LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
MRI perfusion maps in acute stroke validated with 15O-water positron emission tomography.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Perfusion-weighted imaging maps are used to identify hypoperfusion in acute ischemic stroke. We evaluated maps of cerebral blood flow (CBF), cerebral blood volume, mean transit time, and time to peak (TTP) in acute stroke by comparison with positron emission tomography.


METHODS
Perfusion-weighted imaging and positron emission tomography were performed in 26 patients with acute ischemic stroke (median 18.5 hours after stroke onset, 65 minutes between MRI and positron emission tomography). The perfusion-weighted imaging-derived maps of CBF, cerebral blood volume, mean transit time, and TTP delay were compared with quantitative positron emission tomography CBF. A receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis identified the best perfusion-weighted imaging map and threshold to identify hypoperfusion <20 mL/100 g/min, a widely used measure of penumbral flow.


RESULTS
Individual regression analysis of positron emission tomography CBF and perfusion-weighted imaging values were strong for CBF and TTP delay and weaker for mean transit time and cerebral blood volume, but the pooled analysis showed a large variance. Receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis identified TTP and CBF maps as most predictive (median area under the curve=0.94 and 0.93). Penumbral flow thresholds were <21.7 mL/100 g/min (CBF), <1.5 mL/100 g (cerebral blood volume), >5.3 seconds (mean transit time), and >4.2 seconds (TTP). TTP and CBF maps reached sensitivity/specificity values of 91%/82% and 89%/87%.


CONCLUSIONS
In our sample, maps of CBF, TTP, and mean transit time yielded a good estimate of penumbral flow. The performance of TTP maps was equivalent to deconvolution techniques using an arterial input function. For all maps, the application of a predefined threshold is mandatory and calibration studies will enhance their use in acute stroke therapy as well as in clinical stroke trials.
Two-level classifier ensembles for credit risk assessment

Many techniques have been proposed for credit risk assessment, from statistical models to artificial intelligence methods. During the last few years, different approaches to classifier ensembles have successfully been applied to credit scoring problems, demonstrating to be generally more accurate than single prediction models. The present paper goes one step beyond by introducing composite ensembles that jointly use different strategies for diversity induction. Accordingly, the combination of data resampling algorithms (bagging and AdaBoost) and attribute subset selection methods (random subspace and rotation forest) for the construction of composite ensembles is explored with the aim of improving the prediction performance. The experimental results and statistical tests show that this new two-level classifier ensemble constitutes an appropriate solution for credit scoring problems, performing better than the traditional single ensembles and very significantly better than individual classifiers. 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Differences in beliefs and currency risk premiums

This paper studies the importance of heterogeneous beliefs for the dynamics of asset prices. We focus on currency markets, where the absence of short-selling constraints allows us to perform sharper tests of theoretical predictions. Using a unique data set with detailed information on foreign-exchange forecasts, we construct an empirical proxy for differences in beliefs. We show that this proxy has a strong effect on the implied volatility of currency options beyond the volatility of macroeconomic fundamentals. We document that differences in beliefs impact also on the shape of the implied volatility smile, on the volatility risk-premiums, and on future currency returns. & 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Intratumoral injection of therapeutic HPV vaccinia vaccine following cisplatin enhances HPV-specific antitumor effects

Despite the conventional treatments of radiation therapy and chemotherapy, the 5-year survival rates for patients with advanced-stage cervical cancers remain low. Cancer immunotherapy has emerged as an alternative, innovative therapy that may improve survival. Here, we utilize a preclinical HPV-16 E6/E7-expressing tumor model, TC-1, and employ the chemotherapeutic agent cisplatin to generate an accumulation of CD11c+ dendritic cells in tumor loci making it an ideal location for the administration of therapeutic vaccines. Following cisplatin treatment, we tested different routes of administration of a therapeutic HPV vaccinia vaccine encoding HPV-16 E7 antigen (CRT/E7-VV). We found that TC-1 tumor-bearing C57BL/6 mice treated with cisplatin and intratumoral injection of CRT/E7-VV significantly increased E7-specific CD8+ T cells in the blood and generated potent local and systemic antitumor immune responses compared to mice receiving cisplatin and CRT/E7-VV intraperitoneally or mice treated with cisplatin alone. We further extended our study using a clinical grade recombinant vaccinia vaccine encoding HPV-16/18 E6/E7 antigens (TA-HPV). We found that intratumoral injection with TA-HPV following cisplatin treatment also led to increased E7-specific CD8+ T cells in the blood as well as significantly decreased tumor size compared to intratumoral injection with wild type vaccinia virus. Our study has strong implications for future clinical translation using intratumoral injection of TA-HPV in conjunction with the current treatment strategies for patients with advanced cervical cancer.
Therapeutic effects of add-on low-dose dextromethorphan plus valproic acid in bipolar disorder

