A Spatiotemporal Oriented Energy Network for Dynamic Texture Recognition

This paper presents a novel hierarchical spatiotemporal orientation representation for spacetime image analysis. It is designed to combine the benefits of the multilayer architecture of ConvNets and a more controlled approach to spacetime analysis. A distinguishing aspect of the approach is that unlike most contemporary convolutional networks no learning is involved; rather, all design decisions are specified analytically with theoretical motivations. This approach makes it possible to understand what information is being extracted at each stage and layer of processing as well as to minimize heuristic choices in design. Another key aspect of the network is its recurrent nature, whereby the output of each layer of processing feeds back to the input. To keep the network size manageable across layers, a novel cross-channel feature pooling is proposed. The multilayer architecture that results systematically reveals hierarchical image structure in terms of multiscale, multiorientation properties of visual spacetime. To illustrate its utility, the network has been applied to the task of dynamic texture recognition. Empirical evaluation on multiple standard datasets shows that it sets a new state-of-the-art.Comment: accepted at ICCV 201

10 Jahre Women's Health Initiative (WHI): Was haben wir gelernt?

Die im Jahre 2002 erschienene erste Publikation von Daten aus der WHI-Studie hat zu einer unbegründeten Angst vor der postmenopausalen ERT/HRT geführt. Die seither gerade auch aus der WHI veröffentlichte neuere Evidenz zur ERT/ HRT zeigt dagegen, dass bei frühem Beginn nach der Menopause der Nutzen einer ERT/HRT klar die allfälligen Risiken überwiegt. Es ist unbestritten, dass die ERT/HRT die wirksamste Methode zur Behandlung von klimakterischen Beschwerden bleibt. Zudem ist innerhalb des so genannten „günstigen Fensters“ (Beginn der Hormongabe innert der ersten 10 Jahre nach der Menopause oder vor dem Alter von 60 Jahren) eine ERT/HRT die Methode der Wahl zur primären Osteoporoseprävention. Innerhalb dieser Altersgruppe sind die kardiovaskuläre Morbidität und Mortalität ebenso wie die totale Mortalität bei Frauen unter einer Östrogengabe signifikant geringer als bei nichtsubstituierten Frauen. Unter Östrogenen allein ist das Brustkrebsrisiko in der WHI-Studie im Vergleich zu Placebo bis zu einer medianen Beobachtungsdauer von 11,8 Jahren auch bei Frauen mit einem BMI < 25 reduziert, in der Nurses’ Health Study steigt es bis zu einer Einnahmedauer von 19,9 Jahren nicht an. Auch unter kombinierter Östrogen-Gestagen-Gabe erhöht sich in der WHI-Studie das Mammakarzinom-Risiko bis zu einer Einnahmedauer von 5,6 Jahren nicht. Danach besteht gemäß der WHI-Studie ein Trend zu einer Risikozunahme (< 1,0 per 1000 Frauen pro Einnahmejahr). SERMs eignen sich vor allem zum Einsatz bei asymptomatischen Frauen mit erhöhtem vertebralem Fraktur- und vermehrtem Brustkrebsrisiko. Nach verschiedenen Daten könnten die einzelnen Gestagene ein unterschiedliches Risikoprofil besitzen. Auch die dänische DOPS-Studie kommt nach 10 Jahren einer randomisierten Behandlung mit ERT/HRT zum Schluss, dass Frauen mit frühem Beginn der Hormoneinnahme nach der Menopause ein signifikant reduziertes Risiko für Mortalität, Herztod oder Myokardinfarkt besitzen, ohne dass die erkennbaren Risiken für Krebs, VTE oder CVI ansteigen. Ab 1–2 Jahren nach der Menopause kann auch Tibolon verwendet werden. Unter transdermaler Östrogengabe ist im Gegensatz zur peroralen Einnahme kein Anstieg des venösen thromboembolischen (VTE) Risikos zu erwarten, das Risiko für zerebrovaskuläre Insulte (CVI) ist gering oder nicht vorhanden. Da therapiebedürftige klimakterische Symptome über Jahre auftreten können, gibt es keine fixe obere Grenze der Einnahmedauer, wobei die Indikation für eine ERT oder HRT (inklusive SERM) regelmäßig reevaluiert werden soll. Dabei ist die niedrigste noch wirksame Hormondosierung zu verwenden und insbesondere bei Risikopatientinnen für VTE und CVI das Östrogen transdermal zu verabreichen

Near-field interactions between a subwavelength tip and a small-volume photonic-crystal nanocavity

International audienceThe fundamentals of the near-field interaction between a subwavelength metallic tip and a photonic-crystal nanocavity are investigated experimentally and theoretically. It is shown experimentally that the cavity resonance is tuned without any degradation by the presence of the tip and that the reported near-field interaction is strongly related to the field distribution within the nanostructure. Then, in light of a perturbation theory, we show that this interaction is selectively related to the electric field or magnetic field distribution within the cavity, depending on the tip properties

