Identical Twins as a Facial Similarity Benchmark for Human Facial Recognition

The problem of distinguishing identical twins and non-twin look-alikes in automated facial recognition (FR) applications has become increasingly important with the widespread adoption of facial biometrics. Due to the high facial similarity of both identical twins and look-alikes, these face pairs represent the hardest cases presented to facial recognition tools. This work presents an application of one of the largest twin datasets compiled to date to address two FR challenges: 1) determining a baseline measure of facial similarity between identical twins and 2) applying this similarity measure to determine the impact of doppelgangers, or look-alikes, on FR performance for large face datasets. The facial similarity measure is determined via a deep convolutional neural network. This network is trained on a tailored verification task designed to encourage the network to group together highly similar face pairs in the embedding space and achieves a test AUC of 0.9799. The proposed network provides a quantitative similarity score for any two given faces and has been applied to large-scale face datasets to identify similar face pairs. An additional analysis which correlates the comparison score returned by a facial recognition tool and the similarity score returned by the proposed network has also been performed

The West side sewage treatment works of the Sanitary district of Chicago

Herein following is a thesis on the West Side Sewage Treatment Works of the Sanitary District of Chicago. I have endeavored to cover a large field in one thesis, but think is giving the material I have, the fundamental points have been covered. The local need of sewage treatment is so involved with county, state, Federal, and even International issues that to write solely of local conditions would be to leave out the main part of the story. So, in writing, I have tried to dover enough of the subject to give the historical facts along with the construction side of the project. This thesis does not go into detail on any subject but tries to cover the story of the work, the reasons for the work, and the results attained --Preface, page 2

Investment policies of the life insurance industry

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Boston Universit

An Interpersonal Investigation of \u27Swinging\u27- An Alternative Style of Marriage

As demonstrated by statistics and described by experts, traditional marriage is not proving to be a satisfactory relationship for many. The proportion of divorces is annually rising and the institution of marriage has been described aptly as a calamity. This author conducted an interpersonal study of couples involved in one alternative to traditional marriage-- Swinging. Subjects were obtained via written letter to those swingers who advertised in a swinging magazine. Eight couples participated in the study. The procedure took place in their homes and averaged about six hours. The procedure consisted of the administration of the complete Leary Interpersonal Analysis, the abbreviated Roman and Bauman Interaction Test and an in-depth taped interview. Results of the Leary revealed the following: husbands behaved autocratically and over-generously and described themselves as exploitative and autocratic. The wives presented a much more individualistic personality profile and revealed little consistency among them. Results further indicated overall marital harmony. Results from the abbreviated Roman and Bauman Interaction Test indicated general normal functioning within the relationship with exception of two couples. For the other six couples they productively utilized their individual resources whereas the two problem couples tied up their energies in neurotic conflict. Though swinging has been described as a male dominant activity, the present study revealed a generally equal distribution of power within the relationships. Intellectually, seven of the eight couples were described as average or above, and one was described as dull normal. Interview material complemented the above findings and further illustrated the uniqueness in development of each subject. There was, however, one consistent theme for both husbands and wives--a neutral or negative evaluation of their mother. Swinging, for these couples, has generally served as a means for personal growth, similar to what sensitivity groups have provided for others. The couples have grown emotionally both as individuals and as a couple. One couple used swinging as a destructive outlet, but the other seven used it for need fulfillment and personal growth. The bias toward swinging being a pathological activity has been demonstrated to be inappropriate in the present study

The megageomorphology of the radar rivers of the eastern Sahara

The Eastern Sahara is devoid of surface drainage; this unusual characteristic distinguishes its morphology from that of most other desert regions where running water dominates landscape development. A map derived from SIR-A/B and LANDSAT images and the literature, shows the major presently known paleodrainages in the Eastern Sahara. This compilation permits consideration of the key questions: Where did the radar rivers come from and where did they go? Analysis of SIR-A data led McCauley et al. to suggest that the radar rivers, because of their southwestward trends, once flowed into the Chad basin. This key North African feature is a regional structural low formed in the Early Cretaceous in response to initial opening of the South Atlantic. The problem of the origin of headwaters for the radar rivers was less tractable. The idea that the source areas of the radar rivers might originally have been the same as those later captured by the Nile was proposed tentatively. A more extensive review of the Cenozoic tectonic history of North Africa reveals no reason now to suppose that the Central African tributaries of the present Nile were ever connected to the large alluvial valleys in southwestern Egypt and northwestern Sudan. formed in the Early Cretaceous in response to initial opening of the South Atlantic. The problem of the origin of headwaters for the radar rivers was less tractable. The idea that the source areas of the radar rivers might originally have been the same as those (The Ethiopian Highlands) later captured by the Nile was proposed tentatively. A more extensive review of the Cenozoic tectonic history of North Africa reveals no reason now to support that the Central African tributaries of the present Nile were ever connected to the large alluvial valleys in southwestern Egypt and northwestern Sudan

Casimir forces in the time domain II: Applications

Our preceding paper introduced a method to compute Casimir forces in arbitrary geometries and for arbitrary materials that was based on a finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) scheme. In this manuscript, we focus on the efficient implementation of our method for geometries of practical interest and extend our previous proof-of-concept algorithm in one dimension to problems in two and three dimensions, introducing a number of new optimizations. We consider Casimir piston-like problems with nonmonotonic and monotonic force dependence on sidewall separation, both for previously solved geometries to validate our method and also for new geometries involving magnetic sidewalls and/or cylindrical pistons. We include realistic dielectric materials to calculate the force between suspended silicon waveguides or on a suspended membrane with periodic grooves, also demonstrating the application of PML absorbing boundaries and/or periodic boundaries. In addition we apply this method to a realizable three-dimensional system in which a silica sphere is stably suspended in a fluid above an indented metallic substrate. More generally, the method allows off-the-shelf FDTD software, already supporting a wide variety of materials (including dielectric, magnetic, and even anisotropic materials) and boundary conditions, to be exploited for the Casimir problem.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures. Includes additional examples (dispersive materials and fully three-dimensional systems

A functional link between the actin cytoskeleton and lipid rafts during budding of filamentous influenza virions

AbstractMorphogenesis of influenza virus is a poorly understood process that produces two types of enveloped virion: ∼100-nm spheres and similar diameter filaments that reach 20 μm in length. Spherical particles assemble at plasma membrane lipid rafts in a process independent of microfilaments. The budding site of filamentous virions is hitherto uncharacterised but their formation involves the actin cytoskeleton. We confirm microfilament involvement in filamentous budding and show that after disruption of cortical actin by jasplakinolide, HA, NP, and M1 redistributed around β-actin clusters to form novel annular membrane structures. HA in filamentous virions and jasplakinolide-induced annuli was detergent insoluble at 4°C. Furthermore, in both cases HA partitioned into low buoyant density detergent-insoluble glycolipid domains, indicating that filamentous virions and annuli contain reorganised lipid rafts. We propose that the actin cytoskeleton is required to maintain the correct organisation of lipid rafts for incorporation into budding viral filaments