LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Mindfulness-based stress reduction for family caregivers: a randomized controlled trial.

PURPOSE
Caring for a family member with dementia is associated with chronic stress, which can have significant deleterious effects on caregivers. The purpose of the Balance Study was to compare a mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) intervention to a community caregiver education and support (CCES) intervention for family caregivers of people with dementia.


DESIGN AND METHODS
We randomly assigned 78 family caregivers to an MBSR or a CCES intervention, matched for time and attention. Study participants attended 8 weekly intervention sessions and participated in home-based practice. Surveys were completed at baseline, postintervention, and at 6 months. Participants were 32- to 82-year-old predominately non-Hispanic White women caring for a parent with dementia.


RESULTS
MBSR was more effective at improving overall mental health, reducing stress, and decreasing depression than CCES. Both interventions improved caregiver mental health and were similarly effective at improving anxiety, social support, and burden.


IMPLICATIONS
MBSR could reduce stress and improve mental health in caregivers of family members with dementia residing in the community.
Brazilian Version of the Foot Health Status Questionnaire (FHSQ-Br): Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Evaluation of Measurement Properties

OBJECTIVE
To conduct a cross-cultural adaptation of the Foot Health Status Questionnaire into Brazilian-Portuguese and to assess its measurement properties.


INTRODUCTION
This instrument is an outcome measure with 10 domains with scores ranging from 0-100, worst to best, respectively. The translated instrument will improve the examinations and foot care of rheumatoid arthritis patients.


METHODS
The questions were translated, back-translated, evaluated by a multidisciplinary committee and pre-tested (n = 40 rheumatoid arthritis subjects). The new version was submitted to a field test (n = 65) to evaluate measurement properties such as test-retest reliability, internal consistency and construct validity. The Health Assessment Questionnaire, Numeric Rating Scale for foot pain and Sharp/van der Heijde scores for foot X-rays were used to test the construct validity.


RESULTS
The cross-cultural adaptation was completed with minor wording adaptations from the original instrument. The evaluation of measurement properties showed high reliability with low variation coefficients between interviews. The alpha-Cronbach coefficients varied from 0.468 to 0.855, while correlation to the Health Assessment Questionnaire and Numeric Rating Scale was statistically significant for five out of eight domains.


DISCUSSION
Intra- and inter-observer correlations showed high reliability. Internal consistency coefficients were high for all domains, revealing higher values for less subjective domains. As for construct validity, each domain revealed correlations with a specific group of parameters according to what the domains intended to measure.


CONCLUSION
The FHSQ was cross-culturally adapted, generating a reliable, consistent, and valid instrument that is useful for evaluating foot health in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
The WHO Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale: Reliability and Validity of the Korean Version

OBJECTIVE
A self-report scale of adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, the World Health Organization (WHO) Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) was developed and demonstrated good psychometric properties. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the psychometric properties of the ASRS in Korean samples.


METHODS
The ASRS includes 18 questions regarding the frequency of recent DSM-IV Criterion A symptoms of adult ADHD. We examined the factor structure, internal consistency, and convergent validity of the ASRS in Korean samples.


RESULTS
The ASRS demonstrated good internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Correlations between the ASRS and other adult ADHD measures were high, providing evidence of convergent validity. A subsequent exploratory factor analysis indicated that a two-factor solution provided the best fit.


CONCLUSION
It is expected that this scale would be helpful in clinical settings and research in Korea.
The effect of critical success factors on IT governance performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of critical success factors (CSFs) on information technology (IT) governance performance in public sector organizations in a developing country such as Tanzania. Design/methodology/approach – Based on a previous study and a further literature review, a research model was developed for analysing the relationship between the CSFs found for effective IT governance in this environment and their effect on IT governance performance. A survey research method was applied for data collection and sample data from Tanzanian public sector organizations (this environment) obtained. Subsequently, a second-generation structural equation modelling technique, namely partial least squares, was applied to test statistically the correlated effect. Findings – The results indicate significant small to strong positive correlated effects on IT governance performance. The CSF with the most significant correlated effect was “involve and get support of senior management” and the one with the least “consolidate, standardize and manage IT infrastructure and application to optimize costs and information flow across the organization”. Finally, a CSF model for effective IT governance in this environment was proposed. Research limitations/implications – The findings imply that decision makers can optimize IT-related plans and use of scarce resources by concentrating on the CSFs that have a significant effect on IT governance performance that could lead to an improvement of public service delivery. This study is limited to a single developing country but future studies can involve more such countries to broaden the insights into the effect of CSFs on IT governance performance in such environments. Originality/value – By establishing the correlated effects between these CSFs and the IT governance performance, this study has revealed a significant impact of CSFs on IT governance performance. It also suggests a CSFs model for effective IT governance in this less-resourced environment in which such studies have not been conducted before, yet which are vital for analysing and improving IT governance.
Implications of the ‘Energide’ concept for communication and information handling in the central nervous system

