LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Efficacy of Probiotic Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 in Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome: a Double Blind Placebo-controlled Randomized Trial.

AIM
to evaluate potential improvement effect for probiotic E. coliNissle 1917 in the management of refractory IBS in an Iranian population.


METHODS
a double blind placebo controlled approach has been used in the current clinical trial. 139 confirmed IBS patients were included into the study, and were given probiotic E.coli Nissle 1917 for 6 weeks. 11 items Birmingham IBS Symptom Questionnairehas been used for evaluation of changes in the symptoms every 2 weeks.


RESULTS
sixty eight subjects (49%) were males. Mean±SD age of the participants was 38±13.3 years. 49(35.3%) of the patients were diarrhea-predominant. The total scores showed no significant difference between the intervention vs. control group(-6.7±6.8 vs. -6.7±6.5, respectively; p=0.95); neither did any of the questionnaire items any significant alterations in the two groups. After stratification of patients based on their IBS type, diarrhea-predominant patients showed a positive response to the probiotic improving their sleep (p=0.05 and 0.03 at weeks 2 and 6, respectively). Patients with constipation-predominant IBS showed no response to the probiotic; while patients with diarrhea-constipation mixed IBS showed unfavorable response to the probiotic in the need for strain to pass a motion compared to the placebo (p=0.03 and 0.02 at weeks 4 and 6, respectively).


CONCLUSION
probiotic therapy with E.coli Nissle 1917 was not able to induce significant improvement in the symptoms of patients with non-categorized IBS. Nevertheless, when IBS patients were recategorized to subgroups according to their main symptoms, evaluation of the efficacy of the probiotic on some individual items in the symptom list reached the significance level. Prospective clinical trials are recommended to confirm our findings.
Current Practices in Electroencephalogram- Based Brain-Computer Interfaces

Electroencephalogram (EEG) is the electrical activity of the brain recorded by electrodes placed on the scalp. EEG signals are generally investigated for the diagnosis of mental conditions such as epilepsy, memory impairments, and sleep disorders. In recent years there has been another application using EEG: for brain-computer interface (BCI) designs (Vaughan & Wolpaw, 2006). EEG-based BCI designs are very useful for hands-off device control and communication as they use the electrical activity of the brain to interface with the external environment, therefore circumventing the use of peripheral muscles and limbs. Some current applications of BCIs in communication systems are for paralyzed individuals to communicate with their surroundings through character/menu selection and in device control such as wheelchair movement, prosthetics control, and flight and rehabilitative (assistive) technologies. For the general public, some of the possible applications are hands-off menu selection, flight/space control, and virtual reality (entertainment). BCI has also been applied in biometrics (Palaniappan & Mandic, 2007).
Chronotherapy of high-dose active vitamin D3 in haemodialysis patients with secondary hyperparathyroidsm: a repeated dosing study.

AIMS
Renal osteodystrophy is the major complication in patients with end-stage renal failure. Oral or intravenous vitamin D3 (D3) is given to these patients, but severe hypercalcaemia sometimes interrupts this therapy. This study was undertaken to determine whether the effectiveness and safety of D3 also depend on its dosing time during a repeated treatment.


METHODS
A higher dose (3 micro g) was given orally to 13 haemodialysis patients at 08.00 h or 20.00 h for 12 months by a randomized, cross-over design.


RESULTS
Three patients were withdrawn due to severe hypercalcaemia after switching from 08.00 h to 20.00 h dosings. The elevation in serum calcium concentration was significantly (P < 0.001) greater during the 08.00 h dosing in the remaining ten patients. Mean serum Ca concentration after the trial was 10.92 (95% confidence interval (CI) 10.79, 11.06) and 9.55 mg dl-1 (95% CI 9.30, 9.71) by 08.00 h and 20.00 h dosing, respectively. On the other hand, the suppression of the elevated serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) and subsequent increment in bone density were significantly greater during the 08.00 h dosing. Mean PTH concentration after the trial was 414 (95% CI 360, 475) and 220 pg ml-1 (95% CI 202, 249) by 08.00 h and 20.00 h dosing, respectively (P = 0.02). Mean increment of bone density after the trial was 22 (95% CI 8, 32) and 57 g cm-3 (95% CI 43, 83) by 08.00 h and 20.00 h dosing, respectively (P = 0.04).


