Advertising using augmented reality

Heads-up displays have been gradually implemented in automobiles. These displays can provide information to drivers, such as speed, temperature, remaining fuel, navigation, and more, while minimizing distraction. Some vehicle heads-up displays add turn by turn directions based on GPS information onto a real-time street view. This disclosure describes techniques to show advertisements to passengers in vehicles using windows capable of implementing augmented reality (AR) - AR-capable windows

Reporting road hazards using in-vehicle camera

Mobile phones, tablets, wearables, and cars themselves are increasingly aiding drivers. For example, mobile applications can alert drivers of hazardous road conditions, congestion, or accidents along the driver’s route. Additionally, mobile applications permit the reporting of such situations to other users. Occasionally, drivers may want to report nearby vehicles that exhibit unsafe or hazardous driving, or observed road hazards. This disclosure describes techniques to utilize devices (e.g., cameras) within a vehicle to automatically detect information about other vehicles that exhibit hazardous driving and road incidents nearby, such as vehicles driven by intoxicated persons. Further, these techniques also enable a driver to send the information to other users nearby and the relevant authorities with minimal interaction

Inserting Pictures In Video Content

Disclosed herein is a mechanism for inserting pictures in video content. The mechanism can, for example, identify a portion of a video content item that is suitable for insertion of a picture. For example, the mechanism can identify a portion of a video content item in which an area of pixels is deemed to be relatively still or without motion across frames of the video within the portion of the video content item. The mechanism can identify one or more pictures to be inserted in the video, for example, based on colors of the video and the one or more pictures and/or based on a topic associated with the video. The mechanism can then generate a modified video by inserting the one or more pictures into the identified portion of the video. The mechanism can store the generated modified video and/or cause the generated modified video to be presented on a user device

Displaying advertisements in video clips

On video-sharing platforms, users access some video clips primarily for audio rather than video content. In such video clips, the display is idle or otherwise possibly uninteresting to the viewer. The techniques of this disclosure apply machine learning to detect if the visual portion of a video clip is likely not of interest to the user. If the visual portion detected to not be of interest to the user, permission is sought from the user to insert a visual ad into the clip while audio continues playing unchanged. If user permission is obtained, ads are inserted in portions of video clips identified as not being of interest to the user, thereby monetizing the video clip

Quantifying Isoniazid Levels in Small Hair Samples: A Novel Method for Assessing Adherence during the Treatment of Latent and Active Tuberculosis.

BackgroundTuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of death from an infectious pathogen worldwide and the most prevalent opportunistic infection in people living with HIV. Isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT) reduces the incidence of active TB and reduces morbidity and mortality in HIV-infected patients independently of antiretroviral therapy. However, treatment of latent or active TB is lengthy and inter-patient variability in pharmacokinetics and adherence common. Current methods of assessing adherence to TB treatment using drug levels in plasma or urine assess short-term exposure and pose logistical challenges. Drug concentrations in hair assess long-term exposure and have demonstrated pharmacodynamic relevance in HIV.MethodsA large hair sample from a patient with active TB was obtained for assay development. Methods to pulverize hair and extract isoniazid were optimized and then the drug detected by liquid chromatography/ tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS-MS). The method was validated for specificity, accuracy, precision, recovery, linearity and stability to establish the assay's suitability for therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM). Hair samples from patients on directly-observe isoniazid-based latent or active TB therapy from the San Francisco Department of Public Health TB clinic were then tested.ResultsOur LC/MS-MS-based assay detected isoniazid in quantities as low as 0.02ng/mg using 10-25 strands hair. Concentrations in spiked samples demonstrated linearity from 0.05-50ng/mg. Assay precision and accuracy for spiked quality-control samples were high, with an overall recovery rate of 79.5%. In 18 patients with latent or active TB on treatment, isoniazid was detected across a wide linear dynamic range.ConclusionsAn LC-MS/MS-based assay to quantify isoniazid levels in hair with performance characteristics suitable for TDM was developed and validated. Hair concentrations of isoniazid assess long-term exposure and may be useful for monitoring adherence to latent or active TB treatment in the setting of HIV

Writing Coaches of Montana: Providing In-class Support to Middle and High School Writers

Teachers of writing know the importance of giving students feedback throughout the writing process. Teachers of writing also know the value of having students write for authentic audiences. However, classroom teachers often face challenges in these two areas. Writing Coaches of Montana (WCM) is a non-profit, independent, community-based organization that addresses these challenges. WCM’s mission is to help Montana students write competently, think critically and express themselves confidently. WCM supports teachers by recruiting, training and supervising community volunteers who work individually with students in middle and high school classrooms on writing assignments that require critical thinking and revision. The success of WCM’s approach reflects 22 years of best practices and innovation as well as ongoing collaboration with the University of Montana (UM) Writing Center, the UM English Teaching Program, the UM School of Education, the Missoula County Public School District, and other public schools in western Montana. We present the benefits of this approach and discuss: 1) how writing coaches support teachers and students on curriculum-based writing assignments; 2) how community volunteers are trained and supervised as writing coaches; and 3) what teachers, students, and coaches say about the value of writing coaches

Synergistic effect of phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor and serum on migration of endotoxin-stimulated macrophages.

