LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Challenges of health measurement in studies of health disparities.

Health disparities are increasingly studied in and across a growing array of societies. While novel contexts and comparisons are a promising development, this commentary highlights four challenges to finding appropriate and adequate health measures when making comparisons across groups within a society or across distinctive societies. These challenges affect the accuracy with which we characterize the degree of inequality, limiting possibilities for effectively targeting resources to improve health and reduce disparities. First, comparisons may be challenged by different distributions of disease and second, by variation in the availability and quality of vital events and census data often used to measure health. Third, the comparability of self-reported information about specific health conditions may vary across social groups or societies because of diagnosis bias or diagnosis avoidance. Fourth, self-reported overall health measures or measures of specific symptoms may not be comparable across groups if they use different reference groups or interpret questions or concepts differently. We explain specific issues that make up each type of challenge and show how they may lead to underestimates or inflation of estimated health disparities. We also discuss approaches that have been used to address them in prior research, note where further innovation is needed to solve lingering problems, and make recommendations for improving future research. Many of our examples are drawn from South Africa or the United States, societies characterized by substantial socioeconomic inequality across ethnic groups and wide disparities in many health outcomes, but the issues explored throughout apply to a wide variety of contexts and inquiries.
Fluocinolone acetonide intravitreal implant for diabetic macular edema: a 3-year multicenter, randomized, controlled clinical trial.

PURPOSE
We studied the 3-year efficacy and safety results of a 4-year study evaluating fluocinolone acetonide (FA) intravitreal implants in eyes with persistent or recurrent diabetic macular edema (DME).


DESIGN
Prospective, evaluator-masked, controlled, multicenter clinical trial.


PARTICIPANTS
We included 196 eyes with refractory DME.


METHODS
Patients were randomized 2:1 to receive 0.59-mg FA implant (n = 127) or standard of care (SOC additional laser or observation; n = 69). The implant was inserted through a pars plana incision. Visits were scheduled on day 2, weeks 1, 3, 6, 12, and 26, and thereafter every 13 weeks through 3 years postimplantation.


MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The primary efficacy outcome was ≥15-letter improvement in visual acuity (VA) at 6 months. Secondary outcomes included resolution of macular retinal thickening and Diabetic Retinopathy Severity Score (DRSS). Safety measures included incidence of adverse events (AEs).


RESULTS
Overall, VA improved ≥3 lines in 16.8% of implanted eyes at 6 months (P=0.0012; SOC, 1.4%); in 16.4% at 1 year (P=0.1191; SOC, 8.1%); in 31.8% at 2 years (P=0.0016; SOC, 9.3%); and in 31.1% at 3 years (P=0.1566; SOC, 20.0%). The number of implanted eyes with no evidence of retinal thickening at the center of the macula was higher than SOC eyes at 6 months (P<0.0001), 1 year (P<0.0001; 72% vs 22%), 2 years (P=0.016), and 3 years (P=0.861). A higher rate of improvement and lower rate of decline in DRSS occurred in the implanted group versus the SOC group at 6 months (P=0.0006), 1 year (P=0.0016), 2 years (P=0.012), and 3 years (P=0.0207). Intraocular pressure (IOP) ≥30 mmHg was recorded in 61.4% of implanted eyes (SOC, 5.8%) at any time and 33.8% required surgery for ocular hypertension by 4 years. Of implanted phakic eyes, 91% (SOC, 20%) had cataract extraction by 4 years.


CONCLUSIONS
The FA intravitreal implant met the primary and secondary outcomes, with significantly improved VA and DRSS and reduced DME. The most common AEs included cataract progression and elevated IOP. The 0.59-mg FA intravitreal implant may be an effective treatment for eyes with persistent or recurrent DME.


FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE(S)
Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found after the references.
Gender, poverty and economic adjustment in Harare, Zimbabwe.


 This study examines the gender-differentiated effects of Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) on households in Zimbabwe during 1991. Interviews and focus groups were conducted among 120 randomly selected households in Kambuzuma, a densely populated suburb of Harare with mostly Black residents with a considerable range in income. Interviews were conducted in mid-1991 and reinterviews were conducted among 100 households in mid-1992. 40 semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted. Policy changes were partially instituted, and intensification of changes was planned during 1991-95. By 1992 debt servicing increased rather than decreased as planned. Adjustments were made in employment sectors, cost of living, and social services. Findings reveal that cost of living for lower-income urban families rose by 45%. Expenditures showed a real decline among the lowest 25% income group by 12.4%. Food expenditures declined by 15.4% in real income in the lowest income group and by only 3.4% in the highest income group. Food declines in male-headed households were 1.3% in real terms, but 13.4% in female-headed households, which were predominantly low-income households. The lowest-income households were found to cut back on absolute amounts of food consumed, as well as shifting to food with greater bulk and less protein. The mid-day meal among women and children was eliminated. Rents increased, as did transportation costs. Low-income and high-income (with 3-4 children) households had difficulty paying school fees. Out of the sample of 100, the number of households that could not afford to buy clothes increased from 6 to 28 during 1991-92. 89% of households were employed in 1991, but only 85% were employed in 1992. The number of second earners increased by 1%. Unemployment numbers and dependents rose. Women's income generating activities declined during 1991-92. Average monthly income from regular activities declined by 45% in real terms and declined for irregular activities by 23%. Real income, when increased cost of living was accounted for, declined by almost 25% for the whole sample. Mean monthly incomes declined by 15.9% for the top income group and 38% for the bottom 25% income group. The percentage of households in debt rose from 8% to 12%. The increase in household size as a coping strategy is confirmed. It is concluded that class-based inequities must be changed in order to improve the lives of both men and women that are affected by SAPs.
MLP yes! ILP no

