Automatic Road Extraction using High Resolution Satellite Image Based on Texture Progressive Analysis and Normalized Cut Method

In this paper the approach for automatic road extraction for an urban region using structural, spectral and geometric characteristics of roads has been presented. Roads have been extracted based on two levels: Pre-processing and road extraction methods. Initially, the image is pre-processed to improve the tolerance by reducing the clutter (that mostly represents the buildings, parking lots, vegetation regions and other open spaces). The road segments are then extracted using Texture Progressive Analysis (TPA) and Normalized cut algorithm. The TPA technique uses binary segmentation based on three levels of texture statistical evaluation to extract road segments where as, Normalizedcut method for road extraction is a graph based method that generates optimal partition of road segments. The performance evaluation (quality measures) for road extraction using TPA and normalized cut method is compared. Thus the experimental result show that normalized cut method is efficient in extracting road segments in urban region from high resolution satellite image.

Multi-criteria seismic hazard evaluation for Bangalore city, India

Different seismic hazard components pertaining to Bangalore city,namely soil overburden thickness, effective shear-wave velocity, factor of safety against liquefaction potential, peak ground acceleration at the seismic bedrock, site response in terms of amplification factor, and the predominant frequency, has been individually evaluated. The overburden thickness distribution, predominantly in the range of 5-10 m in the city, has been estimated through a sub-surface model from geotechnical bore-log data. The effective shear-wave velocity distribution, established through Multi-channel Analysis of Surface Wave (MASW) survey and subsequent data interpretation through dispersion analysis, exhibits site class D (180-360 m/s), site class C (360-760 m/s), and site class B (760-1500 m/s) in compliance to the National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program (NEHRP) nomenclature. The peak ground acceleration has been estimated through deterministic approach, based on the maximum credible earthquake of M-W = 5.1 assumed to be nucleating from the closest active seismic source (Mandya-Channapatna-Bangalore Lineament). The 1-D site response factor, computed at each borehole through geotechnical analysis across the study region, is seen to be ranging from around amplification of one to as high as four times. Correspondingly, the predominant frequency estimated from the Fourier spectrum is found to be predominantly in range of 3.5-5.0 Hz. The soil liquefaction hazard assessment has been estimated in terms of factor of safety against liquefaction potential using standard penetration test data and the underlying soil properties that indicates 90% of the study region to be non-liquefiable. The spatial distributions of the different hazard entities are placed on a GIS platform and subsequently, integrated through analytical hierarchal process. The accomplished deterministic hazard map shows high hazard coverage in the western areas. The microzonation, thus, achieved is envisaged as a first-cut assessment of the site specific hazard in laying out a framework for higher order seismic microzonation as well as a useful decision support tool in overall land-use planning, and hazard management. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The thickness and volume of lake ice in Finland

Yhteenveto: Järvijään paksuus ja volyymi Suomessa jaksolla 1961-90

Photo induced optical changes in Sb/As2S3 multilayered film and (As2S3)(0.93)Sb-0.07 film of equal thickness

The increase in optical band gap (photo bleaching) due to light illumination was studied at room temperature as well as at low (4.2 K) temperature for Sb/As2S3 multilayered film of 640 nm thickness by Fourier Transform Infrared Technique. The interdiffusion of Sb into As2S3 matrix results the formation of Sb-As2S3 ternary solid solutions which is explained by the change in optical band gap (E-g), absorption coefficient (alpha), Tauc parameter (B-1/2), Urbach edge (E-e). At the same time, photo darkening phenomena was observed in (As2S3)(0.93)Sb-0.07 film of same thickness both at low and room temperatures. From our X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy measurements,we are able to show that some of the As-As, S-S and Sb-Sb bonds are converted into As-S and S-Sb bonds in case of multilayers. We found that the energetically favoured heteropolar bond formation take place by a phonon-assisted mechanism using the lone pair pi electrons of S-2(0). But in case of (As2S3)(0.93)Sb-0.02 film, the homopolar bonds are playing a major role. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effects of capillary waves on the thickness of wetting layers

The free energy contribution of capillary waves is calculated to show its significant dependence on the thickness of the liquid layer, when the thickness is very small. It is shown that these oscillations can play an important role in determining the thermodynamic stability of a wetting layer, close to the critical point of a binary liquid mixture in the case of both short range and long range forces. In particular, the thickness of the wetting layer goes to zero as the temperature T approaches Tc.

