Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Combination of a tension-free vaginal tape procedure and laparoscopic-assisted vaginal hysterectomy for the treatment of benign uterine disease associated with stress urinary incontinence.

BACKGROUND Women undergoing hysterectomy for benign uterine disease (BUD) may experience stress urinary incontinence (SUI). We performed tension-free vaginal tape (TVT) procedure and laparoscopic-assisted vaginal hysterectomy (LAVH) simultaneously and assessed the feasibility and efficacy of TVT performed under general anesthesia and the resultant anti-incontinence effects following the combined procedures. METHODS Between March, 2000 and March, 2002 inclusively, 63 patients, who suffered from both BUD and SUI, underwent LAVH and TVT. Preoperative evaluation included history-taking, physical examination and ultrasonography. One-hour pad test, multichannel urodynamics and urinary questionnaire were conducted preoperatively and postoperatively. Details about surgical procedures undertaken, hospitalization and urinary problems in the follow-up period were recorded. RESULTS 50 patients completed the study with a mean follow-up period of 34 (25-48) months. The mean age was 49 (39-67) years and mean parity 3 (2-6). The mean surgical duration was 163 (95-240) minutes and blood loss 284 (100-1,500) milliliters. Mean duration of hospital stay was 5.5 days and bladder drainage 1.9 days. Three patients suffered bladder perforation and one patient was complicated with excess blood loss. Postoperative urinary problems included transient urine retention, de novo frequency/urgency symptoms and voiding difficultly. CONCLUSIONS The efficacy of concomitant TVT in LAVH procedure remained satisfactory in treatment of SUI associated with BUD. Both procedures reflect the benefits of less-invasive surgery. So the combination of LAVH and TVT is probably a good alternative for the patient who needs to undergo hysterectomy and anti-incontinence surgery simultaneously.
The HELLAS2XMM survey - III. Multiwavelength observations of hard X-ray selected sources in the PKS 0312-77 field

We present extensive optical, radio and infrared follow-up observations of a sample of 35 hard X-ray (2-10 keV) selected sources discovered serendipitously in the PV XMM-Newton observation of the radio-loud quasar PKS 0312-77 field, for which also an archival Chandra observation is available. The observations have been carried out as part of the HELLAS2XMM survey, a program aimed to understand the nature of the sources responsible for the bulk of the hard X-ray Background (XRB). The identification of the optical counterparts greatly benefits from the positional accuracy obtained from Chandra and radio observations. As a consequence, the spectroscopic completeness of the present sample (80%) is limited only by the faintness of the optical counterparts. The multiwavelength coverage of our survey allows us to unveil a large spread in the overall properties of hard X-ray selected sources. At low redshift (z 1 are spectroscopically classified as Broad Line AGNs. A few of them show significant intrinsic X-ray absorption ( NH> 10 22 cm 2 ), further supporting previous evidence of a decoupling between optical and X-ray properties at high luminosities and redshifts. Finally, a non negligible fraction (15%) of the hard X-ray sources are not detected down to the limiting magnitude of the optical images. The corresponding high X-ray to optical flux ratio, X-ray and optical-infrared colors strongly suggest that they are high redshift, obscured AGN.
Internal structure and hydrological functions of an alpine proglacial moraine

Understanding groundwater processes in alpine watersheds is critical to understand the timing of water release and late‐season stream flow for both headwater and downstream environments. Moraines and talus features can play an important role in groundwater flow and storage processes in alpine watersheds, but neither process is well understood for these features. We examined the complex hydrogeological environment of a partially ice‐cored moraine in the Lake O'Hara watershed in the Canadian Rockies. Electrical resistivity imaging (ERI) and seismic refraction tomography delineated regions of buried ice and frozen and unfrozen moraine material. Seismic refraction data also clearly indicated the depth to bedrock, which varied primarily due to the thickness of the overlying moraine material. Water levels in a lake and several tarns on the moraine responded differently to inputs of rain, snowmelt, and glacier melt, indicating the different degree of hydrological connectivity of these features to the groundwater flow system in the moraine. Such differences reflect the effects of bedrock topography and the location and geometry of buried ice. Ground‐penetrating radar images and ERI indicated regions of perched groundwater and focused infiltration. The location of these regions appears to be controlled by buried ice. All geophysical and hydrological data suggest that a relatively thin (<5 m) layer of saturated sediments and/or fractured bedrock likely provides a major flow system within the moraine. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Graphical Model Inference in Optimal Control of Stochastic Multi-Agent Systems

