Optimizing Neural Architecture Search using Limited GPU Time in a Dynamic Search Space: A Gene Expression Programming Approach

Efficient identification of people and objects, segmentation of regions of interest and extraction of relevant data in images, texts, audios and videos are evolving considerably in these past years, which deep learning methods, combined with recent improvements in computational resources, contributed greatly for this achievement. Although its outstanding potential, development of efficient architectures and modules requires expert knowledge and amount of resource time available. In this paper, we propose an evolutionary-based neural architecture search approach for efficient discovery of convolutional models in a dynamic search space, within only 24 GPU hours. With its efficient search environment and phenotype representation, Gene Expression Programming is adapted for network's cell generation. Despite having limited GPU resource time and broad search space, our proposal achieved similar state-of-the-art to manually-designed convolutional networks and also NAS-generated ones, even beating similar constrained evolutionary-based NAS works. The best cells in different runs achieved stable results, with a mean error of 2.82% in CIFAR-10 dataset (which the best model achieved an error of 2.67%) and 18.83% for CIFAR-100 (best model with 18.16%). For ImageNet in the mobile setting, our best model achieved top-1 and top-5 errors of 29.51% and 10.37%, respectively. Although evolutionary-based NAS works were reported to require a considerable amount of GPU time for architecture search, our approach obtained promising results in little time, encouraging further experiments in evolutionary-based NAS, for search and network representation improvements.Comment: Accepted for presentation at the IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (IEEE CEC) 202

Web authoring tool and repository for learning objects

This article purposes to present an authoring tool for learning objects (LOs) with metadata filling in the OBAA standard and SCORM packaging generated in scientific initiation research. The software, in early stage of development, is noted to be free and easy to use, programmed for the Web platform pointing towards features to enhance the user experience. The application is internationalized and has a repository function, which stores the LOs in a database accessed through the search feature. Its origin took place on the lack of tools making use of the characteristics applied to this one and its goal is to simplify, to the teacher, the creation of teaching materials, as well as encourage students to invent their own content. Therefore, a study was conducted of LOs, their metadata, specifications and related tools as well as of the technologies needed to create the system, such as concepts, languages and programming standards.XI Workshop tecnología informática aplicada en educaciónRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Web authoring tool and repository for learning objects

This article purposes to present an authoring tool for learning objects (LOs) with metadata filling in the OBAA standard and SCORM packaging generated in scientific initiation research. The software, in early stage of development, is noted to be free and easy to use, programmed for the Web platform pointing towards features to enhance the user experience. The application is internationalized and has a repository function, which stores the LOs in a database accessed through the search feature. Its origin took place on the lack of tools making use of the characteristics applied to this one and its goal is to simplify, to the teacher, the creation of teaching materials, as well as encourage students to invent their own content. Therefore, a study was conducted of LOs, their metadata, specifications and related tools as well as of the technologies needed to create the system, such as concepts, languages and programming standards.XI Workshop tecnología informática aplicada en educaciónRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Progressive compromise of nouns and action verbs in posterior cortical atrophy

Processing of nouns and action verbs can be differentially compromised following lesions to posterior and anterior/motor brain regions, respectively. However, little is known about how these deficits progress in the course of neurodegeneration. To address this issue, we assessed productive lexical skills in a patient with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) at two different stages of his pathology. On both occasions, he underwent a structural brain imaging protocol and completed semantic fluency tasks requiring retrieval of animals (nouns) and actions (verbs). Imaging results were compared with those of controls via voxel-based morphometry (VBM), whereas fluency performance was compared to age-matched norms through Crawford's t-tests. In the first assessment, the patient exhibited atrophy of more posterior regions supporting multimodal semantics (medial temporal and lingual gyri), together with a selective deficit in noun fluency. Then, by the second assessment, the patient's atrophy had progressed mainly toward fronto-motor regions (rolandic operculum, inferior and superior frontal gyri) and subcortical motor hubs (cerebellum, thalamus), and his fluency impairments had extended to action verbs. These results offer unprecedented evidence of the specificity of the pathways related to noun and action-verb impairments in the course of neurodegeneration, highlighting the latter's critical dependence on damage to regions supporting motor functions, as opposed to multimodal semantic processes.Fil: Steeb, Brenda. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt; ArgentinaFil: García Cordero, Indira Ruth. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt; ArgentinaFil: Huizing, Marjolein Catharina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt; ArgentinaFil: Collazo, Lucas. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt; ArgentinaFil: Borovinsky, Geraldine. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt; ArgentinaFil: Ferrari, Jesica. Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva; ArgentinaFil: Martínez Cuitiño Carricaburo, María Macarena. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Psicología; Argentina. Universidad Favaloro; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt; ArgentinaFil: Ibáñez Barassi, Agustín Mariano. Australian Research Council; Australia. Universidad Autónoma del Caribe; Colombia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt; Argentina. Universidad Adolfo Ibañez; ChileFil: Sedeño, Lucas. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt; ArgentinaFil: García, Adolfo Martín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo; Argentin

Treinamento e retenção de colaboradores para atendimento de cooperados tomadores de crédito rural

Orientador: Prof. Dr. Gustavo AbibArtigo apresentado como Trabalho de Conclusão de CursoArtigo (especialização) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas, Curso de Especialização MBA em Banking para Cooperativas de CréditoInclui referênciasResumo: Este trabalho tem por objetivo demonstrar algumas estratégias possíveis de implementação na cooperativa a fim de aprimorar e melhorar o atendimento de cooperados atuantes e tomadores de crédito rural, com uma ênfase mais destacada na fidelização do cooperado que já toma crédito na cooperativa Sicoob, e na expansão da carteira de crédito. O trabalho contínuo de expansão desta carteira se deve principalmente através de treinamentos aos colaboradores atuantes na área e a criação de um cargo estratégico de Gerente Regional Agro, para a condução de todas as atividades, além de proporcionar treinamentos e revisão de processos, recursos e os sistemas utilizados. Todos os pontos principais da condução das atividades foram observados, e além de toda a relação de conhecimento necessário para o desempenho de atividades, se faz necessário acompanhamento de especialista a fim de dar feedbacks constantes a fim da melhoria contínua e melhor alocação de recursos, tendo como principal objetivo o atendimento rápido e eficaz para que seja possível a prestação de um serviço ágil e satisfatório ao cooperad

Action semantics at the bottom of the brain: Insights from dysplastic cerebellar gangliocytoma

Recent embodied cognition research shows that access to action verbs in shallow-processing tasks becomes selectively compromised upon atrophy of the cerebellum, a critical motor region. Here we assessed whether cerebellar damage also disturbs explicit semantic processing of action pictures and its integration with ongoing motor responses. We evaluated a cognitively preserved 33-year-old man with severe dysplastic cerebellar gangliocytoma (Lhermitte-Duclos disease), encompassing most of the right cerebellum and the posterior part of the left cerebellum. The patient and eight healthy controls completed two semantic association tasks (involving pictures of objects and actions, respectively) that required motor responses. Accuracy results via Crawford's modified t-tests revealed that the patient was selectively impaired in action association. Moreover, reaction-time analysis through Crawford's Revised Standardized Difference Test showed that, while processing of action concepts involved slower manual responses in controls, no such effect was observed in the patient, suggesting that motor-semantic integration dynamics may be compromised following cerebellar damage. Notably, a Bayesian Test for a Deficit allowing for Covariates revealed that these patterns remained after covarying for executive performance, indicating that they were not secondary to extra-linguistic impairments. Taken together, our results extend incipient findings on the embodied functions of the cerebellum, offering unprecedented evidence of its crucial role in processing non-verbal action meanings and integrating them with concomitant movements. These findings illuminate the relatively unexplored semantic functions of this region while calling for extensions of motor cognition models.Fil: Cervetto Manciameli, Sabrina Fabiana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentina. Universidad de la República; UruguayFil: Abrevaya, Sofia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; ArgentinaFil: Martorell Caro, Miguel Angel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; ArgentinaFil: Kozono, Giselle. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; ArgentinaFil: Muñoz, Edinson. Universidad de Santiago de Chile; ChileFil: Ferrari, Jesica. Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva; ArgentinaFil: Sedeño, Lucas. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; ArgentinaFil: Ibáñez Barassi, Agustín Mariano. Australian Research Council; Australia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentina. Universidad Autónoma del Caribe; Colombia. Universidad Adolfo Ibañez; ChileFil: García, Adolfo Martín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo; Argentin

Extracting Lungs from CT Images using Fully Convolutional Networks

Analysis of cancer and other pathological diseases, like the interstitial lung diseases (ILDs), is usually possible through Computed Tomography (CT) scans. To aid this, a preprocessing step of segmentation is performed to reduce the area to be analyzed, segmenting the lungs and removing unimportant regions. Generally, complex methods are developed to extract the lung region, also using hand-made feature extractors to enhance segmentation. With the popularity of deep learning techniques and its automated feature learning, we propose a lung segmentation approach using fully convolutional networks (FCNs) combined with fully connected conditional random fields (CRF), employed in many state-of-the-art segmentation works. Aiming to develop a generalized approach, the publicly available datasets from University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG) and VESSEL12 challenge were studied, including many healthy and pathological CT scans for evaluation. Experiments using the dataset individually, its trained model on the other dataset and a combination of both datasets were employed. Dice scores of $98.67\%\pm0.94\%$ for the HUG-ILD dataset and $99.19\%\pm0.37\%$ for the VESSEL12 dataset were achieved, outperforming works in the former and obtaining similar state-of-the-art results in the latter dataset, showing the capability in using deep learning approaches.Comment: Accepted for presentation at the International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN) 201

Pesquisa de terapias para o melanoma em modelos de metástases pulmonares em camundongos

Orientador : Prof. Dr. Edvaldo da Silva TrindadeOrientadora : Profª. Drª. Dorly de Freitas BuchiTese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Biológicas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Celular e Molecular. Defesa: Curitiba, 28/08/2014Inclui referênciasResumo: Melanoma é um câncer de pele cujas metástases para órgãos distantes levam à óbito milhares de pessoas todos os anos. Até o presente momento, não existe uma forma de terapia que possua alta frequencia de respostas duradouras. Sendo assim, muitos pacientes com câncer utilizam homeopatia como uma terapia integrativa e complementar, e relatam terem vivenciado os benefícios do tratamento. Entretanto, existem poucas evidências científicas que comprovem sua real eficácia. Sendo assim, no presente estudo foi investigado o potencial anti-melanoma de um medicamento homeopático chamado M1, com base em sua ação imunoestimulante relatada anteriormente. Para tanto camundongos C57BL/6 foram injetados intravenosamente com células de melanoma B16F10 ou LWT1 para formação de metástases pulmonares e tratados com M1 ou seu veículo (água). Após 14 días de tratamento, os camundongos foram eutanasiados e os pulmões foram removidos para análises microscópicas e por citometria de fluxo. As análises histológicas revelaram que M1 reduziu a formação de metástases em ambos os modelos de melanoma. Adicionalmente, o tamanho dos nódulos, bem como a proliferação e angiogênese tumorais estavam todas reduzidas em metástases de melanoma B16F10 de camundongos tratados com M1. Interessantemente, a ação do M1 foi independente da imunidade inata e adaptativa mediada por linfócitos. Por outro lado, pulmões de camundongos com B16F10 e tratados com M1 posuíram menores frequencias de células mielóides imunossupressoras caracterizadas pela marcação CD11b+ Gr-1baixo AT1R+. A presença de AT1R nessas células sugere um papel na angiogênese tumoral, inibida pelo M1. Adicionalmente, as metástases de melanoma apresentaram um fenótipo de marcações para imunofluorescência associado à menor malignidade tumoral, como maior expressão de Beta-Catenina e menor expressão de Ácido Hialurônico. Esses dados revelaram que o tratamento com M1 resultou em menor carga tumoral de metástases de melanoma em camundongos e sugerem um possível mecanismo de ação celular: o controle da angiogênese pela inibição de células CD11b+ Gr-1baixo AT1R+ com consequente menor desenvolvimento tumoral e aumento de apoptose. Esses dados comprovam a eficiência do tratamento com M1 para o câncer de pele tipo melanoma.Abstract: Melanoma is a skin cancer with increasing incidence and incurable metastases, which annually kills thousands of people worldwide. Until now, there is not a therapy with high efficacy rate and durable response. Therefore many cancer patients use integrative therapies such as Homeopathy and claim the benefits from these treatments. However, there are not enough scientific evidences to support efficacy of these homeopathic medicines. Therefore, in this study was investigated the antimelanoma potential of a homeopathic medicine termed M1, based on M1's immunestimulatory action that has been previously reported. C57BL/6 mice were injected intravenously with B16F10 or LWT1 mouse melanoma cells and treated with M1 or vehicle (water). Following 14 days of treatment, mice were euthanized, lungs removed and analysed by microscopy or flow cytometry. Microscopic analysis revealed the quantity of metastases was reduced by treatment with M1 for both melanoma cell lines. Furthermore, metastases' size, proliferation and angiogenesis were all reduced by M1 treatment for the B16F10 model. Surprisingly, these effects by M1 treatment were not associated but independent of innate and adoptive immune responses for B16F10 and LWT1 melanoma metastases. On the other hand, mice's lungs with B16F10 and treated with M1 had fewer frequency of CD11b+ Gr-1low AT1R+ myeloid-derived suppressor cells. The expression of AT1R on these cells suggests a possible role for tumour angiogenesis, inhibited by M1. Additionally, melanoma metastases had a phenotype determined by microscopy typical for decreased malignancy, such as increased Beta-Catenin and decreased Hyaluronic Acid expression. In summary, these data reveal M1 treatment reduces tumor burden of melanoma metastases in mice and suggest a possible mechanism of action: control of angiogenesis by inhibition of CD11b+ Gr-1low AT1R+ cells with consequent reduction of tumor development and increased tumour apoptosis. These data show the efficacy of treatment with M1 and provide insights in the importance of treatment with homeopathic medicines. Key words: Melanoma. Homeopathy. M1. Angiogenesis. CD11b+ Gr-1low AT1R+ cells

