LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Widespread Changes in White Matter Microstructure after a Day of Waking and Sleep Deprivation

BACKGROUND
Elucidating the neurobiological effects of sleep and waking remains an important goal of the neurosciences. Recently, animal studies indicated that sleep is important for cell membrane and myelin maintenance in the brain and that these structures are particularly susceptible to insufficient sleep. Here, we tested the hypothesis that a day of waking and sleep deprivation would be associated with changes in diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) indices of white matter microstructure sensitive to axonal membrane and myelin alterations.


METHODS
Twenty-one healthy adult males underwent DTI in the morning [7:30AM; time point (TP)1], after 14 hours of waking (TP2), and then after another 9 hours of waking (TP3). Whole brain voxel-wise analysis was performed with tract based spatial statistics.


RESULTS
A day of waking was associated with widespread increases in white matter fractional anisotropy, which were mainly driven by radial diffusivity reductions, and sleep deprivation was associated with widespread fractional anisotropy decreases, which were mainly explained by reductions in axial diffusivity. In addition, larger decreases in axial diffusivity after sleep deprivation were associated with greater sleepiness. All DTI changes remained significant after adjusting for hydration measures.


CONCLUSIONS
This is the first DTI study of sleep deprivation in humans. Although previous studies have observed localized changes in DTI indices of cerebral microstructure over the course of a few hours, further studies are needed to confirm widespread DTI changes within hours of waking and to clarify whether such changes in white matter microstructure serve as neurobiological substrates of sleepiness.
Economic Evaluation of Coastal Land Loss in Louisiana

Louisiana has lost approximately 1,880 square miles of land over the past eighty years. Projections suggest that in a future without action, the next fifty years could result in the loss of 1,750 additional square miles of land area. As land loss continues, a large portion of the natural and man-made capital stocks of coastal Louisiana will be at greater risk of damage, either from land loss or from the associated increase in storm damage. We estimate the replacement cost of capital stock directly at risk from land loss ranges from approximately $2.1 billion to $3.5 billion with economic activity at risk ranging from $2.4 billion to $3.1 billion in output. Increases in storm damage to capital stock range from $8.7 billion to as much as $133 billion with associated disruptions to economic activity ranging from an additional $1.9 billion to $23 billion in total lost output. Authors Stephen R. Barnes, Craig Bond, Nicholas Burger, Kate Anania, Aaron Strong, Sarah Weilant, and Stephanie Virgets This research article is available in Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics: https://cbe.miis.edu/joce/vol4/iss1/3
Just blink your eyes: a head-free gaze tracking system

We propose a head-free, easy-setup gaze tracking system designed for a gaze-based Human-Computer Interaction. Our system enables the user to interact with the computer soon after catching the user's eye blinks. The user can move his/her head freely since the system keeps tracking the user's eye. In addition, our system only needs a 10 second calibration procedure at the very first time of use. An eye tracking method based on our unique eye blink detection and a sophisticated gaze estimation method using the geometrical eyeball model realize these advantages.
Cancellation of long-range forces in Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton system

We examine cancellation of long-range forces in Einstein-Maxwell-Dilatonic system. Several conditions of the equilibrium of two charged masses in general relativity is found by many authors. These conditions are altered by taking account of dilatonic field. Under the new condition, we show cancellation of $1/r^2$ potential using Feynman diagrams.
Why Are the Unemployed So Unhappy ? Evidence from Panel Data

