bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Математичне моделювання динаміки тепломасопереносу в процесі жаріння олійної сировини
Authors: Сорокова Наталія Миколаївна , Дідур В. В.
Published: September 2019

Розроблено математичну модель і чисельний метод розрахунку динаміки тепломасопереносу та фазових перетворень в процесі волого-теплової обробки подрібненої олійної сировини (м’ятки) в багаточанній жаровні циліндричної конфігурації при кондуктивному підведенні теплоти. Волого-теплова обробка м’ятки є складовим процесом в технології виготовлення рослинної олії. Вона супроводжується певними біохімічними і структурними змінами матеріалу, спрямованими на підвищення виходу та якісних показників олії. Основною умовою досягнення необхідних якісних змін є дотримання заданого температурно-вологістного стану м’ятки при обробці. Математична модель будувалась на базі диференціального рівняння переносу субстанції (енергії, маси, імпульсу) в системах, що деформуються. Вона включає рівняння переносу енергії та рівняння масопереносу рідкої, парової і повітряної фаз в дисперсній колоїдній капілярно-пористій системі. Сформульовано крайові умови. Розроблено чисельний метод розрахунку. Проведено розрахунок динаміки і кінетики жаріння рецинової мезги та верифікацію отриманих результатів, що свідчить про адекватність математичної моделі, ефективність чисельного методу та доцільність їх використання при розробці та оптимізації режимів жаріння у відповідних умовах різних видів насіння олійних культур.
Моделювання впливу β-циклодекстрину як структуруючої добавки на кінетику сушіння водної суспензії їстівного гриба шиїтаке
Authors: Турчина Тетяна Яківна , Жукотський Едуард Костянтинович , Костянець Леся Олександрівна , Макаренко Андрій Анатолійович
Published: September 2019

Вивчено вплив структуруючої добавки на кінетику сушіння крапель водної суспензії гриба шиїтаке та морфологічні, термопластичні і адгезійні характеристики висушених часток. Дослідження процесу сушіння крапель грибної суспензії з введеним β-циклодекстрином (далі по тексту ГС+ЦД) у кількості 10% та 25% за сухими речовинами проводились на стенді в потоці нагрітого теплоносія (повітря). 
За отриманими кінетичними залежностями відносної тривалості випарювального та сушильного періодів визначено, як в залежності від кількості ЦД змінюється їх співвідношення. Збільшення відносної тривалості сушильного періоду при сушінні крапель ГС+10%ЦД при температурі теплоносія 160…200оС пояснюється недостатнім для ефективного структурування і вологопереносу вмістом ЦД, а для ГС+25%ЦД при температурі 140…160оС - недостатнім підведенням тепла.
Темп прогрівання крапель у стадії кіркоутворення та досушування істотно залежить від вмісту ЦД. Для ГС+25%ЦД при підвищенні температури від 160 до 180оС темп прогрівання крапель у стадії кіркоутворення зростає у 2 рази, при цьому на 25% віщий за ГС+10%ЦД, що свідчить про менший вологовміст крапель ГС+25%ЦД завдяки покращенню її структуруючих та паропровідних властивостей. 
Зниження темпу прогрівання крапель ГС+ЦД у порівнянні з ГС без ЦД свідчить про стримуючий ефект ЦД при прогріванні крапель, що, незважаючи на незначне подовження часу сушіння крапель ГС+ЦД, сприяє уникненню перегрівання продукту і збереження усіх цінних складових гриба при сушінні. 
За отриманими результатами визначено, що для покращення структуруючих та вологопровідних властивостей матеріалу при зневодненні вміст ЦД в грибній суспензії має бути більше 10%, але менше 25%, а температура теплоносія – не менше 180оС, але менше 200оС.
Встановлено, що введення ЦД забезпечує більшу міцність і щільність висушених частинок і, тим самим, покращує структурно-механічні характеристики порошку, а підвищення термостійкості матеріалу в сукупності з досягненням ефекту мікрокапсулювання мікрочастинок термолабільних складових гриба при розпилювальному сушінні дозволяють отримувати грибний порошок високої якості.
Operational impacts of lean manufacturing: the case of a consumer goods industrial company
Authors: Cruz Ricardo Santos , Figueiredo Paulo Soares , Passos Francisco Uchoa , Souza Elisabeth Regina Loiola da Cruz
Published: September 2019

This study aims to verify the effect of implementing a lean manufacturing (LM) system on operational performance in an industrial company’s production line. There are few studies that seek to quantitatively verify the effect of implementing an LM system on the operational performance of a company, and that is the main objective of this research. In this case-based study, the LM implementation in the company studied is compared with best practices and reference models, ascertaining the degree of adherence of the company’s program. The operational performance, in terms of three key dimensions of cost, quality and lead time, is compared before and after the implementation of the LM program. By comparing the means of quantitative indicators related to the three performance dimensions, evidence was found of significant gains in the operational performance, and it was demonstrated that the company followed many of the best practices of LM implementation found in the literature. This study contributes to managers and to the literature on LM by measuring its apparent impacts on operational performance.Key words: Operational performance. Value chain. Lean manufacturing. Best practices.
What the radiologist should know about the role of interventional radiology in urology
Authors: Tibana Tiago Kojun , Fornazari Vinícius Adami Vayego , Gutierrez Junior Walberth , Marchiori Edson , Szejnfeld Denis , Nunes Thiago Franchi
Published: August 2019

