It's all Relative: Monocular 3D Human Pose Estimation from Weakly Supervised Data

We address the problem of 3D human pose estimation from 2D input images using only weakly supervised training data. Despite showing considerable success for 2D pose estimation, the application of supervised machine learning to 3D pose estimation in real world images is currently hampered by the lack of varied training images with corresponding 3D poses. Most existing 3D pose estimation algorithms train on data that has either been collected in carefully controlled studio settings or has been generated synthetically. Instead, we take a different approach, and propose a 3D human pose estimation algorithm that only requires relative estimates of depth at training time. Such training signal, although noisy, can be easily collected from crowd annotators, and is of sufficient quality for enabling successful training and evaluation of 3D pose algorithms. Our results are competitive with fully supervised regression based approaches on the Human3.6M dataset, despite using significantly weaker training data. Our proposed algorithm opens the door to using existing widespread 2D datasets for 3D pose estimation by allowing fine-tuning with noisy relative constraints, resulting in more accurate 3D poses.Comment: BMVC 2018. Project page available at http://www.vision.caltech.edu/~mronchi/projects/RelativePos

Use of Mobile Technology and Smartphone Apps on the Camino de Santiago: A Comparison of American and European Pilgrims

Mobile technology and smartphone apps are increasingly being used by pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago, leading us to wonder what the role of technology is among Camino pilgrims and what impact technology has on the Camino experience. The purpose of this research is to explore these questions. To do so we conducted separate surveys of American and European pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago. This paper presents our analysis of the results of these surveys, focusing on differences between American and European pilgrims. The results showed that some mobile technologies are used extensively by pilgrims, although pilgrims did not consider the technology to be essential. They also showed that technology impacts the Camino experience in both positive and negative ways. Similarities and differences between American and European pilgrims were found in the results

Crystal Structure of Di-iso-butylammonium Thiolactatotriphenylstannate

The title compounds, [(iso-C4H9)2NH2][SnPh3(O2CCH(CH3)S)], crystallized in a monoclinic space group P21/n with the following cell parameters: a = 9.8537(2)Å, b = 16.7775(3)Å, c = 17.5845(3)Å, β = 103.7740(10)°, V = 2823.48(9)Å3, Z = 4 and Dx = 1.375 Mg m-3. The structure was refined to a final R value of 0.0222 for 5042 reflections [I \u3e 2σ(I)]. The structure of the complex is ionic consisting of an anionic triphenyltin moiety and a cationic di-iso-butylammonium portion. In addition, a hydrogen bonding network between the cations and anions was observed

Effect of Artificial Gravity: Central Nervous System Neurochemical Studies

The major objective of this project was to assess chemical and morphological modifications occurring in muscle receptors and the central nervous system of animals subjected to altered gravity (2 x Earth gravity produced by centrifugation and simulated micro gravity produced by hindlimb suspension). The underlying hypothesis for the studies was that afferent (sensory) information sent to the central nervous system by muscle receptors would be changed in conditions of altered gravity and that these changes, in turn, would instigate a process of adaptation involving altered chemical activity of neurons and glial cells of the projection areas of the cerebral cortex that are related to inputs from those muscle receptors (e.g., cells in the limb projection areas). The central objective of this research was to expand understanding of how chronic exposure to altered gravity, through effects on the vestibular system, influences neuromuscular systems that control posture and gait. The project used an approach in which molecular changes in the neuromuscular system were related to the development of effective motor control by characterizing neurochemical changes in sensory and motor systems and relating those changes to motor behavior as animals adapted to altered gravity. Thus, the objective was to identify changes in central and peripheral neuromuscular mechanisms that are associated with the re-establishment of motor control which is disrupted by chronic exposure to altered gravity

Treatment failures of cefotaxime and latamoxef in meningitis caused by Enterobacter and Serratia spp

Despite the apparent success of several new cephalosporins in the treatment of Gram-negative bacterial meningitis, four treatment failures with cefotaxime or latamoxef were encountered (two caused by Enterobacter and two by Serratia spp.). In-vitro parameters of susceptibility of these clinical isolates were compared with those of a meningeal Ent. cloacae isolate from a successfully treated patient. The MIC and MBC values, degrees of inoculum effect, and amounts of β-lactamase produced correlated poorly with the observed clinical outcome. However, the extent to which an isolate was killed by the cephalosporin used for treatment, in a 6-h in-vitro incubation, showed good correlation. We suggest that such a test should be used to predict clinical outcome of therapy because the other parameters such as the MIC and MBC values are not sufficiently discriminator