Blind colour separation of H&E stained histological images by linearly transforming the colour space

Blind source separation methods aim to split information into the original sources. In histology, each dye component attempts to specifically characterize different microscopic structures. In the case of the hematoxylin–eosin stain, universally used for routine examination, quantitative analysis may often require the inspection of different morphological signatures related mainly to nuclei patterns, but also to stroma distribution. Stain separation is usually a preprocessing operation that is transversal to different applications. This paper presents a novel colour separation method that finds the hematoxylin and eosin clusters by projecting the whole space to a folded surface connecting the distributions of a series of planes that divide the cloud of H&E tones. The proposed method produces density maps closer to those obtained with the colour mixing matrices set by an expert, when comparing with the density maps obtained using nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF), independent component analysis (ICA) and a state‐of‐the‐art method. The method has outperformed three baseline methods, NMF, Macenko and ICA, in about 8%, 12% and 52% for the eosin component, whereas this was about 4%, 8% and 26% for the hematoxylin component.     

Some results on system equivalence

Simple, necessary and sufficient conditions for system equivalence at infinity and strong system equivalence of systems in the form (T(s), B, C, D) are established. A necessary condition for system equivalence at infinity of systems in the general form (T(s), U(S), V(S), W(S)) is also established.     

AN APPLICATION OF THE DISCRETE MAXIMUM PRINCIPLE TO THE SEGMENTATION OF A WALL FOR NONLINEAR SLOPES

A problem consisting of the optimal design of a segmented wall on a surface having a nonlinear slope contour is considered. It is formulated as an optimal control problem and a solution procedure based on the Discrete Maximum Principle is developed. An application to a real case, which previously had been solved by a Dynamic Programming based method, is included together with some critical comments on the above-mentioned technique.     

A NOTE: EFFECTS OF LOGARITHMIC TRANSFORMATIONS OF NONLINEAR GOALS IN THE GOAL PROGRAMMING PROBLEM

This note points out that in the context of goal programming the linearization of nonlinear goals by logarithmic transformations, as it is usually done in the field of mechanical engineering applications, is not in general a valid method and can lead to wrong results.     

Flexible manufacturing system structural control and the Neighborhood Policy,part 1. Correctness and scalability

IIE Transactions - Structural Control Policies (SCPs) are real-time flexible manufacturing system (FMS) operating policies that guarantee deadlock-free operation. SCPs must be correct and scalable....     

Variations in stir zone and thermomechanically affected zone of dissimilar friction stir weld of AA5083 and AA6082 alloys

Variations in composition, microhardness (in the thermomechanically affected zone) and texture in the tool domain of the dissimilar friction stir weld of AA5083-O and AA6082-T6 alloys were investigated. The contents of the major alloying elements in the weld zones were determined using inductively coupled plasma?atomic emission spectroscopy. It was observed that a slight drop in the content of the alloying elements results from the friction stir welding process with the Mg content being the most affected amongst the major alloying elements in the two alloys. By relating the mass fractions of the major alloying elements in the parent metals of both alloys to those of the stir zone, the relative proportions of the two alloys in the stir zone were estimated with the results showing that at least 60% of the materials in the stir zone are from the retreating side of the weld. It was also revealed that the changes in the hardness profile in the thermomechanically affected zone of the retreating side are predominantly influenced by changes in grain size in that domain. Finally, the investigation further revealed that the texture component in the tool shoulder domain is different from the texture component in the tool pin domain.     

Diamond seed consolidation onto untreated silicon substrate

Abstracts are not published in this journal This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Investigating the physics of disruptions with real-time tomography at JET

As JET is developing and testing operational scenarios for higher fusion performance, an increase in pulse disruptivity is being observed. On a deeper analysis, we find that several radiative phenomena play an active role in determining the outcome of the pulse. The analysis is enabled by the use of real-time tomography based on the bolometer diagnostic. Even though plasma tomography is an inverse problem, we use machine learning to train a forward model that provides the radiation profile directly, based on a single matrix multiplication step. This model is used to investigate radiative phenomena including sawtooth crashes, ELMs and MARFE, and their relationship to the radiated power in different regions of interest. In particular, we use real-time tomography to monitor the core region, and to throw an alarm whenever core radiation exceeds a certain threshold. Our results suggest that this measure alone can anticipate a significant fraction of disruptions in the JET baseline scenario.     

LIQUIFYING COD FISH FRAMES UNDER ACIDIC CONDITIONS WITH A FUNGAL ENZYME

An acidic protease (Newlase A from Rhizopus niveus , Amano) was evaluated as to its ability to reduce viscosity of ground cod fish frames without excessive hydrolysis. Newlase A had an optimal pH of 3.5 and an optimal temperature of 60C with Azocoll as substrate. the enzyme was more stable in the ground fish mixture at pH 3.5 than it was in citrate:phosphate buffer of the same pH. the enzyme hydrolyzed the fish proteins more extensively and decreased the viscosity of the ground fish more between 40–50C over an extended time period than at its optimal temperature of 60C. It is likely that the lower optimal temperature under these conditions is related to its greater stability at the lower temperatures. the energy of activation of the deactivation of the enzyme was 44.5 Kcal per mol-degree. Over a period of 75 min at 45C there was a decrease in viscosity of the ground fish with added enzyme of some two orders of magnitude. After a 3-h incubation, total soluble protein increased from 30% to 48%; the amount of each molecular size fraction produced decreased in the following order: 1–3, < 10, < 1, and 3–10 kdaltons.