Abstract Interventional radiology has been constantly developing in terms of the techniques, materials, and methods of intervention. It interacts with all areas of medicine, always with the ultimate goal of ensuring the well-being of patients. Advances in imaging techniques, especially in the last two decades, have led to a paradigm shift in the field of urological imaging interventions. Many urologic diseases that were previously treated only surgically can now be effectively managed using minimally invasive image-guided techniques, often with shorter hospital stays and requiring only local anesthesia or conscious sedation.
A equação de Cambridge e o Novo Teorema de Pasinetti nos modelos pós-keynesianos de crescimento e distribuição de renda
Authors: Oreiro José Luís , Magalhaes Luís Carlos G. de
Published: August 2019

RESUMO Ao longo deste artigo procuramos avaliar a robustez teórica do assim chamado Novo Teorema de Pasinetti, segundo o qual numa economia na qual a diferenciação entre as propensões a poupar a partir dos lucros e dos salários deve-se a natureza da renda empresarial, não a filiação a uma classe social específica; a taxa de lucro ao longo da trajetória de crescimento de Golden Age é independente da propensão a poupar dos trabalhadores, sendo determinada pelo coeficiente de retenção de lucros das firmas, pela fração do investimento que as empresas desejam financiar com recursos de terceiros e pela taxa natural de crescimento.
Mature pomegranate recognition methods in natural environments using machine vision
Authors: Lei Xiangxiao , Ouyang Honglin , Xu Lijuan
Published: August 2019

ABSTRACT: The use of machine vision to recognize mature pomegranates in natural environments is of major significance in improving the applicability and work efficiency of picking robots. By analyzing the color characteristics of color images of mature pomegranates under different illumination conditions, the feasibility of the YCbCr color model for pomegranate image recognition under different illumination conditions was proven. First, the Cr component map of pomegranate image is selected and then the pomegranate fruit is segmented by the kernel fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm to obtain the pomegranate image. Contrast experiments of pomegranate image segmentation under different illumination conditions were then performed using the proposed kernel fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm, the fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm, the Otsu algorithm and the threshold segmentation algorithm. Results of the experiments verified the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed algorithm.
In vitro biological control of Ceratobasidium ramicola by using tannin extracts from Acacia villosa, Myristica fragrans, Acacia mangium, and Calliandra calothyrsus leaves
Authors: Firmansyah M. A. , Erfiani  , Jayanegara A. , Achmad  , Wijayanto N.
Published: August 2019

Abstract Ceratobasidium ramicola is a fitopathogenic fungus that harmful and causes various levels of damage on several types of forestry and horticultural crops. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of Acacia villosa, Myristica fragrans, Acacia mangium and Calliandra calothyrsus leaf extracts as tannin sources related to the in vitro inhibition of Ceratobasidium ramicola growth. The in vitro inhibition was performed by employing solid potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium to obtain the radial inhibition, while liquid potato dextrose broth (PDB) medium was used to obtain the biomass inhibition. Experimental design was based on in time nested-completely randomized design and statistical analysis was carried out with SAS software version 9.1. The result of radial growth inhibition of Ceratobasidium ramicola showed that tannin extracts of A. mangium and M. Fragrans were not significantly different to each other. Treatment of tannin extracts from A. villosa, M. fragrans, A. mangium and C. Calothyrsus with a concentration of 1% were significantly different with other concentrations and resulted the greatest inhibition values. Tannin extract of A. Mangium at 1% concentration produced the greatest radial inhibition by 33.2%. In most cases, the effective inhibition from tannin extract occurred at the 24h of incubation. The greatest biomass inhibition was produced on 1% tannin extract of A. mangium by 64.3%, while the lowest was produced from 1% tannin extract of M. fragrans by 27.0%.
Espaços das Migrações Transnacionais: perfil sociodemográfico de imigrantes da África para o Brasil no século XXI
Authors: Baeninger Rosana , Demétrio Natália Belmonte , Domeniconi Jóice
Published: August 2019

Resumo Esse trabalho tem por objetivo construir um perfil sociodemográfico da imigração africana para o Brasil. Parte-se do aporte teórico das migrações transnacionais como recurso analítico que articula as transformações advindas da divisão internacional do trabalho aos processos que ocorrem dentro das fronteiras nacionais. Em termos metodológicos, são utilizados registros administrativos de diversas instituições brasileiras: Polícia Federal, Comitê Nacional para Refugiados e Relação Anual de Informações Sociais da Secretaria de Trabalho.
Cursos migratórios e novas circularidades: migrantes da África Ocidental no Sul do Brasil
Authors: Sangalli Lucas Cé , Gonçalves Maria do Carmo dos Santos
Published: August 2019

Resumo Utilizamos os métodos de entrevista narrativa biográfica e reconstrução de caso biográfico para compreender e explicar as experiências de mobilidade de migrantes da África Ocidental no Brasil. O artigo está fundamentado na sociologia do conhecimento, na sociologia de orientação fenomenológica e na sociologia dos processos e figurações. Os resultados indicam a) a limitação de categorias restritivas para a compreensão do fenômeno, como a baseada em eixos geográficos; b) a necessidade de reconstrução dos deslocamentos anteriores e posteriores dos migrantes para explicar seus cursos migratórios; e c) a tradução dos pertencimentos étnico e religioso e de ativos pessoais e familiares em estratégias que impedem reduzir a explicação das motivações para migrar a determinantes estruturais.
Agencia y asociacionismo en contextos de violencia institucional: el accionar de migrantes senegaleses en la ciudad de La Plata (Argentina)
Authors: Voscoboinik Sonia Raquel , Zubrzycki Bernarda
Published: August 2019

