LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Sun exposure and vitamin D are independent risk factors for CNS demyelination.

OBJECTIVES
To examine whether past and recent sun exposure and vitamin D status (serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels) are associated with risk of first demyelinating events (FDEs) and to evaluate the contribution of these factors to the latitudinal gradient in FDE incidence in Australia.


METHODS
This was a multicenter incident case-control study. Cases (n = 216) were aged 18-59 years with a FDE and resident within one of 4 Australian centers (from latitudes 27°S to 43°S), from November 1, 2003, to December 31, 2006. Controls (n = 395) were matched to cases on age, sex, and study region, without CNS demyelination. Exposures measured included self-reported sun exposure by life stage, objective measures of skin phenotype and actinic damage, and vitamin D status.


RESULTS
Higher levels of past, recent, and accumulated leisure-time sun exposure were each associated with reduced risk of FDE, e.g., accumulated leisure-time sun exposure (age 6 years to current), adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 0.70 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.53-0.94) for each ultraviolet (UV) dose increment of 1,000 kJ/m(2) (range 508-6,397 kJ/m(2)). Higher actinic skin damage (AOR = 0.39 [95% CI 0.17-0.92], highest grade vs the lowest) and higher serum vitamin D status (AOR = 0.93 [95% CI 0.86-1.00] per 10 nmol/L increase in 25(OH)D) were independently associated with decreased FDE risk. Differences in leisure-time sun exposure, serum 25(OH)D level, and skin type additively accounted for a 32.4% increase in FDE incidence from the low to high latitude regions.


CONCLUSIONS
Sun exposure and vitamin D status may have independent roles in the risk of CNS demyelination. Both will need to be evaluated in clinical trials for multiple sclerosis prevention.
[The development and effects of an integrated symptom management program for prevention of recurrent cardiac events after percutaneous coronary intervention].

PURPOSE
This study was conducted to develop and to determine the effects of an integrated symptom management program for prevention of recurrent cardiac events after percutaneous coronary intervention.


METHODS
Subjects consisted of 58 CAD patients (experimental group: 30, control group: 28). The experimental group participated in an integrated symptom management program for 6 months which was composed of tailored education, stress management, exercise, diet, deep breathing, music therapy, periodical telephone monitoring and a daily log. The control group received the usual care.


RESULTS
The experimental group significantly decreased symptom experiences and the level of LDL compared to the control group. The experimental group significantly increased self care activity and quality of life compared to the control group. Although no significant difference was found in cardiac recurrence, the experimental group had fewer recurrences.


CONCLUSION
These results suggest that an integrated symptom management program for prevention of recurrent cardiac events after percutaneous coronary intervention can improve symptom aggravation, recurrent rate, self care activity and quality of life. Nursing interventions are needed to maintain and further enhance the quality of life of these patients and the interventions should be implemented in the overall transition period.
Medical abortion and the risk of subsequent adverse pregnancy outcomes.

BACKGROUND
The long-term safety of surgical abortion in the first trimester is well established. Despite the increasing use of medical abortion (abortion by means of medication), limited information is available regarding the effects of this procedure on subsequent pregnancies.


METHODS
We identified all women living in Denmark who had undergone an abortion for nonmedical reasons between 1999 and 2004 and obtained information regarding subsequent pregnancies from national registries. Risks of ectopic pregnancy, spontaneous abortion, preterm birth (at <37 weeks of gestation), and low birth weight (<2500 g) in the first subsequent pregnancy in women who had had a first-trimester medical abortion were compared with risks in women who had had a first-trimester surgical abortion.


RESULTS
Among 11,814 pregnancies in women who had had a previous first-trimester medical abortion (2710 women) or surgical abortion (9104 women), there were 274 ectopic pregnancies (respective incidence rates, 2.4% and 2.3%), 1426 spontaneous abortions (12.2% and 12.7%), 552 preterm births (5.4% and 6.7%), and 478 births with low birth weight (4.0% and 5.1%). After adjustment for maternal age, interval between pregnancies, gestational age at abortion, parity, cohabitation status, and urban or nonurban residence, medical abortion was not associated with a significantly increased risk of ectopic pregnancy (relative risk, 1.04; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.76 to 1.41), spontaneous abortion (relative risk, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.72 to 1.05), preterm birth (relative risk, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.66 to 1.18), or low birth weight (relative risk, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.61 to 1.11). Gestational age at medical abortion was not significantly associated with any of these adverse outcomes.


