LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Non-operative management of early, acute appendicitis in children: is it safe and effective?

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to determine if early, acute appendicitis in children can be safely and effectively managed with antibiotics alone.


METHODS
A retrospective review was performed of children (<18 yrs) treated non-operatively (NOM) for early, acute appendicitis since May 2012. These were compared to patients treated with appendectomy between January 2011 and October 2011 (OM). Inclusion criteria included: (a) symptoms <48 h, (b) localized peritonitis, and (c) ultrasound findings consistent with early, acute appendicitis.


RESULTS
Twelve patients (66% female, mean age 12.2,SD=4.2 yrs) were treated non-operatively, while 12 (50% female, mean age 12.5,SD=3.2 yrs) were treated operatively. Two NOM children (16.7%) required initial appendectomy. One patient developed recurrent appendicitis requiring appendectomy 7 months post-discharge. Four other NOM patients returned with symptoms but did not require admission or surgery. Two OM patients (8.3%) had hospital visits and admissions related to surgical site infections. Mean length of stay (LOS) for the first visit was 1.5 days (SD=1.0d) (NOM) vs. 1.3 days (SD=0.5d) (OM) (p=0.61). Including first and subsequent admissions, mean LOS was 1.8 days (SD=1.1d) (NOM) vs. 1.7 days (SD=1.5d) (OM) (p=0.97).


CONCLUSION
Early acute appendicitis in appropriately selected children can be successfully treated non-operatively. Randomized trials with longer follow-up are required.
Topiramate augmentation in patients with resistant major depressive disorder: A double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial

BACKGROUND
Despite evolution of new antidepressant treatment, clinicians still encounter challenges in the treatment of depressed patients. Looking for new medications that can potentiate the effects of current antidepressants seems to be necessary. Our objective is to survey the efficacy of topiramate augmentation in resistant major depressive disorder (MDD).


METHOD
This augmentation trial was designed as an 8-week randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study. Fifty three patients with DSM-IV diagnosis of MDD who had failed to respond to at least 8 weeks of treatment with an adequate dose of one of the SSRIs (fluoxetine, citalopram or serteraline) were included in the study. Patients were randomized to receive a flexible dose of topiramate (100-200 mg/day) or placebo beside their current antidepressant medication for a period of eight weeks. Outcome measures were Hamilton Depression Scale (HAM-D) and Clinical Global Impression (CGI).


RESULTS
42 patients completed the study and there were 6 and 5 dropouts in topiramate and placebo groups, respectively. The topiramate group demonstrated significant improvement over the study period based on mean HAM-D score at week 8 compared to baseline (P = .000, Z = 3.699). Those receiving topiramate demonstrated to have a mean decrease of 32.0% in HAM-D score, compared to only 5.5% for those receiving placebo. Depressed mood, suicidality, insomnia (early, middle and late), agitation and anxiety symptoms were significantly improved in the topiramate group.


CONCLUSION
Our double-blind placebo-controlled study demonstrated that topiramate augmentation potentiate the efficacy of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in treatment of resistant major depressive disorder. Of note is that our study is preliminary and larger double-blind studies are needed to confirm the results.
A theory of possibility distributions

Abstract Possibility distributions form a widely accepted method for representing a certain type of uncertain knowledge. As yet, most mechanisms for processing possibility distributions have been founded on intuitive argumentation only. As a solution a comprehensive, mathematically sound theory of possibility distributions is proposed that is based on three simple axioms and the Principle of Minimal Specificity. Possibilistic knowledge-bases are represented by sets of possibility distributions. Inferring information from a knowledge-base is interpreted as combining its possibility distributions into the most specific one we are allowed to infer. On these assumptions it is shown in particular that the max—min-composition is an unambiguous mechanism for the aggregation of possibility distributions that are defined on different and freely chosen subspaces of a given Cartesian product of universes. A special type of possibility distribution ( Possibilistic Relation of Dependence or PROD ) is postulated as a description of dependencies between variables. They play an important role in a theory of possibilistic fuzzy systems that is presented as a general framework for fuzzy modeling of real-world problems.
Araucaria Forest conservation: mechanisms providing resistance to invasion by exotic timber trees

