Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Percutaneous kyphoplasty combined with zoledronic acid infusion in the treatment of osteoporotic thoracolumbar fractures in the elderly

Objective We studied the efficacy of zoledronic acid (ZOL) infusion on radiographic and clinical outcomes after percutaneous kyphoplasty (PKP) for elderly patients with osteoporotic thoracolumbar fractures (osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures [OVCFs]). Materials and methods We retrospectively analyzed 95 elderly patients (age >65 years) with OVCF. All patients were followed up for 2 years. Thirty-two patients were treated with only once-yearly 5 mg ZOL infusion (ZOL group), 34 patients with only PKP (PKP group) and 29 patients received ZOL infusion 3 days after PKP (PKP+ZOL group). Results There were no significant differences in the patients’ age, gender, body mass index, lumbar spine bone mineral density T-scores, baseline of Visual Analog Scale scores and Oswestry Disability Index scores (P>0.05). The postoperative vertebral heights of patients with OVCF after PKP and PKP+ZOL were 23.70±3.03 and 24.30±3.13 mm, respectively, which were significantly higher than that of patients in ZOL group (P<0.05). The reduction in degrees of kyphotic deformity in the PKP and PKP+ZOL groups were corrected to 8.4° and 8.7°. The bone mineral density T-scores of patients with OVCF in the ZOL group and PKP+ZOL group were significantly higher than that in the PKP group (P<0.05). The Visual Analog Scale and the Oswestry Disability Index scores of the PKP+ZOL and PKP groups were significantly lower than those of the ZOL group (P<0.05). The incidence of recompression vertebral fracture (RVF) in the PKP group was 14.7%, but there was no patient with RVF in the PKP+ZOL group (P<0.05). Conclusion Once-yearly 5 mg ZOL infusion combined with PKP could provide beneficial effects in elderly osteoporotic patients with OVCF.
THE IMPACT OF OVERVALUED EXCHANGE RATE POLICY ON THE AGRICULTURAL TRADE OF SUDAN

Since political situation has indicated that South Sudan would separate from the Sudan and the expectations of the country to lose its major source of foreign exchange from oil exports, the exchange rate of the Sudanese pound has deteriorated sharply. The main objectives of the study were to assess the responses of some economic variables (supply and demand) of agricultural commodities to exchange rate overvaluation policy adopted by the Central Bank of Sudan and their consequences on agricultural trade of the country. A multi-market model used as a main tool to assess the macro policy impact on the agricultural crop markets of the Sudan. The study results demonstrated that the overvalued exchange rate has a negative effect on the Sudanese agriculture trade sector, however, the expected more overvaluation of the currency entails more decrease in producer and consumer prices and, hence, a general decrease in agriculture exports as a result of the joint effect of decreasing supply and increasing demand. On one stream, the supplies of all crops show various levels of decrease under the overvaluation scenarios. On the other, all consumers markets tend to have an increasing demand because of the overvalued low consumer prices which will enhance consumer‘s accessibility to food markets.
Sentence and Clause Level Emotion Annotation, Detection, and Classification in a Multi-Genre Corpus

