LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Community-level influences on women's experience of intimate partner violence and terminated pregnancy in Nigeria: a multilevel analysis

BACKGROUND
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major public health problem with serious consequences for women's physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health. Reproductive health outcomes such as unwanted and terminated pregnancies, fetal loss or child loss during infancy, non-use of family planning methods, and high fertility are increasingly recognized. However, little is known about the role of community influences on women's experience of IPV and its effect on terminated pregnancy, given the increased awareness of IPV being a product of social context. This study sought to examine the role of community-level norms and characteristics in the association between IPV and terminated pregnancy in Nigeria.


METHODS
Multilevel logistic regression analyses were performed on nationally-representative cross-sectional data including 19,226 women aged 15-49 years in Nigeria. Data were collected by a stratified two-stage sampling technique, with 888 primary sampling units (PSUs) selected in the first sampling stage, and 7,864 households selected through probability sampling in the second sampling stage.


RESULTS
Women who had experienced physical IPV, sexual IPV, and any IPV were more likely to have terminated a pregnancy compared to women who had not experienced these IPV types.IPV types were significantly associated with factors reflecting relationship control, relationship inequalities, and socio-demographic characteristics. Characteristics of the women aggregated at the community level (mean education, justifying wife beating, mean age at first marriage, and contraceptive use) were significantly associated with IPV types and terminated pregnancy.


CONCLUSION
Findings indicate the role of community influence in the association between IPV-exposure and terminated pregnancy, and stress the need for screening women seeking abortions for a history of abuse.
Dysregulation of the right brain: a fundamental mechanism of traumatic attachment and the psychopathogenesis of posttraumatic stress disorder.

OBJECTIVE
This review integrates recent advances in attachment theory, affective neuroscience, developmental stress research, and infant psychiatry in order to delineate the developmental precursors of posttraumatic stress disorder.


METHOD
Existing attachment, stress physiology, trauma, and neuroscience literatures were collected using Index Medicus/Medline and Psychological Abstracts. This converging interdisciplinary data was used as a theoretical base for modelling the effects of early relational trauma on the developing central and autonomic nervous system activities that drive attachment functions.


RESULTS
Current trends that integrate neuropsychiatry, infant psychiatry, and clinical psychiatry are generating more powerful models of the early genesis of a predisposition to psychiatric disorders, including PTSD. Data are presented which suggest that traumatic attachments, expressed in episodes of hyperarousal and dissociation, are imprinted into the developing limbic and autonomic nervous systems of the early maturing right brain. These enduring structural changes lead to the inefficient stress coping mechanisms that lie at the core of infant, child, and adult posttraumatic stress disorders.


CONCLUSIONS
Disorganised-disoriented insecure attachment, a pattern common in infants abused in the first 2 years of life, is psychologically manifest as an inability to generate a coherent strategy for coping with relational stress. Early abuse negatively impacts the developmental trajectory of the right brain, dominant for attachment, affect regulation, and stress modulation, thereby setting a template for the coping deficits of both mind and body that characterise PTSD symptomatology. These data suggest that early intervention programs can significantly alter the intergenerational transmission of posttraumatic stress disorders.
Fault tolerance for token-based synchronization protocols

The contributions of this paper are twofold. First, a general method to support fault tolerance for token-based synchronization protocols in distributed systems is introduced. Contrary to traditional approaches, this new method uses a decentralized approach to recover from node failures under fail-stop conditions. Neither does it require a centralized manager nor broadcast support. Second, the method is demonstrated by adopting the protocol for mutual exclusion by Naimi et al. [21] to tolerate faults. An implementation of the new protocol in a distributed execution environment provides fault detection with fault recovery and false alarm detection. Experiments with different fault injection scenarios underline the feasibility of this new approach. Measurements indicate that our protocol inflicts no overhead in the absence of faults and a factor 5 to 10 overhead in the presence of faults.
Cholecystoenterostomy or Choledochoenterostomy for Distal Bile Duct Obstruction?

