LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Corporate Philanthropy, Political Influence, and Health Policy

BACKGROUND
The Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (FCTC) provides a basis for nation states to limit the political effects of tobacco industry philanthropy, yet progress in this area is limited. This paper aims to integrate the findings of previous studies on tobacco industry philanthropy with a new analysis of British American Tobacco's (BAT) record of charitable giving to develop a general model of corporate political philanthropy that can be used to facilitate implementation of the FCTC.


METHOD
Analysis of previously confidential industry documents, BAT social and stakeholder dialogue reports, and existing tobacco industry document studies on philanthropy.


RESULTS
The analysis identified six broad ways in which tobacco companies have used philanthropy politically: developing constituencies to build support for policy positions and generate third party advocacy; weakening opposing political constituencies; facilitating access and building relationships with policymakers; creating direct leverage with policymakers by providing financial subsidies to specific projects; enhancing the donor's status as a source of credible information; and shaping the tobacco control agenda by shifting thinking on the importance of regulating the market environment for tobacco and the relative risks of smoking for population health. Contemporary BAT social and stakeholder reports contain numerous examples of charitable donations that are likely to be designed to shape the tobacco control agenda, secure access and build constituencies.


CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Tobacco companies' political use of charitable donations underlines the need for tobacco industry philanthropy to be restricted via full implementation of Articles 5.3 and 13 of the FCTC. The model of tobacco industry philanthropy developed in this study can be used by public health advocates to press for implementation of the FCTC and provides a basis for analysing the political effects of charitable giving in other industry sectors which have an impact on public health such as alcohol and food.
Effects of Teacher Professional Learning Activities on Student Achievement Growth.

The authors examined the effects of six types of teacher professional learning activities on student achievement growth over 4 years using statewide longitudinal survey data collected from 467 middle school mathematics teachers in 91 schools merged with 11,192 middle school students’ mathematics scores in a standardized assessment in Missouri. The data showed that teacher-centered collaborative activities to learn about mathematics teaching and learning (teacher collaboration and informal communication) seem to be more effective in improving student mathematics achievement than learning activities that do not necessarily involve such teacher-centered collaborative opportunities (professional development programs, university courses, individual learning activities). Teacher-driven research activities through professional conference presentation and participation were also found to be associated with student achievement growth in mathematics. The districts and schools may benefit from investing their professional development funds and resources in facilitating teacher-centered collaborative and research-based learning activities in order to improve student learning.
Prognostic value of PCSK9 levels in patients with acute coronary syndromes.

AIMS
Proprotein convertase subtilisin kexin 9 (PCSK9) is an emerging target for the treatment of hypercholesterolaemia, but the clinical utility of PCSK9 levels to guide treatment is unknown. We aimed to prospectively assess the prognostic value of plasma PCSK9 levels in patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS).


METHODS AND RESULTS
Plasma PCSK9 levels were measured in 2030 ACS patients undergoing coronary angiography in a Swiss prospective cohort. At 1 year, the association between PCSK9 tertiles and all-cause death was assessed adjusting for the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) variables, as well as the achievement of LDL cholesterol targets of <1.8 mmol/L. Patients with higher PCSK9 levels at angiography were more likely to have clinical familial hypercholesterolaemia (rate ratio, RR 1.21, 95% confidence interval, CI 1.09-1.53), be treated with lipid-lowering therapy (RR 1.46, 95% CI 1.30-1.63), present with longer time interval of chest pain (RR 1.29, 95% CI 1.09-1.53) and higher C-reactive protein levels (RR 1.22, 95% CI 1.16-1.30). PCSK9 increased 12-24 h after ACS (374 ± 149 vs. 323 ± 134 ng/mL, P < 0.001). At 1 year follow-up, HRs for upper vs. lower PCSK9-level tertiles were 1.13 (95% CI 0.69-1.85) for all-cause death and remained similar after adjustment for the GRACE score. Patients with higher PCSK9 levels were less likely to reach the recommended LDL cholesterol targets (RR 0.81, 95% CI 0.66-0.99).


CONCLUSION
In ACS patients, high initial PCSK9 plasma levels were associated with inflammation in the acute phase and hypercholesterolaemia, but did not predict mortality at 1 year.
Subjective and functional results after total gastrectomy: prospective study for longterm comparison of reconstruction procedures

