The PS-Battles Dataset - an Image Collection for Image Manipulation Detection

The boost of available digital media has led to a significant increase in derivative work. With tools for manipulating objects becoming more and more mature, it can be very difficult to determine whether one piece of media was derived from another one or tampered with. As derivations can be done with malicious intent, there is an urgent need for reliable and easily usable tampering detection methods. However, even media considered semantically untampered by humans might have already undergone compression steps or light post-processing, making automated detection of tampering susceptible to false positives. In this paper, we present the PS-Battles dataset which is gathered from a large community of image manipulation enthusiasts and provides a basis for media derivation and manipulation detection in the visual domain. The dataset consists of 102'028 images grouped into 11'142 subsets, each containing the original image as well as a varying number of manipulated derivatives.Comment: The dataset introduced in this paper can be found on https://github.com/dbisUnibas/PS-Battle

A deep dive into the pathology of gray platelet syndrome: new insights on immune dysregulation

The gray platelet syndrome (GPS) is a rare platelet disorder, characterized by impaired alpha-granule biogenesis in megakaryocytes and platelets due to NBEAL2 muta-tions. Typical clinical features include macrothrombocytopenia, bleeding and elevated vita-min B12 levels, while bone marrow fibrosis and splenomegaly may develop during disease progression. Recently, the involvement of other blood lineages has been highlighted, reveal-ing the role of NBEAL2 outside the megakaryocyte-platelet axis. Low leukocyte counts, decreased neutrophil granulation and impaired neutrophil extracellular trap formation repre-sent prominent findings in GPS patients, reflecting deranged innate immunity and associated with an increased susceptibility to infection. In addition, low numbers and impaired degra-nulation of NK cells have been demonstrated in animal models. Autoimmune diseases involving different organs and a spectrum of autoantibodies are present in a substantial proportion of GPS patients, expanding the syndromic spectrum of this disorder and pointing to dysregulation of the adaptive immune response. Low-grade inflammation, as evidenced by elevation of liver-derived acute-phase reactants, is another previously unrecognized feature of GPS which may contribute to disease manifestations. This review will focus on the mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of blood cell abnormalities in human GPS patients and NBEAL2-null animal models, providing insight into the effects of NBEAL2 in hemos-tasis, inflammation and immunity.Fil: Glembotsky, Ana Claudia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Médicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones Médicas; ArgentinaFil: de Luca, Geraldine. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Médicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones Médicas; ArgentinaFil: Heller, Paula Graciela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Médicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones Médicas; Argentin

The goldstino brane, the constrained superfields and matter in N= 1 supergravity

open5siopenBandos, Igor; Heller, Markus; Kuzenko, Sergei M.; Martucci, Luca; Sorokin, DmitriBandos, Igor; Heller, Markus; Kuzenko, Sergei M.; Martucci, Luca; Sorokin, Dmitr

Reconstruction of extensive air shower images of the first Large Size Telescope prototype of CTA using a novel likelihood technique

Ground-based gamma-ray astronomy aims at reconstructing the energy and direction of gamma rays from the extensive air showers they initiate in the atmosphere. Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACT) collect the Cherenkov light induced by secondary charged particles in extensive air showers (EAS), creating an image of the shower in a camera positioned in the focal plane of optical systems. This image is used to evaluate the type, energy and arrival direction of the primary particle that initiated the shower. This contribution shows the results of a novel reconstruction method based on likelihood maximization. The novelty with respect to previous likelihood reconstruction methods lies in the definition of a likelihood per single camera pixel, accounting not only for the total measured charge, but also for its development over time. This leads to more precise reconstruction of shower images. The method is applied to observations of the Crab Nebula acquired with the Large Size Telescope prototype (LST-1) deployed at the northern site of the Cherenkov Telescope Array.Comment: Proceedings of the 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2021), Berlin, Germany. https://pos.sissa.it/395/71

Competitive Interactive Video Retrieval in Virtual Reality with vitrivr-VR

Virtual Reality (VR) has emerged and developed as a new modality to interact with multimedia data. In this paper, we present vitrivr-vr, a prototype of an interactive multimedia retrieval system in VR based on the open source full-stack multimedia retrieval system vitrivr. We have implemented query formulation tailored to VR: Users can use speech-to-text to search collections via text for concepts, OCR and ASR data as well as entire scene descriptions through a video-text co-embedding feature that embeds sentences and video sequences into the same feature space. Result presentation and relevance feedback in vitrivr-VR leverages the capabilities of virtual spaces

Radio (14C)- and fluorescent-doubly labeled silica nanoparticles for biological and environmental toxicity assessment

A new and efficient synthetic route to fluorescent and 14C-double-labeled silica-based nanoparticles (NPs) is described. The synthesis has been carried out using the "oil-in-water” micro-emulsion technique. Fluorescent and radioactive labeling have been achieved entrapping labeled poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) molecules in the NPs. The produced particles have been analyzed by means of scanning electron microscopy, photon correlation spectroscopy, confocal microscopy, scintillation counting and oxidation/combustion experiments. Fluorescence quenching experiments confirm that the label is entrapped in the particles. The results presented suggest that the silica matrix does not block the β-radiations emitted from the labeled PEG molecules entrapped in the NP

Deep Learning-based Concept Detection in vitrivr at the Video Browser Showdown 2019 - Final Notes

This paper presents an after-the-fact summary of the participation of the vitrivr system to the 2019 Video Browser Showdown. Analogously to last year's report, the focus of this paper lies on additions made since the original publication and the system's performance during the competition

Exploring Intuitive Lifelog Retrieval and Interaction Modes in Virtual Reality with vitrivr-VR

The multimodal nature of lifelog data collections poses unique challenges for multimedia management and retrieval systems. The Lifelog Search Challenge (LSC) offers an annual evaluation platform for such interactive retrieval systems. They compete against one another in finding items of interest within a set time frame. In this paper, we present the multimedia retrieval system vitrivr-vr, the latest addition to the vitrivr stack, which participated in the LSC in recent years. vitrivr-vr leverages the 3D space in virtual reality (VR) to offer novel retrieval and user interaction models, which we describe with a special focus on design decisions taken for the participation in the LSC

Turbinage des eaux usées, quel potential pour la Suisse?

Une évaluation du potentiel de turbinage sur les systèmes d’eaux usées en Suisse a été réalisée au Laboratoire de Constructions Hydrauliques (LCH) en collaboration avec le bureau e-dric.ch. Le potentiel hydroélectrique de chaque STEP a été calculé et complété par une analyse de rentabilité pour chacun des sites identifiés, ce qui a permis d’identifier 19 sites potentiellement rentables. L’étude de différents scénarios d’évolution de l’assainissement fait apparaitre 31 nouveaux sites rentables dans le futur

A meta-study of relationships between fluvial channel-body stacking pattern and aggradation rate: implications for sequence stratigraphy

A quantitative comparison of 20 literature case studies of fluvial sedimentary successions tests common assumptions made in published models of alluvial architecture concerning (1) inverse proportionality between channel-deposit density and floodplain aggradation rates, and (2) resulting characteristics of channel-body geometries and connectedness. Our results do not support the relationships predicted by established stratigraphy models: the data suggest that channel-body density, geometry, and stacking pattern are not reliable diagnostic indicators of rates of accommodation creation. Hence, these architectural characteristics alone do not permit the definition of accommodation-based “systems tracts” and “settings”, and this calls into question current sequence stratigraphic practice in application to fluvial successions