Existence and construction of Hamiltonian paths and cycles on conforming tetrahedral meshes

This paper addresses the existence and construction of Hamiltonian paths and Hamiltonian cycles on conforming tetrahedral meshes. The paths and cycles are constrained to pass from one tetrahedron to the next one through a vertex. For conforming tetrahedral meshes, under certain conditions which are normally satisfied in finite-element computations, we show that there exists a through-vertex Hamiltonian path between any two tetrahedra. The proof is constructive from which an efficient algorithm for computing Hamiltonian paths and cycles can be directly derived.     

Analysis of photonic crystals using the hybrid finite‐element/finite‐difference time domain technique based on the discontinuous Galerkin method

Two‐dimensional photonic crystal structures are analyzed by a recently developed hybrid technique combining the finite‐element time‐domain (FETD) method and the finite‐difference time‐domain (FDTD) method. This hybrid FETD/FDTD method uses the discontinuous Galerkin method as framework for domain decomposition. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first hybrid FETD/FDTD method that allows non‐conformal meshes between different FETD and FDTD subdomains. It is also highly parallelizable. These properties are very suitable for the computation of periodic structures with curved surfaces. Numerical examples for the computation of the scattering parameters of two‐dimensional photonic bandgap structures are presented as applications of the hybrid FETD/FDTD method. Numerical results demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed hybrid method. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Intrusive Effect of Wire Mesh Tomography on Gas-liquid Flow Measurement

To investigate the accuracy of wire mesh tomography (WMT) for gas-liquid flow measurement, the experimental study focused on its intrusive feature has been carried out. The WMT principle is based on the dependency upon electrical conductivity on the local void fraction. The applied wire mesh sensor (WMS) consists of two measuring planes. Each plane has 8x32 crossing points with spatial resolution of2.22x3.03 mm² and wire diameter of 0.125 mm.

The disturbance level is estimated from the deviation of flow properties between each measuring plane of WMT and also from the alternative image processing for low gas intensity range. The results show the dependency of disturbance level on the void fraction shape. Furthermore, the contribution of deceleration and deformation on the flow disturbance related to the flow condition are presented. In addition, the capability of gas velocity evaluation method is confirmed and the intrusive effect becomes only one important parameter for gas velocity measurement.     

边缘与区域不一致性引导下的图像拼接篡改检测网络

目的 针对已有图像拼接篡改检测方法中存在的真伪判断分类精度不高、拼接篡改区域定位不准确问题，本文设计了一种篡改边缘两侧和篡改区域内外不一致性引导下的重点关注篡改区域与篡改边缘的图像拼接篡改检测卷积神经网络。方法 图像内容在篡改过程中，拼接物体的边缘都会留下篡改痕迹，这是图像拼接篡改检测的重要线索。因此，本文设计了一条篡改边缘提取分支，通过学习拼接物体边缘两侧的不一致性，重点提取拼接篡改区域的边缘轮廓。考虑到篡改边缘像素点过少会导致网络难以收敛，提出一个边缘加粗策略，形成一个边缘加粗的"甜甜圈"，使得篡改边缘提取结果更具完整性。在不同图像采集过程中，所用相机设备和光线条件等因素不同，导致每幅图像包含的信息也不尽相同。对此，设计了一条篡改区域定位分支，重点学习来自不同图像拼接区域与周围区域之间不一致性的差异化特征，并将注意力机制引入图像拼接篡改检测的篡改区域定位分支，进一步提高对拼接篡改区域的学习关注程度。面向真伪判断设计了一条图像是否经过拼接篡改的二分类网络分支，不但可以快速有效地给出输入图像是否为篡改图像的判断结果，而且可以与上述两条分支的输出结果一起提供给用户，由用户结合视觉语义信息进行综合判断。结果 本文算法与已有的4个代表性方法在4个专业数据集上进行算法实验和性能比较。在真伪判断分类的精确度方面，在Dresden、COCO（common objects in context）、RAISE（a raw images dataset for digital image forensics）和IFS-TC（information forensics and security technical committee）数据集上分别提高了8.3%、4.6%、1.0%和1.0%；在篡改区域定位的准确度方面，F1评分与重叠度IOU（intersection over union）指标较已有方法分别提升了9.4%和8.6%。结论 本文算法将真伪判别分类、篡改区域定位和篡改边缘提取融合在一起，互相促进，较大提升了各分支任务的性能表现，在图像拼接篡改检测方面取得了优于已有方法的效果，为数字图像取证技术领域的研究工作拓展了思路。     

Current Therapies and Technological Advances in Aqueous Aerosol Drug Delivery

Recent advances in aerosolization technology have led to renewed interest in pulmonary delivery of a variety of drugs. Pressurized metered dose inhalers (pMDIs) and dry powder inhalers (DPIs) have experienced success in recent years; however, many limitations are presented by formulation difficulties, inefficient delivery, and complex device designs. Simplification of the formulation process as well as adaptability of new devices has led many in the pharmaceutical industry to reconsider aerosolization in an aqueous carrier. In the acute care setting, breath-enhanced air-jet nebulizers are controlling and minimizing the amount of wasted medication, while producing a high percentage of respirable droplets. Vibrating mesh nebulizers offer advantages in higher respirable fractions (RFs) and slower velocity aerosols when compared with air-jet nebulizers. Vibrating mesh nebulizers incorporating formulation and patient adaptive components provide improvements to continuous nebulization technology by generating aerosol only when it is most likely to reach the deep lung. Novel innovations in generation of liquid aerosols are now being adapted for propellant-free pulmonary drug delivery to achieve unprecedented control over dose delivered and are leading the way for the adaptation of systemic drugs for delivery via the pulmonary route. Devices designed for the metered dose delivery of insulin, morphine, sildenafil, triptans, and various peptides are all currently under investigation for pulmonary delivery to treat nonrespiratory diseases. Although these devices are currently still in clinical testing (with the exception of the Respimat®), metered dose liquid inhalers (MDLIs) have already shown superior outcomes to current pulmonary and systemic delivery methods.     

