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Deep LBLS: Accelerated Sky Region Segmentation Using Hybrid Deep CNNs and Lattice Boltzmann Level-Set Model
Get PDFAccurate segmentation of the sky region is crucial for various applications, including object detection, tracking, and recognition, as well as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) applications. However, sky region segmentation poses significant challenges due to complex backgrounds, varying lighting conditions, and the absence of clear edges and textures. In this paper, we present a new hybrid fast segmentation technique for the sky region that learns from object components to achieve rapid and effective segmentation while preserving precise details of the sky region. We employ Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) to guide the active contour and extract regions of interest. Our algorithm is implemented by leveraging three types of CNNs, namely DeepLabV3+, Fully Convolutional Network (FCN), and SegNet. Additionally, we utilize a local image fitting level-set function to characterize the region-based active contour model. Finally, the Lattice Boltzmann approach is employed to achieve rapid convergence of the level-set function. This forms a deep Lattice Boltzmann Level-Set (deep LBLS) segmentation approach that exploits deep CNN, the level-set method (LS), and the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) for sky region separation. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated on the CamVid dataset, which contains images with a wide range of object variations due to factors such as illumination changes, shadow presence, occlusion, scale differences, and cluttered backgrounds. Experiments conducted on this dataset yield promising results in terms of computation time and the robustness of segmentation when compared to state-of-the-art methods. Our deep LBLS approach demonstrates better performance, with an improvement in mean recall value reaching up to 14.45%
Mindful eating and food intake: Effects and mechanisms of action
Get PDFA key component of mindful eating is paying attention to the sensory properties of one’s food as one eats (‘sensory eating’). Some studies have found this reduces subsequent food intake whilst others have failed to replicate these effects. We report four laboratory studies that (a) examine effects of sensory eating on subsequent intake, and (b) explore potential mechanisms of action. In each study, participants ate a small high calorie snack with or without sensory eating and, 5-15 minutes later, were given larger snack portions from which they could eat freely. Sensory eating reduced intake of the second snack and could not be explained by increased sensory-specific satiety or priming of health-related goals. However, this effect disappeared when we controlled eating rate for the first snack. Given evidence that slower eating increases satiation and reduces intake, we conclude that sensory eating reduces intake by slowing eating rate. Exploratory analyses also revealed that (among non-dieters) effects of sensory eating were pronounced when participants reported higher hunger. Thus, for weight management, sensory eating may be most beneficial for those who are naturally fast eaters and/or in situations where people are inclined to eat more quickly, for example when hungry or in a hurry
Denoising Reuse: Exploiting Inter-frame Motion Consistency for Efficient Video Generation
Get PDFDenoising-based diffusion models have attained impressive image synthesis; however, their applications on videos can lead to unaffordable computational costs due to the per-frame denoising operations. In pursuit of efficient video generation, we present a Diffusion Reuse MOtion (Dr. Mo) network to accelerate the video-based denoising process. Our crucial observation is that the latent representations in early denoising steps between adjacent video frames exhibit high consistencies with motion clues. Inspired by the discovery, we propose to accelerate the video denoising process by incorporating lightweight, learnable motion features. Specifically, Dr. Mo will only compute all denoising steps for base frames. For a non-based frame, Dr. Mo will propagate the pre-computed based latents of a particular step with interframe motions to obtain a fast estimation of its coarse-grained latent representation, from which the denoising will continue to obtain more sensitive and fine-grained representations. On top of this, Dr. Mo employs a meta-network named Denoising Step Selector (DSS) to dynamically determine the step to perform motion-based propagations for each frame, ensuring the correct transformation of multi-granularity visual features. Extensive evaluations on video generation and editing tasks indicate that Dr. Mo delivers widely applicable acceleration for diffusion-based video generations while effectively retaining the visual quality and style. Video generation and visualization results can be found at https://drmo-denoising-reuse.github.io
Equally Bad, Unevenly Distributed: Gender and the ‘Black Box’ of Student Employment
Get PDFStudents comprise approximately four per cent of the UK labour force and as much as 20% in some occupations and jobs. Yet students' work is typically seen as marginal, secondary both to their current learning and future working biographies. Public and media attention on ‘earning while learning’ (EwL) tends to focus on the negative impacts of paid work on education. Meanwhile students' actual working conditions, occupations and employment experiences have received limited attention and constitute something of a ‘black box’. We open that box by examining the paid work undertaken by full‐time students. Through analysis of a national data set, we examine patterns with respect to employment rates, pay, hours, and occupations, as well as how these are gendered. We find a small ‘studentness’ penalty—lower pay for students than non‐student workers of the same age. We also find small increases in the proportion currently engaged in paid work. Gender is identified as a key variable in shaping student employment rates, with women considerably more likely than men to work while studying. We find no evidence of a gender pay gap in EwL, but this is largely because most student workers are concentrated in two ‘integrated’ occupations, which we designate as ‘equally bad’ ‐ poorly paid but gender equitable. Older students are more likely to work in gender‐segregated occupations, with some indications of male and female gender pay advantages for gender‐dominant employment, suggesting a possible early incentive for occupational gender segregation. Given the gender disparity in student work, a core finding is that women disproportionately undertake this poor‐quality work. We argue that to address the under‐theorisation of EwL, student employment—including its gendering—requires greater attention and should be integrated into conceptualisations of a ‘working‐life‐course’
The role of debriefing in supporting, retaining, and educating radiography students: An exploratory narrative review
Get PDFIntroduction
Clinical placements are essential for the development of practical and professional skills for radiography students. However, they can also be a substantial source of stress. The shift from theoretical learning within the safety of the classroom environment to the unforeseen realities of clinical practice can be challenging. This narrative review aims to explore the role of debriefing in the context of simulation-based education (SBE) and clinical debriefing (CD), highlighting their relevance in supporting, retaining, and educating radiography students by improving their experiences during clinical placements.
