LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Ligation of intersphincteric fistula tract (LIFT) to treat anal fistula: systematic review and meta-analysis

Sphincter-preserving approaches to treat anal fistula do not jeopardize continence; however, healing rates are suboptimal. In this context, ligation of the intersphincteric fistula tract (LIFT) can be considered promising offering high success rates and a relatively simple procedure. This review aimed to investigate the outcomes of LIFT to treat anal fistula. We conducted a systematic review of the Pubmed, Web of Science, and Cochrane databases, to retrieve all relevant scientific original articles and scientific abstracts (Web of Science) related to the LIFT procedure for anal fistula between January 2007 and March 2013. The search yielded 24 original articles including 1,110 patients; these included one randomized controlled study, three case control studies, and 20 case series. Most studies included patients with trans-sphincteric or complex fistula, not amenable to fistulotomy. During a pooled mean 10.3 months of follow-up, the mean success, incontinence, intraoperative, and postoperative complication rates were 76.4, 0, 0, and 5.5 %, respectively. A sensitivity analysis showed that the impact on success in terms of follow-up duration, study size, and combining other procedures was limited. There was no association between pre-LIFT drainage seton and success of LIFT. Ligation of the intersphincteric fistula tract appears to be an effective and safe treatment for trans-sphincteric or complex anal fistula. Combining other procedures and a pre-LIFT drainage seton does not seem to confer any added benefit in terms of success. However, given the lack of prospective randomized trials, interpretation of these data must be cautious. Further trials are mandatory to identify predictive factors for success, and true effectiveness of the LIFT compared to other sphincter-preserving procedures to treat anal fistula.
Capital accumulation, income distribution and endogenous fertility in an overlapping generations general equilibrium model.


 A study is conducted in attempts to increase the understanding of the links between macroeconomic effects and causes of population growth in formulating policy. An overlapping generations general equilibrium model is employed aggregating household decisions about fertility, savings, and investment in the human capital of children with the objective of studying intertemporal relationships among population growth, income distribution, inter-generation social mobility, skill composition of the labor force, and household income. As a result of endogenous fertility, the equilibrium path attains steady state from the second generation. Income tax transfer, child taxation, and social security taxation policies are also examined in the paper. A structural explanation is given for the inverse household income-child quantity and negative child quality-quantity relationships seen in developing countries. In a Cobb-Douglas economy, these relationships hold in the short-run, potentially working over the long-run in other economies. Overall, the model shows that group interests may hinder emergence of perfect capital markets with private initiatives. Where developing countries are concerned, these results have strong implications for population policy. A policy mix of building good quality schools, or subsidizing rural education, introducing a formal social security program, and providing high-yield, risk-free investments, banking, and insurance services to the poor is recommended.
Genetics: Interspecies systems biology (a.k.a. interspecies genetics)

The power of genetics in the worm, and in the bacteria that worms eat, is harnessed for a systems view of the effect of diet on a host organism.
Alopecia: evaluation and treatment

Hair loss is a very common complaint. Patients may describe increased shedding and diffuse or localized alopecia. The differential diagnosis of hair loss includes a number of disorders causing cicatricial or noncicatricial alopecias. This paper describes the clinical approaches and diagnostic tests that are useful in the evaluation of patients presenting with alopecia. It also reviews treatments for noncicatricial alopecias, including androgenetic alopecia, alopecia areata, and telogen effluvium, as well as cicatricial alopecias, including lichen planopilaris, its clinical variant frontal fibrosing alopecia, and discoid lupus erythematosus.
Hand splinting for poststroke spasticity: a randomized controlled trial.

PURPOSE
To determine the effect of volar and dorsal splinting on the spasticity of the wrist flexor muscles in patients who had stroke.


METHOD
Thirty-nine subjects were prospectively randomized to use a dorsal or volar splint or no splint (control group). All the patients underwent home-based exercise program, and the experimental groups used either dorsal or volar hand splints according to their distribution. The primary outcome measure was spasticity assessed clinically by the Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS) and electrophysiologically by H latency and Hmax:Mmax ratio of flexor carpi radialis. Secondary outcome measure was passive range of motion (PROM) of wrist extension.


RESULTS
Spasticity parameters (MAS, H latency, Hmax:Mmax ratio) and wrist PROM were not significantly different among the groups.


CONCLUSIONS
This study failed to demonstrate any statistically significant difference in spasticity or in wrist PROM of both the volar and dorsal splint groups. These splints could be recommended as part of an integrative approach without expecting a major clinical effect rather than as an alternative to other treatment.
The care of patients with varicose veins and associated chronic venous diseases: clinical practice guidelines of the Society for Vascular Surgery and the American Venous Forum.

The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) and the American Venous Forum (AVF) have developed clinical practice guidelines for the care of patients with varicose veins of the lower limbs and pelvis. The document also includes recommendations on the management of superficial and perforating vein incompetence in patients with associated, more advanced chronic venous diseases (CVDs), including edema, skin changes, or venous ulcers. Recommendations of the Venous Guideline Committee are based on the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) system as strong (GRADE 1) if the benefits clearly outweigh the risks, burden, and costs. The suggestions are weak (GRADE 2) if the benefits are closely balanced with risks and burden. The level of available evidence to support the evaluation or treatment can be of high (A), medium (B), or low or very low (C) quality. The key recommendations of these guidelines are: We recommend that in patients with varicose veins or more severe CVD, a complete history and detailed physical examination are complemented by duplex ultrasound scanning of the deep and superficial veins (GRADE 1A). We recommend that the CEAP classification is used for patients with CVD (GRADE 1A) and that the revised Venous Clinical Severity Score is used to assess treatment outcome (GRADE 1B). We suggest compression therapy for patients with symptomatic varicose veins (GRADE 2C) but recommend against compression therapy as the primary treatment if the patient is a candidate for saphenous vein ablation (GRADE 1B). We recommend compression therapy as the primary treatment to aid healing of venous ulceration (GRADE 1B). To decrease the recurrence of venous ulcers, we recommend ablation of the incompetent superficial veins in addition to compression therapy (GRADE 1A). For treatment of the incompetent great saphenous vein (GSV), we recommend endovenous thermal ablation (radiofrequency or laser) rather than high ligation and inversion stripping of the saphenous vein to the level of the knee (GRADE 1B). We recommend phlebectomy or sclerotherapy to treat varicose tributaries (GRADE 1B) and suggest foam sclerotherapy as an option for the treatment of the incompetent saphenous vein (GRADE 2C). We recommend against selective treatment of perforating vein incompetence in patients with simple varicose veins (CEAP class C(2); GRADE 1B), but we suggest treatment of pathologic perforating veins (outward flow duration ≥500 ms, vein diameter ≥3.5 mm) located underneath healed or active ulcers (CEAP class C(5)-C(6); GRADE 2B). We suggest treatment of pelvic congestion syndrome and pelvic varices with coil embolization, plugs, or transcatheter sclerotherapy, used alone or together (GRADE 2B).
A Comparison of Pivot Methods for Phrase-Based Statistical Machine Translation

We compare two pivot strategies for phrase-based statistical machine translation (SMT), namelyphrase translation and sentence translation . The phrase translation strategy means that we directly construct a phrase translation table (phrase-table) of the source and target language pair from two phrase-tables; one constructed from the source language and English and one constructed from English and the target language. We then use that phrase-table in a phrase-based SMT system. The sentence translation strategy means that we first translate a source language sentence into n English sentences and then translate these n sentences into target language sentences separately. Then, we select the highest scoring sentence from these target sentences. We conducted controlled experiments using the Europarl corpus to evaluate the performance of these pivot strategies as compared to directly trained SMT systems. The phrase translation strategy significantly outperformed the sentence translation strategy. Its relative performance was 0.92 to 0.97 compared to directly trained SMT systems.
3100 V, asymmetrical, gate turn-off (GTO) thyristors in 4H-SiC

