Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Guest Editorial An Overview of Biomedical Robotics and Bio-Mechatronics Systems and Applications

The studies on bio-mechatronics systems and applications have been carried out for more than three decades, to overcome the challenges raised from both theoretical and experimental sides, especially those posed by the application of mechatronics and robotics in healthcare and medical fields. The research on biomedical robotics and bio-mechatronics covers a diverse spectrum of rapid rising interdisciplinary areas including bio-inspired robots for industrial, military, medical, and rehabilitation applications. This special issue aims at showcasing the most exciting and recent advances in the application of robotics and mechatronics in various fields and brings together a broad spectrum of topics covering various definition, development, control, and deployment of bio-mechatronics/robot systems, including social robots, wearable robot systems such as exoskeleton, rehabilitation robot, tele-robot, and a numbers of systems engineering approaches such as modeling, optimization and control. This special issue is to give analysis to the biological systems from a “bio-mechatronic” point of view, and to investigate the engineering and scientific principles behind their remarkable performance. High-quality original papers of innovative ideas and concepts have been included in the special issue of biomedical robotics and bio-mechatronics systems and application. While the design and development of bio-inspired machines and systems with novel and high performance in various applications have been investigated as well. The recent development of multidisciplinary research shall contribute to the promotion of the research on biomedical robotics and bio-mechatronics systems and application, with application to transportation, diagnosis, surgery, assistive technology, prosthetics, personal assistance, rehabilitation, health care, in laboratory, hospital, and the real world.
QuickChick: Property-based testing for Coq

Co-designing software or hardware systems and their formal proofs is an appealing idea, with the expectation that the rigor enforced by formal methods will percolate the whole design. In practice however, carrying out formal proofs while designing even a relatively simple system can be an exercise in frustration, with a great deal of time spent attempting to prove things about broken definitions, and countless iterations for discovering the correct lemmas and strengthening inductive invariants. We believe that property-based testing (PBT) can dramatically decrease the number of failed proof attempts and reduce the overall cost of producing formally verified systems. Despite the existence of experimental tools [Wil11], Coq is still lagging behind proof assistants like Isabelle, which provides several mature PBT tools (e.g. [Bul12]). We aim to improve the PBT support in Coq, while also investigating several innovations we could add into the mix like polarized mutation testing and a language-based approach to custom generation. We are also exploring whether PBT could bring more confidence to the implementation of Coq itself.
Inflammation inhibitory effects of sirolimus and paclitaxel-eluting stents on interleukin-1β-induced coronary artery in-stent restenosis in pigs.

BACKGROUND Coronary artery in-stent restenosis (ISR) and late stent thrombosis remain as important complications of stenting. The inflammation reactions to sirolimus and paclitaxel-eluting stents were investigated in a swine stenosis model induced by interleukin (IL)-1β. METHODS Mini pigs (n = 12; 2-3 months old and weighing 25-30 kg) were subjected to thoracotomy. Segments (10 mm) of the mid left anterior descending coronary artery and left circumflex coronary artery were exposed and aseptically wrapped with a cotton mesh soaked with IL-1β (5 µg). After 2 weeks, the animals were anesthetized and quantitative coronary arteriography (QCA) was performed. The stenosis sites were randomized into three groups for stent insertion: a sirolimus-eluting stent (SES) group (Firebird(TM), n = 7), a paclitaxel-eluting stent (PES) group (TAXUS(TM), n = 9), and a bare-metal stent (BMS) group (YINYITM, Dalian Yinyi Biomaterials Development Co., Ltd, China, n = 8). The three different stents were randomly implanted into stenosis segments. Expression of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), P-selectin and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) was determined by reverse transcription-coupled polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). RESULTS QCA showed severe stenosis in IL-1β treated segments. The SES and PES groups showed lower 1-month angiographic late lumen loss (LLL) within the stent and the lesion compared with BMS (P < 0.05) by follow-up QCA. The SES showed lower LLL than that of PES in reducing 1-month inflammation lesions in pigs by follow-up QCA ((0.15 ± 0.06) mm vs. (0.33 ± 0.01) mm, P < 0.0001). The neointimal hyperplasia areas in SES and PES showed lower than those of BMS (SES (11.6 ± 1.7) mm(2), PES (27.2 ± 1.6) mm(2) vs. BMS (76.2 ± 1.3) mm(2), P < 0.0001). The mRNA expression of MCP-1 by RT-PCR in SES and PES showed lower than that of BMS at 30 days after stenting (SES 0.20 ± 0.03, PES 0.48 ± 0.49 vs. BMS 0.58 ± 0.07, P < 0.05). Levels of VCAM-1 in SES were significantly lower than those of PES and BMS (SES 0.35 ± 0.08 vs. PES 0.65 ± 0.13, BMS 0.70 ± 0.06, P < 0.05). Histochemical immunostaining of vessel walls showed lower inflammatory chemokine MCP-1 expression in the SES and PES groups compared with BMS. CONCLUSION SESs were superior in reducing 1-month angiographic LLL in inflammation lesions in pigs, strongly suggesting that SESs can suppress inflammatory reactions in ISR at multiple points.
Measuring port performance and productivity

