Light field super resolution through controlled micro-shifts of light field sensor

Light field cameras enable new capabilities, such as post-capture refocusing and aperture control, through capturing directional and spatial distribution of light rays in space. Micro-lens array based light field camera design is often preferred due to its light transmission efficiency, cost-effectiveness and compactness. One drawback of the micro-lens array based light field cameras is low spatial resolution due to the fact that a single sensor is shared to capture both spatial and angular information. To address the low spatial resolution issue, we present a light field imaging approach, where multiple light fields are captured and fused to improve the spatial resolution. For each capture, the light field sensor is shifted by a pre-determined fraction of a micro-lens size using an XY translation stage for optimal performance

Spatial and Angular Resolution Enhancement of Light Fields Using Convolutional Neural Networks

Light field imaging extends the traditional photography by capturing both spatial and angular distribution of light, which enables new capabilities, including post-capture refocusing, post-capture aperture control, and depth estimation from a single shot. Micro-lens array (MLA) based light field cameras offer a cost-effective approach to capture light field. A major drawback of MLA based light field cameras is low spatial resolution, which is due to the fact that a single image sensor is shared to capture both spatial and angular information. In this paper, we present a learning based light field enhancement approach. Both spatial and angular resolution of captured light field is enhanced using convolutional neural networks. The proposed method is tested with real light field data captured with a Lytro light field camera, clearly demonstrating spatial and angular resolution improvement

WORTH A POMERANIAN GRENADIER'S BONES: THE BALKANS FROM 1877 TO 1914

Bismarck emphasized the insignificance of the Balkans for Germany's interests inhis famous quote "it is not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier".Butit could also be interpreted ashis way of avoiding the hardest dilemmas of Germany's geopolitical equation after Prussia defeated the French in 1870.His twoallies against French revanchism, Austria and Russia had conflicting interests inthe Balkans as Ottoman power was falling apart.They were watching over suspiciously each other while spoils of Turkey in Europe were up for grabs. This redesigning process of the region would continue for 35 years without triggering a major conflict. However the general European balance that absorbed the shock semanating from the region collapsed in July 1914 giving way to global scale warfare. In this paper, we will try to see why a region, seemingly of secondary importance to most of the global players, triggered a war that required so much sacrifice. Why did the major powers, which were adept at containing local conflicts before, let the events slip out of control in 1914? Was it the increasing significance of the region for them that they were less willing to compromise each time, or was it the disastrous result of failure of diplomacy

Simulation Of Modeling Sortie Generation Process In TURAF

Simulation is a useful technique for engineers and operations researchers. One of the primary advantages of simulation models is that they are able to provide users with practical feedback when analyzing real-world systems. This thesis builds a discrete event simulation of the sortıe generatıon process, to help decision makers in performing analyses regarding quantity of manpower, bottlenecks in supply and maintenance activities; as well as utilization of maintenance manpower, cost and number of sorties produced in a specific time. We only model one aircraft system with four Line Replacement Units (LRU), but any system and its LRUs can be included in our simulation. Our analysis focuses on eight Measures of Effectiveness (MOE) from our simulation. The final simulation provides a reasonable representation of many, but not all, characteristics of the sortie generation process. It is a preliminary simulation tool for further research on the sortie generation process in the Turkish Air Force, and provides decision-makers with the ability to analyze the sortie generation process in support of future decisions

Global Renewable and Nonrenewable Energy Use Impact Assessment of U.S. Manufacturing: An Integrated Cradle-to-Gate LCA and DEA Approach

In this thesis, U.S. manufacturing industries` global supply chain-linked energy use and economic output are investigated considering a total of 16 renewable and nonrenewable energy carriers. A multiregion input output (MRIO) framework is employed to conduct the global supply chain-linked energy use impact assessment. The study period was between 1995 and 2014 based on data availability. Thus, 20 MRIO models were developed. Each MRIO model consists of the 40 largest economies of the world and the rest of the world (ROW) as the 41st country. Each country’s economy was structured into 35 manufacturing and service industries based on the Worth Input Output Database’s (WIOD) classification. The U.S. manufacturing industries’ economic output and detailed renewable and nonrenewable energy used are traced at the onsite (direct) impact and domestic and global supply chain (indirect) levels. Results indicated that food, beverages and tobacco industries were the main contributors to total economic output. Mining, quarrying, chemical and chemical products industries were identified in the second and third place, respectively, based on their total economic output percentage in 2014. Furthermore, U.S. manufacturing industries’ energy use was found to be heavily dependent on nonrenewable energy sources at 95.4%. Thus, only 4.6% of the total energy use was from renewable energy sources during 1995 to 2014. Subsequently, the renewable and nonrenewable energy use of the U.S. manufacturing activities were quantified with MRIO models. The renewable and nonrenewable energy use of industries and countries were benchmarked with Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The objective of benchmarking was to identify the countries and industries with the ratio of renewable energy use to the nonrenewable energy use in the global supply chains. Two benchmarking measures were proposed in the DEA phase, renewability ratio (RR) and economic-output-induced renewability ratio (E-RR). These two measures are used to conduct the benchmarking analysis on countries and industries and rank them based on the corresponding efficiency scores for every 5-year period between 1995 and 2014. High efficiency scores found for industries which use less nonrenewable energy and high renewable energy such as gas and water supply (EGW), private households with employed persons (PHEP), other community and social and personal services (OCSPS) for the RR analysis. Furthermore, the least five efficient countries were found to be Indonesia, Russian Federation, Romania, Bulgaria and Lithuania, respectively. The RR measure was more conservative in identifying and scoring the industries and countries in terms of ratio of renewable to nonrenewable energy use. On the other hand, the E-RR approach was found to be more optimistic in terms of efficiency scores since the industries’ economic output was considered in addition to the ratio of renewable to nonrenewable energy use impact

Congener specific analysis of polychlorinated terphenyls

In order to identify and to quantify polychlorinated terphenyls (PCT) in environmental matrices, the chro- matographic behavior of coplanar and non-coplanar congeners was evaluated. A mixture of 16 single PCT congeners was used for method development. Four of these compounds were synthesized for the first time by SUZUKI-coupling reaction. These were p-PCT (2,200 ,6,600 -tetrachloro-, 20 ,3,300 ,4,400 ,50 ,-hexachloro-, 20 ,3,300 ,5,50 ,500 -hexachloro-) and m-PCT (2,200 ,3,300 ,5,500 -hexachloro-). They were characterized by NMR ( 1 H, 13 C) spectroscopy. By means of the new column chromatographic clean-up reported here, a good matrix removal and the separation of the coplanar PCT congeners from the non-coplanar ones was obtained. The recovery rates for all congeners were good for the PCT in different test matrices like fat, charcoal, and soil. The quality of the clean-up, the separation and the recovery rates were determined by GC/MS analysis. The method was applied for the first time to a real sample from a fire accident, where different PCT, obviously formed during the combustion process, were found. The conclusion is drawn that this method is suitable for the analysis of PCT in different environmental samples