Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Indications for percutaneous and surgical revascularisation: how far does the evidence base guide us?

The treatment of patients with coronary artery disease continues to evolve, including those presenting with stable angina pectoris as well as those presenting with acute coronary syndromes. Pharmacological treatments which have changed practice in recent years include statins, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, clopidogrel, and glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors. There have been major changes in percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), particularly with the introduction of coronary artery stents. More recently, the appearance of drug eluting stents which may modulate smooth muscle cell proliferation has generated interest, as well as the use of adjunctive pharmacological treatment with stenting. In terms of surgical revascularisation, practice continues to evolve. There has been an expansion in the use of arterial conduits in order to improve long term graft patency. Less invasive approaches for surgery have been developed, as well as the use of “off-pump” coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG), in an attempt to reduce the risks associated with surgical revascularisation. Figure 1 shows the increase in the number of both percutaneous and surgical revascularisation procedures undertaken in the UK during the last decade. Figure 1 Number of procedures performed each year for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in the UK between 1991 and 2000. With this background of continued development of revascularisation techniques together with the introduction of new technologies, it is clear that comparative trials of different approaches for revascularisation in certain clinical situations run the risk of being “out of date” before the study is completed and analysed. In addition, there are often several revascularisation options which could be applied to a particular clinical problem. We will attempt to outline the potential benefits of some of the newer approaches, as well as reviewing some of the comparative trials, which may be of use when managing individual patients who present with problems …
Evaluation of Depth of Field for depth perception in DVR

In this paper we present a user study on the use of Depth of Field for depth perception in Direct Volume Rendering. Direct Volume Rendering with Phong shading and perspective projection is used as the baseline. Depth of Field is then added to see its impact on the correct perception of ordinal depth. Accuracy and response time are used as the metrics to evaluate the usefulness of Depth of Field. The onsite user study has two parts: static and dynamic. Eye tracking is used to monitor the gaze of the subjects. From our results we see that though Depth of Field does not act as a proper depth cue in all conditions, it can be used to reinforce the perception of which feature is in front of the other. The best results (high accuracy & fast response time) for correct perception of ordinal depth occurs when the front feature (out of the two features users were to choose from) is in focus and perspective projection is used.
Subseasonal Variations of Stable Isotopes in Tropical Andean Precipitation

The tropical Andes of southern Peru and northern Bolivia have several major mountain summits suitable for ice core paleoclimatic investigations. However, incomplete understanding of the controls on the isotopic (δD, δ18O) composition of precipitation and a paucity of field observations in this region continue to limit ice-core-based paleoclimate reconstructions. This study examines four years of daily observations of δD and δ18O in precipitation from a citizen scientist network on the northeastern margin of the Altiplano, to identify controls on the subseasonal spatiotemporal variability in δ18O during the wet season (November–April). These data provide new insights into modern δ18O variability at high spatial and temporal scales. We identify a regionally coherent subseasonal signal in precipitation δ18O featuring alternating periods of high and low δ18O of 9–27-day duration. This signal reflects variability in precipitation delivery driven by synoptic conditions and closely relates to variations in the strength of the South American low-level jet and moisture availability over the study area. The annual layer of snowpack on the Quelccaya Ice Cap observed in the subsequent dry season retains this subseasonal signal, allowing the development of a snow-pit age model based on precipitation δ18O measurements, and demonstrating how synoptic variability is transmitted from the atmosphere to mountaintop snowpacks along the Altiplano’s eastern margin. This result improves our understanding of the hydrometeorological processes governing δ18O and δD in tropical Andean precipitation and has implications for improving paleoclimate reconstructions from tropical Andean ice cores and other paleoclimate records.
Intentional access management: making access control usable for end-users

The usability of access control mechanisms in modern distributed systems has been widely criticized but little studied. In this paper, we carefully examine one such widely deployed access control mechanism, the one embedded in the WebDAV standard, from the point-of-view of an end-user trying to decide how to grant or deny access to some resource to a third party. This analysis points to problems with the conceptual usability of the system. Significant effort is required on the part of the user to determine how to implement the desired access rules; the user, however, has low interest and expertise in this task, given that such access management actions are almost always secondary to the collaborative task at hand. The analysis does however indicate a possible solution: to recast the access control puzzle as a decision support problem in which user intentions (i.e. the descriptions of desired system outputs) are interpreted by an access mediator that either automatically or semi-automatically decides how to achieve the designated goals and provides enough feedback to the user. We call such systems intentional access management (IAM) systems and describe them in both specific and general terms. To demonstrate the feasibility and usability of the proposed IAM models, we develop an intentional access management prototype for WebDAV. The results of a user study conducted on the system show its superior usability compared to traditional access management tools like the access control list editor.
Threats to Networking Cloud and Edge Datacenters in the Internet of Things

