Profile Of Object Research Articles

The Performance of Kaizen Tasks Across Three Online Discrete Choice Experiment Surveys: An Evidence Synthesis.

Kaizen is a Japanese term for continuous improvement (kai ~ change, zen ~ good). In a kaizen task, a respondent makes sequential choices to improve an object's profile, revealing a preference path. Including kaizen tasks in a discrete choice experiment has the advantage of collecting greater preference evidence than pick-one tasks, such as paired comparisons. OBJECTIVE ANDMETHODS: So far, three online discrete choice experiments have included kaizen tasks: the 2020 US COVID-19 vaccination (CVP) study, the 2021 UK Children's Surgery Outcome Reporting (CSOR) study, and the 2023 US EQ-5D-Y-3L valuation (Y-3L) study. In this evidence synthesis, we describe the performance of the kaizen tasks in terms of response behaviors, conditional logit and Zermelo-Bradley-Terry (ZBT) estimates, and their standard errors in each of the surveys. Comparing the CVP and Y-3L, including hold-outs (i.e., attributes shared by all alternatives) seems to reduce positional behavior by half. The CVP tasks excluded multi-level improvements; therefore, we could not estimate logit main effects directly. In the CSOR, only 12 of the 21 logit estimates are significantly positive (p < 0.05), possibly due to the fixed attribute order. All Y-3L estimates are significantly positive, and their predictions are highly correlated (Pearson: logit 0.802, ZBT 0.882) and strongly agree (Lin: logit 0.744, ZBT 0.852) with the paired-comparison probabilities. These discrete choice experiments offer important lessons for future studies: (1) include warm-up tasks, hold-outs, and multi-level improvements; (2) randomize the attribute order (i.e., up-down) at the respondent level; and (3) recruit smaller samples of respondents than traditional discrete choice experiments with only pick-one tasks.

Imaging dark objects with intensity interferometry.

We have developed a technique for imaging dark, i.e. non-radiating, objects by intensity interferometry measurements using a thermal light source in the background. This technique is based on encoding the dark object's profile into the spatial coherence of such light. We demonstrate the image recovery using an adaptive error-minimizing Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm in case of a completely opaque object, and outline the steps for imaging purely refractive objects.

Perusing Piezoelectric Head Performance in a New 3-D Printing Design

Rapid prototyping (RP) is a computerized fabrication technology that additively builds highly complex three-dimensional physical objects layer by layer using data generated by computer, for example CAD or digital graphic. Three-dimensional printing (3DP) is one of such technologies that employ ink-jet printing technology for processing powder materials. During fabrication, a printer head is used to print a liquid on to thin layers of powder following the object's profile as generated by the system computer. This work looks at redesigning 3DP machine, using piezoelectric demand-mode technology head in order to improve accuracy, surface finishing and color quality of constructed models. The layers created with aforesaid system are between 25 to 150 μm (steps of 25 μm).

Shape Recovery by Superconic Function Set Up on Epipolar Plane

This paper describes the process of recovering a 3D shape from stereo image. Two CCD cameras are set up and a parametric curve is on an epipolar plane. A superconic function is used as the parametric curve. This curve causes disparity among the right image and left image. The visible part of the curve shows the object's profile which is cut by an epipolar plane. The estimation function is defined using the disparity including parameters. Parameters of the curve are controlled to optimize the estimation function. The estimation function is defined in the following steps : 1st : the visible part of the curve is calculated. 2nd : the visible part is projected to the right and left images. 3rd : the length of the projected curve is calculated and it is compared with the two images. 4th : the length and difference of the two images' intensities are used as the estimation function.Parameters of the curve are controlled to optimize the estimation function using the polytope method. This algorithm is tested with experimental image data. The results are similar to the DP matching method which resolves the correspondence problem.

Estimating the number of complex particles using the ConnEulor principle.

An unbiased counting rule for the number of topologically simple objects of any shape, size and distribution in 3D space is a pertinent problem in stereology. Combining the disector principle with the object's 3D Euler number makes possible number estimation, which until now has been obtainable only by exhaustive serial sections. The disector is a set of two sections where the object's profiles in one section are compared with its profiles on the neighbouring section, and the number of new 2D topological events is recorded. In a disector of known volume the sum of topological events is a direct estimate of the disector contribution to the total Euler number, which forms the basis for an ultimate number estimator in 3D, the ConnEulor. The method is illustrated by an electron microscopic study of the number of mitochondria in the exocrine cells of the pancreas.

Approximate inverse mapping in ECT, based on aperture shifting and neural network regression

The inversion procedure presented in this paper is based on the statistical regression of the inverse map between the spaces of ECT scan data, and of crack parameters. The mapping is realized by a combination between a statistical data processing step, i.e., a principal component transformation of the scan data, and an incremental resolution neural network training. Starting from the necessities of improving the detrimental conditioning of the regression and of providing the inversion approach with enhanced potential for automation, a novel “shifting aperture” mapping concept and a data fusion technique are proposed. Supplementing the primary mapping algorithm with these latter processing steps allows one to avoid the usual anomalous-region focusing approach and improves the inversion capabilities by allowing adynamic reconstruction of the object's profile. Unconnected and multiply connected crack shapes are well estimated, that so far eluded most other inversion methods. For this primary validation of the completed algorithm, only synthetic B-scan data are used, which are collected by an optimized, high performance sensor on the interior of a metal tube.

Object-roughness dependence of partially developed speckle patterns in coherent light

For a class of simple models, exact solutions are obtained for the surface roughness dependence of the speakle contrast. A recent gaussian-field approximation to the speckle statistics is generalized, and shown to give results in good agreement with the exact results obtained. The speckle contrast is found to be strongly dependent on the specific form of the object's profile height distribution, a feature which makes the effect less attractive for roughness measurement applications.