Query: DeepFood: Deep Learning-Based Food Image Recognition for Computer-Aided Dietary Assessment

Relevant passages:
Going deeper with convolutions <=SEP=> We propose a deep convolutional neural network architecture codenamed Inception that achieves the new state of the art for classification and detection in the ImageNet Large-Scale Visual Recognition Challenge 2014 (ILSVRC14). The main hallmark of this architecture is the improved utilization of the computing resources inside the network. By a carefully crafted design, we increased the depth and width of the network while keeping the computational budget constant. To optimize quality, the architectural decisions were based on the Hebbian principle and the intuition of multi-scale processing. One particular incarnation used in our submission for ILSVRC14 is called GoogLeNet, a 22 layers deep network, the quality of which is assessed in the context of classification and detection.

Generalized Denoising Auto-Encoders as Generative Models <=SEP=> Recent work has shown how denoising and contractive autoencoders implicitly capture the structure of the data-generating density, in the case where the corruption noise is Gaussian, the reconstruction error is the squared error, and the data is continuous-valued. This has led to various proposals for sampling from this implicitly learned density function, using Langevin and Metropolis-Hastings MCMC. However, it remained unclear how to connect the training procedure of regularized auto-encoders to the implicit estimation of the underlying datagenerating distribution when the data are discrete, or using other forms of corruption process and reconstruction errors. Another issue is the mathematical justification which is only valid in the limit of small corruption noise. We propose here a different attack on the problem, which deals with all these issues: arbitrary (but noisy enough) corruption, arbitrary reconstruction loss (seen as a log-likelihood), handling both discrete and continuous-valued variables, and removing the bias due to non-infinitesimal corruption noise (or non-infinitesimal contractive penalty).

PFID: Pittsburgh fast-food image dataset <=SEP=> We introduce the first visual dataset of fast foods with a total of 4,545 still images, 606 stereo pairs, 303 360° videos for structure from motion, and 27 privacy-preserving videos of eating events of volunteers. This work was motivated by research on fast food recognition for dietary assessment. The data was collected by obtaining three instances of 101 foods from 11 popular fast food chains, and capturing images and videos in both restaurant conditions and a controlled lab setting. We benchmark the dataset using two standard approaches, color histogram and bag of SIFT features in conjunction with a discriminative classifier. Our dataset and the benchmarks are designed to stimulate research in this area and will be released freely to the research community.

ImageNet: A large-scale hierarchical image database <=SEP=> 

Food image recognition with deep convolutional features <=SEP=> In this paper, we report the feature obtained from the Deep Convolutional Neural Network boosts food recognition accuracy greatly by integrating it with conventional hand-crafted image features, Fisher Vectors with HoG and Color patches. In the experiments, we have achieved 72.26% as the top-1 accuracy and 92.00% as the top-5 accuracy for the 100-class food dataset, UEC-FOOD100, which outperforms the best classification accuracy of this dataset reported so far, 59.6%, greatly.

