LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Comparative efficacy and safety of different doses of ergocalciferol supplementation in patients with metabolic syndrome

Background Vitamin D deficiency is a common problem worldwide. Several studies have shown an association between vitamin D deficiency and the increased risk of metabolic syndrome. No previous study has compared the efficacy and safety of ergocalciferol at 40,000 versus 20,000 IU/week in patients with metabolic syndrome. Objective To evaluate the efficacy of ergocalciferol supplementation on serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations and to examine safety parameters in metabolic syndrome patients. Setting Outpatient department of Phramongkutklao Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand. Method A randomized, double-blinded, parallel study was conducted in metabolic syndrome patients with vitamin D deficiency [25(OH)D <20 ng/mL]. Ninety patients were randomly assigned into three groups of 30 patients each. Group 1 was given two capsules of placebo/week, group 2 was given ergocalciferol 20,000 IU/week, and group 3 was given ergocalciferol 40,000 IU/week for 8 weeks. Main outcome measure serum 25(OH)D concentrations, serum calcium, safety, and corrected QT (QTc) interval. Results Of the 90 patients enrolled, 84 patients completed the study. At the end of the study, the mean serum 25(OH)D in groups 2 and 3 significantly increased from the baseline (15.1 and 14.3 to 26.8 and 30.0 ng/mL, respectively). The increase in serum 25(OH)D in groups 2 and 3 were comparable and significantly greater than that of the placebo group. The percentage number of patients achieving normal vitamin D levels in groups 1, 2 and 3 were 3.3, 33.3, and 60.0 %, respectively, which were significantly different between groups (p < 0.001). Adverse reactions in both ergocalciferol treatment groups were not different from the placebo group (p > 0.05). Serum calcium levels did not change within and between groups of treatment. No significant change in QTc was observed in any patient. Conclusions Both 20,000 and 40,000 IU/week of ergocalciferol supplementation for 8 weeks were able to increase serum 25(OH)D concentrations significantly. However, more patients in the ergocalciferol 40,000 IU/week treatment group achieved a normal serum 25(OH)D level than in the group which received 20,000 IU/week. Clinicians would have informed of choosing the dosing regimen of ergocalciferol in metabolic syndrome patients.
Machine Learning-based Sentiment Analysis of Automatic Indonesian Translations of English Movie Reviews

Sentiment analysis is the automatic classification of the overall opinion conveyed by a text towards its subject matter. This paper discusses an experiment in the sentiment analysis of of a collection of movie reviews that have been automatically translated to Indonesian. Following [1], we employ three well known classification techniques: naive bayes, maximum entropy, and support vector machines, employing unigram presence and frequency values as the features. The translation is achieved through machine translation and simple word substitutions based on a bilingual dictionary constructed from various online resources. Analysis of the Indonesian translations yielded an accuracy of up to 78.82%, still short of the accuracy for the English documents (80.09%), but satisfactorily high given the simple translation approach.
Improving the outcome of fractional CO2 laser resurfacing using a probiotic skin cream: Preliminary clinical evaluation

As known, fractional CO2 resurfacing treatments are more effective than non-ablative ones against aging signs, but post-operative redness and swelling prolong the overall downtime requiring up to steroid administration in order to reduce these local systems. In the last years, an increasing interest has been focused on the possible use of probiotics for treating inflammatory and allergic conditions suggesting that they can exert profound beneficial effects on skin homeostasis. In this work, the Authors report their experience on fractional CO2 laser resurfacing and provide the results of a new post-operative topical treatment with an experimental cream containing probiotic-derived active principles potentially able to modulate the inflammatory reaction associated to laser-treatment. The cream containing DermaACB (CERABEST™) was administered post-operatively to 42 consecutive patients who were treated with fractional CO2 laser. All patients adopted the cream twice a day for 2 weeks. Grades were given according to outcome scale. The efficacy of the cream containing DermaACB was evaluated comparing the rate of post-operative signs vanishing with a control group of 20 patients topically treated with an antibiotic cream and a hyaluronic acid based cream. Results registered with the experimental treatment were good in 22 patients, moderate in 17, and poor in 3 cases. Patients using the study cream took an average time of 14.3 days for erythema resolution and 9.3 days for swelling vanishing. The post-operative administration of the cream containing DermaACB induces a quicker reduction of post-operative erythema and swelling when compared to a standard treatment.
Access control management in a distributed environment supporting dynamic collaboration

