LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Pathophysiology of sleep-dependent memory consolidation processes in children.

Cognitive impairments are often associated with abnormal sleep activity in developmental disorders and pathologies of childhood. Besides, accumulated evidence indicates that post-training sleep benefits to the consolidation of recently learned information in healthy adults and children. Although sleep-dependent consolidation effects in children are clearly established for declarative memories, they remain more debated in the procedural memory domain. Nowadays, recent experimental data suggest close interactions between the development of sleep-dependent plasticity markers, cortical maturation and cognition in children. In the present review, we propose that studying sleep and memory consolidation processes in developmental disorders and acquired childhood pathologies can provide novel, enlightening clues to understand the pathophysiological mechanisms subtending the disruption of long-term cerebral plasticity processes eventually leading to cognitive and learning deficits in children.
Immune activation mediated change in alpha-1-acid glycoprotein: impact on total and free lopinavir plasma exposure.

BACKGROUND
Immune mediated changes in circulating α-1-acid glycoprotein (AAG), a type 1 acute phase protein, which binds protease inhibitors (PI), may alter protein binding and contribute to PI's pharmacokinetic (PK) variability.


METHODS
In a prospective, 2-phase intensive PK study on antiretroviral naive human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected subjects treated with a lopinavir-/ritonavir-based regimen, steady state PK sampling and AAG assays were performed at weeks 2 and 16 of treatment.


RESULTS
Median entry age was 43 years (n = 16). Median plasma log(10) HIV-1 RNA, CD4 T-cell counts, and AAG were 5.16 copies/mL, 28 cells/µL, and 143 mg/dL, respectively.The total lopinavir area under the concentration time curve (AUC(12_total)) and maximum concentration (C(max_total)) changed linearly with AAG at mean rates of 16±7 mg*hr/L (slope ± SE); P = .04, and 1.6 ± 0.6 mg/L, P = .02, per 100 mg/dL increase in AAG levels, respectively (n = 15).A 29% drop in AAG levels between week 2 and week 16 was associated with 14% (geometric mean ratio [GMR] = 0.86; 90% confidence interval [CI] = 0.74-0.98) and 13% (GMR = 0.87; 90% CI = 0.79-0.95) reduction in AUC(12_total) and C(max_total), respectively. Neither free lopinavir PK parameters nor antiviral activity (HIV-1 RNA average AUC minus baseline) was affected by change in plasma AAG.


CONCLUSIONS
Changes in plasma AAG levels alter total lopinavir concentrations, but not the free lopinavir exposure or antiviral activity. This observation may have implications in therapeutic drug monitoring.
Space-Time Turbo Coded Modulation: Design and Applications

A design method for recursive space-time trellis codes and parallel-concatenated space-time turbo coded modulation is proposed that can be applied to an arbitrary existing space-time trellis code. The method enables a large, systematic increase in coding gain while preserving the maximum transmit diversity gain and bandwidth efficiency property of the considered spacetime trellis code. Applying the above method to Tarokh et al. space-time trellis codes, significant performance improvements can be obtained even with extremely short input information frames. The application of space-time turbo coded modulation to the space-frequency domain is also proposed in this paper. Exploiting the bandwidth efficient orthogonal frequency division modulation (OFDM), multiple transmit antennas and large frequency selectivity offered by typical low mobility indoor environments, the proposed space-frequency turbo coded modulation performs within 2.5 dB of the outage capacity for a variety of practical wideband multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radio channels.
The COPD assessment test (CAT) assists prediction of COPD exacerbations in high-risk patients.

