Riesz MRA of dyadic dilations and the corresponding Riesz wavelet on LCA groups

We have explored the concept of Riesz multiresolution analysis (Riesz MRA) on a locally compact Abelian group G, and have done a detailed study of the methods of construction of a Riesz wavelet from the given Riesz MRA. For simplicity, we have assumed the order of dilations to be two, i.e. we have worked with dyadic dilations. We have proved that precisely one function is required to construct a Riesz wavelet basis for the space L²(G).Publisher's Versio

On the Trade-offs between Adversarial Robustness and Actionable Explanations

As machine learning models are increasingly being employed in various high-stakes settings, it becomes important to ensure that predictions of these models are not only adversarially robust, but also readily explainable to relevant stakeholders. However, it is unclear if these two notions can be simultaneously achieved or if there exist trade-offs between them. In this work, we make one of the first attempts at studying the impact of adversarially robust models on actionable explanations which provide end users with a means for recourse. We theoretically and empirically analyze the cost (ease of implementation) and validity (probability of obtaining a positive model prediction) of recourses output by state-of-the-art algorithms when the underlying models are adversarially robust vs. non-robust. More specifically, we derive theoretical bounds on the differences between the cost and the validity of the recourses generated by state-of-the-art algorithms for adversarially robust vs. non-robust linear and non-linear models. Our empirical results with multiple real-world datasets validate our theoretical results and show the impact of varying degrees of model robustness on the cost and validity of the resulting recourses. Our analyses demonstrate that adversarially robust models significantly increase the cost and reduce the validity of the resulting recourses, thus shedding light on the inherent trade-offs between adversarial robustness and actionable explanation

Working with Farmers: The Key to Adoption of Improved Fodder Technologies

The lack of a close working relationship between agricultural research organizations, different extension organizations and with different categories of farmers is one of the most difficult institutional problems of agricultural technological implementation in India. Agricultural research and extension organizations generally fight over the same limited government resources and they try to increase the flow of resources coming to their respective institutions to solve day-today management problems, rather than ensuring that their respective organizations contribute to the broader goal of getting improved agricultural technology to all major categories of farmers. In addition, the researchers and extension workers of many research and extension organizations overlook the important roles that farmers can play, in implementing and disseminating technology and, through effective feedback mechanisms, in helping set priorities and improving programme relevance (Parwada et al., 2010). Agricultural production technologies especially improved fodder technologies which may be production, utilization and conservation are developed by researchers for fulfilling their objectives with their available resources and conditions (Sethi and Sharma, 2011). The choices of farmers are ignored and ultimately these developed technologies are not fitted to different categories of farmers who live in community basis with poor resources (Mwamuye et al., 2013). The objective of this abstract is to outline an approach for identifying researchextension-farmer linkage problems, and then to describe different mechanisms that might be used to solve these problems. The basic assumptions that underlie are agricultural technology is a complex blend of materials, processes, and knowledge, difficulty in transfer of different types of technologies to technology users and, most small-scale farmers operate relatively complex farming systems (Quddus, 2012). The identification of different technology adoption rate linked with farming communities will help in formulating of new technologies for better adoption

Sedation, Analgesia Delirium in the ECMO Patient

The goal of this chapter is to identify medications frequently utilized for sedation and analgesia in Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) patients. In addition to describing basic pharmacologic principles of these medications, we discuss their benefits and disadvantages and explain the effects the ECMO circuitry will have on pharmacokinetics of each drug. We also discuss need for various depths of sedation and the utility of neuromuscular blocking agents. Emerging techniques for achieving appropriate sedation will be identified. An explosion of literature in recent years has led to Intensive Care Unit (ICU) delirium increasingly being recognized as an indicator of poor outcomes in the general ICU population. We discuss strategies to manage this complex and multifactorial issues, and how they can be applied to our particular subpopulation of ECMO patients

Identification of bacterial plasmids based on mobility and plasmid population biology

21 páginas, 5 figuras, 1 tabla.Plasmids contain a backbone of core genes that remains relatively stable for long evolutionary periods, making sense to speak about plasmid species. The identification and characterization of the core genes of a plasmid species has a special relevance in the study of its epidemiology and modes of transmission. Besides, this knowledge will help to unveil the main routes that genes, for example antibiotic resistance (AbR) genes, use to travel from environmental reservoirs to human pathogens. Global dissemination of multiple antibiotic resistances and virulence traits by plasmids is an increasing threat for the treatment of many bacterial infectious diseases. To follow the dissemination of virulence and AbR genes, we need to identify the causative plasmids and follow their path from reservoirs to pathogens. In this review, we discuss how the existing diversity in plasmid genetic structures gives rise to a large diversity in propagation strategies. We would like to propose that, using an identification methodology based on plasmid mobility types, we can follow the propagation routes of most plasmids in Gammaproteobacteria, as well as their cargo genes, in complex ecosystems. Once the dissemination routes are known, designing antidissemination drugs and testing their efficacy will become feasible.This work was supported by grant BFU2008-00995/BMC from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MCINN, Spain), grant REIPI RD06/0008/1012 from Instituto de Salud Carlos III and grant no. 248919/FP7-ICT-2009-4 from the European VII Framework Program. M.P.G.-B. was the recipient of a JAE-Doc postdoctoral contract from Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC). A.A. was partially funded by the Ist Plan Regional de I+D+i de Cantabria.Peer reviewe

