Straightening Curved Traffic Lanes in Video

Video based vehicle sensing from uncalibrated cameras providesuseful traffic information to modern Intelligent Transportation Systems(ITS). This requires vehicle tracking and Turning MovementCounts (TMCs). Traffic scenes contain vehicle motion constrainedalong possibly curved traffic lanes which can be normalized intostraight lines. A simple interpolation scheme is presented whichprojects to image sequences where vehicles always appear to movestraight horizontally for simplified vehicle tracking

Frame Augmentation for Imbalanced Object Detection Datasets

A major challenge in most object detection datasets is class imbal-ance. It is especially apparent in uncurated datasets where framesoriginate from a real-world setup such as a set of cameras col-lecting data from fixed locations. In that case, the dataset classdistribution mirrors the real-world distribution, causing a bias to-wards over-represented classes if used for model training. In thispaper we propose a synthesis technique for balancing the dataset,which exploits having sets of frames from the same camera view.The result is synthesized frames containing only rare objects, whileguaranteeing realistic object placement both in terms of scene con-text and perspective. We train a deep learning object detectionmodel on the augmented dataset and compare its performance toa model trained on the original, imbalanced dataset. Results showthat including the synthesized frames in the training results in asignificant performance boost for the rare classes

Lane Discovery in Traffic Video

Video sensing has become very important in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) due to its relative low cost and non-invasive deployment. An effective ITS requires detailed traffic information, including vehicle volume counts for each lane in surveillance video of a highway or an intersection. The multiple-target, vehicle-tracking and counting problem is most reliably solved in a reduced space defined by the constraints of the vehicles driving within lanes. This requires lanes to be pre-specified. An off-line pre-processing method is presented which automatically discovers traffic lanes from vehicle motion in uncalibrated video from a stationary camera. A moving vehicle density map is constructed, then multiple lane curves are fitted. Traffic lanes are found without relying on possibly noisy tracked vehicle trajectories

Dissolved carbon biogeochemistry and export in mangrove-dominated rivers of the Florida Everglades

The Shark and Harney rivers, located on the southwest coast of Florida, USA, originate in the freshwater, karstic marshes of the Everglades and flow through the largest contiguous mangrove forest in North America. In November 2010 and 2011, dissolved carbon source–sink dynamics was examined in these rivers during SF6 tracer release experiments. Approximately 80 % of the total dissolved carbon flux out of the Shark and Harney rivers during these experiments was in the form of inorganic carbon, either via air–water CO2 exchange or longitudinal flux of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) to the coastal ocean. Between 42 and 48 % of the total mangrove-derived DIC flux into the rivers was emitted to the atmosphere, with the remaining being discharged to the coastal ocean. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) represented ca. 10 % of the total mangrove-derived dissolved carbon flux from the forests to the rivers. The sum of mangrove-derived DIC and DOC export from the forest to these rivers was estimated to be at least 18.9 to 24.5 mmol m−2 d−1, a rate lower than other independent estimates from Shark River and from other mangrove forests. Results from these experiments also suggest that in Shark and Harney rivers, mangrove contribution to the estuarine flux of dissolved carbon to the ocean is less than 10 %

The efficacy and mechanism evaluation of treating idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis with the addition of co-trimoxazole (EME-TIPAC): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Background: We hypothesise, based upon the findings from our previous trial, that the addition of co-trimoxazole to standard therapy is beneficial to patients with moderate to severe idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). We aim to investigate this by assessing unplanned hospitalisation-free survival (defined as time from randomisation to first non-elective hospitalisation, lung transplant or death) and to determine whether any effect relates to changes in infection and/or markers of disease control and neutrophil activity. Methods/design: The EME-TIPAC trial is a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised, multicentre clinical trial. A total of 330 symptomatic patients, aged 40 years old or older, with IPF diagnosed by a multidisciplinary team (MDT) according to international guidelines and a FVC ≤ 75% predicted will be enrolled. Patients are randomised equally to receive either two tablets of co-trimoxazole 480 mg or two placebo tablets twice daily over a median treatment period of 27 (range 12–42) months. All patients receive folic acid 5 mg daily whilst on the trial IMP to reduce the risk of bone marrow depression. The primary outcome for the trial is a composite endpoint consisting of the time to death, transplant or first nonelective hospital admission and will be determined from adverse event reporting, hospital databases and the Office of National Statistics with active tracing of patients missing appointments. Secondary outcomes include the individual components of the primary outcome, (1) King’s Brief Interstitial Lung Disease Questionnaire, (2) MRC Dyspnoea Score, (3) EQ5D, (4) spirometry, (5) total lung-diffusing capacity and (6) routine sputum microbiology. Blood will be taken for cell count, biochemistry and analysis of biomarkers including C-reactive protein and markers of disease. The trial will last for 4 years. Recruitment will take place in a network of approximately 40 sites throughout the UK (see Table 1 for a full list of participating sites). We expect recruitment for 30 months, follow-up for 12 months and trial analysis and reporting to take 4 months. Discussion: The trial is designed to test the hypothesis that treating IPF patients with co-trimoxazole will increase the time to death (all causes), lung transplant or first non-elective hospital admission compared to standard care (https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg163), in patients with moderate to severe disease. The mechanistic aims are to investigate the effect on lung microbiota and other measures of infection, markers of epithelial injury and markers of neutrophil activity. Trial registration: International Standard Randomised Controlled Trials Number (ISRCTN) Registry, ID: 17464641. Registered on 29 January 2015. Keywords: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, Co-trimoxazole, Forced vital capacity, Mortalit

