LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Lifestyle Counseling in Routine Care and Long-Term Glucose, Blood Pressure, and Cholesterol Control in Patients With Diabetes

OBJECTIVE
In clinical trials, diet, exercise, and weight counseling led to short-term improvements in blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels in patients with diabetes. However, little is known about the long-term effects of lifestyle counseling on patients with diabetes in routine clinical settings.


RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
This retrospective cohort study of 30,897 patients with diabetes aimed to determine whether lifestyle counseling is associated with time to A1C, blood pressure, and LDL cholesterol control in patients with diabetes. Patients were included if they had at least 2 years of follow-up with primary care practices affiliated with two teaching hospitals in eastern Massachusetts between 1 January 2000 and 1 January 2010.


RESULTS
Comparing patients with face-to-face counseling rates of once or more per month versus less than once per 6 months, median time to A1C <7.0% was 3.5 versus 22.7 months, time to blood pressure <130/85 mmHg was 3.7 weeks versus 5.6 months, and time to LDL cholesterol <100 mg/dL was 3.5 versus 24.7 months, respectively (P < 0.0001 for all). In multivariable analysis, one additional monthly face-to-face lifestyle counseling episode was associated with hazard ratios of 1.7 for A1C control (P < 0.0001), 1.3 for blood pressure control (P < 0.0001), and 1.4 for LDL cholesterol control (P = 0.0013).


CONCLUSIONS
Lifestyle counseling in the primary care setting is strongly associated with faster achievement of A1C, blood pressure, and LDL cholesterol control. These results confirm that the findings of controlled clinical trials are applicable to the routine care setting and provide evidence to support current treatment guidelines.
Protecting and promoting mental health of nurses in the hospital setting: Is it cost-effective from an employer's perspective?

OBJECTIVES
Nurses are at elevated risk of burnout, anxiety and depressive disorders, and may then become less productive. This begs the question if a preventive intervention in the work setting might be cost-saving from a business perspective.


MATERIAL AND METHODS
A cost-benefit analysis was conducted to evaluate the balance between the costs of a preventive intervention among nurses at elevated risk of mental health complaints and the cost offsets stemming from improved productivity. This evaluation was conducted alongside a cluster-randomized trial in a Dutch academic hospital. The control condition consisted of screening without feedback and unrestricted access to usual care (N = 206). In the experimental condition screen-positive nurses received personalized feedback and referral to the occupational physician (N = 207).


RESULTS
Subtracting intervention costs from the cost offsets due to reduced absenteeism and presenteeism resulted in net-savings of 244 euros per nurse when only absenteeism is regarded, and 651 euros when presenteeism is also taken into account. This corresponds to a return-on-investment of 5 euros up to 11 euros for every euro invested.


CONCLUSIONS
Within half a year, the cost of offering the preventive intervention was more than recouped. Offering the preventive intervention represents a favorable business case as seen from the employer's perspective.
Assessment of right ventricular function by transthoracic echocardiography following aortic valve replacement.

BACKGROUND
Tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) is a widely used clinical measure of right ventricular (RV) systolic performance. However, postsurgical changes in the pattern of RV contraction may limit the utility of TAPSE for assessing global RV function. We retrospectively examined pre- and postoperative TAPSE and RV fractional area change (FAC) in patients undergoing 3 different types of aortic valve replacement (AVR).


METHODS
Fifty-two patients enrolled in the Placement of AoRTic TraNscathetER Valve Trial at our institution were randomized to receive open AVR or transcatheter AVR (TAVR) by either the transapical or transfemoral access routes. Thirty-seven of these patients had analyzable transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) before and after AVR. Using M-mode echocardiography, TAPSE was measured in the apical four-chamber view. Using two-dimensional echocardiography, RV FAC was measured in the apical four-chamber view.


