Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neural-Network Combination for Noisy Data Classification

Classifier combination experiments using neural network-based classifiers were carried out using noisy soil science multispectral images, which were obtained using a tomograph scanner. Using few units in the hidden layer images were classified by the Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) and the Radial Basis Function Network (RBF). Later we used classifier combining techniques as Decision Templates (DT) and Dempster-Shafer (DS), in order to improve the performance of the single classifiers and also to stabilize the performance of the Multilayer Perceptron. Classification results were evaluated through the Estimated Error (by the Hold-Out technique), and the Kappa Coefficient. The results showed that the RBF Network obtained a small improvement in performance with the combination. However, we observed a good improvement in stabilization of the Multilayer Perceptron, especially with the Decision Templates method.
Passivity-based adaptive controller design for quasi-resonant converters

The passivity-based adaptive stabilization of the average model of a quasi-resonant boost converter is presented. In this study, the important circuit components of the converter are assumed constant but unknown. The adaptive controller is designed based on the well-known "energy shaping plus damping injection" ideas of the passivity-based approach. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the features of the proposed controller.
Differential impacts of clinical variables and 5-fluorouracil-based adjuvant chemotherapy on 5-year disease-free survival of patients with stage IIa and IIb colon cancer

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate practicable predictors of 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) and impact of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-based adjuvant chemotherapy in stage IIa and IIb colon cancer. Materials and Methods: A total of 1474 patients with stage II colon cancer were enrolled in study. The independent predictors of 5-year DFS and the benefits of adjuvant chemotherapy were analyzed for patients with stage IIa (n = 771) and IIb (n = 703). Results: The incidences of pretreatment anemia, hypoalbuminemia, emergent surgery, and lymphovascular invasion (LVI) corresponded significantly to an advanced T-stage in patients with stage II colon cancer. Although the incidence of surgical morbidity was not different between stage IIa and IIb, stage II patients with hypoalbuminemia had a higher incidence of surgical morbidity than did those with normal serum albumin (17.2% vs. 9.6%, P < 0.001). The co-independent survival predictors in patients with stage IIa and IIb colon cancer were carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA < 5 ng/mL, P = 0.007 and 0.043), serum albumin (≥3.5 g/dL, P < 0.001 and P = 0.025), and nonsurgical morbidity (P < 0.001, both). Suboptimal lymph node harvest (<12 examined nodes, P < 0.001) and no adjuvant chemotherapy (P = 0.008) were poor prognostic factors only in stage IIb colon cancer. LVI showed a trend to worse DFS (P = 0.059). A survival benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy analyzed in four subgroups stratified by stage IIa and IIb, with or without the present prognostic factors, was only observed in patients with stage IIb colon cancer with hypoalbuminemia, abnormal CEA, suboptimal lymph node harvest, and postoperative morbidity. Conclusion: Different predictors of DFS were observed in stage IIa and IIb colon cancer; adjuvant chemotherapy could provide a survival benefit for patients with stage IIb colon cancer who have one of the four factors that were studied in our hospital-based analysis.
Análisis de adecuación de bases de datos estándar ANSI/ISA-95 utilizando un agente inteligente

Resúmen. La marcada tendencia a la globalización y comunicación entre organizaciones, conlleva la necesidad de establecer una base sobre la información a compartir, y estandarizar las estructuras de datos que se utilicen, con el objetivo de mejorar la eficiencia de dicho flujo de información. Desde hace tiempo, el estándar ANSI/ISA-95 ha ido cobrando más relevancia como uno de los principales medios para la estandarización y automatización de sistemas empresariales, MES y CPM, entre otros. Este trabajo propone la utilización de un agente inteligente basado en conocimiento que procesa lenguaje natural, para analizar y clasificar el contenido de la base de datos de un ERP, en las estructuras de información propuestas por el estándar ANSI/ISA-95, con el objetivo de favorecer un estudio de los sistemas actuales de las organizaciones en orden de poder lograr una futura integración.
The Big Wish, Concordia College, 2015

The purpose of this Capstone project was to create an event centered on an existing event within the sports industry. The “Big Wish Concordia College” is an event based off a wish granting experience through the Make-a-Wish Foundation along with a football game at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. Further research was conducted to identify how the Make-aWish Foundation grants wishes to children. Some of the findings indicated that a child must be between 2.5 – 18 years old, have a life threatening illness, referred by someone, and have not had a wish granted previously. Using the research shown through the wish granting process, the event was created and a child by the name of Jimmy Flowers was identified to have a wish be granted. Through the collaboration of the local Make-a-Wish Foundation, Concordia College, and the Student Athletic Advisory Committee at Concordia, the wish experience for Jimmy Flowers was able to be granted. This Capstone detailed the specifics of the “Big Wish Concordia College” event, including items such as: a marketing and risk management plan, budget, ethical analysis, a plan for motivating employees, and a personal reflection.
Power‐aware computing

