A colour-based building recognition using support vector machine

Many applications apply the concept of image recognition to help human in recognising objects simply by just using digital images. A content-based building recognition system could solve the problem of using just text as search input. In this paper, a building recognition system using colour histogram is proposed for recognising buildings in Ipoh city, Perak, Malaysia. The colour features of each building image will be extracted. A feature vector combining the mean, standard deviation, variance, skewness and kurtosis of gray level will be formed to represent each building image. These feature values are later used to train the system using supervised learning algorithm, which is Support Vector Machine (SVM). Lastly, the accuracy of the recognition system is evaluated using 10-fold cross validation. The evaluation results show that the building recognition system is well trained and able to effectively recognise the building images with low misclassification rate

A colour-based building recognition using support vector machine

Many applications apply the concept of image recognition to help human in recognising objects simply by just using digital images. A content-based building recognition system could solve the problem of using just text as search input. In this paper, a building recognition system using colour histogram is proposed for recognising buildings in Ipoh city, Perak, Malaysia. The colour features of each building image will be extracted. A feature vector combining the mean, standard deviation, variance, skewness and kurtosis of gray level will be formed to represent each building image. These feature values are later used to train the system using supervised learning algorithm, which is Support Vector Machine (SVM). Lastly, the accuracy of the recognition system is evaluated using 10-fold cross validation. The evaluation results show that the building recognition system is well trained and able to effectively recognise the building images with low misclassification rate

Data-Driven Analysis of COVID-19 Reveals Persistent Immune Abnormalities in Convalescent Severe Individuals

Severe SARS-CoV-2 infection can trigger uncontrolled innate and adaptive immune responses, which are commonly associated with lymphopenia and increased neutrophil counts. However, whether the immune abnormalities observed in mild to severely infected patients persist into convalescence remains unclear. Herein, comparisons were drawn between the immune responses of COVID-19 infected and convalescent adults. Strikingly, survivors of severe COVID-19 had decreased proportions of NKT and Vδ2 T cells, and increased proportions of low-density neutrophils, IgA+/CD86+/CD123+ non-classical monocytes and hyperactivated HLADR+CD38+ CD8+ T cells, and elevated levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as hepatocyte growth factor and vascular endothelial growth factor A, long after virus clearance. Our study suggests potential immune correlates of “long COVID-19”, and defines key cells and cytokines that delineate true and quasi-convalescent states

100 days on: the primary care response to COVID-19 in Singapore.

10.11622/smedj.2020162Singapore Medical Journa

Personalised Care-and-Support-Planning in Singapore: Qualitative interviews with people living with diabetes

10.3399/bjgpo.2023.0055BJGP OpenBJGPO.2023.0055-BJGPO.2023.005

Medical and psychosocial factors associated with antibiotic prescribing in primary care: survey questionnaire and factor analysis

10.3399/bjgp17X688885BRITISH JOURNAL OF GENERAL PRACTICE67656E168-E17

Results from a Patient-Based Health Education Intervention in Reducing Antibiotic Use for Acute Upper Respiratory Tract Infections in the Private Sector Primary Care Setting in Singapore

10.1128/AAC.02257-16ANTIMICROBIAL AGENTS AND CHEMOTHERAPY61

Results from a patient-based health education intervention in reducing antibiotic use for acute upper respiratory tract infections in the private sector primary care setting in Singapore

We investigated the efficacy of patient-targeted education in reducing antibiotic prescriptions for upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) among adults in the private primary care setting in Singapore. Our randomized controlled trial enrolled patients aged 21 years and above presenting at general practitioner (GP) clinics with URTI symptoms for 7 days or less. Intervention arm patients were verbally educated via pamphlets about the etiology of URTIs, the role of antibiotics in treating URTIs, and the consequences of inappropriate antibiotic use. Control arm patients were educated on influenza vaccinations. Both arms were compared regarding the proportions prescribed antibiotics and the patients' postconsultation views. A total of 914 patients consulting 35 doctors from 24 clinics completed the study (457 in each arm). The demographics of patients in both arms were similar, and 19.1% were prescribed an antibiotic, but this varied from 0% to 70% for individual GPs. The intervention did not significantly reduce antibiotic prescriptions (odds ratio [OR], 1.20; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.83–1.73) except in patients of Indian ethnicity (OR, 0.28; 95% CI, 0.09–0.93). Positive associations between the intervention and the view that antibiotics were not needed most of the time for URTIs (P = 0.047) and on being worried about the side effects of antibiotics (P = 0.018) were restricted to the Indian subgroup. GPs in limited liability partnerships or clinic chains prescribed less (OR, 0.36; 95% CI, 0.14 to 0.92), while certain inappropriate patient responses were associated with the receipt of antibiotics. Follow-up studies to investigate differences in responses to educational programs between ethnicities and to explore GP-targeted interventions are recommended.NMRC (Natl Medical Research Council, S’pore)MOH (Min. of Health, S’pore)Published versio

Clinical relevance of screening checklists for detecting cancer predisposition syndromes in Asian childhood tumours

Assessment of cancer predisposition syndromes (CPS) in childhood tumours is challenging to paediatric oncologists due to inconsistent recognizable clinical phenotypes and family histories, especially in cohorts with unknown prevalence of germline mutations. Screening checklists were developed to facilitate CPS detection in paediatric patients; however, their clinical value have yet been validated. Our study aims to assess the utility of clinical screening checklists validated by genetic sequencing in an Asian cohort of childhood tumours. We evaluated 102 patients under age 18 years recruited over a period of 31 months. Patient records were reviewed against two published checklists and germline mutations in 100 cancer-associated genes were profiled through a combination of whole-exome sequencing and multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification on blood-derived genomic DNA. Pathogenic germline mutations were identified in ten (10%) patients across six known cancer predisposition genes: TP53, DICER1, NF1, FH, SDHD and VHL. Fifty-four (53%) patients screened positive on both checklists, including all ten pathogenic germline carriers. TP53 was most frequently mutated, affecting five children with adrenocortical carcinoma, sarcomas and diffuse astrocytoma. Disparity in prevalence of germline mutations across tumour types suggested variable genetic susceptibility and implied potential contribution of novel susceptibility genes. Only five (50%) children with pathogenic germline mutations had a family history of cancer. We conclude that CPS screening checklists are adequately sensitive to detect at-risk children and are relevant for clinical application. In addition, our study showed that 10% of Asian paediatric solid tumours have a heritable component, consistent with other populations.NMRC (Natl Medical Research Council, S’pore)Published versio