LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Reanalysis of a randomized trial of 3 techniques of anterior colporrhaphy using clinically relevant definitions of success.

OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to reanalyze the results of a previously published trial that compared 3 methods of anterior colporrhaphy according to the clinically relevant definitions of success.


STUDY DESIGN
A secondary analysis of a trial of 114 subjects who underwent surgery for anterior pelvic organ prolapse who were assigned randomly to standard anterior colporrhaphy, ultralateral colporrhaphy, or anterior colporrhaphy plus polyglactin 910 mesh from 1996-1999. For the current analysis, success was defined as (1) no prolapse beyond the hymen, (2) the absence of prolapse symptoms (visual analog scale ≤ 2), and (3) the absence of retreatment.


RESULTS
Eighty-eight percent of the women met our definition of success at 1 year. One subject (1%) underwent surgery for recurrence 29 months after surgery. No differences among the 3 groups were noted for any outcomes.


CONCLUSION
Reanalysis of a trial of 3 methods of anterior colporrhaphy revealed considerably better success with the use of clinically relevant outcome criteria compared with strict anatomic criteria.
Epigenetic activation of genomic retrotransposons

Retrotransposons outnumber the genes in large plant genomes, thereby comprising the bulk of the genome. They are largely quiescent during development, but become more active under stress conditions. These elements spread throughout the genome by a process termed retrotransposition, which includes transcription of an element into RNA, reverse transcription into cDNA, and reinsertion of the copied element into a new genomic location. Biotic and abiotic stresses are regular phenomena facing plants. Likewise, both retrotransposons and retroviruses can be stress-activated. Activation of retrotransposable elements can be induced by various stresses. In particular, long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons, which were found in most plant species, are characterized by a high level of variability in the LTR sequences involved in transcription, and have evolved by gaining new expression patterns mostly associated with responses to diverse stress stimuli. Most of the plant LTR retrotransposons produce larger pools of transcripts in response to biotic and abiotic stress. Recently it was shown that the epigenetic activation of these mobile elements alters the expression of adjacent genes. The new insertions in or next to coding regions generate mutations that can lead to changes in gene expression and reshape the genome, both structurally and functionally. Thus, activation of LTR retrotransposable elements can play an essential role in plant development and evolution.
Improvements in fundamental movement skill competency mediate the effect of the SCORES intervention on physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness in children.

Numerous studies have identified a positive association between fundamental movement skill (FMS) competency and physical activity in children; however, the causal pathways have not been established. The aim of this study is to determine if changes in FMS competency mediated the effect of the Supporting Children's Outcomes using Rewards, Exercise and Skills (SCORES) intervention on physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness in children. Eight primary schools (25 classes) and 460 children (aged 8.5 ± 0.6, 54% girls) were randomised to the SCORES intervention or control group for the 12-month study. The outcomes were accelerometer-determined moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and cardiorespiratory fitness. The hypothesised mediators were actual FMS competency and perceived sport competence. Mediation analyses were conducted using multilevel linear analysis in MPlus. From the original sample, 138 (30.0%) and 370 (80.4%) children provided useable physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness data at post-test assessments. There were significant treatment effects for locomotor skills and overall FMSs. Changes in MVPA were associated with changes in object-control skills, overall FMSs and perceived competence. The overall FMSs had a significant mediating effect on MVPA (AB = 2.09, CI = 0.01-4.55). Overall FMSs (AB = 1.19, CI = 0.002-2.79) and locomotor skills (AB = 0.74, CI = 0.01-1.69) had a significant mediating effect on cardiorespiratory fitness. The results of this study conclude that actual but not perceived movement skill competency mediated the effect of the SCORES intervention on physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness.
Biosimilar insulins: a European perspective

