LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of two commercial omalizumab/free IgE immunoassays: implications of use during therapy.

BACKGROUND
The anti-IgE monoclonal antibody, omalizumab, is approved in the US as add-on therapy for patients ≥12 years of age with moderate-to-severe persistent allergic asthma. Omalizumab is administered according to the US Food and Drug Administration approved dosing table included in the prescribing information. The dosing table was developed using Genentech's free IgE assay and is designed to achieve free serum IgE levels of <50 ng/mL, known to be associated with clinical benefit. Lack of clinical benefit in a subset of patients on omalizumab has prompted demand for commercial free IgE assays to guide omalizumab dosing. To date, two commercial free IgE assays marketed by ViraCor-IBT (no longer offered) and BioTeZ have been available to physicians.


OBJECTIVE
This study compares the results generated from the two commercial free IgE assays with the free IgE levels generated by the Genentech assay.


METHODS
Two serum sample sets were prepared using 20 samples from patients with a wide range of IgE and omalizumab from an omalizumab clinical trial and 36 samples from omalizumab-naïve patients. Different amounts of omalizumab were added to the 36 omalizumab naïve samples based on measured total IgE levels to ensure that a good range of IgE and omalizumab was represented in the study samples. Samples were randomized for blinded analysis of free IgE levels using the Genentech, ViraCor-IBT and BioTeZ free serum IgE assays. Analysis of samples in the ViraCor-IBT assay were conducted by ViraCor-IBT and the analysis of samples using the Genentech and BioTeZ assay methods were conducted by a third party contract research organization.


RESULTS
The ViraCor-IBT and BioTeZ free IgE assays demonstrated significantly higher free IgE levels than the Genentech free IgE assay. Twenty-nine of 56 samples tested <50 ng/mL in the Genentech assay; of these, 12/29 (41%) and 20/29 (69%) tested >50 ng/mL in the BioTeZ and ViraCor-IBT assays, respectively. In the BioTeZ free IgE evaluations, 11/20 samples that were re-tested had inter-assay differences ranging from 40-190%.


CONCLUSIONS
Free ligand (such as IgE) measurements are challenging and dependent on the method and reagents used. The Viracor-IBT and BioTeZ methods tend to over-estimate free serum IgE levels compared with the Genentech free IgE assay. Using these assays to monitor therapy and adjust omalizumab doses post treatment is considered off-label use and could lead to a potential risk for unnecessary treatment and/or risk to patient safety.
The ADHD Concomitant Difficulties Scale (ADHD-CDS), a Brief Scale to Measure Comorbidity Associated to ADHD

INTRODUCTION
Although the critical feature of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity/impulsivity behavior, the disorder is clinically heterogeneous, and concomitant difficulties are common. Children with ADHD are at increased risk for experiencing lifelong impairments in multiple domains of daily functioning. In the present study we aimed to build a brief ADHD impairment-related tool -ADHD concomitant difficulties scale (ADHD-CDS)- to assess the presence of some of the most important comorbidities that usually appear associated with ADHD such as emotional/motivational management, fine motor coordination, problem-solving/management of time, disruptive behavior, sleep habits, academic achievement and quality of life. The two main objectives of the study were (i) to discriminate those profiles with several and important ADHD functional difficulties and (ii) to create a brief clinical tool that fosters a comprehensive evaluation process and can be easily used by clinicians.


METHODS
The total sample included 399 parents of children with ADHD aged 6-18 years (M = 11.65; SD = 3.1; 280 males) and 297 parents of children without a diagnosis of ADHD (M = 10.91; SD = 3.2; 149 male). The scale construction followed an item improved sequential process.


RESULTS
Factor analysis showed a 13-item single factor model with good fit indices. Higher scores on inattention predicted higher scores on ADHD-CDS for both the clinical sample (β = 0.50; p < 0.001) and the whole sample (β = 0.85; p < 0.001). The ROC curve for the ADHD-CDS (against the ADHD diagnostic status) gave an area under the curve (AUC) of.979 (95%, CI = [0.969, 0.990]).


