The restoration of degraded images is one important application of image processing. The classical approach of image restoration, such as low-pass filter method, is usually stressed on the numerical error but with a disadvantage in visual quality of blurred texture. Therefore, a new method of image restoration, based upon image model by Compound Gauss-Markov(CGM) Random Fields, using MAP(maximum a posteriori probability) approach focused on image texture effect has been proved to be helpful. However, the contour of the restored image and numerical error for the method is poor because the conventional CGM model uses fixed global parameters for the whole image. To improve these disadvantages, we adopt the adjustable parameters method to estimate model parameters and restore the image. But the parameter estimation for the CGM model is difficult since the CGM model has 80 interdependent parameters. Therefore, we first adopt the parameter reduction approach to reduce the complexity of parameter estimation. Finally, the initial value set of the parameters is important. The different initial value might produce different results. The experiment results show that the proposed method using adjustable parameters has good numerical error and visual quality than the conventional methods using fixed parameters.

This Compound Gauss-Markov image model has been proven helpful in image restoration. In this model, a pixel in the image random field is determined by the surrounding pixels according to a predetermined line field. In this thesis, we restored the noisy image based upon the traditional Compound Gauss-Markov image field without the constraint of the model parameters introduced in the original work. The image is restored in two steps iteratively: restoring the line field by the assumed image field and restoring the image field by the just computed line field. Two methods are proposed to replace the traditional method in solving for the line field. They are probability method and vector method. In probability method, we break away from the limitation of the energy function Vcl(L) and the mystical system parameters Ckll(m,n) and£mw2. In vector method, the line field appears more reasonable than the original method. The image restored by our methods has a similar visual quality but a better numerical value than the original method.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitous, toxic contaminants that are released to the environment from various petrogenic and pyrogenic sources. In an effort to more clearly identify and trace sources of PAHs in the environment, purification and compound specific isotope analysis methods were developed to accurately measure the stable carbon isotope ratio of individual PAHs. Development of the method included improving accuracy and precision of the isotopic measurement by producing highly pure extracts using various chromatographic techniques. The method was refined by improving compound separations using purification techniques and high resolution chromatographic columns. The purification method consists of alumina/silica gel column chromatography, gel permeation chromatography and thin layer chromatography. The mean recovery of PAHs after the purification procedure was approximately 80 %. Sample purities after purification were verified by GC/FID and full scan mass spectrometry. To better resolve peaks and provide more accurate stable carbon isotope measurements, various gas chromatographic conditions were evaluated. The precision of the method ranged between 0.08 and 0.43 . The analytical protocols were evaluated to confirm compositional and stable isotopic integrity during purification and stable isotopic analysis. To confirm the utility of the purification and isotope analysis methods, various environmental samples from marine, land and lacustrine environments were analyzed. The isolates were analyzed for the composition and the stable carbon isotope ratios of PAHs. The stable carbon isotope ratio was measured by GC/IRMS and the results, along with quantitative compound compositions, were used to characterize and identify the contaminant sources. The sources of the PAHs in the study areas were differentiated by PAH molecular ratios and confirmed by stable carbon isotope ratios. This study confirms that compound specific isotope analysis of pollutants by GC/IRMS can be used to identify PAH sources in environmental samples. The study also confirms that the purification and stable carbon isotope analysis methods that were developed can be used to accurately measure the stable carbon isotope ratios of PAHs in environmental samples for the purpose of source identification. GC/IRMS measurement of stable isotopic compositions can be an effective fingerprinting method when used in conjunction with traditional molecular composition methods.

This experimental study consists of two parts. For the first part, the film cooling effectiveness for a single row of seven cylindrical holes with a compound angle is measured on a flat surface using five different measurement techniques: steady-state liquid crystal thermography, transient liquid crystal thermography, pressure sensitive paint (PSP), thermocouples, and infrared thermography. A comparison of the film cooling effectiveness from each of the measurement techniques is presented. All methods show a good comparison, especially for the higher blowing ratios. The PSP technique shows the most accurate measurements and has more advantages for measuring film cooling effectiveness. Also, the effect of blowing ratio on the film cooling effectiveness is investigated for each of the measurement techniques. The second part of the study investigates the effect of hole geometries on the film cooling effectiveness using pressure sensitive paint. Nitrogen is injected as the coolant air so that the oxygen concentration levels can be obtained for the test surface. The film effectiveness is then obtained by the mass transfer analogy. Five total hole geometries are tested: fan-shaped laidback with a compound angle, fan-shaped laidback with a simple angle, a conical configuration with a compound angle, a conical configuration with a simple angle, and the reference geometry (cylindrical holes) used in part one. The effect of blowing ratio on film cooling effectiveness is presented for each hole geometry. The spanwise averaged effectiveness for each geometry is also presented to compare the geometry effect on film cooling effectiveness. The geometry of the holes has little effect on the effectiveness at low blowing ratios. The laterally expanded holes show improved effectiveness at higher blowing ratios. All experiments are performed in a low speed wind tunnel with a mainstream velocity of 34 m/s. The coolant air is injected through the coolant holes at four different coolant-to-mainstream velocity ratios: 0.3, 0.6, 1.2, and 1.8.

