On the 12:th of April 2011, the Swedish tabloid magazine Expressen publishes a story, claiming that Ola Lindholm, presenter of critically acclaimed TV-show “Wild Kids” has been suspected and apprehended on cocaine allegations. The serious allegation called for Ola Lindholm to defend himself against the allegations. His only public response was a blog-post where he claimed his innocence, albeit with some reservations.   The purpose of this paper is to analyze Lindholm’s rhetorical defense. By applying Benoit’s theory of image restoration, the stasis theory and the rhetorical situation my goal is to find what strategies Lindholm’s defense consists of.   The analyses showed that Lindholm used four different kinds of image restoration strategies. The most salient strategies consisted of bolstering and attacking the accuser. By applying a proposition analysis it was possible to find textual themes used to either undermine the tabloid Expressen's credibility or to mitigate his own actions.   The results also point out that ethos and image restoration strategies are closely intertwined.

Uma área de intensa atividade de pesquisa em nanotecnologia está relacionada à restauração de imagens obtidas através dos microscópios de força atômica (AFM). Durante o processo de aquisição as imagens de AFM estão sujeitas às limitações impostas pela instrumentação utilizada e costumam apresentar pobres relações sinal/ruído, bem como a manifestação dos efeitos degenerativos relacionados à interação entre o tip e a amostra. Buscando tratar imagens obtidas de estruturas biológicas, tem sido propostos e testados diversos algoritmos de restauração, e nesta dissertação é utilizado um método baseado na Regularização de Tikhonov. Ao longo do desenvolvimento de diversos algoritmos de restauração foi observado que os indicadores matemáticos usuais para avaliação de desempenho não correspondiam à percepção visual relativa às imagens restauradas. Este trabalho propõe e avalia diferentes indicadores de desempenho para algoritmos de restauração utilizados no pósprocessamento de imagens obtidas em escala nanométrica por microscopia de força atômica e imagens artificiais criadas especialmente para testar o indicador de desempenho utilizado. São investigados indicadores usuais empregados em restauração de imagens, sendo também proposta a implementação de indicadores baseado nas distâncias de Bregman. O trabalho foi dividido em duas partes. Primeiramente foi gerado e restaurado um conjunto de imagens utilizando o funcional de regularização de Tikhonov, sendo distribuídas entre 50 pessoas que foram chamadas de avaliadores humanos. A tarefa consistia em avaliar as imagens, procurando identificar o quanto as imagens restauradas se aproximavam das imagens originais, no que se relaciona à visão humana. A segunda parte consistiu na implementação de uma rotina computacional para o cálculo de vários indicadores matemáticos. Posteriormente foi realizada a comparação dos resultados obtidos através dos indicadores matemáticos com a percepção visual dos avaliadores humanos, sendo esta última essencialmente qualitativa, sendo então transformada em uma escala numérica para permitir então a comparação com os indicadores matemáticos. Observou-se que dependendo dos parâmetros utilizados no algoritmo de restauração baseado no funcional de regularização de Tikhonov e dos tipos de imagens restauradas, os indicadores baseados nas Distâncias de Bregman apresentam melhores resultados do que aqueles obtidos com indicadores tradicionais, como por exemplo o erro médio quadrático (MSE Mean Square Error), levando a uma concordância maior destes resultados quando comparados com a avaliação feita pelos avaliadores humanos. / The restoration of images acquired with Atomic Force Microscopes (AFM) consists on a very intense research area in nanotechnology. During the acquisition process the AFM images are subjected to the constraints imposed by the experimental apparatus usually presenting poor signal to noise ratios as well as the effects of tip-sample interaction. In order to process images related to biological structures, several restoration algorithms have been proposed and tested, and in the present dissertation is used a method based in Tikhonovs regularization. Throughout the development of several restoration algorithms it has been observed that the usual performance measures did not correspond to the human visual perception of the restored images. In the present dissertation are proposed and evaluated several performance measures for restoration algorithms used in the post-processing of images acquired in nanoscale with AFM as well as artificial