LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Endoscopic clipping versus band ligation in the management of bleeding esophageal varices

Background: The effectiveness of endoscopic clipping in the hemostasis of bleeding esophageal varices and the eventual variceal eradication was compared with that of band ligation. Methods: Forty patients were enrolled in the study in a prospective manner, 19 of whom received endoscopic clipping (group I) and the remaining (n = 21 patients) received endoscopic band ligation (group II). All patients in this study presented with bleeding from esophageal varices. The patient characteristics (age, sex, Child–Pugh score, variceal grade) were comparable in the two groups. After initial hemostasis, the patients were assigned one of the two forms of endoscopic therapy which was continued in the follow-up sessions until varices were eradicated. Early and late results were compared. Results: Initial hemostasis was achieved in all patients in group I but two patients in group II required clip ligation for initial hemostasis because of the failure in band ligation. Those two were treated with band ligation in the follow-up sessions. A total of 224 clips in 53 treatment sessions and 296 bands in 82 treatment sessions were placed in group I and group II, respectively. The rates of complete variceal eradication were 89% and 76% in group I and group II, respectively (p > 0.05). The median number of required treatment sessions for complete eradication of the varices was significantly lower in group I than group II (3 versus 4, p = 0.013). Three patients from group I (15%) and seven patients from group II (33%) were readmitted for variceal bleeding during the follow-up period (p > 0.05). Conclusions: With the advantages of high initial hemostasis rate, decreased risk of rebleeding, and fewer treatment sessions needed for variceal eradication, endoscopic clipping is as effective as band ligation, or perhaps more effective in the treatment of bleeding esophageal varices.
Comparative Design and Analysis of Luneburg and Half Maxwell Fish-Eye Lens Antennas

The design and performances is described of half Maxwell fish-eye (HMFE) and Luneburg lens antennas. Techniques to estimate the gradient index lens weights are first proposed and compared to measurements. Thanks to an analytical method based on spherical modal expansion, the radiation performances of Luneburg and HMFE lens antennas are then quantified and compared. The effects of the shell number, the lens diameter and the air gaps on the lens antenna directivity are investigated. Finally, a minmax optimized 9-shell 60 mm-diameter HMFE lens antenna is characterized at both 77 GHz and 110 GHz for on- and off- axis configurations to show its frequency behavior, focalization and beam scanning properties.
The survival impact of the intergroup 0116 trial on patients with gastric cancer.

PURPOSE
The Intergroup 0116 (INT 0116) trial demonstrated a survival benefit for a broad group of fully resected gastric cancer patients. This study examined the impact on survival of the release of this landmark trial.


METHODS AND MATERIALS
Patients with gastric carcinoma diagnosed between 1995 and 2004 were identified in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Patients from the overall population as well as those potentially eligible for the INT 0116 trial were classified as having been diagnosed either before (1995-1999) or after (2000-2004) this trial. Both Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox models were used to examine survival trends within these cohorts.


RESULTS
For the overall population of 22,982 patients, the use of radiotherapy (RT) significantly changed after the INT 0116 trial (p < 0.0001), with postoperative RT increasing from 6.5% to 13.3%. For the two periods of interest, overall survival significantly improved in recent years (p = 0.00008). A similar improvement was also seen for patients who were potentially eligible for the INT 0116 trial (p = 0.004), with 3-year survival rates improving from 32.2% to 34.5%. On both univariate and multivariate analysis, use of RT was associated with a significant survival improvement (HR, 0.65 [0.48-0.88]; p = 0.005).


