bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Perencanaan Perbaikan Akustik Ruang dengan Metode Bertingkat
Authors: Ola Frengky Benediktus , Wismarani Yustina Banon , Desira Adiana Hemas
Published: July 2024

Kegiatan ibadah yang melibatkan khotbah (pidato) dan musik dari instumen band lengkap membutuhkan penanganan akustik ruang yang lebih komplek.  Hasil pengukuran kondisi eksisting kualitas akustik ruang GPdI El Shaddai Magelang waktu dengung kondisi eksisting menunjukan nilai RT yang masih tinggi dikisaran angka 1.7 - 1.9 detik dari nilai rujukan 1.4 sampai 1.6 detik sehingga diperlukan perbaikan. Gereja membutuhkan profesional yang dapat membantu dalam membuat rencana perbaikan karena mereka tidak memiliki pengetahuan tentang desain akustik ruang. Pengukuran lapangan dan simulasi akustik akan digunakan untuk merancang ruang ibadah gereja. Nilai rujukan standar akustik ruang adalah RT60, D50 dan C80. Konsep perbaikan dengan rekomendasi berjenjang mulai dari level minimum, medium hingga advance. Ketiga level perbaikan memberikan dampak perbaikan. Level advance memberikan hasil terbaik dan menjawab semua tuntutan standar nilai rujukan. Namun level advance juga berdampak pada perubahan yang lebih banyak dari segi konstruksi, tampilan visual, dan anggaran biaya. Keputusan level perbaikan yang akan digunakan merupakan sepenuhnya hak Gereja.
Analisis Pengaruh Pertumbuhan Penduduk Terhadap Pertumbuhan Ekonomi Wilayah
Authors: Wulandari Fitri Fitri Wulandari , Zuriyani Elvi , Afryansih Nila
Published: July 2024

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk memperoleh data, mengolah, dan menganalisis hasil peningkatan jumlah penduduk dengan kemajuan ekonomi yang mencakup 3 aspek, yakni: 1) pertumbuhan penduduk di Kabupaten Agam tahun 2010 - 2020. 2) Perekonomian Agam pembangunan tahun 2010 - 2020 3) pengaruh pertumbuhan penduduk terhadap kemajuan ekonomi di Kabupaten Agam tahun 2010-2020. Jenis penelitian yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah penelitian kuantitatif deskriptif, teknik penarikan sampel adalah total sampling dimana semua data diambil dari pertumbuhan penduduk dan pertumbuhan ekonomi di kabupaten Agam. Hasil yang diperoleh dari penelitian ini: 1) dari 10 tahun terakhir terjadi fluktuasi pertumbuhan penduduk Kabupaten Agam. 2) Pertumbuhan ekonomi Kabupaten Agam mengalami kenaikan dan penurunan dimana pertumbuhan ekonomi tertinggi pada tahun 2012 sebesar 6,18% dan terendah pada tahun 2020 dengan angka -1,38%. 3) pertambahan jumlah penduduk berpengaruh positif signifikan terhadap pertumbuhan ekonomi di Kabupaten Agam.
Number of Innovations in Kazakh Dictionaries of the Eighteenth Century in Comparison with Those of Other Turkic and Finno-Ugric Languages
Authors: Normanskaja Julia
Published: July 2024

The analysis of the dictionary published by P. S. Pallas makes it possible to clarify the chronology of changes in Kazakh dialects. The Kazakh dictionary of P. S. Pallas is important evidence that PTu *č was still preserved in the 18th century in Kazakh, and the changes were PTu *j-, *ĺ not finished yet. The dictionary presents only those innovative changes of consonants that are common for all Kipchak languages. It was also interesting that in the Kazakh language spoken in the late 18th century, only 1 sound change from Proto Turkic; in the Tatar dictionary 2 sound changes; in the Nogai dictionary 1 sound change; in the Hill Mari language 2 sound changes; in the South Khanty 5 sound changes; in the North Khanty 3 sound changes, and in the East Khanty 1 sound change.
Multilingualism in Burundi: Languages and their Domains of Use
Authors: Kouega Jean-Paul , Lontsi Rufine Dongpe
Published: July 2024

This study describes multilingualism in Burundi, focusing on the social contexts in which each language is used. The main instrument used was a 16-item questionnaire coupled with informal discussions, and the informants were 20 volunteer students admitted to the National School of Administration – the ENA school for short, a government institution assigned to set up and implement an English Language training programme that teaches English to all civil servants from existing ministries. The questionnaire derives from Fishman’s domains of language use, which is the frame adopted for the analysis. The findings reveal that four languages co-exist in Burundi, i.e., Kirundi, the ancestral language; Belgian French, the coloniser’s language; Kiswahili, a trade language dominant in neighbouring countries; English, the working language for various East African regional institutions, including the East African Community, and the Economic Community of the Great Lake Countries. While Kirundi is dominant in the family, religion, and friendship domains, French, a colonial language, reigns in various schools in the country, and English, dominant regionally, reigns supreme in the ENA school.
Assessment of the Influence of Counterculture Symbols and Images on the Formation of Individual Identity
Authors: Petrash Nikolay D. ,   Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Petrash Elena V. ,   Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation
Published: July 2024

