Perceptual primitives from an extended 4D Hough transform

Directional features extracted from Gabor wavelets responses were used to train a structure of self-organising maps, thus classifying each pixel in the image within a neuron-map. Resulting directional primitives were grouped into perceptual primitives introducing an extended 4D Hough transform to group pixels with similar directional features. These can then be used as perceptual primitives to detect salient structures. The proposed method has independently fixed parameters that do not need to be tuned for different kind or quality of images. We present results in application to noisy FLIR images and show that line primitives for complex structures, such as bridges, or simple structures, such as runways, can be found by this approach. We compare and demonstrate the quality of our results with those obtained through a parameter-dependent traditional Canny edge detector and Hough line finding process.     

Efficient designs of reversible sequential circuits

The Journal of Supercomputing - Recently, the synthesis of reversible sequential circuits has attracted researchers’ attention for implementing low-power logic designs. So far, the direct and...     

Extremal optimization vs. learning automata: Strategies for spin selection in portfolio selection problems

Nowadays, various imitations of natural processes are used to solve challenging optimization problems faster and more accurately. Spin glass based optimization, specifically, has shown strong local search capability and parallel processing. But, spin glasses have a low rate of convergence since they use Monte Carlo simulation techniques such as simulated annealing (SA). Here, we propose two algorithms that combine the long range effect in spin glasses with extremal optimization (EO-SA) and learning automata (LA-SA). Instead of arbitrarily flipping spins at each step, these two strategies aim to choose the next spin and selectively exploiting the optimization landscape. As shown in this paper, this selection strategy can lead to faster rate of convergence and improved performance. The resulting two algorithms are then used to solve portfolio selection problem that is a non-polynomial (NP) complete problem. Comparison of test results indicates that the two algorithms, while being very different in strategy, provide similar performance and reach comparable probability distributions for spin selection. Furthermore, experiments show there is no difference in speed of LA-SA or EO-SA for glasses with fewer spins, but EO-SA responds much better than LA-SA for large glasses. This is confirmed by tests results of five of the world's major stock markets. In the last, the convergence speed is compared to other heuristic methods such as Neural Network (NN), Tabu Search (TS), and Genetic Algorithm (GA) to approve the truthfulness of proposed methods.     

On problem transformability in VLSI

The two basic performance parameters that capture the complexity of any VLSI chip are the area of the chip,A, and the computation time,T. A systematic approach for establishing lower bounds onA is presented. This approach relatesA to the bisection flow, . A theory of problem transformation based on , which captures bothAT ² andA complexity, is developed. A fundamental problem, namely, element uniqueness, is chosen as a computational prototype. It is shown under general input/output protocol assumptions that any chip that decides ifn elements (each with (1+)lognbits) are unique must have =(nlogn), and thus, AT²=(n ²log² n), andA= (nlogn). A theory of VLSI transformability reveals the inherentAT ² andA complexity of a large class of related problems.This work was supported in part by the Semiconductor Research Corporation under contract RSCH 84-06-049-6.     

Preparation of new poly(amide–imide)s with chiral architectures via direct polyamidation reaction

N‐trimellitylimido‐L ‐methionine ( 3 ) was prepared by reaction of trimellitic anhydride ( 1 ) with ‐L ‐methionine ( 2 ) in acetic acid solution at refluxing temperature. This diacid was reacted with thionyl chloride, and N‐trimellitylimido‐L ‐methionine diacid chloride ( 4 ) was obtained in quantitative yield. The resulting diacid chloride was reacted with p‐aminobenzoic acid in dry acetone and bis(p‐aminobenzoic acid)‐N‐trimellitylimido‐L ‐methionine ( 5 ) was obtained as a novel optically active amide–imide diacid monomer in high yield. The direct polycondensation of amide–imide diacid monomer 5 with several aromatic diamines was carried out with tosyl chloride (TsCl)/pyridine (Py)/dimetheylformamide (DMF) system. The resulting thermally stable poly(amide–imide)s (PAIs) were obtained in good yields and inherent viscosities ranging between 0.24 and 0.46 dL g^?1 and were characterized with FTIR, ¹H NMR, CHN, and TGA techniques. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 104: 1248–1254, 2007     

