bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Parasitemia due to Sarcocystis neurona‐like infection in a clinically ill domestic cat
Authors: Zitzer Nina C. , Marsh Antoinette E. , Burkhard Mary Jo , Radin M. Judith , Wellman Maxey L. , Jugan Maria , Parker Valerie 
Published: September 2017

AbstractAn 8‐year‐old, 6‐kg, male neutered Domestic Shorthair cat was presented to The Ohio State University Veterinary Medical Center (OSU‐VMC) for difficulty breathing. Physical examination and thoracic radiographs indicated pneumonia, a soft‐tissue mass in the left caudal lung lobe, and diffuse pleural effusion. The effusion was classified as modified transudate. Rare extracellular elongated (~5–7 μm × 1–2 μm) zoites with a central round to oval‐shaped purple to deep purple vesicular nucleus with coarsely stippled chromatin and light blue cytoplasm were seen on a peripheral blood smear. Serum IgG and IgM were positive for Sarcocystis sp. antibodies and negative for Toxoplasma gondii antibodies, suggesting that the infection was acute rather than a recrudescence of prior infection. This organism was most consistent with either Sarcocystis neurona or Sarcocystis dasypi based on DNA sequence analysis of PCR products using COC ssRNA, ITS‐1, snSAG2, and JNB25/JD396 primer sets. This is the first report to visualize by light microscopy circulating Sarcocystis sp. merozoites in the peripheral blood of a domestic cat. Therefore, Sarcocystis should be considered as a differential diagnosis in cats with suspected systemic protozoal infection.
Effectiveness of population based risk reduction programs for risky sexual behavior among young people in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review protocol
Authors: Enuameh Yeetey Akpe Kwesi , Adjei George , Mahama Emmanuel , Gyan Thomas , Koku Emmanuel 
Published: September 2017

Review question/objective:
: The objective of this review is to synthesize the best available evidence on the effectiveness of population based (public health) risk reduction interventions (programs and services) on sexual risk taking among young people (aged 10 to 24 years old) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
The specific review questions are:1. What is the effectiveness of population based risk reduction interventions on risky sexual behaviors among young people in LMICs?2. What are the characteristics (e.g. modalities, frequencies, etc.) of population based interventions that are effective in reducing risky sexual behaviors among young people in LMICs?
Facilitators and barriers to modern contraception use among reproductive-aged women living in sub-Saharan Africa: a qualitative systematic review protocol
Authors: Aviisah Mark Akantigse , Norman Ishmael D. , Enuameh Yeetey 
Published: September 2017

Review question/objective:
: The main objective of this qualitative review is to synthesize the best available evidence on facilitators and barriers of modern contraception use among reproductive-aged (15–49 years) women living in sub-Saharan Africa [SSA].
The specific review questions are:1. What are the facilitators and barriers to modern contraception use among reproductive-aged women in SSA?2. How different are the facilitators and barriers between sexually active non-married and married women?3. Have these facilitators and barriers changed over time, and how have they changed?
Effectiveness of droxidopa compared to midodrine in standing blood pressure and orthostatic tolerance in adults with neurogenic orthostatic hypotension: a systematic review protocol
Authors: Patrick Kelli , Martin Tina 
Published: September 2017

Review question
The question of this review is: what is the effectiveness of droxidopa compared to midodrine on standing blood pressure and orthostatic intolerance symptoms in adults with neurogenic orthostatic hypotension?
MyTraces
Authors: Mehrotra Abhinav , Tsapeli Fani , Hendley Robert , Musolesi Mirco 
Published: September 2017

Most of the existing work concerning the analysis of emotional states and mobile phone interaction has been based on correlation analysis. In this paper, for the first time, we carry out a causality study to investigate the causal links between users’ emotional states and their interaction with mobile phones, which could provide valuable information to practitioners and researchers. The analysis is based on a dataset collected in-the-wild. We recorded 5,118 mood reports from 28 users over a period of 20 days.
Our results show that users’ emotions have a causal impact on different aspects of mobile phone interaction. On the other hand, we can observe a causal impact of the use of specific applications, reflecting the external users’ context, such as socializing and traveling, on happiness and stress level. This study has profound implications for the design of interactive mobile systems since it identifies the dimensions that have causal effects on users’ interaction with mobile phones and vice versa. These findings might lead to the design of more effective computing systems and services that rely on the analysis of the emotional state of users, for example for marketing and digital health applications.
FootprintID
Authors: Pan Shijia , Yu Tong , Mirshekari Mostafa , Fagert Jonathon , Bonde Amelie , Mengshoel Ole J. , Noh Hae Young , Zhang Pei 
Published: September 2017