This dissertation presents a technique for recovering translational motion parameters using two simplified planar compound-like eye schemes, namely a parallel trinocular system and a single-row Superposition-type Planar Compound-like Eye (SPCE). In the parallel trinocular scheme, a least squares estimation algorithm is developed for recovering the translational motion parameters. The proposed approach resolves the matrix singularity problem encountered when attempting to recover motion parameters using a conventional binocular scheme. To further reduce the computational complexity of the motion estimation process, a compact closed-form scheme is also proposed to estimate the translational motion parameters. The closed-form algorithm not only resolves the matrix singularity problem, but also avoids the requirement for matrix manipulation. As a result, it has a low computational complexity and is therefore an ideal solution for performing motion estimation in complex, real-world visual imaging applications following an initial image filtering process. The performance of the closed-form algorithm is evaluated by performing a series of numerical simulations in which translational displacements of various magnitudes in three-dimensional space are recovered in both noise-free and perturbed environments. In general, the results demonstrate that the translational motion parameters can be reconstructed with a high degree of accuracy provided that the motion in the depth direction is limited to small displacements only. Having developed a motion estimation scheme for a parallel trinocular system, additional charge coupled device (CCD) cameras are added in the horizontal direction to create a single-row SPCE. Translational motion models for the SPCE are then constructed by stacking the optical flow equations in the horizontal direction. The ego-translational parameters are then extracted using a simple least squares estimation algorithm. The simulation results reveal that the introduction of additional cameras to the machine vision system ensures an excellent motion estimation performance without the need for filters of any kind even when the viewing field is characterized by significant noise or the CCD deployment within the SPCE configuration has a non-uniform distribution. Overall, the parallel binocular scheme and single-row SPCE configuration presented in this dissertation demonstrate a high degree of robustness toward noise and enable the motion estimation process to be performed in a rapid and computationally efficient manner using a simple least squares approximation approach. Whilst science can not realistically hope to improve upon the visioning capabilities found in the insect world, the techniques presented in this dissertation nonetheless provide a sound foundation for the development of artificial planar-array compound-like eyes which mimic the mechanisms at work in biological compound eyes and attain an enhanced visioning performance as a result.

The present study aimed to investigate whether students¡¦ error types in word recognition would be contingent upon teaching strategies. Based on the perspectives of feature-matching theory in pattern recognition, it was predicted that, the phonetic compound strategy would reduce the error rate in the recognition of the picto-phonetic character, whereas the radical recognition strategy would lower the error rate in the recognition of the radical character. A quasi-experiment was conducted in which ninety-nine 4th-grade elementary students were assigned to three groups receiving phonetic compound strategy, radical recognition strategy, and distributed recognition strategy respectively. The dependent measures consisted of shape error rate and pronunciation error rate. The results showed that those students who received the phonetic compound strategy exhibited lower shape and pronunciation error rates of the picto-phonetic character than the students who received the distributed recognition strategy. On the other hand, those students who received the radical recognition strategy exhibited lower shape error rate of the radical character than the students who received the distributed recognition strategy. Regarding the interaction of character types and error types within a specific teaching strategy, for those students who received the phonetic compound strategy, the shape error rate of the picto-phonetic character was lower than the pronunciation error rate of the radical character. For those students who received the radical recognition strategy, both the shape and pronunciation error rates of the radical character were lower than those of the picto-phonetic character. The contingent relationships between teaching strategies and error types in word recognition were partially supported by empirical data. Possible reason would be that the pronunciation might produce a more prominent facilitation effect than that of the shape in Chinese word recognition. Finally, implications for teaching strategies in word recognition and directions for future research are also discussed.

