基于小波变换的分数阶微分算法在肝脏肿瘤CT图像纹理增强中的应用

图像纹理增强过程中容易丢失平滑区域纹理细节，而分数阶微分增强虽然能够非线性保留平滑区域纹理细节，但对频率分辨率敏感。针对这个问题，提出一种基于小波变换的分数阶微分纹理增强算法，应用于平扫计算机断层扫描（CT）图像的肝脏肿瘤区域的纹理增强。首先，通过小波变换将图像感兴趣区分解成多个子带分量；其次，基于分数阶微分定义构造一个带补偿参数的分数阶微分掩膜；最后，使用该掩膜与每个高频子带分量进行卷积并利用小波逆变换重组图像感兴趣区。实验结果表明，该方法在使用较大分数阶次显著增强肿瘤区域的高频轮廓信息的同时，有效地保留了低频平滑的纹理细节：增强后的肝细胞癌区域与原区域相比，信息熵平均增加36.56%，平均梯度平均增加321.56%，平均绝对差值平均为9.287；增强后的肝血管瘤区域与原区域相比，信息熵平均增加48.77%，平均梯度平均增加511.26%，平均绝对差值平均为14.097。     

结合引导滤波的自适应多曝光图像融合

针对引导滤波产生的光晕、梯度反转现象，以及图像融合边缘细节丢失的现象，提出一种改进引导滤波的自适应多曝光图像融合算法。在引导滤波中根据梯度信息设定权重函数，并结合图像像素点和一定区域的均值创建函数，共同实现不同区域的纹理特性自适应；利用平均亮度与对比度、饱和度及曝光适中度的关系，设置权值函数，使加权平均融合过程中的权重值不再是固定的数值，而能够根据不同的图像亮度自适应调整，权重值也不同，使得融合后的图像质量更好；将原序列图的细节信息叠加到改进的引导滤波图像中，构建纹理细节层。实验结果削弱了光晕及梯度反转现象，使图像更加真实，细节更加清晰，并且对有小光源的图像处理效果更好。算法结果明显优于多曝光融合算法及引导滤波的多曝光图像融合，在信息熵、互信息和边缘信息评价中分别取得最高2.5%、30%和30%左右的质量提升。     

Simulation of microwave's heating effect on coal seam permeability enhancement

As hydraulic fracturing was forbidden in some countries due to possible negative environmental impacts and enhanced coalbed methane(ECBM) was restricted by in-situ conditions, microwave heating was proposed to enhance coalbed permeability. One of the mechanisms of improving coal permeability with microwave irradiation is that thermal expansion caused by microwave heating. To study the influence of microwave's heating effect of coal samples, the simulations were conducted using a coupled electromagnetic, thermal and mechanical model in this paper. The temperature, Von-Mises stress and strain distribution of coal sample are recorded every 10 s. The permeability distribution is also obtained based on the relationship between strain and permeability from articles. It was found that volume average temperature, stress, strain and permeability increase almost linearly with time. The average permeability increased from 1.65×10~(-16) m~2 to 3.63×10~(-16)m~2 under 2.45 GHz and 500W microwave radiation after 300s. The significant increase proved microwave to be effective in coal seam permeability enhancement.     

Effect of distances between lens and sample surface on laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy with spatial confinement

Spatial confinement can significantly enhance the spectral intensity of laser-induced plasma in air.It is attributed to the compression of plasma plume by the reflected shockwave.In addition,optical emission spectroscopy of laser-induced plasma can also be affected by the distance between lens and sample surface.In order to obtain the optimized spectral intensity,the distance must be considered.In this work,spatially confined laser-induced silicon plasma by using a Nd:YAG nanosecond laser at different distances between lens and sample surface was investigated.The laser energies were 12 mJ,16 mJ,20 mJ,and 24 mJ.All experiments were carried out in an atmospheric environment.The results indicated that the intensity of Si (I) 390.55 nm line firstly rose and then dropped with the increase of lens-to-sample distance.Moreover,the spectral peak intensity with spatial confinement was higher than that without spatial confinement.The enhancement ratio was approximately 2 when laser energy was 24 mJ.     

Experimental and numerical studies on the receiving gain enhancement modulated by a sub-wavelength plasma layer

A novel technique based on sub-wavelength plasma structure effects on enhancement of RF communication signals on a receiving antenna is carried out in this paper in laboratory experiments and analyzed by corresponding numerical simulations. Considerable intensification on receiving signal gain up to～10 dB in comparison with that without the plasma modulation is observed experimentally in～1 GHz RF band, with an effective enhancement bandwidth of～340 MHz and the fractional bandwidth of～34％. Then, the optimal modulation parameters of plasma are further studied by a numerical simulation. It is shown that the number density, the layer thickness, and the collision frequency of the plasma, as well as the relative distance between the plasma layer and antenna synergistically affect the modulation. Compared to the metallic antenna with the same overall dimension, the modulated antenna covered by the subwavelength plasma structure features higher receiving efficiency and lower radar cross section in the studied RF band. The mechanism of the reception enhancement is further revealed by analyzing characteristics of electromagnetic scattering and electric field distribution in the subwavelength plasma layer. The results then exhibit scientific significance and application potential of sub-wavelength plasma modulation on compact receiving antennas with higher performance and better feature of radar stealth.     

