Causal Discovery Inspired Unsupervised Domain Adaptation for Emotion-Cause Pair Extraction

This paper tackles the task of emotion-cause pair extraction in the unsupervised domain adaptation setting. The problem is challenging as the distributions of the events causing emotions in target domains are dramatically different than those in source domains, despite the distributions of emotional expressions between domains are overlapped. Inspired by causal discovery, we propose a novel deep latent model in the variational autoencoder (VAE) framework, which not only captures the underlying latent structures of data but also utilizes the easily transferable knowledge of emotions as the bridge to link the distributions of events in different domains. To facilitate knowledge transfer across domains, we also propose a novel variational posterior regularization technique to disentangle the latent representations of emotions from those of events in order to mitigate the damage caused by the spurious correlations related to the events in source domains. Through extensive experiments, we demonstrate that our model outperforms the strongest baseline by approximately 11.05% on a Chinese benchmark and 2.45% on a English benchmark in terms of weighted-average F1 score. The source code will be publicly available upon acceptance.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables; Under Review in EMNLP 202

Typical median effective radiation doses using an anthropomorphic bone fracture phantom for initial radiographic skeletal surveys in the investigation of suspected physical abuse.

BACKGROUND: A series of 31 radiographs is recommended by the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) when investigating suspected physical abuse (SPA). OBJECTIVE: To determine the radiation dose delivered for skeletal surveys performed for SPA in Victorian radiology departments based on their local protocols. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A 5-year-old paediatric bone fracture phantom was radiographed at five radiology sites using both the RCR recommended protocol and, where applicable, the local departmental SPA protocol. The radiation doses were measured and recorded. These were scaled down to estimate the effective radiation doses for a 2-year-old child at each site and the associated radiation risks estimated. RESULTS: The median effective dose for all radiographic projections in the RCR skeletal survey radiographic series was 0.09 mSv. The estimated risk of radiation-induced cancer and radiation-induced death from cancer for 2-year-old children is classified as "very low," with girls having a higher risk than boys. CONCLUSION: The median effective radiation dose for the RCR skeletal survey for imaging in SPA was 0.09 mSv resulting in a "very low" additional risk of radiation-induced cancer. The authors will now aim to ascertain whether whole-body CT skeletal survey can replace the radiographic series for imaging in SPA while maintaining a comparable radiation dose

Surformer: An interpretable pattern-perceptive survival transformer for cancer survival prediction from histopathology whole slide images

Background and Objective: High-resolution histopathology whole slide images (WSIs) contain abundant valuable information for cancer prognosis. However, most computational pathology methods for survival prediction have weak interpretability and cannot explain the decision-making processes reasonably. To address this issue, we propose a highly interpretable neural network termed pattern-perceptive survival transformer (Surformer) for cancer survival prediction from WSIs. Methods: Notably, Surformer can quantify specific histological patterns through bag-level labels without any patch/cell-level auxiliary information. Specifically, the proposed ratio-reserved cross-attention module (RRCA) generates global and local features with the learnable prototypes (pglobal, plocals) as detectors and quantifies the patches correlative to each plocal in the form of ratio factors (rfs). Afterward, multi-head self&cross-attention modules proceed with the computation for feature enhancement against noise. Eventually, the designed disentangling loss function guides multiple local features to focus on distinct patterns, thereby assisting rfs from RRCA in achieving more explicit histological feature quantification. Results: Extensive experiments on five TCGA datasets illustrate that Surformer outperforms existing state-of-the-art methods. In addition, we highlight its interpretation by visualizing rfs distribution across high-risk and low-risk cohorts and retrieving and analyzing critical histological patterns contributing to the survival prediction. Conclusions: Surformer is expected to be exploited as a useful tool for performing histopathology image data-driven analysis and gaining new insights for interpreting the associations between such images and patient survival states

Differences in the epidemiology of out-of-hospital and in-hospital trauma deaths

BACKGROUND: Trauma is a leading cause of mortality. Holistic views of trauma systems consider injury as a public health problem that requires efforts in primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. However, the performance of trauma systems is commonly judged on the in-hospital mortality rate. Such a focus misses opportunities to consider all deaths within a population, to understand differences in in-hospital and out-of-hospital trauma deaths and to inform population-level injury prevention efforts. The aim of this study was to provide an epidemiological overview of out-of-hospital and in-hospital trauma deaths in a geographically-defined area over a 10-year period. METHODS: We performed a population-based review of out-of-hospital and in-hospital trauma deaths over the period of 01 July 2006 to 30 June 2016 in Victoria, Australia, using data from the National Coronial Information System and the Victorian State Trauma Registry. Temporal trends in population-based incidence rates were evaluated. RESULTS: Over the study period, there were 11,246 trauma deaths, of which 71% were out-of-hospital deaths. Out-of-hospital trauma deaths commonly resulted from intentional self-harm events (50%) and transport events (35%), while in-hospital trauma deaths commonly resulted from low falls (≤1 metre) (50%). The incidence of overall trauma deaths did not change over the study period (incidence rate ratio 0.998; 95%CI: 0.991, 1.004; P = 0.56). CONCLUSIONS: Out-of-hospital deaths accounted for most trauma deaths. Given the notable differences between out-of-hospital and in-hospital trauma deaths, monitoring of all trauma deaths is necessary to inform injury prevention activities and to reduce trauma mortality. The absence of a change in the incidence of both out-of-hospital and in-hospital trauma deaths demonstrates the need for enhanced activities across all aspects of injury prevention

