LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
CCL2-dependent infiltrating macrophages promote angiogenesis in progressive liver fibrosis.

OBJECTIVES
In chronic liver injury, angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones, may contribute to progressive hepatic fibrosis and to development of hepatocellular carcinoma. Although hypoxia-induced expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) occurs in advanced fibrosis, we hypothesised that inflammation may endorse hepatic angiogenesis already at early stages of fibrosis.


DESIGN
Angiogenesis in livers of c57BL/6 mice upon carbon tetrachloride- or bile duct ligation-induced chronic hepatic injury was non-invasively monitored using in vivo contrast-enhanced micro computed tomography (µCT) and ex vivo anatomical µCT after hepatic Microfil perfusion. Functional contributions of monocyte-derived macrophage subsets for angiogenesis were explored by pharmacological inhibition of CCL2 using the Spiegelmer mNOX-E36.


RESULTS
Contrast-enhanced in vivo µCT imaging allowed non-invasive monitoring of the close correlation of angiogenesis, reflected by functional hepatic blood vessel expansion, with experimental fibrosis progression. On a cellular level, inflammatory monocyte-derived macrophages massively accumulated in injured livers, colocalised with newly formed vessels in portal tracts and exhibited pro-angiogenic gene profiles including upregulated VEGF and MMP9. Functional in vivo and anatomical ex vivo µCT analyses demonstrated that inhibition of monocyte infiltration by targeting the chemokine CCL2 prevented fibrosis-associated angiogenesis, but not fibrosis progression. Monocyte-derived macrophages primarily fostered sprouting angiogenesis within the portal vein tract. Portal vein diameter as a measure of portal hypertension depended on fibrosis, but not on angiogenesis.


CONCLUSIONS
Inflammation-associated angiogenesis is promoted by CCL2-dependent monocytes during fibrosis progression. Innovative in vivo µCT methodology can accurately monitor angiogenesis and antiangiogenic therapy effects in experimental liver fibrosis.
A Prospective Cost-Consequence Analysis of Adding Lamivudine to Zidovudine-Containing Antiretroviral Treatment Regimens for HIV Infection in the US

Background: Healthcare resource use data were collected for 1 year as part of the CAESAR (Canada, Australia, Europe, South Africa) clinical trial, which evaluated the effect of adding lamivudine to treatment regimens containing zidovudine in patients with HIV infection. This study showed that lamivudine-containing regimens reduced HIV disease progression to AIDS or death, in addition to significantly reducing the number of hospital stays, unscheduled outpatient visits, and medications for HIV-related illness. Estimates of US unit costs for each healthcare service were derived from nationally representative data sources, and were used to determine the costs of treatment during the trial period for the treatment and control groups. Results: A cost-consequence analysis showed that, in addition to the health benefits associated with the lamivudine regimen, costs for treating HIV-related illness and adverse events were lower with the lamivudine regimen. The average decrease in costs per patient for the 1-year period ranged from $US1922 to $US2645, depending on the data source used to estimate hospital length of stay. The incremental cost of lamivudine therapy for the 1-year period was $US2293. The estimated difference in total costs for the 2 treatment regimens thus ranged from an increase of $US371 to a cost saving of $US353. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that treatments which slow the progression of HIV infection have the potential to reduce the monthly costs associated with HIV-related illness and adverse events during the time period that progression is slowed.
Predicting seminal quality with artificial intelligence methods

0957-4174/$ see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. A http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2012.05.028 ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: dgil@dtic.ua.es (D. Gil). 1 These authors equally contributed to this work. Fertility rates have dramatically decreased in the last two decades, especially in men. It has been described that environmental factors, as well as life habits, may affect semen quality. Artificial intelligence techniques are now an emerging methodology as decision support systems in medicine. In this paper we compare three artificial intelligence techniques, decision trees, Multilayer Perceptron and Support Vector Machines, in order to evaluate their performance in the prediction of the seminal quality from the data of the environmental factors and lifestyle. To do that we collect data by a normalized questionnaire from young healthy volunteers and then, we use the results of a semen analysis to asses the accuracy in the prediction of the three classification methods mentioned above. The results show that Multilayer Perceptron and Support Vector Machines show the highest accuracy, with prediction accuracy values of 86% for some of the seminal parameters. In contrast decision trees provide a visual and illustrative approach that can compensate the slightly lower accuracy obtained. In conclusion artificial intelligence methods are a useful tool in order to predict the seminal profile of an individual from the environmental factors and life habits. From the studied methods, Multilayer Perceptron and Support Vector Machines are the most accurate in the prediction. Therefore these tools, together with the visual help that decision trees offer, are the suggested methods to be included in the evaluation of the infertile patient. 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Transitive Transfer Learning

