LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Improving inflammatory arthritis management through tighter monitoring of patients and the use of innovative electronic tools

Treating to target by monitoring disease activity and adjusting therapy to attain remission or low disease activity has been shown to lead to improved outcomes in chronic rheumatic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and spondyloarthritis. Patient-reported outcomes, used in conjunction with clinical measures, add an important perspective of disease activity as perceived by the patient. Several validated PROs are available for inflammatory arthritis, and advances in electronic patient monitoring tools are helping patients with chronic diseases to self-monitor and assess their symptoms and health. Frequent patient monitoring could potentially lead to the early identification of disease flares or adverse events, early intervention for patients who may require treatment adaptation, and possibly reduced appointment frequency for those with stable disease. A literature search was conducted to evaluate the potential role of patient self-monitoring and innovative monitoring of tools in optimising disease control in inflammatory arthritis. Experience from the treatment of congestive heart failure, diabetes and hypertension shows improved outcomes with remote electronic self-monitoring by patients. In inflammatory arthritis, electronic self-monitoring has been shown to be feasible in patients despite manual disability and to be acceptable to older patients. Patients' self-assessment of disease activity using such methods correlates well with disease activity assessed by rheumatologists. This review also describes several remote monitoring tools that are being developed and used in inflammatory arthritis, offering the potential to improve disease management and reduce pressure on specialists.
90-Day Mortality after Radical Cystectomy for Bladder Cancer: Prognostic Factors in a Multicenter Case Series.

OBJECTIVES
To identify preoperative risk factors for 90-day mortality and to validate existing nomograms in a multicenter series of patients undergoing radical cystectomy (RC).


MATERIALS AND METHODS
We evaluated 90-day mortality in 475 patients following RC and urinary diversion at 2 Italian institutions and validated Aziz and Isbarn nomogram. Univariable logistic models assessed the predictive ability of operative volume, age at intervention, gender, body mass index, carcinoma in situ at transurethral resection of the bladder, American Society of Anesthesiologist (ASA) score, Charlson Comorbidity Index, clinical stage and pathological stage (TNM).


RESULTS
Of the total number of patients, 387 of them (81%) were male. The median age at RC was 71.8. The most frequent ASA score was 2 (53%). Twenty-five deaths occurred within 90 days (5.3%), all among patients who had undergone RC and incontinent urinary diversion. Risk was higher in patients with advanced disease (OR 2.4); moreover, 90-day mortality odd in 70-79-year-old patients was 13 times higher than those of younger patients (<70). Predictive accuracy using Isbarn's and Aziz's nomogram were 67 and 71%, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Our multicenter study confirmed the moderate predictive value of the Aziz nomogram. Larger studies are needed to improve on existing nomograms with the aim of enhancing preoperative counseling.
Vitamin D and inflammation

Recent studies have provided evidence for an important role of vitamin D deficiency in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the general population, and of an association with markers of inflammation. Vitamin D deficiency, defined by low serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D, is especially prevalent in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Chronic low-grade inflammation is a hallmark of CKD and has been disclosed as one important factor contributing to the progression of CKD and a high cardiovascular comorbidity. This review highlights clinical and experimental studies that could potentially explain a link between vitamin D and inflammation. Whether correction of vitamin D deficiency has beneficial effects on markers of inflammation and cardiovascular outcome should be investigated by controlled clinical trials.
Omitting elective nodal irradiation and irradiating postinduction versus preinduction chemotherapy tumor extent for limited-stage small cell lung cancer: interim analysis of a prospective randomized noninferiority trial.

BACKGROUND
Controversies exist with regard to thoracic radiotherapy volumes for limited-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC). This study compared locoregional progression and overall survival between limited-stage SCLC patients who received thoracic radiotherapy to different target volumes after induction chemotherapy.


