High-speed eye tracking based on a synchronized imaging mechanism by a dual-ring infrared lighting source.

It is a challenge for conventional monocular-camera single-light source eye-tracking methods to achieve high-speed eye tracking. In this work, a dual-ring infrared lighting source was designed to achieve bright and dark pupils in high speed. The eye-tracking method used a dual-ring infrared lighting source and synchronized triggers for the even and odd camera frames to capture bright and dark pupils. A pupillary corneal reflex was calculated by the center coordinates of the Purkinje spot and the pupil. A map function was established to map the relationship between the pupillary corneal reflex and gaze spots. The gaze coordinate was calculated based on the mapping function. The average detection time of each gaze spot was 3.76 ms.

Artificial light at night drives diel activity patterns of synanthropic pipistrelle bats and their prey.

The use of artificial light at night (ALAN) has increased drastically worldwide over the last decades. ALAN can have major effects on nocturnal communities, including insects and bats. Insects are attracted to street lights and few bat species take advantage of this by foraging on the attracted insects. ALAN potentially affects the temporal patterns of insect abundance and thereby bat foraging behaviour. In a natural dark environment, these patterns are usually bimodal, with an activity peak in the early evening and the morning. Little is known about how ALAN affects insect presence throughout the night, and whether the light spectrum plays a role. This is important, as these temporal changes may be a key driver of disturbances in bat-insect interactions. Here, we studied how white and red light affect insects' and bats' nightly activity patterns. The activity of insects and bats (Pipistrellus spp.) was recorded throughout the night at seven experimentally illuminated sites in a forest-edge ecosystem. ALAN disrupted activity patterns, with both insects and bats being more active throughout the night. ALAN facilitated all-night foraging in bats especially near white light, but these effects were attenuated near red light. The ability to forage throughout the night may be a key advantage causing synanthropic bats to dominate in illuminated environments, but this could also prove detrimental in the long term. As red light reduced disturbing effects of ALAN on insects and bats diel activity pattern, it opens the possibility of using spectral composition as a mitigation measure.

Randomized trial comparing the effects of a 3D head-up system and microscope eyepiece-assisted simulated vitrectomy with intraocular illumination on the ocular surface of an operator.

BACKGROUND: To compare the effects of a 3D head-up system and microscope eyepiece-assisted simulated vitrectomy intraocular illumination on the ocular surface of an operator. METHODS: This was a prospective randomized controlled study. According to the application system, thirty ophthalmic operators (60 eyes) were randomly divided into 3D and eyepiece groups. Under different intensities of intraocular illumination, operators in both groups viewed the fundus model through a 3D display screen or microscopic eyepiece for 2 h. Objective examinations and a subjective symptom questionnaire were used immediately after the test to evaluate the ocular surface of the operators. Objective examinations included nonintrusion tear meniscus height (NIKTMH), nonintrusion break-up time (NIKBUT), and bulbar redness and strip meniscometry tube (SMTube) measurements. Statistical analyses were performed by using SPSS 26.0 software. RESULTS: After the test, the NIKTMH, NIKBUT and SMTube measurements decreased; however, the degree of change varied among the groups of different systems. The differences between the 3D group and the eyepiece group in NIKTMH measurements, SMTube measurements, subjective symptom scores (eye dryness, difficulty focusing, and cervical pain), and light intensity reaching the ocular surface of the operators were statistically significant (P < 0.05). All of the objective and subjective tests showed that the 3D group had fewer effects on the NIKTMH and SMTube measurements, and the subjective comfort of the 3D group was greater. CONCLUSION: For both 3D screens and eyepieces, simulated vitrectomy with intraocular illumination for two hours can lead to discomfort and abnormalities in the operator's ocular surface; however, these abnormalities are less severe in the 3D group. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This trial was registered on December 22, 2022, at the Chinese Clinical Trials Registry with NO. ChiCTR2200066989.

Reduction of coastal lighting decreases seabird strandings.