Since only 12.6% of the Brazilian Araucaria Forest remains and timber tree monocultures are expanding, biological invasion is a potential threat to the conservation of natural forest remnants. Here, we test (1) the susceptibility of Araucaria Forest to invasion by Pinus taeda and Eucalyptus saligna, (2) the efficiency of different mechanisms controlling the early establishment of these two exotic timber tree species, and (3) the potential of the native timber tree Araucaria angustifolia to establish successfully in ecologically-managed monocultures of Araucaria, Pinus and Eucalyptus. In Araucaria Forest, more than a thousand Pinus seeds landed annually in a hectare; however, experimentally exposed seeds were 100% removed in only 6 days. Furthermore, all experimentally transplanted seedlings of Pinus taeda and Eucalyptus saligna died in less than a year in Araucaria Forest, but not in the monocultures. Correlative evidence suggests that this mortality was associated to plant community richness, plant abundance, and soil fertility. Araucaria angustifolia, in contrast, showed an establishment success in ecologically-managed tree monocultures as high as that exhibited in its natural habitat. The current resistance of Araucaria Forest to invasion by exotic timber trees is good news for the conservation of Araucaria Forest remnants and for its keystone species. The understanding of the mechanisms providing such resistance against invasion points towards management tools for minimizing future threats.
Universal Transformers

Self-attentive feed-forward sequence models have been shown to achieve impressive results on sequence modeling tasks including machine translation [31], image generation [30] and constituency parsing [18], thereby presenting a compelling alternative to recurrent neural networks (RNNs) which has remained the de-facto standard architecture for many sequence modeling problems to date. Despite these successes, however, feed-forward sequence models like the Transformer [31] fail to generalize in many tasks that recurrent models handle with ease (e.g. copying strings or even simple logical inference when the string or formula lengths exceed those observed at training time [28]). Moreover, and in contrast to RNNs, the Transformer model is not computationally universal, limiting its theoretical expressivity. In this paper we propose the Universal Transformer which addresses these practical and theoretical shortcomings and we show that it leads to improved performance on several tasks. Instead of recurring over the individual symbols of sequences like RNNs, the Universal Transformer repeatedly revises its representations of all symbols in the sequence with each recurrent step. In order to combine information from different parts of a sequence, it employs a self-attention mechanism in every recurrent step. Assuming sufficient memory, its recurrence makes the Universal Transformer computationally universal. We further employ an adaptive computation time (ACT) mechanism to allow the model to dynamically adjust the number of times the representation of each position in a sequence is revised. Beyond saving computation, we show that ACT can improve the accuracy of the model. Our experiments show that on various algorithmic tasks and a diverse set of large-scale language understanding tasks the Universal Transformer generalizes significantly better and outperforms both a vanilla Transformer and an LSTM in machine translation, and achieves a new state of the art on the bAbI linguistic reasoning task and the challenging LAMBADA language modeling task.
A cross-linguistic study of early word meaning : universal ontology and linguistic influence

