Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Endovascular management of vertebrobasilar dissecting aneurysms.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Several approaches to the treatment of dissecting aneurysms of the vertebrobasilar system have been used. We evaluated our endovascular experience, which includes trapping and proximal occlusion. METHODS Thirty-five patients with intradural vertebrobasilar dissecting aneurysms presented to our institution between 1992 and 2002. Twenty-six were treated by endovascular means and two with surgery. In the endovascular group, 14 were in a supra-posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA) location, and three of these extended to the vertebrobasilar junction on the initial angiogram. Ten were located in an infra-PICA location, or no antegrade flow was seen in the PICA or anterior spinal artery. Two were located at the PICA with antegrade flow preserved in the branch. Twelve lesions were treated with trapping; another 14 were initially treated with proximal occlusion techniques, two of which eventually required trapping procedures. Follow-up images were obtained within 1 year of initial treatment in 24 patients. Mean follow-up for these patients was 3.5 years. RESULTS Initial treatments were technically successful and without complication in all 26 patients. Follow-up examinations showed complete cure in 19 of 24 patients. One patient died of global ischemia after presenting as Hunt and Hess grade 5 with subarachanoid hemorrhage. Two recurrent hemorrhages occurred in patients in the proximal occlusion group; one died, and the other underwent a trapping procedure. One patient developed contralateral vertebral dissection 24 hours after occlusion of a dissecting aneurysm of the dominant vertebral artery and died of a brain stem infarct. Another died of probable vasospasm, and the last died of an unknown cause 1 month after treatment. Two patients had recanalization despite an initial trapping procedure, both underwent further treatment. Mortality rate was 20% in the treated group (including the two patients treated surgically), with four of five deaths occurring during the initial hospital course. Mortality rate was 50% in the six patients in the untreated group who were available for follow-up. CONCLUSION Dissecting aneurysms of the vertebrobasilar system remain high-risk lesions because of their natural history. They can be managed by endovascular methods according to aneurysm location, configuration, collateral circulation, and time of presentation. Trapping results in better prevention of rehemorrhage. Proximal occlusion can achieve occlusion without manipulation of the affected segment when more direct endovascular occlusion or stent placement cannot be performed.
Visual specification and analysis of use cases

Unified Modelling Language (UML) is popular mainly due to the various visual notations it provides for specifying large systems. In UML the details of a use case are specified in natural language using standard templates [Cockburn 2000]. This is a critical gap leading to detailed requirements of an application being specified in natural language. As a result, inadequate analysis of business requirements is a source of many defects in software application development. Here we propose to bridge this gap by extending the set of UML diagrams with three new diagrams that enable rigorous specification, analysis and simulation of requirements.The above is achieved by modelling business policies as global invariants and operational tasks as user interactions. We propose visual notations to specify both the global invariants as well as the user interactions. The two specifications are checked for consistency using the model checker, SAL. Inconsistencies detected by the model checker are then presented back to the analyst in the form of easy to understand diagrams. These inconsistencies help detect incompleteness in the functional specification of an application as well as help in making the functional specifications rigorous and detailed. This simplifies the task of the designers and implementers. SAL is also used to simulate the system and generate some sample runs. These sample runs are presented back to the developer in visual form enabling better understanding of the behaviour of the system. The advantages of this approach are demonstrated through our experiences with a case study as well as a project executed at Tata Consultancy Services(TCS).
In vivo confocal microendoscopy: from the proximal bronchus down to the pulmonary acinus

In vivo endoscopic microscopy aims to provide the clinician with a tool to assess architecture and morphology of a living tissue in real time, with an optical resolution similar to standard histopathology. To date, available microendoscopic devices use the principle of fl uorescence confocal microscopy, and thereby mainly analyse the spatial distribution of speci fi c endogenous or exogenous fl uorophores. Fluorescence microendoscopes devoted to respiratory system exploration use a bundle of optical fi bres, introduced into the working channel of the bron- choscope. This miniprobe can be applied in vivo onto the bronchial inner surface or advanced into a distal bron- chiole down to the acinus, to produce in situ, in vivo microscopic imaging of the respiratory tract in real time. Fluorescence confocal microendoscopy has the capability to image the epithelial and subepithelial layers of the pro- ximal bronchial tree, as well as the more distal parts of the lungs, from the terminal bronchioles down to the alveolar ducts and sacs. Potential applications include in vivo microscopic assessment of early bronchial cancers, bronchial wall remodelling evaluation and diffuse peripheral lung disease exploration, as well as in vivo diagnosis of peripheral lung nodules. The technique has also the potential to be coupled with fl uorescence molecular imaging. This chapter de- scribes the capabilities and possible limitations of confocal microendoscopy for proximal and distal lung exploration.
Discovering Logical Vulnerabilities in the Wi-Fi Handshake Using Model-Based Testing

