Image Similarity Metrics in Image Registration

Measures of image similarity that inspect the intensity probability distribution of the images have proved extremely popular in image registration applications. The joint entropy of the intensity distributions and the marginal entropies of the individual images are combined to produce properties such as resistance to loss of information in one image and invariance to changes in image overlap during registration. However information theoretic cost functions are largely used empirically. This work attempts to describe image similarity measures within a formal mathematical metric framework. Redefining mutual information as a metric is shown to lead naturally to the standardised variant, normalised mutual information

Performance assessment of tariff-based air source heat pump load shifting in a UK detached dwelling featuring phase change-enhanced buffering

Using a detailed building simulation model, the amount of thermal buffering, with and without phase change material (PCM), needed to time-shift an air source heat pump's operation to off-peak periods, as defined by the UK 'Economy 10' tariff, was investigated for a typical UK detached dwelling. The performance of the buffered system was compared to the case with no load shifting and with no thermal buffering. Additionally, the load shifting of a population of buffered heat pumps to off-peak periods was simulated and the resulting change in the peak demand on the electricity network was assessed. The results from this study indicate that 1000 L of hot water buffering or 500 L of PCM-enhanced hot water buffering was required to move the operation of the heat pump fully to off-peak periods, without adversely affecting the provision of space heating and hot water for the end user. The work also highlights that buffering and load shifting increased the heat pump's electrical demand by over 60% leading to increased cost to the end user and increased CO2 emissions (depending on the electricity tariff applied and time varying CO2 intensity of the electricity generation mix, respectively). The study also highlights that the load-shifting of populations of buffered heat pumps wholly to off-peak periods using crude instruments such as tariffs increased the peak loading on the electrical network by over 50% rather than reducing it and that careful consideration is needed as to how the load shifting of a group of heat pumps is orchestrated

Magnetic Helicity Flow in the Sun and Heliosphere

Magnetic helicity, the measure of entanglement within a magnetic field, has the capability to further our knowledge of the magnetic fields which are ubiquitous across the physical universe. Discovered half a century ago by Lodewijk Woltjer in 1958, it was only given physical meaning by Keith Moffatt in 1969. Progress was initially slow due to the constraints on its calculation: it is assumed that the volume within which we wish to measure helicity does not have any magnetic field crossing its boundaries. But, in 1984, Mitchell Berger and George Field provided a resolution to this problem which allowed it to be applied to open astrophysical fields. From there, and particularly in the last two decades, interest in magnetic helicity has grown exponentially within the research community, resulting in this thesis. We will begin by providing a semi--formal introduction to the topic, in particular that of magnetohydrodynamics, which describes how a magnetic field and associated plasma co-interact. We provide a mathematical introduction to magnetic helicity, and demonstrate that unsolved problems remain in our understanding of the Sun's magnetic field that are associated with its magnetic helicity. With this knowledge in hand, we first tackle the topic of predicting the Solar Cycle, which has been an unachieved goal of the solar physics community for longer than we care to remember. We show that magnetic helicity, which is intrinsically linked to the emergence of sunspots, is a statistically stronger candidate for the predictor of activity than that of the polar field strength, which is the current 'best of the worst' of the known predictors. We then, for the first time, measure how much helicity is generated on the solar surface due to shear motions in a surface flux transport model, which is a method of modelling the magnetic field on the surface of the sun. We show that the results are not as obvious as we expect, and indeed that the flux of magnetic helicity within each hemisphere is carefully balanced between latitudes. We also provide an estimate of how much helicity is produced in a solar cycle, and correlate this with the dipole strength of that cycle. This is followed by the main result of the thesis: we demonstrate that helicity can be completely generalised for any physical system in terms of a two--point correlation, and fully described in terms of spatial scales and locality using wavelet analysis. In particular, we show that our generalised measure of helicity offers a physical meaning to this localisation. Our methods are demonstrated to have some notable advantages to that of Fourier analysis, which is shown to sometimes produce spurious results. Finally, we explore the hypothesis that the shape of a magnetic field domain can contribute to the magnetic helicity when using a toroidal--poloidal decomposition. Indeed, in some cases the asymmetry contains the entirety of the magnetic helicity, which we demonstrate numerically

Crystal structures for double stanley symmetric functions

We relate the combinatorial definitions of the type $A_n$ and type $C_n$ Stanley symmetric functions, via a combinatorially defined "double Stanley symmetric function," which gives the type $A$ case at $(\mathbf{x},\mathbf{0})$ and gives the type $C$ case at $(\mathbf{x},\mathbf{x})$. We induce a type $A$ bicrystal structure on the underlying combinatorial objects of this function which has previously been done in the type $A$ and type $C$ cases. Next we prove a few statements about the algebraic relationship of these three Stanley symmetric functions. We conclude with some conjectures about what happens when we generalize our constructions to type $C$

Some late developments in organization and administration of health education.

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University This item was digitized by the Internet Archive

Magnetic Helicity as a Predictor of the Solar Cycle

This is the final version of the article. Available from Springer Verlag via the DOI in this record.It is well known that the polar magnetic field is at its maximum during solar minima, and that the behaviour during this time acts as a strong predictor of the strength of the following solar cycle. This relationship relies on the action of differential rotation (the Omega effect) on the poloidal field, which generates the toroidal flux observed in sunspots and active regions. We measure the helicity flux into both the northern and the southern hemispheres using a model that takes account of the Omega effect, which we apply to data sets covering a total of 60 years. We find that the helicity flux offers a strong prediction of solar activity up to five years in advance of the next solar cycle. We also hazard an early guess as to the strength of Solar Cycle 25, which we believe will be of similar amplitude and strength to Cycle 24.G. Hawkes would like to thank the STFC for their funding under grant ST/N504063/1

Ray model and ray-wave correspondence in coupled optical microdisks

We introduce a ray model for coupled optical microdisks, in which we select coupling-efficient rays among the splitting rays. We investigate the resulting phase-space structure and report island structures arising from the ray-coupling between the two microdisks. We find the microdisks's refractive index to influence the phase-space structure and calculate the stability and decay rates of the islands. Turning to ray-wave correspondence, we find many resonances to be directly related to the presence of these islands. We study the relation between the (ray-picture originating) island structures and the (wave-picture originating) spectral properties of resonances, especially the leakiness of the resonances which is represented as the imaginary part of the complex wave vector.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure

An industrial profile of wood wool/cement slab manufacture

This profile describes a process developed at the Tropical Products Institute for the manufacture of wood wool/cement clabs. Unlike other commercially available processes this process involves the use of a cement slurry. The process is aimed at conditions in developing countries and significant features include minimum use of machinery, maximum use of labour, flexibility in production to suit market requirements and relatively low capital outlay. For a plant to produce 160 slabs per day, about £50,000 c.i.f. at September 1979 prices, excluding locally available items, is required. At least 28 employment opportunities are created. The profile includes a description of the process, a list of the machinery and equipment, components of capital cost, physical inputs and labour requirement