Automatic discovery of the statistical types of variables in a dataset

A common practice in statistics and machine learning is to assume that the statistical data types (e.g., ordinal, categorical or real-valued) of variables, and usually also the likelihood model, is known. However, as the availability of real- world data increases, this assumption becomes too restrictive. Data are often heterogeneous, complex, and improperly or incompletely documented. Surprisingly, despite their practical importance, there is still a lack of tools to automatically discover the statistical types of, as well as appropriate likelihood (noise) models for, the variables in a dataset. In this paper, we fill this gap by proposing a Bayesian method, which accurately discovers the statistical data types in both synthetic and real data.Humboldt Research Fellowship for Postdoctoral Researchers, which funded this research during her stay at the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems. ATI Grant EP/N510129/1 EPSRC Grant EP/N014162/1 Googl

Handling incomplete heterogeneous data using VAEs.

Variational autoencoders (VAEs), as well as other generative models, have been shown to be efficient and accurate for capturing the latent structure of vast amounts of complex high-dimensional data. However, existing VAEs can still not directly handle data that are heterogenous (mixed continuous and discrete) or incomplete (with missing data at random), which is indeed common in real-world applications. In this paper, we propose a general framework to design VAEs suitable for fitting incomplete heterogenous data. The proposed HI-VAE includes likelihood models for real-valued, positive real valued, interval, categorical, ordinal and count data, and allows accurate estimation (and potentially imputation) of missing data. Furthermore, HI-VAE presents competitive predictive performance in supervised tasks, outperforming supervised models when trained on incomplete data

Management of female genital mutilation / cutting-related obstetric complications: a training evaluation

Although female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) is a prevalent practice in Liberia, healthcare workers lack the capacity to provide adequate care for FGM/C survivors. Therefore, Liberian nurses, physician assistants, midwives and trained traditional midwives were trained in sexual, obstetric and psychosocial care for FGM/C survivors in 2019. Through questionnaires, we assessed knowledge acquisition, trainee attitudes towards FGM/C care and acceptability to implement WHO-endorsed recommendations. The questionnaires were analyzed using descriptive statistics for quantitative data and an inductive approach for qualitative data. A total of 99 female and 34 male trainees participated. Most trainees perceived FGM/C as harmful to women''s health, as a violation of women''s rights and showed a willingness to change their clinical practice. While 82.8% (n = 74/90) perceived their role in advocating against FGM/C, 10.0% (n = 9/90) felt that they should train traditional circumcisers to practice FGM/C safely. The pre-training FGM/C knowledge test demonstrated higher scores among physician assistants (13.86 ± 3.02 points) than among nurses (12.11 ± 3.12 points) and midwives (11.75 ± 2.27 points). After the training, the mean test score increased by 1.69 points, from 12.18 (±2.91) points to 13.87 (±2.65) points. The trainings successfully increased theoretical knowledge of FGM/C-caused health effects and healthcare workers'' demonstrated willingness to implement evidence-based guidelines when providing care to FMG/C survivors

Acceptability of a smartphone application to enhance healthcare to female genital mutilation survivors in Liberia: a qualitative study

In Liberia, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) is a legally allowed initiation ritual in the secret Sande society. Due to the secrecy, Liberian healthcare providers receive little education on FGM/C and its health consequences. As mobile learning approaches proved to efficiently increase providers’ knowledge and skills, a mobile application (‘app’) was designed to support self-learning, decision-making, and the follow-up of FGM/C survivors’ health. The ‘app’ was introduced in a capacity-building project in 2019 and evaluated through this qualitative study to assess healthcare provider’s needs and acceptance. We conducted 22 semi-structured interviews and eight focus group discussions with 42 adult healthcare providers in three Liberian counties. A thematic approach grounded in descriptive phenomenology guided data analysis and led to three main themes: the ‘app’, mobile learning and health education, and personal impression. Healthcare providers judge the ‘app’ useful to broaden their knowledge and skills, which might lead to better FGM/C detection and management. The ‘app’ might further facilitate patient and community education about the negative health consequences of FMG/C, possibly contributing to a reduction of FGM/C prevalence

Scattering of the Halo Nucleus 11Be on 197Au at Energies around the Coulomb Barrier

Angular distributions of the elastic, inelastic, and breakup cross sections of the halo nucleus 11Be on197 Au were measured at energies below (Elab =31.9 MeV) and around (39.6 MeV) the Coulomb barrier. These three channels were unambiguously separated for the first time for reactions of 11Be on a high-Z target at low energies. The experiment was performed at TRIUMF (Vancouver, Canada). The differential cross sections were compared with three different calculations: semiclassical, inert-core continuum-coupled-channels and continuum-coupled-channels ones with including core deformation. These results show conclusively that the elastic and inelastic differential cross sections can only be accounted for if core-excited admixtures are taken into account. The cross sections for these channels strongly depend on the β (E1) distribution in 11Be, and the reaction mechanism is sensitive to the entanglement of core and halo degrees of freedom in 11Be.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad FPA2015-64969-P, FIS2014-53448-C2-1-P, FPA2013-47327-c02-01-R, FPA2012-32443, FIS2013-41994-PCentro Nacional de Física de Partículas, Astropartículas y Nuclear CSD2007- 00042European Collaborative Research EUI-2009-04162European Unions 654002Nuclear Astrophysics Virtual Institute VH-VI-417European Commission, Seventh Framework Program 60037

Reaction of the Halo Nucleus 11Be on Heavy Targets at Energies Around the Coulomb Barrier

New data for the reaction 11Be on 197Au at Elab=31.9 MeV are presented. The angular distributions of the inelastically scattered 11Be and the 10Be fragments coming from the 11Be dissociation have been extracted and compared with semiclassical and coupled-channels calculations in an angular range θlab=13∘–46∘ for the detected Be fragment.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación FPA2009-07387, FPA2009-07653, FPA2009-08848, FPA2012-32443 and CPAN CSD2007-00042Nuclear Astrophysics Virtual Institute (VH-VI-417