Receptive Field Block Net for Accurate and Fast Object Detection

Current top-performing object detectors depend on deep CNN backbones, such as ResNet-101 and Inception, benefiting from their powerful feature representations but suffering from high computational costs. Conversely, some lightweight model based detectors fulfil real time processing, while their accuracies are often criticized. In this paper, we explore an alternative to build a fast and accurate detector by strengthening lightweight features using a hand-crafted mechanism. Inspired by the structure of Receptive Fields (RFs) in human visual systems, we propose a novel RF Block (RFB) module, which takes the relationship between the size and eccentricity of RFs into account, to enhance the feature discriminability and robustness. We further assemble RFB to the top of SSD, constructing the RFB Net detector. To evaluate its effectiveness, experiments are conducted on two major benchmarks and the results show that RFB Net is able to reach the performance of advanced very deep detectors while keeping the real-time speed. Code is available at https://github.com/ruinmessi/RFBNet.Comment: Accepted by ECCV 201

Reproducible Tract Profiles 2 (RTP2) suite, from diffusion MRI acquisition to clinical practice and research

Published: 2023 Apr 12Diffusion MRI is a complex technique, where new discoveries and implementations occur at a fast pace. The expertise needed for data analyses and accurate and reproducible results is increasingly demanding and requires multidisciplinary collaborations. In the present work we introduce Reproducible Tract Profiles 2 (RTP2), a set of flexible and automated methods to analyze anatomical MRI and diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) data for reproducible tractography. RTP2 reads structural MRI data and processes them through a succession of serialized containerized analyses. We describe the DWI algorithms used to identify white-matter tracts and their summary metrics, the flexible architecture of the platform, and the tools to programmatically access and control the computations. The combination of these three components provides an easy-to-use automatized tool developed and tested over 20 years, to obtain usable and reliable state-of-the-art diffusion metrics at the individual and group levels for basic research and clinical practice.G. L-U. was supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (IJC2020-042887-I and PID2021-123577NA-I00) and Basque Government (PIBA-2022-1-0014); M.L. was supported by grants from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie (grant agreement No. 713673), and from “la Caixa” Foundation (grant No. 11660016); P.M.P.-A. was supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PID2021-123574NB-I00), from the Basque Government (PIBA-2021-1-0003), from the Red guipuzcoana de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación of the Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa (FA/OF 422/2022), from “la Caixa” Foundation (ID 100010434) under the agreement HR18-00178-DYSTHAL. BCBL acknowledges support by the Basque Government through the BERC 2022–2025 program and by the Spanish State Research Agency through BCBL Severo Ochoa excellence accreditation CEX2020-001010-S

Object knowledge modulates colour appearance

We investigated the memory colour effect for colour diagnostic artificial objects. Since knowledge about these objects and their colours has been learned in everyday life, these stimuli allow the investigation of the influence of acquired object knowledge on colour appearance. These investigations are relevant for questions about how object and colour information in high-level vision interact as well as for research about the influence of learning and experience on perception in general. In order to identify suitable artificial objects, we developed a reaction time paradigm that measures (subjective) colour diagnosticity. In the main experiment, participants adjusted sixteen such objects to their typical colour as well as to grey. If the achromatic object appears in its typical colour, then participants should adjust it to the opponent colour in order to subjectively perceive it as grey. We found that knowledge about the typical colour influences the colour appearance of artificial objects. This effect was particularly strong along the daylight axis

SPRWeb: preserving subjective responses to website colour schemes through automatic recolouring

Colours are an important part of user experiences on the Web. Colour schemes influence the aesthetics, first impressions and long-term engagement with websites. However, five percent of people perceive a subset of all colours because they have colour vision deficiency (CVD), resulting in an unequal and less-rich user experience on the Web. Traditionally, people with CVD have been supported by recolouring tools that improve colour differentiability, but do not consider the subjective properties of colour schemes while recolouring. To address this, we developed SPRWeb, a tool that recolours websites to preserve subjective responses and improve colour differentiability - thus enabling users with CVD to have similar online experiences. To develop SPRWeb, we extended existing models of non-CVD subjective responses to CVD, then used this extended model to steer the recolouring process. In a lab study, we found that SPRWeb did significantly better than a standard recolouring tool at preserving the temperature and naturalness of websites, while achieving similar weight and differentiability preservation. We also found that recolouring did not preserve activity, and hypothesize that visual complexity influences activity more than colour. SPRWeb is the first tool to automatically preserve the subjective and perceptual properties of website colour schemes thereby equalizing the colour-based web experience for people with CVD.Engineering and Applied Science

Natural images from the birthplace of the human eye

Here we introduce a database of calibrated natural images publicly available through an easy-to-use web interface. Using a Nikon D70 digital SLR camera, we acquired about 5000 six-megapixel images of Okavango Delta of Botswana, a tropical savanna habitat similar to where the human eye is thought to have evolved. Some sequences of images were captured unsystematically while following a baboon troop, while others were designed to vary a single parameter such as aperture, object distance, time of day or position on the horizon. Images are available in the raw RGB format and in grayscale. Images are also available in units relevant to the physiology of human cone photoreceptors, where pixel values represent the expected number of photoisomerizations per second for cones sensitive to long (L), medium (M) and short (S) wavelengths. This database is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial Unported license to facilitate research in computer vision, psychophysics of perception, and visual neuroscience.Comment: Submitted to PLoS ON

