LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Hospital Variation in Functional Recovery After Stroke.

BACKGROUND
Functional status is a key patient-centric outcome, but there are little data on whether functional recovery post-stroke varies among hospitals. This study examined the distribution of functional status 3 months after stroke, determined whether these outcomes vary among hospitals, and identified hospital characteristics associated with better (or worse) functional outcomes.


METHODS AND RESULTS
Observational analysis of the AVAIL study (Adherence Evaluation After Ischemic Stroke-Longitudinal) included 2083 ischemic stroke patients enrolled from 82 US hospitals participating in Get With The Guidelines-Stroke and AVAIL. The primary outcome was dependence or death at 3 months (modified Rankin Scale [mRS] score of 3-6). Secondary outcomes included functional dependence (mRS score of 3-5), disabled (mRS score of 2-5), and mRS evaluated as a continuous score. By 3 months post-discharge, 36.5% of patients were functionally dependent or dead. Rates of dependence or death varied widely by discharging hospitals (range: 0%-67%). After risk adjustment, patients had lower rates of 3-month dependence or death when treated at teaching hospitals (odds ratio, 0.72; 95% confidence interval, 0.54-0.96) and certified primary stroke centers (odds ratio, 0.69; 95% confidence interval, 0.53-0.91). In contrast, a composite measure of hospital-level adherence to acute stroke care performance metrics, stroke volume, and bed size was not associated with downstream patient functional status. Findings were robust across mRS end points and sensitivity analyses.


CONCLUSIONS
One third of acute ischemic stroke patients were functionally dependent or dead 3 months postacute stroke; functional recovery rates varied considerably among hospitals, supporting the need to better determine which care processes can maximize functional outcomes.
ITIL Adoption Model based on TAM

although Information technology infrastructure library (ITIL) is the most popular framework for IT service management all around the world, problems for organizations in the process of adoption would eliminate its benefits. In fact the ability of organization to adopt this framework is the basis for IT service improvement. Few studies have tried to find out success factor that influence ITIL adoption but no study was found investigating an adoption model for this framework. In this study, first seven success factors were identified through qualitative meta-Synthesis relying on previous studies; then, a research model based on the technology acceptance model (TAM) for representing the influence of these critical success factors on ITIL adoption is proposed. The success factor used are: (1) top management support, (2) communication and cooperation, (3) training and competence of involved stakeholder in ITIL project, (4) change management and organizational culture, (5) project management and governance, (6) ITIL process implementation and applied technology, (7) monitoring and evaluation. KeywordsInformation Technology Infrastructure Library; ITIL; ITSM; ITIL adoption; TAM.
Accurate Stemming of Dutch for Text Classification

This paper investigates the use of stemming for classificati on of Dutch (email) texts. We introduce a stemmer, which combines dictionary lookup (imp le ented efficiently as a finite state automaton) with a rule-based backup strategy and show that it outperforms the Dutch Porter stemmer in terms of accuracy, while not being substan tially slower. For text classification, the most important property of a ste mmer is the number of words it (correctly) reduces to the same stem. Here the dictionary -b sed system also outperforms Porter. However, evaluation of a Bayesian text classificati on system with either no stemming or the Porter or dictionary-based stemmer on an email cl assification and a newspaper topic classification task does not lead to significant differ ences in accuracy. We conclude with an analysis of why this is the case.
Teachability of Conversational Implicature to Japanese EFL Learners.

