Smoothing filters have been extensively used for noise removal and image restoration. Directional filters are widely used in computer vision and image processing tasks such as motion analysis, edge detection, line parameter estimation and texture analysis. It is practically impossible to tune the filters to all possible positions and orientations in real time due to huge computation requirement. The efficient way is to design a few basis filters, and express the output of a directional filter as a weighted sum of the basis filter outputs. Directional filters having these properties are called "Steerable Filters." This thesis work emphasis is on the implementation of proposed computationally efficient separable and steerable Gaussian smoothers on a Xilinx VirtexII Pro FPGA platform. FPGAs are Field Programmable Gate Arrays which consist of a collection of logic blocks including lookup tables, flip flops and some amount of Random Access Memory. All blocks are wired together using an array of interconnects. The proposed technique [2] is implemented on a FPGA hardware taking the advantage of parallelism and pipelining.

Máscaras faciais são preparações cosméticas utilizadas desde a Antigüidade e, atualmente, têm seu uso difundido em função de suas características multifuncionais. Dentre os efeitos atribuídos a estas preparações, temos: limpeza profunda; ações tonificante, adstringente, hidratante e tensora na pele e sensação de bem-estar. Podem ser classificadas conforme sua aplicação, componentes ou grau de risco. As máscaras peel off à base de álcool polivinílico são formulações que, após a aplicação e secagem, formam um filme oclusivo sobre a face e, após sua remoção, conferem maciez, limpeza e ação tensora à pele, retirando células mortas do estrato córneo, resíduos e outros materiais depositados. O extrato de soja obtido pela fermentação do leite de soja pelo Bifidobacterium animale possui açúcares, aminoácidos, peptídeos, proteínas e alto teor de isoflavonas na forma livre, quando comparado ao leite não fermentado. Seu uso em formulações cosméticas visa combater os efeitos do envelhecimento cutâneo, propiciando hidratação, efeito tensor e emoliência à pele. Bases cosméticas de máscaras faciais peel off e emulsão óleo em água, acrescidas ou não de extrato de soja fermentado 5% p/p foram avaliadas em estudos de estabilidade física e físico-química em diversas condições de temperatura e períodos de avaliação, visando obter as de melhor desempenho para estudos clínicos. Os resultados indicaram que as preparações aditivadas com o extrato mantiveram-se estáveis quanto às suas características nos testes de estabilidade, não apresentando variações significativas. As preparações foram submetidas aos estudos clínicos em voluntários com o objetivo de avaliar seus efeitos tensor, na hidratação e na perda de água transepidérmica. Os resultados comprovaram que, em um estudo cinético, a base cosmética de máscara facial peel off , contendo ou não o extrato de soja fermentado, não apresentou diferença estatisticamente significativa para as formulações de emulsão quantos à promoção de elasticidade e firmeza à pele e diminuição da perda de água transepidérmica, mas promoveu maior hidratação das camadas superficiais da pele que as preparações de emulsão óleo em água. / Facial masks are used since antiquity and, currently, its use has spread according to their multifunctional characteristics. Among the effects attributed to these preparations there are deep cleaning; invigorating, stringent, moisturizing and tensor actions and well-being sense. They can be classified according to their application, components or risk degree. Peel off facial masks based on polyvinyl alcohol are formulations that form a film on the face after application and drying. After their removal, they cause tenderness, cleaning and tensor action on the skin, removing dead cells of the stratum corneum other materials deposited. Soybean extract obtained from soymilk fermentation by Bifidobacterium animale has sugars, amino acids, peptides, proteins and high levels of free isoflavones, when compared to nonfermented milk. Its use in cosmetic formulations aims to avoid aging effects on skin, providing moisturizing, softness and tensor effect. Peel off facial masks and emulsions oil in water preparations, containing or not fermented soymilk 5% w/w were evaluated in physical and physical-chemistry stability studies in various temperature and time conditions, targeting the best formulations for clinical tests. Results indicated that preparations containing extract remained stable about their characteristics, showed no significant variations. Preparations were submitted to clinical studies in volunteers to evaluate tensor, moisturizing and transepidermal water loss effects. In a short-term study, results confirmed that peel off facial masks formulations, containing or not soybean fermented extract, showed no statistically significant difference in comparison to emulsion formulations on elasticity and firmness promotion and decreasing on transepidermal water loss. However, peel off facial masks provided greater hydration on skin surface layers than the oil in water emulsion preparations.

