LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Long-term intermittent dobutamine infusion combined with oral amiodarone improves the survival of patients with severe congestive heart failure.

STUDY OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effects of long-term intermittent dobutamine infusion (IDI) with concomitant administration of low-dose amiodarone in patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) refractory to standard medical treatment.


DESIGN
Prospective, interventional clinical trial.


SETTING
Inpatient and outpatient heart failure clinic in a university teaching hospital.


PATIENTS AND INTERVENTIONS
Twenty-two patients with CHF refractory to standard treatment who could be weaned from dobutamine therapy after an initial 72-h infusion were included in this study. The first 11 patients (group 1) were treated with IDI, 10 micromin, as needed (mean, once every 16 days, lasting for 12 to 48 h); the next 11 patients (group 2) received oral amiodarone, 400 mg/d, and IDI, 10 microg/kg/min, for 8 h every 7 days.


MEASUREMENT AND RESULTS
There were no differences in baseline clinical, hemodynamic, and five biochemical characteristics between the two groups. The left ventricular ejection fraction was 13.5 +/- 4.5% in group 1 vs 15.5 +/- 4.9% in group 2 (mean +/- SD; p = 0.451); mean pulmonary capillary wedge pressure was 31.3 +/- 4.4 mm Hg vs 29.4 +/- 3.3 mm Hg (p = 0.316); serum creatinine was 1.9 +/- 0.4 mg/dL vs 1.6 +/- 0.5 mg/dL (p = 0.19); and serum Na was 139.6 +/- 6.2 mEq/L vs 138.4 +/- 3.1 mEq/L (p = 0.569). At 12 months of follow-up, 1 of 11 patients (9%) was alive in group 1 vs 6 of 11 patients (55%) in group 2 (p = 0.011). Furthermore, in group 2, the functional status improved significantly within the first 3 months of treatment, from New York Heart Association functional class IV to 2.63 +/- 0.5 (p = 0.0001).


CONCLUSION
Long-term IDI in conjunction with amiodarone, added to conventional drugs, improved clinical status and survival of patients with severe CHF.
Register minimization in cost-optimal synthesis of DSP architectures

Abstract— In this paper we propose a generalized technique to count the number of registers supporting overlapped scheduling and a general digit-serial data format. This technique is integrated into an integer linear programming model which minimizes the cost of registers as well as the cost of processors and data format converters to synthesize a cost-optimal architecture for a given digital signal processing algorithm. It is shown that by including the cost of registers in the synthesis task as proposed in this paper leads to upto 12.8% savings in the total cost of the synthesized architecture when compared with synthesis performed without including the register cost in the total cost.
Five dimensions of reasoning in the wild

Reasoning does not work well when done in isolation from its significance, both to the needs and interests of an agent and with respect to the wider world. Moreover, those issues may best be handled with a new sort of data structure that goes beyond the knowledge base and incorporates aspects of perceptual knowledge and even more, in which a kind of anticipatory action may be key. Out of the Ivory Tower Reasoning is one of the oldest topics in artificial intelligence (AI). And it has made lots of progress, in the form of commonsense reasoning (CSR), planning, automated theorem-proving, and more. But I suspect it has hit a barrier that must be surmounted if we are to approach anything like human-level inference. Here I give evidence for such a barrier, and ideas about dealing with it, loosely based on evidence from human behavior. In rough synopsis, reasoning does not work well when done in isolation from its broader significance, both for the needs and interests of an agent and for the wider world. Moreover, those issues may best be handled with a new sort of data structure that goes beyond the knowledge base (KB) and incorporates aspects of perceptual knowledge and even more, in which a kind of anticipatory action many be key. I suspect this has ties with recent calls to “put the Science” back in AI (Levesque 2013, Langley 2012). For what I am arguing, in some sense, is that reasoning should be regarded as “in the wild” as events unfold rather than confined to management of an isolated KB; and that this speaks to an agent interacting with the world, rather than a puzzle in abstract inference (yet I will also argue that even “pure” reasoning as in mathematics hugely benefits from many connections with the world). And finally, we then will end up studying the nature of world-embedded cognitive agents, humans included. But this is very broadbrushed and general, whereas my main point is a technical Copyright © 2016, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (www.aaai.org). All rights reserved. suggestion about reasoning informed by meaning, especially meaning concerning experience and action. One quick example at the outset: The Wason Selection Task (Wason 1968) shows that human inference is strongly aided when the details of the task at hand have real meaning that the subjects can relate to in terms of things that matter to them, helping keep attention on what is relevant; and this holds even when the task in the abstract is a matter of so-called pure logic. While this could be seen as a defect in human reasoning, something computers would never trip up on, I think it points in the opposite direction: inference without broader meaning is not worth much, and not worth being good at. I will illustrate my main points with a series of examples based on the activities of proving, planning, and understanding.
Catalytic Graphitization of Carbon Aerogels by Transition Metals

