Unsupervised active contours driven by density distance and local fitting energy with applications to medical image segmentation

This study presents an efficient variational region-based active contour model for segmenting images without priori knowledge about the object or background. In order to handle intensity inhomogeneities and noise, we propose to integrate into the region-based local intensity model a global density distance inspired by the Bhattacharyya flow. The local term based on local information of segmented image allows the model to deal with bias field artifact, which arises in data acquisition processes. The global term, which is based on the density distance between the probability distribution functions of image intensity inside and outside the active contour, provides information for accurate segmentation, keeps the curve from spilling, and addresses noise in the image. Intensive 2D and 3D experiments on many imaging modalities of medical fields such as computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and ultrasound images demonstrate the effectiveness of the model when dealing with images with blurred object boundary, intensity inhomogeneities, and noise.     

A numerical hydrodynamic and thermal characterization of an inter-strata liquid cooling solution for 3D ICs

A novel integrated thermal management solution is proposed to alleviate hot spots in a contemporary 3D IC architecture. The solution employs a series of integrated microchannels, interconnected through each stratum by through silicon fluidic vias (TSFVs), and permits the transfer of heat, via a coolant, from hot to cold zones. This microfluidic system is driven by an integrated AC electrokinetic pump embedded in the channel walls. Recent advancements in electrokinetic micropump technology have allowed greater increases in fluid velocity (mm/s) while operating within the voltage constraints of a 3D IC. This paper presents a 2D simulation of an electrokinetic micropump operating at V_pp = 1.5 V in a 40 μm channel and examines its velocity profile for six frequencies in the range 100 ≤ ω ≤ 100 MHz. An optimum frequency of 100 kHz was established within this range and this was further examined with a constant heat flux of 186 W/cm2 imposed on the wall for an inlet fluid temperature of 40°C. Temperature profiles are presented at the channel-silicon interface and compared with theory.     

Petri nets with causal time for system verification

We present a new approach to the modelling of time constrained systems. It is based on untimed high-level Petri nets using the concept of causal time. With this concept, the progression of time is modelled in the system by the occurrence of a distinguished event, tick, which serves as a reference to the rest of the system. In order to validate this approach as suitable for automated verification, a case study is provided and the results obtained using a model-checker on high-level Petri nets are compared with those obtained for timed automata using prominent tools. The comparison is encouraging and shows that the causal time approach is intuitive and modular. It also potentially allows for efficient verification.     

Generalized Linear Quadratic Gaussian Techniques for the Wind Benchmark Problem

This paper presents a comprehensive study of the stage-3 benchmark problem for response control of wind-excited tall buildings based on the linear quadratic gaussian (LQG) approach, and on its generalization, the k-cost-cumulant control method. For control design, the original nodal building model is first transformed into balanced modal space. The Hankel singular values (HSVs) and the power spectral density of the wind disturbances are calculated; and, based on them, a reduced-order model is derived by keeping the first six low-frequency modes. A balanced LQG (BLQG) controller is then determined by adopting the HSVs as a basis to choose the design weights. The main results of the paper are that the BLQG control design is able to come within 5–10% of the performance of the sample LQG controller supplied with the benchmark, but with control actions on the order of one-third less than the sample LQG, and with stability improvement features of a substantial nature over the range of stiffness perturbations specified in the benchmark. Finally, if the low authority BLQG controller is regarded as a one-cost-cumulant design, then with the appropriate use of the second-cost cumulant, the latter methodology is able to demonstrate how higher-authority controllers can give certain improvements in performance, but at the expense of significant investment in control action.     

Detection of cross-channel anomalies

The data deluge has created a great challenge for data mining applications wherein the rare topics of interest are often buried in the flood of major headlines. We identify and formulate a novel problem: cross-channel anomaly detection from multiple data channels. Cross-channel anomalies are common among the individual channel anomalies and are often portent of significant events. Central to this new problem is a development of theoretical foundation and methodology. Using the spectral approach, we propose a two-stage detection method: anomaly detection at a single-channel level, followed by the detection of cross-channel anomalies from the amalgamation of single-channel anomalies. We also derive the extension of the proposed detection method to an online settings, which automatically adapts to changes in the data over time at low computational complexity using incremental algorithms. Our mathematical analysis shows that our method is likely to reduce the false alarm rate by establishing theoretical results on the reduction of an impurity index. We demonstrate our method in two applications: document understanding with multiple text corpora and detection of repeated anomalies in large-scale video surveillance. The experimental results consistently demonstrate the superior performance of our method compared with related state-of-art methods, including the one-class SVM and principal component pursuit. In addition, our framework can be deployed in a decentralized manner, lending itself for large-scale data stream analysis.     

Brewing of glucuronic acid-enriched apple cider with enhanced antioxidant activities through the co-fermentation of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Pichia kudriavzevii) and bacteria (Lactobacillus plantarum)

Co-fermentation using yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Pichia kudriavzevii) and the bacteria (Lactobacillus plantarum) as starters isolated from spontaneous sourdough was conducted for the brewing of glucuronic acid (GlcA)-enriched apple cider. The concentration of GlcA in the apple cider co-fermented for 14 d with commercial S. cerevisiae and L. plantarum was 37.7 ± 1.7 mg/mL while a concentration of 62.8 ± 3.1 mg/mL was recorded for fermentation with P. kudriavzevii and L. plantarum, which was higher than the corresponding single yeast fermentation. The co-fermented apple cider revealed higher 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity of 171.67 ± 0.79 µg trolox equivalents (TE)/mL using P. kudriavzevii and L. plantarum, compared to the control (143.89 ± 7.07 µg TE/mL) just using S. cerevisiae. Thus, the co-fermentation of S. cerevisiae and L. plantarum and P. kudriavzevii and L. plantarum provided a new strategy for the development of GlcA-enriched apple cider with enhanced antioxidant capacity.     

Age replacement policy in a random environment using systemability

Preventive maintenance is a group of maintenance policies based on preventive actions in order to predate the failure of a component or a system. Usually, these policies are designed using a series of data related to the studied units. All policies do not consider the effect of the environment where the components or systems operate. In this article, one of the most used policies, the age replacement policy, is also discussed taking into consideration the environmental effects using an innovative concept, introduced by Pham, called systemability. Several numerical examples are carried out in order to illustrate the aim of this work. The importance of environmental factors is also demonstrated thanks to the application to a real case.