CONCLUSION
Use of postoperative RT for gastric cancer has significantly increased after the release of the INT 0116 trial, likely reflecting increased use of adjuvant chemoradiotherapy. This change has been associated with improved survival in gastric cancer patients, suggesting that the improved outcome seen in this trial has been successfully translated to the community.
Performance Evaluations of Hard-Switching Interleaved DC / DC Boost Converter with New Generation Silicon Carbide MOSFETs

The emergence of PV inverter and Electric Vehicles (EVs) has created an increased demand for high power densities and high efficiency in power converters. Silicon carbide (SiC) is the candidate of choice to meet this demand, and it has, therefore, been the object of a growing interest over the past decade. The Boost converter is an essential part in most PV inverters and EVs. This paper presents a new generation of 1200V 20A SiC true MOSFET used in a 10KW hard-switching interleaved Boost converter with high switching frequency up to 100KHZ. It compares thermal and efficiency with Silicon high speed H3 IGBT. In both cases, results show a clear advantage for this new generation SiC MOSFET. Keywords—Silicon Cardbide; MOSFET; Interleaved; Hard Switching; Boost converter; IGBT
A Behavior Language: Joint Action and Behavioral Idioms

This chapter presents ABL (A Behavior Language, pronounced “able”) , a language specifically designed to support the creation of life-like computer characters (believable agents). Concurrent with our development of ABL, we are using the language to implement the believable agent layer of our interactive drama project, Façade. With code examples and case-studies we describe the primary features of ABL, including sequential and parallel behaviors, joint goals and behaviors for multi-agent coordination, and reflective programming (meta-behaviors). Specific idioms are detailed for using ABL to author story-based believable agents that can maintain reactive, moment-by-moment believability while simultaneously performing in tightly coordinated, long term dramatic sequences.
Guidelines on the Use of Therapeutic Apheresis in Clinical Practice-Evidence-Based Approach from the Writing Committee of the American Society for Apheresis: The Seventh Special Issue.

The American Society for Apheresis (ASFA) Journal of Clinical Apheresis (JCA) Special Issue Writing Committee is charged with reviewing, updating, and categorizing indications for the evidence-based use of therapeutic apheresis in human disease. Since the 2007 JCA Special Issue (Fourth Edition), the Committee has incorporated systematic review and evidence-based approaches in the grading and categorization of apheresis indications. This Seventh Edition of the JCA Special Issue continues to maintain this methodology and rigor to make recommendations on the use of apheresis in a wide variety of diseases/conditions. The JCA Seventh Edition, like its predecessor, has consistently applied the category and grading system definitions in the fact sheets. The general layout and concept of a fact sheet that was used since the fourth edition has largely been maintained in this edition. Each fact sheet succinctly summarizes the evidence for the use of therapeutic apheresis in a specific disease entity. The Seventh Edition discusses 87 fact sheets (14 new fact sheets since the Sixth Edition) for therapeutic apheresis diseases and medical conditions, with 179 indications, which are separately graded and categorized within the listed fact sheets. Several diseases that are Category IV which have been described in detail in previous editions and do not have significant new evidence since the last publication are summarized in a separate table. The Seventh Edition of the JCA Special Issue serves as a key resource that guides the utilization of therapeutic apheresis in the treatment of human disease. J. Clin. Apheresis 31:149-162, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Prospective Associations of Systemic and Urinary Choline Metabolites with Incident Type 2 Diabetes.

BACKGROUND
Several compounds in the choline oxidation pathway are associated with insulin resistance and prevalent diabetes; however, prospective data are scarce.We explored the relationships between systemic and urinary choline-related metabolites and incident type 2 diabetes in an observational prospective study among Norwegian patients.


METHODS
We explored risk associations by logistic regression among 3621 nondiabetic individuals with suspected stable angina pectoris, of whom 3242 provided urine samples. Reclassification of patients was investigated according to continuous net reclassification improvement (NRI >0).


