Testing the Viability of a 3D Workflow Using Only Adobe Creative Cloud

To determine whether or not a design team or individual designer can create 3D prototypes and the subsequent finished product in a more economically sound and timely manner by purchasing and utilizing Adobe Creative Cloud applications as opposed to the standard workflow that has been established in the past 20-25 years. A 15-question qualitative survey was submitted to twenty (20) 3D product designers/engineers that currently work in the established industry. Questions were asked to determine what the standard industry professionals are using in their 3D design workflows and if they are open to newer methods that are becoming available through Adobe’s Creative Cloud. Additionally, I conducted a personal study of the 3D Tools that Adobe has launched in their newest version of Creative Cloud in order to give my input on whether or not a beginner can learn how to design 3D prototypes and enter into the industry with these skills

LHC Charge Asymmetry as Constraint on Models for the Tevatron Top Anomaly

The forward-backward asymmetry $A_{FB}^{t\bar t}$ in top quark production at the Tevatron has been observed to be anomalously large by both CDF and D0. It has been suggested that a model with a $W'$ coupling to $td$ and $ub$ might explain this anomaly, and other anomalies in $B$ mesons. Single-top-quark production in this model is large, and arguably in conflict with Tevatron measurements. However the model might still be viable if $A_{FB}^{t\bar t}$ is somewhat smaller than its current measured central value. We show that even with smaller couplings, the model can be discovered (or strongly excluded) at the LHC using the 2010 data sets. We find that a suitable charge-asymmetry measurement is a powerful tool that can be used to constrain this and other sources of anomalous single-top production, and perhaps other new high-energy charge-asymmetric processes.Comment: 25 pages, 4 figures, note adde

Visual attention-based image watermarking

Imperceptibility and robustness are two complementary but fundamental requirements of any watermarking algorithm. Low strength watermarking yields high imperceptibility but exhibits poor robustness. High strength watermarking schemes achieve good robustness but often infuse distortions resulting in poor visual quality in host media. If distortion due to high strength watermarking can avoid visually attentive regions, such distortions are unlikely to be noticeable to any viewer. In this paper, we exploit this concept and propose a novel visual attention-based highly robust image watermarking methodology by embedding lower and higher strength watermarks in visually salient and non-salient regions, respectively. A new low complexity wavelet domain visual attention model is proposed that allows us to design new robust watermarking algorithms. The proposed new saliency model outperforms the state-of-the-art method in joint saliency detection and low computational complexity performances. In evaluating watermarking performances, the proposed blind and non-blind algorithms exhibit increased robustness to various natural image processing and filtering attacks with minimal or no effect on image quality, as verified by both subjective and objective visual quality evaluation. Up to 25% and 40% improvement against JPEG2000 compression and common filtering attacks, respectively, are reported against the existing algorithms that do not use a visual attention model

Global motion compensated visual attention-based video watermarking

Imperceptibility and robustness are two key but complementary requirements of any watermarking algorithm. Low-strength watermarking yields high imperceptibility but exhibits poor robustness. High-strength watermarking schemes achieve good robustness but often suffer from embedding distortions resulting in poor visual quality in host media. This paper proposes a unique video watermarking algorithm that offers a fine balance between imperceptibility and robustness using motion compensated wavelet-based visual attention model (VAM). The proposed VAM includes spatial cues for visual saliency as well as temporal cues. The spatial modeling uses the spatial wavelet coefficients while the temporal modeling accounts for both local and global motion to arrive at the spatiotemporal VAM for video. The model is then used to develop a video watermarking algorithm, where a two-level watermarking weighting parameter map is generated from the VAM saliency maps using the saliency model and data are embedded into the host image according to the visual attentiveness of each region. By avoiding higher strength watermarking in the visually attentive region, the resulting watermarked video achieves high perceived visual quality while preserving high robustness. The proposed VAM outperforms the state-of-the-art video visual attention methods in joint saliency detection and low computational complexity performance. For the same embedding distortion, the proposed visual attention-based watermarking achieves up to 39% (nonblind) and 22% (blind) improvement in robustness against H.264/AVC compression, compared to existing watermarking methodology that does not use the VAM. The proposed visual attention-based video watermarking results in visual quality similar to that of low-strength watermarking and a robustness similar to those of high-strength watermarking

Attention Driven Solutions for Robust Digital Watermarking Within Media

As digital technologies have dramatically expanded within the last decade, content recognition now plays a major role within the control of media. Of the current recent systems available, digital watermarking provides a robust maintainable solution to enhance media security. The two main properties of digital watermarking, imperceptibility and robustness, are complimentary to each other but by employing visual attention based mechanisms within the watermarking framework, highly robust watermarking solutions are obtainable while also maintaining high media quality. This thesis firstly provides suitable bottom-up saliency models for raw image and video. The image and video saliency algorithms are estimated directly from within the wavelet domain for enhanced compatibility with the watermarking framework. By combining colour, orientation and intensity contrasts for the image model and globally compensated object motion in the video model, novel wavelet-based visual saliency algorithms are provided. The work extends these saliency models into a unique visual attention-based watermarking scheme by increasing the watermark weighting parameter within visually uninteresting regions. An increased watermark robustness, up to 40%, against various filtering attacks, JPEG2000 and H.264/AVC compression is obtained while maintaining the media quality, verified by various objective and subjective evaluation tools. As most video sequences are stored in an encoded format, this thesis studies watermarking schemes within the compressed domain. Firstly, the work provides a compressed domain saliency model formulated directly within the HEVC codec, utilizing various coding decisions such as block partition size, residual magnitude, intra frame angular prediction mode and motion vector difference magnitude. Large computational savings, of 50% or greater, are obtained compared with existing methodologies, as the saliency maps are generated from partially decoded bitstreams. Finally, the saliency maps formulated within the compressed HEVC domain are studied within the watermarking framework. A joint encoder and a frame domain watermarking scheme are both proposed by embedding data into the quantised transform residual data or wavelet coefficients, respectively, which exhibit low visual salience

