Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association of Folic Acid Supplementation During Pregnancy With the Risk of Autistic Traits in Children Exposed to Antiepileptic Drugs In Utero

Importance Strategies to prevent autism in children exposed to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) during pregnancy are important. Objective To explore whether folic acid supplementation and folate status in pregnancy are associated with reduced risk of autistic traits owing to in utero AED exposure. Design, Setting, and Participants The population-based, prospective Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study approached Norwegian-speaking women attending routine ultrasonographic examinations from June 1999 through December 31, 2008 (163 844 of 277 702 women refused). No exclusion criteria were applied beyond language. Questionnaires during and after pregnancy, analysis of blood samples, and linkage to the Medical Birth Registry of Norway were performed. Children aged 18 to 36 months of women with available information on use of AEDs and of folic acid supplementation (n = 104 946) were included in the analysis from March 1, 2016, through June 13, 2017. Exposures Maternal folic acid supplementation 4 weeks before to 12 weeks after conception. Plasma folate concentration was analyzed at gestational weeks 17 to 19. Main Outcomes and Measures Autistic traits were evaluated using the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers and Social Communication Questionnaire. Odds ratios (ORs) for autistic traits in children by maternal use vs nonuse of folic acid supplements were adjusted for maternal health and socioeconomic factors. Folate concentrations and folic acid doses were associated with the degree of autistic traits. Results The overall mean (SD) age of the 104 946 mothers of participating children was 29.8 (4.6) years, with complete information available for analysis in 103 868. Mean (SD) age of women with epilepsy who received AED treatment was 29.4 (4.9); women with epilepsy who did not receive AED treatment, 29.1 (4.9); and without epilepsy, 29.8 (4.6) years. In the 335 children exposed to AEDs, the risk for autistic traits was significantly higher at 18 months of age (adjusted OR [AOR], 5.9; 95% CI, 2.2-15.8) and 36 months of age (AOR, 7.9; 95% CI, 2.5-24.9) when their mothers had not used folic acid supplements compared with children of mothers who had used supplements. Among women without epilepsy, the corresponding risks were lower at 18 months of age (AOR, 1.3; 95% CI, 1.2-1.4) and 36 months of age (AOR, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.5-1.9); among the 389 children of women with untreated epilepsy, the corresponding risks were not significant at 18 months of age (AOR, 1.0; 95% CI, 0.4-3.0) and 36 months of age (AOR, 2.5; 95% CI, 0.4-16.6). Degree of autistic traits was inversely associated with maternal plasma folate concentrations (&bgr; = −0.3; P = .03) and folic acid doses (&bgr; = −0.5; P < .001). Concentrations of AEDs were not associated with the degree of autistic traits. Conclusions and Relevance Risk of autistic traits in children exposed to AEDs in utero may be mitigated by periconceptional folic acid supplementation and folate status. Fertile women using AEDs should take folic acid supplements continuously.
Handwritten Arabic character recognition using multiple classifiers based on letter form

Users are still waiting for accurate optical character recognition solutions for Arabic handwritten scripts. This research explores best sets of feature extraction techniques and studies the accuracy of well-known classifiers for Arabic letters. Depending on their position in the word, Arabic letters are drawn in four forms: Isolated, Initial, Medial, and Final. The principal component analysis technique is used to select best subset of features out of a large number of extracted features. We used parametric and non-parametric classifiers and found out that a subset of 25 features is needed to get 84% recognition accuracy using a linear discriminant classifier, and using more features does not substantially improve this accuracy. However, for features fewer than 25 features, a quadratic discriminant classifier is more accurate than the linear classifier. Classifiers that are parameterized for the individual four forms score better accuracy than classifiers that do not make use of this input information.
Improved measurement results for the Avogadro constant using a 28Si-enriched crystal

New results are reported from an ongoing international research effort to accurately determine the Avogadro constant by counting the atoms in an isotopically enriched silicon crystal. The surfaces of two 28Si-enriched spheres were decontaminated and reworked in order to produce an outer surface without metal contamination and improved sphericity. New measurements were then made on these two reconditioned spheres using improved methods and apparatuses. When combined with other recently refined parameter measurements, the Avogadro constant derived from these new results has a value of NA = 6.022 140 76(12) × 1023 mol−1. The x-ray crystal density method has thus achieved the target relative standard uncertainty of 2.0 × 10−8 necessary for the realization of the definition of the new kilogram.
Early diagnosis of cutaneous melanoma: revisiting the ABCD criteria.

