Damage evolution around white etching layer during uniaxial loading

Rolling contact fatigue cracks and thermally induced defects are common problems in the railway industry especially as demands for increasing loads, speeds, and safety continue to rise. Often, the two types of defects are found together in the field, however, whether one causes the other to occur is not completely agreed upon. The effect of thermal damage, in the form of a martensite spot on pearlitic steel test bars, on the fatigue life in uniaxial low cycle fatigue experiments was investigated by the authors. However, the focus of the current work was to characterize the damage evolution from the low cycle fatigue (LCF) tests and correlate the crack initiation and propagation with the initial thermal damage. Residual stress measurements, digital image correlation, and X‐ray tomography were used to characterize the effects of the thermal damage before, during, and after fatigue testing, respectively. It was found that the thermal damage causes strain accumulation and crack initiation at the interface between the two materials. The strain evolution was visualized using digital image correlation (DIC), clearly showing the strain concentrations at the top and bottom of the white etching layers (WEL), where the residual stresses are also most tensile. X‐ray tomography confirmed the planar crack growth from the martensite spot.     

基于彩色图像处理的浮选尾煤灰分软测量研究

浮选尾煤灰分是浮选产品的一个重要指标。针对选煤厂浮选尾煤灰分多采用离线检测而无法实现在线准确测量，以及当前浮选软测量多采用单一的灰度图像从而导致软测量模型精度及适应性较差的问题，提出了一种基于彩色图像处理的浮选尾煤软测量方法，建立了基于最小二乘支持向量机(LSSVM)的浮选尾煤灰分软测量模型。模型以不同颜色空间的彩色特征、灰度均值以及浓度特征为输入变量，以尾煤灰分作为输出变量，采用粒子群优化算法对LSSVM模型参数进行优化。结果表明：所建立的尾煤灰分软测量模型可以较好地实现浮选尾矿灰分的在线预测，引入浮选尾矿图像的彩色特征可以提高尾煤图像分析的精度，预测精度达96.89%。研究成果在柳湾选煤厂现场应用，并取得了较好的尾矿灰分测量效果。     

A Student's t-based density peaks clustering with superpixel segmentation (tDPCSS) method for image color clustering

Image color clustering is a basic technique in image processing and computer vision, which is often applied in image segmentation, color transfer, contrast enhancement, object detection, skin color capture, and so forth. Various clustering algorithms have been employed for image color clustering in recent years. However, most of the algorithms require a large amount of memory or a predetermined number of clusters. In addition, some of the existing algorithms are sensitive to the parameter configurations. In order to tackle the above problems, we propose an image color clustering method named Student's t-based density peaks clustering with superpixel segmentation (tDPCSS), which can automatically obtain clustering results, without requiring a large amount of memory, and is not dependent on the parameters of the algorithm or the number of clusters. In tDPCSS, superpixels are obtained based on automatic and constrained simple non-iterative clustering, to automatically decrease the image data volume. A Student's t kernel function and a cluster center selection method are adopted to eliminate the dependence of the density peak clustering on parameters and the number of clusters, respectively. The experiments undertaken in this study confirmed that the proposed approach outperforms k-means, fuzzy c-means, mean-shift clustering, and density peak clustering with superpixel segmentation in the accuracy of the cluster centers and the validity of the clustering results.     

二维反三角超混沌系统及其在图像加密上的应用

为了进一步提高混沌系统的混沌特性，为图像加密算法提供更可靠的混沌系统，增强图像加密算法的安全性，提出了一种基于二维反三角超混沌系统的新型图像加密算法。首先，在一维三角混沌函数的基础上构建了一个二维反三角超混沌系统，通过分岔图和Lyapunov指数等仿真实验，验证了该系统具有更广的混沌区间和更强随机性的迭代序列，遍历性更加优秀；然后，基于此混沌系统，采用"置乱-扩散"策略，根据不同密钥生成的不同超混沌序列，对图像矩阵进行无重复置乱和循环移位扩散，循环三次得到密文，完成加密过程；最后，对图像加密方案进行了直方图分析、密钥空间分析、相邻像素相关性分析、明文敏感性分析和信息熵分析等性能测试。其中密文图像的相关指标参数像素变化率（NPCR）和统一平均变化强度（UACI）的测试值非常接近于它们的理想期望值，信息熵的测试结果约为7.997，也非常接近于理想期望值8。实验结果表明，此图像加密系统具有更可靠的安全性，抵抗攻击能力强，在图像安全领域具有较好的应用前景。     

具有光照鲁棒的图像匹配方法

针对现有的基于局部特征的图像匹配算法对光照变化敏感、匹配正确率低等问题，提出一种具有光照鲁棒性的图像匹配算法。首先使用实时对比保留去色（RTCP）算法灰度化图像，然后利用对比拉伸函数模拟不同光照变换对图像的影响从而提取抗光照变换特征点，最后采用局部强度顺序模式建立特征点描述符，根据待匹配图像局部特征点描述符的欧氏距离判断是否为成对匹配点。在公开数据集上，所提算法与尺度不变特征变换（SIFT）算法、加速鲁棒特征（SURF）算法、"风"（KAZE）算法和ORB算法在匹配速度和匹配正确率上进行了对比实验。实验结果表明：随着图像亮度差异的增加，SIFT算法、SURF算法、"风"（KAZE）算法和ORB算法匹配正确率下降迅速，所提算法下降缓慢并且正确率均高于80%；所提算法特征点检测较慢和描述符维数较高，平均耗时为23.47 s，匹配速度不及另外四种算法，但匹配质量却远超过它们。对实时性要求不高的系统中，所提算法可以克服光照变化对图像匹配造成的影响。     

