An augmented reality pipeline to create scenes with coherent illumination using textured cuboids

Shadows and illumination play an important role when generating a realistic scene in computer graphics. Most of the Augmented Reality (AR) systems track markers placed in a real scene and retrieve their position and orientation to serve as a frame of reference for added computer generated content, thereby producing an augmented scene. Realistic depiction of augmented content with coherent visual cues is a desired goal in many AR applications. However, rendering an augmented scene with realistic illumination is a complex task. Many existent approaches rely on a non automated pre-processing phase to retrieve illumination parameters from the scene. Other techniques rely on specific markers that contain light probes to perform environment lighting estimation. This study aims at designing a method to create AR applications with coherent illumination and shadows, using a textured cuboid marker, that does not require a training phase to provide lighting information. Such marker may be easily found in common environments: most of product packaging satisfies such characteristics. Thus, we propose a way to estimate a directional light configuration using multiple texture tracking to render AR scenes in a realistic fashion. We also propose a novel feature descriptor that is used to perform multiple texture tracking. Our descriptor is an extension of the binary descriptor, named discrete descriptor, and outperforms current state-of-the-art methods in speed, while maintaining their accuracy.

Using food intake records to estimate compliance with the Eatwell plate dietary guidelines

Funded by Scottish Government's Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services (RESAS) Division Food Standards Agency, UK Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate and Confectionery Association, London, UK

Using food intake records to estimate compliance with the Eatwell plate dietary guidelines

Funded by Scottish Government's Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services (RESAS) Division Food Standards Agency, UK Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate and Confectionery Association, London, UK

Solidarity Finance to Link Investors with Businesses

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A randomized trial comparing the diagnostic accuracy of visual inspection with acetic acid to Visual Inspection with Lugol's Iodine for cervical cancer screening in HIV-infected women.

Visual inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA) and Visual Inspection with Lugol’s Iodine (VILI) are increasingly recommended in various cervical cancer screening protocols in low-resource settings. Although VIA is more widely used, VILI has been advocated as an easier and more specific screening test. VILI has not been well-validated as a stand-alone screening test, compared to VIA or validated for use in HIV-infected women. We carried out a randomized clinical trial to compare the diagnostic accuracy of VIA and VILI among HIV-infected women. Women attending the Family AIDS Care and Education Services (FACES) clinic in western Kenya were enrolled and randomized to undergo either VIA or VILI with colposcopy. Lesions suspicious for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 2 or greater (CIN2+) were biopsied. Between October 2011 and June 2012, 654 were randomized to undergo VIA or VILI. The test positivity rates were 26.2% for VIA and 30.6% for VILI (p = 0.22). The rate of detection of CIN2+ was 7.7% in the VIA arm and 11.5% in the VILI arm (p = 0.10). There was no significant difference in the diagnostic performance of VIA and VILI for the detection of CIN2+. Sensitivity and specificity were 84.0% and 78.6%, respectively, for VIA and 84.2% and 76.4% for VILI. The positive and negative predictive values were 24.7% and 98.3% for VIA, and 31.7% and 97.4% for VILI. Among women with CD4+ count < 350, VILI had a significantly decreased specificity (66.2%) compared to VIA in the same group (83.9%, p = 0.02) and compared to VILI performed among women with CD4+ count ≥ 350 (79.7%, p = 0.02). VIA and VILI had similar diagnostic accuracy and rates of CIN2+ detection among HIV-infected women.

Modular approach to select bacteriophages targeting Pseudomonas aeruginosa for their application to children suffering with cystic fibrosis

This review discusses the potential application of bacterial viruses (phage therapy) towards the eradication of antibiotic resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa in children with cystic fibrosis (CF). In this regard, several potential relationships between bacteria and their bacteriophages are considered. The most important aspect that must be addressed with respect to phage therapy of bacterial infections in the lungs of CF patients is in ensuring the continuity of treatment in light of the continual occurrence of resistant bacteria. This depends on the ability to rapidly select phages exhibiting an enhanced spectrum of lytic activity among several well-studied phage groups of proven safety. We propose a modular based approach, utilizing both mono-species and hetero-species phage mixtures. With an approach involving the visual recognition of characteristics exhibited by phages of well studied phage groups on lawns of the standard P. aeruginosa PAO1 strain, the simple and rapid enhancement of the lytic spectrum of cocktails is permitted, allowing the development of tailored preparations for patients capable of circumventing problems associated with phage resistant bacterial mutants.

