LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Effectiveness of acupuncture intervention for neck pain caused by cervical spondylosis: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND
Neck pain caused by cervical spondylosis has become a common health problem worldwide among >40-year-old adults. Acupuncture intervention is one of the most popular treatment measures for this disorder. However, evidence for its efficacy in relieving neck pain and recovering neck physiological function has not been established in randomized, placebo-controlled trials. The primary aim of this trial is to assess the efficacy and safety of active acupuncture compared with sham acupuncture intervention for neck pain caused by cervical spondylosis.


METHODS/DESIGN
We will conduct a randomized, double-blind, parallel-group, placebo-controlled trial comparing active acupuncture with placebo (sham acupuncture). A total of 456 patients with neck pain caused by cervical spondylosis who meet the eligibility criteria from outpatient clinics of the Second People's Hospital of Fujian Province and the Affiliated Rehabilitation Hospital, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine will be recruited and randomized into an active acupuncture or sham acupuncture group. The participants will undergo treatment sessions with either active or sham acupuncture intervention five times a week for 2 weeks. Evaluation by blinded assessors at baseline and at intervention for 1 and 2 weeks will include demographic characteristics, validated questionnaires (Northwick Park Neck Pain Questionnaire (NPQ) scale, Short-Form 36 (SF-36) scale, and McGill pain scale), examination of neck physiological function, and adverse events. All included patients will be followed up and investigated for relapse of neck pain at 4, 8, and 12 weeks after intervention.


DISCUSSION
This paper describes the rationale and design of a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled trial that aims to determine the efficacy and safety of acupuncture intervention for neck pain caused by cervical spondylosis. The primary outcomes are changes in the NPQ score and neck physiological function. Secondary outcome measures include quality of life, adverse events, and relapse of neck pain. If successful, this project will provide evidence of the efficacy and safety of acupuncture for neck pain caused by cervical spondylosis.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
Chinese Clinical Trial Registry: ChiCTR-TRC-12002206. Registration date: 11 May 2012.
Automatic Turn-off Angle Control for High Speed SRM Drive

This paper present a new approach to the automatic control of the turn-off angle used to excite the switched reluctance motor (SRM) for electric vehicle (EV). The controller selects the turn-off angle that supports the most speed operation of the motor drive system. This control consists of classical current control and speed control depends on lookup table to take best result of the motor. The turn-on angle of the main switches of inverter is fixed at 0deg and the turn-off angle is variable depend on the reference speed. The motor, inverter and control system are modeling in Simulink to demonstrate the operation of the system
Speed Determines Leadership and Leadership Determines Learning during Pigeon Flocking

A key question in collective behavior is how individual differences structure animal groups, affect the flow of information, and give some group members greater weight in decisions. Depending on what factors contribute to leadership, despotic decisions could either improve decision accuracy or interfere with swarm intelligence. The mechanisms behind leadership are therefore important for understanding its functional significance. In this study, we compared pigeons' relative influence over flock direction to their solo flight characteristics. A pigeon's degree of leadership was predicted by its ground speeds from earlier solo flights, but not by the straightness of its previous solo route. By testing the birds individually after a series of flock flights, we found that leaders had learned straighter homing routes than followers, as we would expect if followers attended less to the landscape and more to conspecifics. We repeated the experiment from three homing sites using multiple independent flocks and found individual consistency in leadership and speed. Our results suggest that the leadership hierarchies observed in previous studies could arise from differences in the birds' typical speeds. Rather than reflecting social preferences that optimize group decisions, leadership may be an inevitable consequence of heterogeneous flight characteristics within self-organized flocks. We also found that leaders learn faster and become better navigators, even if leadership is not initially due to navigational ability. The roles that individuals fall into during collective motion might therefore have far-reaching effects on how they learn about the environment and use social information.
A cultural perspective of organizational justice

List of Tables and Figures. Acknowledgments. Preface. Foreword. Introduction. Chapter 1. Foundations of Organizational Justice. Chapter 2. Theories of Organizational Justice. Chapter 3. Models of Culture. Chapter 4. Culture and Employee Reactions to Justice. Chapter 5. Culture and Employee Reactions to Injustice. Chapter 6. Managing Justice Across Cultures. Chpater 7. Conclusion. References. Author Index. Subject Index.
Childhood helminth exposure is protective against inflammatory bowel disease: a case control study in South Africa.