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is negatively impacting numerous species of nocturnally active birds. Nocturnal positive phototaxis, the movement towards ALAN, is exhibited by many marine birds and can result in stranding on land. Seabird species facing major population declines may be most at risk. Leach's Storm-Petrels (Hydrobates leucorhous) are small, threatened seabirds with an extensive breeding range in the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans. The Atlantic population, which represents approximately 40-48% of the global population, is declining sharply. Nocturnal positive phototaxis is considered to be a key contributing factor. The Leach's Storm-Petrel is the seabird species most often found stranded around ALAN in the North Atlantic, though there is little experimental evidence that reduction of ALAN decreases the occurrence of stranded storm-petrels. During a two-year study at a large, brightly illuminated seafood processing plant adjacent to the Leach's Storm-Petrel's largest colony, we compared the number of birds that stranded when the lights at the plant were on versus significantly reduced. We recorded survival, counted carcasses of adults and juveniles, and released any rescued individuals. Daily morning surveys revealed that reducing ALAN decreased strandings by 57.11% (95% CI: 39.29% - 83.01%) per night and night surveys revealed that reducing ALAN decreased stranding of adult birds by 11.94% (95% CI: 3.47% - 41.13%) per night. The peak stranding period occurred from 25 September to 28 October, and 94.9% of the birds found during this period were fledglings. These results provide evidence to support the implementation of widespread reduction and modification of coastal artificial light as a conservation strategy, especially during avian fledging and migration periods.

Impact of dichromatic lighted incubation on hatching result and post-hatch performance of broiler chickens.

This study was planned to evaluate the impact of dichromatic lights during incubation on the hatching and post-hatch performance of broiler chickens. A total of 500 eggs of broiler breeder (Ross 308; Age 44 weeks) were evenly divided according to a completely randomized design into 4 treatments having 5 replicates and 25 eggs each. Treatments consisted of dichromatic lights Blue + Red (BR), Green + Red (GR) and Green + Blue (GB) provided at an intensity of 250 lx for 12 h a day along with a Dark (D) environment. After hatching 200 chicks (50 from each respective light group) were divided into 4 treatments with 5 replicates each having 10 chicks. Results indicated a higher embryo index (13.12%) in the GR group on the 12th day of incubation; while an ideal hatch window was observed in GR and GB (98.18% and 96.00% hatched chicks) lighting groups. In hatching traits, higher hatchability (86.15) and hatch of fertile (93.85) percentages were observed in GR lighting followed by GB, BR and Dark treatment groups; while dead-in shell embryos were lowest in the GR group. In growth performance, higher feed intake (513.20 g) and body weight (479.20 g) were observed in the GB group followed by GR, BR and dark group; and feed conversion ratio (FCR) was better in the GR group (1.06). In welfare parameters, improved physical asymmetry (0.90 mm) and tonic immobility (54.40 s) were measured in the GR group followed by GB, BR and the dark group. It was concluded that under experimental conditions when broiler breeder eggs are provided with GR lighting during incubation, it can help to improve hatchability, growth performance and welfare traits in chicks.

Diurnal biological effects of correlated colour temperature and its exposure timing on alertness, cognition, and mood in an enclosed environment.

Artificial lighting, which profits from the non-visual effects of light, is a potentially promising solution to support residents' psychophysiological health and performance at specific times of the day in enclosed environments. However, few studies have investigated the non-visual effects of daytime correlated colour temperature (CCT) and its exposure timing on human alertness, cognition, and mood. However, the neural mechanisms underlying these effects are largely unknown. The current study evaluated the effects of daytime CCT and its exposure timing on markers of subjective experience, cognitive performance, and cerebral activity in a simulated enclosed environment. Forty-two participants participated a single-blind laboratory study with a 4 within (CCT: 4000 K vs. 6500 K vs. 8500 K vs. 12,000 K) × 2 between (exposure timing: morning vs. afternoon) mixed design. The results showed time of the day dependent benefits of the daytime CCT on subjective experience, vigilant attention, response inhibition, working memory, emotional perception, and risk decisions. The results of the electroencephalogram (EEG) revealed that lower-frequency EEG bands, including theta, alpha, and alpha-theta, were quite sensitive to daytime CCT intervention, which provides a valuable reference for trying to establish the underlying mechanisms that support the performance-enhancement effects of exposure to CCT in the daytime. However, the results revealed no consistent intervention pattern across these measurements. Therefore, future studies should consider personalised optimisation of daytime CCT for different cognitive demands.

