Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Flexible DRX Optimization for LTE and 5G

With the advancement of the next generation of cellular systems, flexible mechanisms for Discontinuous Reception (DRX) are needed in order to save energy. 5G will bring heterogeneous packet sizes and traffic types, as well as an increasing need for energy efficiency. The current static DRX mechanism is inadequate to meet these needs. In this paper we exploit channel prediction to develop integer programming models. We aim to minimize the energy usage of user devices while streaming video, as well as to create extended sleep opportunities, while simultaneously preventing buffer underflows. We also develop an online algorithm to obtain an efficient solution robust to prediction errors. Our results show that using a variable DRX cycle length can reduce the energy usage by up to 60 percent and 40 percent, in the offline and online cases, respectively, compared with a static DRX configuration. Our proposed online algorithm can also reduce the number of buffer underflows by up to 97 percent compared to the offline case. Both our online and offline solutions can provide extended DRX opportunities, which is required in 5G scenarios.
SOME OF THE RISK FACTORS FOR RETINOPATHY OF PREMATURITY

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) remains the main cause of visual impairment in preterm infants. The study was aimed to assess the impact of some of the risk factors (gestational age, body weight of children at birth, associated diseases in children, maternal age at delivery, maternal smoking during pregnancy, multiple pregnancies) on the occurrence of ROP in the sample of premature infants. We statistically processed the results (Student’s t test and the χ test) of 93 preterm infants of both sexes: 39 boys and 54 girls, examined by indirect ophthalmoscope (Haine 500, Germany) in mydriasis. The examination included all premature neonates with birth weight ≤ 2000g and/or gestational age ≤37 weeks, as well as neonates >37 weeks which have associated risk factors (oxygen, ventilation, sepsis, etc). Among 93 premature infants, with normal findings on the retina there were 72 children (77.42%), while in 21 (22.58%) children we found ROP. Ophthalmological findings: the first stage of ROP was found in 15.05%, the second stage of ROP in 2.15% and third stage of ROP in 5.38% of the examined children. There were no patients with an aggressive form of ROP. Children with ROP were statistically of lower gestational age 32.10 ± 2.70 compared to children without ROP 35.37 ± 1.72 (p<0.001). Children with ROP had at birth significant lower body weight of 1741g ± 579.19 than children without ROP 2168.75 ± 528.58 (p<0.01). Mothers of the children with ROP were, at the time of giving birth, over 29 ± 6.09 years old compared to mothers of children without ROP who were 26.42 ± 5.75 years old (p=0.0773). The presence of other diseases was significantly more prevalent in children with ROP 52.38% vs. 2.78% (p<0.001). The number of mothers of children with ROP who smoked during their pregnacy was considerable 57.14 % vs. 37.50% (percent of non-smoking mothers), though the difference was not statistically significant. Knowing the risk factors and their mechanisms of action requires a comprehensive approach to the complex problem of preventing prematurity, ROP, and appropriate ROP treatment. Acta Medica Medianae 2014;53(3):5-10.
Shorter (≤6 months) vs. longer (≥12 months) dual antiplatelet therapy after second-generation drug-eluting stents implantation: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Optimal duration of dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) after second-generation drug-eluting stent (DES) remains unknown. We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy and safety of ≤6-month vs. ≥12-month DAPT after implantation of second-generation DES in order to estimate the optimal duration of DAPT. We conducted a literature search for randomized control trials (RCTs) in popular databases including EMBASE, PubMed, the Cochrane Library, and Scopus. Independent investigators abstracted the data on outcomes, characteristics, and qualities of trials included. A fixed-effect model was adopted to pool odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals of the clinical outcomes concerned when I 2 0.05, a random-effect model was applied in other cases. Five published RCTs involving 8407 patients were included in our analysis. There was no significant difference in definite or probable stent thrombosis, myocardial infarction, stroke, target vessel revascularization, all-cause death, and cardiac death between the shorter duration and the longer duration of DAPT. Moreover, no significant difference was observed in the incidences of major bleeding and any bleeding. None of the clinical outcomes differed in patients receiving everolimus-eluting stent or zotarolimus-eluting stent across DAPT groups. Shorter DAPT (≤6 months) after the second-generation DES implantation has no increased risks of adverse cardiac and cerebral events compared with longer DAPT (≥12 months). In addition, longer DAPT does not increase bleeding complications when compared with shorter duration.
A T-Type Modular Multilevel Converter