CONCLUSIONS
We found no evidence that a previous medical abortion, as compared with a previous surgical abortion, increases the risk of spontaneous abortion, ectopic pregnancy, preterm birth, or low birth weight.
Urine lipoarabinomannan point-of-care testing in patients affected by pulmonary nontuberculous mycobacteria – experiences from the Danish Cystic Fibrosis cohort study

BACKGROUND
The urine lipoarabinomannan (LAM) strip test has been suggested as a new point-of-care test for active tuberculosis (TB) among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected individuals. It has been questioned if infections with nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) affect assay specificity. We set forth to investigate if the test detects LAM in urine from a Danish cystic fibrosis (CF) population characterized by a high NTM prevalence and negligible TB exposure.


METHOD
Patients followed at the Copenhagen CF Center were comprehensively screened for pulmonary NTM infection between May 2012 and December 2013. Urine samples were tested for LAM using the 2013 Determine™ TB LAM Ag strip test.


RESULTS
Three-hundred and six patients had a total of 3,322 respiratory samples cultured for NTM and 198 had urine collected (65%). A total of 23/198 (12%) had active pulmonary NTM infection. None had active TB. The TB-LAM test had an overall positive rate of 2.5% applying a grade 2 cut-point as positivity threshold, increasing to 10.6% (21/198) if a grade 1 cut-point was applied. Among patients with NTM infection 2/23 (8.7%) had a positive LAM test result at the grade 2 cut-point and 9/23 (39.1%) at the grade 1 cut -point. Test specificity for NTM diagnosis was 98.3% and 93.1 for grade 2 and 1 cut-point respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
This is the first study to assess urine LAM detection in patients with confirmed NTM infection. The study demonstrated low cross-reactivity due to NTM infection when using the recommended grade 2 cut-point as positivity threshold. This is reassuring in regards to interpretation of the LAM test for TB diagnosis in a TB prevalent setting. The test was not found suitable for NTM detection among patients with CF.
The effect of stress on craving for methadone depends on the timing of last methadone dose.

BACKGROUND
This study examined the extent to which the timing of last methadone dose moderates the influence of a laboratory stressor on craving for methadone in a sample of methadone maintenance patients.


METHODS
Methadone maintenance patients (N=41) completed a computerized stress manipulation with two levels (low and high stress) on two separate days: (1) immediately following the administration of their standard daily methadone dose and (2) immediately prior to receiving their standard daily dose. The impact of stress, timing of methadone dose and their interaction were examined on self-report measures of stress and craving for methadone.


RESULTS
Craving ratings varied according to the timing of last methadone dose. Immediately following methadone dose (i.e., day 1), there was no effect for stress on craving (0.12; p=0.30). However, prior to receiving methadone dose (i.e., day 2), the high stress effect on craving was significant (1.51; p<0.001).


DISCUSSION
The present findings indicate that patients currently receiving methadone maintenance treatment may be particularly vulnerable to stress-related relapse immediately prior to daily methadone dosing.
Potential effect of population and climate changes on global distribution of dengue fever: an empirical model

BACKGROUND
Existing theoretical models of the potential effects of climate change on vector-borne diseases do not account for social factors such as population increase, or interactions between climate variables. Our aim was to investigate the potential effects of global climate change on human health, and in particular, on the transmission of vector-borne diseases.


METHODS
We modelled the reported global distribution of dengue fever on the basis of vapour pressure, which is a measure of humidity. We assessed changes in the geographical limits of dengue fever transmission, and in the number of people at risk of dengue by incorporating future climate change and human population projections into our model.


FINDINGS
We showed that the current geographical limits of dengue fever transmission can be modelled with 89% accuracy on the basis of long-term average vapour pressure. In 1990, almost 30% of the world population, 1.5 billion people, lived in regions where the estimated risk of dengue transmission was greater than 50%. With population and climate change projections for 2085, we estimate that about 5-6 billion people (50-60% of the projected global population) would be at risk of dengue transmission, compared with 3.5 billion people, or 35% of the population, if climate change did not happen.


INTERPRETATION
We conclude that climate change is likely to increase the area of land with a climate suitable for dengue fever transmission, and that if no other contributing factors were to change, a large proportion of the human population would then be put at risk.
Process algebra for hybrid systems

We propose a process algebra obtained by extending a combination of the process algebra with continuous relative timing from Baeten and Middelburg (Process Algebra with Timing, Springer, Berlin, 2002, Chapter 4), and the process algebra with propositional signals from Baeten and Bergstra (Theoret. Comput. Sci. 177 (1977) 381-405). The proposed process algebra makes it possible to deal with the behaviour of hybrid systems, i.e. systems in which the instantaneous state transitions caused by performing actions are alternated with continuous state evolutions. This process algebra has, in addition to equational axioms, rules to derive equations with the help of real analysis.
Prepregnancy body mass index and gestational weight gain with the outcome of pregnancy: a 13-year study of 292,568 cases in China

