A walk through the web’s video clips

Approximately 10^5 video clips are posted every day on the Web. The popularity of Web-based video databases poses a number of challenges to machine vision scientists: how do we organize, index and search such large wealth of data? Content-based video search and classification have been proposed in the literature and applied successfully to analyzing movies, TV broadcasts and lab-made videos. We explore the performance of some of these algorithms on a large data-set of approximately 3000 videos. We collected our data-set directly from the Web minimizing bias for content or quality, way so as to have a faithful representation of the statistics of this medium. We find that the algorithms that we have come to trust do not work well on video clips, because their quality is lower and their subject is more varied. We will make the data publicly available to encourage further research

Sebald Beham and the Augsburg Printer Niclas vom Sand: New Documents on Printing and Frankfurt Before 1550

This essay makes known two unpublished documents from the last years of the life of Sebald Beham (1500 Nuremberg–1550 Frankfurt) and uses them as a means to explore Beham’s relationship to printing, the town of Frankfurt, and the Augsburg printer Niclas vom Sand, who remains an unwritten part of the history of the period. The essay is organized as an autobiographical retrospective by an older man forced in prior decades to move from Nuremberg and seek employment and a new life elsewhere. The end of the essay evaluates the documents and aspects of them

Bark beetles - between pest species and ecosystem engineers

Scolytids have been studied more than any other forest insect group, but most investigations have been restricted to only a few species and mainly to their role as pests. The thesis here aimed to expand these studies to on the one hand the role of pest species as ecosystem engineers and thereby their influence on biodiversity and on the other hand to the whole subfamily of Scolytinae to improve the understanding why some are abundant and some are rare as well why some species occur as pests and other do not

Spatio-Temporal Pyramid Matching for Sports Videos

In this paper, we address the problem of querying video shots based on content-based matching. Our proposed system automatically partitions a video stream into video shots that maintain continuous movements of objects. Finding video shots of the same category is not an easy task because objects in a video shot change their locations over time. Our spatio-temporal pyramid matching (STPM) is the modified spatial pyramid matching (SPM) [15], which considers temporal information in conjunction with spatial locations to match objects in video shots. In addition, we model the mathematical condition in which temporal information contributes to match video shots. In order to improve the matching performance, dynamic features including movements of objects are considered in addition to static features such as edges of objects. In our experiments, several methods based on different feature sets and matching methods are compared, and our spatio-temporal pyramid matching performed better than existing methods in video matching for sports videos. 1

Evaluating the implicit feedback models for adaptive video retrieval

Interactive video retrieval systems are becoming popular. On the one hand, these systems try to reduce the effect of the semantic gap, an issue currently being addressed by the multimedia retrieval community. On the other hand, such systems enhance the quality of information seeking for the user by supporting query formulation and reformulation. Interactive systems are very popular in the textual retrieval domain. However, they are relatively unexplored in the case of multimedia retrieval. The main problem in the development of interactive retrieval systems is the evaluation cost.The traditional evaluation methodology, as used in the information retrieval domain, is not applicable. An alternative is to use a user-centred evaluation methodology. However, such schemes are expensive in terms of effort, cost and are not scalable. This problem gets exacerbated by the use of implicit indicators, which are useful and increasingly used in predicting user intentions. In this paper, we explore the effectiveness of a number of interfaces and feedback mechanisms and compare their relative performance using a simulated evaluation methodology. The results show the relatively better performance of a search interface with the combination of explicit and implicit features

Entwicklung von Krebsinzidenz und Survival in der Region Augsburg und Untersuchung der Assoziation zwischen membrangebundenen Fettsäuren und dem Risiko für das kolorektale Karzinom