Biosimilar insulins are likely to enter clinical practice in Europe in the near future. It is important that clinicians are familiar with and understand the concept of biosimilarity and how a biosimilar drug may differ from its reference product. The present article provides an overview of biosimilars, the European regulatory requirements for biosimilars and safety issues. It also summarizes the current biosimilars approved in Europe and the key clinical issues associated with the use of biosimilar insulins.
HITON: A Novel Markov Blanket Algorithm for Optimal Variable Selection

UNLABELLED
We introduce a novel, sound, sample-efficient, and highly-scalable algorithm for variable selection for classification, regression and prediction called HITON. The algorithm works by inducing the Markov Blanket of the variable to be classified or predicted. A wide variety of biomedical tasks with different characteristics were used for an empirical evaluation. Namely, (i) bioactivity prediction for drug discovery, (ii) clinical diagnosis of arrhythmias, (iii) bibliographic text categorization, (iv) lung cancer diagnosis from gene expression array data, and (v) proteomics-based prostate cancer detection. State-of-the-art algorithms for each domain were selected for baseline comparison.


RESULTS
(1) HITON reduces the number of variables in the prediction models by three orders of magnitude relative to the original variable set while improving or maintaining accuracy. (2) HITON outperforms the baseline algorithms by selecting more than two orders-of-magnitude smaller variable sets than the baselines, in the selected tasks and datasets.
East African climate pulses and early human evolution

Current evidence suggests that all of the major events in hominin evolution have occurred in East Africa. Over the last two decades, there has been intensive work undertaken to understand African palaeoclimate and tectonics in order to put together a coherent picture of how the environment of East Africa has varied in the past. The landscape of East Africa has altered dramatically over the last 10 million years. It has changed from a relatively flat, homogenous region covered with mixed tropical forest, to a varied and heterogeneous environment, with mountains over 4 km high and vegetation ranging from desert to cloud forest. The progressive rifting of East Africa has also generated numerous lake basins, which are highly sensitive to changes in the local precipitation-evaporation regime. There is now evidence that the presence of precession-driven, ephemeral deep-water lakes in East Africa were concurrent with major events in hominin evolution. It seems the unusual geology and climate of East Africa created periods of highly variable local climate, which, it has been suggested could have driven hominin speciation, encephalisation and dispersal out of Africa. One example is the significant hominin speciation and brain expansion event at ~1.8 Ma that seems to have been coeval with the occurrence of highly variable, extensive, deep-water lakes. This complex, climatically very variable setting inspired first the variability selection hypothesis, which was then the basis for the pulsed climate variability hypothesis. The newer of the two suggests that the long-term drying trend in East Africa was punctuated by episodes of short, alternating periods of extreme humidity and aridity. Both hypotheses, together with other key theories of climate-evolution linkages, are discussed in this paper. Though useful the actual evolution mechanisms, which led to early hominins are still unclear and continue to be debated. However, it is clear that an understanding of East African lakes and their palaeoclimate history is required to understand the context within which humans evolved and eventually left East Africa. © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
Techno-economic and behavioural analysis of battery electric , hydrogen fuel cell and hybrid vehicles in a future sustainable road transport system in the UK

This paper conducts a techno-economic study on hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCV), battery electric vehicles (BEV) and hydrogen fuel cell plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (FCHEV) in the UK using cost predictions for 2030. The study includes an analysis of data on distance currently travelled by private car users daily in the UK. Results show that there may be diminishing economic returns for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) with battery sizes above 20 kWh, and the optimum size for a PHEV battery is between 5-15 kWh. Differences in behaviour as a function of vehicle size are demonstrated, which decreases the percentage of miles that can be economically driven using electricity for a larger vehicle. Decreasing carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation by 80% favours larger optimum battery sizes as long as carbon is priced, and will reduce emissions considerably. However, the model does not take into account reductions in carbon dioxide emissions from hydrogen generation, assuming hydrogen will still be produced from steam reforming methane in 2030.
Size dependence of the magnetic properties of Ni nanoparticles prepared by thermal decomposition method