We aimed to investigate the combined associations of prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) and gestational weight gain (GWG) with pregnancy outcomes in Chinese women. Data for 292,568 singleton term pregnancies were selected from 1993 to 2005 based on the Perinatal Health Care Surveillance System, with anthropometric measurements being collected prospectively. Prepregnancy BMI was categorized according to the definitions of the World Health Organization (WHO). Total GWG was categorized into four groups. Adjusted associations of prepregnancy BMI and GWG with outcomes of interest were estimated using logistic regression analyses. GWG was categorized as below, within and above the Institute of Medicine (IOM) (2009) recommendations. Maternal overweight and high GWG or GWG above the IOM recommendation were associated with hypertensive disorders complicating pregnancy, cesarean delivery, macrosomia and large-for-gestational-age (LGA) infants. Maternal underweight and low GWG or GWG below the IOM recommendation were risk factors for low-birth-weight (LBW) and small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infants. Moreover, being overweight [odds ratio (OR) 1.2, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.0–1.3) and having a low weight gain (OR 1.1, 95 % CI 1.0–1.1) increased the risk of newborn asphyxia. Being overweight/obese and having a high weight gain, as well as being underweight and having a low weight gain, were associated with increased risks for adverse pregnancy outcomes in Chinese women.
Submerged culture conidial germination and conidiation of the bioherbicideColletotrichum truncatum are influenced by the amino acid composition of the medium

Submerged culture experiments were conducted to determine the optimal nitrogen source for rapidly producing conidia of the bioherbicide,Colletotrichum truncatum. Germination ofC. truncatum conidial inocula in submerged culture occurred most rapidly (>95% in 6 h) in media provided with a complete complement of amino acids. When (NH4)2SO4, urea, or individual amino acids were provided as the sole nitrogen source, conidial germination was less than 20% after 6 h incubation. Conidia production was delayed inC. truncatum cultures grown in media with urea or individual amino acids as nitrogen sources compared to cultures supplied with Casamino acids or complete synthetic amino acid nitrogen sources. The use of methionine, lysine, tryptophan, isoleucine, leucine or cysteine as a sole nitrogen source severely inhibitedC. truncatum conidia production. Media with synthetic amino acid mixtures less these inhibitory amino acids produced significantly higher conidia yields compared to media with amino acid mixtures containing these amino acids. When various amounts of each individual inhibitory amino acid were added to media which contained amino acid mixtures, cysteine and methionine were shown to be most effective in reducing conidiation. An optimal nitrogen source forC. truncatum conidiation in submerged culture should contain a complete mixture of amino acids with low levels of cysteine, methionine, leucine, isoleucine, lysine and tryptophan for rapid conidiation and optimal conidia yield.
Wiener filtering based speech enhancement with Weighted Denoising Auto-encoder and noise classification

A novel speech enhancement method based on Weighted Denoising Auto-encoder (WDA) and noise classification is proposed in this paper. A weighted reconstruction loss function is introduced into the conventional Denoising Auto-encoder (DA), and the relationship between the power spectra of clean speech and noisy observation is described by WDA model. First, the sub-band power spectrum of clean speech is estimated by WDA model from the noisy observation. Then, the a priori SNR is estimated by the a Posteriori SNR Controlled Recursive Averaging (PCRA) approach. Finally, the clean speech is obtained by Wiener filter in frequency domain. In addition, in order to make the proposed method suitable for various kinds of noise conditions, a Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) based noise classification method is employed. And the corresponding WDA model is used in the enhancement process. From the test results under ITUT G.160, it is shown that, in comparison with the reference method which is the Wiener filtering method with decision-directed approach for SNR estimation, the WDA-based speech enhancement methods could achieve better objective speech quality, no matter whether the noise conditions are included in the training set or not. And the similar amount of noise reduction and SNR improvement can be obtained with smaller distortion on speech level. 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Clinical and pharmacological management of a high risk diabetic population undergoing percutaneous coronary interventions.

AIM
An optimal clinical management and monitoring of patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) and coronary artery disease (CAD) has proved to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular events. The main aim of this report is to verify the adherence to the latest guidelines recommendations in a considerable group of DM patients undergoing a percutaneous coronary intervention, stratifying the population by the degree of the DM management.


METHODS
The patients recruited were those consecutive, unselected patients with type 2 DM undergoing a balloon angioplasty followed by a stent implantation, between July 2002 and December 2004. Follow-up was completed in 220 patients at 39+/-8.7 months. The follow-up interview concerned sociodemographic details, medical history, pharmaceutical treatment, major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events and clinical variables regarding the quality of DM management and monitoring.