RESULTS
After median (25th to 75th percentile) follow-up of 7.5 (6.4-8.7) years, 233 patients (6.4%) were registered with incident type 2 diabetes. In models adjusted for age, sex, and fasting status, plasma betaine was inversely related to new-onset disease [odds ratio (OR) per 1 SD, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.62-0.83; P < 0.00001], whereas positive associations were observed for urine betaine (1.25; 1.09-1.43; P = 0.001), dimethylglycine (1.22; 1.06-1.40; P = 0.007), and sarcosine (1.30; 1.13-1.49; P < 0.001). The associations were maintained in a multivariable model adjusting for body mass index, hemoglobin A1c, urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio, estimated glomerular filtration rate, C-reactive protein, HDL cholesterol, and medications. Plasma betaine and urine sarcosine, the indices most strongly related to incident type 2 diabetes, improved reclassification [NRI >0 (95% CI) 0.33 (0.19-0.47) and 0.16 (0.01-0.31), respectively] and showed good within-person reproducibility.


CONCLUSIONS
Systemic and urinary concentrations of several choline metabolites were associated with risk of incident type 2 diabetes, and relevant biomarkers may improve risk prediction.
Autonomous precision agriculture through integration of wireless underground sensor networks with center pivot irrigation systems

Precision agriculture (PA) refers to a series of practices and tools necessary to correctly evaluate farming needs. The accuracy and effectiveness of PA solutions are highly dependent on accurate and timely analysis of the soil conditions. In this paper, a proof-of-concept towards an autonomous precision irrigation system is provided through the integration of a center pivot (CP) irrigation system with wireless underground sensor networks (WUSNs). This Wireless Underground Sensor-Aided Center Pivot (WUSACP) system will provide autonomous irrigation management capabilities by monitoring the soil conditions in real time using wireless underground sensors. To this end, field experiments with a hydraulic drive and continuousmove center pivot irrigation system are conducted. The results are used to evaluate empirical channel models for soil-air communications. The experiment results show that the concept of WUSA-CP is feasible. Through the design of an underground antenna, communication ranges can be improved by up to 400% compared to conventional antenna designs. The results also highlight that the wireless communication channel between soil and air is significantly affected by many spatio-temporal aspects, such as the location and burial depth of the sensors, soil texture and physical properties, soil moisture, and the vegetation canopy height. To the best of our knowledge, This work is supported in part by the National Science Foundation CAREER Award CNS-0953900, U.S. Geological Survey Award 2010NE209B, and UNL Water Center. The authors would like to thank William Rathje for his support during the experiments at Clay Center, Nebraska. Email addresses: xdong@cse.unl.edu (Xin Dong), mcvuran@cse.unl.edu (Mehmet C. Vuran), sirmak2@unl.edu (Suat Irmak) Preprint submitted to Elsevier April 4, 2012 this is the first work on the development of an autonomous precision irrigation system with WUSNs.
Do Investors Capture the Value Premium

Style investing has attracted considerable attention following the research of Fama and French (1992, 1993). They report that small-capitalization firms realize higher average returns than large firms, and high book-to-market (BE/ME) value stocks earn significantly higher average returns than low BE/ME growth stocks. Fama and French propose that size and BE/ME proxy for risk, so portfolios of the presumably riskier value firms should outperform portfolios of the presumably less risky growth firms over time. We look at whether investors actually capture this abnormal performance. There is no evidence of a significant value premium in the returns of style indexes, large-capitalization firms, or equity mutual funds. For example, the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500/Barra value index outperforms the growth index by only an insignificant 11 basis points per month over 1975-2002. Large-cap value funds return on average 11.41% annually compared to 11.30% for large-cap growth funds. While the book-to-market effect is absent in large-cap stocks and indexes, Kothari, Shanken, and Sloan (1995) and Loughran (1997) have reported that the value premium is strongest for small-cap firms. Our evidence is that small-cap value funds realize insignificantly lower annual returns than small-cap growth funds: 14.10% versus 14.52%. Thus, there is no value premium for small-caps, the one place it is reported to be strongest. Higher transaction costs and the price impact of trading may dominate the book-to-market effect for these smaller and less liquid firms. One reason value funds might not outperform growth funds is that operating expense ratios increased dramatically during our sample period. The average fund expense ratio nearly doubled, from 0.71% in 1965 to 1.41% in 2001. Since mutual fund returns are reported net of expenses, cost differences could impact our measure of the value premium. As style investing became more popular in the late 1980s, growth and value funds charged significantly higher operating expenses than neutral funds. Growth funds also have significantly higher expenses than value funds over Do investors realize higher returns by investing in value stocks instead of growth stocks? Examination of a sample of equity indexes, mutual funds, and large-cap stocks reveals no evidence that value firms have earned higher returns than growth firms. The value premium reported in the literature is historically strongest for small-capitalization firms, yet average annual returns for small-cap equity funds are 14.10% for value funds compared to 14.52% for growth funds. Despite dramatic increases in mutual fund expense ratios from 1965 to 2001, fee differences across style funds cannot explain the absence of a value premium.
Selection of optimal supplier in supply chain management strategy with analytic network process and choquet integral

