A Skeleton-based Approach for Detection of Perceptually Salient Features on Polygonal Surfaces

The paper presents a skeleton‐based approach for robust detection of perceptually salient shape features. Given ashape approximated by a polygonal surface, its skeleton is extracted using a three‐dimensional Voronoi diagramtechnique proposed recently by Amenta et al. [ 3 ]. Shape creases, ridges and ravines, are detected as curvescorresponding to skeletal edges. Salient shape regions are extracted via skeleton decomposition into patches.The approach explores the singularity theory for ridge and ravine detection, combines several filtering methodsfor skeleton denoising and for selecting perceptually important ridges and ravines, and uses a topological analysisof the skeleton for detection of salient shape regions. ACM CSS: I.3.5 Computational Geometry and Object Modeling     

Chemical Reaction Engineering and Research and development of gas solid systems

A general procedure is proposed for innovative research and development of gas-solid reactor systems, with a brief explanation of the significance of each step in the procedureBased upon the contacting mode between gas and solid phases, as well as the ways of supplying thermal energy to the reacting regions, various types of gas-solid reactor systems are classified by using tables of so called “matrix” form, for thermal cracking and gasification of heavy oils, gasification of coal, gasification of solid waste, calcination of limestone, clinkering of cement and reduction of iron ore.The importance of fundamental concepts is emphasized for successful research and development by presenting several examples; namely, calcination of limestone, thermal cracking of heavy oils and gasification of solid waste materials.In connection with the direction in which fundamental research should be oriented, four primary ways of thinking are proposed, which can be applied to obtain innovative ideas for further research and development in this field.One example of the author's practical experience was selected to show the role of the fundamental research in the course of large scale development. Finally the author outlines the role of chemical reaction engineering to innovate the novel gas-solid reactor systems which may be inevitable for simultaneous solution of the three big E's; namely, Energy, Environment and Economy.     

Observation of three-dimensional elemental distributions of a Si device using a 360 degrees -tilt FIB and the cold field-emission STEM system

A technique for preparation of a pillar-shaped specimen and its multidirectional observation using a combination of a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) and a focused ion beam (FIB) instrument has been developed. The system employs an FIB/STEM compatible holder with a specially designed tilt mechanism, which allows the specimen to be tilted through 360 degrees [T. Yaguchi, M. Konno, T. Kamino, T. Hashimoto, T. Ohnishi, K. Umemura, K. Asayama, Microsc. Microanal. 9 (Suppl. 2) (2003) 118; T. Yaguchi, M. Konno, T. Kamino, T. Hashimoto, T. Ohnishi, M. Watanabe, Microsc. Microanal. 10 (Suppl. 2) (2004) 1030]. This technique was applied to obtain the three-dimensional (3D) elemental distributions around a contact plug of a Si device used in a 90-nm technology. A specimen containing only one contact plug was prepared in the shape of a pillar with a diameter of 200nm and a length of 5mum. Elemental maps were obtained from the pillar specimen using a 200-kV cold-field emission gun (FEG) STEM model HD-2300C equipped with the EDAX genesis X-ray energy-dispersive spectrometry (XEDS) system through a spectrum imaging technique. In this study, elemental distributions of minor elements with weak signals were enhanced by applying principal component analysis (PCA), which is a superior technique to extract weak signals from a large dataset. The distributions of elements, especially the metallization component Ti and minor dopant As in this particular device, were successfully extracted by PCA. Finally, the 3D elemental distributions around the contact plug could be visualized by reconstruction from the tilt series of maps.     

Development of an epileptic seizure prediction algorithm using R–R intervals with self-attentive autoencoder

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that may affect the autonomic nervous system (ANS) from 15 to 20 min before seizure onset, and disturbances of ANS affect R–R intervals (RRI) on an electrocardiogram (ECG). This study aims to develop a machine learning algorithm for predicting focal epileptic seizures by monitoring R–R interval (RRI) data in real time. The developed algorithm adopts a self-attentive autoencoder (SA-AE), which is a neural network for time-series data. The results of applying the developed seizure prediction algorithm to clinical data demonstrated that it functioned well in most patients; however, false positives (FPs) occurred in specific participants. In a future work, we will investigate the causes of FPs and optimize the developing seizure prediction algorithm to further improve performance using newly added clinical data.

     

Short communication: Temporal changes in the skin morphology of dairy cows during the periparturient period

Management of dairy cow productivity requires monitoring of their nutritional status by visual observation. It has been suggested that changes in hair coat appearance are among the indicators of nutritional state in dairy cows. Temporal changes in the skin morphology in cows, however, have not been reported. In this study, we examined the changes in the skin of dairy cows that occur during the peripartum period. Seven pluriparous cows were used. Skin samples were collected at 28 d before the due date and 28 d and 56 d after calving for morphological examination. Hair follicle width was 108.8 ± 5.9 µm (±SD) in the dry period, 95.5 ± 5.5 µm at 28 d after calving, and 104.2 ± 5.3 µm at 56 d postpartum. The percentages of anagen hair follicles during these 3 periods were 41.4 ± 3.4, 18.5 ± 3.4, and 32.3 ± 3.3%, respectively. The corresponding sebaceous gland sizes were 8,362.0 ± 707.6, 7,800.0 ± 831.4, and 9,186.8 ± 962.6 µm², respectively. Hair follicle width was positively correlated with percentage of anagen hair follicles. The thickness of epidermal and proliferation rate of epidermal cell were also correlated. However, the hair follicle width, sebaceous gland size and cell proliferation rate, and thickness and proliferation rate of epidermal cells did not show any marked changes.     

