Integral equation solutions based on exact ray paths for radiative transfer in a participating medium with formulated refractive index

The exact analytical path length of radiation traveling in a slab with formulated variable refractive index is derived. Based on the analytical path lengths, the integral equations in terms of intensity moments for radiative transfer in a participating slab with one of the family of spatially varying refractive indices are developed. We solve the integral equations for radiative transfer in a slab at radiative equilibrium or for radiative transfer in an isothermal slab. The boundaries are assumed to be black for the slab at radiative equilibrium and the index jumps at both boundaries for the isothermal slab are considered. For comparison purpose, we also solve the radiative equilibrium problems by the discrete ordinates method (DOM). The nondimensional emissive power and nondimensional radiative heat flux obtained by solving integral equations show an excellent agreement with those obtained by the DOM. For the slab at radiative equilibrium and with positive gradient of refractive index, the jump of the emissive power at bottom boundary decreases with the increase of optical thickness for the cases with slightly varying refractive index, but the trend may not hold for the cases with significantly varying refractive index. For the non-scattering slab with positive gradient of refractive index and fixed refractive indices at the boundaries, the directional emittances at both boundaries for the case with linear refractive index are smaller than those for the case with a refractive index of slope-increasing profile. Effects of the scattering albedo and the scattering phase function coefficient are investigated too.     

A stabilized and tunable erbium-doped fiber ring laser with double optical filter

We have proposed and experimentally demonstrated a stabilized and tunable erbium-doped fiber ring laser by using a Fabry-Pe/spl acute/rot laser and a fiber Fabry-Pe/spl acute/rot filter. The sidemode suppression ratio of >30 dB/0.1 nm and the output power of >2.2 dBm can be achieved while this ring laser is tuned from 1528.28 to 1559.64 nm with the step of 1.12 nm. The wavelength variation of less than 0.01 nm and the power fluctuation of /spl les/0.04 dB have also been obtained. When the constant output power is controlled by adjusting the bias current of 980-nm pump laser, the power variation of less than /spl plusmn/0.05 dB can be obtained over the entire tunable range.     

Enhanced Biometric Score Fusion Scheme Based on the AdaBoost Algorithm

Information fusion in biometric systems, either multimodal or intramodal fusion, usually provides an improvement in recognition performance. This paper presents an improved score-level fusion scheme called boosted score fusion. The proposed framework is a two-stage design where an existing fusion algorithm is adopted at the first stage. At the second stage, the weights obtained by the AdaBoost algorithm are utilized to boost the performance of the previously fused results. The experimental results demonstrate that the performance of several score-level fusion methods can be improved by using the presented method.     

Diosmin induces cell apoptosis through protein phosphatase 2A activation in HA22T human hepatocellular carcinoma cells and blocks tumour growth in xenografted nude mice

This study investigated the diosmin effect on HA22T human hepatocellular carcinoma cells in vitro and in an invivo mouse xenograft model. HA22T cells were treated with different concentrations of diosmin and analysed with Western blot analysis, TUNEL, JC-1 staining and siRNA transfection assays. Additionally, the HA22T-implanted xenograft nude mice model was applied to confirm the cellular effects. Diosmin induced apoptosis, up-regulated death receptor apoptotic pathway markers as well as mitochondrial proteins. Pro-survival Bcl-2 family proteins were inhibited and the pro-apoptotic ones were increased. Protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) siRNA or okadaic acid reversed the diosmin effects, confirming the role of PP2A in diosmin-induced HA22T apoptosis. The HA22T-implanted nude mice model revealed that diosmin inhibited tumour cell proliferation and enhanced tumour cell apoptosis. All our experimental evidence indicates that diosmin significantly promotes HA22T apoptosis and reduces tumour sizes in xenograft nude mice via PP2A in a dose-dependent manner.     

Low-complexity video coding via power-rate-distortion optimization

Wireless multimedia sensor networks (WMSNs) have been potentially applicable for several emerging applications. The resources, i.e., power and bandwidth available to visual sensors in a WMSN are, however, very limited. Hence, it is important but challenging to achieve efficient resource allocation and optimal video data compression while maximizing the overall network lifetime. In this paper, a power-rate-distortion (PRD) optimized resource-scalable low-complexity multiview video encoding scheme is proposed. In our video encoder, both the temporal and interview information can be exploited based on the comparisons of extracted media hashes without performing motion and disparity estimations, which are known to be time-consuming. We present a PRD model to characterize the relationship between the available resources and the RD performance of our encoder. More specifically, an RD function in terms of the percentages for different coding modes of blocks and the target bit rate under the available resource constraints is derived for optimal coding mode decision. The major goal here is to design a PRD model to optimize a “motion estimation-free” low-complexity video encoder for applications with resource-limited devices, instead of designing a general-purpose video codec to compete compression performance against current compression standards (e.g., H.264/AVC). Analytic results verify the accuracy of our PRD model, which can provide a theoretical guideline for performance optimization under limited resource constraints. Simulation results on joint RD performance and power consumption (measured in terms of encoding time) demonstrate the applicability of our video coding scheme for WMSNs.