Images may be degraded by some random error which is called noise. Noise may occur during image capture, transmission or processing and its elimination is achieved by smoothing filters. Linear smoothing filters blur the edges and edges are important characteristics of images and must be preserved. Various edge preserving smoothing filters are proposed in the literature. In this thesis, most common smoothing and edge preserving smoothing filters are discussed and a new method is proposed by modifying Ambrosio Tortorelli approximation of Mumford Shah Model. New method takes into edge direction consistency account and produces sharper results at comparable scales.

NPR (Non-Photo-Realistic Rendering) is a new and quick-developed research topic in Image Processing. The main purpose of NPR is to generate pencil sketching or watercolor, something different from photos, automatically by computer algorithms. On the other hand, there is another technique called PR (Photo-Realistic Rendering). The goal of PR is to generate real objects by computer algorithms, such as Matting. Furthermore, NPR includes two modes: one is with physical model and the other is not. With physical model, researchers could write programs to simulate NPR by the properties of physical model. Without physical model, researchers could write programs to simulate NPR by their observation and deliberation. This thesis belongs to the latter, NPR without physical model. In the viewpoint of artists, drawing is performance of light and shadow. Then, in scientific, drawing depends on the degree of luminance. Luminance supports artists block and direction when drawing. In this thesis, chapter 1 is introduction of art and previous researches. Chapter 2 describes theories what we can use and present the results. Chapter 3 describes the methods what this thesis use and necessary amendment, and present the results.

This experimental study contains two points; part1 – turbine blade heat transfer under low Reynolds number flow conditions, and part 2 – trailing edge cooling and heat transfer. The effect of unsteady wake and free stream turbulence on heat transfer and pressure coefficients of a turbine blade was investigated in low Reynolds number flows. The experiments were performed on a five blade linear cascade in a low speed wind tunnel. A spoked wheel type wake generator and two different turbulence grids were employed to generate different levels of the Strouhal number and turbulence intensity, respectively. The cascade inlet Reynolds number based on blade chord length was varied from 15,700 to 105,000, and the Strouhal number was varied from 0 to 2.96 by changing the rotating wake passing frequency (rod speed) and cascade inlet velocity. A thin foil thermocouple instrumented blade was used to determine the surface heat transfer coefficient. A liquid crystal technique based on hue value detection was used to measure the heat transfer coefficient on a trailing edge film cooling model and internal model of a gas turbine blade. It was also used to determine the film effectiveness on the trailing edge. For the internal model, Reynolds numbers based on the hydraulic diameter of the exit slot and exit velocity were 5,000, 10,000, 20,000, and 30,000 and corresponding coolant – to – mainstream velocity ratios were 0.3, 0.6, 1.2, and 1.8 for the external models, respectively. The experiments were performed at two different designs and each design has several different models such as staggered / inline exit, straight / tapered entrance, and smooth / rib entrance. The compressed air was used in coolant air. A circular turbulence grid was employed to upstream in the wind tunnel and square ribs were employed in the inlet chamber to generate turbulence intensity externally and internally, respectively.

Mass transfer experiments were conducted to study the thermal performance characteristics of blockages with round and elongated holes, positioned in a 12:1 rectangular channel. Naphthalene sublimation technique was adopted to conduct experiments with four different blockage configurations, flow rates corresponding to Reynolds numbers (based on channel hydraulic diameter) of 7,000 and 17,000, and at three blockage locations. The hole area to channel area ratio for all four blockage configurations was the same at 0.196. The hole width was half the channel height, and the distance between consecutive blockages was twice the channel height. Average heat transfer, local heat (mass) transfer and overall pressure drop results were obtained. The thermal performance for a particular blockage configuration was measured in terms of the heat transfer enhancement and the friction factor ratio. Heat transfer enhancement was measured as a ratio of average Nusselt number on the blockage surface to the Nusselt number for a thermally fully developed turbulent flow in a smooth channel. Results indicate that this ratio ranged between 3.6 and 12.4, while the friction factor ratio varied between 500-1700. The blockage configuration with round holes was found to yield best thermal performance, while the configuration with largest hole elongation was nearly equal in thermal performance. In order to compare different blockage configurations, an average value of upstream and downstream side thermal performances was used. A general downward trend in Nusselt number ratio with elongation of holes was observed on the upstream side and a reverse trend was observed on the downstream side. An upward trend in the Nusselt number ratio with blockage hole elongation on the downstream side of a blockage was primarily due to jet reversal from the downstream blockage and its impingement on the downstream surface of the upstream blockage. Local experiments were performed to compare against the results from average experiments and also to gain insights into the flow behaviour. There was good agreement between the results from local and average mass transfer experiments. The average variation in Nusselt number ratio between local and average mass transfer experiments was about 5.06%.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 111-122).

