507 research outputs found
Image enhancement software for underwater recovery operations - user's manual
This report describes software for performing image enhancement on live or recorded video images. The software was developed for operational use during underwater recovery operations at the Naval Undersea Warfare Engineering Station. The image processing is performed on an IBM-PC/AT compatible computer equipped with hardware to digitize and display video images. The software provides the capability to provide contrast enhancement and other similar functions in real time through hardware lookup tables, to automatically perform histogram equalization, to capture one or more frames and average them or apply one of several different processing algorithms to a captured frame. The report is in the form of a user manual for the software and includes guided tutorial and reference sections. A Digital Image Processing Primer in the appendix serves to explain the principle concepts that are used in the image processing. (rrh)http://archive.org/details/imageenhancement00partApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited
Apparent Clustering of Intermediate-redshift Galaxies as a Probe of Dark Energy
We show the apparent redshift-space clustering of galaxies in redshift range
of 0.2--0.4 provides surprisingly useful constraints on dark energy component
in the universe, because of the right balance between the density of objects
and the survey depth. We apply Fisher matrix analysis to the the Luminous Red
Galaxies (LRGs) in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), as a concrete example.
Possible degeneracies in the evolution of the equation of state (EOS) and the
other cosmological parameters are clarified.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, Phys.Rev.Lett., replaced with the accepted
versio
Numerical evaluation of grouting scenarios for reducing water inflows in underground excavations – Goldcorp’s Éléonore mine study case
Water inflows through fracture networks are one of the many challenges that the Éléonore mine has to face. Although pregrouting
of pilot holes during mine development has been proven to efficiently reduce water inflows into mine excavations,
the actual design methods are empirical and can be optimized to increase grouting efficiency and decrease the associated
costs. Optimization of the amount of cement needed for pre-grouting is achieved by designing the grouting approach based
on the location of major faults around the excavations. Here, a base case finite-element numerical model and associated
sensitivity analyses are used to simulate groundwater inflows into a stope, based on the Éléonore mining site
characteristics. Simulations are conducted for testing various grout injection scenarios for various major fault locations
around the stope. Sensitivity analyses have shown that for a fault located above the stope, the inflow reduction is greater
when the zone between the fault and the stope is grouted instead of directly grouting the fault itself. Also, in the case of a
fault intersecting a stope, the results have demonstrated that the fault itself should be grouted as widely as possible, instead
of sealing only the immediate surroundings of the stope
Design of 2-D FIR filters with nonuniform frequency samples
Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, IEEE International Conference on ICASSP '87.The article of record may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICASSP.1987.1169469A method of designing two-dimensional (2-D) FIR filters, using nonuniform frequency samples, is presented. The method is based on an extension of the DFT method of design, which uses uniform frequency samples. The proposed method, is based on an extension of Newton's interpolation method to 2-D. The proposed procedure has the attractive properties of permanence and recursive computation of the design parameters. A design procedure is given for 2-D FIR linear phase filters and an example is given
Can the evolution of music be analyzed in a quantitative manner?
We propose a methodology to study music development by applying multivariate
statistics on composers characteristics. Seven representative composers were
considered in terms of eight main musical features. Grades were assigned to
each characteristic and their correlations were analyzed. A bootstrap method
was applied to simulate hundreds of artificial composers influenced by the
seven representatives chosen. Afterwards we quantify non-numeric relations like
dialectics, opposition and innovation. Composers differences on style and
technique were represented as geometrical distances in the feature space,
making it possible to quantify, for example, how much Bach and Stockhausen
differ from other composers or how much Beethoven influenced Brahms. In
addition, we compared the results with a prior investigation on philosophy.
Opposition, strong on philosophy, was not remarkable on music. Supporting an
observation already considered by music theorists, strong influences were
identified between composers by the quantification of dialectics, implying
inheritance and suggesting a stronger master-disciple evolution when compared
to the philosophy analysis.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, added references for sections 1 and 4.C, better
mathematical description on section 2. New values and interpretation, now
considering a bootstrap metho
SILAC-based phosphoproteomics reveals an inhibitory role of KSR1 in p53 transcriptional activity via modulation of DBC1
BACKGROUND
We have previously identified kinase suppressor of ras-1 (KSR1) as a potential regulatory gene in breast cancer. KSR1, originally described as a novel protein kinase, has a role in activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases. Emerging evidence has shown that KSR1 may have dual functions as an active kinase as well as a scaffold facilitating multiprotein complex assembly. Although efforts have been made to study the role of KSR1 in certain tumour types, its involvement in breast cancer remains unknown.