Graphical Models and Belief Propagation-hierarchy for Optimal Physics-Constrained Network Flows <=SEP=> In this manuscript we review new ideas and first results on application of the Graphical Models approach, originated from Statistical Physics, Information Theory, Computer Science and Machine Learning, to optimization problems of network flow type with additional constraints related to the physics of the flow. We illustrate the general concepts on a number of enabling examples from power system and natural gas transmission (continental scale) and distribution (district scale) systems. 1.1 Introductory remarks In this chapter we discuss optimization problems which appears naturally in the classical settings describing flows over networks constrained by the physical nature Michael Chertkov Theoretical Division, T-4 & CNLS, Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA and Energy System Center, Skoltech, Moscow, 143026, Russia, e-mail: chertkov@lanl. gov Sidhant Misra Theoretical Division, T-5, Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA, e-mail: sidhant@lanl.gov Marc Vuffray Theoretical Division, T-4, Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA, e-mail: sidhant@lanl.gov Krishnamurthy Dvijotham Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, PO Box 999, Richland, WA 99352, USA e-mail: krishnamurthy.dvijotham@pnnl.gov Pascal Van Hentenryck University of Michigan, Department of Industrial & Operations Engineering Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA, e-mail: pvanhent@umich.edu 1 ar X iv :1 70 2. 01 89 0v 1 [ cs .S Y ] 7 F eb 2 01 7 2 M. Chertkov, S. Misra, M. Vuffray, D. Krishnamurthy, and P. Van Hentenryck of the flows which appear in the context of electric power systems, see e.g. [27, 44], and natural gas application, see e.g. [13] and references there in. Other examples of physical flows where similar optimization problem arise include pipe-flow systems, such as district heating [75, 1] and water [54], as well as traffic systems [40]. We aim to show that the network flow optimization problem can be stated naturally in terms of the so-called Graphical Models (GM). In general, GMs for optimization and inference are wide spread in statistical disciplines such as Applied Probability, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence [53, 29, 16, 12, 32, 50], Information Theory [55] and Statistical Physics [47]. Main benefit of adopting GM methodology to the physics-constrained network flows is in modularity and flexibility of the approach – any new constraints, set of new variables, and any modification of the optimization objective can be incorporated in the GM formulation with an ease. Besides, if all (or at least majority of) constraints and modifications are factorized, i.e. can be stated in terms of a small subset of variables, underlying GM optimization or GM statistical inference problems can be solved exactly or approximately with the help of an emerging set of techniques, algorithms and computational approaches coined collectively Belief Propagation (BP), see e.g. an important original paper [74] and recent reviews [47, 55, 66]. It is also important to emphasize that an additional benefit of the GM formulation is in its principal readiness for generalization. Even though we limit our discussion to application of the GM and BP framework to deterministic optimizations, many probabilistic and/or mixed generalizations (largely not discussed in this paper) fit very naturally in this universal framework as well. We will focus on optimization problems associated with Physics-Constrained Newtork Flow (PCNF) problems. Structure of the networks will obviously be inherited in the GM formulation, however indirectly through graphand variabletransformations and modifications. Specifically, next Section 1.2 is devoted solely to stating a number of exemplary energy system formulations in GM terms. Thus, in Section 1.2.1 and Section 1.2.2 we consider dissipation optimal and respectively general physics-constrained network flow problems. In particular, Section 1.2.2 includes discussion of power flow problems in both power-voltage, Section 1.2.2.1, and current-voltage, Section 1.2.2.2, formats, as well as discussion of the gas flow formulation in Section 1.2.2.3 and general k-component physics-constrained network flow problem in Section 1.2.2.4. Section 1.2.3 describes problems of the next level of complexity – these including optimization over resources. In particular, general optimal physics-controlled network flow problem is discussed in Section 1.2.3.1 and more specific cases of optimal flows, involving optimal power flow (in both power-flow and current-voltage formulations) and gas flows are discussed in Sections 1.2.3.2,1.2.3.3,1.2.2.3, respectively. Section 1.2.4 introduces a number of feasibility problems, all stated as special kinds of optimizations. Here we discuss the so-called instanton, Section 1.2.4.1, containment Section 1.2.4.2, and state estimation, Section 1.2.4.3, formulation. The long introductory section concludes with a discussion in Section 1.2.5 of an exemplary (and even more) complex optimization involving split of resources between participants/aggregators. 1 Graphical Models for Optimal Flows 3 In Section 1.3 we describe how any of the aforementioned PCNF and optimal PCNF problems can be re-stated in the universal Graphical Model format. Then, in Section 1.4, we take advantage of the factorized form of the PCNF GM and illustrate how BP methodology can be used to solve the optimization problems exactly and/or approximately. Specifically, in Section 1.4.1 we restate the optimization (Maximum Likelihood) GM problem as a Linear Programming (LP) in the space of beliefs (proxies for probabilities). The resulting LP is generally difficult as working with all variables in a combination. We take advantage of the GM factorization and introduce in Section 1.4.2 the so-called Linear Programming Belief Propagation (LP-BP) relaxation, providing a provable lower bound for the optimal. Finally, in Section 1.4.3 we construct a tractable relaxation of LP-BP based on an interval partitioning of the underlying space. Section 1.5 discuss hierarchies which allow to generalize, and thus improve LPBP. The so-called LP-BP hierarchies, related to earlier papers on the subject [65, 30, 63] are discussed in Section 1.5.1. Then, relation between the LP-BP hierarchies and classic LP-based Sherali-Adams [59] and Semi-Definite-Programming based Lasserre hierarchies [41, 36, 52, 37] are discussed in Section 1.5.2. Section 1.6 discuss the special case of a GM defined over a tree (graph without loops). In this case LP-BP is exac, equivalent to the so-called Dynamic Programming approach, and as such it provides a distributed alternative to the global optimization through a sequence of graph-element-local optimizations. However, even in the tree case the exact LP-BP and/or DP are not tractable for GM stated in terms of physical variables, such as flows, voltages and/or pressures, drawn from a continuous set. Following, [18] we discuss here how the problem can be resolved with a proper interval-partitioning (discretization). We conclude the manuscript presenting summary and discussing path forward in Section 1.7. 1.2 Problems of Interest: Formulations In this Section we formulate a number of physics-constrained network flow problems which we will then attempt to analyze and solve with the help of Graphical Model (GM)/Belief Propagation (BP) approaches/techniques in the following Sections. 1.2.1 Dissipation-Optimal Network Flow We start introducing/discussing Network Flows constrained by a minimum dissipation principle, i.e. one which can be expressed as an unconstrained optimization/minimization of an energy function (potential). 4 M. Chertkov, S. Misra, M. Vuffray, D. Krishnamurthy, and P. Van Hentenryck Consider a static flow of a commodity over an undirected graph, G = (V ,E ) described through the following network flow equations i ∈ V : qi = ∑ j:(i, j)∈E φi j, (1.1) where qi stand for injection, qi > 0, or consumption, qi < 0, of the flow at the node i and φi j =−φ ji stands for the value of the flow through the directed edge (i, j) – in the direction from i to j 1. We consider a balanced network, ∑i∈V qi = 0. We constraint the flow requiring that the minimum dissipation principle is obeyed min φ ∑ {i, j}∈E Ei j(φi j) ∣∣∣∣ Eq. (1.1) , (1.2) where φ . = (φi j = −φ ji|{i, j} ∈ E ), and Ei j(x) are local (energy) functions of their arguments for all {i, j} ∈ E . The local energy functions Ei j(x) are required to be convex at least on a restricted domain. We call the sum of local energy functions E(φ) = ∑{i, j}∈E Ei j(φi j) the global energy function or simply the energy function. Versions of this problem appear in the context of the feasibility analysis of the dissipative network flows, that is flows whose redistribution over the network is constrained by potentials, e.g. voltages or pressures in the context of resistive electric networks and gas flow networks, respectively [22, 48, 64]. Note, that the formulation (1.2) can also be supplemented by additional flow or potential constraints. Requiring Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) stationary point conditions on the optimization problem stated in Eq. (1.2) leads to the following set of equations ∀{i, j} ∈ E : E ′ i j(φi j) = λi−λ j, (1.3) where λi is a Lagrangian multiplier corresponding to the i’s equation (1.1). The problem becomes fully defined by the pair of Eqs. (1.1,1.3), which can also be restated solely in terms of the λ -variables i ∈ V : qi = ∑ j:{i, j}∈E ( E ′ i j )−1 (λi−λ j). (1.4) 1.2.2 General Physics-Constrained Network Flows We call “unconstrained” a network flow for which only conservation of flow(s), described by Eq. (1.1), is enforced. Contrariwise we call “Physics-constrained” a 1 In the following we will use notation {i, j} for the undirected graph and (i, j) for the respective directed graph. When the meaning is clear we slightly abuse notations denoting by E both the set of undirected and directed edges. 1 Graphical Models for Optimal Flows 5 network flow t