As teaching pragmatic competence is considered to be one of the neglected aspects in English language teaching in Japan, this paper investigates the teaching of conversational English implicature of 126 Japanese English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) learners. University student participants were divided into three groups and given a multiple choice test and a sentence-combining test. In one group, the explanations of rules were given by a teacher; in the second, consciousness-raising tasks evolved from group discussion. The third group was a control. All subjects received a pre-test and two post-tests. Results indicate that experimental groups generated significantly better responses. In addition, no subjects extracted the expected pragmatic generalizations from the treatment that they were applying to the new items. Also, the conscious-raising groups performed better in the post-test than in the pre-test, and they had significantly higher scores in the guessing of items on the first post-test than the pre-test. Results confirm that teaching conversational implicature through explicit explanations of rules and consciousness-raising tasks is highly facilitative, amount of time and exposure to the pragmatic system may be a crucial factor to induction, and it may be advantageous for learners to process language on their own through consciousness-raising tasks. (Contains 20 references.) (Author/NAV) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** Teachability of Conversational Implicature to Japanese EFL Learners ccn
Is Exchange Rate Stabilization an Appropriate Cure for the Dutch Disease

This paper evaluates how successful a policy of exchange rate stabilization is in counteracting the negative effects of a Dutch disease episode. We consider a small open-economy model that incorporates nominal rigidities and a learning-bydoing externality in the tradable sector. The paper shows that leaning against an appreciated exchange rate can prevent an inefficient loss of tradable output but at the cost of generating a misallocation of resources in other sectors of the economy. The paper also finds that welfare is a decreasing function of exchange rate intervention. These results suggest that stabilizing the nominal exchange rate in response to a Dutch disease episode could be highly distortionary.
Diagnostic value of the aminopeptidase N, N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase and dipeptidylpeptidase IV in evaluating tubular dysfunction in patients with glomerulopathies.

AIM
The aim of the present study was to investigate the value of the urine cell glycoprotein 1 (PC-1), aminopeptidase N (APN), N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase (NAGA), and dipeptidylpeptidase IV (DPP IV) in the evaluation of tubular damage in patients with primary glomerulonephritis, diabetic nephropathy, and lupus nephritis.


SUBJECTS AND METHODS
PC-1, APN, NAGA, and DPP IV activities were determined in serum, urine, and lymphocytes of 178 subjects, including 10 patients with membranous nephropathy, 38 with IgA nephropathy, 29 with lupus nephritis, 51 with diabetic nephropathy, and 50 control subjects.


RESULTS
Urinary PC-1 excretion in IgA nephropathy group was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than in controls. Urinary NAGA excretion was markedly (p < 0.01) higher in membranous nephropathy group, and APN excretion in diabetic nephropathy group was significantly higher (p < 0.01) than in healthy controls. Urinary APN activity was significantly (p < 0.01) higher in both type 1 and type 2 diabetic patients with microalbuminuria, as well as urinary NAGA and DPP IV activities in type 2 diabetics with microalbuminuria (p < 0.01 and p < 0.05, respectively) compared to controls. Serum PC-1 and APN activities were significantly higher than the control level in membranous nephropathy group, as well as serum PC-1 and DPP IV activities in IgA nephropathy patients (p < 0.05). However, significantly lower serum DPP IV and APN activity was observed in type 2 diabetics with microalbuminuria compared to controls (p < 0.05).


CONCLUSION
Damage of tubules in primary glomerulonephritis, lupus nephritis, and diabetic nephropathy is accompanied by a release of several tubular enzymes, with possible diagnostic and prognostic significance. Increased serum PC-1, APN, and DPP IV activities could be also of diagnostic significance.
Tendon involvement in the feet of patients with gout: a dual-energy CT study.

OBJECTIVES
To examine the frequency and patterns of monosodium urate (MSU) crystal deposition in tendons and ligaments in patients with gout using dual-energy CT (DECT).


METHODS
Ninety-two patients with tophaceous gout had DECT scanning of both feet. Two readers scored the DECT scans for MSU crystal deposition at 20 tendon/ligament sites and 42 bone sites (total 1840 tendon/ligament sites and 3864 bone sites).


