Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Early Postoperative Results after Removal of Cranially Migrated Lumbar Disc Prolapse: Retrospective Comparison of Three Different Surgical Strategies

Background. To compare the early postoperative results of three surgical approaches to lumbar disc herniations that migrated cranially. Minimally invasive techniques such as the translaminar and endoscopic transforaminal approaches are utilized in patients with lumbar disc herniations to gain access to cranially located disc material and to avoid the potentially destabilizing resection of ligament and bone tissue, which is associated with an extended interlaminar approach. Methods. This retrospective study compares the postoperative pain and functional capacity levels of 69 patients who underwent an interlaminar (Group A, n = 27), a translaminar (Group B, n = 22), or an endoscopic transforaminal procedure (Group C, n = 20). Results. Median VAS scores for leg pain decreased significantly from before to after surgery in all groups. Surgical revisions were required in thirteen cases (five in Group A, one in Group B, and seven in Group C; P = 0.031). After six weeks, there were significant differences in back pain and functional outcome scores and in the results for the MacNab criteria but not in leg pain scores. Conclusions. The interlaminar and translaminar techniques were the safest and fastest ways of gaining access to cranially migrated disc material and the most effective approaches over a period of six weeks.
Spatial network configurations of cargo airlines

The paper evaluates the spatial dimension of air cargo networks by means of concentration and centrality measures. Three groups of carriers are analyzed, namely combined carriers, their pure freighter operations and pure cargo airlines. Differences in their spatial network configuration are observed between the three groups. Combined carriers operate very centralized networks with high concentrations at a small number of airports. Hub-and-spoke schemes are their predominant network configuration. The freighter fleets of combined carriers have lower centrality and concentration scores but hub-and-spoke schemes are still the predominant network configuration. Pure cargo airlines operate the least concentrated and centralized networks. Round-trip configurations are wide spread among pure cargo airlines to cope with imbalances of demand.
Are There New BM25 Expectations?

In this paper, we present some ideas about possible directions of a new interpretation of the Okapi BM25 ranking formula. In particular, we have focused on a full bayesian approach for deriving a smoothed formula that takes into account a-priori knowledge on the probability of terms. In fact, most of the efforts in improving the BM25 were done in capturing the language model (frequencies, length, etc.) but missed the fact that the constant equal to 0.5 used as a correction factor can be one of the parameters that can be modelled in a better way. This approach has been tested on a visual data mining tool and the initial results are encouraging.
Analysis of the Distance Between Two Classes for Tuning SVM Hyperparameters

An important step in the construction of a support vector machine (SVM) is to select optimal hyperparameters. This paper proposes a novel method for tuning the hyperparameters by maximizing the distance between two classes (DBTC) in the feature space. With a normalized kernel function, we find that DBTC can be used as a class separability criterion since the between-class separation and the within-class data distribution are implicitly taken into account. Employing DBTC as an objective function, we develop a gradient-based algorithm to search the optimal kernel parameter. On the basis of the geometric analysis and simulation results, we find that the optimal algorithm and the initialization problem become very simple. Experimental results on the synthetic and real-world data show that the proposed method consistently outperforms other existing hyperparameter tuning methods.
A New Construction for LDPC Codes using Permutation Polynomials over Integer Rings

A new construction is proposed for low density parity check (LDPC) codes using quadratic permutation polynomials over finite integer rings. The associated graphs for the new codes have both algebraic and pseudo-random nature, and the new codes are quasi-cyclic. Graph isomorphisms and automorphisms are identified and used in an efficient search for good codes. Graphs with girth as large as 12 were found. Upper bounds on the minimum Hamming distance are found both analytically and algorithmically. The bounds indicate that the minimum distance grows with block length. Near-codewords are one of the causes for error floors in LDPC codes; the new construction provides a good framework for studying near-codewords in LDPC codes. Nine example codes are given, and computer simulation results show the excellent error performance of these codes. Finally, connections are made between this new LDPC construction and turbo codes using interleavers generated by quadratic permutation polynomials.
Eat now, pay later? Evidence of deferred food-processing costs in diving seals

