LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Tai Chi: improving functional balance and predicting subsequent falls in older persons.

PURPOSE
To determine whether improved functional balance through a Tai Chi intervention is related to subsequent reductions in falls among elderly persons.


METHODS
Two hundred fifty-six healthy, physically inactive older adults aged 70-92 (mean age +/- SD = 77.48 +/- 4.95), recruited from a local health system in Portland, OR, participated in a 6-month randomized controlled trial, with allocation to Tai Chi or exercise stretching control, followed by a 6-month postintervention follow-up. Functional balance measures included Berg balance scale, dynamic gait index, and functional reach, assessed during the 6-month intervention period (baseline, 3-month, and 6-month intervention endpoint) and again at the 6-month postintervention follow-up. Fall counts were recorded during the 6-month postintervention follow-up period. Data were analyzed through intention-to-treat analysis of variance and logistic regression procedures.


RESULTS
Tai Chi participants who showed improvements in measures of functional balance at the intervention endpoint significantly reduced their risk of falls during the 6-month postintervention period, compared with those in the control condition (odds ratio (OR), 0.27, 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.07-0.96 for Berg balance scale; OR, 0.27, 95% CI, 0.09-0.87 for dynamic gait index; OR, 0.20, 95% CI, 0.05-0.82 for functional reach).


CONCLUSIONS
Improved functional balance through Tai Chi training is associated with subsequent reductions in fall frequency in older persons.
The impact of social factors affecting consumer behaviour on selecting characteristics of purchased cars

The present study examined the impact of social factors on consumer behavior in selecting traits of the purchased car in Tabriz (Iran). A one sample T-test was used to test the hypotheses of this study. In line with complementary findings of research using error bar diagram, the first component of the social factors affecting the consumer behavior was tested. In selecting car traits, based on every component, every feature of car was ranked. Findings of the research show that traits of family and social status affect selecting the traits of the purchased car. Reference groups factor; however, does not influence the vehicle traits. These findings indicate that social factors influence the selection of characteristics in purchased cars.
Polydactyly: phenotypes, genetics and classification.

Polydactyly is one of the most common hereditary limb malformations featuring additional digits in hands and/or feet. It constituted the highest proportion among the congenital limb defects in various epidemiological surveys. Polydactyly, primarily presenting as an additional pre-axial or post-axial digit of autopod, is a highly heterogeneous condition and depicts broad inter- and intra-familial clinical variability. There is a plethora of polydactyly classification methods reported in the medical literature which approach the heterogeneity in polydactyly in various ways. In this communication, well-characterized, non-syndromic polydactylies in humans are reviewed. The cardinal features, phenotypic variability and molecular advances of each type have been presented. Polydactyly at cellular and developmental levels is mainly a failure in the control of digit number. Interestingly, GLI3 and SHH (ZRS/SHH enhancer), two antagonistic factors known to modulate digit number and identity during development, have also been implicated in polydactyly. Mutations in GLI3 and ZRS/SHH cause overlapping polydactyly phenotypes highlighting shared molecular cascades in the etiology of additional digits, and thus suggesting the lumping of at least six distinct polydactyly entities. However, owing to the extreme phenotypic and clinical heterogeneity witnessed in polydactyly a substantial genetic heterogeneity is expected across different populations and ethnic groups.
On Measuring Supplier Performance Under Vendor-Managed-Inventory Programs in Capacitated Supply Chains

