Sequencing the elements in references

Brian Shackel has argued that the system of referencing used in Applied Ergonomics has certain advantages that were not considered in an earlier article in this journal. Evidence is presented which is contrary to Prof Shackel's views and which, in fact, supports the original conclusions.     

Tables in text

Tables were inserted into a four page article, and subjects were asked to scan the text which was printed in a two-column or a single-column format. The single-column format was scanned significantly faster than the double-column layout, and there were marked reader preferences for the single-column layout.     

Kruppa's equations derived from the fundamental matrix

The purpose of this paper is to give a specific form for Kruppa's equations in terms of the fundamental matrix. Kruppa's equations can be written explicitly in terms of the singular value decomposition (SVD) of the fundamental matrix     

In defense of the eight-point algorithm

The fundamental matrix is a basic tool in the analysis of scenes taken with two uncalibrated cameras, and the eight-point algorithm is a frequently cited method for computing the fundamental matrix from a set of eight or more point matches. It has the advantage of simplicity of implementation. The prevailing view is, however, that it is extremely susceptible to noise and hence virtually useless for most purposes. This paper challenges that view, by showing that by preceding the algorithm with a very simple normalization (translation and scaling) of the coordinates of the matched points, results are obtained comparable with the best iterative algorithms. This improved performance is justified by theory and verified by extensive experiments on real images     

Low linolenate and commercial soybean oils diminish serum HDL cholesterol in young free-living adult females

OBJECTIVE: A mutant soybean line (A16) low in linolenic acid content (2% of oil by weight) was developed to increase oil oxidative stability. It was unknown whether serum lipid and lipoprotein concentrations in humans would be affected should A16 soybean oil (A16 oil) replace commercial soybean oil in diets. This study was conducted to examine the hypothesis that in free-living normolipidemic women, the consumption of A16 oil at approximately 10% of energy intake (en%) would not affect serum lipids and lipoproteins differently than would the consumption of the same amount of a commercial soybean oil with 7% of linolenic acid content. DESIGN: Fifteen free-living female college students consumed the soybean oil daily with regular meals for 9 weeks in different orders, with each test oil being eaten for 3 weeks. During the study, 13 en% was provided by each test oil and a total of 35 en% was from dietary fat. Serum concentrations of total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL cholesterol), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL cholesterol) and triacylglycerides (TAG) were measured. Serum total fatty acid patterns were analyzed as well. RESULTS: Each of the three test oils decreased serum total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and TAG concentrations from the baseline values. The feeding of A16 and commercial soybean oils decreased serum HDL cholesterol significantly compared with coconut oil (p < 0.05). Dietary inclusion of coconut oil increased serum myristic acid significantly more than did either soybean oil (p < 0.01). Serum arachidonic acid concentrations were significantly greater with A16 consumption than with commercial soybean oil consumption (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: A16 and commercial soybean oils both diminished serum HDL cholesterol. Although the fatty acid composition differed between the two soybean oils, A16 oil and commercial oil had similar effects on serum concentrations of lipoproteins and lipids. With increased oxidative stability, A16 oil is a good alternative to commercial soybean oil.     

Reconstruction from Projections Using Grassmann Tensors

In this paper a general procedure is given for reconstruction of a set of feature points in an arbitrary dimensional projective space from their projections into lower dimensional spaces. This extends the methods applied in the well-studied problem of reconstruction of scene points in ℘³ given their projections in a set of images. In this case, the bifocal, trifocal and quadrifocal tensors are used to carry out this computation. It is shown that similar methods will apply in a much more general context, and hence may be applied to projections from ℘ ⁿ to ℘ ^m , which have been used in the analysis of dynamic scenes, and in radial distortion correction. For sufficiently many generic projections, reconstruction of the scene is shown to be unique up to projectivity, except in the case of projections onto one-dimensional image spaces (lines), in which case there are two solutions. Projections from ℘ ⁿ to ℘² have been considered by Wolf and Shashua (in International Journal of Computer Vision 48(1): 53–67, 2002), where they were applied to several different problems in dynamic scene analysis. They analyzed these projections using tensors, but no general way of defining such tensors, and computing the projections was given. This paper settles the general problem, showing that tensor definition and retrieval of the projections is always possible.     

EFFECT OF OIL CONTENT ON THE LOSS OF ALPHA-ACID FROM HOPS DURING STORAGE

Examination of a wide range of hop varieties showed that the percentage loss of α-acid in storage was related to the essential oil content of the samples. Seedless hops, having higher oil contents, lost more α-acid than seeded hops of the same variety. The variety Bullion grown for isomerized extract manufacture should be picked 7–10 days earlier than normal to minimize loss of α-acid before processing.     

Conjugate-order systems for signal processing: stability, causality, boundedness, compactness

The fundamental system theory is presented for a class of real systems whose derivative order is complex. It is demonstrated that these so-called conjugate-order systems have a scale-invariance property in both the time and frequency domains, which makes them useful for describing certain phenomena in continuous media. The conditions for which these systems are guaranteed to be causal and stable are reviewed. The compactness properties of their Hankel operators, which allow them to admit finite-order approximations, are also discussed. A procedure is developed for choosing appropriate transfer-function parameter values to design a stable conjugate-order system whose frequency response meets given bandwidth, resonance, and ripple specifications.     

Clinical biochemistry and pathology of mature beef cattle following ante-mortem intravenous administration of a commercial papain preparation

Ten healthy beef cattle in a commercial abbatoir were treated intravenously before slaughter with a commercial papain-based tenderising injection (Pro Ten). Animals were observed for behavioural and clinical abnormalities following treatment. Serum enzyme activities were measured pre-treatment and post-treatment immediately pre-slaughter < 6 min later to detect liver and muscle damage. Carcases were examined grossly post mortem. Histological examination of liver, kidney and muscle followed. Nine contemporary, age-matched controls were similarly examined. It was concluded that ProTen treatment did not cause any detectable hepatocellular or renal damage and there was no significant difference in the parameters examined between treated and untreated cattle. A decision to ban the use of ProTen in cattle could not therefore be based on the premise that it interfered with the animal's welfare in the period following injection under the conditions pertaining in this experiment.