2,769 research outputs found
Flame filtering and perimeter localization of wildfires using aerial thermal imagery
Airborne thermal infrared (TIR) imaging systems are being increasingly used for wild fire tactical monitoring since they show important advantages over spaceborne platforms and visible sensors while becoming much more affordable and much lighter than multispectral cameras. However, the analysis of aerial TIR images entails a number of difficulties which have thus far prevented monitoring tasks from being totally automated. One of these issues that needs to be addressed is the appearance of flame projections during the geo-correction of off-nadir images. Filtering these flames is essential in order to accurately estimate the geographical location of the fuel burning interface. Therefore, we present a methodology which allows the automatic localisation of the active fire contour free of flame projections. The actively burning area is detected in TIR georeferenced images through a combination of intensity thresholding techniques, morphological processing and active contours. Subsequently, flame projections are filtered out by the temporal frequency analysis of the appropriate contour descriptors. The proposed algorithm was tested on footages acquired during three large-scale field experimental burns. Results suggest this methodology may be suitable to automatise the acquisition of quantitative data about the fire evolution. As future work, a revision of the low-pass filter implemented for the temporal analysis (currently a median filter) was recommended. The availability of up-to-date information about the fire state would improve situational awareness during an emergency response and may be used to calibrate data-driven simulators capable of emitting short-term accurate forecasts of the subsequent fire evolution.Postprint (author's final draft
Revolving doors and conflicts of interest in health regulatory agencies in Brazil
Regulatory health agencies exist in most
public health systems (PHS) and play a
crucial role in enacting regulation and overseeing
economic activities in order to ensure
the quality of health systems, goods and
services.1 Multiple practices of corruption
such as bribery or fraud have been reported
in health policy and systems.2 Public health
agencies are particularly susceptible to ‘regulatory
capture’,3 4 a process by which an
agency advances the special interests of the
industries and of other actors it is entrusted
with regulating. One of the mechanisms that
can potentially lead to an agency capture is
the so-called
‘revolving door’,5 the situation
where an exchange of roles between public
regulators and regulated institutions may
result in health policy decisions which are
biased in favour of industry interests.
Revolving doors have previously been
described in the USA and Europe, with an
emphasis on legislative, energy, financial
and patent agencies. However, there is little
empirical evidence on the scale and scope
of this problem in PHS. In this commentary,
we explore the extent of the revolving
doors phenomenon in Brazil by analysing
the professional trajectories of public agents
who held high positions at the two key health
regulatory agencies in the country between
1999 and 2018
Flavonoid intake and the risk of age-related cataract in China’s Heilongjiang Province
Background/Objectives: Epidemiological evidence suggests that diets rich in flavonoids may reduce the risk of developing age-related cataract (ARC). Flavonoids are widely distributed in foods of plant origin and the objective of this study was to evaluate retrospectively the association between the intakes of the five flavonoid subclasses and the risk of ARC. Subjects/Methods: A population-based case-control study (249 cases and 66 controls) was carried out in Heilongjiang province, which is located in the Northeast of China, and where intakes and availability of fresh vegetables and fruits can be limited. Dietary data gathered by food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) were used to calculate flavonoid intake. Adjusted odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were estimated by logistic regression. Results: No linear associations between risk of developing ARC and intakes of total dietary flavonoids, anthocyanidins, flavon-3-ol, flavanone, total flavones or total flavonols were found, but quercetin and isorhamnetin intake was inversely associated with ARC risk (OR 11.78, 95% CI: 1.62-85.84, P<0.05, and OR 6.99, 95% CI:1.12-43.44, P<0.05, quartile 4 vs quartile 1, respectively). Conclusion: As quercetin is contained in many plant foods and isorhamnetin is only contained in very few foods, we concluded that higher quercetin intake may be an important dietary factor in the reduction of risk of age-related cataract
Technological dependence and outsourcing for innovation in journalism in Spanish media outlets (2014-2021)
Periodismo y tecnología siempre han ido de la mano, pero el creciente
avance técnico y su consiguiente fascinación ha degenerado en una
falta de perspectiva crítica. Este estudio combina metodologías
cuantitativas y cualitativas para arrojar luz sobre esta intersección,
con la innovación como eje central. En primer lugar, se identificaron
las organizaciones periodísticas más destacadas en el ecosistema
español en los últimos años (2014-2021). A continuación, se rastrearon
todas las innovaciones que habían implementado en ese periodo.
