LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Insulin treatment and diabetic vascular complications.

To the Editor.— University Group Diabetes Program (UGDP) investigators recently reported (240:37, 1978) that the cardiovascular death rate in two groups of patients with mild, maturity-onset diabetes treated with insulin did not differ from that of subjects receiving placebo medication even though fasting blood glucose levels were significantly lower in one group of insulin-treated subjects (insulin variable) than in the placebo group. On the basis of these observations they concluded that administration of insulin to normalize blood glucose does not protect asymptomatic maturity-onset diabetics from cardiovascular complications of diabetes and that there is no reason, therefore, to administer insulin for that purpose. After careful examination of patient data recently released by the UGDP coordinating center, we are convinced that this conclusion is erroneous and is attributable to inclusion of numerous inappropriate (in our opinion) subjects in the data analysis. Since the primary objective of the study was to determine whether
Optimal scheduling of autonomous vehicle arrivals at intelligent intersections via MILP

We propose optimal scheduling of autonomous vehicle arrivals at intersections, eliminating the need for physical traffic signals. The proposed intersection control algorithm is assumed to have bi-directional communication links to approaching vehicles. After receiving subscription requests and status of approaching vehicles, the intersection control node calculates an arrival schedule that ensures safety while significantly reducing number of stops and intersection delays. The vehicle-intersection coordination problem is formulated as a Mixed-Integer Linear Program (MILP). A case study is presented and a customized traffic microsimulation environment is developed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed intersection control scheme.
Menstrual cycle and surgical treatment of breast cancer: findings from the NCCTG N9431 study.

PURPOSE
For nearly two decades, multiple retrospective reports, small prospective studies, and meta-analyses have arrived at conflicting results regarding the value of timing surgical intervention for breast cancer on the basis of menstrual cycle phase. We present the results of a multi-cooperative group, prospective, observational trial of menstrual cycle phase and outcome after breast cancer surgery, led by the North Central Cancer Treatment Group (NCCTG) in collaboration with the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) and the International Breast Cancer Study Group (IBCSG).


PATIENTS AND METHODS
Premenopausal women age 18 to 55 years, who were interviewed for menstrual history and who were surgically treated for stages I to II breast cancer, had serum drawn within 1 day of surgery for estradiol, progesterone, and luteinizing hormone levels. Menstrual history and hormone levels were used to determine menstrual phase: luteal, follicular, and other. Disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) rates were determined by Kaplan-Meier method and were compared by using the log-rank test and Cox proportional hazard modeling.


RESULTS
Of 1,118 women initially enrolled, 834 women comprised the study cohort: 230 (28%) in luteal phase; 363 (44%) in follicular phase; and 241 grouped as other. During a median follow-up of 6.6 years, and in analysis that accounted for nodal disease, estrogen receptor status, adjuvant radiation therapy or chemotherapy, neither DFS nor OS differed with respect to menstrual phase. The 5-year DFS rates were 82.7%, 82.1%, and 79.2% for follicular, luteal, or other phases, respectively. Corresponding OS survival rates were 91.9%, 92.2%, and 91.8%, respectively.


CONCLUSION
When menstrual cycle phases were strictly defined, neither DFS nor OS differed between women who underwent surgery during the follicular phase versus the luteal phase. Nearly 30% of the patients did not meet criteria for either follicular- or luteal-phase categories.
Learning Dynamic Memory Networks for Object Tracking

Template-matching methods for visual tracking have gained popularity recently due to their comparable performance and fast speed. However, they lack effective ways to adapt to changes in the target object’s appearance, making their tracking accuracy still far from state-ofthe-art. In this paper, we propose a dynamic memory network to adapt the template to the target’s appearance variations during tracking. An LSTM is used as a memory controller, where the input is the search feature map and the outputs are the control signals for the reading and writing process of the memory block. As the location of the target is at first unknown in the search feature map, an attention mechanism is applied to concentrate the LSTM input on the potential target. To prevent aggressive model adaptivity, we apply gated residual template learning to control the amount of retrieved memory that is used to combine with the initial template. Unlike tracking-by-detection methods where the object’s information is maintained by the weight parameters of neural networks, which requires expensive online fine-tuning to be adaptable, our tracker runs completely feed-forward and adapts to the target’s appearance changes by updating the external memory. Moreover, unlike other tracking methods where the model capacity is fixed after offline training – the capacity of our tracker can be easily enlarged as the memory requirements of a task increase, which is favorable for memorizing long-term object information. Extensive experiments on OTB and VOT demonstrates that our tracker MemTrack performs favorably against state-of-the-art tracking methods while retaining real-time speed of 50 fps. 1
A survey study of critical success factors in agile software projects

