Deformable face ensemble alignment with robust grouped-L1 anchors

Many methods exist at the moment for deformable face fitting. A drawback to nearly all these approaches is that they are (i) noisy in terms of landmark positions, and (ii) the noise is biased across frames (i.e. the misalignment is toward common directions across all frames). In this paper we propose a grouped $\mathcal{L}1$-norm anchored method for simultaneously aligning an ensemble of deformable face images stemming from the same subject, given noisy heterogeneous landmark estimates. Impressive alignment performance improvement and refinement is obtained using very weak initialization as "anchors"

On the connectedness of planar self-affine sets

In this paper, we consider the connectedness of planar self-affine set $T(A,\mathcal{D})$ arising from an integral expanding matrix $A$ with characteristic polynomial $f(x)=x^2+bx+c$ and a digit set $\mathcal{D}=\{0,1,\dots, m\}v$. The necessary and sufficient conditions only depending on $b,c,m$ are given for the $T(A,\mathcal{D})$ to be connected. Moreover, we also consider the case that ${\mathcal D}$ is non-consecutively collinear.Comment: 18 pages; 18 figure

Posterior Cervical Spine Crisscross Fixation: Biomechanical Evaluation

Background Biomechanical/anatomic limitations may limit the successful implantation, maintenance, and risk acceptance of posterior cervical plate/rod fixation for one stage decompression-fusion. A method of posterior fixation (crisscross) that resolves biomechanical deficiencies of previous facet wiring techniques and not reliant upon screw implantation has been devised. The biomechanical performance of the new method of facet fixation was compared to the traditional lateral mass plate/screw fixation method. Methods Thirteen human cadaver spine segments (C2-T1) were tested under flexion-compression loading and four were evaluated additionally under pure-moment load. Preparations were evaluated in a sequence of surgical alterations with intact, laminectomy, lateral mass plate/screw fixation, and crisscross facet fixation using forces, displacements and kinematics. Findings Combined loading demonstrated significantly lower bending stiffness (p \u3c 0.05) between laminectomy compared to crisscross and lateral mass plate/screw preparations. Crisscross fixation showed a comparative tendency for increased stiffness. The increased overall motion induced by laminectomy was resolved by both fixation techniques, with crisscross fixation demonstrating a comparatively more uniform change in segmental motions. Interpretation The crisscross technique of facet fixation offers immediate mechanical stability with resolution of increased flexural rotations induced by multi-level laminectomy. Many of the anatomic limitations and potentially deleterious variables that may be associated with multi-level screw fixation are not associated with facet wire passage, and the subsequent fixation using a pattern of wire connection crossing each facet joint exhibits a comparatively more uniform load distribution. Crisscross wire fixation is a valuable addition to the surgical armamentarium for extensive posterior cervical single-stage decompression-fixation

Importance of branding for property developers in Malaysia.

This paper aims to study the brand consciousness of property purchasers in Malaysia. This study is based on a survey of purchasers in Klang Valley on the brand awareness and the brand personality traits of property developers. 5000 questionnaires were distributed and finally 214 were used for this study. The results show that property purchasers are brand conscious in relation to the property developers and they ranked developers based on the brand personality. Property purchasers look at trend, professionalism and investment as the top 3 priorities in the property brand. The conclusion is that all property firms, designers, real estate agents and stakeholders who/that are involved in property development are to ensure that their products are designed with brand consciousness in mind. The findings in this paper suggest that property designers should pay attention to trend in the property development, property marketers should be professional in dealing with purchasers and the developers should ensure good locations for property investments

Importance of branding property developers in Malaysia

This paper aims to study the brand consciousness of property purchasers in Malaysia. This study is based on a survey of purchasers in Klang Valley on the brand awareness and the brand personality traits of property developers. 5000 questionnaires were distributed and finally 214 were used for this study. The results show that property purchasers are brand conscious in relation to the property developers and they ranked developers based on the brand personality. Property purchasers look at trend, professionalism and investment as the top 3 priorities in the property brand. The conclusion is that all property firms, designers, real estate agents and stakeholders who?that are involved in property development are to ensure that their products are designed with brand consciousness in mind. The findings in this paper suggest that property designers should pay attention to trend in the property development, property marketers should be professional in dealing with purchasers and the developers should ensure good locations for property investments