LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Incidence, Causes, and Predictors of Early (≤30 Days) and Late Unplanned Hospital Readmissions After Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement.

OBJECTIVES
The aim of this study was to determine the incidence, causes, and predictors of unplanned hospital readmissions after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR).


BACKGROUND
Data regarding unplanned hospital readmissions after TAVR in a real-world all-comers population are scarce.


METHODS
A total of 720 consecutive patients undergoing TAVR at 2 centers who survived the procedure, were included. Median follow-up was 23 months (interquartile range [IQR]: 12 to 39 months), available in 99.9% of the initial population. The occurrence, timing, and causes of hospital readmission within the first year post-TAVR were obtained in all cases. Early and late readmissions were defined as those occurring ≤30 days and >30 days to 1 year post-TAVR, respectively.


RESULTS
There were 506 unplanned readmissions in 316 patients (43.9%) within the first year post-TAVR (median time: 63 days; IQR: 19 to 158 days post-discharge). Of these, early readmission occurred in 105 patients (14.6%), and 118 patients (16.4%) had multiple (≥2) readmissions. Readmissions were due to noncardiac and cardiac causes in 59% and 41% of cases, respectively. Noncardiac readmissions included, in order of decreasing frequency, respiratory, infection, and bleeding events as the main causes, whereas heart failure and arrhythmias accounted for most cardiac readmissions. The predictors of early readmission were periprocedural major bleeding complications (p = 0.001), anemia (p = 0.019), lower left ventricular ejection fraction (p = 0.042), and the combined presence of antiplatelet and anticoagulation therapy at hospital discharge (p = 0.014). The predictors of late readmission were chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (p = 0.001), peripheral vascular disease (p = 0.023), chronic renal failure (p = 0.013), and atrial fibrillation (p = 0.012). Early readmission was an independent predictor of mortality during the follow-up period (hazard ratio: 1.56, 95% confidence interval: 1.02 to 2.39, p = 0.043).


CONCLUSIONS
The readmission burden after TAVR in an all-comers population was high. Nearly one-fifth of the patients were readmitted early after hospital discharge, increasing the risk of mortality at follow-up. Reasons for readmission were split between noncardiac and cardiac causes, with respiratory causes and heart failure as the main diagnoses in each group, respectively. Whereas early readmissions were mainly related to periprocedural bleeding events, most late readmissions were secondary to baseline patient comorbidities. These results underscore the importance of and provide the basis for implementing specific preventive measures to reduce readmission rates after TAVR.
Evaluation of a fatigue initiative: information on exercise for patients receiving cancer treatment.

AIMS
An observational cohort study in patients undergoing treatment at a single cancer centre to evaluate the usefulness of providing written information on exercise and fatigue to patients at the start of their treatment, to assess whether patients exercised during treatment and their level of fatigue before and after treatment.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
Participants were 205 patients of mean age 63.4 years (115 men and 90 women), starting a course of radical radiotherapy, postoperative radiotherapy and palliative radiotherapy or chemotherapy between October 2004 and June 2005 for genitourinary, gynaecological or breast cancer. A patient-held folder was provided, containing written information on cancer or treatment-related fatigue and the use of exercise to manage this, together with flyers for workshops on fatigue management held at local palliative care centres. Study evaluation questionnaires were used for patients to rate the information's usefulness and provide information regarding fatigue. Fatigue level was documented using Brief Fatigue Inventory score sheets. The main research variables were patient rating of the usefulness of the written information provided, whether patients reported being able to exercise during their cancer treatment and self-completed fatigue scores.


RESULTS
The information provided was rated as helpful or very helpful by 70-78% of patients. Overall, 144/163 patients (88.3%) reported exercising during treatment (70.2% of all patients in the fatigue initiative). Patients receiving radical or postoperative radiotherapy as compared with chemotherapy, and those using the information supplied were more likely to exercise during treatment. There was a significant overall increase in mean fatigue from the start to the end of cancer treatment (P<0.001). Patients who did not exercise, younger patients, those with breast cancer and those receiving chemotherapy (compared with radical or postoperative radiotherapy) all had higher fatigue scores.


