-dependent strategic investment, wherein investment by a strain increases with its relatedness to the group. Furthermore, if overall group relatedness is relatively low (i.e., no strain is at high frequency in a group) strains face a scenario akin to the “Prisoner’s Dilemma” and suffer from insufficient collective investment. We find that strains employ relatedness-dependent segregation to avoid these pernicious conditions. These findings demonstrate that simple organisms like D. discoideum are not restricted to being ‟cheaters” or ‟cooperators” but instead measure their relatedness to their group and strategically modulate their investment into cooperation accordingly. Consequently, all individuals will sometimes appear to cooperate and sometimes cheat due to the dynamics of strategic investing.
Neuron weight dynamics in the SOM and self-organized criticality

The self-organizing map (SOM) was developed as a heuristic model of a global self-organizing process. Since then it has been used in different applications as an unsupervised learning algorithm for large scale data processing. Part of the reason for its widespread use is its robustness and ability to form ordered maps in diverse situations. The dynamics of the SOM are compared to those of a system operating in self-organized criticality (SOC). An SOC system should exhibit a robust convergence to a critical state independent of the initial conditions, and the dynamics of the system should follow power laws, with the formation of self-similar structures. It is shown that instead of considering the SOM as a learning algorithm but rather as a nonlinear dynamical system, driven by perturbations (i.e. the input to be learned), which converges to an attractor (i.e. the organized configuration), the SOM can be seen as a system operating at SOC. This approach could lead to an understanding of the organized configuration in the SOM.
The Relation between Children's Phonological Awareness and Ability of Pinyin in Primary School

This study aims to examine the relationship of Chinese and English phonological awareness with ability of Pinyin of pupils in first,third and fifth grades of primary schools The results show that:(1)Both Chinese and English phonological awareness have significant correlation with pinyin;(2)There is a significant difference between high and low pinyin level groups in completing the tasks of Chinese and English phonological awareness;(3)The development of Chinese phonological awareness can be predicted from the score of pinyin test,but no such result can be found in the development of English phonological awareness.
Extent of Microstructural Tissue Damage Correlates with Hemodynamic Failure in High-Grade Carotid Occlusive Disease: An MRI Study Using Quantitative T2 and DSC Perfusion

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Chronic hemodynamic impairment in high-grade carotid occlusive disease is thought to cause microstructural abnormalities that might be subclinical or lead to subtle symptoms including cognitive impairment. Quantitative MR imaging allows assessing pathologic structural changes beyond macroscopically visible tissue damage. In this study, high-resolution quantitative T2 mapping combined with DSC-based PWI was used to investigate quantitative T2 changes as a potential marker of microstructural damage in relation to hemodynamic impairment in patients with unilateral high-grade carotid occlusive disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eighteen patients with unilateral high-grade ICA or MCA stenosis/occlusion were included in the study. T2 values and deconvolved perfusion parameters, including relative CBF, relative CBV, and the relative CBF/relative CBV ratio as a potential indicator of local cerebral perfusion pressure, were determined within areas with delayed TTP and compared with values from contralateral unaffected areas after segmentation of normal-appearing hypoperfused WM and cortical regions. Hemispheric asymmetry indices were calculated for all parameters. RESULTS: Quantitative T2 was significantly prolonged (P < .01) in hypoperfused tissue and correlated significantly (P < .01) with TTP delay and relative CBF/relative CBV reduction in WM. Significant correlations (P < .001) between TTP delay and the relative CBF/relative CBV ratio were found both in WM and in cortical areas. CONCLUSIONS: Quantitative T2 can be used as a marker of microstructural tissue damage even in normal-appearing GM and WM within a vascular territory affected by high-grade carotid occlusive disease. Furthermore, the extent of damage correlates with the degree of hemodynamic failure measured by DSC perfusion parameters.
Evaluation of meta-heuristic optimization methods for home energy management applications

Home energy management (HEM) requires optimization techniques to solve multi-variable and multi-objective problems. The optimal use of energy, the occupants comfort, the reduction of peak power and energy cost are objectives with dissimilar variables behaviors. Their solutions increase in complexity with the number of variables which would be a challenge if the real-time response is needed. Meta-heuristics optimization techniques offer great potential for the solution of such complex optimization problems, however, their main inconvenient is that a non negligible number of iterations must be executed which is reflected in a heavy computation loops and high resources utilization. In this paper, three meta-heuristic optimization algorithms are studied and evaluated focusing on HEM applications. As the better feasible option among them, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) method have been selected and applied to the comfort control in the residential environment. To achieve the real-time execution of the computational burden of the MPC-PSO implementation, the advantage of VLSI parallelism is used. The FPGA in the loop co-simulation results, using real data of an occupied house, demonstrate the potential of the implemented algorithm and future multi-objective target.
Equidistribution, uniform distribution: a probabilist's perspective

The theory of equidistribution is about hundred years old, and has been developed primarily by number theorists and theoretical computer scientists. A motivated uninitiated peer could encounter difficulties perusing the literature, due to various synonyms and polysemes used by different schools. One purpose of this note is to provide a short introduction for probabilists. We proceed by recalling a perspective originating in a work of the second author from 2002. Using it, various new examples of completely uniformly distributed (mathsf{mod}~1) sequences, in the “metric” (meaning almost sure stochastic) sense, can be easily exhibited. In particular, we point out natural generalizations of the original (p)-multiply equidistributed sequence (k^p, t {mathsf{mod}}~1), (kgeq1) (where (pinmathbb{N}) and (tin[0,1])), due to Hermann Weyl in 1916. In passing, we also derive a Weyl-like criterion for weakly completely equidistributed (also known as WCUD) sequences, of substantial recent interest in MCMC simulations. The translation from number theory to probability language brings into focus a version of the strong law of large numbers for weakly correlated complex-valued random variables, the study of which was initiated by Weyl in the aforementioned manuscript, followed up by Davenport, Erdős and LeVeque in 1963, and greatly extended by Russell Lyons in 1988. In this context, an application to (infty)-distributed Koksma's numbers (t^k {mathsf{mod}}~1), (kgeq1) (where (tin[1,a]) for some (a>1)), and an important generalization by Niederreiter and Tichy from 1985 are discussed. The paper contains negligible amount of new mathematics in the strict sense, but its perspective and open questions included in the end could be of considerable interest to probabilists and statisticians, as well as certain computer scientists and number theorists.
Risk Assessment for Parents Who Suspect Their Child Has Autism Spectrum Disorder: Machine Learning Approach

Background Parents are likely to seek Web-based communities to verify their suspicions of autism spectrum disorder markers in their child. Automated tools support human decisions in many domains and could therefore potentially support concerned parents. Objective The objective of this study was to test the feasibility of assessing autism spectrum disorder risk in parental concerns from Web-based sources, using automated text analysis tools and minimal standard questioning. Methods Participants were 115 parents with concerns regarding their child’s social-communication development. Children were 16- to 30-months old, and 57.4% (66/115) had a family history of autism spectrum disorder. Parents reported their concerns online, and completed an autism spectrum disorder-specific screener, the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers-Revised, with Follow-up (M-CHAT-R/F), and a broad developmental screener, the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ). An algorithm predicted autism spectrum disorder risk using a combination of the parent's text and a single screening question, selected by the algorithm to enhance prediction accuracy. Results Screening measures identified 58% (67/115) to 88% (101/115) of children at risk for autism spectrum disorder. Children with a family history of autism spectrum disorder were 3 times more likely to show autism spectrum disorder risk on screening measures. The prediction of a child’s risk on the ASQ or M-CHAT-R was significantly more accurate when predicted from text combined with an M-CHAT-R question selected (automatically) than from the text alone. The frequently automatically selected M-CHAT-R questions that predicted risk were: following a point, make-believe play, and concern about deafness. Conclusions The internet can be harnessed to prescreen for autism spectrum disorder using parental concerns by administering a few standardized screening questions to augment this process.
Concordance between the chang and the International Society of Pediatric Oncology (SIOP) ototoxicity grading scales in patients treated with cisplatin for medulloblastoma

Reporting ototoxicity is frequently complicated by use of various ototoxicity criteria. The International Society of Pediatric Oncology (SIOP) ototoxicity grading scale was recently proposed for standardized use in reporting hearing loss outcomes across institutions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the concordance between the Chang and SIOP ototoxicity grading scales. Differences between the two scales were identified and the implications these differences may have in the clinical setting were discussed.
Propagation in Tunnels: Experimental Investigations and Channel Modeling in a Wide Frequency Band for MIMO Applications

