bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Early versus late initiation of GH replacement in adult-onset hypopituitarism
Authors: Postma Mark R , Burman Pia , van Beek André P
Published: June 2020

Introduction:

Adult-onset growth hormone deficiency (AGHD) is usually the last deficiency to be substituted in hypopituitarism. In children with documented GH deficiency, treatment without delay is crucial for achieving optimal effects on growth and development. In adults, it is not known whether a delay in treatment initiation influences biochemical response and the favourable physiological effects resulting from GH replacement therapy (GHRT).

Methods:

A total of 1085 GH-deficient adults from KIMS (Pfizer International Metabolic Database) were included, adequately replaced with all pituitary hormones except for GH at baseline. Patients were stratified by sex and age (20–50 years and ≥50 years) and subsequently divided into two groups below and above the median duration of unsubstituted AGHD for that subgroup. The median time of unsubstituted GHD for the total cohort was 2.53 years (P5 = 0.35, P95 = 24.42).

Results:

Beneficial effects of 4 years of GHRT were observed on lipids and quality of life in all subgroups. A decrease in waist circumference was observed only in older (>50 years) patients. There was no difference in IGF-I SDS and in GH dose required to normalize IGF-I in patients with a duration of unsubstituted AGHD above or below the median. No relevant differences were found between the groups for anthropometric measures, cardiovascular risk factors and quality of life scores.

Conclusion:

In contrast to GHD in children and adolescents, no difference could be established in treatment response between early or late initiation of GHRT in AGHD in terms of required GH dose, IGF-I, metabolic health and quality of life.
Estrategias de Trabajo Autónomo en Estudiantes Universitarios Noveles de Educación
Authors: Pegalajar Mª del Carmen
Published: June 2020

El nuevo espacio creado en Educación Superior exige el desarrollo de nuevos roles y responsabilidades en el estudiante ante el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje, lo que le lleva la práctica de estrategias de aprendizaje autónomo y autorregulado en entornos de trabajo flexibles, fomentando su participación activa. Esta investigación examina el desarrollo de estrategias de trabajo autónomo en estudiantes noveles de Educación de la Universidad de Jaén (n = 407). Basados en una metodología descriptiva, se lleva a cabo la recogida de datos mediante el “Cuestionario de Estrategias de Trabajo Autónomo” a través de la técnica de la encuesta. Los resultados demuestran cómo las estrategias más desarrolladas por los estudiantes se relacionan con la preparación de exámenes y el trabajo intelectual del estudiante sobre el contenido de las asignaturas incluidas en los planes de estudio, siendo la estrategia de ampliación la que ha obtenido peores resultados. Además, los estudiantes más jóvenes ponen en práctica mejores estrategias de aprendizaje autónomo, lo que facilita la planificación del quehacer docente. Dicho análisis permite al profesorado universitario conocer las estrategias y habilidades de que dispone el estudiante para, de este modo, adaptar el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje a dichas circunstancias. Por su parte, el estudiante universitario puede adecuar sus preferencias de aprendizaje al perfil académico de las titulaciones de Educación, así como también supone un factor que propicia la mejora de las acciones formativas para los estudiantes de nuevo ingreso.
Educación Pictórica como Alternativa a la Comunicación en Niños Sordos
Authors: Flores-Rivas Julio Jaime , González-Quiñones Fidel
Published: June 2020

Esta investigación analiza en qué medida la educación pictórica puede ayudar a niños sordos en su desarrollo gráfico expresivo mediante la pintura, e identifica si existe relación con cambios en su nivel de interacción social y su comprensión del vocabulario de la Lengua de Señas Mexicana (lsm). Para ello se utilizó un diseño experimental de tipo preexperimental y de preprueba posprueba con un solo grupo, contando con la participación de siete menores de edad sordos en edades entre los 6 y 12 años, todos hijos de padres oyentes. Esta investigación es de corte mixto y presenta observaciones similares en los resultados de su componente cualitativo y del cuantitativo. Se observó una mejora en los resultados de la variable comprensión del vocabulario, un aumento en el desarrollo técnico-expresivo del infante y se registró un aumento en la participación de creaciones colectivas, creatividad en el uso de los materiales y los elementos del lenguaje plástico. Sobre la repercusión que tendría este tratamiento experimental en el nivel de interacción social y comprensión del vocabulario de los participantes hubo concordancia entre los datos recabados de manera cualitativa y cuantitativa, y, sobre la percepción de aumento en estas habilidades. Finalmente, se presentan algunos hallazgos importantes que no se habían contemplado en los objetivos iniciales.
Teaching Evaluation Questionnaire Validation at Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Applying the Method of Factor Analysis with Extraction of Principal Components
Authors: Sánchez-Almeida Tarquino Fabián , Sandoval-Palis Iván Patricio , Gilar-Corbi Raquel , Castejón-Costa Juan Luis , Salazar-Orellana Diego Israel
Published: June 2020

