Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transfer learning in classification based on manifolc. models and its relation to tangent metric learning

The paper deals with realizations of transfer learning for classification, i. e. the adaptation of a classifier model to a changed data distribution. This change could be a data drift or a more complex transformation. We propose to model those data changes by manifolds describing continuous transformations of the data. This description can be seen as a generalization of function based transfer models considered so far. The manifold description of the transfer function allows either to adjust the classifier model to the changed data distribution or a back-transformation of those data to the original data space. To get the approach feasible, the manifold is approximated by the affine part of the Taylor expansion of the manifold structure. Moreover, the affine approximation shows mathematical correspondences to tangent metric leaning, which was developed for handling of data with drifts in classification methods. The paper provides the mathematical background for manifold based transfer data learning. Further, the approach is exemplarily applied for the generalized learning vector quantization classifier. This classifier is a prominent method which frequently achieves a high performance and a robust behavior while the classifier complexity is low compared to more sophisticated approaches like deep learning architectures or support vector machines. Moreover, the good interpretability of learning vector quantization classifiers also contributes to an intuitive practical understanding of transfer learning.
Measurement of Functional Residual Capacity in Rabbits and Children Using an Ultrasonic Flow Meter

A sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) washin/washout technique was developed using an ultrasonic flowmeter to measure functional residual capacity (FRC) during mechanical ventilation. The ultrasonic flowmeter measures simultaneously flow and molar mass of the mainstream gas. Ventilation distribution was studied using moment ratios analysis (alveolar-based mean dilution number). Accuracy and precision of the measurement technique were tested in a mechanical lung model, and the method's sensitivity to changes of FRC was assessed in seven ventilated rabbits and six children. In the mechanical lung model with a volume range from 10 to 60 mL, the mean error of FRC measurement was 0.096 ± 0.9 mL (range, 0–2 mL). In seven rabbits (mean body weight, 3.6 kg), measurements of FRC and alveolar-based mean dilution number were made at positive end-expiratory pressures (PEEP) of 0, 3, and 6 cm H2O. The mean coefficient of variation of 66 FRC-measurements was 5.5% (range, 0–15.3%). As the applied PEEP increased, mean FRC per kilogram body weight increased from 13.3 ± 3.4 mL/kg (PEEP of 0 cm H2O) to 16.7 ± 3.6 mL/kg (PEEP of 3 cm H2O) and to 20.8 ± 4.3 mL/kg (PEEP of 6 cm H2O). Alveolar-based mean dilution number decreased accordingly from 1.94 ± 0.42 (PEEP = 0; mean ± SD), to 1.91 ± 0.45 (PEEP = 3) and to 1.59 ± 0.35 (PEEP = 6). In the six children, as applied PEEP increased, mean FRC per kilogram increased from 21.1 ± 4.51 mL/kg (PEEP = 0), to 22.4 ± 1.8 mL/kg (PEEP = 5) and 27.2 ± 3.4 mL/kg (PEEP = 10). FRC measurement using the ultrasonic flowmeter is accurate and simple to use in ventilated and spontaneously breathing children.
Inégalités de revenus des ménages ruraux à Madagascar.

Madagascar est un pays riche en ressources naturelles mais sa population reste pauvre et vit dans un ecart de revenus important. Cette etude aborde le theme des "Inegalites de revenus des menages en milieu rural malgache" afin de pouvoir apporter des eclaircissements a ce phenomene qui, d’une part, ruine la population rurale et, d’autre part, fragilise la stabilite et la performance economique du pays. Focalisee sur une periode quinquennale d’observations repetees, la these porte sur les donnees de panel issues de 667 menages. La these retrace le processus de calculs des revenus des paysans et du "seuil d’inegalite". Adoptant les modeles lineaire et non-lineaire, il s’attache aux specifications et aux estimations des determinants qui creusent ou reduisent les ecarts de revenus des menages intra-observatoires et entre observatoires de la cote Centre-Est. Les inegalites de revenus des menages ruraux existent dans la societe rurale Betsimisaraka. Elles sont multiformes. Plus de huit menages sur dix vivent dans la "zone des pauvres inegalitaires". Les paysans de Mahanoro sont les plus pauvres et subissent aussi plus d’inegalites que ceux de Fenerive-Est. En revanche, a l’interieur de l’observatoire, la situation a legerement tendance a decroitre au fil du temps. Pour une population assez homogene vivant dans une pauvrete alarmante, les inegalites entre menages pauvres ne sont pas trop elevees. Les resultats des modeles econometriques soutiennent que la bonne production annuelle de riz reduit les ecarts de revenus tandis que le sexe feminin et le niveau d’education du chef de menage, la faible superficie rizicole ainsi que l’investissement, le depot financier, la thesaurisation, le sans epargne, l’emprunt, les revenus secondaires, le PIB et la crise politique accentuent les inegalites de revenus
Structural and functional evolution of gonadotropin‐releasing hormone in vertebrates