The Views of Young People about an Intervention Programme Designed to Support Them with Exam Related Anxiety and Stress

Both preparing for and sitting exams can be extremely stressful for children and young people. Whilst the research within the area of exam anxiety acknowledges the detrimental impact that it can have on individuals, much of the research has been completed with university students. Limited research has been carried out with children and young people. In addition to this, there is also little research that has been completed in order to understand which interventions are helpful in reducing exam anxiety in young people. The systematic literature review highlighted that much of the research employed quantitative techniques. This means young people’s views and experiences of exam anxiety has largely been unexplored. The EPS service in which the TEP currently works is a partially traded service. Some of the schools that had bought a service level agreement requested support for certain pupils that were experiencing exam anxiety. The EPS service therefore delivered an intervention called ‘beating exam anxiety together’ (further details of this intervention can be found within chapter 1). Seven semi-structured interviews were carried out with GCSE students who took part in the ‘beating exam anxiety together’ intervention. The purpose of the interviews was to understand more about young people’s views on exam anxiety, and also their experiences of the intervention in which they took part. The research highlighted the possible detrimental impact of exam anxiety on young people in terms of their mental health, and also how able they feel to prepare for their exams. The results of the research interestingly showed that young people experience high levels of pressure from school teachers and also their parents. Furthermore, students reported that they didn't know how to revise. The results revealed that young people feel that the way in which exams are spoken about in schools is largely negative. As a result of this, the researcher suggested that it may be helpful to shift the narrative around the way in which exams are currently spoken about. In addition to this, the results indicate that the intervention was largely helpful in improving young people’s well being and their ability to be able to manage exam anxiety.

In situ characterization of sediment oxygen demand across the spectrum of non-resuspension to full resuspension with varying bed shear stress

Sediment oxygen demand (SOD) can be a significant oxygen sink in various types of water bodies, particularly slow-moving waters with substantial organic sediment accumulation. In most settings where SOD is a concern, the prevailing hydraulic conditions are such that the impact of sediment resuspension on SOD is not considered. However, in the case of Bubbly Creek in Chicago, Illinois, the prevailing slack water conditions are interrupted by infrequent intervals of very high flow rates associated with pumped combined sewer overflow (CSO) during intense hydrologic events. These events can cause resuspension of the highly organic, nutrient-rich bottom sediments, resulting in precipitous drawdown of dissolved oxygen (DO) in the water column. While many past studies have addressed the dependence of SOD on near-bed velocity and bed shear stress prior to the point of sediment resuspension, there has been limited research that has attempted to characterize the complex and dynamic phenomenon of resuspended-sediment oxygen demand. To address this issue, a new in situ experimental apparatus referred to as the U of I Hydrodynamic SOD Sampler was designed to achieve a broad range of velocities and associated bed shear stresses. This allowed SOD to be analyzed across the spectrum of no sediment resuspension associated with low velocity/ bed shear stress through full sediment resuspension associated with high velocity / bed shear stress. The current study split SOD into two separate components: (1) SODNR is the sediment oxygen demand associated with non-resuspension conditions and is a surface sink calculated using traditional methods to yield a value with units (g/m2/day); and (2) SODR is the oxygen demand associated with resuspension conditions, which is a volumetric sink most accurately characterized using non-traditional methods and units that reflect suspension in the water column (mg/L/day). In the case of resuspension, the suspended sediment concentration was analyzed as a function of bed shear stress, and a formulation was developed to characterize SODR as a function of suspended sediment concentration in a form similar to first-order biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) kinetics with Monod DO term. The results obtained are intended to be implemented into a numerical model containing hydrodynamic, sediment transport, and water quality components to yield oxygen demand varying in both space and time for specific flow events. Such implementation will allow evaluation of proposed Bubbly Creek water quality improvement alternatives which take into account the impact of SOD under various flow conditions. Although the findings were based on experiments specific to the conditions in Bubbly Creek, the techniques and formulations developed in this study should be applicable to similar sites.

Evaluation and measurement of chromium in sea water in order to remove it with mineral absorbent kaolin for desalination

Today, the use of heavy metals and chemical products industry expanded. The presence of significant amounts of, pollutants in industrial waste water can lead to serious risks to the environment and human health have heavy metals like chromium is one example of the future of salmon knock pond environment. Chromium is an essential element in the diet, but high doses of this element is very dangerous. Hence the use of chemical methods as a tool for the removal of metals from waste water pond be used. The aim of this study was to investigate the mineral kaolin adsorbents for the removal of chromium is water. Thus, the effect of different concentrations of absorbent micro amounts of chromium absorption and variable temperature, pH and electrolytes were studied. During the investigation of spectroscopic instrument (Varian) UV-VIS are used. Comparison of the absorption mechanism of chromium adsorption by the adsorbent with nano-absorbent kaolin kaolin was investigated. According to the studies done in the same conditions of temperature, pH and shaking rate of chromium absorption by nano kaolin kaolin is much more attractive. Therefore, its use as an adsorbent abundant, cheap, accessible, efficient and effective is proposed.

Fitting phase type distribution to service process with sequential phases

The work of this thesis is concerned with fitting Hypo-exponential and Erlang phase type distributions for modeling real life processes with non-exponential service time. There exist situations where exponential distributions cannot explain the distribution of service time properly. This thesis presents the application of two traditional statistical estimation techniques to approximate the service distributions of processes with coefficient of variation less than one. It also presents an algorithm to fit Hypo-exponential distribution for complex situations which can’t be handled properly with traditional estimation techniques. The result shows the effect of variation of sample size and other parameters on the efficiency of the estimation techniques by comparing their respective outputs. Furthermore it checks how accurately the proposed algorithm approximates a given distribution.

