Sample records for pattern matching problem

  1. A multi-pattern hash-binary hybrid algorithm for URL matching in the HTTP protocol.

    PubMed

    Zeng, Ping; Tan, Qingping; Meng, Xiankai; Shao, Zeming; Xie, Qinzheng; Yan, Ying; Cao, Wei; Xu, Jianjun

    2017-01-01

    In this paper, based on our previous multi-pattern uniform resource locator (URL) binary-matching algorithm called HEM, we propose an improved multi-pattern matching algorithm called MH that is based on hash tables and binary tables. The MH algorithm can be applied to the fields of network security, data analysis, load balancing, cloud robotic communications, and so on-all of which require string matching from a fixed starting position. Our approach effectively solves the performance problems of the classical multi-pattern matching algorithms. This paper explores ways to improve string matching performance under the HTTP protocol by using a hash method combined with a binary method that transforms the symbol-space matching problem into a digital-space numerical-size comparison and hashing problem. The MH approach has a fast matching speed, requires little memory, performs better than both the classical algorithms and HEM for matching fields in an HTTP stream, and it has great promise for use in real-world applications.

  2. A multi-pattern hash-binary hybrid algorithm for URL matching in the HTTP protocol

    PubMed Central

    Tan, Qingping; Meng, Xiankai; Shao, Zeming; Xie, Qinzheng; Yan, Ying; Cao, Wei; Xu, Jianjun

    2017-01-01

    In this paper, based on our previous multi-pattern uniform resource locator (URL) binary-matching algorithm called HEM, we propose an improved multi-pattern matching algorithm called MH that is based on hash tables and binary tables. The MH algorithm can be applied to the fields of network security, data analysis, load balancing, cloud robotic communications, and so on—all of which require string matching from a fixed starting position. Our approach effectively solves the performance problems of the classical multi-pattern matching algorithms. This paper explores ways to improve string matching performance under the HTTP protocol by using a hash method combined with a binary method that transforms the symbol-space matching problem into a digital-space numerical-size comparison and hashing problem. The MH approach has a fast matching speed, requires little memory, performs better than both the classical algorithms and HEM for matching fields in an HTTP stream, and it has great promise for use in real-world applications. PMID:28399157

  3. Smart sensor for terminal homing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Panda, D.; Aggarwal, R.; Hummel, R.

    1980-01-01

    The practical scene matching problem is considered to present certain complications which must extend classical image processing capabilities. Certain aspects of the scene matching problem which must be addressed by a smart sensor for terminal homing are discussed. First a philosophy for treating the matching problem for the terminal homing scenario is outlined. Then certain aspects of the feature extraction process and symbolic pattern matching are considered. It is thought that in the future general ideas from artificial intelligence will be more useful for terminal homing requirements of fast scene recognition and pattern matching.

  4. Learning graph matching.

    PubMed

    Caetano, Tibério S; McAuley, Julian J; Cheng, Li; Le, Quoc V; Smola, Alex J

    2009-06-01

    As a fundamental problem in pattern recognition, graph matching has applications in a variety of fields, from computer vision to computational biology. In graph matching, patterns are modeled as graphs and pattern recognition amounts to finding a correspondence between the nodes of different graphs. Many formulations of this problem can be cast in general as a quadratic assignment problem, where a linear term in the objective function encodes node compatibility and a quadratic term encodes edge compatibility. The main research focus in this theme is about designing efficient algorithms for approximately solving the quadratic assignment problem, since it is NP-hard. In this paper we turn our attention to a different question: how to estimate compatibility functions such that the solution of the resulting graph matching problem best matches the expected solution that a human would manually provide. We present a method for learning graph matching: the training examples are pairs of graphs and the 'labels' are matches between them. Our experimental results reveal that learning can substantially improve the performance of standard graph matching algorithms. In particular, we find that simple linear assignment with such a learning scheme outperforms Graduated Assignment with bistochastic normalisation, a state-of-the-art quadratic assignment relaxation algorithm.

  5. Faster Bit-Parallel Algorithms for Unordered Pseudo-tree Matching and Tree Homeomorphism

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kaneta, Yusaku; Arimura, Hiroki

    In this paper, we consider the unordered pseudo-tree matching problem, which is a problem of, given two unordered labeled trees P and T, finding all occurrences of P in T via such many-one embeddings that preserve node labels and parent-child relationship. This problem is closely related to tree pattern matching problem for XPath queries with child axis only. If m > w , we present an efficient algorithm that solves the problem in O(nm log(w)/w) time using O(hm/w + mlog(w)/w) space and O(m log(w)) preprocessing on a unit-cost arithmetic RAM model with addition, where m is the number of nodes in P, n is the number of nodes in T, h is the height of T, and w is the word length. We also discuss a modification of our algorithm for the unordered tree homeomorphism problem, which corresponds to a tree pattern matching problem for XPath queries with descendant axis only.

  6. Clothing Matching for Visually Impaired Persons

    PubMed Central

    Yuan, Shuai; Tian, YingLi; Arditi, Aries

    2012-01-01

    Matching clothes is a challenging task for many blind people. In this paper, we present a proof of concept system to solve this problem. The system consists of 1) a camera connected to a computer to perform pattern and color matching process; 2) speech commands for system control and configuration; and 3) audio feedback to provide matching results for both color and patterns of clothes. This system can handle clothes in deficient color without any pattern, as well as clothing with multiple colors and complex patterns to aid both blind and color deficient people. Furthermore, our method is robust to variations of illumination, clothing rotation and wrinkling. To evaluate the proposed prototype, we collect two challenging databases including clothes without any pattern, or with multiple colors and different patterns under different conditions of lighting and rotation. Results reported here demonstrate the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed clothing matching system. PMID:22523465

  7. Clothing Matching for Visually Impaired Persons.

    PubMed

    Yuan, Shuai; Tian, Yingli; Arditi, Aries

    2011-01-01

    Matching clothes is a challenging task for many blind people. In this paper, we present a proof of concept system to solve this problem. The system consists of 1) a camera connected to a computer to perform pattern and color matching process; 2) speech commands for system control and configuration; and 3) audio feedback to provide matching results for both color and patterns of clothes. This system can handle clothes in deficient color without any pattern, as well as clothing with multiple colors and complex patterns to aid both blind and color deficient people. Furthermore, our method is robust to variations of illumination, clothing rotation and wrinkling. To evaluate the proposed prototype, we collect two challenging databases including clothes without any pattern, or with multiple colors and different patterns under different conditions of lighting and rotation. Results reported here demonstrate the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed clothing matching system.

  8. Instance-Based Ontology Matching for Open and Distance Learning Materials

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cerón-Figueroa, Sergio; López-Yáñez, Itzamá; Villuendas-Rey, Yenny; Camacho-Nieto, Oscar; Aldape-Pérez, Mario; Yáñez-Márquez, Cornelio

    2017-01-01

    The present work describes an original associative model of pattern classification and its application to align different ontologies containing Learning Objects (LOs), which are in turn related to Open and Distance Learning (ODL) educative content. The problem of aligning ontologies is known as Ontology Matching Problem (OMP), whose solution is…

  9. Specific problems in visual cognition of dyslexic readers: Face discrimination deficits predict dyslexia over and above discrimination of scrambled faces and novel objects.

    PubMed

    Sigurdardottir, Heida Maria; Fridriksdottir, Liv Elisabet; Gudjonsdottir, Sigridur; Kristjánsson, Árni

    2018-06-01

    Evidence of interdependencies of face and word processing mechanisms suggest possible links between reading problems and abnormal face processing. In two experiments we assessed such high-level visual deficits in people with a history of reading problems. Experiment 1 showed that people who were worse at face matching had greater reading problems. In experiment 2, matched dyslexic and typical readers were tested, and difficulties with face matching were consistently found to predict dyslexia over and above both novel-object matching as well as matching noise patterns that shared low-level visual properties with faces. Furthermore, ADHD measures could not account for face matching problems. We speculate that reading difficulties in dyslexia are partially caused by specific deficits in high-level visual processing, in particular for visual object categories such as faces and words with which people have extensive experience. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  10. Multiple Optical Filter Design Simulation Results

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mendelsohn, J.; Englund, D. C.

    1986-10-01

    In this paper we continue our investigation of the application of matched filters to robotic vision problems. Specifically, we are concerned with the tray-picking problem. Our principal interest in this paper is the examination of summation affects which arise from attempting to reduce the matched filter memory size by averaging of matched filters. While the implementation of matched filtering theory to applications in pattern recognition or machine vision is ideally through the use of optics and optical correlators, in this paper the results were obtained through a digital simulation of the optical process.

  11. Adjustment Problems of Sibling and Nonsibling Pairs Referred to a School Mental Health Program

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gallagher, Richard; Cowen, Emory L.

    1976-01-01

    In this study, siblings who developed school adjustment problems had more similar referral patterns than demographically matched, unrelated referral pairs. This effect was strongest among like sex pairs. Common environmental characteristics leading to similar coping patterns were seen to explain the results. (NG)

  12. libFLASM: a software library for fixed-length approximate string matching.

    PubMed

    Ayad, Lorraine A K; Pissis, Solon P P; Retha, Ahmad

    2016-11-10

    Approximate string matching is the problem of finding all factors of a given text that are at a distance at most k from a given pattern. Fixed-length approximate string matching is the problem of finding all factors of a text of length n that are at a distance at most k from any factor of length ℓ of a pattern of length m. There exist bit-vector techniques to solve the fixed-length approximate string matching problem in time [Formula: see text] and space [Formula: see text] under the edit and Hamming distance models, where w is the size of the computer word; as such these techniques are independent of the distance threshold k or the alphabet size. Fixed-length approximate string matching is a generalisation of approximate string matching and, hence, has numerous direct applications in computational molecular biology and elsewhere. We present and make available libFLASM, a free open-source C++ software library for solving fixed-length approximate string matching under both the edit and the Hamming distance models. Moreover we describe how fixed-length approximate string matching is applied to solve real problems by incorporating libFLASM into established applications for multiple circular sequence alignment as well as single and structured motif extraction. Specifically, we describe how it can be used to improve the accuracy of multiple circular sequence alignment in terms of the inferred likelihood-based phylogenies; and we also describe how it is used to efficiently find motifs in molecular sequences representing regulatory or functional regions. The comparison of the performance of the library to other algorithms show how it is competitive, especially with increasing distance thresholds. Fixed-length approximate string matching is a generalisation of the classic approximate string matching problem. We present libFLASM, a free open-source C++ software library for solving fixed-length approximate string matching. The extensive experimental results presented here suggest that other applications could benefit from using libFLASM, and thus further maintenance and development of libFLASM is desirable.

