LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Exercise performance improves in patients with COPD due to respiratory muscle endurance training.

BACKGROUND
Impaired exercise tolerance is frequently observed in patients with COPD. Respiratory muscle endurance training (RMET) by means of normocapnic hyperpnea can be used to improve respiratory muscle function and probably exercise capacity. RMET is not applied on a large scale because complicated equipment is needed to maintain carbon dioxide homeostasis during hyperpnea, which can also be done by enlarging the dead space of the ventilatory system by breathing through a tube. Therefore, tube breathing might be a new, inexpensive method for home-based RMET. The aim of this study was to assess whether home-based RMET by means of tube breathing improves endurance exercise performance in patients with COPD.


METHODS
We randomized 36 patients with moderate-to-severe COPD to RMET by paced tube breathing (n = 18) or sham training (control, n = 18). Both groups trained twice daily for 15 min, 7 days per week, for 5 weeks.


RESULTS
Patients receiving RMET showed significant improvements in endurance exercise capacity (constant-load exercise on cycle ergometry; 18 min vs 28 min, p < 0.001), in perception of dyspnea (Borg score; 8.4 vs 5.4, p < 0.001), and respiratory muscle endurance capacity (sustainable inspiratory pressure; 25 cm H(2)O vs 31 cm H(2)O, p = 0.005). Quality of life (chronic respiratory disease questionnaire) also improved (78.7 to 86.6, p = 0.001). The control group showed no significant changes.


CONCLUSION
Home-based RMET by means of tube breathing leads to a significant improvement of endurance exercise capacity, a reduction in perception of dyspnea, and an improvement in quality of life in patients with moderate-to-severe COPD.
Black hole: A new heuristic optimization approach for data clustering

0020-0255/$ see front matter 2012 Elsevier Inc http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ins.2012.08.023 ⇑ Address: Islamic Azad University, Khoy Branch, E-mail addresses: hatamlou@iaukhoy.ac.ir, hatam Nature has always been a source of inspiration. Over the last few decades, it has stimulated many successful algorithms and computational tools for dealing with complex and optimization problems. This paper proposes a new heuristic algorithm that is inspired by the black hole phenomenon. Similar to other population-based algorithms, the black hole algorithm (BH) starts with an initial population of candidate solutions to an optimization problem and an objective function that is calculated for them. At each iteration of the black hole algorithm, the best candidate is selected to be the black hole, which then starts pulling other candidates around it, called stars. If a star gets too close to the black hole, it will be swallowed by the black hole and is gone forever. In such a case, a new star (candidate solution) is randomly generated and placed in the search space and starts a new search. To evaluate the performance of the black hole algorithm, it is applied to solve the clustering problem, which is a NP-hard problem. The experimental results show that the proposed black hole algorithm outperforms other traditional heuristic algorithms for several benchmark datasets. 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Firm Performance and Corporate Governance Through Ownership Structure : Evidence from Bangladesh Stock Market

This paper examines how corporate governance is practiced through ownership structure and how firm’s performance as well as its dividend payout policy is influenced by different ownership pattern. In doing so, this paper attempts to investigate the pattern of ownership mix and ownership concentration scenario towards sponsorship in Bangladesh, the relationship between the ownership structure and firm performance and finally the impact of ownership structure upon firm’s dividend payout policy. An analysis has been made as evidence taking all listed non-financing firms from the Dhaka Stock Exchange. There are several alternative corporate governance mechanisms, which may play an important role to improve firm’s performance. Here ownership structure has been considered as an effective tool of corporate governance. In this study, the relations between firm’s return and value with ownership variables along with firm’s specific variables controlling the industry effects have been examined. Using the data from two sample points of 2000 and 2003, it is shown that a large fraction of cross-sectional variation in performance, found in several studies, is explained by unobserved firm heterogeneity, rather than the shareholders holding. Our empirical results provide evidence that foreign holding is positively and significantly related to the firm performance as measured by firm’s holding period returns and Tobin’s Q, and the relationship is a monotonic one. We also provide empirical evidence that firms with high institutional ownership and firms with concentrated ownership pay high and less dividend payout respectively.
Not all patients want to participate in decision making