This work validates a teaching evaluation instrument applied to professors in engineering, sciences and higher technological level programs of the Escuela Politécnica Nacional, using the method of Factor Analysis with extraction of principal components. The database used for the research was previously examined and refined due to inconsistency, eg. outliers, out of range values, etc. The result of the method described above was a reduced survey of 15 items, which was obtained from an original study of 33 items. This new questionnaire clearly identifies the four main dimensions or aspects required: teaching development and planning, teacher-student relationship, evaluation, and a global assessment question. The reduction of the evaluation scale will allow to improve the process of  integral teaching performance evaluation of the faculty at Escuela Politécnica Nacional, and this method could serve as a benchmark for the teaching evaluation process of other universities that belong to the higher education system of Ecuador.
Range expansion of the Gulf Coast Toad, Incilius valliceps (Wiegmann, 1833) (Anura, Bufonidae), from Costa Rica
Authors: Klank Jeremy , Chaves Gerardo , Arias Erick
Published: June 2020

We report the range expansion of the Gulf Coast Toad, Incilius valliceps (Wiegmann, 1833), from tropical moist forests to tropical wet forests and towards southeastern Costa Rica. We evaluated erroneous reports of this species in databases on the web. Also, we discussed that movements to areas with wet conditions for a species known from humid and xeric habitats can be explained by the trends in deforestation and increments of the dry conditions during recent decades in the country.
DISTRIBUSI DAN KAJIAN DAMPAK RADIONUKLIDA 137Cs DI PESISIR BARAT PULAU SUMATERA
Authors: Makmur Murdahayu , Prihatiningsih Wahyu Retno , Yahya Mohamad Nur
Published: June 2020

AbstrakTelah dilakukan penelitan mengenai distribusi dan kajian dampak radionuklida 137Cs di sepanjang pesisir barat Pulau Sumatera, mulai dari Aceh, Padang, Bengkulu dan Lampung pada tahun 2015. Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk melihat distribusi dan dampak radionuklida tersebut terhadap biota di perairan laut. Pengukuran dilakukan menggunakan spektrometri gama dimana sebelumnya dilakukan prekonsentrasi terhadap sampel air laut. Hasil pengukuran aktivitas 137Cs pada sedimen berkisar dari 0,013 Bq/Kg sampai dengan 0,589 Bq/Kg dengan rerata 0,233 Bq/Kg (n=18) dan pada air laut permukaan sebesar 0,042 Bq/m3 sampai dengan 0,205 Bq/m3 dengan rerata sebesar 0,123 Bq/m3 (n=7). Aktivitas Cs 137 yang terukur sepanjang pesisir barat Pulau Sumatera mempunyai rentang konsentrasi aktivitas yang hampir sama dengan hasil penelitian yang dilakukan di Lautan India lainnya dan dapat dikatakan bahwa tidak ada inputan baru dari sepanjang pesisir barat tersebut. Menggunakan program ERICA tier 2, diketahui bahwa tidak ada dampak 137Cs terhadap biota pada lokasi penelitian, karena dosis yang diterima oleh biota tersebut lebih rendah dari 1 dibandingkan dengan skrining tier 2 sebesar 10 μGy/h. Kata Kunci: Distribusi, kajian dampak,137Cs, pesisir barat Sumatera  AbstractsResearch on the distribution and the impact of radionuclide 137Cs has been conducted along the west coast of Sumatra Island in 2015. The sample was collected from Aceh, Padang, Bengkulu and Lampung with aim to examine distribution and the impact of these radionuclides on marine biota. Measurements were made using gamma spectrometry after preconcentration of the sea water samples. The results of 137Cs activity measurements on sediments ranged from 0.013 Bq/Kg to 0.589 Bq/Kg with a mean of 0.233 Bq/Kg (n=18) and at sea surface water of 0.042 Bq/m3 up to 0.205 Bq/m3 with a mean of 0.123 Bq/m3 (n=7). The measurable 137Cs activity along the western coast of the island of Sumatra has an almost identical concentration of activity with the other Indian Ocean studies and can be conclude that there is no fresh input from the landbase. Using the ERICA tier 2 Programme, there was no impact of the 137Cs on the biota at the study site, while the received dose was lower than 1 compared with the 10 μGy/h screening tier 2. Keywords: Distribution, Impact Assessment, 137Cs, West Coast Sumatera
Study abroad as a space where akogare (??) circulates
Authors: Kitano Chika
Published: June 2020

This study explores the complex dynamics of akogare, a Japanese concept describing a strong attraction to something or someone unattainable. Prior research on the dynamics of akogare in English language learning studies has largely been limited to the consideration of Japanese women’s sexual or romantic desire for the West. The classical hypothesis of gendered akogare arising from this research has led to a disproportionate representation of akogare as Japanese women’s active sexualised agency. This study scrutinises narratives derived from semi-structured interviews with seven Japanese students, male and female, who participated in study abroad programmes in the UK. Drawing from theoretical understandings of ‘materiality’ and ‘space’, the analysis observes how multifaceted akogare circulates in a study abroad setting that is influenced by learners’ linguistic and gendered relations to the West. The analysis suggests that the study abroad setting serves as a multidimensional space to (re)construct oneself through the lens of akogare as a discerning English learner who asserts cognitive distance from Western hegemony.
Occupational titles and personal pronouns
Authors: Hilmisdóttir Helga
Published: June 2020