RESULTS
MSU crystal deposition was observed by both readers in 199/1840 (10.8%) tendon/ligament sites and in 399/3864 (10.3%) bone sites (p=0.60). The Achilles tendon was the most commonly involved tendon/ligament site (39.1% of all Achilles tendons), followed by the peroneal tendons (18.1%). Tibialis anterior and the extensor tendons were involved less commonly (7.6-10.3%), and the other flexor tendons, plantar fascia and deltoid ligaments were rarely involved (<5%) (p<0.0001 between sites). Involvement of the enthesis alone was more common in the Achilles tendon (OR (95% CI) 74.5 (4.4 to 1264), p<0.0001), as was any involvement of the enthesis (OR (95% CI) 6.8 (3.6 to 13.0), p<0.0001).


CONCLUSIONS
Tendons are commonly affected by MSU crystal deposition in patients with tophaceous gout. The patterns of MSU crystal deposition suggest that biomechanical strain or other local factors may contribute to deposition of MSU crystals.
Parenting experiences with adolescent daughters when mothers have breast cancer.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To examine maternal parenting during the time when a mother is diagnosed with and treated for breast cancer from the mothers' and adolescent daughters' perspectives.


RESEARCH APPROACH
Empirical phenomenologic.


SETTING
Sites in Indiana and Arizona.


PARTICIPANTS
8 mothers and 1 of their adolescent daughters. The mothers were aged 37-46 years at the time of diagnosis, had stage 0-IV cancer, and had completed treatment 1-12 years earlier. Participants had one to four children ranging in age from 13-24 years at the time of the interview. Ages of the adolescent daughters at the time of diagnosis ranged from 10-15 years with an average of 13.5 years.


METHODOLOGIC APPROACH
An open-ended, audiotaped interview was conducted with each participant.


FINDINGS
Six major theme categories were found: (a) a battle to be fought on many fronts-what is at stake if the battle is lost, (b) I tried to tell her, (c) standout moments in our family's cancer journey, (d) mobilizing to protect self while preserving parenting, (e) voices of fear, and (f) after treatment is over, you are not done.


CONCLUSIONS
Mothers set a high priority on parenting and experienced difficulty in setting priorities to meet their own needs and those of their families, including those of their adolescent daughters. Mothers need assistance learning ways to help their daughters through the breast cancer experience, particularly related to maintaining their relationship and communicating.


INTERPRETATION
Mothers should be given assistance with strategies for realizing their own needs and finding positive ways to deal with the needs of their families. Nurses can play an integral part of this development.
Drawing graphs with right angle crossings

Cognitive experiments show that humans can read graph drawings in which all edge crossings are at right angles equally well as they can read planar drawings; they also show that the readability of a drawing is heavily affected by the number of bends along the edges. A graph visualization whose edges can only cross perpendicularly is called a RAC (Right Angle Crossing) drawing. This paper initiates the study of combinatorial and algorithmic questions related with the problem of computing RAC drawings with few bends per edge. Namely, we study the interplay between number of bends per edge and total number of edges in RAC drawings. We establish upper and lower bounds on these quantities by considering two classical graph drawing scenarios: The one where the algorithm can choose the combinatorial embedding of the input graph and the one where this embedding is fixed.
The dynamics of tenure security, agricultural production and environmental degradation in Africa: Evidence from stakeholders in north-east Ghana

Many authors have blamed African land tenure systems for the poor agricultural production and environmental degradation in Africa, and therefore the resulting hunger, environmental refugees and the lack of socio-economic progress. The aim of this paper was to investigate the role of tenure security in north-east Ghana and the implications for agricultural production and environmental sustainability. The research used a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods including interviews, focus group discussions and questionnaires to collect and analyse data from stakeholders in two selected districts in north-east Ghana The study revealed that contrary to the mainstream view that lack of security of customary land tenure is the main cause of the poor agricultural production and environmental degradation, stakeholders’ perceptions of their security of tenure was generally high. Yet poor agricultural production and environmental degradation characterised the study area. Interviewees perceived the main causes to be due to non-tenurial factors including lack of finance, poor soil fertility, inadequate and unreliable rainfall, pests and diseases, inadequate farmlands, bush burning and excessive tree cutting. It was also shown in the study that women and strangers (i.e. non-community members) generally had little or no power and control over land use decision-making and management under customary land tenure. These findings have negative implications for tenure security and environmental sustainability in north-east Ghana, since most women are involved in food production. The paper concludes that current policy focus on enhancing tenure security may fail to lead to increased agricultural production and environmental sustainability if similar focus is denied the above non-tenurial factors. Tenure security is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for improvement in agricultural production and environmental management in north-east Ghana. r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Tai Chi is effective in treating knee osteoarthritis: a randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effectiveness of Tai Chi in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis (OA) symptoms.


