LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Low vision depression prevention trial in age-related macular degeneration: a randomized clinical trial.

PURPOSE
To compare the efficacy of behavior activation (BA) + low vision rehabilitation (LVR) with supportive therapy (ST) + LVR to prevent depressive disorders in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD).


DESIGN
Single-masked, attention-controlled, randomized, clinical trial with outcome assessment at 4 months.


PARTICIPANTS
Patients with AMD and subsyndromal depressive symptoms attending retina practices (n = 188).


INTERVENTIONS
Before randomization, all subjects had 2 outpatient LVR visits, and were then randomized to in-home BA+LVR or ST+LVR. Behavior activation is a structured behavioral treatment that aims to increase adaptive behaviors and achieve valued goals. Supportive therapy is a nondirective, psychological treatment that provides emotional support and controls for attention.


MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV defined depressive disorder based on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (primary outcome), Activities Inventory, National Eye Institute Vision Function Questionnaire-25 plus Supplement (NEI-VFQ), and NEI-VFQ quality of life (secondary outcomes).


RESULTS
At 4 months, 11 BA+LVR subjects (12.6%) and 18 ST+LVR subjects (23.4%) developed a depressive disorder (relative risk [RR], 0.54; 95% CI, 0.27-1.06; P = 0.067). In planned adjusted analyses the RR was 0.51 (95% CI, 0.27-0.98; P = 0.04). A mediational analysis suggested that BA+LVR prevented depression to the extent that it enabled subjects to remain socially engaged. In addition, BA+LVR was associated with greater improvements in functional vision than ST+LVR, although there was no significant between-group difference. There was no significant change or between-group difference in quality of life.


CONCLUSIONS
An integrated mental health and low vision intervention halved the incidence of depressive disorders relative to standard outpatient LVR in patients with AMD. As the population ages, the number of persons with AMD and the adverse effects of comorbid depression will increase. Promoting interactions between ophthalmology, optometry, rehabilitation, psychiatry, and behavioral psychology may prevent depression in this population.
A comparison of physician and nonphysician acupuncture treatment for chronic low back pain.

BACKGROUND
Although up to a third of the 10,000 acupuncturists in the United States are medical doctors, little is known about the acupuncture techniques they use or how their practices compare with those of nonphysician licensed acupuncturists. This is the first study providing descriptive data on physician acupuncture and comparison to nonphysician acupuncture.


PURPOSE
This study describes how a random sample of physician acupuncturists in the United States diagnose and treat chronic low back pain and contrasts their practices with those of nonphysician licensed acupuncturists.


METHODS
A total of 464 questionnaires were mailed to physician acupuncturists randomly sampled from 3 sources: web-based Yellow Pages, American Academy of Medical Acupuncturists (AAMA) membership, and Pain Clinics associated with American College of Graduate Medical Education-approved fellowship programs. Responses (n=137, 30%) were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results of this survey were compared with data published from a similar survey of nonphysician licensed acupuncturists in Washington State.


RESULTS
Physicians who perform acupuncture use a mixture of styles and emphasize neuroanatomic approaches to needle placement. Most physicians received training in French Energetic acupuncture. In contrast, most nonphysician licensed acupuncturists use a traditional Chinese medicine approach to needle placement. Despite this apparent difference in their predominant styles of acupuncture, there was a high correlation between physician and nonphysician licensed acupuncturist acupoint selection to treat low back pain. In addition to acupuncture needling, physicians use other medical treatments, whereas nonphysician licensed acupuncturists' employ a variety of traditional Chinese medicine adjuncts to needling.


CONCLUSION
This study provides new information about the nature of physician acupuncture practice in the United States and how it compares to acupuncture provided by nonphysician licensed acupuncturists. Further research is necessary to determine if the different types of acupuncture provided by physicians and nonphysician acupuncturists affect treatment outcomes and costs for patients with chronic low back pain.
Airport risk assessment : a probabilistic approach

Risk reduction is one of the key objectives pursued by transport safety policies. Particularly, the formulation and implementation of transport safety policies needs the systematic assessment of the risks, the specification of residual risk targets and the monitoring of progresses towards those ones. Risk and safety have always been considered critical in civil aviation. The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse safety aspects in civil airports. An increase in airport capacity usually involves changes to runways layout, route structures and traffic distribution, which in turn effect the risk level around the airport. For these reasons third party risk becomes an important issue in airports development. To avoid subjective interpretations and to increase model accuracy, risk information are colleted and evaluated in a rational and mathematical manner. The method may be used to draw risk contour maps so to provide a guide to local and national authorities, to population who live around the airport, and to airports operators. Key-Words: Risk Management, Risk assessment methodology, Safety Civil aviation.
General Spatiotemporal Patterns of Urbanization: An Examination of 16 World Cities

