LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Nicotine dependence and symptoms in schizophrenia: naturalistic study of complex interactions.

BACKGROUND
Smoking may have a beneficial effect on either schizophrenic symptoms or antipsychotic side-effects, but studies are hampered by the lack of control of confounding factors.


AIMS
To explore the self-medication hypothesis in a large sample of stable out-patients with schizophrenia.


METHOD
Symptoms, assessed with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), and number of hospitalisations were compared in 250 out-patients with DSM-IV schizophrenia classified into three categories: highly dependent smokers, mildly dependent smokers and non-smokers. Log-linear analysis was used to control for potential confounding and interacting variables.


RESULTS
High PANSS total scores and positive symptoms were less frequent in mildly dependent smokers than in non-smokers or highly dependent smokers. The highly dependent smokers had the worst outcome.


CONCLUSIONS
The data do not generally support the self-medication hypothesis but rather suggest a complex interaction between nicotine dependence and nicotine dependence and schizophrenic symptoms.
Carcinoma ex pleomorphic adenoma of the parotid gland. Study and implications for diagnostics and therapy.

BACKGROUND
Carcinoma ex pleomorphic adenoma (CXPA) is a rare parotid malignancy and until today no standardized concept exists for its therapy apart from recommendations for parotid carcinoma in general. Prognosis is thought to be poorer than for other parotid malignancies. We sought to describe a general diagnostic and therapy strategy and assess factors predicting the outcome.


METHODS
We retrospectively analysed the courses of 22 patients with a CXPA of the parotid gland treated at a tertiary medical care centre for otorhinolaryngology. We examined parameters of medical history, diagnostics, surgical and adjunctive therapy and analysed overall and disease-specific survival.


RESULTS
About half of the patients had evidence of a parotid mass of up to 1 year only while maximum of the others was 48 years. Nine patients were primarily operated without suspicion for malignancy. Both 5-year disease-specific and overall survival were 60%. Recurrence-free survival rate after 5 years was 85%. Any patients with a stage I or II disease had an uneventful follow-up. To date, no patient with a stage IV disease has survived longer than 5 years.


CONCLUSION
Surgical therapy (total or radical parotidectomy) is the method of choice for CXPA of the parotid gland. Stage I tumors have a very good and stage IV tumors a bad prognosis.
The cobas® 6800/8800 System: a new era of automation in molecular diagnostics.

INTRODUCTION
Molecular diagnostics is a key component of laboratory medicine. Here, the authors review key triggers of ever-increasing automation in nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT) with a focus on specific automated Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing and platforms such as the recently launched cobas® 6800 and cobas® 8800 Systems. The benefits of such automation for different stakeholders including patients, clinicians, laboratory personnel, hospital administrators, payers, and manufacturers are described. Areas Covered: The authors describe how molecular diagnostics has achieved total laboratory automation over time, rivaling clinical chemistry to significantly improve testing efficiency. Finally, the authors discuss how advances in automation decrease the development time for new tests enabling clinicians to more readily provide test results. Expert Commentary: The advancements described enable complete diagnostic solutions whereby specific test results can be combined with relevant patient data sets to allow healthcare providers to deliver comprehensive clinical recommendations in multiple fields ranging from infectious disease to outbreak management and blood safety solutions.
Mobile robot position determination using data from gyro and odometry

The research objective is to determine an accurate position and orientation for mobile robots based on information received from odometry and inertial sensors. For a wheeled robot, odometry is one of the important means of achieving the robot position. To improve on odometry's error, the information from odometry is integrated with the inertial system using unscented Kalman filter (UKF).
Effect of combined multiple contexts and multiple stimuli exposure in spider phobia: A randomized clinical trial in virtual reality.

BACKGROUND
Our previous study indicated that treatment in multiple contexts (MC) improved the outcome of exposure treatment by reducing return of fear. This effect was evident when the test was conducted immediately post treatment. In the present study, we conducted a treatment analogue study where we investigated whether an exposure to multiple stimuli (MS) and a combination of both MS and MC would further improve treatment efficacy in the short and long terms.


