LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Arterial hypotension: prevalence of low blood pressure in the general population using ambulatory blood pressure monitoring

Background: Chronic constitutional hypotension has been described in a proportion of the population, and has a symptom complex ascribed to it. The true prevalence of low blood pressure in the normal population has not been defined.Aim of study: This study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of low blood pressure states, as measured using ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, in a general population cohort, and to determine the association between low blood pressure and clinical and demographic variables.Patient population: The population enrolled were a cohort of mainly urban dwelling Irish subjects, either employees or spouses of employees of a major national bank.Methods: Subjects had an ambulatory blood pressure monitor fitted between 09.00 and 12.00 and wore the monitor for 24 hours. The subjects also filled out a detailed lifestyle questionnaire, and kept an activity diary. Blood was drawn for serum electrolyte estimation.Results: A total of 254 subjects were included, 49% of whom demonstrated hypotensive events. Hypotensive means and individual hypotensive values were more frequently found in women, and occurred in a group of individuals with a distinct body habitus, specifically thin subjects, with a lower creatinine suggesting a smaller muscle mass. Hypotensive events in these subjects were associated with a low risk cardiovascular profile, in that subjects who displayed these events had a lower blood pressure, a lower weight and were less likely to have a positive family history of hypertension or vascular disease.Conclusion: Hypotension is common in the general population and is associated with a distinct body habitus. It carries a generally benign cardiovascular risk factor profile.
Nutrition transition in India.

OBJECTIVE
The primary objective of this review is to examine the demographic and nutrition transition in India in relation to its contribution to the emerging epidemic of chronic non-communicable diseases in this country.


SETTING
India, the country as a whole and its different states with a population exceeding 1 billion in 2001.


SUBJECTS
The review examines demographic changes in the population with consequent effects on the population pyramid, the rapidity and rates of urbanisation with striking variations in chronic disease patterns and the trends in obesity between rural and urban communities, attempting to relate their prevalence with the diet and lifestyle changes accompanying them.


DESIGN
The review is based largely on representative large-scale surveys in the country and other reliable documented data on population characteristics. It also includes a review of the published literature.


RESULTS
The results indicate that the demographic changes, rates of urbanisation and changes in dietary patterns are contributing to the changing trends in chronic disease in India.


CONCLUSIONS
There is clear evidence of a demographic, epidemiological and nutrition transition in India that is fuelling the epidemic of chronic diseases and obesity, particularly in the urban areas.
Mobile learning in teacher training

This paper describes a mobile learning project, where mobile devices are used for educational activities. The main focus of this paper is teacher training. Experiences on the use of mobile technology and how it was used in teacher training, especially how trainees and supervising teachers felt about it, are presented. The pilot study was carried out at the Department of Home Economics and Craft Science in University of Helsinki. The idea of the pilot was that the supervising teacher and trainee students could discus and share their ideas about teaching methods through the mobile device and use of a short message service (SMS) and digital pictures as a part of the supervising process. The use of digital pictures which were delivered via the mobile device proved to be surprisingly successful. The goal of these innovative pilot projects is to create flexible teaching solutions, which will enable access to information using different devices, and support learning in a variety of situations.
Aprotinin reduces blood loss in off-pump coronary artery bypass (OPCAB) surgery.

OBJECTIVE
Effects of aprotinin in off-pump coronary artery bypass (OPCAB) surgery have not yet been described. This study analyses hemostasiologic changes and potential benefit in OPCAB patients treated with aprotinin.


METHODS
In a prospective, double-blind, randomized study 47 patients undergoing OPCAB surgery were investigated. Patients received either aprotinin (2 x 10(6) KIU loading dose and 0.5 x 10(6) KIU/h during surgery, n=22) or saline solution (control, n=25). Activated clotting time was adjusted to a target of 250 s intraoperatively. Blood samples were taken up to 18h postoperatively: complete hematologic and hemostasiologic parameters including fibrinopeptide A (FPA) and D-dimer in a subgroup of 31 patients were analyzed. Blood loss, blood transfusion and other clinical data were collected.


