Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
LSB Image Steganography Based on Blocks Matrix Determinant Method

Image steganography is one of the key types of steganography where a message to be sent is hidden inside the cover image. The most commonly used techniques for image steganography rely on LSB steganography. In this paper, a novel image steganography technique based on blocks matrix determinant method is proposed. Under this method, a cover image is divided into blocks of size 2 x 2 pixels and the determinant of each block is calculated. The comparison of the determinant values and corresponding data bits yields a delicate way for the embedment of data bits. The main aim of the proposed technique is to ensure concealment of secret data inside an image without affecting the cover image quality. When the proposed steganography method is compared with other existing LSB steganography methods, it is observed that it not only provides higher PSNR, lower MSE but also guarantees better quality of the stego image.
FuzzyGuard: A DDoS attack prevention extension in software-defined wireless sensor networks

Software defined networking brings unique security risks such as control plane saturation attack while enhancing the performance of wireless sensor networks. The attack is a new type of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, which is easy to launch. However, it is difficult to detect and hard to defend. In response to this, the attack threat model is discussed firstly, and then a DDoS attack prevention extension, called FuzzyGuard, is proposed. In FuzzyGuard, a control network with both the protection of data flow and the convergence of attack flow is constructed in the data plane by using the idea of independent routing control flow. Then, the attack detection is implemented by fuzzy inference method to output the current security state of the network. Different probabilistic suppression modes are adopted subsequently to deal with the attack flow to cost-effectively reduce the impact of the attack on the network. The prototype is implemented on SDN-WISE and the simulation experiment is carried out. The evaluation results show that FuzzyGuard could effectively protect the normal forwarding of data flow in the attacked state and has a good defensive effect on the control plane saturation attack with lower resource requirements.
Quality Effect of Early Discharge of Maternity Patients: Does Hospital Specialization Matter?

The quest to reduce health care cost has led many industrialized nations to reduce hospital length of stay. This paper uses instrumental variable estimation to estimate the effect of early discharge on readmission rates of maternity patients in British Columbia, Canada and investigates how the impact varied according to hospitals’ degree of specialization. Principal component analysis was used to classify the hospitals according to their degree of specialization. The results show that the early discharge policy increased readmission rates, and this increase, varied according to the degree of specialization of the hospital. The increase in readmission rate is observed to be lowest in the very highly specialized hospitals and highest in the moderately specialized hospitals. The highly specialized hospitals are, however, capable of using resources most efficiently at least partly due to a reduction in the use of invasive procedures.
Deglaciation of the Colorado Rocky Mountains following the Last Glacial Maximum

The availability of almost 180 cosmogenic-radionuclide (CRN) surface-exposure ages from moraine boulders and glacially polished bedrock surfaces makes possible an assessment of the timing and character of the local Last Glacial Maximum (LLGM) and subsequent deglaciation in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. A review of glacial chronologies and numerical modeling results indicates that although glaciers across Colorado responded broadly synchronously, apparent differences in the timing and magnitude of glacier retreat following the LLGM suggest that spatially variable regional forcing, possibly precipitation related, played a role in glacier behavior along with more spatially uniform hemispheric or global forcing. Glaciers in the five ranges examined reached their greatest LLGM extents before ~19.5 ka and abandoned their outermost LLGM moraines between ~23.5 and 19.5 ka. Detailed deglaciation chronologies are available for glaciers in four of the ranges. In the Sawatch Range and Sangre de Cristo Mountains, glaciers were near their LLGM extents at 17-16 ka, before retreating rapidly. In the San Juan Mountains and the Front Range, glaciers may have begun their post-LLGM recession earlier, although early deglaciation is indicated by only a few ages on polished bedrock that potentially contains pre-LLGM CRN inheritance, and thus may be too old. Regardless of the timing of the onset of deglaciation, the equilibrium-line rise associated with deglaciation was earlier and significantly larger in the San Juan Mountains than elsewhere in Colorado. This suggests that the San Juan Mountains, located well to the southwest of the other ranges, may have experienced enhanced precipitation during the LLGM, as did areas farther to the south and west, while LLGM conditions may have been drier in the northern and eastern Colorado ranges. A breakdown in this pattern after the LLGM, with precipitation decreasing in the south and west and increasing in the north and east, may have led to the range-to-range differences evident across Colorado. Deglaciation was nearly complete in all four ranges by 15-13 ka. While some proxy records indicate a later Younger Dryas-age cooling in the Colorado mountains, there is not clear moraine evidence of glacier readvance at that time.
Digital vs in-Person Learning Environment in ESP Classrooms: Let the Students Decide

