LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
[Quality of life and impact of incontinence in male patients with prostate carcinoma after radical retropubic prostatectomy].

BACKGROUND
To explore the effect of an interdisciplinary training programme on quality of life and impact of incontinence in male patients with urinary incontinence after radical retropubic prostatectomy for cancer of the prostate.


PATIENTS AND METHODS
We conducted a controlled trial with two intervention groups. Both groups received an interdisciplinary training programme, with the first group (n=87) receiving the standard version, and the second group (n=72) receiving an additional tool 'BBS-trainer' to improve the perception of the pelvic floor muscles. Primary outcomes were quality of life (EORTC questionnaires) and impact of incontinence (modified questionnaire) evaluated up to six months after the treatment. The relationship between certain parameters such as incontinence was investigated.


RESULTS
Mean age was 64 years; most of the participants were married and pensioned. Both groups improved significantly and to a relevant extent in most of the quality of life and incontinence variables during the three weeks of treatment, after six months they further improved significantly. Quality of life improved first, continence and impact on daily life followed. Some differences found between both groups refer to the time course.


CONCLUSIONS
There is strong interaction between quality of life, incontinence and impact of incontinence. The interdisciplinary training programme shows quickly strong effects on quality of life and impact factors. It therefore is advisable that men with incontinence symptoms after prostatectomy should be offered such a treatment in a specialized rehabilitation clinic.
Charles Edward Beevor (1854–1908)

JO N 89 Charles Edward Beevor was born in London in 1854, and educated at the Blackheath Proprietary School and University College, London. He received his medical training at University College Hospital, took the diploma of MRCS. Eng. in 1878, and graduated MB in the University of London in 1879, and MD in 1881. He obtained the diploma of MRCP Lond. in 1882, and was elected as Fellow in 1888. He became Resident Medical Officer at the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic, Queen Square, where he was subsequently elected Assistant Physician, then became Physician. He also had studied in Vienna, Leipzig, and Berlin, and was for a good many years Physician to the Great Northern Central Hospital [1]. It is well known that he worked with Sir Victor Horsley in much of his research, especially on cerebral localization. Beevor became Treasurer of the Neurological Society of the United Kingdom for the year 1902, VicePresident in 1905 and President in 1907. His presidential address to the Neurological Society concerned the cerebral arterial supply and was published in Brain in 1907 [2], the journal for which he served on the editorial board assisting Henry Head. According to his obituary, Beevor attended the annual dinner of the Royal Society of Medicine on 4 December 1908, apparently still in good health but in the early hours of the next day his tragic,sudden death occurred from atheromatous disease of the coronary arteries. The name Beevor is associated with the neurological sign of “an upward migration of the umbilicus in the act of sitting up from supine position due to weakness of the lower half of the rectus abdominis”. This is regarded as a reliable sign indicating lesions at the level of the T10–12 spinal cord and/or roots. Beevor described this finding in his 100-page monograph entitled The Croonian Lectures on Muscular Movements and their Representation in the Central Nervous System, published in 1904 [3]. The essential part of his description about the umbilical movements appears in the section “Movements of the Spinal Column” on page 40, in which he stated “I observed a symptom which enables the investigator to tell if there is any weakness of the upper or lower parts of the recti. This symptom is the movement of the umbilicus. In health, in the movement of sitting up the umbilicus dose not alter its position, but if from a lesion of the recti below the umbilicus be paralysed, the normal upper part of the recti will draw up the umbilicus, sometimes to the extent of an inch. As the abdominal wall at the level of the umbilicus is supplied by the tenth dorsal root, any marked elevation of the umbilicus in the act of sitting up would Received: October 2000 Accepted: 5 December 2000
Smart Massive MIMO: An Infrastructure toward 5th Generation Smart Cities Network

