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To compare the cervical sagittal balance and surgical outcomes between anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) and hybrid decompression and fusion (HDF; 1-level corpectomy combined with 1-level discectomy) for consecutive 3-level cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM). From January 2013 to June 2016, 82 patients with 3-level CSM who underwent ACDF (n = 40) and HDF (n = 42) were retrospectively reviewed. Perioperative parameters, clinical outcomes, and radiologic sagittal alignment were analyzed and compared. Patients were followed up for 35.5 ± 6.5 months (range, 25–53 months). All patients had achieved significant improvement in Neck Disability Index and Japanese Orthopedic Association scores after operation, with similar clinical outcomes between both groups (P > 0.05). In the ACDF group, 2 patients were found with axial symptoms, and 1 with hoarseness. In the HDF group, 5 patients were found with axial symptoms, 1 with hoarseness, 1 with dysphagia, and 1 with pseudarthrosis. The ACDF group had less operation time and bleeding compared with the HDF group (P < 0.05). The restoration of segmental and C2-7 lordosis were significantly greater in the ACDF group than the HDF group (P < 0.05). The C2-7 sagittal vertical axis and T1 slope minus C2-7 lordosis decreased in the ACDF group at final follow-up (P < 0.05); however, there was no obvious change in those of the HDF group (P > 0.05). Both ACDF and HDF were safe and effective for the treatment of 3-level CSM. ACDF showed superiority to HDF in terms of less blood loss, shorter operation time, and better postoperative sagittal balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Clofazimine/moxifloxacin combinations showed excellent synergism against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. • Moxifloxacin showed better synergism than capreomycin when combined with clofazimine. • Multidrug-/extensively drug-resistant isolates more likely to show antagonism than drug-resistant/pan-sensitive strains. • Difference in antagonism relevant for clofazimine/moxifloxacin and clofazimine/capreomycin. Clofazimine (CFZ) is a promising candidate drug for use in the management of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patients. In this study, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) method and checkerboard method were used to investigate potential synergies between CFZ and moxifloxacin (MOX) or capreomycin (CAP). Thirty Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains were collected, including 13 MDR strains, 2 extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strains, 3 pan-sensitive strains and 12 strains resistant to other drugs. When the minimum fractional inhibitory concentration indexes (FICIs) were calculated, synergy was found in 21 (70.00%) M. tuberculosis strains against the CFZ/CAP combination and 29 (96.67%) against the CFZ/MOX combination. When the maximum FICIs were calculated, 10 of 15 MDR/XDR strains and 2 of 15 other drug-resistant or pan-sensitive strains showed antagonism against the CFZ/CAP combination, whilst 8 of 15 MDR/XDR strains and 1 of 15 other drug-resistant or pan-sensitive strains showed antagonism against the CFZ/MOX combination, respectively. In conclusion, these findings demonstrate that the combination of CFZ and MOX shows better synergism than the combination of CFZ and CAP. The MDR/XDR isolates are more likely to show antagonism than the other drug-resistant or pan-sensitive strains in both the CFZ/MOX and CFZ/CAP combinations. CFZ in combination with MOX may be a promising drug regimen for the treatment of MDR-TB, particularly for susceptible M. tuberculosis infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing and mining time-series data by taking advantage of the correlation between the data values can provide outstanding beneficial. But data owners may be unwilling to publish the data’s true values due to privacy considerations. Recently, researchers have begun to leverage differential privacy to address this challenge. However, the Laplace noise series used in the current state-of-the-art approaches has a drawback in that it is independent and identically distributed. An adversary can remove the independent noise from the correlated time-series by utilizing a refinement method (e.g., filtering), resulting in a lesser than expected effective degree of privacy. To remedy this problem, we propose an effective correlated time-series data publication solution based on differential privacy by enforcing Series-Indistinguishability and designing a correlated Laplace mechanism. Based on the concept of indistinguishability from the unconditional security definition, Series-Indistinguishability guarantees that the correlation between the noise and original series is indistinguishable to an adversary. Furthermore, instead of using an independent Laplace mechanism, a correlated Laplace noise series is produced using four Gauss white noise series passed through a specific linear system, to satisfy Series-Indistinguishability. Experimental results demonstrate that our solution outperforms the state-of-the-art differential privacy mechanisms in terms of security and mean absolute error for large quantities of queries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of single-stage posterior debridement, compact bone grafting and posterior single-segment fixation for the treatment of mono-segmental lumbar tuberculosis.Methods: We enrolled 32 patients with mono-segmental lumbar tuberculosis from January 2005 to April 2011. The severity of damage to the vertebral bodies is not more than 2/3 height. All the patients were treated by single-stage posterior debridement, compact bone grafting and posterior single-segment fixation.Results: Patients were followed 21-63 months (43.5±9.5 months). The average Cobb angle decreased to 5.3±3.0° postoperatively from 22.1±6.1° preoperatively. Meanwhile, average 1.8±1.0° loss was observed at last visit. Fusion occurred at 3-9 months (mean 5.1 months). All patients with preoperative neurologic deficit recovered in different degree. 