Thesis (Ph.D)--Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: Hodges, Dewey; Committee Member: Bauchau, Olivier; Committee Member: Goldsman, David; Committee Member: Prasad, J.V.R.; Committee Member: Smith, Marilyn. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

It has been theorized that most proteins are under selection pressure to be soluble in crowded cellular spaces. To maintain solubility a proteins’ aggregation propensity should be inversely proportional to their maximum likely concentration. This theory was examined by comparing the proteome of the model organism S. cerevisiae, which has previously undergone a Whole Genome Duplication (WGD) event to the proteome of the closely related yeast K. waltii, which has not undergone WGD. This comparison revealed the following: 1) Predicted aggregation propensities are higher in S. cerevisiae than K. waltii. 2) Aggregation propensity does not predict which genes reverted to a single copy after WGD. 3) In genes which were retained as duplicates in S. cerevisiae after WGD, aggregation propensities rose from the inferred common ancestral protein. 4) Genes retained as duplicates showed less of an increase relative to their homologues in K. waltii than genes which were not retained as duplicates. 5) The relationship between the log predicted aggregation propensity and log mRNA expression level or log protein abundance was not linear as previously predicted. These results suggest that while there is broad selection pressure for reduced aggregation pressure for genes which have been duplicated, the precise relationship between aggregation propensity and gene expression is more complicated than previously predicted. These results also allow speculation that the whole genome duplication in S.cerevisiae may have been made possible by a general relaxation of aggregation-related selection pressure. / text

A novel numerical method solves the VIScous Vorticity Equation (VISVE) in 3D in order to model the Leading Edge Vortex (LEV) of propellers is proposed and implemented in this dissertation. The spatial concentration of the vorticity is exploited in the method, which is designed to be spatially compact and numerically efficient, in the meantime, capable of modeling complicated vorticity/solid boundary interaction in 2D and 3D. The numerical model can work as a viscous correction on top of the traditional Boundary Element Method (BEM) results. The proposed method is first applied in the case of a 2D hydrofoil at high angle of attack. The results are correlated with those from Navier-Stokes (N-S) simulation. The method is then used to model the LEV and tip vortex of a 3D swept wing. The results of the 3D simulation show great similarity to those from N-S. In the end, the method is applied in the case of propellers at low advance ratios. All the essential flow characteristics (LEV and tip vortex) are predicted. The objective of this dissertation is not developing a mathematically equivalent numerical method to the full-blown Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) solver, but inventing an accurate and computationally efficient tool to model the effects of the LEV on the propeller performance for engineering's purpose. / text

Image features play important roles in a wide range of computer vision applications, such as image registration, 3D reconstruction, object detection and video understanding. These image features include edges, contours, corners, regions, lines, curves, interest points, etc. However, the research is fragmented in these areas, especially when it comes to line and curve detection. In this thesis, we aim to discover, integrate, evaluate and summarize past research as well as our contributions in the area of image features. This thesis provides a comprehensive framework of concept, evaluation, implementation, and applications for image features. Firstly, this thesis proposes a novel concept of interest curves. Interest curves is a concept derived and extended from interest points. Interest curves are significant lines and arcs in an image that are repeatable under various image transformations. Interest curves bring clear guidelines and structures for future curve and line detection algorithms and related applications. Secondly, this thesis presents an evaluation framework for detecting and describing interest curves. The evaluation framework provides a new paradigm for comparing the performance of state-of-the-art line and curve detectors under image perturbations and transformations. Thirdly, this thesis proposes an interest curve detector (Distinctive Curves, DICU), which unifies the detection of edges, corners, lines and curves. DICU represents our state-of-the-art contribution in the areas concerning the detection of edges, corners, curves and lines. Our research efforts cover the most important attributes required by these features with respect to robustness and efficiency. Interest curves preserve richer geometric information than interest points. This advantage gives new ways of solving computer vision problems. We propose a simple description method for curve matching applications. We have found that our proposed interest curve descriptor outperforms all state-of-the-art interest point descriptors (SIFT, SURF, BRISK, ORB, FREAK). Furthermore, in our research we design a novel object detection algorithm that only utilizes DICU geometries without using local feature appearance. We organize image objects as curve chains and to detect an object, we search this curve chain in the target image using dynamic programming. The curve chain matching is scale and rotation-invariant as well as robust to image deformations. These properties have given us the possibility of resolving the rotation-variance problem in object detection applications. In our face detection experiments, the curve chain matching method proves to be scale and rotation-invariant and very computational efficient. / Bilddetaljer har en viktig roll i ett stort antal applikationer för datorseende, t.ex., bildregistrering, 3D-rekonstruktion, objektdetektering och videoförståelse. Dessa bilddetaljer inkluderar kanter, konturer, hörn, regioner, linjer, kurvor, intressepunkter, etc. Forskningen inom dessa områden är splittrad, särskilt för detektering av linjer och kurvor. I denna avhandling, strävar vi efter att hitta, integrera, utvärdera och sammanfatta tidigare forskning tillsammans med vår egen forskning inom området för bildegenskaper. Denna avhandling presenterar ett ramverk för begrepp, utvärdering, utförande och applikationer för bilddetaljer. För det första föreslår denna avhandling ett nytt koncept för intressekurvor. Intressekurvor är ett begrepp som härrör från intressepunkter och det är viktiga linjer och bågar i bilden som är repeterbara oberoende av olika bildtransformationer. Intressekurvor ger en tydlig vägledning och struktur för framtida algoritmer och relaterade tillämpningar för kurv- och linjedetektering. För det andra, presenterar denna avhandling en utvärderingsram för detektorer och beskrivningar av intressekurvor. Utvärderingsramverket utgör en ny paradigm för att jämföra resultatet för de bästa möjliga teknikerna för linje- och kurvdetektorer vid bildstörningar och bildtransformationer. För det tredje presenterar denna avhandling en detektor för intressekurvor (Distinctive curves, DICU), som förenar detektering av kanter, hörn, linjer och kurvor. DICU representerar vårt främsta bidrag inom området detektering av kanter, hörn, kurvor och linjer. Våra forskningsinsatser täcker de viktigaste attribut som krävs av dessa funktioner med avseende på robusthet och effektivitet. Intressekurvor innehåller en rikare geometrisk information än intressepunkter. Denna fördel öppnar för nya sätt att lösa problem för datorseende. Vi föreslår en enkel beskrivningsmetod för kurvmatchningsapplikationer och den föreslagna deskriptorn för intressekurvor överträffar de bästa tillgängliga deskriptorerna för intressepunkter (SIFT, SURF, BRISK, ORB, och FREAK). Dessutom utformar vi en ny objektdetekteringsalgoritm som bara använder geometri för DICU utan att använda det lokala utseendet. Vi organiserar bildobjekt som kurvkedjor och för att upptäcka ett objekt behöver vi endast söka efter denna kurvkedja i målbilden med hjälp av dynamisk programmering. Kurvkedjematchningen är oberoende av skala och rotationer samt robust vid bilddeformationer. Dessa egenskaper ger möjlighet att lösa problemet med rotationsberoende inom objektdetektering. Vårt ansiktsigenkänningsexperiment visar att kurvkedjematchning är oberoende av skala och rotationer och att den är mycket beräkningseffektiv. / INTRO – INteractive RObotics research network