Finalmente, se analizó el peso de la tecnología en sus innovaciones a
partir de tres variables: la autoría, la evolución temporal y la naturaleza
de las organizaciones. Los resultados revelan que aproximadamente
dos terceras partes de las innovaciones adoptadas tienen relación
con la tecnología, lo que corrobora su importancia para el avance
del periodismo. Sin embargo, se confirma la existencia de un gran
número de iniciativas independientes del progreso técnico, sobre
todo en el ámbito organizacional. En cuanto a la autoría, predominan
las tecnologías ajenas, que presentan un pico en el año 2020 como
respuesta a la crisis sanitaria. Estos hallazgos permiten ahondar en la
interrelación entre la innovación tecnológica y el contexto social y en
la dependencia de los gigantes tecnológicosJournalism and technology have always gone hand in hand, but the
growth of technological progress and the resulting fascination have
led to a lack of critical perspective. This study combines quantitative
and qualitative methodologies to shed light on this intersection, with
innovation at its core. First, the most prominent news organizations
in the Spanish ecosystem in recent years (2014-2021) were identified.
Next, all the innovations they implemented during that period were
tracked. Lastly, the weight of technology in their innovations was
analyzed using three variables: creator, change over time, and the
nature of the organizations. The results reveal that approximately twothirds
of the innovations implemented are linked to technology, thereby
corroborating its importance for progress in journalism. However, the
results also confirm the existence of many initiatives independent of
technological progress, particularly in the organizational sphere. In
terms of the creators, third-party technologies predominate, with a spike
in 2020 in response to the health crisis. These findings allow us to delve
into the correlation between technological innovation, the social context
and the reliance on big tech
Image similarity metrics suitable for infrared video stabilization during active wildfire monitoring : a comparative analysis
Aerial Thermal Infrared (TIR) imagery has demonstrated tremendous potential to monitor active forest fires and acquire detailed information about fire behavior. However, aerial video is usually unstable and requires inter-frame registration before further processing. Measurement of image misalignment is an essential operation for video stabilization. Misalignment can usually be estimated through image similarity, although image similarity metrics are also sensitive to other factors such as changes in the scene and lighting conditions. Therefore, this article presents a thorough analysis of image similarity measurement techniques useful for inter-frame registration in wildfire thermal video. Image similarity metrics most commonly and successfully employed in other fields were surveyed, adapted, benchmarked and compared. We investigated their response to different camera movement components as well as recording frequency and natural variations in fire, background and ambient conditions. The study was conducted in real video from six fire experimental scenarios, ranging from laboratory tests to large-scale controlled burns. Both Global and Local Sensitivity Analyses (GSA and LSA, respectively) were performed using state-of-the-art techniques. Based on the obtained results, two different similarity metrics are proposed to satisfy two different needs. A normalized version of Mutual Information is recommended as cost function during registration, whereas 2D correlation performed the best as quality control metric after registration. These results provide a sound basis for image alignment measurement and open the door to further developments in image registration, motion estimation and video stabilization for aerial monitoring of active wildland fires
Higher incidence of adverse events in isolated patients compared with non-isolated patients: A cohort study
Objective
To determine whether isolated patients admitted to hospital have a higher incidence of adverse events (AEs), to identify their nature, impact and preventability.
Design
Prospective cohort study with isolated and non-isolated patients.
Setting
One public university hospital in the Valencian Community (southeast Spain).
Participants
We consecutively collected 400 patients, 200 isolated and 200 non-isolated, age =18 years old, to match according to date of entry, admission department, sex, age (±5 years) and disease severity from April 2017 to October 2018. Exclusion criteria: patients age <18 years old and/or reverse isolation patients.
Primary and secondary outcome measures
The primary outcome as the AE, defined according to the National Study of Adverse Effects linked to Hospitalisation (Estudio Nacional Sobre los Efectos Adversos) criteria. Cumulative incidence rates and AE incidence density rates were calculated.
Results
The incidence of isolated patients with AEs 16.5% (95% CI 11.4% to 21.6%) compared with 9.5% (95% CI 5.4% to 13.6%) in non-isolated (p<0.03). The incidence density of patients with AEs among isolated patients was 11.8 per 1000?days/patient (95%?CI 7.8 to 15.9) compared with 4.3 per 1000?days/patient (95%?CI 2.4 to 6.3) among non-isolated patients (p<0.001). The incidence of AEs among isolated patients was 18.5% compared with 11% for non-isolated patients (p<0.09). Among the 37 AEs detected in 33 isolated patients, and the 22 AEs detected in 19 non-isolated patients, most corresponded to healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) for both isolated and non-isolated patients (48.6% vs 45.4%). There were significant differences with respect to the preventability of AEs, (67.6% among isolated patients compared with 52.6% among non-isolated patients).
