LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Pelvis Morphology, Trunk Posture and Standing Imbalance and Their Relations to the Cobb Angle in Moderate and Severe Untreated AIS

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is the most common form of scoliosis and usually affects young girls. Studies mostly describe the differences between scoliotic and non-scoliotic girls and focus primarily on a single set of parameters derived from spinal and pelvis morphology, posture or standing imbalance. No study addressed all these three biomechanical aspects simultaneously in pre-braced AIS girls of different scoliosis severity but with similar curve type and their interaction with scoliosis progression. The first objective of this study was to test if there are differences in these parameters between pre-braced AIS girls with a right thoracic scoliosis of moderate (less than 27°) and severe (more than 27°) deformity. The second objective was to identify which of these parameters are related to the Cobb angle progression either individually or in combination of thereof. Forty-five scoliotic girls, randomly selected by an orthopedic surgeon from the hospital scoliosis clinic, participated in this study. Parameters related to pelvis morphology, pelvis orientation, trunk posture and quiet standing balance were measured. Generally moderate pre-brace idiopathic scoliosis patients displayed lower values than the severe group characterized by a Cobb angle greater than 27°. Only pelvis morphology and trunk posture were statistically different between the groups while pelvis orientation and standing imbalance were similar in both groups. Statistically significant Pearson coefficients of correlation between individual parameters and Cobb angle ranged between 0.32 and 0.53. Collectively trunk posture, pelvis morphology and standing balance parameters are correlated with Cobb angle at 0.82. The results suggest that spinal deformity progression is not only a question of trunk morphology distortion by itself but is also related to pelvis asymmetrical bone growth and standing neuromuscular imbalance.
Hybrid Bellman-Ford-Dijkstra algorithm

Consider the single-source cheapest paths problem in a digraph with negative edge costs allowed. A hybrid of Bellman-Ford and Dijkstra algorithms is suggested, improving the running time bound upon Bellman-Ford for graphs with a sparse distribution of negative cost edges. The algorithm iterates Dijkstra several times without reinitializing values d(v) at vertices. At most k+2 executions of Dijkstra solve the problem, if for any vertex reachable from the source, there exists a cheapest path to it with at most k negative cost edges. In addition, a new, straightforward proof is suggested that the Bellman-Ford algorithm results in a cheapest path tree from the source.
RoboCup: A Challenge Problem for AI

attempt to foster AI and intelligent robotics research by providing a standard problem where a wide range of technologies can be integrated and examined. The first RoboCup competition will be held at the Fifteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Nagoya, Japan. A robot team must actually perform a soccer game, incorporating various technologies, including design principles of autonomous agents, multiagent collaboration, strategy acquisition, real-time reasoning, robotics, and sensor fusion. RoboCup is a task for a team of multiple fast-moving robots under a dynamic environment. Although RoboCup’s final target is a world cup with real robots, RoboCup offers a software platform for research on the software aspects of RoboCup. This article describes technical challenges involved in RoboCup, rules, and the simulation environment.
Chemical synthesis and characterization of Mn 3O 4 thin films for supercapacitor application

Abstract A facile chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique has been used for the preparation of Mn 3 O 4 thin films at room temperature. The structural, morphological, optical, wettability and electrical characterizations have been carried out by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron micrograph (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectrum (FTIR), optical absorption, contact angle and electrical resistivity studies of deposited films. The XRD pattern shows the tetragonal hausmannite structure of Mn 3 O 4 thin film. The Mn 3 O 4 formation was also confirmed from FTIR studies. SEM images showed that the substrate surface is uniformly covered with spherical beads-like architecture. The Mn 3 O 4 film showed a direct optical band gap with energy 2.51 eV and hydrophilicity with water contact angle of 53°. The room temperature electrical resistivity of Mn 3 O 4 thin film was found to be 1.6 × 10 2  Ω cm. Mn 3 O 4 films when used in supercapacitor exhibited specific capacitance of 284 F g −1 in 1 M Na 2 SO 4 electrolyte.
Safety and efficacy of antigen-specific regulatory T-cell therapy for patients with refractory Crohn's disease.

BACKGROUND & AIMS
New therapeutic strategies are needed for patients with refractory Crohn's disease (CD). We evaluated data from the Crohn's And Treg Cells Study (CATS1) to determine the safety and efficacy of antigen-specific T-regulatory (Treg) cells for treatment of patients with refractory CD.


METHODS
We performed a 12-week, open-label, multicenter, single-injection, escalating-dose, phase 1/2a clinical study in 20 patients with refractory CD. Ovalbumin-specific Treg cells (ova-Tregs) were isolated from patients' peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), exposed to ovalbumin, and administrated intravenously. Safety and efficacy were assessed using clinical and laboratory parameters. We evaluated proliferation of PBMCs in response to ovalbumin.


