A videogrammetric as-built data collection method for digital fabrication of sheet metal roof panels

A roofing contractor typically needs to acquire as-built dimensions of a roof structure several times over the course of its build because a structure is never built to the exact drawing dimensions. In the construction phase and in order to digitally fabricate sheet metal roof panels, the contractor has to measure end-to-end dimensions of boundaries of every roof plane with a certain level of accuracy (i.e., errors less than ±2 cm). This is necessary to be able to cut sheet metal coil such that different pieces perfectly fit together. Obtaining these measurements using the exiting roof surveying methods could be costly in terms of equipment, labor, and/or worker exposure to safety hazards. This paper presents a video-based surveying framework as an alternative method which is simple to use, automated, less expensive, and safe. When using this framework, the contractor collects video streams with a calibrated stereo camera set. The captured data is processed to automatically generate a 3D wire-diagram of the target roof. Measurements from the wire-diagram are saved in a digital file (XML format) which could be loaded into an on-site sheet metal folding and cutting machine. Experimental analyses demonstrate applicability of the proposed framework.     

Subclass discriminant Nonnegative Matrix Factorization for facial image analysis

Nonnegative Matrix Factorization (NMF) is among the most popular subspace methods, widely used in a variety of image processing problems. Recently, a discriminant NMF method that incorporates Linear Discriminant Analysis inspired criteria has been proposed, which achieves an efficient decomposition of the provided data to its discriminant parts, thus enhancing classification performance. However, this approach possesses certain limitations, since it assumes that the underlying data distribution is unimodal, which is often unrealistic. To remedy this limitation, we regard that data inside each class have a multimodal distribution, thus forming clusters and use criteria inspired by Clustering based Discriminant Analysis. The proposed method incorporates appropriate discriminant constraints in the NMF decomposition cost function in order to address the problem of finding discriminant projections that enhance class separability in the reduced dimensional projection space, while taking into account subclass information. The developed algorithm has been applied for both facial expression and face recognition on three popular databases. Experimental results verified that it successfully identified discriminant facial parts, thus enhancing recognition performance.     

MIMO two-way relay channel with superposition coding and imperfect channel estimation

This paper deals with the superposition coding (SPC) scheme in multiple-input multiple-output two-way relay channels subject to imperfect channel estimation. In this scenario, two multiple antenna terminals, which are unable to communicate directly, exchange information with each other via a multiple antenna relay. We determine the impact of the channel estimation error degradation on the achievable rate region for two main SPC techniques: (a) SPC without channel state information (CSI) at the users, (b) SPC with an imperfect CSI at the users where a waterfilling power allocation is employed. We demonstrate that imperfect CSI significantly improves the achievable rate at low signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) while it becomes less critical at high SNRs. In addition, a SPC power allocation technique that incorporates the average channel statistics and does not require any instantaneous CSI is also investigated. We show how the available power is split between the two bi-directional (superimposed) data flows in order to maximize the system performance and to support fairness as well as to maximize the achievable sum-rate.     

Do new and relocating firms have different preferences for accessibility?

Accessibility is one of the most important factors in a location choice decision of a firm. However, new and relocated establishments can value accessibility differently. Research papers differences of accessibility preferences between creations and relocations are scarce. In this paper, we examine these differences in an intraurban setting, the Lyon urban area. We rely on discrete choice models and data for more than 43,000 creations and 11,000 relocations during 2005–2011 from eight economic sectors. Results demonstrate that the effect of accessibility differs between creations and relocations of the same economic sector. This difference depends on the type of the economic activity of the sector.     

MOLES: A New Approach to Modeling the Environmental and Economic Impacts of Urban Policies

Computational Economics - This paper presents the Multi-Objective Local Environmental Simulator (MOLES), an urban Computable General Equilibrium model with selected microsimulation features that...     

Volatile fraction of commercial thyme honeys produced in Mediterranean regions and key volatile compounds for geographical discrimination: A chemometric approach

The aim of the present study was to investigate the volatile fraction and discriminate 34 commercial thyme honeys from Morocco, Egypt, Spain, and Greece according to geographical origin, using key volatile compounds in combination with chemometrics. Sixty-two volatile compounds belonging to different classes were identified and semi-quantified using headspace solid phase micro-extraction coupled to gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC/MS). Applying chemometric analyses to 17 volatiles (p < 0.05), honeys were successfully discriminated according to geographical origin. Correct classification rate was 88.2% using the cross-validation method. Volatile compounds proved to be a powerful tool for discriminating commercial thyme honeys from different countries.