BACKGROUND: The Institute of Medicine calls for physicians to engage patients in making clinical decisions, but not every patient may want the same level of participation. OBJECTIVES: 1) To assess public preferences for participation in decision making in a representative sample of the U.S. population. 2) To understand how demographic variables and health status influence people’s preferences for participation in decision making. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS: A population-based survey of a fully representative sample of English-speaking adults was conducted in concert with the 2002 General Social Survey (N=2,765). Respondents expressed preferences ranging from patient-directed to physician-directed styles on each of 3 aspects of decision making (seeking information, discussing options, making the final decision). Logistic regression was used to assess the relationships of demographic variables and health status to preferences. MAIN RESULTS: Nearly all respondents (96%) preferred to be offered choices and to be asked their opinions. In contrast, half of the respondents (52%) preferred to leave final decisions to their physicians and 44% preferred to rely on physicians for medical knowledge rather than seeking out information themselves. Women, more educated, and healthier people were more likely to prefer an active role in decision making. African-American and Hispanic respondents were more likely to prefer that physicians make the decisions. Preferences for an active role increased with age up to 45 years, but then declined. CONCLUSION: This population-based study demonstrates that people vary substantially in their preferences for participation in decision making. Physicians and health care organizations should not assume that patients wish to participate in clinical decision making, but must assess individual patient preferences and tailor care accordingly.
Pharmaceutical care of elderly patients with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes mellitus: a randomized controlled trial

Background Care of the elderly with diabetes is more complicated than that for other age groups. The elderly and/or those with multiple comorbidities are often excluded from randomized controlled trials of treatments for diabetes. The heterogeneity of health status of the elderly also increases the difficulty in diabetes care; therefore, diabetes care for the elderly should be individualized. Motivated patients educated about diabetes benefit the most from collaborating with a multidisciplinary patient-care team. A pharmacist is an important team member by serving as an educator, coach, healthcare manager, and pharmaceutical care provider. Objective To evaluate the effects of pharmaceutical care on glycemic control of ambulatory elderly patients with type 2 diabetes. Setting A 421-bed district hospital in Nantou City, Taiwan. Method We conducted a randomized controlled clinical trial involving 100 patients with type 2 diabetes with poor glycemic control (HbA1c levels of ≥9.0 %) aged ≥65 years over 6 months. Participants were randomly assigned to a standard-care (control, n = 50) or pharmaceutical-care (intervention, n = 50) group. Pharmaceutical care was provided by a certified diabetes-educator pharmacist who identified and resolved drug-related problems and established a procedure for consultations pertaining to medication. The Mann–Whitney test was used to evaluate nonparametric quantitative data. Statistical significance was defined as P < 0.05. Main outcome measure The change in the mean HbA1c level from the baseline to the next level within 6 months after recruiting. Results Nonparametric data (Mann–Whitney test) showed that the mean HbA1c level significantly decreased (0.83 %) after 6 months for the intervention group compared with an increase of 0.43 % for the control group (P ≤ 0.001). Medical expenses between groups did not significantly differ (−624.06 vs. −418.7, P = 0.767). There was no significant difference in hospitalization rates between groups. Conclusion The pharmacist intervention program provided pharmaceutical services that improved long-term, safe control of blood sugar levels for ambulatory elderly patients with diabetes and did not increase medical expenses.
Randomized clinical trial evaluating mETDRS versus normal or high-density micropulse photocoagulation for diabetic macular edema.

PURPOSE
To compare modified Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (mETDRS) focal/grid laser photocoagulation with normal-density (ND-SDM) or high-density (HD-SDM) subthreshold diode-laser micropulse photocoagulation for the treatment diabetic macular edema (DME).


METHODS
A prospective, randomized, controlled, double-masked clinical trial with patients with previously untreated DME and best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) worse than 20/40 and better than 20/400. Patients were randomized to receive either mETDRS focal/grid photocoagulation (42 patients), ND-SDM (39 patients), or HD-SDM (42 patients). Before treatment and 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after treatment, all patients underwent ophthalmic examinations, BCVA, color fundus photography, fluorescein angiography, and optical coherence tomography (OCT).


RESULTS
At 12 months, the HD-SDM group had the best improvement in BCVA (0.25 logMAR), followed by the mETDRS group (0.08 logMAR), whereas no improvements were seen in the ND-SDM group (0.03 logMAR). All groups showed statistically significant progressive reduction of central macular thickness (CMT) throughout the study (P < 0.001). The HD-SDM group exhibited the greatest CMT reduction (154 μm), which was not significantly different from that of the mETDRS group (126 μm; P = 0.75).


CONCLUSIONS
At 1 year, the clinical performance of HD-SDM was superior to that of the mETDRS photocoagulation technique, according to the anatomic and functional measures of improvement used in this investigation. A rationale for this treatment modality as a preferable approach is suggested, and the precise role of subthreshold micropulse laser treatment may become more defined as experience grows, guided by optimized treatment guidelines and more comprehensive trials. (Clinicaltrials.gov number, NCT00552435.).
Examining the evidence about psychological treatments for chronic pain: Time for a paradigm shift?

NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in PAIN. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in PAIN, vol 154, Issue 10, 2013 DOI: 10.1016/j.pain.2013.05.049
Aging of the bony orbit: a three-dimensional computed tomographic study.