This article proposes a novel modular multilevel converter (MMC) named “T-type MMC” (T-MMC) for reliable, controllable, and efficient performance in energy conversion applications. Circuitry configurations and control structures are presented with respect to fundamental and additional functions. The T-MMC topology consists of two solid-state power stages (Stage-I and Stage-II), which are coordinated for ac and dc fault tolerance and increased ac-side voltage synthesis. Energy storage elements can be integrated into the submodules. As a result, the T-MMC based energy storage system can not only increase system inertia but also maintain continuous power transmission during faults. A thyristor forced-commutation technique facilitates actively controlled utilization of symmetrical thyristors in the conduction path; thus, T-MMC normal-mode operation losses can be equivalent to those of the conventional half-bridge MMC. Simulation and experimentation demonstrate the performance of the T-MMC.
Impact of feedback loops on decision-making

This thesis examines the impact of feedback loops on individual decision-making. This represents a long standing interest of cognitive psychology in how well human beings are able to use external information in individual and group settings to revise their beliefs to control complex systems. This thesis consists of six chapters. Each chapter contains a literature review section, followed by empirical research used to compare theoretical frameworks to actual human performance on a range of tasks. Chapter 1 serves as an introductory chapter by placing the subsequent analysis in the multidisciplinary domain of judgement and decision-making. Chapter 2 represents the first part of the thesis and explores human performance in controlling dynamic physical simulations. It begins by revisiting Berry and Broadbent (1984) research, followed by the exploration of how well humans are able to control dynamic physical systems. The chapter is primarily concerned with exploring the limitations of human control and factors that influence it, ending with the performance comparison between human and generic reinforcement learning algorithms. Chapter 3 extends decision-making into the social domain. It explores the impact of group dynamics on individual belief revision and proposes new models that may better reflect actual belief revision. Chapter 4 looks at the impact of incentivisation on revision and accuracy. It is found that incentivisation has a minor impact on belief revision. Chapter 5 extends group decision-making into the novel domain of rank revision. This chapter seeks to better understand how humans aggregate ranks and revise their beliefs. Finally, Chapter 6 summaries the findings and draws on the research presented in this thesis to provide concluding remarks on human cognitive decision-making processes in dynamic settings.
Preeclampsia, Eclampsia, and Adverse Maternal and Perinatal Outcomes: A Secondary Analysis of the World Health Organization Multicountry Survey on Maternal and Newborn Health

In summary, this prospective observational study examined the change in risk status of laboring women from the time of their hospital admission through delivery at a single Norwegian obstetric department. Two thirds of the women in this study were designated as low risk at the start of labor and 41% had a change in risk status during the first stage of labor. Interestingly, this was primarily due to the use of epidural analgesia (73%) and a prolonged labor with/or without oxytocin augmentation (11.9%). Epidurals were used more frequently at the study hospital compared to other parts of the country. Women who self-select to deliver in a maternity home are part of a very different population than women delivering in a traditional hospital setting and are usually motivated to have a birth with minimal medical intervention. In contrast, women delivering in the traditional hospital setting are more likely to request an epidural if it is readily available or is recommended to them by a provider when compared to women at outside birthing locations. In addition, one could argue that the use of epidural analgesia does not make a patient “high-risk,” yet it cannot be ignored that an association between the use of epidural analgesia and obstetric morbidity has been made.1–3 Therefore, establishing meaningful outcome data and examining possible cause and effect with various medical interventions is critical. With this in mind, 1 limitation of the present study is that the authors only recorded the first risk factor present and additional risk factors were not captured. If epidural request was excluded as a risk factor, what percent of women would have a change in risk status? Although the study demonstrates a change in the risk status for the women included in the study, there is no report of the maternal and fetal outcomes. The authors suggest “it is necessary to explore if interventions to contain changes in risk status are feasible for improving the outcome for mother and child in a hospital environment,” yet no outcomes were measured as part of this study. Any future studies should closely examine maternal and fetal outcomes for those patients who change from low to high risk during their labor. At a time when developed countries are seeing a rise in rates of medical interventions and operative deliveries,4 this timely study demonstrates that women initially classified as low risk have a high likelihood of crossing over to the high-risk group. Although there is a push to minimize medical interventions, it is important to closely monitor patients for meaningful changes in risk status during the course of their labor and further study should examine any links to outcomes.
Efficient Visual Localization for Ground Vehicles in Outdoor Environments