By means of thermal decomposition, we prepared single-phase spherical Ni nanoparticles (23 to 114 nm in diameter) that are face-centered cubic in structure. The magnetic properties of the Ni nanoparticles were experimentally as well as theoretically investigated as a function of particle size. By means of thermogravimetric/differential thermal analysis, the Curie temperature TC of the 23-, 45-, 80-, and 114-nm Ni particles was found to be 335°C, 346°C, 351°C, and 354°C, respectively. Based on the size-and-shape dependence model of cohesive energy, a theoretical model is proposed to explain the size dependence of TC. The measurement of magnetic hysteresis loop reveals that the saturation magnetization MS and remanent magnetization increase and the coercivity decreases monotonously with increasing particle size, indicating a distinct size effect. By adopting a simplified theoretical model, we obtained MS values that are in good agreement with the experimental ones. Furthermore, with increase of surface-to-volume ratio of Ni nanoparticles due to decrease of particle size, there is increase of the percentage of magnetically inactive layer.
The extent of lymphadenectomy seems to be associated with better survival in patients with nonmetastatic upper-tract urothelial carcinoma: how many lymph nodes should be removed?

BACKGROUND
The role and extent of lymphadenectomy in patients with upper-tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) is debated.


OBJECTIVE
To establish whether the number of lymph nodes (LNs) removed might be associated with better cause-specific survival in patients with UTUC.


DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
The study included 552 consecutive patients who underwent radical nephroureterectomy (RNU) and lymphadenectomy between 1992 and 2006.


INTERVENTION
Patients were treated with RNU and lymphadenectomy.


MEASUREMENTS
Univariable and multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models addressed the association between the number of LNs removed and cause-specific mortality (CSM). The number of LNs removed was coded as a cubic spline to allow for nonlinear effects. Finally, the most informative cut-off for the number of removed LNs was identified.


RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS
In the entire population, the number of LNs removed was not associated with CSM in univariable (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.99; p=0.16) or in multivariable (HR: 0.97; p=0.12) analyses. In contrast, in the subgroup of pN0 patients (n=412), the number of LNs removed achieved the independent predictor status of CSM (HR: 0.93; p=0.02). Eight LNs removed was the most informative cut-off in predicting CSM (HR: 0.42; p=0.004). The inclusion of the variable defining dichotomously the number of removed LNs (< 8 vs > or = 8) in the base model (age, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status, pathologic stage, grade, architecture, and lymphovascular invasion) significantly increased the accuracy in predicting CSM (+1.7%; p<0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
The extension of the lymphadenectomy in pN0 UTUC patients seems to be associated with CSM. Longer survival was observed in patients in whom at least eight LNs had been removed.
Mortgages and monetary policy

Mortgages are long-term loans with nominal payments. Consequently, under incomplete asset markets, monetary policy can affect housing investment and the economy through the cost of new mortgage borrowing and real payments on outstanding debt. These channels, distinct from traditional real rate channels, are embedded in a general equilibrium model. The transmission mechanism is found to be stronger under adjustablethan fixed-rate mortgages. Further, monetary policy shocks affecting the level of the nominal yield curve have larger real effects than transitory shocks, affecting its slope. Persistently higher inflation gradually benefits homeowners under FRMs, but hurts them immediately under ARMs. JEL Classification Codes: E32, E52, G21, R21.
Automated spatiotemporal and semantic information extraction for hazards