CONTEXT The incidence of cutaneous melanoma has increased over the past several decades, making its early diagnosis a continuing public health priority. The ABCD (Asymmetry, Border irregularity, Color variegation, Diameter >6 mm) acronym for the appraisal of cutaneous pigmented lesions was devised in 1985 and has been widely adopted but requires reexamination in light of recent data regarding the existence of small-diameter (< or =6 mm) melanomas. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION Cochrane Library and PubMed searches for the period 1980-2004 were conducted using search terms ABCD and melanoma and small-diameter melanoma. Bibliographies of retrieved articles were also used to identify additional relevant information. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS Available data do not support the utility of lowering the diameter criterion of ABCD from the current greater than 6 mm guideline. However, the data support expansion to ABCDE to emphasize the significance of evolving pigmented lesions in the natural history of melanoma. Physicians and patients with nevi should be attentive to changes (evolving) of size, shape, symptoms (itching, tenderness), surface (especially bleeding), and shades of color. CONCLUSIONS The ABCD criteria for the gross inspection of pigmented skin lesions and early diagnosis of cutaneous melanoma should be expanded to ABCDE (to include "evolving"). No change to the existing diameter criterion is required at this time.
Linking book characters toward a corpus encoding relations between entities

What does a novel bring to a reader? What can it bring to a machine? Are there chances that a machine will decipher the messages a book expresses in free language? Part of the content of a text is encoded in relations between entities. In order to decode them, algorithms make use of learning techniques in which the training is guided by corpora that make explicit entities and relations. The creation of a gold corpus to be used in training and evaluation is therefore of a primary concern. This paper proposes annotation conventions and methodological prerequisites for the creation of a corpus that puts in evidence characters in a book and relations that are mentioned as holding between them, of the types: anaphoric, affective, kinship and social. The language under investigation is Romanian and the type of text used is fiction, but the proposed conventions are thought to be applicable to any language and type of text.
An Improved Method for Generating Triangle-Mesh Models of Images

In earlier work, Yang et al. proposed a highly-effective technique for generating triangle-mesh models of digital images, known as the error diffusion (ED) method. In this paper, we propose a modified version of the ED method that better exploits triangulation connectivity. Through experimental results, our proposed method is shown to generate image approximations of substantially higher quality than those obtained with the ED scheme, by an average margin of about 3 decibels in terms of the peak-signal-to-noise ratio. Moreover, this improvement in quality comes at a relatively modest computational cost, with the proposed method typically requiring only a few seconds of computation time.
A metamorphosis of Canonical Correlation Analysis into multivariate maximum margin learning

Canonical Correlation Analysis(CCA) is a useful tool to discover relationship between different sources of information represented by vectors. The solution of the underlying optimisation problem involves a generalised eigenproblem and is nonconvex. We will show a sequence of transformations which turn CCA into a convex maximum margin problem. The new formulation can be applied for the same class of problems at a significantly lower computational cost and with a better numerical stability.
Impaired perception of sincerity after severe traumatic brain injury