Visual (self)localization enables Autonomous Ground Vehicles (AGVs) to assess their position and orientation within an environment with up to centimeter level accuracy, using only cost-effective camera sensors. Especially for high precision maneuvering in GNSS-denied environments, using cameras for localization may be the best suited option for budgetor weight constrained platforms. However, particularly in outdoor environments, camera images are subject to various forms of appearance change. This renders it challenging to reliably localize a vehicle against a map previously built from sensor data recorded under different appearance conditions. A powerful approach to deal with these appearance changes is to enhance the map with visual data from several recordings, each collected under different appearance conditions. The amount of data generated following this approach, however, scales with the number of recordings collected over time, and thus unveils a need for smart algorithms managing this data and ensuring efficient use of computation, storage and network bandwidth resources. The contributions of this thesis are centered around the research questions addressing this need for a resource-efficient and reliable visual localization system for AGVs in outdoor environments. In Part A, we propose an algorithm to dynamically select small amounts of map data matching the current appearance condition, thereby lowering network bandwidth consumption, and reducing computational demands on the vehicle platforms. We show that exploiting co-observability statistics allows for performing this appearance-based map data selection in a highly effective manner, without the need to explicitly model or enumerate the different appearance conditions. Part B is devoted to the development of a practical map management process for a visual localization system targeted at long-term use. Our experiments have revealed that multi-session maps converge to a relatively stable state after several months of collecting recordings under varying appearance conditions. Furthermore, through a tight integration of appearance-based map data selection with offline map summerization, a completely scalable visual localization and mapping framework is reached that can be used for indefinite periods of time. In Part C, we present the visual localization system developed within the UP-Drive project1 for autonomous cars in urban outdoor environments. Thereby, a special focus has been placed on robustness against outdoor and long-term appearance change, and on a careful evaluation of the localization accuracy. We demonstrate that reliable and accurate visual localization is feasible in structured outdoor environments, even over long time spans, across vastly different seasonal, 1https://www.up-drive.eu
SUPERIOR SEMICIRCULAR CANAL DEHISCENCE, PERILYMPHATIC FISTULA, AND MÉNIÈRE'S DISEASE: ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT

This chapter reviews three disorders of the inner ear that can cause vertigo and hearing loss. As with most other disorders affecting the labyrinth and/or the cochlea, the diagnosis is based upon the history, clinical examination, and laboratorytests. Specific treatments exist for each disorder, and establishing an accurate diagnosis is important in determining the treatment options. The physiologically based approach to evaluation of symptoms and signs in patients with complaints related to vestibular and auditory function has led to significant advances in the diagnosis and treatment of perilymphatic fistula, superior semicircular canal dehiscence, and Ménière's disease. Although these conditions can have entirely different causes, their clinical manifestations can be similar.
Essays in econometrics and machine learning

Establishing the link between a cause and effect is a fundamental question in social science. Standard assumptions about human behavior (e.g., rationality) imply restrictions on the plausible values of the causal effect. In addition to this effect, these restrictions may depend on additional summaries of human behavior. Estimation of these additional parameters presents a trade-off between capturing the complexity of human’s decision-making yet constraining it to deliver precise estimates. I resolve this tension by incorporating modern machine learning tools into the estimation of the additional parameters and deliver high-quality estimates of the causal effect and counterfactual outcomes. I estimate the causal effect in a two-stage procedure. At the first stage, I estimate the additional summaries of human behavior by modern machine learning tools. At the second stage, I plug the first-stage output into the sample analog of the restriction that identifies the causal effect. I modify the second-stage restriction to make it insensitive to any regularization biases present in the first-stage components. The second-stage estimate of the causal effect is of high-quality: it converges at fastest rate and can be used to test the hypotheses and build the confidence intervals for the values of the causal effect. I apply this idea in a wide class of economic models, including dynamic games of imperfect information, treatment effect in the presence of endogenous sample selection, and reduced-form demand estimation. Thesis Supervisor: Victor Chernozhukov Title: Ford International Professor of Economics Thesis Supervisor: Whitney Newey Title: Ford Professor of Economics Thesis Supervisor: Anna Mikusheva Title: Associate Professor of Economics
Psychosocial aspects of congenital heart disease in adulthood: A longitudinal cohort study of 20-33 years follow-up

__Abstract__ Adults with congenital heart disease form a rather new phenomenon. Improvements in surgical techniques over the last decades have lead to lower mortality rates for children born with a congenital heart disease, enabling more of them to grow into adulthood (Sparacino, 1994; Wren & O'Sullivan, 2001). Today, health care professionals encounter the first generation of adults with congenital heart disease. Adults with congenital heart disease do not only differ in medical status and history from the well-known cardiac population with acquired cardiac diseases, but also show different psychosocial characteristics and needs. Firstly, the age at onset of the cardiac disease differs considerably for adults with congenital heart disease compared to adults with acquired cardiac disease. For adults with congenital heart disease, the cardiac anomaly may not only affect their present adult life, but it may also have left its mark on their childhood. Experiences of growing up with a congenital heart disease might influence the patient’s functioning at adult age. Secondly, when growing up into adulthood, patients may be confronted with new problems associated with congenital heart disease in adulthood. These problems might concern finding a suitable employment or getting a mortgage (Allen et al., 1992; Celermajer & Deanfield, 1993; Gersony et al., 1993; Hart & Garson, 1993; Hellstedt, 1994; Mahoney et al., 1991; McGrath & Truesdell, 1994) or they may concern the experience of uncertainties or restrictions regarding sexuality and childbearing (Gantt, 1992; Mahoney et al., 1991; Somerville, 1998; Tong & Sparacino, 1994). Adults with congenital heart disease are in the disadvantageous position of being the first generation to experience these problems, since little is yet known about relevant medical and psychosocial aspects. For these reasons, adults with congenital heart disease should be considered as a new and distinct patient population with unique characteristics. Therefore, the medical course of congenital heart disease into adulthood, as well as the psychosocial development of adults with congenital heart disease, deserve special attention.
Specular Highlight Removal for Real‐world Images

