title: Alkali treatment of hemp fibres for the production of aligned hemp fibre mats for composite reinforcement

authors: Sunny, Tom

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: The main objective of this study was to produce aligned hemp fibre mats from high strength hemp fibres using dynamic sheet forming (DSF). Alkali treatment of hemp fibre was carried out at ambient and high temperature to separate fibres. Single fibre tensile testing was used to assess the tensile properties of the fibres. It was found that the highest tensile properties were exhibited by high temperature treated fibre, whereas the tensile properties exhibited by ambient temperature treated fibre were lower than for untreated fibre. It was also found that fibre granulated after high temperature treatment, was better separated than that granulated before high temperature treatment. This well-separated fibre could successfully be formed into mats using DSF. The orientation of the formed mat was analysed using ImageJ (NIH, USA) software by which the potential of DSF to produce aligned hemp fibre mat was supported. The tensile properties of composite reinforced by these aligned hemp fibre mats were assessed.

text: Alkali treatment of hemp fibres for the production of aligned hemp fibre mats for composite reinforcement The main objective of this study was to produce aligned hemp fibre mats from high strength hemp fibres using dynamic sheet forming (DSF). Alkali treatment of hemp fibre was carried out at ambient and high temperature to separate fibres. Single fibre tensile testing was used to assess the tensile properties of the fibres. It was found that the highest tensile properties were exhibited by high temperature treated fibre, whereas the tensile properties exhibited by ambient temperature treated fibre were lower than for untreated fibre. It was also found that fibre granulated after high temperature treatment, was better separated than that granulated before high temperature treatment. This well-separated fibre could successfully be formed into mats using DSF. The orientation of the formed mat was analysed using ImageJ (NIH, USA) software by which the potential of DSF to produce aligned hemp fibre mat was supported. The tensile properties of composite reinforced by these aligned hemp fibre mats were assessed.

year: 2020

title: Building ensembles of adaptive nested dichotomies with random-pair selection

authors: Leathart, Tim

subjects: computer science

abstract: A system of nested dichotomies is a method of decomposing a multi-class problem into a collection of binary problems. Such a system recursively applies binary splits to divide the set of classes into two subsets, and trains a binary classifier for each split. Although ensembles of nested dichotomies with random structure have been shown to perform well in practice, using a more sophisticated class subset selection method can be used to improve classification accuracy. We investigate an approach to this problem called random-pair selection, and evaluate its effectiveness compared to other published methods of subset selection. We show that our method outperforms other methods in many cases when forming ensembles of nested dichotomies, and is at least on par in all other cases. The software related to this paper is available at https://svn.cms.waikato.ac.nz/svn/weka/trunk/packages/ internal/ensemblesOfNestedDichotomies/.

text: Building ensembles of adaptive nested dichotomies with random-pair selection A system of nested dichotomies is a method of decomposing a multi-class problem into a collection of binary problems. Such a system recursively applies binary splits to divide the set of classes into two subsets, and trains a binary classifier for each split. Although ensembles of nested dichotomies with random structure have been shown to perform well in practice, using a more sophisticated class subset selection method can be used to improve classification accuracy. We investigate an approach to this problem called random-pair selection, and evaluate its effectiveness compared to other published methods of subset selection. We show that our method outperforms other methods in many cases when forming ensembles of nested dichotomies, and is at least on par in all other cases. The software related to this paper is available at https://svn.cms.waikato.ac.nz/svn/weka/trunk/packages/ internal/ensemblesOfNestedDichotomies/.

year: 2016

title: Treatment and survival disparities by ethnicity in New Zealand women with stage I-III breast cancer tumour subtypes

authors: Lawrenson, Ross

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: Purpose
This study aims to look at the distribution of different subtypes of stage I–III breast cancer in Māori and Pacific versus non-Māori/Pacific women, and to examine cancer outcomes by ethnicity within these different subtypes.

Method
This study included 9,015 women diagnosed with stage I–III breast cancer between June 2000 and May 2013, recorded in the combined Waikato and Auckland Breast Cancer Registers, who had complete data on ER, PR and HER2 status. Five ER/PR/HER2 subtypes were defined. Kaplan–Meier method and Cox proportional hazards model were used to examine ethnic disparities in breast cancer-specific survival.

Results
Of the 9,015 women, 891 were Māori, 548 were Pacific and 7,576 others. Both Māori and Pacific women were less likely to have triple negative breast cancer compared to others (8.6, 8.9 vs. 13.0%). Pacific women were more than twice as likely to have ER−, PR− and HER2+ cancer than Māori and others (14.2 vs. 6.0%, 6.7%). After adjustment for age, year of diagnosis, stage, grade and treatment, the hazard ratios of breast cancer-specific mortality for Māori and Pacific women with ER+, PR+ and HER2− were 1.52 (95% CI 1.06–2.18) and 1.55 (95% CI 1.04–2.31) compared to others, respectively. Māori women with HER2+ cancer were twice more likely to die of their cancer than others.

Conclusions
Outcomes for Māori and Pacific women could be improved by better treatment regimens especially for those with HER2+ breast cancer and for women with ER+, PR+ and HER2− breast cancer.

text: Treatment and survival disparities by ethnicity in New Zealand women with stage I-III breast cancer tumour subtypes Purpose
This study aims to look at the distribution of different subtypes of stage I–III breast cancer in Māori and Pacific versus non-Māori/Pacific women, and to examine cancer outcomes by ethnicity within these different subtypes.

Method
This study included 9,015 women diagnosed with stage I–III breast cancer between June 2000 and May 2013, recorded in the combined Waikato and Auckland Breast Cancer Registers, who had complete data on ER, PR and HER2 status. Five ER/PR/HER2 subtypes were defined. Kaplan–Meier method and Cox proportional hazards model were used to examine ethnic disparities in breast cancer-specific survival.

Results
Of the 9,015 women, 891 were Māori, 548 were Pacific and 7,576 others. Both Māori and Pacific women were less likely to have triple negative breast cancer compared to others (8.6, 8.9 vs. 13.0%). Pacific women were more than twice as likely to have ER−, PR− and HER2+ cancer than Māori and others (14.2 vs. 6.0%, 6.7%). After adjustment for age, year of diagnosis, stage, grade and treatment, the hazard ratios of breast cancer-specific mortality for Māori and Pacific women with ER+, PR+ and HER2− were 1.52 (95% CI 1.06–2.18) and 1.55 (95% CI 1.04–2.31) compared to others, respectively. Māori women with HER2+ cancer were twice more likely to die of their cancer than others.

Conclusions
Outcomes for Māori and Pacific women could be improved by better treatment regimens especially for those with HER2+ breast cancer and for women with ER+, PR+ and HER2− breast cancer.

year: 2017