LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Acute effects of left atrial radiofrequency ablation on atrial fibrillation.

INTRODUCTION
Acutely, when left atrial ablation is performed during atrial fibrillation (AF), the AF may persist and require cardioversion, or it may convert to sinus rhythm or to atrial tachycardia/flutter. The prevalence of these acute outcomes has not been described.


METHODS AND RESULTS
Left atrial ablation, usually including encirclement of the pulmonary veins, was performed during AF in 144 patients with drug-refractory AF. Conversion to sinus rhythm occurred in 19 patients (13%), to left atrial tachycardia in 6 (4%), and to atrial flutter in 6 (4%). In the 6 patients with a focal atrial tachycardia, the mean cycle length was 294 +/- 45 ms. The tachycardia arose in the left atrial roof in 3 patients, the left atrial appendage in 2, and the anterior left atrium in 1. In 3 of 6 patients, the focal atrial tachycardia originated in an area that displayed a relatively short cycle length during AF. In 6 patients, AF converted to macroreentrant atrial flutter with a mean cycle length of 253 +/- 47 ms, involving the mitral isthmus in 5 patients and the septum in 1 patient. All atrial tachycardias and flutters were successfully ablated with 1 to 15 applications of radiofrequency energy.


CONCLUSION
When left atrial ablation is performed during AF, the AF may convert to atrial tachycardia or flutter in approximately 10% of patients. Focal atrial tachycardias that occur during ablation of AF may be attributable to driving mechanisms that persist after AF has been eliminated, whereas atrial flutter results from incomplete ablation lines.
Automatic Transformation of Data Warehouse Schema to NoSQL Data Base: Comparative Study

Driven by the ever-growing of data from social network (SN), data warehouse (DW) approaches must be adapted. Generally the star, snowflake or constellation models are used as logical ones. All these models are inadequate when dealing with social data which need scalable and flexible systems. As an alternative, NoSQL systems begin to grow. In the absence of a clear approach which allows the implementation of data warehouse under NoSQL model, we propose in this paper, new rules for transforming a multidimensional conceptual model into two NoSQL ones: column-oriented and documentoriented models. For each model, we distinguish two types of transformation: simple and hierarchical. To validate our transformation rules, we implemented four data warehouses using Cassandra as a column-oriented NoSQL system and MongoDB as document-oriented NoSQL system. These systems were implemented using java routines in Talend Data Integration tool and evaluated in terms of ”Write Request Latency” and ”Read request Latency” using TPC-DS benchmark. c © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Peer-review under responsibility of KES International.
Ultrasonic potential field sensor for obstacle avoidance

We introduce an ultrasonic sensor system that measures artificial potential fields (APF’s) directly. The APF is derived from the traveling-times of the transmitted pulses. Advantages of the sensor are that it needs only three transducers, that its design is simple, and that it measures a quantity that can be used directly for simple navigation, such as collision avoidance.
Diff-Index: Differentiated Index in Distributed Log-Structured Data Stores

Log-Structured-Merge (LSM) Tree gains much attention recently because of its superior performance in write-intensive workloads. LSM Tree uses an append-only structure in memory to achieve low write latency; at memory capacity, in-memory data are flushed to other storage media (e.g. disk). Consequently, read access is slower comparing to write. These specific features of LSM, including no in-place update and asymmetric read/write performance raise unique challenges in index maintenance for LSM. The structural difference between LSM and B-Tree also prevents mature B-Tree based approaches from being directly applied. To address the issues of index maintenance for LSM, we propose Diff-Index to support a spectrum of index maintenance schemes to suit different objectives in index consistency and performance. The schemes consist of sync-full, sync-insert, async-simple and async-session. Experiments on our HBase implementation quantitatively demonstrate that Diff-Index offers various performance/consistency balance and satisfactory scalability while avoiding global coordination. Syncinsert and async-simple can reduce 60%-80% of the overall index update latency when compared to the baseline syncfull ; async-simple can achieve superior index update performance with an acceptable inconsistency. Diff-Index exploits LSM features such as versioning and the flush-compact process to achieve goals of concurrency control and failure ∗Work done while author was at IBM Almaden Research Center. †Work done while author was an intern at IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. (c) 2014, Copyright is with the authors. Published in Proc. EDBT on OpenProceedings.org. Distribution of this paper is permitted under the terms of the Creative Commons license CC-by-nc-nd 4.0. recovery with low complexity and overhead. Diff-Index is included in IBM InfoSphere BigInsights, an IBM big data offering.
Correlation between cervical spine and temporomandibular disorders