images created in order to test the performance measure used. Usually used performance measures are investigated as well as measures based on Bregman distances. The research was conducted in two parts. First a set of images was generated and restored using Tikhonovs regularization functional, being then distributed to 50 human referees. Their task consisted in evaluating the images in order to grade how close the restored images were to the original images, in respect to human visual perception. The second part of the research consisted in the implementation of a computational program to perform the computation of the mathematical performance measures. Afterwards a comparison was performed of the mathematical performance measures with respect to the visual perception of the human referees, being the latter essentially qualitative which was then transformed in a numerical scale in order to allow the comparison with the mathematical measures. It was observed that depending on the parameters used in the restoration algorithm based in Tikhonovs regularization functional and the type of the restored image, the mathematical performance measures based on Bregman distances present better results than those obtained with other usual performance measures such as the Mean Square Error (MSE) yielding to a better agreement with the evaluation performed by the human referees.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:06:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 6285.pdf: 2877079 bytes, checksum: 80439eede94d8bbebc2443de9d032d34 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-05-23 / Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos / A common problem to applications such as positron emission tomography, low-exposure X-ray imaging, fluorescence microscopy, optical and infrared astronomy, and others, is the degradation of the original signal by Poisson Noise. This problem arises in applications in which the image acquisition process is based on counting photons reaching a detector surface during a given exposure time. Recently, a new algorithm for image denoising, called Nonlocal-Means (NLM), was proposed. The NLM algorithm consists of a nonlocal approach that explores the inherent image redundancy for denoising, that is, it explores the principle in which, in natural images, there are similar regions, yet locally disjoint. NLM was originally proposed for additive noise reduction. The goal of this work is to extend the NLM algorithm for Poisson noise filtering. To achieve this goal, symmetric divergences, also known as stochastic distances, have been applied as similarity metrics to the NLM algorithm. Stochastic distances assume a parametric model for the data distribution. Therefore they can accommodate different stochastic noise models. However, knowledge of the model parameters is necessary to calculate the stochastic distances. In this research, estimation and non-local filtering schemes were considered under Poisson noise hypothesis, leading to competitive results with the state of- the-art. / Um problema comum a aplicações como tomografia por emissão de pósitrons, imageamento por baixa exposição de raios-X, microscopia de fluorescência, astronomia ótica ou por infravermelho, dentre outras, é a degradação do sinal original por ruído Poisson. Esse problema surge em aplicações nas quais o processo de aquisição de imagem se baseia na contagem de fótons atingindo a superfície de um detector durante um dado tempo de exposição. Recentemente, um novo algoritmo para a redução de ruído em imagens, chamado Non Local-Means (NLM) foi proposto. O algoritmo NLM consiste em uma abordagem não-local que explora a redundância inerente da imagem para a filtragem de ruído, isto é, explora o principio em que, em imagens naturais existem muitas regiões similares, porém, localmente disjuntas. Essa abordagem foi originalmente proposta para a redução de ruído aditivo. O objetivo deste trabalho foi estender o algoritmo NLM para a filtragem de ruído Poisson, que é dependente de sinal. Para alcançar esse propósito, divergências simétricas, também conhecidas como distâncias estocásticas, foram utilizadas como métricas de similaridade para o algoritmo NLM. Distâncias estocásticas assumem um modelo paramétrico sobre a distribuição dos dados, portanto podem acomodar diferentes modelos estocásticos de ruído. No entanto, conhecimento dos parâmetros de modelo é necessário para o cálculo das distâncias estocásticas. Neste trabalho de pesquisa, esquemas de estimativa e filtragem não-local foram considerados sobre hipótese de ruído Poisson, levando a resultados competitivos com o estado-da-arte.

