LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Investigation of recurrence rates among earlobe keloids utilizing various postoperative therapeutic modalities

Keloids of the earlobe pose a complex management problem. They are relatively common sequelae of trauma or irritation to the skin of the earlobe, and usually appear in predisposed individuals as benign, smooth, globular outgrowths on one or both sides of the earlobe. Depending on their size, depth, and duration, a number of treatment approaches have been developed and applied over the years with varying degrees of success. Unfortunately, no single therapeutic modality has proven to be 100% efficacious. A retrospective analysis of 24 patients with clinically and histologically documented earlobe keloids was undertaken. In addition, a review of the literature on earlobe keloids was conducted. Surgical excision of keloids with one dose of intraoperative intralesional steroid resulted in no recurrence in 80% of patients at a mean follow-up of 31 months. The addition of radiation to this combination resulted in a recurrence-free rate of 100%. Postoperative pressure therapy, used alone, though claimed to be effective, did not show much benefit. However, patient compliance with this therapeutic modality was poor.
Weather prediction: A novel approach for measuring and analyzing weather data

The generation of data in last few years has increased tremendously and it is expected to increase more in future therefore it is a tedious process to analyze huge chunks of weather data and perform predictive analysis of the same using traditional methods. The project aims to forecast the chances of rainfall by using predictive analysis in Hadoop. The proposed system serves as a tool that takes in the rainfall data from large amount of data as input and predicts the future rainfall with min, max and average rainfall in an efficient manner. Predictive analytic models capture relationships among many factors in a data set to assess risk with a particular set of conditions to assign a score or a weight. These patterns of score/weight found in historical data can be used for predicting the future.
Pulmonary function following early thoracic fusion in non-neuromuscular scoliosis.

BACKGROUND
While early spinal fusion may halt progressive deformity in young children with scoliosis, it does not facilitate lung growth and, in certain children, it can result in thoracic insufficiency syndrome. The purpose of this study was to determine pulmonary function at intermediate-term follow-up in patients with scoliosis who underwent thoracic fusion before the age of nine years.


METHODS
Patients who had thoracic spine fusions before the age of nine years with a minimum five-year follow-up underwent pulmonary function testing. Forced vital capacity, forced expiratory volume in one second, and maximum inspiratory pressure were measured and compared with age-matched normal values. Patients with neuromuscular disease, skeletal dysplasias, or preexisting pulmonary disease were excluded, while those with rib malformations were included. The relationships between forced vital capacity and age at the time of surgery, length of follow-up, extent of the fusion, proximal level of the fusion, and revision surgery were studied.


RESULTS
Twenty-eight patients underwent evaluation. Twenty patients had congenital scoliosis, three had idiopathic scoliosis, three had scoliosis associated with neurofibromatosis, one had congenital kyphosis, and one had syndromic scoliosis. Seventeen patients had one spinal surgery, while eleven had additional procedures. The average age of the patients was 3.3 years at the time of surgery and 14.6 years at the time of follow-up. The average extent of the thoracic spine fused was 58.7%. The average forced vital capacity was 57.8% of age-matched normal values, and the average forced expiratory volume in one second was 54.7%. The forced vital capacity was <50% of normal in twelve of the twenty-eight patients, and two required respiratory support, implying that substantial restrictive lung disease was present. With the numbers studied, no significant correlation could be detected between the age at the time of fusion or the length of follow-up and pulmonary function. The extent of the spine fused correlated with the forced vital capacity (p = 0.01, r = -0.46). Fusions in the proximal aspect of the spine were found to be associated with diminished pulmonary function as eight of twelve patients with a proximal fusion level of T1 or T2 had a forced vital capacity of <50%, but only four of sixteen patients with a fusion beginning caudad to T2 had a forced vital capacity of <50% (p = 0.0004, r = 0.62).