DISCUSSION
The ADHD-CDS has shown preliminary adequate psychometric properties, with high convergent validity and good sensitivity for different ADHD profiles, which makes it a potentially appropriate and brief instrument that may be easily used by clinicians, researchers, and health professionals in dealing with ADHD.
Saving face on Facebook: privacy concerns, social benefits, and impression management

Use of online social networks is nearly ubiquitous. Use of these services generally entails substantial personal disclosure and elicits significant privacy concerns. This research uses Social Exchange Theory and the impression management literature to examine how privacy concerns can be counterbalanced by the perceived social benefits afforded by a social network’s ability to support impression management. We frame social network use as an attempt to engage in impression management, and we highlight the importance of a social network’s impression management capabilities in predicting social benefits from, and use of, a social network. We test our model with a sample of 244 Facebook users, finding strong support for the proposed relationships. Our theory has important implications for researchers and practitioners interested in privacy issues within social networks.
A cluster-randomized controlled trial to study the effectiveness of a protocol-based lifestyle program to prevent type 2 diabetes in people with impaired fasting glucose

BACKGROUND
Effective diabetes prevention strategies that can be implemented in daily practice, without huge amounts of money and a lot of personnel are needed. The Dutch Diabetes Federation developed a protocol for coaching people with impaired fasting glucose (IFG; according to WHO criteria: 6.1 to 6.9 mmol/l) to a sustainable healthy lifestyle change: 'the road map towards diabetes prevention' (abbreviated: Road Map: RM). This protocol is applied within a primary health care setting by a general practitioner and a practice nurse. The feasibility and (cost-) effectiveness of care provided according to the RM protocol will be evaluated.


METHODS/DESIGN
A cluster randomised clinical trial is performed, with randomisation at the level of the general practices. Both opportunistic screening and active case finding took place among clients with high risk factors for diabetes. After IFG is diagnosed, motivated people in the intervention practices receive 3-4 consultations by the practice nurse within one year. During these consultations they are coached to increase the level of physical activity and healthy dietary habits. If necessary, participants are referred to a dietician, physiotherapist, lifestyle programs and/or local sports activities. The control group receives care as usual. The primary outcome measure in this study is change in Body Mass Index (BMI). Secondary outcome measures are waist circumference, physical activity, total and saturated fat intake, systolic blood pressure, blood glucose, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides and behaviour determinants like risk perception, perceived knowledge and motivation. Based on a sample size calculation 120 people in each group are needed. Measurements are performed at baseline, and after one (post-intervention) and two years follow up. Anthropometrics and biochemical parameters are assessed in the practices and physical activity, food intake and their determinants by a validated questionnaire. The cost-effectiveness is estimated by using the Chronic Disease Model (CDM). Feasibility will be tested by interviews among health care professionals.


DISCUSSION
The results of the study will provide valuable information for both health care professionals and policy makers. If this study shows the RM to be both effective and cost-effective the protocol can be implemented on a large scale.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
ISRCTN41209683. Ethical approval number: NL31342.075.10.
On the stability of discrete-time active damping methods for VSI converters with a LCL input filter

The use of LCL filters with VSI converters is interesting since they present good attenuation of current ripple at high frequencies. Nevertheless, they also present a high resonance peak which can cause undesired oscillations, and even instability problems. Passive and Active Damping are methods which try to reduce those resonance effects. In this paper, Passive Damping is briefly reviewed and Active Damping is formally analyzed in continuous-time and, specially, in discrete-time. It will be shown that the one period delay included in sampled-data control systems and the grid impedance play a very important role in stability conditions. The presented results are useful to design discrete-time Active Damping controllers. Moreover, important implications for higher level controls can be deduced since the Active Damping is the first control loop in the power converter's controller.
JML: notations and tools supporting detailed design in Java

