LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Voice activity detection with noise reduction and long-term spectral divergence estimation

The paper mainly focusses on an improved voice activity detection algorithm employing long-term signal processing and maximum spectral component tracking. The benefits of this approach have been analyzed in a previous work (Ramirez, J. et al., Proc. EUROSPEECH 2003, p.3041-4, 2003) with clear improvements in speech/non-speech discriminability and speech recognition performance in noisy environments. Two clear aspects are now considered. The first one, which improves the performance of the VAD in low noise conditions, considers an adaptive length frame window to track the long-term spectral components. The second one reduces misclassification errors in highly noisy environments by using a noise reduction stage before the long-term spectral tracking. Experimental results show clear improvements over different VAD methods in speech/pause discrimination and speech recognition performance. Particularly, improvements in recognition rate were reported when the proposed VAD replaced the VADs of the ETSI advanced front-end (AFE) for distributed speech recognition (DSR).
Whole-body high-field MRI shows no skeletal muscle degeneration in young patients with recessive myotonia congenita.

BACKGROUND
Muscle magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the most sensitive method in the detection of dystrophic and non-dystrophic abnormalities within striated muscles. We hypothesized that in severe myotonia congenita type Becker muscle stiffness, prolonged transient weakness and muscle hypertrophy might finally result in morphologic skeletal muscle alterations reflected by MRI signal changes.


AIM OF THE STUDY
To assess dystrophic and/or non-dystrophic alterations such as fatty or connective tissue replacement and muscle edema in patients with severe recessive myotonia congenita.


METHODS
We studied three seriously affected patients with myotonia congenita type Becker using multisequence whole-body high-field MRI. All patients had molecular genetic testing of the muscle chloride channel gene (CLCN1).


RESULTS
Molecular genetic analyses demonstrated recessive CLCN1 mutations in all patients. Two related patients were compound heterozygous for two novel CLCN1 mutations, Q160H and L657P. None of the patients showed skeletal muscle signal changes indicative of fatty muscle degeneration or edema. Two patients showed muscle bulk hypertrophy of thighs and calves in line with the clinical appearance.


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that (i) chloride channel dysfunction alone does not result in skeletal muscle morphologic changes even in advanced stages of myotonia congenita, and (ii) MRI skeletal muscle alterations in myotonic dystrophy must be clear consequences of the dystrophic disease process.
Pregnant women’s knowledge of weight, weight gain, complications of obesity and weight management strategies in pregnancy

Obesity is increasingly common in the obstetric population. Maternal obesity and excess gestational weight gain (GWG) are associated with increased perinatal risk. There is limited published data demonstrating the level of pregnant women’s knowledge regarding these problems, their consequences and management strategies. We aimed to assess the level of knowledge of pregnant women regarding: (i) their own weight and body mass index (BMI) category, (ii) awareness of guidelines for GWG, (iii) concordance of women’s own expectations with guidelines, (iv) knowledge of complications associated with excess GWG, and (v) knowledge of safe weight management strategies in pregnancy. 364 pregnant women from a single center university hospital antenatal clinic were interviewed by an obstetric registrar. The women in this convenience sample were asked to identify their weight category, their understanding of the complications of obesity and excessive GWG in pregnancy and safe and/or effective weight management strategies in pregnancy. Nearly half (47.8%) of the study population were overweight or obese. 74% of obese women underestimated their BMI category. 64% of obese women and 40% of overweight women overestimated their recommended GWG. Women’s knowledge of the specific risks associated with excess GWG or maternal obesity was poor. Women also reported many incorrect beliefs about safe weight management in pregnancy. Many pregnant women have poor knowledge about obesity, GWG, their consequences and management strategies. Bridging this knowledge gap is an important step towards improving perinatal outcomes for all pregnant women, especially those who enter pregnancy overweight or obese.
Twelve-year prevalence of common neonatal congenital malformations in Zhejiang Province, China.

