Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Better together: a transboundary approach to brown bear monitoring in the Pyrenees

Human administrative borders have no effect on wild animals, and the vast home ranges of large carnivores often cause them to live simultaneously on the territory of two or more countries or jurisdictions with different management policies. Here, we investigate the importance of transboundary population monitoring using as a case study the Pyrenean brown bear population (Ursus arctos) that lives in France, Andorra and Spain. Using capture-recapture models and the Pollock’s robust design, we estimated abundance and demographic parameters using data collected separately in France and Spain and a dataset gathered from joint monitoring on both sides of the border. As expected, the abundance estimates from French (from 11 bears in 2008 to 13 in 2014) or Spanish (from 4 bears in 2008 to 9 in 2014) data only were lower than abundance obtained from both sides of the border (from 11 in 2008 to 18 in 2014). The joint monitoring dataset also highlighted the importance of individual detection heterogeneity that, if ignored, would lead to underestimation. Our results reinforce the importance of transboundary cooperation when dealing with animal populations with territory spanning two or more administrative jurisdictions for collecting reliable scientific data and providing relevant abundance estimation to take sound management decisions.
DOC: Deep OCclusion Recovering From A Single Image

Recovering the occlusion relationship between stuffs and things is a fundamental ability of human vision, and yields information about the 3D world from 2D images. In this paper, we propose deep occlusion (DOC), which is an end-to-end deep learning strategy that recovers the occlusion boundaries from a single image. Firstly, for each pixel along the boundaries, we introduce an orientation variable, indicating the occlusion relationship between two adjacent regions. Then, deep features, long range context and object-level knowledge are exploited by an end-to-end deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) to accurately locate the boundaries and recover the occlusion relationships. To evaluate and train the DOC network, we construct a large-scale instance occlusion boundary dataset from the PASCAL images, which we call the PASCAL instance occlusion dataset. It includes 20k images (100$\times$ bigger than the existing occlusion datasets for outdoor images) and so is big enough to train and evaluate DCNNs for occlusion learning. Finally, extensive experiments are performed to demonstrate that our approach has strong generalization ability and outperform state-of-the-art strategies.
OPTIMIZATION VIA CLASSIFICATION

The vast majority of population-based optimization algorithms use selection in such a way that the nonselected individuals do not have any effect on the evolution at all, even though they may carry a valueable information — information about the local shape of the search distribution and/or about the search space areas where the search should be suppressed. This article describes a unified way of taking advantage of the information hidden in the non-selected individuals in the framework of evolutionary algorithms: first, build a classifier discriminating between selected and non-selected individuals, then turn the description of selected individuals into a search distribution, and sample new offspring from it. The concept is verified by a simple real-valued evolutionary algorithm which outperforms the state-of-the-art evolutionary strategy with covariance matrix adaptation (CMA-ES) on selected test functions in all tested search space dimensionalities. Finally, the article proposes some guidelines for future work to make this algorithm generally applicable.
In-broker Access Control for Information Brokerage Systems

An XML brokerage system is a distributed XML database system that comprises data sources and brokers which, respectively, hold XML documents and document distribution information. Databases can be queried through brokers with no schema-relevant or geographical difference being noticed. However, all existing information brokerage systems view or handle query brokering and access control as two orthogonal issues: query brokering is a system issue that concerns costs and performance, while access control is a security issue that concerns information confidentiality. As a result, access control deployment strategies (in terms of where and when to do access control) and the impact of such strategies on end-to-end system performance are neglected by existing information brokerage systems. In addition, data source side access control deployment is taken-for-granted as the “right” thing to do. In this paper, we challenge this traditional, taken-for-granted access control deployment methodology, and we show that query brokering and access control are not two orthogonal issues because access control deployment strategies can have significant impact on the “whole” system’s end-to-end performance. We propose the first in-broker access control deployment strategy where access control is “pushed” from the boundary into the “heart” of the information brokerage system. We design and evaluate the inbroker access control scheme for information brokerage systems. Our experimental results indicate that information brokerage system builders should treat access control as a system issue as well.
Towards a conceptual decision support systems framework aimed at narrowing the tax gap in South Africa : a narrative case study

iv PART 1: RESEARCH SETTING . 1-1 Chapter 1: Introduction . 1-1 1.1 Definition of Key Terms . 1-2 1.2 Publications From This Research . 1-3 1.3 Introduction and Background . 1-3 1.4 Problem Statement . 1-5 1.5 Research Questions . 1-6 1.6 Theoretical Framework . 1-7 1.7 Research Methodology. 1-12 1.8 Research Execution . 1-13 1.9 Assumptions and Limitations . 1-13 1.10 Expected Findings . 1-15 1.11 Chapter Divisions. 1-15 1.12 Conclusion . 1-18 Chapter 2: Research Design . 2-1 2.
Differential effects of socioeconomic status on working and procedural memory systems