Neuroanatomical interconnections and neurophysiological relationships between the orofacial area and the cervical spine have been documented earlier. The present single-blind study was aimed at screening possible correlations between clinical signs of temporomandibular disorders (TMD) and cervical spine disorders. Thirty-one consecutive patients with symptoms of TMD and 30 controls underwent a standardised clinical examination of the masticatory system, evaluating range of motion of the mandible, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) function and pain of the TMJ and masticatory muscles. Afterwards subjects were referred for clinical examination of the cervical spine, evaluating segmental limitations, tender points upon palpation of the muscles, hyperalgesia and hypermobility. The results indicated that segmental limitations (especially at the C0–C3 levels) and tender points (especially in the m. sternocleidomastoideus and m. trapezius) are significantly more present in patients than in controls. Hyperalgesia was present only in the patient group (12–16%).
Sigma: multiple alignment of weakly-conserved non-coding DNA sequence

Existing tools for multiple-sequence alignment focus on aligning protein sequence or protein-coding DNA sequence, and are often based on extensions to Needleman-Wunsch-like pairwise alignment methods. We introduce a new tool, Sigma, with a new algorithm and scoring scheme designed specifically for non-coding DNA sequence. This problem acquires importance with the increasing number of published sequences of closely-related species. In particular, studies of gene regulation seek to take advantage of comparative genomics, and recent algorithms for finding regulatory sites in phylogenetically-related intergenic sequence require alignment as a preprocessing step. Much can also be learned about evolution from intergenic DNA, which tends to evolve faster than coding DNA. Sigma uses a strategy of seeking the best possible gapless local alignments (a strategy earlier used by DiAlign), at each step making the best possible alignment consistent with existing alignments, and scores the significance of the alignment based on the lengths of the aligned fragments and a background model which may be supplied or estimated from an auxiliary file of intergenic DNA. Comparative tests of sigma with five earlier algorithms on synthetic data generated to mimic real data show excellent performance, with Sigma balancing high "sensitivity" (more bases aligned) with effective filtering of "incorrect" alignments. With real data, while "correctness" can't be directly quantified for the alignment, running the PhyloGibbs motif finder on pre-aligned sequence suggests that Sigma's alignments are superior. By taking into account the peculiarities of non-coding DNA, Sigma fills a gap in the toolbox of bioinformatics.
Public-Private Partnerships and Sustainable Agricultural Development

Agriculture in Africa is not sustainable because average yields have been stagnating for decades due to underinvestment, especially in the development of agricultural markets, crop improvement and the sustainable management of agricultural systems. Low public sector funding for agricultural research and lack of incentives for the private sector to operate in areas where there is no market largely explain the yield gap in many food-importing developing countries. Yet, there are effective ways in which the public and the private sector could work together and jointly improve agricultural sustainability in poor countries. The public sector provides a favorable institutional environment for the development of agricultural markets and investment in rural infrastructure, facilitates local business development and funds research with local relevance. The private sector, in return, brings its considerable expertise in product development and deployment. This article illustrates how new forms of public-private partnerships (PPPs) for agricultural development can work in challenging environments. It discusses three promising examples of PPPs in which the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) is actively involved, and shows that an experimental approach can sometimes be more effective than social planning in efforts to achieve sustainable agriculture.
Perceived age change after aesthetic facial surgical procedures quantifying outcomes of aging face surgery.