CONCLUSIONS
Patients with proximal thoracic deformity who require fusion of more than four segments, especially those with rib anomalies, are at the highest risk for the development of restrictive pulmonary disease. Pulmonary function tests should be performed for all patients who have an early fusion. The pursuit of alternative procedures to treat early spinal deformity is merited.
Effect of harvesting and storage conditions on the post harvest quality of tomato

The study was conducted to undertake the effect of harvesting stage and storage conditions on the post harvest quality of tomato cv. Roma VF (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) during the process of ripening in storage. Fruit of three maturity stages such as mature green (mature but green in color), half ripen (breaker stage when fruit turns to yellow) and full ripen (yellow and soft, edible stage) were kept under three different conditions; open condition (control), covering with white polythene and finally treatment by CaC2 + polythene. High and significant variation was observed in quality characteristics under different harvesting stages, storage conditions and their combinations. The highest value for rotting and total sugar content was distinguished in full ripens tomato. The highest weight loss and shelf life was measured in mature green. The half ripen tomato showed the highest value of vitamin C and titrable acidity. The percentage of decay (rotting) and weight loss, pH, titrable acidity and total sugar were increased with gradual increasing of storage time, irrespective to maturity stages while the percentage of vitamin C was decreased with progressing time of storage. The highest value of weight loss, shelf life and titrable acidity was recorded in control treatment. The high decay (rotting percent) and total sugar content was recorded under CaC2 + polythene covering treatment while the highest vitamin C content and pH was measured in simple polythene covering treatment at the final observation day (15 th day). The values of all parameters except for vitamin C were increased gradually with the exceeding of storage time irrespective to storage condition. Tomato plants placed under CaC2 + treatment, covered with polythene have shown the highest decay, titrable acidity and total sugar content at the final observation day.
Towards a resolution of the personality triad : Persons , situations , and behaviors

The issue of the variant vs. invariant in personality often arises in diVerent forms of the “person– situation” debate, which is based on a false dichotomy between the personal and situational determination of behavior. Previously reported data are summarized that demonstrate how behavior can vary as a function of subtle situational changes while individual consistency is maintained. Further discussion considers the personal source of behavioral invariance, the situational source of behavioral variation, the person–situation interaction, the nature of behavior, and the “personality triad” of persons, situations, and behaviors, in which each element is understood and predicted in terms of the other two. An important goal for future research is further development of theories and methods for conceptualizing and measuring the functional aspects of situations and of behaviors. One reason for the persistence of the person situation debate may be that it serves as a proxy for a deeper, implicit debate over values such as equality vs. individuality, determinism vs. free will, and Xexibility vs. consistency. However, these value dichotomies may be as false as the person–situation debate that they implicitly drive.  2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Increasing the density of markers around a major QTL controlling resistance to angular leaf spot in common bean

Angular leaf spot (ALS) causes major yield losses in the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), an important protein source in the human diet. This study describes the saturation around a major quantitative trait locus (QTL) region, ALS10.1, controlling resistance to ALS located on linkage group Pv10 and explores the genomic context of this region using available data from the P. vulgaris genome sequence. DArT-derived markers (STS-DArT) selected by bulk segregant analysis and SCAR and SSR markers were used to increase the resolution of the QTL, reducing the confidence interval of ALS10.1 from 13.4 to 3.0 cM. The position of the SSR ATA220 coincided with the maximum LOD score of the QTL. Moreover, a new QTL (ALS10.2UC) was identified at the end of the same linkage group. Sequence analysis using the P. vulgaris genome located ten SSRs and seven STS-DArT on chromosome 10 (Pv10). Coincident linkage and genome positions of five markers enabled the definition of a core region for ALS10.1 spanning 5.3 Mb. These markers are linked to putative genes related to disease resistance such as glycosyl transferase, ankyrin repeat-containing, phospholipase, and squamosa-promoter binding protein. Synteny analysis between ALS10.1 markers and the genome of soybean suggested a dynamic evolution of this locus in the common bean. The present study resulted in the identification of new candidate genes and markers closely linked to a major ALS disease resistance QTL, which can be used in marker-assisted selection, fine mapping and positional QTL cloning.
VO2 thin films deposited on silicon substrates from V2O5 target: Limits in optical switching properties and modeling

