Implementing graph neural networks with TensorFlow-Keras

Graph neural networks are a versatile machine learning architecture that received a lot of attention recently. In this technical report, we present an implementation of convolution and pooling layers for TensorFlow-Keras models, which allows a seamless and flexible integration into standard Keras layers to set up graph models in a functional way. This implies the usage of mini-batches as the first tensor dimension, which can be realized via the new RaggedTensor class of TensorFlow best suited for graphs. We developed the Keras Graph Convolutional Neural Network Python package kgcnn based on TensorFlow-Keras that provides a set of Keras layers for graph networks which focus on a transparent tensor structure passed between layers and an ease-of-use mindset

Assistance au test de modèles à composants et services

ISBN 978-2-905267-89-4International audienceDans l'ingénierie des modèles, la correction des modèles est essentielle. Tester le plus tôt possible permet de réduire le coût du processus de véri cation et de validation. Distinguer modèle abstrait et modèle spéci fique réduit la complexité du test et favorise l'évolution du système modélisé. Nous ciblons les modèles à composants et services, ayant un niveau de description su ffisamment précis et détaillé pour pouvoir exécuter les tests. Notre objectif est de tester ces modèles à composants c'est-à-dire de concevoir des cas de tests, de les appliquer sur les modèles mis dans un contexte adéquat pour être exécutés et obtenir un verdict. Pour réduire l'eff ort de construction du harnais de test, nous proposons une méthode qui guide le testeur dans le processus de conception des tests au niveau du modèle. L'assistance à la construction est basée sur (1) la détection d'incohérences et d'incomplétude entre le harnais et le modèle de test ainsi que sur (2) des propositions générant les éléments manquants. Le programme de test est alors transformé vers une plateforme technique dédiée à l'exécution des tests. La mise en oeuvre est réalisée avec des plugins Eclipse dans COSTO, une plateforme dédiée au modèle à composants Kmelia

Heart failure in sub-Saharan Africa: A literature review with emphasis on individuals with diabetes

Andre Pascal Kengne1, Anastase Dzudie2, Eugene Sobngwi31The George Institute for International Health, University of Sydney, Australia; 2Heart failure and transplantation Unit, Louis Pradel’s Cardiovascular Hospital, Lyon, France; 3National Obesity Centre, Yaounde Central Hospital, CameroonPurpose: Heart failure is the ultimate complication of cardiac involvements in diabetes. The purpose of this review was to summarize current literature on heart failure among people with diabetes mellitus in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).Method: Bibliographic search of published data on heart failure and diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa over the past 26 years.Results: Heart failure remains largely unexplored in general population and among people with diabetes in Africa. Heart failure accounts for over 30% of hospital admission in specialized cardiovascular units and 3%–7% in general internal medicine. Over 11% of adults with heart failure have diabetes. Risk factors for heart failure among those with diabetes include classical cardiovascular risk factors, without evidence of diabetes distinctiveness for other predictors common in Africa. Prevention, management, and outcomes of heart failure are less well known; recent data suggest improvement in the management of risk factors in clinical settings.Conclusions: Diabetes mellitus is growing in SSA. Related cardiovascular diseases are emerging as potential health problem. Heart failure as cardiovascular complication remains largely unexplored. Efforts are needed through research to improve our knowledge of heart failure at large in Africa. Multilevel preventive measures, building on evidences from other parts of the world must go along side.Keywords: diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, heart failure, sub-Saharan Afric

Using Assertions to Enhance the Correctness of Kmelia Components and their Assemblies

15 p.International audienceThe Kmelia component model is an abstract formal component model based on services. It is dedicated to the specification and development of correct components. This work enriches the Kmelia language to allow the description of data, expressions and assertions when specifying components and services. The objective is to enable the use of assertions in \kmelia in order to support expressive service descriptions, to support client/supplier contracts with pre/post-conditions, and to enhance formal analysis of component-based system. Assertions are used to perfom analysis of services, component assemblies and service compositions. We illustrate the work with the verification of consistency properties involving data at component and assembly levels

