Groupwise non-rigid image alignment is a difficult non-linear optimization problem involving many parameters and often large datasets. Previous methods have explored various metrics and optimization strategies. Good results have been previously achieved with simple metrics, requiring complex optimization, often with many unintuitive parameters that require careful tuning for each dataset. In this chapter, the problem is restructured to use a simpler, iterative optimization algorithm, with very few free parameters. The warps are refined using an iterative Levenberg-Marquardt minimization to the mean, based on updating the locations of a small number of points and incorporating a stiffness constraint. This optimization approach is eff

Nonlinear diffraction patterns can be obtained by focusing a laser beam through a thin slice of the material. Here, we investigated experimentally the formation of the far field nonlinear diffraction patterns of cw laser beam at 532 nm passing through a quartz cuvette containing multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT's) suspended in acetone and in DI water at concentrations of 0.030.wt.%, 0.045 wt.%, 0.060 wt.%, and 0.075 wt.%. Our results show that increasing the concentration of both types of suspensions (MWCNTs in acetone and MWCNTs DI water) led to increase in the number of pattern rings which indicates an increase in their nonlinear refractive indices. Moreover, MWCNTs DI water suspension at a concentration of 0.075 wt. % was more effic

Data-driven models perform poorly on part-of-speech tagging problems with the square Hmong language, a low-resource corpus. This paper designs a weight evaluation function to reduce the influence of unknown words. It proposes an improved harmony search algorithm utilizing the roulette and local evaluation strategies for handling the square Hmong part-of-speech tagging problem. The experiment shows that the average accuracy of the proposed model is 6%, 8% more than HMM and BiLSTM-CRF models, respectively. Meanwhile, the average F1 of the proposed model is also 6%, 3% more than HMM and BiLSTM-CRF models, respectively.

Aim This study is an overview of NPEV investigated during AFP surveillance programs for the period 2010–2017 in Iraq. Methods Stool samples from 4296 AFP cases and 2933 healthy contacts among children less than 15 years of age were processed for virus isolation as a part of AFP surveillance for the Global Polio Eradication Program in Iraq at National Polio Laboratory. NPEV detection was performed by virus isolation on cell culture according to WHO recommendations. Results The NPEV isolation rate was 14% of total AFP cases and 14.5% of healthy contacts. The infection rate was higher in males than females with a male/female ratio of 1.5: 1. The highest NPEV infection rate was observed among the children aged 1-2 years and decrease significa

This paper presents experimental investigations on buried Glass Reinforced Plastic (GRP) pipes with a diameter of 1400 mm. The tested pipes were buried in dense, gravelly sand and subjected to traffic loads to study the effects of backfill cover on pipe deflection. The experimental program included tests on three GRP pipes with backfill covers of 100 cm, 75 cm, and 50 cm. The maximum traffic loads applied to the pipe–soil system corresponded to Iraqi Truck Type 3 (AASHTO H type). Vertical deflections of the pipes were monitored during the application of these loads. The experimental results showed that, as the backfill cover increased, the maximum vertical deflection of the pipe decreased. Deflection reductions were 38.0% and 33.3

This investigation presents an experimental and analytical study on the behavior of reinforced concrete deep beams before and after repair. The original beams were first loaded under two points load up to failure, then, repaired by epoxy resin and tested again. Three of the test beams contains shear reinforcement and the other two beams have no shear reinforcement. The main variable in these beams was the percentage of longitudinal steel reinforcement (0, 0.707, 1.061, and 1.414%). The main objective of this research is to investigate the possibility of restoring the full load carrying capacity of the reinforced concrete deep beam with and without shear reinforcement by using epoxy resin as the material of repair. All be

This study aimed to determine the measurements and classification of Schneider membrane thickness correlated to age and sex factors using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT). Methods: The study included CBCT images for 100 maxillary sinuses of 50 consecutive patients, and the thickness of the maxillary sinus membrane (Schneiderian membrane) was measured in coronal view from the lowest point in the floor of the maxillary sinus to the highest point. The thickness of the Schneiderian membrane was classified into 4 types. Results: The study result revealed that out of the total cases, 45% of sinus membranes were classified as type 2, while only 10% were classified as type 4. The most frequent type of membrane thickness diagnosed in the age gro