Resumen El siguiente artículo analiza la agencia de los miembros de una asociación de senegaleses de la ciudad de La Plata (Buenos Aires, Argentina), focalizándose en el surgimiento de la misma y en la participación de Cisé, unos de sus miembros más activos. Al mismo tiempo se describen algunas de las características sociodemográficas más relevantes de la población senegalesa de dicha ciudad. Para la recolección de datos se ha realizado una encuesta, entrevistas con distinto grado de profundidad a los referentes de la asociación y observaciones participantes que incluyeron el acompañamiento a la población senegalesa en instancias de diálogo con funcionarios públicos y la participación activa en una asamblea para intervenir en los casos de violencia contra migrantes senegaleses de la ciudad.
¿Pourquoi tu te mets là comme ça? Migrantes congoleñas y prácticas de haciendo-lugar en São Paulo
Authors: Reiffen Franziska
Published: August 2019

Resumen En este artículo abordo el tema del haciendo-lugar en situaciones de desplazamiento desde la perspectiva de migrantes provenientes de la República Democrática del Congo quienes viven en la ciudad de São Paulo. A través de un abordaje etnográfico, analizo las experiencias de mujeres migrantes en un lugar de trabajo y en una parroquia evangélica. Mi intención es hacer ver cómo estas migrantes (trans)forman lugares en la ciudad, cómo se insertan en redes existentes y a qué dificultades se enfrentan en su entorno marcado por relaciones desiguales de poder.
Configuraciones migratorias: una reflexión para tres escenarios alemanes
Authors: Guizardi Menara , Mardones Pablo
Published: August 2019

Resumen El artículo presenta una reflexión etnográfica sobre las configuraciones de la experiencia migrante en siete ciudades de tres estados alemanes. Partiremos por situar, en el segundo apartado, el contexto migratorio en Alemania, a través de una síntesis de datos oficiales estadísticos. En el tercero, presentamos nuestras observaciones sobre el contexto migratorio en las ciudades del estado de Turingia. En el cuarto, en las ciudades de Hesse y, en el quinto, en las de Renania del Norte-Westfalia. Cerramos con reflexiones sobre las configuraciones migrantes en estos tres territorios de Alemania.
Proposta de uma classificação geral de objetos museológicos
Authors: Marcondes Carlos Henrique
Published: August 2019

Resumo O esquema utilizado pela Rede de Museus do Estado do Rio de Janeiro para classificar objetos museológicos contém 16 categorias, baseadas em Ferrez e Bianchini (1987), um esquema pioneiro em uso em diversos museus brasileiros. As categorias desse esquema não são suficientes para as coleções de museus que estão aderindo à Rede. Essas incluem objetos de interesse científico e objetos de cultura intangível, que necessitariam de categorias próprias. Como Metodologia para expandir o esquema classificatório original foi utilizada a análise ontológica, definições conceituais e a teoria aristotélica da classificação. Esta base teórica e metodológica foi utilizada para distinguir diferentes tipos de objetos, definir novas categorias e especificar o seu escopo, incorporando-as ao novo esquema, garantindo sua compatibilidade com o esquema anterior e com os acervos já incluídos na Rede. Como Resultados, as categorias sugeridas incluem uma ampla, a de Objetos museológicos, que contem duas, Objetos Naturais (subdividida em objetos Orgânicos e Inorgânicos) e Produtos físicos ou conceituais da cultura Humana - a primeira contendo as 15 das 16 categorias do esquema original; e uma ampla categoria, de Produtos da Cultura imaterial. O resultado é um esquema amplo, que incorpora o anterior, e simultaneamente permite que novas categorias sejam incluídas no futuro.
O lugar do patrimônio documental: Brasília e Fundo NovaCap
Authors: Crivelli Renato , Bizello Maria Leandro
Published: August 2019

Resumo O presente artigo discute os patrimônios documentais como uma apresentação do universo patrimonial ainda pouco explorada, o que pode trazer questionamentos tanto à sua legitimidade quanto ao seu papel neste contexto. Uma relação mais próxima entre os patrimônios documentais e a sociedade é ponto fundamental, mas que se encontra nebulosa, seja em sua prática, seja em sua teoria. A partir desse debate, estudamos dois casos integrantes legais de Listas do Patrimônio: Brasília, como Patrimônio Mundial e o Fundo NovaCap, como Patrimônio Documental, refletindo sobre o lugar dos documentos no contexto patrimonial.
The effects of big data over the analytical activities of strategic intelligence professionals in Brazil
Authors: Nesello Priscila , Fachinelli Ana Cristina
Published: August 2019

Abstract The strategic use of information is at the core of the intelligence activity whose focus has been largely directed to the use of technology for data analysis. However, the cognitive aspects are the ones that most seem to challenge the transformation of information into intelligence, as they are associated with the psychological dimensions. This paper aims to examine how the big data phenomenon is perceived and influences the activities of strategic intelligence (SI) professionals in Brazil. The research was conducted as a qualitative study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 leading individuals in the field of strategic intelligence in Brazil followed by a content analysis technique for the data analysis. The results show the effects of big data are less influential over the cognitive dimension of the analyst, particularly in the skills to keep their open-mindedness and in the self-confidence to admit and learn from analytic errors.
Estado, democracia e tecnologia: conflitos políticos e vulnerabilidade no contexto do big-data, das fake news e das shitstorms
Authors: Caldas Camilo Onoda Luiz , Caldas Pedro Neris Luiz
Published: August 2019

