Unique hue data for colour appearance models. Part I: Loci of unique hues and hue uniformity

Psychophysical experiments were conducted to assess unique hues on a CRT display for a large sample of colour‐normal observers (n = 185). These data were then used to evaluate the most commonly used colour appearance model, CIECAM02, by transforming the CIEXYZ tristimulus values of the unique hues to the CIECAM02 colour appearance attributes, lightness, chroma and hue angle. We report two findings: (1) the hue angles derived from our unique hue data are inconsistent with the commonly used Natural Color System hues that are incorporated in the CIECAM02 model. We argue that our predicted unique hue angles (derived from our large dataset) provide a more reliable standard for colour management applications when the precise specification of these salient colours is important. (2) We test hue uniformity for CIECAM02 in all four unique hues and show significant disagreements for all hues, except for unique red which seems to be invariant under lightness changes. Our dataset is useful to improve the CIECAM02 model as it provides reliable data for benchmarking. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 2011     

Evaluation of an attached sunspace without sun protection: How feasible is this approach in mediterranean summer conditions?

The use of attached sunspaces has become popular throughout Europe both for energy and for architectural reasons. This applies particularly in Southern Europe and in the Mediterranean, where sunspaces are habitable over long periods of the year. The danger of overheating during summer is, however, not to be underestimated, as the results of a long-term measurement of such a sunspace shows. The indoor climate conditions monitored seem to confirm that, without a sun-protection scheme, satisfactory comfort conditions are difficult to establish. Still, with appropriate ventilation the resulting cooling loads can be reduced to acceptable levels, which, when considering the heating period, can lead to an overall positive result.     

Asking questions on handwritten document collections

International Journal on Document Analysis and Recognition (IJDAR) - This work addresses the problem of Question Answering (QA) on handwritten document collections. Unlike typical QA and Visual...     

Transplantation of islets of Langerhans in patients with insulin-requiring diabetes mellitus undergoing orthotopic liver transplantation--the Miami experience

Most patients with cirrhosis of the liver have detectable insulin resistance. In 60-80% of patients with cirrhosis, impaired glucose tolerance can be uncovered; approximately 20% of these patients eventually develop overt diabetes. Theoretically, insulin resistance and glucose intolerance could be improved or reversed by orthotopic liver transplantation alone or in association with a simultaneous transplant of pancreatic islet cells from the same donor. To investigate these possibilities we initiated a pilot study of simultaneous liver and pancreatic islet cell transplantation in seven patients with diabetes and liver cirrhosis. Donor bone marrow cells were also infused to enhance the acceptance of the grafts. Seven patients who received only orthotopic liver transplantation and donor bone marrow cells were used as historical controls. The preliminary results of this pilot trial suggest that islet cell transplantation in conjunction with orthotopic liver transplantation improves glucose metabolism in patients with liver cirrhosis in association with reduced insulin requirements and HbA1c levels. These results were evident in spite of pre- and post-transplant basal C-peptide levels that were unchanged. Further evaluation of the effects of orthotopic liver transplantation with or without islet cell transplantation will require a randomized prospective trial including accurate metabolic evaluation with the euglycemic insulin clamp technique.     

Development of a hierarchical system for the teletransmission of environmental and energy data

Environmental and energy management in contemporary urban environments and at a household level, requires for the design of systems that will be able to integrate remote and spatially distributed monitoring data, while being open, modular, flexible and low cost. In addition, technological and industrial deregulation result in shifting from services that are heavily dependent on existing information infrastructure to services that depend on the satisfaction of instant information needs at a customer level. This paper presents methods suitable for the design and development of a hierarchical system for communicating and archiving environmental and energy data, towards serving applications that require easy and instant access to these data. The aim is to provide services at a household level for consumers ready to adopt the features of e-services to their home.     

A generic framework for median graph computation based on a recursive embedding approach

The median graph has been shown to be a good choice to obtain a representative of a set of graphs. However, its computation is a complex problem. Recently, graph embedding into vector spaces has been proposed to obtain approximations of the median graph. The problem with such an approach is how to go from a point in the vector space back to a graph in the graph space. The main contribution of this paper is the generalization of this previous method, proposing a generic recursive procedure that permits to recover the graph corresponding to a point in the vector space, introducing only the amount of approximation inherent to the use of graph matching algorithms. In order to evaluate the proposed method, we compare it with the set median and with the other state-of-the-art embedding-based methods for the median graph computation. The experiments are carried out using four different databases (one semi-artificial and three containing real-world data). Results show that with the proposed approach we can obtain better medians, in terms of the sum of distances to the training graphs, than with the previous existing methods.     

Implementing optical fibres for the structural health monitoring of composite patch repaired structures

Abstract

Structural health monitoring is increasingly being implemented to improve the level of safety of structures and to reduce inspection and repair costs by allowing for correct planning of these actions, if needed. Composite patch repairing presents an appealing alternative to traditional repair methods as it enables the reduction of closedown time and the mitigation of complications associated with traditional repair methods. As reinforcement with the use of composite patches is predominantly performed at defected structures, the urge to monitor the performance of the repair becomes even greater. This work deals with the use of Fabry Perot optical fibres and strain gages at suitable positions in such a repair. To this end a patch repaired notched steel plate has been tested in tension, opting to gain insight on the mechanisms which govern the failure. In order to investigate how these mechanisms are reflected to the recorded strain measurements, finite element models have been generated. Results indicate that composite patch repairing drastically increased the load bearing capacity of the plates and that optical fibres constitute an appealing health monitoring system for such applications, being able to capture the initiation and evolution of damage.     

Fabrication and characterization of micromachined rectangularwaveguide components for use at millimeter-wave and terahertzfrequencies

The fabrication and characterization of micromachined reduced-height air-filled rectangular waveguide components suitable for integration is reported in this paper. The lithographic technique used permits structures with heights of up to 100 μm to be successfully constructed in a repeatable manner. Waveguide S-parameter measurements at frequencies between 75-110 GHz using a vector network analyzer demonstrate low loss propagation in the TE₁₀ mode reaching 0.2 dB per wavelength. Scanning electron microscope photographs of conventional and micromachined waveguides show that the fabrication technique can provide a superior surface finish than possible with commercially available components. In order to circumvent problems in efficiently coupling free-space propagating beams to the reduced-height G-band waveguides, as well as to characterize them using quasi-optical techniques, a novel integrated micromachined slotted horn antenna has been designed and fabricated, E-, H-, and D-plane far-field antenna pattern measurements at different frequencies using a quasi-optical setup show that the fabricated structures are optimized for 180-GHz operation with an E-plane half-power beamwidth of 32° elevated 35° above the substrate, a symmetrical H-plane pattern with a half-power beamwidth of 23° and a maximum D-plane cross-polar level of -33 dB. Far-field pattern simulations using HFSS show good agreement with experimental results