Ensuring secure and authorized access to remote services and information resources in a dynamic collaborative environment is a challenging task. Two major issues that need to be addressed in this regard are: specification of access control requirements and trust management. Specification of access control requirements for dynamic collaboration is challenging mainly because of the limited or lack of knowledge about remote users' identities and affiliations. The access control policies and constraints defining users' authorization over remote resources and services need to be specified in terms of the attributes and properties of the users. Moreover, the criteria for validating the attributes of the users should also be specified as part of access control requirements. Trust management, in the context of dynamic collaboration, involves validation of user's attributes for secure interaction and prevention of unauthorized disclosure of policies and attributes. The paper discusses these issues in detail and presents a framework for access control and trust management in a distributed collaborative environment.
A Broadband CPW-to-Waveguide Transition Using Quasi-Yagi Antenna

A novel CPW-to-waveguide transition utilizing a uniplanar quasi-Yagi antenna is presented. The X-band back-to-back transition demonstrates 33% bandwidth with return loss better than -10dB. This transition should find a wide variety of applications due to its high MIC/MMIC compatibility and low cost.
LANTERN: a randomized study of QVA149 versus salmeterol/fluticasone combination in patients with COPD

BACKGROUND
The current Global initiative for chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) treatment strategy recommends the use of one or more bronchodilators according to the patient's airflow limitation, their history of exacerbations, and symptoms. The LANTERN study evaluated the effect of the long-acting β2-agonist (LABA)/long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA) dual bronchodilator, QVA149 (indacaterol/glycopyrronium), as compared with the LABA/inhaled corticosteroid, salmeterol/fluticasone (SFC), in patients with moderate-to-severe COPD with a history of ≤1 exacerbation in the previous year.


METHODS
In this double-blind, double-dummy, parallel-group study, 744 patients with moderate-to-severe COPD with a history of ≤1 exacerbations in the previous year were randomized (1:1) to QVA149 110/50 μg once daily or SFC 50/500 μg twice daily for 26 weeks. The primary endpoint was noninferiority of QVA149 versus SFC for trough forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) at week 26.


RESULTS
Overall, 676 patients completed the study. The primary objective of noninferiority between QVA149 and SFC in trough FEV1 at week 26 was met. QVA149 demonstrated statistically significant superiority to SFC for trough FEV1 (treatment difference [Δ]=75 mL; P<0.001). QVA149 demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in standardized area under the curve (AUC) from 0 hours to 4 hours for FEV1 (FEV1 AUC0-4h) at week 26 versus SFC (Δ=122 mL; P<0.001). QVA149 and SFC had similar improvements in transition dyspnea index focal score, St George Respiratory Questionnaire total score, and rescue medication use. However, QVA149 significantly reduced the rate of moderate or severe exacerbations by 31% (P=0.048) over SFC. Overall, the incidence of adverse events was comparable between QVA149 (40.1%) and SFC (47.4%). The incidence of pneumonia was threefold lower with QVA149 (0.8%) versus SFC (2.7%).


