LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Penile advancement and lengthening for the management of post-circumcision traumatic short penis in adolescents.

OBJECTIVES
To report on the safety of combing suprapubic fat liposuction, penile suspensory ligament severing, and Z-plasty of penoscrotal webbing for penile lengthening in cases of post-circumcision traumatic short penis in adolescents.


METHODS
This prospective study was conducted in 9 male patients with a mean age of 15.6 ± 1.4 years. All patients had a short penis because of traumatic amputation of the glans in 7 patients and both glanular and partial distal corporal loss in 2 patients during circumcision. All were initially treated in childhood by penile skin advancement for phallic coverage. Penile length and circumference were measured pre- and post-operatively, both in the flaccid state at maximal stretch and in the erect state. Operative technique included Z-plasty of penoscrotal web, release of suspensory ligament, and suprapubic fat liposuction.


RESULTS
Average functional penile length measured 3 months post-operatively had significantly increased by 18-30 mm (mean: 23 ± 4 mm) in the provoked, erect state. All patients had normally developed penile corpora cavernosa and wide circumference (mean: 11.7 ± 0.2 cm). No post-operative complications occurred in any of the patients. No patients had sexual partners or were sexually active.


CONCLUSIONS
The described technique of penile advancement and lengthening can be safely applied to patients with post-circumcision traumatic short penis.
Peripheral and visceral fat changes following a treatment switch to a non-thymidine analogue or a nucleoside-sparing regimen in HIV-infected subjects with peripheral lipoatrophy: results of ACTG A5110.

BACKGROUND
Switching a thymidine analogue to a non-thymidine analogue or changing to a nucleoside-sparing regimen has been shown to partially reverse peripheral lipoatrophy. The current study evaluated both approaches.


METHODS
Subjects at 15 AIDS Clinical Trial Group sites receiving thymidine analogue stavudine- or zidovudine-containing regimens with plasma HIV RNA < or =500 copies/mL and lipoatrophy were prospectively randomized to: (i) switch the thymidine analogue to abacavir; (ii) discontinue all antiretrovirals and switch to lopinavir/ritonavir plus nevirapine (LPV/r+NVP); or (iii) delay switching for 24 weeks (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00028314). Single-slice computer tomography of mid-thigh and abdominal fat and metabolic and virological/immunological parameters were measured at baseline and weeks 24 and 48.


RESULTS
Among the 101 patients enrolled, there were significant subcutaneous thigh fat and subcutaneous abdominal tissue (SAT) increases over time and decreases in visceral adipose tissue to total adipose tissue (VAT:TAT) ratios for both interventions, and a decrease in VAT for abacavir. CD4 increased in the LPV/r+NVP arm. LPV/r+NVP had a significantly shorter time to grade 3 or higher toxicity (P = 0.007), but discontinuation rates were similar. Glucose levels did not change, but insulin decreased in the LPV/r+NVP arm. Lipids tended to increase in the LPV/r+NVP arm.


CONCLUSIONS
Switching stavudine or zidovudine to a non-thymidine analogue or changing to a nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor-sparing regimen is associated with qualitatively similar improvements in thigh fat, SAT and VAT:TAT ratio at 48 weeks. Abacavir also resulted in VAT reductions and LPV/r+NVP resulted in CD4 count increases.
Fast recommendation on latent collaborative relations

One important property of collaborative filtering recommender systems is that popular items are recommended disproportionately often because they provide extensive usage data and, thus, can be recommended to more users. Compared to popular products, the niches can be as economically attractive as mainstream fare for online retailers. The online retailers can stock virtually everything, and the number of available niche products exceeds the hits by several orders of magnitude. This work addresses accuracy, coverage and prediction time issues to propose a novel latent factor model called latent collaborative relations (LCR), which transforms the recommendation problem into a nearest neighbor search problem by using the proposed scoring function. We project users and items to the latent space, and calculate their similarities based on Euclidean metric. Additionally, the proposed model provides an elegant way to incorporate with locality sensitive hashing (LSH) to provide a fast recommendation while retaining recommendation accuracy and coverage. The experimental results indicate that the speedup is significant, especially when one is confronted with large-scale data sets. As for recommendation accuracy and coverage, the proposed method is competitive on three data sets. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
The BEACHES Study: health effects and exposures from non-point source microbial contaminants in subtropical recreational marine waters.

