Hierarchical event selection for video storyboards with a case study on snooker video visualization

Video storyboard, which is a form of video visualization, summarizes the major events in a video using illustrative visualization. There are three main technical challenges in creating a video storyboard, (a) event classification, (b) event selection and (c) event illustration. Among these challenges, (a) is highly application-dependent and requires a significant amount of application specific semantics to be encoded in a system or manually specified by users. This paper focuses on challenges (b) and (c). In particular, we present a framework for hierarchical event representation, and an importance-based selection algorithm for supporting the creation of a video storyboard from a video. We consider the storyboard to be an event summarization for the whole video, whilst each individual illustration on the board is also an event summarization but for a smaller time window. We utilized a 3D visualization template for depicting and annotating events in illustrations. To demonstrate the concepts and algorithms developed, we use Snooker video visualization as a case study, because it has a concrete and agreeable set of semantic definitions for events and can make use of existing techniques of event detection and 3D reconstruction in a reliable manner. Nevertheless, most of our concepts and algorithms developed for challenges (b) and (c) can be applied to other application areas. © 2010 IEEE

Manipulation of Behavioral Decline in Caenorhabditis elegans with the Rag GTPase raga-1

Normal aging leads to an inexorable decline in motor performance, contributing to medical morbidity and decreased quality of life. While much has been discovered about genetic determinants of lifespan, less is known about modifiers of age-related behavioral decline and whether new gene targets may be found which extend vigorous activity, with or without extending lifespan. Using Caenorhabditis elegans, we have developed a model of declining neuromuscular function and conducted a screen for increased behavioral activity in aged animals. In this model, behavioral function suffers from profound reductions in locomotory frequency, but coordination is strikingly preserved until very old age. By screening for enhancers of locomotion at advanced ages we identified the ras-related Rag GTPase raga-1 as a novel modifier of behavioral aging. raga-1 loss of function mutants showed vigorous swimming late in life. Genetic manipulations revealed that a gain of function raga-1 curtailed behavioral vitality and shortened lifespan, while a dominant negative raga-1 lengthened lifespan. Dietary restriction results indicated that a raga-1 mutant is relatively protected from the life-shortening effects of highly concentrated food, while RNAi experiments suggested that raga-1 acts in the highly conserved target of rapamycin (TOR) pathway in C. elegans. Rag GTPases were recently shown to mediate nutrient-dependent activation of TOR. This is the first demonstration of their dramatic effects on behavior and aging. This work indicates that novel modulators of behavioral function can be identified in screens, with implications for future study of the clinical amelioration of age-related decline

Transformation of an uncertain video search pipeline to a sketch-based visual analytics loop

Traditional sketch-based image or video search systems rely on machine learning concepts as their core technology. However, in many applications, machine learning alone is impractical since videos may not be semantically annotated sufficiently, there may be a lack of suitable training data, and the search requirements of the user may frequently change for different tasks. In this work, we develop a visual analytics systems that overcomes the shortcomings of the traditional approach. We make use of a sketch-based interface to enable users to specify search requirement in a flexible manner without depending on semantic annotation. We employ active machine learning to train different analytical models for different types of search requirements. We use visualization to facilitate knowledge discovery at the different stages of visual analytics. This includes visualizing the parameter space of the trained model, visualizing the search space to support interactive browsing, visualizing candidature search results to support rapid interaction for active learning while minimizing watching videos, and visualizing aggregated information of the search results. We demonstrate the system for searching spatiotemporal attributes from sports video to identify key instances of the team and player performance. © 1995-2012 IEEE

Knowledge-assisted ranking: A visual analytic application for sports event data

© 2016 IEEE. Organizing sports video data for performance analysis can be challenging, especially in cases involving multiple attributes and when the criteria for sorting frequently changes depending on the user's task. The proposed visual analytic system enables users to specify a sort requirement in a flexible manner without depending on specific knowledge about individual sort keys. The authors use regression techniques to train different analytical models for different types of sorting requirements and use visualization to facilitate knowledge discovery at different stages of the process. They demonstrate the system with a rugby case study to find key instances for analyzing team and player performance. Organizing sports video data for performance analysis can be challenging in cases with multiple attributes, and when sorting frequently changes depending on the user's task. As this video shows, the proposed visual analytic system allows interactive data sorting and exploration

Early impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and physical distancing measures on routine childhood vaccinations in England, January to April 2020.

