The total variation (TV) model is attractive in that it is able to preserve sharp attributes in images. However, the restored images from TV-based methods do not usually stay in a given dynamic range, and hence projection is required to bring them back into the dynamic range for visual presentation or for storage in digital media. This will affect the accuracy of the restoration as the projected image will no longer be the minimizer of the given TV model. In this paper, we show that one can get much more accurate solutions by imposing box constraints on the TV models and solving the resulting constrained models. Our numerical results show that for some images where there are many pixels with values lying on the boundary of the dynamic range, the gain can be as great as 10.28 decibel in the peak signal-to-noise ratio. One traditional hindrance using the constrained model is that it is difficult to solve. However, in this paper, we propose using the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) to solve the constrained models. This leads to a fast and convergent algorithm that is applicable for both Gaussian and impulse noise. Numerical results show that our ADMM algorithm is better than some state-of-the-art algorithms for unconstrained models in terms of both accuracy and robustness with respect to the regularization parameter.

No abstract uploaded!

In this paper we present a rigorous derivation of the material parameters for both the cylinder and rectangle cloaking structures. Numerical results using these material parameters are presented to demonstrate the cloaking effect.

Zika virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus. It was first isolated from Uganda in 1947 and has become an emergent event since 2007. However, because of the inconsistency of alignment methods, the evolution of ZIKV remains poorly understood. In this study, we first use the complete protein and an alignment-free method to build a phylogenetic tree of 87 Zika strains in which Asian, East African, and West African lineages are characterized. We also use the NS5 protein to construct the genetic relationship among 44 Zika strains. For the first time, these strains are divided into two clades: African 1 and African 2. This result suggests that ZIKV originates from Africa, then spread to Asia, Pacific islands, and throughout the Americas. We also perform the phylogeny analysis for 53 viruses in genus Flavivirus to which ZIKV belongs using complete proteins. Our conclusion is consistent with the classification by the hosts and transmission vectors.

We improve upon the local bound in the depth aspect for sup-norms of newforms on D^×, where D is an indefinite quaternion division algebra over Q. Our sup-norm bound implies a depth-aspect subconvexity bound for L(1/2,f×θ_χ), where f is a (varying) newform on D^× of level p^n, and θ_χ is an (essentially fixed) automorphic form on GL_2 obtained as the theta lift of a Hecke character χ on a quadratic field. For the proof, we augment the amplification method with a novel filtration argument and a recent counting result proved by the second-named author to reduce to showing strong quantitative decay of matrix coefficients of local newvectors along compact subsets, which we establish via p-adic stationary phase analysis. Furthermore, we prove a general upper bound in the level aspect for sup-norms of automorphic forms belonging to any family whose associated matrix coefficients have such a decay property.