LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Characteristics and outcomes of cancer patients in European ICUs

INTRODUCTION
Increasing numbers of cancer patients are being admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), either for cancer-related complications or treatment-associated side effects, yet there are relatively few data concerning the epidemiology and prognosis of cancer patients admitted to general ICUs. The aim of this study was to assess the characteristics of critically ill cancer patients, and to evaluate their prognosis.


METHODS
This was a substudy of the Sepsis Occurrence in Acutely Ill Patients (SOAP) study, a cohort, multicentre, observational study that included data from all adult patients admitted to one of 198 participating ICUs from 24 European countries during the study period. Patients were followed up until death, hospital discharge or for 60 days.


RESULTS
Of the 3147 patients enrolled in the SOAP study, 473 (15%) had a malignancy, 404 (85%) had solid tumours and 69 (15%) had haematological cancer. Patients with solid cancers had the same severity of illness as the non-cancer population, but were older, more likely to be a surgical admission and had a higher frequency of sepsis. Patients with haematological cancer were more severely ill and more commonly had sepsis, acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome, and renal failure than patients with other malignancies; these patients also had the highest hospital mortality rate (58%). The outcome of all cancer patients was comparable with that in the non-cancer population, with a 27% hospital mortality rate. However, in the subset of patients with more than three failing organs, more than 75% of patients with cancer died compared with about 50% of patients without cancer (p = 0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
In this large European study, patients with cancer were more often admitted to the ICU for sepsis and respiratory complications than other ICU patients. Overall, the outcome of patients with solid cancer was similar to that of ICU patients without cancer, whereas patients with haematological cancer had a worse outcome.
Reply to Douglas Kellner's '9/11, Spectacles of terror and media manipulation' in Critical Discourse Studies, 1, 41-64)

This article responds to the analysis by Douglas Kellner of the way the Bush Administration has manipulated media coverage, especially coverage of the attacks of 11/9/01, to support an aggressive foreign policy. The writer is generally in agreement with the analysis, although the article makes posits five propositions: 1) there is nothing new in using terror and atrocity as a pretext for war, 2) the attacks and response reflects a deeply ingrained culture of violence, including within the USA, 3) the current conflict is profoundly theological in nature, 4) the discourse of the US Administration reveals a profound ignorance of the possible motivations of the attackers, and 5) the portrayal of the attacks and the response reveals the continuing atavistic appeal of violence. By way of conclusion, it is suggested that there needs to be an on-going commitment towards educating for a culture of peace and that developing a critique of militaristic discourse is one start to this. [This Abstact was not included in the published article].
Low-leakage SRAM Design with Dual Vt Transistors

This paper presents a method based on dual threshold voltage assignment to reduce the leakage power dissipation of SRAMs while maintaining their performance. The proposed method is based on the observation that the read and write delays of a memory cell in an SRAM block depend on the physical distance of the cell from the sense amplifier and the decoder. The key idea is thus to realize and deploy different types of six-transistor SRAM cells corresponding to different threshold voltage assignments for individual transistors in the cell. Unlike other techniques for low-leakage SRAM design, the proposed technique incurs no area or delay overhead. In addition, it results only in a slight change in the SRAM design flow. Finally, it improves the static noise margin under process variations. Experimental results show that this technique can reduce the leakage-power dissipation of a 64Kb SRAM by more than 35%.
Some Economics of 'Dangerous' Climate Change: Reflections on the Stern Review

The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change concluded that there can be “no doubt” the economic risks of business-as-usual climate change re “very severe” (Stern, 2006, p188). The total cost of climate change was estimated to be equivale nt to a one-off, permanent 5-20% loss in global mean per-capita consumption today. And the marginal damage cost of a tonne of carbon emitted today was estimated to be around $312 (p344). Both of the se estimates are higher than most reported in the previous literature. Subsequently, a number of crit iques have appeared, arguing that discounting is th e principal explanation for this discrepancy. Discoun ting is important, but in this paper we emphasise t hat how one approaches the economics of risk and uncert ainty, and how one attempts to model the very closely related issue of low-probability/high-damag e scenarios (which we connect to the recent discussion of ‘dangerous’ climate change), can matt er just as much. We demonstrate these arguments empirically, using the same models applied in the St rn Review. Together, the issues of risk and uncertainty on the one hand, and ‘dangerous’ climat e change on the other, raise very strongly question s about the limits of a welfare-economic approach, wh ere the loss of natural capital might be irreversib le and impossible to compensate. Thus we also critical ly reflect on the state-of-the-art in integrated assessment modelling. There will always be an imper ativ to carry out integrated assessment modelling, bringing together scientific ‘fact’ and value judge m nt systematically. But we agree with those cautioning against a literal interpretation of curr ent estimates. Ironically, the Stern Review is one of those voices. A fixation with cost-benefit analysis misses the point that arguments for stabilisation should, and are, built on broader foundations.
Augmented reality projects in the automotive and aerospace industries