BACKGROUND
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is more common in countries with improved hygiene, suggesting that environmental exposures may be associated with its development. The primary objective of this study was to examine the association between self-reported childhood helminth infection and the development of IBD in South Africa.


METHODS
Unmatched case-control study. Logistic regression was used to model associations with IBD.


RESULTS
There were 88 patients with Crohn's disease (CD), 63 with ulcerative colitis (UC), and 219 control subjects. Of the 151, 93 (61.6%) IBD subjects (35 of 63 [55.6%] had UC and 58 of 88 [65.9%] had CD) reported childhood helminth exposure compared with 200 of 219 (91.3%) non-IBD subjects (P < 0.001). Helminth infection (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 0.2; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.1-0.4), shared housing (AOR = 0.1; 95% CI, 0.04-0.4), and raw beef consumption (AOR = 0.2; 95% CI, 0.1-0.6) were protective, whereas urban dwelling (AOR = 4.2; 95% CI, 2.0-8.8) and parental tertiary education (AOR = 18.2; 95% CI, 3.2-103.7) were associated with CD. Helminth infection (AOR = 0.2; 95% CI, 0.1-0.6), mixed race (AOR = 0.1; 95% CI, 0.03-0.5), smoking (AOR = 0.2; 95% CI, 0.07-0.5), shared housing (AOR = 0.1; 95% CI, 0.01-0.4), and raw beef consumption (AOR = 0.1; 95% CI 0.04-0.5) were protective against UC, whereas parental tertiary education (AOR = 12.7; 95% CI, 1.0-157.4) was associated with UC.


CONCLUSION
This study demonstrates a protective association of childhood helminth infection against the development of IBD and supports the "hygiene hypothesis" that improved living conditions may increase the incidence of IBD. Our epidemiologic conclusions provide support that helminths may have immunomodulatory effects which provides protection against the development of IBD later in life.
LOG-PERIODIC TREE-DIPOLE ANTENNA ( PLPTDA )

Abstract—A miniaturized printed log-periodic fractal dipole antenna is proposed. Tree fractal structure is introduced in an antenna design and evolves the traditional Euclidean log-periodic dipole array into the log-periodic second-iteration tree-dipole array (LPT2DA) for the first time. Main parameters and characteristics of the proposed antenna are discussed. A fabricated proof-of-concept prototype of the proposed antenna is etched on a FR4 substrate with a relative permittivity of 4.4 and volume of 490 mm × 245 mm × 1.5 mm. The impedance bandwidth (measured VSWR < 2) of the fabricated antenna with approximate 40% reduction of traditional log-periodic dipole antenna is from 0.37 to 3.55GHz with a ratio of about 9.59 : 1. Both numerical and experimental results show that the proposed antenna has stable directional radiation patterns and apparently miniaturized effect, which are suitable for various ultra-wideband applications.
Branched-chain amino acids prevent insulin-induced hepatic tumor cell proliferation by inducing apoptosis through mTORC1 and mTORC2-dependent mechanisms.

Branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) supplementation has been reported to suppress the incidence of liver cancer in obese patients with liver cirrhosis or in obese and diabetic model animals of carcinogenesis. Whether BCAA directly suppresses cell proliferation of hepatic tumor cells under hyperinsulinemic condition remain to be defined. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of BCAA on insulin-induced proliferation of hepatic tumor cells and determine the underlying mechanisms. BCAA suppressed insulin-induced cell proliferation of H4IIE, HepG2 cells. In H4IIE cells, BCAA did not affect cell cycle progression but increased apoptosis by suppressing expressions of anti-apoptotic genes and inducing pro-apoptotic gene via inactivation of PI3K/Akt and NF-κB signaling pathways. Further studies demonstrated that BCAA inhibited PI3K/Akt pathway not only by promoting negative feedback loop from mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1)/S6K1 to PI3K/Akt pathway, but also by suppressing mTORC2 kinase activity toward Akt. Our findings suggest that BCAA supplementation may be useful to suppress liver cancer progression by inhibiting insulin-induced PI3K/Akt and subsequent anti-apoptotic pathway, indicating the importance of BCAA supplementation to the obese patients with advanced liver disease.
Noncontact heartbeat detection using UWB impulse doppler radar

