Comparative analysis of methods for the log boundaries isolation

The scrutiny of boundaries isolation methods is presented in this paper. The newly developed algorithms, based on regression analysis and integral projection are compared with Hough transform in order to analyze their effectiveness for the specific problem of moving logs control. The comparative analysis of the methods was carried out on the database of images obtained from video sequence of real industrial process by the criteria of accuracy and operation speed. Results of the test show that the line-by-line scanning method with posterior LOWESS regression analysis has the best accuracy. However, the best appropriate for the implementation in the real-time control systems based on machine vision technology is consecutive line selection method due to its reasonable accuracy and impressive performance

A Statistical Modeling Approach to Computer-Aided Quantification of Dental Biofilm

Biofilm is a formation of microbial material on tooth substrata. Several methods to quantify dental biofilm coverage have recently been reported in the literature, but at best they provide a semi-automated approach to quantification with significant input from a human grader that comes with the graders bias of what are foreground, background, biofilm, and tooth. Additionally, human assessment indices limit the resolution of the quantification scale; most commercial scales use five levels of quantification for biofilm coverage (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%). On the other hand, current state-of-the-art techniques in automatic plaque quantification fail to make their way into practical applications owing to their inability to incorporate human input to handle misclassifications. This paper proposes a new interactive method for biofilm quantification in Quantitative light-induced fluorescence (QLF) images of canine teeth that is independent of the perceptual bias of the grader. The method partitions a QLF image into segments of uniform texture and intensity called superpixels; every superpixel is statistically modeled as a realization of a single 2D Gaussian Markov random field (GMRF) whose parameters are estimated; the superpixel is then assigned to one of three classes (background, biofilm, tooth substratum) based on the training set of data. The quantification results show a high degree of consistency and precision. At the same time, the proposed method gives pathologists full control to post-process the automatic quantification by flipping misclassified superpixels to a different state (background, tooth, biofilm) with a single click, providing greater usability than simply marking the boundaries of biofilm and tooth as done by current state-of-the-art methods.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics 2014. keywords: {Biomedical imaging;Calibration;Dentistry;Estimation;Image segmentation;Manuals;Teeth}, http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6758338&isnumber=636350

Automatic active acoustic target detection in turbulent aquatic environments

This work is funded by the Environment and Food Security theme Ph.D. studentship from the University of Aberdeen, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra grant NE/J004308/1), and the Marine Collaboration Research Forum (MarCRF). We would like to gratefully acknowledge the support from colleagues at Marine Scotland Science.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Phylogeography of New Zealand’s coastal benthos

During the past 30 years, 42 molecular studies have been undertaken in New Zealand to examine the phylogeography of coastal benthic invertebrates and plants. Here, we identify generalities and/or patterns that have emerged from this research and consider the processes implicated in generating genetic structure within populations. Studies have used various molecular markers and examined taxonomic groups with a range of life histories and dispersal strategies. Genetic disjunctions have been identified at multiple locations, with the most frequently observed division occurring between northern and southern populations at the top of the South Island. Although upwelling has been implicated as a cause of this disjunction, oceanographic evidence is lacking and alternative hypotheses exist. A significant negative correlation between larval duration and genetic differentiation (r2 = 0.39, P < 0.001, n = 29) across all studies suggests that larval duration might be used as a proxy for dispersal potential. However, among taxa with short larval durations (<10 days) there was greater variability in genetic differentiation than among taxa with longer pelagic periods. This variability implies that when larval duration is short, other factors may determine dispersal and connectivity among populations. Although there has been little congruence between the phylogeographic data and recognised biogeographic regions, recent research has resolved population subdivision at finer spatial scales corresponding more closely with existing biogeographic classifications. The use of fast-evolving and ecologically significant molecular markers in hypothesis-driven research could further improve our ability to detect population subdivision and identify the processes structuring marine ecosystems

Speaker Normalization Methods for Vowel Cognition: Comparative Analysis Using Neural Network and Nearest Neighbor Classifiers

Intrinsic and extrinsic speaker normalization methods are systematically compared using a neural network (fuzzy ARTMAP) and L1 and L2 K-Nearest Neighbor (K-NN) categorizers trained and tested on disjoint sets of speakers of the Peterson-Barney vowel database. Intrinsic methods include one nonscaled, four psychophysical scales (bark, bark with endcorrection, mel, ERB), and three log scales, each tested on four combinations of F0 , F1, F2, F3. Extrinsic methods include four speaker adaptation schemes, each combined with the 32 intrinsic methods: centroid subtraction across all frequencies (CS), centroid subtraction for each frequency (CSi), linear scale (LS), and linear transformation (LT). ARTMAP and KNN show similar trends, with K-NN performing better, but requiring about ten times as much memory. The optimal intrinsic normalization method is bark scale, or bark with endcorrection, using the differences between all frequencies (Diff All). The order of performance for the extrinsic methods is LT, CSi, LS, and CS, with fuzzy ARTMAP performing best using bark scale with Diff All; and K-NN choosing psychophysical measures for all except CSi.British Petroleum (89-A-1204); Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (AFOSR-90-0083, ONR-N00014-92-J-4015); National Science Foundation (IRI-90-00530); Office of Naval Research (N00014-91-J-4100); Air Force Office of Scientific Research (F49620-92-J-0225