Transfer learning, which leverages knowledge from source domains to enhance learning ability in a target domain, has been proven effective in various applications. One major limitation of transfer learning is that the source and target domains should be directly related. If there is little overlap between the two domains, performing knowledge transfer between these domains will not be effective. Inspired by human transitive inference and learning ability, whereby two seemingly unrelated concepts can be connected by a string of intermediate bridges using auxiliary concepts, in this paper we study a novel learning problem: Transitive Transfer Learning (abbreviated to TTL). TTL is aimed at breaking the large domain distances and transfer knowledge even when the source and target domains share few factors directly. For example, when the source and target domains are documents and images respectively, TTL could use some annotated images as the intermediate domain to bridge them. To solve the TTL problem, we propose a learning framework to mimic the human learning process. The framework is composed of an intermediate domain selection component and a knowledge transfer component. Extensive empirical evidence shows that the framework yields state-of-the-art classification accuracies on several classification data sets.
Adding Defibrillation Therapy to Cardiac Resynchronization on the Basis of the Myocardial Substrate.

BACKGROUND
Patients with nonischemic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) may be at lower risk for ventricular arrhythmias compared with those with ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICM). In addition, DCM has been identified as a predictor of positive response to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT).


OBJECTIVES
The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of an additional implantable cardioverter-defibrillator over CRT, according to underlying heart disease, in a large study group of primary prevention patients with heart failure.


METHODS
This was an observational, multicenter, European cohort study of 5,307 consecutive patients with DCM or ICM, no history of sustained ventricular arrhythmias, who underwent CRT implantation with (n = 4,037) or without (n = 1,270) a defibrillator. Propensity-score and cause-of-death analyses were used to compare outcomes.


RESULTS
After a mean follow-up period of 41.4 ± 29.0 months, patients with ICM had better survival when receiving CRT with a defibrillator compared with those who received CRT without a defibrillator (hazard ratio for mortality adjusted on propensity score and all mortality predictors: 0.76; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.62 to 0.92; p = 0.005), whereas in patients with DCM, no such difference was observed (hazard ratio: 0.92; 95% CI: 0.73 to 1.16; p = 0.49). Compared with recipients of defibrillators, the excess mortality in patients who did not receive defibrillators was related to sudden cardiac death in 8.0% among those with ICM but in only 0.4% of those with DCM.


CONCLUSIONS
Among patients with heart failure with indications for CRT, those with DCM may not benefit from additional primary prevention implantable cardioverter-defibrillator therapy, as opposed to those with ICM.
Unsupervised Person Re-identification by Deep Learning Tracklet Association

Most existing person re-identification (re-id) methods rely on supervised model learning on per-camera-pair manually labelled pairwise training data. This leads to poor scalability in practical re-id deployment due to the lack of exhaustive identity labelling of image positive and negative pairs for every camera pair. In this work, we address this problem by proposing an unsupervised re-id deep learning approach capable of incrementally discovering and exploiting the underlying re-id discriminative information from automatically generated person tracklet data from videos in an end-to-end model optimisation. We formulate a Tracklet Association Unsupervised Deep Learning (TAUDL) framework characterised by jointly learning per-camera (within-camera) tracklet association (labelling) and cross-camera tracklet correlation by maximising the discovery of most likely tracklet relationships across camera views. Extensive experiments demonstrate the superiority of the proposed TAUDL model over the state-of-the-art unsupervised and domain adaptation reid methods using six person re-id benchmarking datasets.
Automatic identification of best entry points for focused structured document retrieval

Focussed structured document retrieval employs the concept of best entry points (BEPs), which are intended to provide optimal starting-points from which users can browse to relevant document components. This paper describes two small-scale studies, using experimental data from the Shakespeare user study, which developed and evaluated different approaches to the problem of automatic identification of BEPs.
The epidemiology of single season musculoskeletal injuries in professional baseball