BACKGROUND
One of the challenges that pediatricians face when examining birth defects is to understand the trends in its occurrence and provide clues to etiology. This study was undertaken to retrospectively assess the prevalence of 10 common neonatal congenital malformations by reviewing a database of all deliveries from 28 weeks up until 7 days of birth from January 1998 to December 2009 in Zhejiang Province, China.


METHODS
Ten common neonatal congenital malformations were selected for analysis. The incidence and the Cochran-Armitage Trend were assessed via SAS9.2. A P value ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant.


RESULTS
Of 83 888 perinatals, 374 (4.46‰) suffered from congenital heart diseases (CHD), 77 (0.92‰) from congenital hydrocephalus, 32 (0.38‰) from intestinal atresia/stenosis, 36 (0.43‰) from anorectal malformations, 149 (1.78‰) from kidney malformations, 139 (3.31‰) from hypospadias (male), 178 (2.12‰) from orofacial clefts (OFC), 188 (2.24‰) from polydactyly, 62 (0.74‰) from syndactyly, and 269 (3.21‰) from accessory auricle anomaly. Their trend of prevalence varied as follows: CHD, P=0.0026; hydrocephalus, P=0.0042; intestinal atresia/stenosis, P=0.0103; anorectal malformations, P=0.4332; kidney malformations, P<0.0001; hypospadias, P=0.0021; OFC, P=0.005; polydactyly, P=0.0867; syndactyly, P=0.1941; and accessory auricle anomaly, P=0.0011. The upward trend was as follows: CHD (P=0.0026), intestinal atresia/stenosis (P=0.0103), kidney malformations (P<0.0001), hypospadias (P=0.0021), OFC (P=0.005), and accessory auricle anomaly (P=0.0011). The incidence of hydrocephalus (P=0.0042) showed a downward trend. No statistical significant trend was found in anorectal malformations (P=0.4332), polydactyly (P=0.0867) and syndactyly (P=0.1941).


CONCLUSIONS
The incidences of CHD, intestinal atresia/stenosis, kidney malformations, hypospadias, OFC, and accessory auricle anomaly have increased in the last 12 years, but the incidences of anorectal malformations, polydactyly and syndactyly remain stable. The incidence of hydrocephalus shows a downward trend.
Complex endodontic treatment of an immature type III dens invaginatus. A case report.

AIM
To report the endodontic treatment of an immature maxillary central incisor with dens invaginatus.


SUMMARY
Dens invaginatus is a rare malformation of teeth, probably resulting from an infolding of the dental papilla during tooth development. The present case describes the complex endodontic treatment of a type III dens invaginatus in an immature maxillary central incisor with a necrotic pulp and abscess formation. The initial treatment goal was to achieve apexification of the pseudocanal root and conservative root canal treatment in the main canal. Following 1-year of treatment with calcium hydroxide dressings, radiography revealed a healing response, but no sign of a hard tissue barrier at the apex. Periapical surgery with the placement of a zinc oxide cement (IRM) root-end filling was considered successful at the 4-year follow-up.


KEY LEARNING POINTS
The complexity of the canal system and open apex in dens invaginatus present a challenge to endodontic treatment. Correct diagnosis and treatment planning are fundamental to treatment of dens invaginatus. Periapical surgery is indicated in cases of unsuccessful apexification in immature teeth with dens invaginatus and nonvital pulp.
Phase II study on the efficacy and safety of Lapatinib administered beyond disease progression and combined with vinorelbine in HER-2/neu– positive advanced breast cancer: results of the CECOG LaVie trial

