Advanced study of video signal processing in low signal to noise environments Quarterly progress report, Oct. 1969 - Jan. 1970

Video signal processing in low signal to noise environment

Damage and repair classification in reinforced concrete beams using frequency domain data

This research aims at developing a new vibration-based damage classification technique that can efficiently be applied to a real-time large data. Statistical pattern recognition paradigm is relevant to perform a reliable site-location damage diagnosis system. By adopting such paradigm, the finite element and other inverse models with their intensive computations, corrections and inherent inaccuracies can be avoided. In this research, a two-stage combination between principal component analysis and Karhunen-Loéve transformation (also known as canonical correlation analysis) was proposed as a statistical-based damage classification technique. Vibration measurements from frequency domain were tested as possible damage-sensitive features. The performance of the proposed system was tested and verified on real vibration measurements collected from five laboratory-scale reinforced concrete beams modelled with various ranges of defects. The results of the system helped in distinguishing between normal and damaged patterns in structural vibration data. Most importantly, the system further dissected reasonably each main damage group into subgroups according to their severity of damage. Its efficiency was conclusively proved on data from both frequency response functions and response-only functions. The outcomes of this two-stage system showed a realistic detection and classification and outperform results from the principal component analysis-only. The success of this classification model is substantially tenable because the observed clusters come from well-controlled and known state conditions

Bibliography of the literature on thermal fatigue

Annotated bibliography on thermal fatigu

Advanced study of video signal processing in low signal to noise environments

The frame to frame correlation properties of the video process are utilized to reduce the mean squared error of the demodulated video where zero mean noise is a factor. An interpolative estimator is used for continuous estimation with the output process delayed in time by one frame. Theoretical development shows that for the model herein developed reduction of the mean squared error by 1.0 to 4.0 db possible for parameter ranges of interest. Interpolative estimation using inter-frame correlation properties of a video process is then applied to the Apollo 17 parameters to yield a model for application on that mission

Guillermo Enrique Hudson : Un naturalista en el Plata

Un grato acontecimiento constituye durante el presente año la exhibición temporaria “Guillermo Enrique Hudson, Un Naturalista en el Plata”, que se presenta en la Sala XII de nuestro Museo. Su realización, propiciada por la División Zoología Vertebrados, tuvo como objetivos promover en las nuevas generaciones el conocimiento de la vida y la obra de Hudson, y mantener vigente en nuestra institución la deuda de gratitud que sucesivas promociones de naturalistas tienen con este escritor, en el que se fusionaron como en ningún otro las condiciones del científico y del artista creador, y cuya obra contiene algunas de las páginas más auténticas, profundas y representativas de nuestra pampa.Fundación Museo La Plat

Approaching community-level greywater managementin non-sewered settlements in South Africa

This study investigates sustainable options for community-level management of greywater in low-income settlements without on-site waterborne sanitation in South Africa. As a consequence of the limited resource base of both the local authorities and the inhabitants of the settlements, these options need to be inexpensive, technologically simple and socially acceptable. A variety of social and technological options are thus being implemented in collaboration with the inhabitants and the local authorities, and their efficacy evaluated. The hypothesis is that involving the inhabitants in the development of solutions is likely to be more effective in the management of greywater in these settlements than the traditional approach where the local authorities provide rudimentary engineered services after minimal consultation. Following an initial scoping study that covered six of the nine provinces of South Africa, four settlements in the Western Cape Province were selected for a second, more detailed study. The study employs the Participatory Action Research (PAR) method which emphasises participation, collaboration and consensual decision-making with the goal of ensuring long term sustainability of social and technological interventions

Evaluation of molecular makers for species phylogeny of genus Acropora (Cnidaria; Scleractinia; Acroporidae)

Acropora is the most speciose genus in coral reef with 113 species currently described. Diversified morphology and potential of cross-species hybridization have drawn our attention in defining the species boundary, constructing species-level phylogeny, and inferring mechanism of speciation for this genus. Although endeavours have been taking in developing molecular markers in the last decade, several unique features such as slow evolution of mitochondrial genome and abundant ribosomal pseudogenes of Acropora neither provide little resolution for phylogenetic inference, nor equivocal conclusions in contrast to phylogenies based on fossil records and morphological characters. In this study, we evaluated 4 molecular markers, including mitochondrial cytochrome b gene (Cytb), mitochondrial intergenic spacer spanning between Cytb and ND gene (mtigs), mini-collagen intron 2 (mci2), and nuclear histone 2a and 2b gene (H2ab), for constructing species phylogeny of genus Acropora. All the 4 loci supported the two subgenera, lsopora and Acropora, as two distinct evolutionary lineages, and relocated Acropora togianensis as the fifth species in the• subgenus lsopora. However, Cytb, mtigs, and mci2 suffering from either low variability or sharing unsorted polymorphisms between the Caribbean and Indo-Pacific species provided no further resolution in resolving phylogeny in subgenus Acropora. In contrast, phylogeny constructed based on h2ab gene using Bayesian approach supported, in part, to Wallace (1999), that A. humilis group and A. austera form the basal clades of morphological phylogeny. The utility of nuclear coding genes in. resolving. species phylogeny of Acropora is highlighted