LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Utility of balloon-assisted Guglielmi detachable coiling in the treatment of 49 cerebral aneurysms: a retrospective, multicenter study.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
The management of wide-necked aneurysms or aneurysms with a neck-to-body ratio close to 1 is a difficult challenge for the interventional radiologist because of the risk of coil migration or coil protrusion into the parent vessel. Our objective was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of balloon-assisted coiling as well as the follow-up results of occlusion for those difficult aneurysms in which conventional treatment with Guglielmi detachable coils (GDCs) had failed.


METHODS
A nondetachable balloon was used in 49 procedures performed in 44 patients (35 women and nine men) who underwent GDC coiling of aneurysms. Every aneurysm had either a wide neck or a sac diameter/neck size ratio (SNR) of 1.5 or less.


RESULTS
In four (8%) of the procedures, balloon placement failed, leaving a total of 45 aneurysms treated with balloon-assisted coiling. Final results consisted of total occlusion in 30 cases (67%), subtotal occlusion in 11 cases (24%), and incomplete occlusion in four cases (9%). We found a correlation between the diameter of the sac and the occlusion rate, but not between the size of the neck or the SNR and the occlusion rate. Two thromboembolic complications occurred, but neither had clinical consequences. No aneurysmal rupture was observed during treatment. Final angiographic follow-up time ranged from 3 months to 5 years (mean, 16 months).


CONCLUSION
Balloon-assisted coiling is an important adjunct in the treatment of aneurysms with a wide neck or low SNR. In our experience, this technique allowed safe and efficient treatment of aneurysms when conventional GDC treatment had failed.
Postdoctoral progression is needed for doctors taking up clinical academic careers.

Gulland’s article highlights the value to patients of doctors being involved in research.1 2 While this has been recognised in the NHS’s commitment to research,3 such involvement, we believe, must include sufficient numbers of doctors taking up clinical academic careers. Progress in healthcare requires that medically trained academics become principal investigators making significant …
Cutaneous myiasis: diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.

Myiasis, from the Greek myia for “fly,” has been defined as the infestation of live human or vertebrate animals with larvae of the insect order Diptera (flies), which feed on living or necrotic tissue. The majority of flies causing myiasis can be categorized into 1 of 2 groups, based on relationship with their hosts. Obligate parasites grow only on healthy tissue of live hosts whereas facultative parasites, associated usually with carrion, feces, or decaying plant material, can develop on necrotic tissue of living animals and tend not to invade healthy tissue. Accidental infestations represent a third category in which the eggs or larvae of saprophagous flies are inhaled or swallowed inadvertently with contaminated food (gastrointestinal myiasis). Myiasis can also be classified according to the site of infestation. Cutaneous myiasis involves the invasion of the skin, with the most common target being a wound, near which an obligatory or facultative parasitic fly will lay eggs. In “wound myiasis,” both healthy and necrotic tissues can be fed on by the larvae, depending on the conditions and species of fly involved. Other flies (eg, the human botfly Dermatobia hominis [L. Jr.] in tropical America, the “tumbu fly” Cordylobia anthropophaga [Blanchard and Berenger-Feraud] in tropical Africa, and Wohlfahrtia vigil [Walker] in North America) penetrate healthy skin and produce itchy sores that develop into painful boil-like lesions or furuncles, hence the term “furuncular myiasis.” Creeping myiasis is a type of cutaneous myiasis involving the migration of fly larvae underneath the skin. Apart from the skin, the eyes, ears, nose, and sinuses represent relatively common sites of attack whereas less common sites are the mouth, throat, urogenital, and gastrointestinal tracts. The invasion of body orifices is sometimes considered accidental myiasis, especially when the larvae cannot complete their development. The most severe cases of myiasis involve obligate parasites, typically those invading wounds or mucous membranes associated with body orifices (screwworm flies) in tropical America (Cochliomyia hominivorax Coquerel) or in the Old World (Chrysomya bezziana Villeneuve, Wohlfahrtia magnifica Schiner), although some facultative myiasis can be dangerous if left untreated. Myiasis occurs mainly in tropical and subtropical latitudes and often originates in these areas even when reported in temperate climates. The main contributing factors are probably the higher levels of exposure to myiasis-causing flies due to poorer clothing and hygiene conditions, combined with the increased aggressiveness of myiasis-causing flies in the tropics. Nevertheless, many cases acquired in temperate parts of Eurasia and North America, including Canada, have been described in the literature. Despite these records, human myiasis remains an unfamiliar illness for most physicians in North America; misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment are common. Awareness of myiasis by health professionals *Doctoral Student, Laboratoire d’Organogénèse Expérimentale
Requirements engineering: a roadmap