Please cite this article in press as: Tseng, M Industrial Engineering (2009), doi:10.1016/ Selection of appropriate suppliers in supply chain management strategy (SCMS) is a challenging issue because it requires battery of evaluation criteria/attributes, which are characterized with complexity, elusiveness, and uncertainty in nature. This paper proposes a novel hierarchical evaluation framework to assist the expert group to select the optimal supplier in SCMS. The rationales for the evaluation framework are based upon (i) multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) analysis that can select the most appropriate alternative from a finite set of alternatives with reference to multiple conflicting criteria, (ii) analytic network process (ANP) technique that can simultaneously take into account the relationships of feedback and dependence of criteria, and (iii) choquet integral—a non-additive fuzzy integral that can eliminate the interactivity of expert subjective judgment problems. A case PCB manufacturing firm is studied and the results indicated that the proposed evaluation framework is simple and reasonable to identify the primary criteria influencing the SCMS, and it is effective to determine the optimal supplier even with the interactive and interdependent criteria/attributes. This hierarchical evaluation framework provides a complete picture in SCMS contexts to both researchers and practitioners. 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Bronchodilator response to albuterol after regular formoterol and effects of acute corticosteroid administration.

BACKGROUND
There is controversy about the development of bronchodilator subsensitivity after regular administration of long-acting beta(2)-agonists.


OBJECTIVES
The purpose of the study was to evaluate whether regular treatment with formoterol affects the bronchodilator response to repeated puffs of albuterol, and also to assess the effects of acute administration of a bolus dose of IV or inhaled corticosteroid.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
Twelve patients (mean [SD] age, 43 [15] years; FEV(1), 57 [17] % predicted) with stable, moderate to severe persistent asthma who were all taking inhaled corticosteroids were evaluated in a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, double-dummy, crossover study. Patients received treatments each for 2 weeks followed by a bolus (IV/inhaled) of corticosteroid or placebo: (1) placebo inhaler bid + bolus placebo; (2) formoterol Turbuhaler 24 microg metered dosage bid (delivered dosage 18 microg bid) + placebo; (3) formoterol 24 microg bid + bolus IV hydrocortisone, 200 mg; or (4) formoterol 24 microg bid + bolus inhaled budesonide, 1,600 microg. Bronchodilator response to repeated puffs of albuterol (200 to 1,600 microg) for > 80 min was measured at 2 h after bolus administration of placebo or corticosteroid. The study was powered at the 80% level to detect a 20% difference in area under curve between 20 and 80 min (AUC) for FEV(1) response to albuterol as change from baseline (primary end point).


RESULTS
There was significant subsensitivity (p = 0.01) of the mean albuterol FEV(1) response (as AUC, L x s) after formoterol alone (737) as compared to placebo (1,453) along with partial reversal by steroid administration: formoterol + hydrocortisone (1, 050), and formoterol + budesonide (942). There was a similar pattern of subsensitivity (p = 0.03) for the mean albuterol forced expiratory flow between 25% and 75% of vital capacity response (as AUC, L): placebo (2,149), formoterol alone (1,002), formoterol + hydrocortisone (1,402), and formoterol + budesonide (1,271).


