Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
May‐Thurner syndrome: History of understanding and need for defining population prevalence

Patients with May‐Thurner syndrome (MTS) are at elevated risk of developing an extensive left iliofemoral deep vein thrombosis (DVT; localized blood clot) due to an anatomical variant where the right common iliac artery compresses the left common iliac vein against the lumbar spine. While MTS was initially presumed to be rare when it was first anatomically defined in 1957, case reports of this syndrome have recently become more frequent, perhaps due to improved imaging techniques allowing for enhanced visualization of the iliac veins. Still, the population burden of this condition is unknown, and there is speculation it may be higher than generally perceived. In the present review, we (a) review history of how MTS became recognized, (b) describe practical challenges of studying MTS in population‐based settings due to the specialized imaging required for diagnosis, (c) discuss why the contribution of MTS to DVT may be underestimated, (d) describe uncertainty regarding the degree of venous compression which leads to DVT, and (e) outline future research needs. Our goal is to raise awareness of MTS and spark additional research into the epidemiology of this condition, which may be an underappreciated causative venous thromboembolism risk factor.
Three‐Dimensional Prediction of the Nose for Facial Approximation in a Thai Population

Most of the previous studies about nose prediction were concentrated only some landmarks of the nose. This study aimed to generate prediction equations for ten landmarks of the nose in the midline and alar regions for forensic facial approximation. The six midline landmarks were the sellion, nasion–pronasale posterior, nasion–pronasale anterior, pronasale, nasal drop, and subnasale. The four landmarks of the alar region were the alare, superior alar groove, posterior alar groove, and inferior alar groove. We used the skull landmarks in the nasal, zygomatic, and maxillary bone to predict the landmarks of the nose. Cone‐beam computed tomography scans of 108 Thai subjects with normal BMI and age ranging from 21.0 to 50.9 years were obtained in a sitting position. The data were converted into three‐dimensional (3‐D) images of the skull and face. The Cartesian coordinates of the landmarks of the skull and nose were used to formulate the multiple regression equations. The formulated equations were tested in 24 new subjects. The mean differences in the predicted midline landmarks varied between −0.4 mm and 0.5 mm, whereas those for bilateral landmarks varied between −1.0 mm and 1.4 mm. In conclusion, the prediction equations formulated here will be beneficial for facial approximation of the nose in a Thai population.
PII: S0010-0277(99)00003-7

Four experiments used the head-turn preference procedure to assess whether infants could extract and remember information from auditory strings produced by a miniature artificial grammar. In all four experiments, infants generalized to new structure by discriminating new grammatical strings from ungrammatical ones after less than 2 min exposure to the grammar. Infants acquired specific information about the grammar as demonstrated by the ability to discriminate new grammatical strings from those with illegal endpoints (Experiment 1). Infants also discriminated new grammatical strings from those with string-internal pairwise violations (Experiments 2 and 3). Infants in Experiment 4 abstracted beyond specific word order as demonstrated by the ability to discriminate new strings produced by their training grammar from strings produced by another grammar despite a change in vocabulary between training and test. We discuss the implications of these findings for the study of language acquisition.  1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Does varicocelectomy improve semen in men with azoospermia and clinically palpable varicocele?

The effectiveness of varicocelectomy in nonobstructive azoospermia is controversial. The current study assessed the efficacy of microsurgical subinguinal varicocelectomy in nonobstructive azoospermic men with palpable varicocele and to evaluate predictive parameters of outcome. We reviewed the records of 723 patients who had microsurgical varicocelectomy and diagnostic testicular biopsy between 2012 and 2016 at a tertiary medical centre. Data pertaining to the physical, laboratory (semen analysis and hormonal profile) and histopathology features were examined, exploring the predictors of improvement in semen analysis post‐varicocelectomy. In total, 42 patients with mean age 35.71 ± 6.35 years were included. After a mean varicocelectomy follow‐up of 6.7 months, motile spermatozoa in the ejaculate could be observed in 11 patients (26.2). Out of all the factors examined, only testicular histopathology significantly predicted post‐varicocelectomy outcome, where 8/11 patients exhibited hypospermatogenesis, and 3/11 Sertoli cell‐only regained spermatozoa in semen. Microsurgical varicocelectomy in nonobstructive azoospermic men with clinically palpable varicocele can result in sperm appearance in the ejaculate with the highest success expected in hypospermatogenesis.
Reduction of Neonatal Neuropathology

