LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
A Randomized Controlled Trial of Metformin versus Vitamin E or Prescriptive Diet in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

OBJECTIVES:Metformin proved useful in the treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), but its superiority over nutritional treatment and antioxidants has never been demonstrated. We aimed to compare the usefulness of metformin versus prescriptive diet or vitamin E.METHODS:In an open label, randomized trial, nondiabetic NAFLD patients were given metformin (2 g/day; n = 55) for 12 months. The control cases were given either vitamin E (800 IU/day; n = 28) or were treated by a prescriptive, weight-reducing diet (n = 27). Outcome measures were liver enzymes, insulin resistance (homeostasis model assessment), parameters of the metabolic syndrome, and histology.RESULTS:Aminotransferase levels improved in all groups, in association with weight loss. The effects in the metformin arm were larger (p < 0.0001), and alanine aminotransferase normalized in 56% of cases (odds ratio (OR) versus. controls, 3.11; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.56–6.20; p = 0.0013). In multivariate analysis, metformin treatment was associated with higher rates of aminotransferase normalization, after correction for age, gender, basal aminotransferases, and change in body mass index (OR, 5.98; 95% CI, 2.05–17.45). Differences were maintained when the two control groups were separately analyzed. The distribution of positive criteria for the metabolic syndrome was reduced only in the metformin arm (p = 0.001, signed rank test). A control biopsy in 17 metformin-treated cases (14 nonresponders) showed a significant decrease in liver fat (p = 0.0004), necroinflammation, and fibrosis (p = 0.012 for both). No side effects were observed during metformin treatment.CONCLUSIONS:Metformin treatment is better than a prescriptive diet or vitamin E in the therapy of NAFLD patients receiving nutritional counseling. Limited histological data support an association between improved aminotransferases and biopsy findings, which require confirmation in a double-blind trial with appropriate statistical power based on liver histology.
Creation of Unstable Particles and Decoherence in Semiclassical Cosmology

We consider a simple cosmological model in orderto show the importance of unstable particle creation forthe validity of the semiclassical approximation. Usingthe mathematical structure of rigged Hilbert spaces we show that particle creation is theseed of decoherence which enables the quantum toclassical transition.
Equivalent Circuit Modeling of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesters

Last decade has seen growing research interest in vibration energy harvesting using piezoelectric materials. When developing piezoelectric energy harvesting systems, it is advantageous to establish certain analytical or numerical model to predict the system performance. In the last few years, researchers from mechanical engineering established distributed models for energy harvester but simplified the energy harvesting circuit in the analytical derivation. While, researchers from electrical engineering concerned the modeling of practical energy harvesting circuit but tended to simplify the structural and mechanical conditions. The challenges for accurate modeling of such electromechanical coupling systems remain when complicated mechanical conditions and practical energy harvesting circuit are considered in system design. In this paper, the aforementioned problem is addressed by employing an equivalent circuit model, which bridges structural modeling and electrical simulation. Firstly, the parameters in the equivalent circuit model are identified from
Treatment acceleration p rogram and the experience of the DREAM program in prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV

opyright © L From the DREAM Italy, Libera Unive Campaign Team f Machava General Correspondence t Tel: +39-0672596 Background: The Drug Resource Enhancement against AIDS and Malnutrition (DREAM) program is a large antiretroviral therapy treatment program financed by the Treatment Acceleration Program (TAP) of the World Bank. In addition to provision of antiretroviral treatment to individuals infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in sub-Saharan Africa, one major aspect of the DREAM program is nutritional supplementation and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV.
N-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids administration does not reduce the recurrence rates of atrial fibrillation and inflammation after electrical cardioversion: a prospective randomized study.

OBJECTIVE
The purpose of the present prospective randomized study was to evaluate the effects of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids on recurrence rates of atrial fibrillation (AF) and inflammation after electrical cardioversion.


METHODS
Calculation of the number of patients needed was based on the assumption of 20% and 65% chance of maintaining sinus rhythm with amiodarone and with polyunsaturated fatty acids, respectively. To observe a significant difference with an alpha level of 0.05 and a power of 0.80 it was necessary to include 22 patients in each group. A total of 47 patients were randomized to amiodarone (n=24) and amiodarone plus n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n=23) groups before scheduled electrical cardioversion. The end-point was the recurrence of AF during 12-month follow-up. Effect of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids on inflammation was evaluated with high sensitivity C-reactive protein level measurements. Statistical analysis was performed using unpaired Student' t, Mann Whitney U and Chi-square tests. We analyzed the recurrence of AF using the Cox proportional hazards regression model to control for potentially confounding factors.


