Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Treatment of syndrome-associated congenital talipes equinovarus using the Ponseti method: 4–12 years of follow-up

to evaluate the effectiveness of the Ponseti method in treating syndrome-associated (nonidiopathic) congenital talipes equinovarus. This was a retrospective consecutive review over a 12-year period in a tertiary centre of all patients with syndrome-associated talipes equinovarus treated with the Ponseti method. The primary outcome measure at the final follow-up was the functional correction of the deformity. There were 16 (28 feet) children, with an average follow-up of 7 years (range: 4–12). The average age at presentation was 6.1 (range: 2–17) weeks. Deformities were severe, with an average Pirani score of 5.0 (range: 3.0–6.0). Initial correction was achieved in all children, with an average of 6 (range: 4–9) Ponseti casts and a tendo-Achilles tenotomy performed in 21/28 (75%) feet. Satisfactory outcome at the final follow-up was achieved in 23/28 (82%) feet. The Ponseti method is an effective first-line treatment for syndrome-associated talipes equinovarus to achieve functional painless feet; children will often require more casts and have a higher risk of relapse.
Integrating Community and Role Detection in Information Networks

Community detection and role detection in information networks have received wide attention recently, where the former aims to detect the groups of nodes that are closely connected to each other and the latter aims to discover the underlying roles of nodes in the network. Traditional studies treat these two problems as orthogonal issues and propose algorithms for these two tasks separately. In this paper, we propose to integrate communities and roles in a unified model and detect both of them simultaneously for information networks. Intuitively, (1) correctly detecting the communities in a network will lead to the success of detecting roles of nodes, such as opinion leaders and followers in social networks; and (2) correctly identifying the roles of the nodes will lead to a better network modeling and thus a better detection of communities. A novel probabilistic network model, the Mixed Membership Community and Role model (MMCR), is then proposed, which models the latent community and role of each node at the same time, and the probability of links are defined accordingly. By testing our model on synthetic networks and two real-world networks, we demonstrate that our approach leads to better performance for both community detection and role detection. Moreover, our model has a better interpretation for link generation in networks according to the link prediction task.
Fault Detection and Interruption in an Earthed HVDC Grid Using ROCOV and Hybrid DC Breakers

Different HVDC grid types and the respective protection options are discussed. An earthed bipole HVDC grid was modeled in PSCAD, and using simulation results, the necessity of di/dt limiting inductors to contain the rise of fault currents within the capacity of current hybrid dc breakers is demonstrated. The impact of different inductor sizes on current rise was studied. A fault detection and localization scheme using the rate of change of voltage measured at the line side of the di/dt limiting reactors is proposed. The protection system was modeled and tested under different fault types and locations. The results show that the proposed method of HVDC grid protection is feasible using the current hybrid dc breaker technology. A systematic procedure for setting the necessary protection threshold values is also demonstrated.
Formation control of weak autonomous robots

Formation of autonomous mobile robots to an arbitrary geometric pattern in a distributed fashion is a fundamental problem in formation control. This paper presents a new fully distributed, memoryless (oblivious) algorithm to the formation control problem via distributed optimization techniques. The optimization minimizes an appropriately defined difference function between the current robot distribution and target geometric pattern. The optimization processes are performed independently by individual robots in their local coordinate system. A movement strategy derived from the results of the distributed optimizations guarantees that every movement makes the current robot configuration approaches the target geometric pattern until the final pattern is reached.
SABRes: Atomic object reads for in-memory rack-scale computing

Modern in-memory services rely on large distributed object stores to achieve the high scalability essential to ser-vice thousands of requests concurrently. The independent and unpredictable nature of incoming requests results in random accesses to the object store, triggering frequent remote memory accesses. State-of-the-art distributed memory frameworks leverage the one-sided operations offered by RDMA technology to mitigate the traditionally high cost of remote memory access. Unfortunately, the limited semantics of RDMA one-sided operations bound remote memory access atomicity to a single cache block; therefore, atomic remote object access relies on software mechanisms. Emerging highly integrated rack-scale systems that reduce the latency of one-sided operations to a small multiple of DRAM latency expose the overhead of these software mechanisms as a major latency contributor. This technology-triggered paradigm shift calls for new one-sided operations with stronger semantics. We take a step in that direction by proposing SABRes, a new one-sided operation that provides atomic remote object reads in hardware. We then present LightSABRes, a lightweight hardware accelerator for SABRes that removes all atomicity-associated software overheads. Compared to a state-of-the-art software atomicity mechanism, LightSABRes improve the throughput of a microbenchmark atomically accessing 128B-8KB objects from remote memory by 15-97%, and the throughput of a modern in-memory distributed object store by 30-60%.
Migrating to optimal RBAC with minimal perturbation

