A multi-modal dance corpus for research into real-time interaction between humans in online virtual environments

We present a new, freely available, multimodal corpus for research into, amongst other areas, real-time realistic interaction between humans in online virtual environments. The specific corpus scenario focuses on an online dance class application scenario where students, with avatars driven by whatever 3D capture technology are locally available to them, can learn choerographies with teacher guidance in an online virtual ballet studio. As the data corpus is focused on this scenario, it consists of student/teacher dance choreographies concurrently captured at two different sites using a variety of media modalities, including synchronised audio rigs, multiple cameras, wearable inertial measurement devices and depth sensors. In the corpus, each of the several dancers perform a number of fixed choreographies, which are both graded according to a number of specific evaluation criteria. In addition, ground-truth dance choreography annotations are provided. Furthermore, for unsynchronised sensor modalities, the corpus also includes distinctive events for data stream synchronisation. Although the data corpus is tailored specifically for an online dance class application scenario, the data is free to download and used for any research and development purposes

Enhanced visualisation of dance performance from automatically synchronised multimodal recordings

The Huawei/3DLife Grand Challenge Dataset provides multimodal recordings of Salsa dancing, consisting of audiovisual streams along with depth maps and inertial measurements. In this paper, we propose a system for augmented reality-based evaluations of Salsa dancer performances. An essential step for such a system is the automatic temporal synchronisation of the multiple modalities captured from different sensors, for which we propose efficient solutions. Furthermore, we contribute modules for the automatic analysis of dance performances and present an original software application, specifically designed for the evaluation scenario considered, which enables an enhanced dance visualisation experience, through the augmentation of the original media with the results of our automatic analyses

Transmission des informations numériques et phoniques entre une haveuse et la surface

National audienceEn trois decennies, le nombre des informations transmises entre les haveuses et la surface a ete multiplie par mille. En 1964, deux informations tout ou rien suffisaient pour suivre au jour le deplacement de la haveuse dans la taille, c'etait le premier besoin a satisfaire. En 1994,jusqu'a deux mille informations disponibles a bord des haveuses Electra 2 000 peuvent etre transmises au jour a toutes fins utiles

An advanced virtual dance performance evaluator

The ever increasing availability of high speed Internet access has led to a leap in technologies that support real-time realistic interaction between humans in online virtual environments. In the context of this work, we wish to realise the vision of an online dance studio where a dance class is to be provided by an expert dance teacher and to be delivered to online students via the web. In this paper we study some of the technical issues that need to be addressed in this challenging scenario. In particular, we describe an automatic dance analysis tool that would be used to evaluate a student's performance and provide him/her with meaningful feedback to aid improvement

Comparative Analysis of Nuclear Event Investigation Methods, Tools and Techniques

Feedback from operating experience is one of the key means of enhancing nuclear safety and operational risk management. The effectiveness of learning from experience at NPPs could be maximised, if the best event investigation practices available from a series of methodologies, methods and tools in the form of a ‘toolbox’ approach were promoted. Based on available sources of technical, scientific, normative and regulatory information, an inventory, review and brief comparative analysis of information concerning event investigation methods, tools and techniques, either indicated or already used in the nuclear industry (with some examples from other high risk industry areas), was performed in this study. Its results, including the advantages and drawbacks identified from the different instruments, preliminary recommendations and conclusions, are covered in this report. The results of comparative analysis of nuclear event investigation methods, tools and techniques, presented in this interim report, are of a preliminary character. It is assumed that, for the generation of more concrete recommendations concerning the selection of the most effective and appropriate methods and tools for event investigation, new data, from experienced practitioners in the nuclear industry and/or regulatory institutions are needed. It is planned to collect such data, using the questionnaire prepared and performing the survey currently underway. This is the second step in carrying out an inventory of, reviewing, comparing and evaluating the most recent data on developments and systematic approaches in event investigation, used by organisations (mainly utilities) in the EU Member States. Once the data from this survey are collected and analysed, the final recommendations and conclusions will be developed and presented in the final report on this topic. This should help current and prospective investigators to choose the most suitable and efficient event investigation methods and tools for their particular needs.JRC.DDG.F.5-Safety of present nuclear reactor

Disturbances in the European Nuclear Power Plant Safety Related Electrical Systems