The growing concern about the extent of joblessness in advanced Western economies is fuelled by the perception that the social costs of unemployment substantially exceed the costs of an economy operating below its potential. Rather, it is suspected that unemployment imposes an additional burden on the individual, a burden that might be referred to as the non-pecuniary cost of unemployment. Those costs arise primarily since employment is not only a source of income but also a provider of social relationships, identity in society and individual self-esteem. Darity and Goldsmith (1996) provide a summary of the psychological literature on the link between loss of employment and reduced wellbeing. Substantial efforts have been made in the past to quantify these nonpecuniary costs of unemployment. (See Junankar 1987; Björklund and Eriksson 1995 and Darity and Goldsmith 1996 for surveys of previous empirical studies.) To begin with, one can think of costs directly in terms of decreased psychological wellbeing. Beyond that, decreased wellbeing may express itself through adverse individual outcomes such as increased mortality, suicide risk and crime rates, or decreased marital stability. These possibilities have been explored by previous research. The general finding is that unemployment is associated with substantial negative non-pecuniary effects (see e.g. Jensen and Smith 1990; Junankar 1991). The case seems particularly strong for the direct negative association between unemployment and psychological wellbeing. For instance, Clark and Oswald (1994), using the first wave of the British Household Panel Survey, report estimates from ordered probit models in which a mental distress score is regressed on a set of individual characteristics, unemployment being one of them. They find that the effect of unemployment is both statistically significant and large: being unemployed increases mental distress by more than does suffering impaired health. Other researchers have used different measures of psychological wellbeing and yet obtained the same basic result, a large negative effect of unemployment on well being. Björklund (1985) and Korpi (1997) construct wellbeing indicators from symptoms of sleeplessness, stomach pain, depression and the like, while Goldsmith et al. (1995, 1996) measure
Online news and changing models of journalism

The move to Internet news publishing is the latest in a series of technological shifts which have required journalists not merely to adapt their daily practice but which have also at least in the view of some – recast their role in society. For over a decade, proponents of the networked society as a new way of life have argued that responsibility for news selection and production will shift from publishers, editors and reporters to individual consumers, as in the scenario offered by Nicholas Negroponte:
Posttraumatic stress disorder in new mothers: results from a two-stage U.S. national survey.

BACKGROUND
Prevalence rates of women in community samples who screened positive for meeting the DSM-IV criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder after childbirth range from 1.7 to 9 percent. A positive screen indicates a high likelihood of this postpartum anxiety disorder. The objective of this analysis was to examine the results that focus on the posttraumatic stress disorder data obtained from a two-stage United States national survey conducted by Childbirth Connection: Listening to Mothers II (LTM II) and Listening to Mothers II Postpartum Survey (LTM II/PP).


METHODS
In the LTM II study, 1,373 women completed the survey online, and 200 mothers were interviewed by telephone. The same mothers were recontacted and asked to complete a second questionnaire 6 months later and of those, 859 women completed the online survey and 44 a telephone interview. Data obtained from three instruments are reported in this article: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Scale-Self Report (PSS-SR), Postpartum Depression Screening Scale (PDSS), and the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2).


RESULTS
Nine percent of the sample screened positive for meeting the diagnostic criteria of posttraumatic stress disorder after childbirth as determined by responses on the PSS-SR. A total of 18 percent of women scored above the cutoff score on the PSS-SR, which indicated that they were experiencing elevated levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms. The following variables were significantly related to elevated posttraumatic stress symptoms levels: low partner support, elevated postpartum depressive symptoms, more physical problems since birth, and less health-promoting behaviors. In addition, eight variables significantly differentiated women who had elevated posttraumatic stress symptom levels from those who did not: no private health insurance, unplanned pregnancy, pressure to have an induction and epidural analgesia, planned cesarean birth, not breastfeeding as long as wanted, not exclusively breastfeeding at 1 month, and consulting with a clinician about mental well-being since birth. A stepwise multiple regression revealed that two predictor variables significantly explained 55 percent of the variance in posttraumatic stress symptom scores: depressive symptom scores on the PHQ-2 and total number of physical symptoms women were experiencing at the time they completed the LTM II/PP survey.


CONCLUSION
In this two-stage national survey the high percentage of mothers who screened positive for meeting all the DSM-IV criteria for a posttraumatic stress disorder diagnosis is a sobering statistic.
Solution-focused intervention for sick listed employees with psychological problems or muscle skeletal pain: a randomised controlled trial [ISRCTN39140363]

BACKGROUND
Long-term sick leave has been of concern to politicians and decision-makers in Norway for several years. In the current study we assess the efficacy of a solution-focused follow-up for sick-listed employees.