JML is a notation for specifying the detailed design of Java classes and interfaces. JML’s assertions are stated using a slight extension of Java’s expression syntax. This should make it easy to use. Tools for JML aid in static analysis, verification, and run-time debugging of Java code.
Biochemistry of Statins.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Elevated blood lipids may be a major risk factor for CVD. Due to consistent and robust association of higher low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol levels with CVD across experimental and epidemiologic studies, therapeutic strategies to decrease risk have focused on LDL-cholesterol reduction as the primary goal. Current medication options for lipid-lowering therapy include statins, bile acid sequestrants, a cholesterol-absorption inhibitor, fibrates, nicotinic acid, and omega-3 fatty acids, which all have various mechanisms of action and pharmacokinetic properties. The most widely prescribed lipid-lowering agents are the HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, or statins. Since their introduction in the 1980s, statins have emerged as the one of the best-selling medication classes to date, with numerous trials demonstrating powerful efficacy in preventing cardiovascular outcomes (Kapur and Musunuru, 2008 [1]). The statins are commonly used in the treatment of hypercholesterolemia and mixed hyperlipidemia. This chapter focuses on the biochemistry of statins including their structures, pharmacokinetics, and mechanism of actions as well as the potential adverse reactions linked to their clinical uses.
Pragmatics in human-computer conversations

This paper provides a pragmatic analysis of some human-computer conversations carried out during the past six years within the context of the Loebner Prize Contest, an annual competition in which computers participate in Turing Tests. The Turing Test posits that to be granted intelligence, a computer should imitate human conversational behavior so well as to be indistinguishable from a real human being. We carried out an empirical study exploring the relationship between computers’ violations of Grice’s cooperative principle and conversational maxims, and their success in imitating human language use. Based on conversation analysis and a large survey, we found that different maxims have different effects when violated, but more often than not, when computers violate the maxims, they reveal their identity. The results indicate that Grice’s cooperative principle is at work during conversations with computers. On the other hand, studying human-computer communication may require some modifications of existing frameworks in pragmatics because of certain characteristics of these conversational environments. Pragmatics constitutes a serious challenge to computational linguistics. While existing programs have other significant shortcomings, it may be that the biggest hurdle in developing computer programs which can successfully carry out conversations will be modeling the ability to ‘cooperate’.
The Paradigm Shift in Mathematics Education: Explanations and Implications of Reforming Conceptions of Teaching and Learning

In this article, we argue that the debates about mathematics education that have arisen in the United States over the past decade are the result of a major shift in how we conceptualize mathematical knowledge and mathematics learning. First, we examine past efforts to change mathematics education and argue they are grounded in a common traditional paradigm. Next, we describe the emergence of a new paradigm that has grown out of a coalescence of theories from cognitive psychology, an awareness of the importance of culture to learning, and the belief that all students can and should learn meaningful mathematics. Reforms grounded in the new paradigm have the potential to dramatically alter the way in which students—as well as which students— experience success in school mathematics. We discuss some implications of these reforms related to how mathematics educators might work with teachers of mathematics.
Case management for blood pressure and lipid level control after minor stroke: PREVENTION randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND
Optimization of systolic blood pressure and lipid levels are essential for secondary prevention after ischemic stroke, but there are substantial gaps in care, which could be addressed by nurse- or pharmacist-led care. We compared 2 types of case management (active prescribing by pharmacists or nurse-led screening and feedback to primary care physicians) in addition to usual care.


METHODS
We performed a prospective randomized controlled trial involving adults with recent minor ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack whose systolic blood pressure or lipid levels were above guideline targets. Participants in both groups had a monthly visit for 6 months with either a nurse or pharmacist. Nurses measured cardiovascular risk factors, counselled patients and faxed results to primary care physicians (active control). Pharmacists did all of the above as well as prescribed according to treatment algorithms (intervention).


