LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Association between periodontal disease and bone mineral density in postmenopausal women: a cross sectional study.

OBJECTIVES
Both periodontitis and osteoporosis represent major health problems especially in elderly women. The relationship between the two diseases and oral bone loss is important having significant public health impact in the prevention of morbidity and mortality related to these disorders. The present study was aimed to investigate the possible association between osteoporosis and periodontal disease among postmenopausal women residing in Goa, India.


STUDY DESIGN
A complete periodontal examination (all teeth except third molar) including plaque index (PI), gingival index (GI), clinical attachment loss (CAL) measurement was performed on 80 dentate Goan postmenopausal women (age≥50 yrs) with generalized chronic periodontitis. Mean alveolar bone loss (ABL) was measured from full mouth intraoral periapical radiographs, by recording the distance from cementoenamel junction (CEJ) and the most coronal portion of alveolar crest at mesial and distal aspect of all teeth except canines and third molars. Systemic bone loss was determined from hand-wrist radiograph of the patient through Digital X-Ray Radiogrammetry. Statistical analysis was done to assess the relationships between periodontal variables and bone mineral density (BMD) after adjusting for age, years since menopause, body mass index (BMI), smoking, number of remaining teeth, PI and GI.


RESULTS
Age of the patient, years since menopause and BMI showed significant correlation with BMD. CAL and ABL showed mildly negative and statistically non-significant correlation with the BMD. Of all the variables studied, only smoking and BMI were strong predictors of BMD.


CONCLUSION
Skeletal BMD is related to interproximal ABL and CAL, though not to a statistically significant level; implicating postmenopausal osteopenia as a risk indicator for periodontal disease.
Unruptured cerebral aneurysms do not shrink when they rupture: multicenter collaborative aneurysm study group.

BACKGROUND
The International Study of Intracranial Aneurysms found that for patients with no previous history of subarachnoid hemorrhage, small (< 7 mm) anterior circulation and posterior circulation aneurysms had a 0% and 2.5% risk of subarachnoid hemorrhage over 5 years, respectively.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether cerebral aneurysms shrink with rupture.


METHODS
The clinical databases of 7 sites were screened for patients with imaging of cerebral aneurysms before and after rupture. Inclusion criteria included documented subarachnoid hemorrhage by imaging or lumbar puncture and intracranial imaging before and after cerebral aneurysm rupture. The patients were evaluated for aneurysm maximal height, maximal width, neck diameter, and other measurement parameters. Only a change of ≥ 2 mm was considered a true change.


RESULTS
Data on 13 patients who met inclusion criteria were collected. The median age was 60, and 11 of the 13 patients (84.6%) were female. Only 5 patients had posterior circulation aneurysms. None of the aneurysms had a significant decrease in size. One aneurysm decreased by 1.8 mm in maximum size after rupture (7.7%). Six aneurysms had an increase in maximum size of at least 2 mm after rupture (46.2%) with a mean increase of 3.5 mm (± 0.5 mm).


CONCLUSION
Unruptured aneurysms do not shrink when they rupture. The large percentage of ruptured small aneurysms in previous studies were likely small before they ruptured.
Combinatorial complexity in O-minimal geometry

In this paper we prove tight bounds on the combinatorial and topological complexity of sets dened in terms of n denable sets belonging to some fixed denable family of sets in an o-minimal structure. This generalizes the combinatorial parts of similar bounds known in the case of semi-algebraic and semi-Pfaffian sets, and as a result vastly increases the applicability of results on combinatorial and topological complexity of arrangements studied in discrete and computational geometry. As a sample application, we extend a Ramsey-type theorem due to Alon et al. [3], originally proved for semi-algebraic sets of fixed description complexity to this more general setting.
OLED-based visible light communications

In this talk we introduce visible light communication and discuss challenges and techniques to improve the performance of white organic light emitting diode (OLED) based systems.
Dynamic Ridge Polynomial Neural Network for Financial Time Series Prediction