RESULTS
Both groups showed comparable demographic and intraoperative variables. Forty-one (87%) patients of the whole study group received aspirin within 7 days prior to surgery. Number of grafts per patient were comparable (2.9+/-1.0 [mean+/-SD] in the aprotinin group and 2.8+/-1.2 in control, P=0.83). Blood loss during the first 18 h in intensive care unit was significantly reduced in patients treated with aprotinin (median [25th-75th percentiles]: 500 [395-755] ml vs. 930 [800-1170] ml, P<0.001). Postoperatively only two patients (10%) in the aprotinin group received packed red blood cells, whereas eight (35%) in the control group (P=0.07). Perioperatively FPA levels reflecting thrombin generation were elevated in both groups. The increase in D-dimer levels after surgery was significantly inhibited in the aprotinin group (P<0.001). Early clinical outcome was similar in both groups.


CONCLUSIONS
Aprotinin significantly reduces blood loss in patients undergoing OPCAB surgery. Inhibition of enhanced fibrinolysis can be observed. FPA generation during and after OPCAB surgery seems not to be influenced by aprotinin.
National survey on implementation of peer specialists in the VA: implications for training and facilitation.

OBJECTIVES
Peer support is fundamental to the promotion of recovery as indicated in the President's New Freedom Commission Report. Five years into the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) initiative to hire Peer Specialists (PSs)-individuals with serious mental illnesses assigned to clinical teams to support others with serious mental illnesses-this study explored challenges, facilitators, and progress of PS implementation from a stakeholder group involved in their management.


METHODS
Ninety-two VA Local Recovery Coordinators (LRCs) from across the nationwide VA mental health system were surveyed about their perceptions about PS hiring, status of implementation, impact, barriers and facilitators to successful employment of PSs, and willingness to support implementation.


RESULTS
The data suggest that PS implementation is going well overall, but challenges remain such as hiring delays, lack of understanding about the PS role, and lack of funding.


CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
Implementation challenges can undermine the employment of PSs. The VA and other organizations using PSs could improve implementation by monitoring the challenges and proactively facilitating the process on an ongoing basis.
19.2 A self-interference-cancelling receiver for in-band full-duplex wireless with low distortion under cancellation of strong TX leakage

In-band full-duplex (FD) wireless communication, i.e. simultaneous transmission and reception at the same frequency, in the same channel, promises up to 2x spectral efficiency, along with advantages in higher network layers [1]. the main challenge is dealing with strong in-band leakage from the transmitter to the receiver (i.e. self-interference (SI)), as TX powers are typically >100dB stronger than the weakest signal to be received, necessitating TX-RX isolation and SI cancellation. Performing this SI-cancellation solely in the digital domain, if at all possible, would require extremely clean (low-EVM) transmission and a huge dynamic range in the RX and ADC, which is currently not feasible [2]. Cancelling SI entirely in analog is not feasible either, since the SI contains delayed TX components reflected by the environment. Cancelling these requires impractically large amounts of tunable analog delay. Hence, FD-solutions proposed thus far combine SI-rejection at RF, analog BB, digital BB and cross-domain.
Natural modes of Bernoulli-Euler beams with symmetric cracks

An approximate Galerkin solution to the one-dimensional cracked beam theory developed by Christides and Barr for the free bending motion of beams with pairs of symmetric open cracks is suggested. The series of comparison functions considered in the Galerkin procedure consists of the mode shapes of corresponding untracked beam. The number of terms in the expansion is determined by the convergence of the natural frequencies and confirmed by studying the stress concentration profile near the crack. This approach allows the determination of the higher natural frequencies and mode shapes of the cracked beam. It is found that the Christides and Barr original solution was not fully converged and that cracks render the convergence of the Galerkin’s procedure very slow by affecting the continuity characteristics of the solution of the boundary value problem. To validate the theoretical results, a two-dimensional finite element approach is proposed, which also allows one to determine the parameter that controls the stress concentration profile near the crack tip in the theoretical formulation without requiring the use of experimental results. Very good agreement between the theoretical and finite element results is observed.
Vacuum-assisted closure therapy increases local interleukin-8 and vascular endothelial growth factor levels in traumatic wounds.