Ontological insecurity in the post-covid-19 fallout: using existentialism as a method to develop a psychosocial understanding to a mental health crisis

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic we are witnessing a significant rise in mental illness diagnosis and corresponding anti-depressant prescription uptake. The drug response to this situation is unsurprising and reinforces the dominant role (neuro)biology continues to undertake within modern psychiatry. In contrast to this biologically informed, medicalised approach, the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a statement stressing the causal role of psychological and social factors. Using the concept of ontological insecurity, contextualised within the WHO guidance, the interrelation of psychological and social factors is illuminated, and a psychosocial framework is produced as a means of understanding the mental health consequence of the post-Covid-19 fallout. The psychosocial framework generated provides a rationale to revise and reprioritise how we engage with the biopsychosocial model that is intended to underpin modern psychiatry. This framework establishes a connection between psychological and social theory which are too often addressed as disparate terrains within mental health services and policy creation

Ontological insecurity and psychic suffering: a contrapuntal reading of R. D. Laing’s theory [1960 –1970] in the neoliberal landscape

We live in a time in which ‘mental health’ problems have been described as the ‘epidemic’ of gravest concern. The incidence of ‘mental health’ problems is increasing year-on-year, yet we remain fixed on one course of action with a psychopharmacology trajectory of understanding and treatment; this being the basis of our psychiatric system and the default medical encounter, it too readily insists upon all forms of psychic suffering being reduced to chemical imbalances within the brain. It is against this backdrop that I introduce the potential and necessity for a return to the theory of R.D. Laing. Laing was a psychiatrist whose most prominent mark was made in the 1960s. With an unwavering commitment to establish more humane treatment for those diagnosed ‘schizophrenic’, he developed a philosophical method of enquiry grounded in existential-phenomenology. Through this methodological lens, Laing argued that ‘intelligibility’ of experience could be revealed within even the most psychotic of patients. It is only with intelligibility that a true knowledge of persons can be gained, and help given. Laing provides us with a theory to challenge the all-compassing dominance that psychiatry wields upon the self, allowing us to consider how psychiatric discourse affects society beyond diagnosis, and think differently about what constitutes ‘mental illness’ and diagnosis. This thesis clarifies and develops Laing’s theory from 1960 to 1970, offering a contrasting reading to the modular format frequently represented within secondary sources and producing instead a unified framework. Emphasising and reworking the concept of ‘ontological insecurity’ as a logical, but painful, existential response to dysfunctional interpersonal dynamics within our worldly immersion. Supported further by his lesser appreciated concept of ‘self-consciousness’, a political application is developed that highlights the potential value of Laing’s theory as a means of understanding our current ‘mental health’ situation. In the process of conducting this re-evaluation, scientism is drawn into focus. Extending beyond the clinical encounter and placed within the interpersonal dynamics of everyday existence, it is proposed that western culture is increasingly allowing itself to be defined within a scientific paradigm that incurs a collective existential degradation. This is a significant source for ontological insecurity and thus contributes to the experience of psychic suffering

A whole-island census of the Manx Shearwaters Puffinus puffinus breeding on Skomer Island in 2011.

Skomer Island, Pembrokeshire, Wales is believed to have one of the largest colonies of Manx Shearwaters Puffinus puffinus in the World. In 1998 a census was made of the whole island, and the adjacent islands of Skokholm and Middleholm, in order to try to establish the size of the breeding population; the Skomer population was estimated to be just over 101,000 breeding pairs. A second census was carried out in 2011. First, a set of study burrows was opened and a tape of the male call (normally only males respond to these) was played down each burrow several times during the course of incubation in order to establish the male response rate. Then the same tape was played down all the burrows in each of 288 randomly selected plots across the island and the number of responses recorded. Extrapolating responses from census plots to the whole island yielded an estimate of 125,112 (CI ± 16,445) responses. Adjusting this figure to take account of the response rate yielded an estimate of 316,070 (SE ± 41,767) breeding pairs. This figure is greatly in excess of the estimate made just 13 years earlier. Possible reasons for this are discussed

ELF5 modulates the estrogen receptor cistrome in breast cancer.

Acquired resistance to endocrine therapy is responsible for half of the therapeutic failures in the treatment of breast cancer. Recent findings have implicated increased expression of the ETS transcription factor ELF5 as a potential modulator of estrogen action and driver of endocrine resistance, and here we provide the first insight into the mechanisms by which ELF5 modulates estrogen sensitivity. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing we found that ELF5 binding overlapped with FOXA1 and ER at super enhancers, enhancers and promoters, and when elevated, caused FOXA1 and ER to bind to new regions of the genome, in a pattern that replicated the alterations to the ER/FOXA1 cistrome caused by the acquisition of resistance to endocrine therapy. RNA sequencing demonstrated that these changes altered estrogen-driven patterns of gene expression, the expression of ER transcription-complex members, and 6 genes known to be involved in driving the acquisition of endocrine resistance. Using rapid immunoprecipitation mass spectrometry of endogenous proteins, and proximity ligation assays, we found that ELF5 interacted physically with members of the ER transcription complex, such as DNA-PKcs. We found 2 cases of endocrine-resistant brain metastases where ELF5 levels were greatly increased and ELF5 patterns of gene expression were enriched, compared to the matched primary tumour. Thus ELF5 alters ER-driven gene expression by modulating the ER/FOXA1 cistrome, by interacting with it, and by modulating the expression of members of the ER transcriptional complex, providing multiple mechanisms by which ELF5 can drive endocrine resistance