LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
The doctor-patient relationship and HIV-infected patients’ satisfaction with primary care physicians

OBJECTIVE: To assess the extent to which perceptions of specific aspects of the doctor-patient relationship are related to overall satisfaction with primary care physicians among HIV-infected patients. DESIGN: Longitudinal, observational study of HIV-infected persons new to primary HIV care. Data were collected at enrollment and approximately 6 months later by in-person interview. SETTING: Two urban medical centers in the northeastern United States. PARTICIPANTS: Patients seeking primary HIV care for the first time. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The primary outcome measure was patient-reported satisfaction with a primary care physician measured 6 months after initiating primary HIV care. Patients who were more comfortable discussing personal issues with their physicians (P=.021), who perceived their primary care physicians as more empathetic (P=.001), and who perceived their primary care physicians as more knowledgeble with respect to HIV (P=.002) were significantly more satisfied with their primary care physicians, adjusted for characteristics of the patient and characteristics of primary care. Collectively, specific aspects of the doctor-patient relationship explained 56% of the variation in overall satisfaction with the primary care physician. CONCLUSIONS: Patients’ perceptions of their primary care physician’s HIV knowledge and empathy were highly related to their satisfaction with this physician. Satisfaction among HIV-infected patients was not associated with patients’ sociodemographic characteristics, HIV risk characteristics, alcohol and drug use, health status, quality of life, or concordant patient-physician gender and racial matching.
Integrated use of Web technologies to deliver a secure collaborative Web portal

This paper describes the design and operation of the OMII Web site, which has to date, achieved three major targets. The first target is the successful integrations in different technologies (Server 2003+IIS server+SQL server+.NET and SUSE Linux+Apache Server) and standards (W3C/Macromedia and .NET). The second target is the enhancement in authenticating users, Web site security and back-ups and the final target is the development of a working procedure for static Web site development, dynamic .NET development and data migration on the two test servers and another two live Web servers. The Web site supports the easy registration and login, so that registered users can download and install our software.
High-Quality Sine Wave Generation Using a Differential Boost Inverter at Higher Operating Frequency

Buck-converter-based topologies are used to generate high-frequency sinusoidal outputs. Buck-based inversion circuits such as voltage source inverters or class-D amplifiers have inherent control-to-output linearity in large-signal sense. However, in these topologies, the instantaneous output is always smaller than the dc-input during linear modulation. A differential boost inverter (DBI) is a boost-based topology that is used to generate a sinusoidal output. In DBI, the instantaneous output can be higher or lower than the dc-input voltage. DBI exhibits nonlinear control-to-output behavior in large-signal dynamic sense. Therefore, generating a high-frequency sinusoidal output using this topology is a challenge. The issues associated with a DBI for high-frequency sine wave generation are characterized in this paper. Conventional linear and nonlinear control techniques fail to produce a high-quality sine wave output at higher operating frequency. A nonlinear feedback linearization technique is proposed, which forces the output to be linear with respect to the reference even at higher operating frequency. This leads to a high-frequency high-quality sine wave generation using a DBI. The proposed modulator is verified using a laboratory prototype to generate a sine wave up to 2 kHz. A triangular wave of 100-Hz frequency is also generated by the proposed technique. Superior dynamic responses of a dynamic linearizing modulator controlled DBI for a step change in frequency, load current, input voltage, and reference are also experimentally verified.
Review: Graph Databases

This paper covers NOSQL databases. With the increase in net users and applications it is important to understand graph databases, the future of tomorrow’s data storage and management. Basic architecture of some graph databases has been discussed to know their working and how data is stored in the form of nodes and relationships. KeywordsNOSQL databases, Neo4j, JENA, DEX, InfoGrid, FlockDB.
Effects of Pithecellobium Jiringa Ethanol Extract against Ethanol-Induced Gastric Mucosal Injuries in Sprague-Dawley Rats

