LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Efficacy of antimicrobial-impregnated external ventricular drain catheters: a prospective, randomized, controlled trial.

OBJECT
Catheter-related infection of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pathways is a potentially life-threatening complication of external ventricular drainage. A major source of infection is bacterial contamination along the external ventricular drain (EVD) catheter track. The authors examined the efficacy of EVD catheters impregnated with minocycline and rifampin in preventing these catheter-related infections.


METHODS
The authors conducted a prospective, randomized clinical trial at six academic medical centers. All hospitalized patients 18 years or older who required placement of an EVD catheter were eligible for inclusion in the study. Patients were randomly assigned to undergo placement of an EVD with a catheter impregnated with minocycline and rifampin or a standard untreated catheter (control group). To assess primary outcome, CSF samples were collected using a sterile technique at the time of catheter insertion, at least every 72 hours while the catheter remained in place, and at the time of catheter removal. At the time of removal, CSF cultures were obtained from the tip and tunneled segments of each catheter by performing semiquantitative roll-plate and quantitative sonication techniques. Of the 306 patients enrolled in the study, data from 288 were included in the final analysis. Eighteen patients were excluded from analysis: 14 because the ventricular catheter was in place less than 24 hours, and four because CSF cultures obtained at the time of catheter insertion were positive for infection. Of these 288 patients, 139 were assigned to the control group and 149 to the treatment group. The two groups were well matched with respect to all clinical characteristics, including patient sex and mean age, indication for catheter placement, and length of time the catheter remained in place. The antibiotic-impregnated catheters were one half as likely to become colonized as the control catheters (17.9 compared with 36.7%, respectively, p < 0.0012). Positive CSF cultures were seven times less frequent in patients with antibiotic-impregnated catheters compared with those in the control group (1.3 compared with 9.4%, respectively, p = 0.002).


CONCLUSIONS
The use of EVD catheters impregnated with minocycline and rifampin can significantly reduce the risk of catheter-related infections.
Quantum power correction to the Newton law

A graviton contribution to the one-loop quantum correction to the Newton law is found. This correction corresponds to an interaction decreasing with distance as 1/r3, in which the graviton contribution numerically dominates. Previous calculations of this contribution to the discussed effect are demonstrated to be incorrect.
Consistent boldness behaviour in early emerging fry of domesticated Atlantic salmon (<ce:italic>Salmo salar</ce:italic>): Decoupling of behavioural and physiological traits of the proactive stress coping style

Individual variation in the way animals cope with stressors has been documented in a number of animal groups. In general, two distinct sets of behavioural and physiological responses to stress have been described: the proactive and the reactive coping styles. Some characteristics of stress coping style seem to be coupled to the time to emerge of fry from spawning redds in natural populations of salmonid fishes. In the present study, behavioural and physiological traits of stress coping styles were compared two and five months after emergence in farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), using individuals with an early or late time to emerge. Initially, compared to late emerging individuals, early emerging individuals showed a shorter time to resume feeding after transfer to rearing in isolation. Resumption of feeding after isolation was suggested to be related to boldness behaviour, rather than hunger, in the present study. This observation was repeated five months after emergence, demonstrating behavioural consistency over time in this trait. However, in other traits of proactive and reactive stress coping styles, such as social status, resting metabolism or post stress cortisol concentrations, early and late emerging individuals did not differ. Therefore, this study demonstrates that boldness in a novel environment is uncoupled from other traits of the proactive and reactive stress coping styles in farmed salmonids. It is possible that this decoupling is caused by the low competitive environment in which fish were reared. In natural populations of salmonids, however, the higher selection pressure at emergence could select for early emerging individuals with a proactive coping style.
Diagnostic and prognostic stratification in the emergency department using urinary biomarkers of nephron damage: a multicenter prospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVES
This study aimed to determine the diagnostic and prognostic value of urinary biomarkers of intrinsic acute kidney injury (AKI) when patients were triaged in the emergency department.


BACKGROUND
Intrinsic AKI is associated with nephron injury and results in poor clinical outcomes. Several urinary biomarkers have been proposed to detect and measure intrinsic AKI.


METHODS
In a multicenter prospective cohort study, 5 urinary biomarkers (urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin, kidney injury molecule-1, urinary liver-type fatty acid binding protein, urinary interleukin-18, and cystatin C) were measured in 1,635 unselected emergency department patients at the time of hospital admission. We determined whether the biomarkers diagnosed intrinsic AKI and predicted adverse outcomes during hospitalization.