BACKGROUND
Microbial water-quality indicators, in high concentrations in sewage, are used to determine whether water is safe for recreational purposes. Recently, the use of these indicators to regulate recreational water bodies, particularly in sub/tropical recreational marine waters without known sources of sewage, has been questioned. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the risk to humans from exposure to subtropical recreational marine waters with no known point source, and the possible relationship between microbe densities and reported symptoms in human subjects with random-exposure assignment and intensive individual microbial monitoring in this environment.


METHODS
A total of 1303 adult regular bathers were randomly assigned to bather and non-bather groups, with subsequent follow-up for reported illness, in conjunction with extensive environmental sampling of indicator organisms (enterococci).


RESULTS
Bathers were 1.76 times more likely to report gastrointestinal illness [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.94-3.30; P = 0.07]; 4.46 times more likely to report acute febrile respiratory illness (95% CI 0.99-20.90; P = 0.051) and 5.91 times more likely to report a skin illness (95% CI 2.76-12.63; P < 0.0001) relative to non-bathers. Evidence of a dose-response relationship was found between skin illnesses and increasing enterococci exposure among bathers [1.46 times (95% CI 0.97-2.21; P = 0.07) per increasing log(10) unit of enterococci exposure], but not for gastrointestinal or respiratory illnesses.


CONCLUSIONS
This study indicated that bathers may be at increased risk of several illnesses relative to non-bathers, even in the absence of any known source of domestic sewage impacting the recreational marine waters. There was no dose-response relationship between gastroenteritis and increasing exposure to enterococci, even though many current water-monitoring standards use gastroenteritis as the major outcome illness.
INTELLIGENT LIGHTING CONTROL USING CORRELATION COEFFICIENT BETWEEN LUMINANCE AND ILLUMINANCE

An intelligent lighting system which provides required illumiancne at an appropriate location is proposed. This system does not have the centralized control device and also it is controlled by each intelligent lighting’s autonomous operation. Also the intelligent lighting system can contribute to energy saving. In this research, a new algorithm is proposed. For rapid converges it uses the correlation coefficient between the illuminance at given locaion and the luminance of each light . We actually construct an autonomous distributed experiment system and verification tests were conducted using the proposed control method. The results showed that the various illuminance sensors converged to the preset target illuminance. We also confirmed that the algorithm can respond adaptively to environmental changes and it is effective to energy saving.
Penciling a triboelectric power source on paper

We present a novel triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) based on a paper-Teflon configuration fabricated by an easy and cost-efficient process. Carbon electrodes were hand-drawn by means of a graphite pencil on commercial paper cards, and the conductivity was confirmed by multimeter. In order to increase the effective triboelectric area, we used sandpaper imprinting to increase the surface roughness more than 2-fold compared to flat surfaces yielding a more than 6-fold enhancement of power density. The achieved output voltage, current and power density were ~55 V, ~2.5 μA and ~17 μW/cm2, respectively. The arch-shaped TENG shows robust output power when pressed by fingers to power a 2-bit liquid crystal display (LCD) demonstrating its use as energy harvester based on low-cost, commodity materials such as paper, Teflon and graphite.
On Dummett’s verificationist justification procedure

We examine the proof-theoretic verificationist justification procedure proposed by Dummett (1991). After some scrutiny, two distinct interpretations with respect to bases are advanced: the independent and the dependent interpretation. We argue that both are unacceptable as a semantics for propositional intuitionistic logic.
Time-driven activity-based costing of multivessel coronary artery bypass grafting across national boundaries to identify improvement opportunities: study protocol

INTRODUCTION
Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery is a well-established, commonly performed treatment for coronary artery disease--a disease that affects over 10% of US adults and is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. In 2005, the mean cost for a CABG procedure among Medicare beneficiaries in the USA was $32, 201 ± $23,059. The same operation reportedly costs less than $2000 to produce in India. The goals of the proposed study are to (1) identify the difference in the costs incurred to perform CABG surgery by three Joint Commission accredited hospitals with reputations for high quality and efficiency and (2) characterise the opportunity to reduce the cost of performing CABG surgery.