, Ali Jaber 3 , Vahid Meghdadi 2 Cances  e r r Pie , Jean 1 oud b Ahmad Ab  1,2,3,Department Of Components Circuits Signals And High Frequency Systems Xlim labs, University Of Limoges Limoges, France 4Department of Statistic, Lebanese University, Lebanon Abstract : On the Optimizing of Wireless Networks and toward improving the future 5th Generation mobile Network Infrastructure, we propose a novel infrastructure that can be the next Smart City Network. Our proposed Infrastructure takes into consideration most future demands and challenges, includes Capacity, Reliability, Scalability, and Flexibility. To deal with this issues we propose a wireless network infrastructure that is based on latest technologies of Massive MIMO systems. We further extend our infrastructure with many smart features, to be capable of coping with Cloud Computing, Smartphones, IoT and other intelligence-based services. The proposed infrastructure uses Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Virtual Antenna Arrays (VAA) and Joint Beamforming to afford flexibility. We further propose a Terminalcentric rather than a Cell-centric based Infrastructure, which optimize interference aware environment and lead to higher capacity and reliability. The new infrastructure includes multi-purpose nodes that run a Network Operating System (NOS). This node will afford a scalable and flexible cost effective and semi-distributed network resources. Other propositions that meet Power-Effective, Cost-Effective, and Scenery aware design are discussed.
Ethics, Politics and the Potential of Dialogism

When, in the early 1980s the ideas of post-structuralism seemed rampant within academic critical theory, the appearance of the flawed English translation of Mikhail Bakhtin's central essays on the novel seemed to offer a very promising alternative perspective.1 Bakhtin's model of discursive relations promised to guard the specificity of discourse from being obscured by a web of determinations, while allowing the development of an account of the operations of power and resistance in discourse that could avoid the nullity of Derrida's hors-texte and the irresponsible semiotic hedonism of the later Barthes. Marxist theorists such as Raymond Williams, Terry Eagleton and Allon White immediately and effectively seized upon the translated work of the Bakhtin circle to bolster their arguments, but, as translations of the earlier and later philosophical material appeared, it became apparent that the relationship between work of the circle and the Marxist tradition was very problematic. With this, the American anti-Marxist Slavists – some of whom had been responsible for certain of these translations – moved onto the offensive, arguing that Bakhtin's work was fundamentally incompatible with, and in principle hostile to, Marxism. Occasionally, they went further, arguing that Bakhtin was quite unconcerned with politics and questions of power, being an ethical, or even a religious philosopher before all else. The Americans did have a point. Bakhtin certainly was not a Marxist and the Marxism of some of his early colleagues and collaborators was of a rather peculiar sort. Furthermore, the key problematic area was indeed Bakhtin's ethics which, it became ever more apparent, underlies his most critically astute and productive work and serves to blunt its political edge. Important points of contact between the work of the Bakhtin circle and Marxist theory do persist, however, as Ken Hirschkop and Michael Gardiner, among others, have continued to register. In this article, examining some of the sources of Bakhtin's philosophy, which have only just been revealed in the new Russian edition of his work, we shall analyse the features of Bakhtin's ethics that stifle the political potential of dialogic criticism, and we will suggest ways in which that potential may be liberated.
Adaptive Superiority and Noninferiority Trial Design with Paired Binary Data

Corresponding Author: Jing Wang Boston University, Boston, MA, USA Email: jwa222@bu.edu Abstract: Non-inferiority of a diagnostic test to the standard is a common issue in medical research. For instance, we may be interested in determining if a new diagnostic test is noninferior to the standard reference test because the new test might be inexpensive to the extent that some small inferior margin in sensitivity or specificity may be acceptable. Noninferiority trials are also found to be useful in clinical trials, such as image studies, where the data are collected in pairs. Conventional noninferiority trials for paired binary data are designed with a fixed sample size and no interim analysis is allowed. Adaptive design which allows for interim modifications of the trial becomes very popular in recent years and are widely used in clinical trials because of its efficiency. However, to our knowledge there is no adaptive design method available for noninferiority trial with paired binary data. In this study, we developed an adaptive design method for non-inferiority trials with paired binary data, which can also be used for superiority trials when the noninferiority margin is set to zero. We included a trial example and provided the SAS program for the design simulations.
Coordinated Community Intervention for Domestic Abusers: Intervention System Involvement and Criminal Recidivism

