LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
The Caregiver Quality of Life Cystic Fibrosis (CQOLCF) Scale: Modification and validation of an instrument to measure quality of life in cystic fibrosis family caregivers

Objective: Modify the Caregiver Quality of Life Index – Cancer (CQOLC) scale (Weitzner, Jacobsen et al. Qual Life Res 2000; 8: 55–63) as the Caregiver Quality of Life Cystic Fibrosis (CQOLCF) scale, validate it with cystic fibrosis (CF) family caregivers, and assess caregiver quality of life QOL with patient disease severity. Methods: Following modifications, 100 family caregivers were administered the CQOLCF. Construct validity was assessed by the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form (SF-36) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Pulmonary function scores and hospitalizations assessed relationship between caregiver QOL and patient disease severity. Results: Split-half reliability was 0.862 and internal consistency (Cronbach's α) was 0.909. As expected, there were relatively high correlations with the mental health (0.634) and emotional distress (−0.687); and low correlations with physical health (0.049). ANCOVA examined differences in the CQOLCF totals based on disease severity, controlling for age. Significant mean differences existed (days hospitalized F = 3.010, sig. = 0.022). Discussion: The CQOLCF appears to be a valid, reliable, and internally consistent disease-specific scale with CF family caregivers. Future research recommendations include administering the CQOLCF to an increased study sample to explore item factor analysis.
Texture Synthesis Using Shallow Convolutional Networks with Random Filters

Here we demonstrate that the feature space of random shallow convolutional neural networks (CNNs) can serve as a surprisingly good model of natural textures. Patches from the same texture are consistently classified as being more similar then patches from different textures. Samples synthesized from the model capture spatial correlations on scales much larger then the receptive field size, and sometimes even rival or surpass the perceptual quality of state of the art texture models (but show less variability). The current state of the art in parametric texture synthesis relies on the multi-layer feature space of deep CNNs that were trained on natural images [1]. Our finding suggests that such optimized multi-layer feature spaces are not imperative for texture modeling. Instead, much simpler shallow and convolutional networks can serve as the basis for novel texture synthesis algorithms.
Aspects of dual models many years ago

Invited contribution to the collection of articles: `The Birth of String Theory', edited by Andrea Cappelli, Elena Castellani, Filippo Colomo and Paolo Di Vecchia.
Signature hiding techniques for FPGA intellectual property protection

This work presents the first known attempt to leverage the unique characteristics of FPGAs to protect commercial investments in intellectual property. A watermark is applied to the physical layout of a digital circuit when it is mapped into an FPGA. This watermark uniquely identifies the circuit origin and yet is difficult to detect. While this approach imposes additional constraints, experiments involving a number of large complex designs indicate that the performance impact is small.
L- and D-lactate enhance DNA repair and modulate the resistance of cervical carcinoma cells to anticancer drugs via histone deacetylase inhibition and hydroxycarboxylic acid receptor 1 activation

