LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Outcomes of rigid night splinting and activity modification in the treatment of cubital tunnel syndrome.

PURPOSE
To prospectively analyze, using validated outcome measures, symptom improvement in patients with mild to moderate cubital tunnel syndrome treated with rigid night splinting and activity modifications.


METHODS
Nineteen patients (25 extremities) were enrolled prospectively between August 2009 and January 2011 following a diagnosis of idiopathic cubital tunnel syndrome. Patients were treated with activity modifications as well as a 3-month course of rigid night splinting maintaining 45° of elbow flexion. Treatment failure was defined as progression to operative management. Outcome measures included patient-reported splinting compliance as well as the Quick Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand questionnaire and the Short Form-12. Follow-up included a standardized physical examination. Subgroup analysis included an examination of the association between splinting success and ulnar nerve hypermobility.


RESULTS
Twenty-four of 25 extremities were available at mean follow-up of 2 years (range, 15-32 mo). Twenty-one of 24 (88%) extremities were successfully treated without surgery. We observed a high compliance rate with the splinting protocol during the 3-month treatment period. Quick Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand scores improved significantly from 29 to 11, Short Form-12 physical component summary score improved significantly from 45 to 54, and Short Form-12 mental component summary score improved significantly from 54 to 62. Average grip strength increased significantly from 32 kg to 35 kg, and ulnar nerve provocative testing resolved in 82% of patients available for follow-up examination.


CONCLUSIONS
Rigid night splinting when combined with activity modification appears to be a successful, well-tolerated, and durable treatment modality in the management of cubital tunnel syndrome. We recommend that patients presenting with mild to moderate symptoms consider initial treatment with activity modification and rigid night splinting for 3 months based on a high likelihood of avoiding surgical intervention.


TYPE OF STUDY/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE
Therapeutic II.
Cerecyte coil trial: procedural safety and clinical outcomes in patients with ruptured and unruptured intracranial aneurysms.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
This study arose from a need to systematically evaluate the clinical and angiographic outcomes of intracranial aneurysms treated with modified coils. We report the procedural safety and clinical outcomes in a prospective randomized controlled trial of endovascular coiling for ruptured and unruptured intracranial aneurysms, comparing polymer-loaded Cerecyte coils with bare platinum coils in 23 centers worldwide.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
Five hundred patients between 18 and 70 years of age with a ruptured or unruptured target aneurysm planning to undergo endovascular coiling were randomized to receive Cerecyte or bare platinum coils. Analysis was by intention to treat.


RESULTS
Two hundred forty-nine patients were allocated to Cerecyte coils and 251 to bare platinum coils. Baseline characteristics were balanced. For ruptured aneurysms, in-hospital mortality was 2/114 (1.8%) with Cerecyte versus 0/119 (0%) bare platinum coils. There were 8 (3.4%) adverse procedural events resulting in neurological deterioration: 5/114 (4.4%) with Cerecyte versus 3/119 (2.5%) with bare platinum coils (P = .22). The 6-month mRS score of ≤2 was not significantly different in 103/109 (94.5%) patients with Cerecyte and 110/112 (98.2%) patients with bare platinum coils. Poor outcome (mRS score of ≥3 or death) was 6/109 (5.5%) with Cerecyte versus 2/112 (1.8%) with bare platinum coils (P = .070). For UIAs, there was no in-hospital mortality. There were 7 (2.7%) adverse procedural events with neurological deterioration, 5/133 (3.8%) with Cerecyte versus 2/131 (1.5%) with bare platinum coils (P = .13). There was a 6-month mRS score of ≤2 in 114/119 (95.8%) patients with Cerecyte versus 123/123 (100%) patients with bare platinum coils. There was poor outcome (mRS ≥3 and 1 death) in 5/119 (4.2%) patients with Cerecyte versus 0/123 (0%) patients with bare platinum coils (P = .011).