This research concerns how children learn the distinction between substance names and ohjcct names. Quinc (1969) proposed that children learn the distinction through learning the syntactic distinctions inherent in countlmasc grammar. However. Soja et al. ( 1991) found that English-speaking 2-ycar-olds. who did not seem to have acquired countlmass grammar. distinguished objects from substances in a word extension task, suggesting a pre-lingut\tic ontological distinction. T o test whether the distinction between ohject names and substance names i s conceptually or linguistically driven. we repeated Soja et al.'s study with Englishand Japanese-spaking 2-, 2.5-. and 4-year-olds and adults. Japanese does not make a countmass grammatical distinction: all inanimate nouns are treated alikc. Thus i f young Japanese children made the object-substance distinction i n word meaning. this would support the early ontology position over the linguistic influence position. We used three types o f standards: srthsrmices (e.g.. sand i n an S-shape), simple ohjecrs (e.g.. a kidney-shaped piece o f paraffin) and complex ohjccfs (e.$.. a W C W ~ whisk). The suhjccts learned novel nouns in ncutral syntax denoting each standard entity. They were then asked which of the two alternatives one matching i n shape hut not material and the other matching in material hut not shape would also be named by the same lahel. The results suggest the universal use o f ontological knowledge i n early word learning. Children in hoth languages showed differentiation between (complex) ohjects and suh\tances as early as 2 years o f age. However. there were also early cross-linguiztic differences. American apd Japanese children generabed the simple object instances and the \(thstance instances differently. We speculate that children universally make a distinction hctween individuals and non-individuals i n word learning hut that the nature of the categories and the hnundary between them is influenced by language. 01997 Elsevier Science B.V. A l l rights reserved. * Comsponding author. E-mail: imai@sfc.kcio.ac.jp.
A probabilistic music recommender considering user opinions and audio features

A recommender system has an obvious appeal in an environment where the amount of on-line information vastly outstrips any individual’s capability to survey. Music recommendation is considered a popular application area. In order to make personalized recommendations, many collaborative music recommender systems (CMRS) focus on capturing precise similarities among users or items based on user historical ratings. Despite the valuable information from audio features of music itself, however, few studies have investigated how to utilize information extracted directly from music for personalized recommendation in CMRS. In this paper, we describe a CMRS based on our proposed item-based probabilistic model, where items are classified into groups and predictions are made for users considering the Gaussian distribution of user ratings. In addition, this model has been extended for improved recommendation performance by utilizing audio features that help alleviate three well-known problems associated with data sparseness in collaborative recommender systems: user bias, non-association, and cold start problems in capturing accurate similarities among items. Experimental results based on two real-world data sets lead us to believe that content information is crucial in achieving better personalized recommendation beyond user ratings. We further show how primitive audio features can be combined into aggregate features for the proposed CRMS and analyze their influences on recommendation performance. Although this model was developed originally for music collaborative recommendation based on audio features, our experiment with the movie data set demonstrates that it can be applied to other domains. 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Full length articleLaser powder-bed fusion additive manufacturing: Physics of complex melt flow and formation mechanisms of pores, spatter, and denudation zones

This study demonstrates the significant effect of the recoil pressure and Marangoni convection in laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) of 316L stainless steel. A three-dimensional high fidelity powder-scale model reveals how the strong dynamical melt flow generates pore defects, material spattering (sparking), and denudation zones. The melt track is divided into three sections: a topological depression, a transition and a tail region, each being the location of specific physical effects. The inclusion of laser ray-tracing energy deposition in the powder-scale model improves over traditional volumetric energy deposition. It enables partial particle melting, which impacts pore defects in the denudation zone. Different pore formation mechanisms are observed at the edge of a scan track, at the melt pool bottom (during collapse of the pool depression), and at the end of the melt track (during laser power ramp down). Remedies to these undesirable pores are discussed. The results are validated against the experiments and the sensitivity to laser absorptivity is discussed.
Biosignal monitoring system for mobile telemedicine

This paper describes the design of a prototype integrated mobile telemedicine system that is compatible with existing public mobile telecommunication network, CDMA 1xEVDO. The mobile telemedicine system consists of two parts. One is a physiological signal measuring part, and the other is a PC system for the signal processing and telecommunication. The system uses NetMeeting to transmit video, audio and patient biosignals from a moving ambulance to a hospital and delivers to the personal computer of the doctor. The patient biosignals are noninvasive blood pressure (NIBP), arterial oxygen saturation (SpO/sub 2/), respiration pattern, electrocardiogram (ECG), heart sound, body core temperature and blood glucose concentration. For the emergency medicine, vital signs are focused and the remote medical monitoring, consulting, and health care are intended. The mobile telemedicine system was implemented, and tested for real time medical consultation during ambulance transport. This PC based mobile telemedicine system is flexible enough to accommodate newer components in wireless communication and portable sensing technologies. The present study suggests that the mobile telemedicine system using CDMA 1xEVDO is aids to patient monitoring and diagnosis as well as a convenient means of communications in the ambulance for the emergency medical care.
Thrombus aspiration during primary percutaneous coronary intervention.

