Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spinal Cord Infarction Due to Fibrocartilaginous Embolization: The Role of Diffusion Weighted Imaging and Short-Tau Inversion Recovery Sequences

Fibrocartilaginous embolization is a rare cause of ischemic myelopathy caused by embolization of intersomatic disk nucleus pulposus into spinal vasculature during Valsalva-like maneuvers. Diagnostic criteria are based on patient’s clinical history, magnetic resonance evidence of T2-hyperintense spinal cord lesion, and exclusion of other causes of ischemic myelopathy. These criteria do not take into account the development of magnetic resonance techniques able to enhance signal abnormalities within the neighboring intersomatic disc or vertebral body and to early characterize central nervous system lesions according to the presence of cytotoxic edema. We present 2 pediatric cases of progressive paraplegia attributed to fibrocartilaginous embolization in which short-tau inversion recovery and diffusion-weighted imaging sequences played a pivotal role showing the ischemic nature of spinal cord lesions. Due to its specificity, diffusion-weighted imaging should be included in the magnetic resonance criteria of fibrocartilaginous embolization and in standard magnetic resonance analysis when dealing with acute transverse myelopathy.
Towards Smart Equity Factor Indices: Harvesting Risk Premia without Taking Unrewarded Risks

This article argues that current smart-beta investment approaches provide only a partial answer to the main shortcomings of capitalization-weighted indices and develops a new approach to equity investing, which the authors refer to as smart-factor investing. The authors then provide an assessment of the benefits of simultaneously addressing the two main problems of cap-weighted indices—their undesirable factor exposures and their heavy concentration—by constructing factor indices that explicitly seek exposures to rewarded risk factors, while diversifying away unrewarded risks. The results suggest that such smart-factor indices lead to considerable improvements in risk-adjusted performance. For long-term U.S. data, smart-factor indices for a range of different factor tilts consistently outperform cap-weighted, factor-tilted indices. Compared with the broad cap-weighted index, smart-factor indices roughly double the risk-adjusted return (Sharpe ratio). Outperformance of such indices persists at levels ranging from 2.92% to 4.46% annually, even when assuming unrealistically high transaction costs. Moreover, by providing explicit tilts to consensual factors, such indices improve upon many current smart-beta offerings where, more often than not, factor tilts exist as unintended consequences of ad hoc methodologies.
Lunchtime food and drink purchasing: young people’s practices, preferences and power within and beyond the school gate

Abstract This paper highlights factors that influence young people aged 13–15 years when purchasing food or drink within or beyond the school catering service. The paper draws from a qualitative study of secondary schools in Scotland, which varied in terms of relative socio-economic deprivation and density of food and drink businesses within a 10-min walk. Analysis is situated within a children’s rights framework, underpinned by the sociology of childhood in order to make sense of the power and influence that young people have when purchasing food and drink. The data suggest that the school cafeteria is less able to meet young people’s social and food needs than the external food environment. The commercial basis of young people’s relationship with food businesses informs the way young people are treated as valued consumers. The authors consider the implications this has for the way that food and drink is sold and promoted in schools.
Evolution of hepatitis C virus hypervariable region 1 in immunocompetent children born to HCV‐infected mothers

Summary. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) hypervariable region 1 (HVR1) is the most variable region of the viral genome and its heterogeneity reflects the virus‐host interplay during chronicity. Paediatric HCV‐infected patients develop liver disease with typical clinical features. Here, the evolution of HVR1 and its adjacent regions were ascertained in plasma samples of two HCV‐positive children during a 5‐year follow‐up period. We report an almost complete conservation of the HVR1 amino acid sequence over time, with underlying nucleotide variability both within and outside HVR1, suggesting some kind of constraint on virus evolution, particularly within HVR1. Although overall dN/dS rates [rates of nonsynonymous nucleotide substitutions per nonsynonymous site (dN) and synonymous nucleotide substitutions per synonymous site (dS)] were <1 in both patients, a high resolution analysis of selection pressures exerted at the codon level revealed few sites subject to selection and an absolute predominance of invariable positions within HVR1. The HVR1 amino acid sequences showed the antigenic properties expected for this region. Taken together, these data suggest peculiar evolutionary dynamics in our patients, which could be attributed to a mechanism of nucleotide invariability along with purifying selection operating on the HVR1. The lack of HVR1 variability may reflect the adaptation of the virus to a particular environment within each patient or a phenomenon of immune tolerance generated in these immunocompetent patients earlier in life.
A combined hierarchical reinforcement learning based approach for multi-robot cooperative target searching in complex unknown environments

