Quantification of impacts of colour on affective quality of images

Most consumer images serve emotional functions as well as informational ones. The impression of an image can be affected not only by physical properties e. g. size, colour and media but also by the context of images, aesthetic properties and social/personal backgrounds of observers. However in traditional frameworks in image quality studies, the impacts of colour-appearance attributes on image quality have focused on maximising the informational functions of images, considering an image as a reproduced copy of a real scene. Thus, a new approach was adopted in this study in an attempt to investigate the emotional aspect of an image. The goal of this research is to study the impact of colour-appearance attributes of an image on emotional responses, and to develop quantitative models for predicting emotional response considering the context of the image. To achieve this goal, three sets of psychophysical and physiological experiments have been conducted. First, the relationship between colour-appearance attributes and overall affective response to images was investigated for four different types of image contents. It was found that image colourfulness and lightness contrast had a consistent influence on these relationships for all types of images. The relationships between emotional responses of image pleasantness and excitement were significantly different between positive images and negative images. Accordingly, quantitative models of image pleasantness and excitement were developed as a function of image colourfulness and contrast separately for the two groups of images. Finally, models of image pleasantness and excitement for positive and negative images were developed as a linear equation based on models developed for each colour attribute. The relationships between colour-appearance attributes and responses on colour-emotion scales, active-passive, heavy-light and warm-cool, were also studied for four different types of image content. Quantitative models of the three colour-emotion scales were developed as a function of colour attributes of images such as lightness, colourfulness and lightness contrast. As an application of using the colour-emotion model developed for images, the relationships between colouremotion scales and image emotion were investigated and quantitative models of image pleasantness and excitement were developed as functions of three colouremotion scales for two groups of images: positive and negative. The model performance based on the colour-emotion scales was compared with the performance of models based on the colour attributes. As a result, the latter model performed better than former. The impact of image content and colour attributes of an image on emotional responses to images was investigated by measuring physiological responses to images which were compared with the psychophysical responses. It was found that the activities in skin conductance and heart rate showed significantly greater responses for the images with personal meanings and significances. For the effect of colour attributes in images, it was found that more chromatic images generated higher activity in skin conductance responses. It was also found that lower contrast images generated higher activity in corrugator EMG responsesEThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Synthesis of bio-functional nanomaterials in reactive plasma discharges

Plasma processing technologies have been extensively used as surface modification platforms in many biomedical applications. Particularly, plasma polymerization (PP) is a versatile deposition technology which has the potential to deliver biocompatible interfaces for a myriad of medical devices. To successfully translate new materials for specific clinical applications, the plasma process needs to be scalable and incorporate appropriate control feedback strategies. However, the plasma medium in PP is exceptionally complex and identifying the main physical quantities that allow a suitable formulation and description of the interface growth mechanisms is challenging. The first part of the thesis reports the design and optimization of a single step ion assisted PP process to create plasma-activated coatings (PAC) that meet the extreme mechanical demands for cardiovascular implants and in particular stents. An ideal working window in the parameter space is identified, and found suitable for the synthesis of PAC interfaces that are mechanically robust, hemocompatibility and allow one step covalent protein immobilization without the need for chemical processes. This window is identified by combining plasma optical emission spectroscopy (OES) with a comprehensive macroscopic process description that isolates key coating growth mechanisms. During process scalability, OES diagnostics revealed the formation of plasma polymer nanoparticles (nanoP3), usually known as plasma dust, in parallel with the deposition of PAC coatings. The second part of the thesis reports the demonstration of carbonaceous plasma nanoparticles for nanomedicine applications. By controlling nanoparticle formation and collection, nanoP3 were engineered with unique immobilization capabilities facilitating multifunctional nanocarriers. The unique surface chemistry of nanoP3, allowing a robust immobilization of the cargo without the need for intermediate functionalization strategies, has great potential to overcome major limitations of currently proposed platforms. As many of the favorable characteristics of nanoP3 are inherent to the fabrication process, this work proposes PP as a nanoparticle synthesis route with valuable potential for broad clinical and commercial applications

Biocompatible and biodegradable Mg/Mg composite foam for bone tissue engineering.

