Highly efficient low-level feature extraction for video representation and retrieval.

PhDWitnessing the omnipresence of digital video media, the research community has raised the question of its meaningful use and management. Stored in immense multimedia databases, digital videos need to be retrieved and structured in an intelligent way, relying on the content and the rich semantics involved. Current Content Based Video Indexing and Retrieval systems face the problem of the semantic gap between the simplicity of the available visual features and the richness of user semantics. This work focuses on the issues of efficiency and scalability in video indexing and retrieval to facilitate a video representation model capable of semantic annotation. A highly efficient algorithm for temporal analysis and key-frame extraction is developed. It is based on the prediction information extracted directly from the compressed domain features and the robust scalable analysis in the temporal domain. Furthermore, a hierarchical quantisation of the colour features in the descriptor space is presented. Derived from the extracted set of low-level features, a video representation model that enables semantic annotation and contextual genre classification is designed. Results demonstrate the efficiency and robustness of the temporal analysis algorithm that runs in real time maintaining the high precision and recall of the detection task. Adaptive key-frame extraction and summarisation achieve a good overview of the visual content, while the colour quantisation algorithm efficiently creates hierarchical set of descriptors. Finally, the video representation model, supported by the genre classification algorithm, achieves excellent results in an automatic annotation system by linking the video clips with a limited lexicon of related keywords

Greening the South African economy: Scoping the issues, challenges and opportunities by Editors: Mark Swilling, Josephine Kavati Musango and Jeremy Wakeford

The title of the book deals with a very relevant focus, namely greening the South African economy. Practitioners, developers and related role players such as decision makers are aware of the need to integrate the greening debate in planning and implementation activities. The title is thus addressing an important focus in transforming planning and development thinking and approaches

Coupling of Ocean Acidification and Ocean Depletion in the Gulf of Alaska

Abrupt deglacial environmental changes are recorded in the North Pacific including the expansion and strengthening of the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ). Previous workers in the North Pacific proposed a link between OMZ intensification and increased ocean acidification. Understanding the relationship between oxygen depletion and ocean acidification during past intervals of climate change is crucial for forecasting and mediating the effects that the modern-day OMZ expansion will have on marine ecology. Here, I use benthic (Uvigerina peregrina) and planktonic (Neogloboquadrina pachyderma) foraminiferal size-normalized shell weights (SNW) from two Gulf of Alaska sediment core records as a proxy for carbonate dissolution, which increases with increasing acidification. If ocean acidification increased during a previously recognized low oxygen event (LOE; ~15-10 kya) should result in lower shell weights due to dissolution if ocean acidification is associated with deoxygenation. At intermediate ocean depths, planktonic SNW were generally lower while high benthic SNW increased, perhaps due to acidification in the water column affecting the planktonics, whereas, dissolution oversaturated pore waters with carbonate ion. SNW of planktonics were heavier in the intermediate than deep site, possibly due to heavier sedimentation rate or more sulfidic conditions in the pore waters at intermediate depths

Retention Among New Graduate RNs With and Without Transition to Practice Nurse Residency Programs

Question: Does a structured nurse residency program affect the rate of retention among newly graduated RNs? Hypothesis: A structured nurse residency program will impact the retention of new graduate RNs. Methods: Articles reviewed for RN retention rates for nurses with and without nurse residency programs. Results: Research supports that transition to practice (TTP) programs have been successful in new graduate RN retention rates. TTP programs help the new graduate develop skills to cope more effectively with their transition and lead to healthier, more balanced careers. Typical TTP programs were generally 12 months in length, had a dedicated program coordinator and a preceptor acting as a mentor. RNs participating in a nurse residency program provided by Vizient/AACN were shown to have a 90.4% retention rate when compared with the national average of 82.5%. Components of residency programs included leadership modeling, promoting well-being, resilience, and work-life balance. Tools used to support well-being included journaling, reflection, huddling, identifying a peer, finding joy in work, expressing gratitude and positivity. Conclusion: Findings demonstrated an increase in resilience, highlighting the importance of providing a resiliency program for new graduate nurses. New graduate RNs staying beyond two years reported that a healthy work environment, a supportive workplace, and a sense of belonging all contributed to their decision to stay. Implications: TTP programs are successful at increasing retention rates among new graduate RNs. Further work should focus on identifying the best TTP structure for use at Rochester Regional Health and promote a resiliency approach versus a theoretical task-layered approach.https://scholar.rochesterregional.org/nursingresearchday_2023/1007/thumbnail.jp