Carbon aerogels and Cr-, Fe-, Co-, and Ni-containing carbon aerogels were obtained by pyrolysis, at temperatures between 500 and 1800 °C, of the corresponding aerogels prepared by the sol-gel method frompolymerizationof resorcinolwith formaldehyde.All sampleswerecharacterizedbymercuryporosimetry, nitrogen adsorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and Raman spectroscopy. Results obtained show that carbon aerogels are, essentially, macroporous materials that maintain large pore volumes even after pyrolysis at 1800 °C. For pyrolysis at temperatures higher than 1000 °C, the presence of the transition metals produced graphitized areas with three-dimensional stacking order, as shown by HRTEM, XRD, and Raman spectroscopy. HRTEM also showed that the metalcarbon containing aerogels were formed by polyhedral structures. Cr and Fe seem to be the best catalysts for graphitization of carbon aerogels.
Evaluating the reliability, validity and minimally important difference of the Taiwanese version of the diabetes quality of life (DQOL) measurement

BACKGROUND
Few diabetes HRQOL instruments are available in Chinese language. We tested psychometric properties of a Diabetes Quality of Life (DQOL) in Chinese language for diabetes patients in Taiwan and estimated its minimally important differences (MIDs).


METHODS
Data were collected from 337 patients treated in diabetes clinics of a Taiwan teaching hospital. Pearson's correlations among domain scores of the DQOL (satisfaction, impact, and worry), the D-39S (a diabetes-specific instrument, including domains of diabetes control, energy and mobility, social burden and anxiety and worry, and sexual functioning) and the RAND-12 (a generic instrument, including physical health composite (PHC) and mental health composite (MHC)) were estimated to determine convergent/discriminant validity. Known-groups validity was examined using 2-hour postprandial plasma glucose (2 h PPG), hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c)) and presence of complications (retinopathy, neuropathy, and diabetic foot complications rather than the known groups of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular complications). We used a combined anchor- and distribution-based approach to establish MIDs.


RESULTS
The DQOL scores were more strongly correlated with the physical domains of the D-39S (diabetes control and energy and mobility) and RAND-12 PHC than psychological domains of the D-39S (social burden, anxiety and worry, and sexual functioning) and RAND-12 MHC. The DQOL showed satisfactory discriminative ability for the known groups of 2 h PPG and HbA1c (effect size (ES) > or = 0.2) and retinopathy, neuropathy, and diabetic foot complications (ES > or = 0.3), but less satisfactory for the known groups of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular complications. MIDs for the DQOL domains were 3-5 points for satisfaction, 4-5 points for impact, 6-8 points for worry, and 3-4 points for overall HRQOL.


CONCLUSION
We validated a DQOL in Chinese language for diabetes patients in Taiwan and provided MIDs to facilitate the measure of diabetes HRQOL.
"CAN WE FEED?" A mnemonic to merge nutrition and intensive care assessment of the critically ill patient.

