Real-time GPU color-based segmentation of football players

In this paper, we propose a multi-camera application capable of processing high resolution images and extracting features based on colors patterns over graphic processing units (GPU). The goal is to work in real time under the uncontrolled environment of a sport event like a football match. Since football players are composed for diverse and complex color patterns, a Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM) is applied as segmentation paradigm, in order to analyze sport live images and video. Optimization techniques have also been applied over the C++ implementation using profiling tools focused on high performance. Time consuming tasks were implemented over NVIDIA's CUDA platform, and later restructured and enhanced, speeding up the whole process significantly. Our resulting code is around 4-11 times faster on a low cost GPU than a highly optimized C++ version on a central processing unit (CPU) over the same data. Real time has been obtained processing until 64 frames per second. An important conclusion derived from our study is the scalability of the application to the number of cores on the GPU. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.

Attitudes towards ideal family size of different ethnic/nationality groups in Great Britain, France and Germany.

This article reports upon results from a European Union funded project on the integration of children of international migrants in Britain, France and Germany. It provides both a descriptive and a multivariate analysis of the factors that determine attitudes towards ideal family size. The results reveal that there are large differences between ethnic groups in Britain: Indian and Pakistani respondents in Britain expressed a preference for significantly larger families. However, many children of international migrants expressed a desire for smaller families than the autochthonous population in both countries. This was particularly the case for Portuguese respondents in France and Turks in Germany. Religious affiliation also had a significant effect, above and beyond ethnicity per se. Both Moslems and Christians preferred larger families than those with no religious affiliation. The article concludes that ethnic differences in attitudes towards fertility behaviour will remain important in the foreseeable future in western Europe, particularly in Britain.

Chronology of the Grotte du Renne (France) and implications for the context of ornaments and human remains within the Châtelperronian

There is extensive debate concerning the cognitive and behavioral adaptation of Neanderthals, especially in the period when the earliest anatomically modern humans dispersed into Western Europe, around 35,000–40,000 B.P. The site of the Grotte du Renne (at Arcy-sur-Cure) is of great importance because it provides the most persuasive evidence for behavioral complexity among Neanderthals. A range of ornaments and tools usually associated with modern human industries, such as the Aurignacian, were excavated from three of the Châtelperronian levels at the site, along with Neanderthal fossil remains (mainly teeth). This extremely rare occurrence has been taken to suggest that Neanderthals were the creators of these items. Whether Neanderthals independently achieved this level of behavioral complexity and whether this was culturally transmitted or mimicked via incoming modern humans has been contentious. At the heart of this discussion lies an assumption regarding the integrity of the excavated remains. One means of testing this is by radiocarbon dating; however, until recently, our ability to generate both accurate and precise results for this period has been compromised. A series of 31 accelerator mass spectrometry ultra?ltered dates on bones, antlers, artifacts, and teeth from six key archaeological levels shows an unexpected degree of variation. This suggests that some mixing of material may have occurred, which implies a more complex depositional history at the site and makes it dif?cult to be con?dent about the association of artifacts with human remains in the Châtelperronian levels.

From North Africa to France:Family Migration in Text and Film

Over the past four decades immigration to France from the Francophone countries of North Africa has changed in character. For much of the twentieth century, migrants who crossed the Mediterranean to France were men seeking work, who frequently undertook manual labour, working long hours in difficult conditions. Recent decades have seen an increase in family reunification - the arrival of women and children from North Africa, either accompanying their husbands or joining them in France. Contemporary creative representations of migration are shaped by this shift in gender and generation from a solitary, mostly male experience to one that included women and children. Just as the shift made new demands of the 'host' society, it made new demands of authors and filmmakers as they seek to represent migration. This study reveals how text and film present new ways of thinking about migration, moving away from the configuration of the migrant as man and worker, to take women, children and the ties between them into account.

‘Who Ate All the Pride?’:Patriotic Sentiment and English National Football Support.

The growing popularity of English national insignia in international football tournaments has been widely interpreted as evidence of the emergence of a renewed English national consciousness. However, little empirical research has considered how people in England actually understand football support in relation to national identity. Interview data collected around the time of the Euro 2000 and the 2002 World Cup tournaments fail to substantiate the presumption that support for the England football team maps onto claims to patriotic sentiment in any straightforward way. People with far-right political affiliations did generally use national football support to symbolise a general pride in English national identity. However, other people either claimed not to support the England national team precisely because of its associations with nationalism, or else bracketed the domain of football support from more general connotations of English patriotism.

Sins of the Flesh: Zola, Naturalism and the Madeleine Redemption Narrative in Nineteenth-Century France

Mary Magdalene has endured over the centuries as a powerful icon for the redemption of the so-called sins of the flesh. In arguing that her appeal to writers was experienced no more keenly than in nineteenth-century France, this article reflects on the political, ideological and gender assumptions that are woven into the Madeleine narrative of redemption. It goes on to propose that, with the rise of the naturalist novel, relying on pseudo-scientific theories of pre-determination, the Madeleine myth is radically rewritten in Zola’s Madeleine Férat, an often neglected novel in which the Calvinist doctrine of original sin and predestination not only challenges the very notion of redemption from sexual waywardness, but inflects some of the defining principles of naturalism.

The health profile of football/soccer players in Northern Ireland - a review of the uefa pre-participation medical screening procedure.

BACKGROUND:
It is compulsory that domestic football/soccer teams in UEFA competitions organise players' pre-participation medicals. Although screening guidelines have been established, these remain controversial. The findings of medical examinations can have lasting consequences for athletes and doctors. No previous studies have reported UEFA pre-participation screening results in semi-professional footballers. This study aims to further knowledge regarding 'normal' data in this population.

METHOD:
Retrospective audit and analysis of records of pre-season medicals for all male first-team players at one semi-professional Northern Ireland Premiership team between 2009-2012. Medicals were conducted by the club doctor following the UEFA proforma. Height, weight, blood pressure (BP), full blood count (FBC), dipstick urinalysis and resting electrocardiogram (ECG) were conducted by an independent nurse. Only one ECG must be documented during a player's career; other tests are repeated yearly.

RESULTS:
89 medicals from 47 players (6 goalkeepers, 11 defenders, 22 midfielders and 8 attackers; mean age 25.0 years (SD 4.86)) were reviewed. Mean height of the players was 179.3 cm (SD 5.90) with a mean weight of 77.6 kg (SD 10.5). Of 89 urine dipsticks, 7 were positive for protein; all 7 were normal on repeat testing following 48 hours of rest. Of 40 ECGs (mean ventricular rate 61.2 bpm (SD 11.6)), one was referred to cardiology (right bundle branch block; prolonged Q-T interval). No players were excluded from participation.

CONCLUSIONS:
This study provides important information about 'normal' values in a population of semi-professional footballers. Urinalysis showing protein is not uncommon but is likely to be normal on repeat testing.