LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Noninvasive sphenopalatine ganglion block for acute headache in the emergency department: a randomized placebo-controlled trial.

STUDY OBJECTIVE
We seek to test the efficacy of noninvasive sphenopalatine ganglion block for the treatment of acute anterior headache in the emergency department (ED) using a novel noninvasive delivery device.


METHODS
We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial evaluating bupivacaine anesthesia of the sphenopalatine ganglion for acute anterior or global-based headache. This study was completed in 2 large academic EDs. Bupivacaine or normal saline solution was delivered intranasally (0.3 mL per side) with the Tx360 device. Pain and nausea were measured at 0, 5, and 15 minutes by a 100-mm visual analog scale. The primary endpoint was a 50% reduction in pain at 15 minutes. Telephone follow-up assessed 24-hour pain and nausea through a 0- to 10-point verbal scale and adverse effects.


RESULTS
The median reported baseline pain in the bupivacaine group was 80 mm (IQR 66 mm - 93 mm) and 78.5 mm (IQR 64 mm to 91.75 mm) in the normal saline solution group. A 50% reduction in pain was achieved in 48.8% of the bupivacaine group (20/41 patients) versus 41.3% in the normal saline solution group (19/46 patients), for an absolute risk difference of 7.5% (95% confidence interval [CI] -13% to 27.1%). As a secondary outcome, at 24 hours, more patients in the bupivacaine group were headache free (24.7% difference; 95% CI 2.6% to 43.6%) and more were nausea free (16.9% difference; 95% CI 0.8% to 32.5%).


CONCLUSION
For patients with acute anterior headache, sphenopalatine ganglion block with the Tx360 device with bupivacaine did not result in a significant increase in the proportion of patients achieving a greater than or equal to 50% reduction in headache severity at 15 minutes compared with saline solution applied in the same manner.
Improving the management of non-ST elevation acute coronary syndromes: systematic evaluation of a quality improvement programme European QUality Improvement Programme for Acute Coronary Syndrome: The EQUIP-ACS project protocol and design

BACKGROUND
Acute coronary syndromes, including myocardial infarction and unstable angina, are important causes of premature mortality, morbidity and hospital admissions. Acute coronary syndromes consume large amounts of health care resources, and have a major negative economic and social impact through days lost at work, support for disability, and coping with the psychological consequences of illness. Several registries have shown that evidence based treatments are under-utilised in this patient population, particularly in high-risk patients. There is evidence that systematic educational programmes can lead to improvement in the management of these patients. Since application of the results of important clinical trials and expert clinical guidelines into clinical practice leads to improved patient care and outcomes, we propose to test a quality improvement programme in a general group of hospitals in Europe.


METHODS/DESIGN
This will be a multi-centre cluster-randomised study in 5 European countries: France, Spain, Poland, Italy and the UK. Thirty eight hospitals will be randomised to receive a quality improvement programme or no quality improvement programme. Centres will enter data for all eligible non-ST segment elevation acute coronary syndrome patients admitted to their hospital for a period of approximately 10 months onto the study database and the sample size is estimated at 2,000-4,000 patients. The primary outcome is a composite of eight measures to assess aggregate potential for improvement in the management and treatment of this patient population (risk stratification, early coronary angiography, anticoagulation, beta-blockers, statins, ACE-inhibitors, clopidogrel as a loading dose and at discharge). After the quality improvement programme, each of the eight measures will be compared between the two groups, correcting for cluster effect.


DISCUSSION
If we can demonstrate important improvements in the quality of patient care as a result of a quality improvement programme, this could lead to a greater acceptance that such programmes should be incorporated into routine health training for health professionals and hospital managers.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
Clinicaltrials.gov NCT00716430.
A survey of approaches for the visual model-driven development of next generation software-intensive systems

