Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A randomized, controlled multicenter study evaluating focused ultrasound treatment for fat reduction in the flanks

ABSTRACT Introduction: Energy-based cosmetic devices offer an in-office treatment option, with minimal downtime, to non-invasively remove unwanted fat. We evaluated focused, pulsed ultrasound treatment to randomized flanks, compared to corresponding non-treated contralateral flanks. Material and Methods: Subjects were enrolled at three sites for a series of focused ultrasound treatments to a single flank, with the contralateral flank remaining untreated throughout the study. Success criteria included measureable fat thickness reduction on ultrasound imaging in the treated areas at 16 weeks after the final treatment session, and correct identification of the post-treatment photo and treated flank in at least 80% of evaluated images, as assessed by two blinded evaluators. Results: The post-treatment flank photo and treated flank side were correctly identified in 82% and 93% of cases, respectively. All study subjects demonstrated significant fat reduction in their treated area, as measured by ultrasound and skin caliper. Subjects expressed a high satisfaction from treatment outcomes. There were no complications with treatment. Conclusion: A series of three ultrasound treatments resulted in significant fat reduction in treated flanks. Although treatment results are more modest than with liposuction, non-invasive ultrasound treatment may provide an attractive alternative for patients seeking an in-office, nonsurgical procedure for fat reduction.
A 36.3-to-38.2GHz −216dBc/Hz2 40nm CMOS fractional-N FMCW chirp synthesizer PLL with a continuous-time bandpass delta-sigma time-to-digital converter

Automotive radar and other mm-wave applications require high-quality frequency synthesizers that offer fast settling and low phase noise. Analog PLLs still dominate in the mm-wave range, but all-digital PLLs (ADPLLs) promise greater flexibility and area efficiency. However, existing mm-wave ADPLLs are large, fail to offer low in-band phase noise [1] or must rely on extensive calibration [2]. Performance limitations of conventional TDCs still remain a major roadblock for the adoption of high-frequency ADPLLs. To address this problem, this work introduces a noise-shaping TDC based on a 4th-order bandpass ΔΣ modulator (BPDSM) to achieve low integrated noise (183fsrms) and high linearity. Our approach enables low in-band phase noise (−85dBc/Hz @ 100kHz) for wide loop bandwidths (>1MHz) in a calibration-free single-loop digital 36.3-to-38.2GHz PLL. The prototype PLL effectively generates fast (500MHz/55μs) and precise (824kHzrms frequency error) triangular chirps for FMCW radar applications.
Exploring Tree-Habitat Associations in a Chinese Subtropical Forest Plot Using a Molecular Phylogeny Generated from DNA Barcode Loci

Elucidating the ecological mechanisms underlying community assembly in subtropical forests remains a central challenge for ecologists. The assembly of species into communities can be due to interspecific differences in habitat associations, and there is increasing evidence that these associations may have an underlying phylogenetic structure in contemporary terrestrial communities. In other words, by examining the degree to which closely related species prefer similar habitats and the degree to which they co-occur, ecologists are able to infer the mechanisms underlying community assembly. Here we implement this approach in a diverse subtropical tree community in China using a long-term forest dynamics plot and a molecular phylogeny generated from three DNA barcode loci. We find that there is phylogenetic signal in plant-habitat associations (i.e. closely related species tend to prefer similar habitats) and that patterns of co-occurrence within habitats are typically non-random with respect to phylogeny. In particular, we found phylogenetic clustering in valley and low-slope habitats in this forest, indicating a filtering of lineages plays a dominant role in structuring communities in these habitats and we found evidence of phylogenetic overdispersion in high-slope, ridge-top and high-gully habitats, indicating that distantly related species tended to co-occur in these high elevation habitats and that lineage filtering is less important in structuring these communities. Thus we infer that non-neutral niche-based processes acting upon evolutionarily conserved habitat preferences explain the assembly of local scale communities in the forest studied.
Assessing Fishing and Marine Biodiversity Changes Using Fishers' Perceptions: The Spanish Mediterranean and Gulf of Cadiz Case Study