One group of biochemical disorders that has been identified more often in babies born prematurely than at term are those which later are manifested in the same children as neurodevelopmental deficits. In particular, this would include autism and its related maladies such as Phelan-McDermid and Rett Syndromes [1]. Recently, Insulin-like Growth Factor (IGF-1) and some of its analogues, as originally discovered in bovine colostrum [2], have emerged as possible therapeutic agents for this group of disorders [3]. The cord blood level of IGF in preterm neonates is typically lower than in term infants [4,5]. Autism is characterized by inadequate oligodendrocyte myelinogenesis, a function which is commonly promoted by IGF [6,7]. The brain dysconnectivity found in cases of autism is thought to be a consequence of neuronal myelin deficiency in the first year of life [8]. Autism is more often detected in children who were born prematurely than at full-term [9]. The range of IGF concentrations in cord bloods of such neonates parallels this distinction [10]. Human milk contains more IGF per volume than cow’s milk; cow’s milk has more IGF than formula [11]. Experiments with animals have shown that IGF survives passage through the stomach, probably due to encirclement with casein. Children who were breast-fed exclusively for a full year have a lower incidence of autism than those fed by other means [12]. Hence, it would seem efficacious in reducing the incidence of neuropathologic conditions, especially in preemies, if at-risk neonates were fed breast milk exclusively for the first year of life.
Towards Real-Time Checkpoint/Restore for Migration in L4 Microkernel based Operating Systems

Real-time control applications are usually implemented by mapping their real-time model (i.e., tasks, shared resources, and external events) onto software instances of RTOS abstractions, such as threads, locks and ISRs. These instantiated objects and their interactions define what actually happens on the imperative machine; they implement the desired behavior. However, during the lifetime of many projects, the initial realtime model gets lost, becomes outdated, or never existed at all, as all (further) development has been code centric: The source code is all that we have. So developers face a situation where further modifications of the real-time system, but also any attempt of static RTOS tailoring, requires the extraction and the understanding of the employed RTOS instances and their concrete interactions from the source code. We present ARA, a tool capable of automatically retrieving instance-level knowledge (e.g., the instanciated threads, locks, or ISRs) from a given (real-time) application. ARA is an RTOSaware static analyzer that derives, given the application source, a graph of the employed RTOS abstractions, their concrete instances, and how these instances interact with each other at run time. We describe the design principles behind ARA and validate its implementation with four example applications for OSEK/AUTOSAR and FreeRTOS.
Correlation of core and downhole seismic velocities in high-pressure metamorphic rocks: a case study for the COSC-1 borehole, Sweden

Abstract. Deeply rooted thrust zones are key features of tectonic processes and the evolution of mountain belts. Exhumed and deeply eroded orogens like the Scandinavian Caledonides allow us to study such systems from the surface. Previous seismic investigations of the Seve Nappe Complex have shown indications of a strong but discontinuous reflectivity of this thrust zone, which is only poorly understood. The correlation of seismic properties measured on borehole cores with surface seismic data can constrain the origin of this reflectivity. To this end, we compare seismic velocities measured on cores to in situ velocities measured in the borehole. For some intervals of the COSC-1 borehole, the core and downhole velocities deviate by up to 2 km s−1. These differences in the core and downhole velocities are most likely the result of microcracks mainly due to depressurization. However, the core and downhole velocities of the intervals with mafic rocks are generally in close agreement. Seismic anisotropy measured in laboratory samples increases from about 5 % to 26 % at depth, correlating with a transition from gneissic to schistose foliation. Thus, metamorphic foliation has a clear expression in seismic anisotropy. These results will aid in the evaluation of core-derived seismic properties of high-grade metamorphic rocks at the COSC-1 borehole and elsewhere.
Guided Adaptive Credit Assignment for Sample Efficient Policy Optimization