Highly efficient synthesis of coumarin derivatives in the presence of H14[NaP5W30O110] as a green and reusable catalyst

A variety of heteropolyanions including: Keggin, Dawson, Preyssler, mixed addenda and sandwich types, catalyzed the formation of 4-methylnaphtho-(1,2-b)-pyran-2-one (coumarin) from the condensation of α-naphthol and ethylacetoacetate in a solvent free system and under heating conditions. Our data vividly indicate that sodium30–tungsto pentaphosphate, [NaP₅W₃₀O₁₁₀]¹⁴⁻, which so-called Preyssler’s anion, with high hydrolytic (pH 0–12) and thermal stability is the catalyst of choice. This catalyst catalyzed the synthesis of other coumarin derivatives in high yields and good selectivity.     

Anionic synthesis of poly(epichlorohydrin-g-styrene) and chemical modification of polyepichlorohydrin

Poly(epichlorohydrin-g-styrene) copolymers, P(ECH-g-S)s, have been prepared in solution by two different methods of coupling polyepichlorohydrin, PECH, with polystyrene, PS, containing a functional end group. In the first method, polystyryl carboxylic acid, PSCOOH, prepared from living polystyrene, was converted to the corresponding potassium salt which was coupled with PECH in dimethyl formamide solution usually at 60°C. In the second method, polystyryl potassium, PS^?K⁺, in tetrahydrofuran solution was end-capped with propylene sulphide to form PSCH₂CH(CH₃)S^?K⁺ which was coupled directly with PECH in tetrahydrofuran at 40°C. Grafting by the first reaction was relatively slow but occurred without significant adverse side reactions. The grafting by the second reaction was relatively fast, but side reactions occurred resulting in a cleavage of the graft copolymer. The graft copolymers were purified by fractional precipitation and extraction procedures and were characterized by infra-red and ultra-violet spectroscopy, microanalysis, gel permeation chromatography, differential scanning calorimetry, solution viscometry, dynamic mechanical testing, and electron microscopy. Solution properties of the graft copolymers in benzene-carbon tetrachloride and toluene-cyclohexane mixtures were studied. There was evidence of micelle formation in dilute solutions of the mixed solvents and microphase separation of components in the solid state. Nucleophilic substitution of chlorine atoms in PECH by phenyl acetate (C₆H₅ CH₂COO-) and thiophenoxide (C₆H₅S-) groups was performed.     

Implementing a one-bit reversible full adder using quantum-dot cellular automata

Quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) technique is one of the emerging and promising nanotechnologies. It has considerable advantages versus CMOS technology in various aspects such as extremely low power dissipation, high operating frequency and small size. In this paper, designing of a one-bit full adder is investigated using a QCA implementation of Toffoli and Fredkin gates. Then, a full adder design with reversible QCA1 gates is proposed regarding to overhead and power savings. Our proposed full adder design is more preferable when considering both circuit area and speed. The proposed design uses only two QCA1 gates and maximizes the circuit density and focuses on a layout of the circuit which is minimal in using QCA cells.     

A new technique for the construction of confusion component based on inverse LA-semigroups and its application in steganography

The present article introduced a novel idea for information hiding namely steganography. We have used new notions for the construction of the nonlinear component for block cipher based on inverse LA-semigroups. This nonlinear component fundamentally provides confidentiality in the proposed steganographic algorithm. The construction of the algorithm is fundamentally twofold. Firstly, we have constructed a novel scheme to design confusion component namely substitution box (S-box). Secondly, we have utilized the anticipated nonlinear component in digital steganography. The suggested algorithm is tested for different standard digital images. The authentication of the proposed algorithm is confirmed through statistical analysis.