CONCLUSIONS
Provision of written information on exercise to manage fatigue was rated as helpful by most patients receiving cancer therapies; patients who were able to exercise during treatment had lower fatigue levels.
Girdin maintains the stemness of glioblastoma stem cells

Glioblastomas (GBMs) are the most common and aggressive type of brain tumor. GBMs usually show hyperactivation of the PI3K–Akt pathway, a pro-tumorigenic signaling cascade that contributes to pathogenesis. Girdin, an actin-binding protein identified as a novel substrate of Akt, regulates the sprouting of axons and the migration of neural progenitor cells during early postnatal-stage neurogenesis in the hippocampus. Here, we show that Girdin is highly expressed in human glioblastoma (GBM). Stable Girdin knockdown in isolated GBM stem cells resulted in decreased expression of stem cell markers, including CD133, induced multilineage neural differentiation, and inhibited in vitro cell motility, ex vivo invasion, sphere-forming capacity and in vivo tumor formation. Furthermore, exogenous expression of the Akt-binding domain of Girdin, which competitively inhibits its Akt-mediated phosphorylation, diminished the expression of stem cell markers, SOX2 and nestin, and migration on the brain slice and induced the expression of neural differentiation markers glial fibrillary acidic protein/βIII Tubulin. Our results reveal that Girdin is required for GBM-initiating stem cells to sustain the stemness and invasive properties.
Altered sleep–wake cycles and food intake: The Ramadan model

In this review the effects of diurnal fasting on normal physiological processes are considered. Ramadan is placed in a circadian context, food and fluid ingestion being displaced to the pre-sunrise and post-sunset hours. Over the holy month, negative energy balance is often experienced, though this deficit is not a universal finding. Responses to exercise during the day show influences consistent with hypohydration and an increased reliance on fat as a source of fuel for exercise. Muscle performance and psychomotor performance are impaired as the month of fasting progresses but it is not clear how circadian rhythms in responses to activity are altered. For some measures at rest there is a reduction in amplitude and a delay in acrophase. Health-related benefits are reflected in a rise in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and individuals with predispositions for coronary heart disease are not at increased risk of cardiovascular disorders due to fasting. The physiological adjustments during the month have some similarities to the disturbances in circadian rhythms experienced in different circumstances. The Ramadan model provides an alternative to those for ageing, nocturnal shift-work and time-zone transitions in understanding the links between behaviour and endogenous circadian rhythms.
Smart parking: Parking occupancy monitoring and visualization system for smart cities

Parking space is becoming a serious problem due to the day-by-day increase in number of vehicles on the road. Particularly, in cities with large population, or in places where sports or artistic events are scheduled, looking for parking space is a major problem and finding a parking spot can be a frustrating experience. In order to combat this problem, some parking lots have introduced sensors to detect when a car enters or leaves a parking lot in order to track capacity and alert drivers if they are full. This is a partial solution that allows drivers to determine if a parking lot has open parking spots, but not the exact location of those spots. In this paper, we present a prototype of smart parking system using wireless sensor technology and networks. Using a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), parking spot statuses (occupied or idle) are detected and transmitted to a database. This information then be accessed by users through website or mobile app (application) to receive real-time updates. This system should provide users with near instantaneous updates of available parking spots while the WSN allows for flexibility of sensor placement. With the successful implementation of smart parking, the economical and time costs associated with traffic jams, cost associated with wasted gas fuel, and time looking for an empty parking space that are caused by inefficient parking will be significant reduced.
Learning Data-Driven Reflectance Priors for Intrinsic Image Decomposition

We propose a data-driven approach for intrinsic image decomposition, which is the process of inferring the confounding factors of reflectance and shading in an image. We pose this as a two-stage learning problem. First, we train a model to predict relative reflectance ordering between image patches ('brighter', 'darker', 'same') from large-scale human annotations, producing a data-driven reflectance prior. Second, we show how to naturally integrate this learned prior into existing energy minimization frame-works for intrinsic image decomposition. We compare our method to the state-of-the-art approach of Bell et al. [7] on both decomposition and image relighting tasks, demonstrating the benefits of the simple relative reflectance prior, especially for scenes under challenging lighting conditions.
Spatially Adaptive Bayesian Penalized Splines With Heteroscedastic Errors

Penalized splines have become an increasingly popular tool for nonparametric smoothing because of their use of low-rank spline bases, which makes computations tractable while maintaining accuracy as good as smoothing splines. This article extends penalized spline methodology by both modeling the variance function nonparametrically and using a spatially adaptive smoothing parameter. This combination is needed for satisfactory inference and can be implemented effectively by Bayesian MCMC. The variance process controlling the spatially adaptive shrinkage of the mean and the variance of the heteroscedastic error process are modeled as log-penalized splines. We discuss the choice of priors and extensions of the methodology, in particular, to multivariate smoothing. A fully Bayesian approach provides the joint posterior distribution of all parameters, in particular, of the error standard deviation and penalty functions. MATLAB, C, and FORTRAN programs implementing our methodology are publicly available.
Arkiv och perspektiv. Finns det en motsättning mellan populärhistoria och genushistoria

Many of the history books and articles that address a broader readership tend to focus on 'great men'. Popular history publications often offer a form of history that is problematic in its genderin ...
Psoriasis vulgaris with fibrokeratoma from pityriasis amiantacea