For decades, epitaxy is used in nanotechnologies and semiconductor fabrications. So far, it's the only affordable method of high quality crystal growth for many semiconductor materials. Heterostructures developed from these make it possible to solve the considerably more general problem of controlling the fundamental parameters inside the semiconductor crystals and devices. Moreover, as one newly arising study and application branch of epitaxy, selective area growth (SAG) is widely used to fabricate materials of different thicknesses and composition on different regions of a single wafer. All of these new and promising fields have caught the interests and attentions of all the researchers around the world. In this work, we will study the stress and strain analysis of epitaxy in nano-scale materials, in which we seek a methodology to bridge the gap between continuum mechanical models and incorporate surface excess energy effects, which can be obtained by molecular dynamical simulations. We will make a brief description of the elastic behavior of the bulk material, covering the concepts of stress, strain, elastic energy and especially, the elastic constants. After that, we explained in details about the definitions of surface/interface excess energy and their characteristic property tensors. For both elastic constants and surface excess energy, we will use molecular dynamic simulations to calculate them out, which is mainly about curve-fitting the parabola function between the total strain energy density and the strain. After this, we analyzed the stress and strain state in nanoisland during the selective area growth of epitaxy. When the nanoisland is relaxed, the lattice structure becomes equilibrated, which means the total strain energy of system need to be minimized. Compared to other researcher's work, our model is based on continuum mechanics but also adopts the outcome from MD simulations. By combining these microscopic informations and those macroscopic observable properties, such as bulk elastic constants, we can provide a novel way of analyzing the stress and strain profile in epitaxy. The most important idea behind this approach is that, whenever we can obtain the elastic constants and surface property tensors from MD simulations, we can follow the same methodology to analyse the stress and strain in any epitaxy process. This is the power of combining atomistic simulations and continuum method, which can take considerations of both the microscopic and macroscopic factors.

To date, most studies on the fate and removal of endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) and pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) in wastewater focus on their fate in municipal wastewater treatment plants, and mostly under aerobic condition. There are limited studies related to anaerobic condition and (to our knowledge) no study on the removal of EDCs in landfill leachate by AnMBR. Moreover, for most studies under anaerobic condition, the removal of EDCs was only reported in the liquid phase; solid phase extraction was not reported, thereby preventing mass balance in the studies. This research was conducted to investigate the potential of AnMBR for reduction of organic strength and removal of EDCs in landfill leachate. A novel lab-scale upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor equipped with dual-flat sheet ultrafiltration and microfiltration membrane modules was designed and constructed to test the potential to remove EDCs and traditional landfill leachate constituents (COD, turbidity). The target EDC was 17β-estradiol (E2), a prevalent female hormone used for contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy. Due to the nature of packaging and widespread use in households, the entry of E2 into landfills is highly likely, and has been reported. The quantification of E2 from liquid phase in this project is performed by the use of solid-phase microextraction (SPME) with GC/MS. Batch assays were conducted to determine the anaerobic biodegradability of E2 as well as to measure the respective distribution coefficients of E2 to PAC, colloids and anaerobic sludge biomass. In the adsorption batch assays, it was found that the PAC has stronger adsorption potential than anaerobic sludge. The adsorption potential of E2, E1 and EE2 on sludge follows the order E2>EE2>E1 which correlates to the Kow values (4.01, 3.67, 3.1, respectively). However, all three compounds showed the same adsorption potential to the Norit 20B PAC. The biodegradability of E2 was investigated in both liquid and solid phase and under several conditions such as methanogenesis, methanogenesis with aid from PAC, and methanogenesis with additional alternative electron acceptors added (sulfate and nitrate). E2 was found to transform to E1 under all tested conditions. The compounds are present in both liquid and solid phase. E2 and E1 were not detected (< 4ng/L and <10ng/L, respectively) in the liquid phase after 25 days in most cases except the case of adding additional sulfate. The AnMBR was designed, fabricated and operated for 2 years. During the stable condition period of the AnMBR, the high removal efficiencies of COD and E2 achieved were around 92% and 98%, respectively. However, E2 was still detected in the effluent at average concentrations of 30-40 µg/L range. To expand hormone retention and removal by the AnMBR, as well as to control membrane fouling, powder activated carbon (PAC) was added to the reactor. After the PAC was added, the concentration of E2 was reduced to less than the detection limit (4ng/L) in both MF and UF effluents. The log removal of E2 in the AnMBR system increased immediately from 1.7 without PAC to 5.2 after PAC was added. This study demonstrated that the AnMBR has high potential for removal of E2, and with aid from PAC, the AnMBR can remove E2 from landfill leachate to levels below detection limit.