Edge wicking, i.e. in-plane wetting, is an important parameter for liquid packaging board products. Before filling of the products at the dairy the web is being sterilised with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). A tube is shaped and cut into packages which mean that new surfaces are created. If a short stop occurs in the sterilising bath the raw edges exposed to H2O2 could absorb the liquid and when the package later is being filled this absorption could lead to tube burst. For the end products it is also important to prevent the liquid from penetrating the raw edges of the board in order to maintain the functionality and fresh look of the package. To control edge wicking different kinds of internal hydrophobic sizing agents are used. Alkyl ketene dimer (AKD) is the most common size in neutral sizing and rosin in conjunction with alum is the traditional acidic sizing agent. AKD and rosin size are often used in combination (dual sizing) to make the board hydrophobic. The objective of this work was to examine the effects of the sizing agents on different pulps in different dosages. The pulps used in the sheet preparation were unbleached kraft pulp as well as bleached and unbleached CTMP refined to different levels. Apart from varying the size dosages, the wet sheets were also pressed at different levels to vary the density. The major part of the study included dual sizing but a minor part also concerned mono sized sheets. The parameters investigated on the laboratory sheets were STFI-Density, hydrogen peroxide edge wicking, pressurised edge wicking, lactic acid edge wicking (LA) and AKD and rosin size content. In hydrogen peroxide edge wicking the amount of size was the central source of improved wick index. The retention was therefore of great significance for the results. The dual sized sheets were found to give least edge wicking, due to the synergy effect between AKD and alum rosin size. The kraft pulps gave sheets with satisfactory edge wicking even at the lowest size dosage (1 kg/t) while CTMP required a dosage of 4 kg/t to reach the same wick index. To achieve acceptable pressurised edge wicking values the most important parameter was found to be the density of the sheets. The kraft pulp sheets gave the lowest edge penetration while the high freeness CTMP sheets did not give satisfactory penetration resistant even at the highest size dosage. The edge wicking of lactic acid could be prevented by sizing with AKD only. Sheets made from mono sized sheets containing rosin size did not manage to avoid a large in-plane wetting of the board structure. Hence, dual sizing to improve the edge wicking of lactic acid is not necessary. The density was found not to be an important parameter in lactic acid edge wicking, all the pulps got equal edge wicking regardless of density. Retention above 1 kg/t AKD in sheets was enough to prevent penetration. Retention above 1.5 kg/t AKD in sheet did not improve the edge wicking any further. No significant difference in sizeability between unbleached and bleached CTMP was observed.