ABSTRACT Ports provide variety of service activities for the vessels, cargo and inland transport. The degree of satisfaction obtained by the shippers will indicate the level of port performance achieved. Therefore, the ports have to offer very satisfactory services to vessel operators and at the same time managed to provide optimal infrastructure based on the expected vessel type and cargo to be handled. The port performance thus requires a set of measures related to vessels stay at port, rate of loading/unloading the cargo and quality storage/inland transport. There exists a strong interrelationship between these set of measures and various port performance indicators. In the present paper, an attempt has been made to establish the relationship between the various observed performance parameters and the productivity (total traffic handled) of the port. Analysis shows that the number of vessels handled and the output per hook per shift have a strong positive correlation of 0.975 and 0.967 respectively . The idling time at berth has strong negative correlation of -0.934. The results of the study is useful in port planning and provide optimum port capacity and infrastructure like number of berths, quay cranes, tug boats and storage facilities for a port terminal.
Building SMEs’ Competitive Advantage and the Organizational Agility of Apparel Retailers in Indonesia: The role of ICT as an Initial Trigger

The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) could make Small Medium Enterprises (SME) capable of capturing future potential markets. This study investigates how the use of ICT affects firms’ agility and finally ends in their competitive advantage. In other words, this study examines how firms’ ICT capabilities directly enhance their competitive advantage. Their ICT capability also affects the firms’ competitive agitlity indirectly by mediating their business agility. This study infers that if small business firms would like to enhance their supply chains and customer relationship management, they should adopt ICT as a tool to transform their businesses. This transformation improves small firms’ competitiveness levels because it allows them to manage all their customers. Meanwhile, the small business firms could enhance their agility due to their suppliers’ closeness. This means that the small business firms have posited the concepts and philosophy suggested by the resources dependent theory.
Visual comfort assessment metric based on salient object motion information in stereoscopic video

Objective assessment of visual comfort for stereoscopic video is of great importance for stereoscopic image safety issue. We propose a novel visual comfort assessment metric framework that systematically exploits human visual attention models. In a stereoscopic video shot, perceptually significant regions where human subjects pay more attention are likely to play an essential role in determining the overall level of visual comfort. As a specific example of this concept, we develop a visual comfort metric that quantifies the level of visual discomfort caused by fast salient object motion. The performance of the proposed visual comfort metric has been evaluated using natural stereoscopic videos. The experimental results show that the proposed visual comfort metric significantly improves the correlations with subjective judgment.
School-Based Mental Health Services in Baltimore

This study investigated the association between school-based mental health services and two proposed but untested outcomes of these services: (a) school climate and (b) patterns of referrals to special education. Results from a climate survey found that teachers and staff in eight elementary schools with expanded school mental health (ESMH) services gave higher ratings on the survey’s mental health climate subscale than respondents from schools in a matched comparison group. No differences were found for the General Climate subscale of the survey. Results also indicated that teachers in ESMH schools referred fewer students to the special education neligibility process because of emotional and behavioral issues and that fewer students in ESMH schools were found eligible for special education for emotional and behavioral disabilities. Results of this study provide beginning evidence for the positive impact of ESMH programs on these two school wide indicators of functioning.
Dynamics of intraoceanic subduction initiation: 1. Oceanic detachment fault inversion and the formation of supra‐subduction zone ophiolites

Subduction initiation is a critical link in the plate tectonic cycle. Intraoceanic subduction zones can form along transform faults and fracture zones, but how subduction nucleates parallel to mid‐ocean ridges, as in e.g., the Neotethys Ocean during the Jurassic, remains a matter of debate. In recent years, extensional detachment faults have been widely documented adjacent to slow‐spreading and ultraslow‐spreading ridges where they cut across the oceanic lithosphere. These structures are extremely weak due to widespread occurrence of serpentine and talc resulting from hydrothermal alteration, and can therefore effectively localize deformation. Here, we show geochemical, tectonic, and paleomagnetic evidence from the Jurassic ophiolites of Albania and Greece for a subduction zone formed in the western Neotethys parallel to a spreading ridge along an oceanic detachment fault. With 2‐D numerical modeling exploring the evolution of a detachment‐ridge system experiencing compression, we show that serpentinized detachments are always weaker than spreading ridges. We conclude that, owing to their extreme weakness, oceanic detachments can effectively localize deformation under perpendicular far‐field forcing, providing ideal conditions to nucleate new subduction zones parallel and close to (or at) spreading ridges. Direct implication of this, is that resumed magmatic activity in the forearc during subduction initiation can yield widespread accretion of suprasubduction zone ophiolites at or close to the paleoridge. Our new model casts the enigmatic origin of regionally extensive ophiolite belts in a novel geodynamic context, and calls for future research on three‐dimensional modeling of subduction initiation and how upper plate extension is associated with that.
Public Service Announcements to Promote Physical Activity

