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Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) have potential health risk to human. In this paper, human serum samples collected from Jiading District, Shanghai aged from 23 to 87 years old (12 male and 33 female) were analyzed for 17 perfluorinated compounds (PFCs). A novel method for the elimination of background contamination of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) generated from instrument by the modification of high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) has also been developed and validated. The limit of detection (LOD) for all monitored PFCs range from 0.02 to 0.18 ng mL−1. The limit of quantitation (LOQ) for PFOS and PFOA was 2.23 and 1.60 ng mL−1, respectively, and for other PFCs it ranged from 0.04 to 0.88 ng mL−1. Of the 17 PFCs analyzed in Shanghai serum, eleven were found. The dominating PFCs in all samples were perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) and PFOA with a fraction of 49.5%, 34.2%, respectively. The median total concentration of each serum samples was 53.43 ng mL−1 with a range from

Fifty-two PBDE congeners in river sediments from Shanghai were analyzed in the present study. The concentrations of Σ51PBDEs (defined as the sum of 51 BDE congeners except BDE209) and BDE209 ranged from 0.231 to 119 ng g(-1) and from nd to 189 ng g(-1), respectively. The most abundant BDE congeners in surface sediments were BDE118, 207, 208, 99, 49, 75, 47, 71 and 209, with median values of 1.67, 1.81, 1.83, 1.87, 1.98, 2.52, 2.73, 4.62 and 45.7 ng g(-1) dw, respectively. The concentrations of Σ52PBDEs were significantly correlated with total organic carbon (TOC) content in sediments (p0.05). Weak correlations between all PBDE homologues and TOC (r0.32) suggest that TOC had a little influence on sediment PBDE transport and distribution patterns in river sediments of Shanghai. Correspondence analysis (CA) showed that PBDEs in sediments in the studied area originated from commercial BDE formulations, combustion emission sources, and debromination of highly brominated PBDEs by aerobic/anaerobic microbes or sunlight. Risk assessment based on risk quotients (RQ) showed that PBDEs in all river sediments collected from Shanghai posed a high potential ecological risk (RQ1) to the sediment dwelling organisms, and pentaBDE, decaBDE and tetraBDE were the major ecological risk drivers.

A comprehensive investigation was conducted to the urban (Pudong) and suburban soils in Shanghai. A total of 154 soil samples were analyzed for 26 PAHs including highly carcinogenic dibenzopyrenes (DBPs). The total concentrations ranged from 25.8 to 7380 μg kg(-1) for Σ26PAHs and 18.8 to 6320 μg kg(-1) for 16 USEPA priority PAHs (Σ16PAHs), respectively. The BaP toxic equivalent (BaPeq) concentrations were between 6.41 and 2880 μg kg(-1) for Σ24PAHs, 1.11 and 620 μg kg(-1) for Σ16PAHs and 2.72 and 2250 μg kg(-1) for Σ4DBPs. The high PAH contamination in green land soils might originate mainly from local road traffic and industrial activities, and sewage sludge application or waste water irrigation for soil. Seven sources of soil PAHs in Shanghai were identified by positive matrix factorization (PMF) model. The mean risk quotient (m-RQ) values indicated that there were medium to high ecological risks in 9.10% of soil samples, pyrene (Pyr), benzo[b]fluoranthene (BbF) and benz[a]anthracene (BaA) were the major ecological risk drivers under agricultural use. The cancer risk (CR) values were within the acceptable range at 35.7%, 35.1% and 31.2% of sampling sites for children, youths and adults, respectively. The total lifetime carcinogenic risk (TLCR) values at 57.8% of sampling sites were within the acceptable range. Overall, cancer risks of soil PAHs in all sampling sites in the studied area were below the highest acceptable risk, suggesting that soil PAHs are unlikely to pose a significant cancer risk for population based on ingestion, dermal contact and inhalation exposure pathways.

The irradiation degradation of selected estrogens quinestrol (QS) , norethindrone (NET) and dienestrol (DS) were evaluated by electron beam . Processes using electron beam can efficiently degradate QS, NETand DS, usually at reaction dosage lower than 6KGy. Especially remarkable is the high degradation efficiency shown by oxygen saturation which is extremely favored by acidic environment. The order of the degradation rate: DS > NET> QS by different analysis methods such as HPLC. Among electron beam irradiation carried out, higher removal of 90% from solution was observed. In addition, the estrogenic activity of QS, NET and DS was carried out by rotifer test.