UNLABELLED
Changes in inflammatory cytokines and dysfunction of the neurotrophic system are thought to be involved in the pathology of bipolar disorder (BP). We investigated whether inflammatory and neurotrophic factors were changed in BP. We also investigated whether treating BP with valproic acid (VPA) plus low-dose (30 or 60 mg/day) dextromethorphan (DM) is more effective than treating it with VPA only, and whether DM affects plasma cytokines and brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels. In a 12-week, randomized, double-blind study, patients were randomly assigned to the VPA+DM30, VPA+DM60, or VPA+Placebo groups. The Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) were used to evaluate symptom severity, and ELISA to analyze plasma cytokine and BDNF levels. We recruited 309 patients with BP and 123 healthy controls. Before treatment, patients with BP had significantly higher plasma cytokine and lower plasma BDNF levels than did healthy controls. After treatment, HDRS and YMRS scores in each group showed significant improvement. Plasma cytokine levels tended to decline in all groups. Changes in plasma BDNF levels were significantly greater in the VPA+DM60 group than in the VPA+Placebo group.


CONCLUSION
patients with BP have a certain degree of systemic inflammation and BDNF dysfunction. Treatment with VPA plus DM (60 mg/day) provided patients with BP significantly more neurotrophic benefit than did VPA treatment alone.
Ligands for cannabinoid receptors, promising anticancer agents.

Cannabinoid compounds are unique to cannabis and provide some interesting biological properties. These compounds along with endocannabinoids, a group of neuromodulator compounds in the body especially in brain, express their effects by activation of G-protein-coupled cannabinoid receptors, CB1 and CB2. There are several physiological properties attributed to the endocannabinoids including pain relief, enhancement of appetite, blood pressure lowering during shock, embryonic development, and blocking of working memory. On the other hand, activation of endocannabinoid system may be suppresses evolution and progression of several types of cancer. According to the results of recent studies, CB receptors are over-expressed in cancer cell lines and application of multiple cannabinoid or cannabis-derived compounds reduce tumor size through decrease of cell proliferation or induction of cell cycle arrest and apoptosis along with desirable effect on decrease of tumor-evoked pain. Therefore, modulation of endocannabinoid system by inhibition of fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), the enzyme, which metabolized endocannabinoids, or application of multiple cannabinoid or cannabis-derived compounds, may be appropriate for the treatment of several cancer subtypes. This review focuses on how cannabinoid affect different types of cancers.
Increased number of volatile organic compounds over malignant glottic lesions.

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS
Electronic noses can identify diseases, including head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) by the fingerprint of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled air. However, whether these VOCs originated from the malignant lesion itself remains unclear. The objective was to test for the presence and properties of VOCs directly over the vocal folds in malignant and benign lesions, as a potential tool for noninvasive screening.


STUDY DESIGN
Prospective observational case control study.


METHODS
Samples of mucus directly covering vocal fold lesions were analyzed using gas chromatography mass spectrometry for detection of VOCs, and evaluation of the properties and quantity of VOCs in the samples. Additionally, samples of oropharyngeal mucus were analyzed to exclude VOCs found also in the vicinity of the lesion. Benign and malignant lesion groups were compared using a nonparametric (Mann-Whitney) test.


