Answer Database Research Articles

Intellectual disability and autism prevalence in Western Australia: impact of the NDIS.

Estimates of the prevalence of intellectual disability or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may vary depending on the methodology, geographical location, and sources of ascertainment. The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in Australia was introduced progressively from 2016 to provide individualized funding for eligible people with a significant and permanent disability. Its recent inclusion as a source of ascertainment in the population-based Intellectual Disability Exploring Answers (IDEA) database in Western Australia has allowed comparisons of the prevalence of intellectual disability and ASD before and after its introduction. Prevalence of intellectual disability in 2020 was 22.5 per 1,000 (/1,000) live births compared with previous estimates in 2010 of 17/1,000, and for ASD, the estimate was 20.7/1,000 in 2020 compared with 5.1 /1,000 in 2010. Whilst the prevalence of ASD in Aboriginal individuals was about two-thirds that of non-Aboriginals, there was an increased prevalence of ASD in Aboriginal children under 10 years compared with non-Aboriginal children. The concurrent relaxation of ASD diagnostic practice standards in Western Australia associated with the administration of access to the NDIS and the release of the National Guidelines empowering single diagnosticians to determine the appropriateness of engaging additional diagnosticians to form a multidisciplinary team on ASD diagnosis, appear to be important factors associated with the increase in ASD diagnoses both with and without intellectual disability.

MaScQA: investigating materials science knowledge of large language models

Different materials science domains from which questions are present in Materials Science Question Answering (MaScQA) database.

Moodle calculated questions as a means of testing knowledge and skills

Problem statement. Fraud in the conduct of computer testing is a significant risk factor for incorrect assessment of learning outcomes. Modern technical means (smartphones, smart watches, etc.) allow test-takers to freely use the database of correct answers to the test tasks created during the preparation for the exam or purchased on the side of the database during the control. This circumstance reduces the reliability of computer testing. Methodology. Among the types of testing questions offered by Moodle, calculated tasks with the ability to program the correct answer and random number generators for generating initial data stand out. Such tasks, while maintaining the meaning, allow you to create an almost unlimited number of options for initial data and correct answers. The numerical answer entered from the keyboard is compared with the calculated correct value and a decision is made on the assessment. The capabilities of the built-in programming language of the correct answer, in particular, are limited by the absence of a conditional operator, which narrows the range of possible tasks to be solved. Results. The authors, using the declarative principle of programming, proposed sequences of statements in the built-in programming language of the Moodle computed question that implement the traditional if statement. The proposed method allows you to expand the capabilities of the programming language built into the question, but does not make it universal due to the lack of loop operators. Another type of Moodle test item, “Formulas”, is mentioned. Known methods of its programming provide even more opportunities for creating task options. The results of the experiment are presented. Conclusion. The use of calculated tasks with random input data will reduce the number of cases of fraud during computer testing and will allow, in some cases, to test not only knowledge, but also skills.

Research on Multi-Domain Intelligent Customer Service Dialog Modeling with Integrated Transfer Learning Strategies

Abstract The intelligent customer service dialog model is centered on human-machine dialog, which has good prospects for commercial applications in multiple domains. In this paper, we use the Siamese-LSTM model to do vectorization of questions in the FAQ question and answer database to get the semantic representation vector of sentences, and then use the approximate retrieval algorithm to index the question and answer database and perform approximate nearest-neighbor retrieval of the query. After completing the question query, migration learning is employed to create a mapping between input questions and human responses, enabling the model to produce sentences that are similar to human responses. Tests show that the task success rate gradually stabilizes around 0.80 at about the 100th round and fluctuates up to around 0.986 after that. For the average number of conversation rounds, migration learning improves the conversation efficiency of intelligent customer service, and the average number of conversation rounds gradually stabilizes at about 150 rounds and eventually stabilizes at about 4.2 rounds as the number of training rounds increases. The transfer learning strategy helps machine responses to be as close to human responses as possible.