In this paper, a novel DNA-length-dependent fluorescent sensor was constructed based on the fluorescence resonance energy transfer. In the self-assembled multilayers (Quartz/GO/PDDA/Tx-DNA/PDDA/ZnO@CdS), ZnO@CdS and graphene oxide(GO) were employed as an energy donor and an energy acceptor, respectively. Single-stranded Tx-DNA (x represents different chain length of DNA) and poly(diallydimethylammonium) chloride (PDDA) were used as a linker. In the presence of complementary Px-DNA, the formation of double-stranded DNA leads to a change in chain length and achieves the purpose of changing the distance between ZnO@CdS and GO. Thereby, it enhances the efficiency of energy transfer between ZnO@CdS and GO resulting in the quench of fluorescence of ZnO@CdS, and thus different length DNA sequence was detected.

The polarization phenomenon occurs when the sunlight is scattered by atmospheric molecules. As a result, there is a polarization pattern in the sky. An amount of research shows that many nature insects can derive orientation information from this pattern, such as bees and ants. The fundamental polarization pattern in the sky is presented. The characters and the orientation mechanism of the nature insects are discussed. The basic principle of designing the polarization skylight navigation sensor is explained. The domestic and foreign relevant researches and application situation of this new navigation method are summarized in details. In the end, the characters of application fields and its application prospect are previewed.

ObjectiveTo retrospectively analyze the rescue and treatment of pediatric patients by the Chinese Red Cross medical team during the Nepal earthquake relief.MethodsThe medical team set up a field hospital; the pediatric clinic consisted of 1 pediatrician and several nurses. Children younger than 18 years old were placed in the pediatric clinic for injury examination and treatment.ResultsDuring the 7-day period of medical assistance (the second to third week after the earthquake), a total of 108 pediatric patients were diagnosed and treated, accounting for 2.8% of the total patients. The earthquake-related injuries mainly required surgical dressing and debridement. No severe limb fractures or traumatic brain injuries were found. Infection of the respiratory tract, the gastrointestinal tract, and the skin were the most common ailments, accounting for 42.3%, 18.5%, and 16.7%, respectively, of the total treated patients.ConclusionTwo to 3 weeks after the earthquake, the admitted pediatric patients mainly displayed respiratory and gastrointestinal infections. When developing a rescue plan and arranging medical resources, we should consider the necessity of treating non–disaster-related conditions. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2016;page 1 of 4)

Here reproduction and death toxicity data were selected for 4-nonylphenol based on endocrine disrupting properties of the reproductive system. Assessment factor (AF) and species sensitivity distribution (SSD) curve were employed to derive criteria maximum concentration (CMC) and criteria continuous concentration (CCC) of three different 4-nonylphenols for protection of aquatic life. The results showed that the CMC and CCC based on SSD method and death toxicity data for three different 4-nonylphenols (CAS No: 104405, 25154523, 84852163) were 26.7, 13.6, 3.84 μg L−1 and 8.86, 2.21, 0.97 μg L−1, respectively. Based on SSD and reproductive toxicity data, the CCC values of different 4-nonylphenols (CAS No: 104405, 25154523) were 1.59 and 1.34 μg L−1, respectively. The CCC values obtained by the AF for three different 4-nonylphenol (CAS No: 104405, 25154523, 84852163) were 0.165, 1.03, 0.74 μg L−1 and 0.5, 0.5, 0.1 μg L−1, respectively, based on death toxicity data and reproductive toxicity data. The CCC values obtained by AF were all lower than the corresponding criteria values obtained by SSD, and the CCC values based on reproductive toxicity data were less than those based on the death toxicity data. This study provides a useful method for deriving water quality criteria for endocrine disruptors.

2,2',3,3',4,4',5,5',6,6'-bromdiphenyl ether (BDE-209) solutions were irradiated with ultraviolet (UV) and electron beams. Organic compounds were fully removed by each type of radiation. The absorbed energy of the ionizing radiation (electron beams) needed for removal was much lower than that of UV photocatalysis. BDE-209 removal using the ionizing radiation was accelerated drastically by dosage. It is suggested that pH value of solution affect the decomposition rates. Radiolysis with the high pH value showed consistently high rate and high efficiency of BDE-209 removal.

