M2Det: A Single-Shot Object Detector based on Multi-Level Feature Pyramid Network

Feature pyramids are widely exploited by both the state-of-the-art one-stage object detectors (e.g., DSSD, RetinaNet, RefineDet) and the two-stage object detectors (e.g., Mask R-CNN, DetNet) to alleviate the problem arising from scale variation across object instances. Although these object detectors with feature pyramids achieve encouraging results, they have some limitations due to that they only simply construct the feature pyramid according to the inherent multi-scale, pyramidal architecture of the backbones which are actually designed for object classification task. Newly, in this work, we present a method called Multi-Level Feature Pyramid Network (MLFPN) to construct more effective feature pyramids for detecting objects of different scales. First, we fuse multi-level features (i.e. multiple layers) extracted by backbone as the base feature. Second, we feed the base feature into a block of alternating joint Thinned U-shape Modules and Feature Fusion Modules and exploit the decoder layers of each u-shape module as the features for detecting objects. Finally, we gather up the decoder layers with equivalent scales (sizes) to develop a feature pyramid for object detection, in which every feature map consists of the layers (features) from multiple levels. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed MLFPN, we design and train a powerful end-to-end one-stage object detector we call M2Det by integrating it into the architecture of SSD, which gets better detection performance than state-of-the-art one-stage detectors. Specifically, on MS-COCO benchmark, M2Det achieves AP of 41.0 at speed of 11.8 FPS with single-scale inference strategy and AP of 44.2 with multi-scale inference strategy, which is the new state-of-the-art results among one-stage detectors. The code will be made available on \url{https://github.com/qijiezhao/M2Det.Comment: AAAI1

Pvdf-Tio2 Nanocomposite Membrane with Anti-Fouling Properties for Oil Emulsion Removal

Polivinilidena fluorida (PVDF) membran yang terdedah kepada kotoran emulsi minyak sukar deibersihkan melalui saluran air pada permukaan membran. Sifat hydrophilic titanium dioksida (TiO2) akan mengubah kestabilan larutan polimer semasa fasa penyongsangan dan mengubah morfologi membran. Dalam kajian ini, PVDF-TiO2 membran matriks bercampur yang bersifat pembersihan sinar ultraungu (UV) telah disintesiskan untuk penyingkiran emulsi minyak mentah dalam keadaan kemasinan yang tinggi. Kesan parameter sintesis membran, iaitu kepekatan polimer, jenis pelarut, jenis dan kepekatan TiO2, dan kepekatan polietilena glikol (PEG) telah dikaji. Sifat-sifat fizikokimia membran dinilai dan dikaitkan dengan prestasi dan sifat anti-kotoron membran. Saiz liang dan keporosan membran merupakan kesan mendominasi pengotoran oleh emulsi minyak. Dari segi anti-kotoran, parameter sintesis membran optima diperolehi dengan menggunakan 18 % berat kepekatan polimer dengan menggunakan N,N-dimetilasetamid (DMAc) diguna sebagai pelarut dan ditambah dengan 3 % berat P25 TiO2. Fluks penelapan air yang diperolehi adalah 160.19 ± 11.54 L/m2.hr, penolakan emulsi minyak sebanyak 96.27 ± 0.28 % dengan 23.40 ± 1.10 % nisbah pemulihan fluks (FRR). Ia didapati bahawa tekanan kritikal harus rendah daripada 1.5 bar untuk mengelakkan kotoran di mana rintangan lapisan kek adalah mekanisma utama pengotoran. Selepas 30 min sinaran UV, membrane matriks bercampur menunjukkan peningkatan yang drastik dalam nisbah pemulihan fluks, iaitu sebanyak 90.42 ± 4.90 % di mana ia mengesahkan sifat pembersihan sendiri zarah nano TiO2 dalam mendegredasikan emulsi minyak yang terjerap pada permukaan membran. Namun begitu, penyinaran UV dalam jangka masa yang lebih panjang dan intensiti yang lebih tinggi boleh mengurangkan prestasi membran kerana liang tersumbat disebabkan oleh pemecahan minyak dan pembesaran liang. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane is prone to be fouled by oil emulsions which could not be easily cleaned via surface washing. Besides, hydrophilic nature of titanium dioxide (TiO2) changes the thermodynamic stability of the polymer solution during phase inversion and caused membrane with altered morphology. In this study, PVDF–TiO2 mixed-matrix membranes with UV-cleaning properties were synthesized for crude oil emulsion removal at high salinity condition. The effect of membrane synthesis parameter, namely polymer concentrations, type of solvents, TiO2 type and concentrations, and polyethylene glycol (PEG) concentrations were investigated. The physicochemical properties of the membrane were characterized and related to its performance and antifouling properties. Membrane pore size and porosity were the dominating effects of membrane fouling by oil emulsions. In term of antifouling, the optimum membrane synthesis parameter was obtained by 18 wt.% PVDF with N, Ndimethylacetamide (DMAc) as solvent added with 3 wt.% of P25 TiO2. The obtained pure water permeation flux was 160.19 ± 11.54 L/m2.hr, rejection of 96.27 ± 0.28 % with flux recovery ratio (FRR) of 23.40 ± 1.10 %. It was found that the critical pressure to avoid irreversible fouling should be lower than 1.5 bar whereby cake layer resistance is the main fouling mechanism. Upon 30 min of UV irradiation, the mixedmatrix membrane exhibited drastic FRR improvement of 90.42 ± 4.90 %, which confirms the photocatalytic property of TiO2 nanoparticles in degrading the adsorbed oil emulsions on the membrane surface. Nonetheless, further increased of UV irradiation duration and intensity could deteriorate the membrane performance due to pore blockage caused by the oil fragmentation and pore enlargement