This study examined prosecution and post-prosecution elements of a coordinated community intervention approach to male perpetrators of adult domestic violence. In a sample of 235 cases, recidivism was assessed from official criminal justice data during a 12- to 18-month period after cases were initially handled by the Baltimore, Maryland State's Attorney's Domestic Violence Unit. Court orders for domestic violence counseling were associated with significantly lower criminal recidivism for battery or violation of a civil order of protection. Lower criminal recidivism was also associated with the cumulative effects of successful prosecution, probation monitoring, receiving a court order to counseling, attending counseling intake, and completion of counseling. Individuals with greater involvement in this intervention system had lower recidivism rates, even though offenders with more extensive abuse histories experienced more intervention. Results provide qualified support for coordinated community intervention for domestic violence perpetrators.
Prevalence of human cytomegalovirus and Epstein-Barr virus in subgingival plaque at peri-implantitis, mucositis and healthy sites. A pilot study.

This study evaluated the prevalence of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in peri-implantitis and mucositis sites and the correlation between herpesvirus and clinical parameters. Fifty-six dental implants (mean time of loading, 4.27±1.6 years) were evaluated (20 peri-implantitis, 18 mucositis, 18 healthy peri-implant sites.) The clinical parameters assessed were: visible plaque index (PI), bleeding on probing (BOP), suppuration (SUP), probing depth (PD). A polymerase chain reaction assay identified HCMV and EBV in subgingival plaque samples. The percent of sites with plaque and BOP was significantly higher around mucositis and peri-implantitis compared with healthy implants (p<0.05). The mean PD around the implants was significantly higher in peri-implantitis, followed by mucositis and healthy implants (p<0.05). HCMV was detected in 13 (65%) and EBV in 9 (45%) of the 20 peri-implantitis sites. HCMV was found in 1 of the 18 (6%) healthy periodontal sites and EBV in 2 (11%). A statistically significant correlation was found between presence of HCMV and EBV subgingivally and clinical parameters of peri-implantitis and healthy sites. These results confirm the high prevalence of HCMV and EBV in subgingival plaque of peri-implantitis sites and suggest the viruses have a possible active pathogenic role in peri-implantitis.
The clinical significance of circulating tumor cells

Metastasis is the main cause of cancer-related death, but early spread of tumor cells usually remains undetected even by high-resolution imaging technologies. Sensitive immunocytochemical and molecular assays now enable specific detection of ‘occult’ disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) at the single-cell stage in cancer patients. The detection of these DTCs years before the onset of overt metastasis could contribute to improved identification of those patients in need of early systemic anticancer therapy. Recent publications have shown that certain properties of the primary tumor (e.g. expression of the CXC-chemokine receptor CXCR4) enable early hematogenous tumor cell dissemination into the bone marrow.1,2 Interestingly, bone marrow seems to be a common homing organ for DTCs derived from various types of malignant epithelial tumors (e.g. breast, lung, prostate or colorectal cancer).3 Most investigators have used cytokeratins as marker antigens; these cytoskeletal proteins are expressed in all epithelial tumors and are usually absent in hematopoietic cells.3 DTCs are present in bone marrow samples of 20–40% of patients, even in the absence of lymph node metastases (stage N0) or clinical signs of overt distant metastases (stage M0). DTCs are even detected in the bone marrow of patients who have cancers that do not preferably metastasize to the bone (e.g. colon cancer),3 suggesting that bone marrow might be the preferred reservoir for these cells. Clinical studies have shown significant correlations between the presence of DTCs in bone marrow and metastatic relapse in various tumor types,3 suggesting that the founder cells of overt metastases (i.e. ‘metastatic stem cells’) might be among those DTCs. A very comprehensive database is currently available for breast cancer; however, only half of the breast cancer patients with DTCs reported here relapsed, whereas the other half remained free of overt metastasis over a 10-year follow-up period.4 This finding is in line with data from animal models and suggests that a significant fraction The clinical significance of circulating tumor cells
The EORTC tables overestimate the risk of recurrence and progression in patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer treated with bacillus Calmette-Guérin: external validation of the EORTC risk tables.

