LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Efficacy and safety of very early mobilisation within 24 h of stroke onset (AVERT): a randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND
Early mobilisation after stroke is thought to contribute to the effects of stroke-unit care; however, the intervention is poorly defined and not underpinned by strong evidence. We aimed to compare the effectiveness of frequent, higher dose, very early mobilisation with usual care after stroke.


METHODS
We did this parallel-group, single-blind, randomised controlled trial at 56 acute stroke units in five countries. Patients (aged ≥18 years) with ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke, first or recurrent, who met physiological criteria were randomly assigned (1:1), via a web-based computer generated block randomisation procedure (block size of six), to receive usual stroke-unit care alone or very early mobilisation in addition to usual care. Treatment with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator was allowed. Randomisation was stratified by study site and stroke severity. Patients, outcome assessors, and investigators involved in trial and data management were masked to treatment allocation. The primary outcome was a favourable outcome 3 months after stroke, defined as a modified Rankin Scale score of 0-2. We did analysis on an intention-to-treat basis. The trial is registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, number ACTRN12606000185561.


FINDINGS
Between July 18, 2006, and Oct 16, 2014, we randomly assigned 2104 patients to receive either very early mobilisation (n=1054) or usual care (n=1050); 2083 (99%) patients were included in the 3 month follow-up assessment. 965 (92%) patients were mobilised within 24 h in the very early mobilisation group compared with 623 (59%) patients in the usual care group. Fewer patients in the very early mobilisation group had a favourable outcome than those in the usual care group (n=480 [46%] vs n=525 [50%]; adjusted odds ratio [OR] 0·73, 95% CI 0·59-0·90; p=0·004). 88 (8%) patients died in the very early mobilisation group compared with 72 (7%) patients in the usual care group (OR 1·34, 95% CI 0·93-1·93, p=0·113). 201 (19%) patients in the very early mobilisation group and 208 (20%) of those in the usual care group had a non-fatal serious adverse event, with no reduction in immobility-related complications with very early mobilisation.


INTERPRETATION
First mobilisation took place within 24 h for most patients in this trial. The higher dose, very early mobilisation protocol was associated with a reduction in the odds of a favourable outcome at 3 months. Early mobilisation after stroke is recommended in many clinical practice guidelines worldwide, and our findings should affect clinical practice by refining present guidelines; however, clinical recommendations should be informed by future analyses of dose-response associations.


FUNDING
National Health and Medical Research Council, Singapore Health, Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland, Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke, UK Stroke Association, National Institute of Health Research.
Recent Developments of Lyapunov-type Inequalities

In this work, first we give a survey of the most basic results on Lyapunov-type inequality, and next we sketch some recent developments related to this type of inequalities.
Optimal path planning for an aerial vehicle in 3D space

We address optimal path planning in three-dimensional space for an aerial vehicle with bounded turn radius. The objective is to calculate a feasible path of minimum length when the initial and final positions and orientations of the vehicle are given. The proposed method is based on 3D geometry. Unlike the existing iterative methods, which yield suboptimal path and are computationally more intensive, this geometrical method generates an optimal path in much lesser time. Due to its simplicity and low computational requirements this approach can be implemented on an aerial vehicle with constrained turn radius to reach a final point with a prescribed orientation. But, if the path demands very high pitch angle (as in the case of steep climbs), then the generated path may not be flyable for an aerial vehicle with limited range of flight path angle and we need to use a numerical method such as multiple shooting to obtain the optimal solution.
Spark: A Big Data Processing Platform Based on Memory Computing

Spark is a memory-based computing framework which has a better ability of computing and fault tolerance, supports batch, interactive, iterative and flow calculations. In this paper, we analyze the Spark's primary framework, core technologies, and point out the advantages and disadvantages of the Spark. In the end, we make a discussion for the future trends of the Spark technologies.
High-throughput automated home-cage mesoscopic functional imaging of mouse cortex

