Analyzing image-text relations for semantic media adaptation and personalization

Progress in semantic media adaptation and personalisation requires that we know more about how different media types, such as texts and images, work together in multimedia communication. To this end, we present our ongoing investigation into image-text relations. Our idea is that the ways in which the meanings of images and texts relate in multimodal documents, such as web pages, can be classified on the basis of low-level media features and that this classification should be an early processing step in systems targeting semantic multimedia analysis. In this paper we present the first empirical evidence that humans can predict something about the main theme of a text from an accompanying image, and that this prediction can be emulated by a machine via analysis of low- level image features. We close by discussing how these findings could impact on applications for news adaptation and personalisation, and how they may generalise to other kinds of multimodal documents and to applications for semantic media retrieval, browsing, adaptation and creation

Automated annotation of landmark images using community contributed datasets and web resources

A novel solution to the challenge of automatic image annotation is described. Given an image with GPS data of its location of capture, our system returns a semantically-rich annotation comprising tags which both identify the landmark in the image, and provide an interesting fact about it, e.g. "A view of the Eiffel Tower, which was built in 1889 for an international exhibition in Paris". This exploits visual and textual web mining in combination with content-based image analysis and natural language processing. In the first stage, an input image is matched to a set of community contributed images (with keyword tags) on the basis of its GPS information and image classification techniques. The depicted landmark is inferred from the keyword tags for the matched set. The system then takes advantage of the information written about landmarks available on the web at large to extract a fact about the landmark in the image. We report component evaluation results from an implementation of our solution on a mobile device. Image localisation and matching oers 93.6% classication accuracy; the selection of appropriate tags for use in annotation performs well (F1M of 0.59), and it subsequently automatically identies a correct toponym for use in captioning and fact extraction in 69.0% of the tested cases; finally the fact extraction returns an interesting caption in 78% of cases

Enhancing the quality of published research on ethnicity and health: is journal guidance feasible and useful?

Researching ethnicity and health presents significant ethical, conceptual and methodological challenges. While the potential contribution of research evidence to tackling ethnic inequalities in health is recognised, there are widespread concerns regarding the ethical and scientific rigour of much of this research and its potential to do more harm than good. The introduction of guidance documents at critical points in the research cycle - including within the peer-review publication process - might be one way to enhance the quality of such research. This article reports the findings from the piloting of a guidance checklist within an international journal. The checklist was positively received by authors and reviewers, the majority of whom reported it to be comprehensible, relevant and potentially useful in improving the quality of published research. However, participation in the pilot was poor, suggesting that the impact of such a checklist would be very limited unless it was perceived to be an aid to authors and reviewers, rather than an additional burden, and was strongly promoted by journal editors

Targeting the use of reminders and notifications for uptake by populations (TURNUP): a systematic review and evidence synthesis.

Background: Missed appointments are an avoidable cost and a resource inefficiency that impact on the health of the patient and treatment outcomes. Health-care services are increasingly utilising reminder systems to counter these negative effects. Objectives: This project explores the differential effect of reminder systems for different segments of the population for improving attendance, cancellation and rescheduling of appointments. Design: Three inter-related reviews of quantitative and qualitative evidence relating to theoretical explanations for appointment behaviour (review 1), the effectiveness of different approaches to reminding patients to attend health service appointments (review 2) and factors likely to influence non-attendance (review 3). Data sources: Database searches were conducted on Allied and Complementary Medicine, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature Plus with Full Text, The Cochrane Library, EMBASE (via NHS Evidence from 1 January 2000 to January/February 2012), Health Management Information Consortium database, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Xplore, The King’s Fund Library Catalogue, Maternity and Infant Care, MEDLINE, Physiotherapy Evidence Database, PsycINFO, SPORTDiscus and Web of Science from 1 January 2000 to January/February 2012. Supplementary screening of references of included studies was conducted to identify additional potentially relevant studies. Conceptual papers were identified for review 1, randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and systematic reviews for review 2 and a range of quantitative and qualitative research designs for review 3. Methods: We conducted three inter-related reviews of quantitative and qualitative evidence, involving a review of conceptual frameworks of reminder systems and adherence behaviours, a review of the reminder effectiveness literature and a review informed by realist principles to explain the contexts and mechanisms that explain reminder effectiveness. A preliminary conceptual framework was developed to show how reminder systems work, for whom they work and in which circumstances. Six themes emerged that potentially influence the effectiveness of the reminder or whether or not patients would attend their appointment, namely the reminder–patient interaction, reminder accessibility, health-care settings, wider social issues, cancellation and rebookings, and distal/proxy attributes. Standardised review methods were used to investigate the effectiveness of reminders to promote attendance, cancellation or rebooking across all outpatient settings. Finally, a review informed by realist principles was undertaken, using the conceptualframework to explain the context and mechanisms that influence how reminders support attendance, cancellation and rebooking. Results: A total of 466 papers relating to 463 studies were identified for reviews 2 and 3. Findings from 31 RCTs and 11 separate systematic reviews (review 2 only) revealed that reminder systems are consistently effective at reducing non-attendance at appointments, regardless of health-care setting or patient subgroups. Simple reminders that provide details of timing and location of appointments are effective for increasing attendance at appointments. Reminders that provide additional information over and above the date, time and location of the appointment (‘reminder plus’) may be more effective than simple reminders at reducing non-attendance and may be particularly useful for first appointments and screening appointments; simple reminders may be appropriate thereafter for most patients the majority of the time. There was strong evidence that the timing of reminders, between 1 and 7 days prior to the appointment, has no effect on attendance; substantial numbers of patients do not receive their reminder; reminders promote cancellation of appointments; inadequate structural factors prevent patients from cancelling appointments; and few studies investigated factors that influence the effectiveness of reminder systems for population subgroups. Limitations: Generally speaking, the systematic review method seeks to provide a precise answer to a tightly focused question, for which there is a high degree of homogeneity within the studies. A wide range of population types, intervention, comparison and outcomes is included within the RCTs we identified. However, use of this wider approach offers greater analytical capability in terms of understanding contextual and mechanistic factors that would not have been evident in a more narrowly focused review and increases confidence that the findings will have relevance in a wide range of service settings. Conclusions: Simple reminders or ‘reminder plus’ should be sent to all patients in the absence of any clear contraindication. Other reminder alternatives may be relevant for key groups of patients: those from a deprived background, ethnic minorities, substance abusers and those with comorbidities and/or illnesses. We are developing a practice guideline that may help managers to further tailor their reminder systems for their service and client groups. We recommend future research activities in three main areas. First, more studies should routinely consider the potential for differential effects of reminder systems between patient groups in order to identify any inequalities and remedies. Second, ‘reminder plus’ systems appear promising, but there is a need for further research to understand how they influence attendance behaviour. Third, further research is required to identify strategies to ‘optimise’ reminder systems and compare performance with current approaches