Tonsils of the soft palate do not mediate the response of pigs to oral vaccination with heat-inactivated Mycobacterium bovis

Mycobacterium bovis causes animal tuberculosis (TB) in cattle, humans, and other mammalian species, including pigs. The goal of this study was to experimentally assess the responses of pigs with and without a history of tonsillectomy to oral vaccination with heat-inactivated M. bovis and challenge with a virulent M. bovis field strain, to compare pig and wild boar responses using the same vaccination model as previously used in the Eurasian wild boar (Sus scrofa), to evaluate the use of several enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) and lateral flow tests for in vivo TB diagnosis in pigs, and to verify if these tests are influenced by oral vaccination with inactivated M. bovis. At necropsy, the lesion and culture scores were 20% to 43% higher in the controls than those in the vaccinated pigs. Massive M. bovis growth from thoracic tissue samples was observed in 4 out of 9 controls but in none of the 10 vaccinated pigs. No effect of the presence or absence of tonsils was observed on these scores, suggesting that tonsils are not involved in the protective response to this vaccine in pigs. The serum antibody levels increased significantly only after challenge. At necropsy, the estimated sensitivities of the ELISAs and dual path platform (DPP) assays ranged from 89% to 94%. In the oral mucosa, no differences in gene expression were observed in the control group between the pigs with and without tonsils. In the vaccinated group, the mRNA levels for chemokine (C-C motif) receptor 7 (CCR7), interferon beta (IFN-β), and methylmalonyl coenzyme A mutase (MUT) were higher in pigs with tonsils. Complement component 3 mRNA levels in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) increased with vaccination and decreased after M. bovis challenge. This information is relevant for pig production in regions that are endemic for M. bovis and for TB vaccine research.

Developing a radiomic based machine learning model to identify patients with resected non-small-cell lung cancer at high risk of relapse

Background There is a wide variation of recurrence risk of Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) within the same Tumor Node Metastasis (TNM) stage, suggesting that other parameters are involved in determining this probability. Radiomics allows extraction of quantitative information from images that can be used for clinical purposes. The primary objective of this study is to develop a radiomic prognostic model that predicts a 3 year disease free-survival (DFS) of resected Early Stage (ES) NSCLC patients. Material and Methods 56 pre-surgery non contrast Computed Tomography (CT) scans were retrieved from the PACS of our institution and anonymized. Then they were automatically segmented with an open access deep learning pipeline and reviewed by an experienced radiologist to obtain 3D masks of the NSCLC. Images and masks underwent to resampling normalization and discretization. From the masks hundreds Radiomic Features (RF) were extracted using Py-Radiomics. Hence, RF were reduced to select the most representative features. The remaining RF were used in combination with Clinical parameters to build a DFS prediction model using Leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV) with Random Forest. Results and Conclusion A poor agreement between the radiologist and the automatic segmentation algorithm (DICE score of 0.37) was found. Therefore, another experienced radiologist manually segmented the lesions and only stable and reproducible RF were kept. 50 RF demonstrated a high correlation with the DFS but only one was confirmed when clinicopathological covariates were added: Busyness a Neighbouring Gray Tone Difference Matrix (HR 9.610). 16 clinical variables (which comprised TNM) were used to build the LOOCV model demonstrating a higher Area Under the Curve (AUC) when RF were included in the analysis (0.67 vs 0.60) but the difference was not statistically significant (p=0,5147).

Il doppiaggio e il linguaggio giuridico inglese nella serie “How to Get Away with Murder”

Per lo scopo di questa tesi mi sono concentrata sull’analisi del doppiaggio della prima stagione della serie TV statunitense "How to Get Away with Murder". Ho scelto di soffermarmi in modo particolare sul doppiaggio delle espressioni tipiche del linguaggio giuridico americano, dello slang e del titolo. Il presente elaborato è composto di quattro capitoli. Il primo riguarda la trama, l’idea del produttore, le tematiche, il responso del pubblico e un breve riassunto di una video-recensione di un avvocato americano che analizza l’“accuratezza legale” della serie. Tutti noi italiani siamo abituati a vedere il sistema giudiziario americano così come raffigurato in TV: processo in tribunale in presenza di un giudice e di una giuria. Nel secondo capitolo, infatti, mi soffermerò proprio su questo aspetto e sulle differenze sostanziali che distinguono l’ordinamento americano e italiano. Il terzo capitolo riguarda il doppiaggio, mentre l’ultimo è l’analisi vera e propria del doppiaggio della serie. Il capitolo è suddiviso in altri sotto capitoli e ognuno di essi si sofferma su una categoria di elementi nello specifico che ho deciso di analizzare durante la visione della serie in italiano. La serie in Italia è stata distribuita con un titolo italiano, per cui, ho trovato anche interessante tentare di capire quali fattori abbiano portato i distributori a prendere questa scelta e quali effetti questo possa avere sugli spettatori. Il lavoro si è svolto nel seguente modo: prima ho guardato la serie in lingua originale, poi ho rivisto gli stessi episodi in italiano.