Word Searching in Scene Image and Video Frame in Multi-Script Scenario using Dynamic Shape Coding

Retrieval of text information from natural scene images and video frames is a challenging task due to its inherent problems like complex character shapes, low resolution, background noise, etc. Available OCR systems often fail to retrieve such information in scene/video frames. Keyword spotting, an alternative way to retrieve information, performs efficient text searching in such scenarios. However, current word spotting techniques in scene/video images are script-specific and they are mainly developed for Latin script. This paper presents a novel word spotting framework using dynamic shape coding for text retrieval in natural scene image and video frames. The framework is designed to search query keyword from multiple scripts with the help of on-the-fly script-wise keyword generation for the corresponding script. We have used a two-stage word spotting approach using Hidden Markov Model (HMM) to detect the translated keyword in a given text line by identifying the script of the line. A novel unsupervised dynamic shape coding based scheme has been used to group similar shape characters to avoid confusion and to improve text alignment. Next, the hypotheses locations are verified to improve retrieval performance. To evaluate the proposed system for searching keyword from natural scene image and video frames, we have considered two popular Indic scripts such as Bangla (Bengali) and Devanagari along with English. Inspired by the zone-wise recognition approach in Indic scripts[1], zone-wise text information has been used to improve the traditional word spotting performance in Indic scripts. For our experiment, a dataset consisting of images of different scenes and video frames of English, Bangla and Devanagari scripts were considered. The results obtained showed the effectiveness of our proposed word spotting approach.Comment: Multimedia Tools and Applications, Springe

Influencing Factors Analysis and Optimization of Land Use Allocation: Combining MAS with MOPSO Procedure

The rural land use preferences of multiple agents are crucial for optimizing land-use allocation. Taking Guanlin Town, Yixing City, China as an example, this study analyzed the factors by agents effecting rural land use conversion probability, identified the objectives and the constraints within the optimization of rural land-use allocation, and simulated the optimal land-use allocation for 2030 by combining MAS with an MOPSO procedure. The results showed that the preferences and decisions of main actors effected the optimal land-use allocation. The Government determined the conversion between land-use types. The preferences of the entrepreneurs resulted in the distribution of industrial land. Town residents made a high contribution to the configuration of the town residential land by considering some factors. Rural families influenced land-use allocation by considering the quality of cultivated soils, and the optimal spatial location of aquaculture systems. Four optimization objectives were identified. The most relevant constraints were the upper and lower limits of each land-use type. The land-use types in Guanlin town in 2015 had a low intensification and an unreasonable structure. The modeling results indicated a tendency for concentrated spatial distributions of rural land. The results of the present study can provide useful support for decision-making within land planning and consequent management

China’s First Demonstration of Cobalt-rich Manganese Crust Thickness Measurement in the Western Pacific with a Parametric Acoustic Probe

Cobalt-rich manganese crusts (CRCs) are important as a potential mineral source that could occur throughout the Pacific on seamounts, ridges, and plateaus. We built a prototype parametric acoustic probe to complete the task of in-situ thickness measurements to estimate the volumetric distribution of deep-sea mineral. The prototype is designed with dual-channels for receiving the primary and secondary signal, which lays a foundation for improving the thickness extraction algorithm. Considering that the signal quality is degraded by the system interference and ambient noise, some improvements to the algorithm are proposed by including the wavelet-based envelope extraction method and the adaptive estimation strategy based on the dual-channel information. Additionally, wavelet regression is applied to reduce the measuring noise assuming that the CRCs have local thickness invariability. The algorithm is suitable for the CRCs with the structure of the multilayers at the top surface and one single layer at the bottom surface. A laboratory experiment is performed to validate the effectiveness of the algorithm. The experiments carried out on the China Ocean 51th voyage in the Western Pacific Ocean on Aug 30, 2018, are described and the data obtained by using the sit-on-bottom stationary measurement are processed to validate the design of the prototype

Does the Exhaustion of Resources Drive Land Use Changes? Evidence from the Influence of Coal Resources-Exhaustion on Coal Resources–Based Industry Land Use Changes

