Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Teenage pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes: a large population based retrospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND Whether the association between teenage pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes could be explained by deleterious social environment, inadequate prenatal care, or biological immaturity remains controversial. The objective of this study was to determine whether teenage pregnancy is associated with increased adverse birth outcomes independent of known confounding factors. METHODS We carried out a retrospective cohort study of 3,886,364 nulliparous pregnant women <25 years of age with a live singleton birth during 1995 and 2000 in the United States. RESULTS All teenage groups were associated with increased risks for pre-term delivery, low birth weight and neonatal mortality. Infants born to teenage mothers aged 17 or younger had a higher risk for low Apgar score at 5 min. Further adjustment for weight gain during pregnancy did not change the observed association. Restricting the analysis to white married mothers with age-appropriate education level, adequate prenatal care, without smoking and alcohol use during pregnancy yielded similar results. CONCLUSIONS Teenage pregnancy increases the risk of adverse birth outcomes that is independent of important known confounders. This finding challenges the accepted opinion that adverse birth outcome associated with teenage pregnancy is attributable to low socioeconomic status, inadequate prenatal care and inadequate weight gain during pregnancy.
A case study on the visual attention of students during science class

In this study, we used eye-tracker to measure student A’s visual attention during a science class. The results showed that the ratio of the total number of fixations and the total fixation duration was different in the learning tool area and the teacher area. In addition, 18 minutes after the class started, the first fixation occurred in the back student area. These results showed that the information provided by the teacher is more difficult for the student than the information provided by the learning tool. The student’s visual attention decreased as the science class continued. Therefore, science teachers should try to make it easier for students to understand the information provided by teachers, and they should take action to gain the students’ attention periodically during class.
Circulating RNA Molecules as Biomarkers in Liver Disease

Liver disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. As in other fields of medicine, there is a stringent need for non-invasive markers to improve patient diagnostics, monitoring and prognostic ability in liver pathology. Cell-free circulating RNA molecules have been recently acknowledged as an important source of potential medical biomarkers. However, many aspects related to the biology of these molecules remain to be elucidated. In this review, we summarize current concepts related to the origin, transportation and possible functions of cell-free RNA. We outline current development of extracellular RNA-based biomarkers in the main forms of non-inherited liver disease: chronic viral hepatitis, hepatocellular carcinoma, non-alcoholic fatty liver, hepato-toxicity, and liver transplantation. Despite recent technological advances, the lack of standardization in the assessment of these markers makes their adoption into clinical practice difficult. We thus finally review the main factors influencing quantification of circulating RNA. These factors should be considered in the reporting and interpretation of current findings, as well as in the proper planning of future studies, to improve reliability and reproducibility of results.
Characterization of Peanut Germin-Like Proteins, AhGLPs in Plant Development and Defense

Background Germin-like superfamily members are ubiquitously expressed in various plant species and play important roles in plant development and defense. Although several GLPs have been identified in peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.), their roles in development and defense remain unknown. In this research, we study the spatiotemporal expression of AhGLPs in peanut and their functions in plant defense. Results We have identified three new AhGLP members (AhGLP3b, AhGLP5b and AhGLP7b) that have distinct but very closely related DNA sequences. The spatial and temporal expression profiles revealed that each peanut GLP gene has its distinct expression pattern in various tissues and developmental stages. This suggests that these genes all have their distinct roles in peanut development. Subcellular location analysis demonstrated that AhGLP2 and 5 undergo a protein transport process after synthesis. The expression of all AhGLPs increased in responding to Aspergillus flavus infection, suggesting AhGLPs' ubiquitous roles in defense to A. flavus. Each AhGLP gene had its unique response to various abiotic stresses (including salt, H2O2 stress and wound), biotic stresses (including leaf spot, mosaic and rust) and plant hormone stimulations (including SA and ABA treatments). These results indicate that AhGLPs have their distinct roles in plant defense. Moreover, in vivo study of AhGLP transgenic Arabidopsis showed that both AhGLP2 and 3 had salt tolerance, which made transgenic Arabidopsis grow well under 100 mM NaCl stress. Conclusions For the first time, our study analyzes the AhGLP gene expression profiles in peanut and reveals their roles under various stresses. These results provide an insight into the developmental and defensive roles of GLP gene family in peanut.
sMEK1 inhibits endothelial cell proliferation by attenuating VEGFR-2-dependent-Akt/eNOS/HIF-1α signaling pathways