METHODS AND ANALYSIS
We use time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) to quantify the hospitals' costs of producing elective, multivessel CABG. TDABC estimates the costs of a given clinical service by combining information about the process of patient care delivery (specifically, the time and quantity of labour and non-labour resources utilised to perform each activity) with the unit cost of each resource used to provide the care. Resource utilisation was estimated by constructing CABG process maps for each site based on observation of care and staff interviews. Unit costs were calculated as a capacity cost rate, measured as a $/min, for each resource consumed in CABG production. Multiplying together the unit costs and resource quantities and summing across all resources used will produce the average cost of CABG production at each site. We will conclude by conducting a variance analysis of labour costs to reveal opportunities to bend the cost curve for CABG production in the USA.


ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION
All our methods were exempted from review by the Stanford Institutional Review Board. Results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at scientific meetings.
Voice Puppetry

We introducea methodfor predictinga controlsignalfrom anotherrelatedsignal,and applyit to voice puppetry: Generatingfull facialanimationfrom expressi ve information in anaudiotrack. Thevoicepuppetlearnsa facialcontrolmodelfrom computervision of realfacialbehavior, automaticallyincorporatingvocalandfacialdynamicssuchascoarticulation. Animation is producedby usingaudioto drive themodel,which induces a probability distribution over the manifold of possiblefacial motions. We presenta linear-time closed-formsolution for the most probabletrajectoryover this manifold. The outputis a seriesof facial control parameters, suitablefor driving many different kindsof animationrangingfrom video-realisticimagewarpsto 3D cartooncharacters. This work may not be copiedor reproducedin whole or in part for any commercialpurpose.Permissionto copy in whole or in part without paymentof fee is grantedfor nonprofiteducationaland researchpurposesprovided that all suchwhole or partial copiesincludethe following: a noticethat suchcopying is by permissionof Mitsubishi Electric InformationTechnologyCenterAmerica;an acknowledgmentof the authorsandindividual contributionsto the work; andall applicableportionsof the copyright notice. Copying, reproduction,or republishingfor any otherpurposeshall requirea licensewith paymentof feeto MitsubishiElectricInformationTechnologyCenterAmerica.All rightsreserved. Copyright c MitsubishiElectricInformationTechnologyCenterAmerica,1999 201Broadway, Cambridge,Massachusetts 02139 Publication History:– 1. 9sep98first circulated. 2. 7jan99submittedto SIGGRAPH’99
Relationship of polyunsaturated fatty acid intake to peripheral neuropathy among adults with diabetes in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999 2004.

OBJECTIVE
This study investigated the association between dietary intake of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and peripheral neuropathy in the U.S. population.


RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
We analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2004 for adults >or=40 years of age with diagnosed diabetes, an assessment of peripheral neuropathy, and reliable 24-h dietary recall. The dietary intake of PUFAs was analyzed by peripheral neuropathy status. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds of having peripheral neuropathy in higher quintiles of PUFA intake compared with the lowest quintile.


RESULTS
The mean dietary intake of linolenic acid was 1.25 +/- 0.07 g among adults with peripheral neuropathy, significantly lower than the 1.45 +/- 0.05 g intake among those without peripheral neuropathy. After controlling for potential confounding variables, adults whose linolenic acid intake was in the highest quintile had lower odds of peripheral neuropathy than adults in the lowest quintile (adjusted odds ratio 0.40 [95% CI 0.21-0.77]).


