LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
The relationship between post-stent strut apposition and follow-up strut coverage assessed by a contour plot optical coherence tomography analysis.

OBJECTIVES
This study sought to evaluate the relationship between post-stent strut apposition and follow-up strut coverage using contour plot optical coherence tomographic analysis.


BACKGROUND
Tracking the fate of interested regions of struts at different time points has not been investigated.


METHODS
Post-intervention and 6-month follow-up optical coherence tomographic evaluations were performed in 82 patients treated with biolimus- (n = 37) or sirolimus-eluting stents (n = 45). Post-stent apposition was classified as embedded, apposed, or malapposed. For volumetric stent evaluation, the post-intervention strut-artery distance and the neointimal thickness at follow-up were measured as a function of the circumferential arc length and longitudinal stent length. Computer-generated contour plots of the strut-artery distance and neointimal thickness were compared.


RESULTS
The percentages of embedded and malapposed struts after intervention were 1.8% (Interquartile range [IQR]: 0.6% to 6.2%) and 2.3% (IQR: 0.5% to 5.2%), respectively. The percentages of uncovered and malapposed struts at 6 months were 16.0% (IQR: 7.4% to 33.3%) and 0% (IQR: 0% to 0.7%), respectively. The percentage of uncovered struts at 6 months varied significantly with post-stent strut apposition (0% [IQR: 0% to 11.4%] in embedded, 16.3% [IQR: 8.1% to 31.3%] in apposed, and 26.8% [IQR: 0% to 56.3%] in malapposed, p < 0.001 for all pairwise comparisons). In lesions without tissue prolapse, embedded struts were all covered (100% covered struts) compared with those with tissue prolapse (76.8% covered, p < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
The optical coherence tomography-guided optimization of stent strut apposition enhances strut coverage at follow-up. This comprehensive method for evaluating strut apposition may provide more useful information to understanding the serial changes in strut coverage. (Neointimal Coverage After Implantation of Biolimus Eluting Stent With Biodegradable Polymer: Optical Coherence Tomographic Assessment According to the Treatment of Dyslipidemia and Hypertension and the Types of Implanted Drug-Eluting Stents; NCT01502904).
Contact allergy to ingredients of hair cosmetics - a comparison of female hairdressers and clients based on IVDK 2007-2012 data.

BACKGROUND
Cosmetics for bleaching, waving/relaxing and dyeing hair contain well-known allergens, leading to a substantial number of cases of allergic contact dermatitis.


OBJECTIVE
To compare the frequency of important contact allergens (i) between two distinct groups of exposed patients, and (ii) with previous surveillance data.


METHODS
On the basis of data collected by the Information Network of Departments of Dermatology (IVDK; www.ivkd.org) between 2007 and 2012 in 824 female hairdressers and 2067 female clients, the current spectrum of contact sensitization to ingredients of hair cosmetics, as contained in different pertinent series, is described.


RESULTS
A similar burden of sensitization as in previous analyses was observed, but with some increase in sensitization to oxidative hair dye components in clients. Some allergens mainly affected hairdressers, such as ammonium persulfate (18.7% positive) and glyceryl monothioglycolate (GMTG; still 4.7% positive, with a few cases also in young hairdressers, despite removal from the German market).


CONCLUSIONS
Hair dyes remain important contact allergens, despite various attempts by the cosmetic industry to introduce hair dyes with lower allergenic potential. The re-emergence of GMTG as an occupational allergen should be considered as a warning signal ('sentinel event') prompting close monitoring.
A robust endpoint detection of speech for noisy environments with application to automatic speech recognition

We propose a new approach for classifying speech vs. non-speech, which proves to significantly improve speech recognition performance under noise. The proposed algorithm relies on the energy and spectral characteristics of the signal and applies a 3-level two-dimensional thresholding to determine whether an input frame is speech or non-speech. The algorithm runs in real-time, and offers better immunity to background noise, and to background speech than traditional energy-based word boundary detection. The performance of the endpoint detector is reported here in terms of improvements in speaker-independent (SI) and speaker-dependent (SD) recognition performance using 5 different simulated noise conditions and various signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). The proposed endpoint detection of speech improves the SD recognition accuracy by 24% for office noise, and reduces the false rejection rates for both SI and SD by 45% for babble noise and lobby noise.
Electronic medical record-based multicondition models to predict the risk of 30 day readmission or death among adult medicine patients: validation and comparison to existing models

