LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Immune thrombocytopenia in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia treated with cladribine-based regiments or chlorambucil--follow-up of PALG-CLL randomized trials.

OBJECTIVES
The relationship between treatments of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) with cladribine (2-CdA) or chlorambucil and immune thrombocytopenia (IT) has not been yet determined.


METHODS
The records of 777 patients in two randomized Polish Adult Leukemia Group (PALG)-CLL programs treated with these agents were retrospectively analyzed.


RESULTS
Immune thrombocytopenia occurred in 55 of 777 (7.1%) patients. No significant differences in IT prevalence were seen between patients on chlorambucil or 2-CdA-based regiments (P = 0.33). IT developed at a median time of 0.499 yr (0.06-4.8) from the start of CLL therapy. This time was significantly longer in patients treated with chlorambucil (2.03 yr, 95% CI: 0.06-4.22) in relation to patients treated with 2-CdA-based regiments (0.52 yr, 95%CI: 0.34-0.69, P = 0.049). Overall survival (OS) of patients with IT and those without IT were similar (2.65 yr vs. 3.2 yr P = 0.23) but the severity of bleeding was more pronounced in the 2-CdA group. The responses to IT therapy were 35%, 54% and 75% for steroids, chemotherapy and splenectomy, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
In this study, an unexpectedly high percentage of IT incidence was demonstrated in patients with CLL requiring chemotherapy. Although no marked differences were seen in IT frequency in patients treated with 2-CdA-based regiments compared to chlorambucil regimen, the clinical course of hemorrhagic diathesis was more severe in 2-CdA group. Also, the time elapsed from study screening to IT diagnosis was significantly shorter in the 2-CdA group than in the chlorambucil group suggesting a causative relationship. The appearance of IT did not influence the median time of OS.
Reproducibility of an instrumented measure for passive ankle dorsiflexion in conscious and anaesthetized children with cerebral palsy.

AIM
The aims of this study were to (1) determine whether an instrumented measure will reduce measurement error to less than 5° in children with cerebral palsy (CP), (2) determine agreement and reliability of this instrumented measure in both conscious and anaesthetized participants, and (3) compare the method with previously reported measures.


METHOD
Thirty-four ambulant children (15 males, 19 females), aged 3 to 9 years, with spastic CP were studied in a tertiary-care paediatric hospital (21 with hemiplegia, 11 with diplegia, and two with quadriplegia). The majority of children functioned at Gross Motor Function Classification System level I (n=11) or II (n=18), with five children at level III. Ankle dorsiflexion at 50% bodyweight was photographed and measured. Each child was measured when conscious and when under mask anaesthesia by two experienced assessors.


RESULTS
The standard error of measurement (SEM) ranged from 3.9° (anaesthetized; 95% confidence interval [CI] 3.3-4.0°) to 6.7° (conscious; 95% CI 5.3-8.0°). This compared favourably with previously reported dorsiflexion measures (SEM range 6.5-7.8°) in conscious children with CP. Intrarater reliability was good in both conditions (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]: range 0.95 [anaesthetized; 95% CI 0.92-0.98] to 0.86 [conscious; 95% CI 0.76-0.95]). The ICC for interrater reliability ranged from 0.87 (anaesthetized; 95% CI 0.81-0.93) to 0.65 (conscious; 95% CI 0.50-0.81).


INTERPRETATION
Passive ankle dorsiflexion using an instrumented measure has face validity and may assist in the improvement of reproducibility under anaesthesia for clinical research. When an individual is conscious, this technique is not better than trained assessors using conventional goniometry reported in the literature and is not recommended for routine clinical use.
Tunable Valley and Spin Polarizations in BiXO3/BiIrO3 (X = Fe, Mn) Ferroelectric Superlattices.

