LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Age and gender differences in symptom intensity and symptom clusters among patients with metastatic cancer

Few studies have explored demographic variations in symptom patterns. Our goals were to examine age and gender differences in symptom intensity and symptom clusters among outpatients with advanced cancer. Symptom scores by the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) were collected for patients attending the Oncology Palliative Care Clinics at Princess Margaret Hospital from 2005 to 2007. Symptom intensity was compared between individuals aged ≤60 and >60 years and between males and females. Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to determine inter-relationships of the nine ESAS symptoms and to compare symptom clusters within age and gender subgroups. From a total of 1,358 patients, 49.8% were male and 50.2% were female. The median age was 64 (range 19 to 99): 39.6% were ≤60 and 60.4% were >60. The most common primary cancer sites were gastrointestinal (27%), lung (15%), and breast (11%). Younger patients reported worse pain (4.9 vs. 4.5, p = 0.02) and better appetite (4.7 vs. 5.3, p = 0.002) than older patients. Females reported poorer scores than males for nausea (2.6 vs. 2.2, p = 0.02). Analyses of symptom clusters revealed that fatigue and drowsiness were included in the cluster of pain, nausea, and appetite in younger but not older patients. In men, pain clustered together with depression and anxiety; for women, physical and psychological symptoms formed separate clusters. In patients with advanced cancers, symptom patterns differ according to age and gender. Palliative interventions tailored for symptoms that are more prominent in specific patient subgroups may offer greater therapeutic benefit.
Using L 1 in Teaching Vocabulary to Low English Proficiency Level Students : A Case Study at the National University of Laos

Many English professionals do not seem to pay much attention to the use of L1 in English language classrooms, based on the tenets that English should be taught in English to expose the learners to English which would enhance their knowledge of English and accelerate their learning. While research findings have been inconsistent in relation to this position, the results of the present study found evidence to the contrary. Using 169 students of a low proficiency level, it was found that using learners’ mother tongue (L1) to teach English as a foreign language in Laos enhanced their retention of new vocabulary items both in isolation and in context. This is possibly due to clear definitions and explanations in L1, dictation quiz and translation exercises in the classroom. This would have implications for English professionals.
Improving Speed and Image Quality of Image-Based Rendering. (Amélioration de la Vitesse et de la Qualité d'image du Rendu Basé Image)

ix
Comparison between Adaptive filter Algorithms (LMS, NLMS and RLS)

This paper describes the comparison between adaptive filtering algorithms that is least mean square (LMS), Normalized least mean square (NLMS),Time varying least mean square (TVLMS), Recursive least square (RLS), Fast Transversal Recursive least square (FTRLS). Implementation aspects of these algorithms, their computational complexity and Signal to Noise ratio are examined. These algorithms use small input and output delay. Here, the adaptive behaviour of the algorithms is analyzed. Recently, adaptive filtering algorithms have a nice tradeoff between the complexity and the convergence speed. Three performance criteria are used in the study of these algorithms: the minimum mean square error, the algorithm execution time and the required filter order.
A patient-based assessment of implant-stabilized and conventional complete dentures.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Outcomes of oral implant therapy have been described primarily in terms of implant survival rates and the durability of implant superstructures. Reports of patient-based outcomes of implant therapy have been sparse, and none of these studies have used oral-specific health status measures.


PURPOSE
This study assessed the impact of implant-stabilized prostheses on the health status of complete denture wearers using patient-based, oral-specific health status measures. It also assessed the influence of preoperative expectations on outcome.


MATERIAL AND METHODS
Three experimental groups requesting replacement of their conventional complete dentures completed an Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP) and a validated denture satisfaction scale before treatment. One group received an implant-stabilized prosthesis (IG), and 2 groups received new conventional complete dentures (CDG1 and CDG2). After treatment, all subjects completed the health status measures again; preoperative data were compared with postoperative data.