OBJECTIVE
To quantify the degree of perceived age change after aesthetic facial surgical procedures to provide an objective measure of surgical success.


METHODS
Sixty patients undergoing various aging face surgical procedures were randomly chosen for analysis. Preoperative and postoperative photographs were evaluated. Raters were presented with photographs in a random assortment and were asked to estimate the age of the patient. Perceived age difference was defined as the difference between the chronological age and the estimated age, and the change in this value after surgery was the chief outcome of interest. Statistical models were designed to account for any effects of interrater differences, preoperative chronological age, rater group, photograph order, or surgical procedure performed.


RESULTS
Our patient population was divided into the following 3 groups based on the surgical procedure performed: group 1 (face- and neck-lift [22 patients]), group 2 (face- and neck-lift and upper and lower blepharoplasty [17 patients]), and group 3 (face- and neck-lift, upper and lower blepharoplasty, and forehead-lift [21 patients]). Adjusted means demonstrated that patient ages were estimated to be 1.7 years younger than their chronological age before surgery and 8.9 years younger than their chronological age after surgery. The effect was less substantial for group 1 patients and was most dramatic for group 3 patients, who had undergone all 3 aging face surgical procedures.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study is novel in that it quantifies the degree of perceived age change after aging face surgical procedures and demonstrates a significant and consistent reduction in perceived age after aesthetic facial surgery. This effect is more substantial when the number of surgical procedures is increased, an effect unrelated to the preoperative age of a patient and unaffected by other variables that we investigated. The ability to perceive age correctly is accurate and consistent.
Velocity Aware Multipath Distance Vector Routing Protocol for High Mobility over Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks

The conventional routing protocols developed for Mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) show low performance result when they are adapted in Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET) which has more unstable channel features such as short communication time, low packet delivery ratio, frequent link breakage, and rapidly changed topology caused by high mobility. Therefore, applications on VANET environment require a specific routing protocol to maintain stable communication between vehicles. Previous VANET routing protocols have been mainly designed by using vehicle position and/or digital map information which require installations of related devices onto all vehicles on the road. In this paper, we introduce a new routing protocol supporting high mobility over VANET without using additional physical installations on the vehicles, which is using hopcounts and relative velocity between vehicles to find the best routing transmission path. We can notice that digital vehicle velocity can be easily obtained from vehicles on the road nowadays. By exchanging vehicles' relative velocities, the more stable and reliable paths are searched as compared to traditional MANET protocols using only hop count information at the time of routing path set-up. To evaluate proposed routing protocol, we compared original ad hoc on-demand multipath distance vector (AOMDV) with proposed routing protocol through NS2. Simulation results showed that proposed routing protocol achieves better performance from about 10% to 50% in terms of normalized routing overhead and packet delivery ratio.
Montelukast, a leukotriene receptor antagonist, in combination with loratadine, a histamine receptor antagonist, in the treatment of chronic asthma.

BACKGROUND
Montelukast sodium, a potent, oral, specific leukotriene-receptor antagonist, has demonstrated clinical efficacy in the treatment of chronic asthma. Loratadine, a selective histamine type 1 (H(1))-receptor antagonist, has demonstrated antiallergic properties. Leukotriene-receptor antagonists given concomitantly with H(1)-receptor antagonists have been shown to have additive effects in the prevention of bronchospasm in antigen-challenge models.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether montelukast plus loratadine provides improved efficacy to montelukast alone in the treatment of chronic asthma.


METHODS
The efficacy of montelukast alone vs montelukast-loratadine was studied in a 10-week, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, 2 x 2 crossover study. After a 2-week placebo run-in period, patients received montelukast sodium (10 mg) plus loratadine (20 mg), or montelukast sodium (10 mg) plus placebo once daily for 2 weeks. After a 2-week placebo washout period, patients were crossed over to receive 2 weeks of the other active treatment regimen, followed by another 2-week placebo washout period.


