Evaluation of MODIS data for improved monitoring of the Caspian Sea

Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) optical and infrared data are used to monitor changes in the Caspian Sea coastline. The information extracted from MODIS images is converted into total water volume and mean lake level by combining a digital elevation model (DEM) with remote-sensing data. The elevation estimates were enhanced by reprocessing the MODIS data at the sub-pixel scale. The water volume variations estimated from MODIS data along with DEM are compared to other estimations derived from altimetry data sets, and show fair agreement.     

Synthesis and optical properties of dyes encapsulated in gold hollow nanoshells

Gold nanomaterials are promising objects for applications in optics and medicine because of their unique properties related to the Surface Plasmon Resonances (SPR) phenomena. It is possible to tune these properties with the control of the size and shape of the nanomaterials. Gold hollow spheres nanomaterials are an interesting concept for encapsulation of either dyes or drugs. The study of their properties and their behavior in a bio-environment still remains scarce and some phenomena are still to be explained in particular regarding local field enhancement effect or quenching of their photophysical properties. In this work we describe a process allowing inclusion of optical dyes in gold nanoshells and evaluate the optical properties.     

From sentence to emotion: a real-time three-dimensional graphics metaphor of emotions extracted from text

This paper presents a novel concept: a graphical representation of human emotion extracted from text sentences. The major contributions of this paper are the following. First, we present a pipeline that extracts, processes, and renders emotion of 3D virtual human (VH). The extraction of emotion is based on data mining statistic of large cyberspace databases. Second, we propose methods to optimize this computational pipeline so that real-time virtual reality rendering can be achieved on common PCs. Third, we use the Poisson distribution to transfer database extracted lexical and language parameters into coherent intensities of valence and arousal—parameters of Russell’s circumplex model of emotion. The last contribution is a practical color interpretation of emotion that influences the emotional aspect of rendered VHs. To test our method’s efficiency, computational statistics related to classical or untypical cases of emotion are provided. In order to evaluate our approach, we applied our method to diverse areas such as cyberspace forums, comics, and theater dialogs.     

New low-dimensional solids: Tellurium-rich alkali metal tellurides

The crystal and electronic structure of several recently reported tellurium-rich alkali metal tellurides is discussed. Some of these materials contain defective square planar tellurium lattices, which on the basis of band structure calculations are expected to be new low-dimensional metals. The structural interrelations between some of these new phases can be understood once the primordial template role of the alkali metal as well as the secondary Te…Te interactions are considered. Tellurium-rich alkali metal tellurides seem to be promising materials in the search for new solids with interesting structural and electronic properties.     

Bin-picking with a solid state range camera

In this paper we present new work done on the bin-picking problem. The work was triggered by the advent of a new solid state range camera which enables the economic and robust use of range imagery in industrial robotic automation tasks. The application presented is that of pick-and-place of randomly oriented but known polyhedral objects in an industrial robotic work cell. The algorithms for segmentation, pose estimation, and grasp point determination are presented along with practical results from a real industrial grade work cell.     

Write–Read–Erase Molecular‐Switching System Trapped in a Polymer Hydrogel Matrix

In this paper we report the encapsulation of the compound 4′,7‐dihydroxyflavylium in a water‐permeable crosslinked poly(2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate) matrix. The water permeability of the polymer and its transparency allow the use of pH and light stimuli to attain different states on the network defined by the various chemical reactions (multistate/multifunctional system). Unlike in water, in the polymer the compound 4′,7‐dihydroxyflavylium encapsulated exhibits a thermal barrier between the cis‐ and trans‐chalcones, a necessary requirement to define a write–read–erase cycle.     

Shape-driven segmentation of the arterial wall in intravascular ultrasound images

Segmentation of arterial wall boundaries from intravascular images is an important problem for many applications in the study of plaque characteristics, mechanical properties of the arterial wall, its 3-D reconstruction, and its measurements such as lumen size, lumen radius, and wall radius. We present a shape-driven approach to segmentation of the arterial wall from intravascular ultrasound images in the rectangular domain. In a properly built shape space using training data, we constrain the lumen and media-adventitia contours to a smooth, closed geometry, which increases the segmentation quality without any tradeoff with a regularizer term. In addition to a shape prior, we utilize an intensity prior through a nonparametric probability-density-based image energy, with global image measurements rather than pointwise measurements used in previous methods. Furthermore, a detection step is included to address the challenges introduced to the segmentation process by side branches and calcifications. All these features greatly enhance our segmentation method. The tests of our algorithm on a large dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.     

Yttria stabilized zirconia synthesis in supercritical CO2: Understanding of particle formation mechanisms in CO2/co-solvent systems

The increasing interest of supercritical (SC) fluids for inorganic materials synthesis recently stimulated the development of innovative synthesis processes and strategies. The supercritical CO₂ aided sol–gel process, developed for preparing various ceramic oxide powders with attractive applications in cosmetics, chromatography, catalysis or solid oxide fuel cells, usually suffer from both reproducibility problems and poor knowledge of the key parameters defining the final powder characteristics. In the present work a specific effort has been put on the understanding of reaction mechanisms and process parameters like co-solvent polarity and ageing time of the starting solution, which appeared to play a crucial role for the control of powder characteristics. Two different reaction mechanisms have been proposed to explain the formation of tetragonal yttria-doped zirconia powders by a batch process in either CO₂/pentane or CO₂/isopropanol mixtures. The first mechanism corresponds to a CO₂ anti-solvent precipitation process while the other one is based on a condensation reaction as in the conventional sol–gel process. This improved understanding in particle formation allows better control of powder characteristics and reproducibility.