METHODS
Chemotherapy consisted of 6 cycles of etoposide and cisplatin. After 2 cycles of etoposide and cisplatin, patients were randomly assigned to receive thoracic radiotherapy to either the postchemotherapy or prechemotherapy tumor extent as study arm or control. Elective nodal irradiation was omitted for both arms. Forty-five Gy/30Fx/19 days thoracic radiotherapy was administered concurrently with cycle 3 chemotherapy. Prophylactic cranial irradiation was administered to patients who achieved complete remission. An interim analysis was planned when the first 80 patients had been followed for at least 6 months, for consideration of potential inferiority in the study arm.


RESULTS
Forty-two and 43 patients were randomly assigned to a study arm and a control, respectively. The local recurrence rates were 31.6% (12 of 38) and 28.6% (12 of 42), respectively (P = .81). The isolated nodal failure rates were 2.6% (1 of 38) and 2.4% (1 of 42), respectively (P = 1.00). All isolated nodal failure sites were in the ipsilateral supraclavicular fossa. Mediastinal N3 was the only factor to predict isolated nodal failure (P = .004; odds ratio [OR], 29.33; 95% CI, 2.94-292.38). One-year and 3-year overall survival rates were 80.6%, 36.2%, and 78.9%, 36.4%, respectively (P = .54).


CONCLUSIONS
Preliminary results indicated that irradiated postchemotherapy tumor extent and omitted elective nodal irradiation did not decrease locoregional control in the study arm, and the overall survival difference was not statistically significant between the 2 arms. Further investigation is warranted.
Human development, poverty, health & nutrition situation in India.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES
Human development index (HDI) is extensively used to measure the standard of living of a country. India made a study progress in the HDI value. Extreme poverty is concentrated in rural areas of northern States while income growth has been dynamic in southern States and urban areas. This study was undertaken to assess the trends in HDI, human poverty index (HPI) and incidence of poverty among Indian states, the socio-economic, health, and diet and nutritional indicators which determine the HDI, changes in protein and calorie adequacy status of rural population, and also trends in malnutrition among children in India.


METHODS
The variations in socio-economic, demographic and dietary indicators by grades of HDI were studied. The trends in poverty and nutrition were also studied. Univariate, bivariate and multivariate analysis were done to analyse data.


RESULTS
While India's HDI value has improved over a time; our rank did not improve much compared to other developing countries. Human poverty has not reduced considerably as per the HPI values. The undernutrition among preschool children is still a major public health problem in India. The incidence of poverty at different levels of calorie requirement has not reduced in both rural and urban areas. The time trends in nutritional status of pre-school children showed that, even though, there is an improvement in stunting over the years, the trend in wasting and underweight has not improved much.


INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSION
Proper nutrition and health awareness are important to tackle the health hazards of developmental transition. Despite several national nutrition programmes in operation, we could not make a significant dent in the area of health and nutrition. The changing dietary practices of the urban population, especially the middle class, are of concern. Further studies are needed to measure the human development and poverty situation of different sections of the population in India using an index, which includes both income indicators and non income indicators.
STABILIZATION OF INTERNAL SPACE IN NONCOMMUTATIVE MULTIDIMENSIONAL COSMOLOGY

We study the cosmological aspects of a noncommutative, multidimensional universe where the matter source is assumed to be a scalar field which does not commute with the internal scale factor. We show that such noncommutativity results in the internal dimensions being stabilized.
Imaging proteins in live mammalian cells with biotin ligase and monovalent streptavidin

This protocol describes a simple and efficient way to label specific cell surface proteins with biophysical probes on mammalian cells. Cell surface proteins tagged with a 15-amino acid peptide are biotinylated by Escherichia coli biotin ligase (BirA), whereas endogenous proteins are not modified. The biotin group then allows sensitive and stable binding by streptavidin conjugates. This protocol describes the optimal use of BirA and streptavidin for site-specific labeling and also how to produce BirA and monovalent streptavidin. Streptavidin is tetravalent and the cross-linking of biotinylated targets disrupts many of streptavidin's applications. Monovalent streptavidin has only a single functional biotin-binding site, but retains the femtomolar affinity, low off-rate and high thermostability of wild-type streptavidin. Site-specific biotinylation and streptavidin staining take only a few minutes, while expression of BirA takes 4 d and expression of monovalent streptavidin takes 8 d.
Series-Input Parallel-Output Modular-Phase DC–DC Converter With Soft-Switching and High-Frequency Isolation