String theory and the Kauffman polynomial

We propose a new, precise integrality conjecture for the colored Kauffman polynomial of knots and links inspired by large N dualities and the structure of topological string theory on orientifolds. According to this conjecture, the natural knot invariant in an unoriented theory involves both the colored Kauffman polynomial and the colored HOMFLY polynomial for composite representations, i.e. it involves the full HOMFLY skein of the annulus. The conjecture sheds new light on the relationship between the Kauffman and the HOMFLY polynomials, and it implies for example Rudolph's theorem. We provide various non-trivial tests of the conjecture and we sketch the string theory arguments that lead to it.Comment: 36 pages, many figures; references and examples added, typos corrected, final version to appear in CM

Chern-Simons Invariants of Torus Links

We compute the vacuum expectation values of torus knot operators in Chern-Simons theory, and we obtain explicit formulae for all classical gauge groups and for arbitrary representations. We reproduce a known formula for the HOMFLY invariants of torus links and we obtain an analogous formula for Kauffman invariants. We also derive a formula for cable knots. We use our results to test a recently proposed conjecture that relates HOMFLY and Kauffman invariants.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures; v2: minor changes, version submitted to AHP. The final publication is available at http://www.springerlink.com/content/a2614232873l76h6

Enheduanna – A Manifesto of Falling: first demonstration of a live brain-computer cinema performance with multi-brain BCI interaction for one performer and two audience members

The new commercial-grade Electroencephalography (EEG)-based Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) have led to a phenomenal development of applications across health, entertainment and the arts, while an increasing interest in multi-brain interaction has emerged. In the arts, there is already a number of works that involve the interaction of more than one participants with the use of EEG-based BCIs. However, the field of live brain-computer cinema and mixed-media performances is rather new, compared to installations and music performances that involve multi-brain BCIs. In this context, we present the particular challenges involved. We discuss Enheduanna – A Manifesto of Falling, the first demonstration of a live brain-computer cinema performance that enables the real-time brain-activity interaction of one performer and two audience members; and we take a cognitive perspective on the implementation of a new passive multi-brain EEG-based BCI system to realise our creative concept. This article also presents the preliminary results and future work

Influence of denosumab on bone mineral density in a severe case of pregnancy-associated osteoporosis

Pregnancy and lactation-associated osteoporosis (PLO) with predominantly subsequent vertebral fracture is a rare but severe disease with an estimated incidence of 0.4 in 100,000. In the past, patients with PLO have been predominantly treated with oral and i.v. bisphosphonates to reduce subsequent fracture risk. Hereby, the use of bisphosphonates in premenopausal women is controversial, as bisphosphonates know to persist in bone for many years and can be exposed and circulate in maternal serum and subsequently pass the placenta barrier and may have a detrimental effect on fetal bone health. Here we report the effects of denosumab on the bone mineral density (BMD) and subsequent fracture risk in PLO. In this case presentation, denosumab was administered postpartum with 3000 IE vitamin D and 1000 mg of calcium daily in a patient with PLO and vertebral fracture of L1 and L4. After 18 months of treatment with denosumab, we could demonstrate a clinical significant increase of BMD at the lumbar spine, femoral neck, and total hip of 32.2%, 13.0%, and 11.5% respectively with no further subsequent fractures. As the patient had regular menstrual cycles and considered a further pregnancy, denosumab treatment was terminated and soon a second pregnancy occurred. After the second pregnancy, BMD decreased at the lumbar spine, femur neck, and total hip by -8.8%, -6.9%, and -7.0% respectively compared to the maximum values during treatment with denosumab, but was still significantly higher compared to baseline levels with no further fractures

An examination of the long-term CO records from MOPITT and IASI: comparison of retrieval methodology

International audienceCarbon monoxide (CO) is a key atmospheric compound that can be remotely sensed by satellite on the global scale. Fifteen years of continuous observations are now available from the MOPITT/Terra mission (2000 to present). Another fifteen and more years of observations will be provided by the IASI/MetOp instrument series (2007–2023>). In order to study long term variability and trends, a homogeneous record is required, which is not straightforward as the retrieved products are instrument and processing dependent. The present study aims at evaluating the consistency between the CO products derived from the MOPITT and IASI missions, both for total columns and vertical profiles, during a six year overlap period (2008–2013). The analysis is performed by first comparing the available 2013 versions of the retrieval algorithms, and second using a dedicated reprocessing of MOPITT CO profiles and columns based on the IASI a priori constraints. MOPITT v5T total columns are generally slightly higher over land (bias ranging from 0 to 13%) than IASI v20100815 data. When IASI and MOPITT data are retrieved with the same a priori constraints, correlation coefficients are slightly improved. Large discrepancies (total column bias over 15%) observed in the Northern Hemisphere during the winter months are reduced by a factor of 2 to 2.5. The detailed analysis of retrieved vertical profiles compared with collocated aircraft data from the MOZAIC-IAGOS network, illustrates the advantages and disadvantages of a constant vs. a variable a priori. On one hand, MOPITT agrees better with the aircraft profiles for observations with persisting high levels of CO throughout the year due to pollution or seasonal fire activity (because the climatology-based a priori is supposed to be closer to the real atmospheric state). On the other hand, IASI performs better when unexpected events leading to high levels of CO occur, due to the less constrained variance-covariance matrix