There is no sign of saturation in accumulation of alien species (AS) introductions worldwide, additionally the rate of spread for some species has also been shown to be increasing. However, the ...challenges of gathering information on AS are recognized. Recent developments in citizen science (CS) provide an opportunity to improve data flow and knowledge on AS while ensuring effective and high quality societal engagement with the issue of IAS (Invasive Alien Species). Advances in technology, particularly on-line recording and smartphone apps, along with the development of social media, have revolutionized CS and increased connectivity while new and innovative analysis techniques are emerging to ensure appropriate management, visualization, interpretation and use and sharing of the data. In early July 2018 we launched a European CO-operation in Science and Technology (COST) Action to address multidisciplinary research questions in relation to developing and implementing CS, advancing scientific understanding of AS dynamics while informing decision-making specifically implementation of technical requirements of relevant legislation such as the EU Regulation 1143/2014 on IAS. It will also support the EU biodiversity goals and embedding science within society. The Action will explore and document approaches to establishing a European-wide CS AS network. It will embrace relevant innovations for data gathering and reporting to support the implementation of monitoring and surveillance measures, while ensuring benefits for society and citizens, through an AS CS European network. The Action will, therefore, increase levels of participation and quality of engagement with current CS initiatives, ensuring and evaluating educational value, and improve the value outcomes for potential users including citizens, scientists, alien species managers, policy-makers, local authorities, industry and other stakeholders.
Robust sparse image denoising Obradovic, R.; Janev, M.; Antic, B. ...
2011 18th IEEE International Conference on Image Processing,
2011-Sept.
Conference Proceeding
In this paper, we propose a novel method for denoising images corrupted by the mixture of the additive white Gaussian noise and the heavy tailed noise. The proposed method is based on robust ...statistical approach, i.e. application of M-estimators in the combination with l 1 sparse regularization technique. Thus, we perform the denoising by numerical solving of the convex optimization problem. Additionally, the developed method performs denoising adaptively in order to preserve the image details, by adjusting regularization coefficients according to the local variance. The proposed de-noising scheme produces excellent results, both objectively (in terms of PSNR and MSSIM) and subjectively and outperforms state-of-the-art filters for denoising heavy tailed noise in images.
We present a case report of a neonate with esophageal atresia and tracheoesophageal fistula. In the 31st week of gestation, maternal polyhydramnions was observed by prenatal ultrasonography. ...Postnatal insertion of an orogastric tube into the stomach was unsuccessful. On auscultation, the apex of the heart was heard at the right side of the thorax, while the liver was palpable 1 cm below the left rib cage. Esophageal atresia with tracheoesphageal fistula and situs inversus of the thoracic and abdominal organs was diagnosed During the first day of life, left transpleural thoracotomy was performed. The fistula was closed and esophageal anastomosis performed. One year after the operation the child had no difficulties when eating solid and liquid foods. More than 50% of infants with esophageal atresia have associated anomalies and the esophagogram showed good passage of contrast with anastomotic stricture. This was the first report of esophageal atresia with tracheoesophageal fistula repair in a patient with situs inversus treated in our Clinic.
Pediatric patients with end-stage renal disease undergoing hemodialysis (HD) frequently develop anemia. Administration of recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) is effective in managing this ...anemia, although the additional demand for iron often results in iron deficiency. In adult patients undergoing HD, intravenous (IV) iron administration is known to replenish iron stores more effectively than oral iron administration. Nevertheless, IV iron supplementation is underutilized in pediatric patients, possibly because of unproved safety in this population. This international, multicenter study investigated the safety and efficacy of two dosing regimens (1.5 mg kg(-1) and 3.0 mg kg(-1)) of sodium ferric gluconate complex (SFGC) therapy, during eight consecutive HD sessions, in iron-deficient pediatric HD patients receiving concomitant rHuEPO therapy. Safety was evaluated in 66 patients and efficacy was evaluated in 56 patients. Significant increases from baseline were observed in both treatment groups 2 and 4 weeks after cessation of SFGC dosing for mean hemoglobin, hematocrit, transferrin saturation, serum ferritin, and reticulocyte hemoglobin content. Efficacy and safety profiles were comparable for 1.5 mg kg(-1) and 3.0 mg kg(-1) SFGC with no unexpected adverse events with either dose. Administration of SFGC was safe and efficacious in the pediatric HD population. Given the equivalent efficacy of the two doses, an initial dosing regimen of 1.5 mg kg(-1) is recommended for pediatric HD patients.