Ultra-wide band (UWB) pulse Doppler radars provide range-time-frequency information which enables the target localization and vital sign monitoring of a subject. One challenge for UWB radar systems is accurately detecting the heartbeat of a subject, i.e. recording the small displacements of thorax caused by heartbeat due to its poor S/N ratio. Given that the phase-based algorithms are more robust against noise in heartbeat detection so it could lead to better demodulation of micro displacements. In this paper, two algorithms based on complex signal demodulation and arctangent method are extended here to UWB radars to detect the phase variation of reflected pulses caused by cardiac motions, results will be presented.
On the velocity space discretization for the Vlasov-Poisson system: Comparison between implicit Hermite spectral and Particle-in-Cell methods

Wedescribe a spectralmethod for the numerical solution of theVlasov–Poisson systemwhere the velocity space is decomposed by means of an Hermite basis, and the configuration space is discretized via a Fourier decomposition. The novelty of our approach is an implicit time discretization that allows exact conservation of charge, momentum and energy. The computational efficiency and the cost-effectiveness of thismethod are compared to the fully-implicit PICmethod recently introduced byMarkidis and Lapenta (2011) and Chen et al. (2011). The following examples are discussed: Langmuir wave, Landau damping, ion-acoustic wave, two-stream instability. The Fourier–Hermite spectral method can achieve solutions that are several orders of magnitude more accurate at a fraction of the cost with respect to PIC. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Sertraline treatment of major depression in patients with acute MI or unstable angina

CONTEXT
Major depressive disorder (MDD) occurs in 15% to 23% of patients with acute coronary syndromes and constitutes an independent risk factor for morbidity and mortality. However, no published evidence exists that antidepressant drugs are safe or efficacious in patients with unstable ischemic heart disease.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the safety and efficacy of sertraline treatment of MDD in patients hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction (MI) or unstable angina and free of other life-threatening medical conditions.


DESIGN AND SETTING
Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial conducted in 40 outpatient cardiology centers and psychiatry clinics in the United States, Europe, Canada, and Australia. Enrollment began in April 1997 and follow-up ended in April 2001.


PATIENTS
A total of 369 patients with MDD (64% male; mean age, 57.1 years; mean 17-item Hamilton Depression [HAM-D] score, 19.6; MI, 74%; unstable angina, 26%).


INTERVENTION
After a 2-week single-blind placebo run-in, patients were randomly assigned to receive sertraline in flexible dosages of 50 to 200 mg/d (n = 186) or placebo (n = 183) for 24 weeks.


MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The primary (safety) outcome measure was change from baseline in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF); secondary measures included surrogate cardiac measures and cardiovascular adverse events, as well as scores on the HAM-D scale and Clinical Global Impression Improvement scale (CGI-I) in the total randomized sample, in a group with any prior history of MDD, and in a more severe MDD subgroup defined a priori by a HAM-D score of at least 18 and history of 2 or more prior episodes of MDD.


RESULTS
Sertraline had no significant effect on mean (SD) LVEF (sertraline: baseline, 54% [10%]; week 16, 54% [11%]; placebo: baseline, 52% [13%]; week 16, 53% [13%]), treatment-emergent increase in ventricular premature complex (VPC) runs (sertraline: 13.1%; placebo: 12.9%), QTc interval greater than 450 milliseconds at end point (sertraline: 12%; placebo: 13%), or other cardiac measures. All comparisons were statistically nonsignificant (P> or = .05). The incidence of severe cardiovascular adverse events was 14.5% with sertraline and 22.4% with placebo. In the total randomized sample, the CGI-I (P =.049), but not the HAM-D (P =.14), favored sertraline. The CGI-I responder rates for sertraline were significantly higher than for placebo in the total sample (67% vs 53%; P =.01), in the group with at least 1 prior episode of depression (72% vs 51%; P =.003), and in the more severe MDD group (78% vs 45%; P =.001). In the latter 2 groups, both CGI-I and HAM-D measures were significantly better in those assigned to sertraline.