The suppressor of MEK null (sMEK1) protein possesses pro-apoptotic activities. In the current study, we reveal that sMEK1 functions as a novel anti-angiogenic factor by suppressing vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-induced cell proliferation, migration, and capillary-like tubular structure in vitro. In addition, sMEK1 inhibited the phosphorylation of the signaling components up- and downstream of Akt, including phospholipase Cγ1 (PLC-γ1), 3-phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase 1 (PDK1), endothelial nitric oxide synthetase (eNOS), and hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1α) during ovarian tumor progression via binding with vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR-2). Furthermore, sMEK1 decreased tumor vascularity and inhibited tumor growth in a xenograft human ovarian tumor model. These results supply convincing evidence that sMEK1 controls endothelial cell function and subsequent angiogenesis by suppressing VEGFR-2-mediated PI3K/Akt/eNOS signaling pathway. Taken together, our results clearly suggest that sMEK1 might be a novel anti-angiogenic and anti-tumor agent for use in ovarian tumor.
Private Sector Credit in CESEE: Long-Run Relationships and Short-Run Dynamics

This paper provides an analysis of the long- and short-run determinants of domestic bank lending to the private sector in eleven Central, Eastern and Southeastern European (CESEE) countries. We identify regime shifts for the observation period of 1997 to 2009, and the resulting subperiods are characterized by a different impact of the credit growth determinants. Estimating a credit demand equation as the long-term relation, we find – for most countries – a cointegration relationship with economic activity. We then examine the short-run dynamics by applying both a linear and a nonlinear (Markov-switching) error correction model. While there is a significant correlation between credit growth and supply factors, namely bank deposits and banks’ equity, its impact differs across the subperiods. Identified regime switches in the short-run relation are driven primarily by differences in the credit supply factors rather than by the adjustment toward the credit equilibrium as the error correction coefficients show only slight cross-regime differences. In terms of regime switching, we distinguish between two groups of countries: those with one dominant regime, which is only briefly interrupted by a second one, and those with two equally pronounced regimes. In the latter group, a marked switch occurred just before or when the global crisis hit the CESEE region in the latter part of 2008. This regime shift is associated with a decreased correlation between deposit and credit growth.
More on the differences between reported and actual U.S. central bank foreign exchange intervention

An analysis of the differential impacts of reported and actual U.S. foreign exchange intervention on the mean and conditional variance of the Deutschemark-to-dollar and yen-to-dollar exchange rates. For part of the sample period, the impact of intervention on the variance of the exchange rates is shown to depend on whether the intervention was reported.
Hierarchy of prediction errors for auditory events in human temporal and frontal cortex