BACKGROUND
Clinical observations are suggesting accelerated granulation tissue formation in traumatic wounds treated with vacuum-assisted closure (VAC). Aim of this study was to determine the impact of VAC therapy versus alternative Epigard application on local inflammation and neovascularization in traumatic soft tissue wounds.


METHODS
Thirty-two patients with traumatic wounds requiring temporary coverage (VAC n = 16; Epigard n = 16) were included. At each change of dressing, samples of wound fluid and serum were collected (n = 80). The cytokines interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and fibroblast growth factor-2 were measured by ELISA. Wound biopsies were examined histologically for inflammatory cells and degree of neovascularization present.


RESULTS
All cytokines were found to be elevated in wound fluids during both VAC and Epigard treatment, whereas serum concentrations were negligible or not detectable. In wound fluids, significantly higher IL-8 (p < 0.001) and VEGF (p < 0.05) levels were detected during VAC therapy. Furthermore, histologic examination revealed increased neovascularization (p < 0.05) illustrated by CD31 and von Willebrand factor immunohistochemistry in wound biopsies of VAC treatment. In addition, there was an accumulation of neutrophils as well as an augmented expression of VEGF (p < 0.005) in VAC wound biopsies.


CONCLUSION
This study suggests that VAC therapy of traumatic wounds leads to increased local IL-8 and VEGF concentrations, which may trigger accumulation of neutrophils and angiogenesis and thus, accelerate neovascularization.
Characterization of quinoa protein-chitosan blend edible films

Quinoa protein/chitosan films were obtained by solution casting of blends of quinoa protein extract (PE) and chitosan (CH). Films from a PE/CH blend were characterized by FTIR, X-ray diffraction, thermal analysis, and SEM. The tensile mechanical, barrier, and sorption properties of the films were also evaluated. The blend of PE with CH yielded mechanically resistant films without the use of a plasticizer. The film had large elongation at break, and its water barrier properties showed that they were more hydrophilic than CH film. The thickness and water-vapor permeability of PE/CH (v/v) 1/1 blend film increased significantly compared to pure CH films. CH films are translucent in appearance and yellowish in blend with PE. By blending anionic PE with cationic CH an interaction between biopolymers was established with different physicochemical properties from those of pure CH. Drying and sorption properties show significant differences between PE/CH blend film and CH film. The structural properties determined by XRD, FTIR and TGA showed a clear interaction between quinoa proteins and CH, forming a new material with enhanced mechanical properties. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Docosahexaenoic acid supplementation decreases liver fat content in children with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: double-blind randomised controlled clinical trial.

OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether dietary supplementation with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) decreases liver fat content in children with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).


DESIGN, SETTING AND PATIENTS
We performed a randomised controlled trial of DHA supplementation (250 and 500 mg/day) versus placebo in 60 children with biopsy-proven NAFLD (20 children per group).


MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The main outcome was the change in liver fat content as detected by ultrasonography after 6 months of treatment. Secondary outcomes were the changes in insulin sensitivity index, alanine transaminase, triglycerides and body mass index after 6 months of treatment.


RESULTS
Blood DHA increased in children supplemented with DHA (0.65%, 95% CI 0.30% to 1.10% for the DHA 250 mg group and 1.15%, 0.87% to 1.43% for the DHA 500 mg group). The odds of more severe versus less severe liver steatosis after treatment was lower in children treated with DHA 250 mg/day (OR = 0.01, 0.002 to 0.11, p <0.001) and DHA 500 mg/day (OR = 0.04, 0.002 to 0.46, p = 0.01) as compared to placebo but there was no difference between the DHA groups (p = 0.4). Insulin sensitivity index increased and triglycerides decreased to a similar degree in both DHA groups as compared to placebo but there was no effect on alanine transaminase and body mass index.


