Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genetic algorithm-based testing scenarios selection for the performance evaluation of crash imminent braking systems for pedestrian safety

Improving driving safety is one of the most important tasks for intelligent transportation systems. In recent years, active safety systems have been widely investigated and have been playing an important role in driving safety. Among these systems, pedestrian crash imminent braking systems are towards pedestrian safety and are able to predict potential crash/near-crash events associated with pedestrians and vehicles, and take appropriate actions to mitigate potential crash effects. In order to evaluate the performance of such systems, we need to design suitable testing scenarios, collect field data on the system performance, and analyze data to see how the systems behave for certain performance indices. Clearly, due to the time and cost of vehicle field testing, it is impossible to test every scenario for performance evaluation. Therefore, a subset of test scenarios, which are critical (i.e., in terms of crashes, fatalities, social cost, etc.) and capture key crash parameters, must be obtained for vehicle testing. In this paper, we propose a methodology that is based on Genetic Algorithm (GA) to find a subset of testing scenarios from a complete set of testing scenarios (obtained via crash databases), by satisfying given constraints. We show that our GA-based approach is effective and efficient. More specifically, it can find the approximated optimal testing scenarios in a much faster time than exhaustive search method. Field data are also used to validate our approach on the testing scenarios selection.
Nucleotide sequences specific for Tn1545-like conjugative transposons in pneumococci and staphylococci resistant to tetracycline

The distributions of tet(M) and conjugative transposons related to Tn1545 were studied by hybridization in 47 clinical isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae resistant to tetracycline. Resistance to tetracycline was always associated with resistance to minocycline and was due to the presence of the tet(M) gene. Association of tet(M) with int-Tn, the gene encoding the protein required for the movements of Tn1545-like transposons, was found in all but one strain of S. pneumoniae. In contrast, int-Tn was detected in only 2 of 37 strains of Staphylococcus spp. harboring tet(M).
Efficient Learning by Directed Acyclic Graph For Resource Constrained Prediction

We study the problem of reducing test-time acquisition costs in classification systems. Our goal is to learn decision rules that adaptively select sensors for each example as necessary to make a confident prediction. We model our system as a directed acyclic graph (DAG) where internal nodes correspond to sensor subsets and decision functions at each node choose whether to acquire a new sensor or classify using the available measurements. This problem can be posed as an empirical risk minimization over training data. Rather than jointly optimizing such a highly coupled and non-convex problem over all decision nodes, we propose an efficient algorithm motivated by dynamic programming. We learn node policies in the DAG by reducing the global objective to a series of cost sensitive learning problems. Our approach is computationally efficient and has proven guarantees of convergence to the optimal system for a fixed architecture. In addition, we present an extension to map other budgeted learning problems with large number of sensors to our DAG architecture and demonstrate empirical performance exceeding state-of-the-art algorithms for data composed of both few and many sensors.
Parallel-Distinct Structures of Internal World and External Reality: Disavowing and Re-Claiming the Self-Identity in the Aftermath of Trauma-Generated Dissociation

The nature of consciousness and the autonomy of the individual's mind have been a focus of interest throughout the past century and inspired many theories and models. Revival of studies on psychological trauma and dissociation, which remained outside mainstream psychiatry, psychology, and psychoanalysis for the most part of the past century, has provided a new opportunity to revisit this intellectual and scientific endeavor. This paper attempts to integrate a series of empirical and theoretical studies on psychological consequences of developmental traumatization, which may yield further insight into factors which threaten the integrity of human consciousness. The paper proposes that an individual's experience of distorted reality and betrayal precipitates a cyclical dynamic between the individual and the external world by disrupting the developmental function of mutuality which is essential for maintenance of the integrity of the internal world while this inner world is in turn regulated vis-à-vis external reality. Dissociation -the common factor in all types of post-traumatic syndromes- is facilitated by violation of boundaries by relational omission and intrusion as represented by distinct effects and consequences of childhood neglect and abuse. Recent research conducted on clinical and non-clinical populations shows both bimodal (undermodulation and overmodulation) and bipolar (intrusion and avoidance) neurobiological and phenomenological characteristics of post-traumatic response. These seem to reflect “parallel-distinct structures” that control separate networks covering sensori-motor and cognitive-emotional systems. This understanding provides a conceptual framework to assist explanation of diverse post-traumatic mental trajectories which culminate in a common final pathway comprised of partly overlapping clinical syndromes such as complex PTSD, dissociative depression, dissociative identity disorder (DID), or “borderline” phenomena. Of crucial theoretical and clinical importance is that these maladaptive post-traumatic psychological formations are regarded as processes in their own right rather than as a personality disorder innate to the individual. Such mental division may perform in that internal detachment can serve to preserve the genuine aspects of the subject until such time as they can be reclaimed via psychotherapy. The paper attempts to integrate these ideas with reference to the previously proposed theory of the “Functional Dissociation of Self” (Şar and Öztürk, 2007).
A Comparative Effectiveness Analysis of Alternative Strategies to Assess Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Function After Microsurgical Resection of Pituitary Tumors