Free vibration of circular plates of arbitrary thickness

Free vibration of circular plates of arbitrary thickness is investigated using the method of initial functions. State-space approach is used to derive the governing equations of the above method. The formulation is such that theories of any desired order can be obtained by deleting higher terms in the infinite-order differential equations. Numerical results are obtained for flexural and extensional vibration of circular plates. Results are also computed using Mindlin's theory and they are in agreement with the present analysis.

Thermal gap conductance at low contact pressures (<1 MPa): Effect of gold plating and plating thickness

Thermal contact conductance (TCC) measurements are made on bare and gold plated (<= 0.5 mu m) oxygen free high conductivity (OFHC) Cu and brass contacts in vacuum, nitrogen, and argon environments. It is observed that the TCC in gaseous environment is significantly higher than that in vacuum due to the enhanced thermal gap conductance. It is found that for a given contact load and gas pressure, the thermal gap conductance for bare OFHC Cu contacts is higher than that for gold plated contacts. It is due to the difference in the molecular weights of copper and gold, which influences the exchange of kinetic energy between the gas molecules and contact surfaces. Furthermore, the gap conductance is found to increase with increasing thickness of gold plating. Topography measurements and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis of contact surfaces revealed that surfaces become smoother with increasing gold plating thickness, thus resulting in smaller gaps and consequently higher gap conductance. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Non-industrial private forest landowners’ choices of timber management strategies and potential allowable cut.

In the study, the potential allowable cut in the district of Pohjois-Savo - based on the non-industrial private forest landowners' (NIPF) choices of timber management strategies - was clarified. Alternative timber management strategies were generated, and the choices and factors affecting the choices of timber management strategies by NIPF landowners were studied. The choices of timber management strategies were solved by maximizing the utility functions of the NIPF landowners. The parameters of the utility functions were estimated using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The level of the potential allowable cut was compared to the cutting budgets based on the 7th and 8th National Forest Inventories (NFI7 and NFI8), to the combining of private forestry plans, and to the realized drain from non-industrial private forests. The potential allowable cut was calculated using the same MELA system as has been used in the calculation of the national cutting budget. The data consisted of the NIPF holdings (from the TASO planning system) that had been inventoried compartmentwise and had forestry plans made during the years 1984-1992. The NIPF landowners' choices of timber management strategies were clarified by a two-phase mail inquiry. The most preferred strategy obtained was "sustainability" (chosen by 62 % of landowners). The second in order of preference was "finance" (17 %) and the third was "saving" (11 %). "No cuttings", and "maximum cuttings" were the least preferred (9 % and 1 %, resp.). The factors promoting the choices of strategies with intensive cuttings were a) "farmer as forest owner" and "owning fields", b) "increase in the size of the forest holding", c) agriculture and forestry orientation in production, d) "decreasing short term stumpage earning expectations", e) "increasing intensity of future cuttings", and f) "choice of forest taxation system based on site productivity". The potential allowable cut defined in the study was 20 % higher than the average of the realized drain during the years 1988-1993, which in turn, was at the same level as the cutting budget based on the combining of forestry plans in eastern Finland. Respectively, the potential allowable cut defined in the study was 12 % lower than the NFI8-based greatest sustained allowable cut for the 1990s. Using the method presented in this study, timber management strategies can be clarified for non-industrial private forest landowners in different parts of Finland. Based on the choices of timber managemet strategies, regular cutting budgets can be calculated more realistically than before.

On the uniformity of film thickness on rotating spherical substrates on a planar work holder

Curves for the uniformity in film thickness on spherical substrates are drawn for various geometries. The optimum source-to-substrate height for maximum uniformity of the film thickness is determined. These data are approximated to achieve uniform thickness on a large number of small planar substrates loaded on a large spherical substrate holder, the appropriate geometry being selected on the basis of the radius of curvature of the substrate holder.