Urbanization is the most dramatic form of land use change that has profoundly influenced environmental and socioeconomic conditions around the world. To assess these impacts and promote urban sustainability, a better understanding of urbanization patterns is needed. Recent studies have suggested several spatiotemporal patterns of urbanization, but their generality is yet to be adequately tested with long-term data. Thus, the main goal of our study was two-fold: (1) to examine the spatiotemporal patterns of urbanization of 16 world cities over a period of 200 years (1800–2000); and (2) to test four prominent hypotheses of urbanization patterns. Using a set of landscape metrics, we quantified temporal changes in the urban landscape pattern of the 16 cities and examined the four hypotheses individually. Our results show that these cities exhibit several common urbanization patterns: the urban landscape becomes compositionally more diverse, structurally more fragmented and geometrically more complex as urbanization progresses. Our study also suggests that urbanization is a process of shifting dominance among three urban growth modes: infilling, edge expanding and leapfrogging. However, idiosyncrasies do exist for individual cities, as detailed attributes of urbanization patterns often depend on the environmental and socioeconomic settings of cities. In addition, the choice of specific landscape metrics and the scales of analysis both influence the urbanization patterns revealed. Our study examined the urbanization patterns, for the first time, on long-term and global scales. The findings shed new light on the patterns and processes of urbanization, with implications for future studies of the ecology, planning and sustainability of cities.
Essential elements of questionnaire design and development.

AIMS
The aims of this paper were (1) to raise awareness of the issues in questionnaire development and subsequent psychometric evaluation, and (2) to provide strategies to enable nurse researchers to design and develop their own measure and evaluate the quality of existing nursing measures.


BACKGROUND
The number of questionnaires developed by nurses has increased in recent years. While the rigour applied to the questionnaire development process may be improving, we know that nurses are still not generally adept at the psychometric evaluation of new measures. This paper explores the process by which a reliable and valid questionnaire can be developed.


METHODS
We critically evaluate the theoretical and methodological issues associated with questionnaire design and development and present a series of heuristic decision-making strategies at each stage of such development. The range of available scales is presented and we discuss strategies to enable item generation and development. The importance of stating a priori the number of factors expected in a prototypic measure is emphasized. Issues of reliability and validity are explored using item analysis and exploratory factor analysis and illustrated using examples from recent nursing research literature.


CONCLUSION
Questionnaire design and development must be supported by a logical, systematic and structured approach. To aid this process we present a framework that supports this and suggest strategies to demonstrate the reliability and validity of the new and developing measure.


RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
In developing the evidence base of nursing practice using this method of data collection, it is vital that questionnaire design incorporates preplanned methods to establish reliability and validity. Failure to develop a questionnaire sufficiently may lead to difficulty interpreting results, and this may impact upon clinical or educational practice. This paper presents a critical evaluation of the questionnaire design and development process and demonstrates good practice at each stage of this process.
Predictors of stunting, wasting, and underweight among Tanzanian children born to HIV-infected women

Background/Objectives:Children born to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected women are susceptible to undernutrition, but modifiable risk factors and the time course of the development of undernutrition have not been well characterized. The objective of this study was to identify maternal, socioeconomic and child characteristics that are associated with stunting, wasting and underweight among Tanzanian children born to HIV-infected mothers, followed from 6 weeks of age for 24 months.Subjects/Methods:Maternal and socioeconomic characteristics were recorded during pregnancy, data pertaining to the infant’s birth were collected immediately after delivery, morbidity histories and anthropometric measurements were performed monthly. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards methods were used to assess the association between potential predictors and the time to first episode of stunting, wasting and underweight.Results:A total of 2387 infants (54.0% male) were enrolled and followed for a median duration of 21.2 months. The respective prevalence of prematurity (<37 weeks) and low birth weight (<2500 g) was 15.2% and 7.0%; 11.3% of infants were HIV-positive at 6 weeks. Median time to first episode of stunting, wasting and underweight was 8.7, 7.2 and 7.0 months, respectively. Low maternal education, few household possessions, low infant birth weight, child HIV infection and male sex were all independent predictors of stunting, wasting and underweight. In addition, preterm infants were more likely to become wasted and underweight, whereas those with a low Apgar score at birth were more likely to become stunted.Conclusions:Interventions to improve maternal education and nutritional status, reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and increase birth weight may lower the risk of undernutrition among children born to HIV-infected women.
VoIP Packet Aggregation based on Link Quality Metric for Multihop Wireless Mesh Networks

