A multimodal alignment framework for spoken documents

We present a multimodal document alignment framework, which highlights existing alignment relationships between documents that are discussed and recorded during multimedia events such as meetings. These relationships that should help indexing the archives of these events are detected using various techniques from natural language processing and information retrieval. The main alignment strategies studied are based on thematic, quotation and reference relationships. At the analysis level, the alignment framework was applied at several levels of granularity of documents, requiring specific document segmentation techniques. Our framework that is language independent was evaluated on corpora in French and English, including meetings and scientific presentations. The satisfactory evaluation results obtained at several stages show the importance of our approach in bridging the gap between meeting documents, independently from the language and domain. They highlight also the utility of the multimodal alignment in advanced applications, e.g. multimedia document browsing, content-based / temporal-based searching, etc.     

Intensity and phase statistics of multilook polarimetric andinterferometric SAR imagery

Polarimetric and interferometric SAR data are frequently multilook processed for speckle reduction and data compression. The statistical characteristics of multilook data are quite different from those of single-look data. The authors investigate the statistics of their intensity and phase. Probability density function (PDF's) of the multilook phase difference, magnitude of complex product, and intensity and amplitude ratios between two components of the scattering matrix are derived, and expressed in closed forms. The PDF's depend on the complex correlation coefficient and the number of looks. Comparisons of these theoretically derived PDF's are made to measurements from NASA/JPL AIRSAR data. The results of this paper can be applied to feature classification using polarimetric SAR and to the estimation of decorrelation effects of the interferometric SAR     

细腻、饱满、让家庭影院同样美声A.R.T MONOLITH-3.1喇叭线

前些日子,我收到一卷由代理商寄来杂志社测评用喇叭线。当打开线材的包装箱才发现这是一个来自意大利的新品牌,名叫A.R.T,型号为MONOLITH-3.1。由于线材是散线,长度很长,完全可以用于视听室内的家庭影院音箱系统布线。同时,散线最大的优势就是长度能够根据自己的需要进行购买,且购买同等长度的情况下,散线甚至可以裸线连接,从而省掉了接线端子,比成品线来得便宜。因此,非常适合用在家庭影院音箱系统又或者传统的Hi-Fi系统之中。关于家庭影院音箱的线材选用方面,有人认为家庭影院音箱对线材的要求不高,再加上绝大部分的发烧友都受到经济条件的限制,他们一般都不会采用售价几百块钱一米的发烧线材来进行布线。而事实上,使用高端的发烧线材确实会对整个系统的声音的提升起到帮助。这次我有这么一个难得的机会可以使用这些线材进行布线,当然要好好地试玩一番。     

Interactive neural-network-assisted screening. An economic assessment

OBJECTIVE: To apply clinical effectiveness estimates of interactive, neural network-assisted (INNA) screening to economic cervical cancer screening models to assess the economic impact of using this technology. STUDY DESIGN: Estimates of the sensitivity of INNA screening were drawn from a recently completed comprehensive synthesis of the INNA literature and applied to the Computer Model for Designing CANcer ConTROL Programs-based Cervical Cancer Screen economic model. The economic analysis was conducted from a modified payer perspective using costs borne by payers combined with patient deductibles and copayments. Costs of treating cervical cancer were updated to 1997 values using the medical care component of the Consumer Price Index. The model was run for a cohort of women starting at age 20 and screened on a triennial schedule through age 75. RESULTS: In the primary analysis (sensitivity of unassisted manual examination assumed to be 85%), the ratios found in this investigation varied from approximately $35,000 to $80,000 per life year saved, with the preponderance of ratios < $50,000 per life year saved. These results were sensitive to estimates of sensitivity of unassisted manual screening but not to estimates of treatment costs. CONCLUSION: This investigation applied accuracy data on INNA rescreening to a model of the cost-effectiveness of cervical cancer screening. The results support the use of INNA rescreening as an appropriate expenditure of resources to identify missed cases of cervical epithelial abnormalities and potential cervical cancer.     

Facilitating the migration to the microservice architecture via model-driven reverse engineering and reinforcement learning

The microservice architecture has gained remarkable attention in recent years. Microservices allow developers to implement and deploy independent services, so they are a naturally effective architecture for continuously deployed systems. Because of this, several organizations are undertaking the costly process of manually migrating their traditional software architectures to microservices. The research in this paper aims at facilitating the migration from monolithic software architectures to microservices. We propose a framework which enables software developers/architects to migrate their software systems more efficiently by helping them remodularize the source code of their systems. The framework leverages model-driven reverse engineering to obtain a model of the legacy system and reinforcement learning to propose a mapping of this model toward a set of microservices.

     

Insight of EDX analysis and EFTEM: Are spherocrystals located in strombidae digestive gland implied in detoxification of trace metals?

Digestive tubules of Strombidae are composed by three cell types: digestive cells, vacuolated cells, and crypt cells. The last one is characterized by the presence of intracellular granules identified as spherocrystals. Such structures are known to occur in basophilic cells of gastropod digestive gland, where they are supposed to be involved in the regulation of some minerals and in detoxification. In this study, energy‐dispersive X‐ray analysis (EDX) and energy filtered transmission electron microscopy (EFTEM) were used to determine the elemental content of spherocrystals in two Strombidae, Strombus gigas and Strombus pugilis. In freshly collected individuals of both species, the following elements were detected: Ca, Fe, Mg, P, and Zn. Aluminum and Mn were also detected in S. gigas. Their presence in spherocrystals indicates that, in Strombidae, spherocrystals are involved in the regulation of minerals and essential trace metals. In order to answer the question “are spherocrystals involved in nonessential trace metals scavenging?,” artificial cadmium and lead exposure by both waterborne and dietary pathways was applied to S. pugilis. No evidence of cadmium (Cd(NO₃)₂) or lead (Pb(NO₃)₂) provided by food was found in spherocrystals. Cadmium provided in water (Cd(NO₃)₂ and CdCl₂) causes structural modifications of the digestive gland; however, this element was not trapped in spherocrystals. These results suggest that spherocrystals are not involved in detoxification of such nonessential trace metals. Microsc. Res. Tech., 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Assessment of the Wind Field in the East Coast Algerian Regions for the Installation of Wind Farms

The available electricity generated by a wind power generation system depends on mean wind speed, standard deviation of wind speed and the location of installation. Since year-to-year variation on annual mean wind speed is hard to predict, wind speed variations during a year can be well characterized in terms of a probability distribution function, as well Weibull distribution has been one of the most commonly used, accepted and recommended distribution to determine wind energy potential. In this study, the two Weibull parameters of the wind speed distribution function （the shape parameter k （dimensionless） and the scale parameter c （m/s））, were computed from the wind speed data for Algerian east coastal regions, recording over a 1 l-year period （1995-2005）. It was found that the numerical values of both Weibull parameters （k and c） vary over a wide range. The yearly values ofk range from 1.20 to 1.94, while those of c are in the range from 4.31 to 1.94. To minimize the uncertainties of statistical calculation, a spatial representation indicating distribution and occurrence frequency the direction from which the wind comes, appears a very primordial step. Over the whole valid data during the study period, the compass shows that there is no dominant direction marked. However, we can identify a preferred wind direction. The statistical results correspond to the analysis of the rose compass.