Die Zusammensetzung des Mikrobioms bei Sarkoidose

Einleitung: Sarkoidose ist eine entzündliche Systemerkrankung mit einer nicht vollständig geklärten Ätiologie. Es existieren mehrere Hypothesen über ein auslösendes Antigen, welches eine Immunreaktion initiiert. Im Vorder-grund stehen dabei mikrobielle Erreger, welche durch vorausgehende Studien als potentielle Auslöser identifiziert wurden. Durch neue Verfahren der Mikro-biomanalyse können deutlich breitere Spektren an potentiellen Erregern er-fasst werden. Ziele: Diese Arbeit vergleicht das Mikrobiom von Patienten mit Sarkoidose und dem von Patienten mit anderen interstitiellen Lungenerkrankungen und hat zum Ziel, einen mikrobiellen Auslöser der Sarkoidose zu identifizieren. Methoden: Im Rahmen der PULMOHOM Studie wurden Patienten mit Sarkoi-dose und anderen interstitiellen Lungenerkrankungen rekrutiert und einer Bronchoskopie mit bronchoalveolärer Lavage unterzogen. Wichtige klinische Patientendaten, sowie die zelluläre Zusammensetzung der bronchoalveolären Lavage (BAL) in Bezug auf die Immunzellen wurden zwischen beiden Grup-pen verglichen. Die BAL wurde durch Sequenzierung der mikrobiellen 16sRNA Gene und folgender biostatistischer Auswertung auf Unterschiede im Mikrobiom untersucht. Ergebnisse: Es zeigten sich wenige signifikante Unterschiede in der zellulä-ren Zusammensetzung der BAL zwischen beiden Gruppen. Dabei war in der Sarkoidosegruppe ein höherer CD4/CD8 Quotient, sowie ein höherer Anteil an Alveolarmakrophagen, sowie Lymphozyten vorhanden. Jedoch zeigten sich keine signifikanten Unterschiede des Mikrobioms zwischen Patienten mit Sar-koidose und anderen interstitiellen Lungenerkrankungen. Der direkte Ver-gleich verschiedener Bakterienstämme mittels Heatmap, sowie der Alpha-Diversität, Hauptkomponentenanalyse und Korrespondenzanalyse zeigte kei-nen signifikanten Unterschied. Eine Betrachtung von Mykobakterien und Propionibakterien zeigte ebenso keine signifikanten Unterschiede. Zusammenfassung: Das Mikrobiom der Sarkoidose unterscheidet sich in der vorliegenden Arbeit nicht von dem anderer interstitiellen Lungenerkrankun-gen, basierend auf einer Sequenzierung der 16sRNA Gene und einer multiva-rianten statistischen Auswertung. Hinweise auf eine Beteiligung von My-kobakterien oder Propionibakterien bei der Genese der Sarkoidose wurden nicht gesehen. Die Analysen konnten eine mikrobielle Genese der Sarkoidose nicht bekräftigen. Die aufgeführten Daten widerlegen allerdings auch nicht eine mikrobiologische Komponente in der Pathogenese der Sarkoidose. Diver-se Faktoren, zum Beispiel der Ort der Materialgewinnung, das Krankheitssta-dium oder Komorbiditäten könnten das Mikrobiom maßgeblich beeinflussen. Die vorliegenden Daten zeigen nur einen kleinen Ausschnitt des Gesamtbil-des Mikrobiom der Lunge. Gegenstand zukünftiger Studien könnte die Unter-suchung dieser Faktoren mit ihren Auswirkungen sein um eine möglichst standardisierte Herangehensweise bei Mikrobiomanalysen zu ermöglichen

Simulation Based Assessment of Heat Pumping Potential in Non-Residential Buildings – Part 3: Application to a typical office building in Belgium

peer reviewedThe purpose of this paper is to describe the application of the tools presented in a companion paper [1] to a typical office building located in the Walloon Region of Belgium. This building is a mid-size (7000 m² on seven floors) office building constructed in the eighties and equipped with a classical HVAC solution: boiler and air-cooled chiller; all-air VAV system. An energy audit was conducted in this building and featured a number of management problems. Among the Energy Conservation Opportunities considered to improve the energy performance of the building, the move to a heat pump solution was considered. The identification of energy savings potential offered by the implementation of heat pumping strategies confirmed what was already shown by the parametric analysis: in temperate climates, reversibility offers a by far higher potential than condenser heat recovery given the dominant non simultaneity of the yearly heating and cooling demands profiles. Calculations show that theoretically half of the heating demand could be satisfied by the reversibility of the chiller to run in heat pumping mode. In a second step, a number of practical implementations of heat pumping solutions were evaluated by means of another software tool: reversible air/water HP, exhaust air HP, double condenser and water loop heat pump systems. These solutions are compared to the reference existing situation (boiler + chiller working independently) in terms of energy, CO2 emissions and cost on a 20 years life-cycle basis. Calculations show that the air/water reversible chiller solution offers the most important energy savings and CO2 reduction while staying at a reasonable level concerning the additional cost.IEA-ECBCS Annex 4

