Practical License Plate Recognition in Unconstrained Surveillance Systems with Adversarial Super-Resolution

Although most current license plate (LP) recognition applications have been significantly advanced, they are still limited to ideal environments where training data are carefully annotated with constrained scenes. In this paper, we propose a novel license plate recognition method to handle unconstrained real world traffic scenes. To overcome these difficulties, we use adversarial super-resolution (SR), and one-stage character segmentation and recognition. Combined with a deep convolutional network based on VGG-net, our method provides simple but reasonable training procedure. Moreover, we introduce GIST-LP, a challenging LP dataset where image samples are effectively collected from unconstrained surveillance scenes. Experimental results on AOLP and GIST-LP dataset illustrate that our method, without any scene-specific adaptation, outperforms current LP recognition approaches in accuracy and provides visual enhancement in our SR results that are easier to understand than original data.Comment: Accepted at VISAPP, 201

Too little, too late: A longitudinal study of English corrective focus by Mandarin speakers

This study tracks the production of English corrective focus by Mandarin speakers (MS) living in the US over a two-year period. We show that the MS differed from English speakers (ES) in the alignment of the corrective focus pitch accent: while ES productions typically showed a pitch peak on the stressed syllable, followed by an abrupt fall, the pitch rise and fall for MS was later and less steep. While the MS productions became more English-like over time in some respects, the failure to correctly align pitch accent persisted over time. We argue that this misalignment of pitch peak cannot be attributed to a lack of sensitivity to English stress, but rather represents a common failure to master the complex timing patterns involved in synchronizing pitch, intensity, and duration cues with segmental structure in a second language

Renal Lymphatics: Anatomy, Physiology, and Clinical Implications

Renal lymphatics are abundant in the cortex of the normal kidney but have been largely neglected in discussions around renal diseases. They originate in the substance of the renal lobule as blind-ended initial capillaries, and can either follow the main arteries and veins toward the hilum, or penetrate the capsule to join capsular lymphatics. There are no valves present in interlobular lymphatics, which allows lymph formed in the cortex to exit the kidney in either direction. There are very few lymphatics present in the medulla. Lymph is formed from interstitial fluid in the cortex, and is largely composed of capillary filtrate, but also contains fluid reabsorbed from the tubules. The two main factors that contribute to renal lymph formation are interstitial fluid volume and intra-renal venous pressure. Renal lymphatic dysfunction, defined as a failure of renal lymphatics to adequately drain interstitial fluid, can occur by several mechanisms. Renal lymphatic inflow may be overwhelmed in the setting of raised venous pressure (e.g., cardiac failure) or increased capillary permeability (e.g., systemic inflammatory response syndrome). Similarly, renal lymphatic outflow, at the level of the terminal thoracic duct, may be impaired by raised central venous pressures. Renal lymphatic dysfunction, from any cause, results in renal interstitial edema. Beyond a certain point of edema, intra-renal collecting lymphatics may collapse, further impairing lymphatic drainage. Additionally, in an edematous, tense kidney, lymphatic vessels exiting the kidney via the capsule may become blocked at the exit point. The reciprocal negative influences between renal lymphatic dysfunction and renal interstitial edema are expected to decrease renal function due to pressure changes within the encapsulated kidney, and this mechanism may be important in several common renal conditions