RESULTS
Nine patients in the amiodarone group (37.5%), and 9 patients in the amiodarone plus n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids group (39.1%) had recurrence of AF during follow-up (p=1). With the Cox proportional model, risk factors for the recurrence of AF were previous electrical cardioversion (HR 10.33, 95% CI 1.74 to 61.10, p=0.01) and high sensitivity C-reactive protein levels (HR 1.07, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.38, p=0.007). High sensitivity C-reactive protein levels at baseline, at day 15 and during AF recurrence were similar between two groups (p > 0.05 for all).


CONCLUSION
N-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids administration does not reduce the recurrence rates of atrial fibrillation and inflammation.
Assessing the determinants of cloud computing adoption: An analysis of the manufacturing and services sectors

Many factors influence the adoption of cloud computing. Organizations must systematically evaluate these factors before deciding to adopt cloud-based solutions. To assess the determinants that influence the adoption of cloud computing, we develop a research model based on the innovation characteristics from the diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory and the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework. Data collected from 369 firms in Portugal are used to test the related hypotheses. The study also investigates the determinants of cloud-computing adoption in the manufacturing and services sectors. 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +351 914 934 438. E-mail addresses: toliveira@isegi.unl.pt (T. Oliveira), mthomas@vcu.edu (M. Thomas), mariana.espadanal@gmail.com (M. Espadanal).
Critical Thinking , Page 1 Critical Thinking : Its Nature , Measurement , and Improvement

Critical thinking comprises the mental processes, strategies, and representations people use to solve problems, make decisions, and learn new concepts. The study of critical thinking combines the educational, philosophical, and psychological traditions of thought. R. Ennis offers a philosophical taxonomy suggesting that critical thinking results from the interaction of a set of dispositions toward critical thinking with a set of abilities for critical thiuking, while R. Sternberg's psychological taxonomy defines the skills involved in critical thiaking to be of three kinds: metacomponents, performance components, and knowledge-acquisition components. JCLoom's taxonomy of education puts knowledge at the lowest level, followed by comprehension, application, analysis, and synthesis, with evaluation at the highest level. Tests for measuring critical thinking also come from the philosophical and psychological areas. The Matson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal, the Cornell Critical Thinking Test, and the New Jersey Test of Reasoning Skills are derived from the philosophical tradition. The Triarchic Test of Intellectual Skills is psychologically derived, but does not try to separate critical thinking from intelligence. Programs for training critical thieking include Copi's 1978 course in logic, Bransterd and Stein's 1984 course called "The Ideal Problem Solver," Sternberg's 1986 "Understanding and Increasing Intelligence,' and Whimbey and Lochhead's 1982 "Problem Solving and Comprehension.' Educators current concern with critical thinking offers students a new chance for developing critical thinking skills, but training must be brought into all aspects of the classroom to be successful. (Tables outlining E.J. Gubbins's Matrix of Thinking Skills, and Sternberg's program for training intellectual skills are appended.) (SRT)
Barriers for individuals with spinal cord injury returning to the community: a preliminary classification.

BACKGROUND
With decreased length of stay for inpatient rehabilitation, individuals with newly acquired spinal cord injury (SCI) might be discharged back into the community without the level of knowledge and functional skills necessary to live successfully post injury. This research studied the course of recovery and outcomes after the delivery of a coordinated inpatient rehabilitation system of care for individuals with SCI.


OBJECTIVE
Individuals with newly acquired SCI face numerous barriers during reintegration into the community. The purpose of this article is to identify and develop a preliminary classification of barriers to community reintegration that persons with SCI experience during the post-acute period.


METHODS
This 1-year study is the qualitative arm of a randomized controlled pilot study. Twenty-six people with SCI participated (mean age 40.6 years, 81% male and 54% tetraplegic). Self-reported data were collected during the first year post discharge from inpatient rehabilitation.


RESULTS
The three most common categories of self-reported barriers were mobility and equipment issues (23%), lack of environmental, and home assistance (20%), and insurance issues (18%). The two most common specific barriers were lack of insurance coverage (6.5% of all reported barriers) and residing in a nursing home (5.4%).