As care of the critically ill patient grows more complex, so does the breadth of knowledge required of the intensivist to deliver quality service. Nutrition is one area of many where the complexity of care has grown and the opportunity for improving patient outcomes has become evident. The use of mnemonics has proven successful in compartmentalizing information that must be considered in complex decision-making processes. The authors propose one such mnemonic, "CAN WE FEED?" to assist in the development and initiation of early enteral nutrition therapy in the intensive care unit (ICU). Critical illness severity (C), age (A), and nutrition risk screening (N) are considered when performing a baseline evaluation of the critically ill patient upon presentation to the ICU. Wait for resuscitation (W) is a key component in the care of most critically ill patients and is an important consideration prior to the initiation of feeding. Energy requirements (E) are determined using conventional weight-based equations, indirect calorimetry, or combinations of both techniques. The more practical aspects of support that follow include formula selection (F), enteral access (E), efficacy (E), and the determination of tolerance (D). With careful consideration of these components through the use of the mnemonic "CAN WE FEED?" the intensivist can successfully implement a nutrition plan, and the clinical nutritionist can appreciate where nutrition therapy appropriately intervenes in the initial resuscitation and management of the critically ill patient.
Hongkong International Terminals Gains Elastic Capacity Using a Data-Intensive Decision-Support System

As the flagship of Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), Hongkong International Terminals (HIT) is the busiest container terminal on the planet. HIT receives over 10,000 trucks and 15 vessels a day, about six million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) a year. HIT makes hundreds of operational decisions a minute. HIT’s terminal management system, the productivity plus program (3P), optimizes resources throughout the container yard using operations research/management science (OR/MS) techniques and algorithms. It manages such interrelated decisions as how to route container trucks in the yard, where to store arriving containers, how many quay cranes to use for each vessel, how many trucks to assign to each crane, how many yard cranes to assign to each container storage block, and when to schedule incoming trucks for container pickup. As the number of container terminals in Asia grows, competition has become price driven and service driven. HIT realized its future rests not only with moving boxes but with mastering the associated information. This meant developing a decision-support system (DSS) to provide superior and differentiated services by generating optimal decisions, one that is very robust under uncertain arrival times of trucks and vessels. In its 10 years of operation, the implementation of the DSS through 3P has helped HIT to become the world’s most efficient and flexible terminal operator. HIT alone saves US$100 million per year. By optimizing internal truck use at its sister terminals, the HPH group saves an additional US$54 million per year.
Planning for camera-guided robotic radiosurgery

| Radiosurgery is a treatment for brain tumors and other lesions which employs a moving beam of photon radiation. In robotic radiosurgery, the radiation source is moved by a six degree-of-freedom robotic arm. A treatment planning system for robotic radiosurgery was developed. This planning system combines collision avoidance techniques and geometric algorithms for nding appropriate robot paths and beam activation pro les. The following design goals characterize our application: (1) ability to generate conformal three-dimensional dose distributions, (2) transparency of the planning process, (3) full use of the motion exibility provided by the robotic arm. The new planning system is in clinical use in several leading medical institutions. Results obtained from studies suggest that highly conformal distributions can be generated in a very e ective way. Keywords|Medical Robotics, Geometric Reasoning, Motion Planning, Collision Avoidance, Image-Guided Surgery, Treatment Planning, Radiosurgery, Radiation Therapy, Medical Physics
The Use of Piezoceramics As Electrical Energy Harvesters Within Instrumented Knee Implant During Walking

The goal of our paper is to quantify the electrical energy that can be harvested within a new generation of instrumented knee implant during normal walking. This generation of knee implant is proposed to assess the in vivo anteroposterior and mediolateral distributions of tibiofemoral force on the tibial baseplate without the need to be powered from an external source of energy. The proposed self-powered diagnostic knee implant can provide the clinicians with useful information on the sagittal and coronal instabilities of the prosthetic knee throughout its lifespan. Four piezoelectric elements were embedded within the anteromedial, posteromedial, anterolateral, and posterolateral compartments of the tibial baseplate. These elements can simultaneously be used to sense the force distribution and generate the electric power needed to supply the acquisition, processing, and transmission system located in the stem of the implant. In order to study the power generation issue, OrCAD/PSpice and MATLAB/Simulink models of the piezoelectric element have been developed to quantify the electrical energy harvested under operating conditions close to those encountered in vivo during normal walking. Furthermore, an experimental prototype of the self-powered diagnostic knee implant has been designed, developed, and tested in our laboratory (LaTIM, INSERM U650, Brest, France) in order to validate the modeling results.
The efficacy of dental floss in addition to a toothbrush on plaque and parameters of gingival inflammation: a systematic review.