CONCLUSION
Our results suggest that sertraline is a safe and effective treatment for recurrent depression in patients with recent MI or unstable angina and without other life-threatening medical conditions.
Guaranteed error bounds for model reduction of linear time-varying systems

New techniques are presented for the model reduction of linear time-varying and linear periodically-varying systems, including the formulation and proof of guaranteed upper bounds for the error. The commonly used method of balanced truncation for linear time-invariant systems is generalized to the time-varying case with explicit error bounds that are derived based on generalizations of the ‘twice-the-sum-ofthe-tail’ formula. The development of these reduction results for time-varying systems relies on a new operator framework for analysis of linear time-varying systems, presented in [4], in combination with the model reduction methods for uncertain systems developed in [3].
Self-compassion , Achievement Goals , and Coping with Academic Failure

s International, 59, 1911. Turner, J. E., Husman, J., & Schallert, D. L. (2002). The importance of students’ goals in their emotional experience of academic failure: Investigating the precursors and consequences of shame. Educational Psychologist, 37, 79 – 89. Urdan, T. (1997). Achievement goal theory: Past studies, future directions. In M. Maehr & P. Pintrich (Eds.), Handbook of motivation and cognition (pp. 350 – 378). New York: Guilford Press. Wegner, D. M. (1989). White bears and other unwanted thoughts: Suppression, obsession, and the psychology of mental control. New York, NY: Viking/Penguin. Wegner, D. M., & Zanakos, S. (1994). Chronic thought suppression. Journal of Personality, 62, 615 – 640. Williams, G. C., & Deci, E. L. (1996). Internalization of biopsychosocial values by medical students: A test of self-determination theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 767 – 779. Wolters, C., Yu, S., & Pintrich, P. (1996). The relation between goal orientation and students’ motivational beliefs and self-regulated learning. Learning and Individual differences, 8, 211 – 238. Zeidner, M. (1995). Adaptive coping with test situations: A review of the literature. Educational Psychologist, 30, 123 – 133. Self-compassion, Achievement Goals, and Academic Failure 287
KDD, SEMMA and CRISP-DM: a parallel overview

In the last years there has been a huge growth and consolidation of the Data Mining field. Some efforts are being done that seek the establishment of standards in the area. Included on these efforts there can be enumerated SEMMA and CRISP-DM. Both grow as industrial standards and define a set of sequential steps that pretends to guide the implementation of data mining applications. The question of the existence of substantial differences between them and the traditional KDD process arose. In this paper, is pretended to establish a parallel between these and the KDD process as well as an understanding of the similarities between them.
Influence of omeprazole on the antiplatelet action of clopidogrel associated with aspirin: the randomized, double-blind OCLA (Omeprazole CLopidogrel Aspirin) study.

OBJECTIVES
This trial sought to assess the influence of omeprazole on clopidogrel efficacy.


BACKGROUND
Clopidogrel has proved its benefit in the treatment of atherothrombotic diseases. In a previous observational study, we found clopidogrel activity on platelets, tested by vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein (VASP) phosphorylation, to be diminished in patients receiving proton pump inhibitor (PPI) treatment.


METHODS
In this double-blind placebo-controlled trial, all consecutive patients undergoing coronary artery stent implantation received aspirin (75 mg/day) and clopidogrel (loading dose, followed by 75 mg/day) and were randomized to receive either associated omeprazole (20 mg/day) or placebo for 7 days. Clopidogrel effect was tested on days 1 and 7 in both groups by measuring platelet phosphorylated-VASP expressed as a platelet reactivity index (PRI). Our main end point compared PRI value at the 7-day treatment period in the 2 groups.


RESULTS
Data for 124 patients were analyzed. On day 1, mean PRI was 83.2% (standard deviation [SD] 5.6) and 83.9% (SD 4.6), respectively, in the placebo and omeprazole groups (p = NS), and on day 7, 39.8% (SD 15.4) and 51.4% (SD 16.4), respectively (p < 0.0001).


RESULTS
Omeprazole significantly decreased clopidogrel inhibitory effect on platelet P2Y12 as assessed by VASP phosphorylation test. Aspirin-clopidogrel antiplatelet dual therapy is widely prescribed worldwide, with PPIs frequently associated to prevent gastrointestinal bleeding. The clinical impact of these results remains uncertain but merits further investigation.
Comparative analysis of budesonide/formoterol and fluticasone/salmeterol combinations in COPD patients: findings from a real-world analysis in an Italian setting

AIM
The objective of this study was to evaluate the different outcomes associated with the use of budesonide/formoterol compared to fluticasone/salmeterol in fixed combinations in patients with COPD in a "real-world" setting. The outcomes included exacerbation rates and health care costs.


