Noise Power Spectrum Scene-Dependency in Simulated Image Capture Systems

The Noise Power Spectrum (NPS) is a standard measure for image capture system noise. It is derived traditionally from captured uniform luminance patches that are unrepresentative of pictorial scene signals. Many contemporary capture systems apply non- linear content-aware signal processing, which renders their noise scene-dependent. For scene-dependent systems, measuring the NPS with respect to uniform patch signals fails to characterize with accuracy: i) system noise concerning a given input scene, ii) the average system noise power in real-world applications. The scene- and-process-dependent NPS (SPD-NPS) framework addresses these limitations by measuring temporally varying system noise with respect to any given input signal. In this paper, we examine the scene-dependency of simulated camera pipelines in-depth by deriving SPD-NPSs from fifty test scenes. The pipelines apply either linear or non-linear denoising and sharpening, tuned to optimize output image quality at various opacity levels and exposures. Further, we present the integrated area under the mean of SPD-NPS curves over a representative scene set as an objective system noise metric, and their relative standard deviation area (RSDA) as a metric for system noise scene-dependency. We close by discussing how these metrics can also be computed using scene-and-process- dependent Modulation Transfer Functions (SPD-MTF)

Rotational spectrum of cis–cis HOONO

The pure rotational spectrum of cis-cis peroxynitrous acid, HOONO, has been observed. Over 220 transitions, sampling states up to J(')=67 and K-a(')=31, have been fitted with an rms uncertainty of 48.4 kHz. The experimentally determined rotational constants agree well with ab initio values for the cis-cis conformer, a five-membered ring formed by intramolecular hydrogen bonding. The small, positive inertial defect Delta=0.075667(60) amu A(2) and lack of any observable torsional splittings in the spectrum indicate that cis-cis HOONO exists in a well-defined planar structure at room temperature

Rotational spectroscopy and dipole moment of cis-cis HOONO and DOONO

The rotational spectrum of cis-cis HOONO has been studied over a broad range of frequencies, 13–840 GHz, using pulsed beam Fourier-transform microwave spectroscopy and room-temperature flow cell submillimeter spectroscopy. The rotational spectrum of the deuterated isotopomer, cis-cis DOONO, has been studied over a subset of this range, 84–640 GHz. Improved spectroscopic constants have been determined for HOONO, and the DOONO spectrum is analyzed for the first time. Weak-field Stark effect measurements in the region of 84–110 GHz have been employed to determine the molecular dipole moments of cis-cis HOONO [µa=0.542(8) D,µb=0.918(15) D,µ=1.07(2) D] and DOONO [µa=0.517(9) D,µb=0.930(15) D,µ=1.06(2) D]. The quadrupole coupling tensor in the principal inertial axis system for the 14N nucleus has been determined to be chiaa=1.4907(25) MHz,chibb=–4.5990(59) MHz,chiab=3.17(147) MHz, and chicc=3.1082(59) MHz. Coordinates of the H atom in the center-of-mass frame have been determined with use of the Kraitchman equations, |aH|=0.516 Å and |bH|=1.171 Å. The inertial defects of HOONO and DOONO are consistent with a planar equilibrium structure with significant out-of-plane H atom torsional motion. Comparisons of the present results are made to ab initio calculations

QED in strong, finite-flux magnetic fields

Lower bounds are placed on the fermionic determinants of Euclidean quantum electrodynamics in two and four dimensions in the presence of a smooth, finite-flux, static, unidirectional magnetic field $B(r) =(0,0,B(r))$, where $B(r) \geq 0$ or $B(r) \leq 0$, and $r$ is a point in the xy-plane.Comment: 10 pages, postscript (in uuencoded compressed tar file

Speculative bubbles in Bitcoin markets? An empirical investigation into the fundamental value of Bitcoin

Amid its rapidly increasing usage and immense public interest the subject of Bitcoin has raised profound economic and societal issues. In this paper we undertake economic and econometric modelling of Bitcoin prices. As with many asset classes we show that Bitcoin exhibits speculative bubbles. Further, we find empirical evidence that the fundamental price of Bitcoin is zero

Constraints on Galaxy Bias, Matter Density, and Primordial Non--Gausianity from the PSCz Galaxy Redshift Survey

We compute the bispectrum for the \IRAS PSCz catalog and find that the galaxy distribution displays the characteristic signature of gravity. Assuming Gaussian initial conditions, we obtain galaxy biasing parameters $1/b_1=1.20^{+0.18}_{-0.19}$ and $b_2/b_1^2=-0.42\pm0.19$, with no sign of scale-dependent bias for $k\leq 0.3$ h/Mpc. These results impose stringent constraints on non-Gaussian initial conditions. For dimensional scaling models with $\chi^2_N$ statistics, we find N>49, which implies a constraint on primordial skewness $B_3<0.35$.Comment: 4 pages, 3 embedded figures, uses revtex style file, minor changes to reflect published versio