OBJECTIVES
The aim of this study was to assess systematically the adjunctive effect of both flossing and toothbrushing versus toothbrushing alone on plaque and gingivitis.


MATERIALS
The MEDLINE and Cochrane Central register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) databases were searched through December 2007 to identify appropriate studies. The variables of plaque and gingivitis were selected as outcomes.


RESULTS
Independent screening of titles and abstracts of 1166 MEDLINE-Pubmed and 187 Cochrane papers resulted in 11 publications that met the eligibility criteria. Mean values and SD were collected by data extraction. Descriptive comparisons are presented for brushing alone or brushing and flossing. A greater part of the studies did not show a benefit for floss on plaque and clinical parameters of gingivitis. A meta-analysis was performed for the plaque index and gingival index.


CONCLUSIONS
The dental professional should determine, on an individual patient basis, whether high-quality flossing is an achievable goal. In light of the results of this comprehensive literature search and critical analysis, it is concluded that a routine instruction to use floss is not supported by scientific evidence.
Computations with Finitely Generated Modules over Dedekind Rings

In computer algebra the use of normal forms for matrices is of eminent importance. Especially, Hermite and Smith normal form techniques are frequently used for various computational problems over Euclidean rings. In this paper we discuss a generalization of these concepts to Dedekind rings. We consider the problem of normal forms for matrices in the context of basis transformations for finitely generated modules. If R is a Euclidean ring and A is in Rm” then the columns ai of A can be viewed as generators of an R-module 114 of Rm x 1. Hence, the matrix A describes the presentation of the generators ai by the canonical basis el, . . . . e ~ of Rrn x 1. Since any submodule A4 of Rm x 1 is a free module of rank k < m, there is a matrix T of GL(n, R) such that the first k columns of AT form a basis of A4 and the remaining n – k columns are O. Moreover, AT can be assumed to be in Herm.ite normal form, i.e., in column j (for 1 < j < k) the nonzero element of maximal row index i is contained in a representative set of R modulo its unit group U(R) and all elements in the same row i with column indices 1< j are zero. Similarly, if we allow regular transformations of A from both sides we obtain the Smith normal form of A. If R is not Euclidean but just a principal entire ring these concepts still hold. But usually the computation of generators of ideals becomes impracticable without a Euclidean algorithm. In this paper we discuss a generfllzation to Dedekind rings. We make use of the fact that every ideal a of a Dedekind ring R can be generated by two elements one of which can be chosen quite arbitrarily in
Local control and outcome in children with localized vaginal rhabdomyosarcoma: a report from the Soft Tissue Sarcoma committee of the Children's Oncology Group.

BACKGROUND
The local control approach for girls with non-resected vaginal rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) enrolled onto Intergroup RMS Study Group (IRSG)/Children's Oncology Group (COG) studies has differed from that used at other primary sites by delaying or eliminating radiotherapy (RT) based on response achieved with chemotherapy and delayed primary resection.


PROCEDURES
We reviewed locoregional treatment and outcome for patients with localized RMS of the vagina on the two most recent COG low-risk RMS studies.


