Automated recognition of people and identfication of animal species in camera trap images

Camera traps are increasingly being used in wildlife monitoring. The great advantage of camera traps in comparison with other sampling methods is that very accurate data can be collected without the animal being collared or tagged nor the researcher being present. However, such camera trapping frameworks produce high volumes of pictures which often need to be reviewed manually. Convolutional neural networks can be used to automate this labour intensive process. In our work, we use existing manually labelled images from a camera trap study conducted by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest in collaboration with Hasselt University (Belgium) to train a convolutional neural network for identifying animal species. Images were annotated using the camera trap application Agouti (www.agouti.eu). In this way images can be automatically labelled or the network can be incorporated into annotation applications to provide a suggestion to the users and as such speed up the annotation process. In addition to conveying the presence or absence of species, the images may contain other useful information, for example animal attributes and behaviour. Therefore, getting help from wildlife enthusiasts via citizen science may be desirable to review the large amounts of data. However, since cameras are mounted in public nature reserves, there always exists the risk that passers-by have triggered the camera traps. For privacy reasons, images showing people cannot be made public. Removing these images from the dataset can be automated by training the network to recognise people in addition to identifying animals species, before the data can be made available to volunteers

QSO Chamber Players Appalachian Spring, Bartok String Quartet No.5, Quod scripsi, scripsi

Queensland Symphony Orchestra's Chamber Players Concert Series 2016 presents Bartok's monumental 'String Quartet no.5', Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring, and the premiere of 'Quod Scripsi, Scripsi' by violist and composer Bernard Hoey

Oral vitamin B12 for patients suspected of subtle cobalamin deficiency: a multicentre pragmatic randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Evidence regarding the effectiveness of oral vitamin B12 in patients with serum vitamin B12 levels between 125-200 pM/l is lacking. We compared the effectiveness of one-month oral vitamin B12 supplementation in patients with a subtle vitamin B12 deficiency to that of a placebo. METHODS: This multicentre (13 general practices, two nursing homes, and one primary care center in western Switzerland), parallel, randomised, controlled, closed-label, observer-blind trial included 50 patients with serum vitamin B12 levels between 125-200 pM/l who were randomized to receive either oral vitamin B12 (1000 μg daily, N = 26) or placebo (N = 24) for four weeks. The institution's pharmacist used simple randomisation to generate a table and allocate treatments. The primary outcome was the change in serum methylmalonic acid (MMA) levels after one month of treatment. Secondary outcomes were changes in total homocysteine and serum vitamin B12 levels. Blood samples were centralised for analysis and adherence to treatment was verified by an electronic device (MEMS; Aardex Europe, Switzerland). Trial registration: ISRCTN 22063938. RESULTS: Baseline characteristics and adherence to treatment were similar in both groups. After one month, one patient in the placebo group was lost to follow-up. Data were evaluated by intention-to-treat analysis. One month of vitamin B12 treatment (N = 26) lowered serum MMA levels by 0.13 μmol/l (95%CI 0.06-0.19) more than the change observed in the placebo group (N = 23). The number of patients needed to treat to detect a metabolic response in MMA after one month was 2.6 (95% CI 1.7-6.4). A significant change was observed for the B12 serum level, but not for the homocysteine level, hematocrit, or mean corpuscular volume. After three months without active treatment (at four months), significant differences in MMA levels were no longer detected. CONCLUSIONS: Oral vitamin B12 treatment normalised the metabolic markers of vitamin B12 deficiency. However, a one-month daily treatment with 1000 μg oral vitamin B12 was not sufficient to normalise the deficiency markers for four months, and treatment had no effect on haematological signs of B12 deficiency

Vampires in the village Žrnovo on the island of Korčula: following an archival document from the 18th century

Središnja tema rada usmjerena je na raščlambu spisa pohranjenog u Državnom arhivu u Mlecima (fond: Capi del Consiglio de’ Dieci: Lettere di Rettori e di altre cariche) koji se odnosi na događaj iz 1748. godine u korčulanskom selu Žrnovo, kada su mještani – vjerujući da su se pojavili vampiri – oskvrnuli nekoliko mjesnih grobova. U radu se podrobno iznose osnovni podaci iz spisa te rečeni događaj analizira u širem društvenom kontekstu i prate se lokalna vjerovanja.The main interest of this essay is the analysis of the document from the State Archive in Venice (file: Capi del Consiglio de’ Dieci: Lettere di Rettori e di altre cariche) which is connected with the episode from 1748 when the inhabitants of the village Žrnove on the island of Korčula in Croatia opened tombs on the local cemetery in the fear of the vampires treating. This essay try to show some social circumstances connected with this event as well as a local vernacular tradition concerning superstitions

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

An examination of the forms and processes associated with bed waves in gravel-bed rivers with special reference to the braided river type

A review of the literature leads to a classification of bed waves and bedload pulses in gravel-bed rivers, on the basis of their spatial and temporal scales. Mesoscale waves and pulses are associated with distinctly different processes from macro- and mega-scale features. Whether the sources of sediment for the wave / pulse are endogenous or exogenous to the river channel is used as a basis for sub-classification. Froude number scale modelling of gravel-bed streams was performed in order to elucidate the mechanisms responsible for the production of bed waves. Three experimental runs were conducted, in which sediment transport rates and channel morphology were monitored. This was augmented by investigation of two reaches of the Kowai River, New Zealand, involving surveys of sediment storage and channel morphology, and palaeohydrological reconstruction of the flows responsible for production of the recorded morphology. Measured fluctuations in the sediment output rates from the model streams were related to cycles of aggradation and degradation in the channels. The aggradational phases were associated with decreasing bed relief, and transfer of sediment from inactive to semi-active and active storages within the channel bed. Degradational phases were associated with inverse patterns. The switch between aggrading and degrading states was weakly dependent on stream power per unit bed area. The sediment transport rate was only close to that predicted by the Bagnold (1980) equation at times of channel stability, which occurred in about 40 % of locations. The equation overpredicted actual transport during aggradation and underpredicted during degradation. Even with constant water and sediment inputs to the channel, waves and pulses of different spatial and temporal scales were produced. The relationships developed between aggradation and degradation, channel morphology, and sediment transport rates were supplemented by observations of the evolution of bed waves in the modelling experiments. Field data supported these results and added information on the textural properties of deposits within a bed wave. There were no significant differences between bed waves produced by endogenous sediment and exogenous material delivered to the river reach from upstream. Descriptive models of bed morphology changes as a bed wave passes through a cross-section were developed for the laboratory and field situations. Introduction of dyed tracer sediment to one of the experimental runs showed that the input sediment was rapidly dispersed, but this wasn't indicative of bed wave attenuation. A stochastic model of sediment transfers between in-channel storage reservoirs illustrated the differences between aggrading, stable and degrading channel conditions. The times taken for sediment from different reservoirs to reach the downstream end of the experimental channel were equal under given conditions, implying the existence of a form of equilibrium. The results enable the classification of wave types to be refined with waves of exogenous material that behave similarly to endogenous ones being separated from other exogenously supplied forms. The latter group have distinctive modes of behaviour. Equilibrium conditions were infrequently encountered at the mesoscale, but can be identified when the data are aggregated in both space and time. Bed waves of endogenous types can thus be regarded as equilibrium forms which lie within the geomorphological regime of gravel-bed river systems

Lucid Dreaming

Concert of contemporary music following a theme of metaphors from architecture and landscape. The prevailing aesthetic is one of hybridity, mixing genres and approaches in search of individual innovation and audience engagement