scholarly journals A Linear Approximate Algorithm for Earth Mover's Distance with Thresholded Ground Distance

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Longjie Li ◽  
Min Ma ◽  
Peng Lei ◽  
Xiaoping Wang ◽  
Xiaoyun Chen
Keyword(s):  
Approximation Algorithm ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Geometric Interpretation ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Approximate Algorithm ◽  
Earth Mover’S Distance ◽  
Image Comparison ◽  
Earth Mover's Distance ◽  
Ground Distance ◽  
The Impact

Effective and efficient image comparison plays a vital role in content-based image retrieval (CBIR). The earth mover’s distance (EMD) is an enticing measure for image comparison, offering intuitive geometric interpretation and modelling the human perceptions of similarity. Unfortunately, computing EMD, using the simplex method, has cubic complexity. FastEMD, based on min-cost flow, reduces the complexity to (O(N2log⁡N)). Although both methods can obtain the optimal result, the high complexity prevents the application of EMD on large-scale image datasets. Thresholding the ground distance can make EMD faster and more robust, since it can decrease the impact of noise and reduce the range of transportation. In this paper, we present a new image distance metric,EMD+, which applies a threshold to the ground distance. To computeEMD+, the FastEMD approach can be employed. We also propose a novel linear approximation algorithm. Our algorithm achievesONcomplexity with the benefit of qualified bins. Experimental results show that (1) our method is 2 to 3 orders of magnitude faster than EMD (computed by FastEMD) and 2 orders of magnitude faster than FastEMD and (2) the precision of our approximation algorithm is no less than the precision of FastEMD.

scholarly journals Unorthodox: An ancient tradition - A contemporary context

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Anne Isaac
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
The Body ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Migrant Communities ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Sense Of Identity ◽  
Church Design ◽  
The Impact

<p>For decades, New Zealand historians and architects have sought answers to the question: What is New Zealand architecture? New Zealand longs for a place in the architectural world, seeking the significance of our buildings in the wider realm of world architecture. In 2016, in a presentation based on his book Worship: a history of New Zealand church design, Bill McKay suggested that perhaps, “our most interesting architecture lies in the intersections of our cultures”.  An opportunity is offered by the current shifts of New Zealand society where the impact of immigration on society is one of the most pressing issues that currently needs addressing. This thesis endeavours to explore the specific relationship between the heritage and culture of the existing Assyrian community and its context of Wellington, with reference to McKay’s suggestion that our most interesting architecture is birthed from the intersection of different cultures.  Socially speaking, sense of identity and place attachment play a vital role in the integration of migrant communities into their new home country. Recalling and employing elements of not only tangible Assyrian heritage, but also the intangible qualities found in traditional Assyrian architecture, has the potential to create the connection and enhance the sense of identity which allows for the feeling of belonging in migrants in their host society. This thesis focuses on the space of worship.   This project of an Assyrian Orthodox church building in New Zealand might reflect the life of the migrants who occupy it. Is it a replica of the traditional building in its original context, unchanged and uninfluenced by the shift to a new place? Or is it influenced and integrated; a building which can identify with the soil it stands on? Furthermore, if one considers that architecture reflects society, it is hoped that this design led research will participate in the discussion about New Zealand architecture’s unique identity and emerging new societal makeup.  This design led research discovers that creating a sense of belonging relies on both keeping aspects of the traditional and gaining influence from its new context. As focus shifts from the design of the building at a large scale to details and objects at a small scale, it becomes more important to reflect and retain the traditional qualities of the architecture. At a large scale, the building may be influenced by its context so as to be integrated into its new place, as if it belongs within its new urban fabric. As we move into the smaller scale in design, we draw closer to the body. It is these elements of the design which an occupant experiences more intimately, and through sensory experience and triggering memories of home, can help to create a feeling of belonging. The main findings of this research express the close relationship between architectural scales of intervention and the effects of individual and collective memory.</p>

scholarly journals THE EFFECTIVENESS OF VSTEP.3-5 SPEAKING RATER TRAINING

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nguyen Thi Ngoc Quynh ◽  
Nguyen Thi Quynh Yen ◽  
Tran Thi Thu Hien ◽  
Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao ◽  
Bui Thien Sao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Training Program ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Rating Scales ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Training Session ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Rater Training ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Band Separation