CONCLUSIONS
Among adults with diagnosed diabetes, dietary intake of linolenic acid is positively associated with lower odds of peripheral neuropathy.
EFFECT OF TECHNOLOGY ON MOTIVATION IN EFL CLASSROOMS

In language classrooms, being in unnatural conversational situations, students need motivation more than other learning milieus. Teachers try to capture the attention of students through various methods and techniques. Many researchers in EFL teaching profession have stated that good motivation has appositive effect on foreign language learning. The purpose of this study is to explore how technology could be used to increase students‘ motivation in EFL classrooms.
Radar-based perception for autonomous outdoor vehicles

Autonomous vehicle operations in outdoor environments challenge robotic perception. Construction, mining, agriculture, and planetary exploration environments are examples in which the presence of dust, fog, rain, changing illumination due to low sun angles, and lack of contrast can dramatically degrade conventional stereo and laser sensing. Nonetheless, environment perception can still succeed under compromised visibility through the use of a millimeter-wave radar. Radar also allows for multiple object detection within a single beam, whereas other range sensors are limited to one target return per emission. However, radar has shortcomings as well, such as a large footprint, specularity effects, and limited range resolution, all of which may result in poor environment survey or difficulty in interpretation. This paper presents a novel method for ground segmentation using a millimeter-wave radar mounted on a ground vehicle. Issues relevant to short-range perception in an outdoor environment are described along with field experiments and a quantitative comparison to laser data. The ability to classify the ground is successfully demonstrated in clear and low-visibility conditions, and significant improvement in range accuracy is shown. Finally, conclusions are drawn on the utility of millimeter-wave radar as a robotic sensor for persistent and accurate perception in natural scenarios. C © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Sleep patterns of college students at a public university.

OBJECTIVE
The authors' purpose in this study was to determine the sleep patterns of college students to identify problem areas and potential solutions.


PARTICIPANTS
A total of 313 students returned completed surveys.


METHODS
A sleep survey was e-mailed to a random sample of students at a North Central university. Questions included individual sleep patterns, problems, and possible influencing factors.


RESULTS
Most students reported later bedtimes and rise times on weekends than they did on weekdays. More than 33% of the students took longer than 30 minutes to fall asleep, and 43% woke more than once nightly. More than 33% reported being tired during the day. The authors found no differences between freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, and graduate students for time to fall asleep, number of night wakings, or total time slept each night.


CONCLUSIONS
Many students have sleep problems that may interfere with daily performance, such as driving and academics. Circadian rhythm management, sleep hygiene, and white noise could ameliorate sleep difficulties.
I.v. anaesthesia and EEG burst suppression in rats: bolus injections and closed-loop infusions.

We describe a system for monitoring and controlling i.v. anaesthesia in rats using burst suppression ratio (BSR) detection in the extradural EEG. After bolus injection, peak BSR values of 95% were achieved with propofol 8 mg kg-1, etomidate 3.5 mg kg-1 and alphaxalone 4.5 mg kg-1. Thiopental 32 mg kg-1 produced a peak BSR of 70% (larger doses were not tolerated). Recovery was fastest with propofol, followed by etomidate and alphaxalone with equal duration, and slowest with thiopental. In further experiments, a closed-loop infusion system maintained BSR accurately at targets of 30%, 50%, 70% or 90% for 60 min with propofol or etomidate. During these experiments the infusion rates were found to decrease with time, more so with etomidate (approximately 40%) than with propofol (approximately 20%). Recovery times were 2-3 times longer with etomidate than with propofol. This model demonstrated differences between i.v. anaesthetics and may be useful in screening new compounds in preclinical development.
Dynamic modeling and optimal control strategy of waste heat recovery Organic Rankine Cycles

Organic Rankine Cycles (ORCs) are particularly suitable for recovering energy from low-grade heat sources. This paper describes the behavior of a small-scale ORC used to recover energy from a variable flow rate and temperature waste heat source. A traditional static model is unable to predict transient behavior in a cycle with a varying thermal source, whereas this capability is essential for simulating an appropriate cycle control strategy during part-load operation and start and stop procedures. A dynamic model of the ORC is therefore proposed focusing specifically on the time-varying performance of the heat exchangers, the dynamics of the other components being of minor importance. Three different control strategies are proposed and compared. The simulation results show that a model predictive control strategy based on the steady-state optimization of the cycle under various conditions is the one showing the best results. 2011 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.
Exploratory search: from finding to understanding

Research tools critical for exploratory search success involve the creation of new interfaces that move the process beyond predictable fact retrieval.
A population-based, shared decision-making approach to recruit for a randomized trial of bariatric surgery versus lifestyle for type 2 diabetes.

