LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Non-prescription treatment of NSAID induced GORD by Australian pharmacies: a national simulated patient study

Background Patients regularly present to community pharmacies for advice about and treatment for reflux symptoms and NSAIDs are a common cause of these symptoms. There is no published literature detailing the approach that pharmacies take to these enquiries, the pharmacotherapy they recommend or whether they contribute to the safe and effective use of reflux medicines. Objectives To assess in an observational study design the clinical history gathering, recommendations for GORD management and counselling provided by community pharmacies in a simulated patient scenario involving suspected NSAID induced reflux symptoms. Setting Australian community pharmacies. Method Simulated patients visited 223 community pharmacies to request treatment for reflux symptoms. The interaction was audiotaped and assessed against guidelines for the treatment of reflux symptoms. Main outcome measures Alignment of community pharmacies with international expert gastroenterologist guidance and national professional practice guidelines for the treatment of reflux symptoms by pharmacists including: consultation with a pharmacist; confirmation of reflux diagnosis based on symptoms; recommendation of short courses proton pump inhibitor (PPI) therapy; advice on the safe and effective use of reflux medicines and referral to a doctor for further assessment. Results Pharmacists consulted with the simulated patient in 77 % of cases. Symptoms were enquired about in 95 % of cases and a medicines history taken in 69 % of cases. Recommendations for treatment included: PPIs (18 %), histamine H2 antagonists (57 %) and antacids (19 %). Advice on product use was given in 83 % of cases. Referral to a doctor to discuss reflux symptoms was made in 63 % of cases. Conclusion When assessing patients for the symptoms of GORD, Australian pharmacists and non-pharmacist support staff take a comprehensive history including symptomatology, duration of symptoms, concomitant medicines and medical conditions and any GORD treatments previously trialled. They provide comprehensive counselling on the use of antisecretory and antacid medicines. Counselling could involve more comprehensive information on lifestyle approaches for GORD management and side effects of antisecretory and antacid medicines. Further alignment with guidelines for the management of GORD would result in greater referral to a doctor for assessment of recurrent GORD and greater recommendation of PPIs for symptoms. However alignment with guidelines by all pharmacists is unrealistic if the guidelines are not universally available to them.
Phase I study of intraperitoneal metalloproteinase inhibitor BB94 in patients with malignant ascites.

This was an open Phase I study of i.p. matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor BB94 in patients with malignant ascites. The objective of the study was to determine the effect of increasing i.p. doses of BB94 with reference to the tolerance, safety, and pharmacokinetics of the compound. Twenty-three patients with malignant ascites had BB94 instilled into the peritoneal cavity after paracentesis. The compound was well tolerated; no serious adverse events were seen, and no specific toxicities were observed. High plasma concentrations were seen an hour after dosing, and BB94 was still present in the plasma at day 28 after treatment at levels in excess of the IC50 identified in preclinical studies. Five of the 23 patients neither reaccumulated ascites nor died up to 112 days after dosing. Seven patients died without reaccumulating ascites. Although the study was not designed to demonstrate clinical efficacy, the results were encouraging and support the further therapeutic evaluation of matrix metalloproteinase inhibitors in the management of malignant ascites.
Capacitive Pressure Sensor With Very Large Dynamic Range

A new capacitive pressure sensor with very large dynamic range is introduced. The sensor is based on a new technique for substantially changing the surface area of the electrodes, rather than the inter-electrode spacing as commonly done at the present. The prototype device has demonstrated a change in capacitance of approximately 2500 pF over a pressure range of 10 kPa.
An assessment of food supplementation to chronically sick patients receiving home based care in Bangwe, Malawi : a descriptive study

BACKGROUND
The effect of food supplementation provided by the World Food Programme to patients and their families enrolled in a predominantly HIV/AIDS home based care programme in Bangwe Malawi is assessed.


METHODS
The survival and nutritional status of patients and the nutritional status of their families recruited up to six months before a food supplementation programme started are compared to subsequent patients and their families over a further 12 months.


RESULTS
360 patients, of whom 199 died, were studied. Food supplementation did not improve survival but had an effect (not statistically significant) on nutritional status. Additional oil was given to some families; it may have improved survival but not nutritional status.


