Background and objective: The most common way of closing the cystic duct in laparoscopic cholecystectomy is by using metal clips (>80%). Nevertheless, bile leakage occurs in 0.4%–2.0% of cases, and thus causes significant morbidity. However, the optimal number of clips needed to avoid bile leakage has not been determined. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate bile leakage and post-procedur

Accelerated epigenetic ageing, a promising marker of disease risk, has been detected in peripheral blood cells of atherosclerotic patients, but evidence in the vascular wall is lacking. Understanding the trends of epigenetic ageing in the atheroma may provide insights into mechanisms of atherogenesis or identify targets for molecular therapy. We surveyed DNA methylation age in two human artery sam

We study the structure of the backward shift invariant and nearly invariant subspaces in weighted Fock-type spaces ℱWp, whose weight is not necessarily radial. We show that in the spaces ℱWp, which contain the polynomials as a dense subspace (in particular, in the radial case), all nontrivial backward shift invariant subspaces are of the form ℘n, that is, finite-dimensional subspaces consisting of

The Old Romance continuations of Latin sic, such as Old French si and Old Italian sì, involve four different functions, all of which are referred to here as sic. The first one, which is closest to the original Latin usage, is that of a lexical adverbial, while the other three are functional elements introducing main clauses: the second sic follows elements preposed to the verb, the third one intro

In this paper we consider the problem of Structure-from-Motion from images with unknown intrinsic calibration. Instead of estimating the internal camera parameters through some self-calibration procedure, we propose to use a subset of the reprojection constraints that is invariant to radial displacement. This allows us to recover metric 3D reconstructions without explicitly estimating the cameras’

Motion blur is one of the major challenges remaining for visual odometry methods. In low-light conditions where longer exposure times are necessary, motion blur can appear even for relatively slow camera motions. In this paper we present a novel hybrid visual odometry pipeline with direct approach that explicitly models and estimates the camera’s local trajectory within the exposure time. This all

Compared to feature point detection and description, detecting and matching line segments offer additional challenges. Yet, line features represent a promising complement to points for multi-view tasks. Lines are indeed well-defined by the image gradient, frequently appear even in poorly textured areas and offer robust structural cues. We thus hereby introduce the first joint detection and descrip

Finding local features that are repeatable across multiple views is a cornerstone of sparse 3D reconstruction. The classical image matching paradigm detects keypoints per-image once and for all, which can yield poorly-localized features and propagate large errors to the final geometry. In this paper, we refine two key steps of structure-from-motion by a direct alignment of low-level image informat

This paper presents a two-stage procedure to create a surface integrity predictor. The first stage includes data clustering, which allows to evaluate the achievable surface quality. The second stage consists in training the model to predict which cluster the machined surface will belong to. To demonstrate the applicability, an experimental plan for machining of Inconel 718 in milling was developed

Translation of the poem "Dancing in Odessa" by Ukrainian-American poet Ilya Kaminsky (b. 1977)Translation of the poem "Dancing in Odessa" by Ukrainian-American poet Ilya Kaminsky (b. 1977)

The Veiki moraine in northern Sweden, a geomorphologically distinct landscape of ice-walled lake plains, has been interpreted to represent the former margin of an intermediate-sized pre–Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) Fennoscandian ice sheet, but its age is debated as either marine isotope stage (MIS) 5c or MIS 3. We have applied optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon dating to four si

Due to the negative environmental impacts along the life cycle of fossil-based plastics, there is an increased interest in the development of biobased and biodegradable plastics. Especially, biodegradable bioplastics possess different material characteristics than fossil-based plastics and can therefore be expected to perform differently during the product use and in end-of-life (EOL) phases. Thus

Have Orthodox Christian churches engaged in creation of novelreligious practices during the coronavirus pandemic? How dothose practices emerge, and how do laypeople respond to them?This article addresses these questions by reflecting on the majorproject findings based on examination of Orthodox churches ofRussia, Ukraine and Georgia. The findings build on a theoreticalframework that includes sever

The poetry of Hanni Ossott (1946-2002) is hardly known beyond Venezuelan frontiers, and so is any domestic or foreign research, almost non-existent, about her published works, an exception being El reino donde la noche se abre (1987). Such a scenario, unfortunately, continues to be so regarding her other works, especially the ones published thereafter. For this reason, this article will focus on o

Climate change and anthropogenic activities are producing a range of new selection pressures, both abiotic and biotic, on marine organisms. Although it is known that climate change can differentially affect fitness-related traits at different trophic levels of the food web, it is not clear if different trophic levels will respond via phenotypic plasticity in the form of maintenance of phenotypes i

The article argues that in Denmark during the past 150 years, moral elites have been central in settling paradoxes within social policy by developing ‘classifications’ of citizens and sectors: who are deserving of help and what sector (public or third) should provide care. Contrary to widely held beliefs, historically, there is no logical or practical connection between ‘more deserving’ and ‘state

Emerging technologies with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are laying the foundation for surveillance capabilities of a magnitude never seen before. This article focuses on facial recognition, now rapidly introduced in many police authorities around the world, with expectations of enhanced security but also subject to concerns related to privacy. The article examined a recent cas

The spread of invasive pests is increasing due to greater global transportation and climate change-mediated range shifts. In a new community, these invasive species provide a novel resource that native predators or parasitoids can evolve to utilise. For invasive agricultural pests, this could provide top-down control; however, initial attack rates on invasive species in the wild are generally low.