Recently a revision of the cell theory has been proposed, which has several implications both for physiology and pathology. This revision is founded on adapting the old Julius von Sach’s proposal (1892) of the Energide as the fundamental universal unit of eukaryotic life. This view maintains that, in most instances, the living unit is the symbiotic assemblage of the cell periphery complex organized around the plasma membrane, some peripheral semi-autonomous cytosol organelles (as mitochondria and plastids, which may be or not be present), and of the Energide (formed by the nucleus, microtubules, and other satellite structures). A fundamental aspect is the proposal that the Energide plays a pivotal and organizing role of the entire symbiotic assemblage (see Appendix 1). The present paper discusses how the Energide paradigm implies a revision of the concept of the internal milieu. As a matter of fact, the Energide interacts with the cytoplasm that, in turn, interacts with the interstitial fluid, and hence with the medium that has been, classically, known as the internal milieu. Some implications of this aspect have been also presented with the help of a computational model in a mathematical Appendix 2 to the paper. Finally, relevances of the Energide concept for the information handling in the central nervous system are discussed especially in relation to the inter-Energide exchange of information.
Trazodone plus pregabalin combination in the treatment of fibromyalgia: a two-phase, 24-week, open-label uncontrolled study

BACKGROUND
Although trazodone is frequently used by fibromyalgia patients, its efficacy on this disease has not been adequately studied. If effective, pregabalin, whose beneficial effects on pain and sleep quality in fibromyalgia have been demonstrated, could complement the antidepressant and anxiolytic effects of trazodone. The aim of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of trazodone alone and in combination with pregabalin in the treatment of fibromyalgia.


METHODS
This was an open-label uncontrolled study. Trazodone, flexibly dosed (50-300 mg/day), was administered to 66 fibromyalgia patients during 12 weeks; 41 patients who completed the treatment accepted to receive pregabalin, also flexibly dosed (75-450 mg/day), added to trazodone treatment for an additional 12-week period. Outcome measures included the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI), the Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), and the Patients' Global Improvement scale (PGI). Emergent adverse reactions were recorded. Data were analyzed with repeated measures one-way ANOVA and paired Student's t test.


RESULTS
Treatment with trazodone significantly improved global fibromyalgia severity, sleep quality, and depression, as well as pain interference with daily activities although without showing a direct effect on bodily pain. After pregabalin combination additional and significant improvements were seen on fibromyalgia severity, depression and pain interference with daily activities, and a decrease in bodily pain was also apparent. During the second phase of the study, only two patients dropped out due to side effects.


CONCLUSIONS
Trazodone significantly improved fibromyalgia severity and associated symptomatology. Its combination with pregabalin potentiated this improvement and the tolerability of the drugs in association was good.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT00791739.
Continuous Plug Flow Crystallization of Pharmaceutical Compounds

Crystallization processes in the pharmaceutical industry are usually designed to obtain crystals with controlled size, shape, purity, and polymorphic form. Knowledge of the process conditions required to fabricate crystals with controlled characteristics is critical during process development. In this work, continuous crystallization of Ketoconazole, Flufenamic Acid, and L-Glutamic Acid in a nonconventional plug flow crystallizer was investigated. Kenics type static mixers were used to promote homogeneous mixing of active pharmaceutical ingredient solution and antisolvent. A strategy of multiple points of addition of antisolvent along the crystallizer was evaluated to control the size of the crystals. Interestingly, it was found that crystal size can be increased or decreased with increased
Intra-articular hyaluronic acid compared to exercise therapy in osteoarthritis of the ankle. A prospective randomized trial with long-term follow-up.

OBJECTIVE
The goal of this study has been to determine whether hyaluronic acid (HA) or exercise therapy can improve functional parameters in patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the ankle.


METHODS
In a prospective clinical trial, 43 ankles (30 patients) with radiographic Kellgren Lawrence grade III OA were randomized to receive three intra-articular HA injections, with one-week interval of or exercise therapy for six weeks. Patients were evaluated by the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) Ankle-Hindfoot Scale and followed-up after 12 months.


RESULTS
Total AOFAS Ankle-Hindfoot score of OA patients has improved in both groups, varying from 61.6+/-16.8 to 90.1+/-9.7 with HA treatment and from 72.1+/-16.6 to 87.5+/-17.5 using exercise therapy at the end of the trial (p<0.01). There were no statistically significant differences between the groups.


