Learning to Convolve: A Generalized Weight-Tying Approach

Recent work (Cohen & Welling, 2016) has shown that generalizations of convolutions, based on group theory, provide powerful inductive biases for learning. In these generalizations, filters are not only translated but can also be rotated, flipped, etc. However, coming up with exact models of how to rotate a 3 x 3 filter on a square pixel-grid is difficult. In this paper, we learn how to transform filters for use in the group convolution, focussing on roto-translation. For this, we learn a filter basis and all rotated versions of that filter basis. Filters are then encoded by a set of rotation invariant coefficients. To rotate a filter, we switch the basis. We demonstrate we can produce feature maps with low sensitivity to input rotations, while achieving high performance on MNIST and CIFAR-10.Comment: Accepted to ICML 201

Affine Self Convolution

Attention mechanisms, and most prominently self-attention, are a powerful building block for processing not only text but also images. These provide a parameter efficient method for aggregating inputs. We focus on self-attention in vision models, and we combine it with convolution, which as far as we know, are the first to do. What emerges is a convolution with data dependent filters. We call this an Affine Self Convolution. While this is applied differently at each spatial location, we show that it is translation equivariant. We also modify the Squeeze and Excitation variant of attention, extending both variants of attention to the roto-translation group. We evaluate these new models on CIFAR10 and CIFAR100 and show an improvement in the number of parameters, while reaching comparable or higher accuracy at test time against self-trained baselines

Health Tourism Contribution to the Structural Dynamics of the Territorial Systems with Tourism Functionality

AbstractThe study aims to identify the role of health tourism (SPA) in developing the territorial systems, characterized by the tourism functionality, in Romania, for the period 2000-2012, a period marked by spectacular transformations, especially for this economic sector. Tourism has now become a true economic engine, generating an increase in the functional complexity of the territorial system, which is based on exploiting tourism resources. To quantify how tourism has contributed to the economic development of these territorial systems in Romania a database of NACE codes was set up, specific for the tourism activity, for the period 2000-2012, for territorial mainframe systems with functionality resort. Based on this statistical support analyzes on the evolution of the number of companies, number of employees, turnover and profit were made. The results show the important role of health tourism in generating multiplier effects on other components of the economic subsystem. They were defined two categories of territorial systems: territorial systems where tourism plays a complementary role function and territorial systems in which health tourism has a preeminent role in the local economy

Use of Fractal Analysis in the Evaluation of Deforested Areas in Romania

Spectacular spatial dynamics of forest areas is one of the biggest challenges for the scientific world, concerned with completing the methodologies devoted to new methodological approaches, to provide new information that is indispensable in assessing the impact of deforestation within the ecosystem. In this study, we analyzed the evolution of the deforested areas, using the fractal fragmentation index (FFI). The research is based on high-resolution satellite images of forest areas between 2000 and 2017. The use of fractal algorithms allowed the modeling of the grinding patterns, identifying obvious differences between compact and fragmented cuts. Information is needed especially in the evaluation of the areas cleared because of illegal actions. Research has shown spectacular increases in deforestation in the mountain area, the northern and central groups of the Eastern Carpathians being the most fragmented geographical regions in Romania. The study showed that deforestation led to the fragmentation of forests, which generates major natural changes. The results obtained can contribute to the identification of new approaches in national forest fund management policies by establishing a critical fragmentation threshold

Using fractal analysis in modeling the dynamics of forest areas and economic impact assessment:Maramureș County, Romania, as a case study

This study uses fractal analysis to quantify the spatial changes of forest resources caused by an increase of deforested areas. The method introduced contributes to the evaluation of forest resources being under significant pressure from anthropogenic activities. The pressure on the forest resources has been analyzed for Maramureș County, one of the most deforested counties in Romania. In order to evaluate this, the deforested areas were calculated for the period of 2001–2014, by using the Global Forest Change 2000–2014 database. The Fractal Fragmentation Index (FFI) and Fixed Grid 2D Lacunarity (FG2DL) were used to quantify the degree of fragmentation and dispersion of the forested areas, and thereby the extent to which a forest area is affected by deforestation. The process of quantifying the pressure on forested areas included the creation of a database for the period of 2000–2014 containing economic activities (turnover) related to woody recourses, important indicators of forest exploitation. Taken together, the results obtained indicate a dramatic increase in deforested areas (over 19,122 ha in total for the period of analysis), in Maramureș County

The Parents Perception of Martial Arts Practiced by their Children

Parents will always want the best for their offspring. Nowadays, safety and security are something that everyone seeks. From the point of view of Maslow pyramid of needs, safety is on the second level after satisfying the physiological needs. In this article, we conducted two researches: on one hand, a qualitative study to discover the motives why parents urge their kids to train in different martial arts styles, and the latter, a quantitative research, to reveal which type of martial arts is better perceived on different social media platforms networks. The martial arts styles that we analyzed are: Aikido, Kyokushin and Shotokan. We have chosen these three styles as they are some of the best known and practice martial arts, especially want by children. Parents want their kids to develop in harmony, to consume their energy during practice as to get more focused at school and resolve their chores, be disciplined, stronger and more importantly be independent. Not being member of a team sport, the kid will rely only on his own power and capacity to deal with in different situations and not only. Studying and practicing karate, can also be a good protection for those who are bullied as a way of combating this kind of phenomenon that can have tremendous repercussions and even furthermore, to prepare them for the future. The recent incidents that happened both in the country and abroad, both inside and outside schools, can only reinforce the need to practice some defense sports

Assessment of textural differentiations in forest resources in Romania using fractal analysis