In this article we consider the issue of optimal control in collaborative multi-agent systems with stochastic dynamics. The agents have a joint task in which they have to reach a number of target states. The dynamics of the agents contains additive control and additive noise, and the autonomous part factorizes over the agents. Full observation of the global state is assumed. The goal is to minimize the accumulated joint cost, which consists of integrated instantaneous costs and a joint end cost. The joint end cost expresses the joint task of the agents. The instantaneous costs are quadratic in the control and factorize over the agents. The optimal control is given as a weighted linear combination of single-agent to single-target controls. The single-agent to single-target controls are expressed in terms of diffusion processes. These controls, when not closed form expressions, are formulated in terms of path integrals, which are calculated approximately by Metropolis-Hastings sampling. The weights in the control are interpreted as marginals of a joint distribution over agent to target assignments. The structure of the latter is represented by a graphical model, and the marginals are obtained by graphical model inference. Exact inference of the graphical model will break down in large systems, and so approximate inference methods are needed. We use naive mean field approximation and belief propagation to approximate the optimal control in systems with linear dynamics. We compare the approximate inference methods with the exact solution, and we show that they can accurately compute the optimal control. Finally, we demonstrate the control method in multi-agent systems with nonlinear dynamics consisting of up to 80 agents that have to reach an equal number of target states.
Climatic controls on interannual variability of precipitation δ18O: Simulated influence of temperature, precipitation amount, and vapor source region

We use an atmospheric GCM that incorporates stable isotopes and regional vapor source tracers in the hydrologic cycle to explore the relationship between interannual variability in climate and precipitation δ18O globally. On the basis of a 12-year simulation forced by observed sea surface temperatures (SSTs), we identify changes in the amount of precipitation and in the contributions of local and nearby vapor sources as the most important determinants of simulated interannual isotopic changes. The model simulates weak positive correlation between temperature and isotopic variability only in certain continental regions, mostly in the extratropics. Comparison with long observed records of isotopes and climate indicates that the model simulates realistic patterns of temperature-isotope correlation but may overestimate the isotopic influence of precipitation amount. Perturbations in circulation patterns that alter the transport and mixing of air masses at a site also change the relative contributions of vapor from different source regions. Simulated changes in vapor source regions are large, reaching ±10–15% of the total precipitation, and cause significant isotopic variability in nearly all grid cells. Our results suggest that shifts among vapor sources may provide an important control on the interannual isotopic variability observed in modern precipitation and paleoclimatic records. The isotopic variability simulated in this experiment results from the interaction of several aspects of climate. Interannual temperature variability generally involves circulation changes that alter air mass transport, vapor source regions, and condensation history; this advective mechanism may explain the relative weakness of temperature-isotope correlations in both the model and the observations.
Human detection using multimodal and multidimensional features

This paper presents a novel human detection method based on a Bayesian fusion approach using laser range data and camera images. Laser range data analysis groups data points with a novel graph cutting method. Therefore, it computes a belief to each cluster based on the evaluation of multidimensional features that describe geometrical properties. A person detection algorithm based on dense overlapping grid of Histograms of Oriented Gradients (HOG) is processed on the image area determined by each laser cluster. The selection of HOG features and laser features is obtained through a learning process based on a cascade of linear Support Vector Machines (SVM). A technique to obtain conditional probabilities from a cascade of SVMs is here proposed in order to combine the two information together. The resulting human detection consists in a rich information that takes into account the distance of the cluster and the confidence level of both detection methods. We demonstrate the performance of this work on real-world data and different environments.
Seismic Activities and Earthquake Potential in the Tibetan Plateau

The Tibetan Plateau is a region with intensive tectonic deformation and high level earthquake activity. On the basis of historical records, there have been 18 earthquakes with magnitude over 8 and more than 100 events with magnitude between 7 and 7.9 in the plateau. All of these events occured either along plate boundary of the Himalaya or along boundaries among the intra-plate fault blocks as well as sub-blocks. There have been three phases of earthquake clustering in the Tibetan Plateau, 1920 to 1937, 1947 to 1976, and 1995 to present, since instrumental seismic records began in 1900. Each phase of the cluster is characterized by events of magnitude over 8 and a number of events of magnitude over 7 to form an earthquake series. The three phases are the Haiyuan-Gulang earthquake series in 1920s to 1930s, the Zayu-Damxung earthquake series in 1950s to 1970s, and the Kunlun-Wenchuan series since the beginning of this century. Each earthquake series also has its major active region of occurrences. For example, the major active region of occurrence is associated with the newest phase of earthquake series is the Bayan Har fault block. The episodes of seismic activity in the Tibetan Plateau coincide with the high level activities of global mega-earthquake (Mw ≥ 8) activity. The Kunlun-Wenchuan earthquake series concurs with the global earthquake activity since 2001 suggesting geodynamic connections between them. Based on careful comparative studies, we suggest the current phase of earthquake activity continues today, giving that the global mega-earthquakes (Mw8∼9) occur frequently along plate boundaries and major intra-plate earthquakes (Mw7∼8) occur along boundaries of crustal fault block. Through studies of relationships between global and regional earthquake activities and of temporal and spatial distribution of the earthquakes in the Tibetan Plateau, this paper summarized general tendencies of current earthquake activity, assesses recent earthquake potential, and proposes suggestions for intensive earthquake monitoring.
Comparison of bone marrow aspiration cytology with bone marrow trephine biopsy histopathology: An observational study

