Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
GeoSim: Realistic Video Simulation via Geometry-Aware Composition for Self-Driving

Scalable sensor simulation is an important yet challenging open problem for safety-critical domains such as self-driving. Current works in image simulation either fail to be photorealistic or do not model the 3D environment and the dynamic objects within, losing high-level control and physical realism. In this paper, we present GeoSim, a geometry-aware image composition process which synthesizes novel urban driving scenarios by augmenting existing images with dynamic objects extracted from other scenes and rendered at novel poses. Towards this goal, we first build a diverse bank of 3D objects with both realistic geometry and appearance from sensor data. During simulation, we perform a novel geometry-aware simulation-by-composition procedure which 1) proposes plausible and realistic object placements into a given scene, 2) renders novel views of dynamic objects from the asset bank, and 3) composes and blends the rendered image segments. The resulting synthetic images are realistic, traffic-aware, and geometrically consistent, allowing our approach to scale to complex use cases. We demonstrate two such important applications: long-range realistic video simulation across multiple camera sensors, and synthetic data generation for data augmentation on downstream segmentation tasks. Please check https://tmux.top/publication/geosim/ for high-resolution video results.
Structural text segmentation of legal documents

The growing complexity of legal cases has lead to an increasing interest in legal information retrieval systems that can effectively satisfy user-specific information needs. However, such downstream systems typically require documents to be properly formatted and segmented, which is often done with relatively simple pre-processing steps, disregarding topical coherence of segments. Systems generally rely on representations of individual sentences or paragraphs, which may lack crucial context, or document-level representations, which are too long for meaningful search results. To address this issue, we propose a segmentation system that can predict topical coherence of sequential text segments spanning several paragraphs, effectively segmenting a document and providing a more balanced representation for downstream applications. We build our model on top of popular transformer networks and formulate structural text segmentation as topical change detection, by performing a series of independent classifications that allow for efficient fine-tuning on task-specific data. We crawl a novel dataset consisting of roughly 74,000 online Terms-of-Service documents, including hierarchical topic annotations, which we use for training. Results show that our proposed system significantly outperforms baselines, and adapts well to structural peculiarities of legal documents. We release both data and trained models to the research community for future work.1
A Discrete-Time Switching System Analysis of Q-Learning

This paper develops a novel control-theoretic framework to analyze the non-asymptotic convergence of Q-learning. We show that the dynamics of asynchronous Q-learning with a constant step-size can be naturally formulated as a discrete-time stochastic affine switching system. Moreover, the evolution of the Q-learning estimation error is over- and underestimated by trajectories of two simpler dynamical systems. Based on these two systems, we derive a new finite-time error bound of asynchronous Q-learning when a constant stepsize is used. Our analysis also sheds light on the overestimation phenomenon of Q-learning. We further illustrate and validate the analysis through numerical simulations.
Railway Suicide in The Netherlands Lower Than Expected

Abstract. Background: Increasing rail transportation requires appropriate railway suicide preventive measures. Aims: The investigation of trends in railway suicide during 2008–2018, a period in which preventive measures were taken by Dutch railway infrastructure manager ProRail. Methods: Generalized linear regression models for railway suicide were developed for the period 1970–2007 with general suicide rate, railway traffic intensity, and a combination of these variables as regressors. Subsequently, the best-fitting model was used to investigate trends in railway suicide after 2007 by comparing in retrospect observed values with the expected outcomes of the regression model. Results: An adequate regression model for railway suicide was obtained using both general suicide rate and railway traffic intensity as regressors. Based on this model, while national suicide mortality and railway traffic increased, a distinct relative decline in railway suicides was found from 2012 onward. Conclusions: This decline of railway suicides in the Netherlands may indicate that preventive measures taken by ProRail were effective and prevented around 85 railway suicides annually, a reduction of 30%.
Difference in drug susceptibility distribution and clinical characteristics between Mycobacterium avium and Mycobacterium intracellulare lung diseases in Shanghai, China.

