Vortex lattice and matching fields for a long superconducting wire

We investigate the flux penetration patterns and matching fields of a long cylindrical wire of circular cross section in the presence of an external magnetic field. For this study we write the London theory for a long cylinder both for the mixed and Meissner states, with boundary conditions appropriate for this geometry. Using the Monte Carlo simulated annealing method, the free energy of the mixed state is minimized with respect to the vortex position and we obtain the ground state of the vortex lattice for N=3 up to 18 vortices. The free energy of the Meissner and mixed states provides expressions for the matching fields. We find that, as in the case of samples of different geometry, the finite-size effect provokes a delay on the vortex penetration and a vortex accumulation in the center of the sample. The vortex patterns obtained are in good agreement with experimental results.

Three-dimensional reconstruction of fracture surfaces: Area matching algorithms for automatic parallax measurements

This paper describes two solutions for systematic measurement of surface elevation that can be used for both profile and surface reconstructions for quantitative fractography case studies. The first one is developed under Khoros graphical interface environment. It consists of an adaption of the almost classical area matching algorithm, that is based on cross-correlation operations, to the well-known method of parallax measurements from stereo pairs. A normalization function was created to avoid false cross-correlation peaks, driving to the true window best matching solution at each region analyzed on both stereo projections. Some limitations to the use of scanning electron microscopy and the types of surface patterns are also discussed. The second algorithm is based on a spatial correlation function. This solution is implemented under the NIH Image macro programming, combining a good representation for low contrast regions and many improvements on overall user interface and performance. Its advantages and limitations are also presented.

Matching fields of a long superconducting film

We obtain the vortex configurations, the matching fields, and the magnetization of a superconducting film with a finite cross section. The applied magnetic field is normal to this cross section, and we use the London theory to calculate many of its properties, such as the local magnetic field, the free energy, and the induction for the mixed state. Thus previous similar theoretical works, done for an infinitely long superconducting film, are recovered here, in the special limit of a very long cross section. ©1999 The American Physical Society.

Concept of Matching Parallelepiped and its use in the correspondence problem

In this paper, the concept of Matching Parallelepiped (MP) is presented. It is shown that the volume of the MP can be used as an additional measure of `distance' between a pair of candidate points in a matching algorithm by Relaxation Labeling (RL). The volume of the MP is related with the Epipolar Geometry and the use of this measure works as an epipolar constraint in a RL process, decreasing the efforts in the matching algorithm since it is not necessary to explicitly determine the equations of the epipolar lines and to compute the distance of a candidate point to each epipolar line. As at the beginning of the process the Relative Orientation (RO) parameters are unknown, a initial matching based on gradient, intensities and correlation is obtained. Based on this set of labeled points the RO is determined and the epipolar constraint included in the algorithm. The obtained results shown that the proposed approach is suitable to determine feature-point matching with simultaneous estimation of camera orientation parameters even for the cases where the pair of optical axes are not parallel.

A graph-based framework for thermal faceprint characterization

Thermal faceprint has been paramount in the last years. Since we can handle with face recognition using images acquired in the infrared spectrum, an unique individual's signature can be obtained through the blood vessels network of the face. In this work, we propose a novel framework for thermal faceprint extraction using a collection of graph-based techniques, which were never used to this task up to date. A robust method of thermal face segmentation is also presented. The experiments, which were conducted over the UND Collection C dataset, have showed promising results. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.

Semiautomatic dental recognition using a graph-based segmentation algorithm and teeth shapes features

Dental recognition is very important for forensic human identification, mainly regarding the mass disasters, which have frequently happened due to tsunamis, airplanes crashes, etc. Algorithms for automatic, precise, and robust teeth segmentation from radiograph images are crucial for dental recognition. In this work we propose the use of a graph-based algorithm to extract the teeth contours from panoramic dental radiographs that are used as dental features. In order to assess our proposal, we have carried out experiments using a database of 1126 tooth images, obtained from 40 panoramic dental radiograph images from 20 individuals. The results of the graph-based algorithm was qualitatively assessed by a human expert who reported excellent scores. For dental recognition we propose the use of the teeth shapes as biometric features, by the means of BAS (Bean Angle Statistics) and Shape Context descriptors. The BAS descriptors showed, on the same database, a better performance (EER 14%) than the Shape Context (EER 20%). © 2012 IEEE.

Avaliação da padronização interna na determinação de chumbo em vinagre por espectrometria de absorção atômica em forno de grafite

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Discrimination of complex visual stimuli in Cebus apella: identity matching with pictures

Do capuchin monkeys respond to photos as icons? Do they discriminate photos of capuchin monkeys' faces? Looking for answers to these questions we trained three capuchin monkeys in simple and conditional discrimination tasks and tested the discriminations when comparison stimuli were partially covered. Three capuchin monkeys experienced in simultaneous simple discrimination and IDMTS were trained with repeated shifts of simple discriminations (RSSD), with four simultaneous choices, and IDMTS (1 s delay, 4 choices) with pictures of known capuchins monkeys' faces. All monkeys did discriminate the pictures in both procedures. Performances in probes with partial masks with one fourth of the stimulus hidden were consistent with baseline level. Errors occurred when a picture similar to the correct one was available among the comparison stimuli, when the covered part was the most distinct, or when pictures displayed the same monkey. Capuchin monkeys do match pictures of capuchin monkeys' faces to the sample. The monkeys treated different pictures of the same monkey as equivalent, suggesting that they respond to the pictures as icons, although this was not true to pictures of other monkeys. Subsequent studies may bring more evidence that capuchin monkeys treat pictures as depictions of real scenes.