Computational imaging has been playing an important role in understanding and analysing the captured images. Both image segmentation and restoration has been in-tegral parts of computational imaging. The studies performed in this thesis has been focussed toward developing novel algorithms for image segmentation and restoration. Study related to usage of Morozov Discrepancy Principle in Di use Optical Imaging was also presented here to show that hyper parameter selection could be performed with ease. The Laplacian of Gaussian (LoG) and Canny operators use Gaussian smoothing be-fore applying the derivative operator for edge detection in real images. The LoG kernel was based on second derivative and is highly sensitive to noise when compared to the Canny edge detector. A new edge detection kernel, called as Helmholtz of Gaussian (HoG), which provides higher di suavity is developed in this thesis and it was shown that it is more robust to noise. The formulation of the developed HoG kernel is similar to LoG. It was also shown both theoretically and experimentally that LoG is a special case of HoG. This kernel when used as an edge detector exhibited superior performance compared to LoG, Canny and wavelet based edge detector for the standard test cases both in one- and two-dimensions. The linear inverse problem encountered in restoration of blurred noisy images is typically solved via Tikhonov minimization. The outcome (restored image) of such min-imitation is highly dependent on the choice of regularization parameter. In the absence of prior information about the noise levels in the blurred image, ending this regular-inaction/hyper parameter in an automated way becomes extremely challenging. The available methods like Generalized Cross Validation (GCV) may not yield optimal re-salts in all cases. A novel method that relies on minimal residual method for ending the regularization parameter automatically was proposed here and was systematically compared with the GCV method. It was shown that the proposed method performance was superior to the GCV method in providing high quality restored images in cases where the noise levels are high Di use optical tomography uses near infrared (NIR) light as the probing media to recover the distributions of tissue optical properties with an ability to provide functional information of the tissue under investigation. As NIR light propagation in the tissue is dominated by scattering, the image reconstruction problem (inverse problem) is non-linear and ill-posed, requiring usage of advanced computational methods to compensate this. An automated method for selection of regularization/hyper parameter that incorporates Morozov discrepancy principle(MDP) into the Tikhonov method was proposed and shown to be a promising method for the dynamic Di use Optical Tomography.

Uma área de intensa atividade de pesquisa em nanotecnologia está relacionada à restauração de imagens obtidas através dos microscópios de força atômica (AFM). Durante o processo de aquisição as imagens de AFM estão sujeitas às limitações impostas pela instrumentação utilizada e costumam apresentar pobres relações sinal/ruído, bem como a manifestação dos efeitos degenerativos relacionados à interação entre o tip e a amostra. Buscando tratar imagens obtidas de estruturas biológicas, tem sido propostos e testados diversos algoritmos de restauração, e nesta dissertação é utilizado um método baseado na Regularização de Tikhonov. Ao longo do desenvolvimento de diversos algoritmos de restauração foi observado que os indicadores matemáticos usuais para avaliação de desempenho não correspondiam à percepção visual relativa às imagens restauradas. Este trabalho propõe e avalia diferentes indicadores de desempenho para algoritmos de restauração utilizados no pósprocessamento de imagens obtidas em escala nanométrica por microscopia de força atômica e imagens artificiais criadas especialmente para testar o indicador de desempenho utilizado. São investigados indicadores usuais empregados em restauração de imagens, sendo também proposta a implementação de indicadores baseado nas distâncias de Bregman. O trabalho foi dividido em duas partes. Primeiramente foi gerado e restaurado um conjunto de imagens utilizando o funcional de regularização de Tikhonov, sendo distribuídas entre 50 pessoas que foram chamadas de avaliadores humanos. A tarefa consistia em avaliar as imagens, procurando identificar o quanto as imagens restauradas se aproximavam das imagens originais, no que se relaciona à visão humana. A segunda parte consistiu na implementação de uma rotina computacional para o cálculo de vários indicadores matemáticos. Posteriormente foi realizada a comparação dos resultados obtidos através dos indicadores matemáticos com a percepção visual dos avaliadores humanos, sendo esta última essencialmente qualitativa, sendo então transformada em uma escala numérica para permitir então a comparação com os indicadores matemáticos. Observou-se que dependendo dos parâmetros utilizados no algoritmo de restauração baseado no funcional de regularização de Tikhonov e dos tipos de imagens restauradas, os indicadores baseados nas Distâncias de Bregman apresentam melhores resultados do que aqueles obtidos com indicadores tradicionais, como por exemplo o erro médio quadrático (MSE Mean Square Error), levando a uma concordância maior destes resultados quando comparados com a avaliação feita pelos avaliadores humanos. / The restoration of images acquired with