The Health and Occupation Research Network: An Evolving Surveillance System.

Science.gov (United States)

Carder, Melanie; Hussey, Louise; Money, Annemarie; Gittins, Matthew; McNamee, Roseanne; Stocks, Susan Jill; Sen, Dil; Agius, Raymond M

2017-09-01

Vital to the prevention of work-related ill-health (WRIH) is the availability of good quality data regarding WRIH burden and risks. Physician-based surveillance systems such as The Health and Occupation Research (THOR) network in the UK are often established in response to limitations of statutory, compensation-based systems for addressing certain epidemiological aspects of disease surveillance. However, to fulfil their purpose, THOR and others need to have methodologic rigor in capturing and ascertaining cases. This article describes how data collected by THOR and analogous systems can inform WRIH incidence, trends, and other determinants. An overview of the different strands of THOR research is provided, including methodologic advancements facilitated by increased data quantity/quality over time and the value of the research outputs for informing Government and other policy makers. In doing so, the utility of data collected by systems such as THOR to address a wide range of research questions, both in relation to WRIH and to wider issues of public and social health, is demonstrated.

The Health and Occupation Research Network: An Evolving Surveillance System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Melanie Carder

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Vital to the prevention of work-related ill-health (WRIH is the availability of good quality data regarding WRIH burden and risks. Physician-based surveillance systems such as The Health and Occupation Research (THOR network in the UK are often established in response to limitations of statutory, compensation-based systems for addressing certain epidemiological aspects of disease surveillance. However, to fulfil their purpose, THOR and others need to have methodologic rigor in capturing and ascertaining cases. This article describes how data collected by THOR and analogous systems can inform WRIH incidence, trends, and other determinants. An overview of the different strands of THOR research is provided, including methodologic advancements facilitated by increased data quantity/quality over time and the value of the research outputs for informing Government and other policy makers. In doing so, the utility of data collected by systems such as THOR to address a wide range of research questions, both in relation to WRIH and to wider issues of public and social health, is demonstrated.

Parallel Computational Intelligence-Based Multi-Camera Surveillance System

OpenAIRE

Orts-Escolano, Sergio; Garcia-Rodriguez, Jose; Morell, Vicente; Cazorla, Miguel; Azorin-Lopez, Jorge; García-Chamizo, Juan Manuel

2014-01-01

In this work, we present a multi-camera surveillance system based on the use of self-organizing neural networks to represent events on video. The system processes several tasks in parallel using GPUs (graphic processor units). It addresses multiple vision tasks at various levels, such as segmentation, representation or characterization, analysis and monitoring of the movement. These features allow the construction of a robust representation of the environment and interpret the behavior of mob...

Risk based surveillance for vector borne diseases

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bødker, Rene

of samples and hence early detection of outbreaks. Models for vector borne diseases in Denmark have demonstrated dramatic variation in outbreak risk during the season and between years. The Danish VetMap project aims to make these risk based surveillance estimates available on the veterinarians smart phones...... in Northern Europe. This model approach may be used as a basis for risk based surveillance. In risk based surveillance limited resources for surveillance are targeted at geographical areas most at risk and only when the risk is high. This makes risk based surveillance a cost effective alternative...... sample to a diagnostic laboratory. Risk based surveillance models may reduce this delay. An important feature of risk based surveillance models is their ability to continuously communicate the level of risk to veterinarians and hence increase awareness when risk is high. This is essential for submission...

Advancing environmental health surveillance in the US through a national human biomonitoring network.

Science.gov (United States)

Latshaw, Megan Weil; Degeberg, Ruhiyyih; Patel, Surili Sutaria; Rhodes, Blaine; King, Ewa; Chaudhuri, Sanwat; Nassif, Julianne

2017-03-01

The United States lacks a comprehensive, nationally-coordinated, state-based environmental health surveillance system. This lack of infrastructure leads to: • varying levels of understanding of chemical exposures at the state & local levels • often inefficient public health responses to chemical exposure emergencies (such as those that occurred in the Flint drinking water crisis, the Gold King mine spill, the Elk river spill and the Gulf Coast oil spill) • reduced ability to measure the impact of public health interventions or environmental policies • less efficient use of resources for cleaning up environmental contamination Establishing the National Biomonitoring Network serves as a step toward building a national, state-based environmental health surveillance system. The Network builds upon CDC investments in emergency preparedness and environmental public health tracking, which have created advanced chemical analysis and information sharing capabilities in the state public health systems. The short-term goal of the network is to harmonize approaches to human biomonitoring in the US, thus increasing the comparability of human biomonitoring data across states and communities. The long-term goal is to compile baseline data on exposures at the state level, similar to data found in CDC's National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals. Barriers to success for this network include: available resources, effective risk communication strategies, data comparability & sharing, and political will. Anticipated benefits include high quality data on which to base public health and environmental decisions, data with which to assess the success of public health interventions, improved risk assessments for chemicals, and new ways to prioritize environmental health research. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Optimal UAS Assignments and Trajectories for Persistent Surveillance and Data Collection from a Wireless Sensor Network

Science.gov (United States)

2015-12-24

Optimal UAS Assignments and Trajectories for Persistent Surveillance and Data Collection from a Wireless Sensor Network DISSERTATION Nidal M. Jodeh...ASSIGNMENTS AND TRAJECTORIES FOR PERSISTENT SURVEILLANCE AND DATA COLLECTION FROM A WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty...COLLECTION FROM A WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK Nidal M. Jodeh, B.S., M.A.S., M.S. Lieutenant Colonel, USAF Committee Membership: Richard G. Cobb, PhD Chairman

Surveillance of avian influenza in the Caribbean through the Caribbean Animal Health Network: surveillance tools and epidemiologic studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Lefrançois, T; Hendrikx, P; Ehrhardt, N; Millien, M; Gomez, L; Gouyet, L; Gaidet, N; Gerbier, G; Vachiéry, N; Petitclerc, F; Carasco-Lacombe, C; Pinarello, V; Ahoussou, S; Levesque, A; Gongora, H V; Trotman, M

2010-03-01

The Caribbean region is considered to be at risk for avian influenza (AI) due to a large backyard poultry system, an important commercial poultry production system, the presence of migratory birds, and disparities in the surveillance systems. The Caribbean Animal Health Network (CaribVET) has developed tools to implement AI surveillance in the region with the goals to have 1) a regionally harmonized surveillance protocol and specific web pages for AI surveillance on www.caribvet.net, and 2) an active and passive surveillance for AI in domestic and wild birds. A diagnostic network for the Caribbean, including technology transfer and AI virus molecular diagnostic capability in Guadeloupe (real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction for the AI virus matrix gene), was developed. Between 2006 and 2009, 627 samples from four Caribbean countries were tested for three circumstances: importation purposes, following a clinical suspicion of AI, or through an active survey of wild birds (mainly waders) during the southward and northward migration periods in Guadeloupe. None of the samples tested were positive, suggesting a limited role of these species in the AI virus ecology in the Caribbean. Following low pathogenic H5N2 outbreaks in the Dominican Republic in 2007, a questionnaire was developed to collect data for a risk analysis of AI spread in the region through fighting cocks. The infection pathway of the Martinique commercial poultry sector by AI, through introduction of infected cocks, was designed, and recommendations were provided to the Caribbean Veterinary Services to improve cock movement control and biosecurity measures. The CaribVET and its organization allowed interaction between diagnostic and surveillance tools on the one hand and epidemiologic studies on the other, both of them developed in congruence with regional strategies. Together, these CaribVET activities contribute to strengthening surveillance of avian influenza virus (AIV) in the

Interval algebra - an effective means of scheduling surveillance radar networks

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Focke, RW

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Interval Algebra provides an effective means to schedule surveillance radar networks, as it is a temporal ordering constraint language. Thus it provides a solution to a part of resource management, which is included in the revised Data Fusion...

Interval algebra: an effective means of scheduling surveillance radar networks

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Focke, RW

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Interval Algebra provides an effective means to schedule surveillance radar networks, as it is a temporal ordering constraint language. Thus it provides a solution to a part of resource management, which is included in the revised Data Fusion...

An Interfacing System for Radiation Surveillance Using a Radio Communication Network

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arunsiri, T.; Punnachaiya, S.; Pattarasumun, A.

1998-01-01

The development of an interfacing system for environmental radiation surveillance using radio communication network is aimed to improve a way by which environmental radiation measurement is transmitted and reported from the regional area monitoring station network. This also includes an automatic warning of beacon status via the radio link network to the center of environmental radiation control when an abnormal radiation level is detected. The interfacing system was developed by simulating the EGAT radio link network, the NT 2612, and can be separated into two parts. The first part was for a mobile station which can manage the output data from the radiation measurement system in the standard form of RS-232, IEEE-488, BCD and analog signal. This was accomplished by modulating the signal in selected baud rates ranging from 150 to 9600 bps using an economical radio packet capable of identifying and recalling the station code number. The other part is the linking system between the output data and the microcomputer equipped with a software to manage and evaluate the data from 10 surveillance stations for convenient handing of data output, statistical analysis and transmitting warning signal. Data transmission was tested using a baud rate of 1200 bps and was found to contain no detectable error when digital signal was transmitted while analog signal transmission resulted in deviations of less than ± 0.003%. The development of this radio link system provides a future trend for the environmental radiation monitoring network for countries with nuclear power plants or neighboring countries needed to continuously monitor for any abnormal radiation level in the environment. In case that the radiation surveillance system detects a high level of radiation, a warning signal will be transmitted and appropriate actions may be immediately exercised to control impacts of radiation on environment and living things according to international guidelines

The French surveillance network of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Epidemiological data in France and worldwide.

Science.gov (United States)

Brandel, J-P; Peckeu, L; Haïk, S

2013-09-01

France, involved for a long time in the epidemiological surveillance of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE), created a national network of surveillance in 1991, because of the description of the first cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) linked to a treatment by growth hormone of human origin and the observation of cases of cats infected with the agent of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy in the United Kingdom (UK). The French surveillance network is integrated into the European network of surveillance since its creation in 1993. As in other countries, sporadic CJD is the most frequent form of TSE in France with an annual mortality rate of 1.44 per million. Genetic forms are most often associated with a mutation at codon 200. Among the cases of iatrogenic CJD, 13 cases of CJD after duramater grafts were observed and 119 related to treatment with growth hormone. France is the country worst affected in Europe and the world by this latter form, before the USA and UK. Since 1996, 27 cases of variant of CJD (vCJD) has been observed, making France the second country in the world most affected after the UK. No cases of transfusion-associated vCJD have been observed. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier SAS.

The potential of the European network of congenital anomaly registers (EUROCAT) for drug safety surveillance : a descriptive study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Meijer, Willemijn M.; Cornel, Martina C.; Dolk, Helen; de Walle, Hermien E. K.; Armstrong, Nicola C.; de Jong-van den Berg, Lolkje T. W.

Background European Surveillance of Congenital Anomalies (EUROCAT) is a network of population-based congenital anomaly registries in Europe surveying more than I million births per year, or 25% of the births in the European Union. This paper describes the potential of the EUROCAT collaboration for

Radiological assessment of the French environment in 2008. Synthesis of the IRSN's surveillance networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chaptal-Gradoz, N.; Chevreuil, M.; D'amico, D.; Debayle, Ch.; Leprieur, F.; Manificat, G.; Peres, J.M.; Pierrard, O.; Tournieux, D.; Veran-Viguie, M.P.; Renaud, Ph.; Roussel-Debet, S.; Masson, O.; Pourcelot, L.; Fayolle, C.; Loyen, J.; Robe, M.Ch.; Picolo, J.L.; Gallerand, M.O.

2009-01-01

While providing many maps, graphs and tables, this report presents and comments the very large amount of data acquired in 2008 within the frame of the control by the IRSN of radioactivity levels on the French national territory by means of its different surveillance networks. After a presentation of these networks (objectives, organization, sample collection, analysis, and preparation methodologies) and of the different radionuclides present in the French environment, results are presented by installation type (electricity production nuclear centres, nuclear fuel reprocessing centres, nuclear medicine centres, nuclear waste storage centres, research centres, nuclear naval bases, etc.) and environment component (air, water ways, rain waters, continental or coastal environment, biological media, etc.)

Semantic-based surveillance video retrieval.

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Weiming; Xie, Dan; Fu, Zhouyu; Zeng, Wenrong; Maybank, Steve

2007-04-01

Visual surveillance produces large amounts of video data. Effective indexing and retrieval from surveillance video databases are very important. Although there are many ways to represent the content of video clips in current video retrieval algorithms, there still exists a semantic gap between users and retrieval systems. Visual surveillance systems supply a platform for investigating semantic-based video retrieval. In this paper, a semantic-based video retrieval framework for visual surveillance is proposed. A cluster-based tracking algorithm is developed to acquire motion trajectories. The trajectories are then clustered hierarchically using the spatial and temporal information, to learn activity models. A hierarchical structure of semantic indexing and retrieval of object activities, where each individual activity automatically inherits all the semantic descriptions of the activity model to which it belongs, is proposed for accessing video clips and individual objects at the semantic level. The proposed retrieval framework supports various queries including queries by keywords, multiple object queries, and queries by sketch. For multiple object queries, succession and simultaneity restrictions, together with depth and breadth first orders, are considered. For sketch-based queries, a method for matching trajectories drawn by users to spatial trajectories is proposed. The effectiveness and efficiency of our framework are tested in a crowded traffic scene.

Sapphire: Canada's Answer to Space-Based Surveillance of Orbital Objects

Science.gov (United States)

Maskell, P.; Oram, L.

The Canadian Department of National Defence is in the process of developing the Canadian Space Surveillance System (CSSS) as the main focus of the Surveillance of Space (SofS) Project. The CSSS consists of two major elements: the Sapphire System and the Sensor System Operations Centre (SSOC). The space segment of the Sapphire System is comprised of the Sapphire Satellite - an autonomous spacecraft with an electro-optical payload which will act as a contributing sensor to the United States (US) Space Surveillance Network (SSN). It will operate in a circular, sunsynchronous orbit at an altitude of approximately 750 kilometers and image a minimum of 360 space objects daily in orbits ranging from 6,000 to 40,000 kilometers in altitude. The ground segment of the Sapphire System is composed of a Spacecraft Control Center (SCC), a Satellite Processing and Scheduling Facility (SPSF), and the Sapphire Simulator. The SPSF will be responsible for data transmission, reception, and processing while the SCC will serve to control and monitor the Sapphire Satellite. Surveillance data will be received from Sapphire through two ground stations. Following processing by the SPSF, the surveillance data will then be forwarded to the SSOC. The SSOC will function as the interface between the Sapphire System and the US Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC). The JSpOC coordinates input from various sensors around the world, all of which are a part of the SSN. The SSOC will task the Sapphire System daily and provide surveillance data to the JSpOC for correlation with data from other SSN sensors. This will include orbital parameters required to predict future positions of objects to be tracked. The SSOC receives daily tasking instructions from the JSpOC to determine which objects the Sapphire spacecraft is required to observe. The advantage of this space-based sensor over ground-based telescopes is that weather and time of day are not factors affecting observation. Thus, space-based optical

Microprocessor-based integrated LMFBR core surveillance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gmeiner, L.

1984-06-01

This report results from a joint study of KfK and INTERATOM. The aim of this study is to explore the advantages of microprocessors and microelectronics for a more sophisticated core surveillance, which is based on the integration of separate surveillance techniques. Due to new developments in microelectronics and related software an approach to LMFBR core surveillance can be conceived that combines a number of measurements into a more intelligent decision-making data processing system. The following techniques are considered to contribute essentially to an integrated core surveillance system: - subassembly state and thermal hydraulics performance monitoring, - temperature noise analysis, - acoustic core surveillance, - failure characterization and failure prediction based on DND- and cover gas signals, and - flux tilting techniques. Starting from a description of these techniques it is shown that by combination and correlation of these individual techniques a higher degree of cost-effectiveness, reliability and accuracy can be achieved. (orig./GL) [de

Space Surveillance Network: New Way Proposed To Support Commercial and Foreign Entities

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Shays, Christopher

2002-01-01

DOD uses the U.S. space surveillance network to track active and inactive satellites and space debris generated from launch vehicles and satellite breakups, and the agency catalogs and provides these data to DOD organizations, U.S...

Strengthening systems for communicable disease surveillance: creating a laboratory network in Rwanda

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ndihokubwayo Jean B

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The recent emergence of a novel strain of influenza virus with pandemic potential underscores the need for quality surveillance and laboratory services to contribute to the timely detection and confirmation of public health threats. To provide a framework for strengthening disease surveillance and response capacities in African countries, the World Health Organization Regional Headquarters for Africa (AFRO developed Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR aimed at improving national surveillance and laboratory systems. IDSR emphasizes the linkage of information provided by public health laboratories to the selection of relevant, appropriate and effective public health responses to disease outbreaks. Methods We reviewed the development of Rwanda's National Reference Laboratory (NRL to understand essential structures involved in creating a national public health laboratory network. We reviewed documents describing the NRL's organization and record of test results, conducted site visits, and interviewed health staff in the Ministry of Health and in partner agencies. Findings were developed by organizing thematic categories and grouping examples within them. We purposefully sought to identify success factors as well as challenges inherent in developing a national public health laboratory system. Results Among the identified success factors were: a structured governing framework for public health surveillance; political commitment to promote leadership for stronger laboratory capacities in Rwanda; defined roles and responsibilities for each level; coordinated approaches between technical and funding partners; collaboration with external laboratories; and use of performance results in advocacy with national stakeholders. Major challenges involved general infrastructure, human resources, and budgetary constraints. Conclusions Rwanda's experience with collaborative partnerships contributed to creation of a functional

Evaluation of community-based surveillance for Guinea worm, South ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2012-08-03

Aug 3, 2012 ... deleted at the Data Manager Level in Loki. Conclusion. Community-based surveillance for guinea worm is a good example of a surveillance system on which an integrated disease surveillance system can be based in countries with poor surveillance like South Sudan. This makes its potential value to ...

Reporting and Surveillance for Norovirus Outbreaks

Science.gov (United States)

... Vaccine Surveillance Network (NVSN) Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) National Outbreak Reporting System (NORS) Estimates of Foodborne Illness in the United States CDC's Vessel Sanitation Program CDC Feature: Surveillance for Norovirus Outbreaks Top ...

CLAM - CoLlAborative eMbedded networks for submarine surveillance: An overview

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Meratnia, Nirvana; Havinga, Paul J.M.; Casari, Paolo; Petrioli, Chiara; Grythe, Knut; Husoy, Thor; Zorzi, Michele

2011-01-01

This paper provides an overview of the CLAM project, which aims at developing a collaborative embedded monitoring and control platform for submarine surveillance by combining cutting edge acoustic vector sensor technology and 1D, 2D, 3D sensor arrays, underwater wireless sensor networks protocol

Description and analysis of the poultry trading network in the Lake Alaotra region, Madagascar: implications for the surveillance and control of Newcastle disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Rasamoelina-Andriamanivo, H; Duboz, R; Lancelot, R; Maminiaina, O F; Jourdan, M; Rakotondramaro, T M C; Rakotonjanahary, S N; de Almeida, R Servan; Rakotondravao; Durand, B; Chevalier, V

2014-07-01

Madagascar's 36.5-million-head poultry industry holds a foremost place in its economy and the livelihood of its people. Unfortunately, regular Newcastle disease outbreaks associated with high mortality causes high losses for smallholders and threatens their livelihood. Therefore, Madagascar is seeking concrete, achievable and sustainable methods for the surveillance and the control of Newcastle disease. In this paper, we present and analyze the results of a field study conducted in Madagascar between December 2009 and December 2010. The study area was the Lac Alaotra region, a landlocked area in the north-eastern part of the country's center. Poultry trading is suspected of playing a major role in the spread of avian diseases, especially in developing countries characterized by many live-bird markets and middlemen. Therefore, the goals of our study were to: (i) describe and analyze smallholders' poultry trading network in the Lake Alaotra region using social network analysis; (ii) assess the role of the network in the spread of Newcastle disease; and (iii) propose the implementation of a targeted disease surveillance based on the characteristics of the poultry trading network. We focused our field study on the harvesting of two data sets. The first is a complete description of the poultry trading network in the landlocked area of Lac Alaotra, including a description of the poultry movements between groups of villages. The second set of data measures the occurrence of outbreaks in the same area by combining a participatory approach with an event-based surveillance method. These data were used to determine the attributes of the network, and to statistically assess the association between the position of nodes and the occurrence of outbreaks. By using social network analysis techniques combined with a classification method and a logistic model, we finally identified 3 nodes (set of villages), of the 387 in the initial network, to focus on for surveillance and control

Multi-Channel Multi-Radio Using 802.11 Based Media Access for Sink Nodes in Wireless Sensor Networks

OpenAIRE

Campbell, Carlene E.-A.; Khan, Shafiullah; Singh, Dhananjay; Loo, Kok-Keong

2011-01-01

The next generation surveillance and multimedia systems will become increasingly deployed as wireless sensor networks in order to monitor parks, public places and for business usage. The convergence of data and telecommunication over IP-based networks has paved the way for wireless networks. Functions are becoming more intertwined by the compelling force of innovation and technology. For example, many closed-circuit TV premises surveillance systems now rely on transmitting their images and da...

A Belief Network Decision Support Method Applied to Aerospace Surveillance and Battle Management Projects

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Staker, R

2003-01-01

This report demonstrates the application of a Bayesian Belief Network decision support method for Force Level Systems Engineering to a collection of projects related to Aerospace Surveillance and Battle Management...

Internet-based surveillance systems for monitoring emerging infectious diseases.

Science.gov (United States)

Milinovich, Gabriel J; Williams, Gail M; Clements, Archie C A; Hu, Wenbiao

2014-02-01

Emerging infectious diseases present a complex challenge to public health officials and governments; these challenges have been compounded by rapidly shifting patterns of human behaviour and globalisation. The increase in emerging infectious diseases has led to calls for new technologies and approaches for detection, tracking, reporting, and response. Internet-based surveillance systems offer a novel and developing means of monitoring conditions of public health concern, including emerging infectious diseases. We review studies that have exploited internet use and search trends to monitor two such diseases: influenza and dengue. Internet-based surveillance systems have good congruence with traditional surveillance approaches. Additionally, internet-based approaches are logistically and economically appealing. However, they do not have the capacity to replace traditional surveillance systems; they should not be viewed as an alternative, but rather an extension. Future research should focus on using data generated through internet-based surveillance and response systems to bolster the capacity of traditional surveillance systems for emerging infectious diseases. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Microprocessor-based integrated LMFBR core surveillance. Pt. 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Elies, V.

1985-12-01

This report is the result of the KfK part of a joint study of KfK and INTERATOM. The aim of this study is to explore the advantages of microprocessors and microelectronics for a more sophisticated core surveillance, which is based on the integration of separate surveillance techniques. After a description of the experimental results gained with the different surveillance techniques so far, it is shown which kinds of correlation can be done using the evaluation results obtained from the single surveillance systems. The main part of this report contains the systems analysis of a microcomputer-based system integrating different surveillance methods. After an analysis of the hardware requirements a hardware structure for the integrated system is proposed. The software structure is then described for the subsystem performing the different surveillance algorithms as well as for the system which does the correlation thus deriving additional information from the single results. (orig.) [de

Internet and Surveillance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

The Internet has been transformed in the past years from a system primarily oriented on information provision into a medium for communication and community-building. The notion of “Web 2.0”, social software, and social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have emerged in this co......The Internet has been transformed in the past years from a system primarily oriented on information provision into a medium for communication and community-building. The notion of “Web 2.0”, social software, and social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have emerged...... institutions have a growing interest in accessing this personal data. Here, contributors explore this changing landscape by addressing topics such as commercial data collection by advertising, consumer sites and interactive media; self-disclosure in the social web; surveillance of file-sharers; privacy...... in the age of the internet; civil watch-surveillance on social networking sites; and networked interactive surveillance in transnational space. This book is a result of a research action launched by the intergovernmental network COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology)....

Analysis of Food Insecurity and Surveillance Based on the FANP ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Michael Horsfall

In this paper, we seek to use the Fuzzy analytical network process (FANP) for analysis of food insecurity surveillance and selecting the best strategies for ... population in different research reports (Bickel et. all, ..... Inability of financial motivation.

Output power distributions of mobile radio base stations based on network measurements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Colombi, D; Thors, B; Persson, T; Törnevik, C; Wirén, N; Larsson, L-E

2013-01-01

In this work output power distributions of mobile radio base stations have been analyzed for 2G and 3G telecommunication systems. The approach is based on measurements in selected networks using performance surveillance tools part of the network Operational Support System (OSS). For the 3G network considered, direct measurements of output power levels were possible, while for the 2G networks, output power levels were estimated from measurements of traffic volumes. Both voice and data services were included in the investigation. Measurements were conducted for large geographical areas, to ensure good overall statistics, as well as for smaller areas to investigate the impact of different environments. For high traffic hours, the 90th percentile of the averaged output power was found to be below 65% and 45% of the available output power for the 2G and 3G systems, respectively.

Output power distributions of mobile radio base stations based on network measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Colombi, D.; Thors, B.; Persson, T.; Wirén, N.; Larsson, L.-E.; Törnevik, C.

2013-04-01

In this work output power distributions of mobile radio base stations have been analyzed for 2G and 3G telecommunication systems. The approach is based on measurements in selected networks using performance surveillance tools part of the network Operational Support System (OSS). For the 3G network considered, direct measurements of output power levels were possible, while for the 2G networks, output power levels were estimated from measurements of traffic volumes. Both voice and data services were included in the investigation. Measurements were conducted for large geographical areas, to ensure good overall statistics, as well as for smaller areas to investigate the impact of different environments. For high traffic hours, the 90th percentile of the averaged output power was found to be below 65% and 45% of the available output power for the 2G and 3G systems, respectively.

Surveillance of the environmental radioactivity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schneider, Th.; Gitzinger, C.; Jaunet, P.; Eberbach, F.; Clavel, B.; Hemidy, P.Y.; Perrier, G.; Kiper, Ch.; Peres, J.M.; Josset, M.; Calvez, M.; Leclerc, M.; Leclerc, E.; Aubert, C.; Levelut, M.N.; Debayle, Ch.; Mayer, St.; Renaud, Ph.; Leprieur, F.; Petitfrere, M.; Catelinois, O.; Monfort, M.; Baron, Y.; Target, A.

2008-01-01

The objective of these days was to present the organisation of the surveillance of the environmental radioactivity and to allow an experience sharing and a dialog on this subject between the different actors of the radiation protection in france. The different presentations were as follow: evolution and stakes of the surveillance of radioactivity in environment; the part of the European commission, regulatory aspects; the implementation of the surveillance: the case of Germany; Strategy and logic of environmental surveillance around the EDF national centers of energy production; environmental surveillance: F.B.F.C. site of Romans on Isere; steps of the implementation 'analysis for release decree at the F.B.F.C./C.E.R.C.A. laboratory of Romans; I.R.S.N. and the environmental surveillance: situation and perspectives; the part of a non institutional actor, the citizenship surveillance done by A.C.R.O.; harmonization of sampling methods: the results of inter operators G.T. sampling; sustainable observatory of environment: data traceability and samples conservation; inter laboratories tests of radioactivity measurements; national network of environmental radioactivity measurement: laboratories agreements; the networks of environmental radioactivity telemetry: modernization positioning; programme of observation and surveillance of surface environment and installations of the H.A.-M.A.V.L. project (high activity and long life medium activity); Evolution of radionuclides concentration in environment and adaptation of measurements techniques to the surveillance needs; the national network of radioactivity measurement in environment; modes of data restoration of surveillance: the results of the Loire environment pilot action; method of sanitary impacts estimation in the area of ionizing radiations; the radiological impact of atmospheric nuclear tests in French Polynesia; validation of models by the measure; network of measurement and alert management of the atmospheric

Parallel Computational Intelligence-Based Multi-Camera Surveillance System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sergio Orts-Escolano

2014-04-01

Full Text Available In this work, we present a multi-camera surveillance system based on the use of self-organizing neural networks to represent events on video. The system processes several tasks in parallel using GPUs (graphic processor units. It addresses multiple vision tasks at various levels, such as segmentation, representation or characterization, analysis and monitoring of the movement. These features allow the construction of a robust representation of the environment and interpret the behavior of mobile agents in the scene. It is also necessary to integrate the vision module into a global system that operates in a complex environment by receiving images from multiple acquisition devices at video frequency. Offering relevant information to higher level systems, monitoring and making decisions in real time, it must accomplish a set of requirements, such as: time constraints, high availability, robustness, high processing speed and re-configurability. We have built a system able to represent and analyze the motion in video acquired by a multi-camera network and to process multi-source data in parallel on a multi-GPU architecture.

Influenza surveillance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karolina Bednarska

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Influenza surveillance was established in 1947. From this moment WHO (World Health Organization has been coordinating international cooperation, with a goal of monitoring influenza virus activity, effective diagnostic of the circulating viruses and informing society about epidemics or pandemics, as well as about emergence of new subtypes of influenza virus type A. Influenza surveillance is an important task, because it enables people to prepare themselves for battle with the virus that is constantly mutating, what leads to circulation of new and often more virulent strains of influenza in human population. As vaccination is the most effective method of fighting the virus, one of the major tasks of GISRS is developing an optimal antigenic composition of the vaccine for the current epidemic season. European Influenza Surveillance Network (EISN has also developed over the years. EISN is running integrated epidemiological and virological influenza surveillance, to provide appropriate data to public health experts in member countries, to enable them undertaking relevant activities based on the current information about influenza activity. In close cooperation with GISRS and EISN are National Influenza Centres - national institutions designated by the Ministry of Health in each country.

Multi-site cholera surveillance within the African Cholera Surveillance Network shows endemicity in Mozambique, 2011-2015.

Science.gov (United States)

Semá Baltazar, Cynthia; Langa, José Paulo; Dengo Baloi, Liliana; Wood, Richard; Ouedraogo, Issaka; Njanpop-Lafourcade, Berthe-Marie; Inguane, Dorteia; Elias Chitio, Jucunu; Mhlanga, Themba; Gujral, Lorna; D Gessner, Bradford; Munier, Aline; A Mengel, Martin

2017-10-01

Mozambique suffers recurrent annual cholera outbreaks especially during the rainy season between October to March. The African Cholera Surveillance Network (Africhol) was implemented in Mozambique in 2011 to generate accurate detailed surveillance data to support appropriate interventions for cholera control and prevention in the country. Africhol was implemented in enhanced surveillance zones located in the provinces of Sofala (Beira), Zambézia (District Mocuba), and Cabo Delgado (Pemba City). Data were also analyzed from the three outbreak areas that experienced the greatest number of cases during the time period under observation (in the districts of Cuamba, Montepuez, and Nampula). Rectal swabs were collected from suspected cases for identification of Vibrio cholerae, as well as clinical, behavioral, and socio-demographic variables. We analyzed factors associated with confirmed, hospitalized, and fatal cholera using multivariate logistic regression models. A total of 1,863 suspected cases and 23 deaths (case fatality ratio (CFR), 1.2%) were reported from October 2011 to December 2015. Among these suspected cases, 52.2% were tested of which 23.5% were positive for Vibrio cholerae O1 Ogawa. Risk factors independently associated with the occurrence of confirmed cholera were living in Nampula city district, the year 2014, human immunodeficiency virus infection, and the primary water source for drinking. Cholera was endemic in Mozambique during the study period with a high CFR and identifiable risk factors. The study reinforces the importance of continued cholera surveillance, including a strong laboratory component. The results enhanced our understanding of the need to target priority areas and at-risk populations for interventions including oral cholera vaccine (OCV) use, and assess the impact of prevention and control strategies. Our data were instrumental in informing integrated prevention and control efforts during major cholera outbreaks in recent years.

A Global Cancer Surveillance Framework Within Noncommunicable Disease Surveillance: Making the Case for Population-Based Cancer Registries.

Science.gov (United States)

Piñeros, Marion; Znaor, Ariana; Mery, Les; Bray, Freddie

2017-01-01

The growing burden of cancer among several major noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) requires national implementation of tailored public health surveillance. For many emerging economies where emphasis has traditionally been placed on the surveillance of communicable diseases, it is critical to understand the specificities of NCD surveillance and, within it, of cancer surveillance. We propose a general framework for cancer surveillance that permits monitoring the core components of cancer control. We examine communalities in approaches to the surveillance of other major NCDs as well as communicable diseases, illustrating key differences in the function, coverage, and reporting in each system. Although risk factor surveys and vital statistics registration are the foundation of surveillance of NCDs, population-based cancer registries play a unique fundamental role specific to cancer surveillance, providing indicators of population-based incidence and survival. With an onus now placed on governments to collect these data as part of the monitoring of NCD targets, the integration of cancer registries into existing and future NCD surveillance strategies is a vital requirement in all countries worldwide. The Global Initiative for Cancer Registry Development, endorsed by the World Health Organization, provides a means to enhance cancer surveillance capacity in low- and middle-income countries. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Social networking sites in romantic relationships: attachment, uncertainty, and partner surveillance on facebook.

Science.gov (United States)

Fox, Jesse; Warber, Katie M

2014-01-01

Social networking sites serve as both a source of information and a source of tension between romantic partners. Previous studies have investigated the use of Facebook for monitoring former and current romantic partners, but why certain individuals engage in this behavior has not been fully explained. College students (N=328) participated in an online survey that examined two potential explanatory variables for interpersonal electronic surveillance (IES) of romantic partners: attachment style and relational uncertainty. Attachment style predicted both uncertainty and IES, with preoccupieds and fearfuls reporting the highest levels. Uncertainty did not predict IES, however. Future directions for research on romantic relationships and online surveillance are explored.

Network analysis of translocated Takahe populations to identify disease surveillance targets.

Science.gov (United States)

Grange, Zoë L; VAN Andel, Mary; French, Nigel P; Gartrell, Brett D

2014-04-01

Social network analysis is being increasingly used in epidemiology and disease modeling in humans, domestic animals, and wildlife. We investigated this tool in describing a translocation network (area that allows movement of animals between geographically isolated locations) used for the conservation of an endangered flightless rail, the Takahe (Porphyrio hochstetteri). We collated records of Takahe translocations within New Zealand and used social network principles to describe the connectivity of the translocation network. That is, networks were constructed and analyzed using adjacency matrices with values based on the tie weights between nodes. Five annual network matrices were created using the Takahe data set, each incremental year included records of previous years. Weights of movements between connected locations were assigned by the number of Takahe moved. We calculated the number of nodes (i(total)) and the number of ties (t(total)) between the nodes. To quantify the small-world character of the networks, we compared the real networks to random graphs of the equivalent size, weighting, and node strength. Descriptive analysis of cumulative annual Takahe movement networks involved determination of node-level characteristics, including centrality descriptors of relevance to disease modeling such as weighted measures of in degree (k(i)(in)), out degree (k(i)(out)), and betweenness (B(i)). Key players were assigned according to the highest node measure of k(i)(in), k(i)(out), and B(i) per network. Networks increased in size throughout the time frame considered. The network had some degree small-world characteristics. Nodes with the highest cumulative tie weights connecting them were the captive breeding center, the Murchison Mountains and 2 offshore islands. The key player fluctuated between the captive breeding center and the Murchison Mountains. The cumulative networks identified the captive breeding center every year as the hub of the network until the final

National laboratory-based surveillance system for antimicrobial resistance: a successful tool to support the control of antimicrobial resistance in the Netherlands.

Science.gov (United States)

Altorf-van der Kuil, Wieke; Schoffelen, Annelot F; de Greeff, Sabine C; Thijsen, Steven Ft; Alblas, H Jeroen; Notermans, Daan W; Vlek, Anne Lm; van der Sande, Marianne Ab; Leenstra, Tjalling

2017-11-01

An important cornerstone in the control of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a well-designed quantitative system for the surveillance of spread and temporal trends in AMR. Since 2008, the Dutch national AMR surveillance system, based on routine data from medical microbiological laboratories (MMLs), has developed into a successful tool to support the control of AMR in the Netherlands. It provides background information for policy making in public health and healthcare services, supports development of empirical antibiotic therapy guidelines and facilitates in-depth research. In addition, participation of the MMLs in the national AMR surveillance network has contributed to sharing of knowledge and quality improvement. A future improvement will be the implementation of a new semantic standard together with standardised data transfer, which will reduce errors in data handling and enable a more real-time surveillance. Furthermore, the scientific impact and the possibility of detecting outbreaks may be amplified by merging the AMR surveillance database with databases from selected pathogen-based surveillance programmes containing patient data and genotypic typing data.

Automated video surveillance: teaching an old dog new tricks

Science.gov (United States)

McLeod, Alastair

1993-12-01

The automated video surveillance market is booming with new players, new systems, new hardware and software, and an extended range of applications. This paper reviews available technology, and describes the features required for a good automated surveillance system. Both hardware and software are discussed. An overview of typical applications is also given. A shift towards PC-based hybrid systems, use of parallel processing, neural networks, and exploitation of modern telecomms are introduced, highlighting the evolution modern video surveillance systems.

[A review on the advancement of internet-based public health surveillance program].

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Y Q; Ma, W J

2017-02-10

Internet data is introduced into public health arena under the features of fast updating and tremendous volume. Mining and analyzing internet data, researchers can model the internet-based surveillance system to assess the distribution of health-related events. There are two main types of internet-based surveillance systems, i.e. active and passive, which are distinguished by the sources of information. Through passive surveillance system, information is collected from search engine and social media while the active system gathers information through provision of the volunteers. Except for serving as a real-time and convenient complementary approach to traditional disease, food safety and adverse drug reaction surveillance program, Internet-based surveillance system can also play a role in health-related behavior surveillance and policy evaluation. Although several techniques have been applied to filter information, the accuracy of internet-based surveillance system is still bothered by the false positive information. In this article, we have summarized the development and application of internet-based surveillance system in public health to provide reference for a better surveillance program in China.

Interaction between research and diagnosis and surveillance of avian influenza within the Caribbean animal health network (CaribVET).

Science.gov (United States)

Lefrançois, T; Hendrikx, P; Vachiéry, N; Ehrhardt, N; Millien, M; Gomez, L; Gouyet, L; Gerbier, G; Gongora, V; Shaw, J; Trotman, M

2010-04-01

The Caribbean region is considered to be at risk for avian influenza (AI) because of predominance of the backyard poultry system, important commercial poultry production, migratory birds and disparities in the surveillance systems. The Caribbean animal health network (CaribVET) has developed tools to implement AI surveillance in the region: (i) a regionally harmonized surveillance protocol, (ii) specific web pages for AI surveillance on http://www.caribvet.net, and (iii) a diagnostic network for the Caribbean including AI virus molecular diagnostic capability in Guadeloupe and technology transfer. Altogether 303 samples from four Caribbean countries were tested between June 2006 and March 2009 by real time PCR either for importation purposes or following clinical suspicion. Following AI H5N2 outbreaks in the Dominican Republic in 2007, a questionnaire was developed to collect data for risk analysis of AI spread in the region through fighting cocks. The infection pathway of Martinique commercial poultry sector by AI through introduction of infected cocks was designed and recommendations were provided to the Caribbean veterinary services to improve fighting cock movement controls and biosecurity measures. Altogether, these CaribVET activities contribute to strengthen surveillance of AI in the Caribbean region and may allow the development of research studies on AI risk analysis.

Wallops Ship Surveillance System

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Donna C.

2011-01-01

Approved as a Wallops control center backup system, the Wallops Ship Surveillance Software is a day-of-launch risk analysis tool for spaceport activities. The system calculates impact probabilities and displays ship locations relative to boundary lines. It enables rapid analysis of possible flight paths to preclude the need to cancel launches and allow execution of launches in a timely manner. Its design is based on low-cost, large-customer- base elements including personal computers, the Windows operating system, C/C++ object-oriented software, and network interfaces. In conformance with the NASA software safety standard, the system is designed to ensure that it does not falsely report a safe-for-launch condition. To improve the current ship surveillance method, the system is designed to prevent delay of launch under a safe-for-launch condition. A single workstation is designated the controller of the official ship information and the official risk analysis. Copies of this information are shared with other networked workstations. The program design is divided into five subsystems areas: 1. Communication Link -- threads that control the networking of workstations; 2. Contact List -- a thread that controls a list of protected item (ocean vessel) information; 3. Hazard List -- threads that control a list of hazardous item (debris) information and associated risk calculation information; 4. Display -- threads that control operator inputs and screen display outputs; and 5. Archive -- a thread that controls archive file read and write access. Currently, most of the hazard list thread and parts of other threads are being reused as part of a new ship surveillance system, under the SureTrak project.

Multi-site cholera surveillance within the African Cholera Surveillance Network shows endemicity in Mozambique, 2011–2015

Science.gov (United States)

Langa, José Paulo; Dengo Baloi, Liliana; Wood, Richard; Ouedraogo, Issaka; Njanpop-Lafourcade, Berthe-Marie; Inguane, Dorteia; Elias Chitio, Jucunu; Mhlanga, Themba; Gujral, Lorna; D. Gessner, Bradford; Munier, Aline; A. Mengel, Martin

2017-01-01

Background Mozambique suffers recurrent annual cholera outbreaks especially during the rainy season between October to March. The African Cholera Surveillance Network (Africhol) was implemented in Mozambique in 2011 to generate accurate detailed surveillance data to support appropriate interventions for cholera control and prevention in the country. Methodology/Principal findings Africhol was implemented in enhanced surveillance zones located in the provinces of Sofala (Beira), Zambézia (District Mocuba), and Cabo Delgado (Pemba City). Data were also analyzed from the three outbreak areas that experienced the greatest number of cases during the time period under observation (in the districts of Cuamba, Montepuez, and Nampula). Rectal swabs were collected from suspected cases for identification of Vibrio cholerae, as well as clinical, behavioral, and socio-demographic variables. We analyzed factors associated with confirmed, hospitalized, and fatal cholera using multivariate logistic regression models. A total of 1,863 suspected cases and 23 deaths (case fatality ratio (CFR), 1.2%) were reported from October 2011 to December 2015. Among these suspected cases, 52.2% were tested of which 23.5% were positive for Vibrio cholerae O1 Ogawa. Risk factors independently associated with the occurrence of confirmed cholera were living in Nampula city district, the year 2014, human immunodeficiency virus infection, and the primary water source for drinking. Conclusions/Significance Cholera was endemic in Mozambique during the study period with a high CFR and identifiable risk factors. The study reinforces the importance of continued cholera surveillance, including a strong laboratory component. The results enhanced our understanding of the need to target priority areas and at-risk populations for interventions including oral cholera vaccine (OCV) use, and assess the impact of prevention and control strategies. Our data were instrumental in informing integrated prevention and

Collaborative 3D Target Tracking in Distributed Smart Camera Networks for Wide-Area Surveillance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xenofon Koutsoukos

2013-05-01

Full Text Available With the evolution and fusion of wireless sensor network and embedded camera technologies, distributed smart camera networks have emerged as a new class of systems for wide-area surveillance applications. Wireless networks, however, introduce a number of constraints to the system that need to be considered, notably the communication bandwidth constraints. Existing approaches for target tracking using a camera network typically utilize target handover mechanisms between cameras, or combine results from 2D trackers in each camera into 3D target estimation. Such approaches suffer from scale selection, target rotation, and occlusion, drawbacks typically associated with 2D tracking. In this paper, we present an approach for tracking multiple targets directly in 3D space using a network of smart cameras. The approach employs multi-view histograms to characterize targets in 3D space using color and texture as the visual features. The visual features from each camera along with the target models are used in a probabilistic tracker to estimate the target state. We introduce four variations of our base tracker that incur different computational and communication costs on each node and result in different tracking accuracy. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed trackers by comparing their performance to a 3D tracker that fuses the results of independent 2D trackers. We also present performance analysis of the base tracker along Quality-of-Service (QoS and Quality-of-Information (QoI metrics, and study QoS vs. QoI trade-offs between the proposed tracker variations. Finally, we demonstrate our tracker in a real-life scenario using a camera network deployed in a building.

Converging requirements and emerging challenges to public health diseases surveillance and bio surveillance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rao, V.; Abel, T.

2009-01-01

Disease surveillance systems are a critical component of an early warning system for public health agencies to prepare and respond to major public health catastrophes. With a growing emphasis for more robust early indicator and warning systems to track emerging and dangerous diseases of suspicious nature, considerable emphasis is now placed on deployment of more expanded electronic disease surveillance systems. The architectural considerations for bio surveillance information system are based on collection, analysis and dissemination of human, veterinary and agricultural related disease surveillance to broader regional areas likely to be affected in the event of an emerging disease, or due to bioterrorism and better coordinate plans, preparations and response by governmental agencies and multilateral forums. The diseases surveillance systems architectures by intent and design could as well support biological threat monitoring and threat reduction initiatives. As an illustrative sample set, this paper will describe the comparative informatics requirements for a disease surveillance systems developed by CSC for the US Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) currently operational nationwide, and biological weapons threat assessment developed as part of the Threat Agent Detection and Response (TADR) Network under the US Biological Threat Reduction Program and deployed at Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Azerbaijan.(author)

Molecular surveillance of norovirus, 2005-16: an epidemiological analysis of data collected from the NoroNet network.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Beek, Janko; de Graaf, Miranda; Al-Hello, Haider; Allen, David J; Ambert-Balay, Katia; Botteldoorn, Nadine; Brytting, Mia; Buesa, Javier; Cabrerizo, Maria; Chan, Martin; Cloak, Fiona; Di Bartolo, Ilaria; Guix, Susana; Hewitt, Joanne; Iritani, Nobuhiro; Jin, Miao; Johne, Reimar; Lederer, Ingeborg; Mans, Janet; Martella, Vito; Maunula, Leena; McAllister, Georgina; Niendorf, Sandra; Niesters, Hubert G; Podkolzin, Alexander T; Poljsak-Prijatelj, Mateja; Rasmussen, Lasse Dam; Reuter, Gábor; Tuite, Gráinne; Kroneman, Annelies; Vennema, Harry; Koopmans, Marion P G

2018-01-01

The development of a vaccine for norovirus requires a detailed understanding of global genetic diversity of noroviruses. We analysed their epidemiology and diversity using surveillance data from the NoroNet network.

Influenza epidemiology and influenza vaccine effectiveness during the 2014–2015 season: annual report from the Global Influenza Hospital Surveillance Network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joan Puig-Barberà

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract The Global Influenza Hospital Surveillance Network (GIHSN has established a prospective, active surveillance, hospital-based epidemiological study to collect epidemiological and virological data for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres over several consecutive seasons. It focuses exclusively on severe cases of influenza requiring hospitalization. A standard protocol is shared between sites allowing comparison and pooling of results. During the 2014–2015 influenza season, the GIHSN included seven coordinating sites from six countries (St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russian Federation; Prague, Czech Republic; Istanbul, Turkey; Beijing, China; Valencia, Spain; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Here, we present the detailed epidemiological and influenza vaccine effectiveness findings for the Northern Hemisphere 2014–2015 influenza season.

Cell Phone-Based System (Chaak) for Surveillance of Immatures of Dengue Virus Mosquito Vectors

Science.gov (United States)

LOZANO–FUENTES, SAUL; WEDYAN, FADI; HERNANDEZ–GARCIA, EDGAR; SADHU, DEVADATTA; GHOSH, SUDIPTO; BIEMAN, JAMES M.; TEP-CHEL, DIANA; GARCÍA–REJÓN, JULIÁN E.; EISEN, LARS

2014-01-01

Capture of surveillance data on mobile devices and rapid transfer of such data from these devices into an electronic database or data management and decision support systems promote timely data analyses and public health response during disease outbreaks. Mobile data capture is used increasingly for malaria surveillance and holds great promise for surveillance of other neglected tropical diseases. We focused on mosquito-borne dengue, with the primary aims of: 1) developing and field-testing a cell phone-based system (called Chaak) for capture of data relating to the surveillance of the mosquito immature stages, and 2) assessing, in the dengue endemic setting of Mérida, México, the cost-effectiveness of this new technology versus paper-based data collection. Chaak includes a desktop component, where a manager selects premises to be surveyed for mosquito immatures, and a cell phone component, where the surveyor receives the assigned tasks and captures the data. Data collected on the cell phone can be transferred to a central database through different modes of transmission, including near-real time where data are transferred immediately (e.g., over the Internet) or by first storing data on the cell phone for future transmission. Spatial data are handled in a novel, semantically driven, geographic information system. Compared with a pen-and-paper-based method, use of Chaak improved the accuracy and increased the speed of data transcription into an electronic database. The cost-effectiveness of using the Chaak system will depend largely on the up-front cost of purchasing cell phones and the recurring cost of data transfer over a cellular network. PMID:23926788

Validation of intensive care unit-acquired infection surveillance in the Italian SPIN-UTI network.

Science.gov (United States)

Masia, M D; Barchitta, M; Liperi, G; Cantù, A P; Alliata, E; Auxilia, F; Torregrossa, V; Mura, I; Agodi, A

2010-10-01

Validity is one of the most critical factors concerning surveillance of nosocomial infections (NIs). This article describes the first validation study of the Italian Nosocomial Infections Surveillance in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) project (SPIN-UTI) surveillance data. The objective was to validate infection data and thus to determine the sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of NI data reported on patients in the ICUs participating in the SPIN-UTI network. A validation study was performed at the end of the surveillance period. All medical records including all clinical and laboratory data were reviewed retrospectively by the trained physicians of the validation team and a positive predictive value (PPV), a negative predictive value (NPV), sensitivity and specificity were calculated. Eight ICUs (16.3%) were randomly chosen from all 49 SPIN-UTI ICUs for the validation study. In total, the validation team reviewed 832 patient charts (27.3% of the SPIN-UTI patients). The PPV was 83.5% and the NPV was 97.3%. The overall sensitivity was 82.3% and overall specificity was 97.2%. Over- and under-reporting of NIs were related to misinterpretation of the case definitions and deviations from the protocol despite previous training and instructions. The results of this study are useful to identify methodological problems within a surveillance system and have been used to plan retraining for surveillance personnel and to design and implement the second phase of the SPIN-UTI project. Copyright 2010 The Hospital Infection Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Air quality monitoring at Seoul, Korea as a part of East-Asian air surveillance network

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hashimoto, Y.; Sekine, Y.; Kim, H.K.; Otoshi, T.

1989-01-01

Global scale air pollution study is a recent trend due to a perception that air pollution is changing climate and other essential earth's conditions that could seriously affect our lives. One of the important tasks which can contribute to protect our natural environment must be to know about the present and changing air quality. For this purpose, a regional air monitoring plan was designed by a research group and has proceeded to set up stations in the eastern Asia including Japan, Korea and China to get continuous data which can contribute to world wide data base of air quality. This project was initiated at Seoul, Korea in April, 1986 by the method of National Air Surveillance Network, Japan. Airborne particles were collected by so-called Hi-vol and Lo-vol, and their components were analyzed by neutron activation analysis and others. The results of Seoul sampling as a first step of this network plan are presented

Future directions for the European influenza reference laboratory network in influenza surveillance.

Science.gov (United States)

Goddard, N; Rebelo-de-Andrade, H; Meijer, A; McCauley, J; Daniels, R; Zambon, M

2015-07-30

By defining strategic objectives for the network of influenza laboratories that have national influenza centre status or national function within European Union Member States, Iceland and Norway, it is possible to align their priorities in undertaking virological surveillance of influenza. This will help maintain and develop the network to meet and adapt to new challenges over the next 3-5 years and underpin a longer-term strategy over 5-10 years. We analysed the key activities undertaken by influenza reference laboratories in Europe and categorised them into a framework of four key strategic objectives areas: enhancing laboratory capability, ensuring laboratory capacity, providing emergency response and translating laboratory data into information for public health action. We make recommendations on the priority areas for future development.

