The Visual Computing of Projector‐Camera Systems

This article focuses on real‐time image correction techniques that enable projector‐camera systems to display images onto screens that are not optimized for projections, such as geometrically complex, coloured and textured surfaces. It reviews hardware‐accelerated methods like pixel‐precise geometric warping, radiometric compensation, multi‐focal projection and the correction of general light modulation effects. Online and offline calibration as well as invisible coding methods are explained. Novel attempts in super‐resolution, high‐dynamic range and high‐speed projection are discussed. These techniques open a variety of new applications for projection displays. Some of them will also be presented in this report.     

Color invariant chroma keying and color spill neutralization for dynamic scenes and cameras

In this article we show how temporal backdrops that alternately change their color rapidly at recording rate can aid chroma keying by transforming color spill into a neutral background illumination. Since the chosen colors sum up to white, the chromatic (color) spill component is neutralized when integrating over both backdrop states. The ability to separate both states additionally allows to compute high-quality alpha mattes. Besides the neutralization of color spill, our method is invariant to foreground colors and supports applications with real-time demands. In this article, we explain different realizations of temporal backdrops and describe how keying and color spill neutralization are carried out, how artifacts resulting from rapid motion can be reduced, and how our approach can be implemented to be compatible with common real-time post-production pipelines.     

Environmental Factors,Toxicants and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an immune-complex-mediated multi-systemic autoimmune condition of multifactorial etiology, which mainly affects young women. It is currently believed that the onset of SLE and lupus flares are triggered by various environmental factors in genetically susceptible individuals. Various environmental agents and toxicants, such as cigarette smoke, alcohol, occupationally- and non-occupationally-related chemicals, ultraviolet light, infections, sex hormones and certain medications and vaccines, have been implicated to induce SLE onset or flares in a number case series, case-control and population-based cohort studies and very few randomized controlled trials. Here, we will describe some of these recognized environmental lupus triggering and perpetuating factors and explain how these factors potentially bias the immune system towards autoimmunity through their interactions with genetic and epigenetic alterations. Further in-depth exploration of how potentially important environmental factors mechanistically interact with the immune system and the genome, which trigger the onset of SLE and lupus flares, will certainly be one of the plausible steps to prevent the onset and to decelerate the progress of the disease.     

Predictive model for inactivation of Campylobacter spp. by heat and high hydrostatic pressure

Campylobacter represents one of the leading causes of foodborne enteritis. Poultry and its products frequently transmit the pathogen. The objective of the present study was to model predictively the short-term inactivation of Campylobacter in a ready-to-eat poultry product to develop an economic high-pressure treatment. We inactivated baroresistant strains of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli, grown to stationary phase on nutrient agar and inoculated in poultry meat slurry, by heat and high hydrostatic pressure. Incubation at ambient pressure at 70 degrees C for 1 min and at 450 MPa at 15 degrees C for 30 s inactivated more than 6 log CFU of this foodborne pathogen per ml of poultry meat slurry. Thermal and pressure inactivation kinetics of C. coli and C. jejuni in poultry meat slurry were accurately described by a first-order kinetic model. A mathematical model was developed from 10 to 65 degrees C and from ambient to 500 MPa that predicts the reduction in numbers of Campylobacter in response to the combination of temperature, pressure, and treatment time. We suggest the high-pressure treatment of foods to avoid health risks caused by Campylobacter. The nonthermal short-term treatment of the examined food model system represents a successful step to an economic high-pressure procedure.     

Zum überflutungsverhalten zwei- und dreiphasig betriebener Rührreaktoren

The flooding behaviour of two- and three-phase operating stirred reactors . The present state of research concerning the flooding behaviour of aerated fluids and suspensions is presented. The author's own investigations, undertaken partly on a semi-technical scale (tank diameter D = 1.5 m) show the most important parameters of this undesirable aerated state during the operation of stirred reactors. For a given stirrer speed the superficial gas velocity, the tank size, and the fluid viscosity are important. Solid particles sediment out when flooding is reached. An objective measuring method for determining the occurrence of flooding was adopted.     

