Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Open Effectiveness Trial of a Multimodal Inpatient Treatment for Depression and Anxiety Among Adults With Serious Mental Illness

Objective: This prospective open effectiveness trial examined symptom change trajectories and rates of remission from depression and anxiety in an intensive multimodal inpatient treatment for adults with serious mental illness (SMI). Patient baseline characteristics were examined as mediators/moderators of treatment response. Methods: Adult inpatients with SMI (N = 994) completed an average of 39 days of inpatient treatment. Latent growth curve (LGC) methods were used to model symptom trajectories, estimating expected remission based on individual patterns of change observed across the sample. Results: Absolute reductions in symptoms were substantial, with large effect size improvements for both depression (d = 1.21, 95% CI [1.13, 1.29]) and anxiety (d = 1.13, 95% CI [1.05, 1.21]). For those presenting with elevated depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-Depression ≥ 5.0; 87.5% of the sample), 46.9% evidenced remission from admission to discharge. Among patients presenting with significant anxiety (Patient Health Questionnaire–Generalized Anxiety Disorder Screener ≥ 5.0; 84.5% of the sample), 50.0% evidenced remission from admission to discharge. Mediation analyses revealed that depression and anxiety severity decreased more rapidly with increasing age and initial levels of experiential avoidance. Conclusions: Rates of remission of depression and anxiety were greater than anticipated in this large cohort of adult SMI inpatients and may be related to intensity and length of hospitalization.
Learning to Identify Overlapping and Hidden Cognitive Processes from fMRI Data

fMRI data analyses typically assume the observed fMRI activation results from the sum of hemodynamic responses (HDRs) generated by known stimuli with known timing. We present an alternative approach that assumes additional activation may be generated by internally initiated cognitive processes, whose timing and identity may be unknown. For example, in an experiment where subjects compare a sentence to a picture to determine whether the two are consistent, we might posit three internal cognitive processes: ComprehendPicture, ComprehendSentence, and ComparePictureToSentence. Onsets of the first two processes might be inferred from stimulus onsets, whereas onset of the third process is unknown. We present a formalism which allows learning the HDRs of such hidden processes, and using these learned models to track hidden cognitive processes given observed fMRI sequences.
Measures of Visual Function and Time to Driving Cessation in Older Adults

Purpose. Older adults may place restrictions on their driving once their visual function has become compromised, presumably in an effort to ensure their safety. It is important to identify the types of visual function loss that lead to driving cessation to better understand the relationship between vision and driving. Methods. Data were used from the Salisbury Eye Evaluation project, a cohort study of 2520 older adults followed for 8 years with four rounds of data collection. Multiple measures of visual function were objectively assessed and driving information was collected through self-report from subjects or proxies. Cox regression was used to examine whether those with worse baseline and 2-year change scores in acuity, contrast sensitivity, visual fields, and glare sensitivity were more likely to stop driving after baseline after adjusting for demographic and health variables. Results. Those with worse baseline scores in acuity, contrast sensitivity, central or lower peripheral visual fields were more likely to stop driving (trend p values < 0.05). Also, those who experienced 2-year losses in acuity, contrast sensitivity, or lower peripheral visual fields were more likely to stop driving (trend p values < 0.05). With the vision variables entered into the same model, baseline acuity and 2-year acuity loss were no longer statistically significant. Those with worse baseline scores in contrast sensitivity, central and lower peripheral visual fields were more likely to stop driving (trend p values < 0.05), and those who had 2-year losses in contrast sensitivity and lower peripheral visual fields were more likely to stop driving (trend p values < 0.05). Interactions with gender, other drivers in the house, or cognitive impairment were not detected. Conclusions. We present prospective data that indicate that older adults with worse scores in multiple measures of vision are more likely to stop driving and that contrast sensitivity and visual fields are most associated with driving cessation.
Homocysteine and vitamin status in older people in Perth

