LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Assessing the impact of diabetes on the quality of life of older adults living in a care home: validation of the ADDQoL Senior.

AIMS
Around a quarter of UK care-home residents have diabetes. Diabetes is known to impact quality of life but existing diabetes-specific quality of life measures are unsuitable for elderly care-home residents. We aimed to develop and evaluate a new measure for use with older adults, to be particularly suitable for use with care-home residents: the Audit of Diabetes-Dependent Quality of Life (ADDQoL) Senior*.


METHODS
Content and format changes were made to the 19-domain ADDQoL, informed by related measures for people with visual impairments (12 domain-specific items were retained, four items were revised/added and three items were removed). This revision was modified further following cognitive debriefing interviews with three older adults living in a care home. Psychometric evaluation of the newly developed 17-domain ADDQoL Senior was conducted using data from 90 care-home residents with diabetes who took part in a broader intervention study.


RESULTS
The life domains most impacted by diabetes were 'independence' and 'freedom to eat as I wish'. The ADDQoL Senior demonstrated good factor structure and internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.924). Domain scores were, as expected, significantly intercorrelated.


CONCLUSIONS
The ADDQoL Senior measures the perceived impact of diabetes on quality of life in older adults, and has been found to be suitable for those living in care homes if administered by interview. The scale has demonstrated acceptability and excellent psychometric properties. It is anticipated that the number of items may be reduced in the future if our current findings can be replicated.
A comparative study of standard versus laparoendoscopic single-site surgery (LESS) totally extraperitoneal (TEP) inguinal hernia repair

Laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair has been around since the 1990s. A novel surgical approach known as laparoendoscopic single-site surgery (LESS) has been developed to reduce the port-related morbidities and improve the cosmetic outcomes of laparoscopic surgery, including totally extraperitoneal (TEP) inguinal hernia repair. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the safety and feasibility of the LESS TEP technique for inguinal hernia repair and compare the outcomes with the standard TEP approach. Between January and May 2009, 54 consecutive healthy patients (48 men and 6 women) underwent LESS TEP inguinal hernia repair at our institute. All procedures were performed using our homemade single port for simultaneous passage of the laparoscope and instruments. The perioperative data, including patient age, sex, body mass index (BMI), hernia characteristics, operative time, complications, length of hospital stay, return to normal activity, pain score, and cosmetic result, were prospectively collected. All LESS TEP procedures were completed successfully without conversion to standard laparoscopic or open surgery. A total of 98 LESS TEP hernia repairs were performed in 54 patients and compared with 152 standard TEP operations. The mean operative time was significantly shorter in the standard TEP series (61.8 ± 26.0 vs. 70.9 ± 23.8 min, p = 0.04). Other perioperative parameters, including the length of hospital stay, time until return to full activity, complication rate, pain score, and cosmetic result, were all comparable between the two techniques. Our short-term experience with LESS TEP inguinal hernia repair has shown that in experienced hands, inguinal hernia repair via the LESS TEP technique is as safe as the standard TEP technique. However, based on our evidence, we currently believe that the LESS TEP technique is not an efficacious surgical alternative to the standard TEP technique for inguinal hernias.
Correlation Assessment between Three-Dimensional Facial Soft Tissue Scan and Lateral Cephalometric Radiography in Orthodontic Diagnosis

Purpose. The aim of the present prospective study was to investigate correlations between 3D facial soft tissue scan and lateral cephalometric radiography measurements. Materials and Methods. The study sample comprised 312 subjects of Caucasian ethnic origin. Exclusion criteria were all the craniofacial anomalies, noticeable asymmetries, and previous or current orthodontic treatment. A cephalometric analysis was developed employing 11 soft tissue landmarks and 14 sagittal and 14 vertical angular measurements corresponding to skeletal cephalometric variables. Cephalometric analyses on lateral cephalometric radiographies were performed for all subjects. The measurements were analysed in terms of their reliability and gender-age specific differences. Then, the soft tissue values were analysed for any correlations with lateral cephalometric radiography variables using Pearson correlation coefficient analysis. Results. Low, medium, and high correlations were found for sagittal and vertical measurements. Sagittal measurements seemed to be more reliable in providing a soft tissue diagnosis than vertical measurements. Conclusions. Sagittal parameters seemed to be more reliable in providing a soft tissue diagnosis similar to lateral cephalometric radiography. Vertical soft tissue measurements meanwhile showed a little less correlation with the corresponding cephalometric values perhaps due to the low reproducibility of cranial base and mandibular landmarks.
Building Software Reuse Library with Efficient Keyword based Search Mechanism

Software reuse is the use of existing software components to build a software system. Effective storage and retrieval of software components is much essential in reuse process. The researchers have developed a number of software reuse techniques for storage and retrieval of components. No one technique is complete in its own; every technique has its own merits and demerits. This paper presents a new approach for building software reuse library based on keyword searching for storage and fast retrieval of software components.
Tutorial on Probabilistic Topic Modeling: Additive Regularization for Stochastic Matrix Factorization

Probabilistic topic modeling of text collections is a powerful tool for statistical text analysis. In this tutorial we introduce a novel non-Bayesian approach, called Additive Regularization of Topic Models. ARTM is free of redundant probabilistic assumptions and provides a simple inference for many combined and multi-objective topic models.
Inhaled mannitol improves lung function in cystic fibrosis.

