LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Optical spectrometer at the nanoscale using optical Yagi-Uda nanoantennas

Here we present and analyze an optical spectrum analyzer at the nanometer scale that is able to distribute different frequency contents of the radiation of an optical dipole source into different directions in the space. The spectrum analyzer is composed of arrays of optical Yagi-Uda nanoantennas, forming relatively narrow radiation patterns operating at different frequencies. The optical Yagi-Uda nanoantennas composed of plasmonic core-shell nanoparticles are used as an example of building blocks for this idea in our study. Narrow radiation beams in such antenna arrays are realized by tailoring the scattering phase of the nanoparticles. The sensitivity of such an antenna array to the operating wavelength and the angular distribution of the radiation pattern, which is essential for the operation of the spectrum analyzer proposed here, is studied theoretically. The chromatic dispersion and the angular variation of the radiation pattern of such an optical spectrum analyzer are discussed in detail.
Cost-effectiveness of interpersonal psychotherapy for elderly primary care patients with major depression.

OBJECTIVES
Major depression is common in elderly patients. Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) is a potentially effective treatment for depressed elderly patients. The objective of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of IPT delivered by mental health workers in primary care practices, for depressed patients 55 years of age and older identified by screening, in comparison with care as usual (CAU).


METHODS
We conducted a full economic evaluation alongside a randomized controlled trial comparing IPT with CAU. Outcome measures were depressive symptoms, presence of major depression, and quality of life. Resource use was measured from a societal perspective over a 12-month period by cost diaries. Multiple imputation and bootstrapping were used to analyze the data.


RESULTS
At 6 and 12 months, the differences in clinical outcomes between IPT and CAU were small and nonsignificant. Total costs at 12 months were Euros 5,753 in the IPT group and Euros 4,984 in the CAU group (mean difference, Euros 769; 95 percent confidence interval, -2,459 -3,433). Cost-effectiveness planes indicated that there was much uncertainty around the cost-effectiveness ratios.


CONCLUSIONS
Based on these results, provision of IPT in primary care to elderly depressed patients was not cost-effective in comparison to CAU. Future research should focus on improvement of patient selection and treatments that have more robust effects in the acute and maintenance phase of treatment.
Standard laparoscopic versus single-incision laparoscopic colectomy for cancer: early results of a randomized prospective study.

BACKGROUND
Standard laparoscopic colectomy (SLC) for cancer is a safe, feasible, and oncologically effective procedure with better short-term and similar long-term results of open colectomy. Conversely, owing to technical difficulties in colonic resection and full mesenteric dissection, single-incision laparoscopic colectomy (SILC) has been considered unsuitable for oncologic purposes. We compared the technical feasibility and early clinical outcomes of SLC and SILC for cancer.


METHODS
In this prospective randomized clinical trial, 16 (50%) patients underwent SLC (10 left and 6 right) and 16 (50%) patients underwent SILC (8 left and 8 right).


RESULTS
Demographics, preoperative data, and characteristics of the tumor were similar. The mean number of resected lymph nodes was 16 ± 5 in the SLC and 18 ± 6 in the SILC group (P = NS). Surgical time was 124 ± 8 minutes and 147 ± 5 minutes, respectively (P = NS). Surgical mortality was nil and the major morbidity rate was 6.3% in both groups.


CONCLUSIONS
SILC for cancer is a technically feasible and safe oncologic procedure with short-term results similar to those obtained with a traditional laparoscopic approach.
Non-AIDS Associated Kaposi's Sarcoma: Clinical Features and Treatment Outcome

BACKGROUND
Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) in HIV negative patients is rare and has to be distinguished from AIDS associated KS. Two groups are at risk to develop non-AIDS related KS: elderly men mainly of Mediterranean origin and persons with iatrogenic immunosuppression.