Time-dependent strength and fatigue resistance of dental direct restorative materials

Elastic modulus (EM), initial fracture strength (FS) and flexural fatigue limit (FFL) of dental restorative materials were measured in a simulated oral environment to correlate mechanical response under the influence of water with the chemical nature of the test materials under investigation. One resin composite (RC; Tetric Ceram, Ivoclar-Vivadent Corp., Liechtenstein), an ion-leaching resin composite (ILRC; Ariston pHc, Ivoclar-Vivadent Corp., Liechtenstein) a compomer (CO; Dyract AP, Dentsply Corp., USA) and a glass-ionomer cement (GIC; Ketac Molar, 3MEspe Corp., Germany) were tested. Static EM, FS and dynamic FFL experiments were performed. The FFL was determined under cyclic loading for 10(5) cycles in terms of a staircase approach. The materials were stored for 1, 8, 30, 90 and 180 days in 37 degrees C distilled water, respectively. The RC degraded over time due to water adsorption followed by failure within the resin matrix. The ILRC suffered from a pronounced decrease in FS as well as in FFL due to a constant ion-leaching and macroscopic crack growth. CO failed over time due to resin-filler interface cracking. The GIC exhibited improved mechanical performance over time due to a post-hardening mechanism. The results reveal the necessity for substantial preclinical evaluation of direct restorative materials. The material parameters under investigation are capable of predicting clinical performance over time.     

Laser transmission bonding of silicon to silicon with metallic interlayers for wafer-level packaging

For packaging of silicon components with low thermal load and high spatial selectivity laser transmission bonding (LTB) of silicon–silicon compounds with intermediate layers using a cw-thulium fiber laser (wavelength 1,940 nm) is investigated. The intermediate layer combination titanium and gold is examined with respect to the bond characteristics and the achievable mechanical properties of the bonded specimens. The tensile strength is measured by using tensile test. Similar specimens bonded with corresponding standard bond process using the same bond geometry are also analyzed in order to compare the measurements.     

Passive annual heat storage principles in earth sheltered housing,a supplementary energy saving system in residential housing

This paper looks through the many benefits of earth not only as a building element in its natural form but as a building mass, energy pack and spatial enclosure which characterized by location, unique physical terrain and climatic factors can be utilized in developing housing units that will provide the needed benefits of comfort alongside the seasons. Firstly the study identifies existing sunken earth houses in the North-west of China together with identifying the characters that formed the ideas behind the choice of going below the ground. Secondly, the study examines the pattern of heat exchange, heat gains and losses as to identify the principles that makes building in earth significant as an energy conservation system. The objective of this, is to relate the ideas of sunken earth home design with such principles as the passive annual heat storage systems (PAHS) in producing houses that will serve as units used to collect free solar heat all summer and cools passively while heating the earth around it and also keeping warm in winter by retrieving heat from the soil while utilizing the free solar heat stored throughout the summer as a year-round natural thermal resource.     

Microstructural Evolution of Silica on Single Crystal Silicon Carbide. Part II: Influence of Impurities and Defects

Passive oxidation of single crystal silicon carbide (6H–SiC) resulted in the formation of a vitreous silica layer which crystallized gradually at temperatures near 1300°–1400°C. During this process, statistically distributed devitrification centers appeared and disk-like aligned crystal plates (radialites) formed. The crystallization process did not necessarily start at structural defects although these often act as areas of preferred nucleation. A second structural transition from disk-like radialites to small crystalline spheres (globulites) was not connected to structural defects but a consequence of the presence of impurities. Alkaline and earth-alkaline elements are common contaminations within the atmospheres of typical furnaces fitted with alumina tubes. Globulite formation was a process of recrystallization catalyzed by an impurity-related melt formed on top of the devitrified areas. Crystallization caused exsolution of reaction gas and local impurity enrichments as the solubility for these phases is much higher in the devitrifying vitreous silica matrix. Both clean and impurity-loaded oxidation produced specific morphologies of scales and interfaces.