Resumo O presente artigo trata dos impactos que as novas tecnologias e alguns de seus potenciais fenômenos correspondentes (big-data, shitstorm, candystorm e fake news) têm sobre os processos eleitorais e, consequentemente, o modelo democrático existente na atualidade. O texto resulta de um estudo interdisciplinar, abrangendo um quadro teórico ligado a ciências como comunicação, tecnologia, direito e política. O objetivo é descrever os fenômenos do big-data, shitstorm, candystorm e fake news, a partir da literatura acadêmica existente, e indicar como todos eles têm uma relevância crescente no desenvolvimento dos processos eleitorais contemporâneos, criando a necessidade de novas iniciativas por parte do Poder Executivo, Legislativo e Judiciário, para evitar consequências deletérias capazes de afetar o equilíbrio das disputas eleitorais e a democracia como um todo.
Estratégias de Organização, Representação e Gestão de Trilhas de Aprendizagem: uma revisão sistemática de literatura
Authors: Lopes Patrícia , Lima Gercina Angela
Published: August 2019

Resumo Objetivo: Apresentar resultados de revisão de literatura sobre estratégias de organização, representação e gestão de trilhas de aprendizagem. Método: Realizou-se revisão de literatura a partir de levantamento bibliográfico de publicações científicas entre 2011 e 2016, adotando-se como percurso metodológico as etapas de seleção de termos de busca; estabelecimento de parâmetros de busca; identificação de fontes para o levantamento bibliográfico; leitura exploratória, seletiva e analítica do material bibliográfico e análise quantitativa e qualilativa dos resultados. Resultados: Sobre as estratégias de organização de trilhas de aprendizagem, identificou-se o uso de vocabulários controlados, principalmente taxonomias e ontologias. No que se refere à representação de trilhas de aprendizagem, há propostas para organização do conhecimento, ou seja, abstrações que visam apresentar um modelo conceitual, e poucas soluções de visualização desse processo do ponto de vista do aprendiz. Quanto à gestão de trilhas de aprendizagem, observou-se escassez de estudos que contemplam essa temática. Conclusões: Foi possível constatar que há lacunas a serem preenchidas no que se refere ao desenvolvimento de metodologias para organização, representação e gestão de trilhas de aprendizagem, bem como em relação a aplicações empíricas de trilhas de aprendizagem com grupos de usuários.
Kidney transplantation with donors in severe acute kidney injury. Should we use these organs? Retrospective Case Series
Authors: Santos Guilherme Palhares Aversa , Andrade Luis Gustavo Modelli de , Valiatti Mariana Farina , Contti Mariana Moraes , Nga Hong Si , Takase Henrique Mochida
Published: August 2019

ABSTRACT Introduction: The number of incident and prevalent patients on dialysis has increased, as well as the number of candidates for renal transplantation in Brazil, without a proportional increase in the number of organ donors. The use of expanded kidneys, as to renal function, may be an alternative to increase the supply of organs. Objective: to discuss the feasibility of using expanded kidneys for renal function, which are in severe acute renal injury. Methods: All cases of renal transplantation of deceased donors performed at the Hospital das Clínicas de Botucatu of UNESP, from January 2010 to June 2018, totaling 732 cases were evaluated. Cases with final donor creatinine greater than 6 mg/dL were selected. Results: four patients were selected, of whom all donors were in severe acute kidney injury (AKI). These donors presented rhabdomyolysis as a probable cause of severe AKI, were young, with no comorbidities and had decreased urinary volume in the last 24 hours. The clinical evolution of all the recipients was satisfactory, with a glomerular filtration rate after transplantation ranging from 48 to 98 mL/min/1.73 m2. Conclusion: this series of cases shows the possibility of using renal donors in severe AKI, provided the following are respected: donor age, rhabdomyolysis as the cause of AKI, and implantation-favorable biopsy findings. Additional studies with better designs, larger numbers of patients and longer follow-up times are needed.
A extradição de Portugal para o Brasil de cidadãos portugueses naturalizados
Authors: Canotilho J. J. Gomes , Brandão Nuno
Published: August 2019

Resumo A extradição de nacionais constitui matéria prevista e regulada tanto na Constituição brasileira, como na Constituição portuguesa. Dos comandos constitucionais que a regulam resulta para o Brasil uma proibição absoluta de extradição dos seus cidadãos natos, daí derivando para Portugal, em virtude do princípio constitucional da reciprocidade, uma proibição de extradição para o Brasil de portugueses originários. Fica, por isso, em aberto, apenas a questão da extradição dos cidadãos que tenham obtido a nacionalidade por naturalização. É essa a temática objecto deste estudo, que avalia a possibilidade de o Estado português responder positivamente a pedidos de extradição de portugueses naturalizados que lhe sejam dirigidos pelo Brasil. No tratamento do problema, convoca-se o princípio da reciprocidade, a Convenção de Extradição da CPLP, a Convenção de Viena sobre o Direito dos Tratados e os princípios da igualdade, universalidade e ordem pública, concluindo-se pela impossibilidade de extradição de portugueses naturalizados.
SURGERY FOR ADULT SPINAL SCOLIOSIS: DO THE BENEFITS OUTWEIGH THE RISKS?
Authors: DEDÉA JEFERSON , TELES ALISSON ROBERTO , FALAVIGNA ASDRUBAL
Published: August 2019