Querying Incomplete Data: Complexity and Tractability via Datalog and First-Order Rewritings

Abstract To answer database queries over incomplete data, the gold standard is finding certain answers: those that are true regardless of how incomplete data is interpreted. Such answers can be found efficiently for conjunctive queries and their unions, even in the presence of constraints. With negation added, the problem becomes intractable however. We concentrate on the complexity of certain answers under constraints and on effficiently answering queries outside the usual classes of (unions) of conjunctive queries by means of rewriting as Datalog and first-order queries. We first notice that there are three different ways in which query answering can be cast as a decision problem. We complete the existing picture and provide precise complexity bounds on all versions of the decision problem, for certain and best answers. We then study a well-behaved class of queries that extends unions of conjunctive queries with a mild form of negation. We show that for them, certain answers can be expressed in Datalog with negation, even in the presence of functional dependencies, thus making them tractable in data complexity. We show that in general, Datalog cannot be replaced by first-order logic, but without constraints such a rewriting can be done in first order.

PrivLava: Synthesizing Relational Data with Foreign Keys under Differential Privacy

Answering database queries while preserving privacy is an important problem that has attracted considerable research attention in recent years. A canonical approach to this problem is to use synthetic data. That is, we replace the input database R with a synthetic database R* that preserves the characteristics of R, and use R* to answer queries. Existing solutions for relational data synthesis, however, either fail to provide strong privacy protection, or assume that R contains a single relation. In addition, it is challenging to extend the existing single-relation solutions to the case of multiple relations, because they are unable to model the complex correlations induced by the foreign keys. Therefore, multi-relational data synthesis with strong privacy guarantees is an open problem. In this paper, we address the above open problem by proposing PrivLava, the first solution for synthesizing relational data with foreign keys under differential privacy, a rigorous privacy framework widely adopted in both academia and industry. The key idea of PrivLava is to model the data distribution in R using graphical models, with latent variables included to capture the inter-relational correlations caused by foreign keys. We show that PrivLava supports arbitrary foreign key references that form a directed acyclic graph, and is able to tackle the common case when R contains a mixture of public and private relations. Extensive experiments on census data sets and the TPC-H benchmark demonstrate that PrivLava significantly outperforms its competitors in terms of the accuracy of aggregate queries processed on the synthetic data.

Intellectual disabilities and autism among children with congenital heart defects, Western Australia, 1983–2010

BackgroundChildren with congenital heart defects (CHDs) are at higher risk of developing an intellectual disability. However, severity of intellectual disabilities among this group of children are largely unknown. Our objective was to determine the risk of intellectual disability (ID), ID severity, and autism among children with CHDs.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort study of singleton live births in Western Australia (n = 20,592) between 1983 and 2010. Children with CHDs were identified from the Western Australian Register for Developmental Anomalies (n = 6563) and infants without CHDs were randomly selected from state birth records (n = 14,029). Children diagnosed with ID before 18 years were identified by linkage to statewide Intellectual Disability Exploring Answers database. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated from logistic regression models for all CHDs combined and by CHD severity adjusting for potential confounders.ResultsOf 20,592 children, 466 (7.1%) with CHDs and 187 (1.3%) without CHDs had an ID. Compared to children without CHDs, children with any CHD had 5.26 times (95% CI 4.42, 6.26) the odds of having an ID and 4.76 times (95% CI 3.98, 5.70) the odds of having mild/moderate ID. Children with any CHD had 1.76 times the odds of having autism (95% CI 1.07, 2.88), and 3.27 times the odds of having an unknown cause of ID (95% CI 2.65, 4.05) compared to children without CHD. The risk of having autism (aOR 3.23, 95% CI 1.11, 9.38), and unknown cause of ID (aOR 3.45, 95% CI 2.09, 5.70) was greatest for children with mild CHD.ConclusionsChildren with CHDs were more likely to have an ID or autism. Future research should elucidate underlying etiology of ID in children with CHDs.