High performance computing (HPC) centers are substantial consumers of energy, necessary to feed the computational resources and auxiliary systems that have enabled the breakthrough scientific advances attained during the past few decades. At the other extreme, HPC facilities are also painfully aware of the high costs of electricity (to a certain extent, also of the associated environmental impact) and, together with the embedded and mobile systems, have favored the development of more energy-efficient computer systems. Thus, it is recognized that a large potential for energy reduction can be obtained by means of re-engineering the hardware, and this goal is nowadays fully addressed by computer manufacturers. Unfortunately, it is much less noticed that a great potential for energy savings can be realized by transforming and completely rethinking the algorithms that are implemented in the applications that run on the supercomputing platforms. The difficulty is possibly related to the fact that this type of redesign relies on a highly interdisciplinary expertise coupling the disciplines of mathematical modeling, numerical methods, software design, and hardware-aware computing. In summary, it is our experience that modern application software is still quite oblivious to power consumption and, eg, most efforts to optimize numerical scientific codes are directed to reduce execution time, without carefully analyzing the trade-off between time and power consumption. In response to this situation, several research efforts currently aim to advance the state-of-the-art in power-aware computing, focusing in different aspects1,2: — Exploitation of low-power hardware architectures; — Development of algorithms that facilitate energy savings; — Tools, libraries, and environments for the development of power-aware software; — Measurement and control of power consumption; — High-performance power-aware applications; — Communication-avoiding algorithms; — High-performance implementations of tensor methods; and — Multi-precision algorithms in numerical linear algebra and related fields.
Kidneys: The Victim Of Hypertension: Review

Background & objectives: Our review discuss the relation between hypertension and the renal system ,and show the cyclic effect of both hypertension and chronic kidney damage on each other, our objectives are to control the high blood pressure with minimal renal affection due to side effects of medications. Materials & methods: many studies and trials compare between different antihypertensive drugs and their effects on kidneys which may decrease their efficiency. Results: Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACE-Is), angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARBs), Beta-blockers and calcium channel blockers are identified to be the second line of treatment of hypertension according to a network meta-analysis conducted in 2003, ACE-Is were found to show a significant effect in slowing the progression of nephrosclerosis and slower declining of GFR more than β-blocker or calcium channel blocker. Conclusion: Kidney is indispensable organ in the body that we must protect it from the irreversible macroscopic and microscopic changes pathological as : macroscopic (small size, finely granular surface, adherent and difficulty stripped capsule, fibrotic, atrophic, not demarcated cortex on cut section, thick prominent arterioles and increased peripelvic fat) and microscopic (afferent and efferent arterioles show benign arteriosclerosis, gradual ischemic atrophy and fibrosis of the glomeruli, atrophy of non-functioning tubules related to atrophic glomeruli, may undergo compensatory cystic dilatation of tubule related to functioning glomeruli). ACE-Is is considered the drug of choice in hypertensive patients complicated with chronic kidney disease, In hypertensive patients that are refractory to medical treatment, renal sympathetic denervation is a safe alternative.
Performance review of the switched reluctance motor drives

The authors survey the literature on the switched reluctance motor (SRM) and drives. They present a classification scheme for the SRM drives that permits the SRM to be categorized based on the characteristics of motor design, controller circuit, performance, and applications. This performance review provides useful guidelines for comparing the SRM with different AC motor drives. <<ETX>>
The Use of Simple Cellular Automata in Image Processing

Metadata extraction from documents forms an essential part of web or desktop search systems.Similarly, digital libraries that index scholarly literature require to find and extract the title, the list of authors and other publication-related information from an article. We present a hybrid approach for metadata extraction, combining classification and clustering to extract the desired information without the need of a conventional labeled dataset for training. An important asset of the proposed method is that the resulting clustering parameters can be used in other problems, e.g. document layout analysis.
A reconceptualization of manufacturersâ€™ sustainable product-service business models: Triple bottom line perspective

As indicated by the WBCSD, the triple bottom line should be the goal of an enterpriseâ€™s sustainable operation. PSS and past literature related to sustainability have mostly discussed related theory or conducted empirical research. Many recent studies have integrated the two aspects to describe sustainable business models, but they have mostly been based on case studies. Therefore, this research integrated qualitative and quantitative viewpoints to construct sustainable product-service business models and it was carried out in three phases. Phase1 referred to conceptualization, in which past literature and focus group interviews were combined to construct the preliminary items and the questionnaire. Phase2 referred to measurement, in which the reliability and validity of the various questionnaire dimensions were verified. Phase3 referred to verification, which was aimed at the integrative framework of S-PSS models. AHP was used to analyze the relative importance and managerial implications of each dimension. In the main dimensions of sustainable product-service business models, the dimension of scientific and technological sustainable development is more crucial than the dimensions of product-service sustainable development, social sustainable development and organizational sustainable development. In the minor dimensions, creating value from waste, new service delivery, delivering functionality rather than ownership, and developing scale up solutions are more crucial. Â JEL classification numbers: C83, M15, O31
A Study on Various Image Segmentation Techniques: Merits and Demerits

