Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Defending Against Model Stealing Attacks Using Deceptive Perturbations

Machine learning models are vulnerable to simple model stealing attacks if the adversary can obtain output labels for chosen inputs. To protect against these attacks, it has been proposed to limit the information provided to the adversary by omitting probability scores, significantly impacting the utility of the provided service. In this work, we illustrate how a service provider can still provide useful, albeit misleading, class probability information, while significantly limiting the success of the attack. Our defense forces the adversary to discard the class probabilities, requiring significantly more queries before they can train a model with comparable performance. We evaluate several attack strategies, model architectures, and hyperparameters under varying adversarial models, and evaluate the efficacy of our defense against the strongest adversary. Finally, we quantify the amount of noise injected into the class probabilities to mesure the loss in utility, e.g., adding 1.74 nats per query on CIFAR-10 and 3.27 on MNIST. Our extensive evaluation shows our defense can degrade the accuracy of the stolen model at least 20%, or require 4x more queries while keeping the accuracy of the protected model almost intact.
F ast , high-sensitivity , multipesticide analysis of complex mixtures with supersonic gas chromatography – mass spectrometry

We developed a new instrumental approach, termed Supersonic GC–MS, which achieves fast, sensitive, confirmatory and quantitative analysis of a broad range of pesticides in complex agricultural matrices. Our Supersonic GC–MS system is a modification of a bench-top Agilent 6890 GC 15972 MSD with a supersonic molecular beam (SMB) interface and 1 fly-through EI ion source. One of the main advantages of Supersonic GC–MS is an enhanced molecular ion (M ) in the 1 resulting mass spectra. For example, The M was observed in all 88 pesticides that we studied using the Supersonic GC–MS 1 whereas only 36 of 63 (57%) pesticides that we investigated in standard GC–MS exhibited a M . We also found that the degree of matrix interference is exponentially reduced with the fragment mass by about 20-fold per 100 amu increasing 1 mass. The enhancement of the M combined with the reduction in matrix background noise permit rapid full scan analysis of a potentially unlimited number of pesticides, unlike selected ion monitoring or MS–MS in which specific conditions are required in segments for targeted pesticides. Furthermore, unlike the case with chemical ionization, EI-SMB-MS spectra still give accurate identification of compounds using common mass spectral libraries. In practice, we found that libraries favor 1 mass spectra in which the M appears, thus Supersonic GC–MS produced better spectra for compound identification than 1 standard GC–MS. To achieve even lower identification limits, the M plus a second major ion (still using full scan data) gives higher signal-to-chemical noise ratios than the traditional 3-ion approach. The replacement of two low-mass ions with 1 the M (supersonic two-ions method) results in a significant reduction of matrix interference by a factor of up to 90. Another main advantage of Supersonic GC–MS is its exceptional suitability for fast GC–MS with high carrier gas flow-rate. Fast Supersonic GC–MS was able to analyze thermally labile pesticides, such as carbamates, that are difficult or impossible to analyze in standard GC–MS. Large volume injection using a ChromatoProbe was also demonstrated, in the 6 min analysis of pesticides at 20 ng/g in a spice matrix. Published by Elsevier Science B.V.
Precision Agriculture Design Method Using a Distributed Computing Architecture on Internet of Things Context †

The Internet of Things (IoT) has opened productive ways to cultivate soil with the use of low-cost hardware (sensors/actuators) and communication (Internet) technologies. Remote equipment and crop monitoring, predictive analytic, weather forecasting for crops or smart logistics and warehousing are some examples of these new opportunities. Nevertheless, farmers are agriculture experts but, usually, do not have experience in IoT applications. Users who use IoT applications must participate in its design, improving the integration and use. In this work, different industrial agricultural facilities are analysed with farmers and growers to design new functionalities based on IoT paradigms deployment. User-centred design model is used to obtain knowledge and experience in the process of introducing technology in agricultural applications. Internet of things paradigms are used as resources to facilitate the decision making. IoT architecture, operating rules and smart processes are implemented using a distributed model based on edge and fog computing paradigms. A communication architecture is proposed using these technologies. The aim is to help farmers to develop smart systems both, in current and new facilities. Different decision trees to automate the installation, designed by the farmer, can be easily deployed using the method proposed in this document.
The utility of the combined use of 123I-FP-CIT SPECT and neuromelanin MRI in differentiating Parkinson's disease from other parkinsonian syndromes

