Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predicting Visual Outcomes for Macula-Off Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment with Optical Coherence Tomography

Purpose. We evaluated the ability of novel optical coherence tomography (OCT) parameters to predict postoperative best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) in macula-off rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) eyes. Methods. We reviewed the medical records of 56 consecutive eyes with macula-off RRD. Clinical findings were analyzed including the relationship between preoperative OCT findings and 6-month postoperative BCVA. Results. Six-month postoperative BCVA was significantly correlated with preoperative findings including retinal height at the fovea, total and inner layer cross-sectional macular area within 2 mm of the fovea, and preoperative BCVA (P < 0.001, P < 0.001, P = 0.001, and P < 0.001, resp.). Multiple regression analysis revealed that the duration of macular detachment and total cross-sectional macular area were independent factors predicting 6-month postoperative BCVA (P = 0.024 and P = 0.041, resp.). Conclusions. Measuring preoperative total cross-sectional area of the macular layer within 2 mm of the fovea with OCT is a useful and objective way to predict postoperative visual outcome in eyes with macula-off RRD.
Hardware Supported Bump Mapping: A Step towards Ingber Quality Real-Time Rendering

Today's high-end Gouraud renderers produce nicely textured scenes by mapping two-dimensional images onto modeled objects in realtime. We present a renderer which textures surfaces in the normal sense of the word using bump textures to simulate wrinkled or dimpled colorful surfaces. Using a simplified bump mapping method we first succeeded in designing a real-time bump mapping renderer based on the high-quality Phong shading model. Applying several improvements to our former Phong shading hardware we are able to walk through perspectively correct bump mapped scenes illuminated by colored lightsources. This paper describes the main building blocks of the overall architecture, including reflectance cubes to support a local viewer, a Taylorseries based division to calculate homogeneous coordinates and our hardware adapted bump mapping method.
Understanding Dynamic Spectrum Access: Models,Taxonomy and Challenges

In last few years, especially after release of the FCC Spectrum Policy Task Force (SPTF)'s seminal report in 2002, we have witnessed growing interest in the field of Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) networks. Terms such as reconfigurable networks, Software Defined Radios (SDRs), Cognitive Radios and Cognitive Radio Networks (CRNs) have gained common use. Radio spectrum is a multidimensional entity; space, time, polarization, frequency, power of signal transmission and interference are some of the key dimensions. The static, command- and-control management of spectrum has led to barriers to accessing the spectrum in various dimensions. The notion of dynamic spectrum access can break these barriers in one or more of the dimensions. A review of published research in the technology, policy and legal facets of this broad area indicates that the community is addressing this problem from multitude of angles. In fact, we believe the situation is analogous to story of seven blind men attempting to describe an elephant based on what they perceive when they touch various parts of the elephant. As such, we contend that unless a clear taxonomy of various ways of dynamic access is developed, significant confusion can prevail within the community dealing with these new ways. This paper tries to rectify this situation. It aims to develop a clear taxonomy of various forms of DSA networks, describe in detail various models and identify required technology capabilities, architectural innovations and policy changes.
Association of Thymidylate Synthase Polymorphisms with Acute Pancreatitis and/or Peripheral Neuropathy in HIV-Infected Patients on Stavudine-Based Therapy

Background Low expression thymidylate synthase (TS) polymorphism has been associated with increased stavudine triphosphate intracellular (d4T-TP) levels and the lipodystrophy syndrome. The use of d4T has been associated with acute pancreatitis and peripheral neuropathy. However, no relationship has ever been proved between TS polymorphisms and pancreatitis and/or peripheral neuropathy. Methods We performed a case-control study to assess the relationship of TS and methylene-tetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene polymorphisms with acute pancreatitis and/or peripheral neuropathy in patients exposed to d4T. Student’s t test, Pearson’s correlations, one-way ANOVA with Bonferroni correction and stepwise logistic regression analyses were done. Results Forty-three cases and 129 controls were studied. Eight patients (18.6%) had acute pancreatitis, and 35 (81.4%) had peripheral neuropathy. Prior AIDS was more frequent in cases than in controls (OR = 2.36; 95%CI 1.10–5.07, P = 0.0247). L7ow expression TS and MTHFR genotype associated with increased activity were more frequent in patients with acute pancreatitis and/or peripheral neuropathy than in controls (72.1% vs. 46.5%, OR = 2.97; 95%CI: 1.33–6.90, P = 0.0062, and 79.1% vs. 56.6%, OR = 2.90, 95%CI: 1.23–7.41, P = 0.0142, respectively). Independent positive or negative predictors for the development of d4T-associated pancreatitis and/or peripheral neuropathy were: combined TS and MTHFR genotypes (reference: A+A; P = 0.002; ORA+B = 0.34 [95%CI: 0.08 to 1.44], ORB+A = 3.38 [95%CI: 1.33 to 8.57], ORB+B = 1.13 [95%CI: 0.34 to 3.71]), nadir CD4 cell count >200 cells/mm3 (OR = 0.38; 95%CI: 0.17–0.86, P = 0.021), and HALS (OR = 0.39 95%CI: 0.18–0.85, P = 0.018). Conclusions Low expression TS plus a MTHFR genotype associated with increased activity is associated with the development of peripheral neuropathy in d4T-exposed patients.
Gender differences in perception of the university education quality as applied to entrepreneurial intention