A prospective evaluation of computerized estimates of risk in the management of obstructive jaundice. Surgery, 473-6 10. A prospective, randomized clinical trial was conducted to assess the efficacy of bilioenteric bypass in noncalculous distal biliary obstruction. Thirty-one patients required bypass for either malignant obstruction or chronic pancreatitis and were randomized into two groups: cholecystoenterostomy or choledochoenterostomy with cholecystectomy [15,16]. Nine bypasses failed after cholecystoenterostomy and two after choledochoenterostomy (p <0.04). Eight of the 9 failures occurred in the subgroup of 22 patients with malignant biliary obstruction. In this subgroup, five bypasses failed within 90 days of operation, all after cholecystoenterostomy (p 0.03 compared with choledochoenterostomy). The results indicate that choledochoenterostomy is the superior operation for malignant distal biliary obstruction. Additional studies will be necessary to identify the procedure ofchoice for benign noncalculous obstructions. PAPER DISCUSSION The authors are to be congratulated for conceiving and carrying out a prospective, randomized investigation of the values and defects of cholecystoenterostomy and choledochoenterostomy as alternative bypass conduits for patients with obstructive jaundice. All too often, opinions are given about the value of a method of treatment which are not based on good statistical evidence. Futhermore, surgeons are commonly criticized for not using prospective, randomized trials. Thirty-one patients have been included in their trial, 15 undergoing cholecystenterostomy (CCE) and 16 choledochoenterostomy (CDE). Twenty-two of the patients had malignant jaundice, the remaining nine jaundice secondary to chronic pancreatitis. In the malignant group, 19 patients suffered from pancreatic carcinoma. A variety of other procedures, including gastroenterostomy, pancreaticoduodenectomy, colonic resection and gastrectomy were performed as necessary on selected patients. Patients were randomized according to whether the last digit of their social security number was odd or even. To be included in the trial, the patient needed to have evidence of a dilated common bile duct, a gallbladder and
Brain Tumor Extraction from MRI images using a hybridized method of K means Clustering , Watershed segmentation and Morphological operations

449 www.erpublication.org  Abstract—Brain tumor is an uncontrolled growth of tissues in human brain. This tumor, when turns in to cancer becomes life-threatening. For images of human brain different techniques are used to capture image. These techniques involve X-Ray, Computer Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance imaging MRI. For diagnosis, MRI is used to distinguish pathologic tissue from normal tissue, especially for brain related disorders and has more advantages over other techniques. The fundamental aspect that makes segmentation of medical images difficult is the complexity and variability of the anatomy that is being imaged. It may not be possible to locate certain structures without detailed anatomical knowledge. In this paper, a method to extract the brain tumor from the MRI image using clustering and watershed segmentation is proposed. The proposed method combines K-means clustering and watershed segmentation after applying some morphological operations for better results. The major advantage of watershed segmentation is that it is able to construct a complete division of the image but the disadvantages are over segmentation and sensitivity which was overcome by using K-means clustering to produce a primary segmentation of the image.
Improving Outcomes by Implementing a Pressure Ulcer Prevention Program (PUPP): Going beyond the Basics

A multidisciplinary process improvement program was initiated at the University of Miami Hospital (UMH) in 2009 to identify the prevalence of hospital-acquired pressure ulcers (HAPU) at the institution and to implement interventions to reduce the incidence of HAPU. This deliberate and thoughtful committee-driven process evaluated care, monitored results, and designed evidence-based strategic initiatives to manage and reduce the rate of HAPU. As a result all inpatient beds were replaced with support surfaces, updated care delivery protocols were created, and monitored, turning schedules were addressed, and a wound, ostomy, and continence (WOC) nurse and support staff were hired. These initial interventions resulted in a decrease in the prevalence of HAPU at UMH from 11.7% of stage II to IV ulcers in the second quarter, 2009 to 2.1% the third quarter. The rate remained at or near the 2009 UMH benchmark of 3.1% until the first quarter of 2012 when the rate rose to 4.1%. At that time new skin products were introduced into practice and continuing re-education was provided. The rate of HAPU dropped to 2.76% by the second quarter of 2012 and has remained steadily low at 1%-2% for nine consecutive quarters.
Changes in the energy and sodium content of main entrées in US chain restaurants from 2010 to 2011.

BACKGROUND
The food environment shapes individual diets, and as food options change, energy and sodium intake may also shift. Understanding whether and how restaurant menus evolve in response to labeling laws and public health pressures could inform future efforts to improve the food environment.


OBJECTIVES
To track changes in the energy and sodium content of US chain restaurant main entrées between spring 2010 (when the Affordable Care Act was passed, which included a federal menu labeling requirement) and spring 2011.


DESIGN
Nutrition information was collected from top US chain restaurants' websites, comprising 213 unique brands. Descriptive statistics and regression analysis evaluated change across main entrées overall and compared entrées that were added, removed, and unchanged. Tests of means and proportions were conducted for individual restaurant brands to see how many made significant changes. Separate analyses were conducted for children's menus.


RESULTS
Mean energy and sodium did not change significantly overall, although mean sodium was 70 mg lower across all restaurants in added vs removed menu items at the 75th percentile. Changes were specific to restaurant brands or service model: family-style restaurants reduced sodium among higher-sodium entrées at the 75th percentile, but not on average, and entrées still far exceeded recommended limits. Fast-food restaurants decreased mean energy in children's menu entrées by 40 kcal. A few individual restaurant brands made significant changes in energy or sodium, but the vast majority did not, and not all changes were in the healthier direction. Among those brands that did change, there were slightly more brands that reduced energy and sodium compared with those that increased it.