This paper presents an overview of the field of software systems requirements engineering (RE). It describes the main areas of RE practice, and highlights some key open research issues for the future.
IST is more than an algorithm to prove ZFC theorems

There is a sentence in the language of IST, Nelson's internal set theory, which is not equivalent in IST to a sentence in the ∈-language. Thus the Reduction algorithm, that converts bounded IST formulas with standard parameters to provably (in IST) equivalent ∈-formulas, cannot be extended to all formulas of the IST language. Introduction. Internal set theory IST was invented by Nelson (1977) as an attempt to develop nonstandard mathematics from a unified axiomat- ical standpoint. This theory has demonstrated its ability to ground vari- ous branches of nonstandard analysis, see e.g. van den Berg (1987), F. and M.Diener (1988), F.Diener and Reeb (1989), Reeken (1992). It is regarded as one of the advantages of IST that there exists a simple algorithm, introduced also by Nelson, to transform sentences in the language of IST to provably equivalent (in the sense of provability in IST) sentences formulated in the ZFC language. This algorithm, together with Nelson's theorem that IST is a conservative extension of ZFC, is used sometimes � On leave to Bergische Universitat - Gesamthochschule Wuppertal during Spring 1993.
Growth behavior of high k LaAlO3 films on Si by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition for alternative gate dielectric application

Abstract LaAlO 3 (LAO) is explored in this work to replace SiO 2 as the gate dielectric material in metal–oxide–semiconductor field effect transistor. Amorphous LAO gate dielectric films were deposited on Si (0 0 1) substrates by low pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition using La(dpm) 3 and Al(acac) 3 sources. The effect of processing parameters such as deposition temperature and precursor vapor flux on growth, structure, morphology, and composition of LAO films has been investigated by various analytical methods deeply. The film growth mechanism on Si is reaction limiting instead of mass transport control. The reaction is thermally activated with activation energy of ∼37 kJ/mol. In the initial growth stage, Al element is deficient due to higher nucleation barrier on Si. The LAO films show a smooth surface and good thermal stability and remain amorphous up to a high temperature of 850 °C. The electrical properties of amorphous LAO ultrathin films on Si have also been evaluated, indicating LAO is suitable for high k gate dielectric applications.
Entropy-guided Retinex anisotropic diffusion algorithm based on partial differential equations (PDE) for illumination correction

Abstract This report describes the experimental results obtained using a proposed variational Retinex algorithm for controlled illumination correction. Two colour restoration and enhancement schemes of the algorithm are presented for drastically improved results. The algorithm modifies the reflectance image using global and local contrast enhancement approaches and gradually removes the residual illumination to yield highly pleasing results. The proposed algorithms are optimized by way of simultaneous perceptual quality metric (PQM) stabilization and entropy maximization for fully automated processing solving the problem of determination of stopping time. The usage of the HSI or HSV colour space ensures a unique solution to the optimization problem unlike in the RGB space where there is none (forcing manual selection of number of iteration. The proposed approach preserves and enhances details in both bright and dark regions of underexposed images in addition to eliminating the colour distortion, over-exposure in bright image regions, halo effect and grey-world violations observed in Retinex-based approaches. Extensive experiments indicate consistent performance as the proposed approach exploits and augments the advantages of PDEbased formulation, performing illumination correction, colour enhancement correction and restoration, contrast enhancement and noise suppression. Comparisons shows that the proposed approach surpasses most of the other conventional algorithms found in the literature.
Stock Prediction Using Functional Link Artificial Neural Network (FLANN)