CONCLUSION
These findings support the use of the LABA/LAMA, QVA149 as an alternative treatment, over LABA/inhaled corticosteroid, in the management of moderate-to-severe COPD patients (GOLD B and GOLD D) with a history of ≤1 exacerbation in the previous year.
From Big Data to Big Service

Big service-the convergence and collaboration of big data systems-presents a solid solution to the challenges brought by big data.
MaterialSim : An Agent-Based Simulation Toolkit for Learning Materials Science

Computer modeling and simulation is progressively penetrating the engineering workplace across a wide variety of contexts. However, their use in undergraduate engineering education lags far behind. Although there are many commercial simulation packages available, most background and “black-box” the actual mathematical and physical models used in the simulation engine, assigning a passive role to students as they do not have access to the underlying dynamics. This paper reports on a user study of MaterialSim, a Materials Science agent-based set of microworlds built in the NetLogo modeling-and-simulation environment, for investigating crystallization, solidification, metallic grain growth and annealing. Six undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory Materials Science course participated in the study, in which they could run experiments and build models. This design-based research builds on previous studies that have suggested the benefits of multi-agent simulation for understanding how a variety of complex behaviors in science derive from simple, local rules. Whereas professional simulation tools in Engineering are targeted for “modeling-for-doing”, emphasizing aggregatelevel simulations to predict macroscopic variables, MaterialSim was built within a “modeling-for-understanding” framework, which focuses on agent-level elementary behaviors that bring about emergent macroscopic behaviors. The rationale for the design is that the agent-based perspective may foster deeper understanding of the relevant scientific phenomena. A core feature of this design is that students can apply a small number of rules to capture fundamental causality structures underlying behaviors in a range of apparently disparate phenomena within a domain.. We present evidence in the form of excerpts and samples of students’ work which demonstrate that the experience with the tool enabled them to identify and understand some of the unifying principles across phenomena and build sophisticated new models based on those. Index Terms ⎯ Agent-based modeling, Constructivism, Engineering education, Materials Science.
Relative Importance of Coral Cover, Habitat Complexity and Diversity in Determining the Structure of Reef Fish Communities

The structure of coral reef habitat has a pronounced influence on the diversity, composition and abundance of reef-associated fishes. However, the particular features of the habitat that are most critical are not always known. Coral habitats can vary in many characteristics, notably live coral cover, topographic complexity and coral diversity, but the relative effects of these habitat characteristics are often not distinguished. Here, we investigate the strength of the relationships between these habitat features and local fish diversity, abundance and community structure in the lagoon of Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef. In a spatial comparison using sixty-six 2m(2) quadrats, fish species richness, total abundance and community structure were examined in relation to a wide range of habitat variables, including topographic complexity, habitat diversity, coral diversity, coral species richness, hard coral cover, branching coral cover and the cover of corymbose corals. Fish species richness and total abundance were strongly associated with coral species richness and cover, but only weakly associated with topographic complexity. Regression tree analysis showed that coral species richness accounted for most of the variation in fish species richness (63.6%), while hard coral cover explained more variation in total fish abundance (17.4%), than any other variable. In contrast, topographic complexity accounted for little spatial variation in reef fish assemblages. In degrading coral reef environments, the potential effects of loss of coral cover and topographic complexity are often emphasized, but these findings suggest that reduced coral biodiversity may ultimately have an equal, or greater, impact on reef-associated fish communities.
The Role of Isotretinoin Therapy for Cushing's Disease: Results of a Prospective Study.

Objective. This prospective open trial aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of isotretinoin (13-cis-retinoic acid) in patients with Cushing's disease (CD). Methods. Sixteen patients with CD and persistent or recurrent hypercortisolism after transsphenoidal surgery were given isotretinoin orally for 6-12 months. The drug was started on 20 mg daily and the dosage was increased up to 80 mg daily if needed and tolerated. Clinical, biochemical, and hormonal parameters were evaluated at baseline and monthly for 6-12 months. Results. Of the 16 subjects, 4% (25%) persisted with normal urinary free cortisol (UFC) levels at the end of the study. UFC reductions of up to 52.1% were found in the rest. Only patients with UFC levels below 2.5-fold of the upper limit of normal achieved sustained UFC normalization. Improvements of clinical and biochemical parameters were also noted mostly in responsive patients. Typical isotretinoin side-effects were experienced by 7 patients (43.7%), though they were mild and mostly transient. We also observed that the combination of isotretinoin with cabergoline, in relatively low doses, may occasionally be more effective than either drug alone. Conclusions. Isotretinoin may be an effective and safe therapy for some CD patients, particularly those with mild hypercortisolism.
The relationship of disordered eating habits and attitudes to clinical outcomes in young adult females with type 1 diabetes.