Multiphase soft-switching high-frequency isolated dc-dc converter is proposed for power conversion in modular stacked HVDC power transmission and distribution system. Input-series output-parallel connection of current-fed full-bridge dc-dc converter modules is proposed to increase voltage blocking capability at the input and decrease current ripple at the output. Basic power electronic building block is zero-current switching (ZCS) full-bridge phase-shift pulsewidth-modulated (PWM) dc-dc converter. Phase shift between switches in each leg of the converter is adjusted to control power flow, while phase shift between gate signals of individual phases is selected according to the number of phases in order to minimize ripple of the output voltage. Converter analysis is carried out to develop a simple equivalent boost converter model of the three-phase soft-switching converter suitable for system-level analysis and simulation. Strategies are developed to ensure fast detection of faults and continued operation of the converter in the case of fault in one phase module. To verify the proposed system design and analysis, experimental results on scaled-down laboratory prototype are presented for a three-phase ZCS dc-dc converter.
Infrared Sensors Microcontroller Interface System for Mobile Robots

A mobile robot consists of three main parts: mechanics (motion), hardware (image acquisition, processing and control units) and software (image processing, motion control and decision making). Every robot needs microcontroller(s), sensors and actuators of some type to interact with the world around it. The most often used sensors are able to measure the distance robot-target, or only detect the obstacles. The response time (measuring time) in some cases is important and the weak (point) spot in robot moving. The sensor-microcontroller communication is a technical problem with timing problems. Infrared (IR) and ultrasonic (Sonar) sensors responses from obstacles are non-linear and depends on the reflectance characteristics of the object surface. In this paper is the sensor model described and realized in distance measuring. The experimental results are discussed.
Long-Term Stability of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition

Long-term stability of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-III; D. Wechsler. 1991) was investigated with a sample of 667 students from 33 Slates twice evaluated for special education consideration. With an average test-retest interval of 2.87 years, test-retest reliabil· ity coefficients for the Verbal IQ. Performance IQ. and Full Scale IQ were .87, .87. and .91. respectively (p < .0001). As expected. test-retest reliability coefficients for the subtests were generally lower than for global IQ and factor index scores. Mean differences from first testing to second testing were either not statistically significant or not clinically meaningful. Results provided the highest estimates of long-term stability for the WISC-III yet reported.
Gaussian Processes: A Quick Introduction

Figure 1 illustrates a typical example of a prediction problem: given some noisy observations of a dependent variable at certain values of the independent variable , what is our best estimate of the dependent variable at a new value, ? If we expect the underlying function to be linear, and can make some assumptions about the input data, we might use a least-squares method to fit a straight line (linear regression). Moreover, if we suspect may also be quadratic, cubic, or even nonpolynomial, we can use the principles of model selection to choose among the various possibilities. Gaussian process regression (GPR) is an even finer approach than this. Rather than claiming relates to some specific models (e.g. ), a Gaussian process can represent obliquely, but rigorously, by letting the data ‘speak’ more clearly for themselves. GPR is still a form of supervised learning, but the training data are harnessed in a subtler way. As such, GPR is a less ‘parametric’ tool. However, it’s not completely free-form, and if we’re unwilling to make even basic assumptions about , then more general techniques should be considered, including those underpinned by the principle of maximum entropy; Chapter 6 of Sivia and Skilling (2006) offers an introduction.
Promoting transparency and accountability through ICTs , social media , and collaborative e-government

