DynaMoN: Motion-Aware Fast And Robust Camera Localization for Dynamic NeRF

Dynamic reconstruction with neural radiance fields (NeRF) requires accurate camera poses. These are often hard to retrieve with existing structure-from-motion (SfM) pipelines as both camera and scene content can change. We propose DynaMoN that leverages simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) jointly with motion masking to handle dynamic scene content. Our robust SLAM-based tracking module significantly accelerates the training process of the dynamic NeRF while improving the quality of synthesized views at the same time. Extensive experimental validation on TUM RGB-D, BONN RGB-D Dynamic and the DyCheck's iPhone dataset, three real-world datasets, shows the advantages of DynaMoN both for camera pose estimation and novel view synthesis.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

A perspective on migration and community engagement in Smart Cities

This is a conceptual paper interfacing community engagement and migration flows in relation to smart cities’ development. The paper notes community engagement as a crucial variable, in general and with reference to the aspired for impact on migration flows. It conceptualizes community engagement as an operationalizable construct for strategic design. The idea of community engagement is there in most multi-stakeholder projects and initiatives. Enhancing design and execution for making it count for superior performance of smart city initiatives is what we seek to develop here. The paper is also oriented to deliver an agenda for field research based on hypotheses it comes forth with

Life of a PAI: Mediation by willingness and ability for beneficiary community engagement

Improving the performance of Poverty Alleviation Interventions (PAIs) is crucial to justify the resources they consume, and for how they pitch and then address aspirations of the beneficiary community. In this paper, we work from the accepted premise that engagement response of the beneficiary community is central to the performance of such interventions. ‘Willingness to engage’ and ‘ability to engage’ are articulated as two dimensions that shape this response with examples and a discussion on how research has related with these constructs. We argue how willingness and ability have an evolving interface over the PAI lifecycle, and examine a drinking water and sanitation PAI in East India. Our propositions from this inductive study culminate in a theory of community response mediation. We suggest that willingness and ability fully mediate each other's effect on community engagement response with implications for how PAIs are resourced, designed and delivered

Effect of Hydrocortisone on Mortality and Organ Support in Patients With Severe COVID-19: The REMAP-CAP COVID-19 Corticosteroid Domain Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Evidence regarding corticosteroid use for severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is limited. Objective: To determine whether hydrocortisone improves outcome for patients with severe COVID-19. Design, Setting, and Participants: An ongoing adaptive platform trial testing multiple interventions within multiple therapeutic domains, for example, antiviral agents, corticosteroids, or immunoglobulin. Between March 9 and June 17, 2020, 614 adult patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 were enrolled and randomized within at least 1 domain following admission to an intensive care unit (ICU) for respiratory or cardiovascular organ support at 121 sites in 8 countries. Of these, 403 were randomized to open-label interventions within the corticosteroid domain. The domain was halted after results from another trial were released. Follow-up ended August 12, 2020. Interventions: The corticosteroid domain randomized participants to a fixed 7-day course of intravenous hydrocortisone (50 mg or 100 mg every 6 hours) (n = 143), a shock-dependent course (50 mg every 6 hours when shock was clinically evident) (n = 152), or no hydrocortisone (n = 108). Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary end point was organ support-free days (days alive and free of ICU-based respiratory or cardiovascular support) within 21 days, where patients who died were assigned -1 day. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model that included all patients enrolled with severe COVID-19, adjusting for age, sex, site, region, time, assignment to interventions within other domains, and domain and intervention eligibility. Superiority was defined as the posterior probability of an odds ratio greater than 1 (threshold for trial conclusion of superiority >99%). Results: After excluding 19 participants who withdrew consent, there were 384 patients (mean age, 60 years; 29% female) randomized to the fixed-dose (n = 137), shock-dependent (n = 146), and no (n = 101) hydrocortisone groups; 379 (99%) completed the study and were included in the analysis. The mean age for the 3 groups ranged between 59.5 and 60.4 years; most patients were male (range, 70.6%-71.5%); mean body mass index ranged between 29.7 and 30.9; and patients receiving mechanical ventilation ranged between 50.0% and 63.5%. For the fixed-dose, shock-dependent, and no hydrocortisone groups, respectively, the median organ support-free days were 0 (IQR, -1 to 15), 0 (IQR, -1 to 13), and 0 (-1 to 11) days (composed of 30%, 26%, and 33% mortality rates and 11.5, 9.5, and 6 median organ support-free days among survivors). The median adjusted odds ratio and bayesian probability of superiority were 1.43 (95% credible interval, 0.91-2.27) and 93% for fixed-dose hydrocortisone, respectively, and were 1.22 (95% credible interval, 0.76-1.94) and 80% for shock-dependent hydrocortisone compared with no hydrocortisone. Serious adverse events were reported in 4 (3%), 5 (3%), and 1 (1%) patients in the fixed-dose, shock-dependent, and no hydrocortisone groups, respectively. Conclusions and Relevance: Among patients with severe COVID-19, treatment with a 7-day fixed-dose course of hydrocortisone or shock-dependent dosing of hydrocortisone, compared with no hydrocortisone, resulted in 93% and 80% probabilities of superiority with regard to the odds of improvement in organ support-free days within 21 days. However, the trial was stopped early and no treatment strategy met prespecified criteria for statistical superiority, precluding definitive conclusions. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02735707

