A simple, intuitive camera calibration tool for natural images

The paper reports an interactive tool for calibrating a camera, suitable for use in outdoor scenes. The motivation for the tool was the need to obtain an approximate calibration for images taken with no explicit calibration data. Such images are frequently presented to research laboratories, especially in surveillance applications, with a request to demonstrate algorithms. The method decomposes the calibration parameters into intuitively simple components, and relies on the operator interactively adjusting the parameter settings to achieve a visually acceptable agreement between a rectilinear calibration model and his own perception of the scene. Using the tool, we have been able to calibrate images of unknown scenes, taken with unknown cameras, in a matter of minutes. The standard of calibration has proved to be sufficient for model-based pose recovery and tracking of vehicles.

Evaluation of two soil carbon models using two Kenyan long term experimental datasets

RothC and Century are two of the most widely used soil organic matter (SOM) models. However there are few examples of specific parameterisation of these models for environmental conditions in East Africa. The aim of this study was therefore, to evaluate the ability of RothC and the Century to estimate changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) resulting from varying land use/management practices for the climate and soil conditions found in Kenya. The study used climate, soils and crop data from a long term experiment (1976-2001) carried out at The Kabete site at The Kenya National Agricultural Research Laboratories (NARL, located in a semi-humid region) and data from a 13 year experiment carried out in Machang'a (Embu District, located in a semi-arid region). The NARL experiment included various fertiliser (0, 60 and 120 kg of N and P2O5 ha(-1)), farmyard manure (FYM - 5 and 10 t ha(-1)) and plant residue treatments, in a variety of combinations. The Machang'a experiment involved a fertiliser (51 kg N ha(-1)) and a FYM (0, 5 and 10 t ha(-1)) treatment with both monocropping and intercropping. At Kabete both models showed a fair to good fit to measured data, although Century simulations for treatments with high levels of FYM were better than those without. At the Machang'a site with monocrops, both models showed a fair to good fit to measured data for all treatments. However, the fit of both models (especially RothC) to measured data for intercropping treatments at Machang'a was much poorer. Further model development for intercrop systems is recommended. Both models can be useful tools in soil C Predictions, provided time series of measured soil C and crop production data are available for validating model performance against local or regional agricultural crops. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Recent advances in the application of capillary electrophoresis for food analysis

This article reviews recent developments in the application of capillary electrophoresis (CE) for the analysis of foods and food components. CE has been applied to a number of important areas of food analysis and is fast becoming an established technique within food analytical and research laboratories. Papers are reviewed that were published during the two years to date following the previous review.

An analysis of the environmental energetics associated with the transition of the first South Atlantic hurricane

This study presents the first analysis of the energetics associated with a hybrid cyclone`s transition in the Southern Hemisphere, Hurricane Catarina ( March 2004). Catarina has earned a place in history as the first documented South Atlantic hurricane, but its unusual tropical transition is still poorly understood. Here we show that Catarina`s transition was preceded by marked environmental changes in the Lorenz energy cycle, with an abrupt shift from a baroclinic to a predominantly barotropic state. Such changes help to explain the unusual vortex`s growth until its transition was completed. Although the vortex`s energy flux is not explicitly calculated, a likely mechanism linking the environmental energetics with Catarina is the extraction of eddy kinetic energy from horizontal momentum and heat transfers within the through component of the blocking. The results advance the understanding of this rare event and suggest that the technique has a great potential to study transitioning systems in general.