This article examines the process of forming individual identity in the context of interaction with countercultural symbols and images. The focus is on the idea that individual identity can develop in various social conditions, including both positive and negative scenarios of influence. Particular attention is paid to the role of initiation processes, including in the criminal counterculture, and their stages: pre-liminal, liminal, and post-liminal. The article analyzes how initiation rites and associated practices contribute to the emergence of new personal quali-ties and the formation of a new individual identity. It integrates insights from theoretical frameworks, including I.V. Vipulis’ concepts on the vital and thanatal aspects of initiation, alongside empirical findings from modern sociological data and insights from criminal procedural legislation in the Russian Federation. Additionally, theo-retical contributions by K.Y. Dekan and V.S. Ishchenko regarding counterculture as a catalyst for social devel-opment are considered. The relevance of the article is due to the need to understand the mechanisms of influ-ence of countercultural elements on personal development in the conditions of the modern social context.
The Problem of Public Order in the Philosophical Concepts of Ancient Greece and the Middle Ages: Development of a Basic Metamodel: Аrticle 1
Authors: Khanzina Elena G. ,   Murmansk Arctic University
Published: July 2024

The article constitutes the first part of the study aimed at addressing the enduring challenge of public order – a pivotal concern among philosophers throughout history, since ancient times. The study proposes a basic met-amodel that traces the evolution of ideas surrounding public order. Employing a blend of logical and historical methodologies, the author identifies the essential characteristics of public order, which serve as defining fea-tures for philosophical concepts. These include the structured organization of societal elements, interpersonal social dynamics, hierarchical arrangements within society, and the determining factors critical to discerning and maintaining public order’s sustainable functioning. Building upon these foundational insights, the study estab-lishes distinct forms of social order pertinent to various epochs in the development of philosophical thought, categorized by the author as fundamental conceptual models. In conclusion, this article contributes to a deeper understanding of how philosophical perspectives on public order have evolved over time, laying the ground-work for subsequent investigations into its multifaceted nature and implications.
Dynamics of Group Decision-Making: Philosophical Perspective
Authors: Sergienko Artem A. ,   Independent researcher, Denikina Zoya D. ,   Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation
Published: July 2024

In the modern world, where decisions are made at speeds dictated by technological progress, the dynamics of group decision-making are becoming particularly relevant. Exploring the philosophical foundations of group decision-making provides a deeper understanding of the mechanisms that drive collective intelligence and determine its effectiveness. The article focuses on analyzing the processes underlying group decision-making, emphasizing philosophical aspects such as will, rationality, and emotions. The study aims to identify and sys-tematize factors influencing the group decision-making process and to determine their role in shaping collec-tive choices. The author sets the task not only to describe these processes, but also to propose ways to optimize decision-making in groups, which can have significant practical significance for management, education and social work. It is argued that the dynamics of group decision-making cannot be understood without considering the socio-philosophical context in which these processes occur. The author emphasizes the importance of ethi-cal and value-oriented guidelines that direct group decisions is highlighted, offering a new perspective on the role of leadership and authority in these processes.
Administrative Reforms as a Solution for Building Democracy in Modern Vietnam
Authors: Tu Thi Thoa ,   State University of Management, Nguyen Duc Cuong ,   University of Physical Education and Sports,   State University of Management,   Academy of Politics
Published: July 2024

This paper explores Vietnam’s administrative reforms, which constitute a pivotal strategy towards country’s democratization. It scrutinizes three critical dimensions: the overarching goals of the reforms, the specific poli-cies and measures implemented, and the challenges encountered. Initially, the paper discusses how these reforms underpin democratization by boosting government efficiency, accountability, and transparency, em-phasizing key initiatives like bureaucratic restructuring, policy modernization, and e-governance integration to enhance public engagement and streamline operations. Subsequently, it details measures such as the digitali-zation of administrative processes and legislative updates aimed at achieving service excellence and focusing on citizen-centric governance. In conclusion, this study points out the multifaceted challenges facing Vietnam’s administrative reform. This analysis illustrates the complex yet crucial journey towards establishing a more democratic, transparent, and accountable governance model in Vietnam.
Strategic Planning of the Organization and Functioning of the Institute of Public Control in Russia as a Tool to Increase Its Effectiveness
Authors: Goncharov Vitaly V. ,   Independent Researcher, Glyzina Maria P. , Petrenko Elena G. , Pchelintsev Artem S. ,   Don State Technical University,   Kuban State Agrarian University named after I.T. Trubilin,   Patrice Lumumba Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia
Published: July 2024

The article undertakes an analysis of modern problems and prospects for establishing and implementing a strategic planning system for the organization and functioning of the institute of public control in Russia, em-phasizing its critical role in enhancing efficiency. The place of the institute of public control in the system of le-gal guarantees for implementing, protecting, and defending constitutional principles, as well as the entire sys-tem of rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of individuals and legal entities is described. It highlights the necessity to enhance the effectiveness of the aforementioned institution of civil society amid declining reve-nues in most regional and municipal budgets and uncompromising efforts against corruption within public ad-ministration. Among the obstacles hindering the creation and implementation of the proposed system, the arti-cle identifies several issues: the lack of constitutional recognition of this institution of civil society, the absence of the concept of a public control system in legislation, the lack of a unified approach in legal doctrine towards planning the organization and functioning of public control on a national scale, and the weak use of positive Soviet and foreign experience as well as modern digital technologies, including artificial intelligence.
Social Media in the Electoral Process: Findings from the COVID-19 Pandemic
Authors: Gandaloeva Madina T. ,   Kuban State University
Published: July 2024

