LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Correlation between radiographic severity of knee osteoarthritis and future disease progression. Results from a 3-year prospective, placebo-controlled study evaluating the effect of glucosamine sulfate.

OBJECTIVE
To investigate the relationship between baseline radiographic severity of knee osteoarthritis (OA) and the importance of long-term joint space narrowing.


DESIGN
Sub-analysis from a three-year randomized, placebo-controlled, prospective study, of 212 patients with knee OA, recruited in an osteoarthritic outpatient clinic and having been part of a study evaluating the effect of glucosamine sulfate on symptom and structure modification in knee OA.


MATERIAL AND METHODS
Measurements of mean joint space width (JSW), assessed by a computer-assisted method, were performed at baseline and after 3 years, on weightbearing anteroposterior knee radiographs.


RESULTS
In the placebo group, baseline JSW was significantly and negatively correlated with the joint space narrowing observed after 3 years (r=-0.34, P=0.003). In the lowest quartile of baseline mean JSW (<4.5mm), the JSW increased after 3 years by (mean (S.D.)) 3.8% (23.8) in the placebo group and 6.2% (17.5) in the glucosamine sulfate group. The difference between the two groups in these patients with the most severe OA at baseline was not statistically significant (P=0.70). In the highest quartile of baseline mean JSW (>6.2mm), a joint space narrowing of 14.9% (17.9) occurred in the placebo group after 3 years while patients from the glucosamine sulfate group only experienced a narrowing of 6.0% (15.1). Patients with the most severe OA at baseline had a RR of 0.42 (0.17-1.01) to experience a 0.5mm joint space narrowing over 3 years, compared to those with the less affected joint. In patients with mild OA, i.e. in the highest quartile of baseline mean JSW, glucosamine sulfate use was associated with a trend (P=0.10) towards a significant reduction in joint space narrowing.


CONCLUSION
These results suggest that patients with the less severe radiographic knee OA will experience, over 3 years, the most dramatic disease progression in terms of joint space narrowing. Such patients may be particularly responsive to structure-modifying drugs.
Designing epoxy insulators in SF6-filled DC-GIL with simulations of ionic conduction and surface charging

The problem of surface charge accumulation on gas-insulator interface is one of the critical factors for the development of DC Gas Insulated transmission Lines (GIL). In order to solve this problem, researchers have proposed a variety of mathematical models in which the volume conductivity of SF6 was assumed to be constant for calculating the distribution of surface charge. However, the conductivity of SF6 was inconstant, affected by electric field strength. In this paper, a gas model is developed, taking into account the generation, recombination and motion of charge carriers in SF6 of DC-GIL. The surface charge density and the electric field distribution on the insulator surface under DC voltage were simulated. Afterwards, the electric conduction through the volume of the insulator was proved to be the dominating accumulation mechanism. In order to improve the insulation performance, the influence of practical insulator shape on the electric field distribution in DC-GIL was studied. Three different shapes of insulator which were disc insulator, conical insulator and obtuse conical insulator were introduced and compared. The simulation results indicate the obtuse conical insulator was the most suitable configuration for DC-GIL.
Is FDG PET a better imaging tool than somatostatin receptor scintigraphy in patients with relapsing multiple myeloma?

PURPOSE
Osseous involvement defined by lytic bone lesions is shown by skeletal survey in multiple myeloma (MM). This technique has limitations because it detects only lesions with more than 30% trabecular bone loss. In addition, lesions persist after chemotherapy, thereby limiting its usefulness at relapsing disease. Alternative techniques to detect new bone lesions are somatostatin receptor scintigraphy (SRS) and 18F-fluordeoxyglucose (FDG) PET so far predominantly studied in patients with newly diagnosed MM. Malignant plasma cells can have a high expression of somatostatin receptors and an elevated metabolic activity. Therefore, these techniques might be useful in patients with relapsing MM because they are not hampered by preexisting skeletal defects. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate which technique is most optimal to detect skeletal lesions in patients with relapsing MM.