METHODS
We conducted a prospective, single-blind, randomized controlled trial of 40 individuals with symptomatic tibiofemoral OA. Patients were randomly assigned to 60 minutes of Tai Chi (10 modified forms from classic Yang style) or attention control (wellness education and stretching) twice weekly for 12 weeks. The primary outcome was the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) pain score at 12 weeks. Secondary outcomes included WOMAC function, patient and physician global assessments, timed chair stand, depression index, self-efficacy scale, and quality of life. We repeated these assessments at 24 and 48 weeks. Analyses were compared by intent-to-treat principles.


RESULTS
The 40 patients had a mean age of 65 years and a mean body mass index of 30.0 kg/m(2). Compared with the controls, patients assigned to Tai Chi exhibited significantly greater improvement in WOMAC pain (mean difference at 12 weeks -118.80 mm [95% confidence interval (95% CI) -183.66, -53.94; P = 0.0005]), WOMAC physical function (-324.60 mm [95% CI -513.98, -135.22; P = 0.001]), patient global visual analog scale (VAS; -2.15 cm [95% CI -3.82, -0.49; P = 0.01]), physician global VAS (-1.71 cm [95% CI -2.75, -0.66; P = 0.002]), chair stand time (-10.88 seconds [95% CI -15.91, -5.84; P = 0.00005]), Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (-6.70 [95% CI -11.63, -1.77; P = 0.009]), self-efficacy score (0.71 [95% CI 0.03, 1.39; P = 0.04]), and Short Form 36 physical component summary (7.43 [95% CI 2.50, 12.36; P = 0.004]). No severe adverse events were observed.


CONCLUSION
Tai Chi reduces pain and improves physical function, self-efficacy, depression, and health-related quality of life for knee OA.
Sparsest solutions of underdetermined linear systems via q-minimization for 0 < q 1

Article history: Received 14 December 2007 Revised 9 September 2008 Accepted 11 September 2008 Available online 25 September 2008 Communicated by Naoki Saito We present a condition on the matrix of an underdetermined linear system which guarantees that the solution of the system with minimal q-quasinorm is also the sparsest one. This generalizes, and slightly improves, a similar result for the 1-norm. We then introduce a simple numerical scheme to compute solutions with minimal q-quasinorm, and we study its convergence. Finally, we display the results of some experiments which indicate that the q-method performs better than other available methods. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Group patient visits for Parkinson disease: a randomized feasibility trial.

BACKGROUND
Group patient visits are medical appointments shared among patients with a common medical condition. This care delivery method has demonstrated benefits for individuals with chronic conditions but has not been evaluated for Parkinson disease (PD).


METHODS
We conducted a 12-month, randomized trial of group patient visits vs usual (one-on-one) care for patients with PD. Visits were led by one of 3 study physicians, included patients and caregivers, and lasted approximately 90 minutes. Those receiving group visits had 4 sessions over 12 months. The primary outcome measure was feasibility as measured by the ability to recruit participants and by the proportion of participants who completed the study. The primary efficacy outcome was quality of life as measured by the PD Questionnaire-39.


RESULTS
Thirty patients and 27 caregivers enrolled in the study. Thirteen of the 15 patients randomized to group patient visits and 14 of the 15 randomized to usual care completed the study. Quality of life measured 12 months after baseline between the 2 groups was not different (25.9 points for group patient visits vs 26.0 points for usual care; p = 0.99).


