LED based solar simulator to study photochemistry over a wide temperature range in the large simulation chamber AIDA

A light source has been built at the simulation chamber AIDA (Aerosol Interactions and Dynamics in the Atmosphere) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, simulating solar radiation at ground level. Instead of full spectra light sources, it uses a combination of LEDs with a narrow emission spectrum, resulting in a combined spectrum similar to the solar spectrum between 300 and 530 nm. The use of LEDs leads to an energy-efficient, robust and versatile illumination concept. The light source can be used over a wide temperature range down to −90 °C, is adjustable in intensity and spectral width as well as easily adjustable to new technological developments or scientific needs. Characterization of the illumination conditions shows a vertical intensity gradient in the chamber. The integral intensity corresponds to a NO2 photolysis frequency j(NO2) of (1.58 ± 0.21 (1σ)) x 10−3 s−1 for temperatures between 213 and 295 K. At constant temperature, the light intensity is stable within ±1 %. While the emissions of the different LEDs change with temperature, they can be adjusted, thus it is possible to adapt the spectrum for different temperatures. Although, the illumination of the simulation chamber leads to an increase of 0.7 K h−1 of the mean gas temperature, it is possible to perform experiments with aqueous droplets at relative humidities up to ≤ 95 % and also above water or ice saturation with corresponding clouds. Additionally, temperature and wavelength dependent photolysis experiments with 2,3-pentanedione have been conducted. The photolysis of 2,3-pentanedione occurs mainly between 400 and 460 nm resulting in a mean photolysis frequency of (1.03 ± 0.15) x 10−4 s−1 independent of temperature in the range 213–298 K with a quantum yield of 0.36 ± 0.04. In contrast the yield of the two main photolysis products, acetaldehyde and formaldehyde, decreases with temperature. Furthermore, the light source was applied to study the photochemistry of aerosol particles. For the atmospheric brown carbon proxy compound 3,5-diacetyl-2,4,6-trimethyl-1,4-dihydropyridine photochemical reaction products were identified. In aerosol particles containing iron oxalate as photosensitizer the photosensitized degradation of organic acids (pinic and pinonic acid) was studied. Although, the light source only generates about 1/3 of the maximum solar irradiation at ground level with a substantial intensity gradient throughout the simulation chamber it could be shown that this type of light source allows reproducible experiments over a wide range of simulated atmospheric conditions and with a large flexibility and control of the irradiation spectrum.

Two-step Gradient-assisted Phase-shifting Demodulation Algorithm for Fast 3D Reconstruction

The conventional multi-frequency heterodyne method is one of the most widely used methods in non-contact 3D measurement. However, it needs to project different phase-shifting patterns with different frequencies, so a large number of patterns are required. For most conventional methods, the fringe period number of the projected patterns is usually small due to its limited noise tolerance, though the larger fringe period number always means higher accuracy. We propose a two-step phase-shifting demodulation algorithm based on intensity-gradient. In this method, only two patterns for each frequency are required. With the intensity-gradient of the two patterns, we obtain the wrapped phase of each frequency. Next, the absolute phase is retrieved from the three wrapped phases with the heterodyne algorithm. Because only two patterns are required for each frequency, the proposed method is more robust and has higher measuring speed compared with the traditional 3-frequency 4-step heterodyne method. Simulations and experiments prove the feasibility and effectiveness of the method, and demonstrate that the proposed method extends the noise tolerance and achieves high-precision with only a half of the patterns required by the traditional 3-frequency 4-step method.

Slope and distance from buildings are easy-to-retrieve proxies for estimating livestock site-use intensity in alpine summer pastures

Regardless of the issue, most of the research carried out on summer pastures of European Alps had to consider the effects of grazing management, as it is an intrinsic component of alpine environment. The management intensity of grazing livestock is measured in terms of livestock stocking rate, but not always a direct measure of it is easily retrievable. Therefore, the aim of the research was to test the reliability of proxies easily retrievable from open data sources (i.e. slope and distance from buildings) in approximating the pastoral site-use intensity. To test the proxies’ effectiveness two different approaches were used. With the first one, the proxies’ reliability was assessed in a case-study conducted at farm scale by using the number of positions gathered with GPS collars, which are a reliable measure of livestock site-use intensity. With the second, the proxies’ reliability was assessed by means of five Vegetation Ecological Groups (VEGs), used as a tool for indirect quantification of livestock site-use intensity at regional scale (thirty-two alpine valleys of the Western Italian Alps, Piedmont Region—Italy). At farm scale, distance from buildings and slope were both reliable predictors of the number of GPS locations as assessed with a Generalized Additive Model. Results of Generalized Linear Models at the regional scale showed that the values of both the slope and the distance from buildings were able to separate VEGs along the same site-use intensity gradient assessed by modelling the number of GPS locations at farm scale. By testing proxies’ reliability both with a direct (i.e. GPS collar positions) and indirect (i.e. VEGs) measurement of livestock site-use intensity, results indicated that slope and distance from buildings can be considered effective surrogates of site-use intensity gradient in alpine grasslands managed under livestock grazing. Therefore, when the level of site-use intensity in research carried out in alpine summer pastures is not directly available, a reliable solution consists in the use of the terrain slope and the distance from buildings, which are also easily retrievable from open data sources or computable.

Speech extraction with RGB-intensity gradient on rolling-shutter video

Recent studies have been proposed to extract speech from the captured video of objects vibrating by sound waves. Among them, from the viewpoint of equipment cost, the method of extracting speech from the video captured by rolling-shutter cameras, which are widely used in consumer digital single-lens reflex cameras, has been attracting attention. The conventional method with the rolling-shutter video uses a grayscale video for processing based on phase images. However, a grayscale video has a smaller dynamic range than an RGB video, and thus the speech extraction accuracy of the conventional method degrades. Therefore, this paper proposes a speech extraction method based on RGB-intensity gradients on an RGB video to improve speech extraction accuracy. The proposed method extracts the speech by calculating the similarity of R, G, and B intensity gradients, and using these three intensity gradients expands the dynamic range. The experimental results on the quality and intelligibility of the extracted speech show our proposed method outperforms the conventional method.

Association of Carotid Artery Endothelial Signal Intensity Gradient with Unilateral Large Artery Ischemic Stroke

<b><i>Background:</i></b> Common carotid artery (CCA) and internal carotid artery (ICA) are aligned linearly, but their hemodynamic role in ischemic stroke has not been studied in depth. <b><i>Objectives:</i></b> We aimed to investigate whether CCA and ICA endothelial shear stress (ESS) could be associated with the ischemic stroke of large artery atherosclerosis (LAA). <b><i>Methods:</i></b> We enrolled consecutive patients with unilateral ischemic stroke of LAA and healthy controls aged &#x3e;60 years in the stroke center of Jeonbuk National University Hospital. All patients and controls were examined with carotid artery time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography, and their endothelial signal intensity gradients (SIGs) were determined, as a measure of ESS. The effect of right or left unilateral stroke on the association between carotid artery endothelial SIG and ischemic stroke of LAA was assessed. <b><i>Results:</i></b> In total, the results from 132 patients with ischemic stroke of LAA and 121 controls were analyzed. ICA endothelial SIG showed significant and independent associations with the same-sided unilateral ischemic stroke of LAA, even after adjusting for the potential confounders including carotid stenosis, whereas CCA endothelial SIG showed a significant association with the presence of the ischemic stroke of LAA. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> Although CCA and ICA are located with continuity, the hemodynamics and their roles in large artery ischemic stroke should be considered separately. Further studies are needed to delineate the pathophysiologic roles of ESS in CCA and ICA for large artery ischemic stroke.