CONCLUSIONS
There was a statistical excess of poor outcomes in the Cerecyte arm at discharge in the ruptured aneurysm group and at 6-month follow-up in the unruptured group. Overall adverse clinical outcomes and in-hospital mortality were exceptionally low in both groups.
A Surge of State Abortion Restrictions Puts Providers — And the Women They Serve — in the Crosshairs

ful of states have moved to improve access to abortion, and proactive legislation has been introduced in Congress aimed at stemming the tide of restrictive laws designed to place roadblocks in the path of women seeking abortion care. Although this emerging campaign may be more successful and take hold faster in some places than others, it marks an important shift toward reshaping the national debate over what a real agenda to protect women’s reproductive health looks like.
Mining Frequent Patterns without Candidate Generation: A Frequent-Pattern Tree Approach

Mining frequent patterns in transaction databases, time-series databases, and many other kinds of databases has been studied popularly in data mining research. Most of the previous studies adopt an Apriori-like candidate set generation-and-test approach. However, candidate set generation is still costly, especially when there exist a large number of patterns and/or long patterns. In this study, we propose a novel frequent-pattern tree (FP-tree) structure, which is an extended prefix-tree structure for storing compressed, crucial information about frequent patterns, and develop an efficient FP-tree-based mining method, FP-growth, for mining the complete set of frequent patterns by pattern fragment growth. Efficiency of mining is achieved with three techniques: (1) a large database is compressed into a condensed, smaller data structure, FP-tree which avoids costly, repeated database scans, (2) our FP-tree-based mining adopts a pattern-fragment growth method to avoid the costly generation of a large number of candidate sets, and (3) a partitioning-based, divide-and-conquer method is used to decompose the mining task into a set of smaller tasks for mining confined patterns in conditional databases, which dramatically reduces the search space. Our performance study shows that the FP-growth method is efficient and scalable for mining both long and short frequent patterns, and is about an order of magnitude faster than the Apriori algorithm and also faster than some recently reported new frequent-pattern mining methods.
The combination of hypointense and hyperintense signal changes on T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging sequences: a specific marker of multiple system atrophy?

OBJECTIVE
To compare the frequency and specificity of hypointense magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) signal changes alone with the frequency and specificity of a pathological MRI pattern consisting of a hyperintense lateral rim and a dorsolateral signal attenuation on T2-weighted MRIs in patients with parkinsonism of various origins.


PATIENTS
Ninety patients with Parkinson disease (PD) (n = 65), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) (n = 10), and multiple system atrophy (MSA) of the striatonigral degeneration type (n = 15) underwent MRI.


SETTING
University medical center.


RESULTS
Nine of the 15 patients with MSA showed the pattern with hyperintense lateral rim and a dorsolateral hypointense signal attenuation on T2-weighted images within the putamen. This pattern was not found in the 65 patients with PD, nor in the 10 patients with PSP. Only hypointense changes in the putamen were found in 6 patients (9%) with PD, 4 patients (40%) with PSP, and 5 patients (36%) with MSA.


CONCLUSIONS
Our data suggest that the pattern consisting of hypointense and hyperintense T2 changes within the putamen is a highly specific MRI sign of MSA, while hypointensity alone remains a sensitive, but nonspecific MRI sign of MSA. In clinically doubtful cases, the appearance of a hypointense and hyperintense signal pattern on MRI makes the diagnosis of PD very unlikely, while hypointense signal changes alone do not exclude idiopathic PD.
Artificial neural networks improve the prediction of Kt/V, follow-up dietary protein intake and hypotension risk in haemodialysis patients.

BACKGROUND
Artificial neural networks (ANN) represent a promising alternative to classical statistical and mathematical methods to solve multidimensional non-linear problems. The aim of the study was to compare the performance of ANN in predicting the dialysis quality (Kt/V), the follow-up dietary protein intake and the risk of intradialytic hypotension in haemodialysis patients with that predicted by experienced nephrologists.


