The development of automated palmprint identification using major flexion creases

Palmar flexion crease matching is a method for verifying or establishing identity. New methods of palmprint identification, that complement existing identification strategies, or reduce analysis and comparison times, will benefit palmprint identification communities worldwide. To this end, this thesis describes new methods of manual and automated palmar flexion crease identification, that can be used to identify palmar flexion creases in online palmprint images. In the first instance, a manual palmar flexion crease identification and matching method is described, which was used to compare palmar flexion creases from 100 palms, each modified 10 times to mimic some of the types of alterations that can be found in crime scene palmar marks. From these comparisons, using manual palmar flexion crease identification, results showed that when labelled within 10 pixels, or 3.5 mm, of the palmar flexion crease, a palmprint image can be identified with a 99.2% genuine acceptance rate and a 0% false acceptance rate. Furthermore, in the second instance, a new method of automated palmar flexion crease recognition, that can be used to identify palmar flexion creases in online palmprint images, is described. A modified internal image seams algorithm was used to extract the flexion creases, and a matching algorithm, based on kd-tree nearest neighbour searching, was used to calculate the similarity between them. Results showed that in 1000 palmprint images from 100 palms, when compared to manually identified palmar flexion creases, a 100% genuine acceptance rate was achieved with a 0.0045% false acceptance rate. Finally, to determine if automated palmar flexion crease recognition can be used as an effective method of palmprint identification, palmar flexion creases from two online palmprint image data sets, containing images from 100 palms and 386 palms respectively, were automatically extracted and compared. In the first data set, that is, for images from 100 palms, an equal error rate of 0.3% was achieved. In the second data set, that is, for images from 386 palms, an equal error rate of 0.415% was achieved.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

ProDis-ContSHC: learning protein dissimilarity measures and hierarchical context coherently for protein-protein comparison in protein database retrieval

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The need to retrieve or classify protein molecules using structure or sequence-based similarity measures underlies a wide range of biomedical applications. Traditional protein search methods rely on a pairwise dissimilarity/similarity measure for comparing a pair of proteins. This kind of pairwise measures suffer from the limitation of neglecting the distribution of other proteins and thus cannot satisfy the need for high accuracy of the retrieval systems. Recent work in the machine learning community has shown that exploiting the global structure of the database and learning the contextual dissimilarity/similarity measures can improve the retrieval performance significantly. However, most existing contextual dissimilarity/similarity learning algorithms work in an unsupervised manner, which does not utilize the information of the known class labels of proteins in the database.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this paper, we propose a novel protein-protein dissimilarity learning algorithm, ProDis-ContSHC. ProDis-ContSHC regularizes an existing dissimilarity measure <it>d_ij</it>by considering the contextual information of the proteins. The context of a protein is defined by its neighboring proteins. The basic idea is, for a pair of proteins (<it>i</it>, <it>j</it>), if their context <inline-formula><m:math xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" name="1471-2105-13-S7-S2-i1"><m:mi mathvariant="script">N</m:mi><m:mrow><m:mo class="MathClass-open">(</m:mo><m:mrow><m:mi>i</m:mi></m:mrow><m:mo class="MathClass-close">)</m:mo></m:mrow></m:math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><m:math xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" name="1471-2105-13-S7-S2-i2"><m:mi mathvariant="script">N</m:mi><m:mrow><m:mo class="MathClass-open">(</m:mo><m:mrow><m:mi>j</m:mi></m:mrow><m:mo class="MathClass-close">)</m:mo></m:mrow></m:math></inline-formula> is similar to each other, the two proteins should also have a high similarity. We implement this idea by regularizing <it>d_ij</it>by a factor learned from the context <inline-formula><m:math xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" name="1471-2105-13-S7-S2-i3"><m:mi mathvariant="script">N</m:mi><m:mrow><m:mo class="MathClass-open">(</m:mo><m:mrow><m:mi>i</m:mi></m:mrow><m:mo class="MathClass-close">)</m:mo></m:mrow></m:math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><m:math xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" name="1471-2105-13-S7-S2-i4"><m:mi mathvariant="script">N</m:mi><m:mrow><m:mo class="MathClass-open">(</m:mo><m:mrow><m:mi>j</m:mi></m:mrow><m:mo class="MathClass-close">)</m:mo></m:mrow></m:math></inline-formula>.</p> <p>Moreover, we divide the context to hierarchial sub-context and get the contextual dissimilarity vector for each protein pair. Using the class label information of the proteins, we select the relevant (a pair of proteins that has the same class labels) and irrelevant (with different labels) protein pairs, and train an SVM model to distinguish between their contextual dissimilarity vectors. The SVM model is further used to learn a supervised regularizing factor. Finally, with the new <b>S</b>upervised learned <b>Dis</b>similarity measure, we update the <b>Pro</b>tein <b>H</b>ierarchial <b>Cont</b>ext <b>C</b>oherently in an iterative algorithm--<b>ProDis-ContSHC</b>.</p> <p>We test the performance of ProDis-ContSHC on two benchmark sets, i.e., the ASTRAL 1.73 database and the FSSP/DALI database. Experimental results demonstrate that plugging our supervised contextual dissimilarity measures into the retrieval systems significantly outperforms the context-free dissimilarity/similarity measures and other unsupervised contextual dissimilarity measures that do not use the class label information.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Using the contextual proteins with their class labels in the database, we can improve the accuracy of the pairwise dissimilarity/similarity measures dramatically for the protein retrieval tasks. In this work, for the first time, we propose the idea of supervised contextual dissimilarity learning, resulting in the ProDis-ContSHC algorithm. Among different contextual dissimilarity learning approaches that can be used to compare a pair of proteins, ProDis-ContSHC provides the highest accuracy. Finally, ProDis-ContSHC compares favorably with other methods reported in the recent literature.</p

