Multi-Level Graph Encoding with Structural-Collaborative Relation Learning for Skeleton-Based Person Re-Identification

Skeleton-based person re-identification (Re-ID) is an emerging open topic providing great value for safety-critical applications. Existing methods typically extract hand-crafted features or model skeleton dynamics from the trajectory of body joints, while they rarely explore valuable relation information contained in body structure or motion. To fully explore body relations, we construct graphs to model human skeletons from different levels, and for the first time propose a Multi-level Graph encoding approach with Structural-Collaborative Relation learning (MG-SCR) to encode discriminative graph features for person Re-ID. Specifically, considering that structurally-connected body components are highly correlated in a skeleton, we first propose a multi-head structural relation layer to learn different relations of neighbor body-component nodes in graphs, which helps aggregate key correlative features for effective node representations. Second, inspired by the fact that body-component collaboration in walking usually carries recognizable patterns, we propose a cross-level collaborative relation layer to infer collaboration between different level components, so as to capture more discriminative skeleton graph features. Finally, to enhance graph dynamics encoding, we propose a novel self-supervised sparse sequential prediction task for model pre-training, which facilitates encoding high-level graph semantics for person Re-ID. MG-SCR outperforms state-of-the-art skeleton-based methods, and it achieves superior performance to many multi-modal methods that utilize extra RGB or depth features. Our codes are available at https://github.com/Kali-Hac/MG-SCR.

Solving a one mixed problem in elasticity theory for half-space with a cylindrical cavity by the generalized Fourier method

Designing and constructing underground structures for various purposes, such as tunnels, mines, mine workings, necessitate the development of procedures for calculating their strength and reliability. The physical model of such objects worth considering is a homogeneous isotropic half-space that contains an infinitely long hollow cylinder, located parallel to its border. One can explore problems related to the mechanics of deformable solids for such a multiply connected body. This paper reports the proofs of addition theorems for the basic solutions to the Lamé equation regarding the half-space and cylinder recorded, respectively, in the Cartesian and cylindrical coordinate systems. This result is important from a theoretical point of view in order to substantiate a numerical-analytical method ‒ the generalized Fourier method. This method makes it possible to solve spatial boundary problems from the theory of elasticity and thermo-elasticity for isotropic and transversal-isotropic multiply connected bodies. Similar to the classical Fourier method, the general solutions to equilibrium equations have been used here but in several coordinate systems rather than one. From a practical point of view, this method has made it possible to investigate the combined problem of elasticity theory regarding the multiply-connected body described above. The analysis of the stressed-strained state of this elastic body has made it possible to draw conclusions on determining those regions that are most vulnerable to destruction. The highest values are accepted by normal stresses in the region between the boundaries of the half-space and the cylinder. Changing the σy component along the Ox axis corresponds to the displacements assigned on the half-space. The τxy component contributes less to the distribution of stresses than σx and σy. The applied aspect of using the reported results is the possibility to apply them when designing underground structures

Sociological Perspectives on Climate Change and Society: A Review

Society is at an important intersection in dealing with the challenges of climate change, and this paper is presented at a critical juncture in light of growing recognition that the natural sciences are insufficient to deal with these challenges. Critical aspects of sociological perspectives related to climate change research are brought together in this review in the hope of fostering greater interdisciplinary collaboration between the natural and social sciences. We fervently argue for the need to inculcate interdisciplinary approaches that can provide innovative perspectives and solutions to the challenges we face from the impacts of climate change. As such, some critical sociological perspectives are addressed, with two objectives: (a) to provide a foundational opening for readers seeking an introductory perspective and potential core contributions of sociological insights on climate change; and (b) to explore opportunities and obstacles that may occur with increased interdisciplinary cooperation and collaboration. We lay out fundamental ideas by assembling a loosely connected body of sociological research, hoping to develop and advance the collaborative research agenda between sociology and other disciplines for the near future.

What Is Romanticism?

The difficult question that provides the title of this essay is answered firstly by the Oxford English Dictionary – though not all that helpfully, given that its explanation is in need of explanation. Part of the problem is that the word ‘Romantic’ did not mean to the Romantics themselves what it now means to us (whatever that may be). True, German philosophers used it – though only in a highly specialized manner, as part of a binary opposition to the concept of Classicism. This essay goes on to take five poets of the period and attempts to suggest ways in which their thought comprises a unified, connected body of thought to which we can attach the label ‘Romantic’.

Introduction: Seleucid literature on the Hellenistic stage

The Introduction set the scene with Cavafy’s Fame of the Ptolemies, in which a boastful Ptolemaic king singles out his Seleucid neighbour as his biggest rival. This rivalry is at the heart of this book: Beyond Alexandria sets out to show how much the literary production of these two empires influenced each other. In order to achieve, the key point that this book puts forward is that a connected body of Seleucid literature existed and that this term is a meaningful, interpretative concept. After setting out the main goals of this book, the Introduction briefly discusses the scholarship that has provided the foundation for the arguments set out in the chapters. In addition, it outlines the chronological framework underlying the texts and authors discussed in this book. In the second part of the Introduction, two key concepts used in this book are discussed in more depth: the concept of royal ideology and the definition of literature in general.