BACKGROUND:Observational methods can be used in conjunction with the comparative effectiveness research (CER) paradigm to inform decisions between alternative patient management strategies in real-world clinical settings. OBJECTIVE:To present a brief review of current observational research regarding 3 strategies for predicting normal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function after surgical resection of pituitary tumors and to apply the CER model to compare these management alternatives. METHODS:We designed and conducted 2 prospective observational studies involving 183 patients undergoing microsurgical resection for pituitary tumors. These investigations yielded a comprehensive database comprising longitudinal data from multiple clinical domains. We investigated 3 potential strategies to predict normal postoperative HPA axis function in this cohort, including preoperative adrenocorticotrophic hormone stimulation testing and measurement of serum cortisol levels immediately after surgery or on the first postoperative day. We performed a focused comparative effectiveness review to help inform the decision between the 3 potential clinical management strategies. RESULTS:This investigation illustrates the use of observational research methods in conjunction with CER methodology as one means of informing clinical management decisions. Of the 3 strategies for assessing postoperative HPA axis function studied, preoperative and immediate postoperative adrenocorticotrophic hormone stimulation testing had the highest sensitivity, accuracy, and positive predictive value for normal HPA axis function postoperatively. The preoperative strategy was also the most cost-effective approach (12% reduction vs benchmark). CONCLUSION:The decision to use any of the 3 strategies outlined requires attention to a specific patient's clinical situation, but this decision may be aided by the results of this CER analysis.
Node-Specific Triad Pattern Mining: A Novel Tool for Complex-Network Analysis

The mining of graphs in terms of their local substructure is a well-established methodology to analyze networks. It was hypothesized that motifs - subgraph patterns which appear significantly more often than expected at random - play a key role for the ability of a system to perform its task. Yet the framework commonly used for motif-detection averages over the local environments of all nodes. Therefore, it remains unclear whether motifs are overrepresented in the whole system or only in certain regions. In this contribution, we overcome this limitation by mining node-specific triad patterns. For every vertex, the abundance of each triad pattern is considered only in triads it participates in. We investigate systems of various fields and find that motifs are distributed highly heterogeneously. In particular we focus on the feed-forward loop motif which has been alleged to play a key role in biological networks.
Localized Exploratory Projection

Based on CART, we introduce a recursive partitioning method for high dimensional space which partitions the data using low dimensional features. The low dimensional features are extracted via an exploratory projection pursuit (EPP) method, localized to each node in the tree. In addition, we present an exploratory splitting rule that is potentially less biased to the training data. This leads to a nonparametric classiier for high dimensional space that has local feature extractors optimized to diierent regions in the input space.
View Morphing based Facial Video Compression

In this paper we present a view morphing based technique for compression of facial video sequences. The facial image is triangulated and the vertices of the triangles serve as control points to be tracked across frames. We borrow the idea of view morphing [1] used in computer graphics and in an initial preinterpolation stage we rectify the control points of the index frames by projecting them on to parallel image planes. It turns out that the control points of the intermediate frames can be reconstructed in the recti ed domain, as linear combinations of control points in the index frames, if the optical centers of the intermediate views lie on the straight line joining the optical centers of the two end index frames. In a post-interpolation stage we de-rectify the control points back to the original con guration and carry out an intensity warping of each reconstructed triangle at the decoder. We account for the local regions, mainly eyes and lips, by interpolating from the index frame templates using an optic ow based procedure.
Vascular Occlusion Enables Selecting Acute Ischemic Stroke Patients for Treatment With Desmoteplase

Background and Purpose— Desmoteplase is a novel and highly fibrin-specific thrombolytic agent. Evidence of safety and efficacy was obtained in 2 phase II trials (Desmoteplase In Acute Ischemic Stroke [DIAS] and Desmoteplase for Acute Ischemic Stroke [DEDAS]). The DIAS-2 phase III trial did not replicate the positive phase II efficacy findings. Post hoc analyses were performed with the aim of predicting treatment responders based on CTA and MRA. Methods— Patients were grouped according to vessel status (Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction [TIMI] grade) for logistic regression of clinical response, applying the data from DIAS-2 as well as the pooled data from DIAS, DEDAS, and DIAS-2. Results— In DIAS-2, a substantial number of mismatch-selected patients (126/179; 70%) presented with a normal flow/low-grade stenosis (TIMI 2–3) at screening, with the majority having a favorable outcome at day 90. In contrast, favorable outcome rates in patients with vessel occlusion/high-grade stenosis (TIMI 0–1) were 18% with placebo versus 36% and 27% with desmoteplase 90 and 125 &mgr;g/kg, respectively. The clinical effect based on the pooled data from DIAS, DEDAS, and DIAS-2 was favorable for desmoteplase-treated patients presenting with TIMI 0 to 1 at baseline (OR, 4.144; 95% CI, 1.40–12.23; P=0.010). There was no desmoteplase treatment benefit in patients presenting with TIMI 2 to 3 (OR, 1.109). Conclusions— In this sample of patients with a mismatch diagnosed, proximal vessel occlusion or severe stenosis was associated with clinically beneficial treatment effects of desmoteplase. Selecting patients using CTA or MRA in clinical trials of thrombolytic therapy is justifiable. Clinical Trial Registration Information— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifiers: NCT00638781, NCT00638248, NCT00111852.
Deep learning for gender recognition

