Abstract
Objective: This work presents a novel approach for the automated prediction of the aesthetic result of breast cancer conservative treatment (BCCT). Cosmetic assessment plays a major rote in the study of BCCT. Objective assessment methods are being preferred to overcome the drawbacks of subjective evaluation. Methodology: The problem is addressed as a pattern recognition task. A dataset of images of patients was classified in four classes (excellent, good, fair, poor) by a panel of international experts, providing a gold standard classification. As possible types of objective features we considered those already identified by domain experts as relevant to the aesthetic evaluation of the surgical procedure, namely those assessing breast asymmetry, skin colour difference and scar visibility. A classifier based on support vector machines was developed from objective features extracted from the reference dataset. Results: A correct classification rate of about 70% was obtained when categorizing a set of unseen images into the aforementioned four classes. This accuracy is comparable with the result of the best evaluator from the panel of experts. Conclusion: The results obtained are rather encouraging and the developed tool, could be very helpful in assuring objective assessment of the aesthetic outcome of BCCT.

Abstract

Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the factors that determine esthetic outcome after breast cancer conservative treatment, based on a consensual classification obtained with an international consensus panel. Photographs were taken from 120 women submitted to conservative unilateral breast cancer surgery (with or without axillary surgery) and radiotherapy. The images were sent to a panel of observers from 13 different countries and consensus on the classification of esthetic result (recorded as excellent, good, fair or poor) was obtained in 113 cases by means of a Delphi method. For each patient, data were collected retrospectively regarding patient characteristics, tumor, and treatment factors. Univariate and multivariate analysis were used to evaluate the correlation between these factors and overall cosmetic results. On univariate analysis, younger and thinner patients as well as patients with lower body mass index (BMI) and premenopausal status obtained better cosmetic results. In the group of tumor- and treatment-related factors, larger removed specimens, clearly visible scars, the use of chemotherapy and longer follow-up period were associated with less satisfactory results. On multivariate analysis, only BMI and scar visibility maintained a significant association with cosmesis. BMI and scar visibility are the only factors significantly associated with cosmetic results of breast cancer conservative treatment, as evaluated by an international consensus panel.

Abstract
Many music works produced in the past still exist only as original manuscripts or as photocopies. Preserving them entails their digitalization and consequent accessibility in a digital format easy-to-manage. The manual process to carry out this task is very time consuming and error prone. Optical music recognition (OMR) is a form of structured document image analysis where music symbols are isolated and identified so that the music can be conveniently processed. While OMR systems perform well on printed scores, current methods for reading handwritten musical scores by computers remain far from ideal. One of the fundamental stages of this process is the staff line detection. In this paper a new method for the automatic detection of music stave lines based on a shortest path approach is presented. Lines with some curvature, discontinuities, and inclination are robustly detected. The proposed algorithm behaves favourably when compared experimentally with well-established algorithms.

Abstract
Using recent results from numerical relativity simulations of nonspinning binary black hole mergers, we revisit the problem of detecting ringdown waveforms and of estimating the source parameters, considering both LISA and Earth-based interferometers. We find that Advanced LIGO and EGO could detect intermediate-mass black holes of mass up to similar to 10(3)M(circle dot) out to a luminosity distance of a few Gpc. For typical multipolar energy distributions, we show that the single-mode ringdown templates presently used for ringdown searches in the LIGO data stream can produce a significant event loss (> 10% for all detectors in a large interval of black hole masses) and very large parameter estimation errors on the black hole's mass and spin. We estimate that more than similar to 10(6) templates would be needed for a single-stage multimode search. Therefore, we recommend a "two-stage" search to save on computational costs: single-mode templates can be used for detection, but multimode templates or Prony methods should be used to estimate parameters once a detection has been made. We update estimates of the critical signal-to-noise ratio required to test the hypothesis that two or more modes are present in the signal and to resolve their frequencies, showing that second-generation Earth-based detectors and LISA have the potential to perform no-hair tests.

Abstract
Twelve expert observers from nine different countries convened in a workshop to evaluate the validity of the Breast Cancer Conservative Treatment. Cosmetic results (BCCT.core) software, an objective method for the aesthetic evaluation of breast cancer conservative treatment. Experts were initially asked to subjectively classify the aesthetic results of 30 photographed cases submitted to breast cancer conservative treatment according to the four-point Harris scale. It was pre-established that if at least two-thirds [Cardoso MJ, Cardoso J, Santos AC, Barros H, Oliveira MC. Interobserver agreement and consensus over the esthetic evaluation of conservative treatment for breast cancer. Breast 2005] of participants provided the same classification this would be considered a consensual evaluation for that case. For cases where such agreement was not reached, consensus was obtained using a nominal group technique. Experts then individually performed objective evaluation of the same set of photographs using the BCCT.core software. This provides an automatic rating of aesthetic results, once scale and reference points in the photograph have been chosen. Agreement between observers, between each observer and the consensus, for computer evaluation obtained by the different participants and between software and consensus was calculated using multiple kappa (k) and weighted kappa (wk) statistics. In the subjective assessment, first-round consensus was achived in 17 (57%) cases. Overall interobserver agreement was fair to moderate (k = 0.40, wk = 0.57). In the objective assessment there was a higher level of concordance between participants (k = 0.86, wk = 0.90). Agreement between software and consensus classification was fair (k = 0.34, wk = 0.53), but was higher in the 17 cases that reached first-round consensus (k = 0.60, wk = 0.73). Merging the two middle classes of the Harris scale, to form a three-point scale, led to an improvement of all non-weighted measures of agreement. These results show that the BCCT.core software provides consistent evaluation of cosmesis. It has the potential to become a gold standard method for assessment of breast cosmesis in clinical trials, as it can be used simultaneously by a panel of observers from different parts of the world to provide more reliable assessments than has been possible previously.