Digital canvas removal in paintings

The periodic structure of the underlying support of paintings on canvas can become quite prominent and disturbing in high resolution digital recordings. In this paper, we construct a new model and method for the digital removal of canvas which is considered as a noise component superimposed on the painting artwork. The high resolution of the images prohibits the efficient application of existing adaptive denoising filters. Hence, a two-step approach is proposed. First a (smoothing) Wiener filter is applied to the complete image. The second step consists of a spatially adaptive extension with low-complexity to obtain a generic digital canvas removal filter.     

VE-mobicast: a variant-egg-based mobicast routing protocol for sensornets

In this paper, we present a new “spatiotemporal multicast”, called a “mobicast”, protocol for supporting applications which require spatiotemporal coordination in sensornets. The spatiotemporal character of a mobicast is to forward a mobicast message to all sensor nodes that will be present at time t in some geographic zone (called the forwarding zone) Z, where both the location and shape of the forwarding zone are a function of time over some interval (t _start ,t _end ). The mobicast is constructed of a series of forwarding zones over different intervals (t _start ,t _end ), and only sensor nodes located in the forwarding zone in the time interval (t _start ,t _end ) should be awake in order to save power and extend the network lifetime. Existing protocols for a spatiotemporal variant of a multicast system were designed to support a forwarding zone that moves at a constant velocity, , in sensornets. To consider the path of a mobile entity which includes turns, this work mainly develops a new mobicast routing protocol, called the variant-egg-based mobicast (VE-mobicast) routing protocol, by utilizing the adaptive variant-egg shape of the forwarding zone to achieve high predictive accuracy. To illustrate the performance achievement, a mathematical analysis is conducted and simulation results are examined. Yuh-Shyan Chen received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science and Information Engineering from the National Central University, Taiwan, Republic of China, in June 1991 and Jan. 1996, respectively. He joined the faculty of Department of CSIE, Chung-Hua University, Taiwan, in 1996. He joined the Department of Statistic, National Taipei University in Aug. 2000, and joined the Department of CSIE, National Chung Cheng University in Aug. 2002. Dr. Chen is an associate Professor from Aug. 2003. Since 2006, he has been a Professor at the Department of CSIE, National Taipei University, Taiwan. Dr. Chen served as Co-Editors-in-Chief of International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing (IJAHUC); Editorial Board Member of Telecommunication System; Guest Editor of Telecommunication Systems, special issue on “Wireless Sensor Networks” (2004). He was a Vice Co-Chair, Wireless IP Symposium of WirelressCOM, USA (2005); Workshop Co-Chair, IEEE AHUC06, Taiwan (2006); Program Co-Chairs, IFIP NCUS06, Korea (2006). Dr. Chen also served as Program Committee Member of ICPP’03, ICDCS’04, ICCCN’01–06, MSN’05, CCN’02–06, CSA’04 06, NCS’06, MSEAT’03–06, WASN06, USN06, MHNET06, PESYS06, ML06, IWWN06, UIC06, ICWMC06, and HWN-RMQ06; IASTED Technical Committee on Telecommunications (2002–2005); WSEAS International Scientific Committee Member (from 2004). His paper wins the 2001 IEEE 15th ICOIN-15 Best Paper Award. Dr. Chen was a recipient of the 2005 Young Scholar Research Award given by National Chung Cheng University to four young faculty members, 2005. His recent research topics include mobile ad-hoc network, wireless sensor network, and 4G system. Dr. Chen is a member of the IEEE Computer Society and Phi Tau Phi Society. Shin-Yi Ann received the B.S. degree in computer science and engineering from the National Taiwan Ocean University, Taiwan, Republic of China, in June 2002 and the M.S. degree in computer science and information engineering from National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan, Republic of China, in July 2004. His research interest includes wireless sensor network. Yun-Wei Lin received the B.S. degree in computer and information science from the Aletheia University, Taiwan, Republic of China, in June 2003 and the M.S. degree in computer science and information engineering from National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan, Republic of China, in July 2005. His research interests include mobile ad hoc network and wireless sensor network.     