Abstract In this study of English Foreign Language Learners, the author explored the learning preferences of 14 students (ages 18-20) enrolled in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course. All students were provided with the same content, course materials, assignments and time for completing the assignments. They were all given the same pre and post-learning questionnaire, writing tasks and final exam. However, they completed these tasks either in a digital environment or in-class. The study was conducted at South East European University in Macedonia where digital instruction is not well known or practiced. The results indicate that the best way for students to learn is by combining the two learning environments. By completing an assignment both ways, students discovered not only that some tasks are best done in a digital environment and others in class, but also they discovered their preferred way of learning.
Location-Based Web Service QoS Prediction via Preference Propagation to Address Cold Start Problem

Many web-based software systems have been developed in the form of composite services. It is important to accurately predict the Quality of Service (QoS) value of atomic web services because the performance of such composite services depends greatly on the performance of the atomic web service adopted. In recent years, collaborative filtering based methods for predicting the web service QoS values have been proposed. However, they are mainly faced with a cold start problem that is difficult to make reliable prediction due to highly sparse historical data, newly introduced users and web services, and the existing work only deals with the case of newly introduced users. In this article, we propose a Location-based Matrix Factorization using a Preference Propagation method (LMF-PP) to address the cold start problem. LMF-PP fuses invocation and neighborhood similarity, and then the fused similarity is utilized by preference propagation. LMF-PP is compared with existing approaches on the real world dataset. Based on the experimental results, LMF-PP shows better performance than existing approaches in cold start environments as well as in warm start environments.
A fully convolutional networks (FCN) based image segmentation algorithm in binocular imaging system

This paper proposes an image segmentation algorithm with fully convolutional networks (FCN) in binocular imaging system under various circumstance. Image segmentation is perfectly solved by semantic segmentation. FCN classifies the pixels, so as to achieve the level of image semantic segmentation. Different from the classical convolutional neural networks (CNN), FCN uses convolution layers instead of the fully connected layers. So it can accept image of arbitrary size. In this paper, we combine the convolutional neural network and scale invariant feature matching to solve the problem of visual positioning under different scenarios. All high-resolution images are captured with our calibrated binocular imaging system and several groups of test data are collected to verify this method. The experimental results show that the binocular images are effectively segmented without over-segmentation. With these segmented images, feature matching via SURF method is implemented to obtain regional information for further image processing. The final positioning procedure shows that the results are acceptable in the range of 1.4∼1.6 m, the distance error is less than 10mm.
On Inferring Demand for Health Care in the Presence of Anchoring and Selection Biases

In the contingent valuation literature, anchoring bias poses problems when using an iterative bidding game to infer willingness to pay. This bias occurs when the willingness to pay estimate is sensitive to the initially presented starting value. More generally, whenever a survey format is used and not all of those contacted participate, selection bias raises concerns about the representativeness of the sample. In this paper, we estimate students’ willingness to pay for student health care at Stanford University while accounting for both of these biases. As there is no cost sharing for students, we assess willingness to pay by having a random sample of students play an on line iterative bidding game. Our main results are that (1) demand for student health care is elastic by conventional standards; (2) ignoring anchoring bias would lead to a substantially biased measure of the demand elasticity; and (3) standard selection correction methods indicate no bias from selective non-response and newer bounding methods support this conclusion of elastic demand.
Influenza A viruses: Current perspectives on swine flu virus

Swine influenza, a genetic reassortment of swine, avian, and human influenza viruses, is a respiratory disease of pigs that recently caused a pandemic. It contains deoxyribonucleic acid that is typical to avian, swine, and human viruses, including elements from European and Asian swine viruses. The main targets of the influenza virus are the columnar epithelial cells of the respiratory tract. The aim of this review was to present updates on influenza A viruses with particular attention to recent developments on swine flu H1N1. In-depth interest is on current historical accounts, pathogenesis, clinical features, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. The review shows that there is tremendous improvement on the knowledge and understanding of the mechanisms of influenza disease and outcomes of management. There is an increasing diagnostic facility and emphasis on advanced infection control measures, encouraging frequent, adequate hand washing, use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers, and use of quarantine facility for treating serious cases and vaccination of people at risk.
Visiting Nurses’ Perspectives on Practices to Achieve End-of-Life Cancer Patients’ Wishes for Death at Home: A Qualitative Study