OBJECTIVE
To describe the clinical outcomes of adolescent and young adult female subjects with type 1 diabetes in relation to the disturbance of eating habits and attitudes over 8-12 years.


RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
Patients were recruited from the registers of pediatric and young adult diabetes clinics (including nonattenders) and interviewed in the community. A total of 87 patients were assessed at baseline (aged 11-25 years), and 63 (72%) were reinterviewed after 8-12 years (aged 20-38 years). Eating habits and attitudes were assessed by a semistructured research diagnostic interview (Eating Disorder Examination).


RESULTS
Clinical eating disorders ascertained from the interview and/or case note review at baseline or follow-up were found in 13 subjects (14.9% [95% CI 8.2-24.2]), and an additional 7 subjects had evidence of binging or purging, bringing the total affected to 26%. Insulin misuse for weight control was reported by 31 (35.6% [25.7-46.6]) subjects. Overall outcome was poor; serious microvascular complications were common and mortality was high. There were significant relationships between disordered eating habits, insulin misuse, and microvascular complications.


CONCLUSIONS
Although the cross-sectional prevalence of clinical eating disorders in young women with diabetes is modest, the cumulative incidence of eating problems continues to increase after young adulthood, and this is strongly associated with poor physical health outcomes. The combination of an eating disorder and diabetes puts patients at high risk of mortality and morbidity. Better methods of detection and management are needed.
Improving evidence-based primary care for chronic kidney disease: study protocol for a cluster randomized control trial for translating evidence into practice (TRANSLATE CKD)

BACKGROUND
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end stage renal disease (ESRD) are steadily increasing in prevalence in the United States. While there is reasonable evidence that specific activities can be implemented by primary care physicians (PCPs) to delay CKD progression and reduce mortality, CKD is under-recognized and undertreated in primary care offices, and PCPs are generally not familiar with treatment guidelines. The current study addresses the question of whether the facilitated TRANSLATE model compared to computer decision support (CDS) alone will lead to improved evidence-based care for CKD in primary care offices.


METHODS/DESIGN
This protocol consists of a cluster randomized controlled trial (CRCT) followed by a process and cost analysis. Only practices providing ambulatory primary care as their principal function, located in non-hospital settings, employing at least one primary care physician, with a minimum of 2,000 patients seen in the prior year, are eligible. The intervention will occur at the cluster level and consists of providing CKD-specific CDS versus CKD-specific CDS plus practice facilitation for all elements of the TRANSLATE model. Patient-level data will be collected from each participating practice to examine adherence to guideline-concordant care, progression of CKD and all-cause mortality. Patients are considered to meet stage three CKD criteria if at least two consecutive estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) measurements at least three months apart fall below 60 ml/min. The process evaluation (cluster level) will determine through qualitative methods the fidelity of the facilitated TRANSLATE program and find the challenges and enablers of the implementation process. The cost-effectiveness analysis will compare the benefit of the intervention of CDS alone against the intervention of CDS plus TRANSLATE (practice facilitation) in relationship to overall cost per quality adjusted years of life.


DISCUSSION
This study has three major innovations. First, this study adapts the TRANSLATE method, proven effective in diabetes care, to CKD. Second, we are creating a generalizable CDS specific to the Kidney Disease Outcome Quality Initiative (KDOQI) guidelines for CKD. Additionally, this study will evaluate the effects of CDS versus CDS with facilitation and answer key questions regarding the cost-effectiveness of a facilitated model for improving CKD outcomes. The study is testing virtual facilitation and Academic detailing making the findings generalizable to any area of the country.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
Registered as NCT01767883 on clinicaltrials.gov
Minimally-diluted blood cardioplegia supplemented with potassium and magnesium for combination of 'initial, continuous and intermittent bolus' administration.

