Motion capture and human pose reconstruction from a single-view video sequence

Cataloged from PDF version of article.We propose a framework to reconstruct the 3D pose of a human for animation from a sequence of single-view video frames. The framework for pose construction starts with background estimation and the performer's silhouette is extracted using image subtraction for each frame. Then the body silhouettes are automatically labeled using a model-based approach. Finally, the 3D pose is constructed from the labeled human silhouette by assuming orthographic projection. The proposed approach does not require camera calibration. It assumes that the input video has a static background, it has no significant perspective effects, and the performer is in an upright position. The proposed approach requires minimal user interaction. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

The Ontology of Security and its Implications for Maritime Security

A substantial number of state and non-state actors have published strategies for maritime security and governance in the last decade. These strategies have been criticized in the sense that they do not reflect the ever-changing nature of security context. The critics mostly deal with adaptation to new risks and threats from an anthropocentric perspective. This study instead focuses on the comparison of the classical and post-classical ontologies of security. It assumes that the classical ontology of security enables certain assumptions while ignoring others. Thus, an ontological critique appears to be a necessity to address the security concerns of the complex global security context adequately. With this, this paper contributes to Christian Bueger’s maritime security matrix from a paradigm-oriented approach. As a result, the paper makes a case for the post-classical ontology of security and defines its main features as diffusion, interrelation, adaptation, non-linearity, and inclusiveness. This paper concludes that the ontological turn would be an asset for sustainable maritime security governance

The contribution of the study of religion and nature to adaptive co-management in polycentric climate governance

The latest developments in climate change science and policy counter the traditional political and economic global structure. In this paper, approaching climate change as a collective action problem, I focused on adaptive co-management (ACM) as an innovative management concept. I assumed that the ACM might help us to inaugurate an inclusive social-ecological contract among humans, and between humans and other species. With the aim of enhancing the concept of adaptive co-management, I benefitted from the analytical studies conducted in the field of religion and nature. I first reviewed the literatures on adaptive co-management, and on religion and nature. Further, I elaborated the concepts of religion, religiosity, and Homo religiosus as well as the development of the religion and nature discipline. I then scrutinized the religious dimension of the ACM, and evaluated the religious challenges to it, using the findings of selected studies. Finally, I discussed the implications of the human mind’s comprehension of (ecological) reality. The conceptual discussion confirmed by the findings indicated that the hegemonic regime of truth still rests on an egocentric cosmology, and this attitude is independent of whether it relies on monotheistic faith or positivist science. In either case, human beings display the characteristics of Homo religiosus, connecting to reality in a dogmatic way

A theoretical study of the mechanism of the desymmetrization of cyclic meso-anhydrides by chiral amino alcohols

The alcoholysis of cyclic meso-anhydrides catalyzed by β-amino alcohols has been investigated with DFT quantum mechanics to determine the mechanism of this reaction. Both nucleophilic catalysis and general base catalysis pathways are explored for methanol-induced ring opening of an anhydride catalyzed by a chiral amino alcohol. The nucleophilic pathway involves a late transition state with a high energy barrier. In this mechanism, methanolysis is expected to take place following the amine-induced ring opening of the anhydride. In the base-catalyzed mechanism, methanol attack on one carbonyl group of the meso-anhydride is assisted by the β-amino alcohol; the amine functionality abstracts the methanol proton. The chiral amino alcohol also catalyzes the reaction by stabilizing the oxyanion that forms upon ring opening of the anhydride by hydrogen bonding with its alcoholic moiety. Both stepwise and concerted pathways have been studied for the general base catalysis route. Transition structures for both are found to be lower in energy than in the nucleophilic mechanism. Overall this study has shed light on the mechanism of the β-amino alcohol-catalyzed alcoholysis of cyclic meso-anhydrides, showing that the nucleophilic pathway is approximately 100 kJ mol−1 higher in energy than the general base pathwa

Cosmology of the Ergene River Pollution

The Ergene River has a length of 283 km within the European part of Turkey, which is also known as the Thrace Region, and its river basin area is 14,945.85 km2 that consists of agricultural lands noted for high fertility. It is born from Tekirdag, one of the three provinces of the region; passes through Kirklareli; and unites with the Evros River, the transboundary water connecting Greece and Turkey, in Edirne. Both rivers disembogue themselves into the Aegean Sea from the Saros Bay, which became one of the eighteen specially protected environment areas in 2010 due to its considerable biological diversity and seawater quality. However, the anti-ecological practices induced by industrialization and urbanization policies since the 1970s have had hazardous effects on the Ergene River ecosystems entirely, and particularly on the ground and surface waters. Benefitting from the related literature that has emerged since then, I aim to focus here on the pollution of the Ergene River as an outcome of the hegemonic cosmology in Turkey

トルコ人日本語学習者の日本語のコミュニケーション上の問題とコミュニケーション・ストラテジーについて −再生刺激法を用いて−

名古屋外国語大学201

Information Infrastructures and the Future of Ecological Citizenship in the Anthropocene

In the last two decades, the concept of ecological citizenship has become a recurrent theme in both popular and academic discussions. Discussions around the prospects of, and limitations to, ecological citizenship have mostly focused on the idea of political agency and the civic responsibility of individuals in relation to their environments, with an emphasis on environmental justice and sustainability. However, the current scholarship has yet to adequately characterize its conceptual bases and empirical applications from an information perspective. Therefore, this paper provides an overview of citizenship studies and infrastructure studies for developing more nuanced understanding(s) of epistemological models for ecological citizenship in our networked world. Drawing on the literature on information infrastructure, this paper then proposes a conceptual framework to understand ecological citizenship as constituted both discursively and techno-materially through neoliberal, anthropocentric informational infrastructures

COVID-19, Posthüman Güvenlik ve Canlılığın Geleceği

COVID-19 ya da yeni nesil koronavirüs, 2020 yılının ilk yarısında tüm dünyada gündemi işgal eden yegâne mesele oldu. Etkilediği ve dikkate alındığı coğrafyalar düşünüldüğünde, COVID-19’un gerçekten küreselleşen ilk meselemiz olduğu söylenebilir. Hatta daha sürecin başlarında, iklim değişikliğinin de böyle bir aciliyet hissiyle ele alınması gerektiğini iddia eden analizler yapıldı. Bu tespitin yanı sıra virüs gündemi politik- veya sosyo-ekonomik, psikolojik, ekolojik, dinsel ve etik-felsefi zeminlerde tartışıldı. Bu yazının ilgi alanı özelinde, virüsü, güvenliğin farklı boyutları açısından ele alan çalışmalar da yapıldı, yapılmaya devam ediyor. Bu yazı ise Posthümanizmin sunduğu imkanlar dahilinde, COVID-19 ve güvenlik ilişkisinin çift katmanlı bir analizini sunmayı amaçlamaktadır