Mouse head-fixed behaviour coupled with functional imaging has become a powerful technique in rodent systems neuroscience. However, training mice can be time consuming and is potentially stressful for animals. Here we report a fully automated, open source, self-initiated head-fixation system for mesoscopic functional imaging in mice. The system supports five mice at a time and requires minimal investigator intervention. Using genetically encoded calcium indicator transgenic mice, we longitudinally monitor cortical functional connectivity up to 24 h per day in >7,000 self-initiated and unsupervised imaging sessions up to 90 days. The procedure provides robust assessment of functional cortical maps on the basis of both spontaneous activity and brief sensory stimuli such as light flashes. The approach is scalable to a number of remotely controlled cages that can be assessed within the controlled conditions of dedicated animal facilities. We anticipate that home-cage brain imaging will permit flexible and chronic assessment of mesoscale cortical function.
Malodor as a trigger of stress and negative mood in neighbors of industrial hog operations.

OBJECTIVES
We evaluated malodor and air pollutants near industrial hog operations as environmental stressors and negative mood triggers.


METHODS
We collected data from 101 nonsmoking adults in 16 neighborhoods within 1.5 miles of at least 1 industrial hog operation in eastern North Carolina. Participants rated malodor intensity, stress, and mood for 2 weeks while air pollutants were monitored.


RESULTS
Reported malodor was associated with stress and 4 mood states; odds ratios (ORs) for a 1-unit change on the 0-to-8 odor scale ranged from 1.31 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.16, 1.50) to 1.81 (95% CI = 1.63, 2.00). ORs for stress and feeling nervous or anxious were 1.18 (95% CI = 1.08, 1.30) and 1.12 (95% CI = 1.03, 1.22), respectively, for a 1 ppb change in hydrogen sulfide and 1.06 (95% CI = 1.00, 1.11) and 1.10 (95% CI = 1.03, 1.17), respectively, for a 1 microg/m(3) change in semivolatile particulate matter less than 10 microm in aerodynamic diameter (PM(10)).


CONCLUSIONS
Hog odor, hydrogen sulfide, and semivolatile PM(10) are related to stress and negative mood in disproportionately low-income communities near industrial hog operations in eastern North Carolina. Malodor should be considered in studies of health impacts of environmental injustice.
Helping cancer patients quit smoking by increasing their risk perception: a study protocol of a cluster randomized controlled trial

Despite smoking cessation can largely improve cancer prognosis and quality of life, many patients continued smoking after the diagnosis of cancer. This study aims to test the effectiveness of a smoking cessation intervention using risk communication approach to help cancer patients quit smoking, and to improve their health related quality of life. A cluster randomized controlled trial will be employed. Cancer patients who continued smoking after the diagnosis of cancer and have medical follow-up at the out-patient clinics of the five acute hospitals in Hong Kong will be invited to participate. Subjects in the experimental group will receive (1) health warnings of smoking based on a special designed leaflet; and (2) a patient-centred counseling from nurse counselors with emphasis on risk perceptions of smoking to cancer prognosis. Additionally, they will receive two more telephone counseling at 1-week and 1-month. Control group receive standard care and a generic self-help smoking cessation booklet. Outcomes measure include (a) self-reported and the biochemically validated quit rate, (b) patient’s smoking reduction by at least 50 % compared to baseline, (c) quit attempt(s), (d) change in the intention to quit, (e) change in risk perceptions of smoking, and (f) change in health related quality of life. This study will make an important contribution to evidence-based practice by testing the effectiveness of a tailored smoking cessation intervention for cancer patients. The results will support the development of clinical practice guidelines to promote smoking cessation in cancer patients to improve their prognosis and quality of life. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01685723 . Registered 9 November 2012.
Conversational discourse in closed-head-injured and non-brain-injured adults

