LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Effect of surgical approach for total hip replacement on hip function using Harris Hip scores and Trendelenburg's test. A retrospective analysis.

OBJECTIVE
A retrospective analysis of osteoarthritis patients undergoing primary hip arthroplasty, to assess which surgical approach produces the best functional results at one-year post-operatively, using common clinical scoring systems and tests. The aim of this study was to compare the anterolateral and the posterior approaches to total hip arthroplasty using Harris Hip scores and Trendelenburg's test by looking at pre-operative results and comparing them to post-operative results.


METHODS
Data from 3416 consecutive cases were extracted from a multicentre database, maintained by the Tayside Arthroplasty Audit Group (TAAG) situated in Tayside, using only patients who had undergone a primary hip arthroplasty and had a clinical diagnosis of osteoarthritis.


RESULTS
Analysis showed that there was statistically significant difference between the two approaches for Harris Hip score (p = 0.0344), Harris Hip function score (p = 0.0035) and Trendelenburg Test (p =< 0.00001). The posterior approach showed larger improvements in Harris Hip scores. There was an increased incidence of dislocation in the posterior approach group (6.9%) but an increased incidence of Trendelenburg gait in anterolateral approach group (5.7%). It was found that patients who suffered a dislocation had similar functional outcomes for both groups with no statistical difference.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that there may be benefit in using a posterior approach to primary total hip arthroplasty but due to limitations of the data within this study further more detailed research is required.
The Smart Bookshelf: A Study of Camera Projector Scene Augmentation of an Everyday Environment

Recent research in projector-camera systems has overcome many of the obstacles to deploying and using intelligent displays for a wide range of applications. In parallel with these developments, projector costs continue to decline with corresponding increase in resolution, brightness and contrast ratio. In light of this trend, we are exploring the unique capabilities that camera-projector systems can offer to intelligent environments and ubiqutous computing. Our initial step towards environments that are intelligently augmented by projector-camera devices, is a smart bookshelf application. The system utilizes a camera pair and a projector to monitor the state of a real world library shelf. As books are added to the shelf a foreground detection algorithm which takes into account the projected information yields new pixels in each view that are then verified using a planar parallax constraint across both cameras to yield the book spine. Using a simple calibration scheme, the homography induced by the world plane in which book spines approximately lie is estimated. Users are then able to query for the presence of a book through a user interface and book spines are highlighted by transforming image pixels to their corresponding points in the projector's frame via the known homography. The system also can display the state of the bookshelf at any time in the past. Projected information can also be used to enhance the image-processing tasks at hand and we briefly explore this in this work.
Interaction between current vitamin D supplementation and menopausal hormone therapy use on breast cancer risk: evidence from the E3N cohort.

BACKGROUND
Experimental studies suggest protective effects of vitamin D on breast carcinogenesis, particularly on estrogen receptor-positive tumors. Epidemiologic data are less conclusive.


OBJECTIVE
Our objective was to investigate the association between postmenopausal breast cancer risk and current or past vitamin D supplementation overall and according to the use of menopausal hormone therapy (MHT).


DESIGN
Between 1995 and 2008, 2482 invasive breast cancer cases were diagnosed among 57,403 postmenopausal women from the E3N prospective cohort during 581,085 person-years. Vitamin D supplementation was assessed from biennially self-administered questionnaires sent in 1995, 2000, 2002, and 2005 and from medico-administrative data on drug reimbursements since 2004. Multivariable HRs for primary invasive breast cancer and 95% CIs were estimated by using Cox models.


RESULTS
A decreased postmenopausal breast cancer risk was associated with current (HR: 0.82; 95% CI: 0.69, 0.97) but not past (HR: 1.10; 95% CI: 0.92, 1.31) vitamin D supplementation (P-homogeneity = 0.02). The association with current vitamin D supplementation differed according to MHT use: ever users (HR: 0.74; 95% CI: 0.60, 0.90) and never users (HR: 1.13; 95% CI: 0.89, 1.56); P-homogeneity = 0.02.


