Abstract: From a set of shifted, blurred, and decimated image , super-resolution image reconstruction can get a high-resolution image. So it has become an active research branch in the field of image restoration. In general, super-resolution image restoration is an ill-posed problem. Prior knowledge about the image can be combined to make the problem well-posed, which contributes to some regularization methods. In the regularization methods at present, however, regularization parameter was selected by experience in some cases and other techniques have too heavy computation cost for computing the parameter. In this paper, we construct a new super-resolution algorithm by transforming the solving of the System stem Є=An into the solving of the equations X+A*X-1A=I , and propose an inverse iterative method.
Abstract: When cars are released from the factory, strut noises are very small and therefore it is difficult to perceive them. As the use time and travel distance increase, however, strut noises get larger so as to cause users much uneasiness. The noises generated at the field include engine noises and flow noises and therefore it is difficult to clearly discern the noises generated from struts. This study developed a test method which can reproduce field strut noises in the lab. Using the newly developed noise evaluation test, this study analyzed the effects that insulator performance degradation and failure can have on car noises. The study also confirmed that the insulator durability test by the simple back-and-forth motion cannot completely reflect the state of the parts failure in the field. Based on this, the study also confirmed that field noises can be reproduced through a durability test that considers heat aging.
Abstract: Subjective loneliness describes people who feel a
disagreeable or unacceptable lack of meaningful social relationships,
both at the quantitative and qualitative level. The studies to be
presented tested an Italian 18-items self-report loneliness measure,
that included items adapted from scales previously developed,
namely a short version of the UCLA (Russell, Peplau and Cutrona,
1980), and the 11-items Loneliness scale by De Jong-Gierveld &
Kamphuis (JGLS; 1985). The studies aimed at testing the developed
scale and at verifying whether loneliness is better conceptualized as a
unidimensional (so-called 'general loneliness') or a bidimensional
construct, namely comprising the distinct facets of social and
emotional loneliness. The loneliness questionnaire included 2 singleitem
criterion measures of sad mood, and social contact, and asked
participants to supply information on a number of socio-demographic
variables. Factorial analyses of responses obtained in two
preliminary studies, with 59 and 143 Italian participants respectively,
showed good factor loadings and subscale reliability and confirmed
that perceived loneliness has clearly two components, a social and an
emotional one, the latter measured by two subscales, a 7-item
'general' loneliness subscale derived from UCLA, and a 6–item
'emotional' scale included in the JGLS. Results further showed that
type and amount of loneliness are related, negatively, to frequency of
social contacts, and, positively, to sad mood. In a third study data
were obtained from a nation-wide sample of 9.097 Italian subjects,
12 to about 70 year-olds, who filled the test on-line, on the Italian
web site of a large-audience magazine, Focus. The results again
confirmed the reliability of the component subscales, namely social,
emotional, and 'general' loneliness, and showed that they were
highly correlated with each other, especially the latter two.
Loneliness scores were significantly predicted by sex, age, education
level, sad mood and social contact, and, less so, by other variables –
e.g., geographical area and profession. The scale validity was
confirmed by the results of a fourth study, with elderly men and
women (N 105) living at home or in residential care units. The three
subscales were significantly related, among others, to depression, and
to various measures of the extension of, and satisfaction with, social
contacts with relatives and friends. Finally, a fifth study with 315
career-starters showed that social and emotional loneliness correlate
with life satisfaction, and with measures of emotional intelligence.
Altogether the results showed a good validity and reliability in the
tested samples of the entire scale, and of its components.
Abstract: An analytical solution for dispersion of a solute in the
peristaltic motion of a couple stress fluid in the presence of magnetic
field with both homogeneous and heterogeneous chemical reactions is
presented. The average effective dispersion coefficient has been found
using Taylor-s limiting condition and long wavelength approximation.