Automated spatiotemporal and semantic information extraction for hazards." PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) thesis, ii To everyone who has supported and helped me over the years. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It has been a long journey since I started my Ph.D. study at the University of Iowa. During the six years, I received many supports from my adviser, professors, my family and friends. First of all, I would like to give my sincerest thanks to my adviser Dr. Kathleen Stewart for her enormous contributions of advices and time. She brought me to this research field to start the journey. She gave me a lot of inspirations to explore the new path, and kept me on the right track. I also want to thank my committee members Dr. time and supports. Thanks to all professors and colleagues in the Department of Geographical and Sustainability Science at University of Iowa for their help during my study period. I would like to thank my family and friends for all their supports and love during the 6 years for my Ph.D. study. Last but not least, I want to give my best thanks to my husband. He gives me a lot of supports and encouragement throughout my study. Without his supports, I could not achieve to the destination of the journey. Thank you to all of you. iv ABSTRACT This dissertation explores three research topics related to automated spatiotemporal and semantic information extraction about hazard events from Web news reports and other social media. The dissertation makes a unique contribution of bridging geographic information science, geographic information retrieval, and natural language processing. Geographic information retrieval and natural language processing techniques are applied to extract spatiotemporal and semantic information automatically from Web documents, to retrieve information about patterns of hazard events that are not explicitly described in the texts. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 can be regarded as three standalone journal papers. The research topics covered by the three chapters are related to each other, and are presented in a sequential way. Chapter 2 begins with an investigation of methods for automatically extracting spatial and temporal information about hazards from Web news reports. A set of rules is developed to combine the spatial and temporal information contained in the reports based on how this information is presented in text in order to capture the dynamics of hazard events (e.g., changes in event locations, new events occurring) as they …
In support of Bleuler: Objective evidence for increased affective ambivalence in schizophrenia based upon evocative testing

BACKGROUND
Ambivalence and anhedonia have long been identified as schizophrenic symptoms. However, ambivalence has rarely been studied, and in most evocative studies, schizophrenia participants are not anhedonic. Affective neurosciences posit two evaluative systems (one for Positivity and one for Negativity), the coactivation of which produces ambivalence, and point to two asymmetries in affective processing: Positivity Offset (which measures our capacity to explore the environment) and Negativity Bias (a measure of reactivity to intense threat). These characteristics have not received much attention in schizophrenia research.


METHODS
Sixty-four individuals with schizophrenia and 32 non-patient control participants completed an evocative emotional task with pictures, sounds and words of various valences and intensities. Following each presentation, participants rated the level of pleasantness, unpleasantness, and arousal elicited by the stimulus. Finally, participants completed questionnaires on anhedonia, and practical life skills were assessed.


RESULTS
Schizophrenia participants showed higher levels of ambivalence, greater arousal, greater Positivity Offset, and non-significantly different hedonic capacities and Negativity Bias. Ambivalence to positive stimuli significantly correlated with duration of illness, current level of psychopathology, anhedonia questionnaires and practical life skills. Schizophrenia patients with negative symptoms did not differ from patients without negative symptoms on computer tasks.


CONCLUSIONS
Ambivalence is greater in schizophrenia, and can be understood as a de-differentiation of the activation of the two evaluative systems. Ambivalence to positive stimuli, which may reflect early-stage affective processing is associated with impairments in higher-level emotional processes and in everyday functioning. Future studies should clarify the status of anhedonia in schizophrenia.
Aminolysis of polyethylene terephthalate waste as corrosion inhibitor for carbon steel in HCl corrosive medium

Soft drink bottles was subjected to depolymerization through aminolysis using mono ethanol amine (MEA) in the presence of sodium acetate as a catalyst the product of pol(bis(2hydroxyethylene)terephthalamide (PHETA) was evaluated as corrosion inhibitors for C-Steel in 1 M HCl by using weight loss, open circuit potential and potentiodynamic polarization measurements, the polarization curves indicate that these compound act as mixed type inhibitors. The inhibition efficiency increase with increasing the concentration of the inhibitors and decreases with increasing the temperature , the values of activation energy(Ea) and free energy of adsorption (∆Gads) indicated that the type of adsorption was chemical adsorption. The inhibition occurs through adsorption of the inhibitor molecules on the metal surface without modifying the mechanism of corrosion process. The adsorption of the inhibitor on C-Steel surface was found to follow the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to study the surface morphology of steel surface in absence and presence of 200 ppm of the used inhibitor.
Simulation Tools and Techniques for Vehicular Communications and Applications