CONCLUSION
This prospective randomized trial confirmed that, both HA injections and exercise therapy provide functional improvement. However, larger trials with longer follow-up are necessary for more definite conclusions.
Domain Driven Data Mining (D3M)

In deploying data mining into the real-world business, we have to cater for business scenarios, organizational factors, user preferences and business needs. However, the current data mining algorithms and tools often stop at the delivery of patterns satisfying expected technical interestingness. Business people are not informed about how and what to do to take over the technical deliverables. The gap between academia and business has seriously affected the widespread employment of advanced data mining techniques in greatly promoting enterprise operational quality and productivity. To narrow down the gap, cater for realworld factors relevant to data mining, and make data mining workable in supporting decision-making actions in the real world, we propose the methodology of domain driven data mining (D3M for short). D3M aims to construct next-generation methodologies, techniques and tools for a possible paradigm shift from data-centered hidden pattern mining to domain-driven actionable knowledge delivery. In this talk, we address the concept map of D3M, theoretical underpinnings, several general and flexible frameworks, research issues, possible directions, application areas etc. related to D3M. Real-world case studies in financial data mining and social security mining are demonstrated to show the effectiveness and applicability of D3M in both research and development of real-world challenging problems.
SAR signal reconstruction from non-uniform displaced phase centre sampling in the presence of perturbations

The displaced phase centre (DPC) technique enables a wide swath SAR with high azimuth resolution. In classic DPC systems, the pulse repetition frequency (PRF), sensor velocity and antenna length underlie a stringent timing requirement and any deviation will result in a non-uniform sampling of the synthetic aperture. This restriction can be overcome by the use of a reconstruction algorithm, which enables a recovery of the unambiguous Doppler spectrum also in case of a non-uniform sampling. This paper explains limitations of the reconstruction imposed by the processing and the impacts on the ambiguity suppression. The potential of the algorithm when applied to DPC systems like TerraSAR-X with its split receive antenna is demonstrated and the benefits resulting from the additional receive aperture regarding swath width and resolution are pointed out. Further on, the impact of additive and phase noise on the reconstruction and its sensitivity against these perturbations are shown.
Corticosteroid treatment and intensive insulin therapy for septic shock in adults: a randomized controlled trial.

CONTEXT
Corticosteroid therapy induces potentially detrimental hyperglycemia in septic shock. In addition, the benefit of adding fludrocortisone in this setting is unclear.


OBJECTIVES
To test the efficacy of intensive insulin therapy in patients whose septic shock was treated with hydrocortisone and to assess, as a secondary objective, the benefit of fludrocortisone.


DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS
A multicenter, 2 x 2 factorial, randomized trial, involving 509 adults with septic shock who presented with multiple organ dysfunction, as defined by a Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score of 8 or more, and who had received hydrocortisone treatment was conducted from January 2006 to January 2009 in 11 intensive care units in France.


INTERVENTIONS
Patients were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups: continuous intravenous insulin infusion with hydrocortisone alone, continuous intravenous insulin infusion with hydrocortisone plus fludrocortisone, conventional insulin therapy with hydrocortisone alone, or conventional insulin therapy with intravenous hydrocortisone plus fludrocortisone. Hydrocortisone was administered in a 50-mg bolus every 6 hours, and fludrocortisone was administered orally in 50-microg tablets once a day, each for 7 days.


MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
In-hospital mortality.


RESULTS
Of the 255 patients treated with intensive insulin, 117 (45.9%), and 109 of 254 (42.9%) treated with conventional insulin therapy died (relative risk [RR], 1.07; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.88-1.30; P = .50). Patients treated with intensive insulin experienced significantly more episodes of severe hypoglycemia (<40 mg/dL) than those in the conventional-treatment group, with a difference in mean number of episodes per patient of 0.15 (95% CI, 0.02-0.28; P = .003). At hospital discharge, 105 of 245 patients treated with fludrocortisone (42.9%) died and 121 of 264 (45.8%) in the control group died (RR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.77-1.14; P = .50).


CONCLUSIONS
Compared with conventional insulin therapy, intensive insulin therapy did not improve in-hospital mortality among patients who were treated with hydrocortisone for septic shock. The addition of oral fludrocortisone did not result in a statistically significant improvement in in-hospital mortality.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00320099.
Vitrectomy with short term postoperative tamponade using perfluorocarbon liquid for giant retinal tears.

AIM
To determine the efficacy and safety of perfluorocarbon liquid as a short term postoperative tamponade in patients with retinal detachment from giant retinal tears.


METHOD
A retrospective consecutive case series of patients with retinal detachment from giant retinal tears who underwent vitrectomy using perfluorocarbon liquid as a short term postoperative internal tamponade. The perfluorocarbon liquid was removed 5-14 days (mean 7.5 days) later and replaced by gas or silicone oil. Scleral buckling was performed in some cases with proliferative vitreoretinopathy. The crystalline lens was removed if there was interference with the surgical view or if it was subluxated. The success rate of retinal reattachment, visual outcome, and postoperative complications were assessed.