While prior research has shown a strong relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and working memory performance, the relation between SES and procedural (implicit) memory remains unknown. Convergent research in both animals and humans has revealed a fundamental dissociation, both behaviorally and neurally, between a working memory system that depends on medial temporal-lobe structures and the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) vs. a procedural memory system that depends on the basal ganglia. Here, we measured performance in adolescents from lower- and higher-SES backgrounds on tests of working memory capacity (complex working memory span) and procedural memory (probabilistic classification) and their hippocampal, DLPFC, and caudate volumes. Lower-SES adolescents had worse working memory performance and smaller hippocampal and DLPFC volumes than their higher-SES peers, but there was no significant difference between the lower- and higher-SES groups on the procedural memory task or in caudate volumes. These findings suggest that SES may have a selective influence on hippocampal-prefrontal-dependent working memory and little influence on striatal-dependent procedural memory.
Coexistence of solutions in a DC-DC Buck converter controlled by sine wave

Low power systems are widely used in robotics and industrial areas; therefore, modeling and systems analysis provide reliable and best designs of such systems. In that way, a Buck converter controlled by PWM is investigated using a new design, replacing the T periodic ramp signal by a T periodic sine wave for two reasons: the sine wave is easier to generate and analyze, and in order to get rid of non-linear qualities of the ramp signal. Then, bifurcation diagrams are obtained varying the parameters ascending and descending in the new Buck converter design to find coexisting attractors, which are normally an undesired behavior in nonlinear systems or useful for some applications. Although it is demonstrated that these bifurcation diagrams are not the sufficient remedy to find coexistence of solutions, it is also shown that they are a good tool. Once bifurcation diagrams show the range where coexistence of solutions appear, we proceed to study in that range the shape of the basins and the system solutions, with the aim of determining the specific regions in which the system presents different behaviors. This is because many practical applications today need not only periodic solutions but also more complex ones. Finally, basins of attraction are obtained and studied for some parameters of the system. Bounded and fractal regions are observed; moreover, the evolution of the attractors in the time domain for each parameter value are shown.
A Meta-Analysis on the Relations between EGFR R521K Polymorphism and Risk of Cancer

The EGFR R521K polymorphism has been shown to reduce the activity of EGFR; however, the association between EGFR R521K polymorphism and the risk of cancer remains inconclusive; therefore we performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the relationship between EGFR R521K polymorphism and susceptibility to cancer. Our results suggest that the EGFR R521K polymorphism is not associated with risk of cancer, but the different chemosensitivity to anticancer drugs may need further investigation.
The Occurrence of 16 EPA PAHs in Food – A Review

Occurrence and toxicity of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been extensively studied in countries all over the world. PAHs generally occur in complex mixtures which may consist of hundreds of compounds. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed in the 1970 to monitor a set of 16 PAHs which are frequently found in environmental samples. This article reviews the suitability of the 16 EPA PAHs for the assessment of potential health threats to humans stemming from the exposure to PAHs by food ingestion. It presents details on analysis methods, the occurrence of PAHs in food, regulatory aspects, and related risk management approaches. In addition, consideration is given to newer evaluations of the toxicity of PAHs and the requirements for risk assessment and management stemming from them.
A framework for structured knowledge extraction and representation from natural language via deep sentence analysis

We present a framework that we are currently developing, that allows one to extract knowledge from natural language sentences using a deep analysis technique based on linguistic dependencies. The extracted knowledge is represented in OOLOT, an intermediate format that we have introduced, inspired by the Language of Thought (LOT) and based on Answer Set Programming (ASP). OOLOT uses an ontologyoriented lexicon and syntax. Therefore, it is possible to export the extracted knowledge into OWL and native ASP.
Value of volume-based metabolic parameters for predicting survival in breast cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy

Abstract We evaluated the role of metabolic parameters in the prediction of disease recurrence in operable invasive ductal breast cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). We retrospectively evaluated 139 female patients (mean age, 46.5 years; range: 27–72 years) with invasive ductal breast cancer, treated with NAC followed by surgery. All patients underwent 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging at baseline and after completion of NAC before surgery. The prognostic significance of clinicopathological and imaging parameters for disease-free survival (DFS) was evaluated. Recurrence of cancer was detected in 31 of 139 patients (22.3%; follow-up period: 6–82 months). Baseline maximum standardized uptake value, metabolic tumor volume (MTV), and reduction rate (RR) of MTV after NAC were significant independent prognostic factors for DFS in a multivariate analysis (all P < 0.05). The survival functions differed significantly between low and high histological grades (P < 0.001). DFS of the patients with high baseline MTV (≥5.23 cm3) was significantly poorer than that of low MTV patients (P = 0.019). The survival function of the group with low RR of MTV after NAC (⩽90.72%) was poorer than the higher RR of the MTV group (P = 0.008). Our findings suggest that breast cancer patients who have a high histological grade, large baseline MTV, or a small RR of MTV after NAC should receive great attention to check for possible recurrence.
Comparison between Two Compensation Current Control Methods of Shunt Active Power filter

