Simple camera calibration for light measurements
The availability and decreasing prices of digital photographic cameras using megapixel sensors could point to its use as high quality light measuring devices if simple and effective calibration procedures could be put to work. This paper proposes such a system, using a common digital camera combined with low cost reference color charts. The procedure to obtain the response function of the camera, the production of the color chart and its calibration is presented. In this way, it is possible to obtain light measurements otherwise only possible with sophisticated and expensive equipments.
Rehabilitation of gamma
Gamma characterizes the reproduction of tone scale in an imaging system. Gamma summarizes, in a single numerical parameter, the nonlinear relationship between code value--in an 8-bit system, from 0 through 255--and physical intensity. Nearly all image coding systems are nonlinear, and so involve values of gamma different from unity. Owing to poor understanding of tone scale reproduction, and to misconceptions about nonlinear coding, gamma has acquired a terrible reputation in computer graphics and image processing. In addition, the world-wide web suffers from poor reproduction of grayscale and color images, due to poor handling of nonlinear image coding. This paper aims to make gamma respectable again.
Phytotoxic Secondary Metabolites from Fungi
Fungal phytotoxic secondary metabolites are poisonous substances to plants produced by fungi through naturally occurring biochemical reactions. These metabolites exhibit a high level of diversity in their properties, such as structures, phytotoxic activities, and modes of toxicity. They are mainly isolated from phytopathogenic fungal species in the genera of Alternaria, Botrytis, Colletotrichum, Fusarium, Helminthosporium, and Phoma. Phytotoxins are either host specific or non-host specific phytotoxins. Up to now, at least 545 fungal phytotoxic secondary metabolites, including 207 polyketides, 46 phenols and phenolic acids, 135 terpenoids, 146 nitrogen-containing metabolites, and 11 others, have been reported. Among them, aromatic polyketides and sesquiterpenoids are the main phytotoxic compounds. This review summarizes their chemical structures, sources, and phytotoxic activities. We also discuss their phytotoxic mechanisms and structure–activity relationships to lay the foundation for the future development and application of these promising metabolites as herbicides.