12,251 research outputs found
Computer vision-based method for concrete crack detection
© 2016 IEEE. This paper presents a computer vision-based method to automatically detect concrete cracks. We focus on images containing the concrete: background and crack, where the background is the major mode of the gray-scale histogram. Therefore, we address the detection problem of potential concrete cracks by dealing with histogram thresholding to extract regions of interests from the background. We first employ line emphasis and moving average filters to remove noise from concrete surface images obtained from an inspection robot. The developed algorithm is then applied for automatic detection of significant peaks from the gray-scale histogram of the smoothed image. The biggest peak and its corresponding valley(s) are consequently identified to calculate the threshold value for image binarization. The effectiveness of our proposed method was successfully evaluated on various test images, where cracks could be identified without the requirement of some heuristic reasoning
Hydrogen tunneling in the perovskite ionic conductor BaCe(1-x)Y(x)O(3-d)
We present low-temperature anelastic and dielectric spectroscopy measurements
on the perovskite ionic conductor BaCe(1-x)Y(x)O(3-x/2) in the protonated,
deuterated and outgassed states. Three main relaxation processes are ascribed
to proton migration, reorientation about an Y dopant and tunneling around a
same O atom. An additional relaxation maximum appears only in the dielectric
spectrum around 60 K, and does not involve H motion, but may be of electronic
origin, e.g. small polaron hopping. The peak at the lowest temperature,
assigned to H tunneling, has been fitted with a relaxation rate presenting
crossovers from one-phonon transitions, nearly independent of temperature, to
two-phonon processes, varying as T^7, to Arrhenius-like. Substituting H with D
lowers the overall rate by 8 times. The corresponding peak in the dielectric
loss has an intensity nearly 40 times smaller than expected from the classical
reorientation of the electric dipole associated with the OH complex. This fact
is discussed in terms of coherent tunneling states of H in a cubic and
orthorhombically distorted lattice, possibly indicating that only H in the
symmetric regions of twin boundaries exhibit tunneling, and in terms of
reduction of the effective dipole due to lattice polarization.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev.
Modified MDRD equations outperform the original equations in Chinese patients with chronic kidney disease
Statistical relational learning with soft quantifiers
Quantification in statistical relational learning (SRL) is either existential or universal, however humans might be more inclined to express knowledge using soft quantifiers, such as ``most'' and ``a few''. In this paper, we define the syntax and semantics of PSL^Q, a new SRL framework that supports reasoning with soft quantifiers, and present its most probable explanation (MPE) inference algorithm. To the best of our knowledge, PSL^Q is the first SRL framework that combines soft quantifiers with first-order logic rules for modelling uncertain relational data. Our experimental results for link prediction in social trust networks demonstrate that the use of soft quantifiers not only allows for a natural and intuitive formulation of domain knowledge, but also improves the accuracy of inferred results
The boson-fermion model with on-site Coulomb repulsion between fermions
The boson-fermion model, describing a mixture of itinerant electrons
hybridizing with tightly bound electron pairs represented as hard-core bosons,
is here generalized with the inclusion of a term describing on-site Coulomb
repulsion between fermions with opposite spins. Within the general framework of
the Dynamical Mean-Field Theory, it is shown that around the symmetric limit of
the model this interaction strongly competes with the local boson-fermion
exchange mechanism, smoothly driving the system from a pseudogap phase with
poor conducting properties to a metallic regime characterized by a substantial
reduction of the fermionic density. On the other hand, if one starts from
correlated fermions described in terms of the one-band Hubbard model, the
introduction in the half-filled insulating phase of a coupling with hard-core
bosons leads to the disappearance of the correlation gap, with a consequent
smooth crossover to a metallic state.Comment: 7 pages, 6 included figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Brownian Entanglement
We show that for two classical brownian particles there exists an analog of
continuous-variable quantum entanglement: The common probability distribution
of the two coordinates and the corresponding coarse-grained velocities cannot
be prepared via mixing of any factorized distributions referring to the two
particles in separate. This is possible for particles which interacted in the
past, but do not interact in the present. Three factors are crucial for the
effect: 1) separation of time-scales of coordinate and momentum which motivates
the definition of coarse-grained velocities; 2) the resulting uncertainty
relations between the coordinate of the brownian particle and the change of its
coarse-grained velocity; 3) the fact that the coarse-grained velocity, though
pertaining to a single brownian particle, is defined on a common context of two
particles. The brownian entanglement is a consequence of a coarse-grained
description and disappears for a finer resolution of the brownian motion. We
discuss possibilities of its experimental realizations in examples of
macroscopic brownian motion.Comment: 18 pages, no figure
Non-abelian T-duality, Ramond Fields and Coset Geometries
We extend previous work on non-abelian T-duality in the presence of Ramond
fluxes to cases in which the duality group acts with isotropy such as in
backgrounds containing coset spaces. In the process we generate new
supergravity solutions related to D-brane configurations and to standard
supergravity compactifications.Comment: 35 pages, Late
Genetic heterogeneity in spondylo-epimetaphyseal dysplasias: a clinical and radiological study
Introduction: Spondylo-epi-metaphyseal dysplasias (SEMD) are a heterogeneous group of skeletal disorders characterized by defective growth and modeling of the spine and long bones. Different types are described in the literature. Accurate classification of SEMDs is essential for proper genetic counseling.
Patients and Methods: This study included 20 cases of SEMDs diagnosed by clinical and radiological findings. Cases were classified based on additional associated clinical and/or radiological features into 7 subtypes. Different subtypes were discussed with review of the literature.
Results: The study illustrated the heterogeneity of SEMDs and emphasized the importance of detailed and meticulous clinical genetic and biochemical evaluation in addition to comprehensive radiological investigations for such group of disorders. It also recommends further molecular studies to identify the molecular bases of the different types. Keywords: Spondyloepimetaphyseal dysplasias, Genetic heterogeneity, Dyggve-
Melchior-Clausen dysplasia, Glycoaminoglycans. Egypt. J. Hum. Genet Vol. 8 (2) 2007: pp. 147-17
Intercomparison of general circulation models for hot extrasolar planets
We compare five general circulation models (GCMs) which have been recently used to study hot extrasolar planet atmospheres (BOB, CAM, IGCM, MITgcm, and PEQMOD), under three test cases useful for assessing model convergence and accuracy. Such a broad, detailed intercomparison has not been performed thus far for extrasolar planets study. The models considered all solve the traditional primitive equations, but employ diâ”erent numerical algorithms or grids (e.g., pseudospectral and finite volume, with the latter separately in longitude-latitude and âcubed-sphereâ grids). The test cases are chosen to cleanly address specific aspects of the behaviors typically reported in hot extrasolar planet simulations: 1) steady-state, 2) nonlinearly evolving baroclinic wave, and 3) response to fast timescale thermal relaxation. When initialized with a steady jet, all models maintain the steadiness, as they shouldâexcept MITgcm in cubed-sphere grid. A very good agreement is obtained for a baroclinic wave evolving from an initial instability in pseudospectral models (only). However, exact numerical convergence is still not achieved across the pseudospectral models: amplitudes and phases are observably diâ”erent. When subject to a typical âhot-Jupiterâ-like forcing, all five models show quantitatively diâ”erent behaviorâalthough qualitatively similar, time-variable, quadrupole-dominated flows are produced. Hence, as have been advocated in several past studies, specific quantitative predictions (such as the location of large vortices and hot regions) by GCMs should be viewed with caution. Overall, in the tests considered here, pseudospectral models in pressure coordinate (PEBOB and PEQMOD) perform the best and MITgcm in cubed-sphere grid performs the worst
- âŠ