Software-intensive systems of the future are expected to be highly distributed and to exhibit adaptive and anticipatory behavior when operating in highly dynamic environments and interfacing with the physical world. Therefore, visual modeling techniques to address these software-intensive systems require a mix of models from a multitude of disciplines such as software engineering, control engineering, and business process engineering. As in this concert of techniques software provides the most flexible element, the integration of these different views can be expected to happen in the software. The software thus includes complex information processing capabilities as well as hard real-time coordination between distributed technical systems and computers. In this article, we identify a number of general requirements for the visual model-driven specification of next generation software-intensive systems. As business process engineering and software engineering are well integrated areas and in order to keep this survey focused, we restrict our attention here to approaches for the visual model-driven development of adaptable softwareintensive systems where the integration of software engineering with control engineering concepts and safety issues are important. In this survey, we identify requirements and use them to classify and characterize a number of approaches that can be employed for the development of the considered class of software-intensive systems. r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Antipsychotic exposure and type 2 diabetes among patients with schizophrenia: a matched case-control study of California Medicaid claims.

PURPOSE
To examine the risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus among people with schizophrenia exposed to atypical antipsychotics (clozapine, olanzapine, quetiapine, risperidone) compared to those exposed to conventional antipsychotics.


METHODS
A matched case-control design was used to examine California Medicaid beneficiaries. Cases developed diabetes subsequent to being diagnosed with schizophrenia (ICD-9295), were 18 years or older, and were exposed to at least one antipsychotic medication at some point during the 12 weeks preceding diabetes diagnosis. Diabetes was defined by diagnostic claim (ICD-9250) or prescription for antidiabetic agents. A total of 3663 cases were matched to 14 523 non-diabetic controls (people with schizophrenia matched on gender and age +/-5 years). All had to be continuously eligible for benefits during the 12-week period preceding diabetes onset in the case. Conditional logistic regression modeled the risk of exposure, controlling for age, ethnicity, and exposure to selected concomitant medications. Analyses were repeated with 24- and 52-week exposure windows.


RESULTS
Using a 12-week exposure window, olanzapine (OR = 1.36, 95%CI 1.20-1.53), clozapine (OR = 1.34, 95%CI 1.16-1.55), and combination atypical therapy (OR = 1.58, 95%CI 1.33-1.88), but not risperidone or quetiapine, were associated with increased odds of developing diabetes compared to conventional antipsychotics. Changing to a 24-week exposure window, the risks were: olanzapine (OR = 1.38, 95%CI 1.22-1.56), clozapine (OR = 1.32, 95%CI 1.14-1.53), or combinations (OR = 1.54, 95%CI 1.29-1.84). With a 52-week exposure window, the risks were: olanzapine (OR = 1.41, 95%CI 1.24-1.60), clozapine (OR = 1.41, 95%CI 1.21-1.65), combinations (OR = 1.58, 95%CI 1.31-1.90). Risk for olanzapine increased with dose. Hispanic, African American, and unknown ethnicity were significant risks for development of type 2 diabetes as was exposure to selected concomitant medications.


CONCLUSIONS
Exposure to olanzapine or clozapine is associated with a 34-41% increase in the developing of type 2 diabetes among California Medicaid recipients with schizophrenia. Prospective, randomized trials are needed to confirm these retrospective, observational findings.
BANip: Enabling Remote Healthcare Monitoring with Body Area Networks

This paper presents a Java service platform for mobile healthcare that enables remote health monitoring using 2.5/3G public wireless networks. The platform complies with today’s healthcare delivery models, in particular it incorporates some functionality of a healthcare call center, a healthportal for patients that aggregates healthcare services from collaborative care centers. Our service platform simplifies the development of mobile healthcare applications, because application developers are shielded from the complexity of communicating with mobile devices over 2.5/3G networks. In this paper we focus on the BAN interconnect protocol (BANip) which is our solution to extend the local services offered by a Body Area Network (BAN) to remote healthcare center.
Evaluation of the cost of home care for terminally ill cancer patients