We use model-based testing techniques to detect logical vulnerabilities in implementations of the Wi-Fi handshake. This reveals new fingerprinting techniques, multiple downgrade attacks, and Denial of Service (DoS) vulnerabilities. Stations use the Wi-Fi handshake to securely connect with wireless networks. In this handshake, mutually supported capabilities are determined, and fresh pairwise keys are negotiated. As a result, a proper implementation of the Wi-Fi handshake is essential in protecting all subsequent traffic. To detect the presence of erroneous behaviour, we propose a model-based technique that generates a set of representative test cases. These tests cover all states of the Wi-Fi handshake, and explore various edge cases in each state. We then treat the implementation under test as a black box, and execute all generated tests. Determining whether a failed test introduces a security weakness is done manually. We tested 12 implementations using this approach, and discovered irregularities in all of them. Our findings include fingerprinting mechanisms, DoS attacks, and downgrade attacks where an adversary can force usage of the insecure WPA-TKIP cipher. Finally, we explain how one of our downgrade attacks highlights incorrect claims made in the 802.11 standard.
Illumination invariant face recognition based on ULBP and SVM

Illumination invariant face recognition is a key problem for automatic face recognition system. The proposed method first applies two-degree ULBP to extract illumination invariant feature on multi-block face. Second, our method combines those histogram features into the final identification characteristics in the right order. SVM is then applying to feature classification to realize the face recognition. The experiment on YaleB database shows that, the combination of multi-degree and multi-block method can achieves a high face recognition rate.
Local Adaptation and Vector-Mediated Population Structure in Plasmodium vivax Malaria

Plasmodium vivax in southern Mexico exhibits different infectivities to 2 local mosquito vectors, Anopheles pseudopunctipennis and Anopheles albimanus. Previous work has tied these differences in mosquito infectivity to variation in the central repeat motif of the malaria parasite's circumsporozoite (csp) gene, but subsequent studies have questioned this view. Here we present evidence that P. vivax in southern Mexico comprised 3 genetic populations whose distributions largely mirror those of the 2 mosquito vectors. Additionally, laboratory colony feeding experiments indicate that parasite populations are most compatible with sympatric mosquito species. Our results suggest that reciprocal selection between malaria parasites and mosquito vectors has led to local adaptation of the parasite. Adaptation to local vectors may play an important role in generating population structure in Plasmodium. A better understanding of coevolutionary dynamics between sympatric mosquitoes and parasites will facilitate the identification of molecular mechanisms relevant to disease transmission in nature and provide crucial information for malaria control.
Lifetime exposure to abuse, current stressors, and health in federally qualified health center patients

ABSTRACT Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the impacts of lifetime exposure to abuse and current stressors on health, an integrative concept of physical, mental and social health, among patients of a Federally Qualified Health Center. Method: The sample included 1,055 patients (male: N = 346; female: N = 709) who were at least 18 years of age and completed an assessment on their first visit between January 2015 and March 2017 at a Federally Qualified Health Center. The assessment contained subscales of the DUKE Health Profile measuring physical, mental, and social health; four questions assessing lifetime exposure to abuse; and a relational and socioeconomic stressor checklist. Results: Results from structural equation modeling analyses showed that for both male and female groups, lifetime exposure to abuse, relational stressors and socioeconomic-related stressors were strongly associated with health. In the male group, socioeconomic-related stressors were the strongest predictor of health, while in the female group, lifetime exposure to abuse was the strongest predictor of health. Conclusions: Understanding the relationships between health and the combined factors of a lifetime exposure to abuse, relational stressors, and socioeconomic stressors can provide insight to patient care professionals who treat patients in lower income, underserved communities. Ecological Systems Theory provides a framework to plan interventions or to prevent potential negative outcomes associated with these stressors.
Effectiveness of Official Daily Foreign Exchange Market Intervention Operations in Japan

