A Real-Time Mobile Vehicle License Plate Detection and Recognition

100學年度研究獎補助論文[[abstract]]In this paper we present a instant and real-time mobile vehicle license plate recognition system in an open environment. Using a nonfixed video camera installed in the car, the system tries to capture the image of the car in front and to process instant vehicle license plate detection and recognition. We utilize the color characteristics of the barking lights to carry out license plate detection. We first detect the location of the two barking lights in the captured image. Then set license plate detection region using the probability distribution of the license plate between the two lights. This method can eliminate any environmental interference during the license plate detection and improve the rate of accuracy of license plate detection and recognition. Moreover, we use the morphology method Black Top-Hat to enhance the level of separation of the license plate characters. Experiments show that the system can effectively and quickly capture the vehicle image, detect and recognize the license plate whether it is in daytime, nighttime, clear day, raining day or under complicated environment.[[notice]]補正完畢[[incitationindex]]EI[[booktype]]紙

Teaching the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and its Legacy through Critical Pedagogy in a Taiwanese High School

This dissertation analyzes a Taiwanese learning experience about the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. Taiwanese formal education includes this topic in secondary education. However, a paucity of previous studies described the racial and social meaning of this learning experience. Launching an educational project with a critical-pedagogy approach, this study invited 18 Taiwanese high school students to discuss their understanding of race, racism, and social justice in Taiwan, after learning about the U.S. experience. The rationale of analyzing student participants’ comments rests on critical race theory. This study applied a critical-ethnography approach to qualitative research to analyze student participants’ learning experiences. The data include video and radio recordings in classes, individual interviews of participants, writing texts from participants’ assignments or from class activities, and field notes, based on researcher’s observation and reflection. After analysis, this study found that Han ethnocentrism functions as a hidden identity and value system to influence student participants to respond to racial issues. Color-blind racism and Whiteness worship occur because Han ethnocentrism prevented participants from understanding the world. However, the result of this research also indicated that with a proper introduction, participants were willing and capable of developing racial sensitivity and affirmative attitudes about social justice toward minorities in Taiwan, such as Taiwanese Aboriginals and Southeast Asian migrant workers. The results of this research led to several suggestions: (a) Adjustment of the existing U.S. Civil Rights Movement curriculum in Taiwanese formal education should focus on racial sensitivity and social justice. (b) Antiracist and racial-sensitivity education will benefit Taiwanese society, increasing people’s awareness of Han ethnocentrism and its accompanying dominance and harm. (c) Cooperative relationships are expected between U.S. and Taiwanese educators to work on transnational education, sharing the U.S. experiences to achieve racial and social justice in the Taiwanese educational forum

Reversible Data Hiding Based on Improved Multilevel Histogram Modification of Pixel Differences

[[abstract]]The technique of reversible data hiding recovers the original image without distortion from a stego-image after the hidden data have been extracted. In this paper, we modify Zhao et al.’s method to propose a reversible data hiding algorithm based on improved histogram modification of pixel differences. Experimental results show that our proposed scheme uses improved multilevel histogram modification of pixel differences to achieve large hiding capacity and keep distortion low. We also adopt a histogram shifting technique to prevent overflow and underflow. Performance comparisons with other existing schemes are provided to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed scheme.[[notice]]補正完

Design of High Efficiency Illumination for LED Lighting

A high efficiency illumination for LED street lighting is proposed. For energy saving, this paper uses Class-E resonant inverter as main electric circuit to improve efficiency. In addition, single dimming control has the best efficiency, simplest control scheme and lowest circuit cost among other types of dimming techniques. Multiple serial-connected transformers used to drive the LED strings as they can provide galvanic isolation and have the advantage of good current distribution against device difference. Finally, a prototype circuit for driving 112 W LEDs in total was built and tested to verify the theoretical analysis

High-Mobility Pentacene-Based Thin-Film Transistors With a Solution-Processed Barium Titanate Insulator

Abstract—Pentacene-based organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) with solution-processed barium titanate (Ba1.2Ti0.8O3) as a gate insulator are demonstrated. The electrical properties of pentacene-based TFTs show a high field-effect mobility of 8.85 cm2 · V−1 · s−1, a low threshold voltage of −1.89 V, and a low subthreshold slope swing of 310 mV/decade. The chemical composition and binding energy of solution-processed barium titanate thin films are analyzed through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The matching surface energy on the surface of the barium titanate thin film is 43.12 mJ · m−2, which leads to Stranski–Krastanov mode growth, and thus, high mobility is exhibited in pentacene-based TFTs. Index Terms—Barium titanate, high field-effect mobility, high permittivity, organic thin-filmtransistor (OTFT), solution process

Learning Discriminative Shrinkage Deep Networks for Image Deconvolution

Most existing methods usually formulate the non-blind deconvolution problem into a maximum-a-posteriori framework and address it by manually designing kinds of regularization terms and data terms of the latent clear images. However, explicitly designing these two terms is quite challenging and usually leads to complex optimization problems which are difficult to solve. In this paper, we propose an effective non-blind deconvolution approach by learning discriminative shrinkage functions to implicitly model these terms. In contrast to most existing methods that use deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) or radial basis functions to simply learn the regularization term, we formulate both the data term and regularization term and split the deconvolution model into data-related and regularization-related sub-problems according to the alternating direction method of multipliers. We explore the properties of the Maxout function and develop a deep CNN model with a Maxout layer to learn discriminative shrinkage functions to directly approximate the solutions of these two sub-problems. Moreover, given the fast-Fourier-transform-based image restoration usually leads to ringing artifacts while conjugate-gradient-based approach is time-consuming, we develop the Conjugate Gradient Network to restore the latent clear images effectively and efficiently. Experimental results show that the proposed method performs favorably against the state-of-the-art ones in terms of efficiency and accuracy

Lipid-related residual risk and renal function for occurrence and prognosis among patients with first-event acute coronary syndrome and normal LDL cholesterol

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We investigated relationship of low levels of high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), high levels of triglycerides, and renal function for the odds, prognosis and survival following acute coronary events among patients with a first event and normal low density lipoprotein cholesterol levels.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A case-control study based on 557 patients and 1086 matched control subjects was conducted. Case patients were followed up for survival with a median of 1.9 years. Participants in the higher quintiles of HDL-C had lower odds to develop acute coronary events (the adjusted odds ratios were 0.24 for the second, 0.24 for the third, 0.10 for the fourth and 0.05 for the fifth quintile). Patients with normal glomerular filtration rate were at a lower risk for all-cause death. However, a reverse association between triglycerides and death risk was found: patients with higher triglycerides were at a lower risk for all-cause death (adjusted relative risk, 0.38 for triglycerides ranging from 82 to 132.9 mg/dL, and 0.14 for triglycerides > = 133 mg/dL).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Low HDL-C was significantly associated with acute coronary events, and triglyceride levels as well as renal function were inversely related to all-cause deaths after the coronary event.</p