Moving Object Scanning Apparatus and Method

Apparatus for scanning a moving object includes a visible waveband sensor oriented to collect a series of images of the object as it passes through a field of view. An image processor uses the series of images to form a composite image. The image processor stores image pixel data for a current image and predecessor image in the series. It uses information in the current image and its predecessor to analyse images and derive likelihood measures indicating probabilities that current image pixels correspond to parts of the object. The image processor estimates motion between the current image and its predecessor from likelihood weighted pixels. It generates the composite image from frames positioned according to respective estimates of object image motion. Image motion may alternatively be detected be a speed sensor such as Doppler radar sensing object motion directly and providing image timing signals

Flexible paleoclimate age-depth models using an autoregressive gamma process

Radiocarbon dating is routinely used in paleoecology to build chronolo- gies of lake and peat sediments, aiming at inferring a model that would relate the sediment depth with its age. We present a new approach for chronology building (called “Bacon”) that has received enthusiastic attention by paleoecologists. Our methodology is based on controlling core accumulation rates using a gamma autoregressive semiparametric model with an arbitrary number of subdivisions along the sediment. Using prior knowledge about accumulation rates is crucial and informative priors are routinely used. Since many sediment cores are currently analyzed, using different data sets and prior distributions, a robust (adaptive) MCMC is very useful. We use the t-walk (Christen and Fox, 2010), a self adjusting, robust MCMC sampling algorithm, that works acceptably well in many situations. Outliers are also addressed using a recent approach that considers a Student-t model for radiocarbon data. Two examples are presented here, that of a peat core and a core from a lake, and our results are compared with other approaches.

Average household income, crime, and smoking behaviour in a local area: The Finnish 10-Town study

Social environments, like neighbourhoods, are increasingly recognised as determinants of health. While several studies have reported an association of low neighbourhood socio-economic status with morbidity, mortality and health risk behaviour, little is known of the health effects of neighbourhood crime rates. Using the ongoing 10-Town study in Finland, we examined the relations of average household income and crime rate measured at the local area level, with smoking status and intensity by linking census data of local area characteristics from 181 postal zip codes to survey responses to smoking behaviour in a cohort of 23,008 municipal employees. Gender-stratified multilevel analyses adjusted for age and individual occupational status revealed an association between low local area income rate and current smoking. High local area crime rate was also associated with current smoking. Both local area characteristics were strongly associated with smoking intensity. Among ever-smokers, being an ex-smoker was less likely among residents in areas with low average household income and a high crime rate. In the fully adjusted model, the association between local area income and smoking behaviour among women was substantially explained by the area-level crime rate. This study extends our knowledge of potential pathways through which social environmental factors may affect health. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A European perspective on progress in moving away from the mouse bioassay for marine-toxin analysis

This review considers the ethical and technical problems currently associated with employing mouse bioassays for marine-toxin analysis and the challenges and the difficulties that alternative methods must overcome before being deemed applicable for implementation into a regulatory monitoring regime. We discuss proposed alternative methods, classified as functional, immunological and analytical, for well-established European toxins as well as emerging toxins in European waters, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages. We also consider emerging tools and technologies for future toxin analysis.