Abstract Thermochromic VO 2 thin films presenting a phase change at T c  = 68 °C and having variable thickness were deposited on silicon substrates (Si-001) by radio-frequency sputtering. These thin films were obtained from optimized reduction of low cost V 2 O 5 targets. Depending on deposition conditions, a non-thermochromic metastable VO 2 phase might also be obtained. The thermochromic thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, ellipsometry techniques, Fourier transform infrared spectrometry and optical emissivity analyses. In the wavelength range 0.3 to 25 μm, the optical transmittance of the thermochromic films exhibited a large variation between 25 and 100 °C due to the phase transition at T c : the contrast in transmittance (difference between the transmittance values to 25 °C and 100 °C) first increased with film thickness, then reached a maximum value. A model taking into account the optical properties of both types of VO 2 film fully justified such a maximum value. The n and k optical indexes were calculated from transmittance and reflectance spectra. A significant contrast in emissivity due to the phase transition was also observed between 25 and 100 °C.
Mindfulness Training Reduces the Severity of Irritable Bowel Syndrome in Women: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial

OBJECTIVES:This prospective, randomized controlled trial explored the feasibility and efficacy of a group program of mindfulness training, a cognitive-behavioral technique, for women with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The technique involves training in intentionally attending to present-moment experience and non-judgmental awareness of body sensations and emotions.METHODS:Seventy-five female IBS patients were randomly assigned to eight weekly and one half-day intensive sessions of either mindfulness group (MG) training or a support group (SG). Participants completed the IBS severity scale (primary outcome), IBS-quality of life, brief symptom inventory-18, visceral sensitivity index, treatment credibility scale, and five-facet mindfulness questionnaire before and after treatment and at 3-month follow-up.RESULTS:Women in the MG showed greater reductions in IBS symptom severity immediately after training (26.4% vs. 6.2% reduction; P=0.006) and at 3-month follow-up (38.2% vs. 11.8%; P=0.001) relative to SG. Changes in quality of life, psychological distress, and visceral anxiety were not significantly different between groups immediately after treatment, but evidenced significantly greater improvements in the MG than in the SG at the 3-month follow-up. Mindfulness scores increased significantly more in the MG after treatment, confirming effective learning of mindfulness skills. Participants’ ratings of the credibility of their assigned interventions, measured after the first group session, were not different between groups.CONCLUSIONS:This randomized controlled trial demonstrated that mindfulness training has a substantial therapeutic effect on bowel symptom severity, improves health-related quality of life, and reduces distress. The beneficial effects persist for at least 3 months after group training.
Selective Sampling Using the Query by Committee Algorithm

We analyze the “query by committee” algorithm, a method for filtering informative queries from a random stream of inputs. We show that if the two-member committee algorithm achieves information gain with positive lower bound, then the prediction error decreases exponentially with the number of queries. We show that, in particular, this exponential decrease holds for query learning of perceptrons.
Accelerating Neural Transformer via an Average Attention Network

With parallelizable attention networks, the neural Transformer is very fast to train. However, due to the auto-regressive architecture and self-attention in the decoder, the decoding procedure becomes slow. To alleviate this issue, we propose an average attention network as an alternative to the self-attention network in the decoder of the neural Transformer. The average attention network consists of two layers, with an average layer that models dependencies on previous positions and a gating layer that is stacked over the average layer to enhance the expressiveness of the proposed attention network. We apply this network on the decoder part of the neural Transformer to replace the original target-side self-attention model. With masking tricks and dynamic programming, our model enables the neural Transformer to decode sentences over four times faster than its original version with almost no loss in training time and translation performance. We conduct a series of experiments on WMT17 translation tasks, where on 6 different language pairs, we obtain robust and consistent speed-ups in decoding.1
Hyperinsulinemia and cognitive decline in a middle-aged cohort.