UNLABELLED
We evaluated the predictive value of the COPD assessment test (CAT™) for exacerbation in the following six months or time to first exacerbation among COPD patients with previous exacerbations. COPD outpatients with a history of exacerbation from 19 hospitals completed the CAT questionnaire and spirometry over six months. Exacerbation events were prospectively collected using a structured questionnaire. The baseline CAT score categorised into four groups (0-9, 10-19, 20-29, and 30-40) showed strong prediction for time to first exacerbation and modest prediction for any exacerbation or moderate-severe exacerbation (AUC 0.83, 0.64, and 0.63 respectively). In multivariate analyses, the categorised CAT score independently predicted all three outcomes (p = 0.001 or p < 0.001). Compared with the lowest CAT score category, the higher categories were associated with significantly shorter time to first exacerbation and higher exacerbation risks. The corresponding adjusted median time was >24, 14, 9, and 5 weeks and the adjusted RR was 1.00, 1.30, 1.37, and 1.50 in the category of 0-9, 10-19, 20-29, and 30-40 respectively. Exacerbation history (≥2 vs. 1 event in the past year) was related to time to first exacerbation (adjusted HR 1.35; p = 0.023) and any exacerbation during the study period (adjusted RR 1.15; p = 0.016). The results of this study support the use of the CAT as a simple tool to assist in the identification of patients at increased risk of exacerbations. This could facilitate timely and cost-effective implementation of preventive interventions, and improve health resource allocation.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT01254032.
Antioxidant activity of some seaweed from the Gulf of Thailand.

Four species of seaweed, Sargassum binderi Sonder, Amphiroa sp., Turbinaria conoides (J. Agardh) Küzting and Halimeda macroloba Decaisne, were collected from the Gulf of Thailand. Seaweeds were extracted with water or ethanol and examined for phenolic compounds and antioxidant activities by measuring the scavenging activity of both ABTS and DPPH radicals. In general, the aqueous extracts (AE) showed higher antioxidant activities and phenolic contents than ethanolic extracts (EE). Therefore, AE were chosen for three additional assays: superoxide anion scavenging assay, anti-lipid peroxidation in liver homogenate and reducing power. T. conoides extract showed the highest antioxidation activity in all assays. Therefore, the dried T. conoides had a potential to antioxidative agent in nutraceutical products. © 2011 Friends Science Publishers
Urdu Nastaleeq Optical Character Recognition

This paper discusses the Urdu script characteristics, Urdu Nastaleeq and a simple but a novel and robust technique to recognize the printed Urdu script without a lexicon. Urdu being a family of Arabic script is cursive and complex script in its nature, the main complexity of Urdu compound/connected text is not its connections but the forms/shapes the characters change when it is placed at initial, middle or at the end of a word. The characters recognition technique presented here is using the inherited complexity of Urdu script to solve the problem. A word is scanned and analyzed for the level of its complexity, the point where the level of complexity changes is marked for a character, segmented and feeded to Neural Networks. A prototype of the system has been tested on Urdu text and currently achieves 93.4% accuracy on the average. Keywords— Cursive Script, OCR, Urdu.
Medical and pharmacological approach to adjust the salbutamol anti-doping policy in athletes.

BACKGROUND
Salbutamol abuse detection by athletes is based on a urinary upper threshold defined by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). However, this threshold was determined in healthy, untrained individuals and after a dose of salbutamol inhaled that might not really mirror the condition of asthmatic athletes and the experts's guidelines for asthma management. We aimed to revise this threshold in accordance with recommended clinical practice (that appear to be different from the actual WADA recommendation) and in exercise conditions.


METHODS
For the present open-label design study, we included 12 trained male cyclists (20 to 40 y/o) with asthma. Differently from the previous pharmacokinetic study supporting the actual salbutamol urinary upper threshold, we decided to administer a close to recommended clinical practice daily dose of 3x200 μg.d(-1) inhaled salbutamol (instead of 1600 μg.d(-1) as authorized by the anti-doping policy). Urine salbutamol concentration was quantified by liquid chromatography-tandem ion trap mass spectrometry and corrected for urine density, at rest and after a 90-min cycling effort at 70-80 % of the maximal aerobic power.


RESULTS
The maximum urine salbutamol concentration value peaked after the cycling effort and was 510 ng.mL(-1). That is twice lower than the actual WADA threshold to sanction salbutamol abuse, this "legal" threshold being based on pharmacokinetic data after a daily dose that is 8 fold the total dose sequentially administrated in our study. Considering its 95 % confidence interval, this threshold value could be more stringent.


