363 research outputs found
Archeological Reconnaissance of the Mt. Holly Plantation, Berkeley County, South Carolina
https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/archanth_books/1116/thumbnail.jp
MaaSim: A Liveability Simulation for Improving the Quality of Life in Cities
Urbanism is no longer planned on paper thanks to powerful models and 3D
simulation platforms. However, current work is not open to the public and lacks
an optimisation agent that could help in decision making. This paper describes
the creation of an open-source simulation based on an existing Dutch
liveability score with a built-in AI module. Features are selected using
feature engineering and Random Forests. Then, a modified scoring function is
built based on the former liveability classes. The score is predicted using
Random Forest for regression and achieved a recall of 0.83 with 10-fold
cross-validation. Afterwards, Exploratory Factor Analysis is applied to select
the actions present in the model. The resulting indicators are divided into 5
groups, and 12 actions are generated. The performance of four optimisation
algorithms is compared, namely NSGA-II, PAES, SPEA2 and eps-MOEA, on three
established criteria of quality: cardinality, the spread of the solutions,
spacing, and the resulting score and number of turns. Although all four
algorithms show different strengths, eps-MOEA is selected to be the most
suitable for this problem. Ultimately, the simulation incorporates the model
and the selected AI module in a GUI written in the Kivy framework for Python.
Tests performed on users show positive responses and encourage further
initiatives towards joining technology and public applications.Comment: 16 page
Increasing Invasive Plant Pest Early Detection Through Interagency First Detector Education
The Collaborative and Enhanced First Detector Training program has expanded invasive species detection efforts by teaching participants to scout for, identify, and submit suspect exotic species samples. Workshops were delivered to agriculture professionals, master gardeners, and other Extension audiences. Topics included introduction pathways, regulatory agency procedures, identification of invasive pests or pathogens, monitoring procedures, and sample submission. Survey data indicated the intent of participants to augment detection efforts and the efficacy of Extension workshops in improving participants\u27 perceptions of government agencies. Respondents perceived increases in knowledge related to particular invasive species, identification of potential future invaders, and sample submission. Other implications related to Extension programming on invasive species education are discussed
Fundus2Angio: A Conditional GAN Architecture for Generating Fluorescein Angiography Images from Retinal Fundus Photography
Carrying out clinical diagnosis of retinal vascular degeneration using
Fluorescein Angiography (FA) is a time consuming process and can pose
significant adverse effects on the patient. Angiography requires insertion of a
dye that may cause severe adverse effects and can even be fatal. Currently,
there are no non-invasive systems capable of generating Fluorescein Angiography
images. However, retinal fundus photography is a non-invasive imaging technique
that can be completed in a few seconds. In order to eliminate the need for FA,
we propose a conditional generative adversarial network (GAN) to translate
fundus images to FA images. The proposed GAN consists of a novel residual block
capable of generating high quality FA images. These images are important tools
in the differential diagnosis of retinal diseases without the need for invasive
procedure with possible side effects. Our experiments show that the proposed
architecture outperforms other state-of-the-art generative networks.
Furthermore, our proposed model achieves better qualitative results
indistinguishable from real angiograms.Comment: 14 pages, Accepted to 15th International Symposium on Visual
Computing 202
Large-scale inference of liver fat with neural networks on UK Biobank body MRI
The UK Biobank Imaging Study has acquired medical scans of more than 40,000
volunteer participants. The resulting wealth of anatomical information has been
made available for research, together with extensive metadata including
measurements of liver fat. These values play an important role in metabolic
disease, but are only available for a minority of imaged subjects as their
collection requires the careful work of image analysts on dedicated liver MRI.
Another UK Biobank protocol is neck-to-knee body MRI for analysis of body
composition. The resulting volumes can also quantify fat fractions, even though
they were reconstructed with a two- instead of a three-point Dixon technique.