Leon A Flicker,* Samuel D Vasikaran,† Jenny Thomas,‡ John G Acres,§ Paul E Norman,¶ Konrad Jamrozik,** Nicola T Lautenschlager,†† Peter J Leedman,‡‡ Osvaldo P Almeida§§ * Professor of Geriatric Medicine, ‡ Research Nurse, School of Medicine and Pharmacology, § Research Fellow, School of Medicine and Pharmacology and School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, ¶ Associate Professor of Surgery, †† Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry of Old Age, ‡‡ Professor of Medicine, §§ Professor of Psychiatry of Old Age; University of Western Australia, Royal Perth Hospital, Box X2213, Perth, WA 6000. † Head, Department of Core Clinical Pathology and Biochemistry, Royal Perth Hospit l, Perth, WA. ** Professor of Primary Care Epidemiology, Imperial College London, London, UK. leonflic@cyllene.uwa. edu.au
Color Object Recognition based on Spatial Relations between Image Layers

The recognition of complex objects from color images is a challenging task, which is considered as a key-step in image analysis. Classical methods usually rely on structural or statistical descriptions of the object content, summarizing different image features such as outer contour, inner structure, or texture and color effects. Recently, a descriptor relying on the spatial relations between regions structuring the objects has been proposed for gray-level images. It integrates in a single homogeneous representation both shape information and relative spatial information about image layers. In this paper, we introduce an extension of this descriptor for color images. Our first contribution is to consider a segmentation algorithm coupled to a clustering strategy to extract the potentially disconnected color layers from the images. Our second contribution relies on the proposition of new strategies for the comparison of these descriptors, based on structural layers alignments and shape matching. This extension enables to recognize structured objects extracted from color images. Results obtained on two datasets of color images suggest that our method is efficient to recognize complex objects where the spatial organization is a discriminative feature.
OUT-OF-CORE TOPOLOGICALLY CONSTRAINED SIMPLIFICATION FOR CITY MODELING FROM DIGITAL SURFACE MODELS

: We present a framework for rapid reconstruction of building models from very large, high-detail digital surface models (DSM) of urban areas. Our method is based on a geometric mesh simpliﬁcation approach augmented with shape constraints (Wahl et al., 2008). This approach allows to abstract the full-featured DSM in such a way that important structural elements are maintained irrespective of the approximation accuracy. In this paper we present two major extensions. Firstly, we deal with situations, where the original approach may generate artefacts due to incomplete or inconsistent structural information, mainly caused by vegetation close to the facades. We present reﬁned topological constraints, which handle these problems and a ﬁltering which neglects structural information that contradicts the mesh topology. Secondly, we extend the computational framework to be fully out-of-core capable and present a way to parallelize computations on multiple cores. We demonstrate the efﬁciency of our method by showing results for downtown Berlin a dataset containing more than 1 billion height samples processed in less than 30 hours.
Identification of a Bordetella pertussis regulatory factor required for transcription of the pertussis toxin operon in Escherichia coli

Transcription of the pertussis toxin operon (ptx) is positively regulated in Bordetella pertussis by the bvgAS locus. However, a ptx-lacZ transcriptional fusion in Escherichia coli cannot be activated by bvgAS in trans. This suggests that an additional factor(s) is required for transcription of ptx. A gene encoding a Bvg accessory factor (Baf) was identified by its ability to activate an E. coli ptx-lacZ fusion in the presence of bvgAS. The expression of ptx-lacZ was decreased by the addition of 40 mM MgSO4, a compound that also modulates ptx expression in B. pertussis. Baf alone did not activate expression of an E. coli fhaB-lacZ fusion, nor did it increase expression of fhaB-lacZ in trans with bvgAS. The gene encoding Baf was localized, sequenced, and found to produce a novel 28-kDa protein. Sequences homologous to B. pertussis baf were identified in Bordetella bronchiseptica and Bordetella parapertussis but not in Bordetella avium. When an additional copy of baf was integrated into the chromosome of BC75, a B. pertussis mutant that produces a low level of pertussis toxin, pertussis toxin production was partially complemented in the cointegrate strain.
Recognizing complex discourse acts: a tripartite plan-based model of dialogue