Objective: This study aimed to clarify visiting nurses' perspectives on critical practices to ensure they could advocate for patients who prefer to die at home. Methods: Sixteen nurses, working at home-visit nursing agencies in Japan, participated in this study. Data were generated by interviews with the nurses and participant observations from nursing home-visits for six end-of-life cancer patients and were analyzed using content analysis. Results: Five themes emerged: (1) nursing assessment, (2) support for comfortable daily life of the patient and their family, (3) advocating for the patient's views about continuing homecare until death, (4) supporting the patient's preparedness for death, and (5) coordination with other health professionals and related facilities for a comfortable environment for the patient. In addition, the nurses sometimes used humorous responses to death-related work to change the patient's melancholy thoughts. Conclusion: The present study found that the participants advocated for the patient's views about continuing homecare until death while coordinating views between the patient and their family; they further supported the patient's daily life while helping them prepare for death to achieve their wish for death at home. In addition, our study uncovered the visiting nurses' unconscious practical wisdom of using humorous responses to death-related work to alleviate the patients' feelings of hopelessness. To develop practical wisdom for using humor effectively in end-of-life care, nurses need to verbalize unconscious practices, and accumulate empirical knowledge about nursing interventions using humor, including cultural attitudes, through case study analysis.
The Use of Osirix for Surgical Planning Using Cranial Measures and Region of Interest Tools: Technical Note

Background: During the surgery for intrinsic brain lesions, it is important to plan the proper site of the craniotomy and to identify the relations with the gyri and superficial veins. This might be a challenge, especially in small subcortical lesions and when there is a distortion of the cortical anatomy. Materials and Methods: Using the free computer software Osirix, we have created a 3-dimensional reconstruction of the head and cerebral showing the gyri and superficial veins. With the aid of some tools, it is possible to create a colored image of the lesion and also to calculate the distance between the areas of interest and some easily identifiable structure, making it easier to plan the site of the craniotomy identify the topography of the lesion. Results: The reconstructions were compared to the intraoperative view. We found this technique to be useful to help identify the gyri and cortical veins and use them to find the lesions. The use of a region of interest to show better the lesion under the cortical surface and in the three-dimensional reconstruction of the head was also helpful. Conclusions: This is a low-cost and easy technique that can be quickly learned and performed before every surgery. It helps the surgeon to plan a safe craniotomy and lesionectomy.
Trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias: The impersonators

Orofacial pain disorders are highly prevalent and debilitating conditions involving the head, face, and neck. Headache is the most common complaint reported to dental and medical practitioners, which manifests as a myriad of neuro-ophthalmologic symptoms, including orbital pain, disturbances of vision, aura, photophobia, lacrimation, conjunctival injection, ptosis, and other manifestations. The differential diagnosis is extensive and includes both primary and secondary headache disorders. The similarity in clinical presentation and diagnostic features is a challenge to the clinicians because of two facts: (a) the orofacial region is complex and (b) pain can arise from many sources. The term “trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias (TACs)” includes a group of headache disorders characterized by moderate-to-severe, short-lived head pain in the trigeminal distribution, with accompanying unilateral cranial parasympathetic autonomic features, such as lacrimation, rhinorrhea, conjunctival injection, eyelid edema, and ptosis. TACs include cluster headache (CH), paroxysmal hemicrania (PH), short-lasting unilateral neuralgiform headache attacks, and hemicrania continua. They are grouped on the basis of their shared clinical features of unilateral headache of varying durations and ipsilateral cranial autonomic symptoms. TACs are rare with the prevalence rate of <1%. The peculiarity of these conditions is their similar clinical presentation and overlapping features. A sound knowledge of TACs is essential for proper diagnosis. Moreover, multidisciplinary approaches for the management of these conditions are strongly recommended. Hence, the aim of this article is to provide an overview of trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias.
Microvascular Revascularization for Recurrent A1 Anterior Cerebral Artery Aneurysm Postendovascular Treatment: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

The recurrence of aneurysms postcoil embolization is a common occurrence. Endovascular coiling has been noted to be more effective for small lesions rather than the giant aneurysms. A postembolization recurrent aneurysm is a difficult condition to manage. We present a case of a recurrent giant aneurysm of the anterior cerebral arteries (ACAs) first segment (A1). It was managed by superficial temporal artery to A3 segment of anterior cerebral artery bypass anastomotic revascularization plus distal A1- segment clipping. A literature review is presented for the management of giant A1 artery aneurysms.
Determinants of psychosocial disorders among caregivers of HIV-infected children in Enugu, Southeast Nigeria

Background: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is a global pandemic. Nigeria has the highest burden of pediatric HIV worldwide. HIV-infected children and their caregivers are predisposed to significant psychosocial disorder. This disorder may be provoked by some risk factors. Aim: To determine the factors responsible for psychosocial disorders among the caregivers of HIV-infected children in Enugu, Southeast Nigeria. Materials and Methods: This was a hospital-based comparative study. Participants who met the inclusion criteria were enrolled consecutively. The HIV status and other sociodemographic variables of the caregivers were obtained. General Health Questionnaire (28-item version) was used to assess their psychosocial status. Thereafter, the association between psychosocial disorders and their sociodemographic variables was ascertained. Results: A total of 154 caregivers of HIV-infected children (subjects) and 154 caregivers of HIV-negative children (controls) were enrolled in this study. The prevalence of psychosocial disorders among the subjects was 39% compared to that of 2.6% among the controls. The determinants of psychosocial disorders among these subjects were the child’s age group of 2–4 years (P < 0.001, odds ratio [OR] = 3.60), caregiver’s gender (P < 0.001, OR = 13.48), lower socioeconomic class (P < 0.001, OR = 37.14), divorced caregiver (P = 0.03, OR = 10.33), death of a spouse (P < 0.001, OR = 8.84), additional HIV-infected family member (P = 0.015, OR = 2.56), and unsupportive spouse (P = 0.027, OR = 2.113). Conclusion: The determinants of psychosocial disorders among the caregivers of HIV-infected children were the age of the HIV-infected child, female caregivers, lower socioeconomic class, marital status, additional HIV-infected family member, and lack of spouse support.
A review of Acanthamoeba keratitis in the middle East and Iran