BACKGROUND
Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is effective in opening the infarct-related artery in patients with myocardial infarction with ST-segment elevation. However, the embolization of atherothrombotic debris induces microvascular obstruction and diminishes myocardial reperfusion.


METHODS
We performed a randomized trial assessing whether manual aspiration was superior to conventional treatment during primary PCI. A total of 1071 patients were randomly assigned to the thrombus-aspiration group or the conventional-PCI group before undergoing coronary angiography. Aspiration was considered to be successful if there was histopathological evidence of atherothrombotic material. We assessed angiographic and electrocardiographic signs of myocardial reperfusion, as well as clinical outcome. The primary end point was a myocardial blush grade of 0 or 1 (defined as absent or minimal myocardial reperfusion, respectively).


RESULTS
A myocardial blush grade of 0 or 1 occurred in 17.1% of the patients in the thrombus-aspiration group and in 26.3% of those in the conventional-PCI group (P<0.001). Complete resolution of ST-segment elevation occurred in 56.6% and 44.2% of patients, respectively (P<0.001). The benefit did not show heterogeneity among the baseline levels of the prespecified covariates. At 30 days, the rate of death in patients with a myocardial blush grade of 0 or 1, 2, and 3 was 5.2%, 2.9%, and 1.0%, respectively (P=0.003), and the rate of adverse events was 14.1%, 8.8%, and 4.2%, respectively (P<0.001). Histopathological examination confirmed successful aspiration in 72.9% of patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Thrombus aspiration is applicable in a large majority of patients with myocardial infarction with ST-segment elevation, and it results in better reperfusion and clinical outcomes than conventional PCI, irrespective of clinical and angiographic characteristics at baseline. (Current Controlled Trials number, ISRCTN16716833.)
Transport media for avulsed teeth: a review.

Management protocols for avulsed teeth should include management of the pulp and periodontal ligament (PDL) cells in order to improve the long-term prognosis and survival of these teeth. The use of an inappropriate transport or storage medium potentially increases the risk of PDL cell necrosis, which can result in ankylosis and replacement resorption of the tooth root. Considering the critical role of these media, an informed choice of a suitable medium is essential for a favourable outcome. The literature regarding transport media for avulsed teeth was reviewed using PubMed/MEDLINE up to February 2010. This review outlines the common storage media that are available and highlights their specific features or problems. Although HBSS, ViaSpan and Eagle's medium have great potential to maintain the PDL cells in a viable state after avulsion, the practicalities of using these solutions, the costs and the lack of ready availability to the general public make them less than ideal. Milk remains the most convenient, cheapest and readily available solution in most situations while also being capable of keeping PDL cells alive. Hence, milk remains the storage medium of choice for avulsed teeth that cannot be replanted immediately or very soon after the avulsion.
Why the high attrition rate for computer science students: some thoughts and observations

This paper investigates the possible causes for high attrition rates for Computer Science students. It is a serious problem in universities that must be addressed if the need for technologically competent professionals is to be met.
Arthroscopic transosseous (anchorless) rotator cuff repair