Predicting emotion categories (e.g. anger, joy, sadness) expressed by a sentence is challenging due to inherent multi-label smaller pieces such as phrases and clauses. To date, emotion has been studied in single genre, while models of human behaviors or situational awareness in the event of disasters require emotion modeling in multi-genres. In this paper, we expand and unify existing annotated data in different genres (emotional blog post, news title, and movie reviews) using an inventory of 8 emotions from Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions tags. We develop systems for automatically detecting and classifying emotions in text, in different textual genres and granularity levels, namely, sentence and clause levels in a supervised setting. We explore the effectiveness of clause annotation in sentence-level emotion detection and classiﬁcation (EDC). To our knowledge, our EDC system is the ﬁrst to target the clause level; further we provide emotion annotation for movie reviews dataset for the ﬁrst time.
Foveal Avascular Zone Area Analysis in Macular Hole Before and After Surgery Using Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE To analyze the foveal avascular zone (FAZ) area in superficial and deep retinal layers in patients with macular hole (MH) before and after surgery. PATIENTS AND METHODS The authors studied 14 patients with unilateral MH. They examined a 3 mm × 3 mm area at the fovea before and 6 months after surgery using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography angiography. RESULTS In eyes affected by MH, the mean preoperative superficial FAZ (0.45 ± 0.09 mm2) and deep FAZ (0.79 ± 0.39 mm2) were significantly larger than the postoperative superficial FAZ (0.25 ± 0.09 mm2) and deep FAZ (0.31 ± 0.12 mm2), respectively (P < .001). The mean preoperative superficial FAZ of the affected eyes was the same as that of control eyes (0.41 ± 0.10 mm2) (P = .23), but postoperative superficial FAZ was smaller than that of control eyes (P < .001). The mean preoperative deep FAZ was larger (0.48 ± 0.11 mm2) (P = .019), but mean postoperative deep FAZ was smaller than that of control eyes (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS The authors revealed preoperative deep FAZ areas were more enlarged centrifugally than preoperative superficial FAZ in MH. Both postoperative superficial and deep FAZ showed more centripetal contraction than those of the preoperative period. [Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina. 2018;49:329-335. ].
Temporal Estimation of the 3 d GuideWire Position Using 2 d X-ray Images

We present a method for realtime online 3d reconstruction of a guide-wire or catheter using 2d X-ray images, which do not have to be recorded from different viewpoints. No special catheters or sensors are needed. Given a 3d patient data set and the projection parameters, we use recursive probability density propagation to estimate a probability distribution of the current positions of guide-wire parts. Based on this distribution, we extract the optimal guide-wire position using regularization techniques. We describe the guide-wire position by a uniform cubic B-spline. Experiments on simulated and phantom data demonstrate the high accuracy and robustness of our approach.
One solution of DTV stream data acquisition system

In last decades a vast number of textual analyzers have been developed. All those analyzers can be applied to textual data from any source, including Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) stream. In this paper we propose a realization of a system whose primary purpose is DVB stream data acquisition. This solution can be used on a big variety of set-top boxes (STBs), considering their performances and capabilities and it presents an essential starting point for numerous types of systems, including television systems, personalized television systems etc.
Contribution à la résolution des processus de décision markoviens décentralisés. (Contribution to the resolution of decentralized Markov decision processes)

Nous abordons dans cette these la resolution optimale des processus de decision markoviens decentralises (DEC-POMDPs). Le modele DEC-POMDP constitue un formalisme theorique pour la description de problemes de prise de decision distribuee et cooperative, et cette these est l'une des premieres a proposer des algorithmes exactes de recherche de politiques optimales. Les avancees qui en decoulent nous permettent en particulier de proposer un cadre theorique pour la construction des systemes multi-agents. Nous distinguons deux familles d'approches pour la resolution des DEC-POMDPs. Lorsqu'un modele a priori est disponible, une solution optimale peut-etre obtenue de maniere centralisee et hors ligne par un processus de planification. Nous proposons dans ce cadre un nouvel algorithme de programmation dynamique a base de points, synthese de la programmation dynamique multi-agent et de la programmation dynamique a base de points mono-agent. Il presente l'avantage de concentrer l'effort de calcul dans les regions pertinentes de l'espace des politiques. Nous introduisons aussi et pour la premiere fois un algorithme de recherche heuristique pour la planification optimale de comportements decentralises, base sur la recherche A* du meilleur d'abord. Lorsque le modele n'est pas connu, la politique globale peut etre obtenue par un processus d'essai erreur au sein de chaque agent. Il s'agit alors de l'apprentissage, et plus particulierement de l'apprentissage par renforcement. Nous analysons les contraintes supplementaires dans le cas de l'apprentissage multi-agent, et nous introduisons un nouvel algorithme d'apprentissage par renforcement multi-agent par notifications reciproques.
The Role of Impulsivity in Actual and Problematic Use of the Mobile Phone

