LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
SVM-BDT PNN and Fourier Moment Technique for Classification of Leaf Shape 1

This paper presents three techniques of plants classification based on their leaf shape the SVM-BDT, PNN and Fourier moment technique for solving multiclass problems. All the three techniques have been applied to a database of 1600 leaf shapes from 32 different classes, where most of the classes have 50 leaf samples of similar kind. In the proposed work three techniques are used for comparing the performance of classification of leaves. Probabilistic Neural Network with principal component analysis, Support Vector Machine utilizing Binary Decision Tree and Fourier Moment. The proposed SVM based Binary Decision Tree architecture takes advantage of both the efficient computation of the decision tree architecture and the high classification accuracy of SVMs. This can lead to a dramatic improvement in recognition speed when addressing problems with large number of classes. Classification results from all the three techniques were compared and it was observed that SVM-BDT performs better than Fourier and PNN technique. Key wordsProbabilistic Neural Network, Support vector machine, Binary Decisions tree
Effect of postoperative low-dose dopamine on renal function after elective major vascular surgery

OBJECTIVE
To determine the effect on renal function of postoperative low-dose dopamine in volume-replete patients after elective, major vascular abdominal surgery.


DESIGN
Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.


SETTING
Intensive care unit of a referral hospital in Brisbane, Australia.


PATIENTS
37 patients having elective repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm or having aortobifemoral grafting; 18 received dopamine, and 19 received placebo. Two patients were excluded from the 5-day analysis because of perioperative death.


INTERVENTIONS
Patients were randomly assigned to receive either placebo or a low-dose infusion of dopamine (3 micrograms/kg per minute) in saline. Patients in both groups were given sufficient crystalloid to maintain a urine flow of more than 1 mL/kg per hour during the first 24 postoperative hours. Care in the intensive care unit was otherwise usual and was the same for each group.


MEASUREMENTS
Plasma creatinine levels, urea levels, and creatinine clearance were measured preoperatively and postoperatively (at 24 hours and 5 days). Urine flow and the volume of crystalloid during the first 24 hours were recorded.


RESULTS
Two postoperative deaths occurred in the dopamine group (from renal failure and myocardial infarction). Four patients had myocardial infarction, three of whom received dopamine. Plasma creatinine levels remained unchanged in both groups. At 24 hours, the mean plasma urea level decreased by 1.07 mmol/L in the dopamine group compared with 1.84 mmol/L in the placebo group, a difference of 0.77 (95% CI, -0.12 to 1.67). The mean 24-hour creatinine clearance increased by 0.165 mL/s (9.89 mL/min) in the dopamine group and by 0.199 mL/s (11.98 mL/min) in the placebo group (P > 0.2). Urine volumes were slightly higher in those receiving dopamine (1.83 mL/kg compared with 1.6 mL/kg, a difference of 0.23 [CI, -0.18 to 0.64]). None of these differences were statistically or clinically significant.


CONCLUSIONS
Within the limits of the small size of the study, low-dose dopamine appeared to offer no advantage to euvolemic patients after elective abdominal aortic surgery. However, patients with acute oliguric renal failure were not included in the study.
A Context-Based Infrastructure for Smart Environments

In order for a smart environment to provide services to its occupants, it must be able to detect its current state or context and determine what actions to take based on the context. We discuss the requirements for dealing with context in a smart environment and present a software infrastructure solution we have designed and implemented to help application designers build intelligent services and applications more easily. We describe the benefits of our infrastructure through applications that we have built.
Remark on "Fast Floating-Point Processing in Common Lisp"

We explain why we feel that the comparison betwen Common Lisp and Fortran in a recent article by Fateman et al. in this journal is not entirely fair.
Ictal adipokines are associated with pain severity and treatment response in episodic migraine.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate ictal adipokine levels in episodic migraineurs and their association with pain severity and treatment response.