CONCLUSION
Regular treatment with formoterol produced significant bronchodilator subsensitivity to repeated puffs of albuterol, which was partially reversed by a bolus dose of systemic or inhaled corticosteroid.
Hybrid System for fouling control in biomass boilers

Renewable energy sources are essential paths towards sustainable development and CO2 emission reduction. For example, the European Union has set the target of achieving 22% of electricity generation from renewable sources by 2010. However, the extensive use of this energy source is being avoided by some technical problems as fouling and slagging in the surfaces of boiler heat exchangers. Although these phenomena were extensively studied in the last decades in order to optimize the behaviour of large coal power boilers, a simple, general and effective method for fouling control has not been developed. For biomass boilers, the feedstock variability and the presence of new components in ash chemistry increase the fouling influence in boiler performance. In particular, heat transfer is widely affected and the boiler capacity becomes dramatically reduced. Unfortunately, the classical approach of regular sootblowing cycles becomes clearly insufficient for them. Artificial Intelligence (AI) provides new means to undertake this problem. This paper illustrates a methodology based on Neural Networks (NNs) and Fuzzy-Logic Expert Systems to select the moment for activating sootblowing in an industrial biomass boiler. The main aim is to minimize the boiler energy and efficiency losses with a proper sootblowing activation. Although the NN type used in this work is well-known and the Hybrid Systems had been extensively used in the last decade, the excellent results obtained in the use of AI in industrial biomass boilers control with regard to previous approaches makes this work a novelty. r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Er:YAG ablative fractional laser-primed photodynamic therapy with methyl aminolevulinate as an alternative treatment option for patients with thin nodular basal cell carcinoma: 12-month follow-up results of a randomized, prospective, comparative trial.

BACKGROUND
Surgical excision is conventionally regarded as the treatment of choice for nodular basal cell carcinoma (nBCC), and methyl aminolevulinate photodynamic therapy (MAL-PDT) has relatively low efficacy for nBCC. However, Er:YAG ablative fractional laser (AFL)-primed MAL-PDT (Er:YAG AFL-PDT) may offer enhanced efficacy for nBCC, especially thin nBCC (thickness ≤2 mm).


OBJECTIVE
We compared Er:YAG AFL-PDT with conventional MAL-PDT for thin facial nBCC in Korean patients.


METHODS
Thirty-nine patients (42 lesions) with primary, histologically proven thin nBCCs were randomized to Er:YAG AFL-PDT (single session, n = 20) or conventional MAL-PDT (two sessions, 7 days apart, n = 19). Efficacy, recurrence rate, cosmetic outcomes and safety were assessed 1 week, 3 months and 12 months after the last treatment.


RESULTS
Three months after the final treatment, overall complete response rates were 84.2% with Er:YAG AFL-PDT and 50% with MAL-PDT (P = 0.026). The recurrence rate was significantly lower with Er:YAG AFL-PDT (6.3%) than with MAL-PDT (55.6%) at 12 months (P = 0.006). Er:YAG AFL-PDT and MAL-PDT did not differ significantly with respect to cosmetic outcomes or safety.


CONCLUSIONS
Er:YAG AFL-PDT can be used as an alternative treatment option for patients who have thin nBCC and are not suitable for surgical treatment.
A survey of computer systems for expressive music performance

We present a survey of research into automated and semiautomated computer systems for expressive performance of music. We will examine the motivation for such systems and then examine the majority of the systems developed over the last 25 years. To highlight some of the possible future directions for new research, the review uses primary terms of reference based on four elements: testing status, expressive representation, polyphonic ability, and performance creativity.
By way of an introduction, some initial reflections on beauty

The postmodern questioning of concepts such as beauty, truth, delight, transcendence and the like, coupled with the insight that these ideas are temporally and geographically specific, have made using them in debate an embarrassment at best, contemptible at worst. (Holden, 2004, p. 24).