Anytime similarity measures for faster alignment

Image alignment refers to finding the best transformation from a fixed reference image to a new image of a scene. This process is often optimizing a similarity measure between images, computed based on the image data. However, in time-critical applications state-of-the-art methods for computing similarity are too slow. Instead of using all the image data to compute similarity, one could use only a subset of pixels to improve the speed, but often this comes at the cost of reduced accuracy. These kinds of tradeoffs between the amount of computation and the accuracy of the result have been addressed in the field of real-time artificial intelligence as deliberation control problems. We propose that the optimization of a similarity measure is a natural application domain for deliberation control using the anytime algorithm framework. In this paper, we present anytime versions for the computation of two common image similarity measures: mean squared difference and mutual information. Off-line, we learn a performance profile specific to each measure, which is then used on-line to select the appropriate amount of pixels to process at each optimization step. When tested against existing techniques, our method achieves comparable quality and robustness with significantly less computation.     

Effect of composition on valence states of iron cations in some borate glasses

We present the results of magnetic studies and Mössbauer effect measurements on 20Fe₂O₃80[3B₂O₃(1?x)PbOxA_uO_v] glasses with A_uO_v = CaO, As₂O₃ or GeO₂. The fraction r of ferrous ions is not dependent on CaO content, while in case of glasses with As₂O₃ and GeO₂ a linear variation is observed. The increase of the number of ferric ions is proportional to the difference between the valences of A ions and that of lead as well as on A_uO_v content. The magnetic measurements show that the reciprocal susceptibility for T ? 50 K has a nonlinear variation, typical for systems with random distribution of exchange interactions. At T > 50 K, a Curie-Weiss behaviour is evidenced. The Curie constants show a composition dependence similar to that of r values. Finally, the influence of the glass matrix composition on the iron valence states is discussed.     

Influence of Rutile and Anatase TiO2 Nanoparticles on Polyethylene Properties

Nanocomposites from polyethylene and TiO₂ with different shape and size were prepared by direct mixing and masterbatch dilution, respectively. The mechanical properties of nanocomposites were determined and discussed in relation to the nanofiller dispersion. Moreover, the morphological aspects of polyethylene with and without nanofiller were revealed by means of SEM and WAXD. A better dispersion of the nanoparticles and increased mechanical properties were observed in the case of the masterbatch method. No important differences in mechanical and morphological characteristics of anatase and rutile containing polyethylene composites were observed, except a higher increase of the elastic modulus in case of anatase-containing composites.     

Effect of SEBS on morphology, thermal, and mechanical properties of PP/organoclay nanocomposites

A simultaneously increase in stiffness and toughness is needed for improving polypropylene (PP) competitiveness in automotive industry. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of styrene-(ethylene-co-butylene)-styrene triblock copolymer (SEBS) on mechanical and thermal properties of PP, in the presence and the absence of nanoclay. The amount of SEBS in PP was ranged to obtain the matrix with the most favorable stiffness–toughness balance. For this purpose, SEBS domain size and distribution in PP/SEBS blends was determined by means of atomic force microscopy and correlated with mechanical properties. The influence of SEBS on the crystalline structure of PP in PP/organoclay nanocomposites was investigated by X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry, a synergistic effect of SEBS and nanoclay being pointed out. Moreover large improvement in the impact strength (almost 22 times) was obtained in the case of SEBS-containing nanocomposite in comparison with the composite without SEBS.     

Thermogravimetric analysis of polyurethane–polysulfone blends

Thermal decomposition of blends of a poly(ester urethane) and poly(ether sulfone) with or without poly(urethane sulfone), taken as a compatibilizing agent, was studied by thermogravimetric analysis under dynamic conditions. Theoretical mass loss curves were compared with experimental ones and it was found that the blends studied possessed lower thermal stability than the pure polymers, indicating the presence of interactions in the degradation process. The shifts between the theoretical and experimental curves became smaller as the amounts of polysulfone increased, confirming the thermal stabilisation effect of this polymer. The analysis of activation energy revealed, for both binary and ternary systems, that E_CR (T_max corresponding to the main decomposition stage of polysulfone) increased as the amount of this polymer increased and also the reaction order became zero. For the polyurethane decomposition stages and blending revealed no significant changes as far as activation energy and order of reaction were concerned. © 2002 Society of Chemical Industry     

Energy efficient all-to-all broadcast in all-wireless networks

All-to-all broadcast is a communication pattern in which every node initiates a broadcast. In this paper, we investigate the problem of building a unique cast tree of minimum total energy, which we call Minimum Unique Cast (MUC) tree, to be used for all-to-all broadcast. The MUC tree is unoriented and unrooted. We study three known heuristics for the minimum-energy broadcast problem: the Broadcast Incremental Power (BIP) algorithm, the Wireless Multicast Advantage-conforming Minimum Spanning Tree (WMA-conforming MST) algorithm, and the Iterative Maximum-Branch Minimization (IMBM) algorithm. Experimental results conducted on various types of networks are reported. We show that neither of these methods is best overall for building all-to-all broadcast trees.     

An active hybrid parallel robot for minimally invasive surgery

During the last years, there has been an increase in research in the field of medical robots. This trend motivated the development of a new robotics field called “robotic-assisted minimally invasive surgery”. The paper presents the kinematic and dynamic behavior of a parallel hybrid surgical robot PARASURG-9M. The robot consists of two subsystems: a surgical robotic arm, PARASURG 5M with five motors, and an active robotized surgical instrument PARASIM with four motors. The methodology for the robot kinematics is presented and the algorithm for robot workspace generation is described. PARASURG-9M inverse dynamic simulation is performed using MSC Adams and finally some numerical and simulation results of the developed experimental model with its system control are also described.     

On software verification for sensor nodes

We consider software written for networked, wireless sensor nodes, and specialize software verification techniques for standard C programs in order to locate programming errors in sensor applications before the software's deployment on motes. Ensuring the reliability of sensor applications is challenging: low-level, interrupt-driven code runs without memory protection in dynamic environments. The difficulties lie with (i) being able to automatically extract standard C models out of the particular flavours of embedded C used in sensor programming solutions, and (ii) decreasing the resulting program's state space to a degree that allows practical verification times.We contribute a platform-dependent, OS-independent software verification tool for OS-wide programs written in MSP430 embedded C with asynchronous hardware interrupts. Our tool automatically translates the program into standard C by modelling the MCU's memory map and direct memory access. To emulate the existence of hardware interrupts, calls to hardware interrupt handlers are added, and their occurrence is minimized with a double strategy: a partial-order reduction technique, and a supplementary reachability check to reduce overapproximation. This decreases the program's state space, while preserving program semantics. Safety specifications are written as C assertions embedded in the code. The resulting sequential program is then passed to CBMC, a bounded software verifier for sequential ANSI C. Besides standard errors (e.g., out-of-bounds arrays, null-pointer dereferences), this tool chain is able to verify application-specific assertions, including low-level assertions upon the state of the registers and peripherals.Verification for wireless sensor network applications is an emerging field of research; thus, as a final note, we survey current research on the topic.