We present FootprintID, an indoor pedestrian identification system that utilizes footstep-induced structural vibration to infer pedestrian identities for enabling various smart building applications. Previous studies have explored other sensing methods, including vision-, RF-, mobile-, and acoustic-based methods. They often require specific sensing conditions, including line-of-sight, high sensor density, and carrying wearable devices. Vibration-based methods, on the other hand, provide easy-to-install sparse sensing and utilize gait to distinguish different individuals. However, the challenge for these methods is that the signals are sensitive to the gait variations caused by different walking speeds and the floor variations caused by structural heterogeneity.
We present FootprintID, a vibration-based approach that achieves robust pedestrian identification. The system uses vibration sensors to detect footstep-induced vibrations. It then selects vibration signals and classifiers to accommodate sensing variations, taking step location and frequency into account. We utilize the physical insight on how individual step signal changes with walking speeds and introduce an iterative transductive learning algorithm (ITSVM) to achieve robust classification with limited labeled training data. When trained only on the average walking speed and tested on different walking speeds, FootprintID achieves up to 96% accuracy and a 3X improvement in extreme speeds compared to the Support Vector Machine. Furthermore, it achieves up to 90% accuracy (1.5X improvement) in uncontrolled experiments.
Glabella
Authors: Holz Christian , Wang Edward J. 
Published: September 2017

We propose Glabella, a wearable device that continuously and unobtrusively monitors heart rates at three sites on the wearer’s head. Our glasses prototype incorporates optical sensors, processing, storage, and communication components, all integrated into the frame to passively collect physiological data about the user without the need for any interaction. Glabella continuously records the stream of reflected light intensities from blood flow as well as inertial measurements of the user’s head. From the temporal differences in pulse events across the sensors, our prototype derives the wearer’s pulse transit time on a beat-to-beat basis.
Numerous efforts have found a significant correlation between a person’s pulse transit time and their systolic blood pressure. In this paper, we leverage this insight to continuously observe pulse transit time as a proxy for the behavior of systolic blood pressure levels—at a substantially higher level of convenience and higher rate than traditional blood pressure monitors, such as cuff-based oscillometric devices. This enables our prototype to model the beat-to-beat fluctuations in the user’s blood pressure over the course of the day and record its short-term responses to events, such as postural changes, exercise, eating and drinking, resting, medication intake, location changes, or time of day.
During our in-the-wild evaluation, four participants wore a custom-fit Glabella prototype device over the course of five days throughout their daytime job and regular activities. Participants additionally measured their radial blood pressure three times an hour using a commercial oscillometric cuff. Our analysis shows a high correlation between the pulse transit times computed on our devices with participants’ heart rates (mean r = 0.92, SE = 0.03, angular artery) and systolic blood pressure values measured using the oscillometric cuffs (mean r = 0.79, SE = 0.15, angular-superficial temporal artery, considering participants’ self-administered cuff-based measurements as ground truth). Our results indicate that Glabella has the potential to serve as a socially-acceptable capture device, requiring no user input or behavior changes during regular activities, and whose continuous measurements may prove informative to physicians as well as users’ self-tracking activities.
HeartSense
Authors: Mohamed Reham , Youssef Moustafa 
Published: September 2017

