LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Effects of a brief office-based intervention to facilitate diabetes dietary self-management.

OBJECTIVE
There is a pressing need for brief practical interventions that address diabetes management. Using a randomized design, we evaluated a medical office-based intervention focused on behavioral issues relevant to dietary self-management.


RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
There were 206 adult diabetes patients randomized to usual care or brief intervention, which consisted of touchscreen computer-assisted assessment to provide immediate feedback on key barriers to dietary self-management, and goal setting and problem-solving counseling for patients. Follow-up components to the single session intervention included phone calls and interactive video or videotape instruction as needed.


RESULTS
Multivariate analyses of covariance revealed that the brief intervention produced greater improvements than usual care on a number of measures of dietary behavior (e.g., fewer calories from saturated fat, fewer high-fat eating habits and behaviors) at the 3-month follow-up. There were also significant differences favoring intervention on changes in serum cholesterol levels and patient satisfaction but not on glycosylated hemoglobin. The intervention effects were relatively robust across a variety of patient characteristics, the two participating physicians, and intervention staff members.


CONCLUSIONS
If the long-term results are equally positive and generalize to other setting, this intervention could provide a prototype for a feasible cost-effective way to integrate patient views and behavioral management into office-based care for diabetes.
Anticipation, Tax Avoidance, and the Price Elasticity of Gasoline Demand

Least-squares estimates of the response of gasoline consumption to a change in the gasoline price are biased toward zero, given the endogeneity of gasoline prices. A seemingly natural solution to this problem is to instrument for gasoline prices using gasoline taxes, but this approach tends to yield implausibly large price elasticities. We demonstrate that anticipatory behavior provides an important explanation for this result. Gasoline buyers increase purchases before tax increases and delay purchases before tax decreases, rendering the tax instrument endogenous. Including suitable leads and lags in the regression restores the validity of the IV estimator, resulting in much lower elasticity estimates.
Influence of leaf water status on stomatal response to humidity, hydraulic conductance, and soil drought in Betula occidentalis

Whole-canopy measurements of water flux were used to calculate stomatal conductance (g s ) and transpiration (E) for seedlings of western water birch (Betula occidentalis Hook.) under various soil-plant hydraulic conductances (k), evaporative driving forces (ΔN; difference in leaf-to-air molar fraction of water vapor), and soil water potentials (Ψs). As expected, g s dropped in response to decreased k or ΨS, or increased ΔN(> 0.025). Field data showed a decrease in mid-day g s with decreasing k from soil-to-petiole, with sapling and adult plants having lower values of both parameters than juveniles. Stomatal closure prevented E and Ψ from inducing xylem cavitation except during extreme soil drought when cavitation occurred in the main stem and probably roots as well. Although all decreases in g s were associated with approximately constant bulk leaf water potential (ψl), this does not logically exclude a feedback response between ΨL and g s . To test the influence of leaf versus root water status on g s , we manipulated water status of the leaf independently of the root by using a pressure chamber enclosing the seedling root system; pressurizing the chamber alters cell turgor and volume only in the shoot cells outside the chamber. Stomatal closure in response to increased ΔN, decreased k, and decreased ΨS was fully or partially reversed within 5 min of pressurizing the soil. Bulk ΨL remained constant before and after soil pressurizing because of the increase in E associated with stomatal opening. When ΔN was low (i.e., < 0.025), pressurizing the soil either had no effect on g s , or caused it to decline; and bulk ΨL increased. Increased Ψl may have caused stomatal closure via increased backpressure on the stomatal apparatus from elevated epidermal turgor. The stomatal response to soil pressurizing indicated a central role of leaf cells in sensing water stress caused by high ΔN, low k, and low ΨS. Invoking a prominent role for feedforward signalling in short-term stomatal control may be premature.
Sagittal plane biomechanics cannot injure the ACL during sidestep cutting.