 Background: Many reconstruction procedures have been developed in efforts to resolve patients' complaints after total gastrectomy. However, there have been few reports of longterm comparisons between reconstruction procedures, especially with regard to the prevention of duodenal food passage. This study was undertaken to compare the longterm subjective and functional results among Roux-en-Y esophagojejunostomy (R-Y), R-Y with pouch (P-Y), and jejunal interposition with pouch (P-I) after total gastrectomy. Methods: Consecutive patients requiring curative total gastrectomy were enrolled in this prospective study by the envelope method. Results: Hospital stay was longer following a P-I than an R-Y or a P-Y. Over 50% of R-Y patients complained of heartburn, and 20% of R-Y patients showed dumping syndrome throughout the postoperative period, with this rate being significantly different from rates in the other two groups. P-Y patients complained of early satiety in the late postoperative period, while P-I patients complained of early satiety in the early postoperative period. The nutritional index in P-I patients was higher than those in patients with the other two procedures. Gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary dual scintigraphy (GHDS) showed that the rate of bile reflux with an R-Y was relatively high after surgery. Food reflux with a P-Y was increased (9.4% to 11.1%), but with a P-I food reflux was decreased at 3 years after surgery (13.3% to 9.9%). Patients with a P-Y had a faster recovery of body, weight in the early postoperative period; however, at 5 years after operation, body weight recovery with a P-I was greatest. Conclusion: Reconstruction should be performed with pouch formation after total gastrectomy with curative intent.
Fast, Versatile, and Low-Cost Interface Circuit for Electrochemical and Resistive Gas Sensor

Chemical sensors for gas detection nowadays are widely used in several applications; basically, electrochemical sensors and semiconductor devices are used for this purpose. In both cases, the sensor value estimation is usually implemented as a current measurement and they are often referred as current-output sensors. In this paper, a versatile and low-cost interface circuit for such kind of sensors is presented. The proposed solution is characterized by a wide measurement range, yielding flexibility of use with sensors showing different baseline values. In addition, the fast readout time, on the order of tens of milliseconds, guarantees an accurate acquisition of the sensor data even in presence of fast transients, for example when using sensors operated in pulsed thermal regimes. The front-end works with a single-voltage power supply and furnishes a time-coded digital output signal, thus it is suitable to be directly interfaced to a microcontroller for the management of the measurement process, data elaboration, and presentation. Simplicity and compactness of the electronic interface make possible the integration in a single-chip solution, together with the digital electronics. Reproducibility of the circuit, for applications requiring the simultaneous acquisition of multiple sensors, is furthermore facilitated. The proposed approach has been validated with experimental tests conducted on a discrete component prototype. The system characterization has shown a maximum linearity error in the estimation of the sensor current or resistance of ~ 5% over a measurement range of seven decades; the measurement time is in all the considered input range. Fast thermal transients of different semiconductor sensors for gas sensing have been successfully acquired, demonstrating the validity of the proposed approach. Power dissipation ( at 3.3 V) and the front-end cost ( ~ 10 $) make the presented solution suitable for the employment in low-cost and low-power gas detection systems.
A metabolite profiling method for diagnosis of precancerous cervical lesions and HPV persistence.

AIM
With the advent of rapid metabolic profiling techniques and of portable mass spectrometers we examined whether cells distinguished by their cytology and persistence of human papillomavirus infection, could be easily differentiated by their metabolite profile.


MATERIALS & METHODS
Direct injection electrospray mass spectrometry was used in a nontargeted double-blind experiment. Samples were collected from women diagnosed with one of two grades of cervical cytology and exhibiting either human papilloma virus persistence or clearance. Cell extracts were prepared using a DNA extraction procedure and the resulting supernatant, normally discarded, was analyzed. Data were interpreted using principal component analysis.


RESULTS
The results indicate strongly that a simple metabolite profiling method could be used to rapidly identify women at increased risk of cervical cancer.
Depression, anxiety, and tobacco use: Overlapping impediments to sleep in a national sample of college students.

OBJECTIVES
To examine how tobacco use and depression/anxiety disorders are related to disturbed sleep in college students.


PARTICIPANTS
85,138 undergraduate respondents (66.3% female, 74.5% white, non-Hispanic, ages 18-25) from the Spring 2011 American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment II database.


METHODS
Multivariate analyses of tobacco use (none, intermediate, daily) and mental health (diagnosed and/or symptomatic depression or anxiety) were used to predict sleep disturbance.


RESULTS
Daily tobacco use was associated with more sleep problems than binge drinking, illegal drug use, obesity, gender, and working >20 hours/week. Students with depression or anxiety reported more sleep disturbances than individuals without either disorder, and tobacco use in this population was associated with the most sleep problems.


