LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of bovine abortion associated with Neospora caninum by different diagnostic techniques in Mashhad, Iran

Twelve aborted foetuses (gestational ranged from 4–9 months) and dams from dairies cattle farms in (Mashhad) Iran were analysed to investigate the participation of Neospora caninum in abortion. Diagnosis of the infection was determined by histopathology, serology (indirect fluorescent antibody test [IFAT]) and semi-nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A total 33% of bovine foetuses were considered to be infected by PCR technique. Microscopic lesions consistent with N. caninum infection in foetal brains were observed in 25% of the samples, whereas 33% were positive using IFAT (with a cut-off titre of 1:20). This study confirms the importance of N. caninum as an important cause of abortion in Iran.
Requirements Engineering for Software Product Lines

The cost of fixing a requirements defect later in the development stage is much higher than the cost of identifying and fixing it in the early stages of development. In order to do this the system requirements must be properly identified, analyzed and reviewed early in the development process. Requirements engineering is such a process that focuses on discovering, analyzing, documenting and managing system requirements. Several processes and techniques have been developed to assist requirements engineering activities. A product line is a set or group of products that have a majority of features in common and vary only in certain specific features. Developing a group of products that have a majority of features in common supports a great deal of reuse in all the phases of system development. Due to the complexity and extensive nature of product line development, requirements engineering is much more important for a product line practice. In this paper an attempt is made to review requirements engineering techniques used in existing software product line practices. Also the applicability of several requirements engineering techniques to software product line development is assessed.
Effects of nebivolol and atenolol on central aortic pressure in hypertensive patients: a multicenter, randomized, double-blind study.

INTRODUCTION
The main objective was to compare the mean change in augmentation index of hypertensive patients treated with nebivolol or atenolol.


METHODS
Multicenter, double-blind randomized study conducted in six Spanish centers. We enrolled outpatients between the ages of 40 and 65 years with mild or moderate essential hypertension (systolic blood pressure, SBP ≥ 140 mmHg to ≤ 179 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure, DBP ≥ 90 mmHg to ≤ 109 mmHg after a 2-week run-in placebo period). Patients received nebivolol 5 mg or atenolol 50 mg once daily. At week 3, atenolol could be titrated up to 100 mg qd for non-responders. Additionally, patients not achieving normal blood pressure after 6 weeks could be treated with 25 mg hydrochlorothiazide. Follow-up visits were at 3, 6 and 10 weeks.


RESULTS
The final study population of 138 patients (58% men; median age 52.6 years, range 40-67 years) was randomized into two groups of 69 patients each. Baseline characteristics of the two groups were similar. At the screening visit, 69% presented with mild hypertension. Nebivolol modified the mean augmentation index to a lesser extent than atenolol after 10 weeks (mean difference 3.1%, 95% CI 0.55-5.69; p = 0.027). A higher proportion of patients in the atenolol group required a diuretic. Reductions in central aortic pressure and peripheral arterial pressure were similar for both treatment groups.


CONCLUSIONS
The study confirms that nebivolol produces a less pronounced impact on augmentation index than atenolol.
Roentgen-cephalometric standards for a Swedish population. A longitudinal study between the ages of 5 and 31 years.

This study was performed to establish age- and gender-specific cephalometric normative data for a Swedish population. The material comprised 469 lateral cephalograms from two groups of subjects of Swedish origin between 5 and 31 years of age. All subjects (males and females) were diagnosed as 'normal' according to specified criteria and with no history of orthodontic treatment. Lateral cephalograms and body height measurements were taken at 5, 7, 10 and 13 years of age in one group (group E) (longitudinal follow-up). The same registrations were made in the other group (group U) at 7, 10 and13 years of age (mixed longitudinal type). Those 13 year olds were re-examined at 16, 19 and 31 years of age (longitudinal follow-up). No significant differences between age groups in the two samples were found. Therefore, subjects of the same age were combined. The study is hence regarded as a longitudinal follow-up from 5 to 31 years of age. The subjects were also grouped into dental development stages to widen the applicability of the cephalometric data.The craniofacial distances were constantly larger in males than in females, while no statistical differences as regards angular measurements were seen between genders. Distances as well as angular measurements varied with the different developmental periods. The results clearly verify that facial pattern changes existed during the observation period, with a growth acceleration of most distances between the 13 and 16 year recordings.
Mesenchymal and haematopoietic stem cells form a unique bone marrow niche