Current natural language understanding systems are severely limited in their handling of many kinds of dialogues. They handle each utterance in relative isolation, with little or no use of the established dialogue context, of general knowledge of the world, of the system's beliefs about the user's beliefs, or of the linguistic information contained in the user's utterances. Consequently, current systems are unable to recognize when a user is conveying lack of belief in the system's claims or conveying implicit acceptance of previously communicated propositions. These shortcomings prevent these systems from being able to recognize complex communicative actions such as expressing doubt, and subsequent actions which implicitly indicate acceptance of communicated propositions. This thesis presents a tripartite model of dialogue that overcomes these limitations. The model distinguishes among domain, problem-solving, and discourse or communicative actions, thus capturing a wider range of goals than previous models. It is able to recognize the role of utterances even when that role cannot be identified from a single utterance alone. The thesis shows how people convey uncertain beliefs by the surface form of their utterances and argues that recognition of complex discourse acts requires a multi-strength belief model capable of representing such beliefs. It presents an algorithm that combines world, linguistic, and contextual knowledge to recognize complex discourse acts such as expressing doubt and that enables the system to model the structure of negotiation dialogues. As a result, this model is a step towards a complete model of negotiation and thus a more robust model of understanding.
Whole body massage for reducing anxiety and stabilizing vital signs of patients in cardiac care unit

Background: Patients admitted in coronary care units face various stressors. Ambiguity of future life conditions and unawareness of caring methods intensifies the patients’ anxiety and stress. This study was conducted to assess the effects of whole body massage on anxiety and vital signs of patients with acute coronary disorders. Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted on 120 patients. Patients were randomly allocated into two groups. The intervention group received a session of whole body massage and the control group received routine care. The levels of State, Trait and overall anxiety and vital signs were assessed in both groups before and after intervention. Independent sample t-test, paired t-test, Chi-square and Fischer exact tests were used for data analysis. Results: The baseline overall mean score of anxiety was 79.43±29.34 in the intervention group and was decreased to 50.38±20.35 after massage therapy (p=0.001). However, no significant changes were occurred in the overall mean anxiety in the control group during the study. The baseline diastolic blood pressure was 77.05±8.12 mmHg and was decreased to 72.18±9.19 mmHg after the intervention (p=0.004). Also, significant decreases were occurred in heart rate and respiration rate of intervention group after massage therapy (p=0.001). However, no significant changes were occurred in vital signs of the control group during the study. Conclusion: The results suggest that whole body massage was effective in reducing anxiety and stabilizing vital signs of patients with acute coronary disorders.
Problemas e desafios da investigação em serviço social