Heart rate is one of the most important vital signals for personal health tracking. A number of smartphone-based heart rate estimation systems have been proposed over the years. However, they either depend on special hardware sensors or suffer from the high noise due to the weakness of the heart signals, affecting their accuracy in many practical scenarios.
Inspired by medical studies about the heart motion mechanics, we propose the HeartSense heart rate estimation system. Specifically, we show that the gyroscope sensor is the most sensitive sensor for measuring the heart rate. To further counter noise and handle different practical scenarios, we introduce a novel quality metric that allows us to fuse the different gyroscope axes in a probabilistic framework to achieve a robust and accurate estimate.
We have implemented and evaluated our system on different Android phones. Results using 836 experiments on different subjects in practical scenarios with a side-by-side comparison with other systems show that HeartSense can achieve 1.03 bpm median absolute error for heart rate estimation. This is better than the state-of-the-art by more than 147% in median error, highlighting HeartSense promise as a ubiquitous system for medical and personal well-being applications.
Patient-reported outcomes after aortic and mitral valve surgery – results from the DenHeart Study
Authors: Borregaard Britt , Ekholm Ola , Riber Lars , Sørensen Jan , Møller Jacob E , Thrysoe Lars , Thorup Charlotte B , Vámosi Marianne , Christensen Anne V , Rasmussen Trine B , Berg Selina K 
Published: September 2017

Background: Clinical course, co-morbidity and age often differs between patients undergoing aortic and mitral valve surgery and this might affect patient-reported outcomes. Aims: The purpose of this study was to describe differences in patient-reported physical and mental health and health-related quality of life after aortic valve or mitral valve surgery, and to identify demographic and clinical characteristics associated with worse patient-reported physical and mental health, and health-related quality of life. Methods: Patient-reported outcomes were measured at discharge as a part of a national, cross-sectional study (DenHeart). Patient-reported outcome measures included: Short-Form-12, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, EuroQol-5D-5L, HeartQol and Edmonton Symptom Assessment System. Demographic and clinical information was obtained from national registers. Results: Of 354 patients (65% men, mean age: 68 years), 79% underwent aortic valve surgery. Patients who had undergone aortic valve surgery had more symptoms of anxiety compared with patients who had undergone mitral valve surgery (34% vs 17%, p=0.003, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale anxiety cut-off score of eight). Being female was associated with worse patient-reported outcomes on all measures, whereas being unmarried was associated with worse physical health (Physical Component Score Short-Form-12) and symptom burden (Edmonton Symptom Assessment System). Length of stay was associated with worse symptoms on EuroQol-5D-5L Visual Analogue Scale. Age and comorbidity were not associated with patient-reported outcomes. Conclusion: Patients who had undergone aortic valve and mitral valve surgery did not significantly differ in patient-reported health at discharge, except for symptoms of anxiety. Being female was the only characteristic associated with overall worse patient-reported outcomes at discharge.
Research Associates Program: Expanding clinical research productivity with undergraduate students
Authors: Hoonpongsimanont Wirachin , Sahota Preet K , Ng Nathan N , Farooqui Maryam J , Chakravarthy Bharath , Patel Bhakti , Lotfipour Shahram 
Published: September 2017

Objectives: Clinical research is often time-consuming and difficult to conduct in busy academic institutions. Previous studies have proposed methods to integrate undergraduate students as a means to increase research productivity. The authors aimed to describe the possibility to enhance emergency department research productivity at an academic emergency department in the United States, using undergraduate students in an Emergency Medicine Research Associates Program. Methods: The authors described the Emergency Medicine Research Associates Program curriculum and its implementation. We also conducted a retrospective study at a university-based emergency department from January 2005 to December 2014 to demonstrate the benefit of having an established Emergency Medicine Research Associates Program. The primary outcomes were number of Emergency Medicine Research Associates Program–related studies, number of enrolled patients, extramural/intramural funding, abstract presentations, and peer-reviewed publications. The authors analyzed the data using descriptive statistics. Results: Over the 10-year period, 110 Emergency Medicine Research Associates Program–assisted research studies were conducted, with research associates enrolling 46,219 patients. These studies yielded a total of 31 peer-reviewed publications and 77 abstract presentations (13 international, 27 national, 37 state/regional). The Emergency Medicine Research Associates Program–related studies were used as pilot studies to obtain US$1,751,036 in extramural grant funding and US$31,047 in intramural grant funding. Conclusion: The implementation of Emergency Medicine Research Associates Program can enhance emergency department clinical research productivity, and the inclusion of supplemental academic programs enhanced the undergraduate students’ research experience.
Applications and common coupled fixed point results in ordered partial metric spaces
Authors: Rao KPR , Kishore GNV , Tas Kenan , Satyanaraya S , Ram Prasad D 
Published: September 2017