Introduction: Bone marrow examination is a useful investigative tool for the diagnosis of many hematological and nonhematological disorders. Bone marrow aspiration (BMA) provides information about the numerical and cytological features of marrow cells, whereas bone marrow trephine biopsies (BMB) provide excellent appreciation of spatial relationships between cells and of overall bone marrow structure. We conducted this study with the objective of comparing the accuracy of BMA with BMB in the diagnosis of various hematological disorders. Materials and Methods: Both BMA and BMB were performed on a total of 130 cases and a comparative evaluation was performed in 100 cases to see the complementary role of both the procedures. However, 30 cases were excluded due to inadequate BMA, BMB, or both. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was employed whenever required. Results: In our study of 100 cases, 87% of cases were confirmed on bone marrow biopsy and in remaining 13% of cases final diagnosis was achieved with the help of other ancillary investigations. These cases were excluded for calculation of concordance rate between BMA and BMB. The concordance and disconcordance rate between BMA and BMB was 72.4% and 27.6%, respectively. Conclusion: BMA cytology and trephine biopsy histopathology complement each other and the superiority of one method over the other depended on the underlying disorder. Furthermore, application of ancillary techniques such as flow cytometery and IHC proved to be an additional advantage in further typing of various diseases.
Adaptive teams of autonomous aerial and ground robots for situational awareness

In this paper, we report on the integration challenges of the various component technologies developed toward the establishment of a framework for deploying an adaptive system of heterogeneous robots for urban surveillance. In our integrated experiment and demonstration, aerial robots generate maps that are used to design navigation controllers and plan missions for the team. A team of ground robots constructs a radio‐signal strength map that is used as an aid for planning missions. Multiple robots establish a mobile ad hoc communication network that is aware of the radio‐signal strength between nodes, and can adapt to changing conditions to maintain connectivity. Finally, the team of aerial and ground robots is able to monitor a small village, and search for and localize human targets by the color of the uniform, while ensuring that the information from the team is available to a remotely located human operator. The key component technologies and contributions include: (a) Mission specification and planning software; (b) exploration and mapping of radio‐signal strengths in an urban environment; (c) programming abstractions and composition of controllers for multirobot deployment; (d) cooperative control strategies for search, identification, and localization of targets; and (e) three‐dimensional mapping in an urban setting. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Research Paper: Automatic Resolution of Ambiguous Terms Based on Machine Learning and Conceptual Relations in the UMLS

UNLABELLED Motivation. The UMLS has been used in natural language processing applications such as information retrieval and information extraction systems. The mapping of free-text to UMLS concepts is important for these applications. To improve the mapping, we need a method to disambiguate terms that possess multiple UMLS concepts. In the general English domain, machine-learning techniques have been applied to sense-tagged corpora, in which senses (or concepts) of ambiguous terms have been annotated (mostly manually). Sense disambiguation classifiers are then derived to determine senses (or concepts) of those ambiguous terms automatically. However, manual annotation of a corpus is an expensive task. We propose an automatic method that constructs sense-tagged corpora for ambiguous terms in the UMLS using MEDLINE abstracts. METHODS For a term W that represents multiple UMLS concepts, a collection of MEDLINE abstracts that contain W is extracted. For each abstract in the collection, occurrences of concepts that have relations with W as defined in the UMLS are automatically identified. A sense-tagged corpus, in which senses of W are annotated, is then derived based on those identified concepts. The method was evaluated on a set of 35 frequently occurring ambiguous biomedical abbreviations using a gold standard set that was automatically derived. The quality of the derived sense-tagged corpus was measured using precision and recall. RESULTS The derived sense-tagged corpus had an overall precision of 92.9% and an overall recall of 47.4%. After removing rare senses and ignoring abbreviations with closely related senses, the overall precision was 96.8% and the overall recall was 50.6%. CONCLUSIONS UMLS conceptual relations and MEDLINE abstracts can be used to automatically acquire knowledge needed for resolving ambiguity when mapping free-text to UMLS concepts.
On the Alaskan Stream

Abstract The Alaskan Stream boundary current south of the uniformly curving coastline formed by the Alaskan peninsula-Aleutian Island chain is examined analytically via steady, barotropic frictional theory. It is shown that, as a result of the changing zonal orientation of this boundary, there is an alteration in the characteristic vorticity balance in the current as it progresses westward from the Gulf of Alaska. Where the curving coastline becomes approximately zonal, this vorticity distribution is such that, unless the clockwise vorticity generated at the coast by the no-slip condition is balanced by a vorticity source external to the current, instabilities and separation of the Alaskan Stream from the coast will occur.
Feature selection for ensembles:a hierarchical multi-objective genetic algorithm approach

