Extraction and classification of self-consumable sport video highlights using generic HMM

This paper aims to automatically extract and classify self-consumable sport video highlights. For this purpose, we will emphasize the benefits of using play-break sequences as the effective inputs for HMMbased classifier. HMM is used to model the stochastic pattern of high-level states during specific sport highlights which correspond to the sequence of generic audio-visual measurements extracted from raw video data. This paper uses soccer as the domain study, focusing on the extraction and classification of goal, shot and foul highlights. The experiment work which uses183 play-break sequences from 6 soccer matches will be presented to demonstrate the performance of our proposed scheme.

Object extraction using genetic algorithms and morphological processing

This paper introduces a novel methodology for object detection using genetic algorithms and morphological processing. The method employs a kind of object oriented structuring element, which are derived using genetic algorithm operating. The population of morphological filters iteratively evaluated according to a statistical performance index corresponding to object extraction ability, and evolves into an optimal structuring elements using the evolution principles of genetic search. Experimental results of object extraction in high resolution satellite images are presented to illustrate the merit and feasibility of the proposed method.

Is water extraction a threat to insect populations in intermittently-flowing streams?

Stream insects use a variety of refuges to survive drought that vary in their vulnerability to water extraction. We surveyed drought refuges in 16 ephemeral streams with different flow regimes. Perennial sections were the most important drought refuge, but are the most likely to disappear when water is extracted.

Competition and unitization in oil extraction : a tale of two tragedies

This paper compares two organizational modes for extracting oil from a common pool: unitization and competitive extraction. The analysis suggests that the general presumption that unitization is surplus enhancing relative to competitive extraction may not always be valid due to contractual incompleteness associated with unitization contracts. While competitive extraction suffers from the tragedy of the commons, unitization can be subject to the dual tragedy of the anticommons. This provides an explanation for the puzzle confronting the oil industry that firms are often reluctant to voluntarily enter unitization agreements.

Critical assessment of various techniques for the extraction of carotenoids and co-enzyme Q10 from the Thraustochytrid strain ONC-T18

A variety of techniques for extracting carotenoids from the marine Thraustochytrium sp. ONC-T18 was compared. Specifically, the organic solvents acetone, ethyl acetate, and petroleum ether were tested, along with direct and indirect ultrasonic assisted extraction (probe vs bath) methods. Techniques that used petroleum ether/acetone/water (15:75:10, v/v/v) with 3 h of agitation, or 5 min in an ultrasonic bath, produced the highest extraction yields of total carotenoids (29−30.5 μg g^-1). Concentrations up to 11.5 μg g^-1 of canthaxanthin and 17.5 μg g^-1 of β-carotene were detected in extracts stored for 6 weeks. Astaxanthin and echinenone were also detected as minor compounds. Extracts with and without antioxidants showed similar carotenoid concentration profiles. However, total carotenoid concentrations were approximately 8% higher when antioxidants were used. Finally, an easy-to-perform and inexpensive method to detect co-enzymes in ONC-T18 was also developed using silica gel TLC plates. Five percent methanol in toluene as a mobile phase consistently eluted co-enzyme Q10 standards and could separate the co-enzyme fractions present in ONC-T18.

Evaluation of fatty acid extraction methods for Thraustochytrium sp. ONC-T18

Various extraction methods were assessed in their capacity to extract fatty acids from a dried biomass of Thraustochytrium sp. ONC-T18. Direct saponification using KOH in ethanol or in hexane:ethanol was one of the most efficient techniques to extract lipids (697 mg g^-1). The highest amount of fatty acids (714 mg g^-1) was extracted using a miniaturized Bligh and Dyer extraction technique. The use of ultrasonics to break down cell walls while extracting with solvents (methanol:chloroform) also offered high extraction yields of fatty acids (609 mg g^-1). Moreover, when the transesterification mixture used for a direct transesterification method was doubled, the extraction of fatty acids increased approximately 77% (from 392 to 696 mg g^-1). This work showed that Thraustochytrium sp. ONC-T18 has the ability to produce over 700 mg g^-1 of lipids, including more than 165 mg g-1 of docosahexaenoic acid, which makes this microorganism a potential candidate for the commercial production of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Finally, other lipids, such as myristic, palmitic, palmitoleic, and oleic acids, were also produced and recovered in significant amounts (54, 196, 123, and 81 mg g^-1), respectively.

Characterisation of nickel(II) extraction by 2-hydroxy-5-nonylacetophenone oxime (LIX 84) in a micellar phase

