Block-Greedy and CNN Based Underwater Image Dehazing for Novel Depth Estimation and Optimal Ambient Light

A lack of adequate consideration of underwater image enhancement gives room for more research into the field. The global background light has not been adequately addressed amid the presence of backscattering. This paper presents a technique based on pixel differences between global and local patches in scene depth estimation. The pixel variance is based on green and red, green and blue, and red and blue channels besides the absolute mean intensity functions. The global background light is extracted based on a moving average of the impact of suspended light and the brightest pixels within the image color channels. We introduce the block-greedy algorithm in a novel Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) proposed to normalize different color channels’ attenuation ratios and select regions with the lowest variance. We address the discontinuity associated with underwater images by transforming both local and global pixel values. We minimize energy in the proposed CNN via a novel Markov random field to smooth edges and improve the final underwater image features. A comparison of the performance of the proposed technique against existing state-of-the-art algorithms using entropy, Underwater Color Image Quality Evaluation (UCIQE), Underwater Image Quality Measure (UIQM), Underwater Image Colorfulness Measure (UICM), and Underwater Image Sharpness Measure (UISM) indicate better performance of the proposed approach in terms of average and consistency. As it concerns to averagely, UICM has higher values in the technique than the reference methods, which explainsits higher color balance. The μ values of UCIQE, UISM, and UICM of the proposed method supersede those of the existing techniques. The proposed noted a percent improvement of 0.4%, 4.8%, 9.7%, 5.1% and 7.2% in entropy, UCIQE, UIQM, UICM and UISM respectively compared to the best existing techniques. Consequently, dehazed images have sharp, colorful, and clear features in most images when compared to those resulting from the existing state-of-the-art methods. Stable σ values explain the consistency in visual analysis in terms of sharpness of color and clarity of features in most of the proposed image results when compared with reference methods. Our own assessment shows that only weakness of the proposed technique is that it only applies to underwater images. Future research could seek to establish edge strengthening without color saturation enhancement.

Corona Virus Pandemic and Social Isolation Process Influences on Increased Violence Against Women

Introduction: violence against women is a complex worldwide health problem due to its multicausality. Global background alterations resulting from Corona Virus (Sars-Cov 2) pandemic implicated on the exacerbation of many vulnerabilities, including those that predispose domestic violence. Nowadays this kind of violence is even more intense and reaches significant national and worldwide morbimortality proportions among women. Objectives: to synthetize data described in the literature regarding how the Covid-19 pandemic and social isolation process have affected women lives concerning domestic violence. Methodology: integrative literature review, using a high sensitivity search in the databases Pubmed, Cochrane, Embase and the Virtual Library of Health (VLH) on Dec 07 2020. Ten studies were included in this review. Results: 90% of the studies analyzed presented an increase in intensity and frequency of violence against women after the beginning of social distancing policies. Women that had already suffered any kind of violence before the beginning of the isolation policies are more propense to physical violence during reclusion. Pandemic reduced contact of these women with their informal support network and with health services, culminating in the enhancement of the gravity of cases that are assisted by the system. Conclusion: women are a highly vulnerable population to violence during the pandemic period. Public policies that qualify professionals and facilitate prevention, tracking and intervention of cases are even more necessary.

The importance of traditional agricultural landscapes for preventing species extinctions

The main paradigm for protection of biodiversity, focusing on maintaining or restoring conditions where humans leave no or little impact, risks overlooking anthropogenic landscapes harboring a rich native biodiversity. An example is northern European agricultural landscapes with traditionally managed semi-natural grasslands harboring an exceptional local richness of many taxa, such as plants, fungi and insects. During the last century these grasslands have declined by more than 95%, i.e. in the same magnitude as other, internationally more recognized declines of natural habitats. In this study, data from the Swedish Red List was used to calculate tentative extinction rates for vascular plants, insects (Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera) and fungi, given a scenario where such landscapes would vanish. Conservative estimates suggest that abandonment of traditional management in these landscapes would result in elevated extinction rates in all these taxa, between two and three orders of magnitude higher than global background extinction rates. It is suggested that the species richness in these landscapes reflects a species pool from Pleistocene herbivore-structured environments, which, after the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna, was rescued by the introduction of pre-historic agriculture. Maintaining traditionally managed agricultural landscapes is of paramount importance to prevent species loss. There is no inherent conflict between preservation of anthropogenic landscapes and remaining ‘wild’ areas, but valuating also anthropogenic landscapes is essential for biodiversity conservation.