BACKGROUND
Knee joint sagittal plane forces are a proposed mechanism of anterior cruciate ligament injury during sport movements such as sidestep cutting. Ligament force magnitudes for these movements however, remain unknown. The need to examine injury-causing events suggests elucidation via model-based investigations is possible. Using this approach, the current study determined whether sagittal plane knee loading during sidestep cutting could in isolation injure the anterior cruciate ligament.


METHODS
Experiments were performed on subject-specific forward dynamic musculoskeletal models, generated from data obtained from 10 male and 10 female athletes. Models were optimized to simulate subject-specific cutting movements. Random perturbations (n=5000) were applied to initial contact conditions and quadriceps/hamstrings activation levels to simulate their effect on peak 3D knee loads. Injury via the sagittal plane mechanism was based on the criterion of an anterior drawer force greater than 2000 N.


FINDINGS
Realistic neuromuscular perturbations produced significant increases in external knee anterior force and valgus and internal rotation moments. Peak anterior drawer force never exceeded 2000 N in any model, and thus failed to cause anterior cruciate ligament injuries. Valgus loads reached values that were high enough to rupture the ligament, occurring more frequently in females than in males.


INTERPRETATION
Sagittal plane knee joint forces cannot rupture the anterior cruciate ligament during sidestep cutting. The interaction between muscle and joint mechanics and external ground reaction forces in this plane, places a ceiling on ligament loads. Valgus loading is a more likely injury mechanism, especially in females. Modifying sagittal plane biomechanics will thus unlikely contribute to the prevention of anterior cruciate ligament injuries.
Machine learning algorithms for accurate flow-based network traffic classification: Evaluation and comparison

The task of network management and monitoring relies on an accurate characterization of network traffic generated by different applications and network protocols. We employ three supervisedmachine learning (ML) algorithms, BayesianNetworks, Decision Trees and Multilayer Perceptrons for the flow-based classification of six different types of Internet traffic including peer-to-peer (P2P) and content delivery (Akamai) traffic. The dependency of the traffic classification performance on the amount and composition of training data is investigated followed by experiments that show that ML algorithms such as Bayesian Networks and Decision Trees are suitable for Internet traffic flow classification at a high speed, and prove to be robust with respect to applications that dynamically change their source ports. Finally, the importance of correctly classified training instances is highlighted by an experiment that is conducted with wrongly labeled training data. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
EFFECT OF RELINING ON FIBER POST RETENTION TO ROOT CANAL

UNLABELLED
One of the clinically relevant problems dentists face when restoring endodontically treated teeth is the mismatch between fiber post and post space diameters, which results in an excessively thick resin cement layer. Fiber post relining appears as a solution for this problem.


OBJECTIVES
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of fiber post relining with composite resin on push-out bond strength.


MATERIAL AND METHODS
Twenty bovine incisors were selected to assess post retention. The crowns were removed below the cementoenamel junction and the root canals were treated endodontically and flared with diamond burs. The roots were allocated into two groups (n=10): G1: fiber posts without relining and G2: fiber posts relined with composite resin. The posts were cemented with a dual-cured resin cement and the specimens were sectioned transversally. Three 1.5-mm thick slabs were obtained per root and identified as cervical, medium and apical thirds. The push-out test was performed at a crosshead speed of 0.5 mm/min until post dislodgement occurred. The failure mode of fractured specimens was analyzed under scanning electron microscopy. Data were analyzed by split-plot ANOVA and post-hoc Tukey's test at a pre-set alpha of 0.05.


RESULTS
Relined fiber posts presented higher retention values than non-relined post in all thirds. No statistically significant differences (p>0.05) were found among thirds for relined posts. All failures occurred at the interface between resin cement and root dentin.


CONCLUSIONS
Relining with composite resin seems to be an effective method to improve the retention of fiber posts to flared root canals.
Comparison of self-reported knee injury and osteoarthritis outcome score to performance measures in patients after total knee arthroplasty.