3D face sample is an important data platform for model training, algorithm design. Subject to the constraint of data acquisition equipment the size of current 3D face databases are relatively small and insufficient. To solve this problem, this paper presents a modeling way for generating 3D novel samples based on surface stitching. First we use morphable model to build a global model. Then, we replace each patch of the global model based on surface stitching. We demonstrate that with appropriate choice of local models it is possible to reliably generate new realistic face samples.

The traditional craniofacial reconstruction methods construct the face shape according to the soft tissue thickness measured at a sparse set of landmarks on the skull. But the landmarks are difficult to detect and generally need human interactive assistance. The quantity and position of the landmarks lack for uniform definition. We propose an automatic craniofacial reconstruction method based on a dense deformable model. To construct the model, hundreds of skull and face samples are acquired by CT scanner. A dense mesh registration algorithm is proposed to build the point-to-point correspondences of the samples. Based on the aligned samples, the deformable model is constructed. For a given skull, the reconstructed face is obtained by a model matching procedure. Experimental results indicate that the deformable model has good performance for craniofacial reconstruction.

The batch removal of dye from textile dyeing wastewater by using nanooxides decorated multiwalled carbon nanotubes was studied under electron beam conditions. The effect of different nanooxides decorated multiwalled carbon nanotubes content and irradiation dosage was also investigated. The color removal efficiency was 94.9% in dose of 17.5kGy. The colour removal efficiency with Fe2O3 decorated multiwalled carbon nanotubes was similar to with TiO2 decorated multiwalled carbon nanotubues. The COD removal efficiency was 52.5% in the dose of 14.0kGy. When the irradiation dose of 17.5kGy, the COD removal efficiency was 98.2% with TiO2 decorated multiwalled carbon nanotubes.Overall, the study demonstrated that nanooxides decorated multiwalled carbon nanotubes can effectively remove color and COD from aqueous solution under irradiation.

A gas chromatography coupled with negative chemical ionization mass spectrometry (GC-NCI-MS) was developed for the determination of two dechlorane plus (DP) isomers in human serum sample. Target compound and serum lipid were extracted by liquid-liquid extraction. After the sulfuric acid treatment to remove extracted lipids from the samples, samples were further cleaned up with a silica/sulfuric acid column. Identification and quantification of DP were carried out by MS. The detection limit of instrument was 0.5–0.7 pg. The detection limit of the method was 15–20 pg per sample. Recoveries of DP spiked in human serum samples were in the range of 70.2%–85.7%. The developed method was further validated in human serum. DP concentrations were analyzed in 20 electronics dismantling workers and 20 reference humans; DP concentration in dismantling workers and reference humans were 7.8–465 ng g−1 lipid and 0.93–50.5 ng g−1 lipid, respectively.

The occurrence and fate of 12 commonly used antibiotics, two fluoroquinolones (FQs), three sulfonamides (SAs), three macrolides (MLs), two β-lactams and two tetracyclines (TCs), were studied in four sewage treatment plants (STPs) and their receiving water, the Huangpu River, Shanghai. The levels of selected antibiotics in the STPs ranged from ngL(-1) to μgL(-1), while ofloxacin (OFL) was predominant (reach up to 2936.94ngL(-1)). The highest and lowest proportions were of FQs (STP 1, STP 2 and STP 3) and TCs (in four STPs) respectively in both influents and effluents. And the second-highest proportion was of FQs in STP 4 (only 2% lower than the highest). What could be inferred was that the usage of TCs were extremely low while the usage of FQs were larger than other antibiotics in our study area. The elimination of antibiotics through these STPs was incomplete and a wide range of removal efficiencies (-442.8% to 100%) during the treatment was observed. Based on the mass loadings as well as the per-capita mass loadings of target antibiotics in four STPs, OFL was considered the primary contaminant herein. In the Huangpu River, 3 antibiotics were not detected in any water samples, while the detection frequencies of 4 antibiotics were 100%. The highest concentration detected in the river was 53.91ngL(-1) of sulfapyridine (SD). The Spearman correlation analysis of antibiotics in STPs and the nearby water samples suggests that the antibiotics discharged from some STPs might influence the receiving water to some extent. Moreover, most of the hazard quotient (HQ) values in STP effluents were one order magnitude higher than those in their receiving water. However, there is no imminent significant ecotoxicological risk caused by any single compound in the effluents and receiving waters.