This paper presents the analysis and simulation using Matlab/Simulink of a Shunt Active Power Filter (SAPF) for reducing the harmonics current generated by nonlinear loads and also compared the two current control method. Due to increasing the usage of power electronics equipment with linear load, the increase of the harmonics disturbance in the ac mains currents has became a major concern due to the adverse effects on all equipment mostly capacitors, transformers, and motors, causing additional losses, overloading, malfunctioning and overheating and interferences. Shunt Active Power filter is used to compensating the harmonic non- linear loads harmonics by injecting equal but opposite harmonic compensating current which gives pure sinusoidal wave.
Modeling Self-Assembly Across Scales: The Unifying Perspective of Smart Minimal Particles

A wealth of current research in microengineering aims at fabricating devices of increasing complexity, notably by (self-)assembling elementary components into heterogeneous functional systems. At the same time, a large body of robotic research called swarm robotics is concerned with the design and the control of large ensembles of robots of decreasing size and complexity. This paper describes the asymptotic convergence of micro/nano electromechanical systems (M/NEMS) on one side, and swarm robotic systems on the other, toward a unifying class of systems, which we denote Smart Minimal Particles (SMPs). We deﬁne SMPs as mobile, purely reactive and physically embodied agents that compensate for their limited on-board capabilities using speciﬁcally engineered reactivity to external physical stimuli, including local energy and information scavenging. In trading off internal resources for simplicity and robustness, SMPs are still able to collectively perform non-trivial, spatio-temporally coordinated and highly scalable operations such as aggregation and self-assembly (SA). We outline the opposite converging tendencies, namely M/NEMS smarting and robotic minimalism, by reviewing each field’s literature with speciﬁc focus on self-assembling systems. Our main claim is that the SMPs can be used to develop a unifying technological and methodological framework that bridges the gap between passive M/NEMS and active, centimeter-sized robots. By proposing this unifying perspective, we hypothesize a continuum in both complexity and length scale between these two extremes. We illustrate the beneﬁts of possible cross-fertilizations among these originally separate domains, with speciﬁc emphasis on the modeling of collective dynamics. Particularly, we argue that while most of the theoretical studies on M/NEMS SA dynamics belong so far to one of only two main frameworks—based on analytical master equations and on numerical agent-based simulations, respectively—alternative models developed in swarm robotics could be amenable to the task, and thereby provide important novel insights.
Indicators of abdominal size relative to height associated with sex, age, socioeconomic position and ancestry among US adults

Background/Objectives The supine sagittal abdominal diameter (SAD) and standing waist circumference (WC) describe abdominal size. The SAD/height ratio (SADHtR) or WC/height ratio (WHtR) may better identify cardiometabolic disorders than BMI (weight/height2), but population-based distributions of SADHtR and WHtR are not widely available. Abdominal adiposity may differ by sociodemographic characteristics. Subjects/Methods Anthropometry, including SAD by sliding-beam caliper, was performed on 9894 non-pregnant adults ≥20 years in the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys of 2011–2014. Applying survey design factors and sampling weights, we estimated nationally representative SADHtR and WHtR distributions by sex, age, educational attainment, and four ancestral groups. Results The median (10th percentile, 90th percentile) for men’s SADHtR was 0.130 (0.103, 0.165) and WHtR 0.569 (0.467, 0.690). For women, median SADHtR was 0.132 (0.102, 0.175) and WHtR 0.586 (0.473, 0.738). Medians for SADHtR and WHtR increased steadily through age 79. The median BMI, however, reached maximum values at ages 40–49 (men) or 60–69 (women) and then declined. Low educational attainment, adjusted for age and ancestry, was associated with elevated SADHtR more strongly than elevated BMI. While non-Hispanic Asians had substantially lower BMI compared to all other ancestral groups (adjusted for sex, age and education), their relative reductions in SADHtR and WHtR, were less marked. Conclusions These cross-sectional data are consistent with monotonically increasing abdominal adipose tissue through the years of adulthood but decreasing mass in non-abdominal regions beyond middle age. They suggest also that visceral adipose tissue, estimated by SADHtR, expands differentially in association with low socioeconomic position. Insofar as Asians have lower BMIs than other populations, employing abdominal indicators may attenuate the adiposity differences reported between ancestral groups. Documenting the distribution and sociodemographic features of SADHtR and WHtR supports the clinical and epidemiologic adoption of these adiposity indicators.
Unlocking water markets: an experimental approach

