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Cameras digitize real-world scenes as pixel intensity values with a limited value range given by the available bits per pixel (bpp). High Dynamic Range (HDR) cameras capture those luminance values in higher resolution through an increase in the number of bpp. Most displays, however, are limited to 8 bpp. Naive HDR compression methods lead to a loss of the rich information contained in those HDR images. In this paper, tone mapping algorithms for thermal infrared images with 16 bpp are investigated that can preserve this information. An optimized multi-scale Retinex algorithm sets the baseline. This algorithm is then approximated with a deep learning approach based on the popular U-Net architecture. The remaining noise in the images after tone mapping is reduced implicitly by utilizing a self-supervised deep learning approach that can be jointly trained with the tone mapping approach in a multi-task learning scheme. Further discussions are provided on denoising and deflickering for thermal infrared video enhancement in the context of tone mapping. Extensive experiments on the public FLIR ADAS Dataset prove the effectiveness of our proposed method in comparison with the state-of-the-art., Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures

BackgroundQuality of life (QoL) is substantially impaired in patients with anxiety disorders (AD) and depressive disorders (DD) and improvements in symptom burden after psychotherapy are not always paralleled by similar improvements in QoL. So far, little is known about treatment outcome in terms of QoL and predictors of QoL improvements following inpatient psychotherapy with a focus on cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). The current study aimed at investigating the relationship between changes in symptoms and QoL across different life domains. Additionally, predictors of a positive treatment outcome were evaluated.Methods122 patients with AD and/or DD undergoing an 8-weeks inpatient CBT program completed self-report measures of psychopathological symptoms and QoL at pre- and post-treatment. Mixed effects models were used to investigate changes, a confirmatory factor analysis was applied to analyze the latent factor structure of the anxiety sensitivity index and binary logistic regression analyses were performed for predictors of QoL improvements.ResultsPatients showed moderate to strong decreases in anxious and depressive symptoms and moderate to strong improvements in general QoL, particularly in the psychological and physical QoL subdomains. Changes in symptom burden correlated most strongly with psychological and physical QoL. In addition, poor QoL before treatment and low levels of specific anxiety sensitivity symptoms (items 1 and 5) significantly predicted improvement in QoL.ConclusionPatients with poor QoL who are not as inhibited to openly express their anxious feelings particularly benefit from inpatient psychotherapy (individual and group) to improve their QoL. In contrast, our research suggests that patients who are too anxious to openly express their nervousness should receive additional social skills training, more focused treatment to build sufficient self-confidence to better engage in the treatment program.

Obra ressenyada: Joëlle DUCOS & Patrick HENRIET (eds), Passages. Déplacements des hommes, circulation des textes et identités dans l'Occident médiéval. Actes du colloque de Bordeaux (2-3 février 2007). Toulouse: Éditions Méridiennes, 2013.

Obra ressenyada: Joëlle DUCOS & Patrick HENRIET (eds), Passages. Déplacements des hommes, circulation des textes et identités dans l'Occident médiéval. Actes du colloque de Bordeaux (2-3 février 2007). Toulouse: Éditions Méridiennes, 2013.

Additional file 2:Table S2.Number of admissions and crude rates per 100,000 population for men and women per age and rate ratios by sex for F32/33.2

Additional file 1:Table S1. Number of admissions and crude rates per 100,000 population for men and women per age and rate ratios by sex for F32/33.1

This article sets out to define the role of Islam in the early modern emergence of a Christianized transatlantic sphere that was to stand at the origins of our contemporary notion of “the West”. Part One discusses various sources and scholarly opinions with regards to the role played by Islam in the European-Christian discovery, conquest and settlement of South America. It shows that, in spite of early Muslim ventures into the Atlantic, the Islamic sphere ultimately failed to take advantage of its Atlantic coast-lines in the medieval period. Part Two argues that, from the early modern period onwards, the Islamic sphere was systematically sidelined by Christian maritime powers in their quest for dominance over the Atlantic sphere. Part Three explains how these European-Christian efforts to deny Islam access to the Americas are reflected in the early modern Muslim documentation of the Americas, to the extent that the earliest description and history of South America in Arabic, dealt with in Part Four, was written as late as two centuries after Columbus reached the Caribbean by a Christian, i.e. the Chaldean priest Ilyās b. Ḥannā al-Mawṣilī from Baghdad. Against this backdrop, the article concludes with some reflections on the significance of this documentary evidence for the emergence of the transatlantic sphere known as “the West” in English, “al-gharb” in Arabic, a sphere that was almost untouched by Islam until the twentieth century. published

The emission mitigation and decarbonization of the aviation sector requires alternative sustainable fuels. To assess and compare the techno-economic performance of different fuel production pathways a standardized evaluation methodology is required. The developed methodology comprises six steps including detailed process simulation, heat and material integration and cost analysis. The process simulation and economic analysis is coupled and an optimization towards cost minimization is conducted. The methodology was applied in a case study of the Power-and-Biomass-to-Liquid concept (PBTL). An overall efficiency of .XTL = 45.0 % was found and the carbon conversion of carbon from biomass into fuels is 97.7 %. The cost analysis reveals total investment costs of 751 M€ (315,100 €/bpd) and net production costs of 2.97 €/kg. The costs for the electrolyzer and the gasifier represent the largest shares of the total capital costs. The net production costs are dominated by the electricity costs., Proceedings of the 24th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 6-9 June 2016, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, pp. 1262-1266

The circuit evaluation problem (also known as the compressed word problem) for finitely generated linear groups is studied. The best upper bound for this problem is $\mathsf{coRP}$, which is shown by a reduction to polynomial identity testing. Conversely, the compressed word problem for the linear group $\mathsf{SL}_3(\mathbb{Z})$ is equivalent to polynomial identity testing. In the paper, it is shown that the compressed word problem for every finitely generated nilpotent group is in $\mathsf{DET} \subseteq \mathsf{NC}^2$. Within the larger class of polycyclic groups we find examples where the compressed word problem is at least as hard as polynomial identity testing for skew arithmetic circuits.

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