Provenance analysis for instagram photos

As a feasible device fingerprint, sensor pattern noise (SPN) has been proven to be effective in the provenance analysis of digital images. However, with the rise of social media, millions of images are being uploaded to and shared through social media sites every day. An image downloaded from social networks may have gone through a series of unknown image manipulations. Consequently, the trustworthiness of SPN has been challenged in the provenance analysis of the images downloaded from social media platforms. In this paper, we intend to investigate the effects of the pre-defined Instagram images filters on the SPN-based image provenance analysis. We identify two groups of filters that affect the SPN in quite different ways, with Group I consisting of the filters that severely attenuate the SPN and Group II consisting of the filters that well preserve the SPN in the images. We further propose a CNN-based classifier to perform filter-oriented image categorization, aiming to exclude the images manipulated by the filters in Group I and thus improve the reliability of the SPN-based provenance analysis. The results on about 20, 000 images and 18 filters are very promising, with an accuracy higher than 96% in differentiating the filters in Group I and Group II

Air Temperature Comparison between the MMTS and the USCRN Temperature Systems

A new U.S. Climate Reference Network (USCRN) was officially and nationally commissioned by the Department of Commerce and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 2004. During a 1-yr side-by-side field comparison of USCRN temperatures and temperatures measured by a maximum-minimum temperature system (MMTS), analyses of hourly data show that the MMTS temperature performed with biases: 1) a systematic bias–ambient-temperature-dependent bias and 2) an ambient-solar-radiation- and ambient-wind- speed-dependent bias. Magnitudes of these two biases ranged from a few tenths of a degree to over 1C compared to the USCRN temperatures. The hourly average temperatures for the USCRN were the dependent variables in the development of two statistical models that remove the biases due to ambient temperature, ambient solar radiation, and ambient wind speed in the MMTS. The model performance was examined, and the results show that the adjusted MMTS data were substantially improved with respect to both systematic bias and the bias associated with ambient solar radiation and ambient wind speed. In addition, the results indicate that the historical temperature datasets prior to the MMTS era need to be further investigated to produce long-term homogenous times series of area-average temperature

Formation of Ti–Zr–Cu–Ni bulk metallic glasses

Formation of bulk metallic glass in quaternary Ti–Zr–Cu–Ni alloys by relatively slow cooling from the melt is reported. Thick strips of metallic glass were obtained by the method of metal mold casting. The glass forming ability of the quaternary alloys exceeds that of binary or ternary alloys containing the same elements due to the complexity of the system. The best glass forming alloys such as Ti34Zr11Cu47Ni8 can be cast to at least 4-mm-thick amorphous strips. The critical cooling rate for glass formation is of the order of 250 K/s or less, at least two orders of magnitude lower than that of the best ternary alloys. The glass transition, crystallization, and melting behavior of the alloys were studied by differential scanning calorimetry. The amorphous alloys exhibit a significant undercooled liquid region between the glass transition and first crystallization event. The glass forming ability of these alloys, as determined by the critical cooling rate, exceeds what is expected based on the reduced glass transition temperature. It is also found that the glass forming ability for alloys of similar reduced glass transition temperature can differ by two orders of magnitude as defined by critical cooling rates. The origins of the difference in glass forming ability of the alloys are discussed. It is found that when large composition redistribution accompanies crystallization, glass formation is enhanced. The excellent glass forming ability of alloys such as Ti34Zr11Cu47Ni8 is a result of simultaneously minimizing the nucleation rate of the competing crystalline phases. The ternary/quaternary Laves phase (MgZn2 type) shows the greatest ease of nucleation and plays a key role in determining the optimum compositions for glass formation

Particle simulation of lower hybrid waves in tokamak plasmas

Global particle simulations of the lower hybrid waves have been carried out using fully kinetic ions and drift kinetic electrons with a realistic electron-to-ion mass ratio. The lower hybrid wave frequency, mode structure, and electron Landau damping from the electrostatic simulations agree very well with the analytic theory. Linear simulation of the propagation of a lower hybrid wave-packet in the toroidal geometry shows that the wave propagates faster in the high field side than the low field side, in agreement with a ray tracing calculation. Electromagnetic benchmarks of lower hybrid wave dispersion relation are also carried out. Electromagnetic mode conversion are observed in toroidal geometry, slow waves are launched at the plasma boundary and converts to fast waves at the mode conversion layer, which is consistent with linear theory.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figure

Longitudinal control effectiveness and entry dynamics of a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle

The classical theory of flight dynamics for airplane longitudinal stability and control analysis was extended to the case of a hypervelocity reentry vehicle. This includes the elements inherent in supersonic and hypersonic flight such as the influence of the Mach number on aerodynamic characteristics, and the effect of the reaction control system and aerodynamic controls on the trim condition through a wide range of speed. Phugoid motion and angle of attack oscillation for typical cases of cruising flight, ballistic entry, and glide entry are investigated. In each case, closed form solutions for the variations in altitude, flight path angle, speed and angle of attack are obtained. The solutions explicitly display the influence of different regions design parameters and trajectory variables on the stability of the motion