RESULTS
All biomarkers were elevated in intrinsic AKI, but urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin was most useful (81% specificity, 68% sensitivity at a 104-ng/ml cutoff) and predictive of the severity and duration of AKI. Intrinsic AKI was strongly associated with adverse in-hospital outcomes. Urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin and urinary kidney injury molecule 1 predicted a composite outcome of dialysis initiation or death during hospitalization, and both improved the net risk classification compared with conventional assessments. These biomarkers also identified a substantial subpopulation with low serum creatinine at hospital admission, but who were at risk of adverse events.


CONCLUSIONS
Urinary biomarkers of nephron damage enable prospective diagnostic and prognostic stratification in the emergency department.
Chipless RFID: Bar Code of the Future

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is a wireless data capturing technique that utilizes radio frequency (RF) waves for automatic identification of objects. RFID relies on RF waves for data transmission between the data carrying device, called the RFID tag, and the interrogator.
Amygdala subregions differentially respond and rapidly adapt to threatening voices

Emotional states can influence the human voice during speech utterances. Here, we tested the sensitivity and signal adaptation of functional activity located in amygdala subregions to threatening voices during high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging. Bilateral superficial (SF) complex and the right laterobasal (LB) complex of the amygdala were generally sensitive to emotional cues from speech prosody. Activity was stronger, however, when listeners directly focused on the emotional prosody of the voice instead of attending to a nonemotional feature. Explicit attention to prosody especially elicited activity in the right LB complex. Furthermore, the right SF specifically showed an effect of sensitization indicated by a significant signal increase in response to emotional voices which were preceded by neutral events. The bilateral SF showed signal habituation to repeated emotional voices indicated by a significant signal decrease for an emotional event preceded by another emotional event. The right SF and LB finally showed an effect of desensitization after the processing of emotional voices indicated by a signal decrease for neutral events that followed emotional events. Thus, different amygdala subregions are sensitive to threatening emotional voices, and their activity depends on the attentional focus as well as on the proximal temporal context of other neutral and emotional events.
Denosumab in treatment-naïve and pre-treated with zoledronic acid postmenopausal women with low bone mass: Effect on bone mineral density and bone turnover markers.

PURPOSE
To compare denosumab-induced changes in lumbar spine (LS) and femoral neck (FN) bone mineral density (BMD), bone markers and free soluble receptor activator of nuclear factor kappaB ligand (sRANKL) between treatment naïve postmenopausal women with low bone mass (naïve group) and those who were previously treated with a single zoledronic acid infusion (post-Zol group).


PROCEDURES
Procollagen type 1N-terminal propeptide (P1NP), C-terminal cross-linking telopeptide of type 1 collagen (CTx) and sRANKL levels were measured in serum samples obtained at baseline and 3, 6 and 12months after denosumab initiation. LS and FN BMD were measured at baseline and 12months.


RESULTS
LS and FN BMD increased significantly in both naïve and post-Zol group (p<0.001 and p=0.025 vs. p<0.001 and p=0.017, respectively). Despite the higher P1NP and CTx levels in naïve patients at baseline (both p<0.001), denosumab caused comparable decreases in both groups at month 3, which returned to post-Zol group baseline levels at month 6 and 12 in all patients. Similarly, sRANKL levels decreased significantly at month 3 in both groups and returned to baseline levels at months 6 and 12.


CONCLUSIONS
In patients previously treated with zoledronic acid, sequential denosumab treatment is effective in terms of BMD increases and bone turnover suppression. Despite the lower baseline levels in patients pre-treated with zoledronic acid, bone markers are similarly decreased in both groups following denosumab administration and maintain their reversibility. Denosumab reversibly suppresses endogenous free sRANKL levels in both naïve and zoledronic acid pre-treated patients.
The validity and reliability of the self-directed learning instrument (SDLI) in mainland Chinese nursing students

BACKGROUND
Self-directed learning is crucial to the professional development of nursing students, and which enables them to expand the knowledge and enhance the quality of their practice. A validated self-directed learning instrument is important not only in assessing the individual's self-directed learning level, but also in evaluating the effectiveness of teaching or learning methods. The aim of this study is to evaluate the validity and reliability of the SDLI in mainland Chinese nursing students.


METHODS
A cross-sectional design with convenience sampling was used to recruit participants from three nursing schools. The mainland Chinese version of SDLI was tested with respect to validity and reliability in 1,499 nursing students, and another 30 nursing students were invited to evaluate the test-retest reliability of the scale in 7 days interval.


