pinecone/core-2020-05-10-deduplication huggingface dataset:
Prevention of Incident Knee Osteoarthritis by Moderate Weight Loss in Overweight and Obese Females

__Objective:__ This study evaluated the effect of moderate weight loss on the incidence of knee osteoarthritis (OA) in middle-aged overweight and obese women, without clinical and radiologic knee OA at baseline.  \ud
__Methods:__ A total of 353 women (87%) with followup data available were selected from the Prevention of Knee Osteoarthritis in Overweight Females study, which evaluated the preventive effect of a diet and exercise intervention and of oral glucosamine sulfate on the incidence of knee OA. This was an exploratory proof-of-concept analysis, which compared the incidence of knee OA between women who reached the clinically relevant weight loss target of 5 kg or 5% of body weight after 30 months and those who did not reach this target.  \ud
__Results:__ The weight loss group showed a significantly lower incidence of knee OA according to the primary outcome measure, which was composed of the American College of Rheumatology criteria (clinical and radiographic), Kellgren/Lawrence grade ≥2, and joint space narrowing ≥1.0 mm (15% versus 20%; odds ratio 0.5, 95% confidence interval 0.3–0.9). Moreover, the weight loss also positively affected several health measures, such as blood glucose level, body fat percentage, and blood pressure.  \ud
__Conclusion:__ A reduction of ≥5 kg or 5% of body weight over a 30-month period reduces the risk for the onset of radiographic knee OA in middle-aged overweight and obese women. Because of the slow progression of the disease, a longer followup period will be necessary before the number of prevented cases of knee OA by moderate weight loss becomes clinically more relevant
Factors associated with sustained remission in rheumatoid arthritis in patients treated with anti-tumour necrosis factor (anti-TNF)

OBJECTIVES: Anti-tumour necrosis factor antibody (anti-TNF) has revolutionised the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and remission is now a realistic possibility for patients. Despite widespread use of anti-TNFs, predicting which patients are most likely to attain a sustained good response to these treatments remains challenging. Our objective was to undertake a systematic review of the literature to evaluate existing evidence for demographic and clinical factors associated with the achievement of sustained remission in individuals with RA treated with anti-TNF. METHODS: EMBASE, MEDLINE and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register were searched along with studies identified from reference lists. Quality of studies was assessed using Newcastle-Ottawa criteria. Meta-analysis was undertaken where unadjusted odds ratios were available for the same demographic or clinical factors from at least three studies. RESULTS: Six studies were identified. Concomitant methotrexate use was associated with an increased likelihood of achieving sustained remission. Greater baseline disease activity, tender joint count, age, disease duration, baseline functional impairment and female gender were associated with reduced likelihood of achieving sustained remission. CONCLUSIONS: Factors predicting sustained remission are seldom reported. Evidence identified in this review supports current recommendations for methotrexate co-prescription and highlights the negative impact of particular clinical and demographic features on the likelihood of achieving optimal response to anti-TNF treatment. Sustained remission is clinically more relevant than point remission in RA. More widespread reporting of sustained remission will help clinicians set realistic expectations on likely long-term treatment efficacy and could be an important tool for identifying patients suitable for dose optimisation
Ultrasound Features of the First Metatarsophalangeal Joint in Gout and Asymptomatic Hyperuricaemia: Comparison With Normouricaemic Individuals

Objective

The first metatarsophalangeal (MTP1) joint is frequently affected in gout. The aim of this study was to identify ultrasound features of the MTP1 joint in people with gout and people with asymptomatic hyperuricemia compared with normouricemic controls.
Methods

Participants with gout (n = 23) and asymptomatic hyperuricemia (n = 29), and age- and sex-matched normouricemic control participants (n = 34), underwent a gray-scale and power Doppler ultrasound assessment of bilateral MTP1 joints by a single musculoskeletal radiologist. No participants had clinical evidence of joint inflammation at the time of scanning. The static images were later read by 2 musculoskeletal radiologists for the presence of the double contour sign, tophus, erosion, effusion, synovial hypertrophy, synovitis, and cartilage thickness.
Results

Compared to normouricemic control participants, participants with gout and participants with asymptomatic hyperuricemia had more frequent double contour sign (odds ratio [OR] 3.91, P = 0.011 and OR 3.81, P = 0.009, respectively). Participants with gout also had more erosion (OR 10.13, P = 0.001) and synovitis (OR 9.00, P < 0.001) and had greater tophus and erosion diameters (P = 0.035 and P < 0.001, respectively). More severe erosion and synovitis grades and a less severe effusion grade were independently associated with gout compared with asymptomatic hyperuricemia (R2 = 0.65, P < 0.001).
Conclusion