Background The expansion of fishing activities has intensively transformed marine ecosystems worldwide. However, available time series do not frequently cover historical periods. Methodology Fishers' perceptions were used to complement data and characterise changes in fishing activity and exploited ecosystems in the Spanish Mediterranean Sea and Gulf of Cadiz. Fishers' interviews were conducted in 27 fishing harbours of the area, and included 64 fishers from ages between 20 to >70 years old to capture the experiences and memories of various generations. Results are discussed in comparison with available independent information using stock assessments and international convention lists. Principal Findings According to fishers, fishing activity substantially evolved in the area with time, expanding towards deeper grounds and towards areas more distant from the coast. The maximum amount of catch ever caught and the weight of the largest species ever captured inversely declined with time. Fishers (70%) cited specific fishing grounds where depletion occurred. They documented ecological changes of marine biodiversity during the last half of the century: 94% reported the decline of commercially important fish and invertebrates and 61% listed species that could have been extirpated, with frequent mentions to cartilaginous fish. Declines and extirpations were in line with available quantitative evaluations from stock assessments and international conventions, and were likely linked to fishing impacts. Conversely, half of interviewed fishers claimed that several species had proliferated, such as cephalopods, jellyfish, and small-sized fish. These changes were likely related to trophic cascades due to fishing and due to climate change effects. The species composition of depletions, local extinctions and proliferations showed differences by region suggesting that regional dynamics are important when analysing biodiversity changes. Conclusions/Significance Using fishers' perceptions, fishing and ecological changes in the study area were documented. The recovery of local ecological knowledge provides valuable information complementing quantitative monitoring and evaluation surveys.
Can Vertical Integration Reduce Hospital Readmissions? A Difference-in-Differences Approach

Background: Vertical integration is expected to improve communication and coordination between inpatient care and care after discharge. Despite being used across health systems worldwide, evidence about its impact on readmissions is sparse and contradictory. Objective: To assess the impact of vertical integration on hospital readmissions. Research Design, Subjects, and Measures: Using difference-in-differences we compared readmissions before and after vertical integration in 6 Portuguese hospitals for years 2004–2013. A control group with 6 similar hospitals not integrated was utilized. Considered outcome was 30-day unplanned readmission. We used logistic regression at the admission level and accounted for patients’ risk factors using claims data. Analyses for each hospital and selected conditions were also run. Results: Our results suggest that readmissions decreased overall after vertical integration [odds ratio (OR)=0.900; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.812–0.997]. Hospital analysis indicated that there was no impact for 2 hospitals (OR=0.960; 95% CI, 0.848–1.087 and OR=0.944; 95% CI, 0.857–1.038), and a positive effect in 4 hospitals (greatest effect: OR=0.811; 95% CI, 0.736–0.894). A positive evolution was observed for a limited number of conditions, with better results for diabetes with complications (OR=0.689; 95% CI, 0.525–0.904), but no impact regarding congestive heart failure (OR=1.067; 95% CI, 0.827–1.377). Conclusions: Merging acute and primary care providers was associated with reduced readmissions, even though improvements were not found for all institutions or condition-specific groups. There are still challenges to be addressed regarding the success of vertical integration in reducing 30-day hospital readmissions.
Reliable and Real-Time End-to-End Delivery Protocol in Wireless Sensor Networks

Many routing protocols have been proposed to handle reliability and real-time routing energy efficiency for wireless sensor networks. In this paper we propose a new routing protocol with QoS based capabilities for WSNs. We used priority queues for improve real-time and non-real-time packets forwarding according to deadline of them. The protocol finds a best-cost, time-sensitive packet forwarding mechanism for real-time data with minimum consumption of the energy. In order to avoid of congestion in network our protocol drops those packets who can't reach their destination in specified time. For service quality assurance in reliability domain we used packet reception rate as an important parameter (PRR) in selecting of neighbor nodes. Simulation results show that our new approach how can provide quality of service parameters.
Cohort Profile: The PROspective Québec (PROQ) Study on Work and Health.

Cohort Profile: The PROspective Québec (PROQ) Study on Work and Health Xavier Trudel,* Mahée Gilbert-Ouimet, Alain Milot, Caroline S Duchaine, Michel Vézina, Danielle Laurin, Hélène Sultan-Taı̈eb and Chantal Brisson; see Appendix 1 for the complete list of investigators and collaborators Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Laval University, Québec, Canada, Population Health and Optimal Health Practices Research Unit, CHU de Québec-Université Laval Research Center, Québec, Canada, Department of Medicine, Laval University, Québec, Canada, National Institute of Public Health of Québec (INSPQ), Québec, Canada, Faculty of Pharmacy, Laval University, Québec, Canada and Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM), School of Management, Montréal, ON, Canada
SR-ARQ delay statistics on N-state Markov channels with finite round trip delay

The packet delay statistics of a fully reliable selective repeat (SR) ARQ scheme are investigated. A N-state discrete time Markov channel model is used to describe the packet error process and the channel round trip delay is considered to be finite, i.e., ACK/NACK messages are received at the transmitted m channel slots after the packet transmission is started. The ARQ packet delay statistics are evaluated by means of an exact analysis by jointly tracking packet errors and channel state evolution. Furthermore, a procedure to derive a Markov channel description of a Rayleigh fading process is presented and the delay statistics obtained from the Markovian analysis is compared with those estimated by simulation of the ARQ protocol over the actual fading process. Finally, some discussion on the accuracy of the delay statistics obtained from the Markov channel representation of the actual fading process is reported.
A 16b 6GS/S nyquist DAC with IMD <-90dBc up to 1.9GHz in 16nm CMOS