METHODS
A combined retrospective and prospective observational study was performed in two Swiss dialysis units (80 chronic haemodialysis patients, 480 monthly clinical observations and biochemical test results). Using mathematical models based on linear and logistic regressions as background, ANN were built and then prospectively compared with the ability of six experienced nephrologists to predict the Kt/V and the follow-up protein catabolic rate (PCR) and to detect a Kt/V < 1.30, a follow-up PCR < 1.00 g/kg/day and the occurrence of hypotension.


RESULTS
ANN compared with nephrologists gave a more accurate correlation between estimated and calculated Kt/V and follow-up PCR (P<0.001). The same superiority of ANN was also seen in the ability to detect a Kt/V < 1.30, a follow-up PCR < 1.00 g/kg/day and the occurrence of hypotension expressed as a percentage of correct answers, sensitivity, specificity and predictivity.


CONCLUSIONS
The use of ANN significantly improves the ability of experienced nephrologists to estimate the Kt/V and the follow-up PCR and to detect a Kt/V < 1.30, a follow-up PCR < 1.00 g/kg/day and the occurrence of intradialytic hypotension.
An Environmental Analysis of Machining

This paper presents a system-level environmental analysis of machining. The analysis presented here considers not only the environmental impact of the material removal process itself, but also the impact of associated processes such as material preparation and cutting fluid preparation. This larger system view results in a more complete assessment of machining. Energy analyses show that the energy requirements of actual material removal can be quite small when compared to the total energy associated with machine tool operation. Also, depending on the energy intensity of the materials being machined, the energy of material production can, in some cases, far exceed the energy required for machine tool operation.
Continuous electromyography monitoring of motor cranial nerves during cerebellopontine angle surgery.

OBJECT
Electromyography (EMG) monitoring is expected to reduce the incidence of motor cranial nerve deficits in cerebellopontine angle surgery. The aim of this study was to provide a detailed analysis of intraoperative EMG phenomena with respect to their surgical significance.


METHODS
Using a system that continuously records facial and lower cranial nerve EMG signals during the entire operative procedure, the authors examined 30 patients undergoing surgery on acoustic neuroma (24 patients) or meningioma (six patients). Free-running EMG signals were recorded from muscles targeted by the facial, trigeminal, and lower cranial nerves, and were analyzed off-line with respect to waveform characteristics, frequencies, and amplitudes. Intraoperative measurements were correlated with typical surgical maneuvers and postoperative outcomes. Characteristic EMG discharges were obtained: spikes and bursts were recorded immediately following the direct manipulation of a dissecting instrument near the cranial nerve, but also during periods when the nerve had not yet been exposed. Bursts could be precisely attributed to contact activity. Three distinct types of trains were identified: A, B, and C trains. Whereas B and C trains are irrelevant with respect to postoperative outcome, the A train--a sinusoidal, symmetrical sequence of high-frequency and low-amplitude signals--was observed in 19 patients and could be well correlated with additional postoperative facial nerve paresis (in 18 patients).


CONCLUSIONS
It could be demonstrated that the occurrence of A trains is a highly reliable predictor for postoperative facial palsy. Although some degree of functional worsening is to be expected postoperatively, there is a good chance of avoiding major deficits by warning the surgeon early. Continuous EMG monitoring is superior to electrical nerve stimulation or acoustic loudspeaker monitoring alone. The detailed analysis of EMG-waveform characteristics is able to provide more accurate warning criteria during surgery.
A Complete Axiomatisation of the ZX-Calculus for Clifford+T Quantum Mechanics

We introduce the first complete and approximately universal diagrammatic language for quantum mechanics. We make the ZX-Calculus, a diagrammatic language introduced by Coecke and Duncan, complete for the so-called Clifford+T quantum mechanics by adding two new axioms to the language. The completeness of the ZX-Calculus for Clifford+T quantum mechanics -- also called the π/4-fragment of the ZX-Calculus -- was one of the main open questions in categorical quantum mechanics. We prove the completeness of this fragment using the recently studied ZW-Calculus, a calculus dealing with integer matrices. We also prove that the π/4-fragment of the ZX-Calculus represents exactly all the matrices over some finite dimensional extension of the ring of dyadic rationals.
Gazing at games: using eye tracking to control virtual characters

