LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
The laparoscopic nissen-hill hybrid: pilot study of a combined antireflux procedure

Laparoscopic antireflux surgery is highly effective in patients with uncomplicated gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). However, long-term failure rates in paraesophageal hernia (PEH) and Barrett’s metaplasia (BE) are higher and warrant a more durable repair. Outcomes for the laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication (LNF) and Hill repair (LHR) are equivalent, but their anatomic components are different and may complement each other (Aye R Ann Thorac Surg, 2012). We designed and tested the feasibility and safety of an operation that combines the essential components of each repair. A prospective, phase II pilot study was performed on patients with symptomatic giant PEH hernias and/or GERD with nondysplastic Barrett’s metaplasia. Pre- and postoperative esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD), upper gastrointestinal study (UGI), 48-hour pH testing, manometry, and three quality-of-life metrics were obtained. Twenty-four patients were enrolled in the study. Three patients did not complete the planned procedure, leaving 21 patients, including 12 with PEH, 7 with BE, and 2 with both. There were no 30-day or in-hospital mortalities. At a median follow-up of 13 (range 6.4–30.2) months, there were no reoperations or clinical recurrences. Two patients required postoperative dilation for dysphagia, with complete resolution. Mean DeMeester scores improved from 54.3 to 7.5 (p < 0.0036). Mean lower esophageal sphincter pressures (LESP) increased from 8.9 to 21.3 mmHg (p < 0.013). Mean short-term and long-term QOLRAD scores improved from 4.09 at baseline to 6.04 and 6.48 (p < 0.0001). Mean short-term and long-term GERD-HQRL scores improved from 22.9 to 7.5 and 6.9 (p < 0.03). Mean long-term Dysphagia Severity Score Index improved from 33.3 to 40.6 (p < 0.064). The combination of a Nissen plus Hill hybrid reconstruction of the gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) is technically feasible, safe, and not associated with increased side effects. Short-term clinical results in PEH and BE suggest that this may be an effective repair, supporting the value of further study.
An analytical approach to steady-state current control properties of power converters featuring discrete-time switching

Power converters with semiconductors switching only at predefined, equidistant instants - known as ldquodiscrete-time switchingrdquo, ldquosynchronized switchingrdquo or ldquoclocked commutationrdquo - show considerably different current control behavior compared to pulse-width modulated (PWM) converters with linear current con trollers. This paper presents and explains some of the effects of discrete-time-switching on output current waveforms, especially when using a predictive switching state selection algorithm. Typical characteristics of generated switching state patterns are presented. A single-phase and a three-phase inverter controlled by a predictive discrete-time modulation strategy are considered. Analytical, experimental and simulation results show that average switching frequency and error current RMS are well defined, in spite of the inherent randomness of the control scheme.
Semi-Stochastic Gradient Descent Methods

In this paper we study the problem of minimizing the average of a large number (n) of smooth convex loss functions. We propose a new method, S2GD (Semi-Stochastic Gradient Descent), which runs for one or several epochs in each of which a single full gradient and a random number of stochastic gradients is computed, following a geometric law. The total work needed for the method to output an ε-accurate solution in expectation, measured in the number of passes over data, or equivalently, in units equivalent to the computation of a single gradient of the loss, is O((κ/n) log(1/ε)), where κ is the condition number. This is achieved by running the method for O(log(1/ε)) epochs, with a single gradient evaluation and O(κ) stochastic gradient evaluations in each. The SVRG method of Johnson and Zhang [3] arises as a special case. If our method is limited to a single epoch only, it needs to evaluate at most O((κ/ε) log(1/ε)) stochastic gradients. In contrast, SVRG requires O(κ/ε) stochastic gradients. To illustrate our theoretical results, S2GD only needs the workload equivalent to about 2.1 full gradient evaluations to find an 10−6-accurate solution for a problem with n = 10 and κ = 10.
Phase 1b/2a study of trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1), paclitaxel, and pertuzumab in HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer

In pre-clinical studies, the anti-tumor activity of T-DM1 was enhanced when combined with taxanes or pertuzumab. This phase 1b/2a study evaluated the safety/tolerability of T-DM1 + paclitaxel ± pertuzumab in HER2-positive advanced breast cancer. In phase 1b (n = 60), a 3 + 3 dose-escalation approach was used to determine the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of T-DM1 + paclitaxel ± pertuzumab. The primary objective of phase 2a was feasibility, with 44 patients randomized to T-DM1 + paclitaxel ± pertuzumab at the MTD identified in phase 1b. The MTD was T-DM1 3.6 mg/kg every three weeks (q3w) or 2.4 mg/kg weekly + paclitaxel 80 mg/m2 weekly ± pertuzumab 840 mg loading dose followed by 420 mg q3w. Phase 2a patients had received a median of 5.0 (range: 0–10) prior therapies for advanced cancer. In phase 2a, 51.2 % received ≥12 paclitaxel doses within 15 weeks, and 14.0 % received 12 paclitaxel doses by week 12. Common all-grade adverse events (AEs) were peripheral neuropathy (90.9 %) and fatigue (79.5 %). A total of 77.3 % experienced grade ≥3 AEs, most commonly neutropenia (25.0 %) and peripheral neuropathy (18.2 %). Among the 42 phase 2a patients with measurable disease, the objective response rate (ORR) was 50.0 % (95 % confidence interval (CI) 34.6–65.4); the clinical benefit rate (CBR) was 56.8 % (95 % CI 41.6–71.0). No pharmacokinetic interactions were observed between T-DM1 and paclitaxel. This regimen showed clinical activity. Although there is potential for paclitaxel to be added to T-DM1 ± pertuzumab, peripheral neuropathy was common in this heavily pretreated population. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00951665 . Registered August 3, 2009.
A randomized trial on the efficacy of group psychoeducation in the prophylaxis of recurrences in bipolar patients whose disease is in remission.

BACKGROUND
Studies on individual psychotherapy indicate that some interventions may reduce the number of recurrences in bipolar patients. However, there has been a lack of structured, well-designed, blinded, controlled studies demonstrating the efficacy of group psychoeducation to prevent recurrences in patients with bipolar I and II disorder.


METHODS
One hundred twenty bipolar I and II outpatients in remission (Young Mania Rating Scale score <6, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale-17 score <8) for at least 6 months prior to inclusion in the study, who were receiving standard pharmacologic treatment, were included in a controlled trial. Subjects were matched for age and sex and randomized to receive, in addition to standard psychiatric care, 21 sessions of group psychoeducation or 21 sessions of nonstructured group meetings. Subjects were assessed monthly during the 21-week treatment period and throughout the 2-year follow-up.


RESULTS
Group psychoeducation significantly reduced the number of relapsed patients and the number of recurrences per patient, and increased the time to depressive, manic, hypomanic, and mixed recurrences. The number and length of hospitalizations per patient were also lower in patients who received psychoeducation.


CONCLUSION
Group psychoeducation is an efficacious intervention to prevent recurrence in pharmacologically treated patients with bipolar I and II disorder.
Primary care follow-up plans for adolescents with substance use problems.

OBJECTIVE
Primary care visits provide an opportunity to screen adolescents for substance use and offer early intervention, but little is known about follow-up plans. The objective of this study was to determine recommendations by PCPs and assess the relationship between their diagnostic impressions of substance use severity and plans for intervention.


METHODS
Data were collected through a prospective observational study conducted at 7 primary care practices in New England. Patients aged 12 to 18 years completed an interview, which included sociodemographic characteristics and the CRAFFT substance abuse screen. PCPs received screen results, noted their diagnostic impression of participants' substance use severity, and recorded follow-up plans. Follow-up plans other than "periodic screening" alone were defined as "active intervention." We examined the relationship of provider impressions with follow-up recommendations by using the chi(2) test.