AbstractIn this paper, we obtain a unique common coupled fixed point theorem by using $(\psi , \alpha , \beta )$
(
ψ
,
α
,
β
)
-contraction in ordered partial metric spaces. We give an application to integral equations as well as homotopy theory. Also we furnish an example which supports our theorem.
Efficacy and safety of controlled-release oxycodone/naloxone versus controlled-release oxycodone in Korean patients with cancer-related pain: a randomized controlled trial
Authors: Lee Kyung-Hee , Kim Tae Won , Kang Jung-Hun , Kim Jin-Soo , Ahn Jin-Seok , Kim Sun-Young , Yun Hwan-Jung , Eum Young-Jun , Koh Sung Ae , Kim Min Kyoung , Hong Yong Sang , Kim Jeong Eun , Lee Gyeong-Won 
Published: September 2017

Abstract
Background
Controlled-release oxycodone/naloxone (OXN-CR) maintains the effect of opioid-induced analgesia through oxycodone while reducing the occurrence rate of opioid-induced constipation through naloxone. The present study was designed to assess the non-inferiority of OXN-CR to controlled-release oxycodone (OX-CR) for the control of cancer-related pain in Korean patients.

Methods
In this randomized, open-labeled, parallel-group, phase IV study, we enrolled patients aged 20 years or older with moderate to severe cancer-related pain [numeric rating scale (NRS) pain score ≥4] from seven Korean oncology/hematology centers. Patients in the intention-to-treat (ITT) population were randomized (1:1) to OXN-CR or OX-CR groups. OXN-CR was administered starting at 20 mg/10 mg per day and up-titrated to a maximum of 80 mg/40 mg per day for 4 weeks, and OX-CR was administered starting at 20 mg/day and up-titrated to a maximum of 80 mg/day for 4 weeks. The primary efficacy endpoint was the change in NRS pain score from baseline to week 4, with non-inferiority margin of −1.5. Secondary endpoints included analgesic rescue medication intake, patient-reported change in bowel habits, laxative intake, quality of life (QoL), and safety assessments.

Results
Of the ITT population comprising 128 patients, 7 with missing primary efficacy data and 4 who violated the eligibility criteria were excluded from the efficacy analysis. At week 4, the mean change in NRS pain scores was not significantly different between the OXN-CR group (n = 58) and the OX-CR group (n = 59) (−1.586 vs. −1.559, P = 0.948). The lower limit of the one-sided 95% confidence interval (−0.776 to 0.830) for the difference exceeded the non-inferiority margin (P < 0.001). The OXN-CR and OX-CR groups did not differ significantly in terms of analgesic rescue medication intake, change in bowel habits, laxative intake, QoL, and safety assessments.

Conclusions
OXN-CR was non-inferior to OX-CR in terms of pain reduction after 4 weeks of treatment and had a similar safety profile. Studies in larger populations of Korean patients with cancer-related pain are needed to further investigate the effectiveness of OXN-CR for long-term pain control and constipation alleviation.
Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01313780, registered March 8, 2011
Nintedanib Plus Pemetrexed/Cisplatin in Patients With Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma: Phase II Results From the Randomized, Placebo-Controlled LUME-Meso Trial
Authors: Grosso Federica , Steele Nicola , Novello Silvia , Nowak Anna K. , Popat Sanjay , Greillier Laurent , John Thomas , Leighl Natasha B. , Reck Martin , Taylor Paul , Planchard David , Sørensen Jens Benn , Socinski Mark A. , von Wangenheim Ute , Loembé Arsène Bienvenu , Barrueco José , Morsli Nassim , Scagliotti Giorgio 
Published: September 2017