Applying the capabilities approach in economic development

Economists working in the field of development have highlighted the need to examine fully that is the ultimate aim of their work. The capabilities approach (CA) of Amartya Sen (1999) provides a perspective that concentrates on this enlargement of people's choices by focusing on the expansion of human freedoms and capabilities as a measure of appraising success in development. On the macro scale, work has been completed within this perspective to develop indicators such as the Human Development Index to quantify development in terms of capabilities. However, little has yet been done on the micro scale in applying the CA to evaluating particular development and poverty reduction projects. This research explores the usefulness of the CA for appraising a particular self-help development project in a small Pacific Island Nation, Samoa and in a poverty alleviation programme in the developed nation context of Christchurch, New Zealand. Traditional appraisal techniques for development projects have typically concentrated on looking at the amount spent, the goods provided or the extra income earned. While these traditional studies of income levels are acknowledged as important in the appraisal process, this thesis argues that the CA provides a more comprehensive and meaningful analysis through the examination of functionings and capabilities. In formulating means of appraising the projects using the CA, the expectations of the participants, with respect to what they see as valuable, is central. Finding out the ambitions and aspirations that are important to participants before the projects begin is an important part of this. In any such appraisal, it is also important to incorporate the extent to which existing capabilities have been developed and the extent to which participants have been engaged in expanding their own choices. In the groups interviewed in Samoa these increased choices ranged from being able to pay fees for further education for children to being able to be seen as more generous donors to local churches. Also noted was the ability to be responsible for the generation of sufficient income to upgrade sanitation facilities, the ability to improve the fortunes of the family, the ability to engage other members of the family in the project and being able to be involved in the revival of traditional crafts. In the interviews in the Community Gardens in Christchurch there was a similarly diverse range of increases in choices. Some participants noted that they now had a much greater level of confidence and social skills and this gave them much greater opportunities in what they could do in their daily lives. For some this meant the prospect of employment while others had a much greater opportunity for an activity that they valued highly - social interaction. Another significant area mentioned by the respondents as a consequence of their involvement in the Community Gardens' programmes was the increased range of activities they could undertake to promote their own health and well being including physical exercise and growing and cooking their own produce. The main result reached in this thesis is that a capabilities-based focus group analysis represents a useful means of appraising development projects in both a developing nation context and in a developed country situation. An important policy implication for organisations involved in development is that it is important that project appraisal criteria recognise that poverty involves deprivation of capabilities rather than just lack of income. Thus effective development initiatives can be more fully appraised by the extent to which capabilities of those involved are enhanced in the programmes. Furthermore, appraisal of the type carried out in this research should take place on an ongoing basis through all the stages of the Project Cycle of a development initiative so that the focus group process is an integral part of the programme design. In this way, the opportunities for participation of those involved in the programmes can be enhanced at all stages rather than being seen as a form of appraisal that occurs just once in the project. A further implication of this research is that the aim of development projects should be to expand people's choices and to help individuals and communities uncover and develop capabilities they already have. Rather than being seen as simply a means by which participants can be given goods and income, development projects should open up capabilities that people already have, and so expand the freedoms and choices of communities and individuals

An exploration of occupational personality traits and communicative competence in New Zealand leaders and non-leaders : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Psychology, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

The thesis reports New Zealand empirical research on leadership and its antecedents in terms of occupation-relevant personality traits and communicative competence. Objectives of the project were to: (i) explore the demographic differences in personality traits and communicative competence; (ii) investigate the difference between leaders and non-leaders in terms of personality and communicative competence; (iii) examine whether patterns of relationships among personality and communicative competence variables differ between leaders and non-leaders. These objectives govern research that aims at alleviating the current scarceness in New Zealand organisational psychology literature regarding personality traits and communicative competence of leaders. In a cross-sectional, correlational design, the Business Attitudes Questionnaire was used as a personality inventory, and the Political Skill Inventory as a measure of particular segments of communicative competence. Findings showed that males scored higher on Openness than females; age and work experience were both significantly positively related with Extraversion. When comparing leaders versus non-leaders, leaders scored higher on Emotional Stability, Extraversion, Professionalism and Networking Ability than non-leaders. The personality traits Extraversion, Altruism and Conscientiousness were significantly positively related to the four aspects of Ferris' "political skill" as an aspect of communicative competence. There were systematic differences found between leaders and non-leaders regarding the correlational pattern between personality and communicative competence. Relationships between Altruism, Conscientiousness, and Openness, on one hand, and all four aspects of "political skill", on the other, were stronger for leaders than non-leaders. A few relationships – such as those between Extraversion, Emotional Stability and Professionalism, on one hand, and some aspects of "political skill" – were higher among non-leaders. These findings are discussed in terms of their convergence with and divergence from the existing literature. Limitations of the present study are critically scrutinised, followed by extrapolations for future research. Overall, the research identified a clear need for further examination into psychological predictors and concomitants of leadership such as personality and communicative competence in the New Zealand working environment