Several authors have investigated the risks arising from the growth in mobile phone use (e.g. debts incurred by young people). The aims of the present study are (1) to validate a new questionnaire assessing problematic mobile phone use: the Problematic Mobile Phone Use Questionnaire (PMPUQ), and (2) to investigate the relationships between the PMPUQ and the multi-faceted construct of impulsivity. With these aims, 339 subjects were screened using the PMPUQ and the UPPS Impulsive Behaviour Scale (UPPS) which assesses four distinct components associated with impulsive behaviours (urgency, lack of premeditation, lack of perseverance and sensation seeking). The results showed that the PMPUQ has an acceptable fit and assesses four different dimensions of problematic mobile phone use (prohibited use, dangerous use, dependence, financial problems). While each facet of impulsivity played a specific role in mobile phones use, urgency appeared to be the strongest predictor of problematic use. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Exercise classification using CNN with image frames produced from time-series motion data

Exercise support systems for the elderly have been developed and some were equipped with a motion sensor to evaluate their exercise motion. Normally, it provides three-dimensional time-series data of over 20 joints. In this study, we propose to apply Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) methodology to the motion evaluation. The method converts the motion data of one exercise interval into one gray scale image. From simulation results, the CNN was possible to classify the images into specified motions
Event-triggered state estimation for time-delayed complex networks with gain variations based on partial nodes

Abstract This paper designs the event-triggered non-fragile state estimator for a class of time-delayed complex networks with randomly occurring sensor saturations (ROSSs) and estimator gain variations on the basis of measurements from partial nodes. Both the time-varying state delays and the stochastic disturbances are considered in the network model. A Bernoulli-distributed white sequence is utilized to reflect the phenomenon of ROSSs. Two sequences of Gaussian distributed random variables combined with the multiplicative norm-bounded uncertainties are used to characterize the randomly occurring gain variations in the estimators. An event generator function is employed to regulate the transmission of data from the sensor to the estimator. The aim of this paper is to design an exponentially ultimately bounded state estimator in mean square through measurement outputs from a partial of network nodes under the event-triggered mechanism. With the help of Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional and stochastic analysis techniques, sufficient conditions are acquired for the existence of the desired state estimator which ensures that the estimation error dynamics is exponentially ultimately bounded in mean square, and then the estimator gain matrices can be computed via the software Matlab. A simulation example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed state estimation method.
Creative Governance in Dynamic City Regions

In Italy, the housing problem is becoming more worrisome, not only for the lowest- income people, but also for larger segments of the middle class. At the turn of the millennium, traditional public policies are in a crisis and the residential market is unable to respond to new social needs. For Milan, a core city of 1.3 million inhabitants in a dynamic city region, it is estimated that 50,000 households lack adequate housing. Increasing fragmentation of the public sphere has transformed the government process, making it now even less transparent and understandable than before. Traditional public actors are more or less paralyzed in dealing with housing: one of the most crucial problems facing the public sphere today. This paper will present an initiative that deals with the housing problem in a creative way by mobilizing semi-public and private actors. Based on the experience gained through the case study, it can be concluded that creative governance is facilitated when a process of social experimentation is allowed to find solutions to cope with emerging social problems.
Inflammatory profile in X‐linked adrenoleukodystrophy patients: Understanding disease progression