CONCLUSIONS
Industry marketing and pledges may create a misleading perception that restaurant menus are becoming substantially healthier, but both healthy and unhealthy menu changes can occur simultaneously. Our study found no meaningful changes overall across a 1-year time period. Longer-term studies are needed to track changes over time, particularly after the federal menu labeling law is implemented.
Students’ attitudes towards the use of audio visual aids during didactic lectures in pharmacology

Introduction Students favour teaching methods employing audiovisual aids over didactic lectures not using these aids. However, the optimum use of audiovisual aids is essential for deriving their benefits. This study was done to know the students’ preference regarding the various audiovisual aids, with an aim to improve their use in didactic lectures. Methods Two hundred and fifty seven fifth semester medical students were invited to participate in a questionnaire based study. Two hundred and twenty four (87.2%) students completed the questionnaire and their responses were analyzed. The first part of the questionnaire included demographic and educational details. The second part consisted of 12 statements regarding the preference of audiovisual aids for various aspects of learning. Results 41.1% were female students. 85.3% of the students preferred the use of audiovisual aids during didactic lectures. A mixture of audiovisual aids during didactic lectures was preferred (42.4%), especially for understanding a particular topic. Females were more likely to take notes during the class lecture (p<0.001). Males preferred handouts over self made notes (p<0.001). Students from government institutions preferred power point presentations for understanding the subject matter (p=0.03), while those from private schools preferred the blackboard (p=0.04). Conclusion Our study demonstrates that lectures delivered by using a mixture of audio visual aids are more appreciated by the students. Furthermore, the lecture should be constructed in a fashion so as to enable the students to gather factual information easily and in a concise manner. Teachers should note that the students preferred a combination of visual aids and were interested in taking notes during lectures.
FIMO: Framework for Intrinsic Motivation

This paper aims to introduce a flexible framework called FIMO dedicated to intrinsic motivation in developmental robotics. With this framework we want to offer a common way of implementing, testing and analyzing mechanisms related to intrinsically motivated algorithms. It may be seen as a generic complex open source framework for online exploration and structuring of learning spaces. We hereby lay both theoretical and practical foundations of our framework to encourage future experimental studies.
A method for normalizing histology slides for quantitative analysis

Inconsistencies in the preparation of histology slides make it difficult to perform quantitative analysis on their results. In this paper we provide two mechanisms for overcoming many of the known inconsistencies in the staining process, thereby bringing slides that were processed or stored under very different conditions into a common, normalized space to enable improved quantitative analysis.
SemEval 2018 Task 2: Multilingual Emoji Prediction

This paper describes the results of the first shared task on Multilingual Emoji Prediction, organized as part of SemEval 2018. Given the text of a tweet, the task consists of predicting the most likely emoji to be used along such tweet. Two subtasks were proposed, one for English and one for Spanish, and participants were allowed to submit a system run to one or both subtasks. In total, 49 teams participated in the English subtask and 22 teams submitted a system run to the Spanish subtask. Evaluation was carried out emoji-wise, and the final ranking was based on macro F-Score. Data and further information about this task can be found at https://competitions. codalab.org/competitions/17344.
Electronegative Low-Density Lipoprotein Increases C-Reactive Protein Expression in Vascular Endothelial Cells through the LOX-1 Receptor

OBJECTIVES
Increased plasma C-reactive protein (CRP) levels are associated with the occurrence and severity of acute coronary syndrome. We investigated whether CRP can be generated in vascular endothelial cells (ECs) after exposure to the most electronegative subfraction of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), L5, which is atherogenic to ECs. Because L5 and CRP are both ligands for the lectin-like oxidized LDL receptor-1 (LOX-1), we also examined the role of LOX-1.