Matrix-based pairwise key establishment for wireless mesh networks

Wireless communication in wireless mesh networks (WMNs), like other types of wireless networks, is vulnerable to many malicious activities such as eavesdropping. As one of the fundamental security technologies, pairwise key establishment has been widely studied to secure wireless communication. In this paper, we propose a new matrix-based pairwise key establishment scheme for mesh clients in WMNs. A fact in WMNs is that mesh routers are more powerful than mesh clients, in both communication and storage. Motivated by this fact, expensive operations can be delegated to mesh routers to alleviate the overhead of mesh clients when establishing pairwise keys between them. Compared with other matrix-based schemes, our scheme has significant advantages: any two mesh clients can directly establish pairwise keys while communication and storage costs of mesh clients are significantly reduced.     

Slow and fast pyrolysis of Douglas-fir lignin: Importance of liquid-intermediate formation on the distribution of products

The formation of liquid intermediates and the distribution of products were studied under slow and fast pyrolysis conditions. Results indicate that monomers are formed from lignin oligomeric products during secondary reactions, rather than directly from the native lignin. Lignin from Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) wood was extracted using the milled wood enzyme lignin isolation method. Slow pyrolysis using a microscope with hot-stage captured the liquid formation (>150 °C), shrinking, swelling (foaming), and evaporation behavior of lignin intermediates. The activation energy (E_a) for 5–80% conversions was 213 kJ mol⁻¹, and the pre-exponential factor (log A) was 24.34. Fast pyrolysis tests in a wire mesh reactor were conducted (300–650 °C). The formation of the liquid intermediate was visualized with a fast speed camera (250 Hz), showing the existence of three well defined steps: formation of lignin liquid intermediates, foaming and liquid intermediate swelling, and evaporation and droplet shrinking. GC/MS and UV-Fluorescence of the mesh reactor condensate revealed lignin oligomer formation but no mono-phenols were seen. An increase in pyrolytic lignin yield was observed as temperature increased. The molar mass determined by ESI-MS was not affected by pyrolysis temperature. SEM of the char showed a smooth surface with holes, evidence of a liquid intermediate with foaming; bursting from these foams could be responsible for the removal of lignin oligomers. Py-GC/MS studies showed the highest yield of guaiacol compounds at 450–550 °C.     

Template‐Based Reconstruction of Surface Mesh Animation from Point Cloud Animation

In this paper, we present a method for reconstructing a surface mesh animation sequence from point cloud animation data. We mainly focus on the articulated body of a subject — the motion of which can be roughly described by its internal skeletal structure. The point cloud data is assumed to be captured independently without any inter‐frame correspondence information. Using a template model that resembles the given subject, our basic idea for reconstructing the mesh animation is to deform the template model to fit to the point cloud (on a frame‐by‐frame basis) while maintaining inter‐frame coherence. We first estimate the skeletal motion from the point cloud data. After applying the skeletal motion to the template surface, we refine it to fit to the point cloud data. We demonstrate the viability of the method by applying it to reconstruct a fast dancing motion     

Quantitative biology of single neurons

The building blocks of complex biological systems are single cells. Fundamental insights gained from single-cell analysis promise to provide the framework for understanding normal biological systems development as well as the limits on systems/cellular ability to respond to disease. The interplay of cells to create functional systems is not well understood. Until recently, the study of single cells has concentrated primarily on morphological and physiological characterization. With the application of new highly sensitive molecular and genomic technologies, the quantitative biochemistry of single cells is now accessible.     

UHT milk contains multiple forms of αS1-casein that undergo degradative changes during storage

Milk proteins are susceptible to chemical changes during processing and storage. We used proteomic tools to analyse bovine α_S1-casein in UHT milk. 2-D gels of freshly processed milk α_S1-casein was presented as five or more spots due to genetic polymorphism and variable phosphorylation. MS analysis after phosphopeptide enrichment allowed discrimination between phosphorylation states and genetic variants. We identified a new alternatively-spliced isoform with a deletion of exon 17, producing a new C-terminal sequence, K¹⁶⁴SQVNSEGLHSYGL¹⁷⁷, with a novel phosphorylation site at S¹⁷⁴. Storage of UHT milk at elevated temperatures produced additional, more acidic α_S1-casein spots on the gels and decreased the resolution of minor forms. MS analysis indicated that non-enzymatic deamidation and loss of the N-terminal dipeptide were the major contributors to the changing spot pattern. These results highlight the important role of storage temperature in the stability of milk proteins and the utility of proteomic techniques for analysis of proteins in food.