BACKGROUND
There is increasing interest in using prediction models to identify patients at risk of readmission or death after hospital discharge, but existing models have significant limitations. Electronic medical record (EMR) based models that can be used to predict risk on multiple disease conditions among a wide range of patient demographics early in the hospitalization are needed. The objective of this study was to evaluate the degree to which EMR-based risk models for 30-day readmission or mortality accurately identify high risk patients and to compare these models with published claims-based models.


METHODS
Data were analyzed from all consecutive adult patients admitted to internal medicine services at 7 large hospitals belonging to 3 health systems in Dallas/Fort Worth between November 2009 and October 2010 and split randomly into derivation and validation cohorts. Performance of the model was evaluated against the Canadian LACE mortality or readmission model and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Wide Readmission model.


RESULTS
Among the 39,604 adults hospitalized for a broad range of medical reasons, 2.8% of patients died, 12.7% were readmitted, and 14.7% were readmitted or died within 30 days after discharge. The electronic multicondition models for the composite outcome of 30-day mortality or readmission had good discrimination using data available within 24 h of admission (C statistic 0.69; 95% CI, 0.68-0.70), or at discharge (0.71; 95% CI, 0.70-0.72), and were significantly better than the LACE model (0.65; 95% CI, 0.64-0.66; P =0.02) with significant NRI (0.16) and IDI (0.039, 95% CI, 0.035-0.044). The electronic multicondition model for 30-day readmission alone had good discrimination using data available within 24 h of admission (C statistic 0.66; 95% CI, 0.65-0.67) or at discharge (0.68; 95% CI, 0.67-0.69), and performed significantly better than the CMS model (0.61; 95% CI, 0.59-0.62; P < 0.01) with significant NRI (0.20) and IDI (0.037, 95% CI, 0.033-0.041).


CONCLUSIONS
A new electronic multicondition model based on information derived from the EMR predicted mortality and readmission at 30 days, and was superior to previously published claims-based models.
Model Predictive Control of Z-Source four-leg inverter for standalone Photovoltaic system with unbalanced load

In this paper, Z-Source (ZS) four-leg inverter equipped with a Model Predictive Control (MPC) strategy for standalone Photovoltaic (PV) system under various load conditions is presented. The inverter is aimed to supply simultaneously three-phase and single-phase AC loads with balanced voltage and constant frequency. In this topology, a simple LC (Z) network is used instead of the boost converter to obtain single stage power conversion system. The MPC scheme is developed to control output currents of the inverter and ZS network current and voltage. Hardware-In-The-Loop (HIL) tests have been performed to verify steady-state and transient performances of the proposed system under balance/unbalanced load and/or reference current conditions.
The Robot Who Tried Too Hard: Social Behaviour of a Robot Tutor Can Negatively Affect Child Learning

Social robots are finding increasing application in the domain of education, particularly for children, to support and augment learning opportunities. With an implicit assumption that social and adaptive behaviour is desirable, it is therefore of interest to determine precisely how these aspects of behaviour may be exploited in robots to support children in their learning. In this paper, we explore this issue by evaluating the effect of a social robot tutoring strategy with children learning about prime numbers. It is shown that the tutoring strategy itself leads to improvement, but that the presence of a robot employing this strategy amplifies this effect, resulting in significant learning. However, it was also found that children interacting with a robot using social and adaptive behaviours in addition to the teaching strategy did not learn a significant amount. These results indicate that while the presence of a physical robot leads to improved learning, caution is required when applying social behaviour to a robot in a tutoring context.
Beyond Locality-Sensitive Hashing

We present a new data structure for the c-approximate near neighbor problem (ANN) in the Euclidean space. For n points in R, our algorithm achieves Oc(n + d log n) query time and Oc(n + d log n) space, where ρ ≤ 0.73/c + O(1/c) + oc(1). This is the first improvement over the result by Andoni and Indyk (FOCS 2006) and the first data structure that bypasses a locality-sensitive hashing lower bound proved by O’Donnell, Wu and Zhou (ICS 2011). By known reductions we obtain a data structure for the Hamming space and l1 norm with ρ ≤ 0.73/c+O(1/c) + oc(1), which is the first improvement over the result of Indyk and Motwani (STOC 1998). Thesis Supervisor: Piotr Indyk Title: Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Obesity is associated with risk of progression for low-risk prostate cancers managed expectantly.