Appointment reminder systems are effective but not optimal: results of a systematic review and evidence synthesis employing realist principles

Missed appointments are an avoidable cost and resource inefficiency which impact upon the health of the patient and treatment outcomes. Healthcare services are increasingly utilizing reminder systems to manage these negative effects. This study explores the effectiveness of reminder systems for promoting attendance, cancellations and rescheduling of appointments across all healthcare settings and for particular patient groups and the contextual factors which indicate that reminders are being employed sub-optimally. We used three inter-related reviews of quantitative and qualitative evidence. Firstly, using pre-existing models and theories, we developed a conceptual framework to inform our understanding of the Contexts and Mechanisms which influence reminder effectiveness. Secondly, we performed a review following Centre for Reviews & Dissemination (CRD) guidelines to investigate the effectiveness of different methods of reminding patients to attend health service appointments. Finally, to supplement the effectiveness information, we completed a review informed by realist principles to identify factors likely to influence non-attendance behaviors and the effectiveness of reminders. We found consistent evidence that all types of reminder systems are effective at improving appointment attendance across a range of health care settings and patient populations. Reminder systems may also increase cancellation and rescheduling of unwanted appointments. “Reminders plus”, which provide additional information beyond the reminder function, may be more effective than simple reminders at reducing non-attendance at appointments in particular circumstances. We identified six areas of inefficiency which indicate that reminder systems are being used sub-optimally. Unless otherwise indicated, all patients should receive a reminder to facilitate attendance at their healthcare appointment. The choice of reminder system should be tailored to the individual service. To optimize appointment and reminder systems, healthcare services need supportive administrative processes to enhance attendance, cancellation, rescheduling and re-allocation of appointments to other patients

Additively manufactured flow-resistive pulse sensors

Resistive pulse sensors (RPSs) provide detailed characterization of materials from the nanoparticle up to large biological cells on a particle-to-particle basis. During the RPS experiment, particles pass through a channel or pore that conducts ions, and the change in the ionic current versus time is monitored. The change in current during each translocation, also known as a “pulse”, is dependent on the ratio of the particle and channel dimensions. Here we present a facile and rapid method for producing flow-RPSs that do not require lithographic processes. The additively manufactured sensor has channel dimensions that can be easily controlled. In addition, the fabrication process allows the sensor to be quickly assembled, disassembled, cleaned, and reused. Furthermore, the RPS can be created with a direct interface for fluidic pumps or imaging window for complementary optical microscopy. We present experiments and simulations of the RPS, showing how the pulse shapes are dependent on the channel morphology and how the device can count and size particles across a range of flow rates and ionic strengths. The use of pressure-driven fluid flow through the device allowed a rapid characterization of particles down to concentrations as low as 1 × 10–3 particles per mL, which equated to one event per second

Life and Health: An evidence review and synthesis for the Equality and Human Rights Commission's triennial review.

This report forms part of the first triennial review of equality undertaken by the Equality and Human Rights Commission; its aim is to provide a comprehensive picture of the state of equalities and human rights within the domains of Life Expectancy and Health

Depression and suicide literacy among Canadian sexual and gender minorities

The purpose of this study was to examine and compare depression and suicide literacy among Canadian sexual and gender minorities (SGM). Online surveys comprised of the 22-item depression literacy scale (D-LIT) and the 12-item literacy of suicide scale (LOSS) were completed by 2,778 individuals identifying as SGM. Relationships between depression and suicide literacy and demographic characteristics were evaluated using multivariable linear regression. Overall, SGM correctly answered 71.3% of the questions from the D-LIT and 76.5% of the LOSS. D-LIT scores were significantly lower among cisgender men and D-LIT and LOSS scores were lower among transgender women when compared to cisgender women. LOSS and D-LIT scores were significantly lower among SGM without a university degree (compared to those with a university degree) and among SGM from ethnic minority groups (compared to White SGM). D-LIT scores, but not LOSS scores, were significantly lower among Indigenous SGM compared to White SGM. The findings provide evidence of differences in suicide and depression literacy between SGM subgroups along multiple social axes. Interventions to increase depression and suicide literacy should be prioritized as part of a mental health promotion strategy for SGM, targeting subgroups with lower literacy levels, including cisgender men, transgender women, Indigenous people, racialized minorities, and those without a university degree

Metabolomics Reveals Target and Off-Target Toxicities of a Model Organophosphate Pesticide to Roach (Rutilus rutilus): Implications for Biomonitoring

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