LED streetlight characteristics alter the functional composition of ground-dwelling invertebrates.

Artificial Light at Night (ALAN) has been identified as a primary driver of environmental change in the 21st century with key impacts on ecosystems. At the same time, developments of LED lighting systems with adjustable parameters-such as color temperature and light intensity-may provide an opportunity to mitigate the negative effects of ALAN. To test the potential effects of LED properties, we conducted a comprehensive field study over two summers at three forest sites in Switzerland. We investigated the impact of three key attributes of LED lights (color temperature, brightness, and luminaire shape) on the abundance and community structure of ground-dwelling invertebrate functional groups (predators, omnivores, and detritivores). We found a significantly increased nocturnal attraction of omnivores (+275%) and predators (+70%), but not detritivores, to ALAN, altering arthropod community composition and trophic interactions in forests. LED color temperature and luminaire shape showed minimal effects on all three functional groups, while reducing light level from 100% to 50% attracted fewer individuals in all groups with a significant effect in omnivores (-57%). In addition, we observed significant interactions of color temperatures and luminaire shapes with light intensity, with a decrease in numbers when dimming the light to 50% intensity combined with a color temperature of 3700 K for predators (-53%), with diffusing luminaire shapes for omnivores (-77%) and with standard luminaire shape for detritivores (-27%). The predator-detritivore ratio showed a significant color temperature - light level interaction, with increased numbers of predators around streetlights with 3700 K and 100% intensity, resulting in an elevated top-down pressure on detritivores. These results suggest the importance of considering combined light characteristics in future outdoor lighting designs.

["Wider Den Nächtlichen Unfug"-Bielefeld's Street Lighting from 1853 to the 1880s as a Securatization Infrastructure and Tool for Self-Discipline]. / "Wider den nächtlichen Unfug" ­ Die Bielefelder Straßenbeleuchtung von 1853 bis in die 1880er Jahre als versicherheitlichende Infrastruktur und Mittel der Selbstdisziplinierung.

This article deals with the change in safety requirements and technological possibilities in the course of industrialization by looking at the establishment of street lighting in Bielefeld in the 19th century. As will be shown, the development from oil to gas lanterns coincided with a change in the security needs of the urban middle class. It was the technical possibilities of gas lighting to penetrate the urban space at night that made marginalized groups of people who were perceived as a security risk visible. This, together with the bourgeois internalization of the disciplinary effects of light, made this infrastructure possible in Bielefeld. While the urban populations of the pre-modern and early 19th century were still skeptical or dismissive of lanterns, by the mid-19th century their installation was already part of decidedly urban bourgeois demands for more safety in the areas of personal, economic and traffic safety. The lantern thus changed from an instrument of pre-modern visibility to an instrument of constant visibility in the modern age, which at the same time led to new lines of conflict when the expansion and extension of lighting was not as comprehensive as demanded by the urban bourgeoisie. In addition to the changes and conjunctures of security needs in the course of industrialization, Bielefeld also shows that an internalization of the concept of sovereignty by no means meant the absence of conflict. On the basis of administrative acts and petitions, the history of Bielefeld's street lighting is placed in a larger transformation of security, technology and urban spatial design from the perspective of historical security research, drawing on Foucoult's concept of gouvernmentalité. The results show that the history of technology and infrastructure can significantly deepen and contextualize the findings of historical security research. The use and expectations of technology were an essential part of a new understanding of security, as well as the socially segmented organization of urban space through a sometimes precarious alliance of different groups of actors.

Effect of the chromaticity of stimuli on night vision disturbances.