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which governments build social media and information and communication technologies (ICTs) into e-government transparency initiatives, to promote collaboration with members of the public and the ways in members of the public are able to employ the same social media to monitor government activities. Design/methodology/approach – This study used an iterative strategy that involved conducting a literature review, content analysis, and web site analysis, offering multiple perspectives on government transparency efforts, the role of ICTs and social media in these efforts, and the ability of e-government initiatives to foster collaborative transparency through embedded ICTs and social media. Findings – The paper identifies key initiatives, potential impacts, and future challenges for collaborative e-government as a means of transparency. Originality/value – The paper is one of the first to examine the interrelationships between ICTs, social media, and collaborative e-government to facilitate transparency.
Automatically Finding Patches Using Genetic Programming

Genetic programming is a methodology inspired by biological evolution. By using computational analogs to biological crossover and mutation new versions of a program are generated automatically. This population of new programs is then evaluated by an user defined fittness function to only select the programs that show an improved behavior as compared to the original program. In this case the desired behavior is to retain all original functionality and additionally fixing bugs found in the program code.
Head-Eye movement control tests in patients with chronic neck pain; Inter-observer reliability and discriminative validity

BACKGROUND
Head-eye movement control deficit is an identified problem in patients with chronic neck pain, particularly in cases of whiplash associated disorders (WAD). To date, there is no evidence concerning the reliability and validity of visually assessed active head-eye movement control tests. Therefore, the objectives of the present cross-sectional study were, a) to develop a test battery; and b) to investigate inter-observer reliability and discriminative validity in patients with chronic neck pain compared to healthy controls.


METHODS
The study was conducted at two physiotherapy clinics in Switzerland. Ethics Committee approval was obtained. Ten active head-eye coordination tests, on 23 patients with chronic neck pain and associated symptoms and 19 healthy controls, were videotaped. The tests included eye movements in the neutral head position and 45° relative neck rotation, gaze stability and sequential head-eye movements. All tests were performed in the sitting and standing positions. Two blinded physiotherapists independently rated the randomized videos. Performance was rated as "negative", "moderately positive" or "clearly positive". Weighted kappa (wK) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated to investigate inter-observer reliability. Good reliability was defined as wK >0.5 with a lower boundary of 95% CI >0.2. Odds ratios (to define cut-off points) and the distribution of the classificator, numbers of positive tests, were calculated.


RESULTS
Three out of ten tests showed "excellent" (wK 0.82 to 0.86), five out of ten tests showed "substantial" (wK 0.69 to 0.79) and two out of ten tests showed "moderate" (wK 0.54 to 0.59) reliability. Results were comparable in the sitting and standing positions. On average, three out of five tests were rated positive in patients and one out of five tests was rated positive in healthy controls. An odds ratio of 13.3 to 18.6 was obtained using ≥2/5 tests as a cut-off point.


CONCLUSION
Visual assessment by physiotherapists of head-eye movement control tests is reliable. The test battery is able to discriminate between patients with chronic neck pain and healthy controls. There were no differences in performance between the sitting and standing positions. The test battery can therefore be reduced to five tests. Further research is needed to identify the test-retest stability and responsiveness.
What determines household income of ethnic minorities in North-West Mountains, Vietnam: A microeconometric analysis of household surveys

This paper investigates socio-economic factors affecting household income among ethnic minorities in North-West Mountains – the poorest region of Vietnam. The findings revealed that the vast majority of the sample households heavily depended on agricultural activities, with very limitted access to nonfarm employment. Factors affecting household income were analyzed using multiple regression models and the results confirm the crucial role of education, non-farm employment and fixed assets in improving household income. Also, some community characteristics such as the presence of means of transportation, post offices and nonfarm job opportunities were found to have a significantly positive impact on household income. The findings imply that policies for poverty reduction should aim at both commune and household levels in the study area.
Domain Transfer Through Deep Activation Matching

