Design of a dynamic pipelined architecture for fuzzy color correction

Color correction, which nonlinearly converts the color coordinates of an input device such as the scanner and digital camera into that of an output device such as the color laser printer, is important for multimedia applications. In this work, we present a novel dynamic pipelined VLSI architecture for the fuzzy color correction algorithm (FCC) proposed by Jou et al. (see IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. I, vol.46, p.773-775, June 1998) to meet the speed requirement of time-critical applications. To promote the performance, the presented architecture is dynamically pipelined with unfixed or run-time determined latencies (or data initiation intervals) and the speculation technique is also applied, then the problems of arduous pipelining, due to the variant execution time of each iteration and slower executing of FCC are solved efficiently. As for data path design, a systematic design methodology of high-level synthesis is used. As a result, a significant (about 2 times) speedup of the dynamic pipelined architecture with a slight hardware overhead relative to the sequential one has been achieved.     

Transverse shear effect on vibration of laminated plate using higher-order plate element

An approach using a higher-order plate element to include the effect of transverse shear deformation on free vibration of laminated plate is presented. The total displacement of the element is expressed as the sum of the displacement due to bending and that due to shear deformation. The double-sized stiffness and mass matrices due to the separation of bending and shear displacements are then reduced to the size as if only the total deflection was considered. Numerical results for natural frequencies for a range of different isotropic and anisotropic plates with various thickness-to-length ratios are obtained and compared with solutions available in the literature. The effect of transverse shear deformation on natural frequencies of higher modes of laminated plates is also discussed.     

Microemulsion polymerization of microlatex in sublimation ink for cotton fabric ink jet printing

A novel microlatex of styrene/2‐ethylhexylacrylate (2‐EHA)/2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate (2‐HEMA)/N‐(isobutoxy methyl) acrylamide (IBMA) copolymer was synthesized and mixed in sublimation inks to be inkjet printed on the cotton fabric to provide soft hand feel and good color fastness after heat‐press. In the optimized microemulsion composition with highest monomer mixture amount, polymerizable maleate surfactants with moderate EO value attained smaller microemulsion droplet size in mono distribution and lower dosage than conventional POE surfactants in combination with anionic surfactants. With adopted semicontinuous process in microemulsion copolymerization at 65°C, the polymerizable surfactants stabilized the growth of microlatex particle size within 70 nm in 240 min and attained 100% of monomer conversion rate with two initiator systems, 2‐2‐azobis(2‐methlypropionamidine dihydrochloride (AAPH) and tert‐butylhydroperoxide (TBHP)/sodium formaldehyde sulfoxylate (SFS). The microlatex particle size of two surfactant systems increased with higher conversion rate and reaction temperature, which synchronized with initiator concentration. High polymer solid content was contributed mainly by IBMA monomer ratio requiring higher amounts of anionic surfactants and 2‐HEMA as a cosurfactant in particle stabilization. Although the optimum ink containing high IBMA microemulsion exhibited small variation in viscosity, pH value and surface tension, disperse dyes in four colors had different interaction with the microlatex to demonstrate distinct printing durability and color performance. The resulted cotton fabric attained high K/S value for color strength, great AATCC grade for color fastness, and nearly zero color difference for negative dye particle diffusion or migration. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011     

A Unified Framework of the Cloud Computing Service Model

After a comprehensive literature review and analysis, a unified cloud computing framework is proposed, which comprises MapReduce, a vertual machine, Hadoop distributed file system (HDFS), Hbase, Hadoop, and virtualization. This study also compares Microsoft, Trend Micro, and the proposed unified cloud computing architecture to show that the proposed unified framework of the cloud computing service model is comprehensive and appropriate for the current complexities of businesses. The findings of this study can contribute to the knowledge for academics and practitioners to understand, assess, and analyze a cloud computing service application.     

