Local-scale projections of coral reef futures and implications of the Paris Agreement

International audienceIncreasingly frequent severe coral bleaching is among the greatest threats to coral reefs posed by climate change. Global climate models (GCMs) project great spatial variation in the timing of annual severe bleaching (ASB) conditions; a point at which reefs are certain to change and recovery will be limited. However, previous model-resolution projections (~1 × 1°) are too coarse to inform conservation planning. To meet the need for higher-resolution projections, we generated statistically downscaled projections (4-km resolution) for all coral reefs; these projections reveal high local-scale variation in ASB. Timing of ASB varies >10 years in 71 of the 87 countries and territories with >500 km 2 of reef area. Emissions scenario RCP4.5 represents lower emissions mid-century than will eventuate if pledges made following the 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference (COP21) become reality. These pledges do little to provide reefs with more time to adapt and acclimate prior to severe bleaching conditions occurring annually. RCP4.5 adds 11 years to the global average ASB timing when compared to RCP8.5; however, >75% of reefs still experience ASB before 2070 under RCP4.5. Coral reef futures clearly vary greatly among and within countries, indicating the projections warrant consideration in most reef areas during conservation and management planning

Efficient Privacy Preserving Viola-Jones Type Object Detection via Random Base Image Representation

A cloud server spent a lot of time, energy and money to train a Viola-Jones type object detector with high accuracy. Clients can upload their photos to the cloud server to find objects. However, the client does not want the leakage of the content of his/her photos. In the meanwhile, the cloud server is also reluctant to leak any parameters of the trained object detectors. 10 years ago, Avidan & Butman introduced Blind Vision, which is a method for securely evaluating a Viola-Jones type object detector. Blind Vision uses standard cryptographic tools and is painfully slow to compute, taking a couple of hours to scan a single image. The purpose of this work is to explore an efficient method that can speed up the process. We propose the Random Base Image (RBI) Representation. The original image is divided into random base images. Only the base images are submitted randomly to the cloud server. Thus, the content of the image can not be leaked. In the meanwhile, a random vector and the secure Millionaire protocol are leveraged to protect the parameters of the trained object detector. The RBI makes the integral-image enable again for the great acceleration. The experimental results reveal that our method can retain the detection accuracy of that of the plain vision algorithm and is significantly faster than the traditional blind vision, with only a very low probability of the information leakage theoretically.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, To appear in the proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME), Jul 10, 2017 - Jul 14, 2017, Hong Kong, Hong Kon

The mutational landscape in chronic myelomonocytic leukemia and its impact on allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation outcomes: A Center for Blood and Marrow Transplantation Research (CIBMTR) analysis

Somatic mutations are recognized as an important prognostic factor in chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML). However, limited data are available regarding their impact on outcomes after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). In this registry analysis conducted in collaboration with the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplantation Registry database/sample repository, we identified 313 adult patients with CMML (median age: 64 years, range, 28- 77) who underwent allogeneic HCT during 2001-2017 and had an available biospecimen in the form of a peripheral blood sample obtained prior to the start of conditioning. In multivariate analysis, a CMML-specific prognostic scoring system (CPSS) score of intermediate-2 (HR=1.46, P=0.049) or high (HR=3.22, P=0.0004) correlated significantly with overall survival. When the molecularly informed CPSS-Mol prognostic model was applied, a high CPSS-Mol score (HR=2 P=0.0079) correlated significantly with overall survival. The most common somatic mutations were in ASXL1 (62%), TET2 (35%), KRAS/NRAS (33% combined), and SRSF2 (31%). DNMT3A and TP53 mutations were associated with decreased overall survival (HR=1.70 [95% CI: 1.11-2.60], P=0.0147 and HR=2.72 [95% CI: 1.37-5.39], P=0.0042, respectively) while DNMT3A, JAK2, and TP53 mutations were associated with decreased disease-free survival (HR=1.66 [95% CI: 1.11-2.49], P=0.0138, HR=1.79 [95% CI: 1.06-3.03], P=0.0293, and HR=2.94 [95% CI: 1.50-5.79], P=0.0018, respectively). The only mutation associated with increased relapse was TP53 (HR=2.94, P=0.0201). Nonetheless, the impact of TP53 mutations specifically should be interpreted cautiously given their rarity in CMML. We calculated the goodness of fit measured by Harrell\u27s C-index for both the CPSS and CPSS-Mol, which were very similar. In summary, via registry data we have determined the mutational landscape in patients with CMML who underwent allogeneic HCT, and demonstrated an association between CPSS-Mol and transplant outcomes although without major improvement in the risk prediction beyond that provided by the CPSS

VERGE: A Multimodal Interactive Search Engine for Video Browsing and Retrieval.