The analysis of the electromagnetic field statistics in an arched tunnel is presented. The investigation is based on experimental data obtained during extensive measurement campaigns in a frequency band extending from 2.8 GHz up to 5 GHz and for a range varying between 50 m and 500 m. Simple channel models that can be used for simulating MIMO links are also proposed.
Soluble Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha Receptor 1, Bone Resorption, and Bone Mineral Density in the Year Following Hip Fractures: The Baltimore Hip Studies

Although inflammation is known to influence bone turnover and bone mineral density (BMD), less is known about role of soluble tumor necrosis factor alpha receptor 1 (sTNFα‐R1) in changes in bone turnover and BMD in the year after hip fracture. We studied 245 persons (117 men and 128 women) from the Baltimore Hip Studies. Bone turnover markers of resorption (carboxy‐terminal type I collagen cross‐links [CTX‐I]) and formation (amino‐terminal propeptide type I collagen [P1NP]), BMD of the contralateral hip, and sTNFα‐R1 were measured within 15 days of hospitalization and 2, 6, and 12 months later. Latent class growth modeling was used to determine sTNFα‐R1 trajectories. Weighted generalized estimating equations were used to examine the association of sTNFα‐R1 trajectories with serum levels of CTX‐I and P1NP and BMD; standardized beta coefficients ( βˆ ) are reported. Higher baseline sTNFα‐R1 was significantly associated with a greater rate of CTX‐I change ( βˆ = 0.26, p = 0.004). Four distinct sTNFα‐R1 trajectories were identified. The two groups with higher sTNFα‐R1 levels during the year following fracture had faster increasing levels of CTX‐I compared to the group with lowest sTNFα‐R1 levels (men: group 3: βˆ = 0.76, p = 0.02; group 4: βˆ = 1.4, p < 0.001; women: group 3; βˆ = 0.67, p = 0.02; group 4: βˆ = 1.3, p = 0.004). Men in the highest sTNFα‐R1 group had a greater decline in BMD compared to the lowest sTNFα‐R1 group (2‐month βˆ = –0.01, p = 0.01; 6‐month: βˆ = –0.09, p = 0.001; 12‐months: βˆ = –0.1, p < 0.001). An increasing rate of CTX‐I was associated with a steeper decline in total hip BMD in those within higher sTNFα‐R1 trajectory groups (p < 0.001). CTX‐I was significantly increased with sTNFα‐R1 in both sexes. CTX‐I and the highest sTNFα‐R1 trajectory were significantly associated with declines in total hip BMD in men. Interventions that reduce systemic inflammation should be explored to reduce bone resorption and prevent a decline in BMD after hip fracture. © 2018 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
Pteropod time series from the North Western Mediterranean (1967-2003): impacts of pH and climate variability

Environmental changes resulting from anthropogenic CO2 emissions occur at global and local levels and have potentially harmful effects, particularly for calcifying taxa in the marine environment. A time series of pteropod abundance covering the period 1967−2003 was isolated from the Point B (northwestern Ligurian Sea) zooplankton time series. Inter- and intra-annual changes in the abundance of 3 families (Limacinidae, Cavoliniidae and Creseidae) were com- pared with the copepod time series to identify any differential effects driven by ocean acidification and temperature. pH values were hind-cast from total alkalinity estimated from local temperature and salinity measurements, and atmospheric CO2 taken from the Mauna Loa time series. Although surface waters were supersaturated with respect to aragonite throughout the study period, it is estimated that pH declined by 0.05 units. All pteropod groups displayed a trend of increasing abundance, suggesting that any deleterious effect of declining pHT in the range of 0.05 units has not caused sufficient reductions in fitness as to decrease local abundances between 1967−2003. Pteropod populations are influenced by inter-annual changes in summer tempera- tures. Spectral analysis identified a ~14 yr periodic oscillation in sea surface temperature. Simi- larly timed oscillations in abundance are present for all pteropod families but not for copepods, indicating a possible influence of the North Atlantic quasi-decadal mode on pteropod populations. While laboratory studies have shown pteropods to be sensitive to changes in pH, this analysis sug- gests that local and regional scale drivers have had a greater effect on pteropod populations in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea in recent decades. It should be noted that pH changes in labo- ratory studies exceed 0.05 pH units and that the saturation state with respect to aragonite (Ωar) is usually much lower than that of the Mediterranean.