OBJECTIVE
Determining modifiable risks factors for cognitive decline and dementia are a public health priority as we seek to prevent dementia. Type 2 diabetes and related disorders such as hyperinsulinemia increase with aging and are increasing in the U.S. population. Our objective was to determine whether hyperinsulinemia is associated with cognitive decline among middle-aged adults without type 2 diabetes, dementia, or stroke in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) cohort.


RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
Middle-aged adults (aged 45-64 years at baseline) in the ARIC cohort had fasting insulin and glucose assessed between 1987 and 1989. Subjects with dementia, type 2 diabetes, or stroke at baseline were excluded from analysis. Three tests of cognitive function available at baseline and 6 years later were delayed word recall (DWR), digit symbol subtest (DSS), and first letter word fluency (WF). Cross-sectional comparisons and linear regression models were computed for cognitive tests at baseline and change in cognitive test scores to determine whether cognitive function was associated with two measures of insulin resistance, fasting insulin and homeostasis model assessment (HOMA). Linear regression models controlled for age, sex, race, marital status, education level, smoking status, alcohol use, depression, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia.


RESULTS
In unadjusted and adjusted analyses, hyperinsulinemia based on fasting insulin and HOMA at baseline was associated with significantly lower baseline DWR, DSS, and WF scores and a greater decline over 6 years in DWR and WF.


CONCLUSIONS
Insulin resistance is a potentially modifiable midlife risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia.
Risk of recurrence after a first unprovoked seizure in children.

OBJECTIVES
This study aimed to evaluate the first episode of unprovoked epileptic seizure in children and assess recurrence risk factors.


METHODS
This was a retrospective observational study, based on the analysis of medical records of patients admitted between 2003 and 2014, with first epileptic seizure, at the pediatric service of a secondary hospital. The data were analyzed using the SPSS 20.0 program.


RESULTS
Of the 103 patients, 52.4% were boys. The median age at the first seizure was 59 (1-211) months. About 93% of children were submitted to an electroencephalogram at the first episode and 47% underwent neuroimaging assessment. Treatment with an antiepileptic drug was started in 46% of patients. The recurrence rate was 38% and of these, 80% had the second seizure within six months after the first event. Of the assessed risk factors, there was a statistically significant association between seizure during sleep and recurrence (p=0.004), and between remote symptomatic etiology seizure and occurrence of new seizure (p=0.02). The presence of electroencephalogram abnormalities was also associated with the occurrence of new seizures (p=0.021). No association was found between age, duration of the seizure, and family history of epilepsy with increased risk of recurrence.


CONCLUSIONS
Most children with a first unprovoked epileptic seizure had no recurrences. The risk of recurrence was higher in patients with seizure occurring during sleep or remote symptomatic ones and those with abnormal electroencephalogram results.
Pregnancy outcomes in multiple sclerosis following subcutaneous interferon beta-1a therapy.

BACKGROUND
Women with multiple sclerosis (MS) are advised to discontinue interferon-beta therapy before trying to conceive. Unplanned pregnancies occur and risks related to exposure remain unclear.


METHODS
To determine pregnancy outcomes following interferon-beta therapy, we examined pregnancies from a global drug safety database containing individual case safety reports received in the post-marketing setting and safety data from clinical trials of subcutaneous interferon beta-1a in MS.


RESULTS
One thousand and twenty-two cases of exposure to subcutaneous interferon beta-1a during pregnancy were retrieved; 679 had a documented outcome. In cases for which exposure duration was available (n  = 231), mean time of foetal exposure to subcutaneous interferon beta-1a before treatment discontinuation was 28 days; most pregnancies (199/231; 86.1%) were exposed for ≤ 45 days. To avoid bias, only outcomes for prospective data (n  = 425) in pregnancies exposed to interferon beta-1a in utero were analysed further. Of these, 324 (76.2%) resulted in normal live births and four (0.9%) in live births with congenital anomalies (3 [0.7%] were 'major'). Four (0.9%) pregnancies resulted in stillbirths (1 [0.2%] with foetal defects). There were 5 (1.2%) ectopic pregnancies, 49 (11.5%) spontaneous abortions and 39 (9.2%) elective terminations. Most pregnancies exposed to subcutaneous interferon beta-1a in utero were associated with normal live births. The rates of spontaneous abortion and major congenital anomalies in live births were in line with those observed in the general population.