The neuropeptide gonadotropin‐releasing hormone (GnRH) has a central role in the neural control of vertebrate reproduction. This review describes an overview of what is currently known about GnRH in vertebrates in the context of its structural and functional evolution. A large body of evidence has demonstrated the existence of three paralogous genes for GnRH (GnRH1, GnRH2 and GnRH3) in the vertebrate lineage. They are most probably the products of whole‐genome duplications that occurred early in vertebrate evolution. Although GnRH3 has been identified only in teleosts, comparative genomic analyses indicated that GnRH3 has not arisen from a teleost‐specific genome duplication, but has been derived from an earlier genome duplication in an ancestral vertebrate, followed by its loss in the tetrapod lineage. A loss of other paralogous genes has also occurred independently in different vertebrate lineages, leading to species‐specific differences in the organization of the GnRH system. In addition to the GnRH3 gene, the GnRH2 gene has been deleted or silenced in certain mammalian species, while some teleosts seem to have lost the GnRH1 or GnRH3 gene. The duplicated GnRH genes have undergone subfunctionalization during the evolution of vertebrates; GnRH1 has become the major stimulator of gonadotropins and probably other pituitary hormones as well, whereas GnRH2 and GnRH3 would have functioned as neuromodulators, affecting reproductive behaviour. Conversely, in cases where a paralogous gene for GnRH has been lost, one of the remaining paralogues appears to have adopted its role.
Region-based Efficiency Correction for the High-Resolution quad-HIDAC PET scanner

The very high resolution quad-HIDAC PET scanner has four detector banks each with four planar high density avalanche chambers, capable of collecting billions of lines-of-response (LORs), with very high spatial resolution, good absolute sensitivity and a large field of view (170 mm times 170 mm times 280 mm). However, it is crucial to correct for degrading factors introduced by the scanner's geometry and detection. A plane converter efficiency estimation method based on acceptance regions is presented, in which it is possible to represent a plane converter as a set of detection efficiency areas. LORs registered in a particular region in coincidence with another in the opposite plane converter are registered in a square array named a cooccurrence matrix, which is the basis of the method. The reciprocal of these factors are used as a multiplicative correction within the list-mode EM algorithm, event by event. A methodology to obtain the system-geometric correction factors is described and included within the reconstruction process as a normalisation component. Reconstructed images from a uniform 18F cylinder source (3 cm diameter, 5 cm length) and a 68Ge line source (15.5 cm length), were used to assess the region-efficiency and system-geometry correction.
Constructing a Sales Forecasting Model by Integrating GRA and ELM: A Case Study for Retail Industry

Due to the strong competition and economic hardship, sales forecasting is a challenging problem as the demand fluctuation is influenced by many factors. A good forecasting model leads to improve the customers’ satisfaction, reduce destruction of fresh food, increase sales revenue and make production plan efficiently. In this study, the GELM forecasting model integrates Grey Relation Analysis (GRA) and extreme learning machine (ELM) to support purchasing decisions in the retail industry. GRA can sieve out the more influential factors from raw data and transforms them as the input data in a novel neural network such as ELM that can abandon the slow gradient-based learning speed and parameters tuned iteratively. The proposed system evaluated the real sales data of fresh food in the retail industry. The experimental results indicate the GELM model outperforms than other time series forecasting models, such as GARCH, GBPN and the GMFLN model in predicting accuracy and training speed. Otherwise, the different activation functions of the GELM model have significant differences in training time and performance during our experiments.
A split node cache scheme for fast ray tracing

