Coarse-to-Fine Annotation Enrichment for Semantic Segmentation Learning

Rich high-quality annotated data is critical for semantic segmentation learning, yet acquiring dense and pixel-wise ground-truth is both labor- and time-consuming. Coarse annotations (e.g., scribbles, coarse polygons) offer an economical alternative, with which training phase could hardly generate satisfactory performance unfortunately. In order to generate high-quality annotated data with a low time cost for accurate segmentation, in this paper, we propose a novel annotation enrichment strategy, which expands existing coarse annotations of training data to a finer scale. Extensive experiments on the Cityscapes and PASCAL VOC 2012 benchmarks have shown that the neural networks trained with the enriched annotations from our framework yield a significant improvement over that trained with the original coarse labels. It is highly competitive to the performance obtained by using human annotated dense annotations. The proposed method also outperforms among other state-of-the-art weakly-supervised segmentation methods.Comment: CIKM 2018 International Conference on Information and Knowledge Managemen

Text-to-Sticker: Style Tailoring Latent Diffusion Models for Human Expression

We introduce Style Tailoring, a recipe to finetune Latent Diffusion Models (LDMs) in a distinct domain with high visual quality, prompt alignment and scene diversity. We choose sticker image generation as the target domain, as the images significantly differ from photorealistic samples typically generated by large-scale LDMs. We start with a competent text-to-image model, like Emu, and show that relying on prompt engineering with a photorealistic model to generate stickers leads to poor prompt alignment and scene diversity. To overcome these drawbacks, we first finetune Emu on millions of sticker-like images collected using weak supervision to elicit diversity. Next, we curate human-in-the-loop (HITL) Alignment and Style datasets from model generations, and finetune to improve prompt alignment and style alignment respectively. Sequential finetuning on these datasets poses a tradeoff between better style alignment and prompt alignment gains. To address this tradeoff, we propose a novel fine-tuning method called Style Tailoring, which jointly fits the content and style distribution and achieves best tradeoff. Evaluation results show our method improves visual quality by 14%, prompt alignment by 16.2% and scene diversity by 15.3%, compared to prompt engineering the base Emu model for stickers generation.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Abstinence-only-until-marriage : An Updated review of U.S. policies and programs and their impact

Adolescence is marked by the emergence of human sexuality, sexual identity and the initiation of intimate relations; within this context, abstinence from sexual intercourse can be a healthy choice. However, programs that promote abstinence-only-until-marriage (AOUM) or sexual risk avoidance (SRA), are scientifically and ethically problematic and—as such—have been widely rejected by medical and public health professionals. Although abstinence is theoretically effective, in actual practice, intentions to abstain from sexual activity often fail. Given a rising age at first marriage around the world, a rapidly declining percentage of young people remain abstinent until marriage. Promotion of AOUM policies by the United States (U.S.) government has undermined sexuality education in the U.S. and in U.S. foreign aid programs; funding for AOUM continues in the U.S. The weight of scientific evidence finds that AOUM programs are not effective in delaying initiation of sexual intercourse or changing other sexual risk behaviors. AOUM programs, as defined by U.S. federal funding requirements, inherently withhold information about human sexuality and may provide medically inaccurate and stigmatizing information. Thus, AOUM programs threaten fundamental human rights to health, information, and life. Young people need access to accurate and comprehensive sexual health information to protect their health and lives

Contacts versus connectors: The role of community fire safe group coordinators in achieving positive bushfire safety outcomes

