LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Evidence for Masturbation and Prostate Cancer Risk: Do We Have a Verdict?

INTRODUCTION
Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the leading causes of cancer death in men and remains one of the most diagnosed malignancies worldwide. Ongoing public health efforts continue to promote protective factors, such as diet, physical activity, and other lifestyle modifications, against PCa development. Masturbation is a nearly universal safe sexual activity that transcends societal boundaries and geography yet continues to be met with stigma and controversy in contemporary society. Although previous studies have examined associations between sexual activity and PCa risk, anecdotal relations have been suggested regarding masturbation practice and PCa risk.


AIM
To provide a summary of the published literature and examine the contemporary evidence for relations between masturbation practice and PCa risk.


METHODS
A survey of the current literature using seven academic electronic databases was conducted using search terms and key words associated with masturbation practice and PCa risk.


MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The practice of masturbation and its relation to PCa risk.


RESULTS
The literature search identified study samples (n = 16) published before October 2015. Sample inclusions varied by study type, sample size, and primary objective. Protective relations (n = 7) between ejaculation through masturbation and PCa risk were reported by 44% of the study sample. Age range emerged as a significant variable in the relation between masturbation and PCa.


CONCLUSION
Findings included relations among masturbation, ejaculation frequency, and age range as individual factors of PCa risk. No universally accepted themes were identified across the study sample. Throughout the sample, there was insufficient agreement in survey design and data reporting. Potential avenues for new research include frequency of ejaculation and age range as covarying factors that could lead to more definitive statements about masturbation practice and PCa risk.
Recurrent neural networks with specialized word embeddings for health-domain named-entity recognition

BACKGROUND
Previous state-of-the-art systems on Drug Name Recognition (DNR) and Clinical Concept Extraction (CCE) have focused on a combination of text "feature engineering" and conventional machine learning algorithms such as conditional random fields and support vector machines. However, developing good features is inherently heavily time-consuming. Conversely, more modern machine learning approaches such as recurrent neural networks (RNNs) have proved capable of automatically learning effective features from either random assignments or automated word "embeddings".


OBJECTIVES
(i) To create a highly accurate DNR and CCE system that avoids conventional, time-consuming feature engineering. (ii) To create richer, more specialized word embeddings by using health domain datasets such as MIMIC-III. (iii) To evaluate our systems over three contemporary datasets.


METHODS
Two deep learning methods, namely the Bidirectional LSTM and the Bidirectional LSTM-CRF, are evaluated. A CRF model is set as the baseline to compare the deep learning systems to a traditional machine learning approach. The same features are used for all the models.


RESULTS
We have obtained the best results with the Bidirectional LSTM-CRF model, which has outperformed all previously proposed systems. The specialized embeddings have helped to cover unusual words in DrugBank and MedLine, but not in the i2b2/VA dataset.


CONCLUSIONS
We present a state-of-the-art system for DNR and CCE. Automated word embeddings has allowed us to avoid costly feature engineering and achieve higher accuracy. Nevertheless, the embeddings need to be retrained over datasets that are adequate for the domain, in order to adequately cover the domain-specific vocabulary.
A Phase I, randomized, placebo-controlled, 3-day, ascending-dose study of GS-9451, an NS3/4A protease inhibitor, in genotype 1 hepatitis C patients.

BACKGROUND
GS-9451 is a novel inhibitor of the HCV NS3/4A protease and demonstrates potent in vitro suppression of HCV genotype 1 replicons.


METHODS
The safety, pharmacokinetics and antiviral efficacy of GS-9451 were evaluated in a Phase I study in treatment-naive, HCV genotype-1-infected patients. Patients were randomized to 3 days of once-daily dosing with placebo (n=8) or GS-9451 60 mg (n=8 genotype 1a), 200 mg (n=8 genotype 1a; n=8 genotype 1b) or 400 mg (n=9 genotype 1a). Plasma samples were collected up to and on day 14 for pharmacokinetic evaluation, serum HCV RNA quantitation and NS3 sequencing.


RESULTS
No patients interrupted or discontinued dosing because of an adverse event. The median (range) maximal HCV RNA reductions from baseline were -0.88 (-1.24- -0.64), -3.19 (-3.31- -2.94) and -3.64 (-4.08- -3.54) log10 IU/ml in genotype 1a patients receiving 60, 200 and 400 mg/day GS-9451, respectively, and -3.48 (-3.54- -3.03) log10 IU/ml in genotype 1b patients receiving GS-9451 200 mg/day. Median half-life ranged from 14 to 17 h. Day 3 mean concentration at the end of dosing interval was 5.5- and 17-fold above protein-binding adjusted mean 50% effective inhibitory concentration in 200 mg and 400 mg cohorts, respectively. No resistance mutations were detected with GS-9451 60 mg/day. In the 200 mg/day or 400 mg/day groups, predominant mutations were NS3 R155 (R155K) in genotype 1a patients and D168 (D168E, D168V and D168G) in genotype 1b patients.