The aim of this article is to investigate gender categorisation in sequences that introduce referents by their occupational titles. The study addresses the following three questions: (1) What can the systematic patterns in authentic conversation tell us about the use of gender in Icelandic? (2) What is the distribution of labour between grammatical and referential gender? (3) Does the mismatch between grammatical and referential gender cause any problems in the conversation? The data used come from 10 hours and 22 minutes of conversation recorded between 1996 and 2018 comprising everyday conversations, phone calls, radio interviews about current affairs, moderated political debates and spontaneous speeches in the parliament. In total, 55 sequences of occupational titles were identified in the data. The analysis shows that when the gender of the referent is known to the speaker, the choice of pronoun is based on the referential gender, but when the gender is unknown or the main referent is hypothetical, the speaker uses a pronoun that matches the grammatical gender of the noun. Finally, the data show that the choice of pronoun rarely triggers repairs.
Researching Language, Gender and Sexuality: A Student Guide
Authors: Qiu Jingna
Published: June 2020

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Management of central nervous system demyelinating diseases during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic: a practical approach
Authors: APÓSTOLOS-PEREIRA Samira Luisa , SILVA Guilherme Diogo , DISSEROL Caio César Diniz , FEO Lucas Bueno , MATOS Aline de Moura Brasil , SCHOEPS Vinicius Andreoli , GOMES Ana Beatriz Ayroza Galvão Ribeiro , BOAVENTURA Mateus , MENDES Maria Fernanda , CALLEGARO Dagoberto
Published: June 2020

ABSTRACT Background: The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic poses a potential threat to patients with autoimmune disorders, including multiple sclerosis (MS) and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD). Such patients are usually treated with immunomodulatory or immunosuppressive agents, which may tamper with the organism’s normal response to infections. Currently, no consensus has been reached on how to manage MS and NMOSD patients during the pandemic. Objective: To discuss strategies to manage those patients. Methods: We focus on how to 1) reduce COVID-19 infection risk, such as social distancing, telemedicine, and wider interval between laboratory testing/imaging; 2) manage relapses, such as avoiding treatment of mild relapse and using oral steroids; 3) manage disease-modifying therapies, such as preference for drugs associated with lower infection risk (interferons, glatiramer, teriflunomide, and natalizumab) and extended-interval dosing of natalizumab, when safe; 4) individualize the chosen MS induction-therapy (anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies, alemtuzumab, and cladribine); 5) manage NMOSD preventive therapies, including initial therapy selection and current treatment maintenance; 6) manage MS/NMOSD patients infected with COVID-19. Conclusions: In the future, real-world case series of MS/NMOSD patients infected with COVID-19 will help us define the best management strategies. For the time being, we rely on expert experience and guidance.
Definição de caso suspeito da COVID-19: uma revisão narrativa dos sinais e sintomas mais frequentes entre os casos confirmados
Authors: Iser Betine Pinto Moehlecke , Sliva Isabella , Raymundo Vitória Timmen , Poleto Marcos Bottega , Schuelter-Trevisol Fabiana , Bobinski Franciane
Published: June 2020

Objetivo: descrever os sinais e sintomas mais frequentes na infecção pelo vírus da síndrome respiratória aguda grave coronavírus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Métodos: revisão narrativa da literatura realizada em abril de 2020; a busca foi realizada em bases eletrônicas e complementada com revisão manual das referências dos trabalhos selecionados e das publicações do Ministério da Saúde do Brasil. Resultados: o espectro da doença clínica mostrou-se variado; Febre, tosse e dispneia foram os sinais/sintomas mais frequentes, no entanto, podem não estar presentes, dificultando a definição de caso; sintomas gastrointestinais e alteração de olfato ou paladar têm sido relatados entre casos leves; a dispneia foi frequente entre casos graves e com evolução ao óbito. Conclusão: considerando-se a escassez de testes diagnósticos e a diversidade de sintomas, os serviços de saúde devem utilizar uma definição de caso sensível, de forma a serem adotadas ações adequadas de vigilância, prevenção e tratamento.
Caracterização de mulheres trabalhadoras do sexo em capitais brasileiras, 2016
Authors: Braga Letícia Penna , Szwarcwald Célia Landmann , Damacena Giseli Nogueira
Published: June 2020

Objetivo. Descrever as características das mulheres trabalhadoras do sexo (MTS) de 12 capitais brasileiras. Métodos. Estudo transversal de vigilância biológica e comportamental com MTS recrutadas por respondent-driven sampling (RDS), em 2016. Foram estimadas, por cidade, as prevalências de HIV, características sociodemográficas, comportamentais e da profissão. Utilizou-se o teste de qui-quadrado para comparar essas distribuições. Resultados. Entre 4.328 MTS, a prevalência da infecção pelo HIV foi de 5,3% (IC95% 4,5;6,3), variando de 0,2% (IC95% 0,0;1,2) em Campo Grande, a 18,2% (IC95% 13,2;24,7) em Salvador. Em metade das cidades, a prevalência de HIV nas amostras foi >5,0%, enquanto Campo Grande, Brasília e Belo Horizonte apresentaram prevalências <1,0%. Diferenças significativas entre as cidades foram encontradas nas distribuições segundo escolaridade, renda, local de trabalho, idade de início do trabalho sexual, e uso de drogas ilícitas. Conclusão. As características das amostras em cada cidade foram distintas, e influenciaram a prevalência local de HIV.
Rethinking the Image Fusion: A Fast Unified Image Fusion Network based on Proportional Maintenance of Gradient and Intensity
Authors: Zhang Hao , Xu Han , Xiao Yang , Guo Xiaojie , Ma Jiayi
Published: June 2020