Miyun Reservoir was designated as the water source of Beijing City in 1982. Since that time, socio-economic development in Miyun Area has been slowing due to the restriction of severe environmental standards. More and more attention from the public and government has been paid to the regional sustainable development. And an effective planning for the local society management system is urgently desired. In this study, a regional sustainable development system dynamics model, named MiyunSD, is developed for supporting this planning task. MiyunSD consists of dynamic simulation models that explicitly consider information feedback that governs interactions in the system. Such models are capable of simulating the system’s behavior and predicting its developing situation of the future. For the study case, interactions among a number of system components within a time frame of fifteen years are examined dynamically. Three planning alternatives are carefully considered. The base run is based on an assumption that the existing pattern of human activities will prevail in the entire planning horizon, and the other alternatives are based on previous and present planning studies. The different alternatives will get different system’s environmental and socio-economic results. Through analyzing these dynamic results, local authorities may find an optimal way to realize the objectives that the regional environment will be well protected and at the same time the economy will be rapidly developed.

In this study, 14 polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) congeners were investigated in soil and outdoor dust taken from Jiading District, Shanghai City. The concentrations of Σ13PBDEs (BDE-17, BDE-28, BDE-47, BDE-66, BDE-71, BDE-85, BDE-99, BDE-100, BDE-138, BDE-153, BDE-154, BDE-183 and BDE-190) and BDE-209 ranged from 0.37 to 32.9ngg(-1) and 4.31 to 141.8ngg(-1) dry weight (dw) in soil. Concentrations in outdoor dust ranged from 1.03 to 112.5ngg(-1) and 6.71 to 342.1ngg(-1) (dw) for Σ13PBDEs and BDE-209. BDE-209 was the predominant congener both in soil and outdoor dust, but the BDE-209 contribution was much lower in dust compared with that in soil. A significant correlation between PBDEs congeners and specific land use type was observed, and principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that the major source of PBDE in samples was associated with prevalent use of technical Deca-BDE, which also suggested the contributions from Penta-BDE and Octa-BDE mixtures. Canonical correlation analysis suggested the two sets of PBDEs data (soil and outdoor dust) were uncorrelated, and Spearman correlation coefficient matrix implied that the degradation pathways of PBDEs were different between soil and outdoor dust.

Chlorinated paraffins (CPs) are toxic, bioaccumulative, persistent, and ubiquitously present in the environment. Data on the presence of short- and medium-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs and MCCPs) in urban areas with dense population are still scarce to date. SCCPs and MCCPs were measured in urban soils from Shanghai to comprehensively investigate their levels, spatial distribution, homologue group patterns and ecological risk. The concentrations of CPs in soils varied from ND to 615 ng g(-1) with a median value of 15.7 ng g(-1) for SCCPs and from 1.95 to 188 ng g(-1) with a median value of 7.98 ng g(-1) for MCCPs, respectively. The concentrations of SCCPs in most soils were higher than those of MCCPs. The total CP concentrations in soil samples were between 4.10 and 625 ng g(-1) with a median value of 26.4 ng g(-1). For different functional zones, the median concentrations of soil CPs were found higher in green land including park, greenbelt and campus than those in roadside. The highest concentrations of CPs in soils could be derived from sewage sludge application and wastewater irrigation for green land. Three types of soils were classified by hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) for SCCPs and MCCPs, the most abundant homologue groups in the bulk of the soil samples were C11Cl5-7 and C13Cl5-7 for SCCPs, and C14Cl7-8 and C15Cl7-8 for MCCPs. Correlation analysis and PCA suggested that SCCPs and MCCPs in soils in the studied area derived from different sources. The preliminary ecological risk assessment indicates that soil CPs at present levels poses no significant ecological risk for soil-dwelling organisms.

