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The paper aims to analyze the performance of the damage identification algorithms using the directional wavelet transforms, which reveal higher sensitivity for various orientations of spatial damage together with lower susceptibility to noise. In this study, the algorithms based on the dual-tree, the double-density, and the dual-tree double-density wavelet transforms were considered and compared to the algorithm based on the discrete wavelet transform. The performed analyses are based on shearographic experimental tests of a composite plate with artificially introduced damage at various orientations. It was shown that the directional wavelet transforms are characterized by better performance in damage identification problems than the basic discrete wavelet transform. Moreover, the proposed approach based on entropic weights applicable to the resulting sets of the detail coefficients after decomposition of mode shapes can be effectively used for automatic selection and emphasizing those sets of the detail coefficients, which contain relevant diagnostic information about damage. The proposed processing method allows raw experimental results from shearography to be significantly enhanced. The developed algorithms can be successfully implemented in a shearographic testing for enhancement of a sensitivity to damage during routine inspections in various industrial sectors.

A remembered saccade target could be encoded in egocentric coordinates such as gaze-centered, or relative to some external allocentric landmark that is independent of the target or gaze (landmark-centered). In comparison to egocentric mechanisms, very little is known about such a landmark-centered representation. Here, we used an event-related fMRI design to identify brain areas supporting these two types of spatial coding (i.e., landmark-centered vs. gaze-centered) for target memory during the Delay phase where only target location, not saccade direction, was specified. The paradigm included three tasks with identical display of visual stimuli but different auditory instructions: Landmark Saccade (remember target location relative to a visual landmark, independent of gaze), Control Saccade (remember original target location relative to gaze fixation, independent of the landmark), and a non-spatial control, Color Report (report target color). During the Delay phase, the Control and Landmark Saccade tasks activated overlapping areas in posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and frontal cortex as compared to the color control, but with higher activation in PPC for target coding in the Control Saccade task and higher activation in temporal and occipital cortex for target coding in Landmark Saccade task. Gaze-centered directional selectivity was observed in superior occipital gyrus and inferior occipital gyrus, whereas landmark-centered directional selectivity was observed in precuneus and midposterior intraparietal sulcus. During the Response phase after saccade direction was specified, the parietofrontal network in the left hemisphere showed higher activation for rightward than leftward saccades. Our results suggest that cortical activation for coding saccade target direction relative to a visual landmark differs from gaze-centered directional selectivity for target memory, from the mechanisms for other types of allocentric tasks, and from the directionally selective mechanisms for saccade planning and execution.

It is shown that the scaling of subwavelength resonances in open ultrathin chiral structures can be obtained by varying only the permittivity of dielectric spacers, while multiband one-way polarization conversion and related asymmetric transmission remain possible. These features are quite general and obtainable in a wide range of parameter variation. Surprisingly, the difference in the power of epsilon for the classical epsilon(-1/2) scaling rule and the empirical rules obtained in the present letter does not exceed 22%, giving an important entry point for future theoretical studies and design strategies. Both spectral scaling and conservation of the polarization characteristics can be achieved by using either tunneling or real-index impedance matching. The scaled structures with strong polarization and directional selectivity may have thickness of lambda/100 and smaller. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.

An approach for obtaining strong directional selectivity through a single subwavelength slit in non-symmetric metallic gratings is shown theoretically and experimentally. Directionality effect originates from the different resonance frequencies of two interfaces. © OSA/ CLEO 2011.

Cataloged from PDF version of article. An approach for obtaining one-way transmission in the beaming regime is suggested that is based on the directional radiation of surface plasmons in nonsymmetric metallic gratings with a single slit. In contrast to the various nonsymmetric one-way diffraction gratings that have recently been proposed, the possibility of obtaining of narrow beams is demonstrated. Strong directional selectivity can appear a wide range of the observation angles, while the angle of incidence is retained. © 2010 Optical Society of America