The 2003 International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality was accompanied by a workshop on potential industrial applications. The organizers wisely called it potential because the real use of augmented reality (AR) in an industrial context is still in its infancy. Our own experience in this field clearly supports this viewpoint. We have been actively involved in the research, development, and deployment of AR systems in the automotive, aviation, and astronautics industries for more than five years and have developed and implemented AR systems in a wide variety of environments while working at DaimlerChrysler in Germany. In this article we have selected 10 AR projects from those we have managed and implemented in the past to examine the main challenges we faced and to share some of the lessons we learned.
Contrast coding in the electrosensory system: parallels with visual computation

To identify and interact with moving objects, including other members of the same species, an animal's nervous system must correctly interpret patterns of contrast in the physical signals (such as light or sound) that it receives from the environment. In weakly electric fish, the motion of objects in the environment and social interactions with other fish create complex patterns of contrast in the electric fields that they produce and detect. These contrast patterns can extend widely over space and time and represent a multitude of relevant features, as is also true for other sensory systems. Mounting evidence suggests that the computational principles underlying contrast coding in electrosensory neural networks are conserved elements of spatiotemporal processing that show strong parallels with the vertebrate visual system.
Yoga for improving sleep quality and quality of life for older adults.

CONTEXT
The aging process is associated with physiological changes that affect sleep. In older adults, undiagnosed and untreated insomnia may cause impaired daily function and reduced quality of life (QoL). Insomnia is also a risk factor for accidents and falls that are the main cause of accidental deaths in older adults and, therefore, is associated with higher morbidity and mortality rates in older populations.


OBJECTIVES
The research team aimed to (1) examine the efficacy of a yoga intervention (YI) for the treatment of insomnia in older adults, (2) determine the ability of yoga to enhance the QoL of older adults, and (3) establish the applicability of yoga practice for older people in a Western cultural setting.


DESIGN
A waiting-list controlled trial. Settings • The study took place in Jerusalem, Israel, from 2008-2009.


PARTICIPANTS
Participants were older men and women (age ≥ 60 y) with insomnia.


INTERVENTION
The YI group participated in 12 wk of classes, held 2 ×/wk, incorporating yoga postures, meditative yoga, and daily home practice of meditative yoga.


OUTCOME MEASURES
The study used self-report assessments of sleep quality using the following: (1) sleep quality-the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS), the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and daily sleep and practice logs; (2) mood states-the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale long form (DASS-42) and the Profile of Mood States short form (POMS-SF); (3) a health survey (SF-36); and (4) mobile at-home sleep studies.


RESULTS
Compared with controls, the YI group showed significant improvements in a range of subjective factors, including overall sleep quality; sleep efficiency; sleep latency and duration; self-assessed sleep quality; fatigue; general well-being; depression; anxiety; stress; tension; anger; vitality; and function in physical, emotional, and social roles.


CONCLUSIONS
Yoga was shown to be safe and improved sleep and QoL in a group of older adults with insomnia. Outcomes depended on practice compliance.
Gene order data from a model amphibian (Ambystoma): new perspectives on vertebrate genome structure and evolution

Because amphibians arise from a branch of the vertebrate evolutionary tree that is juxtaposed between fishes and amniotes, they provide important comparative perspective for reconstructing character changes that have occurred during vertebrate evolution. Here, we report the first comparative study of vertebrate genome structure that includes a representative amphibian. We used 491 transcribed sequences from a salamander (Ambystoma) genetic map and whole genome assemblies for human, mouse, rat, dog, chicken, zebrafish, and the freshwater pufferfish Tetraodon nigroviridis to compare gene orders and rearrangement rates. Ambystoma has experienced a rate of genome rearrangement that is substantially lower than mammalian species but similar to that of chicken and fish. Overall, we found greater conservation of genome structure between Ambystoma and tetrapod vertebrates, nevertheless, 57% of Ambystoma-fish orthologs are found in conserved syntenies of four or more genes. Comparisons between Ambystoma and amniotes reveal extensive conservation of segmental homology for 57% of the presumptive Ambystoma-amniote orthologs. Our analyses suggest relatively constant interchromosomal rearrangement rates from the euteleost ancestor to the origin of mammals and illustrate the utility of amphibian mapping data in establishing ancestral amniote and tetrapod gene orders. Comparisons between Ambystoma and amniotes reveal some of the key events that have structured the human genome since diversification of the ancestral amniote lineage.
Effect of self-referral on bone mineral density testing and osteoporosis treatment.