The aim of this paper is to examine how university students perceive the selected attributes of university education quality in the context of their possible entrepreneurial activities and to explore the differences between genders in this regard. A total of 977 students from Czech and Slovak universities were surveyed. The Z-test for two population proportions was employed to test the hypotheses. The majority of university students positively perceived the quality of university education in general as well as the quality of education at their faculty. Approximately two thirds of the students in both countries agreed that the acquired knowledge may help them in their future entrepreneurship activities. Czech students perceived the quality of education more positively compared to their Slovak counterparts, despite the fact that they had lower entrepreneurial intention. This research shows there are differences in male and female students’ views. In both countries, female students perceived the quality of education more positively, whereas male students declared a statistically higher interest in Received: February, 2018 1st Revision: May, 2018 Accepted: July, 2018 DOI: 10.14254/20718330.2018/11-3/13 Journal of International Studies S ci en ti fi c P a pe rs © Foundation of International Studies, 2018 © CSR, 2018 Journal of International Studies Vol.11, No.3, 2018 148 entrepreneurial activity as compared to female students. The results of this paper could guide universities and policymakers in designing study programs in entrepreneurship responding better to gender needs so that to increase entrepreneurial participation.
Complete Oxidation of Volatile Organic Compounds ( VOCs ) Using Plasma-Driven Catalysis and Oxygen Plasma

⎯ The decomposition of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) was investigated using a flow-type plasma-driven catalysis (PDC) system and a cycled system. In the flow-type PDC reactor a trade-off relation was observed between the formation of nitrogen oxides and the decomposition of VOCs. Complete decomposition of VOC to CO2 was achieved with the cycled system without forming CO, aerosol, and any nitrogen oxides. The oxygen-partial pressure dependence of different catalysts on the decomposition of benzene and toluene was investigated. The influence of VOC concentration and the temperature of oxygen plasma on the equivalent energy in the cycled system will be also discussed.
Community Discovery from Social Media by Low-Rank Matrix Recovery

The pervasive usage and reach of social media have attracted a surge of attention in the multimedia research community. Community discovery from social media has therefore become an important yet challenging issue. However, due to the subjective generating process, the explicitly observed communities (e.g., group-user and user-user relationship) are often noisy and incomplete in nature. This paper presents a novel approach to discovering communities from social media, including the group membership and user friend structure, by exploring a low-rank matrix recovery technique. In particular, we take Flickr as one exemplary social media platform. We first model the observed indicator matrix of the Flickr community as a summation of a low-rank true matrix and a sparse error matrix. We then formulate an optimization problem by regularizing the true matrix to coincide with the available rich context and content (i.e., photos and their associated tags). An iterative algorithm is developed to recover the true community indicator matrix. The proposed approach leads to a variety of social applications, including community visualization, interest group refinement, friend suggestion, and influential user identification. The evaluations on a large-scale testbed, consisting of 4,919 Flickr users, 1,467 interest groups, and over five million photos, show that our approach opens a new yet effective perspective to solve social network problems with sparse learning technique. Despite being focused on Flickr, our technique can be applied in any other social media community.
lmanac 2012 : Adult cardiac surgery lmanaque 2012 : cirugía cardiaca en adultos

T a t f d s a a d t c t a n t h his review covers the important publications in adult cariac surgery in the last few years, including the current vidence base for surgical revascularisation and the use of ff-pump surgery, bilateral internal mammary arteries and ndoscopic vein harvesting. The changes in conventional ortic valve surgery are described alongside the outcomes f clinical trials and registries for transcatheter aortic valve mplantation, and the introduction of less invasive and ovel approaches of conventional aortic valve replacement urgery. Surgery for mitral valve disease is also considred, with particular reference to surgery for asymptomatic egenerative mitral regurgitation.
Design and Implementation of Low Density Parity Check Codes

This article explains the design and implementation of both regular and irregular LDPC codes as carried out by me at the Institute of Communications Engineering, Technical University of Munich. The design of a good irregular LDPC code needs a pair of distributions to be speciﬁed. This article discusses a randomized construction which attempts to form a parity check matrix whose row and coloumn densities are as close as possible to the distributions speciﬁed. The encoding and decoding of the designed LDPC codes are also discussed
The phenomenal content of experience