The cellular constituents forming the haematopoietic stem cell (HSC) niche in the bone marrow are unclear, with studies implicating osteoblasts, endothelial and perivascular cells. Here we demonstrate that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), identified using nestin expression, constitute an essential HSC niche component. Nestin+ MSCs contain all the bone-marrow colony-forming-unit fibroblastic activity and can be propagated as non-adherent ‘mesenspheres’ that can self-renew and expand in serial transplantations. Nestin+ MSCs are spatially associated with HSCs and adrenergic nerve fibres, and highly express HSC maintenance genes. These genes, and others triggering osteoblastic differentiation, are selectively downregulated during enforced HSC mobilization or β3 adrenoreceptor activation. Whereas parathormone administration doubles the number of bone marrow nestin+ cells and favours their osteoblastic differentiation, in vivo nestin+ cell depletion rapidly reduces HSC content in the bone marrow. Purified HSCs home near nestin+ MSCs in the bone marrow of lethally irradiated mice, whereas in vivo nestin+ cell depletion significantly reduces bone marrow homing of haematopoietic progenitors. These results uncover an unprecedented partnership between two distinct somatic stem-cell types and are indicative of a unique niche in the bone marrow made of heterotypic stem-cell pairs.
An efficient CNN for spectral reconstruction from RGB images

Recently, the example-based single image spectral reconstruction from RGB images task aka spectral super-resolution was approached by means of deep learning by Galliani et al. [1]. The proposed very deep convolutional neural network (CNN) achieved superior performance on recent large benchmarks. However, Aeschbacher et al. [2] showed that comparable performance can be achieved by shallow learning method based on A+, a method introduced for image superresolution by Timofte et al. [3]. In this paper, we propose a moderately deep CNN model and substantially improve the reported performance on three spectral reconstruction standard benchmarks: ICVL, CAVE, and NUS.
Estimating preferences for treatments in patients with localized prostate cancer.

PURPOSE
Studies of patients' preferences for localized prostate cancer treatments have assessed radical prostatectomy and external radiation therapy, but none of them has evaluated brachytherapy. The aim of our study was to assess the preferences and willingness to pay of patients with localized prostate cancer who had been treated with radical prostatectomy, external radiation therapy, or brachytherapy, and their related urinary, sexual, and bowel side effects.


METHODS AND MATERIALS
This was an observational, prospective cohort study with follow-up until 5 years after treatment. A total of 704 patients with low or intermediate risk localized prostate cancer were consecutively recruited from 2003 to 2005. The estimation of preferences was conducted using time trade-off, standard gamble, and willingness-to-pay methods. Side effects were measured with the Expanded Prostate Index Composite (EPIC), a prostate cancer-specific questionnaire. Tobit models were constructed to assess the impact of treatment and side effects on patients' preferences. Propensity score was applied to adjust for treatment selection bias.


RESULTS
Of the 580 patients reporting preferences, 165 were treated with radical prostatectomy, 152 with external radiation therapy, and 263 with brachytherapy. Both time trade-off and standard gamble results indicated that the preferences of patients treated with brachytherapy were 0.06 utilities higher than those treated with radical prostatectomy (P=.01). Similarly, willingness-to-pay responses showed a difference of €57/month (P=.004) between these 2 treatments. Severe urinary incontinence presented an independent impact on the preferences elicited (P<.05), whereas no significant differences were found by bowel and sexual side effects.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings indicate that urinary incontinence is the side effect with the highest impact on preferences and that brachytherapy and external radiation therapy are more valued than radical prostatectomy. These time trade-off and standard gamble preference assessments as well as the willingness-to-pay estimation could be useful to perform respectively cost-utility or cost-benefit analyses, which can guide health policy decisions.
Epidemiology of Internet Behaviors and Addiction Among Adolescents in Six Asian Countries

Internet addiction has become a serious behavioral health problem in Asia. However, there are no up-to-date country comparisons. The Asian Adolescent Risk Behavior Survey (AARBS) screens and compares the prevalence of Internet behaviors and addiction in adolescents in six Asian countries. A total of 5,366 adolescents aged 12-18 years were recruited from six Asian countries: China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Participants completed a structured questionnaire on their Internet use in the 2012-2013 school year. Internet addiction was assessed using the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and the Revised Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS-R). The variations in Internet behaviors and addiction across countries were examined. The overall prevalence of smartphone ownership is 62%, ranging from 41% in China to 84% in South Korea. Moreover, participation in online gaming ranges from 11% in China to 39% in Japan. Hong Kong has the highest number of adolescents reporting daily or above Internet use (68%). Internet addiction is highest in the Philippines, according to both the IAT (5%) and the CIAS-R (21%). Internet addictive behavior is common among adolescents in Asian countries. Problematic Internet use is prevalent and characterized by risky cyberbehaviors.
Faster variational inducing input Gaussian process classification