METHOD
In patients with relapsing MM (n = 21), 3 separate methods were used (skeletal survey, SRS, and FDG PET) for detecting new skeletal lesions.


RESULTS
Of all patients, 55% had new lesions on the skeletal survey [mean (SD), 1.45 (1.76); range, 0-5], 52% had new SRS lesions [mean (SD), 1.43 (0.38); range, 0-5], and 71% demonstrated new lesions on the FDG PET-scan [mean (SD), 4.05 (0.9); range, 0-12]. The lesions on skeletal survey and SRS corresponded with FDG PET. The number of lesions was higher with the FDG PET versus that with SRS (P = 0.01) and with FDG PET versus that with skeletal survey (P = 0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
The results demonstrate that FDG PET is more valuable than skeletal survey and SRS to detect disease activity in relapsing MM.
Genetic variability and heritability of grain yield components and grain mineral concentration in India's pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L) R. Br.) accessions

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.) is an important cereal in semi-arid tropics in Africa and India. Conventionally, millet has good amounts of grain minerals compared to other cereals. Estimation of genetic parameters would be useful in developing appropriate breeding and selection strategies. The present study was conducted to evaluate the local pearl millet accessions to assess the magnitude of variability and to understand the heritable component of variation present in the yield and nutritional characters. A field trial was laid under the complete randomized block design (RCBD) with three replications; observation were recorded on eight morphological and seven nutritional characters (as detailed in material and methods) including anti-nutritional properties such as phytate content among 61 genotypes collected from millet collection. The phenotypic co-efficient of variation (PCV) was greater than genotypic co-efficient of variation (GCV) for all the characters studied; this shows the influence of environmental factors on the characters. The phosphorus content had expressed the highest phenotypic and genotypic variances (845.30 and 772.08, respectively). The magnitudes of phenotypic and genotypic variances were low for the 100 grain weight (0.001 for both phenotypic and genotypic variance). High estimates of genetic co-efficient of variation, heritability and genetic advance were exhibited by iron and crude fat content. Heritability is a measure of possible genetic advancement under selection. High heritability was observed for all the traits under study except seed weight which had moderate heritability. High value of heritability coupled with high genetic advance as per cent of mean were recorded for number of productive tillers, crude protein, crude fat, phytate, phosphorus, calcium, iron and zinc content, indicating the important role of additive gene action for the expression of these characters. Therefore, selection based on these characters could bring about desired improvement in yield as well as nutritional quality of pearl millet cultivars.
A comparison of carotenoids, retinoids, and tocopherols in the serum and buccal mucosa of chronic cigarette smokers versus nonsmokers.

BACKGROUND
Cigarette smoking, a major risk factor for oropharyngeal cancer, is reported to alter oral levels of carotenoids and tocopherols. Such effects may be important because these nutrients, as well as retinoids, are putative chemoprotective agents.


OBJECTIVES
To determine whether chronic smoking is associated with altered concentrations of these nutrients in serum and buccal mucosa; to distinguish whether such effects are ascribable to diet; and to determine whether oral concentrations of these nutrients correlate with a putative biomarker of oral cancer risk.


METHODS
Serum and buccal mucosal cells (BMC) were analyzed for these nutrients and for BMC micronuclei in smokers (n = 35) and nonsmokers (n = 21).


RESULTS
General linear regression with adjustments for dietary intake showed that smokers possess lower serum concentrations of beta- and alpha-carotene, cryptoxanthin, lutein, and zeaxanthin (P </= 0.01) and a significantly higher serum gamma-tocopherol (P = 0.03). In BMCs, smokers had significantly lower concentrations of beta- and alpha-carotene, lycopene, and alpha-tocopherol (P < 0.05) but significantly higher gamma-tocopherol (P < 0.01). Among nonsmokers, many serum carotenoid concentrations correlated with concentrations of the corresponding nutrient in BMCs whereas no such correlations existed among smokers. BMC micronuclei did not correlate with the oral concentration of any micronutrient.