Deforestation and forest degradation have several negative effects on the environment including a loss of species habitats, disturbance of the water cycle and reduced ability to retain CO2, with consequences for global warming. We investigated the evolution of forest resources from development regions in Romania affected by both deforestation and reforestation using a non-Euclidean method based on fractal analysis. We calculated four fractal dimensions of forest areas: the fractal box-counting dimension of the forest areas, the fractal box-counting dimension of the dilated forest areas, the fractal dilation dimension and the box-counting dimension of the border of the dilated forest areas. Fractal analysis revealed morpho-structural and textural differentiations of forested, deforested and reforested areas in development regions with dominant mountain relief and high hills (more forested and compact organization) in comparison to the development regions dominated by plains or low hills (less forested, more fragmented with small and isolated clusters). Our analysis used the fractal analysis that has the advantage of analyzing the entire image, rather than studying local information, thereby enabling quantification of the uniformity, fragmentation, heterogeneity and homogeneity of forests

Risks associated of the waters from hydric systems urban’s : the case of the rio Barigui, south of Brazil

The quantification of a chemical species isolated in natural waters does not allow the characterization of it as an environmental stressor. Therefore, it is necessary to associate different lines of research that allows the evaluation of risk on the water system. In this perspective, this study carries out approaches based on distinct research lines, allowing physical and chemical quantification in situ, determination of nutrient concentrations, chlorophyll-a, total alkalinity and metallic species (Cu, Ni, Fe, Cr, Zn and Pb). In addition, the dissolved organic matter was evaluated by means of spectrophotometric techniques and testing of acute toxicity with the organism Artemia sp. and Daphnia magna in water samples from the Barigüi River, southern Brazil. The results point to the existence of degradation processes and the input of organic matter that are affecting the dynamics of the species, influencing their chemical availability and toxicity in the water system

Acute respiratory distress syndrome particularities in oncological patients with AH1N1 influenza. Case series report

Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iași, România, Regional Institute of Oncology, Iași, România, The 5th International Congress of the Society of Anesthesiology and Reanimatology of the Republic of Moldova, 16th Edition of the International Course of Guidelines and Protocols in Anesthesia, Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, 28th Meeting of the European Society for Computing and Technology in Anesthesia and Intensive Care, September 27-29, 2018, Chisinau, the Republic of MoldovaIntroduction: In oncological patients influenza may result in severe forms associated with high mortality (11-33% in solid cancers, 23% in bone marrow transplant), one of them being acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Objective: Evaluation of diagnostic, management and outcome particularities in ARDS AH1N1 influenza oncological patients. Material and methods: The study enrolled all ARDS AH1N1 influenza patients, diagnosed and managed in ICU IRO Iași in January-February 2018 during a hospital-acquired influenza outbreak. Analyzed parameters were patient related (cancer type and treatment), influenza related (virus type and identification tests), ARDS related (severity, management, outcome). Results: Out of 40 symptomatic or influenza contact asymptomatic patients, 21 tested positive for AH1N1 influenza virus, 9 out of them having ARDS managed in ICU. 5 pts presented severe ARDS in the context of post-therapeutic severe immune compromise: 4 pts post-chemotherapy medullary aplasia for hemato-oncological disease and 1 pt post-radio/chemo/surgical therapy for gynecological cancer. All received ventilatory support: 3 pts invasive ventilatory support in prone position (worst PaO2/FiO2 29-46 mmHg, nonsurvivors), 2 pts non-invasive ventilatory support (worst PaO2/FiO2 54-94 mmHg, survivors). After 25th Jan 2018 (first case) epidemiological alert and management were instituted, resulting in outbreak control on 23rd Feb 2018 (last case). Conclusions: In immuno-compromised oncological patients AH1N1 influenza may rapidly generate a hospital-acquired outbreak and severe ARDS forms associated with high mortality. Early diagnostic and management are the most effective strategies in reducing associated mortality and controlling influenza outbreak

PREDON Scientific Data Preservation 2014

LPSC14037Scientific data collected with modern sensors or dedicated detectors exceed very often the perimeter of the initial scientific design. These data are obtained more and more frequently with large material and human efforts. A large class of scientific experiments are in fact unique because of their large scale, with very small chances to be repeated and to superseded by new experiments in the same domain: for instance high energy physics and astrophysics experiments involve multi-annual developments and a simple duplication of efforts in order to reproduce old data is simply not affordable. Other scientific experiments are in fact unique by nature: earth science, medical sciences etc. since the collected data is "time-stamped" and thereby non-reproducible by new experiments or observations. In addition, scientific data collection increased dramatically in the recent years, participating to the so-called "data deluge" and inviting for common reflection in the context of "big data" investigations. The new knowledge obtained using these data should be preserved long term such that the access and the re-use are made possible and lead to an enhancement of the initial investment. Data observatories, based on open access policies and coupled with multi-disciplinary techniques for indexing and mining may lead to truly new paradigms in science. It is therefore of outmost importance to pursue a coherent and vigorous approach to preserve the scientific data at long term. The preservation remains nevertheless a challenge due to the complexity of the data structure, the fragility of the custom-made software environments as well as the lack of rigorous approaches in workflows and algorithms. To address this challenge, the PREDON project has been initiated in France in 2012 within the MASTODONS program: a Big Data scientific challenge, initiated and supported by the Interdisciplinary Mission of the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). PREDON is a study group formed by researchers from different disciplines and institutes. Several meetings and workshops lead to a rich exchange in ideas, paradigms and methods. The present document includes contributions of the participants to the PREDON Study Group, as well as invited papers, related to the scientific case, methodology and technology. This document should be read as a "facts finding" resource pointing to a concrete and significant scientific interest for long term research data preservation, as well as to cutting edge methods and technologies to achieve this goal. A sustained, coherent and long term action in the area of scientific data preservation would be highly beneficial