Encontrar o jogo. Jogar com o encontro. Eis o motivo principal deste trabalho, que se desenvolve a partir de uma perspectiva artística, através de uma abordagem prática baseada em estudos teatrais que envolvem o jogo do ator com a máscara na rua. Por meio das experiências artísticas e pedagógicas com a Cia Familie Flöz, Irion Nolasco, Liane Venturella e Tiche Vianna, e através das práticas do grupo Máscara EnCena, este trabalho busca relacionar elementos que direcionam a expressividade do corpo, como o foco, interesse, ação, reação, triangulação, estados de leveza, peso, retração e expansão, assim como as qualidades físico-energéticas do buoyancy, potency e radiancy propostas por Arthur Lessac, afim de encontrar uma identidade entre corpo e máscara em relação criativa e interativa com a rua. A partir de práticas do processo de mascaramento do ator, ou seja, da transposição de qualidades físicas que condicionam ao corpo outras possibilidades expressivas, a presente pesquisa debruça-se sobre o jogo do ator com a máscara inteira expressiva em contato com a rua e a cultura urbana da cidade de Porto Alegre. Desse modo, o trabalho propõe a articulação entre tais princípios e a expressividade criativa do ator em jogo na rua, servindo-se de procedimentos e experimentações com a máscara. / Encounter the performance. Play with the encounter. This is the main objective of this research, which develops from an artistic perspective, through a practical approach based on theatrical studies that involve the actor's performance with the mask on the streets. This research seeks to relate elements which direct the expressiveness of the body, such as focus, interest, action , reaction, triangulation, states of lightness, weight, retraction and expansion, as well as the physical-energetic qualities of buoyancy, potency and radiancy proposed by Arthur Lessac, through artistic and pedagogical experiences with Cia Familie Flöz, Irion Nolasco, Liane Venturella and Tiche Vianna, and through practices of Mascara EnCena group, in order to find an identity between body and mask in a creative and interactive relation with the streets. Starting from practices such as the masking process of the actor, which is, the transposition of physical qualities that condition the body to other expressive possibilities, this research looks at the actor's performance with the expressive mask as a whole, having contact with the streets and the urban culture in the city of Porto Alegre. Therefore, the research proposes articulation between such principles and the creative expressiveness of the actor in performance on the street, using procedures and experimentations with the mask.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T18:12:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Neide Aparecida Marinho.pdf: 5671040 bytes, checksum: 981162c8959468194eaaa9ca42015b15 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-06-26 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The object of this study is the Folia Estrela do Norte , from Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais/Brazil, from 2010 to 2011. Our main objective is to place the research of Folia de Reis , a Brazilian popular festival, in the context of recent communication studies. Through the symbols constituents of the Folias , re-investigate the meanings and usages elaborated within the communities that produce and reproduce the festivals. We seek primarily to understand how this popular ritual dialogues with the mass media. To this, we investigated the communicational aspects of the rituals. Theirs "mythologies" survive through (and despite) the industrial and digital society. Our problem: how the rituals of the Folias de Reis dialogue with the mass media? The research has shown that, in mixed cultures, flexible and mobile, the popular and the massive, the oral and the written, the open and the closed, the center and the periphery they all dialogue in tension, incorporating outside elements and breaking oppositions. We analyzed the dialogue between popular and massive, a major issue in cultures such as ours, constantly reworked from the incorporation of others, forming new cultural texts, in network and mosaic. Our main theoretical basis is the communication studies of mediations between popular