We propose a node cache scheme for efficient ray tracing hardware. The scheme uses an aspect that traversing high-level nodes have more locality. In this method, a node cache is split into a high-level node cache and a low-level node cache. The data of the high-level nodes is retained during one frame. In addition, this scheme has a hybrid tree layout. That is, the high-level nodes are represented to the breath-first layout for a division of nodes, and the low-level nodes are represented to the depth-first layout for an effective use of locality. Simulation results show the reduction in cache miss ratio up to around three percent.
Distribution of an allele associated with blond hair color across Northern Island Melanesia.

Pigmentation of the skin, hair, and eyes is a complex trait controlled by multiple genetic loci. Recently a non-synonymous mutation in the pigmentation candidate gene TYRP1 was shown to be significantly associated with a blond-hair phenotype in populations from the Solomon Islands. The distribution of this mutation in the islands of Northern Island Melanesia, where the blondism phenotype is also prevalent, was unknown. Here, we present data describing the distribution of this allele in 550 individuals sampled from across this region, and test for associations between genotype at this locus and quantitatively measured skin and hair pigmentation phenotype. We report that the frequency of the 93C allele is notably lower than observed in the Solomons (0.12 vs. 0.26). The allele exhibits significant geographic heterogeneity across the islands sampled (χ(2) = 108.4, P < 0.0001). It is observed at its highest frequencies on the islands of New Ireland and New Hanover, while being almost completely absent from the large island of New Britain. Using linear regression with age, sex, and island as covariates we report that, as in the Solomons, the 93C allele is significantly associated with a decrease in hair pigmentation but not skin pigmentation. We discuss the distribution of the 93C allele across the Southwest Pacific in light of its possible place of origin and dispersal.
Developmental downregulation of low‐voltage‐activated Ca2+ channels in Cajal‐Retzius cells of the mouse visual cortex

Cajal‐Retzius (CR) cells have been demonstrated to fulfil an important secretory function in the developing neocortex. On the other hand, the contribution of CR cell electrical activity during cortex development is still unclear. Using the whole‐cell patch‐clamp technique, we studied low‐voltage‐activated (LVA) Ca2+ channels in CR cells in the layer I of the mouse visual cortex. CR cells were found to display a transient Ca2+ current (IT) in response to a depolarization step from −100 mV to −40 mV. IT showed: (i) typical for LVA Ca2+ channels voltage dependence of activation (half‐activation at −55 mV) and inactivation (half‐inactivation at −76 mV); (ii) fast activation and inactivation kinetics, with time constants of 1.4 and 28 ms, respectively, at −40 mV; (iii) fast recovery from steady‐state inactivation (time constant: 290 ms); (iv) a complete block by 1 µm mibefradil; and (v) a partial block (to 55%) by 100 µm Ni2+. The density of IT dramatically decreased between postnatal day (P) 1 and P9. Immunostaining demonstrated the presence and postnatal downregulation of the α1G‐subunit of LVA Ca2+ channels in CR cells. Experiments performed in the current‐clamp mode revealed that mibefradil delayed an action potential generation in response to a suprathreshold depolarizing current at P1, but not at P8–9. We suggest that LVA Ca2+ channels might influence CR cell excitability during the first postnatal week and thereby contribute to the shaping of synaptic connectivity in the neocortical layer I.
Securing vehicular ad-hoc networks from data falsification attacks

Data falsification attack is one of the main security issues in vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs) where vehicles rely on information received from other peers/vehicles. In this paper, we propose a method to detect data falsification attack using hash chains for enhancing the network performance by adapting contention window size to forward accurate information to the neighboring vehicles in a timely manner (to improve throughput while reducing end-to-end delay). Performance of the proposed approach is evaluated using numerical results obtained from simulations. We found that the proposed adaptive approach prevents VANET from data falsification attacks and provides higher throughput with lower delay.
Coronary Perfusion Pressure during Antegrade Cardioplegia in On-Pump CABG Patients

