People re-identification in a camera network

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on March 8, 2013).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Thesis advisor: Dr. Tony HanIncludes bibliographical references.M.S. University of Missouri--Columbia 2012."December 2012"In this research, we present an appearance based method for people re-identification. It consists in the extraction of two types of features related to human appearance, color histograms and SIFT features. Images are captured from surveillance videos. For every image, the two types of features are combined to create a two dimensional signature that represents the contained individual. The goal is to make this signature as distinctive as possible. The signatures are arranged into pairs to form positive examples (two images of the same individual) and negative examples (two images of two different individuals). Pairs are fed to a machine learning algorithm. The algorithm is trained to find the most discriminative model. AdaBoost is what we used to perform this task. The algorithm presented in this thesis has been tested on several datasets (ViPER, CAVIAR, 3DPes)

Alternative fumigants to methyl bromide for the control of pest infestation in grain and dry food products

The primary aim of the current study is to evaluate the potential use of the known isothyiocyanates (ITC) as compared to a new ITC isolated from Eruca sativa (salad rocket) as fumigants for the control of stored products insects. The biological activity of methyl iodide (CH3I), carbon disulphide (CS2), benzaldehyde (C7H60) and essential oils were also evaluated. The toxicity of the various fumigants was assessed against adults and larvae of a number of major stored-product insects. ITCs are potential candidates because only very low concentrations are needed for the control of stored-product insects. It should be mentioned that Eruca sativa is used worldwide as a food supplement. Methyl thio-butyl ITC the main bioactive component in this plant has high toxicity against insects, but lower mammalian toxicity as compared to other active ITCs. Comparative studies with CH3I, CS2 and C7H60 showed that the first was the mot active compound against stored-product insects followed by the second and the third. CH3I was found less sorptive and to be less penetrative in wheat than CS2. The activity of some essential oils was also evaluated. In this context, we should keep in mind that a general consensus is very difficult to achieve in order to introduce broadspectrum fumigants like methyl bromide or phosphine. Because of this, alternative fumigants could be developed against particular species of insects or to be used for specific food product commodity. Keywords: Fumigants; Isothiocyanates; Methyl iodide; Carbon disulfide; Benzaldehyde

Traffic engineering IP/GMPLS over WDM

Internet has very much impacted our life and daily activities. With rapid growth in the numbers of users especially from the industries as well as the development in optical technology, the need of better network with guaranteed quality of service is highly demanded. One potential solution is to adapt Internet with GMPLS network over WDM and is currently widely researched. The GMPLS over WDM network is seen as the most promising network in servicing the users with the capability of providing high quality of service in terms of the information throughput and transfer speed. The project investigates the performance of an IP with GMPLS network over WDM with a constraint, i.e. the availability of lambda. This is conducted using simulation. The simulation work is done using a powerful open sourced network simulator, known as NS-2. A GMPLS WDM network was modeled and a performance study based on the throughput, end-to-end delay, jitter and lambda utilization of the network are presented in this thesis

Phytochemical-based nano emulsions for stored grain protection: Presentation

Stored grain losses caused by pest insects contribute significantly to the global food crisis. Currently, there are two main chemical control methods against stored product insect pests: fumigation with very toxic gases and grain protection by residual contact insecticides. Today, the global tendency is to prevent/reduce the wide use of insecticides, which have high toxicity to humans and harm the environment. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop alternative eco-friendly approaches for stored insect pest control. Essential oils from Micromeria fruticosa and Mentha rotundifolia (Fam. Labiatae) and their main constituent pulegone which previously were shown by us as very active against stored product insect pests, were encapsulated into coarse and nano emulsions. The insecticidal activity of the developed formulations against primary internal insect rice weevil (Sitophilus oryzae L.) and secondary external pest red flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum Herbst) was evaluated in laboratory and pilot experiments. It was found that the phytochemical-based nano emulsions offered significant advantages and provided powerful and prolonged biological activity compare with the coarse formulations. The developed nano emulsions could serve as a natural, effective, low-toxify for human, and environmentally preferred method for protection stored grain and dry food products from pest insects.Stored grain losses caused by pest insects contribute significantly to the global food crisis. Currently, there are two main chemical control methods against stored product insect pests: fumigation with very toxic gases and grain protection by residual contact insecticides. Today, the global tendency is to prevent/reduce the wide use of insecticides, which have high toxicity to humans and harm the environment. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop alternative eco-friendly approaches for stored insect pest control. Essential oils from Micromeria fruticosa and Mentha rotundifolia (Fam. Labiatae) and their main constituent pulegone which previously were shown by us as very active against stored product insect pests, were encapsulated into coarse and nano emulsions. The insecticidal activity of the developed formulations against primary internal insect rice weevil (Sitophilus oryzae L.) and secondary external pest red flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum Herbst) was evaluated in laboratory and pilot experiments. It was found that the phytochemical-based nano emulsions offered significant advantages and provided powerful and prolonged biological activity compare with the coarse formulations. The developed nano emulsions could serve as a natural, effective, low-toxify for human, and environmentally preferred method for protection stored grain and dry food products from pest insects

Isolation, structural assignment and insecticidal activity of (1S,2R,3R,4S)1,2-epoxy-1-methyl-4-(1-methyl)cyclohex-3-yl acetate, a natural product from Minthostachys tomentosa

[EN] (-)-(1S,2R,3R,4S)-1,2-Epoxy-1-methyl-4-(1-methylethyl)-cyclohex-3-yl acetate has previously been identified as the active compound of Minthostachys tomentosa responsible for the insecticidal activity against Oncopeltus fasciatus. Its structure was initially assigned on the basis of spectral data. In order to confirm the structure and to define the stereochemistry, stereoselective synthesis of its enantiomer, (+)-(1R,2S,3S,3R)-1,2-epoxy-1-methyl-4-(1-methylethyl)-cyclohex-3-yl acetate, starting from (R)-(-)piperitone, was carried out using a Sharpless reaction as the key step. The natural product is dextro-rotatory while the synthetic product is levo-rotatory. Measurements of insecticidal activities of the different steroisomers revealed that only the natural product is active.Cantin Sanz, A.; Lull, C.; Primo Millo, J.; Miranda Alonso, MÁ.; Primo Yufera, E. (2001). Isolation, structural assignment and insecticidal activity of (1S,2R,3R,4S)1,2-epoxy-1-methyl-4-(1-methyl)cyclohex-3-yl acetate, a natural product from Minthostachys tomentosa. Tetrahedron Asymmetry. 12(4):677-683. doi:10.1016/S0957-4166(01)00094-5S67768312

Plant essential oils: the way forward for aphid control?

Over the past decade or so, there has been an increasing concern that the use of conventional synthetic pesticides may be having a detrimental effect not just on pollinators and other beneficial insects (Goulson et al., 2015; Regan et al., 2017), but also on insects in general (Sorg et al., 2013; Pisa et al., 2015; Leather, 2018; Main et al., 2018). In addition, the problem of insect resistance to insecticides is a serious problem, with almost 600 arthropod species‐resistant to one or more of the chemical groups commonly used in crop protection products (Sparks & Nauen, 2015). Aphids are particularly good at evolving resistance to insecticides, with the peach–potato aphid, Myzus persicae displaying six types of resistance (Simon & Peccoud, 2018). There is obviously a need to develop new crop protection products that are fully compatible with modern Integrated Pest Management approaches. Biopesticides based on entomopathogenic fungi have been used for many decades but their development and use has been hampered by legislation and, in some cases difficulties with formulation and delivery (Chandler et al., 2011)