Bit-depth enhancement detection for compressed video

In recent years, display intensity and contrast have increased considerably. Many displays support high dynamic range (HDR) and 10-bit color depth. Since high bit-depth is an emerging technology, video content is still largely shot and transmitted with a bit depth of 8 bits or less per color component. Insufficient bit-depths produce distortions called false contours or banding, and they are visible on high contrast screens. To deal with such distortions, researchers have proposed algorithms for bit-depth enhancement (dequantization). Such techniques convert videos with low bit-depth (LBD) to videos with high bit-depth (HBD). The quality of converted LBD video, however, is usually lower than that of the original HBD video, and many consumers prefer to keep the original HBD versions. In this paper, we propose an algorithm to determine whether a video has undergone conversion before compression. This problem is complex; it involves detecting outcomes of different dequantization algorithms in the presence of compression that strongly affects the least-significant bits (LSBs) in the video frames. Our algorithm can detect bit-depth enhancement and demonstrates good generalization capability, as it is able to determine whether a video has undergone processing by dequantization algorithms absent from the training dataset

Alterações funcionais e moleculares no músculo cardíaco e esquelético na remodelagem e remodelagem reversa na ICFEp

Mestrado em BioquímicaA insuficiência cardíaca (IC) com fração de ejeção preservada (ICFEp) é uma síndrome com uma etiologia muito diversificada, cuja disfunção metabólica tem sido apontada como um importante mecanismo associado à sua severidade. A remodelagem do miocárdio, resulta de uma agressão ao coração que pode ser direta (isquemia, estenose aórtica, etc) ou indireta (diabetes, disfunção renal, etc). Quando esta agressão é atenuada, por tratamento farmacológico ou cirúrgico, o coração sofre uma remodelagem reversa (RR) e o miocárdio retoma à sua estrutura e função normais. Conhecer os mecanismos subjacentes ao padrão de remodelagem e RR do miocárdio irá certamente potenciar novas oportunidades de tratamento da ICFEp. Por ser uma síndrome multisistémica, os doentes com ICFEp apresentam frequentemente sinais e sintomas extra-cardíacos característicos do diagnóstico desta patologia, como é o caso da intolerância ao esforço. Assim este trabalho teve como objetivos implementar e caracterizar um modelo animal de ICFEp, bem como avaliar as alterações estruturais, funcionais e moleculares que ocorrem ao nível do músculo cardíaco e esquelético na remodelagem e RR. Os nossos resultados mostram que a implementação de um modelo animal que mimetiza o fenótipo de ICFEp foi bem-sucedida. De facto, os animais banding apresentaram uma marcada hipertrofia do ventrículo esquerdo (VE), disfunção diastólica com rigidez do miocárdio, alterações na regulação do cálcio e aumento do stress oxidativo. Observaram-se ainda alterações que sugerem um aumento da biogénese e da fissão mitocondrial bem como um aumento dos transportadores de glucose. Apesar do aumento da expressão da proteína desacopladora 1 (UCP-1), funcionalmente, as mitocôndrias apresentaram uma melhoria da sua função. A redução da performance física dos animais banding foi acompanhada de alterações estruturais ao nível do músculo-esquelético, assim como de uma alteração dos transportadores dos substratos metabólicos. Curiosamente, nos animais debanding, apesar da recuperação funcional, morfologicamente o miocárdio não normalizou totalmente. Adicionalmente, observou-se um aumento dos transportadores de ácidos gordos, acompanhado por uma diminuição do stress oxidativo e da apoptose no VE. Além disso, apesar da melhoria metabólica, as mitocôndrias do VE dos animais debanding mantém-se menores. Relativamente à capacidade aeróbica dos animais, observou-se uma melhoria após o debanding acompanhada por uma reversão da atrofia e a fibrose das fibras musculares, assim como da oxidação dos ácidos gordos. Este trabalho mostra evidências do envolvimento mitocondrial e metabólico na progressão da ICFEp, ao nível dos músculo-esquelético e cardíaco.Heart failure (HF) with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is a complex syndrome with a diverse aetiology in which the metabolic dysfunction has been pointed out as an important mechanism that underlies the disease severity. Myocardial remodelling results from cardiac injury that can be direct (ischemia, aortic stenosis, etc) or indirect (diabetes, renal dysfunction, etc). When the deleterious stimulus is attenuated by pharmacological or surgical treatment, the heart enrols in a process called reverse remodelling (RR), and myocardial structure and function returns to normal. The knowledge of the molecular mechanism that underlie the RR process could represent an opportunity to develop novel therapeutic approaches and thus improve the treatment of HFpEF patients. As being a multi-systemic syndrome, HFpEF presents several extra-cardiac signals and symptoms typical of its diagnosis, such as effort intolerance. Thus, the aims of this work was to implement and characterize an animal model of cardiac remodelling and reverse remodelling of HFpEF and thus characterize structurally, functionally and molecularly the changes that occurs at the myocardium and at the skeletal muscle. Our results showed that we successfully implemented an animal model of HFpEF that presents an LV hypertrophic and increased stiffness. Additionally to LV diastolic dysfunction (DD) we also observed abnormalities on calcium and oxidative stress. In banding rats we denoted an increase of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma coactivator alpha (PGC-1α) and downregulation of mitofusin (MNF1,2) as well as an augment of glucose transporters. Despite de increase of uncoupled protein 1 (UCP-1) expression, functionally we denoted an improvement of mitochondria respiration and membrane potential. The physical performance of banding animals was impaired and accomplished by structural changes at skeletal muscle level as well as at metabolic substrate transporters. Curiously, after afterload relief despite the functionally recovery, morphologically the myocardial reverse remodelling was incomplete. Moreover, regardless the metabolic transporters reversion the mitochondria continue smaller. After overload relief the rats showed an improvement on aerobic capacity as well as a reversion on skeletal muscle atrophy, fibrosis and an upregulation of FA oxidation. The present study shows clearly the involvement of mitochondria and metabolism on myocardial and skeletal muscle remodelling and RR

