Multimodal Video Indexing: A Review of the State-of-the-art

Efficient and effective handling of video documents depends on the availability of indexes. Manual indexing is unfeasible for large video collections. In this paper we survey several methods aiming at automating this time and resource consuming process. Good reviews on single modality based video indexing have appeared in literature. Effective indexing, however, requires a multimodal approach in which either the most appropriate modality is selected or the different modalities are used in collaborative fashion. Therefore, instead of separately treating the different information sources involved, and their specific algorithms, we focus on the similarities and differences between the modalities. To that end we put forward a unifying and multimodal framework, which views a video document from the perspective of its author. This framework forms the guiding principle for identifying index types, for which automatic methods are found in literature. It furthermore forms the basis for categorizing these different methods.     

多式联运的最短时间路径-运输费用模型研究

随着经济的迅速发展，单一的运输方式越来越不能满足来自客户的敏捷制造、快速响应市场、物流供应链管理等诸多方面的需求，多式联运为之提供了良好的解决方案；多式联运运输网络考虑了节点间的运输时间、节点处的运输方式转换时间以及可能发生的货运延迟；给出了多式联运下的路径最短时间模型，并根据求得的最短时间路径提供了相应的运输费用模型，为多式联运的相关研究工作提供了理论基础。     

采用图像融合技术的多模式人脸识别

利用图像融合技术实现了基于可见光图像和红外热图像相结合的多模式人脸识别,研究了两种图像在像素级和特征级的融合方法.在像素级,提出了基于小波分解的图像融合方法,实现了两种图像的有效融合.在特征级,采用分别提取两种识别方法中具有较好分类效果的前50%的特征进行特征级的融合.实验表明,经像素级和特征级融合后,识别准确率都较单一图像有很大程度的提高,并且特征级的融合效果明显优于像素级的融合.因此,基于图像融合技术的多模式人脸识别,有效的增加了图像的信息量,是提高人脸识别准确率的有效途径之一.     

Fabrication of photoactive heterostructures based on quantum dots decorated with Au nanoparticles

Silica based multifunctional heterostructures, exhibiting near infrared (NIR) absorption (650–1200 nm) and luminescence in the visible region, represent innovative nanosystems useful for diagnostic or theranostic applications. Herein, colloidal synthetic procedures are applied to design a photoactive multifunctional nanosystem. Luminescent silica (SiO₂) coated quantum dots (QDs) have been used as versatile nanoplatforms to assemble on their surface gold (Au) seeds, further grown into Au spackled structures. The synthesized nanostructures combine the QD emission in the visible region, and, concomitantly, the distinctive NIR absorption of Au nanodomains. The possibility of having multiple QDs in a single heterostructure, the SiO₂ shell thickness, and the extent of Au deposition onto SiO₂ surface have been carefully controlled. The work shows that a single QD entrapped in 16 nm thick SiO₂ shell, coated with Au speckles, represents the most suitable geometry to preserve the QD emission in the visible region and to generate NIR absorption from metal NPs. The resulting architectures present a biomedical potential as an effective optical multimodal probes and as promising therapeutic agents due to the Au NP mediated photothermal effect.     

Impact of the Nanoscale Gap Morphology on the Plasmon Coupling in Asymmetric Nanoparticle Dimer Antennas

Coupling of plasmon resonances in metallic gap antennas is of interest for a wide range of applications due to the highly localized strong electric fields supported by these structures, and their high sensitivity to alterations of their structure, geometry, and environment. Morphological alterations of asymmetric nanoparticle dimer antennas with (sub)‐nanometer size gaps are assigned to changes of their optical response in correlative dark‐field spectroscopy and high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR‐TEM) investigations. This multimodal approach to investigate individual dimer structures clearly demonstrates that the coupling of the plasmon modes, in addition to well‐known parameters such as the particle geometry and the gap size, is also affected by the relative alignment of both nanoparticles. The investigations corroborate that the alignment of the gap forming facets, and with that the gap area, is crucial for their scattering properties. The impact of a flat versus a rounded gap structure on the optical properties of equivalent dimers becomes stronger with decreasing gap size. These results hint at a higher confinement of the electric field in the gap and possibly a different onset of quantum transport effects for flat and rounded gap antennas in corresponding structures for very narrow gaps.     