Shared responsibility for bushfire preparedness includes self-reliant communities with the skills, knowledge and ability to minimize the impacts of bushfires on their homes, properties and community. Community preparedness groups are a potentially effective way to achieve this self-reliance. Previous research shows that these groups increase people's knowledge and awareness of risk, their planning and preparations, and community cohesion and collaboration. However, these are not outcomes for all groups in all places. Groups face a perennial problem of low participation and ‘buy in’ from the local area due in part to individual differences in the desire to be part of a group, low levels of risk awareness, community turbidity, and low social capital. This paper proposes that the skills and characteristics of the group coordinator in responding to and overcoming these challenges are key to a group's longevity, collaboration and success. Using interviews and a survey with Community Fire Safe group coordinators and members affected by the 2015 Sampson Flat fire in South Australia, we found the key elements of successful coordination were active outreach to existing neighbourhood residents, newcomers and those ‘not into groups’ using face to face and personalized communication adapted for different people's needs. This active, determined persistence in communicating bushfire safety was motivated by an understanding that low interest can be overcome and that overcoming it is the key role of the group coordinator. Training for coordinators in the individual and group processes underpinning behavior change, in personalized communication, and adapting materials for diverse groups is likely to improve group outcomes

Capturing community experiences in the 2015 Sampson Flat fire: Report for the South Australia Country Fire Service

The Sampson Flat fire in January 2015 was the most destructive fire in the Adelaide Hills for more than 30 years, burning 12,569 hectares of public and private lands with losses including 24 homes, 146 other structures, 5 businesses and much livestock and fencing. Following this fire, the CFS commissioned CQUniversity through the BNH CRC to undertake research on the community’s bushfire experience focusing on bushfire safety, the CFS Community Fire Safe program and information and warnings. The research used both quantitative data from online and CATI telephone surveys, and qualitative data from face-to-face or telephone interviews. Participants from fire affected and fire threatened areas were recruited by the CFS through their electronic and community networks

Sampson flat community bushfire experiences

After a major bushfire impacted communities less than two kilometres from Adelaide’s suburban edge in January 2015, the South Australian Country Fire Service (CFS) commissioned this research to explore three key questions: what factors affected residents’ planning, preparation and actions on the day; the influence of CFS Community Fire Safe groups on bushfire safety; and the effectiveness of information and warnings for people living in the rural/urban interface. The approach followed studies conducted after other major bushfires. The findings were similar, however they provided some new insights, including that although the majority of people felt physically prepared for a fire, only half felt emotionally prepared for the impacts of the fire and its aftermath. Just over one quarter of respondents had a written bushfire survival plan (a strong result compared with the average seen in previous studies of five percent) and nearly 90% had had a discussion about what to do in the event of a bushfire. Being part of a Community Fire Safe group had a positive impact on both planning and preparation. This project showed that the collective learnings from other post-fire studies and the actions being taken by CFS to implement these learnings are being translated into actions in the community

Effect of carbapenem restriction on prescribing trends for immunocompromised wards at an academic medical center

The recently described proportion of carbapenem consumption metric was used to assess the effectiveness of formulary restriction for carbapenems for 2 units housing predominantly immunocompromised patients at a large academic medical center. Interrupted time series analysis revealed a significant decrease in meropenem use for hematology-oncology and bone marrow transplant units after restriction. (C) 2019 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Correlates of Adolescent and Young Adult Sexual Initiation Patterns

CONTEXT: Identifying adolescent characteristics associated with different patterns of sexual initiation is critical to promoting healthy sexual development. METHODS: Patterns of sexual initiation were examined among 12,378 respondents to Waves 1 (1994-1995) and 4 (2008) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Multinomial logistic regression explored associations between adolescent characteristics and membership in five latent classes capturing the timing, sequence, pace and variety of sexual initiation patterns. RESULTS: Age and indicators of greater psychosocial conventionality were associated with membership in the atypical "postponers" class (characterized by postponement of oral, vaginal and anal sexual activity until early adulthood), although patterns of associations varied by gender. For example, compared with males who attended religious services at least once a week, males who never attended religious services were more likely to appear in the vaginal initiators/multiple behaviors class (characterized by initiation of vaginal sex first and then initiation of another behavior after at least one year), rather than in the postponers class (relative risk ratio, 2.5). Compared with women who prayed at least once a day, those who never prayed were more likely to be in the vaginal initiators/single behavior class (whose members typically engaged in only one type of behavior), rather than in the postponers class (2.0). CONCLUSIONS: Individuals who are more adherent, and presumably more committed, to the attitudes, values and expectations of conventional society are more likely than others to delay multiple types of sexual activity until well beyond the norm for their peers