CONCLUSIONS
GS-9451 was well-tolerated. During 3 days of monotherapy, GS-9451 200 mg/day or 400 mg/day demonstrated potent antiviral activity in both HCV genotype 1a- and 1b-infected patients. GS-9451 is currently being evaluated in combination regimens with and without pegylated interferon-α.
Maternal weight gain in different periods of pregnancy and childhood cardio-metabolic outcomes. The Generation R Study

Background:Excessive gestational weight gain seems to be associated with offspring cardio-metabolic risk factors. Little is known about the critical periods of gestational weight gain. We examined the associations of maternal weight gain in different periods of pregnancy with childhood cardio-metabolic risk factors.Methods:In a population-based prospective cohort study from early pregnancy onwards among 5908 mothers and their children, we obtained maternal prepregnancy weight and weight in early, mid and late pregnancy. At the age of 6 years (median: 72.6 months; 95% range: 67.9, 95.8), we measured childhood body mass index (BMI), total body and abdominal fat distribution, blood pressure and blood levels of lipids, insulin and c-peptide.Results:Overall, the associations of maternal prepregnancy weight with childhood outcomes were stronger than the associations of maternal gestational weight gain. Independent from maternal prepregnancy weight and weight gain in other periods, higher weight gain in early pregnancy was associated with higher childhood BMI, total fat mass, android/gynoid fat mass ratio, abdominal subcutaneous fat mass and systolic blood pressure (P-values<0.05). Independent associations of maternal weight gain in early pregnancy with childhood abdominal preperitoneal fat mass, insulin and c-peptide were of borderline significance. Higher weight gain in mid pregnancy was independently associated with higher childhood BMI, total and abdominal subcutaneous fat mass and systolic blood pressure (P-values<0.05). The associations for childhood cardio-metabolic outcomes attenuated after adjustment for childhood BMI. Weight gain in late pregnancy was not associated with childhood outcomes. Higher weight gain in early, but not in mid or late pregnancy, was associated with increased risks of childhood overweight and clustering of cardio-metabolic risk factors (odds ratio (OR) 1.19 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.10, 1.29) and OR 1.20 (95% CI: 1.07, 1.35) per standard deviation increase in early gestational weight gain, respectively).Conclusions:Higher weight gain in early pregnancy is associated with an adverse cardio-metabolic profile in offspring. This association is largely mediated by childhood adiposity.
Calcium imaging and selective computed tomography angiography in comparison to functional testing for suspected coronary artery disease: the multicentre, randomized CRESCENT trial.

AIMS
To compare the effectiveness and safety of a cardiac computed tomography (CT) algorithm with functional testing in patients with symptoms suggestive of coronary artery disease (CAD).


METHODS AND RESULTS
Between April 2011 and July 2013, 350 patients with stable angina, referred to the outpatient clinic of four Dutch hospitals, were prospectively randomized between cardiac CT and functional testing (2 : 1 ratio). The tiered cardiac CT protocol included a calcium scan followed by CT angiography if the Agatston calcium score was between 1 and 400. Patients with test-specific contraindications were not excluded from study participation. By 1 year, fewer patients randomized to cardiac CT reported anginal complaints (P = 0.012). The cumulative radiation dose was slightly higher in the CT group (6.6 ± 8.7 vs. 6.1 ± 9.3 mSv; P < 0.0001). After 1.2 years, event-free survival was 96.7% for patients randomized to CT and 89.8% for patients randomized to functional testing (P = 0.011). After CT, the final diagnosis was established sooner (P < 0.0001), and additional downstream testing was required less frequently (25 vs. 53%, P < 0.0001), resulting in lower cumulative diagnostic costs (€369 vs. €440; P < 0.0001).


CONCLUSION
For patients with suspected stable CAD, a tiered cardiac CT protocol offers an effective and safe alternative to functional testing. Incorporating the calcium scan into the diagnostic workup was safe and lowered diagnostic expenses and radiation exposure.
Fragile Identities: The Colonial Consequences of CJR Le Mesurier in Ceylon

In the colonial narrative there are conforming types that constantly recur to the point of parody. In the colonial narrative there are conforming types that constantly recur to the point of parody. As places of periphery, colonies attracted the existentially displaced and those attempting to remake themselves, what Talleyrand called "restless men who need projects and unfortunate men who need hope".2
Privatization, corporatization, ownership forms and their effects on the performance of the world's major airports