Analysis of external latch-up protection test structure design using numerical simulation

With each new CMOS technology the latch-up sensitivity and effects of prevention strategies change. Products built in these technologies must adhere to stringent guidelines for latch-up ‘Hardness’, and for this reason characterisation of new technologies is needed through the use of test structures. This paper shows a numerical simulation approach which can determine the relative effectiveness of guard-rings in ESD protection device test structures. In this work, time taken to characterise latch-up protection test structures and to chose a protection strategy is greatly reduced by using numerical simulations to design the test structures. The results presented are for variations to the guard-rings for two technologies. Included in these are the typical simulation times and resources required. The technique outlined has the joint advantages of providing accurately representative simulations of the technology and test structure layout in a practical time frame.     

2.5D Quantitative Millimeter Wave Imaging of a Hidden Object on a Simplified Human Body Model Using Value Picking Regularization

In this contribution, the authors provide a proof of principle for quantitative imaging of concealed objects on the human body using millimeter waves. A two-and-a-half-dimensional (2.5D) quantitative millimeter wave imaging algorithm is applied to reconstruct a hidden dielectric object on a clothed simplified human body model. At millimeter wave frequencies, the incident field is typically a fully three-dimensional (3D) Gaussian beam, illuminating only a limited spot on the body. Due to the large dimensions of the human body in terms of wavelengths, a 3D discretization is hardly feasible. Therefore, it is assumed that the electromagnetic properties of the body do not significantly change within the illuminated spot, along the longitudinal direction of a person. Hence, only the cross-section of a human body model is discretized. This 2.5D assumption however is still not sufficient to reduce the forward problem to a feasible size. Therefore, a priori knowledge on the illumination and on the scattering properties of the clothed human body is used to deduce a simplified model to describe the cross-section of the clothed human abdomen. The complex permittivity profile of a small dielectric object, hidden underneath clothing and representing some type of explosive, is reconstructed. The complex permittivity profiles of all other scatterers are assumed to be known. The presented quantitative inverse scattering algorithm is based on a Newton-type optimization, combined with an approximate line search and regularized by applying Stepwise Relaxed Value Picking regularization. The input data of the quantitative inverse scattering problem are synthetic scattering data since the authors are not aware of any amplitude and phase measurement data for concealed weapon detection yet made available to the inversion community at these high frequencies.     

Wireless Aspects of Telehealth

Telehealth is the use of electronic information and communication technology to deliver health and medical information and services over large and small distances. Broadband wireless services available today, along with more powerful and convenient handheld devices, will enable a transformational change in health management and healthcare with the introduction of real-time monitoring and timely responses to a wide array of patient needs. Further, a network of low-cost sensors and wireless systems help in creating constantly vigilant and pervasive monitoring capability at home and at work. This paper addresses recent efforts in this growing field, including standards, system architectures, propagation models, and lower layer protocols for body area networks. The paper also suggests the use of cooperative transmission-based strategies for such wireless topologies.     

Range extension cooperative MAC to attack energy hole in duty-cycled multi-hop WSNs

Effective techniques for extending lifetime in multi-hop wireless sensor networks include duty cycling and, more recently introduced, cooperative transmission (CT) range extension. However, a scalable MAC protocol has not been presented that combines both. An On-demand Scheduling Cooperative MAC protocol (OSC-MAC) is proposed to address the energy hole problem in multi-hop wireless sensor networks (WSNs). By combining an on-demand strategy and sensor cooperation intended to extend range, OSC-MAC tackles the spatio-temporal challenges for performing CT in multi-hop WSNs: cooperating nodes are neither on the same duty cycle nor are they necessarily in the same collision domain. We use orthogonal and pipelined duty-cycle scheduling, in part to reduce traffic contention, and devise a reservation-based wake-up scheme to bring cooperating nodes into temporary synchrony to support CT range extension. The efficacy of OSC-MAC is demonstrated using extensive NS-2 simulations for different network scenarios without and with mobility. Compared with existing MAC protocols, simulation results show that while we explicitly account for the overhead of CT and practical failures of control packets in dense traffic, OSC-MAC still gives 80–200 % lifetime improvement.     