Atomic Force Microscopes (AFM) consists on a very intense research area in nanotechnology. During the acquisition process the AFM images are subjected to the constraints imposed by the experimental apparatus usually presenting poor signal to noise ratios as well as the effects of tip-sample interaction. In order to process images related to biological structures, several restoration algorithms have been proposed and tested, and in the present dissertation is used a method based in Tikhonovs regularization. Throughout the development of several restoration algorithms it has been observed that the usual performance measures did not correspond to the human visual perception of the restored images. In the present dissertation are proposed and evaluated several performance measures for restoration algorithms used in the post-processing of images acquired in nanoscale with AFM as well as artificial images created in order to test the performance measure used. Usually used performance measures are investigated as well as measures based on Bregman distances. The research was conducted in two parts. First a set of images was generated and restored using Tikhonovs regularization functional, being then distributed to 50 human referees. Their task consisted in evaluating the images in order to grade how close the restored images were to the original images, in respect to human visual perception. The second part of the research consisted in the implementation of a computational program to perform the computation of the mathematical performance measures. Afterwards a comparison was performed of the mathematical performance measures with respect to the visual perception of the human referees, being the latter essentially qualitative which was then transformed in a numerical scale in order to allow the comparison with the mathematical measures. It was observed that depending on the parameters used in the restoration algorithm based in Tikhonovs regularization functional and the type of the restored image, the mathematical performance measures based on Bregman distances present better results than those obtained with other usual performance measures such as the Mean Square Error (MSE) yielding to a better agreement with the evaluation performed by the human referees.

This dissertation presents algorithms for restoring some of the major corruptions observed in archived film or video material. The two principal problems of impulsive distortion (Dirt and Sparkle or Blotches) and noise degradation are considered. There is also an algorithm for suppressing the inter-line jitter common in images decoded from noisy video signals. In the case of noise reduction and Blotch removal the thesis considers image sequences to be three dimensional signals involving evolution of features in time and space. This is necessary if any process presented is to show an improvement over standard two-dimensional techniques. It is important to recognize that consideration of image sequences must involve an appreciation of the problems incurred by the motion of objects in the scene. The most obvious implication is that due to motion, useful three dimensional processing does not necessarily proceed in a direction 'orthogonal' to the image frames. Therefore, attention is given to discussing motion estimation as it is used for image sequence processing. Some discussion is given to image sequence models and the 3D Autoregressive model is investigated. A multiresolution BM scheme is used for motion estimation throughout the major part of the thesis. Impulsive noise removal in image processing has been traditionally achieved by the use of median filter structures. A new three dimensional multilevel median structure is presented in this work with the additional use of a detector which limits the distortion caused by the filters . This technique is found to be extremely effective in practice and is an alternative to the traditional global median operation. The new median filter is shown to be superior to those previously presented with respect to the ability to reject the kind of distortion found in practice. A model based technique using the 3D AR model is also developed for detecting and removing Blotches. This technique achieves better fidelity at the expense of heavier computational load. Motion compensated 3D IIR and FIR Wiener filters are investigated with respect to their ability to reject noise in an image sequence. They are compared to several algorithms previously presented which are purely temporal in nature. The filters presented are found to be effective and compare favourably to the other algorithms. The 3D filtering process is superior to the purely temporal process as expected. The algorithm that is presented for suppressing inter-line jitter uses a 2D AR model to estimate and correct the relative displacements between the lines. The output image is much more satisfactory to the observer although in a severe case some drift of image features is to be expected. A suggestion for removing this drift is presented in the conclusions. There are several remaining problems in moving video. In particular, line scratches and picture shake/roll. Line scratches cannot be detected successfully by the detectors presented and so cannot be removed efficiently. Suppressing shake and roll involves compensating the entire frame for motion and there is a need to separate global from local motion. These difficulties provide ample opportunity for further research.