This paper investigates the effects of ownership forms and management structure on the performance of airports around the world. Specifically, we focus on measuring and comparing productive efficiency and profitability among airports owned and operated by government departments, 100% government-owned corporations, independent airport authorities, mixed enterprises with government majority ownership and mixed enterprises with private majority ownership. The key results of our analysis based on an extensive cross-sectional, time-series dataset (2001-2003) for the major Asia-Pacific, European and North American airports are: (1) there is strong evidence that airports with government majority ownership and those owned by multi-level of government are significantly less efficient than airports with a private majority ownership; (2) there is no statistically significant evidence to suggest that airports owned and operated by U.S. government branches, independent airport authorities in North America., or airports elsewhere operated by 100% government corporations have lower operating efficiency than airports with a private majority ownership; (3) airports with a private majority ownership achieve significantly higher operating profit margins than other airports; whereas airports with government majority ownership or multi-level government ownership have the lowest operating profit margin; (4) on average, airports with a private majority ownership derive a much higher proportion (56%) of their total revenue from non-aviation services than any other category of airports while offering significantly lower aeronautical charges than airports in other ownership categories excluding U.S. airports. Our results suggest that private-public-partnership with minority private sector participation and multi-level governments’ ownership should be avoided, supporting the majority private sector ownership and operation of airports.
A duality between Pawlak's knowledge representation systems and bi-consequence systems

A duality between Pawlak's knowledge representation systems and certain information systems of logical type, called bi-consequence systems is established. As an application a first-order characterization of some informational relations is given and a completeness theorem for the corresponding modal logic INF is proved. It is shown that INF possesses finite model property and hence is decidable.
A machine learning model to predict the risk of 30-day readmissions in patients with heart failure: a retrospective analysis of electronic medical records data

BACKGROUND
Heart failure is one of the leading causes of hospitalization in the United States. Advances in big data solutions allow for storage, management, and mining of large volumes of structured and semi-structured data, such as complex healthcare data. Applying these advances to complex healthcare data has led to the development of risk prediction models to help identify patients who would benefit most from disease management programs in an effort to reduce readmissions and healthcare cost, but the results of these efforts have been varied. The primary aim of this study was to develop a 30-day readmission risk prediction model for heart failure patients discharged from a hospital admission.


METHODS
We used longitudinal electronic medical record data of heart failure patients admitted within a large healthcare system. Feature vectors included structured demographic, utilization, and clinical data, as well as selected extracts of un-structured data from clinician-authored notes. The risk prediction model was developed using deep unified networks (DUNs), a new mesh-like network structure of deep learning designed to avoid over-fitting. The model was validated with 10-fold cross-validation and results compared to models based on logistic regression, gradient boosting, and maxout networks. Overall model performance was assessed using concordance statistic. We also selected a discrimination threshold based on maximum projected cost saving to the Partners Healthcare system.


RESULTS
Data from 11,510 patients with 27,334 admissions and 6369 30-day readmissions were used to train the model. After data processing, the final model included 3512 variables. The DUNs model had the best performance after 10-fold cross-validation. AUCs for prediction models were 0.664 ± 0.015, 0.650 ± 0.011, 0.695 ± 0.016 and 0.705 ± 0.015 for logistic regression, gradient boosting, maxout networks, and DUNs respectively. The DUNs model had an accuracy of 76.4% at the classification threshold that corresponded with maximum cost saving to the hospital.


CONCLUSIONS
Deep learning techniques performed better than other traditional techniques in developing this EMR-based prediction model for 30-day readmissions in heart failure patients. Such models can be used to identify heart failure patients with impending hospitalization, enabling care teams to target interventions at their most high-risk patients and improving overall clinical outcomes.
Calibration-Free Approaches for Robust Wi-Fi Positioning against Device Diversity: A Performance Comparison

Received signal strength (RSS) in Wi-Fi networks is commonly employed in indoor positioning systems; however, device diversity is a fundamental problem in such systems. This problem becomes more important in recent years due to the tremendous growth of new Wi-Fi devices, which perform differently in respect to the RSS values and degrade localization performance significantly. Several studies have proposed methods to improve the robustness of positioning systems against device diversity. This paper is primarily concerned with the performance of calibration-free approaches, including signal strength difference (SSD), hyperbolic location fingerprinting (HLF), and DIFF. The performance comparison is based on two Wi-Fi positioning systems in a 3-D indoor building, including a zero-configuration and a fingerprinting-based system. The results show that these calibration-free techniques perform much better than the original RSS with heterogeneous devices. However, the improvement in robustness is gained at the expense of losing some discriminative information. When the testing and training data are both measured from the same device, the performance of HLF and SSD is clearly below that of RSS in both systems. Although DIFF performs the best, it has to suffer from dealing with a space of large dimensions.
Unsaturated and saturated saliency trends in fractional-slot concentrated-winding interior permanent magnet machines

