LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Validity and reliability study of the Turkish version of Spinal Cord Independence Measure-III

Study design:This is a multicenter, prospective study.Objectives:The objective of this study was to assess the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of Spinal Cord Independence Measure-III (SCIM-III).Setting:This study was conducted in rehabilitation centers of three hospitals in Turkey.Methods:Two-hundred and four (n=204) consecutive patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) were included in the study. Each patient was examined by two physicians. Neurologic impairment was measured according to the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) Impairment Scale (AIS) 2000 revised criteria. Backward and forward translation of SCIM-III was performed by native speakers in both languages. To measure the validity of SCIM-III, the scores were compared with patients’ AIS grades, total motor scores and the Health Survey Short Form-36 (SF-36) subscale scores. SCIM-III was analyzed for test–retest reliability by the same rater on 49 patients during the follow-up evaluations.Results:Total agreement values between raters changed between 75.9 and 100%. Kappa values were all above 0.6, and they were statistically significant. The Pearson's correlation values between the raters were very high and statistically significant. The Cronbach’s α-values for the two consecutive raters were 0.865 and 0.896. Test–retest reliability was assessed by paired samples t-test, and no significant difference was observed. SCIM-III and SF-36 physical (r=0.339, P<0.005) and general health scores (r=0.200, P<0.005) showed correlation. All subscales of the SCIM-III, with the exception of self-care, had significant differences in comparison with the AIS grades. SCIM-III total and total motor scores showed correlation (r=0.585, P<0.001).Conclusion:The Turkish version of SCIM-III was found to be valid and reliable.
Microscopic traffic simulation with reactive driving agents

Computer traffic simulation is important for making new traffic-control strategies. Microscopic traffic simulators can model traffic flow in a realistic manner and are ideal for agent-based vehicle control. In this paper we describe a model of a reactive agent that is used to control a simulated vehicle. The agent is capable of tactical-level driving and has different driving styles. To ensure fast reaction times, the agent’s driving task is divided in several competing and reactive behavior rules. The agent is implemented in and tested with a prototype traffic simulator program. The simulator consists of an urban environment with multi-lane roads, intersections, traffic lights, and vehicles. Every vehicle is controlled by a driving agent and all agents have individual behavior settings. Preliminary experiments have shown that the agents exhibit human-like behavior ranging from slow and careful to fast and aggressive driving behavior. Index terms – artificial intelligence, traffic simulation, multiagent systems, driving behavior
Development of an approach to compare the 'value' of electrical and thermal output from a domestic PV/thermal system

When considering the design of a PV/Thermal system, it is essential to determine the ratio of the values of the electrical and thermal output from the system. Otherwise there is no rational approach for optimising such a system, as there will be no single output to optimise. This paper focuses on methods that can be employed to develop a ratio between electrical and thermal output from a domestic style PV/Thermal system. Methods discussed include thermodynamic analysis using exergy; market analysis for both an open market and a renewable energy market; and environmental analysis using avoided greenhouse gas emissions. Ratios are developed for each method based on real data. An example is given comparing a PV/Thermal system that uses amorphous silicon cells with one that uses crystalline silicon cells. Levelised energy cost is plotted against the energy value ratio to show that there is a critical electrical-to-thermal energy value ratio below which a collector with a-Si cells is more cost effective than one with c-Si cells.
Comparison of lancing devices for self-monitoring of blood glucose regarding lancing pain.

BACKGROUND
Self-monitoring of blood glucose empowers diabetes patients to effectively control their blood glucose (BG) levels. A potential barrier to frequent BG controls is lancing pain, intrinsically linked to pricking the finger several times a day. In this study, we compared different state-of-the-art lancing devices from leading manufacturers regarding lancing pain, and we intended to identify lancing devices that are less painful.


METHODS
First, 165 subjects compared 6 different BG monitoring systems-consisting of a lancing device and a BG meter-at home for 36 days and at least 3 BG tests per day. Second, the subjects directly compared 6 different lancing devices-independent from a BG meter-in a laboratory setting. The test results were collected in questionnaires, and lancing pain was rated on a numerical rating scale.