Providing Voice over IP in WLAN based wireless meshed networks is an important service for the future wireless internet. However, the transmission of small (voice) packets imposes high overhead which leads to low capacity for VoIP over 802.11 based multihop meshed networks. By combining several small packets into larger aggregated ones, it is expected that overhead can be significantly reduced thus incapacity for VoIP services. When mesh relay nodes aggregate small packets, there is an inherent trade-off regarding packet size. Aggregating more packets leads to larger packets, reduces the overall number of packets in the mesh and thus reduces multi-hop contention and packet loss due to collisions. However, such larger aggregated packets can lead to higher packet loss for a link that operates at low signal quality. For such links, aggregating fewer packets can be beneficial. Classical aggregation strategies typically operate end-to-end without considering those aspects and are therefore suboptimal. In this paper, we propose a new adaptive hop-by-hop aggregation scheme that calculates target aggregation sizes per each hop based on wireless link characteristics. Simulation results show that our approach is very effective, outperforms static aggregation schemes in various performance parameters and increases capacity for VoIP in meshed networks significantly.
Fabrication and Measurement of Molecular Quantum Cellular Automata (QCA) Device

by Zengxiao Jin In this thesis molecular Quantum Cellular Automata (QCA) is to be fabricated into a real device. The principle of this experiment is to detect the switching activity of molecules using a single electron transistor (SET). This is done by growing molecules on a highly doped p+ Si substrate called a P+ window. The P+ window is also a part of the island of the SET such that the molecules are capacitively coupled to the SET. The state-switching in the molecules will cause an electrical potential change on the island which will affect the current flow, I DS, of the SET. The fabrication of the device mainly involves the following steps: The formation of the P+ window, the deposition of metal pads and wires, the growth of the SET, and the growth of molecules. Until now, real devices have been made but the switching activity of the molecules has yet to be detected. ii CONTENTS
Gram-negative periodontal pathogens and bacterial endotoxin in metallic orthodontic brackets with or without an antimicrobial agent: an in-vivo study.

INTRODUCTION
High levels of periodontal pathogens can cause periodontal alterations. The presence of endotoxin might be responsible for the occurrence and progression of tissue inflammation and bone resorption. The aims of this study were to use checkerboard DNA-DNA hybridization and limulus amebocyte lysate assay to evaluate in metallic orthodontic brackets (1) the presence of 16 gram-negative periodontal pathogenic microorganisms of the orange complex and red complex +Treponema socranskii, (2) the amount of bacterial endotoxin, and (3) the efficacy of 0.12% chlorhexidine gluconate mouthwash in reducing bacterial contamination and endotoxin amount.


METHODS
Thirty-three patients (ages, 11-33 years) under orthodontic treatment with fixed appliances had 3 new metallic brackets bonded to 3 different premolars. Sixteen patients used a 0.12% chlorhexidine gluconate mouthwash (Periogard, Colgate-Palmolive, São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo, Brazil) (experimental group), and 17 patients used a placebo mouthwash (control group) twice a week. After 30 days, the brackets were removed, and the samples were obtained. The data were analyzed statistically by Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, and Dunn tests (α = 0.05).


RESULTS
The 0.12% chlorhexidine gluconate group accumulated significantly lower levels of microorganisms than did the placebo group (P = 0.01). When each microbial complex was analyzed separately, a statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups was found for the orange complex (P = 0.04). A greater amount of bacterial endotoxin was detected in the 0.12% chlorhexidine gluconate group than in the control group (P = 0.02).


CONCLUSIONS
The 0.12% chlorhexidine gluconate oral rinses can be useful to reduce the levels of gram-negative periodontal pathogenic microorganisms in patients with fixed orthodontic appliances. Considering the increased amount of bacterial endotoxin after chlorhexidine gluconate use, further research is necessary to develop clinical procedures or antimicrobial agents with action against bacterial endotoxin adhering to metallic brackets.
Development and validation of an international risk prediction algorithm for episodes of major depression in general practice attendees: the PredictD study.

CONTEXT
Strategies for prevention of depression are hindered by lack of evidence about the combined predictive effect of known risk factors.


OBJECTIVES
To develop a risk algorithm for onset of major depression.


DESIGN
Cohort of adult general practice attendees followed up at 6 and 12 months. We measured 39 known risk factors to construct a risk model for onset of major depression using stepwise logistic regression. We corrected the model for overfitting and tested it in an external population.


SETTING
General practices in 6 European countries and in Chile.


PARTICIPANTS
In Europe and Chile, 10 045 attendees were recruited April 2003 to February 2005. The algorithm was developed in 5216 European attendees who were not depressed at recruitment and had follow-up data on depression status. It was tested in 1732 patients in Chile who were not depressed at recruitment. Main Outcome Measure DSM-IV major depression.