METHODS
This was a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial evaluating peripheral blood specimens from episodic migraineurs at acute pain onset and 30 to 120 minutes after treatment with sumatriptan/naproxen sodium vs placebo. Total adiponectin (T-ADP), ADP multimers (high molecular weight [HMW], middle molecular weight, and low molecular weight [LMW]), leptin, and resistin levels were evaluated by immunoassays.


RESULTS
Thirty-four participants (17 responders, 17 nonresponders) were included. In all participants, pretreatment pain severity increased with every quartile increase in both the HMW:T-ADP ratio (coefficient of variation [CV] 0.51; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.08, 0.93; p = 0.019) and resistin levels (CV 0.58; 95% CI: 0.21, 0.96; p = 0.002), but was not associated with quartile changes in leptin levels. In responders, T-ADP (CV -0.98; 95% CI: -1.88, -0.08; p = 0.031) and resistin (CV -0.95; 95% CI: -1.83, -0.07; p = 0.034) levels decreased 120 minutes after treatment as compared with pretreatment. In addition, in responders, the HMW:T-ADP ratio (CV -0.04; 95% CI: -0.07, -0.01; p = 0.041) decreased and the LMW:T-ADP ratio (CV 0.04; 95% CI: 0.01, 0.07; p = 0.043) increased at 120 minutes after treatment. In nonresponders, the LMW:T-ADP ratio (CV -0.04; 95% CI: -0.07, -0.01; p = 0.018) decreased 120 minutes after treatment. Leptin was not associated with treatment response.


CONCLUSIONS
Both pretreatment migraine pain severity and treatment response are associated with changes in adipokine levels. Adipokines represent potential novel migraine biomarkers and drug targets.
Asymmetric Dimethylarginine Limits the Efficacy of Simvastatin Activating Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase.

BACKGROUND
Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), an endogenous inhibitor of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), is considered a risk factor for the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. Simvastatin, a lipid-lowering drug with other pleiotropic effects, has been widely used for treatment of cardiovascular diseases. However, little is known about the effect and underlying molecular mechanisms of ADMA on the effectiveness of simvastatin in the vascular system.


METHODS AND RESULTS
We conducted a prospective cohort study to enroll 648 consecutive patients with coronary artery disease for a follow-up period of 8 years. In patients with plasma ADMA level ≥0.49 μmol/L (a cut-off value from receiver operating characteristic curve), statin treatment had no significant effect on cardiovascular events. We also conducted randomized, controlled studies using in vitro and in vivo models. In endothelial cells, treatment with ADMA (≥0.5 μmol/L) impaired simvastatin-induced nitric oxide (NO) production, endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) phosphorylation, and angiogenesis. In parallel, ADMA markedly increased the activity of NADPH oxidase (NOX) and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The detrimental effects of ADMA on simvastatin-induced NO production and angiogenesis were abolished by the antioxidant, N-acetylcysteine, NOX inhibitor, or apocynin or overexpression of dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase 2 (DDAH-2). Moreover, in vivo, ADMA administration reduced Matrigel plug angiogenesis in wild-type mice and decreased simvastatin-induced eNOS phosphorylation in aortas of apolipoprotein E-deficient mice, but not endothelial DDAH-2-overexpressed aortas.


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that ADMA may trigger NOX-ROS signaling, which leads to restricting the simvastatin-conferred protection of eNOS activation, NO production, and angiogenesis as well as the clinical outcome of cardiovascular events.
Effective Inhibition of Mannitol Crystallization in Frozen Solutions by Sodium Chloride