Significance To survive, organisms must constantly form predictions of the future based on past regularities. When predictions are violated, action may be needed. Different scales of environmental regularity need to encompass both subsecond repetitions and complex structures spanning longer timescales. How different parts of the brain monitor these temporal regularities and produce prediction error signals is unclear. Utilizing subdural electrocorticographic electrodes with an auditory paradigm involving local and global regularities, we show that frontal cortex is sensitive to the big picture, responding with high γ-band activity exclusively to globally unpredictable changes, whereas the temporal cortex equally responds to any change in the immediate history. These results reveal a hierarchy of predictive coding recorded directly from the human brain. Predictive coding theories posit that neural networks learn statistical regularities in the environment for comparison with actual outcomes, signaling a prediction error (PE) when sensory deviation occurs. PE studies in audition have capitalized on low-frequency event-related potentials (LF-ERPs), such as the mismatch negativity. However, local cortical activity is well-indexed by higher-frequency bands [high-γ band (Hγ): 80–150 Hz]. We compared patterns of human Hγ and LF-ERPs in deviance detection using electrocorticographic recordings from subdural electrodes over frontal and temporal cortices. Patients listened to trains of task-irrelevant tones in two conditions differing in the predictability of a deviation from repetitive background stimuli (fully predictable vs. unpredictable deviants). We found deviance-related responses in both frequency bands over lateral temporal and inferior frontal cortex, with an earlier latency for Hγ than for LF-ERPs. Critically, frontal Hγ activity but not LF-ERPs discriminated between fully predictable and unpredictable changes, with frontal cortex sensitive to unpredictable events. The results highlight the role of frontal cortex and Hγ activity in deviance detection and PE generation.
Spectral Variability of Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. II. The C IV Line

We examine the variability of the high-ionization C IV λ1549 line in a sample of 105 quasars observed at multiple epochs by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We find a strong correlation between the change in the C IV line flux and the change in the line width, but no correlations between the change in flux and changes in line center and skewness. The relation between line flux change and line width change is consistent with a model in which a broad line base varies with greater amplitude than the line core. The objects studied here are more luminous and at higher redshift than those normally studied for variability, ranging in redshift from 1.65 to 4.00 and in absolute r-band magnitude from roughly -24 to -28. Using moment analysis line-fitting techniques, we measure line fluxes, centers, widths, and skewnesses for the C IV line at two epochs for each object. The well-known Baldwin effect is seen for these objects, with a slope of β = -0.22. The sample has a median intrinsic Baldwin effect slope of βint = -0.85; the C IV lines in these high-luminosity quasars appear to be less responsive to continuum variations than those in lower luminosity AGNs. In addition, we find no evidence for variability of the well-known blueshift of the C IV line with respect to the low-ionization Mg II λ2798 line in the highest flux objects, indicating that this blueshift might be useful as a measure of orientation.
Benefit of large field-of-view cameras for visual odometry

The transition of visual-odometry technology from research demonstrators to commercial applications naturally raises the question: “what is the optimal camera for vision-based motion estimation? ” This question is crucial as the choice of camera has a tremendous impact on the robustness and accuracy of the employed visual odometry algorithm. While many properties of a camera (e.g. resolution, frame-rate, global-shutter/rolling-shutter) could be considered, in this work we focus on evaluating the impact of the camera field-of-view (FoV) and optics (i.e., fisheye or catadioptric) on the quality of the motion estimate. Since the motion-estimation performance depends highly on the geometry of the scene and the motion of the camera, we analyze two common operational environments in mobile robotics: an urban environment and an indoor scene. To confirm the theoretical observations, we implement a state-of-the-art VO pipeline that works with large FoV fisheye and catadioptric cameras. We evaluate the proposed VO pipeline in both synthetic and real experiments. The experiments point out that it is advantageous to use a large FoV camera (e.g., fisheye or catadioptric) for indoor scenes and a smaller FoV for urban canyon environments.
On Task Assignment for Real-Time Reliable Crowdsourcing

With the rapid growth of mobile smartphone users, several commercial mobile companies have exploited crowd sourcing as an effective approach to collect and analyze data, to improve their services. In a crowd sourcing system, "human workers" are enlisted to perform small tasks, that are difficult to be automated, in return for some monetary compensation. This paper presents our crowd sourcing system that seeks to address the challenge of determining the most efficient allocation of tasks to the human crowd. The goal of our algorithm is to efficiently determine the most appropriate set of workers to assign to each incoming task, so that the real-time demands are met and high quality results are returned. We empirically evaluate our approach and show that our system effectively meets the requested demands, has low overhead and can improve the number of tasks processed under the defined constraints over 71% compared to traditional approaches.
Approximating Treewidth, Pathwidth, Frontsize, and Shortest Elimination Tree

