Network analyses of Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) symptoms in children

Based on parent and teacher ratings of their children, this study used regularized partial correlation network analysis (EBIC glasso) to examine the structure of DSM-5 Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) symptoms. Parent and teachers (N = 934) from the general community in Malaysia completed questionnaires covering DSM-5 ODD symptoms. The most central ODD symptom for parent ratings was anger, followed by argue. For teacher ratings, it was anger, followed by defy. For both parent and teacher ratings, the networks revealed at least medium effect size connections for temper and argue, defy, and argue, blames others, and annoy, and spiteful and angry. Overall, the findings were highly comparable across parent and teacher ratings, and they showed a novel understanding of the structure of the ODD symptoms. The clinical implications of the findings for assessment and treatment of ODD are discussed

Hepatocellular carcinoma: Review of disease and tumor biomarkers.

© The Author(s) 2016.Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignancy and now the second commonest global cause of cancer death. HCC tumorigenesis is relatively silent and patients experience late symptomatic presentation. As the option for curative treatments is limited to early stage cancers, diagnosis in non-symptomatic individuals is crucial. International guidelines advise regular surveillance of high-risk populations but the current tools lack sufficient sensitivity for early stage tumors on the background of a cirrhotic nodular liver. A number of novel biomarkers have now been suggested in the literature, which may reinforce the current surveillance methods. In addition, recent metabonomic and proteomic discoveries have established specific metabolite expressions in HCC, according to Warburgs phenomenon of altered energy metabolism. With clinical validation, a simple and non-invasive test from the serum or urine may be performed to diagnose HCC, particularly benefiting low resource regions where the burden of HCC is highest

AFLOW-SYM: Platform for the complete, automatic and self-consistent symmetry analysis of crystals

Determination of the symmetry profile of structures is a persistent challenge in materials science. Results often vary amongst standard packages, hindering autonomous materials development by requiring continuous user attention and educated guesses. Here, we present a robust procedure for evaluating the complete suite of symmetry properties, featuring various representations for the point-, factor-, space groups, site symmetries, and Wyckoff positions. The protocol determines a system-specific mapping tolerance that yields symmetry operations entirely commensurate with fundamental crystallographic principles. The self consistent tolerance characterizes the effective spatial resolution of the reported atomic positions. The approach is compared with the most used programs and is successfully validated against the space group information provided for over 54,000 entries in the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database. Subsequently, a complete symmetry analysis is applied to all 1.7$+$ million entries of the AFLOW data repository. The AFLOW-SYM package has been implemented in, and made available for, public use through the automated, $\textit{ab-initio}$ framework AFLOW.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figure

Med-Drop Pill Dispenser

Veterans’ Affairs home care nurses currently spend anywhere from thirty minutes to two hours filling out monthly prescriptions one pill at a time to veterans who are unable to leave their homes. The goal of this project was to create an easy-to-use device that could be left at a patient’s home that nurses could use to quickly and accurately dispense medication into the patient’s monthly pill box

Confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory structural equation modeling of the factor structure of the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE)

The Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE) is a multiple dimensional measure of cognitive empathy [comprising primary factors for perspective taking (PT), online simulation (OS)], and affective empathy [comprising primary factors for emotion contagion (EC), proximal responsivity (PRO), and peripheral responsivity (PER)]. This study used independent clusters confirmatory factor analysis (ICM-CFA) and exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) to examine the scale’s factor structure. A general community sample of 203 (men = 43, women = 160) between 17 and 63 years completed the QCAE. Although both the five-factor oblique and second order factor models showed good model fit, and clarity in the pattern of factor loadings, in the second-order factor model, none of the primary factors loaded significantly on their respective secondary factors, thereby favoring the five-factor oblique model. The factors in this model were supported in terms of external validity. Despite this, the factor for PRO in this model showed low reliability for meaning interpretation. A revised four-factor oblique model without the PRO factor showed good fit, clarity in the pattern of factor loadings, and reliability and validity for the factors in this model, thereby suggesting this to be the best model to represent ratings on the QCAE. Copyright: © 2022 Gomez et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

From E_8 to F via T

We argue that T-duality and F-theory appear automatically in the E_8 gauge bundle perspective of M-theory. The 11-dimensional supergravity four-form determines an E_8 bundle. If we compactify on a two-torus, this data specifies an LLE_8 bundle where LG is a centrally-extended loopgroup of G. If one of the circles of the torus is smaller than sqrt(alpha') then it is also smaller than a nontrivial circle S in the LLE_8 fiber and so a dimensional reduction on the total space of the bundle is not valid. We conjecture that S is the circle on which the T-dual type IIB theory is compactified, with the aforementioned torus playing the role of the F-theory torus. As tests we reproduce the T-dualities between NS5-branes and KK-monopoles, as well as D6 and D7-branes where we find the desired F-theory monodromy. Using Hull's proposal for massive IIA, this realization of T-duality allows us to confirm that the Romans mass is the central extension of our LE_8. In addition this construction immediately reproduces the conjectured formula for global topology change from T-duality with H-flux.Comment: 25 pages, 4 eps figure

Parental Concerns about the Health of Adolescents with Intellectual Disability: A Brief Report

Background. Parents of adolescents with intellectual disability are concerned about the future health and well-being needs of their children. Method. Qualitative data was collected as part of a cross-sectional descriptive study and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 parents. The results were themed. Results. Most parents discussed areas of their children's health which made them anxious about the future. These concerns were collated into five themes. Conclusion. The health and well-being themes were dependency, general health, challenging behaviours, and increasing support needs

Statistics of Core Lifetimes in Numerical Simulations of Turbulent, Magnetically Supercritical Molecular Clouds

We present measurements of the mean dense core lifetimes in numerical simulations of magnetically supercritical, turbulent, isothermal molecular clouds, in order to compare with observational determinations. "Prestellar" lifetimes (given as a function of the mean density within the cores, which in turn is determined by the density threshold n_thr used to define them) are consistent with observationally reported values, ranging from a few to several free-fall times. We also present estimates of the fraction of cores in the "prestellar", "stellar'', and "failed" (those cores that redisperse back into the environment) stages as a function of n_thr. The number ratios are measured indirectly in the simulations due to their resolution limitations. Our approach contains one free parameter, the lifetime of a protostellar object t_yso (Class 0 + Class I stages), which is outside the realm of the simulations. Assuming a value t_yso = 0.46 Myr, we obtain number ratios of starless to stellar cores ranging from 4-5 at n_thr = 1.5 x 10^4 cm^-3 to 1 at n_thr = 1.2 x 10^5 cm^-3, again in good agreement with observational determinations. We also find that the mass in the failed cores is comparable to that in stellar cores at n_thr = 1.5 x 10^4 cm^-3, but becomes negligible at n_thr = 1.2 x 10^5 cm^-3, in agreement with recent observational suggestions that at the latter densities the cores are in general gravitationally dominated. We conclude by noting that the timescale for core contraction and collapse is virtually the same in the subcritical, ambipolar diffusion-mediated model of star formation, in the model of star formation in turbulent supercritical clouds, and in a model intermediate between the previous two, for currently accepted values of the clouds' magnetic criticality.Comment: 25 pages, 8 figures, ApJ accepted. Fig.1 animation is at http://www.astrosmo.unam.mx/~e.vazquez/turbulence/movies/Galvan_etal07/Galvan_etal07.htm