This paper presents a novel type of higher-order polynomial recurrent neural network called the dynamic ridge polynomial neural network. The aim of the proposed network is to improve the performance of the ridge polynomial neural network by accommodating recurrent links structure. The network is tested for the prediction of non-linear and non-stationary financial signals. Two exchange rates time-series, which are the exchange rate time series between the British pound and the euro as well as the US dollar and the euro, are used in the simulation process. Simulation results showed that dynamic ridge polynomial neural networks generate higher profit returns with fast convergence when used to predict noisy financial time series
Active Ageing: An Empirical Approach to the WHO Model

Background. In the beginning of the 21st century, the world summit on population taking place in Madrid approved active ageing, WHO (2002) as the main objective of health and social policies for old people. Few studies have been done on the scientific validity of the construct. This study aims to validate the construct of active ageing and test empirically the WHO (2002) model of Active Ageing in a sample of community-dwelling seniors. Methods. 1322 old people living in the community were interviewed using an extensive assessment protocol to measure WHO's determinants of active ageing and performed an exploratory factor analysis followed by a confirmatory factor analyses. Results. We did not confirm the active ageing model, as most of the groups of determinants are either not independent or not significant. We got to a six-factor model (health, psychological component, cognitive performance, social relationships, biobehavioural component, and personality) explaining 54.6% of total variance. Conclusion. The present paper shows that there are objective as well as subjective variables contributing to active ageing and that psychological variables seem to give a very important contribute to the construct. The profile of active ageing is expected to vary between contexts and cultures and can be used to guide specific community and individually based interventions.
Characteristics and Development Mechanisms of Partial Discharge in SF6 Gas Under Impulse Voltages

It is well known that impulse voltages strongly affect the reliability of gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) under actual operational conditions. The alternating-current (ac) withstand voltage test and its corresponding partial discharge (PD) measurement are inadequate for the detection of all the hidden flaws in GIS. Such inadequacy can be compensated by additional impulse withstand voltage test and its PD detection measurement. However, the bulkiness and inefficiency of aperiodic impulse voltage generator make it unsuitable for on-site application. Therefore, in practical tests, oscillating impulse voltage (OIV) is generally adopted instead of aperiodic impulse voltage. In this paper, we measure the PD inception voltage (PDIV) and the breakdown characteristics of a needle-plate gap in SF6 gas under four types of impulse voltages by electrical and optical methods. The 50% probability PDIV is analyzed as a function of gas pressure. The physical mechanisms of the PD under the four impulse voltages are discussed. The PD characteristics under ac voltage are investigated for comparison. Experimental results reveal that the PD development process under the two aperiodic impulse voltages was mainly dominated by the precursor mechanism which consists of streamer and leader stages, while the PD propagation under the two OIVs was affected by the displacement current produced by oscillation. The difference of the PD characteristics under the aperiodic impulse voltage and OIV, and ac voltage are also presented.
Hand-foot-uterus- (HFU) syndrome with hypospadias: The hand-foot-genital- (HFG) syndrome

Three brothers with the typical findings of the HFU-syndrome, but in addition with various degrees of hypospadias are reported. The family history otherwise was negative. The similarity of the “pattern-profile” of these cases with the mean pattern of the 11 previously reported ones is striking, as expressed by a product moment correlation of 0.83, 0.8 and 0.78 respectively. The widening of the concept of the HFU to that of a HFG-syndrome, as suggested by Poznanskiet al. in 1974, is discussed.
TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION IN THE BIM IMPLEMENTATION FOR LEAN ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE

Justification for Research: the construction companies are facing barriers and challenges in BIM adoption as there is no clear guidance or best practice studies from which they can learn and build up their capacity for BIM use in order to increase productivity, efficiency, quality, and to attain competitive advantages in the global market and to achieve the targets in environmental sustainability. Purpose: this paper aims to explain a comprehensive and systemic evaluation and assessment of the relevant BIM technologies as part of the BIM adoption and implementation to demonstrate how efficiency gains have been achieved towards a lean architectural practice. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research is undertaken through a KTP (Knowledge transfer Partnership) project between the University of Salford and the John McCall Architects based in Liverpool, which is an SME (Small Medium Enterprise). The overall aim of KTP is to develop Lean Design Practice through the BIM adoption and implementation. The overall BIM implementation approach uses a socio-technical view in which it does not only consider the implementation of technology but also considers the socio-cultural environment that provides the context for its implementation. The technology adoption methodology within the BIM implementation approach is the action research oriented qualitative and quantitative research for discovery, comparison, and experimentation as the KTP project with JMA provides an environment for “learning by doing” Findings: research has proved that BIM technology adoption should be undertaken with a bottom-up approach rather than top-down approach for successful change management and dealing with the resistance to change. As a result of the BIM technology adoption, efficiency gains are achieved through the piloting projects and the design process is improved through the elimination of wastes and value generation. Originality/Value: successful BIM adoption needs an implementation strategy. However, at operational level, it is imperative that professional guidelines are required as part of the implementation strategy. This paper introduces a systematic approach for BIM technology adoption based on a case study implementation and it demonstrates a guideline at operational level for other SME companies of architectural practices.
Analysis of reasons for osteonecrosis of the jaws

Osteonecroses of the jaws are caused by several reasons. Bisphosphonate-associated osteonecrosis of the jaws (BP-ONJ) is known since 2003 with an increasing incidence in the first years. Along with more knowledge about the pathophysiology, preventive strategies were implemented trying to reduce the incidence. The aim of this retrospective study was to analyze the frequency and overall proportion of BP-ONJ within the field of osteonecrosis. The data was compared to a similar study performed in 2005. All patients with osteonecrosis or osteomyelitis treated in the period from April 2005 to July 2012 in the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the University of Mainz, Germany, were analyzed. The reasons for osteonecrosis were bisphosphonates in 45 %, odontogenic or surgically induced osteonecrosis in 32 %, osteoradionecrosis in 17 %, traumas in 1 %, and in 4 % the reason remained unclear. The BP-ONJ became the most important factor for osteonecrosis. Its fraction in the years 2000–2005 was 10 % only. Although preventive strategies are implemented, the number of new cases got bigger. The implemented prevention strategies did not manage to reduce the overall number of new cases. Furthermore, the launch of other medications with a similar side effect on the jawbone as the BP-ONJ for bisphosphonates might influence the overall distribution of osteonecroses.
Cost-effectiveness of N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic-guided therapy in elderly heart failure patients: results from TIME-CHF (Trial of Intensified versus Standard Medical Therapy in Elderly Patients with Congestive Heart Failure).

OBJECTIVES
This study aimed to assess cost-effectiveness of N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP)-guided versus symptom-guided therapy in heart failure (HF) patients ≥60 years old.


BACKGROUND
Cost-effectiveness of NT-proBNP guidance in HF patients is unclear. It may create additional costs with uncertain benefits.


METHODS
In the TIME-CHF (Trial of Intensified versus Standard Medical Therapy in Elderly Patients with Congestive Heart Failure), patients with left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) of ≤45% were randomized to receive intensified NT-proBNP-guided therapy or standard, symptom-guided therapy. For cost-effectiveness analysis, 467 (94%) patients (age 76 ± 7 years, 66% male) were eligible. Incremental cost-effectiveness was calculated as incremental costs per gained life-year and quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) within the 18-month trial period, as defined per protocol.