Vinorelbine constitutes effective chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer (MBC) and acts synergistically with trastuzumab in HER-2/neu positive disease. The present study was set out to evaluate the efficacy and safety of vinorelbine when combined with lapatinib, an anti-HER2 tyrosine-kinase inhibitor, as late-line regimen administered beyond previous disease progression on prior lapatinib in patients with HER-2/neu- positive MBC. The CECOG LaVie study was designed as open-labeled, single-arm, multicenter phase II trial. Patients had to be pretreated with lapatinib plus chemotherapy, and received lapatinib at a daily dose of 1250 mg in combination with vinorelbine 20 mg/m2 i.v. on days 1 and 8 of a three-week cycle until disease progression, intolerable toxicity or withdrawal of consent. Progression-free survival (PFS) was defined as primary study endpoint; secondary endpoints included overall survival (OS), response rate according to RECIST 1.1, and safety. The study was terminated early due to poor accrual. A total number of nine patients were included; lapatinib administered beyond disease progression combined with vinorelbine resulted in a median PFS of 7.7 months (95 % CI 0.56-14.91) and a median OS of 23.4 months (95 % CI 16.61–30.13), respectively. Partial remission was seen in one of nine patients, three patients had stable disease of > six months, whereas the remaining five patients had primary disease progression. In two patients, modification of vinorelbine dose due to toxicity became necessary; no dose modification was needed for lapatinib. The majority of reported adverse events (AE) were grade 1 and 2 in severity with diarrhea being the most commonly observed AE In this heavily pretreated patient population, combination of vinorelbine plus lapatinib showed encouraging activity and was characterized by an acceptable safety profile. Despite the low patient number, lapatinib plus vinorelbine may constitute a potential treatment option in heavily pretreated patients with HER-2/neu-positive MBC previously exposed to lapatinib. EudraCT number 2009-016826-15 , (15. 10.2009)
Sub-Sampled Newton Methods I: Globally Convergent Algorithms

Large scale optimization problems are ubiquitous in machine learning and data analysis and there is a plethora of algorithms for solving such problems. Many of these algorithms employ sub-sampling, as a way to either speed up the computations and/or to implicitly implement a form of statistical regularization. In this paper, we consider second-order iterative optimization algorithms, i.e., those that use Hessian as well as gradient information, and we provide bounds on the convergence of the variants of Newton’s method that incorporate uniform sub-sampling as a means to estimate the gradient and/or Hessian. Our bounds are non-asymptotic, i.e., they hold for finite number of data points in finite dimensions for finite number of iterations. In addition, they are quantitative and depend on the quantities related to the problem, i.e., the condition number. However, our algorithms are global and are guaranteed to converge from any initial iterate. Using random matrix concentration inequalities, one can sub-sample the Hessian in a way that the curvature information is preserved. Our first algorithm incorporates such sub-sampled Hessian while using the full gradient. We also give additional convergence results for when the sub-sampled Hessian is regularized by modifying its spectrum or ridge-type regularization. Next, in addition to Hessian sub-sampling, we also consider sub-sampling the gradient as a way to further reduce the computational complexity per iteration. We use approximate matrix multiplication results from randomized numerical linear algebra (RandNLA) to obtain the proper sampling strategy. In all these algorithms, computing the update boils down to solving a large scale linear system, which can be computationally expensive. As a remedy, for all of our algorithms, we also give global convergence results for the case of inexact updates where such linear system is solved only approximately. This paper has a more advanced companion paper [42] in which we demonstrate that, by doing a finer-grained analysis, we can get problem-independent bounds for local convergence of these algorithms and explore tradeoffs to improve upon the basic results of the present paper. ∗International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley, CA 94704 and Department of Statistics, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720. farbod/mmahoney@stat.berkeley.edu.
A configurable method for multi-style license plate recognition

Article history: Received 12 July 2007 Received in revised form 7 July 2008 Accepted 13 August 2008
Automatic detection and correction of purple fringing artifacts through a window based approach

The present paper discloses a technique to reduce purple fringing artifacts from images, working in the YCrCb domain. This algorithm, which addresses the segment of smart phones and digital cameras, is window based, thus having reduced memory requirements. Purple fringes are corrected in a gradual way, without producing an excessive reduction of saturation.
High-dose-rate monotherapy: safe and effective brachytherapy for patients with localized prostate cancer.

PURPOSE
High-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy used as the only treatment (monotherapy) for early prostate cancer is consistent with current concepts in prostate radiobiology, and the dose is reliably delivered in a prospectively defined anatomic distribution that meets all the requirements for safe and effective therapy. We report the disease control and toxicity of HDR monotherapy from California Endocurietherapy (CET) and William Beaumont Hospital (WBH) in low- and intermediate-risk prostate cancer patients.


