Evaluation of Deep Learning based Pose Estimation for Sign Language Recognition

Human body pose estimation and hand detection are two important tasks for systems that perform computer vision-based sign language recognition(SLR). However, both tasks are challenging, especially when the input is color videos, with no depth information. Many algorithms have been proposed in the literature for these tasks, and some of the most successful recent algorithms are based on deep learning. In this paper, we introduce a dataset for human pose estimation for SLR domain. We evaluate the performance of two deep learning based pose estimation methods, by performing user-independent experiments on our dataset. We also perform transfer learning, and we obtain results that demonstrate that transfer learning can improve pose estimation accuracy. The dataset and results from these methods can create a useful baseline for future works

Reallocation of Production Factors in the Regional Economies in Japan : Towards an Application to the Great East-Japan Earthquake

Examining the recovery processes of the Great East-Japan Earthquake and the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, we find that the reallocation mechanism affects economic growth of the recovery period in the devastated regions. Using the R-JIP databas, which provides value added and production factors at the prefectural and industry levels, we break down labor productivity growth into the capital deepening effect, a few reallocation effects, and the pure technological effect. We do not find an efficient movement of labor in the 2000s, although capital has moved within a prefecture efficiently. When we focus on Hyogo prefecture where the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake occurred in 1995, we find that the decline in reallocation effects slowed labor productivity growth after the earthquake.Article学習院大学経済経営研究所年報.28:103-120(2014)departmental bulletin pape

Embodied Technological Progress and the Productivity Slowdown in Japan

Concerns over the rise in the vintage of capital in the Japanese economy have focused attention on the technological progress embodied in capital. In this paper, we derive the theoretical relationship between the rate of technological progress embodied in capital, the obsolescence rate of capital, and the average vintage of capital, then we estimate these rates by using firm-level panel data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) Basic Survey of Japanese Business Structure and Activities in the period between 1997 and 2002. To measure the obsolescence rate of capital by estimating the production function, it is necessary to construct a capital stock series that takes only physical depreciation into account for each vintage capital held by each firm. To do that, we prepared industry-specific patterns of the physical depreciation ratio of capital goods, based on the pattern of the physical depreciation ratio of each type of capital goods by obtaining information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and the Japan Industrial Productivity Database (JIP) 2006's investment matrices cross-classified by types of capital goods and industries. We applied these industry-specific patterns of the physical depreciation ratio of capital goods to the individual firms' investment series, constructing a capital stock series in each firm. We measured the obsolescence rate by estimating the production function, which is similar to the one employed in Sakellaris and Wilson (2004). We added several control variables to their equations. The estimated obsolescence rate of machinery and equipment is found to be between 8 and 22 percent per annum, which is very close to the estimated ratios in other previous research using the production function. This estimation result implies that the average rate of technological progress embodied in machinery and equipment is between 0.2 and 0.4 percent in Japan. The average vintage of capital in the manufacturing industry in the 1990s was estimated to increase by almost two years, because of weak investment during that decade, and it has the effect of lowering the rate of productivity growth in the industry by 0.4 to 0.8 percentage points.

A Case of Severe Bronchial Asthma Controlled with Tacrolimus

Background. The control of severe bronchial asthma, such as corticosteroid-resistant asthma, is difficult. It is also possible that immunosuppressive agents would be effective for bronchial asthma. Case Summary. A 55-year-old Japanese female presented with severe bronchial asthma controlled with tacrolimus. She had been diagnosed with bronchial asthma during childhood. Her asthma worsened, and a chest radiograph showed atelectasis of the left lung. Bronchoscopy revealed the left main bronchus to be obstructed with viscous sputum consisting of 82% neutrophils and no eosinophils. The atelectasis did not improve with corticosteroid treatment, but was ameliorated by administration of tacrolimus. Discussion. This patient had severe asthma due to neutrophilic inflammation of the airways. Tacrolimus is effective for treating severe asthma, for example, in corticosteroid-resistant cases