BACKGROUND
European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) risk tables only included 171 patients treated with bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) for non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the external validity of the EORTC tables in patients with NMIBC treated with BCG over 5-6 mo.


DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Data on 1062 patients treated with BCG were analyzed.


MEASUREMENTS
Discrimination was assessed using the concordance index (c-index) and the prognostic separation index (PSEP). For calibration, probabilities of recurrence and progression obtained with the EORTC risk tables in our series were compared with those reported by the EORTC.


RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS
With respect to the discriminative ability of the EORTC model, c-index was similar to those reported in the EORTC series for recurrence. However, c-indices for progression in our series were lower than c-indices reported by Sylvester et al. [1]. Although PSEP in our series was lower than in the EORTC series for recurrence at 1 yr, similar results were found at 5 yr. Regarding progression, PSEP in our series was lower than in the EORTC series. Whilst a successful stratification of recurrence and progression probability at 1 and 5 yr was achieved using the EORTC tables in our series, model calibration showed lower risks of recurrence than those reported by Sylvester et al. [1] in all groups. For progression, lower risks were found in higher-risk groups. There are some limitations in the present study. A different distribution of patients was found, with higher proportions of primary grade 3 T1 tumors and tumors in situ than in the EORTC series. An additional limitation is that prior recurrence of the EORTC table was not included in our parameters. Consequently, two separate analyses were performed for recurrence.


CONCLUSIONS
The EORTC model successfully stratified recurrence and progression risks in our cohort. However, the discriminative ability of the EORTC tables decreased in our patients for progression. Moreover, these tables overestimated risks of recurrence and progression after BCG therapy.
Cloud Computing-A Study of Infrastructure as a Service Sukhdev

Cloud computing is a promising technology of the present and the future which uses the grid computing as its backbone. Cloud computing is the hottest topic of information and communication technology (ICT) for implementing it for individual, communities and business. It provides services such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS). It provides many benefits like scalability and pay per use etc. Different deployment models are also available to fulfill the needs of the business and industry. Keywords— Cloud computing, Network, Model, Infrastructure, Platform
The impact of hypertension on retinal nerve fiber layer thickness and its association with carotid intima media thickness.

OBJECTIVE
Our aim was to investigate retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness in hypertensive patients using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and to evaluate the relationship between RNFL thickness and carotid intima media thickness (CIMT).


METHODS
This study included 59 patients with hypertension (HT) (53.6 ± 10.7 years) and 54 age-matched healthy controls (51.0 ± 8.1 years). We evaluated anthropometric and metabolic parameters as well as RNFL and CIMT measurements in patients with hypertension and controls.


RESULTS
The average RNFL thickness was 86.60 ± 10.86 μm in hypertensive patients and 93.63 ± 7.30 μm in healthy controls (p < 0.001). Selective thinning of the RNFL was found in the superior and inferior quadrants. Mean CIMT values were higher in patients with HT (0.80 ± 0.15 mm) than the healthy subjects (0.71 ± 0.1 mm) (p < 0.001). The average, inferior and nasal RNFL thickness were negatively associated with diastolic blood pressure respectively (r = - 0.112, r = - 0.210, r = - 0.225). There was an inverse correlation between RNFL thickness in the average and superior retinal quadrant and CIMT (r = - 0.201, r = - 0.185). There were no correlations between RNFL thickness and age, body mass index, fasting plasma glucose, lipid parameters, high-sensitive C-reactive protein and microalbuminuria.