Background: Functional communication requires proficiency in the adaptation of language to varied contexts. Recent research has demonstrated that individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) experience difficulty with communicative effectiveness across a variety of discourse genres. Analysis of conversation following TBI is of particular interest because of its importance in the process of socialisation. The development and maintenance of social relationships has been noted to be difficult for individuals with TBI. It has been suggested that these interactional difficulties are the result of social skills deficits which may be a reflection of impaired language use. A variety of analyses have been applied to samples of conversation from individuals with TBI. These analyses have included pragmatic rating scales, exchange structure analysis, Conversation Analysis, as well as measures of topic initiation, topic maintenance, and response appropriateness. Overall, individuals with TBI have been noted to have d...
Measurement Platform for Electromagnetic Characterization and Performance Evaluation of UHF RFID Tags

The huge improvement in UHF radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, also driven by the vision of the Internet of Things, is leading to a widespread diffusion of several kinds of passive RFID tags. In fact, depending on the specific application, tags must satisfy key requirements in terms of size, thickness, shape, robustness, cost, working range, bandwidth, antenna directivity, platform tolerance, polarization, and so on. In such a scenario, the design of a specific application-oriented tag by an RF designer as well as the careful selection among commercially available solutions by system integrators rather than final users needs a dedicated measurement system enabling a rapid and cost-effective procedure for the on-air performance evaluation of RFID tags. Nevertheless, the design of such a system is not trivial, as tag performance depends on multiple major factors, such as chip sensitivity, quality of the chip-antenna conjugate matching, and antenna radiation properties. In this paper, after a theoretical formulation, an accurate, flexible, robust, and cost-effective RFID tag characterization and performance evaluation platform is presented and validated. It allows the calculation of the main metrics characterizing an RFID tag as a function of the tag activation power threshold when varying both interrogation frequency and tag orientation. The system is validated on both specifically designed and commercial RFID tags in terms of sensitivity, working range, and tag antenna radiation pattern: measurements show strong agreement with the theoretical and simulation results.
Use of the osmolal gap to guide the start and duration of dialysis in methanol poisoning.

OBJECTIVE
Rapid diagnosis and treatment of methanol poisoning is mandatory. Dependence on serum methanol analysis in this situation may delay diagnosis and treatment. The anion and osmolal gaps have been recommended for use as diagnostic tools, but the use of these gaps to evaluate the length of hemodialysis treatment has only been emphasized in a few reports. We evaluated the usefulness of the osmolal gap in estimating the need for dialysis and the duration of this treatment in 17 methanol-poisoned subjects.


MATERIAL AND METHODS
Patients were part of a recent outbreak of methanol poisoning, in which the diagnosis upon admission was mainly based on use of the anion and osmolal gaps. The duration of dialysis generally followed the standard recommendation of 8h. During dialysis, blood samples were frequently collected and analyzed to determine acid-base status and serum methanol and to calculate the osmolal gap. In nine patients, the duration of dialysis was compared with the duration necessary to normalize serum methanol and the osmolal gap.


RESULTS
There was a good correlation between serum methanol and the osmolal gap during hemodialysis (y=1.09x+3.82; R(2)=0.92). The osmolal gap therefore gives a good estimate of the serum methanol level during hemodialysis, and could have saved a total of 23 h of dialysis treatment (34%) in nine patients had it been applied.


CONCLUSIONS
In the absence of serum methanol analyses, the osmolal gap is useful to assess the indication for and duration of hemodialysis in methanol-poisoned patients. In mass poisoning situations, use of the osmolal gap makes it possible to reduce the duration of dialysis in a safe manner.
Intensity modulated stereotactic body radiation therapy for single or multiple vertebral metastases with spinal cord compression.

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of intensity modulated radiation therapy with simultaneous integrated boost (SIB-IMRT) for single or multiple vertebral metastases (VM) with spinal cord compression using tomotherapy.


