Image Quality Assessment Using Spatial Frequency Component

Image quality assessment (IQA) is a crucial technique in perceptual image/video coding, because it is not only a ruler for performance evaluation of coding algorithms but also a metric for ratio-distortion optimization in coding. In this paper, inspired by the fact that distortions of both global and local information influence the perceptual image quality, we propose a novel IQA method that inspects these information in the spatial frequency components of the image. The distortion of the global information mostly existing in low spatial frequency is measured by a rectified mean absolute difference metric, and the distortion of the local information mostly existing in high spatial frequency is measured by SSIM. These two measurements are combined using a newly proposed abruptness weighting that describes the uniformity of the residual image. Experimental results on LIVE database show that the proposed metric outperforms the SSIM and achieves performance competitive with the state-of-the-art metrics. ? 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.EI

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X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, high-resolution X-ray diffraction and refractive index analyses of Ti-doped lithium niobate (Ti:LiNbO3) nonlinear optical single crystal

Congruent LiNbO3 single crystals with Ti ion dopants (2 and 5 mol%) were successfully grown by Czochralski technique in the automatic diameter control facility. As-grown crystal boules were oriented into (0 01) direction cut and optically polished for all measurements. Influence of Ti-ion incorporation into LiNbO3 was studied by core level XPS analysis. Powder X-ray diffraction studies were carried out on doped lithium niobate for phase identification. High-resolution X-ray diffraction technique was used to study the crystalline quality through full-width at half-maximum values. The refractive index values are more for doped samples than for pure sample as determined by prism coupling technique with different laser sources. © Indian Academy of Sciences

Managing Channel Profits: The Role of Managerial Incentives

The existing literature has examined how manufacturers can enhance profits by employing specific channel structures and channel coordination mechanisms. In this paper, we examine the implications of strategically designed managerial incentives for channel performance in a duopoly. We first analyze how equilibrium outcomes (especially manufacturer profits) are altered when the manufacturers provide their channel managers with strategically designed incentives. Following that, we examine how optimal channel structure decisions are altered when manufacturers provide their managers with strategic incentives, i.e., we examine how strategic incentives moderate optimal channel structure decisions. In contrast with the existing literature, we find that an asymmetric channel structure with one manufacturer employing a profit-maximizing retailer and the other integrated manufacturer providing strategic incentives for the channel manager in charge of pricing, is an equilibrium outcome under certain conditions. We then compare how the implications of strategic incentives differ from those of channel structure decisions and channel coordination initiatives, and discuss when and why strategic incentives yield superior outcomes from the manufacturer’s perspective. Our results shed light on the sparsely researched role of managerial incentives in the channel context. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, Inc. 2005game theory, channel strategy, strategic incentive design, channel structure, channel coordination, vertical integration,