Query: Feature Extraction and Image Processing

Relevant passages:
A Computational Approach to Edge Detection <=SEP=> This paper describes a computational approach to edge detection. The success of the approach depends on the definition of a comprehensive set of goals for the computation of edge points. These goals must be precise enough to delimit the desired behavior of the detector while making minimal assumptions about the form of the solution. We define detection and localization criteria for a class of edges, and present mathematical forms for these criteria as functionals on the operator impulse response. A third criterion is then added to ensure that the detector has only one response to a single edge. We use the criteria in numerical optimization to derive detectors for several common image features, including step edges. On specializing the analysis to step edges, we find that there is a natural uncertainty principle between detection and localization performance, which are the two main goals. With this principle we derive a single operator shape which is optimal at any scale. The optimal detector has a simple approximate implementation in which edges are marked at maxima in gradient magnitude of a Gaussian-smoothed image. We extend this simple detector using operators of several widths to cope with different signal-to-noise ratios in the image. We present a general method, called feature synthesis, for the fine-to-coarse integration of information from operators at different scales. Finally we show that step edge detector performance improves considerably as the operator point spread function is extended along the edge.

Medical Image Analysis: Progress over Two Decades and the Challenges Ahead <=SEP=> ÐThe analysis of medical images has been woven into the fabric of the Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI) community since the earliest days of these Transactions. Initially, the efforts in this area were seen as applying pattern analysis and computer vision techniques to another interesting dataset. However, over the last two to three decades, the unique nature of the problems presented within this area of study have led to the development of a new discipline in its own right. Examples of these include: the types of image information that are acquired, the fully three-dimensional image data, the nonrigid nature of object motion and deformation, and the statistical variation of both the underlying normal and abnormal ground truth. In this paper, we look at progress in the field over the last 20 years and suggest some of the challenges that remain for the years to come. Index TermsÐMedical imaging, medical image analysis, computer vision, image segmentation, image registration, nonrigid motion, deformable contours, image-guided surgery.

Dynamic Programming for Detecting, Tracking, and Matching Deformable Contours <=SEP=> Abstruct-The problem of segmenting an image into separate regions and tracking them over time is one of the most significant problems in vision. Tenopoulos et al have proposed an approach to detect the contour regions of complex shapes, assuming a user selected initial contour not very far from the desired solution. We propose to further explore the information provided by the user’s selected points and applyan optimal method to detect contours which allows a segmentation of the image. The method is based on dynamic programming @P), and applies to a wide variety of shapes. It is exact and not iterative. We also consider a multiscale approach capable of speeding up the algorithm by a factor of 20, although at the expense of losing the guaranteed optimality characteristic. The problem of tracking and matching these contours is addressed. For tracking, the final contour obtained at one frame is sampled and used as initial points for the next frame. Then, the same DP process is applied. For matching, a novel strategy is proposed where the solution is a smooth displacement field in which unmatched regions are allowed while cross vectors are not. The algorithm is again based on DP and the optimal solution is guaranteed. We have demonstrated the algorithms on natural objects in a large spectrum of applications, including interactive segmentation and automatic tracking of the regions of interest in medical images.

Dynamic programming algorithm optimization for spoken word recognition <=SEP=> This paper reports on an optimum dynamic programming (DP) based time-normalization algorithm for spoken word recognition. First, a general principle of time-normalization i s given using timewarping function. Then, two time-normalized distance definitions, d e d symmetric and asymmetric forms, are derived from the principle. These two forms are compared with each other through theoretical discussions and experimental studies. The symmetric form algorithm superiority is established. A new technique, called slope constraint, is successfully introduced, in which the warping function slope is restricted so as to improve discrimination between words in different categories. The effective slope constraint characteristic is qualitatively analyzed, and the optimum slope constraint condition is determined through experiments. The optimized algorithm is then extensively subjected to experimentat comparison with various DP-algorithms, previously applied to spoken word recognition by different research groups. The experiment shows that the present algorithm gives no more than about twothirds errors, even compared to the best conventional algorithm. I

