Video Fill In the Blank using LR/RL LSTMs with Spatial-Temporal Attentions

Given a video and a description sentence with one missing word (we call it the "source sentence"), Video-Fill-In-the-Blank (VFIB) problem is to find the missing word automatically. The contextual information of the sentence, as well as visual cues from the video, are important to infer the missing word accurately. Since the source sentence is broken into two fragments: the sentence's left fragment (before the blank) and the sentence's right fragment (after the blank), traditional Recurrent Neural Networks cannot encode this structure accurately because of many possible variations of the missing word in terms of the location and type of the word in the source sentence. For example, a missing word can be the first word or be in the middle of the sentence and it can be a verb or an adjective. In this paper, we propose a framework to tackle the textual encoding: Two separate LSTMs (the LR and RL LSTMs) are employed to encode the left and right sentence fragments and a novel structure is introduced to combine each fragment with an "external memory" corresponding the opposite fragments. For the visual encoding, end-to-end spatial and temporal attention models are employed to select discriminative visual representations to find the missing word. In the experiments, we demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed method on challenging VFIB problem. Furthermore, we introduce an extended and more generalized version of VFIB, which is not limited to a single blank. Our experiments indicate the generalization capability of our method in dealing with such more realistic scenarios

Quantitative behavior of unipotent flows and an effective avoidance principle

We give an effective bound on how much time orbits of a unipotent group $U$ on an arithmetic quotient $G/\Gamma$ can stay near homogeneous subvarieties of $G /\Gamma$ corresponding to $\mathbb Q$-subgroups of $G$. In particular, we show that if such a $U$-orbit is moderately near a proper homogeneous subvariety of $G/\Gamma$ for a long time it is very near a different homogeneous subvariety. Our work builds upon the linearization method of Dani and Margulis. Our motivation in developing these bounds is in order to prove quantitative density statements about unipotent orbits, which we plan to pursue in a subsequent paper. New qualitative implications of our effective bounds are also given.Comment: 52 page

Recent Advancements in Regenerative Dentistry: A Review

Although human mouth benefits from remarkable mechanical properties, it is very susceptible to traumatic damages, exposure to microbial attacks, and congenital maladies. Since the human dentition plays a crucial role in mastication, phonation and esthetics, finding promising and more efficient strategies to reestablish its functionality in the event of disruption has been important. Dating back to antiquity, conventional dentistry has been offering evacuation, restoration, and replacement of the diseased dental tissue. However, due to the limited ability and short lifespan of traditional restorative solutions, scientists have taken advantage of current advancements in medicine to create better solutions for the oral health field and have coined it “regenerative dentistry.” This new field takes advantage of the recent innovations in stem cell research, cellular and molecular biology, tissue engineering, and materials science etc. In this review, the recently known resources and approaches used for regeneration of dental and oral tissues were evaluated using the databases of Scopus and Web of Science. Scientists have used a wide range of biomaterials and scaffolds (artificial and natural), genes (with viral and non-viral vectors), stem cells (isolated from deciduous teeth, dental pulp, periodontal ligament, adipose tissue, salivary glands, and dental follicle) and growth factors (used for stimulating cell differentiation) in order to apply tissue engineering approaches to dentistry. Although they have been successful in preclinical and clinical partial regeneration of dental tissues, whole-tooth engineering still seems to be far-fetched, unless certain shortcomings are addressed

Higher Education, Neoliberalism, and Conflict: A Case of the University of Balochistan in Pakistan

The current study focuses on the role of peacebuilding in the higher education sector of Pakistan’s conflict-affected region of Balochistan. The research is an extended case study of the University of Balochistan. It addresses how the institution’s peacebuilding agency has evolved in the face of ethnic conflict and the neoliberal reforms pursued by the state during the past two decades. The research is based on the study of policy documents, official reports, and individual and focus group interviews with various educational actors. The peacebuilding agency of the institution is theorized according to the 4Rs (Novelli et al., 2019; Novelli et al., 2017). The analytical frame of the 4Rs attempts to address the structural causes of conflict and theorize the role of education in relation to its role contributing to those causes. The analytical lens incorporates conflict\u27s cultural, political, economic, and social dimensions and proposes a holistic strategy for building sustainable peace. The research takes a normative stance of social transformation, rooted in the philosophy of Fraser (2005, 2020), by not merely focusing on ‘fixing’ the social outcomes through some affirmative action but also transforming the structural causes that give rise to social inequalities in the first place. Thus, the university’s peacebuilding agency is measured through its ability to promote representation, redistribution, recognition, and reconciliation within its institution and the larger society

Corporate Debt Policy—Pre- and Post-financial Market Reforms: The Case of the Textile Industry of Pakistan

The literature provides evidence that the capital structure of a firm is often a combination of several securities; it can arrange (1) Bank loan (2) issue debentures/bonds, (3) issue shares (4) lease financing, or (5) utilise its retained earnings. Eventually number of ideas and theories has been developed to discuss the optimal capital structure. Optimum is the trade-off between the benefit of tax and costs of financial distress; a firm faces due to the borrowed money. Although extensive research work has been done on the capital structure but still it remains one of the unsettled topics in finance. Optimal capital structure has an impact on corporate profits. Debt is considered as the cheapest source of financing due to tax shield, higher the firm’s tax bracket more the debt is advantageous to a firm. The trade off theory states that higher debt is associated with higher profitability. Three reasons support this theory; one debt allow tax shield. Second, more trust is built on profitable companies considering more sustainable and less prone to bankruptcy; hence high profitable companies are able to seek more debt. Third, agency cost, for the profitable firms, lenders/creditors give relaxation in monitoring charges, which reduces the debt cost. This motivates profitable firms to go for more debt

How to get research into practice : first get practice into research

sch_iih2007 Jpub2738pub

Quantifying Democracy: An Exploration of how Numbers undermine Democracy in Pakistan.

            The global drive towards datafication of knowledge and decision-making is not simply an outcome of advancement in measurement techniques and new technology. It is rather embedded in new forms of global governance, which emphasizes the regimes of accountability, and evidence based policy. In this new mode of governance, information plays a key role. But not all forms of information are useful. It is only the information contained in a numerical form, presented in a simple and accessible format, collected through scientific indicators, which is acceptable. It is this form of data, which can claim to be objective, free from political bias and untainted by political opinion. However, behind these claims of scientific objectivity lie complex social processes and political power involved, and is very much susceptible to human fallibility and error. The paper will explore the ways in which the process of democracy is being defined and understood in Pakistan through quantitative approaches and will highlight how it undermines the genuine democratic process in the country