LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Prevalence of uncontrolled severe persistent asthma in pneumology and allergy hospital units in Spain.

BACKGROUND
Severe persistent asthma is often poorly controlled and its prevalence in pneumology and allergy hospital units in Spain is unknown.


OBJECTIVES
To determine the prevalence of uncontrolled severe persistent asthma in hospital units in Spain and to describe the clinical characteristics of this condition.


METHODS
An observational, cross-sectional study was conducted in 164 Spanish hospital pneumology and allergology units. A record was made of all patients with asthma and patients with uncontrolled severe asthma (diagnosed on the basis of clinical criteria) seen in these units over 6 months. Information on sociodemographic variables, clinical characteristics, pharmacological asthma treatment, skin prick testing, total serum immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels, pulmonary function (forced expiratory volume in the first second and forced vital capacity), asthma control (Asthma Control Questionnaire [ACQ]), and quality of life (Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire) was collected.


RESULTS
According to the clinicians' judgement, 1423 out of 36 649 asthma patients (3.9%, 95% confidence interval, 3.7%-4.1%]) had uncontrolled severe persistent asthma.These patients had a mean (SD) ACQ score of 3.8 (1.0); 55.8% had a positive skin prick test to common aeroallergens and 54.2% had high levels of total serum IgE.The agreement between the assessment of asthma control based on clinicians' criteria and according to the Global Initiative forAsthma (GINA) guidelines was moderate (63.2%, Kic = 0.337), with an underestimation of asthma severity by clinicians; 53.2% of the patients classified as having controlled moderate to severe asthma had uncontrolled severe persistent asthma according to GINA criteria.


CONCLUSIONS
There is a low prevalence of uncontrolled severe persistent asthma in patients seen at hospital units in Spain according to clinical criteria, although it should be noted that level of asthma control is overestimated by clinicians.
Sulphonylurea and insulin: combined treatment in Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes

Dear Sir, In contrast to the recent observations of Ratzmann et al. [1] that tolbutamide is not a useful adjunct to insulin treatment in Type 1 diabetes, I would like to refer to our recent work on a similar theme [2]. We demonstrated that when a combination of insulin and glibenclamide treatment was given to patients with Type i diabetes in a randomized and double-blind cross-over trial for periods of 3 months, measurements of diabetic control improved significantly in those patients who retained residual endogenous insulin secretion. During an oral glucose tolerance test 3 months after combined treatment, C-peptide secretion increased by 47%, the mean + SD daily blood glucose level fell from 8.4+ 1.7 to 7.4+ 1.5 mmol/1 (p < 0.02) and the mean glycosylated haemoglobin decreased from 8.1_+0.5% to 7.5_+0.9% (p <0.05). These results substantiate a previous study [3] which showed that glibenclamide, when added to the insulin regimen of Type 1 diabetic patients with residual insulin secretion, increased their C-peptide secretion by 60% over a 1-month period. Less than half of the seven subjects in Ratzmann et al.'s study could be described as having retained residual endogenous insulin secretion according to the criteria of Madsbad [4] of a plasma C-peptide concentration > 0.07 mmol/1. Although limited insulin and glibenclamide treatment may be only of limited value, I believe that further research is needed to follow up our observations and determine how long increased insulin secretion and improved metabolic control persist. Yours sincerely,
Ink-deposition model: the relation of writing and ink deposition processes

The paper describes our studies on the influence of physical and biomechanical processes on the ink trace and aims at providing a solid foundation for enhanced signature analysis procedures. By means of a writing robot, simulated human handwriting movements are considered to study the relation between writing process characteristics and ink deposit on paper. Since the robot is able to take up different writing instruments like pencil, ballpoint or fine line pen, the type of inking pen was also varied in the experiments. The results of analyzing these artificial ink traces contribute to a better understanding of the underlying interaction processes and allow for the formulation of a so-called ink-deposition model (IDM). Particularly, we present IDMs that analytically describe the relation of applied pen tip force and relative ink intensity distribution for solid, viscous and fluid ink types. These IDMs might be employed in computer-based analysis of ink trace line quality to recognize skilled forgeries.
A new directional filter bank for image analysis and classification

A new directional filter bank for image analysis and classification is proposed. This paper introduces an improved structure in order to visualize subband outputs of the directional filter banks, while retaining the attractive properties of the original directional filter banks such as 1-D separable filtering, perfect reconstruction, and maximal decimation. Using this structure, any arbitrary 2 band directional filter bank can be implemented by cascading simple directional filter bank blocks, unlike the original structure that needs a parallel structure for visualizing subband outputs. Also, in order to have nondistorted phase information in the subbands for visualization, both FIR and IIR filter prototypes that can be implemented efficiently are provided for linear phase filtering. This paper shows the approach proposed here can be applied to image analysis and classification.
Microstrip antenna for 5G broadband communications: Overview of design issues