METHOD
Spider-phobic patients (N = 58) were randomly allocated to one of four groups. Each group received virtual reality (VR) exposure treatment in either one or four different contexts and was exposed to either one or four different spiders. All participants completed both a VR test with a novel spider in a novel context and an in vivo behavioral avoidance test (BAT) pre-, post-treatment and at follow-up.


RESULTS
Short-term but not long-term return of fear was attenuated by multiple context exposure in VR. Long-term effect of fear attenuation was observed only in the MS single context group. In the BAT, the multiple stimuli condition seemed to be more beneficial in both the short and long term. Notably, there was no evidence for superiority of the combined multiple stimuli and contexts condition.


CONCLUSION
Change of contexts during exposure significantly reduced return of fear post treatment; however, similar results could not be observed with a follow-up test. The implementation of multiple stimuli during exposure seems to have both short-term and long-lasting beneficial effects on the treatment outcome. We recommend further investigation of this phenomenon and introduce further possible improvements to our paradigm.
Impaired sexual activity in young ischaemic stroke patients: an observational study.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
The present study sought to determine the impact of stroke on sexual function and well-being in a cohort of young ischaemic stroke patients and identify factors associated with impairment.


METHODS
Over a 2-year period, all patients aged 60 or under with ischaemic stroke or transient ischaemic attack (n = 156) were included. Information on sexual function and well-being was obtained by means of a paper questionnaire mailed to participants 1 year after their stroke. Impaired sexual activity (ISA) was defined as a decline in sexual function and/or satisfaction. Psychological well-being was evaluated on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).


RESULTS
The response rate was 67% (n = 104). Thirty of these responders (29%) reported ISA. Patients with ISA had a higher HADS score (19.7 vs. 11.2 in patients with no impairment; P < 0.001), anxiety score (10.0 vs. 6.3; P < 0.001) and depression score (8.7 vs. 4.8; P < 0.001) and were more likely to have left brain lesions (70% vs. 30%; P < 0.001) and use angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors (73% vs. 31%; P < 0.001) and diuretics (50% vs. 19%; P = 0.003). In a stepwise logistic regression, depression (odds ratio 9.1, 95% confidence interval 2.45-33.46; P = 0.001) and ACE inhibitor use (odds ratio 6.0, 95% confidence interval 2.11-17.28; P = 0.001) were associated with ISA.


CONCLUSIONS
Impaired sexual activity was reported by almost one-third of younger patients 1 year after ischaemic stroke. Factors associated with post-stroke ISA may include specific medications and depression rather than the characteristics of the stroke per se.
Effective exercise for the prevention of falls: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVES
To determine the effects of exercise on falls prevention in older people and establish whether particular trial characteristics or components of exercise programs are associated with larger reductions in falls.


DESIGN
Systematic review with meta-analysis. Randomized controlled trials that compared fall rates in older people who undertook exercise programs with fall rates in those who did not exercise were included.


SETTING
Older people.


PARTICIPANTS
General community and residential care.


MEASUREMENTS
Fall rates.


RESULTS
The pooled estimate of the effect of exercise was that it reduced the rate of falling by 17% (44 trials with 9,603 participants, rate ratio (RR)=0.83, 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.75-0.91, P<.001, I(2)=62%). The greatest relative effects of exercise on fall rates (RR=0.58, 95% CI=0.48-0.69, 68% of between-study variability explained) were seen in programs that included a combination of a higher total dose of exercise (>50 hours over the trial period) and challenging balance exercises (exercises conducted while standing in which people aimed to stand with their feet closer together or on one leg, minimize use of their hands to assist, and practice controlled movements of the center of mass) and did not include a walking program.


