LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Clinical and ultrasonographic predictors of joint replacement for knee osteoarthritis: results from a large, 3-year, prospective EULAR study.

OBJECTIVES
To determine clinical and ultrasonographic predictors of joint replacement surgery across Europe in primary osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee.


METHODS
This was a 3-year prospective study of a painful OA knee cohort (from a EULAR-sponsored, multicentre study). All subjects had clinical evaluation, radiographs and ultrasonography (US) at study entry. The rate of knee replacement surgery over the 3-year follow-up period was determined using Kaplan-Meier survival data analyses. Predictive factors for joint replacement were identified by univariate log-rank test then multivariate analysis using a Cox proportional-hazards regression model. Potential baseline predictors included demographic, clinical, radiographic and US features.


RESULTS
Of the 600 original patients, 531 (88.5%), mean age 67+/-10 years, mean disease duration 6.1+/-6.9 years, had follow-up data and were analysed. During follow-up (median 3 years; range 0-4 years), knee replacement was done or required for 94 patients (estimated event rate of 17.7%). In the multivariate analysis, predictors of joint replacement were as follows: Kellgren and Lawrence radiographic grade (grade > or =III vs  or =4 mm vs <4 mm) (HR = 2.63 (95% CI 1.70 to 4.06), p<0.0001); knee pain intensity on a 0-100 mm visual analogue scale (> or =60 vs <60) (HR = 1.81 (95% CI 1.15 to 2.83), p=0.01) and disease duration (> or =5 years vs <5 years) (HR=1.63 (95% CI 1.08 to 2.47), p=0.02). Clinically detected effusion and US synovitis were not associated with joint replacement in the univariate analysis.


CONCLUSION
Longitudinal evaluation of this OA cohort demonstrated significant progression to joint replacement. In addition to severity of radiographic damage and pain, US-detected effusion was a predictor of subsequent joint replacement.
Learning and support preferences of adult patients with cancer at a comprehensive cancer center.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To identify content items for an inclusive education curriculum for adult patients with cancer, as well as describe their learning and support preferences, determine the level of information provided to them, and assess the patients' interest in potential new services.


DESIGN
Exploratory, descriptive survey research.


SETTING
A National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.


SAMPLE
All consenting adult patients with cancer who had appointments in the outpatient care setting during a two-week period (N = 1,310).


METHODS
A 3-phase study identified core components of an inclusive educational curriculum, conducted structured interviews of patients with cancer, and validated findings in a selected sample.


FINDINGS
The surveys were completed and returned by 48% (n = 625) of the patients. The most favored method for learning about all cancer topics was discussions with physicians (66%). Other preferred methods included brochures or booklets provided by physicians or nurses (33%), discussions with nurses (34%), self-selecting print media from information displays (20%), and talking with other patients with cancer (14%). Statistically significant differences in learning preferences were found among subgroups defined by age, gender, and education.


CONCLUSIONS
Patients preferred interactive, interpersonal communication with physicians or nurses. In addition, the prevailing method of education delivery for patients with cancer was providing print materials that support and enhance knowledge shared in the patient-healthcare team communication.


IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
This study confirms the importance of the learning and support preferences of patients with cancer. To implement a successful education program for their patients, nurses must be aware of patients' preferences for learning new information. Time must be set aside for one-on-one communication with patients, and print materials must be easily accessible to healthcare providers to support the patient-education process.
Predicting neurodevelopmental outcomes for at-risk infants: reliability and predictive validity using a Chinese version of the INFANIB at 3, 7 and 10 months

BACKGROUND
Chinese primary care settings have a heavy patient load, shortage of physicians, limited medical resources and low medical literacy, making it difficult to screen for developmental disorders in infants. The Infant Neurological International Battery (INFANIB) for the assessment of neuromotor developmental disorders in infants aged 0 ~ 18 months is widely applied in community health service centers because of its simplicity, time-saving advantages and short learning curve. We aimed to develop and assess a Chinese version of the INFANIB.


METHODS
A Chinese version of the INFANIB was developed. Fifty-five preterm and 49 full-term infants with high risk of neurodevelopmental delays were assessed using the Chinese version of the INFANIB at 3, 7 and 10 months after birth. The Peabody Developmental Motor Scale (PDMS) was simultaneously used to assess the children with abnormalities and diagnose cerebral palsy. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of the scale were calculated.


RESULTS
At birth, a higher proportion of full-term infants had asphyxia (p < 0.001), brain damage ( p = 0.003) and hyperbilirubinemia ( p = 0.022). The interclass correlation coefficient and intraclass correlation coefficient values for the INFANIB at 3, 7 and 10 months were >0.8, indicating excellent reliability with regard to inter- and intraobserver differences. The specificity, sensitivity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were high for both high-risk premature infants and full-term infants at the age of 10 months. For premature infants at the age of 7 months or below, INFANIB had low validity for detecting abnormalities.