  13. Relationship of life-course drinking patterns to diabetes, heart problems, and hypertension among those 40 and older in the 2005 U.S. National Alcohol Survey.

    PubMed

    Kerr, William C; Ye, Yu

    2010-07-01

    The goal of this study was to estimate relationships between life-course drinking patterns and the risks of self-reported diabetes, heart problems, and hypertension. Respondents to the 2005 National Alcohol Survey, age 40 and older, reported ever having a doctor or health professional diagnose each of the health-problem outcomes. Retrospective earlier-life drinking patterns were characterized by lifetime abstention and the frequency of 5+ drinking days (i.e., days on which five or more drinks were consumed) in the respondent's teens, 20s, and 30s. Past-year drinking patterns were measured through intake volume and 5+ days. Potential confounders in the domains of demographics, socioeconomic resources, and other health-risk variables-that is, depression, distress, sense of coherence, body mass index, tobacco use, marijuana use, childhood abuse, and family history of alcohol problems--were controlled through propensity-score matching. After matching, lifetime abstainers were found to be at increased risk of diabetes compared with both lifetime and current moderate drinkers. Exdrinkers were found to be at increased risk of diabetes, heart problems, and hypertension. Higher volume drinkers without monthly 5+ days were found to be at reduced risk of diabetes relative to moderate-volume current drinkers. Heavy-occasion drinkers were found to be at increased risk of hypertension. Regular lower quantity alcohol intake may be protective against adult onset of diabetes, but no evidence of protection from heart problems or hypertension was found. Both life course-defined and past year-defined drinking groups exhibit substantial clustering of confounding risk variables, indicating the need for modeling strategies like propensity-score matching. Increased risks among exdrinkers suggest a substantial "sick-quitter" effect.

  14. The new analysis method of PWQ in the DRAM pattern

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Han, Daehan; Chang, Jinman; Kim, Taeheon; Lee, Kyusun; Kim, Yonghyeon; Kang, Jinyoung; Hong, Aeran; Choi, Bumjin; Lee, Joosung; Kim, Hyoung Jun; Lee, Kweonjae; Hong, Hyoungsun; Jin, Gyoyoung

    2016-03-01

    In a sub 2Xnm node process, the feedback of pattern weak points is more and more significant. Therefore, it is very important to extract the systemic defect in Double Patterning Technology(DPT), however, it is impossible to predict exact systemic defect at the recent photo simulation tool.[1] Therefore, the method of Process Window Qualification (PWQ) is very serious and essential these days. Conventional PWQ methods are die to die image comparison by using an e-beam or bright field machine. Results are evaluated by the person, who reviews the images, in some cases. However, conventional die to die comparison method has critical problem. If reference die and comparison die have same problem, such as both of dies have pattern problems, the issue patterns are not detected by current defect detecting approach. Aside from the inspection accuracy, reviewing the wafer requires much effort and time to justify the genuine issue patterns. Therefore, our company adopts die to data based matching PWQ method that is using NGR machine. The main features of the NGR are as follows. First, die to data based matching, second High speed, finally massive data were used for evaluation of pattern inspection.[2] Even though our die to data based matching PWQ method measures the mass data, our margin decision process is based on image shape. Therefore, it has some significant problems. First, because of the long analysis time, the developing period of new device is increased. Moreover, because of the limitation of resources, it may not examine the full chip area. Consequently, the result of PWQ weak points cannot represent the all the possible defects. Finally, since the PWQ margin is not decided by the mathematical value, to make the solid definition of killing defect is impossible. To overcome these problems, we introduce a statistical values base process window qualification method that increases the accuracy of process margin and reduces the review time. Therefore, it is possible to see the genuine margin of the critical pattern issue which we cannot see on our conventional PWQ inspection; hence we can enhance the accuracy of PWQ margin.

  15. Data-Driven Engineering of Social Dynamics: Pattern Matching and Profit Maximization

    PubMed Central

    Peng, Huan-Kai; Lee, Hao-Chih; Pan, Jia-Yu; Marculescu, Radu

    2016-01-01

    In this paper, we define a new problem related to social media, namely, the data-driven engineering of social dynamics. More precisely, given a set of observations from the past, we aim at finding the best short-term intervention that can lead to predefined long-term outcomes. Toward this end, we propose a general formulation that covers two useful engineering tasks as special cases, namely, pattern matching and profit maximization. By incorporating a deep learning model, we derive a solution using convex relaxation and quadratic-programming transformation. Moreover, we propose a data-driven evaluation method in place of the expensive field experiments. Using a Twitter dataset, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our dynamics engineering approach for both pattern matching and profit maximization, and study the multifaceted interplay among several important factors of dynamics engineering, such as solution validity, pattern-matching accuracy, and intervention cost. Finally, the method we propose is general enough to work with multi-dimensional time series, so it can potentially be used in many other applications. PMID:26771830

  16. Data-Driven Engineering of Social Dynamics: Pattern Matching and Profit Maximization.

    PubMed

    Peng, Huan-Kai; Lee, Hao-Chih; Pan, Jia-Yu; Marculescu, Radu

    2016-01-01

    In this paper, we define a new problem related to social media, namely, the data-driven engineering of social dynamics. More precisely, given a set of observations from the past, we aim at finding the best short-term intervention that can lead to predefined long-term outcomes. Toward this end, we propose a general formulation that covers two useful engineering tasks as special cases, namely, pattern matching and profit maximization. By incorporating a deep learning model, we derive a solution using convex relaxation and quadratic-programming transformation. Moreover, we propose a data-driven evaluation method in place of the expensive field experiments. Using a Twitter dataset, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our dynamics engineering approach for both pattern matching and profit maximization, and study the multifaceted interplay among several important factors of dynamics engineering, such as solution validity, pattern-matching accuracy, and intervention cost. Finally, the method we propose is general enough to work with multi-dimensional time series, so it can potentially be used in many other applications.

  17. Computing quality scores and uncertainty for approximate pattern matching in geospatial semantic graphs

    DOE PAGES

    Stracuzzi, David John; Brost, Randolph C.; Phillips, Cynthia A.; ...

    2015-09-26

    Geospatial semantic graphs provide a robust foundation for representing and analyzing remote sensor data. In particular, they support a variety of pattern search operations that capture the spatial and temporal relationships among the objects and events in the data. However, in the presence of large data corpora, even a carefully constructed search query may return a large number of unintended matches. This work considers the problem of calculating a quality score for each match to the query, given that the underlying data are uncertain. As a result, we present a preliminary evaluation of three methods for determining both match qualitymore » scores and associated uncertainty bounds, illustrated in the context of an example based on overhead imagery data.« less

  18. History matching through dynamic decision-making

    PubMed Central

    Maschio, Célio; Santos, Antonio Alberto; Schiozer, Denis; Rocha, Anderson

    2017-01-01

    History matching is the process of modifying the uncertain attributes of a reservoir model to reproduce the real reservoir performance. It is a classical reservoir engineering problem and plays an important role in reservoir management since the resulting models are used to support decisions in other tasks such as economic analysis and production strategy. This work introduces a dynamic decision-making optimization framework for history matching problems in which new models are generated based on, and guided by, the dynamic analysis of the data of available solutions. The optimization framework follows a ‘learning-from-data’ approach, and includes two optimizer components that use machine learning techniques, such as unsupervised learning and statistical analysis, to uncover patterns of input attributes that lead to good output responses. These patterns are used to support the decision-making process while generating new, and better, history matched solutions. The proposed framework is applied to a benchmark model (UNISIM-I-H) based on the Namorado field in Brazil. Results show the potential the dynamic decision-making optimization framework has for improving the quality of history matching solutions using a substantial smaller number of simulations when compared with a previous work on the same benchmark. PMID:28582413

  19. Patterns of Movement in Foster Care: An Optimal Matching Analysis

    PubMed Central

    Havlicek, Judy

    2011-01-01

    Placement instability remains a vexing problem for child welfare agencies across the country. This study uses child welfare administrative data to retrospectively follow the entire placement histories (birth to age 17.5) of 474 foster youth who reached the age of majority in the state of Illinois and to search for patterns in their movement through the child welfare system. Patterns are identified through optimal matching and hierarchical cluster analyses. Multiple logistic regression is used to analyze administrative and survey data in order to examine covariates related to patterns. Five distinct patterns of movement are differentiated: Late Movers, Settled with Kin, Community Care, Institutionalized, and Early Entry. These patterns suggest high but variable rates of movement. Implications for child welfare policy and service provision are discussed. PMID:20873020

  20. The Potential of Automated Corrective Feedback to Remediate Cohesion Problems in Advanced Students' Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Strobl, Carola

    2017-01-01

    This study explores the potential of a feedback environment using simple string-based pattern matching technology for the provision of automated corrective feedback on cohesion problems. Thirty-eight high-frequent problems, including non-target like use of connectives and co-references were addressed providing both direct and indirect feedback.…

  1. Preparing Addiction Specialists to Include Case Management and Vocational Rehabilitation Services in the Treatment Model for Problem Gamblers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Glenn, Margaret K.; Diaz, Sebastian R.; Hawley, Carolyn

    2009-01-01

    Professionals in the field of addictions view problems associated with recovery management across multiple domains. This exploratory study utilized concept mapping and pattern matching methodology to conceptualize the resulting 7 domains of concern for treatment and aftercare of problem and pathological gamblers. The information can be used by…

  2. Sustained Effects of Incredible Years as a Preventive Intervention in Preschool Children with Conduct Problems

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Posthumus, Jocelyne A.; Raaijmakers, Maartje A. J.; Maassen, Gerard H.; van Engeland, Herman; Matthys, Walter

    2012-01-01

    The present study evaluated preventive effects of the Incredible Years program for parents of preschool children who were at risk for a chronic pattern of conduct problems, in the Netherlands. In a matched control design, 72 parents of children with conduct problems received the Incredible Years program. These families (intervention group) were…

  3. Mental Health Aspects of Autistic Spectrum Disorders in Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Skokauskas, N.; Gallagher, L.