RESULTS
Explorary factor analysis identified a four-factor structure, accounting for 56.101% of the total variance. The confirmatory factor analysis showed a good overall fit of this four-factor model. Convergent validity was supported by the highly positive Pearson's correlation between SDLI score and SRSSDL score (r = .876, p = .000). Cronbach's alpha for internal consistency of overall scale was .916, and 4 dimensions were between .755-.825.The test-retest reliability of overall scale was .850, and 4 dimensions were between .708-.821. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of overall scale was .916, and 4 dimensions were .822-.889.


CONCLUSIONS
This study indicates that the SDLI is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing self-directed learning in mainland Chinese nursing students. Nurse educators could use such knowledge to develop their roles and plan to support nursing students in becoming self-directed learners and lifelong learner.
Psychodynamic psychotherapy for children and adolescents: a meta-analysis of short-term psychodynamic models.

OBJECTIVE
Psychodynamically based brief psychotherapy is frequently used in clinical practice for a range of common mental disorders in children and adolescents. To our knowledge, there have been no meta-analyses to evaluate the effectiveness of these therapies.


METHOD
After a broad search, we meta-analyzed controlled outcome studies of short-term psychodynamic psychotherapies (STPP, 40 or fewer sessions). We also performed sensitivity analyses and evaluated the risk of bias in this body of studies.


RESULTS
We found 11 studies with a total of 655 patients covering a broad range of conditions including depression, anxiety disorders, anorexia nervosa, and borderline personality disorder. STPP did not separate from what were mostly robust treatment comparators, but there were some subgroup differences. Robust (g = 1.07, 95% CI = 0.80-1.34) within group effect sizes were observed suggesting the treatment may be effective. These effects increased in follow up compared to post treatment (overall, g = 0.24, 95% CI = 0.00-0.48), suggesting a tendency toward increased gains. Heterogeneity was high across most analyses, suggesting that these data need be interpreted with caution.


CONCLUSION
This review suggests that STPP may be effective in children and adolescents across a range of common mental disorders.
Hypercoagulable state in hypercholesterolemic subjects assessed by platelet-dependent thrombin generation: in vitro effect of cerivastatin.

BACKGROUND
Hypercholesterolemia is an important risk factor to develop acute thrombotic complications of atherosclerosis like to myocardial infarction and ischemic stroke. Platelets and coagulation factors are strictly involved in the genesis of such thrombotic events and their hyperactivity in hypercholesterolemic patients has been previously reported. Moreover some cholesterol-lowering molecules (statins) seem to be able of reducing platelet activity.


METHODS
We performed platelet-dependent thrombin generation (colorimetric method) to assess the coagulative potential of 40 caucasian hypercholesterolemic subjects with respect to normal controls and to the grade of hypercholesterolemia. Moreover we observed the effect of platelets from hypercholesterolemics on thrombin generation in plasma from normal subjects. The effect of Cerivastatin on thrombin generation was evaluated too.


RESULTS
Our data show an increased thrombin generation both in mild and high hypercholesterolemic subjects with respect to controls (424.6+/-30.5 vs. 197.1+/-27.4 mIU/ml). No significant difference in the amount of thrombin generation was found between mild and high hypercholesterolemics (399.6+/-20.7 vs. 440.2+/-21.4 mIU/ml). Platelets directly influence thrombin generation and they present an intrinsic hyperactivity that can be modulated by Cerivastatin (223.6+/-24.8 vs. 424.6+/-30.5 mIU/ml).


CONCLUSIONS
Mild hypercholesterolemia is associated with an increased thrombinic potential that may be considered an added risk factor to develop thrombotic events. Platelets directly influences this hypercoagulative state and Cerivastatin is able to reduce thrombin generation by way of a direct interaction with platelets.
Location-Based Mobile Games

The chapter introduces the book explaining its purposes and significance, framing it within the current literature related to Location-Based Mobile Games. It further clarifies the methodology of the study on the ground of this work and summarizes the content of each chapter.
All You Ever Wanted to Know About the Quantum Zeno Effect in 70 Minutes

This is a primer on the quantum Zeno effect, addressed to students and researchers with no previous knowledge on the subject. The prerequisites are the Schrödinger equation and the von Neumann notion of projective measurement.
A history of schools of marketing thought