Purpose LUME-Meso is a phase II/III randomized, double-blind trial designed to assess efficacy and safety of nintedanib plus chemotherapy as first-line treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). Phase II results are reported here. Patients and Methods Chemotherapy-naïve patients with unresectable, nonsarcomatoid MPM (Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status 0 to 1), stratified by histology (epithelioid or biphasic), were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to up to six cycles of pemetrexed and cisplatin plus nintedanib (200 mg twice daily) or placebo followed by nintedanib plus placebo monotherapy until progression. The primary end point was progression-free survival (PFS). Results Eighty-seven patients were randomly assigned. The median number of pemetrexed and cisplatin cycles was six; the median treatment duration for nintedanib was 7.8 months and 5.3 months for placebo. Primary PFS favored nintedanib (hazard ratio [HR], 0.56; 95% CI, 0.34 to 0.91; P = .017), which was confirmed in updated PFS analyses (HR, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.33 to 0.87; P = .010). A trend toward improved overall survival also favored nintedanib (HR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.46 to 1.29; P = .319). Benefit was evident in epithelioid histology, with a median overall survival gain of 5.4 months (HR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.40 to 1.21; P = .197; median [nintedanib v placebo], 20.6 months v 15.2 months) and median PFS gain of 4.0 months (HR, 0.49; 95% CI, 0.30 to 0.82; P = .006; median [nintedanib v placebo], 9.7 v 5.7 months). Neutropenia was the most frequent grade ≥ 3 adverse event (AE; nintedanib 43.2% v placebo 12.2%); rates of febrile neutropenia were low (4.5% in nintedanib group v 0% in placebo group). AEs leading to discontinuation were reported in 6.8% of those receiving nintedanib versus 17.1% of those in the placebo group. Conclusion Addition of nintedanib to pemetrexed plus cisplatin resulted in PFS improvement. AEs were manageable. The clinical benefit was evident in patients with epithelioid histology. The confirmatory phase III part of the study is ongoing.
A 4-week, lifestyle-integrated, home-based exercise training programme elicits improvements in physical function and lean mass in older men and women: a pilot study
Authors: Cegielski Jessica , Brook Matthew S. , Quinlan Jonathan I. , Wilkinson Daniel J. , Smith Kenneth , Atherton Philip J. , Phillips Bethan E. 
Published: September 2017

Background: Developing alternative exercise programmes that can alleviate certain barriers to exercise such as psychological, environmental or socio-economical barriers, but provide similar physiological benefits e.g. increases in muscle mass and strength, is of grave importance. This pilot study aimed to assess the efficacy of an unsupervised, 4-week, whole-body home-based exercise training (HBET) programme, incorporated into daily living activities, on skeletal muscle mass, power and strength. Methods: Twelve healthy older volunteers (63±3 years, 7 men: 5 women, BMI: 29±1 kg/m²) carried out the 4-week “lifestyle-integrated” HBET of 8 exercises, 3x12 repetitions each, every day. Before and after HBET, a number of physical function tests were carried out: unilateral leg extension 1-RM (one- repetition maximum), MVC (maximal voluntary contraction) leg extension, lower leg muscle power (via Nottingham Power Rig), handgrip strength and SPPBT (short physical performance battery test). A D3-Creatine method was used for assessment of whole-body skeletal muscle mass, and ultrasound was used to measure the quadriceps cross-sectional area (CSA) and vastus lateralis muscle thickness. Results: Four weeks HBET elicited significant (p<0.05) improvements in leg muscle power (276.7±38.5 vs. 323.4±43.4 W), maximal voluntary contraction (60°: 154.2±18.4 vs. 168.8±15.2 Nm, 90°: 152.1±10.5 vs. 159.1±11.4 Nm) and quadriceps CSA (57.5±5.4 vs. 59.0±5.3 cm2), with a trend for an increase in leg strength (1-RM: 45.7±5.9 vs. 49.6±6.0 kg, P=0.08). This was despite there being no significant differences in whole-body skeletal muscle mass, as assessed via D3-Creatine. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that increases in multiple aspects of muscle function can be achieved in older adults with just 4-weeks of “lifestyle-integrated” HBET, with a cost-effective means. This training mode may prove to be a beneficial alternative for maintaining and/or improving muscle mass and function in older adults.