Using Dynamic Programming for Solving Variational Problems in Vision <=SEP=> Variational approaches have been proposed for solving many inverse problems in early vision, such as in the computation of optical flow, shape from shading, and energy-minimizing active contour models. In general however, variational approaches do not guarantee global optimality of the solution, require estimates of higher order derivatives of the discrete data, and do not allow direct and natural enforcement of constraints. In this paper we discuss dynamic programming as a novel approach to solving variational problems in vision. Dynamic programming ensures global optimality of the solution, it is numerically stable, and it allows for hard constraints to be enforced on the behavior of the solution within a natural and straightforward structure. As a specific example of the efficacy of the proposed approach, application of dynamic programming to the energy-minimizing active contours is described. The optimization problem is set up as a discrete multistage decision process and is solved by a " time-delayed " discrete dynamic programming algorithm. A parallel procedure is discussed that can result in savings in computational costs.

Humour Research: State of Art <=SEP=> Humour is a multi-disciplinary field of research. People have been working on humour in many fields of research like psychology, philosophy and linguistics, sociology and literature. Especially in the context of computer science (or Artificial Intelligence) humour research aims at modeling humour in a computationally tractable way. Having computational models of humour allows interface designers to have the computer generate and interpret humour when interacting with users. There are many situations in human-human interaction where humour plays an important role in keeping the conversation going. Making use of the so-called CASA paradigm (Computers Are Social Actors) we may expect that a similar role can be played in human-computer interaction. In this report we survey current humour research with the aim to identify useful theories that can be applied in the human-computer interaction context. We focus on the following subjects: humour theories, related humour research, linguistic aspects of humour, computational aspects of humour, applications and resources. 1 University of Twente, Center of Telematics and Information Technology, Technical Report CTIT-02-34, September 2002, 24 pp.

2.4 GHz micro-strip patch antenna array with suppressed sidelobes <=SEP=> In this paper, we present the design and simulated results for a patch antenna array at 2.4 GHz. The antenna consists of one linear array with six series-fed patch antennas. In radar and smart-antenna applications it is very important to use antennas with high gain and low sidelobes in order to avoid the interference and to increase the gain of antenna array. The aim of this research is to design an antenna array that has suppressed sidelobes as much as possible in azimuth by using Kaiser-Bessel amplitude coefficients. Our designed antenna has a gain of 15.1 dB with an angular width of 14.6° at a frequency of 2.4 GHz. The measured 10 dB return loss bandwidth equals 18.7 MHz. Patch antenna array is analyzed using CST MICROWAVE STUDIO 2014.

Distinguishing Between Natural and Computer-Generated Images Using Convolutional Neural Networks <=SEP=> Distinguishing between natural images (NIs) and computer-generated (CG) images by naked human eyes is difficult. In this paper, we propose an effective method based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) for this fundamental image forensic problem. Having observed the rather limited performance of training existing CCNs from scratch or fine-tuning pre-trained network, we design and implement a new and appropriate network with two cascaded convolutional layers at the bottom of a CNN. Our network can be easily adjusted to accommodate different sizes of input image patches while maintaining a fixed depth, a stable structure of CNN, and a good forensic performance. Considering the complexity of training CNNs and the specific requirement of image forensics, we introduce the so-called local-to-global strategy in our proposed network. Our CNN derives a forensic decision on local patches, and a global decision on a full-sized image can be easily obtained via simple majority voting. This strategy can also be used to improve the performance of existing methods that are based on hand-crafted features. Experimental results show that our method outperforms existing methods, especially in a challenging forensic scenario with NIs and CG images of heterogeneous origins. Our method also has good robustness against typical post-processing operations, such as resizing and JPEG compression. Unlike previous attempts to use CNNs for image forensics, we try to understand what our CNN has learned about the differences between NIs and CG images with the aid of adequate and advanced visualization tools.