Web-based infectious disease surveillance systems and public health perspectives: a systematic review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jihye Choi

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases are a significant public health concern, and early detection and immediate response is crucial for disease control. These challenges have led to the need for new approaches and technologies to reinforce the capacity of traditional surveillance systems for detecting emerging infectious diseases. In the last few years, the availability of novel web-based data sources has contributed substantially to infectious disease surveillance. This study explores the burgeoning field of web-based infectious disease surveillance systems by examining their current status, importance, and potential challenges. Methods A systematic review framework was applied to the search, screening, and analysis of web-based infectious disease surveillance systems. We searched PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase databases to extensively review the English literature published between 2000 and 2015. Eleven surveillance systems were chosen for evaluation according to their high frequency of application. Relevant terms, including newly coined terms, development and classification of the surveillance systems, and various characteristics associated with the systems were studied. Results Based on a detailed and informative review of the 11 web-based infectious disease surveillance systems, it was evident that these systems exhibited clear strengths, as compared to traditional surveillance systems, but with some limitations yet to be overcome. The major strengths of the newly emerging surveillance systems are that they are intuitive, adaptable, low-cost, and operated in real-time, all of which are necessary features of an effective public health tool. The most apparent potential challenges of the web-based systems are those of inaccurate interpretation and prediction of health status, and privacy issues, based on an individual’s internet activity. Conclusion Despite being in a nascent stage with further modification

Sensor signal analysis by neural networks for surveillance in nuclear reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Keyvan, S.; Rabelo, L.C.

1992-01-01

The application of neural networks as a tool for reactor diagnostics is examined here. Reactor pump signals utilized in a wear-out monitoring system developed for early detection of the degradation of a pump shaft are analyzed as a semi-benchmark test to study the feasibility of neural networks for monitoring and surveillance in nuclear reactors. The Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART 2 and ART 2-A) paradigm of neural networks is applied in this study. The signals are collected signals as well as generated signals simulating the wear progress. The wear-out monitoring system applies noise analysis techniques, and is capable of distinguishing these signals apart and providing a measure of the progress of the degradation. This paper presents the results of the analysis of these data, and provides an evaluation on the performance of ART 2-A and ART 2 for reactor signal analysis. The selection of ART 2 is due to its desired design principles such as unsupervised learning, stability-plasticity, search-direct access, and the match-reset tradeoffs

Flock-based surveillance for lowpathogenic avian influenza virus in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Flock-based surveillance for lowpathogenic avian influenza virus in commercial breeders and layers, southwest Nigeria. ... African Journal of Infectious Diseases ... Background: Flock surveillance systems for avian influenza (AI) virus play a critical role in countries where vaccination is not practiced so as to establish the ...

A flexible data fusion architecture for persistent surveillance using ultra-low-power wireless sensor networks

Science.gov (United States)

Hanson, Jeffrey A.; McLaughlin, Keith L.; Sereno, Thomas J.

2011-06-01

We have developed a flexible, target-driven, multi-modal, physics-based fusion architecture that efficiently searches sensor detections for targets and rejects clutter while controlling the combinatoric problems that commonly arise in datadriven fusion systems. The informational constraints imposed by long lifetime requirements make systems vulnerable to false alarms. We demonstrate that our data fusion system significantly reduces false alarms while maintaining high sensitivity to threats. In addition, mission goals can vary substantially in terms of targets-of-interest, required characterization, acceptable latency, and false alarm rates. Our fusion architecture provides the flexibility to match these trade-offs with mission requirements unlike many conventional systems that require significant modifications for each new mission. We illustrate our data fusion performance with case studies that span many of the potential mission scenarios including border surveillance, base security, and infrastructure protection. In these studies, we deployed multi-modal sensor nodes - including geophones, magnetometers, accelerometers and PIR sensors - with low-power processing algorithms and low-bandwidth wireless mesh networking to create networks capable of multi-year operation. The results show our data fusion architecture maintains high sensitivities while suppressing most false alarms for a variety of environments and targets.

Muscular Dystrophy Surveillance Tracking and Research Network (MD STARnet): case definition in surveillance for childhood-onset Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophy.

Science.gov (United States)

Mathews, Katherine D; Cunniff, Chris; Kantamneni, Jiji R; Ciafaloni, Emma; Miller, Timothy; Matthews, Dennis; Cwik, Valerie; Druschel, Charlotte; Miller, Lisa; Meaney, F John; Sladky, John; Romitti, Paul A

2010-09-01

The Muscular Dystrophy Surveillance Tracking and Research Network (MD STARnet) is a multisite collaboration to determine the prevalence of childhood-onset Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophy and to characterize health care and health outcomes in this population. MD STARnet uses medical record abstraction to identify patients with Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophy born January 1, 1982 or later who resided in 1 of the participating sites. Critical diagnostic elements of each abstracted record are reviewed independently by >4 clinicians and assigned to 1 of 6 case definition categories (definite, probable, possible, asymptomatic, female, not Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophy) by consensus. As of November 2009, 815 potential cases were reviewed. Of the cases included in analysis, 674 (82%) were either ''definite'' or ''probable'' Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophy. These data reflect a change in diagnostic testing, as case assignment based on genetic testing increased from 67% in the oldest cohort (born 1982-1987) to 94% in the cohort born 2004 to 2009.

a Cloud-Based Architecture for Smart Video Surveillance

Science.gov (United States)

Valentín, L.; Serrano, S. A.; Oves García, R.; Andrade, A.; Palacios-Alonso, M. A.; Sucar, L. Enrique

2017-09-01

Turning a city into a smart city has attracted considerable attention. A smart city can be seen as a city that uses digital technology not only to improve the quality of people's life, but also, to have a positive impact in the environment and, at the same time, offer efficient and easy-to-use services. A fundamental aspect to be considered in a smart city is people's safety and welfare, therefore, having a good security system becomes a necessity, because it allows us to detect and identify potential risk situations, and then take appropriate decisions to help people or even prevent criminal acts. In this paper we present an architecture for automated video surveillance based on the cloud computing schema capable of acquiring a video stream from a set of cameras connected to the network, process that information, detect, label and highlight security-relevant events automatically, store the information and provide situational awareness in order to minimize response time to take the appropriate action.

The potential of the European network of congenital anomaly registers (EUROCAT) for drug safety surveillance: a descriptive study.

Science.gov (United States)

Meijer, Willemijn M; Cornel, Martina C; Dolk, Helen; de Walle, Hermien E K; Armstrong, Nicola C; de Jong-van den Berg, Lolkje T W

2006-09-01

European Surveillance of Congenital Anomalies (EUROCAT) is a network of population-based congenital anomaly registries in Europe surveying more than 1 million births per year, or 25% of the births in the European Union. This paper describes the potential of the EUROCAT collaboration for pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety surveillance. The 34 full members and 6 associate members of the EUROCAT network were sent a questionnaire about their data sources on drug exposure and on drug coding. Available data on drug exposure during the first trimester available in the central EUROCAT database for the years 1996-2000 was summarised for 15 out of 25 responding full members. Of the 40 registries, 29 returned questionnaires (25 full and 4 associate members). Four of these registries do not collect data on maternal drug use. Of the full members, 15 registries use the EUROCAT drug code, 4 use the international ATC drug code, 3 registries use another coding system and 7 use a combination of these coding systems. Obstetric records are the most frequently used sources of drug information for the registries, followed by interviews with the mother. Only one registry uses pharmacy data. Percentages of cases with drug exposure (excluding vitamins/minerals) varied from 4.4% to 26.0% among different registries. The categories of drugs recorded varied widely between registries. Practices vary widely between registries regarding recording drug exposure information. EUROCAT has the potential to be an effective collaborative framework to contribute to post-marketing drug surveillance in relation to teratogenic effects, but work is needed to implement ATC drug coding more widely, and to diversify the sources of information used to determine drug exposure in each registry.

European Surveillance Network for Influenza in Pigs: Surveillance Programs, Diagnostic Tools and Swine Influenza Virus Subtypes Identified in 14 European Countries from 2010 to 2013

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Simon, Gaelle; Larsen, Lars Erik; Duerrwald, Ralf

2014-01-01

: avian-like swine H1N1 (53.6%), human-like reassortant swine H1N2 (13%) and human-like reassortant swine H3N2 (9.1%), as well as pandemic A/H1N1 2009 (H1N1pdm) virus (10.3%). Viruses from these four lineages co-circulated in several countries but with very different relative levels of incidence....... For instance, the H3N2 subtype was not detected at all in some geographic areas whereas it was still prevalent in other parts of Europe. Interestingly, H3N2-free areas were those that exhibited highest frequencies of circulating H1N2 viruses. H1N1pdm viruses were isolated at an increasing incidence in some......Swine influenza causes concern for global veterinary and public health officials. In continuing two previous networks that initiated the surveillance of swine influenza viruses (SIVs) circulating in European pigs between 2001 and 2008, a third European Surveillance Network for Influenza in Pigs...

Infection with Pathogens Transmitted Commonly Through Food and the Effect of Increasing Use of Culture-Independent Diagnostic Tests on Surveillance--Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, 10 U.S. Sites, 2012-2015.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Jennifer Y; Henao, Olga L; Griffin, Patricia M; Vugia, Duc J; Cronquist, Alicia B; Hurd, Sharon; Tobin-D'Angelo, Melissa; Ryan, Patricia; Smith, Kirk; Lathrop, Sarah; Zansky, Shelley; Cieslak, Paul R; Dunn, John; Holt, Kristin G; Wolpert, Beverly J; Patrick, Mary E

2016-04-15

To evaluate progress toward prevention of enteric and foodborne illnesses in the United States, the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) monitors the incidence of laboratory-confirmed infections caused by nine pathogens transmitted commonly through food in 10 U.S. sites. This report summarizes preliminary 2015 data and describes trends since 2012. In 2015, FoodNet reported 20,107 confirmed cases (defined as culture-confirmed bacterial infections and laboratory-confirmed parasitic infections), 4,531 hospitalizations, and 77 deaths. FoodNet also received reports of 3,112 positive culture-independent diagnostic tests (CIDTs) without culture-confirmation, a number that has markedly increased since 2012. Diagnostic testing practices for enteric pathogens are rapidly moving away from culture-based methods. The continued shift from culture-based methods to CIDTs that do not produce the isolates needed to distinguish between strains and subtypes affects the interpretation of public health surveillance data and ability to monitor progress toward prevention efforts. Expanded case definitions and strategies for obtaining bacterial isolates are crucial during this transition period.

The Spanish national health care-associated infection surveillance network (INCLIMECC): data summary January 1997 through December 2006 adapted to the new National Healthcare Safety Network Procedure-associated module codes.

Science.gov (United States)

Pérez, Cristina Díaz-Agero; Rodela, Ana Robustillo; Monge Jodrá, Vincente

2009-12-01

In 1997, a national standardized surveillance system (designated INCLIMECC [Indicadores Clínicos de Mejora Continua de la Calidad]) was established in Spain for health care-associated infection (HAI) in surgery patients, based on the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance (NNIS) system. In 2005, in its procedure-associated module, the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) inherited the NNIS program for surveillance of HAI in surgery patients and reorganized all surgical procedures. INCLIMECC actively monitors all patients referred to the surgical ward of each participating hospital. We present a summary of the data collected from January 1997 to December 2006 adapted to the new NHSN procedures. Surgical site infection (SSI) rates are provided by operative procedure and NNIS risk index category. Further quality indicators reported are surgical complications, length of stay, antimicrobial prophylaxis, mortality, readmission because of infection or other complication, and revision surgery. Because the ICD-9-CM surgery procedure code is included in each patient's record, we were able to reorganize our database avoiding the loss of extensive information, as has occurred with other systems.

Molecular surveillance of norovirus, 2005-16 : an epidemiological analysis of data collected from the NoroNet network

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Beek, Janko; de Graaf, Miranda; Al-Hello, Haider; Allen, David J; Ambert-Balay, Katia; Botteldoorn, Nadine; Brytting, Mia; Buesa, Javier; Cabrerizo, Maria; Chan, Martin; Cloak, Fiona; Di Bartolo, Ilaria; Guix, Susana; Hewitt, Joanne; Iritani, Nobuhiro; Jin, Miao; Johne, Reimar; Lederer, Ingeborg; Mans, Janet; Martella, Vito; Maunula, Leena; McAllister, Georgina; Niendorf, Sandra; Niesters, Hubert G; Podkolzin, Alexander T; Poljsak-Prijatelj, Mateja; Rasmussen, Lasse Dam; Reuter, Gábor; Tuite, Gráinne; Kroneman, Annelies; Vennema, Harry; Koopmans, Marion P G

BACKGROUND: The development of a vaccine for norovirus requires a detailed understanding of global genetic diversity of noroviruses. We analysed their epidemiology and diversity using surveillance data from the NoroNet network. METHODS: We included genetic sequences of norovirus specimens obtained

What is a missing link among wireless persistent surveillance?

Science.gov (United States)

Hsu, Charles; Szu, Harold

2011-06-01

The next generation surveillance system will equip with versatile sensor devices and information focus capable of conducting regular and irregular surveillance and security environments worldwide. The community of the persistent surveillance must invest the limited energy and money effectively into researching enabling technologies such as nanotechnology, wireless networks, and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) to develop persistent surveillance applications for the future. Wireless sensor networks can be used by the military for a number of purposes such as monitoring militant activity in remote areas and force protection. Being equipped with appropriate sensors these networks can enable detection of enemy movement, identification of enemy force and analysis of their movement and progress. Among these sensor network technologies, covert communication is one of the challenging tasks in the persistent surveillance because it is highly demanded to provide secured sensor nodes and linkage for fear of deliberate sabotage. Due to the matured VLSI/DSP technologies, affordable COTS of UWB technology with noise-like direct sequence (DS) time-domain pulses is a potential solution to support low probability of intercept and low probability of detection (LPI/LPD) data communication and transmission. This paper will describe a number of technical challenges in wireless persistent surveillance development include covert communication, network control and routing, collaborating signal and information processing, and etc. The paper concludes by presenting Hermitian Wavelets to enhance SNR in support of secured communication.

The EUVAC-NET project: creation and operation of a surveillance community network for vaccine preventable infectious diseases.

Science.gov (United States)

Glismann, S; Rønne, T; Tozzi, A

2001-06-01

The EUVAC-NET network is in charge of the epidemiological surveillance and control of vaccine preventable diseases. It is coordinated by the SSI in Denmark, in collaboration with the ISS in Italy. The two main diseases targeted by the network are measles and pertussis. A collaboration is planned with the PHLS for the monitoring of Haemophilus influenzae b. EUVAC-NET includes the Member States of the European Union, and Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.

A Smart Card-Based Electronic School Absenteeism System for Influenza-Like Illness Surveillance in Hong Kong: Design, Implementation, and Feasibility Assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Ip, Dennis Km; Lau, Eric Hy; So, Hau Chi; Xiao, Jingyi; Lam, Chi Kin; Fang, Vicky J; Tam, Yat Hung; Leung, Gabriel M; Cowling, Benjamin J

2017-10-06

School-aged children have the highest incidence of respiratory virus infections each year, and transmission of respiratory viruses such as influenza virus can be a major concern in school settings. School absenteeism data have been employed as a component of influenza surveillance systems in some locations. Data timeliness and system acceptance remain as key determinants affecting the usefulness of a prospective surveillance system. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of implementing an electronic school absenteeism surveillance system using smart card-based technology for influenza-like illness (ILI) surveillance among a representative network of local primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong. We designed and implemented a surveillance system according to the Protocol for a Standardized information infrastructure for Pandemic and Emerging infectious disease Response (PROSPER). We employed an existing smart card-based education and school administration platform for data capture, customized the user interface, and used additional back end systems built for other downstream surveillance steps. We invited local schools to participate and collected absenteeism data by the implemented system. We compared temporal trend of the absenteeism data with data from existing community sentinel and laboratory surveillance data. We designed and implemented an ILI surveillance system utilizing smart card-based attendance tracking approach for data capture. We implemented the surveillance system in a total of 107 schools (including 66 primary schools and 41 secondary schools), covering a total of 75,052 children. The system successfully captured information on absences for 2 consecutive academic years (2012-2013 and 2013-2014). The absenteeism data we collected from the system reflected ILI activity in the community, with an upsurge in disease activity detected up to 1 to 2 weeks preceding other existing surveillance systems. We designed and implemented a novel

A quantitative method for groundwater surveillance monitoring network design at the Hanford Site

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meyer, P.D.

1993-12-01

As part of the Environmental Surveillance Program at the Hanford Site, mandated by the US Department of Energy, hundreds of groundwater wells are sampled each year, with each sample typically analyzed for a variety of constituents. The groundwater sampling program must satisfy several broad objectives. These objectives include an integrated assessment of the condition of groundwater and the identification and quantification of existing, emerging, or potential groundwater problems. Several quantitative network desip objectives are proposed and a mathematical optimization model is developed from these objectives. The model attempts to find minimum cost network alternatives that maximize the amount of information generated by the network. Information is measured both by the rats of change with respect to time of the contaminant concentration and the uncertainty in contaminant concentration. In an application to tritium monitoring at the Hanford Site, both information measures were derived from historical data using time series analysis

Secure and Efficient Reactive Video Surveillance for Patient Monitoring

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

An Braeken

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Video surveillance is widely deployed for many kinds of monitoring applications in healthcare and assisted living systems. Security and privacy are two promising factors that align the quality and validity of video surveillance systems with the caliber of patient monitoring applications. In this paper, we propose a symmetric key-based security framework for the reactive video surveillance of patients based on the inputs coming from data measured by a wireless body area network attached to the human body. Only authenticated patients are able to activate the video cameras, whereas the patient and authorized people can consult the video data. User and location privacy are at each moment guaranteed for the patient. A tradeoff between security and quality of service is defined in order to ensure that the surveillance system gets activated even in emergency situations. In addition, the solution includes resistance against tampering with the device on the patient’s side.

Forum: social network for the surveillance and prevention of workplace accidents.

Science.gov (United States)

Vilela, R A G; Almeida, I M; Nunes da Silva, A; Gomes, M H P; Prado, H; Buoso, E; Dias, M D; Cavalcante, S; Lacorte, L E

2012-01-01

In 2008, academic researchers and public service officials created a university extension studies platform based on online and on-site meetings denominated "Work-Related Accidents Forum: Analysis, Prevention, and Other Relevant Aspects. Its aim was to help public agents and social partners to propagate a systemic approach that would be helpful in the surveillance and prevention of work-related accidents. This article describes and analyses such a platform. Online access is free and structured to: support dissemination of updated concepts; support on-site meetings and capacity to build educational activities; and keep a permanent space for debate among the registered participants. The desired result is the propagation of a social-technical-systemic view of work-related accidents that replaces the current traditional view that emphasizes human error and results in blaming the victims. The Forum uses an educational approach known as permanent health education, which is based on the experience and needs of workers and encourages debate among participants. The forum adopts a problematizing pedagogy that starts from the requirements and experiences of the social actors and stimulates support and discussions among them in line with an ongoing health educational approach. The current challenge is to turn the platform into a social networking website in order to broaden its links with society.

Instrument surveillance and calibration verification through plant wide monitoring using autoassociative neural networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wrest, D.J.; Hines, J.W.; Uhrig, R.E.

1996-01-01

The approach to instrument surveillance and calibration verification (ISCV) through plant wide monitoring proposed in this paper is an autoassociative neural network (AANN) which will utilize digitized data presently available in the Safety Parameter Display computer system from Florida Power Corporations Crystal River number 3 nuclear power plant. An autoassociative neural network is one in which the outputs are trained to emulate the inputs over an appropriate dynamic range. The relationships between the different variables are embedded in the weights by the training process. As a result, the output can be a correct version of an input pattern that has been distorted by noise, missing data, or non-linearities. Plant variables that have some degree of coherence with each other constitute the inputs to the network. Once the network has been trained with normal operational data it has been shown to successfully monitor the selected plant variables to detect sensor drift or failure by simply comparing the network inputs with the outputs. The AANN method of monitoring many variables not only indicates that there is a sensor failure, it clearly indicates the signal channel in which the signal error has occurred. (author). 11 refs, 8 figs, 2 tabs

Instrument surveillance and calibration verification through plant wide monitoring using autoassociative neural networks

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wrest, D J; Hines, J W; Uhrig, R E [Tennessee Univ., Knoxville, TN (United States). Dept. of Nuclear Engineering

1997-12-31

The approach to instrument surveillance and calibration verification (ISCV) through plant wide monitoring proposed in this paper is an autoassociative neural network (AANN) which will utilize digitized data presently available in the Safety Parameter Display computer system from Florida Power Corporations Crystal River number 3 nuclear power plant. An autoassociative neural network is one in which the outputs are trained to emulate the inputs over an appropriate dynamic range. The relationships between the different variables are embedded in the weights by the training process. As a result, the output can be a correct version of an input pattern that has been distorted by noise, missing data, or non-linearities. Plant variables that have some degree of coherence with each other constitute the inputs to the network. Once the network has been trained with normal operational data it has been shown to successfully monitor the selected plant variables to detect sensor drift or failure by simply comparing the network inputs with the outputs. The AANN method of monitoring many variables not only indicates that there is a sensor failure, it clearly indicates the signal channel in which the signal error has occurred. (author). 11 refs, 8 figs, 2 tabs.

Designing and evaluating risk-based surveillance systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Willeberg, Preben; Nielsen, Liza Rosenbaum; Salman, Mo

2012-01-01

Risk-based surveillance systems reveal occurrence of disease or infection in a sample of population units, which are selected on the basis of risk factors for the condition under study. The purpose of such systems for supporting practical animal disease policy formulations and management decisions...... with prudent use of resources while maintaining acceptable system performance. High-risk category units are selected for testing by identification of the presence of specific high-risk factor(s), while disregarding other factors that might also influence the risk. On this basis we argue that the most...... applicable risk estimate for use in designing and evaluating a risk-based surveillance system would be a crude (unadjusted) relative risk, odds ratio or apparent prevalence. Risk estimates found in the published literature, however, are often the results of multivariable analyses implicitly adjusting...

Power, surveillance and digital network media in organizations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tække, Jesper

With the focus on organizations, this article describes power in relation to mediated surveillance using Luhmann’s systems theory, poststructuralist theory and theory of media sociography. It aims to sketch out the main issues in contemporary surveillance discourse and illustrate the current...

The KIzSS network, a sentinel surveillance system for infectious diseases in day care centers: study protocol

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Enserink Remko

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Day care-associated infectious diseases are widely recognized as a public health problem but rarely studied. Insights into their dynamics and their association with the day care setting are important for effective decision making in management of infectious disease control. This paper describes the purpose, design and potential of our national multi-center, day care-based sentinel surveillance network for infectious diseases (the KIzSS network. The aim of the KIzSS network is to acquire a long-term insight into the syndromic and microbiological aspects of day care-related infectious diseases and associated disease burden and to model these aspects with day care setting characteristics. Methods/design The KIzSS network applies a prospective cohort design, following day care centers rather than individual children or staff members over time. Data on infectious disease symptoms and related morbidity (children and staff, medical consumption, absenteeism and circulating enteric pathogens (children are collected on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Every two years, a survey is performed to assess the characteristics of participating day care centers. Discussion The KIzSS network offers a unique potential to study infectious disease dynamics in the day care setting over a sustained period of time. The created (biodatabases will help us to assess day care-related disease burden of infectious diseases among attending children and staff and their relation with the day care setting. This will support the much needed development of evidence-based and pragmatic guidelines for infectious disease control in day care centers.

Survey of Clostridium difficile infection surveillance systems in Europe, 2011.

Science.gov (United States)

Kola, Axel; Wiuff, Camilla; Akerlund, Thomas; van Benthem, Birgit H; Coignard, Bruno; Lyytikäinen, Outi; Weitzel-Kage, Doris; Suetens, Carl; Wilcox, Mark H; Kuijper, Ed J; Gastmeier, Petra

2016-07-21

To develop a European surveillance protocol for Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), existing national CDI surveillance systems were assessed in 2011. A web-based electronic form was provided for all national coordinators of the European CDI Surveillance Network (ECDIS-Net). Of 35 national coordinators approached, 33 from 31 European countries replied. Surveillance of CDI was in place in 14 of the 31 countries, comprising 18 different nationwide systems. Three of 14 countries with CDI surveillance used public health notification of cases as the route of reporting, and in another three, reporting was limited to public health notification of cases of severe CDI. The CDI definitions published by the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) were widely used, but there were differing definitions to distinguish between community- and healthcare-associated cases. All CDI surveillance systems except one reported annual national CDI rates (calculated as number of cases per patient-days). Only four surveillance systems regularly integrated microbiological data (typing and susceptibility testing results). Surveillance methods varied considerably between countries, which emphasises the need for a harmonised European protocol to allow consistent monitoring of the CDI epidemiology at European level. The results of this survey were used to develop a harmonised EU-wide hospital-based CDI surveillance protocol. This article is copyright of The Authors, 2016.

European surveillance network for influenza in pigs: surveillance programs, diagnostic tools and Swine influenza virus subtypes identified in 14 European countries from 2010 to 2013.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gaëlle Simon

Full Text Available Swine influenza causes concern for global veterinary and public health officials. In continuing two previous networks that initiated the surveillance of swine influenza viruses (SIVs circulating in European pigs between 2001 and 2008, a third European Surveillance Network for Influenza in Pigs (ESNIP3, 2010-2013 aimed to expand widely the knowledge of the epidemiology of European SIVs. ESNIP3 stimulated programs of harmonized SIV surveillance in European countries and supported the coordination of appropriate diagnostic tools and subtyping methods. Thus, an extensive virological monitoring, mainly conducted through passive surveillance programs, resulted in the examination of more than 9 000 herds in 17 countries. Influenza A viruses were detected in 31% of herds examined from which 1887 viruses were preliminary characterized. The dominating subtypes were the three European enzootic SIVs: avian-like swine H1N1 (53.6%, human-like reassortant swine H1N2 (13% and human-like reassortant swine H3N2 (9.1%, as well as pandemic A/H1N1 2009 (H1N1pdm virus (10.3%. Viruses from these four lineages co-circulated in several countries but with very different relative levels of incidence. For instance, the H3N2 subtype was not detected at all in some geographic areas whereas it was still prevalent in other parts of Europe. Interestingly, H3N2-free areas were those that exhibited highest frequencies of circulating H1N2 viruses. H1N1pdm viruses were isolated at an increasing incidence in some countries from 2010 to 2013, indicating that this subtype has become established in the European pig population. Finally, 13.9% of the viruses represented reassortants between these four lineages, especially between previous enzootic SIVs and H1N1pdm. These novel viruses were detected at the same time in several countries, with increasing prevalence. Some of them might become established in pig herds, causing implications for zoonotic infections.

A CLOUD-BASED ARCHITECTURE FOR SMART VIDEO SURVEILLANCE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. Valentín

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Turning a city into a smart city has attracted considerable attention. A smart city can be seen as a city that uses digital technology not only to improve the quality of people’s life, but also, to have a positive impact in the environment and, at the same time, offer efficient and easy-to-use services. A fundamental aspect to be considered in a smart city is people’s safety and welfare, therefore, having a good security system becomes a necessity, because it allows us to detect and identify potential risk situations, and then take appropriate decisions to help people or even prevent criminal acts. In this paper we present an architecture for automated video surveillance based on the cloud computing schema capable of acquiring a video stream from a set of cameras connected to the network, process that information, detect, label and highlight security-relevant events automatically, store the information and provide situational awareness in order to minimize response time to take the appropriate action.

Surveillance Angels

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rothkrantz, L.J.M.

2014-01-01

The use of sensor networks has been proposed for military surveillance and environmental monitoring applications. Those systems are composed of a heterogeneous set of sensors to observe the environment. In centralised systems the observed data will be conveyed to the control room to process the

Hospital-based Clostridium difficile infection surveillance reveals high proportions of PCR ribotypes 027 and 176 in different areas of Poland, 2011 to 2013.

Science.gov (United States)

Pituch, Hanna; Obuch-Woszczatyński, Piotr; Lachowicz, Dominika; Wultańska, Dorota; Karpiński, Paweł; Młynarczyk, Grażyna; van Dorp, Sofie M; Kuijper, Ed J

2015-01-01

As part of the European Clostridium difficile infections (CDI) surveillance Network (ECDIS-Net), which aims to build capacity for CDI surveillance in Europe, we constructed a new network of hospital-based laboratories in Poland. We performed a survey in 13 randomly selected hospital-laboratories in different sites of the country to determine their annual CDI incidence rates from 2011 to 2013. Information on C. difficile laboratory diagnostic testing and indications for testing was also collected. Moreover, for 2012 and 2013 respectively, participating hospital-laboratories sent all consecutive isolates from CDI patients between February and March to the Anaerobe Laboratory in Warsaw for further molecular characterisation, including the detection of toxin-encoding genes and polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-ribotyping. Within the network, the mean annual hospital CDI incidence rates were 6.1, 8.6 and 9.6 CDI per 10,000 patient-days in 2011, 2012, and 2013 respectively. Six of the 13 laboratories tested specimens only on the request of a physician, five tested samples of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea or samples from patients who developed diarrhoea more than two days after admission (nosocomial diarrhoea), while two tested all submitted diarrhoeal faecal samples. Most laboratories (9/13) used tests to detect glutamate dehydrogenase and toxin A/B either separately or in combination. In the two periods of molecular surveillance, a total of 166 strains were characterised. Of these, 159 were toxigenic and the majority belonged to two PCR-ribotypes: 027 (n=99; 62%) and the closely related ribotype 176 (n=22; 14%). The annual frequency of PCR-ribotype 027 was not significantly different during the surveillance periods (62.9% in 2012; 61.8% in 2013). Our results indicate that CDIs caused by PCR-ribotype 027 predominate in Polish hospitals participating in the surveillance, with the closely related 176 ribotype being the second most common agent of infection.

Mobile phone-based syndromic surveillance system, Papua New Guinea.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosewell, Alexander; Ropa, Berry; Randall, Heather; Dagina, Rosheila; Hurim, Samuel; Bieb, Sibauk; Datta, Siddhartha; Ramamurthy, Sundar; Mola, Glen; Zwi, Anthony B; Ray, Pradeep; MacIntyre, C Raina

2013-11-01

The health care system in Papua New Guinea is fragile, and surveillance systems infrequently meet international standards. To strengthen outbreak identification, health authorities piloted a mobile phone-based syndromic surveillance system and used established frameworks to evaluate whether the system was meeting objectives. Stakeholder experience was investigated by using standardized questionnaires and focus groups. Nine sites reported data that included 7 outbreaks and 92 cases of acute watery diarrhea. The new system was more timely (2.4 vs. 84 days), complete (70% vs. 40%), and sensitive (95% vs. 26%) than existing systems. The system was simple, stable, useful, and acceptable; however, feedback and subnational involvement were weak. A simple syndromic surveillance system implemented in a fragile state enabled more timely, complete, and sensitive data reporting for disease risk assessment. Feedback and provincial involvement require improvement. Use of mobile phone technology might improve the timeliness and efficiency of public health surveillance.

Positive predictive value and effectiveness of measles case-based surveillance in Uganda, 2012-2015.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fred Nsubuga

Full Text Available Disease surveillance is a critical component in the control and elimination of vaccine preventable diseases. The Uganda National Expanded Program on Immunization strives to have a sensitive surveillance system within the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR framework. We analyzed measles surveillance data to determine the effectiveness of the measles case-based surveillance system and estimate its positive predictive value in order to inform policy and practice.An IDSR alert was defined as ≥1 suspected measles case reported by a district in a week, through the electronic Health Management Information System. We defined an alert in the measles case-based surveillance system (CBS as ≥1 suspected measles case with a blood sample collected for confirmation during the corresponding week in a particular district. Effectiveness of CBS was defined as having ≥80% of IDSR alerts with a blood sample collected for laboratory confirmation. Positive predictive value was defined as the proportion of measles case-patients who also had a positive measles serological result (IgM +. We reviewed case-based surveillance data with laboratory confirmation and measles surveillance data from the electronic Health Management Information System from 2012-2015.A total of 6,974 suspected measles case-persons were investigated by the measles case-based surveillance between 2012 and 2015. Of these, 943 (14% were measles specific IgM positive. The median age of measles case-persons between 2013 and 2015 was 4.0 years. Between 2013 and 2015, 72% of the IDSR alerts reported in the electronic Health Management Information System, had blood samples collected for laboratory confirmation. This was however less than the WHO recommended standard of ≥80%. The PPV of CBS between 2013 and 2015 was 8.6%.In conclusion, the effectiveness of measles case-based surveillance was sub-optimal, while the PPV showed that true measles cases have significantly reduced in Uganda

Analytical network process based optimum cluster head selection in wireless sensor network.

Science.gov (United States)

Farman, Haleem; Javed, Huma; Jan, Bilal; Ahmad, Jamil; Ali, Shaukat; Khalil, Falak Naz; Khan, Murad

2017-01-01

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are becoming ubiquitous in everyday life due to their applications in weather forecasting, surveillance, implantable sensors for health monitoring and other plethora of applications. WSN is equipped with hundreds and thousands of small sensor nodes. As the size of a sensor node decreases, critical issues such as limited energy, computation time and limited memory become even more highlighted. In such a case, network lifetime mainly depends on efficient use of available resources. Organizing nearby nodes into clusters make it convenient to efficiently manage each cluster as well as the overall network. In this paper, we extend our previous work of grid-based hybrid network deployment approach, in which merge and split technique has been proposed to construct network topology. Constructing topology through our proposed technique, in this paper we have used analytical network process (ANP) model for cluster head selection in WSN. Five distinct parameters: distance from nodes (DistNode), residual energy level (REL), distance from centroid (DistCent), number of times the node has been selected as cluster head (TCH) and merged node (MN) are considered for CH selection. The problem of CH selection based on these parameters is tackled as a multi criteria decision system, for which ANP method is used for optimum cluster head selection. Main contribution of this work is to check the applicability of ANP model for cluster head selection in WSN. In addition, sensitivity analysis is carried out to check the stability of alternatives (available candidate nodes) and their ranking for different scenarios. The simulation results show that the proposed method outperforms existing energy efficient clustering protocols in terms of optimum CH selection and minimizing CH reselection process that results in extending overall network lifetime. This paper analyzes that ANP method used for CH selection with better understanding of the dependencies of

[Strengthen the cancer surveillance to promote cancer prevention and control in China].

Science.gov (United States)

He, J

2018-01-23

Cancer is a major chronic disease threatening the people's health in China. We reviewed the latest advances on cancer surveillance, prevention and control in our country, which may provide important clues for future cancer control. We used data from the National Central Cancer Registry, to describe and analyze the latest cancer statistics in China. We summarized updated informations on cancer control policies, conducting network, as well as programs in the country. We provided important suggestions on the future strategies of cancer prevention and control. The overall cancer burden in China has been increasing during the past decades. In 2014, there were about 3 804 000 new cancer cases and 2 296 000 cancer deaths in China. The age-standardized cancer incidence and mortality rates were 190.63/100 000 and 106.98/100 000, respectively. China has formed a comprehensive network on cancer prevention and control. Nationwide population-based cancer surveillance has been built up. The population coverage of cancer surveillance has been expanded, and the data quality has been improved. As the aging population is increasing and unhealthy life styles persist in our country, there will be an unnegligible cancer burden in China. Based on the comprehensive rationale of cancer control and prevention, National Cancer Center of China will perform its duty for future precise cancer control and prevention, based on cancer surveillance statistics.

RENDAC: Integrated System Data for the Information Control the Environmental Radiological Surveillance the National Network in Cuban Republic

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Valdes Ramos, M.; Prendes Alonso, M.

1998-01-01

With the objective to evaluate, process, control and to store the information that is generated in the National Environmental Radiological Surveillance Network, it is designed and I program the on-line RENDAC system that allows to capture and evaluate the parameters that characterize the environmental radiological situation

Fragmentation, integration and macroprudential surveillance of the US financial industry: Insights from network science.

Science.gov (United States)

Gandica, Yerali; Geraci, Marco Valerio; Béreau, Sophie; Gnabo, Jean-Yves

2018-01-01

Drawing on recent contributions inferring financial interconnectedness from market data, our paper provides new insights on the evolution of the US financial industry over a long period of time by using several tools coming from network science. Relying on a Time-Varying Parameter Vector AutoRegressive (TVP-VAR) approach on stock market returns to retrieve unobserved directed links among financial institutions, we reconstruct a fully dynamic network in the sense that connections are let to evolve through time. The financial system analysed consists of a large set of 155 financial institutions that are all the banks, broker-dealers, insurance and real estate companies listed in the Standard & Poors' 500 index over the 1993-2014 period. Looking alternatively at the individual, then sector-, community- and system-wide levels, we show that network sciences' tools are able to support well-known features of the financial markets such as the dramatic fall of connectivity following Lehman Brothers' collapse. More importantly, by means of less traditional metrics, such as sectoral interface or measurements based on contagion processes, our results document the co-existence of both fragmentation and integration phases between firms independently from the sectors they belong to, and doing so, question the relevance of existing macroprudential surveillance frameworks which have been mostly developed on a sectoral basis. Overall, our results improve our understanding of the US financial landscape and may have important implications for risk monitoring as well as macroprudential policy design.

Mobile Phone–based Syndromic Surveillance System, Papua New Guinea

Science.gov (United States)

Ropa, Berry; Randall, Heather; Dagina, Rosheila; Hurim, Samuel; Bieb, Sibauk; Datta, Siddhartha; Ramamurthy, Sundar; Mola, Glen; Zwi, Anthony B.; Ray, Pradeep; MacIntyre, C. Raina

2013-01-01

The health care system in Papua New Guinea is fragile, and surveillance systems infrequently meet international standards. To strengthen outbreak identification, health authorities piloted a mobile phone–based syndromic surveillance system and used established frameworks to evaluate whether the system was meeting objectives. Stakeholder experience was investigated by using standardized questionnaires and focus groups. Nine sites reported data that included 7 outbreaks and 92 cases of acute watery diarrhea. The new system was more timely (2.4 vs. 84 days), complete (70% vs. 40%), and sensitive (95% vs. 26%) than existing systems. The system was simple, stable, useful, and acceptable; however, feedback and subnational involvement were weak. A simple syndromic surveillance system implemented in a fragile state enabled more timely, complete, and sensitive data reporting for disease risk assessment. Feedback and provincial involvement require improvement. Use of mobile phone technology might improve the timeliness and efficiency of public health surveillance. PMID:24188144

An airport surface surveillance solution based on fusion algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Jianliang; Xu, Yang; Liang, Xuelin; Yang, Yihuang

2017-01-01

In this paper, we propose an airport surface surveillance solution combined with Multilateration (MLAT) and Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B). The moving target to be monitored is regarded as a linear stochastic hybrid system moving freely and each surveillance technology is simplified as a sensor with white Gaussian noise. The dynamic model of target and the observation model of sensor are established in this paper. The measurements of sensors are filtered properly by estimators to get the estimation results for current time. Then, we analysis the characteristics of two fusion solutions proposed, and decide to use the scheme based on sensor estimation fusion for our surveillance solution. In the proposed fusion algorithm, according to the output of estimators, the estimation error is quantified, and the fusion weight of each sensor is calculated. The two estimation results are fused with weights, and the position estimation of target is computed accurately. Finally the proposed solution and algorithm are validated by an illustrative target tracking simulation.

Surveillance Jumps on the Network

Science.gov (United States)

Raths, David

2011-01-01

Internet protocol (IP) network-based cameras and digital video management software are maturing, and many issues that have surrounded them, including bandwidth, data storage, ease of use, and integration are starting to become clearer as the technology continues to evolve. Prices are going down and the number of features is going up. Many school…

Multi-Channel Multi-Radio Using 802.11 Based Media Access for Sink Nodes in Wireless Sensor Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kok-Keong Loo

2011-05-01

Full Text Available The next generation surveillance and multimedia systems will become increasingly deployed as wireless sensor networks in order to monitor parks, public places and for business usage. The convergence of data and telecommunication over IP-based networks has paved the way for wireless networks. Functions are becoming more intertwined by the compelling force of innovation and technology. For example, many closed-circuit TV premises surveillance systems now rely on transmitting their images and data over IP networks instead of standalone video circuits. These systems will increase their reliability in the future on wireless networks and on IEEE 802.11 networks. However, due to limited non-overlapping channels, delay, and congestion there will be problems at sink nodes. In this paper we provide necessary conditions to verify the feasibility of round robin technique in these networks at the sink nodes by using a technique to regulate multi-radio multichannel assignment. We demonstrate through simulations that dynamic channel assignment scheme using multi-radio, and multichannel configuration at a single sink node can perform close to optimal on the average while multiple sink node assignment also performs well. The methods proposed in this paper can be a valuable tool for network designers in planning network deployment and for optimizing different performance objectives.

Multi-channel multi-radio using 802.11 based media access for sink nodes in wireless sensor networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Campbell, Carlene E-A; Khan, Shafiullah; Singh, Dhananjay; Loo, Kok-Keong

2011-01-01

The next generation surveillance and multimedia systems will become increasingly deployed as wireless sensor networks in order to monitor parks, public places and for business usage. The convergence of data and telecommunication over IP-based networks has paved the way for wireless networks. Functions are becoming more intertwined by the compelling force of innovation and technology. For example, many closed-circuit TV premises surveillance systems now rely on transmitting their images and data over IP networks instead of standalone video circuits. These systems will increase their reliability in the future on wireless networks and on IEEE 802.11 networks. However, due to limited non-overlapping channels, delay, and congestion there will be problems at sink nodes. In this paper we provide necessary conditions to verify the feasibility of round robin technique in these networks at the sink nodes by using a technique to regulate multi-radio multichannel assignment. We demonstrate through simulations that dynamic channel assignment scheme using multi-radio, and multichannel configuration at a single sink node can perform close to optimal on the average while multiple sink node assignment also performs well. The methods proposed in this paper can be a valuable tool for network designers in planning network deployment and for optimizing different performance objectives.

Background-Modeling-Based Adaptive Prediction for Surveillance Video Coding.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Xianguo; Huang, Tiejun; Tian, Yonghong; Gao, Wen

2014-02-01

The exponential growth of surveillance videos presents an unprecedented challenge for high-efficiency surveillance video coding technology. Compared with the existing coding standards that were basically developed for generic videos, surveillance video coding should be designed to make the best use of the special characteristics of surveillance videos (e.g., relative static background). To do so, this paper first conducts two analyses on how to improve the background and foreground prediction efficiencies in surveillance video coding. Following the analysis results, we propose a background-modeling-based adaptive prediction (BMAP) method. In this method, all blocks to be encoded are firstly classified into three categories. Then, according to the category of each block, two novel inter predictions are selectively utilized, namely, the background reference prediction (BRP) that uses the background modeled from the original input frames as the long-term reference and the background difference prediction (BDP) that predicts the current data in the background difference domain. For background blocks, the BRP can effectively improve the prediction efficiency using the higher quality background as the reference; whereas for foreground-background-hybrid blocks, the BDP can provide a better reference after subtracting its background pixels. Experimental results show that the BMAP can achieve at least twice the compression ratio on surveillance videos as AVC (MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding) high profile, yet with a slightly additional encoding complexity. Moreover, for the foreground coding performance, which is crucial to the subjective quality of moving objects in surveillance videos, BMAP also obtains remarkable gains over several state-of-the-art methods.

Live bird markets characterization and trading network analysis in Mali: Implications for the surveillance and control of avian influenza and Newcastle disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Molia, Sophie; Boly, Ismaël Ardho; Duboz, Raphaël; Coulibaly, Boubacar; Guitian, Javier; Grosbois, Vladimir; Fournié, Guillaume; Pfeiffer, Dirk Udo

2016-03-01

Live bird markets (LBMs) play an important role in the transmission of avian influenza (AI) and Newcastle disease (ND) viruses in poultry. Our study had two objectives: (1) characterizing LBMs in Mali with a focus on practices influencing the risk of transmission of AI and ND, and (2) identifying which LBMs should be targeted for surveillance and control based on properties of the live poultry trade network. Two surveys were conducted in 2009-2010: a descriptive study in all 96 LBMs of an area encompassing approximately 98% of the Malian poultry population and a network analysis study in Sikasso county, the main poultry supplying county for the capital city Bamako. Regarding LBMs' characteristics, risk factors for the presence of AI and ND viruses (being open every day, more than 2 days before a bird is sold, absence of zoning to segregate poultry-related work flow areas, waste removal or cleaning and disinfecting less frequently than on a daily basis, trash disposal of dead birds and absence of manure processing) were present in 80-100% of the LBMs. Furthermore, LBMs tended to have wide catchment areas because of consumers' preference for village poultry meat, thereby involving a large number of villages in their supply chain. In the poultry trade network from/to Sikasso county, 182 traders were involved and 685 links were recorded among 159 locations. The network had a heterogeneous degree distribution and four hubs were identified based on measures of in-degrees, out-degrees and betweenness: the markets of Medine and Wayerma and the fairs of Farakala and Niena. These results can be used to design biosecurity-improvement interventions and to optimize the prevention, surveillance and control of transmissible poultry diseases in Malian LBMs. Further studies should investigate potential drivers (seasonality, prices) of the poultry trade network and the acceptability of biosecurity and behavior-change recommendations in the Malian socio-cultural context. Copyright �

A bootstrap based space-time surveillance model with an application to crime occurrences

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Youngho; O'Kelly, Morton

2008-06-01

This study proposes a bootstrap-based space-time surveillance model. Designed to find emerging hotspots in near-real time, the bootstrap based model is characterized by its use of past occurrence information and bootstrap permutations. Many existing space-time surveillance methods, using population at risk data to generate expected values, have resulting hotspots bounded by administrative area units and are of limited use for near-real time applications because of the population data needed. However, this study generates expected values for local hotspots from past occurrences rather than population at risk. Also, bootstrap permutations of previous occurrences are used for significant tests. Consequently, the bootstrap-based model, without the requirement of population at risk data, (1) is free from administrative area restriction, (2) enables more frequent surveillance for continuously updated registry database, and (3) is readily applicable to criminology and epidemiology surveillance. The bootstrap-based model performs better for space-time surveillance than the space-time scan statistic. This is shown by means of simulations and an application to residential crime occurrences in Columbus, OH, year 2000.

Efficient large-scale graph data optimization for intelligent video surveillance

Science.gov (United States)

Shang, Quanhong; Zhang, Shujun; Wang, Yanbo; Sun, Chen; Wang, Zepeng; Zhang, Luming

2017-08-01

Society is rapidly accepting the use of a wide variety of cameras Location and applications: site traffic monitoring, parking Lot surveillance, car and smart space. These ones here the camera provides data every day in an analysis Effective way. Recent advances in sensor technology Manufacturing, communications and computing are stimulating.The development of new applications that can change the traditional Vision system incorporating universal smart camera network. This Analysis of visual cues in multi camera networks makes wide Applications ranging from smart home and office automation to large area surveillance and traffic surveillance. In addition, dense Camera networks, most of which have large overlapping areas of cameras. In the view of good research, we focus on sparse camera networks. One Sparse camera network using large area surveillance. As few cameras as possible, most cameras do not overlap Each other’s field of vision. This task is challenging Lack of knowledge of topology Network, the specific changes in appearance and movement Track different opinions of the target, as well as difficulties Understanding complex events in a network. In this review in this paper, we present a comprehensive survey of recent studies Results to solve the problem of topology learning, Object appearance modeling and global activity understanding sparse camera network. In addition, some of the current open Research issues are discussed.

Testing a symptom-based surveillance system at high-profile gatherings as a preparatory measure for bioterrorism.

Science.gov (United States)

Osaka, K; Takahashi, H; Ohyama, T

2002-12-01

We tested symptom-based surveillance during the G8 conference in 2000 as a means of detecting outbreaks, including bio-terrorism attacks, promptly. Five categories of symptoms (skin and haemorrhagic, respiratory, gastrointestinal, neurological and unexplained) were adopted for the case definition of the surveillance. The surveillance began I week before the conference, and continued until 1 week after the conference ended. We could not detect any outbreaks during this surveillance. Compared to the existing diagnosis-based surveillance system, symptom-based surveillance has the advantages of timeliness and simplicity. However, poor specificity and difficulties in determining epidemic threshold were important limitations of this system. To increase the specificity of surveillance, it is essential to incorporate rapid laboratory diagnoses into the system.

Laboratory-based surveillance in the molecular era: the TYPENED model, a joint data-sharing platform for clinical and public health laboratories.

Science.gov (United States)

Niesters, H G; Rossen, J W; van der Avoort, H; Baas, D; Benschop, K; Claas, E C; Kroneman, A; van Maarseveen, N; Pas, S; van Pelt, W; Rahamat-Langendoen, J C; Schuurman, R; Vennema, H; Verhoef, L; Wolthers, K; Koopmans, M

2013-01-24

Laboratory-based surveillance, one of the pillars of monitoring infectious disease trends, relies on data produced in clinical and/or public health laboratories. Currently, diagnostic laboratories worldwide submit strains or samples to a relatively small number of reference laboratories for characterisation and typing. However, with the introduction of molecular diagnostic methods and sequencing in most of the larger diagnostic and university hospital centres in high-income countries, the distinction between diagnostic and reference/public health laboratory functions has become less clear-cut. Given these developments, new ways of networking and data sharing are needed. Assuming that clinical and public health laboratories may be able to use the same data for their own purposes when sequence-based testing and typing are used, we explored ways to develop a collaborative approach and a jointly owned database (TYPENED) in the Netherlands. The rationale was that sequence data - whether produced to support clinical care or for surveillance -can be aggregated to meet both needs. Here we describe the development of the TYPENED approach and supporting infrastructure, and the implementation of a pilot laboratory network sharing enterovirus sequences and metadata.

PulseNet International: Vision for the implementation of whole genome sequencing (WGS) for global food-borne disease surveillance.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nadon, Celine; Van Walle, Ivo; Gerner-Smidt, Peter; Campos, Josefina; Chinen, Isabel; Concepcion-Acevedo, Jeniffer; Gilpin, Brent; Smith, Anthony M; Man Kam, Kai; Perez, Enrique; Trees, Eija; Kubota, Kristy; Takkinen, Johanna; Nielsen, Eva Møller; Carleton, Heather

2017-01-01

PulseNet International is a global network dedicated to laboratory-based surveillance for food-borne diseases. The network comprises the national and regional laboratory networks of Africa, Asia Pacific, Canada, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, and the United States. The

Auto-Associative Recurrent Neural Networks and Long Term Dependencies in Novelty Detection for Audio Surveillance Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Rossi, A.; Montefoschi, F.; Rizzo, A.; Diligenti, M.; Festucci, C.

2017-10-01

Machine Learning applied to Automatic Audio Surveillance has been attracting increasing attention in recent years. In spite of several investigations based on a large number of different approaches, little attention had been paid to the environmental temporal evolution of the input signal. In this work, we propose an exploration in this direction comparing the temporal correlations extracted at the feature level with the one learned by a representational structure. To this aim we analysed the prediction performances of a Recurrent Neural Network architecture varying the length of the processed input sequence and the size of the time window used in the feature extraction. Results corroborated the hypothesis that sequential models work better when dealing with data characterized by temporal order. However, so far the optimization of the temporal dimension remains an open issue.

A model surveillance program based on regulatory experience

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Conte, R.J.