The effects of various relevant parameters on the average effective
coefficient of dispersion have been studied. The average effective
dispersion coefficient tends to decrease with magnetic field parameter,
homogeneous chemical reaction rate parameter and amplitude ratio
but tends to increase with heterogeneous chemical reaction rate
parameter.
Abstract: For decades financial economists have been attempted to determine the optimal investment policy by recognizing the option value embedded in irreversible investment whose project value evolves as a geometric Brownian motion (GBM). This paper aims to examine the effects of the optimal investment trigger and of the misspecification of stochastic processes on investment in real options applications. Specifically, the former explores the consequence of adopting optimal investment rules on the distributions of corporate value under the correct assumption of stochastic process while the latter analyzes the influence on the distributions of corporate value as a result of the misspecification of stochastic processes, i.e., mistaking an alternative process as a GBM. It is found that adopting the correct optimal investment policy may increase corporate value by shifting the value distribution rightward, and the misspecification effect may decrease corporate value by shifting the value distribution leftward. The adoption of the optimal investment trigger has a major impact on investment to such an extent that the downside risk of investment is truncated at the project value of zero, thereby moving the value distributions rightward. The analytical framework is also extended to situations where collection lags are in place, and the result indicates that collection lags reduce the effects of investment trigger and misspecification on investment in an opposite way.
Abstract: Emotion in speech is an issue that has been attracting
the interest of the speech community for many years, both in the
context of speech synthesis as well as in automatic speech
recognition (ASR). In spite of the remarkable recent progress in
Large Vocabulary Recognition (LVR), it is still far behind the
ultimate goal of recognising free conversational speech uttered by
any speaker in any environment. Current experimental tests prove
that using state of the art large vocabulary recognition systems the
error rate increases substantially when applied to
spontaneous/emotional speech. This paper shows that recognition
rate for emotionally coloured speech can be improved by using a
language model based on increased representation of emotional
utterances.
Abstract: Tolerance is a tool for achieving a social cohesion, particularly, among individuals and groups with different values. The aim is to study the characteristics of the ethnic tolerance, the inhabitants of Latvia. The ethnic tolerance is taught as a set of conscious and unconscious orientations of the individual in social interaction and inter-ethnic communication. It uses the tools of empirical studies of the ethnic tolerance which allows to identify the explicitly and implicitly levels of the emotional component of Latvia's residents. Explicit measurements were made using the techniques of self-report which revealed the index of the ethnic tolerance and the ethnic identity of the participants. The implicit component was studied using methods based on the effect of the emotional priming. During the processing of the results, there were calculated indicators of the positive and negative implicit attitudes towards members of their own and other ethnicity as well as the explicit parameters of the ethnic tolerance and the ethnic identity of Latvia-s residents. The implicit measurements of the ratio of neighboring ethnic groups against each other showed a mutual negative attitude whereas the explicit measurements indicate a neutral attitude. The data obtained contribute to a further study of the ethnic tolerance of Latvia's residents.
Abstract: Functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGID) affect millions of people spread all age regardless of race and sex. Emotional stress and obesity have been associated with increased reporting of gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, but the relationship between FGID and risk factors (emotional stress or obesity) is unclear. Our aim was to assess the changes of the mechanical characteristics on the gastrointestinal tracts of the mentally fatigued obese and normal rat models. Finally, using the physical characteristics with micro-indentation test, we made a close investigation into the relation between FGID and risk factors quantitatively.
Abstract: Training with Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES)
has both physiological and psychological benefits for spinal cord
injured subjects. Commonly used methods for quantification of
spasticity have shown controversial reliability. In this study we
propose a method for quick determination of spasticity in spinal cord
injured subjects on a cycling and measurement system. 23 patients
did training sessions on an instrumented mobile FES cycle three
times a week over two months as part of their clinical rehabilitation
program. Spasticity (MAS) and the legs resistance to the pedaling
motion were assessed before and after the FES training and
measurements were done on the subjects ability to pedal with our
without motor assistance. Measurements with test persons with
incomplete spastic paraplegia have shown that spasticity is decreased
after a 30 min cycling training with functional electrical stimulation
(FES).