CONCLUSIONS
In this observational study, current vitamin D supplementation, mostly taken daily and combined with calcium, was associated with a decreased postmenopausal breast cancer risk in MHT users. These findings should be confirmed before considering vitamin D supplementation to partly balance the MHT-associated increased breast cancer risk.
Maximum correntropy criterion based sparse adaptive filtering algorithms for robust channel estimation under non-Gaussian environments

Sparse adaptive channel estimation problem is one of the most important topics in broadband wireless communications systems due to its simplicity and robustness. So far many sparsity-aware channel estimation algorithms have been developed based on the well-known minimum mean square error (MMSE) criterion, such as the zero-attracting least mean square (ZALMS),which are robust under Gaussian assumption. In non-Gaussian environments, however, these methods are often no longer robust especially when systems are disturbed by random impulsive noises. To address this problem, we propose in this work a robust sparse adaptive filtering algorithm using correntropy induced metric (CIM) penalized maximum correntropy criterion (MCC) rather than conventional MMSE criterion for robust channel estimation. Specifically, MCC is utilized to mitigate the impulsive noise while CIM is adopted to exploit the channel sparsity efficiently. Both theoretical analysis and computer simulations are provided to corroborate the proposed methods.
A new technique

In implementing the programL envisaged at the Twenth-fifth Congress of the CPSU, the collective of the Volgograd Ceramic Plant is striving to increase production efficiency and to make more effective use of its capital assets by speeding up the reconstruction and reequipment rate, by using a complex of measures to introduce new techniques, installing advance technology, and by automating and mechanizing labor-intensive processes.
Test Technology TC Newsletter

This newsletter provides information on past and upcoming events related to the IEEE Computer Society's Test Technology Technical Council and the test community.
A predominantly clonal multi-institutional outbreak of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea with high morbidity and mortality.

BACKGROUND
In March 2003, several hospitals in Quebec, Canada, noted a marked increase in the incidence of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea.


METHODS
In 2004 we conducted a prospective study at 12 Quebec hospitals to determine the incidence of nosocomial C. difficile-associated diarrhea and its complications and a case-control study to identify risk factors for the disease. Isolates of C. difficile were typed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and analyzed for binary toxin genes and partial deletions in the toxin A and B repressor gene tcdC. Antimicrobial susceptibility was evaluated in a subgroup of isolates.


RESULTS
A total of 1703 patients with 1719 episodes of nosocomial C. difficile-associated diarrhea were identified. The incidence was 22.5 per 1000 admissions. The 30-day attributable mortality rate was 6.9 percent. Case patients were more likely than matched controls to have received fluoroquinolones (odds ratio, 3.9; 95 percent confidence interval, 2.3 to 6.6) or cephalosporins (odds ratio, 3.8; 95 percent confidence interval, 2.2 to 6.6). A predominant strain, resistant to fluoroquinolones, was found in 129 of 157 isolates (82.2 percent), and the binary toxin genes and partial deletions in the tcdC gene were present in 132 isolates (84.1 percent).


CONCLUSIONS
A strain of C. difficile that was resistant to fluoroquinolones and had binary toxin and a partial deletion of the tcdC gene was responsible for this outbreak of C. difficile-associated diarrhea. Exposure to fluoroquinolones or cephalosporins was a risk factor.
WalkECG: a mobile cardiac care device

A small device, named WalkECG, developed for out of hospital patient monitoring is presented. This device is based on the MSP430F149 microcontroller and includes a two-channel ECG amplifier, a graphic LCD, a keypad, a GSM modem and a battery. The heart rate, the ST segment deviation and the premature ventricular beats rate are computed and a normality limit is set for each one. When one of these limits is reached, an ECG strip is transmitted to a Telemedicine Central Station (TCS) and the device waits to display the receiving answer. The methods used to analyze the ECG were tested with real ECGs and all the QRS complexes were detected. Never a ventricular beat was classified as normal and 97.67% of normal complexes were well classified. When the communication process was tested, a remarkable difference between the transmitting and receiving signals was not observed
Mitochondrial and apoptotic in vitro modelling of differential HIV-1 progression and antiretroviral toxicity.