CONCLUSION
These results indicate that a higher dose of oral D3 is more effective and safe after dosing at evening in patients with renal osteodystrophy.
Potential impact of [18F]3'-deoxy-3'-fluorothymidine versus [18F]fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose in positron emission tomography for colorectal cancer

Fluorine-18 labelled fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose (18FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) imaging demonstrates the increased glucose consumption of malignant cells, but problems with specificity have led to the development of new PET tracers. [18F]3'-deoxy-3'-fluorothymidine (18FLT) is a new tracer which images cellular proliferation by entering the salvage pathway of DNA synthesis. In this study we compared the cellular uptake of 18FLT and 18FDG in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). Seventeen patients with 50 primary or metastatic CRC lesions were prospectively recruited. Lesions were initially identified using computed tomography. Patients underwent both 18FDG and 18FLT scanning. Semi-quantitative analysis of tracer uptake was carried out using standardised uptake values. All the primary tumours (n=6) were visualised by both tracers, with 18FDG showing on average twice the uptake of 18FLT. Similar uptake of both tracers was seen in lung and peritoneal lesions, with 18FLT imaging five of the six lung lesions and all of the peritoneal lesions. Of the 32 colorectal liver metastases, 11 (34%) were seen as avid for 18FLT, compared with 31 (97%) for 18FDG. No correlation was seen between the uptake of the two tracers (R 2=0.03). 18FLT shows a high sensitivity in the detection of extrahepatic disease but poor sensitivity for the imaging of colorectal liver metastases, making it unlikely to have a role as a diagnostic tracer in CRC. We have demonstrated that 18FDG and 18FLT image two distinct processes. The prognostic implications of the uptake of 18FLT need to be assessed in terms of response to chemoradiotherapy and survival.
Cost-effectiveness of early versus selectively invasive strategy in patients with acute coronary syndromes without ST-segment elevation.

AIMS
The ICTUS trial compared an early invasive versus a selectively invasive strategy in high risk patients with a non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndrome and an elevated cardiac troponin T. Alongside the ICTUS trial a cost-effectiveness analysis from a provider perspective was performed.


METHODS AND RESULTS
A total of 1200 patients with a non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndrome and an elevated cardiac troponin T were randomized. An early invasive strategy was not superior to a selectively strategy. Total costs per patient were 1379 euros (95% CI 416-2356) more expensive in the early invasive group (13,364 euros) than in the selectively invasive group (11,985 euros). Costs of revascularization were the main determinant of the cost difference between the two groups. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of the extra costs per prevented cardiac event was minus 89,477 euros.


CONCLUSIONS
The overall results of the ICTUS study showed that an early invasive strategy was not superior to a selectively invasive strategy for patients with non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndrome and an elevated cardiac troponin T. This economic analysis of the ICTUS study showed that an early invasive strategy was slightly more expensive during the first year without gain in prevented cardiac events. In fact, we demonstrated a very moderate probability of the early invasive strategy being cost-efficient, even at a high level of willingness-to-pay.
Initial Health Assessments and HIV Screening under the Affordable Care Act

BACKGROUND
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 156,300 (95% CI 144,100-165,900) Americans living with HIV in 2012 were unaware of their infection. To increase knowledge of HIV status, CDC guidelines seek to make HIV screening a routine part of medical care. This paper examines how routinely California primary care providers test for HIV and how providers' knowledge of California's streamlined testing requirements, use of sexual histories, and having an electronic medical record prompt for HIV testing, relate to test offers.