X‐linked adrenoleukodystrophy (X‐ALD) is an inherited disease characterized by progressive inflammatory demyelization in the brain, adrenal insufficiency, and an abnormal accumulation of very long chain fatty acids (VLCFA) in tissue and body fluids. Considering that inflammation might be involved in pathophysiology of X‐ALD, we aimed to investigate pro‐ and anti‐inflammatory cytokines in plasma from three different male phenotypes (CCER, AMN, and asymptomatic individuals). Our results showed that asymptomatic patients presented increased levels of pro‐inflammatory cytokines IL‐1β, IL‐2, IL‐8, and TNF‐α and the last one was also higher in AMN phenotype. Besides, asymptomatic patients presented higher levels of anti‐inflammatory cytokines IL‐4 and IL‐10. AMN patients presented higher levels of IL‐2, IL‐5, and IL‐4. We might hypothesize that inflammation in X‐ALD is related to plasmatic VLCFA concentration, since there were positive correlations between C26:0 plasmatic levels and pro‐inflammatory cytokines in asymptomatic and AMN patients and negative correlation between anti‐inflammatory cytokine and C24:0/C22:0 ratio in AMN patients. The present work yields experimental evidence that there is an inflammatory imbalance associated Th1, (IL‐2, IL‐6, and IFN‐γ), Th2 (IL‐4 and IL‐10), and macrophages response (TNF‐α and IL‐1β) in the periphery of asymptomatic and AMN patients, and there is correlation between VLCFA plasmatic levels and inflammatory mediators in X‐ALD. Furthermore, we might also speculate that the increase of plasmatic cytokines in asymptomatic patients could be considered an early biomarker of brain damage and maybe also a predictor of disease progression.
Implementing national health reform - is organisational culture the key?

In a famous quote attributed to Peter Drucker ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’. The impact of local health organisation culture on the implementation of national health reforms has been noted in a range of studies (Davies 2002; Franco et al. 2002; Ormrod 2003). This classic ‘top-down versus bottom-up’ disjunction (Sabatier 1986) reflects the competing perspectives on health policy held by different actors in the policy subsystem (Palmer and Short 2010). This paper reports on the application of the Cameron and Quinn (2011) Competing Values instruments to front line health care management (Scott et al. 2003). In the context of the Tasmanian Department of Health and Human Services, the Competing Values results suggest that the top-down, economic focus of the Australian National Health Reform Agreement (Council of Australian Governments 2011) is antithetical to the professional culture and orientation of local health service providers. The implications are that a change management approach to local organisational culture is required for the successful implementation of national health reform. Preparatory work undertaken in this area by the Chief Executive Officer, and other senior staff, within the Southern Tasmanian Health Organisation is outlined. Tasmania is not unique in these matters. This paper will be of interest to other jurisdictions, policy-makers and policy implementers.
Overview of Slicing and Feedback Techniques for Efficient Verification of UML/OCL Class Diagrams

Model-driven engineering is a methodology for software development that focuses on the use of models in the software development process. These models can be transformed into code, saving developers both time and effort. One of the most widely used models for transformation is the unified modeling language (UML) class diagram, along with its object constraint language (OCL) constraints. Before transforming UML/OCL models into code, it is essential to find defects in the model, as model transformations and code generation may spread errors to other notations where they are more difficult and time-consuming to trace and detect. Formal verification of models is a time-consuming process and there are several formal verification tools that can check the accuracy of UML/OCL models, but their high computational complexity limits their scalability. In this paper, we present an overview of disjoint and non-disjoint slicing techniques that can break UML/OCL class diagrams into independent submodels in order to reduce the complexity. These submodels can then be verified separately through any verification tool or engine. Furthermore, an overview of a novel feedback technique is also proposed, which highlights any unsatisfiable submodels with their integrity constraints from the complex hierarchy of a UML/OCL class diagram.
The NanoTite Implant