1980-01-01

A model surveillance program is presented based on regulatory experience. The program consists of three phases: Program Delineation, Data Acquistion and Data Analysis. Each phase is described in terms of key quality assurance elements and some current philosophies is the United States Licensing Program. Other topics include the application of these ideas to test equipment used in the surveillance progam and audits of the established program. Program Delineation discusses the establishment of administrative controls for organization and the description of responsibilities using the 'Program Coordinator' concept, with assistance from Data Acquisition and Analysis Teams. Ideas regarding frequency of surveillance testing are also presented. The Data Acquisition Phase discusses various methods for acquiring data including operator observations, test procedures, operator logs, and computer output, for trending equipment performance. The Data Analysis Phase discusses the process for drawing conclusions regarding component/equipment service life, proper application, and generic problems through the use of trend analysis and failure rate data. (orig.)

PWR surveillance based on correspondence between empirical models and physical

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zwingelstein, G.; Upadhyaya, B.R.; Kerlin, T.W.

1976-01-01

An on line surveillance method based on the correspondence between empirical models and physicals models is proposed for pressurized water reactors. Two types of empirical models are considered as well as the mathematical models defining the correspondence between the physical and empirical parameters. The efficiency of this method is illustrated for the surveillance of the Doppler coefficient for Oconee I (an 886 MWe PWR) [fr

EpiContactTrace: an R-package for contact tracing during livestock disease outbreaks and for risk-based surveillance.

Science.gov (United States)

Nöremark, Maria; Widgren, Stefan

2014-03-17

During outbreak of livestock diseases, contact tracing can be an important part of disease control. Animal movements can also be of relevance for risk-based surveillance and sampling, i.e. both when assessing consequences of introduction or likelihood of introduction. In many countries, animal movement data are collected with one of the major objectives to enable contact tracing. However, often an analytical step is needed to retrieve appropriate information for contact tracing or surveillance. In this study, an open source tool was developed to structure livestock movement data to facilitate contact-tracing in real time during disease outbreaks and for input in risk-based surveillance and sampling. The tool, EpiContactTrace, was written in the R-language and uses the network parameters in-degree, out-degree, ingoing contact chain and outgoing contact chain (also called infection chain), which are relevant for forward and backward tracing respectively. The time-frames for backward and forward tracing can be specified independently and search can be done on one farm at a time or for all farms within the dataset. Different outputs are available; datasets with network measures, contacts visualised in a map and automatically generated reports for each farm either in HTML or PDF-format intended for the end-users, i.e. the veterinary authorities, regional disease control officers and field-veterinarians. EpiContactTrace is available as an R-package at the R-project website (http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/EpiContactTrace/). We believe this tool can help in disease control since it rapidly can structure essential contact information from large datasets. The reproducible reports make this tool robust and independent of manual compilation of data. The open source makes it accessible and easily adaptable for different needs.

Kestrel: force protection and Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) persistent surveillance on aerostats

Science.gov (United States)

Luber, David R.; Marion, John E.; Fields, David

2012-05-01

Logos Technologies has developed and fielded the Kestrel system, an aerostat-based, wide area persistent surveillance system dedicated to force protection and ISR mission execution operating over forward operating bases. Its development included novel imaging and stabilization capability for day/night operations on military aerostat systems. The Kestrel system's contribution is a substantial enhancement to aerostat-based, force protection systems which to date have relied on narrow field of view ball gimbal sensors to identify targets of interest. This inefficient mechanism to conduct wide area field of view surveillance is greatly enhanced by Kestrel's ability to maintain a constant motion imagery stare of the entire forward operating base (FOB) area. The Kestrel airborne sensor enables 360° coverage out to extended ranges which covers a city sized area at moderate resolution, while cueing a narrow field of view sensor to provide high resolution imagery of targets of interest. The ground station exploitation system enables operators to autonomously monitor multiple regions of interest in real time, and allows for backtracking through the recorded imagery, while continuing to monitor ongoing activity. Backtracking capability allows operators to detect threat networks, their CONOPS, and locations of interest. Kestrel's unique advancement has already been utilized successfully in OEF operations.

Human tracking over camera networks: a review

Science.gov (United States)

Hou, Li; Wan, Wanggen; Hwang, Jenq-Neng; Muhammad, Rizwan; Yang, Mingyang; Han, Kang

2017-12-01

In recent years, automated human tracking over camera networks is getting essential for video surveillance. The tasks of tracking human over camera networks are not only inherently challenging due to changing human appearance, but also have enormous potentials for a wide range of practical applications, ranging from security surveillance to retail and health care. This review paper surveys the most widely used techniques and recent advances for human tracking over camera networks. Two important functional modules for the human tracking over camera networks are addressed, including human tracking within a camera and human tracking across non-overlapping cameras. The core techniques of human tracking within a camera are discussed based on two aspects, i.e., generative trackers and discriminative trackers. The core techniques of human tracking across non-overlapping cameras are then discussed based on the aspects of human re-identification, camera-link model-based tracking and graph model-based tracking. Our survey aims to address existing problems, challenges, and future research directions based on the analyses of the current progress made toward human tracking techniques over camera networks.

A generic flexible and robust approach for intelligent real-time video-surveillance systems

Science.gov (United States)

Desurmont, Xavier; Delaigle, Jean-Francois; Bastide, Arnaud; Macq, Benoit

2004-05-01

In this article we present a generic, flexible and robust approach for an intelligent real-time video-surveillance system. A previous version of the system was presented in [1]. The goal of these advanced tools is to provide help to operators by detecting events of interest in visual scenes and highlighting alarms and compute statistics. The proposed system is a multi-camera platform able to handle different standards of video inputs (composite, IP, IEEE1394 ) and which can basically compress (MPEG4), store and display them. This platform also integrates advanced video analysis tools, such as motion detection, segmentation, tracking and interpretation. The design of the architecture is optimised to playback, display, and process video flows in an efficient way for video-surveillance application. The implementation is distributed on a scalable computer cluster based on Linux and IP network. It relies on POSIX threads for multitasking scheduling. Data flows are transmitted between the different modules using multicast technology and under control of a TCP-based command network (e.g. for bandwidth occupation control). We report here some results and we show the potential use of such a flexible system in third generation video surveillance system. We illustrate the interest of the system in a real case study, which is the indoor surveillance.

Protocol for hospital based-surveillance of cerebral palsy (CP) in Hanoi using the Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease Surveillance mechanism (PAEDS-Vietnam): a study towards developing hospital-based disease surveillance in Vietnam.

Science.gov (United States)

Khandaker, Gulam; Van Bang, Nguyen; Dũng, Trịnh Quang; Giang, Nguyen Thi Huong; Chau, Cao Minh; Van Anh, Nguyen Thi; Van Thuong, Nguyen; Badawi, Nadia; Elliott, Elizabeth J

2017-11-09

The epidemiology, pathogenesis, management and outcomes of cerebral palsy (CP) in low-income and middle-income countries including Vietnam are unknown because of the lack of mechanisms for standardised collection of data. In this paper, we outline the protocol for developing a hospital-based surveillance system modelled on the Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease Surveillance (PAEDS) system in Australia. Using PAEDS-Vietnam we will define the aetiology, motor function and its severity, associated impairments, and nutritional and rehabilitation status of children with CP in Hanoi, Vietnam. These essential baseline data will inform future health service planning, health professional education and training, and family support. This is a hospital-based prospective surveillance of children with CP presenting to the rehabilitation, neurology and general paediatric services at the National Children's Hospital and St Paul Hospital in Hanoi. We will use active, prospective daily case-finding for all children with CP aged CP, known risk factors for CP, and nutrition, immunisation, education and rehabilitation status. This study was approved by the Hanoi Medical University Institutional Review Board (decision no 1722) and The University of Sydney Human Research Ethics Committee (approval no 2016/456). Establishment of PAEDS-Vietnam will enable hospital-based surveillance of CP for the first time in Vietnam. It will identify preventable causes of CP, patient needs and service gaps, and facilitate early diagnosis and intervention. Study findings will be disseminated through local and international conferences and peer-reviewed publications. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Water radiological surveillance (II)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pablo San Martin de, M.

2008-01-01

This paper summarizes the characteristics of the Environmental Surveillance Radiological Networks (ESRN) currently operating in CEDEX. In the first part, the Spanish Continental Waters ESRN has been presented. This second one describes Spanish Costal Waters ESRN and the High Sensitivity Networks in Continental and Marine Waters. It also presents the Radiological Surveillance of Drinking Waters that CEDEX carries out in waters of public consumption management by the Canal de Isabel II (CYII) and by the Mancomunity of Canals Taibilla (M.C.T.). The legislation applicable in each case is reviewed as well. Due to its extension the article has been divided into two parts. As Spanish Continental Waters ESRN has been reviewed in the first part, the others ESRN are discussed in this second one. (Author) 10 refs

FPGA-Based Real-Time Motion Detection for Automated Video Surveillance Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sanjay Singh

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Design of automated video surveillance systems is one of the exigent missions in computer vision community because of their ability to automatically select frames of interest in incoming video streams based on motion detection. This research paper focuses on the real-time hardware implementation of a motion detection algorithm for such vision based automated surveillance systems. A dedicated VLSI architecture has been proposed and designed for clustering-based motion detection scheme. The working prototype of a complete standalone automated video surveillance system, including input camera interface, designed motion detection VLSI architecture, and output display interface, with real-time relevant motion detection capabilities, has been implemented on Xilinx ML510 (Virtex-5 FX130T FPGA platform. The prototyped system robustly detects the relevant motion in real-time in live PAL (720 × 576 resolution video streams directly coming from the camera.

Replicas Strategy and Cache Optimization of Video Surveillance Systems Based on Cloud Storage

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rongheng Li

2018-04-01

Full Text Available With the rapid development of video surveillance technology, especially the popularity of cloud-based video surveillance applications, video data begins to grow explosively. However, in the cloud-based video surveillance system, replicas occupy an amount of storage space. Also, the slow response to video playback constrains the performance of the system. In this paper, considering the characteristics of video data comprehensively, we propose a dynamic redundant replicas mechanism based on security levels that can dynamically adjust the number of replicas. Based on the location correlation between cameras, this paper also proposes a data cache strategy to improve the response speed of data reading. Experiments illustrate that: (1 our dynamic redundant replicas mechanism can save storage space while ensuring data security; (2 the cache mechanism can predict the playback behaviors of the users in advance and improve the response speed of data reading according to the location and time correlation of the front-end cameras; and (3 in terms of cloud-based video surveillance, our proposed approaches significantly outperform existing methods.

Italian network for obesity and cardiovascular disease surveillance: a pilot project.

Science.gov (United States)

Donfrancesco, Chiara; Lo Noce, Cinzia; Brignoli, Ovidio; Riccardi, Gabriele; Ciccarelli, Paola; Dima, Francesco; Palmieri, Luigi; Giampaoli, Simona

2008-09-29

Also in Mediterranean countries, which are considered a low risk population for cardiovascular disease (CVD), the increase in body mass index (BMI) has become a public health priority. To evaluate the feasibility of a CVD and obesity surveillance network, forty General Practitioners (GPs) were engaged to perform a screening to assess obesity, cardiovascular risk, lifestyle habits and medication use. A total of 1,046 women and 1,044 men aged 35-74 years were randomly selected from GPs' lists stratifying by age decade and gender. Anthropometric and blood pressure measurements were performed by GPs using standardized methodologies. BMI was computed and categorized in normal weight (BMI 18.5-24.9 kg/m2), overweight (BMI 25.0-29.9 kg/m2) and obese (BMI > or = 30 kg/m2). Food frequency (per day: fruits and vegetables; per week: meat, cheese, fish, pulses, chocolate, fried food, sweet, wholemeal food, rotisserie food and sugar drink) and physical activity (at work and during leisure time) were investigated through a questionnaire. CVD risk was assessed using the Italian CUORE Project risk function. The percentage of missing values was very low. Prevalence of overweight was 34% in women and 50% in men; prevalence of obesity was 23% in both men and women. Level of physical activity was mostly low or very low. BMI was inversely associated with consumption of pulses, rotisserie food, chocolate, sweets and physical activity during leisure time and directly associated with consumption of meat. Mean value of total cardiovascular risk was 4% in women and 11% in men. One percent of women and 16% of men were at high cardiovascular risk (> or = 20% in 10 years). Normal weight persons were four times more likely to be at low risk than obese persons. This study demonstrated the feasibility of a surveillance network of GPs in Italy focusing on obesity and other CVD risk factors. It also provided information on lifestyle habits, such as diet and physical activity.

Italian network for obesity and cardiovascular disease surveillance: A pilot project

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Palmieri Luigi

2008-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Also in Mediterranean countries, which are considered a low risk population for cardiovascular disease (CVD, the increase in body mass index (BMI has become a public health priority. To evaluate the feasibility of a CVD and obesity surveillance network, forty General Practitioners (GPs were engaged to perform a screening to assess obesity, cardiovascular risk, lifestyle habits and medication use. Methods A total of 1,046 women and 1,044 men aged 35–74 years were randomly selected from GPs' lists stratifying by age decade and gender. Anthropometric and blood pressure measurements were performed by GPs using standardized methodologies. BMI was computed and categorized in normal weight (BMI 18.5–24.9 kg/m2, overweight (BMI 25.0–29.9 kg/m2 and obese (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2. Food frequency (per day: fruits and vegetables; per week: meat, cheese, fish, pulses, chocolate, fried food, sweet, wholemeal food, rotisserie food and sugar drink and physical activity (at work and during leisure time were investigated through a questionnaire. CVD risk was assessed using the Italian CUORE Project risk function. Results The percentage of missing values was very low. Prevalence of overweight was 34% in women and 50% in men; prevalence of obesity was 23% in both men and women. Level of physical activity was mostly low or very low. BMI was inversely associated with consumption of pulses, rotisserie food, chocolate, sweets and physical activity during leisure time and directly associated with consumption of meat. Mean value of total cardiovascular risk was 4% in women and 11% in men. One percent of women and 16% of men were at high cardiovascular risk (≥ 20% in 10 years. Normal weight persons were four times more likely to be at low risk than obese persons. Conclusion This study demonstrated the feasibility of a surveillance network of GPs in Italy focusing on obesity and other CVD risk factors. It also provided information on lifestyle habits

Twitter web-service for soft agent reporting in persistent surveillance systems

Science.gov (United States)

Rababaah, Haroun; Shirkhodaie, Amir

2010-04-01

Persistent surveillance is an intricate process requiring monitoring, gathering, processing, tracking, and characterization of many spatiotemporal events occurring concurrently. Data associated with events can be readily attained by networking of hard (physical) sensors. Sensors may have homogeneous or heterogeneous (hybrid) sensing modalities with different communication bandwidth requirements. Complimentary to hard sensors are human observers or "soft sensors" that can report occurrences of evolving events via different communication devices (e.g., texting, cell phones, emails, instant messaging, etc.) to the command control center. However, networking of human observers in ad-hoc way is rather a difficult task. In this paper, we present a Twitter web-service for soft agent reporting in persistent surveillance systems (called Web-STARS). The objective of this web-service is to aggregate multi-source human observations in hybrid sensor networks rapidly. With availability of Twitter social network, such a human networking concept can not only be realized for large scale persistent surveillance systems (PSS), but also, it can be employed with proper interfaces to expedite rapid events reporting by human observers. The proposed technique is particularly suitable for large-scale persistent surveillance systems with distributed soft and hard sensor networks. The efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed technique is measured experimentally by conducting several simulated persistent surveillance scenarios. It is demonstrated that by fusion of information from hard and soft agents improves understanding of common operating picture and enhances situational awareness.

Participatory Surveillance and Photo Sharing Practices

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Albrechtslund, Anders; Damkjaer, Maja Sonne; Bøge, Ask Risom

2019-01-01

-material perspective on photo-sharing practices. Information, Communication & Society, 19(4), 475–488. Sontag, S. (1977). On Photography. Picador. Steeves, V., & Jones, O. (2010). Editorial: Surveillance, Children and Childhood. Surveillance & Society, 7(3/4), 187–191....... that parents do not generally plan to store or organize their photos, and even less their children’s photos. This seems to indicate a shift from a pre-digital perception of photos as objects to be packaged, accumulated, framed etc. which can age and disappear (see Sontag, 1977) to something perceived less....... References: Albrechtslund, A. (2008). Online Social Networking as Participatory Surveillance. First Monday, 13(3). Fotel, T., & Thomsen, T. U. (2002). The Surveillance of Children’s Mobility. Surveillance & Society, 1(4), 535-554. Lobinger, K. (2016). Photographs as things–photographs of things. A texto...

Towards One Health Knowledge Networks: A Southern African Centre of Infectious Disease Surveillance case study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eric Beda

2012-06-01

Full Text Available The dynamic nature of new information and/or knowledge is a big challenge for information systems. Early knowledge management systems focused entirely on technologies for storing, searching and retrieving data; these systems have proved a failure. Juirsica and Mylopoulos1 suggested that in order to build effective technologies for knowledge management, we need to further our understanding of how individuals, groups and organisations use knowledge. As the focus on knowledge management for organisations and consortia alike is moving towards a keen appreciation of how deeply knowledge is embedded in people’s experiences, there is a general realisation that knowledge cannot be stored or captured digitally. This puts more emphasis in creating enabling environments for interactions that stimulate knowledge sharing. Our work aims at developing an un-obtrusive intelligent system that glues together effective contemporary and traditional technologies to aid these interactions and manage the information captured. In addition this system will include tools to aid propagating a repository of scientific information relevant to surveillance of infectious diseases to complement knowledge shared and/or acts as a point of reference. This work is ongoing and based on experiences in developing a knowledge network management system for the Southern African Centre of Infectious Disease Surveillance (SACIDS, A One Health consortium of southern African academic and research institutions involved with infectious diseases of humans and animals in partnership with world-renowned centres of research in industrialised countries.

Kalman Filter Based Tracking in an Video Surveillance System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

SULIMAN, C.

2010-05-01

Full Text Available In this paper we have developed a Matlab/Simulink based model for monitoring a contact in a video surveillance sequence. For the segmentation process and corect identification of a contact in a surveillance video, we have used the Horn-Schunk optical flow algorithm. The position and the behavior of the correctly detected contact were monitored with the help of the traditional Kalman filter. After that we have compared the results obtained from the optical flow method with the ones obtained from the Kalman filter, and we show the correct functionality of the Kalman filter based tracking. The tests were performed using video data taken with the help of a fix camera. The tested algorithm has shown promising results.

The development of passive health surveillance by a sentinel ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

SASPREN), a volunteer network of family practitioners in South Africa, to develop a health surveillance system through the surveillance of important health events. Motivation. The incidence of important preventable diseases and the burden of disease ...

Feasibility of using pedometers in a state-based surveillance system: 2014 Arizona Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alberto Flórez-Pregonero

2018-01-01

Conclusion: The feasibility of using pedometers in a state-based surveillance system is modest at best. Feasibility may potentially be improved with easy-to-use pedometers where data can be electronically downloaded.

Evaluation of surveillance of dengue fever cases in the public health centre of Putat Jaya based on attribute surveillance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zumaroh Zumaroh

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF is a public health problem in the village of Putat Jaya which is an endemic area. Surveilans activity in DHF control program is the most important activity in controlling and monitoring disease progression. The program is expected to achieve incidence rate 55/100.000 population. This study aimed to evaluate the implementation of case surveilans in health centre of putat jaya based on attribute surveillance. Attribute surveillance is an indicator that describes the characteristics of the surveillance system. This research was an evaluation research with descriptive study design. As informants were clinic staff who deal specifically with cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever and laboratory workers. The techniques of data collection by interviews and document study. The variables of this study were simplicity, flexibility, acceptability, sensitivity, positive predictive value, representativeness, timeliness, data quality and data stability. It could be seen from Incidence Rate in 2013 has reached 133/100.00 population. The activity of surveilance in the village of Putat Jaya reviewed from disease contol program management was not succeed into decrease incidence rate of DHF. Therefore, dengue control programs in health centers Putat Jaya need to do cross-sector cooperation and cross-program cooperation, strengthening the case reporting system by way increasing in the utilization of information and communication technology electromedia. Keywords: case surveillance, dengue hemorrhagic fever, evaluation, attribute surveillance, Putat Jaya

Surveillance, Snowden, and Big Data: Capacities, consequences, critique

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Lyon

2014-07-01

Full Text Available The Snowden revelations about National Security Agency surveillance, starting in 2013, along with the ambiguous complicity of internet companies and the international controversies that followed provide a perfect segue into contemporary conundrums of surveillance and Big Data. Attention has shifted from late C20th information technologies and networks to a C21st focus on data, currently crystallized in “Big Data.” Big Data intensifies certain surveillance trends associated with information technology and networks, and is thus implicated in fresh but fluid configurations. This is considered in three main ways: One, the capacities of Big Data (including metadata intensify surveillance by expanding interconnected datasets and analytical tools. Existing dynamics of influence, risk-management, and control increase their speed and scope through new techniques, especially predictive analytics. Two, while Big Data appears to be about size, qualitative change in surveillance practices is also perceptible, accenting consequences. Important trends persist – the control motif, faith in technology, public-private synergies, and user-involvement – but the future-orientation increasingly severs surveillance from history and memory and the quest for pattern-discovery is used to justify unprecedented access to data. Three, the ethical turn becomes more urgent as a mode of critique. Modernity's predilection for certain definitions of privacy betrays the subjects of surveillance who, so far from conforming to the abstract, disembodied image of both computing and legal practices, are engaged and embodied users-in-relation whose activities both fuel and foreclose surveillance.

Smart sensing surveillance system

Science.gov (United States)

Hsu, Charles; Chu, Kai-Dee; O'Looney, James; Blake, Michael; Rutar, Colleen

2010-04-01

Unattended ground sensor (UGS) networks have been widely used in remote battlefield and other tactical applications over the last few decades due to the advances of the digital signal processing. The UGS network can be applied in a variety of areas including border surveillance, special force operations, perimeter and building protection, target acquisition, situational awareness, and force protection. In this paper, a highly-distributed, fault-tolerant, and energyefficient Smart Sensing Surveillance System (S4) is presented to efficiently provide 24/7 and all weather security operation in a situation management environment. The S4 is composed of a number of distributed nodes to collect, process, and disseminate heterogeneous sensor data. Nearly all S4 nodes have passive sensors to provide rapid omnidirectional detection. In addition, Pan- Tilt- Zoom- (PTZ) Electro-Optics EO/IR cameras are integrated to selected nodes to track the objects and capture associated imagery. These S4 camera-connected nodes will provide applicable advanced on-board digital image processing capabilities to detect and track the specific objects. The imaging detection operations include unattended object detection, human feature and behavior detection, and configurable alert triggers, etc. In the S4, all the nodes are connected with a robust, reconfigurable, LPI/LPD (Low Probability of Intercept/ Low Probability of Detect) wireless mesh network using Ultra-wide band (UWB) RF technology, which can provide an ad-hoc, secure mesh network and capability to relay network information, communicate and pass situational awareness and messages. The S4 utilizes a Service Oriented Architecture such that remote applications can interact with the S4 network and use the specific presentation methods. The S4 capabilities and technologies have great potential for both military and civilian applications, enabling highly effective security support tools for improving surveillance activities in densely crowded

A review of zoonotic disease surveillance supported by the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center.

Science.gov (United States)

Burke, R L; Kronmann, K C; Daniels, C C; Meyers, M; Byarugaba, D K; Dueger, E; Klein, T A; Evans, B P; Vest, K G

2012-05-01

The Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center (AFHSC), Division of Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System conducts disease surveillance through a global network of US Department of Defense research laboratories and partnerships with foreign ministries of agriculture, health and livestock development in over 90 countries worldwide. In 2010, AFHSC supported zoonosis survey efforts were organized into four main categories: (i) development of field assays for animal disease surveillance during deployments and in resource limited environments, (ii) determining zoonotic disease prevalence in high-contact species which may serve as important reservoirs of diseases and sources of transmission, (iii) surveillance in high-risk human populations which are more likely to become exposed and subsequently infected with zoonotic pathogens and (iv) surveillance at the human-animal interface examining zoonotic disease prevalence and transmission within and between human and animal populations. These efforts have aided in the detection, identification and quantification of the burden of zoonotic diseases such as anthrax, brucellosis, Crimean Congo haemorrhagic fever, dengue fever, Hantaan virus, influenza, Lassa fever, leptospirosis, melioidosis, Q fever, Rift Valley fever, sandfly fever Sicilian virus, sandfly fever Naples virus, tuberculosis and West Nile virus, which are of military and public health importance. Future zoonotic surveillance efforts will seek to develop local capacity for zoonotic surveillance focusing on high risk populations at the human-animal interface. © 2011 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.

Infectieziekten Surveillance Informatie Systeem

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sprenger MJW; van Pelt W; CIE

1994-01-01

In the Netherlands an electronic network has been proposed for structured data transfer and communication concerning the control of infectious diseases. This project has been baptized ISIS (Infectious diseases Surveillance Information System). It is an initiative of the Dutch Government. ISIS

Leveraging social networking sites for disease surveillance and public sensing: the case of the 2013 avian influenza A(H7N9 outbreak in China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emma Xuxiao Zhang

2015-05-01

Full Text Available We conducted in-depth analysis on the use of a popular Chinese social networking and microblogging site, Sina Weibo, to monitor an avian influenza A(H7N9 outbreak in China and to assess the value of social networking sites in the surveillance of disease outbreaks that occur overseas. Two data sets were employed for our analysis: a line listing of confirmed cases obtained from conventional public health information channels and case information from Weibo posts. Our findings showed that the level of activity on Weibo corresponded with the number of new cases reported. In addition, the reporting of new cases on Weibo was significantly faster than those of conventional reporting sites and non-local news media. A qualitative review of the functions of Weibo also revealed that Weibo enabled timely monitoring of other outbreak-relevant information, provided access to additional crowd-sourced epidemiological information and was leveraged by the local government as an interactive platform for risk communication and monitoring public sentiment on the policy response. Our analysis demonstrated the potential for social networking sites to be used by public health agencies to enhance traditional communicable disease surveillance systems for the global surveillance of overseas public health threats. Social networking sites also can be used by governments for calibration of response policies and measures and for risk communication.

Leveraging social networking sites for disease surveillance and public sensing: the case of the 2013 avian influenza A(H7N9) outbreak in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Emma Xuxiao; Yang, Yinping; Di Shang, Richard; Simons, Joseph John Pyne; Quek, Boon Kiat; Yin, Xiao Feng; See, Wanhan; Oh, Olivia Seen Huey; Nandar, Khine Sein Tun; Ling, Vivienne Ruo Yun; Chan, Pei Pei; Wang, Zhaoxia; Goh, Rick Siow Mong; James, Lyn; Tey, Jeannie Su Hui

2015-01-01

We conducted in-depth analysis on the use of a popular Chinese social networking and microblogging site, Sina Weibo, to monitor an avian influenza A(H7N9) outbreak in China and to assess the value of social networking sites in the surveillance of disease outbreaks that occur overseas. Two data sets were employed for our analysis: a line listing of confirmed cases obtained from conventional public health information channels and case information from Weibo posts. Our findings showed that the level of activity on Weibo corresponded with the number of new cases reported. In addition, the reporting of new cases on Weibo was significantly faster than those of conventional reporting sites and non-local news media. A qualitative review of the functions of Weibo also revealed that Weibo enabled timely monitoring of other outbreak-relevant information, provided access to additional crowd-sourced epidemiological information and was leveraged by the local government as an interactive platform for risk communication and monitoring public sentiment on the policy response. Our analysis demonstrated the potential for social networking sites to be used by public health agencies to enhance traditional communicable disease surveillance systems for the global surveillance of overseas public health threats. Social networking sites also can be used by governments for calibration of response policies and measures and for risk communication.

Surveillance for travel-related disease--GeoSentinel Surveillance System, United States, 1997-2011.

Science.gov (United States)

Harvey, Kira; Esposito, Douglas H; Han, Pauline; Kozarsky, Phyllis; Freedman, David O; Plier, D Adam; Sotir, Mark J

2013-07-19

In 2012, the number of international tourist arrivals worldwide was projected to reach a new high of 1 billion arrivals, a 48% increase from 674 million arrivals in 2000. International travel also is increasing among U.S. residents. In 2009, U.S. residents made approximately 61 million trips outside the country, a 5% increase from 1999. Travel-related morbidity can occur during or after travel. Worldwide, 8% of travelers from industrialized to developing countries report becoming ill enough to seek health care during or after travel. Travelers have contributed to the global spread of infectious diseases, including novel and emerging pathogens. Therefore, surveillance of travel-related morbidity is an essential component of global public health surveillance and will be of greater importance as international travel increases worldwide. September 1997-December 2011. GeoSentinel is a clinic-based global surveillance system that tracks infectious diseases and other adverse health outcomes in returned travelers, foreign visitors, and immigrants. GeoSentinel comprises 54 travel/tropical medicine clinics worldwide that electronically submit demographic, travel, and clinical diagnosis data for all patients evaluated for an illness or other health condition that is presumed to be related to international travel. Clinical information is collected by physicians with expertise or experience in travel/tropical medicine. Data collected at all sites are entered electronically into a database, which is housed at and maintained by CDC. The GeoSentinel network membership program comprises 235 additional clinics in 40 countries on six continents. Although these network members do not report surveillance data systematically, they can report unusual or concerning diagnoses in travelers and might be asked to perform enhanced surveillance in response to specific health events or concerns. During September 1997-December 2011, data were collected on 141,789 patients with confirmed or

Wireless Indoor Location Estimation Based on Neural Network RSS Signature Recognition (LENSR)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kurt Derr; Milos Manic

2008-06-01

Location Based Services (LBS), context aware applications, and people and object tracking depend on the ability to locate mobile devices, also known as localization, in the wireless landscape. Localization enables a diverse set of applications that include, but are not limited to, vehicle guidance in an industrial environment, security monitoring, self-guided tours, personalized communications services, resource tracking, mobile commerce services, guiding emergency workers during fire emergencies, habitat monitoring, environmental surveillance, and receiving alerts. This paper presents a new neural network approach (LENSR) based on a competitive topological Counter Propagation Network (CPN) with k-nearest neighborhood vector mapping, for indoor location estimation based on received signal strength. The advantage of this approach is both speed and accuracy. The tested accuracy of the algorithm was 90.6% within 1 meter and 96.4% within 1.5 meters. Several approaches for location estimation using WLAN technology were reviewed for comparison of results.

A micro-Doppler sonar for acoustic surveillance in sensor networks

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Zhaonian

Wireless sensor networks have been employed in a wide variety of applications, despite the limited energy and communication resources at each sensor node. Low power custom VLSI chips implementing passive acoustic sensing algorithms have been successfully integrated into an acoustic surveillance unit and demonstrated for detection and location of sound sources. In this dissertation, I explore active and passive acoustic sensing techniques, signal processing and classification algorithms for detection and classification in a multinodal sensor network environment. I will present the design and characterization of a continuous-wave micro-Doppler sonar to image objects with articulated moving components. As an example application for this system, we use it to image gaits of humans and four-legged animals. I will present the micro-Doppler gait signatures of a walking person, a dog and a horse. I will discuss the resolution and range of this micro-Doppler sonar and use experimental results to support the theoretical analyses. In order to reduce the data rate and make the system amenable to wireless sensor networks, I will present a second micro-Doppler sonar that uses bandpass sampling for data acquisition. Speech recognition algorithms are explored for biometric identifications from one's gait, and I will present and compare the classification performance of the two systems. The acoustic micro-Doppler sonar design and biometric identification results are the first in the field as the previous work used either video camera or microwave technology. I will also review bearing estimation algorithms and present results of applying these algorithms for bearing estimation and tracking of moving vehicles. Another major source of the power consumption at each sensor node is the wireless interface. To address the need of low power communications in a wireless sensor network, I will also discuss the design and implementation of ultra wideband transmitters in a three dimensional

Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infection Based on Surveillance Attributes in RSU Haji Surabaya

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Spica Redina Vebrilian

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Surveillance system is instrumental in reducing the incidence of nosocomial infection. The implementation of this surveillance system is necessary in the hospital. Surveillance CAUTI is one of the focus prevention and infection control program in RSU Haji Surabaya 2015. The success of surveillance system highly depends on the association of attributes inside it. Surveillance attributes are indicator that describes the characteristics ofsurveillance system. In 2015, there was a delay in the collection of data reports which exceeds the prescribed time limit and there was also a lot of blank space in the confi rmation sheet. It affects the surveillance system in RSU Haji Surabaya. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the surveillance CAUTI based on the surveillance attributes in RSU Haji Surabaya2015. This research is a descriptive evaluative research. Subjects in this study are the surveillance attributes (simplicity, flexibility, acceptability, sensitivity, positive predictive value, representativeness, timeliness, data quality, and stability CAUTI in RSU Haji Surabaya, while survey respondents are IPCN, IPCLN, and head nurse. Data collected by interview and documentation study. The results showed that the attributes of surveillance is already has simplicity, high acceptability, high sensitivity, high positive predictive value, representative, and high stability. However, other attributes were not fl exible, not timeliness, and has a low data quality. Alternative solutions that can be done are to improve the regulatory function in every unit, establish standardization of hospital data, and manage reward and punishment system. Keywords: surveillance system, surveillance attributes, evaluation, nosocomial infections, CAUTI

A large-scale study of a poultry trading network in Bangladesh: implications for control and surveillance of avian influenza viruses.

Science.gov (United States)

Moyen, N; Ahmed, G; Gupta, S; Tenzin, T; Khan, R; Khan, T; Debnath, N; Yamage, M; Pfeiffer, D U; Fournie, G

2018-01-12

Since its first report in 2007, avian influenza (AI) has been endemic in Bangladesh. While live poultry marketing is widespread throughout the country and known to influence AI dissemination and persistence, trading patterns have not been described. The aim of this study is to assess poultry trading practices and features of the poultry trading networks which could promote AI spread, and their potential implications for disease control and surveillance. Data on poultry trading practices was collected from 849 poultry traders during a cross-sectional survey in 138 live bird markets (LBMs) across 17 different districts of Bangladesh. The quantity and origins of traded poultry were assessed for each poultry type in surveyed LBMs. The network of contacts between farms and LBMs resulting from commercial movements of live poultry was constructed to assess its connectivity and to identify the key premises influencing it. Poultry trading practices varied according to the size of the LBMs and to the type of poultry traded. Industrial broiler chickens, the most commonly traded poultry, were generally sold in LBMs close to their production areas, whereas ducks and backyard chickens were moved over longer distances, and their transport involved several intermediates. The poultry trading network composed of 445 nodes (73.2% were LBMs) was highly connected and disassortative. However, the removal of only 5.6% of the nodes (25 LBMs with the highest betweenness scores), reduced the network's connectedness, and the maximum size of output and input domains by more than 50%. Poultry types need to be discriminated in order to understand the way in which poultry trading networks are shaped, and the level of risk of disease spread that these networks may promote. Knowledge of the network structure could be used to target control and surveillance interventions to a small number of LBMs.

Evaluation of an Electronic Smart-Card Based School Absenteeism Surveillance System

OpenAIRE

So, HC; Lam, CK; Tam, YH; Cowling, BJ; Leung, GM; Lau, EHY; Ip, DKM

2014-01-01

We evaluated the performance of an electronic smart-card based school absenteeism surveillance system which was initiated in 2008 in Hong Kong. The result demonstrated the feasibility and potential benefit of employing electronic school absenteeism data as captured automatically by a smart card system as an alternative data stream for monitoring influenza activities, and flexibility in establishing surveillance for emerging diseases. The increasing popularity of usage of smart card technology...

Applied learning-based color tone mapping for face recognition in video surveillance system

Science.gov (United States)

Yew, Chuu Tian; Suandi, Shahrel Azmin

2012-04-01

In this paper, we present an applied learning-based color tone mapping technique for video surveillance system. This technique can be applied onto both color and grayscale surveillance images. The basic idea is to learn the color or intensity statistics from a training dataset of photorealistic images of the candidates appeared in the surveillance images, and remap the color or intensity of the input image so that the color or intensity statistics match those in the training dataset. It is well known that the difference in commercial surveillance cameras models, and signal processing chipsets used by different manufacturers will cause the color and intensity of the images to differ from one another, thus creating additional challenges for face recognition in video surveillance system. Using Multi-Class Support Vector Machines as the classifier on a publicly available video surveillance camera database, namely SCface database, this approach is validated and compared to the results of using holistic approach on grayscale images. The results show that this technique is suitable to improve the color or intensity quality of video surveillance system for face recognition.

Space Surveillance Catalog growth during SBIRS low deployment.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoult, C. P.; Wright, R. P.

The Space Surveillance Catalog is a database of all Resident Space Objects (RSOs) on Earth orbit. It is expected to grow in the future as more RSOs accumulate on orbit. Potentially still more dramatic growth could follow the deployment of the Space Based Infrared System Low Earth Orbit Component (SBTRS Low). SBIRS Low, currently about to enter development, offers the potential to detect and acquire much smaller debris RSOs than can be seen by the current ground-based Space Surveillance Network (SSN). SBIRS Low will host multicolor infrared/visible sensors on each satellite in a proliferated constellation on low Earth orbit, and if appropriately tasked, these sensors could provide significant space surveillance capability. Catalog growth during SBIRS Low deployment was analyzed using a highly aggregated code that numerically integrates the Markov equations governing the state transitions of RSOs from uncataloged to cataloged, and back again. It was assumed that all newly observed debris RSOs will be detected as by-products of routine Catalog maintenance, not including any post breakup searches, and if sufficient sensor resources are available, be acquired into the Catalog. Debris over the entire low to high altitude regime were considered.

MB-OFDM-UWB Based Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks for Underground Coalmine: A Survey

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Ruisong; Yang, Wei; You, Kaiming

2016-01-01

Safety production of coalmines is a task of top priority which plays an important role in guaranteeing, supporting and promoting the continuous development of the coal industry. Since traditional wireless sensor networks (WSNs) cannot fully meet the requirements of comprehensive environment monitoring of underground coalmines, wireless multimedia sensor networks (WMSNs), enabling the retrieval of multimedia information, are introduced to realize fine-grained and precise environment surveillance. In this paper, a framework for designing underground coalmine WMSNs based on Multi-Band Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing Ultra-wide Band (MB-OFDM-UWB) is presented. The selection of MB-OFDM-UWB wireless transmission solution is based on the characteristics of underground coalmines. Network structure and design challenges are analyzed first, which is the foundation for further discussion. Then, key supporting technologies and open research areas in different layers are surveyed, and we provide a detailed literature review of the state of the art strategies, algorithms and general solutions in these issues. Finally, other research issues like localization, information processing, and network management are discussed. PMID:27999258

MB-OFDM-UWB Based Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks for Underground Coalmine: A Survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Ruisong; Yang, Wei; You, Kaiming

2016-12-16

Safety production of coalmines is a task of top priority which plays an important role in guaranteeing, supporting and promoting the continuous development of the coal industry. Since traditional wireless sensor networks (WSNs) cannot fully meet the requirements of comprehensive environment monitoring of underground coalmines, wireless multimedia sensor networks (WMSNs), enabling the retrieval of multimedia information, are introduced to realize fine-grained and precise environment surveillance. In this paper, a framework for designing underground coalmine WMSNs based on Multi-Band Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing Ultra-wide Band (MB-OFDM-UWB) is presented. The selection of MB-OFDM-UWB wireless transmission solution is based on the characteristics of underground coalmines. Network structure and design challenges are analyzed first, which is the foundation for further discussion. Then, key supporting technologies and open research areas in different layers are surveyed, and we provide a detailed literature review of the state of the art strategies, algorithms and general solutions in these issues. Finally, other research issues like localization, information processing, and network management are discussed.

SCM: a practical tool to implement hospital-based syndromic surveillance.

Science.gov (United States)

Ye, Chuchu; Li, Zhongjie; Fu, Yifei; Lan, Yajia; Zhu, Weiping; Zhou, Dinglun; Zhang, Honglong; Lai, Shengjie; Buckeridge, David L; Sun, Qiao; Yang, Weizhong

2016-06-18

Syndromic surveillance has been widely used for the early warning of infectious disease outbreaks, especially in mass gatherings, but the collection of electronic data on symptoms in hospitals is one of the fundamental challenges that must be overcome during operating a syndromic surveillance system. The objective of our study is to describe and evaluate the implementation of a symptom-clicking-module (SCM) as a part of the enhanced hospital-based syndromic surveillance during the 41st World Exposition in Shanghai, China, 2010. The SCM, including 25 targeted symptoms, was embedded in the sentinels' Hospital Information Systems (HIS). The clinicians used SCM to record these information of all the visiting patients, and data were collated and transmitted automatically in daily batches. The symptoms were categorized into seven targeted syndromes using pre-defined criteria, and statistical algorithms were applied to detect temporal aberrations in the data series. SCM was deployed successfully in each sentinel hospital and was operated during the 184-day surveillance period. A total of 1,730,797 patient encounters were recorded by SCM, and 6.1 % (105,352 visits) met the criteria of the seven targeted syndromes. Acute respiratory and gastrointestinal syndromes were reported most frequently, accounted for 92.1 % of reports in all syndromes, and the aggregated time-series presented an obvious day-of-week variation over the study period. In total, 191 aberration signals were triggered, and none of them were identified as outbreaks after verification and field investigation. SCM has acted as a practical tool for recording symptoms in the hospital-based enhanced syndromic surveillance system during the 41st World Exposition in Shanghai, in the context of without a preexisting electronic tool to collect syndromic data in the HIS of the sentinel hospitals.

Low-Cost National Media-Based Surveillance System for Public Health Events, Bangladesh

Science.gov (United States)

Ao, Trong T.; Rahman, Mahmudur; Haque, Farhana; Chakraborty, Apurba; Hossain, M. Jahangir; Haider, Sabbir; Alamgir, A.S.M.; Sobel, Jeremy; Luby, Stephen P.

2016-01-01

We assessed a media-based public health surveillance system in Bangladesh during 2010–2011. The system is a highly effective, low-cost, locally appropriate, and sustainable outbreak detection tool that could be used in other low-income, resource-poor settings to meet the capacity for surveillance outlined in the International Health Regulations 2005. PMID:26981877

Markov Networks of Collateral Resistance: National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System Surveillance Results from Escherichia coli Isolates, 2004-2012.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

William J Love

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Surveillance of antimicrobial resistance (AMR is an important component of public health. Antimicrobial drug use generates selective pressure that may lead to resistance against to the administered drug, and may also select for collateral resistances to other drugs. Analysis of AMR surveillance data has focused on resistance to individual drugs but joint distributions of resistance in bacterial populations are infrequently analyzed and reported. New methods are needed to characterize and communicate joint resistance distributions. Markov networks are a class of graphical models that define connections, or edges, between pairs of variables with non-zero partial correlations and are used here to describe AMR resistance relationships. The graphical least absolute shrinkage and selection operator is used to estimate sparse Markov networks from AMR surveillance data. The method is demonstrated using a subset of Escherichia coli isolates collected by the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System between 2004 and 2012 which included AMR results for 16 drugs from 14418 isolates. Of the 119 possible unique edges, 33 unique edges were identified at least once during the study period and graphical density ranged from 16.2% to 24.8%. Two frequent dense subgraphs were noted, one containing the five β-lactam drugs and the other containing both sulfonamides, three aminoglycosides, and tetracycline. Density did not appear to change over time (p = 0.71. Unweighted modularity did not appear to change over time (p = 0.18, but a significant decreasing trend was noted in the modularity of the weighted networks (p < 0.005 indicating relationships between drugs of different classes tended to increase in strength and frequency over time compared to relationships between drugs of the same class. The current method provides a novel method to study the joint resistance distribution, but additional work is required to unite the underlying biological and genetic

Next Generation Space Surveillance System-of-Systems

Science.gov (United States)

McShane, B.

2014-09-01

International economic and military dependence on space assets is pervasive and ever-growing in an environment that is now congested, contested, and competitive. There are a number of natural and man-made risks that need to be monitored and characterized to protect and preserve the space environment and the assets within it. Unfortunately, today's space surveillance network (SSN) has gaps in coverage, is not resilient, and has a growing number of objects that get lost. Risks can be efficiently and effectively mitigated, gaps closed, resiliency improved, and performance increased within a next generation space surveillance network implemented as a system-of-systems with modern information architectures and analytic techniques. This also includes consideration for the newest SSN sensors (e.g. Space Fence) which are born Net-Centric out-of-the-box and able to seamlessly interface with the JSpOC Mission System, global information grid, and future unanticipated users. Significant opportunity exists to integrate legacy, traditional, and non-traditional sensors into a larger space system-of-systems (including command and control centers) for multiple clients through low cost sustainment, modification, and modernization efforts. Clients include operations centers (e.g. JSpOC, USSTRATCOM, CANSPOC), Intelligence centers (e.g. NASIC), space surveillance sensor sites (e.g. AMOS, GEODSS), international governments (e.g. Germany, UK), space agencies (e.g. NASA), and academic institutions. Each has differing priorities, networks, data needs, timeliness, security, accuracy requirements and formats. Enabling processes and technologies include: Standardized and type accredited methods for secure connections to multiple networks, machine-to-machine interfaces for near real-time data sharing and tip-and-queue activities, common data models for analytical processing across multiple radar and optical sensor types, an efficient way to automatically translate between differing client and

Scoring sensor observations to facilitate the exchange of space surveillance data

Science.gov (United States)

Weigel, M.; Fiedler, H.; Schildknecht, T.

2017-08-01

In this paper, a scoring metric for space surveillance sensor observations is introduced. A scoring metric allows for direct comparison of data quantity and data quality, and makes transparent the effort made by different sensor operators. The concept might be applied to various sensor types like tracking and surveillance radar, active optical laser tracking, or passive optical telescopes as well as combinations of different measurement types. For each measurement type, a polynomial least squares fit is performed on the measurement values contained in the track. The track score is the average sum over the polynomial coefficients uncertainties and scaled by reference measurement accuracy. Based on the newly developed scoring metric, an accounting model and a rating model are introduced. Both models facilitate the exchange of observation data within a network of space surveillance sensors operators. In this paper, optical observations are taken as an example for analysis purposes, but both models can also be utilized for any other type of observations. The rating model has the capability to distinguish between network participants with major and minor data contribution to the network. The level of sanction on data reception is defined by the participants themselves enabling a high flexibility. The more elaborated accounting model translates the track score to credit points earned for data provision and spend for data reception. In this model, data reception is automatically limited for participants with low contribution to the network. The introduced method for observation scoring is first applied for transparent data exchange within the Small Aperture Robotic Telescope Network (SMARTnet). Therefore a detailed mathematical description is presented for line of sight measurements from optical telescopes, as well as numerical simulations for different network setups.

The historical development of the Dutch Sentinel General Practice Network from a paper based into a digital primary care monitoring system.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schweikardt, C.; Verheij, R.A.; Donker, G.A.; Coppieters, Y.

2016-01-01

Aim: The Dutch Sentinel General Practice Network (SGPN) was founded in 1970 for disease surveillance in primary care, based on paper questionnaires. Advances in information technology offered new prospects of data collection from electronic health records (EHRs). This study investigates the

Convolutional Neural Network-Based Shadow Detection in Images Using Visible Light Camera Sensor

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dong Seop Kim

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Recent developments in intelligence surveillance camera systems have enabled more research on the detection, tracking, and recognition of humans. Such systems typically use visible light cameras and images, in which shadows make it difficult to detect and recognize the exact human area. Near-infrared (NIR light cameras and thermal cameras are used to mitigate this problem. However, such instruments require a separate NIR illuminator, or are prohibitively expensive. Existing research on shadow detection in images captured by visible light cameras have utilized object and shadow color features for detection. Unfortunately, various environmental factors such as illumination change and brightness of background cause detection to be a difficult task. To overcome this problem, we propose a convolutional neural network-based shadow detection method. Experimental results with a database built from various outdoor surveillance camera environments, and from the context-aware vision using image-based active recognition (CAVIAR open database, show that our method outperforms previous works.

Mammographic surveillance in the follow up of early primary breast cancer in England: A cross-sectional survey

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Greenwood-Haigh, Lesley

2009-01-01

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine current practice in the clinical setting at national and regional level of the use of mammographic surveillance in the follow up of patients surgically treated for early breast cancer. Method: A cross-sectional survey method was employed. Self-administered questionnaires were sent to a random selection of symptomatic breast imaging units representing all the cancer networks in England nationally, and all symptomatic breast imaging units in one cancer network regionally. Questions were designed to determine frequency and duration of mammographic surveillance for patients aged < 50 years and ≥50 years surgically treated by mastectomy or breast conserving surgery and the number of units with protocols based on the risk of local recurrence or development of a new primary breast cancer. Results: The protocols demonstrated a striking diversity in both the frequency and duration of mammographic surveillance; however the variation was less marked regionally. The duration of mammography for patient's aged ≥70 years surgically treated by mastectomy, demonstrated the greatest diversity (range: 0-15 years). Four protocols had regimes tailored to risk. Conclusion: The introduction of protocols based on risk of development of a local recurrence or new primary could prove cost effective by targeting mammographic surveillance to those who would benefit the most. The survey has demonstrated that a 'post-code lottery' exists for both the frequency and duration of mammographic surveillance in this patient group indicating an urgent need for evidence based national guidance.

Context-based object-of-interest detection for a generic traffic surveillance analysis system

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bao, X.; Javanbakhti, S.; Zinger, S.; Wijnhoven, R.G.J.; With, de P.H.N.

2014-01-01

We present a new traffic surveillance video analysis system, focusing on building a framework with robust and generic techniques, based on both scene understanding and moving object-of-interest detection. Since traffic surveillance is widely applied, we want to design a single system that can be

Surveillance and Protection-Based Approach for Link Failures over Fiber-to the-Home (FTTH with Combination of ACS and SANTAD

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aswir Premadi

2013-09-01

Full Text Available This paper introduces an in-service transmission surveillance and protection-based approach for fiber failures/faults over fiber-to-the-home passive optical network (FTTH-PON with an excellent combination of Access Control System (ACS and Smart Access Network Testing, Analyzing and Database (SANTAD. Our hardware design works on a standard local area network (LAN using a specially designed hardware interfaced with a microcontroller integrated Ethernet to monitor the status of optical signals flow and provide the restoration against fiber failures/faults in FTTH-PON. We also introduce the centralized management and access control program by means of SANTAD. ACS is used to control the troubleshooting mechanism carried out by SANTAD. This design will be implemented at central office (CO for distant monitoring and remote controlling each optical fiber line’s status as well as for detecting any failures/faults that occurs in the network system downwardly from CO towards multiple optical network units (ONUs. The scope of this discussion only highlighted on the monitoring and controlling instead of the restoration scheme.

Surveillance and Protection-Based Approach for Link Failures over Fiber-to the-Home (FTTH with Combination of ACS and SANTAD

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aswir Premadi

2009-05-01

Full Text Available This paper introduces an in-service transmission surveillance and protection-based approach for fiber failures/faults over fiber-to-the-home passive optical network (FTTH-PON with an excellent combination of Access Control System (ACS and Smart Access Network Testing, Analyzing and Database (SANTAD. Our hardware design works on a standard local area network (LAN using a specially designed hardware interfaced with a microcontroller integrated Ethernet to monitor the status of optical signals flow and provide the restoration against fiber failures/faults in FTTH-PON. We also introduce the centralized management and access control program by means of SANTAD. ACS is used to control the troubleshooting mechanism carried out by SANTAD. This design will be implemented at central office (CO for distant monitoring and remote controlling each optical fiber line’s status as well as for detecting any failures/faults that occurs in the network system downwardly from CO towards multiple optical network units (ONUs. The scope of this discussion only highlighted on the monitoring and controlling instead of the restoration scheme.