RESULTS
A total of 62 eyes of 61 patients with a follow up of 8-69 months (mean 24.5 months) were included. All retinas were attached intraoperatively. 14 eyes (22.6%) developed re-detachment and additional operations were performed in 13 eyes. At final visit, 58 eyes (93.5%) had retinas that remained attached with visual acuity 6/12 or better in 27 eyes (46.5%). The visual acuity improved in 34 eyes (54.8%) with 28 eyes (45.2%) improving at least two Snellen lines, it was unchanged in 20 eyes (32.3%), and was worse in eight eyes (12.9%). Three patients developed glaucoma that was controlled medically. There was no retained perfluorocarbon liquid in any eyes.


CONCLUSION
Perfluorocarbon liquid appears safe and effective to use as a short term postoperative tamponade in management of retinal detachment from giant retinal tears.
Key Aspects of Health Policy Development to Improve Surgical Services in Uganda

Recently, surgical services have been gaining greater attention as an integral part of public health in low-income countries due to the significant volume and burden of surgical conditions, growing evidence of the cost-effectiveness of surgical intervention, and global disparities in surgical care. Nonetheless, there has been limited discussion of the key aspects of health policy related to surgical services in low-income countries. Uganda, like other low-income sub-Saharan African countries, bears a heavy burden of surgical conditions with low surgical output in health facilities and significant unmet need for surgical care. To address this lack of adequate surgical services in Uganda, a diverse group of local stakeholders met in Kampala, Uganda, in May 2008 to develop a roadmap of key policy actions that would improve surgical services at the national level. The group identified a list of health policy priorities to improve surgical services in Uganda. The priorities were classified into three areas: (1) human resources, (2) health systems, and (3) research and advocacy. This article is a critical discussion of these health policy priorities with references to recent literature. This was the first such multidisciplinary meeting in Uganda with a focus on surgical services and its output may have relevance to health policy development in other low-income countries planning to improve delivery of surgical services.
Postoperative plasma concentrations of procalcitonin after different types of surgery

Objective: Procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein (CRP) plasma concentrations were measured after different types of surgery to analyze a possible postoperative induction of procalcitonin (PCT), which might interfere with the diagnosis of bacterial infection or sepsis by PCT. Design: PCT and CRP plasma levels as well as clinical symptoms of infection were prospectively registered preoperatively and 5 days postoperatively. Setting: University hospital, in-patient postoperative care. Patients: Hundred thirty patients were followed up; 117 patients with a normal postoperative course were statistically analyzed. Interventions: None. Measurements and results: PCT concentrations were moderately increased above the normal range in 32 % of patients after minor and aseptic surgery, in 59 % after cardiac and thoracic surgery, and in 95 % of patients after surgery of the intestine. In patients with an abnormal postoperative course, PCT was increased in 12 of 13 patients. CRP was increased in almost all patients. Conclusions: Postoperative induction of PCT largely depends on the type of surgery. Intestinal surgery and major operations more often increase PCT, whereas it is normal in the majority of patients after minor and primarily aseptic surgery. PCT can thus be used postoperatively for diagnostic means only when the range of PCT concentrations during the normal course of a certain type of surgery is considered and concentrations are followed up.
High speed end-milling optimisation using Particle Swarm Intelligence

AbstrAct Purpose: In this paper, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), which is a recently developed evolutionary technique, is used to efficiently optimize machining parameters simultaneously in high-speed milling processes where multiple conflicting objectives are present. Design/methodology/approach: Selection of machining parameters is an important step in process planning therefore a new methodology based on PSO is developed to optimize machining conditions. Artificial neural network simulation model (ANN) for milling operation is established with respect to maximum production rate, subject to a set of practical machining constraints. An ANN predictive model is used to predict cutting forces during machining and PSO algorithm is used to obtain optimum cutting speed and feed rate. Findings: The simulation results show that compared with genetic algorithms (GA) and simulated annealing (SA), the proposed algorithm can improve the quality of the solution while speeding up the convergence process. PSO is proved to be an efficient optimization algorithm. Research limitations/implications: Machining time reductions of up to 30% are observed. In addition, the new technique is found to be efficient and robust. Practical implications: The results showed that integrated system of neural networks and swarm intelligence is an effective method for solving multi-objective optimization problems. The high accuracy of results within a wide range of machining parameters indicates that the system can be practically applied in industry. Originality/value: An algorithm for PSO is developed and used to robustly and efficiently find the optimum machining conditions in end-milling. The new computational technique has several advantages and benefits and is suitable for use combined with ANN based models where no explicit relation between inputs and outputs is available. This research opens the door for a new class of optimization techniques which are based on Evolution Computation in the area of machining.