High‐Quality Stereo Depth Map Generation Using Infrared Pattern Projection

In this paper, we present a method for obtaining a highquality 3D depth. The advantages of active pattern projection and passive stereo matching are combined and a system is established. A diffractive optical element (DOE) is developed to project the active pattern. Cross guidance (CG) and auto guidance (AG) are proposed to perform the passive stereo matching in a stereo image in which a DOE pattern is projected. When obtaining the image, the CG emits a DOE pattern periodically and consecutively receives the original and pattern images. In addition, stereo matching is performed using these images. The AG projects the DOE pattern continuously. It conducts cost aggregation, and the image is restored through the process of removing the pattern from the pattern image. The ground truth is generated to estimate the optimal parameter among various stereo matching algorithms. Using the ground truth, the optimal parameter is estimated and the cost computation and aggregation algorithm are selected. The depth is calculated and bad‐pixel errors make up 4.45% of the non‐occlusion area.     

Efficacy of chlorine and peroxyacetic acid on reduction of natural microflora, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria monocyotgenes and Salmonella spp. on mung bean sprouts

Sprouts-related outbreaks have risen due to increased raw sprouts consumption. To minimize such cases, chemical sanitations are applied. While chlorine is commonly used, concerns with its effectiveness and health implication have prompted researchers to seek alternatives. Peroxyacetic acid (PAA) has shown efficacy in inactivating foodborne pathogens on fresh vegetables, and hence could be considered as an alternative. Thus, the objective of this study was to compare the efficacy of chlorine and PAA in inactivating Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., and natural microflora on mung bean sprouts. Resistance of non- and acid-adapted pathogens to these sanitizer treatments was also evaluated. Un-inoculated and inoculated sprouts were treated with chlorine at 106, 130 and 170 ppm and PAA at 25, 51 and 70 ppm for 90 and 180 s at room temperature. Overall, the greater log reductions were obtained with the increase in the sanitizer concentration. For 180 s, chlorine treatment at 170 ppm reduced 2.0, 1.3, 1.5, 0.9-logs and PAA treatment at 70 ppm resulted in 2.3, 1.8, 2.1, 1.1-log reductions for non-adapted E. coli O157:H7, L. monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., and natural microflora, respectively. These results revealed that the efficacy of PAA was significantly better than or similar to that of chlorine. For acid-adapted cells, these sanitizer treatments were less effective with the ranges of 1.0–1.2-log reductions for chlorine and 1.1–1.6-log reductions for PAA compared to non-adapted cells, indicating that acid-adapted cells were more resistant to the sanitizing treatment. These data suggest that PAA may replace chlorine in the disinfection of mung bean sprouts and that acid-adapted pathogens should be used to design an effective sanitizing strategy.     

Cyanidin-3-O-(2″-xylosyl)-glucoside, an anthocyanin from Siberian ginseng (Acanthopanax senticosus) fruits, inhibits UVB-induced COX-2 expression and AP-1 transactivation

Cyanidin-3-O-(2″-xylosyl)-glucoside (C-3-O-(2″-xylosyl)-G) was analyzed as an active constituent from the fruit of Siberian ginseng (Acanthopanax senticosus) using a HPLC diode array detection-electrospray ionization/mass spectrometry analysis system and the effect of C-3-O-(2″-xylosyl)-G on UVB-induced inflammatory signaling in JB6 P+ cells was investigated. C-3-O-(2″-xylosyl)-G inhibited UVB-induced cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 expression and promoter binding activity in JB6 P+ cells and JB6 P+ cells stably transfected with the COX-2 luciferase reporter plasmid. It inhibited both the UVB-induced activator protein-1 (AP-1) and nuclear factor (NF)-κB transactivation in JB6 P+ cells stably transfected with the AP-1 and NF-κB luciferase reporter plasmids. Additionally, C-3-O-(2″-xylosyl)-G significantly suppressed UVB-induced upregulated phosphorylation of c-Jun N terminal kinase, MEK/extracellular signaling kinase, and mitogen activated protein kinase kinase (MAPKK) 3/6 in JB6 P+ cells. These results indicate that C-3-O-(2″-xylosyl)-G may be a promising chemopreventive material that acts by suppressing COX-2 expression and AP-1 and NF-κB transactivation and JNK, MAPKK3/6, and MEK/ERK1/2 phosphorylation.     

