Scene Text Eraser

The character information in natural scene images contains various personal information, such as telephone numbers, home addresses, etc. It is a high risk of leakage the information if they are published. In this paper, we proposed a scene text erasing method to properly hide the information via an inpainting convolutional neural network (CNN) model. The input is a scene text image, and the output is expected to be text erased image with all the character regions filled up the colors of the surrounding background pixels. This work is accomplished by a CNN model through convolution to deconvolution with interconnection process. The training samples and the corresponding inpainting images are considered as teaching signals for training. To evaluate the text erasing performance, the output images are detected by a novel scene text detection method. Subsequently, the same measurement on text detection is utilized for testing the images in benchmark dataset ICDAR2013. Compared with direct text detection way, the scene text erasing process demonstrates a drastically decrease on the precision, recall and f-score. That proves the effectiveness of proposed method for erasing the text in natural scene images

Analysis of electric-fluid analogy of pressure transmission through an electro-rheological-fluid in annuli

The article concerns the development of flexible robotic fingers using electro-rheological fluid (ERF) for pressure control. It describes a technique to predict the transient response of a pressure control device using ERF by an electric-flow analogy. The inertia is calculated from the theoretical equation. The resistance and additional voltage source by the ER effect are derived theoretically by assuming the flow in the electrode annuli of the pressure control device as a flow of the Bingham fluid. The capacitance is determined to compare the time-responses of pressures by the prediction based on a model with the results of a simple experiment. The predictions of transient flow, using the determined parameters of the model are in qualitatively good agreement with the experimental results</p

Dispersal of Phraortes illepidus (Phasmida: Phasmatidae) Eggs by Workers of the Queenless Ant, Pristomyrmex punctatus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Eggs of some stick insects bear external appendages called capitula. Foraging worker ants attracted by capitula disperse eggs in a response similar to the responses of workers to elaiosome-bearing seeds of many plants. For this study, we conducted rearing experiments in the laboratory to elucidate the interspecific relation between the queenless ant, Pristomyrmex punctatus Smith, and the stick insect, Phraortes illepidus (Brunner von Wattenwyl) of which eggs bear capitula. Eggs of P. illepidus were proposed to P. punctatus in the laboratory. Capitula were removed from most of the eggs not only when ants were starved but also when ants were well-fed. In large rearing containers, eggs were transported by ants from their place of origin. Many eggs were transferred horizontally on the surface. Although some eggs were found in the artificial ant nests, it is likely that stick insects are not in active ant nests at the time of hatching in nature because of P. punctatus nest-moving habits. The percentage of eggs buried in the sand was small. Furthermore, most of the buried eggs were found at less than 3 cm depth. Results show that many P. illepidus hatchlings can reach host plants safely without being attacked by ant workers. These results suggest that P. punctatus can be a good partner of P. illepidus. Ants disperse eggs of slow-moving stink insects in exchange for some nutrition from capitula

コカンセツゾウエイニヨルセンテンセイコカンセツダッキュウニカンスルケンキュウ

京都大学0048新制・論文博士医学博士乙第1382号論医博第473号新制||医||162(附属図書館)2100UT51-45-B494(主査)教授 伊藤 鉄夫, 教授 木村 忠司, 教授 本庄 一夫学位規則第5条第2項該当Kyoto UniversityDA

Effects of environmental factors on life cycle regulation in Lasius japonicus Santschi (Formicidae)

This study investigated environmental factors that regulate oviposition by queens and colony development in Lasius japonicus Santschi. Newly mated queens were collected from fields in Okayama, Japan. All queens died within 50 days at 30 °C, whereas all or most of the queens survived at lower temperatures. At 25 °C, many pupae were observed approximately 1 month after the onset of oviposition. Diapause in either queens or workers was not induced at 25 °C. At 20 °C, many larvae did not pupate, indicating that larval diapause was induced. At 15 °C, hatching was not recorded and eggs disappeared. Low temperatures may induce reproductive diapause in queens. There were no significant differences between long-day (LD 16:8 h) and short-day (LD 12:12 h) conditions at any temperature. Under outdoor conditions, when summer temperature was moderate in 2005, queens started their nuptial flights in June, and pupation was recorded three times. However, when summer temperature was high in 2006, pupation occurred 1–2 times before winter, with queens making their nuptial flights as late as mid-July. Eggs and pupae disappeared in most colonies before the arrival of winter. Only queens, adult workers, and larvae were observed during winter. The present study showed that queens of L. japonicus founded and developed their colonies for as long as environmental conditions remained favorable, by responding to changes in temperature

Compositions of REE, K, Rb, Sr, Ba, Mg, Ca, Fe, and Sr isotopes in Antarctic"unique" meteorites

The abundances of Mg, Ca, Fe, K, Rb, Sr, Ba, and REE in five Antarctic "unique" meteorites, acapulcoite-lodranite type, Yamato (Y)-74063,Y-74357,Y-8002,and Allan Hills (ALH)-78230,and winonaite type, Y-75300 were determined by isotope dilution mass spectrometry. The Sr isotopic compositions of Y-74063,Y-75300,Y-8002,and ALH-78230 were also measured to investigate the whole-rock Rb-Sr isotopic systematics. In terms of the REE abundance pattern, these meteorites are grouped as follows; (1) Y-74063 and ALH-78230 with chondritic REE patterns, (2) Y-74357 with light REE depletion plus alkali and alkaline earth element depletion, and (3) Y-75300 and Y-8002 with middle REE depletion (V-shaped REE pattern) plus a positive Eu anomaly). The mineralogy of these meteorites is closely related to the above REE classification. The ^Rb-^Sr age determined from \u27whole-rock samples\u27 for Y-74063,Y-75300,Y-8002,and ALH-78230 is consistent with their formation of 4.5Ga, albeit with a large uncertainty due to the blank correction. Using the mineral/liquid partition coefficients of trace elements, the petrogenetic model calculations were performed. The results give indication on the origin of these "unique" meteorites. Y-74063 and ALH-78230 could be formed through a small degree of partial melting (less than a few%) from a chondritic starting material. Y-74357 could be formed by a larger degree (12%) of partial melting. On the other hand, the V-shaped REE pattern of the third group (Y-75300 and Y-8002) could not be explained by a simple partial melting process. The V-shaped REE pattern may be explained only by assuming the solid state equilibration within a reservoir with chondritic composition. It is suggested that Y-75300 and Y-8002 might be derived from parental materials depleted in phosphate and clinopyroxene

Experimental investigation of pulsed entangled photons and photonic quantum channels

The development of key devices and systems in quantum information technology, such as entangled particle sources, quantum gates and quantum cryptographic systems, requires a reliable and well-established method for characterizing how well the devices or systems work. We report our recent work on experimental characterization of pulsed entangled photonic states and photonic quantum channels, using the methods of state and process tomography. By using state tomography, we could reliably evaluate the states generated from a two-photon source under development and develop a highly entangled pulsed photon source. We are also devoted to characterization of single-qubit and two-qubit photonic quantum channels. Characterization of typical single-qubit decoherence channels has been demonstrated using process tomography. Characterization of two-qubit channels, such as classically correlated channels and quantum mechanically correlated channels is under investigation. These characterization techniques for quantum states and quantum processes will be useful for developing photonic quantum devices and for improving their performances.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, in Quantum Optics in Computing and Communications, Songhao Liu, Guangcan Guo, Hoi-Kwong Lo, Nobuyuki Imoto, Eds., Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 4917, pp.13-24 (2002