bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Prevalence and type of cervical deformities among adults with Parkinson's disease: a cross-sectional study
Authors: Moon Bong Ju , Smith Justin S. , Ames Christopher P. , Shaffrey Christopher I. , Lafage Virginie , Schwab Frank , Matsumoto Morio , Baik Jong Sam , Ha Yoon 
Published: December 2015

OBJECT
To identify the characteristics of cervical deformities in Parkinson's disease (PD) and the role of severity of PD in the development of cervical spine deformities, the authors investigated the prevalence of the cervical deformities, cervical kyphosis (CK), and cervical positive sagittal malalignment (CPSM) in patients with PD. They also analyzed the association of severity of cervical deformities with the stage of PD in the context of global sagittal spinopelvic alignment.

METHODS
This study was a prospective assessment of consecutively treated patients (n = 89) with PD. A control group of the age- and sex-matched patients was selected from patients with degenerative cervical spine disease but without PD. Clinical and demographic parameters including age, sex, duration of PD, and Hoehn and Yahr (H&Y) stage were collected. Full-length standing radiographs were used to assess spinopelvic parameters. CK was defined as a C2–7 Cobb angle < 0°. CPSM was defined as C2–7 sagittal vertical axis (SVA) > 4 cm.

RESULTS
A significantly higher prevalence of CPSM (28% vs 1.1%, p < 0.001), but not CK (12% vs 10.1%, p = 0.635), was found in PD patients compared with control patients. Among patients with PD, those with CK were younger (62.1 vs 69.0 years, p = 0.013) and had longer duration of PD (56.4 vs 36.2 months, p = 0.034), but the severity of PD was not significantly different. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the presence of CK was associated with younger age, higher mismatch between pelvic incidence and lumbar lordosis, and lower C7–S1 SVA. The patients with CPSM had significantly greater thoracic kyphosis (TK) (p < 0.001) and a trend toward more advanced H&Y stage (p = 0.05). Logistic regression analysis revealed that CPSM was associated with male sex, greater TK, and more advanced H&Y stage.

CONCLUSIONS
Patients with PD have a significantly higher prevalence of CPSM compared with age- and sex-matched control patients with cervical degenerative disease but without PD. Among patients with PD, CK is not associated with the severity of PD but is associated with overall global sagittal malalignment. In contrast, the presence of CPSM is associated more with the severity of PD than it is with the presence of global sagittal malalignment. Collectively, these data suggest that the neuromuscular pathogenesis of PD may affect the development of CPSM more than of CK.
Preoperative retrolisthesis as a risk factor of postdecompression lumbar disc herniation
Authors: Takenaka Shota , Tateishi Kosuke , Hosono Noboru , Mukai Yoshihiro , Fuji Takeshi 
Published: December 2015

OBJECT
In this study, the authors aimed to identify specific risk factors for postdecompression lumbar disc herniation (PDLDH) in patients who have not undergone discectomy and/or fusion.

METHODS
Between 2007 and 2012, 493 patients with lumbar spinal stenosis underwent bilateral partial laminectomy without discectomy and/or fusion in a single hospital. Eighteen patients (herniation group [H group]: 15 men, 3 women; mean age 65.1 years) developed acute sciatica as a result of PDLDH within 2 years after surgery. Ninety patients who did not develop postoperative acute sciatica were selected as a control group (C group: 75 men, 15 women; mean age 65.4 years). Patients in the C group were age and sex matched with those in the H group. The patients in the groups were also matched for decompression level, number of decompression levels, and surgery date. The radiographic variables measured included percentage of slippage, intervertebral angle, range of motion, lumbar lordosis, disc height, facet angle, extent of facet removal, facet degeneration, disc degeneration, and vertebral endplate degeneration. The threshold for PDLDH risk factors was evaluated using a continuous numerical variable and receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. The area under the curve was used to determine the diagnostic performance, and values greater than 0.75 were considered to represent good performance.

RESULTS
Multivariate analysis revealed that preoperative retrolisthesis during extension was the sole significant independent risk factor for PDLDH. The area under the curve for preoperative retrolisthesis during extension was 0.849; the cutoff value was estimated to be a retrolisthesis of 7.2% during extension.