Abstract: We discuss in some length evidence from the cognitive science suggesting that the representations of objects based on spatiotemporal information and featural information retrieved bottom-up from a visual scene precede representations of objects that include conceptual information. We argue that a distinction can be drawn between representations with conceptual and nonconceptual content. The distinction is based on perceptual mechanisms that retrieve information in conceptually unmediated ways. The representational contents of the states induced by these mechanisms that are available to a type of awareness called phenomenal awareness constitute the phenomenal content of experience. The phenomenal content of perception contains the existence of objects as separate things that persist in time and time, spatiotemporal information, and information regarding relative spatial relations, motion, surface properties, shape, size, orientation, color, and their functional properties.
Estimating Haplotype Relative Risks on Human Survival in Population-Based Association Studies

Association-based linkage disequilibrium (LD) mapping is an increasingly important tool for localizing genes that show potential influence on human aging and longevity. As haplotypes contain more LD information than single markers, a haplotype-based LD approach can have increased power in detecting associations as well as increased robustness in statistical testing. In this paper, we develop a new statistical model to estimate haplotype relative risks (HRRs) on human survival using unphased multilocus genotype data from unrelated individuals in cross-sectional studies. Based on the proportional hazard assumption, the model can estimate haplotype risk and frequency parameters, incorporate observed covariates, assess interactions between haplotypes and the covariates, and investigate the modes of gene function. By introducing population survival information available from population statistics, we are able to develop a procedure that carries out the parameter estimation using a nonparametric baseline hazard function and estimates sex-specific HRRs to infer gene-sex interaction. We also evaluate the haplotype effects on human survival while taking into account individual heterogeneity in the unobserved genetic and nongenetic factors or frailty by introducing the gamma-distributed frailty into the survival function. After model validation by computer simulation, we apply our method to an empirical data set to measure haplotype effects on human survival and to estimate haplotype frequencies at birth and over the observed ages. Results from both simulation and model application indicate that our survival analysis model is an efficient method for inferring haplotype effects on human survival in population-based association studies.
CSP and Real-Time: Reality or Illusion?

This paper deals with the applicability of CSP in general and SystemCSP, as a notation and design methodology based on CSP, in particular in the application area of real-time systems. The paper extends SystemCSP by introducing time-related operators as a way to specify time properties. Since SystemCSP aims to be used in practice of real-time systems development, achieving real-time in practice is also addressed. The mismatch between the classical scheduling theories and CSP paradigm is explored. Some practical ways to deal with this mismatch are presented.
Propagation factors affecting the performance of 5G millimeter wave radio channel

Millimeter wave spectrum becomes the frontier for 5G cellular network due to the availability of massive bandwidth in 30-300GHz radio spectrum which can be used for cellular communications and backhaul services. But the free space propagation loss is larger in the millimeter wave bands because of the higher carrier frequency. This paper describes different propagation factors that affect the performance of the 5G millimeter wave radio channel and shown the effect of frequency selective fading in the millimeter wave band by 2-ray and 3-ray multipath signal analysis. It is also shown that the performance of the radio channel greatly varies with the operating frequency of the radio channel, user mobility, and the surrounding objects (i.e., fixed or moving) that create indirect rays with differential path delays.
Do Hedge Funds Deliver Alpha? A Bayesian and Bootstrap Analysis

Using a robust bootstrap procedure, we find that top hedge fund performance cannot be explained by luck, and that hedge fund performance persists at annual horizons. Moreover, we show that Bayesian measures, which help overcome the short-sample problem inherent in hedge fund returns, lead to superior performance predictability. Relative to sorting on OLS alphas, sorting on Bayesian alphas yields a 5.5 percent per year increase in the alpha of the spread between the top and bottom hedge fund deciles. Our results are robust, and relevant to investors, as they are neither confined to small funds, nor driven by incubation bias, backfill bias or serial correlation.
Load frequency control of a renewable hybrid power system with simple fuzzy logic controller

In this paper an attempt has been made to control the frequency of stand-alone hybrid power system with a simple fuzzy logic control technique which can be used to fulfill the load demand at remote areas. This hybrid system consists photovoltaic (PV) system, diesel engine generator (DEG) and micro hydro power system. The model of fuel cell system is introduced as an energy storing element to improve frequency deviation due to mismatch between power generation and load demand. The proposed methodology is simulated in MATLAB and tested for 24 hours load conditions. A comparative evaluation of frequency deviation for proposed hybrid system in presence of both control techniques reflects the improvement in frequency variation in the presence of fuzzy controller as compared to PID controller.
Methods to Provide System-Wide ADS-B Back-Up, Validation and Security