culture and mass culture; how the popular and folkloric manifestations are incorporated and reworked by the cultural industry that, at the same time, provides projections and recreations? Another point is the palhaços , important characters of the Folia , and their masks that, full of representativeness, disguise, frighten and hide, allowing the man to present his "being and not being" condition. In these masks are present the legendary, the sacred and the profane, in images of grotesque that appropriate themselves of a baroque which is translated into exuberant costumes, mapping the territory of the mixed culture. Thus we find the current masking that, in a symbolic appropriation, shows the daily experiences that leave "marks", or "social masks", creating opportunities for camouflage. Contribute to our theoretical basis intellectuals of mediations theories, such as Néstor García Canclini and Jesús Martín-Barbero. From the mestizaje theories, we can mention Amalio Pinheiro, Serge Gruzinski, Peter Burke, Yuri Lotman and Laplantine / O objeto de estudo dessa pesquisa é a Folia Estrela do Oriente, de Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, no período entre 2010 e 2011. Nosso objetivo principal é inserir o estudo das Folias de Reis no contexto das pesquisas recentes da comunicação. Por meio das simbologias constituintes das Folias, investigamos as re-significações e as readaptações, elaboradas no seio das comunidades que produzem e reproduzem as festas. Procuramos, principalmente, compreender de que forma tal ritual popular dialoga com os meios massivos. Para tal, foram investigados os aspectos comunicacionais dos rituais. Suas mitologias sobrevivem por meio (e apesar) da sociedade industrial e digital. Nossa questão-problema é: de que maneira o ritual das Folias de Reis dialoga com a comunicação de massa? A pesquisa mostrou que, em culturas mestiças, flexíveis e móbeis, o popular e o massivo, o oral e o escrito, o aberto e o fechado, o centro e a periferia dialogam em tensão, incorporando elementos alheios e rompendo com oposições. Foi analisado, portanto, o diálogo entre o popular e o massivo, questão de suma importância em nossa cultura, constantemente reelaborada a partir da incorporação do alheio, formando novos textos em rede e mosaico. Nosso suporte teórico principal está nos estudos da comunicação que investigam as mediações entre cultura popular e de massa; como as manifestações populares e folclóricas são incorporadas e reelaboradas pela indústria cultural, que propiciam projeções e recriações simultaneamente? Outro ponto do trabalho é a figura do Palhaço, personagem importante da Folia, e suas máscaras que, carregadas de representatividade, disfarçam, amedrontam e escondem, permitindo ao homem apresentar a sua condição de ser e não ser . Nestas máscaras estão presentes o lendário, o sagrado e o profano, em estampas do grotesco que se apropriam de um barroco traduzido em exuberantes fantasias, desenhando o território do mestiço. Assim encontramos os mascaramentos atuais que, numa apropriação simbólica, mostram as experiências cotidianas que deixam marcas , ou máscaras sociais , criando possibilidades de camuflagem. Contribuem, para nossa fundamentação, pensadores da teoria das mediações, como Néstor García Canclini e Jesús Martín-Barbero. Das teorias da mestiçagem, podemos citar, Amálio Pinheiro, Serge Gruzinski, Peter Burke, Iuri Lotmam, Laplantine

Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-12T14:46:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Carlos Henrique Wachholz de Souza.pdf: 9172700 bytes, checksum: 974911a1d2a6ffa227da2b1e9937a56d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-01-30 / The use of remote sensing technology has been studied as a way to make the current system of monitoring and crop forecasting in Brazil more efficient, dynamic and reliable. One of the difficulties found in the use of medium spatial resolution images as MODIS (250 Meters) is that the spectral profiles of temporary crops, as soybean and corn, may present similar curves, difficulting the separation of these cultures at the time of classification of the seeded areas. In this sense, the aim of this work was analyzing the pattern of temporal profiles, from the vegetation index (VI) EVI (Enhanced Vegetation