In this paper, we propose a fast unified image fusion network based on proportional maintenance of gradient and intensity (PMGI), which can end-to-end realize a variety of image fusion tasks, including infrared and visible image fusion, multi-exposure image fusion, medical image fusion, multi-focus image fusion and pan-sharpening. We unify the image fusion problem into the texture and intensity proportional maintenance problem of the source images. On the one hand, the network is divided into gradient path and intensity path for information extraction. We perform feature reuse in the same path to avoid loss of information due to convolution. At the same time, we introduce the pathwise transfer block to exchange information between different paths, which can not only pre-fuse the gradient information and intensity information, but also enhance the information to be processed later. On the other hand, we define a uniform form of loss function based on these two kinds of information, which can adapt to different fusion tasks. Experiments on publicly available datasets demonstrate the superiority of our PMGI over the state-of-the-art in terms of both visual effect and quantitative metric in a variety of fusion tasks. In addition, our method is faster compared with the state-of-the-art.
Deep Object Co-Segmentation via Spatial-Semantic Network Modulation
Authors: Zhang Kaihua , Chen Jin , Liu Bo , Liu Qingshan
Published: June 2020

Object co-segmentation is to segment the shared objects in multiple relevant images, which has numerous applications in computer vision. This paper presents a spatial and semantic modulated deep network framework for object co-segmentation. A backbone network is adopted to extract multi-resolution image features. With the multi-resolution features of the relevant images as input, we design a spatial modulator to learn a mask for each image. The spatial modulator captures the correlations of image feature descriptors via unsupervised learning. The learned mask can roughly localize the shared foreground object while suppressing the background. For the semantic modulator, we model it as a supervised image classification task. We propose a hierarchical second-order pooling module to transform the image features for classification use. The outputs of the two modulators manipulate the multi-resolution features by a shift-and-scale operation so that the features focus on segmenting co-object regions. The proposed model is trained end-to-end without any intricate post-processing. Extensive experiments on four image co-segmentation benchmark datasets demonstrate the superior accuracy of the proposed method compared to state-of-the-art methods. The codes are available at http://kaihuazhang.net/.
AutoRemover: Automatic Object Removal for Autonomous Driving Videos
Authors: Zhang Rong , Li Wei , Wang Peng , Guan Chenye , Fang Jin , Song Yuhang , Yu Jinhui , Chen Baoquan , Xu Weiwei , Yang Ruigang
Published: June 2020

Motivated by the need for photo-realistic simulation in autonomous driving, in this paper we present a video inpainting algorithm AutoRemover, designed specifically for generating street-view videos without any moving objects. In our setup we have two challenges: the first is the shadow, shadows are usually unlabeled but tightly coupled with the moving objects. The second is the large ego-motion in the videos. To deal with shadows, we build up an autonomous driving shadow dataset and design a deep neural network to detect shadows automatically. To deal with large ego-motion, we take advantage of the multi-source data, in particular the 3D data, in autonomous driving. More specifically, the geometric relationship between frames is incorporated into an inpainting deep neural network to produce high-quality structurally consistent video output. Experiments show that our method outperforms other state-of-the-art (SOTA) object removal algorithms, reducing the RMSE by over 19%.
Learning 2D Temporal Adjacent Networks for Moment Localization with Natural Language
Authors: Zhang Songyang , Peng Houwen , Fu Jianlong , Luo Jiebo
Published: June 2020

We address the problem of retrieving a specific moment from an untrimmed video by a query sentence. This is a challenging problem because a target moment may take place in relations to other temporal moments in the untrimmed video. Existing methods cannot tackle this challenge well since they consider temporal moments individually and neglect the temporal dependencies. In this paper, we model the temporal relations between video moments by a two-dimensional map, where one dimension indicates the starting time of a moment and the other indicates the end time. This 2D temporal map can cover diverse video moments with different lengths, while representing their adjacent relations. Based on the 2D map, we propose a Temporal Adjacent Network (2D-TAN), a single-shot framework for moment localization. It is capable of encoding the adjacent temporal relation, while learning discriminative features for matching video moments with referring expressions. We evaluate the proposed 2D-TAN on three challenging benchmarks, i.e., Charades-STA, ActivityNet Captions, and TACoS, where our 2D-TAN outperforms the state-of-the-art.
Fully Convolutional Network for Consistent Voxel-Wise Correspondence
Authors: Zhang Yungeng , Pei Yuru , Guo Yuke , Ma Gengyu , Xu Tianmin , Zha Hongbin
Published: June 2020