Implementation of nuclear material surveillance system based on the digital video capture card and counter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Sang Yoon; Song, Dae Yong; Ko, Won Il; Ha, Jang Ho; Kim, Ho Dong

2003-07-01

In this paper, the implementation techniques of nuclear material surveillance system based on the digital video capture board and digital counter was described. The surveillance system that is to be developed is consist of CCD cameras, neutron monitors, and PC for data acquisition. To develop the system, the properties of the PCI based capture board and counter was investigated, and the characteristics of related SDK library was summarized. This report could be used for the developers who want to develop the surveillance system for various experimental environments based on the DVR and sensors using Borland C++ Builder

Building up a collaborative network for the surveillance of HIV genetic diversity in Italy: A pilot study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nunzia Sanarico

2015-12-01

Full Text Available INTRODUCTION: Prevalence of infection with HIV-1 non-B subtypes in Italy has been reported to raise, due to increased migration flows and travels. HIV-1 variants show different biological and immunological properties that impact on disease progression rate, response to antiretroviral therapy (ART and sensitivity of diagnostic tests with important implications for public health. Therefore, a constant surveillance of the dynamics of HIV variants in Italy should be a high public health priority. Organization of surveillance studies requires building up a platform constituted of a network of clinical centers, laboratories and institutional agencies, able to properly collect samples for the investigation of HIV subtypes heterogeneity and to provide a database with reliable demographic, clinical, immunological and virological data. AIM: We here report our experience in building up such a platform, co-ordinated by the National AIDS Center of the Istituto Superiore di Sanita, taking advantage of a pilot study aimed at evaluating HIV subtypes diversity in populations of HIV-infected migrant people in Italy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Four hundred and thirty four HIV-infected migrants were enrolled in 9 Italian clinical centers located throughout the Italian territory. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs for sample collection were provided by the National AIDS Center to each clinical center. In addition, clinical centers were required to fill up a case report form (crf for each patient, which included demographic, clinical, immunological and virological information. RESULTS: All centers properly collected and stored samples from each enrolled individual. Overall, the required information was correctly provided for more than 90% of the patients. However, some fields of the crf, particularly those including information on the last HIV-negative antibody test and presence of co-infections, were properly filled up in less than 80% of the enrolled migrants. Centers

Semantic web technologies for video surveillance metadata

OpenAIRE

Poppe, Chris; Martens, Gaëtan; De Potter, Pieterjan; Van de Walle, Rik

2012-01-01

Video surveillance systems are growing in size and complexity. Such systems typically consist of integrated modules of different vendors to cope with the increasing demands on network and storage capacity, intelligent video analytics, picture quality, and enhanced visual interfaces. Within a surveillance system, relevant information (like technical details on the video sequences, or analysis results of the monitored environment) is described using metadata standards. However, different module...

Romantic Partner Monitoring After Breakups: Attachment, Dependence, Distress, and Post-Dissolution Online Surveillance via Social Networking Sites.

Science.gov (United States)

Fox, Jesse; Tokunaga, Robert S

2015-09-01

Romantic relationship dissolution can be stressful, and social networking sites make it difficult to separate from a romantic partner online as well as offline. An online survey (N = 431) tested a model synthesizing attachment, investment model variables, and post-dissolution emotional distress as predictors of interpersonal surveillance (i.e., "Facebook stalking") of one's ex-partner on Facebook after a breakup. Results indicated that anxious attachment predicted relational investment but also seeking relationship alternatives; avoidant attachment was negatively related to investment but positively related to seeking alternatives. Investment predicted commitment, whereas seeking alternatives was negatively related to commitment. Commitment predicted emotional distress after the breakup. Distress predicted partner monitoring immediately following the breakup, particularly for those who did not initiate the breakup, as well as current partner monitoring. Given their affordances, social media are discussed as potentially unhealthy enablers for online surveillance after relationship termination.

Adaptive Probabilistic Tracking Embedded in Smart Cameras for Distributed Surveillance in a 3D Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sven Fleck

2006-12-01

Full Text Available Tracking applications based on distributed and embedded sensor networks are emerging today, both in the fields of surveillance and industrial vision. Traditional centralized approaches have several drawbacks, due to limited communication bandwidth, computational requirements, and thus limited spatial camera resolution and frame rate. In this article, we present network-enabled smart cameras for probabilistic tracking. They are capable of tracking objects adaptively in real time and offer a very bandwidthconservative approach, as the whole computation is performed embedded in each smart camera and only the tracking results are transmitted, which are on a higher level of abstraction. Based on this, we present a distributed surveillance system. The smart cameras' tracking results are embedded in an integrated 3D environment as live textures and can be viewed from arbitrary perspectives. Also a georeferenced live visualization embedded in Google Earth is presented.

Adaptive Probabilistic Tracking Embedded in Smart Cameras for Distributed Surveillance in a 3D Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fleck Sven

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Tracking applications based on distributed and embedded sensor networks are emerging today, both in the fields of surveillance and industrial vision. Traditional centralized approaches have several drawbacks, due to limited communication bandwidth, computational requirements, and thus limited spatial camera resolution and frame rate. In this article, we present network-enabled smart cameras for probabilistic tracking. They are capable of tracking objects adaptively in real time and offer a very bandwidthconservative approach, as the whole computation is performed embedded in each smart camera and only the tracking results are transmitted, which are on a higher level of abstraction. Based on this, we present a distributed surveillance system. The smart cameras' tracking results are embedded in an integrated 3D environment as live textures and can be viewed from arbitrary perspectives. Also a georeferenced live visualization embedded in Google Earth is presented.

Decreased rates of nosocomial endometritis and urinary tract infection after vaginal delivery in a French surveillance network, 1997-2003.

Science.gov (United States)

Ayzac, Louis; Caillat-Vallet, Emmanuelle; Girard, Raphaële; Chapuis, Catherine; Depaix, Florence; Dumas, Anne-Marie; Gignoux, Chantal; Haond, Catherine; Lafarge-Leboucher, Joëlle; Launay, Carine; Tissot-Guerraz, Françoise; Vincent, Agnès; Fabry, Jacques

2008-06-01

To identify independent risk factors for endometritis and urinary tract infection (UTI) after vaginal delivery, and to monitor changes in nosocomial infection rates and derive benchmarks for prevention. Prospective study. We analyzed routine surveillance data for all vaginal deliveries between January 1997 and December 2003 at 66 maternity units participating in the Mater Sud-Est surveillance network. Adjusted odds ratios for risk of endometritis or UTI were obtained using a logistic regression model. The overall incidence rates were 0.5% for endometritis and 0.3% for UTI. There was a significant decrease in the incidence and risk of endometritis but not of UTI during the 7-year period. Significant risk factors for endometritis were fever during labor, parity of 1, and instrumental delivery and/or manual removal of the placenta. Significant risk factors for UTI were urinary infection on admission, premature rupture of membranes (more than 12 hours before admission), blood loss of more than 800 mL, parity of 1, instrumental delivery, and receipt of more than 5 vaginal digital examinations. Each maternity unit received a poster showing graphs of the number of expected and observed cases of UTI and endometritis associated with vaginal deliveries, which enabled each maternity unit to determine their rank within the network and to initiate prevention programs. Although routine surveillance means additional work for maternity units, our results demonstrate the usefulness of regular targeted monitoring of risk factors and of the most common nosocomial infections in obstetrics. Most of the information needed for monitoring is already present in the patients' records.

[Winter surveillance of cold exposure effects on health among the homeless population in the Paris area: data from the Coordinated Health Surveillance of Emergency Department network (Organisation de la surveillance coordonnée des urgences [Oscour(®)])].

Science.gov (United States)

Rouquette, A; Mandereau-Bruno, L; Baffert, E; Laaidi, K; Josseran, L; Isnard, H

2011-12-01

A program for helping homeless individuals in winter is implemented from November 1(st) to March 31(st) each year in France. Its aim is to prevent morbidity and mortality in this population during cold spells and periods of severe cold. A health surveillance system of the homeless population in the Paris area has been proposed to evaluate the effectiveness of the program and to alert decision-makers if an unusual increase in cold-weather effects is observed. The goal of this study was the creation of an indicator for the proposed surveillance system based on emergency department activity in the Paris area (Oscour(®) Network - Organisation de la surveillance coordonnée des urgences). The winter 2007-2008 computer medical files of 11 emergency departments in the Paris area were examined to confirm diagnosis and ascertain patient-homelessness for each patient visit which was selected from the Oscour(®) database by the patient chief-complaint or diagnosis code referring to hypothermia or frostbites. The proposed indicator is based on the maximization of three criteria: the positive predictive value, the proportion of people identified as being homeless and the number of emergency department visits. A Shewhart control chart was applied to the indicator for the four winters between 2005 and 2009 in the Paris area. Values beyond the statistical threshold would indicate a need for an adjustment to the program strategy. Two hundred and sixteen medical files were analyzed. An indicator was created, "number of emergency department visits of 15 to 69-years-old persons with chief-complaint or diagnosis code referring to hypothermia". It had a positive predictive value estimated near 85 % and identified 61.7 % people as being homeless. In the winter of 2008-2009, the statistical threshold was reached in December during the first cold spell, and again at the beginning of January during a period of severe cold. Our results support the use of this health indicator

A radar-enabled collaborative sensor network integrating COTS technology for surveillance and tracking.

Science.gov (United States)

Kozma, Robert; Wang, Lan; Iftekharuddin, Khan; McCracken, Ernest; Khan, Muhammad; Islam, Khandakar; Bhurtel, Sushil R; Demirer, R Murat

2012-01-01

The feasibility of using Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) sensor nodes is studied in a distributed network, aiming at dynamic surveillance and tracking of ground targets. Data acquisition by low-cost (wireless mote is described. We demonstrate the detection, ranging and velocity estimation, classification and tracking capabilities of the mini-radar, and compare results to simulations and manual measurements. Furthermore, we supplement the radar output with other sensor modalities, such as acoustic and vibration sensors. This method provides innovative solutions for detecting, identifying, and tracking vehicles and dismounts over a wide area in noisy conditions. This study presents a step towards distributed intelligent decision support and demonstrates effectiveness of small cheap sensors, which can complement advanced technologies in certain real-life scenarios.

measles case-based surveillance and outbreak response in nigeria

African Journals Online (AJOL)

of the existing national technical guideline on measles case- based surveillance and outbreak response in Nigeria in ... according to the revised national measles technical guideline9. However, with the strengthening of the ... involves immediate reporting and investigating any suspected case of measles by clinicians using ...

Privacy enabling technology for video surveillance

Science.gov (United States)

Dufaux, Frédéric; Ouaret, Mourad; Abdeljaoued, Yousri; Navarro, Alfonso; Vergnenègre, Fabrice; Ebrahimi, Touradj

2006-05-01

In this paper, we address the problem privacy in video surveillance. We propose an efficient solution based on transformdomain scrambling of regions of interest in a video sequence. More specifically, the sign of selected transform coefficients is flipped during encoding. We address more specifically the case of Motion JPEG 2000. Simulation results show that the technique can be successfully applied to conceal information in regions of interest in the scene while providing with a good level of security. Furthermore, the scrambling is flexible and allows adjusting the amount of distortion introduced. This is achieved with a small impact on coding performance and negligible computational complexity increase. In the proposed video surveillance system, heterogeneous clients can remotely access the system through the Internet or 2G/3G mobile phone network. Thanks to the inherently scalable Motion JPEG 2000 codestream, the server is able to adapt the resolution and bandwidth of the delivered video depending on the usage environment of the client.

Performance of data acceptance criteria over 50 months from an automatic real-time environmental radiation surveillance network

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Casanovas, R.; Morant, J.J.; Lopez, M.; Hernandez-Giron, I.; Batalla, E.; Salvado, M.

2011-01-01

The automatic real-time environmental radiation surveillance network of Catalonia (Spain) comprises two subnetworks; one with 9 aerosol monitors and the other with 8 Geiger monitors together with 2 water monitors located in the Ebre river. Since September 2006, several improvements were implemented in order to get better quality and quantity of data, allowing a more accurate data analysis. However, several causes (natural causes, equipment failure, artificial external causes and incidents in nuclear power plants) may produce radiological measured values mismatched with the own station background, whether spurious without significance or true radiological values. Thus, data analysis for a 50-month period was made and allowed to establish an easily implementable statistical criterion to find those values that require special attention. This criterion proved a very useful tool for creating a properly debugged database and to give a quick response to equipment failures or possible radiological incidents. This paper presents the results obtained from the criterion application, including the figures for the expected, raw and debugged data, percentages of missing data grouped by causes and radiological measurements from the networks. Finally, based on the discussed information, recommendations for the improvement of the network are identified to obtain better radiological information and analysis capabilities. - Highlights: → Causes producing data mismatching with the own stations background are described. → Causes may be natural, equipment failure, external or nuclear plants incidents. → These causes can produce either spurious or true radiological data. → A criterion to find these data was implemented and tested for a 50-month period. → Recommendations for the improvement of the network are identified.

Wireless sensor network for mobile surveillance systems; 2005BU1-TRSP

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Maris, M.G.; Dijk, G.J.A. van

2005-01-01

Guarding safety and security within industrial, commercial and military areas is an important issue nowadays. A specific challenge lies in the design of portable surveillance systems that can be rapidly deployed, installed and easily operated. Conventional surveillance systems typically employ

Mobile phone-based mHealth approaches for public health surveillance in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Brinkel, Johanna; Krämer, Alexander; Krumkamp, Ralf; May, Jürgen; Fobil, Julius

2014-11-12

Whereas mobile phone-based surveillance has the potential to provide real-time validated data for disease clustering and prompt respond and investigation, little evidence is available on current practice in sub-Sahara Africa. The objective of this review was to examine mobile phone-based mHealth interventions for Public Health surveillance in the region. We conducted electronic search in MEDLINE, EMBASE, IEE Xplore, African Index Medicus (AIM), BioMed Central, PubMed Central (PMC), the Public Library of Science (PLoS) and IRIS for publications used in the review. In all, a total of nine studies were included which focused on infectious disease surveillance of malaria (n = 3), tuberculosis (n = 1) and influenza-like illnesses (n = 1) as well as on non-infectious disease surveillance of child malnutrition (n = 2), maternal health (n = 1) and routine surveillance of various diseases and symptoms (n = 1). Our review revealed that mobile phone-based surveillance projects in the sub-Saharan African countries are on small scale, fragmented and not well documented. We conclude by advocating for a strong drive for more research in the applied field as well as a better reporting of lessons learned in order to create an epistemic community to help build a more evidence-based field of practice in mHealth surveillance in the region.

Mobile Phone-Based mHealth Approaches for Public Health Surveillance in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Johanna Brinkel

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Whereas mobile phone-based surveillance has the potential to provide real-time validated data for disease clustering and prompt respond and investigation, little evidence is available on current practice in sub-Sahara Africa. The objective of this review was to examine mobile phone-based mHealth interventions for Public Health surveillance in the region. We conducted electronic search in MEDLINE, EMBASE, IEE Xplore, African Index Medicus (AIM, BioMed Central, PubMed Central (PMC, the Public Library of Science (PLoS and IRIS for publications used in the review. In all, a total of nine studies were included which focused on infectious disease surveillance of malaria (n = 3, tuberculosis (n = 1 and influenza-like illnesses (n = 1 as well as on non-infectious disease surveillance of child malnutrition (n = 2, maternal health (n = 1 and routine surveillance of various diseases and symptoms (n = 1. Our review revealed that mobile phone-based surveillance projects in the sub-Saharan African countries are on small scale, fragmented and not well documented. We conclude by advocating for a strong drive for more research in the applied field as well as a better reporting of lessons learned in order to create an epistemic community to help build a more evidence-based field of practice in mHealth surveillance in the region.

Smart sensing surveillance system

Science.gov (United States)

Hsu, Charles; Chu, Kai-Dee; O'Looney, James; Blake, Michael; Rutar, Colleen

2010-04-01

An effective public safety sensor system for heavily-populated applications requires sophisticated and geographically-distributed infrastructures, centralized supervision, and deployment of large-scale security and surveillance networks. Artificial intelligence in sensor systems is a critical design to raise awareness levels, improve the performance of the system and adapt to a changing scenario and environment. In this paper, a highly-distributed, fault-tolerant, and energy-efficient Smart Sensing Surveillance System (S4) is presented to efficiently provide a 24/7 and all weather security operation in crowded environments or restricted areas. Technically, the S4 consists of a number of distributed sensor nodes integrated with specific passive sensors to rapidly collect, process, and disseminate heterogeneous sensor data from near omni-directions. These distributed sensor nodes can cooperatively work to send immediate security information when new objects appear. When the new objects are detected, the S4 will smartly select the available node with a Pan- Tilt- Zoom- (PTZ) Electro-Optics EO/IR camera to track the objects and capture associated imagery. The S4 provides applicable advanced on-board digital image processing capabilities to detect and track the specific objects. The imaging detection operations include unattended object detection, human feature and behavior detection, and configurable alert triggers, etc. Other imaging processes can be updated to meet specific requirements and operations. In the S4, all the sensor nodes are connected with a robust, reconfigurable, LPI/LPD (Low Probability of Intercept/ Low Probability of Detect) wireless mesh network using Ultra-wide band (UWB) RF technology. This UWB RF technology can provide an ad-hoc, secure mesh network and capability to relay network information, communicate and pass situational awareness and messages. The Service Oriented Architecture of S4 enables remote applications to interact with the S4

Incidence and Trends of Infections with Pathogens Transmitted Commonly Through Food and the Effect of Increasing Use of Culture-Independent Diagnostic Tests on Surveillance - Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, 10 U.S. Sites, 2013-2016.

Science.gov (United States)

Marder, Ellyn P; Cieslak, Paul R; Cronquist, Alicia B; Dunn, John; Lathrop, Sarah; Rabatsky-Ehr, Therese; Ryan, Patricia; Smith, Kirk; Tobin-D'Angelo, Melissa; Vugia, Duc J; Zansky, Shelley; Holt, Kristin G; Wolpert, Beverly J; Lynch, Michael; Tauxe, Robert; Geissler, Aimee L

2017-04-21

Foodborne diseases represent a substantial public health concern in the United States. CDC's Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) monitors cases reported from 10 U.S. sites* of laboratory-diagnosed infections caused by nine enteric pathogens commonly transmitted through food. This report describes preliminary surveillance data for 2016 on the nine pathogens and changes in incidences compared with 2013-2015. In 2016, FoodNet identified 24,029 infections, 5,512 hospitalizations, and 98 deaths caused by these pathogens. The use of culture-independent diagnostic tests (CIDTs) by clinical laboratories to detect enteric pathogens has been steadily increasing since FoodNet began surveying clinical laboratories in 2010 (1). CIDTs complicate the interpretation of FoodNet surveillance data because pathogen detection could be affected by changes in health care provider behaviors or laboratory testing practices (2). Health care providers might be more likely to order CIDTs because these tests are quicker and easier to use than traditional culture methods, a circumstance that could increase pathogen detection (3). Similarly, pathogen detection could also be increasing as clinical laboratories adopt DNA-based syndromic panels, which include pathogens not often included in routine stool culture (4,5). In addition, CIDTs do not yield isolates, which public health officials rely on to distinguish pathogen subtypes, determine antimicrobial resistance, monitor trends, and detect outbreaks. To obtain isolates for infections identified by CIDTs, laboratories must perform reflex culture † ; if clinical laboratories do not, the burden of culturing falls to state public health laboratories, which might not be able to absorb that burden as the adoption of these tests increases (2). Strategies are needed to preserve access to bacterial isolates for further characterization and to determine the effect of changing trends in testing practices on surveillance.

Compact and maintenance-free radio probes for environmental surveillance of the gamma dose rate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Genrich, V.

1998-01-01

The author reports on his experience with the operation of radio data networks for the continuous observation of the gamma dose rate in nuclear installations. Practically at every location (within) the installation the hermetically sealed probes can record the measurement values. Moreover, the probes have proved successful in environmental surveillance where they typically work in the form of measurement rings in 10 to 30 km distance. All measurement data are organized in the form of a data base. They can be disposed of in the form of an SQL-server in the computer network (LAN) of the power plant or the institution in charge of environmental surveillance. In comparison to conventional, e.g. cable-bound measurement networks with the new radio transmission technology there are numerous advantages: - minimal cost for projection - minimal cost for installation due to simple fixing - quasi-mobile use with highest possible flexibility - maintenance-free operation and high degree of operating reliability. (orig.) [de

VigilAgent for the development of agent-based multi-robot surveillance systems

OpenAIRE

Gascueña Noheda, José Manuel; Navarro Martínez, Elena María; Fernández Caballero, Antonio

2011-01-01

Usually, surveillance applications are developed following an ad-hoc approach instead of using a methodology to guide stakeholders in achieving quality standards expected from commercial software. To solve this gap, our conjecture is that surveillance applications can be fully developed from their initial design stages by means of agent-based methodologies. Specifically, this paper describes the experience and the results of using a multi-agent systems approach according to the process provid...

Facebook use during relationship termination: uncertainty reduction and surveillance.

Science.gov (United States)

Tong, Stephanie Tom

2013-11-01

Many studies document how individuals use Facebook to meet partners or develop and maintain relationships. Less is known about information-seeking behaviors during the stages of relationship termination. Relational dissolution is a socially embedded activity, and affordances of social network sites offer many advantages in reducing uncertainty after a breakup. A survey collected responses from 110 individuals who use Facebook to gather information about their romantic ex-partners. Results indicated that after breakup, partners may take advantage of the system's information visibility and the relative invisibility of movement depending on relational factors (initiator role and breakup uncertainty), social factors (perceived network approval of Facebook surveillance), and individual privacy concerns. This investigation addresses questions such as what type of information-seeking foci do individuals employ and how do individuals use Facebook as a form of surveillance? What factors motivate surveillance behavior?

Description and implementation of a surveillance network for bluetongue in the Balkans and in adjoining areas of south-eastern Europe.

Science.gov (United States)

Dall'Acqua, F; Paladini, C; Meiswinkel, R; Savini, L; Calistri, P

2006-01-01

During the recent severe outbreaks of bluetongue (BT) in the Mediterranean Basin, the BT virus (BTV) spread beyond its historical limits into the Balkan region. One of the primary impacts of BT is the cessation in livestock trade which can have severe economic and social consequences. The authors briefly describe the development of the collaborative East-BTnet programme which aims to assist all affected and at-risk Balkan states and adjoining countries in the management of BT, and in the development of individual national surveillance systems. The beneficiary countries involved, and led by the World organisation for animal health (Office International des Epizooties) Collaborating Centre for veterinary training, epidemiology, food safety and animal welfare of the Istituto Zooprofilattico dell'Abruzzo e del Molise 'G. Caporale' in collaboration with the Institute for the Protection and the Security of the Citizen, the European Commission Joint Research Centre (IPSC-JRC), were Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Former Yugoslavia Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Malta, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia and Turkey. A regional web-based surveillance network is a valuable tool for controlling and managing transboundary animal diseases such as BT. Its implementation in the Balkan region and in adjoining areas of south-eastern Europe is described and discussed.

Information and communication technology in disease surveillance, India: a case study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Krishnan Sampath K

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract India has made appreciable progress and continues to demonstrate a strong commitment for establishing and operating a disease surveillance programme responsive to the requirements of the International Health Regulations (IHR[2005]. Within five years of its launch, India has effectively used modern information and communication technology for collection, storage, transmission and management of data related to disease surveillance and effective response. Terrestrial and/or satellite based linkages are being established within all states, districts, state-run medical colleges, infectious disease hospitals, and public health laboratories. This network enables speedy data transfer, video conferencing, training and e-learning for outbreaks and programme monitoring. A 24x7 call centre is in operation to receive disease alerts. To complement these efforts, a media scanning and verification cell functions to receive reports of early warning signals. During the 2009 H1N1 outbreak, the usefulness of the information and communication technology (ICT network was well appreciated. India is using ICT as part of its Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP to help overcome the challenges in further expansion in hard-to-reach populations, to increase the involvement of the private sector, and to increase the use of other modes of communication like e-mail and voicemail.

Information and communication technology in disease surveillance, India: a case study.

Science.gov (United States)

Kant, Lalit; Krishnan, Sampath K

2010-12-03

India has made appreciable progress and continues to demonstrate a strong commitment for establishing and operating a disease surveillance programme responsive to the requirements of the International Health Regulations (IHR[2005]). Within five years of its launch, India has effectively used modern information and communication technology for collection, storage, transmission and management of data related to disease surveillance and effective response. Terrestrial and/or satellite based linkages are being established within all states, districts, state-run medical colleges, infectious disease hospitals, and public health laboratories. This network enables speedy data transfer, video conferencing, training and e-learning for outbreaks and programme monitoring. A 24x7 call centre is in operation to receive disease alerts. To complement these efforts, a media scanning and verification cell functions to receive reports of early warning signals. During the 2009 H1N1 outbreak, the usefulness of the information and communication technology (ICT) network was well appreciated. India is using ICT as part of its Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP) to help overcome the challenges in further expansion in hard-to-reach populations, to increase the involvement of the private sector, and to increase the use of other modes of communication like e-mail and voicemail.

A Radar-Enabled Collaborative Sensor Network Integrating COTS Technology for Surveillance and Tracking

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. Murat Demirer

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The feasibility of using Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS sensor nodes is studied in a distributed network, aiming at dynamic surveillance and tracking of ground targets. Data acquisition by low-cost ( < $50 US miniature low-power radar through a wireless mote is described. We demonstrate the detection, ranging and velocity estimation, classification and tracking capabilities of the mini-radar, and compare results to simulations and manual measurements. Furthermore, we supplement the radar output with other sensor modalities, such as acoustic and vibration sensors. This method provides innovative solutions for detecting, identifying, and tracking vehicles and dismounts over a wide area in noisy conditions. This study presents a step towards distributed intelligent decision support and demonstrates effectiveness of small cheap sensors, which can complement advanced technologies in certain real-life scenarios.

Rationale for and protocol of a multi-national population-based bacteremia surveillance collaborative

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Church Deirdre L

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Bloodstream infections are frequent causes of human illness and cause major morbidity and death. In order to best define the epidemiology of these infections and to track changes in occurrence, adverse outcome, and resistance rates over time, population based methodologies are optimal. However, few population-based surveillance systems exist worldwide, and because of differences in methodology inter-regional comparisons are limited. In this report we describe the rationale and propose first practical steps for developing an international collaborative approach to the epidemiologic study and surveillance for bacteremia. Findings The founding collaborative participants represent six regions in four countries in three continents with a combined annual surveillance population of more than 8 million residents. Conclusion Future studies from this collaborative should lead to a better understanding of the epidemiology of bloodstream infections.

Safety assessments using surveillance programmes and data base

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Njo, D.H.

1998-01-01

As a result of the popularity of the Agencies report 'Neutron Irradiation Embrittlement of Reactor Pressure Vessel Steels' of 1975, it was decided that another report on this broad subject would be of use. In this report, background and contemporary views on specially identified areas of the subject are considered as self-contained chapters, written by experts. Chapter 12 presents some aspects on safety assessments of RPV materials during the life of a NPP, using surveillance programmes and data bases. Specific criteria for the usefulness of data bases are developed

Network anomaly detection a machine learning perspective

CERN Document Server

Bhattacharyya, Dhruba Kumar

2013-01-01

With the rapid rise in the ubiquity and sophistication of Internet technology and the accompanying growth in the number of network attacks, network intrusion detection has become increasingly important. Anomaly-based network intrusion detection refers to finding exceptional or nonconforming patterns in network traffic data compared to normal behavior. Finding these anomalies has extensive applications in areas such as cyber security, credit card and insurance fraud detection, and military surveillance for enemy activities. Network Anomaly Detection: A Machine Learning Perspective presents mach

Self-surveillance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Albrechtslund, Anders

Gadgets and applications are increasingly being developed and used for tracking, quantifying, and documenting everyday life activities and especially health and fitness devices such as GPS-enabled sports watches are well-known and popular. However, self-surveillance practices involving networked...... pressure, fitness activities, sleep cycles, etc. can be broadcasted, e.g. as tweets on Twitter or status updates on Facebook. Such quantification practices with monitoring technologies become co-producing when individuals constitute themselves as subjects engaging in self-tracking, self-care, and self...

History and evolution of surveillance in public health

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Varun Kumar

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The modern concept of surveillance has evolved over the centuries. Public health surveillance provides the scientific database essential for decision making and appropriate public health action. It is considered as the best public health tool to prevent the occurrence of epidemics and is the backbone of public health programs and provides information so that effective action can be taken in controlling and preventing diseases of public health importance. This article reviews the history of evolution of public health surveillance from historical perspective: from Hippocrates, Black Death and quarantine, recording of vital events for the first time, first field investigation, legislations that were developed over time and modern concepts in public health surveillance. Eradication of small pox is an important achievement in public health surveillance but the recent Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS and Influenza pandemics suggest still there is a room for improvement. Recently new global disease surveillance networks like FluNet and DengueNet were developed as internet sites for monitoring influenza and dengue information. In spite of these developments, global public health surveillance still remains unevenly distributed. There is a need for increased international cooperation to address the global needs of public health surveillance.

Redefining syndromic surveillance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rebecca Katz

2011-12-01

Full Text Available With growing concerns about international spread of disease and expanding use of early disease detection surveillance methods, the field of syndromic surveillance has received increased attention over the last decade. The purpose of this article is to clarify the various meanings that have been assigned to the term syndromic surveillance and to propose a refined categorization of the characteristics of these systems. Existing literature and conference proceedings were examined on syndromic surveillance from 1998 to 2010, focusing on low- and middle-income settings. Based on the 36 unique definitions of syndromic surveillance found in the literature, five commonly accepted principles of syndromic surveillance systems were identified, as well as two fundamental categories: specific and non-specific disease detection. Ultimately, the proposed categorization of syndromic surveillance distinguishes between systems that focus on detecting defined syndromes or outcomes of interest and those that aim to uncover non-specific trends that suggest an outbreak may be occurring. By providing an accurate and comprehensive picture of this field’s capabilities, and differentiating among system types, a unified understanding of the syndromic surveillance field can be developed, encouraging the adoption, investment in, and implementation of these systems in settings that need bolstered surveillance capacity, particularly low- and middle-income countries.

The systems engineering design of a smart Forward Operating Base surveillance system for forward operating base protection

OpenAIRE

Craft, Timothy L.

2013-01-01

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited Forward operating bases are vulnerable to terrorist activity due to their location and limited resources. Threat awareness under these conditions is paramount to the safety of the personnel and to mission accomplishment. In the absence of the manpower required to maintain complete and continuous monitoring of the FOBs surroundings, an automated surveillance system is needed. The Smart FOB Surveillance System (SFSS) employs a multi-agen...

Collecting syndromic surveillance data by mobile phone in rural India: implementation and feasibility

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vishal Diwan

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Background: Infectious disease surveillance has long been a challenge for countries like India, where 75% of the health care services are private and consist of both formal and informal health care providers. Infectious disease surveillance data are regularly collected from governmental and qualified private facilities, but not from the informal sector. This study describes a mobile-based syndromic surveillance system and its application in a resource-limited setting, collecting data on patients’ symptoms from formal and informal health care providers. Design: The study includes three formal and six informal health care providers from two districts of Madhya Pradesh, India. Data collectors were posted in the clinics during the providers’ working hours and entered patient information and infectious disease symptoms on the mobile-based syndromic surveillance system. Results: Information on 20,424 patients was collected in the mobile-based surveillance system. The five most common (overlapping symptoms were fever (48%, cough (38%, body ache (38%, headache (37%, and runny nose (22%. During the same time period, the government's disease surveillance program reported around 22,000 fever cases in one district as a whole. Our data – from a very small fraction of all health care providers – thus highlight an enormous underreporting in the official surveillance data, which we estimate here to capture less than 1% of the fever cases. Additionally, we found that patients from more than 600 villages visited the nine providers included in our study. Conclusions: The study demonstrated that a mobile-based system can be used for disease surveillance from formal and informal providers in resource-limited settings. People who have not used smartphones or even computers previously can, in a short timeframe, be trained to fill out surveillance forms and submit them from the device. Technology, including network connections, works sufficiently for disease

Growth surveillance in the context of the Primary Public Healthcare Service Network in Brazil: literature review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dixis Figueroa Pedraza

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Objectives: to identify and analyze the scientific literature on child growth monitoring in the context of the primary public healthcare service network in Brazil, focusing on the main problems detected in studies. Methods: the review was based on searches ofSciELO, Lilacs and PubMed databases to identify articles published between 2006 and 2014. The articles were categorized according to the analytical categories of structure (items needed to carry out primary activities or work processes (set of activities and procedures used in the management of resources. Results: of the 16 articles included in this review, only six dealt with structure and, in these, thetraining of professionals and availability of protocols were the most frequently identified problems. Processes, addressed in 15 articles, highlighted the underutilization of Child Health Handbook to record growth measurements and the adoption of guidelines on the basis of notes taken. Conclusions: the difficulties found demonstrate the everyday circumstances of the public health service which have a detrimental effect on growth surveillance.

Dominant object detection for autonomous vision-based surveillance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Celik, H.

2010-01-01

The deployment of visual surveillance and monitoring systems has reached massive proportions. Consequently, a need to automate the processes involved in retrieving useful information from surveillance videos, such as detecting and counting objects, and interpreting their individual and joint

Evaluation of a Surveillance Review Software based on Automatic Image Summaries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rocchi, S.; Hadfi, G.; John, M.; Moeslinger, M.; Murray, J.; Juengling, K.; Sequeira, V.; Versino, C.; )

2015-01-01

Surveillance streams from safeguards instruments contain thousands of images. Inspectors review them in order to find safeguards-relevant events. Statistically a very small fraction of the images is expected to be safeguards-relevant. For this reason inspectors need a tool which helps them to focus their attention directly to the relevant parts of the surveillance stream. The current approach for surveillance review makes use of scene change detection within areas of interest (AOIs). The data reduction provided can be effective for the review of regular processes, and requires specific knowledge of the process/environment under review for the proper setting of the AOIs. The VideoZoom approach, developed by the European Commission Joint Research Centre-Institute for Transuranium Elements (JRC-ITU), detects scene changes on the whole image plane. Changes are then summarized and rendered at different levels of abstraction in four layers of summaries, each one revealing more information about the image changes. By means of a zooming interface, the reviewer is able to navigate the summary layers and decide which are to be examined with full photographic detail or skipped because they are clearly not safeguards-relevant. In this way reviewers can make best use of their time by investigating what really requires their attention. VideoZoom was evaluated by a group of IAEA inspectors on a benchmark of image reviews, with promising results in terms of identification of safeguards-relevant events, efficiency and usability. Following the positive results collected during the preliminary benchmark, the IAEA initiated a task under the European Commission Support Programme (EC SP), aimed at the research, development, and evaluation of surveillance review software based on VideoZoom and compatible with surveillance streams produced by NGSS cameras, the current safeguards surveillance technology deployed by the IAEA. This paper provides a description of the VideoZoom approach to

LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT PUBLIC HEALTH FROM ONLINE CROWD SURVEILLANCE.

Science.gov (United States)

Hill, Shawndra; Merchant, Raina; Ungar, Lyle

2013-09-10

The Internet has forever changed the way people access information and make decisions about their healthcare needs. Patients now share information about their health at unprecedented rates on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook and on medical discussion boards. In addition to explicitly shared information about health conditions through posts, patients reveal data on their inner fears and desires about health when searching for health-related keywords on search engines. Data are also generated by the use of mobile phone applications that track users' health behaviors (e.g., eating and exercise habits) as well as give medical advice. The data generated through these applications are mined and repackaged by surveillance systems developed by academics, companies, and governments alike to provide insight to patients and healthcare providers for medical decisions. Until recently, most Internet research in public health has been surveillance focused or monitoring health behaviors. Only recently have researchers used and interacted with the crowd to ask questions and collect health-related data. In the future, we expect to move from this surveillance focus to the "ideal" of Internet-based patient-level interventions where healthcare providers help patients change their health behaviors. In this article, we highlight the results of our prior research on crowd surveillance and make suggestions for the future.

A semantic autonomous video surveillance system for dense camera networks in Smart Cities.

Science.gov (United States)

Calavia, Lorena; Baladrón, Carlos; Aguiar, Javier M; Carro, Belén; Sánchez-Esguevillas, Antonio

2012-01-01

This paper presents a proposal of an intelligent video surveillance system able to detect and identify abnormal and alarming situations by analyzing object movement. The system is designed to minimize video processing and transmission, thus allowing a large number of cameras to be deployed on the system, and therefore making it suitable for its usage as an integrated safety and security solution in Smart Cities. Alarm detection is performed on the basis of parameters of the moving objects and their trajectories, and is performed using semantic reasoning and ontologies. This means that the system employs a high-level conceptual language easy to understand for human operators, capable of raising enriched alarms with descriptions of what is happening on the image, and to automate reactions to them such as alerting the appropriate emergency services using the Smart City safety network.

Real-Time Surveillance in Emergencies Using the Early Warning Alert and Response Network.

Science.gov (United States)

Cordes, Kristina M; Cookson, Susan T; Boyd, Andrew T; Hardy, Colleen; Malik, Mamunur Rahman; Mala, Peter; El Tahir, Khalid; Everard, Marthe; Jasiem, Mohamad; Husain, Farah

2017-11-01

Humanitarian emergencies often result in population displacement and increase the risk for transmission of communicable diseases. To address the increased risk for outbreaks during humanitarian emergencies, the World Health Organization developed the Early Warning Alert and Response Network (EWARN) for early detection of epidemic-prone diseases. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has worked with the World Health Organization, ministries of health, and other partners to support EWARN through the implementation and evaluation of these systems and the development of standardized guidance. Although protocols have been developed for the implementation and evaluation of EWARN, a need persists for standardized training and additional guidance on supporting these systems remotely when access to affected areas is restricted. Continued collaboration between partners and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for surveillance during emergencies is necessary to strengthen capacity and support global health security.

A Semantic Autonomous Video Surveillance System for Dense Camera Networks in Smart Cities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonio Sánchez-Esguevillas

2012-08-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a proposal of an intelligent video surveillance system able to detect and identify abnormal and alarming situations by analyzing object movement. The system is designed to minimize video processing and transmission, thus allowing a large number of cameras to be deployed on the system, and therefore making it suitable for its usage as an integrated safety and security solution in Smart Cities. Alarm detection is performed on the basis of parameters of the moving objects and their trajectories, and is performed using semantic reasoning and ontologies. This means that the system employs a high-level conceptual language easy to understand for human operators, capable of raising enriched alarms with descriptions of what is happening on the image, and to automate reactions to them such as alerting the appropriate emergency services using the Smart City safety network.

Cloud networking understanding cloud-based data center networks

CERN Document Server

Lee, Gary

2014-01-01

Cloud Networking: Understanding Cloud-Based Data Center Networks explains the evolution of established networking technologies into distributed, cloud-based networks. Starting with an overview of cloud technologies, the book explains how cloud data center networks leverage distributed systems for network virtualization, storage networking, and software-defined networking. The author offers insider perspective to key components that make a cloud network possible such as switch fabric technology and data center networking standards. The final chapters look ahead to developments in architectures

Silhouettes of War: Technologies of U.S. Soldiering and Surveillance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jessica J. Behm

2010-03-01

Full Text Available This paper forwards a theory of silhouetting in relation to technological augmenta-tion in U.S. Military uniforms and suggests that the increasing utilization of metamaterials, nanotechnology, and surveillance technologies operates under a rhetoric of invisibility that complicates the technologies' visible destruction. Methodologically, the paper attends to three general technological developments in the evolution of the U.S. Army uniform: the design of the new Army Combat Uniform (ACU; the technological advances in the uniform, including embedded wearables, biometric identification devices, and 3D combat enhancement systems; and the bio-networking, GPS, and digital communication arrays that physically link digital uniforms to a larger geopolitical network of U.S. military strategy and surveillance. Throughout, the work traces the aforementioned theory of silhouet-ting in relation to select sociopolitical consequences of linking digitally enhanced soldiers into a transnational grid of surveillance.

Syndromic surveillance system based on near real-time cattle mortality monitoring.

Science.gov (United States)

Torres, G; Ciaravino, V; Ascaso, S; Flores, V; Romero, L; Simón, F

2015-05-01

Early detection of an infectious disease incursion will minimize the impact of outbreaks in livestock. Syndromic surveillance based on the analysis of readily available data can enhance traditional surveillance systems and allow veterinary authorities to react in a timely manner. This study was based on monitoring the number of cattle carcasses sent for rendering in the veterinary unit of Talavera de la Reina (Spain). The aim was to develop a system to detect deviations from expected values which would signal unexpected health events. Historical weekly collected dead cattle (WCDC) time series stabilized by the Box-Cox transformation and adjusted by the minimum least squares method were used to build the univariate cycling regression model based on a Fourier transformation. Three different models, according to type of production system, were built to estimate the baseline expected number of WCDC. Two types of risk signals were generated: point risk signals when the observed value was greater than the upper 95% confidence interval of the expected baseline, and cumulative risk signals, generated by a modified cumulative sum algorithm, when the cumulative sums of reported deaths were above the cumulative sum of expected deaths. Data from 2011 were used to prospectively validate the model generating seven risk signals. None of them were correlated to infectious disease events but some coincided, in time, with very high climatic temperatures recorded in the region. The harvest effect was also observed during the first week of the study year. Establishing appropriate risk signal thresholds is a limiting factor of predictive models; it needs to be adjusted based on experience gained during the use of the models. To increase the sensitivity and specificity of the predictions epidemiological interpretation of non-specific risk signals should be complemented by other sources of information. The methodology developed in this study can enhance other existing early detection

Deployment Design of Wireless Sensor Network for Simple Multi-Point Surveillance of a Moving Target

Science.gov (United States)

Tsukamoto, Kazuya; Ueda, Hirofumi; Tamura, Hitomi; Kawahara, Kenji; Oie, Yuji

2009-01-01

In this paper, we focus on the problem of tracking a moving target in a wireless sensor network (WSN), in which the capability of each sensor is relatively limited, to construct large-scale WSNs at a reasonable cost. We first propose two simple multi-point surveillance schemes for a moving target in a WSN and demonstrate that one of the schemes can achieve high tracking probability with low power consumption. In addition, we examine the relationship between tracking probability and sensor density through simulations, and then derive an approximate expression representing the relationship. As the results, we present guidelines for sensor density, tracking probability, and the number of monitoring sensors that satisfy a variety of application demands. PMID:22412326

Literacies for Surveillance: Social Network Sites and Background Investigations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sarah Jackson Young

2015-09-01

Full Text Available In September 2013, civilian contractor Aaron Alexis entered the Washington Navy Yard and murdered twelve people before being fatally shot by police. This incident, together with an incident three months earlier involving Edward Snowden, caused the U.S. government to critically examine their background investigation (BI process; because both Snowden and Alexis had supposedly slipped through the cracks of their investigations, there must be some flaw in the BI procedure. The U.S. Committee on Oversight and Reform concluded that rules forbidding “background checkers from looking at the Internet or social media when performing checks” was one of the main factors contributing to defective BIs (Report, 2014. Since the report’s release, the Director of National Intelligence has been debating and trialing whether information from the Internet should be used to form a data double for BIs (Kopp, 2014; Rockwell, 2014. Using this conversation as a discussion catalyst, I argue that due to the nature of the data double, if the United States were to adopt the use of social networking sites (SNSs for security clearance purposes, neglecting to take into account basic principles of SNSs into the process of BIs may lead to misinformation and unfavorable adjudication. Ultimately, being literate about the social practices involved in SNSs and surveillance would benefit not only investigators, but anyone, including academics, looking at individuals in online spaces.

Improved Space Surveillance Network (SSN) Scheduling using Artificial Intelligence Techniques

Science.gov (United States)

Stottler, D.

There are close to 20,000 cataloged manmade objects in space, the large majority of which are not active, functioning satellites. These are tracked by phased array and mechanical radars and ground and space-based optical telescopes, collectively known as the Space Surveillance Network (SSN). A better SSN schedule of observations could, using exactly the same legacy sensor resources, improve space catalog accuracy through more complementary tracking, provide better responsiveness to real-time changes, better track small debris in low earth orbit (LEO) through efficient use of applicable sensors, efficiently track deep space (DS) frequent revisit objects, handle increased numbers of objects and new types of sensors, and take advantage of future improved communication and control to globally optimize the SSN schedule. We have developed a scheduling algorithm that takes as input the space catalog and the associated covariance matrices and produces a globally optimized schedule for each sensor site as to what objects to observe and when. This algorithm is able to schedule more observations with the same sensor resources and have those observations be more complementary, in terms of the precision with which each orbit metric is known, to produce a satellite observation schedule that, when executed, minimizes the covariances across the entire space object catalog. If used operationally, the results would be significantly increased accuracy of the space catalog with fewer lost objects with the same set of sensor resources. This approach inherently can also trade-off fewer high priority tasks against more lower-priority tasks, when there is benefit in doing so. Currently the project has completed a prototyping and feasibility study, using open source data on the SSN's sensors, that showed significant reduction in orbit metric covariances. The algorithm techniques and results will be discussed along with future directions for the research.

Mission planning for space based satellite surveillance experiments with the MSX

Science.gov (United States)

Sridharan, R.; Fishman, T.; Robinson, E.; Viggh, H.; Wiseman, A.

1994-01-01

The Midcourse Space Experiment is a BMDO-sponsored scientific satellite set for launch within the year. The satellite will collect phenomenology data on missile targets, plumes, earth limb backgrounds and deep space backgrounds in the LWIR, visible and ultra-violet spectral bands. It will also conduct functional demonstrations for space-based space surveillance. The Space-Based Visible sensor, built by Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is the primary sensor on board the MSX for demonstration of space surveillance. The SBV Processing, Operations and Control Center (SPOCC) is the mission planning and commanding center for all space surveillance experiments using the SBV and other MSX instruments. The guiding principle in the SPOCC Mission Planning System was that all routine functions be automated. Manual analyst input should be minimal. Major concepts are: (I) A high level language, called SLED, for user interface to the system; (2) A group of independent software processes which would generally be run in a pipe-line mode for experiment commanding but can be run independently for analyst assessment; (3) An integrated experiment cost computation function that permits assessment of the feasibility of the experiment. This paper will report on the design, implementation and testing of the Mission Planning System.

Progress with enhancing veterinary surveillance in the United Kingdom.

Science.gov (United States)

Lysons, R E; Gibbens, J C; Smith, L H

2007-01-27

The UK has experienced various animal health events that have had national impact in recent years. In response, a ;Veterinary Surveillance Strategy' (VSS) was published in 2003, with the objective of enhancing and coordinating national veterinary surveillance practice in a way that would enable important animal health events to be detected and assessed more rapidly and reliably. The VSS adopts an integrated UK-wide approach, which includes widespread engagement with interested parties both within government and beyond. It proposes enhancing surveillance through improved collaboration; transparent and defensible prioritisation of government resources to surveillance; deriving better value from existing resources, and assuring quality of the surveillance reports and source data. This article describes progress with implementing the VSS, in particular the methodology for developing a functional network and creating an effective, quality-assured, information management system, RADAR.

Assessment of the accuracy and consistency in the application of standardized surveillance definitions: A summary of the American Journal of Infection Control and National Healthcare Safety Network case studies, 2010-2016.

Science.gov (United States)

Wright, Marc-Oliver; Allen-Bridson, Katherine; Hebden, Joan N

2017-06-01

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) surveillance definitions are the most widely used criteria for health care-associated infection (HAI) surveillance. NHSN participants agree to conduct surveillance in accordance with the NHSN protocol and criteria. To assess the application of these standardized surveillance specifications and offer infection preventionists (IPs) opportunities for ongoing education, a series of case studies, with questions related to NHSN definitions and criteria were published. Beginning in 2010, case studies with multiple-choice questions based on standard surveillance criteria and protocols were written and published in the American Journal of Infection Control with a link to an online survey. Participants anonymously submitted their responses before receiving the correct answers. The 22 case studies had 7,950 respondents who provided 27,790 responses to 75 questions during the first 6 years. Correct responses were selected 62.5% of the time (17,376 out of 27,290), but ranged widely (16%-87%). In a subset analysis, 93% of participants self-identified as IPs (3,387 out of 3,640), 4.5% were public health professionals (163 out of 3,640), and 2.5% were physicians (90 out of 3,640). IPs responded correctly (62%) more often than physicians (55%) (P = .006). Among a cohort of voluntary participants, accurate application of surveillance criteria to case studies was suboptimal, highlighting the need for continuing education, competency development, and auditing. Copyright © 2017 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. All rights reserved.

Surveillance, Privacy and Trans-Atlantic Relations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Recent revelations, by Edward Snowden and others, of the vast network of government spying enabled by modern technology have raised major concerns both in the European Union and the United States on how to protect privacy in the face of increasing governmental surveillance. This book brings...

Evaluation of the radiological situation of the French environment in 2007. Synthesis of the I.R.S.N. surveillance networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2008-01-01

After a reminder of the objectives and the organisation of the radiological surveillance, the radiological events detected in 2007 are given: high tritium activity in a water sampling (Saclay), detection of alpha emitters in aerosols sampling (Pierrelatte), detection of cobalt 60 in an aerosol sampling (Somanu Areva), increase of a global beta activity in aerosols (north-east and center of France), detection of uranium in water (Pithiviers). We find then the results of the surveillance of fuel cycle sites, the results of the surveillance of the research centers and naval base, the results of the surveillance of radioactive release of nuclear medicine services, the results of the general surveillance of the territory (and the different Internet sites that give these data). This report ends with notions about radioactivity and ionizing radiations as well as radiation protection basic knowledge. (N.C.)

Polio eradication in India: progress, but environmental surveillance and vigilance still needed.

Science.gov (United States)

Chatterjee, Animesh; Vidyant, Sanjukta; Dhole, Tapan N

2013-02-18

Poliomyelitis has appeared in epidemic form, become endemic on a global scale, and has been reduced to near elimination, all within the span of documented medical history. Nevertheless, effective vaccinations, global surveillance network, development of accurate viral diagnosis prompted the historical challenge, global polio eradication initiative (GPEI). Environmental surveillance of poliovirus means monitoring of wild polio virus (WPV) and vaccine derived polio virus (cVDPV) circulation in human populations by examining environmental specimens supposedly contaminated by human feces. The rationale for surveillance is based on the fact that PV-infected individuals, whether presenting with disease symptoms or not, shed large amounts of PV in the feces for several weeks. As the morbidity: infection ratio of PV infection is very low, and therefore this fact contributes to the sensitivity of poliovirus surveillance, which under optimal conditions can be better than that of the standard acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance. The World Health Organization (WHO) has included environmental surveillance of poliovirus in the new Strategic Plan of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative for years 2010-2012 to be increasingly used in PV surveillance, supplementing AFP surveillance and the strategic advisory group of experts on immunization (SAGE) recommended a switch from tOPV-bOPV to remove the threat of cVDPV2 and to accelerate the elimination of WPV type 1 and 3 as bOPV is a more immunogenic vaccine and to introduce one dose of IPV in their vaccination schedule prior to OPV cessation. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Self-deployable mobile sensor networks for on-demand surveillance

Science.gov (United States)

Miao, Lidan; Qi, Hairong; Wang, Feiyi

2005-05-01

This paper studies two interconnected problems in mobile sensor network deployment, the optimal placement of heterogeneous mobile sensor platforms for cost-efficient and reliable coverage purposes, and the self-organizable deployment. We first develop an optimal placement algorithm based on a "mosaicked technology" such that different types of mobile sensors form a mosaicked pattern uniquely determined by the popularity of different types of sensor nodes. The initial state is assumed to be random. In order to converge to the optimal state, we investigate the swarm intelligence (SI)-based sensor movement strategy, through which the randomly deployed sensors can self-organize themselves to reach the optimal placement state. The proposed algorithm is compared with the random movement and the centralized method using performance metrics such as network coverage, convergence time, and energy consumption. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the mosaic placement and the SI-based movement.