RESULTS
One hundred fifty-seven subjects were included in the analysis. Accu-Chek BG monitoring systems were significantly (p < or = .006) preferred to competitor BG monitoring systems and were rated by >50% of the subjects as "less painful" than competitor BG monitoring systems. Accu-Chek lancing devices were significantly (p < .001) preferred to competitor lancing devices and were rated by >60% of the subjects as "less painful" than competitor lancing devices.


CONCLUSIONS
We found significant differences in lancing pain between lancing devices. Diabetes patients clearly preferred lancing devices that cause less lancing pain. In order to improve patient compliance with respect to an adequate glycemic control, the medical staff should preferentially prescribe lancing devices that cause less lancing pain.
The Spreader-Splay Graft Combination: A Treatment Approach for the Osseocartilaginous Vault Deformities Following Rhinoplasty

Deformities following primary rhinoplasty may be located at different anatomical regions related to the primary operation. Osseocartilaginous vault deformities such as open roof deformity, over-resected bony and cartilaginous dorsum, excessive width of the middle vault, inverted-V deformity and middle vault collapse are the most frequent ones. Stair-step deformity combined with middle vault problems is uncommon. Patients with these deformities not only have poor aesthetic results, but also have moderate or severe respiratory problems due to the severity of the deformity. Spreader grafts, onlay grafts and biomaterials can be used to correct these deformities. We preferred to use the spreader-splay graft combination for severe osseocartilaginous vault deformities. In this paper we present 3 cases. Two cases had severe open roof deformity, middle vault collapse and over resection of the osseocartilaginous hump, along with severe respiratory problems. The Spreader-splay graft combination was used, along with lateral osteotomy and medialization of nasal bones to treat these patients. One patient had a very severe stair-step deformity due to over resection of the hump and excessive infracturing of nasal bones along with severe respiratory problems due to collapse of the middle vault. This deformity was corrected with proper outfracturing along the old osteotomy site and the use of spreader-splay graft combination. All patients had good aesthetic and functional outcome after the surgery. In conclusion, the spreader-splay graft combination provides a good anatomical restoration to obtain a better respiratory function and aesthetic outcome on severe osseocartilaginous vault deformities following rhinoplasty.
Trajectories of depressive symptoms following breast cancer diagnosis.

BACKGROUND
This longitudinal study sought to identify groups of breast cancer survivors exhibiting distinct trajectories of depressive symptoms up to 24 months following diagnosis, and to describe characteristics associated with these trajectories.


METHODS
A total of 653 women completed baseline questionnaires within 8 months of breast cancer diagnosis on patient characteristics, symptoms, and psychosocial variables. Depressive symptoms were assessed at baseline and 6, 12, and 18 months after baseline. Chart reviews provided cancer and treatment-related data. Finite mixture modeling identified trajectories of depressive symptoms measured with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI).


RESULTS
Six distinct trajectories were identified. Just over half of the sample had consistently very low (3.8%) or low (47.3%) BDI scores well below the traditional BDI cutoff point of 10 thought to be indicative of clinically significant depression; 29.2% had consistently borderline scores; 11.3% had initially high scores that declined over time, but remained above the cutoff point; 7.2% showed increased BDI over time; and a small but unique group (1.1%) reported chronically high scores above 25. Women in groups with lower depressive symptom levels were older, had less rigorous chemotherapy, fewer physical symptoms (fatigue and pain), and lower levels of illness intrusiveness.


CONCLUSIONS
Approximately 20% of women had levels of depressive symptoms indicative of clinical depression that were maintained 2 years postdiagnosis. Factors related to trajectory membership such as illness intrusiveness, social support, fatigue, pain, and vasomotor symptoms suggest targets for possible intervention.


IMPACT
Results demonstrate the heterogeneity of depressive symptoms following breast cancer and the need for continued screening posttreatment.
The Mayo Clinic experience with Morel-Lavallée lesions: establishment of a practice management guideline.