RESULTS
Thirty-six percent of these high short and long-term risk patients received insulin treatment at index hospitalization despite a poor glucometabolic control (59% presented HbA1c >7%, mean 8+/-1.26%). The clinical management of the 204 (80%) survivors over time proved overall unsatisfactory: HbA1c, arterial blood pressure and body mass index uncommonly achieved the recommended targets (41%, 36% and 22% of the patients respectively). The DM monitoring revealed satisfactory, with the exception of the diabetic foot monitoring (performed in 38% of the patients). Concerning guideline adherence 26% of the patients proved to adhere strictly, while 38% and 36% were mildly and severely distant from these requirements.


CONCLUSION
Quality of DM management absolutely necessitates to be improved to attempt reducing the high cardiovascular event rates.
Combining Design and Performance in a Data Visualization Management System

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE Database Research Group, Columbia University Research Assistant, Advised by Prof. Eugene Wu Sep 2015 – Dec 2016 ■ Data Visualization Management System ● Built a predictive model for user mouse interations on web-browsers and implemented a JavaScript library for the model ● Developed experiments using a Chrome extension to collect user interaction data ● Proposed a data streaming framework to improve the response time of client-server-based data visualizations, which supports prediction for user query intent and progressive data transmission
When do Recommender Systems Work the Best?: The Moderating Effects of Product Attributes and Consumer Reviews on Recommender Performance

We investigate the moderating effect of product attributes and consumer reviews on the efficacy of a collaborative filtering recommender system on an e-commerce site. We run a randomized field experiment on a top North American retailer’s website with 184,375 users split into a recommendertreated group and a control group with 37,215 unique products in the dataset. By augmenting the dataset with Amazon Mechanical Turk tagged product attributes and consumer review data from the website, we study their moderating influence on recommenders in generating conversion. We first confirm that the use of recommenders increases the baseline conversion rate by 5.9%. We find that the recommenders act as substitutes for high average review ratings with the effect of using recommenders increasing the conversion rate as much as about 1.4 additional average star ratings. Additionally, we find that the positive impacts on conversion from recommenders are greater for hedonic products compared to utilitarian products while searchexperience quality did not have any impact. We also find that the higher the price, the lower the positive impact of recommenders, while having lengthier product descriptions and higher review volumes increased the recommender’s effectiveness. More findings are discussed in the Results. For managers, we 1) identify the products and product attributes for which the recommenders work well, 2) show how other product information sources on e-commerce sites interact with recommenders. Additionally, the insights from the results could inform novel recommender algorithm designs that are aware of strength and shortcomings. From an academic standpoint, we provide insight into the underlying mechanism behind how recommenders cause consumers to purchase. ∗The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Jay H. Baker Retailing Center, the Mack Institute for Innovation Management, and the Fishman-Davidson Center for Service and Operations Management. All errors are our own. Copyright is held by the International World Wide Web Conference Committee (IW3C2). IW3C2 reserves the right to provide a hyperlink to the author’s site if the Material is used in electronic media. WWW 2016, April 11–15, 2016, Montréal, Québec, Canada. ACM 978-1-4503-4143-1/16/04. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2872427.2882976.
Reflections from Corporate America: One View on Compulsive Sexual Behavior (CSB) in the Workplace

The following article presents thoughts from a Senior Vice-President of a medical corporation on their impressions of the problems associated with sexually compulsive behavior in the workplace. The article provides insight from a management perspective on the problem, and what positive solutions may be employed to appropriately address the issue of compulsive sexual behavior (CSB) in the workplace.
A placebo-controlled study of the modafinil added to risperidone in chronic schizophrenia

In recent years, evidence suggests that modafinil may be useful for certain symptom domains of schizophrenia, especially for the negative and cognitive symptoms. However, the results are not consistent. This study was designed to investigate the effect of modafinil added to risperidone in patients with chronic schizophrenia in a double blind and randomized clinical trial. Participants were inpatients males (35) and females (11), ages 20–49 years at two teaching psychiatric hospital in Iran. All patients were in the active phase of the illness and met DSM-IV-TR criteria for schizophrenia. Patients were allocated in a random fashion 23 patients to risperidone 6 mg/day plus modafinil 200 mg/day and 23 patients to risperidone 6 mg/day plus placebo. The principal measure of outcome was the positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS). Patients were assessed by a psychiatrist at baseline and after 2, 4, 6 and 8 weeks after the start of medication. The modafinil group had significantly greater improvement in the negative symptoms as well as PANSS total scores over the 8-week trial. Therapy with 200 mg/day of modafinil was well tolerated and no clinically important side effects were observed. The present study indicates modafinil as a potential adjunctive treatment strategy for treatment of schizophrenia particularly the negative symptoms. Nevertheless, results of larger-controlled trials are needed before recommendation for broad clinical application can be made. This trial is registered with the Iranian Clinical Trials Registry (IRCT138903131556N16).