Krebs ist weltweit die zweithäufigste Todesursache. Eine Krebserkrankung ist für die Betroffenen mit erheblichen gesundheitlichen Konsequenzen sowie psychosozialen Belastungen verbunden. Der steigende Bedarf an Therapie- und Nachsorgeangeboten stellt auch das Gesundheitssystem vor große Herausforderungen. Krebsregisterdaten bieten eine wertvolle Grundlage für die Beschreibung des Krebsgeschehens in der Bevölkerung. Anhand dieser können die zeitlichen Trends der Inzidenzen von Krebserkrankungen verfolgt und regionale Unterschiede im Krebsaufkommen aufgedeckt werden. Zudem ermöglichen sie die Analyse der Überlebenszeiten, die zur Evaluation von Therapie und Versorgungsqualität herangezogen werden kann. Im Hinblick auf die demographische Entwicklung ist weiterhin mit hohen Inzidenzen für bestimmte Krebserkrankungen zu rechnen. Diese Entwicklung rückt Maßnahmen von Screening und Prävention stärker in den Vordergrund. Durch die Verringerung von Risikofaktoren, wie Rauchen, Alkoholkonsum, unzureichende körperliche Aktivität, Adipositas, und die Umstellung auf einen gesundheitsbewussten Lebensstil kann die Inzidenz für einige der häufigsten Krebserkrankungen deutlich gesenkt werden. Insbesondere für kolorektale Karzinome (CRC) besteht ein großes Potential zur Prävention, das durch die richtige Ernährung erzielt werden kann. Ziel der ersten Studie war die Analyse des Krebsaufkommens der Studienregion Augsburg anhand einer populationsbasierten Analyse aller Tumor-Lokalisationen. Sinkende altersstandardisierte Inzidenzraten ließen sich bei Männern für Karzinome der Prostata und für CRC beobachten. Die Inzidenzraten für Brustkrebs bei Frauen blieben auf stabilem Niveau. Für Karzinome des Oropharynx, die u.a. mit dem Rauchen assoziiert sind, sanken die Raten bei Männern, während sie bei Frauen einen signifikanten Anstieg aufwiesen. Diese Veränderung ist mit hoher Wahrscheinlichkeit auf die Anpassung des Lebensstils zurückzuführen und betont damit die Bedeutung von modifizierbaren Krebs-Risikofaktoren. Das relative Fünf-Jahresüberleben zeigte je nach Lokalisation und Art des Tumors eine breite Spannweite. Für Brustkrebs bei Frauen war eine kontinuierliche Verbesserung der Überlebensraten zu beobachten. Während sich für die Inzidenz einzelner Lokalisationen leichte Abweichungen zeigten, ergab sich für das Fünf-Jahresüberleben in der Studienregion Augsburg eine weitgehende Übereinstimmung mit der Situation in Deutschland. Fettsäuren gehören zu den Nahrungsbestandteilen, die das Darmkrebsrisiko beeinflussen können. Um den Einfluss der einzelnen Fettsäuren auf das CRC-Risiko zu bestimmen, ist die Messung von Fettsäure-Biomarkern in der Erythrozytenmembran eine geeignete Methode. Mittels einer in der Kohortenstudie European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) eingebetteten Fall-Kontroll-Studie wurde der Zusammenhang mit dem CRC-Risiko anhand von konditionalen logistischen Regressionsmodellen bestimmt, wobei auf bekannte Risikofaktoren für CRC adjustiert wurde. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass eine höhere Konzentration von Stearinsäure (C18:0) mit einem höheren Risiko für CRC verbunden war. Für Heptadecansäure (C17:0), die als Marker für den habituellen Konsum an Milch und Milchprodukten herangezogen werden kann, ergab sich eine inverse Assoziation mit dem CRC-Risiko. Für Arachidonsäure (C20:4 n-6), die vor allem in Fleisch enthalten ist, zeigten sich inkonsistente Ergebnisse. Dagegen zeigten sich für Eicosapentaensäure (EPA, C20:5 n-3) und Docosahexaensäure (C22:6 n-3), die vor allem in fettem Fisch vorkommen, protektive Assoziationen. Zusätzliche Adjustierung für die Vitamin D-Versorgung in einer Teilgruppe änderte die Ergebnisse nicht. Die Ergebnisse dieser großen Kohortenstudie geben somit einen deutlichen Hinweis auf das präventive Potential von Nahrungsfettsäuren. Die Auswahl der richtigen Nahrungsfette und die Aufnahme von fettreichem Fisch in die gewohnheitsmäßige Ernährung können einen wertvollen Beitrag zur Prävention von (Darm-) Krebs leisten. Sowohl die kontinuierliche Beschreibung des regionalen Krebsgeschehens als auch die Identifizierung und Etablierung von weiteren Risikofaktoren zur Prävention von Krebs sind für die Zukunft zwei vordringliche Aufgaben, um die Krebsinzidenz zu senken und mögliche Defizite in der Versorgung von Krebspatienten aufzudecken.Cancer presents the second most common cause of death worldwide. For the concerned patients, it means serious health consequences and psychosocial strains. In response to the growing demand, healthcare system is facing big challenges in providing access to medical care and aftercare. Cancer registry data provide a valuable basis for the assessment of cancer burden in the population. They enable the monitoring of temporal trends of cancer incidence and the detection of regional differences in cancer burden. Moreover, they allow the estimation of cancer survival, which serve for the evaluation of treatment strategies and the effectiveness of oncological healthcare. Due to Germany`s ageing population, cancer incidence is expected to remain on high levels for several cancer sites in future. This development emphasizes the importance of measures of screening and prevention. Reducing risk factors (cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, insufficient physical activity, obesity) and adopting a healthy lifestyle can distinctly reduce the incidence of some frequent cancers. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the three most common cancers worldwide. Especially CRC bears a high preventive potential, which can be achieved by a healthy diet. The first study aimed to assess the cancer burden in the Augsburg study region by a population- based analysis covering all tumour sites. Age-standardized incidence rates decreased for prostate cancer and for CRC in men. Rates remained stable for breast cancer in women. For oropharyngeal cancer, among other associated with smoking, incidence rates declined in men, while they significantly increased in women. This assimilation of sex differences is likely due to the adaption of lifestyle and emphasizes the importance of modifiable cancer risk factors. Relative five-year survival showed a wide range and varied according to site and type of the tumour. For breast cancer in women, continuously rising survival trends were observed. While slight deviations could be observed for incidence rates of single sites, survival of cancer patients in the Augsburg study region was largely concordant with the situation in Germany. Fatty acids are among the nutrients which are hypothesized to affect CRC risk. Thus, the measuring of circulating biomarkers of fatty acids is a suitable method to determine the influence of specific fatty acids on CRC risk. We conducted a nested case-control study embedded in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) to estimate this association using conditional logistic regression models adjusted for established risk factors. A higher proportion of stearic acid (C18:0) was associated with a higher risk of developing CRC. Heptadecanoic acid (C17:0), which can serve as a marker for the habitual consumption of milk and dairy products, was inversely associated with CRC risk. Inconsistent results were found for the circulating biomarker arachidonic acid (C20:4 n-6), which primarily occurs in meat. In contrast, eicopentaenoic acid (EPA, C20:5 n-3) and docosahexanoic acid (C22:6 n-3), which are predominantly found in fatty fish were inversely associated with CRC risk. Additional adjustment for vitamin D supply in a subgroup did not change the results. Thus, the findings of this large cohort study give a strong hint towards the preventive potential of fatty acids. Choosing the right dietary fats and including the consumption of fat fish in the habitual diet can be a valuable contribution to the prevention of (colorectal) cancer. Both, the ongoing assessment of regional cancer burden and the identification and establishment of further risk factors for cancer prevention are two future key priorities to decrease cancer incidence and detect deficits in the healthcare of cancer patients

The Fantastic Bildwelten Of Wolfgang Harms

Wolfgang Harms is an artist from Nuremberg, Germany, who has not been studied at length in the recent past. This thesis explains why the artist is deserving of study. The first chapter is a biographical introduction to the artist and his early works. The following chapters discuss the importance of Nuremberg and mural painting to Harms. The final chapter will analyze the artist’s place in the historical context of Fantastic Realism and the history of art in general. Overall, the purpose of the thesis is to show how Wolfgang Harms is a unique independent-minded artist, who is deserving of more historical attention than has been given to him in the past

Thirtieth Annual Bibliography 2016 (Contemporary German Literature Collection)

The 30th bibliography for 660 volumes added to Washington University Libraries\u27 Contemporary German Literature Collection. All published in 2016, these acquisitions include novels, poetry, short story collections, essays, autobiographical works, and literary and cultural periodicals from publishers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Organized by author or editor, the bibliography includes local call numbers as well as subject and genre descriptors. This Collection serves as the research arm for the Department of Germanic Languages and Literature\u27s Max Kade Center for Contemporary German Literature. A bibliography of items added the previous year is compiled each year by Washington University\u27s Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures in cooperation with the University Libraries