Optimal morphological pattern restoration from noisy binary images

A theoretical analysis of morphological filters for the optimal restoration of noisy binary images is presented. The problem is formulated in a general form, and an optimal solution is obtained by using fundamental tools from mathematical morphology and decision theory. Consideration is given to the set-difference distance function as a measure of comparison between images. This function is used to introduce the mean-difference function as a quantitative measure of the degree of geometrical and topological distortion introduced by morphological filtering. It is proved that the class of alternating sequential filters is a set of parametric, smoothing morphological filters that best preserve the crucial structure of input images in the least-mean-difference sense     

Evaluating the application of a decision support system in identifying adequate wastewater treatment for small communities. A case study: the Fluvia River Basin.

The identification of adequate wastewater treatment for small communities is a complex problem since it demands a combination of data from different sources, such as aspects of the community and landscape, the receiving environment and the available wastewater treatment technologies. The Catalan Water Agency (Agència Catalana de l'Aigua) considered using an EDSS (Environmental Decision Support System) as a tool to help water managers select the most adequate treatment for the urban wastewater of nearly 3,500 small communities in Catalonia (Spain). From that moment, EDSS was applied to all the river basins in Catalonia. In this paper the authors present the results obtained for the 76 small communities located in one of these river basins: the Fluvia River Basin. The characteristics of the community used in the reasoning process of the EDSS, the list of selected wastewater treatment alternatives, the technical environmental justification for the selected treatments and the reasons for discarding, favouring or disadvantaging them are presented. Finally, some results for the Fluvia River Basin are compared with those obtained in other Catalan river basins with different characteristics in order to evaluate which are the significant features in identifying adequate wastewater treatments.     

Clinical psychologists reflect on the usefulness of various components of graduate training.

Graduates of clinical training programs were surveyed to determine the degree to which they have found various graduate school experiences useful in their professional work. Samples of academic clinical psychologists and practicing clinical psychologists reported time allocation and preference for various professional activities, perceived usefulness of various theoretical orientations, and the influence on their current professional work of 19 different graduate training topics. Results suggest that where differences exist, academic clinical psychologists are generally more satisfied with Boulder-model-inspired scientific training than are clinical practitioners. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dynamic viscosities of mixtures of n-butyraldehyde and isobutyraldehyde over wide ranges in the state parameters

Dynamic-viscosity measurements are reported for liquid mixtures in the system formed by n-butyraldehyde and isobutyraldehyde.Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 48, No. 2, pp. 321–322, February, 1985.     

Antimutagenic activity of phenolic compounds, oligosaccharides and quinolizidinic alkaloids from Lupinus campestris seeds.

There are some foods that contain mutagenic or carcinogenic agents, some of which occur naturally and others that may be formed during preparation or cooking. Several foods such as legumes, also contain natural antimutagens and/or anticarcinogens. Lupine is one such legume that contains high amounts of protein (40%) and oils (14%). About 90 species of lupine have been reported throughout Mexico. However, the use of this crop as a source of food has been limited by the presence of antinutritional agents such as phenolic compounds (PC), carbohydrates (CH) and quinolizidinic alkaloids (Qas). It has also been suggested that consuming these compounds can affect human health and may even reduce the risk of disease. The objective of this work was to determine the effect of PC, CH and Qas, isolated and quantified from Lupinus campestris on the mutagenicity of 1-nitropyrene (1-NP) as a model mutagen and we used the Salmonella typhimurium tester strain YG1024 by the Kado microsuspension method. The results indicate that L. campestris seeds have 11 mg (+)catechin equivalent g(-1) seed coat; 120.3 mg g(-1) seeds and 2.13 mg g(-1) seeds of PC, CH and Qas, respectively. 1-NP mutagenicity was inhibited by 86% for PC, 76% for CH and 75% for Qas at concentrations of 200, 512 and 13.6 microg/tube, respectively.     

Quantum Critical Ferromagnetism in Ni x Pd1- x Alloys

We analyze the non-Fermi liquid behavior in the proximity of the quantum phase transition induced by the strong polarization of the electrons due to local magnetic moments in Ni _x Pd_1-x alloys. We use the renormalization group approach introduced by Hertz–Mi11is–Moriya (HMM) to estimate the temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity for the case of three dimensional itinerant ferromagnets. We study two different cases, namely, the clean and disordered ferromagnets, and argue that at the present time more experimental data are needed to decide if the HMM theory can accurately describe the physical properties in Ni _x Pd_1-x alloys.