Current anti-gastric ulcer agents have side effects, despite the progression and expansion of advances in treatment. This study aimed to investigate the gastroprotective mechanisms of Pithecellobium jiringa ethanol extract against ethanol-induced gastric mucosal ulcers in rats. For this purpose, Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into five groups: Group 1 (normal control) rats were orally administered with vehicle (carboxymethyl cellulose), Group 2 (ulcer control) rats were also orally administered with vehicle. Group 3 (positive control) rats were orally administered with 20 mg/kg omeprazole, Groups 4 and 5 (experimental groups) received ethanol extract of Pithecellobium jiringa ethanol extract at a concentration of 250 and 500 mg/kg, respectively. Sixty minutes later, vehicle was given orally to the normal control group, and absolute ethanol was given orally to the ulcer control, positive control and experimental groups to generate gastric mucosal injury. The rats were sacrificed an hour later. The effect of oral administration of plant extract on ethanol-induced gastric mucosal injury was studied grossly and histology. The level of lipid peroxidation (malondialdehyde-MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and gastric wall mucus were measured from gastric mucosal homogenate. The ulcer control group exhibited severe gastric mucosal injury, and this finding was also confirmed by histology of gastric mucosa which showed severe damage to the gastric mucosa with edema and leucocyte infiltration of the submucosal layer. Pre-treatment with plant extract significantly reduced the formation of ethanol-induced gastric lesions, and gastric wall mucus was significantly preserved. The study also indicated a significant increase in SOD activity in gastric mucosal homogenate, whereas a significant decrease in MDA was observed. Acute toxicity tests did not show any signs of toxicity and mortality up to 5 g/kg. The ulcer protective effect of this plant may possibly be due to its preservation of gastric wall mucus along with increased SOD activity and reduction of oxidative stress (MDA). The extract is non-toxic, even at relatively high concentrations.
A review on fault mechanism and diagnosis approach for Li-Ion batteries

Li-ion battery has attracted more and more attention as it is a promising storage device which has long service life, higher energy, and power density. However, battery ageing always occurs during operation and leads to performance degradation and system fault which not only causes inconvenience, but also risks serious consequences such as thermal runaway or even explosion. This paper reviews recent research and development of ageing mechanisms of Li-ion batteries to understand the origins and symptoms of Li-ion battery faults. Common ageing factors are covered with their effects and consequences. Through ageing tests, relationship between performance and ageing factors, as well as cross-dependence among factors can be quantified. Summary of recent research about fault diagnosis technology for Li-ion batteries is concluded with their cons and pros.The suggestions on novel fault diagnosis approach and remaining challenges are provided at the end of this paper.
Outsourcing, Product Quality and Contract Enforcement

Does outsourcing compromise product quality? Does sound contract enforcement alleviate this concern? We offer a simple model to illustrate how outsourcing leads to lower product quality and how contract enforcement helps mitigate this problem. These theoretical predictions are borne out of a survey of 2,400 firms in China conducted by the World Bank in 2003.
Revising the criteria for the predictors of variceal haemorrhage outcome.

BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS
There are many criteria and definitions used to evaluate the failure to control and prevent variceal bleeding. Baveno criteria were developed in Baveno consensus workshops I-III. Some of these criteria are fairly difficult to apply and do not adequately reflect common situations that are observed in clinical practice. Therefore, new criteria were developed at the Baveno-IV workshop. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the validity of Baveno II-IV criteria in the prediction of bleeding recurrence among patients with liver cirrhosis who presented with bleeding oesophageal varices.


PATIENTS AND METHODS
Fifty patients with liver cirrhosis and acute variceal bleeding were divided into two groups according to treatment response. Group I consisted of 44 patients for whom treatment to control bleeding was successful, and Group II included 6 patients for whom treatment failed. Baveno criteria were used in the evaluation of treatment outcome in these patients.


RESULTS
The overall accuracy of Baveno II and III criteria was 87.3% within the first 6h and 76.5% after 6h, with a mean accuracy 81.9%. The overall accuracy of Baveno IV criteria in this study was 83%. The criterion of death was also very specific (100%), with 100% PPV, but its sensitivity was very low (16.7%).


CONCLUSION
Baveno IV criteria are less complicated, much easier to apply and have nearly the same accuracy as Baveno II/III criteria. However, there are some criteria that need to be modified, such as the adjusted blood requirement index (ABR1), among others.
Palm vein recognition with local texture patterns

Biometric recognition using the palm vein characteristics is emerging as a touchless and spoof-resistant hand-based means to identify individuals or to verify their identity. One of the open challenges in this field is the creation of fast and modality-dependent feature extractors for recognition. This article investigates features using local texture description methods. The local binary pattern (LBP) operator as well as the local derivative pattern (LDP) operator and the fusion of the two are studied in order to create efficient descriptors for palm vein recognition by systematically adapting their parameters to fit palm vein structures. Results of experiments are reported on the CASIA multi-spectral palm print image database V1.0 (CASIA database). It is found that the local texture patterns proposed in this study can be adapted to the vein description task for biometric recognition and that the LDP operator consistently outperforms the LBP operator in palm vein recognition.
Hierarchical Synthesis of Hybrid Controllers from Temporal Logic Specifications