RESULTS
NT-proBNP-guided therapy was dominant (i.e., more effective and less costly) over symptom-guided therapy, saving $2,979 USD (2.5 to 97.5% confidence interval [CI]: $8,758 to $3,265) per patient, with incremental effectiveness of +0.07 life-years and +0.05 QALYs. The probability of NT-proBNP-guided therapy being dominant was 80%, and the probability of saving 1 life-year or QALY at a cost of $50,000 was 97% and 93%, respectively. Exclusion of residence costs resulted in an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of $5,870 per life-year gained. Cost-effectiveness of NT-proBNP-guided therapy was most pronounced in patients <75 years old and in those with <2 significant comorbidities, being dominant in all sensitivity analyses. In the worst-case scenario (excluding residence costs in those with ≥2 comorbidities), the ICER was $11,935 per life-year gained.


CONCLUSIONS
NT-proBNP-guided therapy has a high probability of being cost effective in HF patients with reduced LVEF, particularly in patients age 60 to 75 years or with less than 2 comorbidities. (Trial of Intensified versus standard Medical therapy in Elderly patients with Congestive Heart Failure [TIME-CHF]; ISRCTN43596477).
Inflammatory, procoagulant markers and HIV residual viremia in patients receiving protease inhibitor monotherapy or triple drug therapy: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND
Protease inhibitor monotherapy is associated with more frequent episodes of viral rebounds above 50 copies/mL than triple therapy.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate if, compared to triple-drug therapy, protease inhibitor monotherapy is associated with increased levels of inflammatory/procoagulant markers and more frequent plasma residual viremia detection.


METHODS
In this cross-sectional study, we included patients treated for ≥ 1 year with darunavir/ritonavir or lopinavir/ritonavir as monotherapy (n=72) or with two nucleos(t)ides (n=74). All samples were tested for CRP, IL-6, fibrinogen and D-dimer. Residual viremia was determined using an ultrasensitive qualitative nested-PCR of the HIV pol gene with a limit of detection of 1 copy of HIV-RNA.


RESULTS
We found no differences in levels of inflammatory/procoagulant markers or in the proportion of patients with plasma residual viremia detection by treatment group.


CONCLUSION
The long-term treatment with protease inhibitor monotherapy in the setting of routine clinical practice is not associated with a higher prevalence of plasma residual viremia or more elevated inflammatory/procoagulant markers levels than triple drug therapy.
Improving End-to-End Routing Performance of Greedy Forwarding in Sensor Networks

Greedy forwarding is a simple yet efficient technique employed by many routing protocols. It is ideal to realize point-to-point routing in wireless sensor networks because packets can be delivered by only maintaining a small set of neighbors' information regardless of network size. It has been successfully employed by geographic routing, which assumes that a packet can be moved closer to the destination in the network topology if it is forwarded geographically closer to the destination in the physical space. This assumption, however, may lead packets to the local minimum where no neighbors of the sender are closer to the destination or low-quality routes that comprise long distance hops of low packet reception ratio. To address the local minimum problem, we propose a topology aware routing (TAR) protocol that efficiently encodes a network topology into a low-dimensional virtual coordinate space where hop distances between pairwise nodes are preserved. Based on precise hop distance comparison, TAR can assist greedy forwarding to find the right neighbor that is one hop closer to the destination and achieve high success ratio of packet delivery without location information. Further, we improve the routing quality by embedding a network topology based on the metric of expected transmission count (ETX). ETX embedding accurately encodes both a network's topological structure and channel quality to nodes' small size virtual coordinates, which helps greedy forwarding to guide a packet along the optimal path that has the fewest number of transmissions. We evaluate our approaches through both simulations and experiments, showing that routing performance are improved in terms of routing success ratio and routing cost.
Clash of the Titans

Abstract Asia's strategic evolutions during the next two decades or so will put major theories about great-power behavior to the test. A trio of new books about the Sino–Indian rivalry help sketch out a timely research agenda.
A 21nV/√Hz chopper-stabilized multipath current-feedback instrumentation amplifier with 2µV offset

