LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Gingival Health and Plaque Regrowth Response Following a Four-Week Interdental Hygiene Intervention.

OBJECTIVES
To compare the efficacy of three adjunct interproximal cleaning methods versus a manual toothbrush alone on gingivitis, and demonstrate that the Philips Sonicare AirflossPro™ interproximal (IP) cleaning device provides a similar reduction in gingivitis and plaque compared to string floss.


METHODS
A randomized, single-blind, parallel-design study was conducted on generally healthy adults exhibiting mild to moderate gingivitis. Eligible subjects were non-smokers, aged 18-65 years, with ≥ 0.5 per the Rustogi Modified Navy Plaque Index (RMNPI) and a Gingival Bleeding Index (GBI) of ≥ 1 on at least 10 sites. Eligible subjects were randomly assigned to use one of four oral hygiene regimens: manual toothbrush (MTB) alone; MTB plus string floss (SF); MTB plus Philips Sonicare AirflossPro used with Cool Mint Listerine® Antiseptic (AFPL); and MTB plus Philips Sonicare AirflossPro used with BreathRx™ (AFPB). Subjects were followed over a 28-day home-use period, with follow-up visits for efficacy and safety conducted at Days 14 and 28. All subjects were instructed to use the MTB twice daily and perform interproximal cleaning once daily, if assigned. Study efficacy endpoints included the Modified Gingival Index (MGI), Rustogi Modified Navy Plaque Index, and the Gingival Bleeding Index.


RESULTS
Of 290 randomized subjects, 287 were followed to Day 14 and 286 were followed to Day 28. For the primary endpoint at Day 14, significantly larger reductions in MGI were observed in each of the three IP cleaning groups compared to MTB alone (p < 0.001). The adjusted mean reductions and standard error estimates (SE) for MGI expressed as a percent reduction from Baseline at Day 14 were: 0.22% (0.55%) for MTB; 4.30% (0.44%) for SF; 4.55% (0.45%) for AFPL; and 4.20% (0.44%) for AFPB. A non-inferiority test comparing AirflossPro to SF showed AirflossPro to be non-inferior to SF (p < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
The addition of interproximal cleaning to manual tooth brushing statistically significantly reduces gingivitis and plaque compared to manual tooth brushing alone. Among the adjunct interproximal cleaning regimens, AirflossPro provides a similar reduction in gingivitis and plaque to string floss. All study regimens were safe on oral tissues.
Risk Factors in Oil and Gas Industry Returns: International Evidence

This paper analyzes the exposure of the oil and gas industry of 34 countries to oil prices. Using a multifactor panel model to estimate the oil and gas excess stock returns, our results strongly support the view that oil price is a globally priced factor for the oil industry. In particular, the response of the oil and gas sector to changes oil prices is positive and larger for developed countries than for emerging markets. The industry response is asymmetric, with positive oil price changes having a greater impact on the oil sector returns than negative changes. Furthermore, local market index returns, currency rates and oil price volatility also have a significant impact on oil industry's excess returns. Finally, industry local sensitivities seem to vary with stock market activity and with levels of appropriation of industry revenues by governments. Results are robust to a battery of tests.
Reproductive and hormonal factors, and ovarian cancer risk for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers: results from the International BRCA1/2 Carrier Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND
Several reproductive and hormonal factors are known to be associated with ovarian cancer risk in the general population, including parity and oral contraceptive (OC) use. However, their effect on ovarian cancer risk for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers has only been investigated in a small number of studies.


METHODS
We used data on 2,281 BRCA1 carriers and 1,038 BRCA2 carriers from the International BRCA1/2 Carrier Cohort Study to evaluate the effect of reproductive and hormonal factors on ovarian cancer risk for mutation carriers. Data were analyzed within a weighted Cox proportional hazards framework.