Devising a complete and correct set of roles has been recognized as one of the most important and challenging tasks in implementing role based access control. A key problem related to this is the notion of goodness - when is a set of roles good? Recently, the role mining problem (RMP) has been defined as the problem of discovering an optimal set of roles from existing user permissions. Several different objectives for optimality have been proposed. However, one problem with these definitions is that often organizations already have a deployed set of roles and wish to optimize this set. Even if an optimal set of roles is discovered, if this is widely different, it is impossible to simply throw out the deployed roles and start using the new ones as this may disrupt organizational processes and separation of duty constraints that are defined on roles. Essentially, what is missing is taking role migration cost into account when defining optimality, which would allow us to come up with the best suited set of roles. In this paper, we define a fundamentally different Role Mining Problem that takes the problem of deployed roles into account. We define the Minimal Perturbation RMP as the problem of discovering an optimal set of roles from existing user permissions that are similar to the currently deployed roles. In order to do this, we discuss the concept of similarity of roles and propose suitable definitions. Solutions also need to be parameterized to set relative weight of similarity and minimality to find the optimal set. We propose a heuristic solution based on the previously developed FastMiner algorithm that meets these requirements. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm through our experimental results.
An efficient technique for solving the scheduling of appliances in smart-homes

In the development of the electricity grid, Demand Response is a current subject of research for reasons of robustness, efficiency and renewable energy integration. Among the aspects of Demand Response, dynamic pricing is critical, and real-time pricing is a favored way of implementing it. The efficiency of such methods would however rely crucially on the ability and willingness of the end-user to react to varying prices. For this reason, we look at the problem of automatically scheduling the appliances that a user needs to run when the energy price is sent by the provider. We propose a discrete-time formulation for this problem, show how it can be solved by a minimum cut algorithm and compare it with previously proposed techniques. Compared to an exact method requiring a mixed integer programming solver, our approach produces solutions very close to optimal in shorter running times and does not require proprietary software.
Tutorial on wearable computing in sports

Wearable sports technology such as fitness trackers, smart watches or heart rate sensors has become ubiquitous in our everyday lives. This technology enables even recreational athletes to keep track of their workouts in a comprehensive manner. Besides the general assumption that this technology improves motivation to exercise more often, it also enables the athlete to get a better understanding of her current fitness level. However, current technology is mainly focussed on (quantifiable) performance indicators such as mileage, pace, cadence, watts, heart rate, etc. In this tutorial we aim to introduce wearable sports technologies that provide real-time support to athletes while exercising. Topics of interest range from engineering problems to research methods as they apply in the context of mobile and ubiquitous sports technologies.
The Influence of CMC on Paper Coating Properties

Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) is the most widely used co-binder and rheology modifier in paper coating. This work presents an investigation on the effects of CMC on coating structure development by measuring viscosity of the coating colors and by characterizing properties of the dried coatings. The results showed that CMC addition increased coating color viscosity and impeded latex migration to the surface during drying. However brightness, porosity and K&N ink absorbency of the coatings increased. It was assumed that viscosity increase and colloidal interactions between CMC and pigment particles caused less latex to migrate to the surface during drying, which in turn results in higher brightness and porosity of the coatings.
Who Benefits from Chronic Opioid Therapy? Rethinking the Question of Opioid Misuse Risk

Beginning in the late 1990s, a movement began within the pain management field focused upon the underutilization of opioids, thought to be a potentially safe and effective class of pain medication. Concern for addiction and misuse were present at the start of this shift within pain medicine, and an emphasis was placed on developing reliable and valid methods and measures of identifying those at risk for opioid misuse. Since that time, the evidence for the safety and effectiveness of chronic opioid therapy (COT) has not been established. Rather, the harmful, dose-dependent deleterious effects have become clearer, including addiction, increased risk of injuries, respiratory depression, opioid induced hyperalgesia, and death. Still, many individuals on low doses of opioids for long periods of time appear to have good pain control and retain social and occupational functioning. Therefore, we propose that the question, “Who is at risk of opioid misuse? ” should evolve to, “Who may benefit from COT? ” in light of the current evidence.
A Unified Programming Model for Intra- and Inter-Node Offloading on Xeon Phi Clusters

