New dissimilarity measure for recognizing noisy subsequence trees

Tree is a data structure used to express various objects such as semistructured data and genes. When objects are represented as trees, computing tree similarity is essential for pattern recognition and retrieval. This paper considers the noisy subsequence tree recognition problem whose purpose is to recognize the original tree, given its noisy subsequence tree. Previous research on this problem relied on constrained tree edit distance to measure the dissimilarity. However, the number of relabelings must be predetermined to compute it. This paper proposes a new dissimilarity measure for this problem. Our dissimilarity measure is obtained by counting the node edit operations included in the unit‐cost tree edit distance that contribute to the matching of node labels. The number of relabelings need not be specified to compute our dissimilarity measure. Moreover, our measure achieves more accurate recognition performance and faster execution speed than the constrained tree edit distance. Our measure is also useful to solve the tree inclusion problem which is the problem of deciding whether a tree includes another tree and shows the extent of approximate tree inclusion when a tree incompletely includes another tree. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Human motion database with a binary tree and node transition graphs

Database of human motion has been widely used for recognizing human motion and synthesizing humanoid motions. In this paper, we propose a data structure for storing and extracting human motion data and demonstrate that the database can be applied to the recognition and motion synthesis problems in robotics. We develop an efficient method for building a human motion database from a collection of continuous, multi-dimensional motion clips. The database consists of a binary tree representing the hierarchical clustering of the states observed in the motion clips, as well as node transition graphs representing the possible transitions among the nodes in the binary tree. Using databases constructed from real human motion data, we demonstrate that the proposed data structure can be used for human motion recognition, state estimation and prediction, and robot motion planning.     

A robust automatic crack detection method from noisy concrete surfaces

In maintenance of concrete structures, crack detection is important for the inspection and diagnosis of concrete structures. However, it is difficult to detect cracks automatically. In this paper, we propose a robust automatic crack-detection method from noisy concrete surface images. The proposed method includes two preprocessing steps and two detection steps. The first preprocessing step is a subtraction process using the median filter to remove slight variations like shadings from concrete surface images; only an original image is used in the preprocessing. In the second preprocessing step, a multi-scale line filter with the Hessian matrix is used both to emphasize cracks against blebs or stains and to adapt the width variation of cracks. After the preprocessing, probabilistic relaxation is used to detect cracks coarsely and to prevent noises. It is unnecessary to optimize any parameters in probabilistic relaxation. Finally, using the results from the relaxation process, a locally adaptive thresholding is performed to detect cracks more finely. We evaluate robustness and accuracy of the proposed method quantitatively using 60 actual noisy concrete surface images.     

Hypothesis testing in rank-size rule regression

This note examines testing methods for Paretoness in the framework of rank-size rule regression. Rank-size rule regression describes a relationship found in the analysis of various topics such as city population, words in texts, scale of companies and so on. In terms of city population, it is basically an empirical rule that log?(_S(i))$\log ?(S_{(i)})$ is approximately a linear function of log?(i)$\log ?(i)$ where _S(i)$S_{(i)}$ is the number of population of i  th largest city in a country. This is closely related to the so-called Zipf’s law. It is known that this kind of empirical observation is found when the city population is a random variable following a Pareto distribution. Thus one may be willing to test if city size has a Pareto distribution or not. Rosen and Resnick [K.T. Rosen, M. Resnick, The size distribution of cities: an explanation of the Pareto law and primacy, Journal of Urban Economics 8 (1980), 165–186] and Soo [K.T. Soo, Zipf’s law for cities: a cross country investigation, Regional Science and Urban Economics (35) 2005, 239–263] regress log?(_S(i))$\log ?(S_{(i)})$ on log?(i)$\log ?(i)$ and log?²(i)${\log ?}^2(i)$ and test the null of Paretoness by standard t-test for the latter regressor. It is found that t-statistics take large values and the Paretoness is rejected in many countries. We study the statistical properties of the t-statistic and show that it explodes asymptotically, in fact, by simulation and thus the t-test does not provide a reasonable testing procedure. We propose an alternative test statistic which seems to be asymptotically normally distributed. We also propose a test with the null hypothesis that the city size distribution is Pareto with exponent unity, which is a modification of the F-test.     

Parametric polynomial spectral factorization using the sum of roots and its application to a control design problem

This paper presents an algebraic approach to polynomial spectral factorization, an important mathematical tool in signal processing and control. The approach exploits an intriguing relationship between the theory of Gröbner bases and polynomial spectral factorization which can be observed through the sum of roots, and allows us to perform polynomial spectral factorization in the presence of real parameters. It is discussed that parametric polynomial spectral factorization enables us to express quantities such as the optimal cost in terms of parameters and the sum of roots. Furthermore an optimization method over parameters is suggested that makes use of the results from parametric polynomial spectral factorization and also employs two quantifier elimination techniques. This proposed approach is demonstrated in a numerical example of a particular control problem.     