The generation and modulation on valley and spin degrees of freedom are essential for multifunctional electronic devices. Herewith, the electronic structures in BiXO3/BiIrO3 (X = Fe, Mn) ferroelectric superlattices are studied by first-principles calculations with spin-orbital coupling. Different from the previous BiAlO3/BiIrO3 system, both valley and spin polarizations in bilayered BiIrO3 are achieved in BiXO3/BiIrO3 superlattices, where the spin polarization in the valley can be engineered by the spin orientation of Fe or Mn owing to the xy-plane orbitals. Especially, the relatively parallel and antiparallel directions of ferroelectric polarization in BiFeO3 and BiIrO3 can switch the valley injection in BiFeO3/BiIrO3 superlattices. Overall, the tunable valley and spin polarizations in BiFeO3/BiIrO3 ferroelectric superlattices pave a way for developing nonvolatile data memories and valley-spin devices.
Wizard of watts [electronics engineering education]

IEEE Medal of Honor winner, James D Meindl, blazed an adventure-packed trail in low-power semiconductors and took generations of graduates students along with him. Meindl, a professor of microelectronics at the Georgia Institute of Technology, says that the most important part of his job is making graduate school fun and exciting. This paper presents a story of Meindl that made an impact on his students' careers and on the field he loves
Frailty in the critically ill: a novel concept

The concept of frailty has been defined as a multidimensional syndrome characterized by the loss of physical and cognitive reserve that predisposes to the accumulation of deficits and increased vulnerability to adverse events. Frailty is strongly correlated with age, and overlaps with and extends aspects of a patient's disability status (that is, functional limitation) and/or burden of comorbid disease. The frail phenotype has more specifically been characterized by adverse changes to a patient's mobility, muscle mass, nutritional status, strength and endurance. We contend that, in selected circumstances, the critically ill patient may be analogous to the frail geriatric patient. The prevalence of frailty amongst critically ill patients is currently unknown; however, it is probably increasing, based on data showing that the utilization of intensive care unit (ICU) resources by older people is rising. Owing to the theoretical similarities in frailty between geriatric and critically ill patients, this concept may have clinical relevance and may be predictive of outcomes, along with showing important interaction with several factors including illness severity, comorbid disease, and the social and structural environment. We believe studies of frailty in critically ill patients are needed to evaluate how it correlates with outcomes such as survival and quality of life, and how it relates to resource utilization, such as length of mechanical ventilation, ICU stay and duration of hospitalization. We hypothesize that the objective measurement of frailty may provide additional support and reinforcement to clinicians confronted with end-of-life decisions on the appropriateness of ICU support and/or withholding of life-sustaining therapies.
Moderation of antidepressant response by the serotonin transporter gene.

BACKGROUND
There have been conflicting reports on whether the length polymorphism in the promoter of the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) moderates the antidepressant effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). We hypothesised that the pharmacogenetic effect of 5-HTTLPR is modulated by gender, age and other variants in the serotonin transporter gene.


AIMS
To test the hypothesis that the 5-HTTLPR differently influences response to escitalopram (an SSRI) compared with nortriptyline (a noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor).


METHOD
The 5-HTTLPR and 13 additional markers across the serotonin transporter gene were genotyped in 795 adults with moderate-to-severe depression treated with escitalopram or nortriptyline in the Genome Based Therapeutic Drugs for Depression (GENDEP) project.


RESULTS
The 5-HTTLPR moderated the response to escitalopram, with long-allele carriers improving more than short-allele homozygotes. A significant three-way interaction between 5-HTTLPR, drug and gender indicated that the effect was concentrated in males treated with escitalopram. The single-nucleotide polymorphism rs2020933 also influenced outcome.


CONCLUSIONS
The effect of 5-HTTLPR on antidepressant response is SSRI specific conditional on gender and modulated by another polymorphism at the 5' end of the serotonin transporter gene.
The Value of Voice in an Experimental Labor Market

