Bar-Ilan University

About: Bar-Ilan University is a education organization based out in Ramat Gan, Israel. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 12835 authors who have published 34964 publications receiving 995648 citations. The organization is also known as: Bar Ilan University & BIU.

Playing games for security: an efficient exact algorithm for solving Bayesian Stackelberg games

Abstract: In a class of games known as Stackelberg games, one agent (the leader) must commit to a strategy that can be observed by the other agent (the follower or adversary) before the adversary chooses its own strategy. We consider Bayesian Stackelberg games, in which the leader is uncertain about the types of adversary it may face. Such games are important in security domains, where, for example, a security agent (leader) must commit to a strategy of patrolling certain areas, and a robber (follower) has a chance to observe this strategy over time before choosing its own strategy of where to attack. This paper presents an efficient exact algorithm for finding the optimal strategy for the leader to commit to in these games. This algorithm, DOBSS, is based on a novel and compact mixed-integer linear programming formulation. Compared to the most efficient algorithm known previously for this problem, DOBSS is not only faster, but also leads to higher quality solutions, and does not suffer from problems of infeasibility that were faced by this previous algorithm. Note that DOBSS is at the heart of the ARMOR system that is currently being tested for security scheduling at the Los Angeles International Airport.

Growth‐irradiance relationships in phytoplankton1

Abstract: The steady state growth rates of three species of marine phytoplankton, Thalassiosira weisflogii, Isochrysis galbana, and Prorocentrum micans, were followed in turbidostat culture. At each growth irradiance, photosynthesis and respiration were measured by following changes in oxygen. Together with measurements of optical absorption cross sections, cellular chlorophyll, carbon and nitrogen, and excretion rates as well as knowledge of the quantum flux, the quantum requirement for growth and photosynthesis were calculated. Our results suggest that variations in growth rate caused by changes in irradiance may be related to changes in respiration rates relative to growth as well as changes in optical absorption cross sections for a given species. Interspecific differences in growth rate at a given irradiance are not related to changes in respiration however, but are primarily attributable to differences in optical absorption cross sections normalized to chlorophyll and differences in chlorophyll:carbon ratios.

Health equity and COVID-19: global perspectives.

Abstract: The COVID-19 is disproportionally affecting the poor, minorities and a broad range of vulnerable populations, due to its inequitable spread in areas of dense population and limited mitigation capacity due to high prevalence of chronic conditions or poor access to high quality public health and medical care. Moreover, the collateral effects of the pandemic due to the global economic downturn, and social isolation and movement restriction measures, are unequally affecting those in the lowest power strata of societies. To address the challenges to health equity and describe some of the approaches taken by governments and local organizations, we have compiled 13 country case studies from various regions around the world: China, Brazil, Thailand, Sub Saharan Africa, Nicaragua, Armenia, India, Guatemala, United States of America (USA), Israel, Australia, Colombia, and Belgium. This compilation is by no-means representative or all inclusive, and we encourage researchers to continue advancing global knowledge on COVID-19 health equity related issues, through rigorous research and generation of a strong evidence base of new empirical studies in this field.

FSGAN: Subject Agnostic Face Swapping and Reenactment

Abstract: We present Face Swapping GAN (FSGAN) for face swapping and reenactment. Unlike previous work, FSGAN is subject agnostic and can be applied to pairs of faces without requiring training on those faces. To this end, we describe a number of technical contributions. We derive a novel recurrent neural network (RNN)-based approach for face reenactment which adjusts for both pose and expression variations and can be applied to a single image or a video sequence. For video sequences, we introduce continuous interpolation of the face views based on reenactment, Delaunay Triangulation, and barycentric coordinates. Occluded face regions are handled by a face completion network. Finally, we use a face blending network for seamless blending of the two faces while preserving target skin color and lighting conditions. This network uses a novel Poisson blending loss which combines Poisson optimization with perceptual loss. We compare our approach to existing state-of-the-art systems and show our results to be both qualitatively and quantitatively superior.

Mg-Doped ZnO Nanoparticles for Efficient Sunlight-Driven Photocatalysis

Abstract: Magnesium-doped ZnO (ZMO) nanoparticles were synthesized through an oxalate coprecipitation method. Crystallization of ZMO upon thermal decomposition of the oxalate precursors was investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. XRD studies point toward a significant c-axis compression and reduced crystallite sizes for ZMO samples in contrast to undoped ZnO, which was further confirmed by HRSEM studies. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV/vis spectroscopy and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy were employed to establish the electronic and optical properties of these nanoparticles. (XPS) studies confirmed the substitution of Zn2+ by Mg2+, crystallization of MgO secondary phase, and increased Zn–O bond strengths in Mg-doped ZnO samples. Textural properties of these ZMO samples obtained at various calcination temperatures were superior in comparison to the undoped ZnO. In addition to this, ZMO samples exhibited a blue-shift in the near band edge photo...