RESULTS
Before treatment, satisfaction with complete dentures was low in all 3 groups. Subjects requesting implants (IG and CDG1) had high expectations for implant-stabilized prostheses. Improvement in denture satisfaction and OHIP scores was reported by all 3 groups after treatment. Subjects who received their preferred treatment (IG and CDG2 subjects) reported a much greater improvement than CDG1 subjects. Preoperative expectation levels did not appear to influence satisfaction with the outcomes of implant therapy in IG subjects.


CONCLUSION
Subjects who received implants (IG) that replaced conventional complete dentures reported significant improvement after treatment, as did subjects who requested conventional replacement dentures (CDG2). The OHIP appears useful in identifying patients likely to benefit from implant-stabilized prostheses.
Metabolic syndrome: pathophysiology and implications for management of cardiovascular disease.

Case Presentation: E.C. is a 53-year-old postmenopausal female, referred for treatment of hypertension, with a family history of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and coronary heart disease (CHD). Until learning that her blood pressure was “too high” during a routine physical examination, she felt well, and her postmenopausal symptoms had responded to hormone replacement therapy. She was not overweight (her body mass index [BMI] was 23.7 kg/m), and the only abnormality on physical examination was a blood pressure of 145/95 RAR. Laboratory results revealed a normal blood count and urinalysis, with the following fasting plasma concentrations of relevant metabolic variables (in mg/dL): glucose 102, triglycerides (TG) 238, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) 147, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) 52. E.C. is hypertensive and hypertriglyceridemic and at increased risk for CHD. Less obvious is that these metabolic abnormalities are highly likely to be the manifestations of a more fundamental defect—resistance to insulin-mediated glucose disposal and compensatory hyperinsulinemia, changes that greatly increase CHD risk.1,2 The importance of insulin resistance as a CHD risk factor was first explicated in 1998, and the cluster of abnormalities likely to appear as manifestations of the defect in insulin action designated as syndrome X.1 Support for this notion has grown almost as fast as the names used to describe the phenomenon. The Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP III) has recently3 recognized the importance as CHD risk factors of a “constellation of lipid and nonlipid risk factors of metabolic origin,” designated this cluster of abnormalities as “the metabolic syndrome,” and indicated that “this syndrome is closely linked to insulin resistance.” Table 1 lists the criteria the ATP III stipulated be used to diagnose the metabolic syndrome, and a recent report4 has applied these criteria to the database of the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) and estimated that 1 out of 4 adults living in the United States merits this diagnosis. The goal of this presentation is to put into perspective the importance of insulin resistance and compensatory hyperinsulinemia in the pathogenesis and clinical course of CHD, as well as the implications of both the ATP III guidelines concerning the diagnosis of the metabolic syndrome.
A REVIEW ON HILBERT-HUANG TRANSFORM : METHOD AND ITS APPLICATIONS TO GEOPHYSICAL STUDIES

[1] Data analysis has been one of the core activities in scientific research, but limited by the availability of analysis methods in the past, data analysis was often relegated to data processing. To accommodate the variety of data generated by nonlinear and nonstationary processes in nature, the analysis method would have to be adaptive. Hilbert-Huang transform, consisting of empirical mode decomposition and Hilbert spectral analysis, is a newly developed adaptive data analysis method, which has been used extensively in geophysical research. In this review, we will briefly introduce the method, list some recent developments, demonstrate the usefulness of the method, summarize some applications in various geophysical research areas, and finally, discuss the outstanding open problems. We hope this review will serve as an introduction of the method for those new to the concepts, as well as a summary of the present frontiers of its applications for experienced research scientists.
Polarization Reconfigurable Wheel-Shaped Antenna With Conical-Beam Radiation Pattern