Improved direct back EMF detection for sensorless brushless DC (BLDC) motor drives <=SEP=> Improved back EMF detection circuits for low voltage/low speed and high voltage sensorless BLDC motor drives are presented in this paper. The improvements are based on the direct back EMF sensing method from our previous research work described in reference, which describes a technique for directly extracting phase back EMF information without the need to sense or re-construct the motor neutral. The reference method is not sensitive to switching noise and requires no filtering, achieving much better performance than traditional back EMF sensing scheme. A complementary PWM (synchronous rectification) is proposed to reduce the power dissipation in power devices for low voltage applications. In order to further extend the sensorless BLDC system to lower speed, a pre-conditioning circuit is proposed to amplify the back EMFs at very low speed. As a result, the brushless DC motor can run at lower speed with the improved back EMF sensing scheme. On the other hand, another improved detection circuit is presented for high voltage applications to overcome the delaying problem caused by large sensing resistors. The detailed circuit models are analyzed and experimental results verify the analysis.

Alignment of continuous video onto 3D point clouds <=SEP=> We propose a general framework for aligning continuous (oblique) video onto 3D sensor data. We align a point cloud computed from the video onto the point cloud directly obtained from a 3D sensor. This is in contrast to existing techniques where the 2D images are aligned to a 3D model derived from the 3D sensor data. Using point clouds enables the alignment for scenes full of objects that are difficult to model; for example, trees. To compute 3D point clouds from video, motion stereo is used along with a state-of-the-art algorithm for camera pose estimation. Our experiments with real data demonstrate the advantages of the proposed registration algorithm for texturing models in large-scale semi-urban environments. The capability to align video before a 3D model is built from the 3D sensor data offers new practical opportunities for 3D modeling. We introduce a novel modeling-through-registration approach that fuses 3D information from both the 3D sensor and the video. Initial experiments with real data illustrate the potential of the proposed approach.

Neuronal Circuits for Fear Expression and Recovery: Recent Advances and Potential Therapeutic Strategies <=SEP=> Recent technological developments, such as single unit recordings coupled to optogenetic approaches, have provided unprecedented knowledge about the precise neuronal circuits contributing to the expression and recovery of conditioned fear behavior. These data have provided an understanding of the contributions of distinct brain regions such as the amygdala, prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and periaqueductal gray matter to the control of conditioned fear behavior. Notably, the precise manipulation and identification of specific cell types by optogenetic techniques have provided novel avenues to establish causal links between changes in neuronal activity that develop in dedicated neuronal structures and the short and long-lasting expression of conditioned fear memories. In this review, we provide an update on the key neuronal circuits and cell types mediating conditioned fear expression and recovery and how these new discoveries might refine therapeutic approaches for psychiatric conditions such as anxiety disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder.