PsV: psoriasis vulgaris INTRODUCTION Pityriasis amiantacea is a rare clinical condition characterized by masses of waxy and sticky scales that adhere to the scalp and tenaciously attach to hair bundles. Pityriasis amiantacea can be associated with psoriasis vulgaris (PsV).We examined a patient with pityriasis amiantacea caused by PsV who also had keratotic horns on the scalp, histopathologically fibrokeratomas. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of scalp fibrokeratoma stimulated by pityriasis amiantacea and PsV.
BRACHIAL PLEXOPATHIES : CLASSIFICATION , CAUSES

ABSTRACT: The brachial plexus, which is the most complex structure of the peripheral nervous system, supplies most of the upper extremity and shoulder. The high incidence of brachial plexopathies reflects its vulnerability to trauma and the tendency of disorders involving adjacent structures to affect it secondarily. The combination of anatomic, pathophysiologic, and neuromuscular knowledge with detailed clinical and ancillary study evaluations provides diagnostic and prognostic information that is important to clinical management. Since most brachial plexus disorders do not involve the entire brachial plexus but, rather, show a regional predilection, a regional approach to assessment of plexopathies is necessary. Muscle Nerve 30: 547–568, 2004
Nogo-A antibodies and training reduce muscle spasms in spinal cord-injured rats.

OBJECTIVE
Spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to permanent motor and sensory deficits due to the damage of ascending and descending fiber tracts. In addition, malfunctions such as neuropathic pain or muscle spasms develop in many patients, possibly caused by injury-induced plastic changes of neuronal circuits above and below the lesion. New treatment strategies for spinal cord injury aim at enhancing plasticity and neurite growth, for example, by blocking the key neurite growth inhibitor Nogo-A or its downstream effectors. It is therefore crucial to investigate potential effects of such treatments on malfunctions such as muscle spasms. In addition, locomotor training, now a standard therapeutic tool to improve walking ability in incomplete SCI subjects, can be expected to influence the rearrangement of spinal cord circuits and the development of muscle spasms and other malfunctions.


METHODS AND RESULTS
Here we present and validate a new rat model for muscle spasms after incomplete SCI and show that both intrathecal anti-Nogo-A antibody treatment and locomotor training, started early after injury, permanently reduce the development of muscle spasms.


INTERPRETATION
The results show that an antibody-mediated suppression of the growth inhibitory protein Nogo-A leads to functional recovery and a lower level of malfunctions, suggesting the formation of functionally meaningful connections in the damaged spinal cord. Treadmill training early after SCI also has a beneficial effect.
Multimodal 2D+3D Facial Expression Recognition With Deep Fusion Convolutional Neural Network

This paper presents a novel and efficient deep fusion convolutional neural network (DF-CNN) for multimodal 2D+3D facial expression recognition (FER). DF-CNN comprises a feature extraction subnet, a feature fusion subnet, and a softmax layer. In particular, each textured three-dimensional (3D) face scan is represented as six types of 2D facial attribute maps (i.e., geometry map, three normal maps, curvature map, and texture map), all of which are jointly fed into DF-CNN for feature learning and fusion learning, resulting in a highly concentrated facial representation (32-dimensional). Expression prediction is performed by two ways: 1) learning linear support vector machine classifiers using the 32-dimensional fused deep features, or 2) directly performing softmax prediction using the six-dimensional expression probability vectors. Different from existing 3D FER methods, DF-CNN combines feature learning and fusion learning into a single end-to-end training framework. To demonstrate the effectiveness of DF-CNN, we conducted comprehensive experiments to compare the performance of DF-CNN with handcrafted features, pre-trained deep features, fine-tuned deep features, and state-of-the-art methods on three 3D face datasets (i.e., BU-3DFE Subset I, BU-3DFE Subset II, and Bosphorus Subset). In all cases, DF-CNN consistently achieved the best results. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work of introducing deep CNN to 3D FER and deep learning-based feature-level fusion for multimodal 2D+3D FER.
UNIQuE: A User-Centric Framework for Network Identity Management

Network identity management system, in theory, is conceived as the solution to many identity-related issues burgeoning day-to-day. These issues, which need to be addressed, range from managing the outburst of user identities to protecting user interests as well as business interests. This paper proposes a framework for network identity management on the Internet that addresses these issues from a user-centric point of view. After discussing the challenges and opportunities of a user-centric identity management system, we describe the architecture of our framework called UNIQuE in detail. The architecture comprises components such as a security infrastructure, a trust subsystem, an inter-provider communication system, and a repository system. In essence, the goal of this framework is to specify a comprehensive, user-centric solution to all identity-related issues, which also vouches for effortless maintenance. The fundamental difference to existing systems is its integrating approach to many usually separately considered, identity-related issues
Monitoring carbon dioxide tension and arterial oxygen saturation by a single earlobe sensor in patients with critical illness or sleep apnea.

OBJECTIVES
The purpose of the study was to evaluate a novel, combined sensor for transcutaneous monitoring of arterial oxygen saturation and carbon dioxide tension.