CONCLUSIONS
Tobacco use and depression/anxiety disorders are both independently associated with more sleep problems in college students. Students with depression and/or anxiety are more likely to be daily tobacco users, which likely exacerbates their sleep problems.
Non-Minimal Coupling Efiects of the Ultra-Light Particles on Photons Velocities in the Radiation Dominated Era of the Universe

The efiect of the ultra-light masses of the order of the Hubble constant, implemented in Einstein's fleld equations from non-minimal coupling and supergravities arguments, on photons velocities in the radiation dominated epoch of the Universe within the framework of non-minimal interaction of electromagnetic flelds with gravity is developed and discussed in details. c
Dear Harry/Dear Paul – Selling the Concept of European Art Cinema in the 1960s

Dear Harry/Dear Paul – Selling the Concept of European Art Cinema in the 1960s In a letter written in August 1966 to Harry Schein (1924-2006), head of the Swedish Film Institute, the prominent Hollywood agent Paul Kohner (1902 -1988) asks for advices. He wants to take over the foreign distribution of the leading Swedish film producer Svensk filmindustri (SF), and wants Schein to help him. This letter is picked out from a long-standing correspondence between Schein and Kohner (lasting from 1960 to 1984) on economical matters concerning Swedish cinema in general, especially in relation to the careers of Ingmar Bergman and Ingrid Thulin. The 627 letters exchanged between Schein and Kohner (deposed in the personal archive of Harry Schein) are a source not only to the life and work of ceratin filmmakers and actors. The correspondence can also shed some light on strategies for the promotion of European art cinema in the US in the 1960s. Furthermore, the dialogue between Schein and Kohner represents discourses and attitudes regarding film as an art and as a medium in a time when the different institutions of cinema (criticism, production and governmental subsidies etc.) were changing rapidly. Key words: Film distribution, marketing strategies, national film politics, art cinema, References: Citizen Schein (ed: Lars Ilshammar, Pelle Snickars & Per Vesterlund) (Stockholm: Kungliga biblioteket, 2010) Elsaesser, Thomas, European Cinema: Face to Face With Hollywood (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2005) Gomery, Douglas, Shared Pleasures: A History of Movie Presentation in the United States (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992) Kohner, Fredrick, The Magician of Sunset Boulevard: The improbable life of Paul Kohner, Hollywood Agent (Palos Verdes: Morgan Press, 1977) Staiger, Janet, Interpreting Films: Studies in the Reception of American Cinema (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992) Transnational Cinema in a Global North: Nordic Cinema in Transition, ed. Andrew Nestingen & Trevor G. Elkington (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2005)
Locally Connected Deep Learning Framework for Industrial-scale Recommender Systems

In this work, we propose a locally connected deep learning framework for recommender systems, which reduces the complexity of deep neural network (DNN) by two to three orders of magnitude. We further extend the framework using the idea of recently proposed Wide&Deep model. Experiments on industrial-scale datasets show that our methods could achieve good results with much shorter runtime.
Two-step multipolling MAC protocol for wireless LANs

The IEEE 802.11 standard defines two coordination functions: distributed coordination function (DCF) and point coordination function (PCF). These coordination functions coordinate the shared wireless medium. The PCF uses a centralized polling-based channel access method to support time-bounded services. To design an efficient polling scheme, the point coordinator (PC) needs to obtain information about the current transmission status and channel condition for each station. To reduce overhead caused by polling frames, it is better to poll all stations using one polling frame containing the transmission schedule. In this paper, we propose an efficient polling scheme, referred to as two-step multipolling (TS-MP), for the PCF in wireless local area networks (WLANs). In this new scheme, we propose to use two multipolling frames with different purposes. The first frame is broadcast to collect information such as the numbers of pending frames and the physical-layer transmission rates for the communication links among all stations. The second frame contains a polling sequence for data transmissions designed based on the collected information. This frame is broadcast to all stations. Extensive simulation studies show that TS-MP not only overcomes the aforementioned deficiencies, but also help to implement rate adaptation over time-varying wireless channel.
Incidence and Risk Factors for Venous Thromboembolism After Spine Surgery in Korean Patients.

BACKGROUND
Data regarding the incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) after spine surgery are scarce. Identifying ideal candidates for pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis and balancing the risk of thromboembolic complications against the risk of permanent neurologic deficits from a spinal epidural hematoma (SEH) are difficult. Even guidelines cannot suggest the standard of thromboprophylaxis.


OBJECTIVES
This study aimed to identify the incidence of and risk factors for VTE after spine surgery in the Korean population. In addition, the rate of pharmacoprophylaxis and the incidence of SEH after spine surgery were analyzed.


METHODS
The study cohort was generated by extracting patients with disease codes of spine surgery and VTE from the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service National Inpatient Sample in 2014. After analyzing the incidence of VTE after spine surgery, a univariate comparison was performed to examine the possible relationship between the incidence of VTE and the independent variable. Variables found to be significant were included in a multivariable analysis model for further analysis.


RESULTS
The incidence of VTE was 2.09% among all 21,261 patients who had spine surgery, and prophylaxis was applied to 7.89% of all patients who had spine surgery. Comorbidities and surgery-related risk factors were venous disease, cancer, respiratory disease, prolonged surgery hours, and increased total blood loss. Hospital-related risk factors were the location and hospital size.