CONCLUSIONS
The authors observed that bilateral partial laminectomy, performed along with the removal of the posterior support ligament, may not be suitable for lumbar spinal stenosis patients with preoperative retrolisthesis greater than 7.2% during extension.
Utility of diffusion tensor imaging studies linked to neuronavigation and other modalities in repeat hemispherotomy for intractable epilepsy
Authors: Kiehna Erin N. , Widjaja Elysa , Holowka Stephanie , Carter Snead O. , Drake James , Weiss Shelly K. , Ochi Ayako , Thompson Eric M. , Go Cristina , Otsubo Hiroshi , Donner Elizabeth J. , Rutka James T. 
Published: December 2015

OBJECT
Hemispherectomy for unilateral, medically refractory epilepsy is associated with excellent long-term seizure control. However, for patients with recurrent seizures following disconnection, workup and investigation can be challenging, and surgical options may be limited. Few studies have examined the role of repeat hemispherotomy in these patients. The authors hypothesized that residual fiber connections between the hemispheres could be the underlying cause of recurrent epilepsy in these patients. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was used to test this hypothesis, and to target residual connections at reoperation using neuronavigation.

METHODS
The authors identified 8 patients with recurrent seizures following hemispherectomy who underwent surgery between 1995 and 2012. Prolonged video electroencephalography recordings documented persistent seizures arising from the affected hemisphere. In all patients, DTI demonstrated residual white matter association fibers connecting the hemispheres. A repeat craniotomy and neuronavigation-guided targeted disconnection of these residual fibers was performed. Engel class was used to determine outcome after surgery at a minimum of 2 years of follow-up.

RESULTS
Two patients underwent initial hemidecortication and 6 had periinsular hemispherotomy as their first procedures at a median age of 9.7 months. Initial pathologies included hemimegalencephaly (n = 4), multilobar cortical dysplasia (n = 3), and Rasmussen's encephalitis (n = 1). The mean duration of seizure freedom for the group after the initial procedure was 32.5 months (range 6–77 months). In all patients, DTI showed limited but definite residual connections between the 2 hemispheres, primarily across the rostrum/genu of the corpus callosum. The median age at reoperation was 6.8 years (range 1.3–14 years). The average time taken for reoperation was 3 hours (range 1.8–4.3 hours), with a mean blood loss of 150 ml (range 50–250 ml). One patient required a blood transfusion. Five patients are seizure free, and the remaining 3 patients are Engel Class II, with a minimum follow-up of 24 months for the group.

CONCLUSIONS
Repeat hemispherotomy is an option for consideration in patients with recurrent intractable epilepsy following failed surgery for catastrophic epilepsy. In conjunction with other modalities to establish seizure onset zones, advanced MRI and DTI sequences may be of value in identifying patients with residual connectivity between the affected and unaffected hemispheres. Targeted disconnection of these residual areas of connectivity using neuronavigation may result in improved seizure outcomes, with minimal and acceptable morbidity.
The role of obesity in the biomechanics and radiological changes of the spine: an in vitro study
Authors: Rodriguez-Martinez Nestor G. , Perez-Orribo Luis , Kalb Samuel , Reyes Phillip M. , Newcomb Anna G. U. S. , Hughes Jeremy , Theodore Nicholas , Crawford Neil R. 
Published: December 2015

OBJECT
The effects of obesity on lumbar biomechanics are not fully understood. The aims of this study were to analyze the biomechanical differences between cadaveric L4–5 lumbar spine segments from a large group of nonobese (body mass index [BMI] < 30 kg/m2) and obese (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) donors and to determine if there were any radiological differences between spines from nonobese and obese donors using MR imaging.

METHODS
A total of 168 intact L4–5 spinal segments (87 males and 81 females) were tested using pure-moment loading, simulating flexion-extension, lateral bending, and axial rotation. Axial compression tests were performed on 38 of the specimens. Sex, age, and BMI were analyzed with biomechanical parameters using 1-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression analyses. MR images were obtained in 12 specimens (8 from obese and 4 from nonobese donors) using a 3-T MR scanner.