Standard offload programming models for the Xeon Phi, e.g. Intel LEO and OpenMP 4.0, are restricted to a single compute node and hence a limited number of coprocessors. Scaling applications across a Xeon Phi cluster/supercomputer thus requires hybrid programming approaches, usually MPI+X. In this work, we present a framework based on heterogeneous active messages (HAM-Offload) that provides the means to offload work to local and remote (co)processors using a unified offload API. Since HAM-Offload provides similar primitives as current local offload frameworks, existing applications can be easily ported to overcome the single-node limitation while keeping the convenient offload programming model. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the framework by using it to enable a real-world application from the field of molecular dynamics to use multiple local and remote Xeon Phis. The evaluation shows good scaling behavior. Compared with LEO, performance is equal for large offloads and significantly better for small offloads.
The puzzle of HIV‐1 subtypes in Africa

HIV has a high degree of genetic variability. While much is known about the differences between HIV-1 and HIV-2 in terms of transmissibility pathogenesis and pattern of spread much remains to be learned about the biological characteristics and epidemic spread of the different HIV-1 strains. Before 1992 HIV-1 strains were classified on the basis of their geographic origin into North American and African variants. However since 1992 the env coding sequence has been used to classify globally prevalent viruses. Subtypes A through J have been classified according to differences between their env and gag coding sequences while 10 additional subtypes comprise the M group of HIV-1 viruses. The epidemics in all parts of sub-Saharan Africa except Southern Africa appear to be dominated by subtype A the largest variety of HIV-1 subtypes is found in Central Africa and subtype C plays an important role in the epidemics in Southern Africa. The authors review the distribution patterns of HIV-1 subtypes in sub-Saharan Africa and discuss the implications of such distribution for the development of diagnostic tests and vaccines as well as for surveillance.
Statistical Disclosure Control

Anco Hundepool Statistics Netherlands, The Netherlands Josep Domingo-Ferrer, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Catalonia, Spain Luisa Franconi, Italian National Institute of Statistics, Italy Sarah Giessing, Federal Statistical Office of Germany, Germany Eric Schulte Nordholt Statistics Netherlands, The Netherlands Keith Spicer, Office for National Statistics, UK Peter-Paul de Wolf Statistics Netherlands, The Netherlands
Design of Spatially Coupled LDPC Codes Over GF $(q)$ for Windowed Decoding

In this paper, we study spatially coupled lowdensity parity-check (SC-LDPC) codes over finite fields GF(q), q ≥ 2, and develop design rules for q-ary SC-LDPC code ensembles based on their iterative belief propagation decoding thresholds, with particular emphasis on low-latency windowed decoding (WD). We consider transmission over both the binary erasure channel (BEC) and the binary-input additive white Gaussian noise channel (BIAWGNC) and present results for a variety of (J, K)-regular SC-LDPC code ensembles constructed over GF(q) using protographs. Thresholds are calculated using the protograph versions of q-ary density evolution (for the BEC) and the q-ary extrinsic information transfer analysis (for the BIAWGNC). We show that the WD of q-ary SC-LDPC codes provides significant threshold gains compared with corresponding (uncoupled) q-ary LDPC block code (LDPC-BC) ensembles when the window size W is large enough and that these gains increase as the finite-field size q = 2m increases. Moreover, we demonstrate that the new design rules provide WD thresholds that are close to capacity, even when both m and W are relatively small (thereby reducing decoding complexity and latency). The analysis further shows that, compared with standard flooding-schedule decoding, the WD of q-ary SC-LDPC code ensembles results in significant reductions in both the decoding complexity and the decoding latency and that these reductions increase as m increases. For the applications with a near-threshold performance requirement and a constraint on decoding latency, we show that using q-ary SC-LDPC code ensembles, with moderate q > 2, instead of their binary counterparts results in reduced decoding complexity.
Parallel versus Sequential Update and the Evolution of Cooperation with the Assistance of Emotional Strategies

Our study contributes to the debate on the evolution of cooperation in the single-shot Prisoner's Dilemma (PD) played on networks. We construct a model in which individuals are connected with positive and negative ties. Some agents play sign-dependent strategies that use the sign of the relation as a shorthand for determining appropriate action toward the opponent. In the context of our model in which network topology, agent strategic types and relational signs coevolve, the presence of sign-dependent strategies catalyzes the evolution of cooperation. We highlight how the success of cooperation depends on a crucial aspect of implementation: whether we apply parallel or sequential strategy update. Parallel updating, with averaging of payoffs across interactions in the social neighborhood, supports cooperation in a much wider set of parameter values than sequential updating. Our results cast doubts about the realism and generalizability of models that claim to explain the evolution of cooperation but implicitly assume parallel updating.
Systematic Comparison of a Two-dimensional Ion Trap and a Three-dimensional Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer in Proteomics*S