EnglishKnowledge in social work means to understand the social problems as global phenomena which have origin in the functioning of structures and relationships, without denying the peculiarity of individual procedures. We assume as object of social work the changing of opportunity systems, the promotion of relational dynamics and the overcoming of the deep deficit of civic participation. The formation of social work as a scientific subject, an autonomous producer of knowledge on the transformation of social reality, demands social investment an epistemology of practice as a stimulating source of research. Therefore, it must be result of a reflexive activity involving professionals, researchers and population in a productive articulation between theoretical and practical learning where the theory guides the practice and practice on its turn, supports theory. It is also to act with the goal of preventing and repairing the structural disfunctioning hindering the most ill �favoured of acceding to the essential resources to build themselves as full citizens. To know in social work demands theoretical syntheses built upon the mobilization of different subjects such as psychology, sociology, anthropology and economy, not to mention others. portuguesConhecer em servico social significa compreender os problemas sociais como fenomenos sociais totais que tem origem no funcionamento das estruturas e relacoes sociais, sem negar a particularidade dos processos individuais e agir com a missao de prevenir e reparar os disfuncionamentos estruturais que impedem os mais desfavorecidos de acederem aos recursos indispensaveis para se construirem como cidadaos de parte inteira. O saber em Servico social exige sinteses teoricas construidas com a mobilizacao de conhecimentos disciplinares da psicologia, sociologia, antropologia e economia entre outros. Assumimos como objecto do servico social, a mudanca dos sistemas de oportunidades, a promocao de dinâmicas de relacionamento social e a superacao do pronunciado defice de participacao civica. A constituicao do Servico Social como disciplina cientifica produtora auto- noma de conhecimentos sobre a transformacao da realidade social exige investimento numa epistemologia da pratica como fonte impulsionadora da investigacao que resulte de uma actividade reflexiva que envolva profissionais, investigadores e populacoes numa articulacao fecunda entre os saberes teoricos e a pratica, onde a teoria orienta e guia a pratica e esta por sua vez alimenta a teoria
Mathematical Programs for Belief Propagation and Consensus

This paper develops methods of distributed Bayesian hypothesis tests for fault detection and diagnosis that are based on belief propagation and optimization in graphical models. The main challenges in developing distributed statistical estimation algorithms are i) difficulties in ensuring convergence and consensus for solutions of distributed inference problems, ii) increasing computational costs due to lack of scalability, and iii) communication constraints for networked multi-agent systems. To cope with those challenges, this manuscript considers i) belief propagation and optimization in graphical models of complex distributed systems, ii) decomposition methods of optimization for parallel and iterative computations, and iii) distributed decision-making protocols.
[N-acetylcysteine antagonizes the Interleukin-18-induced expression of TNF-alpha and IL-6 in mouse vascular smooth muscle cells].

AIM To explore the effect of N-acetylcysteine(NAC)on the interleukin(IL)18-induced expression of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) alpha and interleukin(IL) 6 in mouse vascular smooth muscle cells(VSMC). METHODS VSMC was stimulated with various concentrations of IL-18 for different times after addition of NAC(5 mmol/L) for 1 h. The messenger ribonucleic acid(mRNA) expression of TNF-alpha and IL-6 was measured by RT-PCR and the protein secretion of the two cytokines was determined by ELISA method. Western blot was used to analyze the activation of NF-kappaB in VSMC. RESULTS IL-18 significantly increased the mRNA expression and protein secretion of TNF-alpha and IL-6 (P>0.01) in a dose-dependent and a time-dependent ways. NAC inhibited the mRNA expression and protein secretion of TNF-alpha and IL-6 induced by IL-18(P>0.01). Western blot results showed the NAC inhibited the IL-18-induced activation of NF-kappaB in VSMC. CONCLUSION N-acetylcysteine antagonizes the production of TNF-alpha and IL-6 induced by IL-18 in VSMC.
Les désillusions de l'échec comme source d'apprentissage performant

In this article I review the literature on organizational learning from failed product launches. I challenge the view that failure is an inevitable part of the “probe and learn” process as well as the view that companies do not learn anything from such failures. I conclude there is no direct link between learning and commercial failures, and highlight many obstacles that hamper the learning process. Finally, even when learning does occur, it will not always result in improved organizational performance. Copyright © 2011 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Resume Cet article passe en revue les publications sur l'apprentissage par l'echec en se focalisant sur les cas des lancements de produits rates. Il remet en question l'argument selon lequel l'echec est une etape inevitable dans le processus d'essais-erreurs ainsi que la these selon laquelle les compagnies n'apprennent rien de leurs echecs. L'analyse indique plutot qu'il n'y a pas de lien direct entre l'apprentissage et les echecs commerciaux, avant de mettre en evidence les differents obstacles qui genent le processus d'apprentissage. En conclusion, l'article montre que meme lorsque l'apprentissage a lieu, il ne debouche pas necessairement sur une performance accrue de l'organisation. Copyright © 2011 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Modelling stress in public speaking: Evolution of stress levels during conference presentations

