Prolonged poststrike elevation in tongue-flicking rate with rapid onset in gila monster,Heloderma suspectum: Relation to diet and foraging and implications for evolution of chemosensory searching

Experimental tests showed that poststrike elevation in tongue-flicking rate (PETF) and strike-induced chemosensory searching (SICS) in the gila monster last longer than reported for any other lizard. Based on analysis of numbers of tongue-flicks emitted in 5-min intervals, significant PETF was detected in all intervals up to and including minutes 41–45. Using 10-min intervals, PETF lasted though minutes 46–55. Two of eight individuals continued tongue-flicking throughout the 60 min after biting prey, whereas all individuals ceased tongue-flicking in a control condition after minute 35. The apparent presence of PETF lasting at least an hour in some individuals suggests that there may be important individual differences in duration of PETF. PETF and/or SICS are present in all families of autarchoglossan lizards studied except Cordylidae, the only family lacking linguallly mediated prey chemical discrimination. However, its duration is known to be greater than 2-min only in Helodermatidae and Varanidae, the living representatives of Varanoidea. That prolonged PETF and SICS are typical of snakes provides another character supporting a possible a varanoid ancestry for Serpentes. Analysis of 1-min intervals showed that PETF occurred in the first minute. A review of the literature suggests that a pause in tongue-flicking and delay of searching movements are absent in lizards and the few nonvenomous colubrid snakes tested. The delayed onset of SICS may be a specific adaptation of some viperid snakes to allow potentially dangerous prey to be rendered harmless by venom following voluntary release after envenomation and preceding further physical contact with the prey.     

乳腺MRI图像肿块分割的分段比较与方法研究

计算机辅助诊断通过对乳腺磁共振成像( MRI)中肿块区域的自动分割和测量为医生提供定量的诊断依据。对分割过程中不同阶段的多种算法进行实验对比,以此探索更具稳定性和准确性的分割方案：空间模糊C均值( sFCM)聚类算法在肿块的初始定位中具有抗噪声能力和稳定性强的优点,而GVF snake模型在精细分割中对局部轮廓具有较好的收敛性;结合两种算法,并运用MRI序列帧间灰度分布相似、肿块位置/形状相近的原理,最终提高整个序列的分割精度与稳定性。     

Human eye sclera detection and tracking using a modified time-adaptive self-organizing map

This paper investigates the use of time-adaptive self-organizing map (TASOM)-based active contour models (ACMs) for detecting the boundaries of the human eye sclera and tracking its movements in a sequence of images. The task begins with extracting the head boundary based on a skin-color model. Then the eye strip is located with an acceptable accuracy using a morphological method. Eye features such as the iris center or eye corners are detected through the iris edge information. TASOM-based ACM is used to extract the inner boundary of the eye. Finally, by tracking the changes in the neighborhood characteristics of the eye-boundary estimating neurons, the eyes are tracked effectively. The original TASOM algorithm is found to have some weaknesses in this application. These include formation of undesired twists in the neuron chain and holes in the boundary, lengthy chain of neurons, and low speed of the algorithm. These weaknesses are overcome by introducing a new method for finding the winning neuron, a new definition for unused neurons, and a new method of feature selection and application to the network. Experimental results show a very good performance for the proposed method in general and a better performance than that of the gradient vector field (GVF) snake-based method.     

Snake模型在医学图像分割中的应用

基于Snake模型的图像分割技术是比较成功的研究领域,也是近年来图像处理领域研究的热点之一。Snake模型将基于图像本身的底层的视觉属性和人们先验知识结合起来,针对各种图像的不同特点,从高层和底层两个方面约束图像分割的过程。通过对Snake模型的基本原理及其几种改进的概括研究,阐述了Snake模型在图像分割中的一些应用方法。     

基于预处理的Ballon模型及在眼疲劳检测中的应用

获取眼睛轮廓和眼球轮廓对进一步研究人眼疲劳状态具有重要意义.提出基于预处理的Ballon模型对含有双眼的局部人脸图片进行人眼和眼球检测的方法.用微分算法抽取边缘、标识出物体、使用几何特性识别人艰区域,自动获取主动轮廓所需要的眼睛初始轮廓;使用提出的基于预处理的Ballon模型收敛人眼;结合数学形态等方法收敛到眼球.实验结果表明,该方法具有效果好、鲁棒性好、受光线影响弱等优点.     