While software is so important for all facets of the modern world, software development itself is not a perfect process. Agile software engineering methods have recently emerged as a new and different way of developing software as compared to the traditional methodologies. However, their success has mostly been anecdotal, and research in this subject is still scant in the academic circles. This research study was a survey study on the critical success factors of Agile software development projects using quantitative approach. Based on existing literature, a preliminary list of potential critical success factors of Agile projects were identified and compiled. Subsequently, reliability analysis and factor analysis were conducted to consolidate this preliminary list into a final set of 12 possible critical success factors for each of the four project success categories – Quality, Scope, Time, and Cost. A survey was conducted among Agile professionals, gathering survey data from 109 Agile projects from 25 countries across the world. Multiple regression techniques were used, both at the full regression model and at the optimized regression model via the stepwise screening procedure. The results revealed that only 10 out of 48 hypotheses were supported, identifying three critical success factors for Agile software development projects: (a) Delivery Strategy, (b) Agile Software Engineering Techniques, and (c) Team Capability. Limitations of the study are discussed together with interpretations for practitioners. To ensure success of their projects, managers are urged to focus on choosing a high-caliber team, practicing Agile engineering techniques and following Agile-style delivery strategy. 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Laparoscopic pancreas-sparing subtotal duodenectomy.

CONTEXT
Primary adenocarcinoma of the duodenum is a rare digestive malignancy which is commonly treated by radical surgical resection, pancreaticoduodenectomy being the technique of choice. Complete tumor resection obtaining free margins should be the standard of treatment for primary adenocarcinoma of the duodenum. Segmental duodenal resection is an appropriate operation for selected cases of primary adenocarcinoma of the duodenum of the 3rd and 4th portions of the duodenum.


CASE REPORT
We present the case of a 67-year-old woman suffering from an infra-ampullary large villous polypoid mass affecting the 3rd portion of the duodenum. Multiple endoscopic biopsies did not disclose any malignancy, and abdominal CT and endoscopic ultrasound found no extraduodenal involvement. A 3rd and 4th portion pancreas-sparing duodenectomy was carried out using a totally laparoscopic approach. Intra-operatory duodenoscopy was done to safeguard the papilla of Vater. Recovery was uneventful and the patient was discharged on the 7th postoperative day. The final diagnosis was primary adenocarcinoma of the duodenum (free resection margins). After forty-five months of follow-up, the patient is free of disease.


CONCLUSIONS
We recommend this procedure for treatment of an infra-ampullary benign and pre-malignant duodenal pathology; it can also be a treatment option and an alternative to a pancreaticoduodenectomy in very selected cases of tumors confined to the duodenum. Expertise in both pancreatic surgery and laparoscopic techniques is required.
Quality of life in patients with spinal cord injury receiving VIAGRA® (sildenafil citrate) for the treatment of erectile dysfunction

Study design: A multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, flexible-dose, two-way crossover study conducted June 1996 through January 1997.Objectives: To evaluate the effect of sildenafil citrate (VIAGRA®) on the quality of life (QoL) of men with erectile dysfunction (ED) caused by spinal cord injury (SCI).Setting: Study centers in Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.Methods: Questions 13 and 14 of the 15-item International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) addressed QoL issues directly related to ED in 178 men with SCI. A 5-item questionnaire addressing concerns that men had about their erection problems was also used to evaluate the impact of ED on QoL. Several commonly used psychometric instruments, including the Medical Outcomes Survey (MOS) Short Form-12, Psychological General Well-Being Index, and MOS Family Survey, assessed general QoL issues.Results: Significant improvements were seen for overall satisfaction with sex life (IIEF Q13), sexual relationship with partner (IIEF Q14), and concerns about erectile problems (P<0.0001). Improvements were reported in scores for the generic QoL parameters of mental health, well-being, depression, and anxiety (P<0.05 sildenafil versus placebo).Conclusion: Treatment with sildenafil can significantly improve key QoL parameters in men with ED caused by SCI.Sponsorship: This study was funded by Pfizer Inc.
Frequency and Spectrum of Unexpected Clinical Manifestations of Primary HIV-1 Infection.

BACKGROUND
Prospectively and systematically collected data on frequency and spectrum of unexpected clinical manifestations during primary human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection (PHI) have not been published.


METHODS
We prospectively enrolled 290 patients with documented PHI in the Zurich Primary HIV Infection Study. Typical acute retroviral syndrome (ARS) was defined as fever plus at least 1 symptom or sign typically considered to be associated with ARS; in absence of fever, presence of 2 or more ARS symptoms or signs. Atypical ARS was defined as lack of symptoms or signs, a single symptom or sign only and absence of fever, presence of symptoms or signs that are not considered typically associated with ARS, or occurrence of an opportunistic disease. Time to diagnosis was calculated based on estimated date of infection and first positive HIV test.


