LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Persistence on Therapy and Propensity Matched Outcome Comparison of Two Subcutaneous Interferon Beta 1a Dosages for Multiple Sclerosis

OBJECTIVES
To compare treatment persistence between two dosages of interferon β-1a in a large observational multiple sclerosis registry and assess disease outcomes of first line MS treatment at these dosages using propensity scoring to adjust for baseline imbalance in disease characteristics.


METHODS
Treatment discontinuations were evaluated in all patients within the MSBase registry who commenced interferon β-1a SC thrice weekly (n = 4678). Furthermore, we assessed 2-year clinical outcomes in 1220 patients treated with interferon β-1a in either dosage (22 µg or 44 µg) as their first disease modifying agent, matched on propensity score calculated from pre-treatment demographic and clinical variables. A subgroup analysis was performed on 456 matched patients who also had baseline MRI variables recorded.


RESULTS
Overall, 4054 treatment discontinuations were recorded in 3059 patients. The patients receiving the lower interferon dosage were more likely to discontinue treatment than those with the higher dosage (25% vs. 20% annual probability of discontinuation, respectively). This was seen in discontinuations with reasons recorded as "lack of efficacy" (3.3% vs. 1.7%), "scheduled stop" (2.2% vs. 1.3%) or without the reason recorded (16.7% vs. 13.3% annual discontinuation rate, 22 µg vs. 44 µg dosage, respectively). Propensity score was determined by treating centre and disability (score without MRI parameters) or centre, sex and number of contrast-enhancing lesions (score including MRI parameters). No differences in clinical outcomes at two years (relapse rate, time relapse-free and disability) were observed between the matched patients treated with either of the interferon dosages.


CONCLUSIONS
Treatment discontinuations were more common in interferon β-1a 22 µg SC thrice weekly. However, 2-year clinical outcomes did not differ between patients receiving the different dosages, thus replicating in a registry dataset derived from "real-world" database the results of the pivotal randomised trial. Propensity score matching effectively minimised baseline covariate imbalance between two directly compared sub-populations from a large observational registry.
β-Ti(M) solid solution formation and its thermal stability in a NiAl–Cr(Mo)–(Hf,Ti) near eutectic alloy

The effects of combined additions of Ti and Hf to NiAl-Cr(Mo) eutectics on the as-cast microstructure and its thermal stability are investigated through SEM, EDS and TEM, with focus on the formation mechanism of beta-Ti(M, M = Hf,Cr,Ni) solid solution phase and its thermal stability after short-term heat treatment. The results show that, due to the presence of large concentrations of beta-phase forming and stabilizing elements dissolved into the Ti solid solution phase during solidification, the thermodynamically metastable beta-phase was preserved at room temperature. With respect to its thermal stability, within the experimental range examined, the beta-Ti(M) solid solution phase, is not influenced. From the practical application point of view, this beta-Ti(M) solid solution phase may offer application as a strengthening phase for the design of NiAl-Cr(Mo)-Hf based alloys. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
GPS: a general peer-to-peer simulator and its use for modeling BitTorrent

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) systems have become popular over the past few years. However, their large scale and the open nature of the system makes studying them challenging. This paper presents an extensible framework for simulating P2P networks efficiently and accurately. Efficiency is accomplished by using message level simulation rather than packet level simulation. Moreover, accuracy is maintained by tracking the network infrastructure and using a flow model to accomplish accurate estimate of the message behavior. A second contribution of the paper is to model the BitTorrent (BT) protocol. BT is a widely-used protocol that is significantly more complex than other P2P protocols because file download occurs in chunks from many other peers concurrently. Thus, contrary to models of other P2P systems such as Gnutella or Freenet, which focus on finding the location of a file in the network, BT's complexity occurs in downloading files (locating files in fact occurs out of band using Websites that host the Torrent files). We validate the model against a packet level simulator and also using a real, but small scale, BitTorrent experiment. The simulator is object oriented and extensible for simulating other P2P protocols and applications.
Strengths and weaknesses of parent–staff communication in the NICU: a survey assessment

BACKGROUND
Parents of infants hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) find themselves in a situation of emotional strain. Communication in the NICU presents special challenges due to parental stress and the complexity of the highly technologized environment. Parents' need for communication may not always be met by the NICU staff. This study aimed to describe strengths and weaknesses of parent-nurse and parent-doctor communication in a large level III NICU in Sweden in order to improve our understanding of parents' communication needs.


METHODS
Parents were asked to complete a survey consisting of sixteen questions about their experiences of communication with nurses and doctors in the NICU. In each question the parents evaluated some aspect of communication on a five- or six-point Likert scale. They also had the opportunity on each question to comment on their experiences in their own words. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 20.0 and qualitative manifest content analysis.