Playing a vital role in assuring reliability of language performance assessment, rater training has been a topic of interest in research on large-scale testing. Similarly, in the context of VSTEP, the effectiveness of the rater training program has been of great concern. Thus, this research was conducted to investigate the impact of the VSTEP speaking rating scale training session in the rater training program provided by University of Languages and International Studies - Vietnam National University, Hanoi. Data were collected from 37 rater trainees of the program. Their ratings before and after the training session on the VSTEP.3-5 speaking rating scales were then compared. Particularly, dimensions of score reliability, criterion difficulty, rater severity, rater fit, rater bias, and score band separation were analyzed. Positive results were detected when the post-training ratings were shown to be more reliable, consistent, and distinguishable. Improvements were more noticeable for the score band separation and slighter in other aspects. Meaningful implications in terms of both future practices of rater training and rater training research methodology could be drawn from the study.

scholarly journals Socioeconomics Determinants to Adopt Agricultural Machinery for Sustainable Organic Farming in Pakistan: A Multinomial Probit Model

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (23) ◽  
pp. 9806
Author(s):  
Muhammad Waqar Akram ◽  
Nida Akram ◽  
Hongshu Wang ◽  
Shahla Andleeb ◽  
Khalil Ur Rehman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Farming ◽  
Capital Investment ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Probit Model ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Multinomial Probit ◽  
Agricultural Machinery ◽  
Farm Machinery ◽  
Organic Farmers ◽  
The Impact

Urbanization and low productivity are real threats to the sustainability of organic farming. The adoption of farm machinery plays a vital role in overcoming these threats to ensure a sustainable and more profitable organic farming model. Farm machinery can also increase farmland yield and reduce the need for labor, although the requirement of significant capital investment often prevents small farmers from buying machinery. There is an increased need to comprehend all relevant elements associated with farming machinery procurement and service delivery. In this article, we provide insight into the impact of different variables of farmers on the adoption of agricultural equipment. A total of 301 organic farmers were surveyed in three districts of Punjab, Pakistan. It was found that the most common machinery concerned herein are tube-well/pumps, tractors, tillage machinery, and thrashers/harvesters. Results from a multinomial probit estimation showed that farm machinery ownership is positively correlated with capital assets, civil infrastructure, alternative sources of power, and credit facility. The findings indicated that policymakers and stakeholders should not concentrate merely on short term planning, such as improving agricultural machinery’s adoption rate. Still, they should also strive to upgrade physical infrastructure and facilities and provide credit services to create an enabling environment that can empower the citizen in adopting large scale use of agricultural machinery for long term sustainability of organic farming.

scholarly journals Fast Retrieval Algorithm for Earth Mover's Distance Using EMD Lower Bounds and a Skipping Algorithm

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masami Shishibori ◽  
Daichi Koizumi ◽  
Kenji Kita
Keyword(s):  
High Speed ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Retrieval Algorithm ◽  
Efficient Computation ◽  
Earth Mover’S Distance ◽  
Earth Mover's Distance ◽  
Retrieval Systems ◽  
Large Databases ◽  
Information Retrieval Systems ◽  
Feature Based

The earth mover's distance (EMD) is a measure of the distance between two distributions, and it has been widely used in multimedia information retrieval systems, in particular, in content-based image retrieval systems. When the EMD is applied to image problems based on color or texture, the EMD reflects the human perceptual similarities. However, its computations are too expensive to use in large-scale databases. In order to achieve efficient computation of the EMD during query processing, we have developed “fastEMD,” a library for high-speed feature-based similarity retrievals in large databases. This paper introduces techniques that are used in the implementation of the fastEMD and performs extensive experiments to demonstrate its efficiency.

scholarly journals The Impact of Financial Disruption on Indian Students Planning Higher Education in and Outside Home Country, with Special Reference to SBI Education Loan

2020 ◽  
pp. 371-377
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Demand For Education ◽  
Education In India ◽  
Flowing System ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Indian Students ◽  
Loan Amount