Index), NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) and WDRVI (Wide Dynamic Range Vegetation Index), obtained by the MODIS images for the crops of corn and soybean in the crop years of 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 in the state of Paraná. The aim was performing the spectral separation of these cultures to make its mapping. The applied methodology allowed the discrimination of areas with soybean and corn (masks) for each crop year. The areas of the masks were extracted and compared with SEAB official data, finding adjustments in "R ²" between 0.89 and 0.94 for soybean and from 0.43 to 0.83 for corn. For the Willmott coefficient (d) values were between 0.85 to 0.87 for the soybean crop and 0.63 to 0.76 for corn. The accuracy of spatial masks using images with high spatial resolution achieved the best results with the IV WDRVI with overall accuracy (OA) = 86% and = 0.78, and Kappa Index (KI) IV EVI with OA and KI = 83% = 0.74. Based on these results, it can be conclude that the proposed methodology is promising and may be used for mapping of these crops in the estimation of the state area. / A utilização de tecnologias de Sensoriamento Remoto vem sendo estudada como forma de tornar o sistema atual de monitoramento e previsão de safras no Brasil mais eficiente, dinâmica e confiável. Uma das dificuldades encontrada na utilização de imagens de média resolução espacial como as do sensor MODIS (250 metros), é que os perfis espectrais de culturas temporárias, como a soja e o milho, podem apresentar curvas semelhantes, dificultando a separação dessas culturas na hora da classificação das áreas semeadas. Neste sentido, o objetivo da realização deste trabalho foi analisar o padrão de perfis temporais, provenientes dos índices de vegetação (IV) EVI (Enhanced Vegetation Index), NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) e WDRVI (Wide Dynamic Range Vegetation Index), obtidos por meio de imagens do sensor MODIS, para as culturas do milho e soja, nos anos-safra 2010/2011 e 2011/2012, no estado do Paraná. Para realizar a separação espectral das referidas culturas e efetuar o seu mapeamento. A metodologia aplicada permitiu a discriminação das áreas com soja e milho (máscaras) para cada ano-safra. As áreas das máscaras foram extraídas e comparadas com os dados oficiais da SEAB, encontrando-se ajustes de coeficiente de correlação (R²) entre 0,89 a 0,94 para a cultura da soja e de 0,43 a 0,83 para milho. Para o coeficiente de Willmott d foram encontrados valores entre 0,85 e 0,87 para a cultura soja e de 0,63 a 0,76 para milho. A exatidão espacial das máscaras utilizando imagens de alta resolução espacial obteve os melhores resultados com o IV WDRVI com Exatidão Global (EG) = 86% e Índice Kappa (IK) = 0,78 e o IV EVI com EG = 83% e IK = 0,74. Com base nestes resultados, pode-se concluir que a metodologia proposta é promissora, podendo ser utilizada para mapeamento dessas culturas na estimação da área estadual.

The development and application of portable LCD (Liquid crystal display) technology is the main trend on the market. The goal of this study is to fabricate a compound optical film, and we focus on the design and fabrication of a new type backlight module for side-LED (Light emitting diode) display. The optical efficiency can be improved via the compound optical film. The profile of optical film was determined using commercial optical software, FRED. The mold with multi aspect ratio and multi fill-factor microlens array by LIGA-like process (Lithographie galvanoformung abformung) was produced using THB-126N negative photoresist and AZ-4620 positive photoresist. The study presents many innovative processes, such as the homemade gray scale mask, and multi-step electroforming method, which both produces the microlens array with variable size and aspect ratio. In addition, the embedded micro-void caused light guide and diffusion under the quantitative control during the PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane) optical film fabrication. The compound optical film with embedded micro-voids, multi aspect ratio and variable size microlens array can be fabricated quickly without substrate. Then the optical properties were analyzed by BM-7A to characterize the luminance, uniformity and optical efficiency.