METHODS
Employees on long-term sick leave due to psychological problems or muscle skeletal pain (n = 703) were invited to participate in the project. Following self-recruitment, 103 were randomly allocated to receive solution-focused follow-up (n = 53) or "treatment as usual" (n = 50). The intervention was integrated within the regular follow up of six social security offices and organised as eight weekly solution focused work sessions. Effectiveness was measured by rate of return to work and health related quality of life (SF-36).


RESULTS
Intention to treat analysis showed no significant differences between the two groups for any of the outcome measures. Secondary analysis, comparing those who attended at least 50% of the sessions with the control group revealed a significant difference in favour of the active intervention group in the SF-36 subscale of mental health (Effect Size 0.56, p = 0.05). When comparing the subgroup of participants with psychological problems there was a significant difference in mental health in favour of the intervention group (Effect Size 0.71, p = 0.041).


CONCLUSION
A voluntary solution-focused intervention offered by social-security offices is no more effective than regular follow up for employees on long-term sick leave due to psychological problems or muscle skeletal pain.
Optimization of surface roughness in turning alloy steel by using Taguchi method

The surface quality of the machined parts is one of the most important product quality characteristics and one of the most frequent customer requirements. In this study the Taguchi robust parameter design for modeling and optimization of surface roughness in dry single-point turning of cold rolled alloy steel 42CrMo4/AISI 4140 using TiN-coated tungsten carbide inserts was presented. Three cutting parameters, the cutting speed (80, 110, 140 m/min), the feed rate (0.071, 0.196, 0.321 mm/rev), and the depth of cut (0.5, 1.25, 2 mm), were used in the experiment. Each of the other parameters was taken as
The Variance Matters: How Party Systems Represent the Preferences of Voters

Cross-national analyses are presented that suggest that changes in the variance of voters’ policy preferences—in 12 Western European democracies from 1976 to 1998—are associated with corresponding changes in the variance of policy choices on offer in these party systems. This finding is labeled the Voter Distribution Effects Result. There is also evidence to support a second major finding, the Electoral Laws Result, which states that voter distribution effects, i.e., the effects associated with changes in the variance of voters’ policy preferences, are stronger in political systems that feature less proportional electoral rules (e.g., plurality voting systems). These findings have implications for party strategies and for our general understanding of political representation.
Pulsatile flow in patients with a novel nonpulsatile implantable ventricular assist device.

BACKGROUND
Ventricular assist devices (VADs) are an accepted therapy for patients with end-stage heart failure. The implantable devices that are available produce a pulsatile flow and are very large. In 6 patients, beginning in November 1998, we started to use the continuous-flow implantable DeBakey VAD device, which weighs 93 g. To detect the flow in peripheral vessels, we measured transcranial Doppler signals in patients after implantation.


METHODS AND RESULTS
Transcranial Doppler studies were performed with the MULTI-DOP X4 device with two 2-MHz probes (for the middle cranial arteries) in 4 patients for up to 12 weeks twice weekly after implantation. The blood velocity was measured, and the pulsation index (PI) calculated. The measured pump flow and rotations per minute were registered. The preoperative echocardiographic assessment values were compared with those acquired 6 weeks after implantation. The PI increased continually in all patients after VAD implantation, left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction did not improve, but right ventricular (RV) ejection fraction after implantation improved compared with preoperative values. The LV end-diastolic diameter after implantation decreased between 11% and 46% intraindividually. There was no correlation between PI and blood pressure or, except in 1 patient, between PI and blood flow through the VAD.