In the domain of Inter-Vehicle Communication (IVC), even though first field operational tests are already going on, performance evaluation is still dominated by simulation experiments. Yet, they require a very specific methodology as well as adapted tools and models not straightforwardly found in other domains. In this chapter, we first describe the required methodology in terms of scalability and applicability to select the right models and their interactions. In particular, we classify each class of models as in increasing level of granularity, and discuss in details the trade-off between scalability and applicability typical to IVC simulations. We then introduce some of the most widely used and openly available simulation frameworks applicable to the domain of IVC, and emphasize their capabilities related to the required methodology. In particular, we present the IVC simulation toolkits Veins, iTETRIS, and VSimRTI, three prominent simulation platforms openly available for IVC simulations. To provide guidelines for efficient and scalable simulations of IVC applications, we discuss the appropriate selection of models and their level of granularity as function of the IVC application requirements, and provide an overview of their corresponding support in each of toolkit. Christoph Sommer, Falko Dressler CCS Group, Univ. Paderborn, Paderborn, Germany e-mail: {sommer,dressler}@ccs-labs.org Jérôme Härri, Fatma Hrizi Mobile Communications EURECOM, Sophia Antipolis, France e-mail: {haerri,hrizi}@eurecom.fr Björn Schünemann OKS / Daimler Center for Automotive IT Innovations, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany e-mail: bjoern.schuenemann@dcaiti.com
Efficacy of antibiotic therapy for peritoneal dialysis-associated peritonitis: a proportional meta-analysis

BACKGROUND
The choice of antimicrobials for initial treatment of peritoneal dialysis (PD)-related peritonitis is crucial for a favorable outcome. There is no consensus about the best therapy; few prospective controlled studies have been published, and the only published systematic reviews did not report superiority of any class of antimicrobials. The objective of this review was to analyze the results of PD peritonitis treatment in adult patients by employing a new methodology, the proportional meta-analysis.


METHODS
A review of the literature was conducted. There was no language restriction. Studies were obtained from MEDLINE, EMBASE, and LILACS. The inclusion criteria were: (a) case series and RCTs with the number of reported patients in each study greater than five, (b) use of any antibiotic therapy for initial treatment (e.g., cefazolin plus gentamicin or vancomycin plus gentamicin), for Gram-positive (e.g., vancomycin or a first generation cephalosporin), or for Gram-negative rods (e.g., gentamicin, ceftazidime, and fluoroquinolone), (c) patients with PD-related peritonitis, and (d) studies specifying the rates of resolution. A proportional meta-analysis was performed on outcomes using a random-effects model, and the pooled resolution rates were calculated.


RESULTS
A total of 64 studies (32 for initial treatment and negative culture, 28 reporting treatment for Gram-positive rods and 24 reporting treatment for Gram-negative rods) and 21 RCTs met all inclusion criteria (14 for initial treatment and negative culture, 8 reporting treatment for Gram-positive rods and 8 reporting treatment for Gram-negative rods). The pooled resolution rate of ceftazidime plus glycopeptide as initial treatment (pooled proportion = 86% [95% CI 0.82-0.89]) was significantly higher than first generation cephalosporin plus aminoglycosides (pooled proportion = 66% [95% CI 0.57-0.75]) and significantly higher than glycopeptides plus aminoglycosides (pooled proportion = 75% [95% CI 0.69-0.80]. Other comparisons of regimens used for either initial treatment, treatment for Gram-positive rods or Gram-negative rods did not show statistically significant differences.


CONCLUSION
We showed that the association of a glycopeptide plus ceftazidime is superior to other regimens for initial treatment of PD peritonitis. This result should be carefully analyzed and does not exclude the necessity of monitoring the local microbiologic profile in each dialysis center to choice the initial therapeutic protocol.