RESULTS
Sixty-six percent of people approached participated, of whom 89.5% participated again at 6 months and 85.9%, at 12 months. Nine of the 10 factors in the risk algorithm were age, sex, educational level achieved, results of lifetime screen for depression, family history of psychological difficulties, physical health and mental health subscale scores on the Short Form 12, unsupported difficulties in paid or unpaid work, and experiences of discrimination. Country was the tenth factor. The algorithm's average C index across countries was 0.790 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.767-0.813). Effect size for difference in predicted log odds of depression between European attendees who became depressed and those who did not was 1.28 (95% CI, 1.17-1.40). Application of the algorithm in Chilean attendees resulted in a C index of 0.710 (95% CI, 0.670-0.749).


CONCLUSION
This first risk algorithm for onset of major depression functions as well as similar risk algorithms for cardiovascular events and may be useful in prevention of depression.
Small-Size Coupled-Fed Antenna With Two Printed Distributed Inductors for Seven-Band WWAN/LTE Mobile Handset

A compact small-size coupled-fed antenna with two symmetrical printed meandered inductive strips as two distributed inductors for seven-band operation covering the GSM850/900/1800//1900/UMTS2100/LTE2300/2500 bands in the internal mobile handset application is proposed. Wideband operation is achieved by incorporating a feeding strip and two radiating strips of different lengths, which are both disposed on the no-ground board space of the proposed antenna. The desired lower bands of GSM850/900 operation can be achieved by the two radiating strips of different lengths, which provide a quarter-wavelength dual-resonance mode at 810 and 962 MHz. While the feeding strip can provide a quarter-wavelength resonant mode at around 1.78 GHz, and other resonant modes at 2.45 GHz are contributed by the higher-order resonant modes of the two radiating strips, covering the desired upper bands of DCS1800/PCS1900/UMTS2100/LTE2300/2500 operation. In addition, the proposed antenna only occupies a planar size of 15×30 mm2 and is easily printed on one surface of a FR4 substrate, which makes it suitable for practical mobile applications. Detailed considerations of the design and main parameters are studied in this communication and the proposed antenna is successfully simulated, fabricated, and measured.
Geriatric medicine: services and training in Africa.

BACKGROUND
the population is ageing globally and developing countries are experiencing the most rapid increase in the number of older persons. By 2045 the United Nations estimate that for the first time in history more people will be over 65, than under 15, years of age. The World Health Organization predicts that deaths from non-communicable diseases will rise by 24% in Africa in the next decade. The aim of this survey was to determine the specialist medical services available for older persons and the undergraduate and postgraduate training systems in place for geriatrics in each African country.


METHODS
a short survey was developed and sent to representatives from every country. Where appropriate, French and Portuguese translations were available.


RESULTS
responses were received from 40/54 countries (74%). Data were obtained via an internet search for a further three countries. Out of 43, 25 countries had no geriatricians. Out of 40, 35 countries had no formal undergraduate training for medical students on geriatrics and 33 of 40 countries reported no national postgraduate training scheme for geriatrics. Having at least one geriatrician in the country was associated with a World Bank upper middle-income status (P = 0.04), but there was no significant association with the population size (P = 0.395).


CONCLUSION
despite increasing numbers of older people and the increasing burden of chronic disease there are few geriatricians in Africa. Without undergraduate training, even general medical physicians will have limited knowledge of specialist geriatric needs. This is an area that will require development and investment in the future.
The importance of anabolism in microbial control over soil carbon storage

Soil carbon (C) stabilization has become an important topic in recent years owing to changes in global climate and atmospheric chemistry1,2. Globally, soil contains a large amount of C—twice that in the atmosphere and more than the C in vegetation and the atmosphere combined3–5. Owing to its large size, small changes in the balance between inputs to and outputs from the soil C pool would have a significant impact on atmospheric CO2, and could either reduce or exacerbate the consequences of burning fossil fuels6–8. Because soil C cycling is ultimately the consequence of microbial growth and activity, understanding organic matter decomposition, transformation and sequestration in soils demands improved knowledge of how microbial physiology regulates the processes controlling biogeochemical cycling, climate change and ecosystem sustainability9,10. Microorganisms have two critical, contrasting roles in controlling terrestrial C fluxes: promoting release of C to the atmosphere through their catabolic activities, but also preventing release by stabilizing C into a form that is not easily decomposed10. To date, research has focused on microbial sources of CO2 with less attention paid to the role of microbial anabolism in generating products that can be sequestered11,12. This has stimulated research considering the direct incorporation of microbial residues (cellular components from both living and senesced biomass) into the stable soil C pool13–16. For example, recent studies showed that fungal and bacterial necromass are the primary C-containing constituents contributing to the stable soil organic matter (SOM) pool17,18. Thus, the main driver of SOM accumulation under some conditions may not be litter decomposition and transformation per se, but microbial growth that leads to deposition of microbial-derived C into the SOM reservoir via biomass turnover and necromass accumulation14,15,19. Accordingly, any attempt to manage soils for long-term C storage will require an understanding of how to manage microbial-derived C in soil. The importance of anabolism in microbial control over soil carbon storage