Procedural fairness research has argued that giving people a voice in decision-making procedures leads to increased outcome satisfaction and enhanced compliance with decisions. The impact of voice on agents’ motivation to perform well is investigated in a simple giftexchange experiment, thereby testing the fair wage-fair process-effort hypothesis. Before principals set wages, they decide whether or not to allow agents to voice their opinion by communicating their desired wages. Agents respond to principals’ wage offers and voice/no voice choices by choosing effort levels. We find a significant impact of voice on average effort levels. Principals who (a) give agents a voice and (b) offer high wages induce, on average, a higher performance and hence earn higher payoffs than principals who offer the same wage without voice. However, we also observe negative voice effects: agents who are given voice react to low wages with lower efforts than agents who were not given voice. Thus, a voice that is perceived to have no influence is even more detrimental than not giving a voice at all. ∗Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Community (IAAEG), University of Trier, D-54286 Trier, Germany, Tel: +49 651 201-4746 fax: +49 651 201-4742, E-mail: mertins@iaaeg.de
Screening for malignancy in low back pain patients: a systematic review

To describe the accuracy of clinical features and tests used to screen for malignancy in patients with low back pain. A systematic review was performed on all available records on MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CINAHL electronic databases. Studies were considered eligible if they investigated a cohort of low back pain patients, used an appropriate reference standard, and reported sufficient data on the diagnostic accuracy of tests. Two authors independently assessed methodological quality and extracted data to calculate positive (LR+) and negative (LR−) likelihood ratios. Six studies evaluating 22 different clinical features and tests were identified. The prevalence of malignancy ranged from 0.1 to 3.5%. A previous history of cancer (LR+ = 23.7), elevated ESR (LR+ = 18.0), reduced hematocrit (LR+ = 18.2), and overall clinician judgement (LR+ = 12.1) increased the probability of malignancy when present. A combination of age ≥50 years, a previous history of cancer, unexplained weight loss, and failure to improve after 1 month had a reported sensitivity of 100%. Overall, there was poor reporting of methodological quality items, and very few studies were performed in community primary care settings. Malignancy is rare as a cause of low back pain. The most useful features and tests are a previous history of cancer, elevated ESR, reduced hematocrit, and clinician judgement.
Registered nurses' perceptions of their professional work in nursing homes and home-based care: a focus group study.

BACKGROUND
In Sweden, as well as in most industrialised countries, an increasing older population is expected to create a growing demand for health care staff. Previous studies have pointed to lack of proficient medical and nursing staff specialised in geriatric care, which poses serious threats to the care of a vulnerable population. At the same time, there are studies describing elderly care as a low-status career choice, attracting neither nurses nor student nurses. Judging from previous research it was deemed important to explore how nurses in elderly care perceive their work, thus possibly provide vital knowledge that can guide nurse educators and unit managers as a means to promote a career in elderly care.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of the present study was to illuminate how nurses, working in nursing homes and home-based care, perceived their professional work.


METHOD
This was a qualitative study using focus groups. 30 registered nurses in seven focus groups were interviewed. The participants worked in nursing homes and home-based care for the elderly in rural areas and in a larger city in southern Sweden. The interviews were analysed in line with the tradition of naturalistic inquiry.


RESULTS
Our findings illustrate how nurses working in elderly care perceived their professional work as holistic and respectful nursing. Three categories of professional work emerged during analysis: (1) establishing long-term relationships, (2) nursing beyond technical skills, and (3) balancing independence and a sense of loneliness.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings are important as they represent positive alternatives to the somewhat prevailing view on elderly care as depressing and undemanding. Nurse educators might use the key aspects as good examples, thus influencing student nurses' attitudes towards elderly care in a positive way. Elderly care agencies might find them helpful when recruiting and retaining nurses to a much needed area.
Trends in CD4 counts in HIV-infected patients with HIV viral load monitoring while on combination antiretroviral treatment: results from The TREAT Asia HIV Observational Database

BACKGROUND
The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between trends in CD4 counts (slope) and HIV viral load (VL) after initiation of combination antiretroviral treatment (cART) in Asian patients in The TREAT Asia HIV Observational Database (TAHOD).


METHODS
Treatment-naive HIV-infected patients who started cART with three or more and had three or more CD4 count and HIV VL tests were included. CD4 count slopes were expressed as changes of cells per microliter per year. Predictors of CD4 count slopes from 6 months after initiation were assessed by random-effects linear regression models.


