Abstract

Impact due to demographic factors such as age, sex, race, etc., has been studied extensively in automated face recognition systems. However, the impact of digitally modified demographic and facial attributes on face recognition is relatively under-explored. In this work, we study the effect of attribute manipulations induced via generative adversarial networks (GANs) on face recognition performance. We conduct experiments on the CelebA dataset by intentionally modifying thirteen attributes using AttGAN and STGAN and evaluating their impact on two deep learning-based face verification methods, ArcFace and VGGFace. Our findings indicate that some attribute manipulations involving eyeglasses and digital alteration of sex cues can significantly impair face recognition by up to 73% and need further analysis. Keywords: Face recognition · Generative adversarial network (GAN) · Attribute manipulation.

Abstract

One important reason that the British were attracted to the western Himalayas was the prospect of trade. From the eighteenth century onwards, there were regular attempts to find out the extent of the trade that was carried out through the mountains, the countries it was carried out with and the value of this trade. Whether it was the ‘missions’ of Moorcroft and Trebeck, or of the various other explorers and merchants who were either financed by the East India Company or were helped and encouraged in their personal voyages, the question of trade dominated the agenda. Until well into the nineteenth century, the British in India assumed that the control of the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush mountains would open trade routes to them into China and Russia, respectively. It was only in the mid-nineteenth century that it started becoming clear to the officials of the East India Company and the British government in London that the volume and value of trade, particularly through the Himalayan passes, was not worth the amount of military and financial commitment that was required to sustain it. It was only from this time that it is possible to discern a new discourse emerging in British accounts—both official as well as personal: that the Himalayas were a natural border of their Indian Empire. Once the British realised that the scope for trade was limited over the Himalayas, much of their efforts in the nineteenth century were spent to find the ‘natural’ land borders of their Indian Empire which they could defend, most notably from the Russian Empire. Over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, these borders have been accepted as the geo-civilisational borders of India in much of popular imagination. Scholarly work too has implicitly accepted these ‘natural’ borders of British India, even if there is a recognition that the post-Partition, post-independence borders are clearly manmade; particularly in the last two decades or so with the emergence of focussed scholarship on this theme.

Abstract

We investigate the possible sizes of all the CP-violating asymmetries offered by the angular distribution of rare decay Λb → Λ(→ pπ−)` +` − in the Standard Model and new physics scenarios motivated by the recent b → s`+` − anomalies. We work in a model-independent effective theory framework and discuss the sensitivity of CP asymmetries to new O9,10 operators and their chirality flipped counterparts. We find that the size of many of the CP asymmetries can be at the level of few percent in new physics scenarios consistent with current b → s`+` − data at level of 1σ. We emphasize that measurements of these CP asymmetries can be used to discriminate different new physics scenarios in b → s`+` −.

Abstract

We determine the strange quark mass ( � � ) and quark mixing element | � � � | , and their joint determination from the Cabibbo suppressed hadronic � decays in various perturbative schemes. We improve this analysis compared to the previous analysis based on the optimal renormalization or the renormalization group summed perturbation theory (RGSPT) scheme by replacing the theoretical longitudinal contributions with phenomenological parametrization; the RGSPT coefficients are used for the dimension-4 Adler functions. The improved analysis results in the extraction of � � ( 2     GeV ) = 98 ± 19   MeV and | � � � | = 0.2191 ± 0.0043 from the RGSPT scheme

Abstract

An electrocardiogram (ECG) monitors the electrical activity generated by the heart and is used to detect fatal cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Conventionally, to capture the precise electrical activity, clinical experts use multiple-lead ECGs (typically 12 leads). Recently, large-scale deep learning models have been used to detect these diseases, however, they require large memory and long inference time. We propose a low-parameter model, Low Resource Heart-Network (LRH-Net), that detects ECG anomalies in a resource-constrained environment. On top, multi-level knowledge distillation (MLKD) is employed to improve model generalization. MLKD distils the dark-knowledge from higher parameter models (teachers) trained on different lead configurations to LRH-Net. The LRH-Net has 106× fewer parameters and 76% faster inference than the teacher model for detecting CVDs. Using MLKD, the performance of LRH-Net on reduced lead data was scaled up to 3.25%, making it suitable for edge devices.

Abstract

Functional connectivity derived from functional MRI reflects the neuronal synchronization between brain regions anchored through an anatomical infrastructure of white matter pathways that can be computed from diffusion MRI. The inter-relation between the structure-function topography is of high interest in

Abstract

Predicting Individual Differences from Brain Responses to Music using Functional Network Centrality

Abstract

Music sharing trends have been shown to change during times of socio-economic crises. Studies have also shown that music can act as a social surrogate, helping to significantly reduce loneliness by acting as an empathetic friend. We explored these phenomena through a novel study of online music sharing during the Covid-19 pandemic in India. We collected tweets from the popular social media platform Twitter during India’s first and second wave of the pandemic (n = 1,364). We examined the different ways in which music was able to accomplish the role of a social surrogate via analyzing tweet text using Natural Language Processing techniques. Additionally, we analyzed the emotional connotations of the music shared through the acoustic features and lyrical content and compared the results between pandemic and pre-pandemic times. It was observed that the role of music shifted to a more community focused function rather than tending to a more self-serving utility. Results demonstrated that people shared music during the Covid-19 pandemic which had lower valence and shared songs with topics that reflected turbulent times such as Hardship and Exclusion when compared to songs shared during pre-Covid times. The results are further discussed in the context of individualistic versus collectivistic cultures.

Abstract

mpact Assessment of Environmental Flows Using CORDEX Regional Climate Models: Case Study of Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, Krishna River, India

Abstract

Utilization of coal ash under a foundation of structure deals with huge quantity of its usage that solves the issue of its disposal, which is trivial in most parts of the world. Adaptability of coal ash under foundation needs to be examined on a large scale. In this study, it is attempted to investigate static and seismic response of shallow foundation resting on pond ash deposit. Two-dimensional (2D) response analysis is carried out for the ash-foundation system by employing finite element software PLAXIS 2D. It has been recognized since decades that soil-foundation interaction or ash-foundation interaction is prime factor in the seismic response of structure or portions of structure. Ash-foundation system is excited under the influence of Nepal earthquake motion (Mw: 7.8) and North East India earthquake motion (Mw: 7.5). The displacement was observed more in case of North East India earthquake, i.e. 6.028 m. However, acceleration and excess pore pressure response were high in case of Nepal earthquake, i.e. 0.152 g and 129.16 kPa, respectively. These responses can be utilized to assess the performance of ash-foundation system.