Introduction. Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) has been reported as the most common aetiology of lung disease involving nontuberculous mycobacteria.Hypothesis. Antimicrobial susceptibility and clinical characteristics may differ between Mycobacterium avium and Mycobacterium intracellulare.Aim. We aimed to evaluate the differences in antimicrobial susceptibility profiles between two major MAC species (Mycobacterium avium and Mycobacterium intracellulare) from patients with pulmonary infections and to provide epidemiologic data with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) distributions.Methodology. Between January 2019 and May 2020, 45 M. avium and 242 M. intracellulare isolates were obtained from Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital. The demographic and clinical characteristics of patients were obtained from their medical records. The MICs of 13 antimicrobials were determined for the MAC isolates using commercial Sensititre SLOWMYCO MIC plates and the broth microdilution method, as recommended by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI; Standards M24-A2). MIC50 and MIC90 values were derived from the MIC distributions.Results. M. intracellulare had higher resistance rates than M. avium for most tested antimicrobials except clarithromycin, ethambutol, and ciprofloxacin. Clarithromycin was the most effective antimicrobial against both the M. avium (88.89 %) and M. intracellulare (91.32 %) isolates, with no significant difference between the species (P=0.601). The MIC90 of clarithromycin was higher for M. avium (32 µg ml-1) than M. intracellulare (8 µg ml-1). The MIC50 of rifabutin was more than four times higher for M. intracellulare (1 µg ml-1) than M. avium (≤0.25 µg ml-1). The percentages of patients aged >60 years and patients with sputum, cough, and cavitary lesions were significantly higher than among patients with M. intracellulare infection than M. avium infections.Conclusions. The pulmonary disease caused by distinct MAC species had different antimicrobial susceptibility, symptoms, and radiographic findings.
ß-arrestin 2 germline knockout does not attenuate opioid respiratory depression

Opioids are perhaps the most effective analgesics in medicine. However, between 1999 and 2018, over 400,000 people in the United States died from opioid overdose. Excessive opioids make breathing lethally slow and shallow, a side-effect called opioid-induced respiratory depression. This doubled-edged sword has sparked the desire to develop novel therapeutics that provide opioid-like analgesia without depressing breathing. One such approach has been the design of so-called ‘biased agonists’ that signal through some, but not all pathways downstream of the µ-opioid receptor (MOR), the target of morphine and other opioid analgesics. This rationale stems from a study suggesting that MOR-induced ß-arrestin 2 dependent signaling is responsible for opioid respiratory depression, whereas adenylyl cyclase inhibition produces analgesia. To verify this important result that motivated the ‘biased agonist’ approach, we re-examined breathing in ß-arrestin 2-deficient mice and instead find no connection between ß-arrestin 2 and opioid respiratory depression. This result suggests that any attenuated effect of ‘biased agonists’ on breathing is through an as-yet defined mechanism.
Using Computational Methods to Improve Integrated Disease Management for Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Protocol for a Secondary Analysis

Background Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) impose a heavy burden on health care. Approximately one-fourth of patients with asthma and patients with COPD are prone to exacerbations, which can be greatly reduced by preventive care via integrated disease management that has a limited service capacity. To do this well, a predictive model for proneness to exacerbation is required, but no such model exists. It would be suboptimal to build such models using the current model building approach for asthma and COPD, which has 2 gaps due to rarely factoring in temporal features showing early health changes and general directions. First, existing models for other asthma and COPD outcomes rarely use more advanced temporal features, such as the slope of the number of days to albuterol refill, and are inaccurate. Second, existing models seldom show the reason a patient is deemed high risk and the potential interventions to reduce the risk, making already occupied clinicians expend more time on chart review and overlook suitable interventions. Regular automatic explanation methods cannot deal with temporal data and address this issue well. Objective To enable more patients with asthma and patients with COPD to obtain suitable and timely care to avoid exacerbations, we aim to implement comprehensible computational methods to accurately predict proneness to exacerbation and recommend customized interventions. Methods We will use temporal features to accurately predict proneness to exacerbation, automatically find modifiable temporal risk factors for every high-risk patient, and assess the impact of actionable warnings on clinicians’ decisions to use integrated disease management to prevent proneness to exacerbation. Results We have obtained most of the clinical and administrative data of patients with asthma from 3 prominent American health care systems. We are retrieving other clinical and administrative data, mostly of patients with COPD, needed for the study. We intend to complete the study in 6 years. Conclusions Our results will help make asthma and COPD care more proactive, effective, and efficient, improving outcomes and saving resources. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) PRR1-10.2196/27065
How cerebral cortex protects itself from interictal spikes: The alpha/beta inhibition mechanism

Interactions between interictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs) and distant cortical regions subserve potential effects on cognition of patients with focal epilepsy. We hypothesize that “healthy” brain areas at a distance from the epileptic focus may respond to the interference of IEDs by generating inhibitory alpha and beta oscillations. We predict that more prominent alpha‐beta oscillations can be found in patients with less impaired neurocognitive profile. We performed a source imaging magnetoencephalography study, including 41 focal epilepsy patients: 21 with frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE) and 20 with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy. We investigated the effect of anterior (i.e., frontal and temporal) IEDs on the oscillatory pattern over posterior head regions. We compared cortical oscillations (5–80 Hz) temporally linked to 3,749 IEDs (1,945 frontal and 1,803 temporal) versus an equal number of IED‐free segments. We correlated results from IED triggered oscillations to global neurocognitive performance. Only frontal IEDs triggered alpha‐beta oscillations over posterior head regions. IEDs with higher amplitude triggered alpha‐beta oscillations of higher magnitude. The intensity of posterior head region alpha‐beta oscillations significantly correlated with a better neuropsychological profile. Our study demonstrated that cerebral cortex protects itself from IEDs with generation of inhibitory alpha‐beta oscillations at distant cortical regions. The association of more prominent oscillations with a better cognitive status suggests that this mechanism might play a role in determining the cognitive resilience in patients with FLE.
Avian Coloration Genetics: Recent Advances and Emerging Questions.