Analyzing the spatial-temporal changes of resources–based industrial land is essential to the transformation and development of resources–exhausted cities. In this paper, we studied coal resources–based industrial land use changes and their driving factors in a typical coal resources–exhausted city, Anyuan District, Pingxiang city. The changes between coal resources–based industrial land and other land-use types were analyzed. The logistic regression models were applied to identify the main driving factors and quantify their contributions to coal resources–based industrial land-use changes during the two periods of 2003–2008 and 2008–2013. The results show that coal resources–based industrial land declined by 34.37% during the period 2008–2013 as coal resources were being exhausted. Altitude, distance to roads, distance to town, population density change, fixed-asset investment per area change, and GDP per capita change drove coal resources–based industrial land-use changes. However, the patterns of the driving effects differed, and even the same factors had different influences on coal resources–based industrial land-use changes during the two periods. The changes in the driving factors can be seen as responses to socioeconomic transformation and development in the city, which is experiencing the exhaustion of coal resources. As a result of the comprehensive effects of these driving factors, coal resources–based industrial land use has changed in complex ways

Spatial Variation, Pollution Assessment and Source Identification of Major Nutrients in Surface Sediments of Nansi Lake, China

Nansi Lake has been seriously affected by intensive anthropogenic activities in recent years. In this study, an extensive survey on spatial variation, pollution assessment as well as the possible sources identification of major nutrients (Total phosphorus: TP, Total nitrogen: TN, and Total organic carbon: TOC) in the surface sediments of Nansi Lake was conducted. Results showed that the mean contents of TP, TN and TOC were 1.13-, 5.40- and 2.50- fold higher than their background values respectively. Most of the TN and TOC contents in the surface sediments of Nansi Lake were four times as high or higher and twice as high or higher than the background values except the Zhaoyang sub-lake, and the spatial distribution of TN and TOC contents were remarkably similar over a large area. Nearly all the TP contents in the surface sediments of Nansi Lake were all higher than its background values except most part of the Zhaoyang sub-lake. Based on the enrichment factor (EF) and the organic pollution evaluation index (Org-index), TP, TOC and TN showed minor enrichment (1.13), minor enrichment (2.50) and moderately severe enrichment (5.40), respectively, and most part of the Dushan sub-lake and the vicinity of the Weishan island were in moderate or heavy sediments organic pollution, while the other parts were clean. Moreover, according to the results of multivariate statistical analysis, we deduced that anthropogenic TN and TOC were mainly came from industrial sources including enterprises distributed in Jining, Yanzhou and Zoucheng along with iron and steel industries distributed in the southern of the Weishan sub-lake, whereas TP mainly originated from runoff and soil erosion coming from agricultural lands located in Heze city and Weishan island, the local aquacultural activities as well as the domestic sewage discharge of Jining city

A PD‐L1 Antibody‐Conjugated PAMAM Dendrimer Nanosystem for Simultaneously Inhibiting Glycolysis and Promoting Immune Response in Fighting Breast Cancer

International audienceBreast cancer is the most frequent malignancy affecting women, yet current therapeutic strategies remain ineffective for patients with late‐stage or metastatic disease. Here an effective strategy is reported for treating metastatic breast cancer. Specifically, a self‐assembling dendrimer nanosystem decorated with an antibody against programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD‐L1) is established for delivering a small interfering RNA (siRNA) to target 3‐phosphoinositide‐dependent protein kinase‐1 (PDK1), a kinase involved in cancer metabolism and metastasis. This nanosystem, named PPD, is designed to target PD‐L1 for cancer‐specific delivery of the siRNA to inhibit PDK1 and modulate cancer metabolism while promoting programmed cell death 1 (PD‐1)/PD‐L1 pathway‐based immunotherapy. Indeed, PPD effectively generates simultaneous inhibition of PDK1‐induced glycolysis and the PD‐1/PD‐L1 pathway‐related immune response, leading to potent inhibition of tumor growth and metastasis without any notable toxicity in tumor‐bearing mouse models. Collectively, these results highlight the potential use of PPD as an effective and safe tumor‐targeting therapy for breast cancer. This study constitutes a successful proof of principle exploiting the intrinsic features of the tumor microenvironment and metabolism alongside a unique self‐assembling dendrimer platform to achieve specific tumor targeting and siRNA‐based gene silencing in combined and precision cancer therapy