Toughening isotactic polypropylene and propylene-ethylene block copolymer with styrene-ethylene butylene-styrene triblock copolymer

Dynamic mechanical properties, low-temperature impact behavior, flexural modulus and heat distortion temperature (HDT) of isotactic polypropylene (i-PP) and propylene-ethylene block copolymer (Co-PP) toughened with styrene-ethylene butylene-styrene triblock copolymer (SEBS), at blending ratios of 0–30 phr, were studied and compared. A scanning electron microscopic morphology study of the impact-fractured surfaces demonstrated the changes in fracture mechanisms at various temperatures and SEBS contents. SEBS remarkably improves the impact endurance in the lower-temperature range when blended with Co-PP in comparison with i-PP, due to the increased compatibility in the interface between SEBS particles and the Co-PP matrix.     

Dynamical resetting of the human brain at epileptic seizures: application of nonlinear dynamics and global optimization techniques

Epileptic seizures occur intermittently as a result of complex dynamical interactions among many regions of the brain. By applying signal processing techniques from the theory of nonlinear dynamics and global optimization to the analysis of long-term (3.6 to 12 days) continuous multichannel electroencephalographic recordings from four epileptic patients, we present evidence that epileptic seizures appear to serve as dynamical resetting mechanisms of the brain, that is the dynamically entrained brain areas before seizures disentrain faster and more frequently (p < 0.05) at epileptic seizures than any other periods. We expect these results to shed light into the mechanisms of epileptogenesis, seizure intervention and control, as well as into investigations of intermittent spatiotemporal state transitions in other complex biological and physical systems.     

Influence of hydrogen bonding on the viscosity of coal liquids

Viscosity, infrared, and proton magnetic resonance studies are reported on the SRC II process solvent (before fractionation), and its acid + neutral fraction, and on the interaction of these coal liquids with quinoline and triethylamine. The results obtained with the coal liquids and with several model compounds suggest that hydrogen bonding involving largely phenolic OH and nitrogen-containing bases, OH…N, gives rise to protontransfer complexes, O^?…^pHN, which is in part responsible for the viscosity and non-Newtonian flow of the coal liquids.     

Numerical methods for a class of nonlinear integro-differential equations

In a previous article (Glowinski, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 41, 67–96, 1973) the first author discussed several methods for the numerical solution of nonlinear equations of the integro-differential type with periodic boundary conditions. In this article we discuss an alternative methodology largely based on the Strang’s symmetrized operator-splitting scheme. Several numerical experiments suggest that the new method is robust and accurate. It is also easier to implement than the various methods discussed by Glowinski in J. Math. Anal. Appl. 41, 67–96 (1973).     

Suitability of ANN-Based Daily Streamflow Extension Models: a Case Study of Gaoping River Basin,Taiwan

It is well known that sufficiently long and continuous streamflow data are required for accurate estimations and informed decisions in water-resources planning, design, and management. Although streamflow data are measured and available at most river basins, streamflow records often suffer from insufficient length or missing data. In this work, artificial neural networks (ANNs) are applied to extend daily streamflow records at Lilin station located in Gaoping River basin, southern Taiwan. Two ANNs, including feed forward back propagation (FFBP) and radial basis function (RBF) networks, associated with various time-lagged streamflow and rainfall inputs of nearby long-record stations are employed to extend short daily streamflow records. Performances of ANNs are evaluated by root-mean-square error (RMSE), coefficient of efficiency (CE), and histogram-matching dissimilarity (HMD). Inconsistency among these evaluation measures is solved by the technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), a widely used multi-criteria decision-making approach, to find an optimal model. The results indicate that RBF-E1 (entire-year data training with Q _t and Q _t?1 inputs) has the minimum RMSE of 104.4 m³/s, second highest CE of 0.956, and third lowest HMD of 0.0096, which outperforms other ANNs and provide the most accurate reconstruction of daily streamflow records at Lilin station.     

Robust stability of uncertain singular time-delay systems via LFT approach

The robust stability problem of continuous-time singular systems with multiple state delays and bounded parametric uncertainties is considered. Both commensurate and non-commensurate delays are investigated. On the basis of the linear fractional transformations (LFTs) framework and μ-analysis, a systematic approach is derived to convert the robustness problem to a robust nonsingularity problem. Some explicit conditions are proposed to guarantee the uncertain singular time-delay system being regular, impulse-free and stable independent of delay. Two illustrative examples are given to show the feasibility of the proposed technique.