METHODS
A quantitative mass spectrometry analysis using stable isotope labelling of amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) was implemented to identify KSR1-regulated phosphoproteins in breast cancer. In vitro luciferase assays, co-immunoprecipitation as well as western blotting experiments were performed to further study the function of KSR1 in breast cancer.
RESULTS
Of significance, proteomic analysis reveals that KSR1 overexpression decreases deleted in breast cancer-1 (DBC1) phosphorylation. Furthermore, we show that KSR1 decreases the transcriptional activity of p53 by reducing the phosphorylation of DBC1, which leads to a reduced interaction of DBC1 with sirtuin-1 (SIRT1); this in turn enables SIRT1 to deacetylate p53.
CONCLUSION
Our findings integrate KSR1 into a network involving DBC1 and SIRT1, which results in the regulation of p53 acetylation and its transcriptional activity
Kepler Presearch Data Conditioning I - Architecture and Algorithms for Error Correction in Kepler Light Curves
Kepler provides light curves of 156,000 stars with unprecedented precision.
However, the raw data as they come from the spacecraft contain significant
systematic and stochastic errors. These errors, which include discontinuities,
systematic trends, and outliers, obscure the astrophysical signals in the light
curves. To correct these errors is the task of the Presearch Data Conditioning
(PDC) module of the Kepler data analysis pipeline. The original version of PDC
in Kepler did not meet the extremely high performance requirements for the
detection of miniscule planet transits or highly accurate analysis of stellar
activity and rotation. One particular deficiency was that astrophysical
features were often removed as a side-effect to removal of errors. In this
paper we introduce the completely new and significantly improved version of PDC
which was implemented in Kepler SOC 8.0. This new PDC version, which utilizes a
Bayesian approach for removal of systematics, reliably corrects errors in the
light curves while at the same time preserving planet transits and other
astrophysically interesting signals. We describe the architecture and the
algorithms of this new PDC module, show typical errors encountered in Kepler
data, and illustrate the corrections using real light curve examples.Comment: Submitted to PASP. Also see companion paper "Kepler Presearch Data
Conditioning II - A Bayesian Approach to Systematic Error Correction" by Jeff
C. Smith et a
Morphological changes in American kestrels (Falco sparverius) at continental migration sites
Many American kestrel (Falco sparverius) populations are declining across North America. Potential causes include mortality from reduction in food availability, a changing climate, habitat degradation, an increase in avian predators, disease, and toxins. We analyzed American kestrel count and banding data from seven raptor migration sites throughout North America with at least 20 years of migration data. We used count data to determine the year at which the kestrel population began a significant decline and then used banding records to determine whether body mass and wing chord declined after this point. We found reductions in kestrel body mass at three sites and reductions in kestrel wing chord at five sites. Our results indicate declines in body size at the majority of sites are consistent with the hypotheses that food availability, impacts of a changing climate, or predation risk may be contributing to population declines
Testing the performance of a blind burst statistic
In this work we estimate the performance of a method for the detection of
burst events in the data produced by interferometric gravitational wave
detectors. We compute the receiver operating characteristics in the specific
case of a simulated noise having the spectral density expected for Virgo, using
test signals taken from a library of possible waveforms emitted during the
collapse of the core of Type II Supernovae.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, Talk given at the GWDAW2002 worksho
On line power spectra identification and whitening for the noise in interferometric gravitational wave detectors
In this paper we address both to the problem of identifying the noise Power
Spectral Density of interferometric detectors by parametric techniques and to
the problem of the whitening procedure of the sequence of data. We will
concentrate the study on a Power Spectral Density like the one of the
Italian-French detector VIRGO and we show that with a reasonable finite number
of parameters we succeed in modeling a spectrum like the theoretical one of
VIRGO, reproducing all its features. We propose also the use of adaptive
techniques to identify and to whiten on line the data of interferometric
detectors. We analyze the behavior of the adaptive techniques in the field of
stochastic gradient and in the
Least Squares ones.Comment: 28 pages, 21 figures, uses iopart.cls accepted for pubblication on
Classical and Quantum Gravit
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