BACKGROUND
Although uncommon, Morel-Lavallée lesions (also called closed degloving injuries) are associated with considerable morbidity in trauma patients. There is lack of consensus regarding proper management of these lesions. Management options include nonoperative therapies, along with percutaneous and operative techniques. We sought to define the factors associated with failure of percutaneous aspiration to better identify patients requiring immediate operative management.


METHODS
We retrospectively searched our prospectively collected database for patient records containing the terms Morel-Lavallée, closed degloving injury, or posttraumatic seroma from February 2, 2004, through December 23, 2011. Treatment methods included compression wraps or observation (nonoperative management), percutaneous aspiration, or operative management with incision/drainage or formal debridement of skin and soft tissues that resulted in wound vacuum-assisted closure placement and/or split-thickness skin graft (operative management). The treatment groups were compared using univariate analysis and χ testing.


RESULTS
We identified 79 patients with 87 Morel-Lavallée lesions in the setting of trauma. Most were caused by motor vehicle collisions (25%). No difference was observed between the treatment groups in sex, body mass index, anticoagulation treatment, diabetes mellitus, smoking history, or alcohol use. The percutaneous aspiration group had higher rates of recurrence (56% vs. 19% and 15% in nonoperative and operative groups, respectively). The percentage of patients who had aspiration of more than 50 mL of fluid was higher for lesions that recurred than for lesions that resolved (83% vs. 33%, p = 0.02).


CONCLUSION
Aspiration of more than 50 mL of fluid from Morel-Lavallée lesions was much more common among lesions that recurred (83%) than among those that resolved (33%). We therefore recommend that aspiration of more than 50 mL of fluid from a Morel-Lavallée lesion prompts operative intervention. We have now adopted this as a practice management guideline.


LEVEL OF EVIDENCE
Therapeutic/care management study, level III.
A Quantum Algorithm for Finding the Minimum

Let T [0..N −1] be an unsorted table of N items, each holding a value from an ordered set. For simplicity, assume that all values are distinct. The minimum searching problem is to find the index y such that T [y] is minimum. This clearly requires a linear number of probes on a classical probabilistic Turing machine. Here, we give a simple quantum algorithm which solves the problem using O( √ N) probes. The main subroutine is the quantum exponential searching algorithm of [2], which itself is a generalization of Grover’s recent quantum searching algorithm [3]. Due to a general lower bound of [1], this is within a constant factor of the optimum.
The efficacy of 2 different dosages of methylphenidate in treating adults with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the efficacy of methylphenidate in treating adults with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), using subjective (self-report) and objective (computerized test) measures.


METHOD
This double-blind crossover trial of placebo vs methylphenidate included subjects with childhood and current ADHD symptoms, IQs above 80, no other psychiatric condition explaining their difficulties or requiring other treatment, and no substance abuse in the previous 6 months. We administered 10 mg 3 times daily of medication (that is, placebo or methylphenidate) for 2 weeks. On the final day, subjects completed self-report measures and were tested on computerized tests. We then increased dosage to 15 mg 3 times daily for 2 weeks and administered a complete reassessment on the final day. Following a 1-week washout, we repeated this process on the second medication (that is, placebo or methylphenidate).


RESULTS
Thirty adults with ADHD participated. Self-report measures and computerized tests showed significant improvements in ADHD symptoms on methylphenidate, compared with placebo. Other psychiatric symptoms (notably, anxiety and depression) were alleviated with methylphenidate. There was no significant difference between the 2 dosages of methylphenidate.