A 2-mm/spl times/2-mm, 4H-SiC, asymmetrical npnp gate turn-off (GTO) thyristor with a blocking voltage of 3100 V and a forward current of 12 A is reported. This is the highest reported power handling capability of 37 kW for a single device in SiC. The 5-epilayer structure utilized a blocking layer that was 50 /spl mu/m thick, p-type, doped at about 7-9/spl times/10/sup 14/ cm/sup -3/. The devices were terminated with a single zone junction termination extension (JTE) region formed by ion-implantation of nitrogen at 650/spl deg/C. The device was able to reliably turn-on and turn-off 20 A (500 A/cm/sup 2/) of anode current with a turn-on gain (I/sub K//I/sub G, on/) of 20 and a turn-off gain (I/sub K//I/sub G, off/) of 3.3.
A Tutorial on the Cross-Entropy Method

The cross-entropy (CE) method is a new generic approach to combinatorial and multi-extremal optimization and rare event simulation. The purpose of this tutorial is to give a gentle introduction to the CE method. We present the CE methodology, the basic algorithm and its modifications, and discuss applications in combinatorial optimization and machine learning.
Ticagrelor Compared With Clopidogrel in Patients With Prior Lower Extremity Revascularization for Peripheral Artery Disease.

BACKGROUND
In patients with symptomatic peripheral artery disease with a history of limb revascularization, the optimal antithrombotic regimen for long-term management is unknown.


METHODS
The EUCLID trial (Examining Use of Ticagrelor In PAD) randomized 13 885 patients with peripheral artery disease to treatment with ticagrelor 90 mg twice daily or clopidogrel 75 mg daily. Patients were enrolled based on an abnormal ankle-brachial index ≤0.80 or a previous lower extremity revascularization. This analysis focuses on the 7875 (57%) patients enrolled based on the previous lower extremity revascularization criterion. Patients could not be enrolled within 30 days of most recent revascularization, and patients with an indication for dual antiplatelet therapy were excluded. The primary efficacy end point was a composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or ischemic stroke. The primary safety end point was major bleeding.


RESULTS
Patients with a previous revascularization had a mean age of 66 years, 73% were male, and the median baseline ankle-brachial index was 0.78. After adjustment for baseline characteristics, patients enrolled based on previous revascularization had similar rates of the primary composite end point (hazard ratio [HR] 1.10, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.98-1.23, P=0.12) and statistically significantly higher rates of myocardial infarction (HR 1.29, 95% CI 1.08-1.55, P=0.005) and acute limb ischemia (HR 4.23, 95% CI 2.86-6.25, P<0.001) when compared with patients enrolled based on ankle-brachial index criteria. No differences in ticagrelor- versus clopidogrel-treated patients were found for the primary efficacy end point (11.4% vs 11.3%; HR 1.01, 95% CI 0.88-1.15; P=0.90), all-cause mortality (9.2% vs 9.2%; HR 0.99, 95% CI 0.86-1.15; P=0.93), acute limb ischemia (2.5% vs 2.5%; HR 1.03, 95% CI 0.78-1.36; P=0.84), or major bleeding (1.9% vs 1.8%; HR 1.15, 95% CI 0.83-1.59; P=0.41). The median duration of follow-up was ≈30 months.


CONCLUSIONS
After adjustment for baseline characteristics, patients enrolled based on previous revascularization for peripheral artery disease had higher rates of myocardial infarction and acute limb ischemia, with similar composite rates of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, and stroke when compared with patients enrolled based on the ankle-brachial index criterion. No significant differences were found between ticagrelor and clopidogrel for reduction of cardiovascular or acute limb events.


CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION
URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01732822.
Adaptive neuro fuzzy controller for adaptive compliant robotic gripper

The requirement for new flexible adaptive grippers is the ability to detect and recognize objects in their environments. It is known that robotic manipulators are highly nonlinear systems, and an accurate mathematical model is difficult to obtain, thus making it difficult no control using conventional techniques. Here, a novel design of an adaptive neuro fuzzy inference strategy (ANFIS) for controlling input displacement of a new adaptive compliant gripper is presented. This design of the gripper has embedded sensors as part of its structure. The use of embedded sensors in a robot gripper gives the control system the ability to control input displacement of the gripper and to recognize particular shapes of the grasping objects. Since the conventional control strategy is a very challenging task, fuzzy logic based controllers are considered as potential candidates for such an application. Fuzzy based controllers develop a control signal which yields on the firing of the rule base. The selection of the proper rule base depending on the situation can be achieved by using an ANFIS controller, which becomes an integrated method of approach for the control purposes. In the designed ANFIS scheme, neural network techniques are used to select a proper rule base, which is achieved using the back propagation algorithm. The simulation results presented in this paper show the effectiveness of the developed method. 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
A RECONFIGURABLE SMART SENSOR INTERFACE FOR INDUSTRIAL WSN IN IOT ENVIRONMENT

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) has been employed to collect data about physical parameters in various applications such as Industrial monitoring. A ZigBee based monitoring systems is built on the basis of IOT technology in this work, using temperature/humidity sensors, moisture sensor, Gas sensor and water level sensor. Internet of Things (IoT) has attracted a lot of attention and is expected to bring benefits to numerous application areas including industrial WSN systems, and environmental systems for data acquisition for IoT representation. A sensor data acquisition system is an essential part of industrial automation control system. Our main concern in this research project is to establish connectivity and computing capability to all the sensors using Arduino and ARM cortex. A new method is proposed to design a reconfigurable data acquisition system for industrial sensors, in which Arduino and ARM Cortex is adopted as the core controllers. We use both dynamic system reconfiguration and static system reconfiguration in our design. Thus it can read data in parallel and in real time with high speed. This project introduces a wireless solution based on Zigbee and Internet protocol to manage the industrial units easily. Based on this approach, we design a smart industry system with the implementation of related software and hardware. Smart application system can connect the various units together and provide a unified interface for users to interact with the monitoring block. Some main features are listed such as smart sensor interface, lighting control, Fan control, Thermostat control, vibration monitoring, remote control, smart energy, security and safety. As with the development of the Internet, Internet of Things(IoT) based remote monitoring solutions for industry has been proposed.
Challenges in Urdu Text Tokenization and Sentence Boundary Disambiguation

Urdu is morphologically rich language with different nature of its characters. Urdu text tokenization and sentence boundary disambiguation is difficult as compared to the language like English. Major hurdle for tokenization is improper use of space between words, where as absence of case discrimination makes the sentence boundary detection a difficult task. In this paper some issues regarding both of these language processing tasks have been identified.
[Effects of the nutrition education program on self-efficacy, diet behavior pattern and cardiovascular risk factors for the patients with cardiovascular disease].

PURPOSE
This study examined the effects of a nutrition education program on self-efficacy, diet behavior pattern and cardiovascular risk factors for patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD).


METHOD
Sixty-four CVD subjects (37 experimental, 27 control) were recruited from a cardiac center, at a university hospital located in D city, Korea. All subjects attended a first heart camp where pretest measures were performed, and a second heart camp at 6 months for the posttest measures. During the 6 month study period, the experimental group was required to attend five monthly nutrition education sessions, while the control group received only routine outpatient follow-ups. Data were analyzed by chi(2)-test and independent t-test using the SPSSWIN 11.5 program.


RESULT
Group comparisons revealed that the experimental group had significantly more improved self-efficacy, frequency of food selection, gustation of salt, systolic blood pressure, and serum total-cholesterol compared to the control group.


CONCLUSION
A nutrition education program may be effective in improving self-efficacy, diet behavior pattern and cardiovascular risk factors for patients with cardiovascular disease.
Microstructural effects on the mechanical behavior of B-modified Ti-6Al-4V alloys