OBJECTIVES
Ex vivo analysis of mitochondrial function may reveal HIV progression and the impact of ART. We propose a mitochondrial and apoptotic in vitro model using Jurkat T cells incubated with plasma. The objectives of this study were to evaluate mitochondrial and apoptotic lesions in this model in relation to HIV progression, and to assess the effect of >1 year of standard non-thymidine-containing therapy.


METHODS
This was a cross-sectional comparison among three age- and gender-matched groups (n = 19 × 3): healthy non-HIV-infected participants, HIV-infected long-term non-progressors (LTNPs) and standard antiretroviral-naive chronically infected patients [standard progressors (Sps)], longitudinally evaluated before (Sp1) and after (Sp2) >1 year of efavirenz + tenofovir + emtricitabine therapy. We analysed mitochondrial DNA content by RT-PCR, mitochondrial function by spectrophotometry, mitochondrial protein synthesis by western blot analysis, mitochondrial dynamics by western blot analysis (MFN2), apoptotic transition pore formation by western blot analysis (VDAC-1) and mitochondrial membrane potential and annexin V/propidium iodide fluorescence by flow cytometry.


RESULTS
There was a decreasing non-significant trend towards lower mitochondrial parameters for HIV-infected values with respect to uninfected control reference values. HIV progression (LTNP versus Sp1) was associated with decreased mitochondrial genetic, functional and translational parameters, which partially recovered after treatment intervention (Sp2). Mitochondrial fusion showed a trend to decrease non-significantly in Sp patients compared with LTNP patients, especially after therapy. All apoptotic parameters showed a trend to increase in Sp1 with respect to LTNP, followed by recovery in Sp2.


CONCLUSIONS
We proposed an in vitro model for mitochondrial and apoptotic assessment to test the effects of HIV infection and its therapy, resembling in vivo conditions. This model could be useful for clinical research purposes.
Empathy with Inanimate Objects and the Uncanny Valley

The term “uncanny valley” goes back to an article of the Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori (Mori 1970, 2005). He put forward the hypothesis that humanlike objects like certain kinds of robots elicit emotional responses similar to real humans proportionate to their degree of human likeness. Yet, if a certain degree of similarity is reached emotional responses become all of a sudden very repulsive. The corresponding recess in the supposed function is called the uncanny valley. The present paper wants to propose a philosophical explanation why we feel empathy with inanimate objects in the first place, and why the uncanny valley occurs when these objects become very humanlike. The core of this explanation—which is informed by the recently developing empirical research on the matter—will be a form of empathy involving a kind of imaginative perception. However, as will be shown, imaginative perception fails in cases of very humanlike objects.
Interfractional variation in bladder volume and its impact on cervical cancer radiotherapy: Clinical significance of portable bladder scanner.

PURPOSE
A constant bladder volume (BV) is essential to direct the radiotherapy (RT) of pelvic tumors with precision. The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in BV and their impact on cervical cancer RT and to assess the clinical significance of a portable bladder scanner (BS) in achieving a constant BV.


METHODS
A standard bladder phantom (133 ml) and measurements of actual urine volume were both used as benchmarks to evaluate the accuracy of the BS. Comparisons of BS with computed tomography (CT), cone-beam CT (CBCT), and an ultrasound diagnostic device (iU22) were made. Twenty-two consecutive patients with cervical cancer treated with external beam radical RT were divided into an experimental group (13 patients) and a control group (9 patients). In the experimental group, the BV was measured multiple times by BS pre-RT until it was consistent with that found by planning CT. Then a CBCT was performed. The BV was measured again immediately post-RT, after which the patient's urine was collected and recorded. In the control group, CBCT only was performed pre-RT. Interfractional changes in BV and their impact on cervical cancer RT were investigated in both groups. The time of bladder filling was also recorded and analyzed.