Dialogue system based on spoken conversations with access to an unstructured knowledge base

This paper describes an approach for constructing a task-oriented dialog system (a conversational agent) with an unstructured knowledge access based on spoken conversations including: written speech augmentation that simulates the speech recognition results; combination of classifiers; retrieval augmented text generation. The proposed approach provides the training data augmentation in two ways: by converting the original texts into sound waves by a text-to-speech model and then transforming back into texts by an automated speech recognition model; injecting artificially generated errors based on phonetic similarity. A dialogue system with access to the unstructured knowledge base solves the task of detecting a turn, which requires searching for additional information in an unstructured knowledge base. For this purpose, the Support Vector Machine, Convolutional Neural Network, Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, and Generative Pre-trained Transformer 2 models were trained. The best of the presented models are used in the weighted combination. Next, a suitable text fragment is selected from the knowledge base and a reasonable answer is generated. The tasks are solved by adapting the retrieval augmented text generation model Retrieval Augmented Generation. The proposed method tested on the data from the 10th Dialogue System Technology Challenge. In all metrics, except Precision, the new approach significantly outperformed the results of the basic models proposed by the organizers of the competition. The results of the work can be used to create chat-bot systems that provide automatic processing of user requests in natural language based on an unstructured knowledge access, such as a database of answers to frequently asked questions.

Dental procedures in children with or without intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder in a hospital setting.

This population-based cohort study investigated dental procedures in the hospital setting in Western Australian children with or without intellectual disability (ID) and/or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) aged up to 18 years. Considering previously reported disparities in dental disease between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian children, this study also investigated the effect of Indigenous status on dental procedures. Data on Western Australian live births from 1983 to 2010 from the Midwives Notification System were linked to the Intellectual Disability Exploring Answers database and the Hospital Morbidity Data collection. Primary admissions for relevant dental diagnoses were identified, and treatment procedures for dental hospitalization were investigated. Descriptive statistics and Pearson's chi-squared test of independence were used for analysis. Overall, 76 065 episodes of dental hospitalization were recorded. Amongst children with ID and/or ASD, Indigenous children experienced more extractions and fewer restorations (68.7% and 16.2%) compared to non-Indigenous children (51.5% and 25.9%). After 6 years, extraction occurred less often in children with ID and/or ASD than in those without, where most surgical dental extractions were in the age group of 13-18 years. This study indicates a need for further improvements in access to dental services and the quality of care provided in hospitals for children with ID/ASD. There is also concern that more vulnerable Indigenous and all disadvantaged children are receiving an inadequate level of dental services resulting in more emergency dental hospitalization and invasive treatment.

Medialized versus Lateralized Center of Rotation in Reverse Total Shoulder Arthroplasty: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

One of the original biomechanical principles of reverse total shoulder arthroplasty (RTSA) is medialization of the center of rotation (COR) relative to the native level of the glenoid. Several authors have proposed the lateralized center of rotation, which is characterized by a lateralized (L) glenoid and medialized (M) humeral component. The aim of this review is to compare the clinical and functional outcomes of COR in medialized (M-RTSA) and lateralized (L-RTSA) RTSA in patients with uniform indications and treatment through a meta-analysis. A PRISMA-guided literature search of PubMed, Medline, Embase, Scopus, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and Cochrane Clinical Answers was conducted from April to May 2021. Twenty-four studies were included in the qualitative synthesis, and 19 studies were included in the meta-analysis. Treatment with RTSA resulted in positive post-operative outcomes and low complication rates for both groups. Statistically relevant differences between L-RTSA group and M-RTSA group were found in post-operative improvement in external rotation with arm-at-side (20.4° and 8.3°, respectively), scapular notching rates (6.6% and 47.7%) and post-operative infection rates (1% and 7.7%). Both lateralized and medialized designs were shown to improve the postoperative outcomes. Nevertheless, a lateralized COR resulted in greater post-operative external rotation.

