Abstract: This paper presents a domain adaptation strategy to efficiently train network architectures for estimating the relative camera pose in multi-view scenarios. The network architectures are fed by a pair of simultaneously acquired images, hence in order to improve the accuracy of the solutions, and due to the lack of large datasets with pairs of overlapped images, a domain adaptation strategy is proposed. The domain adaptation strategy consists on transferring the knowledge learned from synthetic images to real-world scenarios. For this, the networks are firstly trained using pairs of synthetic images, which are captured at the same time by a pair of cameras in a virtual environment; and then, the learned weights of the networks are transferred to the real-world case, where the networks are retrained with a few real images. Different virtual 3D scenarios are generated to evaluate the relationship between the accuracy on the result and the similarity between virtual and real scenarios—similarity on both geometry of the objects contained in the scene as well as relative pose between camera and objects in the scene. Experimental results and comparisons are provided showing that the accuracy of all the evaluated networks for estimating the camera pose improves when the proposed domain adaptation strategy is used, highlighting the importance on the similarity between virtual-real scenarios.

Abstract: The exploitation of cellular network data for studying human mobility has been a popular research topic in the last decade. Indeed, mobile terminals could be considered ubiquitous sensors that allow the observation of human movements on large scale without the need of relying on non-scalable techniques, such as surveys, or dedicated and expensive monitoring infrastructures. In particular, Call Detail Records (CDRs), collected by operators for billing purposes,
have been extensively employed due to their rather large availability, compared to other types of cellular data (e.g., signaling). Despite the interest aroused around this topic, the research community has generally agreed about the scarcity of information provided by CDRs: the position of mobile terminals is logged when some kind of activity (calls, SMS, data connections) occurs, which translates in a picture of mobility somehow biased by the activity degree of users.
By studying two datasets collected by a Nation-wide operator in 2014 and 2016, we show that the situation has drastically changed in terms of data volume and quality. The increase of flat data plans and the higher penetration of “
always connected” terminals have driven up the number of recorded CDRs, providing higher temporal accuracy for users’ locations.

Abstract: Purpose of review
Atherosclerosis is the leading cause of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and stroke. Typically, atherosclerotic calcium is found during the mature stage of the atherosclerosis disease. It is therefore often a challenge to identify and quantify the calcium. This is due to the presence of multiple components of plaque buildup in the arterial walls. The American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines point to the importance of calcium in the coronary and carotid arteries and further recommend its quantification for the prevention of heart disease. It is therefore essential to stratify the CVD risk of the patient into low- and high-risk bins.
Recent finding
Calcium formation in the artery walls is multifocal in nature with sizes at the micrometer level. Thus, its detection requires high-resolution imaging. Clinical experience has shown that even though optical coherence tomography offers better resolution, intravascular ultrasound still remains an important imaging modality for coronary wall imaging. For a computer-based analysis system to be complete, it must be scientifically and clinically validated. This study presents a state-of-the-art review (condensation of 152 publications after examining 200 articles) covering the methods for calcium detection and its quantification for coronary and carotid arteries, the pros and cons of these methods, and the risk stratification strategies. The review also presents different kinds of statistical models and gold standard solutions for the evaluation of software systems useful for calcium detection and quantification. Finally, the review concludes with a possible vision for designing the next-generation system for better clinical outcomes.

Abstract: Burst image restoration attempts to effectively utilize the complementary cues appearing in sequential images to produce a high-quality image. Most current methods use all the available images to obtain the reconstructed image. However, using more images for burst restoration is not always the best option regarding reconstruction quality and efficiency, as the images acquired by handheld imaging devices suffer from degradation and misalignment caused by the camera noise and shake. In this paper, we extend the perception-distortion tradeoff theory by introducing multiple-frame information. We propose the area of the unattainable region as a new metric for perception-distortion tradeoff evaluation and comparison. Based on this metric, we analyse the performance of burst restoration from the perspective of the perception-distortion tradeoff under both aligned bursts and misaligned bursts situations. Our analysis reveals the importance of inter-frame alignment for burst restoration and shows that the optimal burst length for the restoration model depends both on the degree of degradation and misalignment.