LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Posttraumatic stress disorder in victims of the March 11 attacks in Madrid admitted to a hospital emergency room: 6-month follow-up.

PURPOSE
To determine the change in prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in victims of the March 11 attacks and their relatives, 1 and 6 months after the attacks.


SUBJECTS AND METHODS
Evaluation of PTSD symptoms using the Davidson Trauma Scale (DTS) and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) in a sample of 56 patients admitted to an emergency room of a general hospital, and assessment of PTSD symptoms in relatives of the patients.


RESULTS
At Month 1, 41.1% of patients (31.3% of males and 54.2% of females) presented with PTSD. At Month 6, this figure was 40.9% (30.4% of males and 52.4% of females). There was a significant improvement in perception of health among females between Month 1 and Month 6. Relatives presented similar DTS scores at baseline and at 6 months.


DISCUSSION
We verified that rates of PTSD did not vary substantively between the two evaluations. PTSD symptoms positively correlated with psychological health involvement. This correlation points out that both PTSD symptoms and subjective general health involvement are part of the psychological response to trauma.


CONCLUSION
The prevalence of PTSD symptoms was high and remained stable between Month 1 and Month 6, while subjective perception of health improved significantly.
Mesenchymal stem cells for treatment of steroid-resistant, severe, acute graft-versus-host disease: a phase II study

BACKGROUND
Severe graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a life-threatening complication after allogeneic transplantation with haemopoietic stem cells. Mesenchymal stem cells modulate immune responses in vitro and in vivo. We aimed to assess whether mesenchymal stem cells could ameliorate GVHD after haemopoietic-stem-cell transplantation.


METHODS
Patients with steroid-resistant, severe, acute GVHD were treated with mesenchymal stem cells, derived with the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation ex-vivo expansion procedure, in a multicentre, phase II experimental study. We recorded response, transplantation-related deaths, and other adverse events for up to 60 months' follow-up from infusion of the cells.


FINDINGS
Between October, 2001, and January, 2007, 55 patients were treated. The median dose of bone-marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells was 1.4x10(6) (min-max range 0.4-9x10(6)) cells per kg bodyweight. 27 patients received one dose, 22 received two doses, and six three to five doses of cells obtained from HLA-identical sibling donors (n=5), haploidentical donors (n=18), and third-party HLA-mismatched donors (n=69). 30 patients had a complete response and nine showed improvement. No patients had side-effects during or immediately after infusions of mesenchymal stem cells. Response rate was not related to donor HLA-match. Three patients had recurrent malignant disease and one developed de-novo acute myeloid leukaemia of recipient origin. Complete responders had lower transplantation-related mortality 1 year after infusion than did patients with partial or no response (11 [37%] of 30 vs 18 [72%] of 25; p=0.002) and higher overall survival 2 years after haemopoietic-stem-cell transplantation (16 [53%] of 30 vs four [16%] of 25; p=0.018).


INTERPRETATION
Infusion of mesenchymal stem cells expanded in vitro, irrespective of the donor, might be an effective therapy for patients with steroid-resistant, acute GVHD.
Incremental Maintenance for Leapfrog Triejoin

We present an incremental maintenance algorithm for leapfrog triejoin. The algorithm maintains rules in time proportional (modulo log factors) to the edit distance between leapfrog triejoin traces.
Water and Sanitary Conditions of a Typical Faculty of Public Health Building in a Nigerian University

This study investigated water and sanitary conditions of a typical faculty of Public Health building, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. A cross-sectional study was conducted and 108 consented students and staff members were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. Fifteen (15) toilet facilities with 45 rooms were also observed using an observational checklist. Respondents’ age was 28.9±5.5 years, 63.0% were female, 92.6% were students and all participants had completed tertiary education. The main source of water supply into the building was piped water (85.2%) and 77.9% used it for flushing toilet. Only 22.2% reported that the water source is readily accessible all the time while 63.0% stated that the quantity of water available got depleted during the afternoon time. On-site observations revealed that 8 (53.4%) of the toilet facilities had inadequate water supply. Majority (81.5%) reported water closet as the main type of sanitary convenience in the building while the major shortcomings of the toilets mentioned were non-accessibility (88.9%) and shortage of water supply (77.8%). All (100%) of the toilet rooms observed had no severe odour while 2 (4.4%) of the toilet rooms had appreciable quantities of vectors breeding. About fifty-nine percent had good attitude towards the sanitary conveniences within the building and significantly, 75.0% of female respondents had good attitude compared to 25.0% of their male counterpart (p<0.05). Twelve (11.1%) respondents said they practiced handwashing with water and soap and none (0.0%) reported presence of signs that encourage good hygiene practices in the toilet. Wash hand basins was observed to be present and functional within all the 15 (100%) toilet facilities, water was present in 10 (66.7%) of the facilities while soap was absent in all the 15 (100%) facilities observed. Constant water supply should be sustained, handwashing materials and signs that encourage good hygiene practices should be provided within the toilets.
Effect of age on immunological response in the first year of antiretroviral therapy in HIV-1-infected adults in West Africa.