RESULTS
A total of 1676 patients (74% male) were included. The median time on cART was 4.2 years (IQR 2.5-5.8 years). In the final model, CD4 count slope was associated with age, concurrent HIV VL and CD4 count, disease stage, hepatitis B or C co-infection, and time since cART initiation. CD4 count continues to increase with HIV VL up to 20,000 copies/mL during 6-12 months after cART initiation. However, the HIV VL has to be controlled below 5,000, 4,000 and 500 copies/mL for the CD4 count slope to remain above 20 cells/microliter per year during 12-18, 18-24, and beyond 24 months after cART initiation.


CONCLUSIONS
After cART initiation, CD4 counts continued to increase even when the concurrent HIV VL was detectable. However, HIV VL needed to be controlled at a lower level to maintain a positive CD4 count slope when cART continues. The effect on long-term outcomes through the possible development of HIV drug resistance remains uncertain.
An introduction to Augmented Reality with applications in aeronautical maintenance

Augmented Reality is a breakthrough technology that could considerably ease execution of complex operations. Augmented Reality mixes virtual and actual reality, making available to the user new tools to ensure efficiency in the transfer of knowledge for several processes and in several environments. Various solutions based on Augmented Reality have been proposed by the research community: particularly in maintenance operations Augmented Reality tools have offered new perspectives and have promised dramatic improvements. On the other side Augmented Reality is an extremely demanding technology and, at the present day, it is still affected by serious flaws that undermine its implementations in the industrial context. This paper presents examples of Augmented Reality applications and shows the feasibility of Augmented Reality solutions in maintenance tasks, underlining advantages it could introduce. At the same time the principal flaws of Augmented Reality are commented and possible lines of investigation are suggested.
Real estate investment in Taiwan : an examination of the recent opening of real estate markets to foreign entities

In hope to revitalize the slumping real estate markets and sluggish economy, the government of Taiwan, Republic of China, has recently opened up direct real estate investment opportunities to foreign entities. In conjunction with the joining of WTO, Taiwan hopes that foreign funds and maybe even investment from Mainland China will infuse capital and uplift the markets. Nevertheless, the potential impacts to the real estate industries have not yet been fully examined. Several professionals and academia suggested that the projected effects of direct investment into Taiwan's real estate markets will not seem to be as optimistic as how the government has hoped for. Political uncertainties, slow market growth, low transparency, oversupply of products, and different real estate valuation expectations will prohibit bullish direct investment activities. The net result is complicated. A closer look shows that foreign capital will create a short-term turbulence in the real estate markets and further exaggerate value discrepancies between market sectors and geographical locations. As the formation of AMCs (Asset Management Corporations) will consolidate NPL's and thus further depress market value, the deeply discounted high quality properties in different regions, the possibility of securitizing real estate assets, and the continuing of general foreign business development will attract real estate investment opportunities into different product sectors and locations, and thus create value disparities. Long run effects will depend on the island's political and economic situations. Overall, as Taiwan is preparing to enter the WTO, the opening of real estate industries to the international marketplace will standardize valuation methods, reorganize industry structure and make the markets more transparent. Thesis Supervisor: Alice H. Amsden Title: Ellen Swallow Richards Professor of Political Economy Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Maximal exercise testing variables and 10-year survival: fitness risk score derivation from the FIT Project.

OBJECTIVE
To determine which routinely collected exercise test variables most strongly correlate with survival and to derive a fitness risk score that can be used to predict 10-year survival.


PATIENTS AND METHODS
This was a retrospective cohort study of 58,020 adults aged 18 to 96 years who were free of established heart disease and were referred for an exercise stress test from January 1, 1991, through May 31, 2009. Demographic, clinical, exercise, and mortality data were collected on all patients as part of the Henry Ford ExercIse Testing (FIT) Project. Cox proportional hazards models were used to identify exercise test variables most predictive of survival. A "FIT Treadmill Score" was then derived from the β coefficients of the model with the highest survival discrimination.