Marketing has been practiced since ancient times and has been thought about almost as long. Yet, it is only during the 20th century that marketing ideas evolved into an academic discipline in its own right. Most concepts, issues and problems of marketing thought have coalesced into one of several schools or approaches to understanding marketing. In this article we trace the evolution of 10 schools of marketing thought. At the turn of the 20th century, early in the discipline’s history, the study of functions, commodities, and institutions emerged as complementary modes of thinking about subject matter and became known collectively as the ‘traditional approaches’ to studying marketing; shortly thereafter the interregional trade approach emerged. About mid-century, there was a ‘paradigm shift’ in marketing thought eclipsing the traditional approaches as a number of newer schools developed: marketing management, marketing systems, consumer behavior, macromarketing, exchange, and marketing history. During the mid 1970s, three of the modern schools – marketing management, consumer behavior, and exchange – underwent a ‘paradigm broadening’. The broadened paradigm has bifurcated marketing thought from the conventional domain of business behavior to the much broader domain of all human social behavior. Thus, at the beginning of the 21st century marketing thought is at a crossroads.
Statistics, Measures and Quality Standards for Assessing Digital Reference Library Services: Guidelines and Procedures (review)

This manual is a first effort to begin to identify, describe, and develop procedures for assessing various aspects of digital reference service. Its overall purpose is to improve the quality of digital reference services and assist librarians to design and implement better digital reference services. More specifically, its aim is to: assist librarians and others to develop ongoing programs of assessment of digital reference services; provide a practical set of guidelines and procedures for how assessment of digital reference services can be done; and develop standardized procedures and definitions of statistics and measures that may be compared across different libraries. The first chapter is an introduction that provides a short background discussion on digital reference service, outlines the need for digital reference evaluation, and describes the purpose and format of the manual. The second chapter describes the various statistics and measures selected for inclusion in this manual. The chapter is divided into the following sections: Descriptive Statistics and Measures; Log Analysis; User Satisfaction Measures; Cost; Staff Time Expended; Other Assessment Options; and Quality Standards. Each statistic and measure is described in terms of these general categories: Definition, Rationale, Data Collection Procedures, and Issues and Considerations. Appendixes include sample forms, reports, logs, worksheets and survey instruments; and other statistics and measure considered for the manual. (Contains 14 references.)
Evolving neural network using real coded genetic algorithm (GA) for multispectral image classification

This paper investigates the effectiveness of the genetic algorithm evolved neural network classifier and its application to the land cover classification of remotely sensed multispectral imagery. First, the key issues of the algorithm and the general procedures are described in detail. Our methodology adopts a real coded GA strategy and hybrid with a back propagation (BP) algorithm. The genetic operators are carefully designed to optimize the neural network, avoiding premature convergence and permutation problems. Second, a SPOT-4 XS imagery is employed to evaluate its accuracy. Traditional classification algorithms, such as maximum likelihood classifier, back propagation neural network classifier, are also involved for a comparison purpose. Based on an evaluation of the user’s accuracy and kappa statistic of different classifiers, the superiority of applying the discussed genetic algorithm-based classifier for simple land cover classification using multi-spectral imagery data is established. Thirdly, a more complicate experiment on CBERS (China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite) data and discussion also demonstrates that carefully designed genetic algorithm-based neural network outperforms than gradient descent-based neural network. This has been supported by the analysis of the changes of connection weights and biases of the neural network. Finally, some concluding remarks and suggestions are also presented.
Assessing gender equity in a large academic department of pediatrics.

PURPOSE
To determine the extent of gender inequity in a large academic pediatrics department and to demonstrate an assessment methodology other departments can use.


METHOD
Using deidentified data, the authors evaluated all promotion track faculty in the University of Colorado School of Medicine's Department of Pediatrics in 2009 by five parameters: promotion, tenure, leadership roles, faculty retention, and salary. Outcome metrics included time to promotion and at rank; awards of tenure, time to tenure, and time tenured; departmental leadership positions in 2009; attrition rates from 2000 to 2009; and salary in academic year 2008-2009 compared with national benchmarks.


RESULTS
Women constituted 54% (60/112) of assistant professors and 56% (39/70) of associate professors but only 23% (19/81) of professors. Average years to promotion at each rank and years at assistant and associate professor were identical for men and women; male professors held their rank six years longer. Only 18% (9/50) of tenured faculty were women. Men held 75% (18/24) of section head and 83% (6/7) of vice chair positions; women held 62% (13/21) of medical director positions. More women than men retired as associate professors and resigned/relocated as professors. Women's pay (98% of national median salary) was lower than men's (105% of median) across all ranks and specialties.


CONCLUSIONS
These gender disparities were due in part to women's later start in academics and the resulting lag time in promotion. Differences in the awarding of tenure, assignment of leadership roles, faculty retention, and salary may also have played important roles.