RESULTS
Injections of ova-Tregs were well tolerated, with 54 adverse events (2 related to the test reagent) and 11 serious adverse events (3 related to the test reagent, all recovered). Overall, a response, based on a reduction in Crohn's Disease Activity Index (CDAI) of 100 points, was observed in 40% of patients at weeks 5 and 8. Six of the 8 patients (75%) who received doses of 10(6) cells had a response at weeks 5 and 8, with a statistically significant reduction in CDAI. In this group, remission (based on CDAI ≤150) was observed in 3 of 8 patients (38%) at week 5 and 2 of 8 patients (25%) at week 8.


CONCLUSIONS
Administration of antigen-specific Tregs to patients with refractory CD (CATS1) was well tolerated and had dose-related efficacy. The ovalbumin-specific immune response correlated with clinical response, supporting immune-suppressive mechanisms of ova-Tregs. The consistency of results among different assessment methods supports the efficacy of ova-Tregs; this immune therapy approach warrants further clinical and mechanistic studies in refractory CD. Eudract, Number: 2006-004712-44.
Unsupervised disaggregation of appliances using aggregated consumption data

Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring (NILM) is a technique that determines the electrical load composition of a household through a single point of measurement at the main power feed. In contrast with the majority of the existing approaches to solve this problem which require training, here we explore an unsupervised approach to determine the number of appliances in the household, their power consumption and state, at any given moment. We attempt to achieve this without using any a priori information on the number and type of appliances. Our approach is to first create clusters of steady-state changes and then employ a matching pursuit algorithm to reconstruct the original power signals using the clusters that were found as the sources in a linear blind source separation strategy. Changes in steady-state, sometimes referred to as events, are characterized by their change in real and reactive power (P and Q). Ultimately, the results may be applied to other features in an attempt to improve the separation between clusters. The preliminary results point toward a mixed scenario: large appliances (roughly above 400W) were easily identified, but the small appliances typically clustered together and were difficult to separate. We conclude that the errors occur during clustering which indicates that, in order to increase the purity of the clusters, perhaps other features could be used. Author keywords Non-intrusive load monitoring, blind source separation, unsupervised consumption disaggregation, energy consumption, clustering
Fabrication of Monodisperse Magnetite Hollow Spheres

Monodisperse Fe3O4 hollow spheres with average diameter of 400 nm and shell thickness of 60 nm were prepared through a one-pot solvothermal process with the presence of NH4Ac as the structure-directing agent, and a novel gas-bubble-assisted Ostwald ripening process was proposed to explain the formation of hollow structures. According to this mechanism, hollow Fe3O4 and MnFe2O4 ferrite microspheres with controlled particle size were obtained using urea and ammonia as the structure-directing agents, and porous Fe3O4 spheres with particle size of 100 nm and pore size of 10 nm were obtained by the assistance of bicarbonate of ammonia. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy were used to characterize the structure of synthesized products, and the magnetic property investigation shows that the hollow microspheres exhibit a ferromagnetic behavior and possess a higher saturation magnetization (Ms) than that of the solid microspheres.
Surgical site infections following colorectal cancer surgery: a randomized prospective trial comparing common and advanced antimicrobial dressing containing ionic silver

BACKGROUND
An antimicrobial dressing containing ionic silver was found effective in reducing surgical-site infection in a preliminary study of colorectal cancer elective surgery. We decided to test this finding in a randomized, double-blind trial.


METHODS
Adults undergoing elective colorectal cancer surgery at two university-affiliated hospitals were randomly assigned to have the surgical incision dressed with Aquacel Ag Hydrofiber dressing or a common dressing. To blind the patient and the nursing and medical staff to the nature of the dressing used, scrub nurses covered Aquacel Ag Hydrofiber with a common wound dressing in the experimental arm, whereas a double common dressing was applied to patients of control group. The primary end-point of the study was the occurrence of any surgical-site infection within 30 days of surgery.


RESULTS
A total of 112 patients (58 in the experimental arm and 54 in the control group) qualified for primary end-point analysis. The characteristics of the patient population and their surgical procedures were similar. The overall rate of surgical-site infection was lower in the experimental group (11.1% center 1, 17.5% center 2; overall 15.5%) than in controls (14.3% center 1, 24.2% center 2, overall 20.4%), but the observed difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.451), even with respect to surgical-site infection grade 1 (superficial) versus grades 2 and 3, or grade 1 and 2 versus grade 3.