Policy gradient methods have achieved remarkable successes in solving challenging reinforcement learning problems. However, it still often suﬀers from sparse reward tasks, which leads to poor sample eﬃciency during training. In this work, we propose a guided adaptive credit assignment method to do eﬀectively credit assignment for policy gradient methods. Motivated by entropy regularized policy optimization, our method extends the previous credit assignment methods by introducing more general guided adaptive credit assignment(GACA). The beneﬁt of GACA is a principled way of utilizing oﬀ-policy samples. The eﬀectiveness of proposed algorithm is demonstrated on the challenging WikiTableQuestions and WikiSQL benchmarks and an instruction following environment. The task is generating action sequences or program sequences from natural language questions or instructions, where only ﬁnal binary success-failure execution feedback is available. Empirical studies show that our method signiﬁcantly improves the sample eﬃciency of the state-of-the-art policy optimization approaches.
P7.1 A COMPARATIVE VERIFICATION OF TWO “CAP” INDICES IN FORECASTING THUNDERSTORMS

The forecasting of non-severe and severe thunderstorms in the continental United States (CONUS) for military customers is the responsibility of the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) CONUS Severe Weather Operations (CONUS OPS), and of the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) for the civilian government. Severe weather is defined by both of these organizations as the occurrence of a tornado, hail larger than 19 mm, wind speed of 25.7 m/s, or wind damage. These agencies produce ‘outlooks’ denoting areas where non-severe and severe thunderstorms are expected. Outlooks are issued for the current day, for ‘tomorrow’ and the day following. The ‘day 1’ forecast is normally issued 3 to 5 times per day, the ‘day 2’ and ‘day 3’ forecasts less frequently. The forecasting of severe weather has been well documented, for example by Miller (1972). The forecaster considers dozens of meteorological parameters, such as instability, moisture, boundaries, ‘triggering mechanisms’, low and upper-level jets, and many others. The individual presence of any of these parameters is generally a favorable indicator of severe weather. In general, the likelihood and intensity of thunderstorms increases as the number of parameters and their strength increases. Forecasters lean heavily upon computer model forecasts of severe weather parameters. AFWA uses the MM5 model operationally, and outputs digital forecast data and graphics every 3 hours for 72 hours. Over the CONUS, the model is run 4 times daily. The MM5 post-processor derives many of the severe weather ‘indices’ used by forecasters. One commonly used stability index is the Lifted Index (LI). The LI is based on a boundary layer air parcel lifted to 500 mb. The difference between the actual temperature and the parcel temperature is the Lifted Index. The Best Lifted Index (BLI) uses the ‘most-unstable’ parcel in the boundary layer (defined later). One severe weather parameter, the ‘cap’, is instead an inhibitor of convection. The cap is a temperature inversion, which separates relatively warm temperatures above the boundary layer from the cooler boundary layer. During the day, the boundary layer generally warms, becoming more buoyant or unstable. If sufficient warming occurs, the temperature inversion weakens, perhaps disappearing entirely. Boundary
CONFIDENCE-CALIBRATED ADVERSARIAL TRAINING and Detection: MORE ROBUST MODELS GENERALIZ-

Adversarial training is the standard to train models robust against adversarial examples. However, especially for complex datasets, adversarial training incurs a significant loss in accuracy and is known to generalize poorly to stronger attacks, e.g., larger perturbations or other threat models. In this paper, we introduce confidence-calibrated adversarial training (CCAT) where the key idea is to enforce that the confidence on adversarial examples decays with their distance to the attacked examples. We show that CCAT preserves better the accuracy of normal training while robustness against adversarial examples is achieved via confidence thresholding, i.e., detecting adversarial examples based on their confidence. Most importantly, in strong contrast to adversarial training, the robustness of CCAT generalizes to larger perturbations and other threat models, not encountered during training. For evaluation, we extend the commonly used robust test error to our detection setting, present an adaptive attack with backtracking and allow the attacker to select, per test example, the worst-case adversarial example from multiple blackand white-box attacks. We present experimental results using L∞, L2, L1 and L0 attacks on MNIST, SVHN and Cifar10.
Low-variance Gradient Estimates for the Plackett-Luce Distribution