OBJECTIVE
To characterize patient outcomes after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) by (1) examining changes in self-report measures (Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score [KOOS]) and performance measures over the first 6 months after TKA, (2) evaluating correlations between changes in KOOS self-report function (activities of daily living [ADL] subscale) and functional performance (6-minute walk [6MW]), and (3) exploring how changes in pain correlate with KOOS ADL and 6MW outcomes.


DESIGN
Retrospective cohort evaluation.


SETTING
Clinical research laboratory.


PATIENTS (OR PARTICIPANTS)
Thirty-nine patients scheduled for a unilateral, primary TKA for end-stage unilateral knee osteoarthritis.


METHODS
Patients were evaluated 2 weeks before surgery and 1, 3, and 6 months after surgery.


MAIN OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS
KOOS, 6MW, timed-up-and-go (TUG), and stair climbing tests (SCT), quadriceps strength.


RESULTS
Three of 5 KOOS subscales significantly improved by 1 month after TKA. All 5 KOOS subscales significantly improved by 3 and 6 months after TKA. In contrast, performance measures (6MW, TUG, SCT, and quadriceps strength) all significantly declined from preoperative values by 1 month after TKA and significantly improved from preoperative values by 3 and 6 months after TKA; yet, improvements from preoperative values were not clinically meaningful. Pearson correlations between changes in the KOOS ADL subscale and 6MW from before surgery were not statistically significant at 1, 3, or 6 months after TKA. In addition, KOOS Pain was strongly correlated with KOOS ADL scores at all times, but KOOS Pain was not correlated with 6MW distance at any time.


CONCLUSIONS
Patient self-report by using the KOOS did not reflect the magnitude of performance deficits present after surgery, especially 1 month after TKA. Self-report KOOS outcomes closely paralleled pain relief after surgery, whereas performance measures were not correlated with pain. These results emphasize the importance of including performance measures when tracking recovery after TKA as opposed to solely relying on self-reported measures.
The Long-Term Effects of Africa's Slave Trades

To construct estimates of the number of slaves from each country shipped during Africa’s four slave trades, I rely on two kinds of data. The first kind are shipping records that report the total number of slaves exported from each port or region within Africa. Although these data provide an indication of the slaves’ place of embarkation, they do not specify where the slaves were originally from. Slaves shipped from the coast of a country may not have necessarily come from that country. They may have come from countries located further inland. Because of this, I combine the shipping data with historic data that report the ethnic identities of the slaves shipped during the slave trades. These ethnicity data are from a variety of different documents from the countries where the slaves were shipped to. Examples include plantation inventories, slave runaway notices, records of sale, death records, marriage records, notarial records, and court records. I use the ethnicity data to provide an estimate of the number of slaves shipped from each coastal country that were from inland countries. Using this estimate I then calculate an estimate of the number of slaves shipped from all countries in Africa, coastal and landlocked. The exact procedure that I use is as follows.
“Customers’ adoption and use of e-banking services: the South African perspective”

South African retail banks, like retail banks elsewhere in the world, are investing significant amounts of capital into the provision of e-banking services in the hope that this will translate into higher returns and market penetration. However, the rapid adoption of these e-banking services is still in doubt. Any strategy aimed at achieving widespread adoption and use of these e-banking services rests on solid understanding of factors that influence customers’ adoption and use of the services. This study adds trust in the e-banking system, customer awareness of e-banking services and perceived self-efficacy, together with the TAM constructs of perceived usefulness and ease of use to improve the understanding of the predicators of Internet and cellphone banking services adoption in South Africa. For this study, a cross-sectional descriptive survey design was used to obtain data from 394 customers of the four major retail banks in South Africa through self-administered questionnaires. The findings of the study confirm that the factors mentioned above contribute significantly to Internet and cellphone banking adoption and use. In this study, customers’ trust in the e-banking system was found to be the strongest predicator of Internet and cellphone banking services adoption, unlike previous studies in different environmental-contexts where perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use were widely held to affect the adoption of Internet and cell phone banking. This paper highlights the managerial implications of the findings on the efforts by retail banks in South Africa aimed at encouraging widespread adoption of e-banking services.
STABLE INFLATIONARY DISSIPATIVE COSMOLOGIES

The stability of the de Sitter era of cosmic expansion in spatially curved homogeneous isotropic universes is studied. The source of the gravitational field is an imperfect fluid such that the parameters that characterize it may change with time. In this way we extend our previous analysis for spatially-flat spaces as well as the work of Barrow.
Long-term follow-up for mortality and cancer in a randomized placebo-controlled trial of vitamin D(3) and/or calcium (RECORD trial).

