LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
A comprehensive care management program to prevent chronic obstructive pulmonary disease hospitalizations: a randomized, controlled trial.

BACKGROUND
Improving a patient's ability to self-monitor and manage changes in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) symptoms may improve outcomes.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the efficacy of a comprehensive care management program (CCMP) in reducing the risk for COPD hospitalization.


DESIGN
A randomized, controlled trial comparing CCMP with guideline-based usual care. (ClinicalTrials.gov registration number: NCT00395083) SETTING: 20 Veterans Affairs hospital-based outpatient clinics.


PARTICIPANTS
Patients hospitalized for COPD in the past year.


INTERVENTION
The CCMP included COPD education during 4 individual sessions and 1 group session, an action plan for identification and treatment of exacerbations, and scheduled proactive telephone calls for case management. Patients in both the intervention and usual care groups received a COPD informational booklet; their primary care providers received a copy of COPD guidelines and were advised to manage their patients according to these guidelines. Patients were randomly assigned, stratifying by site based on random, permuted blocks of variable size.


MEASUREMENTS
The primary outcome was time to first COPD hospitalization. Staff blinded to study group performed telephone-based assessment of COPD exacerbations and hospitalizations, and all hospitalizations were blindly adjudicated. Secondary outcomes included non-COPD health care use, all-cause mortality, health-related quality of life, patient satisfaction, disease knowledge, and self-efficacy.


RESULTS
Of the eligible patients, 209 were randomly assigned to the intervention group and 217 to the usual care group. Citing serious safety concerns, the data monitoring committee terminated the intervention before the trial's planned completion after 426 (44%) of the planned total of 960 patients were enrolled. Mean follow-up was 250 days. When the study was stopped, the 1-year cumulative incidence of COPD-related hospitalization was 27% in the intervention group and 24% in the usual care group (hazard ratio, 1.13 [95% CI, 0.70 to 1.80]; P= 0.62). There were 28 deaths from all causes in the intervention group versus 10 in the usual care group (hazard ratio, 3.00 [CI, 1.46 to 6.17]; P= 0.003). Cause could be assigned in 27 (71%) deaths. Deaths due to COPD accounted for the largest difference: 10 in the intervention group versus 3 in the usual care group (hazard ratio, 3.60 [CI, 0.99 to 13.08]; P= 0.053).


LIMITATIONS
Available data could not fully explain the excess mortality in the intervention group. Ability to assess the quality of the educational sessions provided by the case managers was limited.


CONCLUSION
A CCMP in patients with severe COPD had not decreased COPD-related hospitalizations when the trial was stopped prematurely. The CCMP was associated with unanticipated excess mortality, results that differ markedly from similar previous trials. A data monitoring committee should be considered in the design of clinical trials involving behavioral interventions.
Direct Torque Control With Reduced Switching Losses for Asymmetric Multilevel Inverter Fed Induction Motor Drives

In this paper a high performance torque and flux control strategy for multilevel inverter fed induction motor drives is presented. The control method is based on direct torque control operating principles. The stator voltage vector reference is computed from the stator flux error imposed by the torque controller. This voltage reference is then generated using an asymmetric cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter. This inverter provides nearly sinusoidal voltages with very low distortion, using less switching devices. Due to the small dv/dt's, torque ripple is greatly reduced. In addition, the asymmetric multilevel inverter can generate a high and fixed switching frequency output voltages with less switching losses, since only the small power cells of the inverter operate at high switching rate. Therefore a high performance and also efficient torque and flux controller is obtained, enabling a DTC solution for multilevel inverter powered motor drives
Understanding Video Games: The Essential Introduction