RESULTS
The mean change in TAPSE was -0.7 ± 0.6 cm for open AVR (P = 0.002), -0.2 ± 0.4 cm for transapical TAVR (P = 0.26), and 0.1 ± 0.5 cm for transfemoral TAVR (P = 0.64). The mean change in RV FAC was -1 ± 5% for open AVR (P = 0.91), 2 ± 4% for transapical TAVR (P = 0.37), and 7 ± 10% for transfemoral TAVR (P = 0.07).


CONCLUSIONS
The normal pattern of RV contraction was unchanged by transapical and transfemoral TAVR, while open AVR led to a significant decrease in TAPSE with preserved RV FAC. Thus, RV FAC is a preferable method for assessing RV function in the postoperative patient.
Molecular characterisation of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) breast tumour specimens using a custom 512-gene breast cancer bead array-based platform

Background:Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tumour tissue represents an immense but mainly untapped resource with respect to molecular profiling. The DASL (cDNA-mediated Annealing, Selection, extension, and Ligation) assay is a recently described, RT–PCR-based, highly multiplexed high-throughput gene expression platform developed by Illumina specifically for fragmented RNA typically obtained from FFPE specimens, which enables expression profiling. In order to extend the utility of the DASL assay for breast cancer, we have custom designed and validated a 512-gene human breast cancer panel.Methods:The RNA from FFPE breast tumour specimens were analysed using the DASL assay. Breast cancer subtype was defined from pathology immunohistochemical (IHC) staining. Differentially expressed genes between the IHC-defined subtypes were assessed by prediction analysis of microarrays (PAM) and then used in the analysis of two published data sets with clinical outcome data.Results:Gene expression signatures on our custom breast cancer panel were very reproducible between replicates (average Pearson's R2=0.962) and the 152 genes common to both the standard cancer DASL panel (Illumina) and our breast cancer DASL panel were similarly expressed for samples run on both panels (average R2=0.877). Moreover, expression of ESR1, PGR and ERBB2 corresponded well with their respective pathology-defined IHC status. A 30-gene set indicative of IHC-defined breast cancer subtypes was found to segregate samples based on their subtype in our data sets and published data sets. Furthermore, several of these genes were significantly associated with overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS) in these previously published data sets, indicating that they are biomarkers of the different breast cancer subtypes and the prognostic outcomes associated with these subtypes.Conclusion:We have demonstrated the ability to expression profile degraded RNA transcripts derived from FFPE tissues on the DASL platform. Importantly, we have identified a 30-biomarker gene set that can classify breast cancer into subtypes and have shown that a subset of these markers is prognostic of OS and RFS.
Behavioral Intention towards the Use of 3G Technology

Nowadays, 3G technologies provide people with higher wireless bandwidth, audio and video services, as well as mobile internet access all in one mobile environment. The information technology industry needs to understand why people prefer this technology, which variables and opportunities convinced them to use it. The focus of this study is to examine the factors affecting 3G technology perception and adoption. In the theoretical framework of the study, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) are used as guidelines. In order to analyze 3G users’ perception and behavioral intention, external variables (perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, price, variety of 3G services, service quality and social influence) and control variables (gender, age, education level, experience, occupation, payment type) are analyzed through a survey study. The results show that perceived usefulness, variety of 3G services, service quality and social influence are influencing factors towards the behavioral intention of 3G usage.
Neural Tensor Factorization