Japanese official intervention in the foreign exchange market is of by far the largest magnitude in the world, despite little or no evidence that it is effective in moving exchange rates. Up until recently, however, official data on intervention has not been available for Japan. This paper investigates the effectiveness of intervention using recently published official daily data and an event study methodology. The event study better fits the stochastic properties of intervention and exchange rate data, i.e. intense and sporadic bursts of intervention activity juxtaposed against a yen/dollar rate continuously changing, than standard time-series approaches. Focusing on daily Japanese and US official intervention operations, we identify separate intervention “episodes” and analyze the subsequent effect on the exchange rate. Using the non-parametric sign test and matched-sample test, we find strong evidence that sterilized intervention systemically affects the exchange rate in the short-run (less than one month). This result holds even when intervention is not associated with (simultaneous) interest rate changes, whether or not intervention is “secret” (in the sense of no official reports or rumors of intervention reported over the newswires), and against other robustness checks. Large-scale (amounts over $1 billion) intervention, coordinated with the Bank of Japan and the Federal Reserve working in unison, give the highest success rate. During the period that the Bank of Japan has reduced interbank rates to 0.5 percent and below (from September 1995), however, only one intervention operation has been coordinated with the Fed and the success rate has been correspondingly low.
Ranking with non-random missing ratings: influence of popularity and positivity on evaluation metrics

The evaluation of recommender systems in terms of ranking has recently gained attention, as it seems to better fit the top-k recommendation task than the usual ratings prediction task. In that context, several authors have proposed to consider missing ratings as some form of negative feedback to compensate for the skewed distribution of observed ratings when users choose the items they rate. In this work, we study two major biases of the selection of items: the first one is that some items obtain more ratings than others (popularity effect), and the second one is that positive ratings are observed more frequently than negative ratings (positivity effect). We present a theoretical analysis and experiments on the Yahoo! dataset with randomly selected items, which show that considering missing data as a form of negative feedback during training may improve performances, but also that it can be misleading when testing, favoring models of popularity more than models of user preferences.
Fast image-based separation of diffuse and specular reflections

We present a novel image-based method for separating diffuse and specular reflections of real objects under distant environmental illumination. By illuminating a scene with only four high frequency illumination patterns, the specular and diffuse reflections can be separated by computing the maximum and minimum observed pixel values. Furthermore, we show that our method can be extended to separate diffuse and specular components under image-based environmental illumination. Applications range from image-based modeling of reflectance properties to improved normal and geometry acquisition.
A Hardware-Assisted Energy-Efficient Processing Model for Activity Recognition Using Wearables

Wearables are being widely utilized in health and wellness applications, primarily due to the recent advances in sensor and wireless communication, which enhance the promise of wearable systems in providing continuous and real-time monitoring and interventions. Wearables are generally composed of hardware/software components for collection, processing, and communication of physiological data. Practical implementation of wearable monitoring in real-life applications is currently limited due to notable obstacles. The wearability and form factor are dominated by the amount of energy needed for sensing, processing, and communication. In this article, we propose an ultra-low-power granular decision-making architecture, also called screening classifier, which can be viewed as a tiered wake-up circuitry, consuming three orders of magnitude-less power than the state-of-the-art low-power microcontrollers. This processing model operates based on computationally simple template matching modules, based on coarse- to fine-grained analysis of the signals with on-demand and gradually increasing the processing power consumption. Initial template matching rejects signals that are clearly not of interest from the signal processing chain, keeping the rest of processing blocks idle. If the signal is likely of interest, the sensitivity and the power of the template matching modules are gradually increased, and ultimately, the main processing unit is activated. We pose optimization techniques to efficiently split a full template into smaller bins, called mini-templates, and activate only a subset of bins during each classification decision. Our experimental results on real data show that this signal screening model reduces power consumption of the processing architecture by a factor of 70% while the sensitivity of detection remains at least 80%.
Light Fields on the Cheap

This paper presents a new light field capture system where the main design goal is low cost. To minimize cost we use an off-the-shelf flatbed scanner as the digitizing element. However, intrinsic properties of scanners can adversely affect resultant images. We will survey these properties and their effects in raw outputs. Image manipulation techniques will then be discussed so that proper light field datasets for image-based rendering can be formed. Color plates (figures 9, 11-19) located at http://graphics.lcs. mit.edu/~jcyang/paper/
Who's Who in Biblical Studies (An On-line Database)

The project is to develop an on-line database, known as “Who’s Who in Biblical Studies”. The client of the database is Dr. David J.A. Clines, a senior lecturer from the department of Biblical Studies at the University of Sheffield. Dr. Clines is a renown researcher in his field who has a vast amount of information stored about other researchers and their work. When he is required to contact or view the work of any other researcher he makes use of the information he has gathered. However he wishes to make a better and more efficient use of this information, not only for himself but also for the other researchers across the globe. In relation to this objective he intends to develop an on-line database available to all the researchers to support the work being done in this field. Initially he will add all the available information on to the database. After this initial stage, he wishes to announce the accessibility of the database in the research community and invite researchers and other interested people to register on-line, he will promote this database during a planned world-trip and through personal correspondence.
Classification of Evolving Data Streams with Infinitely Delayed Labels