RESULTS
270 parents (71.4%) completed the survey. Parents generally rated communication with the staff in the NICU positively and appreciated having received emotional support and regular information about their child´s care. Although a large majority of the parents were satisfied with their communication with doctors and nurses, only about half of the parents felt the nurses and doctors understood their emotional situation very well. Some parents would have desired easier access to conversations with doctors and wanted medical information to be given directly by doctors rather than by nurses. Parents' communication with the staff was hampered when many different nurses were involved in caring for the infant or when the transfer of information in connection with shift changes or between the maternity ward and NICU was poor. Parents also desired to be present during doctors' rounds on their infant.


CONCLUSIONS
Training both doctors and nurses in communication skills, especially in how to meet parents' emotional needs better, could make communication at the NICU more effective and improve parental well-being. Creating a framework for the parents of what to expect from NICU communication might also be helpful. In addition, our results support the use of primary nurse teams to improve continuity of care and thereby promote successful communication.
Identification, isolation, and expression analysis of heat shock transcription factors in the diploid woodland strawberry Fragaria vesca

Heat shock transcription factors (Hsfs) are known to play dominant roles in plant responses to heat, as well as other abiotic or biotic stress stimuli. While the strawberry is an economically important fruit plant, little is known about the Hsf family in the strawberry. To explore the functions of strawberry Hsfs in abiotic and biotic stress responses, this study identified 17 Hsf genes (FvHsfs) in a wild diploid woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca, 2n = 2x = 14) and isolated 14 of these genes. Phylogenetic analysis divided the strawberry FvHsfs genes into three main groups. The evolutionary and structural analyses revealed that the FvHsf family is conserved. The promoter sequences of the FvHsf genes contain upstream regulatory elements corresponding to different stress stimuli. In addition, 14 FvHsf-GFP fusion proteins showed differential subcellular localization in Arabidopsis mesophyll protoplasts. Furthermore, we examined the expression of the 17 FvHsf genes in wild diploid woodland strawberries under various conditions, including abiotic stresses (heat, cold, drought, and salt), biotic stress (powdery mildew infection), and hormone treatments (abscisic acid, ethephon, methyl jasmonate, and salicylic acid). Fifteen of the seventeen FvHsf genes exhibited distinct changes on the transcriptional level during heat treatment. Of these 15 FvHsfs, 8 FvHsfs also exhibited distinct responses to other stimuli on the transcriptional level, indicating versatile roles in the response to abiotic and biotic stresses. Taken together, the present work may provide the basis for further studies to dissect FvHsf function in response to stress stimuli.
Homology modelling of the major peanut allergen Ara h 2 and surface mapping of IgE-binding epitopes.

Three-dimensional models built for the peanut Ara h 2 allergen and other structurally-related 2S albumin allergens of dietary nuts exhibited an overall three-dimensional fold stabilized by disulphide bridges well conserved among all the members of the 2S albumin superfamily. Conformational analysis of the linear IgE-binding epitopes mapped on the molecular surface of Ara h 2 showed no structural homology with the corresponding regions of the walnut Jug r 1, the pecan nut Car i 1 or the Brazil nut Ber e 1 allergens. The absence of epitopic community does not support the allergenic cross-reactivity observed between peanut and walnut or Brazil nut, which presumably depends on other ubiquitous seed storage protein allergens, namely the vicilins. However, the major IgE-binding epitope identified on the molecular surface of the walnut Jug r 1 allergen shared a pronounced structural homology with the corresponding region of the pecan nut Car i 1 allergen. With the exception of peanut, 2S albumins could thus account for the IgE-binding cross-reactivity observed between some other dietary nuts, e.g. walnut and pecan nut.
Safety and tolerability of regadenoson for myocardial perfusion imaging - first Danish experience.

OBJECTIVES
Evaluating safety and tolerability of the selective A2A receptor agonist, regadenoson, in patients referred for single photon emission computed tomography myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI).


DESIGN
Observational study of patients referred for MPI stress testing using a 400 μg regadenoson (Rapiscan(®)) bolus. Hemodynamic variables and severity of adverse events (AE) were recorded before, during, and after administration.


RESULTS
A total of 232 patients were included. One or more AE were reported in 90% of patients; the AEs were graded mostly mild to moderate in severity, resolved spontaneously, and were mainly dyspnea, headache, and chest pain. No advanced heart block or bronchospasm were seen. Transient ST-segment changes developed in 10 patients. The maximum increase in heart rate was 19 ± 11 beats/minute. The mean systolic blood pressure decreased from 144 to 139 mmHg (p < 0.0001). Medical intervention was required in three patients: one case with severe hypotension and two cases with chest pain that was relieved with sublingual nitroglycerin. One patient died the day after stress MPI for reasons considered unrelated to regadenoson.