Seals may delay costly physiological processes (e.g. digestion) that are incompatible with the physiological adjustments to diving until after periods of active foraging. We present unusual profiles of metabolic rate (MR) in grey seals measured during long-term simulation of foraging trips (4–5 days) that provide evidence for this. We measured extremely high MRs (up to almost seven times the baseline levels) and high heart rates during extended surface intervals, where the seals were motionless at the surface. These occurred most often during the night and occurred frequently many hours after the end of feeding bouts. The duration and amount of oxygen consumed above baseline levels during these events was correlated with the amount of food eaten, confirming that these metabolic peaks were related to the processing of food eaten during foraging periods earlier in the day. We suggest that these periods of high MR represent a payback of costs deferred during foraging.
Efficacy of Flushing and Chlorination in Removing Microorganisms from a Pilot Drinking Water Distribution System

To ensure delivery of microbiologically safe drinking water, the physical integrity of the distribution system is an important control measure. During repair works or an incident the drinking water pipe is open and microbiologically contaminated water or soil may enter. Before taking the pipe back into service it must be cleaned. The efficacy of flushing and shock chlorination was tested using a model pipe-loop system with a natural or cultured biofilm to which a microbial contamination (Escherichia coli, Clostridium perfringens spores and phiX174) was added. On average, flushing removed 1.5–2.7 log microorganisms from the water, but not the biofilm. In addition, sand added to the system was not completely removed. Flushing velocity (0.3 or 1.5 m/s) did not affect the efficacy. Shock chlorination (10 mg/L, 1–24 h) was very effective against E. coli and phiX174, but C. perfringens spores were partly resistant. Chlorination was slightly more effective in pipes with a natural compared to a cultured biofilm. Flushing alone is thus not sufficient after high risk repair works or incidents, and shock chlorination should be considered to remove microorganisms to ensure microbiologically safe drinking water. Prevention via hygienic working procedures, localizing and isolating the contamination source and issuing boil water advisories remain important, especially during confirmed contamination events.
Overexpression of Fatty Acid Amide Hydrolase Induces Early Flowering in Arabidopsis thaliana

N-acylethanolamines (NAEs) are bioactive lipids derived from the hydrolysis of the membrane phospholipid N-acylphosphatidylethanolamine (NAPE). In animal systems this reaction is part of the “endocannabinoid” signaling pathway, which regulates a variety of physiological processes. The signaling function of NAE is terminated by fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), which hydrolyzes NAE to ethanolamine and free fatty acid. Our previous work in Arabidopsis thaliana showed that overexpression of AtFAAH (At5g64440) lowered endogenous levels of NAEs in seeds, consistent with its role in NAE signal termination. Reduced NAE levels were accompanied by an accelerated growth phenotype, increased sensitivity to abscisic acid (ABA), enhanced susceptibility to bacterial pathogens, and early flowering. Here we investigated the nature of the early flowering phenotype of AtFAAH overexpression. AtFAAH overexpressors flowered several days earlier than wild type and AtFAAH knockouts under both non-inductive short day (SD) and inductive long day (LD) conditions. Microarray analysis revealed that the FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) gene, which plays a major role in regulating flowering time, and one target MADS box transcription factor, SEPATALLA3 (SEP3), were elevated in AtFAAH overexpressors. Furthermore, AtFAAH overexpressors, with the early flowering phenotype had lower endogenous NAE levels in leaves compared to wild type prior to flowering. Exogenous application of NAE 12:0, which was reduced by up to 30% in AtFAAH overexpressors, delayed the onset of flowering in wild type plants. We conclude that the early flowering phenotype of AtFAAH overexpressors is, in part, explained by elevated FT gene expression resulting from the enhanced NAE hydrolase activity of AtFAAH, suggesting that NAE metabolism may participate in floral signaling pathways.
Circular buffered switch design with wormhole routing and virtual channels

Switch design for interconnection networks plays an important role in the overall performance of multiprocessors and computer networks. In this paper, a new switch design, namely FC-CB, is proposed that offers low average message latency and high throughput over a wide range of input workloads. The FC-CB switch incorporates wormhole routing and virtual channels with a full crossbar connection. Its structure is based on a novel circular buffer design with dynamic allocation. We have performed extensive simulations to compare its performance with other alternatives. Our results show that the proposed design is superior in terms of latency and throughput, especially for heavy input traffic rate and low buffer space.
Color for Life: Biosynthesis and Distribution of Phenolic Compounds in Pepper (Capsicum annuum)

