Unsupervised Segmentation of Stereoscopic Video Objects: Constrained Segmentation Fusion Versus Greedy Active Contours

In this paper, we present a novel memory access reduction scheme (MARS) for two-dimension fast cosine transform (2-D FCT). It targets programmable DSPs with high memory-access latency. It reduces the number of memory accesses by: 1) reducing the number of weighting factors and 2) combining butterflies in vector-radix 2-D FCT pruning diagram from two stages to one stage with an efficient structure. Hardware platform based on general purpose processor is used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method for vector-radix 2-D FCT pruning implementation. Experimental results validate the benefits of the proposed method with reduced memory access, less clock cycle and fewer memory space compared with the conventional implementation.     

Hydrogen production in solar reactors

The present work summarizes the recent activities of our laboratory in the field of solar-aided hydrogen production with structured monolithic solar reactors. This reactor concept, “transferred” from the well-known automobile exhaust catalytic after-treatment systems, employs ceramic supports optimized to absorb effectively solar radiation and develop sufficiently high temperatures, that are coated with active materials capable to perform/catalyze a variety of “solar-aided” reactions for the production of hydrogen such as water splitting or natural gas reforming. Our work evolves in an integrated approach starting from the synthesis of active powders tailored to particular hydrogen production reactions, their deposition upon porous absorbers, testing of relevant properties of merit such as thermomechanical stability and hydrogen yield and finally to the design, operation simulation and performance optimization of structured monolithic solar hydrogen production reactors. This approach, among other things, has culminated to the world's first closed, solar-thermochemical cycle in operation that is capable of continuous hydrogen production employing entirely renewable and abundant energy sources and raw materials – solar energy and water, respectively – without any CO₂ emissions and holds, thus, a significant potential for large-scale, emissions-free hydrogen production, particularly for regions of the world that lack indigenous resources but are endowed with ample solar energy.     

Parametric and nonparametric Bayesian model specification: A case study involving models for count data

In this paper we present the results of a simulation study to explore the ability of Bayesian parametric and nonparametric models to provide an adequate fit to count data of the type that would routinely be analyzed parametrically either through fixed-effects or random-effects Poisson models. The context of the study is a randomized controlled trial with two groups (treatment and control). Our nonparametric approach uses several modeling formulations based on Dirichlet process priors. We find that the nonparametric models are able to flexibly adapt to the data, to offer rich posterior inference, and to provide, in a variety of settings, more accurate predictive inference than parametric models.     

Kinetics of phenol oxidation in a trickle bed reactor over active carbon catalyst

The wet air oxidation of phenol over a commercial active carbon catalyst was studied in a trickle bed reactor (TBR) in the temperature and oxygen partial pressure ranges of 120–160 °C and 0.1–0.2 MPa, respectively. The performance of the active carbon was compared in terms of phenol and COD destruction. The weight change of active carbon due to reaction was also measured. Finally, oxic phenol adsorption isotherms were assessed in batch conditions at 25, 125 and 160 °C. In order to use the conversion data obtained from the TBR for a kinetic study, special care was taken to check the kinetic control in the TBR experiments. Several kinetic models including power law or Langmuir–Hinshelwood expressions were considered to describe the catalytic oxidation of phenol over active carbon. The simple power law model with first order dependence on both phenol and oxygen concentration predicted satisfactorily the experimental data not only over the entire range of operating conditions studied, but also outside its validity range. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry     

Stress and stability analysis of toroidal shells

A finite element formulation applicable to the general shell of revolution is presented for the stress and stability analysis of toroidal pressure vessels under hydrostatic pressure. Considering the follower force effect of the external pressure, linear bifurcation buckling loads and corresponding mode shapes have been obtained in both axially and equatorially symmetric as well as antisymmetric buckling modes. Calculated critical values are compared with results of other investigations.     

Production of hydrogen for fuel cells by reformation of biomass-derived ethanol

The reformation of biomass-derived ethanol to a hydrogen-rich gas stream suitable for feeding fuel cells is investigated as an efficient and environmentally friendly process for the production of electricity for mobile and stationary applications. Steam reforming of ethanol is investigated over Ni catalysts supported on La₂O₃, Al₂O₃, YSZ and MgO. The influence of several parameters on the catalytic activity and selectivity is examined including reaction temperature, water-to-ethanol ratio and space velocity. Results reveal that the Ni/La₂O₃ catalyst exhibits high activity and selectivity toward hydrogen production and, most important, long term stability for steam reforming of ethanol. The enhanced stability of this catalyst may be due to scavenging of coke deposition on the Ni surface by lanthanum oxycarbonate species which exist on top of the Ni particles under reaction conditions.     

Semi‐global and global containment control of multi‐agent systems with second‐order dynamics and input saturation

This paper considers both semi‐global and global containment control for a second‐order multi‐agent system that is composed by a network of identical harmonic oscillators or double integrators with multiple leaders and input saturation. A distributed low gain feedback algorithm is proposed to solve the semi‐global containment control problem for the network whose topology is directed and initial condition is taken from any a priori given bounded set. In particular, by using a parametric Lyapunov equation approach, M‐matrix properties and algebraic graph theory, an upper bound of the low gain parameter is estimated such that the low gain feedback matrix can be analytically determined without involving numerical computation. Furthermore, under the assumption that the induced subgraph formed by the followers is strongly connected and detail balanced, two linear feedback protocols are designed for coupled harmonic oscillators and coupled double integrators, respectively, to asymptotically achieve the global containment control of the network with any initial condition. Finally, numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Water Balance Derived Drought Index for Pinios River Basin, Greece

This study estimates hydrological drought characteristics using a water balance derived drought index in Pinios river basin, Thessaly, Greece. The concept of hydrological management at subwatershed scale has been adopted because it encompasses the areal extent of a drought event. Fourteen (14) sub-watersheds of Pinios river basin were delineated according to the major tributaries of Pinios river using GIS. For the assessment of hydrological drought, because none of the sub-watersheds have flow gauge stations at their outlets, a six-parameter monthly conceptual water balance model (UTHBAL model), has been applied regionally to simulate runoff for the period October 1960?CSeptember 2002. The synthetic runoff was normalized through Box-Cox transformation and standardized to the mean runoff to produce the water balance derived drought index for hydrological drought assessment. The standardized precipitation index (SPI) at multiple time scales and four indices of the Palmer method (i.e. PDSI, WPLM, PHDI and the Palmer moisture anomaly Z-index) were also calculated to assess hydrological droughts. The results showed that the water balance derived drought index is a good indicator of hydrological drought in all sub-watersheds, since is capable to quantify drought severity and duration. Furthermore, the drought index provides guidance on the selection of an appropriate meteorological drought index for operational hydrological drought monitoring. Hence, SPI at 3- and 6-month timescales and the WPLM could be used along with the water balance derived drought index in risk and decision analyses at the study area.     

A fuzzy evolutionary framework for combining ensembles

We propose an evolutionary framework for the production of fuzzy rule bases where each rule executes an ensemble of predictors. The architecture, the rule base and the composition of the ensembles are evolved over time. To achieve this, we employ a context-free grammar within a hybrid genetic programming system using a multi-population model. As base predictors, multilayer perceptron neural networks and support vector machines are available. We apply the system to several function approximation and regression tasks and compare the results with recent research and state-of-the-art models. We conclude that the proposed architecture is competitive and has a number of very desirable features supporting automation of predictive model building and their adaptation over time. Finally, we suggest further potential research directions.     

Molecular simulation of phase coexistence: Finite-size effects and determination of critical parameters for two- and three-dimensional Lennard-Jones fluids

Abstact The subject of this paper is the investigation of finite-size effects and the determination of critical parameters for a class of truncated Lennard-Jones potentials. Despite significant recent progress in our ability to model phase equilibria in multicomponent mixtures from direct molecular simulations, the accurate determination of critical parameters remains a difficult problem. Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo simulations with systems of controlled linear system size are used to obtain the phase behavior in the near-critical region for two- and three dimensional Lennard-Jones fluids with reduced cutoff radii of 3, 3.5, and 5. For the two-dimensional systems, crossover of the effective exponent for the width of the coexistence curve from mean field ( = 1/2 in the immediate vicinity of the critical point to Ising-like (= 1/8) farther away is observed. Critical parameters determined by fitting the data that follow Ising-like behavior are in good agreement with literature values obtained with finite-size scaling methods. For the three-dimensional systems, no crossover to mean field-type behavior was apparent. Extrapolated results for the critical parameters are consistent with literature estimates for similar fluids. For both two- and three-dimensional fluids, system size effects on the coexistence curves away from the critical point are small, normally within simulation statistical uncertainties.Invited paper presented at the Twelfth Symposium on Thermophysical Properties, June 19–24, 1994, Boulder. Colorado, U.S.A.