BACKGROUND
The airways in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) are characterized by the accumulation of tenacious, dehydrated mucus that is a precursor for chronic infection, inflammation, and tissue destruction. The clearance of mucus is an integral component of daily therapy. Inhaled mannitol is an osmotic agent that increases the water content of the airway surface liquid, and improves the clearance of mucus with the potential to improve lung function and respiratory health. To this end, this study examined the efficacy and safety of therapy with inhaled mannitol over a 2-week period.


METHODS
This was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study. Thirty-nine subjects with mild-to-moderate CF lung disease inhaled 420 mg of mannitol or placebo twice daily for 2 weeks. Following a 2-week washout period, subjects were entered in the reciprocal treatment arm. Lung function, respiratory symptoms, quality of life, and safety were assessed.


RESULTS
Mannitol treatment increased FEV(1) from baseline by a mean of 7.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.3 to 10.7) compared to placebo 0.3% (95% CI, - 3.4 to 4.0; p < 0.001). The absolute improvement with mannitol therapy was 121 mL (95% CI, 56.3 to 185.7), which was significantly more than that with placebo (0 mL; 95% CI, - 64.7 to 64.7). The forced expiratory flow in the middle half of the FVC increased by 15.5% (95% CI, - 6.5 to 24.6) compared to that with placebo (increase, 0.7%; 95% CI, - 8.3 to 9.7; p < 0.02). The safety profile of mannitol was adequate, and no serious adverse events related to treatment were observed.


CONCLUSIONS
Inhaled mannitol treatment over a period of 2 weeks significantly improved lung function in patients with CF. Mannitol therapy was safe and well tolerated.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
(ClinicalTrials.gov) Identifier: NCT00455130.
Wisdom and the Senses: The Way of Creativity

Erikson explores the crucial role played by the physical senses at every stage of psychological growth from birth to old age. She explores the parallels between the creation of art as we usually define it and the creation of the self.
Effect of Homocysteine-Lowering Nutrients on Blood Lipids: Results from Four Randomised, Placebo-Controlled Studies in Healthy Humans

BACKGROUND
Betaine (trimethylglycine) lowers plasma homocysteine, a possible risk factor for cardiovascular disease. However, studies in renal patients and in obese individuals who are on a weight-loss diet suggest that betaine supplementation raises blood cholesterol; data in healthy individuals are lacking. Such an effect on cholesterol would counteract any favourable effect on homocysteine. We therefore investigated the effect of betaine, of its precursor choline in the form of phosphatidylcholine, and of the classical homocysteine-lowering vitamin folic acid on blood lipid concentrations in healthy humans.


METHODS AND FINDINGS
We measured blood lipids in four placebo-controlled, randomised intervention studies that examined the effect of betaine (three studies, n = 151), folic acid (two studies, n = 75), and phosphatidylcholine (one study, n = 26) on plasma homocysteine concentrations. We combined blood lipid data from the individual studies and calculated a weighted mean change in blood lipid concentrations relative to placebo. Betaine supplementation (6 g/d) for 6 wk increased blood LDL cholesterol concentrations by 0.36 mmol/l (95% confidence interval: 0.25-0.46), and triacylglycerol concentrations by 0.14 mmol/l (0.04-0.23) relative to placebo. The ratio of total to HDL cholesterol increased by 0.23 (0.14-0.32). Concentrations of HDL cholesterol were not affected. Doses of betaine lower than 6 g/d also raised LDL cholesterol, but these changes were not statistically significant. Further, the effect of betaine on LDL cholesterol was already evident after 2 wk of intervention. Phosphatidylcholine supplementation (providing approximately 2.6 g/d of choline) for 2 wk increased triacylglycerol concentrations by 0.14 mmol/l (0.06-0.21), but did not affect cholesterol concentrations. Folic acid supplementation (0.8 mg/d) had no effect on lipid concentrations.