In this paper, we propose a fully convolutional network-based dense map from voxels to invertible pair of displacement vector fields regarding a template grid for the consistent voxel-wise correspondence. We parameterize the volumetric mapping using a convolutional network and train it in an unsupervised way by leveraging the spatial transformer to minimize the gap between the warped volumetric image and the template grid. Instead of learning the unidirectional map, we learn the nonlinear mapping functions for both forward and backward transformations. We introduce the combinational inverse constraints for the volumetric one-to-one maps, where the pairwise and triple constraints are utilized to learn the cycle-consistent correspondence maps between volumes. Experiments on both synthetic and clinically captured volumetric cone-beam CT (CBCT) images show that the proposed framework is effective and competitive against state-of-the-art deformable registration techniques.
JSNet: Joint Instance and Semantic Segmentation of 3D Point Clouds
Authors: Zhao Lin , Tao Wenbing
Published: June 2020

In this paper, we propose a novel joint instance and semantic segmentation approach, which is called JSNet, in order to address the instance and semantic segmentation of 3D point clouds simultaneously. Firstly, we build an effective backbone network to extract robust features from the raw point clouds. Secondly, to obtain more discriminative features, a point cloud feature fusion module is proposed to fuse the different layer features of the backbone network. Furthermore, a joint instance semantic segmentation module is developed to transform semantic features into instance embedding space, and then the transformed features are further fused with instance features to facilitate instance segmentation. Meanwhile, this module also aggregates instance features into semantic feature space to promote semantic segmentation. Finally, the instance predictions are generated by applying a simple mean-shift clustering on instance embeddings. As a result, we evaluate the proposed JSNet on a large-scale 3D indoor point cloud dataset S3DIS and a part dataset ShapeNet, and compare it with existing approaches. Experimental results demonstrate our approach outperforms the state-of-the-art method in 3D instance segmentation with a significant improvement in 3D semantic prediction and our method is also beneficial for part segmentation. The source code for this work is available at https://github.com/dlinzhao/JSNet.
Spatial-Temporal Multi-Cue Network for Continuous Sign Language Recognition
Authors: Zhou Hao , Zhou Wengang , Zhou Yun , Li Houqiang
Published: June 2020

Despite the recent success of deep learning in continuous sign language recognition (CSLR), deep models typically focus on the most discriminative features, ignoring other potentially non-trivial and informative contents. Such characteristic heavily constrains their capability to learn implicit visual grammars behind the collaboration of different visual cues (i,e., hand shape, facial expression and body posture). By injecting multi-cue learning into neural network design, we propose a spatial-temporal multi-cue (STMC) network to solve the vision-based sequence learning problem. Our STMC network consists of a spatial multi-cue (SMC) module and a temporal multi-cue (TMC) module. The SMC module is dedicated to spatial representation and explicitly decomposes visual features of different cues with the aid of a self-contained pose estimation branch. The TMC module models temporal correlations along two parallel paths, i.e., intra-cue and inter-cue, which aims to preserve the uniqueness and explore the collaboration of multiple cues. Finally, we design a joint optimization strategy to achieve the end-to-end sequence learning of the STMC network. To validate the effectiveness, we perform experiments on three large-scale CSLR benchmarks: PHOENIX-2014, CSL and PHOENIX-2014-T. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves new state-of-the-art performance on all three benchmarks.
Discriminative and Robust Online Learning for Siamese Visual Tracking
Authors: Zhou Jinghao , Wang Peng , Sun Haoyang
Published: June 2020

The problem of visual object tracking has traditionally been handled by variant tracking paradigms, either learning a model of the object's appearance exclusively online or matching the object with the target in an offline-trained embedding space. Despite the recent success, each method agonizes over its intrinsic constraint. The online-only approaches suffer from a lack of generalization of the model they learn thus are inferior in target regression, while the offline-only approaches (e.g., convolutional siamese trackers) lack the target-specific context information thus are not discriminative enough to handle distractors, and robust enough to deformation. Therefore, we propose an online module with an attention mechanism for offline siamese networks to extract target-specific features under L2 error. We further propose a filter update strategy adaptive to treacherous background noises for discriminative learning, and a template update strategy to handle large target deformations for robust learning. Effectiveness can be validated in the consistent improvement over three siamese baselines: SiamFC, SiamRPN++, and SiamMask. Beyond that, our model based on SiamRPN++ obtains the best results over six popular tracking benchmarks and can operate beyond real-time.
Deep Domain-Adversarial Image Generation for Domain Generalisation
Authors: Zhou Kaiyang , Yang Yongxin , Hospedales Timothy , Xiang Tao
Published: June 2020

Machine learning models typically suffer from the domain shift problem when trained on a source dataset and evaluated on a target dataset of different distribution. To overcome this problem, domain generalisation (DG) methods aim to leverage data from multiple source domains so that a trained model can generalise to unseen domains. In this paper, we propose a novel DG approach based on Deep Domain-Adversarial Image Generation (DDAIG). Specifically, DDAIG consists of three components, namely a label classifier, a domain classifier and a domain transformation network (DoTNet). The goal for DoTNet is to map the source training data to unseen domains. This is achieved by having a learning objective formulated to ensure that the generated data can be correctly classified by the label classifier while fooling the domain classifier. By augmenting the source training data with the generated unseen domain data, we can make the label classifier more robust to unknown domain changes. Extensive experiments on four DG datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.
Generate, Segment, and Refine: Towards Generic Manipulation Segmentation
Authors: Zhou Peng , Chen Bor-Chun , Han Xintong , Najibi Mahyar , Shrivastava Abhinav , Lim Ser-Nam , Davis Larry
Published: June 2020

