Watershed segmentation based on hierarchical multi-scale modification of morphological gradient

Watershed segmentation is sensitive to noises and irregular details within the image,which frequently leads to a serious over-segmentation Linear filtering before watershed segmentation can reduce over-segmentation to some extent,however,it often causes the position offset of object contours.For the purpose of reducing over-segmentation to preserve the location of object contours,the watershed segmentation based on the hierarchical multi-scale modification of morphological gradient is proposed.Firstly,multi-scale morphological filtering was employed to smooth the original image.Then,the gradient image was divided into multi-levels by the volume of three-dimension topographic relief,where the lower gradient layers were further modifiedby morphological closing with larger-sized structuring-elements,and the higher layers with the smaller one.In this way,most local minimums caused by irregular details and noises can be removed,while region contour positions corresponding to the target area were largely preserved.Finally,morphological watershed algorithm was employed to implement segmentation on the modified gradient image.The experimental results show that the proposed method can greatly reduce the over-segmentation of the watershed and avoid the position offset of the object contours.

A MULTI-SCALE MORPHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO SAR IMAGE EDGE DETECTION

This paper introduces a multi-scale morphological edge detection algorithm to extract SAR image edge which suffers seriously from noise. Combining the basic theme of morphology with that of multi-scale analysis, the algorithm presents the outstanding characteristics of accuracy and robustness. Comparative Experiments reveal its fine performance.

Gradient carbonyl-iron/carbon-fiber reinforced composite metamaterial for ultra-broadband electromagnetic wave absorption by multi-scale integrated design

The demand of high-end electromagnetic wave absorbing materials puts forward higher requirements on comprehensive performances of small thickness,lightweight,broadband,and strong absorption.Herein,a novel multi-layer stepped metamaterial absorber with gradient electromagnetic properties is proposed.The complex permittivity and permeability of each layer are tailored via the proportion of carbonyliron and carbon-fiber dispersing into the epoxy resin.The proposed metamaterial is further optimized via adjusting the electromagnetic parameters and geometric sizes of each layer.Comparing with the four-layer composite with gradient electromagnetic properties which could only realize reflection loss(RL)of less than−6 dB in 2.0-40 GHz,the optimized stepped metamaterial with the same thickness and electromagnetic properties realizes less than−10 dB in the relevant frequency range.Additionally,the RL of less than−15 dB is achieved in the frequency range of 11.2-21.4 GHz and 28.5-40 GHz.The multiple electromagnetic wave absorption mechanism is discussed based on the experimental and simulation results,which is believed to be attributed to the synergy effect induced by multi-scale structures of the metamaterial.Therefore,combining multi-layer structures and periodic stepped structures into a novel gradient absorbing metamaterial would give new insights into designing microwave absorption devices for broadband electromagnetic protections.

Morphology Difference between the Alkali Activated Cement and Portland Cement Paste on Multi-scale

The features of alkali activated slag（AAS） and portland cement （PC） were observed on multi-scale,the crack and fracture sections were observed with naked eyes,and SEM and AFM were used to study the structure morphology differences between PC and AAS on micrometer to nano meter scale.The experimental results indicated that the AAS paste had soil like fracture texture and it was composed of mainly C-S-H gel but lacks of crystals,and it had a very strong tendency to shrink and crack.AAS paste is much denser and more homogeneous than PC,and on the nano scale C-S-H nano particle in the AAS paste is much smaller and packs much denser than PC paste.

Seismic energy dispersion compensation by multi-scale morphology

Seismic energy decays while propagating subsurface, which may reduce the resolution of seismic data. This paper studies the method of seismic energy dispersion compensation which provides the basic principles for multi-scale morphology and the spectrum simulation method. These methods are applied in seismic energy compensation. First of all, the seismic data is decomposed into multiple scales and the effective frequency bandwidth is selectively broadened for some scales by using a spectrum simulation method. In this process, according to the amplitude spectrum of each scale, the best simulation range is selected to simulate the middle and low frequency components to ensure the authenticity of the simulation curve which is calculated by the median method, and the high frequency component is broadened. Finally, these scales are reconstructed with reasonable coefficients, and the compensated seismic data can be obtained. Examples are shown to illustrate the feasibility of the energy compensation method.