Identifying optimal postmarket surveillance strategies for medical and surgical devices: implications for policy, practice and research.

Science.gov (United States)

Gagliardi, Anna R; Umoquit, Muriah; Lehoux, Pascale; Ross, Sue; Ducey, Ariel; Urbach, David R

2013-03-01

Non-drug technologies offer many benefits, but have been associated with adverse events, prompting calls for improved postmarket surveillance. There is little empirical research to guide the development of such a system. The purpose of this study was to identify optimal postmarket surveillance strategies for medical and surgical devices. Qualitative methods were used for sampling, data collection and analysis. Stakeholders from Canada and the USA representing different roles and perspectives were first interviewed to identify examples and characteristics of different surveillance strategies. These stakeholders and others they recommended were then assembled at a 1-day nominal group meeting to discuss and prioritise the components of a postmarket device surveillance system, and research needed to achieve such a system. Consultations were held with 37 participants, and 47 participants attended the 1-day meeting. They recommended a multicomponent system including reporting by facilities, clinicians and patients, supported with some external surveillance for validation and real-time trials for high-risk devices. Many considerations were identified that constitute desirable characteristics of, and means by which to implement such a system. An overarching network was envisioned to broker linkages, establish a shared minimum dataset, and support communication and decision making. Numerous research questions were identified, which could be pursued in tandem with phased implementation of the system. These findings provide unique guidance for establishing a device safety network that is based on existing initiatives, and could be expanded and evaluated in a prospective, phased fashion as it was developed.

Social Networks for Surveillance and Security: ‘Using Online Techniques to make something happen in the real or cyber world’

OpenAIRE

Harbisher, Ben

2017-01-01

This chapter examines the use of Social Networks for Surveillance and Security in relation to the deployment of intelligence resources in the UK. The chapter documents the rise of Military Intelligence agencies during both World Wars (such as GCHQ and MI5), and the subsequent use of these institutions to maintain order during peacetime. In addition to the way in which military organisations have used clandestine techniques such as double agents, spies, and various programmes designed for cond...

Adaptive Energy-Efficient Target Detection Based on Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tengyue Zou

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Target detection is a widely used application for area surveillance, elder care, and fire alarms; its purpose is to find a particular object or event in a region of interest. Usually, fixed observing stations or static sensor nodes are arranged uniformly in the field. However, each part of the field has a different probability of being intruded upon; if an object suddenly enters an area with few guardian devices, a loss of detection will occur, and the stations in the safe areas will waste their energy for a long time without any discovery. Thus, mobile wireless sensor networks may benefit from adaptation and pertinence in detection. Sensor nodes equipped with wheels are able to move towards the risk area via an adaptive learning procedure based on Bayesian networks. Furthermore, a clustering algorithm based on k-means++ and an energy control mechanism is used to reduce the energy consumption of nodes. The extended Kalman filter and a voting data fusion method are employed to raise the localization accuracy of the target. The simulation and experimental results indicate that this new system with adaptive energy-efficient methods is able to achieve better performance than the traditional ones.

Adaptive Energy-Efficient Target Detection Based on Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Zou, Tengyue; Li, Zhenjia; Li, Shuyuan; Lin, Shouying

2017-05-04

Target detection is a widely used application for area surveillance, elder care, and fire alarms; its purpose is to find a particular object or event in a region of interest. Usually, fixed observing stations or static sensor nodes are arranged uniformly in the field. However, each part of the field has a different probability of being intruded upon; if an object suddenly enters an area with few guardian devices, a loss of detection will occur, and the stations in the safe areas will waste their energy for a long time without any discovery. Thus, mobile wireless sensor networks may benefit from adaptation and pertinence in detection. Sensor nodes equipped with wheels are able to move towards the risk area via an adaptive learning procedure based on Bayesian networks. Furthermore, a clustering algorithm based on k -means++ and an energy control mechanism is used to reduce the energy consumption of nodes. The extended Kalman filter and a voting data fusion method are employed to raise the localization accuracy of the target. The simulation and experimental results indicate that this new system with adaptive energy-efficient methods is able to achieve better performance than the traditional ones.

Human-Interaction Challenges in UAV-Based Autonomous Surveillance

Science.gov (United States)

Freed, Michael; Harris, Robert; Shafto, Michael G.

2004-01-01

Autonomous UAVs provide a platform for intelligent surveillance in application domains ranging from security and military operations to scientific information gathering and land management. Surveillance tasks are often long duration, requiring that any approach be adaptive to changes in the environment or user needs. We describe a decision- theoretic model of surveillance, appropriate for use on our autonomous helicopter, that provides a basis for optimizing the value of information returned by the UAV. From this approach arise a range of challenges in making this framework practical for use by human operators lacking specialized knowledge of autonomy and mathematics. This paper describes our platform and approach, then describes human-interaction challenges arising from this approach that we have identified and begun to address.

Location based Network Optimizations for Mobile Wireless Networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Jimmy Jessen

selection in Wi-Fi networks and predictive handover optimization in heterogeneous wireless networks. The investigations in this work have indicated that location based network optimizations are beneficial compared to typical link measurement based approaches. Especially the knowledge of geographical...

Data visualisation in surveillance for injury prevention and control: conceptual bases and case studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Martinez, Ramon; Ordunez, Pedro; Soliz, Patricia N; Ballesteros, Michael F

2016-04-01

The complexity of current injury-related health issues demands the usage of diverse and massive data sets for comprehensive analyses, and application of novel methods to communicate data effectively to the public health community, decision-makers and the public. Recent advances in information visualisation, availability of new visual analytic methods and tools, and progress on information technology provide an opportunity for shaping the next generation of injury surveillance. To introduce data visualisation conceptual bases, and propose a visual analytic and visualisation platform in public health surveillance for injury prevention and control. The paper introduces data visualisation conceptual bases, describes a visual analytic and visualisation platform, and presents two real-world case studies illustrating their application in public health surveillance for injury prevention and control. Application of visual analytic and visualisation platform is presented as solution for improved access to heterogeneous data sources, enhance data exploration and analysis, communicate data effectively, and support decision-making. Applications of data visualisation concepts and visual analytic platform could play a key role to shape the next generation of injury surveillance. Visual analytic and visualisation platform could improve data use, the analytic capacity, and ability to effectively communicate findings and key messages. The public health surveillance community is encouraged to identify opportunities to develop and expand its use in injury prevention and control. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

Disaster prevention surveillance system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nara, Satoru; Kamiya, Eisei

2001-01-01

Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. has supplied many management systems to nuclear reactor institution. 'The nuclear countermeasures-against-calamities special-measures' was enforced. A nuclear entrepreneur has devised the measure about expansion prevention and restoration of a calamity while it endeavors after prevention of generating of a nuclear calamity. Our company have supplied the 'disaster prevention surveillance system' to the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute Tokai Research Establishment aiming at strengthening of the monitoring function at the time (after the accident) of the accident used as one of the above-mentioned measures. A 'disaster prevention surveillance system' can share the information on the accident spot in an on-site command place, an activity headquarters, and support organizations, when the serious accident happens. This system is composed of various sensors (temperature, pressure and radiation), cameras, computers and network. (author)

The surveillance of the electricity wholesale market and emission trading market

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Luedemann, Volker

2015-01-01

The Regulation on Wholesale Market Integrity and Transparency (REMIT) and the German Law on the Establishment of a Market Transparency Office for Wholesale Trade in Electricity and Gas (MTS-G) have fundamentally changed the surveillance of electricity wholesale trade in Germany. From now on the Federal Network Agency and the Federal Cartel Office will be jointly responsible for monitoring the electricity wholesale trade for suspicious market phenomena and abusive behaviour. The REMIT specifies that the electricity trade must be surveilled ''with due consideration to interactions'' with the emission trade system. However, occurrences observed in recent years have shown that the emission trading system is in need of reform. This has also been recognised and has prompted extensive corrective action by the regulatory authorities of the European Union. These changes have yet to be transposed into the national surveillance regimes. The present article explains why the new role accorded to the Federal Network Agency under the REMIT fails to eliminate the structural shortcomings of the old surveillance system. At least the decision to put the collection and evaluation of data exclusively in the hands of the market transparency office and the cooperation this will prompt between the supervisory authorities responsible will make the task of surveilling the energy wholesale trading market a lot easier for the authorities. The energy transition and its exigencies will yet lead to further changes in the market and its surveillance regime.

Nonbinary Tree-Based Phylogenetic Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Jetten, Laura; van Iersel, Leo

2018-01-01

Rooted phylogenetic networks are used to describe evolutionary histories that contain non-treelike evolutionary events such as hybridization and horizontal gene transfer. In some cases, such histories can be described by a phylogenetic base-tree with additional linking arcs, which can, for example, represent gene transfer events. Such phylogenetic networks are called tree-based. Here, we consider two possible generalizations of this concept to nonbinary networks, which we call tree-based and strictly-tree-based nonbinary phylogenetic networks. We give simple graph-theoretic characterizations of tree-based and strictly-tree-based nonbinary phylogenetic networks. Moreover, we show for each of these two classes that it can be decided in polynomial time whether a given network is contained in the class. Our approach also provides a new view on tree-based binary phylogenetic networks. Finally, we discuss two examples of nonbinary phylogenetic networks in biology and show how our results can be applied to them.

A novel framework for intelligent surveillance system based on abnormal human activity detection in academic environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Nawashi, Malek; Al-Hazaimeh, Obaida M; Saraee, Mohamad

2017-01-01

Abnormal activity detection plays a crucial role in surveillance applications, and a surveillance system that can perform robustly in an academic environment has become an urgent need. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for an automatic real-time video-based surveillance system which can simultaneously perform the tracking, semantic scene learning, and abnormality detection in an academic environment. To develop our system, we have divided the work into three phases: preprocessing phase, abnormal human activity detection phase, and content-based image retrieval phase. For motion object detection, we used the temporal-differencing algorithm and then located the motions region using the Gaussian function. Furthermore, the shape model based on OMEGA equation was used as a filter for the detected objects (i.e., human and non-human). For object activities analysis, we evaluated and analyzed the human activities of the detected objects. We classified the human activities into two groups: normal activities and abnormal activities based on the support vector machine. The machine then provides an automatic warning in case of abnormal human activities. It also embeds a method to retrieve the detected object from the database for object recognition and identification using content-based image retrieval. Finally, a software-based simulation using MATLAB was performed and the results of the conducted experiments showed an excellent surveillance system that can simultaneously perform the tracking, semantic scene learning, and abnormality detection in an academic environment with no human intervention.

Enhancing Syndromic Surveillance With Online Respondent-Driven Detection

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stein, Mart L; van Steenbergen, Jim E; Buskens, Vincent; van der Heijden, Peter G M; Koppeschaar, Carl E; Bengtsson, Linus; Thorson, Anna; Kretzschmar, MEE

OBJECTIVES: We investigated the feasibility of combining an online chain recruitment method (respondent-driven detection) and participatory surveillance panels to collect previously undetected information on infectious diseases via social networks of participants. METHODS: In 2014, volunteers from 2

Enhancing syndromic surveillance with online respondent-driven detection

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stein, Mart L.; Van Steenbergen, Jim E.; Buskens, Vincent; Van Der Heijden, Peter G M; Koppeschaar, Carl E.; Bengtsson, Linus; Thorson, Anna; Kretzschmar, Mirjam E E

2015-01-01

Objectives. We investigated the feasibility of combining an online chain recruitment method (respondent-driven detection) and participatory surveillance panels to collect previously undetected information on infectious diseases via social networks of participants. Methods. In 2014, volunteers from 2

On Tree-Based Phylogenetic Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Louxin

2016-07-01

A large class of phylogenetic networks can be obtained from trees by the addition of horizontal edges between the tree edges. These networks are called tree-based networks. We present a simple necessary and sufficient condition for tree-based networks and prove that a universal tree-based network exists for any number of taxa that contains as its base every phylogenetic tree on the same set of taxa. This answers two problems posted by Francis and Steel recently. A byproduct is a computer program for generating random binary phylogenetic networks under the uniform distribution model.

The Need for European Surveillance of CDI.

Science.gov (United States)

Wiuff, Camilla; Banks, A-Lan; Fitzpatrick, Fidelma; Cottom, Laura

2018-01-01

Since the turn of the millennium, the epidemiology of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) has continued to challenge. Over the last decade there has been a growing awareness that improvements to surveillance are needed. The increasing rate of CDI and emergence of ribotype 027 precipitated the implementation of mandatory national surveillance of CDI in the UK. Changes in clinical presentation, severity of disease, descriptions of new risk factors and the occurrence of outbreaks all emphasised the importance of early diagnosis and surveillance.However a lack of consensus on case definitions, clinical guidelines and optimal laboratory diagnostics across Europe has lead to the underestimation of CDI and impeded comparison between countries. These inconsistencies have prevented the true burden of disease from being appreciated.Acceptance that a multi-country surveillance programme and optimised diagnostic strategies are required not only to detect and control CDI in Europe, but for a better understanding of the epidemiology, has built the foundations for a more robust, unified surveillance. The concerted efforts of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) CDI networks, has lead to the development of an over-arching long-term CDI surveillance strategy for 2014-2020. Fulfilment of the ECDC priorities and targets will no doubt be challenging and will require significant investment however the hope is that both a national and Europe-wide picture of CDI will finally be realised.

Intelligent agents for adaptive security market surveillance

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Kun; Li, Xin; Xu, Baoxun; Yan, Jiaqi; Wang, Huaiqing

2017-05-01

Market surveillance systems have increasingly gained in usage for monitoring trading activities in stock markets to maintain market integrity. Existing systems primarily focus on the numerical analysis of market activity data and generally ignore textual information. To fulfil the requirements of information-based surveillance, a multi-agent-based architecture that uses agent intercommunication and incremental learning mechanisms is proposed to provide a flexible and adaptive inspection process. A prototype system is implemented using the techniques of text mining and rule-based reasoning, among others. Based on experiments in the scalping surveillance scenario, the system can identify target information evidence up to 87.50% of the time and automatically identify 70.59% of cases depending on the constraints on the available information sources. The results of this study indicate that the proposed information surveillance system is effective. This study thus contributes to the market surveillance literature and has significant practical implications.

Readiness of the Belgian network of sentinel general practitioners to deliver electronic health record data for surveillance purposes: results of survey study.

Science.gov (United States)

Boffin, Nicole; Bossuyt, Nathalie; Vanthomme, Katrien; Van Casteren, Viviane

2010-06-25

In order to proceed from a paper based registration to a surveillance system that is based on extraction of electronic health records (EHR), knowledge is needed on the number and representativeness of sentinel GPs using a government-certified EHR system and the quality of EHR data for research, expressed in the compliance rate with three criteria: recording of home visits, use of prescription module and diagnostic subject headings. Data were collected by annual postal surveys between 2005 and 2009 among all sentinel GPs. We tested relations between four key GP characteristics (age, gender, language community, practice organisation) and use of a certified EHR system by multivariable logistic regression. The relation between EHR software package, GP characteristics and compliance with three quality criteria was equally measured by multivariable logistic regression. A response rate of 99% was obtained. Of 221 sentinel GPs, 55% participated in the surveillance without interruption from 2005 onwards, i.e. all five years, and 78% were participants in 2009. Sixteen certified EHR systems were used among 91% of the Dutch and 63% of the French speaking sentinel GPs. The EHR software package was strongly related to the community and only one EHR system was used by a comparable number of sentinel GPs in both communities. Overall, the prescription module was always used and home visits were usually recorded. Uniform subject headings were only sometimes used and the compliance with this quality criterion was almost exclusively related to the EHR software package in use. The challenge is to progress towards a sentinel network of GPs delivering care-based data that are (partly) extracted from well performing EHR systems and still representative for Belgian general practice.

Emerging infectious diseases in free-ranging wildlife-Australian zoo based wildlife hospitals contribute to national surveillance.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Keren Cox-Witton

Full Text Available Emerging infectious diseases are increasingly originating from wildlife. Many of these diseases have significant impacts on human health, domestic animal health, and biodiversity. Surveillance is the key to early detection of emerging diseases. A zoo based wildlife disease surveillance program developed in Australia incorporates disease information from free-ranging wildlife into the existing national wildlife health information system. This program uses a collaborative approach and provides a strong model for a disease surveillance program for free-ranging wildlife that enhances the national capacity for early detection of emerging diseases.

Real-Time Surveillance of Infectious Diseases: Taiwan's Experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Jian, Shu-Wan; Chen, Chiu-Mei; Lee, Cheng-Yi; Liu, Ding-Ping

Integration of multiple surveillance systems advances early warning and supports better decision making during infectious disease events. Taiwan has a comprehensive network of laboratory, epidemiologic, and early warning surveillance systems with nationwide representation. Hospitals and clinical laboratories have deployed automatic reporting mechanisms since 2014 and have effectively improved timeliness of infectious disease and laboratory data reporting. In June 2016, the capacity of real-time surveillance in Taiwan was externally assessed and was found to have a demonstrated and sustainable capability. We describe Taiwan's disease surveillance system and use surveillance efforts for influenza and Zika virus as examples of surveillance capability. Timely and integrated influenza information showed a higher level and extended pattern of influenza activity during the 2015-16 season, which ensured prompt information dissemination and the coordination of response operations. Taiwan also has well-developed disease detection systems and was the first country to report imported cases of Zika virus from Miami Beach and Singapore. This illustrates a high level of awareness and willingness among health workers to report emerging infectious diseases, and highlights the robust and sensitive nature of Taiwan's surveillance system. These 2 examples demonstrate the flexibility of the surveillance systems in Taiwan to adapt to emerging infectious diseases and major communicable diseases. Through participation in the GHSA, Taiwan can more actively collaborate with national counterparts and use its expertise to strengthen global and regional surveillance capacity in the Asia Pacific and in Southeast Asia, in order to advance a world safe and secure from infectious disease.

A fiber Bragg grating acceleration sensor for ground surveillance

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Shaodong; Zhang, Faxiang; Lv, Jingsheng; Ni, Jiasheng; Wang, Chang

2017-10-01

Ground surveillance system is a kind of intelligent monitoring equipment for detecting and tracking the ground target. This paper presents a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) acceleration sensor for ground surveillance, which has the characteristics of no power supply, anti-electromagnetic interference, easy large-scale networking, and small size. Which make it able to achieve the advantage of the ground surveillance system while avoiding the shortcoming of the electric sensing. The sensor has a double cantilever beam structure with a sensitivity of 1000 pm/g. Field experiment has been carried out on a flood beach to examine the sensor performance. The result shows that the detection distance on the walking of personnel reaches 70m, and the detection distance on the ordinary motor vehicle reaches 200m. The performance of the FBG sensor can satisfy the actual needs of the ground surveillance system.

Design and Implementation of an Embedded Smart Intruder Surveillance System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sabri Naseer

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Remote and scattered valuable and sensitive locations such as labs and offices inside university campus need efficient monitoring and warning system. As well as scattered area and belonging. This research presents a Real-Time intruder Surveillance System based on a single board computer (SBC. Thus the design and development of a cost effective surveillance management system based SBC that can be deployed efficiently in remote and scattered locations such as universities belonging. The fusion of embedded Python codes with SBC that attached to cameras, Long distance sensors, alerting circuitry and wireless module presents a novel integration based effective cost solution and enhances SBC of much flexibility of improvement and development for pervasive remote locations. The system proves the high integrity of smooth working with web application, it’s cost effective and thus can be deployed as many of units to seize and concisely covered remote and scattered area as well as university belonging and departments. The system can be administrated by a remote user sparsely or geographically away from any networked workstation. The proposed solution offers efficient stand alone, flexibility to upgrade and cheap development and installation as well as cost effective ubiquitous surveillance solution. In conclusion, the system acceptable boundaries of successful intruder recognition and warning alert are computed between 1m and 3m distance of intruder from system camera. Recognition rate of 95% and 83% are achieved and the successful warning alert were in the range of 86-97%.

Network simulation modeling of equine infectious anemia in the non-racehorse population in Japan.

Science.gov (United States)

Hayama, Yoko; Kobayashi, Sota; Nishida, Takeshi; Muroga, Norihiko; Tsutsui, Toshiyuki

2012-01-01

An equine infectious anemia (EIA) transmission model was developed by constructing a network structure of horse movement patterns in a non-racehorse population. This model was then used to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of several EIA surveillance strategies. Because EIA had not been detected in Japan since 1993, it was appropriate to review the current surveillance strategy, which aims to eradicate EIA by intensive testing, and to consider alternative strategies suitable for the current EIA status in Japan. The non-racehorse population was divided into four sectors based on horse usage: the equestrian sector, private owner sector, exhibition sector, and fattening sector. To evaluate the risk of disease spread within and between sectors accompanied by horse movements, a stochastic individual-based network model was developed based on a previous survey of horse movement patterns. Surveillance parameters such as targeting sectors and frequency of testing were added into the model to compare surveillance strategies. The disease spread heterogeneously among sectors. Infection occurred mainly in the equestrian sector; the infection was less disseminated in other sectors. Therefore, we considered that the equestrian sector posed a higher risk of disease dissemination within and between sectors through horse movements. However, surveillance strategies targeting only the equestrian sector were not effective enough for early detection of the disease. Alternatively, targeting horses that moved permanently and those in the private owner sector in addition to the equestrian sector is recommended to achieve effectiveness equivalent to that of the current surveillance. In terms of surveillance efficacy, by increasing the testing interval (once yearly to once every 3 years), this testing scheme could reduce the number of tested horses to 44% of the current surveillance, while maintaining almost equivalent effectiveness. Intensive strategies targeting high

Advanced digital video surveillance for safeguard and physical protection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kumar, R.

2002-01-01

Full text: Video surveillance is a very crucial component in safeguard and physical protection. Digital technology has revolutionized the surveillance scenario and brought in various new capabilities like better image quality, faster search and retrieval of video images, less storage space for recording, efficient transmission and storage of video, better protection of recorded video images, and easy remote accesses to live and recorded video etc. The basic safeguard requirement for verifiably uninterrupted surveillance has remained largely unchanged since its inception. However, changes to the inspection paradigm to admit automated review and remote monitoring have dramatically increased the demands on safeguard surveillance system. Today's safeguard systems can incorporate intelligent motion detection with very low rate of false alarm and less archiving volume, embedded image processing capability for object behavior and event based indexing, object recognition, efficient querying and report generation etc. It also demands cryptographically authenticating, encrypted, and highly compressed video data for efficient, secure, tamper indicating and transmission. In physical protection, intelligent on robust video motion detection, real time moving object detection and tracking from stationary and moving camera platform, multi-camera cooperative tracking, activity detection and recognition, human motion analysis etc. is going to play a key rote in perimeter security. Incorporation of front and video imagery exploitation tools like automatic number plate recognition, vehicle identification and classification, vehicle undercarriage inspection, face recognition, iris recognition and other biometric tools, gesture recognition etc. makes personnel and vehicle access control robust and foolproof. Innovative digital image enhancement techniques coupled with novel sensor design makes low cost, omni-directional vision capable, all weather, day night surveillance a reality

Estimating leptospirosis incidence using hospital-based surveillance and a population-based health care utilization survey in Tanzania.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Holly M Biggs

Full Text Available The incidence of leptospirosis, a neglected zoonotic disease, is uncertain in Tanzania and much of sub-Saharan Africa, resulting in scarce data on which to prioritize resources for public health interventions and disease control. In this study, we estimate the incidence of leptospirosis in two districts in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania.We conducted a population-based household health care utilization survey in two districts in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania and identified leptospirosis cases at two hospital-based fever sentinel surveillance sites in the Kilimanjaro Region. We used multipliers derived from the health care utilization survey and case numbers from hospital-based surveillance to calculate the incidence of leptospirosis. A total of 810 households were enrolled in the health care utilization survey and multipliers were derived based on responses to questions about health care seeking in the event of febrile illness. Of patients enrolled in fever surveillance over a 1 year period and residing in the 2 districts, 42 (7.14% of 588 met the case definition for confirmed or probable leptospirosis. After applying multipliers to account for hospital selection, test sensitivity, and study enrollment, we estimated the overall incidence of leptospirosis ranges from 75-102 cases per 100,000 persons annually.We calculated a high incidence of leptospirosis in two districts in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania, where leptospirosis incidence was previously unknown. Multiplier methods, such as used in this study, may be a feasible method of improving availability of incidence estimates for neglected diseases, such as leptospirosis, in resource constrained settings.

Estimating Leptospirosis Incidence Using Hospital-Based Surveillance and a Population-Based Health Care Utilization Survey in Tanzania

Science.gov (United States)

Biggs, Holly M.; Hertz, Julian T.; Munishi, O. Michael; Galloway, Renee L.; Marks, Florian; Saganda, Wilbrod; Maro, Venance P.; Crump, John A.

2013-01-01

Background The incidence of leptospirosis, a neglected zoonotic disease, is uncertain in Tanzania and much of sub-Saharan Africa, resulting in scarce data on which to prioritize resources for public health interventions and disease control. In this study, we estimate the incidence of leptospirosis in two districts in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania. Methodology/Principal Findings We conducted a population-based household health care utilization survey in two districts in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania and identified leptospirosis cases at two hospital-based fever sentinel surveillance sites in the Kilimanjaro Region. We used multipliers derived from the health care utilization survey and case numbers from hospital-based surveillance to calculate the incidence of leptospirosis. A total of 810 households were enrolled in the health care utilization survey and multipliers were derived based on responses to questions about health care seeking in the event of febrile illness. Of patients enrolled in fever surveillance over a 1 year period and residing in the 2 districts, 42 (7.14%) of 588 met the case definition for confirmed or probable leptospirosis. After applying multipliers to account for hospital selection, test sensitivity, and study enrollment, we estimated the overall incidence of leptospirosis ranges from 75–102 cases per 100,000 persons annually. Conclusions/Significance We calculated a high incidence of leptospirosis in two districts in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania, where leptospirosis incidence was previously unknown. Multiplier methods, such as used in this study, may be a feasible method of improving availability of incidence estimates for neglected diseases, such as leptospirosis, in resource constrained settings. PMID:24340122

Collection, use, and protection of population-based birth defects surveillance data in the united states.

Science.gov (United States)

Mai, Cara T; Law, David J; Mason, Craig A; McDowell, Bradley D; Meyer, Robert E; Musa, Debra

2007-12-01

Birth defects surveillance systems collect population-based birth defects data from multiple sources to track trends in prevalence, identify risk factors, refer affected families to services, and evaluate prevention efforts. Strong state and federal public health and legal mandates are in place to govern the collection and use of these data. Despite the prima facie appeal of "opt-in" and similar strategies to those who view data collection as a threat to privacy, the use of these strategies in lieu of population-based surveillance can severely limit the ability of public health agencies to accurately access the health status of a group within a defined geographical area. With the need for population-based data central to their mission, birth defects programs around the country take their data stewardship role seriously, recognizing both moral and legal obligations to protect the data by employing numerous safeguards. Birth defects surveillance systems are shaped by the needs of the community they are designed to serve, with the goal of preventing birth defects or alleviating the burdens associated with them. (c) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

The global transmission network of HIV-1.

Science.gov (United States)

Wertheim, Joel O; Leigh Brown, Andrew J; Hepler, N Lance; Mehta, Sanjay R; Richman, Douglas D; Smith, Davey M; Kosakovsky Pond, Sergei L

2014-01-15

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is pandemic, but its contemporary global transmission network has not been characterized. A better understanding of the properties and dynamics of this network is essential for surveillance, prevention, and eventual eradication of HIV. Here, we apply a simple and computationally efficient network-based approach to all publicly available HIV polymerase sequences in the global database, revealing a contemporary picture of the spread of HIV-1 within and between countries. This approach automatically recovered well-characterized transmission clusters and extended other clusters thought to be contained within a single country across international borders. In addition, previously undescribed transmission clusters were discovered. Together, these clusters represent all known modes of HIV transmission. The extent of international linkage revealed by our comprehensive approach demonstrates the need to consider the global diversity of HIV, even when describing local epidemics. Finally, the speed of this method allows for near-real-time surveillance of the pandemic's progression.

The First Year of Croatian Meteor Network

Science.gov (United States)

Andreic, Zeljko; Segon, Damir

2010-08-01

The idea and a short history of Croatian Meteor Network (CMN) is described. Based on use of cheap surveillance cameras, standard PC-TV cards and old PCs, the Network allows schools, amateur societies and individuals to participate in photographic meteor patrol program. The network has a strong educational component and many cameras are located at or around teaching facilities. Data obtained by these cameras are collected and processed by the scientific team of the network. Currently 14 cameras are operable, covering a large part of the croatian sky, data gathering is fully functional, and data reduction software is in testing phase.

Confabulation Based Real-time Anomaly Detection for Wide-area Surveillance Using Heterogeneous High Performance Computing Architecture

Science.gov (United States)

2015-06-01

CONFABULATION BASED REAL-TIME ANOMALY DETECTION FOR WIDE-AREA SURVEILLANCE USING HETEROGENEOUS HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING ARCHITECTURE SYRACUSE...DETECTION FOR WIDE-AREA SURVEILLANCE USING HETEROGENEOUS HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING ARCHITECTURE 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER FA8750-12-1-0251 5b. GRANT...processors including graphic processor units (GPUs) and Intel Xeon Phi processors. Experimental results showed significant speedups, which can enable

Detection of Upscale-Crop and Partial Manipulation in Surveillance Video Based on Sensor Pattern Noise

Science.gov (United States)

Hyun, Dai-Kyung; Ryu, Seung-Jin; Lee, Hae-Yeoun; Lee, Heung-Kyu

2013-01-01

In many court cases, surveillance videos are used as significant court evidence. As these surveillance videos can easily be forged, it may cause serious social issues, such as convicting an innocent person. Nevertheless, there is little research being done on forgery of surveillance videos. This paper proposes a forensic technique to detect forgeries of surveillance video based on sensor pattern noise (SPN). We exploit the scaling invariance of the minimum average correlation energy Mellin radial harmonic (MACE-MRH) correlation filter to reliably unveil traces of upscaling in videos. By excluding the high-frequency components of the investigated video and adaptively choosing the size of the local search window, the proposed method effectively localizes partially manipulated regions. Empirical evidence from a large database of test videos, including RGB (Red, Green, Blue)/infrared video, dynamic-/static-scene video and compressed video, indicates the superior performance of the proposed method. PMID:24051524

Gonorrhoea and gonococcal antimicrobial resistance surveillance networks in the WHO European Region, including the independent countries of the former Soviet Union.

Science.gov (United States)

Unemo, Magnus; Ison, Catherine A; Cole, Michelle; Spiteri, Gianfranco; van de Laar, Marita; Khotenashvili, Lali

2013-12-01

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Neisseria gonorrhoeae has emerged for essentially all antimicrobials following their introduction into clinical practice. During the latest decade, susceptibility to the last remaining options for antimicrobial monotherapy, the extended-spectrum cephalosporins (ESC), has markedly decreased internationally and treatment failures with these ESCs have been verified. In response to this developing situation, WHO and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) have published global and region-specific response plans, respectively. One main component of these action/response plans is to enhance the surveillance of AMR and treatment failures. This paper describes the perspectives from the diverse WHO European Region (53 countries), including the independent countries of the former Soviet Union, regarding gonococcal AMR surveillance networks. The WHO European Region has a high prevalence of resistance to all previously recommended antimicrobials, and most of the first strictly verified treatment failures with cefixime and ceftriaxone were also reported from Europe. In the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA), the European gonococcal antimicrobial surveillance programme (Euro-GASP) funded by the ECDC is running. In 2011, the Euro-GASP included 21/31 (68%) EU/EEA countries, and the programme is further strengthened annually. However, in the non-EU/EEA countries, internationally reported and quality assured gonococcal AMR data are lacking in 87% of the countries and, worryingly, appropriate support for establishment of a GASP is still lacking. Accordingly, national and international support, including political and financial commitment, for gonococcal AMR surveillance in the non-EU/EEA countries of the WHO European Region is essential.

Multistatic Wireless Fidelity Network Based Radar – Results of the Chrcynno Experiment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Rzewuski

2014-04-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the theory and experimental result of passive radar using WIFI transmitters as illuminators of opportunity. As a result of experiments conducted on 17th August 2013 at airfield Chrcynno a Cessna C208 airplane was detected and tracked using multistatic passive radar system based on low power signal from WIFI network nodes, which were acting as non cooperative illuminators of opportunity. In the experiment 3 wireless access points were communicating with each other and illuminating the radar scene (airfield. The direct reference and reflected (surveillance signals have been acquired and processed using specially developed algorithm presented in the paper. After signal processing using Passive Coherent Location methods target has been detected. This paper describes in details the algorithms and the results of the experiment for the multistatic passive radar based on the WIFI signal.

Agent-based modeling and network dynamics

CERN Document Server

Namatame, Akira

2016-01-01

The book integrates agent-based modeling and network science. It is divided into three parts, namely, foundations, primary dynamics on and of social networks, and applications. The book begins with the network origin of agent-based models, known as cellular automata, and introduce a number of classic models, such as Schelling’s segregation model and Axelrod’s spatial game. The essence of the foundation part is the network-based agent-based models in which agents follow network-based decision rules. Under the influence of the substantial progress in network science in late 1990s, these models have been extended from using lattices into using small-world networks, scale-free networks, etc. The book also shows that the modern network science mainly driven by game-theorists and sociophysicists has inspired agent-based social scientists to develop alternative formation algorithms, known as agent-based social networks. The book reviews a number of pioneering and representative models in this family. Upon the gi...

Death surveillance as an indicator of the quality of health care for women and children.

Science.gov (United States)

Melo, Cristiane Magalhães de; Aquino, Talita Iasmim Soares; Soares, Marcela Quaresma; Bevilacqua, Paula Dias

2017-10-01

The study aimed to evaluate the implementation of a regional death surveillance network, reflecting on challenges and potentialities of performance as observatory of violence against women. The research involved nine municipalities of a health region set at the Zona da Mata, Minas Gerais, Brazil. We followed the meetings of the regional death surveillance committee and conducted semi-structured interviews with professional members of the committee and municipal health managers. Furthermore, we analyzed information concerning investigations conducted and, in one municipality, we analyzed the notifications of deaths and cases of violence against women. The results point to some difficulties: lack of recognition of the death surveillance activity; work overload; failure in communication between institutions and poor resources, infrastructure and professional training. There were also improvements, namely: greater interaction between municipalities; increased investigations and greater awareness of the importance of death surveillance among workers. We identified cases of domestic, obstetric and institutional violence through the investigation of deaths. The experience as a regional committee reinforces the strategy of strengthening death surveillance and the network of care for women in situation of violence.

Using a data fusion-based activity recognition framework to determine surveillance system requirements

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Le Roux, WH

2007-07-01

Full Text Available A technique is proposed to extract system requirements for a maritime area surveillance system, based on an activity recognition framework originally intended for the characterisation, prediction and recognition of intentional actions for threat...

Influenza sentinel surveillance network: a public health-primary care collaborative action to assess influenza A(H1N1)pmd09 in Catalonia, Spain.

Science.gov (United States)

Torner, Nuria; Baricot, Maretva; Martínez, Ana; Toledo, Diana; Godoy, Pere; Dominguez, Ángela

2013-03-01

The aim of this study was to evaluate the outcome of a collaborative action between Public Health services and Primary Care in the context of a case-control study on effectiveness of pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical measures to prevent hospitalization in a pandemic situation. To carry out this research the collaborative action of the primary care physicians members of the Influenza surveillance network was needed, they had to recall clinical information from influenza A(H1N1)pmd09 confirmed outpatient cases and negative outpatient controls matching their corresponding hospitalized confirmed case.   A survey questionnaire to assess involvement of Influenza Sentinel Surveillance Primary care physicians' Network of Catalonia (PIDIRAC) regarding the outpatient case and control outreach during the pandemic influenza season was performed. A total of 71,1% of completed surveys were received. Perception of pandemic activity was considered to be similar to seasonal influenza activity in 43.8% or higher but not unbearable in 37.5% of the replies. There was no nuisance reported from patients regarding neither the questions nor the surveyor. Collaborative research between Public Health services and Primary Care physicians enhances Public Health actions and research.

Strengthening foodborne disease surveillance in the WHO African

African Journals Online (AJOL)

OMS

2012-06-04

Jun 4, 2012 ... region including acute aflatoxicosis in Kenya in 2004 and bromide poisoning in ... Global Food Infections Network (GFN), has been supporting countries to strengthen ... The surveillance system uses standard case definitions for classifying .... Figure 4: Participating countries and training sites for foodborne.

A concept for routine emergency-care data-based syndromic surveillance in Europe.

Science.gov (United States)

Ziemann, A; Rosenkötter, N; Garcia-Castrillo Riesgo, L; Schrell, S; Kauhl, B; Vergeiner, G; Fischer, M; Lippert, F K; Krämer, A; Brand, H; Krafft, T

2014-11-01

We developed a syndromic surveillance (SyS) concept using emergency dispatch, ambulance and emergency-department data from different European countries. Based on an inventory of sub-national emergency data availability in 12 countries, we propose framework definitions for specific syndromes and a SyS system design. We tested the concept by retrospectively applying cumulative sum and spatio-temporal cluster analyses for the detection of local gastrointestinal outbreaks in four countries and comparing the results with notifiable disease reporting. Routine emergency data was available daily and electronically in 11 regions, following a common structure. We identified two gastrointestinal outbreaks in two countries; one was confirmed as a norovirus outbreak. We detected 1/147 notified outbreaks. Emergency-care data-based SyS can supplement local surveillance with near real-time information on gastrointestinal patients, especially in special circumstances, e.g. foreign tourists. It most likely cannot detect the majority of local gastrointestinal outbreaks with few, mild or dispersed cases.

Readiness of the Belgian network of sentinel general practitioners to deliver electronic health record data for surveillance purposes: results of survey study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vanthomme Katrien

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In order to proceed from a paper based registration to a surveillance system that is based on extraction of electronic health records (EHR, knowledge is needed on the number and representativeness of sentinel GPs using a government-certified EHR system and the quality of EHR data for research, expressed in the compliance rate with three criteria: recording of home visits, use of prescription module and diagnostic subject headings. Methods Data were collected by annual postal surveys between 2005 and 2009 among all sentinel GPs. We tested relations between four key GP characteristics (age, gender, language community, practice organisation and use of a certified EHR system by multivariable logistic regression. The relation between EHR software package, GP characteristics and compliance with three quality criteria was equally measured by multivariable logistic regression. Results A response rate of 99% was obtained. Of 221 sentinel GPs, 55% participated in the surveillance without interruption from 2005 onwards, i.e. all five years, and 78% were participants in 2009. Sixteen certified EHR systems were used among 91% of the Dutch and 63% of the French speaking sentinel GPs. The EHR software package was strongly related to the community and only one EHR system was used by a comparable number of sentinel GPs in both communities. Overall, the prescription module was always used and home visits were usually recorded. Uniform subject headings were only sometimes used and the compliance with this quality criterion was almost exclusively related to the EHR software package in use. Conclusions The challenge is to progress towards a sentinel network of GPs delivering care-based data that are (partly extracted from well performing EHR systems and still representative for Belgian general practice.

Calibration and study of the measurement capabilities of real-time gamma spectrometry equipment, developed for the renewal of the network of automatic stations for environmental radiological surveillance of the Generalitat de Catalunya

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Casanovas, R.; Prieto, E.; Salvado, M.

2013-01-01

The renewal of the automatic environmental radiation surveillance network of the Gereralitat of Catalunya has been carried out through the development and implementation of gamma-spectrometry-based equipment. The monitors use scintillation cristals, either NaI(Tl) or LaBr 3 (Ce) and currently, there are 3 types of equipment: water radioactivity monitors, aerosols on a particulate filter monitors and direct measurement monitors. In this paper, we expose the basic features of its operation, the details of their calibration and the minimum detectable activity concentrations for some isotopes

An integrated national mortality surveillance system for death registration and mortality surveillance, China.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Shiwei; Wu, Xiaoling; Lopez, Alan D; Wang, Lijun; Cai, Yue; Page, Andrew; Yin, Peng; Liu, Yunning; Li, Yichong; Liu, Jiangmei; You, Jinling; Zhou, Maigeng

2016-01-01

In China, sample-based mortality surveillance systems, such as the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention's disease surveillance points system and the Ministry of Health's vital registration system, have been used for decades to provide nationally representative data on health status for health-care decision-making and performance evaluation. However, neither system provided representative mortality and cause-of-death data at the provincial level to inform regional health service needs and policy priorities. Moreover, the systems overlapped to a considerable extent, thereby entailing a duplication of effort. In 2013, the Chinese Government combined these two systems into an integrated national mortality surveillance system to provide a provincially representative picture of total and cause-specific mortality and to accelerate the development of a comprehensive vital registration and mortality surveillance system for the whole country. This new system increased the surveillance population from 6 to 24% of the Chinese population. The number of surveillance points, each of which covered a district or county, increased from 161 to 605. To ensure representativeness at the provincial level, the 605 surveillance points were selected to cover China's 31 provinces using an iterative method involving multistage stratification that took into account the sociodemographic characteristics of the population. This paper describes the development and operation of the new national mortality surveillance system, which is expected to yield representative provincial estimates of mortality in China for the first time.

A Web-Based, Hospital-Wide Health Care-Associated Bloodstream Infection Surveillance and Classification System: Development and Evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Tseng, Yi-Ju; Wu, Jung-Hsuan; Lin, Hui-Chi; Chen, Ming-Yuan; Ping, Xiao-Ou; Sun, Chun-Chuan; Shang, Rung-Ji; Sheng, Wang-Huei; Chen, Yee-Chun; Lai, Feipei; Chang, Shan-Chwen

2015-09-21

Surveillance of health care-associated infections is an essential component of infection prevention programs, but conventional systems are labor intensive and performance dependent. To develop an automatic surveillance and classification system for health care-associated bloodstream infection (HABSI), and to evaluate its performance by comparing it with a conventional infection control personnel (ICP)-based surveillance system. We developed a Web-based system that was integrated into the medical information system of a 2200-bed teaching hospital in Taiwan. The system automatically detects and classifies HABSIs. In this study, the number of computer-detected HABSIs correlated closely with the number of HABSIs detected by ICP by department (n=20; r=.999 Psystem performed excellently with regard to sensitivity (98.16%), specificity (99.96%), positive predictive value (95.81%), and negative predictive value (99.98%). The system enabled decreasing the delay in confirmation of HABSI cases, on average, by 29 days. This system provides reliable and objective HABSI data for quality indicators, improving the delay caused by a conventional surveillance system.

Formal and informal surveillance systems: how to build links

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Desvaux

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Within the framework of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI surveillance in Vietnam, interviews were carried out with poultry farmers and local animal health operators in two municipalities of the Red River delta with a view to documenting the circulation of health information concerning poultry (content of the information; method, scope and speed of circulation; actors involved; actions triggered as a result of the information received; economic and social incentives for disseminating or withholding information. The main results show that (i active informal surveillance networks exist, (ii the alert levels vary and the measures applied by the poultry farmers are myriad and often far-removed from the official recommendations, and (iii the municipal veterinarian is at the interface between the formal and the informal surveillance systems. The conclusions emphasize the need for the authorities to separate distinctly surveillance and control activities, and to regionalize control strategies, taking into account epidemiological specificities and social dynamics at local level.

Deep learning-based fine-grained car make/model classification for visual surveillance

Science.gov (United States)

Gundogdu, Erhan; Parıldı, Enes Sinan; Solmaz, Berkan; Yücesoy, Veysel; Koç, Aykut

2017-10-01

Fine-grained object recognition is a potential computer vision problem that has been recently addressed by utilizing deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). Nevertheless, the main disadvantage of classification methods relying on deep CNN models is the need for considerably large amount of data. In addition, there exists relatively less amount of annotated data for a real world application, such as the recognition of car models in a traffic surveillance system. To this end, we mainly concentrate on the classification of fine-grained car make and/or models for visual scenarios by the help of two different domains. First, a large-scale dataset including approximately 900K images is constructed from a website which includes fine-grained car models. According to their labels, a state-of-the-art CNN model is trained on the constructed dataset. The second domain that is dealt with is the set of images collected from a camera integrated to a traffic surveillance system. These images, which are over 260K, are gathered by a special license plate detection method on top of a motion detection algorithm. An appropriately selected size of the image is cropped from the region of interest provided by the detected license plate location. These sets of images and their provided labels for more than 30 classes are employed to fine-tune the CNN model which is already trained on the large scale dataset described above. To fine-tune the network, the last two fully-connected layers are randomly initialized and the remaining layers are fine-tuned in the second dataset. In this work, the transfer of a learned model on a large dataset to a smaller one has been successfully performed by utilizing both the limited annotated data of the traffic field and a large scale dataset with available annotations. Our experimental results both in the validation dataset and the real field show that the proposed methodology performs favorably against the training of the CNN model from scratch.

Nucleic acids-based tools for ballast water surveillance, monitoring, and research

Science.gov (United States)

Darling, John A.; Frederick, Raymond M.

2018-03-01

Understanding the risks of biological invasion posed by ballast water-whether in the context of compliance testing, routine monitoring, or basic research-is fundamentally an exercise in biodiversity assessment, and as such should take advantage of the best tools available for tackling that problem. The past several decades have seen growing application of genetic methods for the study of biodiversity, driven in large part by dramatic technological advances in nucleic acids analysis. Monitoring approaches based on such methods have the potential to increase dramatically sampling throughput for biodiversity assessments, and to improve on the sensitivity, specificity, and taxonomic accuracy of traditional approaches. The application of targeted detection tools (largely focused on PCR but increasingly incorporating novel probe-based methodologies) has led to a paradigm shift in rare species monitoring, and such tools have already been applied for early detection in the context of ballast water surveillance. Rapid improvements in community profiling approaches based on high throughput sequencing (HTS) could similarly impact broader efforts to catalogue biodiversity present in ballast tanks, and could provide novel opportunities to better understand the risks of biotic exchange posed by ballast water transport-and the effectiveness of attempts to mitigate those risks. These various approaches still face considerable challenges to effective implementation, depending on particular management or research needs. Compliance testing, for instance, remains dependent on accurate quantification of viable target organisms; while tools based on RNA detection show promise in this context, the demands of such testing require considerable additional investment in methods development. In general surveillance and research contexts, both targeted and community-based approaches are still limited by various factors: quantification remains a challenge (especially for taxa in larger size

Approaches to the Surveillance of Foodborne Disease: A Review of the Evidence.

Science.gov (United States)

Ford, Laura; Miller, Megge; Cawthorne, Amy; Fearnley, Emily; Kirk, Martyn

2015-12-01

Foodborne disease surveillance aims to reduce the burden of illness due to contaminated food. There are several different types of surveillance systems, including event-based surveillance, indicator-based surveillance, and integrated food chain surveillance. These approaches are not mutually exclusive, have overlapping data sources, require distinct capacities and resources, and can be considered a hierarchy, with each level being more complex and resulting in a greater ability to detect and control foodborne disease. Event-based surveillance is generally the least resource-intensive system and makes use of informal data sources. Indicator-based surveillance is seen as traditional notifiable disease surveillance and consists of routinely collected data. Integrated food chain surveillance is viewed as the optimal practice for conducting continuous risk analysis for foodborne diseases, but also requires significant ongoing resources and greater multisectoral collaboration compared to the other systems. Each country must determine the most appropriate structure for their surveillance system for foodborne diseases based on their available resources. This review explores the evidence on the principles, minimum capabilities, and minimum requirements of each type of surveillance and discusses examples from a range of countries. This review forms the evidence base for the Strengthening the Surveillance and Response for Foodborne Diseases: A Practical Manual.

Real-time object tracking system based on field-programmable gate array and convolution neural network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Congyi Lyu

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Vision-based object tracking has lots of applications in robotics, like surveillance, navigation, motion capturing, and so on. However, the existing object tracking systems still suffer from the challenging problem of high computation consumption in the image processing algorithms. The problem can prevent current systems from being used in many robotic applications which have limitations of payload and power, for example, micro air vehicles. In these applications, the central processing unit- or graphics processing unit-based computers are not good choices due to the high weight and power consumption. To address the problem, this article proposed a real-time object tracking system based on field-programmable gate array, convolution neural network, and visual servo technology. The time-consuming image processing algorithms, such as distortion correction, color space convertor, and Sobel edge, Harris corner features detector, and convolution neural network were redesigned using the programmable gates in field-programmable gate array. Based on the field-programmable gate array-based image processing, an image-based visual servo controller was designed to drive a two degree of freedom manipulator to track the target in real time. Finally, experiments on the proposed system were performed to illustrate the effectiveness of the real-time object tracking system.

Enteric disease surveillance under the AFHSC-GEIS: Current efforts, landscape analysis and vision forward

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kasper Matthew R

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract The mission of the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center, Division of Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System (AFHSC-GEIS is to support global public health and to counter infectious disease threats to the United States Armed Forces, including newly identified agents or those increasing in incidence. Enteric diseases are a growing threat to U.S. forces, which must be ready to deploy to austere environments where the risk of exposure to enteropathogens may be significant and where routine prevention efforts may be impractical. In this report, the authors review the recent activities of AFHSC-GEIS partner laboratories in regards to enteric disease surveillance, prevention and response. Each partner identified recent accomplishments, including support for regional networks. AFHSC/GEIS partners also completed a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT survey as part of a landscape analysis of global enteric surveillance efforts. The current strengths of this network include excellent laboratory infrastructure, equipment and personnel that provide the opportunity for high-quality epidemiological studies and test platforms for point-of-care diagnostics. Weaknesses include inconsistent guidance and a splintered reporting system that hampers the comparison of data across regions or longitudinally. The newly chartered Enterics Surveillance Steering Committee (ESSC is intended to provide clear mission guidance, a structured project review process, and central data management and analysis in support of rationally directed enteric disease surveillance efforts.

Design and implementation of distributed multimedia surveillance system based on object-oriented middleware

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Xuesong; Jiang, Ling; Hu, Ruimin

2006-10-01

Currently, the applications of surveillance system have been increasingly widespread. But there are few surveillance platforms that can meet the requirement of large-scale, cross-regional, and flexible surveillance business. In the paper, we present a distributed surveillance system platform to improve safety and security of the society. The system is constructed by an object-oriented middleware called as Internet Communications Engine (ICE). This middleware helps our platform to integrate a lot of surveillance resource of the society and accommodate diverse range of surveillance industry requirements. In the follow sections, we will describe in detail the design concepts of system and introduce traits of ICE.

Critical Surveillance Studies in the Information Society

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas Allmer

2011-11-01

Full Text Available The overall aim of this paper is to clarify how we can theorize and systemize economic surveillance. Surveillance studies scholars like David Lyon stress that economic surveillance such as monitoring consumers or the workplace are central aspects of surveillance societies. The approach that is advanced in this work recognizes the importance of the role of the economy in contemporary surveillance societies. The paper at hand constructs theoretically founded typologies in order to systemize the existing literature of surveillance studies and to analyze examples of surveillance. Therefore, it mainly is a theoretical approach combined with illustrative examples. This contribution contains a systematic discussion of the state of the art of surveillance and clarifies how different notions treat economic aspects of surveillance. In this work it is argued that the existing literature is insufficient for studying economic surveillance. In contrast, a typology of surveillance in the modern economy, which is based on foundations of a political economy approach, allows providing a systematic analysis of economic surveillance on the basis of current developments on the Internet. Finally, some political recommendations are drawn in order to overcome economic surveillance. This contribution can be fruitful for scholars who want to undertake a systematic analysis of surveillance in the modern economy and who want to study the field of surveillance critically.