BACKGROUND
Active surveillance (AS) is an expectant management strategy for prostate cancer (PCa). The impact of obesity on progression is not well characterized in this population.


OBJECTIVE
To determine if obesity is associated with progression in men on AS for low-risk PCa.


DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Men undergoing AS for low-risk PCa (no Gleason pattern ≥4, three or fewer cores involved or one-third or less of the total number of cores involved, and no core with >50% cancer involvement) were identified at our institution.


OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
The outcomes were pathologic progression (defined as no longer meeting low-risk criteria on follow-up biopsy) and therapeutic progression (defined as intent to initiate active treatment). Kaplan-Meier curves and multivariable logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards models were used, with separate models for reclassification at confirmatory biopsy (first biopsy after diagnostic biopsy) and progression beyond confirmatory biopsy.


RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS
In this cohort of 565 men (median follow-up: 48 mo), 124 (22%) were obese (body mass index [BMI] ≥30kg/m(2)). Pathologic and therapeutic progression occurred in 168 men (30%) and 172 men (30%), respectively. No association was noted between obesity and risk of progression at the confirmatory biopsy. However, beyond confirmatory biopsy, obesity was associated with a greater probability of pathologic progression (p=0.007) and therapeutic progression (p=0.007) in Kaplan-Meier analyses. In adjusted Cox models, each 5-unit increase in BMI was associated with an increased risk of pathologic progression (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.5; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1-2.1; p=0.02) and therapeutic progression (HR: 1.4; 95% CI, 1.0-1.9; p=0.05). The main limitation is the retrospective design, limiting the ability to assess BMI changes over time.


CONCLUSIONS
Obesity was associated with a significantly increased risk of progression beyond the confirmatory biopsy. This suggests an increased risk of long-term biologic progression rather than solely misclassification.


PATIENT SUMMARY
As opposed to immediate active treatment (surgery or radiation), active surveillance (AS) involves closely monitoring low-risk prostate cancers and only using active treatment if there are signs of progression. Our study is the first to suggest that obesity is associated with a higher risk of cancer progression while on AS. Further research is needed to determine if diet and exercise can decrease the risk of cancer progression while on AS.
An Internet-Based Diabetes Management Platform Improves Team Care and Outcomes in an Urban Latino Population

OBJECTIVE
To compare usual diabetes care (UDC) to a comprehensive diabetes care intervention condition (IC) involving an Internet-based "diabetes dashboard" management tool used by clinicians.


RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
We used a parallel-group randomized design. Diabetes nurses, diabetes dietitians, and providers used the diabetes dashboard as a clinical decision support system to deliver a five-visit, 6-month intervention to 199 poorly controlled (HbA1c >7.5% [58 mmol/mol]) Latino type 2 diabetic (T2D) patients (mean age 55 years, 60% female) at urban community health centers. We compared this intervention to an established, in-house UDC program (n = 200) for its impact on blood glucose control and psychosocial outcomes.


RESULTS
Recruitment and retention rates were 79.0 and 88.5%, respectively. Compared with UDC, more IC patients reached HbA1c targets of <7% (53 mmol/mol; 15.8 vs. 7.0%, respectively, P < 0.01) and <8% (64 mmol/mol; 45.2 vs. 25.3%, respectively, P < 0.001). In multiple linear regression adjusting for baseline HbA1c, adjusted mean ± SE HbA1c at follow-up was significantly lower in the IC compared with the UDC group (P < 0.001; IC 8.4 ± 0.10%; UDC 9.2 ± 0.10%). The results showed lower diabetes distress at follow-up for IC patients (40.4 ± 2.1) as compared with UDC patients (48.3 ± 2.0) (P < 0.01), and also lower social distress (32.2 ± 1.3 vs. 27.2 ± 1.4, P < 0.01). There was a similar, statistically significant (P < 0.01) improvement for both groups in the proportion of patients moving from depressed status at baseline to nondepressed at follow-up (41.8 vs. 40%; no significance between groups).