Removing specular highlight in an image is a fundamental research problem in computer vision and computer graphics. While various methods have been proposed, they typically do not work well for real‐world images due to the presence of rich textures, complex materials, hard shadows, occlusions and color illumination, etc. In this paper, we present a novel specular highlight removal method for real‐world images. Our approach is based on two observations of the real‐world images: (i) the specular highlight is often small in size and sparse in distribution; (ii) the remaining diffuse image can be represented by linear combination of a small number of basis colors with the sparse encoding coefficients. Based on the two observations, we design an optimization framework for simultaneously estimating the diffuse and specular highlight images from a single image. Specifically, we recover the diffuse components of those regions with specular highlight by encouraging the encoding coefficients sparseness using L0 norm. Moreover, the encoding coefficients and specular highlight are also subject to the non‐negativity according to the additive color mixing theory and the illumination definition, respectively. Extensive experiments have been performed on a variety of images to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method and its superiority over the previous methods.
Apport de la tomodensitométrie dans l'épidémiologie des accidents vasculaires cérébraux à l'Hôpital Général de Grand Yoff

Objectif : Decrire l'epidemiologie des accidents vasculaires cerebraux a l'Hopital General de Grand Yoff, Dakar, Senegal. Methodes : Il s'agit d'une etude retrospective qui s'est deroulee durant la periode du 1er janvier 1998 au 31 decembre 2003 portant sur des patients avec AVC et ayant eu un examen tomodensitometrique cerebral. Les donnees en rapport avec les caracteristiques sociodemographiques, les antecedents medicaux et chirurgicaux, le type d'AVC, les signes cliniques associes au tableau neurologique, la duree du sejour, les resultats des examens paracliniques et le pronostic vital ont ete collectees. Resultats : Cinquante-deux cas presentant un AVC confirme par le scanner X cerebral ont ete colliges. La population de malades etait composee de 63,5% de femmes avec une moyenne d'âge de 63 ans (± 14). Les facteurs de risque d'AVC etaient domines par l'HTA, l'antecedent d'AVC, la cardiopathie, le tabagisme entre autres. Les AVC ischemiques representaient 51,9%. Un coma et une HTA etaient les principaux signes cliniques associes au tableau neurologique. La duree moyenne du sejour etait de 17,5 jours (±8,6). La letalite etait de 13,5%. Conclusion : Il y a lieu de developper et de mettre en oeuvre un programme d'education sanitaire afin de reduire la morbidite et la mortalite par AVC.
Parallel Scheduling of Multiple Tasks in Heterogeneous Fog Networks

Fog computing has been promoted to support delay-sensitive applications in future Internet of Things (IoT) and wireless networks. For a general heterogeneous fog network consisting of many dispersive Fog Nodes (FNs) with diverse resources and capabilities, some of them have delay-sensitive tasks to process, i.e., Task Nodes (TNs), while some have spare resources to help their neighboring TNs to process tasks, i.e., Helper Nodes (HNs). How to effectively map multiple tasks or TNs into multiple HNs to minimize every task's service delay in a distributed manner is a fundamental challenge, which is key to reap the full benefits of fog computing. The problem becomes more challenging when tasks can be divided into multiple subtasks to further reduce the service delay via distributed computing. To tackle this challenge, in this paper, a generalized nash equilibrium (NE) game called Parallel Scheduling of Multiple Tasks (PSMT) is formulated and studied. The structure properties of the problem are deduced and thus the existence of NE is proven by the fixed point theorem. Further, the corresponding distributed task scheduling algorithm/mechanism is developed via Gauss-Seidel-type method. Simulation results show that the proposed PSMT algorithm can converge in a fast way and offer much better performance in system average delay and number of beneficial TNs, comparing to the Paired Offloading of Multiple Tasks (POMT) solution to the counterpart problem not supporting distributed computing.