TalkToModel: Explaining Machine Learning Models with Interactive Natural Language Conversations

Machine Learning (ML) models are increasingly used to make critical decisions in real-world applications, yet they have become more complex, making them harder to understand. To this end, researchers have proposed several techniques to explain model predictions. However, practitioners struggle to use these explainability techniques because they often do not know which one to choose and how to interpret the results of the explanations. In this work, we address these challenges by introducing TalkToModel: an interactive dialogue system for explaining machine learning models through conversations. Specifically, TalkToModel comprises of three key components: 1) a natural language interface for engaging in conversations, making ML model explainability highly accessible, 2) a dialogue engine that adapts to any tabular model and dataset, interprets natural language, maps it to appropriate explanations, and generates text responses, and 3) an execution component that constructs the explanations. We carried out extensive quantitative and human subject evaluations of TalkToModel. Overall, we found the conversational system understands user inputs on novel datasets and models with high accuracy, demonstrating the system's capacity to generalize to new situations. In real-world evaluations with humans, 73% of healthcare workers (e.g., doctors and nurses) agreed they would use TalkToModel over baseline point-and-click systems for explainability in a disease prediction task, and 85% of ML professionals agreed TalkToModel was easier to use for computing explanations. Our findings demonstrate that TalkToModel is more effective for model explainability than existing systems, introducing a new category of explainability tools for practitioners. Code & demo released here: https://github.com/dylan-slack/TalkToModel.Comment: Pre-print; comments welcome! Reach out to [email protected] v3 update title and abstrac

Technological Need Assessment and Capacity Building of Farm Women in Livestock Rearing

It has been reflected that women farmers are engaged in the livestock rearing for additional income generation for their family. They provide 60 percent of the livestock farming labour. Contribution of woman folk in dairy production system, like in all other land-related activities, is enormous. She harvests fodder-yielding crops and gather fodder and bedding material from the forest areas, make hay and stack it, feed and look after the animals, cleans animal shed, milks the animal, processes and markets the milk, and does almost everything relating to smallholder dairy farming. Men’s role in dairy is limited. He participates only in the marketing of milk, looking after grazing and sick animals, and in providing service to dairy animals. Although much of work of livestock farming is carried out by women, they have very limited knowledge about new technologies which can enhance their knowledge, skills, practices and income. Most of extension programme are designed and implemented with an assumption that all farm managers and decision makers are men. Although the contribution of women farmer is higher in livestock rearing but with traditional practices and poor knowledge base, they are not able to manage their animals properly. Hence, the present study has been initiated with the following objectives: To explore the technological needs of women farmers related to livestock rearing practices To organize capacity building programmes for empowering farm women in livestock rearing practices

Geometrically Nonlinear Field Fracture Mechanics and Crack Nucleation, Application to Strain Localization Fields in Al-Cu-Li Aerospace Alloys

International audienceThe displacement discontinuity arising between crack surfaces is assigned to smooth densities of crystal defects referred to as disconnections, through the incompatibility of the distortion tensor. In a dual way, the disconnections are defined as line defects terminating surfaces where the displacement encounters a discontinuity. A conservation statement for the crack opening displacement provides a framework for disconnection dynamics in the form of transport laws. A similar methodology applied to the discontinuity of the plastic displacement due to dislocations results in the concurrent involvement of dislocation densities in the analysis. Non-linearity of the geometrical setting is assumed for defining the elastic distortion incompatibility in the presence of both dislocations and disconnections, as well as for their transport. Crack nucleation in the presence of thermally-activated fluctuations of the atomic order is shown to derive from this nonlinearity in elastic brittle materials, without any algorithmic rule or ad hoc material parameter. Digital image correlation techniques applied to the analysis of tensile tests on ductile Al-Cu-Li samples further demonstrate the ability of the disconnection density concept to capture crack nucleation and relate strain localization bands to consistent disconnection fields and to the eventual occurrence of complex and combined crack modes in these alloys

Crystal plasticity modeling of the effects of crystal orientation and grain-to-grain interactions on DSA-induced strain localization in Al–Li alloys

International audienceWe develop a crystal plasticity model to investigate the coupled actions of crystal orientation, grain neighborhood and grain-to-grain elasto-plastic interactions on dynamic strain aging (DSA) and the onset and development of associated plastic strain localization in Al-Li alloys. Considering simple model multilayered microstructures with preferred orientations representative of rolled alloys, the aim is to identify grain orientation couples that can limit dynamic strain aging induced strain localization without compromising the flow stress and strain hardening properties. To this end, a slip system-based formulation of dynamic strain aging is implemented in a crystal plasticity finite element framework. The model validity is first checked with the simulation of a tensile specimen loaded at quasi-static applied strain rate. The introduction of dynamic strain aging allows predicting complex propagation of intense plastic localization bands. We further investigate the influence of crystal orientations on early strain localization in Al-Cu-Li-Mg alloys, by performing simulations representative of the early stage of a Kahn Tear test for single crystals and layered polycrystals. Using experimentally reported crystal orientations for rolled microstructures, the simulation results show that in both single and multilayered crystals, there is a strong influence of dynamic strain aging on localization patterns, as well as a significant orientation dependence. In multilayered crystals, the nature of strain localization can be remarkably modified when stand-alone crystals of a certain orientation are coupled with other orientations: strain localization may intensify or fade away depending on the coupling with neighboring orientations