Welcome to the course: Gazing at Games: Using Eye Tracking to Control Virtual Characters. I will start with a short introduction of the course which will give you an idea of its aims and structure. I will also talk a bit about my background and research interests and motivate why I think this work is important.
RoboCupRescue 2014 - Robot League Team Hector Darmstadt (Germany)

This paper describes the approach used by Team Hector Darmstadt for participation in the 2013 RoboCup Rescue League competition. Participating in the RoboCup Rescue competition since 2009, the members of Team Hector Darmstadt focus on exploration of disaster sites using autonomous Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs). The team has been established as part of a PhD program funded by the German Research Foundation at TU Darmstadt and combines expertise from Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering. We give an overview of the complete system used to solve the problem of reliably finding victims in harsh USAR environments. This includes hardware as well as software solutions and diverse topics like locomotion, SLAM, pose estimation, human robot interaction and victim detection. As a contribution to the RoboCup Rescue community, major parts of the used software have been released and documented as open source software for ROS.
An improved algorithm on Viola-Jones object detector

In image processing, Viola-Jones object detector [1] is one of the most successful and widely used object detectors. A popular implementation used by the community is the one in OpenCV. The detector shows its strong power in detecting faces, but we found it hard to be extended to other kinds of objects. The convergence of the training phase of this algorithm depends a lot on the training data. And the prediction precision stays low. In this paper, we have come up with new ideas to improve its performance for diverse object categories. We incorporated six different types of feature images into the Viola and Jones' framework. The integral image [1] used by the Viola-Jones detector is then computed on these feature images respectively instead of only on the gray image. The stage classifier in Viola-Jones detector is now trained on one of these feature images. We also present a new stopping criterion for the stage training. In addition, we integrate a key points based SVM [2] predictor into the prediction phase to improve the confidence of the detection result.
Can Good Principals Keep Teachers in Disadvantaged Schools ? Linking Principal Effectiveness to Teacher Satisfaction and Turnover in Hard-to-Staff Environments

Background: High rates of teacher turnover likely mean greater school instability, disruption of curricular cohesiveness, and a continual need to hire inexperienced teachers, who typically are less effective, as replacements for teachers who leave. Unfortunately, research consistently finds that teachers who work in schools with large numbers of poor students and students of color feel less satisfied and are more likely to turn over, meaning that turnover is concentrated in the very schools that would benefit most from a stable staff of experienced teachers. Despite the potential challenge that this turnover disparity poses for equity of educational opportunity and student performance gaps across schools, little research has examined the reasons for elevated teacher turnover in schools with large numbers of traditionally disadvantaged students. Purpose: This study hypothesizes that school working conditions help explain both teacher satisfaction and turnover. In particular, it focuses on the role effective principals in retaining teachers, particularly in disadvantaged schools with the greatest staffing challenges. Research Design: The study conducts quantitative analysis of national data from the 2003-04 Schools and Staffing Survey and 2004-05 Teacher Follow-up Survey. Regression analyses combat the potential for bias from omitted variables by utilizing an extensive set of control variables and employing a school district fixed effects approach that implicitly makes comparisons among principals and teachers within the same local context. Conclusions: Descriptive analyses confirm that observable measures of teachers‘ work environments, including ratings of the effectiveness of the principal, generally are lower in schools with large numbers of disadvantaged students. Regression results show that principal effectiveness is associated with greater teacher satisfaction and a lower probability that the teacher leaves the school within a year. Moreover, the positive impacts of principal effectiveness on these teacher outcomes are even greater in disadvantaged schools. These findings suggest that policies focused on getting the best principals into the most challenging school environments may be effective strategies for lowering perpetually high teacher turnover rates in those schools.
P300 and response time from a manual Stroop task

OBJECTIVES
Manual response time (RT) and P300 event-related potential (ERP) measures were recorded in a Stroop color naming task to determine if previous results with vocal responses would be obtained using an arbitrary stimulus-response (S-R) mapping.