Detecting manipulated images has become a significant emerging challenge. The advent of image sharing platforms and the easy availability of advanced photo editing software have resulted in a large quantities of manipulated images being shared on the internet. While the intent behind such manipulations varies widely, concerns on the spread of false news and misinformation is growing. Current state of the art methods for detecting these manipulated images suffers from the lack of training data due to the laborious labeling process. We address this problem in this paper, for which we introduce a manipulated image generation process that creates true positives using currently available datasets. Drawing from traditional work on image blending, we propose a novel generator for creating such examples. In addition, we also propose to further create examples that force the algorithm to focus on boundary artifacts during training. Strong experimental results validate our proposal.
When AWGN-Based Denoiser Meets Real Noises
Authors: Zhou Yuqian , Jiao Jianbo , Huang Haibin , Wang Yang , Wang Jue , Shi Honghui , Huang Thomas
Published: June 2020

Discriminative learning based image denoisers have achieved promising performance on synthetic noises such as Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN). The synthetic noises adopted in most previous work are pixel-independent, but real noises are mostly spatially/channel-correlated and spatially/channel-variant. This domain gap yields unsatisfied performance on images with real noises if the model is only trained with AWGN. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to boost the performance of a real image denoiser which is trained only with synthetic pixel-independent noise data dominated by AWGN. First, we train a deep model that consists of a noise estimator and a denoiser with mixed AWGN and Random Value Impulse Noise (RVIN). We then investigate Pixel-shuffle Down-sampling (PD) strategy to adapt the trained model to real noises. Extensive experiments demonstrate the effectiveness and generalization of the proposed approach. Notably, our method achieves state-of-the-art performance on real sRGB images in the DND benchmark among models trained with synthetic noises. Codes are available at https://github.com/yzhouas/PD-Denoising-pytorch.
Viewpoint-Aware Loss with Angular Regularization for Person Re-Identification
Authors: Zhu Zhihui , Jiang Xinyang , Zheng Feng , Guo Xiaowei , Huang Feiyue , Sun Xing , Zheng Weishi
Published: June 2020

Although great progress in supervised person re-identification (Re-ID) has been made recently, due to the viewpoint variation of a person, Re-ID remains a massive visual challenge. Most existing viewpoint-based person Re-ID methods project images from each viewpoint into separated and unrelated sub-feature spaces. They only model the identity-level distribution inside an individual viewpoint but ignore the underlying relationship between different viewpoints. To address this problem, we propose a novel approach, called Viewpoint-Aware Loss with Angular Regularization (VA-reID). Instead of one subspace for each viewpoint, our method projects the feature from different viewpoints into a unified hypersphere and effectively models the feature distribution on both the identity-level and the viewpoint-level. In addition, rather than modeling different viewpoints as hard labels used for conventional viewpoint classification, we introduce viewpoint-aware adaptive label smoothing regularization (VALSR) that assigns the adaptive soft label to feature representation. VALSR can effectively solve the ambiguity of the viewpoint cluster label assignment. Extensive experiments on the Market1501 and DukeMTMC-reID datasets demonstrated that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art supervised Re-ID methods.
Great Western electrification programme, UK: Bridge Street overbridge reconstruction
Authors: Manis Panagiotis , Richardson Peter
Published: June 2020

Bridge Street overbridge next to Newport station in south Wales was replaced to enable electrification of the Great Western main line railway between London and Cardiff. The former 120-year-old steel truss bridge was too low and in poor condition, so a half-through weathering steel–concrete composite bridge deck with a smaller structural depth was lifted onto the existing abutments. The new bridge requires minimal maintenance, reducing overhead-line hazards and whole-life costs. This paper describes the key considerations and challenges associated with the strengthening and removal of the existing superstructure, the modifications that were required to the original abutments, and the design and construction of the new superstructure.
Haussmannian building repair, rehabilitation and strengthening: case study from France
Authors: Cardoso Rui
Published: June 2020

Over time, Haussmannian buildings have been continuously subjected to conservation works, particularly considering their age and deterioration level. In recent years, several apartment buildings have been converted into luxury hotels and existing ones have been renovated due to an increasing demand for accommodation, resulting in heavy repair, rehabilitation and strengthening works. Haussmannian architecture is an invaluable asset of Paris urban character and distinctiveness, and conservation interventions should be carried out accordingly. This paper describes the rehabilitation and strengthening works best practices undertaken during these interventions. In this context, a reference to protection measures to ensure the preservation of buildings registered on the list of historic monuments is done, as well as a reference to regulatory-based and incentive-based programmes to prevent abandonment and lack of maintenance. This paper is based on the experience gained during construction projects that the author has worked on in France. The techniques and methodologies presented in this paper should be considered good conservation practices and included in maintenance programmes, but also to support the development of innovative and sustainable rehabilitation and strengthening techniques, aiming to preserve this important building heritage and similar ones existing in other countries.
Measuring the Natural Rate of Interest: The Role of Inflation Expectations
Authors: López-Salido J. David , Sanz-Maldonado Gerardo , Schippits Carly , Wei Min
Published: June 2020