Content-based retrieval of logo and trademarks in unconstrained color image databases using Color Edge Gradient Co-occurrence Histograms <=SEP=> In this paper, we present an algorithm that extends the Color Edge Co-occurrence Histogram (CECH) object detection scheme on compound color objects, for the retrieval of logos and trademarks in unconstrained color image databases. We introduce more accurate information to the CECH, by virtue of incorporating color edge detection using vector order statistics. This produces a more accurate representation of edges in color images, as compared to the simple color pixel difference classification of edges seen with the CECH. Our proposed method is thus reliant on edge gradient information, and so we call it the Color Edge Gradient Co-occurrence Histogram (CEGCH). We also introduce a color quantization method based in the hue–saturation–value (HSV) color space, illustrating that it is a more suitable scheme of quantization for image retrieval, compared to the color quantization scheme introduced with the CECH. Experimental results demonstrate that the CEGCH and the HSV color quantization scheme is insensitive to scaling, rotation, and partial deformations, and outperforms the use of the CECH in image retrieval, with higher precision and recall. We also perform experiments on a closely related algorithm based on the Color Co-occurrence Histogram (CCH) and demonstrate that our algorithm is also superior in comparison, with higher precision and recall. 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Limiting privacy breaches in privacy preserving data mining <=SEP=> There has been increasing interest in the problem of building accurate data mining models over aggregate data, while protecting privacy at the level of individual records. One approach for this problem is to randomize the values in individual records, and only disclose the randomized values. The model is then built over the randomized data, after first compensating for the randomization (at the aggregate level). This approach is potentially vulnerable to privacy breaches: based on the distribution of the data, one may be able to learn with high confidence that some of the randomized records satisfy a specified property, even though privacy is preserved on average.In this paper, we present a new formulation of privacy breaches, together with a methodology, "amplification", for limiting them. Unlike earlier approaches, amplification makes it is possible to guarantee limits on privacy breaches without any knowledge of the distribution of the original data. We instantiate this methodology for the problem of mining association rules, and modify the algorithm from [9] to limit privacy breaches without knowledge of the data distribution. Next, we address the problem that the amount of randomization required to avoid privacy breaches (when mining association rules) results in very long transactions. By using pseudorandom generators and carefully choosing seeds such that the desired items from the original transaction are present in the randomized transaction, we can send just the seed instead of the transaction, resulting in a dramatic drop in communication and storage cost. Finally, we define new information measures that take privacy breaches into account when quantifying the amount of privacy preserved by randomization.

Minimum elastic bounding box algorithm for dimension detection of 3D objects: a case of airline baggage measurement <=SEP=> Motivated by the interference of appendages in airline baggage dimension detection using three-dimensional (3D) point cloud, a minimum elastic bounding box (MEBB) algorithm for dimension detection of 3D objects is developed. The baggage dimension measurements using traditional bounding box method or shape fitting method can cause large measurements due to the interference of appendages. Starting from the idea of ‘enclosing’, an elastic bounding box model with the deformable surface is established. On the basis of using principal component analysis to obtain the main direction of the bounding box, the elastic rules for deformable surfaces are developed so as to produce a large elastic force when it comes into contact with the main body part and to produce a small elastic force when it comes into contact with the appendages part. The airline baggage measurement shows how to use MEBB for dimension detection, especially for the processing of isotropic density distribution, the elasticity computing and the adaptive adjustment of elasticity. Results on typical baggage samples, comparisons to other methods, and error distribution experiments with different algorithm parameters show that the authors’ method can reliably obtain the size of the main body part of the object under the interference of appendages.

A systematic literature review: Information security culture <=SEP=> Human behavior inside organizations is considered the main threat to organizations. Moreover, in information security the human element consider the most of weakest link in general. Therefore it is crucial to create an information security culture to protect the organization's assets from inside and to influence employees' security behavior. This paper focuses on identifying the definitions and frameworks for establishing and maintaining information security culture inside organizations. It presents work have been done to conduct a systematic literature review of papers published on information security culture from 2003 to 2016. The review identified 68 papers that focus on this area, 18 of which propose an information security culture framework. An analysis of these papers indicate there is a positive relationship between levels of knowledge and how employees behave. The level of knowledge significantly affects information security behavior and should be considered as a critical factor in the effectiveness of information security culture and in any further work that is carried out on information security culture. Therefore, there is a need for more studies to identity the security knowledge that needs to be incorporated into organizations and to find instances of best practice for building an information security culture within organizations.