BACKGROUND People with a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) often experience problems understanding non-literal utterances such as sarcasm and lies in dyadic exchanges. This study aimed to investigate whether these problems extend to settings where speakers vary in their degree of sincerity and whether such problems are associated with deficits in social cognitive abilities (emotion perception, theory of mind, and self-reported empathy) or cognitive abilities (abstract reasoning, working memory, processing speed, attentional switching). METHODS Thirty-one adults with severe TBI (24 males) and 25 demographically matched controls (20 males) participated. They watched video vignettes depicting four actors volunteering for additional duties. Each speaker made a limited verbal response which literally suggested a willingness to be involved, but the sincerity with which the response was made was tempered by the actor's emotional demeanour. Participants rated each speaker in the vignettes for degree of sincerity (0-100%). Standardized measures of cognitive and social cognitive function were also taken. RESULTS Control participants had excellent agreement (α = .90) in their rankings of actors according to sincerity. TBI participants were less consistent (α = .65). Overall, they were sensitive to decreasing sincerity but generally less accurate than control participants. They were poorer at differentiating between levels of sincerity and rated insincere expressions as more sincere, although they rated sincere expressions similarly. Poorer working memory and poorer social cognition were associated with poorer sincerity/sarcasm detection in the participants with TBI, but only social cognition was uniquely associated. CONCLUSIONS Some adults with TBI have difficulty assessing the level of sincerity of speakers. Moreover, poorer social cognition abilities are associated with this difficulty.
Psychiatry and Preclinical Psychiatric Studies -review Article a Systematic Review of the Effects of Low-frequency Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on Cognition

rTMS is increasingly used for a variety of neu-ropsychiatric conditions. There are data to support 'fast' rTMS (C10 Hz) having some positive effects on cognitive functioning, but a dearth of research looking at any such effects of 'slow' rTMS. This question is important as cog-nitive dysfunction accompanies many neuropsychiatric conditions and neuromodulation that potentially enhances or hinders such functioning has important clinical consequences. To determine cognitive effects of slow (B1 Hz) rTMS, a systematic review of randomized control trials assayed cognition in neurological, psychiatric, and healthy volunteer B1 Hz rTMS paradigms. Both active (fast rTMS) and placebo comparators were included. 497 Records were initially obtained; 20 met inclusion criteria for evaluation. Four major categories emerged: mood disorders; psychotic disorders; cerebrovascular accidents; and 'other' (PTSD, OCD, epilepsy, anxiety, and tinnitus). Cognitive effects were measured across several domains: attention, executive functioning, learning, and psychomotor speed. Variability of study paradigms and reporting precluded meta-analytical analysis. No statistically significant improvement or deterioration was consistently found in any cognitive domain or illness category. These data support the overall safety of rTMS in not adversely affecting cognitive functioning. There are some data indicating that rTMS might have cog-nitive enhancing potential, but these are too limited at this time to make any firm conclusions, and the literature is marked by considerable heterogeneity in study parameters that hinder interpretation. Greater consensus is required in future studies in cognitive markers, and particularly in reporting of protocols. Future work should evaluate the effects of rTMS on cognitive training.
Potential of conventional & bispecific broadly neutralizing antibodies for prevention of HIV-1 subtype A, C & D infections

There is great interest in passive transfer of broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) and engineered bispecific antibodies (Abs) for prevention of HIV-1 infections due to their in vitro neutralization breadth and potency against global isolates and long in vivo half-lives. We compared the potential of eight bnAbs and two bispecific Abs currently under clinical development, and their 2 Ab combinations, to prevent infection by dominant HIV-1 subtypes in sub-Saharan Africa. Using in vitro neutralization data for Abs against 25 subtype A, 100 C, and 20 D pseudoviruses, we modeled neutralization by single Abs and 2 Ab combinations assuming realistic target concentrations of 10μg/ml total for bnAbs and combinations, and 5μg/ml for bispecifics. We used IC80 breadth-potency, completeness of neutralization, and simultaneous coverage by both Abs in the combination as metrics to characterize prevention potential. Additionally, we predicted in vivo protection by Abs and combinations by modeling protection as a function of in vitro neutralization based on data from a macaque simian-human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV) challenge study. Our model suggests that nearly complete neutralization of a given virus is needed for in vivo protection (~98% neutralization for 50% relative protection). Using the above metrics, we found that bnAb combinations should outperform single bnAbs, as expected; however, different combinations are optimal for different subtypes. Remarkably, a single bispecific 10E8-iMAb, which targets HIV Env and host-cell CD4, outperformed all combinations of two conventional bnAbs, with 95–97% predicted relative protection across subtypes. Combinations that included 10E8-iMAb substantially improved protection over use of 10E8-iMAb alone. Our results highlight the promise of 10E8-iMAb and its combinations to prevent HIV-1 infections in sub-Saharan Africa.
Advancing hypoxic training in team sports: from intermittent hypoxic training to repeated sprint training in hypoxia