The aim of this descriptive epidemiology study was to evaluate the injury incidence, pattern and type as a function of position in one professional baseball organization for one complete season. The study was carried out in a major academic center. Participants were all major/minor league baseball players playing for one professional organization. The disabled/injury list of one single professional baseball organization (major and minor league players) was reviewed for all of the injuries and the number of total days missed secondary to each injury. All injuries were categorized into major anatomic zones that included: shoulder, elbow, wrist/hand, back, abdomen/groin, hip, knee, and ankle/foot. The data was further stratified based on the injury type and the number of days missed due to that particular injury and a statistical analysis was performed. In pitchers, elbow injuries (n=12) resulted in 466 days missed. In catchers, wrist injuries (n=4) resulted in 89 days missed. In position players, abdominal/groin injuries (n=16) resulted in 318 days missed and shoulder injuries (n=9) resulted in 527 days missed. Overall, 134 players were injured and a total of 3209 days were missed. Pitchers had 27 times and 34 times the rate of days missed due to elbow injuries compared to position players and all players, respectively. Abdominal and groin injuries caused the pitchers to have 5.6 times and 6.4 times the rate of days missed than the position and all players, respectively. Both elbow and abdominal/groin injuries are the most disabling injury pattern seen in pitchers. Among the position players, shoulder injuries resulted in the most days missed and knee injuries resulted in the highest rate of days missed in both pitchers and catchers.
Effect of addition of single dose of oral montelukast to standard treatment in acute moderate to severe asthma in children between 5 and 15 years of age: a randomised, double-blind, placebo controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE
To study the effect of the addition of a single dose of oral montelukast to standard therapy in acute moderate to severe asthma.


DESIGN
Double-blind randomised controlled trial. Setting Emergency room/outpatient paediatric services of a tertiary care hospital.


PATIENTS
Children aged 5-15 years (without prior use of montelukast) with acute moderate to severe asthma exacerbation, as defined using Modified Pulmonary Index Score (MPIS) > or =9, were enrolled.


INTERVENTION
Children received montelukast (5-12 years: 5 mg and >12 years: 10 mg) or placebo orally in addition to the standard therapy. MPIS and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV(1)) were recorded before administering study medication and thereafter, hourly for 4 hours.


MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The primary outcome was decrease in MPIS to less than 9 at the end of 4 hours.


RESULTS
117 children (60 in montelukast group and 57 in placebo group) were enrolled in the study. The number of children with decrease in MPIS to less than 9 at 4 hours was 33 (55%) in the montelukast group and 36 (63.2%) in the placebo group (p=0.37). There was significant improvement in MPIS and FEV(1) within both the groups from baseline to the end of 4 hours. No differences in side effects and hospitalisation rates were noticed between the two groups.


CONCLUSION
Single dose oral montelukast added to standard therapy of inhaled bronchodilators and systemic glucocorticoids did not provide additional clinical benefit in children with acute moderate to severe asthma. Trial registration number The trial was registered at the http://clinicaltrials.gov site (trial ID: NCT00565955).
Identification and design principles of low hole effective mass p-type transparent conducting oxides

The development of high-performance transparent conducting oxides is critical to many technologies from transparent electronics to solar cells. Whereas n-type transparent conducting oxides are present in many devices, their p-type counterparts are not largely commercialized, as they exhibit much lower carrier mobilities due to the large hole effective masses of most oxides. Here we conduct a high-throughput computational search on thousands of binary and ternary oxides and identify several highly promising compounds displaying exceptionally low hole effective masses (up to an order of magnitude lower than state-of-the-art p-type transparent conducting oxides), as well as wide band gaps. In addition to the discovery of specific compounds, the chemical rationalization of our findings opens new directions, beyond current Cu-based chemistries, for the design and development of future p-type transparent conducting oxides.
Three-Dimensional Object Recognition

A general-purpose computer vision system must be capable of recognizing three-dimensional (3-D) objects. This paper proposes a precise definition of the 3-D object recognition problem, discusses basic concepts associated with this problem, and reviews the relevant literature. Because range images (or depth maps) are often used as sensor input instead of intensity images, techniques for obtaining, processing, and characterizing range data are also surveyed.
Stretchable surfaces with programmable 3D texture morphing for synthetic camouflaging skins

Technologies that use stretchable materials are increasingly important, yet we are unable to control how they stretch with much more sophistication than inflating balloons. Nature, however, demonstrates remarkable control of stretchable surfaces; for example, cephalopods can project hierarchical structures from their skin in milliseconds for a wide range of textural camouflage. Inspired by cephalopod muscular morphology, we developed synthetic tissue groupings that allowed programmable transformation of two-dimensional (2D) stretchable surfaces into target 3D shapes. The synthetic tissue groupings consisted of elastomeric membranes embedded with inextensible textile mesh that inflated to within 10% of their target shapes by using a simple fabrication method and modeling approach. These stretchable surfaces transform from flat sheets to 3D textures that imitate natural stone and plant shapes and camouflage into their background environments.
Treatment of retinal tears and lattice degenerations in fellow eyes in high risk patients suffering retinal detachment: a prospective study.