The properties of the nickel(II)/2-hydroxy-5-nonylacetophenone oxime (HNAPO), an active ingredient in LIX 84, extraction system were characterised in a micellar system. The extinction coefficient, λ_max of HNAPO (316 nm) and the Ni²⁺ complex (387 nm) in a neutral micellar system, poly dispersed octa-ethyleneglycol mono-n-dodecyl ether (G₁₂A₈) were determined as 3100 and 3500 M⁻¹ cm⁻¹, respectively. HNAPO was found to have a neutral micellar phase and bulk aqueous phase pK_a of 11.5 and 12.5, respectively. The extraction equilibrium constant, K_ex, was determined to be 10^−8.0, and the deviation from theory observed at high pH can be accounted for by consideration of the competition for nickel(II) ions by hydroxide ions and HNAPO. A micellar phase of octa-ethyleneglycol mono-n-dodecyl ether (C₁₂E₈) was determined to be an appropriate model of the free oil/water interface from the solubilised location of HNAPO. Utilising the interfacial probe, 4-heptadecyl-7-hydroxy coumarin (HHC) allowed the determination of the electrostatic surface potential of mixed micelles of G₁₂A₈ and sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) or dodecyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (DTAC). The electrostatic surface potential was a linear function of the number of additional surfactant monomers within the G₁₂A₈ micelle, for the concentration range studied. For G₁₂A₈/DTAC mixed micelles, the surface potential was given by +1.1 mV per DTAC molecule per micelle, and for G₁₂A₈/SDS mixed micelles the relationship was −1.4 mV per SDS molecule per micelle.

Improved 3D thinning algorithms for skeleton extraction

In this study, we focused on developing a novel 3D Thinning algorithm to extract one-voxel wide skeleton from various 3D objects aiming at preserving the topological information. The 3D Thinning algorithm was testified on computer-generated and real 3D reconstructed image sets acquired from TEMT and compared with other existing 3D Thinning algorithms. It is found that the algorithm has conserved medial axes and simultaneously topologies very well, demonstrating many advantages over the existing technologies. They are versatile, rigorous, efficient and rotation invariant.

Feature extraction for animal fiber identification

Fiber identification has been a very important task in many industries such as wool growing, textile processing, archaeology, histochernical engineering, and zoology. Over the years, animal fibers have been identified using physical and chemical approaches. Recently, objective identification of animal fibers has been developed based on the cuticular information of fibers. Effective and accurate extraction of representative features is essential to animal fiber identification and classification. In the current work, two different strategies are developed for this purpose. In the first method, explicit features are extracted using image processing. However, only implicit features are used in the second method with an unsupervised artificial neural network. It is found that the use of explicit features increases the accuracy of fiber identification but requires more effort on processing images and solid knowledge of what features are representative ones.

Improved extraction of heavy metal ions using membrane technology

Investigates tha application of polymer membranes in industrial wastewater treatment. Several novel membrane systems have been developed. The new systems overcome the problems of low extractant capacity and slow rate of extraction of the traditional membrane system. These new systems offer significant scope for the treatment of industrial wastewater containing heavy metal ions.

Mixed transfer function neural networks for generalization and knowledge extraction

This thesis develops a novel framework of nonlinear modelling to adaptively fit the complexity of the model to the problem domain resulting in a better modelling capability and a straightforward knowledge acquisition. The developed framework also permits increased comprehensibility and user acceptability of modelling results.

Automatic extraction of abnormal regions from lung images

A system that could automatically extract abnormal lung regions may assist expert radiologists in verifying lung tissue abnormalities. This paper presents an automated lung nodule detection system consisting of five components: acquisition, pre-processing, background removal, detection, and false positives reduction. The system employs a combination of an ensemble classification and clustering methods. The performance of the developed system is compared against some existing counterparts. Based 011 the experimental results, the proposed system achieved a sensitivity of 100% and a false-positives/slice of 0.67 for 30 tested CT images.

Extensible motif and aberrant nucleotide extraction in genomic sequences

The project focusses on the discovery of conserved DNA sequences in bacterial genomes and comparative analysis of bacterial genomes to elicit evolutionary trends. The outcomes have produced novel techniques for modelling motifs in DNA and the characterisation of evolutionary processes in medically significant bacterial pathogens.

Extraction of copper(II) ions from aqueous solutions with a methimazole-based ionic liquid

The recently synthesized ionic liquid (IL) 2-butylthiolonium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)amide, [mimSBu][NTf2], has been used for the extraction of copper(II) from aqueous solution. The pH of the aqueous phase decreases upon addition of [mimSBu]+, which is attributed to partial release of the hydrogen attached to the N(3) nitrogen atom of the imidazolium ring. The presence of sparingly soluble water in [mimSBu][NTf2] also is required in solvent extraction studies to promote the incorporation of Cu(II) into the [mimSBu][NTf2] ionic liquid phase. The labile copper(II) system formed by interacting with both the water and the IL cation component has been characterized by cyclic voltammetry as well as UV−vis, Raman, and 1H, 13C, and 15N NMR spectroscopies. The extraction process does not require the addition of a complexing agent or pH control of the aqueous phase. [mimSBu][NTf2] can be recovered from the labile copper−water−IL interacting system by washing with a strong acid. High selectivity of copper(II) extraction is achieved relative to that of other divalent cobalt(II), iron(II), and nickel(II) transition-metal cations. The course of microextraction of Cu2+ from aqueous media into the [mimSBu][NTf2] IL phase was monitored in situ by cyclic voltammetry using a well-defined process in which specific interaction with copper is believed to switch from the ionic liquid cation component, [mimSBu], to the [NTf2] anion during the course of electrochemical reduction from Cu(II) to Cu(I). The microextraction−voltammetry technique provides a fast and convenient method to determine whether an IL is able to extract electroactive metal ions from an aqueous solution.