The article identifies the specificities of using social media in the electoral process under COVID-19-related restrictions. With the ban on public gatherings, politicians had to reconsider traditional measures and methods of communicating with citizens during elections. This prompted the refinement of methods using relevant inter-net technologies across various platforms. Based on an analysis of practices in remote voting during elections to the Moscow City Duma from 2019 to 2021 and electoral campaigns in Russia during the pandemic period, the author concludes that under stringent epidemiological constraints, it became evident that internet voting is a crucial independent direction in electoral campaigns. The tools used for organizing online citizen voting proce-dures are identified, as well as technologies for remote voting on digital platforms are described.
Implementation of Weaving Techniques in Products Fashion Men’s Ready To Wear
Authors: Angin Dede Ananta K Perangin ,   Study Program of Craft Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts and Design, Institut Seni Budaya Indonesia (ISBI) Bandung Jl. Buah Batu No. 212, Bandung, Indonesia
Published: July 2024

Woven crafts are a form of creativity in creating various kinds of products. Weaving techniques not only use materials from nature such as rattan, bamboo, pandan leaves, but can also use non-natural materials, one of which is textile fabric that can be applied to ready-made men's fashion products. Given the high market demand for men's fashion products that require a new touch to be more dynamic and keep up with the times but still include a little local content by applying weaving techniques to certain parts. The Anyaman technique is also a basic technique used in making a piece of cloth, but the process of making the cloth is assisted by a tool called a non-machine loom or ATBM and Gedog manually. Therefore, the focus of this research is to find out the opportunities for the application of weaving techniques in ready-to-wear menswear products. This research was conducted using qualitative methods and analyzed through literature study and indirect observation. This research produced a design concept and explored weaving techniques using fabric materials applied to ready-to-wear menswear products that have cultural, functional, aesthetic and marketable values.
Financial Distress Analysis as Early Warning System on Halal Tourism Industries: Case Study during Covid-19 Pandemic Era
Authors: Puspita Nindy Akbar Lintang , Pambekti Galuh Tri , Khoirunisa Kharisa Rachmi
Published: July 2024

Purpose: To know whether there is a difference in the level of accuracy between the Altman, Zmijewski, and Springate models in analyzing financial distress in halal tourism industries during the COVID-19 pandemic.Design / methodology / approach: A quantitative method with a comparative descriptive approach.Research Findings: There are different levels of accuracy that prove that there is a difference in the level of accuracy between the Altman, Zmijewski and Springate models in analyzing financial distress tourism industries during the COVID-19 pandemic.Contribution / Originality / Novelty: It can practically assist company management in understanding financial distress analysis and help investors, both individual and institutional investors, to see the potential for company bankruptcy as a consideration in investing.
Tujuan Penelitian: Untuk mengetahui apakah terdapat perbedaan tingkat akurasi antara model Altman, Zmijewski, dan Springate dalam menganalisis financial distress pada industri pariwisata halal pada masa pandemi COVID-19.Desain / metodologi / pendekatan: Metode kuantitatif dengan pendekatan deskriptif komparatif.Temuan Penelitian: terdapat perbedaan tingkat akurasi membuktikan bahwa terdapat perbedaan tingkat akurasi antara model Altman, Zmijewski dan Springate dalam menganalisis industri pariwisata financial distress pada masa pandemi COVID-19.Kontribusi / Orisinalitas / Kebaruan: Secara praktis dapat membantu manajemen perusahaan dalam memahami analisis kesulitan keuangan dan membantu investor, baik investor individu maupun institusi, untuk melihat potensi kebangkrutan perusahaan sebagai pertimbangan dalam berinvestasi.
Socio-economic and educational implications of COVID-19: Evidence from the higher education sector in a developing country
Authors: Gazi Md. Abu Issa , Masud Abdullah Al , Chowdhury Md. Abdul Mazed , Senathirajah Abdul Rahman bin S , Begum Zeennat Ara
Published: July 2024

The impact of the coronavirus outbreak was seen all over the world in all sectors. In the case of Bangladesh, it was not free of threats. Like all other sectors, the economic, social, and educational sectors were under serious threat. This study examined the effects of COVID-19 on the lives of Bangladeshi students, with a particular focus on their idealized portrayals of plans, daily routines, social interactions, and mental well-being. This research also investigated the influence of COVID-19 on education, social life, and other sectors and how the government was dealing with this unprecedented situation and these elevation challenges. A mixed-methods approach was adopted for this research. A total of 90 students from Bangladeshi higher educational institutions were taken as a sample size using the random sampling method. SPSS software was used for data analysis. The study’s quantitative results showed that Bangladeshi students faced challenges related to teaching, learning, and social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the study revealed that the pandemic adversely affected higher education in Bangladesh. Rebels and concerned citizens from all parts of the state must work together to move forward. COVID-19 has had a natural effect on education and almost every other field. The need for social distancing has pushed the education system to change because of social distancing. Many educational institutions worldwide have shuttered their campuses and relocated their teaching and learning online.
Qualitative exploration of strategic imperatives: Integrating TQM for social impact and organizational sustainability in in the realm of social enterprises
Authors: Sultana Farhat , Liao Ying-Ying , Soltani Ebrahim
Published: July 2024