CONCLUSIONS
Chronic cigarette smokers have lower concentrations of many dietary antioxidants in serum and BMCs compared with nonsmokers, an effect which is not entirely ascribable to diet. Nevertheless, the lack of concordance between oral concentrations of these nutrients and genetic damage in the BMCs of smokers does not support a protective role for these nutrients in oral carcinogenesis.
Characteristics of knowledge, people engaged in knowledge transfer and knowledge stickiness: evidence from Chinese R&D team

Characteristics of knowledge, people engaged in knowledge transfer, and knowledge stickiness: evidence from Chinese R & D team Huang Huan, Ma Yongyuan, Zhang Sheng, Dou Qinchao, Article information: To cite this document: Huang Huan, Ma Yongyuan, Zhang Sheng, Dou Qinchao, "Characteristics of knowledge, people engaged in knowledge transfer, and knowledge stickiness: evidence from Chinese R & D team", Journal of Knowledge Management, https:// doi.org/10.1108/JKM-02-2017-0054 Permanent link to this document: https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-02-2017-0054
Early sport specialisation, does it lead to long-term problems?

SPORT SPECIALISATION: FRIEND OR FOE? Sports participation is increasing in the USA (US population 313 million inhabitants) and in Icelandic (population 320 thousand inhabitants) adolescents, it is estimated that 35–45 million youth 6–18 years of age participate in some form of organised or recreational athletics. 2 However, sports specialisation including year-round sport-specific training, participation on multiple teams of the same sport and focused participation in a single sport is purported to be increasing in frequency in preadolescent children across the world. There are several factors that contribute to the desire of young athletes to specialise in a single sport including the pursuit of scholarships or professional contracts, being labelled as talented by parents or coaches, retailing industry and media reports. A 2006 New York Times article notes “A growing number of coaches, parents, and children believe that the best way to produce superior young athletes is to have them play only one sport from an early age, and to play it virtually year-round.” Despite this increase in global sports participation, physical fitness levels of children and adults are declining and more people around the globe are becoming obese and physically inactive. The efforts to specialise youth sports underlie the effects of reduced general opportunity for all children to participate in a diverse year-round sports season, and possibly leading to lost development of lifetime sports skills. These lost opportunities for ‘fun’ focused physical activity during youth likely contribute to deficits in current and long-term physical activity and health. Physical inactivity is a major factor in obesity and other comorbidities that are driving up healthcare costs. We hypothesise that sports specialisation in preadolescent children may lead to reduced overall comprehensive motor skill development, increased injury risk and therefore could contribute to reduced lifetime physical activity. Specialisation in a single sport was perceived to have begun in Eastern Europe with activities such as gymnastics, swimming, diving and figure skating. Most Olympic sports have selection processes that attempt to identify future champions and initiate specialised training-often before the prospect finishes elementary school. The relative success of these programmes has led to early talent identification and developmental programmes focusing on a single sport, globally. The glamour of a professional contract is too good to pass up and more athletes are turning professional at a younger age. Unfortunately, most athletes and their parents fail to realise that only 0.2–0.5% of USA high school athletes ever make it to the professional level.
The Neuroprotective Efficacy of Cell-Penetrating Peptides TAT, Penetratin, Arg-9, and Pep-1 in Glutamic Acid, Kainic Acid, and In Vitro Ischemia Injury Models Using Primary Cortical Neuronal Cultures

Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) are small peptides (typically 5–25 amino acids), which are used to facilitate the delivery of normally non-permeable cargos such as other peptides, proteins, nucleic acids, or drugs into cells. However, several recent studies have demonstrated that the TAT CPP has neuroprotective properties. Therefore, in this study, we assessed the TAT and three other CPPs (penetratin, Arg-9, Pep-1) for their neuroprotective properties in cortical neuronal cultures following exposure to glutamic acid, kainic acid, or in vitro ischemia (oxygen–glucose deprivation). Arg-9, penetratin, and TAT-D displayed consistent and high level neuroprotective activity in both the glutamic acid (IC50: 0.78, 3.4, 13.9 μM) and kainic acid (IC50: 0.81, 2.0, 6.2 μM) injury models, while Pep-1 was ineffective. The TAT-D isoform displayed similar efficacy to the TAT-L isoform in the glutamic acid model. Interestingly, Arg-9 was the only CPP that displayed efficacy when washed-out prior to glutamic acid exposure. Neuroprotection following in vitro ischemia was more variable with all peptides providing some level of neuroprotection (IC50; Arg-9: 6.0 μM, TAT-D: 7.1 μM, penetratin/Pep-1: >10 μM). The positive control peptides JNKI-1D-TAT (JNK inhibitory peptide) and/or PYC36L-TAT (AP-1 inhibitory peptide) were neuroprotective in all models. Finally, in a post-glutamic acid treatment experiment, Arg-9 was highly effective when added immediately after, and mildly effective when added 15 min post-insult, while the JNKI-1D-TAT control peptide was ineffective when added post-insult. These findings demonstrate that different CPPs have the ability to inhibit neurodamaging events/pathways associated with excitotoxic and ischemic injuries. More importantly, they highlight the need to interpret neuroprotection studies when using CPPs as delivery agents with caution. On a positive note, the cytoprotective properties of CPPs suggests they are ideal carrier molecules to deliver neuroprotective drugs to the CNS following injury and/or potential neuroprotectants in their own right.
Study of Heritability and Genetic Variability among Different Plant and Fruit Characters of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicon L.)

Heritability, genetic advance, genetic advanced as percentage over mean and genetic variability among different plant and fruit characters of thirty tomato genotypes were studied at Hudeiba Research Station (ARC) during the winter of 200708. Analysis of variance showed significant variation among the genotypes for all tested characters. Fruit weight showed the highest genotypic and phenotypic variance (1642.9 and 1779.1) whereas fruit yield per plant showed the lowest ones (0.17 and 0.39). High genotypic variance was observed for most of the characters indicating more contribution of genetic component for the total variation. Genotypic coefficients of variations (GCV) and phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) were highest for fruit weight (0.4885 and 0.4905) whereas the lowest ones were for days to 50% flowering (0.0552 and 0.0665). Higher GCV and PVC were recorded for most of the characters indicating higher magnitude of variability for these characters. The highest heritability was recorded on plant height (97%), while the lowest was for fruit yield per plant (43%). High heritability (broad senses) estimates were observed for all the tested characters indicating that these characters are controlled by additive genes action which is very useful in selection.
Change in condom and other barrier method use during and after an HIV prevention trial in Zimbabwe

BACKGROUND
We examined the use of male condoms and the diaphragm following completion of a clinical trial of the diaphragm's HIV prevention effectiveness. In the trial, called Methods for Improving Reproductive Health in Africa (MIRA), women were randomized to a diaphragm group (diaphragm, gel and condoms) or a condom-only control group. At trial exit, all women were offered the diaphragm and condoms.


METHODS
Our sample consisted of 801 Zimbabwean MIRA participants who completed one post-trial visit (median lapse: nine months; range two to 20 months). We assessed condom, diaphragm and any barrier method use at last sex act at enrolment, final MIRA and post-trial visits. We used multivariable random effects logistic regression to examine changes in method use between these three time points.


RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In the condom group, condom use decreased from 86% at the final trial visit to 67% post trial (AOR = 0.20; 95% CI: 0.12 to 0.33). In the diaphragm group, condom use was 61% at the final trial visit, and did not decrease significantly post trial (AOR = 0.77; 95% CI: 0.55 to 1.09), while diaphragm use decreased from 79% to 50% post trial (AOR = 0.18; 95% CI: 0.12 to 0.28). Condom use significantly decreased between the enrolment and post-trial visits in both groups. Use of any barrier method was similar in both groups: it significantly decreased between the final trial and the post-trial visits, but did not change between enrolment and the post-trial visits.