 The aim of this work was to carry out a cost evaluation of the home care programme for terminally ill cancer patients run by the Istituto Oncologico Romagnolo (I.O.R.) in the areas of Forlì, Cesena, Ravenna and Rimini (Romagna, Italy). To determine effective home care direct costs, we first selected 1 week of care as an observation unit. We then proceeded to assess the medical and nursing care units together with the clinical protocols administered for each patient. The Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) was also assessed weekly. In this way, we calculated care costs for each patient and for each week as the sum of medical costs, nursing costs, treatment costs and other costs. A consecutive series of 574 patients were involved in the study from 1 April 1994 to 31 March 1995. A total of 5164 patient-weeks of care was provided, with an average cost per week of 177.6 Ecu. This weekly cost increased in the last 100 days of life (week –15=179.5 Ecu; week –8=188.3 Ecu; week –2=221.0 Ecu;P<0.001). When single components were analysed in relation to total cost (treatment protocols, physician and nursing care) the increased global cost was found to be mainly attributable to the intensification in nursing care (21.8% of costs in week –15 vs 27.3% of costs in week –2). Examination of the relation between the cost of 1 week of care and KPS values clearly shows that healthcare costs increased as KPS decreased (from 152.2 Ecu with KPS ≥60 to 292.6 Ecu with KPS ≤20;P<0.001). Home care costs were also seen to vary with some clinical characteristics and symptoms present when patients entered the study: asthenia, anorexia, nausea/vomiting, bedsores. Given the good results of home care for cancer patients in terms of quality of life, this method of cost accounting for home-care providers can help to monitor the rising cost of assistance and confirm the cost effectiveness of this type of care.
ViSQOL: The Virtual Speech Quality Objective Listener

A model of human speech quality perception has been developed to provide an objective measure for predicting subjective quality assessments. The Virtual Speech Quality Objective Listener (ViSQOL) model is a signal based full reference metric that uses a spectro-temporal measure of similarity between a reference and a test speech signal. This paper describes the algorithm and compares the results with PESQ for common problems in VoIP: clock drift, associated time warping and jitter. The results indicate that ViSQOL is less prone to underestimation of speech quality in both scenarios than the ITU standard.
Missing Players: Phonology and the Past-tense Debate

The proposition that the mental lexicon is a ‘dual route’ system, advanced by Pinker and others to account for regular and irregular morphology, overlooks the important fact that morphological regularity correlates inversely with phonological regularity --‘regular’ past-tense beep d being phonologically irregular (exceptional syllable), while ‘irregular’ past-tense kept is phonologically just regular. I argue that the correlation, which is general, can only be captured under a single -rather than ‘dual’architecture, and an associational -rather than rule basedtheory of morphology. Where morphological associations are strong, morphology looks regular and phonological alternations are inhibited, making phonology look irregular. In a system in which regularities are attributed to ‘rules’, rules should be able to coexist with other rules, and morphological and phonological regularities should correlate directly, rather than inversely.
An MR-Conditional High-Torque Pneumatic Stepper Motor for MRI-Guided and Robot-Assisted Intervention

Magnetic resonance imaging allows for visualizing detailed pathological and morphological changes of soft tissue. MR-conditional actuations have been widely investigated for development of image-guided and robot-assisted surgical devices under the Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This paper presents a simple design of MR-conditional stepper motor which can provide precise and high-torque actuation without adversely affecting the MR image quality. This stepper motor consists of two MR-conditional pneumatic cylinders and the corresponding supporting structures. Alternating the pressurized air can drive the motor to rotate each step in 3.6° with the motor coupled to a planetary gearbox. Experimental studies were conducted to validate its dynamics performance. Maximum 800 mN m output torque is achieved. The motor accuracy independently varied by two factors: motor operating speed and step size, was also investigated. The motor was tested within a 3T Siemens MRI scanner (MAGNETOM Skyra, Siemens Medical Solutions, Erlangen, Germany) and a 3T GE MRI scanner (GE SignaHDx, GE Healthcare, Milwaukee, WI, USA). The image artifact and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) were evaluated for study of its MRI compliancy. The results show that the presented pneumatic stepper motor generated 2.35% SNR reduction in MR images. No observable artifact was presented besides the motor body itself. The proposed motor test also demonstrates a standard to evaluate the pneumatic motor capability for later incorporation with motorized devices used under MRI.
Using a Randomised Iterative Improvement Algorithm with Composite Neighbourhood Structures for the University Course Timetabling Problem