CONCLUSION
Our findings provide a preliminary classification of the barriers newly injured persons with SCI encounter during the post-acute period.
Unsupervised Object Discovery and Segmentation of RGBD-images

In this paper we introduce a system for unsupervised object discovery and segmentation of RGBD-images. The system models the sensor noise directly from data, allowing accurate segmentation without sensor specific hand tuning of measurement noise models making use of the recently introduced Statistical Inlier Estimation (SIE) method [1]. Through a fully probabilistic formulation, the system is able to apply probabilistic inference, enabling reliable segmentation in previously challenging scenarios. In addition, we introduce new methods for filtering out false positives, significantly improving the signal to noise ratio. We show that the system significantly outperform state-of-the-art in on a challenging real-world dataset.
What was useful about that session? Clients' and therapists' comments after sessions in the UK Alcohol Treatment Trial (UKATT).

AIM
The aim of this study was to report and contrast the aspects of two therapies considered by clients and therapists to be most and least useful.


METHOD
In the UK Alcohol Treatment Trial (UKATT), 742 clients were treated by 49 therapists with up to three sessions of motivational enhancement therapy (MET) or up to eight sessions of social behaviour and network therapy (SBNT). After each treatment session, clients and therapists were asked to independently complete two sentences, one inviting a statement about the 'most useful' and the other about the 'least useful' thing that had happened during the session.


RESULTS
The proportion of 'most useful' sentences completed was greater than the proportion of 'least useful' and equally so for MET and SBNT. The content of comments was significantly different for the two treatments: more comments on social aspects followed SBNT and more motivational comments followed MET, with larger numbers of comments following both treatments that were more general. Clients more often completed 'most useful' sentences than therapists and less often completed 'least useful' sentences. There were a number of differences in the content of their comments: notably more 'most useful' client comments about talking to their therapists, and more therapist comments about client engagement.


CONCLUSIONS
MET and SBNT left distinct impressions on the participants immediately following treatment sessions, adding to the evidence that they are different treatments, and hence deepening the mystery about why outcomes following the two treatments were so similar [UKATT Research Team. (2005) Br Med J 331: 541-58].
Review of CMOS image sensors

The role of CMOS Image Sensors since their birth around the 1960s, has been changing a lot. Unlike the past, current CMOS Image Sensors are becoming competitive with regard to Charged Couple Device (CCD) technology. They offer many advantages with respect to CCD, such as lower power consumption, lower voltage operation, on-chip functionality and lower cost. Nevertheless, they are still too noisy and less sensitive than CCDs. Noise and sensitivity are the key-factors to compete with industrial and scientific CCDs. It must be pointed out also that there are several kinds of CMOS Image sensors, each of them to satisfy the huge demand in different areas, such as Digital photography, industrial vision, medical and space applications, electrostatic sensing, automotive, instrumentation and 3D vision systems. In the wake of that, a lot of research has been carried out, focusing on problems to be solved such as sensitivity, noise, power consumption, voltage operation, speed imaging and dynamic range. In this paper, CMOS Image Sensors are reviewed, providing information on the latest advances achieved, their applications, the new challenges and their limitations. In conclusion, the State-of-the-art of CMOS Image Sensors. q 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Pilot randomized trial of tissue plasminogen activator in acute ischemic stroke. The TPA Bridging Study Group.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Early thrombolytic therapy with recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator is a theoretically attractive approach to the treatment of acute focal cerebral ischemia. In preparation for a larger multicenter trial, three centers piloted a protocol for a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of intravenous recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator begun within 3 hours of the onset of symptoms of acute stroke to test its feasibility and to explore trends.


METHODS
Eligible patients had pretreatment computed tomographic scanning, gave informed consent, and began treatment with either 0.85 mg/kg recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator or placebo as soon as possible, but no later than 180 minutes after stroke onset. Patients were stratified by whether treatment was begun within 90 minutes or 91 to 180 minutes from onset. The primary end point was the proportion of patients in each group who improved by 4 or more points on the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale at 24 hours, as determined by a separate blinded evaluator.


RESULTS
Twenty-seven patients were randomized: 20 (10 recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator, 10 placebo) within 90 minutes, and 7 (4 recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator, 3 placebo) from 91 to 180 minutes. Median baseline Stroke Scale scores were 16 (minimum = 5, maximum = 26) for the recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator-treated group and 11 (minimum = 3, maximum = 21) for the control subjects in the group treated within 90 minutes. Six patients treated with recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator within 90 minutes improved by 4 or more points at 24 hours compared with 1 patient in the placebo group (P < .05, Fisher's Exact Test). Two patients in each group in the 91- to 180-minute arm improved. One fatal intracerebral hemorrhage occurred in the placebo group.