CONCLUSION
Food supplementation to HIV/AIDS home based care patients and their families does not work well. This may be because the intervention is too late to affect the course of disease or insufficiently targeted perhaps due to problems of distribution in an urban setting. The World Food Programme's emphasis on supplementary feeding for these families needs to be reviewed.
How bees detect coloured targets using different regions of their compound eyes

Honeybees Apis mellifera detect coloured targets presented to the frontal region of their compound eyes using their colour vision system at larger visual angles (α > 15°), and an achromatic visual system based on the long-wave photoreceptor type at smaller visual angles (5° < α < 15°). Here we examine the capability of the dorsal, ventral and frontal regions of the eye for colour detection. The minimum visual angle αmin at which the bees detect a stimulus providing both chromatic contrast and receptor-specific contrasts to the three receptor types varies for the different regions of the eye: 7.1 ± 0.5° for the ventral region, 8.2 ± 0.6° for the dorsal region and 4.0 ± 0.5° for the frontal region. Flight trajectories show that when the target was presented in the horizontal plane, bees used only the ventral region of their eyes to make their choices. When the targets appeared dorsally, bees used the frontodorsal region. This finding suggests that pure dorsal detection of coloured targets is difficult in this context. Furthermore, αmin in the ventral plane depends on receptor-specific contrasts. The absence of S-receptor contrast does not affect the performance (αmin = 5.9 ± 0.5°), whilst the absence of M- and L-receptor contrast significantly impairs the detection task. Minimal visual angles of 10.3 ± 0.9° and 17.6 ± 3°, respectively, are obtained in these cases. Thus, as for many visual tasks, the compound eye of the honeybee shows a regionalisation of colour detection that might be related to peripheral or central specialisations.
NONDAMAGING RETINAL LASER THERAPY FOR TREATMENT OF CENTRAL SEROUS CHORIORETINOPATHY: What is the Evidence?

PURPOSE
To summarize the literature addressing subthreshold or nondamaging retinal laser therapy (NRT) for central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR) and to discuss results and trends that provoke further investigation.


METHODS
Analysis of current literature evaluating NRT with micropulse or continuous wave lasers for CSCR.


RESULTS
Sixteen studies including 398 patients consisted of retrospective case series, prospective nonrandomized interventional case series, and prospective randomized clinical trials. All studies but one evaluated chronic CSCR, and laser parameters varied greatly between studies. Mean central macular thickness decreased, on average, by ∼80 μm by 3 months. Mean best-corrected visual acuity increased, on average, by about 9 letters by 3 months, and no study reported a decrease in acuity below presentation. No retinal complications were observed with the various forms of NRT used, but six patients in two studies with micropulse laser experienced pigmentary changes in the retinal pigment epithelium attributed to excessive laser settings.


CONCLUSION
Based on the current evidence, NRT demonstrates efficacy and safety in 12-month follow-up in patients with chronic and possibly acute CSCR. The NRT would benefit from better standardization of the laser settings and understanding of mechanisms of action, as well as further prospective randomized clinical trials.
Profile of Heavy Metals in Selected Medicinal Plants Used for the Treatment of Diabetes, Malaria and Pneumonia in Kisii Region, Southwest Kenya

Medicinal herbs are sources of chemical substances that have different biological activities including those useful in the treatment of human and animal diseases. Amongst the indigenous herbs used as phytomedicines for the treatment of diabetes, malaria and pneumonia in Kisii region, Southwest Kenya are Carissa spinarum, Urtica dioica, Warburgia ugandensis, Senna didymobotrya, Physalis Peruvian, Bidens pilosa, Leonotis nepetifolia and Toddalia asiatica. A study was carried out on these herbs in the year 2011 to 2012. The objective was to determine the essential and non-essential heavy metals present in the herbs and their levels. Leaf samples of these plants were obtained from Kisii region, washed, air-dried and milled. The samples were digested by wet digestion method and analysed by atomic absorption spectrometry. The essential and non-essential heavy metals in the plant extracts were quantified. As a guideline, FAO/WHO defined the permissible limits (ppm) of the various heavy metals in the consumed medicinal herbs for different countries as: chromium (2), manganese (44.6 to 339), iron (261 to 1239), cobalt (0.14 to 0.48), nickel (1.63), copper (20 to 150), zinc (27.4), cadmium (0.3), mercury (0.1) and lead (10). Results obtained in the present study showed that extracts of the medicinal herbs investigated contain heavy metals namely iron, chromium, copper, zinc, cobalt, manganese and nickel that are considered essential elements; and lead, cadmium and mercury which are nonessential. The concentration (ppm) of heavy metals in the plant extracts was found to be as follows: chromium (0.567 to 2.035), manganese (3.254 to 17.33), iron (0.967 to 6.067), cobalt (0.967 to 6.067), nickel (0.589 to 1.60), copper (0.305 to 1.44), zinc (0.989 to 1.833), cadmium (0.035 to 0.206), mercury (0.0024 to 0.00838) and lead (0.25 to 0.407). From the comparison of the results with the defined permissible limits, it was concluded that the levels of heavy metals present in the herbs fall in the permissible range for consumed medicinal herbs as defined for different countries.
Pulmonary artery aneurysms in Behçet’s disease