Feature selection for ensembles has shown to be an effectivestrategy for ensemble creation. In this paper we presentan ensemble feature selection approach based on a hierarchicalmulti-objective genetic algorithm. The first level performsfeature selection in order to generate a set of goodclassifiers while the second one combines them to providea set of powerful ensembles. The proposed method is evaluatedin the context of handwritten digit recognition, usingthree different feature sets and neural networks (MLP) asclassifiers. Experiments conducted on NIST SD19 demonstratedthe effectiveness of the proposed strategy.
Outbreak of hydropericardium syndrome associated with ascites and liver rupture in caged broilers

An outbreak of hydropericardium syndrome (HPS) was recorded with a sudden heavy mortality in 24-day-old caged b roiler flock. An overall mortality of 57% was recorded with hydropericardium as a conspicuous lesion throughout the course of disease. Ascites an d liver rupture were recorded in a large number of birds at the peak pha se of outbreak. Microscopically, myocardial blood vessels showed massive disruption and vacuolar changes from day 3 of outbreak. In the liv er, congestion, vacuolar changes and intranuclear inclusion bodies were obse rved from day 1 of outbreak. Liver hemorrhages and necrosis were more pronounced at day 5 of outbreak. Marked thickening of interlobular sept ae due to edema was characteristic lesion in the lungs throughout the c ourse of disease. Renal tubules appeared markedly distended due to urate de posits in some of the birds from day 4 of outbreak. In the spleen, mild t o severe reticuloendothelial cell hyperplasia was conspicuou s finding. Mild to moderate depletion of lymphocytes was evident both in the bursa of Fabricius and spleen. Involvement of FAV-4 was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction coupled with restriction enzyme anal ysis and the disease was experimentally reproduced in 2-week old broiler chi cks. Absence of direct oral-fecal cycle in the cage system of rearing sugg ested mechanical factors playing vital role in the spread of HPS within the flock. The occurrence of ascites in the present outbreak was linked to relat ively slow development of disease process under the cage system.
Gravitating Chern-Simons vortices.

The construction of self-dual vortex solutions to the Chern-Simons-Higgs model (with a suitable eighth-order potential) coupled to Einstein gravity in (2 + 1) dimensions is reconsidered. We show that the self-duality condition may be derived from the sole assumption $g_{00} = 1$. Next, we derive a family of exact, doubly self-dual vortex solutions, which interpolate between the symmetrical and asymmetrical vacua. The corresponding spacetimes have two regions at spatial infinity. The eighth-order Higgs potential is positive definite, and closed timelike curves are absent, if the gravitational constant is chosen to be negative.
Design Processes for Bodily Interaction

Designing interactive systems that have illusive interaction qualities, such as suppleness or pliability, is challenging. In several design projects aiming for bodily and emotional interaction, we have aimed to find concepts, methods or processes that can capture the essence of the sought experience and steer the design process in a successful and efficient direction. Our attempts include using e.g. Laban-analysis of emotionally-oriented movement, video-cards from ethnographic studies of users in movement, or simply explicitly naming and defining the sought interaction quality. Our experiences point to the importance of moving from low-fi prototyping to high-fi – no matter which artefact is used to keep the design team on track. Repeatedly exposing unfinished prototypes not only to prospective end-users, but also to the whole design team has been another important part of our process. Finally, a deeper, theoretical and designoriented understanding of emotional and bodily interaction is badly needed.
U2AF1 mutations alter splice site recognition in hematological malignancies

Whole-exome sequencing studies have identified common mutations affecting genes encoding components of the RNA splicing machinery in hematological malignancies. Here, we sought to determine how mutations affecting the 3′ splice site recognition factor U2AF1 alter its normal role in RNA splicing. We find that U2AF1 mutations influence the similarity of splicing programs in leukemias, but do not give rise to widespread splicing failure. U2AF1 mutations cause differential splicing of hundreds of genes, affecting biological pathways such as DNA methylation (DNMT3B), X chromosome inactivation (H2AFY), the DNA damage response (ATR, FANCA), and apoptosis (CASP8). We show that U2AF1 mutations alter the preferred 3′ splice site motif in patients, in cell culture, and in vitro. Mutations affecting the first and second zinc fingers give rise to different alterations in splice site preference and largely distinct downstream splicing programs. These allele-specific effects are consistent with a computationally predicted model of U2AF1 in complex with RNA. Our findings suggest that U2AF1 mutations contribute to pathogenesis by causing quantitative changes in splicing that affect diverse cellular pathways, and give insight into the normal function of U2AF1’s zinc finger domains.