Design For Movement: Block Pattern Design For Stretch Performancewear

This thesis is in 2 volumesPattern drafting techniques for woven block patterns have been well established. Applying existing techniques with modifications to generate patterns for modern stretch fabrics can be successful but it is often at a cost. In the development of a stretch pattern, an acceptable fit cannot be guaranteed merely by using a rationalised simple pattern profile shape. Producing a pattern, without darts, to closely adhere to the contours of the body without restricting movement, is a contradiction in design terms. In woven fabric, darts and ease are used to manipulate the fabric around the form and allow movement. However, in stretch knit fabric the development of a block pattern involves the synthesis of information from a variety of disciplines and requires a more specialist approach. This study has endeavoured to show that a new interpretation of pattern design principles is needed to create an improved stretch block pattern for stretch knit performancewear. This work has been refined based on a new method of classifying stretch fabric parameters and personal observation of the effect of stretch distortion characteristics and the changes that occur in the twodimensional pattern profile, when stretched to conform to the threedimensional body. The results of this study will provide a more SCientific and practical approach to assessing stretch fabric parameters as an integral part of block pattern design for stretch performancewear. The fabric stretch potential has been maximised to contour the body for optimum fit, providing comfort and mobility without the need for redistribution of the fabric when activity ceases. A method of creating a stretch block pattern from direct measurements to replicate the body shape and proportions was devised which can be reduplicated. This study addresses primarily the designer/pattern cutter who has a passion for good fit, which enhances comfort and mobility, who does not necessarily have a scientific background. However this study is relevant to the textile technologist concerned with proposing a standard to compare stretch fabrics for garment production. It should also appeal to the computer programmer concerned with the link between 3D body scanning and interpreting the body profile accurately in the 2D pattern draft

Engineering for a changing world: 60th Ilmenau Scientific Colloquium, Technische Universität Ilmenau, September 04-08, 2023 : programme