Learning models with discrete latent variables using stochastic gradient descent remains a challenge due to the high variance of gradients. Modern variance reduction techniques mostly consider categorical distributions and have limited applicability when the number of possible outcomes becomes large. In this work, we consider models with latent permutations and propose control variates for the Plackett-Luce distribution. Our proof-of-concept experiment recasts optimization over permutations as a variational optimization w.r. t. the Plackett-Luce distribution and solves it using stochastic gradient descent.
Chapter 30 Conclusion : towards an endgame

Extensive collective bargaining coverage is an integral feature of a social market economy. Within western Europe, a high coverage rate was established in the period 1950 to 1980, based primarily, although not exclusively, on multi-employer industrial bargaining. The economic policies associated with social market economies were abandoned or downplayed, to diff erent degrees, from the 1980s onwards and neoliberal economic and social agendas adopted. This involved an increasing asymmetry between market-liberalising and market-correcting measures, which, in the fi eld of industrial relations, were aimed at improving employers’ capacity to adapt fl exibly to changing market conditions; or, as Baccaro and Howell (2017) put it, at expanding employers’ discretion to determine wages and other terms and conditions of employment. This is not to argue that neoliberal economic policies had the same eff ects throughout western Europe, but certainly that trade union organisation and collective bargaining were viewed through a very diff erent lens after 1980. Whereas previously there had been a broad understanding that trade unions and collective bargaining are an integral part of a social market economy, they are now viewed primarily as institutional ‘rigidities’ that hamper employers’ discretion.
Research on ocean data analysis model based on Canopy-FFCM clustering algorithm

With the further advancement of the research on marine environmental science, more and more attention has been paid to modern data monitoring technology. In order to obtain the current water quality information quickly, this paper combines the advantages of Canopy algorithm and FFCM algorithm, and proposes an improved Canopy-FFCM clustering algorithm. The algorithm firstly uses Canopy algorithm to quickly obtain the best clustering number, and then iterates through FFCM algorithm. Through the use of FCM algorithm, FFCM algorithm and improved Canopy-FFCM algorithm to conduct simulation analysis on samples for many times respectively, the experimental results show that compared with the traditional algorithm, the improved algorithm effectively reduces the time required for the analysis process and has good application value. Keywords—Water quality analysis; FCM clustering algorithm; Canopy-FFCM algorithm
Pattern Synthesis for Linear Phase Arrays using

This paper focuses on the antenna synthesis of uniformly spaced linear phase array using artificial neural network (ANN), and describes the basics of artificial neural network. Chebyshev method is used to compare with this approach. Although, Chebyshev method is able to generate perfectly leveled side lobes, ANN does not have the phenomena of up-swing in edges amplitude of the excitation and grating lobes does not appear in ANN when the distances between elements are increased. The basic rule is to alter the weights (current distributions of elements) such that the error between the output values and the target values (desired values) is minimized. In this paper, single layer feed forward neural network with supervised learning is used. An adaptive linear element algorithm (ADALINE) is used for training artificial neural network. خلا ـ صلا ـــــــ ة تاكبشلا مادختساب ةٌواستملا تافاسملا تاذ ةٌطخلا تاٌئاوهلا ةفوفصمل ًئاوهلا فٌلوت ىلع زكرٌ ثحبلا اذه فٌش ًبج ةقٌرط تمدختسا. ةٌعانصلا ةٌبصعلا تاكبشلا تاٌساسأ فصو ثحبلا اذه ًف مت اضٌأو ،ةٌعانصلا ةٌبصعلا ٌرط نأ نم مغرلا ىلع. ةقٌرطلا هذه عم ةنراقملل تاٌوتسم نم ىوتسم يأ ىلع لصحت نأ عٌطتست فٌش ًبج ةق كلذكو ةفوفصملا ًتٌاهن دنع تاراٌتلا مٌقل حجرأتلا ةرهاظ كلمت لا ةٌعانصلا ةٌبصعلا تاكبشلا نأ لاإ ،ةٌبناجلا صوصفلا . رصانعلا نٌب ةفاسملا ةداٌز دنع ةزجاحلا صوصفلا رهظت لا زوت( نازولأا ًف رٌغت ًه ةٌساسلأا ةدعاقلا فدهلا مٌقلاو ةجراخلا مٌقلا نٌب قرفلا ثٌحب )رصانعلل تاراٌتلا تاعٌ كمٌ ام لقا )اهب بوغرملا مٌقلا( ن . ةدحاو ةقبط ىلع يوتحتو ًمامأ هاجتاب ةٌذغت تاذ ةٌعانصلا ةٌبصعلا تاكبشلا مادختسا مت ثحبلا اذه ًف مٌلعت عم ا بٌردتل ةٌطخلا ةٌفٌكتلا ةٌمزراوخ تمدختسا كلذكو ،بقارم .ةٌعانصلا ةٌبصعلا تاكبشل Asst. Lect. Sadiq K. Ahmed Electrical Engineering Department, College of Engineering Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad, Iraq Journal of Engineering and Development, Vol. 11, No. 1, March (2007) ISSN 1813-7822 82
Assessing Smallholder Farming and Poverty in Post-Conflict-Sierra Leone