CONCLUSIONS
The DeBakey VAD unloads the LV, which leads to a decrease in LV end-diastolic LV diameter and to the restoration of RV function. The unloaded LV and partially recovered RV provide a nearly physiological pulsatile flow despite the continuous flow of the VAD. Pulsatility is independent of peripheral vascular resistance. The first clinical experience with the DeBakey VAD was positive and has resulted in its continued use.
Formal verification of ethical choices in autonomous systems

Autonomous systems such as unmanned vehicles are beginning to operate within society. All participants in society are required to follow specific regulations and laws. An autonomous system cannot be an exception. Inevitably an autonomous system will find itself in a situation in which it needs to not only choose to obey a rule or not, but also make a complex ethical decision. However, there exists no obvious way to implement the human understanding of ethical behaviour in computers. Even if we enable autonomous systems to distinguish between more and less ethical alternatives, how can we be sure that they would choose right? We consider autonomous systems with a hybrid architecture in which the highest level of reasoning is executed by a rational (BDI) agent. For such a system, formal verification has been used successfully to prove that specific rules of behaviour are observed when making decisions. We propose a theoretical framework for ethical plan selection that can be formally verified. We implement a rational agent that incorporates a given ethical policy in its plan selection and show that we can formally verify that the agent chooses to execute, to the best of its beliefs, the most ethical available plan. © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Calcium dobesilate for prevention of gentamicin-induced nephrotoxicity in rats.

INTRODUCTION
Calcium dobesilate is an antioxidant drug and this study is aimed to investigate the effects of calcium dobesilate on gentamicin-induced nephrotoxicity.


MATERIAL AND METHODS
This experimental study was conducted on 40 male Sprague-Dawley rats. The rats were randomly divided into the following 5 groups: control, sham, gentamicin (100 mg/kg/d, intraperitoneal), gentamicin and calcium dobesilate (50 mg/kg body weight), gentamicin and calcium dobesilate (50 mg/kg body weight). Treatment was provided once a day in a 7-day period. At the end of the 7th day, plasma and urine samples were taken and the concentrations of creatinine, urea nitrogen, sodium, potassium, and osmolarity were measured in both samples. The level of oxidative stress in the left kidney tissue samples was also assessed by measuring malondialdehyde and ferric reducing antioxidant power.


RESULTS
Calcium dobesilate intake with both doses led to a significant decrease in the elevated concentration of creatinine, urea nitrogen, and fractional excretion of sodium by gentamicin, and an increase in creatinine clearance and absolute excretion of potassium as compared to the gentamicin group. Furthermore, calcium dobesilate decreased tissue malondialdehyde and increased tissue ferric reducing antioxidant power at both doses, in comparison to those in the gentamicin group.


CONCLUSIONS
Calcium dobesilate is capable of protecting rats against gentamicin-induced nephrotoxicity. This protective effect of calcium dobesilate is probably dependent on its antioxidant properties.
Dexmedetomidine for attenuating haemodynamic response to intubation stimuli in morbidly obese patients anaesthetised using low-opioid technique: comparison with fentanyl-based general anaesthesia.

BACKGROUND
Anaesthesiologists are facing the problem of an increasing population of morbidly obese patients. In order to minimize the risk of opioid-induced postoperative respiratory failure, the intraoperative administration of opioids should be reduced or replaced with other drugs. The purpose of this study was to compare haemodynamic response elicited by intubation in morbidly obese patients between two variants of anaesthesia induction: fentanylbased or low-opioid using dexmedetomidine.


METHODS
Forty-two morbidly obese patients scheduled for bariatric surgery were randomly assigned to two groups: low-opioid using dexmedetomidine (DEX) or fentanyl-based (FNT) anaesthesia. Patients were premedicated with 100 μg of fentanyl i.v. In the DEX group, a 10 minute infusion of a loading dose of 200 μg of dexmedetomidine was started. In the FNT group, 2 mg of intravenous midazolam was given. Thereafter, propofol was used in both groups. In the FNT group, patients received a dose of fentanyl up to 5 μg kg⁻¹ of ideal body weight. Following administration of rocuronium, laryngoscopy and tracheal intubation were performed. Haemodynamic parameters, including systolic (SBP), diastolic (DBP) and mean arterial (MAP) blood pressure, as well as heart rate (HR), were recorded before and after intubation. Patients who were not intubated at first attempt were excluded from the study.