This paper introduces a polarization reconfigurable wheel-shaped antenna with wide bandwidth and conical-beam radiation pattern. A wideband circular-monopolar patch surrounded by eight reconfigurable coupling loop stubs can generate conical-beam radiation patterns with different polarizations. This polarization reconfigurable characteristic is realized by controlling PIN diodes on the coupling loop stubs. The center-fed circular patch operates with the vertically-polarized conical-beam radiation and the coupling loop stubs radiate the horizontally-polarized wave propagation. With choosing proper magnitudes and phase differences between the two orthogonal radiations from the monopolar patch and the loop stubs, a circularly-polarized conical-beam radiation can be obtained. In addition, the presence of a back reflector yields a wide axial ratio bandwidth, enhances the front-to-back ratio of the radiation pattern, and avoids EM interferences between DC biasing lines and the antenna. This proposed antenna can generate three types of polarizations with the conical-beam radiation pattern including vertical polarization, left-handed circular polarization, and right-handed circular polarization by controlling the PIN diodes. Measured impedance and axial ratio bandwidths are 28.6% (3.45 to 4.6 GHz) and 15.4% (3.6 to 4.2 GHz), respectively, for the two CP modes. The maximum CP gain is 4.4 dBic. Furthermore, a dual-band operation (3.35 to 3.44 GHz and 4.5 to 4.75 GHz) can be observed for the LP mode. The antenna can operate at the downlink of standard C band (3.625 to 4.2 GHz) for geostationary satellite communication.
Prospective comparison of computed tomography enterography and magnetic resonance enterography for assessment of disease activity and complications in ileocolonic Crohn's disease.

BACKGROUND
Studies comparing magnetic resonance enterography (MRE) and computerized tomography enterography (CTE) for Crohn's disease (CD) are scarce.


METHODS
The aim of this study was to prospectively compare the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of abdominal MRE and CTE to assess disease activity and complications (fistulas, strictures) in ileocolonic CD. A total of 44 patients (23 male; 21 female; mean age 44) with ileocolonic CD underwent both MR and CT in a short time interval (mean 5 days). A 16-slice CT with intravenous contrast and an MRI with oral and paramagnetic intravenous contrast were performed. Ileocolonoscopy was used as the reference standard. Sensitivity values of CT and MR for detection of extraenteric signs of disease were compared with the McNemar test, with results of imaging studies, surgery, and physical examination as reference standards.


RESULTS
No significant differences in sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were observed between MRE and CTE regarding the following parameters at the patient level: localization of CD (P = 1.0), bowel wall thickening (P = 1.0), bowel wall enhancement (P = 1.0), enteroenteric fistulas (P = 0.08), detection of abdominal nodes (P = 1.0), and perivisceral fat enhancement (P = 0.31). MR was significantly superior compared to CT in detecting strictures (P = 0.04). Per segment analysis showed that MRE was significantly superior to CTE in detecting ileal wall enhancement (P = 0.02).


CONCLUSIONS
MR and CT are equally accurate to assess disease activity and bowel damage in CD. MR may be superior to CT in detecting intestinal strictures and ileal wall enhancement. MR may represent an alternative technique to CT in assessing ileocolonic CD.
Sublinear Ambiguity

A context-free grammar G is ambiguous if there is a word that can be generated by G with at least two different derivation trees. Ambiguous grammars are often distinguished by their degree of ambiguity, which is the maximal number of derivation trees for the words generated by them. If there is no such upper bound G is said to be ambiguous of infinite degree. By considering how many derivation trees a word of at most length n may have, we can distinguish context-free grammars with infinite degree of ambiguity by the growth-rate of their ambiguity with respect to the length of the words. It is known that each cycle-free context-free grammar G is either exponentially ambiguous or its ambiguity is bounded by a polynomial. Until now there have only been examples of context-free languages with inherent ambiguity 2 and Θ(n) for each d ∈ N0. In this paper first examples of (linear) context-free languages with nonconstant sublinear ambiguity are presented.
Opening injection pressure consistently detects needle-nerve contact during ultrasound-guided interscalene brachial plexus block.