CONCLUSION
Exercise can prevent falls in older people. Greater relative effects are seen in programs that include exercises that challenge balance, use a higher dose of exercise, and do not include a walking program. Service providers can use these findings to design and implement exercise programs for falls prevention.
WINNER II Channel Models Part I Channel Models

This deliverable describes WINNER II channel models for link and system level simulations. Both generic and clustered delay line models are defined for selected propagation scenarios. Disclaimer: The channel models described in this deliverable are based on a literature survey and measurements performed during this project. The authors are not responsible for any loss, damage or expenses caused by potential errors or inaccuracies in the models or in the deliverable. Executive Summary This deliverable presents WINNER II channel models for link level and system level simulations of local area, metropolitan area, and wide area wireless communication systems. The models have been evolved from the WINNER I channel models described in WINNER I deliverable D5.4 and WINNER II interim channel models described in deliverable D1.1.1. The covered propagation scenarios are indoor office, large indoor hall, indoor-to-outdoor, urban micro-cell, bad urban micro-cell, outdoor-to-indoor, stationary feeder, suburban macro-cell, urban macro-cell, rural macro-cell, and rural moving networks. The generic WINNER II channel model follows a geometry-based stochastic channel modelling approach, which allows creating of an arbitrary double directional radio channel model. The channel models are antenna independent, i.e., different antenna configurations and different element patterns can be inserted. The channel parameters are determined stochastically, based on statistical distributions extracted from channel measurement. The distributions are defined for, e.g., delay spread, delay values, angle spread, shadow fading, and cross-polarisation ratio. For each channel snapshot the channel parameters are calculated from the distributions. Channel realisations are generated by summing contributions of rays with specific channel parameters like delay, power, angle-of-arrival and angle-of-departure. Different scenarios are modelled by using the same approach, but different parameters. The parameter tables for each scenario are included in this deliverable. Clustered delay line (CDL) models with fixed large-scale and small-scale parameters have also been created for calibration and comparison of different simulations. The parameters of the CDL models are based on expectation values of the generic models. Several measurement campaigns provide the background for the parameterisation of the propagation scenarios for both line-of-sight (LOS) and non-LOS (NLOS) conditions. These measurements were conducted by seven partners with different devices. The developed models are based on both literature and extensive measurement campaigns that have been carried out within the WINNER I and WINNER II projects. The novel features of the WINNER models are its parameterisation, using of the same modelling approach for both indoor and outdoor environments, new scenarios like outdoor-to-indoor and indoor-to-outdoor, …
CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STOCK MARKET AND EXCHANGE RATE , FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES AND VALUE OF TRADE BALANCE : A CASE STUDY FOR INDIA

This paper investigates the nature of the causal relationship between stock prices and macroeconomic aggregates in the foreign sector in India. By applying the techniques of unit–root tests, cointegration and the long–run Granger non–causality test recently proposed by Toda and Yamamoto (1995), we test the causal relationships between the BSE Sensitive Index and the three macroeconomic variables, viz., exchange rate, foreign exchange reserves and value of trade balance using monthly data for the period 1990-91 to 2000-01. The results suggest that there is no causal linkage between stock prices and the three variables under consideration. ________________________________________________________________________ JEL classification: G1, E4
A gesture driven robotic scrub nurse

A gesture driven robotic scrub nurse (GRSN) for the operating room (OR) is presented. The GRSN passes surgical instruments to the surgeon during surgery which reduces the workload of a human scrub nurse. This system offers several advantages such as freeing human nurses to perform concurrent tasks, and reducing errors in the OR due to miscommunication or absence of surgical staff. Hand gestures are recognized from a video stream, converted to instructions, and sent to a robotic arm which passes the required surgical instruments to the surgeon. Experimental results show that 95% of the gestures were recognized correctly. The gesture recognition algorithm presented is robust to changes in scale and rotation of the hand gestures. The system was compared to human task performance and was found to be only 0.83 seconds slower on average.
Complexity of curves

We show that each of the classes of hereditarily locally connected, finitely Suslinian, and Suslinian continua is Π1-complete, while the class of regular continua is Π4-complete.
Effectiveness of a Multimodal Therapy for Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain Regarding Pre-Admission Healthcare Utilization

OBJECTIVE
The aim of the study was to examine the effectiveness of an intensive inpatient three-week multimodal therapy. We focused especially on the impact on the multimodal therapy outcome of the pre-admission number of treatment types patients had received and of medical specialist groups patients had consulted.