Abstract Various parameters of graphs connected to sparse matrix factorization and other applications can be approximated using an algorithm of Leighton et al . that finds vertex separators of graphs. The approximate values of the parameters, which include minimum front size, treewidth, pathwidth, and minimum elimination tree height, are no more than O (log n ) (minimum front size and treewidth) and O (log 2 n ) (pathwidth and minimum elimination tree height) times the optimal values. In addition, we show that unless P = NP there are no absolute approximation algorithms for any of the parameters.
Proposal of Next Generation Network Service Architecture Lead by SDN and NFV

あらまし 現在のネットワークを取り巻く状況は,クラウドやビッグデータの普及,並びにスマートフォンや IoT といったデバイスの増加により,次の世代への変革を迎えようとしている. それにともない,これらの技術 を支えるインフラである,ネットワークに求められる機能や性能も,従来の要求とは異なったものとなる. その ため,新たな要求に応えることのできるネットワークアーキテクチャが必要とされる. そこで本論文では,この 新たなネットワークアーキテクチャの構築とその可能性について述べる. 本論文にて提案する新たなネットワー クアーキテクチャは,SDN と NFV を用いて構築される. まず,SDN と NFV に関して,その概念と技術並び に現状を解説し,最新の動向について述べる. また,Interop Tokyo にて行われた実証実験を通じて得られた, SDNと NFVの課題について述べ,その解決法について議論する. 最後に,新たなネットワークアーキテクチャ を構築するための技術課題と展望についてまとめる. キーワード ネットワークアーキテクチャ,ネットワークサービス,SDN,NFV
The demonstration of wireless access via visible light communications

Wireless data transmission via visible light has been significantly explored with the development of white-LED. In this paper, we report a wireless access system via visible light communication (VLC) technology. In our demonstration, the custom-made USB board serves as the transceiver consisting of a LED-based transmitter and a photodiode-based receiver. Two USB boards are connected to two computers respectively, constructing a communication system. One computer, or an ARM development board being linked to the network acts as a router enables computer to have access to Internet via the visible light channel. The prototype demonstrates a transmission data rate up to 460800 baud without packet loss at a distance of 30cm. A 0.3W white LED is used and a 10-6 bit error ratio (BER) is achieved. The eye diagram performance of the VLC system is presented as well as the packet loss of the visible light link.
A Behavioural Vision System for Search and Motion Tracking

The focus of this paper is the combining of search and pursuit behaviours with an attentional mechanism. The paper describes a behavioural vision system implemented on a robot head utilising pre-attentive attentional mechanisms. The system is capable of controlling the camera to follow a moving target or to ‘search’ an area, without making use of high level control and image processing procedures. Motion pursuit is performed by a simple attentional mechanism, based on some of the low level processing as carried out in the human visual system. Similarly, during search pre-attentive vision is used to determine where the head will look next. Inhibition-of-return is implemented to prevent the head repeatedly scanning one or two ‘interesting’ points.
Fatores estressores em profissionais de tecnologia da informação e suas estratégias de enfrentamento