Stock exchange that is, buying and selling of stock is considered to be an important factor in the economy sector. The Stockbrokers typically use time series or technical analysis in predicting the stock price. These techniques are based on trends and not the actual stock value. Therefore a method of prediction which takes into account the historical values of stock is desired. Neural Networks once again have become famous for prediction of stock. This is due to their ability to deal with non-linear data. The use of Artificial Neural Networks to for predicting the stock prices is proposed in this paper. The input features to the model sometimes can be non-related to the output. Hence, Functional Link Artificial Neural Networks is used here to increase the number of related features in the form of inputs. The data is taken from NSE and is converted into a suitable form for FLANN and then prediction is carried out using Multi-layer feed forward Perceptron model.
Computational Soundness of Formal Indistinguishability and Static Equivalence

In the investigation of the relationship between the formal and the computational view of cryptography, a recent approach, first proposed in [10], uses static equivalence from cryptographic pi calculi as a notion of formal indistinguishability. Previous work [10,1] has shown that this yields the soundness of natural interpretations of some interesting equational theories, such as certain cryptographic operations and a theory of XOR. In this paper however, we argue that static equivalence is too coarse to allow sound interpretations of many natural and useful equational theories. We illustrate this with several explicit examples in which static equivalence fails to work. To fix the problem, we propose a notion of formal indistinguishability that is more flexible than static equivalence. We provide a general framework along with general theorems, and then discuss how this new notion works for the explicit examples where static equivalence fails to ensure soundness.
Characteristics of MEG and MRI between Taylor's focal cortical dysplasia (type II) and other cortical dysplasia: Surgical outcome after complete resection of MEG spike source and MR lesion in pediatric cortical dysplasia

PURPOSE
Cortical dysplasia (CD) has been classified as Taylor's focal cortical dysplasia (FCD type II) or other CD (FCD type I and mild malformation of cortical development) based on histological findings. The aims of this study were to determine whether MRI and magnetoencephalography (MEG) could distinguish between these two groups and to evaluate surgical outcomes.


METHODS
We evaluated the MRI features, MEG spike source (MEGSS) patterns (clusters or scatters) and postsurgical seizure outcomes of 27 children with CD.


RESULTS
Thirteen patients had Taylor's FCD and 14 had other CD. MRI showed visible lesion in 22 (81%) patients. Tapering of abnormal white matter signals to the ventricles and cortical thickening were more prevalent in Taylor's FCD; focal hypoplasia and white matter atrophy were more prevalent in other CD. MEG showed spike sources in 26 (96%) patients. Taylor's FCD showed clustered MEGSSs in 6, both clustered and scattered MEGSSs in 5 and scattered MEGSSs in 2; other CD demonstrated clusters in 2, cluster and scatter in 10 and scatter in 1. Eleven (85%) of 13 patients who had complete resection of clustered MEGSSs achieved Engel class I outcome, but 4 (44%) of 9 patients with incomplete resections achieved class I. Fifteen (88%) of 17 patients who had complete resection of MRI lesions achieved class I, but 1 (33%) of 3 patients with incomplete lesionectomy was class I. There was no difference in surgical outcomes between Taylor's FCD and other CD.


CONCLUSIONS
Surgical outcome was the same in both groups following complete removal of areas containing clustered MEGSSs and MR lesions.
A bottom up approach to category mapping and meaning change

In this article, we use an automated bottom-up approach to identify semantic categories in an entire corpus. We conduct an experiment using a word vector model to represent the meaning of words. The word vectors are then clustered, giving a bottom-up representation of semantic categories. Our main finding is that the likelihood of changes in a word’s meaning correlates with its position within its cluster.
Endoscope-assisted versus conventional second branchial cleft cyst resection