The traditional open transosseous rotator cuff repair gives excellent results for the fixation of tendon to bone and has represented the gold standard for rotator cuff surgery with excellent long-term results. In the last few years, different arthroscopic techniques using suture anchors have been developed to increase the tendon–bone contact area in an attempt to reconstitute a more anatomic configuration of the rotator cuff footprint while providing a better environment for tendon healing. However, the anchor-based techniques have still not replicated the traditional open transosseous repair. A surgical technique that allows surgeons to perform a standardized arthroscopic transosseous (anchor free) repair of rotator cuff tears using a new disposable device is described. With this system, it is possible to perform a transosseous technique in a reproducible fashion. This novel technique combines the clinical advantages of minimally invasive arthroscopic surgery and the biomechanical advantages of open transosseous procedures. Level of evidence V.
Efficacy of pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with moderate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND
Pulmonary Rehabilitation for moderate Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in primary care could improve patients' quality of life.


METHODS
This study aimed to assess the efficacy of a 3-month Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) program with a further 9 months of maintenance (RHBM group) compared with both PR for 3 months without further maintenance (RHB group) and usual care in improving the quality of life of patients with moderate COPD.We conducted a parallel-group, randomized clinical trial in Majorca primary health care in which 97 patients with moderate COPD were assigned to the 3 groups. Health outcomes were quality of life, exercise capacity, pulmonary function and exacerbations.


RESULTS
We found statistically and clinically significant differences in the three groups at 3 months in the emotion dimension (0.53; 95%CI0.06-1.01) in the usual care group, (0.72; 95%CI0.26-1.18) the RHB group (0.87; 95%CI 0.44-1.30) and the RHBM group as well as in fatigue (0.47; 95%CI 0.17-0.78) in the RHBM group. After 1 year, these differences favored the long-term rehabilitation group in the domains of fatigue (0.56; 95%CI 0.22-0.91), mastery (0.79; 95%CI 0.03-1.55) and emotion (0.75; 95%CI 0.17-1.33). Between-group analysis only showed statistically and clinically significant differences between the RHB group and control group in the dyspnea dimension (0.79 95%CI 0.05-1.52). No differences were found for exacerbations, pulmonary function or exercise capacity.


CONCLUSIONS
We found that patients with moderate COPD and low level of impairment did not show meaningful changes in QoL, exercise tolerance, pulmonary function or exacerbation after a one-year, community based rehabilitation program. However, long-term improvements in the emotional, fatigue and mastery dimensions (within intervention groups) were identified.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
ISRCTN94514482.
The validation of a political model of information systems development cost estimating

Accurate estimation of information systems development costs is important to management. Political behavior may compromise the estimating process. This research sought to validate a political perspective of cost estimating. A survey of 116 information systems managers and analysts revealed that user management, user representatives, information systems managers, estimators, and developers had differing objectives with regard to the development of information systems. These differing objectives were linked with differing behaviors in the form of pressures to increase or decrease systems development cost estimates.
Projections of cancer prevalence in the United Kingdom, 2010–2040

Background:There are currently two million cancer survivors in the United Kingdom, and in recent years this number has grown by 3% per annum. The aim of this paper is to provide long-term projections of cancer prevalence in the United Kingdom.Methods:National cancer registry data for England were used to estimate cancer prevalence in the United Kingdom in 2009. Using a model of prevalence as a function of incidence, survival and population demographics, projections were made to 2040. Different scenarios of future incidence and survival, and their effects on cancer prevalence, were also considered. Colorectal, lung, prostate, female breast and all cancers combined (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) were analysed separately.Results:Assuming that existing trends in incidence and survival continue, the number of cancer survivors in the United Kingdom is projected to increase by approximately one million per decade from 2010 to 2040. Particularly large increases are anticipated in the oldest age groups, and in the number of long-term survivors. By 2040, almost a quarter of people aged at least 65 will be cancer survivors.Conclusion:Increasing cancer survival and the growing/ageing population of the United Kingdom mean that the population of survivors is likely to grow substantially in the coming decades, as are the related demands upon the health service. Plans must, therefore, be laid to ensure that the varied needs of cancer survivors can be met in the future.