Stereo matching cost computation based on nonsubsampled contourlet transform

A new matching cost computation method based on nonsubsampled contourlet transform (NSCT) for stereo image matching is proposed in this paper. Firstly, stereo image is decomposed into high frequency sub-band images at different scales and along different directions by NSCT. Secondly, by utilizing coefficients in high frequency domain and grayscales in RGB color space, the computation model of weighted matching cost between two pixels is designed based on the gestalt laws. Lastly, two types of experiments are carried out with standard stereopairs in the Middlebury benchmark. One of the experiments is to confirm optimum values of NSCT scale and direction parameters, and the other is to compare proposed matching cost with nine known matching costs. Experimental results show that the optimum values of scale and direction parameters are respectively 2 and 3, and the matching accuracy of the proposed matching cost is twice higher than that of traditional NCC cost.     

The influence of activated carbon as an additive in anode materials for low temperature solid oxide fuel cells

The effects of activated carbon (AC) as an additive in multi-oxide nano composite LiNiCuZn–O for application as anode in solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is reported. The composite was synthesized using solid state reactions method with varying content of AC in range 0.1%–0.9% for use as anode in the cell. The cell was composed of the synthesized composite as anode, LiNiCuZn–O as cathode and Samaria doped ceria (SDC) as electrolyte. The prepared composites were characterized for morphology and crystal structure by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and x-ray diffraction (XRD) respectively. Furthermore, the crystallite sizes of LiNiCuZn–O and LiNiCuZn–O with AC as an additive have been found in the range from 50 nm to 70 nm. The prepared composite materials were observed porous and the porosity of the sample having 0.5% additive was found highest. The conductivity and power density of the SOFC were studied at temperature of 600 °C. The maximum value of conductivity was found as 4.79 S/cm for the composite containing 0.5% AC as measured by using 4-probe method. The maximum value of power density of the fuel cell with anode comprising of 0.5% AC along with the mentioned cathode and the electrolyte was 455 mW/cm². Therefore, out of the compositions studied, the composite comprising of LiNiCuZn–O with 0.5% AC offered best performance for anode in the cell. This oxide composite is reported as a potential candidate for use as anode in low temperature SOFCs.     

High birefringence photonic bandgap fiber with elliptical air holes

In this paper, we proposed a high birefringence photonic bandgap fiber (PBGF) with elliptical air holes in cladding and circular air hole in core. The forbidden gaps of the honeycomb structure are calculated when the circular air holes are deformed to the elliptical shape. And the birefringence of the PBGFs is investigated by using a full-vector finite element method (FEM) and the numerical results are presented.     

Silver nanocluster formation in silicate glass by single step ion-exchange

We report the formation of silver nanoclusters of average size ∼ 1.1 nm in a single step ion-exchanged silica glass. Silver clusters are formed in a glass during ion-exchange by fine-tuning the ion-exchange parameters such as salt composition, temperature and time. Such nanocluster formation during ion-exchange preserves the waveguiding properties of the ion-exchanged surface of the glass making them suitable for nonlinear waveguide device fabrication.     

Electrochemical characteristics of heme proteins in hydroxyethylcellulose film

A stable film made from hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC) on pyrolytic graphite (PG) electrode was employed for incorporating hemoglobin (Hb), myoglobin (Mb) and horseradish peroxidase (HRP), and the electrochemical characteristics of the proteins were studied correspondingly. Experimental results revealed that HEC film could greatly accelerate electron transfer between the proteins and electrode, and the proteins showed a thin layer electrochemical behavior in the film. Moreover, all the proteins in the film exhibited good catalytic activity towards the reduction of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) in the low H₂O₂ concentration range. In the high concentration range, H₂O₂ would exhibit toxicity effect on the proteins. The electrochemical properties and electrocatalytic abilities of the three heme proteins in HEC film have been compared, and the optimal conditions for H₂O₂ biosensor fabrication have been obtained.     

Grid implementation of the Apriori algorithm

The paper presents the implementation of an association rules discovery data mining task using Grid technologies. For the mining task we are using the Apriori algorithm on top of the Globus toolkit. The case study presents the design and integration of the data mining algorithm with the Globus services. The paper compares the Grid version with related work in the field and we outline the conclusions and future work.     

Applying data mining to learn system dynamics in a biological model

Data mining consists of a set of powerful methods that have been successfully applied to many different application domains, including business, engineering, and bioinformatics. In this paper, we propose an innovative approach that uses genetic algorithms to mine a set of temporal behavior data output by a biological system in order to determine the kinetic parameters of the system. Analyzing the behavior of a biological network is a complicated task. In our approach, the machine learning method is integrated with the framework of system dynamics so that its findings are expressed in a form of system dynamics model. An application of the method to the cell division cycle model has shown that the method can discover approximate parametric values of the system and reproduce the input behavior.     

计算表面波特征方程的一种新的数值方法

推导了同轴线馈电的微带天线表面波电磁场表达式及其特征方程.结合遗传算法与参数跟踪策略形成一种新的算法,并基于该算法对表面波特征方程进行了精确数值求解,求解结果与本问题的已有结论吻合的很好.该方法具有简单、通用、求解精度高等优点.