Finding Semantically Related Videos in Closed Collections

Modern newsroom tools offer advanced functionality for automatic and semi-automatic content collection from the web and social media sources to accompany news stories. However, the content collected in this way often tends to be unstructured and may include irrelevant items. An important step in the verification process is to organize this content, both with respect to what it shows, and with respect to its origin. This chapter presents our efforts in this direction, which resulted in two components. One aims to detect semantic concepts in video shots, to help annotation and organization of content collections. We implement a system based on deep learning, featuring a number of advances and adaptations of existing algorithms to increase performance for the task. The other component aims to detect logos in videos in order to identify their provenance. We present our progress from a keypoint-based detection system to a system based on deep learning

Perceptions of Cooperating Teachers and University Supervisors of the Cooperating Teachers' Supervisory Role Regarding Planning and Instruction

151 p.Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1992.The purpose of the study was to investigate and compare cooperating teachers' and university supervisors' perceptions of 32 supervisory activities performed by the cooperating teachers regarding their student teachers' planning and instruction. A survey instrument, consisting of 32 items describing commonly reported supervisory activities, was administered to 65 cooperating teachers and 12 university supervisors involved in secondary student teaching at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the Spring Semester 1991.Inferential and descriptive statistics were used to report and analyze the perceptual responses of the two participating groups. Item means of the Likert measures were used to rank the items. Visual analysis produced three levels of use and helpfulness of the activities to student teachers as perceived by the cooperating teachers and the university supervisors. The \chi\sp2 statistic was used to identify three levels of agreement (high, medium, low) between the two groups.The findings indicated that the two groups expressed significant differences over the helpfulness of stated expectations for student teachers, the modeling of teaching methods and styles, and a concern for instructional organization. The cooperating teachers perceived that these activities were more helpful to student teachers than the university supervisors perceived them to be. The two groups were similar in their perceptions of the lack of helpfulness of formal conferences and the helpfulness of the activities that granted student teachers autonomy to plan their lessons. They agree that informal supervision of student teachers in which a sense of autonomy to plan on their own is passed to the student teachers is more helpful than formal supervision entailing technical systems of observation and evaluation.The similarities and differences of cooperating teachers' and university supervisors' perceptions of the helpfulness of the activities suggest the usefulness of in-service programs, to allow the two groups to share their educational philosophies and supervisory knowledge.It is recommended that further studies utilizing representative samples of elementary and secondary cooperating teachers, university supervisors, and student teachers, including direct observation of supervisory acts, would provide useful empirical information to the education literature.Additional studies should examine the other areas of cooperating teachers' responsibilities: orientation, evaluation, and professional development.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD

Impact assessment of the catastrophic earthquakes of 6 February 2023 in Turkey and Syria via the exploitation of satellite datasets

Turkey due to its location within the collision zone between the Eurasian, African and Arabian Plates, is a region prone to earthquakes. The country mostly lies on the Anatolian micro-plate, bounded by two major strike-slip fault zones, i.e., the North and the East Anatolian Fault. On 6 February 2023, the activation of a large segment of the East Anatolian Fault generated two earthquakes of 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude, in southern Turkey. The seismic risk is greater along the plate boundaries, however due to the frequency of earthquake occurrence throughout Turkey, detailed seismic risk maps are crucial and need to be continuously updated towards operational purposes, and as the optimal means towards decision making for disaster risk reduction. Extensive Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite image analysis was performed to determine ground displacements caused by the seismic sequence in the wider area around the two epicenters. Pre-seismic line of sight displacements, as well as co-seismic deformation, were estimated, providing critical information about the surface rupture and the overall ground deformation in the affected areas. Earthquakes can induce landslides and other ground displacements causing extensive damage to buildings and infrastructure. Therefore, optical (e.g., Sentinel-2, PlanetScope) and SAR (Sentinel-1) imagery were exploited as a useful tool for assessing the impact of earthquakes on the ground. The monitoring and mapping of these changes, in conjunction with SAR analysis, as well as information on building infrastructure and population density, highlight the overall damage assessment in the region, thus, allowing a better understanding of the impact of earthquakes while providing a more effective response and recovery efforts for decision makers and local authorities towards disaster risk reduction