Esta dissertacao e uma pesquisa descritiva e relacional sobre o estresse ocupacional e estrategias de enfrentamento utilizadas pelos profissionais de tecnologia da informacao no Brasil e correlacoes de acordo com o sexo, estado civil, faixa etaria, tempo de servico, atividade, tipo de organizacao, tipo de vinculo e tamanho da organizacao. Esse trabalho teve como objetivo identificar os principais fatores estressores em profissionais de TI e as estrategias de enfrentamento mais utilizadas por estes profissionais. Ainda, a pesquisa teve como desafios validar se os profissionais de TI sao realmente estressados e se as estrategias utilizadas pelos mesmos sao eficazes contra o estresse. Participaram 307 profissionais de tecnologia da informacao com idade variando entre 24 e 57 anos. Verificou-se que o principal fator estressor foi a sobrecarga de trabalho e a estrategia de enfrentamento mais utilizada foi a resolucao de problemas. Os profissionais de TI apresentaram um nivel moderado de estresse. As mulheres tiveram um indice de estresse similar aos homens e as mesmas utilizam mais o suporte social como estrategia de enfrentamento do que os homens. A atualizacao tecnologica se apresentou como o fator estressor menos relevante para a populacao pesquisada, demonstrando que a necessidade de atualizacao tecnologica ja e algo natural para este profissionais. Os analistas de sistemas sao os profissionais mais estressados frente a outros profissionais de TI. Os autonomos possuem um nivel de estresse superior aos profissionais com carteira assinada, podendo, neste caso, ser alvo de uma futura pesquisa no sentido de validar a condicao de instabilidade emocional devido a nao existencia de um vinculo empregaticio. Os dados obtidos nao revelaram um quadro preocupante no que tange estresse em uma classe ocupacional que exerce a funcao fundamental de sustentar todo um aparato tecnologico dentro das organizacoes, entretanto devido ao incremento da dependencia dos profissionais de TI por parte das organizacoes e de sua sobrecarga de trabalho nas ultimas decadas, torna-se fundamental atencao por parte das organizacoes, principalmente atraves de politicas de recursos humanos e gerencia direta, para que este quadro nao se altere de forma significativa, levando assim uma perda de qualidade de vida dentro das organizacoes e por consequencia da eficiencia organizacional.
Lipoprotein Management in Patients With Cardiometabolic Risk

Risk factors for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) often cluster, including obesity (particularly central), insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, dyslipoproteinemia, and hypertension. These conditions can also occur in isolation, and they are exaggerated by physical inactivity and smoking. Since each of these factors increases risk of CVD, the concept of global cardiometabolic risk (CMR) (Fig. 1) is of value (1). Lipoprotein abnormalities, including elevated triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol, and increased numbers of small dense LDL particles, are common findings in patients with CMR. Clinical entities with increased CMR include type 2 diabetes, familial combined hyperlipidemia, familial hypoalphalipoproteinemia, and polycystic ovary syndrome (2). These disorders often share the CMR characteristics of central obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipoproteinemia, and hypertension. There are stringent lipid treatment goals for patients with type 2 diabetes or CVD; however, guidelines for treatment of dyslipoproteinemia in high-risk subjects without diabetes or CVD are less intense and are based primarily on LDL cholesterol concentrations, with non-HDL concentrations a secondary consideration in some subjects. Numerous trials have demonstrated that therapies (primarily statins) directed at LDL cholesterol lowering clearly reduce risk of CVD events in patients with diabetes and in those without diabetes but with other CVD risk factors; yet, a number of questions remain. Even with adequate LDL cholesterol lowering, many patients on statin therapy have significant residual CVD risk. It is unclear whether lipoprotein parameters other than LDL or non-HDL cholesterol provide clinically significant additional prognostic information regarding CVD risk, yield more information about the effectiveness of therapy, or indicate more appropriate treatment targets. Many patients with CMR or diabetes have relatively normal levels of LDL cholesterol but increased numbers of small dense LDL particles and other atherogenic lipoproteins. Some have advocated that assessment of other lipoprotein parameters might be more helpful than assessment limited to LDL or non-HDL …
Physicomimetics for Mobile Robot Obstacle Avoidance

The ability of robots to promptly avoid obstacles and reach a goal while accurately maintaining a formation is extremely important for many swarm robotic tasks such as terrain analysis, search and rescue, and chemical plume source tracing. In prior work, using simulation, we established how Physicomimetics can be used to maintain swarms of mobile robots in formations that move towards a goal through an obstacle field. In this paper, we demonstrate the obstacle avoidance capability of Physicomimetics control algorithm using two different mobile robot platforms with limited hardware, Maxelbot and X80Pro.