Bounds on the Complexity of Halfspace Intersections when the Bounded Faces have Small Dimension

We study the combinatorial complexity of D-dimensional polyhedra defined as the intersection of n halfspaces, with the property that the highest dimension of any bounded face is much smaller than D. We show that, if d is the maximum dimension of a bounded face, then the number of vertices of the polyhedron is O(n^d) and the total number of bounded faces of the polyhedron is O(n^d^2). For inputs in general position the number of bounded faces is O(n^d). For any fixed d, we show how to compute the set of all vertices, how to determine the maximum dimension of a bounded face of the polyhedron, and how to compute the set of bounded faces in polynomial time, by solving a polynomial number of linear programs

Kaon photoproduction: background contributions, form factors and missing resonances

The photoproduction p(gamma, K+)Lambda process is studied within a field-theoretic approach. It is shown that the background contributions constitute an important part of the reaction dynamics. We compare predictions obtained with three plausible techniques for dealing with these background contributions. It appears that the extracted resonance parameters drastically depend on the applied technique. We investigate the implications of the corrections to the functional form of the hadronic form factor in the contact term, recently suggested by Davidson and Workman (Phys. Rev. C 63, 025210). The role of background contributions and hadronic form factors for the identification of the quantum numbers of ``missing'' resonances is discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 7 eps figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Enhanced upconversion emission of Er3+-Yb3+ co-doped Ba5 (PO4) 3OH powder phosphor for application in photodynamic therapy

Er3+-Yb3+ co-doped Ba5(PO4)3OH nanoparticle powder phosphors were successfully synthesized by urea combustion method. The resulting powder phosphors were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), high resolution scanning electron microscopy (HRSEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL). XRD data confirmed crystallization of pure hexagonal phase of Ba5(PO4)3OH and HRSEM images showed formation of ellipsoidal particles. XPS data combined with EDS analysis confirmed the materials composition that corresponds with identification of all the chemical elements constituting the materials. The in vitro dark cytotoxicity of the particles confirmed lack of cytocidal behaviour in the absence of light, but considerable photodynamic therapy (PDT) activity was observed upon illumination. Upon excitation using a 980 nm laser, multiple emission peaks in the green and red regions corresponding to the optical transitions of Er3+ ion were observed. Upon co-doping with Yb3+, upconverted red emission was detected and this was attributable to non-radiative energy transfer from Yb3+ to Er3+. The proposed mechanism of upconversion photoluminescence is discussed

Broadening the Berlin definition of ARDS to patients receiving high-flow nasal oxygen:an observational study in patients with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure due to COVID-19

BACKGROUND: High-flow nasal oxygen (HFNO) is increasingly used in patients with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure. It is uncertain whether a broadened Berlin definition of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), in which ARDS can be diagnosed in patients who are not receiving ventilation, results in similar groups of patients receiving HFNO as in patients receiving ventilation.METHODS: We applied a broadened definition of ARDS in a multicenter, observational study in adult critically ill patients with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), wherein the requirement for a minimal level of 5 cm H2O PEEP with ventilation is replaced by a minimal level of airflow rate with HFNO, and compared baseline characteristics and outcomes between patients receiving HFNO and patients receiving ventilation. The primary endpoint was ICU mortality. We also compared outcomes in risk for death groups using the PaO2/FiO2 cutoffs as used successfully in the original definition of ARDS. Secondary endpoints were hospital mortality; mortality on days 28 and 90; need for ventilation within 7 days in patients that started with HFNO; the number of days free from HFNO or ventilation; and ICU and hospital length of stay.RESULTS: Of 728 included patients, 229 patients started with HFNO and 499 patients with ventilation. All patients fulfilled the broadened Berlin definition of ARDS. Patients receiving HFNO had lower disease severity scores and lower PaO2/FiO2 than patients receiving ventilation. ICU mortality was lower in receiving HFNO (22.7 vs 35.6%; p = 0.001). Using PaO2/FiO2 cutoffs for mild, moderate and severe arterial hypoxemia created groups with an ICU mortality of 16.7%, 22.0%, and 23.5% (p = 0.906) versus 19.1%, 37.9% and 41.4% (p = 0.002), in patients receiving HFNO versus patients receiving ventilation, respectively.CONCLUSIONS: Using a broadened definition of ARDS may facilitate an earlier diagnosis of ARDS in patients receiving HFNO; however, ARDS patients receiving HFNO and ARDS patients receiving ventilation have distinct baseline characteristics and mortality rates.TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (identifier NCT04719182).</p