CONCLUSIONS
Group patient visits may be a feasible means of providing care to individuals with PD and may offer an alternative or complementary method of care delivery for some patients and physicians.


CLASSIFICATION OF EVIDENCE
This study provides Class II evidence that group patient visits did not improve quality of life for individuals with PD over a 1-year period.
Giant pituitary tumors: a study based on surgical treatment of 118 cases.

BACKGROUND
The aim of the study is to analyze the nature, extensions, and dural relationships of hormonally inactive giant pituitary tumors. The relevance of the anatomic relationships to surgery is analyzed.


METHODS
There were 118 cases of hormonally inactive pituitary tumors analyzed with the maximum dimension of more than 4 cm. These cases were surgically treated in our neurosurgical department from 1995 to 2002. Depending on the anatomic extensions and the nature of their meningeal coverings, these tumors were divided into 4 grades. The grades reflected an increasing order of invasiveness of adjacent dural and arachnoidal compartments. The strategy and outcome of surgery and radiotherapy was analyzed for these 4 groups. Average duration of follow-up was 31 months.


RESULTS
There were 54 giant pituitary tumors, which remained within the confines of sellar dura and under the diaphragma sellae and did not enter into the compartment of cavernous sinus (Grade I). Transgression of the medial wall and invasion into the compartment of the cavernous sinus (Grade II) was seen in 38 cases. Elevation of the dura of the superior wall of the cavernous sinus and extension of this elevation into various compartments of brain (Grade III) was observed in 24 cases. Supradiaphragmatic-subarachnoid extension (Grade IV) was seen in 2 patients. The majority of patients were treated by transsphenoidal route.


CONCLUSIONS
Giant pituitary tumors usually have a meningeal cover and extend into well-defined anatomic pathways. Radical surgery by a transsphenoidal route is indicated and possible in Grade I-III pituitary tumors. Such a strategy offers a reasonable opportunity for recovery in vision and a satisfactory postoperative and long-term outcome. Biopsy of the tumor followed by radiotherapy could be suitable for Grade IV pituitary tumors.
Accuracy of liquid based versus conventional cytology: overall results of new technologies for cervical cancer screening: randomised controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE
To compare the accuracy of conventional cytology with liquid based cytology for primary screening of cervical cancer.


DESIGN
Randomised controlled trial.


SETTING
Nine screening programmes in Italy.


PARTICIPANTS
Women aged 25-60 attending for a new screening round: 22 466 were assigned to the conventional arm and 22 708 were assigned to the experimental arm.


INTERVENTIONS
Conventional cytology compared with liquid based cytology and testing for human papillomavirus.


MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Relative sensitivity for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia of grade 2 or more at blindly reviewed histology, with atypical cells of undetermined significance or more severe cytology considered a positive result.


RESULTS
In an intention to screen analysis liquid based cytology showed no significant increase in sensitivity for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia of grade 2 or more (relative sensitivity 1.17, 95% confidence interval 0.87 to 1.56) whereas the positive predictive value was reduced (relative positive predictive value v conventional cytology 0.58, 0.44 to 0.77). Liquid based cytology detected more lesions of grade 1 or more (relative sensitivity 1.68, 1.40 to 2.02), with a larger increase among women aged 25-34 (P for heterogeneity 0.0006), but did not detect more lesions of grade 3 or more (relative sensitivity 0.84, 0.56 to 1.25). Results were similar when only low grade intraepithelial lesions or more severe cytology were considered a positive result. No evidence was found of heterogeneity between centres or of improvement with increasing time from start of the study. The relative frequency of women with at least one unsatisfactory result was lower with liquid based cytology (0.62, 0.56 to 0.69).


CONCLUSION
Liquid based cytology showed no statistically significant difference in sensitivity to conventional cytology for detection of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia of grade 2 or more. More positive results were found, however, leading to a lower positive predictive value. A large reduction in unsatisfactory smears was evident.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN81678807 [controlled-trials.com].