Rezension: Stranger Than Kindness: von Nick Cave

Die österreichische Autorin Edie Calie unterzieht den Katalog „Stranger Than Kindness“ des Musikers und Autors Nick Cave einer konstruktiv-kritischen Lektüre. In vorsätzlich persönlichem Tonfall kontextualisiert sie die angebotenen Einblicke in die unterschiedlichsten Schaffensbereiche dieses Ausnahmekünstlers.Austrian writer Edie Calie subjects the catalogue “Stranger Than Kindness” by musician and poet Nick Cave to a constructive critical reading. In a deliberately personal tone, she contextualises the insights and materials offered by this exceptional artist. mostly on selected episodes that have received a lot of attention

Pitcher Plants (Sarracenia) Provide a 21st-Century Perspective on Infraspecific Ranks and Interspecific Hybrids: A Modest Proposal for Appropriate Recognition and Usage

The taxonomic use of infraspecific ranks (subspecies, variety, subvariety, form, and subform), and the formal recognition of interspecific hybrid taxa, is permitted by the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants. However, considerable confusion regarding the biological and systematic merits is caused by current practice in the use of infraspecific ranks, which obscures the meaningful variability on which natural selection operates, and by the formal recognition of those interspecific hybrids that lack the potential for inter-lineage gene flow. These issues also may have pragmatic and legal consequences, especially regarding the legal delimitation and management of Threatened and Endangered Species. A detailed comparison of three contemporary floras highlights the degree to which infraspecific and interspecific variation are treated inconsistently. An in depth analysis of taxonomy of the North American flowering plant genus Sarracenia (Sarraceniaceae) provides an ideal case study illustrating the confusion that can arise from inconsistent and apparently arbitrary designation of infraspecific ranks and hybrid taxa. To alleviate these problems, we propose the abandonment of infraspecific ranks of “variety” and “form”, and discourage naming of sterile interspecific hybrids except for use in the horticultural or agronomic trade. Our recommendations for taxonomic practice are in accord with the objectives proposed in the Systematics Agenda 2000, Systematics Agenda 2020, and the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation.Organismic and Evolutionary Biolog

Extensive sequence divergence in the 3' inverted repeat of the chloroplast rbcL gene in non-flowering land plants and algae

A stem-loop region is present at the 3' terminus of the chloroplast rbcL mRNA in all taxa surveyed to date. In spinach, this structure has been shown by others to be involved in modulating transcript stability and correct 3' terminus processing, and is a conserved feature of other flowering plant rbcL mRNAs. In Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, an analogous structure has been shown by others to serve as a transcription terminator. Our sequencing data have shown that this region is highly divergent in several non-flowering land plants, as evidenced by representatives from the ferns, conifers, `fern-allies' and liverworts. To extend our analysis, a computer-assisted survey of the stem-loop region of the 3' flanking region of published chloroplast rbcL genes was undertaken. The flowering plant rbcL inverted repeats (IR) were remarkably conserved in sequence, allowing for precise multiple alignments of both monocot and dicot sequences within a single matrix. Surprisingly, sequences obtained from non-flowering land plants, algae, photosynthetic protists and photosynthetic prokaryotes were extremely variant, in terms of both sequence composition and thermodynamic parameters.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/31333/1/0000243.pd

The consensus land plant chloroplast gene order is present, with two alterations, in the moss Physcomitrella patens

A restriction endonuclease cleavage site map for the enzymes Cla I and Bgl II, and a partial map for Sac I, has been constructed for the chloroplast genome of the moss Physcomitrella patens (Hedw.) BSG. The plastid chromosome contains approximately 122 kb organized into small (21 kb) and large (82 kb) single-copy regions separated by two copies of a repeat sequence (9.4 kb) oriented in an inverted arrangement. Genes for 17 proteins and 2 ribosomal RNAs have been mapped using heterologous probes from corn, spinach, pea, and petunia. The general order and arrangement of the moss chloroplast genes are similar to the consensus land plant genome typified by that of spinach, with two major exceptions. First, there is an inversion of approximately 20 kb, bordered internally by psbA and atpH , and also containing the genes atpF and atpA . Second, rpl 2 and rps 19 have been relocated to a different position within the large single-copy region, adjacent to the 20 kb inversion.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47565/1/438_2004_Article_BF00330462.pd

Femtosecond laser photo-response of Ge23Sb7S70 films

Ternary chalcogenide glass films from identical parent bulk glasses were prepared by thermal evaporation (TE) and pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and subjected to 810-nm femtosecond laser exposure at both kHz and MHz repetition rates. The exposure-induced modification on the glass film\u27s surface profile, refractive index, and structural properties were shown to be a function of laser irradiance, the number of laser pulses per focal spot, and repetition rate. Film response was shown to be related to deposition technique-related density and the number of glass bonds within the irradiated focal volume. The induced changes resulted from a reduction in glass network connectivity among GeS4/2, GeS4, S-S and S3Ge-S-GeS3 units