RESULTS
For 2034 adolescents, PCPs recommended no plan for 369 patients, periodic screening for 1557 patients, a return visit for 98 patients, and referral to counseling for 44 patients. PCPs' diagnostic impressions identified 97 (4.8%) patients with problem use and 19 (0.01%) patients with abuse or dependence. Recommendations for active intervention were more likely with patients' higher severity of use. However, 1 in 5 patients thought to have problem use did not receive a recommendation for an active intervention. Parent notification was planned for only 13 patients.


CONCLUSIONS
When concerned about substance use, PCPs recommend a return visit to their office more than twice as often as referral to counseling, and rarely planned to engage parents. PCPs need enhanced training and strategies for delivery of office-based interventions.
TFIDF, LSI and multi-word in information retrieval and text categorization

Text representation, which is a fundamental and necessary process for text-based intelligent information processing, includes the tasks of determining the index terms for documents and producing the numeric vectors corresponding to the documents. In this paper, multi-word, which is regarded as containing more contextual semantics than individual word and possessing the favorable statistical characteristics, is proposed as an alternative index terms in vector space model for text representation with theoretical support. We investigate the traditional indexing methods as TF*IDF (term frequency inverse document frequency) and LSI (latent semantic indexing) for comparative study. The performances of TF*IDF, LSI and multi-word are examined on the tasks of text classification, which includes information retrieval (IR) and text categorization (TC), in Chinese and English document collection respectively. We also attempt to tune the rescaling factor of LSI and observe its effectiveness in text classification. The experimental results demonstrate that TF*IDF and multi-word are comparable when they are used for IR and TC and LSI is the poorest one of them. Moreover, the rescaling factor of LSI has an insignificant influence on its effectiveness on text classification for both Chinese and English text classification.
A new design method based on artificial bee colony algorithm for digital IIR filters

Digital filters can be broadly classified into two groups: recursive (infinite impulse response (IIR)) and non-recursive (finite impulse response (FIR)). An IIR filter can provide a much better performance than the FIR filter having the same number of coefficients. However, IIR filters might have a multi-modal error surface. Therefore, a reliable design method proposed for IIR filters must be based on a global search procedure. Artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm has been recently introduced for global optimization. The ABC algorithm simulating the intelligent foraging behaviour of honey bee swarm is a simple, robust, and very flexible algorithm. In this work, a new method based on ABC algorithm for designing digital IIR filters is described and its performance is compared with that of a conventional optimization algorithm (LSQ-nonlin) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. r 2009 The Franklin Institute. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Ohkawa's theorem: There is a set of Bousfield classes

Bousfield classes are a very useful tool in stable homotopy theory. Ten years ago, Ohkawa proved in [5] that there is a set of Bousfield classes, with cardinality at most 2 א0 . This result has some interesting consequences—see [3], for example—but it does not seem to be as well known as it should; we are trying to remedy this. In this short note, we give a simple proof of Ohkawa’s theorem, and we discuss some natural questions that arise from the proof. In particular, the proof leads us to consider “Ohkawa classes”, which provide a weaker equivalence relation than Bousfield classes do. Unfortunately, Ohkawa classes seem unwieldy, and we have not found any uses for them aside from proving Ohkawa’s theorem. We define Ohkawa classes and prove Ohkawa’s theorem (Theorem 1.2) in the Section 1; to prove the result, we show that there is a set O of Ohkawa classes, of cardinality at most 2 א0 , and that this set maps onto the collection of Bousfield classes. This map is in fact a map of partially order sets; in Section 2, we examine the partial ordering on O. It turns out to be rather different from the ordering on the set B of Bousfield classes; we are able to conclude from this that the surjection O −→ B is not one-to-one. In Section 3, we show that the cardinality of O is exactly 2 א0 , but we are unable to deduce anything useful about the cardinality of B from this. Throughout, we ask a number of questions; knowing the answers would shed some light on O and B and the relationship between the two. The authors would like to thank Dan Christensen and Neil Strickland for interesting discussions about this material.
Thrombocytopenia in early alcohol withdrawal is associated with development of delirium tremens or seizures.