From Pong to PlayStation 3 and beyond, Understanding Video Games is the first general introduction to the exciting new field of video game studies. This textbook traces the history of video games, introduces the major theories used to analyze games such as ludology and narratology, reviews the economics of the game industry, examines the aesthetics of game design, surveys the broad range of game genres, explores player culture, and addresses the major debates surrounding the medium, from educational benefits to the effects of violence.Author: Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Simon Publisher: Routledge Illustration: Y Language: ENG Title: Understanding Video Games: The Essential Introduction Pages: 00294 (Encrypted PDF) On Sale: 2008-02-20 SKU-13/ISBN: 9780415977203 Lib Category: Video games Category: Games : Video & Electronic General Category: Non-Classifiable : Non-Classifiable
Multi-User Interference Cancellation Schemes for Carrier Frequency Offset Compensation in Uplink OFDMA

Each user in the uplink of an Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) system may experience a different carrier frequency offset (CFO). These uncorrected CFOs destroy the orthogonality among subcarriers, causing inter-carrier interference and multi-user interference, which degrade the system performance severely. In this paper, novel time-domain multi-user interference cancellation schemes for OFDMA uplink are proposed. They employ an architecture with multiple OFDMA-demodulators to compensate for the impacts of multi-user CFOs at the base station's side. Analytical and numerical evaluations show that the proposed schemes achieve a significant performance gain compared to the conventional receiver and a reference frequency-domain multi-user interference cancellation scheme. In a particular scenario, a maximum CFO of up to 40% of the subcarrier spacing can be tolerated, and the CFO-free performance is maintained in the OFDMA uplink.
Poultry No . 1573 The replacement value of betaine for DL-methionine and Choline in broiler diets

Especially in times of high raw material prices as a result of limited availability of feed ingredients nutritionist look for ways to keep feed cost as low as possible. Part of this discussion is whether certain ingredients can be replaced by others while avoiding impairments of performance. This discussion sometimes includes the question whether supplemental methionine can be replaced by betaine. Use of supplemental methionine, choline and betaine is common in broiler diets. Biochemically, all three compounds can act as methyl group donors. Figure 1 illustrates metabolic pathways connecting choline, betaine and methionine. This chart shows that choline is transformed to betaine which can then deliver a CH3-group for methylation reactions. One of those reactions is the methylation of homocysteine to methionine. This reaction occurs as part of the homocysteine cycle, which continues by transferring the methyl group further and yielding homocysteine again. Thus, there is no net yield of methionine from this cycle, since it only functions to transport a methyl group.
Dual arm manipulation - A survey

Recent advances in both anthropomorphic robots and bimanual industrial manipulators had led to an increased interest in the specific problems pertaining to dual armmanipulation. For the future, we foresee robots performing human-like tasks in both domestic and industrial settings. It is therefore natural to study specifics of dual arm manipulation in humans and methods for using the resulting knowledge in robot control. The related scientific problems range from low-level control to high level task planning and execution. This review aims to summarize the current state of the art from the heterogenous range of fields that study the different aspects of these problems specifically in dual arm manipulation. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Humanoid Robot Locomotion and Manipulation Step Planning

We aim at planning multi-contact sequences of stances and postures for humanoid robots. The output sequence defines the contact transitions that allow our robot to realize different kind of tasks, ranging from biped locomotion to dexterous manipulation. The central component of the planning framework is a best-first algorithm that performs a search of the contacts to be added or removed at each step, following an input collision-free guide path, and making calls to an optimization-based inverse kinematics solver under static equilibrium constraints. The planner can handle systems made of multiple robots and/or manipulated objects through a centralized multi-agent approach, opening the way for multi-robot collaborative locomotion and manipulation planning. Results are presented in virtual environments, with discussion on execution on the real robot HRP-2 in an example situation. keywords: humanoid robot, legged locomotion, dexterous manipulation, inverse kinematics, planning algorithm.
Hyaluronate Fragments Reverse Skin Atrophy by a CD44-Dependent Mechanism

BACKGROUND
Skin atrophy is a common manifestation of aging and is frequently accompanied by ulceration and delayed wound healing. With an increasingly aging patient population, management of skin atrophy is becoming a major challenge in the clinic, particularly in light of the fact that there are no effective therapeutic options at present.


