Matting and Compositing for Fresnel Reflection on Wavy Surfaces

This paper introduces a framework that can extract an alpha matte from a single image with Fresnel reflection, and that can composite other objects with the image such that plausible reflections are included. Our method handles reflections in a plane with small undulations, for example, a water surface with waves or a glossy tabletop. During the matting stage, our method first estimates the transmission color, which is assumed to be uniform, and then calculates a reflection image and alpha matte based on user markups. However, accurate extraction of the matte becomes challenging when a plane has small undulations because these create perturbations in the matte. We therefore propose a filter that can refine the matte effectively. In the compositing stage, the reflection of a composited object is synthesized by ray tracing in real time. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method through comparisons with ground‐truth data and results using natural images as inputs.     

Object Repositioning Based on the Perspective in a Single Image

We propose an image editing system for repositioning objects in a single image based on the perspective of the scene. In our system, an input image is transformed into a layer structure that is composed of object layers and a background layer, and then the scene depth is computed from the ground region that is specified by the user using a simple boundary line. The object size and order of overlapping are automatically determined during the reposition based on the scene depth. In addition, our system enables the user to move shadows along with objects naturally by extracting the shadow mattes using only a few user‐specified scribbles. Finally, we demonstrate the versatility of our system through applications to depth‐of‐field effects, fog synthesis and 3D walkthrough in an image.     

Power system stabilization by superconducting magnetic energystorage with solid-state phase shifter

In this paper, a new configuration of power system controller with a combination of superconducting magnetic energy storage and phase shifter, is proposed to improve the stability of a long distance bulk power transmission system. A power system stabilizing control scheme is also proposed. A related simulation shows that the proposed controller is effective for enhancement of power system stability independent of the location of the controller in a long distance bulk power transmission system     

Serum gastrin and gastrin-like immunoreactivity of gastrointestinal mucosa in fetal, neonatal and adult rats

This second study carried out on an extract of two grass pollens (Poa pratensis and Phleum pratense) demonstrated the presence of N-acetilglucosamine and sialic acid in the extract (RFEX). Moreover the extract has confirmed its characteristics biologic activity i.e. the inhibition of the phenomenon of immune hemolysis with a different technique too, even having the antibodies of the treated animals the complement fixing activity. No appreciable changes of the immunoelectrophoresis pattern in the serum of the immunized mice have been noticed.     

Calretinin-immunoreactivity in trigeminal neurons innervating the nasal mucosa of the rat

Trigeminal primary neuronal cell bodies were labeled by retrograde transport of Fluoro-gold (FG) from the nasal mucosa of rats. The trigeminal ganglion containing the labeled cell bodies were processed for double stain for calretinin- and tachykinin-immunoreactivities (CR- and TK-irs). Except for a few contralateral cells, all the cells that innervated the nasal mucosa (NM cells) were confined to the ophthalmo-maxillary division of the trigeminal ganglion ipsilateral to the FG application. In the dorsal two-thirds of the ganglion, NM cells formed a cluster in the rostromedial part of ophthalmo-maxillary division (the rostromedial cluster). In the ventral third, the number of cells in the rostromedial cluster markedly decreased. Instead, numerous NM cells were found in the caudolateral part of the ophthalmo-maxillary division (the caudoventrolateral cluster). CR- and TK-irs were detected in 18% and 54% of overall population of NM cells, respectively. Virtually all of CR-immunoreactive (-ir) NM cells coexpressed TK. Although the proportion of TK-ir cells, irrespective of CR-ir, was similar for both clusters, CR-ir cells were more frequent in the caudoventrolateral cluster than in the rostromedial cluster. In the dorsal 1/3 of the ganglion where all the NM cells belonged to the rostromedial cluster, only 8.4% exhibited CR-ir. On the other hand, as much as 30.1% of NM cells expressed CR-ir in the ventral 1/3 where most NM cells were found in the caudoventrolateral cluster. Trigeminal cell bodies innervating the cornea and conjunctivum were located in the rostromedial part of the ophthalmo-maxillary division.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

123I-MIBG myocardial imaging in hypertensive patients: abnormality progresses with left ventricular hypertrophy

An active component of the sex pheromone system of the yellowish elongate chafer, Heptophylla picea was identified by GC-EAD. Mass spectral data and hydrogenation revealed that the active compound was a hexadecadien-4-olide. It was not possible to determine the double bond positions by direct DMDS derivatization of the pheromone, but partial hydrogenation (diimide) followed by DMDS derivatization showed that the double bonds were located in positions 7 and 15. FTIR (tracer) of the pheromone corroborated the lactone structure (1772 cm-1) and showed a band characteristic of a terminal double bond at 3073 cm-1, and one of a double bond in the cis-configuration at 3002 cm-1. Chiral resolution of the pheromone, after hydrogenation, demonstrated that the natural lactone had the (R)-stereochemistry. Synthetic (R,Z)-7,15-hexadecadien-4-olide, prepared from L-malic acid in 14 steps, was identical to the natural product in MS, IR, retention times and biological activity. This is the first fatty acid derivative compound found as a sex pheromone of a Melolonthinae species and as far as biosynthesis is concerned this is the most complex pheromone constituent of a scarab species.