Macrophage migration is an essential step in host defense against infection and wound healing. Elevation of cAMP by inhibiting phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4), enzymes that specifically degrade cAMP, is known to suppress various inflammatory responses in activated macrophages, but the role of PDE4 in macrophage migration is poorly understood. Here we show that the migration of Raw 264.7 macrophages stimulated with LPS was markedly and dose-dependently induced by the PDE4 inhibitor rolipram as assessed by scratch wound healing assay. Additionally, this response required the involvement of serum in the culture medium as serum starvation abrogated the effect. Further analysis revealed that rolipram and serum exhibited synergistic effect on the migration, and the influence of serum was independent of PDE4 mRNA expression in LPS-stimulated macrophages. Moreover, the enhanced migration by rolipram was mediated by activating cAMP/exchange proteins directly activated by cAMP (Epac) signaling, presumably via interaction with LPS/TLR4 signaling with the participation of unknown serum components. These results suggest that PDE4 inhibitors, together with serum components, may serve as positive regulators of macrophage recruitment for more efficient pathogen clearance and wound repair

From textual poachers to textual gifters : exploring fan community and celebrity in the field of fan cultural production

Early fan studies positioned fans as 'textual poachers' (Jenkins, 1992), suggesting that fans poach characters and materials from texts as an act of resistance towards commercial culture to form their own readings through fan cultural production such as fan fiction. As such, fans are often presented as a unified, communal group interacting within the context of fan communities that are considered alternative social communities with 'no established hierarchy' (Bacon-Smith, 1992, p. 41). However, Milly Williamson argued that fans do not all operate from a position of cultural marginality. Fans not only go on to collaborate with the media producers they allegedly poach from, they also "engage in elitist distinctions between themselves and other ... fans" (Williamson, 2005, p. 103). In this dissertation, I look at fan cultural production (specifically fan fiction) by appropriating Bourdieu's (1993) theory on the field of cultural production. I also suggest that the field of fan cultural production manifests the principles of a gift economy (Mauss, 1954). In circulating fan cultural production as gifts, fans are entering into a social relationship of reciprocity, where fan reputation, or fan symbolic capital, becomes tied to the gifts presented to the fan community and the social network of the fan author. The accumulation of fan social, fan cultural and fan symbolic capitals creates a subgroup of fans who are often treated like celebrities by their peers, and these fan subcultural celebrities often go on to determine the social and cultural norms of a fan community. This often results in conflict within fandom as fan status is frequently contested and challenged. By employing an ethnographic study on the fandoms of The X-Files, Angel and the re- imagined Battlestar Galactica, I argue that fan culture is not as homogenous as early fan studies proposed as the boundaries of community and fan celebrity status are frequently challenged.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

From textual poachers to textual gifters : exploring fan community and celebrity in the field of fan cultural production

Early fan studies positioned fans as 'textual poachers' (Jenkins, 1992), suggesting that fans poach characters and materials from texts as an act of resistance towards commercial culture to form their own readings through fan cultural production such as fan fiction. As such, fans are often presented as a unified, communal group interacting within the context of fan communities that are considered alternative social communities with 'no established hierarchy' (Bacon-Smith, 1992, p. 41). However, Milly Williamson argued that fans do not all operate from a position of cultural marginality. Fans not only go on to collaborate with the media producers they allegedly poach from, they also "engage in elitist distinctions between themselves and other ... fans" (Williamson, 2005, p. 103). In this dissertation, I look at fan cultural production (specifically fan fiction) by appropriating Bourdieu's (1993) theory on the field of cultural production. I also suggest that the field of fan cultural production manifests the principles of a gift economy (Mauss, 1954). In circulating fan cultural production as gifts, fans are entering into a social relationship of reciprocity, where fan reputation, or fan symbolic capital, becomes tied to the gifts presented to the fan community and the social network of the fan author. The accumulation of fan social, fan cultural and fan symbolic capitals creates a subgroup of fans who are often treated like celebrities by their peers, and these fan subcultural celebrities often go on to determine the social and cultural norms of a fan community. This often results in conflict within fandom as fan status is frequently contested and challenged. By employing an ethnographic study on the fandoms of The X-Files, Angel and the re- imagined Battlestar Galactica, I argue that fan culture is not as homogenous as early fan studies proposed as the boundaries of community and fan celebrity status are frequently challenged.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo