Imagery collected from outdoor visual environments is often degraded due to the presence of dense smoke or haze. A key challenge for research in scene understanding in these degraded visual environments (DVE) is the lack of representative benchmark datasets. These datasets are required to evaluate state-of-the-art object recognition and other computer vision algorithms in degraded settings. In this paper, we address some of these limitations by introducing the first realistic haze image benchmark, from both aerial and ground view, with paired haze-free images, and in-situ haze density measurements. This dataset was produced in a controlled environment with professional smoke generating machines that covered the entire scene, and consists of images captured from the perspective of both an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV). We also evaluate a set of representative state-of-the-art dehazing approaches as well as object detectors on the dataset. The full dataset presented in this paper, including the ground truth object classification bounding boxes and haze density measurements, is provided for the community to evaluate their algorithms at: https://a2i2-archangel.vision. A subset of this dataset has been used for the “Object Detection in Haze” Track of CVPR UG2 2022 challenge at https://cvpr2022.ug2challenge.org/track1.html.

This paper presents recent results in using electromagnetic (EM) emission signature analysis to assess the reliability and condition of electronic components. Results indicate that unintended radiated EM emissions analysis made using high sensitivity equipment can significantly augment traditional reliability testing methods to increase confidence in electronic component performance.

In this work, we report on how salt concentration and cation species affect DNA translocation in voltage‐biased silicon nitride nanopores. The translocation of dsDNA in linear, circular, and supercoiled forms was measured in salt solutions containing KCl, NaCl, and MgCl2. As the KCl concentrations were decreased from 1 to 0.1 M, the time taken by a DNA molecule to pass through a nanopore was shorter and the frequency of the translocation in a folded configuration was reduced, suggesting an increase in DNA electrophoretic mobility and DNA persistence length. When the salt concentration was kept at 1 M, but replacing K+ with Na+, longer DNA translocation times (td) were observed. The addition of low concentrations of MgCl2 with 1.6 M KCl resulted in longer td and an increased frequency of supercoiled DNA molecules in a branched form. These observations were consistent with the greater counterion charge screening ability of Na+ and Mg2+ as compared to K+. In addition, we demonstrated that dsDNA molecules indeed translocated through a ∼10 nm nanopore by PCR amplification and gel electrophoresis. We also compared the dependence of DNA mobility and conformation on KCl concentration and cation species measured at single molecule level by silicon nitride nanopores with existing bulk‐based experimental results and theoretical predictions.

When dsDNA polymers containing identical number of base pairs were electrophoresed through a nanopore in a voltage biased silicon nitride membrane, the measured time integral of blocked ionic current (the event‐charge‐deficit, ecd, Fologea, D., Gershow, M., Ledden, B., McNabb, D. S. et al.., Nano Lett. 2005, 5 , 1905–1909) for each translocation event was the same regardless of whether the molecules were in a linear, circular relaxed, or supercoiled form. Conversely, when DNA polymers containing different numbers of base pairs were electrophoresed through a nanopore, the ecd depended strongly on, and predicted the value of, the molecule's number of base pairs. Measurements showed that the magnitude of the current blockages was strongly affected by a molecule's form. The current blockages exhibited characteristic differences that distinguished among single‐stranded linear, double‐stranded linear, circular relaxed, and supercoiled forms. Because the data that establish ecd are usually determined concomitantly with current blockade measurements, our results show that a single nanopore assay can simultaneously determine both DNA conformation and base number.

Reducing a DNA molecule's translocation speed in a solid-state nanopore is a key step toward rapid single molecule identification. Here we demonstrate that DNA translocation speeds can be reduced by an order of magnitude over previous results. By controlling the electrolyte temperature, salt concentration, viscosity, and the electrical bias voltage across the nanopore, we obtain a 3 base/micros translocation speed for 3 kbp double-stranded DNA in a 4-8 nm diameter silicon nitride pore. Our results also indicate that the ionic conductivity inside such a nanopore is smaller than it is in bulk.