METHODS
155 patients with chronic low back pain and indication for multimodal therapy were evaluated with respect to pain intensity, depression, anxiety, well-being, and pre-admission health care utilization. In our controlled clinical trial we compared N = 66 patients on the waiting list with N = 89 patients who received immediate treatment. The waiting list patients likewise attended multimodal therapy after the waiting period. Longitudinal post-treatment data for both were collected at three- and twelve-month follow-ups. The impact of pre-admission health care utilization on multimodal therapy outcome (post) was analysed by structural equation model.


RESULTS
Compared to the control group, multimodal therapy patients' pain intensity and psychological variables were significantly reduced. Longitudinal effects with respect to pre-measures were significant at three-month follow-up for pain intensity (ES = -0.48), well-being (ES = 0.78), anxiety (ES = -0.33), and depression (ES = -0.30). Effect sizes at twelve-month follow-up were small for anxiety (ES = -0.22), and moderate for general well-being (ES = 0.61). Structural equation model revealed that a higher number of pre-admission treatment types was associated with poorer post-treatment outcomes in pain intensity, well-being, and depression.


CONCLUSION
Multimodal therapy proved to be effective with regard to improvements in pain intensity, depression, anxiety, and well-being. The association between treatment effect and number of pre-admission pain treatment types suggests that patients would benefit more from attending multimodal therapy in an earlier stage of health care.
THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION TO DETERMINE THE MICROWAVE CHARACTERISTICS AND APPLICATIONS OF HEXAGONAL MAGNETIC OXIDES TO MICROWAVE CIRCUITRY

Abstract : Identifiers: Resonance isolators. An investigation was made of the properties of hexagonal magnetic oxides and of their application to specific microwave devices. A procedure was developed for the preparation of good, high density, ceramic samples of 9 different Me2Z and Me2Y compounds and a series of (Ni(1-x)Co(x))2W materials. Studies of the degree of orientation of the materials were carried out using x-ray diffraction techniques. The samples prepared were subjected to both static and micr wave evaluation. The measured linewidth was found to be independent of cobalt content over this range of substitutions. A strong dependence of linewidth on degree of orientation was noted. Appropriate members of the nickel-cobalt W series were evaluated in K- and V-band resonance isolators.
Fall prevention in acute care hospitals: a randomized trial.

CONTEXT
Falls cause injury and death for persons of all ages, but risk of falls increases markedly with age. Hospitalization further increases risk, yet no evidence exists to support short-stay hospital-based fall prevention strategies to reduce patient falls.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether a fall prevention tool kit (FPTK) using health information technology (HIT) decreases patient falls in hospitals.


DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS
Cluster randomized study conducted January 1, 2009, through June 30, 2009, comparing patient fall rates in 4 urban US hospitals in units that received usual care (4 units and 5104 patients) or the intervention (4 units and 5160 patients).


INTERVENTION
The FPTK integrated existing communication and workflow patterns into the HIT application. Based on a valid fall risk assessment scale completed by a nurse, the FPTK software tailored fall prevention interventions to address patients' specific determinants of fall risk. The FPTK produced bed posters composed of brief text with an accompanying icon, patient education handouts, and plans of care, all communicating patient-specific alerts to key stakeholders.


MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The primary outcome was patient falls per 1000 patient-days adjusted for site and patient care unit. A secondary outcome was fall-related injuries.