Potentially preventable trauma deaths: A retrospective review

Reviewing prehospital trauma deaths provides an opportunity to identify system improvements that may reduce trauma mortality. The objective of this study was to identify the number and rate of potentially preventable trauma deaths through expert panel reviews of prehospital and early in-hospital trauma deaths. We conducted a retrospective review of prehospital and early in-hospital (<24?h) trauma deaths following a traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest that were attended by Ambulance Victoria (AV) in the state of Victoria, Australia, between 2008 and 2014. Expert panels were used to review cases that had resuscitation attempted by paramedics and underwent a full autopsy. Patients with a mechanism of hanging, drowning or those with anatomical injuries deemed to be unsurvivable were excluded. Of the 1183 cases that underwent full autopsies, resuscitation was attempted by paramedics in 336 (28%) cases. Of these, 113 cases (34%) were deemed to have potentially survivable injuries and underwent expert panel review. There were 90 (80%) deaths that were not preventable, 19 (17%) potentially preventable deaths and 4 (3%) preventable deaths. Potentially preventable or preventable deaths represented 20% of those cases that underwent review and 7% of cases that had attempted resuscitation. The number of potentially preventable or preventable trauma deaths in the pre-hospital and early in-hospital resuscitation phase was low. Specific circumstances were identified in which the trauma system could be further improved

2. Identification of Severely Incinerated Human Remains: The need for a cooperative approach between forensic specialities

Positive identification of incinerated human remains can be a perplexing problem, especially when there is no genetic material remaining for DNA analysis. This paper illustrates the importance of a multi-disciplinary approach to the identification of such remains, and explores the processes involved in the various effects of heat upon human bone and teeth, and the implications this has for positive identification. A case study is presented to illustrate the various problems encountered and the importance of discovering comprehensive ante-mortem records of the deceased. It is submitted that forensic odontologists and anthropologists be included in the body recovery process, both to maximise the recovery of evidence, and to ensure that all possible avenues for positive identification are explored, so as to avoid the need to rely upon the less robust method of circumstantial identification. </jats:p

The scientific analysis of the age of majority using computed tomography

This thesis examines three developing anatomical sites, two skeletal and one dental, in an attempt to devise a method for more accurately estimating the age of unknown age individuals in the age range 15-25 years. Individuals in this age cohort have been the subject of relatively little research since there are few anatomical sites still undergoing development beyond the age of 15 years, and all of these have been reported to be quite variable. The three age markers chosen for this study were the spheno-occipital synchondrosis, the medial clavicular epiphysis and the third molar tooth, being the three most commonly examined development sites for this age cohort. All of these were examined using Multi Detector Computed Tomography (MDCT) scanning as the imaging modality, and the sample was derived from the large database of post-mortem full body CT scans of deceased individuals located at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, Melbourne, Australia. The study sample consisted of 1006 full body CT scans of individuals aged between 15 and 25 years. Each age marker was examined and a developmental score was applied according to accepted scoring methodology developed by others. Each anatomical site was individually assessed for its relationship with chronological age, and it was found that the third molar tooth and medial clavicle followed expected trends as to variability and developmental timing. The spheno-occipital synchondrosis was found to fuse earlier than expected in this population and had essentially completed development by the age of 17 years in both sexes. An investigation was undertaken to determine if combining the third molar and medial clavicle into one multiple regression analysis, the “multi-factorial approach” would result in an improvement in precision and accuracy of age estimates when compared to age estimations calculated using each age marker individually. It was found that the multi-factorial approach reduced age ranges by approximately half, thus providing higher precision and with no loss of accuracy at the 95% CI level. Further investigations were conducted to assess the effect of socio-economic status on development in the Australian population, with findings suggesting that there is no appreciable effect on development between the highest and lowest socio-economic groups in this country. Ancestry was also investigated, with the conclusion that the high level of racial admixture in this population renders the attribution of any particular racial group to an individual prone to error and somewhat irrelevant. Left/right fluctuating asymmetry was also examined, with results suggesting that in approximately 3.4% of individuals the difference in development between left and right sides will have an appreciable effect upon age estimation calculations, in some cases as much as 3 years. Recommendations to deal with this asymmetry are discussed. The multifactorial model presented in this thesis provides a means to more accurately estimate the age of individuals within the Australian population in this age cohort. This method is applicable to living people as well as the deceased. Future research needs to be directed at assessing the applicability of these formulae to members of other relevant populations, particularly those populations from which Australia receives a high number of asylum seekers, many of whom are in this age cohort and their status as adult or child is unknown

Development of an instrument to aid the development of camping programs in Victorian secondary schools : an exploratory study

This thesis was scanned from the print manuscript for digital preservation and is copyright the author. Researchers can access this thesis by asking their local university, institution or public library to make a request on their behalf. Monash staff and postgraduate students can use the link in the References field