Factors associated with dental hospitalisations in children with intellectual disability or autism spectrum disorder: a Western Australian population-based retrospective cohort study

Purpose This study investigated dental hospitalisations in Western Australian (WA) children with intellectual disability (ID) and/or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) aged up to 18 years. Methods Data on WA live births from 1983 to 2004 from the WA Midwives Notification System were linked to the Intellectual Disability Exploring Answers database, the WA Hospital Morbidity Data System, and the Western Australian Birth Defects Registry databases. Children were followed from birth to 2010 and the data grouped into three age-groups. Primary and secondary admissions for relevant dental diagnoses were identified and factors associated with having a dental hospitalisation investigated. Results There were 1366, 1596, and 780 dental hospitalisations amongst 1122, 1154, and 609 children with ID and/or ASD in the 0–6, >6–12, and >12–18 year age groups, respectively. Children with severe ID were much more likely to be hospitalised than those with mild/moderate ID. More socioeconomically disadvantaged children were less likely to be hospitalised than children whose parents were socially advantaged. Conclusions There is concern that more vulnerable children in the WA community with ID or ASD are receiving an inadequate level of dental services compared with other groups resulting in potentially preventable hospitalisations, a situation in need of urgent remediation. Implications for rehabilitation Little is known about why some children with intellectual disability (ID) or autism are being hospitalised for their dental care and others are not. Children with disability whose families are socioeconomically disadvantaged should have equivalent opportunity to receive optimal dental care. Dental practitioners at all levels need training and confidence in treating children with ID.

Utilization of Time Series Tools in Life-sciences and Neuroscience.

Time series tools are part and parcel of modern day research. Their usage in the biomedical field; specifically, in neuroscience, has not been previously quantified. A quantification of trends can tell about lacunae in the current uses and point towards future uses. We evaluated the principles and applications of few classical time series tools, such as Principal Component Analysis, Neural Networks, common Auto-regression Models, Markov Models, Hidden Markov Models, Fourier Analysis, Spectral Analysis, in addition to diverse work, generically lumped under time series category. We quantified the usage from two perspectives, one, information technology professionals’, other, researchers utilizing these tools for biomedical and neuroscience research. For understanding trends from the information technology perspective, we evaluated two of the largest open source question and answer databases of Stack Overflow and Cross Validated. We quantified the trends in their application in the biomedical domain, and specifically neuroscience, by searching literature and application usage on PubMed. While the use of all the time series tools continues to gain popularity in general biomedical and life science research, and also neuroscience, and so have been the total number of questions asked on Stack overflow and Cross Validated, the total views to questions on these are on a decrease in recent years, indicating well established texts, algorithms, and libraries, resulting in engineers not looking for what used to be common questions a few years back. The use of these tools in neuroscience clearly leaves room for improvement.

Pregnancy and birth outcomes of mothers with intellectual disability and their infants: Advocacy needed to improve well-being

BackgroundPregnancy in women with intellectual disability (ID) is increasingly recognised, along with their increased likelihood of experiencing risk factors for adverse pregnancy and infant outcomes. ObjectivesWe aimed to compare risks of socio-demographic, pregnancy and infant outcomes of women with ID to other women. MethodsAll mothers with children born in Western Australia from 1983 to 2012 were linked to the population-based Intellectual Disability Exploring Answers database. Mothers with ID were matched by age and Aboriginality to a population sample of mothers without ID. Pregnancy and birth outcomes were compared for both groups and logistic regression was used to compare outcome risks. ResultsCompared to non-Aboriginal mothers without ID, non-Aboriginal mothers with ID were more likely to be of low socio-economic status, be without partner, smoke antenatally and have pre-existing asthma. They had a 1.5 times increased risk of pregnancy complications, specifically pre-eclampsia, urinary tract infection, threatened preterm labour and post-partum haemorrhage. After adjustment for maternal medical conditions and pregnancy complications, infants of Aboriginal mothers with ID had twice the risk of preterm birth and 1.6 times the risk of having percentage of optimal head circumference <95% compared to infants of Aboriginal mothers without ID. Infants of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal mothers with ID were more likely to have percentage of optimal birth weight <85% compared to those without ID. ConclusionsFor mothers with ID, modifiable risk factors for adverse outcomes need addressing. They may require additional assistance during pregnancy, including more frequent consultations and support to assist with pregnancy management.

