Well-M³N: A Maximum-Margin Approach to Unsupervised Structured Prediction

Unsupervised structured prediction is of fundamental importance for the clustering and classification of unannotated structured data. To date, its most common approach still relies on the use of structural probabilistic models and the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm. Conversely, structural maximum-margin approaches, despite their extensive success in supervised and semi-supervised classification, have not raised equivalent attention in the unsupervised case. For this reason, in this paper we propose a novel approach that extends the maximum-margin Markov networks (M3N) to an unsupervised training framework. The main contributions of our extension are new formulations for the feature map and loss function of M3N that decouple the labels from the measurements and support multiple ground-truth training. Experiments on two challenging segmentation datasets have achieved competitive accuracy and generalization compared to other unsupervised algorithms such as k-means, EM and unsupervised structural SVM, and comparable performance to a contemporary deep learning-based approach

Étude de la performance de la STEP du centre emplisseur de la société Salam Gaz – Skhirat, Maroc

Le présent travail a pour but de vérifier l’efficacité du fonctionnement de la STEP de la société Salam Gaz. Les eaux traitées sont réutilisées durant le procédé de production de la société. Les résultats de la caractérisation physicochimique des eaux usées brutes ont montré que les paramètres analysés dépassent les valeurs limites de rejets directes ou indirectes. Les valeurs moyennes en MES, DBO5 et DCO de l’eau brute sont respectivement 3429, 447 et 698 mg/L. Les rendements d’éliminations des paramètres MES, DCO et DBO5 par la STEP sont respectivement 99%, 86%, et 84% alors que l’abattement de la teneur en chrome, cuivre, cadmium et plomb dépasse 90%. Ceci montre que la STEP fonctionne correctement. Toutefois, des améliorations sont nécessaires pour améliorer d’avantages la performance de la STEP. En outre, les eaux usées épurées ont montré un pH acide variant autour de 5 ce qui nécessite une optimisation de la dose du coagulant injecté et une neutralisation avant rejet des eaux traitées dans le milieu récepteur.Mots-clés : eaux usées, diagnostic, performances, recyclage, Salam Gaz – Skhirat, Maroc.Study of the performance of the WWTP filling station company Salam Gas - Skhirat MoroccoThe present work designed to verify the operating effectiveness of society Step Salam Gas. The treated water is reused in the production process of the company. The characterization results at selected tapping points show that the majority of the analyzed parameters exceed the limit values for discharges. The mean values of TSS, BOD5 and COD of raw water are respectively 3429, 447 and 698 mg/l. Yields eliminations parameters TSS, COD and BOD5 by STEP are respectively 99%, 86% and 84% while the reduction of chromium, copper, cadmium and lead in excess of 90%. This shows that STEP is working properly. However, improvements are needed to improve the performance benefits of STEP. In addition, the treated wastewater showed an acidic pH ranging around 5 which requires an optimization of the dose of coagulant injection and neutralization prior to discharge treated wastewater into the receiving environment.Keywords : Wastewater, diagnostic, performance, recycling performance, Salam Gaz – Skhirat, Morocco

Protonated carbon nitride incorporated polyamide thin film nanocomposite for reverse osmosis desalination

Protonated carbon nitride (pCN) prepared from acid treatment of carbon nitride (CN) was incorporated in the polysulfone (PSf) substrate and polyamide (PA) layer to produce thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membrane. The hydrophilicity of CN is expected to improve the surface hydrophilicity of the membrane and acid treatment of nanoparticle is aimed to further enhance the surface structure and prevent the agglomeration of nanomaterial from taking place. pCN loading used in the PSf substrate was 0.5% while in the PA layer was varied as 0.05%, 0.1% and 0.15%. All the membrane prepared were characterized in terms of morphology, structural properties, and surface chemistry. Reverse osmosis dead-end filtration system was used to determine the water permeability and the salt rejection. It was observed that, all the membrane prepared could maintain the salt rejection with improvement of water permeability. However, the salt rejection was sacrificed when higher loading of 0.15% pCN was tested, although the water permeability of the membrane has reached approximately 0.5 LMHbar. This work demonstrates that the use of pCN in RO membrane can improve the water permeability without sacrificing the salt rejection

fMRI Randomized Study of Mental and Motor Task Performance and Cortisol Levels to Potentiate Cortisol as a New Diagnostic Biomarker.

Cortisol is an important hormone in the protective stress response system, the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA axis). It becomes especially salient in immune suppression syndromes such as multiple sclerosis and Cushing’s disease. Fatigue is a common symptom and mental and motor tasks are difficult and labored. The role of cortisol is mental and motor tasks and the recruitment of key brain regions in completion of these tasks is explored together with functional magnetic resonance imaging in healthy participants. Cortisol levels were found to be higher and had greater reduction in levels during mental versus motor tasks. Recruitment of brain stem and hypothalamus regions, important in cortisol activity, was affected differently. At low cortisol levels, mental task participants had less activity in the regions than their physical task counterparts. When cortisol levels were higher, widerspread recruitment of these brain regions was seen in the mental task participants, and for the physical task participants, the spread was at comparative low levels of cortisol. It is concluded that cortisol is implicated in these brain regions supporting the Thompson Cortisol Hypothesis and that brain region recruitment is likely to be dependent upon factors including cortisol levels as well as perception of stress in the task. It is suggested that mental tasks are perceived more stressful than physical but demand higher cortisol levels to promote wider spread brain region activity. Implication for neurological disease includes the use of cortisol in the proposed development of a potential new diagnostic biomarker for early detection of neurological sequelae