OBJECTIVE
To assess the effect of aging on the immunological response to antiretroviral therapy (ART) in the West African context.


METHODS
The change in CD4 T-cell count was analysed according to age at the time of ART initiation among HIV-infected patients enrolled in the International epidemiological Database to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA) Collaboration in the West African region. CD4 gain over 12 months of ART was estimated using linear mixed models. Models were adjusted for baseline CD4 cell count, sex, baseline clinical stage, calendar period and ART regimen.


RESULTS
The total number of patients included was 24,107, contributing for 50,893 measures of CD4 cell count in the first year of ART. The baseline median CD4 cell count was 144 cells/μl [interquartile range (IQR) 61-235]; median CD4 cell count reached 310 cells/μl (IQR 204-443) after 1 year of ART. The median age at treatment initiation was 36.3 years (10th-90th percentiles = 26.5-50.1). In adjusted analysis, the mean CD4 gain was significantly higher in younger patients (P < 0.0001). At 12 months, patients below 30 years recovered an additional 22 cells/μl on average [95% confidence interval (CI) 2-43] compared to patients at least 50 years.


CONCLUSION
Among HIV-infected adults in West Africa, the immunological response after 12 months of ART was significantly poorer in elderly patients. As the population of treated patients is likely to get older, the impact of this age effect on immunological response to ART may increase over time.
Snakes , Shapes and Gradient Vector Flow

A novel method for finding active contours, or snakes as developed by Xu and Prince [1] is presented in this paper. The approach uses a regularization based technique and calculus of variations to find what the authors call a Gradient Vector Field or GVF in binary-values or grayscale images. The GVF is in turn applied to ’pull’ the snake towards the required feature. The approach presented here differs from other snake algorithms in its ability to extend into object concavities and its robust initialization technique. Although their algorithm works better than existing active contour algorithms, it suffers from computational complexity and associated costs in execution, resulting in slow execution time.
Single-course specific immunotherapy with mixed pollen allergoids: results of a multi-centre study.

BACKGROUND
A short-term immunotherapy vaccine for the treatment of pollen allergy has been developed utilising L-tyrosine adsorbed allergoids. The reduced number of injections could provide advantages over long-term therapy schedules. This would improve compliance and support application of specific immunotherapy (SIT) to a greater extent. We report a multicenter study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of this treatment in a clinical practice setting.


METHODS
Patients (n = 1808) with a diagnosis of sensitivities to various pollens and symptoms of allergic asthma and/or allergic rhinitis and/or allergic conjunctivitis were selected. The vaccine formulation was made up according to individual sensitivities and contained L-tyrosine adsorbed allergoids. The patients were treated with a 3-injection initial course followed by a 3-injection maintenance course. Efficacy was measured by consumption of symptomatic anti-allergic medication compared with that in the previous season and by physician assessment using a 5-point scale. All adverse events were recorded.


RESULTS
Efficacy was demonstrated by a considerable decrease in regular and frequent use of medication compared with that in the previous season (p < 0.001). In addition, in 80 % of the patients, the physician's assessment was either "good" or "very good". These outcomes were unaffected by the closeness of the treatment course to the onset of the pollen season. Tolerability was good and most local and systemic reactions were mild.


CONCLUSIONS
The treatment of pollen-allergic patients with a short-term SIT using a 6-injection pollen allergoid/L-tyrosine vaccine in a clinical practice setting provided a high level of efficacy with a low incidence of mainly mild adverse events.
Pension Funds in France: Still a Dead End?

The French Presidential elections of 2002 have exacerbated the debate on the future of the pension system. This debate started about 20 years ago, and has been paved with numerous reports, books, and contributions that have not been followed by significant political decisions. Only one reform, the Balladur reform (after the name of the conservative Prime Minister in place at that time, Edouard Balladur) has been enacted in 1993. Surprisingly, the Balladur reform was inspired by the White Book issued in 1991 and ordered by Michel Rocard when he was the Prime Minister of a socialist Government. The first pillar of the pension system, i.e. the pay-as-you-go basic scheme was the only concern of the Balladur reform. The other pillars, i.e. complementary PAYG or funded schemes, were not affected. In March 1997, the Parliament enacted the Thomas Act (after the name of the conservative deputy who wrote the proposal) that introduced retirement savings plan (Plans d’épargne retraite), but the law has never been enforced because of the political switch in June 1997 and has been formally abrogated in 2002. Today there still lack a consensus on pension funds in France. The only issue that seems not to be debatable is the willingness to maintain a PAYG public scheme for the basic and complementary pension schemes. The debate concerns the introduction of pension funds as a third pillar. We show in this paper that, even if pension funds hardly exist in France, they have close, but imperfect, substitutes such as life insurance and employee-saving schemes. The difficulty is that these saving instruments are not specifically designed for retirement purposes. There is thus a risk of insufficient saving at old-age. We advocate the introduction of pension-oriented schemes, but not as designed by the Thomas Act, since there is an insufficient protection of wage-earners against financial risks. The first section is devoted to an institutional overview of the French pension system, and presents basic statistics. The second section gives some details on the supplementary occupational funded schemes. In section 3, we argue that funding does exist in France, through personal savings. In section 4 we show that the last reforms did not pave the way to pension funds. Section 5 concludes. JEL Classification: G230
Performance optimization of monopulse target tracking radar