RESULTS
Data from 33 patients were analysed. There were no statistically significant differences between the DEX and FNT groups regarding demographic data. Haemodynamic response to intubation was defined as mean change (d) in values of analysed parameters that occurred during intubation. The following differences were observed: dSBP FNT +11.6 mm Hg vs. DEX +0.4 mm Hg (P = 0.15); dDBP FNT +3.7 mm Hg vs. DEX +3.5 mm Hg (P = 0.98); dMAP FNT +8.6 mm Hg vs. DEX +1.4 mm Hg (P = 0.36); dHR FNT +2 beats min-1 vs. DEX -1 beat min⁻¹ (P = 0.30). None of these comparisons yielded significant differences.


CONCLUSIONS
The study revealed no advantage of fentanyl over low opioid dexmedetomidine-based induction of general anaesthesia in attenuating cardiovascular response to intubation in morbidly obese patients.
A 4-GS/s 4-bit Flash ADC in 0.18- $\mu{\hbox {m}}$ CMOS

A 4-bit noninterleaved flash ADC implemented in 0.18-mum digital CMOS achieves a sampling rate of 4 GS/s. A 32 mum by 32 mum, on-chip differential inductor in each comparator extends the sampling rate without an increase in power consumption. A combination of DAC trimming and comparator redundancy reduces the measured DNL and INL to less than 0.15 LSB and 0.24 LSB, respectively. The measured ENOB with a 100 MHz full-power input is 3.84 bits and 3.48 bits, at 3 GS/s and 4GS/s, respectively. The ADC achieves a bit error rate of less than 10-11 at 4 GS/s.
Physiological changes in pregnancy

Physiological changes occur in pregnancy to nurture the developing foetus and prepare the mother for labour and delivery. Some of these changes influence normal biochemical values while others may mimic symptoms of medical disease. It is important to differentiate between normal physiological changes and disease pathology. This review highlights the important changes that take place during normal pregnancy.
Rheumatoid factor and anti-CCP do not predict progressive joint damage in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis treated with prednisolone: a randomised study

OBJECTIVE
To analyse if predictors of radiographic progression differ between patients treated with or without prednisolone in early rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Radiographs of hands and feet were assessed using the modified Sharp/van der Heijde score and radiographic progression was defined as an increase in the total Sharp score above 5.8 (the smallest detectable change).


DESIGN
Prospective, randomised study of patients with early RA.


SETTING
Secondary level of care; six participating centres from southern Sweden; both urban and rural populations.


PARTICIPANTS
In all, 225 patients, 64% women, with a diagnosis of RA according to the American College of Rheumatology criteria, were included if they were between 18 and 80 years of age and had a disease duration of less than 1 year.


INTERVENTION
The patients were randomised to 7.5 mg prednisolone daily for 2 years (P-group; n=108) or no prednisolone (NoP-group; n=117) when they started with their first disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug and were prospectively followed for 2 years.


RESULTS
The frequency of patients with radiographic progression after 2 years was 26% in the P-group and 39% in the NoP-group (p=0.033). Relevant interactions between treatment and rheumatoid factor (RF) (p=0.061) and between treatment and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide 2 (anti-CCP) (p=0.096) were found. RF and anti-CCP independently predicted radiographic progression only in the NoP-group, OR (95% CI) 9.4 (2.5 to 35.2), p=0.001 and OR (95% CI) 8.7 (2.5 to 31.3), p=0.001, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The presence of RF and anti-CCP predicted radiographic progression in patients not treated with prednisolone but failed to predict progression in patients treated with this drug. The data suggest that early treatment with prednisolone may modulate not only inflammation but also autoimmunity-associated pathogenetic mechanisms.


TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER
ISRCTN20612367.