In this contribution we present two practical implementation cases of single patch antennas at 28GHz and 60GHz. We describe the design challenge of conciliating the antenna performance specifications and fabrication restrictions. Over this basic element of an array antenna we discuss the influence of three different categories of design issues.
Realizations of behavior for generalized chain-scattering representations

This paper introduces a notion of realization of behavior which is shown to be a generalization of the classical concept of a realization of transfer function. By using this approach, the input-output structures of the generalized chain-scattering representations (GCSRs) and the dual generalized chain-scattering representations (DGCSRs) are investigated in a behavioral theory context. Subsequently the corresponding autoregressivemoving-average (ARMA) representations are proposed and are proved to be realizations of behavior for any GCSR. Realization of behavior is particularly suitable for situations in which the coefficients are symbolic rather than numerical due to the fact that no numerical computation is involved in this approach. Corresponding Author: Telephone: Telefax: E-mail: Dr. A. C. Pugh Department of Mathematical Sciences Loughborough University Leicestershire, LE11 3TU, UK +44 (0)1509 223190 +44 (0)1509 211869 A.C.Pugh@lboro.ac.uk
Arthroscopic Identification of the Anterolateral Ligament of the Knee.

Intense interest has focused on the recent description of the anterolateral ligament of the knee. Advancing knowledge of its anatomy and function is leading to a realization of its importance in the rotatory control of the tibia in anterior cruciate ligament injuries. Reconstruction of this structure will increasingly become an important goal during anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. However, preoperative assessment of this ligament is difficult. Clinical assessment of rotatory laxity has poor reproducibility, and it is difficult to define using current imaging techniques. This article is the first to describe a safe and reproducible arthroscopic technique to allow identification and examination of the anterolateral ligament of the knee. With the knee at 90° of flexion, the arthroscope is introduced through the anterolateral portal to allow clear visualization of the lateral gutter. Under direct vision, an accessory portal is made over the inferior limit of the lateral gutter. A shaver is then introduced through this portal and used to debride this synovial recess and define the anterolateral ligament. This allows the surgeon to examine the integrity of the anterolateral ligament, in particular its femoral insertion. If required, this additional information can facilitate the performance of a more accurate and effective extra-articular reconstruction.
Adaptive RTS/CTS mechanism for IEEE 802.11 WLANs to achieve optimal performance

In IEEE 802.11 WLANs, there are two types of access modes which perform very differently under different channel or traffic conditions: the basic access mode CSMA/CA and and an RTS/CTS based mechanisms. In seeking to balance between the use of the different modes, the contribution of this paper is threefold. Firstly, we present our development of a new method capable of calculating the access delay via an analytical model. Secondly, we report a comparison of the throughput and delay performance of basic and RTS/CTS mechanisms and the analysis of which mode should be chosen to obtain better throughput and delay performance under different conditions. Finally, we propose an adaptive RTS/CST mechanism that adjusts the RTS threshold adaptively in order to achieve optimal performance in a centralized or distributed way. Numerical results, and simulation results obtained using NS2 are provided.
A New Approach of Automobile Localization System Using GPS and GSM/GPRS Transmission

This paper presents a low cost automotive localization system using GPS and GSM-SMS services. The system permits localization of the automobile and transmitting the position to the owner on his mobile phone as a short message (SMS) at his request. The system can be interconnected with the car alarm system and alert the owner, on his mobile phone, about the events that occurs with his car when it is parked. The system is composed by a GPS receiver, a microcontroller and a GSM phone. Additional, the system can be settled for acquiring and transmitting of information, when requested, about automobile status and parameters (engine status, speed, direction, etc.) or alert when it started engine, exceed a given speed limit or if leave a specific area. By using the PC connection, the system can be used as navigation system. Optional, the system can be used as car tracking system if connected with GSM/GPRS phone. The presented application is a low cost solution for automobile position localizing and status, very useful in case of car theft situations (alarm alert, engine starting, localizing), for adolescent drivers watching and monitoring by their parents (speed limit exceeding, leaving a specific area), as well as in car tracking system application. The proposed solution can be used in other types of application, where the information needed are requested rarely and at irregular period of time (when requested).
Use of chemotherapy at end of life in oncology patients.

BACKGROUND
Appropriately timed cessation of chemotherapy is integral to patient's quality of life. We evaluate the use of and associated factors with chemotherapy at the end of life.