PATIENTS AND METHODS
An observational retrospective cohort analysis, based on administrative databases of three local health units, was conducted. Patients with at least one prescription of fixed-dose combination of inhaled corticosteroids and long-acting β2-agonists (budesonide/formoterol or fluticasone/salmeterol), at dosages and formulations approved for COPD in Italy, between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2011 (inclusion period), were included. Patients were followed until December 2012, death or end of treatment (follow-up period), whichever occurred first. Patients were included if they were aged ≥40 years and had at least 6 months of follow-up. Propensity score matching was performed to check for confounding effects. Number of hospitalizations for COPD and number of oral corticosteroid and antibiotic prescriptions during follow-up were analyzed using Poisson regression models. The cost analysis was conducted from the perspective of the National Health System.


RESULTS
After matching, 4,680 patients were analyzed, of which 50% were males with a mean age of 64±13 years. In the Poisson regression models, the incidence rate ratio for budesonide/formoterol as compared to fluticasone/salmeterol was 0.84 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.74-0.96, P=0.010) for number of hospitalizations, 0.89 (95% CI: 0.87-0.92, P<0.001) for number of oral corticosteroid prescriptions and 0.88 (95% CI: 0.86-0.89, P<0.001) for number of antibiotic prescriptions. The mean annual expenditure for COPD management was €2,436 for patients treated with budesonide/formoterol and €2,784 for patients treated with fluticasone/salmeterol.


CONCLUSION
Among patients with COPD, treatment with a fixed combination of budesonide/formoterol was associated with fewer exacerbations and a lower, but not significant, cost of illness than the treatment with fluticasone/salmeterol. Real-world analyses are requested to ameliorate interventions to address unmet needs, optimizing treatment pathways to improve COPD-related burden and outcomes.
Theory of Population Genetics and Evolutionary Ecology: An Introduction

0. Introductory Survey of Population Phenomena. I. THE BASICS OF POPULATION GENETICS. 1. An Overview of Population Genetics. 2. The Hardy-Weinberg Law. 3. Natural Selection and Mutation at One Locus with Two Alleles. 4. The Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection. 5. Genetic Drift. 6. The Neutrality Controversy. II. COMPLEX GENETIC SYSTEMS. 7. Natural Selection with Multiple Alleles at One Locus. 8. Population Genetics with Multiple Loci. 9. Natural Selection and Quantitative Inheritance. 10. Nonrandom Mating. III. SPECIAL TOPICS IN EVOLUTION. 11. Evolution of the Genetic System. 12. Evolution in Spatially Varying Environments. 13. Natural Selection in Temporally Varying Environments. 14. The Evolution of Altruism: Kin Selection and Group Selection. IV. EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY OF SINGLE POPULATIONS. 15. An Overview of Evolutionary Ecology. 16. Exponential and Logistic Population Growth. 17. Density-Dependent Natural Selection. 18. Population Growth with Age Structure. 19. Age-Specific Selection and Life History Strategies. 20. Stochastic Environments: Extinction, Resource Tracking, and Patchiness. V. EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY OF INTERACTING POPULATIONS. 21. Competition. 22. Predation. 23. Coevolution in Ecological Systems. 24. Niche Theory and Island Biogeography. VI. APPENDICES. A1. The Mean and Variance. A2. How to Write a Computer Program in BASIC. A3. Matrix Algebra and Stability Theory. Index. Bibliography.
Atypical gunshot entrance wound and extensive backspatter

This case report describes a suicidal gunshot to the head using a solid hollow-point bullet (Quick Defense). There was an irregular skin defect measuring 16×6 cm on the right side of the head and a bone defect of 9×6 cm while a 1.2×0.7 cm skin defect was located at the left temple. This atypical wound morphology caused confusion at the scene but during autopsy, a muzzle imprint and an abrasion ring were found in the frontal aspect of the large skin defect in the right temporoparietal region, which therefore had to be the entrance wound. In addition, extensive backspatter consisting of brain tissue, bone fragments and blood had been expelled from the huge entrance wound and had travelled up to a distance of 4.6 m. The extraordinary entrance wound cannot be fully explained by special anatomical or ballistic features such as a muzzle velocity of 420 m/s or the solid hollow-point design of the bullet.