128 research outputs found
Optical Flow Distillation: Towards Efficient and Stable Video Style Transfer
Video style transfer techniques inspire many exciting applications on mobile
devices. However, their efficiency and stability are still far from
satisfactory. To boost the transfer stability across frames, optical flow is
widely adopted, despite its high computational complexity, e.g. occupying over
97% inference time. This paper proposes to learn a lightweight video style
transfer network via knowledge distillation paradigm. We adopt two teacher
networks, one of which takes optical flow during inference while the other does
not. The output difference between these two teacher networks highlights the
improvements made by optical flow, which is then adopted to distill the target
student network. Furthermore, a low-rank distillation loss is employed to
stabilize the output of student network by mimicking the rank of input videos.
Extensive experiments demonstrate that our student network without an optical
flow module is still able to generate stable video and runs much faster than
the teacher network
Cohesive property of magnetized neutron star surfaces: Computations and implications
The cohesive energy of condensed matter in strong magnetic fields is a
fundamental quantity characterizing magnetized neutron star surfaces. The
cohesive energy refers to the energy required to pull an atom out of the bulk
condensed matter at zero pressure. Theoretical models of pulsar and magnetar
magnetospheres depend on the cohesive properties of the surface matter in
strong magnetic fields. For example, depending on the cohesive energy of the
surface matter, an acceleration zone ("polar gap") above the polar cap of a
pulsar may or may not form. Also, condensation of the neutron star surface, if
it occurs, can significantly affect thermal emission from isolated neutron
stars. We describe our calculations of the cohesive property of matter in
strong magnetic fields, and discuss the implications of our results to the
recent observations of neutron star surface emission as well as to the
detection/non-detection of radio emission from magnetars.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. Minor changes to Author/Comments fields. To
appear in Advances in Space Researc
DeepPrivacy: A Generative Adversarial Network for Face Anonymization
We propose a novel architecture which is able to automatically anonymize
faces in images while retaining the original data distribution. We ensure total
anonymization of all faces in an image by generating images exclusively on
privacy-safe information. Our model is based on a conditional generative
adversarial network, generating images considering the original pose and image
background. The conditional information enables us to generate highly realistic
faces with a seamless transition between the generated face and the existing
background. Furthermore, we introduce a diverse dataset of human faces,
including unconventional poses, occluded faces, and a vast variability in
backgrounds. Finally, we present experimental results reflecting the capability
of our model to anonymize images while preserving the data distribution, making
the data suitable for further training of deep learning models. As far as we
know, no other solution has been proposed that guarantees the anonymization of
faces while generating realistic images.Comment: Accepted to ISVC 201
Monitoring lower limb biomechanical asymmetry and psychological measures in athletic populations - A scoping review
Background: Lower limb biomechanics, including asymmetry, are frequently monitored to determine sport performance level and injury risk. However, contributing factors extend beyond biomechanical and asymmetry measures to include psychological, sociological, and environmental factors. Unfortunately, inadequate research has been conducted using holistic bio-psycho-social models to characterize sport performance and injury risk. Therefore, this scoping review summarized the research landscape of studies concurrently assessing measures of lower limb biomechanics, asymmetry, and introspective psychological state (e.g., pain, fatigue, perceived exertion, stress, etc.) in healthy, competitive athletes. Methods: A systematic search of Medline, Embase, CINAHL, SPORT Discus, and Web of Science Core Collections was designed and conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. 51 articles were included in this review. Results: Significant relationships between biomechanics (k = 22 studies) or asymmetry (k = 20 studies) and introspective state were found. Increased self-reported pain was associated with decreased range of motion, strength, and increased lower limb asymmetry. Higher ratings of perceived exertion were related to increased lower limb asymmetry, self-reported muscle soreness, and worse jump performance. Few studies (k = 4) monitored athletes longitudinally throughout one or more competitive season(s). Conclusion: This review highlights the need for concurrent analysis of introspective, psychological state, and biomechanical asymmetry measures along with longitudinal research to understand the contributing factors to sport performance and injury risk from bio-psycho-social modeling. In doing so, this framework of bio-psycho-social preventive and prognostic patient-centered practices may provide an actionable means of optimizing health, well-being, and sport performance in competitive athletes
Complex and unexpected dynamics in simple genetic regulatory networks
Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Symmetry breaking and quantum correlations in finite systems: Studies of quantum dots and ultracold Bose gases and related nuclear and chemical methods
Investigations of emergent symmetry breaking phenomena occurring in small
finite-size systems are reviewed, with a focus on the strongly correlated
regime of electrons in two-dimensional semicoductor quantum dots and trapped
ultracold bosonic atoms in harmonic traps. Throughout the review we emphasize
universal aspects and similarities of symmetry breaking found in these systems,
as well as in more traditional fields like nuclear physics and quantum
chemistry, which are characterized by very different interparticle forces. A
unified description of strongly correlated phenomena in finite systems of
repelling particles (whether fermions or bosons) is presented through the
development of a two-step method of symmetry breaking at the unrestricted
Hartree-Fock level and of subsequent symmetry restoration via post Hartree-Fock
projection techniques. Quantitative and qualitative aspects of the two-step
method are treated and validated by exact diagonalization calculations.