The Association of Red Meat Intake with Inflammation and Circulating Intermediate Biomarkers of Type 2 Diabetes Is Mediated by Central Adiposity

\ua9 The Author(s) 2019. We explored the role of lipid accumulation products and visceral adiposity on the association between red meat consumption and markers of insulin resistance (IR) and inflammation in US adults. Data on red meat consumption, and health outcome measurements were extracted from the 2005-2010 US National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. Overall 16,621 participants were included in the analysis (mean age = 47.1 years, 48.3% men). Analysis of co-variance and "conceptus causal mediation" models were applied, while accounting for survey design. In adjusted models, a lower red meat consumption was significantly associated with a cardio-protective profile of IR and inflammation. Body mass index (BMI) had significant mediation effects on the associations between red meat consumption and C-reactive protein (CRP), Apolipoprotein-B, fasting glucose (FBG), insulin, homeostatic model assessment (HOMA) IR and β-cell function, glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), triglyceride to high density lipoprotein (TG:HDL) ratio and triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index (all p < 0.05). Both waist circumference and anthropometrically predicted visceral adipose tissue (apVAT) mediated the association between red meat consumption with CRP, FBG, HbA1c, TG: HDL ratio and TyG index (all p < 0.05). Our findings suggest that adiposity, particularly the accumulation of abdominal fat, accounts for a significant proportion of the associations between red meat consumption IR and inflammation

The Ukraine Support Tracker: Which countries help Ukraine and how?

This paper presents the "Ukraine Support Tracker", which lists and quantifies military, financial and humanitarian aid to Ukraine in the context of the Russia-Ukraine war. This third version covers government commitments between January 24 and May 10, 2022. We now track support by 37 governments, including all G7 and European Union member countries, plus the support by EU institutions (thus including 38 donors). We also added a section estimating government cost of hosting Ukrainian refugees. Private donations and aid through non-governmental organizations are still not included due to a lack of systematic data. To value in-kind support like military equipment or weapons, we rely on government statements as well as own calculations using market prices. We find significant differences in the scale of support across countries, both in absolute terms and as percent of donor country GDP. In billions of Euros, by far the largest bilateral supporter of Ukraine is the United States, followed by Poland, the United Kingdom, and the EU institutions. In percent of donor GDP, Eastern European countries stand out as particularly generous, and this is even more so once we account for refugee costs

Prevalence and determinants of chronic kidney disease in rural and urban Cameroonians: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a global public health problem that disproportionally affects people of African ethnicity. We assessed the prevalence and determinants of CKD and albuminuria in urban and rural adults Cameroonians. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study of 6-month duration (February to July 2014), conducted in the health district of Dschang (Western Region of Cameroon), using a multistage cluster sampling. All adults diagnosed with albuminuria ([greater than or equal to]30mg/g) and/or decreased estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) (<60ml/min/1.73m 2 ) were re-examined three months later. Logistic regression models were used to relate baseline characteristics with prevalent CKD. RESULTS: We included 439 participants with a mean age of 47+/-16.1years; with 185 (42.1%) being men and 119 (27.1%) being urban dwellers. There was a high prevalence of hypertension (25.5%), diabetes (9.8%), smoking (9.3%), alcohol consumption (59.7%), longstanding use of herbal medicine (90.9%) and street medications (87.5%), and overweight/obesity (53.3%) which were predominant in rural area. The prevalence of CKD was 13.2% overall, 14.1% in rural and 10.9% in urban participants. Equivalents figures for CKD stages G3-G4 and albuminuria were 2.5%, 1.6% and 5.0%; and 12.1%, 14.1% and 6.7% respectively. Existing hypertension and diabetes were associated with all outcomes. Elevated systolic blood pressure and the presence of hypertension and diabetes were the predictors of albuminuria and CKD while urban residence was associated with CKD stages G3-G4. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of CKD and albuminuria was high in this population, predominantly in rural area, and driven mostly by the commonest risk factors