Method
The literature search utilised databases including PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, and MEDLINE. Key search terms included radiography, student, debriefing, resilience, retention, support, and emotional well-being. Due to limited radiography-specific research, the search was expanded to include broader healthcare literature, prioritising papers from the past decade.
Results
Debriefing following SBE allows students to process emotions, reactions, and mentally prepare for similar situations in clinical placements. Incorporating SBE debriefing into radiography programmes may help familiarise students with the structure and purpose of debriefs. The benefits of CD in radiography are not as well studied or established. Broader research from other health professions highlights the potential of CD to promote resilience and support the emotional and psychological well-being of individuals. Routine CD can provide a supportive, safe space for reflections and to express emotions. Prompted CD, performed after challenging events, should be conducted in a psychologically safe environment by well-trained facilitators. Where multiple students are involved, group debriefing may be more effective than individual sessions. Facilitators should create a safe space for emotional expression, avoid pressuring students to disclose detailed accounts of the traumatic experience, and provide follow-up support where necessary.
Conclusion
Establishing debriefing frameworks to the unique challenges faced by radiography professionals could better equip students to navigate the emotional demands of clinical placements. Future research could explore radiography students' and educators' perspectives on clinical debriefing, and evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of specific debriefing models to support students before, during, and after practice placements. This knowledge can inform the development of formal guidelines to better educate and retain radiography students
Disclosing the Decision to Decline Breast Screening and/or Breast Cancer Treatment Due to Concerns About Overdiagnosis and Overtreatment
Get PDFBackground or Context
Overdiagnosis and overtreatment have been acknowledged as harms of the NHS Breast Screening Programme (BSP) due to the uncertainty around if, or how, non-invasive and invasive cancers identified through screening will progress. Importance is therefore placed on encouraging individuals to make an informed choice about whether to participate in screening and any follow-on interventions. Even though all screening programmes generally state explicitly that individuals should have the freedom to choose, research into wider cancer screening programmes shows how disclosing a decision to decline may be regarded as problematic by others. However, literature exploring experiences of disclosing the decision to decline breast screening or subsequent interventions within the UK context is limited.
Objective
We explore women's experiences of disclosing the decision to decline screening, treatment and/or other recommended medical interventions after being invited to the NHS BSP, to understand how making the decision to decline breast screening and/or breast cancer treatment was received by others.
Design
Semi-structured interviews.
Setting and Participants
Twenty women who had made the decision to decline screening, treatment and/or other interventions recommended after being invited to the NHS BSP were recruited through social media, online forums and word of mouth.
Results
Some of the women discussed responses from their family and friends when disclosing their decision to decline and explained how they received supportive responses from some and negative responses from others. Difficulties in disclosing their intention to decline healthcare professionals were also discussed by some of the women. Receiving unsupportive responses meant that some of the women felt hesitant about how and where they disclosed their decision.
Conclusions
To varying degrees, the findings revealed the burden of having to explain and account for the decision to decline and manage the potential reaction to this as not acceptable.