Strongly-correlated phenomena emerging from symmetry breaking include: (I)
Chemical bonding, dissociation, and entanglement (at zero and finite magnetic
fields) in quantum dot molecules and in pinned electron molecular dimers formed
within a single anisotropic quantum dot. (II) Electron crystallization, with
particle localization on the vertices of concentric polygonal rings, and
formation of rotating electron molecules (REMs) in circular quantum dots. (III)
At high magnetic fields, the REMs are described by parameter-free analytic wave
functions, which are an alternative to the Laughlin and composite-fermion
approaches. (IV) Crystalline phases of strongly repelling bosons. In rotating
traps and in analogy with the REMs, such repelling bosons form rotating boson
molecules (RBMs).Comment: Review article published in Reports on Progress in Physics. REVTEX4.
95 pages with 37 color figures. To download a copy with high-quality figures,
go to publication #82 in http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~ph274cy
Oxidative stress in pregnancy and fertility pathologies
Oxidative stress designates the state of imbalance between reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and antioxidant levels. In a healthy placenta, there is an increase in ROS production, due to formation of new tissues and inherent metabolism, but this is balanced by higher levels of antioxidants. However, this balance is lost in some situations, with a consequent increase in oxidative stress levels. Oxidative stress has been implicated in several placental disorders and pregnancy pathologies. The present review intends to summarize what is known about the relationship between oxidative stress and well-known pregnancy disorders
Occupational cancer in Britain: Gastrointestinal cancers: liver, oesophagus, pancreas and stomach
Does dietary calcium interact with dietary fiber against colorectal cancer? : a case-control study in Central Europe
BACKGROUND: An unfavorable trend of increasing rates of colorectal cancer has been observed across modern societies. In general, dietary factors are understood to be responsible for up to 70% of the disease’s incidence, though there are still many inconsistencies regarding the impact of specific dietary items. Among the dietary minerals, calcium intake may play a crucial role in the prevention. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of intake of higher levels of dietary calcium on the risk of developing of colorectal cancer, and to evaluate dose dependent effect and to investigate possible effect modification. METHODS: A hospital based case–control study of 1556 patients (703 histologically confirmed colon and rectal incident cases and 853 hospital-based controls) was performed between 2000–2012 in Krakow, Poland. The 148-item semi-quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire to assess dietary habits and level of nutrients intake was used. Data regarding possible covariates was also collected. RESULTS: After adjustment for age, gender, education, consumption of fruits, raw and cooked vegetables, fish, and alcohol, as well as for intake of fiber, vitamin C, dietary iron, lifetime recreational physical activity, BMI, smoking status, and taking mineral supplements, an increase in the consumption of calcium was associated with the decrease of colon cancer risk (OR = 0.93, 95% CI: 0.89-0.98 for every 100 mg Ca/day increase). Subjects consumed >1000 mg/day showed 46% decrease of colon cancer risk (OR = 0.54, 95% CI: 0.35-0.83). The effect of dietary calcium was modified by dietary fiber (p for interaction =0.015). Finally, consistent decrease of colon cancer risk was observed across increasing levels of dietary calcium and fiber intake. These relationships were not proved for rectal cancer. CONCLUSIONS: The study confirmed the effect of high doses of dietary calcium against the risk of colon cancer development. This relationship was observed across different levels of dietary fiber, and the beneficial effect of dietary calcium depended on the level of dietary fiber suggesting modification effect of calcium and fiber. Further efforts are needed to confirm this association, and also across higher levels of dietary fiber intake
High Confidence Prediction of Essential Genes in Burkholderia Cenocepacia
BACKGROUND: Essential genes are absolutely required for the survival of an organism. The identification of essential genes, besides being one of the most fundamental questions in biology, is also of interest for the emerging science of synthetic biology and for the development of novel antimicrobials. New antimicrobial therapies are desperately needed to treat multidrug-resistant pathogens, such as members of the Burkholderia cepacia complex.
METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We hypothesize that essential genes may be highly conserved within a group of evolutionary closely related organisms. Using a bioinformatics approach we determined that the core genome of the order Burkholderiales consists of 649 genes. All but two of these identified genes were located on chromosome 1 of Burkholderia cenocepacia. Although many of the 649 core genes of Burkholderiales have been shown to be essential in other bacteria, we were also able to identify a number of novel essential genes present mainly, or exclusively, within this order. The essentiality of some of the core genes, including the known essential genes infB, gyrB, ubiB, and valS, as well as the so far uncharacterized genes BCAL1882, BCAL2769, BCAL3142 and BCAL3369 has been confirmed experimentally in B. cenocepacia.
CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We report on the identification of essential genes using a novel bioinformatics strategy and provide bioinformatics and experimental evidence that the large majority of the identified genes are indeed essential. The essential genes identified here may represent valuable targets for the development of novel antimicrobials and their detailed study may shed new light on the functions required to support life
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