In order to understand the contents, spatial distribution and sources of medium-chain chlorinated paraffins (MCCPs) in the soils from Chongming Island, the concentrations of MCCPs in 27 soil samples were analyzed by GC-ECNI-MS. The total concentrations of MCCP8 (sigma MCCPs) in all samples ranged from 2.56-96.3 ng x g(-1), with a median of 7.32 ng x g(-1). All soil samples were classified into two categories by cluster analysis. C14-MCCPs and C15-MCCPs, and Cl5-MCCPs and Cl6-MCCPs were the most predominant carbon and chlorine congener groups in most of the samples, accounting for 29.8% and 28.9%, and 29.9% and 23.3%, respectively. C14-MCCPs were the most predominant carbon congener groups in some samples, accounting for 68.5%, which was similar to that of CP-52. Atmospheric deposition and soil-air exchange were the major sources of MCCPs for soils in Chongming. Soils at a few sites were probably contaminated by sewage sludge from sewage treatment plants (STPs) or other unidentified source. No significant correlations were observed between MCCPs and TOC. The correlation analysis also showed significant correlation among the carbon congener groups of MCCPs, which suggested that MCCP congener groups might have been derived from similar sources. Compared to other studies at home and abraod, the MCCPs concentrations in the present study were at a lower level.

Retinoblastoma (RB) is a childhood malignancy caused by inactivation of the RB gene, with neuron-specific enolase (NSE) levels considered as its diagnostic marker. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been proven to play a significant role in multiple physiological and pathological processes and several miRNAs were identified as tumor biomarkers in recent studies. In the present study, 65 plasma samples were collected from RB patients and 65 samples from healthy individuals to serve as controls. The miRNA levels were measured via quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and their association with RB was assessed by statistical data analysis and receiver operating characteristic curves. Plasma miRNA (miR)-320, miR-let-7e and miR-21 levels were downregulated in the patient samples, the areas under the curves (AUCs) were 0.548–0.660, whereas the AUCs of combined classifiers were ≥0.990. The plasma miRNA levels, particularly of miR-320, were found to be of value in RB diagnosis and may be considered as novel diagnostic biomarkers.

The fertilized eggs of Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes) were exposed to estrone (E1) at 5-5000 ng L-1 for 15 d, and the hatched fry were exposed continuously to the same concentrations for the additional 15 d. Adverse effects on hatchability, time to hatching, and gross abnormalities occurred at 50 ng L-1 or above. Then the fry were divided into a continual exposure group, and a water recovery group. When the fry were exposed to E1 for another 60 d, there was a decrease in the hepatosomatic index (HSI) of males and the influence disappeared in the water recovery group. The gonadosonatic index (GSI) of females at 500 ng L-1 decreased significantly in another 60 d exposure. While the fry were maintained in dechlorinated tap water for 60 d, a significant decrease in female GSI was observed at 50 ng L-1 or above. An increased GSI was found in males in both continual exposure and water recovery groups at all E1 treatments. Quantitative RT-PCR showed that vitellogenin-I (Vtg-I) gene expressions in the female liver were significantly down-regulated at 50 ng L-1 in the continual exposure group, and at 500 ng L-1 in the water recovery group, while male Vtg-I genes were significantly up-regulated for all E1 treatments. In addition, all E1 treatments caused sex reversal of males. These results suggest that E1 at 5 ng L-1 or above have unrecoverable impacts on the gonadal growth and development of medaka, even if only early life stages were exposed to E1. (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

To investigate the safety of treatment with ophthalmic artery cannulation for intra-arterial chemotherapy (IAC) for children with intraocular retinoblastoma (RB).In the RB Treatment Center of General Hospital of Armed Police Forces between January 2009 and September 2011, 42 patients who were diagnosed intraocular RB and treated with ophthalmic artery cannulation for IAC, 8 patients were treated 1 circle, 31 patients were treated 2 circles and 3 patients were treated 3 circles (total, 96 times). Each month had IAC once. The ophthalmic and the whole body evaluations were performed during IAC and after IAC for each circle, the blood cell count, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), serum creatinine (Scr), CK-MB content before and after IAC for 1 circle, 2 circles and 3 circles were determined.(1) In 52 eyes of 42 patients, 44 eyes (84.6%) were in remission. (2) Successful IAC was achieved in all cases, no severe side effects occurred during IAC. (3) The main ophthalmic complications were eyelid edema and blepharoptosis after IAC, the incidence for 1 circle was 18% (2/11) and 9% (1/11); for 2 circles was 29% (11/38) and 21% (8/38); for 3 circles was all 100% (3/3). The rare complications were vitreous hemorrhage and heterotropia, the incidence was all 2% (1/42). The incidence of eyelid edema and blepharoptosis had no significant differences for 1 circle IAC compared with 2 circles (P0.05); the incidence of eyelid edema and blepharoptosis had significant differences for 3 circles IAC compared with 2 circles and 1 circle (P0.01). (4) No fever, septicemia and other systemic toxic effects occurred. (5) ALT of 19% patients (8/42) elevated temporarily and CK-MB of 24% patients (10/42) increased. The blood cell counts, ALT, Scr, and CK-MB content before IAC had no significant differences compared with that at 24 h after IAC for 1 circle, 2 circles and 3 circles (P0.05).Ophthalmic artery cannulation for IAC is a safe and effective method in treating intraocular stage retinoblastoma.