Técnicas baseadas na Equação de Fluxo Bem-Balanceada têm sido muitas vezes empregadas como eficientes ferramentas para eliminação de ruídos e preservação de arestas em imagens digitais. Embora efetivas, essas técnicas demandam alto custo computacional. Este trabalho objetiva propor uma técnica baseada na abordagem multigrid para acelerar a solução numérica da Equação de Fluxo Bem-Balanceada. A equação de difusão é resolvida em uma malha grossa e uma correção do erro na malha grossa para as mais finas é aplicada para gerar a solução desejada. A transferência entre malhas grossas e finas é feita pelo filtro de Mitchell, um esquema bem conhecido que é projetado para preservação de arestas. Além disso, a equação do transporte e a Equação do Fluxo de Curvatura são adaptadas à nossa técnica para retoque em imagens e eliminação de ruí?dos. Resultados numéricos são comparados quantitativamente e qualitativamente com outras abordagens, mostrando que o método aqui introduzido produz qualidade de imagens similares com muito menos tempo computacional. / Techniques based on the Well-Balanced Flow Equation have been employed as an efficient tool for edge preserving noise removal. Although effective, this technique demands high computational effort, rendering it not practical in several applications. This work aims at proposing a multigrid-like technique for speeding up the solution of the Well- Balanced Flow equation. In fact, the diffusion equation is solved in a coarse grid and a coarse-to-fine error correction is applied in order to generate the desired solution. The transfer between coarser and finer grids is made by the Mitchell-Filter, a well known interpolation scheme that is designed for preserving edges. Furthermore, the solution of the transport and the Mean Curvature Flow equations is adapted to the multigrid like technique for image inpainting and denoising. Numerical results are compared quantitative and qualitatively with other approaches, showing that our method produces similar image quality with much lower computational time.

In x-ray imaging, the x-ray radiation must be the minimum necessary to achieve the required diagnostic objective, to ensure the patients safety. However, low-dose acquisitions yield images with low quality, which affect the radiologists image interpretation. Therefore, there is a compromise between image quality and radiation dose. This work proposes an image restoration framework capable of restoring low-dose acquisitions to achieve the quality of full-dose acquisitions. The contribution of the new method includes the capability of restoring images with quantum and electronic noise, pixel offset and variable detector gain. To validate the image processing chain, a simulation algorithm was proposed. The simulation generates low-dose DBT projections, starting from fulldose images. To investigate the feasibility of reducing the radiation dose in breast cancer screening programs, a simulated pre-clinical trial was conducted using the simulation and the image processing pipeline proposed in this work. Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) images from 72 patients were selected, and 5 human observers were invited for the experiment. The results suggested that a reduction of up to 30% in radiation dose could not be perceived by the human reader after the proposed image processing pipeline was applied. Thus, the image processing algorithm has the potential to decrease radiation levels in DBT, also decreasing the cancer induction risks associated with the exam. / Em programas de rastreamento de câncer de mama, a dose de radiação deve ser mantida o mínimo necessário para se alcançar o diagnóstico, para garantir a segurança dos pacientes. Entretanto, imagens adquiridas com dose de radiação reduzida possuem qualidade inferior. Assim, existe um equilíbrio entre a dose de radiação e a qualidade da imagem. Este trabalho propõe um algoritmo de restauração de imagens capaz de recuperar a qualidade das imagens de tomossíntese digital mamária, adquiridas com doses reduzidas de radiação, para alcançar a qualidade de imagens adquiridas com a dose de referência. As contribuições do trabalho incluem a melhoria do modelo de ruído, e a inclusão das características do detector, como o ganho variável do ruído quântico. Para a validação a cadeia de processamento, um método de simulação de redução de dose de radiação foi proposto. Para investigar a possibilidade de redução de dose de radiação utilizada na tomossíntese, um estudo pré-clínico foi conduzido utilizando o método de simulação proposto e a cadeia de processamento. Imagens clínicas de tomossíntese mamária de 72 pacientes foram selecionadas e cinco observadores foram convidados para participar do estudo. Os resultados sugeriram que, após a utilização do processamento proposto, uma redução de 30% de dose de radiação pôde ser alcançada sem que os observadores percebessem diferença nos níveis de ruído e borramento. Assim, o algoritmo de processamento tem o potencial de reduzir os níveis de radiação na tomossíntese mamária, reduzindo também os riscos de indução do câncer de mama.