This thesis focuses on studying solid and porous Magnesium-composite structures. Magnesium is attracting increasing interest as promising biodegradable material for medical applications; however, suffering from low mechanical properties. This thesis suggests the manufacturing and application of a new approach that is high st

The bacterial mesosome

The role of the mesosome in M.lysodeikticus has been studied using both biochemical and electron-microscopic techniques. During the developement of membrane fractionation procedures, unexpected variations in the specific activity of succinate dehydrogenase (EC 1.3.99.1) were observed in similar membrane preparations. Since this enzyme is an important membrane "marker", a detailed study of the factors affecting its activity was considered an essential preliminary investigation. The membrane-bound enzyme was inactivated at temperatures above 1

Investigation of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) released as a result of spoilage in whole broccoli, carrots, onions and potatoes with HS-SPME and GC-MS

Vegetable spoilage renders a product undesirable due to changes in sensory characteristics. The aim of this study was to investigate the change in the fingerprint of VOC composition that occur as a result of spoilage in broccoli, carrots, onions and potatoes. SPME and GC-MS techniques were used to identify and determine the relative abundance of VOC associated with both fresh and spoilt vegetables. Although a number of similar compounds were detected in varying quantities in the headspace of fresh and spoilt samples, certain compounds which were detected in the headspace of spoilt vegetables were however absent in fresh samples. Analysis of the headspace of fresh vegetables indicated the presence of a variety of alkanes, alkenes and terpenes. Among VOCs identified in the spoilt samples were dimethyl disulphide and dimethyl sulphide in broccoli; Ethyl propanoate and Butyl acetate in carrots; 1-Propanethioland 2-Hexyl-5-methyl-3(2H)-furanone in onions; and 2, 3-Butanediol in potatoes. The overall results of this study indicate the presence of VOCs that can serve as potential biomarkers for early detection of quality deterioration and in turn enhance operational and quality control decisions in the vegetable industry

Manajemen pencegahan virus covid-19 bagi para petugas kesehatan

Pada Desember 2019, beberapa kasus pneumonia tak dikenal terjadi di Wuhan, China. Pada tanggal 30 Januari 2020, pemimpin organisasi kesehatan dunia (WHO) mengumumkan keadaan darurat kesehatan masyarakat yang menjadi perhatian bagi dunia internasional. Pada tanggal 12 Maret 2020, WHO mendeklarasikan wabah virus corona sebagai pandemi global. WHO menyarankan nama resmi untuk penyakit dari virus ini adalah penyakit Coronavirus (COVID -19)1. Penularan virus ini dari manusia ke manusia terjadi terutama melalui droplet, kontak langsung, penularan dari orang tanpa gejala dan penularan dari anggota keluarga

Smoking and Second Hand Smoking in Adolescents with Chronic Kidney Disease: A Report from the Chronic Kidney Disease in Children (CKiD) Cohort Study

The goal of this study was to determine the prevalence of smoking and second hand smoking [SHS] in adolescents with CKD and their relationship to baseline parameters at enrollment in the CKiD, observational cohort study of 600 children (aged 1-16 yrs) with Schwartz estimated GFR of 30-90 ml/min/1.73m2. 239 adolescents had self-report survey data on smoking and SHS exposure: 21 [9%] subjects had “ever” smoked a cigarette. Among them, 4 were current and 17 were former smokers. Hypertension was more prevalent in those that had “ever” smoked a cigarette (42%) compared to non-smokers (9%), p\u3c0.01. Among 218 non-smokers, 130 (59%) were male, 142 (65%) were Caucasian; 60 (28%) reported SHS exposure compared to 158 (72%) with no exposure. Non-smoker adolescents with SHS exposure were compared to those without SHS exposure. There was no racial, age, or gender differences between both groups. Baseline creatinine, diastolic hypertension, C reactive protein, lipid profile, GFR and hemoglobin were not statistically different. Significantly higher protein to creatinine ratio (0.90 vs. 0.53, p\u3c0.01) was observed in those exposed to SHS compared to those not exposed. Exposed adolescents were heavier than non-exposed adolescents (85th percentile vs. 55th percentile for BMI, p\u3c 0.01). Uncontrolled casual systolic hypertension was twice as prevalent among those exposed to SHS (16%) compared to those not exposed to SHS (7%), though the difference was not statistically significant (p= 0.07). Adjusted multivariate regression analysis [OR (95% CI)] showed that increased protein to creatinine ratio [1.34 (1.03, 1.75)] and higher BMI [1.14 (1.02, 1.29)] were independently associated with exposure to SHS among non-smoker adolescents. These results reveal that among adolescents with CKD, cigarette use is low and SHS is highly prevalent. The association of smoking with hypertension and SHS with increased proteinuria suggests a possible role of these factors in CKD progression and cardiovascular outcomes