The colorful phenotypes of birds have long provided rich source material for evolutionary biologists. Avian plumage, beaks, skin, and eggs-which exhibit a stunning range of cryptic and conspicuous forms-inspired early work on adaptive coloration. More recently, avian color has fueled discoveries on the physiological, developmental, and-increasingly-genetic mechanisms responsible for phenotypic variation. The relative ease with which avian color traits can be quantified has made birds an attractive system for uncovering links between phenotype and genotype. Accordingly, the field of avian coloration genetics is burgeoning. In this review, we highlight recent advances and emerging questions associated with the genetic underpinnings of bird color. We start by describing breakthroughs related to 2 pigment classes: carotenoids that produce red, yellow, and orange in most birds and psittacofulvins that produce similar colors in parrots. We then discuss structural colors, which are produced by the interaction of light with nanoscale materials and greatly extend the plumage palette. Structural color genetics remain understudied-but this paradigm is changing. We next explore how colors that arise from interactions among pigmentary and structural mechanisms may be controlled by genes that are co-expressed, co-expressed or co-regulated. We also identify opportunities to investigate genes mediating within-feather micropatterning and the coloration of bare parts and eggs. We conclude by spotlighting 2 research areas-mechanistic links between color vision and color production, and speciation-that have been invigorated by genetic insights, a trend likely to continue as new genomic approaches are applied to non-model species.
Identification and analysis of proteins in the latex C-serum related to the tapping panel dryness in Hevea brasiliensis

The tapping panel dryness(TPD) in Hevea brasiliensis is a significant limit factor influencing natural rubber production.In this experiment,the two-dimensional gel electrophoresis(2-DE) was used to study the differentiation of protein expression profiles of latex C-serum between TPD trees and healthy ones of H.brasiliensis. Thirty-one differentially expressed protein spots were obtained by software analysis.After these spots were subjected to matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry(MALDI-TOF MS) followed by searching for NCBInr database,ten spots were successfully identified.Six of them were identified as the unknown proteins and the remaining 4 were the chain A,structure of ubiquitin-like protein,Rub1;β-1,3-glucanase;AIR9 protein and flagellar inner dynein arm heavy chain 11.These proteins might play important roles in the process of TPD occuring.
The genomic distribution map of human papillomavirus in Western China

Abstract Human papillomavirus (HPV) has been confirmed as the causative agent for cervical cancer. In this study, a total of 301 880 women were recruited from four different regions of Western China, with 301 880 exfoliated cervical cell samples collected from women for DNA isolation and purification. The HPV genotype was tested by polymerase chain reaction. The overall HPV prevalence rate, high-risk (HR) HPV infection rate, low-risk (LR) HPV infection rate and mixed HPV infection rate was 18.24%, 79.14%, 12.56% and 8.30%, respectively. The four most common HR HPV subtypes were HPV-52, 16, 58 and 53, which accounted for 20.49%, 19.93%, 14.54% and 10.01%, respectively. In LR HPV genotype, HPV-6 ranked the highest (28.17%), followed by HPV-81 (9.09%) and HPV-11 (3.78%). HPV genotype subgroup analysis also showed that single-type infection was the most common (77.26%) among HPV-positive individuals. Among multi-infection genotypes, double infection was the most common with frequencies of 76.04%. The overall prevalence of HPV is high in Western China, whose distribution demonstrates different patterns across different ages and regions. Viral genotypes HPV 53, 6 were frequently detected in this population, which is worth of significant clinical attention.
An investigation of adherence to best practice guidelines for autism diagnosis in New Zealand

Recent studies of autism diagnosis in New Zealand have revealed inconsistent implementation of best practice standards in autism assessment and high rates of parental dissatisfaction with the diagnostic process. These findings have arisen despite the development and dissemination of the New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline (the Guideline). In this study, we investigated current diagnostic processes, and adherence to the Guideline in New Zealand, for an opportunity sample of 117 health professionals who practice across a wide range of diagnostic services, health professionals and geographic regions in New Zealand. The results show considerable variability in practice, and suggest specific areas for improvement. These include the robustness of diagnostic evaluations conducted in private settings, the provision of specialist assessment services for youth and adults presenting for autism diagnosis, and the uniformity of post-diagnostic supports and services. These findings have implications for further implementation of the Guideline in New Zealand. Lay abstract Many clinicians in New Zealand do not follow guidelines for best practice in autism diagnosis. In this study, we investigated the processes that health professionals in New Zealand follow when diagnosing autistic children and adults. We asked 117 health professionals from a range of services and regions in New Zealand, how they identify and diagnose autism. We found that there are differences in the way that clinicians in New Zealand diagnose autism. We identified areas in which autism diagnosis in New Zealand could be improved, for example, by establishing more services to diagnose autism in adolescents and adults, and providing more consistent support after a person is diagnosed with autism. These findings will help to improve autism diagnosis in New Zealand.
Latent tuberculosis screening before kidney transplantation in the South of Brazil