CONCLUSION
RNFL thickness is reduced in hypertensive patients and may be associated with atherosclerosis.
Measuring the use and career histories of drug users in treatment: reliability of the Lifetime Drug Use History (LDUH) and its data yield relative to clinical case notes.

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS
There is no generally accepted clinical or research instrument available for recording the longitudinal course of a drug-using 'career'. This paper reports on an initial examination of the properties of the Lifetime Drug Use History Questionnaire (LDUH), built around monthly mapping of drug use patterns in relation to other life events.


DESIGN AND METHODS
Forty heroin and cocaine users completed structured interviews at two treatment sites. Twenty subjects were interviewed on two occasions separated by a 3-day interval, using either the same interviewer (n = 10) or two different interviewers (n = 10) as assessments of inter-rater and test - retest reliability.


RESULTS
Very good inter-rater agreements were observed, demonstrated by Cronbach's alpha and intraclass correlation coefficients generally higher than 0.8 and 0.7, respectively. Additionally, concordance with clinical notes was assessed for four drug use history variables, resulting in poorer rates of agreement. An exact matching with clinical records was obtained for the variable 'age of first use of heroin' in 47.2% (n = 17) of the heroin users, while a good agreement (only 1 or 2 years' difference) was found in 36.1% of cases (n = 5).


DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
The LDUH method resulted in high reliability for heroin and cocaine and suggests an effective, clinically applicable method for history-taking. The paucity and inconsistency of similar information in the clinical notes would further justify the use of a standardised method for recording drug histories.
ISO 9000 and supply chain efficiency: Empirical evidence on inventory and account receivable days

ISO 9000 is the most popular and widely adopted meta-standard for quality and operational improvements in manufacturing supply chains. However, few studies have quantitatively examined its impact on supply chain efficiency. In this paper we measure the material and cash flow efficiency of ISO 9000 certified firms in terms of inventory days and account receivable days. We analyzed changes in these time-based efficiency indicators prior and after ISO 9000 implementation in 695 US-listed manufacturing firms. We found that ISO 9000 certified firms shortened the number of inventory days by 3.68 days 1 year after ISO 9000 implementation. They showed continuous improvement and shortened the number of inventory days by 8.75 days (8.29% shorter) 3 years after certification. Account receivable days and overall operating cycle time also showed similar significant reductions after ISO 9000 implementation. The results reveal that ISO 9000 adoption helps improve the material and cash flows in manufacturing supply chains. & 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Automatic annotation of multilingual text collections with a conceptual thesaurus

Automatic annotation of documents with controlled vocabulary terms (descriptors) from a conceptual thesaurus is not only useful for document indexing and retrieval. The mapping of texts onto the same thesaurus furthermore allows to establish links between similar documents. This is also a substantial requirement of the Semantic Web. This paper presents an almost language-independent system that maps documents written in different languages onto the same multilingual conceptual thesaurus, EUROVOC. Conceptual thesauri differ from Natural Language Thesauri in that they consist of relatively small controlled lists of words or phrases with a rather abstract meaning. To automatically identify which thesaurus descriptors describe the contents of a document best, we developed a statistical, associative system that is trained on texts that have previously been indexed manually. In addition to describing the large number of empirically optimised parameters of the fully functional application, we present the performance of the software according to a human evaluation by professional indexers.
An Inventory of Preposition Relations

We describe an inventory of semantic relations that are expressed by prepositions. We define these relations by building on the word sense disambiguation task for prepositions and propose a mapping from preposition senses to the relation labels by collapsing semantically related senses across prepositions.
Brown's original fictitious play

What modern game theorists describe as “fictitious play” is not the learning process George W. Brown defined in his 1951 paper. Brown’s original version differs in a subtle detail, namely the order of belief updating. In this note we revive Brown’s original fictitious play process and demonstrate that this seemingly innocent detail allows for an extremely simple and intuitive proof of convergence in an interesting and large class of games: nondegenerate ordinal potential games. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. JEL classification: C72