Using electronic health records, we assessed the early impact of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on routine childhood vaccination in England by 26 April 2020. Measles-mumps-rubella vaccination counts fell from February 2020, and in the 3 weeks after introduction of physical distancing measures were 19.8% lower (95% confidence interval: -20.7 to -18.9) than the same period in 2019, before improving in mid-April. A gradual decline in hexavalent vaccination counts throughout 2020 was not accentuated by physical distancing

Responsive cell–material interfaces

Major design aspects for novel biomaterials are driven by the desire to mimic more varied and complex properties of a natural cellular environment with man-made materials. The development of stimulus responsive materials makes considerable contributions to the effort to incorporate dynamic and reversible elements into a biomaterial. This is particularly challenging for cell–material interactions that occur at an interface (biointerfaces); however, the design of responsive biointerfaces also presents opportunities in a variety of applications in biomedical research and regenerative medicine. This review will identify the requirements imposed on a responsive biointerface and use recent examples to demonstrate how some of these requirements have been met. Finally, the next steps in the development of more complex biomaterial interfaces, including multiple stimuli-responsive surfaces, surfaces of 3D objects and interactive biointerfaces will be discussed

Molecular Analysis Confirming the Introduction of Nile Crocodiles, Crocodylus niloticus Laurenti 1768 (Crocodylidae), in Southern Florida, with an Assessment of Potential for Establishment, Spread, and Impacts.

The state of Florida, USA, has more introduced herpetofauna than any other governmental region on Earth. Four species of nonnative crocodilians have been introduced to Florida (all since 1960), one of which is established. Between 2000–2014 we field-collected three nonnative crocodilians in Miami-Dade County, Florida, and one in Hendry County, Florida. We used DNA barcoding and molecular phylogenetics to determine species identification and native range origin. Also, we described diet, movement, and growth for one crocodile. Our molecular analyses illustrated that two of the crocodiles we collected are most closely related to Nile Crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus) from South Africa, suggesting this region as a source population. We, thus, documented the first known introduction of C. niloticus in Florida. Two, and possibly three of the introduced crocodiles shared the same haplotype, suggesting they are likely from the same introduction pathway or source. One animal was captured, measured, marked, and released, then recaptured 2 y later allowing us to calculate growth rate (40.5 cm/y) and movement. The most likely route of travel by waterway (i.e., canal) illustrates that this animal traveled at least 29 km from its original capture site. One crocodile escaped from a facility in Hendry County, Florida, and survived in 1,012 ha of semi-wild habitat for three to four years, confirming that this species can survive in southern Florida

The 'dirty dozen' of freshwater science: detecting then reconciling hydrological data biases and errors

Sound water policy and management rests on sound hydrometeorological and ecological data. Conversely, unrepresentative, poorly collected, or erroneously archived data introduce uncertainty regarding the magnitude, rate, and direction of environmental change, in addition to undermining confidence in decision-making processes. Unfortunately, data biases and errors can enter the information flow at various stages, starting with site selection, instrumentation, sampling/measurement procedures, postprocessing and ending with archiving systems. Techniques such as visual inspection of raw data, graphical representation, and comparison between sites, outlier, and trend detection, and referral to metadata can all help uncover spurious data. Tell-tale signs of ambiguous and/or anomalous data are highlighted using 12 carefully chosen cases drawn mainly from hydrology (‘the dirty dozen’). These include evidence of changes in site or local conditions (due to land management, river regulation, or urbanization); modifications to instrumentation or inconsistent observer behavior; mismatched or misrepresentative sampling in space and time; treatment of missing values, postprocessing and data storage errors. Also for raising awareness of pitfalls, recommendations are provided for uncovering lapses in data quality after the information has been gathered. It is noted that error detection and attribution are more problematic for very large data sets, where observation networks are automated, or when various information sources have been combined. In these cases, more holistic indicators of data integrity are needed that reflect the overall information life-cycle and application(s) of the hydrological data

Preheating and the Einstein Field Equations

We inaugurate a framework for studying preheating and parametric resonance after inflation without resorting to any approximations, either in gravitational perturbation theory or in the evolution of the field(s). We do this by numerically solving the Einstein field equations in the post-inflationary universe. In this letter we show how to compare our results to those of gauge invariant perturbation theory. We then verify Finelli and Brandenberger's analysis (hep-ph/9809490) of super-horizon modes in $m^2\phi^2$ inflation, showing that they are not amplified by resonant effects. Lastly, we make a preliminary survey of the nonlinear couplings between modes, which will be important in models where the primordial metric perturbations undergo parametric amplification.Comment: RevTeX, 5 pages, 3 figures. References added, typo in eq(16) corrected. To appear in Phys. Rev. D (Rapid Comm.