A robust tracking system for low frame rate video

Tracking in low frame rate (LFR) videos is one of the most important problems in the tracking literature. Most existing approaches treat LFR video tracking as an abrupt motion tracking problem. However, in LFR video tracking applications, LFR not only causes abrupt motions, but also large appearance changes of objects because the objects’ poses and the illumination may undergo large changes from one frame to the next. This adds extra difficulties to LFR video tracking. In this paper, we propose a robust and general tracking system for LFR videos. The tracking system consists of four major parts: dominant color-spatial based object representation, bin-ratio based similarity measure, annealed particle swarm optimization (PSO) based searching, and an integral image based parameter calculation. The first two parts are combined to provide a good solution to the appearance changes, and the abrupt motion is effectively captured by the annealed PSO based searching. Moreover, an integral image of model parameters is constructed, which provides a look-up table for parameters calculation. This greatly reduces the computational load. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed tracking system can effectively tackle the difficulties caused by LFR

Short-Term Exposure to PM_2.5 and O₃ Impairs Liver Function in HIV/AIDS Patients: Evidence from a Repeated Measurements Study

Studies investigating the relationship between ambient air pollutants and liver function are scarce. Our objective was to examine the associations of acute exposure to PM2.5 and O3 with levels of hepatic enzymes in people living with HIV/AIDS (PWHA). Our study involved 163 PWHA, who were evaluated for serum hepatic enzymes up to four times within a year. We extracted daily average concentrations of PM2.5, PM2.5 components, and O3 for each participant, based on their residential address, using the Tracking of Air Pollution in China database. Linear mixed-effect models were utilized to assess the associations of acute exposure to PM2.5 and O3 with hepatic enzymes. Weighted quantile sum regression models were employed to identify the major constituents of PM2.5 that affect hepatic enzymes. The percent change of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) concentration was positively correlated with a 10 µg/m3 increase in PM2.5, ranging from 1.92 (95% CI: 3.13 to 4.38) to 6.09 (95% CI: 9.25 to 12.38), with the largest effect observed at lag06. Additionally, acute O3 exposure was related to increased levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), AST, and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) concentrations. Co-exposure to high levels of PM2.5 and O3 had an antagonistic effect on the elevation of AST. Further analysis revealed that SO42− and BC were major contributors to elevated AST concentration due to PM2.5 constituents. A stronger association was found between O3 exposure and ALT concentration in female PWHA. Our study found that short-term exposure to PM2.5 and O3 was associated with increased levels of hepatic enzymes, indicating that PM2.5 and O3 exposure may contribute to hepatocellular injury in PWHA. Our study also found that PWHA may be more vulnerable to air pollution than the general population. These findings highlight the relationship between air pollutants and liver function in PWHA, providing a scientific basis for the implementation of measures to protect susceptible populations from the adverse effects of air pollution. A reduction in the burning of fossil fuels and reduced exposure to air pollutants may be effective hazard reduction approaches

High-efficiency method and system for sensitive image detection

PATENT: Y. Chen, W. Hu, X. Li, O. Wu, N. Xie, M. Zhu, H. Zuo (Assignee: Institute of Automation and Chinese Academy of Sciences). CN 200810240942 filed Dec. 24, 2008; published Jun. 30, 2010.Registered under alternate title: Efficient sensitive image detection algorithm and its applicationThe invention discloses a high-efficiency method and a high-efficiency system for sensitive image detection. The method comprises that sensitive image samples and normal image samples are collected to establish a training set and to extract interest points, the interest points are filtered in combination with a skin color model, the interest points unrelated to skin colors are taken out and the interest points related to the skin colors are kept, local invariant characteristics at the interest points are extracted and are clustered, a data-driven tree pyramid model is established, and the multi-resolution histogram characteristics of each image are extracted on the basis; the similarity of any two images is calculated by using pyramid matching algorithm and a kernel function matrix is formed; and the obtained kernel function matrix is used to train a support vector machine classifier to obtain the parameters of the classifier and a new image sample is detected to determine whether the new image sample is a sensitive image. The invention can conduct high-efficiency detection and filtration to the sensitive images on the internet to enable the vast juvenile to enjoy the convenience brought by the internet and to protect the vast juvenile against the harmfulness of bad information.Invented by Y. Chen, W. Hu, X. Li, O. Wu, N. Xie, M. Zhu, H. Zuo; Assigned to Institute of Automation and Chinese Academy of Sciences; Liang Airong agent for inventors

Facial Access to 2,2-Difluoro-2,3-dihydrofuran Skeleton without Extra Additive: DMF-Promoted Difluorocarbene Formation of ClCF2CO2Na

The practical and facile difluorocarbene-triggered cycloaddition reaction of enaminones was developed, that delivered 2,2-difluoro-2,3-dihydrofurans with broad substrates scope. Notably, the reaction proceeded smoothly without any extra additive. The readily available sodium chlorodifluoroacetate (ClCF2CO2Na, SCDA) played as difluorocarbene precursor in this transformation through DMF-promotion. Moreover, it is proved that the 2,2-difluoro- 2,3-dihydrofuran derivatives exposed potential antiproliferative activity against human tumour cells HeLa, MCF7 and HepG2