In eukaryotes, the process of nuclear migration is critical in fusion of haploid pronuclei after fertilization, in separation of daughter nuclei during mitosis, and in nuclear positioning in interphase cells. Experiments in several organisms have identified the basic protein requirements for nuclear migration and positioning: molecular motors that provide motive force; the cytoskeleton along which motors move nuclei, or to which the nuclei are anchored; and proteins of the outer and inner nuclear envelopes. These nuclear membrane proteins interact with the motors, the nuclear lamina and each other to effect nuclear migration and positioning. Proteins containing a SUN domain, which were first characterized in S. pombe Sad1 and C. elegans UNC-84, are inner nuclear envelope linkers of the nucleus to the cytoskeleton. In fungi, C. elegans, D. discoideum and vertebrates, these proteins are required not only for nuclear positioning, but also for maintaining the connection of the nucleus to the MTOC, for centrosomal duplication, for homologous pairing of chromosomes in meiosis, for distribution of nuclear pore complexes and for connecting the centrosome to chromatin to ensure genomic stability. The D. melanogaster genome has two genes, CG18584 and CG6589, which encode SUN domain proteins. The specific aims of my dissertation research were to generate null mutants in these genes, to characterize their null phenotypes, and to analyze where the genes are expressed. CG18584 = klaroid mutants are grossly normal, but adult eyes are mildly rough due to a defect in nuclear positioning that occurs during larval eye development. Klaroid protein is perinuclear in every cell of the eye, and functions by localizing the MTOC connector Klarsicht to the outer nuclear envelope. CG6589 = dspag4 null mutants are male sterile. In mature sperm, Dspag4 protein localizes rostrally to the sperm centriole. In the absence of Dspag4, most steps of gametogenesis occur normally, however, prior to the final steps of sperm maturation, the sperm nucleus dissociates from its centriole. Klaroid and Dspag4 thus have cellular roles typical for SUN domain proteins, and Dspag4 is unique in that its function is to attach nuclei to centrioles exclusively in maturing spermatids in the male germline. / text

The effects of intermetallic compound (IMC) formation on reliability of Pb-free Sn-based solders for flip chip and three-dimensional (3D) interconnects were studied. The dissertation is organized into four parts. In the first part, the effect of Sn grain orientation on electromigration (EM) reliability of Pb-free Sn-based flip chip solder joints was studied. The Sn grain microstructure in flip chip solder joints was characterized using the electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) technique, and wa found to be closely related to the EM failure mechanims. The approach to grain structure optimization for improved EM reliability was also explored. In addition to the experimental work, a kinetic analysis was formulated to investigate the early EM degradation mechanism in Sn-based solder joints with Ni under-bump metallization (UMB). The aforementioned kinetic analysis, the intrinsic diffusion coefficients were not readily available in the literature. In the second part of the work, a Monte Carlo method known as simulated annealing was applied to estimate the unknown diffusion coefficients using a multi-parameter optimization method by fitting to experimental measurements. The intrinsic diffusion coefficients of Ni and Sn in Ni₃Sn₄ between 150 and 200°C, and those of Cu and Sn in Cu₃Sn and Cu₆Sn₅ between 120 and 200°C were estimatd. The activation energies for these diffusion coefficients were also determined. Together, this provides the diffusivity parameters to predict the intermetallic growth as a function of temperature. The third objective focused on the EM reliability of Sn-based microbump joints in 3D interconnects with through-silicon vias (TSVs). No EM-induced bump failure was observed, showing a robust EM reliability in microbumps. High temperature thermal annealing test was also performed on microbumps with three different metallizations in an effort to explore structural and process optimization. Finally, interfacial reaction induced stress in IMC microbumps was investigated. A numerial analysis was formulated to study the concurrent diffusion, phase transformation, and deformation in the process of IMC formation. Stress generation due to unbalanced diffusion rates and volumetric change upon phase transformation was considered. The coupled analysis was applied to investigate Ni₃Sn₄ growth in the Ni-Sn microbumping system. A simulation approach based on finite difference method with moving boundaries was employed to numerically solve stress evolution in Ni₃Sn₄. The equilibrium stress was also investigated using a modified model with a finite thickness of solder. Simulation predictions were found to be in good qualitative agreement with experimental observations. / text