METHODS AND RESULTS
Plasma LDL samples isolated from asymptomatic hypercholesterolemic (LDL cholesterol [LDL-C] levels, 154.6±20 mg/dL; n = 7) patients and normocholesterolemic (LDL-C levels, 86.1±21 mg/dL; P<0.001; n = 7) control individuals were chromatographically resolved into 5 subfractions, L1-L5. The L5 percentage (L5%) and the plasma L5 concentration ([L5]  =  L5% × LDL-C) in the patient and control groups were 8.1±2% vs. 2.3±1% (P<0.001) and 12.6±4 mg/dL vs. 1.9±1 mg/dL (P<0.001), respectively. In hypercholesterolemic patients treated with atorvastatin for 6 months (10 mg/day), [L5] decreased from 12.6±4 mg/dL to 4.5±1.1 mg/dL (P = 0.011; n = 5), whereas both [L5] and L5% returned to baseline levels in 2 noncompliant patients 3 months after discontinuation. In cultured human aortic ECs (HAECs), L5 upregulated CRP expression in a dose- and time-dependent manner up to 2.5-fold (P<0.01), whereas the least electronegative subfraction, L1, had no effect. DiI-labeled L1, internalized through the LDL receptor, became visible inside HAECs within 30 seconds. In contrast, DiI-labeled L5, internalized through LOX-1, became apparent after 5 minutes. L5-induced CRP expression manifested at 30 minutes and was attenuated by neutralizing LOX-1. After 30 minutes, L5 but not L1 induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Both L5-induced ROS and CRP production were attenuated by ROS inhibitor N-acetyl cysteine.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that CRP, L5, and LOX-1 form a cyclic mechanism in atherogenesis and that reducing plasma L5 levels with atorvastatin disrupts the vascular toxicity of L5.
Effects of a Multicomponent Life-Style Intervention on Weight, Glycemic Control, Depressive Symptoms, and Renal Function in Low-Income, Minority Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: Results of the Community Approach to Lifestyle Modification for Diabetes Randomized Controlled Trial

OBJECTIVE
Few interventions have combined life-style and psychosocial approaches in the context of Type 2 diabetes management. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a multicomponent behavioral intervention on weight, glycemic control, renal function, and depressive symptoms in a sample of overweight/obese adults with Type 2 diabetes and marked depressive symptoms.


METHODS
A sample of 111 adults with Type 2 diabetes were randomly assigned to a 1-year intervention (n = 57) or usual care (n = 54) in a parallel groups design. Primary outcomes included weight, glycosylated hemoglobin, and Beck Depression Inventory II score. Estimated glomerular filtration rate served as a secondary outcome. All measures were assessed at baseline and 6 and 12 months after randomization by assessors blind to randomization. Latent growth modeling was used to examine intervention effects on each outcome.


RESULTS
The intervention resulted in decreased weight (mean [M] = 0.322 kg, standard error [SE] = 0.124 kg, p = .010) and glycosylated hemoglobin (M = 0.066%, SE = 0.028%, p = .017), and Beck Depression Inventory II scores (M = 1.009, SE = 0.226, p < .001), and improved estimated glomerular filtration rate (M = 0.742 ml·min·1.73 m, SE = 0.318 ml·min·1.73 m, p = .020) each month during the first 6 months relative to usual care.


CONCLUSIONS
Multicomponent behavioral interventions targeting weight loss and depressive symptoms as well as diet and physical activity are efficacious in the management of Type 2 diabetes.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
This study is registered at Clinicaltrials.gov ID: NCT01739205.
The RGS2 (-391, C>G) Genetic Variation Correlates to Antihypertensive Drug Responses in Chinese Patients with Essential Hypertension

OBJECTIVE
Regulators of G-protein signaling protein 2 (RGS2) play an irreplaceable role in the control of normal blood pressure (BP). One RGS2 (-391, C>G) genetic variation markedly changes its mRNA expression levels. This study explored the relationship between this genetic variation and the responses to antihypertensive drugs in Chinese patients with essential hypertension.


METHODS
Genetic variations of RGS2 were successfully identified in 367 specimens using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) assays. All patients were treated with conventional doses of antihypertensives after a 2-week run-in period and followed-up according to our protocol. A general linear model multivariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for the data analysis.


RESULTS
A significant difference in the mean systolic BP change was observed between RGS2 (-391, C>G) CC/CG (n = 82) and GG (n = 38) genotype carriers (-13.6 vs. -19.9 mmHg, P = 0.043) who were treated with candesartan, irbesartan or imidapril at the end of 6 weeks. In addition, the patients' BP responses to α,β-adrenergic receptor blockers exhibited an age-specific association with the RGS2 (-391, C>G) genetic variation at the end of 4 weeks.


CONCLUSION
The RGS2 (-391, C>G) genetic polymorphism may serve as a biomarker to predict a patient's response to antihypertensive drug therapy, but future studies need to confirm this.
Gene selection algorithm by combining reliefF and mRMR

Gene expression data usually contains a large number of genes, but a small number of samples. Feature selection for gene expression data aims at finding a set of genes that best discriminate biological samples of different types. In this paper, we present a two-stage selection algorithm by combining ReliefF and mRMR: In the first stage, ReliefF is applied to find a candidate gene set; In the second stage, mRMR method is applied to directly and explicitly reduce redundancy for selecting a compact yet effective gene subset from the candidate set. We perform comprehensive experiments to compare the mRMR-ReliefF selection algorithm with ReliefF, mRMR and other feature selection methods using two classifiers as SVM and Naive Bayes, on seven different datasets. And we also provide all source codes and datasets for sharing with others. The experimental results show that the mRMR-ReliefF gene selection algorithm is very effective.