METHODS
A review of deceased oncology patients treated with palliative intent from April 2005 over 2 years at two cancer centres was carried out. Chi-square tests of patient demographics, cancer and chemotherapy variables were carried out to determine associations with commencing chemotherapy and continuation within 2 and 4 weeks of death. Multivariate analyses were carried out with significant factors to determine their independent effect.


RESULTS
Seven hundred and forty-seven patients died during this period; median age 67 years (range 20-96); female 44%. Three hundred and ninety-eight (53%) received chemotherapy: 18% and 8% within 4 and 2 weeks of death, respectively. Younger age (P < 0.01), cancer type (P < 0.01) and chemosensitivity of the tumour (P < 0.01) were predictors for commencing chemotherapy in multivariate analysis. Treating doctor predicted for chemotherapy in the 4 weeks before death (<0.05), but none of the variables predicted for chemotherapy in the last 2 weeks of life.


CONCLUSIONS
Younger age, tumour type and chemosensitivity are important predictors of patients receiving palliative chemotherapy. Individual clinician was the only predictor for continuing chemotherapy in the last 4 weeks of life.
Perceptions and Behaviors of Caribbean and South American Women of Color Living in the United States Towards Breast Cancer

Perceptions and Behaviors of Caribbean and South American Women of Color Living in the United States Towards Breast Cancer by Bernadette Serena Loncke MPH, Walden University, 2010 BS, Clayton State University, 2006 AS, Georgia Perimeter College, 2004 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Abstractive Dialogue Summarization with Sentence-Gated Modeling Optimized by Dialogue Acts

Neural abstractive summarization has been increasingly studied, where the prior work mainly focused on summarizing single-speaker documents (news, scientific publications, etc). In dialogues, there are diverse interactive patterns between speakers, which are usually defined as dialogue acts. The interactive signals may provide informative cues for better summarizing dialogues. This paper proposes to explicitly leverage dialogue acts in a neural summarization model, where a sentence-gated mechanism is designed for modeling the relationships between dialogue acts and the summary. The experiments show that our proposed model significantly improves the abstractive summarization performance compared to the state-of-the-art baselines on the AMI meeting corpus, demonstrating the usefulness of the interactive signal provided by dialogue acts.1
Rehabilitation provided to patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a comparison of three different rheumatology clinics in Austria, Sweden and the UK from the perspectives of patients and health professionals.

OBJECTIVE
To explore patients' and health professionals' views of outpatient rehabilitation services for patients with rheumatoid arthritis in 3 different rheumatology sites across Europe.


METHODS
A qualitative multi-method study was conducted with patients and health professionals in Vienna (Austria), Gothenburg (Sweden) and Leeds (UK). Data collection was carried out during focus groups with patients and health professionals. Patients' hospital records were integrated into the analysis. Data were analysed for site and findings were compared across sites.


RESULTS
A total of 20 patients and 20 health professionals participated in 12 focus groups. Although the 3 sites were all publicly funded university clinics, there were differences between sites regarding the structure and content of rehabilitation services. The themes that emerged in the focus groups were: referrals; continuity in rehabilitation; information provided to patients; patients' organizations; documentation and communication amongst health professionals; interface between primary and specialist care; and prescription practices. Most themes were addressed at all 3 sites, but there were variations in the specifics within themes.


CONCLUSION
Integration of patients' and health professionals' views on how rehabilitation services are coordinated and how (parts of) processes are set up elsewhere provide valuable information for the further optimization of rehabilitation services.
Treatment with the antibiotic roxithromycin in patients with acute non-Q-wave coronary syndromes. The final report of the ROXIS Study.

AIMS
Mounting evidence suggests infection, specifically Chlamydia pneumoniae, plays a role in atherosclerosis. We tested whether antibiotic treatment with the macrolide roxithromycin improves clinical outcome in patients with acute non-Q-wave coronary syndromes. Preliminary reports revealed a reduction in events in the roxithromycin group at 30 days. We now report the long-term follow-up results.


METHODS AND RESULTS
Sixty-four per cent of the initial 202 patients with unstable angina who were randomly assigned to receive either roxithromycin or placebo for 30 days completed the active treatment period. At day 30, the primary triple and double end-point rates were 9% and 4% in the placebo group compared to 2% and 0% in the roxithromycin group (unadjusted P = 0.032 and 0.058, respectively). The secondary triple and double end-point rates were again higher in the placebo group at day 90 (12.5% and 6.25% vs 4.37% and 0%, unadjusted P = 0.065 and 0.029, respectively), and at day 180 (14.6% and 7.29% vs 8.69% and 2.17%, unadjusted P = 0.259 and 0.17, respectively). Anti-C, pneumoniae IgG titres were unchanged in both groups while C-reactive protein levels decreased in both strategies, with a more significant decrease in the roxithromycin arm (P = 0.03). Elevated C-reactive protein levels predicted the need for revascularization.