AIMS
In several studies, possible risk factors/predictors for severe alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS), i.e. delirium tremens (DT) and/or seizures, have been investigated. We have recently observed that low blood platelet count could be such a risk factor/predictor. We therefore investigated whether such an association could be found using a large number of alcohol-dependent individuals (n = 334).


METHODS
This study is a retrospectively conducted cohort study based on data from female and male patients (>20 years of age), consecutively admitted to an alcohol treatment unit. The individuals had to fulfil the discharge diagnoses alcohol dependence and alcohol withdrawal syndrome according to DSM-IV.


RESULTS
During the treatment period, 3% of the patients developed DT, 2% seizures and none had co-occurrence of both conditions. Among those with DT, a higher proportion had thrombocytopenia. Those with seizures had lower blood platelet count and a higher proportion of them had thrombocytopenia. The sensitivity and specificity of thrombocytopenia for the development of DT during the treatment period was 70% and 69%, respectively. The positive predictive value (PPV) was 6% and the negative predictive value (NPV) was 99%. For the development of seizures, the figure for sensitivity was 75% and for specificity 69%. The figures for PPV and NPV were similar as those for the development of DT.


CONCLUSIONS
Thrombocytopenia is more frequent in patients who develop severe AWS (DT or seizures). The findings, including the high NPV of thrombocytopenia, must be interpreted with caution due to the small number of patients who developed AWS. Further studies replicating the present finding are therefore needed before the clinical usefulness can be considered.
Long-term survival after heart failure: a contemporary population-based perspective.

BACKGROUND
Heart failure (HF) is a major public health problem that is associated with substantial morbidity, impaired quality of life, and diminished survival. Despite the considerable prevalence of HF in the United States, there are limited published data describing the contemporary long-term prognosis of patients hospitalized with decompensated HF.


METHODS
A total of 2445 residents in the Worcester metropolitan area discharged from 11 greater Worcester hospitals after confirmed acute HF during 2000 comprised the study sample. Follow-up of discharged hospital survivors was carried out through 2005.


RESULTS
The mean age of the study population was 76 years, 43.4% were men, and approximately three quarters had been previously diagnosed as having HF. Among discharged hospital patients, 37.3% died during the first year after hospital discharge, while 78.5% died during the 5-year follow-up period. Several subgroups of patients were at significantly increased risk for dying during the first year after hospital discharge. This included older persons (> or =85 years) (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 2.11; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.35-3.29), patients with a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (OR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.15-1.69) or HF (OR, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.00-1.59), and patients with elevated serum urea nitrogen levels during hospitalization (OR, 1.02; 95% CI, 1.01-1.03).


CONCLUSIONS
The results of our community-wide study demonstrate the poor long-term prognosis of patients surviving hospitalization for decompensated HF. Despite advances in the therapeutic management of these patients, their long-term survival remains guarded. Efforts are needed to improve the long-term survival of patients with this clinical syndrome.
Clustering stock price time series data to generate stock trading recommendations: An empirical study

Predicting the stock market is considered to be a very difficult task due to its non-linear and dynamic nature. Our proposed system is designed in such a way that even a layman can use it. It reduces the burden on the user. The user’s job is to give only the recent closing prices of a stock as input and the proposed Recommender system will instruct him when to buy and when to sell if it is profitable or not to buy share in case if it is not profitable to do trading. Using soft computing based techniques is considered to be more suitable for predicting trends in stock market where the data is chaotic and large in number. The soft computing based systems are capable of extracting relevant information from large sets of data by discovering hidden patterns in the data. Here regression trees are used for dimensionality reduction and clustering is done with the help of Self Organizing Maps (SOM). The proposed system is designed to assist stock market investors identify possible profit-making opportunities and also help in developing a better understanding on how to extract the relevant information from stock price data. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Predictors of pain among patients with head and neck cancer.