Neural collaborative filtering (NCF) [15] and recurrent recommender systems (RRN) [38] have been successful in modeling user-item relational data. However, they are also limited in their assumption of static or sequential modeling of relational data as they do not account for evolving users’ preference over time as well as changes in the underlying factors that drive the change in user-item relationship over time. We address these limitations by proposing a Neural network based Tensor Factorization (NTF) model for predictive tasks on dynamic relational data. The NTF model generalizes conventional tensor factorization from two perspectives: First, it leverages the long short-term memory architecture to characterize the multi-dimensional temporal interactions on relational data. Second, it incorporates the multi-layer perceptron structure for learning the non-linearities between different latent factors. Our extensive experiments demonstrate the significant improvement in rating prediction and link prediction on dynamic relational data by our NTF model over both neural network based factorization models and other traditional methods. ACM Reference Format: Xian Wu, Baoxu Shi, Yuxiao Dong, Chao Huang, Nitesh V. Chawla. 2018. Neural Tensor Factorization. In Proceedings of International Conference of Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD’18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 10 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/nnnnnnn.nnnnnnn
Interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis of chromosome 12p abnormalities is useful for distinguishing epidermoid cysts of the testis from pure mature teratoma.

PURPOSE
The distinction of epidermoid cyst of the testis from teratoma is of critical importance because the former is benign and the latter is a malignant tumor that may have associated metastasis of either teratomatous or non-teratomatous germ cell tumor types. Chromosome 12p abnormalities are seen in the vast majority of testicular germ cell tumors of adults and are present in all histologic subtypes. In this study, we investigated the clinical utility of interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis of chromosome 12p abnormalities for distinguishing epidermoid cysts of the testis from pure mature teratoma.


EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
Sixteen testicular epidermoid cysts and 17 testicular teratomas were investigated for isochromosome 12p [i(12p)] and 12p overrepresentation using interphase FISH analysis.


RESULTS
Neither i(12p) nor 12p overrepresentation were observed in 16 epidermoid cyst cases, whereas i(12p) was detected in 76% of teratomas and 12p overrepresentation was identified in 29% of teratomas. Overall, 88% of testicular teratomas had chromosome 12p abnormalities.


CONCLUSIONS
FISH identification of i(12p) and/or 12p overrepresentation in routinely processed surgical specimens is a useful ancillary diagnostic tool in distinguishing testicular epidermoid cysts from teratoma.
Supporting Trust in Autonomous Driving

Autonomous cars will likely hit the market soon, but trust into such a technology is one of the big discussion points in the public debate. Drivers who have always been in complete control of their car are expected to willingly hand over control and blindly trust a technology that could kill them. We argue that trust in autonomous driving can be increased by means of a driver interface that visualizes the car’s interpretation of the current situation and its corresponding actions. To verify this, we compared different visualizations in a user study, overlaid to a driving scene: (1) a chauffeur avatar, (2) a world in miniature, and (3) a display of the car’s indicators as the baseline. The world in miniature visualization increased trust the most. The human-like chauffeur avatar can also increase trust, however, we did not find a significant difference between the chauffeur and the baseline. ACM Classification
Electromagnetic field exposure of 13.56 MHz RFID loop antenna

The radiation of RFID antitheft gate system has been simulated in FEKO. The obtained numerical results for the electric field and magnetic field have been compared to the exposure limits proposed by the ICNIRP Guidelines. No significant violation of limits, regarding both occupational and public exposure, has been shown.
Anxiety and depression lowers blood pressure: 22-year follow-up of the population based HUNT study, Norway

BACKGROUND
For decades, symptoms of anxiety and depression have been included among psychological factors associated with development of hypertension. Although this has been questioned in recent studies, most findings have been based on a single assessment of mental distress at baseline. We examined these associations using repeated assessments of anxiety, depression and blood pressure.


METHODS
Data on 17,410 men and women aged 20 to 67 participating in the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT) in Norway in 1984-86 were re-examined 11 and 22 years later. The main outcome was change in mean blood pressure (mm Hg) during follow-up.


RESULTS
We found that a high symptom level score (≥80th percentile) of combined anxiety and depression at baseline, as compared to a lower symptom level, was associated with lower mean systolic (-0.67 mm Hg, p = 0.044) and diastolic (-0.25 mm Hg, p = 0.201) blood pressure at year 22. A high symptom level present at all three examinations was associated with a stronger decrease in mean systolic (-1.59 mm Hg, p = 0.004) and diastolic (-0.78 mm Hg, p = 0.019) blood pressure and with a 20% (p = 0.001) lower risk of developing hypertension (BP ≥140/90 mm Hg) at year 22. The associations were only slightly attenuated in multivariate analyses, with no evidence of a mediating effect of alteration in heart rate.