Conclusions
AEs were significantly higher in isolated patients compared with non-isolated patients, more than half being preventable and with HAIs as the primary cause. It is essential to improve training and the safety culture of healthcare professionals relating to the care provided to this type of patient
Differences in the clinical management of women and men after detection of a solitary pulmonary nodule in clinical practice
Objectives To explore differences in the clinical management of men and women in the 5 years after detecting a solitary
pulmonary nodule (SPN) by chest radiograph or CT in routine clinical practice.
Methods We followed up 545 men and 347 women with an SPN detected by chest radiograph or CT in a retrospective cohort of
25,422 individuals undergoing routine thoracic imaging in 2010–2011.We compared the frequency of each management strategy
(no further test, immediate intervention or follow up) according to sex by means of chi-squared.We estimated the relative risk of
women versus men of having been followed up instead of an immediate intervention using multivariate logistic regression. We
compared by sex the time between detection of the nodule and lung cancer diagnosis, the time between diagnosis and death by
means of Mann-Whitney U test and the cumulative effective dose of radiation in each management strategy by means of t test.
Results Women were more likely than men to have follow-up rather than immediate intervention (aRR = 1.8, CI 1.3–2.7, p =
0.002), particularly in those who underwent CT (aRR = 4.2, CI 1.9–9.3, p < 0.001). The median time between SPN detection and
lung cancer diagnosis was higher in women (4.2 months, interquartile range (IQR) 5.1) than in men (1.5 months, IQR 16.2). The
mean cumulative effective dose was 21.3 mSv, 19.4 mSv in men and 23.9mv in women (p = 0.023).
Conclusions Our results could reflect decisions based on a greater suspicion of lung cancer in men. The incidental detection of SPNs is
increasing, and it is necessary to establish clear strategies aimed to reduce variability in their management according to patient’s sex
Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at TeV with the ATLAS detector
This paper presents measurements of the and cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a
function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were
collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with
the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity
of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements
varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the
1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured
with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with
predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various
parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between
them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables,
submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at
https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13
Search for chargino-neutralino production with mass splittings near the electroweak scale in three-lepton final states in √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector
A search for supersymmetry through the pair production of electroweakinos with mass splittings near the electroweak scale and decaying via on-shell W and Z bosons is presented for a three-lepton final state. The analyzed proton-proton collision data taken at a center-of-mass energy of √s=13 TeV were collected between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb−1. A search, emulating the recursive jigsaw reconstruction technique with easily reproducible laboratory-frame variables, is performed. The two excesses observed in the 2015–2016 data recursive jigsaw analysis in the low-mass three-lepton phase space are reproduced. Results with the full data set are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. They are interpreted to set exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level on simplified models of chargino-neutralino pair production for masses up to 345 GeV
Measurements of fiducial and differential cross sections for Higgs boson production in the diphoton decay channel at s√=8 TeV with ATLAS
Measurements of fiducial and differential cross sections are presented for Higgs boson production in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of s√=8 TeV. The analysis is performed in the H → γγ decay channel using 20.3 fb−1 of data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The signal is extracted using a fit to the diphoton invariant mass spectrum assuming that the width of the resonance is much smaller than the experimental resolution. The signal yields are corrected for the effects of detector inefficiency and resolution. The pp → H → γγ fiducial cross section is measured to be 43.2 ±9.4(stat.) − 2.9 + 3.2 (syst.) ±1.2(lumi)fb for a Higgs boson of mass 125.4GeV decaying to two isolated photons that have transverse momentum greater than 35% and 25% of the diphoton invariant mass and each with absolute pseudorapidity less than 2.37. Four additional fiducial cross sections and two cross-section limits are presented in phase space regions that test the theoretical modelling of different Higgs boson production mechanisms, or are sensitive to physics beyond the Standard Model. Differential cross sections are also presented, as a function of variables related to the diphoton kinematics and the jet activity produced in the Higgs boson events. The observed spectra are statistically limited but broadly in line with the theoretical expectations
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