LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Treating heart failure with enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP): design of the Prospective Evaluation of EECP in Heart Failure (PEECH) trial.

BACKGROUND
Enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP) treatment can improve exercise tolerance in patients with ischemic heart disease; however, the possible benefits of EECP in patients with stable heart failure (HF) and left ventricular dysfunction (LVD) are unclear. An open pilot study showed significant increases in exercise tolerance in HF patients undergoing EECP. Thus a larger, controlled study of EECP in patients with stable HF (New York Heart Association [NYHA] classes II and III) and LVD was undertaken.


METHODS AND RESULTS
The PEECH trial is a controlled, randomized, single-blind, parallel-group, multicenter study of 187 patients with symptomatic but stable HF (NYHA classes II and III) and an LV ejection fraction < or =35% was designed to assess the efficiency of EECP in patients with stable HF. Medical therapy is optimized in all patients based on the recommendations of the Heart Failure Society of America ("Usual Care"), and then randomized between 2 treatment groups; UC or EECP (35 hours over 7 weeks).


CONCLUSION
Efficacy measures include standard exercise tolerance tests on a treadmill (modified Naughton protocol), with measurements of peak oxygen uptake and exercise duration time; quality of life questionnaires; NYHA classification; and neurohormonal markers of HF.
Validity of PostureScreen Mobile ® in the Measurement of Standing Posture

Validity of PostureScreen Mobile® in the Measurement of Standing Posture Breanna Cristine Berry Hopkins Department of Exercise Sciences, BYU Master of Science Background: PostureScreen Mobile® is an app created to quickly screen posture using front and side-view photographs. There is currently a lack of evidence that establishes PostureScreen Mobile® (PSM) as a valid measure of posture. Therefore, the purpose of this preliminary study was to document the validity and reliability of PostureScreen Mobile® in assessing static standing posture. Methods: This study was an experimental trial in which the posture of 50 male participants was assessed a total of six times using two different methods: PostureScreen Mobile® and Vicon 3D motion analysis system (VIC). Postural deviations, as measured during six trials of PSM assessments (3 trials with and 3 trials without anatomical markers), were compared to the postural deviations as measured using the VIC as the criterion measure. Measurement of lateral displacement on the x-axis (shift) and rotation on the y-axis (tilt) were made of the head, shoulders, and hips in the frontal plane. Measurement of forward/rearward displacement on the Z-axis (shift) of the head, shoulders, hips, and knees were made in the sagittal plane. Validity was evaluated by comparing the PSM measurements of shift and tilt of each body part to that of the VIC. Reliability was evaluated by comparing the variance of PSM measurements to the variance of VIC measurements. The statistical model employed the Bayesian framework and consisted of the scaled product of the likelihood of the data given the parameters and prior probability densities for each of the parameters. Results: PSM tended to overestimate VIC postural tilt and shift measurements in the frontal plane and underestimate VIC postural shift measurements in the sagittal plane. Use of anatomical markers did not universally improve postural measurements with PSM, and in most cases, the variance of postural measurements using PSM exceeded that of VIC. The patterns in the intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) suggest high trial-to-trial variation in posture. Conclusions: We conclude that until research further establishes the validity and reliability of the PSM app, it should not be used in research or clinical applications when accurate postural assessments are necessary or when serial measurements of posture will be performed. We suggest that the PSM be used by health and fitness professionals as a screening tool, as described by the manufacturer. Due to the suspected trial-to-trial variation in posture, we question the usefulness of a single postural assessment.
Knowledge Representation and Ontologies

Knowledge representation and reasoning aims at designing computer systems that reason about a machine-interpretable representation of the world. Knowledge-based systems have a computational model of some domain of interest in which symbols serve as surrogates for real world domain artefacts, such as physical objects, events, relationships, etc. [1]. The domain of interest can cover any part of the real world or any hypothetical system about which one desires to represent knowledge for computational purposes. A knowledge-based system maintains a knowledge base, which stores the symbols of the computational model in the form of statements about the domain, and it performs reasoning by manipulating these symbols. Applications can base their decisions on answers to domain-relevant questions posed to a knowledge base.
Bayesian online clustering of eye movement data