We introduce a layer-wise unsupervised domain adaptation approach for semantic segmentation. Instead of merely matching the output distributions of the source and target domains, our approach aligns the distributions of activations of intermediate layers. This scheme exhibits two key advantages. First, matching across intermediate layers introduces more constraints for training the network in the target domain, making the optimization problem better conditioned. Second, the matched activations at each layer provide similar inputs to the next layer for both training and adaptation, and thus alleviate covariate shift. We use a Generative Adversarial Network (or GAN) to align activation distributions. Experimental results show that our approach achieves stateof-the-art results on a variety of popular domain adaptation tasks, including (1) from GTA to Cityscapes for semantic segmentation, (2) from SYNTHIA to Cityscapes for semantic segmentation, and (3) adaptations on USPS and MNIST for image classification. 3
Stability and the matrix Lyapunov equation for discrete 2-dimensional systems

The stability of two-dimensional, linear, discrete systems is examined using the 2-D matrix Lyapunov equation. While the existence of a positive definite solution pair to the 2-D Lyapunov equation is sufficient for stability, the paper proves that such existence is not necessary for stability, disproving a long-standing conjecture.
Olfaction: anatomy, physiology, and disease.

The olfactory system is an essential part of human physiology, with a rich evolutionary history. Although humans are less dependent on chemosensory input than are other mammals (Niimura 2009, Hum. Genomics 4:107-118), olfactory function still plays a critical role in health and behavior. The detection of hazards in the environment, generating feelings of pleasure, promoting adequate nutrition, influencing sexuality, and maintenance of mood are described roles of the olfactory system, while other novel functions are being elucidated. A growing body of evidence has implicated a role for olfaction in such diverse physiologic processes as kin recognition and mating (Jacob et al. 2002a, Nat. Genet. 30:175-179; Horth 2007, Genomics 90:159-175; Havlicek and Roberts 2009, Psychoneuroendocrinology 34:497-512), pheromone detection (Jacob et al. 200b, Horm. Behav. 42:274-283; Wyart et al. 2007, J. Neurosci. 27:1261-1265), mother-infant bonding (Doucet et al. 2009, PLoS One 4:e7579), food preferences (Mennella et al. 2001, Pediatrics 107:E88), central nervous system physiology (Welge-Lüssen 2009, B-ENT 5:129-132), and even longevity (Murphy 2009, JAMA 288:2307-2312). The olfactory system, although phylogenetically ancient, has historically received less attention than other special senses, perhaps due to challenges related to its study in humans. In this article, we review the anatomic pathways of olfaction, from peripheral nasal airflow leading to odorant detection, to epithelial recognition of these odorants and related signal transduction, and finally to central processing. Olfactory dysfunction, which can be defined as conductive, sensorineural, or central (typically related to neurodegenerative disorders), is a clinically significant problem, with a high burden on quality of life that is likely to grow in prevalence due to demographic shifts and increased environmental exposures.
Comparison of bioreplaceable interposition arthroplasty with metatarsal head resection of the rheumatoid forefoot.

BACKGROUND
Interposition arthroplasty with bioreplaceable poly-L/D-lactic acid (PLDLA) implants has been studied in Finland with promising results in reconstruction of the rheumatoid hand. We evaluated this material in a series of patients with rheumatoid forefoot deformities.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
Thirty-five patients were randomized to either PLDLA metatarsophalangeal joint interposition arthroplasty group (16 patients) or to conventional metatarsal head resection group (19 patients).


RESULTS
At 3 months after surgery, the function VAS was significantly better in the control group (p = 0.003). The difference disappeared by 12 months. Otherwise, comparison between the two groups did not reveal any statistically significant differences in the AOFAS scores or the pain VAS at 3 or 12 months.


CONCLUSION
Early results after PLDLA interposition arthroplasty of metatarsophalangeal joints were not as promising as previously reported with rheumatoid metacarpophalangeal reconstruction.