This work is part of the European Clearinghouse on Nuclear Power Plant Operational Experience Feedback (NPP-OEF) activity carried out at the Joint Research Centre/Institute for Energy (JRC/IE) with the participation of ten EU Regulatory Authorities. It investigates the Forsmark-1 event of July 2006, as well as about 120 disturbances in the plant electrical systems that were reported to the Incident Reporting System (IRS) and US Licensee Event Reports (LER) in the period 1985-2008. The aim of the work was to provide important insights from the Forsmark event of July 2006 and illustrate some vulnerabilities of the plant electrical system to over voltage transients. It identified electrical equipment involved, failure modes, contributing factors, actual and potential consequences, and corrective actions. Initiating factors and associated root causes were also analysed. The analysis of International Operation Experience Feedback revealed number of events that involved disturbances in the plant electrical systems, and which may have features in common with the Forsmark-1 event. It underlines the importance of sharing lessons learned from design modifications made at another unit of similar design that if known, it could have identified susceptibility of emergency diesel generators to common mode failure before the event occurred. This paper also summarizes international projects that were initiated by Forsmark event, as well as important lessons that still can be learned from Forsmark event. This paper presents actions taken at nuclear power plants and regulatory authorities in different countries to prevent similar event to occur.JRC.DDG.F.5-Safety of present nuclear reactor

Application and Selection of Nuclear Event Investigation Methods, Tools and Techniques

This final report presents the results gained in the last step of a project launched in the frame of technical task “Comparative study of event assessment methodologies with recommendations for an optimized approach in the EU” for 2010 -2011. It contains analysis and evaluation of the existing practices and some developed conclusions and recommendations to facilitate selection and implementation of relevant instruments to improve quality of nuclear event investigations. Study is based on the results of the performed survey with participation of experts from nuclear power plants and regulatory bodies representing 12 European countries and USA. Main attention was paid to analysis of the existing practices and organizational aspects of nuclear event investigation, as well as to qualitative evaluation of currently employed event investigation methods, tools and techniques. Some methodological inconsistencies, existing barriers, bottlenecks and emerging traps in event investigation process were identified and analyzed more thoroughly. In order to avoid the existing ambiguities and misunderstandings in system of terms and definitions, used in event investigation and root cause analysis concretely, the several improved definitions were suggested. Aiming to distinguish better event investigation instruments of different levels and applicability, the original system of classification of basic root cause analysis methods and tools was suggested. This system should facilitate comparison of characteristics and selection of the most relevant instruments for event investigation. Some methodological and practical recommendations how to conduct analysis overcoming the identified obstacles were put forward. The detailed recommendations for selection of root cause analysis methods and tools are presented as well.JRC.F.5-Nuclear Reactor Safety Assessmen

Assessing knee OA severity with CNN attention-based end-to-end architectures

This work proposes a novel end-to-end convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture to automatically quantify the severity of knee osteoarthritis (OA) using X-Ray images, which incorporates trainable attention modules acting as unsupervised fine-grained detectors of the region of interest (ROI). The proposed attention modules can be applied at different levels and scales across any CNN pipeline helping the network to learn relevant attention patterns over the most informative parts of the image at different resolutions. We test the proposed attention mechanism on existing state-of-the-art CNN architectures as our base models, achieving promising results on the benchmark knee OA datasets from the osteoarthritis initiative (OAI) and multicenter osteoarthritis study (MOST).Postprint (published version

BCN20000: dermoscopic lesions in the wild

This article summarizes the BCN20000 dataset, composed of 19424 dermoscopic images of skin lesions captured from 2010 to 2016 in the facilities of the Hospital Clínic in Barcelona. With this dataset, we aim to study the problem of unconstrained classification of dermoscopic images of skin cancer, including lesions found in hard-to-diagnose locations (nails and mucosa), large lesions which do not fit in the aperture of the dermoscopy device, and hypo-pigmented lesions. The BCN20000 will be provided to the participants of the ISIC Challenge 2019 [8], where they will be asked to train algorithms to classify dermoscopic images of skin cancer automatically.Peer ReviewedPreprin

CONSEQUENCES OF FEDERAL MANURE MANAGEMENT PROPOSALS: COST TO SWINE OPERATIONS FROM LAND APPLYING MANURE

A manure application cost model was used with survey data to examine the costs to confined swine operations of meeting proposed mandatory nutrient management plans across regions and size classes. Sector costs are examined under alternative scenarios involving nutrient standards, and owner willingness to accept, and the use of phytase.Livestock Production/Industries,