Sample4Geo: Hard Negative Sampling For Cross-View Geo-Localisation

Cross-View Geo-Localisation is still a challenging task where additional modules, specific pre-processing or zooming strategies are necessary to determine accurate positions of images. Since different views have different geometries, pre-processing like polar transformation helps to merge them. However, this results in distorted images which then have to be rectified. Adding hard negatives to the training batch could improve the overall performance but with the default loss functions in geo-localisation it is difficult to include them. In this article, we present a simplified but effective architecture based on contrastive learning with symmetric InfoNCE loss that outperforms current state-of-the-art results. Our framework consists of a narrow training pipeline that eliminates the need of using aggregation modules, avoids further pre-processing steps and even increases the generalisation capability of the model to unknown regions. We introduce two types of sampling strategies for hard negatives. The first explicitly exploits geographically neighboring locations to provide a good starting point. The second leverages the visual similarity between the image embeddings in order to mine hard negative samples. Our work shows excellent performance on common cross-view datasets like CVUSA, CVACT, University-1652 and VIGOR. A comparison between cross-area and same-area settings demonstrate the good generalisation capability of our model

Impact of the introduction of decoupled payments on functioning of the German land market: Country report of the EU tender Study on the functioning of land markets in those EU member states influenced by measures applied under the Common Agricultura

Against the background of the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 2003 the following analysis, brings into focus the responses of the agricultural sector to decoupled subsidies. In particular it addresses the impact of the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) on land sales and rent prices and therefore on farm structure. It also aims to assess the extent to which the reform advances sound and sustainable agriculture and provides incentives for marketorientated farming practices. The study is based on the analysis of statistical data and expert surveys conducted in three selected regions. -- G E R M A N V E R S I O N: Die vorliegende Studie untersucht den Einfluss der 2003 im Zuge der Reform der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik (GAP) durchgeführten Entkopplung der Direktzahlungen auf den Agrarsektor in Deutschland. Besonderer Fokus der Analyse liegt auf der Auswirkung der einmaligen Zahlungen auf die Kauf- und Pachtpreise für das landwirtschaftlich genutzte Land. Des Weiteren wird die Förderung einer nachhaltigen und marktorientierten Landwirtschaft durch die GAP-Reform bewertet. Die Untersuchung basiert auf Auswertung statistischer Daten und auf Expertenbefragungen, welche in drei ausgewählten Bundesländern durchgeführt wurden.Land markets,midterm review,CAP,structural change,Bodenmärkte,Halbzeitbewertung,GAP,Strukturwandel

Orientation-Guided Contrastive Learning for UAV-View Geo-Localisation

Retrieving relevant multimedia content is one of the main problems in a world that is increasingly data-driven. With the proliferation of drones, high quality aerial footage is now available to a wide audience for the first time. Integrating this footage into applications can enable GPS-less geo-localisation or location correction. In this paper, we present an orientation-guided training framework for UAV-view geo-localisation. Through hierarchical localisation orientations of the UAV images are estimated in relation to the satellite imagery. We propose a lightweight prediction module for these pseudo labels which predicts the orientation between the different views based on the contrastive learned embeddings. We experimentally demonstrate that this prediction supports the training and outperforms previous approaches. The extracted pseudo-labels also enable aligned rotation of the satellite image as augmentation to further strengthen the generalisation. During inference, we no longer need this orientation module, which means that no additional computations are required. We achieve state-of-the-art results on both the University-1652 and University-160k datasets

Violent Behavior During Psychiatric Inpatient Treatment in a German Prison Hospital

Violent behavior in correctional facilities is common and differs substantially in type, target, implication, and trigger. Research on frequency and characteristics of violent behavior in correctional facilities and psychiatric hospitals is limited. Results from recent research suggest that comorbidity of severe mental disorder, personality disorder, and diagnosis of substance abuse is related to a higher risk of violent behavior. In the Berlin prison hospital, a database was created to collect data from all violent incidences (n=210) between 1997 and 2006 and between 2010 and 2016. In a retrospective, case-control study, we analyzed specific socioeconomic data and psychiatric diagnosis and compared the group of prisoners with violent behavior with randomly selected prisoners of the same department without violent behavior (n = 210). Diagnosis of schizophrenia, non-German nationality, no use of an interpreter, no children, and no previous sentence remained significantly associated with the dependent variable violent behavior. There were no significant differences regarding age and legal statuses. Practical implications for clinical work are discussed