CONCLUSIONS
The diabetes dashboard intervention significantly improved diabetes-related outcomes among Latinos with poorly controlled T2D compared with a similar diabetes team condition without access to the diabetes dashboard.
A multicentre, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled Phase III study to investigate EXtending the time for Thrombolysis in Emergency Neurological Deficits (EXTEND).

BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS
Thrombolytic therapy with tissue plasminogen activator is effective for acute ischaemic stroke within 4·5 h of onset. Patients who wake up with stroke are generally ineligible for stroke thrombolysis. We hypothesized that ischaemic stroke patients with significant penumbral mismatch on either magnetic resonance imaging or computer tomography at three- (or 4·5 depending on local guidelines) to nine-hours from stroke onset, or patients with wake-up stroke within nine-hours from midpoint of sleep duration, would have improved clinical outcomes when given tissue plasminogen activator compared to placebo.


STUDY DESIGN
EXtending the time for Thrombolysis in Emergency Neurological Deficits is an investigator-driven, Phase III, randomized, multicentre, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Ischaemic stroke patients presenting after the three- or 4·5-h treatment window for tissue plasminogen activator and within nine-hours of stroke onset or with wake-up stroke within nine-hours from the midpoint of sleep duration, who fulfil clinical (National Institutes of Health Stroke Score ≥4-26 and prestroke modified Rankin Scale <2) will undergo magnetic resonance imaging or computer tomography. Patients who also meet imaging criteria (infarct core volume <70 ml, perfusion lesion : infarct core mismatch ratio >1·2, and absolute mismatch >10 ml) will be randomized to either tissue plasminogen activator or placebo.


STUDY OUTCOME
The primary outcome measure will be modified Rankin Scale 0-1 at day 90. Clinical secondary outcomes include categorical shift in modified Rankin Scale at 90 days, reduction in the National Institutes of Health Stroke Score by 8 or more points or reaching 0-1 at day 90, recurrent stroke, or death. Imaging secondary outcomes will include symptomatic intracranial haemorrhage, reperfusion and or recanalization at 24 h and infarct growth at day 90.
Design and modeling of a gas-electric hybrid quad tilt-rotor UAV with morphing wing

In this work, a gas-electric hybrid quad tilt-rotor UAV with morphing wing is designed. The mechanical design, propulsion system design and control architecture are explained. Dynamic model of the aerial vehicle is developed including the effects of tilting rotors, variable fuel weight, and morphing wing lift-drag forces and pitching moments.
Study on Feature Extraction of Speech Emotion Recognition

Speech emotion recognition system aims at automatically identifying the emotion of the speaker from the speech. It is a modification of the speech recognition system which only identifies the speech. In this paper, we study the feature extraction algorithm such as pitch, formant frequency and MFCC.
Rethinking peer support for diabetes in Vancouver's South-Asian community: a feasibility study.

AIM
To examine the feasibility and potential health impact of a diabetes self-management education and support intervention involving peer support on glycaemic control and diabetes distress.


METHODS
A total of 41 South-Asian adults with Type 2 diabetes were recruited for a 24-week diabetes self-management education and support pilot intervention involving peer support. The intervention consisted of six weekly education sessions co-facilitated by a certified diabetes educator and two peer leaders, followed by 18 weekly support sessions facilitated by two peer leaders. Education sessions were guided entirely by participants' self-management questions and also emphasized goal setting and action planning. Support sessions were based on empowerment principles and participants discussed self-management challenges, shared emotions, asked self-management questions, problem-solved in a group, set goals, and developed and evaluated action plans. Feasibility outcomes included recruitment and retention. Primary health-related outcomes included HbA1c levels and diabetes distress (measured at baseline, 6 and 24 weeks). Programme satisfaction was also assessed.