Several application domains are collecting data using Internet of Things sensing devices and shipping it to remote cloud datacenters for analysis (fusion, storage, and processing). Data analytics activities raise a new set of technical challenges from the perspective of ensuring end-to-end security and privacy of data as it travels from an edge datacenter (EDC) to a cloud datacenter (CDC) (or vice versa). This article discusses the security threats in EDCs and CDCs by dividing the complete network structure into three layers: perception layer, network layer, and application layer.
An evaluation survey of binarization algorithms on historical documents

Document binarization is an active research area for many years. There are many difficulties associated with satisfactory binarization of document images and especially in cases of degraded historical documents. In this paper, we try to answer the question ldquohow well an existing binarization algorithm can binarize a degraded document image? rdquo We propose a new technique for the validation of document binarization algorithms. Our method is simple in its implementation and can be performed on any binarization algorithm since it doesnpsilat require anything more than the binarization stage. Then we apply the proposed technique to 30 existing binarization algorithms. Experimental results and conclusions are presented.
Adaptive routing for intermittently connected mobile ad hoc networks

The vast majority of mobile ad hoc networking research makes a very large assumption - that communication can only take place between nodes that are simultaneously accessible within the same connected cloud (i.e., that communication is synchronous). In reality, this assumption is likely to be a poor one, particularly for sparsely or irregularly populated environments. We present the context-aware routing (CAR) algorithm. CAR is a novel approach to the provision of asynchronous communication in partially-connected mobile ad hoc networks, based on the intelligent placement of messages. We discuss the details of the algorithm, and then present simulation results demonstrating that it is possible for nodes to exploit context information in making local decisions that lead to good delivery ratios and latencies with small overheads.
A New Spatiotemporal CMOS Imager With Analog Accumulation Capability for Nanosecond Low-Power Pulse Detections

High-speed cameras use the interesting performances of CMOS imagers that offer advantages in on-chip functionalities, system power reduction, cost, and miniaturization. The FAst MOS Imager (FAMOSI) project consists in reproducing the streak camera functionality with a CMOS imager. In this paper, a new imager called FAMOSI 2, which implements an electronic shutter and analog accumulation capabilities inside the pixel, is presented. With this kind of pixel and the new architecture for controlling the integration, FAMOSI 2 can work in repetitive mode for low light power and in single shot mode for higher light power. This repetitive mode utilizes an analog accumulation to improve the sensitivity of the system with a standard n-well/psub photodiode. The characterization has been realized in single shot mode to optimize the accumulation mode. The prototype has been fabricated in the Austriamicrosystems 0.35-mum CMOS process. The chip is composed of 64 columns times 64 rows of pixels. The pixels have a size of 20 mum times 20 mum and a fill factor of 47%
Autoantibodies against oxidatively modified LDL do not constitute a risk factor for stroke: a nested case-control study.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Autoantibodies against oxidatively modified LDL have been shown to be associated with atherosclerosis. Their possible pathogenic role is not yet fully understood, and earlier published data are inconsistent. In this prospective study, we have investigated the association of these antibodies with future stroke. METHODS A prospective case-control study in which 44 725 men and women from the World Health Organization Multinational Monitoring of Trends and Determinants in Cardiovascular Disease (MONICA) project and the Västerbotten Intervention Program (VIP) were enrolled and followed from January 1, 1985, to August 31, 1996. One hundred nineteen cases of stroke (male 75, female 44) were noted and compared with 233 age- and sex-matched controls from the same population. Antibodies against oxidatively modified LDL (copper-oxidized LDL and malonaldehyde [MDA]-LDL) were analyzed by ELISA. RESULTS There was no difference in the levels or in the prevalence of IgG, IgA, and IgM autoantibodies against copper-oxidized LDL or MDA-LDL between patients and controls. Risk ratios for these antibodies, when adjusted for diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and smoking habits, did not confer a risk of stroke. Serum triglycerides (1.7 versus 1.4 mmol/L, P=0.01), fasting blood sugar, and systolic and diastolic blood pressures were significantly higher in the patient group than in the control group, as was the prevalence of hypertension (51.8% versus 27.4%, P<0.0001) and diabetes mellitus (9.6% versus 0.8%, P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS Autoantibodies against oxidatively modified LDL do not constitute a risk factor for stroke in an adult population.
Nonlinear analysis of electroencephalogram and magnetoencephalogram recordings in patients with Alzheimer's disease