ABSTRACT Around 6% of the elderly population over 65 years of age are affected by adult spinal deformity (ASD). The increasing prevalence of ASD with aging has prompted discussion regarding the use of various techniques for its treatment, such as surgery and conservative treatment. The objective of this study is to investigate whether surgical treatment demonstrates significant benefits as compared to conservative treatment. A literature review was conducted, focusing on the most relevant papers on the topic published in the last five years. Surgical treatment, which costs an average of US$ 99,114 per procedure, enables almost instant improvement of the pain and disability of ASD. The rate of perioperative complications in ASD is approximately 7.5%, and the average improvement in back pain is 6.2 times higher in the surgical approach than in conservative treatment. In addition, the use of modern operative techniques, such as minimally invasive surgery (MIS), reduces the complications and greatly improves patients’ quality of life, compared to open surgery. Therefore, the expected benefits of surgical treatment meets the patient’s expectations by eliminating the pain caused by ASD. Although surgical treatment has a higher cost and a greater risk of complications, the use of minimally invasive techniques give the ASD patient a better quality of life. Level of evidence III; Non-Systematic Review.
SAGITTAL BALANCE IN ADOLESCENT IDIOPATHIC SCOLIOSIS
Authors: PINTO EDUARDO MOREIRA , ALVES JORGE , TEIXEIRA ARTUR , MIRANDA ANTÓNIO
Published: August 2019

ABSTRACT Objective The objective of this study is to achieve a better understanding of the parameters that influence sagittal balance in a population with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). Methods A retrospective study of 80 patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) was conducted. The parameters evaluated were: age, sex, pelvic incidence (PI), sacral slop (SS), pelvic tilt (PT), sagittal balance (SB), coronal balance (CB), lumbar lordosis (LL), thoracic kyphosis (TK) divided into upper (between T1 and T5) and lower (between T5 and T12), cervical spine alignment (CSA), and Cobb’s coronal angle (CCA) of primary scoliotic curvature. Results Regarding the sagittal balance, this study demonstrated a significant statistical positive correlation with cervical shape (p<0.01) and upper thoracic kyphosis (from T1 to T5) (p<0.05), but not with the other variables. LL had a strong influence on lower thoracic curvature (from T5 to T12) and was strongly influenced by the PI and SS. Conclusions Sagittal balance is a parameter that is influenced by multiple factors. In fact, it is closely related to cervical shape and the upper thoracic curvature (from T1 to T5), which in turn, is closely linked to the severity of the scoliotic kyphosis. The Cobb angle of the lower thoracic spine (from T5 to T12) is more closely correlated with the angle of lumbar lordosis than with the upper thoracic kyphosis (from T1 to T5). Level of evidence IV; Case Series.
POSTERIOR VERTEBRAL COLUMN RESECTION IN MULTIPLE LEVELS IN CHILDREN WITH VERTEBRAL TUBERCULOSIS
Authors: BARROS ALDERICO GIRÃO CAMPOS DE , SILVA LUIS EDUARDO CARELLI TEIXEIRA DA , PEREIRA MARCELO GLAUBER DA SILVA , BARCELLOS ANDRE LUIZ LOYELO , CAVALCANTI LUCAS ROCHA
Published: August 2019

ABSTRACT Objective To evaluate the clinical and radiological results of posterior vertebral column resection in the treatment of kyphosis due to vertebral tuberculosis in children under 9 years of age with neurological deficit. Methods Retrospective study of a series of 5 cases, 4 females and 1 male, mean age of 4.7 years at the time of surgery, with spinal tuberculosis and mean kyphosis of 89 degrees. Results All patients underwent surgical treatment with PVCR in multiple levels, with a mean number of 3.6 resected vertebrae, mean surgical time of 359 minutes, mean postoperative stay of 21.2 days. The mean follow-up was 29 months. The mean kyphosis correction was 62.6%. Before surgery, all patients had signs of spinal cord injury, one of which did not present a deficit of strength or sensibility (ASIA E), but there were pyramidal signs and a history of falls. The other 4 had some degree of sensory-motor dysfunction, with ASIA score varying from A to D. Postoperative complications included two dehiscences of suture, one pneumothorax and one pneumonia, all with favorable evolution. Four patients progressed with neurological improvement and one of them had persistence of the neurological deficit until the last follow-up. Conclusions Multiple-level PVCR has proven to be a safe and effective option for the treatment of kyphotic deformity in spinal tuberculosis in children with neurological deficit. Level of evidence IV; Case Series.
LUMBAR ENDOSCOPIC DISCECTOMY IN OBESE PATIENTS
Authors: ASANO LEONARDO YUKIO JORGE , BISSON GUSTAVO , GIANUZZI DANILO , BERGAMASCHI JOÃO PAULO MACHADO , DOWLING ÁLVARO , RODRIGUES LUCIANO MILLER REIS
Published: August 2019