Association between periodontal disease and stroke

Objective: Periodontitis is a very common human infection. There is evidence that periodontitis is associated with cerebrovascular disease (CVD) and stroke. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between periodontal disease and CVD in observational studies. Methods: An electronic search of the English literature using PubMed was conducted. A meta-analysis of the studies reporting on the risk of stroke in patients with periodontitis was performed. Results: Six prospective and seven retrospective studies met the inclusion criteria. Patients with both hemorrhagic and ischemic cerebrovascular events, fatal and nonfatal, were included. Definition of periodontitis was taken directly from included studies. Most studies have been adjusted for common cardiovascular risk factors. Separate statistical analysis was performed for prospective and retrospective studies. Overall adjusted risk of stroke in subjects with periodontitis was 1.47 times higher than in subjects without (95% confidence interval, 1.13-1.92; P = .0035) in prospective and 2.63 times (95% confidence interval, 1.59-4.33; P = .0002) in retrospective studies. The application of the trim and fill algorithm does not change the initial significant inference. Conclusions: There is evidence that periodontitis is associated with increased risk of stroke. However, the results of this meta-analysis should be interpreted with caution because of the heterogeneity of the studies as well as the differences in periodontitis definition. (J Vasc Surg 2012; 55: 1178-84.

Global impact of the first coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic wave on vascular services

This online structured survey has demonstrated the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on vascular services. The majority of centres have documented marked reductions in operating and services provided to vascular patients. In the months during recovery from the resource restrictions imposed during the pandemic peaks, there will be a significant vascular disease burden awaiting surgeons. One of the most affected specialtie

Global impact of the first coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic wave on vascular services

This online structured survey has demonstrated the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on vascular services. The majority of centres have documented marked reductions in operating and services provided to vascular patients. In the months during recovery from the resource restrictions imposed during the pandemic peaks, there will be a significant vascular disease burden awaiting surgeons. One of the most affected specialtie

Documenting the Recovery of Vascular Services in European Centres Following the Initial COVID-19 Pandemic Peak: Results from a Multicentre Collaborative Study

Objective: To document the recovery of vascular services in Europe following the first COVID-19 pandemic peak. Methods: An online structured vascular service survey with repeated data entry between 23 March and 9 August 2020 was carried out. Unit level data were collected using repeated questionnaires addressing modifications to vascular services during the first peak (March - May 2020, "period 1"), and then again between May and June ("period 2") and June and July 2020 ("period 3"). The duration of each period was similar. From 2 June, as reductions in cases began to be reported, centres were first asked if they were in a region still affected by rising cases, or if they had passed the peak of the first wave. These centres were asked additional questions about adaptations made to their standard pathways to permit elective surgery to resume. Results: The impact of the pandemic continued to be felt well after countries' first peak was thought to have passed in 2020. Aneurysm screening had not returned to normal in 21.7% of centres. Carotid surgery was still offered on a case by case basis in 33.8% of centres, and only 52.9% of centres had returned to their normal aneurysm threshold for surgery. Half of centres (49.4%) believed their management of lower limb ischaemia continued to be negatively affected by the pandemic. Reduced operating theatre capacity continued in 45.5% of centres. Twenty per cent of responding centres documented a backlog of at least 20 aortic repairs. At least one negative swab and 14 days of isolation were the most common strategies used for permitting safe elective surgery to recommence. Conclusion: Centres reported a broad return of services approaching pre-pandemic "normal" by July 2020. Many introduced protocols to manage peri-operative COVID-19 risk. Backlogs in cases were reported for all major vascular surgeries

Global variation in postoperative mortality and complications after cancer surgery: a multicentre, prospective cohort study in 82 countries

© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licenseBackground: 80% of individuals with cancer will require a surgical procedure, yet little comparative data exist on early outcomes in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We compared postoperative outcomes in breast, colorectal, and gastric cancer surgery in hospitals worldwide, focusing on the effect of disease stage and complications on postoperative mortality. Methods: This was a multicentre, international prospective cohort study of consecutive adult patients undergoing surgery for primary breast, colorectal, or gastric cancer requiring a skin incision done under general or neuraxial anaesthesia. The primary outcome was death or major complication within 30 days of surgery. Multilevel logistic regression determined relationships within three-level nested models of patients within hospitals and countries. Hospital-level infrastructure effects were explored with three-way mediation analyses. This study was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03471494. Findings: Between April 1, 2018, and Jan 31, 2019, we enrolled 15 958 patients from 428 hospitals in 82 countries (high income 9106 patients, 31 countries; upper-middle income 2721 patients, 23 countries; or lower-middle income 4131 patients, 28 countries). Patients in LMICs presented with more advanced disease compared with patients in high-income countries. 30-day mortality was higher for gastric cancer in low-income or lower-middle-income countries (adjusted odds ratio 3·72, 95% CI 1·70–8·16) and for colorectal cancer in low-income or lower-middle-income countries (4·59, 2·39–8·80) and upper-middle-income countries (2·06, 1·11–3·83). No difference in 30-day mortality was seen in breast cancer. The proportion of patients who died after a major complication was greatest in low-income or lower-middle-income countries (6·15, 3·26–11·59) and upper-middle-income countries (3·89, 2·08–7·29). Postoperative death after complications was partly explained by patient factors (60%) and partly by hospital or country (40%). The absence of consistently available postoperative care facilities was associated with seven to 10 more deaths per 100 major complications in LMICs. Cancer stage alone explained little of the early variation in mortality or postoperative complications. Interpretation: Higher levels of mortality after cancer surgery in LMICs was not fully explained by later presentation of disease. The capacity to rescue patients from surgical complications is a tangible opportunity for meaningful intervention. Early death after cancer surgery might be reduced by policies focusing on strengthening perioperative care systems to detect and intervene in common complications. Funding: National Institute for Health Research Global Health Research Unit

Effects of hospital facilities on patient outcomes after cancer surgery: an international, prospective, observational study

© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licenseBackground: Early death after cancer surgery is higher in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) compared with in high-income countries, yet the impact of facility characteristics on early postoperative outcomes is unknown. The aim of this study was to examine the association between hospital infrastructure, resource availability, and processes on early outcomes after cancer surgery worldwide. Methods: A multimethods analysis was performed as part of the GlobalSurg 3 study—a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study of patients who had surgery for breast, colorectal, or gastric cancer. The primary outcomes were 30-day mortality and 30-day major complication rates. Potentially beneficial hospital facilities were identified by variable selection to select those associated with 30-day mortality. Adjusted outcomes were determined using generalised estimating equations to account for patient characteristics and country-income group, with population stratification by hospital. Findings: Between April 1, 2018, and April 23, 2019, facility-level data were collected for 9685 patients across 238 hospitals in 66 countries (91 hospitals in 20 high-income countries; 57 hospitals in 19 upper-middle-income countries; and 90 hospitals in 27 low-income to lower-middle-income countries). The availability of five hospital facilities was inversely associated with mortality: ultrasound, CT scanner, critical care unit, opioid analgesia, and oncologist. After adjustment for case-mix and country income group, hospitals with three or fewer of these facilities (62 hospitals, 1294 patients) had higher mortality compared with those with four or five (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 3·85 [95% CI 2·58–5·75]; p<0·0001), with excess mortality predominantly explained by a limited capacity to rescue following the development of major complications (63·0% vs 82·7%; OR 0·35 [0·23–0·53]; p<0·0001). Across LMICs, improvements in hospital facilities would prevent one to three deaths for every 100 patients undergoing surgery for cancer. Interpretation: Hospitals with higher levels of infrastructure and resources have better outcomes after cancer surgery, independent of country income. Without urgent strengthening of hospital infrastructure and resources, the reductions in cancer-associated mortality associated with improved access will not be realised. Funding: National Institute for Health and Care Research