THE USE OF SIMILARITY IMAGES ON MULTI-SENSOR AUTOMATIC IMAGE REGISTRATION

Automatic image registration (AIR) is still a present challenge regarding remote sensing applications. Although several methods have been proposed in the last few years, geometric correction is often a time and effort consuming manual task. The only AIR method which is commonly used is the correlation-based template matching method. It usually consists on considering a window from one image and passing it throughout the other, looking for a maximum of correlation, which may be associated to the displacement between the two images. This approach leads sometimes (for example with multi-sensor image registration) to low correlation coefficient values, which do not give sufficient confidence to associate the peak of correlation to the correct displacement between the images. Furthermore, the peak of correlation is several times too flat or ambiguous, since more than one local peak may occur. Recently, we have tested a new approach, which shortly consists on the identification of a brighter diagonal on a "similarity image". The displacement of this brighter diagonal to the main diagonal corresponds to the displacement in each axis. In this work, we explored the potential of using the "similarity images" instead of the classical "similarity surface", considering both correlation coefficient and mutual information measures. Our experiments were performed on some multi-sensor pairs of images with medium (Landsat and ASTER) and high (IKONOS, ALOS-PRISM and orthophotos) spatial resolution, where a subpixel accuracy was mostly obtained. It was also shown that the application of a low-pass filtering prior to the similarity measures computation, allows for a significant increase of the similarity measures, reinforcing the strength of this methodology in multi-spectral, multi-sensor and multi-temporal situations

In vitro cytocidal effects of the essential oil from Croton cajucara (red sacaca) and its major constituent 7- hydroxycalamenene against Leishmania chagasi.

Visceral leishmaniasis is the most serious form of leishmaniasis and can be lethal if left untreated. Currently available treatments for these parasitic diseases are frequently associated to severe side effects. The leaves of Croton cajucara are used as an infusion in popular medicine to combat several diseases. Previous studies have demonstrated that the linalool-rich essential oil from C. cajucara (white sacaca) is extremely efficient against the tegumentary specie Leishmania amazonensis. In this study, we investigated the effects of the 7-hydroxycalamenene-rich essential oil from the leaves of C. cajucara (red sacaca) against Leishmania chagasi, as well as on the interaction of these parasites with host cells

A new living lab for usability evaluation of ICT and next generation networks for elderly@home

Living Usability Lab for Next Generation Networks (www.livinglab.pt) is a Portuguese industry-academia collaborative R&D project, active in the field of live usability testing, focusing on the development of technologies and services to support healthy, productive and active citizens. The project adopts the principles of universal design and natural user interfaces (speech, gesture) making use of the benefits of next generation networks and distributed computing. Therefore, it will have impact on the general population, including the elderly and citizens with permanent or situational special needs. This paper presents project motivations, conceptual model, architecture and work in progress.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Fumaric acid production by fermentation

The potential of fumaric acid as a raw material in the polymer industry and the increment of cost of petroleum-based fumaric acid raises interest in fermentation processes for production of this compound from renewable resources. Although the chemical process yields 112% w/w fumaric acid from maleic anhydride and the fermentation process yields only 85% w/w from glucose, the latter raw material is three times cheaper. Besides, the fermentation fixes CO2. Production of fumaric acid by Rhizopus species and the involved metabolic pathways are reviewed. Submerged fermentation systems coupled with product recovery techniques seem to have achieved economically attractive yields and productivities. Future prospects for improvement of fumaric acid production include metabolic engineering approaches to achieve low pH fermentations

Amerindian Helicobacter pylori Strains Go Extinct, as European Strains Expand Their Host Range

We studied the diversity of bacteria and host in the H. pylori-human model. The human indigenous bacterium H. pylori diverged along with humans, into African, European, Asian and Amerindian groups. Of these, Amerindians have the least genetic diversity. Since niche diversity widens the sets of resources for colonizing species, we predicted that the Amerindian H. pylori strains would be the least diverse. We analyzed the multilocus sequence (7 housekeeping genes) of 131 strains: 19 cultured from Africans, 36 from Spanish, 11 from Koreans, 43 from Amerindians and 22 from South American Mestizos. We found that all strains that had been cultured from Africans were African strains (hpAfrica1), all from Spanish were European (hpEurope) and all from Koreans were hspEAsia but that Amerindians and Mestizos carried mixed strains: hspAmerind and hpEurope strains had been cultured from Amerindians and hpEurope and hpAfrica1 were cultured from Mestizos. The least genetically diverse H. pylori strains were hspAmerind. Strains hpEurope were the most diverse and showed remarkable multilocus sequence mosaicism (indicating recombination). The lower genetic structure in hpEurope strains is consistent with colonization of a diversity of hosts. If diversity is important for the success of H. pylori, then the low diversity of Amerindian strains might be linked to their apparent tendency to disappear. This suggests that Amerindian strains may lack the needed diversity to survive the diversity brought by non-Amerindian hosts