BACKGROUND
The present study was designed to examine the hypothesis that minimally-diluted blood cardioplegia (BCP) supplemented with potassium and magnesium provides superior myocardial protection in comparison with the standard-diluted BCP for a combination of 'initial, continuous, and intermittent bolus' BCP administration.


METHODS AND RESULTS
Seventy patients undergoing elective coronary revascularization between 1997 and 2001 (M : F =55:15, mean age 67.6+/-7.5 years) were randomly divided into 2 groups: Group C (n=35) was given the standard 4:1-diluted blood-crystalloid BCP, and Group M (n=35) was given minimally-diluted BCP supplemented with potassium-chloride and magnesium-sulfate. The BCP temperature was maintained at 30 degrees C. Cardioplegic arrest was induced with 2 min of initial antegrade BCP infusion, followed by continuous retrograde BCP infusion. Intermittent antegrade BCP was infused every 30 min for 2 min. The time required for achieving cardioplegic arrest was significantly shorter in Group M (47.5+/-16.3 vs 62.5+/-17.6 s, p<0.0001). The number of patients showing spontaneous heart beat recovery after reperfusion was significantly larger in Group M (28 vs 15, p=0.0029), and the number of patients suffering from atrial fibrillation during the postoperative period was significantly smaller in Group M (n=3 vs 11, p=0.034). Both the postoperative maximum dopamine dose (3.57+/-2.46 vs 5.44+/-2.23 microg/kg per min, p=0.0014) and peak creatine kinase-MB (19.5+/-8.5 vs 25.8+/-11.9 IU/L, p=0.0128) were significantly less in Group M. The number of patients showing paradoxical movement of the ventricular septum in the early postoperative echocardiography was significantly smaller in Group M (9 vs 24, p=0.0007).


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that 'initial, continuous and intermittent bolus' administration of minimally-diluted BCP supplemented with potassium and magnesium is a reliable and effective technique for intraoperative myocardial protection.
Ensemble with neural networks for bankruptcy prediction

0957-4174/$ see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. A doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2009.10.012 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 51 32
Compiling Pattern Matching

Introduction Pattern matching is a very powerful and useful device in programming. In functional languages it emerged in SASL [Turn76] and Hope [BursS0], and has also found its way into SML [Miln84]. The pattern mathing described here is that of LML which is a lazy ([Frie76] and [Henri76]) variant of ML. The pattern matching in LML evolved independently of that in SML so they are not (yet) the same, although very similar. The compilation of pattern matching in SML has been addressed in [Card84]. The LML compiler project began as an attempt to produce efficient code for a typed functional language with lazy evaluation. Since we regard pattern matching as an important language feature it should also yield efficient code. Only pattern matching in case expressions is described here, since we regard this as the basic pattern matching facility in the language. All other types of pattern mathing used in LML can be easily translated into case expressions, see [Augu84] for details. The compilation (of pattern matching) proceeds in several steps: • transform all pattern matching to case expressions. • transform complex case expressions into expressions that are easy to generate code for. • generate G-code for the case expressions, and from that machine code for the target machine.
Detection of QRS Complexes in 12-lead ECG using Adaptive Quantized Threshold

The QRS complex is the most prominent wave component within the electrocardiogram. It reflects the electrical activity of heart during the ventricular contraction and the time of its occurrence. Its morphology provides information about the current state of the heart. The identification of QRS-complexes forms the basis for almost all automated ECG analysis algorithms. The presented algorithm employs a modified definition of slope, of ECG signal, as the feature for detection of QRS. A sequence of transformations of the filtered and baseline drift corrected ECG signal is used for extraction of a new modified slope-feature. Two feature-components are combined to derive the final QRSfeature signal. Multiple quantized amplitude thresholds are employed for distinguishing QRS-complexes from non-QRS regions of the ECG waveform. An adequate amplitude threshold is automatically selected by the presented algorithm and is utilized for delineating the QRS-complexes. A QRS detection rate of 98.56% with false positive and false negative percentage of 0.82% and 1.44% has been reported.