ABSTRACT Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical and functional results of endoscopic lumbar discectomy in obese patients. Methods We selected 56 patients with lumbar disc hernia refractory to clinical treatment that underwent endoscopic discectomy. Twenty-five patients with a body mass index (BMI) greater than or equal to 30 kg/m 2 were analyzed through the Visual Analogue Scale and functional evaluation using the Oswestry Disability Index questionnaire and compared to 31 patients in the control group (BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 kg/m 2 ). These data were obtained in the preoperative period, in the immediate postoperative period, at 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and one year after surgery. Results The mean BMI in the control group was 22.1 kg/m 2 , and in the obese group, 33.6 kg/m 2 . In both groups there was a statistically significant improvement in clinical and functional analyzes. There was no statistical difference between the groups. Conclusions Lumbar transforaminal endoscopic discectomy has been shown to be a safe, effective and minimally invasive alternative for the treatment of lumbar disc herniation in obese patients. Level of Evidence III; Retrospective and Comparative Study.
WHAT IS THE BEST DISTAL LEVEL OF ARTHRODESIS IN LUMBAR FUSION IN PATIENTS WITH ADOLESCENT IDIOPATHIC SCOLIOSIS: L3 OR L4?
Authors: DAHER MURILO TAVARES , MELO NILO CARRIJO , NASCIMENTO VINÍCIO NUNES , FELISBINO JR PEDRO , ARAÚJO BRENDA CRISTINA RIBEIRO , DAHER SÉRGIO , RABAHI MARCELO FOUAD
Published: August 2019

ABSTRACT Objective To evaluate coronal alignment in patients with idiopathic adolescent scoliosis with structured lumbar curves submitted to surgical treatment by comparing coronal alignment in the group fusion up to L3 and the group fusion up to L4. Methods Retrospective cohort study. We evaluated patients submitted to surgical treatment with arthrodesis of the lumbar curve with high density of screws with at least 6 months of follow-up. Radiographically, coronal alignment, shoulder height and functional outcome were analyzed through SRS30 questionnaire. Results A total of 25 patients were analyzed, of which 23 were female and 2 were male, with a mean age of 15.2 years (12 to 29 years) at the time of surgery. The patients were divided into two groups. Group A, n = 15: Distal level of fusion in L3 and Group B, n = 10: distal level of fusion in L4. There was no statistically significant difference between Groups A and B when compared to coronal alignment (balanced vs. unbalanced). However, when compared with the coronal alignment (CA) values, lower values of CA were observed in Group A, with statistical significance. No difference was observed between Groups A and B with respect to the SRS30 questionnaire. Conclusions Patients with idiopathic adolescent scoliosis submitted to arthrodesis of the lumbar curve have a better coronal alignment when the distal fusion level is L3. Level of evidence III; Comparative Retrospective Study (based on prospectively collected data).
PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF VERTEBRAL CANAL DECOMPRESSION BY SPINOUS PROCESS SPLITTING
Authors: MATOS THIAGO DANTAS , GARCIA YONY OSORIO , COSTA HERTON RODRIGO TAVARES , DEFINO HELTON LUIZ APARECIDO
Published: August 2019

ABSTRACT Objective Considering that the technique of spinous process splitting has been advocated as a less invasive treatment of lumbar stenosis, the objective of this study was to evaluate the preliminary results of this technique in the surgical treatment of lumbar canal stenosis. Methods Twenty patients with lumbar spinal canal stenosis who underwent surgical treatment for lumbar canal decompression with the spinous process splitting technique were assessed in the preoperative period and on postoperative days 1, 7 and 30 for VAS for lower back and lower limbs pain and radiographic evaluation of the operated segment. Results The mean visual analogue scale score for lumbar pain in the preoperative assessment was 4.2 ± 3.37 and 0.85 ± 0.88, 1.05 ± 1.19 and 1.15 ± 1.04 after 1, 7 and 30 postoperative days, respectively. The mean VAS score for lower limb pain was 8 ± 1.72 preoperatively, and 0.7 ± 1.13, 0.85 ± 1.04, and 1.05 ± 1 after 1, 7, and 30 postoperative days, respectively. There were no radiographic signs of instability of the vertebral segment operated in the radiographic evaluation. Conclusions Decompression of the lumbar canal through the spinous process splitting technique in patients with lumbar canal stenosis had good immediate and short-term results in relation to low back and lower limbs pain. Level of evidence IV; Therapeutic Study.
MODIFICATION OF THE NEGATIVE PRESSURE THERAPY TECHNIQUE FOR TREATMENT OF WOUND INFECTION AFTER SPINAL SURGERY
Authors: BETANCOURT-CARLOS MARTÍN , GONZÁLEZ-CISNEROS ARELHI CATALINA , JIMÉNEZ-AVILA JOSÉ MARÍA
Published: August 2019

ABSTRACT Objective To describe the indications and contraindications of negative pressure assisted wound therapy as well as a modification to the negative pressure technique that has been shown to shorten the number of changes of dressings and hospital stay with the early closure of the wound. Methods A review of the existing literature in the databases OVID, PubMed, Cochrane and Medigraphic was carried out in relation to the pressure-assisted closure of wounds. This is a non-invasive and active healing system that uses localized and controlled negative pressure, which consists of a specialized dressing that includes reticulated foam that removes the exudates through a tube to an airtight container. This set forms microdeformations in the wound bed, which are known to cause an important increase in fibroblastic migration and consequently of higher quality tissue, granulation tissue formation and angiogenesis. Results It was found that this method shortens the number of days of hospital stay. The technique describes the primary closure of the wound after intense cleansing and debridement of the non-viable tissue and signs of infection. Conclusions Negative pressure wound therapy is effective for the treatment of deep infections in postsurgical spinal wound, with average time of use of 1 to 4 weeks in the most severe cases. Level of evidence IV; Case Series.
Trainable Undersampling for Class-Imbalance Learning
Authors: Peng Minlong , Zhang Qi , Xing Xiaoyu , Gui Tao , Huang Xuanjing , Jiang Yu-Gang , Ding Keyu , Chen Zhigang
Published: September 2019