This paper presents a biologically inspired, hardware-realisable spiking neuron model, which we call the Temporal Noisy-Leaky Integrator (TNLI). The dynamic applications of the model as well as its applications in Computational Neuroscience are demonstrated and a learning algorithm based on postsynaptic delays is proposed. The TNLI incorporates temporal dynamics at the neuron level by modelling both the temporal summation of dendritic postsynaptic currents which have controlled delay and duration and the decay of the somatic potential due to its membrane leak. Moreover, the TNLI models the stochastic neurotransmitter release by real neuron synapses (with probabilistic RAMs at each input) and the firing times including the refractory period and action potential repolarisation. The temporal features of the TNLI make it suitable for use in dynamic time-dependent tasks like its application as a motion and velocity detector system presented in this paper. This is done by modelling the experimental velocity selectivity curve of the motion sensitive H1 neuron of the visual system of the fly. This application of the TNLI indicates its potential applications in artificial vision systems for robots. It is also demonstrated that Hebbian-based learning can be applied in the TNLI for postsynaptic delay training based on coincidence detection, in such a way that an arbitrary temporal pattern can be detected and recognised. The paper also demonstrates that the TNLI can be used to control the firing variability through inhibition with 80% inhibition to concurrent excitation, firing at high rates is nearly consistent with a Poisson-type firing variability observed in cortical neurons. It is also shown with the TNLI, that the gain of the neuron (slope of its transfer function) can be controlled by the balance between inhibition and excitation, the gain being a decreasing function of the proportion of inhibitory inputs. Finally, in the case of perfect balance between inhibition and excitation, i.e. where the average input current is zero, the neuron can still fire as a result of membrane potential fluctuations. The firing rate is then determined by the average input firing rate. Overall this work illustrates how a hardware-realisable neuron model can capitalise on the unique computational capabilities of biological neurons. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. 15 7 891 908 Cited By :27

We present a method to determine, within a few seconds, the local preferred direction (LPD) and local motion sensitivity (LMS) in small patches of the receptive fields of wide-held motion-sensitive neurons. This allows us to map, even during intracellular recordings, the distribution of LPD and LMS over the huge receptive fields of neurons sensing self-motions of the animal. Comparisons of the response field of a given neuron with the optic flow fields caused by different movements in space, allows us to specify the particular motion of the animal sensed by that neuron. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.

In order to investigate the presence of directionally selective mechanisms in 3-month-old infants, we employed a summation-near-threshold paradigm previously developed for studies of adult vision (LevinsonSekuler, 1975 Journal of Physiology (London), 250, 347-366); Watson, Thompson, MurphyNachmias, 1980 Vision Research, 20, 341-347). The degree of contrast summation occurring between two sinusoidal gratings moving in opposite direction was determined by comparing the contrast threshold for a compound stimulus (a counterphase-reversing grating) with the contrast threshold for one of its components (a single moving grating). Using the forced-choice preferential looking (FPL) technique, contrast thresholds were obtained for both counterphase and single moving gratings within individual infant subjects. Data were collected at several speeds, ranging from 2.8 to 66.8 degrees/sec (temporal frequency range: 0.7-16.7 Hz). At slow speeds, infants' thresholds were approximately equal for counterphase and moving gratings, indicating that non-directional mechanisms were responsible for detection. At an intermediate speed (22.3 degrees/sec), thresholds were nearly twice as high for counterphase gratings as for single moving gratings, indicating the existence of directionally selective mechanisms at detection threshold for this speed. For faster speeds, relative thresholds for the two types of stimuli fell between the two extremes; a model incorporating probability summation between directionally selective mechanisms was sufficient to account for the data. These results demonstrate that, at speeds greater than or equal to 22.3 degrees/sec (t.f. = 5.6 Hz), 3-month-old infants possess directionally selective mechanisms at threshold.

Cataloged from PDF version of article. Strong directional selectivity is theoretically predicted and experimentally validated at the microwave frequencies in the beaming regime for a single subwavelength slit in nonsymmetric metallic gratings with double-side corrugations. The operation regime can be realized at a fixed angle of incidence when the surface-plasmon assisted transmission is significant within a narrow range of observation angles, if illuminating one of the grating interfaces, and tends to vanish for all observation angles, if illuminating the opposite interface. The studied effect is connected with asymmetry (nonreciprocity) in the beaming that occurs if the surface plasmon properties are substantially different for the two interfaces being well isolated from each other. (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics.

Cataloged from PDF version of article. Unidirectional transmission is studied theoretically and experimentally for the gratings with one-side corrugations (non-symmetric gratings), which are based on two-dimensional photonic crystals composed of alumina rods. The unidirectional transmission appears at a fixed angle of incidence as a combined effect of the peculiar dispersion features of the photonic crystal and the properly designed corrugations. It is shown that the basic unidirectional transmission characteristics, which are observed at a plane-wave illumination, are preserved at Gaussian-beam and horn antenna illuminations. The main attention is paid to the single-beam unidirectional regime, which is associated with the strong directional selectivity arising due to the first negative diffraction order. An additional degree of freedom for controlling the transmission of the electromagnetic waves is obtained by making use of the asymmetric corrugations at the photonic crystal interface. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America.