Parallel min-cut placement on reduced hardware SIMD architecture.

Massively parallel SIMD computing is applied to obtain an order of magnitude improvement in the executional speed of an important algorithm in VLSI design automation. The physical design of a VLSI circuit involves logic module placement as a subtask. The paper is concerned with accelerating the well known Min-cut placement technique for logic cell placement. The inherent parallelism of the Min-cut algorithm is identified, and it is shown that a parallel machine based on the efficient execution of the placement procedure.

Effects of forestry extension on the use of allowable cut in non-industrial private forests.

XVIII IUFRO World Congress, Ljubljana 1986.

Effect of wall thickness on the end corrections of the extended inlet and outlet of a double-tuned expansion chamber

Simple expansion chambers, the simplest of the muffler configurations, have very limited practical application due to the presence of periodic troughs in the transmission loss spectrum which drastically lower the overall transmission loss of the muffler. Tuned extended inlet and outlet can be designed to nullify three-fourths of these troughs, making use of the plane wave theory. These cancellations would not occur unless one altered the geometric lengths for the extended tube in order to incorporate the effect of evanescent higher-order modes (multidimensional effect) through end corrections or lumped inertance approximation at the area discontinuities or junctions. End corrections of the extended inlet and outlet have been studied by several researchers. However the effect of wall thickness of the inlet/outlet duct on end correction has not been studied explicitly. This has significant effect on the tuning of an extended inlet/outlet expansion chamber. It is investigated here experimentally as well as numerically (through use of 3-D FEM software) for stationary medium. Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Electrical Contact Resistance in Thin (<= 0.5 mu m) Gold Plated Contacts: Effect of Gold Plating Thickness

This paper describes the electrical contact resistance (ECR) measurements made on thin gold plated (gold plating of <= 0.5 mu m with a Ni underlayer of similar to 2 mu m) oxygen free high conductivity (OFHC) Cu contacts in vacuum environment. ECR in gold plated OFHC Cu contacts is found to be slightly higher than that in bare OFHC Cu contacts. Even though gold is a softer material than copper, the relatively high ECR values observed in gold plated contacts are mainly due to the higher hardness and electrical resistivity of the underlying Ni layer. It is well known that ECR is directly related to plating factor, which increases with increasing coating thickness when the electrical resistivity of coating material is more than that of substrate. Surprisingly, in the present case it is found that the ECR decreases with increasing gold layer thickness on OFHC Cu substrate (gold has higher electrical resistivity than OFHC Cu). It is analytically demonstrated from the topography and microhardness measurements results that this peculiar behavior is associated with thin gold platings, where the changes in surface roughness and microhardness with increasing layer thickness overshadow the effect of plating factor on ECR.

Variable density approach for rotating shallow shell of variable thickness

A new approach based on variable density in conjunction with shallow shell theory is proposed to analyse rotating shallow shell of variable thickness. Coupled non-linear ordinary differential equations governing shallows shells of variable thickness are first derived before applying the variable density approach. Results obtained from the new approach compare well with FEM calculation for a wide range of profiles considered in this paper.

Thickness-dependent fcc-hcp phase transformation in polycrystalline titanium thin films

Polycrystalline Ti thin films are shown to gradually transform from face-centered cubic (fcc) to hexagonal close-packed structure (hcp) with increasing film thickness. Diffraction stress analysis revealed that the fcc phase is formed in a highly compressive hcp matrix (>= 2 GPa), the magnitude of which decreases with increasing film thickness. A correlation between stress and crystallographic texture vis-a-vis the fcc-hcp phase transformation has been established. The total free energy change of the system upon phase transformation calculated using the experimental results shows that the fcc-hcp transformation is theoretically possible in the investigated film thickness regime (144-720 nm) and the hcp structure is stable for films thicker than 720 nm, whereas the fcc structure can be stabilized in Ti films much thinner than 144 nm. (C) 2011 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.