Acanthamoeba keratitis, a vision-threatening disease, is caused by a free-living amoeba of genus Acanthamoeba. Amoeba is widely distributed all around the world. Several cases of Acanthamoeba keratitis have been reported from the Middle East and Iran as well. The infection is mainly caused by inappropriate use of contact lens; therefore, it is more common among lens wearers. The number of reported cases worldwide is increasing annually due to the increasing number of contact lens wearers for medical or cosmetic reasons. It is known that early diagnosis and treatment can reduce consequent damages, while the delay in these processes will deteriorate the vision. Nowadays contact lens wearing, surgery and use of corticosteroids are known to predispose to Acanthamoeba keratitis, and it was also believed that trauma was the main cause. Increasing public knowledge about Acanthamoeba infection, inquiring the history of patients, clinical signs and laboratory findings can be helpful to early diagnosis and better treatment. Regardless of the increasing knowledge of diagnosis and treatment, this disease is still a challenge. Considering the long curative time, and insufficient efficacy of available treatments, it seems that the prevention is more important than the treatment. This review aimed to explain Acanthamoeba keratitis in the Middle East and Iran from the aspects of epidemiology, diagnosis, and therapeutic treatment.
Self-Construal Differences in Chile and South Korea: A Brief Report

Latin American and East Asian cultures are generally considered to be collectivistic cultures. However, there are very few cross-cultural studies contrasting these two cultures against each other, as most studies in this field compare them to Western culture. Self-construal is one of the most used constructs to explain cultural differences, elucidating whether individuals of a cultural group see themselves as independent of their environment and others, focusing on personal motivations, or interdependent of others and their context, recognizing their role within it. This study intends to compare the self-construal of Chileans and South Koreans and observe the variability in the presence of these dimensions in these two cultures. A total of 200 participants from Chile and South Korea responded to the Self-Construal Scale. Chileans presented significantly higher scores on independent and interdependent self-construal simultaneously when compared to South Koreans. Also, Chileans presented higher scores on independent self-construal than on interdependent self-construal, while Koreans did not show a preference for either dimension. These results are consistent with previous studies on Chileans, implying that not all Latin American countries would adhere to collectivism.
Automated System for Panoramic Depth Imaging and Visualization

This thesis presents the development and verification of concepts, methods and possible implementations of a system for the automatic visual inspection of deep mine shafts. Although the concept is developed for shafts, it can be applied to any large object for which a contiguous visual surface inspection is required. The concept is based on mosaicking large numbers of pictures, e.g. 60000, to structured panoramas which can be mapped as texture on a geometric model. The large number of images together with their resolution enable a precise metric representation of the observed surfaces. These are stored in a reduced resolution set format. This data model is consistent with open source mapping tools so that data fusion from different sources, e.g. depth based geological information, may be performed. Standard web based visualisation tools can then be used to view the data.
MOF-Confined Sub-2 nm Stable CsPbX3 Perovskite Quantum Dots

The metal halide with a perovskite structure has attracted significant attention due to its defect-tolerant photophysics and optoelectronic features. In particular, the all-inorganic metal halide perovskite quantum dots have potential for development in future applications. Sub-2 nm CsPbX3 (X = Cl, Br, and I) perovskite quantum dots were successfully fabricated by a MOF-confined strategy with a facile and simple route. The highly uniform microporous structure of MOF effectively restricted the CsPbX3 quantum dots aggregation in a synthetic process and endowed the obtained sub-2 nm CsPbX3 quantum dots with well-dispersed and excellent stability in ambient air without a capping agent. The photoluminescence emission spectra and lifetimes were not decayed after 60 days. The CsPbX3 quantum dots maintained size distribution stability in the air without any treatment. Because of the quantum confinement effect of CsPbX3 quantum dots, the absorption and photoluminescence (PL) emission peak were blue shifted to shorter wavelengths compare with bulk materials. Furthermore, this synthetic strategy provides a novel method in fabricating ultra-small photoluminescence quantum dots.