The task of automatically tracking the visual attention in dynamic visual scenes is highly challenging. To approach it, we propose a Bayesian online learning algorithm. As the visual scene changes and new objects appear, based on a mixture model, the algorithm can identify and tell visual saccades (transitions) from visual fixation clusters (regions of interest). The approach is evaluated on real-world data, collected from eye-tracking experiments in driving sessions.
The Role of Cognitive Modeling for User Interface Design Representations: An Epistemological Analysis of Knowledge Engineering in the Context of Human-Computer Interaction

In this paper we review some problems with traditional approaches for acquiring and representing knowledge in the context of developing user interfaces. Methodological implications for knowledge engineering and for human-computer interaction are studied. It turns out that in order to achieve the goal of developing human-oriented (in contrast to technology-oriented) human-computer interfaces developers have to develop sound knowledge of the structure and the representational dynamics of the cognitive system which is interacting with the computer. We show that in a first step it is necessary to study and investigate the different levels and forms of representation that are involved in the interaction processes between computers and human cognitive systems. Only if designers have achieved some understanding about these representational mechanisms, user interfaces enabling individual experiences and skill development can be designed. In this paper we review mechanisms and processes for knowledge representation on a conceptual, epistemological, and methodologieal level, and sketch some ways out of the identified dilemmas for cognitive modeling in the domain of human-computer interaction.
Long-term outcome of primary angioplasty compared with fibrinolysis across age groups: a Danish Multicenter Randomized Study on Fibrinolytic Therapy Versus Acute Coronary Angioplasty in Acute Myocardial Infarction (DANAMI-2) substudy.

BACKGROUND
Primary angioplasty in patients with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction has been shown to be superior to fibrinolysis. Whether elderly patients have the same long-term benefit from angioplasty, compared with fibrinolysis, as younger patients is unknown.


METHODS
The effect of angioplasty versus fibrinolysis was investigated in 1,572 patients from the DANAMI-2 study across age groups. End points were total mortality and a composite end point of death, reinfarction, or disabling stroke. Follow-up was 3 years.


RESULTS
Increasing age was associated with mortality (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 2.45 per 10 year increment, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.78-3.37, P < .0001) and a higher composite event rate (adjusted HR 1.51, CI 1.26-1.82, P < .0001). The long-term superiority of angioplasty over fibrinolysis on the combined outcome was independent of age: patients aged <56 years (HR 0.73, CI 0.41-1.31); 56 to 65 years (HR 0.83, CI 0.52-1.33); 66 to 75 years (HR 0.71, CI 0.48-1.04); and >75 years (HR 0.83, CI 0.59-1.17) (P = .006 for overall treatment effect and P = .5 for interaction between age and treatment). There was no long-term effect of angioplasty versus fibrinolysis on mortality and no interaction with age (P = .5 and P for interaction = .6).


CONCLUSIONS
The long-term effect of primary angioplasty compared with fibrinolysis in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction is not affected by age.
Creatine Fails to Augment the Benefits from Resistance Training in Patients with HIV Infection: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study

BACKGROUND
Progressive resistance exercise training (PRT) improves physical functioning in patients with HIV infection. Creatine supplementation can augment the benefits derived from training in athletes and improve muscle function in patients with muscle wasting. The objective of this study was to determine whether creatine supplementation augments the effects of PRT on muscle strength, energetics, and body composition in HIV-infected patients.


METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS
This is a randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled, clinical research center-based, outpatient study in San Francisco. 40 HIV-positive men (20 creatine, 20 placebo) enrolled in a 14-week study. Subjects were randomly assigned to receive creatine monohydrate or placebo for 14 weeks. Treatment began with a loading dose of 20 g/day or an equivalent number of placebo capsules for 5 days, followed by maintenance dosing of 4.8 g/day or placebo. Beginning at week 2 and continuing to week 14, all subjects underwent thrice-weekly supervised resistance exercise while continuing on the assigned study medication (with repeated 6-week cycles of loading and maintenance). The main outcome measurements included muscle strength (one repetition maximum), energetics ((31)P magnetic resonance spectroscopy), composition and size (magnetic resonance imaging), as well as total body composition (dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry). Thirty-three subjects completed the study (17 creatine, 16 placebo). Strength increased in all 8 muscle groups studied following PRT, but this increase was not augmented by creatine supplementation (average increase 44 vs. 42%, difference 2%, 95% CI -9.5% to 13.9%) in creatine and placebo, respectively). There were no differences between groups in changes in muscle energetics. Thigh muscle cross-sectional area increased following resistance exercise, with no additive effect of creatine. Lean body mass (LBM) increased to a significantly greater extent with creatine. CONCLUSIONS / SIGNIFICANCE: Resistance exercise improved muscle size, strength and function in HIV-infected men. While creatine supplementation produced a greater increase in LBM, it did not augment the robust increase in strength derived from PRT.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00484627.
Human brain tractography: A DTI vs DKI comparison analysis

Water diffusion can be measured using Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI). This technique estimates molecular diffusion using a Gaussian model which can account for anisotropy arising, for example, from the presence of myelin sheath. The main direction of diffusion can also be estimated from DTI and used to compute diffusion tracts (tractography), a good tool to analyse the structure of white matter brain pathways. Nevertheless, DTI has limitations, such as ignoring the non-Gaussian properties of biological tissues and the inability to resolve intra-voxel fibre crossings that may lead to the reconstruction of anatomically inaccurate tracts. Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging (DKI) was introduced to ameliorate these problems. By abandoning the Gaussian model, DKI acts as an extension of DTI, allowing the computation of the same scalar parameters as DTI as well as providing measures of tissue heterogeneity and resolving multiple tracts within each voxel[1]. The purpose of this study is to analyse the DKI performance in tractography comparing to the DTI approach. DKI data was acquired from 3 subjects (1 male, mean age: 39±14 years) using Philips Achieva® 3.0T including diffusion weighted (DW) Single Shot Echo Planar images using 64 directions with b-values 0, 1000 and 2000 s/mm2, reconstruction matrix 256×256, slice thickness 1.5 mm, TE/TR 64/7703 ms, FOV 240×240 mm2, 60 slices. DTI data was extracted from DKI considering only b-values 0 and 1000. All DTI and DKI based tracts were computed using DKIu, a Matlab toolbox created by Neto-Henriques et. al., using three different tractography approaches: DTI, Laz-DKI[2] and KT-DKI[1]. The structures considered were the Internal Capsule (IC) and the Corpus Callosum (CC). Using TrackVis for visualisation, DKI tractography was shown to enable improved fibre crossing resolutio n (Figure 1), consistent in all three subjects. The number of streamlines computed in the CC was higher with the DKI approach than with DTI, but lower in the IC. DKI-based tractography appears to successfully address some of the limitations of DTI, as it resolves crossing fibres, providing more useful information regarding the brain's microstructure. This is particularly important in pre-surgical planning and in identifying brain lesions and pathologies.
Modeling multiway data with linearly dependent loadings y