Single-Image HDR Reconstruction by Learning to Reverse the Camera Pipeline

Recovering a high dynamic range (HDR) image from a single low dynamic range (LDR) input image is challenging due to missing details in under-/over-exposed regions caused by quantization and saturation of camera sensors. In contrast to existing learning-based methods, our core idea is to incorporate the domain knowledge of the LDR image formation pipeline into our model. We model the HDRto-LDR image formation pipeline as the (1) dynamic range clipping, (2) non-linear mapping from a camera response function, and (3) quantization. We then propose to learn three specialized CNNs to reverse these steps. By decomposing the problem into specific sub-tasks, we impose effective physical constraints to facilitate the training of individual sub-networks. Finally, we jointly fine-tune the entire model end-to-end to reduce error accumulation. With extensive quantitative and qualitative experiments on diverse image datasets, we demonstrate that the proposed method performs favorably against state-of-the-art single-image HDR reconstruction algorithms.Comment: CVPR 2020. Project page: https://www.cmlab.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~yulunliu/SingleHDR Code: https://github.com/alex04072000/SingleHD

A Low-Complexity Mosaicing Algorithm for Stock Assessment of Seabed-Burrowing Species

Peer-reviewed This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination. Manuscript received January 27, 2017; revised August 17, 2017 and December 27, 2017; accepted February 16, 2018. Published in: IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering ( Early Access ) DOI: 10.1109/JOE.2018.2808973This paper proposes an algorithm for mosaicing videos generated during stock assessment of seabed-burrowing species. In these surveys, video transects of the seabed are captured and the population is estimated by counting the number of burrows in the video. The mosaicing algorithm is designed to process a large amount of video data and summarize the relevant features for the survey in a single image. Hence, the algorithm is designed to be computationally inexpensive while maintaining a high degree of robustness. We adopt a registration algorithm that employs a simple translational motion model and generates a mapping to the mosaic coordinate system using a concatenation of frame-by-frame homographies. A temporal smoothness prior is used in a maximum a posteriori homography estimation algorithm to reduce noise in the motion parameters in images with small amounts of texture detail. A multiband blending scheme renders the mosaic and is optimized for the application requirements. Tests on a large data set show that the algorithm is robust enough to allow the use of mosaics as a medium for burrow counting. This will increase the verifiability of the stock assessments as well as generate a ground truth data set for the learning of an automated burrow counting algorithm.This work was supported by the Science Foundation Ireland under Award SFI-PI 08/IN.1/I2112

Impulse

Features:[Page 2] College of Engineering moves into 21st Century with new building[Page 3] SDSU could be one of three geothermal training centers in the nation[Page 4-5] Reider\u27s research helps NASA and EROS[Page 6] Schaefer\u27s work important for the environment[Page 7] Hurricane Andrew drives Van Lent from Florida to SDSU[Page 7] Van Lent continues research on wetlands hydrology[Page 8] Skorseth has unlikely enemy ... S.D. roads[Page 9] Teachers communicate with SDSU through computer network[Page 10] SDSU helps four re ervations plan for economic development[Page 11] Solar energy moves into space technology[Page 12] Physics Bowl marks 20th anniversary[Page 12] SDSU Science Fair attracts young, budding scientists[Page 13] Plans begin to form for Solberg Hall renovation Department:Faculty:[Page 14] Teachers create tipis, quilts to help students learn science[Page 15] Bergum receives math honor[Page 15] Design class M E 461 finds solutions to industrial problems[Page 16] Shin gets on the CASE[Page 16] Students to get first-hand experience with special CASE tool[Page 17] Salehnia finds EROS challenging and rewarding[Page 17] Tracy honored with engineering award[Page 18] Training program assists South Dakota entrepreneurs[Page 19] Koepsell receives engineering honor[Page 19] NASA work occupies engineering professors this summerStudents: [Page 20] SDSU, School of Mines launch hot air balloon experiment[Page 21] Energy audits available to area manufacturers[Page 21] New Ph.D. program to start this fall[Page 22] Doors of Opportunity: Youth experience wonders of science at conference[Page 23] Snowstorm doesn\u27t hamper EED and Inventors Congress[Page 24] SDSU engineers pledge oaths at Order of Engineer Ceremony[Page 25] Electrical engineering students take 1,720-rnile tour[Page 25] SDSU mini-baja team finishes 22nd in competition[Page 26] SDSU holds ASME regional conference[Page 26] Held wins prestigious national scholarship[Page 26] East River Electric Power Cooperative names scholarship winnersAlumni:[Page 27] Buckley named Distinguished Engineering Alumnus[Page 28-29] Distinguished Engineers honored at banquet[Page 30-31] Al Yocom gets his day[Page 31] Jensens provide scholarships in parents\u27 honor[Page 32] Anderson advises \u27make the most of college, carry a can-do attitude\u27Alumni notes inside back coverhttps://openprairie.sdstate.edu/coe_impulse/1030/thumbnail.jp