Undersampling has been widely used in the class-imbalance learning area. The main deficiency of most existing undersampling methods is that their data sampling strategies are heuristic-based and independent of the used classifier and evaluation metric. Thus, they may discard informative instances for the classifier during the data sampling. In this work, we propose a meta-learning method built on the undersampling to address this issue. The key idea of this method is to parametrize the data sampler and train it to optimize the classification performance over the evaluation metric. We solve the non-differentiable optimization problem for training the data sampler via reinforcement learning. By incorporating evaluation metric optimization into the data sampling process, the proposed method can learn which instance should be discarded for the given classifier and evaluation metric. In addition, as a data level operation, this method can be easily applied to arbitrary evaluation metric and classifier, including non-parametric ones (e.g., C4.5 and KNN). Experimental results on both synthetic and realistic datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Robust Optimization over Multiple Domains
Authors: Qian Qi , Zhu Shenghuo , Tang Jiasheng , Jin Rong , Sun Baigui , Li Hao
Published: September 2019

In this work, we study the problem of learning a single model for multiple domains. Unlike the conventional machine learning scenario where each domain can have the corresponding model, multiple domains (i.e., applications/users) may share the same machine learning model due to maintenance loads in cloud computing services. For example, a digit-recognition model should be applicable to hand-written digits, house numbers, car plates, etc. Therefore, an ideal model for cloud computing has to perform well at each applicable domain. To address this new challenge from cloud computing, we develop a framework of robust optimization over multiple domains. In lieu of minimizing the empirical risk, we aim to learn a model optimized to the adversarial distribution over multiple domains. Hence, we propose to learn the model and the adversarial distribution simultaneously with the stochastic algorithm for efficiency. Theoretically, we analyze the convergence rate for convex and non-convex models. To our best knowledge, we first study the convergence rate of learning a robust non-convex model with a practical algorithm. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the robustness of the framework and the convergence rate can be further enhanced by appropriate regularizers over the adversarial distribution. The empirical study on real-world fine-grained visual categorization and digits recognition tasks verifies the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed framework.
Training Complex Models with Multi-Task Weak Supervision
Authors: Ratner Alexander , Hancock Braden , Dunnmon Jared , Sala Frederic , Pandey Shreyash , Ré Christopher
Published: September 2019

As machine learning models continue to increase in complexity, collecting large hand-labeled training sets has become one of the biggest roadblocks in practice. Instead, weaker forms of supervision that provide noisier but cheaper labels are often used. However, these weak supervision sources have diverse and unknown accuracies, may output correlated labels, and may label different tasks or apply at different levels of granularity. We propose a framework for integrating and modeling such weak supervision sources by viewing them as labeling different related sub-tasks of a problem, which we refer to as the multi-task weak supervision setting. We show that by solving a matrix completion-style problem, we can recover the accuracies of these multi-task sources given their dependency structure, but without any labeled data, leading to higher-quality supervision for training an end model. Theoretically, we show that the generalization error of models trained with this approach improves with the number of unlabeled data points, and characterize the scaling with respect to the task and dependency structures. On three fine-grained classification problems, we show that our approach leads to average gains of 20.2 points in accuracy over a traditional supervised approach, 6.8 points over a majority vote baseline, and 4.1 points over a previously proposed weak supervision method that models tasks separately.
On Fair Cost Sharing Games in Machine Learning
Authors: Redko Ievgen , Laclau Charlotte
Published: September 2019

Machine learning and game theory are known to exhibit a very strong link as they mutually provide each other with solutions and models allowing to study and analyze the optimal behaviour of a set of agents. In this paper, we take a closer look at a special class of games, known as fair cost sharing games, from a machine learning perspective. We show that this particular kind of games, where agents can choose between selfish behaviour and cooperation with shared costs, has a natural link to several machine learning scenarios including collaborative learning with homogeneous and heterogeneous sources of data. We further demonstrate how the game-theoretical results bounding the ratio between the best Nash equilibrium (or its approximate counterpart) and the optimal solution of a given game can be used to provide the upper bound of the gain achievable by the collaborative learning expressed as the expected risk and the sample complexity for homogeneous and heterogeneous cases, respectively. We believe that the established link can spur many possible future implications for other learning scenarios as well, with privacy-aware learning being among the most noticeable examples.
Latent Multi-Task Architecture Learning
Authors: Ruder Sebastian , Bingel Joachim , Augenstein Isabelle , Søgaard Anders
Published: September 2019

Multi-task learning (MTL) allows deep neural networks to learn from related tasks by sharing parameters with other networks. In practice, however, MTL involves searching an enormous space of possible parameter sharing architectures to find (a) the layers or subspaces that benefit from sharing, (b) the appropriate amount of sharing, and (c) the appropriate relative weights of the different task losses. Recent work has addressed each of the above problems in isolation. In this work we present an approach that learns a latent multi-task architecture that jointly addresses (a)–(c). We present experiments on synthetic data and data from OntoNotes 5.0, including four different tasks and seven different domains. Our extension consistently outperforms previous approaches to learning latent architectures for multi-task problems and achieves up to 15% average error reductions over common approaches to MTL.
Granger-Causal Attentive Mixtures of Experts: Learning Important Features with Neural Networks
Authors: Schwab Patrick , Miladinovic Djordje , Karlen Walter
Published: September 2019