How can social enterprises implement Total Quality Management (TQM) to tackle urgent social issues within their organizational framework while also ensuring their continued viability? To address this question, this study aims to explore the organizational approach to the adoption and implementation of TQM practices and their efficacy in mitigating pressing social challenges and maintaining financial sustainability. It adopts a qualitative multiple-case research design involving 3 social enterprises to explore the research phenomenon. Following qualitative research analysis process using NVivo, our findings highlight a prevalent, short-term outlook in managing TQM, hindering the full potential of TQM to achieve both social impact and organizational sustainability. More specifically, they expose a significant dissonance within the case organizations’ TQM implementations: the contrast between the current state, indicative of what it is, and the ideal state, indicative of what it should be. Altogether, the study advocates leveraging TQM for long-term excellence and alignment in social enterprises (as opposed to short-term mediocrity and disarray), thereby facilitating the achievement of both social impact and financial sustainability.
Análisis de los actos de habla en una praxis iatromágica en PGM VII 212-213
Authors: Romero Criado Alberto
Published: July 2024

Los Papiros Griegos Mágicos1 son un corpus de textos que han sido estudiados desde diversas perspectivas (filológicas, religiosas e históricas, entre otras), que han ayudado a su comprensión y a otros aspectos relacionados con la época como el complejo sincretismo religioso del Egipto grecorromano. En el siguiente trabajo se propone llevar a cabo un análisis de las líneas 212-213del PGM VII desde una óptica sociolingüística, en donde se pretende comprender las relaciones existentes entre el redactor y el actuante y cómo este último ha de entender y ejecutar la praxis para que esta sea exitosa.
Las recetas eroticas mágicas de vasijas: bebiendo voces magicae
Authors: Chronopoulou Eleni
Published: July 2024

El presente artículo examina una subcategoría de hechizos amorosos denominados “recetas de vasijas”, puesto que sus títulos en griego (πόσιμον, ποτήριον, πότισμα) se encuentran directamente relacionados con el acto de beber, πιεῖν en griego antiguo. El estudio examina las similitudes y las diferencias entre las distintas pociones para definir su modus operandi y realizar unas observaciones al respecto.
Factors related to possible autoimmune etiology in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy
Authors: Kowalska Magdalena , Nagańska Ewa , Fiszer Urszula
Published: July 2024

Background

Between 14% and 20% of cases of drug-resistant epilepsy may be attributed to an impaired cellular or humoral immune response.

Aim

Our study aimed to assess disorders of the immune response of the humoral or cellular type and their impact on the course of the disease, factors suggesting the diagnosis of an autoimmune etiology. We wanted to analyse these factors, looking for correlations with a history of status epilepticus.

Materials and methods

This study prospectively analysed 30 patients who were diagnosed with drug-resistant epilepsy. The patients were divided into two groups: those who had previously experienced status epilepticus and those who had not. The study collected and analysed detailed information about the patient’s medical history, routine blood laboratory tests, albumin and immunoglobulin (IgG) levels, neuropsychological evaluations, electroencephalography tests (EEG), general cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) examinations, tests for the presence of oligoclonal bands, IgG index determination, MRZ-reaction (MRZR), chitotriosidase activity, and the presence of anti-herpes type 1 (anti-HSV-1) antibodies and neural autoantibodies. Each patient underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the head with intravenous contrast administration using the epileptic protocol.

Results

There was no statistically significant difference in age, gender, onset and disease duration up to the time of our study. None of the patients showed the presence of the tested antibodies against neuronal surface antigens and oligoclonal bands in the CSF.

Conclusion

Lack of antibodies against neuronal antigens does not necessarily rule out autoimmune epilepsy. The exact diagnostic criteria are still a subject of debate. A history of SE increases the risk of autoimmune epilepsy.
Imperfective and Perfective Verbs in Polish Legal Texts. Linguistic Analysis and Results of a Survey
Authors: Marek Łaziński , Karolina Jóźwiak , Grzegorz Krajewski
Published: July 2024

The article presents factors influencing the choice of verbal aspects in Polish legal texts. The Polish legal language norm generally uses imperfective verbs (hereinafter: ipf) in the present tense. The reason is not only the universal directival function of the present tense but also a specific function of the imperfective aspect in Polish, i.e., its definitional meaning. Other Slavic languages use perfective verbs (hereinafter referred to as: pf) as a standard legal norm in codes. The first part of the text, based on Łaziński, Jóźwiak 2017 and Łaziński 2020, is a theoretical analysis with the use of linguistic and legal background.

In the second part of the article, the authors present the results of a survey using a fictional statute where respondents had to choose an appropriate verbal aspect. By applying such a strategy it is possible to evaluate the significance of different factors influencing the aspect choice described in the first part of the texts and other factors considered in the survey. In the authors’ opinion, the conclusions of the survey and theoretical discussion have important consequences for both linguistics and law, especially for the grammatical interpretation of the law.
Russian Correspondences to Swedish Bipartite Comitatives
Authors: Mellquist Simone
Published: July 2024

The present parallel corpus investigation shows that the Russian correspondences to Swedish bipartite comitatives — med- ‘with’-constructions with the structure [med + NP + PP] — can largely be predicted from the presence and positions of NPs referring to inalienable body parts in the constructions. When a Swedish bipartite med-construction contains an inalienable in the first (subject) part of the bipartite med-construction: [med + NPinalienable+ P + NP], perfective converb constructions constitute the most frequent Russian correspondence. When there is an alienable NP in the first part and an inalienable NP in the PP part: [med + NPalienable+ P + NPinalienable], by contrast, the Swedish bipartite med-constructions frequently correspond to Russian comitative (s+instrumental) constructions. The study shows two more important correspondence types: bare instrumental constructions expressing manner and finite constructions expressing condition or temporal condition. These four Russian correspondence types (converb constructions, s+instrumental constructions, bare instrumental constructions and finite constructions) represent four different ontological types, as they mark relations between the matrix and eventualities (states/temporary properties) entities, manners, and states of affairs, respectively.
Theoretical Basis of International Legal Aspect of “Space Debris” Removal
Authors: Oreshenkov A. M.
Published: July 2024

INTRODUCTION. The article examines the issue of such a widespread concept in the practice of communication on international “space” platforms as “space debris”, in particular, what, from the point of view of the norms of international space law, represents this word combination, introduced into international circulation in the 70‒90s of the last century when discussing the problem of contamination created by it in near-Earth space.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The material for the study are treaties of international space law, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties 1969, resolutions of the UN General Assembly, reports of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, as well as its Legal, and Scientiﬁc and Technical Subcommittees, statements of some delegations at their sessions, works of Russian and foreign scientists, materials of international structures, in particular the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee, US regulations. Carrying out a comparative analysis of normative and other documents of the named structures, as well as some provisions of international treaties (taking into account their conceptual, vocabulary and terminological content), the author uses the general scientiﬁc method of cognition.

RESEARCH RESULTS. The current increased interest to the issue of “space debris” active removal has revealed the need to clarify the international legal basis for the emergence and use of this concept for further possible practical and international legal actions aimed at solving problems associated with such removal. It’s noted the lack of uniformity in the use of terms and word combinations on the issues under study, are considered deﬁnitions for “space debris” developed without due regard to the applicable norms of international space law, and are given regulatory explanations to the status of documents adopted in this area by various international structures and organizations.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. Assessing the current situation in matters of near-Earth space contamination, it can be noted that the issue of active removal of “space debris” should be resolved in the context of ensuring safe access to space, which is an integral part of the triune problem of space traﬃc management, the regulation of which is becoming an urgent problem and requires the development of a generally accepted legally binding international treaty.
CVAT-BWV: A Web-Based Video Annotation Platform for Police Body-Worn Video
Authors: Hejabi Parsa , Padte Akshay Kiran , Golazizian Preni , Hebbar Rajat , Trager Jackson , Chochlakis Georgios , Kommineni Aditya , Graeden Ellie , Narayanan Shrikanth , Graham Benjamin A.T. , Dehghani Morteza
Published: July 2024

We introduce an open-source platform for annotating body-worn video (BWV) footage aimed at enhancing transparency and accountability in policing. Despite the widespread adoption of BWVs in police departments, analyzing the vast amount of footage generated has presented significant challenges. This is primarily due to resource constraints, the sensitive nature of the data, which limits widespread access, and consequently, lack of annotations for training machine learning models. Our platform, called CVAT-BWV, offers a secure, locally hosted annotation environment that integrates several AI tools to assist in annotating multimodal data. With features such as automatic speech recognition, speaker diarization, object detection, and face recognition, CVAT-BWV aims to reduce the manual annotation workload, improve annotation quality, and allow for capturing perspectives from a diverse population of annotators. This tool aims to streamline the collection of annotations and the building of models, enhancing the use of BWV data for oversight and learning purposes to uncover insights into police-civilian interactions.
Mahjong AI Competition: Exploring AI Application in Complex Real-World Games
Authors: Lu Yunlong , Li Wenxin
Published: July 2024

This paper presents three Mahjong AI competitions we held at IJCAI. We briefly introduce the rule of Mahjong and its challenges to AI algorithms. By showing the results and the application of various algorithms in the competitions, we claim that existing algorithms show promising results in Mahjong, while open problems remain and more efforts are needed towards solving this complex game.
AESim: A Data-Driven Aircraft Engine Simulator
Authors: Madane Abdellah , Forest Florent , Azzag Hanane , Lebbah Mustapha , Lacaille Jérôme
Published: July 2024