This paper presents an investigation of trends in the unsaturated and saturated magnetic saliency values of interior permanent magnet (IPM) synchronous machines with fractional-slot concentrated windings (FSCW). This paper investigates alternative slot-pole combinations for FSCW-IPM machines, highlighting the key observation that the saliency of these machines is generally lower than their counterpart IPM machines with conventional distributed windings. The relative merits and challenges of FSCW-IPM machines are examined, with a focus on the contribution of reluctance torque to the total machine torque. A key design metric that proves useful in this discussion is “unsaturated saliency ratio”, defined as the ratio Lq/Ld in the limiting case of near zero stator current and “saturated saliency ratio”, defined as the ratio Lq/Ld at high stator current. An important objective is to use this parameter to help machine designers choose the most appropriate slot-pole configuration for an FSCW-IPM machine in order to achieve the desired performance requirements.
Recommendations for training in pediatric psychology: defining core competencies across training levels.

OBJECTIVE
As a field, pediatric psychology has focused considerable efforts on the education and training of students and practitioners. Alongside a broader movement toward competency attainment in professional psychology and within the health professions, the Society of Pediatric Psychology commissioned a Task Force to establish core competencies in pediatric psychology and address the need for contemporary training recommendations. 


METHODS
 The Task Force adapted the framework proposed by the Competency Benchmarks Work Group on preparing psychologists for health service practice and defined competencies applicable across training levels ranging from initial practicum training to entry into the professional workforce in pediatric psychology. 


RESULTS
 Competencies within 6 cluster areas, including science, professionalism, interpersonal, application, education, and systems, and 1 crosscutting cluster, crosscutting knowledge competencies in pediatric psychology, are presented in this report. 


CONCLUSIONS
 Recommendations for the use of, and the further refinement of, these suggested competencies are discussed.
ENERGY EFFICIENT ROUTING PROTOCOL FOR WIRELESS SENSOR

A wireless sensor network involves a group of transducers approach used here is hybrid hierarchical clustering. The proposed protocol is compared with two layer LEACH and performance is analyzed.
Improper ferroelectricity in perovskite oxide artificial superlattices

Ferroelectric thin films and superlattices are currently the subject of intensive research because of the interest they raise for technological applications and also because their properties are of fundamental scientific importance. Ferroelectric superlattices allow the tuning of the ferroelectric properties while maintaining perfect crystal structure and a coherent strain, even throughout relatively thick samples. This tuning is achieved in practice by adjusting both the strain, to enhance the polarization, and the composition, to interpolate between the properties of the combined compounds. Here we show that superlattices with very short periods possess a new form of interface coupling, based on rotational distortions, which gives rise to ‘improper’ ferroelectricity. These observations suggest an approach, based on interface engineering, to produce artificial materials with unique properties. By considering ferroelectric/paraelectric PbTiO3/SrTiO3 multilayers, we first show from first principles that the ground-state of the system is not purely ferroelectric but also primarily involves antiferrodistortive rotations of the oxygen atoms in a way compatible with improper ferroelectricity. We then demonstrate experimentally that, in contrast to pure PbTiO3 and SrTiO3 compounds, the multilayer system indeed behaves like a prototypical improper ferroelectric and exhibits a very large dielectric constant of εr ≈ 600, which is also fairly temperature-independent. This behaviour, of practical interest for technological applications, is distinct from that of normal ferroelectrics, for which the dielectric constant is typically large but strongly evolves around the phase transition temperature and also differs from that of previously known improper ferroelectrics that exhibit a temperature-independent but small dielectric constant only.
Analyzing patterns of user content generation in online social networks

Various online social networks (OSNs) have been developed rapidly on the Internet. Researchers have analyzed different properties of such OSNs, mainly focusing on the formation and evolution of the networks as well as the information propagation over the networks. In knowledge-sharing OSNs, such as blogs and question answering systems, issues on how users participate in the network and how users "generate/contribute" knowledge are vital to the sustained and healthy growth of the networks. However, related discussions have not been reported in the research literature.
 In this work, we empirically study workloads from three popular knowledge-sharing OSNs, including a blog system, a social bookmark sharing network, and a question answering social network to examine these properties. Our analysis consistently shows that (1) users' posting behavior in these networks exhibits strong daily and weekly patterns, but the user active time in these OSNs does not follow exponential distributions; (2) the user posting behavior in these OSNs follows stretched exponential distributions instead of power-law distributions, indicating the influence of a small number of core users cannot dominate the network; (3) the distributions of user contributions on high-quality and effort-consuming contents in these OSNs have smaller stretch factors for the stretched exponential distribution. Our study provides insights into user activity patterns and lays out an analytical foundation for further understanding various properties of these OSNs.