The course timetabling problem deals with the assignment of a set of courses to specific timeslots and rooms within a working week subject to a variety of hard and soft constraints. Solutions which satisfy the hard constraints are called feasible. The goal is to satisfy as many of the soft constraints as possible whilst constructing a feasible schedule. In this paper, we present a composite neighbourhood structure with a randomised iterative improvement algorithm. This algorithm always accepts an improved solution and a worse solution is accepted with a certain probability. The algorithm is tested over eleven benchmark datasets (representing one large, five medium and five small problems). The results demonstrate that our approach is able to produce solutions that have lower penalty on all the small problems and two of the medium problems when compared against other techniques from the literature. However, in the case of the medium problems, this is at the expense of significantly increased computational time.
diversity and community structure of pelagic crustacean zooplankton in Canadian lakes

GRIL, Groupe de Recherche Interuniversitaire en Limnologie et en Environnement Aquatique, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, Succ. Centre-ville, Montréal, QC, Canada, H3C 3J7, Département de sciences biologiques, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, Succ. Centre-ville, Montréal, QC, Canada, H3C 3J7, Département de géographie, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, Succ. Centre-ville, Montréal, QC, Canada, H3C 3J7, Département des sciences et génie de l’environnement, Faculté des sciences, Université de Liège, 15 Allée du 6 août, B-4000, Liège, Belgique, retired, formerly of Freshwater Institute, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, 501 University Crescent, Winnipeg, MA, Canada R3T 2N6, CSBQ, Centre de la Science de la Biodiversité du Québec ABSTRACT
Tunnel Surrounding Rock Displacement Prediction Using Support Vector Machine

Multi-step-ahead prediction of tunnel surrounding rock displacement is an effective way to ensure the safe and economical construction of tunnels. This paper presents a multi-step-ahead prediction model, which is based on support vector machine (SVM), for tunnel surrounding rock displacement prediction. To improve the training efficiency of SVM, shuffled complex evolution algorithm (SCE-UA) is also performed through some exponential transformation. The data from the Chijiangchong tunnel are used to examine the performance of the prediction model. Results show that SVM is generally better than artificial neural network (ANN). This indicates that SVM is a feasible and effective multi-step method for tunnel surrounding rock displacement prediction.
Private Irony and Public Decency: Richard Rorty's New Pragmatism

philosophy should be kept as separate from politics as should religion . . . the attempt to ground political theory in overarching theories of the nature of man or the goal of history has done more harm than good. We should not assume that it is our task, as professors of philosophy, to be the avant-garde of political movements. ... We should think of politics as one of the experimental rather than of the theoretical disciplines.'
An intelligent task analysis approach for special education based on MIRA

Article history: Received 18 August 2012 Received in revised form 19 November 2012 Available online 14 December 2012
Ambipolar Gate-Controllable SiNW FETs for Configurable Logic Circuits With Improved Expressive Capability

In this letter, we report on the fabrication and characterization of ambipolar silicon-nanowire (SiNW) field-effect transistors (FETs) with a double-independent-gate (DIG) structure for polarity control. Several structures are fabricated, showing the effectiveness of local back gate to enable switchable ambipolar functionality. Moreover, AND, NAND , NOR, XOR, and XNOR binary logic functions can be obtained with a single gate, depending on the encoding values used for the input signals. Repeatable behaviors of DIG SiNW FETs are considered as enablers for ambipolar-controlled logic, with all the benefits related to the maturity of the silicon technology.
β-Blockers and All-Cause Mortality in Adults with Episodes of Acute Bronchitis: An Observational Study

BACKGROUND
Recent observational studies suggest that β-blockers may improve long-term prognosis in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We assessed whether β-blocker use improves all-cause mortality in patients with episodes of acute bronchitis.


METHODS
An observational cohort study using data from the electronic medical records of 23 general practices in the Netherlands. The data included standardized information about daily patient contacts, diagnoses, and drug prescriptions. Cox regression was applied with time-varying treatment and covariates.


