BINARY INTERACTION FORCE ON SPHERES II: INVISCID FLUID

A first order correction to the force over an isolated spherical particle in inviscid flow is presented, considering binary sphere-sphere interactions. The two-particle distribution function derived by Drew and Mandyam (1998) is used to calculate the effect of the presence of other particles surrounding a test particle. The calculations are performed for a monodisperse distribution. The introduction of first neighbor particle-particle interactions results in the prediction of forces that depend on particle concentration and concentration gradients. For the case of non-accelerated sphere we obtain forces that oppose particle concentration. When the particles are accelerated we obtain an increase of the virtual-mass coefficient with particle concentration.     

GELLING AND COLOR PROPERTIES OF OSTRICH (STRUTHIO CAMELUS) EGG WHITE

The effect of temperature upon the denaturation process of ostrich egg‐white protein was studied, and it compared with that of commercial hen eggs. Turbidity and color properties evolution were used to determine this effect. In addition, egg‐white gels (from both ostrich and hen egg whites) were obtained by heat treatment at 80C, and these were characterized by means of color, textural properties and water‐holding capacity (WHC). Results showed that although 55C was the temperature for the start of coagulation in both types of egg white, only in hen egg white was the process completed at 65C. The gels obtained at 80C (both ostrich and hen egg‐white gels) presented a strong structure that would allow ostrich egg white to be used as a gelling agent in the food industry as it happens with hen egg white.     

Strain mapping accuracy improvement using super‐resolution techniques

Super‐resolution (SR) software‐based techniques aim at generating a final image by combining several noisy frames with lower resolution from the same scene. A comparative study on high‐resolution high‐angle annular dark field images of InAs/GaAs QDs has been carried out in order to evaluate the performance of the SR technique. The obtained SR images present enhanced resolution and higher signal‐to‐noise (SNR) ratio and sharpness regarding the experimental images. In addition, SR is also applied in the field of strain analysis using digital image processing applications such as geometrical phase analysis and peak pairs analysis. The precision of the strain mappings can be improved when SR methodologies are applied to experimental images.     

ADAPTIVE METHOD FOR IMAGE SEGMENTATION BASED IN LOCAL FEATURE

Abstract

This paper presents a method for finding a threshold surface that fits each region of the image and allows separation of objects from background. A surface threshold is determined by interpolating die gray levels at points where there is a high gradient, corresponding with object boundaries. The gradient map and die gray-level distribution give the necessary information for calculating an adaptive threshold level at each point of the image that allows successful segmentation of images in which object-background boundaries are well defined. This method has been tested successfully in different applications of artificial vision oriented to object manipulation by robots and die measurement of wood volume carried by trucks in a cellulose factory.     

MULTI-AGENT SYSTEMS FOR DECISION SUPPORT: A CASE STUDY IN THE TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT DOMAIN

This article describes how agent and knowledge technology can be used to build advanced software systems that support operational decision making in complex domains. In particular, we present an abstract architecture and design guidelines for agent-based decision support systems. We illustrate our approach with a case study in the transportation management domain.     

Temporal evolution of the NDVI as an indicator of forest fire danger

This work presents a study of the possibility of estimating forest fire danger by means of the analysis of the temporal evolution of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). Images of Spain corresponding to areas of Valencia and Eastern Andalusia in 1993 have been used. The slope of the evolution curve of the NDVI is an indicator of water stress and it is used to estimate danger. Forested areas are previously selected using the NDVI integral in the period studied. In order to determine the reliability of the index, ground data measured by the Spanish National Forestry Service (ICONA) are available to us