CONCLUSION
By using conditions in accordance with the experts' clinical and safety guidelines for asthma management in athletes undergoing an intense exercise bout, our study suggests that the urine salbutamol concentration threshold could be lowered to redefine the rule supporting the decision to sanction an athlete for salbutamol abuse.
Pancreatic Resection Guided by Preoperative Intraductal Ultrasonography for Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasm

OBJECTIVES:Successful treatment requires reliable preoperative assessment of the highly variable extension of intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMNs). We aimed to determine the role of intraductal ultrasonography (IDUS) in predicting the extension of IPMN, and in selecting the method of pancreatic resection and the long-term outcome after surgery.METHODS:Randomized prospective study. Forty consecutive patients who underwent IPMN resection were included in the study. Patients were randomly assigned to an IDUS group or control group, in which IDUS was not performed.RESULTS:Preoperative assessment by IDUS had an 85% (17 of 20) diagnostic accuracy for tumor extension of IPMN compared with 50% (10 of 20) in cases assessed by other imaging methods without IDUS (P=0.018). In 9 of 15 patients with invasive carcinoma, the tumor was located in the pancreatic head, and 11 had a main duct-type tumor. Recurrent disease was identified in 5 of 15 (33%) patients with invasive IPMN at a mean follow-up of 50 months; of them, 1 underwent preoperative IDUS and 4 were assessed by other imaging methods. None of the 25 patients with noninvasive IPMN had recurrent disease at follow-up. The overall cumulative 3-year survival rate was 79%.CONCLUSIONS:Preoperative IDUS was useful in determining the type of surgery and the extent of resection, especially in main-duct IPMN.
Baseline wander correction in pulse waveforms using wavelet-based cascaded adaptive filter

Pulse diagnosis is a convenient, inexpensive, painless, and non-invasive diagnosis method. Quantifying pulse diagnosis is to acquire and record pulse waveforms by a set of sensor firstly, and then analyze these pulse waveforms. However, respiration and artifact motion during pulse waveform acquisition can introduce baseline wander. It is necessary, therefore, to remove the pulse waveform's baseline wander in order to perform accurate pulse waveform analysis. This paper presents a wavelet-based cascaded adaptive filter (CAF) to remove the baseline wander of pulse waveform. To evaluate the level of baseline wander, we introduce a criterion: energy ratio (ER) of pulse waveform to its baseline wander. If the ER is more than a given threshold, the baseline wander can be removed only by cubic spline estimation; otherwise it must be filtered by, in sequence, discrete Meyer wavelet filter and the cubic spline estimation. Compared with traditional methods such as cubic spline estimation, morphology filter and Linear-phase finite impulse response (FIR) least-squares-error digital filter, the experimental results on 50 simulated and 500 real pulse signals demonstrate the power of CAF filter both in removing baseline wander and in preserving the diagnostic information of pulse waveforms. This CAF filter also can be used to remove the baseline wander of other physiological signals, such as ECG and so on.
HbA(1c) in the prediction of type 2 diabetes compared with fasting and 2-h post-challenge plasma glucose: The Asturias study (1998-2005).

AIM
Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and the 2-h post-challenge plasma glucose (2hPG) are commonly used to identify those at risk of type 2 diabetes. However, the role of HbA(1c) in this prediction has still not been ascertained.


METHODS
The Asturias study is a prospective population-based survey of diabetes and cardiovascular risk factors. Baseline examination, carried out during 1998-1999, involved 1034 individuals, aged 30-75 years, randomly selected to determine the prevalence of type 2 diabetes and prediabetes in the principality of Asturias (northern Spain). In 2004-2005, these same subjects were invited to a follow-up examination, and 700 participated. The present study includes only those who did not have diabetes at baseline. All participants with no known diabetes underwent an OGTT. Baseline HbA(1c) levels were measured by HPLC.


RESULTS
Diabetes had developed in 44 participants at the time of follow-up. Quartiles of baseline HbA(1c) values were 3.4-4.8 (Q1), 4.9-5.1 (Q2), 5.2-5.4 (Q3) and 5.5-6.9 (Q4), and the incidence rates of diabetes by quartiles were 1.0 (0.1-7.1), 4.0 (1.5-10.7), 7.9 (4.0-15.9) and 32.6 (22.9-46.4) cases/1000 person-years, respectively. ROC curve analysis comparing HbA(1c), FPG and 2hPG in the prediction of diabetes showed areas under the curve (ROC-AUC) of 0.80 (0.74-0.86), 0.83 (0.77-0.90) and 0.79 (0.72-0.87), respectively. The combination of FPG and HbA(1c) had the best predictive performance with an ROC-AUC of 0.88 (0.82-0.93).