1 with grade B recovered to grade D; 2 with grade C recovered to grade E; 18 with grade D recovered to grade E. No mortality occurred. One patient experienced anti-tuberculosis drug-induced liver dysfunction which was managed successfully with modified anti-TB treatment and hepato-protective treatment. The Oswestry Disability Index decreased from 40.1±4.0 preoperatively to 13.7±3.1 postoperatively.Conclusions: Single-stage posterior debridement, compact bone grafting and posterior single-segment fixation is an effective method for the treatment of mono-segmental lumbar tuberculosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Replication strategy is one of effective solutions to meet the requirement of service response time by preparing data in advance to avoid the delay of reading data from disks. This paper presents a brand-new method to create copies considering the selection of replicas set, the number of copies for each replica and the placement strategy of all copies. First, the popularities of all data are computed considering both the historical access records and the timeliness of the records. Then, replica set can be selected based on their recent popularities. Also, an enhanced Q-value scheme is proposed to assign the number of copies for each replica. Finally, a reasonable copies placement strategy is designed to meet the requirement of load balance. In addition, we present several experiments that compare the proposed method with techniques that use other replication management strategies. The results show that the proposed model has better performance than other algorithms in all respects. Moreover, the experiments based on different parameters also demonstrated the effectiveness and adaptability of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a distributed environment, limited available bandwidth resources lead a high data access latency. Replication is a popular method that can upgrade the access performance and increase the data availability. However, unreasonable replication would cause over-consumption of system resources and finally a further deterioration on data access latency. So, In this paper, a theoretical model of access latency optimization with replication is presented firstly, which complement the blank space, and then a well-designed dynamic replication strategy is proposed, which consists of three algorithms: replica selection algorithm, replica layout algorithm and replica replacement algorithm. Replica selection algorithm selects the optimal replica with a hierarchical time cost based on the derivation of the theoretical model. Replica layout algorithm selects the optimal node for placing the replica based on the spatio-temporal locality of data access. Replica replacement algorithm, in which the fuzzy logic system is introduced originally, deletes replica when the available storage space is insufficient. FLSDR is tested by OptorSim and experimental results show that FLSDR achieves better performance in comparison with other algorithms in terms of mean job execution time, computing resource usage, number of data scheduling between clusters and number of replicas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the impressive progress in face recognition, current systems are vulnerable to presentation attacks, which subvert the face recognition systems by presenting a face artifact. Several techniques have been developed to automatically detect different presentation attacks, mostly for 2D photo print and video replay attacks. However, with the development of 3D modeling and printing technologies, 3D mask has become a more effective way to attack the face recognition systems. Over the last decade, various detection methods for 3D mask attacks have been proposed, but there is no survey yet to summarize the advances. We present a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art approaches in 3D mask spoofing and anti-spoofing, including existing databases and countermeasures. In addition, we quantitatively compare the performance of different mask spoofing detection methods on a common ground (i.e., using the same database and evaluation metric). The effectiveness of several 2D presentation attack detection methods is also evaluated on two 3D mask spoofing databases to show whether they are applicable or not for 3D mask attacks. Finally, we present some insights and summarize open issues to address in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To assess whether preoperative T1 slope and cervical lordosis mismatching affect the surgical outcomes of patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) after laminoplasty. A total of 85 patients with CSM who underwent unilateral