Image segmentation is the process of partitioning an image into meaningful components or structures based on color, shape, intensity etc. Image segmentation plays an important role in the field of image analysis, it can also be used for object recognition, visualization and many other image processing tasks. Image segmentation is used to classify or to cluster the image into several parts according to the features extracted from the image. The main goal of the segmentation is to make the image easier to analyze. The output of the segmentation is a set of segments that will cover the entire image. This paper presents the various image segmentation techniques, their merits and demerits.
Le travailleur informel : figure sociale à géométrie variable (le travail à domicile)

La question essentielle a laquelle nous tenterons de repondre a travers ce texte se formule ainsi : Le travail informel par son ampleur croissante (nombre de travailleurs) et son extension rapide (au sein de plus en plus de couches sociales) ne signifierait-il pas de profondes mutations dans les rapports au travail salarie officiellement reglemente ? De ce point de vue le travail informel vient rappeler, a travers ses dimensions socio-anthropologiques, que l’Etat ne peut pretendre exercer un quelconque monopole sur l’organisation sociale. La reproduction elargie des activites informelles signifie que l’intervention massive de l’Etat affronte l’opposition de la societe sur le terrain meme que celui-ci a choisi : l’economie structure autour de l’industrialisation et le travail salarie officiellement reglemente. Cette approche s’insere dans une problematique de recherche qui se fixe de saisir le sens de ce que nous pensons devoir identifier comme realites sociales en emergence en Algerie.
DAILY HEMODIALYSIS—SELECTED TOPICS: Cardiovascular Effects of Frequent Intensive Hemodialysis

Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality for patients with end‐stage renal disease (ESRD). Frequent intensive hemodialysis (short daily hemodialysis [2 hours per session, six sessions per week] and nocturnal home hemodialysis [6 hours per session, five to six sessions per week]) has recently gained increasing popularity as an alternative to conventional hemodialysis (4 hours per session, three sessions per week). There is an emerging body of evidence that frequent intensive hemodialysis offers superior uremic toxin clearance, blood pressure control, and other cardiovascular outcomes. The goals of the present review are to systematically evaluate the available evidence in blood pressure control and cardiovascular outcomes in ESRD and the achievable changes after converting from conventional dialysis to frequent intensive hemodialysis, and to provide possible physiological explanations to account for these important changes of potent markers of adverse events in this patient population.
The politics of carbon taxation: how varieties of policy style matter

ABSTRACT The momentum achieved for unilateral carbon taxes in seven European countries is examined. Why is it that small countries, despite being vulnerable to forces of international competition, have been able to implement carbon taxes? A review of national experiences does not suggest that the share of fossil fuels in the energy mix defines the room for such taxes, or point to a strong role for traditional left-right ideology. Rather, it is deep-seated patterns of national policy styles with neo-corporatist traits, providing a protective device for the open economies of small countries, which condition the introduction of carbon taxes. The associated routines of decision-making offer coordination mechanisms for proactive macroeconomic policies in which carbon taxation can find a place. Parliamentary democracies with proportional representation, as is common in the smaller countries, provide access to government for political parties that pursue carbon taxation. These in turn sensitise larger political parties to climate concerns, as they benefit from institutionalised practices and routines for problem-solving and consensus-seeking.
Construção de um ambiente educacional interativo na internet: a Biblioteca Escolar Digital

O presente trabalho surgiu de uma pesquisa vinculada ao Laboratorio de Novas Tecnologias Aplicadas na Educacao (LANTEC) da Faculdade de Educacao da Unicamp, sob coordenacao do Professor Sergio Ferreira do Amaral e teve como objetivo principal a construcao de um Kit para a ampliacao de um ambiente interativo, a Biblioteca Escolar Digital, para todas as instituicoes de ensino. Nossa metodologia contou com tres etapas: pesquisa de materiais que poderiam ser utilizados na construcao do ambiente; a construcao do material, facil de ser utilizado e implementado; periodo de testes e finalizacao do material. Como resultado principal tivemos a producao de um kit que contem um manual de como utilizar e instalar o ambiente, os softwares necessarios, assim como o proprio ambiente, que foi construido em PHP e Banco de Dados.
Apprendre un art ensemble : étude longitudinale d’enregistrements simultanés en électroencéphalographie lors de performances musicales