Abstract: This paper describes dynamic analysis using proposed
fast finite element method for a shock absorbing structure including a
sponge. The structure is supported by nonlinear concentrated springs.
The restoring force of the spring has cubic nonlinearity and linear
hysteresis damping. To calculate damping properties for the structures
including elastic body and porous body, displacement vectors as
common unknown variable are solved under coupled condition. Under
small amplitude, we apply asymptotic method to complex eigenvalue
problem of this system to obtain modal parameters. And then
expressions of modal loss factor are derived approximately. This
approach was proposed by one of the authors previously. We call this
method as Modal Strain and Kinetic Energy Method (MSKE method).
Further, using the modal loss factors, the discretized equations in
physical coordinate are transformed into the nonlinear ordinary
coupled equations using normal coordinate corresponding to linear
natural modes. This transformation yields computation efficiency. As
a numerical example of a shock absorbing structures, we adopt double
skins with a sponge. The double skins are supported by nonlinear
concentrated springs. We clarify influences of amplitude of the input
force on nonlinear and chaotic responses.
Abstract: The exact solutions of the equations describing the steady plane motion of an incompressible fluid of variable viscosity for an arbitrary state equation are determined in the (ξ,ψ) − or (η,ψ )- coordinates where ψ(x,y) is the stream function, ξ and η are the parts of the analytic function, ϖ =ξ( x,y )+iη( x,y ). Most of the solutions involve arbitrary function/ functions indicating
that the flow equations possess an infinite set of solutions.
Abstract: Simulations of magnetic microstructure in elliptical
Permalloy elements used for controlled motion of magnetic particles
are discussed. The saturating field of the elliptical elements was
studied with respect to lateral dimensions for one-vortex, cross-tie,
diamond and double-diamond states as initial zero-field domain
configurations. With aspect ratio of 1:3 the short axis was varied
from 125 nm to 1000 nm, whereas the thickness was kept constant at
50 nm.
Abstract: This paper proposes a location-aware system for
household robots which allows users to paste predefined paper tags at
different locations according to users- comprehension of the house. In this system a household robot may be aware of its location and the
attributes thereof by visually recognizing the tags when the robot is moving. This paper also presents a novel user interface to define a
moving path of the robot, which allows users to draw the path in the air
with a finger so as to generate commands for following motions.
Abstract: This paper presents a system for tracking the movement of laparoscopic instruments which is based on an orthogonal system of webcams and video image processing. The movements are captured with two webcams placed orthogonally inside of the physical trainer. On the image, the instruments were detected by using color markers placed on the distal tip of each instrument. The 3D position of the tip of the instrument within the work space was obtained by linear triangulation method. Preliminary results showed linearity and repeatability in the motion tracking with a resolution of 0.616 mm in each axis; the accuracy of the system showed a 3D instrument positioning error of 1.009 ± 0.101 mm. This tool is a portable and low-cost alternative to traditional tracking devices and a trustable method for the objective evaluation of the surgeon’s surgical skills.
Abstract: Video Mosaicing is the stitching of selected frames of
a video by estimating the camera motion between the frames and
thereby registering successive frames of the video to arrive at the
mosaic. Different techniques have been proposed in the literature for
video mosaicing. Despite of the large number of papers dealing with
techniques to generate mosaic, only a few authors have investigated
conditions under which these techniques generate good estimate of
motion parameters. In this paper, these techniques are studied under
different videos, and the reasons for failures are found. We propose
algorithms with incorporation of outlier removal algorithms for better
estimation of motion parameters.
Abstract: In this paper we illuminate a frequency domain based
classification method for video scenes. Videos from certain topical
areas often contain activities with repeating movements. Sports
videos, home improvement videos, or videos showing mechanical
motion are some example areas. Assessing main and side frequencies
of each repeating movement gives rise to the motion type. We
obtain the frequency domain by transforming spatio-temporal motion
trajectories. Further on we explain how to compute frequency features
for video clips and how to use them for classifying. The focus of
the experimental phase is on transforms utilized for our system.