Intellectual Disability in Children with Congenital Heart Defects in Western Australia

IntroductionCongenital heart defects (CHD) are diagnosed up to age 6 in 8-12/1,000 births annually in Western Australia. Recent improvements in management of infants with CHDs has significantly increased survival; approximately 85\% of infants with CHDs live beyond childhood. However, children with CHDs may have increased risk of life-long intellectual disabilities.&#x0D; Objectives and ApproachWe conducted a study of 20,997 children to determine risk of intellectual disability (ID). All singleton, live born infants with CHDs born 1983-2010 were identified from the Western Australian Register for Developmental Anomalies, a statewide birth defects registry (n=6,968). Infants without CHDs born 1983-2010 were randomly selected from birth records (n=14,029). All data were linked to the Western Australia Midwives Notification System to obtain maternal and infant information. Children with ID were identified by linkage to the statewide Intellectual Disability Exploring Answers database. Risk ratios (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated from multivariable logistic regression analyses.&#x0D; ResultsOf 20,997 children, 965 (4.6%) had an ID; 1.3% of children without CHDs and 11.2% of children with CHDs had an ID (P&lt;0.001). 0.2% of children without CHDs and 0.4% of children with CHDs had autism. Three percent of children with CHDs had a known biomedical cause for ID (excluding trisomy 21) and 4.4% of children with CHDs had trisomy 21. Children with CHDs had 9 times the risk of ID compared to children without CHDs (RR=9.30; 95% CI: 7.91, 10.94). Children with CHDs almost had a twofold increased risk of autism compared to children without CHDs (RR=1.78; 95% CI: 1.07, 2.95). The greatest risk of ID among children with CHDs was associated with trisomy 21 (RR=166.0; 95% CI: 78.5, 350.8).&#x0D; Conclusion/ImplicationsChildren with CHDs have higher risk of ID than children without CHDs. Although the greatest risk for ID was for trisomy 21, children with CHDs still had increased risk of ID from other causes and all causes overall. Future research should elucidate the underlying etiology of ID in these children.

Validation of intellectual disability coding through hospital morbidity records using an intellectual disability population-based database in Western Australia

ObjectivesTo investigate how well intellectual disability (ID) can be ascertained using hospital morbidity data compared with a population-based data source.Design, setting and participantsAll children born in 1983–2010 with a hospital...

Twenty-Five Year Survival of Children with Intellectual Disability in Western Australia

To investigate survival up to early adulthood for children with intellectual disability and compare their risk of mortality with that of children without intellectual disability. This was a retrospective cohort study of all live births in Western Australia between January 1, 1983 and December 31, 2010. Children with an intellectual disability (n = 10 593) were identified from the Western Australian Intellectual Disability Exploring Answers Database. Vital status was determined from linkage to the Western Australian Mortality database. Kaplan-Meier product limit estimates and 95% CIs were computed by level of intellectual disability. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs were calculated from Cox proportional hazard regression models adjusting for potential confounders. After adjusting for potential confounders, compared with those without intellectual disability, children with intellectual disability had a 6-fold increased risk of mortality at 1-5 years of age (adjusted HR [aHR] = 6.0, 95%CI: 4.8, 7.6), a 12-fold increased risk at 6-10 years of age (aHR = 12.6, 95% CI: 9.0, 17.7) and a 5-fold increased risk at 11-25 years of age (aHR = 4.9, 95% CI: 3.9, 6.1). Children with severe intellectual disability were at even greater risk. No difference in survival was observed for Aboriginal children with intellectual disability compared with non-Aboriginal children with intellectual disability. Although children with intellectual disability experience higher mortality at all ages compared with those without intellectual disability, the greatest burden is for those with severe intellectual disability. However, even children with mild to moderate intellectual disability have increased risk of death compared with unaffected children.