The utility and advantages of the recently introduced two-dimensional quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometer in proteomics over the traditional three-dimensional ion trap mass spectrometer have not been systematically characterized. Here we rigorously compared the performance of these two platforms by using over 100,000 tandem mass spectra acquired with identical complex peptide mixtures and acquisition parameters. Specifically we compared four factors that are critical for a successful proteomic study: 1) the number of proteins identified, 2) sequence coverage or the number of peptides identified for every protein, 3) the data base matching SEQUEST Xcorr and Sp score, and 4) the quality of the fragment ion series of peptides. We found a 4–6-fold increase in the number of peptides and proteins identified on the two-dimensional ion trap mass spectrometer as a direct result of improvement in all the other parameters examined. Interestingly more than 70% of the doubly and triply charged peptides, but not the singly charged peptides, showed better quality of fragmentation spectra on the two-dimensional ion trap. These results highlight specific advantages of the two-dimensional ion trap over the conventional three-dimensional ion traps for protein identification in proteomic experiments.
Locating redundant segments using a translation memory , Transit NXT

The purpose of this work was to find a method for locating redundant information between chapters of the same manual, by using the translation memory Transit provided by STAR group. A filter for comparing the similarity of sentences, Fuzzy filter, was set to assemble sentences with >50% recemblance and the results were saved. Concordance search—based on the result from the previous step and the terminology lexicon—was set to retreive segments with 80% similarity and to display 300 matches. The results showed that the number of segments with similarities in the reference material that also contained terms were up to 3% (WSM PGRT-TI). The results are lower than STAR translitera’s previous method for locating overlapping information, which however was not term dependent. The results open for discussion on how to improve the quality and impact of allowed and forbidden terms respectively.
Reading Is Slower from CRT Displays than from Paper: Attempts to Isolate a Single-Variable Explanation

People read more slowly from CRT displays than from paper (see, for example, Gould and Grischkowsky, 1984). This report summarizes ten experiments and several more analyses that seek to explain the cause of this reading-speed difference. Typically, each experiment isolates one variable and studies whether it explains the difference. Results show that no one variable studied (e.g., experience in using CRT displays; display orientation; character size, font, or polarity) explains it. The tentative conclusion is that the difference is due to a combination of variables, probably centering on the image quality of the characters themselves.
Peak detection in sediment–charcoal records: impacts of alternative data analysis methods on fire-history interpretations

Over the past several decades, high-resolution sediment-charcoal records have been increasingly used to reconstruct local fire history. Data analysis methods usually involve a decomposition that detrends a charcoal series and then applies a threshold value to isolate individual peaks, which are interpreted as fire episodes. Despite the proliferation of these studies, methods have evolved largely in the absence of a thorough statistical framework. We describe eight alternativedecompositionmodels(fourdetrendingmethodsusedwithtwothreshold-determinationmethods)andevaluate their sensitivity to a set of known parameters integrated into simulated charcoal records. Results indicate that the combination of a globally defined threshold with specific detrending methods can produce strongly biased results, depending on whether or not variance in a charcoal record is stationary through time. These biases are largely eliminated by using a locally defined threshold, which adapts to changes in variability throughout a charcoal record. Applying the alternative decomposition methods on three previously published charcoal records largely supports our conclusions from simulated records. We also present a minimum-count test for empirical records, which reduces the likelihood of false positives when charcoal counts are low. We conclude by discussing how to evaluate when peak detection methods are warranted with a given sediment-charcoal record.
A novel hybrid analog-digital transmitter for multi-antenna base stations

A new hybrid Analog-Digital (hybrid A-D) precoder is proposed for multi-antenna base stations in massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) which allows a trade-off between the number of required RF-chains and the update rate of the analog part. It is shown that the number of RF-chains can be reduced even below the number of eigenmodes of the channel, thereby closing the gap between the standard hybrid A-D and the single-RF MIMO. This is achieved by dividing the input data streams into blocks and jointly optimizing the digital and the analog precoder parts for each block. The analog part of the precoder needs to be updated once per block and remains static over each block interval. Out of band radiation due to switching is resolved by inserting a short guard interval between blocks. It is shown the number of RF-chains can be any arbitrary positive integer to obtain zero distortion at the user terminals if the update rate is high enough. The proposed precoder offers a significant performance gain at the expenses of data dependent precoding and higher update rates of the analog part.