Effective cooperation of multi-robots in unknown environments is essential in many robotic applications, such as environment exploration and target searching. In this paper, a combined hierarchical reinforcement learning approach, together with a designed cooperation strategy, is proposed for the real-time cooperation of multi-robots in completely unknown environments. Unlike other algorithms that need an explicit environment model or select parameters by trial and error, the proposed cooperation method obtains all the required parameters automatically through learning. By integrating segmental options with the traditional MAXQ algorithm, the cooperation hierarchy is built. In new tasks, the designed cooperation method can control the multi-robot system to complete the task effectively. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme is able to effectively and efficiently lead a team of robots to cooperatively accomplish target searching tasks in completely unknown environments.
To pay or not to pay? A decision and cost-utility analysis of angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitor therapy for diabetic nephropathy.

BACKGROUND Angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitor therapy can significantly delay the progression of diabetic nephropathy to end-stage renal failure (ESRF). The main obstacle to successful compliance with this therapy is the cost to the patients. The authors performed a cost-utility analysis from the government's perspective to see whether the province or territory should pay for ACE inhibitors for type I diabetic nephropathy on the assumption that cost is a major barrier to compliance with this important therapy. METHODS A decision analysis tree was created to demonstrate the progression of type I diabetes with macroproteinuria from the point of prescription of ACE inhibitor therapy through to ESRF management, with a 21-year follow-up. Drug compliance, cost of ESRF treatment, utilities and survival data were taken from Canadian sources and used in the cost-utility analysis. One-way and two-way sensitivity analyses were performed to test the robustness of the findings. RESULTS Compared with a no-payment strategy, provincial payment of ACE inhibitor therapy was found to be highly cost-effective: it resulted in an increase of 0.147 in the number of quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) and an annual cost savings of $849 per patient. The sensitivity analyses indicated that the cost-effectiveness depends on compliance, effect of benefit and the cost of drug therapy. Changes in the compliance rate from 67% to 51% could result in a swing in cost-effectiveness from a savings of $899 to an expenditure of more than $1 million per additional QALY. A 50% reduction in the cost of ACE inhibitors would result in a cost savings of $299 per additional QALY with compliance rates as low as 58% in the provincial payment strategy. INTERPRETATION Provincial coverage of ACE inhibitor therapy for type I diabetes with macroproteinuria improves patient outcomes, with a decrease in cost for ESRF services.
An Evaluation of the Feasibility, Validity, and Reliability of Laparoscopic Skills Assessment in the Operating Room

Objective:To assess the use of a synchronized video-based motion tracking device for objective, instant, and automated assessment of laparoscopic skill in the operating room. Summary Background Data:The assessment of technical skills is fundamental to recognition of proficient surgical practice. It is necessary to demonstrate the validity, reliability, and feasibility of any tool to be applied for objective measurement of performance. Methods:Nineteen subjects, divided into 13 experienced (performed >100 laparoscopic cholecystectomies) and 6 inexperienced (performed <10 LCs) surgeons completed LCs on 53 patients who all had a diagnosis of biliary colic. Each procedure was recorded with the ROVIMAS video-based motion tracking device to provide an objective measure of the surgeon's dexterity. Each video was also rated by 2 experienced observers on a previously validated operative assessment scale. Results:There were significant differences for motion tracking parameters between the 2 groups of surgeons for the Calot triangle dissection part of procedure for time taken (P = 0.002), total path length (P = 0.026), and number of movements (P = 0.005). Both motion tracking and video-based assessment displayed intertest reliability, and there were good correlations between the 2 modes of assessment (r = 0.4 to 0.7, P < 0.01). Conclusions:An instant, objective, valid, and reliable mode of assessment of laparoscopic performance in the operating room has been defined. This may serve to reduce the time taken for technical skills assessment, and subsequently lead to accurate and efficient audit and credentialing of surgeons for independent practice.
Long-term miniaturized stabilization of ultrafast laser based on rubidium coherent population trapping atomic resonator

Many locking approaches have been exploited to stabilize the mode-locked laser (MLL), helping to generate high-stable microwave sources. We present a novel miniaturized stabilization scheme for MLL, based on a rubidium coherent population trapping (CPT) atomic resonator. By directly frequency-locking the repetition rate of the MLL to a 85Rb CPT resonance, we demonstrate a very small stabilization system (length of 5 cm, width of 5 cm and height of 2.2 cm) for MLL with a long-term instability of ~3×10-12.
Acronym Disambiguation: A Domain Independent Approach

