Backtracking Spatial Pyramid Pooling (SPP)-based Image Classifier for Weakly Supervised Top-down Salient Object Detection

Top-down saliency models produce a probability map that peaks at target locations specified by a task/goal such as object detection. They are usually trained in a fully supervised setting involving pixel-level annotations of objects. We propose a weakly supervised top-down saliency framework using only binary labels that indicate the presence/absence of an object in an image. First, the probabilistic contribution of each image region to the confidence of a CNN-based image classifier is computed through a backtracking strategy to produce top-down saliency. From a set of saliency maps of an image produced by fast bottom-up saliency approaches, we select the best saliency map suitable for the top-down task. The selected bottom-up saliency map is combined with the top-down saliency map. Features having high combined saliency are used to train a linear SVM classifier to estimate feature saliency. This is integrated with combined saliency and further refined through a multi-scale superpixel-averaging of saliency map. We evaluate the performance of the proposed weakly supervised topdown saliency and achieve comparable performance with fully supervised approaches. Experiments are carried out on seven challenging datasets and quantitative results are compared with 40 closely related approaches across 4 different applications.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure

Impact of sidewalls on electrical characterization

In this article the impact of sidewalls, formed during reactive ion etching, on the electrical behavior of thin film structures is presented. The presence of sidewalls was experimentally characterized by sheet resistance measurements on Van der Pauw structures. The effect of these sidewalls on the extraction of specific contact resistance from Cross Bridge Kelvin Resistance (CBKR) structures is discussed

Bias dependent specic contact resistance of phase change material to metal contacts

Knowledge of contact resistance of phase change materials (PCM) to metal electrodes is important for scaling, device modeling and optimization of phase change random access memory (PCRAM) cells. In this article, we report the systematic determination of the speci_c contact resistance (_c) with voltage bias for doped Sb2Te to TiW metal electrodes. These data are reported for both the amorphous and the crystalline state of the PCM

Characterization of electrical contacts for phase change memory cells

Advancements in integrated circuits demand an increasing requirement for\ud a faster, low-cost non-volatile memory with improved scaling potential. Phase\ud change memory is an important emerging memory technology qualifying these\ud requirements. With dimensional scaling, the contacts are scaled by F2, therefore\ud knowledge of the contact properties becomes even more important. This thesis\ud deals with the characterization of electrical contacts for phase change memory\ud cells. An electrical contact in this respect refers to the interfaces formed in the\ud memory cell, i.e. the metal electrode to phase change material (PCM) contacts\ud in the crystalline and in the amorphous state

Are object detection assessment criteria ready for maritime computer vision?

Maritime vessels equipped with visible and infrared cameras can complement other conventional sensors for object detection. However, application of computer vision techniques in maritime domain received attention only recently. The maritime environment offers its own unique requirements and challenges. Assessment of the quality of detections is a fundamental need in computer vision. However, the conventional assessment metrics suitable for usual object detection are deficient in the maritime setting. Thus, a large body of related work in computer vision appears inapplicable to the maritime setting at the first sight. We discuss the problem of defining assessment metrics suitable for maritime computer vision. We consider new bottom edge proximity metrics as assessment metrics for maritime computer vision. These metrics indicate that existing computer vision approaches are indeed promising for maritime computer vision and can play a foundational role in the emerging field of maritime computer vision

Preparation of stabilized essential fatty acid enriched formulations from marine sources for use as nutraceuticals and aquafeed supplements

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in adequate amount are essential in the diet of marine finfish for larval and broodstock nutrition, and as nutraceutical supplements for human health because of the inability of the animal kingdom to synthesize de novo these fatty acids in adequate levels from precursor molecules. These fatty acids are widely available in a large variety of marine fish, and therefore, they are preferentially used as raw material to prepare PUFA concentrates. This work relates to screen low-value fish for essential PUFAs, especially n-3 fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), concentrating these essential fatty acids by chemical and enzymatic process. This study further contemplated to develop n3 PUFA enriched formulation(s) comprising fatty acid concentrate and individual or combination of natural ingredients with potential antioxidant properties to form a stabilized form of concentrated PUFAs. The present study demonstrated that the marine pelagic fish Sardinella longiceps is a valuable source of EPA and DHA, for human diet, as well as the extraction of oil in view of commercial exploitation. The spatial and seasonal variation of this study indicated that oil sardine collected from the Southwest coasts during the monsoon season have superior quality with respect to their fatty acid profile, especially EPA and DHA. newlin

Contemplating on the end of integrated care-part II: Living the questions to foster adaptability

This article extends the use of the ecocycle planning framework to describe challenges ahead for the integrated care and Collaborative Family Healthcare Association (CFHA). The authors make the case that to remain agile and adaptable, there are contextual, ecological, and moral challenges that integrated care and CFHA should keep in the forefront as they navigate the future of an inequitable health care system that is morphing at a rapid pace. These influences include but are not limited to challenges of social determinants of health, artificial intelligence, generational differences in technology among older and younger populations, the moral issue of poverty, challenges to retain an integrated care workforce, and rethinking development of evidence-based supported treatments for integrated care