Slepá dekonvoluce je metoda, při které je rozptylová funkce a skutečný obraz rekonstruován zároveň. Cílem této práce je představit různé metody slepé dekonvoluce a najít optimální metodu rekonstrukce původního obrazu a rozptylové funkce. Jako nejvhodnější metoda slepé dekonvoluce byl zvolen algoritmus střídavé minimalizace, který byl upraven a testován. Vlastnosti navrženého algoritmu byly testovány na uměle degradovaných datech a na reálných datech pořízených skenovacím transmisním elektronovým mikroskopem. Účinnost algoritmu byla hodnocena hned několika hodnotícími kritérii. Byla zjištěna omezení algoritmu a tím specifikováno jeho využití.

Cette thèse concerne la restauration aveugle d’images (formulée comme un problème inverse mal-posé et mal-conditionné), en considérant particulièrement les systèmes SIMO. Dans un premier temps une technique d’identification aveugle de ce système où l’ordre du canal est inconnu (surestimé) est introduite. Nous introduisons d’abord une version simplifiée à coût réduit SCR de la méthode des relations croisées (CR). Ensuite, une version robuste R-SCR basée sur la recherche d’une solution parcimonieuse minimisant la fonction de coût CR est proposée. La restauration d’image est ensuite assurée par une nouvelle approche inspirée des techniques de décodage des signaux 1D et étendue ici aux cas de la restauration d’images en se basant sur une recherche arborescente efficace (algorithme ‘Stack’). Plusieurs améliorations de la méthode ‘Stack’ ont été introduites afin de réduire sa complexité et d’améliorer la qualité de restauration lorsque les images sont fortement bruitées. Ceci en utilisant une technique de régularisation et une approche d’optimisation all-at-once basée sur la descente du gradient qui permet de raffiner l’image estimée et mieux converger vers la solution optimale. Ensuite, les mesures de la qualité d’images sont utilisées comme fonctions de coûts (intégrées dans le critère global) et ce afin d’étudier leur potentiel pour améliorer les performances de restauration. Dans le contexte où l’image d’intérêt est corrompue par d’autres images interférentes, sa restauration nécessite le recours aux techniques de séparation aveugle de sources. Pour cela, une étude comparative de certaines techniques de séparation basées sur la propriété de décorrélation au second ordre et la parcimonie est réalisée. / This thesis concerns the blind restoration of images (formulated as an ill-posed and illconditioned inverse problem), considering a SIMO system. Thus, a blind system identification technique in which the order of the channel is unknown (overestimated) is introduced. Firstly, a simplified version at reduced cost SCR of the cross relation (CR) method is introduced. Secondly, a robust version R-SCR based on the search for a sparse solution minimizing the CR cost function is proposed. Image restoration is then achieved by a new approach (inspired from 1D signal decoding techniques and extended here to the case of 2D images) based on an efficient tree search (Stack algorithm). Several improvements to the ‘Stack’ method have been introduced in order to reduce its complexity and to improve the restoration quality when the images are noisy. This is done using a regularization technique and an all-at-once optimization approach based on the gradient descent which refines the estimated image and improves the algorithm’s convergence towards the optimal solution. Then, image quality measurements are used as cost functions (integrated in the global criterion), in order to study their potential for improving restoration performance. In the context where the image of interest is corrupted by other interfering images, its restoration requires the use of blind sources separation techniques. In this sense, a comparative study of some separation techniques based on the property of second-order decorrelation and sparsity is performed.