Abstract Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is a prevalent infection after kidney transplantation (KT) in high-burden countries. Latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) screening includes previous TB history, chest radiograph findings, and tuberculin test (TST) and/or interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) results. We aimed to compare our routine LTBI screening of KT candidates and living donors (LD) with their IGRA results, and evaluate if this would improve isoniazid (INH) treatment referral. Methods: We evaluated adult KT candidates and LD with complete routine LTBI screening and QuantiFERON-TB® Gold In-Tube (QFT) testing. Blood samples were collected from April 4th, 2014 to October 31st, 2018, with follow-up until October 31st, 2019. Results: There were 116 KT recipients, with 30% QFT-positive results. Positive QFT was associated with past TB history (p=0.007), positive TST (p<0.0001), residual radiographic lesions (p=0.003), and diabetes (p=0.035). There were 25 LD, 40% had positive QFT. Positive QFT was associated with a positive TST (p=0.002). Positive QFT results increased INH referral in 80%. Post-transplant TB incidence was 2.6% in a median follow-up of 2 (1-33) months. No variables were associated with post-transplant TB. TB patients had inferior, although non-significant, 5-year graft survival (66.7% vs. 76.5%) (p = 0.402). Conclusion: In the present study, the association of QFT to our routine LTBI screening incremented INH treatment referral, but there was still a high incidence of post-transplant TB, possibly related to other forms of infection, such as new exposure and donor transmission.
Impact of gender on 10-year outcome after coronary artery bypass grafting.

OBJECTIVES METHODS Our goal was to evaluate the impact of gender on the 10-year outcome of patients after isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) included in the Italian nationwide PRedictIng long-term Outcomes afteR Isolated coronary arTery bypass surgery (PRIORITY) study. RESULTS The PRIORITY project was designed to evaluate the long-term outcomes of patients who underwent CABG and were included in 2 prospective multicentre cohort studies. The primary end point of this analysis was major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events. Baseline differences between the study groups were balanced with propensity score matching and inverse probability of treatment. Time to events was analysed using Cox regression and competing risk analysis. CONCLUSIONS The study population comprised 10 989 patients who underwent isolated CABG (women 19.6%). Propensity score matching produced 1898 well-balanced pairs. The hazard of major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular event was higher in women compared to men [adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 1.13, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03-1.23; P = 0.009]. The incidence of major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular event in women was significantly higher at 1 year (HR 1.31, 95% CI 1.11-1.55; P < 0.001) and after 1 year (HR 1.11, 95% CI 1.00-1.24; P = 0.05). Mortality at 10 years in the matched groups was comparable (HR 1.04, 95% CI 0.93-1.16; P = 0.531). Women have significantly a higher 10-year risk of myocardial infarction (adjusted HR 1.40, 95% CI 1.17-1.68; P = 0.002) and percutaneous coronary intervention (adjusted HR 1.32, 95% CI 1.10-1.59; P = 0.003).
Determining the Number of Bariatric Beds Needed in a U.S. Acute Care Hospital

Aim: This project used historical hospital data to forecast demand for specialized bariatric beds. Models were evaluated that determined the relationship between the number of bariatric beds owned and service level for patients of size requiring these beds. A calculator was developed for minimizing the equipment costs of meeting demand. Background: Failing to provide enough bariatric beds may negatively affect outcomes for patients of size and healthcare workers, whereas owning more bariatric beds than required to meet demand means unnecessary cost. With rising rates of obesity increasing care costs, minimizing equipment costs is increasingly important. Method: One year of hospital admissions data were used to determine arrival rates and lengths of stay for patients of size. Two subsequent years verified the consistency of these rates. Simulations modeled the flow of patients of size through the hospital and the service level associated with the number of beds owned. A minimization function determined the optimal number of bariatric beds to be provided. A simplified, generalizable model was compared to the simulation. Results: The simplified model produced similar results to more complex simulation. The optimization was robust, or insensitive to small changes in inputs, and identified substantial opportunity for savings if demand for beds was substantially over- or underestimated. Conclusions: The simplified model and cost optimization could be used in many situations to prevent costly errors in equipment planning. However, hospitals should consider customized simulation to estimate demand for high-cost equipment or unique circumstances not fitting the assumptions of these models.