ImAge: an extensible agent-based architecture for image retrieval

We present an open and extensible architecture, ImAge, for content-based image retrieval in a distributed environment. The architecture proposes the use of system components with standard public interfaces for implementing retrieval functionality. The standardization of the components and their encapsulation in autonomous software agents result in functional stratification and easy extensibility. Collaboration of the independent retrieval resources in ImAge results in enhanced system capability. Reuse of existing retrieval resources is achieved by encapsulating them in agents with standard interfaces. The addition of independent agents with domain knowledege adds the capability of processing conceptual queries, while reusing the existing system components for feature-based retrieval. A communication protocol allows the declaration of the capabilities of the system components and negotiations for optimal resource selection for solving a retrieval problem. The use of mobile agents alleviates network bottlenecks. This paper describes a prototype implementation that validates the architecture.     

Identification of Oviposition Attractants of the Secondary Screwworm, Cochliomyia macellaria (F.) Released from Rotten Chicken Liver

The secondary screwworm, Cochliomyia macellaria (F.), is an important blowfly species affecting both livestock and humans. It can transmit pathogenic disease agents mechanically and is an agent of facultative myiasis, which leads to economic losses. The adult flies are attracted to decomposing carcasses, carrion, or rotten meat in order to deposit their eggs, and the hatched larvae develop on these decaying organic materials. This research was aimed to identify volatiles emitted from rotten chicken livers that were reported previously to attract gravid females. In laboratory oviposition assays, gravid females laid significantly more eggs on rotten livers than on fresh livers, and rotten chicken liver was more attractive than rotten beef liver. Volatiles from the two livers were collected using solid phase microextraction. Significantly different volatile profiles were detected from the rotten livers of beef and chicken. Electroantennography (EAG) was performed to determine antennal responses to chemicals released from the most attractive chicken liver that are candidate oviposition attractants. Seven compounds from rotten chicken liver elicited significant EAG responses from antennae of gravid females. Oviposition assays showed that the 7-component blend stimulated gravid females to lay significantly more eggs than the other combinations tested. This 7-component blend may have potential for use in monitoring and sampling populations of secondary screwworm and their associated disease epidemiology.     

Characterization of Failed Surface of Ti and Imidex (PI) Film for Different Inter-layer Thicknesses of Ti Film

For miniaturized biomedical devices, laser joining of dissimilar materials offers excellent potential to make precise joints. An important system for consideration is titanium (Ti) coated glass joined with biocompatible imidex polyimide (PI). Metallic Ti with various thicknesses was deposited on top of pyrex 7740 borosilicate glass by using DC-magnetron sputtering deposition method. Effect of bond strength between Ti coated glass and imidex polyimide (PI), due to thickness variation of sputtered Ti coating was studied. Three different Ti inter-layer thicknesses were considered, 50, 200, and 400?nm. Tests results indicated that the thinner film produced lower shear strength and higher thickness produced higher shear strength. It has been observed that thicker film (200 and 400?nm) enhanced considerably the bond strength with enhancing the film roughness as well. Higher roughness resulted in more contact area at the interface, results higher number of chemical bonds and increased mechanical interlocking; which in turn increase the laser joint strength. For stronger bond with higher thickness, mixed mode failure was observed which included cohesive failure of polymer, interface failure of Ti/glass and failure on the glass itself. On the other hand, for weak bond with thinner film, mostly interface failure was observed for this system of Ti coated glass/imidex. For thicker film, chemical bond of Ti-C and Ti-O were observed. The role of both surface characteristics and chemical bonding for laser joints were investigated by using advanced techniques such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive spectroscopy.     

Hydromagnetic stability of plane Poiseuille flow of an Oldroyd fluid

Summary The linear stability of plane Poiseuille flow of a conducting Oldroyd liquid in the presence of a transverse magnetic field is studied. The fourth-order Orr-Sommerfeld equation governing the stability analysis in this case is solved numerically by a spectral method.     

Transient Analysis of Creeping Wave Modes Using 3-D FDTD Simulation and SVD Method

Creeping wave modes on smooth structures are of importance in the control of scattering properties, such as radar cross section of such structures. We have shown a novel procedure to examine the excitation of creeping wave modes by plane wave illumination of a perfectly electrically conducting (PEC) cylinder. Detailed information about transients of creeping wave modes and their spatial structure, have been obtained for the first time using Singular Value decomposition (SVD) analysis of 3D Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) data. The transient analysis shows how the amplitudes of different modes vary in time, and how the dominant modes eventually stabilize to the time-harmonic solution given by analytical methods. Although the method is computationally expensive, this technique will be particularly useful for purely transient signals, complex geometries and situations involving spatially-varying material properties such as a plasma shielded object.     