METHODS
We surveyed all ten California health plans offered under health reform's Insurance Exchange (response rate = 50%) and 322 primary care providers to those plans (response rate = 19%) to assess use of HIV screening and risk assessments.


RESULTS
Only 31.7% of 60 responding providers reported offering HIV tests to all or most new enrollees and only 8.8% offered an HIV test of blood samples all or most of the time despite the California law requiring that providers offer HIV testing of blood samples in primary care settings. Twenty-eight of the 60 providers (46.6%) were unaware that California had reduced barriers to HIV screening by eliminating the requirement for written informed consent and pre-test counseling. HIV screening of new enrollees all or most of the time was reported by 53.1% of the well-informed providers, but only 7.1% of the less informed providers, a difference of 46 percentage points (95% CI: 21.0%-66.5%). Providers who routinely obtained sexual histories were 29 percentage points (95% CI: 0.2%-54.9%) more likely to screen for HIV all or most of the time than those who did not ask sexual histories.


CONCLUSION
Changing HIV screening requirements is important, but not sufficient to make HIV testing a routine part of medical care. Provider education to increase knowledge about the changed HIV testing requirements could positively impact testing rates.
Introduction to Document Analysis and Recognition

Document Analysis and Recognition (DAR) aims at the automatic extraction of information presented on paper and initially addressed to human comprehension. The desired output of DAR systems is usually in a suitable symbolic representation that can subsequently be processed by computers. Over the centuries, paper documents have been the principal instrument to make permanent the progress of the humankind. Nowadays, most information is still recorded, stored, and distributed in paper format. The widespread use of computers for document editing, with the introduction of PCs and wordprocessors in the late 1980’s, had the effect of increasing, instead of reducing, the amount of information held on paper. Even if current technological trends seem to move towards a paperless world, some studies demonstrated that the use of paper as a media for information exchange is still increasing [1]. Moreover, there are still application domains where the paper persists to be the preferred media [2]. The most widely known applications of DAR are related to the processing of office documents (such as invoices, bank documents, business letters, and checks) and to the automatic mail sorting. With the current availability of inexpensive high-resolution scanning devices, combined with powerful computers, state-of-the-art OCR packages can solve simple recognition tasks for most users. Recent research directions are widening the use of the DAR techniques, significant examples are the processing of ancient/historical documents in digital libraries, the information extraction from “digital born” documents, such as PDF and HTML, and the analysis of natural images (acquired with mobile phones and digital cameras) containing textual information. The development of a DAR system requires the integration of several competences in computer science, among the others: image processing, pattern recognition, natural language processing, artificial intelligence, and database systems. DAR applications are particularly suitable for the incorporation of
A taxonomy for the crossover operator for real-coded genetic algorithms: An experimental study

The main real-coded genetic algorithm (RCGA) research effort has been spent on developing efficient crossover operators. This study presents a taxonomy for this operator that groups its instances in different categories according to the way they generate the genes of the offspring from the genes of the parents. The empirical study of representative crossovers of all the categories reveals concrete features that allow the crossover operator to have a positive influence on RCGA performance. They may be useful to design more effective crossover models. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Knowledge Elecitation for Authoring Patent Claims

o safeguard an invention, the inventor must apply for a patent. The first step is to author a patent claim. The claim is the focal point of a patent disclosure and the actual subject of legal protection. Claims contain crucial information about the invention and must be formulated according to precise syntactic, lexical, and stylistic rules, as specified in the guidelines pioneered by the German Patent Office and commonly accepted in the US and other countries. To successfully author a patent claim, you need two distinct types of expert knowledge: knowledge about the sublanguage of patents as legal documents and knowledge about the invention’s technology. This is why inventors (who possess the technical knowledge) need the services of lawyers or patent experts (who possess the legal knowledge) to author a claim. To automate and thereby simplify the process of patent authoring, a system must elicit both kinds ~f knowledge. Legal knowledge essentially manifests itself in the constraints on and preferences concerning the lexical and grammatical language elements in a patent disclosure. This type of knowledge applies to all patents regardless of domain and need not be elicited more than once. Technical howl’ edge and the language of its description are much more varied; thus, its elicitation should be conducted separately for each patent document.
Structural empowerment and anticipated turnover among critical care nurses.