BACKGROUND
Needle trauma may cause neuropathy after nerve blockade. Even without injection, nerve injury can result from forceful needle-nerve contact (NNC). High opening injection pressures (OIPs) have been associated with intrafascicular needle tip placement and nerve damage; however, the relationship between OIP and NNC is unclear. The authors conducted a prospective, observational study to define this relationship.


METHODS
Sixteen patients scheduled for shoulder surgery under interscalene block were enrolled if they had clear ultrasound images of the brachial plexus roots. A 22-gauge stimulating needle was inserted within 1 mm of the root, and 1-ml D5W injected at 10 ml/min by using an automated pump. OIP was monitored using an in-line pressure manometer and injections aborted if 15 psi or greater. The needle was advanced to displace the nerve slightly (NNC), and the procedure repeated. Occurrence of evoked motor response and paresthesia were recorded.


RESULTS
Fifteen patients had at least one clearly visible root. OIP at 1 mm distance from the nerve was less than 15 psi (mean peak pressure 8.2 ± 2.4 psi) and the 1-ml injection could be completed in all but two cases (3%). In contrast, OIP during NNC was 15 psi or greater (mean peak pressure 20.9 ± 3.7 psi) in 35 of 36 injections. Aborting the injection when OIP reached 15 psi prevented commencement of injection in all cases of NNC except one.


CONCLUSION
High OIP (≥15 psi) consistently detected NNC, suggesting that injection pressure monitoring may be useful in preventing injection against nerve roots during interscalene block.
Validation of noninvasive body sensor network technology in the detection of agitation in dementia.

OBJECTIVE
Agitated behaviors are one of the most frequent reasons that patients with dementia are placed in long-term care settings. This study aims to validate the ability of a custom Body Sensor Network (BSN) to capture the presence of agitation against currently accepted subjective measures, the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI) and the Aggressive Behavior Scale (ABS) and to discriminate between agitation and cognitive decline.


METHODS
Six patients identified as being at high risk for agitated behaviors were enrolled in this study. The devices were applied at three sites for three hours while behaviors were annotated simultaneously and subsequently repeated twice for each enrolled subject.


RESULTS
We found that the BSN was a valid measure of agitation based on construct validity testing and secondary validation using non-parametric ANOVAs.


DISCUSSION
The BSN shows promise from these pilot results. Further testing with a larger sample is needed to replicate these results.
GSM passive radar for medium range surveillance

This paper presents a passive radar system using GSM as illuminator of opportunity. The new feature is the used high performance uniform linear antenna (ULA) for extracting both the reference and the echo signal in a software defined radar. The signal processing steps used by the proposed scheme are detailed and the feasibility of the whole system is proved by measurements.
Prevalence and incidence of clinically recognized cases of Type 1 diabetes in children and adolescents in Rwanda, Africa.

AIMS
To determine prevalence and incidence estimates for clinically recognized cases of Type 1 diabetes from the Life For a Child Program (LFAC) with onset < 26 years in six representative districts, and the capital, of Rwanda.


METHODS
Cases were identified from the LFAC registry and visits to district hospitals. Denominators were calculated from district-level population surveys. Period prevalence data were collected from 1 August 2011 to 31 July 2012 and annual incidence rates were calculated, retrospectively, for 2004-2011. Ninety-five per cent confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated using a Poisson distribution.


RESULTS
The prevalence of known Type 1 diabetes in seven districts in Rwanda for ages < 26 years was 16.4 [95% CI 14.6-18.4]/100 000 and for < 15 years was 4.8 [3.5-6.4]/100 000. Prevalence was higher in females (18.5 [15.8-21.4]/100 000) than males (14.1 [11.8-16.7]/100 000; P = 0.01) and rates increased with age. The annual incidence rate for those < 26 years was stable between 2007 and 2011 with a mean incidence over that time of 2.7 [2.0-3.7]/100 000 ( < 15 years = 1.2 [0.5-2.0]/100 000). Incidence rates were higher in females than males and peaked in males at ages 17 and 22 years and in females at age 18 years.