CONCLUSIONS
This study do not support previous hypothesis that emotional stress may be a cause of hypertension. Our findings indicate that symptoms of anxiety and depression are associated with decrease in blood pressure, particularly when a high symptom level can be detected over decades.
An interactive machine-learning-based electronic fraud and abuse detection system in healthcare insurance

Detecting fraudulent and abusive cases in healthcare is one of the most challenging problems for data mining studies. However, most of the existing studies have a shortage of real data for analysis and focus on a very limited version of the problem by covering only a specific actor, healthcare service, or disease. The purpose of this study is to implement and evaluate a novel framework to detect fraudulent and abusive cases independently from the actors and commodities involved in the claims and an extensible structure to introduce new fraud and abuse types. Interactive machine learning that allows incorporating expert knowledge in an unsupervised setting is utilized to detect fraud and abusive cases in healthcare. In order to increase the accuracy of the framework, several well-known methods are utilized, such as the pairwise comparison method of analytic hierarchical processing (AHP) for weighting the actors and attributes, expectation maximization (EM) for clustering similar actors, two-stage data warehousing for proactive risk calculations, visualization tools for effective analyzing, and z-score and standardization in order to calculate the risks. The experts are involved in all phases of the study and produce six different abnormal behavior types using storyboards. The proposed framework is evaluated with real-life data for six different abnormal behavior types for prescriptions by covering all relevant actors and commodities. The Area Under the Curve (AUC) values are presented for each experiment. Moreover, a cost-saving model is also presented. The developed framework, i.e., the eFAD suite, is actorand commodity-independent, configurable (i.e., easily adaptable in the dynamic environment of fraud and abusive behaviors), and effectively handles the fragmented nature of abnormal behaviors. The proposed framework combines both proactive and retrospective analysis with an enhanced visualization tool that significantly reduces the time requirements for the fact-finding process after the eFAD detects risky claims. This system is utilized by a company to produce monthly reports that include abnormal behaviors to be evaluated by the insurance company. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Circulating anti-citrullinated peptide antibodies, cytokines and genotype as biomarkers of response to disease-modifying antirheumatic drug therapy in early rheumatoid arthritis

BACKGROUND
To measure circulating anti-citrullinated peptide antibodies (ACPA) and cytokines pre- and 6 months post-therapy as a strategy to predict and optimize responses to traditional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) in early RA, which is an unmet need in developing countries.


PATIENTS AND METHODS
A cohort of 140 predominantly (88.5 %) black female South African patients with early RA was treated with synthetic DMARDs, mostly methotrexate (MTX) alone, or in combination with low-dose oral corticosteroids (CS). Circulating ACPA and a panel of circulating cytokines/chemokines/growth factors were measured at baseline and after 6 months of therapy in relation to disease activity and Shared Epitope (SE).


RESULTS
Following 6 months of therapy, the median simplified disease activity index (SDAI) declined from a baseline of 41.4 to 16.0 (p = 0.0001) for the entire cohort, which was paralleled by significant falls in median serum ACPA levels (516.6 vs. 255.7 units/ml, p = <0.0001) and several of the circulating cytokines (IL-4, IL-7, IL-8, G-CSF, VEGF; p < 0.0010 - p < 0.0001) which were most evident in the subgroup of patients treated with a combination of MTX and CS. Although biomarker concentrations decreased most notably in the low-disease activity group post-therapy, no significant correlations between these biomarkers and disease activity were observed, Baseline ACPA levels, but not SDAI or cytokines, were significantly higher in the subgroup of risk allele-positive patients (561.1 vs. 331.9 units/ml, p < 0.05), while no associations with ACPA and a smoking history were evident.