RESULTS
During the 6-month intervention period, the number of patients with falls differed between control (n = 87) and intervention (n = 67) units (P=.02). Site-adjusted fall rates were significantly higher in control units (4.18 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 3.45-5.06] per 1000 patient-days) than in intervention units (3.15 [95% CI, 2.54-3.90] per 1000 patient-days; P = .04). The FPTK was found to be particularly effective with patients aged 65 years or older (adjusted rate difference, 2.08 [95% CI, 0.61-3.56] per 1000 patient-days; P = .003). No significant effect was noted in fall-related injuries.


CONCLUSION
The use of a fall prevention tool kit in hospital units compared with usual care significantly reduced rate of falls.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00675935.
Frailty models in survival analysis

Frailty models have become very popular during the last two decades and their applications are numerous. The focus of the first part of this course is on univariate frailty models meaning random effects models applied to independent event times. Univariate frailty models can be used to adjust Cox regression analysis for unobserved heterogeneity (unobserved covariates). It turns out that unobserved heterogeneity can imply unexpected und surprising results in the analysis of time to event data. Different frailty distributions and their consequences are discussed in detail.
Evaluation of a mobile mindfulness app distributed through on-line stores: A 4-week study

NOTICE: This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in the International Journal of HumanComputer Studies. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms, may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Volume 86, February 2016, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2015.09.004
Examining Security Risks of Mobile Banking Applications through Blog Mining

This paper provides an in-depth review of the security aspect of mobile banking applications. The authors employed blog mining as a research method to analyze blog discussion on security of mobile banking applications. Security risks, protection strategy/best practices and future security trends are summarized to help banks and consumers mitigate the security risks of mobile banking applications.
Inhibition of HGF/SF-induced breast cancer cell motility and invasion by the HGF/SF variant, NK4

NK4 is a variant form of HGF/SF, comprising the N-terminal and subsequent four kringle domains of mature HGF/SF. HGF/SF is a multifunctional cytokine that enhances the metastatic behaviour of tumour cells in vitro by stimulation of the c-met receptor tyrosine kinase and has been implicated in the development of tumour metastasis in vivo. The aims of this study were to further investigate the potential antagonistic effects of the recently described variant form of HGF/SF, NK4, on HGF/SF activity in breast cancer cells. All cell lines used expressed both the HGF/SF receptor gene and protein as shown by RT-PCR and Western blotting. NK4 inhibited HGF/SF-induced tumour cell invasion through an artificial basement membrane. Tumour cell motility and scattering induced by HGF/SF were also dramatically reduced by the inclusion of NK4. Immunoprecipitation studies revealed that NK4 inhibited the phosphorylation of the c-met receptor in response to HGF/SF. Treatment of these cells with NK4 alone did not have any significant effects on their metastatic behaviour. From this data we conclude that NK4 demonstrates significant antagonistic properties towards HGF/SF, inhibiting HGF/SF-stimulated breast tumour cell invasion, motility and migration. NK4 may therefore be of potential benefit in the development of anti-metastasis therapies.
A Survey on Hate Speech Detection using Natural Language Processing

This paper presents a survey on hate speech detection. Given the steadily growing body of social media content, the amount of online hate speech is also increasing. Due to the massive scale of the web, methods that automatically detect hate speech are required. Our survey describes key areas that have been explored to automatically recognize these types of utterances using natural language processing. We also discuss limits of those approaches.
Refactoring to Patterns

class Loan { ... protected Loan(...) { ... } } public class TermLoan extends Loan { public TermLoan(...) { super(...); } } public class Revolver extends Loan { public Revolver(...) { super(...); } } public class RCTL extends Loan { public RCTL(...) super(...); } } Refactoring To Patterns, Copyright © 2001, Joshua Kerievsky, Industrial Logic, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Page 17 of 87 The abstract Loan superclass constructor is protected, and the constructors for the three subclasses are public. We’ll focus on the TermLoan class. The first step is to protect its constructor: public class TermLoan extends Loan { protected TermLoan(...){