Fruits and vegetables are an important supplier of biological active substances, such as vitamins and secondary metabolites (SM) for human nutrition, but also for further industrial applications. Pepper (Capsicum annuum) is grown and consumed all over the world as a fresh vegetable or dried as a spice. It is also used as a coloring agent, as well for medical purposes. Pepper fruits are considered as an attractive source of health-related compounds, but other organs like the leaves and stem also contain considerable amounts of antioxidants, e.g., phenolic compounds. This indicates potential for valorization of residual biomass from horticultural production by using innovative bioeconomic concepts. Herein, we present an overview about the biosynthesis of phenolic compounds, with a special focus on flavonoids and their regulation in pepper, the current knowledge of amounts and distribution of these valuable substances, as well as possible strategies for: (1) increasing flavonoid contents in pepper, (2) improving the nutritional value of fruits, and (3) new concepts for utilization of residual biomass from horticultural production.
Deblurring of Color Images Corrupted by Impulsive Noise

We consider the problem of restoring a multichannel image corrupted by blur and impulsive noise (e.g., salt-and-pepper noise). Using the variational framework, we consider the L1 fidelity term and several possible regularizers. In particular, we use generalizations of the Mumford-Shah (MS) functional to color images and Gamma-convergence approximations to unify deblurring and denoising. Experimental comparisons show that the MS stabilizer yields better results with respect to Beltrami and total variation regularizers. Color edge detection is a beneficial by-product of our methods
Performance evaluation of the improved danger detection system for the safety of a handle type electric wheelchair

This paper describes the improvement and the performance evaluation of the hazard detection system to ensure the safety of a handle type electric wheelchair. We investigate the warning timing by Time-To-Incident (TTI) in consideration of the cognition, decision, and action time of elderly people and Japan Industrial Standards (JIS) of a handle type electric wheelchair. And then, the size of the target object (hazard object) to be detected and the measurement of the change in slope of road surface are studied. We carry out the performance evaluation of the improved system through the use of four types of the hazard detection rules. The items of the performance evaluation are TTI of the first time warning and the detection success rate of the true positive and the false negative. Furthermore, the evaluation of four types of the hazard detection rules by using the cost function is performed. The results provide the important knowledge for practical application of the hazard detection system.
Metabolic Cooperation and Competition in the Tumor Microenvironment: Implications for Therapy

The tumor microenvironment (TME) is an ensemble of non-tumor cells comprising fibroblasts, cells of the immune system, and endothelial cells, besides various soluble secretory factors from all cellular components (including tumor cells). The TME forms a pro-tumorigenic cocoon around the tumor cells where reprogramming of the metabolism occurs in tumor and non-tumor cells that underlies the nature of interactions as well as competitions ensuring steady supply of nutrients and anapleoretic molecules for the tumor cells that fuels its growth even under hypoxic conditions. This metabolic reprogramming also plays a significant role in suppressing the immune attack on the tumor cells and in resistance to therapies. Thus, the metabolic cooperation and competition among the different TME components besides the inherent alterations in the tumor cells arising out of genetic as well as epigenetic changes supports growth, metastasis, and therapeutic resistance. This review focuses on the metabolic remodeling achieved through an active cooperation and competition among the three principal components of the TME—the tumor cells, the T cells, and the cancer-associated fibroblasts while discussing about the current strategies that target metabolism of TME components. Further, we will also consider the probable therapeutic opportunities targeting the various metabolic pathways as well as the signaling molecules/transcription factors regulating them for the development of novel treatment strategies for cancer.
How Does Working Memory Training Work? Transfer, Strategies, and Neural Correlates in Children Aged 9-14 Years