RESULTS
In measuring the volume of the standard bladder phantom, the BS deviated by 1.4% in accuracy. The difference between the measurements of the BS and the iU22 had no statistical significance (linear correlation coefficient 0.96, P < 0.05). The BV measured by the BS was strongly correlated with the actual urine volume (R = 0.95, P < 0.05), planning CT (R = 0.95, P < 0.05), or CBCT (R = 0.91, P < 0.05). Compared with the BV at the time of CT, its value changed by -36.1% [1 SD (standard deviation) 42.3%; range, -79.1%-29.4%] in the control group, and 5.2% (1 SD 21.5%; range, -13.3%-22.1%) in the experimental group during treatment. The change in BV affected the target position in the superior-inferior (SI) direction but had little or no effect in the anterior-posterior and right-left directions. Based on the collected data, the target displacement in the SI direction was reduced from 2.0 to 0.4 mm, while the CTV-to-PTV (CTV: clinical target volume; PTV: planning target volume) margin in the SI direction was reduced from 11.1 to 6.4 mm. The BV increased by 3.7 ± 1.0 ml/min (range, 1.7-4.7 ml/min), which depended on the amount of water ingested by the patient (R = 0.96, P < 0.05). No correlation was found between the rate of urinary inflow and the patient's body mass. The authors were able to reduce the workload of measuring by using individual patient information including the patient's age, the water-drinking amount, time at which water-drinking began, and patient's diet.


CONCLUSIONS
Changes in the BV have an influence on the RT of cervical cancer. A consistent and reproducible BV is acquired by using a portable BS, whereby the target displacement and CTV-to-PTV margin can be both reduced in the SI direction.
A Global Perspective

Case presentation 1: A morbidly obese but nonsmoking and nondiabetic 44-year-old African woman (body mass index, 41 kg/m) presents with exertional dyspnea to a primary healthcare clinic in Soweto, adjacent to Johannesburg, South Africa. She seeks medical attention for the first time. Her blood pressure (BP) is 178/ 115 mm Hg, her total and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol are 2.6 and 0.9 mmol/L (100 and 34 mg/dL), respectively, and her heart rate is 112 bpm. Her initial absolute risk (Framingham algorithm) is calculated at 2% (low) probability of cardiovascular disease (CVD) within 5 years, increasing to 5% (high) when preliminary evidence of left ventricular hypertrophy is subsequently found on 12-lead ECG. Case presentation 2: A 60-year-old, nondiabetic, Chinese woman (body mass index, 24 kg/m) visits a primary healthcare clinic in Beijing, complaining about painful knees. A routine physical examination reveals a BP of 145/90 mm Hg, total and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol of 4.8 and 1.1 mmol/L (185.6 and 42.5 mg/dL), respectively, and heart rate of 72 bpm. Her absolute risk (initially) is calculated as 6% (low) probability of CVD within 5 years. Despite some nonspecific but abnormal ECG findings, she does not qualify as having “ECG evidence of left ventricular hypertrophy,” which would increase her absolute risk to 20% (high). However, the woman is questioned more carefully about potential risks, and she admits to smoking 15 cigarettes per day. Her recalculated risk is now 12% (intermediate) and would rise to 16% (high) if, by the age of 65 years, her systolic BP increased to 155/90 mm Hg. Case presentation 3: A 65-year-old (nonsmoking) white woman (body mass index, 28 kg/m) presents to a primary care clinic in Charlotte, NC, and is found to be hypertensive with a BP of 170/ 110 mm Hg and heart rate of 88 bpm. Her total and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels are 6.8 and 0.8 mmol/L (263 and 30.9 mg/dL), respectively. Her initial absolute risk is calculated as 18% (intermediate) probability of CVD within 5 years. Although she is found not to have ECG evidence of left ventricular hypertrophy (which would have increased her risk level to 28%), a glucose tolerance test reveals that she has type 2 diabetes mellitus, confirming her high-risk status.
Bapedi traditional healers in the Limpopo Province, South Africa: Their socio-cultural profile and traditional healing practice

BACKGROUND
Bapedi traditional healers play a vital role in the primary health care of rural inhabitants in the Limpopo Province, South Africa. However, literature profiling their social and demographic variables, as well as their traditional healing practices is lacking.