RESULTS
There were no significant differences in the risk of ovarian cancer between parous and nulliparous carriers. For parous BRCA1 mutation carriers, the risk of ovarian cancer was reduced with each additional full-term pregnancy (P trend = 0.002). BRCA1 carriers who had ever used OC were at a significantly reduced risk of developing ovarian cancer (hazard ratio, 0.52; 95% confidence intervals, 0.37-0.73; P = 0.0002) and increasing duration of OC use was associated with a reduced ovarian cancer risk (P trend = 0.0004). The protective effect of OC use for BRCA1 mutation carriers seemed to be greater among more recent users. Tubal ligation was associated with a reduced risk of ovarian cancer for BRCA1 carriers (hazard ratio, 0.42; 95% confidence intervals, 0.22-0.80; P = 0.008). The number of ovarian cancer cases in BRCA2 mutation carriers was too small to draw definitive conclusions.


CONCLUSIONS
The results provide further confirmation that OC use, number of full-term pregnancies, and tubal ligation are associated with ovarian cancer risk in BRCA1 carriers to a similar relative extent as in the general population.
Committed subcutaneous preadipocytes are reduced in human obesity

The aim of this study was to test whether the availability of committed preadipocytes in abdominal and femoral subcutaneous adipose tissue varies with obesity and body fat distribution. Body composition, fat cell size, committed preadipocytes and macrophages were measured in subcutaneous abdominal and femoral adipose depots of 17 lean, 16 upper-body-obese (UBO) and 13 lower-body-obese (LBO) women. Preadipocytes and macrophages were identified by simultaneous staining with the respective markers aP2 and CD68. In a subset of samples we measured preadipocyte proliferation, differentiation and susceptibility to apoptosis. Abdominal adipocytes were smaller in lean than in obese women. Committed preadipocytes represented a greater fraction of stromovascular cells in lean than in obese women but were similar between UBO and LBO women (abdomen: ∼30 ± 3 vs ∼17 ± 2%; thigh: ∼30 ± 3 vs ∼17 ± 2%). Preliminary data suggested that preadipocyte kinetics were similar in LBO and lean women, whereas preadipocytes of UBO women differentiated less and were more susceptible to apoptotic stimuli. The fraction of stromovascular cells that were macrophages was greater in both depots in obese women (UBO and LBO) than in normal-weight women, but the difference was not statistically significant. The proportion of subcutaneous adipose tissue stromovascular cells that are committed preadipocytes is reduced with obesity. This could be due to greater recruitment of preadipocytes to adipogenesis or greater preadipocyte apoptosis, depending upon the obesity phenotype. These data are consistent with the concept that body fat distribution may be regulated partly through differences in adipogenesis.
Intracoronary and systemic melatonin to patients with acute myocardial infarction: protocol for the IMPACT trial.

INTRODUCTION
Ischaemia-reperfusion injury following acute myocardial infarctions (AMI) is an unavoidable consequence of the primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI) procedure. A pivotal mechanism in ischaemia-reperfusion injury is the production of reactive oxygen species following reperfusion. The endogenous hormone, melatonin, works as an antioxidant and could potentially minimise the ischaemia-reperfusion injury. Given intracoronarily, it enables melatonin to work directly at the site of reperfusion. We wish to test if melatonin, as an antioxidant, can minimise the reperfusion injury following pPCI in patients with AMI.


MATERIAL AND METHODS
The IMPACT trial is a multicentre, randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study. We wish to include 2 × 20 patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarctions undergoing pPCI within six hours from symptom onset. The primary end-point is the Myocardial Salvage Index assessed by cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging on day 4 (± 1) after pPCI. The secondary end-points are high-sensitivity troponin, creatinekinase myocardial band and clinical events.


CONCLUSION
The aim of the IMPACT trial is to evaluate the effect of melatonin on reperfusion injuries following pPCI. Owing to its relatively non-toxic profile, melatonin is an easily implementable drug in the clinical setting, and melatonin has the potential to reduce morbidity in patients with AMI.


FUNDING
This study received no financial support from the industry.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
www.clinicaltrials.gov, clinical trials identifier: NCT01172171.
Geometry of the Squared Distance Function to Curves and Surfaces

We investigate the geometry of that function in the plane or 3-space, which associates to each point the square of the shortest distance to a given curve or surface. Particular emphasis is put on second order Taylor approximants and other local quadratic approximants. Their key role in a variety of geometric optimization algorithms is illustrated at hand of registration in Computer Vision and surface approximation.
A Nonrandomized, Open-Label, Multicenter, Phase 4 Pilot Study on the Effect and Safety of ILUVIEN® in Chronic Diabetic Macular Edema Patients Considered Insufficiently Responsive to Available Therapies (RESPOND).