Purpose. The purpose of this work was to study the possibility of preventing mannitol crystallization in frozen solutions by using pharmaceutically acceptable additives. Methods. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and low-temperature X-ray diffractometry (LTXRD) were used to characterize the effect of additives on mannitol crystallization. Results. DSC screening revealed that salts (sodium chloride, sodium citrate, and sodium acetate) inhibited mannitol crystallization in frozen solutions more effectively than selected surfactants, α-cyclodextrin, polymers, and alditols. This finding prompted further studies of the crystallization in the mannitol-NaCl-water system. Isothermal DSC results indicated that mannitol crystallization in frozen solutions was significantly retarded in the presence of NaCl and that NaCl did not crystallize until mannitol crystallization completed. Low-temperature X-ray diffractometry data showed that when a 10% w/v mannitol solution without additive was cooled at 1°C/min, the crystalline phases emerging after ice crystallization were those of a mannitol hydrate as well as the anhydrous polymorphs. In the presence of NaCl (5% w/v), mannitol crystallization was suppressed during both cooling and warming and occurred only after annealing and rewarming. In the latter case however, mannitol did not crystallize as the hydrate, but as the anhydrous δ polymorph. At a lower NaCl concentration of 1% w/v, the inhibitory effect of NaCl on mannitol crystallization was evident even during annealing at temperatures close to the Tg′ (−40°C). A preliminary lyophilization cycle with polyvinyl pyrrolidone and NaCl as additives rendered mannitol amorphous. Conclusion. The effectiveness of additives in inhibiting mannitol crystallization in frozen solutions follows the general order: salts > alditols > polyvinyl pyrrolidone > α-cyclodextrin > polysorbate 80 ∼ polyethylene glycol ∼ poloxamer. The judicious use of additives can retain mannitol amorphous during all the stages of the freeze-drying cycle.
Part level transfer regularization for enhancing exemplar SVMs

Exemplar SVMs (E-SVMs, Malisiewicz et al., ICCV 2011), where an SVM is trained with only a single positive sample, have found applications in the areas of object detection and content-based image retrieval (CBIR), amongst others. In this paper we introduce a method of part based transfer regularization that boosts the performance of E-SVMs, with a negligible additional cost. This enhanced E-SVM (EE-SVM) improves the generalization ability of E-SVMs by softly forcing it to be constructed from existing classifier parts cropped from previously learned classifiers. In CBIR applications, where the aim is to retrieve instances of the same object class in a similar pose, the EE-SVM is able to tolerate increased levels of intra-class variation, including occlusions and truncations, over E-SVM, and thereby increases precision and recall. In addition to transferring parts, we introduce a method for transferring the statistics between the parts and also show that there is an equivalence between transfer regularization and feature augmentation for this problem and others, with the consequence that the new objective function can be optimized using standard libraries. EE-SVM is evaluated both quantitatively and qualitatively on the PASCAL VOC 2007 and ImageNet datasets for pose specific object retrieval. It achieves a significant performance improvement over E-SVMs, with greater suppression of negative detections and increased recall, whilst maintaining the same ease of training and testing. © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
The Painfulness of Active, but not Sham, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Decreases Rapidly Over Time: Results From the Double-Blind Phase of the OPT-TMS Trial

BACKGROUND
Daily left prefrontal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over several weeks is an FDA approved treatment for major depression. Although rTMS is generally safe when administered using the FDA guidelines, there are a number of side effects that can make it difficult for patients to complete a course of rTMS. Many patients report that rTMS is painful, although patients appear to accommodate to the initial painfulness. The reduction in pain is hypothesized to be due to prefrontal stimulation and is not solely explained by accommodation to the stimulation.


METHODS
In a recent 4 site randomized controlled trial (using an active electrical sham stimulation system) investigating the antidepressant effects of daily left dorsolateral prefrontal rTMS (Optimization of TMS, or OPT-TMS), the procedural painfulness of TMS was assessed before and after each treatment session. Computerized visual analog scale ratings were gathered before and after each TMS session in the OPT-TMS trial. Stimulation was delivered with an iron core figure-8 coil (Neuronetics) with the following parameters: 10 Hz, 120% MT (EMG-defined), 4 s pulse train, 26 s inter-train interval, 3000 pulses per session, one 37.5 min session per day. After each session, procedural pain (pain at the beginning of the TMS session, pain toward the middle, and pain toward then end of the session) ratings were collected at all 4 sites. From the 199 patients randomized, we had usable data from 142 subjects for the initial 15 TMS sessions (double-blind phase) delivered over 3 weeks (142 × 2 × 15 = 4260 rating sessions).