Teachers’ understanding and implementation of a whole language approach to literacy in Taiwan: A study of early years’ teachers’ beliefs and practices

In recent years, state and national governments have introduced major programmes to reform literacy teaching, e.g. textbook programmes in the United States; the Literacy Block in Victoria, Australia (DEET, 1997, 1998); the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) in England (Department for Education and Employment (DfEE), 1998). These programmes are largely based on the growing body of evidence about what may constitute effective literacy teaching. Following the trend, Taiwan‟s government is also recognizing that in order to meet the challenges of globalization and the desire to improve students‟ PIRST in the literacy section year–on-year, Taiwanese should be well-equipped with new knowledge and literacy (Ministry of Education, Taiwan; 1999, 2000, 2003, 2005). One of the ways to make education and training more accessible is by providing better infrastructure, such as building new libraries and providing more books, as well as upgrading the teaching and learning practices through teacher training. There is also an urgent need to improve the declining standards in Chinese literacy (Ministry of Education, Taiwan; 1999, 2000, 2003, 2005). In 2000, the Taiwan Education Commission proposed a Reading Project in an attempt to deal with these challenges, which included the whole language approach (MOE, 2000). This approach was the key guideline for the implementation of the aims of early childhood education for the twenty-first millennium. Therefore, many nurseries and kindergartens claim that they have applied the whole language approach as part of their teaching policy, and have treated it as an important element of their curriculum design. In order to explore the understanding of Taiwanese early year‟s teachers regarding whole language approach and its implementation, a total of 200 questionnaires were delivered to teachers at nurseries and kindergartens. 169 were completed and analyzed. In addition, three Taiwanese nursery teachers participated in an in-depth qualitative study to investigate the implementation of the whole language approach and to explore their understanding of it. During the course of the investigation, their beliefs about literacy teaching and the extent to which those beliefs are reflected in their classroom practices were examined. Their framing of the whole language approach was tracked for more than four months by means of interviews and classroom observations. The wealth of data and information collected revealed that although the whole language approach may be positively mandated on a large scale, individual differences between teachers may make the implementation of any such approach or reform more variable in its impact than researchers and policy makers would expect. The findings indicate that, while teachers sought to include the whole language approach into their literacy teaching, their thinking often shifted and their concept of the whole language approach and literacy learning and teaching fluctuated. The findings also highlight the complexity of these views. The key influences on teachers‟ perceptions of literacy and literacy teaching form a continuum, ranging from a purely discrete skill-based curriculum, which reflects traditional Confucian beliefs, to social interaction, which supports the integration of the whole language approach. This range of beliefs is informed by a variety of different influences, including the experience of teachers; their personal background; their understanding of the needs of parents, as well as those of school requirements; government suggested guidelines, and, finally, cultural demands. Each of these influences represents a unique challenge to the beliefs of teachers. When drawn together, the combination of influences that emerge illustrates the complex ways in which teacher beliefs inform their pedagogical practice. What the data reveals is that the pedagogical practices of teachers were pushed and pulled by these intervening forces, along a continuum between a whole language approach and a more traditional skill-based teaching. Therefore, it is not that they were slow to adopt the utopian whole language approach in practice, nor were they reluctant to change, but that their practice was in reality always constrained by these forces. The findings also indicate that there are immense difficulties in understanding the concept of the whole language approach and a gap between the practitioners‟ espoused theories and practice. The study revealed the complex nature of learning and teaching and the core issue for implementing reform, namely, the need to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Based upon the findings of the study, implications for practice are also considered, namely, the need for government funding and subsidies to help nursery schools to mediate market forces; the restructuring of the bureaucratic and hierarchical management in nurseries; the empowerment of teachers through nurturing their pedagogical competence; support of professional career training; and the ongoing development and reformation of the philosophical underpinnings of teacher training

Study on the Effectiveness of Computer Application Course to the Polytechnics Students in the Working Environment

Malaysia Polytechnic Transformation Program was launched to improve the quality of vocational and technical education in Malaysia and form a quality human capital capable of increasing productivity significantly. Human capital that produced should be the ICT literacy groups and will contribute to the needs of industry. Hence, Computer Application course that offered to the students must be revised from time to time and updated content to fulfill the needs of industry. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relevance of Computer Application course to the polytechnic graduates from the perceptions view of students and employers. Review and survey involved 375 students who have completed their six months industrial training and was continue study in the final semester currently on five polytechnics which have been identified through cluster sampling and purposive sampling. In order to get the perception of the employers, convenient sampling was used in this study. The instruments used are two sets of questionnaires adapted from University Putra Malaysia, the Exit Survey for Graduating Students and Stakeholders Survey for Outcome Based Education (OBE) - Industry / Employer / Alumni developed by Professor Dato Ir. Dr. Radin Umar Radin Sohadi. The pilot test obtained the Alpha Cronbach value of 0.962. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, mean, standard deviation, and percentage. Through this study, the highest mean value on attributes of the graduate attainment is derived from students’ perceptions is Lifelong Learning and information management, which was 3.74. Next, the research showed the lowest mean value of 3.60 on the thinking and scientific skills approach. The findings also show that the perception of the employers on polytechnic graduates that they have the ability to apply their knowledge of computer literacy into careers with the highest mean value of 4.20. However, only 52% of employers give opinion that’s Polytechnic graduates are able to act as a manager / leader with a mean value of 3.36. The findings also showed that 96% of employer agrees that BC101 course is relevant and fulfills market needs