1,720,977 research outputs found
A skeleton/cage hybrid paradigm for digital animation
Full text linkDigital animators require simple tools and techniques that allow them to create computer animations in an easy, fast and intuitive way. To perform this kind of task, several methods are available, like cagebased or skeleton-based skinning. Cages and skeletons allow animators to define mesh deformation in order to obtain a character pose. Both of them have different pros and cons, and different expressive power. We aim to create a new skinning technique using a skeleton/cage hybrid paradigm that merges together the expressive power of both of them, reducing the complexity of pose definition and making the animation pipeline more simple, intuitive and straightforward
Stepsize Learning for Policy Gradient Methods in Contextual Markov Decision Processes
No full textPolicy-based algorithms are among the most widely adopted techniques in model-free RL, thanks to their strong theoretical groundings and good properties in continuous action spaces. Unfortunately, these methods require precise and problem-specific hyperparameter tuning to achieve good performance, and tend to struggle when asked to accomplish a series of heterogeneous tasks. In particular, the selection of the step size has a crucial impact on their ability to learn a highly performing policy, affecting the speed and the stability of the training process, and often being the main culprit for poor results. In this paper, we tackle these issues with a Meta Reinforcement Learning approach, by introducing a new formulation, known as meta-MDP, that can be used to solve any hyperparameter selection problem in RL with contextual processes. After providing a theoretical Lipschitz bound to the difference of performance in different tasks, we adopt the proposed framework to train a batch RL algorithm to dynamically recommend the most adequate step size for different policies and tasks. In conclusion, we present an experimental campaign to show the advantages of selecting an adaptive learning rate in heterogeneous environments
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Application of Ultrasound in Detecting and Removing Migrating Grass Awns in Dogs and Cats: A Systematic Review
No full textMigrating grass awns are an important cause of disease in dogs and cats. Plant awns can migrate into several body tissues and cavities because of their fusiform shape and backward-pointing barbs. Their migration causes inflammatory tissue reaction and clinical signs depend upon their localization. Ultrasound has been described as a useful, noninvasive, and readily available tool to identify and guide vegetal foreign bodies removal in animals. The aim of this systematic review was to summarize current knowledge on the application of ultrasonography in the identification and removal of grass awns from various anatomic locations in dogs and cats. We selected and analyzed 46 papers on the application of ultrasonography in dogs and cats affected by migrating grass awns. The ultrasonographic appearance of grass awns is characteristic, although their size and location can influence the visualization and the attempt of removal. In some cases, migrating grass awns are not directly visualized by ultrasonography, but the lesions caused by their migration can be easily seen. Ultrasonography can be considered a useful diagnostic tool to localize and remove migrating grass awns; however, when the migration occurs in less accessible locations or discrete foreign bodies are present, this diagnostic tool should be considered as a part of a multidisciplinary approach with advanced diagnostic imaging modalities
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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