CONCLUSION
Our study indicates that HbA(1c) is strongly predictive of new-onset diabetes in this northern Spanish population, and was similar to FPG and 2hPG in predictive capability. Also, the combined measurement of FPG and HbA(1c) improved their individual predictive performance.
IoTtalk: A Management Platform for Reconfigurable Sensor Devices

IoTtalk is a platform for Internet of Things (IoT) device interaction, which nicely integrates a reconfigurable multi-sensor device called MorSensor with the proposed IoT management platform in the network domain. The sensors can be dynamically plugged in/out of a MorSensor device without being turned off, and IoTtalk automatically generates/reuses the application software for these sensors. We propose a dynamic ranging concept that automatically specifies the value range of a sensor so that it can send “meaningful” data to any connected output IoT device. Therefore, a MorSensor device can “talk” to other IoT devices, such as a light bulb or an electric fan. We also show that IoTtalk is a simple yet almost free solution for automatic sensor calibration. Finally, we illustrate that IoTtalk is a powerful tool for developing interactive science experiments.
Association of Serum Uric Acid and Coronary Artery Disease in Premenopausal Women

OBJECTIVE
To date, no study in the published literature has investigated the role of various serum uric acid (SUA) concentrations in the development of angiographically-proven coronary artery disease (CAD) in premenopausal women. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the role SUA levels may play in the prevalence, severity, and prognosis of CAD in premenopausal women.


METHODS
This cross-sectional retrospective study included 607 premenopausal women who had undergone coronary angiography. The CAD diagnosis was based upon stenosis affecting ≥ 50% of the luminal diameter. Association of the SUA levels with CAD prevalence, severity, and clinical outcomes were assessed by statistical analysis.


RESULTS
In total, 369 (60.8%) of the patients were diagnosed with CAD. The CAD patients had significantly higher SUA levels than those without CAD (5.3 ± 1.9 vs. 4.8 ± 1.7 mg/dL, P = 0.001). The SUA levels were found to be significantly associated with CAD prevalence (P = 0.013). Patients with higher levels of SUA also showed increased rates of multivessel disease and composite end-points, such as major adverse cardiac events. Furthermore, multivariate analysis identified abnormally high levels of uric acid (hyperuricemia) as an independent risk factor for CAD (OR 1.51 (1.11-2.53), P<0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
The SUA levels are significantly associated with the prevalence of CAD. The SUA levels may be a predictor for incidence of major cardiovascular events in premenopausal women.
Multiple-input single ended primary inductor converter (SEPIC) converter for distributed generation applications

This paper studies a multiple-input dc-dc converter realized from a standard single ended primary inductor converter topology. The proposed configuration allows the integration of different distributed generation sources into a common DC main bus. This work discusses the converter topology, basic dynamic equations, and explains its basic operation. Stability characteristics are also explored with linear methods. Theoretical analyses are verified with simulations and experimental results.
DOTA 2 Win Prediction

In this paper, we present two win predictors for the popular online game Dota 2. The first predictor uses full post-match data and the second predictor uses only hero selection data. We will explore and build upon existing work on the topic as well as detail the specifics of both algorithms including data collection, exploratory analysis, feature selection, modeling, and results.
Do Convnets Learn Correspondence?

Convolutional neural nets (convnets) trained from massive labeled datasets [1] have substantially improved the state-of-the-art in image classification [2] and object detection [3]. However, visual understanding requires establishing correspondence on a finer level than object category. Given their large pooling regions and training from whole-image labels, it is not clear that convnets derive their success from an accurate correspondence model which could be used for precise localization. In this paper, we study the effectiveness of convnet activation features for tasks requiring correspondence. We present evidence that convnet features localize at a much finer scale than their receptive field sizes, that they can be used to perform intraclass aligment as well as conventional hand-engineered features, and that they outperform conventional features in keypoint prediction on objects from PASCAL VOC 2011 [4].
Nicotine tartrate liquid enemas for mildly to moderately active left-sided ulcerative colitis unresponsive to first-line therapy: a pilot study.