A major part of the business case for automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) is attributed to the savings generated by decommissioning or reducing reliance on conventional radar systems. In order to maintain some form of redundancy, a networked, system-wide back-up and validation approach is required. During the transition to end-state surveillance architectures, there are likely be a mixture of various types of surveillance sources including primary surveillance radar, secondary surveillance radar, multilateration, and ADS-B. This paper describes an integrated approach to the surveillance architecture and one means for facilitating the application of multiple surveillance sources. Surveillance sensor performance is based on the categories defined in ADS-B standards. The relevant parameters are navigation accuracy category (NAC), navigation integrity category (NIC), and surveillance integrity level (SIL). These standards have been adapted to create a generic surveillance performance categorization method. This method would enable air traffic service providers to develop criteria for combining information from multiple surveillance sensors. The categorization also enables a method for defining the associated aircraft separation requirements
European Conference on Information Systems ( ECIS ) 5-15-2012 EMPLOYER BRANDING VIA SOCIAL NETWORK SITES-A SILVER BULLET TO ATTRACT IT PROFESSIONALS ?

Due to a shortage of IT professionals, many companies intensify their efforts to be perceived as attractive employers in this field, especially by means of social network sites (SNS) such as Facebook. However, it is unknown whether these presences do really attract IT professionals, and if so, whether this is more due to the utilitarian (job search related) characteristics or to the hedonic (entertaining) characteristics of the SNS. In our study, we compared the usage behavior of IT graduates with that of a different group of graduates (in this case: humanities graduates). Our results reveal that corporate SNS presences are suitable to effectively attract IT professionals. Our study proves that the usage behavior of IT graduates is predominantly driven by utilitarian aspects of the SNS presences, while we could verify that humanities graduates use such SNS presences predominantly for entertainment purposes. Therefore, it seems advisable that companies choose the design for their SNS presence with particular regard to the target group that they want to attract and recruit.
Biosignals offer potential for direct interfaces and health monitoring

We examine efforts to harness biosignals to enable enhanced computer interfaces. In particular, biosignals can serve for passive health monitoring for the elderly who want to remain at home but need some level of support as they age. Such devices can directly manipulate computer interfaces to give people with limited peripheral mobility some control over their environment. In contrast to the biosignal interfaces based on voluntary peripheral nerve signals, we also discuss about the brain-to-computer interfaces (BCI).
Detection and Discrimination of First- and Second-Order Motion in Patients with Unilateral Brain Damage

The present investigation explored the extent to which extrastriate cortex is necessary for various aspects of motion processing and whether the processing of first-order (Fourier) and second-order (non-Fourier) motion involves the same extrastriate cortical regions. Orientation, direction, and speed discrimination thresholds were measured in 21 patients with unilateral damage to the lateral occipital, temporal, or posterior parietal cortex. Their results were compared with those of 14 age-matched control subjects. The stimuli were static random-dot noise patterns, the luminance of which (first-order) or contrast (second-order) was modulated by a drifting sinusoid. Each image was presented at an eccentricity of 5.6 deg in one of the four visual quadrants. The contrasts required to identify orientation and direction were measured in a forced-choice paradigm for three speeds (1.5, 3, and 6 deg/sec). Speed discrimination performance was measured for stimuli presented simultaneously in two of the four quadrants. The results indicate the following: (1) orientation thresholds were increased only slightly in the patients; (2) direction thresholds were modestly elevated, and this effect was more pronounced for second-order stimuli than for first-order stimuli; (3) speed discrimination thresholds were elevated significantly in the patients with lesions in the region bordering superior-temporal and lateral-occipital cortex; and (4) speed discrimination thresholds for first-order stimuli were more elevated than those for second-order stimuli. The results suggest that there is substantial overlap in the cortical areas involved in first- and second-order speed discrimination.
COMPARATIVE APPROACH FOR SPECKLE REDUCTION IN MEDICAL ULTRASOUND IMAGES

Medical images are often deteriorated by noise due to various sources of interferences and other phenomena that affect the measurement processes in an imaging and acquisition system. Speckle noise is a random mottling of the image with bright and dark spots, which obscures fine details and degrades the detectability of low-contrast lesions. Speckle noise occurrence is often undesirable, since it affects the tasks of human interpretation and diagnosis. On the other hand, its texture carries important information about the tissue being imaged. Speckle filtering is thus a critical pre-processing step in medical ultrasound imagery, provided that the features of interest for diagnosis are not lost. In ultrasound images, the speckle energy is comparable to the signal energy in a wide range of frequency bands. Several speckle reduction techniques are applied to ultrasound images in order to reduce the noise level and improve the visual quality for better diagnoses. The optimum choice of wavelet bases for ultrasound images is investigated in this study. In order to realize a fair comparison, the same analysis for three frequency values is used. The comparison proves that the wavelet transform gives a much better result than both median filtering and homomorphic Wiener filtering methods for speckle reduction of ultrasound images.