RESULTS
The median age of the 58,020 participants was 53 years (interquartile range, 45-62 years), and 28,201 (49%) were female. Over a median of 10 years (interquartile range, 8-14 years), 6456 patients (11%) died. After age and sex, peak metabolic equivalents of task and percentage of maximum predicted heart rate achieved were most highly predictive of survival (P<.001). Subsequent addition of baseline blood pressure and heart rate, change in vital signs, double product, and risk factor data did not further improve survival discrimination. The FIT Treadmill Score, calculated as [percentage of maximum predicted heart rate + 12(metabolic equivalents of task) - 4(age) + 43 if female], ranged from -200 to 200 across the cohort, was near normally distributed, and was found to be highly predictive of 10-year survival (Harrell C statistic, 0.811).


CONCLUSION
The FIT Treadmill Score is easily attainable from any standard exercise test and translates basic treadmill performance measures into a fitness-related mortality risk score. The FIT Treadmill Score should be validated in external populations.
Vascular endothelial dysfunction in patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes and effects of 2-year and 5-year multifactorial intervention.

OBJECTIVES
Investigate short- and long-term effect of multifactorial intervention on endothelial dysfunction in patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes.


BACKGROUND
Whether multifactorial intervention reduces cardiovascular risk in type 2 diabetes is largely controversial, partially because of lack of reliable method for endothelial dysfunction detection. Using high-resolution ultrasonographical flow-mediated vasodilatation (FMD), we completed a 5-year randomized prospective intervention trial in patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes. We have studied the effect of multifactorial intervention therapy on their endothelial dysfunction.


METHODS
One hundred eight patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes, and 83 healthy subjects received measurement of brachial artery FMD and endothelium-independent dilatation (EID). Diabetic patients were assigned into four groups, treated with: (A) hypoglycemic and antihypertensive agents, (B) hypoglycemic, antihypertensive and lipid-lowering agents, (C) hypoglycemic, antihypertensive and lipid-lowering agents, and vitamin E, and (D) hypoglycemic, antihypertensive and lipid-lowering agents, and compound salvia tablets. Both FMD and EID were remeasured after 24- and 60-month treatment.


RESULTS
FMD in diabetic patients was significantly lower than those in healthy subjects. After 24-month treatment, there was no FMD change. However, FMD improved significantly after 60-month treatment. The differences between 24- and 60-month are also significant. EID did not change significantly after both 24- and 60-month treatments.


CONCLUSIONS
(1) FMD-detectable endothelial dysfunction exists in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetic patients. (2) Reverse of endothelial function occurs only after long-term (60-month) multifactorial intervention. (3) FMD could potentially help early identification, stratification, and treatment of endothelial dysfunction in type 2 diabetic patients.
BiDi screen: a thin, depth-sensing LCD for 3D interaction using light fields

We transform an LCD into a display that supports both 2D multitouch and unencumbered 3D gestures. Our BiDirectional (BiDi) screen, capable of both image capture and display, is inspired by emerging LCDs that use embedded optical sensors to detect multiple points of contact. Our key contribution is to exploit the spatial light modulation capability of LCDs to allow lensless imaging without interfering with display functionality. We switch between a display mode showing traditional graphics and a capture mode in which the backlight is disabled and the LCD displays a pinhole array or an equivalent tiled-broadband code. A large-format image sensor is placed slightly behind the liquid crystal layer. Together, the image sensor and LCD form a mask-based light field camera, capturing an array of images equivalent to that produced by a camera array spanning the display surface. The recovered multi-view orthographic imagery is used to passively estimate the depth of scene points. Two motivating applications are described: a hybrid touch plus gesture interaction and a light-gun mode for interacting with external light-emitting widgets. We show a working prototype that simulates the image sensor with a camera and diffuser, allowing interaction up to 50 cm in front of a modified 20.1 inch LCD.
Say the Right Thing Right: Ethics Issues in Natural Language Generation Systems

We discuss the ethical implications of Natural Language Generation systems. We use one particular system as a case study to identify and classify issues, and we provide an ethics checklist, in the hope that future system designers may benefit from conducting their own ethics reviews based on our checklist.