Acronyms are omnipresent. They usually express information that is repetitive and well known. But acronyms can also be ambiguous because there can be multiple expansions for the same acronym. In this paper, we propose a general system for acronym disambiguation that can work on any acronym given some context information. We present methods for retrieving all the possible expansions of an acronym from Wikipedia and this http URL. We propose to use these expansions to collect all possible contexts in which these acronyms are used and then score them using a paragraph embedding technique called Doc2Vec. This method collectively led to achieving an accuracy of 90.9% in selecting the correct expansion for given acronym, on a dataset we scraped from Wikipedia with 707 distinct acronyms and 14,876 disambiguations.
computationally intensive forward models

where ζ(x) denotes the physical system and is an n-vector of observation errors. Examples of such problems include medical imaging (Kaipio and Somersalo, 2004), geologic and hydrologic inversion (Stenerud et al., 2008), and cosmology (Jimenez et al., 2004). When a forward model, or simulator, of the physical process η(x) is available, one can model the data using the simulator y = η(x) + e, where e includes observation error as well as error due to the fact that the simulator η(x) may be systematically different from reality ζ(x) for input condition x. Our goal is to use the observed data y to make inference about the spatial input parameters x – predict x and characterize the uncertainty in the prediction for x.
A Hybrid Decomposition Method for Integrating Coal Supply and Demand Models

A number of large scale models have been proposed and implemented in recent years to study the anticipated expansion of coal production and utilization in the United States. This paper reports on the application of mathematical programming decomposition methods to the constructive integration and optimization of these models. In particular, it was found that an implemented hybrid decomposition approach, part resource directed and part price directed, exhibited fast convergence to an optimal solution.
Three-dimensional photoacoustic reconstruction for sparse array using compressed sensing based on k-space algorithm

This paper proposes a fast calculation method for three dimensional photoacoustic reconstruction using compressed sensing (CS). It is required for CS to solve photoacoustic forward propagation model from laser induced initial pressure repeatedly. The proposed method can reduce calculation cost of the forward propagation calculation by using integration over a sphere surface on k-space representation of initial pressure. Simulation analysis confirmed the validity of the proposed method and the feasibility of CS for three dimensional photoacoustic reconstruction.
Direct 4D list mode parametric reconstruction for PET with a novel EM algorithm

We present a direct method for producing images of kinetic parameters from list mode PET data. The time-activity curve for each voxel is described by a one-tissue compartment, 2-parameter model. Extending previous EM algorithms, a new spatiotemporal complete data space was introduced to optimize the maximum likelihood function. This leads to a straightforward parametric image update equation with moderate additional computation requirements compared to the conventional algorithm. Qualitative and quantitative evaluations were performed using 2D (x,t) and 4D (x,y,z,t) simulated list mode data for a brain receptor study. Comparisons with the two-step approach (frame-based reconstruction followed by voxel-by-voxel parameter estimation) show that the proposed method can lead to accurate estimation of the parametric image values with reduced variance, especially for the volume of distribution (VT).
Tactical Voting and Voter's Sophistication in British Elections

Although tactical voting attracts a great deal of attention, it is very hard to measure as it requires knowledge of both individuals' voting choices as well as their unobserved preferences. In this paper, we present a simple empirical strategy to nonparametrically identify tactical voting patterns directly from balloting results. This approach allows us to study the magnitude and direction of strategic voting as well as to verify which information voters and parties take into account to determine marginal constituencies. We show that tactical voting played a signiﬁcant role in the 2010 election, mainly for Liberal-Democratic voters supporting Labour. Moreover, our results suggest that voters seem to form their expectations based on a national swing in vote shares rather than newspaper guides published in the main media outlets or previous election outcomes. We also present some evidence that suggests that campaign spending is not driving tactical voting.
Behaviorally contingent property of movement-related activity of the primate putamen.