CONCLUSIONS
The use of DMARDs in RA is associated with significant decreases in ACPA and cytokines which did not correlate with changes in SDAI, precluding the utility of serial measurement of these biomarkers to monitor early responses to therapy, but may have prognostic value.
The Health and Recovery Peer (HARP) Program: A peer-led intervention to improve medical self-management for persons with serious mental illness

OBJECTIVES
Persons with serious mental illnesses (SMI) have elevated rates of comorbid medical conditions, but may also face challenges in effectively managing those conditions.


METHODS
The study team developed and pilot-tested the Health and Recovery Program (HARP), an adaptation of the Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP) for mental health consumers. A manualized, six-session intervention, delivered by mental health peer leaders, helps participants become more effective managers of their chronic illnesses. A pilot trial randomized 80 consumers with one or more chronic medical illness to either the HARP program or usual care.


RESULTS
At six month follow-up, participants in the HARP program had a significantly greater improvement in patient activation than those in usual care (7.7% relative improvement vs. 5.7% decline, p=0.03 for group *time interaction), and in rates of having one or more primary care visit (68.4% vs. 51.9% with one or more visit, p=0.046 for group *time interaction). Intervention advantages were observed for physical health related quality of life (HRQOL), physical activity, medication adherence, and, and though not statistically significant, had similar effect sizes as those seen for the CDSMP in general medical populations. Improvements in HRQOL were largest among medically and socially vulnerable subpopulations.


CONCLUSIONS
This peer-led, medical self-management program was feasible and showed promise for improving a range of health outcomes among mental health consumers with chronic medical comorbidities. The HARP intervention may provide a vehicle for the mental health peer workforce to actively engage in efforts to reduce morbidity and mortality among mental health consumers.
Unconventional Gas Shales: Development, Technology, and Policy Issues

In the past, the oil and gas industry considered gas locked in tight, impermeable shale uneconomical to produce. However, advances in directional well drilling and reservoir stimulation have dramatically increased gas production from unconventional shales. The United States Geological Survey estimates that 200 trillion cubic feet of natural gas may be technically recoverable from these shales. Recent high natural gas prices have also stimulated interest in developing gas shales. Although natural gas prices fell dramatically in 2009, there is an expectation that the demand for natural gas will increase. Developing these shales comes with some controversy, though. The hydraulic fracturing treatments used to stimulate gas production from shale have stirred environmental concerns over excessive water consumption, drinking water well contamination, and surface water contamination from both drilling activities and fracturing fluid disposal. The saline " flowback " water pumped back to the surface after the fracturing process poses a significant environmental management challenge in the Marcellus region. The flowback's high content of total dissolved solids (TDS) and other contaminants must be disposed of or adequately treated before discharged to surface waters. The federal Clean Water Act and state laws regulate the discharge of this flowback water and other drilling wastewater to surface waters, while the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) regulates deep well injection of such wastewater. Hydraulically fractured wells are also subject to various state regulations. Historically, the EPA has not regulated hydraulic fracturing, and the 2005 Energy Policy Act exempted hydraulic fracturing from SDWA regulation. Recently introduced bills would make hydraulic fracturing subject to regulation under SDWA, while another bill would affirm the current regulatory exemption. Gas shale development takes place on both private and state-owned lands. Royalty rates paid to state and private landowners for shale gas leases range from 12½% to 20%. The four states (New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and West Virginia) discussed in this report have shown significant increases in the amounts paid as signing bonuses and increases in royalty rates. Although federal lands also overlie gas shale resources, the leasing restrictions and the low resource-potential may diminish development prospects on some federal lands. The practice of severing mineral rights from surface ownership is not unique to the gas shale development. Mineral owners retain the right to access surface property to develop their holdings. Some landowners, however, may not have realized the intrusion that could result from mineral development on their property. Although a gas-transmission …