SceneDirector: Interactive Scene Synthesis by Simultaneously Editing Multiple Objects in Real-Time.

Intelligent tools for creating synthetic scenes have been developed significantly in recent years. Existing techniques on interactive scene synthesis only incorporate a single object at every interaction, i.e., crafting a scene through a sequence of single-object insertions with user preferences. These techniques suggest objects by considering existent objects in the scene instead of fully picturing the eventual result, which is inherently problematic since the sets of objects to be inserted are seldom fixed during interactive processes. In this article, we introduce SceneDirector, a novel interactive scene synthesis tool to help users quickly picture various potential synthesis results by simultaneously editing groups of objects. Specifically, groups of objects are rearranged in real-time with respect to a position of an object specified by a mouse cursor or gesture, i.e., a movement of a single object would trigger the rearrangement of the existing object group, the insertions of potentially appropriate objects, and the removal of redundant objects. To achieve this, we first propose an idea of coherent group set which expresses various concepts of layout strategies. Subsequently, we present layout attributes, where users can adjust how objects are arranged by tuning the weights of the attributes. Thus, our method gives users intuitive control of both how to arrange groups of objects and where to place them. Through extensive experiments and two applications, we demonstrate the potentiality of our framework and how it enables concurrently effective and efficient interactions of editing groups of objects.

The impact of sodium carbonate on physico-chemical properties and cooking qualities of starches isolated from alkaline yellow noodles.

The physicochemical and cooking properties of wheat starch isolated from alkaline yellow dough treated with sodium carbonate (Na2CO3; 0-3.2 g/100 g) were investigated. With increasing Na2CO3 addition, swelling power increased from 7.28 to 10.70 g/g. X-ray diffraction showed no changes in crystalline patterns while the relative crystallinity decreased from 30.11% to 23.13%. Differential scanning calorimetry results suggested that alkaline salt shifted the gelatinization peak of starch to higher temperatures. The values of pasting viscosity and pasting temperature in alkali-treated starch increased and decreased, respectively. Farinograph results revealed the strengthened structure of dough with alkali-treated starch that was manifested by an increase in the dough development time and dough stability time. Cooking loss and rehydration values of noodles prepared from alkali-treated starch increased by 42% and 36%, respectively. The results suggested that Na2CO3 affected starch crystalline structure, swelling power, gelatinization, pasting properties, starch-gluten interactions and cooking characteristics of noodle products.

The combined effects of extrusion and heat-moisture treatment on the physicochemical properties and digestibility of corn starch.

The combined effects of extrusion (ET) and heat-moisture treatments (EHMT) on the physicochemical properties and in vitro digestibility of corn starch were investigated. Extrusion played a dominant role in reducing relative crystallinity and resistant starch (RS) content, but the swelling power, solubility, rapidly digestible starch (RDS) and slowly digestible starch (SDS) content were increased compared to native starch. EHMT resulted in a decreased swelling power, solubility and a transition in the X-ray diffraction from V- to V+A-type pattern, indicating a structural transformation toward an increased thermodynamic stability. The gelatinization temperatures shifted to higher values while the enthalpy was increased from 1.556 J/g in ET to 3.542 J/g in EHMT. The SDS and RS contents of starch granules were significantly increased, with the latter being increased from 63.03% in ET starch to 71.48% in EHMT starch.