Small additions of B (60.4 wt.%) to Ti alloys refine the as-cast microstructure significantly and improve the alloys’ mechanical performance. In this work, tensile, fracture and fatigue properties of the as-cast and hot isostatically pressed Ti–6Al–4V alloy with 0, 0.05, 0.10 and 0.40 wt.% B additions have been examined, with particular emphasis on identifying the microstructural length scale (grain size vs. lath size) that controls the mechanical properties of these alloys. Microstructural observations indicate an order of magnitude reduction in the prior b grain size, d, as well as a significant reduction in the a lath size, k, with B additions. It was observed that d and k are correlated. With the refinement in the microstructure, the yield and ultimate tensile strengths, ry and ru respectively, increase whereas the fracture toughness, KIC, decreases. Application of the Rice–Knott–Ritchie model for quasi-brittle cleavage fracture indicates that the reduction in KIC with increasing B content is due primarily to the reduced k. Fatigue crack growth measurements show a gradual reduction in the threshold for fatigue crack propagation with ry ffiffiffi k p dependence. 2007 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Implementation and preliminary effectiveness of a real-time pain management smartphone app for adolescents with cancer: A multicenter pilot clinical study.

BACKGROUND
Pain in adolescents with cancer (12-18 years) is common and negatively impacts health-related quality of life (HRQL). The Pain Squad+ smartphone app, which provides adolescents with real-time pain self-management support, was developed to address this issue. This study evaluated the implementation of the app to inform a future randomized controlled trial (RCT) and obtain treatment effect estimates for pain intensity, pain interference, HRQL, and self-efficacy.


PROCEDURE
A one-group baseline/poststudy design with 40 adolescents recruited from two pediatric tertiary care centers was used. Baseline questionnaires were completed and adolescents used the app at least twice daily for 28 days, receiving algorithm-informed self-management advice depending on their reported pain. A nurse received alerts in response to sustained pain and contacted adolescents to assist in pain care. Poststudy questionnaires were completed. Descriptive analyses, with exploratory inferential testing conducted on health outcome data, were used to address study aims.


RESULTS
Most (40/52; 77%) eligible adolescents participated. Two participants withdrew participation. Intervention fidelity was impacted by technical difficulties (occurring for 15% of participants) and a prolonged time for nurse contact in the event of sustained pain. Adherence to pain reporting was 68.8 ± 38.1%. Outcome measure completion rates were high and the intervention was acceptable to participants. Trends in improvements in pain intensity, pain interference, and HRQL were significant, with effect sizes of 0.23-0.67.


CONCLUSIONS
Implementation of Pain Squad+ is feasible and the app appears to improve pain-related outcomes for adolescents with cancer. A multicenter RCT will be undertaken to examine app effectiveness.
AI Approaches to the Complexity of Legal Systems

This introduction presents the principles and fundamentals of the AICOL scientific initiative and in particular the main contributions of the current volume, underlining the interdisciplinary approach and the variety of adopted methodologies.
Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) improves pulmonary hypertension in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): a pilot study.

OBJECTIVES
It was previously shown that dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) reverses chronic hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension (PH) in rats, but whether DHEA can improve the clinical and hemodynamic status of patients with PH associated to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (PH-COPD) has not been studied whereas it is a very severe poorly treated disease.


PATIENTS AND METHODS
Eight patients with PH-COPD were treated with DHEA (200mg daily orally) for 3 months. The primary end-point was the change in the 6-minute walk test (6-MWT) distance. Secondary end-points included pulmonary hemodynamics, lung function tests and tolerance of treatment.


RESULTS
The 6-MWT increased in all cases, from 333m (median [IQR]) (257; 378) to 390m (362; 440) (P<0.05). Mean pulmonary artery pressure decreased from 26mmHg (25; 27) to 21.5mmHg (20; 25) (P<0.05) and pulmonary vascular resistance from 4.2UI (3.5; 4.4) to 2.6UI (2.5; 3.8) (P<0.05). The carbon monoxide diffusing capacity of the lung (DLCO % predicted) increased significantly from 27.4% (20.1; 29.3) to 36.4% (14.6; 39.6) (P<0.05). DHEA treatment did not change respiratory parameters of gas exchange and the 200mg per day of DHEA used was perfectly tolerated with no side effect reported.


CONCLUSION
DHEA treatment significantly improves 6-MWT distance, pulmonary hemodynamics and DLCO of patients with PH-COPD, without worsening gas exchange, as do other pharmacological treatments of PH (trial registration NCT00581087).