Background Neuromelanin magnetic resonance imaging (NmMRI) and 123I-FP-CIT dopamine transporter single photon emission computed tomography (DAT-SPECT) provide specific information that distinguishes Parkinson's disease (PD) from non-degenerative parkinsonian syndrome (NDPS). Purpose To determine whether a multiparametric scoring system (MSS) could improve accuracy compared to each parameter of DAT-SPECT and NmMRI in differentiating PD from NDPS. Material and Methods A total of 49 patients, including 14 with NDPS, 30 with PD, and five with atypical parkinsonian disorder (APD) underwent both NmMRI and DAT-SPECT and were evaluated. The average (Ave) and the asymmetry index (AI) were calculated in the substantia nigra compacta area (SNc-area), SNc midbrain-tegmentum contrast ratio (SNc-CR), and specific binding ratio (SBR). Cut-off values were determined, using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, for the differentiation of PD from NDPS on the statistically significant parameters. All cases were scored as either 1 (PD) or 0 (NDPS) for each parameter according to its threshold. These individual scores were totaled for each case, yielding a combined score for each case to obtain a cut-off value for the MSS. Results The Ave-SNc-area, Ave-SNc-CR, and Ave-SBR in PD were significantly lower than those in NDPS. The AI-SNc-area and AI-SBR in PD were significantly higher than those in NDPS. Of the five parameters, the highest accuracy was 93% for the Ave-SNc-area. For the MSS, a cut-off value of 3 was the accuracy of 96%. Besides, no significant difference was observed between PD and APD on all parameters. Conclusion An MSS has comparable or better accuracy compared to each parameter of DAT-SPECT and NmMRI in distinguishing PD from NDPS.
Systematic Reviews and Meta- and Pooled Analyses The Safety of Yoga: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

As yoga has gained popularity as a therapeutic intervention, its safety has been questioned in the lay press. Thus, this review aimed to systematically assess and meta-analyze the frequency of adverse events in randomized controlled trials of yoga. MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, the Cochrane Library, and IndMED were screened through February 2014. Of 301 identified randomized controlled trials of yoga, 94 (1975–2014; total of 8,430 participants) reported on adverse events. Life-threatening, disabling adverse events or those requiring intensive treatment were defined as serious and all other events as nonserious. No differences in the frequency of intervention-related, nonserious, or serious adverse events and of dropouts due to adverse events were found when comparing yoga with usual care or exercise. Compared with psychological or educational interventions (e.g., health education), more intervention-related adverse events (odds ratio = 4.21, 95% confidence interval: 1.01, 17.67; P = 0.05) and more nonserious adverse events (odds ratio = 7.30, 95% confidence interval: 1.91, 27.92; P < 0.01) occurred in the yoga group; serious adverse events and dropouts due to adverse events were comparable between groups. Findings from this review indicate that yoga appears as safe as usual care and exercise. The adequate reporting of safety data in future randomized trials of yoga is crucial to conclusively judge its safety.
Risk Factors Associated With Readmissions of Hospitalized Mentally Ill Patients