Objective The aim of this study was to investigate whether aortic tension estimated by palpation and cardioplegia infusion line pressure provide results equivalent to those obtained with direct aortic intraluminal pressure measurement. Methods Sixty consecutive patients who underwent coronary artery bypass graft surgeries with extracorporeal circulation were analyzed. Sanguineous cardioplegic solution in a ratio of 4:1 was administered using a triple lumen antegrade cannula. After crossclamping, cardioplegia was infused and aortic root pressure was recorded by surgeon (A) considering the aortic tension he felt in his fingertips. At the same time, another surgeon (B) recorded his results for the same measurement. Concomitantly, the anesthesiologist recorded intraluminal pressure in the aortic root and the perfusionist recorded delta pressure in cardioplegia infusion line. None of the participants involved in these measurements was allowed to be informed about the values provided by the other examiners. Results The Bland-Altman test showed that a considerable variation between aortic wall tension was found as measured by palpation and by intraluminal pressure, with a bias of -9.911±18.75% (95% limits of agreement: -46.7 to 26.9). No strong correlation was observed between intraluminal pressure and cardioplegia line pressure (Spearman's r=0.61, 95% confidence interval 0.5-0.7; P<0.0001). Conclusion These findings reinforce that cardioplegia infusion should be controlled by measuring intraluminal pressure, and that palpation and cardioplegia line pressure are inaccurate methods, the latter should always be used to complement intraluminal measurement to ensure greater safety in handling the cardioplegia circuit.
Factors influencing changes in parliamentary statutory rules in Slovenia

Several main factors have influenced the beginning of debate cycles regarding statutory rule changes in Slovenia: a) institutional adaptation to modernisation processes linked to the development of a liberal-type democracy; b) the political prioritisation of EU integration processes (also among other fields) in the institutional adaptation of the national parliament for the speedy adoption of the acquis; and c) the changing characteristics of the party system. The influence of these factors has fluctuated over time. Whereas during the 1990s responses to modernisation pressures and the changing characteristics of the party system prevailed, adaptations to European pressures remained the most important from the end of the 1990s until recently. In the context of a relatively consolidated young democracy, including consolidation of the party system (after Slovenia’s full EU membership), ‘normalisation’ in terms of party struggles over the statutory rules in order to maximise political gains can be expected to predominate in the future.
The making of uniform costing in a war economy: The case of the Uniconti Commission in Fascist Italy

This article analyses the experience of the Uniconti Commission in setting rules of uniform costing in Italy during World War II (WWII). This initiative was promoted by the Italian Fascist government and the Confederazione dell’Industria (Industry Confederation) in 1941. The purpose of the study is to investigate the process of setting the uniform costing rules and “why” and “how” they were designed. This is done according to a Foucauldian perspective that allows the problematization of accounting as a complex phenomenon, the emergence and functioning of which is linked to context and dependent on the interplay of different influences. Starting from the aims inspired by the totalitarian ideology of the government that promoted the Commission, the analysis is grounded on archival primary sources and provides perspectives on the making of new accounting rules by examining the interplay among participants in the process. The article provides evidence of the complex interplay between knowledge, techniques, institutions and ideology in setting accounting rules in a totalitarian context, marked by a prevailing role of ideology and state in the regulation of the economy.
A fully integrated multi-CPU, GPU and memory controller 32nm processor