Background: Gaussian processes (GP) provide an elegant and effective approach to learning in kernel machines. This approach leads to a highly interpretable model and allows using the bayesian framework for model adaptation and incorporating the prior knowledge about the problem. GP framework is successfully applied to regression, classification and dimensionality reduction problems. Unfortunately, the standard methods for both GP-regression and GP-classification scale as O(n 3), where n is the size of the dataset, which makes them inapplicable to big data problems. A variety of methods have been proposed to overcome this limitation both for regression and classification problems. The most successful recent methods are based on the concept of inducing inputs. These methods reduce the computational complexity to O(nm 2), where m is the number of inducing inputs with m typically much less, than n. In this work we focus on classification. The current state-of-the-art method for this problem is based on stochastic optimization of an evidence lower bound, that depends on O(m 2) parameters. For complex problems, the required number of inducing points m is fairly big, making the optimization in this method challenging. Methods: We analyze the structure of variational lower bound that appears in inducing input GP classification. First we notice that using quadratic approximation of several terms in this bound, it is possible to obtain analytical expressions for optimal values of most of the optimization parameters, thus sufficiently reducing the dimension of optimization space. Then we provide two methods for constructing necessary quadratic approximations. One is based on Jaakkola-Jordan bound for logistic function and the other one is derived using Taylor expansion. Results: We propose two new variational lower bounds for inducing input GP classification that depend on a number of parameters. Then we propose several methods for optimization of these bounds and compare the resulting algorithms with the state-of-the-art approach based on stochastic optimization. Experiments on a bunch of classification datasets show that the new methods perform as well or better than the existing one. However, new methods don't require any tunable parameters and can work in settings within a big range of n and m values thus significantly simplifying training of GP classification models.
A meta-analysis of the efficacy of second-generation antipsychotics

BACKGROUND
Consensus panel recommendations regarding choice of an antipsychotic agent for schizophrenia differ markedly, but most consider second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) as a homogeneous group. It has been suggested that SGAs seem falsely more efficacious than first-generation antipsychotics (FGAs) as a result of reduced efficacy due to use of a high-dose comparator, haloperidol. We performed (1) a meta-analysis of randomized efficacy trials comparing SGAs and FGAs, (2) comparisons between SGAs, (3) a dose-response analysis of FGAs and SGAs, and (4) an analysis of the effect on efficacy of an overly high dose of an FGA comparator.


METHODS
Literature search of clinical trials between January 1953 and May 2002 of patients with schizophrenia from electronic databases, reference lists, posters, the Food and Drug Administration, and other unpublished data. We included 124 randomized controlled trials with efficacy data on 10 SGAs vs FGAs and 18 studies of comparisons between SGAs. Two of us independently extracted the sample sizes, means, and standard deviation of the efficacy data.


RESULTS
Using the Hedges-Olkin algorithm, the effect sizes of clozapine, amisulpride, risperidone, and olanzapine were 0.49, 0.29, 0.25, and 0.21 greater than those of FGAs, with P values of 2 x 10-8, 3 x 10-7, 2 x 10-12, and 3 x 10-9, respectively. The remaining 6 SGAs were not significantly different from FGAs, although zotepine was marginally different. No efficacy difference was detected among amisulpride, risperidone, and olanzapine. We found no evidence that the haloperidol dose (or all FGA comparators converted to haloperidol-equivalent doses) affected these results when we examined its effect by drug or in a 2-way analysis of variance model in which SGA effectiveness is entered as a second factor.


CONCLUSION
Some SGAs are more efficacious than FGAs, and, therefore, SGAs are not a homogeneous group.
Adalimumab for maintenance therapy for one year in Crohn's disease: results of a Latin American single-center observational study.

CONTEXT
Adalimumab is a fully-human antibody that inhibits TNF alpha, with a significant efficacy for long-term maintenance of remission. Studies with this agent in Latin American Crohn's disease patients are scarce.


OBJECTIVES
The objective of this study was to outline clinical remission rates after 12 months of adalimumab therapy for Crohn's disease patients.


METHODS
Retrospective, single-center, observational study of a Brazilian case series of Crohn's disease patients under adalimumab therapy. Variables analyzed: demographic data, Montreal classification, concomitant medication, remission rates after 1, 4, 6 and 12 months. Remission was defined as Harvey-Bradshaw Index ≤ 4, and non-responder-imputation and last-observation-carried-forward analysis were used. The influence of infliximab on remission rates was analyzed by Fischer and Chi-square tests (P<0.05).


RESULTS
Fifty patients, with median age of 35 years at therapy initiation, were included. Remission rates after 12 months of therapy were 54% under non-responder-imputation and 88% under last-observation-carried-forward analysis. After 12 months, remission on patients with previous infliximab occurred in 69.23% as compared to 94.59% in infliximab-naïve patients (P = 0.033).


CONCLUSIONS
Adalimumab was effective in maintaining clinical remission after 12 months of therapy, with an adequate safety profile, and was also more effective in infliximab naïve patients.
Text Messaging May Improve Abnormal Mammogram Follow-Up in Latinas.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To develop and pilot test a text message notification process to reduce follow-up time for women with abnormal mammograms. .