PATIENTS AND METHODS
In order to define risk-groups and major clinical features we retrospectively evaluated clinical data of all patients with non-AIDS associated KS presenting to the Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Tuebingen between 1987 and 2009. Data were extracted from the tumor registry of the Comprehensive Cancer Center Tuebingen and from patient records.


RESULTS
20 patients with non-AIDS KS have been identified. The average age at KS onset was 66.6 years; the male-to-female-ratio was 3:1. Most of the patients were immigrants from Mediterranean or Eastern European countries (60%). 15 cases of classic KS versus 5 cases of iatrogenic KS were observed. In 95% of the cases, KS was limited to the skin, without mucosal, lymph node or visceral manifestation. KS lesions were in all cases multiple and mostly bilateral, the most common localization was the skin of the lower extremities. Tumor control was achieved in nearly all cases by the use of local or systemic therapy. No patient died from KS.


CONCLUSIONS
Unlike KS in AIDS patients, non-AIDS associated KS is a rather localized process which rarely involves lymph nodes or organs. It is mostly seen in elderly males from Mediterranean or Eastern European countries and in most cases responsive on local or systemic therapeutic strategies.
Ranking systems: the PageRank axioms

This paper initiates research on the foundations of ranking systems, a fundamental ingredient of basic e-commerce and Internet Technologies. In order to understand the essence and the exact rationale of page ranking algorithms we suggest the axiomatic approach taken in the formal theory of social choice. In this paper we deal with PageRank, the most famous page ranking algorithm. We present a set of simple (graph-theoretic, ordinal) axioms that are satisfied by PageRank, and moreover any page ranking algorithm that does satisfy them must coincide with PageRank. This is the first representation theorem of that kind, bridging the gap between page ranking algorithms and the mathematical theory of social choice.
Detection of vein graft disease using high-resolution magnetic resonance angiography.

BACKGROUND
The application of previous magnetic resonance (MR) angiography techniques has enabled noninvasive differentiation between patent and occluded coronary artery bypass grafts. However, the detection of graft stenosis remains difficult. The purpose of our study was to determine the accuracy of high-resolution navigator-gated 3-dimensional (3-D) MR angiography in detecting vein graft disease. Methods and Results- MR angiography was performed in addition to coronary angiography with quantitative coronary analysis in 56 vein grafts from 38 patients (mean age 66.6+/-9.3 years), who presented with recurrent chest pain after bypass surgery. Eighteen grafts showed a luminal stenosis >/=50%, 11 grafts a stenosis >/=70%, and 6 grafts were occluded. All MR angiograms were evaluated independently by 2 blinded observers, who scored the presence of graft occlusion and graft stenosis >/=50% and >/=70% with a confidence level of 1 to 10. MR image quality was judged as insufficient in 6 grafts and these were excluded. Receiver-operator characteristic analysis revealed an area under the curve of 0.89 and 0.89 for identifying graft occlusion, 0.81 and 0.87 for stenosis >/=50%, and 0.82 and 0.79 for stenosis >/=70% for the 2 observers, respectively. Interobserver agreement in assessing graft occlusion and stenosis >/=50% and >/=70% was 94% (kappa=0.74, r=0.81), 72% (kappa=0.40, r=0.66), and 82% (kappa=0.53, r=0.72), respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
High-resolution navigator-gated 3-D MR angiography allows not only good differentiation between patent and occluded vein grafts but also the assessment of vein graft disease with a fair diagnostic accuracy. This approach offers perspective as a noninvasive diagnostic tool for patients who present with recurrent chest pain after vein graft surgery.
The Global Fuzzy C-Means Clustering Algorithm

The fuzzy c-means (FCM) is one of the algorithms for clustering based on optimizing an objective function, being sensitive to initial conditions, the algorithm usually leads to local minimum results. Aiming at above problem, we present the global fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm (GFCM) which is an incremental approach to clustering. It does not depend on any initial conditions and the better clustering results are obtained through a deterministic global search procedure. We also propose the fast global fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm (FGFCM) to improve the converging speed of the global fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm. Experiments show that the global fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm can give us more satisfactory results by escaping from the sensibility to initial value and improving the accuracy of clustering; the fast global fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm improved the converging speed of the global fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm without significantly affecting solution quality
Local muscle injection of botulinum toxin type a synergistically improves the beneficial effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation and intensive occupational therapy in post-stroke patients with spastic upper limb hemiparesis.

