LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Delayed progression to AIDS in volunteers treated with long-term HIV-1 Immunogen (REMUNE) therapy in Thailand.

OBJECTIVES
To observe the long-term effects of an immune-based therapy HIV-1 Immunogen (REMUNE; Immune Response Corp., Carlsbad, CA, USA) as a first course of treatment designed to sustain the immune system and thus delay the initiation of therapy with antiretroviral drugs and/or delay disease progression.


METHODS
In this open-label, multi-institute extended phase II P2101B study, disease progression, CD4 and CD8 T-cell counts, HIV-1 RNA levels, and genotypic antiretroviral drug resistance were examined in 223 asymptomatic HIV-1-infected Thai volunteers receiving REMUNE every 12 weeks over 132 weeks. A subset of subjects was randomly selected by the physicians to receive antiretroviral drugs for 10 months.


RESULTS
Patients treated with REMUNE demonstrated a low rate of clinical disease progression (0.72 per 100 person-years), higher CD4 and CD8 T-cell counts, higher body weight before and after treatment in the same patient, and stable viral load with no serious adverse events. We found no genotypic evidence of drug resistance in subgroups of patients on REMUNE monotherapy or REMUNE plus antiretrovirals (ARTs).


CONCLUSIONS
This Thai study, like previous US and European studies, confirms that therapeutic immunization of HIV-infected volunteers modifies disease progression, as evidenced by stabilization of CD4 and CD8 T-cell counts, body weight, and viral load. As the majority of asymptomatic patients demonstrated an objective response to immunization, this study suggests that REMUNE may be utilized prior to initiation of antiviral drug therapy when CD4 cell counts are still above the current ART guidelines. Further work should be carried out to examine its potential use in combination with ART in order to reduce the increasingly common occurrence of drug resistance.
New species of Eimeria (Apicomplexa: Eimeriidae) from the domesticated goat Capra hircus in New Zealand

Three new species of the genus Eimeria Schneider, 1875 are described from the faeces of domesticated goats in New Zealand. Oöcysts of E. capralis n. sp. are ellipsoidal, 29.2 × 19.7 (25–34 × 17–24) μm, with a distinct micropylar cap. The sporocysts are broadly ovoid, the Stieda body is present and the sporocyst residuum consists of many scattered granules. Sporozoites lie lengthwise head to tail in the sporocyst. Oöcysts of E. masseyensis n. sp. are broadly ellipsoid to ovoid, 22.3 × 17.4 (18–25 × 15–19) μm, with a distinct micropylar cap. The polar granules are shattered into fine granules, the sporocysts are elongate ovoid and the Stieda body is present. Oöcysts of E. charlestoni n. sp. are ellipsoidal, 22.9 × 17.4 (20–25 × 16–19) μm, with no micropylar cap. Its oöcysts are distinctive, with elongate sporocysts containing very prominent refractile bodies.
A New Passenger Support System for Public Transport using Mobile Database Access

We have been developing a mobile passenger support system for public transport. Passengers can make their travel plans and purchase necessary tickets by accessing databases via the system. After starting the travel, a mobile terminal checks the travel schedule of its user by accessing several databases and gathering various kinds of information. In this application field, many kinds of data must be handled. Examples of such data are route information, fare information, area map, station map, planned operation schedule, realtime operation schedule, vehicle facilities and so on. Depending on the user’s situation, different information should be supplied and personalized. In this paper, we propose a new mechanism to support passengers using the multi-channel data communication environments. On the other hand, transport systems can gather information about situations and demands of users and modify their services offered for the users. We also describe a prototype system developed for visually handicapped passengers and the results of tests in an actual railway station.
An ENSEMBLE machine learning approach for the prediction of all-alpha membrane proteins

MOTIVATION
All-alpha membrane proteins constitute a functionally relevant subset of the whole proteome. Their content ranges from about 10 to 30% of the cell proteins, based on sequence comparison and specific predictive methods. Due to the paucity of membrane proteins solved with atomic resolution, the training/testing sets of predictive methods for protein topography and topology routinely include very few well-solved structures mixed with a hundred proteins known with low resolution. Moreover, available predictors fail in predicting recently crystallised membrane proteins (Chen et al., 2002). Presently the number of well-solved membrane proteins comprises some 59 chains of low sequence homology. It is therefore possible to train/test predictors only with the set of proteins known with atomic resolution and evaluate more thoroughly the performance of different methods.