PURPOSE
The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness and safety of ILUVIEN® in patients with chronic diabetic macular edema (DME) who were insufficiently responsive to prior therapies.


METHODS
This is a prospective, nonrandomized, multicenter, open-label, phase 4 pilot study assessing the effectiveness and safety of ILUVIEN® involving 12 patients insufficiently responsive to available therapies. Assessments were performed at screening, baseline, week 1, and months 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12. Demographics, medical/ophthalmic history, prior laser, anti-VEGF, and steroid treatments, and lab tests were recorded at screening. A complete ophthalmic examination and SD-OCT were performed at screening and at all follow-up visits.


RESULTS
The patients showed improvements in best-corrected visual acuity (+3.7 letters), with greater improvement among pseudophakic patients (+6.8 letters) compared with phakic patients (-2.5 letters) 12 months after ILUVIEN®. The mean central subfield thickness decrease from baseline to month 12 was statistically significant, with a rapid reduction in the first week. Regarding safety, only 2 patients showed an intraocular pressure (IOP) increase over 25 mm Hg during the study, and the rise in IOP was well managed with eye drops only.


CONCLUSIONS
This prospective and pilot study suggests that ILUVIEN® is safe and may be considered effective for chronic DME patients insufficiently responsive to other available therapies as it showed a rapid and sustained improvement of macular edema obtained after treatment with ILUVIEN®.
Adult PTSD and Its Treatment With EMDR : A Review of Controversies , Evidence , and Theoretical Knowledge

117 © 2009 EMDR International Association DOI: 10.1891/1933-3196.3.3.117 “Experiencing trauma is an essential part of being human; history is written in blood” (van der Kolk & McFarlane, 1996, p. 3). As humans, however, we do have an extraordinary ability to adapt to trauma, and resilience is our most common response (Bonanno, 2005). Nonetheless, traumatic experiences can alter one’s social, psychological, and biological equilibrium, and for years memories of the event can taint experiences in the present. Despite advances in our knowledge of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the development of psychosocial treatments, almost half of those who engage in treatment for PTSD fail to fully recover (Bradley, Greene, Russ, Dutra, & Westen, 2005). Furthermore, no theory as yet provides an adequate account of all the complex phenomena and processes involved in PTSD, and our understanding of the mechanisms that underlie effective treatment, such as eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) and exposure therapy remains unclear. Historical Overview of PTSD
Range of Motion Requirements for Upper-Limb Activities of Daily Living.

OBJECTIVE
We quantified the range of motion (ROM) required for eight upper-extremity activities of daily living (ADLs) in healthy participants.


METHOD
Fifteen right-handed participants completed several bimanual and unilateral basic ADLs while joint kinematics were monitored using a motion capture system. Peak motions of the pelvis, trunk, shoulder, elbow, and wrist were quantified for each task.


RESULTS
To complete all activities tested, participants needed a minimum ROM of -65°/0°/105° for humeral plane angle (horizontal abduction-adduction), 0°-108° for humeral elevation, -55°/0°/79° for humeral rotation, 0°-121° for elbow flexion, -53°/0°/13° for forearm rotation, -40°/0°/38° for wrist flexion-extension, and -28°/0°/38° for wrist ulnar-radial deviation. Peak trunk ROM was 23° lean, 32° axial rotation, and 59° flexion-extension.


CONCLUSION
Full upper-limb kinematics were calculated for several ADLs. This methodology can be used in future studies as a basis for developing normative databases of upper-extremity motions and evaluating pathology in populations.
Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system for Indian conditions

Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) is a real time embedded system which automatically recognizes the license number of vehicles. In this paper, the task of recognizing number plate for Indian conditions is considered, where number plate standards are rarely followed.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Schizophrenia: Effect Sizes, Clinical Models, and Methodological Rigor

BACKGROUND
Guidance in the United States and United Kingdom has included cognitive behavior therapy for psychosis (CBTp) as a preferred therapy. But recent advances have widened the CBTp targets to other symptoms and have different methods of provision, eg, in groups.