METHODS AND MATERIALS
There were 298 patients with localized prostate cancer treated with HDR monotherapy between 1996 and 2005. Two biologically equivalent hypofractionation protocols were used. At CET the dose was 42 Gy in six fractions (two implantations 1 week apart) delivered to a computed tomography-defined planning treatment volume. At WBH the dose was 38 Gy in four fractions (one implantation) based on intraoperative transrectal ultrasound real-time treatment planning. The bladder, urethral, and rectal dose constraints were similar. Toxicity was scored with the National Cancer Institute Common Toxicity Criteria for Adverse Events version 3.


RESULTS
The median follow-up time was 5.2 years. The median age of the patients was 63 years, and the median value of the pretreatment prostate-specific antigen was 6.0 ng/mL. The 8-year results were 99% local control, 97% biochemical control (nadir +2), 99% distant metastasis-free survival, 99% cause-specific survival, and 95% overall survival. Toxicity was scored per event, meaning that an individual patient with more than one symptom was represented repeatedly in the morbidity data table. Genitourinary toxicity consisted of 10% transient Grade 2 urinary frequency or urgency and 3% Grade 3 episode of urinary retention. Gastrointestinal toxicity was <1%.


CONCLUSIONS
High disease control rates and low morbidity demonstrate that HDR monotherapy is safe and effective for patients with localized prostate cancer.
Wide-band antenna element with integrated balun

A wide-band antenna element with an integrated balun has been successfully developed. This element will be used in the OSMA demonstrator array. The measured and predicted bandwidth of an isolated balun is 4:1 for a return loss lower than -18 dB (VSWR 1.3:1). For an antenna element with integrated balun a VSWR of 2:1 is achieved over an octave bandwidth. A VSWR< 2.7:1 was measured over a frequency band of 4:1.
Innovations on a shoestring: a study of a collaborative community-based Aboriginal mental health service model in rural Canada

BACKGROUND
Collaborative, culturally safe services that integrate clinical approaches with traditional Aboriginal healing have been hailed as promising approaches to ameliorate the high rates of mental health problems in Aboriginal communities in Canada. Overcoming significant financial and human resources barriers, a mental health team in northern Ontario is beginning to realize this ideal. We studied the strategies, strengths and challenges related to collaborative Aboriginal mental health care.


METHODS
A participatory action research approach was employed to evaluate the Knaw Chi Ge Win services and their place in the broader mental health system. Qualitative methods were used as the primary source of data collection and included document review, ethnographic interviews with 15 providers and 23 clients; and 3 focus groups with community workers and managers.


RESULTS
The Knaw Chi Ge Win model is an innovative, community-based Aboriginal mental health care model that has led to various improvements in care in a challenging rural, high needs environment. Formal opportunities to share information, shared protocols and ongoing education support this model of collaborative care. Positive outcomes associated with this model include improved quality of care, cultural safety, and integration of traditional Aboriginal healing with clinical approaches. Ongoing challenges include chronic lack of resources, health information and the still cursory understanding of Aboriginal healing and outcomes.


CONCLUSIONS
This model can serve to inform collaborative care in other rural and Indigenous mental health systems. Further research into traditional Aboriginal approaches to mental health is needed to continue advances in collaborative practice in a clinical setting.
Comparative Study on DFD to UML Diagrams Transformations

Most of legacy systems use nowadays were modeled and documented using structured approach. Expansion of these systems in terms of functionality and maintainability requires shift towards object-oriented documentation and design, which has been widely accepted by the industry. In this paper, we present a survey of the existing Data Flow Diagram (DFD) to Unified Modeling language (UML) transformation techniques. We analyze transformation techniques using a set of parameters, identified in the survey. Based on identified parameters, we present an analysis matrix, which describes the strengths and weaknesses of transformation techniques. It is observed that most of the transformation approaches are rule based, which are incomplete and defined at abstract level that does not cover in depth transformation and automation issues. Transformation approaches are data centric, which focuses on datastore for class diagram generation. Very few of the transformation techniques have been applied on case study as a proof of concept, which are not comprehensive and majority of them are partially automated. Keywords-Unified Modeling Language (UML); Data Flow Diagram (DFD); Class Diagram; Model Transformation.
Effect of the dialysis fluid buffer on peritoneal membrane function in children.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Double-chamber peritoneal dialysis fluids exert less toxicity by their neutral pH and reduced glucose degradation product content. The role of the buffer compound (lactate and bicarbonate) has not been defined in humans.


DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS
A multicenter randomized controlled trial in 37 children on automated peritoneal dialysis was performed. After a 2-month run-in period with conventional peritoneal dialysis fluids, patients were randomized to neutral-pH, low-glucose degradation product peritoneal dialysis fluids with 35 mM lactate or 34 mM bicarbonate content. Clinical and biochemical monitoring was performed monthly, and peritoneal equilibration tests and 24-hour clearance studies were performed at 0, 3, 6, and 10 months.


RESULTS
No statistically significant difference in capillary blood pH, serum bicarbonate, or oral buffer supplementation emerged during the study. At baseline, peritoneal solute equilibration and clearance rates were similar. During the study, 4-hour dialysis to plasma ratio of creatinine tended to increase, and 24-hour dialytic creatinine and phosphate clearance increased with lactate peritoneal dialysis fluid but not with bicarbonate peritoneal dialysis fluid. Daily net ultrafiltration, which was similar at baseline (lactate fluid=5.4±2.6 ml/g glucose exposure, bicarbonate fluid=4.9±1.9 ml/g glucose exposure), decreased to 4.6±1.0 ml/g glucose exposure in the lactate peritoneal dialysis fluid group, whereas it increased to 5.1±1.7 ml/g glucose exposure in the bicarbonate content peritoneal dialysis fluid group (P=0.006 for interaction).


CONCLUSIONS
When using biocompatible peritoneal dialysis fluids, equally good acidosis control is achieved with lactate and bicarbonate buffers. Improved long-term preservation of peritoneal membrane function may, however, be achieved with bicarbonate-based peritoneal dialysis fluids.
Efficient estimation of SEU effects in SRAM-based FPGAs

SRAM-based FPGAs are becoming very appealing for several applications where high dependability is a mandatory requirement. Unfortunately, the technology of SRAM-based FPGAs is very sensitive to single event upsets (SEUs) and particular concerns arise from SEUs affecting the FPGAs' configuration memory. In this paper we propose a new method for assessing the impact of faults in the configuration memory on the FPGA dependability. The method uses static analysis, thus reducing greatly the time for performing dependability evaluation.
REFLEX, a social-cognitive group treatment to improve insight in schizophrenia: study protocol of a multi-center RCT

BACKGROUND
Insight is impaired in a majority of people with schizophrenia. Impaired insight is associated with poorer outcomes of the disorder. Based on existing literature, we developed a model that explains which processes may possibly play a role in impaired insight. This model was the starting point of the development of REFLEX: a brief psychosocial intervention to improve insight in schizophrenia. REFLEX is a 12-sessions group training, consisting of three modules of four sessions each. Modules in this intervention are: "coping with stigma", "you and your personal narrative", and "you in the present".


METHODS/DESIGN
REFLEX is currently evaluated in a multicenter randomized controlled trial. Eight mental health institutions in the Netherlands participate in this evaluation. Patients are randomly assigned to either REFLEX or an active control condition, existing of cognitive remediation exercises in a group. In a subgroup of patients, fMRI scans are made before and after training in order to assess potential haemodynamic changes associated with the effects of the training.


DISCUSSION
REFLEX is one of the few interventions aiming specifically to improving insight in schizophrenia and has potential value for improving insight. Targeting insight in schizophrenia is a complex task, that comes with several methodological issues. These issues are addressed in the discussion of this paper.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
Current Controlled Trials: ISRCTN50247539.
Security and privacy for storage and computation in cloud computing

Article history: Available online 27 April 2013