    2012-01-01

    Background: Previous studies have reported variable and at times opposite findings on comorbid psychiatric problems in children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD). Aims: This study aimed to examine patterns of comorbid psychiatric problems in children with ASD and their parents compared with IQ matched controls and their parents. Methods:…

  4. Minimum Bayes risk image correlation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Minter, T. C., Jr.

    1980-01-01

    In this paper, the problem of designing a matched filter for image correlation will be treated as a statistical pattern recognition problem. It is shown that, by minimizing a suitable criterion, a matched filter can be estimated which approximates the optimum Bayes discriminant function in a least-squares sense. It is well known that the use of the Bayes discriminant function in target classification minimizes the Bayes risk, which in turn directly minimizes the probability of a false fix. A fast Fourier implementation of the minimum Bayes risk correlation procedure is described.

  5. The fears, phobias and anxieties of children with autism spectrum disorders and Down syndrome: comparisons with developmentally and chronologically age matched children.

    PubMed

    Evans, David W; Canavera, Kristin; Kleinpeter, F Lee; Maccubbin, Elise; Taga, Ken

    2005-01-01

    This study compared the fears and behavior problems of 25 children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), 43 children with Down syndrome (DS), 45 mental age (MA) matched children, and 37 chronologically age (CA) matched children. Children's fears, phobias, anxieties and behavioral problems were assessed using parent reports. Significant differences emerged across the diagnostic groups on a variety of fears. Children with ASD were reported to have more situation phobias and medical fears, but fewer fears of harm/injury compared to all other groups. The groups also differed in terms of the pattern of correlations between fears, phobias, anxieties and behavior problems. For children with ASD, fears, phobias and anxieties were closely related to problem behaviors, whereas fears, phobias, and anxieties were less related to behavioral symptoms for the other groups of subjects. Such findings suggest that children with ASD exhibit a distinct profile of fear and anxiety compared to other mental age and chronologically age-matched children, and these fears are related to the symptoms associated with ASD.

  6. Pattern matching through Chaos Game Representation: bridging numerical and discrete data structures for biological sequence analysis

    PubMed Central

    2012-01-01

    Background Chaos Game Representation (CGR) is an iterated function that bijectively maps discrete sequences into a continuous domain. As a result, discrete sequences can be object of statistical and topological analyses otherwise reserved to numerical systems. Characteristically, CGR coordinates of substrings sharing an L-long suffix will be located within 2-L distance of each other. In the two decades since its original proposal, CGR has been generalized beyond its original focus on genomic sequences and has been successfully applied to a wide range of problems in bioinformatics. This report explores the possibility that it can be further extended to approach algorithms that rely on discrete, graph-based representations. Results The exploratory analysis described here consisted of selecting foundational string problems and refactoring them using CGR-based algorithms. We found that CGR can take the role of suffix trees and emulate sophisticated string algorithms, efficiently solving exact and approximate string matching problems such as finding all palindromes and tandem repeats, and matching with mismatches. The common feature of these problems is that they use longest common extension (LCE) queries as subtasks of their procedures, which we show to have a constant time solution with CGR. Additionally, we show that CGR can be used as a rolling hash function within the Rabin-Karp algorithm. Conclusions The analysis of biological sequences relies on algorithmic foundations facing mounting challenges, both logistic (performance) and analytical (lack of unifying mathematical framework). CGR is found to provide the latter and to promise the former: graph-based data structures for sequence analysis operations are entailed by numerical-based data structures produced by CGR maps, providing a unifying analytical framework for a diversity of pattern matching problems. PMID:22551152

  7. Neural network for intelligent query of an FBI forensic database

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Uvanni, Lee A.; Rainey, Timothy G.; Balasubramanian, Uma; Brettle, Dean W.; Weingard, Fred; Sibert, Robert W.; Birnbaum, Eric

    1997-02-01

    Examiner is an automated fired cartridge case identification system utilizing a dual-use neural network pattern recognition technology, called the statistical-multiple object detection and location system (S-MODALS) developed by Booz(DOT)Allen & Hamilton, Inc. in conjunction with Rome Laboratory. S-MODALS was originally designed for automatic target recognition (ATR) of tactical and strategic military targets using multisensor fusion [electro-optical (EO), infrared (IR), and synthetic aperture radar (SAR)] sensors. Since S-MODALS is a learning system readily adaptable to problem domains other than automatic target recognition, the pattern matching problem of microscopic marks for firearms evidence was analyzed using S-MODALS. The physics; phenomenology; discrimination and search strategies; robustness requirements; error level and confidence level propagation that apply to the pattern matching problem of military targets were found to be applicable to the ballistic domain as well. The Examiner system uses S-MODALS to rank a set of queried cartridge case images from the most similar to the least similar image in reference to an investigative fired cartridge case image. The paper presents three independent tests and evaluation studies of the Examiner system utilizing the S-MODALS technology for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

  8. A nonlinear dynamics approach for incorporating wind-speed patterns into wind-power project evaluation.

    PubMed

    Huffaker, Ray; Bittelli, Marco

    2015-01-01

    Wind-energy production may be expanded beyond regions with high-average wind speeds (such as the Midwest U.S.A.) to sites with lower-average speeds (such as the Southeast U.S.A.) by locating favorable regional matches between natural wind-speed and energy-demand patterns. A critical component of wind-power evaluation is to incorporate wind-speed dynamics reflecting documented diurnal and seasonal behavioral patterns. Conventional probabilistic approaches remove patterns from wind-speed data. These patterns must be restored synthetically before they can be matched with energy-demand patterns. How to accurately restore wind-speed patterns is a vexing problem spurring an expanding line of papers. We propose a paradigm shift in wind power evaluation that employs signal-detection and nonlinear-dynamics techniques to empirically diagnose whether synthetic pattern restoration can be avoided altogether. If the complex behavior of observed wind-speed records is due to nonlinear, low-dimensional, and deterministic system dynamics, then nonlinear dynamics techniques can reconstruct wind-speed dynamics from observed wind-speed data without recourse to conventional probabilistic approaches. In the first study of its kind, we test a nonlinear dynamics approach in an application to Sugarland Wind-the first utility-scale wind project proposed in Florida, USA. We find empirical evidence of a low-dimensional and nonlinear wind-speed attractor characterized by strong temporal patterns that match up well with regular daily and seasonal electricity demand patterns.

  9. Exact and approximate graph matching using random walks.

    PubMed

    Gori, Marco; Maggini, Marco; Sarti, Lorenzo

    2005-07-01

    In this paper, we propose a general framework for graph matching which is suitable for different problems of pattern recognition. The pattern representation we assume is at the same time highly structured, like for classic syntactic and structural approaches, and of subsymbolic nature with real-valued features, like for connectionist and statistic approaches. We show that random walk based models, inspired by Google's PageRank, give rise to a spectral theory that nicely enhances the graph topological features at node level. As a straightforward consequence, we derive a polynomial algorithm for the classic graph isomorphism problem, under the restriction of dealing with Markovian spectrally distinguishable graphs (MSD), a class of graphs that does not seem to be easily reducible to others proposed in the literature. The experimental results that we found on different test-beds of the TC-15 graph database show that the defined MSD class "almost always" covers the database, and that the proposed algorithm is significantly more efficient than top scoring VF algorithm on the same data. Most interestingly, the proposed approach is very well-suited for dealing with partial and approximate graph matching problems, derived for instance from image retrieval tasks. We consider the objects of the COIL-100 visual collection and provide a graph-based representation, whose node's labels contain appropriate visual features. We show that the adoption of classic bipartite graph matching algorithms offers a straightforward generalization of the algorithm given for graph isomorphism and, finally, we report very promising experimental results on the COIL-100 visual collection.

  10. A hierarchical graph neuron scheme for real-time pattern recognition.

    PubMed

    Nasution, B B; Khan, A I

    2008-02-01

    The hierarchical graph neuron (HGN) implements a single cycle memorization and recall operation through a novel algorithmic design. The HGN is an improvement on the already published original graph neuron (GN) algorithm. In this improved approach, it recognizes incomplete/noisy patterns. It also resolves the crosstalk problem, which is identified in the previous publications, within closely matched patterns. To accomplish this, the HGN links multiple GN networks for filtering noise and crosstalk out of pattern data inputs. Intrinsically, the HGN is a lightweight in-network processing algorithm which does not require expensive floating point computations; hence, it is very suitable for real-time applications and tiny devices such as the wireless sensor networks. This paper describes that the HGN's pattern matching capability and the small response time remain insensitive to the increases in the number of stored patterns. Moreover, the HGN does not require definition of rules or setting of thresholds by the operator to achieve the desired results nor does it require heuristics entailing iterative operations for memorization and recall of patterns.

  11. Computing global minimizers to a constrained B-spline image registration problem from optimal l1 perturbations to block match data

    PubMed Central

    Castillo, Edward; Castillo, Richard; Fuentes, David; Guerrero, Thomas

    2014-01-01

    Purpose: Block matching is a well-known strategy for estimating corresponding voxel locations between a pair of images according to an image similarity metric. Though robust to issues such as image noise and large magnitude voxel displacements, the estimated point matches are not guaranteed to be spatially accurate. However, the underlying optimization problem solved by the block matching procedure is similar in structure to the class of optimization problem associated with B-spline based registration methods. By exploiting this relationship, the authors derive a numerical method for computing a global minimizer to a constrained B-spline registration problem that incorporates the robustness of block matching with the global smoothness properties inherent to B-spline parameterization. Methods: The method reformulates the traditional B-spline registration problem as a basis pursuit problem describing the minimal l1-perturbation to block match pairs required to produce a B-spline fitting error within a given tolerance. The sparsity pattern of the optimal perturbation then defines a voxel point cloud subset on which the B-spline fit is a global minimizer to a constrained variant of the B-spline registration problem. As opposed to traditional B-spline algorithms, the optimization step involving the actual image data is addressed by block matching. Results: The performance of the method is measured in terms of spatial accuracy using ten inhale/exhale thoracic CT image pairs (available for download at www.dir-lab.com) obtained from the COPDgene dataset and corresponding sets of expert-determined landmark point pairs. The results of the validation procedure demonstrate that the method can achieve a high spatial accuracy on a significantly complex image set. Conclusions: The proposed methodology is demonstrated to achieve a high spatial accuracy and is generalizable in that in can employ any displacement field parameterization described as a least squares fit to block match generated estimates. Thus, the framework allows for a wide range of image similarity block match metric and physical modeling combinations. PMID:24694135

  12. Robust Feature Matching in Terrestrial Image Sequences

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abbas, A.; Ghuffar, S.

