The burnt-out chairman.

Discusses what it means to be a department chairperson, based on the author's 6.5 yrs of experience in this position. The frustrations and compensations of the job are considered. It is noted that administrative concerns come to replace concerns about the direction of the department. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A progress report: Basic construction in the open-hearth

A pioneer of basic construction in the open-hearth furnace sketches its history from wartime Germany to the present, with emphasis on US developments. The reasons why the future of basic construction has not been completely established are outlined.     

Pose Estimation in Conformal Geometric Algebra Part I: The Stratification of Mathematical Spaces

2D-3D pose estimation means to estimate the relative position and orientation of a 3D object with respect to a reference camera system. This work has its main focus on the theoretical foundations of the 2D-3D pose estimation problem: We discuss the involved mathematical spaces and their interaction within higher order entities. To cope with the pose problem (how to compare 2D projective image features with 3D Euclidean object features), the principle we propose is to reconstruct image features (e.g. points or lines) to one dimensional higher entities (e.g. 3D projection rays or 3D reconstructed planes) and express constraints in the 3D space. It turns out that the stratification hierarchy [11] introduced by Faugeras is involved in the scenario. But since the stratification hierarchy is based on pure point concepts a new algebraic embedding is required when dealing with higher order entities. The conformal geometric algebra (CGA) [24] is well suited to solve this problem, since it subsumes the involved mathematical spaces. Operators are defined to switch entities between the algebras of the conformal space and its Euclidean and projective subspaces. This leads to another interpretation of the stratification hierarchy, which is not restricted to be based solely on point concepts. This work summarizes the theoretical foundations needed to deal with the pose problem. Therefore it contains mainly basics of Euclidean, projective and conformal geometry. Since especially conformal geometry is not well known in computer science, we recapitulate the mathematical concepts in some detail. We believe that this geometric model is useful also for many other computer vision tasks and has been ignored so far. Applications of these foundations are presented in Part II [36].Bodo Rosenhahn gained his diploma degree in Computer Science in 1999. Since then he has been pursuing his Ph.D. at the Cognitive Systems Group, Institute of Computer Science, Christian-Albrechts University Kiel, Germany. He is working on geometric applications of Clifford algebras in computer vision.Prof. Dr. Gerald Sommer received a diploma degree in physics from the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany, in 1969, a Ph.D. degree in physics from the same university in 1975, and a habilitation degree in engineering from the Technical University Ilmenau, Germany, in 1988. Since 1993 he is leading the research group Cognitive Systems at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel, Germany. Currently he is also the scientific coordinator of the VISATEC project.     

New modules for the repeated internal and N-terminal epitope tagging of genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Epitope tagging is a powerful method for the rapid analysis of protein function. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae epitope tags are introduced easily into chromosomal loci by homologous recombination using a simple PCR-based strategy. Although quite a number of tools exist for C-terminal tagging as well as N-terminal tagging of proteins expressed by heterologous promoters, there are only very limited possibilities to tag proteins at the N-terminus and retain the endogenous expression level. Furthermore, no PCR-templates for internal tagging have been reported. Here we describe new modules that are suitable for both the repeated N-terminal and internal tagging of proteins, leaving their endogenous promoters intact. The tags include 6xHA, 9xMyc, yEGFP, TEV-GST-6xHIS, ProtA, TEV-ProtA and TEV-ProtA-7xHIS in conjunction with different heterologous selection markers.     

Digital enhancement and analysis of TEM plates

The techniques of digital image analysis and enhancement have been applied to TEM micrographs. Digitized micrographs of irradiated A1 and Mo containing cavities were enhanced by applying digital unsharp masking and thresholding techniques. These techniques produce enhanced images that allow for more effective analysis of image features using conventional analysis methods as well as computer methods. For the Mo data, a template-matching algorithm was applied to thresholded data and a computer-generated void histogram was obtained. The computer analysis gives results that are in agreement with conventional analysis of the same data. It is concluded that computer methods for cavity/void analysis can be successfully developed.     

Microbiological water quality along the Danube River: Integrating data from two whole-river surveys and a transnational monitoring network

The River Danube is with 2780 km the second longest river in Europe. Its catchment area covers 801 500 km², with approximately 81 million inhabitants in 19 countries. River water for anthropogenic use, transportation and recreation is of major importance in all of these countries. Microbiological contamination from faecal pollution by anthropogenic sources is considered to be a crucial problem throughout the Danube River basin. Thus, detailed knowledge on the extent and the origin of microbial pollution is essential for watershed management. The determination of faecal indicator concentrations along the Danube and its major tributaries during two whole-river surveys and 16 permanent stations allowed for the first time to draw a clear picture of the faecal pollution patterns along the whole longitudinal profile of this important international river. By including a variety of environmental variables in statistical analysis, an integrative picture of faecal pollution in the Danube River basin could be evolved. Four hot spots and six stretches of differing faecal pollution were identified, mainly linked with input from large municipalities. Significant decline of microbiological pollution was observed in the upper and lower Danube stretches over the investigation period. In contrast, a significant increase in the middle part was evident. The planned implementation of new wastewater treatment plants and advanced wastewater treatment measures according to the European Union urban wastewater directive will have a great potential to reduce microbial faecal pollution in the Danube and thus improving water quality.