In-situ vehicular antenna integration and design aspects for vehicle-to-vehicle communications <=SEP=> Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications aim to enhance driver safety and traffic efficiency by using the recently designated frequency bands in the 5.9 GHz range in Europe. Due to the time-frequency selective fading behavior of the vehicular communication channel, multi-antenna techniques can provide enhanced link conditions by means of diversity processing. This paper highlights the integration of a four-element (N =4) linear array antenna into the roof-top compartment of a vehicle to conduct Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) high-resolution mobile-to-mobile channel measurements.

Musicmapper: interactive 2d representations of music samples for in-browser remixing and exploration <=SEP=> Much of the challenge and appeal in remixing music comes from manipulating samples. Typically, identifying distinct samples of a song requires expertise in music production software. Additionally, it is di cult to visualize similarities and di↵erences between all samples of a song simultaneously and use this to select samples. MusicMapper is a web application that allows nonexpert users to find and visualize distinctive samples from a song without any manual intervention, and enables remixing by having users play back clusterings of such samples. This is accomplished by splitting audio from the Soundcloud API into appropriately-sized spectrograms, and applying the tSNE algorithm to visualize these spectrograms in two dimensions. Next, we apply k-means to guide the user’s eye toward related clusters and set k = 26 to enable playback of the clusters by pressing keys on an ordinary keyboard. We present the source code and a demo video of the MusicMapper web application that can be run in most modern browsers.

Power without wires <=SEP=> This article presents the history of WPT and the various technologies and applications of this exciting technology. In the near future, standardization and regulation will be of importance to realizing WPT based products for commercial applications. The WPC has defined a standard for inductive coupling and members of this group have released conforming products. There are, as yet, no standards or regulation for resonant coupling and MPT technologies. In Japan, a technical forum known as Broadband Wireless Forum has been established to discuss the future of WPT. SPS researchers have also submitted a proposal for WPT to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). In the IEEE MTT Society, the Technical Committee MTT-26 Wireless Energy Transfer and Conversion was established in June, 2011 to discuss the future of WPT.

How Not to Do a Mindset Intervention: Learning from a Mindset Intervention among Students with Good Grades <=SEP=> The present study examined the effectiveness of a Growth Mindset intervention based on Dweck et al.'s (1995) theory in the Hungarian educational context. A cluster randomized controlled trial classroom experiment was carried out within the framework of a train-the-trainer intervention among 55 Hungarian 10th grade students with high Grade Point Average (GPA). The results suggest that students' IQ and personality mindset beliefs were more incremental in the intervention group than in the control group 3 weeks after the intervention. Furthermore, compared to both the baseline measure and the control group, students' amotivation decreased. However, no intrinsic and extrinsic motivation change was found. Students with low grit scores reported lower amotivation following the intervention. However, in the second follow-up measurement-the end of the semester-all positive changes disappeared; and students' GPA did not change compared to the previous semester. These results show that mindset beliefs are temporarily malleable and in given circumstances, they can change back to their pre-intervention state. The potential explanation is discussed in the light of previous mindset intervention studies and recent findings on wise social psychological interventions.

Adults and children processing music: An fMRI study <=SEP=> The present study investigates the functional neuroanatomy of music perception with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Three different subject groups were investigated to examine developmental aspects and effects of musical training: 10-year-old children with varying degrees of musical training, adults without formal musical training (nonmusicians), and adult musicians. Subjects made judgements on sequences that ended on chords that were music-syntactically either regular or irregular. In adults, irregular chords activated the inferior frontal gyrus, orbital frontolateral cortex, the anterior insula, ventrolateral premotor cortex, anterior and posterior areas of the superior temporal gyrus, the superior temporal sulcus, and the supramarginal gyrus. These structures presumably form different networks mediating cognitive aspects of music processing (such as processing of musical syntax and musical meaning, as well as auditory working memory), and possibly emotional aspects of music processing. In the right hemisphere, the activation pattern of children was similar to that of adults. In the left hemisphere, adults showed larger activations than children in prefrontal areas, in the supramarginal gyrus, and in temporal areas. In both adults and children, musical training was correlated with stronger activations in the frontal operculum and the anterior portion of the superior temporal gyrus.

Multi-robot SLAM with Unknown Initial Correspondence: The Robot Rendezvous Case <=SEP=> This paper presents a new approach to the multi-robot map-alignment problem that enables teams of robots to build joint maps without initial knowledge of their relative poses. The key contribution of this work is an optimal algorithm for merging (not necessarily overlapping) maps that are created by different robots independently. Relative pose measurements between pairs of robots are processed to compute the coordinate transformation between any two maps. Noise in the robot-to-robot observations, propagated through the map-alignment process, increases the error in the position estimates of the transformed landmarks, and reduces the overall accuracy of the merged map. When there is overlap between the two maps, landmarks that appear twice provide additional information, in the form of constraints, which increases the alignment accuracy. Landmark duplicates are identified through a fast nearest-neighbor matching algorithm. In order to reduce the computational complexity of this search process, a kd-tree is used to represent the landmarks in the original map. The criterion employed for matching any two landmarks is the Mahalanobis distance. As a means of validation, we present experimental results obtained from two robots mapping an area of 4,800 m2