AIM
This study examines the relationship between perceptions of structural empowerment and anticipated turnover among critical care nurses.


BACKGROUND
The literature revealed that work environments that provide access to information, resources, support and opportunity create an environment of more satisfied employees, ultimately reducing turnover.


METHOD
A sample of 257 nurses completed a background data questionnaire, the Conditions of Work Effectiveness Questionnaire-II (CWEQ-II) and the Anticipated Turnover Scale (ATS).


RESULTS
Nurses in five critical care units perceive themselves to be moderately empowered. Structural empowerment was inversely related to anticipated turnover; those who were more empowered had a lower anticipated turnover score.


CONCLUSION
Nurses who perceive themselves as empowered have higher levels of organizational commitment. Organizations that support and recognize these characteristics may experience improved retention rates.


IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT
This study is the first to demonstrate a relationship between structural empowerment and anticipated turnover among critical care nurses. Research has demonstrated that workplace behaviours and attitudes are determined by social structures within the workplace. Nurses are responsible for a large portion of health care provided in this country. A serious nursing shortage is expected in the future and will exert pressure on both the supply and the demand of nurses.
Effects of idealized joint geometry on finite element predictions of cartilage contact stresses in the hip.

Computational models may have the ability to quantify the relationship between hip morphology, cartilage mechanics and osteoarthritis. Most models have assumed the hip joint to be a perfect ball and socket joint and have neglected deformation at the bone-cartilage interface. The objective of this study was to analyze finite element (FE) models of hip cartilage mechanics with varying degrees of simplified geometry and a model with a rigid bone material assumption to elucidate the effects on predictions of cartilage stress. A previously validated subject-specific FE model of a cadaveric hip joint was used as the basis for the models. Geometry for the bone-cartilage interface was either: (1) subject-specific (i.e. irregular), (2) spherical, or (3) a rotational conchoid. Cartilage was assigned either a varying (irregular) or constant thickness (smoothed). Loading conditions simulated walking, stair-climbing and descending stairs. FE predictions of contact stress for the simplified models were compared with predictions from the subject-specific model. Both spheres and conchoids provided a good approximation of native hip joint geometry (average fitting error approximately 0.5mm). However, models with spherical/conchoid bone geometry and smoothed articulating cartilage surfaces grossly underestimated peak and average contact pressures (50% and 25% lower, respectively) and overestimated contact area when compared to the subject-specific FE model. Models incorporating subject-specific bone geometry with smoothed articulating cartilage also underestimated pressures and predicted evenly distributed patterns of contact. The model with rigid bones predicted much higher pressures than the subject-specific model with deformable bones. The results demonstrate that simplifications to the geometry of the bone-cartilage interface, cartilage surface and bone material properties can have a dramatic effect on the predicted magnitude and distribution of cartilage contact pressures in the hip joint.
Measurement of ice thickness using fundamental and higher order mode inversion of dispersive GPR waves

There is a new method to measure the thickness of an ice layer of a lake. Contrary to applying common offset GPR measurements, no calibration measurement is needed and contrary to the most conventional method to drill a hole, the ice layer is not destroyed. Therefore no water overflows the ice which is an advantage if activities take place on the frozen lake. In this study we test the accuracy of this new method which is based on a dispersion inversion of wide-angle reflection and refraction (WARR) GPR data. For this type of inversion, a waveguide (a layer in which electromagnetic waves are trapped) has to be present. In our case the ice layer is such a waveguide because of the permittivity contrast between ice-air and ice-water. Dispersion curves from the GPR data are calculated and inverted for the medium parameters thickness and permittivity. We compare the values with the measured ice thickness in drill holes and the expected permittivity of ice. We got precise results for measurements on bare or compact snow covered ice in absence of high elevations at the boarder of the measure line or other sources of interferences (power cables, cars). However, the range of data used for the inversion has to be chosen carefully; i.e. noisy parts and parts with a high rate of air wave or other unwanted reflections must be left out.Figure on front page: measurement set up at location A.
Acceptability Ratings of Regular and Irregular Past-tense Forms: Evidence for a Dual-system Model of Language from Word Frequency and Phonological Neighbourhood Effects.