Behçet’s disease is the most common cause of pulmonary artery aneurysms. Pulmonary artery aneurysms are rare, but they are life-threatening because of their high tendency to rupture. However, there is also a chance that the aneurysms may completely resolve with immunosuppressive therapy. A 30-year-old man was admitted with chest pain, painful oral and genital ulcers, skin rash, weakness, and intermittent hemoptysis. He had a history of Behçet’s disease for 6 years. The chest radiography showed a round opacity superior part of hilus on right. The helical thoracic computed tomography (CT) angiography demonstrated pulmonary aneurysms associated with Behçet’s disease. The patient was successfully treated with colchicine, corticosteroids, and cyclophosphamide. A discussion about pulmonary artery aneurysms associated with Behçet’s disease is provided in this case.
Introduction: fragmentation and integration in knowledge management research

Knowledge management (KM) research lacks a common conceptual core; it is cross-disciplinary, addresses a wide variety of phenomena, and has dif®culty distinguishing itself from many related areas of research. The result is a fragmented ®eld that is itself arti®cially split from the related literature on organizational learning. KM may be progressing through a predictable life-cycle that could end in collapse of the KM concept unless researchers can develop more integrative core theories of learningand knowledge-related phenomena in organizations. The diverse body of organizational learning and knowledge management research provides an impressive foundation for the synthesis of such broader theories of learning and knowledge that are creative, new, and integrative.
Neural Network application in diagnosis of patient: A case study

Patient hep is keys to successfully managing heart diseases and to helping the patients to maintain quality of life. In recent years, with data mining techniques has been extracted important hidden information through clinical data, so these methods confect beneficial information for medical research and health centers. So it will be making a comer designs using hospital information is required fold add influence of clinical centers and hospitals. This paper suppose a decision support model able to help a physician as well as a health care system manage this heart failure population and describes the work on medical data mining and gives useful information about data mining. Finally, the case study is modelled by Neural Network (NN). Training data collects of 40 patients clinical records in health center search about heart problems in persons. The results show that our NN model generates correctly predictions for 85% of test cases.
On HARQ-IR for Downlink NOMA Systems

Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) can exploit the power difference between the users to achieve a higher spectral efficiency. Thus, the power allocation plays a crucial role in NOMA. In this paper, we study the power allocation for hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) in NOMA with two users. For the power allocation, we consider the error exponents of the outage probabilities in HARQ with incremental redundancy (IR) and derive them based on large deviations. While a closed-form expression for the error exponent (or rate function) without interference is available, there is no closed-form expression for the error exponent with interference. Thus, we focus on the derivation of a lower bound on the error exponent in this paper. Based on the error exponents, we formulate a power allocation problem for HARQ-IR in NOMA to guarantee a certain low outage probability for a given maximum number of retransmissions. From the simulation results, we can confirm that it is possible to guarantee a certain outage probability by the proposed power allocation method.
Scheduling and management of data intensive application workflows in grid and cloud computing environments

