One-Shot Learning using Mixture of Variational Autoencoders: a Generalization Learning approach

Deep learning, even if it is very successful nowadays, traditionally needs very large amounts of labeled data to perform excellent on the classification task. In an attempt to solve this problem, the one-shot learning paradigm, which makes use of just one labeled sample per class and prior knowledge, becomes increasingly important. In this paper, we propose a new one-shot learning method, dubbed MoVAE (Mixture of Variational AutoEncoders), to perform classification. Complementary to prior studies, MoVAE represents a shift of paradigm in comparison with the usual one-shot learning methods, as it does not use any prior knowledge. Instead, it starts from zero knowledge and one labeled sample per class. Afterward, by using unlabeled data and the generalization learning concept (in a way, more as humans do), it is capable to gradually improve by itself its performance. Even more, if there are no unlabeled data available MoVAE can still perform well in one-shot learning classification. We demonstrate empirically the efficiency of our proposed approach on three datasets, i.e. the handwritten digits (MNIST), fashion products (Fashion-MNIST), and handwritten characters (Omniglot), showing that MoVAE outperforms state-of-the-art one-shot learning algorithms

An INTRODUCTION TO CUDA Programming

The graphics boards have become so powerful that they are usded for mathematical computations, such as matrix multiplication and transposition, which are required for complex visual and physics simulations in computer games. NVIDIA has supported this trend by releasing the CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) interface library to allow applications developers to write code that can be uploaded into an NVIDIA-based card for execution by NVIDIA's massively parallel GPUs. This paper is an introduction to the CUDA programming based on the documentation from [2] and [4].cuda programming

FINANCIAL CRISIS IMPACT ON CONSTRUCTION AND REAL ESTATE SECTORS IN ROMANIA

This paper presents the evolution of construction and real estate sectors in Romania in the context of current financial crisis, highlighting the internal and international economic climate. The evolutions of the main macroeconomic indicators and sectoral factors of influence on them are presented. Construction and real estate sectors are particularly affected by the worsening perception of the risk, of financing difficulties, doubling the risk of liquidity with the solvency one.financial crisis, construction sector, gross domestic product, added value, liquidity

Evolution of the European neighbourhood policy –instruments, limits and conditionalities

There is no doubt that the enlargement of the European Union in 2004, with the eight Central and Eastern European countries plus Cyprus and Malta, completed in 2007 by the accession of Romania and Bulgaria has brought to the attention not only the need to reform the EU’s institutional framework and to revise some policies, but also the way to approach the external relations, mainly with the new immediate neighbourhood. Confronted with new challenges at its Eastern borders, the European Union has proposed to its neighbours a European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) that intends to avoid creating new dividing lines in Europe and also to ensure the development of fruitful cooperation relations with the partner states. Concentrating on adapting former mechanisms of cooperation and benefiting from the enlargement process experience, the ENP also brings new policy tools and instruments (see for instance the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument) to the negotiation table. It remains under debate the ability and willingness of the EU Member States to join forces in order to define better and more coherently and concretely the support they intend to offer to the “ring of friends”, as well as the extent to which the ENP partner states will identify other ways to embark on the necessary reform process, in the absence of the ultimate incentive: the perspective of membership to the European Union.neighbourhood policy, European Union, Black Sea, cooperation

Cosmological evolution of finite temperature Bose-Einstein Condensate dark matter

Once the temperature of a bosonic gas is smaller than the critical, density dependent, transition temperature, a Bose - Einstein Condensation process can take place during the cosmological evolution of the Universe. Bose - Einstein Condensates are very strong candidates for dark matter, since they can solve some major issues in observational astrophysics, like, for example, the galactic core/cusp problem. The presence of the dark matter condensates also drastically affects the cosmic history of the Universe. In the present paper we analyze the effects of the finite dark matter temperature on the cosmological evolution of the Bose-Einstein Condensate dark matter systems. We formulate the basic equations describing the finite temperature condensate, representing a generalized Gross-Pitaevskii equation that takes into account the presence of the thermal cloud in thermodynamic equilibrium with the condensate. The temperature dependent equations of state of the thermal cloud and of the condensate are explicitly obtained in an analytical form. By assuming a flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) geometry, the cosmological evolution of the finite temperature dark matter filled Universe is considered in detail in the framework of a two interacting fluid dark matter model, describing the transition from the initial thermal cloud to the low temperature condensate state. The dynamics of the cosmological parameters during the finite temperature dominated phase of the dark matter evolution are investigated in detail, and it is shown that the presence of the thermal excitations leads to an overall increase in the expansion rate of the Universe.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in PR

SOME CONSIDERATIONS ON ROMANIA’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE NEW EUROPEAN NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICY

Initiative supported by Romania even from its pre-accession years, the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is now even more in the attention of the policy-makers. Being at the Eastern frontier of the European Union, Romania is confronted with higher responsibilities and also potential risks related to the challenges this region is confronted with. Romania intends to play a pro-active role in the ENP, being also a promoter of regional cooperation initiatives in the area. Supporting the projects aimed at creating and consolidating a stability and security area in the Eastern neighbourhood, pleading permanently for an increased attention not to overlap the different cooperation initiatives (either the ENP overall framework or the Black Sea Synergy, the Eastern Partnership and so on) Romania is also focusing on increasing the role of the civil society in the area. Romania should find ways to turn to good account the opportunities deriving from its potential of stability and security factor in the area, its aspiration to be a catalyst of regional cooperation in the area, by largely using the instruments offered by the European Neighbourhood Policy, also concentrating on its contribution to the constant adaptation of these instruments and to finding new solutions to deal with the challenges of this part of the EU neighbourhood.European Neighbourhood Policy, Romania, Moldova, Black Sea Synergy, regional cooperation