What are the computational and representational bases of the mental lexicon of words, and of the rules of grammar which productively combine lexical forms into larger words, phrases and sentences? ‘‘Dual-system’’ theories posit that lexical forms with non-compositional (arbitrary) sound-meaning pairings are stored in memory, whereas compositional structures are subserved by a distinct rule-processing system. ‘‘Single-system’’ theories claim that lexicon and grammar are both subserved by a single associative memory. Investigations of English past tense may help to resolve this controversy. On the dual-system view, irregular past-tense forms (e.g. blow– blew) are retrieved from memory, whereas regular past-tense forms (e.g. walk–walked) are produced by the application of an -ed-sufxation rule. On the single-system view, both types of past-tense forms are learned and computed in associative memory. To test these competing theories, acceptability ratings were elicited from native English-speaking adults for regular and irregular past-tense forms, and their stems, in sentence contexts. Partialling out stem ratings, ratings of irregular past-tense forms (blew) correlated with their frequencies and with measures of the number of similarsounding irregular verbs (threw, grew), whereas ratings of regular part-tense forms (walked) did not correlate with their frequencies or with measures of the number of similar-sounding regular verbs (stalked, balked). The results suggest that irregular past tenses are retrieved from associative memory, whereas regular past tenses are produced by a sufxation rule.
Exhumation of the Sucking-Dayman Massif, Papua New Guinea

AU: * Daczko, N R EM: ndaczko@els.mq.edu.au AF: Macquarie University, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia AU: Caffi, P EM: lpcaffi@hotmail.com AF: Macquarie University, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia AU: Carroll, S A EM: scarroll@els.mq.edu.au AF: Macquarie University, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia
Transceiver for Human Body Communication Using Frequency Selective Digital Transmission

© 2012 ETRI Journal, Volume 34, Number 2, April 2012 This paper presents a transceiver module for human body communications whereby a spread signal with a group of 64 Walsh codes is directly transferred through a human body at a chip rate of 32 Mcps. Frequency selective digital transmission moves the signal spectrum over 5 MHz without continuous frequency modulation and increases the immunity to induced interference by the processing gain. A simple receiver structure with no additional analog circuitry for the transmitter has been developed and has a sensitivity of 250 μVpp. The high sensitivity of the receiver makes it possible to communicate between mobile devices using a human body as the transmission medium. It enables half-duplex communication of 2 Mbps within an operating range of up to 170 cm between the ultra-mobile PCs held between fingertips of each hand with a packet error rate of lower than 10. The transceiver module consumes 59 mA with a 3.3 V power supply.
The w-iLab.t Testbed

In this paper, the W-iLab.t wireless testbed is presented. The testbed consists of nearly 200 sensor nodes and an equal amount of WiFi nodes, which are installed across three floors of an office building. The testbed supports wireless sensor experiments, WiFi based mesh and ad hoc experiments, and mixed sensor/WiFi experiments. It is explained how changes in the environment of the sensor nodes can be emulated and how experiments with heterogeneous wireless nodes are enabled. Additional features of the testbed are listed and lessons learned are presented that will help researchers to construct their own testbed infrastructure or add functionality to an existing testbed. Finally, it is argued that deep analysis of unexpected testbed behavior is key to understanding the dynamics of wireless network deployments.