CONCLUSIONS
On the basis of the incidence of VTE and the risk factors, more active prophylaxis is suggested for patients in the Korean population who undergo spine surgery.
Regulation of synchronous generators by means of hydrostatic transmissions

 In many applications within the engineering world, an isolated generator is needed (e.g. in ships). Diesel units (diesel engine and synchronous generator) are the most common solution. However, the diesel engine can be eliminated if the energy from another source (e.g. the prime mover in a ship) is used to move the generator. This is the case for the Shaft Coupled Generator, where the coupling between the mover and the generator is made via a hydrostatic transmission. So that the mover can have different speeds and the generator is able to keep a constant frequency. The main problem of this system is the design of a speed governor that make possible the desired behaviour. In this paper a simulation model is presented in order to analyse the behaviour of this kind of systems and to help in the speed governor design. The model is achieved with an parameter identification process also depicted in the paper. A comparison between simulation results and measurements is made to shown the model validity. KeywordsModelling, Identification, Hydrostatic Transmission.
A Simple Locking-Alleviated 3D 8-NodeMixed-Collocation C 0 Finite Element withOver-Integration, for Functionally-Graded and LaminatedThick-Section Plates and Shells, with & without Z-Pins

Following previous work of [Dong, El-Gizawy, Juhany, Atluri (2014)], a simple locking-alleviated 3D 8-node mixed-collocation C0 finite element (denoted as CEH8) is developed in this study, for the modeling of functionally-graded or laminated thick-section composite plates and shells, without using higher-order or layer-wise zig-zag plate and shell theories which are widely popularized in the current literature. The present C0 element independently assumes an 18-parameter linearly-varying Cartesian strain field. The independently assumed Cartesian strains are related to the Cartesian strains derived from mesh-based Cartesian displacement interpolations, by exactly enforcing 18 pre-defined constraints at 18 pre-selected collocation points. The constraints are rationally defined to capture the basic kinematics of the 3D 8-node C0 element, and to accurately model each basic deformation mode of tension, bending, shear, and torsion. A 2×2×2 Gauss quadrature is sufficient for evaluating the stiffness matrix of CEH8 C0 3D elements for homogeneous materials, but over-integration (with a higher-order Gauss Quadrature, a layer-wise Gauss Quadrature, or a simple Trapezoidal Rule in the thickness direction) is used for functionally-graded materials or thick-section laminated composite structures with an arbitrary number of laminae. Through several numerical examples, it is clearly shown that the present CEH8 3D C0 element can accurately capture the stress distribution of FG and thick laminated structures with an arbitrary number of laminae even when only one element is used in the thickness direction. In stark contrast to the higher-order or layer-wise zig-zag plate and shell theories, with assumptions for displacement or stress fields in the thickness direction, which may require complicated C1 finite element, the present C0 element can accurately 1 Department of Engineering Mechanics, Hohai University, China. 2 Center for Aerospace Research & Education, University of California, Irvine, USA. 3 King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. 164 Copyright © 2014 Tech Science Press CMC, vol.41, no.3, pp.163-192, 2014 compute the jumps in bending stresses at the interfaces of layers, while the out-of plane normal and shear stresses can be accurately recovered by exploring the equilibrium equations of 3D linear elasticity. By adding the contributing stiffness of z-pins into the stiffness matrix of CEH8, it is also demonstrated that the presently developed method can be used to study the effect of using z-pin reinforcements to reduce the inter-laminar stresses of composite structures, in a very simple and computationally-efficient manner.
Selection of independent components representing event-related brain potentials: A data-driven approach for greater objectivity

Following the development of increasingly precise measurement instruments and fine-grain analysis tools for electroencephalographic (EEG) data, analysis of single-trial event-related EEG has considerably widened the utility of this non-invasive method to investigate brain activity. Recently, independent component analysis (ICA) has become one of the most prominent techniques for increasing the feasibility of single-trial EEG. This blind source separation technique extracts statistically independent components (ICs) from the EEG raw signal. By restricting the signal analysis to those ICs representing the processes of interest, single-trial analysis becomes more flexible. Still, the selection-criteria for in- or exclusion of certain ICs are largely subjective and unstandardized, as is the actual selection process itself. We present a rationale for a bottom-up, data-driven IC selection approach, using clear-cut inferential statistics on both temporal and spatial information to identify components that significantly contribute to a certain event-related brain potential (ERP). With time-range being the only necessary input, this approach considerably reduces the pre-assumptions for IC selection and promotes greater objectivity of the selection process itself. To test the validity of the approach presented here, we present results from a simulation and re-analyze data from a previously published ERP experiment on error processing. We compare the ERP-based IC selections made by our approach to the selection made based on mere signal power. The comparison of ERP integrity, signal-to-noise ratio, and single-trial properties of the back-projected ICs outlines the validity of the approach presented here. In addition, functional validity of the extracted error-related EEG signal is tested by investigating whether it is predictive for subsequent behavioural adjustments.