CONCLUSION
DHA supplementation improves liver steatosis and insulin sensitivity in children with NAFLD.
Differential evolution embedded Otsu's method for optimized image thresholding

Image segmentation is a challenging task in digital image processing. Thresholding, an important technique for image segmentation, has gained considerable attention from the researchers for selecting reasonable thresholds. Since gray levels characterize the objects in a gray image, many thresholding methods extract objects from their background based on the statistics of one-dimensional (1D) histogram of gray levels and two-dimensional (2D) histogram of gray levels. A frequently used method is Otsu's method, which selects the global optimal threshold by maximizing the between-class variance. In this paper Differential Evolution (DE) has been embedded in Otsu's method for selecting an optimized threshold value. The proposed method is tested on a set of four images and the results validate the effectiveness of the proposed technique.
Psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale.

AIM AND OBJECTIVES
The aim of this study was to test the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale (C-BSDS) in a Chinese population to serve as an aid to clinical diagnosis of bipolar disorders.


BACKGROUND
Bipolar spectrum disorders are often misdiagnosed because of the wide range of symptoms seen in patients. The consequences of delayed diagnoses or misdiagnoses can be devastating.


DESIGN
A cross-sectional research design.


METHOD
Two hundred patients with affective disorders from a psychiatric outpatient clinic in Taiwan were enrolled. Internal consistency reliability and two-week test-retest reliability were performed to evaluate the reliability of the C-BSDS. Expert content validity and factor analysis were used for testing construct validity. To evaluate sensitivity and specificity, the Chinese version of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) was used as the gold standard for diagnosis.


RESULTS
The internal consistency coefficient measured by intra-class correlation (ICC) was 0.81, the test-retest reliability coefficient was 0.85 and the expert validity was 0.85. For construct validity, 'irritable and hyper-energetic factors' and 'depressed and lack of energy factors' were extracted by factor analysis. These two factors reflected the structure of the original scale and accounted for 33.27% of the variance. The optimal cut-off was 12, which yielded a sensitivity of 74 and a specificity of 0.97 for detecting bipolar disorder and for bipolar II disorder these were 0.79 and 0.68, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The C-BSDS showed good reliability and validity, and the results were consistent with the English version of the BSDS. Therefore, the C-BSDS is an effective tool for evaluation of a Chinese population.


RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
The BSDS can further increase the detection rate of bipolar disorders, especially bipolar II disorder, with satisfactory sensitivity and specificity. It can effectively assist with clinical screening of patients for bipolar spectrum disorders.
ViBe: A Disruptive Method for Background Subtraction

The proliferation of the video surveillance cameras, which accounts for the vast majority of cameras worldwide, has resulted in the need to nd methods and algorithms for dealing with the huge amount of information that is gathered every second. This encompasses processing tasks, such as raising an alarm or detouring moving objects, as well as some semantic tasks like event monitoring, trajectory or ow analysis, counting people, etc.
Universality in Quantum Hall Systems: Coset Construction of Incompressible States

Incompressible Quantum Hall fluids (QHF’s) can be described in the scaling limit by three-dimensional topological field theories. Thanks to the correspondence between threedimensional topological field theories and two dimensional chiral conformal field theories (CCFT’s), we propose to study QHF’s from the point of view of CCFT’s. We derive consistency conditions and stability criteria for those CCFT’s that can be expected to describe a QHF. A general algorithm is presented which uses simple currents to construct interesting examples of such CCFT’s. It generalizes the description of QHF’s in terms of Quantum Hall lattices. Explicit examples, based on the coset construction, provide candidates for the description of Quantum Hall fluids with Hall conductivity σH = 1 2 e2 h , 1 4 e2 h , 3 5 e2 h , e2 h , . . . .
Interferon β for secondary progressive multiple sclerosis: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND
It is unclear whether recombinant β interferons (IFNβ) can be effective in secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS). The aim was to determine whether IFNβ can reduce the risk of disability and cognitive impairment progression in SPMS.