BACKGROUND
Despite national guidelines recommending bone mineral density screening with dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) in women aged 65 years and older, many women do not receive initial screening.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the effectiveness of health system and patient-level interventions designed to increase appropriate DXA testing and osteoporosis treatment through (1) an invitation to self-refer for DXA (self-referral); (2) self-referral plus patient educational materials; and (3) usual care (UC, physician referral).


RESEARCH DESIGN
Parallel, group-randomized, controlled trials performed at Kaiser Permanente Northwest (KPNW) and Kaiser Permanente Georgia (KPG).


SUBJECTS
Women aged 65 years and older without a DXA in past 5 years.


MEASURES
DXA completion rates 90 days after intervention mailing and osteoporosis medication receipt 180 days after initial intervention mailing.


RESULTS
From >12,000 eligible women, those randomized to self-referral were significantly more likely to receive a DXA than UC (13.0%-24.1% self-referral vs. 4.9%-5.9% UC, P<0.05). DXA rates did not significantly increase with patient educational materials. Osteoporosis was detected in a greater proportion of self-referral women compared with UC (P<0.001). The number needed to receive an invitation to result in a DXA in KPNW and KPG regions was approximately 5 and 12, respectively. New osteoporosis prescription rates were low (0.8%-3.4%) but significantly greater among self-referral versus UC in KPNW.


CONCLUSIONS
DXA rates significantly improved with a mailed invitation to schedule a scan without physician referral. Providing women the opportunity to self-refer may be an effective, low-cost strategy to increase access for recommended osteoporosis screening.
Uncovering Genes and Ploidy Involved in the High Diversity in Root Hair Density, Length and Response to Local Scarce Phosphate in Arabidopsis thaliana

Plant root hairs increase the root surface to enhance the uptake of sparingly soluble and immobile nutrients, such as the essential nutrient phosphorus, from the soil. Here, root hair traits and the response to scarce local phosphorus concentration were studied in 166 accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana using split plates. Root hair density and length were correlated, but highly variable among accessions. Surprisingly, the well-known increase in root hair density under low phosphorus was mostly restricted to genotypes that had less and shorter root hairs under P sufficient conditions. By contrast, several accessions with dense and long root hairs even had lower hair density or shorter hairs in local scarce phosphorus. Furthermore, accessions with whole-genome duplications developed more dense but phosphorus-insensitive root hairs. The impact of genome duplication on root hair density was confirmed by comparing tetraploid accessions with their diploid ancestors. Genome-wide association mapping identified candidate genes potentially involved in root hair responses tp scarce local phosphate. Knock-out mutants in identified candidate genes (CYR1, At1g32360 and RLP48) were isolated and differences in root hair traits in the mutants were confirmed. The large diversity in root hair traits among accessions and the diverse response when local phosphorus is scarce is a rich resource for further functional analyses.
FINITE ELEMENTS WITH LOCAL PROJECTION STABILIZATION FOR INCOMPRESSIBLE FLOW PROBLEMS

In this paper we review recent developments in the analysis of finite element methods for incompressible flow problems with local projection stabilization (LPS). These methods preserve the favourable stability and approximation properties of classical residual-based stabilization (RBS) techniques but avoid the strong coupling of velocity and pressure in the stabilization terms. LPS-methods belong to the class of symmetric stabilization techniques and may be characterized as variational multiscale methods. In this work we summarize the most important a priori estimates of this class of stabilization schemes developed in the past 6 years. We consider the Stokes equations, the Oseen linearization and the NavierStokes equations. Furthermore, we apply it to optimal control problems with linear(ized) flow problems, since the symmetry of the stabilization leads to the nice feature that the operations ”discretize” and ”optimize” commute. Mathematics subject classification: 65N06, 65B99.
Comparison of lifestyle-based and traditional cardiovascular disease prediction in a multiethnic cohort of nonsmoking women.

BACKGROUND
Healthy levels of lifestyle factors can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. However, except for smoking status, often considered a traditional risk factor, their effect on cardiovascular risk prediction is unclear.


METHODS AND RESULTS
We used a case-cohort design of postmenopausal nonsmokers in the multiethnic Women's Health Initiative Observational Study (1587 cases and 1808 subcohort participants) with a median follow-up of 10 years in noncases. Compared with nonsmokers with no other healthy lifestyle factors (healthy diet, recreational physical activity, moderate alcohol use, and low adiposity), the risk of cardiovascular disease was lower for each additional factor (hazard ratio for trend, 0.82; 95% confidence interval, 0.76-0.89), with a 45% reduction in risk with all factors (95% confidence interval, 0.36-0.84). When lifestyle factors were added to traditional risk factor models (variables from the Pooled Cohort and Reynolds risk scores), only recreational physical activity remained independently associated with the risk of cardiovascular disease. The addition of detailed lifestyle measures to traditional models showed a change in the integrated discrimination improvement and continuous net reclassification improvement (P<0.01 for both) but had little impact on more clinically relevant risk stratification measures.