Multiemotional product color design using gray theory and nondominated sorting genetic algorithm-III

When users select products, they consider the emotional experience resulting from the color of the product. However, the emotional demands of users for product color are multidimensional and diverse. It is very important yet difficult to accurately grasp multiemotional image requirements and effectively convert them into design elements. Therefore, multiemotional product color design (MEPCD) has become a very important and challenging research topic. In this article, a novel MEPCD system using gray theory (GT) and nondominated sorting genetic algorithm-III (NSGA-III) is proposed to effectively solve the MEPCD problem. First, the image perception spaces of users, which exist in different emotional dimensions, were collected using factor analysis and the semantic differential technique. Then, GT was used to establish a multidimensional emotional product color image evaluation model. Finally, NSGA-III was used to optimize and design a multiemotional color scheme for a product. Furthermore, according to actual conditions, an MEPCD system was established based on the proposed method. The design case study shows that the method and design system proposed in this article have a certain range of applicability and can effectively improve the practicality of MEPCD.     

Investigation of fracture behavior of cement-bonded corundum castables using wedge splitting test and digital image correlation method

To investigate the fracture behavior of cement-bonded corundum castables, various cement contents and pre-treating temperatures have been comparatively studied using the wedge splitting method and the digital image correlation technique. The results show that the microstructure enhances the mechanical properties, so the fracture energy and the maximum load as well as the fracture modes are affected correspondingly. The castables demonstrate the highest fracture energy and maximum load at 1600 °C with cement content of 10 wt% due to an appropriate amount of CA6. At the temperatures of 110 and 1100 °C, the crack propagation within the matrix and along the interface are dominated whereas within the aggregates significantly increased at 1600 °C, leading to the brittleness of materials. However, increasing the cement content can reduce their brittleness, caused by the maximum strain in thex-direction, largest length of the main crack, and high ratio of crack propagation in the matrix.     

Development of fan‐shaped tracker for single particle tracking

With the development of super‐resolution fluorescence microscopy, complex dynamic processes in living cells can be observed and recorded with unprecedented temporal and spatial resolution. Single particle tracking (SPT) is the most important step to explore the relationship between the spatio‐temporal dynamics of subcellular molecules and their functions. Although previous studies have developed SPT algorithms to quantitatively analyze particle dynamics in cell, traditional tracking methods have poor performance when dealing with intersecting trajectories. This can be attributed to two main reasons: (a) they do not have point compensation process for overlapping objects; (b) they use inefficient motion prediction models. In this paper, we present a novel fan‐shaped tracker (FsT) algorithm to reconstruct the trajectories of subcellular vesicles in living cells. We proposed a customized point compensation method for overlapping objects based on the fan‐shaped motion trend of the particles. Furthermore, we validated the performance of the FsT in both simulated time‐lapse movies with variable imaging quality and in real vesicle moving images. Meanwhile, we compared the performance of FsT with other five state‐of‐the‐art tracking algorithms by using commonly defined measures. The results showed that our FsT achieves better performance in high signal‐to‐noise ratio conditions and in tracking of overlapping objects. We anticipate that our FsT method will have vast applications in tracking of moving objects in cell.     

R-curves determination of ordinary refractory ceramics assisted by digital image correlation method

As a figure-of-merit, the rising ratio of crack propagation resistance to fracture initiation resistance indicates a reduction of the brittleness and enhances the thermal shock resistance of ordinary refractory ceramics. The significant nonlinear fracture behaviour is related to the development of a fracture process zone (FPZ). The universal dimensionless load–displacement diagram method is applied as a promising graphical method for the determination of R-curves for magnesia refractories showing different brittleness. By applying digital image correlation (DIC) together with the graphical method, the problems arisen with accurate determination of the fracture initiation resistance and the crack length are overcome. Meanwhile, the R-curve is subdivided with respect to the fracture processes, viz the fracture initiation, the development of FPZ and the onset of traction free macro-crack. With the simultaneous crack lengths evaluated from DIC, the contribution of each fracture process to the crack propagation resistance at certain loading stage is quantitatively presented.     

A comparison of pivot selection techniques for permutation-based indexing

Recently, permutation based indexes have attracted interest in the area of similarity search. The basic idea of permutation based indexes is that data objects are represented as appropriately generated permutations of a set of pivots (or reference objects). Similarity queries are executed by searching for data objects whose permutation representation is similar to that of the query, following the assumption that similar objects are represented by similar permutations of the pivots. In the context of permutation-based indexing, most authors propose to select pivots randomly from the data set, given that traditional pivot selection techniques do not reveal better performance. However, to the best of our knowledge, no rigorous comparison has been performed yet. In this paper we compare five pivot selection techniques on three permutation-based similarity access methods. Among those, we propose a novel technique specifically designed for permutations. Two significant observations emerge from our tests. First, random selection is always outperformed by at least one of the tested techniques. Second, there is no technique that is universally the best for all permutation-based access methods; rather different techniques are optimal for different methods. This indicates that the pivot selection technique should be considered as an integrating and relevant part of any permutation-based access method.