BACKGROUND Tropical forest species are among the most sensitive to changing climatic conditions, and the forest they inhabit helps to buffer their microclimate from the variable climatic conditions outside the forest. However, habitat fragmentation and edge effects exposes vegetation to outside microclimatic conditions, thereby reducing the ability of the forest to buffer climatic variation. In...

Image matching has been a central problem in computer vision and image processing for decades. Most of the previous approaches to image matching can be categorized into the intensity-based and edge-based comparison. Hausdorff distance has been widely used for comparing point sets or edge maps since it does not require point correspondences. In this paper, we propose a new image similarity measu...

The edge atomic configuration often plays an important role in dictating the properties of finite-sized two-dimensional (2D) materials. By performing ab initio calculations, we identify a highly stable zigzag edge of phosphorene, which is the most stable one among all the considered edges. Surprisingly, this highly stable edge exhibits a novel nanotube-like structure, which is topologically dis...

In this paper, a new algorithm for edge detection based on fuzzyconcept is suggested. The proposed approach defines dynamic membershipfunctions for different groups of pixels in a 3 by 3 neighborhood of the centralpixel. Then, fuzzy distance and -cut theory are applied to detect the edgemap by following a simple heuristic thresholding rule to produce a thin edgeimage. A large number of experime...

Since edge detection is in the forefront of image processing for object detection, it is crucial to have a good understanding of edge detection algorithms. The reason for this is that edges form the outline of an object. An edge is the boundary between an object and the background, and indicates the boundary between overlapping objects. This means that if the edges in an image can be identified...

This paper presents the mixed mode I/II stress intensity factors (SIFs) of slanted cracks/notches under tension loading. A two-dimensional finite element analysis (FEA) was employed using ABAQUS program. Based on literature survey, there is a lack solutions for SIFs cracks in plane plates. The strain energy approach (SEA) adopted to analyze notched cases. Mode I and II are derived via SEA metho...

The stress distribution on the tip of the cracks and the stress intensity factor on them are the main courses in the fracture mechanic. The stress intensity factor of the cracks with the different load exited and the different geometry are listed in the tables of the standard books. In all of them, the cracks are located in the central point of the plates. In the uniform edge loaded case, the c...

There have been important changes in the United Kingdom’s (UK) fertility and immigration in the past decade, with a large share contributed by migrants from Poland. A detailed understanding of Polish migrant fertility is lacking, however, because the relevant data are not routinely collected. This paper provides new insights into the fertility patterns of Polish migrants in the UK, and compares...