The "natural" or equilibrium real rate of interest is an important concept in macroeconomics. On the one hand, the natural (real) rate provides a description of the real interest rate path consistent with the eventual full capacity of utilization of available resources in the context of low and stable inflation.
Türkiye’de ölümcül heyelanların dağılım karakteristikleri ve ulusal ölçekte öncelikli alanların belirlenmesi
Authors: FİDAN Seçkin , GÖRÜM Tolga
Published: June 2020

Türkiye’de her yıl onlarca kişinin ölümüne neden olan çok sayıda heyelan olayı meydana gelmektedir. Ancak Türkiye’de gerçekleşen heyelan olaylarının bu yönüyle ele alınması ve ölümlerin kaydedilmesi günümüze kadar ihmal edilmiştir. Bu kapsamda, 1929'dan 2019'a kadar Türkiye'de ölümcül heyelan olaylarını kapsayan bir veri tabanı, önceden belirlenmiş anahtar kelimeler kullanılarak akademik makaleler, afet ve şehir yıllık raporlarından, devlet ve yardım ajansları raporlarından, ulusal ve yerel basılı ve dijital medya raporlarını içeren çeşitli Türkçe kaynaklardan derlenmiştir. İncelenen dönemde, 1343 kişinin ölümüne neden olan 389 heyelan olayı tespit edilmiştir. Heyelan olayları ve ölümlerin zamansal dağılım karakteristiğini belirlemek için kullanılan Mann-Kendall (MK) testi ve Sen’s slope yöntemine göre 1929-2019 yıllarını kapsayan dönemde hem olay hem de ölü sayılarında artış eğilimi görülmektedir. Yıl içerisinde yaz mevsimde yoğunluk gösteren bu heyelan olayları, Doğu Karadeniz Bölümü ve İstanbul çevresi olmak üzere iki yoğunluk bölgesi oluşturmaktadır. Genel olarak, Doğu Karadeniz Bölümü doğal faktörlerle denetlenen ölümcül heyelanlar ile temsil edilirken, İstanbul ve çevresi antropojenik faktörlerle denetlenen ölümcül heyelanlar ile temsil edilmektedir. Mekânsal olarak ölümcül heyelanlar, 81 ilin 67’sindeki 227 farklı ilçede kaydedilmiştir. Öncelikli alanların belirlenmesi, heyelana maruz kalan yerleşim yerinin nüfusu ve kaydedilen heyelan sayısı ile hesaplanan olasılık değerinin, ölü sayısı ile ilişkisi üzerinden değerlendirilmiştir. Sonuç olarak, ölümcül heyelanların nihai dağılım desenine göre, topografik engebeliliğin ülke ortalamasının üzerinde olduğu Doğu Karadeniz Bölümü’nde yer alan il ve ilçelerdeki ölümlü heyelan frekansının ülkenin diğer engebeli bölümlerinden çarpıcı bir şekilde yüksek olduğu ortaya konulmuştur.
“Reflectories” for the Promotion of Competences in Education for Sustainable Development Using the Example of Climate Change
Authors: Schrüfer Gabriele , Wrenger Katja , Lindemann Imme
Published: June 2020

In order to meet the challenges in a globalised world, appropriate competencies should be initiated among pupils in the sense of education for sustainable development. In Germany, the focus in this context is on systems thinking and evaluation competence. At the same time, the importance of digital media in the everyday lives of children and at school is increasing more and more. Both the promotion of ESD skills and the use of digital media in teaching are based on a constructivist approach to learning. The question therefore arose, how can ESD competences be promoted with digital media? With the help of a design-based-research approach online learning arrangements (so-called reflectories) were developed. The word “reflectory” is composed of the terms “reflect” and “(s)tory”. In concrete terms, the learners are integrated into a “story” within which they are invited to make reflective decisions. Then they are immediately confronted with possible consequences of their decisions, which in turn are starting points for further necessary decisions. On the basis of audio contributions, images and text materials, learners have to weigh up and finally make and reflect on complex and uncertain decisions. The content of the reflectories is based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In a first step, content-related aspects and interactions were worked up on selected SDGs and reviewed by expert scientists. Subsequently, reflectories were developed with the involvement of teachers. The reflectories are beeing tested with teachers and students. In the paper, the criteria for the promotion of competences will be discussed based on the corresponding research results. Students were very motivated by the fact that they could make their own decisions on the basis of which they could continue to work. It was particularly emphasized that they learned that decisions can often not be right or wrong, but that these decisions can also have many consequences.
Cross-National Comparability of Assessment in Higher Education
Authors: Federiakin Denis
Published: June 2020

The last three decades have seen an increase in researchers’ interest in international comparative assessments of educational outcomes, particularly at the level of secondary schools. Achieving cross-national comparability is the main methodological challenge in the design of such studies. Cross-national comparability of test scores implies that the measure operates similarly across all the participating countries, regardless of their linguistic and cultural differences.The process of achieving cross-national comparability in higher education is more complicated due to specific features of higher education. This article explores the modern understanding of cross-national comparability of student assessment results and the possible ways of achieving it. It analyzes the specific aspects of higher education that complicate standardized measurement of educational outcomes and trivial achievement of cross-national comparability.The process of designing and conducting the Study of Undergraduate Performance — an international comparative research project aimed to assess and compare higher engineering education across nations — is described as an example of overcoming those challenges.
Academic Suicide: Scenarios of Doctoral Student Attrition in Russia
Authors: Bekova Saule
Published: June 2020