The majority of evolving data streams classification algorithms assume that the actual labels of the predicted examples are readily available without any time delay just after a prediction is made. However, given the high label costs, dependence of an expert, limitations in data transmission or even restrictions imposed by the problem's nature, there is a large number of real-world applications in which the availability of actual labels is infinitely delayed (never available). In these cases, it is necessary the use of algorithms that does not follow the traditional process of monitoring the error rate to detect changes in data distribution and uses the most recent labeled data to update the classification model. In this paper, we propose the method MClassification to classify evolving data streams with infinitely delayed labels. Our method is inspired on the use of Micro-Cluster representation from online clustering algorithms. Considering the presence of incremental drifts, our approach uses a distance-based strategy to maintain the Micro-Clusters' positions updated. An evaluation in several synthetic and real data shows that MClassification achieves competitive accuracy results to state-of-the-art methods and adequate computational cost. The main advantage of the proposed method is the absence of critical parameters that require user's prior knowledge, as occurs with rival methods.
Genetic Algorithm Optimisation for Fuzzy Control of Wheelchair Lifting and Balancing

In this paper, an optimisation technique is adopted to manipulate the input and output scaling of a fuzzy logic controller for lifting the front wheels of a wheelchair and stabilizing the wheelchair in two-wheeled mode. A virtual wheelchair (WC) model is developed within Visual Nastran (VN) software environment where the model is further linked with Matlab/Simulink for control purposes. The lifting of the chair is done by transforming the first link, attached to the front wheels (casters) to the upright position while maintaining stability of the second link where the payload is attached. General rules of thumb allow heuristic tuning of the parameters but a proper optimisation mechanism will perform better. Genetic Algorithm is used to control the two-wheeled wheelchair and results show that the optimised parameters give better system performance.
Observations on the Inactivation Efficacy of a MALDI-TOF MS Chemical Extraction Method on Bacillus anthracis Vegetative Cells and Spores

A chemical (ethanol; formic acid; acetonitrile) protein extraction method for the preparation of bacterial samples for matrix assisted laser desorption ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) identification was evaluated for its ability to inactivate bacterial species. Initial viability tests (with and without double filtration of the extract through 0.2 μM filters), indicated that the method could inactivate Escherichia coli MRE 162 and Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC 35657, with or without filtration, but that filtration was required to exclude viable, avirulent, Bacillus anthracis UM23CL2 from extracts. Multiple, high stringency, viability experiments were then carried out on entire filtered extracts prepared from virulent B. anthracis Vollum vegetative cells and spores ranging in concentration from 106-108cfu per extract. B. anthracis was recovered in 3/18 vegetative cell extracts and 10/18 spore extracts. From vegetative cell extracts B. anthracis was only recovered from extracts that had undergone prolonged Luria (L)-broth (7 day) and L-agar plate (a further 7 days) incubations. We hypothesise that the recovery of B. anthracis in vegetative cell extracts is due to the escape of individual sub-lethally injured cells. We discuss our results in view of working practises in clinical laboratories and in the context of recent inadvertent releases of viable B. anthracis.
Retinal Afferents Synapse with Relay Cells Targeting the Middle Temporal Area in the Pulvinar and Lateral Geniculate Nuclei

Considerable debate continues regarding thalamic inputs to the middle temporal area (MT) of the visual cortex that bypass the primary visual cortex (V1) and the role they might have in the residual visual capability following a lesion of V1. Two specific retinothalamic projections to area MT have been speculated to relay through the medial portion of the inferior pulvinar nucleus (PIm) and the koniocellular layers of the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN). Although a number of studies have demonstrated retinal inputs to regions of the thalamus where relays to area MT have been observed, the relationship between the retinal terminals and area MT relay cells has not been established. Here we examined direct retino-recipient regions of the marmoset monkey (Callithrix jacchus) pulvinar nucleus and the LGN following binocular injections of anterograde tracer, as well as area MT relay cells in these nuclei by injection of retrograde tracer into area MT. Retinal afferents were shown to synapse with area MT relay cells as demonstrated by colocalization with the presynaptic vesicle membrane protein synaptophysin. We also established the presence of direct synapes of retinal afferents on area MT relay cells within the PIm, as well as the koniocellular K1 and K3 layers of the LGN, thereby corroborating the existence of two disynaptic pathways from the retina to area MT that bypass V1.