CONCLUSION
Methylphenidate is effective in improving ADHD symptoms in adults with ADHD, is well tolerated, and has minimal side effects.
Mouth gesture and voice command based robot command interface

In this paper we present a voice command and mouth gesture based robot command interface which is capable of controlling three degrees of freedom. The gesture set was designed in order to avoid head rotation and translation, and thus relying solely in mouth movements. Mouth segmentation is performed by using the normalized a* component, as in [1]. The gesture detection process is carried out by a Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) based classifier. After that, a state machine stabilizes the system response by restricting the number of possible movements depending on the initial state. Voice commands are modeled using a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) isolated word recognition scheme. The interface was designed taking into account the specific pose restrictions found in the DaVinci Assisted Surgery command console.
Catch Me If You Can: Detecting Pickpocket Suspects from Large-Scale Transit Records

Massive data collected by automated fare collection (AFC) systems provide opportunities for studying both personal traveling behaviors and collective mobility patterns in the urban area. Existing studies on the AFC data have primarily focused on identifying passengers' movement patterns. In this paper, however, we creatively leveraged such data for identifying thieves in the public transit systems. Indeed, stopping pickpockets in the public transit systems has been critical for improving passenger satisfaction and public safety. However, it is challenging to tell thieves from regular passengers in practice. To this end, we developed a suspect detection and surveillance system, which can identify pick-pocket suspects based on their daily transit records. Specifically, we first extracted a number of features from each passenger's daily activities in the transit systems. Then, we took a two-step approach that exploits the strengths of unsupervised outlier detection and supervised classification models to identify thieves, who exhibit abnormal traveling behaviors. Experimental results demonstrated the effective- ness of our method. We also developed a prototype system with a user-friendly interface for the security personnel.
Improving Business Process Interoperability by Shared Ledgers

External business processes involve collaboration with different participants. An integration between systems is usually case by case. We propose a system connection paradigm that the connection across systems are based on a mutual agreed shared ledger, and together with business processes modelling capability on the ledger. Such a paradigm reduces the need to manually settlement; a common base ledger makes connection solution reusable so that the overall development cost is reduced.
What about N? A methodological study of sample-size reporting in focus group studies

BACKGROUND
Focus group studies are increasingly published in health related journals, but we know little about how researchers use this method, particularly how they determine the number of focus groups to conduct. The methodological literature commonly advises researchers to follow principles of data saturation, although practical advise on how to do this is lacking. Our objectives were firstly, to describe the current status of sample size in focus group studies reported in health journals. Secondly, to assess whether and how researchers explain the number of focus groups they carry out.


METHODS
We searched PubMed for studies that had used focus groups and that had been published in open access journals during 2008, and extracted data on the number of focus groups and on any explanation authors gave for this number. We also did a qualitative assessment of the papers with regard to how number of groups was explained and discussed.


RESULTS
We identified 220 papers published in 117 journals. In these papers insufficient reporting of sample sizes was common. The number of focus groups conducted varied greatly (mean 8.4, median 5, range 1 to 96). Thirty seven (17%) studies attempted to explain the number of groups. Six studies referred to rules of thumb in the literature, three stated that they were unable to organize more groups for practical reasons, while 28 studies stated that they had reached a point of saturation. Among those stating that they had reached a point of saturation, several appeared not to have followed principles from grounded theory where data collection and analysis is an iterative process until saturation is reached. Studies with high numbers of focus groups did not offer explanations for number of groups. Too much data as a study weakness was not an issue discussed in any of the reviewed papers.


CONCLUSIONS
Based on these findings we suggest that journals adopt more stringent requirements for focus group method reporting. The often poor and inconsistent reporting seen in these studies may also reflect the lack of clear, evidence-based guidance about deciding on sample size. More empirical research is needed to develop focus group methodology.
Digital Cosmology ) and the Cellular Automaton : A Perfect Mathematical Deterministic Structure for Reality – as A Huge Computational Simulation

Logic and Philosophy of Science Research Group, Hokkaido University, Japan Jan 7, 2015 Abstract In this paper we provide an analysis and overview of some notable definitions, works and thoughts concerning discrete physics (digital philosophy) that mainly suggest a finite and discrete characteristic for the physical world, as well as, of the cellular automaton, which could serve as the basis of a (or the only) perfect mathematical deterministic model for the physical reality.
Homer (ca. 8th century BCE)