Readmission is commonly used as an outcome or quality indicator for psychiatric inpatient services. This study aimed to investigate the risk factors associated with readmissions of hospitalized mentally ill patients. A descriptive correlation design was utilized in this study. A purposive sample was composed of 120 mentally ill patients. Data were collected from Al-Abbassia hospital for mental health. Tools for data collection, there were four tools included personal data interviewing sheet such as age, gender, marital status, level of education, diagnosis, number of admissions, length of stay in hospital, Medication Adherence Rating Scale, Life Events Questionnaire and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support . Results, it was found that, 45.8% of the studied subjects were diagnosed as schizophrenic, while 13.4 % were depressed, nearly two thirds of them 64.1% were admitted to the hospital from one to three times. There was statistical significant correlation between medication adherence and patients’ gender . Also, statistical significant correlation was found between length of hospital stay and medication adherence. Conclusion, readmission was high among psychiatric patients. Poor adherence to medication was associated with psychiatric early readmission. Recommendations, implementation of psycho-educational program for patients and their families to reduce risk factors associated with readmission and preventive measures . Future studies should be applied to include other variables related to readmission.
Optimal Taxes and Penalties When the Government Cannot Commit to Its Audit Policy

We examine the problem of a utilitarian government that sets taxes and fines for evaders but cannot commit to any enforcement policy. Given the tax law, the government and taxpayers —some of whom are honest— play a report-audit game that, depending on taxes, fines and audit costs, generates either full evasion and no audits, or partial evasion and random auditing. Anticipating both possibilities, we characterize the optimal tax law. We show that it may be optimal for the government not to fine evaders as a way to commit not to audit. Moreover, social welfare is nonmonotonic in the audit cost.
Nanophthalmos: A Review of the Clinical Spectrum and Genetics

Nanophthalmos is a clinical spectrum of disorders with a phenotypically small but structurally normal eye. These disorders present significant clinical challenges to ophthalmologists due to a high rate of secondary angle-closure glaucoma, spontaneous choroidal effusions, and perioperative complications with cataract and retinal surgeries. Nanophthalmos may present as a sporadic or familial disorder, with autosomal-dominant or recessive inheritance. To date, five genes (i.e., MFRP, TMEM98, PRSS56, BEST1, and CRB1) and two loci have been implicated in familial forms of nanophthalmos. Here, we review the definition of nanophthalmos, the clinical and pathogenic features of the condition, and the genetics of this disorder.
Effect of Azolla feeding on the growth, feed conversion ratio, blood biochemical attributes and immune competence traits of growing turkeys

Background and Aim In the recent past,few studies have been carried out in chicken to assess the effect of Azolla meal and raw Azolla feeding on the performance of chicken. If turkeys effectively use unconventional feedstuffs like Azolla without reducing the performance, it will increase the profitability of turkey business. Hence, a study was carried out to evaluate the effect of dried Azolla pinnata vis-a-vis raw Azolla as choice feeding on the growth, feed conversion ratio (FCR), blood biochemical attributes, and immune competence traits of growing turkeys under intensive system. Materials and Methods A total of 72, 8-week-old grower turkey poults of black variety were randomly distributed into three dietary treatments having three replicates each with eight birds. The birds of the control group (T1) were fed a basal diet (CP - 19.71% and ME - 2789.79 Kcal/kg), while the other group (T2) and choice-feeding group (T3) were fed 5% of basal diet replaced by dry Azolla powder on DM basis and ad libitumAzolla along with basal diet, respectively. Results There was no significant difference among the different groups in the average weekly weight gain during the entire experiment. FCR was significantly better (p<0.05) in the choice-feeding group compared to the other two experimental groups during 8-16 weeks of age. There was no significant difference among the treatment groups in any of the blood biochemical indices except plasma uric acid, which was significantly decreased (p<0.01) in T2 compared to T1 at 16 weeks of age. HA and IgM response to 1% sheep red blood cells (log2 titer) were numerically better in T2 and T3 compared to the T1. Conclusion Thus, it may be inferred that choice feeding with Azolla, and basal diet may improve FCR without any adverse effect on blood biochemical attributes and immune competence traits.
Multicenter Evaluation of the Xpert Carba-R Assay for Detection of Carbapenemase Genes in Gram-Negative Isolates