In recent years, water pollution accidents resulting in acute aquatic ecological risk and security issues become a research focus. However, in our country, the surface water quality standards and drinking water health standards were used to determine the safety of waters or not in pollution incidents due to lacking safety effect threshold or risk value for protection of aquatic life. In foreign countries, although predicted no effect concentration (PNEC) or risk value (R) of pollutants were provided for protection of aquatic organisms, the PNECs or risk values were derived based on long-term exposure toxicity data NOECs (no observed effect concentrations) and lack of short-term exposure risk or threshold values. For the short-term and high dose exposure in pollution incident, ecological risk assessment methods were discussed according to the procedures of the conventional ecological risk assessment and the water quality criteria establishment of the U.S. EPA for the protection of aquatic organisms in short-term exposure, and had a case study. At the same time, we provide some suggestions for the establishment of ecological risk assessment system in water pollution incidents.

This paper explores an image fusion algorithm based on self-adaptive fuzzy clustering algorithm. The clustering method combined nearest neighbor clustering method with k-means clustering method (NNKM) is adopted in pixel classification. The membership of every image pixel to each cluster center is introduced. And the fused image membership obtained by maximum rule is adopted as the weighting coefficient of the weighted mean strategy, which is used to obtain the fusion image. In this experiment, the fusion results of various Radiuses of Gauss function are compared with the results obtained by nearest neighbor clustering method. The experiment results show that the proposed method can achieve better performance of the fused image.

In this paper, Transiently Chaotic Neural Network (TCNN) is used in wavelet image fusion method. This paper adopts the weighted average strategy for the fusion of the wavelet transform coefficients. The TCNN outputs the weighting coefficient of every wavelet transform pixel when the energy function of the neural network has achieved the global minimum. At the same time, the average gradient value of the region around every wavelet transform pixel gets the global maximum according to the relationship between the average gradient and energy. The wavelet transform coefficients of the fused image are got by using the weighting coefficients. The advantage of the algorithm is that the weighting coefficient is obtained through the dynamic searching optimization of the average gradient. Experiments show that the average gradient values of the fusion images using the proposed method are greater than the results using the region energy method. The TCNN method improves the performance of the fusion image effectively.

Caused by light reflected off the subject's retina, red-eye is a troublesome problem in consumer photography. Although most of the cameras have the red-eye reduction mode, the result reality is that no on-camera system is completely effective. In this paper, we propose a fully automatic approach to detecting and correcting red-eyes in digital images. In order to detect red-eyes in a picture, a heuristic yet efficient algorithm is first adopted to detect a group of candidate red regions and then an eye classifier is utilized to confirm whether each candidate region is a human eye. Thereafter, for each detected redeye, we can correct it by the correction algorithm. In case that a red-eye cannot be detected automatically, another algorithm is also provided to detect red-eyes manually with the user's interaction by clicking on an eye. Experimental results on about 300 images with various red-eye appearances demonstrate that the proposed solution is robust and effective.

MyPhotos is a prototype system for home photo management and processing. Several home user orientated image processing and analysis tools are provided. And several auto grouping methods can help user to organize photos. The system also provides a natural user interface and a workflow for easy browsing and searching.

MiAlbum© (v1.0) is a system developed at Microsoft Research China for managing family photos with the help of a semi-automatic image annotation approach. It provides functionalities to import (from scanner, digital camera, disks, PC, CD, web, etc), label (keyword, name, place, etc.), categorize (by automatic classification into some predefined classes), manipulate (in some ways), and export (send or print) family photo images. In this demo, we show the efficiency of the semi-automatic image annotation method and its help in improving the image retrieval accuracy.