A widely accepted performance measures in supply chain management practice, frequency-based service levels such as fill rate and stockout rate are often considered in supply contracts under vendor-managedinventory (VMI) programs. Using a decentralized two-party capacitated supply chain model consisting of one manufacturer and one supplier in a VMI environment, we demonstrate that supplier’s service level is in general insufficient for the manufacturer to warrant the desired service level at the customer end. The method by which the supplier achieves her service level to the manufacturer also affects customer service level. By developing bounds on the customer service level, we show that the expected backorders at the supplier should also be taken into account. We suggest a supply contract that offers a menu of different combinations of supplier’s service level and expected backorders according to a linear function. Under this contract, the manufacturer can control the end customer service regardless of how the supplier manages her inventory. The supplier has complete flexibility on which combination of the two quantities on the menu to choose according to her own cost functions. Because it does not require any detailed information on supplier’s operational characteristics nor her costs, this kind of contract is expected to be easily implementable. In addition, we derive an estimate of the customer service level in terms of the new measures. Our findings have direct implications to supply chain metrics in general: The local service levels are insufficient measures to guarantee the system wide performance. Alternative local measures and/or coordination mechanisms should be employed to achieve desired system performance. Our analysis illustrates a possible way to explore such alternative measures.
Remote access internetworking laboratory

College students in computer networking courses are very interested in Internet technology because of the rapid growth in that area. Of particular interest is the need for practical experience in network design and configuration. A typical computer networking class curriculum includes the study of theory and the laboratory projects. The laboratory projects are designed to give students a better understanding of computer networks. Most of the laboratory projects are software projects. Furthermore it is common to find projects in the area of implementing an application layer protocol and protocol observations in many computer network course textbooks [7,11,12]. However, having a networking laboratory with the proper hardware facilities to teach real networking has several difficulties. These difficulties include funding for the hardware facility, physical space limitations, and physical accessibility of the lab facility [6,10]. We have designed a networking lab that can solve these problems. Old PCs have been converted to IP routers with the free router software Zebra [5]. The proposed laboratory system can be accessed through the Internet, and the network topology can be changed remotely.
Motor control or graded activity exercises for chronic low back pain? A randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND
Chronic low back pain remains a major health problem in Australia and around the world. Unfortunately the majority of treatments for this condition produce small effects because not all patients respond to each treatment. It appears that only 25-50% of patients respond to exercise. The two most popular types of exercise for low back pain are graded activity and motor control exercises. At present however, there are no guidelines to help clinicians select the best treatment for a patient. As a result, time and money are wasted on treatments which ultimately fail to help the patient.


METHODS
This paper describes the protocol of a randomised clinical trial comparing the effects of motor control exercises with a graded activity program in the treatment of chronic non specific low back pain. Further analysis will identify clinical features that may predict a patient's response to each treatment. One hundred and seventy two participants will be randomly allocated to receive either a program of motor control exercises or graded activity. Measures of outcome will be obtained at 2, 6 and 12 months after randomisation. The primary outcomes are: pain (average pain intensity over the last week) and function (patient-specific functional scale) at 2 and 6 months. Potential treatment effect modifiers will be measured at baseline.


DISCUSSION
This trial will not only evaluate which exercise approach is more effective in general for patients will chronic low back pain, but will also determine which exercise approach is best for an individual patient.


TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER
ACTRN12607000432415.
Lecture 7 : Physiological Signals from Wireless Scribe :

In order to increase the resolution, we first utilize FMCW to separate signals reflected off from different distances into voxels, so each voxel stands for signal reflected off from a specific distance from the transmitter. Once we have a voxel of interest, we can zoom-in the specific voxel, and analyze the phase shift in that voxel to determine relative movements within that voxel. Figure 1 illustrates the above process.
Gene therapy for mitochondrial disease by delivering restriction endonuclease SmaI into mitochondria.

The restriction endonuclease SmaI has been used for the diagnosis of neurogenic muscle weakness, ataxia and retinitis pigmentosa disease or Leigh's disease, caused by the Mt8993T-->G mutation which results in a Leu156Arg replacement that blocks proton translocation activity of subunit a of F(0)F(1)-ATPase. Our ultimate goal is to apply SmaI to gene therapy for this disease, because the mutant mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) coexists with the wild-type mtDNA (heteroplasmy), and because only the mutant mtDNA, but not the wild-type mtDNA, is selectively restricted by the enzyme. For this purpose, we transiently expressed the SmaI gene fused to a mitochondrial targeting sequence in cybrids carrying the mutant mtDNA. Here, we demonstrate that mitochondria targeted by the SmaI enzyme showed specific elimination of the mutant mtDNA. This elimination was followed with repopulation by the wild-type mtDNA, resulting in restoration of both the normal intracellular ATP level and normal mitochondrial membrane potential. Furthermore, in vivo electroporation of the plasmids expressing mitochondrion-targeted EcoRI induced a decrease in cytochrome c oxidase activity in hamster skeletal muscles while causing no degenerative changes in nuclei. Delivery of restriction enzymes into mitochondria is a novel strategy for gene therapy of a special form of mitochondrial diseases.
A user browsing model to predict search engine click data from past observations