Geospatial Analysis of Rickettsial Species

Rickettsia species are obligate intracellular, arthropod-borne bacteria with a potential to cause multiple diseases including Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF). Fleas, mites, and ticks serve as vectors for Rickettsia, but ticks are the primary vector of interest. RMSF and other rickettsial diseases have continued to gain importance in both human and veterinary medicine as RMSF is the most common tick-borne disease within the United States according to the Lyme and Tick-Borne Disease Research Center. A statewide citizen science project was utilized to determine the prevalence of Spotted Fever Group (SFG) Rickettsia in Arkansas. This project yielded results in 64 of Arkansas’s 75 counties. Results were utilized to determine prevalence in each of the represented counties, and then compiled into a geospatial representation of the data. It was determined that 34.32% of the ticks sampled were carriers of one or more rickettsial species. As the samples were divided by county, multiple counties were shown to have concerningly high exposure risk for SFG Rickettsia. There were six species of ticks represented throughout this study with Amblyomma americanum being the most common. There were also six species of Spotted Fever Group Rickettsia found within the samples. The small portion of ticks that underwent further analysis to determine the specific rickettsial species present, indicated that Rickettsia amblyommatis is likely the most common SFG Rickettsia in Arkansas

A High Quality Text-To-Speech System Composed of Multiple Neural Networks

While neural networks have been employed to handle several different text-to-speech tasks, ours is the first system to use neural networks throughout, for both linguistic and acoustic processing. We divide the text-to-speech task into three subtasks, a linguistic module mapping from text to a linguistic representation, an acoustic module mapping from the linguistic representation to speech, and a video module mapping from the linguistic representation to animated images. The linguistic module employs a letter-to-sound neural network and a postlexical neural network. The acoustic module employs a duration neural network and a phonetic neural network. The visual neural network is employed in parallel to the acoustic module to drive a talking head. The use of neural networks that can be retrained on the characteristics of different voices and languages affords our system a degree of adaptability and naturalness heretofore unavailable.Comment: Source link (9812006.tar.gz) contains: 1 PostScript file (4 pages) and 3 WAV audio files. If your system does not support Windows WAV files, try a tool like "sox" to translate the audio into a format of your choic

Assumption 0 analysis: comparative phylogenetic studies in the age of complexity

Darwin's panoramic view of biology encompassed two metaphors: the phylogenetic tree, pointing to relatively linear (and divergent) complexity, and the tangled bank, pointing to reticulated (and convergent) complexity. The emergence of phylogenetic systematics half a century ago made it possible to investigate linear complexity in biology. Assumption 0, first proposed in 1986, is not needed for cases of simple evolutionary patterns, but must be invoked when there are complex evolutionary patterns whose hallmark is reticulated relationships. A corollary of Assumption 0, the duplication convention, was proposed in 1990, permitting standard phylogenetic systematic ontology to be used in discovering reticulated evolutionary histories. In 2004, a new algorithm, phylogenetic analysis for comparing trees (PACT), was developed specifically for use in analyses invoking Assumption 0. PACT can help discern complex evolutionary explanations for historical biogeographical, coevolutionary, phylogenetic, and tokogenetic processe

Identification of Structural Variation in Chimpanzees Using Optical Mapping and Nanopore Sequencing.

Recent efforts to comprehensively characterize great ape genetic diversity using short-read sequencing and single-nucleotide variants have led to important discoveries related to selection within species, demographic history, and lineage-specific traits. Structural variants (SVs), including deletions and inversions, comprise a larger proportion of genetic differences between and within species, making them an important yet understudied source of trait divergence. Here, we used a combination of long-read and -range sequencing approaches to characterize the structural variant landscape of two additional Pan troglodytes verus individuals, one of whom carries 13% admixture from Pan troglodytes troglodytes. We performed optical mapping of both individuals followed by nanopore sequencing of one individual. Filtering for larger variants (&gt;10 kbp) and combined with genotyping of SVs using short-read data from the Great Ape Genome Project, we identified 425 deletions and 59 inversions, of which 88 and 36, respectively, were novel. Compared with gene expression in humans, we found a significant enrichment of chimpanzee genes with differential expression in lymphoblastoid cell lines and induced pluripotent stem cells, both within deletions and near inversion breakpoints. We examined chromatin-conformation maps from human and chimpanzee using these same cell types and observed alterations in genomic interactions at SV breakpoints. Finally, we focused on 56 genes impacted by SVs in &gt;90% of chimpanzees and absent in humans and gorillas, which may contribute to chimpanzee-specific features. Sequencing a greater set of individuals from diverse subspecies will be critical to establish the complete landscape of genetic variation in chimpanzees