Improved lossless intra coding for H.264/MPEG-4 AVC <=SEP=> A new lossless intra coding method based on sample-by-sample differential pulse code modulation (DPCM) is presented as an enhancement of the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC standard. The H.264/AVC design includes a multidirectional spatial prediction method to reduce spatial redundancy by using neighboring samples as a prediction for the samples in a block of data to be encoded. In the new lossless intra coding method, the spatial prediction is performed based on samplewise DPCM instead of in the block-based manner used in the current H.264/AVC standard, while the block structure is retained for the residual difference entropy coding process. We show that the new method, based on samplewise DPCM, does not have a major complexity penalty, despite its apparent pipeline dependencies. Experiments show that the new lossless intra coding method reduces the bit rate by approximately 12% in comparison with the lossless intra coding method previously included in the H.264/AVC standard. As a result, the new method is currently being adopted into the H.264/AVC standard in a new enhancement project

Facial recognition with PCA and machine learning methods <=SEP=> Facial recognition is a challenging problem in image processing and machine learning areas. Since widespread applications of facial recognition make it a valuable research topic, this work tries to develop some new facial recognition systems that have both high recognition accuracy and fast running speed. Efforts are made to design facial recognition systems by combining different algorithms. Comparisons and evaluations of recognition accuracy and running speed show that PCA + SVM achieves the best recognition result, which is over 95% for certain training data and eigenface sizes. Also, PCA + KNN achieves the balance between recognition accuracy and running speed.

The description–experience gap in risky choice <=SEP=> According to a common conception in behavioral decision research, two cognitive processes-overestimation and overweighting-operate to increase the impact of rare events on people's choices. Supportive findings stem primarily from investigations in which people learn about options via descriptions thereof. Recently, a number of researchers have begun to investigate risky choice in settings in which people learn about options by experiential sampling over time. This article reviews work across three experiential paradigms. Converging findings show that when people make decisions based on experience, rare events tend to have less impact than they deserve according to their objective probabilities. Striking similarities in human and animal experience-based choices, ways of modeling these choices, and their implications for risk and precautionary behavior are discussed.

Machine learning for neural decoding <=SEP=> Despite rapid advances in machine learning tools, the majority of neural decoding approaches still use traditional methods. Improving the performance of neural decoding algorithms allows us to better understand the information contained in a neural population, and can help advance engineering applications such as brain machine interfaces. Here, we apply modern machine learning techniques, including neural networks and gradient boosting, to decode from spiking activity in 1) motor cortex, 2) somatosensory cortex, and 3) hippocampus. We compare the predictive ability of these modern methods with traditional decoding methods such as Wiener and Kalman filters. Modern methods, in particular neural networks and ensembles, significantly outperformed the traditional approaches. For instance, for all of the three brain areas, an LSTM decoder explained over 40% of the unexplained variance from a Wiener filter. These results suggest that modern machine learning techniques should become the standard methodology for neural decoding. We provide a tutorial and code to facilitate wider implementation of these methods. Introduction: Neural decoding uses activity recorded from the brain to make predictions about variables in the outside world. For example, researchers predict movements based on activity in motor cortex [1, 2], predict decisions based on activity in prefrontal and parietal cortices [3, 4], and predict locations based on activity in the hippocampus [5, 6]. There are two primary purposes of decoding. First, it is an increasingly critical tool for understanding how neural signals relate to the outside world. It can be used to determine how much information the brain contains about an external variable (e.g., sensation or movement) [7-9], and how this information differs across brain areas [10-12], experimental conditions [13, 14], disease states [15], and more. Second, it is useful in engineering contexts, such as for brain machine interfaces (BMIs), where signals from motor cortex are used to control computer cursors [1], robotic arms [16], and muscles [2]. Decoding is a central tool for neural data analysis. When predicting a continuous variable, decoding is simply a regression problem and when predicting a discrete variable, decoding is simply a classification problem. Thus, there are many methods that can be used for neural decoding. However, despite the recent advances in machine learning techniques, it is still common to use traditional methods such as linear regression. Using modern machine learning tools for neural decoding would likely significantly boost performance, and might allow deeper insights into neural function. Here, we first give a brief tutorial so that readers can get started with using standard machine learning methods for decoding. We provide companion code so that readers can easily use a variety of decoding methods. Next, we compare the performance of many different machine learning methods to decode information from neural spiking activity. We predict movement velocities from macaque motor cortex and sensorimotor cortex, and locations in space from rat hippocampus. In all brain regions, modern methods, in particular neural networks and ensembles, led to the highest accuracy decoding, even for limited amounts of data. Tutorial for getting started with using machine learning for decoding: Code We have made Python code available at https://github.com/KordingLab/Neural_Decoding, which accompanies the tutorial below. This includes code that will correctly format the neural and output data for decoding, a tutorial for hyperparameter optimization, and examples of using many different decoders. We go into more detail on these topics below. General framework for decoding The decoding problem we are considering can be summarized as follows. We have N neurons whose spiking activity is recorded for a period of time, T (Fig. 1a). While we focus here on spiking neurons, the same methods could be used with other forms of neural data, such as the BOLD activity of N voxels, or the power in particular frequency bands of N LFP or EEG signals. We have also recorded outputs that we are trying to predict over that same time period (Fig. 1a). Here, we focus on output variables that are continuous (e.g., velocity, position), rather than discrete (e.g., choice). However, the general framework is very similar for discrete output variables. The first choice we need to make is to decide the temporal resolution, R, for decoding. That is, do we want to make a prediction every 50ms, 100ms, etc? We need to put the input and output into bins of length R (Fig. 1a). It is common (although not necessary) to use the same bin size for the neural data and output data, and we do so here. Thus, we will have approximately T/R total bins of neural activity and outputs. Within each bin, we compute the average activity of all neurons and the average value of the output. Next, we need to choose the time period of neural activity used to predict a given output. In the simplest case, the activity from all neurons in a given time bin would be used to predict the output in that same time bin. However, it is often the case that we want the neural data to precede the output (e.g., in the case of movements) or follow the decoder output (e.g., in the case of sensation). Plus, we often want to use neural data from more than one bin (e.g., using 500 ms of preceding neural data to predict a movement in the current 50 ms bin). In the following, we use the nomenclature that B time bins of neural activity are being used to predict a given output. For example, if we use one bin preceding the output, one concurrent bin, and one following bin, then B=3 (Fig. 1a). Note that when multiple bins of neural data are used to predict an output (B>1), then overlapping neural data will be used to predict different output times (Fig. 1a). When multiple bins of neural data are used to predict an output, then we will need to exclude some output bins. For instance, if we are using one bin of neural data preceding the output, then we cannot predict the first output bin, and if we are using one bin of neural data following the output, then we cannot predict the final output bin (Fig. 1a). Thus, we will be predicting K total output bins, where K is less than the total number of bins (T/R). To summarize, our decoders will be predicting each of these K outputs using B surrounding bins of activity from N neurons. Below, we describe how to format the neural data and output variables for use in different types of decoders. Non-recurrent decoders: For many “non-recurrent” decoders, we are just solving a standard machine learning regression problem. We have N x B features (the firing rates of each neuron in each relevant time bin) that are used to predict each output (Fig. 1b). If there is a single output that is being predicted, it can be put in a vector, Y, of length K. Note that for many decoders, if there are multiple outputs, each is independently decoded. If multiple outputs are being simultaneously predicted, which can occur with neural network decoders, the outputs can be put in a matrix Y, that has K rows and d columns, where d is the number of outputs being predicted. The input covariate matrix, X, has N x B columns (one for each feature) and K rows (corresponding to each output being predicted). This is now the format of a standard regression problem. Linear regression simply finds a linear combination of these features that predicts the output. More sophisticated forms of regression use nonlinear combinations of features for predictions. In general, this format is beneficial because there are many machine learning regression techniques that can easily be substituted for one another. We provide code for a Wiener filter (linear regression), a Wiener cascade (a linear-nonlinear model), support vector regression, XGBoost (gradient boosted trees), and feedforward neural networks (see Methods). We test the performance of these decoders in Results. Recurrent neural network decoders: When using recurrent neural networks (RNNs) for decoding, we need to put the inputs in a different format. Recurrent neural networks explicitly model temporal transitions across time (Fig. 1c). In the non-recurrent decoders, there were N x B features that were equivalently used for prediction, regardless of the time bin they came from. However, with a recurrent decoder, at each time bin, N features (the firing rates of all neurons in that time bin) are used for predicting the hidden state of the system at that time. Along with being a function of the N features, the hidden state at a time bin is also a function of the hidden state at the previous time bin (Fig. 1c). After transitioning through all B bins, the hidden state in this final bin is used to predict the output. This architecture allows the decoder to take advantage of temporal structure in the data, and allowing it (via its hidden state) to integrate the effect of neural inputs over an extended period of time. For use in this type of decoder, the input can be formatted as a 3-dimensional matrix of size K x N x B (Fig. 1c). That is, for each row (corresponding to the output that is predicted), there will be N features (2nd matrix dimension) over B bins (3rd matrix dimension) used for prediction. Within this format, different types of RNNs, including those more sophisticated than the standard RNN shown in Fig. 1c, can be easily switched for one another. We provide code for a standard recurrent network, a gated recurrent unit (GRU) network, and a long short-term memory (LSTM) network. In Results, we test the performance of these decoders. Decoders with additional information: While the focus of this tutorial is on decoders that fit into standard machine learning frameworks, we want to briefly mention two other commonly used decoders. The Kalman filter and its variants have frequently been used in the brain computer interface field fo

OF A NOVEL SUPER WIDE BAND CIRCULAR-HEXAGONAL FRACTAL ANTENNA <=SEP=> In this paper, a novel circular-hexagonal Fractal antenna is investigated for super wide band applications. The proposed antenna is made of iterations of a hexagonal slot inside a circular metallic patch with a transmission line. A partial ground plane and asymmetrical patch toward the substrate are used for designing the antenna to achieve a super wide bandwidth ranging from 2.18 GHz to 44.5GHz with a bandwidth ratio of 20.4 : 1. The impedance bandwidth and gain of the proposed antenna are much better than the recently reported super wideband antennas which make it appropriate for many wireless communications systems such as ISM, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, WLAN and UWB. Details of the proposed antenna design are presented and discussed.