CONCLUSIONS
These data should be taken into account when considering options for women with MS who become pregnant or who are planning pregnancy while on treatment with subcutaneous interferon beta-1a.
Improving biocuration of microRNAs in diseases: a case study in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small and non-coding RNA molecules that inhibit gene expression posttranscriptionally. They play important roles in several biological processes, and in recent years there has been an interest in studying how they are related to the pathogenesis of diseases. Although there are already some databases that contain information for miRNAs and their relation with illnesses, their curation represents a significant challenge due to the amount of information that is being generated every day. In particular, respiratory diseases are poorly documented in databases, despite the fact that they are of increasing concern regarding morbidity, mortality and economic impacts. In this work, we present the results that we obtained in the BioCreative Interactive Track (IAT), using a semiautomatic approach for improving biocuration of miRNAs related to diseases. Our procedures will be useful to complement databases that contain this type of information. We adapted the OntoGene text mining pipeline and the ODIN curation system in a full-text corpus of scientific publications concerning one specific respiratory disease: idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, the most common and aggressive of the idiopathic interstitial cases of pneumonia. We curated 823 miRNA text snippets and found a total of 246 miRNAs related to this disease based on our semiautomatic approach with the system OntoGene/ODIN. The biocuration throughput improved by a factor of 12 compared with traditional manual biocuration. A significant advantage of our semiautomatic pipeline is that it can be applied to obtain the miRNAs of all the respiratory diseases and offers the possibility to be used for other illnesses.


Database URL
http://odin.ccg.unam.mx/ODIN/bc2015-miRNA/.
Validity and internal consistency of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire 60-month version and the effect of three scoring methods.

BACKGROUND
The Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) is currently the most used parent-completed developmental screener consisting of different age-specific questionnaires. Psychometric evaluation of the ASQ 60-month version (ASQ-60) is limited. Furthermore, it is unclear which of the available scoring methods of the ASQ is most useful in the identification of children with potential developmental problems.


AIM
To evaluate the internal consistency and construct validity of the ASQ-60 with a large sample size, and to assess the effects of three scoring-methods on this validity.


STUDY DESIGN
Parents of 394 term-born and 1063 preterm-born children from the prospective cohort-study Lollipop completed the ASQ-60 and a general questionnaire on school-problems.


OUTCOME MEASURES
Internal consistency and construct validity of the ASQ-60 were determined using the ASQ total score. Construct validity was also determined using two other types of scoring-methods based on low domain-scores ('ASQ domain score') and parental concerns ('ASQ total score with parental concerns').


RESULTS
Cronbach's alpha for total score was 0.86, confirming internal consistency. Male gender, prematurity, low paternal education, low family income and small-for-gestational-age were associated with low 'ASQ total scores,' confirming construct validity. Regarding construct validity with special education as criterion, sensitivity was best using the 'ASQ domain score' or the 'ASQ total score' with parental concerns (both 0.96). However, the specificity was best (0.93) using the ASQ total score.


CONCLUSION
The ASQ-60 has a good internal consistency and validity to screen for developmental problems in the general population. The 'ASQ total score' has the best performance, the 'ASQ domain score' is recommended in case of preferred high sensitivity.
Smartphones for Large-Scale Behavior Change Interventions

Equipped with cutting-edge sensing technology and high-end processors, smartphones can unobtrusively sense human behavior and deliver feedback and behavioral therapy. The authors discuss two applications for behavioral monitoring and change and present UBhave, the first holistic platform for large-scale digital behavior change intervention.