1st Workshop on Maritime Computer Vision (MaCVi) 2023: Challenge Results

The 1$^{\text{st}}$ Workshop on Maritime Computer Vision (MaCVi) 2023 focused on maritime computer vision for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV), and organized several subchallenges in this domain: (i) UAV-based Maritime Object Detection, (ii) UAV-based Maritime Object Tracking, (iii) USV-based Maritime Obstacle Segmentation and (iv) USV-based Maritime Obstacle Detection. The subchallenges were based on the SeaDronesSee and MODS benchmarks. This report summarizes the main findings of the individual subchallenges and introduces a new benchmark, called SeaDronesSee Object Detection v2, which extends the previous benchmark by including more classes and footage. We provide statistical and qualitative analyses, and assess trends in the best-performing methodologies of over 130 submissions. The methods are summarized in the appendix. The datasets, evaluation code and the leaderboard are publicly available at https://seadronessee.cs.uni-tuebingen.de/macvi.Comment: MaCVi 2023 was part of WACV 2023. This report (38 pages) discusses the competition as part of MaCV

Geospatial Land Evaluation of Medinapur Sub-watershed for Crop Suitability and Sustainable Crop Plan

A study was conducted to reveal the land capability and its suitability to crops in the semi-arid region of North-Eastern Karnataka state, India. Alternate crop plan was proposed with suitable interventions at soil phase level, based on the prevailing climatic regimes and soil-land limitations. Cadastral parcels of Medinapur sub-watershed overlaid on IRS-P6 LISS-IV merged Cartosat-1 satellite imagery was used for interpreting soil units. Soil profiles and morphological studies were made to classify entire sub-watershed (covering 4890.46 ha) into ten soil series and these soil series, further classified into 23 soil phase/management units. The results revealed that major area of 1163 ha (23.79%) covers the soil phase unit “KMLmC2” with deep (100-150 cm) clay textured, gently sloping (3-5 %) and moderately eroded (e2) lands. Two land capability classes (IIIes and IVes) were found in the study area with topography, soil erosion, texture, drainage and soil fertility as major limitation factors. Red gram (59.64%) and Sorghum (18.86%) covering maximum area in the sub watershed were assessed for crop suitability to land. To estimate the significance of crop suitability criteria to land, linear regression analysis was performed with assigned rank values of independent variables. Suitability of these crops was found that the 77.84 % of land was moderately suitable (S2) to redgram with limitations of rooting condition, erosion and topography, only depth showed significant contribution to redgram suitability with R2 = 0.744. Sorghum was highly suitable (S1) to 21.12 % of land and soil depth and pH were significantly contributing to suitability of sorghum with R2 = 0.746. The estimation of criteria for land suitability to Sorghum and Redgram was significant at 5 per cent level. In common soil depth resulted as major contributing factor in deciding land suitability to crops

Nano-calcium incorporated piscean collagen scaffolds: potential wound dressing material

Abstract Background Collagen proteins extracted from piscean sources are alternatives to bovine and porcine collagen because of their abundance, low price, and skin compatibility and are being explored as suitable wound dressing materials. Intracellular calcium ions are crucial for wound healing, and studies have shown that calcium ion supplementation via an external medium is equally beneficial for speedy recovery. This study explores the wound healing potential of dressing materials that encompass the benefits of nano-calcium and piscean collagen. Nano-calcium sulphate (NCS)-integrated scaffolds were prepared with 100 ppm of NCS and varying concentrations of piscean collagen and HPMC E15 LV. The thickness, tensile strength, folding endurance, pH, expansion profile, and moisture vapour transmission properties of the scaffolds were determined. An in vitro scratch assay and an excision rat wound model were employed to evaluate the wound healing properties of the scaffolds. Results The NCS particles had a mean particle size of 220.7 nm. The scaffolds demonstrated an acceptable thickness, mechanical strength, and flexibility. The scratch assay results revealed that at the end of 24 h of the study, there was an increased wound closure rate with collagen scaffolds in contrast to the control group. In the vivo wound healing studies, formulation CS6 showed 100.0% healing on day 12 as compared to other formulations. Conclusions Wounds treated with scaffolds contracted faster than those treated with a commercial collagen dressing and the control group. The current study thus demonstrates the wound healing ability of nano-calcium sulphate-incorporated piscean collagen scaffolds

Assessment of Streptococcus mutans in healthy versus gingivitis and chronic periodontitis: A clinico-microbiological study

Background: Dental caries and periodontal disease are most common oral diseases. Streptococcus mutans are considered to be the major pathogens in initiation of dental caries. Evidence shows that periodontal disease and caries share a number of contributory factors. Thus in view of these findings it would be worthwhile to examine whether Streptococcus mutans persist within the saliva and subgingival environment of the periodontitis patients and to determine whether there is any association between Streptococcus mutans colonization, pH of saliva and sub-gingival plaque pH in periodontal diseases before therapy. Methods: The study comprises of 75 subjects aged between 20-70 years, reporting to department of Periodontology, KLEs Institute of Dental Sciences, Bangalore. Subjects were divided into 3 groups of 25 each. Group 1 – Healthy controls, Group 2 – Gingivitis Group, 3 – Chronic periodontitis. Unstimulated saliva was collected in sterile container and immediately pH was evaluated. Subgingival plaque samples were collected from four deepest periodontal pockets in chronic periodontitis and from first molars in healthy subjects using 4 sterile paper points. In gingivitis subjects samples were collected from areas showing maximum signs of inflammation. All paper points and saliva samples were cultured on mitis salivarius agar culture media with bacitracin for quantification of the Streptococcus mutans colonies. Results: Increased colonization of Streptococcus mutans was seen in chronic periodontitis subjects both in saliva and sub-gingival plaque samples. There was also a positive correlation seen with the periodontal parameters. Conclusion: More severe forms of periodontal disease may create different ecological niches for the proliferation of Streptococcus mutans

Enhancing Image Characteristics of Retinal Images of Aggressive Posterior Retinopathy of Prematurity Using a Novel Software, (RetiView)

Purpose. To report pilot data from a novel image analysis software “RetiView,” to highlight clinically relevant information in RetCam images of infants with aggressive posterior retinopathy of prematurity (APROP). Methods. Twenty-three imaging sessions of consecutive infants of Asian Indian origin with clinically diagnosed APROP underwent three protocols (Grey Enhanced (GE), Color Enhanced (CE), and “Vesselness Measure” (VNM)) of the software. The postprocessed images were compared to baseline data from the archived unprocessed images and clinical exam by the retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) specialist for anterior extent of the vessels, capillary nonperfusion zones (CNP), loops, hemorrhages, and flat neovascularization. Results. There was better visualization of tortuous loops in the GE protocol (56.5%); “bald” zones within the CNP zones (26.1%), hemorrhages (13%), and edge of the disease (34.8%) in the CE images; neovascularization on both GE and CE protocols (13% each); clinically relevant information in cases with poor pupillary dilatation (8.7%); anterior extent of vessels on the VNM protocol (13%) effecting a “reclassification” from zone 1 to zone 2 posterior. Conclusions. RetiView is a noninvasive and inexpensive method of customized image enhancement to detect clinically difficult characteristics in a subset of APROP images with a potential to influence treatment planning