CONCLUSIONS
The Chinese version of the INFANIB can be useful for screening infants with high-risk for neuromotor abnormality in Chinese primary care settings.
Antitumour activity of three second-line treatment combinations in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer after optimal 5-FU regimen failure: a randomised, multicentre phase II study.

BACKGROUND
We have investigated the efficacy, safety and quality of life profiles of three therapeutic combinations [irinotecan + leucovorin (LV)/5-fluorouracil (5-FU), oxaliplatin + LV/5-FU and irinotecan +oxaliplatin] in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer after failure of a 5-FU-based regimen, or whose disease had progressed within 6 months of the end of treatment.


PATIENTS AND METHODS
One hundred and one patients were randomised to receive either: (i) irinotecan 180 mg/m(2) on day 1 followed by an LV 200 mg/m(2) infusion, before a 5-FU 400 mg/m(2) bolus followed by a 5-FU 600 mg/m(2) infusion (LV5FU2 regimen), on days 1 and 2 every 2 weeks; (ii) oxaliplatin 85 mg/m(2) on day 1 followed by the LV5FU2 regimen on days 1 and 2 every 2 weeks; or (iii) oxaliplatin 85 mg/m(2) followed by irinotecan 200 mg/m(2), both on day 1 every 3 weeks. The primary end point was overall response rate (ORR).


RESULTS
The intention-to-treat ORRs were 11.4% [95% confidence interval (CI) 3.2-26.7), 21.2% (95% CI 9.0-38.9) and 15.2% (95% CI 5.1-31.9), respectively, in the three arms. Tumour growth control was >or=60% for all three combinations and overall survivals were 12.2 months (95% CI 9.2-16.0), 11.5 months (95% CI 9.0-14.1) and 11.0 months (95% CI 8.1-12.2), respectively. All patients were evaluable for safety. Main grade 3-4 toxicity was neutropenia (33 to 39% of patients).


CONCLUSIONS
Thus, second-line treatment with irinotecan/LV5FU2, oxaliplatin/LV5FU2 or irinotecan/oxaliplatin, provides good tumour growth control and survival coupled with an acceptable safety profile.
General relativistic gravitational field of a rigidly rotating disk of dust: solution in terms of ultraelliptic functions.

In a recent paper we presented analytic expressions for the axis potential, the disk metric, and the surface mass density of the global solution to Einstein's field equations describing a rigidly rotating disk of dust. Here we add the complete solution in terms of ultraelliptic functions and quadratures.
Some Simple Tests of Social Preferences

Departures from pure self-interest in economic experiments have recently inspired models of “social preferences”. We conduct experiments on simple games that test these theories more directly than the array of games conventionally considered. Our experiments show support for the prevalence of “quasi-maximin” preferences: People are self interested, but also sacrifice to increase the payoffs for all recipients, especially low-payoff recipients. We show that quasimaximin preferences better capture behavior than recently proposed models that posit an aversion to differences in payoffs. People are also motivated by reciprocity: While there is little evidence of sacrifice to reciprocate good behavior beyond what they would sacrifice for neutral parties, they withdraw willingness to sacrifice to achieve a fair outcome when others are themselves unwilling to sacrifice, and sometimes punish unfair behavior. We propose some simple models based on our experimental results.
Negative results for scheduling independent hard real-time tasks with self-suspensions

In most real-time systems, tasks use remote operations that are executed upon dedicated processors. External operations introduce self-suspension delays in the behavior of tasks. This paper presents several negative results concerning scheduling independent hard real-time tasks with self-suspensions. Our main objective is to show that well-known scheduling policies such as fixed-priority or earliest deadline first are not efficient to schedule such task systems. We prove the scheduling problem to be NP-hard in the strong sense, even for synchronous task systems with implicit deadlines. We also show that scheduling anomalies can occur at run-time: reducing the execution requirement or the suspension delay of a task can lead the task system to be infeasible under EDF. Lastly, we present negative results on the worst-case performances of well-known scheduling algorithms (EDFy RM, DM, LLF, SRPTF) to maximize tasks completed by their deadlines.
Performance Analysis and Working Fluid Selection of a Supercritical Organic Rankine Cycle for Low Grade Waste Heat Recovery

The performance analysis of a supercritical organic Rankine cycle system driven by exhaust heat using 18 organic working fluids is presented. Several parameters, such as the net power output, exergy efficiency, expander size parameter (SP), and heat exchanger requirement of evaporator and the condenser, were used to evaluate the performance of this recovery cycle and screen the working fluids. The results reveal that in most cases, raising the expander inlet temperature is helpful to improve the net power output and the exergy efficiency. However, the effect of the expander inlet pressure on those parameters is related to the expander inlet temperature and working fluid used. Either lower expander inlet temperature and pressure, or higher expander inlet temperature and pressure, generally makes the net power output more. Lower expander inlet temperature results in larger total heat transfer requirement and expander size. According to the screening criteria of both the higher output and the lower investment, the following working fluids for the supercritical ORC system are recommended: R152a and R143a.
Classification of Atrial Arrhythmias using Neural Networks

Received Feb 13, 2018 Revised Apr 18, 2018 Accepted May 21, 2018 One of the biomedical image problems is the appearance of the bubbles in the slide that could occur when air passes through the slide during the preparation process. These bubbles may complicate the process of analysing the histopathological images. Aims: The objective of this study is to remove the bubble noise from the histopathology images, and then predict the tissues that underlie it using the fuzzy controller in cases of remote pathological diagnosis. Methods: Fuzzy logic uses the linguistic definition to recognize the relationship between the input and the activity, rather than using difficult numerical equation. Mainly there are five parts, starting with accepting the image, passing through removing the bubbles, and ending with predict the tissues. These were implemented by defining membership functions between colours range using MATLAB. Results: 50 histopathological images were tested on four types of membership functions (MF); the results show that (nine-triangular) MF get 75.4% correctly predicted pixels versus 69.1, 72.31 and 72% for (five-triangular), (five-Gaussian) and (nine-Gaussian) respectively. Conclusions: In line with the era of digitally driven epathology, this process is essentially recommended to ensure quality interpretation and analyses of the processed slides; thus overcoming relevant limitations. Keyword:
Estimating Key Parameters in the EKV MOST Model for Analogue Desgin and Simulation

Recent availability of the EKV (Enz-Krummenacher-Vittoz) MOST model [1] from EPFL in a number of circuit simulators facilitates the intuitive design, analysis and simulation of analogue and mixed-mode circuits and systems exploring the numerous modes of operation of the MOST [2], particularly at low-voltage (LV) and low-current (LC). A practical approach for either extracting the most critical parameters and/or adapting those already available from widely used SPICE models (levels 2 and 3) for use with the EKV model is presented and opportunities for engineering education are considered. The effectiveness of the approach is illustrated by measured results from CMOS and BiCMOS technologies.
The association between cholecystectomy and gastroesophageal reflux symptoms: a prospective controlled study.

OBJECTIVE
A large controlled prospective observational study to compare pre- and postsurgery changes in reflux symptoms between cholecystectomy and hernia repair surgery patients.


SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA
Six studies have suggested that gastroesophageal reflux worsens after cholecystectomy. However, all these studies had design limitations.


METHODS
We recruited 302 patients scheduled to undergo elective cholecystectomy (study group) or hernia repair (controls) at 2 hospitals. Both groups filled out the validated Reflux Symptom Score (RSS) and Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale (GSRS) questionnaires 1 to 15 days prior to and 4 to 12 weeks after the operation. Changes in symptom scores between the pre and postsurgery assessments were measured, and compared between the 2 groups.


RESULTS
Baseline RSS and GSRS reflux subscores were higher in the study group than controls (1.44 vs. 1.02 and 1.91 vs. 1.43, respectively; P < 0.05). There were no significant differences in any of the symptom score changes between the 2 groups except for the GSRS pain subscore, which decreased more in the study group than the control group (-0.59 vs. -0.10; P < 0.001). With regard to reflux, the RSS decreased by -0.34 in the study group and -0.14 in controls (P = 0.27), while the GSRS reflux subscore decreased by -0.32 in the study group and -0.05 in controls (P = 0.12). GSRS diarrhea and constipation subscores decreased slightly after surgery, to the same extent in both groups.


CONCLUSIONS
This large prospective controlled study, the only one using validated reflux symptom questionnaires, shows that cholecystectomy does not lead to an increase in reflux symptoms. As expected, GSRS pain subscores were decreased in the cholecystectomy group but not the controls.
Development and deployment of large scale wireless sensor network on a long-span bridge

Testing and validation processes are critical tasks in developing a new hardware platform based on a new technology. This paper describes a series of experiments to evaluate the performance of a newly developed MEMS-based wireless sensor node as part of a wireless sensor network (WSN). The sensor node consists of a sensor board with four accelerometers, a thermometer and filtering and digitization units, and a MICAz mote for control, local computation and communication. The experiments include calibration and linearity tests for all sensor channels on the sensor boards, dynamic range tests to evaluate their performance when subjected to varying excitation, noise characteristic tests to quantify the noise floor of the sensor board, and temperature tests to study the behavior of the sensors under changing temperature profiles. The paper also describes a large-scale deployment of the WSN on a long-span suspension bridge, which lasted over three months and continuously collected ambient vibration and temperature data on the bridge. Statistical modal properties of a bridge tower are presented and compared with similar estimates from a previous deployment of sensors on the bridge and finite element models.
Simple classification of final state interaction effects in 4He(e, e′p) scattering☆

A b s t r a c t The radius of interaction between the struck proton and spectator nucleons is close to the radius of short-distance two-nucleon correlations in nuclear matter, which makes final state interaction (FSI) an important background to production of protons with large missing momentum. We present a simple classification of the dominant FSI effects in
Response to Morrison et al., "Hormonal contraception and the risk of HIV acquisition".

Objectives ■To describe the epidemiology of HIV and its global interface with Progestin injectables ■To outline the research on injectable progestin contraception and the possible increased risk of HIV acquisition ■To outline the content of WHO discussions and recommendations from meetings of experts and of advocates and their consequences Hormonal Contraception and the Risk of HIV Acquisition: An Individual Participant Meta-Analysis 10/6/2013—slide 4 " Love is the answer, but while you are waiting for the answer, sex raises some pretty good questions. " Woody Allen
Prevalence and Sources of Stress among Universiti Sains Malaysia Medical Students.

BACKGROUND
Being in medical school has always been regarded as highly stressful. Excessive stress causes physical and mental health problems. Persistent stress can impair students' academic achievement and personal or professional development. The aim of this study is to explore the nature of stress among medical students by determining the prevalence, sources and pattern of stress and the factors affecting it.


METHODS
We chose a cross-sectional study design utilizing validated questionnaires, the 12 items General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and Medical Student Stressor Questionnaire (MSSQ), to evaluate stress levels and stressors. School and ethical committee clearance were obtained prior to the study. Data were analysed using SPSS version 12.


RESULTS
Of the medical students who were administered the questionnaire, 761 (72%) respondents participated in this study. The prevalence of stress among the medical students was 29.6%. The top 10 stressors were academic-related. Prevalence of stress for the first, second, third, fourth and fifth year students was 26.3%, 36.5 %, 31.4%, 35.3% and 21.9%, respectively. Year of study was the only significant factor affecting stress among medical students (P-value < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of stress among medical students in USM is high. Academic-related problems were the major stressor among medical students. Year of study was the factor most significantly associated with medical students' stress. There was a bimodal pattern of the stress level throughout the year of study.
Strong spin-photon coupling in silicon

Long coherence times of single spins in silicon quantum dots make these systems highly attractive for quantum computation, but how to scale up spin qubit systems remains an open question. As a first step to address this issue, we demonstrate the strong coupling of a single electron spin and a single microwave photon. The electron spin is trapped in a silicon double quantum dot, and the microwave photon is stored in an on-chip high-impedance superconducting resonator. The electric field component of the cavity photon couples directly to the charge dipole of the electron in the double dot, and indirectly to the electron spin, through a strong local magnetic field gradient from a nearby micromagnet. Our results provide a route to realizing large networks of quantum dot–based spin qubit registers.
Automated SEU fault emulation using partial FPGA reconfiguration

FPGAs are subjected to SEU faults. Fault emulation methods are used to verify the behavior of the system in the presence of fault. In this paper an automated fault emulation approach is presented. An original, fully automated extraction of SEU fault sources is introduced and the injection procedure for various types of faults in FPGA configuration and user memory is explained. Faults are injected during run-time using an embedded microprocessor. Only the resources affected by the faults are reconfigured. A prototype fault injection tool was developed and the approach is demonstrated on two different FPGA applications, micro processor BIST, and AES BIST.
Serum zinc level in depressed patients during zinc supplementation of imipramine treatment.

BACKGROUND
Recurrent major depression is associated with decreased blood zinc concentrations that may be increased by effective antidepressant therapy. Some clinical investigations point to alterations of the zinc level in blood as a potential marker of depression.


METHODS
A placebo-controlled, double blind study of zinc supplementation to imipramine therapy was conducted on sixty patients fulfilling the DSM-IV criteria for major depression (18-55 years old, 40 females, 20 males). Moreover, a group of 25 healthy volunteers was recruited (16 females, 9 males). Blood samples were drawn for the assay of serum zinc once from the control subjects and four times (before, and then 2, 6 and 12 weeks after the beginning of treatment) from the depressed subjects.


RESULTS
We report that: 1) the serum zinc level was significantly lower (by 22%) in depressed patients than in healthy volunteers, 2) all groups demonstrated a gradual increase in zinc concentrations over the period of imipramine treatment with or without zinc supplementation, 3) treatment-resistant patients demonstrated lower concentrations of zinc (by 14%) than treatment-non-resistant patients, 4) zinc concentrations were higher in zinc-supplemented patients than in placebo-supplemented patients, 5) zinc supplementation increased zinc concentrations over the period of treatment, and 6) at a 12-week imipramine treatment, a significant negative correlation was demonstrated between the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale and the serum zinc level together with a concomitant increase in serum zinc in patients in remission.


CONCLUSIONS
Serum zinc is a state marker of depression.