Object's shadow removal with removal validation

We introduce in this paper, a shadow detection and removal method for moving objects especially for humans and vehicles. An effective method is presented for detecting and removing shadows from foreground figures. We assume that the foreground figures have been extracted from the input image by some background subtraction method. A figure may contain only one moving object with or without shadow. The homogeneity property of shadows is explored in a novel way for shadow detection and image division technique is used. The process is followed by filtering, removal, boundary removal and removal validation

Smartphone-Based Prenatal Education for Parents with Preterm Birth Risk Factors

Objective To develop an educational mobile application (app) for expectant parents diagnosed with risk factors for premature birth. Methods Parent and medical advisory panels delineated the vision for the app. The app helps prepare for preterm birth. For pilot testing, obstetricians offered the app between 18–22 weeks gestational age to English speaking parents with risk factors for preterm birth. After 4 weeks of use, each participant completed a questionnaire. The software tracked topics accessed and duration of use. Results For pilot testing, 31 participants were recruited and 28 completed the questionnaire. After app utilization, participants reported heightened awareness of preterm birth (93%), more discussion of pregnancy or prematurity issues with partner (86%), increased questions at clinic visits (43%), and increased anxiety (21%). Participants reported receiving more prematurity information from the app than from their healthcare providers. The 15 participants for whom tracking data was available accessed the app for an average of 8 h. Conclusion Parents with increased risk for preterm birth may benefit from this mobile app educational program. Practice implications If the pregnancy results in preterm birth hospitalization, parents would have built a foundation of knowledge to make informed medical care choices

An adapted point based tracking for vehicle speed estimation in linear spacing

Vehicle velocity estimation is an important aspect of intelligent transportation systems. Normally velocity is estimated using dedicated laser speed traps and Doppler radars. Recently, the use of cameras is becoming more common for the purpose of traffic surveillance and smart surveillance system. It is thus the aim of this paper to propose a method for vehicle speed estimation using these existing video cameras. In this paper, we propose a vehicle speed estimation method from video analysis. The method proposed contains several steps; image preprocessing, centroid extraction and tracking. The proposed method transforms the 2D image points into a 3D virtual world to obtain actual vehicle position in 3D space. This is to account for perspective distortion commonly seen in images. Using these 3D points and measuring the time for displacement, the vehicle speed is obtained. Experimental results have shown that the proposed method gives accurate velocity estimation

Vestibular schwannomas: Clinical presentation, management and outcome

Objective: To review the demographic trends clinical spectrum, diagnosis, management and outcome of patients with vestibular Schwannoma and to identify areas where improvements are needed.Methods: All patients with vestibular schwannoma admitted to the Aga Khan University Hospital over the past 11 years were reviewed retrospectively.Results: The age range of majority of 22 patients analyzed, was 41-50 years (23%). Hearing loss was the most common presenting symptom (96%). Other clinical features included cranial nerve palsies (59%) and headache (55%). Fifty percent had signs of raised intracranial pressure. Neuroimaging revealed Stage IV b (tumor distorting the brainstem and compressing the 4th ventricle) in 50% cases. Neurosurgical intervention was carried out in 86%; mainly using the retrosigmoid approach. Postoperative complications included facial nerve palsy in 13 (65%) and hydrocephalus in 5 (25%) patients. Hearing determined clinically was preserved in three patients (14%). One patient died during the inpatient stay.Conclusion: Presentation of these patients is late and the outcome is poor

Percutaneous transhepatic biliary stenting

Objective: Bilary stenting with endoprosthesis is a palliative procedure to relieve malignant biliary obstruction. Percutaneous transhepatic technique has been employed whenever endoscopic technique was not possible or had failed.SETTING: Angiography/intervention suite, department of radiology, Aga Khan University hospital, Karachi.Methods: We present retrospective analysis of 17 patients with malignant jaundice who were treated with percutaneous techniques after the endoscopic route had failed.Results: The success rate was 94% with placement of single plastic stent in 14 patients, double stents in 3 patients and self-expandable stent in one patient. The overall complication rate was 41% including sepsis, liver abscess, biloma formation, biliary leakage and stent occlusion. There was one procedure related death due to severe sepsis.CONCLUSION: Percutaneous transhepatic biliary stenting is an alternative procedure to relieve malignant biliary obstruction with high complication rate and should be reserved for selected patients in whom endoscopic route has failed