METHODS
Subjects (n = 32) were instructed to respond to the display color of a word but to ignore its meaning. Display color was congruent, neutral, or incongruent with word meaning.


RESULTS
Stroop facilitation and interference effects were observed, as RT was shortest in the congruent condition, intermediate in the neutral condition, and longest in the incongruent condition. In contrast, P300 latency did not vary across color/word congruence conditions, suggesting that the RT difference between congruence conditions originated after stimulus evaluation.


CONCLUSIONS
These manual RT/P300 findings support the view that Stroop interference and facilitation originate from response competition between the relevant and irrelevant stimulus attributes. By employing an arbitrary mapping of color words onto buttons, the present results indicate that the disparate effects of Stroop stimuli on RT and P300 latency do not depend on the nature of the S-R translation.
Pluronic lecithin organogel

The purpose of this review is to give detail insight of pluronic lecithin organogels (PLOs) as a topical and transdermal drug delivery system. Pluronic lecithin organogel is a microemulsion-based gel that has been effectively used by physicians and pharmacists to deliver hydrophilic and lipophilic drugs topically and transdermally across the stratum corneum. It is thermodynamically stable, viscoelastic, and biocompatible gel composed of phospholipids (lecithin), organic solvent, and polar solvent. Various types of therapeutic agents have been easily incorporated in PLO to improve their topical drug delivery. Pluronic lecithin organogel improves the topical administration of drug mainly because of desired drug partitioning, biphasic drug solubility, and the modification of skin barrier system by organogel components. Beside this, it shows low skin irritation, increases patient compliance, reduces side effects, avoids first pass metabolism, and increases efficiency of drug. In addition, PLO has been shown in vivo and in vitro to modulate the release and permeation of drugs applied transdermally. Thus, in future, it has wide range of applications and opportunities to experiment with various drugs in this type of drug delivery system.
An assessment of advanced mobile services acceptance: Contributions from TAM and diffusion theory models

Today, in addition to traditional mobile services, there are new ones already being used, thanks to the advances in 3G-related technologies. Our work contributed to the emerging body of research by integrating TAM and Diffusion Theory. Based on a sample of 542 Dutch consumers, we found that traditional antecedents of behavioral intention, ease of use and perceived usefulness, can be linked to diffusion-related variables, such as social influence and perceived benefits (flexibility and status). 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
The effectiveness of a 15 minute weekly massage in reducing physical and psychological stress in nurses.

OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effectiveness of massage therapy in reducing physiological and psychological indicators of stress in nurses employed in an acute care hospital.


DESIGN
Randomised controlled trial.


SETTING
Acute care hospital in Queensland.


SUBJECTS
Sixty nurses were recruited to the five week study and randomly assigned to two groups.


INTERVENTION
A 15 minute back massage once a week. The control group did not receive any therapy.


MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Demographic information, a life events questionnaire and a brief medical history of all participants was completed at enrolment. Physiological stress was measured at weeks one, three and five by urinary cortisol and blood pressure readings. Psychological stress levels were measured at weeks one and five with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI).


RESULTS
Differences in the change in urinary cortisol and blood pressure between the two groups did not reach statistical significance. However, STAI scores decreased over the five weeks for those participants who received a weekly massage. The STAI scores of the control group increased over the five week period. These differences between the groups were statistically significant.


CONCLUSION
The results of this study suggest that massage therapy is a beneficial tool for the health of nurses as it may reduce psychological stress levels. It is recommended that further large studies be conducted to measure the symptoms of stress rather than the physiological signs of stress in nurses.