– Tessa: Techniques for Embedded System and Software Assurance Research on verification and testing of embedded systems software. Developed a framework for the robustness analysis of Simulink simulations and models using self-validated arithmetics (interval and affine arithmetic). The goal of the project was to study the robustness and correctness of Simulink simulations under system uncertainties, numerical errors and floating point rounding errors. The outcome of the project was the Matlab toolbox RobSim which can analyze continuous-time, discretetime and mixed-signal systems.
Collaborative Learning In Asynchronous Learning Networks: Building Learning Communities

One of the potential negative effects of online courses is a loss of social relationships and a loss of the sense of community that is usually present on a traditional campus. This paper presents evidence that collaborative learning strategies, which require relatively small classes or groups actively mentored by an instructor, are necessary in order for World Wide Web-based courses to be as effective as traditional classroom courses. The nature of collaborative learning versus other models, as well as some of the issues raised by Web-mediated education are reviewed. Results of recent studies at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Penn State, indicating that collaborative learning is important to the success of asynchronous learning networks (ALNs) in creating positive outcomes for students, are summarized. The paper concludes that the question of how to build and sustain online learning communities is a prime area where researchers on ALNs ought to be focusing their efforts. (Contains 13 references.) (Author/AEF) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** COLLABORATWE LEARNING IN ASYNCHRONOUS LEARNING NETWORKS: BUILDING LEARNING COMMUNITIES "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY
Randomized, controlled trial of entecavir versus placebo in children with hepatitis B envelope antigen-positive chronic hepatitis B.

UNLABELLED
This ongoing, randomized phase III study assesses the safety and efficacy of entecavir versus placebo in nucleos(t)ide-naïve children (2 to <18 years) with hepatitis B envelope antigen (HBeAg)-positive chronic hepatitis B (CHB). Blinded treatment was administered for a minimum of 48 weeks. After week 48, patients with HBeAg seroconversion continued blinded treatment; those without switched to open-label entecavir. The primary endpoint was HBeAg seroconversion and HBV DNA <50 IU/mL at week 48. A total of 180 patients were randomized (2:1) and treated. Baseline median age was 12 years, with approximately 50% of children ages >12 to <18, and 25% each ages ≥2 to ≤6 and >6 to ≤12. Rates for the primary endpoint at week 48 were significantly higher with entecavir than placebo (24.2% [29 of 120] vs. 3.3% [2 of 60]; P = 0.0008). Furthermore, higher response rates were observed with entecavir compared with placebo for the key week 48 secondary endpoints: HBV DNA <50 IU/mL (49.2% [59 of 120] vs. 3.3% [2 of 60]; P < 0.0001); alanine aminotransferase normalization (67.5% [81 of 120] vs. 23.3% [14 of 60]; P < 0.0001); and HBeAg seroconversion (24.2% [29 of 120] vs. 10.0% [6 of 60]; P = 0.0210). Among entecavir-randomized patients, there was an increase in all efficacy endpoints between weeks 48 and 96, including an increase from 49% to 64% in virological suppression. The cumulative probability of emergent entecavir resistance through years 1 and 2 of entecavir was 0.6% and 2.6%, respectively. Entecavir was well tolerated with no observed differences in adverse events or changes in growth compared with placebo.


CONCLUSION
In childhood CHB, entecavir demonstrated superior antiviral efficacy to placebo with a favorable safety profile. These results support the use of entecavir as a therapeutic option in children and adolescents with CHB.
TRESOR-HUNT: attacking CPU-bound encryption

Hard disk encryption is known to be vulnerable to a number of attacks that aim to directly extract cryptographic key material from system memory. Several approaches to preventing this class of attacks have been proposed, including Tresor [18] and LoopAmnesia [25]. The common goal of these systems is to confine the encryption key and encryption process itself to the CPU, such that sensitive key material is never released into system memory where it could be accessed by a DMA attack.
 In this work, we demonstrate that these systems are nevertheless vulnerable to such DMA attacks. Our attack, which we call Tresor-Hunt, relies on the insight that DMA-capable adversaries are not restricted to simply reading physical memory, but can write arbitrary values to memory as well. Tresor-Hunt leverages this insight to inject a ring 0 attack payload that extracts disk encryption keys from the CPU into the target system's memory, from which it can be retrieved using a normal DMA transfer.
 Our implementation of this attack demonstrates that it can be constructed in a reliable and OS-independent manner that is applicable to any CPU-bound encryption technique, IA32-based system, and DMA-capable peripheral bus. Furthermore, it does not crash the target system or otherwise significantly compromise its integrity. Our evaluation supports the OS-independent nature of the attack, as well as its feasibility in real-world scenarios. Finally, we discuss several countermeasures that might be adopted to mitigate this attack and render CPU-bound encryption systems viable.
Identification of variables that impact project success in Brazilian companies