In this work, a novel framework for automated inference of liver fat from UK
Biobank neck-to-knee body MRI is proposed. A ResNet50 was trained for
regression on two-dimensional slices from these scans and the reference values
as target, without any need for ground truth segmentations. Once trained, it
performs fast, objective, and fully automated predictions that require no
manual intervention. On the given data, it closely emulates the reference
method, reaching a level of agreement comparable to different gold standard
techniques. The network learned to rectify non-linearities in the fat fraction
values and identified several outliers in the reference. It outperformed a
multi-atlas segmentation baseline and inferred new estimates for all imaged
subjects lacking reference values, expanding the total number of liver fat
measurements by factor six
Assessing the positional accuracy of perceptual landscape data: A study from Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy
Online GIS-based applications that combine mapping and public participation to collect citizens' voices on their surrounding environment are a way to collect original spatial data that do not already figure in authoritative data sets. However, these applications, relying on non-expert users, might produce spatial data of insufficient quality for the purpose for which they are collected. This article presents an approach for assessing the positional accuracy of vague landscape features, using the results from a map-based survey completed by a group of volunteers in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region of Italy. The spatial section of the survey, gathering both georeferenced data and textual information on the mapping activity, allows the assessment of whether there is a correspondence between the mapped features and the intended map locations. The findings reveal a greater accuracy among participants in completing the mapping activity relating to degraded sites than to those of beauty
Epidemiology and natural history of central venous access device use and infusion pump function in the NO16966 trial
Background: Central venous access devices in fluoropyrimidine therapy are associated with complications; however, reliable data are lacking regarding their natural history, associated complications and infusion pump performance in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.<p></p>
Methods: We assessed device placement, use during treatment, associated clinical outcomes and infusion pump perfomance in the NO16966 trial.<p></p>
Results: Device replacement was more common with FOLFOX-4 (5-fluorouracil (5-FU)+oxaliplatin) than XELOX (capecitabine+oxaliplatin) (14.1% vs 5.1%). Baseline device-associated events and post-baseline removal-/placement-related events occurred more frequently with FOLFOX-4 than XELOX (11.5% vs 2.4% and 8.5% vs 2.1%). Pump malfunctions, primarily infusion accelerations in 16% of patients, occurred within 1.6–4.3% of cycles. Fluoropyrimidine-associated grade 3/4 toxicity was increased in FOLFOX-4-treated patients experiencing a malfunction compared with those who did not (97 out of 155 vs 452 out of 825 patients), predominantly with increased grade 3/4 neutropenia (53.5% vs 39.8%). Febrile neutropenia rates were comparable between patient cohorts±malfunction. Efficacy outcomes were similar in patient cohorts±malfunction.<p></p>
Conclusions: Central venous access device removal or replacement was common and more frequent in patients receiving FOLFOX-4. Pump malfunctions were also common and were associated with increased rates of grade 3/4 haematological adverse events. Oral fluoropyrimidine-based regimens may be preferable to infusional 5-FU based on these findings
A bayesian meta-analysis of multiple treatment comparisons of systemic regimens for advanced pancreatic cancer
© 2014 Chan et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Background: For advanced pancreatic cancer, many regimens have been compared with gemcitabine (G) as the standard arm in randomized controlled trials. Few regimens have been directly compared with each other in randomized controlled trials and the relative efficacy and safety among them remains unclear
Tuberculosis IRIS: Pathogenesis, Presentation, and Management across the Spectrum of Disease.
Antiretroviral therapy (ART), while essential in combatting tuberculosis (TB) and HIV coinfection, is often complicated by the TB-associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (TB-IRIS). Depending on the TB disease site and treatment status at ART initiation, this immune-mediated worsening of TB pathology can take the form of paradoxical TB-IRIS, unmasking TB-IRIS, or CNS TB-IRIS. Each form of TB-IRIS has unique implications for diagnosis and treatment. Recently published studies have emphasized the importance of neutrophils and T cell subtypes in TB-IRIS pathogenesis, alongside the recognized role of CD4 T cells and macrophages. Research has also refined our prognostic understanding, revealing how the disease can impact lung function. While corticosteroids remain the only trial-supported therapy for prevention and management of TB-IRIS, increasing interest has been given to biologic therapies directly targeting the immune pathology. TB-IRIS, especially its unmasking form, remains incompletely described and more data is needed to validate biomarkers for diagnosis. Management strategies remain suboptimal, especially in the highly morbid central nervous system (CNS) form of the disease, and further trials are necessary to refine treatment. In this review we will summarize the current understanding of the immunopathogenesis, the presentation of TB-IRIS and the evidence for management recommendations
Deep learning-based automatic blood pressure measurement: evaluation of the effect of deep breathing, talking and arm movement
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