DESIGN
The new monitoring technique was compared to established reference methods.


SETTING
ICU and sleep laboratory of a university hospital.


PATIENTS
Eighteen critically ill adult patients with acute respiratory failure or heart failure, and 12 patients with sleep apnea (mean [+/- SD] apnea/hypopnea index, 43 +/- 24 events per hour).


MEASUREMENTS
Continuous measurements were performed over several hours by the novel heated (temperature, 42 degrees C) earlobe sensor (TOSCA; Linde Medical Sensors; Basel, Switzerland), incorporating electrochemical and optical elements for carbon dioxide measurement (PtcCO2) and pulse oximetry (SpO2), respectively. The data were compared to the results of repeated arterial blood gas analyses in critically ill patients and to simultaneous nocturnal pulse oximetry performed with different devices with earlobe or finger sensors in sleep apnea patients.


RESULTS
In critically ill patients, the mean difference and limits of agreement (bias +/- 2 SDs) of transcutaneous PtcCO2 vs arterial PaCO2 were 3 +/- 7 mm Hg; the corresponding values for changes in PtcCO2 vs PaCO2 were 1 +/- 6 mm Hg. The bias +/- 2 SDs for pulse oximetric SpO2 vs arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2) were 1 +/- 4%. In sleep apnea patients, the combined earlobe sensor identified more transient oxygen desaturations, and the rate of change in oxygen saturation during events was greater compared to those with other tested pulse oximeters, indicating a faster response.


CONCLUSIONS
Due to its ability to accurately assess both ventilation and oxygenation by a single transcutaneous sensor, the described noninvasive monitoring technique is a valuable tool for respiratory monitoring with potential applications in critical care and sleep medicine.
Development of UPS-SMES as a protection from momentary voltage drop

We have been developing the UPS-SMES as a protection from momentary voltage drop and power failure. The superconducting system is suitable as electric power storage for large energy extraction in a short time. The most important feature of superconducting coil system for the UPS-SMES is easy handling and maintenance-free operation. We have selected low temperature superconducting (LTS) coils instead of high temperature superconducting (HTS) coils from the viewpoint of cost and performance. However, it is difficult for the conventional LTS coils to fulfill maintenance-free operation since the cooling methods are either pool boiling with liquid helium or forced flow of supercritical helium. Thus, a conduction cooled LTS pulse coil has been designed as a key component of the UPS-SMES. The development program of 1 MW, 1 sec UPS-SMES is explained.
The Process of Post-Editing: A Pilot Study

We report on experiments in which manual translation is compared with a process in which automatically translated texts are post-edited. The translations were performed using Translog, a tool for monitoring and collecting keystroke and gaze data. The results indicate that the post-editing process resulted in a modest improvement in quality, as compared to the manual translations. Translation times were lower for the post-editing. It was also found that post-editing involved notable differences in gaze behavior.
Children referred for possible sexual abuse: medical findings in 2384 children.

OBJECTIVE
The goal of this study was to compare rates of positive medical findings in a 5-year prospective study of 2384 children, referred for evaluation of possible sexual abuse, with two decades of research. The prospective study summarizes demographic information, clinical history, relationship of perpetrators, nature of abuse, and clinical findings. The study reports on the results by patterns of referral and the medical examination.


RESULTS
There were 2384 children evaluated in a tertiary referral center between 1985 and 1990 for possible sexual abuse. Children were referred after they disclosed sexual abuse, because of behavioral changes or exposure to an abusive environment, and because of possible medical conditions. A total of 96.3% of all children referred for evaluation had a normal medical examination; 95.6% of children reporting abuse were normal, 99.8% who were referred for behavioral changes or exposure to abuse were also normal. Of the 182 children referred for evaluation of medical conditions, 92% were found to be normal at the time of examination by the Child Advocacy Center. The remaining 15/182 (8%) that were found to be abnormal were diagnosed with sexually transmitted diseases, acute or healed genital injuries, and were 17% (15/88) of the total cases found to have medical findings diagnostic of abuse. Interviews of the children indicated that 68% of the girls and 70% of the boys reported severe abuse, defined as penetration of vagina or anus. Penetration was associated with a higher percentage of abnormal findings in girls (6%) compared to 1% of the boys. The relationship of the abuser impacted on the severity of the abuse.


CONCLUSION
Research indicates that medical, social, and legal professionals have relied too heavily on the medical examination in diagnosing child sexual abuse. History from the child remains the single most important diagnostic feature in coming to the conclusion that a child has been sexually abused. Only 4% of all children referred for medical evaluation of sexual abuse have abnormal examinations at the time of evaluation. Even with a history of severe abuse such as vaginal or anal penetration, the rate of abnormal medical findings is only 5.5%. Biological parents are less likely to engage in severe abuse than parental substitutes, extended family members, or strangers.