Developing a new national approach to surveillance for ventilator-associated events: executive summary.

Science.gov (United States)

Magill, Shelley S; Klompas, Michael; Balk, Robert; Burns, Suzanne M; Deutschman, Clifford S; Diekema, Daniel; Fridkin, Scott; Greene, Linda; Guh, Alice; Gutterman, David; Hammer, Beth; Henderson, David; Hess, Dean R; Hill, Nicholas S; Horan, Teresa; Kollef, Marin; Levy, Mitchell; Septimus, Edward; VanAntwerpen, Carole; Wright, Don; Lipsett, Pamela

2013-11-01

In September 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) convened a Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia (VAP) Surveillance Definition Working Group to organize a formal process for leaders and experts of key stakeholder organizations to discuss the challenges of VAP surveillance definitions and to propose new approaches to VAP surveillance in adult patients (Table 1). The charges to the Working Group were to (1) critically review a draft, streamlined VAP surveillance definition developed for use in adult patients; (2) suggest modifications to enhance the reliability and credibility of the surveillance definition within the critical care and infection prevention communities; and (3) propose a final adult surveillance definition algorithm to be implemented in the CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN), taking into consideration the potential future use of the definition algorithm in public reporting, interfacility comparisons, and pay-for-reporting and pay-for-performance programs. Published by Mosby, Inc.

Generic Learning-Based Ensemble Framework for Small Sample Size Face Recognition in Multi-Camera Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Cuicui; Liang, Xuefeng; Matsuyama, Takashi

2014-12-08

Multi-camera networks have gained great interest in video-based surveillance systems for security monitoring, access control, etc. Person re-identification is an essential and challenging task in multi-camera networks, which aims to determine if a given individual has already appeared over the camera network. Individual recognition often uses faces as a trial and requires a large number of samples during the training phrase. This is difficult to fulfill due to the limitation of the camera hardware system and the unconstrained image capturing conditions. Conventional face recognition algorithms often encounter the "small sample size" (SSS) problem arising from the small number of training samples compared to the high dimensionality of the sample space. To overcome this problem, interest in the combination of multiple base classifiers has sparked research efforts in ensemble methods. However, existing ensemble methods still open two questions: (1) how to define diverse base classifiers from the small data; (2) how to avoid the diversity/accuracy dilemma occurring during ensemble. To address these problems, this paper proposes a novel generic learning-based ensemble framework, which augments the small data by generating new samples based on a generic distribution and introduces a tailored 0-1 knapsack algorithm to alleviate the diversity/accuracy dilemma. More diverse base classifiers can be generated from the expanded face space, and more appropriate base classifiers are selected for ensemble. Extensive experimental results on four benchmarks demonstrate the higher ability of our system to cope with the SSS problem compared to the state-of-the-art system.

Generic Learning-Based Ensemble Framework for Small Sample Size Face Recognition in Multi-Camera Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cuicui Zhang

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Multi-camera networks have gained great interest in video-based surveillance systems for security monitoring, access control, etc. Person re-identification is an essential and challenging task in multi-camera networks, which aims to determine if a given individual has already appeared over the camera network. Individual recognition often uses faces as a trial and requires a large number of samples during the training phrase. This is difficult to fulfill due to the limitation of the camera hardware system and the unconstrained image capturing conditions. Conventional face recognition algorithms often encounter the “small sample size” (SSS problem arising from the small number of training samples compared to the high dimensionality of the sample space. To overcome this problem, interest in the combination of multiple base classifiers has sparked research efforts in ensemble methods. However, existing ensemble methods still open two questions: (1 how to define diverse base classifiers from the small data; (2 how to avoid the diversity/accuracy dilemma occurring during ensemble. To address these problems, this paper proposes a novel generic learning-based ensemble framework, which augments the small data by generating new samples based on a generic distribution and introduces a tailored 0–1 knapsack algorithm to alleviate the diversity/accuracy dilemma. More diverse base classifiers can be generated from the expanded face space, and more appropriate base classifiers are selected for ensemble. Extensive experimental results on four benchmarks demonstrate the higher ability of our system to cope with the SSS problem compared to the state-of-the-art system.

Development and implementation of the quality control panel of RT-PCR and real-time RT-PCR for avian influenza A (H5N1 surveillance network in mainland China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wang Wei

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR and real time RT-PCR (rRT-PCR have been indispensable methods for influenza surveillance, especially for determination of avian influenza. The movement of testing beyond reference lab introduced the need of quality control, including the implementation of an evaluation system for validating personal training and sample proficiency testing. Methods We developed a panel with lysates of seasonal influenza virus (H1N1, H3N2 and B, serials of diluted H5N1 virus lysates, and in-vitro transcribed H5 hemaglutinin (HA and an artificial gene RNAs for RT-PCR and rRT-PCR quality control assessment. The validations of stability and reproducibility were performed on the panel. Additionally, the panel was implemented to assess the detection capability of Chinese human avian influenza networks. Results The panel has relatively high stability and good reproducibility demonstrated by kappa's tests. In the implementation of panel on Chinese human avian influenza networks, the results suggested that there were a relatively low number of discrepancies for both concise and reproducibility in Chinese avian influenza virus net works. Conclusions A quality control panel of RT-PCR and real-time RT-PCR for avian influenza A (H5N1 surveillance network was developed. An availably statistical data, which are used to assess the detection capability of networks on avian influenza virus (H5N1, can be obtained relatively easily through implementation of the panel on networks.

Digital dashboard design using multiple data streams for disease surveillance with influenza surveillance as an example.

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, Calvin K Y; Ip, Dennis K M; Cowling, Benjamin J; Ho, Lai Ming; Leung, Gabriel M; Lau, Eric H Y

2011-10-14

Great strides have been made exploring and exploiting new and different sources of disease surveillance data and developing robust statistical methods for analyzing the collected data. However, there has been less research in the area of dissemination. Proper dissemination of surveillance data can facilitate the end user's taking of appropriate actions, thus maximizing the utility of effort taken from upstream of the surveillance-to-action loop. The aims of the study were to develop a generic framework for a digital dashboard incorporating features of efficient dashboard design and to demonstrate this framework by specific application to influenza surveillance in Hong Kong. Based on the merits of the national websites and principles of efficient dashboard design, we designed an automated influenza surveillance digital dashboard as a demonstration of efficient dissemination of surveillance data. We developed the system to synthesize and display multiple sources of influenza surveillance data streams in the dashboard. Different algorithms can be implemented in the dashboard for incorporating all surveillance data streams to describe the overall influenza activity. We designed and implemented an influenza surveillance dashboard that utilized self-explanatory figures to display multiple surveillance data streams in panels. Indicators for individual data streams as well as for overall influenza activity were summarized in the main page, which can be read at a glance. Data retrieval function was also incorporated to allow data sharing in standard format. The influenza surveillance dashboard serves as a template to illustrate the efficient synthesization and dissemination of multiple-source surveillance data, which may also be applied to other diseases. Surveillance data from multiple sources can be disseminated efficiently using a dashboard design that facilitates the translation of surveillance information to public health actions.

Considerations on a VXI based digital image surveillance system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gaertner, K.J.; Neumann, G.; Richter, B.

1995-01-01

In 1992 the International Atomic Energy Agency established the IAEA Integrated Safeguards Instrumentation Programme (I 2 SIP) which provides a conceptual framework to guide new equipment development activities. One of the main goals of I 2 SIP is to define the optimum structure of future safeguards equipment inventory that would enable the integration of containment, surveillance and unattended radiation monitoring modules for application in facilities with complex safeguards systems. This approach implies a modular equipment structure in both hardware and software. In December 1993, a Consultants Meeting concluded that the VXI instrument bus (VXIbus) standard does not appear to have any technical limitations that will inhibit the use of I 2 SIP and should be considered the first choice for future safeguards equipment. The Agency's development plan for Digital Image Surveillance (DIS) is part of the I 2 SIP and has defined the need for 'distributed systems', i.e. for multichannel surveillance systems, which should accommodate the integration aspect and meet requirements for both mail-in of recorded information to the Agency and remote surveillance. The paper describes the basic considerations that have led to the selection of the VXI bus to be used for such a system including the different modules emphasizing the integration issue

Resurgence of Diphtheria in North Kerala, India, 2016: Laboratory Supported Case-Based Surveillance Outcomes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lucky Sangal

2017-08-01

Full Text Available IntroductionAs part of national program, laboratory supported vaccine preventable diseases surveillance was initiated in Kerala in 2015. Mechanisms have been strengthened for case investigation, reporting, and data management. Specimens collected and sent to state and reference laboratories for confirmation and molecular surveillance. The major objective of this study is to understand the epidemiological information generated through surveillance system and its utilization for action.MethodsSurveillance data captured from reporting register, case investigation forms, and laboratory reports was analyzed. Cases were allotted unique ID and no personal identifying information was used for analysis. Throat swabs were collected from investigated cases as part of surveillance system. All Corynebacterium diphtheriae isolates were confirmed with standard biochemical tests, ELEK’s test, and real-time PCR. Isolates were characterized using whole genome-based multi locus sequence typing method. Case investigation forms and laboratory results were recorded electronically. Public health response by government was also reviewed.ResultsA total of 533 cases were identified in 11 districts of Kerala in 2016, of which 92% occurred in 3 districts of north Kerala; Malappuram, Kozhikode, and Kannur. Almost 79% cases occurred in >10 years age group. In <18 years age group, 62% were male while in ≥18 years, 69% were females. In <10 years age group, 31% children had received three doses of diphtheria vaccine, whereas in ≥10 years, 3% cases had received all doses. Fifteen toxigenic C. diphtheriae isolates represented 6 novel sequence types (STs (ST-405, ST-408, ST-466, ST-468, ST-469, and ST-470. Other STs observed are ST-50, ST-295, and ST-377.ConclusionDiphtheria being an emerging pathogen, establishing quality surveillance for providing real-time information on disease occurrence and mortality is imperative. The epidemiological data thus generated was

Development of an active risk-based surveillance strategy for avian influenza in Cuba.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferrer, E; Alfonso, P; Ippoliti, C; Abeledo, M; Calistri, P; Blanco, P; Conte, A; Sánchez, B; Fonseca, O; Percedo, M; Pérez, A; Fernández, O; Giovannini, A

2014-09-01

The authors designed a risk-based approach to the selection of poultry flocks to be sampled in order to further improve the sensitivity of avian influenza (AI) active surveillance programme in Cuba. The study focused on the western region of Cuba, which harbours nearly 70% of national poultry holdings and comprise several wetlands where migratory waterfowl settle (migratory waterfowl settlements - MWS). The model took into account the potential risk of commercial poultry farms in western Cuba contracting from migratory waterfowl of the orders Anseriformes and Charadriiformes through dispersion for pasturing of migratory birds around the MWS. We computed spatial risk index by geographical analysis with Python scripts in ESRI(®) ArcGIS 10 on data projected in the reference system NAD 1927-UTM17. Farms located closer to MWS had the highest values for the risk indicator pj and in total 31 farms were chosen for targeted surveillance during the risk period. The authors proposed to start active surveillance in the study area 3 weeks after the onset of Anseriformes migration, with additional sampling repeated twice in the same selected poultry farms at 15 days interval (Comin et al., 2012; EFSA, 2008) to cover the whole migration season. In this way, the antibody detectability would be favoured in case of either a posterior AI introduction or enhancement of a previous seroprevalence under the sensitivity level. The model identified the areas with higher risk for AIV introduction from MW, aiming at selecting poultry premises for the application of risk-based surveillance. Given the infrequency of HPAI introduction into domestic poultry populations and the relative paucity of occurrences of LPAI epidemics, the evaluation of the effectiveness of this approach would require its application for several migration seasons to allow the collection of sufficient reliable data. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cultural Practices Shaping Zoonotic Diseases Surveillance: The Case of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza and Thailand Native Chicken Farmers.

Science.gov (United States)

Delabouglise, A; Antoine-Moussiaux, N; Tatong, D; Chumkaeo, A; Binot, A; Fournié, G; Pilot, E; Phimpraphi, W; Kasemsuwan, S; Paul, M C; Duboz, R; Salem, G; Peyre, M

2017-08-01

Effectiveness of current passive zoonotic disease surveillance systems is limited by the under-reporting of disease outbreaks in the domestic animal population. Evaluating the acceptability of passive surveillance and its economic, social and cultural determinants appears a critical step for improving it. A participatory rural appraisal was implemented in a rural subdistrict of Thailand. Focus group interviews were used to identify sanitary risks perceived by native chicken farmers and describe the structure of their value chain. Qualitative individual interviews with a large diversity of actors enabled to identify perceived costs and benefits associated with the reporting of HPAI suspicions to sanitary authorities. Besides, flows of information on HPAI suspected cases were assessed using network analysis, based on data collected through individual questionnaires. Results show that the presence of cockfighting activities in the area negatively affected the willingness of all chicken farmers and other actors to report suspected HPAI cases. The high financial and affective value of fighting cocks contradicted the HPAI control policy based on mass culling. However, the importance of product quality in the native chicken meat value chain and the free veterinary services and products delivered by veterinary officers had a positive impact on suspected case reporting. Besides, cockfighting practitioners had a significantly higher centrality than other actors in the information network and they facilitated the spatial diffusion of information. Social ties built in cockfighting activities and the shared purpose of protecting valuable cocks were at the basis of the diffusion of information and the informal collective management of diseases. Building bridges with this informal network would greatly improve the effectiveness of passive surveillance. © 2016 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.

A review of occupational disease surveillance systems in Modernet countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Carder, M; Bensefa-Colas, L; Mattioli, S; Noone, P; Stikova, E; Valenty, M; Telle-Lamberton, M

2015-11-01

To improve occupational health public policies and to facilitate coordinated research within the European Union to reduce the incidence of occupational diseases (ODs), it is important to know what OD surveillance systems exist and how they compare. Monitoring trends in occupational diseases and tracing new and emerging risks in a network (Modernet) participants are well placed to provide this information as most either contribute data to and/or are involved in the management of OD systems. To identify and describe OD surveillance systems in Modernet countries with the longer-term objective of identifying a core template to be used on a large scale. A questionnaire sent to Modernet participants, seeking structured information about the OD surveillance system(s) in their country. Overall 14 countries (70%) provided information for 33 OD systems, among them 11 compensation-based (CB) systems. Six countries provided information for non-CB systems reporting for any type of OD. The other systems reported either only ODs from a prescribed list, or specific diagnoses or diagnostic groups, with reports to most schemes being physician-based. Data collected varied but all systems collected diagnosis, age, gender, date reported and occupation (and/or industry) and most collected information on exposure. This review provides information beneficial to both policy makers and researchers by identifying data sources useable to measure OD trends in European countries and opening the way to future work, both on trend comparisons within Europe and on the definition of a core template to extend OD surveillance on a larger scale. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Surveillance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Albrechtslund, Anders; Coeckelbergh, Mark; Matzner, Tobias

Studying surveillance involves raising questions about the very nature of concepts such as information, technology, identity, space and power. Besides the maybe all too obvious ethical issues often discussed with regard to surveillance, there are several other angles and approaches that we should...... like to encourage. Therefore, our panel will focus on the philosophical, yet non-ethical issues of surveillance in order to stimulate an intense debate with the audience on the ethical implications of our enquiries. We also hope to provide a broader and deeper understanding of surveillance....

Ethics and privacy issues of a practice-based surveillance system: need for a national-level institutional research ethics board and consent standards.

Science.gov (United States)

Kotecha, Jyoti A; Manca, Donna; Lambert-Lanning, Anita; Keshavjee, Karim; Drummond, Neil; Godwin, Marshall; Greiver, Michelle; Putnam, Wayne; Lussier, Marie-Thérèse; Birtwhistle, Richard

2011-10-01

To describe the challenges the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network (CPCSSN) experienced with institutional research ethics boards (IREBs) when seeking approvals across jurisdictions and to provide recommendations for overcoming challenges of ethical review for multisite and multijurisdictional surveillance and research. The CPCSSN project collects and validates longitudinal primary care health information (relating to hypertension, diabetes, depression, chronic obstructive lung disease, and osteoarthritis) from electronic medical records across Canada. Privacy and data storage security policies and processes have been developed to protect participants' privacy and confidentiality, and IREB approval is obtained in each participating jurisdiction. Inconsistent interpretation and application of privacy and ethical issues by IREBs delays and impedes research programs that could better inform us about chronic disease. The CPCSSN project's experience with gaining approval from IREBs highlights the difficulty of conducting pan-Canadian health surveillance and multicentre research. Inconsistent IREB approvals to waive explicit individual informed consent produced particular challenges for researchers. The CPCSSN experience highlights the need to develop a better process for researchers to obtain timely and consistent IREB approvals for multicentre surveillance and research. We suggest developing a specialized, national, centralized IREB responsible for approving multisite studies related to population health research.

Network-based Approaches in Pharmacology.

Science.gov (United States)

Boezio, Baptiste; Audouze, Karine; Ducrot, Pierre; Taboureau, Olivier

2017-10-01

In drug discovery, network-based approaches are expected to spotlight our understanding of drug action across multiple layers of information. On one hand, network pharmacology considers the drug response in the context of a cellular or phenotypic network. On the other hand, a chemical-based network is a promising alternative for characterizing the chemical space. Both can provide complementary support for the development of rational drug design and better knowledge of the mechanisms underlying the multiple actions of drugs. Recent progress in both concepts is discussed here. In addition, a network-based approach using drug-target-therapy data is introduced as an example. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Systems Biology and Ratio-Based, Real-Time Disease Surveillance.

Science.gov (United States)

Fair, J M; Rivas, A L

2015-08-01

Most infectious disease surveillance methods are not well fit for early detection. To address such limitation, here we evaluated a ratio- and Systems Biology-based method that does not require prior knowledge on the identity of an infective agent. Using a reference group of birds experimentally infected with West Nile virus (WNV) and a problem group of unknown health status (except that they were WNV-negative and displayed inflammation), both groups were followed over 22 days and tested with a system that analyses blood leucocyte ratios. To test the ability of the method to discriminate small data sets, both the reference group (n = 5) and the problem group (n = 4) were small. The questions of interest were as follows: (i) whether individuals presenting inflammation (disease-positive or D+) can be distinguished from non-inflamed (disease-negative or D-) birds, (ii) whether two or more D+ stages can be detected and (iii) whether sample size influences detection. Within the problem group, the ratio-based method distinguished the following: (i) three (one D- and two D+) data classes; (ii) two (early and late) inflammatory stages; (iii) fast versus regular or slow responders; and (iv) individuals that recovered from those that remained inflamed. Because ratios differed in larger magnitudes (up to 48 times larger) than percentages, it is suggested that data patterns are likely to be recognized when disease surveillance methods are designed to measure inflammation and utilize ratios. Published 2013. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

Improving nutrition surveillance and public health research in Central and Eastern Europe/Balkan Countries using the Balkan Food Platform and dietary tools.

Science.gov (United States)

Gurinović, Mirjana; Milešević, Jelena; Novaković, Romana; Kadvan, Agnes; Djekić-Ivanković, Marija; Šatalić, Zvonimir; Korošec, Mojca; Spiroski, Igor; Ranić, Marija; Dupouy, Eleonora; Oshaug, Arne; Finglas, Paul; Glibetić, Maria

2016-02-15

The objective of this paper is to share experience and provide updated information on Capacity Development in the Central and Eastern Europe/Balkan Countries (CEE/BC) region relevant to public health nutrition, particularly in creation of food composition databases (FCDBs), applying dietary intake assessment and monitoring tools, and harmonizing methodology for nutrition surveillance. Balkan Food Platform was established by a Memorandum of Understanding among EuroFIR AISBL, Institute for Medical Research, Belgrade, Capacity Development Network in Nutrition in CEE - CAPNUTRA and institutions from nine countries in the region. Inventory on FCDB status identified lack of harmonized and standardized research tools. To strengthen harmonization in CEE/BC in line with European research trends, the Network members collaborated in development of a Regional FCDB, using web-based food composition data base management software following EuroFIR standards. Comprehensive nutrition assessment and planning tool - DIET ASSESS & PLAN could enable synchronization of nutrition surveillance across countries. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Biologically based neural network for mobile robot navigation

Science.gov (United States)

Torres Muniz, Raul E.

1999-01-01

The new tendency in mobile robots is to crete non-Cartesian system based on reactions to their environment. This emerging technology is known as Evolutionary Robotics, which is combined with the Biorobotic field. This new approach brings cost-effective solutions, flexibility, robustness, and dynamism into the design of mobile robots. It also provides fast reactions to the sensory inputs, and new interpretation of the environment or surroundings of the mobile robot. The Subsumption Architecture (SA) and the action selection dynamics developed by Brooks and Maes, respectively, have successfully obtained autonomous mobile robots initiating this new trend of the Evolutionary Robotics. Their design keeps the mobile robot control simple. This work present a biologically inspired modification of these schemes. The hippocampal-CA3-based neural network developed by Williams Levy is used to implement the SA, while the action selection dynamics emerge from iterations of the levels of competence implemented with the HCA3. This replacement by the HCA3 results in a closer biological model than the SA, combining the Behavior-based intelligence theory with neuroscience. The design is kept simple, and it is implemented in the Khepera Miniature Mobile Robot. The used control scheme obtains an autonomous mobile robot that can be used to execute a mail delivery system and surveillance task inside a building floor.

Web-based surveillance and global Salmonella distribution, 2000-2002

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Galanis, E.; Wong, Danilo Lo Fo; Patrick, M.E.

2006-01-01

Salmonellae are a common cause of foodborne disease worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) supports international foodborne disease surveillance through WHO Global Salm-Surv and other activities. WHO Global Salm-Surv members annually report the 15 most frequently isolated Salmonella...... serotypes to a Web-based country databank. We describe the global distribution of reported Salmonella serotypes from human and nonhuman sources from 2000 to 2002. Among human isolates, Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis was the most common serotype, accounting for 65% of all isolates. Among nonhuman...... professionals to explore hypotheses related to the sources and distribution of salmonellae worldwide....

Laboratory-Based Surveillance and Molecular Characterization of Dengue Viruses in Taiwan, 2014.

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Shu-Fen; Yang, Cheng-Fen; Hsu, Tung-Chieh; Su, Chien-Ling; Lin, Chien-Chou; Shu, Pei-Yun

2016-04-01

We present the results of a laboratory-based surveillance of dengue in Taiwan in 2014. A total of 240 imported dengue cases were identified. The patients had arrived from 16 countries, and Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and China were the most frequent importing countries. Phylogenetic analyses showed that genotype I of dengue virus type 1 (DENV-1) and the cosmopolitan genotype of DENV-2 were the predominant DENV strains circulating in southeast Asia. The 2014 dengue epidemic was the largest ever to occur in Taiwan since World War II, and there were 15,492 laboratory-confirmed indigenous dengue cases. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the explosive dengue epidemic in southern Taiwan was caused by a DENV-1 strain of genotype I imported from Indonesia. There were several possible causes of this outbreak, including delayed notification of the outbreak, limited staff and resources for control measures, abnormal weather conditions, and a serious gas pipeline explosion in the dengue hot spot areas in Kaohsiung City. However, the results of this surveillance indicated that both active and passive surveillance systems should be strengthened so appropriate public health measures can be taken promptly to prevent large-scale dengue outbreaks. © The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Remote container monitoring and surveillance systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Resnik, W.M.; Kadner, S.P.

1995-01-01

Aquila Technologies Group is developing a monitoring and surveillance system to monitor containers of nuclear materials. The system will both visually and physically monitor the containers. The system is based on the combination of Aquila's Gemini All-Digital Surveillance System and on Aquila's AssetLAN trademark asset tracking technology. This paper discusses the Gemini Digital Surveillance system as well as AssetLAN technology. The Gemini architecture with emphasis on anti-tamper security features is also described. The importance of all-digital surveillance versus other surveillance methods is also discussed. AssetLAN trademark technology is described, emphasizing the ability to continually track containers (as assets) by location utilizing touch memory technology. Touch memory technology provides unique container identification, as well as the ability to store and retrieve digital information on the container. This information may relate to container maintenance, inspection schedules, and other information. Finally, this paper describes the combination of the Gemini system with AssetLAN technology, yielding a self contained, container monitoring and area/container surveillance system. Secure container fixture design considerations are discussed. Basic surveillance review functions are also discussed

Ambient Surveillance by Probabilistic-Possibilistic Perception

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bittermann, M.S.; Ciftcioglu, O.

2013-01-01

A method for quantifying ambient surveillance is presented, which is based on probabilistic-possibilistic perception. The human surveillance of a scene through observing camera sensed images on a monitor is modeled in three steps. First immersion of the observer is simulated by modeling perception

Predicting costs of alien species surveillance across varying transportation networks

Science.gov (United States)

Laura Blackburn; Rebecca Epanchin-Niell; Alexandra Thompson; Andrew Liebhold; Jacqueline Beggs

2017-01-01

Efforts to detect and eradicate invading populations before they establish are a critical component of national biosecurity programmes. An essential element for maximizing the efficiency of these efforts is the balancing of expenditures on surveillance (e.g. trapping) versus treatment (e.g. eradication). Identifying the optimal allocation of resources towards...

Nonbinary tree-based phylogenetic networks

OpenAIRE

Jetten, Laura; van Iersel, Leo

2016-01-01

Rooted phylogenetic networks are used to describe evolutionary histories that contain non-treelike evolutionary events such as hybridization and horizontal gene transfer. In some cases, such histories can be described by a phylogenetic base-tree with additional linking arcs, which can for example represent gene transfer events. Such phylogenetic networks are called tree-based. Here, we consider two possible generalizations of this concept to nonbinary networks, which we call tree-based and st...

A video imaging system and related control hardware for nuclear safeguards surveillance applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Whichello, J.V.

1987-03-01

A novel video surveillance system has been developed for safeguards applications in nuclear installations. The hardware was tested at a small experimental enrichment facility located at the Lucas Heights Research Laboratories. The system uses digital video techniques to store, encode and transmit still television pictures over the public telephone network to a receiver located in the Australian Safeguards Office at Kings Cross, Sydney. A decoded, reconstructed picture is then obtained using a second video frame store. A computer-controlled video cassette recorder is used automatically to archive the surveillance pictures. The design of the surveillance system is described with examples of its operation

A GIS-driven integrated real-time surveillance pilot system for national West Nile virus dead bird surveillance in Canada

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aramini Jeff

2006-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background An extensive West Nile virus surveillance program of dead birds, mosquitoes, horses, and human infection has been launched as a result of West Nile virus first being reported in Canada in 2001. Some desktop and web GIS have been applied to West Nile virus dead bird surveillance. There have been urgent needs for a comprehensive GIS services and real-time surveillance. Results A pilot system was developed to integrate real-time surveillance, real-time GIS, and Open GIS technology in order to enhance West Nile virus dead bird surveillance in Canada. Driven and linked by the newly developed real-time web GIS technology, this integrated real-time surveillance system includes conventional real-time web-based surveillance components, integrated real-time GIS components, and integrated Open GIS components. The pilot system identified the major GIS functions and capacities that may be important to public health surveillance. The six web GIS clients provide a wide range of GIS tools for public health surveillance. The pilot system has been serving Canadian national West Nile virus dead bird surveillance since 2005 and is adaptable to serve other disease surveillance. Conclusion This pilot system has streamlined, enriched and enhanced national West Nile virus dead bird surveillance in Canada, improved productivity, and reduced operation cost. Its real-time GIS technology, static map technology, WMS integration, and its integration with non-GIS real-time surveillance system made this pilot system unique in surveillance and public health GIS.

The critical role of acute flaccid paralysis surveillance in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

Science.gov (United States)

Tangermann, Rudolf H; Lamoureux, Christine; Tallis, Graham; Goel, Ajay

2017-05-01

Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance is a key strategy used by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) to measure progress towards reaching the global eradication goal. Supported by a global polio laboratory network, AFP surveillance is conducted in 179 of 194 WHO member states. Active surveillance visits to priority health facilities are used to assure all children polio laboratories. The quality of AFP surveillance is regularly monitored with standardized surveillance quality indicators. In highest risk countries and areas, the sensitivity of AFP surveillance is enhanced by environmental surveillance (testing of sewage samples). Genetic sequencing of detected poliovirus isolates yields programmatically important information on polio transmission pathways. AFP surveillance is one of the most valuable assets of the GPEI, with the potential to serve as a platform to build integrated disease surveillance systems. Continued support to maintain AFP surveillance systems will be essential, to reliably monitor the completion of global polio eradication, and to assure that a key resource for building surveillance capacity is transitioned post-eradication to support other health priorities. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Automated processing of thermal infrared images of Osservatorio Vesuviano permanent surveillance network by using Matlab code

Science.gov (United States)

Sansivero, Fabio; Vilardo, Giuseppe; Caputo, Teresa

2017-04-01

The permanent thermal infrared surveillance network of Osservatorio Vesuviano (INGV) is composed of 6 stations which acquire IR frames of fumarole fields in the Campi Flegrei caldera and inside the Vesuvius crater (Italy). The IR frames are uploaded to a dedicated server in the Surveillance Center of Osservatorio Vesuviano in order to process the infrared data and to excerpt all the information contained. In a first phase the infrared data are processed by an automated system (A.S.I.R.A. Acq- Automated System of IR Analysis and Acquisition) developed in Matlab environment and with a user-friendly graphic user interface (GUI). ASIRA daily generates time-series of residual temperature values of the maximum temperatures observed in the IR scenes after the removal of seasonal effects. These time-series are displayed in the Surveillance Room of Osservatorio Vesuviano and provide information about the evolution of shallow temperatures field of the observed areas. In particular the features of ASIRA Acq include: a) efficient quality selection of IR scenes, b) IR images co-registration in respect of a reference frame, c) seasonal correction by using a background-removal methodology, a) filing of IR matrices and of the processed data in shared archives accessible to interrogation. The daily archived records can be also processed by ASIRA Plot (Matlab code with GUI) to visualize IR data time-series and to help in evaluating inputs parameters for further data processing and analysis. Additional processing features are accomplished in a second phase by ASIRA Tools which is Matlab code with GUI developed to extract further information from the dataset in automated way. The main functions of ASIRA Tools are: a) the analysis of temperature variations of each pixel of the IR frame in a given time interval, b) the removal of seasonal effects from temperature of every pixel in the IR frames by using an analytic approach (removal of sinusoidal long term seasonal component by using a

Poliovirus Laboratory Based Surveillance: An Overview.

Science.gov (United States)

Zaidi, Syed Sohail Zahoor; Asghar, Humayun; Sharif, Salmaan; Alam, Muhammad Masroor

2016-01-01

World Health Assembly (WHA) in 1988 encouraged the member states to launch Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) (resolution WHA41.28) against "the Crippler" called poliovirus, through strong routine immunization program and intensified surveillance systems. Since its launch, global incidence of poliomyelitis has been reduced by more than 99 % and the disease squeezed to only three endemic countries (Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria) out of 125. Today, poliomyelitis is on the verge of eradication, and their etiological agents, the three poliovirus serotypes, are on the brink of extinction from the natural environment. The last case of poliomyelitis due to wild type 2 strain occurred in 1999 in Uttar Pradesh, India whereas the last paralytic case due to wild poliovirus type 3 (WPV3) was seen in November, 2012 in Yobe, Nigeria. Despite this progress, undetected circulation cannot fully rule out the eradication as most of the poliovirus infections are entirely subclinical; hence sophisticated environmental surveillance is needed to ensure the complete eradication of virus. Moreover, the vaccine virus in under-immunized communities can sometimes revert and attain wild type characteristics posing a big challenge to the program.

Development of a Machine Learning Algorithm for the Surveillance of Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matthew J Maenner

Full Text Available The Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM Network conducts population-based surveillance of autism spectrum disorder (ASD among 8-year old children in multiple US sites. To classify ASD, trained clinicians review developmental evaluations collected from multiple health and education sources to determine whether the child meets the ASD surveillance case criteria. The number of evaluations collected has dramatically increased since the year 2000, challenging the resources and timeliness of the surveillance system. We developed and evaluated a machine learning approach to classify case status in ADDM using words and phrases contained in children's developmental evaluations. We trained a random forest classifier using data from the 2008 Georgia ADDM site which included 1,162 children with 5,396 evaluations (601 children met ADDM ASD criteria using standard ADDM methods. The classifier used the words and phrases from the evaluations to predict ASD case status. We evaluated its performance on the 2010 Georgia ADDM surveillance data (1,450 children with 9,811 evaluations; 754 children met ADDM ASD criteria. We also estimated ASD prevalence using predictions from the classification algorithm. Overall, the machine learning approach predicted ASD case statuses that were 86.5% concordant with the clinician-determined case statuses (84.0% sensitivity, 89.4% predictive value positive. The area under the resulting receiver-operating characteristic curve was 0.932. Algorithm-derived ASD "prevalence" was 1.46% compared to the published (clinician-determined estimate of 1.55%. Using only the text contained in developmental evaluations, a machine learning algorithm was able to discriminate between children that do and do not meet ASD surveillance criteria at one surveillance site.

Removing a barrier to computer-based outbreak and disease surveillance--the RODS Open Source Project.

Science.gov (United States)

Espino, Jeremy U; Wagner, M; Szczepaniak, C; Tsui, F C; Su, H; Olszewski, R; Liu, Z; Chapman, W; Zeng, X; Ma, L; Lu, Z; Dara, J

2004-09-24

Computer-based outbreak and disease surveillance requires high-quality software that is well-supported and affordable. Developing software in an open-source framework, which entails free distribution and use of software and continuous, community-based software development, can produce software with such characteristics, and can do so rapidly. The objective of the Real-Time Outbreak and Disease Surveillance (RODS) Open Source Project is to accelerate the deployment of computer-based outbreak and disease surveillance systems by writing software and catalyzing the formation of a community of users, developers, consultants, and scientists who support its use. The University of Pittsburgh seeded the Open Source Project by releasing the RODS software under the GNU General Public License. An infrastructure was created, consisting of a website, mailing lists for developers and users, designated software developers, and shared code-development tools. These resources are intended to encourage growth of the Open Source Project community. Progress is measured by assessing website usage, number of software downloads, number of inquiries, number of system deployments, and number of new features or modules added to the code base. During September--November 2003, users generated 5,370 page views of the project website, 59 software downloads, 20 inquiries, one new deployment, and addition of four features. Thus far, health departments and companies have been more interested in using the software as is than in customizing or developing new features. The RODS laboratory anticipates that after initial installation has been completed, health departments and companies will begin to customize the software and contribute their enhancements to the public code base.

Surveillance for Neisseria meningitidis Disease Activity and Transmission Using Information Technology.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S Sohail Ahmed

Full Text Available While formal reporting, surveillance, and response structures remain essential to protecting public health, a new generation of freely accessible, online, and real-time informatics tools for disease tracking are expanding the ability to raise earlier public awareness of emerging disease threats. The rationale for this study is to test the hypothesis that the HealthMap informatics tools can complement epidemiological data captured by traditional surveillance monitoring systems for meningitis due to Neisseria meningitides (N. meningitides by highlighting severe transmissible disease activity and outbreaks in the United States.Annual analyses of N. meningitides disease alerts captured by HealthMap were compared to epidemiological data captured by the Centers for Disease Control's Active Bacterial Core surveillance (ABCs for N. meningitides. Morbidity and mortality case reports were measured annually from 2010 to 2013 (HealthMap and 2005 to 2012 (ABCs.HealthMap N. meningitides monitoring captured 80-90% of alerts as diagnosed N. meningitides, 5-20% of alerts as suspected cases, and 5-10% of alerts as related news articles. HealthMap disease alert activity for emerging disease threats related to N. meningitides were in agreement with patterns identified historically using traditional surveillance systems. HealthMap's strength lies in its ability to provide a cumulative "snapshot" of weak signals that allows for rapid dissemination of knowledge and earlier public awareness of potential outbreak status while formal testing and confirmation for specific serotypes is ongoing by public health authorities.The underreporting of disease cases in internet-based data streaming makes inadequate any comparison to epidemiological trends illustrated by the more comprehensive ABCs network published by the Centers for Disease Control. However, the expected delays in compiling confirmatory reports by traditional surveillance systems (at the time of writing, ABCs data

Introduction to surveillance studies

CERN Document Server

Petersen, JK

2012-01-01

Introduction & OverviewIntroduction Brief History of Surveillance Technologies & TechniquesOptical SurveillanceAerial Surveillance Audio Surveillance Radio-Wave SurveillanceGlobal Positioning Systems Sensors Computers & the Internet Data Cards Biochemical Surveillance Animal Surveillance Biometrics Genetics Practical ConsiderationsPrevalence of Surveillance Effectiveness of Surveillance Freedom & Privacy IssuesConstitutional Freedoms Privacy Safeguards & Intrusions ResourcesReferences Glossary Index

Analyzing the factors affecting network lifetime cluster-based wireless sensor network

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Malik, A.S.; Qureshi, A.

2010-01-01

Cluster-based wireless sensor networks enable the efficient utilization of the limited energy resources of the deployed sensor nodes and hence prolong the node as well as network lifetime. Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (Leach) is one of the most promising clustering protocol proposed for wireless sensor networks. This paper provides the energy utilization and lifetime analysis for cluster-based wireless sensor networks based upon LEACH protocol. Simulation results identify some important factors that induce unbalanced energy utilization between the sensor nodes and hence affect the network lifetime in these types of networks. These results highlight the need for a standardized, adaptive and distributed clustering technique that can increase the network lifetime by further balancing the energy utilization among sensor nodes. (author)

Commercial Online Social Network Data and Statin Side-Effect Surveillance: A Pilot Observational Study of Aggregate Mentions on Facebook.

Science.gov (United States)

Huesch, Marco D

2017-12-01

Surveillance of the safety of prescribed drugs after marketing approval has been secured remains fraught with complications. Formal ascertainment by providers and reporting to adverse-event registries, formal surveys by manufacturers, and mining of electronic medical records are all well-known approaches with varying degrees of difficulty, cost, and success. Novel approaches may be a useful adjunct, especially approaches that mine or sample internet-based methods such as online social networks. A novel commercial software-as-a-service data-mining product supplied by Sysomos from Datasift/Facebook was used to mine all mentions on Facebook of statins and stain-related side effects in the US in the 1-month period 9 January 2017 through 8 February 2017. A total of 4.3% of all 25,700 mentions of statins also mentioned typical stain-related side effects. Multiple methodological weaknesses stymie interpretation of this percentage, which is however not inconsistent with estimates that 5-20% of patients taking statins will experience typical side effects at some time. Future work on pharmacovigilance may be informed by this novel commercial tool, but the inability to mine the full text of a posting poses serious challenges to content categorization.

ACP Facility Safety Surveillance System Installation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

You, Gil Sung; Kook, D. H.; Choung, W. M.; Ku, J. H.; Cho, I. J.; You, G. S.; Kwon, K. C.; Lee, W. K.; Lee, E. P.

2006-10-01

The Advanced spent fuel Conditioning Process is under development for effective management of spent fuel by converting UO 2 into U-metal. For demonstration of this process, α-γ type new hotcell was built in the IMEF basement. All facilities which treat radioactive materials must manage CCTV system which is under control of Health Physics department. Three main points (including hotcell rear door area) have each camera, but operators who are in charge of facility management need to check the safety of the facility immediately through the network in his office. This needs introduce additional network cameras installation and this new surveillance system is expected to update the whole safety control ability with existing system

Implementing hospital-based surveillance for severe acute respiratory infections caused by influenza and other respiratory pathogens in New Zealand

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Q Sue Huang

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Background: Recent experience with pandemic influenza A(H1N1pdm09 highlighted the importance of global surveillance for severe respiratory disease to support pandemic preparedness and seasonal influenza control. Improved surveillance in the southern hemisphere is needed to provide critical data on influenza epidemiology, disease burden, circulating strains and effectiveness of influenza prevention and control measures. Hospital-based surveillance for severe acute respiratory infection (SARI cases was established in New Zealand on 30 April 2012. The aims were to measure incidence, prevalence, risk factors, clinical spectrum and outcomes for SARI and associated influenza and other respiratory pathogen cases as well as to understand influenza contribution to patients not meeting SARI case definition. Methods/Design: All inpatients with suspected respiratory infections who were admitted overnight to the study hospitals were screened daily. If a patient met the World Health Organization’s SARI case definition, a respiratory specimen was tested for influenza and other respiratory pathogens. A case report form captured demographics, history of presenting illness, co-morbidities, disease course and outcome and risk factors. These data were supplemented from electronic clinical records and other linked data sources. Discussion: Hospital-based SARI surveillance has been implemented and is fully functioning in New Zealand. Active, prospective, continuous, hospital-based SARI surveillance is useful in supporting pandemic preparedness for emerging influenza A(H7N9 virus infections and seasonal influenza prevention and control.

Optimized and Executive Survey of Physical Node Capture Attack in Wireless Sensor Network

OpenAIRE

Bhavana Butani; Piyush Kumar Shukla; Sanjay Silakari

2014-01-01

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are novel large-scale wireless networks that consist of distributed, self organizing, low-power, low-cost, tiny sensor devices to cooperatively collect information through infrastructure less wireless networks. These networks are envisioned to play a crucial role in variety of applications like critical military surveillance applications, forest fire monitoring, commercial applications such as building security monitoring, traffic surveillance, habitat monitori...

Ground Control Point - Wireless System Network for UAV-based environmental monitoring applications

Science.gov (United States)

Mejia-Aguilar, Abraham

2016-04-01

In recent years, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) have seen widespread civil applications including usage for survey and monitoring services in areas such as agriculture, construction and civil engineering, private surveillance and reconnaissance services and cultural heritage management. Most aerial monitoring services require the integration of information acquired during the flight (such as imagery) with ground-based information (such as GPS information or others) for improved ground truth validation. For example, to obtain an accurate 3D and Digital Elevation Model based on aerial imagery, it is necessary to include ground-based information of coordinate points, which are normally acquired with surveying methods based on Global Position Systems (GPS). However, GPS surveys are very time consuming and especially for longer time series of monitoring data repeated GPS surveys are necessary. In order to improve speed of data collection and integration, this work presents an autonomous system based on Waspmote technologies build on single nodes interlinked in a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) star-topology for ground based information collection and later integration with surveying data obtained by UAV. Nodes are designed to be visible from the air, to resist extreme weather conditions with low-power consumption. Besides, nodes are equipped with GPS as well as Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), accelerometer, temperature and soil moisture sensors and thus provide significant advantages in a broad range of applications for environmental monitoring. For our purpose, the WSN transmits the environmental data with 3G/GPRS to a database on a regular time basis. This project provides a detailed case study and implementation of a Ground Control Point System Network for UAV-based vegetation monitoring of dry mountain grassland in the Matsch valley, Italy.

Directory Enabled Policy Based Networking; TOPICAL

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

KELIIAA, CURTIS M.

2001-01-01

This report presents a discussion of directory-enabled policy-based networking with an emphasis on its role as the foundation for securely scalable enterprise networks. A directory service provides the object-oriented logical environment for interactive cyber-policy implementation. Cyber-policy implementation includes security, network management, operational process and quality of service policies. The leading network-technology vendors have invested in these technologies for secure universal connectivity that transverses Internet, extranet and intranet boundaries. Industry standards are established that provide the fundamental guidelines for directory deployment scalable to global networks. The integration of policy-based networking with directory-service technologies provides for intelligent management of the enterprise network environment as an end-to-end system of related clients, services and resources. This architecture allows logical policies to protect data, manage security and provision critical network services permitting a proactive defense-in-depth cyber-security posture. Enterprise networking imposes the consideration of supporting multiple computing platforms, sites and business-operation models. An industry-standards based approach combined with principled systems engineering in the deployment of these technologies allows these issues to be successfully addressed. This discussion is focused on a directory-based policy architecture for the heterogeneous enterprise network-computing environment and does not propose specific vendor solutions. This document is written to present practical design methodology and provide an understanding of the risks, complexities and most important, the benefits of directory-enabled policy-based networking

Cost effectiveness of surveillance for GI cancers.

Science.gov (United States)

Omidvari, Amir-Houshang; Meester, Reinier G S; Lansdorp-Vogelaar, Iris

2016-12-01

Gastrointestinal (GI) diseases are among the leading causes of death in the world. To reduce the burden of GI diseases, surveillance is recommended for some diseases, including for patients with inflammatory bowel diseases, Barrett's oesophagus, precancerous gastric lesions, colorectal adenoma, and pancreatic neoplasms. This review aims to provide an overview of the evidence on cost-effectiveness of surveillance of individuals with GI conditions predisposing them to cancer, specifically focussing on the aforementioned conditions. We searched the literature and reviewed 21 studies. Despite heterogeneity of studies in terms of settings, study populations, surveillance strategies and outcomes, most reviewed studies suggested at least some surveillance of patients with these GI conditions to be cost-effective. For some high-risk conditions frequent surveillance with 3-month intervals was warranted, while for other conditions, surveillance may only be cost-effective every 10 years. Further studies based on more robust effectiveness evidence are needed to inform and optimise surveillance programmes for GI cancers. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis, Trichomonas vaginalis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae Based on Data Collected by a Network of Clinical Microbiology Laboratories, in Italy.

Science.gov (United States)

Salfa, Maria Cristina; Suligoi, Barbara

Bacterial and protozoal sexually transmitted infections (STIs), such as Chlamydia trachomatis, Trichomonas vaginalis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae, may cause acute symptoms, chronic infections and severe long-term complications. The complications of these infections in women include pelvic inflammatory disease, chronic pelvic pain, tubal infertility, ectopic pregnancy, and infertility. Moreover, infection during pregnancy is associated with premature rupture of the membranes, low birth weight and miscarriage.In Italy, Chlamydia trachomatis and Trichomonas vaginalis infections are not subject to mandatory reporting; while gonorrhoea is subject to mandatory reporting.To extend surveillance to STIs that are widespread yet often asymptomatic and to improve the knowledge on the epidemiology of these infections in Italy, in 2009 the "Centro Operativo AIDS of the Istituto Superiore di SanitÁ", in collaboration with the Association of Italian Clinical Microbiologists (AMCLI, Associazione Microbiologi Clinici Italiani), launched the sentinel STIs surveillance system based on a network of 13 clinical microbiology laboratories.The main objective of the surveillance was to assess the prevalence and risk factors associated with Chlamydia trachomatis, Trichomonas vaginalis and Neisseria gonorrhoea infections among individuals attending microbiology laboratories in Italy.

WGS-based surveillance of third-generation cephalosporin-resistant Escherichia coli from bloodstream infections in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Roer, Louise; Hansen, Frank; Thomsen, Martin Christen Frølund

2017-01-01

clone, here observed for the first time in Denmark. Additionally, the analysis revealed three individual cases with possible persistence of closely related clones collected more than 13 months apart. Continuous WGS-based national surveillance of 3GC-R Ec , in combination with more detailed......-genome sequenced and characterized by using the batch uploader from the Center for Genomic Epidemiology (CGE) and automatically analysed using the CGE tools according to resistance profile, MLST, serotype and fimH subtype. Additionally, the phylogenetic relationship of the isolates was analysed by SNP analysis......To evaluate a genome-based surveillance of all Danish third-generation cephalosporin-resistant Escherichia coli (3GC-R Ec ) from bloodstream infections between 2014 and 2015, focusing on horizontally transferable resistance mechanisms. A collection of 552 3GC-R Ec isolates were whole...

Crowd density estimation based on convolutional neural networks with mixed pooling

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Li; Zheng, Hong; Zhang, Ying; Zhang, Dongming

2017-09-01

Crowd density estimation is an important topic in the fields of machine learning and video surveillance. Existing methods do not provide satisfactory classification accuracy; moreover, they have difficulty in adapting to complex scenes. Therefore, we propose a method based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs). The proposed method improves performance of crowd density estimation in two key ways. First, we propose a feature pooling method named mixed pooling to regularize the CNNs. It replaces deterministic pooling operations with a parameter that, by studying the algorithm, could combine the conventional max pooling with average pooling methods. Second, we present a classification strategy, in which an image is divided into two cells and respectively categorized. The proposed approach was evaluated on three datasets: two ground truth image sequences and the University of California, San Diego, anomaly detection dataset. The results demonstrate that the proposed approach performs more effectively and easily than other methods.

Policy-based Network Management in Home Area Networks: Interim Test Results

OpenAIRE

Ibrahim Rana, Annie; Ó Foghlú, Mícheál

2009-01-01

This paper argues that Home Area Networks (HANs) are a good candidate for advanced network management automation techniques, such as Policy-Based Network Management (PBNM). What is proposed is a simple use of policy based network management to introduce some level of Quality of Service (QoS) and Security management in the HAN, whilst hiding this complexity from the home user. In this paper we have presented the interim test results of our research experiments (based on a scenario) using the H...

Building a transnational biosurveillance network using semantic web technologies: requirements, design, and preliminary evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Teodoro, Douglas; Pasche, Emilie; Gobeill, Julien; Emonet, Stéphane; Ruch, Patrick; Lovis, Christian

2012-05-29

Antimicrobial resistance has reached globally alarming levels and is becoming a major public health threat. Lack of efficacious antimicrobial resistance surveillance systems was identified as one of the causes of increasing resistance, due to the lag time between new resistances and alerts to care providers. Several initiatives to track drug resistance evolution have been developed. However, no effective real-time and source-independent antimicrobial resistance monitoring system is available publicly. To design and implement an architecture that can provide real-time and source-independent antimicrobial resistance monitoring to support transnational resistance surveillance. In particular, we investigated the use of a Semantic Web-based model to foster integration and interoperability of interinstitutional and cross-border microbiology laboratory databases. Following the agile software development methodology, we derived the main requirements needed for effective antimicrobial resistance monitoring, from which we proposed a decentralized monitoring architecture based on the Semantic Web stack. The architecture uses an ontology-driven approach to promote the integration of a network of sentinel hospitals or laboratories. Local databases are wrapped into semantic data repositories that automatically expose local computing-formalized laboratory information in the Web. A central source mediator, based on local reasoning, coordinates the access to the semantic end points. On the user side, a user-friendly Web interface provides access and graphical visualization to the integrated views. We designed and implemented the online Antimicrobial Resistance Trend Monitoring System (ARTEMIS) in a pilot network of seven European health care institutions sharing 70+ million triples of information about drug resistance and consumption. Evaluation of the computing performance of the mediator demonstrated that, on average, query response time was a few seconds (mean 4.3, SD 0.1 × 10

Active SMS-based influenza vaccine safety surveillance in Australian children.