We present AESim, a data-driven Aircraft Engine Simulator developed using transformer-based conditional generative adversarial networks. AESim generates samples of aircraft engine sensor measurements over full flights, conditioned on a given flight mission profile representing the flight conditions. It constitutes an essential tool in aircraft engine digital twins, capable of simulating their performance for different flight missions. It allows for comparison of the behavior of different engines under the same operational conditions, simulation of various scenarios for a given engine, facilitating applications like engine behavior analysis, performance limit identification, and optimization of maintenance schedules within a global Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) strategy. It also allows the imputation of missing flight data and addresses confidentiality concerns by generating synthetic flight datasets that can be shared for public research purposes or data challenges.
SaGol: Using MiniGPT-4 to Generate Alt Text for Improving Image Accessibility
Authors: Moon Yunseo , Lee Hyunmin , Oh SeungYoung , Jung Hyunggu
Published: July 2024

SaGol is an AI-powered application to improve image accessibility for people with visual impairments (PVI) users. Alternative (alt) text, a general method of web accessibility for PVI users, is text or phrases that describe images on a website in an understandable way. SaGol generates alt text with the images on the user's smartphone using a vision large language model called MiniGPT-4. SaGol searches for similar images based on the generated alt text. We evaluated the length of alt text and the search accuracy. This paper shows a potential opportunity to improve image accessibility for PVI users.
Scene-Adaptive Person Search via Bilateral Modulations
Authors: Jiang Yimin , Wang Huibing , Peng Jinjia , Fu Xianping , Wang Yang
Published: July 2024

Person search aims to localize specific a target person from a gallery set of images with various scenes. As the scene of moving pedestrian changes, the captured person image inevitably bring in lots of background noise and foreground noise on the person feature, which are completely unrelated to the person identity, leading to severe performance degeneration. To address this issue, we present a Scene-Adaptive Person Search (SEAS) model by introducing bilateral modulations to simultaneously eliminate scene noise and maintain a consistent person representation to adapt to various scenes. In SEAS, a Background Modulation Network (BMN) is designed to encode the feature extracted from the detected bounding box into a multi-granularity embedding, which reduces the input of background noise from multiple levels with norm-aware. Additionally, to mitigate the effect of foreground noise on the person feature, SEAS introduces a Foreground Modulation Network (FMN) to compute the clutter reduction offset for the person embedding based on the feature map of the scene image. By bilateral modulations on both background and foreground within an end-to-end manner, SEAS obtains consistent feature representations without scene noise. SEAS can achieve state-of-the-art (SOTA) performance on two benchmark datasets, CUHK-SYSU with 97.1% mAP and PRW with 60.5% mAP. The code is available at https://github.com/whbdmu/SEAS.
Reinforcement Learning for Athletic Intelligence: Lessons from the 1st “AI Olympics with RealAIGym” Competition
Authors: Wiebe Felix , Turcato Niccolò , Dalla Libera Alberto , Zhang Chi , Vincent Theo , Vyas Shubham , Giacomuzzo Giulio , Carli Ruggero , Romeres Diego , Sathuluri Akhil , Zimmermann Markus , Belousov Boris , Peters Jan , Kirchner Frank , Kumar Shivesh
Published: July 2024

As artificial intelligence gains new capabilities, it

becomes important to evaluate it on real-world

tasks. In particular, the fields of robotics and reinforcement learning (RL) are lacking in standardized benchmarking tasks on real hardware. To

facilitate reproducibility and stimulate algorithmic

advancements, we held an AI Olympics competition at IJCAI 2023 conference based on the double

pendulum system in the RealAIGym project where

the participants were asked to develop a controller

for the swing up and stabilization task. This paper

presents the methods and results from the top participating teams and provides insights into the real-world performance of RL algorithms with respect

to a baseline time-varying LQR controller.
Bridging Stereo Geometry and BEV Representation with Reliable Mutual Interaction for Semantic Scene Completion
Authors: Li Bohan , Sun Yasheng , Liang Zhujin , Du Dalong , Zhang Zhuanghui , Wang Xiaofeng , Wang Yunnan , Jin Xin , Zeng Wenjun
Published: July 2024

3D semantic scene completion (SSC) is an ill-posed perception task that requires inferring a dense 3D scene from limited observations. Previous camera-based methods struggle to predict accurate semantic scenes due to inherent geometric ambiguity and incomplete observations. In this paper, we resort to stereo matching technique and bird’s-eye-view (BEV) representation learning to address such issues in SSC. Complementary to each other, stereo matching mitigates geometric ambiguity with epipolar constraint while BEV representation enhances the hallucination ability for invisible regions with global semantic context. However, due to the inherent representation gap between stereo geometry and BEV features, it is non-trivial to bridge them for dense prediction task of SSC. Therefore, we further develop a unified occupancy-based framework dubbed BRGScene, which effectively bridges these two representations with dense 3D volumes for reliable semantic scene completion. Specifically, we design a novel Mutual Interactive Ensemble (MIE) block for pixel-level reliable aggregation of stereo geometry and BEV features. Within the MIE block, a Bi-directional Reliable Interaction (BRI) module, enhanced with confidence re-weighting, is employed to encourage fine-grained interaction through mutual guidance. Besides, a Dual Volume Ensemble (DVE) module is introduced to facilitate complementary aggregation through channel-wise recalibration and multi-group voting. Our method outperforms all published camera-based methods on SemanticKITTI for semantic scene completion. Our code is available on https://github.com/Arlo0o/StereoScene.
X-Light: Cross-City Traffic Signal Control Using Transformer on Transformer as Meta Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learner
Authors: Jiang Haoyuan , Li Ziyue , Wei Hua , Xiong Xuantang , Ruan Jingqing , Lu Jiaming , Mao Hangyu , Zhao Rui
Published: July 2024

