Iterative ultrasonic signal and image deconvolution for estimation of the complex medium response

The ill‐conditioned inverse problem of estimating ultrasonic medium responses by deconvolution of RF signals is investigated. The primary difference between the proposed method and others is that the medium response function is assumed to be complex‐valued rather than restricted to being real‐valued. Derived from the complex medium model, complex Wiener filtering is presented, and a Hilbert transform related limitation to inverse filtering type methods is discussed. We introduce a nonparametric iterative algorithm, the least squares method with point count regularization (LSPC). The algorithm is successfully applied to simulated and experimental data and demonstrates the capability of recovering both the real and imaginary parts of the medium response. The simulation results indicate that the LSPC method can outperform Wiener filters and improve the resolution of the ultrasound system by factors as high as 3.7. Experimental results using a single element transducer and a conventional medical ultrasound system with a linear array transducer show that despite the errors in pulse estimation and the noise in the RF signals, excellent results can be obtained, demonstrating the stability and robustness of the algorithm. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 15, 266–277, 2005     

National and international university departmental Web site interlinking

Although many link patterns have been identified at the university level, departmental interlinking has been relatively ignored. Universities are multidisciplinary by nature and various disciplines may employ the Web differently, thus patterns identified at the university level may hide subject differences. Departments are typically subject-oriented, and departmental interlinking may therefore illustrate interesting disciplinary linking patterns, perhaps relating to informal scholarly communication. The aim of this paper is to identify whether and how link patterns differ along country and disciplinary lines between similar disciplines and similar countries. Physics, Chemistry and Biology departments in Australia, Canada and the UK have been chosen. In order to get a holistic picture of departments' Web use profiles and link patterns, five different perspectives are identified and compared for each set of departments. Differences in link patterns are identified along both national and disciplinary lines, and are found to reflect offline phenomena. Along national lines, a likely explanation for the difference is that countries with better research performances make more general use of the Web; and, with respect to international peer interlinking, countries that share more scholarly communication tend to interlink more with each other. Along disciplinary lines, it seems that departments from disciplines which are more willing to distribute their research outputs tend to make more general use of the Web, and also interlink more with their national and international peers.     

A bandwidth latency tradeoff for broadcast and reduction

The “fractional tree” algorithm for broadcasting and reduction is introduced. Its communication pattern interpolates between two well known patterns—sequential pipeline and pipelined binary tree. The speedup over the best of these simple methods can approach two for large systems and messages of intermediate size. For networks which are not very densely connected the new algorithm seems to be the best known method for the important case that each processor has only a single (possibly bidirectional) channel into the communication network.     

Barrier Trees on Poset-Valued Landscapes

Fitness landscapes have proved to be a valuable concept in evolutionary biology, combinatorial optimization, and the physics of disordered systems. Usually, a fitness landscape is considered as a mapping from a configuration space equipped with some notion of adjacency, nearness, distance, or accessibility, into the real numbers. In the context of multi-objective optimization problems this concept can be extended to poset-valued landscapes. In a geometric analysis of such a structure, local Pareto points take on the role of local minima. We show that the notion of saddle points, barriers, and basins can be extended to the poset-valued case in a meaningful way and describe an algorithm that efficiently extracts these features from an exhaustive enumeration of a given generalized landscape.     

Context Switching in a Run-Time Reconfigurable System

A distinguishing feature of reconfigurable computing over rapid prototyping is its ability to configure the computational fabric on-line while an application is running. Conventional reconfigurable computing platforms utilize commodity FPGAs, which typically have relatively long configuration times. Shrinking the configuration time down to the nanosecond region opens possibilities for rapid context switching and virtualizing the computational resources. An experimental context-switching FPGA, called the CSRC, has been created by BAE Systems, and gives researchers the opportunity to explore context-switching applications. This paper presents results obtained from constructing both control-driven and data-driven context switching applications on the CSRC device, along with unique properties of the run-time and compile-time environment.     

Retrieval Of Morphological Variants In Searches Of Latin Text Databases

This paper reports a detailed evaluation of the effectiveness of a system that has been developed for the identification and retrieval of morphological variants in searches of Latin text databases. A user of the retrieval system enters the principal parts of the search term (two parts for a noun or adjective, three parts for a deponent verb, and four parts for other verbs), this enabling the identification of the type of word that is to be processed and of the rules that are to be followed in determining the morphological variants that should be retrieved. Two different search algorithms are described. The algorithms are applied to the Latin portion of the Hartlib Papers Collection and to a range of classical, vulgar and medieval Latin texts drawn from the Patrologia Latina and from the PHI Disk 5.3 datasets. The effectiveness of these searches demonstrates the effectiveness of our procedures in providing access to the full range of classical and post-classical Latin text databases. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

State-variable planning under structural restrictions: algorithms and complexity

Computationally tractable planning problems reported in the literature so far have almost exclusively been defined by syntactical restrictions. To better exploit the inherent structure in problems, it is probably necessary to study also structural restrictions on the underlying state-transition graph. The exponential size of this graph, though, makes such restrictions costly to test. Hence, we propose an intermediate approach, using a state-variable model for planning and defining restrictions on the separate state-transition graphs for each state variable. We identify such restrictions which can tractably be tested and we present a planning algorithm which is correct and runs in polynomial time under these restrictions. The algorithm has been implemented and it outperforms Graphplan on a number of test instances. In addition, we present an exhaustive map of the complexity results for planning under all combinations of four previously studied syntactical restrictions and our five new structural restrictions. This complexity map considers both the optimal and non-optimal plan generation problem.     

Failure in internally pressurized bent tubes

The analysis and modeling of tube-hydroformed components is more complicated than that employed for sheet-metal panels, due to the lengthier process sequence and variable strain path—from flat-rolled sheet to tube; from straight tube to bent tube; and from bent tube to hydroformed component. These additional process steps make it difficult to determine whether post mortem analyses of tube failure during hydroforming can, and should, be conducted with the same tools and databases as used for simple stampings. To provide a partial answer, the properties of commercially fabricated welded straight tubes were evaluated using a free-expansion internal pressure test and compared with those of free-expansion internal pressure tests on bent tubes. The results demonstrated that the behavior of the bent tube was consistent with the mechanical properties of the as-received tube, provided due notice was accorded to the complex strain history of the bent tube. However, due to the strain-path changes occurring at the failure location, conventional approaches for monitoring strain history would yield (apparently) anomalous results.     

Surface Actuation of Lightweight Mirrors with Shape Memory Alloy

The ability to create lightweight mirrors that can maintain surface accuracy is a major technical challenge for future space telescopes. Processing-induced errors and surface errors due to temperature excursions and gravity sag (zero gravity in space) make it impossible to correct the surface of thin mirror face-sheets by conventional point actuators. The challenges are compounded by the requirements for mirrors to have adequate stiffness for pointing accuracy. An experimental and analytical study was conducted to explore the feasibility of correcting the shape of lightweight (≈1 kg/m2) mirrors using a “Nitinol” (nickel-titanium) shape memory alloy (SMA). Shape memory alloys are increasingly used as smart devices in aerospace applications. Their primary advantage over other smart materials (i.e., piezo-ceramics and piezo-polymers) is in their ability to undergo large strains and displacements and thus enable the development of smart mechanisms. Active shape correction is the only means of mitigating heat and zero-gravity-induced distortions in space-based optical imaging systems. The repeatability and reliability of a possible actuation system based on properties of the SMA wires were studied by testing the stress-strain and stress recovery behavior under controlled conditions. Embedded SMA wires were then used to actuate a composite beam, and the movement induced by actuation was monitored with the Moiré interferometry method.