Study on Productivity Model of Herringbone-Like Laterals Wells and Optimization of Morphological Parameters Considering Threshold Pressure Gradient in Heavy Oil Reservoirs

Compared with conventional well, herringbone-like laterals wells can increase the area of oil release, and can reduce the number of wellhead slots of platforms,?and?also can greatly improve the development efficiency. Based on threshold pressure gradient in heavy oil reservoir,?and?the applied principle of mirror reflection and superposition, the pressure distribution equation of herringbone-like laterals wells is obtained in heavy oil reservoir. Productivity model of herringbone-like laterals wells is proposed by reservoir-wellbore steady seepage. The example shows that the productivity model is great accuracy?to?predict the productivity of herringbone-like laterals wells. The model is used to analyze the branching length, branching angle, branching symmetry, branching position and spacing and their effects on productivity of herringbone-like laterals wells. The principle of optimizing the well shape of herringbone-like laterals wells is proposed.

Rockburst Intensity Grade Prediction Model Based on Batch Gradient Descent and Multi-Scale Residual Deep Neural Network

Rockburst is a phenomenon in which free surfaces are formed during excavation,which subsequently causes the sudden release of energy in the construction of mines and tunnels.Light rockburst only peels off rock slices without ejection,while severe rockburst causes casualties and property loss.The frequency and degree of rockburst damage increases with the excavation depth.Moreover,rockburst is the leading engineering geological hazard in the excavation process,and thus the prediction of its intensity grade is of great significance to the development of geotechnical engineering.Therefore,the prediction of rockburst intensity grade is one problem that needs to be solved urgently.By comprehensively considering the occurrence mechanism of rockburst,this paper selects the stress index(σθ/σc),brittleness index(σ_(c)/σ_(t)),and rock elastic energy index(Wet)as the rockburst evaluation indexes through the Spearman coefficient method.This overcomes the low accuracy problem of a single evaluation index prediction method.Following this,the BGD-MSR-DNN rockburst intensity grade prediction model based on batch gradient descent and a multi-scale residual deep neural network is proposed.The batch gradient descent(BGD)module is used to replace the gradient descent algorithm,which effectively improves the efficiency of the network and reduces the model training time.Moreover,the multi-scale residual(MSR)module solves the problem of network degradation when there are too many hidden layers of the deep neural network(DNN),thus improving the model prediction accuracy.The experimental results reveal the BGDMSR-DNN model accuracy to reach 97.1%,outperforming other comparable models.Finally,actual projects such as Qinling Tunnel and Daxiangling Tunnel,reached an accuracy of 100%.The model can be applied in mines and tunnel engineering to realize the accurate and rapid prediction of rockburst intensity grade.

Impacts of ontogenetic and altitudinal changes on morphological traits and biomass allocation patterns of Fritillaria unibracteata

Environmental variations and ontogeny may affect plant morphological traits and biomass allocation patterns that are related to the adjustments of plant ecological strategies. We selected 2-, 3-and 4-year-old Fritillaria unibracteata plants to explore the ontogenetic and altitudinal changes that impact their morphological traits(i.e., plant height, single leaf area,and specific leaf area) and biomass allocations [i.e.,biomass allocations of roots, bulbs, leaves, stems, and flowers] at relatively low altitudinal ranges(3400 m to 3600 m asl) and high altitudinal ranges(3600 m to4000 m asl). Our results indicated that plant height,root biomass allocation, and stem biomass allocation significantly increased during the process of individual growth and development, but single leaf area, specific leaf area, bulb biomass allocation, and leaf biomass allocation showed opposite trends.Furthermore, the impacts of altitudinal changes on morphological traits and biomass allocations had no significant differences at low altitude, except for single leaf area of 2-year-old plants. At high altitude,significantly reduced plant height, single leaf area and leaf biomass allocation for the 2-year-old plants,specific leaf area for the 2-and 4-year-old plants, and stem biomass allocation were found along altitudinal gradients. Significantly increased sexual reproductive allocation and relatively stable single leaf area and leaf biomass allocation were also observed for the 3-and 4-year-old plants. In addition, stable specific leaf area for the 3-year-old plants and root biomass allocation were recorded. These results suggested that the adaptive adjustments of alpine plants, in particular F. unibracteata were simultaneously influenced by altitudinal gradients and ontogeny.