Despite decades of advocacy by water resource economists, water markets (leases and sales of water rights between willing buyers and sellers) have largely failed to develop in the western US. Although there are a number of explanations for this failure, we explore one potential reason that has received less attention in the economics and policy literature: farmers as sellers may have preferences for different elements of a water market transaction that are not captured in the relative comparison of their profits from farming and their profits from agreeing to a deal. We recruited irrigators with senior water rights in the upper Yakima River Basin in Washington state to participate in a series of experimental auctions. These auctions asked participants to imagine that they owned and operated a 100-acre timothy hay farm with a given level of net revenue (i.e. an induced value). Participants then reacted to series of offers for 1-year leases from hypothetical buyers where several attributes of the lease varied across tasks. These attributes were the type of buyer (the state Department of Ecology, an irrigation district, or a developer), the management of the water bank (run by the state or by a new nonprofit), the lease type (split-season and full-season), and the offer price. Participants were paid in relation to their hypothetical farms‟ earnings. This paper presents results from 7 sessions with irrigators (n=49) and a comparison group of undergraduates (n=38). Our results show that irrigators are more likely to accept split-season than fullseason leases (controlling for differences in farm profits). Compared to the Dept of Ecology, they are more likely to accept a lease from an irrigation district and less likely to accept an offer from a Developer. They do not, however, have strong preferences over the management of the water bank. Although offer price was statistically significant in both groups, we find students were more influenced by offer price. Students had no detectable preferences over lease type, although some preferred a state-run water bank when leasing to a developer. Most notably, we find farmers were far more likely than students to reject offers from buyers even though it would increase their winnings from the experiment. Our results could be used in ongoing water supply policy debates in the Basin to simulate the amount of water that could be freed by water markets.
Formal Model-Based Development of Network-on-Chip Systems

Advances in technology allow us to have thousands of computational and storage modules communicating with each other on a single electronic chip. Well defined intercommunication schemes for such Systems–on–Chip are fundamental for handling the increasing complexity. So called bus–based and bus matrix–based communication frameworks for Systems–on–Chip face immense pressure of the increasing size and complexity, unable to offer the scalability required. The Network–on–Chip communication paradigm for Systems–on–Chip has been introduced to answer the given challenges offering very high communication bandwidth and network scalability through its generally regular structure. The communication between the modules of a System–on–Chip is generally categorised as synchronous or asynchronous, with a recent shift towards Globally Asynchronous Locally Synchronous Systems–on–Chip. In such systems each module can be synchronised to a private local clock but their intercommunication is established asynchronously, relying on request and acknowledgement communication handshakes. This arrangement results in lower power consumption eliminating the need for a global clock distribution network with its undesirably long interconnect wires. The application domain of Systems–on–Chip spans from home use electronics to large safety critical control and data transfer systems. One of the appropriate approaches for specifying reliable Systems–on–Chip, modelling the on–chip communication, as well as verifying their design is provided by formal methods. These methods are often accompanied by adequate tool support and are important for the development of complex Systems–on–Chip, from initial abstract specifications to implementations, because they help to avoid costly errors in the design and, thus, contribute to the reliability of such systems. This thesis presents a formal model–based development framework, based on the B Action Systems formalism, to facilitate the use of formal methods for correct-by-construction Systems–on–Chip design. The framework consists of tool assisted methods for specification, instantiation and automatic verification of asynchronous Network–on–Chip routing schemes, automatic model–based testing of implementations of these routing schemes and model–based mapping of applications to Network–on–Chip platforms. Acknowledgements It is a pleasure to be able to express my deepest gratitude to those who made this thesis possible. First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor Kaisa Sere for her guidance, support and belief on the importance of this work. I especially wish to thank Marina Waldén for introducing me to the formal methods world, for always having the time for discussions and for the continuous encouragement. I also wish to thank Juha Plosila for his never ending encouragement and for always having the time for discussions during …
Project Kepler: Compile-Time Metaprogramming for Scala

Metaprogramming is a powerful technique of software devel- opment, which allows to automate program generation. Applications of metaprogramming range from improving expressiveness of a program- ming language via deep embedding of domain-specic languages (1) to boosting performance of produced code by providing programmer with ne-grained control over compilation (2). In this report we introduce macros and quasiquotations, facilities that enable compile-time metapro- gramming in Scala programming language.