Content-Based Video Retrieval in Historical Collections of the German Broadcasting Archive

The German Broadcasting Archive (DRA) maintains the cultural heritage of radio and television broadcasts of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). The uniqueness and importance of the video material stimulates a large scientific interest in the video content. In this paper, we present an automatic video analysis and retrieval system for searching in historical collections of GDR television recordings. It consists of video analysis algorithms for shot boundary detection, concept classification, person recognition, text recognition and similarity search. The performance of the system is evaluated from a technical and an archival perspective on 2,500 hours of GDR television recordings.Comment: TPDL 2016, Hannover, Germany. Final version is available at Springer via DO

Marginal resection and adjuvant strontium plesiotherapy in the management of feline eyelid malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumours: two cases

Case series summary Two cats with a marginally resected eyelid malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumour were treated with adjuvant strontium plesiotherapy a few weeks after surgery. The dose applied in both cases was 200 Gy to the surface, in five fractions, on a Monday–Wednesday–Friday basis. The treatment aimed to achieve a clinical margin of approximately 1 cm around the surgical scar and multiple application fields were required to cover such an area. Local recurrence was not seen in either case after 1330 and 645 days, respectively. Relevance and novel information The majority of periocular malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumours reported in the literature recur after surgery. In the two cases described in this report the combination of surgery and adjuvant plesiotherapy has been able to provide good local control with minimal toxicity. This multimodal approach could be considered as an alternative to aggressive surgery such as enucleation or exenteration

Contribució a la brioflora de les serres del Montsant i de la Llena

S'ha elaborat un catàleg de briòfits de les Serres del Montsant i de la Llena (Serralada Pre-litoral Catalana), amb un total de 128 tàxons (21 hepàtiques i 107 molses), seguit també d'una breu descripció de la vegetació briofítica de la zona.A catalogue of 128 bryophytic taxa (21 hepatics and 107 mosses) from de mountains of Montsant and Llena has been prepared, followed by a short description of the bryological vegetation

Recognition Using Labelled Objects

General object recognition is a difficult problem. We (1997) proposed a solution for object recognition in an unconstrained environment. We simplified the recognition problem by attaching a special planar pattern on objects of interest. This approach allows us to determine the pose easily. A robust detector for the pattern was developed for the first stage of the solution. This paper investigates the next part of the recognition process, i.e. matching of the models using a modified technique based on the Chamfer matching algorithm. The algorithm is enhanced by augmenting the matching process by an additional step which promotes consistency of image gradient directions of the corresponding points

Symmetron Cosmology

The symmetron is a scalar field associated with the dark sector whose coupling to matter depends on the ambient matter density. The symmetron is decoupled and screened in regions of high density, thereby satisfying local constraints from tests of gravity, but couples with gravitational strength in regions of low density, such as the cosmos. In this paper we derive the cosmological expansion history in the presence of a symmetron field, tracking the evolution through the inflationary, radiation- and matter-dominated epochs, using a combination of analytical approximations and numerical integration. For a broad range of initial conditions at the onset of inflation, the scalar field reaches its symmetry-breaking vacuum by the present epoch, as assumed in the local analysis of spherically-symmetric solutions and tests of gravity. For the simplest form of the potential, the energy scale is too small for the symmetron to act as dark energy, hence we must add a cosmological constant to drive late-time cosmic acceleration. We briefly discuss a class of generalized, non-renormalizable potentials that can have a greater impact on the late-time cosmology, though cosmic acceleration requires a delicate tuning of parameters in this case.Comment: 42 page

Els Briòfits de la Réserve Naturelle de la Forêt de la Massane (SE de França)

Hem identificat 153 tàxons dels quals 121 són molses i 32, hepàtiques. Mnium hornum entapissa una bona part del sòl de la fageda. Jungermannia subulata és abundant a les parts humides a les vores dels rierols. Els nombrosos epífits sobre faigs o roures formen una bona cobertura i tenen una excel·lent vitalitat. Predominen les espècies de distribució temperada, mentre que les boreals, suboceàniques i oceanicomediterrànies són menys abundants. D'una altra banda, malgrat la proximitat al mar de la zona de la Reserva, les de distribució mediterrània i submediterrània són escasses.153 species were identified; 121 mosses and 32 hepaticae. Mnium hornum covers the larger part of the beechwood soil. Jungermannia subulata is abundant on the wet stream margins. Epiphytic species grow copiously on beech and oak trees. The temperate species are the best represented and boreal, suboceanic, and oceanic-mediterranean species are also abundant. In spite of the nearness of the sea, mediterranean and submediterranean species are rare

La política de las coaliciones en Cataluña

En este trabajo se analizan las diferentes características de los gobiernos autonómicos de Cataluña, todos ellos de coalición. La atención se centra, especialmente, en analizar los efectos que tienen los gobiernos de coalición sobre tres grandes ámbitos: el rendimiento electoral, la distribución intracoalicional del poder y el rendimiento intergubernamental

La brioflora de la Sierra de Gata

A catalog of 202 bryophytic taxa from Sierra de Gata is presented, with some comments on interesting species such as Mielichhoferia pontevedrensis, Andreaea crassinervia, Rhynchostegium alopecuroides, etc. Oceanic, suboceanic and temperate corological elements are the most important while the mediterranean and submediterranean ones are less represented.Catálogo de 202 táxones de briófitos conocidos de la Sierra de Gata y comentarios sobre algunas especies interesantes como Mielichhoferia pontevedrensis, Andreaea crassinervia, Rhynchostegium alopecuroides, etc. Se observa una dominancia de 10s elementos corológicos oceánico, suboceánico y templado y una pobreza de los elementos mediterráneo y submediterráneo