CONCLUSIONS
A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator very early in acute stroke is feasible. Preliminary observations suggest that recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator treatment within 90 minutes may be associated with early neurological improvement. Larger studies are needed so that the potentially serious short-term risks of this treatment can be assessed in relation to meaningful long-term benefit.
Agency theory and corporate governance: a review of the literature from a UK perspective By

This paper attempts to provide an overview of the major literature which has developed in the area of agency theory and corporate governance in the 25 years since Jensen and Meckling’s (1976) groundbreaking article proposing their theory of the firm. A discussion is provided as to why such problems arise within the ‘nexus of contracts’ that Jensen and Meckling describe as characterising the modern corporation and how managers and shareholders may act to control these costs to maximise firm value. The major articles covering areas where manager’s interests are likely to diverge from those of the shareholders who employ them are also reviewed. Papers which have both proposed and empirically tested means by which such conflicts can be resolved are also surveyed. This section also attempts to incorporate international comparisons, with particular reference to several recent published and unpublished academic research in the UK. Finally, some concluding remarks are offered along with some suggestions for future research in the area of corporate governance. JEL Classification: G30.
Printing of complex free-standing microstructures via laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT) of pure metal thin films

Abstract A combined approach of laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT) and chemical etching of pure metal films is studied to fabricate complex, free-standing, 3-dimensional gold structures on the few micron scale. A picosecond pulsed laser source with 515 nm central wavelength is used to deposit metal droplets of copper and gold in a sequential fashion. After transfer, chemical etching in ferric chloride completely removes the mechanical Cu support leaving a final free-standing gold structure. Unprecedented feature sizes of smaller than 10 μm are achieved with surface roughness of 0.3 to 0.7 μm. Formation of interfacial mixing volumes between the two metals is not found confirming the viability of the approach.
Are supine chest and abdominal radiographs the best way to confirm PICC placement in neonates?

BACKGROUND
Peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) are commonly used in NICUs. Although they have many benefits, they also have many potential complications. Confirming catheter tip position is essential to decreasing complications, but the best method to achieve confirmation is unclear.


OBJECTIVES
Literature review for studies that address line position confirmation to assist health care providers in evaluating the available research and to identify gaps in the literature.


METHOD
A literature search of four major databases followed by an ancestry approach was performed. Articles reviewed specifically discuss PICC lines and PICC line placement confirmation.


RESULTS
Data on confirming PICC placement were lacking. Fluoroscopic placement is ideal, but cannot be done at the bedside and is costly. Supine chest radiograph is the most widely used method and is convenient, but when line tip position is unclear, contrast or ultrasound confirmation can be used. When PICC lines are placed in the saphenous vein, infants may benefit from supine and lateral abdominal radiographs to ensure placement in the inferior vena cava.


DISCUSSION
More studies are needed to generalize findings. PICC line tips should be located in the superior vena cava or inferior vena cava close to the junction with the right atrium (0.5-1 cm outside of the cardiac chambers in premature infants and 1-2 cm outside of the cardiac chambers in larger infants). Arm position is very important when performing radiographs for placement because movement of the arm can cause migration of the catheter. There is also significant inter-observer variability when identifying line tip position.
Language selection in bilingual speech: evidence for inhibitory processes.

Although bilinguals rarely make random errors of language when they speak, research on spoken production provides compelling evidence to suggest that both languages are active when only one language is spoken (e.g., [Poulisse, N. (1999). Slips of the tongue: Speech errors in first and second language production. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins]). Moreover, the parallel activation of the two languages appears to characterize the planning of speech for highly proficient bilinguals as well as second language learners. In this paper, we first review the evidence for cross-language activity during single word production and then consider the two major alternative models of how the intended language is eventually selected. According to language-specific selection models, both languages may be active but bilinguals develop the ability to selectively attend to candidates in the intended language. The alternative model, that candidates from both languages compete for selection, requires that cross-language activity be modulated to allow selection to occur. On the latter view, the selection mechanism may require that candidates in the nontarget language be inhibited. We consider the evidence for such an inhibitory mechanism in a series of recent behavioral and neuroimaging studies.