METHODS AND FINDINGS
Atrophic skin displays a decreased hyaluronate (HA) content and expression of the major cell-surface hyaluronate receptor, CD44. In an effort to develop a therapeutic strategy for skin atrophy, we addressed the effect of topical administration of defined-size HA fragments (HAF) on skin trophicity. Treatment of primary keratinocyte cultures with intermediate-size HAF (HAFi; 50,000-400,000 Da) but not with small-size HAF (HAFs; <50,000 Da) or large-size HAF (HAFl; >400,000 Da) induced wild-type (wt) but not CD44-deficient (CD44-/-) keratinocyte proliferation. Topical application of HAFi caused marked epidermal hyperplasia in wt but not in CD44-/- mice, and significant skin thickening in patients with age- or corticosteroid-related skin atrophy. The effect of HAFi on keratinocyte proliferation was abrogated by antibodies against heparin-binding epidermal growth factor (HB-EGF) and its receptor, erbB1, which form a complex with a particular isoform of CD44 (CD44v3), and by tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-3 (TIMP-3).


CONCLUSIONS
Our observations provide a novel CD44-dependent mechanism for HA oligosaccharide-induced keratinocyte proliferation and suggest that topical HAFi application may provide an attractive therapeutic option in human skin atrophy.
Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial comparing mindfulness-based cognitive therapy with maintenance anti-depressant treatment in the prevention of depressive relapse/recurrence: the PREVENT trial

BACKGROUND
Depression is a common and distressing mental health problem that is responsible for significant individual disability and cost to society. Medication and psychological therapies are effective for treating depression and maintenance anti-depressants (m-ADM) can prevent relapse. However, individuals with depression often express a wish for psychological help that can help them recover from depression in the long-term. We need to develop psychological therapies that prevent depressive relapse/recurrence. A recently developed treatment, Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT, see http://www.mbct.co.uk) shows potential as a brief group programme for people with recurring depression. In two studies it has been shown to halve the rates of depression recurring compared to usual care.This trial asks the policy research question, is MBCT superior to m-ADM in terms of: a primary outcome of preventing depressive relapse/recurrence over 24 months; and, secondary outcomes of (a) depression free days, (b) residual depressive symptoms, (c) antidepressant (ADM) usage, (d) psychiatric and medical co-morbidity, (e) quality of life, and (f) cost effectiveness? An explanatory research question asks is an increase in mindfulness skills the key mechanism of change?


METHODS/DESIGN
The design is a single blind, parallel RCT examining MBCT vs. m-ADM with an embedded process study. To answer the main policy research question the proposed trial compares MBCT plus ADM-tapering with m-ADM for patients with recurrent depression. Four hundred and twenty patients with recurrent major depressive disorder in full or partial remission will be recruited through primary care. Depressive relapse/recurrence over two years is the primary outcome variable. The explanatory question will be addressed in two mutually informative ways: quantitative measurement of potential mediating variables pre/post-treatment and a qualitative study of service users' views and experiences.


DISCUSSION
If the results of our exploratory trial are extended to this definitive trial, MBCT will be established as an alternative approach to maintenance anti-depressants for people with a history of recurrent depression. The process studies will provide evidence about the effective components which can be used to improve MBCT and inform theory as well as other therapeutic approaches.


TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER
ISRCTN26666654.
Ontology as a Service (OaaS): a case for sub-ontology merging on the cloud

Cloud computing is a revolution in the information technology industry. It allows computing services provided as utilities. The traditional cloud services include Software as a Service, Platform as a Service, Hardware/Infrastructure as a Service, and Database as a Service. In this paper, we introduce the notion of Ontology as a Service (OaaS), whereby the ontology tailoring process is a service in the cloud. This is particularly relevant as we are moving toward Cloud 2.0—multi-cloud providers to provide an interoperable service to customers. To illustrate OaaS, in this paper we propose sub-ontology extraction and merging, whereby multiple sub-ontologies are extracted from various source ontologies, and then these extracted sub-ontologies are merged to form a complete ontology to be used by the user. We use the Minimum extraction method to facilitate this. A walkthrough case study using the UMLS meta-thesaurus ontology is elaborated, and its performance in the cloud is also discussed.
Role of television in childhood obesity prevention

OBJECTIVE: To assess the role of television as tool for childhood obesity prevention.METHOD:Review of the available literature about the relationship between television and childhood obesity, eating habits and body shape perception.RESULTS: The reviewed studies showed the following: television watching replaces more vigorous activities; there is a positive correlation between time spent watching television and being overweight or obese on populations of different age; obesity prevalence has increased as well as the number of hours that TV networks dedicate to children; during the last 30 y, the rate of children watching television for more than 4 h per day seems to have increased; children are exposed to a large number of important unhealthy stimulations in terms of food intake when watching television; over the last few years, the number of television food commercials targeting children have increased especially when it comes to junk food in all of its forms; the present use of food in movies, shows and cartoons may lead to a misconception of the notion of healthy nutrition and stimulate an excessive intake of poor nutritional food; and obese subjects shown in television programmes are in a much lower percentage than in real life and are depicted as being unattractive, unsuccessful and ridiculous or with other negative traits and this is likely to result in a worsening of the isolation in which obese subjects are often forced. The different European countries have different TV legislations.CONCLUSION: The usual depiction of food and obesity in television has many documented negative consequences on food habits and patterns. The different national regulations on programs and advertising directed to children could have a role in the different prevalence of childhood obesity in different European countries. Television could be a convenient tool to spread correct information on good nutrition and obesity prevention.
Construction of Image Ontology using low-level features for Image Retrieval

This paper proposes a technique to construct Image Ontology using low-level features like color, texture and shape. The resulting ontology can be used to extract the relevant images from the image database. Retrieving relevant images from an image database is one of the challenging tasks in multimedia technology. More researches are being done in this area, among them Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) is a note-worthy technique. Even in CBIR, the results retrieved are not satisfactory, i.e., with some test cases, there will be no relationship between queried image and retrieved images. It is difficult to produce a required result if the user query is not clear or when a user does not know what he wants. From a technical perspective, there are problems in producing a relevant result, if no image in the database has exact match with the user's requirement while using the low-level features. Interestingly, a semantic approach provides effective and meaningful results in image searching. Semantic searching approach uses Image Ontology for a better representation and organization of images. Besides the representation of the image properties, relationships among the several images can also be organized using image ontology. Low-level features reflect a direct visibility to the users. Therefore, construction of an Image Ontology using low-level features is more appropriate than the other techniques. In this paper an algorithm is proposed for constructing an image Ontology using low-level features.
Meta-analyses and Forest plots using a microsoft excel spreadsheet: step-by-step guide focusing on descriptive data analysis

Meta-analyses are necessary to synthesize data obtained from primary research, and in many situations reviews of observational studies are the only available alternative. General purpose statistical packages can meta-analyze data, but usually require external macros or coding. Commercial specialist software is available, but may be expensive and focused in a particular type of primary data. Most available softwares have limitations in dealing with descriptive data, and the graphical display of summary statistics such as incidence and prevalence is unsatisfactory. Analyses can be conducted using Microsoft Excel, but there was no previous guide available. We constructed a step-by-step guide to perform a meta-analysis in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, using either fixed-effect or random-effects models. We have also developed a second spreadsheet capable of producing customized forest plots. It is possible to conduct a meta-analysis using only Microsoft Excel. More important, to our knowledge this is the first description of a method for producing a statistically adequate but graphically appealing forest plot summarizing descriptive data, using widely available software.
Impact of sugar beet pectin and polydextrose on fasting and postprandial glycemia and fasting concentrations of serum total and lipoprotein lipids in middle-aged subjects with abnormal glucose metabolism