The consideration of lactate as an active metabolite is a newly emerging and attractive concept. Recently, lactate has been reported to regulate gene transcription via the inhibition of histone deacetylases (HDACs) and survival of cancer cells via hydroxycarboxylic acid receptor 1 (HCAR1). This study examined the role of L- and D-lactate in the DNA damage response in cervical cancer cells. Three cervical cancer cell lines were examined: HeLa, Ca Ski and C33A. The inhibitory activity of lactate on HDACs was analysed using Western blot and biochemical methods. The lactate-mediated stimulation of DNA repair and cellular resistance to neocarzinostatin, doxorubicin and cisplatin were studied using γ-H2AX, comet and clonogenic assays. HCAR1 and DNA repair gene expression was quantified by real-time PCR. DNA-PKcs activity and HCAR1 protein expression were evaluated via immunocytochemistry and Western blot, respectively. HCAR1 activation was investigated by measuring intracellular cAMP accumulation and Erk phosphorylation. HCAR1 expression was silenced using shRNA. L- and D-lactate inhibited HDACs, induced histone H3 and H4 hyperacetylation, and decreased chromatin compactness in HeLa cells. Treating cells with lactate increased LIG4, NBS1, and APTX expression by nearly 2-fold and enhanced DNA-PKcs activity. Based on γ-H2AX and comet assays, incubation of cells in lactate-containing medium increased the DNA repair rate. Furthermore, clonogenic assays demonstrated that lactate mediates cellular resistance to clinically used chemotherapeutics. Western blot and immunocytochemistry showed that all studied cell lines express HCAR1 on the cellular surface. Inhibiting HCAR1 function via pertussis toxin pretreatment partially abolished the effects of lactate on DNA repair. Down-regulating HCAR1 decreased the efficiency of DNA repair, abolished the cellular response to L-lactate and decreased the effect of D-lactate. Moreover, HCAR1 shRNA-expressing cells produced significantly lower mRNA levels of monocarboxylate transporter 4. Finally, the enhancement of DNA repair and cell survival by lactate was suppressed by pharmacologically inhibiting monocarboxylate transporters using the inhibitor α-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid (α-CHCA). Our data indicate that L- and D-lactate present in the uterine cervix may participate in the modulation of cellular DNA damage repair processes and in the resistance of cervical carcinoma cells to anticancer therapy.
The club-level road cyclist: injury, pain, and performance.

OBJECTIVE
The aims of this study were to (1) examine riding habits of injured cyclists, (2) identify factors related to seeking medical treatment, (3) investigate performance of recreational road cyclists compared with established norms regarding strength and flexibility measures, and (4) propose cycling-specific injury risk factors.


DESIGN
Observational and prospective study.


SETTING
Cycling store and bicycle distribution company.


PARTICIPANTS
Sixty-three experienced road cyclists.


ASSESSMENT OF RISK FACTORS
Initial data collection included a questionnaire. A 2-week training diary and 8 weekly follow-up injury questionnaires were also collected.


MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Training habits and injury history, bike fit, flexibility, and isometric, dynamic, and plyometric strength measures.


RESULTS
Participants were likely to have an injury at baseline, and chronic pain was common. Cyclists trained for an equal quantity of time irrespective of experiencing pain. Injury severity in terms of pain level and participant age were factors in seeking medical care. Our participants performed poorly on our testing protocol compared with available norms. Flexibility, strength, and bike fit measures did not predict injury. Previous injury predicted prospective injury. The knee and lumbar region were most frequently injured.


CONCLUSIONS
Cycling is a sport in which injury risk and prevention need to be further studied. Cyclists are frequently injured but continue to participate in cycling at volumes equal to their healthy peers.


CLINICAL RELEVANCE
This study outlines a clinically reproducible cyclist assessment and discusses behaviors common to the cycling patient.
Advances in prenatal screening for Down syndrome: I. general principles and second trimester testing.

BACKGROUND
Down syndrome is one of the most important causes of mental retardation in the population. In the absence of prenatal screening and diagnosis, prevalence at birth in the United States would currently exceed 1:600. The purpose of prenatal screening is to identify those women at the increased risk for an affected pregnancy and to maximize the options available to these women.


TESTS AVAILABLE
Second trimester serum screening involves combining the maternal age-specific risk for an affected pregnancy with the risks associated with the concentrations of maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein (MSAFP), unconjugated estriol (uE3), and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) (triple testing). A forth analyte, inhibin-A (INH-A), is increasingly being utilized (quadruple testing). Optimal second trimester screening requires the integration of a number of clinical variables, the most important of which is an accurate assessment of gestational age. In addition to Down syndrome, the triple and quadruple tests preferentially identify fetal trisomy 18, Turner syndrome, triploidy, trisomy 16 mosaicism, fetal death, Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome, and steroid sulfatase deficiency. Some programs modify the Down syndrome risks generated through maternal serum screening tests with fetal biometric data obtained by ultrasound. Other second trimester tests have shown promise, including the analysis of maternal urine and fetal cells in the maternal circulation, but none are in routine clinical use.