AIM
To explore the effect sizes of current CBTp trials including targeted and nontargeted symptoms, modes of action, and effect of methodological rigor.


METHOD
Thirty-four CBTp trials with data in the public domain were used as source data for a meta-analysis and investigation of the effects of trial methodology using the Clinical Trial Assessment Measure (CTAM).


RESULTS
There were overall beneficial effects for the target symptom (33 studies; effect size = 0.400 [95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.252, 0.548]) as well as significant effects for positive symptoms (32 studies), negative symptoms (23 studies), functioning (15 studies), mood (13 studies), and social anxiety (2 studies) with effects ranging from 0.35 to 0.44. However, there was no effect on hopelessness. Improvements in one domain were correlated with improvements in others. Trials in which raters were aware of group allocation had an inflated effect size of approximately 50%-100%. But rigorous CBTp studies showed benefit (estimated effect size = 0.223; 95% CI = 0.017, 0.428) although the lower end of the CI should be noted. Secondary outcomes (eg, negative symptoms) were also affected such that in the group of methodologically adequate studies the effect sizes were not significant.


CONCLUSIONS
As in other meta-analyses, CBTp had beneficial effect on positive symptoms. However, psychological treatment trials that make no attempt to mask the group allocation are likely to have inflated effect sizes. Evidence considered for psychological treatment guidance should take into account specific methodological detail.
Performance and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens with different growth potential and submitted to heat stress

In order to evaluate the effects of broiler genotype and of heat exposure on performance, carcass characteristics, and protein and fat accretion, six hundred one-day-old male broilers were randomly assigned in a 2 x 3 factorial arrangement, according to the following factors: genetic group (selected and non-selected broilers) and pair-feeding scheme (Ad 32 reared under heat stress and fed ad libitum; Ad 23 reared at thermoneutrality and fed ad libitum; Pf 23 reared at thermoneutrality and pair fed with Ad 32 ), with a total of six treatments with four replicates of 25 birds each. Independent of pair-feeding scheme, selected broilers showed better feed conversion, higher carcass yield, and lower abdominal fat deposition rate. However, as compared to non-selected broilers, they reduced more intensively feed intake when heat exposed, which promoted significant breast-yield decrease, and more pronounced changes on carcass chemical composition. These findings allows concluding that, in both genetic groups, both environmental temperature and feed-intake restriction influence abdominal fat deposition rate and other carcass characteristics; however, the impact of heat exposure on broiler performance is more noticeable on the selected line.
An Empirical Evaluation of Density-Based Clustering Techniques

Emergence of modern techniques for scientific data collection has resulted in large scale accumulation of data pertaining to diverse fields. Conventional database querying methods are inadequate to extract useful information from huge data banks. Cluster analysis is one of the major data analysis methods. It is the art of detecting groups of similar objects in large data sets without having specified groups by means of explicit features. The problem of detecting clusters of points is challenging when the clusters are of different size, density and shape. The development of clustering algorithms has received a lot of attention in the last few years and many new clustering algorithms have been proposed. This paper gives a survey of density based clustering algorithms. DBSCAN [15] is a base algorithm for density based clustering techniques. One of the advantages of using these techniques is that method does not require the number of clusters to be given a prior nor do they make any kind of assumption concerning the density or the variance within the clusters that may exist in the data set. It can detect the clusters of different shapes and sizes from large amount of data which contains noise and outliers. OPTICS [14] on the other hand does not produce a clustering of a data set explicitly, but instead creates an augmented ordering of the database representing its density based clustering structure. This paper shows the comparison of two density based clustering methods i.e. DBSCAN [15] & OPTICS [14] based on essential parameters such as distance type, noise ratio as well as run time of simulations performed as well as number of clusters formed needed for a good clustering algorithm. We analyze the algorithms in terms of the parameters essential for creating meaningful clusters. Both the algorithms are tested using synthetic data sets for low as well as high dimensional data sets. Glory H. Shah, Computer Engineering at Dhramsinh Desai University, Nadiad and Assistant Professor at Charotar University of Science Technology (CHARUSAT), Education Campus, Changa, Gujarat, India. E-mail: glory.ce2006@gmail.com. C. K. Bhensdadia, Professor & Head at Department of Computer Engineering, Faculty of Technology, Dharmsinh Desai University, Nadiad, Gujarat, India. E-mail: ckbhensdadia@yahoo.co.in. Amit P. Ganatra, Associate Professor at Charotar University of Science Technology (CHARUSAT), Education Campus, Changa, Gujarat, India E-mail: amitganu@yahoo.com.
Applied ontologies and standards for service robots