RESULTS
Montelukast given concomitantly with loratadine caused significant improvement in percentage of change from baseline in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV(1)) compared with montelukast alone (13.86% vs 9.72%; P =.001). The average additional effect of loratadine (least square mean difference in percentage of change from baseline in FEV(1)) was 4.15% (95% confidence interval, 1.65%-6.65%). Key secondary end points (mean daily beta-agonist use, daytime and nighttime symptom scores, morning and evening peak expiratory flow rate, and the Patient Global Evaluation) all showed significant improvement with montelukast-loratadine (P<.05).


CONCLUSION
Montelukast-loratadine significantly improved end points of asthma control during a 2-week treatment period.
Angiographic detection of carotid plaque ulceration. Comparison with surgical observations in a multicenter study. North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Carotid plaque ulceration is used as one of the determinants in deciding which patients should be submitted to carotid endarterectomy. Uncertainties about its importance persist. Its detection by angiography is an important consideration.


METHODS
The detection of ulceration by angiography was compared with observations during endarterectomy in the first 500 patients recruited into the North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial. This represents the first multicenter compilation of data on this subject and the largest series of patients with both arteriographic and direct surgical observation.


RESULTS
Sensitivity and specificity of detecting ulcerated plaques were 45.9% and 74.1%, respectively. The positive predictive value of identifying an ulcer was 71.8%. These results remained unchanged with differing degrees of carotid stenosis and were confirmed by analyses based on receiver operating characteristic (ROC) methodology. The area under the ROC curve (Az) was estimated to be 0.61 (95% confidence interval, 0.55 to 0.67).


CONCLUSIONS
These observations from a multicenter study confirm that little agreement exists between angiography and surgical observation in detecting carotid plaque ulceration.
Composite cements benefit from light-curing.

OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effect of curing of composite cements and a new ceramic silanization pre-treatment on the micro-tensile bond strength (μTBS).


METHODS
Feldspathic ceramic blocks were luted onto dentin using either Optibond XTR/Nexus 3 (XTR/NX3; Kerr), the silane-incorporated 'universal' adhesive Scotchbond Universal/RelyX Ultimate (SBU/RXU; 3M ESPE), or ED Primer II/Panavia F2.0 (ED/PAF; Kuraray Noritake). Besides 'composite cement', experimental variables were 'curing mode' ('AA': complete auto-cure at 21°C; 'AA*': complete auto-cure at 37°C; 'LA': light-curing of adhesive and auto-cure of cement; 'LL': complete light-curing) and 'ceramic surface pre-treatment' ('HF/S/HB': hydrofluoric acid ('HF': IPS Ceramic Etching Gel, Ivoclar-Vivadent), silanization ('S': Monobond Plus, Ivoclar-Vivadent) and application of an adhesive resin ('HB': Heliobond, Ivoclar-Vivadent); 'HF/SBU': 'HF' and application of the 'universal' adhesive Scotchbond Universal ('SBU'; 3M ESPE, only for SBU/RXU)). After water storage (7 days at 37°C), ceramic-dentin sticks were subjected to μTBS testing.


RESULTS
Regarding the 'composite cement', the significantly lowest μTBSs were measured for ED/PAF. Regarding 'curing mode', the significantly highest μTBS was recorded when at least the adhesive was light-cured ('LA' and 'LL'). Complete auto-cure ('AA') revealed the significantly lowest μTBS. The higher auto-curing temperature ('AA*') increased the μTBS only for ED/PAF. Regarding 'ceramic surface pre-treatment', only for 'LA' the μTBS was significantly higher for 'HF/S/HB' than for 'HF/SBU'.