In 2023, the Ilmenau Scientific Colloquium is once more organised by the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The title of this year’s conference “Engineering for a Changing World” refers to limited natural resources of our planet, to massive changes in cooperation between continents, countries, institutions and people – enabled by the increased implementation of information technology as the probably most dominant driver in many fields. The Colloquium, supplemented by workshops, is characterised but not limited to the following topics: – Precision engineering and measurement technology Nanofabrication – Industry 4.0 and digitalisation in mechanical engineering – Mechatronics, biomechatronics and mechanism technology – Systems engineering – Productive teaming - Human-machine collaboration in the production environment The topics are oriented on key strategic aspects of research and teaching in Mechanical Engineering at our university

Faces and hands : modeling and animating anatomical and photorealistic models with regard to the communicative competence of virtual humans

In order to be believable, virtual human characters must be able to communicate in a human-like fashion realistically. This dissertation contributes to improving and automating several aspects of virtual conversations. We have proposed techniques to add non-verbal speech-related facial expressions to audiovisual speech, such as head nods for of emphasis. During conversation, humans experience shades of emotions much more frequently than the strong Ekmanian basic emotions. This prompted us to develop a method that interpolates between facial expressions of emotions to create new ones based on an emotion model. In the area of facial modeling, we have presented a system to generate plausible 3D face models from vague mental images. It makes use of a morphable model of faces and exploits correlations among facial features. The hands also play a major role in human communication. Since the basis for every realistic animation of gestures must be a convincing model of the hand, we devised a physics-based anatomical hand model, where a hybrid muscle model drives the animations. The model was used to visualize complex hand movement captured using multi-exposure photography.Um überzeugend zu wirken, müssen virtuelle Figuren auf dieselbe Art wie lebende Menschen kommunizieren können. Diese Dissertation hat das Ziel, verschiedene Aspekte virtueller Unterhaltungen zu verbessern und zu automatisieren. Wir führten eine Technik ein, die es erlaubt, audiovisuelle Sprache durch nichtverbale sprachbezogene Gesichtsausdrücke zu bereichern, wie z.B. Kopfnicken zur Betonung. Während einer Unterhaltung empfinden Menschen weitaus öfter Emotionsnuancen als die ausgeprägten Ekmanschen Basisemotionen. Dies bewog uns, eine Methode zu entwickeln, die Gesichtsausdrücke für neue Emotionen erzeugt, indem sie, ausgehend von einem Emotionsmodell, zwischen bereits bekannten Gesichtsausdrücken interpoliert. Auf dem Gebiet der Gesichtsmodellierung stellten wir ein System vor, um plausible 3D-Gesichtsmodelle aus vagen geistigen Bildern zu erzeugen. Dieses System basiert auf einem Morphable Model von Gesichtern und nutzt Korrelationen zwischen Gesichtszügen aus. Auch die Hände spielen ein große Rolle in der menschlichen Kommunikation. Da der Ausgangspunkt für jede realistische Animation von Gestik ein überzeugendes Handmodell sein muß, entwikkelten wir ein physikbasiertes anatomisches Handmodell, bei dem ein hybrides Muskelmodell die Animationen antreibt. Das Modell wurde verwendet, um komplexe Handbewegungen zu visualisieren, die aus mehrfach belichteten Photographien extrahiert worden waren

A research on footwear and foot interaction through anatomy and human engineering

Thesis (Master)--Izmir Institute of Technology, Industrial Design, Izmir, 2005Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 144)Text in English; Abstract: Turkish and Englishxix, 155 leavesThe main purpose of this thesis is to examine the footwear design from the human engineering point of view. Traditionally, the concern of the designer has mostly concerned to the form in footwear design field, but user and environment-conscious designer should think about the value and compatibility of the footwear to experience comfort, performance, safety and satisfaction during use. To develop the "Footwear Design" in a human centered way, the designer should be able to synthesis the datum of design that had been analyzed from the "Human Engineering. point of view and able to assess or evaluate which design solution is better and compatible for human mobility.The basic aim of this study is to help designers to comprehend the conceptual infrastructure of footwear and foot interaction such as anatomy, anthropometry, biomechanics, physical characteristics, and ergonomics.One of the main purposes of chapter 2 is to examine the every aspect of industrial product design from the human engineering point of view and in this context, the definition of footwear design elements.In chapter 3, the foot structure is analyzed from the anatomical, morphological and biomechanical point of view with respect to foot-footwear interaction and human engineering and the Failings of modern footwear design and its discordant features and detrimental manner for the foot natural characteristics are examined to attract the attention of the designers for perceiving the responsibility that they have.In chapter 4, there are two main sections which contain fundamental design criteria through foot- footwear interaction and ergonomic considerations. Then the innovative and affirmative characteristic of modern footwear design is analyzed to encourage the designer to design the better products to drive the footwear design to new heights with respect to human nature using appropriate materials and appropriate forms