SphereFlow: 6 DoF Scene Flow from RGB-D Pairs <=SEP=> We take a new approach to computing dense scene flow between a pair of consecutive RGB-D frames. We exploit the availability of depth data by seeking correspondences with respect to patches specified not as the pixels inside square windows, but as the 3D points that are the inliers of spheres in world space. Our primary contribution is to show that by reasoning in terms of such patches under 6 DoF rigid body motions in 3D, we succeed in obtaining compelling results at displacements large and small without relying on either of two simplifying assumptions that pervade much of the earlier literature: brightness constancy or local surface planarity. As a consequence of our approach, our output is a dense field of 3D rigid body motions, in contrast to the 3D translations that are the norm in scene flow. Reasoning in our manner additionally allows us to carry out occlusion handling using a 6 DoF consistency check for the flow computed in both directions and a patchwise silhouette check to help reason about alignments in occlusion areas, and to promote smoothness of the flow fields using an intuitive local rigidity prior. We carry out our optimization in two steps, obtaining a first correspondence field using an adaptation of PatchMatch, and subsequently using alpha-expansion to jointly handle occlusions and perform regularization. We show attractive flow results on challenging synthetic and real-world scenes that push the practical limits of the aforementioned assumptions.

Fast and Robust High Dynamic Range Image Generation with Camera and Object Movement <=SEP=> High dynamic range (HDR) images play an important role in todays computer graphics: Typical applications are the improved display of a photograph with a tone mapper and the relighting of a virtual object in a natural environment using an HDR environment map. Generating an HDR image usually requires a sequence of photographs with different exposure times which are combined to a single image. In practice two problems occur when taking an image sequence: The camera is moving or objects are moving during the sequence. This results in a blurry HDR image due to the camera movement and moving objects appear multiple times as ghost images in the combined image. In this paper, we present a simple and fast algorithm for a robust HDR generation that removes these artifacts without prior knowledge of the camera response function.

What storytelling can do for information visualization <=SEP=> A well-told story conveys great quantities of information in relatively few words in a format that is easily assimilated by the listener or viewer. People usually find it easier to understand information integrated into stories than information spelled out in serial lists (such as bulleted items in an overhead slide). Stories are also just more compelling. For example, despite its sketchiness, the story fragment in Figure 1 is loaded with information, following an analysis similar to that of John Thomas of IBM Research [5]. We find that Jim uses technology (a pager and the Internet) and is dedicated to his job. Many other pieces of information can be deduced about Jim and his work, as well as about his relationships with his coworkers, as noted in the right side of the figure. The story does not express all this information explicitly; some is only implied; for example, we can surmise that Jim is probably not at the gym and his attendance at the meeting is important to his boss and coworkers, as well as to his company’s business performance. As in most stories, this one involves uncerFor as long as people have been around, they have used stories to convey information, cultural values, and experiences. Since the invention of writing and the printing press until today, technology and culture have constantly provided new and increasingly sophisticated means to tell stories. More recently, technology, entertainment, and art have converged in the computer. The ancient art of storytelling and its adaptation in film and video can now be used to efficiently convey information in our increasingly computerized world. What Storytelling Can Do for Information Visualization

[Internet- and computer game addiction: phenomenology, comorbidity, etiology, diagnostics and therapeutic implications for the addictives and their relatives]. <=SEP=> OBJECTIVE
Excessive and addictive internet use and computer game playing is reported as an increasing problem in outpatient care. The aim of this paper is to give an overview about the current scientific discussion of the overuse and addiction of internet and computer game playing.


METHODS
Pubmed was used for a systematic literature research considering original papers and review articles dealing with Internet/computer game addiction.


RESULTS
Recent epidemiological data from Germany suggest that 1.5-3.5 % of adolescent computer and internet users show signs of an overuse or addictive use of computer and video games. Moreover there is evidence that the disorder is associated with higher rates of depression, anxiety, as well as lower achievements e. g. at school. Although the nosological assignment still remains unclear there is some evidence from neurobiological data that the disorder can be conceptualized as behavioral addiction. As treatment strategy CBT-techniques have been proposed, but there is still a lack of controlled clinical trials concerning their efficacy.


CONCLUSIONS
Since the addicted persons often show little motivation for a behavioural change we consider it a promising approach to treat and train their relatives with the aim of increasing the motivation for a behavioural change of the addicted person.

