MultiNet: Multi-Modal Multi-Task Learning for Autonomous Driving

Autonomous driving requires operation in different behavioral modes ranging from lane following and intersection crossing to turning and stopping. However, most existing deep learning approaches to autonomous driving do not consider the behavioral mode in the training strategy. This paper describes a technique for learning multiple distinct behavioral modes in a single deep neural network through the use of multi-modal multi-task learning. We study the effectiveness of this approach, denoted MultiNet, using self-driving model cars for driving in unstructured environments such as sidewalks and unpaved roads. Using labeled data from over one hundred hours of driving our fleet of 1/10th scale model cars, we trained different neural networks to predict the steering angle and driving speed of the vehicle in different behavioral modes. We show that in each case, MultiNet networks outperform networks trained on individual modes while using a fraction of the total number of parameters.Comment: Published in IEEE WACV 201

Influence of sex on the profile of acute coronary syndrome: a tertiary care hospital based study from the Sub-Himalayan region in North India

Background: Coronary events presents about ten years later in women than men. There exist distinct gender differences in terms of presentation of symptoms, validity of diagnostic tests and complications. Methods: The study was conducted in the department of medicine R.P. Govt. Medical College (RPGMC) Himachal Pradesh. Consecutive 300 patients of acute coronary syndrome from June 2011 to June 2012 were included in the study. Demographical profile was recorded with focused clinical examination and relevant investigation with lipid profile was done.Results:Among the study population of 300 individuals, 201 (67%) were males and 99 (33%) were females. The mean age among male patients was 61.3±11.7 years and in female patients the mean age was 65.6±11.20 years. 68.8% of females presented after 60 yrs of age. Dyslipidemia was the commonest risk factor followed by hypertension and obesity. 12.2% of female patients were smokers. Chest pain was the commonest presenting symptom seen in 82% cases. There was mean delay of 31.0±54.5 hrs in the presentation of females for treatment. ST Elevated Myocardial Infarction occurred less frequently in females.Conclusions: Acute coronary syndrome is more age dependent in females. The predominance of dyslipidemia, hypertension and obesity as risk factors gives a message for primary care physicians to create awareness for the prevention of Acute Coronary Syndrome. The atypical symptoms should be recognised early which should further prevent the delay in presentation.

Robotic intraoperative tracheal repair during retrosternal malignant goiter excision: an anesthetic challenge

Thyroidectomy is the treatment of choice for large retrosternal goiters. These tumors often are large enough to require thoracotomy. Robotic surgery can help in avoiding thoracotomy and its associated post operative complications. Rarely, such tumors and their surgery can be complicated by tracheal tears. Such tears, especially those near the carina are difficult to repair and often require open thoracotomy. We described such a case where we avoided open thoracotomy and instead performed a minimally invasive robotic repair of tracheal tear. The maintenance of ventilation during this robotic repair was critical. A combination of several airway devices was used to allow the complex surgical repair to be executed without affecting ventilation

Ball valving laryngeal masses: a difficult “ball” in the anaesthetists’ court

Dynamic airway obstruction (also called ball-valve effect) is a serious condition often seen in glottic lesions. This is an anesthetic challenge as total airway obstruction can occur after the induction of general anesthesia. We present a case of a middle aged female who had a large laryngeal mass which was showing ball-valve effect. The patient had refused for tracheostomy despite it being the safest procedure in the circumstances. We then performed videolaryngoscopy and managed to intubate the patient with the help of some improvisation. The patient underwent a succesful and uneventful surgery

Effect of flocculating agents on solubility behavior of calcium sulfate dihydrate (gypsum) in aqueous sodium chloride system and solution properties at 35 °C

The effect of addition of flocculating agents, viz., alum (KAl(SO4)2·12H2O) (up to 10 wt%) and polyaluminum chloride ([Al(OH)aClb]n, a >1.05; n~15) (up to 6 wt%) on the solubility behavior of calcium sulfate dihydrate (gypsum, CaSO4·2H2O) in aqueous NaCl solutions has been examined at 35 °C. The solubility of CaSO4·2H2O decreases with the addition of alum while it increases with the addition of polyaluminum chloride without any significant shift in solubility maximum. Density (ρ) and speed of sound (u) have also been determined for the quaternary systems (CaSO4·2H2O+NaCl+alum/PAC+H2O) at 35 °C and used to estimate solution isentropic compressibility (κs) and ion-hydration (nh) characteristics. Empirical equations describing the s, ρ, u and κs as a function of solution composition are presented.