The aim of the present study is to show the usefulness of nonlinear methods to analyse the electroencephalogram (EEG) and magnetoencephalogram (MEG) in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). The following nonlinear methods have been applied to study the EEG and MEG background activity in AD patients and control subjects: approximate entropy, sample entropy, multiscale entropy, auto-mutual information and Lempel–Ziv complexity. We discuss why these nonlinear methods are appropriate to analyse the EEG and MEG. Furthermore, the performance of all these methods has been compared when applied to the same databases of EEG and MEG recordings. Our results show that EEG and MEG background activities in AD patients are less complex and more regular than in healthy control subjects. In line with previous studies, our work suggests that nonlinear analysis techniques could be useful in AD diagnosis.
Applying Collective Learning Systems Theory to Reactive Actor Design and Control

To address the complex and dynamic conditions of a virtual environment, computer animation researchers are using machine learning methods to aid in the design and control of reactive actors. The system presented within this paper, RAVE (Reactive Actors in Virtual Environments), demonstrates the successful use of a reinforcement learning model to automatically generate controllers for 2D navigational tasks. This is an improvement over existing methods because it requires no programming, can be used for a variety of tasks, and the controllers adapt during run-time. Collective Learning Systems (CLS) theory is integrated with a hierarchical controller to create control modules that quickly converge on an optimal strategies. Results are presented for three different navigational tasks: obstacle avoidance ( AVOID ), heading towards a goal region (ENTER), and moving away from a threat region ( LEAVE).
Assessment of rare BRCA1 and BRCA2 variants of unknown significance using hierarchical modeling

Current evidence suggests that the genetic risk of breast cancer may be caused primarily by rare variants. However, while classification of protein‐truncating mutations as deleterious is relatively straightforward, distinguishing as deleterious or neutral the large number of rare missense variants is a difficult on‐going task. In this article, we present one approach to this problem, hierarchical statistical modeling of data observed in a case‐control study of contralateral breast cancer (CBC) in which all the participants were genotyped for variants in BRCA1 and BRCA2. Hierarchical modeling permits leverage of information from observed correlations of characteristics of groups of variants with case‐control status to infer with greater precision the risks of individual rare variants. A total of 181 distinct rare missense variants were identified among the 705 cases with CBC and the 1,398 controls with unilateral breast cancer. The model identified three bioinformatic hierarchical covariates, align‐GV, align‐GD, and SIFT scores, each of which was modestly associated with risk. Collectively, the 11 variants that were classified as adverse on the basis of all the three bioinformatic predictors demonstrated a stronger risk signal. This group included five of six missense variants that were classified as deleterious at the outset by conventional criteria. The remaining six variants can be considered as plausibly deleterious, and deserving of further investigation (BRCA1 R866C; BRCA2 G1529R, D2665G, W2626C, E2663V, and R3052W). Hierarchical modeling is a strategy that has promise for interpreting the evidence from future association studies that involve sequencing of known or suspected cancer genes. Genet. Epidemiol. 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. 35:389‐397, 2011
FUNDAMENTAL ASPECTS OF NEUROMUSCULAR TRANSMISSION *

w.e may begin by reviewing the steps in neuromuscular transmission as shown in Fig. 1. It is now widely accepted that acetylcholine (ACh) is the transmitter at the neuromuscular junction. Hebb has recently reviewed the evidence that ACh is synthesized and stored in neuronal terminals. She has detailed the arguments to support the view that choline acetylase is located in synaptic vesicles, and that these vesicles are storage depots for ACh. There are many technical problems in the study of ACh synthesis and storage which I cannot discuss here, and an additional major difficulty in the study of the neuromuscular junction is that the important neural structures cannot be isolated and subjected to direct analysis. However, the superior cervical ganglion offers good opportunity for this kind of investigation, and it has been used by Birks and Macintosh and Birks for this purpose. Their carefully conducted experiments and thoughtful analysis of the results should be consulted by those interested in the synthesis, storage, and release of ACh from presynaptic neurons. Birks
On the Computational Complexity of Satisfiability Solving for String Theories

Satisfiability solvers are increasingly playing a key role in software verification, with particularly effective use in the analysis of security vulnerabilities. String processing is a key part of many software applications, such as browsers and web servers. These applications are susceptible to attacks through malicious data received over network. Automated tools for analyzing the security of such applications, thus need to reason about strings. For efficiency reasons, it is desirable to have a solver that treats strings as first-class types. In this paper, we present some theories of strings that are useful in a software security context and analyze the computational complexity of the presented theories. We use this complexity analysis to motivate a byte-blast approach which employs a Boolean encoding of the string constraints to a corresponding Boolean satisfiability problem.
Injection device-related risk management toward safe administration of medications: experience in a university teaching hospital in The People’s Republic of China