Evaluation Strategic Performance in Yemens Public Universities from the Point of View of Experts

The aim of the research is to evaluate the strategic performance in Yemeni government universities from the point of view of experts, by identifying the level of practice of administrative performance and academic performance in its various fields, according to the opinions of experts. To achieve the objectives of the study, the descriptive analytical approach was used through a closed questionnaire designed, according to the modified Delphi method, distributed among an intentional sample of (31) experts. (Administrative performance-Academic performance) came at a low score, with an average of (2.21) for the tool as a whole. As for the axes, they were respectively, (2.21, 2.22). The study also found that there are no statistically significant differences between the experts’ estimates due to the variables (scientific degree, current job, years experience). Accordingly, the study recommends expanding the dissemination of a clear vision among university employees, beneficiaries and stakeholders about the concept of strategic performance evaluation. In addition, the use of information and technology technologies in strategic performance evaluation processes

Molecular tectonics: Dimensionality and geometry control of silver coordination networks based on pyrazolyl appended thiacalixarenes

© The Royal Society of Chemistry 2016.Combinations of six new coordinating tectons (3-8) tetrakis-pyrazolyl appended calix[4]arenes, blocked in 1,3-A conformation, based on 1 (tetrathiacalix[4]arene) and 2 (tetrathiatetramercaptocalix[4]arene) derivatives, with AgX salts (X = NO3-, BF4-, XF6- (X = P, As and Sb)) lead to nine new silver coordination networks. The flexible nature of tectons 3-8 (length of the spacer between the macrocycle and the pyrazolyl coordinating unit), their high number of potential coordinating sites and the loose coordination demand of Ag+ cation lead to the formation of a large variety of networks with different dimensionality: from 1D (5-AgSbF6, 5-AgBF4, 7-AgSbF6 and 8-AgNO3) to extended 2D (6-AgBF4 and 8-AgSbF6) and to a series of three isostructural porous diamond-like 3D architectures (6-AgXF6 (X = P, As and Sb))

Legumain is an independent predictor for invasive recurrence in breast ductal carcinoma in situ

© 2018, United States & Canadian Academy of Pathology. Legumain is a proteolytic enzyme that plays a role in the regulation of cell proliferation in invasive breast cancer. Studies evaluating its role in ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) are lacking. Here, we aimed to characterize legumain protein expression in DCIS and evaluate its prognostic significance. Legumain was assessed immunohistochemically in a tissue microarray of a well-characterized cohort of DCIS (n = 776 pure DCIS and n = 239 DCIS associated with invasive breast cancer (DCIS-mixed)). Legumain immunoreactivity was scored in tumor cells and surrounding stroma and related to clinicopathological parameters and patient outcome. High legumain expression was observed in 23% of pure DCIS and was associated with features of high-risk DCIS including higher nuclear grade, comedo necrosis, hormone receptor negativity, HER2 positivity, and higher proliferation index. Legumain expression was higher in DCIS associated with invasive breast cancer than in pure DCIS (p < 0.0001). In the DCIS-mixed cohort, the invasive component showed higher legumain expression than the DCIS component (p < 0.0001). Legumain was an independent predictor of shorter local recurrencefree interval for all recurrences (p = 0.0003) and for invasive recurrences (p = 0.002). When incorporated with other risk factors, legumain provided better patient risk stratification. High legumain expression is associated with poor prognosis in DCIS and could be a potential marker to predict DCIS progression to invasive disease

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Search for chargino-neutralino production with mass splittings near the electroweak scale in three-lepton final states in √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for supersymmetry through the pair production of electroweakinos with mass splittings near the electroweak scale and decaying via on-shell W and Z bosons is presented for a three-lepton final state. The analyzed proton-proton collision data taken at a center-of-mass energy of √s=13  TeV were collected between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139  fb−1. A search, emulating the recursive jigsaw reconstruction technique with easily reproducible laboratory-frame variables, is performed. The two excesses observed in the 2015–2016 data recursive jigsaw analysis in the low-mass three-lepton phase space are reproduced. Results with the full data set are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. They are interpreted to set exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level on simplified models of chargino-neutralino pair production for masses up to 345 GeV

The prognostic significance of immune microenvironment in breast ductal carcinoma in situ

BackgroundThe role of different subtypes of tumour infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in breast ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is still poorly defined. This study aimed to assess the prognostic significance of B and T lymphocytes and immune checkpoint proteins expression in DCIS.MethodsA well characterised DCIS cohort (n = 700) with long-term follow-up comprising pure DCIS (n = 508) and DCIS mixed with invasive carcinoma (IBC; n = 192) were stained immunohistochemically for CD20, CD3, CD4, CD8, FOXP3, PD1 and PDL1. Copy number variation and TP53 mutation status were assessed in a subset of cases (n = 58).ResultsCD3+ lymphocytes were the predominant cell subtype in the pure DCIS cohort, while FOXP3 showed the lowest levels. PDL1 expression was mainly seen in the stromal TILs. Higher abundance of TILs subtypes was associated with higher tumour grade, hormone receptor negativity and HER2 positivity. Mutant TP53 variants were associated with higher levels of stromal CD3+, CD4+ and FOXP3+ cells. DCIS coexisting with invasive carcinoma harboured denser stromal infiltrates of all immune cells and checkpoint proteins apart from CD4+ cells. Stromal PD1 was the most differentially expressed protein between DCIS and invasive carcinoma (Z = 5.8, p