BACKGROUND
Facial aging is a dynamic process involving the aging of soft tissue and bony structures. The shape, size, and volume of the bony orbit have all been shown to change with increasing age.


OBJECTIVE
In this study, we demonstrate how specific bony aspects of the orbit change with age in both male and female subjects and what impact this may have on the techniques used in facial cosmetic surgery.


METHODS
Facial bone computed tomography (CT) scans were obtained from 60 white subjects (30 female, 30 male). Our study population consisted of 10 male and 10 female subjects in each of 3 age categories. Each CT scan underwent three-dimensional (3-D) reconstruction with volume rendering. Orbital aperture width was measured as a line drawn from the posterior lacrimal crest to the frontozygomatic suture. This line was then used as the x-axis from which the distance to the superior and inferior orbital rim at nine equal increments (labeled 10 to 90) was obtained. The orbital aperture area was also measured on each 3-D model. The Student t test was used to identify any trends between age groups.


RESULTS
The orbital aperture width and area in both our male and female subjects showed a significant increase with increasing age. There was a significant increase in height of the superior orbital rim medially in both genders, suggesting that the superior orbital rim receded with age in this region. The inferior orbital rim receded significantly laterally in our female population, while our male subjects had a recession of the entire inferior orbital rim.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that the bony elements of the orbit change dramatically with age, and this, coupled with soft tissue changes, can lead to the appearance of the aged eye and orbit.
In-Bed Catalytic Tar Reduction in a Dual Fluidized Bed Biomass Steam Gasifier

A nickel-enriched catalytic bed material was tested for tar reduction in a 100 kWth dual fluidized bed biomass steam gasifier. Gas composition and tar content were measured after the reactor and compared with data from gasification tests without a catalytic bed material. H2, CO, CO2, and CH4 contents in the product gas, as well as tar conversion rates, are reported for different amounts of catalytic active bed material and different operating conditions. Water conversions, gas yields, and lower heating values were calculated. The catalyst showed no noticeable deactivation in two tests of 30 and 45 h. These results obtained at the pilot scale represent an important intermediate step in preparing the technical breakthrough of dual fluidized bed biomass steam gasification.
Turn-taking cues in task-oriented dialogue

As interactive voice response systems become more prevalent and provide increasingly more complex functionality, it becomes clear that the challenges facing such systems are not solely in their synthesis and recognition capabilities. Issues such as the coordination of turn exchanges between system and user also play an important role in system usability. In particular, both systems and users have difficulty determining when the other is taking or relinquishing the turn. In this paper, we seek to identify turn-taking cues correlated with human–human turn exchanges which are automatically computable. We compare the presence of potential prosodic, acoustic, and lexico-syntactic turn-yielding cues in prosodic phrases preceding turn changes (smooth switches) vs. turn retentions (holds) vs. backchannels in the Columbia Games Corpus, a large corpus of task-oriented dialogues, to determine which features reliably distinguish between these three. We identify seven turn-yielding cues, all of which can be extracted automatically, for future use in turn generation and recognition in interactive voice response (IVR) systems. Testing Duncan’s (1972) hypothesis that these turn-yielding cues are linearly correlated with the occurrence of turn-taking attempts, we further demonstrate that, the greater the number of turn-yielding cues that are present, the greater the likelihood that a turn change will occur. We also identify six cues that precede backchannels, which will also be useful for IVR backchannel generation and recognition; these cues correlate with backchannel occurrence in a quadratic manner. We find similar results for overlapping and for non-overlapping speech. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Heart Rate Variability: Measures and Models

We focus on various measures of the fluctuations of the sequence of intervals between beats of the human heart, and how such fluctuations can be used to assess the presence or likelihood of cardiovascular disease. We examine sixteen such measures and their suitability for correctly classifying heartbeat records of various lengths as normal or revealing the presence of cardiac dysfunction, particularly congestive heart failure. Using receiver-operating-characteristic analysis we demonstrate that scale-dependent measures prove substantially superior to scale-independent ones. The wavelet-transform standard deviation at a scale near 32 heartbeat intervals, and its spectral counterpart near 1/32 cycles/interval, turn out to provide reliable results using heartbeat records just minutes long. We further establish for all subjects that the human heartbeat has an underlying stochastic origin rather than arising from a chaotic attractor. Finally, we develop a mathematical point process that emulates the human heartbeat time series for both normal subjects and heart-failure patients.
Relationships between design patterns

The catalogue of design patterns from [Gamm94] contains about twenty design patterns and their mutual relationships. In this paper, we organize these relationships into different categories and revise the design patterns and their relationships. We are then able to arrange the design patterns in different layers. The results simplify the understanding of the overall structure of the catalogue, thereby making it easier to classify other design patterns, and to apply these design patterns to software development.
Stereotactic management of congenital midline cysts