This multicenter study evaluated the performance of the Cepheid Xpert Carba-R assay, a qualitative PCR test designed for the rapid detection of blaKPC, blaNDM, blaVIM, blaIMP, and blaOXA-48 carbapenem resistance genes from bacterial isolates grown on blood agar or MacConkey agar. The results were compared to those obtained from bidirectional DNA sequence analysis of nucleic acid extracted from pure colonies. ABSTRACT This multicenter study evaluated the performance of the Cepheid Xpert Carba-R assay, a qualitative PCR test designed for the rapid detection of blaKPC, blaNDM, blaVIM, blaIMP, and blaOXA-48 carbapenem resistance genes from bacterial isolates grown on blood agar or MacConkey agar. The results were compared to those obtained from bidirectional DNA sequence analysis of nucleic acid extracted from pure colonies. Isolates of Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Acinetobacter baumannii that tested as either intermediate or resistant to a carbapenem antibiotic were analyzed. A total of 467 isolates were evaluated, including prospectively collected clinical isolates, frozen isolates, and a group of contrived broth specimens sent by a central reference laboratory. The assay was run on the GeneXpert platform and took 48 min, with less than 1 min of hands-on time. Compared to the results of the reference methods, the overall sensitivity of the assay was 100% (95% confidence interval [CI], 99.0 to 100%) for isolates grown on both blood and MacConkey agars. Overall specificity was 98.1% (95% CI, 93.1 to 99.8%) and 97.1% (95% CI, 91.7 to 99.4%) for blood and MacConkey agars, respectively. This platform, previously demonstrated to be effective for the detection of carbapenemase genes in rectal swabs, is also adequate for the detection of these genes in bacterial colonies isolated from blood and MacConkey agars.
Private and Public Risk Sharing in the Euro Area

This paper investigates the contribution of private and public channels for consumption risk sharing in the EMU over the period 1999-2015. In particular, we explore the role of financial integration versus international financial assistance for private consumption smoothing in this set of countries. In addition, we present a time-varying test which allows estimating how risk sharing has evolved since the start of the EMU, and in particular during the recent crisis. Our results suggest that, whereas in the early years of the EMU only about 40% of country-specific output shocks were smoothed, in the aftermath of the euro zone’s sovereign debt crisis about 65% of these shocks were absorbed, therefore reducing consumption growth differentials across countries. This progressive improvement of the shock-absorption capacity is due to a higher financial integration, but also to the activation of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) channelling official loans to distressed euro zone economies. We also show that cross-border holdings of equities and debt seem to be more effective than cross-border bank loans in isolating households from country-specific shocks, therefore contributing to consumption smoothing.
Prebiotics Supplementation Impact on the Reinforcing and Motivational Aspect of Feeding

Energy homeostasis is tightly regulated by the central nervous system which responds to nervous and circulating inputs to adapt food intake and energy expenditure. However, the rewarding and motivational aspect of food is tightly dependent of dopamine (DA) release in mesocorticolimbic (MCL) system and could be operant in uncontrolled caloric intake and obesity. Accumulating evidence indicate that manipulating the microbiota–gut–brain axis through prebiotic supplementation can have beneficial impact of the host appetite and body weight. However, the consequences of manipulating the implication of the microbiota–gut–brain axis in the control motivational and hedonic/reinforcing aspects of food are still underexplored. In this study, we investigate whether and how dietary prebiotic fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) could oppose, or revert, the change in hedonic and homeostatic control of feeding occurring after a 2-months exposure to high-fat high-sugar (HFHS) diet. The reinforcing and motivational components of food reward were assessed using a two-food choice paradigm and a food operant behavioral test in mice exposed to FOS either during or after HFHS exposure. We also performed mRNA expression analysis for key genes involved in limbic and hypothalamic control of feeding. We show in a preventive-like approach, FOS addition of HFHS diet had beneficial impact of hypothalamic neuropeptides, and decreased the operant performance for food but only after an overnight fast while it did not prevent the imbalance in mesolimbic markers for DA signaling induced by palatable diet exposure nor the spontaneous tropism for palatable food when given the choice. However, when FOS was added to control diet after chronic HFHS exposure, although it did not significantly alter body weight loss, it greatly decreased palatable food tropism and consumption and was associated with normalization of MCL markers for DA signaling. We conclude that the nature of the diet (regular chow or HFHS) as well as the timing at which prebiotic supplementation is introduced (preventive or curative) greatly influence the efficacy of the gut–microbiota–brain axis. This crosstalk selectively alters the hedonic or motivational drive to eat and triggers molecular changes in neural substrates involved in the homeostatic and non-homeostatic control of body weight.
Improvement of Communication Skills after Traumatic Brain Injury: The Efficacy of the Cognitive Pragmatic Treatment Program using the Communicative Activities of Daily Living