CONCLUSION
Regadenoson for MPI is easy to use with a high frequency of AEs, which are generally mild in severity, transient, and resolve spontaneously.
The economic burden of coronary heart disease in the UK.

OBJECTIVE
To estimate the economic burden of coronary heart disease in the UK using both direct and indirect costs.


DESIGN AND SETTING
A prevalence based approach was used to assess coronary heart disease related costs from the societal perspective.


PATIENTS
All UK residents in 1999 with coronary heart disease (ICD 9 codes 410-414 and ICD10 codes I20-I25).


MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Direct health care costs were estimated from spending on prevention, accident and emergency care, hospital care, rehabilitation, and drug treatment. Direct non-health service costs were estimated from data on informal care. "Friction period" adjusted productivity costs were estimated using the human capital approach from lost earnings attributable to coronary heart disease related mortality and morbidity. The friction period is the period of employees' absence from work before the employer replaces them with other workers. Failure to adjust for this factor would overstate production loss.


RESULTS
Coronary heart disease cost pound 1.73 billion to the UK health care system in 1999: pound 2.42 billion in informal care and pound 2.91 billion in friction period adjusted productivity loss; 24.1% of production losses were attributable to mortality and 75.9% to morbidity. The total annual cost of all coronary heart disease related burdens was pound 7.06 billion, the highest of all diseases in the UK for which comparable analyses have been done.


CONCLUSIONS
Coronary heart disease is a leading public health problem in the UK in terms of the economic burden from disease. Cost estimates would be substantially understated if informal care/productivity costs were excluded.
Sistema de salud de México

This paper describes the Mexican health system. In part one, the health conditions of the Mexican population are discussed, with emphasis in those emerging diseases that are now the main causes of death, both in men and women: diabetes, ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular diseases and cancer. Part two is devoted to the description of the basic structure of the system: its main institutions, the population coverage, the health benefits of those affiliated to the different heath institutions, its financial sources, the levels of financial protection in health, the availability of physical, material and human resources for health, and the stewardship functions displayed by the Ministry of Health and other actors. This part also discusses the role of citizens in the monitorization and evaluation of the health system, as well as the levels of satisfaction with the rendered health services. In part three the most recent innovations and its impact on the performance of the health system are discussed. Salient among them are the System of Social Protection in Health and the Popular Health Insurance. The paper concludes with a brief analysis of the shortand middle-term challenges faced by the Mexican health system.
In-group and role identity influences on the initiation and maintenance of students' voluntary attendance at peer study sessions for statistics.

BACKGROUND
Although class attendance is linked to academic performance, questions remain about what determines students' decisions to attend or miss class.


AIMS
In addition to the constructs of a common decision-making model, the theory of planned behaviour, the present study examined the influence of student role identity and university student (in-group) identification for predicting both the initiation and maintenance of students' attendance at voluntary peer-assisted study sessions in a statistics subject.


SAMPLE
University students enrolled in a statistics subject were invited to complete a questionnaire at two time points across the academic semester. A total of 79 university students completed questionnaires at the first data collection point, with 46 students completing the questionnaire at the second data collection point.


METHOD
Twice during the semester, students' attitudes, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, student role identity, in-group identification, and intention to attend study sessions were assessed via on-line questionnaires. Objective measures of class attendance records for each half-semester (or 'term') were obtained.


RESULTS
Across both terms, students' attitudes predicted their attendance intentions, with intentions predicting class attendance. Earlier in the semester, in addition to perceived behavioural control, both student role identity and in-group identification predicted students' attendance intentions, with only role identity influencing intentions later in the semester.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings highlight the possible chronology that different identity influences have in determining students' initial and maintained attendance at voluntary sessions designed to facilitate their learning.
A kinetic framework for computational geometry

Extended Abstract 1. Introduction and summary We present a new framework for geometric computing in which planar curves are formed by the motions of objects that have both position and orientation. Informally, consider the motion of a car: at each instant the car is positioned at some point in the plane, and oriented with its hood facing in some direction. Together, the position and the orientation specify a state. In the new framework, curves and polygons are paths in this state space satisfying the constraint that wherever the tangent of the position component of the curve is defined, the orientation must be either the same as that tangent, or the opposite. In other words, the car may move either forwards or backwards, but it may not skid sideways. To distinguish these structures from classical curves and polygons, we call them tracings. Several important concepts can be defined fOf tracings, some familiar from differential topology, but others apparently new. These include the notions of winding number, degree, and sweep number. A general construction, known as fiber product, is used to define various operations on tracings, including convolution and multiplication. Each fiber product involves forming all pairs of states, one from each tracing, that satisfy a certain constraint Using these ideas, it is possible to recast large parts ofcomputational geometry, such as convexity, in a new and advantageous light This applies to proofs of theorems, as well as to descriptions of algorithms. Besides allowing us to recast old material, this kinetic approach has also led to a number of new algorithms that improve on the previously known bounds. For example, one algorithm computes the distance between two convex polygons in logarithmic time, while another tests if two convex polygons can disjointIy fit into a third one in linear time (no rotations allowed). A final attraction of the kinetic approach is that, after appropriately extending the plane into a new manifold, the two-sided plane, we can define a formal duality between points and lines that maintains the sense of left and right Informal notions of such a duality had previously been used in computational geometry, but now for the first time we can say in a precise sense that, for example, an algorithm for computing the convex hull of n points is also an algorithm for computing the intersection of n half-planes. It may be of interest to note that the origins of …
Design and Implementation of Firing Circuit for Single- Phase Converter

 Abstract—The theme of the paper is to design and implement the firing circuit for a converter. The necessity of getting synchronized firing pulses for the gate of the thyristor is discussed. Out of many variety of firing circuits available, the ideas behind are the two most popularly used control circuits that are namely using ramp signal and using cosine signal. It shows how a cosine controls scheme work. Detail description and functioning of each block is explained along with the waveforms at the output of the blocks. Experimental results obtained from oscillographic displays at important points of the circuits are included. In this paper, we fabricate a hardware circuit which implements the cosine control technique, test the circuit and also check that desired gate pulses for the thyristors.
Metal ion interaction with inducer of reverse transformation of cancer cells

Abstract Gosalvez, based on theoretical hypothesis of the function of the plasma membrane, designed three heterocycles as possible inducers of reverse transformation of cancer cells to normal phenotype [1]. Two of these compounds (thiaproline, Tp, and 2-amino-1,3-thiazoline, AT) have been taken to the anticancer clinics and have shown, preliminary, an antitumor activity [2]. Both ligands are believed to blind in the lipid environment a zinc ion linked to protein complex of the membrane, which would be the origin of macrofilaments [3]. In this communication the NMR, spectroscopic and X-ray results for the Cu(II), Cd(II) and Zn(II) complexes with the above mentioned ligands are discussed to establish possible binding modes of these ligands with metal ions. Both ligands are unstable in aqueous solution at pH>6 and their decomposition is additionally promoted by the presence of metal ions [4]. In acidic solution the AT ligand does not interact directly with the studied metal ions, but it acts as cation ATH + . The protonation site, established by X-ray technique, is the heterocyclic nitrogen which appears to be quite a basic donor. The most ‘destructive’ metal ion seems to be the cupric ion, which due to the redox reaction leads to several different decomposition products of AT, including SO 2− 4 and [NHCHNH 2 ] + Cl − [5]. The use of methanol solution makes possible the observation of the direct metal AT interaction before ligand decomposition. The X-ray and spectroscopic studies have shown that in both ligands the major coordination site is a heterocyclic nitrogen (for TP see also [6]). This similarity in metal ion binding by the heterocyclic nitrogen donor of both ligands and their possible chemical analogues could play a critical role in complex formation in lipid environment.
Stomatal oscillations in orange trees under natural climatic conditions.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS
Stomatal oscillations have been reported in many plant species, but they are usually induced by sudden step changes in the environment when plants are grown under constant conditions. This study shows that in navel orange trees (Citrus sinensis) pronounced stomatal oscillations occur and persist under natural climatic conditions.


METHODS
Oscillations in stomatal conductance were measured, and related to simultaneous measurements of leaf water potential, and flow rate of sap in the stems of young, potted plants. Cycling was also observed in soil-grown, mature orchard trees, as indicated by sap flow in stem and branches.


KEY RESULTS
Oscillations in stomatal conductance were caused by the rapid propagation and synchronization of changes in xylem water potential throughout the tree, without rapid changes in atmospheric conditions.


CONCLUSIONS
The results show marked stomatal oscillations persisting under natural climatic conditions and underscore the need to discover why this phenomenon is so pronounced in orange trees.
New developments in threshold pion photoproduction and electroproduction

Photoproduction of neutral and charged pions off nucleons and deuterium has been precisely calculated in baryon chiral perturbation theory. I review the predictions with the accurate data that have become available over the last few years. Some progress in the description of neutral pion electroproduction off protons is also discussed.