In a new surface treatment process, discrete nanometer-scale calcium phosphate (CaP) crystals are bonded to an OSSEOTITE Implant surface. The strength of the bond between the implant surface and the CaP crystals can be used as an indicator of the likelihood of the discrete crystals becoming dislodged during implant placement. The objective of this experiment was to determine the shear strength of these crystals deposited on an OSSEOTITE Implant surface using contact-mode AFM analysis. Background Contact-mode AFM analysis can be used to determine the adhesion strength (e.g., shear strength) of a discrete nanometer-scale particle (such as a CaP crystal) bonded to a surface. This analysis uses a nanometer length scale Silica Nitride (SiN) calibrated beam with a diamond coated probe (or tip). The probe is displacement-controlled and the equivalent force is calculated using beam mechanics. The contact-mode AFM analysis is initiated by placing the probe on a discrete particle. The beam displacement is slowly increased until the displacement load dislodges the particle. For shear strength and compressive strength analysis, the probe is moved tangential and normal to the surface on which the crystal is adhered to. Figure 1 depicts an example shear strength contact-mode AFM assay. The results can be used to determine the shear strength of the crystal. The shear strength ( ) is a function of: • Force (F) • Contact area (Ac) The shear strength can be equated as: The results for the above experiment shown in (Figure 1) can be interpreted as follows: Contact Area (Ac) – Since the particle appears to be approximately 20nm in diameter (relative to the scale), the contact area between the particle and the surface can, therefore, be reasonably estimated to be between 7.85em and 3.14em (based on a contact radius of 5nm to 10nm). Shear Force (F) – A 150nN shear force was required to dislodge the particle. Shear Strength ( ) – Using equation (1), the shear strength of the particle can be estimated to be between 4.7x10GPa and 1.91GPa. The range in shear strength is due to the estimated range of the contact area as described above. Figure 1: Shear strength contact-mode AFM assay Topography of one particle Topography of removed particle s = F ___ Ac . equation (1) s Determination Of CaP Crystal Shear Strength Using Contact-Mode Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) Gajendra Shekhawat, PhD Research Assistant Professor, Northwestern University Institute of Nanotechnology, Northwestern University Zach Suttin , BIOMET 3i, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA
Generalizing the Concept of Scalable Reversible Circuit Synthesis for Multiple-Valued Logic

Research on reversible circuits has gained significance due to its application in quantum computations and many further areas such as the design of encoders. At the same time, the use of multiple-valued logic gained importance since this reduces the number of required entities in physical systems (e.g. in a future quantum computer). While most research is still conducted in the Boolean domain, there exist only few approaches which realize reversible circuits for multiple-valued logic. Moreover, most of the previously proposed solutions for synthesis of multiple-valued reversible circuits are not scalable and consider ternary (i.e. 3-valued circuits) only. Instead of overcoming these issues by developing new synthesis approaches for multiple-valued reversible circuits from scratch, we propose to utilize the recent accomplishments in the design of Boolean reversible circuits and to generalize them for multiple-valued logic. To this end, we discuss how to generalize Quantum Multiple-valued Decision Diagram based (QMDD-based) synthesis – a synthesis approach for Boolean reversible circuits which has been proven to be scalable and which has been used in several recently developed design flows. The discussions eventually show how to bridge the development gap between Boolean and multiple-valued logic for reversible circuits.
Coreference Resolution in FreeLing 4.0

This paper presents the integration of RelaxCor into FreeLing. RelaxCor is a coreference resolution system based on constraint satisfaction that ranked second in the CoNLL-2011 shared task. FreeLing is an open-source library for NLP with more than ﬁfteen years of existence and a widespread user community. We present the difﬁculties found in porting RelaxCor from a shared task scenario to a production enviroment, as well as the solutions devised. We present two strategies for this integration and a rough evaluation of the obtained results.
International Trade after the Burst of the Globalization Bubble (Der Internationale Handel Nach Dem Platzen Der Globalisierungsblase)

The paper analyses the impact of the US financial market bubble on world goods and commodity markets as well as the consequences of the world financial crisis for international trade. The paper shows that the close interdependence between financial and goods markets has led during the US subprime market boom to an intensified international partition of labour between centres of commodity, industrial and financial service production. Given the past excessive production and consumption boom, the burst of the financial market bubble will lead to a consolidation of world goods flows. Despite single tendencies of protectionism, competitive depreciations are regarded as more likely than a significant increase in the world tariff level.
Design and Simulation of 6 T SRAM Cell Architectures in 32 nm Technology

A comparative study of various 6T SRAM cell layouts is presented at 32 nm, including four symmetric topologies. The comparison comprises two conventional cells, a thin cell, which is the current industry standard, and a recently proposed ultrathin cell. The evaluation is based on area efficiency, power dissipation and read/write delay, all of which are calculated with proper BSIM4 level simulations. The thin-cell appears to be the best topology in both power/delay performance and area.