India has tackled large-scale reform to improve student ratio in higher education as a remarkable career based path. The expanding capacity for doctoral students at research universities and breakup for educational qualifications for teaching eligibility raising the standards during the recent decades reflects the growth aspect of higher education in India. India has been able to overcome the learning outcomes and enrolment numbers with a student-centric learning-driven model of education. The landscape of India’s higher education has modified during the last two decades. This paper studies the growth of finance offered for diploma courses, under graduation, post graduations within and outside India. Education Loans play a vital role in the flowing system of advances and the growing demand for quality education in the current job market. The demand for education loan seeker and the supply of funds from the financial institutions has seen a lot of variations due to the disruption in the recovery ratio. A detailed study on Education Loan Interest Rate, Loan Tenure, Loan Amount and Pre-closure Charges are the highlights of this paper along with loan sanctioned and loan disbursed for students studying within India and abroad regarding the SBI Education Loan data.

Indian Monsoon Precipitation over Orography: Verification and Enhancement of understanding – Outcomes of the IMPROVE project

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Turner ◽  
Jennifer Fletcher ◽  
Kieran Hunt ◽  
Jayesh Phadtare ◽  
Stephen Griffiths ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Diurnal Cycle ◽  
Extreme Events ◽  
Western Ghats ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Wrf Model ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Western Disturbances ◽  
Orographic Rainfall ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Western Ghats

&lt;p&gt;IMPROVE is motivated by the effects of orography on Indian precipitation as part of the diurnal cycle of convection, contributing to water supply, as well as its role in extreme events.&amp;#160; IMPROVE considers two focal regions.&amp;#160; The Western Ghats, which intercept the monsoon flow across the Arabian Sea, receive some of the most frequent and heaviest rainfall during summer as well as being subject to extremes such as the 2018 Kerala floods.&amp;#160; Meanwhile, the Himalayas play a vital role in separating dry midlatitude flows from tropical airmasses and are subject to extremes during the summer monsoon, as well as in winter due to the passage of western disturbances.&amp;#160; This presentation summarizes the key results of IMPROVE.&amp;#160; Firstly, we examine the impact of orography on the observed convective diurnal cycle and assess its simulation in models at a range of resolutions including convection-permitting scales.&amp;#160; MetUM and WRF model experiments are used to identify key mechanisms and test their capability at simulating scale interactions between forcing at the large scale from the BSISO and newly identified regimes of on- and offshore convection near the Western Ghats.&amp;#160; An additional aspect to this work is the construction of a two-layer analytical model to test the behaviour of sheared flow perpendicular to a ridge analogous to the Western Ghats.&amp;#160; Secondly, the role of orography in extreme events is considered.&amp;#160; For the Western Ghats, this focuses on the interaction between monsoon low-pressure systems and the southwesterly flow in enhancing local rainfall.&amp;#160; For the Himalayas, we focus on characterising interactions between tropical lows and western disturbances in enhancing the orographic precipitation.&amp;#160; The work in IMPROVE works towards a deeper understanding of orographic rainfall and its extremes over India and uncovering why such mechanisms may be poorly represented in models.&lt;/p&gt;

scholarly journals METRIC-PRESERVING REDUCTION OF EARTH MOVER'S DISTANCE

2010 ◽  
Vol 27 (01) ◽  
pp. 39-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
YUICHI TAKANO ◽  
YOSHITSUGU YAMAMOTO
Keyword(s):  
Network Flow ◽  
Optimization Problem ◽  
Dissimilarity Measure ◽  
Earth Mover’S Distance ◽  
Neighborhood Structure ◽  
Flow Optimization ◽  
Computational Burden ◽  
Earth Mover's Distance ◽  
Ground Distance ◽  
Network Flow Optimization

Earth mover's distance (EMD for short) is a perceptually meaningful dissimilarity measure between histograms. The computation of EMD reduces to a network flow optimization problem; however, it lays a heavy computational burden when the number of locations of histograms is large. In this paper, we address an efficient formulation for computing the exact EMD value. We prove that the EMD problem reduces to a problem with half the number of constraints regardless of the ground distance. We then propose a further reduced formula in which the number of variables is reduced from O(m2) to O(m) for histograms with m locations when the ground distance is derived from a graph with a homogeneous neighborhood structure. Specifically, EMD problems with L1, L∞ and D-norm ground distances can be reduced in this manner. Some experiments show that the reduction helps compute the EMD efficiently.

