In this paper we introduce our preliminary research results for segmentation and labeling of 3-dimensional microscopy neuron image. We segment each of stacked 2-dimensional image slices using a partial differential equation (PDE) based algorithm and project previous slice segmentation result to the next slide as an initialization condition. Then we label neurons using an efficient connected component labeling algorithm. We show sample results obtained from real neuron image data

We study the large-time asymptotic shock-front speed in an inviscid Burgers equation with a spatially random flux function. This equation is a prototype for a class of scalar conservation laws with spatial random coefficients such as the well-known BuckleyLeverett equation for two-phase flows, and the contaminant transport equation in groundwater flows. The initial condition is a shock located at the origin (the indicator function of the negative real line). We first regularize the equation by a special random viscous term so that the resulting equation can be solved explicitly by a ColeHopf formula. Using the invariance principle of the underlying random processes and the Laplace method, we prove that for large times the solutions behave like fronts moving at averaged constant speeds in the sense of distribution. However, the front locations are random, and we show explicitly the probability of observing the

This work concerns the analysis of wave propagation in random media. Our medium of interest is sea ice, which is a composite of a pure ice background and randomly located inclusions of brine and air. From a pulse emitted by a source above the sea ice layer, the main objective of this work is to derive a model for the backscattered signal measured at the source/detector location. The problem is difficult in that, in the practical configuration we consider, the wave impinges on the layer with a non-normal incidence. Since the sea ice is seen by the pulse as an effective (homogenized) medium, the energy is specularly reflected and the backscattered signal vanishes in a first order approximation. What is measured at the detector consists therefore of corrections to leading order terms, and we focus in this work on the homogenization corrector. We describe the propagation by a random Helmholtz equation, and derive an expression of the corrector in this layered framework. We moreover obtain a transport model for quadratic quantities in the random wavefield in a high frequency limit.

Speed ensemble of bistable (combustion) fronts in mean zero stationary Gaussian shear flows inside two and three dimensional channels is studied with a min-max variational principle. In the small root mean square regime of shear flows, a new class of multi-scale test functions are found to yield speed asymptotics. The quadratic speed enhancement law holds with probability arbitrarily close to one under the almost sure continuity (dimension two) and mean square Hlder regularity (dimension three) of the shear flows. Remarks are made on the quadratic and linear laws of front speed expectation in the small and large root mean square regimes.

Although the decay in time estimates of the semi-group generated by the linearized Boltzmann operator without forcing have been well established, there is no corresponding result for the case with general external force. This paper is mainly concerned with the optimal decay estimates on the solution operator in some weighted Sobolev spaces for the linearized Boltzmann equation with a time dependent external force. No time decay assumption is made on the force. The proof is based on both the energy method through the macro-micro decomposition and the L p-L q estimates from the spectral analysis. The decay estimates thus obtained are applied to the study on the global existence of the Cauchy problem to the nonlinear Boltzmann equation with time dependent external force and source. Precisely, for space dimension n>= 3, the global existence and decay rates of solutions to the Cauchy problem are