The effectiveness of traffic light control has been significantly improved by current reinforcement learning-based approaches via better cooperation among multiple traffic lights. However, a persisting issue remains: how to obtain a multi-agent traffic signal control algorithm with remarkable transferability across diverse cities? In this paper, we propose a Transformer on Transformer (TonT) model for cross-city meta multi-agent traffic signal control, named as X-Light: We input the full Markov Decision Process trajectories, and the Lower Transformer aggregates the states, actions, rewards among the target intersection and its neighbors within a city, and the Upper Transformer learns the general decision trajectories across different cities. This dual-level approach bolsters the model's robust generalization and transferability. Notably, when directly transferring to unseen scenarios, ours surpasses all baseline methods with +7.91% on average, and even +16.3% in some cases, yielding the best results.
Formal Verification of Parameterised Neural-symbolic Multi-agent Systems
Authors: Kouvaros Panagiotis , Botoeva Elena , De Bonis-Campbell Cosmo
Published: July 2024

We study the problem of verifying multi-agent systems composed of arbitrarily many neural-symbolic agents. We introduce a novel parameterised model, where the parameter denotes the number of agents in the system, each homogeneously constructed from an agent template equipped with a neural network-based perception unit and a traditionally programmed action selection mechanism. We define the verification and emergence identification problems for these models against a bounded fragment of CTL. We put forward an abstraction methodology that enables us to recast both problems to the problem of checking Neural Interpreted Systems with a bounded number of agents. We present an implementation and discuss experimental results obtained on a social dilemma game based on guarding.
MCM: Multi-condition Motion Synthesis Framework
Authors: Ling Zeyu , Han Bo , Wong Yongkang , Lin Han , Kankanhalli Mohan , Geng Weidong
Published: July 2024

Conditional human motion synthesis (HMS) aims to generate human motion sequences that conform to specific conditions. Text and audio represent the two predominant modalities employed as HMS control conditions. While existing research has primarily focused on single conditions, the multi-condition human motion synthesis remains underexplored. In this study, we propose a multi-condition HMS framework, termed MCM, based on a dual-branch structure composed of a main branch and a control branch. This framework effectively extends the applicability of the diffusion model, which is initially predicated solely on textual conditions, to auditory conditions. This extension encompasses both music-to-dance and co-speech HMS while preserving the intrinsic quality of motion and the capabilities for semantic association inherent in the original model.

Furthermore, we propose the implementation of a Transformer-based diffusion model, designated as MWNet, as the main branch. This model adeptly apprehends the spatial intricacies and inter-joint correlations inherent in motion sequences, facilitated by the integration of multi-wise self-attention modules.

Extensive experiments show that our method achieves competitive results in single-condition and multi-condition HMS tasks.
Accelerating Diffusion Models for Inverse Problems through Shortcut Sampling
Authors: Liu Gongye , Sun Haoze , Li Jiayi , Yin Fei , Yang Yujiu
Published: July 2024

Diffusion models have recently demonstrated an impressive ability to address inverse problems in an unsupervised manner. While existing methods primarily focus on modifying the posterior sampling process, the potential of the forward process remains largely unexplored. In this work, we propose Shortcut Sampling for Diffusion(SSD), a novel approach for solving inverse problems in a zero-shot manner. Instead of initiating from random noise, the core concept of SSD is to find a specific transitional state that bridges the measurement image y and the restored image x. By utilizing the shortcut path of "input - transitional state - output", SSD can achieve precise restoration with fewer steps. To derive the transitional state during the forward process, we introduce Distortion Adaptive Inversion. Moreover, we apply back projection as additional consistency constraints during the generation process. Experimentally, we demonstrate SSD's effectiveness on multiple representative IR tasks. Our method achieves competitive results with only 30 NFEs compared to state-of-the-art zero-shot methods(100 NFEs) and outperforms them with 100 NFEs in certain tasks. Code is available at https://github.com/GongyeLiu/SSD.
Where Elegance Meets Precision: Towards a Compact, Automatic, and Flexible Framework for Multi-modality Image Fusion and Applications
Authors: Liu Jinyuan , Wu Guanyao , Liu Zhu , Ma Long , Liu Risheng , Fan Xin
Published: July 2024