Cultural Pitfalls in Islamic Subtitling

This research explores the challenges of translating cultural references in Islamic TV programs from Arabic into English. Subtitling is a constrained type of translation due to the space and time limitations on the screen. Apart from this challenge, the subtitler has to deal with cultural pitfalls that cannot be separated from a stormy global background that includes political and ideological tensions between the Muslim World and the West. This study investigates these difficulties, attempts to suggest solutions to them and identify the basic qualifications of competent subtitlers of this kind of programs. The ultimate purpose is to help establish healthy communication between Muslim and Western countries through translation which is an act of cultural mediation. To achieve this, three real-life examples and their subtitles have been selected from Iqraa TV programs and analyzed using Christiane Nord’s functional model. Results show three types of cultural pitfalls typical of Islamic TV programs, i. e., Qur’anic allusions, Sunnah allusions and politicized issues. Instrumental translation has been found to be effective in overcoming these cultural pitfalls, while documentary translation proved to be ineffective due to the space limitations and its lack of clarity. Creativity, flexibility, and cultural sensitivity are indispensable for the subtitler to bridge the communication gaps between the source and target cultures.

TIMELY AND ADEQUATE MEASURES TO SUPPORT THE RUSSIAN ECONOMY AND POPULATION DURING THE PANDEMIC

The article considers measures of state support for the population and economy of Russia and summarizes the world experience of the budget support in some foreign countries affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The research and generalization performed in the following areas: applied forms of support, methods of financing, particularities in supporting the financial sector, manufacturing sector, small and medium business, population, social sphere, health care, support of regions. The study took into account two negative factors: the rapid spread of COVID-19 and its harmful impact on the global economy; the collapse in oil prices and the depreciation of the ruble. Under the influence of those factors, the Russian economy in the second quarter of 2020, according to Rosstat, declined by 8% year – on-year, and for the first half of the year-by 3.4%. The country’s GDP, according to the Ministry of economic development, decreased by 4.3% in annual terms, and for 8 months from the beginning of this year by 3.6%.Given the circumstances, the Government of the Russian Federation and the Bank of Russia developed a national plan for the recovery of the Russian economy in 2020–2021, which was adopted and approved by the Government on September 23, 2020. The consequences of COVID-19 have negatively affected the actions of most European companies in Russia. With more than half of them (56%), sales fell, and a third of companies (33%) had to cut their advertising and marketing research budgets (21%).The article assesses the economic situation of Russia against the global background. Although the economies of the US, UK, and EU countries have fallen much more deeply than the Russian one, they will recover sooner than we do, since these countries have invested significantly more money in supporting their economies than Russia. We have allocated no more than 3% of GDP to support the economy, while in developed countries at least 10%, and in Germany – 22%.The pandemic has hit small and medium-sized businesses the hardest for two reasons: a reduction in the number of consumers and increasing costs, and, first of all, rental rates. To restore small and medium-sized businesses, it is proposed to provide monetary support directly to the population in order to raise effective demand, or partially remove the tax and administrative burden on entrepreneurs. In conclusion, taking into account foreign experience and the real state of the economy, recommendations for its recovery are formulated.

To Open or Close? COVID-19, Mosques and the Role of Religious Authority within the British Muslim Community: A Socio-Legal Analysis

A whirlwind of developments have unfolded in the UK since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has subsequently instigated an intensely animated debate among British Muslim religious leaders about the contentious and sensitive topic of mosque closure, producing a rich and sophisticated spectrum of responses. These responses emerged within the dramatic global background of an imminent closure of Islam’s most cherished mosque to international pilgrims, namely the sacred precinct in Mekkah. The stakes were, therefore, high for British Muslim religious leaders considering mosque closure, facing the stark dilemma of compromising the sacrosanct status of the mosque and congregational worship in Islam or putting the lives of British Muslims in their hundreds of thousands at risk. This paper seeks to analyze the role of religious authority within the British Muslim community through the lens of the responses of the community’s religious leaders to the COVID-19 closure of mosques. It builds upon a Special Issue published by this journal on leadership, authority and representation in British Muslim communities. The issue of COVID-19 mosque closure in the UK presented an excellent case study for this paper’s analysis, manifesting as it does the dynamic way in which religious authority in the British Muslim community continues to evolve. This paper thus seeks to use this case-study to further enrich the literature on this topic.