Impulse

Features:[Page 2] Water research: Saving for a \u27dry day\u27[Page 4] Regional water center enjoys benefits of Brookings[Page 5] Feed Jake\u27[Page 6] SDSU honors distinguished engineers[Page 8] Scholarships awarded at annual banquet[Page 10] New South Dakota businesses proposed by SDSU students Departments:Faculty:[Page 11] Transportation technology service receives funding[Page 11] Wayne Knabach honored[Page 12] Faculty and students attendance at Dalton.[Page 12] Conference focuses on women, minorities[Page 13] Professors receive doctorates[Page 13] Fulbright Scholar[Page 14] Two retire from College of Engineering faculty[Page 14] Former dean of engineering dies[Page 15] Alcock continues focus on research[Page 15] Froehlich named head of engineering department[Page 16] Preheater may have commercial potential.[Page 17] Remund receives association funding[Page 17] Prest Rack projectStudents: [Page 18] Students get involved in engineering societies[Page 19] ASAE student branch places in EMI competition[Page 19] Engineering student elected Student Federation president[Page 20] Engineering Exploration Days[Page 22] \u27Scouting\u27 the future[Page 24] \u27Ambassadors\u27[Page 25] Friends rally to help student diagnosed with cancerGrants:[Page 26] SDSU faculty conduct aerospace research[Page 27] Aerospace research in South Dakota gets a boost[Page 27] Chandler wins Space Grant Consortium fellowshipBenefactors and Donors:[Page 28] Electrical engineering graduate established scholarship endowment[Page 29] Brede and Siri Sander Family Scholarship[Page 29] Storley Family ScholarshipAlumni:[Page 30] Phonathon raises more than $70,000 for college[Page 31] Douglas Perry authors book[Page 31] Reder nominated as Minnesota Young Engineer[Page 31] Ed May promoted[Page 32] SDSU alumni power industry executiveshttps://openprairie.sdstate.edu/coe_impulse/1036/thumbnail.jp

Mechanics and mechanobiology of arteries: contributions and interactions of collagen and elastin

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityThe dynamic mechanical behavior of arteries is essential to a properly functioning vascular system. Within the arterial extracellular matrix (ECM), the organization of collagen and elastin leads to the bulk of the passive mechanical behavior of the tissue. While remodeling of the ECM occurs naturally in healthy arteries to maintain normal functioning, vascular diseases often create different chemical and mechanical conditions that cause significant changes in structure and adverse effects on the mechanical behavior. The goal of this dissertation is to understand the roles of the ECM components in the mechanical behavior of vascular tissues, and how mechanical and biological interactions change during disease. Our study of in vivo obstruction induced pulmonary artery remodeling suggests clinically relevant relationships between the mechanical integrity and biochemical composition of the tissue. Arteries had earlier collagen engagement and increased tissue stiffness due to higher collagen content. An in-vitro treatment with elastase leads to lamellae fragmentation and a faster rate of degradation when tissues were digested under stretch. We have shown for the first time the transition from J-shaped to S-shaped stress-strain behavior in arteries undergoing elastin degradation. This potential for large stretches with minimal increases in pressure could occur as aortic tissue becomes dilated during the formation of aneurysms. Multiphoton imaging during mechanical loading shows that elastin and collagen in the medial and adventitial layers are recruited differently. In the unloaded state, elastin fibers are pre-stretched and apply compressive forces on collagen fibers contributing to their crimping. Upon loading, medial elastin fibers are immediately recruited while the adventitial collagen fibers engage and become the major load-bearing component when strain reaches 20-25%. In contrast medial collagen is engaged throughout loading. After significant removal of elastin, the second harmonic generation suggests collagen fibers become straightened and aligned leading to earlier recruitment and rapidly stiffened mechanical behavior. This microstructural and mechanical information can be applied to constitutive models for prediction of tissue mechanics where collagen and elastin are the major load bearing components. Our study shows that the interactions between the elastin and collagen structure determine the mechanics of arteries and carry important implications to vascular mechanobiology