CONTEXT
Vitamin D or calcium supplementation may have effects on vascular disease and cancer.


OBJECTIVE
Our objective was to investigate whether vitamin D or calcium supplementation affects mortality, vascular disease, and cancer in older people.


DESIGN AND SETTING
The study included long-term follow-up of participants in a two by two factorial, randomized controlled trial from 21 orthopedic centers in the United Kingdom.


PARTICIPANTS
Participants were 5292 people (85% women) aged at least 70 yr with previous low-trauma fracture.


INTERVENTIONS
Participants were randomly allocated to daily vitamin D(3) (800 IU), calcium (1000 mg), both, or placebo for 24-62 months, with a follow-up of 3 yr after intervention.


MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
All-cause mortality, vascular disease mortality, cancer mortality, and cancer incidence were evaluated.


RESULTS
In intention-to-treat analyses, mortality [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.93; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.85-1.02], vascular disease mortality (HR = 0.91; 95% CI = 0.79-1.05), cancer mortality (HR = 0.85; 95% CI = 0.68-1.06), and cancer incidence (HR = 1.07; 95% CI = 0.92-1.25) did not differ significantly between participants allocated vitamin D and those not. All-cause mortality (HR = 1.03; 95% CI = 0.94-1.13), vascular disease mortality (HR = 1.07; 95% CI = 0.92-1.24), cancer mortality (HR = 1.13; 95% CI = 0.91-1.40), and cancer incidence (HR = 1.06; 95% CI = 0.91-1.23) also did not differ significantly between participants allocated calcium and those not. In a post hoc statistical analysis adjusting for compliance, thus with fewer participants, trends for reduced mortality with vitamin D and increased mortality with calcium were accentuated, although all results remain nonsignificant.


CONCLUSIONS
Daily vitamin D or calcium supplementation did not affect mortality, vascular disease, cancer mortality, or cancer incidence.
Multicenter phase II randomized study evaluating dose-response of antiperistaltic effect of L-menthol sprayed onto the gastric mucosa for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy.

AIM
Peppermint oil solution was found to be effective for reducing gastric spasm during upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. The aim of the present study was to assess whether the gastric peristalsis-suppressing effect is dose-dependently induced by L-menthol, the major constituent of peppermint oil, and to determine the recommended dose of an L-menthol preparation.


METHODS
In this phase II, multicenter, double-blind, dose-response study, 131 eligible patients were randomly assigned to receive 20 mL of 0.4% L-menthol (n = 32), 0.8% L-menthol (n = 35), 1.6% L-menthol (n = 30), or placebo (n = 34). The primary efficacy measure was the proportion of subjects with no peristalsis in two time periods, 75 to 105 s after treatment and immediately before the completion of endoscopy.


RESULTS
The peristalsis-suppressing effect of L-menthol increased dose dependently (5.6%, 32.0%, 47.4% and 52.9% in the 0%, 0.4%, 0.8% and 1.6% groups, respectively: P < 0.001, one-tailed Cochran-Armitage trend test). As compared with the placebo group, the proportion of subjects with no peristalsis after administration was significantly higher in the 0.8% group (P = 0.015) and 1.6% group (P = 0.009). Adverse events in the L-menthol dose groups occurred with similar frequencies in the placebo group.


CONCLUSION
L-menthol suppresses peristalsis in a dose-dependent manner, and the dose-response reaches a plateau at 0.8% L-menthol. Further Phase III studies are needed to establish the superiority of 0.8% L-menthol over placebo.
Apixaban versus warfarin in patients with atrial fibrillation.

