Beyond Deadlock: Low Hanging Fruit and Strict yet Available Options in AWS Regulation

Efforts to ban Autonomous Weapon Systems were both unsuccessful and controversial. Simultaneously the need to address the detrimental aspects of AWS development and proliferation continues to grow in scope and urgency. The article presents several regulatory solutions capable of addressing the issue while simultaneously respecting the requirements of military necessity and so attracting a broad consensus. Two much stricter solutions – regional AWS bans and adoption of a no first use policy – are also presented as fallback strategies in case achieving AWS’ compliance with the Laws of Armed Conflict proved elusive. Together, the solutions presented form an outline of a flexible regulatory strategy able to adjust to different technological outcomes and providing a sensible compromise to solve the current deadlock on the AWS issue

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

„Dziękuję za niepokój”. Odnalezione juwenilia Leo Lipskiego – próba lektury

The article offers a tentative discussion of Leo Lipski’s early and yet unpublished workswhich were discovered in the archives of the Józef Czechowicz Museum of Literature inLublin. One of them is a longer short story entitled O niepokoju i śmierci [On Anxiety andDeath], only parts of which have been published, and three unique ‘poems’, entitled Na wiosnę [In the Springtime], Do papieru [For Paper] and Na pożegnanie dziewczyny [On a Farewell to a Girl]. The authors of the article introduce the recently discovered texts from theeditorial perspective and discuss both the historical and biographical context in which theywere created. Moreover, the authors offer an interpretation of these works and attempt to situate them in the context of Lipski’s pre-war writing. They also throw into relief the relations between Lipski’s early works and his novel Niespokojni [The Unsettled]. The article is published with the works under discussion, which are preceded by a brief editorial commentary.Artykuł jest wstępnym omówieniem niepublikowanych dotychczas juweniliów Leo Lipskiego, odnalezionych w archiwum „Kameny”, w Muzeum Literackim im. Józefa Czechowicza w Lublinie. Utwory te to dłuższe opowiadanie pod tytułem O niepokoju i śmierci, które ukazało się jedynie we fragmentach, a także trzy egotyki: Na wiosnę, Do papieru i Na pożegnanie dziewczyny. Autorzy dokonują opisu odkrytych tekstów z perspektywy edytorskiej, zarysowując biograficzno-historyczny kontekst ich powstania. Podejmują próbę interpretacji utworów i wpisania ich w przedwojenną twórczość Lipskiego, zwracają też uwagę na relacje, które łączą te teksty z powieścią Lipskiego Niespokojni. Szkic towarzyszy edycji omówionych utworów, którą poprzedzono krótkim komentarzem edytorskim

Importance de la norme linguistique dans l’autonarration des étudiants en philologie romane

The aim of this article is to analyse the attitude towards the linguistic norm of the first-year students of Romance Philology in Warsaw through the auto-narration. By this tool, belonging to the qualitative methodology, the learner performs a retrospective introspection and thus ‘evaluates’ the learning, in our context – his learning of grammar. The stories of students-future philologists will be analysed according to the following aspects: the importance given to the linguistic norm (understood here as the need for grammatical correction), the perception of its ‘utility’ in relation to other competences and language subsystems, the relationship between awareness of the norm and the effectiveness / quality of communication in a foreign language.The aim of this article is to analyse the attitude towards the linguistic norm of the first-year students of Romance Philology in Warsaw through the auto-narration. By this tool, belonging to the qualitative methodology, the learner performs a retrospective introspection and thus ‘evaluates’ the learning, in our context – his learning of grammar. The stories of students-future philologists will be analysed according to the following aspects: the importance given to the linguistic norm (understood here as the need for grammatical correction), the perception of its ‘utility’ in relation to other competences and language subsystems, the relationship between awareness of the norm and the effectiveness / quality of communication in a foreign language

Clinical significance of serum levels of matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2) and its tissue inhibitor (TIMP-2) in gastric cancer

Matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2) is able to degrade type IV collagen, and thus plays a key role in the migration of tumor cells. MMP-2 activity is inhibited by its tissue inhibitor (TIMP-2). The imbalance between MMPs and TIMPs may facilitate progression of cancer cells. The aim of this study was to compare the clinical importance of MMP-2 and TIMP-2 to that of classical tumor markers, namely carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and carbohydrate antigen (CA 19-9) in the diagnosis of gastric cancer (GC) by calculating the diagnostic criteria and estimating the levels of MMP-2, TIMP-2, CEA and CA 19-9 in GC patients in relation to clinicopathological features of cancer. We found that serum levels of MMP-2 and TIMP-2 were significantly lower, whereas serum tumor markers were higher, in GC patients than in healthy subjects. Moreover, concentrations of TIMP-2 and CEA correlated with gastric wall infiltration, while CA 19-9 levels correlated with gastric wall infiltration and the presence of nodal metastasis. None of the proteins tested was found to be an independent prognostic factor for GC patients’ survival. The percentage of true positive results of TIMP-2 (61%) was higher than those of MMP-2 (54%) and the classical tumor markers CEA (21%) and CA 19-9 (31%). The highest diagnostic sensitivity was observed for the combined use of TIMP-2 with MMP-2 (77%). The results suggest the greater importance of serum MMP-2 and TIMP-2 than of the classical tumor markers CEA and CA 19-9 in the diagnosis of GC. But this issue requires further investigation. (Folia Histochemica et Cytobiologica 2011; Vol. 49, No. 1, pp. 125–131