RESULTS
Most of the 279 study participants (mean age 67.6 yr, mean systolic blood pressure 134 mm Hg, mean low-density lipoprotein [LDL] cholesterol 3.23 mmol/L) were already receiving treatment at baseline (antihypertensives: 78.1%; statins: 84.6%), but none met guideline targets (systolic blood pressure ≤ 140 mm Hg, fasting LDL cholesterol ≤ 2.0 mmol/L). Substantial improvements were observed in both groups after 6 months: 43.4% of participants in the pharmacist case manager group met both systolic blood pressure and LDL guideline targets compared with 30.9% in the nurse-led group (12.5% absolute difference; number needed to treat = 8, p = 0.03).


INTERPRETATION
Compared with nurse-led case management (risk factor evaluation, counselling and feedback to primary care providers), active case management by pharmacists substantially improved risk factor control at 6 months among patients who had experienced a stroke.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
ClinicalTrials.gov, no. NCT00931788.
Quality improvement guidelines for percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography, biliary drainage, and percutaneous cholecystostomy.

THE membership of the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) Standards of Practice Committee represents experts in a broad spectrum of interventional procedures from both the private and academic sectors of medicine. Generally Standards of Practice Committee members dedicate the vast majority of their professional time to performing interventional procedures; as such they represent a valid broad expert constituency of the subject matter under consideration for standards production.
Non-invasive prenatal testing for trisomies 21, 18 and 13: clinical experience from 146,958 pregnancies.

OBJECTIVES
To report the clinical performance of massively parallel sequencing-based non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) in detecting trisomies 21, 18 and 13 in over 140,000 clinical samples and to compare its performance in low-risk and high-risk pregnancies.


METHODS
Between 1 January 2012 and 31 August 2013, 147,314 NIPT requests to screen for fetal trisomies 21, 18 and 13 using low-coverage whole-genome sequencing of plasma cell-free DNA were received. The results were validated by karyotyping or follow-up of clinical outcomes.


RESULTS
NIPT was performed and results obtained in 146,958 samples, for which outcome data were available in 112,669 (76.7%). Repeat blood sampling was required in 3213 cases and 145 had test failure. Aneuploidy was confirmed in 720/781 cases positive for trisomy 21, 167/218 cases positive for trisomy 18 and 22/67 cases positive for trisomy 13 on NIPT. Nine false negatives were identified, including six cases of trisomy 21 and three of trisomy 18. The overall sensitivity of NIPT was 99.17%, 98.24% and 100% for trisomies 21, 18 and 13, respectively, and specificity was 99.95%, 99.95% and 99.96% for trisomies 21, 18 and 13, respectively. There was no significant difference in test performance between the 72,382 high-risk and 40,287 low-risk subjects (sensitivity, 99.21% vs. 98.97% (P = 0.82); specificity, 99.95% vs. 99.95% (P = 0.98)). The major factors contributing to false-positive and false-negative NIPT results were maternal copy number variant and fetal/placental mosaicism, but fetal fraction had no effect.


CONCLUSIONS
Using a stringent protocol, the good performance of NIPT shown by early validation studies can be maintained in large clinical samples. This technique can provide equally high sensitivity and specificity in screening for trisomy 21 in a low-risk, as compared to high-risk, population.
Combined continuous ethinyl estradiol/norethindrone acetate does not improve forearm blood flow in postmenopausal women at risk for cardiovascular events: a pilot study.

OBJECTIVE
This study sought to determine whether combined continuous ethinyl estradiol and norethindrone acetate, a postmenopausal hormone therapy (HT) combination designed to have fewer side effects than cyclical therapies and therapies using medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), could improve vascular endothelial function in postmenopausal women with risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD).


METHODS
Eighteen postmenopausal women (mean age 62 +/- 11 years) participated in a randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover design trial of 10 microg estradiol/1 mg norethindrone acetate given once daily for 3 months, with a 1-month washout period between placebo and active treatment phases. Vascular reactivity was assessed at each phase of the study using high-frequency brachial artery ultrasound in response to flow-mediated hyperemia, cold pressor testing, and sublingual nitroglycerin. Markers of cardiovascular risk, including cholesterol levels, inflammatory markers, fibrinolytic markers, and solubilized adhesion molecules, were also measured at each phase.