Predictors of health-related quality of life in type II diabetic patients in Greece

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality affecting millions of people worldwide, while placing a noteworthy strain on public health funding. The aim of this study was to assess health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of Greek Type II DM patients and to identify significant predictors of the disease in this patient population.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The sample (N = 229, 52.8% female, 70.0 years mean age) lived in a rural community of Lesvos, an island in the northeast of the Aegean Archipelagos. The generic SF-36 instrument, administered by trainee physicians, was used to measure HRQOL. Scale scores were compared with non-parametric Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests and multivariate stepwise linear regression analyses were used to investigate the effect of sociodemographic and diabetes-related variables on HRQOL.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The most important predictors of impaired HRQOL were female gender, diabetic complications, non-diabetic comorbidity and years with diabetes. Older age, lower education, being unmarried, obesity, hypertension and hyperlipidaemia were also associated with impaired HRQOL in at least one SF-36 subscale. Multivariate regression analyses produced models explaining significant portions of the variance in SF-36 subscales, especially physical functioning (R²= 42%), and also showed that diabetes-related indicators were more important disease predictors, compared to sociodemographic variables.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The findings could have implications for health promotion in rural medical practice in Greece. In order to preserve a good HRQOL, it is obviously important to prevent diabetes complications and properly manage concomitant chronic diseases. Furthermore, the gender difference is interesting and requires further elucidation. Modifying screening methods and medical interventions or formulating educational programs for the local population appear to be steps in the correct direction.</p

The human connectome project for disordered emotional states: Protocol and rationale for a research domain criteria study of brain connectivity in young adult anxiety and depression

Available online 5 March 2020.Through the Human Connectome Project (HCP) our understanding of the functional connectome of the healthy brain has been dramatically accelerated. Given the pressing public health need, we must increase our understanding of how connectome dysfunctions give rise to disordered mental states. Mental disorders arising from high levels of negative emotion or from the loss of positive emotional experience affect over 400 million people globally. Such states of disordered emotion cut across multiple diagnostic categories of mood and anxiety disorders and are compounded by accompanying disruptions in cognitive function. Not surprisingly, these forms of psychopathology are the leading cause of disability worldwide. The Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative spearheaded by NIMH offers a framework for characterizing the relations among connectome dysfunctions, anchored in neural circuits and phenotypic profiles of behavior and self-reported symptoms. Here, we report on our Connectomes Related to Human Disease protocol for integrating an RDoC framework with HCP protocols to characterize connectome dysfunctions in disordered emotional states, and present quality control data from a representative sample of participants. We focus on three RDoC domains and constructs most relevant to depression and anxiety: 1) loss and acute threat within the Negative Valence System (NVS) domain; 2) reward valuation and responsiveness within the Positive Valence System (PVS) domain; and 3) working memory and cognitive control within the Cognitive System (CS) domain. For 29 healthy controls, we present preliminary imaging data: functional magnetic resonance imaging collected in the resting state and in tasks matching our constructs of interest (“Emotion”, “Gambling” and “Continuous Performance” tasks), as well as diffusion-weighted imaging. All functional scans demonstrated good signal-to-noise ratio. Established neural networks were robustly identified in the resting state condition by independent component analysis. Processing of negative emotional faces significantly activated the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal and occipital cortices, fusiform gyrus and amygdalae. Reward elicited a response in the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal, parietal and occipital cortices, and in the striatum. Working memory was associated with activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal, parietal, motor, temporal and insular cortices, in the striatum and cerebellum. Diffusion tractography showed consistent profiles of fractional anisotropy along known white matter tracts. We also show that results are comparable to those in a matched sample from the HCP Healthy Young Adult data release. These preliminary data provide the foundation for acquisition of 250 subjects who are experiencing disordered emotional states. When complete, these data will be used to develop a neurobiological model that maps connectome dysfunctions to specific behaviors and symptoms.This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [grant number U01MH109985 under PAR-14-281]

Health-Related Quality of Life, Subjective Health Complaints, Psychological Distress and Coping in Pakistani Immigrant Women With and Without the Metabolic Syndrome: The InnvaDiab-DEPLAN Study on Pakistani Immigrant Women Living in Oslo, Norway

The increasingly high number of immigrants from South-East Asia with The Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) is an important challenge for the public health sector. Impaired glucose is essential in MetS. The blood glucose concentration is not only governed by diet and physical activity, but also by psychological distress which could contribute to the development of MetS. The aim of this study is to describe health-related quality of life, subjective health complaints (SHC), psychological distress, and coping in Pakistani immigrant women, with and without MetS. As a part of an randomized controlled intervention study in Oslo, Norway, female Pakistani immigrants (n = 198) answered questionnaires regarding health related quality of life, SHC, psychological distress, and coping. Blood variables were determined and a standardized oral glucose tolerance test was performed. The participants had a high score on SHC and psychological distress. About 40% of the participants had MetS, and this group showed significantly lower general health, lower physical function, and more bodily pain, than those without MetS. Those with MetS also had more SHC, depressive symptoms, higher levels of somatisation, and scored significantly lower on the coping strategy of active problem solving. Pakistani immigrant women seem to have a high prevalence of SHC and psychological distress, especially those with MetS