Urate deposition, synovitis, and bone erosion are common at the MTP1 joint in people with gout, even in the absence of flare. Although individuals with asymptomatic hyperuricemia lack ultrasound features of inflammation or structural joint changes, they demonstrate a similar frequency of urate deposition
Subfertility in Women With Rheumatoid Arthritis and the Outcome of Fertility Assessments

_Objective:_ Subfertility is frequently encountered among female rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and has been associated with disease activity and antirheumatic drugs. However, little is known about the results of the fertility assessments in these women. Our aim was to study the outcome of fertility assessments in subfertile women with RA.  \ud
_Methods:_ A cross-sectional study was performed in a nationwide cohort of female RA patients who were pregnant or trying to conceive between 2002 and 2010 (Pregnancy-Induced Amelioration of Rheumatoid Arthritis Study). Patients who had given consent for future contact (n=260) received a questionnaire on reproductive history, fertility examinations, and fertility treatments. Medical files were obtained from attending gynecologists.  \ud
_Results:_ A completed questionnaire was returned by 178 women (68%), of whom 96% had ended their efforts to conceive. Eighty-two subjects (46%) had at least 1 subfertile episode, and for 61 women a diagnosis for subfertility was available. Unexplained subfertility (48%) and anovulation (28%) were the most common gynecologic diagnoses, and both occurred more often in RA patients than reported in the general population. Women with unexplained subfertility more often used nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) during the periconceptional period. Seventeen percent of all pregnancies were conceived after fertility treatments. Fertility treatments had equal or higher pregnancy rates in RA compared to other subfertile populations.  \ud
_Conclusion:_ Unexplained subfertility is more often diagnosed in subfertile female RA patients than in the general population, and is related to periconceptional NSAID use. Despite the higher incidence of subfertility in women with RA, the outcome of fertility treatments in these women appears favorable
Reductions in Radiographic Progression in Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Over Twenty-Five Years: :
                    Changing Contribution From Rheumatoid Factor in Two Multicenter UK Inception Cohorts

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Lewis Carpenter, et al, ???Reductions in Radiographic Progression in Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Over Twenty-Five Years: Changing Contribution From Rheumatoid Factor in Two Multicenter UK Inception Cohorts???, Arthritis Care & Research, Vol. 69 (12): 1809-1817, December 2017, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/acr.23217. Under embargo until 6 Nov 2018 This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.Objective: To assess the 5-year progression of erosions and joint space narrowing (JSN) and their associations with rheumatoid factor (RF) status in 2 large, multicenter, early rheumatoid arthritis cohorts, spanning 25 years. Methods: Radiographic joint damage was recorded using the Sharp/van der Heijde (SHS) method in the Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Study (ERAS), 1986???2001, and the Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Network (ERAN), 2002???2013. Mixed-effects negative binomial regression estimated changes in radiographic damage over 5 years, including erosions and JSN, separately. RF, along with age, sex, and baseline markers of disease activity were controlled for. Results: A total of 1,216 patients from ERAS and 446 from ERAN had radiographic data. Compared to ERAS, ERAN patients had a lower mean total SHS score at baseline (ERAN 6.2 versus ERAS 10.5; P < 0.001) and mean annual rate of change (ERAN 2.5 per year versus ERAS 6.9 per year; P < 0.001). Seventy-four percent of ERAS and 27% of ERAN patients progressed ???5 units. Lower scores at baseline in ERAN were largely driven by reductions in JSN (ERAS 3.9 versus ERAN 1.2; P < 0.001), along with erosions (ERAS 1.9 versus ERAN 0.8; P < 0.001). RF was associated with greater progression in each cohort, but the absolute difference in mean annual rate of change for RF-positive patients was substantially higher for ERAS (RF positive 8.6 versus RF negative 5.1; P < 0.001), relative to ERAN (RF positive 2.0 versus RF negative 1.9; P = 0.855). Conclusion: Radiographic progression was shown to be significantly reduced between the 2 cohorts, and was associated with lower baseline damage and other factors, including changes in early disease-modifying antirheumatic drug use. The impact of RF status as a prognostic marker of clinically meaningful change in radiographic progression has markedly diminished in the context of more modern treatment
Study of Flare Assessment in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Based on Paper Patients