Achieving food security in the world continues to be a challenge. Food insecurity in Africa remains a persistent and daunting challenge in which 230 million Africans constituting 20 percent of the continent’s population are classified as hungry. The challenges will intensify in the coming decades, as Africa’s population, currently growing at 2.5 percent annually, is set to double to two billion by 2050. This situation is the case also for Sierra Leone. By 2050, the population of Sierra Leone is expected to be doubled to 12.4 million people. Smallholder farming might offer a solution to food insecurity through its potential source of increased agricultural production. The study therefore seeks to provide an assessment of smallholder farming in post-conflict Sierra Leone from 2003-2012, within the framework of the production function relation with a view to address food Security concerns in the Country. Findings of the study show that smallholder farmers have been making significant contribution towards food security, economic growth and poverty reduction in Sierra Leone. To maintain this momentum, policy makers including the government and donors should promote the commercialization of smallholder agriculture through increasing productivity intensification, value addition, post-harvest infrastructure and marketing with emphasis in commodity chain, development and institutional strengthening to build self-reliance of farmer-based organizations. On this basis, future study on food security issues is necessary with a view to further provoke policy discourse; such study could be the nexus between the strengthening of Agricultural institutions and Smallholder farming.
Improving the Sustainability of Self-Consumption with Cooperative DC Microgrids

The development of microgrids is of great interest to facilitate the integration of distributed generation in electricity networks, improving the sustainability of energy production. Microgrids in DC (DC-MG) provide advantages for the use of some types of renewable generation and energy storage systems, such as batteries. In this article, a possible practical implementation of an isolated DC-MG for residential use with a cooperative operation of the different nodes is proposed. The main criterion is to achieve a very simple design with only primary control in a residential area. This application achieves a simple system, with low implementation costs, in which each user has autonomy but benefits from the support of the other users connected to the microgrid, which improves its reliability. The description of the elements necessary to create this cooperative system is one of the contributions of the work. Another important contribution is the analysis of the operation of the microgrid as a whole, where each node can be, arbitrarily, a consumer or an energy generator. The proposed structures could promote the use of small distributed generation and energy storage systems as the basis for a new paradigm of a more sustainable electricity grid of the future.
Climate and Land Use Influences on Bacteria Levels in Stormwater

The influence of climatic variables and land use on fecal coliform (FC) levels in stormwater collected from outfalls throughout southern Vancouver Island between 1995 and 2011 are examined through statistical analyses, Fourier analysis, Multiple Linear Regression (LR) and Multivariate Logistic Regression (MLR). Kendall’s τ-b demonstrated that FC levels were significantly and positively correlated with the amount of residential area within a drainage catchment generating the runoff, and that FC levels were location dependent. Climatic variables of temperature and antecedent dry period length were significantly and positively correlated with FC levels at both the sampling location level and across the region overall. Precipitation and flowrates were negatively correlated with FC levels. Fourier analysis showed that monthly FC levels shared the same 12 month cycle (peaking in July) as precipitation and temperature. MLR modelling was applied by aggregating the LogFC data by order of magnitude. The MLR model shows that the data are subject to different influences depending on the season and as well, the month of the year. The land use and climate analyses suggest that future climate change impact studies attempted on nearshore bacterial water quality should be conducted at the urban catchment scale.