The motion capturing of female divers under water and the trial production of motion viewers for developing a virtual diving experience learning system

The virtual diving experience learning system of “Ama”, Japanese traditional female divers, has been developed to simulate how divers move in a virtual space using the diving interface and utilizing an accelerometer and a gyroscope. This interface not only detects the diving motion but also outputs the movement. Diving motion is shown in the ways of hand motion while standing. Although this makes it possible for a learner to understand the divers’ actions more clearly, this system’s difficulty is in visualizing a divers’ actions including their hands or bodies. Therefore, our study focuses on developing the operation system to reproduce actual ways of Amas’ diving with a virtual human body in a virtual space. First, the motion capture was done in an underwater condition. In the next process, the virtual human body was created. Finally, with the motion viewer, the more vivid actions of the Ama were successfully reproduced much more than in previous attempts. Using this system, the effectiveness of the Amas’ movement learning was confirmed, because a learner practices Amas’ movement.     

Viscosity of Gaseous Mixtures of HFC-125 + Propane from 298.15 to 423.15 K at Pressures to 6.7 MPa

This paper reports experimental results for the viscosity of gaseous mixtures of HFC-125 (pentafluoroethane) + propane. The measurements were carried out with an oscillating-disk viscometer of the Maxwell type at temperatures from 298.15 to 423.15 K. The viscosity was measured for two mixtures containing 50.11 and 75.03 mol% HFC-125 in propane. The viscosity at normal pressure was analyzed with the extended law of corresponding states developed by Kestin et al., and the scaling parameters were obtained for unlike-pair interactions between HFC-125 and propane. The modified Enskog theory developed by Vesovic and Wakeham was applied to predict the viscosity for the binary gaseous mixtures under pressure. From comparisons between experimental results and calculated values of the HFC-125 + propane system, it should be concluded that the Vesovic-Wakeham method gives reliable predictions for the viscosity of a gaseous mixture containing both polar and nonpolar compounds.     

Viscosity of Alternative Refrigerants R407C and R407E in the Vapor Phase from 298.15 to 423.15 K

This paper presents new measurements of the viscosity of gaseous R407C (23 mass% HFC-32, 25 mass% HFC-125, 52 mass% HFC-143a) and R407E (25 mass% HFC-32, 15 mass% HFC-125, 60 mass% HFC-143a). The measurements were carried out with an oscillating-disk viscometer of the Maxwell type at temperatures from 298.15 to 423.15 K. The densities of these two fluid mixtures were calculated with the equation-of-state model in REFPROP. The viscosity at normal pressures was analyzed with the extended law of corresponding states developed by Kestin et al., and the scaling parameters needed in the analysis were obtained from our previous studies for the viscosity of the binary mixtures consisting of HFC-32, HFC-125, and HFC-134a. The modified Enskog theory developed by Vesovic and Wakeham (V-W method) was applied to predict the viscosity for the ternary gaseous HFC mixtures under pressure. As for the calculation of pseudo-radial distribution functions in mixtures, a method based on the equation of state for hard-sphere fluid mixtures proposed by Carnahan-Starling was applied. It was found that the V-W method can predict the viscosity of R407C and R407E without any additional parameters for the ternary mixture.     

Design and fabrication of a length-extensional mode rectangular X-cut quartz resonator with zero temperature coefficient.

Rectangular X-cut quartz crystal resonators with cut angles theta > 5.0 degrees and aspect ratios Rzy (= width 2z0/length 2y0) from 0.3 to 0.5 are investigated. The resonators oscillate mode is a length-extensional mode. A semiempirical frequency equation was derived from the stress expressed in terms of the trigonometric and the hyperbolic transcendental functions with constants estimated by the regression curve fit to the stress simulated by the finite-element method (FEM). Contours on which a point satisfies a zero first order temperature coefficient condition are shown in a cut angle theta and Rzy diagram. We proved that a fabricated resonator with Rzy = 0.400 and theta = 16.0 degrees, whose design parameter is located in the area of the contour, had a zero temperature coefficient.     

Preparation of Laminin-apatite-polymer Composites Using Metastable Calcium Phosphate Solutions

1Introduction Themostimportantrequirementofapercutaneous deviceisthepreventionofbacterialinfectionthroughtheinterfacebetweenthematerialandtheskin.Therefore,a percutaneousdevicehastoadherefirmlytoskintissueandpreventepidermaldowngrowth.Previously,Aokietalp…