Service robotics is an emerging application area for human-centered technologies. The rise of household and personal assistance robots forecasts a human–robot collaborative society. One of the robotics community’s major task is to streamline development trends, work on the harmonization of taxonomies and ontologies, along with the standardization of terms, interfaces and technologies. It is important to keep the scientific progress and public understanding synchronous, through efficient outreach and education. These efforts support the collaboration among research groups, and lead to widely accepted standards, beneficial for bothmanufacturers and users. This article describes the necessity of developing robotics ontologies and standards focusing on the past and current research efforts. In addition, the paper proposes a roadmap for service robotics ontology development. The IEEE Robotics & Automation Society is sponsoring the working group Ontologies for Robotics and Automation. The efforts of theWorking group are presented here, aiming to connect the cutting edge technology with the users of these services—the general public. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
NiftyNet: a deep-learning platform for medical imaging

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Medical image analysis and computer-assisted intervention problems are increasingly being addressed with deep-learning-based solutions. Established deep-learning platforms are flexible but do not provide specific functionality for medical image analysis and adapting them for this domain of application requires substantial implementation effort. Consequently, there has been substantial duplication of effort and incompatible infrastructure developed across many research groups. This work presents the open-source NiftyNet platform for deep learning in medical imaging. The ambition of NiftyNet is to accelerate and simplify the development of these solutions, and to provide a common mechanism for disseminating research outputs for the community to use, adapt and build upon.


METHODS
The NiftyNet infrastructure provides a modular deep-learning pipeline for a range of medical imaging applications including segmentation, regression, image generation and representation learning applications. Components of the NiftyNet pipeline including data loading, data augmentation, network architectures, loss functions and evaluation metrics are tailored to, and take advantage of, the idiosyncracies of medical image analysis and computer-assisted intervention. NiftyNet is built on the TensorFlow framework and supports features such as TensorBoard visualization of 2D and 3D images and computational graphs by default.


RESULTS
We present three illustrative medical image analysis applications built using NiftyNet infrastructure: (1) segmentation of multiple abdominal organs from computed tomography; (2) image regression to predict computed tomography attenuation maps from brain magnetic resonance images; and (3) generation of simulated ultrasound images for specified anatomical poses.


CONCLUSIONS
The NiftyNet infrastructure enables researchers to rapidly develop and distribute deep learning solutions for segmentation, regression, image generation and representation learning applications, or extend the platform to new applications.
DO ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS? PRESCHOOL CHILDREN'S USE OF THE VERBAL- NONVERBAL CONSISTENCY PRINCIPLE DURING INCONSISTENT COMMUNICATIONS

The present study investigated whether preschool children could use the conventional “actions speak louder than words” principle (or the verbal-nonverbal consistency principle) to process information in situations where verbal cues contradict nonverbal cues. Three-, 4-, and 5-year-olds were shown a video in which an actor drank a beverage and made a verbal statement (e.g., “I like it”) that was inconsistent with her emotional expression (e.g., frowning), and were asked whether the actor liked or disliked the beverage. If children used the verbal-nonverbal consistency principle, they should respond according to the information conveyed by the actor’s emotional expression. Results showed that when the message was more naturalistic, the majority of children tended to respond based on the actor’s verbal message. However, when the inconsistency between the verbal and nonverbal messages was made salient, more children appeared to rely on the nonverbal cue. Younger children’s reliance on verbal cues reported in previous research may be partly explained by the salience of the verbal message.