METHODS
Using Cochrane methodology, we reviewed all randomised placebo controlled trials of IFNβ in SPMS patients (1995-March 2012).


RESULTS
5 trials (3082 patients) were included. After 3 years, interferons did not reduce disability progression, confirmed at 6 months (RR 0.98, 95% CI 0.82 to 1.16). A small reduction in the number of patients who had relapses during the first 3 years of treatment (RR 0.91, 0.84 to 0.97) was found. No analysis of cognitive data was possible. More treated than placebo patients dropped out for adverse events.


CONCLUSION
3 year treatment with IFNβ does not delay permanent disability in SPMS but reduces relapse risk, indicating that the anti-inflammatory effect of IFNβ is unable to prevent MS progression once it has become established.
A prospective, controlled phase II study of neoadjuvant exisulind therapy before radical prostatectomy: effect on apoptosis.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the activity of exisulind against prostate cancer (CaP) in vivo through a prospective study of neoadjuvant exisulind in patients undergoing radical prostatectomy (RP). Exisulind and its analogs have been shown to induce apoptosis in vitro in many cancer cell lines, including CaP cell lines without affecting normal human cells.


METHODS
Men with biopsy-proven, localized CaP (Gleason score ≥6) amenable to RP were offered enrollment into the trial. The treatment group (n = 44) was given oral exisulind (375-400 mg) daily for 4 weeks and then underwent RP. The control group underwent RP per routine (n = 49). The primary endpoint was change, from biopsy to prostatectomy specimens, in apoptosis biomarkers (bcl-2, Bax, par.-4, caspase 3, PTEN) between the 2 groups.


RESULTS
There were no significant effects of exisulind on biomarkers of cell death between biopsy specimen and posttreatment RP specimen. The drug was well tolerated and there were no drug-related serious adverse events or deaths.


CONCLUSION
Exisulind is a well-tolerated drug with minimal adverse events; however, we were unable to detect any significant differences in apoptotic biomarkers among those treated with neoadjuvant exisulind compared with controls at the dose and duration tested. Future studies should consider evaluating a higher dose or longer duration to better evaluate the role exisulind may play in the treatment of men with CaP.
Is automatic imitation a specialized form of stimulus-response compatibility? Dissociating imitative and spatial compatibilities.

In recent years research on automatic imitation has received considerable attention because it represents an experimental platform for investigating a number of interrelated theories suggesting that the perception of action automatically activates corresponding motor programs. A key debate within this research centers on whether automatic imitation is any different than other long-term S-R associations, such as spatial stimulus-response compatibility. One approach to resolving this issue is to examine whether automatic imitation shows similar response characteristics as other classes of stimulus-response compatibility. This hypothesis was tested by comparing imitative and spatial compatibility effects with a two alternative forced-choice stimulus-response compatibility paradigm. The stimulus on each trial was a left or right hand with either the index or middle finger tapping down. Speeded responses were performed with the index or middle finger of the right hand in response to the identity or the left-right spatial position of the stimulus finger. Two different tasks were administered: one that involved responding to the stimulus (S-R) and one that involved responding to the opposite stimulus (OS-R; i.e., the one not presented on that trial). Based on previous research and a connectionist model, we predicted standard compatibility effects for both spatial and imitative compatibility in the S-R task, and a reverse compatibility effect for spatial compatibility, but not for imitative compatibility, in the OS-R task. The results from the mean response times, mean percentage of errors, and response time distributions all converged to support these predictions. A second noteworthy result was that the recoding of the finger identity in the OS-R task required significantly more time than the recoding of the left-right spatial position, but the encoding time for the two stimuli in the S-R task was equivalent. In sum, this evidence suggests that the processing of spatial and imitative compatibility is dissociable with regard to two different processes in dual processing models of stimulus-response compatibility.