Objective:To examine the effects of sugar beet pectin (SBP) and polydextrose (PDX) on fasting plasma glucose concentration, serum lipid profile and postprandial glycemia in middle-aged subjects with abnormal glucose metabolism.Design:A placebo-controlled, randomized, parallel double-blinded study.Subjects and setting:Subjects were recruited via newspaper announcements. Seventy subjects were recruited of which 66 completed the study.Intervention:The intervention period lasted for 12 weeks during which the subjects consumed a drink enriched with either SBP (n=22) or PDX (n=22) or without fiber enrichment (control group, n=22). The daily dose of the drinks was 4 dl. The subjects were also given nutrition counseling. Postprandial glycemia was examined in 24 subjects (n=8 in each group) at 0 and 12 weeks after a standardized breakfast.Results:Fasting plasma glucose concentration did not change in the SBP and PDX groups, whereas it increased in the control group (P=0.007). On the contrary, the glycosylated hemoglobin A1c increased marginally but significantly (P⩽0.05) in the intervention groups without a change in the control group. In postprandial glycemia, no differences between the groups were found. In both the SBP and PDX groups, fasting serum High-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol concentration increased (P⩽0.05) without a change in the control group. Total to HDL-cholesterol ratio decreased in all groups (P⩽0.05).Conclusions:It was found that SBP and PDX do not have positive effects on fasting or postprandial plasma glucose concentrations or serum lipid profile in subjects with abnormal glucose metabolism.Sponsorship:Danisco Ltd, Espoo, Finland.
Real-world effectiveness of amlodipine/valsartan and amlodipine/valsartan/hydrochlorothiazide in high-risk patients and other subgroups

BACKGROUND
The clinical EXCITE (EXperienCe of amlodIpine and valsarTan in hypErtension) study reported clinically relevant blood pressure (BP) reductions across all doses of amlodipine/valsartan (Aml/Val) and Aml/Val/hydrochlorothiazide (HCT) single-pill combinations. The study prospectively observed a multiethnic population of hypertensive patients for 26 weeks who were treated according to routine clinical practice. Here, we present the results in high-risk subgroups including the elderly, obese patients, and patients with diabetes or isolated systolic hypertension. In addition, we present a post hoc analysis as per prior antihypertensive monotherapy and dual therapy.


METHODS
Patients prescribed Aml/Val or Aml/Val/HCT were assessed in this 26±8 week, noninterventional, multicenter study across 13 countries in the Middle East and Asia. Changes in mean sitting systolic BP, mean sitting diastolic BP, and overall safety were assessed.


RESULTS
Of a total of 9,794 patients analyzed, 8,603 and 1,191 patients were prescribed Aml/Val and Aml/Val/HCT, respectively. Among these, 15.5% were elderly, 32.5% were obese, 31.3% had diabetes, and 9.8% had isolated systolic hypertension. Both Aml/Val and Aml/Val/HCT single-pill combinations, respectively, were associated with clinically relevant and significant mean sitting systolic/diastolic BP reductions across all subgroups: elderly patients (-32.2/-14.3 mmHg and -38.5/-16.5 mmHg), obese patients (-32.2/-17.9 mmHg and -38.5/-18.4 mmHg), diabetic patients (-30.3/-16.1 mmHg and -34.4/-16.6 mmHg), and patients with isolated systolic hypertension (-25.5/-4.1 mmHg and -30.2/-5.9 mmHg). Incremental BP reductions with Aml/Val or Aml/Val/HCT single-pill combinations were also observed in patients receiving prior monotherapy or dual therapy for hypertension. Overall, both Aml/Val and Aml/Val/HCT were generally well tolerated.


CONCLUSION
This large, multiethnic study supports the evidence that Aml/Val and Aml/Val/ HCT single-pill combinations are effective in diverse and clinically important subgroups of patients with hypertension.