Glyphosate Adsorption from Water Using Hierarchically Porous Metal–Organic Frameworks

The selective removal of one ligand in mixed-ligand MOFs upon thermolysis provides a powerful strategy to introduce additional mesopores without affecting the overall MOF structure. By varying the initial ligand ratio, MOFs of the MIL-125-Ti family with two distinct hierarchical pore architectures are synthesized, resembling either large cavities or branching fractures. The performance of the resulting hierarchically porous MOFs is evaluated toward the adsorptive removal of glyphosate (N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine) from water, and the adsorption kinetics and mechanism are examined. Due to their strong affinity for phosphoric groups, the numerous Ti–OH groups resulting from the selective ligand removal act as natural anchor points for effective glyphosate uptake. The relationships between contact duration, glyphosate concentration, and adsorbent dosage are investigated, and the impact of these parameters on the effectiveness of glyphosate removal from contaminated water samples is examined. The introduction of additional mesopores has increased the adsorption capacities by nearly 3 times with record values exceeding 440.9 mg g⁻¹, which ranks these MOFs among the best-reported adsorbents.     

Performance Analysis of Downlink W-CDMA Systems in Weibull and Lognormal Fading Channels Using Chaotic Codes

In this paper, a subspace based blind channel estimation scheme for downlink W-CDMA systems using chaotic codes under Weibull and Lognormal fading channel conditions is proposed and compared with W-CDMA system using PN codes. The algorithm provides estimates of multiuser channels by exploiting the structural information of the data output. The subspace of the (data + noise) matrix contains sufficient information for unique determination of channels and, hence, the signature waveforms and signal constellations. The proposed channel estimation algorithm is also implemented for multiuser—orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system. Performance measures like bit error rate (BER) and root mean square error (RMSE) are plotted for Weibull and Lognormal fading channels. Signal constellations under Weibull and Lognormal channels are also plotted. Analytical and Simulation results for BER and RMSE are compared for W-CDMA system using PN codes and chaotic codes. Simulation results show that, chaos-based W-CDMA outperforms the PN-based W-CDMA in terms BER and RMSE. Simulation results of multiuser-OFDM system shows that performance is further improved when compared to the W-CDMA system.     

Judge Nonverbal Communication on Trial: Do Mock Trial Jurors Notice?

This study investigated jurors' reactions to judges' nonverbal communication in mock trials. Participants in 80 mock juries viewed taped segments of direct and cross examination that varied the judges' level of nonverbal involvement. Comments about the judge were solicited in predeliberation questionnaires and unsolicited comments obtained from dialogue that occurred during mock jury deliberations. The investigation found that jurors are aware of nonverbal cues from judges, particularly negative behaviors. Although the high- and low-involved judges solicited roughly the same number of comments, more negative comments were made about the judge displaying low than high nonverbal involvement. The results also revealed that jurors made more negative comments than positive ones. Overall, jurors are most aware of a judge's lack of involvement and apparent bias. Discussion focuses on ways to minimize the influence of judge nonverbal communication on jurors.     

A floating sleeve antenna yields localized hepatic microwave ablation

We report a novel coaxial antenna for hepatic microwave ablation. This device uses a floating sleeve, that is, a metal conductor electrically isolated from the outer connector of the antenna coaxial body, to achieve a highly localized specific absorption rate pattern that is independent of insertion depth. This floating sleeve coaxial dipole antenna has low power reflection in the 2.4-GHz IMS band. Ex vivo experiments confirm our numerical simulation results. Index Terms-Ablation, coaxial aperture antennas, finite element methods, floating sleeve, microwave heating.