Sample Preparation on Micro-Electrode-Dot-Array Digital Microfluidic Biochips <=SEP=> Sample preparation in digital microfluidics refers to the generation of droplets with target concentrations for onchip biochemical applications. In recent years, digital microfluidic biochips (DMFBs) have been adopted as a platform for sample preparation. However, there remain one major problem associated with sample preparation on a conventional DMFB. For conventional DMFBs, only a (1:1) mixing/splitting model can be used, leading to an increase in the number of fluidic operations required for sample preparation. To overcome the drawback, we adopt a next generation DMFB platform, referred to as micro-electrode-dot-array (MEDA), for sample preparation. We propose the first sample preparation method that exploits the MEDA-specific advantages of fine-grained control of droplet sizes and real-time droplet sensing. Experimental demonstration using a fabricated MEDA biochip and simulation results highlight the effectiveness of the proposed sample-preparation method.

Ratio estimators in simple random sampling <=SEP=> This study proposes ratio estimators by adapting the estimators type ofRay and Singh [J. Ind. Stat. Assoc. 19 (1981) 147] to traditional and the other ratio-type estimators in simple random sampling in literature. Theoretically, mean square error (MSE) equations of all proposed ratio estimators are obtained and compared with each other. By these comparisons the conditions, which make each proposed estimator more efficient than the others, are found. The theoretical results are supported by a numerical illustration. 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Novel Approach for Brain Tumor Detection Using Support Vector Machine , K-Means and PCA Algorithm <=SEP=> The conventional method of detection and classification of brain tumor is by human inspection with the use of medical resonant brain images. But it is impractical when large amounts of data is to be diagnosed and to be reproducible. And also the operator assisted classification leads to false predictions and may also lead to false diagnose. Medical Resonance images contain a noise caused by operator performance which can lead to serious inaccuracies classification. The use Support Vector Machine, Kmean and PCA shown great potential in this field. Principal Component Analysis gives fast and accurate tool for Feature Extraction of the tumors. Kmean is used for Image Segmentation. Support Vector Mahine with Training and Testing of Brain Tumor Images techniques is implemented for automated brain tumor classification.

Self-tuning fuzzy PID controller for electro-hydraulic cylinder <=SEP=> Hydraulic systems are widely used in industrial applications. This is due to its high speed of response with fast start, stop and speed reversal possible. The torque to inertia ratio is also large with resulting high acceleration capability. The nonlinear properties of hydraulic cylinder make the position tracking control design challenging. This paper presents the development and implementation of self-tuning fuzzy PID controller in controlling the position variation of electro-hydraulic actuator. The hydraulic system mathematical model is approximated using system identification technique. The simulation studies were done using Matlab Simulink environment. The output performance was compared with the design using pole-placement controller. The roots mean squared error for both techniques showed that self-tuning Fuzzy PID produced better result compared to using pole-placement controller.

SNAP and SPAN: Towards Dynamic Spatial Ontology <=SEP=> We propose a modular ontology of the dynamic features of reality. This amounts, on the one hand, to a purely spatial ontology supporting snapshot views of the world at successive instants of time and, on the other hand, to a purely spatiotemporal ontology of change and process. We argue that dynamic spatial ontology must combine these two distinct types of inventory of the entities and relationships in reality, and we provide characterizations of spatiotemporal reasoning in the light of the interconnections between them.

MaxMax: A Graph-Based Soft Clustering Algorithm Applied to Word Sense Induction <=SEP=> This paper introduces a linear time graph-based soft clustering algorithm. The algorithm applies a simple idea: given a graph, vertex pairs are assigned to the same cluster if either vertex has maximal affinity to the other. Clusters of varying size, shape, and density are found automatically making the algorithm suited to tasks such Word Sense Induction (WSI), where the number of classes is unknown and where class distributions may be skewed. The algorithm is applied to two WSI tasks, obtaining results comparable with those of systems adopting existing, state-of-the-art methods.

A study of success and failure in product innovation: The case of the U.S. electronics industry <=SEP=> This paper summarizes the first phase of the Stanford Innovation Project, a long-term study of U.S. industrial innovation. As part of this initial phase, begun in 1982, two surveys were conducted: 1) an open-ended survey of 158 new products in the electronics industry, followed by 2) a structured survey of 118 of the original products. Both surveys used a pairwise comparison methodology. Our research identified eight broad areas that appear to be important for new product success in a high-technology environment: 1) market knowledge gained through frequent and intense customer interaction, which leads to high benefit-to-cost products; 2) and 3) planning and coordination of the new product process, especially the R&D phase; 4) emphasis on marketing and sales; 5) management support for the product throughout the development and launch stages; 6) the contribution margin of the product; 7) early market entry; 8) proximity of the new product technologies and markets to the existing strengths of the developing unit. Based on these results, a preliminary model of the new product process is proposed in the concluding section. There is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new system. Niccolo Machiavelli.