    2018-04-01

    From the last decade, the feature detection, description and matching techniques are most commonly exploited in various photogrammetric and computer vision applications, which includes: 3D reconstruction of scenes, image stitching for panoramic creation, image classification, or object recognition etc. However, in terrestrial imagery of urban scenes contains various issues, which include duplicate and identical structures (i.e. repeated windows and doors) that cause the problem in feature matching phase and ultimately lead to failure of results specially in case of camera pose and scene structure estimation. In this paper, we will address the issue related to ambiguous feature matching in urban environment due to repeating patterns.

  13. A Nonlinear Dynamics Approach for Incorporating Wind-Speed Patterns into Wind-Power Project Evaluation

    PubMed Central

    Huffaker, Ray; Bittelli, Marco

    2015-01-01

    Wind-energy production may be expanded beyond regions with high-average wind speeds (such as the Midwest U.S.A.) to sites with lower-average speeds (such as the Southeast U.S.A.) by locating favorable regional matches between natural wind-speed and energy-demand patterns. A critical component of wind-power evaluation is to incorporate wind-speed dynamics reflecting documented diurnal and seasonal behavioral patterns. Conventional probabilistic approaches remove patterns from wind-speed data. These patterns must be restored synthetically before they can be matched with energy-demand patterns. How to accurately restore wind-speed patterns is a vexing problem spurring an expanding line of papers. We propose a paradigm shift in wind power evaluation that employs signal-detection and nonlinear-dynamics techniques to empirically diagnose whether synthetic pattern restoration can be avoided altogether. If the complex behavior of observed wind-speed records is due to nonlinear, low-dimensional, and deterministic system dynamics, then nonlinear dynamics techniques can reconstruct wind-speed dynamics from observed wind-speed data without recourse to conventional probabilistic approaches. In the first study of its kind, we test a nonlinear dynamics approach in an application to Sugarland Wind—the first utility-scale wind project proposed in Florida, USA. We find empirical evidence of a low-dimensional and nonlinear wind-speed attractor characterized by strong temporal patterns that match up well with regular daily and seasonal electricity demand patterns. PMID:25617767

  14. Bottom-Up Evaluation of Twig Join Pattern Queries in XML Document Databases

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Yangjun

    Since the extensible markup language XML emerged as a new standard for information representation and exchange on the Internet, the problem of storing, indexing, and querying XML documents has been among the major issues of database research. In this paper, we study the twig pattern matching and discuss a new algorithm for processing ordered twig pattern queries. The time complexity of the algorithmis bounded by O(|D|·|Q| + |T|·leaf Q ) and its space overhead is by O(leaf T ·leaf Q ), where T stands for a document tree, Q for a twig pattern and D is a largest data stream associated with a node q of Q, which contains the database nodes that match the node predicate at q. leaf T (leaf Q ) represents the number of the leaf nodes of T (resp. Q). In addition, the algorithm can be adapted to an indexing environment with XB-trees being used.

  15. Matching consumer feeding behaviours and resource traits: a fourth-corner problem in food-web theory.

    PubMed

    Monteiro, Angelo Barbosa; Faria, Lucas Del Bianco

    2018-06-06

    For decades, food web theory has proposed phenomenological models for the underlying structure of ecological networks. Generally, these models rely on latent niche variables that match the feeding behaviour of consumers with their resource traits. In this paper, we used a comprehensive database to evaluate different hypotheses on the best dependency structure of trait-matching patterns between consumers and resource traits. We found that consumer feeding behaviours had complex interactions with resource traits; however, few dimensions (i.e. latent variables) could reproduce the trait-matching patterns. We discuss our findings in the light of three food web models designed to reproduce the multidimensionality of food web data; additionally, we discuss how using species traits clarify food webs beyond species pairwise interactions and enable studies to infer ecological generality at larger scales, despite potential taxonomic differences, variations in ecological conditions and differences in species abundance between communities. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.

  16. Neural-Network Simulator

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mitchell, Paul H.

    1991-01-01

    F77NNS (FORTRAN 77 Neural Network Simulator) computer program simulates popular back-error-propagation neural network. Designed to take advantage of vectorization when used on computers having this capability, also used on any computer equipped with ANSI-77 FORTRAN Compiler. Problems involving matching of patterns or mathematical modeling of systems fit class of problems F77NNS designed to solve. Program has restart capability so neural network solved in stages suitable to user's resources and desires. Enables user to customize patterns of connections between layers of network. Size of neural network F77NNS applied to limited only by amount of random-access memory available to user.

  17. QA4, a language for artificial intelligence.

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Derksen, J. A. C.

    1973-01-01

    Introduction of a language for problem solving and specifically robot planning, program verification, and synthesis and theorem proving. This language, called question-answerer 4 (QA4), embodies many features that have been found useful for constructing problem solvers but have to be programmed explicitly by the user of a conventional language. The most important features of QA4 are described, and examples are provided for most of the material introduced. Language features include backtracking, parallel processing, pattern matching, set manipulation, and pattern-triggered function activation. The language is most convenient for use in an interactive way and has extensive trace and edit facilities.

  18. Protein structure-structure alignment with discrete Fréchet distance.

    PubMed

    Jiang, Minghui; Xu, Ying; Zhu, Binhai

    2008-02-01

    Matching two geometric objects in two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) spaces is a central problem in computer vision, pattern recognition, and protein structure prediction. In particular, the problem of aligning two polygonal chains under translation and rotation to minimize their distance has been studied using various distance measures. It is well known that the Hausdorff distance is useful for matching two point sets, and that the Fréchet distance is a superior measure for matching two polygonal chains. The discrete Fréchet distance closely approximates the (continuous) Fréchet distance, and is a natural measure for the geometric similarity of the folded 3D structures of biomolecules such as proteins. In this paper, we present new algorithms for matching two polygonal chains in two dimensions to minimize their discrete Fréchet distance under translation and rotation, and an effective heuristic for matching two polygonal chains in three dimensions. We also describe our empirical results on the application of the discrete Fréchet distance to protein structure-structure alignment.

  19. SOPanG: online text searching over a pan-genome.

    PubMed

    Cislak, Aleksander; Grabowski, Szymon; Holub, Jan

    2018-06-22

    The many thousands of high-quality genomes available nowadays imply a shift from single genome to pan-genomic analyses. A basic algorithmic building brick for such a scenario is online search over a collection of similar texts, a problem with surprisingly few solutions presented so far. We present SOPanG, a simple tool for exact pattern matching over an elastic-degenerate string, a recently proposed simplified model for the pan-genome. Thanks to bit-parallelism, it achieves pattern matching speeds above 400MB/s, more than an order of magnitude higher than of other software. SOPanG is available for free from: https://github.com/MrAlexSee/sopang. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

  20. Microcomputers and Preschoolers.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Evans, Dina

    Preschool children can benefit by working with microcomputers. Thinking skills are enhanced by software games that focus on logic, memory, problem solving, and pattern recognition. Counting, sequencing, and matching games develop mathematics skills, and word games focusing on basic letter symbol and word recognition develop language skills.…

  1. DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Yan, Guanghua, E-mail: yan@ufl.edu; Li, Jonathan; Huang, Yin

    Purpose: To propose a simple model to explain the origin of ghost markers in marker-based optical tracking systems (OTS) and to develop retrospective strategies to detect and eliminate ghost markers. Methods: In marker-based OTS, ghost markers are virtual markers created due to the cross-talk between the two camera sensors, which can lead to system execution failure or inaccuracy in patient tracking. As a result, the users have to limit the number of markers and avoid certain marker configurations to reduce the chances of ghost markers. In this work, the authors propose retrospective strategies to detect and eliminate ghost markers. Themore » two camera sensors were treated as mathematical points in space. The authors identified the coplanar within limit (CWL) condition as the necessary condition for ghost marker occurrence. A simple ghost marker detection method was proposed based on the model. Ghost marker elimination was achieved through pattern matching: a ghost marker-free reference set was matched with the optical marker set observed by the OTS; unmatched optical markers were eliminated as either ghost markers or misplaced markers. The pattern matching problem was formulated as a constraint satisfaction problem (using pairwise distances as constraints) and solved with an iterative backtracking algorithm. Wildcard markers were introduced to address missing or misplaced markers. An experiment was designed to measure the sensor positions and the limit for the CWL condition. The ghost marker detection and elimination algorithms were verified with samples collected from a five-marker jig and a nine-marker anthropomorphic phantom, rotated with the treatment couch from −60° to +60°. The accuracy of the pattern matching algorithm was further validated with marker patterns from 40 patients who underwent stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). For this purpose, a synthetic optical marker pattern was created for each patient by introducing ghost markers, marker position uncertainties, and marker displacement. Results: The sensor positions and the limit for the CWL condition were measured with excellent reproducibility (standard deviation ≤ 0.39 mm). The ghost marker detection algorithm had perfect detection accuracy for both the jig (1544 samples) and the anthropomorphic phantom (2045 samples). Pattern matching was successful for all samples from both phantoms as well as the 40 patient marker patterns. Conclusions: The authors proposed a simple model to explain the origin of ghost markers and identified the CWL condition as the necessary condition for ghost marker occurrence. The retrospective ghost marker detection and elimination algorithms guarantee complete ghost marker elimination while providing the users with maximum flexibility in selecting the number of markers and their configuration to meet their clinic needs.« less

  2. Fast alignment-free sequence comparison using spaced-word frequencies.

    PubMed

    Leimeister, Chris-Andre; Boden, Marcus; Horwege, Sebastian; Lindner, Sebastian; Morgenstern, Burkhard

    2014-07-15

    Alignment-free methods for sequence comparison are increasingly used for genome analysis and phylogeny reconstruction; they circumvent various difficulties of traditional alignment-based approaches. In particular, alignment-free methods are much faster than pairwise or multiple alignments. They are, however, less accurate than methods based on sequence alignment. Most alignment-free approaches work by comparing the word composition of sequences. A well-known problem with these methods is that neighbouring word matches are far from independent. To reduce the statistical dependency between adjacent word matches, we propose to use 'spaced words', defined by patterns of 'match' and 'don't care' positions, for alignment-free sequence comparison. We describe a fast implementation of this approach using recursive hashing and bit operations, and we show that further improvements can be achieved by using multiple patterns instead of single patterns. To evaluate our approach, we use spaced-word frequencies as a basis for fast phylogeny reconstruction. Using real-world and simulated sequence data, we demonstrate that our multiple-pattern approach produces better phylogenies than approaches relying on contiguous words. Our program is freely available at http://spaced.gobics.de/. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press.