CONCLUSIONS
This randomized trial did not confirm a statistically significant superiority of Aquacel Ag Hydrofiber dressing in reducing surgical-site infection after elective colorectal cancer surgery.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT00981110.
Effects of an oral iron chelator, deferasirox, on advanced hepatocellular carcinoma

AIM
To evaluate the inhibitory effects of deferasirox (DFX) against hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) through basic and clinical studies.


METHODS
In the basic study, the effect of DFX was investigated in three hepatoma cell lines (HepG2, Hep3B, and Huh7), as well as in an N-nitrosodiethylamine-induced murine HCC model. In the clinical study, six advanced HCC patients refractory to chemotherapy were enrolled. The initial dose of DFX was 10 mg/kg per day and was increased by 10 mg/kg per day every week, until the maximum dose of 30 mg/kg per day. The duration of a single course of DFX therapy was 28 consecutive days. In the event of dose-limiting toxicity (according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events v.4.0), DFX dose was reduced.


RESULTS
Administration of DFX inhibited the proliferation of hepatoma cell lines and induced the activation of caspase-3 in a dose-dependent manner in vitro. In the murine model, DFX treatment significantly suppressed the development of liver tumors (P < 0.01), and significantly upregulated the mRNA expression levels of hepcidin (P < 0.05), transferrin receptor 1 (P < 0.05), and hypoxia inducible factor-1α (P < 0.05) in both tumor and non-tumor tissues, compared with control mice. In the clinical study, anorexia and elevated serum creatinine were observed in four and all six patients, respectively. However, reduction in DFX dose led to decrease in serum creatinine levels in all patients. After the first course of DFX, one patient discontinued the therapy. We assessed the tumor response in the remaining five patients; one patient exhibited stable disease, while four patients exhibited progressive disease. The one-year survival rate of the six patients was 17%.


CONCLUSION
We demonstrated that DFX inhibited HCC in the basic study, but not in the clinical study due to dose-limiting toxicities.
Google Street View: Capturing the World at Street Level

Street View serves millions of Google users daily with panoramic imagery captured in hundreds of cities in 20 countries across four continents. A team of Google researchers describes the technical challenges involved in capturing, processing, and serving street-level imagery on a global scale.
Asymmetrical reaction to US stock-return news: evidence from major stock markets based on a double-threshold model

This paper examines the hypothesis that both stock returns and volatility are asymmetrical functions of past information from the US market. By employing a double-threshold GARCH model to investigate six major index-return series, we find strong evidence supporting the asymmetrical hypothesis of stock returns. Specifically, negative news from the US market will cause a larger decline in a national stock return than an equal magnitude of good news. This holds true for the volatility series. The variance appears to be more volatile when bad news impacts the market than when good news does. © 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. JEL classification: C15; C22; C51
Police patrol districting method and simulation evaluation using agent-based model & GIS

Police patrols play an important role in public safety. The patrol district design is an important factor affecting the patrol performances, such as average response time and workload variation. The redistricting or redrawing police command boundaries can be described as partitioning a police jurisdiction into command districts with the constraints such as contiguity and compactness. The size of the possible sample space is large and the corresponding graph-partitioning problem is NP-complete. In our approach, the patrol districting plans generated by a parameterized redistricting procedure are evaluated using an agent-based simulation model we implemented in Java Repast in a geographic information system (GIS) environment. The relationship between districting parameters and response variables is studied and better districting plans can be generated. After in-depth evaluations of these plans, we perform a Pareto analysis of the outputs from the simulation to find the non-dominated set of plans on each of the objectives. This paper also includes a case study for the police department of Charlottesville, VA, USA. Simulation results show that patrol performance can be improved compared with the current districting solution.
Making It Up and Making Do: Simulation, Imagination, and Empathic Accuracy

How many times have you had a conversation with someone, only to ask yourself as you were leaving, “What was she thinking?!” Researchers have also asked this question, and the last 20 years in particular have produced active attempts to identify why some people are better at understanding another person’s thoughts and feelings than others. Over time, many terms have been used to describe this ability, such as social insight (Chapin, 1942), cognitive role-taking (Eisenberg, 1986), accurate empathy (Ickes, 1993), everyday mindreading (Ickes, 2003), and simply “empathy” itself (see also Batson, Chapter 18, this volume). However, most recently researchers have gravitated toward the term empathic accuracy, which is defined as one’s ability to accurately infer the specific content of another person’s covert thoughts and feelings (Ickes, 1993). Empathic accuracy is a diabolically difficult task, in large part because one never has direct access to the contents of another person’s mind. One cannot “peer” into a friend’s head and understand all of his thoughts and feelings. The friend’s mind—like the mind of every other person in this world—is simply not available for direct “download” (a modern metaphor for the ancient “other minds” problem). Invariably, mental contents are interpreted, translated, converted, degraded, and otherwise changed during the inference process. Accurate inferences rely on the motivation and skill to collect a set of cues about the other person’s thoughts and feelings—cues that provide an incomplete and ambiguous guide at best. Paired with attention to cues, however, we also argue that mental simulation (through the use of mental representations) and imagination are necessary parts of empathic accuracy as a remedy for this other minds dilemma. In fact, research in the related fields of perspective taking and mental state inference has identified a whole host of “tools” that perceivers use to compensate for their lack of knowledge about another target person (in this volume, see also Epley & Caruso, Chapter 20, contents
Halbach array superconducting magnetic bearing for a flywheel energy storage system