The purpose of this study was to compare the cost-effectiveness between the 2 types of general anesthesia, namely, laryngeal mask (LMA) and endotracheal intubation (ETT). The study included 353 patients who received general anesthesia during operation in a medical center in Kaohsiung City. Of these, 183 patients were assigned to the LMA group, while the remaining 170 were assigned to the ETT group. The norm of cost adopted by this study was calculated as the average expense per hour incurred by using the anesthetic and hygienic materials for medicinal use. The indices of effectiveness were physical reactions that were tracked at 2 h and 8¡V10 h postoperatively; these indices were acute pain, dizzyness, sore throat, nausea, and vomiting. These 5 indices were rated on a scale of 0¡V10. A low score was considered to represent lesser side-effects and greater effectiveness of the anesthetic. Besides, the shorter the recovery time of the patient was, the higher the effectiveness would be. The conclusion showed that the cost of the average expense per hour produced by the anesthesia and hygienic materials of medicinal use in the LMA group was 531 dollars while in the ETT group was 1,017 dollars. In the LMA group, at 2 h postoperatively, the mean tracking score for acute pain was 2.9 ¡Ó 2.6; for dizzyness, 1.4 ¡Ó 1.9; for sore throat, 0.4 ¡Ó 1.1; for nausea, 0.5 ¡Ó 1.4; and for vomiting, 0.2 ¡Ó 0.9. In the LMA group, at 8¡V10 h postoperatively, the mean tracking score for acute pain was 0.9 ¡Ó 1.5; for dizzyness, 0.6¡Ó1.3; for sore throat, 0.2 ¡Ó 0.7; for nausea, 0.1 ¡Ó 0.6; and for vomiting, 0.07 ¡Ó 0.4. In the ETT group, at 2 h postoperatively, the mean tracking score for acute pain was 4.9 ¡Ó 3.2; for dizzyness, 2.6 ¡Ó 2.5; for sore throat, 2.0 ¡Ó 2.1; for nausea, 1.3 ¡Ó 2.4; and for vomiting, 0.7 ¡Ó 1.9. In the ETT group, at 8¡V10 h postoperatively, the mean tracking score for acute pain was 2.82¡Ó 2.5; for dizzyness, 1.9 ¡Ó 1.9; for sore throat, 1.3 ¡Ó 1.9; for nausea, 1.1 ¡Ó 2.1; and for vomiting, 0.7 ¡Ó 1.9. The mean postoperative recovery time of the patients in the LMA group was 11.5¡Ó13.2 min and that for the patients in the ETT group was 25.9¡Ó16.0 min. T-test was performed to examine the hypothesis that LMA is more cost-effective than ETT when the same variables as those mentioned above are used; the results of all variables support the hypothesis that the p-value of every index was .000. Results of stepwise regression showed that LMA plays a significant positive role in every cost-effectiveness index.

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No description available.

Nectarivorous hummingbirds subsist almost exclusively on a mixture of sucrose, glucose and fructose found in floral nectar. Previous studies have shown that hummingbirds can fuel hovering flight almost exclusively using recently ingested sucrose. However, the relative capacities for the direct utilization of glucose and fructose by hovering hummingbirds remain unknown. 13C-enriched solutions of glucose and fructose were administered separately. Exhaled breath samples were collected using feeder-mask respirometry and sent for subsequent mass spectrometric analysis. I found hovering hummingbirds transition from exclusively oxidizing endogenous fatty acids when fasted, to oxidizing newly ingested carbohydrates when given access to either glucose or fructose solutions. Interestingly, the amount ingested, fractional turnover of stable carbon isotope signatures, amount oxidized, energy expended and proportion of hovering metabolism supported by each hexose, were each similar between glucose and fructose. These results demonstrate hovering hummingbirds’ ability to utilize fructose and glucose equally.