Coherent wave propagation in viscoelastic media with mode conversions and pair-correlated scatterers

The influence of correlation between scatterers on coherent waves propagation is studied in the case of a viscoelastic medium hosting a random configuration of either spherical or cylindrical scatterers. A distinction is made between the hole correction and the additional disturbances to the pair correlation function beyond the excluded volume via a radial and concentration dependent Ursell function. The effect of the Ursell function on the effective wavenumber is shown to be of order 3 in concentration and order 2 in scattering, and the corresponding formulas generalize those of Caleap et al. (2012) for an ideal fluid host medium. The whole order 3 in concentration is calculated; its other part is of order 3 in scattering. Both parts of the order 3 in concentration are the sum of two terms, one related to mode conversions, the other not. The numerical study is performed mostly for aluminum spheres in epoxy, which is a rather illustrative situation of the different phenomena that participate to the coherent propagation. The Ursell function effect is enhanced at low frequency, while counteracted partly at higher frequency, by the other term of order 3 in concentration. The most visible effects of both terms are on the attenuation. The Ursell term related to mode conversions is larger than the one with no mode conversions included in the low frequency regime.     

Robust infrared target tracking using discriminative and generative approaches

The process of designing an efficient tracker for thermal infrared imagery is one of the most challenging tasks in computer vision. Although a lot of advancement has been achieved in RGB videos over the decades, textureless and colorless properties of objects in thermal imagery pose hard constraints in the design of an efficient tracker. Tracking of an object using a single feature or a technique often fails to achieve greater accuracy. Here, we propose an effective method to track an object in infrared imagery based on a combination of discriminative and generative approaches. The discriminative technique makes use of two complementary methods such as kernelized correlation filter with spatial feature and AdaBoost classifier with pixel intesity features to operate in parallel. After obtaining optimized locations through discriminative approaches, the generative technique is applied to determine the best target location using a linear search method. Unlike the baseline algorithms, the proposed method estimates the scale of the target by Lucas-Kanade homography estimation. To evaluate the proposed method, extensive experiments are conducted on 17 challenging infrared image sequences obtained from LTIR dataset and a significant improvement of mean distance precision and mean overlap precision is accomplished as compared with the existing trackers. Further, a quantitative and qualitative assessment of the proposed approach with the state-of-the-art trackers is illustrated to clearly demonstrate an overall increase in performance.     

Assessment of Digital Image Correlation as a method of obtaining deformations of a structure under fluid load

Digital Image Correlation (DIC) is employed for the measurement of full-field deformation during fluid–structure interaction experiments in a wind tunnel. The methodology developed for the wind tunnel environment is quantitatively assessed. The static deformation error of the system is shown to be less than 0.8% when applied to a curved aerofoil specimen moved through known displacements using a micrometre. Enclosed camera fairings were shown to be required to minimise error due to wind induced camera vibration under aerodynamic loading. The methodology was demonstrated using a high performance curved foil, from a NACRA F20 sailing catamaran, tested within the University of Southampton RJ Mitchell, 3.5 mx2.4 m, wind tunnel. The aerodynamic forces induced in the wind tunnel are relatively small, compared with typical hydrodynamic loading, resulting in small deformations. The coupled deflection and blade twist is evaluated over the tip region (80–100% Span, measured from the root) for a range of wind speeds and angles of attack. Steady deformations at low angles of attack were shown to be well captured however unsteady deformations at higher angles of attack were observed as an increase in variability due to hardware limitations in the current DIC system. It is concluded that higher DIC sample rates are required to assess unsteady deformations in the future. The full field deformation data reveals limited blade twist for low angles of attack, below the stall angle. For larger angles, however, there is a tendency to reduce the effective angle of attack at the tip of the structure, combined with an unsteady structural response. This capability highlights the benefits of the presented methodology over fixed-point measurements as the three dimensional foil deflections can be assessed over a large tip region. In addition, the methodology demonstrates that very small deformations and twist angles can be resolved.     

近红外“3R”法双谱自适应去噪

针对近红外透射和吸收双光谱提出一种自适应的去噪方法。同步采集样品的近红外透射谱和吸收谱,在相同分解原则下总体经验模态法分解两组光谱,得到单组分特征模态分量。计算特征模态分量与原透射谱、吸收谱之间相关性,以及两组特征模态分量之间相关性,相关性最小模态分量初判为噪声分量。分析该分量在光谱中点处自相关性,若中点处很大,其他点几乎为零或很小,可以判断该分量为噪声。这种基于模态分量相关性的噪声判别方法称为“3R”法则。剔除噪声分量,重构光谱信号,循环上述分解过程,直到不满足“3R”法则,降噪过程结束。构造理想光谱,叠加噪声,“3R”法降噪效果优于EMD和EEMD低通滤波器,略逊于小波分解。真实光谱实验中,经过上述方法降噪处理过的玉米叶片光谱采用3层BP神经网络建立与叶绿素之间预测模型,“3R”法处理模型具有最大校正相关系数和预测相关系数,最小校正标准差和预测标准差。在四种降噪方法中,“3R”法对光谱谱峰位置和峰高的影响最小。实验表明,“3R”双谱去噪方法无需预设迭代次数,不用考虑分解层数,没有基函数,是自适应的,该方法适合近红外光谱去噪。     