A generalization/specialization of the PARAFAC model is developed that improves its properties when applied to multi-way problems involving linearly dependent factors. Thismodel is called PARALIND (PARAllel profiles with LINear Dependences). Linear dependences can arise when the empirical sources of variation being modeled by factors are causally or logically linked during data generation, or circumstantially linked during data collection. For example, this can occur in a chemical context when end products are related to the precursor or in a psychological context when a single stimulus generates two incompatible feelings at once. For such cases, the most theoretically appropriate PARAFAC model has loading vectors that are linearly dependent in at least one mode, and when collinear, are nonunique in the others. However, standard PARAFAC analysis of fallible data will have neither of these features. Instead, latent linear dependences become high surface correlations and any latent nonuniqueness is replaced by a meaningless surface-level ‘unique orientation’ that optimally fits the particular random noise in that sample. To avoid these problems, any set of components that in theory should be rank deficient are re-expressed in PARALIND as a product of two matrices, one that explicitly represents their dependency relationships and another, with fewer columns, that captures their patterns of variation. To demonstrate the approach, we apply it first to fluorescence spectroscopy (excitation-emission matrices, EEM) data in which concentration values for two analytes covary exactly, and then to flow injection analysis (FIA) data in which subsets of columns are logically constrained to sum to a constant, but differently in each of twomodes. In the PARAFAC solutions of the EEMdata, all factors are ‘unique’ but this is onlymeaningful for two of the factors that are also unique at the latent level. In contrast, the PARALIND solutions directly display the extent and nature of partial nonuniqueness present at the latent level by exhibiting a corresponding partial uniqueness in their recovered loadings. For the FIA data, PARALIND constraints restore latent uniqueness to the concentration estimates. Comparison of the solutions shows that PARALINDmore accurately recovers latent structure, presumably because it uses fewer parameters and hence fits less error. Copyright 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Adaptivity and Computation-Statistics Tradeoffs for Kernel and Distance based High Dimensional Two Sample Testing

Nonparametric two sample testing is a decision theoretic problem that involves identifying differences between two random variables without making parametric assumptions about their underlying distributions. We refer to the most common settings as mean difference alternatives (MDA), for testing differences only in first moments, and general difference alternatives (GDA), which is about testing for any difference in distributions. A large number of test statistics have been proposed for both these settings. This paper connects three classes of statistics high dimensional variants of Hotelling’s t-test, statistics based on Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Spaces, and energy statistics based on pairwise distances. We ask the following question how much statistical power do popular kernel and distance based tests for GDA have when the unknown distributions differ in their means, compared to specialized tests for MDA? To answer this, we formally characterize the power of popular tests for GDA like the Maximum Mean Discrepancy with the Gaussian kernel (gMMD) and bandwidth-dependent variants of the Energy Distance with the Euclidean norm (eED) in the high-dimensional MDA regime. We prove several interesting properties relating these classes of tests under MDA, which include (a) eED and gMMD have asymptotically equal power; furthermore they also enjoy a free lunch because, while they are additionally consistent for GDA, they have the same power as specialized high-dimensional t-tests for MDA. All these tests are asymptotically optimal (including matching constants) for MDA under spherical covariances, according to simple lower bounds. (b) The power of gMMD is independent of the kernel bandwidth, as long as it is larger than the choice made by the median heuristic. (c) There is a clear and smooth computation-statistics tradeoff for linear-time, subquadratic-time and quadratic-time versions of these tests, with more computation resulting in higher power. 1 ar X iv :1 50 8. 00 65 5v 1 [ m at h. ST ] 4 A ug 2 01 5 All three observations are practically important, since point (a) implies that eED and gMMD while being consistent against all alternatives, are also automatically adaptive to simpler alternatives, point (b) suggests that the median “heuristic” has some theoretical justification for being a default bandwidth choice, and point (c) implies that expending more computation may yield direct statistical benefit by orders of magnitude.
A secure palm vein recognition system

With the increasing needs in security systems, vein recognition is one of the important and reliable solutions of identity security for biometrics-based identification systems. The obvious and stable linefeature-based approach can be used to clearly describe a palm vein patterns for personal identification. In this paper, a directional filter bank involving different orientations is designed to extract the vein pattern and the minimum directional code (MDC) is employed to encode the line-based vein features in binary
Acaricidal efficacy of various agents in the treatment of naturally occurring Ornithonyssus sylviarum (Acari: Macronyssidae) infestations of chickens