Large-scale scientific experiments are being conducted in collaboration with teams that are dispersed globally. Each team shares its data and utilizes distributed resources for conducting experiments. As a result, scientific data are replicated and cached at distributed locations around the world. These data are part of application workflows, which are designed for reducing the complexity of executing andmanaging ondistributed computing environments. In order to execute these workflows in time and cost efficient manner, a workflowmanagement systemmust take into account the presence of multiple data sources in addition to distributed compute resources provided by platforms such as Grids and Clouds. Therefore, this thesis builds upon an existing workflow architecture and proposes enhanced scheduling algorithms, specifically designed for managing data intensive applications. It begins with a comprehensive survey of scheduling techniques that formed the core of Grid systems in the past. It proposes an architecture that incorporates data management components and examines its practical feasibility by executing several real world applications such as Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), Evolutionary Multi-objective Optimization algorithms, and so forth, using distributed Grid and Cloud resources. It then proposes several heuristics based algorithms that take into account time and cost incurred for transferring data frommultiple sourceswhile scheduling tasks. All the heuristic proposed are based on multi-source-parallel-data-retrieval technique in contrast to retrieving data from a single best resource, as done in the past. In addition to non-linear modeling approach, the thesis explores iterative techniques, such as particle-swarm optimization, to obtain schedules quicker. In summary, this thesis makes several contributions towards the scheduling and management of data intensive application workflows. The major contributions are: (i) enhanced the abstract workflow architecture by including components that handle multisource parallel data transfers; (ii) deployed several real-world application workflows using the proposed architecture and tested the feasibility of the design on real testbeds; (iii) proposed anon-linearmodel for schedulingworkflowswith anobjective tominimize both execution time and execution cost; (iv) proposed static and dynamicworkflowscheduling heuristic that leverages the presence of multiple data sources to minimize total execution time; (v) designed and implemented a particle-swarm-optimization based heuristic that provides feasible solutions to the workflow scheduling problem with good convergence; (vi) implemented a prototype workflow management system that consists of a portal as user-interface, a workflow engine that implements all the proposed scheduling heuristic and the real-world application workflows, and plugins to communicate with Grid and Cloud resources.
Oil prices, tourism income and economic growth: a structural VAR approach for European Mediterranean countries.

Abstract In this study, a Structural VAR model is employed to investigate the relationship among oil price shocks, tourism variables and economic indicators in four European Mediterranean countries. In contrast with the current tourism literature, we distinguish between three oil price shocks, namely, supply-side, aggregate demand and oil specific demand shocks. Overall, our results indicate that oil specific demand shocks contemporaneously affect inflation and the tourism sector equity index, whereas these shocks do not seem to have any lagged effects. By contrast, aggregate demand oil price shocks exercise a lagged effect, either directly or indirectly, to tourism generated income and economic growth. The paper does not provide any evidence that supply-side shocks trigger any responses from the remaining variables. Results are important for tourism agents and policy makers, should they need to create hedging strategies against future oil price movements or plan for economic policy developments.
Remarks on photons and the aether

We expand upon some topics reviewed and sketched in a book to appear with more details, embellishments, and some new material of a speculative nature.
HIV Infection and Cardiovascular Disease in Women

BACKGROUND
HIV infection is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in men. Whether HIV is an independent risk factor for CVD in women has not yet been established.


METHODS AND RESULTS
We analyzed data from the Veterans Aging Cohort Study on 2187 women (32% HIV infected [HIV(+)]) who were free of CVD at baseline. Participants were followed from their first clinical encounter on or after April 01, 2003 until a CVD event, death, or the last follow-up date (December 31, 2009). The primary outcome was CVD (acute myocardial infarction [AMI], unstable angina, ischemic stroke, and heart failure). CVD events were defined using clinical data, International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification codes, and/or death certificate data. We used Cox proportional hazards models to assess the association between HIV and incident CVD, adjusting for age, race/ethnicity, lipids, smoking, blood pressure, diabetes, renal disease, obesity, hepatitis C, and substance use/abuse. Median follow-up time was 6.0 years. Mean age at baseline of HIV(+) and HIV uninfected (HIV(-)) women was 44.0 versus 43.2 years (P<0.05). Median time to CVD event was 3.1 versus 3.7 years (P=0.11). There were 86 incident CVD events (53%, HIV(+)): AMI, 13%; unstable angina, 8%; ischemic stroke, 22%; and heart failure, 57%. Incident CVD/1000 person-years was significantly higher among HIV(+) (13.5; 95% confidence interval [CI]=10.1, 18.1) than HIV(-) women (5.3; 95% CI=3.9, 7.3; P<0.001). HIV(+) women had an increased risk of CVD, compared to HIV(-) (hazard ratio=2.8; 95% CI=1.7, 4.6; P<0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
HIV is associated with an increased risk of CVD in women.
DotSlash: Handling Web Hotspots at Dynamic Content Web Sites

We propose DotSlash, a self-configuring and scalable rescue system, for handling web hotspots at dynamic content Web sites. To support load migration for dynamic content, an origin Web server sets up needed rescue servers drafted from other Web sites on the fly, and those rescue servers retrieve the scripts dynamically from the origin Web server, cache the scripts locally, and access the corresponding database server directly. We have implemented a prototype of DotSlash for the LAMP configuration, and tested our implementation using the RUBBoS bulletin board benchmark. Experiments show that by using DotSlash a dynamic content web site can completely remove its web server bottleneck, and can support a request rate constrained only by the capacity of its database server.