Fundamentals of Parameterized Complexity <=SEP=> It's not surprisingly when entering this site to get the book. One of the popular books now is the fundamentals of parameterized complexity. You may be confused because you can't find the book in the book store around your city. Commonly, the popular book will be sold quickly. And when you have found the store to buy the book, it will be so hurt when you run out of it. This is why, searching for this popular book in this website will give you benefit. You will not run out of this book.

Supporting Iterative Cohort Construction with Visual Temporal Queries <=SEP=> Many researchers across diverse disciplines aim to analyze the behavior of cohorts whose behaviors are recorded in large event databases. However, extracting cohorts from databases is a difficult yet important step, often overlooked in many analytical solutions. This is especially true when researchers wish to restrict their cohorts to exhibit a particular temporal pattern of interest. In order to fill this gap, we designed COQUITO, a visual interface that assists users defining cohorts with temporal constraints. COQUITO was designed to be comprehensible to domain experts with no preknowledge of database queries and also to encourage exploration. We then demonstrate the utility of COQUITO via two case studies, involving medical and social media researchers.

Pseudo test collections for training and tuning microblog rankers <=SEP=> Recent years have witnessed a persistent interest in generating pseudo test collections, both for training and evaluation purposes. We describe a method for generating queries and relevance judgments for microblog search in an unsupervised way. Our starting point is this intuition: tweets with a hashtag are relevant to the topic covered by the hashtag and hence to a suitable query derived from the hashtag. Our baseline method selects all commonly used hashtags, and all associated tweets as relevance judgments; we then generate a query from these tweets. Next, we generate a timestamp for each query, allowing us to use temporal information in the training process. We then enrich the generation process with knowledge derived from an editorial test collection for microblog search.
 We use our pseudo test collections in two ways. First, we tune parameters of a variety of well known retrieval methods on them. Correlations with parameter sweeps on an editorial test collection are high on average, with a large variance over retrieval algorithms. Second, we use the pseudo test collections as training sets in a learning to rank scenario. Performance close to training on an editorial test collection is achieved in many cases. Our results demonstrate the utility of tuning and training microblog search algorithms on automatically generated training material.

Design and implementation of embedded Web server based on arm and Linux <=SEP=> This paper achieves the design of an embedded Web server, which takes ARM920T-S3c2410s chip as its core and Linux as its operating system. This is because Linux can be reduced and transplanted. The method used to transplant Web server Boa on the embedded Linux platform is also discussed in detail, and through CGI technology functions of dynamic Web page is successfully realized. Relevant experiments show that after the Web server is embedded into the network video monitoring system, dynamic page interaction can be achieved between the Web server and the embedded system via the browser in the Windows environment.

Simulation of Automotive Radar Target Lists using a Novel Approach of Object Representation <=SEP=> The development of radar signal processing algorithms for target tracking and higher-level automotive applications is mainly done based on real radar data. A data basis has to be acquired during cost-expensive and time-consuming test runs. For a comparably simple application like the adaptive cruise control (ACC), the variety of significant traffic situations can sufficiently be covered by test runs. But for more advanced applications like intersection assistance, the effort for the acquisition of a representative set of radar data will be unbearable. In this paper, we propose a way of simulating radar target lists in a realistic but computationally undemanding way, which will allow to significantly reduce the amount of real radar data needed

Computer-Aided Diagnosis of Mammographic Masses Using Scalable Image Retrieval <=SEP=> Computer-aided diagnosis of masses in mammograms is important to the prevention of breast cancer. Many approaches tackle this problem through content-based image retrieval techniques. However, most of them fall short of scalability in the retrieval stage, and their diagnostic accuracy is, therefore, restricted. To overcome this drawback, we propose a scalable method for retrieval and diagnosis of mammographic masses. Specifically, for a query mammographic region of interest (ROI), scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) features are extracted and searched in a vocabulary tree, which stores all the quantized features of previously diagnosed mammographic ROIs. In addition, to fully exert the discriminative power of SIFT features, contextual information in the vocabulary tree is employed to refine the weights of tree nodes. The retrieved ROIs are then used to determine whether the query ROI contains a mass. The presented method has excellent scalability due to the low spatial-temporal cost of vocabulary tree. Extensive experiments are conducted on a large dataset of 11 553 ROIs extracted from the digital database for screening mammography, which demonstrate the accuracy and scalability of our approach.