OBJECTIVE To determine predictors of pain 1 year after the diagnosis of head and neck cancer. DESIGN Prospective, multisite cohort study. SETTING Three academically affiliated medical centers. PATIENTS The study population comprised 374 previously untreated patients with carcinoma of the upper aerodigestive tract. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Participants were surveyed before treatment and 1 year thereafter. Multivariate analyses were conducted to determine predictors of the 36-Item Short-Form Instrument (SF-36) bodily pain score 1 year after diagnosis. RESULTS The mean SF-36 bodily pain score at 1 year was 65, compared with 61 at the time of diagnosis (P = .004), and 75, the population norm (lower scores indicate worse pain). Variables independently associated with pain included pretreatment pain score (P < .001), less education (P = .02), neck dissection (P = .001), feeding tube (P = .05), xerostomia (P < .001), depressive symptoms (P < .001), taking more pain medication (P < .001), less physical activity (P = .02), and poor sleep quality (P = .006). The association between head and neck cancer pain and current smoking and problem drinking did not reach significance (P = .07 and P = .08, respectively). CONCLUSIONS Aggressive pain management may be indicated for patients with head and neck cancer who undergo neck dissections, complain of xerostomia, require feeding tubes, and have medical comorbidities. Treatment of modifiable risk factors such as depression, poor sleep quality, tobacco use, and alcohol abuse may also reduce pain and improve quality of life among patients with head and neck cancer.
Extending the potential fields approach to avoid trapping situations

Reactive mobile robot navigation based on potential field methods has shown to be a good solution for dealing with unknown and dynamic environments, where timely responses are required. Unfortunately, the complexity of the tasks which can successfully be carried out is restricted by the inherent shortcomings of the approach such as trapping situations due to local minima, difficulties passing among closely spaced obstacles, oscillations in narrow corridors, etc... This paper proposes a novel strategy which overcomes totally the first limitation and partially the others by computing an adaptive navigation function on the basis of such artificial potential fields. As a result, navigation is achieved in very difficult scenarios such as maze-like environments. A comparative study on the path length performance of our proposal with regard to other algorithms from the related literature is also presented. Both simulation and real tests are performed.
Thrombocytopenia absent radius (TAR) syndrome.

AIM
The aim of the work was a presentation of one case with Thrombocytopenia absent radius (TAR) syndrome.


METHODS
Diagnosis of TAR syndrome has been established on the basis of pedigree, laboratory findings (hemogram, platelet count, peripheral smear), bone marrow biopsy, radiological examination and karyotype.


RESULTS
A patient was a two months old female child, hospitalized due petechial bleeding, upper limb anomalies and diarrhea.


LABORATORY FINDINGS
red blood cell count was 2.1 x 1012/L, hemoglobin value was 62 g/L, white blood cell count indicated the existence of leukemoid reaction (40.0 x 109/L), the eosinophyle count at the leukocyte formula was increased (3%), bleeding time was prolonged (10'). The platelets at the peripheral blood smear were rarely present, whereas the megacaryocytes appeared in the bone marrow aspiration in the decreased number, or did not appear at all. At the radiological examination of the upper limbs, radius was absent in both shoulders.


CONCLUSION
TAR syndrome is a rare hereditary disease. Obligatory clinical manifestations are: thrombocytopenia and bilateral absence of the radius. Prenatal diagnosis can be established during the 16th week of gestation by ultrasound and if it is continued with the pregnancy it is preferred that the platelet transfusion be given intrauterine. The mortality rate depends on the age of the patient and the platelet count.
Topical fluocinolone in rheumatoid arthritis.

The response was assessed subjectively, and by strength of grip and ring size measurements. The strength of grip in each hand was measured in the usual way by squeezing a small rubber bag attached to a sphygmomanometer and taking the average of three observations. Ring sizes were measured over the finger proximal interphalangeal joints using a set of standard jeweller's rings with half sizes. (The diameter increment between sizes is 0 4 mm.) The measurements were carried out at the same time of day on the day before treatment, the day treatment started, and the day treatment finished, and the day after that.