Quantifying epistemic actions in human-computer interaction

As digital systems move away from traditional desktop setups, new interaction paradigms are emerging that better integrate with users’ realworld surroundings, and better support users’ individual needs. While promising, these modern interaction paradigms also present new challenges, such as a lack of paradigm-specific tools to systematically evaluate and fully understand their use. This dissertation tackles this issue by framing empirical studies of three novel digital systems in embodied cognition – an exciting new perspective in cognitive science where the body and its interactions with the physical world take a central role in human cognition. This is achieved by first, focusing the design of all these systems on a contemporary interaction paradigm that emphasizes physical interaction on tangible interaction, a contemporary interaction paradigm; and second, by comprehensively studying user performance in these systems through a set of novel performance metrics grounded on epistemic actions, a relatively well established and studied construct in the literature on embodied cognition. The first system presented in this dissertation is an augmented Four-in-a-row board game. Three different versions of the game were developed, based on three different interaction paradigms (tangible, touch and mouse), and a repeated measures study involving 36 participants measured the occurrence of three simple epistemic actions across these three interfaces. The results highlight the relevance of epistemic actions in such a task and suggest that the different interaction paradigms afford instantiation of these actions in different ways. Additionally, the tangible version of the system supports the most rapid execution of these actions, providing novel quantitative insights into the real benefits of tangible systems. The second system presented in this dissertation is a tangible tabletop scheduling application. Two studies with single and paired users provide several insights into the impact of epistemic actions on the user experience when these are performed outside of a system’s sensing boundaries. These insights are clustered by the form, size and location of ideal interface areas for such offline epistemic actions to occur, as well as how can physical tokens be designed to better support them. Finally, and based on the results obtained to this point, the last study presented in this dissertation directly addresses the lack of empirical tools to formally evaluate tangible interaction. It presents a video-coding framework grounded on a systematic literature review of 78 papers, and evaluates its value as metric through a 60 participant study performed across three different research laboratories. The results highlight the usefulness and power of epistemic actions as a performance metric for tangible systems. In sum, through the use of such novel metrics in each of the three studies presented, this dissertation provides a better understanding of the real impact and benefits of designing and developing systems that feature tangible interaction.

The genetic diversity of Plasmodium vivax: a review

The genetic diversity of Plasmodium vivax has been investigated in several malaria-endemic areas, including the Brazilian Amazon region, where this is currently the most prevalent species causing malaria in humans. This review summarizes current views on the use of molecular markers to examine P. vivax populations, with a focus on studies performed in Brazilian research laboratories. We emphasize the importance of phylogenetic studies on this parasite and discuss the perspectives created by our increasing understanding of genetic diversity and population structure of this parasite for the development of new control strategies, including vaccines, and more effective drugs for the treatment of P. vivax malaria.

Cauda equina syndrome after spinal tetracaine: Electromyographic evaluation-20 years follow-up

CAUDA equina syndrome (CES) has long been recognized as a rare complication of spinal anesthesia.(1) CES has been described after administration of spinal anesthetics with lidocaine(2) and bupivacaine.(3) In 1991,(4) CES was reported after continuous spinal anesthesia with 1% tetracaine. In 1980, at our university hospital, six adult female patients underwent perineal gynecologic surgery using a spinal anesthetic of 2 ml tetracaine, 1.2%, in 10% glucose. The concentration of the injected tetracaine was unknown by the anesthetists. In all cases, lumbar puncture was performed at the L3-L4 interspace with a disposable spinal needle while the patients were in the sitting position. CES was first diagnosed 72 h or later postoperatively; previous diagnosis was not possible because patients had an indwelling urethral catheter. The diagnosis of CES was confirmed in all patients. During the past year, after institutional approval and informed consent, clinical, magnetic resonance imaging, electromyographic examinations, and conduction studies were performed in three of the above patients. Examinations were not possible on the other three patients because one had recently died, another could not be located, and the third refused to participate. T1 and T2 magnetic resonance image readings were obtained with Gadolinium contrast from a 0.5 Tesla General Electric apparatus (General Electric, Tokyo, Japan). Bilateral sensory and motor conduction studies of the sciatic nerve branches were obtained using a two-channel Nihon-Kohden Neuropack 2 (Nihom-Kohden Corporation, Tokyo, Japan). Electromyography was performed in accordance with conventional techniques.(5,6)

A competência informacional de graduandos de biblioteconomia da região sudeste: um enfoque nos processos de busca e uso ético da informação

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Avaliação da resistência ao arrancamento de mini-implantes ortodônticos: estudo laboratorial

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Caracterização de plantas de mamey

