Ground Water Monitoring System and Procedures at Kin-Buc I Landfill Middlesex County New Jersey

37 pages (includes illustrations and map)

Invariant-based Mapping of Space During General Motion of an Observer

This paper explores visual motion-based invariants, resulting in a new instantaneous domain where: a) the stationary environment is perceived as unchanged, even as the 2D images undergo continuous changes due to camera motion, b) obstacles can be detected and potentially avoided in specific subspaces, and c) moving objects can potentially be detected. To achieve this, we make use of nonlinear functions derived from measurable optical flow, which are linked to geometric 3D invariants. We present simulations involving a camera that translates and rotates relative to a 3D object, capturing snapshots of the camera projected images. We show that the object appears unchanged in the new domain over time. We process real data from the KITTI dataset and demonstrate how to segment space to identify free navigational regions and detect obstacles within a predetermined subspace. Additionally, we present preliminary results, based on the KITTI dataset, on the identification and segmentation of moving objects, as well as the visualization of shape constancy. This representation is straightforward, relying on functions for the simple de-rotation of optical flow. This representation only requires a single camera, it is pixel-based, making it suitable for parallel processing, and it eliminates the necessity for 3D reconstruction techniques

Laser-Assisted Removal of Aspirated Thumbtacks by Flexible Bronchoscopy

Background. Aspirated thumbtacks are difficult to extract as the sharp edge of the thumbtack often is well imbedded within bronchial wall and its removal is technically demanding and may cause complications such as bronchial mucosal tear and bronchial wall perforation. These sharp metal objects are commonly removed using rigid bronchoscopy since their removal through flexible bronchoscopy is considered to be dangerous. Objectives. To describe a technique for removal of sharp aspirated metal objects employing laser through flexible bronchoscopy. Methods. We report two patients in whom a new technique for removal of sharp aspirated metal objects utilizing Nd-Yag laser flexible bronchoscopy was used. Results. Successful and uncomplicated removal of the aspirated thumbpack by flexible bronchoscopy under conscious sedation was accomplished in the two patients described. Both patients were discharged within 24 hours. Conclusions. In patients with aspirated thumbtack laser-assisted breakage of the object through flexible bronchoscopy may obviate the need for rigid bronchoscopy or thoracotomy

Raised erythrocyte creatine in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension – Evidence for subclinical hemolysis

SummaryBackgroundPulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) has been associated with hemolytic conditions such as sickle cell disease but the possible role of hemolysis in the pathogenesis or pathophysiology of other forms of PAH has not been studied. Erythrocyte lifespan is the gold-standard test of hemolysis and may be measured by assaying erythrocyte creatine (EC) levels. EC decreases as the erythrocyte ages, so patients with hemolysis have high EC levels.MethodsWe measured EC and other parameters of hemolysis in patients with idiopathic and connective tissue associated PAH and normal controls.ResultsIn patients with PAH (n = 40), EC levels were higher than in controls n = 30 (patients EC 1.72 mcmol/g HgB 95%CI[1.51, 1.96], controls EC 1.05 mcmol/g HgB [0.93, 1.19], p < 0.0001). High levels of EC correlated with worse 6 min walk (r = −0.42, p < 0.0001) and worse functional class (p = 0.002). Other indirect indices of hemolysis (total lactate dehydrogenase, red cell distribution width) were also increased in patients with PAH relative to controls.ConclusionsThere is evidence of subclinical hemolysis in patients with PAH, and higher levels of hemolysis are associated with poorer exercise capacity

Fluid and Diffusion Limits for Bike Sharing Systems

Bike sharing systems have rapidly developed around the world, and they are served as a promising strategy to improve urban traffic congestion and to decrease polluting gas emissions. So far performance analysis of bike sharing systems always exists many difficulties and challenges under some more general factors. In this paper, a more general large-scale bike sharing system is discussed by means of heavy traffic approximation of multiclass closed queueing networks with non-exponential factors. Based on this, the fluid scaled equations and the diffusion scaled equations are established by means of the numbers of bikes both at the stations and on the roads, respectively. Furthermore, the scaling processes for the numbers of bikes both at the stations and on the roads are proved to converge in distribution to a semimartingale reflecting Brownian motion (SRBM) in a $N^{2}$-dimensional box, and also the fluid and diffusion limit theorems are obtained. Furthermore, performance analysis of the bike sharing system is provided. Thus the results and methodology of this paper provide new highlight in the study of more general large-scale bike sharing systems.Comment: 34 pages, 1 figure

A theoretical and numerical study of a phase field higher-order active contour model of directed networks.

We address the problem of quasi-automatic extraction of directed networks, which have characteristic geometric features, from images. To include the necessary prior knowledge about these geometric features, we use a phase field higher-order active contour model of directed networks. The model has a large number of unphysical parameters (weights of energy terms), and can favour different geometric structures for different parameter values. To overcome this problem, we perform a stability analysis of a long, straight bar in order to find parameter ranges that favour networks. The resulting constraints necessary to produce stable networks eliminate some parameters, replace others by physical parameters such as network branch width, and place lower and upper bounds on the values of the rest. We validate the theoretical analysis via numerical experiments, and then apply the model to the problem of hydrographic network extraction from multi-spectral VHR satellite images

A Graph Theoretic Approach for Object Shape Representation in Compositional Hierarchies Using a Hybrid Generative-Descriptive Model

A graph theoretic approach is proposed for object shape representation in a hierarchical compositional architecture called Compositional Hierarchy of Parts (CHOP). In the proposed approach, vocabulary learning is performed using a hybrid generative-descriptive model. First, statistical relationships between parts are learned using a Minimum Conditional Entropy Clustering algorithm. Then, selection of descriptive parts is defined as a frequent subgraph discovery problem, and solved using a Minimum Description Length (MDL) principle. Finally, part compositions are constructed by compressing the internal data representation with discovered substructures. Shape representation and computational complexity properties of the proposed approach and algorithms are examined using six benchmark two-dimensional shape image datasets. Experiments show that CHOP can employ part shareability and indexing mechanisms for fast inference of part compositions using learned shape vocabularies. Additionally, CHOP provides better shape retrieval performance than the state-of-the-art shape retrieval methods.Comment: Paper : 17 pages. 13th European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV 2014), Zurich, Switzerland, September 6-12, 2014, Proceedings, Part III, pp 566-581. Supplementary material can be downloaded from http://link.springer.com/content/esm/chp:10.1007/978-3-319-10578-9_37/file/MediaObjects/978-3-319-10578-9_37_MOESM1_ESM.pd

Application of the cross-entropy method to the buffer allocation problem in a simulation-based environment

The buffer allocation problem (BAP) is a well-known difficult problem in the design of production lines. We present a stochastic algorithm for solving the BAP, based on the cross-entropy method, a new paradigm for stochastic optimization. The algorithm involves the following iterative steps: (a) the generation of buffer allocations according to a certain random mechanism, followed by (b) the modification of this mechanism on the basis of cross-entropy minimization. Through various numerical experiments we demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm and show that the method can quickly generate (near-)optimal buffer allocations for fairly large production lines

Towards on-chip tunable nanolasers based on optomechanical zipper cavities

Work towards semiconductor nanolasers at λ = 1.3 μm in optomechanically coupled one dimensional photonic-crystal cavities is presented. Optical mode spectroscopy and on-chip tuning capability based on capacitive actuation is developed. Experimental and theoretical results are presented