CONCLUSIONS
In this pilot trial, roxithromycin appears to extend the clinical benefit of preventing death and re-infarction for at least 6 months after initial treatment.
Comparison of gait between healthy participants and persons with spinal cord injury when using a powered gait orthosis-a pilot study

Objectives:The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a powered gait orthosis (PGO) on the temporal–spatial parameters and kinematics of walking in both healthy participants and persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) using three-dimensional motion analysis to facilitate further development of such devices.Methods:Kinematics and temporal spatial data were obtained from three healthy participants and four persons with SCI who walked using the same design of PGO.Results:Walking speed was reduced by 28% and step length by 29% in healthy individuals when walking with PGO compared with normal walking and that recorded for persons with SCI was approximately one-third that of normal walking. There were significant differences in hip and knee joint ranges of motion in comparison between walking with PGO in healthy participants and walking with PGO in persons with SCI.Conclusion:Walking with a PGO by healthy participants significantly reduced critical gait parameters, and further development work is needed to produce a more effective device to match closely the gait parameters of normal walking by healthy participants. Significant differences between normal walking and that evidenced with the PGO by both healthy participants and persons with SCI were detected.
Employing a Multi-level Approach to Recruit a Representative Sample of Women with Recent Gestational Diabetes Mellitus into a Randomized Lifestyle Intervention Trial

Objective The postpartum period is a window of opportunity for diabetes prevention in women with recent gestational diabetes (GDM), but recruitment for clinical trials during this period of life is a major challenge. Methods We adapted a social-ecologic model to develop a multi-level recruitment strategy at the macro (high or institutional level), meso (mid or provider level), and micro (individual) levels. Our goal was to recruit 100 women with recent GDM into the Balance after Baby randomized controlled trial over a 17-month period. Participants were asked to attend three in-person study visits at 6 weeks, 6, and 12 months postpartum. They were randomized into a control arm or a web-based intervention arm at the end of the baseline visit at six weeks postpartum. At the end of the recruitment period, we compared population characteristics of our enrolled subjects to the entire population of women with GDM delivering at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). Results We successfully recruited 107 of 156 (69 %) women assessed for eligibility, with the majority (92) recruited during pregnancy at a mean 30 (SD ± 5) weeks of gestation, and 15 recruited postpartum, at a mean 2 (SD ± 3) weeks postpartum. 78 subjects attended the initial baseline visit, and 75 subjects were randomized into the trial at a mean 7 (SD ± 2) weeks postpartum. The recruited subjects were similar in age and race/ethnicity to the total population of 538 GDM deliveries at BWH over the 17-month recruitment period. Conclusions Our multilevel approach allowed us to successfully meet our recruitment goal and recruit a representative sample of women with recent GDM. We believe that our most successful strategies included using a dedicated in-person recruiter, integrating recruitment into clinical flow, allowing for flexibility in recruitment, minimizing barriers to participation, and using an opt-out strategy with providers. Although the majority of women were recruited while pregnant, women recruited in the early postpartum period were more likely to present for the first study visit. Given the increased challenges of recruiting postpartum women with GDM into research studies, we believe our findings will be useful to other investigators seeking to study this population.
A social approach to security: Using social networks to help detect malicious web content

In the midst of a social networking revolution, social media has become the new vehicle for effective business marketing and transactions. As social aspects to the Internet continue to expand in both quantity and scope, so has the security threat towards enterprise networks and systems. Many social networking users also become main targets of spams, phishing, stalking, and other malware attacks that exploit the trust among social network “friends”. This paper presents a comprehensive method combining traditional security heuristics with social networking data to aid in the detection of malicious web content as it propagates through the user's network. A Facebook application is implemented to automatically evaluate and detect malicious link content. The results of testing this application against known phishing and malware sites with real-world user profiles have shown encouraging results.
Agile practices: an assessment of perception of value of professionals on the quality criteria in performance of projects

Deliver high quality software in accordance with deadlines has become a major challenge for the software industry and more organizations adopt agile practices as a mean to achieve quality in their products. This paper analyzes, through a survey, the perception of software professionals, working in different fronts of the development process, the relationship between the use of agile practices and quality of software products. The result shows agile practices that can contribute to quality in three aspects: bigger involvement of the staff, agile management of the requirements proposed and code developed.