This paper presents VERGE interactive search engine, which is capable of browsing and searching into video content. The system integrates content-based analysis and retrieval modules such as video shot segmentation, concept detection, clustering, as well as visual similarity and object-based search

Improving marine disease surveillance through sea temperature monitoring, outlooks and projections

To forecast marine disease outbreaks as oceans warm requires new environmental surveillance tools. We describe an iterative process for developing these tools that combines research, development and deployment for suitable systems. The first step is to identify candidate host-pathogen systems. The 24 candidate systems we identified include sponges, corals, oysters, crustaceans, sea stars, fishes and sea grasses (among others). To illustrate the other steps, we present a case study of epizootic shell disease (ESD) in the American lobster. Increasing prevalence of ESD is a contributing factor to lobster fishery collapse in southern New England (SNE), raising concerns that disease prevalence will increase in the northern Gulf of Maine under climate change. The lowest maximum bottom temperature associated with ESD prevalence in SNE is 12 degrees C. Our seasonal outlook for 2015 and long-term projections show bottom temperatures greater than or equal to 12 degrees C may occur in this and coming years in the coastal bays of Maine. The tools presented will allow managers to target efforts to monitor the effects of ESD on fishery sustainability and will be iteratively refined. The approach and case example highlight that temperature-based surveillance tools can inform research, monitoring and management of emerging and continuing marine disease threats

Improving marine disease surveillance through sea temperature monitoring, outlooks and projections

International audienceTo forecast marine disease outbreaks as oceans warm requires new environmental surveillance tools. We describe an iterative process for developing these tools that combines research, development and deployment for suitable systems. The first step is to identify candidate host–pathogen systems. The 24 candidate systems we identified include sponges, corals, oysters, crustaceans, sea stars, fishes and sea grasses (among others). To illustrate the other steps, we present a case study of epizootic shell disease (ESD) in the American lobster. Increasing prevalence of ESD is a contributing factor to lobster fishery collapse in southern New England (SNE), raising concerns that disease prevalence will increase in the northern Gulf of Maine under climate change. The lowest maximum bottom temperature associated with ESD prevalence in SNE is 128C. Our seasonal outlook for 2015 and long-term projections show bottom temperatures greater than or equal to 128C may occur in this and coming years in the coastal bays of Maine. The tools presented will allow managers to target efforts to monitor the effects of ESD on fishery sustainability and will be iteratively refined. The approach and case example highlight that temperature-based surveillance tools can inform research, monitoring and management of emerging and continuing marine disease threats

VRLE: Lifelog Interaction Prototype in Virtual Reality:Lifelog Search Challenge at ACM ICMR 2020

The Lifelog Search Challenge (LSC) invites researchers to share their prototypes for interactive lifelog retrieval and encourages competition to develop and evaluate effective methodologies to achieve this. With this paper we present a novel approach to visual lifelog exploration based on our research to date utilising virtual reality as a medium for interactive information retrieval. The VRLE prototype presented is an iteration on a previous system which won the first LSC competition at ACM ICMR 2018

A phase II, multicentre trial of decitabine in higher-risk chronic myelomonocytic leukemia

Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) is a complex clonal hematological disorder classified among myelodysplastic (MDS)/myeloproliferative neoplasms. Prognosis is poor and there is a lack of effective treatments. The hypomethylating agent decitabine has shown activity against MDS and elderly acute myeloid leukemia, but there is little data focusing specifically on its efficacy in CMML. In this prospective, phase 2 Italian study, CMML patients received intravenous decitabine 20 mg/m2per day on Days 1-5 of a 28-day treatment cycle. Response was evaluated after four and six cycles; patients responding at the end of six cycles could continue treatment with decitabine. Forty-three patients were enrolled; >50% were high-risk according to four CMML-specific scoring systems. In the intent-to-treat population (n=42), the overall response rate after six cycles was 47.6%, with seven complete responses (16.6%), eight marrow responses (19%), one partial response (2.4%) and four hematological improvements (9.5%). After a median follow-up of 51.5 months (range: 44.4-57.2), median overall survival was 17 months, with responders having a significantly longer survival than non-responders (P=0.02). Grade 3/4 anemia, neutropenia and thrombocytopenia occurred in 28.6%, 50% and 38% of patients, respectively. Decitabine appears to be an effective and well-tolerated treatment for patients with high-risk CMML

Current Challenges and Visions in Music Recommender Systems Research

Music recommender systems (MRS) have experienced a boom in recent years, thanks to the emergence and success of online streaming services, which nowadays make available almost all music in the world at the user's fingertip. While today's MRS considerably help users to find interesting music in these huge catalogs, MRS research is still facing substantial challenges. In particular when it comes to build, incorporate, and evaluate recommendation strategies that integrate information beyond simple user--item interactions or content-based descriptors, but dig deep into the very essence of listener needs, preferences, and intentions, MRS research becomes a big endeavor and related publications quite sparse. The purpose of this trends and survey article is twofold. We first identify and shed light on what we believe are the most pressing challenges MRS research is facing, from both academic and industry perspectives. We review the state of the art towards solving these challenges and discuss its limitations. Second, we detail possible future directions and visions we contemplate for the further evolution of the field. The article should therefore serve two purposes: giving the interested reader an overview of current challenges in MRS research and providing guidance for young researchers by identifying interesting, yet under-researched, directions in the field