攀爬蛇形机器人爬树的静态机理研究

为了研发一种新型的、在垂直外攀爬方面有较大优势的攀爬蛇形机器人,提出一种具有万向节功能的P-R（pitch roll）模块,该模块结构简单、便于控制.相对于采用传统的平行连接和正交连接的机器人,基于该模块的蛇形机器人能够更为轻松和灵活地附着于攀爬对象外壁.对基于P-R模块的攀爬蛇形机器人爬树的基本姿态进行静态平衡机理分析,得到相关参数的函数关系,为攀爬蛇形机器人样机的研制和攀爬对象的选择提供了理论依据.最后通过实验验证了P-R结构的有效性及相关分析的合理性.     

Engineering of protein epitopes: a single deletion in a snake toxin generates full binding capacity to a previously unrecognized antibody

Structural features associated with the ability of a monoclonalantibody (mAb) to discriminate between protein variants areidentified and engineered. The variants are the curaremimetictoxin from Naja nigricollis and erabutoxin a or b from Laticaudasemifasciata which differ from each other by 16 substitutionsand one insertion. The neutralizing mAb M1 recognizes with highaffinity a topographical epitope on the surface of toxin , butfails to recognize the erabutoxins although they possess mostof the residues forming the presumed epitope. Examinations ofthe toxin and erabutoxin 3-D structures and molecular dynamicssimulations reveal several differences between the variants.In particular, the region involving the ß-turn 17–24is organized differently. Analysis of the differences foundin this region suggests that the insertion (or deletion) atposition 18 of the variant amino add sequences is particularlyimportant in determining the differential cross-reactivity.To test this proposal, residue 18 was deleted in one erabutoxinusing sitedirected mutagenesis, and the biological propertiesof the resulting mutant were examined. We found that full antigenicitywas restored in the previously unrecognized variant. The implicationsof this finding are discussed.     

An efficient steering control formulation for the articulated body mobile robot “KR-II”

This paper introduces an efficient steering control method for the articulated body mobile robot Koryu-II (KR-II). KR-II is a real robot, composed of six cylindrical segments linked in series and has a long snake-like appearance. The main issue on KR-II's steering control is, given from a remote human operator the velocity and orientation commands for the foremost segment, to automatically generate joint commands for all the following segments, such that they follow the foremost segment's trajectory. The derived method is based on a trajectory planning scheme in the inertial reference frame, and is feasible for real time computation. It also presents good energy efficiency and trajectory tracking performance characteristics, and can be extended for KR-II's W-Shaped Configuration steering control, which augments the lateral stability of the robot, essential for locomotion over uneven terrain. The validity of these methods are verified by experiments on the mechanical model KR-II.     

基于极坐标中蛇模型的类圆目标轮廓提取技术研究

提出了转化到极坐标中的蛇模型.通过把蛇模型转化到极坐标中,使轮廓的候选点得以更有序的排列.由于采用了动态规划法并在整个能量空间中搜索能量泛函的极值,算法对能量泛函的局部极值有较强的鲁棒性.所提出的模型不需要确定初始轮廓,可以用非迭代方法直接求解.与传统的动态规划法和贪婪算法进行了比较实验.结果表明,所提出的算法对极坐标中极点的位置不是很敏感.     

基于恒定曲率变化的主动轮廓模型

随着主动轮廓模型（又称snake模型）被广泛应用于无人参与的自动化任务,人们对模型的鲁棒性和自适应能力提出了更高的要求.而传统内部力模型的收缩效应,过平滑作用,及缩放可变性,导致了内部力模型的参数调整困难,很难由程序自动进行调整.据此,提出了基于恒定曲率变化的内部力模型.该模型不仅具有缩放不变性,而且在保证轮廓光滑连续的同时,未引入其他的副作用（如收缩,过平滑等）,提高了模型参数的鲁棒性.实验结果表明,该模型精确提取目标轮廓的能力得到增强,能够成功提取存在高曲率位置的凹陷轮廓,而且内部力大小衰减迅速,对轮廓点的增删不敏感,保证了模型快速稳定地收敛到期望轮廓.