The perception of halos and other night vision disturbances is a common complaint in clinical practice. Such visual disturbances must be assessed in order to fully characterize each patient's visual performance, which is particularly relevant when carrying out a range of daily tasks. Visual problems are usually assessed using achromatic stimuli, yet the stimuli encountered in daily life have very different chromaticities. Hence, it is important to assess the effect of the chromaticity of visual stimuli on night vision disturbances. The aim of this work is to study the influence of the chromaticity of different visual stimuli on night vision disturbances by analyzing straylight and visual discrimination under low-light conditions. For that, we assessed the monocular and binocular visual discrimination of 27 subjects under low illumination using the Halo test. The subjects' visual discrimination was assessed after exposure to different visual stimuli: achromatic, red, green, and blue, both at the monitor's maximum luminance and maintaining the same luminance value for the different visual stimuli. Monocular straylight was also measured for an achromatic, red, green, and blue stimuli. The blue stimulus had the greatest effect on halos in both monocular and binocular conditions. Visual discrimination was similar for the red, green, and achromatic stimuli, but worsened at lower luminance. The greatest influence of straylight was observed for the blue stimulus. In addition, visual discrimination correlated with straylight measurements for achromatic stimuli, wherein greater straylight values correlated with an increased perception of halos and other visual disturbances.

Research on defect detection of bottle cap interior based on low-angle and large divergence angle vision system.

During the machine vision inspection of the inner section of bottle caps within pharmaceutical packaging, the unique conca bottom and convex side walls often create obstructions to the illumination. Consequently, this results in challenges such as irregular background and diminished feature contrast in the image, ultimately leading to the misidentification of defects. As a solution, a vision system characterized by a Low-Angle and Large Divergence Angle (LALDA) is presented in this paper. Using the large divergence angle of LED, combined with low-angle illumination, a uniform image of the side wall region with bright-field characteristics and a uniform image of inner circle region at the bottom with dark-field characteristics are obtained, thus solving the problems of light being obscured and brightness overexposure of the background. Based on the imaging characteristics of LALDA, a multi-channel segmentation (MCS) algorithm is designed. The HSV color space has been transformed, and the image is automatically segmented into multiple sub-regions by mutual calculation of different channels. Further, image homogenization and enhancement are used to eliminate fluctuations in the background and to enhance the contrast of defects. In addition, a variety of defect extraction methods are designed based on the imaging characteristics of different sub-regions, which can avoid the problem of over-segmentation in detection. In this paper, the LALDA is applied to the defect detection inside the cap of capsule medicine bottle, the detection speed is better than 400 pcs/min and the detection accuracy is better than 95%, which can meet the actual production line capacity and detection requirements.

Transparent layer constancy improves with increased naturalness of the scene.

The extent to which hue, saturation, and transmittance of thin light-transmitting layers are perceived as constant when the illumination changes (transparent layer constancy, TLC) has previously been investigated with simple stimuli in asymmetric matching tasks. In this task, a target filter is presented under one illumination and a second filter is matched under a second illumination. Although two different illuminations are applied in the stimulus generation, there is no guarantee that the stimulus will be interpreted appropriately by the visual system. In previous work, we found a higher degree of TLC when both illuminations were presented alternately than when they were presented simultaneously, which could be explained, for example, by an increased plausibility of an illumination change. In this work, we test whether TLC can also be increased in simultaneous presentation when the filter's belonging to a particular illumination context is made more likely by additional cues. To this end, we presented filters in differently lit areas of complex, naturalistically rendered 3D scenes containing different types of cues to the prevailing illumination, such as scene geometry, object shading, and cast shadows. We found higher degrees of TLC in such complex scenes than in colorimetrically similar simple 2D color mosaics, which is consistent with the results of similar studies in the area of color constancy. To test which of the illumination cues available in the scenes are actually used, the different types of cues were successively removed from the naturalistically rendered complex scene. A total of eight levels of scene complexity were examined. As expected, TLC decreased the more cues were removed. Object shading and illumination gradients due to shadow cast were both found to have a positive effect on TLC. A second filter had a small positive effect on TLC when added in strongly reduced scenes, but not in the complex scenes that already provide many cues about the illumination context of the filter.

Reducing the fatal attraction of nocturnal insects using tailored and shielded road lights.