Lotus Leaf‑Derived Gradient Hierarchical Porous C/MoS2 Morphology Genetic Composites with Wideband and Tunable Electromagnetic Absorption Performance

Inspired by the nature,lotus leaf-derived gradient hierarchical porous C/MoS2 morphology genetic composites(GHPCM)were successfully fabricated through an in situ strategy.The biological microstructure of lotus leaf was well preserved after treatment.Different pores with gradient pore sizes ranging from 300 to 5μm were hierarchically distributed in the composites.In addition,the surface states of lotus leaf resulted in the Janus-like morphologies of MoS2.The GHPCM exhibit excellent electromagnetic wave absorption performance,with the minimum reflection loss of−50.1 dB at a thickness of 2.4 mm and the maximum effective bandwidth of 6.0 GHz at a thickness of 2.2 mm.The outstanding performance could be attributed to the synergy of conductive loss,polarization loss,and impedance matching.In particularly,we provided a brand-new dielectric sum-quotient model to analyze the electromagnetic performance of the non-magnetic material system.It suggests that the specific sum and quotient of permittivity are the key to keep reflection loss below−10 dB within a certain frequency range.Furthermore,based on the concept of material genetic engineering,the dielectric constant could be taken into account to seek for suitable materials with designable electromagnetic absorption performance.

An infrared and visible image fusion method based upon multi-scale and top-hat transforms

The high-frequency components in the traditional multi-scale transform method are approximately sparse, which can represent different information of the details. But in the low-frequency component, the coefficients around the zero value are very few, so we cannot sparsely represent low-frequency image information. The low-frequency component contains the main energy of the image and depicts the profile of the image. Direct fusion of the low-frequency component will not be conducive to obtain highly accurate fusion result. Therefore, this paper presents an infrared and visible image fusion method combining the multi-scale and top-hat transforms. On one hand, the new top-hat-transform can effectively extract the salient features of the low-frequency component. On the other hand, the multi-scale transform can extract highfrequency detailed information in multiple scales and from diverse directions. The combination of the two methods is conducive to the acquisition of more characteristics and more accurate fusion results. Among them, for the low-frequency component, a new type of top-hat transform is used to extract low-frequency features, and then different fusion rules are applied to fuse the low-frequency features and low-frequency background; for high-frequency components, the product of characteristics method is used to integrate the detailed information in high-frequency. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can obtain more detailed information and clearer infrared target fusion results than the traditional multiscale transform methods. Compared with the state-of-the-art fusion methods based on sparse representation, the proposed algorithm is simple and efficacious, and the time consumption is significantly reduced.

COALESCENCE INDUCED GRADIENT MORPHOLOGY NEAR A WALL IN PHASE SEPARATED POLYMER BLENDS DURING QUIESCENT ANNEALING

A fast coalescence mechanism is proposed to account for the wall effect on the formation of gradient morphology in phase separated polymer blends during quiescent annealing. The existence of solid wall with high polarity is believed to change the potential field around the dispersed particles near the wall. This additional potential interaction between the solid wall and the dispersed particles causes faster coalescence of the dispersed particles near the wall than in the bulk. The gradient phase morphology thus formed can be predicted by combining the wall-particle interaction and the touch-coalescence mechanism. The effect of interfacial tension on the gradient morphology is also discussed.