Problem Description: It should be well known that processors are outstripping memory performance: specifically that memory latencies are not improving as fast as processor cycle time or IPC or memory bandwidth. Thought experiment: imagine that a cache miss takes 10000 cycles to execute. For such a processor instruction level parallelism is useless, because most of the time is spent waiting for memory. Branch prediction is also less effective, since most branches can be determined with data already in registers or in the cache; branch prediction only helps for branches which depend on outstanding cache misses. At the same time, pressures for reduced power consumption mount. Given such trends, some computer architects in industry (although not Intel EPIC) are talking seriously about retreating from out-of-order superscalar processor architecture, and instead building simpler, faster, dumber, 1-wide in-order processors with high degrees of speculation. Sometimes this is proposed in combination with multiprocessing and multithreading: tolerate long memory latencies by switching to other processes or threads. I propose something different: build narrow fast machines but use intelligent logic inside the CPU to increase the number of outstanding cache misses that can be generated from a single program. By MLP I mean simply the number of outstanding cache misses that can be generated (by a single thread, task, or program) and executed in an overlapped manner. It does not matter what sort of execution engine generates the multiple outstanding cache misses. An out-of-order superscalar ILP CPU may generate multiple outstanding cache misses, but 1-wide processors can be just as effective. Change the metrics: total execution time remains the overall goal, but instead of reporting IPC as an approximation to this, we must report MLP. Limit studies should be in terms of total number of non-overlapped cache misses on critical path. Now do the research: Many present-day hot topics in computer architecture help ILP, but do not help MLP. As mentioned above, predicting branch directions for branches that can be determined from data already in the cache or in registers does not help MLP for extremely long latencies. Similarly, prefetching of data cache misses for array processing codes does not help MLP – it just moves it around. Instead, investigate microarchitectures that help MLP: (0) Trivial case – explicit multithreading, like SMT. (1) Slightly less trivial case – implicitly multithread single programs, either by compiler software on an MT machine, or by a hybrid, such as …
A Bag-of-shapes descriptor for medical imaging

Document is unavailable: This DOI was registered to an article that was not presented by the author(s) at this conference. As per section 8.2.1.B.13 of IEEE's "Publication Services and Products Board Operations Manual," IEEE has chosen to exclude this article from distribution. We regret any inconvenience.
Engaging students with a mobile game-based learning system in university education

In this contribution we present a game-based learning concept which is based on mobile devices. It focuses a joyful stabilization of knowledge and the engagement of students using the Gamification approach and its game mechanics. Previous findings how to promote students' motivation are adapted in the mobile context and discussed. Steps for the realization of the concept in a university are described.
Software Architectures for Robotics Systems: A Systematic Mapping Study

Context: Software architecture related issues are important for robotic systems. Architecture-centric development and evolution of software for robotic systems has been attracting researchers’ attention for more than two decades. Objective: The objective of this work is to systematically identify, taxonomically classify and holistically map the existing solutions, research progress and trends that influence architecture-driven modeling, development and evolution of robotic software. Method: We carried out a Systematic Mapping Study (SMS) to identify and analyze the relevant literature based on 56 peer-reviewed papers. We extract and synthesize the data from selected papers to (i) taxonomically classify the existing research and (ii) systematically map the solutions, frameworks, notations and evaluation methods to highlight the role of software architecture in robotic systems. Results and Conclusions: We have identified eight distinct research themes that support architectural solutions to enable (i) operations, (ii) evolution and (iii) development specific activities of robotic software. The research in this area has progressed from object-oriented to component-based and now to servicedriven robotics representing different architectural generations. The reported solutions have exploited modeldriven, service-oriented and reverse engineering techniques since 2005. An emerging trend is cloud robotics that exploits the foundations of service-driven architectures to support an interconnected web of robots. The results of this SMS facilitate knowledge transfer – benefiting researchers and practitioners – focused on exploiting software architecture to model, develop and evolve robotic systems.
Vertebroplasty versus conservative treatment in acute osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (Vertos II): an open-label randomised trial

BACKGROUND
Percutaneous vertebroplasty is increasingly used for treatment of pain in patients with osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures, but the efficacy, cost-effectiveness, and safety of the procedure remain uncertain. We aimed to clarify whether vertebroplasty has additional value compared with optimum pain treatment in patients with acute vertebral fractures.