Editorial

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at ultra-high magnetic field strengths offers an increased signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and has the potential to boost the MR image resolution. Cardiovascular applications remain challenging, as high-resolution image acquisitions are still too slow to capture a fast moving organ like the heart. Synchronisation of the acquisition to the heart motion is necessary to acquire an image over several consecutive heartbeats. The current gold-standard method for cardiac synchronisation is the electrocardiogram (ECG), which measures the electrical activity of the heart. Magnetohydrodynamic effects of the blood flow interfere with the ECG measurement and can affect reliable gating, which is particularly significant at higher magnetic field strengths. The work of this thesis presents new motion estimation methods that are based on radiofrequency (RF) scattering of a parallel-transmit coil and directly assess the heart motion, independent of the electrical activity of the heart. A cardiac motion signal is derived with a high SNR and with a number of potential gating features, which have a high accuracy when compared to ECG gating. No additional motion-monitoring hardware is needed other than the commercially available pTx system. Different RF pulse designs are proposed to integrate the scattering measurements into the normal MR image acquisition to estimate cardiac and respiratory motion in real-time on the MRI scanner. The integrated cardiac-respiratory motion framework is combined with a new MR imaging acquisition strategy to acquire high-resolution, 3D images of the heart during free breathing.</p

Prison Suicide in Comparison to Suicide Events in Forensic Psychiatric Hospitals in Germany

Background: There is limited international as well as national research on suicide events in prisons and in forensic psychiatric hospitals. This retrospective study compares completed suicide events within these two high-risk populations in state institutions over a time period of 5 years from 2000 to 2004.Material and Methods: Data was collected through a nationwide survey: all forensic psychiatric hospitals within Germany were contacted via postal mail and received a questionnaire concerning the suicide events from 2000 to 2004. All federal lands of Germany were similarly assessed by a survey endorsed by the respective federal ministries of justice. All prison institutions (100%) participated in the survey, while 84% (53 units) of the forensic psychiatric hospitals nationwide contributed. A comparative statistical analysis was conducted using Fisher's exact test or the Mann-Whitney U-test (age). A multivariate logistic regression analysis was done to assess adjusted effects. For the Kaplan-Meier analysis, the months until suicide were analyzed followed by a Cox-regression analysis.Results: There was no statistically significant difference between the mean suicide rate in forensic psychiatric hospitals (123/100.000, 95% confidence interval: [0.00103, 0.00147]) and in the prison system (130/100.000, 95% confidence interval: [0.00109, 0.00154]). Patients who committed suicide in the forensic hospitals were, in comparison to the prison system, more likely to have committed a violent offense and have had a prior history of suicide attempts. The duration from admission into the institution to the suicide event was significantly shorter in the prison group. Also, younger people commited suicide earlier during their stay in a forensic psychiatric hospital or prison.Conclusions: While the results suggest a necessity to optimize data collection in the prison system (prior suicide events and history of mental disorder), it is important to discuss the current discharge arrangements within the forensic hospitals

The vertical variability of black carbon observed in the atmospheric boundary layer during DACCIWA

This study underlines the important role of the transported black carbon (BC) mass concentration in the West African monsoon (WAM) area. BC was measured with a micro-aethalometer integrated in the payload bay of the unmanned research aircraft ALADINA (Application of Light-weight Aircraft for Detecting IN situ Aerosol). As part of the DACCIWA (Dynamics–Aerosol–Chemistry–Cloud Interactions in West Africa) project, 53 measurement flights were carried out at Savè, Benin, on 2–16 July 2016. A high variability of BC (1.79 to 2.42±0.31 µg m−3) was calculated along 155 vertical profiles that were performed below cloud base in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). In contrast to initial expectations of primary emissions, the vertical distribution of BC was mainly influenced by the stratification of the ABL during the WAM season. The article focuses on an event (14 and 15 July 2016) which showed distinct layers of BC in the lowermost 900 m above ground level (a.g.l.). Low concentrations of NOx and CO were sampled at the Savè supersite near the aircraft measurements and suggested a marginal impact of local sources during the case study. The lack of primary BC emissions was verified by a comparison of the measured BC with the model COSMO-ART (Consortium for Small-scale Modelling–Aerosols and Reactive Trace gases) that was applied for the field campaign period. The modelled vertical profiles of BC led to the assumption that the measured BC was already altered, as the size was mainly dominated by the accumulation mode. Further, calculated vertical transects of wind speed and BC presume that the observed BC layer was transported from the south with maritime inflow but was mixed vertically after the onset of a nocturnal low-level jet at the measurement site. This report contributes to the scope of DACCIWA by linking airborne BC data with ground observations and a model, and it illustrates the importance of a more profound understanding of the interaction between BC and the ABL in the WAM region