The use of injection devices to administer intravenous or subcutaneous medications is common practice throughout a variety of health care settings. Studies suggest that one-half of all harmful medication errors originate during drug administration; of those errors, about two-thirds involve injectables. Therefore, injection device management is pivotal to safe administration of medications. In this article, the authors summarize the relevant experiences by retrospective analysis of injection device-related near misses and adverse events in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, People’s Republic of China. Injection device-related near misses and adverse events comprised the following: 1) improper selection of needle diameter for subcutaneous injection, material of infusion sets, and pore size of in-line filter; 2) complications associated with vascular access; 3) incidents induced by absence of efficient electronic pump management and infusion tube management; and 4) liquid leakage of chemotherapeutic infusion around the syringe needle. Safe injection drug use was enhanced by multidisciplinary collaboration, especially among pharmacists and nurses; drafting of clinical pathways in selection of vascular access; application of approaches such as root cause analysis using a fishbone diagram; plan–do–check–act and quality control circle; and construction of a culture of spontaneous reporting of near misses and adverse events. Pharmacists must be professional in regards to medication management and use. The depth, breadth, and efficiency of cooperation between nurses and pharmacists are pivotal to injection safety.
Isolation, Molecular Characterization and Insight into the Genome Sequence of E. coli Bacteriophage ADB-2 from Poultry Fecal Sample

Here we describe the isolation of few E. coli phages specifically ADB-2 and S. typhimurium bacteriophages from poultry fecal sample, its molecular characterization, genome sequencing and functional annotation. Escherichia phage ADB-2 was isolated from a chicken fecal sample. It is a virulent phage and shows effective inhibition of Escherichia coli strains. An antibiogram of the natural host of Escherichia phage ADB-2 showed that the host was sensitive against norfloxacin and gentamicin and that it demonstrated higher resistance against cotrimoxazole and oxytetracycline. The data generated from the genomic library contained 229,781 reads and 45,496,800 nucleotide bases with an average read length of 198 bases. The assembly using Newbler version 2.6 generated a 50,552 bp long single chromosome. The genome annotation and comparative analysis of the genome using Rapid Annotation using Subsystem Technology showed that the phage genome comprised of 46% GC with 76 predicted coding regions and 2 RNA genes. The genome confirmed the presence of functional genes related to phage structure and packaging machinery, phage neck protein, tail structure for host interaction, phage DNA synthesis and host lysis. The complete genomic analysis of phage ADB-2 provides new insights into its characteristics and interactions with the host bacterium Escherichia coli. The complete genome sequence of the Escherichia phage ADB-2 genome can be accessed under the Gen Bank accession number JX912252.1.
Dept. for Speech, Music and Hearing Quarterly Progress and Status Report Experiments with Voice Modelling in Speech Synthesis Experiments with Voice Modelling in Speech Synthesis*

Some experiments with voice modelling using reccnl dcvelopmcnts of the KTH spccch synthesis systcm will bc presented. The ncw synthesizer, GLOVE, is an extended version of OVE 111. It contains an improved glottal source built on the LF-model and some extra conlrol parameters for the voiced and noise sources and an extra polc/zcro-pair in the nasal branch. Furthcrrnorc, thc present rcscarch versions of the KTH texl-to-speech system include possibilities for intcractive manipulations at thc parameter level with on-scrccn reference to natural spccch. Thc synthesis system constitutes a flexible cnvironmcnt for voicc modelling cxpcriments. The new synthesis tools and models wcrc used for syrithcsis-by-analysis cxperimcnts. A sentence uttered by a fcmalc speaker was analyzed and a stylizcd copy was made using both the old and thc ncw synthesis system. It was found that with the new system, the synthetic copy sounded very similar to the natural utterance. INTRODUCTION The need for voice variations is apparent in different speech synthesis applications, such as voice prosthesis and translating telephony. Speaking style variations are an important means of discriminating information of different kinds, Bladon et al. (1987). Data on speaker variability is now being accumulated. Fant, Kruckenberg, & Nord (1990) have investigated speaker variations in the context of a multi-talker speech data base. More detailed analysis of voice source dynamics have been studied by Gob1 (1988) and by Karlsson (1988). In this presentation we want to describe some recent experiments with voice modelling. We have used speech synthesis as a research vehicle to study global effects, voice transformations, and more individualized transforms implemented by changes in definitions and rules in the text-to-speech system. The present research versions of the KTH text-to-speech system and the possibility for interactive manipulations at the parameter level with on-screen reference to natural speech constitute a flexible environment for such experiments. Special effort is invested into the creation of a female voice. Transformations by global rules of male parameters are not judged to be sufficient. Changes in definitions and rules are made according to data from a natural female voice. We have recently implemented a more realistic voice source, an expansion of the LF model. The spectral properties of this new voice source and the possibility of dynamic variation have proved to be essential for modelling a female voice. Our approach has been to make a stylization of individual utterances spoken by speakers with different voice characteristics. In this process …