METHODS
Patients were recruited to this open-label prospective randomised trial from the radiology departments of six hospitals in the Netherlands and Belgium. Patients were aged 50 years or older, had vertebral compression fractures on spine radiograph (minimum 15% height loss; level of fracture at Th5 or lower; bone oedema on MRI), with back pain for 6 weeks or less, and a visual analogue scale (VAS) score of 5 or more. Patients were randomly allocated to percutaneous vertebroplasty or conservative treatment by computer-generated randomisation codes with a block size of six. Masking was not possible for participants, physicians, and outcome assessors. The primary outcome was pain relief at 1 month and 1 year as measured by VAS score. Analysis was by intention to treat. This study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00232466.


FINDINGS
Between Oct 1, 2005, and June 30, 2008, we identified 431 patients who were eligible for randomisation. 229 (53%) patients had spontaneous pain relief during assessment, and 202 patients with persistent pain were randomly allocated to treatment (101 vertebroplasty, 101 conservative treatment). Vertebroplasty resulted in greater pain relief than did conservative treatment; difference in mean VAS score between baseline and 1 month was -5·2 (95% CI -5·88 to -4·72) after vertebroplasty and -2·7 (-3·22 to -1·98) after conservative treatment, and between baseline and 1 year was -5·7 (-6·22 to -4·98) after vertebroplasty and -3·7 (-4·35 to -3·05) after conservative treatment. The difference between groups in reduction of mean VAS score from baseline was 2·6 (95% CI 1·74-3·37, p<0·0001) at 1 month and 2·0 (1·13-2·80, p<0·0001) at 1 year. No serious complications or adverse events were reported.


INTERPRETATION
In a subgroup of patients with acute osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures and persistent pain, percutaneous vertebroplasty is effective and safe. Pain relief after vertebroplasty is immediate, is sustained for at least a year, and is significantly greater than that achieved with conservative treatment, at an acceptable cost.


FUNDING
ZonMw; COOK Medical.
Comparing Computer versus Concrete Manipulatives in Learning 2D Geometry

This study compared the effect of computer versus concrete manipulatives for the learning of two-dimensional geometry. Participants were 93 4thand 5thgrade students. A pretest, treatment, and posttest experimental design was used. The pre and posttest consisted of a paper and pencil test of 24 two dimensional geometry questions, designed by the researcher. There were three treatment groups: computer, concrete, and control group. The computer groups solved computer-based Tangrams. The concrete group solved wooden Tangrams. The control group had no filler activity. Both computer and concrete groups improved significantly, the computer group slightly more, after the intervention. Fourth graders gained more in concrete situation, while fifth graders benefited more from the computer manipulatives. Boys and fifth graders gained more than girls and fourth graders respectively.
Surgically treated cervical myelopathy: a functional outcome comparison study between multilevel anterior cervical decompression fusion with instrumentation and posterior laminoplasty.

BACKGROUND CONTEXT
Multilevel cervical myelopathy can be treated with anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) or corpectomy via the anterior approach and laminoplasty via the posterior approach. Till date, there is no proven superior approach.


PURPOSE
To elucidate any potential advantage of one approach over the other with regard to clinical midterm outcomes in this study.


STUDY DESIGN
A prospective, 2-year follow-up of patients with cervical myelopathy treated with multilevel anterior cervical decompression fusion and plating and posterior laminoplasty.


PATIENT SAMPLE
In total, 116 patients were studied. Sixty-four patients underwent ACDF two levels and above or anterior cervical corpectomy and fusion one level and above. Fifty-two patients underwent posterior cervical surgery (laminoplasty C3-C6 and C3-C7).


OUTCOME MEASURES
Self-report measures: Japan Orthopedic Association (JOA) score, JOA recovery rate, visual analog scale for neck pain (VASNP), neck disability index (NDI), and American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) neurogenic symptom score (AAOS-NSS). Physiologic measures: range of motion (ROM) flexion and extension of neck. Functional measures: short-form 36 (SF-36) score comprising physical functioning, physical role function, bodily pain, general health, vitality, social role function, emotional role function, and mental health scales.


METHODS
Comparison of the JOA scores, JOA recovery rates, NDI scores, SF-36 scores, VASNP, and ROM preoperatively to 2 years. Chi-square and two-sided Student t tests were used to analyze the variables.