Tuning the physicochemical properties of protic-aprotic ionic liquids upon reciprocal binary mixing

The alterations in properties of protic/aprotic (2-hydroxyethylammonium formate)/ 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium methyl sulfate) ionic liquids (ILs), based on reciprocal binary mixing concept ([A][B][X][Y]) have been investigated by studying the density, speed of sound, and viscosity of mixtures as a function of temperature. The volume of mixing, isentropic compressibility, excess molar isentropic compressibilities and activation energy of viscous flow have been derived, which indicate a very high level of non-ideality in the mixtures desired to take advantage of improved solvent properties. FTIR spectral analysis and solvatochromic parameters (normalized Reichardt’s parameter, dipolarity/polarizibility, hydrogen bond donor and acceptor coefficients) determined through the solvatochromic probes have been utilized to examine the hydrogen bonding and ion-ion interactions prevailing in the studied systems. Although significant alterations in hydrogen bonding and ion-ion interactions are observed, dispersion type interactions dominate over chemical interactions as indicated by a high positive deviations in the volumes of mixing

Intra-night optical flux and polarization variability of BL~Lacertae during its 2020 −- 2021 high state

In this work, we report the presence of rapid intra-night optical variations in both -- flux and polarization of the blazar BL Lacertae during its unprecedented 2020--2021 high state of brightness. The object showed significant flux variability and some color changes, but no firmly detectable time delays between the optical bands. The linear polarization was also highly variable in both -- polarization degree and angle (EVPA). The object was observed from several observatories throughout the world, covering in a total of almost 300 hours during 66 nights. Based on our results, we suggest, that the changing Doppler factor of an ensemble of independent emitting regions, travelling along a curved jet that at some point happens to be closely aligned with the line of sight can successfully reproduce our observations during this outburst. This is one of the most extensive variability studies of the optical polarization of a blazar on intra-night timescales.Comment: 23 pages,7 figures, 5 Tables (2 as appendix). Accepted for publication in MNRA

Spatial Organization and Molecular Correlation of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes Using Deep Learning on Pathology Images

Beyond sample curation and basic pathologic characterization, the digitized H&E-stained images of TCGA samples remain underutilized. To highlight this resource, we present mappings of tumorinfiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) based on H&E images from 13 TCGA tumor types. These TIL maps are derived through computational staining using a convolutional neural network trained to classify patches of images. Affinity propagation revealed local spatial structure in TIL patterns and correlation with overall survival. TIL map structural patterns were grouped using standard histopathological parameters. These patterns are enriched in particular T cell subpopulations derived from molecular measures. TIL densities and spatial structure were differentially enriched among tumor types, immune subtypes, and tumor molecular subtypes, implying that spatial infiltrate state could reflect particular tumor cell aberration states. Obtaining spatial lymphocytic patterns linked to the rich genomic characterization of TCGA samples demonstrates one use for the TCGA image archives with insights into the tumor-immune microenvironment

Correction to: Two years later: Is the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic still having an impact on emergency surgery? An international cross-sectional survey among WSES members