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked FilesOBJECTIVE:\ud
To determine the level of agreement of disease flare severity (distinguishing severe, moderate, and mild flare and persistent disease activity) in a large paper-patient exercise involving 988 individual cases of systemic lupus erythematosus.\ud
\ud
METHODS:\ud
A total of 988 individual lupus case histories were assessed by 3 individual physicians. Complete agreement about the degree of flare (or persistent disease activity) was obtained in 451 cases (46%), and these provided the reference standard for the second part of the study. This component used 3 flare activity instruments (the British Isles Lupus Assessment Group [BILAG] 2004, Safety of Estrogens in Lupus Erythematosus National Assessment [SELENA] flare index [SFI] and the revised SELENA flare index [rSFI]). The 451 patient case histories were distributed to 18 pairs of physicians, carefully randomized in a manner designed to ensure a fair case mix and equal distribution of flare according to severity.\ud
\ud
RESULTS:\ud
The 3-physician assessment of flare matched the level of flare using the 3 indices, with 67% for BILAG 2004, 72% for SFI, and 70% for rSFI. The corresponding weighted kappa coefficients for each instrument were 0.82, 0.59, and 0.74, respectively. We undertook a detailed analysis of the discrepant cases and several factors emerged, including a tendency to score moderate flares as severe and persistent activity as flare, especially when the SFI and rSFI instruments were used. Overscoring was also driven by scoring treatment change as flare, even if there were no new or worsening clinical features.\ud
\ud
CONCLUSION:\ud
Given the complexity of assessing lupus flare, we were encouraged by the overall results reported. However, the problem of capturing lupus flare accurately is not completely solved
Fault-tolerant model predictive control within the hybrid systems framework: application to sewer networks

In this paper, model predictive control (MPC) problem with fault-tolerance capabilities is formulated within the hybrid systems framework. In particular, the mixed logical dynamic form to represent hybrid systems is considered. Using this approach, a hybrid model of the system to be controlled is obtained, which includes inherent hybrid phenomena and possible modes caused by faults occurrence. This allows to adapt the system model on-line by taking into account the fault information provided by a fault diagnosis and isolation module. In this way, the controller can cope with the considered faults. Additionally, different implementation schemes and fault-tolerance evaluation procedures for hybrid MPC (HMPC) considering fault-tolerance capabilities are proposed and discussed. Finally and in order to exemplify the implementation of the proposed approach, it is applied to include actuator fault tolerance in the design of a HMPC controller for a portion of the sewer network of Barcelona.This work was supported by the project 'Integración de técnicas avanzadas de modelado, control y supervisión aplicadas a la gestión del ciclo integral del agua ' (4797). Spanish Science and Technology Ministry. Grant Number: CICYT Ref. DPI2006-11944. Juan de la Cierva Research Program. Grant Number: Ref. JCI-2008-2438. DGR of Generalitat de Catalunya. Grant Number: 2005/SGR/00537.Peer Reviewe
Modified Structural Intensity for Singularity Localization in Noisy Signals: Application to Coherent Averaging for Event-Synchronous ECG Interference Cancellation in Diaphragmatic EMG Signals

Special Issue: Signal Processing for Monitoring and Diagnosis: Medical ApplicationsInternational audienceThis paper addresses the problem of singularity location in a noisy signal. Landmark alignment performances of a modified structural intensity formulation are analyzed in the context of 'averaged template subtraction'. The chosen application is the event-synchronous ECG interference cancellation (ESC) in the diaphragmatic electromyographic signal. The structural intensity event-synchronous interference canceller (SIESC) algorithm based on the modified structural intensity formulation is compared with an existing ESC algorithm that requires an ECG reference signal for the coherent averaging process. Efficiency in interference cancellation is evaluated using both simulations and real electromyogram of the diaphragm data. All the results show that the alignment error of the SIESC induces an acceptable discrepancy between the two methods. One interest of this application is to demonstrate the ability of the structural intensity to provide a detector combining robustness and precision. A drawback of this approach is the calculation cost
Actuator fault-tolerant control based on set separation

In this paper, an actuator fault-tolerant control (FTC) strategy based on set separation is presented. The proposed scheme employs a standard configuration consisting of a bank of observers which match the different fault situations that can occur in the plant. Each of these observers has an associated estimation error with a distinctive behaviour when a estimator matches the current fault situation of the plant. With this information from each observer, a fault diagnosis and isolation (FDI) module is able to reconfigure the control loop by selecting the appropriate stabilising controller from a bank of precomputed control laws, each of them related to one of the considered fault models. The control law consists of a reference feedforward term and a feedback gain multiplying the state estimate provided by the matching observer. A novel feature of the proposed scheme resides in the decision criteria of the FDI, which is based on the computation of sets towards which the output estimation errors related to each fault scenario and for each control configuration converge. Conditions for the design of the FDI module and for fault tolerant closed-loop stability are given, and the effectiveness of the approach is illustrated by means of a numerical examplePostprint (published version
Guaranteed estimation of the parameters of nonlinear continuous-time models: contributions of interval analysis