L’objectif de notre recherche est de comprendre les bases cerebrales de l’interaction sociale dans un contexte de performance musicale grâce a des outils issus des neurosciences (electroencephalographie : EEG) et du traitement du signal. Ce manuscrit presente tout d’abord un etat de l’art des etudes recentes dans le domaine de l’hyperscanning. Nous offrons une reflexion sur les prerequis et la methodologie a adopter pour concevoir une experience predisposant a l’emergence d’une synchronisation neuronale. Nous explorons ensuite les processus cerebraux mis en jeu lors de la pratique de la musique au travers d’etudes realisees en neurosciences. Par la suite nous presentons plusieurs methodes permettant de calculer des indices de couplage cerebral sur les donnees recoltees lors d’experiences en hyperscanning. Nous y decrivons en particulier les methodes de separation de source conjointe (jBSS) dont l’avantage est de se rapprocher d’une realite anatomique et physiologique, ainsi que de prendre en compte l’information inter-sujets lors de l’estimation des sources. Enfin, nous detaillons notre contribution au champ des neurosciences sociales sous la forme d’une experience longitudinale en hyperscanning-EEG. Elle etudie l’interaction sociale de pianistes a quatre mains lors de l’apprentissage d’un morceau de musique sur une periode de deux mois. Nous mettons en evidence qu’il existe une correlation entre l’augmentation de la performance musicale au cours du temps, la synchronisation cerebrale et la qualite de la relation entre les musiciens.
Consulting the ‘oracle’: Using a Delphi process to facilitate change to a blended learning model for rural mental health professionals’ recruitment

What happens when time, staffing pressures and a reduced funding base begin to impact on considerations for the future deployment of a successful university-based program promoting professional career options in rural mental health for completing students? This paper outlines the initial steps of shifting the Gippsland Mental Health Vacation School (GMHVS) from a successful week-long face-to-face program to a blended, collaborative and interactive model, distributed across space and time. Further, this blended learning approach encompassing social media opens the possibility to enable greater student numbers to participate in future GMHVS programs.
A Review of the Associations of Alcohol Consumption with Race/Ethnicity, Religion, and Socioeconomic Status

This literature review explores the relationship between alcohol use and different demographic variables, specifically race/ethnicity, religion, and socioeconomic status. The aims of the paper are: 1) define alcohol use and discuss the physical and mental health implications of alcohol use and 2) explore the associations of alcohol use with religiosity, race/ ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Thirty four articles that directly address the correlates ofrace/ethnicity, religion, SES, health, and alcohol consumption were reviewed after extensive literature search. Studies indicate that religious individuals consume less alcohol than non-religious individuals. European Americans and Native Americans have the highest rates of alcohol consumption. Socioeconomic status proves to . be the most inconsistent of the demographic variables studied; results vary about the effects of socioeconomic status on alcohol use. Gaps in current literature, the need for consistency in vocabulary, and focus for future studies are discussed.
Hábitos parafuncionais infantis decorrentes do desmame precoce e seu impacto na cavidade bucal

A presente pesquisa visou avaliar os habitos bucais mais prevalentes em criancas estudantes da Escola Municipal Joaquim Pinto e Souza, do municipio de Vassouras/RJ, verificando a influencia do tempo de amamentacao na determinacao desses habitos relacionados a ma-oclusao. O estudo foi realizado por meio de um questionario estruturado, encaminhado aos pais das 57 criancas, com idades entre quatro e 15 anos. Em seguida, foi realizado exame clinico para avaliacao da oclusao e os dados obtidos foram organizados e processados quantitativamente. Os habitos questionados aos pais foram: o ato de roer as unhas, o uso de mamadeiras, chupetas, succao de dedo, morder ou chupar objetos, ranger os dentes e respiracao bucal, que tiveram efetiva importância para o estudo. A maioria das criancas que interrompeu a amamentacao precocemente, desenvolveu habitos parafuncionais, apresentando-se como os mais prevalentes a succao de chupeta, respiracao bucal e o ato de roer unhas, sendo que algumas dessas criancas possuiam um ou mais destes habitos. Os questionarios foram analisados e comparados com o exame clinico, onde verificou-se que as criancas que tiveram o desmame precoce apresentaram maior prevalencia de mordida aberta anterior. (AU) This cross-sectional study evaluated the most prevalent oral habits from students of the Municipal School Joaquim Pinto e Souza, at the city of Vassouras, RJ, verifying the influence of breastfeeding time on these malocclusion related habits. A questionnaire was sent to parents of 57 children, aged from 4 to 15 years. Next, a clinical exam was made to evaluate the occlusal conditions, and data was organized and interpreted quantitatively. The following habits were studied: nail biting, baby bottle, pacifiers, thumbnail sucking, object biting or sucking, tooth grinding, and oral breathing. Most children with early breastfeeding interruption developed parafunctional habits, being the most prevalent pacifier sucking, oral breathing, and nail biting, with some having one or more habits. Children with early interruption of breastfeeding had more prevalence of anterior open bite. (AU)