RESULTS
We studied 14 patients, six with SCC and eight with benign pathology. We found an increased number of discrete VOC types in patients with SCC both above the lesion (SCC = 4.333 ± 2.5, benign = 0.875 ± 0.6; Z=3, P < .001) and directly above the lesion with exclusion of its vicinity (SCC = 3.167 ± 1.9, benign = 0.5 ± 0.5; Z = 2.8, P < .003). VOCs detected in SCCs but not in benign samples included the straight-chain fatty acids: butyric acid, pentanoic acid, hexanoic acid, and heptanoic acid.


CONCLUSIONS
Compared with benign vocal fold lesions, the environment of vocal folds in SCC is enriched with VOCs. These preliminary findings highlight a unique pattern that may contribute to the development of a future minimally invasive technology for screening vocal fold lesions for malignancy.


LEVEL OF EVIDENCE
NA Laryngoscope, 126:1606-1611, 2016.
A Simple Current-Mode Quadrature Oscillator Using Single CDTA

This article presents a simple current-mode quadrature oscillator using a single Current Differencing Transconductance Amplifier (CDTA) as the active element. The oscillation condition and oscillation frequency can be electronically controlled. The circuit structure is very simple, consisting of merely one CDTA, one resistor and two capacitors. The proposed circuit is suitable for IC architecture. The PSpice simulation and experimental results are shown, and the results agree well with the theoretical assumptions.
Pulmonary vein isolation with high-intensity focused ultrasound: results from the HIFU 12F study.

AIMS
High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) applied via a balloon catheter (BC) is a novel technology for simplified pulmonary vein isolation (PVI). Safety and efficacy of the third generation HIFU-BC were assessed.


METHODS AND RESULTS
In 22 patients (10 male, mean age 65 +/- 6 years) with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF), a PVI during real-time PV spike registration and oesophageal temperature measurement was attempted. In 15 patients, a steerable sheath was used along with the HIFU-BC. In 67 of 83 PVs (81%), PVI was achieved exclusively using HIFU. Using the steerable sheath, the acute PVI rate rose from 50% (10/20 PVs) to 90% (57/63 PVs). In the latter, PVI was achieved with a single HIFU application in 60% (38/63 PVs) and mean sonication time of 11 +/- 7 s. The mean procedure time was 166 +/- 74 min including 58 +/- 25 min of HIFU-BC left atrial indwelling time. In four patients, peri-procedural complications occurred (one transient ischaemic attack, one phrenic nerve palsy, and two vascular access complications). During a median follow-up of 342 days (range 272-378 days), 71% patients remained free of any AF/AT recurrence without antiarrhythmic drugs after a single procedure.


CONCLUSION
The novel defocused 12F HIFU-BC used in conjunction with a steerable sheath allows for very rapid PVI in patients with PAF. The enthusiasm for rapid PVI is still dampened by the potential risk of collateral damage.
Chaos-based true random number generator using image

This paper proposes a chaos-based true random number generator using image as nondeterministic entropy sources. Logistic map is applied to permute and diffuse the image to produce a random sequence after the image is divided to bit-planes. The generated random sequence passes NIST 800-22 test suite with good performance.
Game strategies in network security

This paper presents a game-theoretic method for analyzing the security of computer networks. We view the interactions between an attacker and the administrator as a two-player stochastic game and construct a model for the game. Using a nonlinear program, we compute Nash equilibria or best-response strategies for the players (attacker and administrator). We then explain why the strategies are realistic and how administrators can use these results to enhance the security of their network.
MuseumFinland - Finnish museums on the semantic web

This article presents the semantic portal MuseumFinland for publishing heterogeneous museum collections on the Semantic Web. It is shown how museums with their semantically rich and interrelated collection content can create a large, consolidated semantic collection portal together on the web. By sharing a set of ontologies, it is possible to make collections semantically interoperable, and provide the museum visitors with intelligent content-based search and browsing services to the global collection base. The architecture underlying MuseumFinland separates generic search and browsing services from the underlying application dependent schemas and metadata by a layer of logical rules. As a result, the portal creation framework and software developed has been applied successfully to other domains as well. MuseumFinland got the Semantic Web Challence Award (second prize) in 2004. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Pain in young people aged 13 to 17 years with cerebral palsy: cross-sectional, multicentre European study

OBJECTIVE
To determine the prevalence and associations of self- and parent-reported pain in young people with cerebral palsy (CP).