Biosynthesized Gold Nanoclusters and Iron Complexes as Scaffolds for Multimodal Cancer Bioimaging

Cancer treatment has a far greater chance of success if the neoplasm is diagnosed before the onset of metastasis to vital organs. Hence, cancer early diagnosis is extremely important and remains a major challenge in modern therapeutics. In this contribution, facile and new method for rapid multimodal tumor bioimaging is reported by using biosynthesized iron complexes and gold nanoclusters via simple introduction of AuCl₄ ^? and Fe²⁺ ions. The observations demonstrate that the biosynthesized Au nanoclusters may act as fluorescent and computed tomography probes for cancer bioimaging while the iron complexes behave as effective contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging. The biosynthesized iron complexes and gold nanoclusters are found biocompatible in vitro (MTT (3‐(4, 5‐dimethylthiazol‐2‐yl)‐2, 5‐diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay) and in vivo for all the vital organs of circulatory and excretory system. These observations raise the possibility that the biosynthesized probes may find applications in future clinical diagnosis for deep seated early neoplasms by multimodal imaging.     

How does cognitive therapy prevent relapse in residual depression? Evidence from a controlled trial.

This study examined the cognitive mediation of relapse prevention by cognitive therapy (CT) in a trial of 158 patients with residual depression. Scores based on agreement with item content of 5 questionnaires of depression-related cognition provided no evidence for cognitive mediation. A measure of the form of response to those questionnaires, the number of times patients used extreme response categories ("totally agree" and "totally disagree"), showed significant and substantial prediction of relapse, differential response to CT, and conformity to mediational criteria. CT reduced relapse through reductions in absolutist, dichotomous thinking style. CT may prevent relapse by training patients to change the way that they process depression-related material rather than by changing belief in depressive thought content. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influences of gender and weight gain on short-term relapse to smoking in a cessation trial.

Few researchers have studied whether weight gain has an impact on short-term relapse to smoking. The authors of this study investigated predictors of relapse among 989 participants (60% women) in a randomized, double-blind, 10-week multicenter trial to determine the effect of fluoxetine (30 or 60 mg) versus placebo in combination with behavioral counseling for smoking cessation. Medication compliance and smoking status were biochemically verified. At Visit 2, participants were asked to set a quit date within the subsequent 2 visits. A proportional hazards regression model was used to predict risk of relapse within the first 3 months of quitting. Weight gain predicted relapse, but for men only. Female gender also predicted relapse. The results led the authors to question whether postcessation weight gain interventions should be restricted to women smokers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in audiovisual discrimination learning by Bengalese Finches (Lonchura striata var. domestica).

Both visual and auditory information are important for songbirds, especially in developmental and sexual contexts. To investigate bimodal cognition in songbirds, the authors conducted audiovisual discrimination training in Bengalese finches. The authors used two types of stimulus: an "artificial stimulus," which is a combination of simple figures and sound, and a "biological stimulus," consisting of video images of singing males along with their songs. The authors found that while both sexes predominantly used visual cues in the discrimination tasks, males tended to be more dependent on auditory information for the biological stimulus. Female responses were always dependent on the visual stimulus for both stimulus types. Only males changed their discrimination strategy according to stimulus type. Although males used both visual and auditory cues for the biological stimulus, they responded to the artificial stimulus depending only on visual information, as the females did. These findings suggest a sex difference in innate auditory sensitivity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multimodal biometric identification system based on finger‐veins using hybrid rank–decision‐level fusion technique

The highly random manner in which veins spread along a finger, their immunity to counterfeiting, active liveness, and user friendliness make finger veins the best choice for a biometric identification system (BIS). In this paper, veins of six fingers of two hands of a person are used to develop a secure, reliable, and robust multimodal BIS (MBIS). The main structure of the proposed MBIS is based on the effective combination of rank‐ and decision‐level fusion. In the training step, the power (weight) of each single modality is estimated by extracting the information that lies in the cumulative match characteristic (CMC) curve. The testing step consists of two main parts. In the first part, the region of the finger vein is extracted by using a simple method, and then the binarized statistical image features (BSIFs) algorithm is used to extract feature vectors. In the second part, final decision for the test input probe is made by generating ‘top rank‐decision matrix ’, which fuses the information of each biometric identifier in the hybrid rank‐decision level. The obtained results show that proposed method is more reliable and accurate than other fusion techniques at the post‐classification fusion level. © 2017 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.