Science.gov (United States)

Pillsbury, Alexis; Quinn, Helen; Cashman, Patrick; Leeb, Alan; Macartney, Kristine

2017-12-18

Australia's novel, active surveillance system, AusVaxSafety, monitors the post-market safety of vaccines in near real time. We analysed cumulative surveillance data for children aged 6 months to 4 years who received seasonal influenza vaccine in 2015 and/or 2016 to determine: adverse event following immunisation (AEFI) rates by vaccine brand, age and concomitant vaccine administration. Parent/carer reports of AEFI occurring within 3 days of their child receiving an influenza vaccine in sentinel immunisation clinics were solicited by Short Message Service (SMS) and/or email-based survey. Retrospective data from 2 years were combined to examine specific AEFI rates, particularly fever and medical attendance as a proxy for serious adverse events (SAE), with and without concomitant vaccine administration. As trivalent influenza vaccines (TIV) were funded in Australia's National Immunisation Program (NIP) in 2015 and quadrivalent (QIV) in 2016, respectively, we compared their safety profiles. 7402 children were included. Data were reported weekly through each vaccination season; no safety signals or excess of adverse events were detected. More children who received a concomitant vaccine had fever (7.5% versus 2.8%; p vaccine was associated with the highest increase in AEFI rates among children receiving a specified concomitant vaccine: 30.3% reported an AEFI compared with 7.3% who received an influenza vaccine alone (p safety profiles included low and expected AEFI rates (fever: 4.3% for TIV compared with 3.2% for QIV (p = .015); injection site reaction: 1.9% for TIV compared with 3.0% for QIV (p safety profile between brands. Active participant-reported data provided timely vaccine brand-specific safety information. Our surveillance system has particular utility in monitoring the safety of influenza vaccines, given that they may vary in composition annually. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A focused ethnographic study of Alberta cattle veterinarians' decision making about diagnostic laboratory submissions and perceptions of surveillance programs.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kate Sawford

Full Text Available The animal and public health communities need to address the challenge posed by zoonotic emerging infectious diseases. To minimize the impacts of future events, animal disease surveillance will need to enable prompt event detection and response. Diagnostic laboratory-based surveillance systems targeting domestic animals depend in large part on private veterinarians to submit samples from cases to a laboratory. In contexts where pre-diagnostic laboratory surveillance systems have been implemented, this group of veterinarians is often asked to input data. This scenario holds true in Alberta where private cattle veterinarians have been asked to participate in the Alberta Veterinary Surveillance Network-Veterinary Practice Surveillance, a platform to which pre-diagnostic disease and non-disease case data are submitted. Consequently, understanding the factors that influence these veterinarians to submit cases to a laboratory and the complex of factors that affect their participation in surveillance programs is foundational to interpreting disease patterns reported by laboratories and engaging veterinarians in surveillance. A focused ethnographic study was conducted with ten cattle veterinarians in Alberta. Individual in-depth interviews with participants were recorded and transcribed to enable thematic analysis. Laboratory submissions were biased toward outbreaks of unknown cause, cases with unusual mortality rates, and issues with potential herd-level implications. Decreasing cattle value and government support for laboratory testing have contributed to fewer submissions over time. Participants were willing participants in surveillance, though government support and collaboration were necessary. Changes in the beef industry and veterinary profession, as well as cattle producers themselves, present both challenges and opportunities in surveillance.

Organization of surveillance in GI practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Senore, Carlo; Bellisario, Cristina; Hassan, Cesare

2016-12-01

Several reports documented an inefficient utilisation of available resources, as well as a suboptimal compliance with surveillance recommendations. Although, evidence suggests that organisational issues can influence the quality of care delivered, surveillance protocols are usually based on non-organized approaches. We conducted a literature search (publication date: 01/2000-06/2016) on PubMed and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials for guidelines, or consensus statements, for surveys of practice, reporting information about patients, or providers attitudes and behaviours, for intervention studies to enhance compliance with guidelines. Related articles were also scrutinised. Based on the clinical relevance and burden on endoscopy services this review was focused on surveillance for Barrett's oesophagus, IBD and post-polypectomy surveillance of colonic adenomas. Existing guidelines are generally recognising structure and process requirements influencing delivery of surveillance interventions, while less attention had been devoted to transitions and interfaces in the care process. Available evidence from practice surveys is suggesting the need to design organizational strategies aimed to enable patients to attend and providers to deliver timely and appropriate care. Well designed studies assessing the effectiveness of specific interventions in this setting are however lacking. Indirect evidence from screening settings would suggest that the implementation of automated standardized recall systems, utilisation of clinical registries, removing financial barriers, could improve appropriateness of use and compliance with recommendations. Lack of sound evidence regarding utility and methodology of surveillance can contribute to explain the observed variability in providers and patients attitudes and in compliance with the recommended surveillance. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier

Google e Linkedin: algumas questões articulando visibilidade, vigilância e subjetividade | Google and LinkedIn: questions that address visibility, surveillance and subjectivity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana Paula da Cunha Rodrigues

2016-11-01

ABSTRACT The world of work has undergone changes, many of them caused by the crossing of new technologies, which demand constant restructuring, requiring a reorganization with assemblages such as flexibility, stress and deadline. These professionals lend to organizations the skills inherited from the technological way they manage their work to manage their own lives, based on competition and efficiency.  We will take the episodes: "hiring via social network", and "the right to be forgotten", considering the crossing of technology, control and surveillance devices. Keywords: Work; Technology; Technological Devices; Surveillance; Visibility.

On-line surveillance system for Borssele nuclear power plant monitoring and diagnostics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tuerkcan, E.; Ciftcioglu, Oe.

1993-08-01

An operating on-line surveillance and diagnostic system is described where information processing for monitoring and fault diagnosis and plant maintenance are addressed. The surveillance system by means of its realtime multiprocessing, multitasking execution capabilities can perform plant-wide and wide-range monitoring for enhanced plant safety and operational reliability as well as enhanced maintenance. At the same time the system provides the possibilities for goal-oriented research and development such as estimation, filtering, verification and validation and neural networks. (orig./HP)

INFLUENZA SURVEILLANCE IN RUSSIA BASED ON EPIDEMIOLOGICAL AND LABORATORY DATA FOR THE PERIOD FROM 2005 TO 2012

Science.gov (United States)

Anna, Sominina; Burtseva, Elena; Eropkin, Mikhail; Karpova, Ludmila; Zarubaev, Vladimir; Smorodintseva, Elizaveta; Konovalova, Nadezhda; Danilenko, Daria; Prokopetz, Alexandra; Grudinin, Mikhail; Pisareva, Maria; Anfimov, Pavel; Stolyarov, Kirill; Kiselev, Oleg; Shevchenko, Elena; Ivanova, Valeriya; Trushakova, Svetlana; Breslav, Nataliya; Lvov, Dmitriy; Klimov, Alexander; Moen, Ann; Cox, Nancy

2015-01-01

Exchange of information on and sharing of influenza viruses through the GISRS network has great significance for understanding influenza virus evolution, recognition of a new pandemic virus emergence and for preparing annual WHO recommendations on influenza vaccine strain composition. Influenza surveillance in Russia is based on collaboration of two NICs with 59 Regional Bases. Most epidemiological and laboratory data are entered through the internet into the electronic database at the Research Institute of Influenza (RII), where they are analyzed and then reported to the Ministry of Public Health of Russia. Simultaneously, data are introduced into WHO’s Flu Net and Euro Flu, both electronic databases. Annual influenza epidemics of moderate intensity were registered during four pre-pandemic seasons. Children aged 0–2 and 3–6 years were the most affected groups of the population. Influenza registered clinically among hospitalized patients with respiratory infections for the whole epidemic period varied between 1.3 and 5.4% and up but to 18.5–23.0% during the peak of the two pandemic waves caused by influenza A(H1N1) pdm 09 virus and to lesser extent (2.9 to 8.5%) during usual seasonal epidemics. Most epidemics were associated with influenza A(H1N1), A(H3N2) and B co-circulation. During the two pandemic waves (in 2009–2010 and 2010–2011) influenza A(H1N1) pdm 09 predominated. It was accompanied by a rapid growth of influenza morbidity with a significant increase of both hospitalization and mortality. The new pandemic virus displaced the previous seasonal A(H1N1) virus completely. As a rule, most of the influenza viruses circulating in Russia were antigenic ally related to the strains recommended by WHO for vaccine composition for the Northern hemisphere with the exception of two seasons when an unexpected replacement of the influenza B Victoria lineage by Yamagata lineage (2007–2008) and the following return of Victoria lineage viruses (2008–2009) was

Reduced risk of surgical site infections through surveillance in a network

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Geubbels, Eveline L. P. E.; Nagelkerke, Nico J. D.; Mintjes-de Groot, A. Joke; Vandenbroucke-Grauls, Christina M. J. E.; Grobbee, Diederick E.; de Boer, Annette S.

2006-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the effect of multicentre surveillance for nosocomial infections on patients' risk of surgical site infection (SSI). DESIGN: Prospective multi-centre cohort study, from January 1996 to December 2000. SETTING: Acute care hospitals in The Netherlands. STUDY PARTICIPANTS: All 50

Development of an electronic emergency department-based geo-information injury surveillance system in Hong Kong.

Science.gov (United States)

Chow, C B; Leung, M; Lai, Adela; Chow, Y H; Chung, Joanne; Tong, K M; Lit, Albert

2012-06-01

To describe the experience in the development of an electronic emergency department (ED)-based injury surveillance (IS) system in Hong Kong using data-mining and geo-spatial information technology (IT) for a Safe Community setup. This paper described the phased development of an emergency department-based IS system based on World Health Organization (WHO) injury surveillance Guideline to support safety promotion and injury prevention in a Safe Community in Hong Kong starting 2002. The initial ED data-based only collected data on name, sex, age, address, eight general categories of injury types (traffic, domestic, common assault, indecent assault, batter, industrial, self-harm and sports) and disposal from ED. Phase 1--manual data collection on International Classification of External Causes of Injury pre-event data; Phase 2--manual form was converted to electronic format using web-based data mining technology with built in data quality monitoring mechanism; Phase 3--integration of injury surveillance-data with in-patient hospital information; and Phase 4--geo-spatial information and body mapping were introduced to geo-code exact place of injury in an electronic map and site of injury on body map. It was feasible to develop a geo-spatial IS system at busy ED to collect valuable information for safety promotion and injury prevention at Safe Community setting. The keys for successful development and implementation involves engagement of all stakeholders at design and implementation of the system with injury prevention as ultimate goal, detail workflow planning at front end, support from the management, building on exiting system and appropriate utilisation of modern technology. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Reaction-Diffusion-Based Coding Rate Control Mechanism for Camera Sensor Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Naoki Wakamiya

2010-08-01

Full Text Available A wireless camera sensor network is useful for surveillance and monitoring for its visibility and easy deployment. However, it suffers from the limited capacity of wireless communication and a network is easily overflown with a considerable amount of video traffic. In this paper, we propose an autonomous video coding rate control mechanism where each camera sensor node can autonomously determine its coding rate in accordance with the location and velocity of target objects. For this purpose, we adopted a biological model, i.e., reaction-diffusion model, inspired by the similarity of biological spatial patterns and the spatial distribution of video coding rate. Through simulation and practical experiments, we verify the effectiveness of our proposal.

A reaction-diffusion-based coding rate control mechanism for camera sensor networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Yamamoto, Hiroshi; Hyodo, Katsuya; Wakamiya, Naoki; Murata, Masayuki

2010-01-01

A wireless camera sensor network is useful for surveillance and monitoring for its visibility and easy deployment. However, it suffers from the limited capacity of wireless communication and a network is easily overflown with a considerable amount of video traffic. In this paper, we propose an autonomous video coding rate control mechanism where each camera sensor node can autonomously determine its coding rate in accordance with the location and velocity of target objects. For this purpose, we adopted a biological model, i.e., reaction-diffusion model, inspired by the similarity of biological spatial patterns and the spatial distribution of video coding rate. Through simulation and practical experiments, we verify the effectiveness of our proposal.

Network-Based Community Brings forth Sustainable Society

Science.gov (United States)

Kikuchi, Toshiko

It has already been shown that an artificial society based on the three relations of social configuration (market, communal, and obligatory relations) functioning in balance with each other formed a sustainable society which the social reproduction is possible. In this artificial society model, communal relations exist in a network-based community with alternating members rather than a conventional community with cooperative mutual assistance practiced in some agricultural communities. In this paper, using the comparison between network-based communities with alternating members and conventional communities with fixed members, the significance of a network-based community is considered. In concrete terms, the difference in appearance rate for sustainable society, economic activity and asset inequality between network-based communities and conventional communities is analyzed. The appearance rate for a sustainable society of network-based community is higher than that of conventional community. Moreover, most of network-based communities had a larger total number of trade volume than conventional communities. But, the value of Gini coefficient in conventional community is smaller than that of network-based community. These results show that communal relations based on a network-based community is significant for the social reproduction and economic efficiency. However, in such an artificial society, the inequality is sacrificed.

Attaching Hollywood to a Surveillant Assemblage: Normalizing Discourses of Video Surveillance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Randy K Lippert

2015-10-01

Full Text Available This article examines video surveillance images in Hollywood film. It moves beyond previous accounts of video surveillance in relation to film by theoretically situating the use of these surveillance images in a broader “surveillant assemblage”. To this end, scenes from a sample of thirty-five (35 films of several genres are examined to discern dominant discourses and how they lend themselves to normalization of video surveillance. Four discourses are discovered and elaborated by providing examples from Hollywood films. While the films provide video surveillance with a positive associative association it is not without nuance and limitations. Thus, it is found that some forms of resistance to video surveillance are shown while its deterrent effect is not. It is ultimately argued that Hollywood film is becoming attached to a video surveillant assemblage discursively through these normalizing discourses as well as structurally to the extent actual video surveillance technology to produce the images is used.

A Quantum Cryptography Communication Network Based on Software Defined Network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhang Hongliang

2018-01-01

Full Text Available With the development of the Internet, information security has attracted great attention in today’s society, and quantum cryptography communication network based on quantum key distribution (QKD is a very important part of this field, since the quantum key distribution combined with one-time-pad encryption scheme can guarantee the unconditional security of the information. The secret key generated by quantum key distribution protocols is a very valuable resource, so making full use of key resources is particularly important. Software definition network (SDN is a new type of network architecture, and it separates the control plane and the data plane of network devices through OpenFlow technology, thus it realizes the flexible control of the network resources. In this paper, a quantum cryptography communication network model based on SDN is proposed to realize the flexible control of quantum key resources in the whole cryptography communication network. Moreover, we propose a routing algorithm which takes into account both the hops and the end-to-end availible keys, so that the secret key generated by QKD can be used effectively. We also simulate this quantum cryptography communication network, and the result shows that based on SDN and the proposed routing algorithm the performance of this network is improved since the effective use of the quantum key resources.

National laboratory-based surveillance system for antimicrobial resistance : a successful tool to support the control of antimicrobial resistance in the Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Altorf-van der Kuil, Wieke; Schoffelen, Annelot F.; de Greeff, Sabine C; Thijsen, Steven Ft; Alblas, H Jeroen; Notermans, Daan W; Vlek, Anne Lm; van der Sande, Marianne Ab; Leenstra, Tjalling

2017-01-01

An important cornerstone in the control of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a well-designed quantitative system for the surveillance of spread and temporal trends in AMR. Since 2008, the Dutch national AMR surveillance system, based on routine data from medical microbiological laboratories (MMLs),

National laboratory-based surveillance system for antimicrobial resistance: a successful tool to support the control of antimicrobial resistance in the Netherlands.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Altorf-van der Kuil, Wieke; Schoffelen, Annelot F; de Greeff, Sabine C; Thijsen, Steven Ft; Alblas, H Jeroen; Notermans, Daan W; Vlek, Anne Lm; van der Sande, Marianne Ab; Leenstra, Tjalling

2017-01-01

An important cornerstone in the control of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a well-designed quantitative system for the surveillance of spread and temporal trends in AMR. Since 2008, the Dutch national AMR surveillance system, based on routine data from medical microbiological laboratories (MMLs),

Global optimization of maintenance and surveillance testing based on reliability and probabilistic safety assessment. Research project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martorell, S.; Serradell, V.; Munoz, A.; Sanchez, A.

1997-01-01

Background, objective, scope, detailed working plan and follow-up and final product of the project ''Global optimization of maintenance and surveillance testing based on reliability and probabilistic safety assessment'' are described

Combining Host-based and network-based intrusion detection system

African Journals Online (AJOL)

These attacks were simulated using hping. The proposed system is implemented in Java. The results show that the proposed system is able to detect attacks both from within (host-based) and outside sources (network-based). Key Words: Intrusion Detection System (IDS), Host-based, Network-based, Signature, Security log.

Investigation of the network delay on Profibus-DP based network

OpenAIRE

Yılmaz, C.; Gürdal, O.; Sayan, H.H.

2008-01-01

The mathematical model of the network-induced delay control systems (NDCS) is given. Also the role of the NDCS’s components such as controller, sensor and network environment on the network-induced delay are included in the mathematical model of the system. The network delay is investigated on Profibus-DP based network application and experimental results obtained are presented graphically. The experimental results obtained show that the network induced delay is randomly changed according to ...

Operational Mosquito and Vector-Borne Diseases Surveillance at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey

Science.gov (United States)

2017-05-23

of Biological Diversity , Columbus, OH, or the - cies and tested for arboviruses. Pools ranged from 1-25 mosquitoes depending on submission numbers...Rickettsia felis (Rickett- - phonaptera: Pulicidae) in the Philippines . J Ento- mol Sci. 2012;47:95-96. Mosquito surveillance data from Incirlik Air Base...Taylor SJ, Durden LA, Foley EH, Reeves WK. The bat tick Carios azteci (Acari: Argasidae) from Be- lize, with an endosymbiotic Coxiellaceae. Speleo

Fine-grained visual marine vessel classification for coastal surveillance and defense applications

Science.gov (United States)

Solmaz, Berkan; Gundogdu, Erhan; Karaman, Kaan; Yücesoy, Veysel; Koç, Aykut

2017-10-01

The need for capabilities of automated visual content analysis has substantially increased due to presence of large number of images captured by surveillance cameras. With a focus on development of practical methods for extracting effective visual data representations, deep neural network based representations have received great attention due to their success in visual categorization of generic images. For fine-grained image categorization, a closely related yet a more challenging research problem compared to generic image categorization due to high visual similarities within subgroups, diverse applications were developed such as classifying images of vehicles, birds, food and plants. Here, we propose the use of deep neural network based representations for categorizing and identifying marine vessels for defense and security applications. First, we gather a large number of marine vessel images via online sources grouping them into four coarse categories; naval, civil, commercial and service vessels. Next, we subgroup naval vessels into fine categories such as corvettes, frigates and submarines. For distinguishing images, we extract state-of-the-art deep visual representations and train support-vector-machines. Furthermore, we fine tune deep representations for marine vessel images. Experiments address two scenarios, classification and verification of naval marine vessels. Classification experiment aims coarse categorization, as well as learning models of fine categories. Verification experiment embroils identification of specific naval vessels by revealing if a pair of images belongs to identical marine vessels by the help of learnt deep representations. Obtaining promising performance, we believe these presented capabilities would be essential components of future coastal and on-board surveillance systems.

An acoustical model based monitoring network

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wessels, P.W.; Basten, T.G.H.; Eerden, F.J.M. van der

2010-01-01

In this paper the approach for an acoustical model based monitoring network is demonstrated. This network is capable of reconstructing a noise map, based on the combination of measured sound levels and an acoustic model of the area. By pre-calculating the sound attenuation within the network the

Epidemiological modelling for the assessment of bovine tuberculosis surveillance in the dairy farm network in Emilia-Romagna (Italy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gianluigi Rossi

2015-06-01

Our analysis showed that slaughterhouse inspection is the most effective surveillance component in reducing the time for disease detection, while routine surveillance in reducing the number of multi-farms epidemics. On the other hand, testing exchanged cattle improved the performance of the surveillance system only marginally.

A vision-based driver nighttime assistance and surveillance system based on intelligent image sensing techniques and a heterogamous dual-core embedded system architecture.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Yen-Lin; Chiang, Hsin-Han; Chiang, Chuan-Yen; Liu, Chuan-Ming; Yuan, Shyan-Ming; Wang, Jenq-Haur

2012-01-01

This study proposes a vision-based intelligent nighttime driver assistance and surveillance system (VIDASS system) implemented by a set of embedded software components and modules, and integrates these modules to accomplish a component-based system framework on an embedded heterogamous dual-core platform. Therefore, this study develops and implements computer vision and sensing techniques of nighttime vehicle detection, collision warning determination, and traffic event recording. The proposed system processes the road-scene frames in front of the host car captured from CCD sensors mounted on the host vehicle. These vision-based sensing and processing technologies are integrated and implemented on an ARM-DSP heterogamous dual-core embedded platform. Peripheral devices, including image grabbing devices, communication modules, and other in-vehicle control devices, are also integrated to form an in-vehicle-embedded vision-based nighttime driver assistance and surveillance system.

A Survey of Routing Issues and Associated Protocols in Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammad Khalid

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Underwater wireless sensor networks are a newly emerging wireless technology in which small size sensors with limited energy and limited memory and bandwidth are deployed in deep sea water and various monitoring operations like tactical surveillance, environmental monitoring, and data collection are performed through these tiny sensors. Underwater wireless sensor networks are used for the exploration of underwater resources, oceanographic data collection, flood or disaster prevention, tactical surveillance systems, and unmanned underwater vehicles. Sensor nodes consist of a small memory, a central processing unit, and an antenna. Underwater networks are much different from terrestrial sensor networks as radio waves cannot be used in underwater wireless sensor networks. Acoustic channels are used for communication in deep sea water. Acoustic signals have many limitations, such as limited bandwidth, higher end-to-end delay, network path loss, higher propagation delay, and dynamic topology. Usually, these limitations result in higher energy consumption with a smaller number of packets delivered. The main aim nowadays is to operate sensor nodes having a smaller battery for a longer time in the network. This survey has discussed the state-of-the-art localization based and localization-free routing protocols. Routing associated issues in the area of underwater wireless sensor networks have also been discussed.

Laboratory-based respiratory virus surveillance pilot project on select cruise ships in Alaska, 2013-15.

Science.gov (United States)

Rogers, Kimberly B; Roohi, Shahrokh; Uyeki, Timothy M; Montgomery, David; Parker, Jayme; Fowler, Nisha H; Xu, Xiyan; Ingram, Deandra J; Fearey, Donna; Williams, Steve M; Tarling, Grant; Brown, Clive M; Cohen, Nicole J

2017-09-01

Influenza outbreaks can occur among passengers and crews during the Alaska summertime cruise season. Ill travellers represent a potential source for introduction of novel or antigenically drifted influenza virus strains to the United States. From May to September 2013-2015, the Alaska Division of Public Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and two cruise lines implemented a laboratory-based public health surveillance project to detect influenza and other respiratory viruses among ill crew members and passengers on select cruise ships in Alaska. Cruise ship medical staff collected 2-3 nasopharyngeal swab specimens per week from passengers and crew members presenting to the ship infirmary with acute respiratory illness (ARI). Specimens were tested for respiratory viruses at the Alaska State Virology Laboratory (ASVL); a subset of specimens positive for influenza virus were sent to CDC for further antigenic characterization. Of 410 nasopharyngeal specimens, 83% tested positive for at least one respiratory virus; 71% tested positive for influenza A or B virus. Antigenic characterization of pilot project specimens identified strains matching predominant circulating seasonal influenza virus strains, which were included in the northern or southern hemisphere influenza vaccines during those years. Results were relatively consistent across age groups, recent travel history, and influenza vaccination status. Onset dates of illness relative to date of boarding differed between northbound (occurring later in the voyage) and southbound (occurring within the first days of the voyage) cruises. The high yield of positive results indicated that influenza was common among passengers and crews sampled with ARI. This finding reinforces the need to bolster influenza prevention and control activities on cruise ships. Laboratory-based influenza surveillance on cruise ships may augment inland influenza surveillance and inform control activities. However, these

MARGINAL EXPENSE OIL WELL WIRELESS SURVEILLANCE MEOWS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mason M. Medizade; John R. Ridgely; Donald G. Nelson

2004-11-01

A marginal expense oil well wireless surveillance system to monitor system performance and production from rod-pumped wells in real time from wells operated by Vaquero Energy in the Edison Field, Main Area of Kern County in California has been successfully designed and field tested. The surveillance system includes a proprietary flow sensor, a programmable transmitting unit, a base receiver and receiving antenna, and a base station computer equipped with software to interpret the data. First, the system design is presented. Second, field data obtained from three wells is shown. Results of the study show that an effective, cost competitive, real-time wireless surveillance system can be introduced to oil fields across the United States and the world.

International comparison of results of infection surveillance: The Netherlands versus Belgium

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mertens, R.; van den Berg, J. M.; Veerman-Brenzikofer, M. L.; Kurz, X.; Jans, B.; Klazinga, N.

1994-01-01

To explore the potential benefit of comparing results from two national surveillance networks. Two prospective multicenter cohort studies of surgical wound infections (SWI). Thirty-five and 62 acute-care hospitals in The Netherlands (NL) and Belgium (B), respectively, from October 1, 1991, to June

Space-Based Space Surveillance Logistics Case Study: A Qualitative Product Support Element Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

2017-12-01

REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED Joint applied project 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE SPACE-BASED SPACE SURVEILLANCE LOGISTICS CASE STUDY: A QUALITATIVE ...INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK v ABSTRACT This research provides a qualitative analysis of the logistics impacts, effects, and sustainment challenges...provides a qualitative product support element-by-element review for both research questions. Chapters IV and V present the findings, results

Traffic intensity monitoring using multiple object detection with traffic surveillance cameras

Science.gov (United States)

Hamdan, H. G. Muhammad; Khalifah, O. O.

2017-11-01

Object detection and tracking is a field of research that has many applications in the current generation with increasing number of cameras on the streets and lower cost for Internet of Things(IoT). In this paper, a traffic intensity monitoring system is implemented based on the Macroscopic Urban Traffic model is proposed using computer vision as its source. The input of this program is extracted from a traffic surveillance camera which has another program running a neural network classification which can identify and differentiate the vehicle type is implanted. The neural network toolbox is trained with positive and negative input to increase accuracy. The accuracy of the program is compared to other related works done and the trends of the traffic intensity from a road is also calculated. relevant articles in literature searches, great care should be taken in constructing both. Lastly the limitation and the future work is concluded.

A Localization Based Cooperative Routing Protocol for Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nadeem Javaid

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Localization is one of the major aspects in underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs. Therefore, it is important to know the accurate position of the sensor node in large scale applications like disaster prevention, tactical surveillance, and monitoring. Due to the inefficiency of the global positioning system (GPS in UWSN, it is very difficult to localize a node in underwater environment compared to terrestrial networks. To minimize the localization error and enhance the localization coverage of the network, two routing protocols are proposed; the first one is mobile autonomous underwater vehicle (MobiL-AUV and the second one is cooperative MobiL (CO-MobiL. In MobiL-AUV, AUVs are deployed and equipped with GPS and act as reference nodes. These reference nodes are used to localize all the nonlocalized ordinary sensor nodes in order to reduce the localization error and maximize the network coverage. CO-MobiL is presented in order to improve the network throughput by using the maximal ratio combining (MRC as diversity technique which combines both signals, received from the source and received from the relay at the destination. It uses amplify-and-forward (AF mechanism to improve the signal between the source and the destination. To support our claims, extensive simulations are performed.

Economic Feasibility of a Siderostat-fed Liquid Mirror Telescope for Surveillance of Space

Science.gov (United States)

2015-04-01

by the Minister of National Defence, 2015 © Sa Majesté la Reine (en droit du Canada), telle que réprésentée par le ministre de la Défense nationale...Forces (CAF) conducts Surveillance of Space (SofS) in con- junction with international partners, primarily the United States. The constantly increasing...Surveillance Network (SSN) maintains a public catalog of almost 90001 RSOs [1], ranging in size down to about 10 cm in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) [2]. The

Biopower and School Surveillance Technologies 2.0

Science.gov (United States)

Hope, Andrew

2016-01-01

In recent years the proliferation, speed and reach of school-based surveillance devices has undergone what could be labelled as a revolution. Drawing upon Foucault's concept of biopower to explore the disciplining of bodies and the biopolitical management of populations, this paper examines "new" school surveillance technologies enabling…

Fixed SMRF Sensor Network Application Concepts

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wit, J.J.M. de; Rossum, W.L. van; Smits, F.M.A.; Theije, P.A.M. de; Monni, S.; Huizing, A.G.

2010-01-01

Advantages of scalable multifunction RF (SMRF) sensors and networked operation of sensors are well-known. Some advantages are surveillance persistence, multipath resistance, and interference resistance. The particular benefits of applying multifunction RF sensors in a network still need to be

Carrier ethernet network control plane based on the Next Generation Network

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fu, Rong; Wang, Yanmeng; Berger, Michael Stubert

2008-01-01

This paper contributes on presenting a step towards the realization of Carrier Ethernet control plane based on the next generation network (NGN). Specifically, transport MPLS (T-MPLS) is taken as the transport technology in Carrier Ethernet. It begins with providing an overview of the evolving...... architecture of the next generation network (NGN). As an essential candidate among the NGN transport technologies, the definition of Carrier Ethernet (CE) is also introduced here. The second part of this paper depicts the contribution on the T-MPLS based Carrier Ethernet network with control plane based on NGN...... at illustrating the improvement of the Carrier Ethernet network with the NGN control plane....

Using Acute Flaccid Paralysis Surveillance as a Platform for Vaccine-Preventable Disease Surveillance.

Science.gov (United States)

Wassilak, Steven G F; Williams, Cheryl L; Murrill, Christopher S; Dahl, Benjamin A; Ohuabunwo, Chima; Tangermann, Rudolf H

2017-07-01

Surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) is a fundamental cornerstone of the global polio eradication initiative (GPEI). Active surveillance (with visits to health facilities) is a critical strategy of AFP surveillance systems for highly sensitive and timely detection of cases. Because of the extensive resources devoted to AFP surveillance, multiple opportunities exist for additional diseases to be added using GPEI assets, particularly because there is generally 1 district officer responsible for all disease surveillance. For this reason, integrated surveillance has become a standard practice in many countries, ranging from adding surveillance for measles and rubella to integrated disease surveillance for outbreak-prone diseases (integrated disease surveillance and response). This report outlines the current level of disease surveillance integration in 3 countries (Nepal, India, and Nigeria) and proposes that resources continue for long-term maintenance in resource-poor countries of AFP surveillance as a platform for surveillance of vaccine-preventable diseases and other outbreak-prone diseases. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Optimising TCP for cloud-based mobile networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Artuso, Matteo; Christiansen, Henrik Lehrmann

2016-01-01

Cloud-based mobile networks are foreseen to be a technological enabler for the next generation of mobile networks. Their design requires substantial research as they pose unique challenges, especially from the point of view of additional delays in the fronthaul network. Commonly used network...... implementations of 3 popular operating systems are investigated in our network model. The results on the most influential parameters are used to design an optimized TCP for cloud-based mobile networks....

Risk mapping of Rinderpest sero-prevalence in Central and Southern Somalia based on spatial and network risk factors.

Science.gov (United States)

Ortiz-Pelaez, Angel; Pfeiffer, Dirk U; Tempia, Stefano; Otieno, F Tom; Aden, Hussein H; Costagli, Riccardo

2010-04-28

disease surveillance and control activities for rinderpest in Somalia. The methodology applied here, involving spatial and network parameters, could also be applied to other diseases and/or species as part of a standardized approach for the design of risk-based surveillance activities in nomadic pastoral settings.

Network-Based Effectiveness

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Friman, Henrik

2006-01-01

...) to increase competitive advantage, innovation, and mission effectiveness. Network-based effectiveness occurs due to the influence of various factors such as people, procedures, technology, and organizations...

Sinc-function based Network

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Madsen, Per Printz

1998-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to describe a neural network (SNN), that is based on Shannons ideas of reconstruction of a real continuous function from its samples. The basic function, used in this network, is the Sinc-function. Two learning algorithms are described. A simple one called IM...

Integrated Disease Surveillance in India: Way Forward

OpenAIRE

Deepak K. Raut; Anil K. Bhola

2014-01-01

Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP) with 9 years of its implementation in India has given a positive impetus to integration of surveillance functions primarily for epidemic prone diseases and decentralized symptoms--‐based detection of early warning signals of outbreaks at primary health care level. This review is based on systematic literature review through PubMed and Google Scholar databases and published reports of the IDSP from 2005-2013. It attempts to describe the progr...

Integrated Disease Surveillance in India: Way Forward

OpenAIRE

Deepak K. Raut

2014-01-01

Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP) with 9 years of its implementation in India has given a positive impetus to integration of surveillance functions primarily for epidemic prone diseases and decentralized symptoms-based detection of early warning signals of outbreaks at primary health care level. This review is based on systematic literature review through PubMed and Google Scholar databases and published reports of the IDSP from 2005-2013. It attempts to describe the progress ...

Reactor pressure vessel embrittlement: Insights from neural network modelling

Science.gov (United States)

Mathew, J.; Parfitt, D.; Wilford, K.; Riddle, N.; Alamaniotis, M.; Chroneos, A.; Fitzpatrick, M. E.

2018-04-01

Irradiation embrittlement of steel pressure vessels is an important consideration for the operation of current and future light water nuclear reactors. In this study we employ an ensemble of artificial neural networks in order to provide predictions of the embrittlement using two literature datasets, one based on US surveillance data and the second from the IVAR experiment. We use these networks to examine trends with input variables and to assess various literature models including compositional effects and the role of flux and temperature. Overall, the networks agree with the existing literature models and we comment on their more general use in predicting irradiation embrittlement.

Rule-based versus probabilistic selection for active surveillance using three definitions of insignificant prostate cancer

NARCIS (Netherlands)

L.D.F. Venderbos (Lionne); M.J. Roobol-Bouts (Monique); C.H. Bangma (Chris); R.C.N. van den Bergh (Roderick); L.P. Bokhorst (Leonard); D. Nieboer (Daan); Godtman, R; J. Hugosson (Jonas); van der Kwast, T; E.W. Steyerberg (Ewout)

2016-01-01

textabstractTo study whether probabilistic selection by the use of a nomogram could improve patient selection for active surveillance (AS) compared to the various sets of rule-based AS inclusion criteria currently used. We studied Dutch and Swedish patients participating in the European Randomized

Intelligent self-organization methods for wireless ad hoc sensor networks based on limited resources

Science.gov (United States)

Hortos, William S.

2006-05-01

A wireless ad hoc sensor network (WSN) is a configuration for area surveillance that affords rapid, flexible deployment in arbitrary threat environments. There is no infrastructure support and sensor nodes communicate with each other only when they are in transmission range. To a greater degree than the terminals found in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) for communications, sensor nodes are resource-constrained, with limited computational processing, bandwidth, memory, and power, and are typically unattended once in operation. Consequently, the level of information exchange among nodes, to support any complex adaptive algorithms to establish network connectivity and optimize throughput, not only deplete those limited resources and creates high overhead in narrowband communications, but also increase network vulnerability to eavesdropping by malicious nodes. Cooperation among nodes, critical to the mission of sensor networks, can thus be disrupted by the inappropriate choice of the method for self-organization. Recent published contributions to the self-configuration of ad hoc sensor networks, e.g., self-organizing mapping and swarm intelligence techniques, have been based on the adaptive control of the cross-layer interactions found in MANET protocols to achieve one or more performance objectives: connectivity, intrusion resistance, power control, throughput, and delay. However, few studies have examined the performance of these algorithms when implemented with the limited resources of WSNs. In this paper, self-organization algorithms for the initiation, operation and maintenance of a network topology from a collection of wireless sensor nodes are proposed that improve the performance metrics significant to WSNs. The intelligent algorithm approach emphasizes low computational complexity, energy efficiency and robust adaptation to change, allowing distributed implementation with the actual limited resources of the cooperative nodes of the network. Extensions of the

The force awakens: Birth of national surveillance state

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Avramović Dragutin S.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available University of Yale professor of Constitutional Law Jack Balkin convincingly declared emergence of a new sort of the state called 'national surveillance state'. Although the very name announces quite clearly an Orwellian scenario, Balkin is in doubt which path that kind of state will follow - the authoritarian or the democratic one. Nevertheless quite optimistic approaches of J. Balkin, O. Kerr and other authors considering democratic type of the national surveillance state the author of this paper holds the opposite opinion. Taking as a starting point an anthropological feature that 'passion warps the rule even of the best men' (Aristotle, 1287a, the author doubts in democratic character of the national surveillance state. He criticizes Balkin's explanations that the problem could be solved by 'control of the controllers' or 'observation of the observers'. One who has supreme right to dispose over information (no matter which state body could it be, can always, or most often will abuse that right having in mind some interest, particularly when the interest can be vested within socially and politically acceptable tune, like the fight against terrorism, national interest or similar. Proper and firm normative framework could contribute to successful balance between privacy and security of citizens and eventually diminish potential misuse of surveillance of citizens. However, many people provide information for the 'Big Brother' by sacrificing their own privacy voluntarily, forming their own 'digital database' through different social networking. Balkin's generous but native belief that democratic national surveillance state is possible could hardly survive the test of the coming time and challenges. It is quite evident that, particularly the most developed states, fairly fast incline towards repressive national surveillance state. Maybe the process could be only decelerated by activities of NGOs, by developing awareness of every single citizen of

The plays and arts of surveillance: studying surveillance as entertainment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Albrechtslund, Anders; Dubbeld, L.

2006-01-01

This paper suggests a direction in the development of Surveillance Studies that goes beyond current attention for the caring, productive and enabling aspects of surveillance practices. That is, surveillance could be considered not just as positively protective, but even as a comical, playful,

Shared protection based virtual network mapping in space division multiplexing optical networks

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Huibin; Wang, Wei; Zhao, Yongli; Zhang, Jie

2018-05-01

Space Division Multiplexing (SDM) has been introduced to improve the capacity of optical networks. In SDM optical networks, there are multiple cores/modes in each fiber link, and spectrum resources are multiplexed in both frequency and core/modes dimensions. Enabled by network virtualization technology, one SDM optical network substrate can be shared by several virtual networks operators. Similar with point-to-point connection services, virtual networks (VN) also need certain survivability to guard against network failures. Based on customers' heterogeneous requirements on the survivability of their virtual networks, this paper studies the shared protection based VN mapping problem and proposes a Minimum Free Frequency Slots (MFFS) mapping algorithm to improve spectrum efficiency. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can optimize SDM optical networks significantly in terms of blocking probability and spectrum utilization.

Status report - The Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program: a dynamic and innovative injury surveillance system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Crain

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This status report on the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHIRPP, an emergency department-based injury and poisoning surveillance system, describes the result of migrating from a centralized data entry and coding process to a decentralized process, the web-based eCHIRPP system, in 2011. This secure system is improving the CHIRPP’s overall flexibility and timeliness, which are key attributes of an effective surveillance system. The integrated eCHIRPP platform enables near real-time data entry and access, has user-friendly data management and analysis tools, and allows for easier communication and connectivity across the CHIRPP network through an online collaboration centre. Current pilot testing of automated data monitoring and trend analysis tools—designed to monitor and flag incoming data according to predefined criteria (for example, a new consumer product—is revealing eCHIRPP’s potential for providing early warnings of new hazards, issues and trends.

The surveillance of the electricity wholesale market and emission trading market; Die Ueberwachung von Stromgrosshandelsmarkt und Emissionshandelsmarkt

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Luedemann, Volker [Hochschule Osnabrueck (Germany). Forschungszentrum Energiewirtschaft/Energierecht (fee); Hochschule Osnabrueck (Germany). Wirtschafts- und Wettbewerbsrecht; Konar, Selma [Sozietaet Becker Buettner Held, Muenchen (Germany)

2015-05-15

The Regulation on Wholesale Market Integrity and Transparency (REMIT) and the German Law on the Establishment of a Market Transparency Office for Wholesale Trade in Electricity and Gas (MTS-G) have fundamentally changed the surveillance of electricity wholesale trade in Germany. From now on the Federal Network Agency and the Federal Cartel Office will be jointly responsible for monitoring the electricity wholesale trade for suspicious market phenomena and abusive behaviour. The REMIT specifies that the electricity trade must be surveilled ''with due consideration to interactions'' with the emission trade system. However, occurrences observed in recent years have shown that the emission trading system is in need of reform. This has also been recognised and has prompted extensive corrective action by the regulatory authorities of the European Union. These changes have yet to be transposed into the national surveillance regimes. The present article explains why the new role accorded to the Federal Network Agency under the REMIT fails to eliminate the structural shortcomings of the old surveillance system. At least the decision to put the collection and evaluation of data exclusively in the hands of the market transparency office and the cooperation this will prompt between the supervisory authorities responsible will make the task of surveilling the energy wholesale trading market a lot easier for the authorities. The energy transition and its exigencies will yet lead to further changes in the market and its surveillance regime.

USBcat - Towards an Intrusion Surveillance Toolset

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chris Chapman

2014-10-01

Full Text Available This paper identifies an intrusion surveillance framework which provides an analyst with the ability to investigate and monitor cyber-attacks in a covert manner. Where cyber-attacks are perpetrated for the purposes of espionage the ability to understand an adversary's techniques and objectives are an important element in network and computer security. With the appropriate toolset, security investigators would be permitted to perform both live and stealthy counter-intelligence operations by observing the behaviour and communications of the intruder. Subsequently a more complete picture of the attacker's identity, objectives, capabilities, and infiltration could be formulated than is possible with present technologies. This research focused on developing an extensible framework to permit the covert investigation of malware. Additionally, a Universal Serial Bus (USB Mass Storage Device (MSD based covert channel was designed to enable remote command and control of the framework. The work was validated through the design, implementation and testing of a toolset.

Bluetooth-based wireless sensor networks

Science.gov (United States)

You, Ke; Liu, Rui Qiang

2007-11-01

In this work a Bluetooth-based wireless sensor network is proposed. In this bluetooth-based wireless sensor networks, information-driven star topology and energy-saved mode are used, through which a blue master node can control more than seven slave node, the energy of each sensor node is reduced and secure management of each sensor node is improved.

The Yoruba farm market as a communication channel in guinea worm disease surveillance.

Science.gov (United States)

Brieger, W R; Kendall, C

1996-01-01

Disease eradication programmes are by definition time bound and require strategies that facilitate timely intervention. Surveillance, which undergirds eradication, also requires timely strategies. Finding such strategies is especially challenging when the target disease is endemic in remote areas, e.g. guinea worm disease, the focus of this study. A strategy of market based surveillance was pilot tested in Ifeloju Local Government Area (LGA) of Oyo State, Nigeria. The project goal was to design a surveillance system that both fit into the natural communication network of rural people, and also enlisted their active involvement. Ethnographic research methods were employed to learn about market location, structure, catchment area and attendance pattern. Four larger farm markets (serving 164 hamlets with 17,000 population) were chosen. Each hamlet was visited and a volunteer 'reporter' was recruited. Reporters were trained on case recognition and detection, first aid and prevention, with a sensitivity to distinguishing indigenous and clinical perceptions of guinea worm. The market cycle was based on the traditional four-day week. Field workers visited every second market 16 times between October 1990 and February 1991. The reporter was expected to identify correctly the first case of the season and thus label the village as endemic for the season. Reporters gave oral reports, and positive indications were followed up within 48 hr by field workers, who verified the case and administered first aid. All hamlets were visited once a month to verify negative reports. Reporter attendance was monitored. Those who had a formal role in the market, e.g. sales agents, had better attendance than ordinary farmers who came only to sell their own produce. Knowledge of market structure and attender roles offers a guide for adapting this surveillance approach to other cultural systems and health issues.

Surveillance of wild birds for avian influenza virus.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoye, Bethany J; Munster, Vincent J; Nishiura, Hiroshi; Klaassen, Marcel; Fouchier, Ron A M

2010-12-01

Recent demand for increased understanding of avian influenza virus in its natural hosts, together with the development of high-throughput diagnostics, has heralded a new era in wildlife disease surveillance. However, survey design, sampling, and interpretation in the context of host populations still present major challenges. We critically reviewed current surveillance to distill a series of considerations pertinent to avian influenza virus surveillance in wild birds, including consideration of what, when, where, and how many to sample in the context of survey objectives. Recognizing that wildlife disease surveillance is logistically and financially constrained, we discuss pragmatic alternatives for achieving probability-based sampling schemes that capture this host-pathogen system. We recommend hypothesis-driven surveillance through standardized, local surveys that are, in turn, strategically compiled over broad geographic areas. Rethinking the use of existing surveillance infrastructure can thereby greatly enhance our global understanding of avian influenza and other zoonotic diseases.

The integrated proactive surveillance system for prostate cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Haibin; Yatawara, Mahendra; Huang, Shao-Chi; Dudley, Kevin; Szekely, Christine; Holden, Stuart; Piantadosi, Steven

2012-01-01

In this paper, we present the design and implementation of the integrated proactive surveillance system for prostate cancer (PASS-PC). The integrated PASS-PC is a multi-institutional web-based system aimed at collecting a variety of data on prostate cancer patients in a standardized and efficient way. The integrated PASS-PC was commissioned by the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) and built through the joint of efforts by a group of experts in medical oncology, genetics, pathology, nutrition, and cancer research informatics. Their main goal is facilitating the efficient and uniform collection of critical demographic, lifestyle, nutritional, dietary and clinical information to be used in developing new strategies in diagnosing, preventing and treating prostate cancer.The integrated PASS-PC is designed based on common industry standards - a three tiered architecture and a Service- Oriented Architecture (SOA). It utilizes open source software and programming languages such as HTML, PHP, CSS, JQuery, Drupal and MySQL. We also use a commercial database management system - Oracle 11g. The integrated PASS-PC project uses a "confederation model" that encourages participation of any interested center, irrespective of its size or location. The integrated PASS-PC utilizes a standardized approach to data collection and reporting, and uses extensive validation procedures to prevent entering erroneous data. The integrated PASS-PC controlled vocabulary is harmonized with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Thesaurus. Currently, two cancer centers in the USA are participating in the integrated PASS-PC project.THE FINAL SYSTEM HAS THREE MAIN COMPONENTS: 1. National Prostate Surveillance Network (NPSN) website; 2. NPSN myConnect portal; 3. Proactive Surveillance System for Prostate Cancer (PASS-PC). PASS-PC is a cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG) compatible product. The integrated PASS-PC provides a foundation for collaborative prostate cancer research. It has been built to

Investigation of neural network paradigms for the development of automatic noise diagnostic/reactor surveillance systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Korsah, K.; Uhrig, R.E.

1991-01-01

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques as an aid in the maintenance and operation of nuclear power plant systems has been recognized for the past several years, and several applications using expert systems technology currently exist. The authors investigated the backpropagation paradigm for the recognition of neutron noise power spectral density (PSD) signatures as a possible alternative to current methods based on statistical techniques. The goal is to advance the state of the art in the application of noise analysis techniques to monitor nuclear reactor internals. Continuous surveillance of reactor systems for structural degradation can be quite cost-effective because (1) the loss of mechanical integrity of the reactor internal components can be detected at an early stage before severe damage occurs, (2) unnecessary periodic maintenance can be avoided, (3) plant downtime can be reduced to a minimum, (4) a high level of plant safety can be maintained, and (5) it can be used to help justify the extension of a plant's operating license. The initial objectives were to use neutron noise PSD data from a pressurized water reactor, acquired over a period of ∼2 years by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Power Spectral Density RECognition (PSDREC) system to develop networks that can (1) differentiate between normal neutron spectral data and anomalous spectral data (e.g., malfunctioning instrumentation); and (2) detect significant shifts in the positions of spectral resonances while reducing the effect of small, random shifts (in neutron noise analysis, shifts in the resonance(s) present in a neutron PSD spectrum are the primary means for diagnosing degradation of reactor internals). 11 refs, 8 figs

Smart Telerobotic Surveillance System via Internet with Reduced Time Delay

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ashesh Vasalya

2012-09-01

Full Text Available This work provides an imperial solution to the problems faced by man while enduring hazardous tasks like handling and disposal of nuclear wastes, monitoring nuclear power plants, mining operations etc .which have to be aborted if expertise group running it is unavailable or on a run. This paper presents a distributed platform that allows the special group of user to control a gadget (possibly a robot through internet as a medium. An advanced version of this technology is capable of transmitting graphic images and other surrounding information as required, via internet back to the user to facilitate the effective monitoring of the existent situation using appropriate software tools. The project uses the SRV-1 Mobile Surveillance Robot which is a fully integrated system standard designed and other related technology for surveillance purposes. It is driven via web browser using JAVA based control applications with live video feeds. Specialised user group will be given separate account from where they can control and monitor the system even when they are not present at the site. End user will be connected to the gadget (robot through a central server which acts as a single channel for both sending and receiving information. But the subject of remote control over the internet has some possible anomalies namely network freezing, delay between host and recipient, congested network and many others. This system enables asynchronous object passing so that network bandwidth is used effectively and such parameters as the network condition and server states have less effect on the system. To resolve this issue, a fuzzy logic controller is used to control the robot’s motion along a predefined path with the necessary manipulation of the normal course. The robot was first modelled in Matlab Simulink and the fuzzy logic rules were optimized for the best results possible. In accordance with the fuzzy rules developed the fuzzy interference system generates the

Autonomous power networks based power system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jokic, A.; Van den Bosch, P.P.J.

2006-01-01

This paper presented the concept of autonomous networks to cope with this increased complexity in power systems while enhancing market-based operation. The operation of future power systems will be more challenging and demanding than present systems because of increased uncertainties, less inertia in the system, replacement of centralized coordinating activities by decentralized parties and the reliance on dynamic markets for both power balancing and system reliability. An autonomous network includes the aggregation of networked producers and consumers in a relatively small area with respect to the overall system. The operation of an autonomous network is coordinated and controlled with one central unit acting as an interface between internal producers/consumers and the rest of the power system. In this study, the power balance problem and system reliability through provision of ancillary services was formulated as an optimization problem for the overall autonomous networks based power system. This paper described the simulation of an optimal autonomous network dispatching in day ahead markets, based on predicted spot prices for real power, and two ancillary services. It was concluded that large changes occur in a power systems structure and operation, most of them adding to the uncertainty and complexity of the system. The introduced concept of an autonomous power network-based power system was shown to be a realistic and consistent approach to formulate and operate a market-based dispatch of both power and ancillary services. 9 refs., 4 figs

National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance System–based study in north eastern of Iran

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maliheh Ziaee

2017-09-01

Full Text Available among about 10% of hospitalized patients. HAIs increase mortality and morbidity and prolonged hospital stay not to mention considerable costs they impose on the health care system. The present study was conducted in order to evaluate the prevalence of HAIs based on National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance System in hospitals of Mashhad, Iran.  Methods: The current prevalence study of HAI was carried out in 26 hospitals using a protocol updated yearly in Mashhad, Iran. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention–National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance were used to define four HAIs. All patients admitted to the hospitals during a one-year period (March 1, 2015-February 30, 2016 were recruited in the study. Data was extracted using Iranian nosocomial infection surveillance software.  Results: The overall prevalence rate of HAI in our study was 0.8% among the hospitals with the most frequent HAIs found to be pneumonia (25%, followed by urinary tract infections (20%, and blood stream infections (19%. The highest prevalence rate was observed in 15- to 65-year old patients with more than 50% related to surgical site infection. Also, the most frequently isolated micro-organism was acinetobacter. In addition, the highest seasonal prevalence was seen in winter with pneumonia as the most frequent infection. A total of 4988 pathogens were isolated with 30.33% of clinical confirmation and 69.66% of positive culture.  Conclusion: These findings emphasize the need for appropriate measures for prevention, screening, labeling, and isolation precautions for infected patients.

Surveillance and Critical Theory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christian Fuchs

2015-09-01

Full Text Available In this comment, the author reflects on surveillance from a critical theory approach, his involvement in surveillance research and projects, and the status of the study of surveillance. The comment ascertains a lack of critical thinking about surveillance, questions the existence of something called “surveillance studies” as opposed to a critical theory of society, and reflects on issues such as Edward Snowden’s revelations, and Foucault and Marx in the context of surveillance.

Active animal health surveillance in European Union Member States: gaps and opportunities.