This research aims to analyze the relation between project management maturity and the project success. Moreover, the moderating effect of top management support and the assignment of a dedicated project manager were analyzed. The methodological research approach was a survey of 336 professionals in the field of project management conducted in Brazilian organizations. The results show that project management maturity is significantly related to all vertices of the iron triangle (time, cost and technical performance) dimensions of success. However, it is not related to the customer satisfaction dimension. The two moderate variables, top management support and dedicated project manager, have significant impact on the time success dimension but not on customer satisfaction. It suggests focus on efficiency aspects rather than effectiveness aspects. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. APM and IPMA. All rights reserved.
Contrasting effects of cattle and wildlife on the vegetation development of a savanna landscape mosaic

1. Through their effects on plant communities, herbivores can exert strong direct and indirect effects on savanna ecosystems and have the potential to create andmaintain savanna landscape heterogeneity. Throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa, periodic creation and abandonment of livestock corrals leads to landscape mosaics of long-term ecosystem hotspots that attract both cattle and large ungulate wildlife. 2. The development and maintenance of vegetation in these types of hotspots may be controlled in part by herbivory. Cattle and wildlife may have different, potentially contrasting effects on plant succession and plant–plant interactions. We ask how cattle and wild herbivores affect the maintenance and vegetation development of corral-derived landscape heterogeneity (0.25–1.0 ha treeless ‘glades’) in Laikipia, Kenya, through their effects on long-term successional and short-term plant– plant dynamics. 3. We used the Kenya Long-term Exclosure Experiment to exclude from glades different combinations of cattle, large ungulate wildlife (i.e. zebras, gazelles and other antelopes), andmega-herbivore wildlife (i.e. giraffes and elephants). We first assessed long-term changes in cover of the dominant grass species, Cynodon plectostachyus and Pennisetum stramineum (the earlyand late-dominant species, respectively). We then used a neighbour removal experiment to test the effects of different herbivores on competition and facilitation between the two glade grass species. 4. In the long-term experiment, we found that large ungulate wildlife reinforced landscape heterogeneity over time by helpingmaintain glades in their earlyC. plectostachyus-dominated form. Cattle and mega-herbivore wildlife, on the other hand, appeared to reduce the positive effects through forage preference forC. plectostachyus. 5. In the neighbour removal experiment, we found that each grass species benefited from facilitation when it was the preferred forage for the dominant grazer. Facilitation of C. plectostachyus by P. stramineum was strongest when cattle co-occurred with wildlife, whereas facilitation of P. stramineum byC. plectostachyuswas strongest when cattle were absent. 6. Synthesis. Our results demonstrate that different combinations of cattle and wildlife have different effects, largely via contrasting forage preferences, on the persistence of landscape heterogeneity in this savanna landscape. More generally, we provide evidence for contrasting effects of cattle and wildlife on short-term plant interactions (facilitation) and successional processes within the herbaceous plant community.
Lay health supporters aided by a mobile phone messaging system to improve care of villagers with schizophrenia in Liuyang, China: protocol for a randomised control trial

INTRODUCTION
Schizophrenia is a severe, chronic and disabling mental illness. Non-adherence to medication and relapse may lead to poorer patient function. This randomised controlled study, under the acronym LEAN (Lay health supporter, e-platform, award, and iNtegration), is designed to improve medication adherence and high relapse among people with schizophrenia in resource poor settings.


METHODS/ANALYSIS
The community-based LEAN has four parts: (1) Lay health supporters (LHSs), mostly family members who will help supervise patient medication, monitor relapse and side effects, and facilitate access to care, (2) an E-platform to support two-way mobile text and voice messaging to remind patients to take medication; and alert LHSs when patients are non-adherent, (3) an Award system to motivate patients and strengthen LHS support, and (4) iNtegration of the efforts of patients and LHSs with those of village doctors, township mental health administrators and psychiatrists via the e-platform. A random sample of 258 villagers with schizophrenia will be drawn from the schizophrenic '686' Program registry for the 9 Xiang dialect towns of the Liuyang municipality in China. The sample will be further randomised into a control group and a treatment group of equal sizes, and each group will be followed for 6 months after launch of the intervention. The primary outcome will be medication adherence as measured by pill counts and supplemented by pharmacy records. Other outcomes include symptoms and level of function. Outcomes will be assessed primarily when patients present for medication refill visits scheduled every 2 months over the 6-month follow-up period. Data from the study will be analysed using analysis of covariance for the programme effect and an intent-to-treat approach.


ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION
University of Washington: 49464 G; Central South University: CTXY-150002-6. Results will be published in peer-reviewed journals with deidentified data made available on FigShare.


TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER
ChiCTR-ICR-15006053; Pre-results.