Multi-modality image fusion aims to integrate images from multiple sensors, producing an image that is visually appealing and offers more comprehensive information than any single one. To ensure high visual quality and facilitate accurate subsequent perception tasks, previous methods have often cascaded networks using weighted loss functions. However, such simplistic strategies struggle to truly achieve the "Best of Both Worlds", and the adjustment of numerous hand-crafted parameters becomes burdensome. To address these challenges, this paper introduces a Compact, Automatic and Flexible framework, dubbed CAF, designed for infrared and visible image fusion, along with subsequent tasks. Concretely, we recast the combined problem of fusion and perception into a single objective, allowing mutual optimization of information from both tasks. Then we also utilize the perception task to inform the design of fusion loss functions, facilitating the automatic identification of optimal fusion objectives tailored to the task. Furthermore, CAF can support seamless integration with existing approaches easily, offering flexibility in adapting to various tasks and network structures. Extensive experiments demonstrate the superiority of CAF, which not only produces visually admirable fused results but also realizes 1.7 higher detection mAP@.5 and 2.0 higher segmentation mIoU than the state-of-the-art methods. The code is available at https://github.com/RollingPlain/CAF_IVIF.
FastScene: Text-Driven Fast Indoor 3D Scene Generation via Panoramic Gaussian Splatting
Authors: Ma Yikun , Zhan Dandan , Jin Zhi
Published: July 2024

Text-driven 3D indoor scene generation holds broad applications, ranging from gaming and smart homes to AR/VR applications. Fast and high-fidelity scene generation is paramount for ensuring

user-friendly experiences. However, existing methods are characterized by lengthy generation processes or necessitate the intricate manual specification of motion parameters, which introduces inconvenience for users. Furthermore, these methods often rely on narrow-field viewpoint iterative generations, compromising global consistency and overall scene quality. To address these issues, we propose FastScene, a framework for fast and higher-quality 3D scene generation, while maintaining the scene consistency. Specifically, given a text prompt, we generate a panorama and estimate its depth, since the panorama encompasses information about the entire scene and exhibits explicit geometric constraints. To obtain high-quality novel views, we introduce the Coarse View Synthesis (CVS) and Progressive Novel View Inpainting (PNVI) strategies, ensuring both scene consistency and view quality. Subsequently, we utilize Multi-View Projection (MVP) to form perspective views, and apply 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) for scene reconstruction. Comprehensive experiments demonstrate FastScene surpasses other methods in both generation speed and quality with better scene consistency. Notably, guided only by a text prompt, FastScene can generate a 3D scene within a mere 15 minutes, which is at least one hour faster than state-of-the-art methods, making it a paradigm for user-friendly scene generation.
Contrastive Transformer Masked Image Hashing for Degraded Image Retrieval
Authors: Shen Xiaobo , Cai Haoyu , Gong Xiuwen , Zheng Yuhui
Published: July 2024

Hashing utilizes hash code as a compact image representation, offering excellent performance in large-scale image retrieval due to its computational and storage advantages. However, the prevalence of degraded images on social media platforms, resulting from imperfections in the image capture process, poses new challenges for conventional image retrieval methods. To address this issue, we propose Contrastive Transformer Masked Image Hashing (CTMIH), a novel deep unsupervised hashing method specifically designed for degraded image retrieval, which is challenging yet relatively less studied. CTMIH addresses the problem by training on transformed and masked images, aiming to learn transform-invariant hash code in an unsupervised manner to mitigate performance degradation caused by image deterioration. CTMIH utilizes Vision Transformer (ViT) architecture applied to image patches to capture distant semantic relevance. CTMIH introduces cross-view debiased contrastive loss to align hash tokens from augmented views of the same image and presents semantic mask reconstruction loss at the patch level to recover masked patch tokens. Extensive empirical studies conducted on three benchmark datasets demonstrate the superiority of the proposed CTMIH over the state-of-the-art in both degraded and normal image retrieval.
FineFMPL: Fine-grained Feature Mining Prompt Learning for Few-Shot Class Incremental Learning
Authors: Sun Hongbo , Zhou Jiahuan , He Xiangteng , Xu Jinglin , Peng Yuxin
Published: July 2024

Few-Shot Class Incremental Learning (FSCIL) aims to continually learn new classes with few training samples without forgetting already learned old classes. Existing FSCIL methods generally fix the backbone network in incremental sessions to achieve a balance between suppressing forgetting old classes and learning new classes. However, the fixed backbone network causes insufficient learning of new classes from a few samples. Benefiting from the powerful visual and textual understanding ability of Vision-Language (VL) pre-training models, we propose a Fine-grained Feature Mining Prompt Learning (FineFMPL) approach to adapt the VL model to FSCIL, which comprehensively learns and memorizes fine-grained discriminative information of emerging classes. Concretely, the visual probe prompt is firstly proposed to guide the image encoder of VL model to extract global-level coarse-grained features and object-level fine-grained features, and visual prototypes are preserved based on image patch significance, which contains the discriminative characteristics exclusive to the class. Secondly, the textual context prompt is constructed by cross-modal mapping of visual prototypes, feeding into the text encoder of VL model to memorize the class information as textual prototypes. Finally, integrating visual and textual prototypes based on fine-grained feature mining into the model improves the recognition performance of all classes in FSCIL. Extensive experiments on three benchmark datasets demonstrate that our FineFMPL achieves new state-of-the-art. The code is available at https://github.com/PKU-ICST-MIPL/FineFMPL_IJCAI2024.