  3. Assessing Threat Detection Scenarios through Hypothesis Generation and Testing

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2015-12-01

    Dog Day scenario .............................................................................................................. 9...Figure 1. Rankings of priority threats identified in the Dog Day scenario ............................... 9 Figure 2. Rankings of priority...making in uncertain environments relies heavily on pattern matching. Cohen, Freeman, and Wolf (1996) reported that features of the decision problem

  4. Fast and simple character classes and bounded gaps pattern matching, with applications to protein searching.

    PubMed

    Navarro, Gonzalo; Raffinot, Mathieu

    2003-01-01

    The problem of fast exact and approximate searching for a pattern that contains classes of characters and bounded size gaps (CBG) in a text has a wide range of applications, among which a very important one is protein pattern matching (for instance, one PROSITE protein site is associated with the CBG [RK] - x(2,3) - [DE] - x(2,3) - Y, where the brackets match any of the letters inside, and x(2,3) a gap of length between 2 and 3). Currently, the only way to search for a CBG in a text is to convert it into a full regular expression (RE). However, a RE is more sophisticated than a CBG, and searching for it with a RE pattern matching algorithm complicates the search and makes it slow. This is the reason why we design in this article two new practical CBG matching algorithms that are much simpler and faster than all the RE search techniques. The first one looks exactly once at each text character. The second one does not need to consider all the text characters, and hence it is usually faster than the first one, but in bad cases may have to read the same text character more than once. We then propose a criterion based on the form of the CBG to choose a priori the fastest between both. We also show how to search permitting a few mistakes in the occurrences. We performed many practical experiments using the PROSITE database, and all of them show that our algorithms are the fastest in virtually all cases.

  5. Pixelated camouflage patterns from the perspective of hyperspectral imaging

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Racek, František; Jobánek, Adam; Baláž, Teodor; Krejčí, Jaroslav

    2016-10-01

    Pixelated camouflage patterns fulfill the role of both principles the matching and the disrupting that are exploited for blending the target into the background. It means that pixelated pattern should respect natural background in spectral and spatial characteristics embodied in micro and macro patterns. The HS imaging plays the similar, however the reverse role in the field of reconnaissance systems. The HS camera fundamentally records and extracts both the spectral and spatial information belonging to the recorded scenery. Therefore, the article deals with problems of hyperspectral (HS) imaging and subsequent processing of HS images of pixelated camouflage patterns which are among others characterized by their specific spatial frequency heterogeneity.

  6. Debugging from the Student Perspective

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fitzgerald, S.; McCauley, R.; Hanks, B.; Murphy, L.; Simon, B.; Zander, C.

    2010-01-01

    Learning to debug is a difficult, yet essential, aspect of learning to program. Students in this multi-institutional study report that finding bugs is harder than fixing them. They use a wide variety of debugging strategies, some of them unexpected. Time spent on understanding the problem can be effective. Pattern matching, particularly at the…

  7. Function-Based Algorithms for Biological Sequences

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mohanty, Pragyan Sheela P.

    2015-01-01

    Two problems at two different abstraction levels of computational biology are studied. At the molecular level, efficient pattern matching algorithms in DNA sequences are presented. For gene order data, an efficient data structure is presented capable of storing all gene re-orderings in a systematic manner. A common characteristic of presented…

  8. Enhanced visual processing contributes to matrix reasoning in autism

    PubMed Central

    Soulières, Isabelle; Dawson, Michelle; Samson, Fabienne; Barbeau, Elise B.; Sahyoun, Cherif; Strangman, Gary E.; Zeffiro, Thomas A.; Mottron, Laurent

    2009-01-01

    Recent behavioral investigations have revealed that autistics perform more proficiently on Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM) than would be predicted by their Wechsler intelligence scores. A widely-used test of fluid reasoning and intelligence, the RSPM assays abilities to flexibly infer rules, manage goal hierarchies, and perform high-level abstractions. The neural substrates for these abilities are known to encompass a large frontoparietal network, with different processing models placing variable emphasis on the specific roles of the prefrontal or posterior regions. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore the neural bases of autistics' RSPM problem solving. Fifteen autistic and eighteen non-autistic participants, matched on age, sex, manual preference and Wechsler IQ, completed 60 self-paced randomly-ordered RSPM items along with a visually similar 60-item pattern matching comparison task. Accuracy and response times did not differ between groups in the pattern matching task. In the RSPM task, autistics performed with similar accuracy, but with shorter response times, compared to their non-autistic controls. In both the entire sample and a subsample of participants additionally matched on RSPM performance to control for potential response time confounds, neural activity was similar in both groups for the pattern matching task. However, for the RSPM task, autistics displayed relatively increased task-related activity in extrastriate areas (BA18), and decreased activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex (BA9) and the medial posterior parietal cortex (BA7). Visual processing mechanisms may therefore play a more prominent role in reasoning in autistics. PMID:19530215

  9. HWDA: A coherence recognition and resolution algorithm for hybrid web data aggregation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Guo, Shuhang; Wang, Jian; Wang, Tong

    2017-09-01

    Aiming at the object confliction recognition and resolution problem for hybrid distributed data stream aggregation, a distributed data stream object coherence solution technology is proposed. Firstly, the framework was defined for the object coherence conflict recognition and resolution, named HWDA. Secondly, an object coherence recognition technology was proposed based on formal language description logic and hierarchical dependency relationship between logic rules. Thirdly, a conflict traversal recognition algorithm was proposed based on the defined dependency graph. Next, the conflict resolution technology was prompted based on resolution pattern matching including the definition of the three types of conflict, conflict resolution matching pattern and arbitration resolution method. At last, the experiment use two kinds of web test data sets to validate the effect of application utilizing the conflict recognition and resolution technology of HWDA.

  10. Evaluation and analysis of SEASAT-A Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) Antenna Pattern Correction (APC) algorithm

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kitzis, J. L.; Kitzis, S. N.

    1979-01-01

    An evaluation of the versions of the SEASAT-A SMMR antenna pattern correction (APC) algorithm is presented. Two efforts are focused upon in the APC evaluation: the intercomparison of the interim, box, cross, and nominal APC modes; and the development of software to facilitate the creation of matched spacecraft and surface truth data sets which are located together in time and space. The problems discovered in earlier versions of the APC, now corrected, are discussed.

  11. Case-Based Multi-Sensor Intrusion Detection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schwartz, Daniel G.; Long, Jidong

    2009-08-01

    Multi-sensor intrusion detection systems (IDSs) combine the alerts raised by individual IDSs and possibly other kinds of devices such as firewalls and antivirus software. A critical issue in building a multi-sensor IDS is alert-correlation, i.e., determining which alerts are caused by the same attack. This paper explores a novel approach to alert correlation using case-based reasoning (CBR). Each case in the CBR system's library contains a pattern of alerts raised by some known attack type, together with the identity of the attack. Then during run time, the alert streams gleaned from the sensors are compared with the patterns in the cases, and a match indicates that the attack described by that case has occurred. For this purpose the design of a fast and accurate matching algorithm is imperative. Two such algorithms were explored: (i) the well-known Hungarian algorithm, and (ii) an order-preserving matching of our own device. Tests were conducted using the DARPA Grand Challenge Problem attack simulator. These showed that the both matching algorithms are effective in detecting attacks; but the Hungarian algorithm is inefficient; whereas the order-preserving one is very efficient, in fact runs in linear time.

  12. Robust Radio Broadcast Monitoring Using a Multi-Band Spectral Entropy Signature

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Camarena-Ibarrola, Antonio; Chávez, Edgar; Tellez, Eric Sadit

    Monitoring media broadcast content has deserved a lot of attention lately from both academy and industry due to the technical challenge involved and its economic importance (e.g. in advertising). The problem pose a unique challenge from the pattern recognition point of view because a very high recognition rate is needed under non ideal conditions. The problem consist in comparing a small audio sequence (the commercial ad) with a large audio stream (the broadcast) searching for matches.

  13. A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Survey of Sleep-Related Problems in Japanese Visually Impaired Patients: Prevalence and Association with Health-Related Quality of Life.

    PubMed

    Tamura, Norihisa; Sasai-Sakuma, Taeko; Morita, Yuko; Okawa, Masako; Inoue, Shigeru; Inoue, Yuichi

    2016-12-15

    This questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted (1) to estimate the prevalence of sleep-related problems, and (2) to explore factors associated with lower physical/mental quality of life (QOL), particularly addressing sleep-related problems among Japanese visually impaired people. This nationwide questionnaire-based survey was administered to visually impaired individuals through the Japan Federation of the Blind. Visually impaired individuals without light perception (LP) (n = 311), those with LP (n = 287), and age-matched and gender-matched controls (n = 615) were eligible for this study. Study questionnaires elicited demographic information, and information about visual impairment status, sleep-related problems, and health-related quality of life. Visually impaired individuals with and without LP showed higher prevalence rates of irregular sleep-wake patterns and difficulty maintaining sleep than controls (34.7% and 29.4% vs. 15.8%, 60.1% and 46.7% vs. 26.8%, respectively; p < 0.001). These sleep-related problems were observed more frequently in visually impaired individuals without LP than in those with LP. Non-restorative sleep or excessive daytime sleepiness was associated with lower mental/physical QOL in visually impaired individuals with LP and in control subjects. However, visually impaired individuals without LP showed irregular sleep-wake pattern or difficulty waking up at the desired time, which was associated with lower mental/physical QOL. Sleep-related problems were observed more frequently in visually impaired individuals than in controls. Moreover, the rates of difficulties were higher among subjects without LP. Sleep-related problems, especially circadian rhythm-related ones, can be associated with lower mental/physical QOL in visually impaired individuals without LP. © 2016 American Academy of Sleep Medicine

  14. Robust pattern decoding in shape-coded structured light

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tang, Suming; Zhang, Xu; Song, Zhan; Song, Lifang; Zeng, Hai

    2017-09-01

    Decoding is a challenging and complex problem in a coded structured light system. In this paper, a robust pattern decoding method is proposed for the shape-coded structured light in which the pattern is designed as grid shape with embedded geometrical shapes. In our decoding method, advancements are made at three steps. First, a multi-template feature detection algorithm is introduced to detect the feature point which is the intersection of each two orthogonal grid-lines. Second, pattern element identification is modelled as a supervised classification problem and the deep neural network technique is applied for the accurate classification of pattern elements. Before that, a training dataset is established, which contains a mass of pattern elements with various blurring and distortions. Third, an error correction mechanism based on epipolar constraint, coplanarity constraint and topological constraint is presented to reduce the false matches. In the experiments, several complex objects including human hand are chosen to test the accuracy and robustness of the proposed method. The experimental results show that our decoding method not only has high decoding accuracy, but also owns strong robustness to surface color and complex textures.