BACKGROUND
The purpose of this study was to determine whether local injection of botulinum toxin type A (BoNT-A) into the spastic muscles has any added benefits to repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (RTMS)/occupational therapy (OT) in patients with spastic upper limb hemiparesis.


METHODS
The study subjects of 80 post-stroke patients with spastic upper limb hemiparesis (age: 60.2 ± 13.0 years, time after stroke: 55.3 ± 43.0 months), were divided into the BoNT-A plus RTMS/OT group and RTMS/OT group. BoNT-A was injected into the spastic muscles (total dose: 240 units) before RTMS/OT. The latter included 12 sessions of 40 min RTMS over the non-lesional hemisphere and 240-min intensive OT daily over 15 days. Spasticity was evaluated by the modified Ashworth scale (MAS) and the motor function of the affected upper limb was evaluated serially with Fugl-Meyer Assessment and Wolf Motor Function Tests.


RESULTS
Both groups showed significant improvements in spasticity and motor function. The addition of BoNT-A resulted in better improvement in FMA score and MAS of finger flexor muscles (p < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
The triple-element protocol of local injection of BoNT-A into spastic finger muscles, RTMS and intensive OT, is a promising therapeutic program for post-stroke spastic upper limb hemiparesis, although its significance should be confirmed in randomized, placebo-controlled trials.
The Success of Natural Products in Drug Discovery

Drug discovery leading to robust and viable lead candidates’ remains a challenging scientific task, which is the transition from a screening hit to a drug candidate, requires expertise and experience. Natural products and their derivatives have been recognized for many years as a source of therapeutic agents and of structural diversity. However, in addition to their chemical structure diversity and their biodiversity, the development of new technologies has revolutionized the screening of natural products in discovering new drugs. Applying these technologies compensates for the inherent limitations of natural products and offers a unique opportunity to re-establish natural products as a major source for drug discovery. The present article attempts to describe the utilization of compounds derived from natural resources as drug candidates, with a focus on the success of these resources in the process of finding and discovering new and effective drug compounds, an approach commonly referred to as “natural product drug discovery”.
Direct Pose Estimation and Refinement

We study a fundamental question in pose estimation from vision-only video data: should the pose of a camera be determined from fixed and known correspondences? Or should correspondences be simultaneously estimated alongside the pose? Determining pose from fixed correspondences is known as feature-based, where wellestablished tools from projective geometry are utilized to formulate and solve a plethora of pose estimation problems. Nonetheless, in degraded imaging conditions such as low light and blur, reliably detecting and precisely localizing interest points becomes challenging. Conversely, estimating correspondences alongside motion is known as the direct approach, where image data are used directly to determine geometric quantities without relying on sparse interest points as an intermediate representation. The approach is in general more precise by virtue of redundancy as many measurements are used to estimate a few degreesof-freedom. However, direct methods are more sensitive to changes in illumination. In this work, we combine the best of the feature-based approaches with the precision of direct methods. Namely, we make use of densely and sparsely evaluated local feature descriptors in a direct image alignment framework to address pose estimation in challenging conditions. Applications include tracking planar targets under sudden and drastic changes in illumination as well as visual odometry in poorly-lit subterranean mines. Motivated by the success of the approach, we introduce a novel formulation for the joint refinement of pose and structure across multiple views akin to feature-based bundle adjustment (BA). In contrast to minimizing the reprojection error using BA, initial estimates are refined such that the photometric consistency of their image projections is maximized without the need for correspondences. The technique is evaluated on a range of datasets and is shown to improve upon the accuracy of the current state-of-the-art in vision-based simultaneous localization and mapping (VSLAM). This is the Dedication.
Relationship between English Language , Learning Strategies , Attitudes , Motivation , and Students ’ Academic Achievement