Knowledge of the importance of input features towards decisions made by machine-learning models is essential to increase our understanding of both the models and the underlying data. Here, we present a new approach to estimating feature importance with neural networks based on the idea of distributing the features of interest among experts in an attentive mixture of experts (AME). AMEs use attentive gating networks trained with a Granger-causal objective to learn to jointly produce accurate predictions as well as estimates of feature importance in a single model. Our experiments show (i) that the feature importance estimates provided by AMEs compare favourably to those provided by state-of-theart methods, (ii) that AMEs are significantly faster at estimating feature importance than existing methods, and (iii) that the associations discovered by AMEs are consistent with those reported by domain experts.
Automatic Code Review by Learning the Revision of Source Code
Authors: Shi Shu-Ting , Li Ming , Lo David , Thung Ferdian , Huo Xuan
Published: September 2019

Code review is the process of manual inspection on the revision of the source code in order to find out whether the revised source code eventually meets the revision requirements. However, manual code review is time-consuming, and automating such the code review process will alleviate the burden of code reviewers and speed up the software maintenance process. To construct the model for automatic code review, the characteristics of the revisions of source code (i.e., the difference between the two pieces of source code) should be properly captured and modeled. Unfortunately, most of the existing techniques can easily model the overall correlation between two pieces of source code, but not for the “difference” between two pieces of source code. In this paper, we propose a novel deep model named DACE for automatic code review. Such a model is able to learn revision features by contrasting the revised hunks from the original and revised source code with respect to the code context containing the hunks. Experimental results on six open source software projects indicate by learning the revision features, DACE can outperform the competing approaches in automatic code review.
Sublinear Time Numerical Linear Algebra for Structured Matrices
Authors: Shi Xiaofei , Woodruff David P.
Published: September 2019

We show how to solve a number of problems in numerical linear algebra, such as least squares regression, lp-regression for any p ≥ 1, low rank approximation, and kernel regression, in time T(A)poly(log(nd)), where for a given input matrix A ∈ Rn×d, T(A) is the time needed to compute A · y for an arbitrary vector y ∈ Rd. Since T(A) ≤ O(nnz(A)), where nnz(A) denotes the number of non-zero entries of A, the time is no worse, up to polylogarithmic factors, as all of the recent advances for such problems that run in input-sparsity time. However, for many applications, T(A) can be much smaller than nnz(A), yielding significantly sublinear time algorithms. For example, in the overconstrained (1+ε)-approximate polynomial interpolation problem, A is a Vandermonde matrix and T(A) = O(n log n); in this case our running time is n · poly (log n) + poly (d/ε) and we recover the results of Avron, Sindhwani, and Woodruff (2013) as a special case. For overconstrained autoregression, which is a common problem arising in dynamical systems, T(A) = O(n log n), and we immediately obtain n· poly (log n) + poly(d/ε) time. For kernel autoregression, we significantly improve the running time of prior algorithms for general kernels. For the important case of autoregression with the polynomial kernel and arbitrary target vector b ∈ Rn, we obtain even faster algorithms. Our algorithms show that, perhaps surprisingly, most of these optimization problems do not require much more time than that of a polylogarithmic number of matrix-vector multiplications.
Label Embedding with Partial Heterogeneous Contexts
Authors: Shi Yaxin , Xu Donna , Pan Yuangang , Tsang Ivor W. , Pan Shirui
Published: September 2019

Label embedding plays an important role in many real-world applications. To enhance the label relatedness captured by the embeddings, multiple contexts can be adopted. However, these contexts are heterogeneous and often partially observed in practical tasks, imposing significant challenges to capture the overall relatedness among labels. In this paper, we propose a general Partial Heterogeneous Context Label Embedding (PHCLE) framework to address these challenges. Categorizing heterogeneous contexts into two groups, relational context and descriptive context, we design tailor-made matrix factorization formula to effectively exploit the label relatedness in each context. With a shared embedding principle across heterogeneous contexts, the label relatedness is selectively aligned in a shared space. Due to our elegant formulation, PHCLE overcomes the partial context problem and can nicely incorporate more contexts, which both cannot be tackled with existing multi-context label embedding methods. An effective alternative optimization algorithm is further derived to solve the sparse matrix factorization problem. Experimental results demonstrate that the label embeddings obtained with PHCLE achieve superb performance in image classification task and exhibit good interpretability in the downstream label similarity analysis and image understanding task.
Sensitivity Analysis of Deep Neural Networks
Authors: Shu Hai , Zhu Hongtu
Published: September 2019

Deep neural networks (DNNs) have achieved superior performance in various prediction tasks, but can be very vulnerable to adversarial examples or perturbations. Therefore, it is crucial to measure the sensitivity of DNNs to various forms of perturbations in real applications. We introduce a novel perturbation manifold and its associated influence measure to quantify the effects of various perturbations on DNN classifiers. Such perturbations include various external and internal perturbations to input samples and network parameters. The proposed measure is motivated by information geometry and provides desirable invariance properties. We demonstrate that our influence measure is useful for four model building tasks: detecting potential ‘outliers’, analyzing the sensitivity of model architectures, comparing network sensitivity between training and test sets, and locating vulnerable areas. Experiments show reasonably good performance of the proposed measure for the popular DNN models ResNet50 and DenseNet121 on CIFAR10 and MNIST datasets.