RESULTS
The segments from the obese male group allowed significantly greater range of motion (ROM) than those from the nonobese male group during axial rotation (p = 0.018), while there was no difference between segments from obese and nonobese females (p = 0.687). There were no differences in ROM between spines from obese and nonobese donors during flexion-extension or lateral bending for either sex. In the nonobese population, the ROM during axial rotation was significantly greater for females than for males (p = 0.009). There was no significant difference between sexes in the obese population (p = 0.892). Axial compressive stiffness was significantly greater for the obese than the nonobese population for both the female-only group and the entire study group (p < 0.01); however, the difference was nonsignificant in the male population (p = 0.304). Correlation analysis confirmed a significant negative correlation between BMI and resistance to deformation during axial compression in the female group (R = −0.65, p = 0.004), with no relationship in the male group (R = 0.03, p = 0.9). There was also a significant negative correlation between ROM during flexion-extension and BMI for the female group (R = −0.38, p = 0.001), with no relationship for the male group (R = 0.06, p = 0.58). Qualitative analysis using MR imaging indicated greater facet degeneration and a greater incidence of disc herniations in the obese group than in the control group.

CONCLUSIONS
Based on flexibility and compression tests, lumbar spinal segments from obese versus nonobese donors seem to behave differently, biomechanically, during axial rotation and compression. The differences are more pronounced in women. MR imaging suggests that these differences may be due to greater facet degeneration and an increased amount of disc herniation in the spines from obese individuals.
Scoliosis may increase the risk of recurrence of lumbar disc herniation after microdiscectomy
Authors: Chang Hsuan-Kan , Chang Huang-Chou , Wu Jau-Ching , Tu Tsung-Hsi , Fay Li-Yu , Chang Peng-Yuan , Wu Ching-Lan , Huang Wen-Cheng , Cheng Henrich 
Published: December 2015

OBJECT
The aim of this paper was to investigate the risk of recurrence of lumbar disc herniation (LDH) in patients with scoliosis who underwent microdiscectomy.

METHODS
A series of consecutive patients who underwent microdiscectomy for LDH was retrospectively reviewed. The inclusion criteria were young adults younger than 40 years who received microdiscectomy for symptomatic 1-level LDH. An exclusion criterion was any previous spinal surgery, including fusion or correction of scoliosis. The patients were divided into 2 groups: those with scoliosis and those without scoliosis. The demographic data in the 2 groups were similar. All medical records and clinical and radiological evaluations were reviewed.

RESULTS
A total of 58 patients who underwent 1-level microdiscectomy for LDH were analyzed. During the mean follow-up of 24.6 months, 6 patients (10.3%) experienced a recurrence of LDH with variable symptoms. The recurrence rate was significantly higher among the scoliosis group than the nonscoliosis group (33.3% vs 2.3%, p = 0.001). Furthermore, the recurrence-free interval in the scoliosis group was short.

CONCLUSIONS
Young adults (< 40 years) with uncorrected scoliosis are at higher risk of recurrent LDH after microdiscectomy.
La educación literaria de los clásicos y su proyección interdisciplinaria para el aprendizaje basado en competencias
Authors: Caro Valverde María Teresa 
Published: December 2015

En este estudio se proponen bases epistemológicas y didácticas para considerar la educación literaria como ciencia social humanista que estimula un aprendizaje cooperativo y creativo de proyección interdisciplinar en torno a los clásicos. Se parte de una hipótesis basada en las teorías semióticas del hipertexto: la consideración educativa de los clásicos literarios como obras modernas porque a través de los siglos persiste su interés social y su convocatoria de ciencias diversas. Contribuye así a solventar un problema que atenaza al reto actual del aprendizaje basado en competencias básicas: la costumbre academicista de confundir la literatura con la historia de la literatura y la escritura con una mera representación de la oralidad, lo cual menoscaba el aprendizaje heurístico inherente a la cognición conectiva y reflexiva que fomenta buenas prácticas educativas interdisciplinarias. Por ello, propone una metodología de investigación- acción en el aula que ha sido validada con numerosas intervenciones interdisciplinarias en las etapas educativas de Primaria y Secundaria, donde los clásicos de la literatura han sido correspondidos desde los contextos auténticos de sus lectores del siglo XXI: niños y adolescentes creadores de hipertextos reunidos en libros-homenaje que han sido analizados cualitativamente. El modelo didáctico resultante constituye una referencia pionera sobre educación literaria interdisciplinaria orientada hacia un enfoque educativo basado en competencias desde aprendizajes basados en tareas y en proyectos.
An Automated Music Selector Derived from Weather Condition and its Impact on Human Psychology
Authors: Karmaker Debajyoti , Imran Md. Al , Mohammad Niaj , Islam Mohaiminul , Mahbub Md. Nafees 
Published: December 2015