The attraction of insects to artificial light is a global environmental problem with far-reaching implications for ecosystems. Since light pollution is rarely integrated into conservation approaches, effective mitigation strategies towards environmentally friendly lighting that drastically reduce insect attraction are urgently needed. Here, we tested novel luminaires in two experiments (i) at a controlled experimental field site and (ii) on streets within three municipalities. The luminaires are individually tailored to only emit light onto the target area and to reduce spill light. In addition, a customized shielding renders the light source nearly invisible beyond the lit area. We show that these novel luminaires significantly reduce the attraction effect on flying insects compared to different conventional luminaires with the same illuminance on the ground. This underlines the huge potential of spatially optimized lighting to help to bend the curve of global insect decline without compromising human safety aspects. A customized light distribution should therefore be part of sustainable future lighting concepts, most relevant in the vicinity of protected areas.

Influence of lighting on visual performance.

PURPOSE: This review emphasizes the effect of light on visual efficiency, the impact of different lighting focuses, types of lighting, and their influence on vision and productivity. Light sources and standards are intriguing subjects for ophthalmologists. Guidelines regarding the level of lighting influence on visual activities can enhance visual performance.Methods: This article was developed based on literature reviews, with a bibliographic survey conducted in databases such as PubMed, MEDLINE, Web of Science, Embase, LILACS, and SciELO. RESULTS: Provides recommendations for understanding information regarding the influence of lighting on visual performance. CONCLUSION: Proper workplace lighting is crucial for improving visual efficiency, safety, productivity, and worker health. Efficient workplace lighting should avoid light sources directed towards the worker's face, prevent harmful glare, be more intense in the work area, and uniform in the rest of the room. Ophthalmologists should be knowledgeable about and provide guidance on correct lighting to ensure patient comfort and satisfaction with visual correction.

Illumination matters Part II: advanced comparative analysis of flexible ureteroscopes in a kidney model by PEARLS.

PURPOSE: The aim of the study was to evaluate illumination properties in an in-vitro kidney calyx model in saline. DESIGN AND METHODS: We evaluated a series of contemporary flexible ureteroscopes including the Storz Flex-Xc and Flex-X2s, Olympus V3 and P7, Pusen 7.5F and 9.2F, as well as OTU WiScope using a 3D-printed closed pink kidney calyx model, submerged in saline. A spectrometer was used for illuminance and color temperature measurements at different openings located at center (direct light), 45° (direct and indirect light) and 90°(indirect light) to the axis of the scope. RESULTS: Maximum illuminance was at the center opening for all scopes (range: 284 to 12,058 lx at 50% brightness and 454 to 11,871 lx at 100% brightness settings). The scope with the highest center illuminance (Flex-Xc) was 26 times superior to the scope with the lowest illuminance (Pusen 7.5Fr) at 100% brightness setting. For each scope, there was a peripheral illuminance drop ranging from - 43 to - 92% at 50% brightness and - 43% to - 88% at 100% brightness settings, respectively (all p < 0.01). Highest drop was for the P7 and the Pusen 9.2F. All scopes had illuminance skew, except the V3. All scopes had a warm color temperature. CONCLUSION: Illumination properties vary between ureteroscopes in an enclosed cavity in saline, and differs at center vs 45° and 90° positions within scopes. Peripheral illuminance drop can be as high as - 92%, which is undesirable. This may affect the choice of ureteroscope and light brightness settings used in surgery by urologists.

Low illumination fog noise image denoising method based on ACE-GPM.

The Perona-Malik (P-M) model exhibits deficiencies such as noise amplification, new noise introduction, and significant gradient effects when processing noisy images. To address these issues, this paper proposes an image-denoising algorithm, ACE-GPM, which integrates an Automatic Color Equalization (ACE) algorithm with a gradient-adjusted P-M model. Initially, the ACE algorithm is employed to enhance the contrast of low-light images obscured by fog and noise. Subsequently, the Otsu method, a technique to find the optimal threshold based on between-class variance, is applied for precise segmentation, enabling more accurate identification of different regions within the image. After that, distinct gradients enhance the image's foreground and background via an enhancement function that accentuates edge and detailed information. The denoising process is finalized by applying the gradient P-M model, employing a gradient descent approach to further emphasize image edges and details. Experimental evidence indicates that the proposed ACE-GPM algorithm not only elevates image contrast and eliminates noise more effectively than other denoising methods but also preserves image details and texture information, evidenced by an average increase of 0.42 in the information entropy value. Moreover, the proposed solution achieves these outcomes with reduced computational resource expenditures while maintaining high image quality.