CONCLUSIONS
Betaine supplementation increased blood LDL cholesterol and triacylglycerol concentrations in healthy humans, which agrees with the limited previous data. The adverse effects on blood lipids may undo the potential benefits for cardiovascular health of betaine supplementation through homocysteine lowering. In our study phosphatidylcholine supplementation slightly increased triacylglycerol concentrations in healthy humans. Previous studies of phosphatidylcholine and blood lipids showed no clear effect. Thus the effect of phosphatidylcholine supplementation on blood lipids remains inconclusive, but is probably not large. Folic acid supplementation does not seem to affect blood lipids and therefore remains the preferred treatment for lowering of blood homocysteine concentrations.
Effects of a Circuit Training Program on Muscular and Cardiovascular Endurance and their Maintenance in Schoolchildren


The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a circuit training program along with a maintenance program on muscular and cardiovascular endurance in children in a physical education setting. Seventy two children 10-12 years old from four different classes were randomly grouped into either an experimental group (n = 35) or a control group (n = 37) (two classes for each group). After an eight-week development program carried out twice a week and a four-week detraining period, the experimental group performed a four-week maintenance program once a week. The program included one circuit of eight stations of 15/45 to 35/25 seconds of work/rest performed twice. Abdominal muscular endurance (sit-ups in 30 seconds test), upper-limbs muscular endurance (bent arm hang test), and cardiovascular endurance (20-m endurance shuttle run test) were measured at the beginning and at the end of the development program, and at the end of the maintenance program. After the development program, muscular and cardiovascular endurance increased significantly in the experimental group (p < 0.05). The gains obtained remained after the maintenance program. The respective values did not change in the control group (p > 0.05). The results showed that the circuit training program was effective to increase and maintain both muscular and cardiovascular endurance among schoolchildren. This could help physical education teachers design programs that permit students to maintain fit muscular and cardiovascular endurance levels.
Three-year results from a randomised controlled trial comparing prostheses supported by 5-mm long implants or by longer implants in augmented bone in posterior atrophic edentulous jaws.

PURPOSE
To evaluate whether 5-mm short dental implants could be an alternative to augmentation with anorganic bovine bone and placement of at least 10-mm long implants in posterior atrophic jaws.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
Fifteen patients with bilateral atrophic mandibles (5 mm to 7 mm bone height above the mandibular canal) and 15 patients with bilateral atrophic maxillae (4 mm to 6 mm bone height below the maxillary sinus), and bone thickness of at least 8 mm, were randomised according to a split-mouth design to receive one to three 5-mm short implants or at least 10-mm long implants in augmented bone. Mandibles were vertically augmented with interpositional bone blocks and maxillary sinuses with particulated bone via a lateral window. Implants were placed after 4 months, submerged and loaded, after another 4 months, with provisional prostheses. Four months later, definitive provisionally cemented prostheses were delivered. Outcome measures were: prosthesis and implant failures; any complication and peri-implant marginal bone level changes.


RESULTS
In five augmented mandibles, the planned 10-mm long implants could not be placed and shorter implants (7 mm and 8.5 mm) had to be used instead. Three years after loading, two patients, one treated in the mandible and one in the maxilla, dropped out. Three prostheses (1 mandibular and 2 maxillary) failed in the short implant group versus none in the long implant group. In mandibles, one long implant failed versus two short implants in 1 patient. In maxillae, one long implant failed versus three short implants in 2 patients. There were no statistically significant differences in the failures. Eight patients had 13 complications at short implants (1 patient accounted for 6 complications) and 11 patients had 13 complications at long implants. There were no statistically significant differences in complications (P = 0.63, difference = 0.10, 95% CI from -0.22 to 0.42). Three years after loading, patients with mandibular implants lost on average 1.44 mm at short implants and 1.63 mm at long implants of peri-implant marginal bone. This difference was not statistically significant (difference = 0.24 mm; 95% CI -0.01, 0.49 P = 0.059). In maxillae, patients lost on average 1.02 mm at short implants and 1.54 mm at long implants. This difference was statistically significant (difference = 0.41 mm; 95% CI 0.21, 0.60, P = 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
Three years after loading, 5-mm short implants achieved similar results as longer implants in augmented bone. Short implants might be a preferable choice to vertical bone augmentation, especially in mandibles, since the treatment is faster and cheaper, however there are still insufficient data on the long-term prognosis of short implants.
Automatic feature localisation with constrained local models

We present an efficient and robust method of locating a set of feature points in an object of interest. From a training set we construct a joint model of the appearance of each feature together with their relative positions. The model is fitted to an unseen image in an iterative manner by generating templates using the joint model and the current parameter estimates, correlating the templates with the target image to generate response images and optimising the shape parameters so as to maximise the sum of responses. The appearance model is similar to that used in the Active Appearance Models (AAM) [T.F. Cootes, G.J. Edwards, C.J. Taylor, Active appearance models, in: Proceedings of the 5th European Conference on Computer Vision 1998, vol. 2, Freiburg, Germany, 1998.]. However in our approach the appearance model is used to generate likely feature templates, instead of trying to approximate the image pixels directly. We show that when applied to a wide range of data sets, our Constrained Local Model (CLM) algorithm is more robust and more accurate than the AAM search method, which relies on the image reconstruction error to update the model parameters. We demonstrate improved localisation accuracy on photographs of human faces, magnetic resonance (MR) images of the brain and a set of dental panoramic tomograms. We also show improved tracking performance on a challenging set of in car video sequences. 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Web Personalization Techniques for E-commerce