Search engine click logs provide an invaluable source of relevance information but this information is biased because we ignore which documents from the result list the users have actually seen before and after they clicked. Otherwise, we could estimate document relevance by simple counting. In this paper, we propose a set of assumptions on user browsing behavior that allows the estimation of the probability that a document is seen, thereby providing an unbiased estimate of document relevance. To train, test and compare our model to the best alternatives described in the Literature, we gather a large set of real data and proceed to an extensive cross-validation experiment. Our solution outperforms very significantly all previous models. As a side effect, we gain insight into the browsing behavior of users and we can compare it to the conclusions of an eye-tracking experiments by Joachims et al. [12]. In particular, our findings confirm that a user almost always see the document directly after a clicked document. They also explain why documents situated just after a very relevant document are clicked more often.
Children who return home from foster care: a 6-year prospective study of behavioral health outcomes in adolescence.

OBJECTIVE
Returning children to their biological families after placement in foster care (ie, reunification) has been prioritized with legislation. Comprehensive studies of child behavioral health functioning after reunification, however, have not been conducted. This study examined outcomes for youth who were reunified after placement in foster care as compared with youth who did not reunify.


DESIGN
Prospective cohort.


SETTING
Children who entered foster care in San Diego, California, and who remained in foster care for at least 5 months. Participants. A cohort of 149 ethnically diverse youth, 7 to 12 years old, who entered foster care between May 1990, and October 1991. Seventy-five percent of those interviewed at Time 1 were interviewed at Time 2 (6 years later).


OUTCOME MEASURES
1) Risk behaviors: delinquent, sexual, self-destructive, substance use, and total risk behaviors; 2) Life-course outcomes: pregnancy, tickets/arrests, suspensions, dropping out of school, and grades; 3) Current symptomatology: externalizing, internalizing, total behavior problems, and total competence.


RESULTS
Compared with youth who were not reunified, reunified youth showed more self-destructive behavior (0.15 vs -0.11), substance use (0.16 vs -0.11), and total risk behavior problem standardized scores (0.12 vs -0.09). Reunified youth were more likely to have received a ticket or have been arrested (49.2% vs 30.2%), to have dropped out of school (20.6% vs 9.4%), and to have received lower grades (6.5 vs 7.4). Reunified youth reported more current problems in internalizing behaviors (56.6 vs 53.0), and total behavior problems (59.5 vs 55.7), and lower total competence (41.1 vs 45.0). There were no statistically significant differences between the groups on delinquency, sexual behaviors, pregnancy, suspensions, or externalizing behaviors. Reunification status was a significant predictor of negative outcomes in 8 of the 9 regression equations after controlling for Time 1 behavior problems, age, and gender.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that youth who reunify with their biological families after placement in foster care have more negative outcomes than youth who do not reunify. The implications of these findings for policy and practice are discussed.
Respiratory syncytial virus-positive bronchiolitis in hospitalized infants is associated with thrombocytosis.

BACKGROUND
Secondary thrombocytosis is associated with a variety of clinical conditions, one of which is lower respiratory tract infection. However, reports on thrombocytosis induced by viral infections are scarce.


OBJECTIVES
To assess the rate of thrombocytosis (platelet count > 500 x 10(9)/L) in hospitalized infants with bronchiolitis and to investigate its potential role as an early marker of respiratory syncytial virus infection.


METHODS
Clinical data on 469 infants aged < or = 4 months who were hospitalized for bronchiolitis were collected prospectively and compared between RSV-positive and RSV-negative infants.