open-door laminoplasty between January 2013 and May 2017 were retrospectively reviewed. Based on preoperative T1 slope and C2–C7 lordosis matching, the patients were divided into 2 groups: the match group and the mismatch group. The T1 slope minus C2–C7 lordosis (T1S-CL) <20° was defined as matching. Radiographic parameters included T1 slope, C2–C7 lordosis, C2–C7 sagittal vertical axis (SVA), and T1S-CL. Clinical outcomes were based on the Neck Disability Index (NDI) and Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) scores. The preoperative T1S-CL had significant correlation with T1 slope (r = 0.283), C2–C7 lordosis (r = -0.611), and C2–C7 SVA (r = 0.331). At the final follow-up, patients in the mismatch group had a higher incidence of postoperative cervical kyphosis (P = 0.007) and C2–C7 SVA >40 mm (P = 0.043). The mismatch group also had greater △C2–C7 lordosis (P = 0.028), △C2–C7 SVA (P = 0.042), and △T1S-CL (P = 0.044). Comparison of clinical outcomes revealed that patients in the match group had better NDI and JOA recovery (P < 0.05). T1S-CL is a clinically relevant parameter for surgical decision making because patients with T1S-CL mismatching are more likely to have postoperative kyphotic alignment changes and cervical sagittal imbalance. Laminoplasty might not be a suitable option for patients with T1S-CL mismatching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents case report of a patient who suffered hemangioendothelioma of the cervical spine. The female patient was presented with a 12-year history of chronic, progressive cervical pain and limitation of motion localized to the cervical spine, associated with progressive quadriplegia and sensory disturbance over the previous year.

• Improved grey wolf optimizer and verified the effectiveness of the improvement. • Grey wolf optimizer improves the prediction performance of support vector regression. • Optimized support vector regression is applied to coal spontaneous combustion temperature prediction. The effective prediction of coal spontaneous combustion temperature is of great importance to the monitoring and prevention of coal mine fires. Aiming at the problem of insufficient prediction accuracy of traditional coal spontaneous combustion temperature prediction model, and considering the characteristics of prediction data samples and the timeliness of applicable models, an improved grey wolf optimized support vector regression coal spontaneous combustion temperature prediction model based on nonlinear parameter control, dynamic inertia weights and grey wolf social hierarchy is proposed, and the effectiveness of the improved grey wolf optimizer algorithm is verified by numerical experiments. The O 2 concentration, CO concentration, C 2 H 4 concentration, CO/ΔO 2 , and C 2 H 4 /C 2 H 6 selected from the coal spontaneous combustion procedure warming experiment were used as the input indexes of the prediction model, and the coal body temperature was used as the output index, and the prediction model was compared and analyzed with the particle swarm optimization support vector regression and grey wolf optimized support vector regression models through the experimental data. The results show that the improved grey wolf algorithm has stronger global search ability, faster convergence speed and better stability, and the proposed prediction model has strong advantages in accuracy and stability, which can provide better decision reference for coal spontaneous combustion fire prediction and warning in coal mines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: Warm ischemic injury is one of the most important factors affecting renal function in partial nephrectomy (PN). The technique of segmental renal artery clamping emerges as an alternative to conventional renal artery clamping for renal hilar control. Objective: To evaluate the feasibility and efficiency of laparoscopic PN (LPN) with segmental renal artery clamping in comparison with the conventional technique. Design, setting, and participants: A total of 75 patients underwent LPN from June 2007 to November 2009. All patients had T1a or T1b tumor in one kidney and a normal contralateral kidney. Thirty-seven patients underwent surgeries with main renal artery clamping, and 38 underwent surgeries with segmental artery clamping. Intervention: All procedures were performed by the same laparoscopic surgeon. Measurements: Blood loss, operation time, warm ischemia (WI) time, and complications affected renal function before and after operation were recorded. Results and limitations: All LPNs were completed without conversion to open surgery or nephrectomy. The novel technique slightly increased WI time (p <0.001) and intraoperative blood loss (p =0.006), while it provided better postoperative affected renal function (p <0.001) compared with the conventional technique. The total complication rate was 12%. Among the 38 cases where segmental renal artery clamping was performed, 7 had to convert to the conventional method. Tumor size and location influenced the number of clamped segmental arteries. Long-term postoperative renal function is still awaited. Conclusions: LPN with segmental artery clamping is safe and feasible in clinical practice. It minimizes the intraoperative WI injury and improves early postoperative affected renal function compared with main renal artery clamping. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]