AbstractSometimes it is disquieting to generate a playlist to listen music for a specific moment. Though listening of music basically depends on our mood and it’s also been said that there exists a relation between our mood and weather, so our approach is to build an automated system to create a music playlist based on users mood and defined weather. Method is to measure the weight of each music files respect to defined mood and weather by using data mining algorithms.
Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing Usage for Psychological Consultation
Authors: Vidanage Kaneeka , Jayaratne Lakshman 
Published: December 2015

AbstractIt`s an obvious fact to claim, that the problem of stress has become a vital issue presently. One of the main root cause of this is the escalation of human desires and complexity of those. Most of those desires would be difficult to achieve or not practical at all. When the reality is so harsh, compared with the imaginations, it will incur for stress. More the gap between reality and the perceptions, stress will escalate. As results of people are running after unrealistic or difficult to achieve greener pastures, most of them will end up with becoming a victim of stress. Stress management is a difficult skill to be developed, but in current context, it has become an essential skill to have.This research is based on the concept of internal self-talk. Thought stream captured in-form of text stream will be segmented, according to the cognitive behavioral therapeutic approach. This is technically implemented via POS tagging of the Stanford NLP library. Afterwards machine learning approach is used to train the WEKA engine, according to the OCEAN model, which is a prominent psychological model. Predictions derived from the trained WEKA model, will be presented inform of a report with the help of itext reporting plugin. This report will be used by the psychologist, before providing the treatment to the patient/client. It`s assumed, that this tool will be a good aiding tool, which can reduce the cognitive effort of a consultant.Respective, problem, technical, executional and all important aspects are addressed in detail, within this paper along with required evidences.
A Framework for the Implementation of Secure Bare-Based Web-Email System
Authors: Appiah-Kubi Patrick , Tsetse Anthony , Loukili Alae 
Published: December 2015

AbstractWebmail systems have being developed for different OS-based platforms. These OS-based systems present their own benefits and treats. Framework and white papers for developing these systems are available but there is no specific framework available for the implementation of such systems on Bare PC. Implementation of such systems on a Bare PC poses daunting challenges and innovative opportunities that are revolutionary in server designs. Building such systems for security could even be more challenging. Secure Webmail systems are complex, large and require intricate components to develop. As a result, a lean system was developed for this research. The lean concept also helps to build small protocol suite, intertwining of protocols, limited requirement space, simple user interfaces and minimal design options. The paper provides a detail framework for the design and implementation, experimental setup and the results of experiments conducted. Performance is evaluated by measuring the processing time, throughput, the CPU Utilization and load distribution. The results show that the performance of the Bare PC Webmail server is significantly better than that of the OS-based servers.
Virtual Machine Performance upon Intensive Computations
Authors: Yenké B.O. , Abba Ari A. A. , Dibamou Mbeuyo C. , Voundi D. A. 
Published: December 2015