RESULTS
Posterior surgery took an hour shorter (p<.05) and had better improvement in JOA scores at early follow-up of 6 months (p=.025). Anterior surgery group had better improvement of NDI scores at early follow-up of 6 months (p=.024) and was associated with less blood loss intraoperatively compared with posterior surgery. There was no statistical difference between the two groups for JOA scores, JOA recovery rates, SF-36 quality-of-life scores, NDI, AAOS-NSS, VAS neck pain, and ROM at 2 years. Complications were higher for anterior surgery group: two hematoma postoperation, one vocal cord paresis, and one new onset C6/C7 dermatome numbness versus one dura leak in posterior surgery group.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study showed that patients with multilevel disease treated with laminoplasty do well and compare favorably with patients treated with an anterior approach. Notably, posterior surgery was associated with shorter operating time, better improvement in JOA scores at 6 months, and a tendency toward lesser complications. Posterior surgery was not associated with increased neck disability and neck pain at 2 years. Anterior surgery had better NDI improvement at early follow-up. There is a need for a larger study that is prospectively randomized with long-term follow-up before we can confidently advocate one approach over the other in the management of cervical myelopathy.
A 57-dB image band rejection CMOS G/sub m/-C polyphase filter with automatic frequency tuning for Bluetooth

A 7'h order polyphase g,-C IF filter with automatic frequency tuning, implemented in a 0.35pm CMOS process, is presented. The filter has a center frequency of 3MHz and a passband of 1MHz. The image band rejection is higher than 57dB, the stop band attenuation is at least 40dB. The in-band spurious free dynamic range is around 53dB. Onchip automatic frequency tuning provides more than 240% center frequency range (i.e., 1.6MHz-3.9MHz) of the filter. The filter is well suited for employment in the Bluetooth short-range radio.
FDIC Bank Management Simulation

The following paper describes research that the authors are currently conducting in the development of a large, complex bank management simulation. The simulation, to be called the FDIC Bank Management Simulation, will be a computer model of commercial banks competing against one another and other financial institutions in the economic marketplace.
Early rheumatoid arthritis: combination therapy with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs and low-dose glucocorticoids?

BACKGROUND Treatment of early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can ensure greater long-term benefit in terms of preventing irreversible radiographic damage and disability. Low-dose treatment with gluco corticoids in combination with diseasemodify ing antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) has been shown to be beneficial in the short-term treatment of patients with early RA, but longterm studies are needed to show whether this benefit is sustained.
Complex Learning in Bio-plausible Memristive Networks

The emerging memristor-based neuromorphic engineering promises an efficient computing paradigm. However, the lack of both internal dynamics in the previous feedforward memristive networks and efficient learning algorithms in recurrent networks, fundamentally limits the learning ability of existing systems. In this work, we propose a framework to support complex learning functions by introducing dedicated learning algorithms to a bio-plausible recurrent memristive network with internal dynamics. We fabricate iron oxide memristor-based synapses, with well controllable plasticity and a wide dynamic range of excitatory/inhibitory connection weights, to build the network. To adaptively modify the synaptic weights, the comprehensive recursive least-squares (RLS) learning algorithm is introduced. Based on the proposed framework, the learning of various timing patterns and a complex spatiotemporal pattern of human motor is demonstrated. This work paves a new way to explore the brain-inspired complex learning in neuromorphic systems.
The outcome of complex regional pain syndrome type 1: a systematic review.

UNLABELLED
The purpose of this systematic review was to examine the outcome of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) type 1. We searched MEDLINE, Embase, and PsycINFO for relevant studies and included 18 studies, with 3,991 participants, in this review. The following data were extracted: study details, measurement tools used, and rates or severity scores for the symptoms/signs of CRPS at baseline and follow-up, or in groups of patients with different disease durations. A quality assessment revealed significant limitations in the literature, with many studies using different diagnostic criteria. The 3 prospective studies demonstrated that for many patients, symptoms improve markedly within 6 to 13 months of onset. The 12 retrospective studies had highly heterogeneous findings, documenting lasting impairments in many patients. The 3 cross-sectional studies showed that rates of pain and sensory symptoms were highest among those with the longest duration of CRPS. Additionally, most studies showed that motor symptoms (stiffness and weakness) were the most likely to persist whereas sudomotor and vasomotor symptoms were the most likely to improve. Overall, this suggests that some CRPS patients make a good early recovery whereas others develop lasting pain and disability. As yet little is known about the prognostic factors that might differentiate between these groups.


PERSPECTIVE
We found evidence that many CRPS patients recover within 6 to 13 months, but a significant number experience some lasting symptoms, and some experience chronic pain and disability. The quality of the evidence was poor. Future research should examine the factors associated with recovery and identify those at risk of poor outcomes.