Objective The pragmatic impairment often characterizing individuals after a traumatic brain injury (TBI) significantly limits their independence, preventing social participation. Rehabilitation programs aim to improve the impaired capacities to help participants communicate effectively, increasing their self-perceived life quality. The aim of this study was to verify the effectiveness of the Cognitive Pragmatic Treatment (CPT) in improving communication abilities after TBI, thus enabling better management of communication activities in daily living. Method Nineteen individuals with TBI in a post-acute phase completed the CPT, a group-based training program designed to improve pragmatic abilities. Pre- and post-training, participants were administered the Communication Activities of Daily Living (CADL-2), and the equivalent forms of the Assessment Battery for Communication (ABaCo). Results Comparison of pre- and post-training performance showed an overall improvement in pragmatic abilities. Post-training, participants scored higher in communication skills on both the CADL-2 and ABaCo, with such scores remaining constant at a 3-month follow-up assessment. Conclusions This study showed that the CPT was effective in improving the participants' communicative abilities. The possibility that the benefits of the CPT may generalize to everyday communicative interactions is discussed.
The Relationship between Perceived Social Support in the First Pregnancy and Fear of Childbirth

Background: Numerous empirical evidences have shown that social and environmental circumstances and social relations have an important impact on pregnancy outcomes, women's ability to cope with stressful situations, and childbirth pain management. The present study was conducted to determine the relationship between perceived social support and fear of childbirth. Materials and Methods: The present descriptive correlational study was conducted on 270 nulliparous pregnant women who referred for pregnancy care in 2016. The subjects were selected through convenience sampling method. The data collection tools were a demographic characteristics form, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), and the Wijma Delivery Expectancy/Experience Questionnaire (W-DEQ). The collected data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics tests. Results: The mean perceived social support score of the participants was 77.90 and a significant correlation was observed between the perceived social support score and fear of childbirth score (β = −0.18, p = 0.004). The participants' mean score of fear of childbirth was 36.8. The results of study after the evaluation of the effect of predictive variables on the fear of childbirth are as follows: pregnancy preparation classes: (β = 3.50, p = 0.220); observation of natural childbirth videos: (β = 5.26, p = 0.040); and use of educational software: (β =5.82, p = 0.080). Conclusions: In order to reduce the fear of childbirth, women's social support structure during pregnancy should be assessed. Moreover, demographic characteristics form the structure and determine the extent of individuals' social network and, through the evaluation of these characteristics during pregnancy, the rate of effective support can be predicted in individuals.
Automatic anatomical segmentation of the liver by separation planes

Surgical planning in oncological liver surgery is based on the location of the 8 anatomical segments according to Couinaud's definition and tumors inside these structures. The detection of the boundaries between the segments is then the first step of the preoperative planning. The proposed method, devoted to binary images of livers segmented from CT-scans, has been designed to delineate these segments. It automatically detects a set of landmarks using a priori anatomical knowledge and differential geometry criteria. These landmarks are then used to position the Couinaud's segments. Validations performed on 7 clinical cases tend to prove that the method is reliable for most of these separation planes.