CONCLUSIONS
High condom use levels achieved during the trial were not sustained post trial in the condom group. Post-trial diaphragm use remained relatively high in the diaphragm group (given its unknown effectiveness), but was very low in the condom group. Introducing "new" methods for HIV prevention may require time and user skills before they get adopted. Our findings underscore the potential benefit of providing a mix of methods to women as it may encourage more protected acts.
Neural Temporal Relation Extraction

We experiment with neural architectures for temporal relation extraction and establish a new state-of-the-art for several scenarios. We find that neural models with only tokens as input outperform state-ofthe-art hand-engineered feature-based models, that convolutional neural networks outperform LSTM models, and that encoding relation arguments with XML tags outperforms a traditional position-based encoding.
Simulated Car Racing Championship: Competition Software Manual

This manual describes the competition software for the Simulated Car Racing Championship, an international competition held at major conferences in the field of Evolutionary Computation and in the field of Computational Intelligence and Games. It provides an overview of the architecture, the instructions to install the software and to run the simple drivers provided in the package, the description of the sensors and the actuators.
Lightning impulse performances of grounding devices covered with low-resistivity materials

The low-resistivity material (LRM) is widely used to decrease the power-frequency grounding resistances of grounding devices for transmission lines in the regions with high soil resistivity. The study about the influence of the LRM on impulse performances of grounding devices cannot be found in literature. Experimental results of lightning impulse properties of grounding devices covered with LRM were presented in this paper. The influences of impulse current, geometrical dimensions of grounding devices, and soil resistivity on impulse grounding resistance and impulse coefficient of grounding devices with the LRM coverings are still the same with those without the LRM coverings. The impulse grounding resistance decreases from about 25% to 45% when the LRM covering is used. The fitting formulae to calculate the reducing ratio of impulse grounding resistance of different grounding devices are provided. On the other hand, the influence of LRM on the effective impulse length of grounding electrodes is discussed.
Harmonic mitigation by SRF theory based active power filter using adaptive hysteresis control

Power quality is an all-encompassing concept for a multitude of individual types of power system disturbances. The presence of harmonics in power supply network poses a severe power quality problem that results in greater power losses in the distribution system, interference problems in communication systems and, sometimes, in operation failures of electronic equipment. Shunt active power filters are employed to suppress the current harmonics and reduce the total harmonic distortion (THD). The voltage source inverter (VSI) is the core of an active power filter. The hysteresis current control is a method of controlling the VSI. Hysteresis control can be either of fixed band type or adaptive band type. In this paper, Synchronous Reference Frame (SRF) theory is implemented for the generation of reference current signals for the controller. This paper investigates the effectiveness of the proposed model in harmonics currents mitigation by simulating a model of a three-phase three-wire shunt active power filter based on adaptive hysteresis current control and SRF theory. Simulation results indicate that the proposed active power filter can restrain harmonics of electrical source current effectively.
Health Care Utilization Patterns Among High-Cost VA Patients With Mental Health Conditions.

OBJECTIVE
To inform development of intensive management programs for high-cost patients, this study investigated the relationship between psychiatric diagnoses and patterns of health care utilization among high-cost patients in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system.


METHODS
The costliest 5% of patients who received care in the VA in fiscal year 2010 were assigned to five mutually exclusive hierarchical groups on the basis of diagnosis codes: no mental health condition, serious mental illness, substance use disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression. Multivariable linear regression was used to examine associations between diagnostic groups and use of mental health and non-mental health care and costs of care, with adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics. The proportion of costs generated by mental health care was estimated for each group.


RESULTS
Among 261,515 high-cost VA patients, rates of depression, substance use disorder, PTSD, and serious mental illness were 29%, 20%, 17%, and 13%, respectively. Individuals in the serious mental illness and substance use disorder groups were younger and had fewer chronic general medical conditions and higher adjusted rates of mental health care utilization; they also had a greater proportion of costs generated by mental health care (41% and 31%, respectively) compared with individuals in the PTSD and depression groups (18% and 11%, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
Optimal management of high-risk, high-cost patients may require stratification by psychiatric diagnoses, with integrated care models for patients with multiple chronic conditions and comorbid mental health conditions and intensive mental health services for patients whose primary needs stem from mental health conditions.