DESIGN AND SETTING
Cross-sectional questionnaire survey conducted at home visits in nine regions in seven European countries. Participants were 13 to 17-year-olds (n=667) drawn from population CP registers in eight regions and from multiple sources in one region. 429 could self-report; parent-reports were obtained for 657. Data were collected on: severity, frequency, site and circumstances of pain in previous week; severity of pain associated with therapy in previous year.


RESULTS
The estimated population prevalence of any pain in previous week was 74% (95% CI 69% to 79%) for self-reported pain and 77% (95% CI 73% to 81%) for parent-reported pain. 40% experienced leg pains, 34% reported headaches and 45% of those who received physiotherapy experienced pain during therapy. Girls reported more pain than boys (OR=2.1, 95% CI 1.5 to 3.0) and young people reported more pain if they had emotional difficulties (comparing highest and lowest quartiles: OR=3.1, 95% CI 1.7 to 5.6). Parents reported more pain in children with emotional difficulties (OR=4.2, 95% CI 2.7 to 6.6), or with more impaired walking ability.


CONCLUSIONS
Pain in young people with CP is highly prevalent. Because pain causes immediate distress and is associated with lower subjective well-being and reduced participation, clinicians should routinely assess pain. Clinical interventions to reduce pain should be implemented and evaluated. The efficacy of medical and therapeutic interventions causing pain should be re-examined to establish if their benefit justifies the pain and fear of pain that accompany them.
Extended duration therapy with pegylated interferon and ribavirin for patients with genotype 3 hepatitis C and advanced fibrosis: final results from the STEPS trial.

BACKGROUND & AIMS
Patients with genotype 3 hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and cirrhosis have poor response rates after 24 weeks treatment with pegylated interferon and ribavirin. Treatment for 48 weeks is therefore recommended, although the benefits of this are untested. We examined extended therapy in patients with genotype 3 HCV and advanced fibrosis.


METHODS
Multicentre, open labelled randomized trial comparing therapy with 24 weeks pegylated interferon and ribavirin to 48 weeks of the same therapy.


RESULTS
136 patients completed the study. 67 received 24 weeks therapy and the SVR rate (48%) did not differ from that seen in the 69 patients who received 48 weeks therapy (42%). The response rates in patients with biopsy proven cirrhosis (13 patients treated for 24 weeks, 18 patients treated for 48 weeks) or cirrhosis proven on imaging (28 patients treated for 24 weeks and 25 patients treated for 48 weeks) were 46% in those treated for 24 weeks and 40% in those treated for 48 weeks. The differences were not significantly different. Treatment failure was due to relapse in the majority of patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Patients with genotype 3 HCV and advanced fibrosis do not benefit from extended therapy with pegylated interferon and ribavirin.
SemEval-2015 Task 1: Paraphrase and Semantic Similarity in Twitter (PIT)

In this shared task, we present evaluations on two related tasks Paraphrase Identification (PI) and Semantic Textual Similarity (SS) systems for the Twitter data. Given a pair of sentences, participants are asked to produce a binary yes/no judgement or a graded score to measure their semantic equivalence. The task features a newly constructed Twitter Paraphrase Corpus that contains 18,762 sentence pairs. A total of 19 teams participated, submitting 36 runs to the PI task and 26 runs to the SS task. The evaluation shows encouraging results and open challenges for future research. The best systems scored a F1-measure of 0.674 for the PI task and a Pearson correlation of 0.619 for the SS task respectively, comparing to a strong baseline using logistic regression model of 0.589 F1 and 0.511 Pearson; while the best SS systems can often reach >0.80 Pearson on well-formed text. This shared task also provides insights into the relation between the PI and SS tasks and suggests the importance to bringing these two research areas together. We make all the data, baseline systems and evaluation scripts publicly available.1
Point derivations on the $L^1$-algebra of polynomial hypergroups

We investigate whether the L-algebra of polynomial hypergroups has non-zero bounded point derivations. We show that the existence of such point derivations heavily depends on growth properties of the Haar weights. Many examples are studied in detail. We can thus demonstrate that the L-algebras of hypergroups have properties (connected with amenability) that are very different from those of groups.
Spironolactone improves cardiac sympathetic nerve activity and symptoms in patients with congestive heart failure.