Gelation mechanism of agarose and κ-carrageenan solutions estimated in terms of concentration fluctuation

The gelation mechanism of agarose and κ-carrageenan aqueous solutions was investigated by using polarized light scattering and X-ray diffraction techniques in terms of the liquid-liquid phase separation. When an incident beam of He-Ne gas laser was directed to the gel prepared by quenching the agarose solution, the logarithm of scattered intensity increased linearly in the initial stage and tended to deviate from this linear relationship in the latter stage. If the linear increase in the initial stage could be analyzed within the framework of the linear theory of spinodal decomposition proposed by Cahn, the phase diagram indicated that the gelation is attributed to the phase separation due to the concentration fluctuation of solution. Furthermore, in the later stage showing the deviation of the linear relationship, light scattering under Hv polarization condition showed a X-type pattern indicating the existence of optically anisotropic rods, the optical axes being parallel or perpendicular with respect to the rod axis. In spite of the existence of the rods, no crystallites were confirmed by the corresponding X-ray diffraction and DSC measurements. For κ-carrageenan solutions, the logarithm of scattered intensity against time showed a constant value. This indicated that the gelation of κ-carrageenan solutions is independent of liquid-liquid phase separation but is due to the rapid formation of cross-linking points. Accordingly it turns out that the small difference of chemical structure between agarose and κ-carrageenan causes quite different gelation mechanism.     

Isotope scrambling in the formation of cyanopolyynes by laser ablation of carbon particles in liquid acetonitrile

Cyanopolyynes, H(CC)_nCN (n = 3–6), were formed by laser ablation of carbon particles in liquid acetonitrile. The molecules were separated according to the size n and characterized by UV absorption spectroscopy, mass spectroscopy in combination with gas-chromatographic separation, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. For the study of nascent carbon cluster distribution during the growth of the long carbon chain molecules, isotopomer distribution was analyzed by NMR spectroscopy for the product molecules. Two cyanopolyynes of HC₇N and HC₉N were isolated from solutions after laser ablation of isotope-enriched carbon powder (99% ¹³C) in liquid acetonitrile, CH₃CN, of natural isotopic abundance (1.1% ¹³C). With the observed chemical shift, δ, and spin–spin coupling constants, J_CH and J_CC, spectral simulation was made to determine relative abundance of possible isotopomeric forms for HC₉N. We found that the isotope of ¹²C, mostly from solvent molecules, contributes substantially for the part of carbon in the cyano group, –CN, in HC₉N. The isotopomer distribution observed for the sequence of H–CC–CC– was fairly explainable by a binomial, random distribution of the two carbon isotopes of ¹²C and ¹³C, reducing the concentration of ¹³C to 76–55%.     

Evaluation of TEM samples of an Mg-Al alloy prepared using FIB milling at the operating voltages of 10 kV and 40 kV

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) samples of an Mg-Al alloy has been prepared using a Ga-focused ion beam (FIB) milling at two different operating voltages of 10 kV and 40 kV to investigate the influence of the FIB energy on the sample quality. The fine structures of the samples have been studied using a high resolution TEM, and the concentration of the implanted Ga was analysed using an energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis. The result of the TEM observation revealed that point defects were introduced to the sample finally milled at 40 kV but not at 10 kV. However, crystal lattice images and electron diffraction patterns were clearly observed on both the samples. The typical influence of the FIB energy was indicated in the elemental analysis. The relative Ga concentration in the thin sample finally milled at 10 kV was 1.0-2.0 at% that is less than half of 4.0-6.0 at% of the Ga concentration in the sample finally milled at 40 kV. A comparison between the experimental results of the Ga concentration measurement with simulation was also discussed.     

Preparation of SrBi 2 Ta 2 O 9 Thin Films by Liquid-Delivery MOCVD Without Additional Solvents

SrBi 2 Ta 2 O 9 thin films were prepared by ECR plasma enhanced metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (ECR-MOCVD) with a liquid-delivery system using one cocktail source without an additional solvent. The strontium-tantalum double alkoxide, Sr{Ta[OC 2 H 4 H(CH 3 ) 2 ](OC 2 H 5 ) 5 } 2 , was dissolved in stabilized trimethyl bismuth, Bi(CH 3 ) 3 / dioxane. This source system has been used in a conventional bubbling system. Deposition rate and the composition of the films were strictly controlled by the concentration and the composition of the cocktail source. Therefore, high reproducibility was realized by using this system. The constituent phase of the stoichiometric SBT film as-deposited at 500 C on a (111)Pt/TiO 2 /SiO 2 /Si substrate was a fluorite phase and transformed to the single phase of SBT by the post annealing at 800 C. It showed almost the same ferroelectricity as the stoichiometric composition film.