Doctoral student attrition is one of the most debated problems in higher education. Related studies are few in Russia, mostly being of applied type and offering no theoretical approaches to research on departure from doctoral study. Tinto’s model of student departure based on Durkheim’s theory of suicide is the most widespread theoretical framework among U.S. and European researchers. However, Tinto’s model only considers egoistic suicide. The present study offers an integrated approach to Durkheim’s theory, demonstrating the potential of applying the entire theoretical typology of suicide to analyze scenarios of doctoral student attrition. Interviews with doctoral students who did not finish their thesis were used to identify the major challenges faced by doctoral candidates and to provide recommendations for overcoming the problem of non-completion in Russian doctoral education.
Heterologous protein expression in E. coli v5
Authors: R Ganguly Diep , Rhodes Timothy , Chi Khin Nay , E Tee Estee , Xun Chan Kai
Published: June 2020

Protocol for recombinant protein expression in E. coli for protein purification and subsequent enzyme assays, protein crystallography etc.
Second opinions in elective surgery – what does the literature tell us already? A scoping review. v1
Authors: Prediger Barbara , Nießen Alina , Könsgen Nadja , Pieper Dawid
Published: June 2020

Please find detailed information on our protocol in the attached PDF file.
Heritage of the Past: Addressing Philippines Ecological Footprint and Local Wisdom Through Copra-Making Practice
Authors: Avila Roel V
Published: June 2020

This article emerged from the author’s apprehension regarding the lack of social sensitivity caused by the failure to connect the environment to the school lessons. Furthermore, creating balance and harmony within society and environment seemed impossible to realize in this sense. As in the Philippines in this case, schools often negated the significance to connect the environment to schools. From author point of view, the fact that the Philippines has strong ecological footprints and the local wisdom which can be traced through copra-making industry should not be discharged. The author examined this ecological intelligence which manifested inherently among the kinfolk of copra-makers by elaborating the indigenous cultural practices of the rural folks in the Philippines and making sense of those practices with metaphorization to advocate and conduct more connection in the classroom. As a result the highlighted indigenous processes that provided as a model in contextualizing sociological, cultural, and historical accounts as an ethno-pedagogical strategy of integrating nationalism in social sciences teaching.
Constitutional Defence Against the “Enemies” of Democracy: Theoretical Considerations and the Russian Experience
Authors: Khramova Tatiana , Troitskaya Alexandra
Published: June 2020

Democratic constitutional order is occasionally threatened by anti-democratic forces, andthus, requires special protection. The concept of militant democracy has been developedto provide adequate defensive mechanisms. In this article, we discuss positive aspectsof their application, but also highlight the risks of abusing these defensive mechanisms.Essentially, the problems are associated with narrowing the political space and favouringthe dominant political force. Fragile democracies, including Russia, are particularlyvulnerable to such exposure. A targeted study of Russian legislation and the caselawof the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation has allowed us to identify theprerequisites for effective implementation of the doctrine of self-defence in line with theprinciples of constitutionalism.
Edged Weapon Images On The Medieval Pottery From Taurida
Authors:   Taras Shevchenko national University of Kyiv, Valentyrova Kateryna
Published: June 2020

The research of the edged weapons requires an involvement of different types of sources. The visual ones are among the most informative. Images depicting medieval edged weapon could be found on different objects, in particular, on pottery. Most of such engravings are schematic; that is why an informative value of such sources is rather modest. Nevertheless, engrawings on pottery depicting edged weapons may attract scholar’s attention. Images on medieval pottery from Taurida (Crimea peninsula) are especially interesting in this context. In the article the author analyses 17 artifacts decorated with images of edged weapons that were found in Crimea. In each case an image of weapon was part of a larger composition depicting a warrior. Scholars tend to interpret such figures as saint warriors or epic heroes. Local life contexts as well as the general historical situation in Europe during the 12-13th centuries shaped favorable conditions for increasing popularity of the military themes in fine arts. The swords, sabres and items that cannot be reliably interpreted are depicted on the artifacts that are dealt with. The author reveals a spesific type of weaponry which have no analogies among the medieval archaeological materials by now. The upper date of exploitation of most of the atrifacts can be clearly identified as far as the artifacts were found in the cultural layer which corresponds with destruction of Chersonesus in the 13th century. The artists used to engrave weapons schematiclly, however sometimes the one can be sure what kind of weapon an artist tried to depict. Comparison of the images on pottery with the archaeological findings allows us to jydge on specific military traditions of both the Bizantine Empire and the Northern Black Sea region during the 11-12 centuries. The findings of the 13th century weapons in the Crimean peninsula are rather scarce, so the visual sources are very important for studing of the local edged weapon. Such sources are interesting in the broad context of studying of the medieval culture of Mediterranean and Black Sea regions as well.