RESULTS
The rate of thrombocytosis was significantly higher in RSV-positive than RSV-negative infants (41.3% vs. 29.2%, P=0.031). The odds ratio of an infant with bronchiolitis and thrombocytosis to have a positive RSV infection compared to an infant with bronchiolitis and a normal platelet count was 1.7 (P= 0.023, 95% confidence interval 1.07-2.72). There was no significant difference in mean platelet count between the two groups.


CONCLUSIONS
RSV-positive bronchiolitis in hospitalized young infants is associated with thrombocytosis.
Prognosticating in patients with advanced cancer--observational study comparing the accuracy of clinicians' and patients' estimates of survival.

BACKGROUND
Clinicians' prognoses in patients with advanced cancer are imprecise. The aim of this study was to compare doctors', nurses' and patients' survival predictions and to identify factors which influence accuracy.


PATIENTS AND METHODS
Some 1018 patients with advanced cancer were recruited. Survival estimates were obtained from the attending doctor, nurse, multidisciplinary team (MDT) and patient (n = 829, 954, 987 and 290 estimates, respectively) and were compared with actual survival. Clinician and patient characteristics were recorded.


RESULTS
MDTs', doctors' and nurses' predictions were accurate 57.5%, 56.3% and 55.5% of occasions, respectively. Nurses were less accurate than the MDT (P = 0.007) but were no worse than doctors (P = 0.284). Estimates of clinicians and patients were more optimistic (doctors: 31%; nurses: 34%; MDT: 31.1%; patients: 45.1%) than pessimistic (12.7%, 11%, 11.4% and 2.7%). Nurses' accuracy increased if they had reviewed the patient within 24 h. Most patients (61.4%) wanted to know their prognosis. Only 37.1% were willing to offer an estimate regarding their own survival. Patients' prognostic estimates were less accurate than health care professionals' (P < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
MDTs were better at predicting survival than doctors' or nurses' alone. Patients were substantially worse. Among nurses, recency of review was related to improved prognostic accuracy.
Ownership Forms Matter for Airport Efficiency: A Stochastic Frontier Investigation of Worldwide Airports

We study the effects of ownership forms on airports’ cost efficiency by applying stochastic frontier analysis to a panel data of the world’s major airports. Our key findings are: (a) Countries considering privatization of airports should transfer majority shares to the private sector; (b) Mixed ownership of airport with a government majority should be avoided in favor of even 100% government owned public firm; (c) US airports operated by port authorities should consider to transfer ownership/management to independent airport authorities; and (d) Privatization of one or more airports in cities with multiple airports would improve the efficiency of all airports. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. JEL classification: H11; D24; C11
In My View

fields aren’t dedicated to their patients, but they don’t have the same level of continuing contact with their patients. Haemophilia nurses have developed a unique level of expertise, and many people with haemophilia prefer to talk to the nurse they know really well, than to a junior doctor. One of the attractions of the job is being able to really get to know the condition and the group of patients you are following. It’s a long-term commitment.
Efficacy and safety of nebivolol in elderly heart failure patients with impaired renal function: insights from the SENIORS trial

AIM
To determine the safety and efficacy of nebivolol in elderly heart failure (HF) patients with renal dysfunction.


METHODS AND RESULTS
SENIORS recruited patients aged 70 years or older with symptomatic HF, irrespective of ejection fraction, and randomized them to nebivolol or placebo. Patients (n = 2112) were divided by tertile of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). Mean age of patients was 76.1 years, 35% of patients had an ejection fraction of >35%, and 37% were women resulting in a unique cohort, far more representative of clinical practice than previous trials. eGFR was strongly associated with outcomes and nebivolol was similarly efficacious across eGFR tertiles. The primary outcome rate (all-cause mortality or cardiovascular hospital admission) and adjusted hazard ratio for nebivolol use in those with low eGFR was 40% and 0.84 (95% CI 0.67-1.07), 31% and 0.79 (0.60-1.04) in the middle tertile, and 29% and 0.86 (0.65-1.14) in the highest eGFR tertile. There was no interaction noted between renal function and the treatment effect (P = 0.442). Nebivolol use in patients with moderate renal impairment (eGFR <60) was not associated with major safety concerns, apart from higher rates of drug-discontinuation due to bradycardia.