BACKGROUND
Randomized trials of bariatric surgery versus lifestyle treatment likely enroll highly motivated patients, which may limit the interpretation and generalizability of study findings. The objective of this study was to assess the feasibility of a population-based shared decision-making (SDM) approach to recruitment for a trial comparing laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery with intensive lifestyle intervention among adults with mild to moderate obesity and type 2 diabetes.


METHODS
Adult members with a body mass index (BMI) between 30 and 45 kg/m(2) taking diabetes medications were identified in electronic databases and underwent a multiphase screening process. Candidates were given a telephone survey, education about treatment options for obesity and diabetes using decision aids, and an SDM phone call with a nurse practitioner, in addition to standard office-based consent.


RESULTS
We identified 1808 members, and 828 (45.7%) had a BMI of 30-34.9 kg/m(2). Among these, 1063 (59%) agreed to the telephone survey, 416 (23%) expressed interest in education about treatment options, and 277 (15%) completed the SDM process. The preferred treatment options were surgery (21 [8%]), diet and exercise (149 [53.8%]), pharmacotherapy (5 [2%]), none of the above (8 [3%]), and unsure (94 [34%]). Ultimately, 43 participants were randomly assigned to the trial. Significant differences, mainly related to sex, disease severity, and hypoglycemic medication use, were observed among people who did and did not agree to participate in our trial.


CONCLUSION
This population-based, SDM-based recruitment strategy successfully identified, enrolled, and randomly assigned patients who had balanced views of surgery and lifestyle management. Even with this approach, selection biases may remain, highlighting the need for careful characterization of nonparticipants in all future studies.
COPD phenotypes on computed tomography and its correlation with selected lung function variables in severe patients

BACKGROUND
Computed tomography (CT) phenotypic characterization helps in understanding the clinical diversity of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients, but its clinical relevance and its relationship with functional features are not clarified. Volumetric capnography (VC) uses the principle of gas washout and analyzes the pattern of CO2 elimination as a function of expired volume. The main variables analyzed were end-tidal concentration of carbon dioxide (ETCO2), Slope of phase 2 (Slp2), and Slope of phase 3 (Slp3) of capnogram, the curve which represents the total amount of CO2 eliminated by the lungs during each breath.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate, in a group of patients with severe COPD, if the phenotypic analysis by CT could identify different subsets of patients, and if there was an association of CT findings and functional variables.


SUBJECTS AND METHODS
Sixty-five patients with COPD Gold III-IV were admitted for clinical evaluation, high-resolution CT, and functional evaluation (spirometry, 6-minute walk test [6MWT], and VC). The presence and profusion of tomography findings were evaluated, and later, the patients were identified as having emphysema (EMP) or airway disease (AWD) phenotype. EMP and AWD groups were compared; tomography findings scores were evaluated versus spirometric, 6MWT, and VC variables.


RESULTS
Bronchiectasis was found in 33.8% and peribronchial thickening in 69.2% of the 65 patients. Structural findings of airways had no significant correlation with spirometric variables. Air trapping and EMP were strongly correlated with VC variables, but in opposite directions. There was some overlap between the EMP and AWD groups, but EMP patients had signicantly lower body mass index, worse obstruction, and shorter walked distance on 6MWT. Concerning VC, EMP patients had signicantly lower ETCO2, Slp2 and Slp3. Increases in Slp3 characterize heterogeneous involvement of the distal air spaces, as in AWD.


CONCLUSION
Visual assessment and phenotyping of CT in COPD patients is feasible and may help identify functional and clinically different subsets of patients. VC may provide useful information about the heterogeneous involvement of lung structures in COPD.