  15. Propagation in and scattering from a matched metamaterial having a zero index of refraction.

    PubMed

    Ziolkowski, Richard W

    2004-10-01

    Planar metamaterials that exhibit a zero index of refraction have been realized experimentally by several research groups. Their existence stimulated the present investigation, which details the properties of a passive, dispersive metamaterial that is matched to free space and has an index of refraction equal to zero. Thus, unlike previous zero-index investigations, both the permittivity and permeability are zero here at a specified frequency. One-, two-, and three-dimensional source problems are treated analytically. The one- and two-dimensional source problem results are confirmed numerically with finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulations. The FDTD simulator is also used to treat the corresponding one- and two-dimensional scattering problems. It is shown that in both the source and scattering configurations the electromagnetic fields in a matched zero-index medium take on a static character in space, yet remain dynamic in time, in such a manner that the underlying physics remains associated with propagating fields. Zero phase variation at various points in the zero-index medium is demonstrated once steady-state conditions are obtained. These behaviors are used to illustrate why a zero-index metamaterial, such as a zero-index electromagnetic band-gap structured medium, significantly narrows the far-field pattern associated with an antenna located within it. They are also used to show how a matched zero-index slab could be used to transform curved wave fronts into planar ones.

  16. Fast online and index-based algorithms for approximate search of RNA sequence-structure patterns

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Background It is well known that the search for homologous RNAs is more effective if both sequence and structure information is incorporated into the search. However, current tools for searching with RNA sequence-structure patterns cannot fully handle mutations occurring on both these levels or are simply not fast enough for searching large sequence databases because of the high computational costs of the underlying sequence-structure alignment problem. Results We present new fast index-based and online algorithms for approximate matching of RNA sequence-structure patterns supporting a full set of edit operations on single bases and base pairs. Our methods efficiently compute semi-global alignments of structural RNA patterns and substrings of the target sequence whose costs satisfy a user-defined sequence-structure edit distance threshold. For this purpose, we introduce a new computing scheme to optimally reuse the entries of the required dynamic programming matrices for all substrings and combine it with a technique for avoiding the alignment computation of non-matching substrings. Our new index-based methods exploit suffix arrays preprocessed from the target database and achieve running times that are sublinear in the size of the searched sequences. To support the description of RNA molecules that fold into complex secondary structures with multiple ordered sequence-structure patterns, we use fast algorithms for the local or global chaining of approximate sequence-structure pattern matches. The chaining step removes spurious matches from the set of intermediate results, in particular of patterns with little specificity. In benchmark experiments on the Rfam database, our improved online algorithm is faster than the best previous method by up to factor 45. Our best new index-based algorithm achieves a speedup of factor 560. Conclusions The presented methods achieve considerable speedups compared to the best previous method. This, together with the expected sublinear running time of the presented index-based algorithms, allows for the first time approximate matching of RNA sequence-structure patterns in large sequence databases. Beyond the algorithmic contributions, we provide with RaligNAtor a robust and well documented open-source software package implementing the algorithms presented in this manuscript. The RaligNAtor software is available at http://www.zbh.uni-hamburg.de/ralignator. PMID:23865810

  17. The Peer Social Networks of Young Children with Down Syndrome in Classroom Programmes

    PubMed Central

    Guralnick, Michael J.; Connor, Robert T.; Johnson, L. Clark

    2010-01-01

    Background The nature and characteristics of the peer social networks of young children with Down syndrome in classroom settings were examined within a developmental framework. Method Comparisons were made with younger typically developing children matched on mental age and typically developing children matched on chronological age. Results Similar patterns were found for all three groups for most peer social network measures. However, group differences were obtained for measures of teacher assistance and peer interactions in unstructured situations. Conclusions Positive patterns appeared to be related to the social orientation of children with Down syndrome and the special efforts of teachers to support children’s peer social networks. Findings also suggested that fundamental peer competence problems for children with Down syndrome remain and may best be addressed within the framework of contemporary models of peer-related social competence. PMID:21765644

  18. Matching forensic sketches to mug shot photos.

    PubMed

    Klare, Brendan F; Li, Zhifeng; Jain, Anil K

    2011-03-01

    The problem of matching a forensic sketch to a gallery of mug shot images is addressed in this paper. Previous research in sketch matching only offered solutions to matching highly accurate sketches that were drawn while looking at the subject (viewed sketches). Forensic sketches differ from viewed sketches in that they are drawn by a police sketch artist using the description of the subject provided by an eyewitness. To identify forensic sketches, we present a framework called local feature-based discriminant analysis (LFDA). In LFDA, we individually represent both sketches and photos using SIFT feature descriptors and multiscale local binary patterns (MLBP). Multiple discriminant projections are then used on partitioned vectors of the feature-based representation for minimum distance matching. We apply this method to match a data set of 159 forensic sketches against a mug shot gallery containing 10,159 images. Compared to a leading commercial face recognition system, LFDA offers substantial improvements in matching forensic sketches to the corresponding face images. We were able to further improve the matching performance using race and gender information to reduce the target gallery size. Additional experiments demonstrate that the proposed framework leads to state-of-the-art accuracys when matching viewed sketches.

  19. Pattern matching techniques for correcting low-confidence OCR words in a known context

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ford, Glenn; Hauser, Susan E.; Le, Daniel X.; Thoma, George R.

    2000-12-01

    A commercial OCR system is a key component of a system developed at the National Library of Medicine for the automated extraction of bibliographic fields from biomedical journals. This 5-engine OCR system, while exhibiting high performance overall, does not reliably convert very small characters, especially those that are in italics. As a result, the 'affiliations' field that typically contains such characters in most journals, is not captured accurately, and requires a disproportionately high manual input. To correct this problem, dictionaries have been created from words occurring in this field (e.g., university, department, street addresses, names of cities, etc.) from 230,000 articles already processed. The OCR output corresponding to the affiliation field is then matched against these dictionary entries by approximate string-matching techniques, and the ranked matches are presented to operators for verification. This paper outlines the techniques employed and the results of a comparative evaluation.

  20. Using actigraphy feedback to improve sleep in soldiers: an exploratory trial.

    PubMed

    Adler, Amy B; Gunia, Brian C; Bliese, Paul D; Kim, Paul Y; LoPresti, Matthew L

    2017-04-01

    The objective of this study was to assess the impact of wearing an actigraph and receiving personalized feedback on the sleep of a high-risk occupational group: United States soldiers recently returned from a combat deployment. Following a baseline survey with a full sample, a subsample of soldiers wore an actigraph, received feedback, and completed a brief survey. Two months later, the full sample completed a follow-up survey. The actigraph intervention involved wearing an actigraph for 3 weeks and then receiving a personalized report about sleep patterns and an algorithm-based estimate of cognitive functioning derived from individual sleep patterns. Propensity score matching with a genetic search algorithm revealed that subjects in the actigraph condition (n=43) reported fewer sleep problems (t value = -2.55, P<.01) and getting more sleep hours (t value =1.97, P<.05) at follow-up than those in a matched comparison condition (n=43, weighted). There were no significant differences in functioning, somatic symptoms, and mental health outcomes (posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and depression). A significant interaction indicated that the actigraph had a more beneficial effect on those with more somatic symptoms at baseline but not those with more sleep problems. Most participants rated the personalized report as helpful. Actigraphs combined with personalized reports may offer a useful, simple intervention to improve the sleep patterns of large, high-risk occupational groups. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  1. Autistic Traits, ADHD Symptoms, Neurological Soft Signs and Regional Cerebral Blood Flow in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Manouilenko, Irina; Pagani, Marco; Stone-Elander, Sharon; Odh, Richard; Brolin, Fredrik; Hatherly, Robert; Jacobsson, Hans; Larsson, Stig A.; Bejerot, Susanne

    2013-01-01

    The resting regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) patterns related to co-occurring symptoms such as inattention, hyperactivity, neurological soft signs and motor problems have not yet been disclosed in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In this study thirteen adults with ASD and ten matched neurotypical controls underwent PET. The scores of rating…

  2. High performance embedded system for real-time pattern matching

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sotiropoulou, C.-L.; Luciano, P.; Gkaitatzis, S.; Citraro, S.; Giannetti, P.; Dell'Orso, M.

    2017-02-01

    In this paper we present an innovative and high performance embedded system for real-time pattern matching. This system is based on the evolution of hardware and algorithms developed for the field of High Energy Physics and more specifically for the execution of extremely fast pattern matching for tracking of particles produced by proton-proton collisions in hadron collider experiments. A miniaturized version of this complex system is being developed for pattern matching in generic image processing applications. The system works as a contour identifier able to extract the salient features of an image. It is based on the principles of cognitive image processing, which means that it executes fast pattern matching and data reduction mimicking the operation of the human brain. The pattern matching can be executed by a custom designed Associative Memory chip. The reference patterns are chosen by a complex training algorithm implemented on an FPGA device. Post processing algorithms (e.g. pixel clustering) are also implemented on the FPGA. The pattern matching can be executed on a 2D or 3D space, on black and white or grayscale images, depending on the application and thus increasing exponentially the processing requirements of the system. We present the firmware implementation of the training and pattern matching algorithm, performance and results on a latest generation Xilinx Kintex Ultrascale FPGA device.