RESULTS
The study included 4,493 patients aged 45 years and older, with at least one episode of acute bronchitis between 1996 and 2006. The mean (SD) age of the patients was 66.9 (11.7) years, and 41.9% were male. During a mean (SD) follow up period of 7.7 (2.5) years, 20.4% developed COPD. In total, 22.7% had cardiovascular comorbidities, resulting in significant higher mortality rates than those without (51.7% vs. 12.0%, p<0.001). The adjusted hazard ratio of cardioselective β-blocker use for mortality was 0.62 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.50-0.77), and 1.01 (95% CI 0.75-1.36) for non-selective ones. Some other cardiovascular drugs also reduced the risk of mortality, with adjusted HRs of 0.60 (95% CI 0.46-0.79) for calcium channel blockers, 0.88 (95% CI 0.73-1.06) for ACE inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers, and 0.42 (95% CI 0.31-0.57) for statins, respectively.


CONCLUSION
Cardiovascular comorbidities are common and increase the risk of mortality in adults with episodes of acute bronchitis. Cardioselective β-blockers, but also calcium channel blockers and statins may reduce mortality, possibly as a result of cardiovascular protective properties.
Early azathioprine therapy is no more effective than placebo for newly diagnosed Crohn's disease.

BACKGROUND & AIMS
A small placebo-controlled trial reported the efficacy of mercaptopurine therapy for children newly diagnosed with Crohn's disease, yet little is known about the efficacy of early thiopurine therapy in adults.


METHODS
We performed a prospective double-blind trial of adult patients with a recent (<8 weeks) diagnosis of Crohn's disease. Patients were randomly assigned to groups given azathioprine (2.5 mg · kg(-1) · day(-1), n = 68) or placebo (n = 63) at 31 hospitals from February 2006 to September 2009. Corticosteroids but no other concomitant medications were allowed for control of disease activity. The primary measure of efficacy was sustained corticosteroid-free remission.


RESULTS
After 76 weeks of treatment, 30 patients treated with azathioprine (44.1%) and 23 given placebo (36.5%) were in sustained corticosteroid-free remission (difference of 7.6%; 95% confidence interval, -9.2 to 24.4%; P = .48). The rates of relapse (defined as Crohn's Disease Activity Index score >175) and corticosteroid requirements were similar between groups. A post hoc analysis of relapse, defined as a Crohn's Disease Activity Index score >220, showed lower relapse rates in the azathioprine group than in the placebo group (11.8% vs 30.2%; P = .01). Serious adverse events occurred in 14 patients in the azathioprine group (20.6%) and 7 in the placebo group (11.1%) (P = .16). A larger percentage of patients in the azathioprine group had adverse events that led to study drug discontinuation (20.6%) than in the placebo group (6.35%) (P = .02).


CONCLUSIONS
In a study of adults with Crohn's disease, early azathioprine therapy was no more effective than placebo to achieve sustained corticosteroid-free remission but was more effective in preventing moderate to severe relapse in a post hoc analysis. EudraCT 2005-001186-34.
Artecoll: a long-lasting injectable wrinkle filler material: Report of a controlled, randomized, multicenter clinical trial of 251 subjects.

Artecoll, an injectable wrinkle filler composed of polymethylmethacrylate microspheres and bovine collagen, is widely available outside the United States. For domestic availability, a multicenter Investigational Device Exemption study was required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This study consisted of 251 subjects at eight centers who received injections of Artecoll or the currently approved collagen dermal filler (control) in 1334 wrinkles of the glabella, nasolabial fold, radial upper lip lines, and corner-of-the-mouth lines. The treatments were randomized, and follow-up safety, efficacy, investigator success rating, and subject satisfaction rating data were collected at 1, 3, and 6 months. The safety data, measured as adverse events and immunoglobulin G serum levels, were low and similar for both groups. The efficacy data, measured by masked observers using a photographic facial fold assessment scale, demonstrated a combined significant improvement with Artecoll compared with collagen at 6 months (p < 0.001). At 6 months, the investigator success ratings and the subject satisfaction ratings for each of the four injections sites were superior for Artecoll (p < 0.001). In the Artecoll group, 12-month follow-up was obtained for 111 subjects (86.7 percent) and showed persistence of significant augmentation. Artecoll had fewer adverse events reported throughout the 12-month safety study period than the control group did in 6 months, although the difference was not statistically significant.