This study evaluates the feasibility of endoscope-assisted second branchial cleft cyst resection via retroauricular approach by comparing it with conventional cervical incision for removal of second branchial cleft cyst. From January 2009 to December 2010, 25 patients were randomly assigned to the endoscope-assisted surgery group (13 patients) or the conventional surgery group (12 patients). The clinical characteristics of patients, operation time, operative bleeding volume, postoperative complications, and subjective satisfaction with incision scar checked by visual analog scale were compared between the groups, retrospectively. All 13 second branchial cleft cyst resections were successfully performed endoscopically, and the wounds healed uneventfully. Endoscope-assisted surgery lasted 54.6 ± 6.3 min, and conventional surgery lasted 49.6 ± 6.9 min (P = 0.069). Degree of bleeding volume did not differ between the groups (P = 0.624). Mean patient satisfaction score was 9.2 ± 0.6 in the endoscope-assisted surgery group and 6.2 ± 0.8 in the controls (P < 0.001). All 13 patients in the endoscope-assisted surgery group were satisfied with their cosmetic results. One case showed temporary numbness around the earlobe that recovered within 1 month after surgery. No marginal nerve palsy occurred. No complications such as bleeding, salivary fistula, or paresis of the marginal mandibular branch occurred. All 25 patients were disease free with follow-up of 6–24 months (median 16 months). Endoscope-assisted second branchial cleft cyst resection via retroauricular approach is a feasible technique. This procedure may serve as an alternative approach that allows an invisible incision and better cosmetic results.
Hypertrophy of the muscularis propria of the lower esophageal sphincter and the body of the esophagus in patients with primary motility disorders of the esophagus

OBJECTIVES:Patients with diffuse esophageal spasm (DES) and nutcracker esophagus/high amplitude esophageal contraction (HAEC) have a thicker esophageal muscularis propria than do healthy subjects. The goals of this study were to determine the esophageal muscle cross-sectional area (MCSA), a measure of muscle mass, in patients with achalasia of the esophagus; and to compare it with that in patients with DES, patients with HAEC, and normal subjects.METHODS:Using a high-frequency ultrasound probe catheter, concurrent manometry and ultrasound images of the esophagus were recorded in four subject groups: normal volunteers, patients with HAEC, patients with DES, and patients with achalasia of the esophagus. Recordings were obtained from the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) and multiple sites in the esophagus 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 cm above the LES.RESULTS:The LES and esophageal muscle thickness as well as esophageal MCSA were greater in all three patient groups than in the normal subject group. Muscle thickness and MCSA were observed to be greatest in patients with achalasia, which were greater than in patients with DES, which were greater than in those with HAEC, which in turn were greater than in normal subjects.CONCLUSIONS:We propose that an increase in the MCSA is an important feature of patients with primary motility disorders of the esophagus. The degree of increase in muscle mass may be an important determinant of the type and the severity of esophageal motor dysfunction.
Overexpression of tomato SlNAC1 transcription factor alters fruit pigmentation and softening

Fruit maturation and ripening are genetically regulated processes that involve a complex interplay of plant hormones, growth regulators and multiple biological and environmental factors. Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) has been used as a model of biological and genetic studies on the regulation of specific ripening pathways, including ethylene, carotenoid and cell wall metabolism. This model has also been used to investigate the functions of upstream signalling and transcriptional regulators. Thus far, many ripening-associated transcription factors that influence fruit development and ripening have been reported. NAC transcription factors are plant specific and play important roles in many stages of plant growth and development, such as lateral root formation, secondary cell wall synthesis, and embryo, floral organ, vegetative organ and fruit development. Tissue-specific analysis by quantitative real-time PCR showed that SlNAC1 was highly accumulated in immature green fruits; the expression of SlNAC1 increased with fruit ripening till to the highest level at 7 d after the breaker stage. The overexpression of SlNAC1 resulted in reduced carotenoids by altering carotenoid pathway flux and decreasing ethylene synthesis mediated mainly by the reduced expression of ethylene biosynthetic genes of system-2, thus led to yellow or orange mature fruits. The results of yeast one-hybrid experiment demonstrated that SlNAC1 can interact with the regulatory regions of genes related lycopene and ethylene synthesis. These results also indicated that SlNAC1 inhibited fruit ripening by affecting ethylene synthesis and carotenoid accumulation in SlNAC1 overexpression lines. In addition, the overexpression of SlNAC1 reduced the firmness of the fruits and the thickness of the pericarp and produced more abscisic acid, resulting in the early softening of fruits. Hence, in SlNAC1 overexpression lines, both ethylene-dependent and abscisic acid-dependent pathways are regulated by SlNAC1 in fruit ripening regulatory network. SlNAC1 had a broad influence on tomato fruit ripening and regulated SlNAC1 overexpression tomato fruit ripening through both ethylene-dependent and abscisic acid-dependent pathways. Thus, this study provided new insights into the current model of tomato fruit ripening regulatory network.
The combination of vitamin C and grape-seed polyphenols increases blood pressure: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