Changes in morphology and soil nutrient patterns of nebkhas in arid regions along a precipitation gradient

Nebkhas, discrete mounds of sand and vegetation, are a common landscape feature critical to the stability of desert ecosystems and supported by limited precipitation. Nebkha morphology and spatial pattern vary in landscapes, but it is unclear how they change along precipitation gradients in arid and semi-arid regions. In this study we determined morphology and soil nutrient patterns of nebkha from different regions of northwestern China. The objective of this study was to understand zonal differences among nebkhas and how morphological characteristics and soil nutrient patterns of nebkha change along a precipitation gradient in northwestern China. Our results shows that mean annual precipitation(MAP) had significant effects on morphological characteristics of nebkhas such as height, area, and volume which significantly decreased with an increase in MAP. MAP had significant positive effects on shrub cover and species richness of nebkha. Soil nutrients such as soil organic matter(SOM), total carbon(TC), total nitrogen(TN), and total phosphorus(TP) in the 0-10 cm layer increased with an increase of MAP, and soil nutrient content within nebkhas was higher than in inter-nebkha areas.We concluded that nebkhas are "fertile islands" with an important role in ecosystem dynamics in study regions. Further,MAP is a key factor which determined zonal differences, morphological, and soil nutrients patterns of nebkhas. However,disturbance, such as animal grazing, and planted sand-stabilizing vegetation accelerated the degeneration of nebkha landscapes. We recommend implementation of protective measures for nebkhas in arid and semi-arid areas of China.

Analysis of Multi-Scale Fractal Dimension for Image Interpolation

This article presents a novel image interpolation based on rational fractal fimction. The rational function has a simple and explicit expression. At the same time, the fi＇actal interpolation surface can be defined by proper parameters. In this paper, we used the method of ＇covering blanket＇ combined with multi-scale analysis; the threshold is selected based on the multi-scale analysis. Selecting different parameters in the rational function model, the texture regions and smooth regions are interpolated by rational fractal interpolation and rational interpolation respectively. Experimental results on benchmark test images demonstrate that the proposed method achieves very competitive performance compared with the state-of-the-art interpolation algorithms, especially in image details and texture features.

A Multi-Scale Gradient Algorithm Based on Morphological Operators

Watershed transformation is a powerful morphological tool for image segmentation. However, the performance of the image segmentation methods based on watershed transformation depends largely on the algorithm for computing the gradient of the image to be segmented. In this paper, we present a multi-scale gradient algorithm based on morphological operators for watershed-based image segmentation, with effective handling of both step and blurred edges. We also present an algorithm to eliminate the local minima produced by noise and quantization errors. Experimental results indicate that watershed transformation with the algorithms proposed in this paper produces meaningful segmentations, even without a region-merging step.

Interspecific Transition Among Caragana microphylla, C. davazamcii and C. korshinskii Along Geographic Gradient. Ⅰ. Ecological and RAPD Evidence

The former plant population survey has shown that three genetically-related species, Caraganamicrophylla Lam., C. davazamcii Sancz. and C. korshinskii Kom., form a geographical replacement series inNei Mongol Plateau. The present study on population distribution, taxonomy, morphology, development andgenetic structure demonstrated that the geographical distribution of these three species was successiveand in gradual change, thus forming a geographical cline which extended from the east to the west of NeiMongol Plateau. With an analysis of climate change over time, it was considered that the formation of thisgeographical cline was a result of plant adaptation to its natural environment.

Distribution pattern of Caragana species under the influence of climate gradient in the Inner Mongolia region, China

There is a strong climate gradient in the Inner Mongolia region, China, with solar radiation and air temperature increasing but precipitation decreasing gradually from the northeast to the southwest. Sixteen Cara- gana species exist in the Inner Mongolia region. These Caragana species exhibit a distribution pattern across moisture zones and form a geographical replacement series. In order to examine the mechanisms responsible for Caragana species distribution pattern, we selected 12 Caragana species that exhibit a distinct distribution pattern across multiple moisture zones in the Inner Mongolia region, and determined the relationships between the leaf ecological and physiological traits of these Caragana species and the aridity index and solar radiation. Along with the climatic drought gradient and the solar radiation intensification from the northeast to the southwest, leaf eco- logical characteristics of Caragana species changed drastically, i.e. the leaf shape gradually turned from flat into tegular or tubbish; the leaf hair became denser, longer and lighter in color; the leaf area, leaf biomass and specific leaf area （SLA） decreased significantly; the leaf thickness and the ratio of leaf thickness to leaf area increased sig- nificantly; and the leaf chlorophyll content decreased significantly. As the climatic drought stress increased, osmotic potentials of the main osmotic adjustment substances and the cytoplasmic ion concentration of Caragana species increased significantly. Meanwhile, the total and free water contents and water potential of leaves decreased sig- nificantly; the ratio of bound to free water increased significantly; the stomatal conductance and transpiration rate reduced significantly; and the water use efficiency （WUE） increased significantly. In addition, with the intensification of climatic drought stress, peroxidase （POD） and superoxide dismutase （SOD） activities in leaves increased significantly. As a result, the malondialdehyde （MDA） content increased while the oxygen free radical content decreased. Our results showed that most of the leaf ecological and physiological traits of the 12 Caragana species varied in accordance with the climatic drought gradient in the Inner Mongolia region, which reflected the adaptation of the Caragana species to the local climate conditions. With relatively more active metabolism and faster growth, the Caragana species in the northeast had strong competitive abilities; on the other hand, with stronger resistance to climatic drought stress, the Caragana species in the southwest could survive in harsh environments. Based on our results, we con- cluded that both the environmental gradients and the adaptive responses of Caragana species to their environments played important roles in the formation of the Caragana species distribution pattern across the Inner Mongolia region.

