Adaptive contour smoothing based on inter-region contrast

An adaptive contour smoothing algorithm designed as a preprocessor for shape coders is presented. In the method, the degree of the adaptive smoothing is controlled based on the significance of each contour point, which is quantified according to inter-region contrast in an intensity image. The actual smoothing consists of an expansion operator and a thinning algorithm.     

Difficult to Let Housing Association Stock in England: Property,Management and Context

Problems related to unpopular housing are not new in Britain's social rented sector. In the past, however, these have generally been associated with housing provided directly by the state through local authorities. For many, the term 'difficult to let' has become synonymous with large, ageing, poor quality estates managed under a centralised framework and subject to a long period of low investment and indifferent management. There has also been a long-standing assumption that social housing allocations systems tend to channel the most vulnerable tenants into the least desirable housing. In fact, the problem of difficult to let property is now as pervasive in the not-for-profit sector managed by housing associations as it is within council housing. In many cases the developments affected are small in scale and, in a significant proportion of cases, recently constructed. In explaining why property becomes difficult to let, the local and regional context is clearly important. The balance between social, economic and housing demand circumstances and property and estate characteristics varies between regions. There is relatively little evidence that difficult to let housing association properties are occupied by disproportionate numbers of the most severely disadvantaged tenants and this suggests that something has happened to modify the segregating effects of allocations systems observed in earlier studies. Nevertheless, this apparent change must be seen within the context of the general trend towards a residual role for social housing in its entirety. The social class and income range of new social sector tenants now is much diminished by comparison with earlier decades with few distinctions between the occupiers of difficult to let and other housing.     

Substrate transport and cocaine binding of human dopamine transporter is reduced by substitution of carboxyl tail with that of bovine dopamine transporter

A chimeric dopamine transporter (DAT) cDNA encoding mutant human DAT (hDAT) protein in which the intracellular carboxyl-terminal tail is replaced by that of the bovine dopamine transporter (bDAT) was constructed. The chimeric hDAT cDNA was expressed in COS-7 cells, and [3H]dopamine and [3H]MPP+ uptake and [3H]CFT binding capacities were assessed. Substrate transport and ligand binding of bDAT were reduced by 32-43% as a result of substitution of the carboxyl tail in hDAT, suggesting that the functional characteristics of bDAT arise from differences in the carboxyl tail between human and bovine DAT. Thus, it appears that the sequences encoded within the carboxyl terminal of DAT would be one of the important determinants for its functions.     

Generation of adaptive gait patterns for quadruped robot with CPG network including motor dynamic model

This paper describes the generation of adaptive gait patterns using new Central Pattern Generators (CPGs) including motor dynamic models for a quadruped robot under various environments. The CPGs act as the flexible oscillators of the joints and adjust joint angles to required values. The CPGs are interconnected with each other and sets of their coupling parameters are adjusted by a genetic algorithm so that the quadruped robot can realize stable and adequate gait patterns. Generation of gait patterns results in the formation of the CPG networks suitable for the formation of not only a straight walking pattern but also of rotating gait patterns. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed CPG networks are effective for the automatic adjustment of the adaptive gait patterns for the tested quadruped robot under various environments. Furthermore, the target tracking control based on image processing is achieved by combining the general gait patterns. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 155(1): 35–43, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20225     

On real-time databases: concurrency control and scheduling

In addition to maintaining database consistency as in conventional databases, real-time database systems must also handle transactions with timing constraints. While transaction response time and throughput are usually used to measure a conventional database system, the percentage of transactions satisfying the deadlines or a time-critical value function is often used to evaluate a real-time database system. Scheduling real-time transactions is far more complex than traditional real-time scheduling in the sense that (1) worst case execution times are typically hard to estimate, since not only CPU but also I/O requirement is involved; and (2) certain aspects of concurrency control may not integrate well with real-time scheduling. In this paper, we first develop a taxonomy of the underlying design space of concurrency control including the various techniques for achieving serializability and improving performance. This taxonomy provides us with a foundation for addressing the real-time issues. We then consider the integration of concurrency control with real-time requirements. The implications of using run policies to better utilize real-time scheduling in a database environment are examined. Finally, as timing constraints may be more important than data consistency in certain hard realtime database applications, we also discuss several approaches that explore the nonserializable semantics of real-time transactions to meet the hard deadlines     

Low-power high-slew-rate CMOS buffer amplifier for flat panel display drivers

A new high-slew-rate CMOS buffer amplifier consuming a very small quiescent current is proposed. This buffer amplifier recursively copies the output driving current and increases the tail current of the input differential pair during slewing. Since the proposed buffer has a possible slew rate higher than 10 V//spl mu/s for a load capacitance of 1 nF almost independently of static currents as low as 1 /spl mu/A, this buffer amplifier is promising for column driver ICs of flat panel displays that require low static power consumption, high current driving capabilities, and small silicon areas.     

Selective oxidation of alcohols using octahedral molecular sieves: influence of synthesis method and property–activity relations

Manganese oxides having a tunnel structure (OMS-2) have been utilized as selective catalysts for alcohol oxidation. In this study manganese oxide catalysts were synthesized in different media and modified by exchanging the tunnel cation by H⁺, using acid treatment or exchanging with NH₄⁺ followed by thermolysis. Various alcohol oxidations were performed using these catalysts to ascertain the influence of synthesis method on their activity. A correlation is made between lattice oxygen instability and activity of the catalysts, which indicates involvement of the lattice oxygen in the mechanism. The exchange of the tunnel cation with the smaller H⁺ ions leads to weakening of the Mn–O bond, as verified by temperature programmed desorption (TPD) results. Only the chemisorbed oxygen on the surface (O⁻) and the lattice oxygen in the layers close to the surface is involved in the oxygen transfer during the reaction.     

共面转换液晶显示器中获得对比度高于1:600的新技术

薄膜晶体管液晶电视(TFT-LCD TV)因为具有薄、轻、紧凑和可随意放置的特点，已经占据了大部分电视机市场。除了这些物理特性以外，最重要的特性是已具有了良好像质的对比度。为了将对比度提高到1：600以上，对偏振片膜、背光源板、滤色片树脂、电极锥角和摩擦条件等都进行了研究。优化的背光板组合，光滑的电极锥角和摩擦方法的控制是提高对比度的主要控制因素。应用新开发的滤色片树脂，对获得高对比度最为有效。     

Error Concealment Based on Semantic Prioritization with Hardware‐Based Face Tracking

With video compression standards such as MPEG‐4, a transmission error happens in a video‐packet basis, rather than in a macroblock basis. In this context, we propose a semantic error prioritization method that determines the size of a video packet based on the importance of its contents. A video packet length is made to be short for an important area such as a facial area in order to reduce the possibility of error accumulation. To facilitate the semantic error prioritization, an efficient hardware algorithm for face tracking is proposed. The increase of hardware complexity is minimal because a motion estimation engine is efficiently re‐used for face tracking. Experimental results demonstrate that the facial area is well protected with the proposed scheme.