AbstractWThe Virtual Machine (VM) technology has increased considerably within the last two decades and the performance of VMs seems closest to the host machine. This has motivated the use of VM in High Performance Computing (HPC). Running a scientific computation on VMs can severely impact the performance of applications. In addition, choosing the proper VM to run a specific application while minimizing the lost of performance is not an easy task. However, several virtualization solutions have been proposed. This paper presents the result of a comparison of the performance of the most commonly used VMs solutions: OpenVz, Linux-Vserver, LXC, XEN, KVM and VMware ESXi. The performance of these VMs are evaluated with the NAS benchmark, Lmbench, IOzone and Intel ® MPI Benchmark taking into account the consumption of resources such as CPU, memory, latency, disk and network communication. The result shows that some virtualization solutions present better performance in consumption of some of the previously mentioned resources than others. This work aims at helping a scientist in selecting the VM suitable to compute a specific task without a significant overhead on applications performance.
Quasi‐thermal noise measurements on STEREO: Kinetic temperature deduction using electron shot noise model
Authors: Martinović M. M. , Zaslavsky A. , Maksimović M. , Meyer‐Vernet N. , Šegan S. , Zouganelis I. , Salem C. , Pulupa M. , Bale S. D. 
Published: December 2015

AbstractQuasi‐thermal noise (QTN) spectroscopy is an accurate technique for in situ measurements of electron density and temperature in space plasmas. A QTN spectrum is determined by plasma and antenna properties. On STEREO/WAVES, since the antennas are relatively short and thick, the QTN spectrum is dominated by electron shot noise, especially at low frequencies, which reduces the accuracy of the method. Here we use the STEREO low‐frequency receiver, proton density measured by Plasma and Suprathermal Ion Composition instrument, and a QTN and shot noise models to provide electron temperature data from both STEREO A and B spacecraft. This derivation is important since no reliable measurements of electron temperature exist on board these spacecraft. We compare the results of our analysis with the electron temperature provided by the Wind spacecraft during the period when Wind and STEREO B were close to each other. The comparison shows that our technique is reliable when results are integrated on a time scale of the order of 50 to 60 min.
Testing the magnetotail configuration based on observations of low‐altitude isotropic boundaries during quiet times
Authors: Ilie R. , Ganushkina N. , Toth G. , Dubyagin S. , Liemohn M. W. 
Published: December 2015

AbstractWe investigate the configuration of the geomagnetic field on the nightside magnetosphere during a quiet time interval based on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Polar Orbiting Environment Satellites Medium Energy Proton and Electron Detector (NOAA/POES MEPED) measurements in combination with numerical simulations of the global terrestrial magnetosphere using the Space Weather Modeling Framework. Measurements from the NOAA/POES MEPED low‐altitude data sets provide the locations of isotropic boundaries; those are used to extract information regarding the field structure in the source regions in the magnetosphere. In order to evaluate adiabaticity and mapping accuracy, which is mainly controlled by the ratio between the radius of curvature and the particle's Larmor radius, we tested the threshold condition for strong pitch angle scattering based on the MHD magnetic field solution. The magnetic field configuration is represented by the model with high accuracy, as suggested by the high correlation coefficients and very low normalized root‐mean‐square errors between the observed and the modeled magnetic field. The scattering criterion, based on the values of
ratio at the crossings of magnetic field lines, associated with isotropic boundaries, with the minimum B surface, predicts a critical value of kCR∼33. This means that, in the absence of other scattering mechanisms, the strong pitch angle scattering takes place whenever the Larmor radius is ∼33 times smaller than the radius of curvature of the magnetic field, as predicted by the Space Weather Modeling Framework.
Observations and model simulations of wave‐current interaction on the inner shelf
Authors: Hopkins Julia , Elgar Steve , Raubenheimer Britt 
Published: December 2015

AbstractWave directions and mean currents observed for two 1 month long periods in 7 and 2 m water depths along 11 km of the southern shoreline of Martha's Vineyard, MA, have strong tidal modulations. Wave directions are modulated by as much as 70° over a tidal cycle. The magnitude of the tidal modulations in the wavefield decreases alongshore to the west, consistent with the observed decrease in tidal currents from 2.1 to 0.2 m/s along the shoreline. A numerical model (SWAN and Deflt3D‐FLOW) simulating waves and currents reproduces the observations accurately. Model simulations with and without wave‐current interaction and tidal depth changes demonstrate that the observed tidal modulations of the wavefield primarily are caused by wave‐current interaction and not by tidal changes to water depths over the nearby complex shoals.