RESULTS
We implement a cascade-neural network (NN), two different hidden Markov models (HMM), and their ensemble (ENSEMBLE) as a new method. We train and test in cross validation the three methods and ENSEMBLE on the 59 well resolved membrane proteins. ENSEMBLE scores with a per-protein accuracy of 90% for topography and 71% for topology, outperforming the best single method of 7 and 5 percentage points, respectively. When tested on a low resolution set of 151 proteins, with no homology with the 59 proteins, the per-protein accuracy of ENSEMBLE is 76% for topography and 68% for topology. Our results also indicate that the performance of ENSEMBLE is higher than that of the best predictors presently available on the Web.
Automated Data Warehousing for Rule-based CRM Systems

This paper proposes a novel way of automatically developing data warehouse configuration in rule-based CRM systems. Rule-based CRM systems assume that marketing activities are represented as a set of IF-THEN rules. Currently, to provide good quality CRM functionalities, CRM systems seek to combine conventional CRM methodologies with data warehousing technology. A data warehouse can be abstractly seen as a set of materialized views. Selecting views for materialization in a data warehouse is one of the important decision-making tasks in its design. However, there are few facilities in CRM systems with respect to data warehouse design that alleviate the problems associated with data schema maintenance. Given a set of campaign rules expressing marketing strategies, the proposed method generates data warehouse configuration (including database schema and indexing constraint) that can satisfy all the input rules. Our method begins on the premise that data warehouse configuration can be reversibly extracted from marketing campaign rules. This method includes algorithms for database schema generation, indexing constraint generation, schema normalization for removing data redundancies, and OLAP (On-Line Analytic Processing) query generation.
Time-of-Flight 3D imaging for mixed-critical systems

Computer vision is becoming more and more important in the fields of consumer electronics, cyber-physical systems, and automotive technology. Recognizing and classifying one's environment reliably is imperative for safety-critical applications, as they are omnipresent, e.g., in the automotive or aviation domain. For this purpose, the Time-of-Flight imaging technology is suitable, which enables robust and cost-efficient three-dimensional sensing of the environment. However, the resource limitations of safety- and security-certified processor systems as well as complying to safety standards, poses a challenge for the development and integration of complex Time-of-Flight-based applications. Here we present a Time-of-Flight system approach that focuses in particular on the automotive domain. This Time-of-Flight imaging approach is based on an automotive processing platform that complies to safety and security standards. By employing state-of-the-art hardware/software and multi-core concepts, a robust Time-of-Flight system solution is introduced that can be used in a mixed-critical application context. In this work we demonstrate the feasible implementation of the proposed hardware/software architecture by means of a prototype for the automotive domain. Raw Time-of-Flight sensor data is taken and 3D data is calculated with up to 80 FPS without the usage of dedicated hardware accelerators. In a next step, safety-critical automotive applications (e.g., parking assistance) can exploit this 3D data in a mixed-critical environment respecting the needs of the ISO 26262.
Stationary reflection and level by level equivalence

We force and construct a model in which level by level equivalence between strong compactness and supercompactness holds, along with certain additional “inner model like” properties. In particular, in this model, the class of Mahlo cardinals reflecting stationary sets is the same as the class of weakly compact cardinals, and every regular Jonsson cardinal is weakly compact. On the other hand, we force and construct a model for the level by level equivalence between strong compactness and supercompactness in which on a stationary subset of the least supercompact cardinal κ, there are non-weakly compact Mahlo cardinals which reflect stationary sets. We also examine some extensions and limitations on what is possible in our theorems. Finally, we indicate how to ensure in our models that ♦δ holds for every successor and Mahlo cardinal δ, and below the least supercompact cardinal κ, ¤δ holds on a stationary ∗2000 Mathematics Subject Classifications: 03E35, 03E55. †
Development and psychometric evaluation of a three-dimensional Gambling Motives Questionnaire.