HOPE: Enabling Efficient Service Orchestration in Software-Defined Data Centers <=SEP=> The functional scope of today's software-defined data centers (SDDC) has expanded to such an extent that servers face a growing amount of critical background operational tasks like load monitoring, logging, migration, and duplication, etc. These ancillary operations, which we refer to as management operations, often nibble the stringent data center power envelope and exert a tremendous amount of pressure on front-end user tasks. However, existing power capping, peak shaving, and time shifting mechanisms mainly focus on managing data center power demand at the "macro level" -- they do not distinguish ancillary background services from user tasks, and therefore often incur significant performance degradation and energy overhead.
 In this study we explore "micro-level" power management in SDDC: tuning a specific set of critical loads for the sake of overall system efficiency and performance. Specifically, we look at management operations that can often lead to resource contention and energy overhead in an IaaS SDDC. We assess the feasibility of this new power management paradigm by characterizing the resource and power impact of various management operations. We propose HOPE, a new system optimization framework for eliminating the potential efficiency bottleneck caused by the management operations in the SDDC. HOPE is implemented on a customized OpenStack cloud environment with heavily instrumented power infrastructure. We thoroughly validate HOPE models and optimization efficacy under various user workload scenarios. Our deployment experiences show that the proposed technique allows SDDC to reduce energy consumption by 19%, reduce management operation execution time by 25.4%, and in the meantime improve workload performance by 30%.

E-commerce web page classification based on automatic content extraction <=SEP=> Currently, There are many E-commerce websites around the internet world. These E-commerce websites can be categorized into many types which one of them is C2C (Customer to Customer) websites such as eBay and Amazon. The main objective of C2C websites is an online market place that everyone can buy or sell anything at any time. Since, there are a lot of products in the E-commerce websites and each product are classified into its category by human. It is very hard to define their categories in automatic manner when the data is very large. In this paper, we propose the method for classifying E-commerce web pages based on their product types. Firstly, we apply the proposed automatic content extraction to extract the contents of E-commerce web pages. Then, we apply the automatic key word extraction to select words from these extracted contents for generating the feature vectors that represent the E-commerce web pages. Finally, we apply the machine learning technique for classifying the E-commerce web pages based on their product types. The experimental results signify that our proposed method can classify the E-commerce web pages in automatic fashion.

Improved churn prediction in telecommunication industry using data mining techniques <=SEP=> 

Non-linear Feedback Neural Network for Solution of Quadratic Programming Problems <=SEP=> This paper presents a recurrent neural circuit for solving quadratic programming problems. The objective is tominimize a quadratic cost function subject to linearconstraints. The proposed circuit employs non-linearfeedback, in the form of unipolar comparators, to introducetranscendental terms in the energy function ensuring fastconvergence to the solution. The proof of validity of the energy function is also provided. The hardware complexity of the proposed circuit comparesfavorably with other proposed circuits for the same task. PSPICE simulation results arepresented for a chosen optimization problem and are foundto agree with the algebraic solution.

A Named Entity Recognition Shootout for German <=SEP=> • CRF-based methods: • StanfordNER [4]: CRF + standard features • GermaNER [5]: CRF + distributional semantics, gazetteers, ... • Recurrent Neural Network: • BiLSTM + CRF [6] using characterand word embeddings using FastText • Wikipedia (contemporary encyclopedia) • Europeana (historic newspaper from 1703 to 1899) Conclusion & Future Contemporary corpora: minor improvements GermEval: 82.93 à 82.93 CoNLL: 82.99 à 84.73 Historic corpora: major improvements LFT: 69.62 à 73.44 ONB: 70.46 à 78.56 Same setup as Exp. 2 but with transfer learning and considering only the BiLSTM-based method