Over the past two decades, intermittent hypoxic training (IHT), that is, a method where athletes live at or near sea level but train under hypoxic conditions, has gained unprecedented popularity. By adding the stress of hypoxia during ‘aerobic’ or ‘anaerobic’ interval training, it is believed that IHT would potentiate greater performance improvements compared to similar training at sea level. A thorough analysis of studies including IHT, however, leads to strikingly poor benefits for sea-level performance improvement, compared to the same training method performed in normoxia. Despite the positive molecular adaptations observed after various IHT modalities, the characteristics of optimal training stimulus in hypoxia are still unclear and their functional translation in terms of whole-body performance enhancement is minimal. To overcome some of the inherent limitations of IHT (lower training stimulus due to hypoxia), recent studies have successfully investigated a new training method based on the repetition of short (<30 s) ‘all-out’ sprints with incomplete recoveries in hypoxia, the so-called repeated sprint training in hypoxia (RSH). The aims of the present review are therefore threefold: first, to summarise the main mechanisms for interval training and repeated sprint training in normoxia. Second, to critically analyse the results of the studies involving high-intensity exercises performed in hypoxia for sea-level performance enhancement by differentiating IHT and RSH. Third, to discuss the potential mechanisms underpinning the effectiveness of those methods, and their inherent limitations, along with the new research avenues surrounding this topic.
MutY DNA Glycosylase Protects Cells From Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha‐Induced Necroptosis

Numerous studies have implied that mutY DNA glycosylase (MYH) is involved in the repair of post‐replicative mispairs and plays a critical role in the base excision repair pathway. Recent in vitro studies have shown that MYH interacts with tumor necrosis factor receptor type 1‐associated death domain (TRADD), a key effector protein of tumor necrosis factor receptor‐1 (TNFR1) signaling. The association between MYH and TRADD is reversed during tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF‐α)‐ and camptothecin (CPT)‐induced apoptosis, and enhanced during TNF‐α‐induced survival. After investigating the role of MYH interacts with various proteins following TNF‐α stimulation, here, we focus on MYH and TRADD interaction functions in necroptosis and its effects to related proteins. We report that the level of the MYH and TRADD complex was also reduced during necroptosis induced by TNF‐α and zVAD‐fmk. In particular, we also found that MYH is a biologically important necrosis suppressor. Under combined TNF‐α and zVAD‐fmk treatment, MYH‐deficient cells were induced to enter the necroptosis pathway but primary mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) were not. Necroptosis in the absence of MYH proceeds via the inactivation of caspase‐8, followed by an increase in the formation of the kinase receptor‐ interacting protein 1 (RIP1)‐RIP3 complex. Our results suggested that MYH, which interacts with TRADD, inhibits TNF‐α necroptotic signaling. Therefore, MYH inactivation is essential for necroptosis via the downregulation of caspase‐8. J. Cell. Biochem. 118: 1827–1838, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Probiotics in digestive, emotional, and pain-related disorders