AIMS
This study was designed to develop and evaluate a self-report measure of gambling motives. Participants A community-recruited sample of 193 gamblers (70% male; mean age = 35.5 years) were selected to fill two groups according to scores on the South Oaks Gambling Screen: probable pathological gamblers (PPG; n = 154) and non-pathological gamblers (NPG; n = 39).


MEASURES
Participants completed a novel 15-item measure of gambling motives called the Gambling Motives Questionnaire (GMQ), which was modeled after the original Drinking Motives Questionnaire, as well as a variety of gambling behavior and problem criterion measures.


RESULTS
An exploratory principal components analysis revealed three intercorrelated factors tapping enhancement (ENH), coping (COP), and social (SOC) motives, respectively. Each GMQ subscale showed good internal consistency (alphas > 0.80). The PPG group scored higher on all three scales than the NPG group, with larger differences for ENH and COP. In line with the clinical literature, PPG women scored higher than PPG men on the COP subscale but also, unexpectedly, on the SOC subscale. In concurrent validity analyses, ENH consistently predicted greater gambling behavior, and COP and ENH consistently predicted more severe gambling problems. With gambling behavior levels controlled, only COP remained a significant predictor of gambling problem severity. Finally, gender interacted with gambling motives in predicting gambling problem severity: COP predicted gambling problems more strongly in women, whereas ENH predicted gambling problems more strongly in men.


CONCLUSIONS
The GMQ appears to be a promising tool for both research and clinical applications with problem gamblers.
Quality assurance in extemporaneously compounded formulations: a titration method for ursodeoxycholic acid

Extemporaneously compounded medicines are required for specific patients when a commercial pharmaceutical product is not available. Within the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry, quality, safety and efficacy are enforced by regulatory legislation covering good manufacturing practice, good laboratory practice, and good clinical practice. In contrast, the responsibility for acceptable standards for compounding “off-label” medicines lies with the pharmacist. Extemporaneous products are often assigned short “beyond-use”dates when supporting stability data are not available. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), is commonly used for stability studies in the pharmaceutical industry, but may not be freely available in hospital pharmacy. The aim of this study was to validate an acid-base titration method of analysis which could be used in a hospital pharmacy. Ursodeoxycholic acid (UA) was selected as the drug of choice, because the analytical results could be compared with literature and the active ingredient could be purchased for analytical purposes. UA is a bile acid present in low concentrations in humans. It is used in the dissolution of cholesterol-rich gall stones in patients for whom surgery is not possible or is undesirable. It is also used to treat diseases of the liver including biliary cirrhosis, primary sclerosing cholangitis and cystic fibrosis related cholestasis. The recommended dose varies from 8–15mg/kg daily for adults and 15–20mg/kg for children, given in divided doses. If patients require liquid dosage forms due to swallowing difficulties or age the drug needs to be reformulated. UA is almost insoluble in water so can be compounded in the form of a suspension. The formulation (15mg/ml) that is currently compounded in a children’s hospital in New Zealand involves dispersing the contents of a UA capsule in 10ml Ora-Sweet (sweetening agent), and adding an equal volume of Ora-Plus (suspending agent).The product is assigned a beyond-use date of one month if stored at 2–8C. OBJECTIVE — To validate an acid-base titration method, adopted from the British Pharmacopoeia, for analysis of ursodeoxycholic acid (UA) in extemporaneously compounded formulations.
Ecotourism and mass tourism in Southern Thailand: Spatial interdependence, structural connections, and staged authenticity

