Nested Diffusion Processes for Anytime Image Generation

Diffusion models are the current state-of-the-art in image generation, synthesizing high-quality images by breaking down the generation process into many fine-grained denoising steps. Despite their good performance, diffusion models are computationally expensive, requiring many neural function evaluations (NFEs). In this work, we propose an anytime diffusion-based method that can generate viable images when stopped at arbitrary times before completion. Using existing pretrained diffusion models, we show that the generation scheme can be recomposed as two nested diffusion processes, enabling fast iterative refinement of a generated image. We use this Nested Diffusion approach to peek into the generation process and enable flexible scheduling based on the instantaneous preference of the user. In experiments on ImageNet and Stable Diffusion-based text-to-image generation, we show, both qualitatively and quantitatively, that our method's intermediate generation quality greatly exceeds that of the original diffusion model, while the final slow generation result remains comparable

Transformer-based Image Compression with Variable Image Quality Objectives

This paper presents a Transformer-based image compression system that allows for a variable image quality objective according to the user's preference. Optimizing a learned codec for different quality objectives leads to reconstructed images with varying visual characteristics. Our method provides the user with the flexibility to choose a trade-off between two image quality objectives using a single, shared model. Motivated by the success of prompt-tuning techniques, we introduce prompt tokens to condition our Transformer-based autoencoder. These prompt tokens are generated adaptively based on the user's preference and input image through learning a prompt generation network. Extensive experiments on commonly used quality metrics demonstrate the effectiveness of our method in adapting the encoding and/or decoding processes to a variable quality objective. While offering the additional flexibility, our proposed method performs comparably to the single-objective methods in terms of rate-distortion performance

The influence of political party branding on voting brand preference among the youth in South Africa

Thesis (M.Com.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Business and Economic Sciences, 2017With an increase in competition in the political sector, there is a paradigm shift as parties revert to branding to influence voters’ political party brand preference. Political marketing is one of the most important aspects of developing industry which affects institutions, people and the involvement of successful candidates in the modern generation of politics. Therefore, it is of interest to examine how political party branding can enhance brand preference of the voters. Although several studies have explored political marketing and factors influencing university students’ intention to vote using various mediums, few studies have explored distinctive cues as a holistic concept in investigating the effect on youth of brand image and brand preference. More precisely, few studies have explored this topic in a political context among the youth in South Africa. This research purpose is to determine whether political party branding influences voting brand preference among the youth in South Africa, through the means of the proposed conceptual model, brand identity, positive word of mouth and brand authenticity as the predictors, brand image as the mediating variable, and brand preference as the outcome variable. The current study undertakes a quantitative approach, where 379 questionnaires were received from the respondents, (University of the Witwatersrand students), to explore the influence of political party branding on voting brand preference among the youth in South Africa. The data was analysed using structural equation modelling and Amos 23.0. Findings support all five proposed hypotheses. Hence indicating that brand identity, positive word of mouth and brand authenticity, influences brand image and brand preference. The contribution of this study is to provide general information to guide political parties or politics in South Africa in developing marketing / branding strategies based on the concept of brand preference. These contributions will help different types of political parties in having the knowledge of the critical role of brand preference and its implementation in the political marketing context. Theoretically, it is positioned in political marketing and adds to empirical literature that focuses on political branding, branding and voters’ preference in political parties. Lastly, by examining the predictors’ variables and their influence on brand image and brand preference, the findings provide political parties with a better understanding of branding strategies that can be implemented to influence voters’ preference before, during and after a campaign through comprehensive political branding.XL201

Factors that impact young generation’s consumer preferences for sportswear products in Malaysia / Nur Shakila Saman and Noor Fadzlen Abd Rahman

This research is to study about factor of country of origin (COO), product quality, style, promotion and brand image towards the consumer preference on young generation for sportswear product. The study was conducted in Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, Johore and Malacca area. The main problem is the young generation are become wealthier and grow up what they purchase. Young generation are trendier, digitally savvy and exposed to new things. They are willing try new things and difficult to hold them in a brand. Due to the problem, there are certain reasons why the research objective was developed. First, to identify the most factors that will impact young generation consumer preferences on product sportswear. Next, to examine the factor of country of origin (COO), product quality, brand image, style, and promotion toward consumer preferences. The finding stated that all independent variable are positive relationship with consumer preferences. Besides, the result also illustrated that three of the variable which are product quality, brand image and style is has a strong relationship, meanwhile, promotion, country of origin (COO) are at moderate level. Based on finding, there are several recommendation has been suggested to manufacture of sportswear product to help and to improve customer understanding. The manufacture and marketers need to improve and fulfil the need and wants of consumer to build a strong relationship between all factor and consumer preferences

Does brand image or taste have more influence on consumer preference for energy drinks?

In the past, numerous studies have been completed comparing brand image to product performance. In these studies it has been shown that brand image does have an effect on preferences and observers evaluate product performance differently when brand image is part of the equation. However, Generation Y is often cited as being skeptical of advertising, because they have been bombarded with media their entire lives. Therefore, this study examined a product targeted towards Generation Y, energy drinks, and compared stated brand preferences to actual product performance. The sample was 68 college students from Bryant University varying in age from 18 to 23 years old. In the study, participants were asked to complete an online survey about energy drinks and within the survey they were asked to rank five energy drinks (Red Bull, Monster, Full Throttle, Amp, and Rockstar) in order from favorite to least favorite. Several days later, the participants then came to the Applied Psychology Research Center on campus and participated in a blind taste test where they again ranked the energy drinks favorite to least favorite. Results showed that Generation Y is not immune to advertising. In the survey, Red Bull was clearly the most preferred brand with 47% of respondents selecting it as their favorite. In the blind taste tests, Monster was most preferred with 28% of respondents choosing it as their favorite. When comparing favorites using mean ranks, Red Bull was also most preferred in stated preferences (mean rank = 2.2) and Amp was most preferred in taste tests (mean rank = 2.7). Thus, Generation Y may be more skeptical about advertising, but they are still influenced by marketing efforts as shown by the discrepancy between stated preferences and the taste test preferences. These results provide important information for marketers because they show that advertising dollars aimed at Generation Y are effective

Personalized Cinemagraphs using Semantic Understanding and Collaborative Learning

Cinemagraphs are a compelling way to convey dynamic aspects of a scene. In these media, dynamic and still elements are juxtaposed to create an artistic and narrative experience. Creating a high-quality, aesthetically pleasing cinemagraph requires isolating objects in a semantically meaningful way and then selecting good start times and looping periods for those objects to minimize visual artifacts (such a tearing). To achieve this, we present a new technique that uses object recognition and semantic segmentation as part of an optimization method to automatically create cinemagraphs from videos that are both visually appealing and semantically meaningful. Given a scene with multiple objects, there are many cinemagraphs one could create. Our method evaluates these multiple candidates and presents the best one, as determined by a model trained to predict human preferences in a collaborative way. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach with multiple results and a user study.Comment: To appear in ICCV 2017. Total 17 pages including the supplementary materia