DESIGN
Formative analysis; randomized trial with delayed intervention control group. .


SETTING
Tiburcio Vasquez Health Clinic (TVHC), a federally qualified health center in Hayward, California. .


SAMPLE
29 Spanish-speaking Latinas with abnormal mammograms. .


METHODS
A Spanish text message was developed based on findings from two focus groups and five interviews with TVHC healthcare providers. Thirteen women were assigned to receive text messages within 24 hours of receipt of abnormal mammogram by TVHC (intervention group) and 16 to receive text messages four weeks later (delayed intervention group). .


MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES
Number of days between the abnormal mammogram and the return for follow-up appointment. .


FINDINGS
The median number of days from the abnormal mammogram report to the return for follow-up was 23 days for the intervention group and 59 days for the delayed intervention group (p = 0.0569). .


CONCLUSIONS
This study successfully developed a text message that, in Latinas, may decrease the time from receipt of an abnormal mammogram report to attendance at a follow-up visit. .


IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
This simple, low-cost approach could result in earlier detection of breast cancers, lowering morbidity and mortality among Latinas.
A randomized controlled trial of muscle strengthening versus flexibility training in fibromyalgia.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the effectiveness of a muscle strengthening program compared to a stretching program in women with fibromyalgia (FM).


METHODS
Sixty-eight women with FM were randomly assigned to a 12 week, twice weekly exercise program consisting of either muscle strengthening or stretching. Outcome measures included muscle strength (main outcome variable), flexibility, weight, body fat, tender point count, and disease and symptom severity scales.


RESULTS
No statistically significant differences between groups were found on independent t tests. Paired t tests revealed twice the number of significant improvements in the strengthening group compared to the stretching group. Effect size scores indicated that the magnitude of change was generally greater in the strengthening group than the stretching group.


CONCLUSION
Patients with FM can engage in a specially tailored muscle strengthening program and experience an improvement in overall disease activity, without a significant exercise induced flare in pain. Flexibility training alone also results in overall improvements, albeit of a lesser degree.
Using key performance indicators as knowledge-management tools at a regional health-care authority level

The advantages of the introduction of information and communication technologies in the complex health-care sector are already well-known and well-stated in the past. It is, nevertheless, paradoxical that although the medical community has embraced with satisfaction most of the technological discoveries allowing the improvement in patient care, this has not happened when talking about health-care informatics. Taking the above issue of concern, our work proposes an information model for knowledge management (KM) based upon the use of key performance indicators (KPIs) in health-care systems. Based upon the use of the balanced scorecard (BSC) framework (Kaplan/Norton) and quality assurance techniques in health care (Donabedian), this paper is proposing a patient journey centered approach that drives information flow at all levels of the day-to-day process of delivering effective and managed care, toward information assessment and knowledge discovery. In order to persuade health-care decision-makers to assess the added value of KM tools, those should be used to propose new performance measurement and performance management techniques at all levels of a health-care system. The proposed KPIs are forming a complete set of metrics that enable the performance management of a regional health-care system. In addition, the performance framework established is technically applied by the use of state-of-the-art KM tools such as data warehouses and business intelligence information systems. In that sense, the proposed infrastructure is, technologically speaking, an important KM tool that enables knowledge sharing amongst various health-care stakeholders and between different health-care groups. The use of BSC is an enabling framework toward a KM strategy in health care.
A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of quetiapine in the treatment of bipolar I or II depression.

OBJECTIVE
There is a major unmet need for effective options in the treatment of bipolar depression.


METHOD
Five hundred forty-two outpatients with bipolar I (N=360) or II (N=182) disorder experiencing a major depressive episode (DSM-IV) were randomly assigned to 8 weeks of quetiapine (600 or 300 mg/day) or placebo. The primary efficacy measure was mean change from baseline to week 8 in the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale total score. Additional efficacy assessments included the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, Clinical Global Impression of severity and improvement, Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire.


RESULTS
Quetiapine at either dose demonstrated statistically significant improvement in Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale total scores compared with placebo from week 1 onward. The proportions of patients meeting response criteria (> or =50% Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale score improvement) at the final assessment in the groups taking 600 and 300 mg/day of quetiapine were 58.2% and 57.6%, respectively, versus 36.1% for placebo. The proportions of patients meeting remission criteria (Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale < or =12) were 52.9% in the groups taking 600 and 300 mg/day of quetiapine versus 28.4% for placebo. Quetiapine at 600 and 300 mg/day significantly improved 9 of 10 and 8 of 10 Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale items, respectively, compared to placebo, including the core symptoms of depression. Treatment-emergent mania rates were low and similar for the quetiapine and placebo groups (3.2% and 3.9%, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
Quetiapine monotherapy is efficacious and well tolerated for the treatment of bipolar depression.