Evaluation of image similarity by histogram intersection

Colour is the most widely used attribute in image retrieval and object recognition. A technique known as histogram intersection has been widely studied and is considered to be effective for color‐image indexing. The key issue of this algorithm is the selection of an appropriate color space and optimal quantization of the selected color space. The goal of this article is to measure the model performance in predicting human judgment in similarity measurement for various images, to explore the capability of the model with a wide set of color spaces, and to find the optimal quantization of the selected color spaces. Six color spaces and twelve quantization levels are involved in evaluating the performance of histogram intersection. The categorical judgment and rank order experiments were conducted to measure image similarity. The CIELAB color space was found to perform at least as good as or better than the other color spaces tested, and the ability to predict image similarity increased with the number of bins used in the histograms, for up to 512 bins (8 per channel). With more than 512 bins, further improvement was negligible for the image datasets used in this study. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 30, 265–274, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/col.20122     

Factors affecting cloud point analysis of palm oleins

Some of the factors affecting cloud point determination of palm oleins are described. These are the type of container used, method of stirring, rate of stirring and bath temperature. The repeatability and reproducibility standard deviations of the method are determined from collaborative trials. Recommendations for the test are made to reduce the large variations among laboratories.     

Fouling control in submerged membrane bioreactors.

The impact of fouling on the operation of submerged membrane bioreactors (MBRs) is discussed. The discussion proceeds through a review of the impacts of fouling and fouling speciation, with correlations of filterability against candidate foulants being provided. There follows a brief comparison of hydraulic performance of the submerged and sidestream configurations: data is presented to demonstrate the efficacy of coarse bubble aeration in the submerged MBR. The critical flux concept is then discussed and its applicability to MBRs deliberated in view of recent publications demonstrating fouling under sub-critical flux conditions. Finally, the two most commercially important MBR products are briefly reviewed with specific reference to design and operation for fouling amelioration.     

Traveling-wave piezoelectric linear motor Part I: the stator design.

A new type of piezoelectric linear motor incorporating a traveling wave has been developed. The linear motor is comprised of a stator and a carriage. The stator design, which consists of a meander-line structure and gear teeth mounted on the meander-line structure, is the focus of this article. The meander-line structure is constructed with bimorph actuators arranged in a line. These actuators are driven by two phased sets of alternating current (ac) in order to generate a traveling wave. The traveling wave is transferred to the gear teeth, by which the carriage is driven. Modeling of the stator is derived by use of a strain energy method. The performance of various materials is evaluated by analytical and experimental methods. The analytical and the experimental results are quite approximate. Modal analysis is investigated using ANSYS. Appropriate modes associated with ultrasonic levels of resonant frequency are selected to obtain desired motion and to enhance the output performance. Surface speed for various applied input voltage are studied and indicate a nearly linear relationship. The stator in combination with the carriage makes up the linear motor.