Congenital gastrointestinal anomalies include spectrum of malformations, simple ones as well as complex, which are associated with anomalies of other organs and systems of organs. Most infants ...(50-60%) with imperlbrate anus also have genitourinary, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and vertebral anomalies. This case report is of a female newborn with prenatally diagnosed duodenal atresia and right hydronephrosis. Clinical investigation revealed an imperforate anus with vestibular fistula. A plain abdominal X-ray showed a "double-bubble" sign, characteristic for duodenal atresia. Intraluminal membrane was excised and sigmoid colostomy was performed in general anesthesia on the first day of life. Ultrasound and intravenous pyelography confirmed a hydronephrotic right kidney and obstructive megaureter after Pena. In the fifth month of life, the ureter was tapered and reimplanted. Six months later, posterior sagittal anorectoplasty was performed. In the seventeenth month of life the colostomy was closed This child attained normal growth and development, normal bowel control, fecal continence without soiling, obstipation and urinary infections.
This paper describes possibilities of protective current and voltage transformers application in measurement systems for the energy management purposes based on microprocessor protective relays. ...Influence of protective current transformers on accuracy of current, voltage and power measurement by microprocessor based protective relays is particularly discussed. Theoretical consideration and experimental results are presented too. Based on obtained results, the necessary steps to ensure accuracy of measurements are presented.
Moving object detection in video sequences presents an important problem in computer vision. If a video sequence is generated by a stationary video camera, one usually attempts to build a statistical ...model of the background and an appropriate statistical test to classify pixels into foreground or background. This approach is efficient for many laboratory test sequences, but may render itself inadequate in real-life surveillance systems with many additional scene-, illumination- and camera-related phenomena. In this case better results can be obtained with frame differencing scheme, that is unfortunately prone to aperture problem and leads to inconsistent detections. In this paper, we propose a multiresolution frame differencing technique. Each frame is first decomposed into undecimated wavelet transform coefficients and after that, differencing scheme is applied on wavelet coefficients in several bands separately. These band-dependent motion detections alleviate the aperture problem and when fused, they produce more consistent moving object detection. The obtained detection results greatly facilitate later processing steps, like object tracking and recognition.
A new multiscale approach to motion based segmentation of objects in video sequences is presented. While image features extracted at multiple scales are commonly used within the pattern recognition ...community, they have seldom been employed for background modelling and subtraction. The paper describes a methodology for maintaining an explicit background model at multiple scales. Biological inspiration is used to contrive simple, yet effective mechanisms for feature extraction, incorporation of information across multiple scales and segmentation. Results of experiments conducted using sequences from the domain of traffic surveillance are presented in the paper. They suggest that the proposed method is able to achieve good segmentation results. In addition, the evaluated variant of a multiscale segmentation algorithm is far less computationally intensive, able to achieve processing of higher frame rates in real time and requires an order of magnitude less memory resources than the commonly-used approach compared against.
In this paper we present a method for reconstructing the true harmonic composition of power quality indices, such as voltages and currents in cases when the actual fundamental frequency in a power ...grid differs from its nominal value. We have shown that even if an instrument incorrectly assumes the fundamental frequency to be equal to the nominal value, it is still possible to use the measurement results to obtain the exact signal spectrum under a certain set of conditions. The proposed procedure has proved to be in full compliance both with standards and practical observations concerning frequency drifts in power grids. The method has been applied in an improved version of the power quality instrument based on stochastic ADC which measures up to 50 harmonics of 3 voltages and 4 currents within 20 ms.
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