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Projeto de um motor 4 tempos a gasolina monocilíndrico: calculo termodinâmico, desenho, usinagem e montagem da parte alternativa

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Efeitos do tipo, tamanho e teor de agregado graúdo no módulo de deformação do concreto de alta resistência

O concreto, material de composição heterogênea e complexa, é o principal insumo em construções. Do ponto de vista estrutural, ele tem como propriedade principal sua resistência. O estudo do comportamento do concreto, baseado em estudos conceituais da resistência granular, pode conduzir a um projeto estrutural mais seguro e de melhor utilização do material. Este trabalho expõe os resultados de um estudo conduzido para avaliar os efeitos do tipo, tamanho e teor de agregado graúdo no módulo de deformação do concreto de alta resistência. A mistura de concreto estudada contém agregados de basalto e de granito com dimensões máximas características de 9,5 mm e 19 mm e relação água/cimento de 0,35. O módulo de elasticidade do material foi determinado usando o trecho inicial linear da curva Carga-CMOD (deslocamento de abertura da boca da fissura) no ensaio de flexão com três pontos em viga entalhada no meio do vão, seguindo a proposta do comitê técnico 89-FMT da RILEM (Internacional Union of Testing and Research Laboratories for Materials and Structures).

Comparação entre metodologias de controle de qualidade em mamografia digital

The best way to detect breast cancer is by screening mammography. The mammography equipments are dedicated and require a rigorous quality control in order to have a good quality image and to early detect this disease. The digital equipment is relatively new in the market and there isn’t a national rule for quality control for several types of digital detectors. This study has proposed to compare two different tests manuals for quality control provided by the manufacturers of digital mammography equipments, and also compare them to the “European guidelines for quality assurance in breast cancer screening and diagnosis “(2006). The studied equipments were: Senographe 2000D from General Electric (GE) and the Hologic Selenia Lorad. Both were digital mammography equipments, the GE unit presents an indirect digital system and the other presents a direct digital system. Physical parameters of the image have been studied, such as spatial resolution, contrast resolution, noise, signal-tonoise ratio, contrast-to-noise ratio and modulation transfer function. After that, a study of the importance of quality control and the requirement to implement a Quality Assurance Program has been done. One data collection was done to compare those manual, it was done by checking which tests are indicated and the minimum frequency which they should be conducted in accordance with each manufacturer. The tests were performed by different methodologies and the results were compared. The examined tests were: the breast entrance skin dose, mean glandular dose, contrast-to-noise ratio, signal-to-noise ratio, automatic exposure control and automatic control of density, modulation transfer function, equipment resolution, homogeneity and ghost

Avaliação do gerenciamento e disposição final dos resíduos químicos de laboratórios do IGCE, UNESP - Rio Claro/SP

Laboratory of Chemical Waste Management programs are being implemented in various universities of the country and the world, in recognition of the urgent need to change the reality of disregard for the environment, together with objective responsibility of the generator, and especially the awareness of sustainability. Analysis and research laboratories involve a range of waste in developing their studies with intrinsic characteristics related to their form of generation. The amount of waste generated in this segment is negligible compared to industrial activities, but the environmental issue is that these residues do not have a standard technique for treatment due to the potential variation of its composition. This research project, aiming their suitability and continuous improvement, aims to diagnose and analyze the current situation of the management and disposal of chemical waste generated by the laboratories IGCE UNESP, Campus Rio Claro / SP. Universities, through their research, teaching and extension, end up generating potentially hazardous chemicals that may contaminate the environment when they are disposed of improperly, with no concern for the environment and / or public health. Aiming to assist in improvements with respect to this issue, the purpose of this study is to understand the management and disposal of chemical waste from the IGCE, laboratories UNESP - Rio Claro / SP, in order to discuss the situation of such waste, and present proposals to reduce generation of the same and minimizing the environmental impact, thereby increasing the local hygiene through proper disposal. The research instrument used interviews, questionnaires, review of recent literature and observations were made in order to develop proposals for the management and disposal of waste. These proposals based on prevention and corrective control, where the preventive approach aims at lifting techniques and actions to reduce the generating sources and...