scholarly journals Unorthodox: An ancient tradition - A contemporary context

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Anne Isaac
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
The Body ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Migrant Communities ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Sense Of Identity ◽  
Church Design ◽  
The Impact

<p>For decades, New Zealand historians and architects have sought answers to the question: What is New Zealand architecture? New Zealand longs for a place in the architectural world, seeking the significance of our buildings in the wider realm of world architecture. In 2016, in a presentation based on his book Worship: a history of New Zealand church design, Bill McKay suggested that perhaps, “our most interesting architecture lies in the intersections of our cultures”.  An opportunity is offered by the current shifts of New Zealand society where the impact of immigration on society is one of the most pressing issues that currently needs addressing. This thesis endeavours to explore the specific relationship between the heritage and culture of the existing Assyrian community and its context of Wellington, with reference to McKay’s suggestion that our most interesting architecture is birthed from the intersection of different cultures.  Socially speaking, sense of identity and place attachment play a vital role in the integration of migrant communities into their new home country. Recalling and employing elements of not only tangible Assyrian heritage, but also the intangible qualities found in traditional Assyrian architecture, has the potential to create the connection and enhance the sense of identity which allows for the feeling of belonging in migrants in their host society. This thesis focuses on the space of worship.   This project of an Assyrian Orthodox church building in New Zealand might reflect the life of the migrants who occupy it. Is it a replica of the traditional building in its original context, unchanged and uninfluenced by the shift to a new place? Or is it influenced and integrated; a building which can identify with the soil it stands on? Furthermore, if one considers that architecture reflects society, it is hoped that this design led research will participate in the discussion about New Zealand architecture’s unique identity and emerging new societal makeup.  This design led research discovers that creating a sense of belonging relies on both keeping aspects of the traditional and gaining influence from its new context. As focus shifts from the design of the building at a large scale to details and objects at a small scale, it becomes more important to reflect and retain the traditional qualities of the architecture. At a large scale, the building may be influenced by its context so as to be integrated into its new place, as if it belongs within its new urban fabric. As we move into the smaller scale in design, we draw closer to the body. It is these elements of the design which an occupant experiences more intimately, and through sensory experience and triggering memories of home, can help to create a feeling of belonging. The main findings of this research express the close relationship between architectural scales of intervention and the effects of individual and collective memory.</p>

Impact of COVID-19 on Nuclear Medicine in Germany, Austria and Switzerland: An International Survey in April 2020

2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (04) ◽  
pp. 294-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lutz S. Freudenberg ◽  
Ulf Dittmer ◽  
Ken Herrmann
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Medicine ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Personal Protective Equipment ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Diagnostic Procedures ◽  
Protective Equipment ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Public Versus Private ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Introduction Preparations of health systems to accommodate large number of severely ill COVID-19 patients in March/April 2020 has a significant impact on nuclear medicine departments. Materials and Methods A web-based questionnaire was designed to differentiate the impact of the pandemic on inpatient and outpatient nuclear medicine operations and on public versus private health systems, respectively. Questions were addressing the following issues: impact on nuclear medicine diagnostics and therapy, use of recommendations, personal protective equipment, and organizational adaptations. The survey was available for 6 days and closed on April 20, 2020. Results 113 complete responses were recorded. Nearly all participants (97 %) report a decline of nuclear medicine diagnostic procedures. The mean reduction in the last three weeks for PET/CT, scintigraphies of bone, myocardium, lung thyroid, sentinel lymph-node are –14.4 %, –47.2 %, –47.5 %, –40.7 %, –58.4 %, and –25.2 % respectively. Furthermore, 76 % of the participants report a reduction in therapies especially for benign thyroid disease (-41.8 %) and radiosynoviorthesis (–53.8 %) while tumor therapies remained mainly stable. 48 % of the participants report a shortage of personal protective equipment. Conclusions Nuclear medicine services are notably reduced 3 weeks after the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic reached Germany, Austria and Switzerland on a large scale. We must be aware that the current crisis will also have a significant economic impact on the healthcare system. As the survey cannot adapt to daily dynamic changes in priorities, it serves as a first snapshot requiring follow-up studies and comparisons with other countries and regions.

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