Parameter-dependent synchronization of coupled neurons in cold receptor model

In this paper, synchronization in two coupled neurons with spiking, bursting and chaos firings is investigated as the coupling strength gets increased. Synchronization state can be identified by means of the bifurcation diagram, the correlation coefficient and ISI-distance. It is illustrated that the coupled neurons can exhibit different types of synchronization state when the coupling strength increases. The different synchronization processes appear similar, but their detailed processes are different depending on the parameter values. The synchronization of neuronal network with two different network connectivity patterns is also studied. It is shown that chaotic and high period pattern are more difficult to get complete synchronization than the situation in single spike and low period pattern. It is also demonstrated that the synchronization status of multiple neurons is dependent on the network connectivity patterns. These results may be instructive to understand synchronization in neuronal systems.     

Two-Photon Two-Focus Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy with a Tunable Distance Between the Excitation Volumes

In the present work, a Michelson interferometer was combined with a two-photon excitation microscope to perform two-focus Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy. This simple and original approach allows us to tune the distance between the two excitation volumes and determine absolute diffusion constants. The technique was validated on different model systems that demonstrate the sensitivity of the approach.     

Sequentially acquired two-dimensional NMR spectra from hyperpolarized sample

A scheme capable of acquiring heteronuclear 2D NMR spectra of hyperpolarized sample is described. Hyperpolarization, the preparation of nuclear spins in a polarized state far from thermal equilibrium, can increase the NMR signal by several orders of magnitude. It presents opportunities to apply NMR spectroscopy to dilute samples that would otherwise yield insufficient signal. However, conventional 2D NMR spectroscopy, which is commonly applied for the determination of molecular structure, relies on the recovery of the initial polarization after each transient. For this reason, it cannot be applied directly to a sample that has been hyperpolarized once. With appropriately modified pulse schemes, two-dimensional NMR spectra an however be acquired sequentially by utilizing a small portion of the hyperpolarized signal in every scan, while keeping the remaining polarization for future scans. We present heteronuclear multi-quantum spectra of single hyperpolarized samples using this technique, and discuss different options for distributing the polarization among different scans. This robust method takes full advantage of Fourier NMR to resolve overlapping chemical shifts, and may prove particularly useful for the structural elucidation of compounds in mass-limited samples.     

标准互相关的灰度无关特性及其应用

对用于图像特征定位的标准互相关算子灰度无关特性展开了研究.由于在显微视觉中的大多数图像灰阶较低,接近于三值甚至二值图像;可籍此灰度无关特性对模板匹配的算法进行优化.实验结果表明,标准互相关的灰度无关特性可以在实际中指导设计模板图像,降低相关运算计算速度,以及指导改善照明条件.     

光学稀疏孔径成像系统复合阵列设计的仿真研究

在典型环形、典型Golay-6型和典型Y型阵列结构的基础上,研究了两种不同的复合孔径阵列构造方式.利用仿真实验对系统进行模拟成像及图像重构,并运用相关系数对成像结果进行评价.结果表明:对不同类型的复合孔径阵列,构造方式对成像质量的影响是不同的,并不具有一致规律;应针对主阵列结构的特征去选择其子阵列的构造方式,做到阵列优化.     

Sample temperatures during outdoor and laboratory weathering exposures

Effective exposure temperatures (T_eff) in Arizona were calculated from hourly or 10-min parsed irradiation data along with ambient, black panel, and sample temperatures. The T_eff represents a constant temperature that creates the same amount of photodegradation as the naturally varying temperature and provides a benchmark temperature for making lifetime predictions from accelerated laboratory exposures. The annual ambient and black panel T_eff at a Wittmann, Arizona site were 30 °C and 42 °C, respectively, assuming that the photodegradation has an activation energy (E_a) of 21 kJ/mol (5 kcal/mol). T_eff was only weakly dependent on E_a over the range of 10-40 kJ/mol (3-10 kcal/mol). Samples exposed as van sunroofs were found to have T_eff that were offset from the black panel temperatures by a constant amount for the entire year. Thus, measurements of sample and black panel need to be made for only a few weeks to determine the offset and give the annual sample T_eff if the annual black panel T_eff is known. Light-colored samples probably are better compared with the ambient temperatures. Sample temperatures in xenon arc exposures usually are higher than the outdoor T_eff, so Arrhenius temperature corrections need to be carried out to relate accelerated to outdoor exposures. Temperatures in xenon arc exposure tests often correspond more closely to maximum temperatures that samples might encounter for only a few hours per year.