The secondary sex characteristics in faces of people are quite different due to variations of age, sex hormone, race and dress-up style. It is a very challenging work to build a gender recognition model for all kinds of people. This paper proposes to train a gender recognition model based on the deep convolutional network on a complete dataset. Our newly built complete dataset contains as many common variations of face images as possible. Based on this complete dataset, we design a very deep convolutional network as our gender classifier. We achieve an accuracy of 98.67% on the most challenging public database, labelled faces in the wild (LFW) [1]· We collect 10000 images from Internet and build a new dataset - Chinese wild database. Our model achieves the accuracy of 97.51% This indicates our model is robust to racial variation. In the above two experiments, our model achieves the state-of-the-art performances in the wild.
Super-selective Balloon Test Occlusion of the Posterior Communicating Artery in the Treatment of a Posterior Cerebral Artery Fusiform Aneurysm: a Case Report

We report the case of a 49-year-old man with underlying hypertension who developed diplopia lasting 2 months. Magnetic resonance imaging and digital subtraction angiography showed multi-lobular unruptured aneurysms in the P2 portion of the posterior cerebral artery (PCA) migrating into the interpeduncular cistern of the midbrain. Because the shapes of the aneurysms were serpentine fusiform and the posterior communicating artery (PCoA) was the fetal type, we planned anastomosis of the occipital artery to the P4 portion of the PCA followed by endovascular obliteration of the parent artery including the aneurysms. Endovascular treatment was performed via a femoral approach one week after the anastomosis. Super-selective balloon test occlusion (BTO) of the PCoA was performed by using an occlusion balloon microcatheter before endovascular treatment. Occlusion of the proximal segment of the PCoA induced disturbance of consciousness of the patient. Occlusion of the distal segment other than the first point of the PCoA did not induce any neurological symptoms. The information from this super-selective BTO helped us to perform precise endovascular obliteration. The aneurysm was successfully obliterated, and the diplopia almost disappeared in a few months. Super-selective BTO of the PCoA might be a useful method for preventing ischemic complications due to occlusion of invisible perforators.
Four faces of cellular senescence

Cellular senescence is an important mechanism for preventing the proliferation of potential cancer cells. Recently, however, it has become apparent that this process entails more than a simple cessation of cell growth. In addition to suppressing tumorigenesis, cellular senescence might also promote tissue repair and fuel inflammation associated with aging and cancer progression. Thus, cellular senescence might participate in four complex biological processes (tumor suppression, tumor promotion, aging, and tissue repair), some of which have apparently opposing effects. The challenge now is to understand the senescence response well enough to harness its benefits while suppressing its drawbacks.
A Novel, Non-canonical Splice Variant of the Ikaros Gene Is Aberrantly Expressed in B-cell Lymphoproliferative Disorders

The Ikaros gene encodes a Krüppel-like zinc-finger transcription factor involved in hematopoiesis regulation. Ikaros has been established as one of the most clinically relevant tumor suppressors in several hematological malignancies. In fact, expression of dominant negative Ikaros isoforms is associated with adult B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome, acute myeloid leukemia and adult and juvenile chronic myeloid leukemia. Here, we report the isolation of a novel, non-canonical Ikaros splice variant, called Ikaros 11 (Ik11). Ik11 is structurally related to known dominant negative Ikaros isoforms, due to the lack of a functional DNA-binding domain. Interestingly, Ik11 is the first Ikaros splice variant missing the transcriptional activation domain. Indeed, we demonstrated that Ik11 works as a dominant negative protein, being able to dimerize with Ikaros DNA-binding isoforms and inhibit their functions, at least in part by retaining them in the cytoplasm. Notably, we demonstrated that Ik11 is the first dominant negative Ikaros isoform to be aberrantly expressed in B-cell lymphoproliferative disorders, such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Aberrant expression of Ik11 interferes with both proliferation and apoptotic pathways, providing a mechanism for Ik11 involvement in tumor pathogenesis. Thus, Ik11 could represent a novel marker for B-cell lymphoproliferative disorders.
Antisense inhibition of expression of cysteine proteinases does not affect Entamoeba histolytica cytopathic or haemolytic activity but inhibits phagocytosis