UNLABELLED
We evaluated whether spironolactone would improve cardiac sympathetic nerve activity and symptoms in patients with congestive heart failure (CHF).


METHODS
Thirty patients with CHF (left ventricular ejection fraction [LVEF] < 40%; mean, 30% +/- 9%) were treated with an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, a loop diuretic, and, in most cases, digoxin. Fifteen patients (group A) were assigned to additionally receive spironolactone (12.5-50 mg/day), and the remaining 15 patients (group B) continued their current regimen. Patients were studied before and 6 mo after treatment. The delayed heart-to-mediastinum count ratio (H/M ratio), delayed total defect score (TDS), and washout rate (WR) were determined from (123)I-meta-iodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) images. LVEF was determined by echocardiography, and New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class was estimated.


RESULTS
Before treatment, LVEF, TDS, H/M ratio, WR, and NYHA functional class were similar in both groups. With treatment, LVEF did not significantly improve in either group. However, after treatment in group A, TDS decreased from 37 +/- 9 to 25 +/- 13 (P = 0.0001), H/M ratio increased from 1.62 +/- 0.20 to 1.83 +/- 0.27 (P < 0.0001), and WR decreased from 51 +/- 9 to 40 +/- 15 (P < 0.001). In group B, these parameters did not significantly change. NYHA functional class improved in both groups (in group A, from 3.3 +/- 0.5 to 1.7 +/- 0.5 [P < 0.0001]; in group B, from 3.3 +/- 0.5 to 2.4 +/- 0.6 [P = 0.01]); this was a significantly greater improvement in group A than in group B (P < 0.01).


CONCLUSION
Spironolactone improves cardiac sympathetic nerve activity and symptoms in patients with CHF.
Determinants of spontaneous surface antigen loss in hepatitis B e antigen-negative patients with a low viral load.

UNLABELLED
Loss of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) usually indicates the cure of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. In spontaneous hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) seroconverters, lower serum HBsAg and HBV DNA levels have been shown to be associated with HBsAg loss over time. However, little is known about their impacts on HBsAg loss in HBeAg-negative patients with limited viral replication. A total of 688 HBeAg-negative patients with baseline serum HBV DNA levels <2000 IU/mL were enrolled in Taiwan. The relationships of HBsAg and HBV DNA levels with subsequent HBsAg loss were investigated. In a mean follow-up of 11.6 years, the average annual rate of HBsAg loss was 1.6%. Baseline HBsAg and HBV DNA levels were inversely associated with subsequent HBsAg loss. When compared to patients who had HBsAg levels >1000 IU/mL, the rates of HBsAg loss were significantly higher in patients with HBsAg levels of 100-999, 10-99, and <10 IU/mL, with hazard ratios of 2.5 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.6-4.0), 2.8 (95% CI, 1.6-5.0), and 13.2 (95% CI, 8.1-21.5), respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that HBsAg level, but not HBV DNA, remained as an independent factor. The adjusted hazard ratio of HBsAg loss was 13.2 (95% CI, 7.8-22.1) for HBsAg level <10 versus ≥ 1000 IU/mL. When compared to HBV DNA level by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, HBsAg level served as a better predictor of both 5-year and 10-year HBsAg loss.


CONCLUSION
In HBeAg-negative patients with HBV genotype B or C infection who have HBV DNA level <2000 IU/mL, HBsAg level <10 IU/mL is the strongest predictor of HBsAg loss.
A research manifesto for services science

The services sector has grown over the last 50 years to dominate economic activity in most advanced industrial economies, yet scientific understanding of modern services is rudimentary. Here, we argue for a services science discipline to integrate across academic silos and advance service innovation more rapidly.