The Theoretical Linkages between the Shariah Supervisory Board (SSB) and Stakeholder Theory in the Islamic Financial Institutes: An Empirical Review

As part the Corporate Governance, the Shariah Supervisory Board has a significant role in the Islamic Financial Institutes for ensuring its conformity with the Shariah standards. In general, the Corporate governance should be played essential roles to design and promote principles of fairness, accountability, and transparency to meet of all the stakeholder’s rights such as shareholders, the workers, the depositors, and the customers, etc. however, there are still struggling for convincing arguments to justify stakeholders’ participation in governance in the traditional conventional systems rather, the Stakeholder theory has become one of the most important developments in the field of business ethics, which is widely regarded as being a key element in Islamic banking, making it of extreme relevance in Islam’s principles of property rights, commitment. Therefore, this study aims to justify the theoretical linkages or relationship between the role of the Shariah Supervisory Board of Islamic banking and stakeholders’ model from the existing empirical literature review. The summary of empirical review findings revealed that the stakeholder concept in a way that overcomes many of the existing limitations and provides a different understanding of the identity and meaning of Islamic banking, specifically in terms of its relationship to stakeholder groups, such as Islamic banks are a connected body, they should have control over the external environment and should implement hierarchies. Moreover, the developed a conceptual framework to do empirical research by applying real data to test the significance of the above relationships for further policy explorations.

From Netflix Streaming to Netflix and Chill: The (Dis)Connected Body of Serial Binge-Viewer

With the digitization of the entertainment industry, our everyday media encounters become increasingly data-saturated. In the framework of the digital attention economy, lifestyle technologies stimulate and modulate intensive participation on a regular basis. By conceptualizing the American streaming brand and content provider Netflix as a networked experiential environment, this article explores the practice of binge-watching in light of its multilayered possibilities for user engagement. With the focus on the affective entanglements of recommendation, attention, and attachment, the first part of the article foregrounds binge-watching as the main driving force behind Netflix’s promotional stance on personalization and quality. The second part provides a situated analysis on how binge-viewing technologies and bodies connect and disconnect by zooming in on users’ adaptations of the viral catchphrase “Netflix and chill” on Tumblr. Highlighting the embodied dynamics of engagement with today’s tech brands, I argue for thinking about the value of these dynamics as embedded in the digital logic of contact/capture.

Operationalism

‘Operationalism’, coined by the physicist Percy W. Bridgman (1927), has come to designate a loosely connected body of similar but conflicting views about how scientific theories or concepts are connected to reality or observation via various measurement and other procedures. Examples of an operation would be the procedure of laying a standard yardstick along the edge of a surface to measure length or using psychometric tests to measure sexual orientation. In the 1920–50s different versions of operationalism were produced by, amongst others: Bridgman, who was concerned with the ontology of basic units in physics; behaviourists such as E.C. Tolman, S.S. Stevens, who were concerned with the measurement of intervening variables or hypothetical constructs not accessible to direct observation, as well as B.F. Skinner, who sought to eliminate such nonobservables; and positivistic philosophers of science who were analysing the meaning of terms in scientific language. Conflation of their different operationalist philosophies has led to a great deal of nonsense about operational definition, methodology of observation and experiment, and the meaning of scientific concepts. Operationalist doctrines were most influential in the social sciences, and today the primary legacy is the practice of operationally defining abstract social science concepts as measurable variables.

The anelastic Ericksen problem: universal eigenstrains and deformations in compressible isotropic elastic solids

The elastic Ericksen problem consists of finding deformations in isotropic hyperelastic solids that can be maintained for arbitrary strain-energy density functions. In the compressible case, Ericksen showed that only homogeneous deformations are possible. Here, we solve the anelastic version of the same problem, that is, we determine both the deformations and the eigenstrains such that a solution to the anelastic problem exists for arbitrary strain-energy density functions. Anelasticity is described by finite eigenstrains. In a nonlinear solid, these eigenstrains can be modelled by a Riemannian material manifold whose metric depends on their distribution. In this framework, we show that the natural generalization of the concept of homogeneous deformations is the notion of covariantly homogeneous deformations —deformations with covariantly constant deformation gradients. We prove that these deformations are the only universal deformations and that they put severe restrictions on possible universal eigenstrains . We show that, in a simply-connected body, for any distribution of universal eigenstrains the material manifold is a symmetric Riemannian manifold and that in dimensions 2 and 3 the universal eigenstrains are zero-stress.