Inhibition of most of the expression of the cysteine proteinases of Entamoeba histolytica strain HM‐1: IMSS was successfully performed by transcription of ehcp5 antisense RNA using the promoter of ehg34, which encodes a L21 ribosomal protein of E. histolytica. We have generated a stable transfectant in which the overall level of cysteine proteinase activity is strongly reduced (≈ 90%). This transfectant has a normal growth rate in Diamond's TYI‐S‐33 medium, a cytopathic and haemolytic activity similar to the control HM‐1:IMSS pEhAct‐Neo transfectant but with a significantly lower phagocytic activity.
Nutritional status, management and clinical outcomes in patients with esophageal and gastro‐oesophageal cancers: A descriptive study

AIM The aims of this study were to investigate the nutritional management practice and nutritional status of patients with oesophageal and gastro-oesophageal cancers, and to propose strategies for improving their nutritional and clinical outcomes. METHODS All patients diagnosed with oesophageal and gastro-oesophageal cancers and treated with chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy at the Liverpool Cancer Therapy Centre (between August 2010 and February 2014) were included in this retrospective study. Patient and tumour characteristics, nutritional status and management were compared to clinical outcomes. RESULTS A total of 69 patients met the inclusion criteria. The median weight loss prior to treatment commencement was 10.5% (Interquartile Range (IQR) = 6.6-15.4). A decline in nutritional status continued throughout the treatment course. The median percentage of weight loss during treatment was 3.53% (IQR = 0.00-6.84). Seven and 19 patients required nutrition intervention using a feeding tube or stent insertion to manage dysphagia, respectively. In patients treated with a curative intent, radiotherapy was completed in 100% of those with a nasogastric tube insertion as compared to 80% who had a stent insertion. There was a higher percentage of patients from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) background, experiencing significant weight loss when compared with their non-CALD counterparts (P = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS Patients with oesophageal and gastro-oesophageal cancers commonly present with significant weight loss and this continues during the course of their anti-cancer treatment. A standardised protocol of nutrition management for these cancer patients is recommended, focusing on assisting patients from CALD backgrounds.
GLP-1R agonist therapy for diabetes: benefits and potential risks

Purpose of review Glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonists provide good glycemic control combined with low hypoglycemia risk and weight loss. Here, we summarize the recently published data for this therapy class, focusing on sustainability of action, use in combination with basal insulin, and the efficacy of longer acting agents currently in development. The safety profile of GLP-1R agonists is also examined. Recent findings GLP-1R agonists provide sustained efficacy and their combination with basal insulin is well tolerated, providing additional glycemic control and weight benefits compared with basal insulin alone. Data suggest that the convenience of longer acting agents may be at the expense of efficacy. Despite the initial concerns, most evidence indicates that GLP-1R agonists do not increase the risk of pancreatitis or thyroid cancer. However, the extremely low incidence of these events means further investigations are required before a causal link can be eliminated. Large-scale clinical trials investigating the long-term cardiovascular safety of this therapy class are ongoing and may also provide important insights into pancreatic and thyroid safety. Summary GLP-1R agonists offer sustained glycemic efficacy, weight loss benefits, and a low risk of hypoglycemia. The results of ongoing trials should help to clarify the safety of this therapy class.
‘Just like you’: A disability awareness programme for children that enhanced knowledge, attitudes and acceptance: Pilot study findings

Purpose: Participation of people with disabilities is influenced by environmental and contextual factors. Disability awareness programmes aim to increase knowledge and acceptance of disability. This study evaluated a disability awareness programme for students aged 9–11 in Australia. Method: Pre–post questionnaires and focus groups evaluated the programme. The intervention took a cognitive-behavioural approach including a person with a disability co-presenting. Students (n = 147) participated in two sessions of discussions, written activities, demonstrations and disability simulation activities. Results: Significant improvements (p < 0.001) in knowledge, attitudes and acceptance of disability were evident immediately following the intervention. Focus group analyses further demonstrated these findings. Conclusions: A brief disability awareness programme for children improved knowledge, attitudes and acceptance of disability in the short-term. Further research is required to identify the potential impact of such programmes on inclusion and social participation of people with disabilities both inside and outside of the school setting.
Analysis and Design of a 1-DOF Leg for Walking Machines

In this paper the kinematic analysis and design are presented for a 1DOF (Degree-of-Freedom) pantograph-leg for walking machines. A preliminary prototype of a low-cost leg, which is capable of a straight walking with only one actuator, has been designed and built at LARM: Laboratory of Robotics and Mechatronics in Cassino. Simulation and experimental validation have been carried out to verify the operation of the prototype.