In this study, an analysis and simulation tool is developed for optimizing system parameters of the monopulse target tracking radar and observing effects of the system parameters on the performance of the system over different scenarios in order to improve performance of monopulse target tracking radar. The relationship between system parameters of radar and target is also examined.
Impact of an Educational Intervention on Women's Knowledge and Acceptability of Human Papillomavirus Self-Sampling: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Cameroon

OBJECTIVE
Human papillomavirus (HPV) self-sampling (Self-HPV) may be used as a primary cervical cancer screening method in a low resource setting. Our aim was to evaluate whether an educational intervention would improve women's knowledge and confidence in the Self-HPV method.


METHOD
Women aged between 25 and 65 years old, eligible for cervical cancer screening, were randomly chosen to receive standard information (control group) or standard information followed by educational intervention (interventional group). Standard information included explanations about what the test detects (HPV), the link between HPV and cervical cancer and how to perform HPV self-sampling. The educational intervention consisted of a culturally tailored video about HPV, cervical cancer, Self-HPV and its relevancy as a screening test. All participants completed a questionnaire that assessed sociodemographic data, women's knowledge about cervical cancer and acceptability of Self-HPV.


RESULTS
A total of 302 women were enrolled in 4 health care centers in Yaoundé and the surrounding countryside. 301 women (149 in the "control group" and 152 in the "intervention group") completed the full process and were included into the analysis. Participants who received the educational intervention had a significantly higher knowledge about HPV and cervical cancer than the control group (p<0.05), but no significant difference on Self-HPV acceptability and confidence in the method was noticed between the two groups.


CONCLUSION
Educational intervention promotes an increase in knowledge about HPV and cervical cancer. Further investigation should be conducted to determine if this intervention can be sustained beyond the short term and influences screening behavior.


TRIALS REGISTRATION
International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN) Register ISRCTN78123709.
Night blood pressure responses to atenolol and hydrochlorothiazide in black and white patients with essential hypertension.

BACKGROUND
Night blood pressure (BP) predicts patient outcomes. Variables associated with night BP response to antihypertensive agents have not been fully evaluated in essential hypertension.


METHODS
We sought to measure night BP responses to hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ), atenolol (ATEN), and combined therapy using ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) monitoring in 204 black and 281 white essential hypertensive patients. Initial therapy was randomized; HCTZ and ATEN once daily doses were doubled after 3 weeks and continued for 6 more weeks with the alternate medication added for combined therapy arms. ABP was measured at baseline and after completion of each drug. Night, day, and night/day BP ratio responses (treatment - baseline) were compared in race/sex subgroups.


RESULTS
Baseline night systolic BP and diastolic BP, and night/day ratios were greater in blacks than whites (P < 0.01, all comparisons). Night BP responses to ATEN were absent and night/day ratios increased significantly in blacks (P < 0.05). At the end of combined therapy, women, blacks, and those starting with HCTZ as opposed to ATEN had significantly greater night BP responses (P < 0.01). Variables that significantly associated with ATEN response differed from those that associated with HCTZ response and those that associated with night BP response differed from those that associated with day BP response.


CONCLUSIONS
In summary, after completion of HCTZ and ATEN therapy, women, blacks, and those who started with HCTZ had greater night BP responses. Reduced night BP response and increased night/day BP ratios occured with ATEN in blacks. Given the prognostic significance of night BP, strategies for optimizing night BP antihypertensive therapy should be considered.


CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION
Clinicaltrials.gov identifier NCT00246519.
Interactive Video Object Segmentation in the Wild

In this paper we present our system for human-in-theloop video object segmentation. The backbone of our system is a method for one-shot video object segmentation [3]. While fast, this method requires an accurate pixel-level segmentation of one (or several) frames as input. As manually annotating such a segmentation is impractical, we propose a deep interactive image segmentation method, that can accurately segment objects with only a handful of clicks. On the GrabCut dataset, our method obtains 90% IOU with just 3.8 clicks on average, setting the new state of the art. Furthermore, as our method iteratively refines an initial segmentation, it can effectively correct frames where the video object segmentation fails, thus allowing users to quickly obtain high quality results even on challenging sequences. Finally, we investigate usage patterns and give insights in how many steps users take to annotate frames, what kind of corrections they provide, etc., thus giving important insights for further improving interactive video segmentation.
Nurses' attitudes towards clients who self-harm.