  3. Applying Agrep to r-NSA to solve multiple sequences approximate matching.

    PubMed

    Ni, Bing; Wong, Man-Hon; Lam, Chi-Fai David; Leung, Kwong-Sak

    2014-01-01

    This paper addresses the approximate matching problem in a database consisting of multiple DNA sequences, where the proposed approach applies Agrep to a new truncated suffix array, r-NSA. The construction time of the structure is linear to the database size, and the computations of indexing a substring in the structure are constant. The number of characters processed in applying Agrep is analysed theoretically, and the theoretical upper-bound can approximate closely the empirical number of characters, which is obtained through enumerating the characters in the actual structure built. Experiments are carried out using (synthetic) random DNA sequences, as well as (real) genome sequences including Hepatitis-B Virus and X-chromosome. Experimental results show that, compared to the straight-forward approach that applies Agrep to multiple sequences individually, the proposed approach solves the matching problem in much shorter time. The speed-up of our approach depends on the sequence patterns, and for highly similar homologous genome sequences, which are the common cases in real-life genomes, it can be up to several orders of magnitude.

  4. Selectively active markers for solving of the partial occlusion problem in matchmoving and chromakeying workflow

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mazurek, Przemysław

    2013-09-01

    Matchmoving (Match Moving) is the process used for the estimation of camera movements for further integration of acquired video image with computer graphics. The estimation of movements is possible using pattern recognition, 2D and 3D tracking algorithms. The main problem for the workflow is the partial occlusion of markers by the actor, because manual rotoscoping is necessary for fixing of the chroma-keyed footage. In the paper, the partial occlusion problem is solved using the invented, selectively active electronic markers. The sensor network with multiple infrared links detects occlusion state (no-occlusion, partial, full) and switch LED's based markers.

  5. Tracking cells in Life Cell Imaging videos using topological alignments.

    PubMed

    Mosig, Axel; Jäger, Stefan; Wang, Chaofeng; Nath, Sumit; Ersoy, Ilker; Palaniappan, Kannap-pan; Chen, Su-Shing

    2009-07-16

    With the increasing availability of live cell imaging technology, tracking cells and other moving objects in live cell videos has become a major challenge for bioimage informatics. An inherent problem for most cell tracking algorithms is over- or under-segmentation of cells - many algorithms tend to recognize one cell as several cells or vice versa. We propose to approach this problem through so-called topological alignments, which we apply to address the problem of linking segmentations of two consecutive frames in the video sequence. Starting from the output of a conventional segmentation procedure, we align pairs of consecutive frames through assigning sets of segments in one frame to sets of segments in the next frame. We achieve this through finding maximum weighted solutions to a generalized "bipartite matching" between two hierarchies of segments, where we derive weights from relative overlap scores of convex hulls of sets of segments. For solving the matching task, we rely on an integer linear program. Practical experiments demonstrate that the matching task can be solved efficiently in practice, and that our method is both effective and useful for tracking cells in data sets derived from a so-called Large Scale Digital Cell Analysis System (LSDCAS). The source code of the implementation is available for download from http://www.picb.ac.cn/patterns/Software/topaln.

  6. A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Survey of Sleep-Related Problems in Japanese Visually Impaired Patients: Prevalence and Association with Health-Related Quality of Life

    PubMed Central

    Tamura, Norihisa; Sasai-Sakuma, Taeko; Morita, Yuko; Okawa, Masako; Inoue, Shigeru; Inoue, Yuichi

    2016-01-01

    Study Objectives: This questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted (1) to estimate the prevalence of sleep-related problems, and (2) to explore factors associated with lower physical/mental quality of life (QOL), particularly addressing sleep-related problems among Japanese visually impaired people. Methods: This nationwide questionnaire-based survey was administered to visually impaired individuals through the Japan Federation of the Blind. Visually impaired individuals without light perception (LP) (n = 311), those with LP (n = 287), and age-matched and gender-matched controls (n = 615) were eligible for this study. Study questionnaires elicited demographic information, and information about visual impairment status, sleep-related problems, and health-related quality of life. Results: Visually impaired individuals with and without LP showed higher prevalence rates of irregular sleep-wake patterns and difficulty maintaining sleep than controls (34.7% and 29.4% vs. 15.8%, 60.1% and 46.7% vs. 26.8%, respectively; p < 0.001). These sleep-related problems were observed more frequently in visually impaired individuals without LP than in those with LP. Non-restorative sleep or excessive daytime sleepiness was associated with lower mental/physical QOL in visually impaired individuals with LP and in control subjects. However, visually impaired individuals without LP showed irregular sleep-wake pattern or difficulty waking up at the desired time, which was associated with lower mental/physical QOL. Conclusions: Sleep-related problems were observed more frequently in visually impaired individuals than in controls. Moreover, the rates of difficulties were higher among subjects without LP. Sleep-related problems, especially circadian rhythm-related ones, can be associated with lower mental/physical QOL in visually impaired individuals without LP. Citation: Tamura N, Sasai-Sakuma T, Morita Y, Okawa M, Inoue S, Inoue Y. A nationwide cross-sectional survey of sleep-related problems in Japanese visually impaired patients: prevalence and association with health-related quality of life. J Clin Sleep Med 2016;12(12):1659–1667. PMID:27655465

  7. The random fractional matching problem

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lucibello, Carlo; Malatesta, Enrico M.; Parisi, Giorgio; Sicuro, Gabriele

    2018-05-01

    We consider two formulations of the random-link fractional matching problem, a relaxed version of the more standard random-link (integer) matching problem. In one formulation, we allow each node to be linked to itself in the optimal matching configuration. In the other one, on the contrary, such a link is forbidden. Both problems have the same asymptotic average optimal cost of the random-link matching problem on the complete graph. Using a replica approach and previous results of Wästlund (2010 Acta Mathematica 204 91–150), we analytically derive the finite-size corrections to the asymptotic optimal cost. We compare our results with numerical simulations and we discuss the main differences between random-link fractional matching problems and the random-link matching problem.

  8. EXECUTIVE FUNCTION PROFILES IN CHILDREN WITH AND WITHOUT SPECIFIC LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT

    PubMed Central

    Marton, Klara; Campanelli, Luca; Scheuer, Jessica; Yoon, Jungmee; Eichorn, Naomi

    2013-01-01

    We present findings from a study that focused on specific executive functions (EF) in children with and without specific language impairment (SLI). We analyzed performance patterns and EF profiles (spatial working memory, inhibition control, and sustained attention) in school-age SLI children and two control groups: age-matched and language matched. Our main research goal was to identify those EFs that show a weakness in children with SLI. Our specific aims were to: (1) examine whether the EF problems in children with SLI are domain-general; (2) examine whether deficits in EF in children with SLI can be explained by the general slowness hypothesis or by an overall delay in development; (3) compare EF profiles to examine whether children with SLI show a distinct pattern of performance from their peers. Our findings showed different EF profiles for the groups. We observed differences in performance patterns related to age (e.g., reaction time in response inhibition) and differences related to language status (e.g., sensitivity to interference). The findings show interesting associations in EFs that play a crucial role in language processing. PMID:25302062

  9. Block Architecture Problem with Depth First Search Solution and Its Application

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rahim, Robbi; Abdullah, Dahlan; Simarmata, Janner; Pranolo, Andri; Saleh Ahmar, Ansari; Hidayat, Rahmat; Napitupulu, Darmawan; Nurdiyanto, Heri; Febriadi, Bayu; Zamzami, Z.

    2018-01-01

    Searching is a common process performed by many computer users, Raita algorithm is one algorithm that can be used to match and find information in accordance with the patterns entered. Raita algorithm applied to the file search application using java programming language and the results obtained from the testing process of the file search quickly and with accurate results and support many data types.

  10. An efficient way of layout processing based on calibre DRC and pattern matching for defects inspection application

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Helen; Lee, Robben; Lee, Tyzy; Xue, Teddy; Liu, Hermes; Wu, Hall; Wan, Qijian; Du, Chunshan; Hu, Xinyi; Liu, Zhengfang

    2018-03-01

    As technology advances, escalating layout design complexity and chip size make defect inspection becomes more challenging than ever before. The YE (Yield Enhancement) engineers are seeking for an efficient strategy to ensure accuracy without suffering running time. A smart way is to set different resolutions for different pattern structures, for examples, logic pattern areas have a higher scan resolution while the dummy areas have a lower resolution, SRAM area may have another different resolution. This can significantly reduce the scan processing time meanwhile the accuracy does not suffer. Due to the limitation of the inspection equipment, the layout must be processed in order to output the Care Area marker in line with the requirement of the equipment, for instance, the marker shapes must be rectangle and the number of the rectangle shapes should be as small as possible. The challenge is how to select the different Care Areas by pattern structures, merge the areas efficiently and then partition them into pieces of rectangle shapes. This paper presents a solution based on Calibre DRC and Pattern Matching. Calibre equation-based DRC is a powerful layout processing engine and Calibre Pattern Matching's automated visual capture capability enables designers to define these geometries as layout patterns and store them in libraries which can be re-used in multiple design layouts. Pattern Matching simplifies the description of very complex relationships between pattern shapes efficiently and accurately. Pattern matching's true power is on display when it is integrated with normal DRC deck. In this application of defects inspection, we first run Calibre DRC to get rule based Care Area then use Calibre Pattern Matching's automated pattern capture capability to capture Care Area shapes which need a higher scan resolution with a tune able pattern halo. In the pattern matching step, when the patterns are matched, a bounding box marker will be output to identify the high resolution area. The equation-based DRC and Pattern Matching effectively work together for different scan phases.

  11. Cephalopod dynamic camouflage: bridging the continuum between background matching and disruptive coloration

    PubMed Central

    Hanlon, R.T.; Chiao, C.-C.; Mäthger, L.M.; Barbosa, A.; Buresch, K.C.; Chubb, C.