Patient or Public Contribution
Before recruitment and data collection commenced, we sought feedback from an individual with lived experience in declining breast cancer screening and treatment due to concerns about overdiagnosis and overtreatment. This individual provided valuable insights on the study design and the most effective methods for recruiting participants from the targeted population. Additionally, a topic guide was developed for the semi-structured interviews, which was then tested through a pilot interview with the same individual. The feedback from this pilot interview was instrumental in refining and improving the topic guide
One‐Way Versus Two‐Way Postacquisition Integration Efforts: Theory and Evidence
Get PDFWe develop a theory of postacquisition integration that distinguishes between one‐way (acquirer‐only) and two‐way (mutual) effort strategies. We argue that the method of payment—cash versus shares—may serve as an ex ante commitment mechanism to a particular integration strategy, where cash deals align with unilateral effort, and share deals induce mutual engagement. Using transaction‐level mergers and acquisitions data covering 1986–2009, we show that stock‐financed acquisitions yield higher postmerger productivity, particularly in knowledge‐intensive industries, but also exhibit greater performance variance. These higher‐mean and higher‐variance tendencies for share‐financed vis‐à‐vis cash‐financed acquisitions involve countervailing effects when factoring stock‐market valuations; further, share‐financed acquisitions are discounted when financial markets are characterized by high degrees of risk aversion. Overall, our findings highlight how financial structure shapes integration dynamics and synergy realization
RBS-MLP Datasets for 5G Rogue Base Station Detection
No full textThis repository contains datasets used for the research and evaluation of machine learning-based detection of Rogue Base Stations (RBS) in 5G networks. These datasets were generated using realistic signal strength measurements as described in our published papers (see Citation section below). Each dataset consists of CSV files representing signal strength data from a simulated vehicular scenario, containing both Legitimate Base Stations (LBS) and Rogue Base Stations (RBS), across different window sizes
Parallelism in neurodegenerative biomarker tests: hidden errors and the risk of misconduct
Get PDFBiomarkers are critical tools in the diagnosis and monitoring of neurodegenerative diseases. Reliable quantification depends on assay validity, especially the demonstration of parallelism between diluted biological samples and the assay’s standard curve. Inadequate parallelism can lead to biased concentration estimates, jeopardizing both clinical and research applications. Here, we systematically review the evidence of analytical parallelism in body fluid (serum, plasma, cerebrospinal fluid) biomarker assays for neurodegeneration and evaluate the extent, reproducibility, and reporting quality of partial parallelism. This systematic review was registered on PROSPERO (CRD42024568766) and conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. We included studies published between December 2010 to July 2024 without language restrictions. Eligible studies included original research assessing biomarker concentrations in body fluids with data suitable for evaluating serial dilution and standard curve parallelism. The data extraction for interrogating parallelism included dilution steps, measured concentrations, and sample types. For each study, we generated parallelism plots in a uniform and comparable way. These graphs were used to come to a balanced decision on whether parallelism or partial parallelism was present. The risk of bias was assessed based on sample preparation, buffer consistency, and methodological transparency. Of 44 eligible studies, 19 provided sufficient data for generating 49 partial parallelism plots. Only 7 plots (14%) demonstrated clear partial parallelism. Partial parallelism was typically achieved over a narrow dilution range of about three doubling steps. Most assays deviated from parallelism, risking over- or underestimation of biomarker levels if determined at different dilution steps. A high risk of bias was identified in 9 studies using spiked or artificial samples, inconsistent dilution buffers, or incomplete reporting. Several studies assessed sample-to-sample parallelism rather than sample-to-standard, contrary to guidelines by regulatory authorities. In conclusion, partial parallelism was infrequently observed and inconsistently reported in most biomarker assays for neurodegeneration. Narrow dilution ranges and variable methodologies limit generalizability. Transparent reporting of dilution protocols and adherence to established analytical validation guidelines are needed. This systematic review has practical implications for clinical trial design, regulatory approval processes, and the reliability of biomarker-based diagnostics
Prognostication of Mental Health Risk Clusters on Hospitalization and Mortality in Patients With Coexisting Diabetes and Kidney Failure: The Hidden Burden of Loneliness
Get PDFRationale & Objective
Individuals with comorbid diabetes and kidney failure have poor clinical prognosis, often aggravated by psychological distress. Identifying individuals most at risk is crucial to improving service provision. This study aimed to identify psychosocial profiles in patients with diabetes and kidney failure, model their prognostic effects on hospitalization and mortality, and explore underlying mechanisms linking psychosocial health to clinical outcomes.
Study Design
Prospective cohort study.
Setting & Participants
A total of 221 participants with coexisting diabetes and kidney failure (median age: 59 years, 60.6% men) receiving hemodialysis were recruited from the National Kidney Foundation Singapore’s dialysis centers.
Exposures
Depression, anxiety, loneliness, and hopelessness alongside self-care indicators were measured using validated self-reported scales.
Outcomes
All-cause hospitalization and mortality were ascertained from medical records.
Analytical Approach
Latent profile analysis was used to identify psychosocial profiles. Associations of sociodemographic, clinical factors and psychosocial profiles with clinical endpoints were modeled with Negative binomial and Cox regressions (mean = 21.8 months). Casual mediation analyses modeled self-care as mediator.
Results
Three psychosocial profiles emerged: resilient (37.6%; all below cutoffs), overwhelmed (30.3%; above cutoffs), and lonely (32.1%; above cutoff for loneliness only). The lonely group was more socioeconomically disadvantaged relative to the resilient group. The lonely and overwhelmed groups had increased hospitalization rates and more hospitalization days than the resilient group (incident risk ratio [IRR] range, 1.50-1.82; P < 0.05). No association with mortality was found. Better diabetes self-care and nutrition quality-of-life also predicted hospitalization (IRR range, 0.94-0.97; P < 0.05) and mortality (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.93 and 0.96). Mediation analysis indicated that diabetes self-care activities accounted for 18% of the associations between the lonely profile and hospitalization days.
Limitations
Geographic generalizability of participants and sample size.
Conclusions
Interconnected psychosocial burdens significantly affect disease management and hospitalization risk in patients with diabetes and kidney failure. Integrating psychosocial screening and interventions into clinical practice, particularly addressing loneliness and not just depression and anxiety, may be crucial
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