International audienceThis paper is about guaranteed parameter estimation in two contexts, namely bounded-error and optimal estimation. In bounded-error estimation, one looks for the set of all parameter vectors that are consistent with some prior bounds on the errors deemed acceptable between the model behavior and that of the system. In optimal estimation, one looks for the set of all parameter vectors that minimize some cost function quantifying the discrepancy between the behaviors of the system and its model. In both cases, guaranteed means that proven statements are made about the set of interest. The situation is made much more difficult when the model output is assumed to depend nonlinearly in the parameters to be estimated and when dealing with continuous-time models, as here. Important tools based on interval analysis (IA) that contribute to allowing guaranteed estimation in these challenging conditions are presented. Some are absolutely classical in the context of IA but not so well known in the community of parameter estimation at large. Others have been developed recently and were mainly presented in conferences. Some, such as the use of sensitivity functions to reduce more quickly the size of outer approximations of the sets of interest, are new. Challenges for future research in the context of guaranteed nonlinear estimation are mentioned
Robust fault detection based on adaptive threshold generation using interval LPV observers

In this paper, robust fault detection based on adaptive threshold generation of a non-linear system described\ud
by means of a linear parameter-varying (LPV) model is addressed. Adaptive threshold is generated using\ud
an interval LPV observer that generates a band of predicted outputs taking into account the parameter\ud
uncertainties bounded using intervals. An algorithm that propagates the uncertainty based on zonotopes is\ud
proposed. The design procedure of this interval LPV observer is implemented via pole placement using\ud
linear matrix inequalities. Finally, the minimum detectable fault is characterized using fault sensitivity\ud
analysis and residual uncertainty bounds. Two examples, one based on a quadruple-tank system and\ud
another based on a two-degree of freedom helicopter, are used to assess the validity of the proposed fault\ud
detection approach.Postprint (published version
Nonlinear system modeling and identification using Volterra-PARAFAC models

International audienceDiscrete-time Volterra models are widely used in various application areas. Their usefulness is mainly because of their ability to approximate to an arbitrary precision any fading memory nonlinear system and to their property of linearity with respect to parameters, the kernels coefficients. The main drawback of these models is their parametric complexity implying the need to estimate a huge number of parameters. Considering Volterra kernels of order higher than two as symmetric tensors, we use a parallel factor (PARAFAC) decomposition of the kernels to derive Volterra-PARAFAC models that induce a substantial parametric complexity reduction. We show that these models are equivalent to a set of Wiener models in parallel. We also show that Volterra kernel expansions onto orthonormal basis functions (OBF) can be viewed as Tucker models that we shall call Volterra-OBF-Tucker models. Finally, we propose three adaptive algorithms for identifying Volterra-PARAFAC models when input-output signals are complex-valued: the extended complex Kalman filter, the complex least mean square (CLMS) algorithm and the normalized CLMS algorithm. Some simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed identification methods
Optimized look-ahead tree policies: A bridge between look-ahead tree policies and direct policy search

Direct policy search (DPS) and look-ahead tree (LT) policies are two popular techniques for solving difficult sequential decision-making problems. They both are simple to implement, widely applicable without making strong assumptions on the structure of the problem, and capable of producing high performance control policies. However, computationally both of them are, each in their own way, very expensive. DPS can require huge offline resources (effort required to obtain the policy) to first select an appropriate space of parameterized policies that works well for the targeted problem, and then to determine the best values of the parameters via global optimization. LT policies do not require any offline resources; however, they typically require huge online resources (effort required to calculate the best decision at each step) in order to grow trees of sufficient depth. In this paper, we propose optimized look-ahead trees (OLT), a model-based policy learning scheme that lies at the intersection of DPS and LT. In OLT, the control policy is represented indirectly through an algorithm that at each decision step develops, as in LT using a model of the dynamics, a small look-ahead tree until a prespecified online budget is exhausted. Unlike LT, the development of the tree is not driven by a generic heuristic; rather, the heuristic is optimized for the target problem and implemented as a parameterized node scoring function learned offline via DPS. We experimentally compare OLT with pure DPS and pure LT variants on optimal control benchmark domains. The results show that the LT-based representation is a versatile way of compactly representing policies in a DPS scheme (which results in OLT being easier to tune and having lower offline complexity than pure DPS); while at the same time, DPS helps to significantly reduce the size of the look-ahead trees that are required to take high-quality decisions (which results in OLT having lower online complexity than pure LT). Moreover, OLT produces overall better performing policies than pure DPS and pure LT and also results in policies that are robust with respect to perturbations of the initial conditions.status: publishe