CONCLUSION
The second trimester triple and quadruple tests provide benchmarks for evaluating new screening protocols. The combination of fetal biometry, new test development as well as clarification of the role of co-factors that affect the concentrations of analytes in existing tests should lead to greater efficacy in second trimester screening for Down syndrome.
The black-box complexity of nearest-neighbor search

We define a natural notion of efficiency for approximate nearest-neighbor (ANN) search in general n-point metric spaces, namely the existence of a randomized algorithm which answers (1 + ε)-ANN queries in polylog(n) time using only polynomial space. We then study which families of metric spaces admit efficient ANN schemes in the black-box model, where only oracle access to the distance function is given, and any query consistent with the triangle inequality may be asked. For ε < 5 , we offer a complete answer to this problem. Using the notion of metric dimension defined in [A. Gupta, et al., Bounded geometries, fractals, and low-distortion embeddings, in: 44th Annu. IEEE Symp. on Foundations of Computer Science, 2003, pp. 534–543] (à la [P. Assouad, Plongements lipschitziens dans Rn, Bull. Soc. Math. France 111 (4) (1983) 429–448]), we show that a metric space X admits an efficient (1 + ε)-ANN scheme for any ε < 5 if and only if dim(X)= O(log log n). For coarser approximations, clearly the upper bound continues to hold, but there is a threshold at which our lower bound breaks down—this is precisely when points in the “ambient space” may begin to affect the complexity of “hard” subspaces S ⊆ X. Indeed, we give examples which show that dim(X) does not characterize the black-box complexity of ANN above the threshold. Our scheme for ANN in low-dimensional metric spaces is the first to yield efficient algorithms without relying on any additional assumptions on the input. In previous approaches (e.g., [K.L. Clarkson, Nearest neighbor queries in metric spaces, Discrete Comput. Geom. 22(1) (1999) 63–93; D. Karger, M. Ruhl, Finding nearest neighbors in growth-restricted metrics, in: 34th Annu. ACM Symp. on the Theory of Computing, 2002, pp. 63–66; R. Krauthgamer, J.R. Lee, Navigating nets: simple algorithms for proximity search, in: 15th Annu. ACM-SIAM Symp. on Discrete Algorithms, 2004, pp. 791–801; K. Hildrum, et al., A note on finding nearest neighbors in growth-restricted metrics, in: Proc. of the 15th Annu. ACM-SIAM Symp. on Discrete Algorithms, 2004, pp. 560–561]), even spaces with dim(X) = O(1) sometimes required (n) query times. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Interval to biochemical failure predicts clinical outcomes in patients with high-risk prostate cancer treated by combined-modality radiation therapy.

PURPOSE
To validate the prognostic value of interval to biochemical failure (IBF) in patients with high-risk prostate cancer (HiRPCa) treated with combined-modality radiation therapy (CMRT) with or without androgen deprivation therapy (ADT).


METHODS AND MATERIALS
We conducted a retrospective review of HiRPCa (prostate-specific antigen >20 ng/mL, Gleason score [GS] 8-10, or clinical T stage T3-T4) treated with either dose-escalated external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) or CMRT. Interval to biochemical failure was classified as ≤18 or >18 months from the end of all therapy to the date of biochemical failure (BF). Kaplan-Meier methods and Cox proportional hazards regression were used to evaluate the prognostic value of IBF ≤18 months for distant metastasis (DM) and prostate cancer-specific mortality (PCSM).


RESULTS
Of 958 patients with a median follow-up of 63.2 months, 175 patients experienced BF. In those with BF, there were no differences in pretreatment clinical characteristics between the EBRT and CMRT groups, except for a higher proportion of patients with GS 8-10 in the CMRT group (70% vs 52%, P=.02). Median IBF after all therapy was 24.0 months (interquartile range 9.6-46.0) in the EBRT group and 18.9 months (interquartile range 9.2-34.5) in the CMRT group (P=.055). On univariate analysis, IBF ≤18 months was associated with increased risk of DM and PCSM in the entire cohort and the individual EBRT and CMRT groups. On multivariate analysis, only GS 9-10 and IBF ≤18 months, but not the radiation therapy regimen or ADT use, predicted DM (hazard ratio [HR] 3.7, P<.01, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.4-10.3 for GS 9-10; HR 3.9, P<.0001, 95% CI 2.4-6.5 for IBF ≤18 months) and PCSM (HR 14.8, P<.009, 95% CI 2.0-110 for GS 9-10; HR 4.4, P<.0001, 95% CI 2.4-8.1 for IBF ≤18 months).