The northern fowl mite (NFM), Ornithonyssus sylviarum, is a commonly occurring external parasite of chickens. Primarily, caged layers have the greatest incidence of this mite, with bird unrest, unthriftiness and lowered production as some of the adverse effects of the infestation. In the current study, birds with natural NFM infestations were randomized into five treatment groups, placed in individual cages in treatment-specific batteries (all in one room), and evaluated for 28 d for infestation quantification by way of index scoring and feather digest. No treatments were 100% effective in eliminating all life stages of the mite. Tetrachlorvinphos in combination with dichlorvos (RAVAP E.C.® Boehringer Ingelheim) was the most effective with consistently negative post-treatment index scores and the greatest decrease in mite life stages (eggs, larvae, and nymphs/adults). Malathion dust (Hi-Yield® Voluntary Purchasing Groups, Inc.) and 10% garlic oil were next in level of effectiveness, with significant (P < 0.05) post-treatment reductions in both index scores and mite life-stage populations. Permethrin (Permectrin II® Boehringer Ingelheim) provided the least control of the infestations, with no significant reductions in index scores and only slight reduction in the abundance of life stages after treatment. * Maggie Phillips is a senior majoring in animal science with a minor in equine science. † T.A. Yazwinski, faculty sponsor, is a professor in the Department of Animal Science and an adjunct professor in the Department of Poultry Science. § C.A. Tucker is a program associate in the Department of Animal Science. ‡ Jennifer Robins is a graduate student majoring in animal science. §§ Jeremy Powell is an assistant professor in the Deptartment of Animal Science and an extension veterinarian in the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service. ‡‡ Linda Stamps is a program associate in the Department of Poultry Science.
Differential Connexin Function Enhances Self-Renewal in Glioblastoma

The coordination of complex tumor processes requires cells to rapidly modify their phenotype and is achieved by direct cell-cell communication through gap junction channels composed of connexins. Previous reports have suggested that gap junctions are tumor suppressive based on connexin 43 (Cx43), but this does not take into account differences in connexin-mediated ion selectivity and intercellular communication rate that drive gap junction diversity. We find that glioblastoma cancer stem cells (CSCs) possess functional gap junctions that can be targeted using clinically relevant compounds to reduce self-renewal and tumor growth. Our analysis reveals that CSCs express Cx46, while Cx43 is predominantly expressed in non-CSCs. During differentiation, Cx46 is reduced, while Cx43 is increased, and targeting Cx46 compromises CSC maintenance. The difference between Cx46 and Cx43 is reflected in elevated cell-cell communication and reduced resting membrane potential in CSCs. Our data demonstrate a pro-tumorigenic role for gap junctions that is dependent on connexin expression.
Interventions to enhance physical and psychological functioning among younger women who are ending nonhormonal adjuvant treatment for early-stage breast cancer.

PURPOSE
To conduct a clinical trial to determine if an educational intervention and a nutritional intervention could enhance physical and psychological functioning among younger women completing treatment for early-stage breast cancer.


PATIENTS AND METHODS
Younger women (50 years of age or younger, N = 252), within 2 months of having completed active nonhormonal adjuvant therapy, diagnosed with stage 0, I, or II breast cancer with 10 or fewer positive lymph nodes were randomly assigned to a three-arm clinical trial. Women in the control arm of the trial received standard medical care. Women in the two active arms received either an educational intervention, designed to provide information about their illness and enhance adjustment, or a nutritional intervention, designed to promote a more healthy diet. Primary end points included mental functioning, physical functioning, and depressive symptoms. Women were assessed before random assignment, 4 months later (immediately post-intervention), and 13 months later (9 months post-intervention).


RESULTS
Participants assigned to the two active treatment arms had significantly less depressive symptomatology and better physical functioning by 13-month follow-up (differences between the two active arms were nonsignificant). These effects were primarily accounted for by changes in intrusive thoughts, concerns regarding cancer recurrence and mortality, self-concept perceptions, and self-efficacy expectations. CONCLUSION Tailored psychosocial interventions can be effectively designed to enhance adjustment among younger women who are completing nonhormonal adjuvant therapy.