Background: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is still ongoing and a major challenge for health care services worldwide. In the first WSES COVID-19 emergency surgery survey, a strong negative impact on emergency surgery (ES) had been described already early in the pandemic situation. However, the knowledge is limited about current effects of the pandemic on patient flow through emergency rooms, daily routine and decision making in ES as well as their changes over time during the last two pandemic years. This second WSES COVID-19 emergency surgery survey investigates the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on ES during the course of the pandemic. Methods: A web survey had been distributed to medical specialists in ES during a four-week period from January 2022, investigating the impact of the pandemic on patients and septic diseases both requiring ES, structural problems due to the pandemic and time-to-intervention in ES routine. Results: 367 collaborators from 59 countries responded to the survey. The majority indicated that the pandemic still significantly impacts on treatment and outcome of surgical emergency patients (83.1% and 78.5%, respectively). As reasons, the collaborators reported decreased case load in ES (44.7%), but patients presenting with more prolonged and severe diseases, especially concerning perforated appendicitis (62.1%) and diverticulitis (57.5%). Otherwise, approximately 50% of the participants still observe a delay in time-to-intervention in ES compared with the situation before the pandemic. Relevant causes leading to enlarged time-to-intervention in ES during the pandemic are persistent problems with in-hospital logistics, lacks in medical staff as well as operating room and intensive care capacities during the pandemic. This leads not only to the need for triage or transferring of ES patients to other hospitals, reported by 64.0% and 48.8% of the collaborators, respectively, but also to paradigm shifts in treatment modalities to non-operative approaches reported by 67.3% of the participants, especially in uncomplicated appendicitis, cholecystitis and multiple-recurrent diverticulitis. Conclusions: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic still significantly impacts on care and outcome of patients in ES. Well-known problems with in-hospital logistics are not sufficiently resolved by now; however, medical staff shortages and reduced capacities have been dramatically aggravated over last two pandemic years

Global, regional, and national sex-specific burden and control of the HIV epidemic, 1990-2019, for 204 countries and territories: the Global Burden of Diseases Study 2019

Background: The sustainable development goals (SDGs) aim to end HIV/AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. Understanding the current state of the HIV epidemic and its change over time is essential to this effort. This study assesses the current sex-specific HIV burden in 204 countries and territories and measures progress in the control of the epidemic. Methods: To estimate age-specific and sex-specific trends in 48 of 204 countries, we extended the Estimation and Projection Package Age-Sex Model to also implement the spectrum paediatric model. We used this model in cases where age and sex specific HIV-seroprevalence surveys and antenatal care-clinic sentinel surveillance data were available. For the remaining 156 of 204 locations, we developed a cohort-incidence bias adjustment to derive incidence as a function of cause-of-death data from vital registration systems. The incidence was input to a custom Spectrum model. To assess progress, we measured the percentage change in incident cases and deaths between 2010 and 2019 (threshold >75% decline), the ratio of incident cases to number of people living with HIV (incidence-to-prevalence ratio threshold <0·03), and the ratio of incident cases to deaths (incidence-to-mortality ratio threshold <1·0). Findings: In 2019, there were 36·8 million (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 35·1–38·9) people living with HIV worldwide. There were 0·84 males (95% UI 0·78–0·91) per female living with HIV in 2019, 0·99 male infections (0·91–1·10) for every female infection, and 1·02 male deaths (0·95–1·10) per female death. Global progress in incident cases and deaths between 2010 and 2019 was driven by sub-Saharan Africa (with a 28·52% decrease in incident cases, 95% UI 19·58–35·43, and a 39·66% decrease in deaths, 36·49–42·36). Elsewhere, the incidence remained stable or increased, whereas deaths generally decreased. In 2019, the global incidence-to-prevalence ratio was 0·05 (95% UI 0·05–0·06) and the global incidence-to-mortality ratio was 1·94 (1·76–2·12). No regions met suggested thresholds for progress. Interpretation: Sub-Saharan Africa had both the highest HIV burden and the greatest progress between 1990 and 2019. The number of incident cases and deaths in males and females approached parity in 2019, although there remained more females with HIV than males with HIV. Globally, the HIV epidemic is far from the UNAIDS benchmarks on progress metrics. Funding: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the National Institute on Aging of the NIH