BACKGROUND/AIMS
Fellow eye prophylaxis for retinal detachment (RD) is still a controversial issue since opinions are not unanimous regarding the kind of lesions to be treated or the method of treatment. This prospective clinical study aimed to follow the course of vitreoretinal conditions in 150 high risk fellow eyes.


METHODS
150 consecutive patients with unilateral rhegmatogenous RD were included in this study. Inclusion criteria were good explorability of fellow eye retinal periphery and one of the following conditions in the fellow eye-aphakia, pseudophakia with capsulotomy, high myopia (>-6D), contralateral eye to a giant retinal tear. Prophylactic treatment (photocoagulation or scleral buckling) was performed in the presence of retinal tears and lattice degenerations. The state of the vitreous body was determined at the beginning of the study and at the end, when RD occurred.


RESULTS
Follow up ranged from 36 to 132 months. 95 fellow eyes were subjected to laser treatment; five eyes underwent prophylactic surgical treatment. Initially, in the treated group posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) was present in 100 eyes (100% of cases), but as a complete PVD only in 42 of them (42%). 10 eyes in the treated group developed RD during the follow up period. In five of these cases the partial PVD had progressed and a retinal tear in a previously healthy area was the cause of the retinal detachment. In the other five eyes RD apparently developed from previously treated lesions. Progression of PVD was evident in four out of these five eyes. The untreated eyes had no visible degenerative lesions. During follow up eight eyes developed RD. These eyes had no PVD at the beginning of the study, but showed a partial PVD at the time of the diagnosis of RD.


CONCLUSION
Fellow eyes with pre-existing retinal tears and PVDs can go on to retinal detachment in spite of laser prophylactic treatment. When PVD is not detectable or a partial PVD is present, the progression of posterior vitreous separation can account for retinal tears and RDs arising in formerly healthy areas.
Deep Captioning with Multimodal Recurrent Neural Networks (m-RNN)

In this paper, we present a multimodal Recurrent Neural Network (m-RNN) model for generating novel image captions. It directly models the probability distribution of generating a word given previous words and an image. Image captions are generated according to this distribution. The model consists of two sub-networks: a deep recurrent neural network for sentences and a deep convolutional network for images. These two sub-networks interact with each other in a multimodal layer to form the whole m-RNN model. The effectiveness of our model is validated on four benchmark datasets (IAPR TC-12, Flickr 8K, Flickr 30K and MS COCO). Our model outperforms the state-of-the-art methods. In addition, we apply the m-RNN model to retrieval tasks for retrieving images or sentences, and achieves significant performance improvement over the state-of-the-art methods which directly optimize the ranking objective function for retrieval. The project page of this work is: www.stat.ucla.edu/ ̃junhua.mao/m-RNN.html. 1
The effects of probiotics on depressive symptoms in humans: a systematic review

BACKGROUND
Patients suffering from depression experience significant mood, anxiety, and cognitive symptoms. Currently, most antidepressants work by altering neurotransmitter activity in the brain to improve these symptoms. However, in the last decade, research has revealed an extensive bidirectional communication network between the gastrointestinal tract and the central nervous system, referred to as the "gut-brain axis." Advances in this field have linked psychiatric disorders to changes in the microbiome, making it a potential target for novel antidepressant treatments. The aim of this review is to analyze the current body of research assessing the effects of probiotics, on symptoms of depression in humans.


METHODS
A systematic search of five databases was performed and study selection was completed using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses process.


RESULTS
Ten studies met criteria and were analyzed for effects on mood, anxiety, and cognition. Five studies assessed mood symptoms, seven studies assessed anxiety symptoms, and three studies assessed cognition. The majority of the studies found positive results on all measures of depressive symptoms; however, the strain of probiotic, the dosing, and duration of treatment varied widely and no studies assessed sleep.


CONCLUSION
The evidence for probiotics alleviating depressive symptoms is compelling but additional double-blind randomized control trials in clinical populations are warranted to further assess efficacy.
Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment : A Sectoral and Institutional Approach

This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF. The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate. Using a dataset which breaks down FDI flows into primary, secondary and tertiary sector investments and a GMM dynamic approach to address concerns about endogeneity, the paper analyzes various macroeconomic, developmental, and institutional/qualitative determinants of FDI in a sample of emerging market and developed economies. While FDI flows into the primary sector show little dependence on any of these variables, secondary and tertiary sector investments are affected in different ways by countries’ income levels and exchange rate valuation, as well as development indicators such as financial depth and school enrollment, and institutional factors such as judicial independence and labor market flexibility. Finally, we find that the effect of these factors often differs between advanced and emerging economies. JEL Classification Numbers: F21, F23