RESULTS
We analyzed 290 patients (271 males). PHI manifested with typical ARS in 202 (70%) and with atypical ARS in 88 (30%) patients. Patients with atypical ARS were hospitalized 4 times more often compared with typical ARS (43% vs 11%; P < .001). The gastrointestinal tract was the most frequent organ system affected in patients with atypical manifestations. Only in 112 (38%) patients was HIV infection suspected during the first medical attendance. Patients with typical ARS were diagnosed slightly earlier compared with atypical ARS, but this difference was not significant (P = .3).


CONCLUSIONS
Unexpected clinical presentations occurred in a large fraction of patients with PHI and were associated with substantial morbidity. Universal HIV testing may be mandatory in high-risk groups.
Does pelvic organ prolapse quantification exam predict urethral mobility in stages 0 and I prolapse?

Objective: To determine if women with anterior support stages 0 or I by pelvic organ prolapse quantification (POP-Q) system require Q-tip testing to assess urethral mobility. Methods: A prospective study of 134 women presenting for urogynecologic evaluation were examined and assigned stages of anterior wall support according to the POP-Q system. A Q-tip test was performed and urethral hypermobility was defined as a straining angle ≥30°. The Spearman correlation coefficient was used to assess degree of correlation between POP-Q point Aa position and Q-tip values. Results: The correlation coefficient between point Aa position and Q-tip angle was r=0.787 (P<0.001). Urethral hypermobility was noted in 91% of stage I and 100% of stage II–IV patients. The positive predictive value of Q-tip angle ≥30° in stage I–IV prolapse was 99%. Conclusion: The POP-Q system is highly predictive of straining urethral angle in all stages of prolapse.
Benefits of combined aerobic/resistance/inspiratory training in patients with chronic heart failure. A complete exercise model? A prospective randomised study.

BACKGROUND
We hypothesised that combined aerobic training (AT) with resistance training (RT) and inspiratory muscle training (IMT) could result in additional benefits over AT alone in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF).


METHODS
Twenty-seven patients, age 58 ± 9 years, NYHA II/III and LVEF 29 ± 7% were randomly assigned to a 12-week AT (n=14) or a combined AT/RT/IMT (ARIS) (n=13) exercise program. AT consisted of bike exercise at 70-80% of max heart rate. ARIS training consisted of AT with RT of the quadriceps at 50% of 1 repetition maximum (1RM) and upper limb exercises using dumbbells of 1-2 kg as well as IMT at 60% of sustained maximal inspiratory pressure (SPI(max)). At baseline and after intervention patients underwent cardiopulmonary exercise testing, echocardiography, evaluation of dyspnea, muscle function and quality of life (QoL) scores.


RESULTS
The ARIS program as compared to AT alone, resulted in additional improvement in quadriceps muscle strength (1RM, p=0.005) and endurance (50%1 RM × number of max repetitions, p=0.01), SPI(max) (p<0.001), exercise time (p=0.01), circulatory power (peak oxygen consumption × peak systolic blood pressure, p=0.05), dyspnea (p=0.03) and QoL (p=0.03).


CONCLUSIONS
ARIS training was safe and resulted in incremental benefits in both peripheral and respiratory muscle weakness, cardiopulmonary function and QoL compared to that of AT. The present findings may add a new prospective to cardiac rehabilitation programs of heart failure patients whilst the clinical significance of these outcomes need to be addressed in larger randomised studies.
Neuro-symbolic representation learning on biological knowledge graphs

Motivation
Biological data and knowledge bases increasingly rely on Semantic Web technologies and the use of knowledge graphs for data integration, retrieval and federated queries. In the past years, feature learning methods that are applicable to graph-structured data are becoming available, but have not yet widely been applied and evaluated on structured biological knowledge. Results: We develop a novel method for feature learning on biological knowledge graphs. Our method combines symbolic methods, in particular knowledge representation using symbolic logic and automated reasoning, with neural networks to generate embeddings of nodes that encode for related information within knowledge graphs. Through the use of symbolic logic, these embeddings contain both explicit and implicit information. We apply these embeddings to the prediction of edges in the knowledge graph representing problems of function prediction, finding candidate genes of diseases, protein-protein interactions, or drug target relations, and demonstrate performance that matches and sometimes outperforms traditional approaches based on manually crafted features. Our method can be applied to any biological knowledge graph, and will thereby open up the increasing amount of Semantic Web based knowledge bases in biology to use in machine learning and data analytics.


Availability and implementation
https://github.com/bio-ontology-research-group/walking-rdf-and-owl.


Contact
robert.hoehndorf@kaust.edu.sa.