The treatment of congenital midline cysts remains a controversial issue. The Stereotactic management of 27 patients (6 symptomatic cavum septi pellucidi/cavum Vergae, 6 suprasellar cysts, 5 intraventricular cysts, 4 parasagittal cysts, and 6 supracollicular cysts) is reviewed. In 23 patients Stereotactic ventriculo-cystostomy by catheter implantation (internal drainage) led to clinical recovery or improvement accompanied by decreased cyst size. In four patients the internal drainage was not sufficient and was therefore completed as a ventriculo-atrial shunt system. Three minor complications (bleeding, aseptic meningitis, catheter infection) led to no sequelae. The results suggest that Stereotactic internal drainage of these benign lesions is a safe, minimally invasive and efficient procedure.
A 5G V2X testbed for cooperative automated driving

Ensuring low-latency and highly reliable communication between vehicles is one of the goals of 5G. We present a 5G Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) wireless testbed based on flexible and re-configurable software defined radio that is designed for cooperative automated driving. The use-cases and communication requirements for cooperative automated driving are discussed to motivate the system design and technical enablers that can achieve the most stringent link-level communication requirements of cooperative autonomous driving. The key building blocks include a re-configurable RF front-end, optimized base-band processing on standard Intel CPUs and a custom-built high-power external RF subsystem. The technical enablers include a new OFDM-like waveform based on Pulse-shaping, a flexible and self-contained frame-structure design, GNSS-aided hybrid synchronization and low-latency scheduled multiple-access. We finally present some experimental results from lab measurements.
The DESIR cohort: a 10-year follow-up of early inflammatory back pain in France: study design and baseline characteristics of the 708 recruited patients.

OBJECTIVES
The French Society of Rheumatology has initiated a large national multicenter, longitudinal, prospective follow-up of patients presenting with early inflammatory back pain in order to set up a database to facilitate several investigations on diagnosis, prognosis, epidemiology, pathogenesis and medico-economics in the field of early inflammatory back pain and spondyloarthritis.


METHODS
Patients were recruited if they had inflammatory back pain of more than 3 months and less than 3 years. Patients will be followed every 6 months during the first 2 years then every year during at least 5years. Apart from information collected on a Case Report Form (demographics, disease activity, severity, co-morbidities, socio-economics, treatments, radiological and MRI evaluation of the spine and the pelvis according to the local investigators, and for some centers bone densitometry and ultrasonography of entheses), the digital X-rays and MRI of the spine and pelvis are stored using a specific software (Carestream) and the biological samples (DNA, RNA, sera, urines) are centralized at the Biological Resources Center (Bichat Hospital).


RESULTS
The recruitment period of the 708 patients (mean age: 34±9years, female 54%, HLA-B27 positive: 57%) in the 25 centers was 26 months (from December 2007 to April 2010). The modified New York criteria, Amor criteria, ESSG criteria and axial ASAS criteria were fulfilled by 26%, 77%, 76% and 67% of the patients at entry, respectively. A history or current symptoms suggestive of peripheral arthritis, acute anterior uveitis and inflammatory bowel disease were observed in 21%, 9% and 4% of the patients, respectively. The disease was active (BASDAI: 45±20) despite an NSAID intake in 66% of the patients.


CONCLUSION
This large cohort should facilitate the conduct of researches in different areas (clinical, medico-economics, translational) in order to improve our knowledge on the pathogenesis and natural history of axial spondyloarthritis.
Smart grid sensor data collection, communication, and networking: a tutorial

The smart grid is an innovative energy network that will improve the conventional electrical grid network to be more reliable, cooperative, responsive, and economical. Within the context of the new capabilities, advanced data sensing, communication, and networking technology will play a significant role in shaping the future of the smart grid. The smart grid will require a flexible and efficient framework to ensure the collection of timely and accurate information from various locations in power grid to provide continuous and reliable operation. This article presents a tutorial on the sensor data collection, communications, and networking issues for the smart grid. First, the applications of data sensing in the smart grid are reviewed. Then, the requirements for data sensing and collection, the corresponding sensors and actuators, and the communication and networking architecture are discussed. The communication technologies and the data communication network architecture and protocols for the smart grid are described. Next, different emerging techniques for data sensing, communications, and sensor data networking are reviewed. The issues related to security of data sensing and communications in the smart grid are then discussed. To this end, the standardization activities and use cases related to data sensing and communications in the smart grid are summarized. Finally, several open issues and challenges are outlined. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Contextual correlates of synonymy

Experimentol corroboration was obtained for the hypothesis that the proportion of words common to the contexts of word A and to the contexts of word B is a function of the degree to which A and B are similar in meaning. The tests were carried out for variously defined contexts. The shapes of the functions, however, indicate that similarity of context is reliable as criterion only for detecting pairs of words that are very similar in meaning.