Diagnostic role of systemic inflammation, blood coagulation and padua prediction score in lung thrombosis risk estimation in hospitalized patients with community-acquired pneumonia

Introduction: Some coagulation and thrombotic disorders during severe CAP could lead to some intravascular disorders and even be the reason of lethal end in hospitalized patients with CAP. But this fact hadn’t been established to the end yet.The aim was to study the intravascular changes in patients with severe CAP and to estimate the role of parameters of systemic inflammation (procalcitonin (PCT), C-reactive protein (CRP)), blood coagulation test (fibrinogen, D-dimer, heparin time, prothrombin time) and risk of thrombosis in patients with moderate and severe CAP.Materials and methods: The main group was 63 patients with moderate to severe CAP. The mean age was 54.0 [37.0–63.0] years old, men – 46 (73.0%)). Depending on the severity all patients of the main group were divided into 2 subgroups: subgroup 1 – 36 patients with moderate CAP (the mean age was 51.0 [32.5–62.5] years old, men – 29 (80.5%)), subgroup 2 – 27 patients with severe CAP (the mean age was 56.0 [46.0–68.0] years old, men – 17 (63.0%). Subgroups had no significant difference according to age (p=0,348) and sex (p=0,237). Received results were compared with values in control group. The control group was 10 healthy people (the mean age was 52.0 [35.6–62.0] years old, men – 5 (50.0%)).Results and conclusions: Patients with severe CAP had significantly higher levels of PCT, CRP, D-dimer, prothrombin time, heparin index and the lowest level of heparin time. This fact shows the highest risk of thrombosis in patients with severe CAP on the background of severe systemic inflammation. The mean level of scores by Padua scale in patients with severe CAP was 5.0 [5.0–6.0] scores, which was significantly higher than in patients with moderate CAP, who had 1.0 [1.0–2.0] scores.On autopsy of 5 died patients with severe CAP we found thrombosis of lung vessels which differ from embolism or post-mortem blood clots. These changes maybe reflect systemic thrombosis at patients with severe CAP and could be the reasons of increased mortality in this category of patients

D3.8 Final version of the personalization and positioning software tool with documentation. PIPER EU Project

The aim of this report is to provide an overview of the final version of the PIPER framework and application. The software, along with its documentation, and not the report, constitutes the main part of the deliverable. The software and documentation were already distributed at the Final Workshop and online (under the Open Source license GPLv2 or later for the software, and the GNU FDL 1.3 license for the documentation). The documentation includes detailed descriptions of the framework principles, user interface, metadata, along with the modules and their parameters. It also includes application scenarios (called workflows). Information about the use of the modules is complemented by Tutorials that were developed as part of WP1 (online on the wiki) and explanatory videos were developed as part of WP4 (videos of the final workshop, now available on YouTube). The headers in the source code files (also available online) list the main contributors to the software. The report will therefore not provide details about information that is already available elsewhere but will only provide a very brief summary of the functionalities available. Some of the descriptions are excerpts of the manual

NASA Tech Briefs, May 1994

Topics covered include: Robotics/Automation; Electronic Components and Circuits; Electronic Systems; Physical Sciences; Materials; Computer Programs; Mechanics; Machinery/Automation; Manufacturing/Fabrication; Mathematics and Information Sciences; Life Sciences; Books and Reports