CONCLUSIONS
Short IBF was highly prognostic for higher DM and PCSM in patients with HiRPCa. The prognostic value of IBF for DM and PCSM was not affected by the radiation therapy regimen or ADT use.
Three ways to look at mutually unbiased bases

This is a review of the problem of Mutually Unbiased Bases in finite dimensional Hilbert spaces, real and complex. Also a geometric measure of “mubness” is introduced, and applied to some explicit calculations in six dimensions (partly done by Bjorck and by Grassl). Although this does not yet solve any problem, some appealing structures emerge.
Determination of bit-rate adaptation thresholds for the Opus codec for VoIP services

In this paper, we present an experimental evaluation of the recently standardized Opus codec used in a VoIP context. Opus operates in both narrow and wideband modes, similar to Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR). Through the use of the Wideband Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality (WB-PESQ) metric, we have conducted an extensive set of experiments using multiple audio samples encoded at different bit-rates, to investigate the impact of packet loss on resulting speech quality. Using these results, fitting functions for each bit-rate were computed to provide a straightforward manner of evaluating speech quality when given a specified packet loss rate. Using ns-2, a simulation analysis was conducted to evaluate the effect of background traffic on transmitted Opus streams. We observed that, when using different levels of background traffic, the observed packet loss rates varied heavily depending on the stream bit-rate. By correlating this information with the fitting functions derived previously, we were able to define switching thresholds. These are points where the speech quality of a lower bit-rate stream is greater than that of a higher bit-rate stream for the same levels of link bandwidth saturation.
[Etiology and clinical management of anemia in heart failure. GESAIC Study].

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE
Studies about anemia in heart failure (HF) tend to link the anemia to a cardio-renal dysfunction, and its syndromic value is seldom evaluated. Our objective was to assess the etiology and clinical management of anemia in HF patients in a hospital setting.


PATIENTS AND METHOD
Initial cross-sectional analysis of a multi-center and prospective cohort of patients with HF and anemia. Anemia was defined according to the WHO criteria; the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease equation was used to assess glomerular filtration and the etiology of anemia was defined according to common criteria.


RESULTS
We evaluated 228 patients, with a median age of 79.1 years and 59.65% women. Iron deficiency anemia was present in 36,8% of patients and anemia of chronic disease in 30.3%. Of note, 12.7% cases did not meet any etiological criteria. The main factor associated with iron deficiency was anti-platelet therapy (OR=1.99; 95% CI, 1.16-1.68) and the main factors associated with anemia of chronic disease were the use of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) or angiotensin II receptor antagonists (ARA-II) (OR=3.29; 95% CI, 1.36-7.94). The main factor associated with undefined anemia was initial heart failure (OR=5.41; 95% CI, 1.65-17.65). On the other hand, 8.1% of patients required transfusion, 6% were treated with erythropoietin and 25.3% were treated with iron. Both age (OR=1.04; 95% CI, 1-1.08) and hemoglobin level at admission (OR=1.81; 95% CI, 1.46-2.25) were associated with active treatment for anemia.