High correlated color temperature artificial lighting impairs retinal pigment epithelium integrity and chloride ion transport: A potential mechanism for choroidal thinning.

Among the environmental factors contributing to myopia, the role of correlated color temperature (CCT) of ambient light emerges as a key element warranting in-depth investigation. The choroid, a highly vascularized and dynamic structure, often undergoes thinning during the progression of myopia, though the precise mechanism remains elusive. The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), the outermost layer of the retina, plays a pivotal role in regulating the transport of ion and fluid between the subretinal space and the choroid. A hypothesis suggests that variations in choroidal thickness (ChT) may be modulated by transepithelial fluid movement across the RPE. Our experimental results demonstrate that high CCT illumination significantly compromised the integrity of tight junctions in the RPE and disrupted chloride ion transport. This functional impairment of the RPE may lead to a reduction in fluid transfer across the RPE, consequently resulting in choroidal thinning and potentially accelerating axial elongation. Our findings provide support for the crucial role of the RPE in regulating ChT. Furthermore, we emphasize the potential hazards posed by high CCT artificial illumination on the RPE, the choroid, and refractive development, underscoring the importance of developing eye-friendly artificial light sources to aid in the prevention and control of myopia.

Evaluation of the effects of blue-enriched white light on cognitive performance, arousal, and overall appreciation of lighting.

Introduction: Light's non-visual effects on the biological clock, cognitive performance, alertness, and mental health are getting more recognized. These are primarily driven by blue light, which triggers specific retinal cells containing melanopsin. Traditionally, research on light has relied on correlated color temperature (CCT) as a metric of its biological influence, given that bluer light corresponds to higher Kelvin values. However, CCT proves to be an inadequate proxy of light's biological effects. A more precise metric is melanopic Equivalent Daylight Illuminance (mel-EDI), which aligns with melanopsin spectrum. Studies have reported positive cognitive impacts of blue-enriched white light. It's unclear if the mixed results are due to different mel-EDI levels since this factor wasn't assessed. Method: Given recent recommendations from experts to aim for at least 250 mel-EDI exposure daily for cognitive benefits, our aim was to assess if a 50-minute exposure to LED light with 250 mel-EDI could enhance concentration and alertness, without affecting visual performance or comfort compared to conventional lighting producing around 150 mel-EDI. To ensure mel-EDI's impact, photopic lux levels were kept constant across conditions. Conditions were counterbalanced, parameters included subjective sleepiness (KSS; Karolinska Sleepiness Scale), concentration (d2-R test), visual performance (FrACT; Freiburg Visual Acuity and Contrast Test), general appreciation (VAS; Visual Analogous Scale), preferences and comfort (modified OLS; Office Lighting Survey). Results: The experimental light significantly reduced sleepiness (p = 0.03, Cohen's d = 0.42) and also decreased contrast sensitivity (p = 0.01, Cohen's d = 0.50). The conventional light was found to be more comfortable (p = 0.002, Cohen's d = 0.62), cheerful (p = 0.02, Cohen's d = 0.46) and pleasant (p = 0.005, Cohen's d = 0.55) while the experimental light was perceived as brighter (p = 0.004, Cohen's d = 0.58) and tended to be more stimulating (p = 0.10). Notably, there was a preference for conventional lighting (p = 0.004, Cohen's d=0.56) and concentration was equally improved in both conditions. Discussion: Despite the lack of further improvement in concentration from exposure to blue-enriched light, given the observed benefits in terms of vigilance, further research over an extended period would be justified. These findings could subsequently motivate cognitive optimization through lighting for workers that would benefit from artificial lighting such as in northern regions.

Light pollution affects activity differentially across breeding stages in an urban exploiter: An experiment in the house sparrow (Passer domesticus).