CONCLUSION
Nebivolol is safe and has a similar effect in elderly HF patients with mild or moderate renal impairment.
Randomized trial of laryngeal mask airway versus endotracheal intubation for surfactant delivery

Objective:To compare the effectiveness of surfactant delivery via endotracheal tube (ETT) using an intubation-surfactant-rapid extubation approach with premedication) vs laryngeal mask airway (LMA) in preventing the need for mechanical ventilation in preterm neonates with moderate respiratory distress syndrome (RDS).Study Design:Moderately preterm infants diagnosed with RDS, receiving nasal continuous positive airway pressure with FiO2 0.30 to 0.60, were randomized to two groups at age 3 to 48 h. Those in the ETT group were intubated following premedication with atropine and morphine, whereas the LMA group received only atropine. Both groups received calfactant before a planned reinstitution of nasal continuous positive airway pressure, and had equivalent pre-specified criteria for subsequent mechanical ventilation and surfactant retreatment. The primary outcome was failure of surfactant treatment strategy to avoid mechanical ventilation; we differentiated early from late failures to assess the contribution of potential mechanisms such as respiratory depression versus less-effective surfactant delivery. Secondary outcomes addressed efficacy and safety end points.Result:Sixty-one patients were randomized, one excluded and 30 analyzed in each group, with similar baseline characteristics. Failure rate was 77% in the ETT group and 30% in the LMA group (P<0.001). The difference was related to early failure, as late failure rates did not differ between groups. FiO2 decrease after surfactant and rates of adverse events were similar between groups.Conclusion:Surfactant therapy through an LMA decreases the proportion of newborns with moderate RDS who require mechanical ventilation, when compared with a standard endotracheal intubation procedure with sedation. The efficacy of surfactant in decreasing RDS severity appears similar with both methods. Morphine premedication likely contributed to early post-surfactant failures.
FIGHTING EVASIVE MALWARE WITH DVASION by

Title of thesis: FIGHTING EVASIVE MALWARE WITH DVASION Matthew Ryan Gilboy, Master of Science, 2016 Thesis directed by: Professor Rajeev Barua Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Malware is a foundational component of cyber crime that enables an attacker to modify the normal operation of a computer or access sensitive, digital information. Despite the extensive research performed to identify such programs, existing schemes fail to detect evasive malware, an increasingly popular class of malware that can alter its behavior at run-time, making it difficult to detect using today’s state of the art malware analysis systems. In this thesis, we present DVasion, a comprehensive strategy that exposes such evasive behavior through a multi-execution technique. DVasion successfully detects behavior that would have been missed by traditional, single-execution approaches, while addressing the limitations of previously proposed multi-execution systems. We demonstrate the accuracy of our system through strong parallels with existing work on evasive malware, as well as uncover the hidden behavior within 167 of 1,000 samples. FIGHTING EVASIVE MALWARE WITH DVASION
Reelin Regulates the Maturation of Dendritic Spines, Synaptogenesis and Glial Ensheathment of Newborn Granule Cells

Significance Statement
The extracellular protein Reelin has an important role in neurological diseases, including epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease and psychiatric diseases, targeting hippocampal circuits. Here we address the role of Reelin in the development of synaptic contacts in adult-generated granule cells (GCs), a neuronal population that is crucial for learning and memory and implicated in neurological and psychiatric diseases. We found that the Reelin pathway controls the shapes, sizes, and types of dendritic spines, the complexity of multisynaptic innervations and the degree of the perisynaptic astroglial ensheathment that controls synaptic homeostasis. These findings show a pivotal role of Reelin in GC synaptogenesis and provide a foundation for structural circuit alterations caused by Reelin deregulation that may occur in neurological and psychiatric disorders.