RESULTS
Forty-one patients with localized vaginal RMS were enrolled: 25 onto D9602 and 16 onto Subset 2 of ARST0331. Only four of the 39 with non-resected tumors received RT. The 5-year cumulative incidence of local recurrence was 26% on D9602, and the 2-year cumulative incidence of local recurrence was 43% on ARST0331. Increased local failure rates appeared to correlate with chemotherapy regimens that incorporated lower cumulative doses of cyclophosphamide. Estimated 5-year and 2-year failure free survival rates were 70% (95% CI: 46%, 84%) on D9602 and 42% (95% CI: 11%, 70%) on ARST0331, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
To prevent local recurrence, we recommend a local control approach for patients with non-resected RMS of the vagina that is similar to that used for other primary sites and includes RT. We recognize that potential long-term effects of RT are sometimes unacceptable, especially for children less than 24 months of age. However, when making the decision to eliminate RT, the risk of local recurrence must be considered especially when using a chemotherapy regimen with a total cumulative cyclophosphamide dose of ≤ 4.8 g/m².
Neuroleptic malignant syndrome and atypical antipsychotic drugs.

OBJECTIVE
The incidence of neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) is not known, but the frequency of its occurrence with conventional antipsychotic agents has been reported to vary from 0.02% to 2.44%.


DATA SOURCES
MEDLINE search conducted in January 2003 and review of references within the retrieved articles.


DATA SYNTHESIS
Our MEDLINE research yielded 68 cases (21 females and 47 males) of NMS associated with atypical antipsychotic drugs (clozapine, N = 21; risperidone, N = 23; olanzapine, N = 19; and quetiapine, N = 5). The fact that 21 cases of NMS with clozapine were found indicates that low occurrence of extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS) and low EPS-inducing potential do not prevent the occurrence of NMS and D(2) dopamine receptor blocking potential does not have direct correlation with the occurrence of NMS. One of the cardinal features of NMS is an increasing manifestation of EPS, and the conventional antipsychotic drugs are known to produce EPS in 95% or more of NMS cases. With atypical antipsychotic drugs, the incidence of EPS during NMS is of a similar magnitude.


CONCLUSIONS
For NMS associated with atypical antipsychotic drugs, the mortality rate was lower than that with conventional antipsychotic drugs. However, the mortality rate may simply be a reflection of physicians' awareness and ensuing early treatment.
Tendinopathies of the elbow, wrist, and hand: histopathology and clinical considerations.

This article reviews the current opinion of the histopathological findings of common elbow, wrist, and hand tendinopathies. Implications for client management including examination, diagnosis, prognosis, intervention, and outcomes are addressed. Concepts for further research regarding common therapeutic interventions are discussed.
Ontogenetic trait variation influences tree community assembly across environmental gradients

Intraspecific trait variation is hypothesized to influence the relative importance of community assembly mechanisms. However, few studies have explicitly considered how intraspecific trait variation among ontogenetic stages influences community assembly across environmental gradients. Because the relative importance of abiotic and biotic assembly mechanisms can differ among ontogenetic stages within and across environments, ontogenetic trait variation may have an important influence on patterns of functional diversity and inferred assembly mechanisms. We tested the hypothesis that variation in functional diversity across a topo-edaphic gradient differs among ontogenetic stages and that these patterns reflect a shift in the relative importance of different assembly mechanisms. In a temperate forest in the Missouri Ozarks, USA, we compared functional diversity of leaf size and specific leaf area (SLA) of 34 woody plant species at two ontogenetic stages (adults and saplings) to test predictions about how the relative importance of abiotic and biotic filtering changes among adult and sapling communities. Local communities of adults had lower mean SLA and lower functional dispersion of SLA than expected by chance, particularly at the resource-limited end of the topo-edaphic gradient, suggesting an important role for abiotic filtering among co-occurring adults. In contrast, local communities of saplings often had higher functional dispersion of leaf size and SLA than expected by chance regardless of their location along the topo-edaphic gradient, suggesting an important role for biotic filtering among co-occurring saplings. Moreover, the overall strength of trait-environment relationships varied between saplings and adults for both leaf traits, generally resulting in stronger environmental shifts in mean trait values and trait dispersion for adults relative to saplings. Our results illustrate how community assembly mechanisms may shift in their relative importance during ontogeny, leading to variable patterns of functional diversity across environmental gradients. Moreover, our results highlight the importance of integrating ontogeny, an important axis of intraspecific trait variability, into approaches that use plant functional traits to understand community assembly and species coexistence.