Background: A considerable amount of research has been done to explore the key factors that affect learning a second language. Among these factors are students' learning strategies, motivation, attitude, learning environment, and the age at which they are exposed to a second language. Such issues have not been explored extensively in Saudi Arabia, even though English is used as the medium of teaching and learning for medical studies. Objectives: First, to explore the learning strategies used to study English as a second language. Second, to identify students' motivations for studying English. Third, to assess students' perceptions toward their learning environment. Fourth, to investigate students' attitude towards the speakers of English. Fifth, to explore any possible relationships among English language proficiency grades of students and the following: demographic variables, grades for their general medical courses, learning strategies, motivational variables, attitudes, and environmental variables. It is also the aim of this study to explore the relationships between English language learning strategies and motivational variables. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in May, 2008. The Attitudinal Measure of Learners of English as a Second Language (AMLESL) questionnaire was used to explore the learning strategies used by students to study English as a second language, their motivation to study English, their attitude toward English speaking people, and perceptions toward the environment where the learning is taking place. Results: A total of 110 out of 120 questionnaires were completed by Applied Medical Science undergraduates, yielding a response rate of 92%. Students utilize all types of learning strategies. Students were motivated 'integratively' and 'instrumentally'. There were significant correlations between the achievement in English and performance in general medical courses, learning strategies, motivation, age, and the formal level at which the student started to learn English. Conclusion: The study showed that students utilize all types of language learning strategies. However, cognitive strategies were the most frequently utilized. Students considered their learning environment as more positive than negative. Students were happy with their teacher, and with their English courses. Students held a positive attitude toward English speaking people. Achievement in English was associated positively with performance in the general medical courses, motivation, and social learning strategies. Relationship between English Language, Learning Strategies, Attitudes, Motivation, and Students’ Academic Achievement
Hierarchical loss for classification

Failing to distinguish between a sheepdog and a skyscraper should be worse and penalized more than failing to distinguish between a sheepdog and a poodle; after all, sheepdogs and poodles are both breeds of dogs. However, existing metrics of failure (so-called “loss” or “win”) used in textual or visual classification/recognition via neural networks seldom view a sheepdog as more similar to a poodle than to a skyscraper. We define a metric that, inter alia, can penalize failure to distinguish between a sheepdog and a skyscraper more than failure to distinguish between a sheepdog and a poodle. Unlike previously employed possibilities, this metric is based on an ultrametric tree associated with any given tree organization into a semantically meaningful hierarchy of a classifier’s classes. MSC 2010 subject classifications: Primary 62H30; secondary 68T05, 65K10.
Cement grinding optimisation

The current world consumption of cement is about 1.5 billion tonnes per annum and it is increasing at about 1% per annum. The electrical energy consumed in cement production is approximately 110 kWh/tonne, and around 40% of this energy is consumed for clinker grinding. There is potential to optimise conventional cement clinker grinding circuits and in the last decade significant progress has been achieved. The increasing demand for “finer cement” products, and the need for reduction in energy consumption and green house gas emissions, reinforces the need for grinding optimisation. This paper describes the tools available for the analysis and optimisation of cement grinding circuits. The application of the Bond based methodology as well as Population Balance Models (PBM) is presented using a case study. The throughput of current conventional closed grinding circuit can be increased by 10-20% by pre-crushing the clinker using the Barmac crusher. A potential for application of stirred milling technology for fine cement grinding was also discussed.
Non-invasive Analyte Access and Sensing through Eccrine Sweat : Challenges and Outlook circa 2016