The World Health Organization promotes physical activity (PA) as important for successful maintenance of health, but many individuals are inactive. Despite the potential for public service announcements (PSAs) to communicate health information and promote behavior change, no previous research on developing video PSAs to promote PA was found. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to examine how video PSAs designed for public health campaigns affect future levels of intention to engage in PA. The PSAs assessed perceived effectiveness of message foci and the impact of stage of change readiness. They were developed specifically for this study using the model of goal directed behavior as the foundation. Participants were recruited via SurveyMonkey, an Internet-based survey research platform that included an option for referral sampling to view PSAs with the message foci of empathy, fear, information, and combination to determine which focus area was perceived as most persuasive for promoting PA. The present study examined moderating effects of current PA habits, stage of change readiness, and affect at time of viewing PSA. Differences in perceived effectiveness between the different message foci were found with participants perceiving the empathy video as most effective, followed by combination videos, with fear and information being perceived least effective. For participants who met the World Health Organization recommendations for PA, the PSA based on fear was most effective. Many participants (61%) had a positive affect while watching the four PSA videos. Stages of change indicated over 28% of participants were in precontemplation and 11% were in action. Social implications are based on improving public health communication to promote healthy behavior and physical exercise
China approves world's first oncolytic virus therapy for cancer treatment.

Oncolytic virus research got a welcome boost last November when Chinese regulators approved the world’s fi rst oncolytic viral therapy for cancer, Shanghai Sunway Biotech’s genetically modifi ed adenovirus H101. “ It’s fantastic for the fi eld, ” said John Bell , Ph.D., of the Ottawa Health Research Institute in Canada. “ We needed to have something that was a success, and so I think this is a good fi rst start. ” Oncolytic viruses are live viruses that selectively kill cancer cells. Shanghai Sunway Biotech expects to begin marketing H101 in July for treating head and neck cancer. The company is also testing the virus in lung cancer and has bought the rights to Onyx-15, an almost identical virus that Onyx Pharmaceuticals took into phase III trials in 2000 but later dropped after its marketing partner bailed out. Now the Chinese effort has breathed new life into the Onyx virus. Sunway’s next step, says company president Hu Fang, M.D., is to compare it with H101 in a Chinese trial. The company will then apply to test one of the viruses in Europe and the United States. “ The fi rst choice is Onyx-15, but we can’t exclude the H101, ” Hu said.
Long-term economic impact of coiling vs clipping for unruptured intracranial aneurysms.

BACKGROUND : Treatment of unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIAs) involves endovascular coiling or aneurysm clipping. While many studies have compared these treatment modalities with respect to various clinical outcomes, few studies have investigated the economic costs associated with each procedure. OBJECTIVE : To determine the reoperation rate, postoperative complications, and inpatient and outpatient costs associated with surgical or endovascular treatment of patients with UIAs in the United States. METHODS : We utilized the MarketScan database to examine patients who underwent surgical clipping or endovascular coiling procedures for UIAs from 2000 to 2009, comparing reoperation rates, complications, and angiogram and healthcare resource use. Propensity score matching techniques were used to match patients. RESULTS : We identified 4,504 patients with surgically treated UIAs, with propensity score matching of 3,436 patients. Reoperation rates were significantly lower in the clipping group compared to the coiling group at 1- (P < .001), 2- (P < .001), and 5 years (P < .001) following the procedure. However, postoperative complications (immediate, 30 and 90 days) were significantly higher in those undergoing surgical clipping. Although hospital length of stay and costs were higher in the clipping group for the index procedure, the number of postoperative angiograms and outpatient services used at 1, 2, and 5 years were significantly higher in the coiling group. CONCLUSION : Though surgical clipping resulted in lower reoperation rates, it was associated with higher complication rates and initial costs. However, overall costs at 2 and 5 years were similar to endovascular coiling due to the significantly higher number of follow-up angiograms and outpatient costs in these patients. ABBREVIATIONS : SAH, subarachnoid hemorrhageUIAs, unruptured intracranial aneurysms.
LBP-like feature based on Gabor wavelets for face recognition