Homer has long been considered a fountainhead of “western” civilization, though it is only more recently that the epic poems attributed to him, the Iliad and the Odyssey, have been evaluated as important works of political theory. These epics depict the events surrounding the Trojan War between the Greeks and Trojans, a war caused by the abduction of Helen, wife of the Spartan king Menelaus. Homer's importance for political thought can be seen in three primary fields. (1) As the pedagogical source for classical (fifth-century bce) Greece, Homeric texts are considered exemplary of the warrior ethos and as educators of Pericles’ democratic, imperial Athens. (2) Homeric texts are also, and as such, treated as the key antagonists against whom Plato's political philosophy pivots, leading, indeed, to the “quarrel between poetry and philosophy.” (3) Finally, Homer is seen as one of the founding figures in “agonistic” and “tragic” democratic political theory, particularly as this has been articulated by Hannah Arendt, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Simone Weil. 
 
 
Keywords: 
 
Athens; 
civic virtue; 
democratic theory; 
Greece; 
tragedy
Expression of CYP4F2 in human liver and kidney: assessment using targeted peptide antibodies.

P450 enzymes comprising the human CYP4F gene subfamily are catalysts of eicosanoid (e.g., 20-HETE and leukotriene B4) formation and degradation, although the role that individual CYP4F proteins play in these metabolic processes is not well defined. Thus, we developed antibodies to assess the tissue-specific expression and function of CYP4F2, one of four CYP4F P450s found in human liver and kidney. Peptide antibodies elicited in rabbits to CYP4F2 amino acid residues 61-74 (WGHQGMVNPTEEG) and 65-77 (GMVNPTEEGMRVL) recognized on immunoblots only CYP4F2 and not CYP4F3b, CYP4F11 or CYP4F12. Immunoquantitation with anti-CYP4F2 peptide IgG showed highly variable CYP4F2 expression in liver (16.4+/-18.6pmol/mg microsomal protein; n=29) and kidney cortex (3.9+/-3.8 pmol/mg; n=10), with two subjects lacking the hepatic or renal enzyme entirely. CYP4F2 content in liver microsomes was significantly correlated (r> or =0.63; p<0.05) with leukotriene B4 and arachidonate omega-hydroxylase activities, which are both CYP4F2-catalyzed. Our study provides the first example of a peptide antibody that recognizes a single CYP4F P450 expressed in human liver and kidney, namely CYP4F2. Immunoquantitation and correlation analyses performed with this antibody suggest that CYP4F2 functions as a predominant LTB4 and arachidonate omega-hydroxylase in human liver.
Induction and maintenance therapy with infliximab for children with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis.

BACKGROUND & AIMS
We evaluated the efficacy and safety of infliximab for inducing and maintaining benefit in children with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis (UC).


METHODS
Patients (6-17 years old) who had active UC (Mayo scores of 6-12; endoscopic subscores ≥ 2) and had not responded to or tolerated conventional treatment were given 5 mg/kg infliximab at weeks 0, 2, and 6. The primary end point was response at week 8 (decreases in Mayo scores ≥ 30% and ≥ 3 points and decreases in rectal bleeding subscores of ≥ 1 or an absolute subscore of ≤ 1). At week 8, only responders were randomly assigned to groups given infliximab every 8 or 12 weeks (q8w or q12w) and followed through week 54. Maintenance end points included pediatric UC activity index scores <10 points, defined as remission.


RESULTS
At week 8, infliximab induced a response in 73.3% of patients (44 of 60) (95% confidence interval, 62.1%-84.5%; a positive result was defined by 95% confidence interval lower limit >40%). Among responders, twice as many were in remission at week 54 after q8w (8 of 21, 38.1%) than q12w (4 of 22, 18.2%; P = .146) therapy. Assuming the q8w remission rate for responders, the overall remission rate at week 54 would be 28.6%. Serious adverse events and infusion reactions occurred in similar proportions in the q8w and q12w groups. No deaths, malignancies, opportunistic infections, tuberculosis, or delayed hypersensitivity reactions were reported.


CONCLUSIONS
Infliximab was safe and effective, inducing a response at week 8 in 73.3% of pediatric patients with moderate to severely active UC who did not respond to conventional therapy. The overall remission rate at week 54 for all enrolled patients was 28.6%, assuming the more effective q8w remission rate.