RESULTS
The painfulness of real TMS was initially higher than that of the active sham condition. Over the 15 treatment sessions, subjective reports of the painfulness of rTMS (during the beginning, middle and end of the session) decreased significantly 37% from baseline in those receiving active TMS, with no change in painfulness in those receiving sham. This reduction, although greatest in the first few days, continued steadily over the 3 weeks. Overall, there was a decay rate of 1.56 VAS points per session in subjective painfulness of the procedure in those receiving active TMS.


DISCUSSION
The procedural pain of left, prefrontal rTMS decreases over time, independently of other emotional changes, and only in those receiving active TMS. These data suggest that actual TMS stimulation of prefrontal cortex maybe related to the reduction in pain, and that it is not a non-specific accommodation to pain. This painfulness reduction softly corresponds with later clinical outcome. Further work is needed to better understand this phenomenon and whether acute within-session or over time painfulness changes might be used as short-term biomarkers of antidepressant response.
Level and predictors of participation in patients with stroke undergoing inpatient rehabilitation.

INTRODUCTION
The level of participation is an important factor influencing rehabilitation outcome. However, few studies have evaluated rehabilitation participation and its clinical predictors in patients with stroke. This study aimed to establish the level of participation in patients with stroke undergoing inpatient rehabilitation, and define the clinical predictors for participation.


METHODS
This was a prospective observational study of first-time patients with stroke admitted to a rehabilitation centre over a 12-month period. The primary outcome measure was the level of rehabilitation participation as measured on the Pittsburgh Rehabilitation Participation Scale (PRPS). PRPS measurements were made one week after admission and one week before planned discharge from inpatient rehabilitation. Other outcome measures evaluated were the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale, Functional Independence Measure (FIM), Elderly Cognitive Assessment Questionnaire (ECAQ), Centre for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale, Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), Lubben Social Network Scale-Revised, and Multidimensional Health Questionnaire.


RESULTS
A total of 122 patients with stroke were studied. The mean PRPS score on admission was relatively high at 4.30 ± 0.90, and this improved to 4.65 ± 0.79 before planned discharge (p < 0.001). On multivariate analysis, the mean PRPS score on admission was predicted by FIM, EACQ and FSS scores on admission, but not by variables such as age, gender, depression, social support, or health attitudes and beliefs.


CONCLUSION
Patients with lower levels of participation were more likely to be functionally dependent, cognitively impaired and have more fatigue. We suggest that in addition to cognition, fatigue should be routinely screened in patients with stroke undergoing rehabilitation.
Climate Change Adaptation and Development : Exploring the Linkages �

Please note that Tyndall working papers are "work in progress". Whilst they are commented on by Tyndall researchers, they have not been subject to a full peer review. The accuracy of this work and the conclusions reached are the responsibility of the author(s) alone and not the Tyndall Centre. Manuscript has also been submitted to a peer-reviewed journal 1 Summary Successful human societies are characterised by their adaptability, evidenced throughout human existence. However, climate change introduces a new challenge, not only because of the expected rise in temperature and sea-levels, but also due to the current context of failure to address the causes of poverty adequately. As a result, policy supporting adaptation has been cast as a necessary strategy for responding to both climate change and supporting development, making adaptation the focus of much recent scholarly and policy research. This paper addresses this new adaptation discourse, arguing that work on adaptation so far has focused on responding to the impacts of climate change, rather than sufficiently addressing the underlying factors that cause vulnerability. While there is a significant push all around for adaptation to be better placed in development planning, the paper finds this to be putting the cart before the horse. A successful adaptation process will require adequately addressing the underlying causes of vulnerability: this is the role that development has to play. This work results from research aimed at exploring the international discourse on adaptation to climate change and the meaning of adaptation to climate change in the context of development. 1. Introduction As a result of evidence that human-induced global climate change is already occurring and will continue to affect society over the coming decades, a surge in interest in impact-oriented action is discernable since the beginning of the century, in contrast to efforts centred on prevention (Burton et al., 2002). Frustration over the lack of progress and effectiveness of policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has contributed to this shift. Adapting to the changes has consequently emerged as a solution to address the impacts of climate change that are already evident in some regions. However, this course of action has not always been considered relevant within science and policy (Schipper, 2006a; Klein, 2003). Adaptation responds directly to the impacts of the increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in both precautionary and reactive ways, rather than through the preventative approach of limiting the source of the gases (this …
Propolis for the Treatment of Onychomycosis