Although wearable technologies have recently seen a water-shed moment in their commercialization, the introduction of new capabilities has not kept pace with rapidly rising expectations in the medical, industrial, and consumer markets. This is partly because today s wearable technologies remain heavily reliant on decades-old techniques for accessing information from the body. Many wearable technologies, for example, simply electrically or optically interrogate the body from outside skin, which severely limits the specificity of their detection. The identification and quantification of most biomarkers (ions, molecules, proteins, etc.), is instead only possible through a probe that relies on direct chemical interaction with the analyte. Creating such chemical sensors in a wearable format remains a significant challenge, but, as revealed in this special issue of Electroanalysis, appears promising. However, even if you can make such sensors [1], there remains a second, perhaps even greater challenge: how does one reliably and non-invasively extract biomarker analytes from the body? It has been recently postulated by several groups that this second challenge can be resolved by sampling and sensing of analytes in eccrine sweat (Fig. 1), as supported by emergent theory [2] and recent technological demonstrations [1–6]. This article reviews the status of wearable biosensing of analytes in eccrine sweat, including both challenges and outlook circa 2016. Eccrine sweat has many inherent advantages over other non-invasive biofluids (tears, saliva, urine), but also has numerous and unique challenges. This article may serve useful for those considering exploration of sweat biosensing, but also raises many issues that are relevant to biosensing with other non-invasive or minimally invasive techniques.
Using GPUs for machine learning algorithms

Using dedicated hardware to do machine learning typically ends up in disaster because of cost, obsolescence, and poor software. The popularization of graphic processing units (GPUs), which are now available on every PC, provides an attractive alternative. We propose a generic 2-layer fully connected neural network GPU implementation which yields over 3/spl times/ speedup for both training and testing with respect to a 3 GHz P4 CPU.
Use of patient-specific MRI-based prostate mold for validation of multiparametric MRI in localization of prostate cancer.

OBJECTIVE
To demonstrate the use of a patient-specific magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based prostate mold to generate histologic sections that directly correlate to axial MRI slices in a patient with anteriorly located prostate cancer. Anteriorly located prostate cancer has traditionally been difficult to detect on digital rectal examination and transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsy. Multiparametric MRI has potential as a valuable tool for the diagnosis and focal treatment of prostate cancer. A significant difficulty to date has been accurate correlation between the magnetic resonance images and histopathologic specimens.


METHODS
A patient-specific mold from a preoperative T2-weighted MRI scan was created to hold and shape the prostate specimen. Slots for slicing were positioned at 6-mm increments coplanar to the axial MRI slices. After surgical excision, the specimen was inked to maintain the orientation and fixed in formalin. The seminal vesicles were excised, and the prostate was oriented in the mold such that the color-coding matched the anatomic labels on the mold. The specimen was sliced with a single blade and the resultant 6-mm tissue blocks were used for histologic analysis.


RESULTS
Preoperative multiparametric MRI revealed a lesion in the right anterior transition zone that was positive on T2-weighed MRI, apparent diffusion coefficient maps of diffusion-weighted MRI, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI. The histologic sections obtained using the mold demonstrated a similar Gleason score 6 (3+3) lesion in the right anterior transition zone, correlating with the MRI findings.


CONCLUSION
The use of patient-specific prostate molds to register the MRI findings with the histopathologic specimen in prostate cancer could offer several benefits compared with current specimen processing techniques. This technique might further validate MRI as an accurate tool for prostate cancer localization and staging.
43W, 52% PAE X-Band AlGaN/GaN HEMTs MMIC amplifiers

This paper presents the results obtained on X-Band GaN MMICs developed in the frame of the Korrigan project launched by the European Defense Agency. GaN has already demonstrated excellent output power levels, nevertheless demonstration of excellent PAE associated to very high power in MMIC technology is still challenging. In this work, we present State-of-the-Art results on AlGaN/GaN MMIC amplifiers. An output power of 43W with 52% of PAE was achieved at 10.5 GHz showing that high power associated with high PAE can be obtained at X-band using MMIC GaN technology.