BACKGROUND
Deliberate self-harm is frequently encountered by emergency department (ED) nurses. However, clients are often dissatisfied with the care provided and clinicians feel ambivalent, helpless or frustrated when working with clients who self-harm.


AIM
The aim of the study was to develop and test a scale to identify relevant dimensions of ED nurses' attitudes to clients who present with self-injury.


METHODS
Items on Attitudes Towards Deliberate Self-Harm Questionnaire (ADSHQ) were drawn from a literature review and focus group discussions with ED nurses. The tool was piloted with 20 ED nurses not working in the target agencies. A survey of nurses working within 23 major public and 14 major private EDs in Queensland, Australia (n = 1008) was then undertaken.


RESULTS
A total of 352 questionnaires were returned (35% response). Analysis revealed four factors that reflected nurses' attitudes toward these clients. The factors related to nurses' perceived confidence in their assessment and referral skills; ability to deal effectively with clients, empathic approach; and ability to cope effectively with legal and hospital regulations that guide practice. There was a generally negative attitude towards clients who self-harm. Correlations were found between years of ED experience and total score on the ADSHQ, and years of ED experience and an empathic approach towards clients who deliberately self-harm.


CONCLUSION
There is a need for continuing professional development activities to address negative attitudes and provide practical strategies to inform practice and clinical protocols.
A metaphor-enriched social cognition.

Social cognition is the scientific study of the cognitive events underlying social thought and attitudes. Currently, the field's prevailing theoretical perspectives are the traditional schema view and embodied cognition theories. Despite important differences, these perspectives share the seemingly uncontroversial notion that people interpret and evaluate a given social stimulus using knowledge about similar stimuli. However, research in cognitive linguistics (e.g., Lakoff & Johnson, 1980) suggests that people construe the world in large part through conceptual metaphors, which enable them to understand abstract concepts using knowledge of superficially dissimilar, typically more concrete concepts. Drawing on these perspectives, we propose that social cognition can and should be enriched by an explicit recognition that conceptual metaphor is a unique cognitive mechanism that shapes social thought and attitudes. To advance this metaphor-enriched perspective, we introduce the metaphoric transfer strategy as a means of empirically assessing whether metaphors influence social information processing in ways that are distinct from the operation of schemas alone. We then distinguish conceptual metaphor from embodied simulation--the mechanism posited by embodied cognition theories--and introduce the alternate source strategy as a means of empirically teasing apart these mechanisms. Throughout, we buttress our claims with empirical evidence of the influence of metaphors on a wide range of social psychological phenomena. We outline directions for future research on the strength and direction of metaphor use in social information processing. Finally, we mention specific benefits of a metaphor-enriched perspective for integrating and generating social cognitive research and for bridging social cognition with neighboring fields.
Demonstration of a home energy management system with smart thermostat control

A home energy management (HEM) system has the potential to enable demand response (DR) implementation for residential customers. This paper presents a detailed hardware architecture that allows control of an air conditioning (AC) unit by varying the thermostat set point. This can be accomplished by controlling a Wi-Fi enabled thermostat via an HEM system. The hardware demonstration of the proposed architecture is also discussed. This work showcases the applicability of the HEM system in managing an AC unit through a smart thermostat control. This approach can serve as an alternative to allowing an electric utility to perform remote disconnect to AC units. Controlling an AC unit by adjusting the thermostat set point can ensure lower average power consumption of the AC unit during a demand response period, along with better temperature control and improved equipment lifetime.
Printed Wide-Slot Antenna for Wideband Applications

The design and analysis of a novel printed wide-slot antenna, fed by a microstrip line, for wideband communication systems is presented. Detailed simulation and experimental investigations are conducted to understand its behavior and optimize for broadband operation. The designed antenna has a wide operating bandwidth of over 120% (2.8-11.4 GHz) for S11 <-10 dB. In addition to being small in size, the antenna exhibits stable far-field radiation characteristics in the entire operating bandwidth, relatively high gain, and low cross polarization. By properly choosing the suitable slot shape, selecting similar feed shape and tuning their dimensions, the design with very wide operating bandwidth, relatively small size and improved radiation pattern is obtained. A comprehensive parametric study has been carried out to understand the effects of various dimensional parameters and to optimize the performance of the designed antenna. Results show that the impedance matching of this kind of antenna is greatly affected by the feed-slot combination and feed gap width, with the slot shape being a main contributor of the radiation characteristics. The simulated and measured Results for return loss, far-field E and H-plane radiation patterns, and gain of designed antenna are presented and discussed.