Probabilistic enhancement of approximate indexing in metric spaces

Some approximate indexing schemes have been recently proposed in metric spaces which sort the objects in the database according to pseudo-scores. It is known that (1) some of them provide a very good trade-off between response time and accuracy, and (2) probability-based pseudo-scores can provide an optimal trade-off in range queries if the probabilities are correctly estimated. Based on these facts, we propose a probabilistic enhancement scheme which can be applied to any pseudo-score based scheme. Our scheme computes probability-based pseudo-scores using pseudo-scores obtained from a pseudo-score based scheme. In order to estimate the probability-based pseudo-scores, we use the object-specific parameters in logistic regression and learn the parameters using MAP (Maximum a Posteriori) estimation and the empirical Bayes method. We also propose a technique which speeds up learning the parameters using pseudo-scores. We applied our scheme to the two state-of-the-art schemes: the standard pivot-based scheme and the permutation-based scheme, and evaluated them using various kinds of datasets from the Metric Space Library. The results showed that our scheme outperformed the conventional schemes, with regard to both the number of distance computations and the CPU time, in all the datasets.     

Improved field emission properties of carbon nanotubes by dual layer deposition

In this paper, we tried to increase the current density of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by depositing double layer of CNTs instead of single layer. Both the layers of CNTs are deposited by the low pressure chemical vapour deposition technique on silicon substrate with Fe catalyst. Scanning electron microscopic images show the surface morphology of single and double layer of CNTs. Dual layer deposition of CNTs is a very simple and easy method to increase the current density of CNTs based field emitters than other conventional methods. Excellent field emission properties of double layer of CNTs are exhibited with large field enhancement factor and low turn-on voltage as compared to those for single layer of CNTs. High current density of CNTs is required for field-emission-based display devices associated with field enhancement factor and number of emitting electrons. Therefore, we may say that dual layer deposition of CNTs can be utilised as an alternative approach to improve the current density for field emitters. Stability measurement of the samples was also performed for 3 h (180 min) with current at constant applied voltage, and it was found that the stability of dual layer of CNTs is remarkable than that of single layer of CNTs.     

Enhancement of Heat Transfer in a Laminar Hydromagnetic Flow of a Liquid Metal Past a Thermally Conducting and Oscillating Infinite Flat Plate

The combined effects of conjugation and magnetic field on the heat transfer enhancement in a laminar liquid metal flow past a thermally conducting and sinusoidally oscillating infinite flat plate are investigated. The wall materials used are compatible with the liquid metals and are assumed to be of finite thickness. Analytical solutions are obtained for the velocity and the temperature distributions. The combined effects of thermal conductivity, the thickness of the plate, and the transverse magnetic field on the net heat flux transported are analyzed in detail and it is found that such effects are same as those on the transverse temperature gradient at any frequency. Due to oscillation, the heat flux is enhanced by O(10³). The optimum value of wall thickness and the corresponding boundary layer thickness for which the maximum heat flux is obtained are reported. The heat flux transported can be increased by choosing a wall of low thermal conductivity. A maximum increase of 52.03% in heat flux can be achieved by optimizing the wall thickness. These information may be useful while designing magnetohydrodynamic liquid metal heat transfer systems. All the results obtained are in good agreement with the results reported earlier.     

Novel aspects of wet milling for the production of microsuspensions and nanosuspensions of poorly water-soluble drugs

Micronization and nanoparticle production of poorly water-soluble drugs was investigated using single wet milling equipment operating in the attritor and stirred media modes. The drug particles in the median size range of 0.2–2?µm were prepared by changing the milling mode and operating conditions of a Micros mill with a purpose of elucidating the dynamics of the wet milling process. It was determined that particle breakage due to mechanical stresses and aggregation due to insufficient stabilization are two competing mechanisms which together control the wet milling dynamics of the poorly water-soluble drugs. The study in the attritor mode using four different classes of stabilizers with six drugs indicated that steric stabilization worked better than electrostatic stabilization for the drugs studied. In addition, the existence of different minimum polymer concentrations for the stabilization of microsuspensions and nanosuspensions was indicated. The major role of a non-ionic polymer during the production of fine particles is its stabilization action through steric effects, and no experimental evidence was found to support the so-called Rehbinder effect. Periodic addition of the polymer as opposed to the addition of the polymer at the start of milling process was introduced as a novel processing method. This novel method of polymer addition provided effective stabilization and breakage of drug particles leading to a narrower and finer particle size distribution. Alternatively, it may allow shorter processing time and lower overall power consumption of the milling process for a desired particle size.