A reduced-reference perceptual image and video quality metric based on edge preservation

In image and video compression and transmission, it is important to rely on an objective image/video quality metric which accurately represents the subjective quality of processed images and video sequences. In some scenarios, it is also important to evaluate the quality of the received video sequence with minimal reference to the transmitted one. For instance, for quality improvement of video transmission through closed-loop optimisation, the video quality measure can be evaluated at the receiver and provided as feedback information to the system controller. The original image/video sequence-prior to compression and transmission-is not usually available at the receiver side, and it is important to rely at the receiver side on an objective video quality metric that does not need reference or needs minimal reference to the original video sequence. The observation that the human eye is very sensitive to edge and contour information of an image underpins the proposal of our reduced reference (RR) quality metric, which compares edge information between the distorted and the original image. Results highlight that the metric correlates well with subjective observations, also in comparison with commonly used full-reference metrics and with a state-of-the-art RR metric. © 2012 Martini et al

Vitamin D for the management of asthma

Background Several clinical trials of vitamin D to prevent asthma exacerbation and improve asthma control have been conducted in children and adults, but a meta-analysis restricted to double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trials of this intervention is lacking. Objectives To evaluate the efficacy of administration of vitamin D and its hydroxylated metabolites in reducing the risk of severe asthma exacerbations (defined as those requiring treatment with systemic corticosteroids) and improving asthma symptom control. Search methods We searched the Cochrane Airways Group Trial Register and reference lists of articles. We contacted the authors of studies in order to identify additional trials. Date of last search: January 2016. Selection criteria Double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trials of vitamin D in children and adults with asthma evaluating exacerbation risk or asthma symptom control or both. Data collection and analysis Two review authors independently applied study inclusion criteria, extracted the data, and assessed risk of bias. We obtained missing data from the authors where possible. We reported results with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Main results We included seven trials involving a total of 435 children and two trials involving a total of 658 adults in the primary analysis. Of these, one trial involving 22 children and two trials involving 658 adults contributed to the analysis of the rate of exacerbations requiring systemic corticosteroids. Duration of trials ranged from four to 12 months, and the majority of participants had mild to moderate asthma. Administration of vitamin D reduced the rate of exacerbations requiring systemic corticosteroids (rate ratio 0.63, 95% CI 0.45 to 0.88; 680 participants; 3 studies; high-quality evidence), and decreased the risk of having at least one exacerbation requiring an emergency department visit or hospitalisation or both (odds ratio (OR) 0.39, 95% CI 0.19 to 0.78; number needed to treat for an additional beneficial outcome, 27; 963 participants; 7 studies; high-quality evidence). There was no effect of vitamin D on % predicted forced expiratory volume in one second (mean difference (MD) 0.48, 95% CI -0.93 to 1.89; 387 participants; 4 studies; high-quality evidence) or Asthma Control Test scores (MD -0.08, 95% CI -0.70 to 0.54; 713 participants; 3 studies; high-quality evidence). Administration of vitamin D did not influence the risk of serious adverse events (OR 1.01, 95% CI 0.54 to 1.89; 879 participants; 5 studies; moderate-quality evidence). One trial comparing low-dose versus high-dose vitamin D reported two episodes of hypercalciuria, one in each study arm. No other study reported any adverse event potentially attributable to administration of vitamin D. No participant in any included trial suffered a fatal asthma exacerbation. We did not perform a subgroup analysis to determine whether the effect of vitamin D on risk of severe exacerbation was modified by baseline vitamin D status, due to unavailability of suitably disaggregated data. We assessed two trials as being at high risk of bias in at least one domain; neither trial contributed data to the analysis of the outcomes reported above. Authors' conclusions Meta-analysis of a modest number of trials in people with predominantly mild to moderate asthma suggests that vitamin D is likely to reduce both the risk of severe asthma exacerbation and healthcare use. It is as yet unclear whether these effects are confined to people with lower baseline vitamin D status; further research, including individual patient data meta-analysis of existing datasets, is needed to clarify this issue. Children and people with frequent severe asthma exacerbations were under-represented; additional primary trials are needed to establish whether vitamin D can reduce the risk of severe asthma exacerbation in these groups