METHODS AND MATERIALS
Thirty patients with 40 VM were treated with SIB-IMRT as initial radiation therapy. Either 40 Gy in 8 fractions or 48 Gy in 16 fractions was prescribed depending on the Katagiri prognostic index. The radiation doses to the spinal cord and other risk organs were reduced to tolerance levels using intensity modulation. One to 4 lesions in consecutive vertebrae were treated in 1 course of SIB-IMRT. Radiologic and physical examinations were performed at 1-3 month intervals after SIB-IMRT. The Barthel index (BI) and numerical rating scale (NRS) were used to evaluate activities of daily living (ADL) and pain status, respectively.


RESULTS
The median follow-up period was 8 months. The NRS significantly dropped at 1 month after SIB-IMRT (P < .0001) and the effect continued for over 2 months. No significant BI decrease was observed at 2 months after SIB-IMRT (P = .7). The 1-year local control rate was 84% (95% confidence interval, 70%-100%). No grade≥2 neurologic toxicity resulting from SIB-IMRT was observed.


CONCLUSIONS
SIB-IMRT could be successfully applied to VM with spinal cord compression in up to 4 consecutive vertebrae. Good ADL preservation and pain control were achieved with acceptable toxicity.
The demographics of suspected deep tissue injury in the United States: an analysis of the International Pressure Ulcer Prevalence Survey 2006-2009.

OBJECTIVE
Suspected deep tissue injury (sDTI) was identified in 2001 and added as a staging definition by the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel in 2007. Clinical data on sDTI are sparse. This article reports the overall prevalence data and describes the demographics of subjects with sDTI from the International Pressure Ulcer Prevalence survey 2006-2009.


METHODS
Participating healthcare facilities performed prevalence surveys in their facility during a pre-determined 24-hour period within a pre-selected 2- to 3-day window. All generated data was incorporated into the database, even if specific data fields were absent.


RESULTS
Approximately 79,000 to 92,000 patients were surveyed each year from 2006 to 2009. The overall and nosocomial pressure ulcer (PrU) prevalence decreased by approximately 1% in 2009 (P < .001), after remaining fairly constant in the years 2006-2008. The proportion of ulcers identified as sDTI has increased 3 fold, to 9% of all observed ulcers in 2009 and is more prevalent than either Stage III or IV ulcers. Over the same period, the proportion of Stage I and II ulcers have decreased, and the proportion of Stage III and IV ulcers has remained nearly constant. Patients with sDTIs are older than patients with Stage III, IV, and Unstageable ulcers. The anatomic location of sDTIs are more commonly found at the heel (41%), the sacrum (19%), or the buttocks (13%). Compared with other staged ulcers, sDTIs are significantly more prevalent at the heel (P < .001) and the ankle and foot (P < .001) and less prevalent at the sacrum and coccyx (P < .001) and at the buttocks and ischial tuberosities (P < 0.001).


CONCLUSION
The survey data indicate that a decrease in overall prevalence of PrUs, as well as hospital-acquired PrUs, may have occurred in 2009. Suspected deep tissue injuries have become more commonly identified, which may be secondary to education of staging definitions.
A low power and reduced area carry select adder

A carry select adder (CSA) can be implemented by using single adder block and an add-one circuit instead of using dual adder blocks. The add-one circuit is based on “first” zero detection logic and few multiplexers. In modified CSA, one of the n-bit adder blocks is replaced by an add-one circuit consisting of fewer transistors. This scheme considerably reduces the power and area with negligible speed penalty. For &bit length n = 8, this modified CSA requires 38% fewer transistors and consumes only 73% of power compared to conventional design using a 0.5micron CMOS technology.
Graph Ensemble Boosting for Imbalanced Noisy Graph Stream Classification

Many applications involve stream data with structural dependency, graph representations, and continuously increasing volumes. For these applications, it is very common that their class distributions are imbalanced with minority (or positive) samples being only a small portion of the population, which imposes significant challenges for learning models to accurately identify minority samples. This problem is further complicated with the presence of noise, because they are similar to minority samples and any treatment for the class imbalance may falsely focus on the noise and result in deterioration of accuracy. In this paper, we propose a classification model to tackle imbalanced graph streams with noise. Our method, graph ensemble boosting, employs an ensemble-based framework to partition graph stream into chunks each containing a number of noisy graphs with imbalanced class distributions. For each individual chunk, we propose a boosting algorithm to combine discriminative subgraph pattern selection and model learning as a unified framework for graph classification. To tackle concept drifting in graph streams, an instance level weighting mechanism is used to dynamically adjust the instance weight, through which the boosting framework can emphasize on difficult graph samples. The classifiers built from different graph chunks form an ensemble for graph stream classification. Experiments on real-life imbalanced graph streams demonstrate clear benefits of our boosting design for handling imbalanced noisy graph stream.
Long-term recovery of left ventricular function after primary angioplasty for acute myocardial infarction.

AIMS
To investigate changes in left ventricular function in the first 6 months after acute myocardial infarction treated with primary angioplasty. To assess clinical variables, associated with recovery of left ventricular function after acute myocardial infarction.


METHODS
Changes in left ventricular function were studied in 600 consecutive patients with acute myocardial infarction, all treated with primary angioplasty. Left ventricular ejection fraction was measured by radionuclide ventriculography in survivors at day 4 and after 6 months. Patients with a recurrent myocardial infarction within the 6 months were excluded.


RESULTS
Successful reperfusion (TIMI 3 flow) by primary angioplasty was achieved in 89% of patients. The mean ejection fraction at discharge was 43.7%+/-11.4, whereas the mean ejection fraction after 6 months was 46.3%+/-11.5 (P<0.01). During the 6 months, the mean relative improvement in left ventricular ejection fraction was 6%. An improvement in left ventricular function was observed in 48% of the patients; 25% of the patients had a decrease, whereas in the remaining patients there was no change. After univariate and multivariate analysis, an anterior infarction location, an ejection fraction at discharge < or =40% and single-vessel disease were significant predictors of left ventricular improvement during the 6 months.


CONCLUSIONS
After acute myocardial infarction treated with primary angioplasty there was a significant recovery of left ventricular function during the first 6 months after the infarction. An anterior myocardial infarction, single-vessel coronary artery disease, and an initially depressed left ventricular function were independently associated with recovery of left ventricular function. Multivessel disease was associated with absence of functional recovery. Additional studies, investigating complete revascularization are needed, as this approach may potentially improve long-term left ventricular function.
Simulation and Comparison of AODV , DSR and AOMDV Routing Protocols in MANETs

A Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) is a dynamic wireless network that can be formed without the need for any preexisting infrastructure in which each node can act as a router. Mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is an autonomous system of mobile nodes connected by wireless links. Each node operates not only as an end system, but also as a router to forward packets. The nodes are free to move about and organize themselves into a network. These nodes change position frequently. The main classes of routing protocols are Proactive, Reactive and Hybrid.A Reactive (on-demand) routing strategy is a popular routing category for wireless ad hoc routing The design follows the idea that each node tries to reduce routing overhead by sending routing packets whenever a communication is requested.In this work an attempt has been made to compare the performance of three prominent on demand reactive routing protocols for MANETs:Ad hoc On Demand Distance Vector (AODV), Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) protocols and Ad-hoc On-demand Multipath Distance Vector Routing (AOMDV) . DSR and AODV are reactive gateway discovery algorithms where a mobile device of MANET connects by gateway only when it is needed. AOMDV was designed primarily for highly dynamic ad hoc networks where link failures and route breaks occur frequently. It maintains routes for destinations in active communication and uses sequence numbers to determine the freshness of routing information to prevent routing loops. It is a timer-based protocol and provides a way for mobile nodes to respond to link breaks and topology changes. The performance differentials are analyzed using varying simulation time. These simulations are carried out using the ns-2 network simulator. The results presented in this work illustrate the importance in carefully evaluating and implementing routing protocols in an ad hoc environment.