Avaliação da ação do medicamento M1 sobre o melanoma murino "in vivo"

Orientador : Prof. Dr. Edvaldo da Silva TrindadeCo-orientadora : Profª Drª Dorly de Freitas BuchiDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Biológicas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Celular e Molecular. Defesa: Curitiba, 11/11/2011Inclui referênciasResumoResumo: O melanoma metastático é o câncer de pele com maior agressividade, sendo responsável por milhões de mortes a cada ano. Muitos pacientes com câncer buscam terapias complementares para serem utilizadas em conjunto com as terapias convencionais. A homeopatia está entre as terapias complementares mais utilizadas para o tratamento do câncer. O complexo altamente-diluído codificado como 'M1' é um produto manipulado de acordo com a técnica homeopática padrão. Estudos anteriores constataram que esse produto possui atividade anti-metastática contra o melanoma de camundongo em modelo de colonização pulmonar. No presente estudo, utilizando um modelo de melanoma subcutâneo em camundongos, foi avaliado se ele possui também atividade contra a formação de um tumor sólido. Para isso, camundongos foram inoculados subcutaneamente com células de melanoma murino (linhagem B16-F10), e após 24 horas da inoculação foram tratados por inalação durante 14 dias. Após esse período, os tumores foram removidos a analisados. Cortes histológicos dos tumores foram processados para histologia convencional e imunohistoquímica para PCNA, ácido hialurônico (AH), CD44 e AT1R. O tratamento com M1 foi capaz de reduzir o crescimento tumoral do melanoma (p<0,05). Este efeito pode ser decorrente da regulação negativa da angiogênese tumoral, avaliada pela imunohistoquímica para AH, uma vez que os tumores oriundos de animais que foram tratados apresentaram uma significante redução no número de novos vasos sanguineos (p<0,05). A angiotensina II por sí só já é um fator angiogênico e a cascata de sinalização intracelular iniciada pela sua ligação com o receptor celular AT1R desencadeia a formação de novos vasos. Talvez essa redução na neoangiogenese dos tumores do grupo M1 seja decorrente do menor número de células positivas para o AT1R na periferia tumoral (p < 0,05). Não foram encontradas diferenças com o uso dos demais marcadores. É fundamental a continuidade de estudos envolvendo esse produto, pois além de não apresentarem efeitos colaterais, até agora mostraram efeitos rápidos e impactantes na redução da evolução tumoral.Abstract: Metastatic melanoma is the most aggressive skin cancer and it is responsible for millions of deaths every year. Many patients with cancer look for some kind of complementary therapy in order to use it together with the conventional ones. Homeopathy is among the most used complementary therapies against cancer. The highly diluted complex called 'M1' is prepared according to standard homeopathy technique. Previous studies showed that this complex has anti-metastatic activity against mouse melanoma, when analyzed using experimental metastasis model. Here, using a model for mouse melanoma growth, it was verified M1 has activity on the development of a solid tumor. For this purpose, mice were subcutaneously injected with B16-F10 mouse melanoma cells. The treatment with M1 was started 24 hours after the injection by inhalation for 14 days. Subsequently, tumor were removed and analyzed. Sections from tumors were processed for conventional histology and immunohistochemistry techniques for PCNA, hyaluronic acid, CD44 and AT1R. M1 treatment was effective in reducing melanoma tumor growth (p<0.05). This can be a consequence of the modulation of tumor angiogenesis, analyzed by hyaluronic acid immunohistochemistry, since M1 tumors have fewer vessels (p<0.05). Angiotensin II receptor 1 (AT1R) plays a role in angiogenesis and its interaction with angiotensin II molecule initializes intracellular signaling that leads to new vessels formation. The angiogenesis reduction by M1 would be related with fewer cells AT1R+ on tumor peripheries (p<0.05). There were not found differences between M1 and no treated tumors related to the others immunohistochemistries. It is fundamental to continue the study of this product, since it does not have side effects, and has been showed its activity against tumor development