Science.gov (United States)

Bisdorff, B; Schauer, B; Taylor, N; Rodríguez-Prieto, V; Comin, A; Brouwer, A; Dórea, F; Drewe, J; Hoinville, L; Lindberg, A; Martinez Avilés, M; Martínez-López, B; Peyre, M; Pinto Ferreira, J; Rushton, J; VAN Schaik, G; Stärk, K D C; Staubach, C; Vicente-Rubiano, M; Witteveen, G; Pfeiffer, D; Häsler, B

2017-03-01

Animal health surveillance enables the detection and control of animal diseases including zoonoses. Under the EU-FP7 project RISKSUR, a survey was conducted in 11 EU Member States and Switzerland to describe active surveillance components in 2011 managed by the public or private sector and identify gaps and opportunities. Information was collected about hazard, target population, geographical focus, legal obligation, management, surveillance design, risk-based sampling, and multi-hazard surveillance. Two countries were excluded due to incompleteness of data. Most of the 664 components targeted cattle (26·7%), pigs (17·5%) or poultry (16·0%). The most common surveillance objectives were demonstrating freedom from disease (43·8%) and case detection (26·8%). Over half of components applied risk-based sampling (57·1%), but mainly focused on a single population stratum (targeted risk-based) rather than differentiating between risk levels of different strata (stratified risk-based). About a third of components were multi-hazard (37·3%). Both risk-based sampling and multi-hazard surveillance were used more frequently in privately funded components. The study identified several gaps (e.g. lack of systematic documentation, inconsistent application of terminology) and opportunities (e.g. stratified risk-based sampling). The greater flexibility provided by the new EU Animal Health Law means that systematic evaluation of surveillance alternatives will be required to optimize cost-effectiveness.

Network-Based Effectiveness

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Friman, Henrik

2006-01-01

... (extended from Leavitt, 1965). This text identifies aspects of network-based effectiveness that can benefit from a better understanding of leadership and management development of people, procedures, technology, and organizations...

NRC data base for power reactor surveillance programs and for irradiation experiments results

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kam, F.B.K.; Stallmann, F.W.

1991-01-01

The radiation damage of pressure vessel materials in nuclear reactors depends on many different factors, primarily fluence, fluence spectrum, fluence rate, irradiation temperature, and chemistry. These factors and, possibly, others such as heat treatment and type of flux used in weldments must be considered to reliably predict the pressure vessel embrittlement and to assure the safe operation of the reactor. Based on embrittlement predictions, decisions must be made concerning operating parameters, low-leakage fuel management, possible life extension, and the need for annealing of the pressure vessel. Large numbers of data obtained from surveillance capsules and test reactor experiments are needed, comprising many different materials and different irradiation conditions, to develop generally applicable damage prediction models that can be used for industry standards and regulatory guides. The US Nuclear Regulatory Agency has, therefore, sponsored a project to construct an Embrittlement Data Base (EDB) for a comprehensive collection of data concerning changes in material properties of pressure vessel steels due to neutron irradiation. A first version containing data from surveillance capsules of commercial power reactors, the Power Reactor Embrittlement Data Base (PR-EDB) Version 1, has been completed and is available to authorized users from the Radiation Shielding Information Center at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This document provides a discussion of the features of the current database. 1 fig

Autonomous soaring and surveillance in wind fields with an unmanned aerial vehicle

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Chen

Small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) play an active role in developing a low-cost, low-altitude autonomous aerial surveillance platform. The success of the applications needs to address the challenge of limited on-board power plant that limits the endurance performance in surveillance mission. This thesis studies the mechanics of soaring flight, observed in nature where birds utilize various wind patterns to stay airborne without flapping their wings, and investigates its application to small UAVs in their surveillance missions. In a proposed integrated framework of soaring and surveillance, a bird-mimicking soaring maneuver extracts energy from surrounding wind environment that improves surveillance performance in terms of flight endurance, while the surveillance task not only covers the target area, but also detects energy sources within the area to allow for potential soaring flight. The interaction of soaring and surveillance further enables novel energy based, coverage optimal path planning. Two soaring and associated surveillance strategies are explored. In a so-called static soaring surveillance, the UAV identifies spatially-distributed thermal updrafts for soaring, while incremental surveillance is achieved through gliding flight to visit concentric expanding regions. A Gaussian-process-regression-based algorithm is developed to achieve computationally-efficient and smooth updraft estimation. In a so-called dynamic soaring surveillance, the UAV performs one cycle of dynamic soaring to harvest energy from the horizontal wind gradient to complete one surveillance task by visiting from one target to the next one. A Dubins-path-based trajectory planning approach is proposed to maximize wind energy extraction and ensure smooth transition between surveillance tasks. Finally, a nonlinear trajectory tracking controller is designed for a full six-degree-of-freedom nonlinear UAV dynamics model and extensive simulations are carried to demonstrate the effectiveness of

Global surveillance of emerging diseases: the ProMED-mail perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John P. Woodall

2001-01-01

Full Text Available The Internet is changing the way global disease surveillance is conducted. Countries and international organizations are increasingly placing their outbreak reports on the Internet, which speeds up distribution and therefore prevention and control. The World Health Organization (WHO has recognized the value of nongovernmental organizations and the media in reporting outbreaks, which it then attempts to verify through its country offices. However, WHO and other official sources are constrained in their reporting by the need for bureaucratic clearance. ProMED-mail has no such constraints, and posts outbreak reports 7 days a week. It is moderated by infectious disease specialists who add relevant comments. Thus, ProMED-mail complements official sources and provides early warning of outbreaks. Its network is more than 20,000 people in over 150 countries, who place their computers and time at the network's disposal and report on outbreaks of which they have knowledge. Regions and countries could benefit from adopting the ProMED-mail approach to complement their own disease surveillance systems.

Dynamics-based centrality for directed networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Masuda, Naoki; Kori, Hiroshi

2010-11-01

Determining the relative importance of nodes in directed networks is important in, for example, ranking websites, publications, and sports teams, and for understanding signal flows in systems biology. A prevailing centrality measure in this respect is the PageRank. In this work, we focus on another class of centrality derived from the Laplacian of the network. We extend the Laplacian-based centrality, which has mainly been applied to strongly connected networks, to the case of general directed networks such that we can quantitatively compare arbitrary nodes. Toward this end, we adopt the idea used in the PageRank to introduce global connectivity between all the pairs of nodes with a certain strength. Numerical simulations are carried out on some networks. We also offer interpretations of the Laplacian-based centrality for general directed networks in terms of various dynamical and structural properties of networks. Importantly, the Laplacian-based centrality defined as the stationary density of the continuous-time random walk with random jumps is shown to be equivalent to the absorption probability of the random walk with sinks at each node but without random jumps. Similarly, the proposed centrality represents the importance of nodes in dynamics on the original network supplied with sinks but not with random jumps.

Community Based Networks and 5G

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Williams, Idongesit

2016-01-01

The deployment of previous wireless standards has provided more benefits for urban dwellers than rural dwellers. 5G deployment may not be different. This paper identifies that Community Based Networks as carriers that deserve recognition as potential 5G providers may change this. The argument....... The findings indicate that 5G connectivity can be extended to rural areas by these networks, via heterogenous networks. Hence the delivery of 5G data rates delivery via Wireless WAN in rural areas can be achieved by utilizing the causal factors of the identified models for Community Based Networks....

Reliability demonstration of imaging surveillance systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sheridan, T.F.; Henderson, J.T.; MacDiarmid, P.R.

1979-01-01

Security surveillance systems which employ closed circuit television are being deployed with increasing frequency for the protection of property and other valuable assets. A need exists to demonstrate the reliability of such systems before their installation to assure that the deployed systems will operate when needed with only the scheduled amount of maintenance and support costs. An approach to the reliability demonstration of imaging surveillance systems which employ closed circuit television is described. Failure definitions based on industry television standards and imaging alarm assessment criteria for surveillance systems are discussed. Test methods which allow 24 hour a day operation without the need for numerous test scenarios, test personnel and elaborate test facilities are presented. Existing reliability demonstration standards are shown to apply which obviate the need for elaborate statistical tests. The demonstration methods employed are shown to have applications in other types of imaging surveillance systems besides closed circuit television

Ebola Surveillance - Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

Science.gov (United States)

McNamara, Lucy A; Schafer, Ilana J; Nolen, Leisha D; Gorina, Yelena; Redd, John T; Lo, Terrence; Ervin, Elizabeth; Henao, Olga; Dahl, Benjamin A; Morgan, Oliver; Hersey, Sara; Knust, Barbara

2016-07-08

Developing a surveillance system during a public health emergency is always challenging but is especially so in countries with limited public health infrastructure. Surveillance for Ebola virus disease (Ebola) in the West African countries heavily affected by Ebola (Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone) faced numerous impediments, including insufficient numbers of trained staff, community reticence to report cases and contacts, limited information technology resources, limited telephone and Internet service, and overwhelming numbers of infected persons. Through the work of CDC and numerous partners, including the countries' ministries of health, the World Health Organization, and other government and nongovernment organizations, functional Ebola surveillance was established and maintained in these countries. CDC staff were heavily involved in implementing case-based surveillance systems, sustaining case surveillance and contact tracing, and interpreting surveillance data. In addition to helping the ministries of health and other partners understand and manage the epidemic, CDC's activities strengthened epidemiologic and data management capacity to improve routine surveillance in the countries affected, even after the Ebola epidemic ended, and enhanced local capacity to respond quickly to future public health emergencies. However, the many obstacles overcome during development of these Ebola surveillance systems highlight the need to have strong public health, surveillance, and information technology infrastructure in place before a public health emergency occurs. Intense, long-term focus on strengthening public health surveillance systems in developing countries, as described in the Global Health Security Agenda, is needed.The activities summarized in this report would not have been possible without collaboration with many U.S and international partners (http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/2014-west-africa/partners.html).

Ideology, Critique and Surveillance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Heidi Herzogenrath-Amelung

2013-11-01

Full Text Available The 2013 revelations concerning global surveillance programmes demonstrate in unprecedented clarity the need for Critical Theory of information and communication technologies (ICTs to address the mechanisms and implications of increasingly global, ubiquitous surveillance. This is all the more urgent because of the dominance of the “surveillance ideology” (the promise of security through surveillance that supports the political economy of surveillance. This paper asks which theoretical arguments and concepts can be useful for philosophically grounding a critique of this surveillance ideology. It begins by examining how the surveillance ideology works through language and introduces the concept of the ‘ideological packaging’ of ICTs to show how rhetoric surrounding the implementation of surveillance technologies reinforces the surveillance ideology. It then raises the problem of how ideology-critique can work if it relies on language itself and argues that Martin Heidegger’s philosophy can make a useful contribution to existing critical approaches to language.

Optical burst switching based satellite backbone network

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Tingting; Guo, Hongxiang; Wang, Cen; Wu, Jian

2018-02-01

We propose a novel time slot based optical burst switching (OBS) architecture for GEO/LEO based satellite backbone network. This architecture can provide high speed data transmission rate and high switching capacity . Furthermore, we design the control plane of this optical satellite backbone network. The software defined network (SDN) and network slice (NS) technologies are introduced. Under the properly designed control mechanism, this backbone network is flexible to support various services with diverse transmission requirements. Additionally, the LEO access and handoff management in this network is also discussed.

Case Based Measles Surveillance in Pune: Evidence to Guide Current and Future Measles Control and Elimination Efforts in India

Science.gov (United States)

Bose, Anindya Sekhar; Jafari, Hamid; Sosler, Stephen; Narula, Arvinder Pal Singh; Kulkarni, V. M.; Ramamurty, Nalini; Oommen, John; Jadi, Ramesh S.; Banpel, R. V.; Henao-Restrepo, Ana Maria

2014-01-01

Background According to WHO estimates, 35% of global measles deaths in 2011 occurred in India. In 2013, India committed to a goal of measles elimination by 2020. Laboratory supported case based measles surveillance is an essential component of measles elimination strategies. Results from a case-based measles surveillance system in Pune district (November 2009 through December 2011) are reported here with wider implications for measles elimination efforts in India. Methods Standard protocols were followed for case identification, investigation and classification. Suspected measles cases were confirmed through serology (IgM) or epidemiological linkage or clinical presentation. Data regarding age, sex, vaccination status were collected and annualized incidence rates for measles and rubella cases calculated. Results Of the 1011 suspected measles cases reported to the surveillance system, 76% were confirmed measles, 6% were confirmed rubella, and 17% were non-measles, non-rubella cases. Of the confirmed measles cases, 95% were less than 15 years of age. Annual measles incidence rate was more than 250 per million persons and nearly half were associated with outbreaks. Thirty-nine per cent of the confirmed measles cases were vaccinated with one dose of measles vaccine (MCV1). Conclusion Surveillance demonstrated high measles incidence and frequent outbreaks in Pune where MCV1 coverage in infants was above 90%. Results indicate that even high coverage with a single dose of measles vaccine was insufficient to provide population protection and prevent measles outbreaks. An effective measles and rubella surveillance system provides essential information to plan, implement and evaluate measles immunization strategies and monitor progress towards measles elimination. PMID:25290339

Moving Target Detection and Active Tracking with a Multicamera Network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Long Zhao

2014-01-01

Full Text Available We propose a systematic framework for Intelligence Video Surveillance System (IVSS with a multicamera network. The proposed framework consists of low-cost static and PTZ cameras, target detection and tracking algorithms, and a low-cost PTZ camera feedback control algorithm based on target information. The target detection and tracking is realized by fixed cameras using a moving target detection and tracking algorithm; the PTZ camera is manoeuvred to actively track the target from the tracking results of the static camera. The experiments are carried out using practical surveillance system data, and the experimental results show that the systematic framework and algorithms presented in this paper are efficient.

Leaky Apps and Data Shots: Leakage and Insertion in NSA-surveillance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Velden, L.

2015-01-01

The NSA disclosures have put the issue of surveillance at center stage, and with that, a range of technologies by which data are captured. This article aims to break up devices for data collection by discussing devices that leak data versus devices that are inserted into computers or networks in

Virtualized Network Function Orchestration System and Experimental Network Based QR Recognition for a 5G Mobile Access Network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Misun Ahn

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes a virtualized network function orchestration system based on Network Function Virtualization (NFV, one of the main technologies in 5G mobile networks. This system should provide connectivity between network devices and be able to create flexible network function and distribution. This system focuses more on access networks. By experimenting with various scenarios of user service established and activated in a network, we examine whether rapid adoption of new service is possible and whether network resources can be managed efficiently. The proposed method is based on Bluetooth transfer technology and mesh networking to provide automatic connections between network machines and on a Docker flat form, which is a container virtualization technology for setting and managing key functions. Additionally, the system includes a clustering and recovery measure regarding network function based on the Docker platform. We will briefly introduce the QR code perceived service as a user service to examine the proposal and based on this given service, we evaluate the function of the proposal and present analysis. Through the proposed approach, container relocation has been implemented according to a network device’s CPU usage and we confirm successful service through function evaluation on a real test bed. We estimate QR code recognition speed as the amount of network equipment is gradually increased, improving user service and confirm that the speed of recognition is increased as the assigned number of network devices is increased by the user service.

Enhancing Arctic Surveillance With Space-Based Radars

Science.gov (United States)

2013-06-01

180 degrees (Sellers, 2005). xvii Right Ascension of the Ascending Node: from a geocentric origin perspective, describes how an orbital plane...fascination with remote sensing and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance from space. • Dr. Ray Buettner, my co-advisor, whose positive approach ...48 N; 169 W (northwest maritime corner) • 74 43 N; 156 34 W (uppermost maritime point in the Beaufort Sea approaching the Arctic Ocean) • 72 53 N

A Scalable Policy and SNMP Based Network Management Framework

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

LIU Su-ping; DING Yong-sheng

2009-01-01

Traditional SNMP-based network management can not deal with the task of managing large-scaled distributed network,while policy-based management is one of the effective solutions in network and distributed systems management. However,cross-vendor hardware compatibility is one of the limitations in policy-based management. Devices existing in current network mostly support SNMP rather than Common Open Policy Service (COPS) protocol. By analyzing traditional network management and policy-based network management, a scalable network management framework is proposed. It is combined with Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) framework for policybased management and SNMP-based network management. By interpreting and translating policy decision to SNMP message,policy can be executed in traditional SNMP-based device.

Appropriateness of endoscopic surveillance recommendations in organised colorectal cancer screening programmes based on the faecal immunochemical test.

Science.gov (United States)

Zorzi, Manuel; Senore, Carlo; Turrin, Anna; Mantellini, Paola; Visioli, Carmen Beatriz; Naldoni, Carlo; Sassoli De' Bianchi, Priscilla; Fedato, Chiara; Anghinoni, Emanuela; Zappa, Marco; Hassan, Cesare

2016-11-01

To assess the appropriateness of recommendations for endoscopic surveillance in organised colorectal cancer (CRC) screening programmes based on the faecal immunochemical test (FIT). 74 Italian CRC screening programmes provided aggregated data on the recommendations given after FIT-positive colonoscopies in 2011 and 2013. Index colonoscopies were divided into negative/no adenoma and low- risk, intermediate-risk and high-risk adenomas. Postcolonoscopy recommendations included a return to screening (FIT after 2 years or 5 years), an endoscopic surveillance after 6 months or after 1 year, 3 years or 5 years, surgery or other. We assessed the deviation from the postcolonoscopy recommendations of the European Guidelines in 2011 and 2013 and the correlation between overuse of endoscopic surveillance in 2011 and the process indicators associated with the endoscopic workload in 2013. 49 704 postcolonoscopy recommendations were analysed. High-risk, intermediate-risk and low-risk adenomas, and no adenomas were reported in 5.9%, 19.3%, 15.3% and 51.5% of the cases, respectively. Endoscopic surveillance was inappropriately recommended in 67.4% and 7%, respectively, of cases with low-risk and no adenoma. Overall, 37% of all endoscopic surveillance recommendations were inappropriate (6696/17 860). Overuse of endoscopic surveillance was positively correlated with the extension of invitations (correlation coefficient (cc) 0.29; p value 0.03) and with compliance with post-FIT+ colonoscopy (cc 0.25; p value 0.05), while it was negatively correlated with total colonoscopy waiting times longer than 60 days (cc -0.26; p value 0.05). In organised screening programmes, a high rate of inappropriate recommendations for patients with low risk or no adenomas occurs, affecting the demand for endoscopic surveillance by a third. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

Who is Surveilling Whom?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mortensen, Mette

2014-01-01

This article concerns the particular form of counter-surveillance termed “sousveillance”, which aims to turn surveillance at the institutions responsible for surveillance. Drawing on the theoretical perspectives “mediatization” and “aerial surveillance,” the article studies WikiLeaks’ publication...

CUFID-query: accurate network querying through random walk based network flow estimation.

Science.gov (United States)

Jeong, Hyundoo; Qian, Xiaoning; Yoon, Byung-Jun

2017-12-28

Functional modules in biological networks consist of numerous biomolecules and their complicated interactions. Recent studies have shown that biomolecules in a functional module tend to have similar interaction patterns and that such modules are often conserved across biological networks of different species. As a result, such conserved functional modules can be identified through comparative analysis of biological networks. In this work, we propose a novel network querying algorithm based on the CUFID (Comparative network analysis Using the steady-state network Flow to IDentify orthologous proteins) framework combined with an efficient seed-and-extension approach. The proposed algorithm, CUFID-query, can accurately detect conserved functional modules as small subnetworks in the target network that are expected to perform similar functions to the given query functional module. The CUFID framework was recently developed for probabilistic pairwise global comparison of biological networks, and it has been applied to pairwise global network alignment, where the framework was shown to yield accurate network alignment results. In the proposed CUFID-query algorithm, we adopt the CUFID framework and extend it for local network alignment, specifically to solve network querying problems. First, in the seed selection phase, the proposed method utilizes the CUFID framework to compare the query and the target networks and to predict the probabilistic node-to-node correspondence between the networks. Next, the algorithm selects and greedily extends the seed in the target network by iteratively adding nodes that have frequent interactions with other nodes in the seed network, in a way that the conductance of the extended network is maximally reduced. Finally, CUFID-query removes irrelevant nodes from the querying results based on the personalized PageRank vector for the induced network that includes the fully extended network and its neighboring nodes. Through extensive

Easier surveillance of climate-related health vulnerabilities through a Web-based spatial OLAP application

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gosselin Pierre

2009-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Climate change has a significant impact on population health. Population vulnerabilities depend on several determinants of different types, including biological, psychological, environmental, social and economic ones. Surveillance of climate-related health vulnerabilities must take into account these different factors, their interdependence, as well as their inherent spatial and temporal aspects on several scales, for informed analyses. Currently used technology includes commercial off-the-shelf Geographic Information Systems (GIS and Database Management Systems with spatial extensions. It has been widely recognized that such OLTP (On-Line Transaction Processing systems were not designed to support complex, multi-temporal and multi-scale analysis as required above. On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP is central to the field known as BI (Business Intelligence, a key field for such decision-support systems. In the last few years, we have seen a few projects that combine OLAP and GIS to improve spatio-temporal analysis and geographic knowledge discovery. This has given rise to SOLAP (Spatial OLAP and a new research area. This paper presents how SOLAP and climate-related health vulnerability data were investigated and combined to facilitate surveillance. Results Based on recent spatial decision-support technologies, this paper presents a spatio-temporal web-based application that goes beyond GIS applications with regard to speed, ease of use, and interactive analysis capabilities. It supports the multi-scale exploration and analysis of integrated socio-economic, health and environmental geospatial data over several periods. This project was meant to validate the potential of recent technologies to contribute to a better understanding of the interactions between public health and climate change, and to facilitate future decision-making by public health agencies and municipalities in Canada and elsewhere. The project also aimed at

Easier surveillance of climate-related health vulnerabilities through a Web-based spatial OLAP application.

Science.gov (United States)

Bernier, Eveline; Gosselin, Pierre; Badard, Thierry; Bédard, Yvan

2009-04-03

Climate change has a significant impact on population health. Population vulnerabilities depend on several determinants of different types, including biological, psychological, environmental, social and economic ones. Surveillance of climate-related health vulnerabilities must take into account these different factors, their interdependence, as well as their inherent spatial and temporal aspects on several scales, for informed analyses. Currently used technology includes commercial off-the-shelf Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Database Management Systems with spatial extensions. It has been widely recognized that such OLTP (On-Line Transaction Processing) systems were not designed to support complex, multi-temporal and multi-scale analysis as required above. On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) is central to the field known as BI (Business Intelligence), a key field for such decision-support systems. In the last few years, we have seen a few projects that combine OLAP and GIS to improve spatio-temporal analysis and geographic knowledge discovery. This has given rise to SOLAP (Spatial OLAP) and a new research area. This paper presents how SOLAP and climate-related health vulnerability data were investigated and combined to facilitate surveillance. Based on recent spatial decision-support technologies, this paper presents a spatio-temporal web-based application that goes beyond GIS applications with regard to speed, ease of use, and interactive analysis capabilities. It supports the multi-scale exploration and analysis of integrated socio-economic, health and environmental geospatial data over several periods. This project was meant to validate the potential of recent technologies to contribute to a better understanding of the interactions between public health and climate change, and to facilitate future decision-making by public health agencies and municipalities in Canada and elsewhere. The project also aimed at integrating an initial collection of geo

Network Traffic Prediction Based on Deep Belief Network and Spatiotemporal Compressive Sensing in Wireless Mesh Backbone Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laisen Nie

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Wireless mesh network is prevalent for providing a decentralized access for users and other intelligent devices. Meanwhile, it can be employed as the infrastructure of the last few miles connectivity for various network applications, for example, Internet of Things (IoT and mobile networks. For a wireless mesh backbone network, it has obtained extensive attention because of its large capacity and low cost. Network traffic prediction is important for network planning and routing configurations that are implemented to improve the quality of service for users. This paper proposes a network traffic prediction method based on a deep learning architecture and the Spatiotemporal Compressive Sensing method. The proposed method first adopts discrete wavelet transform to extract the low-pass component of network traffic that describes the long-range dependence of itself. Then, a prediction model is built by learning a deep architecture based on the deep belief network from the extracted low-pass component. Otherwise, for the remaining high-pass component that expresses the gusty and irregular fluctuations of network traffic, the Spatiotemporal Compressive Sensing method is adopted to predict it. Based on the predictors of two components, we can obtain a predictor of network traffic. From the simulation, the proposed prediction method outperforms three existing methods.

SOA-surveillance Nederland

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rijlaarsdam J; Bosman A; Laar MJW van de; CIE

2000-01-01

In May 1999 a working group was started to evaluate the current surveillance systems for sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and to make suggestions for a renewed effective and efficient STD surveillance system in the Netherlands. The surveillance system has to provide insight into the prevalence

Impact of Mini-drone based Video Surveillance on Invasion of Privacy

OpenAIRE

Korshunov, Pavel; Bonetto, Margherita; Ebrahimi, Touradj; Ramponi, Giovanni

2015-01-01

An increase in adoption of video surveillance, affecting many aspects of daily lives, raises public concern about an intrusion into individual privacy. New sensing and surveillance technologies, such as mini-drones, threaten to eradicate boundaries of private space even more. Therefore, it is important to study the effect of mini-drones on privacy intrusion and to understand how existing protection privacy filters perform on a video captured by a mini-drone. To this end, we have built a publi...

Future Expansion of the Lightning Surveillance System at the Kennedy Space Center and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, USA

Science.gov (United States)

Mata, C. T.; Wilson, J. G.

2012-01-01

The NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and the Air Force Eastern Range (ER) use data from two cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning detection networks, the Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Surveillance System (CGLSS) and the U.S. National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN), and a volumetric mapping array, the lightning detection and ranging II (LDAR II) system: These systems are used to monitor and characterize lightning that is potentially hazardous to launch or ground operations and hardware. These systems are not perfect and both have documented missed lightning events when compared to the existing lightning surveillance system at Launch Complex 39B (LC39B). Because of this finding it is NASA's plan to install a lightning surveillance system around each of the active launch pads sharing site locations and triggering capabilities when possible. This paper shows how the existing lightning surveillance system at LC39B has performed in 2011 as well as the plan for the expansion around all active pads.

Twitter Influenza Surveillance: Quantifying Seasonal Misdiagnosis Patterns and their Impact on Surveillance Estimates.

Science.gov (United States)

Mowery, Jared

2016-01-01

Influenza (flu) surveillance using Twitter data can potentially save lives and increase efficiency by providing governments and healthcare organizations with greater situational awareness. However, research is needed to determine the impact of Twitter users' misdiagnoses on surveillance estimates. This study establishes the importance of Twitter users' misdiagnoses by showing that Twitter flu surveillance in the United States failed during the 2011-2012 flu season, estimates the extent of misdiagnoses, and tests several methods for reducing the adverse effects of misdiagnoses. Metrics representing flu prevalence, seasonal misdiagnosis patterns, diagnosis uncertainty, flu symptoms, and noise were produced using Twitter data in conjunction with OpenSextant for geo-inferencing, and a maximum entropy classifier for identifying tweets related to illness. These metrics were tested for correlations with World Health Organization (WHO) positive specimen counts of flu from 2011 to 2014. Twitter flu surveillance erroneously indicated a typical flu season during 2011-2012, even though the flu season peaked three months late, and erroneously indicated plateaus of flu tweets before the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 flu seasons. Enhancements based on estimates of misdiagnoses removed the erroneous plateaus and increased the Pearson correlation coefficients by .04 and .23, but failed to correct the 2011-2012 flu season estimate. A rough estimate indicates that approximately 40% of flu tweets reflected misdiagnoses. Further research into factors affecting Twitter users' misdiagnoses, in conjunction with data from additional atypical flu seasons, is needed to enable Twitter flu surveillance systems to produce reliable estimates during atypical flu seasons.

A NEURAL NETWORK BASED TRAFFIC-AWARE FORWARDING STRATEGY IN NAMED DATA NETWORKING

OpenAIRE

Parisa Bazmi; Manijeh Keshtgary

2016-01-01

Named Data Networking (NDN) is a new Internet architecture which has been proposed to eliminate TCP/IP Internet architecture restrictions. This architecture is abstracting away the notion of host and working based on naming datagrams. However, one of the major challenges of NDN is supporting QoS-aware forwarding strategy so as to forward Interest packets intelligently over multiple paths based on the current network condition. In this paper, Neural Network (NN) Based Traffic-aware Forwarding ...

Evaluating surveillance indicators supporting the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, 2011-2012.

Science.gov (United States)

2013-04-12

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) was established in 1988 by the World Health Assembly to interrupt transmission of wild poliovirus (WPV); completion of this initiative was declared a programmatic emergency of public health in January 2012. Polio cases are detected through surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) with linked stool specimens tested for polioviruses (PVs) at accredited laboratories within the Global Polio Laboratory Network (GPLN). AFP surveillance findings are supplemented by testing sewage samples (environmental surveillance) collected at selected sites. Virologic data guide where targeted immunization activities should be conducted or improved. Key performance indicators are used to 1) monitor AFP surveillance quality at national and subnational levels to identify gaps where PV transmission could occur undetected; 2) provide evidence of where PV circulation has been interrupted; and 3) allow timely detection of an outbreak. Standardized surveillance indicators allow progress to be monitored over time and compared among countries. This report presents AFP surveillance performance indicators at national and subnational levels for countries affected by polio during 2011-2012, and trends in environmental surveillance, updating previous reports. In the 19 countries with transmission of PV (WPV and/or circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus [cVDPV]) during 2011-2012, national performance indicator targets were met in 12 (63%) countries in 2011 and 13 (68%) countries in 2012. Seven countries (37%) in 2011 had ≥80% of the population living in areas meeting performance indicators, increasing to nine countries (47%) in 2012. Performance indicators for timely reporting of PV isolation and characterization were met in four of six World Health Organization (WHO) regions in 2011 and five regions in 2012. To achieve global polio eradication, efforts are needed to improve and maintain AFP surveillance and laboratory performance.

Implementing a public web based GIS service for feedback of surveillance data on communicable diseases in Sweden

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ekdahl Karl

2004-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Surveillance data allow for analysis, providing public health officials and policy-makers with a basis for long-term priorities and timely information on possible outbreaks for rapid response (data for action. In this article we describe the considerations and technology behind a newly introduced public web tool in Sweden for easy retrieval of county and national surveillance data on communicable diseases. Methods The web service was designed to automatically present updated surveillance statistics of some 50 statutory notifiable diseases notified to the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control (SMI. The surveillance data is based on clinical notifications from the physician having treated the patient and laboratory notifications, merged into cases using a unique personal identification number issued to all Swedish residents. The web service use notification data from 1997 onwards, stored in a relational database at the SMI. Results The web service presents surveillance data to the user in various ways; tabulated data containing yearly and monthly disease data per county, age and sex distribution, interactive maps illustrating the total number of cases and the incidence per county and time period, graphs showing the total number of cases per week and graphs illustrating trends in the disease data. The system design encompasses the database (storing the data, the web server (holding the web service and an in-the-middle computer (to ensure good security standards. Conclusions The web service has provided the health community, the media, and the public with easy access to both timely and detailed surveillance data presented in various forms. Since it was introduced in May 2003, the system has been accessed more than 1,000,000 times, by more than 10,000 different viewers (over 12.600 unique IP-numbers.

Density-based and transport-based core-periphery structures in networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Sang Hoon; Cucuringu, Mihai; Porter, Mason A

2014-03-01

Networks often possess mesoscale structures, and studying them can yield insights into both structure and function. It is most common to study community structure, but numerous other types of mesoscale structures also exist. In this paper, we examine core-periphery structures based on both density and transport. In such structures, core network components are well-connected both among themselves and to peripheral components, which are not well-connected to anything. We examine core-periphery structures in a wide range of examples of transportation, social, and financial networks-including road networks in large urban areas, a rabbit warren, a dolphin social network, a European interbank network, and a migration network between counties in the United States. We illustrate that a recently developed transport-based notion of node coreness is very useful for characterizing transportation networks. We also generalize this notion to examine core versus peripheral edges, and we show that the resulting diagnostic is also useful for transportation networks. To examine the properties of transportation networks further, we develop a family of generative models of roadlike networks. We illustrate the effect of the dimensionality of the embedding space on transportation networks, and we demonstrate that the correlations between different measures of coreness can be very different for different types of networks.

Modeling the interdependent network based on two-mode networks

Science.gov (United States)

An, Feng; Gao, Xiangyun; Guan, Jianhe; Huang, Shupei; Liu, Qian

2017-10-01

Among heterogeneous networks, there exist obviously and closely interdependent linkages. Unlike existing research primarily focus on the theoretical research of physical interdependent network model. We propose a two-layer interdependent network model based on two-mode networks to explore the interdependent features in the reality. Specifically, we construct a two-layer interdependent loan network and develop several dependent features indices. The model is verified to enable us to capture the loan dependent features of listed companies based on loan behaviors and shared shareholders. Taking Chinese debit and credit market as case study, the main conclusions are: (1) only few listed companies shoulder the main capital transmission (20% listed companies occupy almost 70% dependent degree). (2) The control of these key listed companies will be more effective of avoiding the spreading of financial risks. (3) Identifying the companies with high betweenness centrality and controlling them could be helpful to monitor the financial risk spreading. (4) The capital transmission channel among Chinese financial listed companies and Chinese non-financial listed companies are relatively strong. However, under greater pressure of demand of capital transmission (70% edges failed), the transmission channel, which constructed by debit and credit behavior, will eventually collapse.

Antimicrobial resistance in leprosy: results of the first prospective open survey conducted by a WHO surveillance network for the period 2009-15.

Science.gov (United States)

Cambau, E; Saunderson, P; Matsuoka, M; Cole, S T; Kai, M; Suffys, P; Rosa, P S; Williams, D; Gupta, U D; Lavania, M; Cardona-Castro, N; Miyamoto, Y; Hagge, D; Srikantam, A; Hongseng, W; Indropo, A; Vissa, V; Johnson, R C; Cauchoix, B; Pannikar, V K; Cooreman, E A W D; Pemmaraju, V R R; Gillini, L

2018-03-01

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a priority for surveillance in bacterial infections. For leprosy, AMR has not been assessed because Mycobacterium leprae does not grow in vitro. We aim to obtain AMR data using molecular detection of resistance genes and to conduct a prospective open survey of resistance to antileprosy drugs in countries where leprosy is endemic through a WHO surveillance network. From 2009 to 2015, multi-bacillary leprosy cases at sentinel sites of 19 countries were studied for resistance to rifampicin, dapsone and ofloxacin by PCR sequencing of the drug-resistance-determining regions of the genes rpoB, folP1 and gyrA. Among 1932 (1143 relapse and 789 new) cases studied, 154 (8.0%) M. leprae strains were found with mutations conferring resistance showing 182 resistance traits (74 for rifampicin, 87 for dapsone and 21 for ofloxacin). Twenty cases showed rifampicin and dapsone resistance, four showed ofloxacin and dapsone resistance, but no cases were resistant to rifampicin and ofloxacin. Rifampicin resistance was observed among relapse (58/1143, 5.1%) and new (16/789, 2.0%) cases in 12 countries. India, Brazil and Colombia reported more than five rifampicin-resistant cases. This is the first study reporting global data on AMR in leprosy. Rifampicin resistance emerged, stressing the need for expansion of surveillance. This is also a call for vigilance on the global use of antimicrobial agents, because ofloxacin resistance probably developed in relation to the general intake of antibiotics for other infections as it is not part of the multidrug combination used to treat leprosy. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Comparison analysis on vulnerability of metro networks based on complex network

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Jianhua; Wang, Shuliang; Wang, Xiaoyuan

2018-04-01

This paper analyzes the networked characteristics of three metro networks, and two malicious attacks are employed to investigate the vulnerability of metro networks based on connectivity vulnerability and functionality vulnerability. Meanwhile, the networked characteristics and vulnerability of three metro networks are compared with each other. The results show that Shanghai metro network has the largest transport capacity, Beijing metro network has the best local connectivity and Guangzhou metro network has the best global connectivity, moreover Beijing metro network has the best homogeneous degree distribution. Furthermore, we find that metro networks are very vulnerable subjected to malicious attacks, and Guangzhou metro network has the best topological structure and reliability among three metro networks. The results indicate that the proposed methodology is feasible and effective to investigate the vulnerability and to explore better topological structure of metro networks.

ENERGY AWARE NETWORK: BAYESIAN BELIEF NETWORKS BASED DECISION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Santosh Kumar Chaudhari

2011-06-01

Full Text Available A Network Management System (NMS plays a very important role in managing an ever-evolving telecommunication network. Generally an NMS monitors & maintains the health of network elements. The growing size of the network warrants extra functionalities from the NMS. An NMS provides all kinds of information about networks which can be used for other purposes apart from monitoring & maintaining networks like improving QoS & saving energy in the network. In this paper, we add another dimension to NMS services, namely, making an NMS energy aware. We propose a Decision Management System (DMS framework which uses a machine learning technique called Bayesian Belief Networks (BBN, to make the NMS energy aware. The DMS is capable of analysing and making control decisions based on network traffic. We factor in the cost of rerouting and power saving per port. Simulations are performed on standard network topologies, namely, ARPANet and IndiaNet. It is found that ~2.5-6.5% power can be saved.

Ethical issues in public health surveillance: a systematic qualitative review.

Science.gov (United States)

Klingler, Corinna; Silva, Diego Steven; Schuermann, Christopher; Reis, Andreas Alois; Saxena, Abha; Strech, Daniel

2017-04-04

Public health surveillance is not ethically neutral and yet, ethics guidance and training for surveillance programmes is sparse. Development of ethics guidance should be based on comprehensive and transparently derived overviews of ethical issues and arguments. However, existing overviews on surveillance ethics are limited in scope and in how transparently they derived their results. Our objective was accordingly to provide an overview of ethical issues in public health surveillance; in addition, to list the arguments put forward with regards to arguably the most contested issue in surveillance, that is whether to obtain informed consent. Ethical issues were defined based on principlism. We assumed an ethical issue to arise in surveillance when a relevant normative principle is not adequately considered or two principles come into conflict. We searched Pubmed and Google Books for relevant publications. We analysed and synthesized the data using qualitative content analysis. Our search strategy retrieved 525 references of which 83 were included in the analysis. We identified 86 distinct ethical issues arising in the different phases of the surveillance life-cycle. We further identified 20 distinct conditions that make it more or less justifiable to forego informed consent procedures. This is the first systematic qualitative review of ethical issues in public health surveillance resulting in a comprehensive ethics matrix that can inform guidelines, reports, strategy papers, and educational material and raise awareness among practitioners.

Evaluation of outbreak detection performance using multi-stream syndromic surveillance for influenza-like illness in rural Hubei Province, China: a temporal simulation model based on healthcare-seeking behaviors.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yunzhou Fan

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Syndromic surveillance promotes the early detection of diseases outbreaks. Although syndromic surveillance has increased in developing countries, performance on outbreak detection, particularly in cases of multi-stream surveillance, has scarcely been evaluated in rural areas. OBJECTIVE: This study introduces a temporal simulation model based on healthcare-seeking behaviors to evaluate the performance of multi-stream syndromic surveillance for influenza-like illness. METHODS: Data were obtained in six towns of rural Hubei Province, China, from April 2012 to June 2013. A Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Recovered model generated 27 scenarios of simulated influenza A (H1N1 outbreaks, which were converted into corresponding simulated syndromic datasets through the healthcare-behaviors model. We then superimposed converted syndromic datasets onto the baselines obtained to create the testing datasets. Outbreak performance of single-stream surveillance of clinic visit, frequency of over the counter drug purchases, school absenteeism, and multi-stream surveillance of their combinations were evaluated using receiver operating characteristic curves and activity monitoring operation curves. RESULTS: In the six towns examined, clinic visit surveillance and school absenteeism surveillance exhibited superior performances of outbreak detection than over the counter drug purchase frequency surveillance; the performance of multi-stream surveillance was preferable to signal-stream surveillance, particularly at low specificity (Sp <90%. CONCLUSIONS: The temporal simulation model based on healthcare-seeking behaviors offers an accessible method for evaluating the performance of multi-stream surveillance.

Conversion to use of digital chest images for surveillance of coal workers' pneumoconiosis (black lung).

Science.gov (United States)

Levine, Betty A; Ingeholm, Mary Lou; Prior, Fred; Mun, Seong K; Freedman, Matthew; Weissman, David; Attfield, Michael; Wolfe, Anita; Petsonk, Edward

2009-01-01

To protect the health of active U.S. underground coal miners, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has a mandate to carry out surveillance for coal workers' pneumoconiosis, commonly known as Black Lung (PHS 2001). This is accomplished by reviewing chest x-ray films obtained from miners at approximately 5-year intervals in approved x-ray acquisition facilities around the country. Currently, digital chest images are not accepted. Because most chest x-rays are now obtained in digital format, NIOSH is redesigning the surveillance program to accept and manage digital x-rays. This paper highlights the functional and security requirements for a digital image management system for a surveillance program. It also identifies the operational differences between a digital imaging surveillance network and a clinical Picture Archiving Communication Systems (PACS) or teleradiology system.

National Infectious Diseases Surveillance data of South Korea.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Sunhee; Cho, Eunhee

2014-01-01

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) operate infectious disease surveillance systems to monitor national disease incidence. Since 1954, Korea has collected data on various infectious diseases in accordance with the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act. All physicians (including those working in Oriental medicine) who diagnose a patient with an infectious disease or conduct a postmortem examination of an infectious disease case are obliged to report the disease to the system. These reported data are incorporated into the database of the National Infectious Disease Surveillance System, which has been providing web-based real-time surveillance data on infectious diseases since 2001. In addition, the KCDC analyzes reported data and publishes the Infectious Disease Surveillance Yearbook annually.

Resource Discovery in Activity-Based Sensor Networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bucur, Doina; Bardram, Jakob

This paper proposes a service discovery protocol for sensor networks that is specifically tailored for use in humancentered pervasive environments. It uses the high-level concept of computational activities (as logical bundles of data and resources) to give sensors in Activity-Based Sensor Networ....... ABSN enhances the generic Extended Zone Routing Protocol with logical sensor grouping and greatly lowers network overhead during the process of discovery, while keeping discovery latency close to optimal.......This paper proposes a service discovery protocol for sensor networks that is specifically tailored for use in humancentered pervasive environments. It uses the high-level concept of computational activities (as logical bundles of data and resources) to give sensors in Activity-Based Sensor Networks...... (ABSNs) knowledge about their usage even at the network layer. ABSN redesigns classical network-level service discovery protocols to include and use this logical structuring of the network for a more practically applicable service discovery scheme. Noting that in practical settings activity-based sensor...

Resource Discovery in Activity-Based Sensor Networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bucur, Doina; Bardram, Jakob

This paper proposes a service discovery protocol for sensor networks that is specifically tailored for use in humancentered pervasive environments. It uses the high-level concept of computational activities (as logical bundles of data and resources) to give sensors in Activity-Based Sensor Networks...... (ABSNs) knowledge about their usage even at the network layer. ABSN redesigns classical network-level service discovery protocols to include and use this logical structuring of the network for a more practically applicable service discovery scheme. Noting that in practical settings activity-based sensor...

Operational experiences on the Borssele nuclear power plant using computer based surveillance and diagnostic system on-line

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Turkcan, E.; Quaadvliet, W.H.J.; Peeters, T.T.J.M.; Verhoef, J.P

1991-06-01

The on-line monitoring and diagnostics system of Borssele nuclear power plant (NPP), designed and established by the ECN Energy Research Foundation, has been operating continuously since 1983. The system is extended in form of multiprocessing, multi-tasking structure performing real-time monitoring, on-line reactor parameters' calculation, data-base preparation for expert systems and providing early information on possible malfunctions even in the incipient stage making alert by passive alarms. The system realized has already been operating in the course of 7 fuel cycles of the reactor starting from start-up through normal power operation. An expert system operating on the VAX work station is added to the surveillance and diagnostics system for data base management of the observed physical parameters relevant to the NPP under supervision. The paper highlights the surveillance and diagnostic modules involved, in their actual hierarchical form in use, presents theoretical considerations applied to the design of the surveillance system together with the results obtained through the 12th to 17th fuel cycles of the NPP including start-ups and shut-downs and reveals the experience thus gained by both utility and ECN through the application of the system described. (author). 19 refs.; 4 figs

Facebook as a Surveillance Tool: From the Perspective of the User

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ekaterina Petrovna Netchitailova

2012-09-01

Full Text Available With the increasing use of online social networks such as Facebook in recent years, a lot of research has been focussing on the privacy issue of the network. The main question being asked is: how do users navigate their privacy on Facebook? While this research has been very important for the understanding of the privacy issue on Facebook, it also has the tendency to focus entirely on the user and look at personal information revelation, ignoring societal aspects, such as capitalism and the changing notion of privacy in the current society. Recently, there has been a new trend in studying privacy on Facebook - looking at Facebook as a surveillance tool and studying the privacy issue within the political economy of capitalism, led mainly by Christian Fuchs (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011. This research raises important questions as to what happens with our data and how Facebook uses its users. This paper looks at the perspective of the user by using the critical approach, or Critical Media and Communication Studies. The privacy in the age of the Internet can be described as either social or institutional (Raynes-Goldie 2010. The social focuses on the control of personal information, while the institutional focuses on the data usage by corporations, such as Facebook. By talking to different users about privacy, I was interested to learn what they think about both aspects of privacy. From my interviews it emerged that users care about both social and institutional privacy, but while, in most cases, they are quite aware, and concerned about the surveillance aspect of Facebook's usage, the benefits of using the network at this moment are too strong to either leave Facebook or switch to an alternative medium. There is a definite feeling among users, based on my interviews, that their options are limited, and more should be done to raise the level of knowledge among users about how they can better protect both their social and institutional privacy. We will

Compliance with periodic surveillance for Von-Hippel-Lindau disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Lammens, Chantal R M; Aaronson, Neil K; Hes, Frederik J; Links, Thera P; Zonnenberg, Bernard A; Lenders, Jacques W M; Majoor-Krakauer, Danielle; Van Os, Theo A M; Gomez-Garcia, Encarna B; de Herder, Wouter; van der Luijt, Rob B; van den Ouweland, Ans M W; Van Hest, Liselot P; Verhoef, Senno; Bleiker, Eveline M A

2011-06-01

To assess compliance with a periodic surveillance regimen for Von Hippel-Lindau disease. In this nationwide study, Von Hippel-Lindau disease mutation carriers and those at 50% risk were invited to complete a questionnaire assessing (compliance with) advice given for periodic surveillance. Medical record data on compliance with recommended radiologic surveillance examinations were also collected. Of the 84 (77%) participants, 78 indicated having received advice to undergo periodic surveillance. Of these, 71 reported being fully compliant with that advice. In 64% of the cases, this advice was only partially consistent with published guidelines. Based on medical record data, between one quarter and one third of individuals did not undergo surveillance as recommended in the guidelines for central nervous system lesions and one half for visceral lesions. Screening delay for central nervous system lesions was significantly higher in one hospital and in those cases where "the advice given" deviated from the guidelines. The majority of those with or at risk of Von Hippel-Lindau disease reported having received and being fully compliant with screening advice. However, in many cases, the advice given was only partially consistent with published guidelines, and screening delays were observed. Efforts should be undertaken to stimulate guideline-based surveillance advice and to minimize screening delay.

Methods for molecular surveillance of influenza

OpenAIRE

Wang, Ruixue; Taubenberger, Jeffery K

2010-01-01

Molecular-based techniques for detecting influenza viruses have become an integral component of human and animal surveillance programs in the last two decades. The recent pandemic of the swine-origin influenza A virus (H1N1) and the continuing circulation of highly pathogenic avian influenza A virus (H5N1) further stress the need for rapid and accurate identification and subtyping of influenza viruses for surveillance, outbreak management, diagnosis and treatment. There has been remarkable pr...

Human behavior understanding in networked sensing theory and applications of networks of sensors

CERN Document Server

Spagnolo, Paolo; Distante, Cosimo

2014-01-01

This unique text/reference provides a broad overview of both the technical challenges in sensor network development, and the real-world applications of distributed sensing. Important aspects of distributed computing in large-scale networked sensor systems are analyzed in the context of human behavior understanding, including such topics as systems design tools and techniques, in-network signals, and information processing. Additionally, the book examines a varied range of application scenarios, covering surveillance, indexing and retrieval, patient care, industrial safety, social and ambient

Evaluating airline energy efficiency: An integrated approach with Network Epsilon-based Measure and Network Slacks-based Measure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xu, Xin; Cui, Qiang

2017-01-01

This paper focuses on evaluating airline energy efficiency, which is firstly divided into four stages: Operations Stage, Fleet Maintenance Stage, Services Stage and Sales Stage. The new four-stage network structure of airline energy efficiency is a modification of existing models. A new approach, integrated with Network Epsilon-based Measure and Network Slacks-based Measure, is applied to assess the overall energy efficiency and divisional efficiency of 19 international airlines from 2008 to 2014. The influencing factors of airline energy efficiency are analyzed through the regression analysis. The results indicate the followings: 1. The integrated model can identify the benchmarking airlines in the overall system and stages. 2. Most airlines' energy efficiencies keep steady during the period, except for some sharply fluctuations. The efficiency decreases mainly centralized in the year 2008–2011, affected by the financial crisis in the USA. 3. The average age of fleet is positively correlated with the overall energy efficiency, and each divisional efficiency has different significant influencing factors. - Highlights: • An integrated approach with Network Epsilon-based Measure and Network Slacks-based Measure is developed. • 19 airlines' energy efficiencies are evaluated. • Garuda Indonesia has the highest overall energy efficiency.

Maximization Network Throughput Based on Improved Genetic Algorithm and Network Coding for Optical Multicast Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Chengying; Xiong, Cuilian; Liu, Huanlin

2017-12-01

Maximal multicast stream algorithm based on network coding (NC) can improve the network's throughput for wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) networks, which however is far less than the network's maximal throughput in terms of theory. And the existing multicast stream algorithms do not give the information distribution pattern and routing in the meantime. In the paper, an improved genetic algorithm is brought forward to maximize the optical multicast throughput by NC and to determine the multicast stream distribution by hybrid chromosomes construction for multicast with single source and multiple destinations. The proposed hybrid chromosomes are constructed by the binary chromosomes and integer chromosomes, while the binary chromosomes represent optical multicast routing and the integer chromosomes indicate the multicast stream distribution. A fitness function is designed to guarantee that each destination can receive the maximum number of decoding multicast streams. The simulation results showed that the proposed method is far superior over the typical maximal multicast stream algorithms based on NC in terms of network throughput in WDM networks.

Privacy Sensitive Surveillance for Assisted Living - A Smart Camera Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Fleck, Sven; Straßer, Wolfgang

An elderly woman wanders about aimlessly in a home for assisted living. Suddenly, she collapses on the floor of a lonesome hallway. Usually it can take over two hours until a night nurse passes this spot on her next inspection round. But in this case she is already on site after two minutes, ready to help. She has received an alert message on her beeper: "Inhabitant fallen in hallway 2b". The source: the SmartSurv distributed network of smart cameras for automated and privacy respecting video analysis.Welcome to the future of smart surveillance Although this scenario is not yet daily practice, it shall make clear how such systems will impact the safety of the elderly without the privacy intrusion of traditional video surveillance systems.

EAP-Based Authentication for Ad Hoc Network

OpenAIRE

Bhakti, Muhammad Agni Catur; Abdullah, Azween; Jung, Low Tan

2007-01-01

Wireless network has been deployed worldwide, but some security issues in wireless network might haveprevented its further acceptance. One of the solutions to overcome the limitation of wireless network security isthe IEEE 802.1X specification, a mechanism for port-based network access control, which is based onExtensible Authentication Protocol (EAP). It is an authentication framework that can support multipleauthentication methods. EAP can run over many types of data-link layer and it is fl...