BACKGROUND
Vitamin K antagonists are highly effective in preventing stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation but have several limitations. Apixaban is a novel oral direct factor Xa inhibitor that has been shown to reduce the risk of stroke in a similar population in comparison with aspirin.


METHODS
In this randomized, double-blind trial, we compared apixaban (at a dose of 5 mg twice daily) with warfarin (target international normalized ratio, 2.0 to 3.0) in 18,201 patients with atrial fibrillation and at least one additional risk factor for stroke. The primary outcome was ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke or systemic embolism. The trial was designed to test for noninferiority, with key secondary objectives of testing for superiority with respect to the primary outcome and to the rates of major bleeding and death from any cause.


RESULTS
The median duration of follow-up was 1.8 years. The rate of the primary outcome was 1.27% per year in the apixaban group, as compared with 1.60% per year in the warfarin group (hazard ratio with apixaban, 0.79; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.66 to 0.95; P<0.001 for noninferiority; P=0.01 for superiority). The rate of major bleeding was 2.13% per year in the apixaban group, as compared with 3.09% per year in the warfarin group (hazard ratio, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.60 to 0.80; P<0.001), and the rates of death from any cause were 3.52% and 3.94%, respectively (hazard ratio, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.80 to 0.99; P=0.047). The rate of hemorrhagic stroke was 0.24% per year in the apixaban group, as compared with 0.47% per year in the warfarin group (hazard ratio, 0.51; 95% CI, 0.35 to 0.75; P<0.001), and the rate of ischemic or uncertain type of stroke was 0.97% per year in the apixaban group and 1.05% per year in the warfarin group (hazard ratio, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.74 to 1.13; P=0.42).


CONCLUSIONS
In patients with atrial fibrillation, apixaban was superior to warfarin in preventing stroke or systemic embolism, caused less bleeding, and resulted in lower mortality. (Funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer; ARISTOTLE ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00412984.).
A Hierarchical Latent Vector Model for Learning Long-Term Structure in Music

The Variational Autoencoder (VAE) has proven to be an effective model for producing semantically meaningful latent representations for natural data. However, it has thus far seen limited application to sequential data, and, as we demonstrate, existing recurrent VAE models have difficulty modeling sequences with long-term structure. To address this issue, we propose the use of a hierarchical decoder, which first outputs embeddings for subsequences of the input and then uses these embeddings to generate each subsequence independently. This structure encourages the model to utilize its latent code, thereby avoiding the “posterior collapse” problem which remains an issue for recurrent VAEs. We apply this architecture to modeling sequences of musical notes and find that it exhibits dramatically better sampling, interpolation, and reconstruction performance than a “flat” baseline model. An implementation of our “MusicVAE” is available online.2
GPS analysis of an international field hockey tournament.

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of multiple games on exercise intensity during a world-class hockey tournament.


METHODS
15 players (mean±SD age 27±4 y, stature 179±5 cm, body mass 77±5 kg, and estimated VO2 64.2±3.1 mL·kg(-1)·min(-1)) competing in the Champions Trophy (CT). Global-positioning systems assessed total distance (TD), low-speed activity (LSA; 0.10-4.17 m/s), and high-speed running (HSR; >4.17 m/s) distance. Differences in movement demands (TD, LSA, HSR) between positions and matches were assessed using the effect size and percent difference±90% confidence intervals. Two levels of comparison were made. First, data from subsequent matches were compared with match 1, and, second, data from each match compared with a tournament average (TA).


RESULTS
In all matches, compared with game 1, midfielders performed less HSR distance. However, the amount of HSR did not decrease as the tournament progressed. When compared with the TA, defenders showed more variation in each match. All positions showed lower movement outputs when the team won by a large margin.


CONCLUSIONS
It was possible for elite team-sport athletes to maintain exercise intensity when playing 6 matches in a period of 9 days, contrary to the only other investigation of this in elite male field hockey.