1. In this study, the movement-related activity of putamen neurons was investigated in behaving monkeys. The objective of the study was to examine whether the activity occurring in phase with body movements is directly related to the movement per se by encoding movement parameters or whether it is dependent on the circumstances in which the movement is performed. 2. Sensorially triggered arm movements were used as a behavioral task. A sequence of three visually triggered repetitive flexion-extensions of the elbow joint across the target were followed by the delivery of a juice reward. 3. There are two classes of putamen cells: type I, with tonic spontaneous discharges (2-7 Hz) and broad extracellularly recorded action potentials, and type II, with very low spontaneous discharge rate (less than 1 Hz). The movement-related phasic discharges occur exclusively in type II cells. 4. The movement-related activity of type II cells is classified into two contrasting types of cells: type IIa that exhibit burst discharges preceding the first movement of a sequence of repetitive arm or orofacial movements but that are almost inactive during succeeding movements, and type IIb that show movement-locked burst discharges with one-to-one correspondence. The somatotopic location of the cells was identified by microstimulation and/or sensory responses to passive somatosensory manipulation of the periphery. 5. The activities of type IIa cells occur with a short and fairly constant latency after the visual trigger stimulus and cease as soon as the sequence of the learned movements is initiated. In the condition in which the monkey attended to the visual trigger stimulus without initiating learned movements and waited for the delivery of juice reward at a fixed time after the stimulus, type IIa cells exhibited slight but consistent phasic discharges after the visual stimulus with short latency. This indicates that the type IIa cells have a visuomovement property. The type IIb cells, on the other hand, have a longer latency of activity after the visual trigger than type IIa cells and do not have the visuomovement property. 6. The type IIa cells change their activity pattern depending on whether the direction of initial movement is predictable before the trigger stimulus or not. 7. The activities of type IIa cells in the arm area of the putamen precede the electromyogram (EMG) of prime mover muscles by greater than 100 ms on average, whereas most type IIb cells are activated after the EMG during a learned arm-movement task. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
LDC Export Diversification, Employment Generation and the 'Green Economy': What Roles for Tourism Linkages?

Pro-poor tourism is arguably one of the best green options for addressing LDC poverty, employment and economic diversification initiatives. Although often neglected as a serious policy option - and consequently most of its potential still remains untapped - tourism is the leading export for at least 11 LDCs, and the 2nd or 3rd largest export for another 11 or more. It is also a major source of new employment, especially for women, youth and the rural poor in general. While difficult to measure accurately, tourism's pro-poor impacts are directly related to the achieved level of inter- and intra-sectoral linkages. Taking export diversification, employment generation and the green economy in turn, the working paper analyzes feasible LDC alternatives, reaching the conclusion (within the limits of data availability) that - in contrast with the current overemphasis on agriculture and manufacturing - green tourism is demonstrably one of the areas of greatest current comparative advantage and development potential for the majority of LDCs, via its extensive upstream and downstream linkages/multiplier effects, employment-generating and poverty alleviation capacities, opportunities for export test marketing of new products, sustainability, and largely untapped export opportunities. An economy wide, primarily private-sector approach is an essential element for maximizing tourism benefits - including its multiple linkages with agriculture and manufacturing - together with a significant coordinating governmental role to minimize negative externalities. Unfortunately, there is no automatic guarantee that expanding tourism will significantly increase poverty alleviation or local employment generation: the necessary mechanisms must be explicitly included in tourism planning and implementation.
Forming Sources for a Long-run Growth: How to Understand?

The paper analyzes the inconsequence and problems of Russian economic policy to accelerate economic growth. Authors consider three components of growth rate (potential, Russian and world business cycles) and conclude that in order to pursue an effective economic policy to accelerate growth, it has to be addressed to the potential (long-run) growth component. The main ingredients of this policy are the government spending restructuring and budget institutions reform, labor and capital markets reform, productivity growth.
Assimilation of the Aqua/AMSR-E data to numerical weather predictions

An application of satellite information to numerical weather predictions (NWPs) is one of the most expected achievements in satellite remote sensing. In some meteorological agencies, the data of the space-borne microwave radiometers (MWRs) have been used in their operational weather forecasts. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) introduced the assimilation system of rain rate (RR) and total column precipitable water (TCPW) derived from Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) and TRMM microwave imager (TMI) for the operational mesoscale model in October 2003 and we are trying some observation system experiments about TCPW assimilation using the global model. These water-related data are very useful to detect tropical and extratropical cyclones over ocean. The advanced microwave scanning radiometer (AMSR) for EOS (AMSR-E) on board the Aqua satellite was launched in May 2002. The AMSR-E measures several parameters related to global water circulation at 1:30 a.m./p.m. in local time in which no MWR observation is implemented so far. The MWR constellation composed of AMSR-E, SSM/I, and TMI is satisfactory for global observation at six-hour refresh rate. The refresh rate is essential to give homogeneous initial field for the Global Model and to detect and assimilate the signal of severe weather phenomena with short lifetime such as heavy rain for the mesoscale model. We are investigating the impacts of the retrieved TCPW and RR by the MWR constellation with the JMA NWP systems. In the global model experiments, the homogeneous data distribution with the constellation improves the performance of the data assimilation and the forecast. In the mesoscale model experiments, the frequent observation with the constellation succeeds in detecting the signal of heavy rain and improving the short-range rainfall forecast for disaster prevention.
Faceparts for Recognition

A facial classification system that utilises images of faceparts is presented in this paper. Each facepart region is allocated a degree of importance. The random forests approach is employed for classification. The approach grows many classification trees where each tree gives a classification decision. The forest selects the classification that gives the most votes. Experimental results are presented and discussed