In order to develop a new magnetic bearing set for a flywheel energy storage prototype, it was designed and simulated some configurations of Permanent Magnetic Bearings (PMB) and Superconducting Magnetic Bearings (SMB). The bearings were assembled with Nd-Fe-B permanent magnets and the simulations were carried out with the Finite Element Method (FEM). The PMB was designed to reduce the load on SMB and provide radial positioning of the whole set. SMB were designed with YBCO superconductors and an assembly of permanent magnets. Several configurations of permanent magnets were simulated, trying to maximize the magnetic flux gradient in direction orthogonal to the movement and flux density in the surface of the superconductors. Early experiments have shown an increasing stiffness and levitation force with increasing field gradient and intensity. It was also a goal to reduce the stray field outside the bearing. The levitation force of the SMB using a flux shapers configuration was measured and compared with FEM simulation, showing very good agreement. The simulation of a SMB using Halbach array configuration shows that it increases the levitation force and reduces the stray field.
Snack and Relax®: A Strategy to Address Nurses' Professional Quality of Life.

PURPOSE AND DESIGN
Snack and Relax® (S&R), a program providing healthy snacks and holistic relaxation modalities to hospital employees, was evaluated for immediate impact. A cross-sectional survey was then conducted to assess the professional quality of life (ProQOL) in registered nurses (RNs); compare S&R participants/nonparticipants on compassion satisfaction (CS), burnout, and secondary traumatic stress (STS); and identify situations in which RNs experienced compassion fatigue or burnout and the strategies used to address these situations.


METHOD
Pre- and post vital signs and self-reported stress were obtained from S&R attendees (N = 210). RNs completed the ProQOL Scale measuring CS, burnout, and STS (N = 158).


FINDINGS
Significant decreases in self-reported stress, respirations, and heart rate were found immediately after S&R. Low CS was noted in 28.5% of participants, 25.3% had high burnout, and 23.4% had high STS. S&R participants and nonparticipants did not differ on any of the ProQOL scales. Situations in which participants experienced compassion fatigue/burnout were categorized as patient-related, work-related, and personal/family-related. Strategies to address these situations were holistic and stress reducing.


CONCLUSION
Providing holistic interventions such as S&R for nurses in the workplace may alleviate immediate feelings of stress and provide a moment of relaxation in the workday.
Acute renal failure in the intensive care unit: a systematic review of the impact of dialytic modality on mortality and renal recovery.

BACKGROUND
There is controversy about which dialytic modality should be used for the treatment of acute renal failure (ARF) in the intensive care unit. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the relative risks (RRs) of mortality and renal recovery associated with intermittent hemodialysis (IHD) therapy compared with continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) in critically ill adults with ARF.


METHODS
Four databases (MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, Database of Abstracts and Reviews, and Science Citation Index), hand searching of conference proceedings and journals, manual review of bibliographies from identified articles, and contact with experts were used. All randomized trials (published or unpublished in any language) that compared mortality between intermittent and continuous treatments were eligible. Trials for which an RR for mortality could not be calculated or with multiple experimental interventions were excluded. Data were extracted separately by two authors and recorded on a standardized form. Disagreements were resolved by consensus.


RESULTS
Six eligible trials were identified; four of these provided data on renal outcomes. RR (mortality) for IHD was 0.96 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.85 to 1.08; P = 0.50), RR (renal death) was 1.02 (95% CI, 0.89 to 1.17; P = 0.78), and RR (dialysis dependence) in survivors was 1.19 (95% CI, 0.62 to 2.27; P = 0.60; all compared with continuous therapy). Several sensitivity analyses did not change these results. Of the outcomes studied, the risk for dialysis dependence in survivors would be most sensitive to the addition of new trials.


CONCLUSIONS
In comparison to IHD therapy, CRRT does not improve survival or renal recovery in unselected critically ill patients with ARF. Future studies should focus on well-defined subgroups of such patients using lessons learned from the trials in this meta-analysis. The high cost of chronic dialysis therapy and the relative instability of the RR for dialysis dependence suggest that future trials also should evaluate differences in renal recovery between dialytic modalities.