RESULTS
Pre-established criteria for recruitment and retention were met. Paired t-tests showed no changes in HbA1c and diabetes distress at 6 weeks. At 24 weeks, HbA1c levels deteriorated [54 mmol/mol (7.1%) vs 61 mmol/mol (7.7%)] while diabetes distress scores improved (2.0 vs 1.7).


CONCLUSIONS
Although feasible, findings suggest this peer-support model may have a positive impact on diabetes distress, but not on HbA1c levels. Culturally responsive modifications (e.g. intervention location) to the pilot model are needed and could lead to more favourable health outcomes for this community. Such a re-designed peer-support model will require further investigation.
Air pollution abatement performances of green infrastructure in open road and built-up street canyon environments e A review

Green infrastructure can play a significant role in mitigating urban air
Root fractures: the influence of type of healing and location of fracture on tooth survival rates - an analysis of 492 cases.

AIM
The purpose of this study was to analyze tooth loss after root fractures and to assess the influence of the type of healing and the location of the root fracture. Furthermore, the actual cause of tooth loss was analyzed.


MATERIAL AND METHODS
Long-term survival rates were calculated using data from 492 root-fractured teeth in 432 patients. The cause of tooth loss was assessed as being the result of either pulp necrosis (including endodontic failures), new traumas or excessive mobility. The statistics used were Kaplan-Meier and the log rank method.


RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
The location of the root fracture had a strong significant effect on tooth survival (P = 0.0001). The 10-year tooth survival of apical root fractures was 89% [95% confidence interval (CI), 78-99%], of mid-root fractures 78% (CI, 64-92%), of cervical-mid-root fractures 67% (CI, 50-85%), and of cervical fractures 33% (CI, 17-49%). The fracture-healing type offered further prognostic information. No tooth loss was observed in teeth with hard tissue fracture healing regardless of the position of the fracture. For teeth with interposition of connective tissue, the location of the fracture had a significant influence on tooth loss (P = 0.0001). For teeth with connective tissue healing, the estimated 8-year survival of apical, mid-root, and cervical-mid-root fractures were all more than 80%, whereas the estimated 8-year survival of cervical fractures was 25% (CI, 7-43%). For teeth with non-healing with interposition of granulation tissue, the location of the fracture showed a significant influence on tooth loss (P = 0.0001). The cause of tooth loss was found to be very dependent upon the location of the fracture. In conclusion, the long-term tooth survival of root fractures was strongly influenced by the type of healing and the location of the fracture.
A Bottom-Source Single-Gate Vertical Channel (BS-SGVC) 3D NAND Flash Architecture and Studies of Bottom Source Engineering

Vertical channel (VC) 3D NAND Flash may be categorized into two types of channel formation: (1) "U-turn" string, where both BL and source are connected at top thus channel current flows in a U-turn way; (2) "Bottom source", where source is connected at the bottom thus channel current flows only in one way. For the single-gate vertical channel (SGVC) 3D NAND architecture [1], it is also possible to develop a bottom source structure. The detailed array decoding method is illustrated. In this work, the challenges of bottom source processing and thin poly channel formation are extensively studied. It is found that the two-step poly formation and the bottom recess control are two key factors governing the device initial performance. In general, the two-step poly formation with additional poly spacer etching technique seems to cause degradation of both the poly mobility and device subthreshold slope. Sufficient thermal annealing is needed to recover the damage. Moreover, the bottom connection needs an elegant recess control for better read current as well as bottom ground-select transistor (GSL) device optimizations.
Robust Euclidean alignment of 3D point sets: the trimmed iterative closest point algorithm

The problem of geometric alignment of two roughly pre-registered, partially overlapping, rigid, noisy 3D point sets is considered. A new natural and simple, robustified extension of the popular Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm [1] is presented, called Trimmed ICP. The new algorithm is based on the consistent use of the Least Trimmed Squares approach in all phases of the operation. Convergence is proved and an efficient implementation is discussed. TrICP is fast, applicable to overlaps under 50%, robust to erroneous and incomplete measurements, and has easy-to-set parameters. ICP is a special case of TrICP when the overlap parameter is 100%. Results of a performance evaluation study on the SQUID database of 1100 shapes are presented. The tests compare TrICP and the Iterative Closest Reciprocal Point algorithm [2].