NeRFlame: FLAME-based conditioning of NeRF for 3D face rendering

Traditional 3D face models are based on mesh representations with texture. One of the most important models is FLAME (Faces Learned with an Articulated Model and Expressions), which produces meshes of human faces that are fully controllable. Unfortunately, such models have problems with capturing geometric and appearance details. In contrast to mesh representation, the neural radiance field (NeRF) produces extremely sharp renders. But implicit methods are hard to animate and do not generalize well to unseen expressions. It is not trivial to effectively control NeRF models to obtain face manipulation. The present paper proposes a novel approach, named NeRFlame, which combines the strengths of both NeRF and FLAME methods. Our method enables high-quality rendering capabilities of NeRF while also offering complete control over the visual appearance, similar to FLAME. Unlike conventional NeRF-based architectures that utilize neural networks to model RGB colors and volume density, NeRFlame employs FLAME mesh as an explicit density volume. As a result, color values are non-zero only in the proximity of the FLAME mesh. This FLAME backbone is then integrated into the NeRF architecture to predict RGB colors, allowing NeRFlame to explicitly model volume density and implicitly model RGB colors

Self-supervised adversarial masking for 3D point cloud representation learning

Self-supervised methods have been proven effective for learning deep representations of 3D point cloud data. Although recent methods in this domain often rely on random masking of inputs, the results of this approach can be improved. We introduce PointCAM, a novel adversarial method for learning a masking function for point clouds. Our model utilizes a self-distillation framework with an online tokenizer for 3D point clouds. Compared to previous techniques that optimize patch-level and object-level objectives, we postulate applying an auxiliary network that learns how to select masks instead of choosing them randomly. Our results show that the learned masking function achieves state-of-the-art or competitive performance on various downstream tasks. The source code is available at https://github.com/szacho/pointcam

Integracja finansowa w Europie po wprowadzeniu euro. Przegląd literatury

The introduction of the euro was one of the most important events in the process of European integration, especially in the financial sector. However, next to its many advantages, the joint currency and single monetary policy increased the probability of property bubbles in the EU low income countries. The excessive speculations, which resulted in the burst of the US property bubble, the financial crisis, as well as the fiscal problems and the recession in Europe in 2010, uncovered the weaknesses of the financial integration and the inability of the European financial system to absorb large shocks. The financial losses, and the risk that some banks and moreover, even some euro zone member countries might become insolvent, underlined the existence of large systemic risks. As a result, cross border lending declined, the European credit market was affected negatively and the uncertainty concerning the stability of the euro increased. The second phase of the crisis in Europe was a starting point to develop some new international solutions to those problems aimed at increasing the stability of the European financial system. Our paper presents an overview of the literature on the advancement of financial integration in the euro zone, as well as in other regions including Poland. The concluding part of this review summarizes also the results of own research of its authors

Integracja finansowa w Europie po wprowadzeniu euro. Przegląd literatury

The introduction of the euro was one of the most important events in the process of European integration, especially in the financial sector. However, next to its many advantages, the joint currency and single monetary policy increased the probability of property bubbles in the EU low income countries. The excessive speculations, which resulted in the burst of the US property bubble, the financial crisis, as well as the fiscal problems and the recession in Europe in 2010, uncovered the weaknesses of the financial integration and the inability of the European financial system to absorb large shocks. The financial losses, and the risk that some banks and moreover, even some euro zone member countries might become insolvent, underlined the existence of large systemic risks. As a result, cross border lending declined, the European credit market was affected negatively and the uncertainty concerning the stability of the euro increased. The second phase of the crisis in Europe was a starting point to develop some new international solutions to those problems aimed at increasing the stability of the European financial system. Our paper presents an overview of the literature on the advancement of financial integration in the euro zone, as well as in other regions including Poland. The concluding part of this review summarizes also the results of own research of its authors

Assessing differences in connectivity based on habitat versus movement models for brown bears in the Carpathians

Context. Connectivity assessments typically rely on resistance surfaces derived from habitat models, assuming that higher-quality habitat facilitates movement. This assumption remains largely untested though, and it is unlikely that the same environmental factors determine both animal movements and habitat selection, potentially biasing connectivity assessments. Objectives. We evaluated how much connectivity assessments differ when based on resistance surfaces from habitat versus movement models. In addition, we tested how sensitive connectivity assessments are with respect to the parameterization of the movement models. Methods. We parameterized maximum entropy models to predict habitat suitability, and step selection functions to derive movement models for brown bear (Ursus arctos) in the northeastern Carpathians. We compared spatial patterns and distributions of resistance values derived from those models, and locations and characteristics of potential movement corridors. Results. Brown bears preferred areas with high forest cover, close to forest edges, high topographic complexity, and with low human pressure in both habitat and movement models. However, resistance surfaces derived from the habitat models based on predictors measured at broad and medium scales tended to underestimate connectivity, as they predicted substantially higher resistance values for most of the study area, including corridors. Conclusions. Our findings highlighted that connectivity assessments should be based on movement information if available, rather than generic habitat models. However, the parameterization of movement models is important, because the type of movement events considered, and the sampling method of environmental covariates can greatly affect connectivity assessments, and hence the predicted corridors

Phenomenology of Lepton Masses and Mixing with Discrete Flavor Symmetries

The observed pattern of fermion masses and mixing is an outstanding puzzle in particle physics, generally known as the flavor problem. Over the years, guided by precision neutrino oscillation data, discrete flavor symmetries have often been used to explain the neutrino mixing parameters, which look very different from the quark sector. In this review, we discuss the application of non-Abelian finite groups to the theory of neutrino masses and mixing in the light of current and future neutrino oscillation data. We start with an overview of the neutrino mixing parameters, comparing different global fit results and limits on normal and inverted neutrino mass ordering schemes. Then, we discuss a general framework for implementing discrete family symmetries to explain neutrino masses and mixing. We discuss CP violation effects, giving an update of CP predictions for trimaximal models with nonzero reactor mixing angle and models with partial $\mu-\tau$ reflection symmetry, and constraining models with neutrino mass sum rules. The connection between texture zeroes and discrete symmetries is also discussed. We summarize viable higher-order groups, which can explain the observed pattern of lepton mixing where the non-zero $\theta_{13}$ plays an important role. We also review the prospects of embedding finite discrete symmetries in the Grand Unified Theories and with extended Higgs fields. Models based on modular symmetry are also briefly discussed. A major part of the review is dedicated to the phenomenology of flavor symmetries and possible signatures in the current and future experiments at the intensity, energy, and cosmic frontiers. In this context, we discuss flavor symmetry implications for neutrinoless double beta decay, collider signals, leptogenesis, dark matter, as well as gravitational waves.Comment: 55 pages + references, invited review submitted to Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physic