METHODS
Convenience sampling were used to identify and select two traditional healers from 17 municipalities (resulting in 34 healers being used in this pilot survey) of the Limpopo Province in South Africa. Information on the social and demographic variables, and traditional healing practices of these healers was gathered from January 2013 to July 2013, using a semi-structured questionnaire, supplemented by field surveys for plant identification and collection used in the preparation of remedies.


RESULTS
Males constituted nearly two-thirds of the participants. Forty eight percent of them became healers through the mentoring of another healer, while 38% acquired their traditional healing knowledge from parents and 14% from grandparents. In contrast to this, 62% of the females obtained theirs from their parents, 30% from fellow traditional healers, and 8% from grandparents. A total of 154 plant species were indicated as used by healers in the treatment of 52 health-related problems. A vast majority (89%) of these practitioners reported that prepared herbal remedies do expire, which is a temperature-dependent process. Determinations of the efficacy of remedies by most healers (67%) were via consultation with ancestors (90%). This study also found that none of the interviewees had any knowledge of provincial or national environmental legislation.


CONCLUSIONS
The current study has shown that Bapedi traditional healers could play a leading role in both the preservation of indigenous knowledge and the primary health care sector. However, of concern is the traditional methods (via consulting ancestors) employed by most of these healers in determining efficacy of remedies, thus indicating a need for a scientific investigations to establish their safety and effectiveness. Equally, there is a need to educate traditional practitioners' regarding the significance of various conservation legislations in their traditional healing. By addressing these, the national and provincial legislators, medical fraternity as well as environmental agencies will be able to better integrate them in primary health care systems and environmental management.
A low-power wideband transimpedance amplifier in 0.13µm CMOS

This paper presents a low-power wideband transimpedance amplifier (TIA) for the applications of multi-band wireless communication systems. Realized in a standard 0.13µm CMOS technology, the measured results of the TIA demonstrate the maximum gain of 16dB in the frequency range of 800MHz∼4.3GHz, the noise figure of &#60; 5.88dB, the input-referred third order intercept point (IIP3) of −5.4dBm at 2.4GHz, and the power consumption of 12mW from a single 1.2V supply. The chip occupies the total area of 0.7×1.1mm2.
Recent Development of Open-Source Speech Recognition Engine Julius

Julius is an open-source large-vocabulary speech recognition software used for both academic research and industrial applications. It executes real-time speech recognition of a 60k-word dictation task on low-spec PCs with small footprint, and even on embedded devices. Julius supports standard language models such as statistical N-gram model and rule-based grammars, as well as Hidden Markov Model (HMM) as an acoustic model. One can build a speech recognition system of his own purpose, or can integrate the speech recognition capability to a variety of applications using Julius. This article describes an overview of Julius, major features and specifications, and summarizes the developments conducted in the recent years.
A major QTL corresponding to the Rk locus for resistance to root-knot nematodes in cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.)

Genome resolution of a major QTL associated with the Rk locus in cowpea for resistance to root-knot nematodes has significance for plant breeding programs and R gene characterization. Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.) is a susceptible host of root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.) (RKN), major plant-parasitic pests in global agriculture. To date, breeding for host resistance in cowpea has relied on phenotypic selection which requires time-consuming and expensive controlled infection assays. To facilitate marker-based selection, we aimed to identify and map quantitative trait loci (QTL) conferring the resistance trait. One recombinant inbred line (RIL) and two F2:3 populations, each derived from a cross between a susceptible and a resistant parent, were genotyped with genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. The populations were screened in the field for root-galling symptoms and/or under growth-chamber conditions for nematode reproduction levels using M. incognita and M. javanica biotypes. One major QTL was mapped consistently on linkage group VuLG11 of each population. By genotyping additional cowpea lines and near-isogenic lines derived from conventional backcrossing, we confirmed that the detected QTL co-localized with the genome region associated with the Rk locus for RKN resistance that has been used in conventional breeding for many decades. This chromosomal location defined with flanking markers will be a valuable target in marker-assisted breeding and for positional cloning of genes controlling RKN resistance.