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.     

Automated coronal hole segmentation from Solar EUV Images using the watershed transform

Region of interest segmentation in solar images is the subject of frequent research in solar physics. This study outlines watershed by immersion segmentation to identify coronal hole areas in solar images acquired using the Extreme UV Imaging Telescope (EIT). Solutions presented here produce highly accurate segmentation results of coronal holes of irregular shape, and what is more, they do so for images representing varied solar activity, recorded in different years and months. In addition, the solutions presented here make all the methods used operate very quickly. These methods include: the preprocessing step before the watershed segmentation, the watershed segmentation itself, and also the postprocessing of solar images after the watershed segmentation. The mean duration of the entire segmentation process of solar images amounts to 342 ms for a single coronal hole, without the parallel implementation of the methods used. The experiments were carried out on a computer with an Intel Core i7 CPU @ 2 GHz and 4 GB RAM. After the seed point is identified inside the coronal hole, the segmentation runs automatically.     

Spherical volume-preserving Demons registration

In order to analyze the brain shift situation accurately, we need to register the medical image and analyze its deformation. In this paper, we introduce a framework with volume-preserving registration for brain shift analysis. First, a volume-preserving mapping is introduced for general manifolds supported by a rigorous continuous theory. The registration is then performed on the spherical tetrahedron mesh with MRI gray values. The registration can retain the equality of local volume elements while registering the manifold to a template at the same time. We use simulated brain shift data to test our method. The results show that our method can efficiently register the brain while preserving the volume of each vertex.     

基于摄影测量的飞机阻力伞运动参数测量技术

针对某型阻力伞性能鉴定试飞科目要求，需要精确测量阻力伞在稳定工作时的垂直、水平摆角，从而为该产品的技术鉴定提供依据。本文根据加装在飞机机背中段的高速摄像机，获取阻力伞的运动影像，通过图像分析处理识别特征点的亚象素坐标，采用摄影测量的解算算法，推导出数学解算模型，实现了阻力伞运动参数的最优解算。结合真实飞行试验对测量结果进行了分析，数据结论准确。     

Experiment and Simulation of Metal Flow in Multi-stage Forming Process of Railway Wheel

To investigate the metal flow during the railway wheel forming process,experiments and finite element method(FEM)simulation were carried out.An axisymmetric modeling for the wheel rolling process was proposed to predict the metal flow in radial direction,by which the whole multi-stage forming process could be simulated in axisymmetric and integral way.The result shows that the axisymmetric simulation method was an effective method to explore the metal flow in radial direction and to analyze the relationships of tools motion during the wheel rolling.The detail information about metal flow in railway wheel forming process was obtained.The metal in the wheel web was from the area near the half radius of the original billet;the chill zone of the billet became an envelope of the rim and part of the web with a maximum thickness of about 6mm below the tread.At the wheel rolling stage,the metal in the rim flowed towards the web;the metal near the surfaces of the conjunction region between the web and rim suffered severe shear deformation.     

Assessment of local strain field in adhesive layer of an unsymmetrically repaired CFRP panel using digital image correlation

The present study focuses on experimental investigation of through the thickness displacement and strain field in thin adhesive layer in single sided (unsymmetrical) patch repaired CFRP (carbon fiber reinforced polymer) panel under tensile load. Digital image correlation (DIC) technique is employed to acquire the displacement and strain (longitudinal, peel and shear) field. Experimental determination of shear transfer length based on shear strain field obtained from DIC is introduced to estimate the optimum overlap length which is an essential parameter in patch design for the repair of CFRP structures. Further, DIC experiment with magnified optics is performed to get an insight into complex and localized strain field over thin adhesive layer especially at critical zones leading to damage initiation. The failure mechanism, load displacement behavior, damage initiation and propagation are closely monitored using DIC. The influence of patch edge tapering on strain distribution in adhesive layer is also investigated. The DIC successfully captures the global and localized strain field at critical zones over thin adhesive layer and further helps in monitoring the damage based on strain anomalies. Strains are found to have maximum magnitude at the patch overlap edge and the shear strain level in adhesive layer is higher than the peel strain. Normal tapering increases the peel strain and has negligible influence on shear strain level in adhesive layer. The recommended overlap length is found to be consistent with the recommendation in the literature. Whole field strain pattern and the overlap length obtained from experiment are further compared with the finite element analysis results and they appear to be in good coherence.     

Characterisation of crack-tip fields in biaxial fatigue based on high-magnification image correlation and electro-spray technique

This work presents a novel methodology for characterising fatigue cracks under biaxial conditions on a low carbon steel. It allows both short crack and early propagation stages to be studied in tubular specimens. Short crack growth is studied with a long-distance microscope acquiring images of the bare metal surface. Results showed oscillations in crack growth rate due to microstructure. Early propagation stage is studied with high magnification Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technique for measuring displacement and strain crack-tip fields. By applying micro-speckle pattern on the metal surface it is possible to achieve high magnification for DIC technique. Ultra-fine black and white speckles were created by electro-spray technique. The validity of this novel technique is demonstrated by direct comparison with extensometer measurements, under combined tension–compression and torsion conditions. It was also possible to estimate satisfactorily the mixed-mode stress intensity factor.     

Kernel-based fourth-order diffusion for image noise removal

The fourth-order partial differential equations have good performance on noise smoothing and edge preservation without creating blocky effects on smooth regions. However, for low signal-to-noise ratio images, the discrimination between edges and noise is a challenging problem. A novel kernel-based fourth-order diffusion is proposed in this paper. It introduces a kernelized gradient operator in the fourth-order diffusion process, which leads to more effective noise removal capability. Experiment results show that this method outperforms several previous anisotropic diffusion methods for noise removal and edge preservation.