With the advent of the Internet, there is a dramatic growth of data available on the World Wide Web. To reduce information overload and create customer loyalty, E-commerce businesses use Web Personalization, a significant tool that provides them with important competitive advantages. Despite the growing interest in personalized systems, it is difficult to implement such a system. This is because many business-critical issues must be considered before the appropriate personalization techniques can be identified. In this study, online businesses are classified into a number of categories. After that, personalization techniques that are used nowadays in E-commerce businesses are described. Finally, guidelines for selecting suitable personalization techniques for applications in each E-commerce business domain are proposed. The results of the study suggest that both customer-driven and business-driven personalization systems should be promoted on the site in order to increase customer satisfaction.
Androgenetic alopecia: an evidence-based treatment update.

BACKGROUND
Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is one of the most common chronic problems seen by dermatologists worldwide. It is characterized by progressive hair loss, especially of scalp hair, and has distinctive patterns of loss in women versus men, but in both genders the central scalp is most severely affected. It often begins around puberty and is known to effect self-esteem and the individual's quality of life. In contrast to the high prevalence of AGA, approved therapeutic options are limited. In addition to the scarce pharmacologic treatments, there are numerous nonprescription products claimed to be effective in restoring hair in androgenetic alopecia.


OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this paper is to review published medical and non-medical treatments for male and female AGA using the American College of Physicians evidence assessment methods. MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane Library were searched for systematic reviews, randomized controlled trials, open studies, case reports and relevant studies of the treatment of male and female AGA. The relevant articles were classified according to grade and level of evidence.


RESULTS
The medical treatments with the best level of evidence classification for efficacy and safety for male AGA are oral finasteride and topical minoxidil solution. For female AGA, topical minoxidil solution appears to be the most effective and safe treatment. The medical treatments corresponding to the next level of evidence quality are some commonly used therapeutic non-FDA-approved options including oral and topical anti-hormonal treatments. Surgical treatment of follicular unit hair transplantation is an option in cases that have failed medical treatment although there is high variation in outcomes.


LIMITATIONS
Some articles, especially those concerning traditional herbs claimed to promote hair regrowth, were published in non-English, local journals.


CONCLUSIONS
An assessment of the evidence quality of current publications indicates that oral finasteride (for men only) and topical minoxidil (for men and women) are the best treatments of AGA.
Optimal Choice for Number of Strands in a Litz-Wire Transformer Winding

The number of strands to minimize loss in a litz-wire transformer winding is determined. With fine stranding, the ac resistance factor decreases, but dc resistance increases because insulation occupies more of the window area. A power law to model insulation thickness is combined with standard analysis of proximity-effect losses.
Two Axes Solar Tracker Based on Solar Maps, Controlled by a Low-Power Microcontroller

There are actually several solutions for two axis solar tracking systems using electromechanical devices, in which a controller detects the Sun apparent position, and controls the position of the structure supporting the panels toward the sun by enabling the engines movement. This work studies the solution of two axis solar tracking system based on solar maps, which can predict the exact apparent position of the Sun, by the latitude's location, thereby avoiding the need to use sensors or guidance systems. To accomplish this, it is used a low-power microcontroller, suitably programmed, to control two electric motors to ensure that the panels supporting structure is always oriented towards the sun.
Suture length to wound length ratio and healing of midline laparotomy incisions.

The effect of suture length to wound length ratio on the healing of midline laparotomy wounds closed with a continuous suture was evaluated in a prospective clinical trial. All patients undergoing abdominal procedures through a midline incision were included except those with an incisional hernia after previous midline operation. The total incidence of wound infection was 36 of 454 patients (7.9 per cent) and wound dehiscence requiring reoperation occurred in three patients (0.7 per cent). Incisional hernia was found in 18.7 per cent of 363 patients alive 12 months after surgery. Multivariate analysis identified the suture length to wound length ratio, age and major wound infection as independent risk factors for the development of hernia, which occurred in 9.0 per cent of patients when the suture length to wound length ratio was > or = 4 and in 23.7 per cent (P = 0.001) when it was < 4. The suture length to wound length ratio is an important parameter for healing of midline incisions closed with a continuous suture technique. The incidence of incisional hernia is lower when such wounds are sutured with a ratio > or = 4.