This paper describes the 32nm Sandy Bridge processor that integrates up to 4 high performance Intel Architecture (IA) cores, a power/performance optimized graphic processing unit (GPU) and memory and PCIe controllers in the same die. The Sandy Bridge architecture block diagram is shown in Fig. 15.1. 1 and the floorplan of a four IA-core version is shown in Fig. 15.1. 2. The Sandy Bridge IA core implements an improved branch prediction algorithm, a micro-operation (Uop) cache, a floating point Advanced Vector Extension (AVX), a second load port in the L1 cache and bigger register files in the out-of-order part of the machine; all these architecture improvements boost the IA core performance without increasing the thermal power dissipation envelope or the average power consumption (to preserve battery life in mobile systems). The CPUs and GPU share the same 8MB level-3 cache memory. The data flow is optimized by a high performance on die interconnect fabric (called “ring”) that connects between the CPUs, the GPU, the L3 cache and the system agent (SA) unit that houses a 1600MT/s, dual channel DDR3 memory controller, a 20-lane PCIe gen2 controller, a two parallel pipe display engine, the power management control unit and the testability logic. An on die EPROM is used for configurability and yield optimization.
BMP Signaling and Podocyte Markers are Decreased in Human Diabetic Nephropathy in Association with CTGF Overexpression

Diabetic nephropathy is characterized by decreased expression of bone morphogenetic protein-7 (BMP-7) and decreased podocyte number and differentiation. Extracellular antagonists such as connective tissue growth factor (CTGF; CCN-2) and sclerostin domain-containing-1 (SOSTDC1; USAG-1) are important determinants of BMP signaling activity in glomeruli. We studied BMP signaling activity in glomeruli from diabetic patients and non-diabetic individuals and from control and diabetic CTGF+/+ and CTGF+/− mice. BMP signaling activity was visualized by phosphorylated Smad1, −5, and −8 (pSmad1/5/8) immunostaining, and related to expression of CTGF, SOSTDC1, and the podocyte differentiation markers WT1, synaptopodin, and nephrin. In control and diabetic glomeruli, pSmad1/5/8 was mainly localized in podocytes, but both number of positive cells and staining intensity were decreased in diabetes. Nephrin and synaptopodin were decreased in diabetic glomeruli. Decrease of pSmad 1/5/8 was only partially explained by decrease in podocyte number. SOSTDC1 and CTGF were expressed exclusively in podocytes. In diabetic glomeruli, SOSTDC1 decreased in parallel with podocyte number, whereas CTGF was strongly increased. In diabetic CTGF+/− mice, pSmad1/5/8 was preserved, compared with diabetic CTGF+/+ mice. In conclusion, in human diabetic nephropathy, BMP signaling activity is diminished, together with reduction of podocyte markers. This might relate to concomitant overexpression of CTGF but not SOSTDC1. (J Histochem Cytochem 57:623–631, 2009)
Neuropathy associated with monoclonal gammopathies of undetermined significance

Monoclonal proteins (IgM, IgG, and IgA) in the serum or urine of patients with neuropathy may provide a marker for amyloidosis, myeloma, lymphoma, leukemia, Waldenström's macroglobulinemia, or monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS). The clinical characteristics, course, and electromyographic features among neuropathies associated with monoclonal IgM (IgM‐MGUS, 31 patients), monoclonal IgG (IgG‐MGUS, 24 patients), and monoclonal IgA (IgA‐MGUS, 10 patients) evaluated between 1980 and 1986 were compared. Four statistically significant differences set IgM‐MGUS neuropathies apart from IgG‐MGUS and IgA‐MGUS neuropathies: (1) higher frequency of sensory loss and ataxia, (2) higher frequency of nerve conduction abnormality—10 attributes were significantly worse (none were significantly better), (3) higher frequency of dispersion of the compound muscle action potential, and (4) higher frequency of IgM‐MGUS in the MGUS neuropathy cohort than is characteristic of MGUS without neuropathy seen at our institution or than is encountered in epidemiological surveys. These differences were not thought to be due to selection or severity biases. Neither the amount of IgM nor the estimated size of the monoclonal peak was associated with severity of neuropathy. The type and severity of IgM‐MGUS neuropathies with anti‐myelin‐associated glycoprotein antibodies were not significantly different from those without anti‐myelin‐associated glycoprotein antibodies. A simple relationship between the presence and amount of IgM‐MGUS or anti‐myelin‐associated glycoprotein antibodies and neuropathy cannot be assumed.