Supplementary information
Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
RWTH OCR : A Large Vocabulary Optical 1 Character Recognition System for Arabic

We present a novel large vocabulary OCR system, which implements a 5 confidenceand margin-based discriminative training approach for model adap6 tation of an HMM based recognition system to handle multiple fonts, different 7 handwriting styles, and their variations. Most current HMM approaches are HTK 8 based systems which are maximum-likelihood (ML) trained and which try to adapt 9 their models to different writing styles using writer adaptive training, unsupervised 10 clustering, or additional writer specific data. Here, discriminative training based 11 on the Maximum Mutual Information (MMI) and Minimum Phone Error (MPE) 12 criteria are used instead. For model adaptation during decoding, an unsupervised 13 confidence-based discriminative training within a two-pass decoding process is pro14 posed. Additionally, we use neural network based features extracted by a hierar15 chical multi-layer-perceptron (MLP) network either in a hybrid MLP/HMM ap16 proach or to discriminatively retrain a Gaussian HMM system in a tandem approach. 17 The proposed framework and methods are evaluated for closed-vocabulary isolated 18 handwritten word recognition on the IfN/ENIT Arabic handwriting database, where 19 the word-error-rate is decreased by more than 50% relative compared to a ML 20 trained baseline system. Preliminary results for large-vocabulary Arabic machine 21 printed text recognition tasks are presented on a novel publicly available newspaper 22 database. 23 RWTH Aachen University Human Language Technology and Pattern Recognition Ahornstr 55, D-52056 Aachen, Germany Tel.: +49-241-80-21613 Fax: +49-241-80-22219 e-mail: <surname>@cs.rwth-aachen.de
Improving the outcome of infants born at <30 weeks' gestation - a randomized controlled trial of preventative care at home

BACKGROUND
Early developmental interventions to prevent the high rate of neurodevelopmental problems in very preterm children, including cognitive, motor and behavioral impairments, are urgently needed. These interventions should be multi-faceted and include modules for caregivers given their high rates of mental health problems.


METHODS/DESIGN
We have designed a randomized controlled trial to assess the effectiveness of a preventative care program delivered at home over the first 12 months of life for infants born very preterm (<30 weeks of gestational age) and their families, compared with standard medical follow-up. The aim of the program, delivered over nine sessions by a team comprising a physiotherapist and psychologist, is to improve infant development (cognitive, motor and language), behavioral regulation, caregiver-child interactions and caregiver mental health at 24 months' corrected age. The infants will be stratified by severity of brain white matter injury (assessed by magnetic resonance imaging) at term equivalent age, and then randomized. At 12 months' corrected age interim outcome measures will include motor development assessed using the Alberta Infant Motor Scale and the Neurological Sensory Motor Developmental Assessment. Caregivers will also complete a questionnaire at this time to obtain information on behavior, parenting, caregiver mental health, and social support. The primary outcomes are at 24 months' corrected age and include cognitive, motor and language development assessed with the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (Bayley-III). Secondary outcomes at 24 months include caregiver-child interaction measured using an observational task, and infant behavior, parenting, caregiver mental health and social support measured via standardized parental questionnaires.


DISCUSSION
This paper presents the background, study design and protocol for a randomized controlled trial in very preterm infants utilizing a preventative care program in the first year after discharge home designed to improve cognitive, motor and behavioral outcomes of very preterm children and caregiver mental health at two-years' corrected age.


CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER
ACTRN12605000492651.
High Voltage Switch with MOSFET Series/Parallel Connection

In this paper, a network configuration which permits an increase in MOSFET maximum operating current and voltage values is proposed. This methodology capitalizes on MOSFETs' high-speed switching characteristic. The proposed configuration is tested through use of a model for liquid food electroporation processes, generating 3 kV rectangular waves and adjustable pulse widths between 1 $\mu s$ and 100 $\mu s$. In these tests, the effect of load conductivity variation and two of the proposed circuit's parameters on the defining characteristics of the pulse shape, including rise time, fall time, amplitude, and pulse width, were evaluated. The switching times and waveforms obtained for proposed configuration were suitable, and increased voltage and current limits
Real-time pedestrian detection based on edge factor and Histogram of Oriented Gradient

This paper reports a real-time coarse-to-fine pedestrian detection method which is based on edge factor and Histogram of Oriented Gradient (HOG). In this method, first, the edge factor of detect window is used in the coarse detection, and then HOG combined with linear SVM (HOG/linSVM) is used in fine detection. The HOG/linSVM is one of the most popular video based pedestrian detection methods, which has advantage in high resolution images but low processing speed. To overcome this problem, a simple and run fast algorithm is developed—the edge factor, which is the normalized edge number. The edge factor can distinguish pedestrians from some uniform background. Edge factor is used in coarse detection to filter out some edgeless sub-windows; the fine detection which HOG/linSVM is used to do final detection on windows that has passed coarse detection. Owing to some sub-window has be eliminated by the coarse detection, the processing time of fine detection can be shortened greatly and so that the whole detection speed is improved. In addition, preprocessing such as image zooming, extract region of interest have be used for further acceleration of the detection process. Experiments show that our method has good performance and greatly improved the detection speed especially in videos of simple environment.