Summarizing high-level scene behavior

We present several novel techniques to summarize the high-level behavior in surveillance video. Our proposed methods can employ either optical flow or trajectories as input, and incorporate spatial and temporal information together, which improve upon existing approaches for summarization. To begin, we extract common pathway regions by performing graph-based clustering on similarity matrices describing the relationships between location/orientation states. We then employ the activities along the pathway regions to extract the aggregate behavioral patterns throughout scenes. We show how our summarization methods can be applied to detect anomalies, retrieve video clips of interest, and generate adaptive-speed summary videos. We examine our approaches on multiple complex urban scenes and present experimental results.     

The removal of radioactive caesium contaminants from simple aqueous solutions

Cs ions can be removed from aqueous solutions by forming a precipitate of copper ferrocyanide which, having occluded the Cs ions, can in turn be floated by means of an anionic collector. Collection was achieved with either α-sulphopalmitic acid or sodium dodecyl sulphate depending on what interfering ions were initially present in the solution. Recoveries of 98–99% were obtained on batch scale experiments and 97.5–98.5% on continuous scale operation. The investigations of the flotation parameters of pH, gas-rate, concentrations of precipitating reagents and collector, as well as the interference effects of other ions are discussed. Using data obtained in batch scale tests, continuous scale experiments were designed and operated.     

A MECHANISTICALLY BASED MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF SULFUR DIOXIDE ABSORPTION INTO A CALCIUM HYDROXIDE SLURRY IN A SPRAY DRYER

A mathematical model has been developed to predict So₂ absorption and removal during the constant rate drying period of a spray dryer. The model, based on film theory, treats the atomized slurry droplets as spheres containing discrete sorbent particles of slaked lime with the fluid uniformly distributed around the individual particles. The model includes gas and liquid phase mass transfer coefficients as well as resistance to Ca(OH)₂ dissolution. A sensitivity analysis has been conducted and a comparison was made between pilot-scale experimental data and model-predicted values of S0₂ removal efficiency.     

EVAPORATION FROM POROUS MEDIA: A CAPILLARY MODEL OF A PENETRATING FRONT

A capillary tube model was solved to investigate the influence of mass transfer coefficient, temperature, and front depth on the evaporation rate during the penetrating-front period of water-filled porous media dried in hot air. The results show that increasing the flow rate of the drying air is not so efficient as increasing the sample temperature. Due to attenuating diffusion rate, the rate of liquid front migration decreases with time. The calculations explain the falling rate period behavior of sandstone heated at 121°C. Trends depicted by the model may be useful for the design of heating conditions for drying processes.     

Fiber Coating Concepts for Brittle-Matrix Composites

The current interest in tough, high-temperature materials has motivated fiber coating development for brittle-matrix composites with brittle reinforcements. Such coatings are needed for controlled interface debonding and frictional sliding. The system investigated in this study was sapphire fiber-reinforced alumina. This system is thermochemically stable for severe use conditions, exhibits little thermal expansion mismatch, and utilizes the excellent strength and creep resistance of sapphire reinforcements. Porous oxide and refractory metal coatings which satisfy requirements for toughness improvement in these composites were identified by employing a variety of newly developed mechanical testing techniques for determining the interfacial fracture energies and sliding resistances.     

HOW LIQUIDS SPREAD ON SOLIDS

A theory of the wetting of solids by liquids is put forward. The theory accounts for capillary pressure gradient, gravitational potential gradient, surface tension gradient, disjoining pressure gradient driving forces of flow in thick thin-films and of surface diffusion in thin thin-films. Disjoining pressure stems from the way intermolecular forces aggregate in submicroscopically thin films. For thick thin-films of slowly varying thickness the lubrication approximation to velocity distributions is appropriate. With this approximation the spontaneous, unsteady, two-dimensional spreading of liquid is shown to be governed by a nonlinear convective-diffusion equation for the evolution of the film thickness profile. The predictions of the theory agree with Marmur and Lelah's (1980, 1981) observations of water drops spreading on glass and with Bascom, Cottington and Singleterry's (1964) and Ludviksson and Lightfoot's (1971) observations of oils spreading on high energy surfaces. The theory is used to analyze Derjaguin and co-workers' (1944, 1957, 1970) blowing-off experiments designed to measure thin-film rheology. The theory is also used to buttress the proposition that much contact angle hysteresis is due simply to slow attainment of equilibrium.     

Privacy Preserving Geo-Linkage in the Big Urban Data Era

Big data technologies and a range of Government open data initiatives provide the basis for discovering new insights into cities; how they are planned, how they managed and the day-to-day challenges they face in health, transport and changing population profiles. The Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network (AURIN – www.aurin.org.au) project is one example of such a big data initiative that is currently running across Australia. AURIN provides a single gateway providing online (live) programmatic access to over 2000 data sets from over 70 major and typically definitive data-driven organizations across federal and State government, across industry and across academia. However whilst open (public) data is useful to bring data-driven intelligence to cities, more often than not, it is the data that is not-publicly accessible that is essential to understand city challenges and needs. Such sensitive (unit-level) data has unique requirements on access and usage to meet the privacy and confidentiality demands of the associated organizations. In this paper we highlight a novel geo-privacy supporting solution implemented as part of the AURIN project that provides seamless and secure access to individual (unit-level) data from the Department of Health in Victoria. We illustrate this solution across a range of typical city challenges in localized contexts around Melbourne. We show how unit level data can be combined with other data in a privacy-protecting manner. Unlike other secure data access and usage solutions that have been developed/deployed, the AURIN solution allows any researcher to access and use the data in a manner that meets all of the associated privacy and confidentiality concerns, without obliging them to obtain ethical approval or any other hurdles that are normally put in place on access to and use of sensitive data. This provides a paradigm shift in secure access to sensitive data with geospatial content.     

Verification of Knowledge Assets in Electronic Repositories: Expert- and Community-Governance

Two mechanisms that verify knowledge contributions in electronic repositories are expert-governance and community-governance. Our goal is to examine repository users' perceptions of the conditions under which these mechanisms verify knowledge contributions. Qualitative data show that perceived credibility of experts, perceived ownership of content, and experts' (meticulous) execution of governance functions are salient for expert-governance, and the perceived involvement of community members, and community members' (continuous and collective) execution of governance functions are important for community-governance.