RESULTS
We found no significant difference in vascular reactivity measurements during active treatment with ethinyl estradiol/norethindrone acetate vs. placebo. C-reactive protein (CRP) levels increased significantly during active treatment, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels decreased significantly. Vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) levels declined during active treatment. Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) levels were inversely correlated with flow-mediated hyperemic vascular reactivity, independent of active treatment or placebo phases.


CONCLUSIONS
In this older postmenopausal population with at least one cardiovascular risk factor, treatment with combined continuous ethinyl estradiol and norethindrone acetate failed to improve vascular endothelial function. The agent's proinflammatory effect or subclinical atherosclerosis in this population may have contributed to this finding.
VISTA : A Generic Toolkit for Visualizing Agent Behavior

In order for agent-based technologies to play an effective role in simulation and trainingsynthetic force applications, they must carry outgenerate realistic and believable behaviors that are virtually indistinguishable from what a human actor might do under the same circumstances. However, systems that are capable of such complex behavior necessarily include complex internal representations and The complicated nature of agent-based systems and of their interactions with their environment.s, however, often These complexities makes it difficult to examine and evaluate an agent's internal reasoning processes without extensive knowledge of the technical details of the agent's implementation. The difficulty of conveying an agent's internal reasoning processes to non-technical users and, consequently, of demonstrating the accuracy of the resulting behaviors is a large hurdle in the acceptance of agentbased systems. To address this challenge, we have developed the Visualization Toolkit for Agents (VISTA), which can be used to build visualization tools that provide insight into an agent's internal reasoning processes. Such tools allow agent developers, subject-matter experts, and training supervisors to verify the correctness of an agent's behavior without delving into the technical details of its implementation. VISTA is a generic infrastructure that tries to makes as few commitments as possible to a particular problem domain or agent architecture. VISTA aims to make it easy for agent developers to construct visualization tools for their particular agent technology. In this paper we describe VISTA and illustrate its usefulness by presenting the Situation Awareness Panel (SAP), a particular instantiation of the VISTA framework, that we used to examine the behavior of Soar agents operating in the tactical air combat domain.
A long-term outcome study of selective mutism in childhood.

OBJECTIVE
Controlled study of the long-term outcome of selective mutism (SM) in childhood.


METHOD
A sample of 33 young adults with SM in childhood and two age- and gender-matched comparison groups were studied. The latter comprised 26 young adults with anxiety disorders in childhood (ANX) and 30 young adults with no psychiatric disorders during childhood. The three groups were compared with regard to psychiatric disorder in young adulthood by use of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). In addition, the effect of various predictors on outcome of SM was studied.


RESULTS
The symptoms of SM improved considerably in the entire SM sample. However, both SM and ANX had significantly higher rates for phobic disorder and any psychiatric disorder than controls at outcome. Taciturnity in the family and, by trend, immigrant status and a severity indicator of SM had an impact on psychopathology and symptomatic outcome in young adulthood.


CONCLUSION
This first controlled long-term outcome study of SM provides evidence of symptomatic improvement of SM in young adulthood. However, a high rate of phobic disorder at outcome points to the fact that SM may be regarded as an anxiety disorder variant.
Crossing Cultural Barriers in Research Interviewing

This article critically examines a qualitative research interview in which cultural barriers between a white nonMuslim female interviewer and an African American Muslim interviewee, both from the USA, became evident and were overcome within the same interview. This interview and two follow-up interviews are presented as a 'telling case' about crossing cultural barriers. The analysis focuses on seven phases of the interview (cultural barriers, warming up, crossing the racial barrier, connecting as social workers, connecting as women, connecting as students, and crossing the tape recorder barrier). The discussion outlines the preinterview and during-interview barriers and facilitating conditions and related implications for cross-cultural qualitative research interviewing.