The desire to spend leisure time in ‘natural’ settings represents a key factor behind the recent and rapid growth of ecotourism. A search by ecotourists for remote landscapes and locations has shaped the way in which geographers have defined ecotourism, but few scholars have explored, in detail, the mechanics of the spatial relationship between ecotourism and mass tourism, two forms of travel usually considered mutually exclusive in spatial terms. Using the island of Phuket – southern Thailand’s premier resort destination – as a case study, this paper investigates the spatial overlaps and connections between ecotourism and mass tourism and tests the assumption that ecotourism and mass tourism must exist spatially apart in order for the former to succeed. Despite Phuket’s association with mass tourism, and the small physical distances between built-up mass tourist areas and ‘natural’ ecotourism settings, the ‘communicative staging’ of natural authenticity allows ecotourism companies to convey geographical remoteness to tourists. Although ecotourism in Phuket must struggle constantly to overcome the perceptual impact of spatial proximity to resort locations, the tourist markets and business networks of the existing mass tourism industry remain crucial to the survival of ecotourism in this region. Thus, contrary to conventional notions that ecotourism and mass tourism must exist as separate entities, this paper argues that an interconnected, symbiotic, and spatially-contiguous relationship between the two is necessary in the case of Phuket.
Interpreting laboratory results in transgender patients on hormone therapy.

BACKGROUND
Clinical guidelines recommend laboratory monitoring of transgender persons on cross-sex hormone therapy, but gender-specific reference intervals leave clinicians with the dilemma of deciding what is "normal" for each patient. The goal of this study was to identify consistent changes in measurands with hormone therapy and determine which reference interval is appropriate.


METHODS
Laboratory data were abstracted from the medical records of 55 male-to-female patients on hormone therapy and compared with 20 male and 20 female nontransgender subjects.


RESULTS
Hemoglobin, hematocrit, and low-density lipoprotein resembled female values (P < .005), while alkaline phosphatase, potassium, and creatinine resembled male values (P < .05). Triglycerides were higher (P < .005) than either the male or female groups. The remainder of the measurands showed no differences.


CONCLUSIONS
Use of correct reference intervals in interpreting laboratory results reduces the risk of testing-related diagnostic error. Preliminary data suggest that new reference intervals need to be established for transgender patients.
Blockchain And Its Applications

Blockchain innovation was initially presented as the innovation behind the Bitcoin decentralized virtual currency, yet there is the desire that its qualities of precise and irreversible information move in a decentralized P2P system could make different applications conceivable. Blockchain an apparently unassuming information structure, and a suite of related conventions, have as of late taken the universes of Finance and Technology by tempest through its earth shattering application in the present day crypto-currency Bitcoin, and all the more so due to the problematic advancements it guarantees. Keywords—blockchain, bitcoin, security, public ledger.
Distributed Energy-Aware Diffusion Least Mean Squares: Game-Theoretic Learning

This paper presents a game-theoretic approach to node activation control in parameter estimation via diffusion least mean squares (LMS). Nodes cooperate by exchanging estimates over links characterized by the connectivity graph of the network. The energy-aware activation control is formulated as a noncooperative repeated game where nodes autonomously decide when to activate based on a utility function that captures the trade-off between individual node's contribution and energy expenditure. The diffusion LMS stochastic approximation is combined with a game-theoretic learning algorithm such that the overall energy-aware diffusion LMS has two timescales: the fast timescale corresponds to the game-theoretic activation mechanism, whereby nodes distributively learn their optimal activation strategies, whereas the slow timescale corresponds to the diffusion LMS. The convergence analysis shows that the parameter estimates weakly converge to the true parameter across the network, yet the global activation behavior along the way tracks the set of correlated equilibria of the underlying activation control game.
Comparison of one-week and two-week empirical trial with a high-dose rabeprazole in non-cardiac chest pain patients.