Analysis of phytohormones and phosphate solubilization in Photorhabdus spp.

Bacteria of the genus Photorhabdus are nematodes (Heterorhabditidae) symbiont and highly entomopathogenic in nature. Present study was concerned to investigate the effects of Photorhabdus temperata M1021 and Photorhabdus luminescens TT01 on plant morphology and physiology (‘Dongjin-beyo’ and ‘waitoc’). A significant (p<0.05) increase in the plant growth attributes including total plant length, root length, biomass, and chlorophyll contents were observed after treatment with culture extracts. Moreover indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) production by respective bacteria was confirmed by GCMS analysis. IAA production through tryptophan independent pathway was confirmed in P. temperata M1021 and P. luminescens TT01. Phosphate solubilization capability was also investigated by growing them on pikovskaya (PVK) agar as well as on PVK liquid medium with pH 7 at 28±2°C for 14 days. IAA production and phosphate solubilization capability of these bacteria could be the potential factors for plant growth promotion.     

Virtual camera calibration and stereo correspondence of single-lens bi-prism stereovision system using geometrical approach

This paper proposes a simple geometrical ray approach to calibrate the extrinsic parameters of the virtual cameras and solve the stereo correspondence problem of the single-lens bi-prism stereovision system. Each images captured using this system can be divided into two sub-images which are generated by two virtual cameras due to the refraction through the bi-prism. This stereovision system is equivalent to the conventional two camera system and the two captured sub-images provide disparity which can be used for depth recovery. The virtual cameras will be calibrated geometrically and the correspondence problem of this system will be solved by applying epipolar geometry constraint on the generated virtual cameras instead of the real CCD camera. Experiments are conducted to validate the proposed method and the results are compared to the conventional approach to confirm its accuracy and effectiveness.     

Recent advances in wide bandgap semiconductor biological and gas sensors

There has been significant recent interest in the use of surface-functionalized thin film and nanowire wide bandgap semiconductors, principally GaN, InN, ZnO and SiC, for sensing of gases, heavy metals, UV photons and biological molecules. For the detection of gases such as hydrogen, the semiconductors are typically coated with a catalyst metal such as Pd or Pt to increase the detection sensitivity at room temperature. Functionalizing the surface with oxides, polymers and nitrides is also useful in enhancing the detection sensitivity for gases and ionic solutions. The wide energy bandgap of these materials make them ideal for solar-blind UV detection, which can be of use for detecting fluorescence from biotoxins. The use of enzymes or adsorbed antibody layers on the semiconductor surface leads to highly specific detection of a broad range of antigens of interest in the medical and homeland security fields. We give examples of recent work showing sensitive detection of glucose, lactic acid, prostate cancer and breast cancer markers and the integration of the sensors with wireless data transmission systems to achieve robust, portable sensors.     

Linear and nonlinear chip-rate minimum mean-squared-error multiuserCDMA detection

A linear Kalman filter detector for code-division multiple access proposed earlier in the literature is extended to a structure that can handle arbitrary detection delays, through the mechanism of state augmentation. Because pre-detection RAKE combining is used in the detector, it is optimal for multipath channels, unlike the previous structure that performed post-detection combining. We also derive nonlinear Kalman detectors, which approximate the highly complex nonlinear minimum mean-squared-error detector, using the concept of “additional observations.” Both linear and nonlinear detectors require processing at one or more times the chip rate, and knowledge of the spreading codes of interfering users. They have the advantage over many other multiuser detection algorithms of not requiring the spreading codes to be periodic at the symbol rate, or matrix inversion. In addition, two of the detectors are able to generate and update a posteriori probabilities of the transmitted symbols, making them interesting for iterative multiuser detection     

Gain enhancement in cascaded fiber parametric amplifier withquasi-phase matching: theory and experiment

We report a novel gain enhancement scheme for fiber-optic parametric amplifiers utilizing cascaded amplification and quasi-phase matching (QPM). The theory and method of QPM for four-wave mixing (FWM) are developed for the first time to our knowledge. In experimental implementations of the theory, we achieve >12 dB gain improvement in a three-stage dispersion-shifted (DS) fiber parametric amplifier. A 16-dB overall gain is obtained with 11 nm separation between zero-dispersion wavelength and pump wavelength. The experimental results show good agreement with theory and simulations. The influence of QPM on spectral characteristics of parametric gain is investigated with numerical simulations