Abuse and neglect in children with disabilities: risk varies by type of disability

ABSTRACT&#x0D; ObjectivesTo examine the risk of abuse and neglect for children with different types of disabilities taking into account other existing adversities, including socioeconomic disadvantage, parental mental health issues, etc.&#x0D; ApproachPopulation based record linkage study of all children born between 1990-2010 utilising the Western Australian Register of Developmental Anomalies, the Intellectual Disabilities Exploring Answers database, Health data and Child Protection data.&#x0D; ResultsAfter taking into account existing adversities intellectual disability was associated with the highest risk of a child maltreatment allegation and entering out-of-home care. Further results include risk by level of intellectual disability and causes of disability.&#x0D; ConclusionDifferent disabilities are associated with differing risk of child maltreatment and child protection involvement. Groups that are considered at higher risk require services to identify and address the support needs of this group and determine how prevention and early intervention can lower the risk for child abuse and neglect in this vulnerable group.

Myths and Misinformation: An Analysis of Text Messages Sent to a Sexual and Reproductive Health Q&A Service in Nigeria.

The almost 50 million young people aged 10-24 in Nigeria face many challenges to their sexual and reproductive health (SRH). MyQuestion is a platform that allows young people to ask SRH questions via text message. Trained counselors provide responses using a database of answers to frequently asked questions or customized replies. We analyze the content of more than 300,000 text messages received by the service since 2007 to address three questions: which health topics are most frequently submitted to the MyQuestion service; what kinds of questions are asked about these topics; and what language is used to convey the questions? We find a substantial unmet need for basic SRH information, with users' questions communicated in ways that convey considerable confusion, misinformation, and urgency. The analysis can be used to improve similar Q&A services and to improve the provision of SRH services for young people more generally.

Improved Survival in Down Syndrome over the Last 60 Years and the Impact of Perinatal Factors in Recent Decades

To calculate the survival of people with Down syndrome over the past 60 years and the influence of major perinatal factors by using linked population-based data. A data linkage between 2 Western Australian (WA) data sets (the Register for Developmental Anomalies and the Intellectual Disability Exploring Answers database) was used to identify 772 children born with Down syndrome in WA from 1980-2010. Perinatal and mortality data were extracted from the WA Midwives Information System and WA death registrations and compared with the remaining WA population born during that same era. An additional 606 children with Down syndrome living in WA prior to 1980 were available from a disability services database and were used for predicting survival into adulthood. Overall, for cases born 1953-2010, 88% (95% CI 86%, 90%) survived to 5 years of age, 87% (95% CI 85%, 89%) to 10 years, and 83% (95% CI 80%, 85%) to 30 years. Children live-born with Down syndrome were significantly more likely (all P > .001) to have mothers older than 35 years (32.7% vs 13.4%), a gestational age less than 37 weeks (23.8% vs 7.9%), a cesarean delivery (28.9% vs 23.0%), and a birth weight less than 2500 g (20.4% vs 6.1%). Down syndrome survival was reduced in the presence of a cardiovascular defect, younger gestational age, low birth weight, or earlier birth years. Improved survival for children born with Down syndrome over the last 60 years has occurred incrementally, but disparities still exist for children who are preterm or have low birth weight.

Statistical Measure to Compute the Similarity between Answers in Online Question-Answering Portal

similarity plays an important role in the field of natural language processing where it can be used for information processing, text mining and online question answering portals. Among all these applications sentence similarity is one of the most critical issues which has attracted the attention of many researchers. In this paper, a system which automates the process of subjective answer checking with high accuracy is proposed. Answer assessment system is an arrangement where answers given by are matched with the stored answers in question answer database to judge their correctness. The main focus here is to improve the similarity of users answer with the stored answer in question answer database. In addition to this, the intention is to remove the mistakes from answer checking process through automated system. For experimental purpose a set of questions and their answers have been taken and these questions have been answered by a random user. Results show that the method gives higher accuracy as compared to original method. Proposed method makes question answering process fast and efficient.