SOCIAL DIALOGUE WITH EMBODIED CONVERSATIONAL AGENTS <=SEP=> The functions of social dialogue between people in the context of performing a task is discussed, as well as approaches to modelling such dialogue in embodied conversational agents. A study of an agent’s use of social dialogue is presented, comparing embodied interactions with similar interactions conducted over the phone, assessing the impact these media have on a wide range of behavioural, task and subjective measures. Results indicate that subjects’ perceptions of the agent are sensitive to both interaction style (social vs. task-only dialogue) and

A Random-Finite-Set Approach to Bayesian SLAM <=SEP=> This paper proposes an integrated Bayesian frame work for feature-based simultaneous localization and map building (SLAM) in the general case of uncertain feature number and data association. By modeling the measurements and feature map as random finite sets (RFSs), a formulation of the feature-based SLAM problem is presented that jointly estimates the number and location of the features, as well as the vehicle trajectory. More concisely, the joint posterior distribution of the set-valued map and vehicle trajectory is propagated forward in time as measurements arrive, thereby incorporating both data association and feature management into a single recursion. Furthermore, the Bayes optimality of the proposed approach is established. A first-order solution, which is coined as the probability hypothesis density (PHD) SLAM filter, is derived, which jointly propagates the posterior PHD of the map and the posterior distribution of the vehicle trajectory. A Rao-Blackwellized (RB) implementation of the PHD-SLAM filter is proposed based on the Gaussian-mixture PHD filter (for the map) and a particle filter (for the vehicle trajectory). Simulated and experimental results demonstrate the merits of the proposed approach, particularly in situations of high clutter and data association ambiguity.

Anisotropic Ambient Volume Shading <=SEP=> We present a novel method to compute anisotropic shading for direct volume rendering to improve the perception of the orientation and shape of surface-like structures. We determine the scale-aware anisotropy of a shading point by analyzing its ambient region. We sample adjacent points with similar scalar values to perform a principal component analysis by computing the eigenvectors and eigenvalues of the covariance matrix. In particular, we estimate the tangent directions, which serve as the tangent frame for anisotropic bidirectional reflectance distribution functions. Moreover, we exploit the ratio of the eigenvalues to measure the magnitude of the anisotropy at each shading point. Altogether, this allows us to model a data-driven, smooth transition from isotropic to strongly anisotropic volume shading. In this way, the shape of volumetric features can be enhanced significantly by aligning specular highlights along the principal direction of anisotropy. Our algorithm is independent of the transfer function, which allows us to compute all shading parameters once and store them with the data set. We integrated our method in a GPU-based volume renderer, which offers interactive control of the transfer function, light source positions, and viewpoint. Our results demonstrate the benefit of anisotropic shading for visualization to achieve data-driven local illumination for improved perception compared to isotropic shading.

Variants of travelling salesman problem: A survey <=SEP=> The Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) is a well-known NP-hard problem exceedingly studied in the fields of operations research and computer science. In TSP, a salesman wants to visit each of a set of cities exactly once and return to the starting city with minimal distance travelled. The significance of the TSP is that it can be pertained on many practical applications in real life scenario. But, it is not always possible to apply TSP for all the real world applications because of different constraints and also variations of TSP might be desired in such real-life scenarios. Therefore, several variants of TSP have been proposed to manage with the application specific constraints. In this work, a comprehensive study on various categories of TSP variants such as Profit Based, Time Windows based, Maximal Based and Kinetic Based has been studied with respect to the problem formulation and applications.

Detection of and compensation for shadows in colored urban aerial images <=SEP=> A new method for shadow detection in colored urban aerial images is proposed. First, a new imaging model of shadows is presented, which indicates that hue values of shadowed image areas are larger than those of these areas non-shadowed. Based on this model, a thresholding technique is employed to detect shadowed areas. After detection, the Retinex technique is applied to shadowed and non-shadowed areas individually to compensate for shadows. Experiment results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

A framework of sensor-cloud integration opportunities and challenges <=SEP=> In the past few years, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have been gaining increasing attention because of their potential of enabling of novel and attractive solutions in areas such as industrial automation, environmental monitoring, transportation business, health-care etc. If we add this collection of sensor derived data to various Web-based social networks or virtual communities, blogs etc., we can have a remarkable transformation in our ability to "see" ourselves and our planet. Our primary goal is to facilitate connecting sensors, people and software objects to build community-centric sensing applications. However, the computational tools needed to launch this exploration may be more appropriately built from the data center "Cloud" computing model than the traditional HPC approaches. In this paper, we propose a framework to enable this exploration by integrating sensor networks to the emerging data center "cloud" model of computing. But there are many challenges to enable this framework. We propose a pub-sub based model which simplifies the integration of sensor networks with cloud based community-centric applications. Also there is a need for internetworking cloud providers in case of violation of service level agreement with users. We discussed these issues and proposed reasonable solutions.