Amplifiers with low offset and low 1/f noise usually employ auto-zeroing (AZ) and/or chopping. However, AZ suffers from noise aliasing, and so requires more power dissipation for a given noise specification. Chopping, although free of noise aliasing, requires notch filters [1, 2] or AZ [3] to remove the ripple caused by up-modulated offset and 1/f noise. This paper describes a chopper-stabilized multi-path current-feedback instrumentation amplifier (CFIA), whose ripple is removed by a continuous-time (CT) ripple-reduction loop (RRL) [2]. In contrast to [2], the notch created by the RRL is eliminated by the use of a multi-path architecture. This results in a CFIA with a smooth single-pole response, which also achieves low offset (2µV) and low noise (21nV/√Hz) in a power efficient manner (NEF=9.6). By appropriately connecting its inputs, the CFIA can also be used as an opamp. In this configuration, its offset is further reduced while its noise and NEF are halved.
Fetal intracranial translucency and cisterna magna at 11 to 14 weeks : reference ranges and correlation with chromosomal abnormalities.

OBJECTIVE
To measure the intracranial translucency (IT) and the cisterna magna (CM), to produce reference ranges and to examine the interobserver and intraobserver variability of those measurements. To examine the possible association of IT with chromosomal abnormalities.


METHODS
Prospective study on pregnancies assessed at 11 to 14 weeks. IT was measured retrospectively in 17 cases with aneuploidy.


RESULTS
To produce reference ranges, 465 fetuses were used. IT and CM correlated linearly with crown-rump-length (CRL) and were independent of maternal demographic characteristics and biochemical indices. IT had a weak positive correlation with nuchal translucency. For IT the intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.88 for intraobserver variability and 0.83 for interobserver variability. For CM the intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.95 for intraobserver variability and 0.84 for interobserver variability. The IT multiple of the median was significantly increased in the chromosomally abnormal fetuses (1.02 for the normal and 1.28 for the chromosomally abnormal fetuses, Mann Whitney p < 0.001). IT multiple of the median was a significant predictor of chromosomal abnormality (Receiver Operator Characteristic curve analysis: Area under the curve = 0.86, CI=0.76-0.96, p<0.001).


CONCLUSION
Intracranial translucency and CM can be measured reliably at the 11 to 14 weeks examination and the measurements are highly reproducible. IT appears to be increased in fetuses with chromosomal abnormalities.
Formal aspects of model validity and validation in system dynamics

Model validation constitutes a very important step in system dynamics methodology. Yet, both published and informal evidence indicates that there has been little effort in system dynamics community explicitly devoted to model validity and validation. Validation is a prolonged and complicated process, involving both formal/quantitative tools and informal/ qualitative ones. This paper focuses on the formal aspects of validation and presents a taxonomy of various aspects and steps of formal model validation. First, there is a very brief discussion of the philosophical issues involved in model validation, followed by a flowchart that describes the logical sequence in which various validation activities must be carried out. The crucial nature of structure validity in system dynamics (causal-descriptive) models is emphasized. Then examples are given of specific validity tests used in each of the three major stages of model validation: Structural tests. Introduction
Shiveluch volcano: seismicity, deep structure and forecasting eruptions (kamchatka)

Abstract The deep structure, Wadati-Benioff zone (focal zone) geometry and the magma feeding system of Shiveluch volcano are investigated based on 1962–1994 detailed seismic surveillance. A focal zone beneath Shiveluch is dipping at an angle of 70° at depths of 100–200 km. Based on the revealed interrelations between seismicity at depths of 105–120 km and an extrusive phase of its eruptions in 1980 through 1994, it is inferred that primary magmas, periodically feeding the crustal chamber, are melted at depths of at least 100 km. An upsurge of extrusive-explosive activity at the volcano is preceded and accompanied by the increasing number and energy of both volcanic earthquakes beneath the dome and tectonic or volcano-tectonic earthquakes in the zones of NW-striking crustal faults near the volcano.The eruption of April 1993 has been the most powerful since 1964. It was successfully predicted based on interactive use of all seismic data. At the same time the influence of seismicity at depths of 105–120 km under the volcano on the style (and consequently on prediction) of its activity is decisive.