BACKGROUND
There is growing evidence that oxidative stress contributes to the pathogenesis of hypertension and endothelial dysfunction. Thus, dietary antioxidants may beneficially influence blood pressure (BP) and endothelial function by reducing oxidative stress.


OBJECTIVE
To determine if vitamin C and polyphenols, alone or in combination, can lower BP, improve endothelial function and reduce oxidative stress in hypertensive individuals.


DESIGN
A total of 69 treated hypertensive individuals with a mean 24-h ambulatory systolic blood pressure > or = 125 mmHg participated in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, factorial trial. Following a 3-week washout, participants received 500 mg/day vitamin C, 1000 mg/day grape-seed polyphenols, both vitamin C and polyphenols, or neither for 6 weeks. At baseline and post-intervention, 24-h ambulatory BP, ultrasound-assessed endothelium-dependent and -independent vasodilation of the brachial artery, and markers of oxidative damage, (plasma and urinary F2-isoprostanes, oxidized low-density lipoproteins and plasma tocopherols), were measured.


RESULTS
A significant interaction between grape-seed and vitamin C treatments for effects on BP was observed. Vitamin C alone reduced systolic BP versus placebo (-1.8 +/- 0.8 mmHg, P = 0.03), while polyphenols did not (-1.3 +/- 0.8 mmHg, P = 0.12). However, treatment with the combination of vitamin C and polyphenols increased systolic BP (4.8 +/- 0.9 mmHg versus placebo; 6.6 +/- 0.8 mmHg versus vitamin C; 6.1 +/- 0.9 mmHg versus polyphenols mmHg, each P < 0.0001) and diastolic BP (2.7 +/- 0.6 mmHg, P < 0.0001 versus placebo; 1.5 +/- 0.6 mmHg, P = 0.016 versus vitamin C; 3.2 +/- 0.7 mmHg, P < 0.0001 versus polyphenols). Endothelium-dependent and -independent vasodilation, and markers of oxidative damage were not significantly altered.


CONCLUSION
Although the mechanism remains to be elucidated, these results suggest caution for hypertensive subjects taking supplements containing combinations of vitamin C and polyphenols.
Guides: Humanities - European Studies: Theses

This guide will assist students in their studies of the cultures and societies that have shaped modern Europe
Implementation of 5S Practices in the Manufacturing Companies: A Case Study

Problem statement: 5S practice is one of the techniques to improve qua lity environment, health and safety at the workplace. Evaluation of 5 S practice can be done through implementation of 5S audit at each division in the company. Approach: Through 5S audit, it enables each company to identify the potential level of quality improvement and at the same time can analyze their ability and weakness of each division in the company. Therefore , in order to assess the implementation of 5S practice, two manufacturing companies were involved in this study. Results: The study started with understanding background of the company, recognizin g d visions to be assessed in the company and come out with the complete 5S checklist for each di vision for auditing process. Based on the result, both companies basically perform an excellent 5S pr actice, but there are a few weaknesses that still need to be considered such as arrangement of the do cuments, tool and equipment. Conclusion/Recommendations: Moreover, both companies agreed that the 5S pract ice is seen as an effective technique that can improve housekeeping, environmental performance, health and safety standards in their workplace. However, effort and p articipation from top management is a key factor that determines the success of the 5S practice.