Artificial Light At Night (ALAN) is a major urban perturbation, which can have detrimental effects on wildlife. Recent urban planning has led to an increased use of white light emission diodes (LEDs) in cities. However, little is known about the effects of this type of ALAN on wild vertebrates, especially during reproduction. We designed an experiment to test the impact of ALAN on the activity rhythms (daily time of first activity (TFA) and time of last activity (TLA)) of captive House sparrows (Passer domesticus) during several reproductive stages (from pre-breeding to post-breeding). We also tested the impact of ALAN on reproductive performance (laying date, clutch size, hatching and fledging success). Experimental birds were active earlier in the morning (earlier TFA) relative to controls although experimental and control birds did not differ in their TLA. The effect of ALAN on TFA was apparent during specific stages only (pre-breeding and chick-rearing stages), suggesting that sparrows actively adjust their activity in response to ALAN only during specific periods. This impact of ALAN on activity did not persist through the whole breeding season, suggesting that sparrows may habituate to ALAN. Alternatively, they may not be able to sustain a long-term increased activity in response to ALAN because of sleep deprivation and related physiological costs. Finally, we did not find any impact of ALAN on the reproductive performance of captive house sparrows held under optimal conditions. This suggests that ALAN may not be dramatically detrimental to the reproduction of this urban exploiter, at least when food availability is not constraining.

Light-Adaptive Human Body Key Point Detection Algorithm Based on Multi-Source Information Fusion.

The identification of key points in the human body is vital for sports rehabilitation, medical diagnosis, human-computer interaction, and related fields. Currently, depth cameras provide more precise depth information on these crucial points. However, human motion can lead to variations in the positions of these key points. While the Mediapipe algorithm demonstrates effective anti-shake capabilities for these points, its accuracy can be easily affected by changes in lighting conditions. To address these challenges, this study proposes an illumination-adaptive algorithm for detecting human key points through the fusion of multi-source information. By integrating key point data from the depth camera and Mediapipe, an illumination change model is established to simulate environmental lighting variations. Subsequently, the fitting function of the relationship between lighting conditions and adaptive weights is solved to achieve lighting adaptation for human key point detection. Experimental verification and similarity analysis with benchmark data yielded R2 results of 0.96 and 0.93, and cosine similarity results of 0.92 and 0.90. With a threshold range of 8, the joint accuracy rates for the two rehabilitation actions were found to be 89% and 88%. The experimental results demonstrate the stability of the proposed method in detecting key points in the human body under changing illumination conditions, its anti-shake ability for human movement, and its high detection accuracy. This method shows promise for applications in human-computer interaction, sports rehabilitation, and virtual reality.

Illumination matters part I: comparative analysis of light sources and illumination in flexible ureteroscopy-fundamental findings from a PEARLS analysis.

PURPOSE: Illumination characteristics of flexible ureteroscopes have been evaluated in air, but not in saline, the native operative medium for endourology. The aim was to evaluate light properties of contemporary ureteroscopes in air versus saline, light distribution analysis, and color temperature. METHODS: We evaluated the Storz Flex-Xc and Flex-X2s, Olympus V3 and P7, Pusen 7.5F and 9.2F, and OTU WiScope using a 3D printed black target board in-vitro model submerged in saline. A spectrometer was used for lux and color temperature measurements at different opening locations. RESULTS: Illuminance was higher in saline compared to air (5679 vs. 5205 lx with Flex-Xc, p = 0.02). Illuminance in saline differed between ureteroscopes (ANOVA p < 0.001), with highest for the Flex-Xc at 100% brightness setting (5679 lx), followed by Pusen 9.2F (5280 lx), Flex-X2s (4613 lx), P7 (4371 lx), V3 (2374 lx), WiScope (582 lx) and finally Pusen 7.5F (255 lx). The same ranking was found at 50% brightness setting, with the highest ureteroscope illuminance value 34 times that of the scope with lowest illuminance. Most scopes had maximum illuminance off center, with skewness. Three scopes had two light sources, with one light source for all other scopes. Inter-scope comparisons revealed significant differences of color temperature (ANOVA p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The study demonstrates the presence of inhomogeneous light spread as well as large differences in illumination properties of ureteroscopes, possibly impacting on the performance of individual scopes in vivo. Additionally, the study suggests that future studies on illumination characteristics of flexible ureteroscopes should ideally be done in saline, and no longer in air.