CONCLUSIONS
Our report of known Type 1 diabetes cases shows lower incidence and prevalence rates in Rwanda than previously reported in the USA and most African countries. Incidence of recognized cases has increased over time, but has recently stabilized. However, the likelihood of missed cases due to death before diagnosis and misdiagnosis is high and therefore more definitive studies are needed.
SE Education: What Academia Can Do

hortly after I graduated, my first supervisor told me, " Welcome to GE, Mike. I hope you enjoyed your five years in college, because now we are going to teach you how to be an engineer. " There I was, a freshly minted electrical engineer, proud of my education, ready to solve the world's problems, and the company that just hired me implied I didn't know anything about engineering. They proceeded to tell me that they would teach me how to design real systems, not just the toy circuits I'd analyzed in school using ide-alized models. Further, they would teach me how industry managed systems development and, in particular, how GE did it in one specific application domain—radar systems. After my initial panic, I realized my education wasn't worth-less—it was my entree into the engineering field. Principled advantages. As a seasoned educator, I think it important that we determine what a principled academic education can offer a future practitioner. Adaptability. A software engineer must deal with constantly changing technology. Academia cannot predict what the next language or technique used by industry will be, but by focusing on fundamentals it can prepare students to assimilate technology quickly and efficiently. A software engineer must be exposed to both the computer science from which technologies arise and numerous examples of applying those fundamentals to real problems. Students should be able to understand what a concept is and how to apply it to real problems. To use that knowledge in different contexts, they must be exposed to more than one technology or method. Most importantly, they must be taught how to place new knowledge in context so they can tune and restructure their existing knowledge to better use the new technology. Industry expects you to adapt; a good education teaches you how. Experimentation. A major part of learning is to learn from your errors. The university is the perfect sheltered environment in which a student can experiment, make mistakes, and learn from them. A good program allows students mistakes, but also teaches the appropriate methods to fix and prevent errors. Practicing software engineers who make too many mistakes or experiment too much will justifiably find themselves with an immediate career change opportunity. Breadth. In its most extreme form, an academic education prepares a student to do nothing but acquire further education. A formal engineering education prepares a student to work in a particular technological …
A Survey of Mobile Cloud Computing Application Models

Smart phones are now capable of supporting a wide range of applications, many of which demand an ever increasing computational power. This poses a challenge because smart phones are resource-constrained devices with limited computation power, memory, storage, and energy. Fortunately, the cloud computing technology offers virtually unlimited dynamic resources for computation, storage, and service provision. Therefore, researchers envision extending cloud computing services to mobile devices to overcome the smartphones constraints. The challenge in doing so is that the traditional smartphone application models do not support the development of applications that can incorporate cloud computing features and requires specialized mobile cloud application models. This article presents mobile cloud architecture, offloading decision affecting entities, application models classification, the latest mobile cloud application models, their critical analysis and future research directions.
Getting to the Meaning of the Regular Past Tense: Evidence from Neuropsychology

Neuropsychological impairments of English past tense processing inform a key debate in cognitive neuroscience concerning the nature of mental mechanisms. Dual-route accounts claim that regular past tense comprehension deficits reflect a specific impairment of morphological decomposition (e.g., jump + ed), disrupting the automatic comprehension of word meaning accessed via the verb stem (e.g., jump). Single-mechanism accounts claim that the deficits reflect a general phonological impairment that affects perception of regular past tense offsets but which might preserve normal activation of verb semantics. We tested four patients with regular past tense deficits and matched controls, using a paired auditory semantic priming/lexical decision task with three conditions: uninflected verbs (hope/wish), regular past tense primes (blamed/accuse), and irregular past tense primes (shook/tremble). Both groups showed significant priming for verbs with simple morphophonology (uninflected verbs and irregular past tenses) but the patients showed no priming for verbs with complex morphophonology (regular past tenses) in contrast to controls. The findings suggest that the patients are delayed in activating the meaning of verbs if a regular past tense affix is appended, consistent with a dual-route account of their deficit.