BACKGROUND
Ulcerative colitis is predominantly a disease of non-smokers, and transdermal nicotine is therapeutic but often results in side-effects. Administration of nicotine as a liquid rectal enema results in less systemic nicotine absorption.


AIM
To determine the safety and clinical response of nicotine tartrate liquid enemas for active left-side ulcerative colitis in a pilot study.


METHODS
Ten non-smoking patients with mildly to moderately active left-sided ulcerative colitis unresponsive to first-line therapy were treated in an open protocol with nightly nicotine tartrate liquid enemas at a dose of 3 mg nicotine base for 1 week then 6 mg for 3 weeks. Clinical assessments were determined at baseline and 4 weeks by endoscopy, physician assessment and a patient diary of daily symptoms. Peak and trough serum nicotine and trough plasma cotinine were determined by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and high performance liquid chromatography, respectively.


RESULTS
After 4 weeks of treatment, 5/7 patients (71%) showed clinical and sigmoidoscopic improvement (per protocol analysis). The other three patients discontinued therapy within 7 days because of inability to retain the liquid enemas. No patients showed histologic improvement. Six of the patients who completed the 4-week study had peak and trough serum nicotine concentration determined, only 1 of 6 patients had a detectable peak nicotine concentration (value 2.3 ng/mL), and all six patients had undetectable trough nicotine concentrations. The mean trough plasma cotinine concentration was 13 +/- 10 ng/mL. Transient and mild adverse events occurred in 4/10 patients (nausea, lightheadedness, tremor, sleep disturbance). Given the low or undetectable serum nicotine concentrations, these adverse events are not likely to be related to the nicotine enemas.


CONCLUSIONS
Nicotine tartrate liquid enemas administrated at a dose of 3 mg nicotine base/day for 1 week and then 6 mg/day for 3 weeks are safe and appear to result in clinical improvement in some patients with mildly to moderately active, left-sided ulcerative colitis unresponsive to first-line therapy. Placebo-controlled trials are warranted to confirm these preliminary findings.
Accuracy of screening mammography varies by week of menstrual cycle.

PURPOSE
To investigate sensitivity, specificity, and cancer detection rate of screening mammography according to week of menstrual cycle among premenopausal women.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
In this institutional review board-approved HIPAA-compliant study, sensitivity, specificity, and cancer detection rate of 387,218 screening mammograms linked to 1283 breast cancers in premenopausal women according to week of menstrual cycle were studied by using prospectively collected information from the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium. Logistic regression analysis was used to test for differences in mammography performance according to week of menstrual cycle, adjusting for age and registry.


RESULTS
Overall, screening mammography performance did not differ according to week of menstrual cycle. However, when analyses were subdivided according to prior mammography, different patterns emerged. For the 66.6% of women who had undergone regular screening (mammography had been performed within the past 2 years), sensitivity was higher in week 1 (79.5%) than in subsequent weeks (week 2, 70.3%; week 3, 67.4%; week 4, 73.0%; P = .041). In the 17.8% of women who underwent mammography for the first time in this study, sensitivity tended to be lower during the follicular phase (week 1, 72.1%; week 2, 80.4%; week 3, 84.6%; week 4, 93.8%; P = .051). Sensitivity did not vary significantly by week in menstrual cycle in women who had undergone mammography more than 3 years earlier. There were no clinically meaningful differences in specificity or cancer detection rate.


CONCLUSION
Premenopausal women who undergo regular screening may benefit from higher sensitivity of mammography if they schedule screening mammography during the 1st week of their menstrual cycle.


SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL
http://radiology.rsna.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1148/radiol.10100974/-/DC1.
Computer generation of random variables with Lindley or Poisson-Lindley distribution via the Lambert W function

We provide procedures to generate random variables with Lindley distribution, and also with Poisson–Lindley or zero-truncated Poisson–Lindley distribution, as simple alternatives to the existing algorithms. Our procedures are based on the fact that the quantile functions of these probability distributions can be expressed in closed form in terms of the Lambert W function. As a consequence, the extreme order statistics from the above distributions can also be computer generated in a straightforward manner. © 2010 IMACS. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. AMS Classification: 65C05; 33B30