Advanced communication systems require DACs with high linearity over a wide bandwidth while consuming low power and small area [1]-[6]. In this work, a 16b 6GS/s Nyquist current-steering DAC in 16nm CMOS is presented. Utilizing bounded INL calibration and thermometer DEM to tackle voltage and timing errors, this DAC achieves an INL<+/-0.25LSB, IMD<-90dBc up to 1.9GHz and SFDR>80dBc up to 900MHz while occupying an area of 0.52mm2 and dissipating 350mW from 1.0V and 3.0V supplies.
The Contribution of Hemolysis to Early Jaundice in Normal Newborns

OBJECTIVE. Neonatal jaundice is the result of an imbalance between bilirubin production and elimination, and our objective was to clarify the contribution of an increase in bilirubin production to hyperbilirubinemia in newborns. METHODS. We measured the end-tidal carbon monoxide concentration corrected for ambient carbon monoxide concentration in 108 jaundiced newborns (total serum bilirubin level >75th percentile) and 164 control newborns in our well-infant nursery, for the first 4 days after birth. RESULTS. Mean end-tidal carbon monoxide levels decreased in the control infants in the first 4 days but increased in the hyperbilirubinemic group. The differences between the jaundiced and nonjaundiced infants were statistically significant on all days. CONCLUSIONS. Before hospital discharge, most infants with bilirubin levels >75th percentile are producing significantly more bilirubin than those with lower bilirubin levels. Because the ability of newborns to conjugate bilirubin is significantly impaired in the first few days, even a small increase in the rate of production can contribute to the development of hyperbilirubinemia. These data suggest that increased heme catabolism is an important mechanism responsible for hyperbilirubinemia in the first 4 days after birth.
Interactive Language Learning by Robots: The Transition from Babbling to Word Forms

The advent of humanoid robots has enabled a new approach to investigating the acquisition of language, and we report on the development of robots able to acquire rudimentary linguistic skills. Our work focuses on early stages analogous to some characteristics of a human child of about 6 to 14 months, the transition from babbling to first word forms. We investigate one mechanism among many that may contribute to this process, a key factor being the sensitivity of learners to the statistical distribution of linguistic elements. As well as being necessary for learning word meanings, the acquisition of anchor word forms facilitates the segmentation of an acoustic stream through other mechanisms. In our experiments some salient one-syllable word forms are learnt by a humanoid robot in real-time interactions with naive participants. Words emerge from random syllabic babble through a learning process based on a dialogue between the robot and the human participant, whose speech is perceived by the robot as a stream of phonemes. Numerous ways of representing the speech as syllabic segments are possible. Furthermore, the pronunciation of many words in spontaneous speech is variable. However, in line with research elsewhere, we observe that salient content words are more likely than function words to have consistent canonical representations; thus their relative frequency increases, as does their influence on the learner. Variable pronunciation may contribute to early word form acquisition. The importance of contingent interaction in real-time between teacher and learner is reflected by a reinforcement process, with variable success. The examination of individual cases may be more informative than group results. Nevertheless, word forms are usually produced by the robot after a few minutes of dialogue, employing a simple, real-time, frequency dependent mechanism. This work shows the potential of human-robot interaction systems in studies of the dynamics of early language acquisition.
Dynamic hand gesture recognition based on 3D pattern assembled trajectories

Over the past few years, advances in commercial 3D sensors have substantially promoted the research of dynamic hand gesture recognition. On a other side, whole body gestures recognition has also attracted increasing attention since the emergence of Kinect like sensors. One may notice that both research topics deal with human-made motions and are likely to face similar challenges. In this paper, our aim is thus to evaluate the applicability of an action recognition feature-set to model dynamic hand gestures using skeleton data. Furthermore, existing datasets are often composed of pre-segmented gestures that are performed with a single hand only. We collected therefore a more challenging dataset, which contains unsegmented streams of 13 hand gesture classes, performed with either a single hand or two hands. Our approach is first evaluated on an existing dataset, namely DHG dataset, and then using our collected dataset. Better results compared to previous approaches are reported.
An Early Warning System Based on Reputation for Energy Control Systems