The Electrocardiogram (ECG) collected in real-life scenarios is often noisy and contaminated with motion artefacts. This study proposes a new framework to analyse the heart rate variability (HRV) in mobile scenarios by introducing novel R-peak detection and HRV detrending algorithms. The R-peak detection combines matched filtering and Hilbert transform, while detrending the HRV is performed using empirical mode decomposition with novel physically meaningful stopping criteria. Next, four quantitative metrics-sample entropy, LFhrv, HFhrv and LF/HF ratio - are used to estimate stress levels in two public speaking events: (i) a presentation in front of an audience and (ii) an interactive poster presentation, both at ICASSP 2015. We show that the proposed framework makes it possible to detect distinctive `stress-patterns' in the structural complexity of the HRV, thus verifying the complexity-loss hypothesis in physiological research.
Genetics of Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterised neuropathologically by the accumulation of neuritic plaques and neurofibrillary tangles as well as by cerebrovascular amyloid deposition and neuronal cell loss. The major component of neuritic plaques and cerebrovascular amyloid is a 40–42 amino acid peptide termed β‐amyloid, derived as a proteolytic fragment from the large amyloid precursor protein (APP) (1, 2), a membrane‐bound protein expressed in most tissues. The last few years have seen considerable advances in understanding the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease through genetic studies. The importance of the β‐amyloid peptide in the pathogenesis of AD has been strengthened by the identification of pathogenic mutations in the APP gene on chromosome 21 (3).
Comparison of the effects of unilateral and bilateral eye closure on cortical unit responses in kittens.

IN THE NORMAL CAT OR KITTEN about four-fifths of cells in the striate cortex can be driven by both eyes (3, 4). If, however, one eye of a newborn kitten is sewn shut and the visual cortex recorded from 3 months later, only a small fraction of cells can be driven from the deprived eye (8) . In contrast, many cells in the latera . I geniculate are driven normally from the d ,eprived eye (7 ), suggesting that the abnormality occurs somewhere between geniculate cells and cortex. Since clear receptive-field orientations and directional preferences to movement are seen in cortical cells of newborn visually inexperienced kittens, the deprivation effects presumably represent some sort of disruption of innately determined connections, rather than a failure of postnatal development related to lack of experience. In these experiments the use of monocular deprivation made it possible to compare adjacent geniculate layers, and also to compare the two eyes in their ability to influence cortical cells, so that each animal acted, in a sense, as its own control. The results led us to expect that depriving both eyes for similar periods would lead to an almost total unresponsiveness of cortical cells to stimulation of either eye. That should be so, provided the effects of depriving one eye were independent of whether or not the other eye was simultaneously deprived. It seemed worthwhile to test such an assumption, since any interdependence of the two pathways would be of considerable interest. We accordingly raised kittens with both eyes covered by lid suture, and recorded from the striate cortex when the animals had reached an age of 23-43 months.
Colorectal cancer testing in Canada--2008.

OBJECTIVES This article provides estimates of the report level of colorectal cancer (CRC) testing in the Canadian population aged 50 or older in 2008. DATA SOURCES AND METHODS The data are from the 2008 Canadian Community Health Survey. With weighted data, the percentage of people who had undergone CRC testing (fecal occult blood test in the past two years or endoscopy within the past five years) was estimated. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to examine testing status in relation to personal, socio-economic and other health-related characteristics. RESULTS In 2008, an estimated 40% of Canadians aged 50 or older reported that they had had CRC testing. The percentage ranged from 28% in Quebec to 53% in Manitoba. Testing was associated with being 65 or older, higher income, having a regular doctor, being a non-smoker, and being physically active. INTERPRETATION Organized CRC screening was limited in 2008, but may account for some of the differences in participation among the provinces.