Monitoring Chlorofluorocarbons in Potential Source Regions in Eastern China

Recent studies have indicated that Eastern China might be a potential source region of increased atmospheric chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). To investigate this possibility, a field measurement was carried out from October to December 2017 for identifying the ambient concentration levels of representative trichlorofluoromethane (CFC-11), dichlorodifluoromethane (CFC-12), trifluorotrichloroethane (CFC-113), and tetrafluorodichloroethane (CFC-114) at the residential and municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills and industrial sites in Eastern China. The ambient mixing ratios of CFCs at residential sites were almost within 20% enhancements of the global background sites. The highest levels of CFCs were observed at the MSW landfill sites. Moreover, CFC-11 and CFC-113 concentrations at MSW landfill, which was in service, were two times higher than that at completed MSW landfill. Mean concentrations of 322 pptv for CFC-11, 791 pptv for CFC-12, 91 pptv for CFC-113, and 16 pptv for CFC-114 at various industrial sites were higher than those at residential sites, but they were obviously lower than that at MSW landfill in use. A poor intercorrelation between the CFCs indicated that they did not come from the same source. Higher concentrations measured in this study compared with background sites indicates that MSW landfills could be an unintentional emission source and there are still substantial amounts of CFCs being stored in banks that may discharge CFCs into the atmosphere in Eastern China.

Impacts of global NO_<i>x</i> inversions on NO₂ and ozone simulations

Tropospheric NO2 and ozone simulations have large uncertainties, but their biases, seasonality, and trends can be improved with NO2 assimilations. We perform global top-down estimates of monthly NOx emissions using two Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) NO2 retrievals (NASAv3 and DOMINOv2) from 2005 to 2016 through a hybrid 4D-Var/mass balance inversion. Discrepancy in NO2 retrieval products is a major source of uncertainties in the top-down NOx emission estimates. The different vertical sensitivities in the two NO2 retrievals affect both magnitude and seasonal variations of top-down NOx emissions. The 12-year averages of regional NOx budgets from the NASA posterior emissions are 37 % to 53 % smaller than the DOMINO posterior emissions. Consequently, the DOMINO posterior surface NO2 simulations greatly reduced the negative biases in China (by 15 %) and the US (by 22 %) compared to surface NO2 measurements. Posterior NOx emissions show consistent trends over China, the US, India, and Mexico constrained by the two retrievals. Emission trends are less robust over South America, Australia, western Europe, and Africa, where the two retrievals show less consistency. NO2 trends have more consistent decreases (by 26 %) with the measurements (by 32 %) in the US from 2006 to 2016 when using the NASA posterior emissions. The performance of posterior ozone simulations has spatial heterogeneities from region to region. On a global scale, ozone simulations using NASA-based emissions alleviate the double peak in the prior simulation of global ozone seasonality. The higher abundances of NO2 from the DOMINO posterior simulations increase the global background ozone concentrations and therefore reduce the negative biases more than the NASA posterior simulations using GEOS-Chem v12 at remote sites. Compared to surface ozone measurements, posterior simulations have more consistent magnitude and interannual variations than the prior estimates, but the performance from the NASA-based and DOMINO-based emissions varies across ozone metrics. The limited availability of remote-sensing data and the use of prior NOx diurnal variations hinder improvement of ozone diurnal variations from the assimilation, and therefore have mixed performance on improving different ozone metrics. Additional improvements in posterior NO2 and ozone simulations require more precise and consistent NO2 retrieval products, more accurate diurnal variations of NOx and VOC emissions, and improved simulations of ozone chemistry and depositions.

Research and Practice on the Training Mode of Textile Design Specialty Combining Art and Work

With the development of society and the advancement of science and technology, the textile industry no longer stays at the level of traditional industries, and textiles have also gone beyond the scope of sheltering from the cold. In this process, how to match the talent training model of traditional design education with society and industry’s demand for future textile design talents is the key issue discussed in this article. As the core of the output of creative talents, the design education system should have insight into the needs of the industry and plan ahead in advance. This article aims to study the training mode of the integration of textile design professionals, to cultivate design talents with scientific and technological foundations-cultural heritage-artistic creation-fashion concepts, and to meet the theoretical discussion of the special needs for compound talents in the textile industry upgrade under the global background. Practice and cultivate high-quality compound talents with the characteristics of multi-discipline integration and integration that are urgently needed in future textiles.