Most of energy control or Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems are very dependent on advanced technologies and on traditional security mechanisms for protecting the a system against anomalous events. Security mechanisms are not enough to be used in critical systems, since they can only detect anomalous events occurring at a certain moment in time. For this reason it becomes of paramount importance the usage of intelligent systems with capability for preventing anomalous situations and reacting against them on time. This type of systems are, for example, early warning systems (EWS). In this paper, we propose an EWS based on Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) (under the ISA100.11a standard) and reputation for controling network behavior. The WSN are organized into clusters where a cluster head (CH) is designated. This CH will contain a Reputation Manager Module. The usability of this approach is also analyzed considering a smart grid scenario.
Prediction in obstructive sleep apnoea: diagnosis, comorbidity risk, and treatment outcomes

ABSTRACT Introduction: Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is common disorder, under-diagnosed, and can be difficult to treat adequately across the lifespan. OSA is a heterogeneous disorder with different risk factors, clinical presentations, pathophysiology and morbidity. Prediction has an important role in OSA recognition and management, embodied in screening methods to circumvent the need for diagnosis by overnight sleep studies and prediction of treatment efficacy and adherence. Other opportunities exist in predicting susceptibility to comorbidity and health outcomes. Areas covered: This review summarizes current prediction strategies as applied to OSA, covering diagnosis, consequences and treatment outcomes, as well as potential emergent areas of focus. Expert commentary: Prediction of disease risk, susceptibility to comorbidity, and treatment outcomes are important aspects of precision medicine. The key to accurate prediction in OSA relies on comprehensive understanding of disease phenotypes.
A Lightweight Intrusion Alert Fusion System

In this paper, we present some practical experience on implementing an alert fusion mechanism from our project. After investigation on most of the existing alert fusion systems, we found the current body of work alternatively weighed down in the mire of insecure design or rarely deployed because of their complexity. As confirmed by our experimental analysis, unsuitable mechanisms could easily be submerged by an abundance of useless alerts. Even with the use of methods that achieve a high fusion rate and low false positives, attack is also possible. To find the solution, we carried out analysis on a series of alerts generated by well-known datasets as well as realistic alerts from the Australian Honey-Pot. One important finding is that one alert has more than an 85% chance of being fused in the following 5 alerts. Of particular importance is our design of a novel lightweight Cache-based Alert Fusion Scheme, called CAFS. CAFS has the capacity to not only reduce the quantity of useless alerts generated by IDS (Intrusion Detection System), but also enhance the accuracy of alerts, therefore greatly reducing the cost of fusion processing. We also present reasonable and practical specifications for the target-oriented fusion policy that provides a quality guarantee on alert fusion, and as a result seamlessly satisfies the process of successive correlation. Our experimental results showed that the CAFS easily attained the desired level of survivable, inescapable alert fusion design. Furthermore, as a lightweight scheme, CAFS can easily be deployed and excel in a large amount of alert fusions, which go towards improving the usability of system resources. To the best of our knowledge, our work is a novel exploration in addressing these problems from a survivable, inescapable and deployable point of view.
Home-based hand rehabilitation with a robotic glove in hemiplegic patients after stroke: a pilot feasibility study

Abstract Objective: To evaluate the feasibility and safety of home rehabilitation of the hand using a robotic glove, and, in addition, its effectiveness, in hemiplegic patients after stroke. Methods: In this non-randomized pilot study, 21 hemiplegic stroke patients (Ashworth spasticity index ≤ 3) were prescribed, after in-hospital rehabilitation, a 2-month home-program of intensive hand training using the Gloreha Lite glove that provides computer-controlled passive mobilization of the fingers. Feasibility was measured by: number of patients who completed the home-program, minutes of exercise and number of sessions/patient performed. Safety was assessed by: hand pain with a visual analog scale (VAS), Ashworth spasticity index for finger flexors, opponents of the thumb and wrist flexors, and hand edema (circumference of forearm, wrist and fingers), measured at start (T0) and end (T1) of rehabilitation. Hand motor function (Motricity Index, MI), fine manual dexterity (Nine Hole Peg Test, NHPT) and strength (Grip test) were also measured at T0 and T1. Results: Patients performed, over a mean period 56 (49–63) days, a total of 1699 (1353–2045) min/patient of exercise with Gloreha Lite, 5.1 (4.3–5.8) days/week. Seventeen patients (81%) completed the full program. The mean VAS score of hand pain, Ashworth spasticity index and hand edema did not change significantly at T1 compared to T0. The MI, NHPT and Grip test improved significantly (p = 0.0020, 0.0156 and 0.0024, respectively) compared to baseline. Conclusion: Gloreha Lite is feasible and safe for use in home rehabilitation. The efficacy data show a therapeutic effect which need to be confirmed by a randomized controlled study.