Perceptual Gradient Similarity Deviation for Full Reference Image Quality Assessment

Perceptual image quality assessment(IQA)is one of the most indispensable yet challenging problems in image processing and computer vision.It is quite necessary to develop automatic and efficient approaches that can accurately predict perceptual image quality consistently with human subjective evaluation.To further improve the prediction accuracy for the distortion of color images,in this paper,we propose a novel effective and efficient IQA model,called perceptual gradient similarity deviation(PGSD).Based on the gradient magnitude similarity,we proposed a gradient direction selection method to automatically determine the pixel-wise perceptual gradient.The luminance and chrominance channels are both took into account to characterize the quality degradation caused by intensity and color distortions.Finally,a multi-scale strategy is utilized and pooled with different weights to incorporate image details at different resolutions.Experimental results on LIVE,CSIQ and TID2013 databases demonstrate the superior performances of the proposed algorithm.

Morphology Change of Metastable Regrown Graphite with Boron Additive under HPHT

By temperature gradient method under high pressure and high temperature （HPHT）, with NiMnCo alloy as the solvent metal, at diamond-stable region of about 5.4 GPa and 1500 K, metastable regrown graphite crystals of different morphology were synthesized. With B as an additive incorporated into the NiMnCo-C system, metastable regrown graphite crystals of sphere-like shape were firstly obtained under HPHT. If the growth system does not contain B, sheet-like regrown graphite crystals, most with regular hexagonal morphology, are grown upwards and standing vertically in the metal solvent. When B additive of 1.0 wt pct was added into carbon source （graphite powder）, all metastable regrown graphite crystals took on the habit of regular sphere-like morphology, and were grown by a spiral layer growth mechanism.

The preconditioned conjugate gradient deconvolution method and its application

The preconditioned conjugate gradient deconvolution method combines the realization of sparse deconvolution and the optimal preconditioned conjugate gradient method to invert to reflection coefficients. This method can enhance the frequency of seismic data processing and widen the valid frequency bandwidth. Considering the time-varying nature of seismic signals, we replace the constant wavelet with a multi-scale time-varying wavelet during deconvolution. Numerical tests show that this method can obtain good application results.

The Influence Factors Analysis to Improve the Compatibility and the Mechanical Behavior of IPN, Gradient IPN and BaTiO₃Filled IPN

Interpenetrating polymer network (IPN), gradient IPN and BaTiO3 filled IPN, composed of poly(ethylene glycol urethane) (PEGPU) and unsaturated polyester resin (UP) curing at room temperatures were prepared. Then the effect of soft/hard segment ratio in polyurethane (PU), component ratio of PU to UP in IPN, adding amount of BaTiO3 in filled IPN, the component sequences and interval times between each IPN for gradient IPN, on morphology and mechanical behavior of IPN and BaTiO3/IPN nanocomposites with different molecular weight of PU were studied systematically. Moreover, the investigation on the relationship between the morphologies and the mechanical properties indicated that the IPN with finer morphology exhibited an excellent consistency of the higher strengths and elongations.