A survey on the set of periods of the graph homeomorphisms

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

A coupling technique for non-matching finite element meshes

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Ridge-based fingerprint matching using hough transform

Despite the efficacy of minutia-based fingerprint matching techniques for good-quality images captured by optical sensors, minutia-based techniques do not often perform so well on poor-quality images or fingerprint images captured by small solid-state sensors. Solid-state fingerprint sensors are being increasingly deployed in a wide range of applications for user authentication purposes. Therefore, it is necessary to develop new fingerprint-matching techniques that utilize other features to deal with fingerprint images captured by solid-state sensors. This paper presents a new fingerprint matching technique based on fingerprint ridge features. This technique was assessed on the MSU-VERIDICOM database, which consists of fingerprint impressions obtained from 160 users (4 impressions per finger) using a solid-state sensor. The combination of ridge-based matching scores computed by the proposed ridge-based technique with minutia-based matching scores leads to a reduction of the false non-match rate by approximately 1.7% at a false match rate of 0.1%. © 2005 IEEE.

Automated peritoneal dialysis is associated with better survival rates compared to continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis: a propensity score matching analysis

The impact of peritoneal dialysis modality on patient survival and peritonitis rates is not fully understood, and no large-scale randomized clinical trial (RCT) is available. In the absence of a RCT, the use of an advanced matching procedure to reduce selection bias in large cohort studies may be the best approach. The aim of this study is to compare automated peritoneal dialysis (APD) and continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) according to peritonitis risk, technique failure and patient survival in a large nation-wide PD cohort. This is a prospective cohort study that included all incident PD patients with at least 90 days of PD recruited in the BRAZPD study. All patients who were treated exclusively with either APD or CAPD were matched for 15 different covariates using a propensity score calculated with the nearest neighbor method. Clinical outcomes analyzed were overall mortality, technique failure and time to first peritonitis. For all analysis we also adjusted the curves for the presence of competing risks with the Fine and Gray analysis. After the matching procedure, 2,890 patients were included in the analysis (1,445 in each group). Baseline characteristics were similar for all covariates including: age, diabetes, BMI, Center-experience, coronary artery disease, cancer, literacy, hypertension, race, previous HD, gender, pre-dialysis care, family income, peripheral artery disease and year of starting PD. Mortality rate was higher in CAPD patients (SHR1.44 CI95%1.21-1.71) compared to APD, but no difference was observed for technique failure (SHR0.83 CI95%0.69-1.02) nor for time till the first peritonitis episode (SHR0.96 CI95%0.93-1.11). In the first large PD cohort study with groups balanced for several covariates using propensity score matching, PD modality was not associated with differences in neither time to first peritonitis nor in technique failure. Nevertheless, patient survival was significantly better in APD patients.

A Graph Model for DynamicWaveband Switching in WDM Mesh Networks

We investigate the problem of waveband switching (WBS) in a wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) mesh network with dynamic traffic requests. To solve the WBS problem in a homogeneous dynamic WBS network, where every node is a multi-granular optical cross-connect (MG-OXC), we construct an auxiliary graph. Based on the auxiliary graph, we develop two heuristic on-line WBS algorithms with different grouping policies, namely the wavelength-first WBS algorithm based on the auxiliary graph (WFAUG) and the waveband-first WBS algorithm based on the auxiliary graph (BFAUG). Our results show that the WFAUG algorithm outperforms the BFAUG algorithm.

SimSight: A Virtual Machine Based Dynamic Call Graph Generator

One problem with using component-based software development approach is that once software modules are reused over generations of products, they form legacy structures that can be challenging to understand, making validating these systems difficult. Therefore, tools and methodologies that enable engineers to see interactions of these software modules will enhance their ability to make these software systems more dependable. To address this need, we propose SimSight, a framework to capture dynamic call graphs in Simics, a widely adopted commercial full-system simulator. Simics is a software system that simulates complete computer systems. Thus, it performs nearly identical tasks to a real system but at a much lower speed while providing greater execution observability. We have implemented SimSight to generate dynamic call graphs of statically and dynamically linked functions in x86/Linux environment. A case study illustrates how we can use SimSight to identify sources of software errors. We then evaluate its performance using 12 integer programs from SPEC CPU2006 benchmark suite.

Analyzing the Complexity and Reliability of Switch-Frequency-Reconfigurable Antennas Using Graph Models

This paper addresses the functional reliability and the complexity of reconfigurable antennas using graph models. The correlation between complexity and reliability for any given reconfigurable antenna is defined. Two methods are proposed to reduce failures and improve the reliability of reconfigurable antennas. The failures are caused by the reconfiguration technique or by the surrounding environment. These failure reduction methods proposed are tested and examples are given which verify these methods.