In recent years, interest in the relationship between gut microbiota and disease states has grown considerably. Indeed, several strategies have been employed to modify the microbiome through the administration of different diets, by the administration of antibiotics or probiotics, or even by transplantation of feces. In the present manuscript, we focus specifically on the potential application of probiotics, which seem to be a safe strategy, in the management of digestive, pain, and emotional disorders. We present evidence from animal models and human studies, notwithstanding that translation to clinic still deserves further investigation. The microbiome influences gut functions as well as neurological activity by a variety of mechanisms, which are also discussed. The design and performance of larger trials is urgently needed to verify whether these new strategies might be useful not only for the treatment of disorders affecting the gastrointestinal tract but also in the management of emotional and pain disorders not directly related to the gut.
Graph-Based N-gram Language Identication on Short Texts

classication, n-gram Abstract Language identication (LI) is an important task in natural language processing. Sev- eral machine learning approaches have been proposed for addressing this problem, but most of them assume relatively long and well written texts. We propose a graph-based N-gram approach for LI called LIGA which targets relatively short and ill-written texts. The results of our experimental study show that LIGA outperforms the state-of-the-art N-gram approach on Twitter messages LI.
Rapid Diversification and Time Explain Amphibian Richness at Different Scales in the Tropical Andes, Earth’s Most Biodiverse Hotspot

The Tropical Andes make up Earth’s most species-rich biodiversity hotspot for both animals and plants. Nevertheless, the ecological and evolutionary processes underlying this extraordinary richness remain uncertain. Here, we examine the processes that generate high richness in the Tropical Andes relative to other regions in South America and across different elevations within the Andes, using frogs as a model system. We combine distributional data, a newly generated time-calibrated phylogeny for 2,318 frog species, and phylogenetic comparative methods to test the relative importance of diversification rates and colonization times for explaining Andean diversity at different scales. At larger scales (among regions and families), we find that faster diversification rates in Andean clades most likely explain high Andean richness. In contrast, at smaller temporal and spatial scales (within family-level clades within the Andes), diversification rates rarely explain richness patterns. Instead, we show that colonization times are important for shaping elevational richness patterns within the Andes, with more species found in habitats colonized earlier. We suggest that these scale-dependent patterns might apply to many other richness gradients. Recognition of this scale dependence may help to reconcile conflicting results among studies of richness patterns across habitats, regions, and organisms.
Privacy Preservation in Location-Based Services

Based on spatial and temporal big data, location- based services (LBSs) obtain considerable attention due to their potential to make cities smarter. However, LBS provides the functionality by extracting personal data from users, which may incur privacy leakage risk, such as intrusion, theft, and unauthorized sale of sensitive information. Hence, the mass market share of LBS depends on how well the privacy of citizens can be protected. In this article, we specifically study the privacy issues in LBSs. In detail, we start with classifying different types of LBSs and analyzing the privacy leakage presented in each type. After summarizing the state-of-the-art work on location privacy and query privacy, we propose a query content preservation approach with the aim of providing accurate LBS answer with zero server knowledge on query content. Finally, we present some open problems that may foster future research on LBS privacy preservation.
Reply to “Credible Research Designs for Minimum Wage Studies”

The authors make three points in this reply to the article by Allegretto, Dube, Reich, and Zipperer (ADRZ 2017). First, ADRZ shed no new light on the sensitivity of estimated minimum wage employment effects to the treatment of trends in state-level panel data, and they make some arguments in this context that are misleading or simply wrong. Second, the key issue ADRZ emphasize—using “close controls” to account for shocks that are correlated with minimum wage changes—does not generate large differences in findings, and ADRZ do not address evidence from Neumark, Salas, and Wascher (NSW 2014a) that questions the validity of the close controls used in Allegretto, Dube, and Reich’s (ADR 2011) and Dube, Lester, and Reich’s (DLR 2010) work. Third, ADRZ ignore or dismiss a growing number of studies that address in various ways the same issue of potential correlations between minimum wages and shocks to low-skill labor markets that ADRZ argue generate spurious evidence of disemployment effects, yet often find rather large negative effects of minimum wages on low-skilled employment.