Onychomycosis is a fungal nail infection, considered as a public health problem because it is contagious and it interferes with the quality of life. It has long and difficult treatment, with many side effects and high cost. Propolis extract (PE) is a potential alternative to conventional antifungal agents because it has low cost, accessibility, and low toxicity. Herein, we report the favorable response of PE in onychomycosis in three elderly patients.
Computer-Assisted Language Learning And Natural Language Processing

This chapter examines the application of natural language processing to computer-assisted language learning including the history of work in this eld over the last thirty-ve years but with a focus on current developments and opportunities. 16.1 Introduction This chapter focuses on applications of computational linguistics (CL) techniques to computer-assisted language learning (CALL). This always refers to programs designed to help people learn foreign languages, e.g., programs to help German high-school students learn French. CALL is a large eld|much larger than computational linguistics|which no one can describe completely in a brief chapter. The focus of this chapter is therefore much narrower, viz., just on those areas of CALL to which CL has been applied or might be. CL programs process natural languages such as English and Spanish, and the techniques are therefore often referred to as natural language processing (NLP). To preview this chapter's contents, we note that NLP has been enlisted in several ways in CALL, e.g., to align bilingual texts so that a learner who encounters an unknown word in French can seen how it was rendered in translation; to provide lemmatized access to corpora for advanced learners seeking subtleties unavailable in grammars and dictionaries ; to provide morphological analysis and subsequent dictionary access for words unknown to readers; and to parse user input and diagnose morphological and syntactic errors. Speech recognition has been used extensively in pronunciation training, and speech synthesis for single words. The work on speech falls outside the scope of this book, but it is noted since we expect its use in CALL to enable further deployment of NLP, perhaps in parsing spoken input. The chapter deliberately ignores two further areas which arguably involve language learning, rst, software designed to diagnose and assist the verbally handicapped (Miller and second, programs for assistance in developing and polishing advanced writing skills. The rst area seems genuinely extraneous, and the second has attracted little interest from NLP practitioners even though it enjoys substantial attention in the larger CALL literature (Pennington 1999, Schultz 2000). The traditional methods of learning and teaching foreign languages require a teacher to work 60 to 100 hours to bring an adult to a level at which she can function minimally with the foreign language (FSI 1973). By`minimally functioning' we just mean being able to use short, prepackaged phrases to communicate simple thoughts with long pauses and very foreign pronunciation. In general progress beyond this …
A phase I trial of the novel proteasome inhibitor PS341 in advanced solid tumor malignancies.

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the toxicity and pharmacodynamic behavior of the novel proteasome inhibitor PS341 administered as a twice weekly i.v. bolus for 2 weeks, followed by a 1-week recovery period in patients with advanced solid tumor malignancies.


EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
In this Phase I trial, 43 patients were treated with PS341 in doses ranging from 0.13 to 1.56 mg/m2/dose. A standard Phase I design was used. Pharmacodynamic studies were performed to access 20S proteasome activity.


RESULTS
Forty-three patients were treated with 89 cycles of PS341. Patients were heavily pretreated. Dose-limiting toxicities on this schedule were diarrhea and sensory neurotoxicity. Other side effects seen were fatigue, fever, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, rash, pruritus, and headache. There was no dose-limiting hematological toxicity. A dose-related inhibition of 20S proteasome activity with increasing dose of PS341 was seen. There was one major response in a patient with refractory non-small cell lung carcinoma.


CONCLUSIONS
Given the results of this trial, it is safe and reasonable to recommend treatment with PS341 on the schedule used in this trial at 1.56 mg/m2/dose in Phase II trials. Particular care should be taken with patients with preexisting neuropathy. Further testing in Phase II trials is warranted.