The robust feature extraction method for face representation is an important issue in face recognition. In this paper, we extract a new kind of feature through applying the idea of local binary pattern (LBP) into the resulted sub-images of Gabor transform. The new feature, i.e. Gabor-LBP-Like (GLLBP), together with its extension methods (1) overcome the drawback of losing information after Gabor transform’s down-sampling; (2) are insensitive to noise, compared with the LBP feature extracted from the original face image; and (3) are robust to image variation, especially occlusion and illumination changes when compared with other existing features combined LBP and Gabor transform. To validate the effectiveness of these features, we do experiments on the ORL, FERET, Georgia Tech and LFW facial databases. The numerical results show that GLLBP and its extensions are miraculous features for face recognition.
Optimization of a Fabry-Perot cavity antenna

We propose a new method to increase both an antenna input reflection coefficient (S11) and overall efficiency of a Fabry-Perot cavity (FPC) antenna. In general, the FPC antenna consists of a partially reflective superstrate and a metal ground plane. By finding optimum arrangement of unit cells in the superstrate, we prove that we can largely widen an impedance matching bandwidth and raise overall efficiency at the same time. In addition, we also show that our method minimizes the reduction of antenna gain, which is difficult to avoid by expanding of the impedance bandwidth. All experimental results show good agreement with the prediction, which verifies the validity of our approach.
Spatial Pulse Position Modulation for Optical Communications

This paper proposes a low complexity spatial modulation (SM) scheme that combines spatial shift keying (SSK) with pulse position modulation (PPM) for optical wireless communication systems. SM is a multi-transmitter technique for achieving increased data rate over the traditional on-off keying (OOK) and PPM signalling methods. Analysis of the error performance of the system in the presence of noise is presented and validated via simulations. There is a perfect agreement between the simulation and the theoretical analysis for the case of M = 2 bits/symbol and other values of M at symbol error rate (SER) of less than 10-2. At higher SER values the analytical prediction is about 1.2 dB more than that of the simulation. We also show the energy efficiency/bandwidth requirement trade-off involved when determining the system parameters such as the number of transmitters and the number of bits per symbol M. Using fewer transmitters improves the energy efficiency but requires more bandwidth. Moreover, the error performance of SPPM is dictated by both the individual channel gains of the multiple transmitters and the difference between these channel gains or path losses. Hence, distinct channel gains are a prerequisite in spatial modulation. An experimental set up to measure and show the dependence of the channel gains on the relative position of the transmitter to the receiver is also presented. These measured channel parameters are then used to evaluate the system error performance. The performance of the SPPM is also compared, in terms of energy and spectral efficiencies, with the classical SSK and repetition coded (RC) schemes in which the multiple transmitters are used to transmit the same data simultaneously. The results show the SPPM as a multi-transmitter signalling scheme that combines the energy efficiency of the PPM with the high spectral efficiency of the SSK.
Innovations in Objectively Measuring Corruption in Public Procurement

While there is continued interest in measuring governance, disagreement on how best to do so has only grown over time. To provide pointers at innovative and rigorous indicator building, this chapter documents innovations in measuring a particularly challenging governance dimension: corruption in public procurement. In hopes of inspiring future research, the chapter critically reviews objective corruption proxies using administrative data on government purchases falling in four broad categories: tendering risk indicators, political connections indicators, supplier risk indicators, and contracting body risk indicators. The findings indicate that the best measurement instruments focus on the transaction level (micro level) while allowing for consistent aggregations for time series and cross-country comparisons. Such actionable indicators capture behaviour as directly as possible rather than remaining at the country level. They also retain the relational or transactional aspects of governance, revealing a much more dynamic picture than widely used population and expert surveys.
Do Geriatricians Stay in Geriatrics?

Abstract To evaluate whether formally trained geriatricians remain in the field of Geriatrics, and to determine their job satisfaction and perceived quality of life, we surveyed the 107 fellows trained over the last 25 years in one accredited geriatric program. Of the 88 physicians who consented to participate, 75% devoted at least half of their practice to the care of the elderly. On an academic level, 89.5% had, or planned to pursue, recertification in geriatric medicine. Ninety-five percent of these geriatricians felt that the impact of a formal geriatric fellowship was positive on their medical career and satisfaction index. Sixty-four percent had yearly incomes between $100 and $200k, and 25.6% had income greater than $200k. Eighty-seven percent would recommend pursuing geriatric fellowship training. We need to further explore how recruitment process and job opportunities are presented to potential geriatric fellows.