CONCLUSIONS
Although lifestyle factors have important effects on cardiovascular disease risk factors and subsequent risk, their addition to established cardiovascular disease risk models does not result in clear improvement in overall prediction.
Teaching Air Pollution Effects on Plants

The Air Quality Learning and Demonstration Center (Learning Center) at the Arboretum at Penn State University encompasses nearly 0.30 ha of open land on a knoll overlooking the 150 ha arboretum [1]. It is ideally situated downwind of air pollution sources located in the geographic area that stretches from Chicago across the Ohio River Valley and into western Pennsylvania. Onsite, a teaching pavilion accommodates up to 80 people and is used for presentations and general discussions. A bioindicator garden provides an outdoor learning lab where air pollution-sensitive plants are grown and monitored for injury symptoms. In addition, open-top chambers are used to demonstrate ozone effects on plants by using a charcoal filter to reduce ambient ozone levels. We also have a Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP), Bureau of Air Quality, Monitoring Station at the site that provides air quality and meteorological data on a real-time basis.
Joint Sentiment and Emotion Classification with Integer Linear Programming

As two foundational tasks in sentiment analysis, sentiment classification and emotion classification have been considered separately and studied independently in the literature. In this paper, we put forward an Integer Linear Programming (ILP)-driven joint learning approach to leveraging the relationship between these two tasks. Empirical study verifies the appropriateness and effectiveness of our proposed approach to joint sentiment and emotion classification.
Real-time In Vivo Tissue Characterization with Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy during Transthoracic Lung Biopsy: A Clinical Feasibility Study.

PURPOSE
This study presents the first in vivo real-time tissue characterization during image-guided percutaneous lung biopsies using diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) sensing at the tip of a biopsy needle with integrated optical fibers.


EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
Tissues from 21 consented patients undergoing lung cancer surgery were measured intraoperatively using the fiber-optic platform capable of assessing various physical tissue properties highly correlated to tissue architecture and composition. In addition, the method was tested for clinical use by performing DRS tissue sensing during 11 routine biopsy procedures in patients with suspected lung cancer.


RESULTS
We found that water content and scattering amplitude are the primary discriminators for the transition from healthy lung tissue to tumor tissue and that the reliability of these parameters is not affected by the amount of blood at the needle tip. In the 21 patients measured intraoperatively, the water-to-scattering ratio yielded a 56% to 81% contrast difference between tumor and surrounding tissue. Analysis of the 11 image-guided lung biopsy procedures showed that the tissue diagnosis derived from DRS was diagnostically discriminant in each clinical case.


CONCLUSIONS
DRS tissue sensing integrated into a biopsy needle may be a powerful new tool for biopsy guidance that can be readily used in routine diagnostic lung biopsy procedures. This approach may not only help to increase the successful biopsy yield for histopathologic analysis, but may also allow specific sampling of vital tumor tissue for genetic profiling.
ioethanol from waste : Life cycle estimation of the greenhouse gas aving potential

This paper considers two alternative feedstocks for bioethanol production, both derived from household waste—Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) and Biodegradable Municipal Waste (BMW). Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been carried out to estimate the GHG emissions from bioethanol using these two feedstocks. An integrated waste management system has been considered, taking into account recycling of materials and production of bioethanol in a combined gasification/bio-catalytic process. For the functional unit defined as the ‘total amount of waste treated in the integrated waste management system’, the best option is to produce bioethanol from RDF—this saves up to 196 kg CO2 equiv. per tonne of MSW, compared to the current waste management practice in the UK. However, if the functional unit is defined as ‘MJ of fuel equiv.’ and bioethanol is compared with petrol on an equivalent energy basis, the results show that bioethanol from RDF offers no saving of GHG emissions compared to petrol. For example, for a typical biogenic carbon content in RDF of around 60%, the life cycle GHG emissions from bioethanol are 87 g CO2 equiv./MJ while for petrol they are 85 g CO2 equiv./MJ. On the other hand, bioethanol from BMW offers a significant GHG saving potential over petrol. For a biogenic carbon content of 95%, the life cycle GHG emissions from bioethanol are 6.1 g CO2 equiv./MJ which represents a saving of 92.5% compared to petrol. In comparison, bioethanol from UK wheat saves 28% of GHG while that from Brazilian sugar cane – the best performing bioethanol with respect to GHG emissions – saves 70%. If the biogenic carbon of the BMW feedstock exceeds 97%, the bioethanol system becomes a carbon sequester. For instance, if waste paper with the biogenic carbon content of almost 100% and a calorific value of 18 MJ/kg is converted into bioethanol, a saving of 107% compared to petrol could be per r s mo achieved. Compared to pa waste paper or eight time