Aspect graph construction with noisy feature detectors

Many three-dimensional (3D) object recognition strategies use aspect graphs to represent objects in the model base. A crucial factor in the success of these object recognition strategies is the accurate construction of the aspect graph, its ease of creation, and the extent to which it can represent all views of the object for a given setup. Factors such as noise and nonadaptive thresholds may introduce errors in the feature detection process. This paper presents a characterization of errors in aspect graphs, as well as an algorithm for estimating aspect graphs, given noisy sensor data. We present extensive results of our strategies applied on a reasonably complex experimental set, and demonstrate applications to a robust 3D object recognition problem.     

Bengali alpha-numeric character recognition using curvature features

This paper is concerned with recognition of hand-written and/or printed multifont alpha-numeric Bengali characters. It is assumed that characters are present in an isolated fashion. In the present work characters have been represented in terms of the primitives and structural constraints between the primitives imposed by the junctions present in the characters. The primitives have been characterized on the basis of the significant curvature events like curvature maxima, curvature minima and inflexion points observed along their extent. Curvature properties have been extracted after thinning the smoothed character images and filtering the thinned images using a Gaussian kernel. The unknown samples are classified using a two-stage feed forward neural net based recognition scheme. Experimental results have established the effectiveness of the technique     

Preferential extraction of gallium from Bayer liquor using ion exchange chelating resin containing hydroxamic acid functional group

Gallium extraction studies were carried out using resin containing an hydroxamic acid functional group. Extraction was dependant on reaction time and alkali concentration. The resin did not extract aluminium. Vanadium extraction kinetics were slower than those of gallium. The gallium and vanadium separation efficiency increased with decreasing contact time with extractions of 64% and 32% respectively after 1 min. Gallium extraction was independent of alkali concentration up to 250 g dm^?3 and thereafter decreased with increasing alkali concentration. Vanadium extraction decreased with increasing alkali concentration. Cyclic batch and column studies were carried out with synthetic as well as actual Bayer liquor to test the stability and preferential extraction of gallium using the resin. It was observed that using resin partially loaded with gallium, the co‐extraction of vanadium could be minimised. Copyright © 2003 Society of Chemical Industry     

热处理,预应力和表面强化对微合金钢断裂韧性的影响

微合金钢在行业的各个领域中日益得到应用,而且能提供各种各样的显微组织。大量文献论述了它们显微组织和性能的关系。微合金钢具有优越的力学性能是因为有细晶粒度的显微组织和V、Ti和Nb等微合金元素的沉淀,导致改善屈服强度,也提高产品的抗拉强度和总伸长和夏比V形缺口冲击能量。热处理引起显微组织的变化,或者表面硬化或机械方式强化可能会形成残余应力状态,从而影响这些微合金钢的断裂韧性。正是在这样的背景下,目前的工作始于对轧制状态条件下没有任何热处理的低碳(0.19%)微合金钢准静态的初步实验,测定了断裂韧性(J1c)。这项研究进一步探讨了正火,喷丸加工和喷丸加工接着氰化对所研究的轧制态钢断裂韧性的影响。正火热处理、喷丸加工和喷丸加工接着氰化三种加工表明对起始断裂韧性有积极的影响。对比的结果表明,喷丸加工接着氰化使J1c增加2.7倍。因此喷丸加工接着氰化可能被视为对所研究的这类微合金钢在轧制态条件下的起始断裂韧性产生最积极的影响。虽然在线弹性断裂力学(LEFM)领域里,一般已知的起始断裂韧性是随屈服强度的增加而减少,但是所研究的微合金钢在正火时显示屈服强度和J1c同步提高。以显微组织的研究和应力深度分布为基础能解释所有这些观察到的正火,喷丸加工和氰化对起始断裂韧性的应响(弹塑性断裂力学)。     

Biosorption of Cu and Zn using Volvariella Volvacea

Volvariella volvacea was used for removal of copper and zinc from waste water. Various biosorption parameters were studied like, time, temperature, pH, metal ion and biomass concentration. The energy of activation for Cu and Zn are calculated to be 4.36 and 3.96 v K v Cal/mole, respectively. Volvariella volvacea was found to be more suitable for Cu removal, compared to Zn. Extraction isotherm curves were also developed to determine the theoretical number of stages required for waste water treatment. Both Cu and Zn biosorption followed the Freundlich adsorption isotherm model.