Working memory predicts children’s academic achievement at school and future prospects. Working memory training may offer generalised improvements; however, evidence has been mixed and is a source of controversial debate. Training has been shown to improve performance on working memory tasks, but it is unclear if this reflects increased capacity or a change in strategy. Training has been found to improve children’s attention, maths, and reading, but rarely in studies with appropriate control groups. Very few controlled studies have investigated the neural correlates of working memory training in children, obscuring inferences about neural mechanisms. Chapter 2 presents the most comprehensive investigation of the neural correlates of working memory training to date. Training is found to improve children’s working memory performance, increase recruitment of the middle frontal gyrus, and increase connectivity within the posterior parietal cortex, but not change grey matter volume. It is concluded that repeated coactivation of fronto-parietal regions during training may increase executive or attentional control. However, strategy change may influence task-related brain activation. Chapter 3 presents a randomised controlled trial of ‘MetaCogmed’, a novel working memory and metacognitive strategy training programme designed to facilitate transfer to academic outcomes. Working memory training alone is found to improve children’s performance on tasks of working memory and mathematical reasoning. However, only the improvements in working memory were maintained three months later. MetaCogmed did not improve academic outcomes more than working memory training alone. It is concluded that working memory training may improve children’s maths ability in the shortterm when offered in addition to school, and that metacognitive training may require more time and activities to promote generalisation. Chapter 4 presents a novel neuroimaging investigation of memory strategies in children. Grouping is found to be associated with decreased recruitment of the left middle frontal gyrus and increased recruitment of the left premotor cortex. It is suggested that grouping may afford an organisational advantage and more efficient use of working memory capacity compared to sequential rehearsal.
Does Inflation Uncertainty Vary with the Level of Inflation ?

The purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that inflation uncertainty increases at higher levels of inflation. Our analysis is based on the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH) class of models, which allow the conditional variance of the error term to be time-varying. Since this variance is a proxy for inflation uncertainty, a positive relationship between the conditional variance and inflation would be interpreted as evidence that inflation uncertainty increases with the level of inflation. We apply GARCH techniques to two models of the inflation process in Canada: a simple autoregressive model and a reduced-form Phillips-curve model. Our findings concerning the link between inflation and its uncertainty are somewhat model-dependent. In the autoregressive case, there is a significant positive relationship between inflation and inflation uncertainty. The estimated relationship is weaker in the reduced-form model, and is not significant at the standard 5 per cent level of significance. The difference in the strength of the relationship in the autoregressive and reduced-form models makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions about the relationship between inflation and inflation uncertainty. However, given the extreme information assumptions underlying each model, the true relationship may lie somewhere between the two sets of results. By excluding all explanatory variables other than past inflation, the simple autoregressive approach undoubtedly ignores some information that agents would have used to forecast inflation. Accordingly, the autoregressive model will tend to overstate the actual uncertainty faced by agents. Conversely, the reduced-form model may understate the uncertainty that existed, since it implicitly assumes that agents had more information on the structure of the economy than was actually available at each point in time. Future research, covering more low-inflation years and based on alternative models of inflation that explicitly incorporate policy-regime uncertainty, might clarify whether inflation uncertainty increases with the level of inflation.
Disconnection prediction in mobile P2P networks using publish/subscribe

In many pervasive scenarios (e.g., emergency management or health care), operators need to exchange data and information and collaborate in order to carry on a collaborative job, but communication features can be lacking on the spot. Therefore, Mobile Ad-hoc Networks are valuable solutions to let them coordinate. While executing some activities, nodes can move in the area and, hence, disconnect from the others. In order operators to coordinate with each other, devices need to be continuously connected, although that is not guaranteed, due to the mobile nature of the network. In this paper we present a bayesian approach to predict device disconnections in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks, and validating experimental results that show the viability of the approach. This prediction feature is useful for an upper coordination layer, which can arrange appropriate actions to prevent disconnections from occurring or, at least, to mitigate the consequences.
Ultrasonographic evaluation of placental cord insertion at different gestational ages in low-risk singleton pregnancies: a predictive algorithm

Abstract Objective To evaluate the accuracy of ultrasound in visualizing placental cord insertion (PCI) at different gestational ages in order to recommend the most feasible period during pregnancy to identify it. Secondary aim was to propose a predictive algorithm for PCI visualization. Methods We performed a single-center, prospective cohort study. We enrolled patients with singleton low-risk pregnancies who underwent fetal ultrasound scan at different gestational ages. We excluded patients with body mass index of 30 Kg/m2 or more, uterine fibroids larger than 5 cm, high-risk pregnancies, fetal weight lower than < 10° percentile or higher than > 90° percentile, increased (“deep pocket” > 80 mm) or decreased (“deep pocket” < 20 mm) amniotic fluid. Results Among the 468 recruited patients, the visualization of PCI was not possible in 5.77% of the cases. Furthermore, we showed that PCI visualization was lower as the gestational age increased (p = 0.049) and more difficult in case of posterior placenta (p = 0.001). Conclusions PCI should be evaluated in the first trimester or as early as possible during the second trimester. Moreover, we propose a feasible model to predict the possibility of PCI visualization according to gestational age and uterine site of implantation.