By comparing various transforms, experiments show the optimal
transform for a motion frequency based approach.
Abstract: Positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) is a
technique in which a single radioactive tracer particle can be
accurately tracked as it moves. A limitation of PET is that in order to
reconstruct a tomographic image it is necessary to acquire a large
volume of data (millions of events), so it is difficult to study rapidly
changing systems. By considering this fact, PEPT is a very fast
process compared with PET.
In PEPT detecting both photons defines a line and the annihilation
is assumed to have occurred somewhere along this line. The location
of the tracer can be determined to within a few mm from coincident
detection of a small number of pairs of back-to-back gamma rays and
using triangulation. This can be achieved many times per second and
the track of a moving particle can be reliably followed. This
technique was invented at the University of Birmingham [1].
The attempt in PEPT is not to form an image of the tracer particle
but simply to determine its location with time. If this tracer is
followed for a long enough period within a closed, circulating system
it explores all possible types of motion.
The application of PEPT to industrial process systems carried out
at the University of Birmingham is categorized in two subjects: the
behaviour of granular materials and viscous fluids. Granular
materials are processed in industry for example in the manufacture of
pharmaceuticals, ceramics, food, polymers and PEPT has been used
in a number of ways to study the behaviour of these systems [2].
PEPT allows the possibility of tracking a single particle within the
bed [3]. Also PEPT has been used for studying systems such as: fluid
flow, viscous fluids in mixers [4], using a neutrally-buoyant tracer
particle [5].
Abstract: Motion estimation is a key problem in video
processing and computer vision. Optical flow motion estimation can
achieve high estimation accuracy when motion vector is small.
Three-step search algorithm can handle large motion vector but not
very accurate. A joint algorithm was proposed in this paper to
achieve high estimation accuracy disregarding whether the motion
vector is small or large, and keep the computation cost much lower
than full search.
Abstract: This paper describes vibration analysis using the finite
element method for a small earphone, especially for the diaphragm
shape with a low-rigidity. The viscoelastic diaphragm is supported by
multiple nonlinear concentrated springs with linear hysteresis
damping. The restoring forces of the nonlinear springs have cubic
nonlinearity. The finite elements for the nonlinear springs with
hysteresis are expressed and are connected to the diaphragm that is
modeled by linear solid finite elements in consideration of a complex
modulus of elasticity. Further, the discretized equations in physical
coordinates are transformed into the nonlinear ordinary coupled
equations using normal coordinates corresponding to the linear natural
modes. We computed the nonlinear stationary and non-stationary
responses due to the internal resonance between modes with large
amplitude in the nonlinear springs and elastic modes in the diaphragm.
The non-stationary motions are confirmed as the chaos due to the
maximum Lyapunov exponents with a positive number. From the time
histories of the deformation distribution in the chaotic vibration, we
identified nonlinear modal couplings.
Abstract: Gesture recognition is a challenging task for extracting
meaningful gesture from continuous hand motion. In this paper, we propose an automatic system that recognizes isolated gesture,
in addition meaningful gesture from continuous hand motion for Arabic numbers from 0 to 9 in real-time based on Hidden Markov Models (HMM). In order to handle isolated gesture, HMM using
Ergodic, Left-Right (LR) and Left-Right Banded (LRB) topologies is applied over the discrete vector feature that is extracted from stereo
color image sequences. These topologies are considered to different
number of states ranging from 3 to 10. A new system is developed to recognize the meaningful gesture based on zero-codeword detection
with static velocity motion for continuous gesture. Therefore, the
LRB topology in conjunction with Baum-Welch (BW) algorithm for
training and forward algorithm with Viterbi path for testing presents the best performance. Experimental results show that the proposed system can successfully recognize isolated and meaningful gesture and achieve average rate recognition 98.6% and 94.29% respectively.