CONCLUSIONS
A clinical study of anemia in patients with HF can establish an etiological diagnosis in 70% of cases, resulting in a more effective treatment.
Efficient Line-of-Sight Algorithms for Real Terrain Data

This article describes two approaches for computing the line-of-sight between objects in real terrain data. Our purpose is to find an efficient algorithm for combat elements in warfare simulation such as soldiers, troops, vehicles, ships, and aircrafts, thus allowing a simulated combat theater.
Genetic Algorithm Applied to the Graph Coloring Problem

In this paper we present a hybrid technique that applies a genetic algorithm followed by wisdom of artificial crowds approach to solving the graph-coloring problem. The genetic algorithm described here utilizes more than one parent selection and mutation methods depending on the state of fitness of its best solution. This results in shifting the solution to the global optimum more quickly than using a single parent selection or mutation method. The algorithm is tested against the standard DIMACS benchmark tests while limiting the number of usable colors to the known chromatic numbers. The proposed algorithm succeeded at solving the sample data set and even outperformed a recent approach in terms of the minimum number of colors needed to color some of the graphs. The Graph Coloring Problem (GCP) is a well-known NPcomplete problem. Graph coloring includes both vertex coloring and edge coloring. However, the term graph coloring usually refers to vertex coloring rather than edge coloring. Given a number of vertices, which form a connected graph, the objective is to color each vertex such that if two vertices are connected in the graph (i.e. adjacent) they will be colored with different colors. Moreover, the number of different colors that can be used to color the vertices is limited and a secondary objective is to find the minimum number of different colors needed to color a certain graph without violating the adjacency constraint. That number for a given graph (G) is known as the Chromatic Number (χ(G)) (Isabel Méndez Díaz and Paula Zabala 1999). If k = {1, 2, 3...} and P(G, k) is the number of possible solutions for coloring the graph G with k colors, then χ(G) = min(k: P(G, k) > 0) (1) Graph coloring problems are very interesting from the theoretical standpoint since they are a class of NPcomplete problems that also belong to Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSPs). The practical applications of Graph Coloring Problems include but are not limited to: • Map coloring (B. H. Gwee, M. H. Lim and J. S. Ho 1993) • Scheduling (Daniel Marx and D Aniel Marx 2004) • Radio Frequency Assignment (W. K. Hale 1980; S. Singha, T. Bhattacharya and S. R. B. Chaudhuri 2008) • Register allocation (Wu Shengning and Li Sikun 2007) • Pattern Matching • Sudoku In this paper we demonstrate the use of genetic algorithms in solving the graph-coloring problem while strictly adhering to the usage of no more than the number of colors equal to the chromatic index to color the various test graphs.
Theano: new features and speed improvements

Theano is a linear algebra compiler that optimizes a user’s symbolically-specified mathematical computations to produce efficient low-level implementations. In this paper, we present new features and efficiency improvements to Theano, and benchmarks demonstrating Theano’s performance relative to Torch7, a recently introduced machine learning library, and to RNNLM, a C++ library targeted at recurrent neural networks.
Business process variability modeling

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Toward objective, systematic design-method comparisons

Software design methodologies (SDMs) suggest ways to improve productivity and quality. They are collections of complementary design methods and rules for applying them. A base framework and modeling formalism to help designers compare SDMs and define what design issues different SDMs address, which of their components address similar design issues, and ways to integrate the best characteristics of each to make a cleaner, more comprehensive and flexible SDM are presented. The use of formalism and framework and the evaluation of objectivity and completeness using the type and function frameworks are described.<<ETX>>
Direct sampling method for monostatic radar imaging

In this paper, we extend the use of conventional Direct sampling method (DSM) which is only applicable to the multistatic measurement data, to the monostatic measurement data for radar imaging applications. We define a novel testing function which can be used in the indicator function of DSM with monostatic data. Numerical examples demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method.
A longitudinal investigation of continued online shopping behavior: An extension of the theory of planned behavior

The purpose of this study is to propose an extended model of Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) by incorporating constructs drawn from the model of Expectation Disconfirmation Theory (EDT) and to examine the antecedents of users’ intention to continue using online shopping (continuance intention). Prior research has demonstrated that TPB constructs, including attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control, are important factors in determining the acceptance and use of various information technologies. These factors, however, are insufficient to explain a user’s continuance intention in the online shopping context. In this study we extended TPB with two EDT constructs—disconfirmation and satisfaction—for studying users’ continuance intention in the online shopping context. By employing longitudinal method with two-stage survey, we empirically validated the proposed model and research hypotheses. r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.