BACKGROUND
In patients with non-cardiac chest pain (NCCP), the optimal duration of an empirical trial with a high-dose proton pump inhibitor (PPI) is unclear. We aimed to compare the efficacy of one-week and two-week PPI trial in patients with weekly or more than weekly NCCP and to determine its optimal duration for diagnosing gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)-related NCCP.


METHODS
Forty-two patients with at least weekly NCCP were enrolled. The baseline symptoms were assessed using a daily symptom diary for seven days. Also, esophago-gastro-duodenoscopy and 24 h esophageal pH monitoring were performed for the diagnosis of GERD. Then, patients were treated with rabeprazole 20 mg twice daily for 14 days. To assess NCCP improvement during the PPI trial, the first week and the second week symptom diary were kept for 1-7 and 8-14 days. The PPI test was considered positive if a symptom score improved (50% compared to the baseline.


RESULTS
There was no significant difference for a positive PPI test between GERD-related NCCP group (n = 8, 50%) and non GERD-related NCCP group (n = 6, 23%) during the first week of the PPI test. However, during the second week, GERD-related NCCP had a higher positive PPI test (n = 13, 81%) than non GERD-related NCCP (n = 7, 27%) (P = 0.001) with a sensitivity and specificity of 81% and 62%, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The rabeprazole empirical trial was diagnostic for patients with GERD-related NCCP, and its optimal duration was determined to be at least two weeks.
Infants Can Infer the Presence of Hidden Objects from Referential Gaze Information.

Infants’ apparent failure in gaze-following tasks is often interpreted as a sign of lack of understanding the referential nature of looking. In the present study, 8and 12-monthold infants followed the gaze of a model to one of two locations hidden from their view by occluders. When the occluders were removed, an object was revealed either at the location where the model had looked or at the other side. Infants at both ages looked longer at the empty location when it had been indicated by the model’s looking behaviour, and this effect held up even when their first look after gaze following was discounted. This result demonstrates that even young infants hold referential expectations when they follow others’ gaze and infer the location of hidden objects accordingly.
Neuromuscular and endocrine responses of elite players to an Australian rules football match.

PURPOSE
To examine the acute and short-term responses of variables obtained during a single countermovement jump (CMJ1); repeated countermovement jump involving 5 consecutive efforts without a pause (CMJ5); and cortisol, testosterone, and testosterone-to-cortisol ratio (T:C) to an elite Australian Rules Football (ARF) match with a view to determining which variables may be most useful for ongoing monitoring.


METHODS
Twenty-two elite ARF players participating in a preseason cup match performed a CMJ1 and a CMJ5 and provided saliva samples 48 h before the match (48pre), prematch (Pre), postmatch, 24 h post (24post), 72 h post (72post), 96 h post (96post), and 120 h post (120post). The magnitude of change in variables at each time point compared with Pre and 48pre was analyzed using the effect size (ES) statistic.


RESULTS
A substantial decrement in the pre- to postmatch comparison occurred in the ratio of CMJ1 Flight time:Contraction time (ES -0.65 +/- 0.28). Cortisol (ES 2.34 +/- 1.06) and T:C (ES -0.52 +/- 0.42) displayed large pre- to postmatch changes. The response of countermovement variables at 24post and beyond compared with prematch and 48pre was varied, with only CMJ1 Flight time:Contraction time displaying a substantial decrease (ES -0.32 +/- 0.26) postmatch compared with 48pre. Cortisol displayed a clear pattern of response with substantial elevations up to 24post compared with Pre and 48pre.


CONCLUSION
CMJ1 Flight time:Contraction time appears to be the most useful variable for monitoring neuromuscular status in elite ARF players due to its substantial change compared with 48pre and prematch. Monitoring cortisol, due to its predictable pattern of response, may provide a useful measure of hormonal status.