SIGNIFICANCE
Complete auto-cure led to inferior μTBS than when either the adhesive (on dentin) or both adhesive and composite cement were light-cured. The use of a silane-incorporated adhesive did not decrease luting effectiveness when also the composite cement was light-cured.
Planar Wideband Loop-Dipole Composite Antenna

A novel planar wideband balanced composite antenna is presented. The proposed antenna consists of a symmetrical dipole and an antipodal loop radiator. The return loss, radiation pattern, and gain of the antenna are numerically and experimentally studied. An impedance bandwidth of 129% (20 log |S11| <; -10dB) from 3.26 to 15 GHz has been obtained. Stable end-fire radiation patterns with good polarization purity and flat gain performances are obtained across the operating frequency range. In addition, the time domain responses of the proposed antenna are investigated. The proposed antenna can be used in compact wireless devices for point-to-point applications.
Validation in Spanish of a screening questionnaire for the detection of psoriatic arthritis in patients with psoriasis.

OBJECTIVE
A patient self-administered questionnaire [PsA Screening and Evaluation (PASE)] has been developed and validated in English, but has not been tried in Spanish speaking populations. This study aimed to adapt and validate PASE in Spanish to screen Spanish speaking psoriasis patients for signs and symptoms of inflammatory arthritis.


METHODS
Initial translation from English to Spanish (forward translation) was performed by two independent translators and the resulting versions were synthesized during a consensus meeting. The questionnaire was tried in a pilot study and resulted in a change in the agreement scale for a frequency scale with wording adaptation [Spanish PASE (PASE-S)].


RESULTS
One hundred and eleven patients were screened with PASE-S; 25 with PsA (without previous treatments), 23 with psoriasis, 22 with psoriasis and OA and 41 with OA without psoriasis. The diagnosis of psoriasis was performed by a dermatologist, and a rheumatologist determined the diagnosis of PsA or OA. Patients with PsA had statistically significant higher symptoms, function and total PASE-S scores compared with those without PsA. Receiver operator curves showed an area under the curve of 0.79 (95% CI 0.69, 0.89) for the total score. A cut-off value ≥34 showed sensitivity of 76%, and specificity of 74.4% for the diagnosis of PsA.


CONCLUSION
The validated PASE questionnaire is a self-administered tool that can be used to screen for PsA among patients with psoriasis in a Spanish speaking population. PASE was able to distinguish between symptoms of PsA and OA.
Reading, Troubling and Hoping for the Wor(l)d: A Review of Democratizing Educational Experience

Fidyk, A., Wallin, J., & den Heyer, K. (Eds.). (2008). Democratizing Educational Experience: Envisioning, Embodying, Enacting. Troy, NY: Educator’s International Press.
Self-Referential Noise and the Synthesis of Three-Dimensional Space

Generalising results from Gödel and Chaitin in mathematics suggest that self-referential systems contain intrinsic randomness. We argue that this is relevant to modelling the universe and show how three-dimensional space may arise from a non-geometric order-disorder model driven by self-referential noise.
Ideal oral combinations to eradicate HCV: The role of ribavirin.

Current all-oral interferon-free regimens offer sustained virological response (SVR) rates above 90% as well as 12-week treatment durations for the majority of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV), including treatment-naïve and -experienced patients with or without cirrhosis. There are multiple direct-acting antiviral (DAA) combinations that can be selected to optimize efficacy and safety outcomes. Each of them can be tailored according to different parameters including the use of ribarivin (RBV). For sofosbuvir (SOF)-based combinations, RBV is useful in the following situations: HCV genotype 1, treatment-experienced, cirrhotic patients, or patients with decompensated cirrhosis, and HCV genotype 3, cirrhotic patients. In these situations the addition of RBV allows to shorten the treatment to 12weeks in the majority of cases and therefore decreases the cost of the treatment. The need of RBV remains to be determined in cirrhotic patients with a SOF plus simeprevir regimen. RBV-containing regimens are recommended in all HCV genotype 1a patients who receive the 3-DAA combination: paritaprevir/r, ombitasvir, dasabuvir. Globally, the addition of RBV to the different combinations of DAA increases slightly the risk of anaemia. However severe anaemia was rare and easily manageable with RBV dose reduction without any impact on SVR. In practice, because RBV is cheap and well tolerated when combined with interferon-free regimen, it remains a useful tool to fine tune anti-HCV treatment regimens and optimize their results.