    2008-01-01

    Individual cuttlefish, octopus and squid have the versatile capability to use body patterns for background matching and disruptive coloration. We define—qualitatively and quantitatively—the chief characteristics of the three major body pattern types used for camouflage by cephalopods: uniform and mottle patterns for background matching, and disruptive patterns that primarily enhance disruptiveness but aid background matching as well. There is great variation within each of the three body pattern types, but by defining their chief characteristics we lay the groundwork to test camouflage concepts by correlating background statistics with those of the body pattern. We describe at least three ways in which background matching can be achieved in cephalopods. Disruptive patterns in cuttlefish possess all four of the basic components of ‘disruptiveness’, supporting Cott's hypotheses, and we provide field examples of disruptive coloration in which the body pattern contrast exceeds that of the immediate surrounds. Based upon laboratory testing as well as thousands of images of camouflaged cephalopods in the field (a sample is provided on a web archive), we note that size, contrast and edges of background objects are key visual cues that guide cephalopod camouflage patterning. Mottle and disruptive patterns are frequently mixed, suggesting that background matching and disruptive mechanisms are often used in the same pattern. PMID:19008200

  12. A Bioinformatics Approach for Detecting Repetitive Nested Motifs using Pattern Matching.

    PubMed

    Romero, José R; Carballido, Jessica A; Garbus, Ingrid; Echenique, Viviana C; Ponzoni, Ignacio

    2016-01-01

    The identification of nested motifs in genomic sequences is a complex computational problem. The detection of these patterns is important to allow the discovery of transposable element (TE) insertions, incomplete reverse transcripts, deletions, and/or mutations. In this study, a de novo strategy for detecting patterns that represent nested motifs was designed based on exhaustive searches for pairs of motifs and combinatorial pattern analysis. These patterns can be grouped into three categories, motifs within other motifs, motifs flanked by other motifs, and motifs of large size. The methodology used in this study, applied to genomic sequences from the plant species Aegilops tauschii and Oryza sativa , revealed that it is possible to identify putative nested TEs by detecting these three types of patterns. The results were validated through BLAST alignments, which revealed the efficacy and usefulness of the new method, which is called Mamushka.

  13. Camouflaging in a Complex Environment—Octopuses Use Specific Features of Their Surroundings for Background Matching

    PubMed Central

    Josef, Noam; Amodio, Piero; Fiorito, Graziano; Shashar, Nadav

    2012-01-01

    Living under intense predation pressure, octopuses evolved an effective and impressive camouflaging ability that exploits features of their surroundings to enable them to “blend in.” To achieve such background matching, an animal may use general resemblance and reproduce characteristics of its entire surroundings, or it may imitate a specific object in its immediate environment. Using image analysis algorithms, we examined correlations between octopuses and their backgrounds. Field experiments show that when camouflaging, Octopus cyanea and O. vulgaris base their body patterns on selected features of nearby objects rather than attempting to match a large field of view. Such an approach enables the octopus to camouflage in partly occluded environments and to solve the problem of differences in appearance as a function of the viewing inclination of the observer. PMID:22649542

  14. Expected Trials under the Matching Rounds Problem

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Farmer, Jim

    2014-01-01

    This article reviews the famous "matching problem," with a particular focus on the expected number of objects that are correctly placed. The author discusses the following topics: three versions suitable for teaching the matching problem in the classroom; the solution to the matching problem; the use of the strong form of mathematical…

  15. A Single Mechanism Can Account for Human Perception of Depth in Mixed Correlation Random Dot Stereograms

    PubMed Central

    Cumming, Bruce G.

    2016-01-01

    In order to extract retinal disparity from a visual scene, the brain must match corresponding points in the left and right retinae. This computationally demanding task is known as the stereo correspondence problem. The initial stage of the solution to the correspondence problem is generally thought to consist of a correlation-based computation. However, recent work by Doi et al suggests that human observers can see depth in a class of stimuli where the mean binocular correlation is 0 (half-matched random dot stereograms). Half-matched random dot stereograms are made up of an equal number of correlated and anticorrelated dots, and the binocular energy model—a well-known model of V1 binocular complex cells—fails to signal disparity here. This has led to the proposition that a second, match-based computation must be extracting disparity in these stimuli. Here we show that a straightforward modification to the binocular energy model—adding a point output nonlinearity—is by itself sufficient to produce cells that are disparity-tuned to half-matched random dot stereograms. We then show that a simple decision model using this single mechanism can reproduce psychometric functions generated by human observers, including reduced performance to large disparities and rapidly updating dot patterns. The model makes predictions about how performance should change with dot size in half-matched stereograms and temporal alternation in correlation, which we test in human observers. We conclude that a single correlation-based computation, based directly on already-known properties of V1 neurons, can account for the literature on mixed correlation random dot stereograms. PMID:27196696

  16. The biometric menagerie.

    PubMed

    Yager, Neil; Dunstone, Ted

    2010-02-01

    It is commonly accepted that users of a biometric system may have differing degrees of accuracy within the system. Some people may have trouble authenticating, while others may be particularly vulnerable to impersonation. Goats, wolves, and lambs are labels commonly applied to these problem users. These user types are defined in terms of verification performance when users are matched against themselves (goats) or when matched against others (lambs and wolves). The relationship between a user's genuine and impostor match results suggests four new user groups: worms, doves, chameleons, and phantoms. We establish formal definitions for these animals and a statistical test for their existence. A thorough investigation is conducted using a broad range of biometric modalities, including 2D and 3D faces, fingerprints, iris, speech, and keystroke dynamics. Patterns that emerge from the results expose novel, important, and encouraging insights into the nature of biometric match results. A new framework for the evaluation of biometric systems based on the biometric menagerie, as opposed to collective statistics, is proposed.

  17. A random generation approach to pattern library creation for full chip lithographic simulation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zou, Elain; Hong, Sid; Liu, Limei; Huang, Lucas; Yang, Legender; Kabeel, Aliaa; Madkour, Kareem; ElManhawy, Wael; Kwan, Joe; Du, Chunshan; Hu, Xinyi; Wan, Qijian; Zhang, Recoo

    2017-04-01

    As technology advances, the need for running lithographic (litho) checking for early detection of hotspots before tapeout has become essential. This process is important at all levels—from designing standard cells and small blocks to large intellectual property (IP) and full chip layouts. Litho simulation provides high accuracy for detecting printability issues due to problematic geometries, but it has the disadvantage of slow performance on large designs and blocks [1]. Foundries have found a good compromise solution for running litho simulation on full chips by filtering out potential candidate hotspot patterns using pattern matching (PM), and then performing simulation on the matched locations. The challenge has always been how to easily create a PM library of candidate patterns that provides both comprehensive coverage for litho problems and fast runtime performance. This paper presents a new strategy for generating candidate real design patterns through a random generation approach using a layout schema generator (LSG) utility. The output patterns from the LSG are simulated, and then classified by a scoring mechanism that categorizes patterns according to the severity of the hotspots, probability of their presence in the design, and the likelihood of the pattern causing a hotspot. The scoring output helps to filter out the yield problematic patterns that should be removed from any standard cell design, and also to define potential problematic patterns that must be simulated within a bigger context to decide whether or not they represent an actual hotspot. This flow is demonstrated on SMIC 14nm technology, creating a candidate hotspot pattern library that can be used in full chip simulation with very high coverage and robust performance.

  18. Brain organization underlying superior mathematical abilities in children with autism.

    PubMed

    Iuculano, Teresa; Rosenberg-Lee, Miriam; Supekar, Kaustubh; Lynch, Charles J; Khouzam, Amirah; Phillips, Jennifer; Uddin, Lucina Q; Menon, Vinod

    2014-02-01

    Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by social and communication deficits. While such deficits have been the focus of most research, recent evidence suggests that individuals with ASD may exhibit cognitive strengths in domains such as mathematics. Cognitive assessments and functional brain imaging were used to investigate mathematical abilities in 18 children with ASD and 18 age-, gender-, and IQ-matched typically developing (TD) children. Multivariate classification and regression analyses were used to investigate whether brain activity patterns during numerical problem solving were significantly different between the groups and predictive of individual mathematical abilities. Children with ASD showed better numerical problem solving abilities and relied on sophisticated decomposition strategies for single-digit addition problems more frequently than TD peers. Although children with ASD engaged similar brain areas as TD children, they showed different multivariate activation patterns related to arithmetic problem complexity in ventral temporal-occipital cortex, posterior parietal cortex, and medial temporal lobe. Furthermore, multivariate activation patterns in ventral temporal-occipital cortical areas typically associated with face processing predicted individual numerical problem solving abilities in children with ASD but not in TD children. Our study suggests that superior mathematical information processing in children with ASD is characterized by a unique pattern of brain organization and that cortical regions typically involved in perceptual expertise may be utilized in novel ways in ASD. Our findings of enhanced cognitive and neural resources for mathematics have critical implications for educational, professional, and social outcomes for individuals with this lifelong disorder. Copyright © 2014 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. Structator: fast index-based search for RNA sequence-structure patterns

    PubMed Central

    2011-01-01

    Background The secondary structure of RNA molecules is intimately related to their function and often more conserved than the sequence. Hence, the important task of searching databases for RNAs requires to match sequence-structure patterns. Unfortunately, current tools for this task have, in the best case, a running time that is only linear in the size of sequence databases. Furthermore, established index data structures for fast sequence matching, like suffix trees or arrays, cannot benefit from the complementarity constraints introduced by the secondary structure of RNAs. Results We present a novel method and readily applicable software for time efficient matching of RNA sequence-structure patterns in sequence databases. Our approach is based on affix arrays, a recently introduced index data structure, preprocessed from the target database. Affix arrays support bidirectional pattern search, which is required for efficiently handling the structural constraints of the pattern. Structural patterns like stem-loops can be matched inside out, such that the loop region is matched first and then the pairing bases on the boundaries are matched consecutively. This allows to exploit base pairing information for search space reduction and leads to an expected running time that is sublinear in the size of the sequence database. The incorporation of a new chaining approach in the search of RNA sequence-structure patterns enables the description of molecules folding into complex secondary structures with multiple ordered patterns. The chaining approach removes spurious matches from the set of intermediate results, in particular of patterns with little specificity. In benchmark experiments on the Rfam database, our method runs up to two orders of magnitude faster than previous methods. Conclusions The presented method's sublinear expected running time makes it well suited for RNA sequence-structure pattern matching in large sequence databases. RNA molecules containing several stem-loop substructures can be described by multiple sequence-structure patterns and their matches are efficiently handled by a novel chaining method. Beyond our algorithmic contributions, we provide with Structator a complete and robust open-source software solution for index-based search of RNA sequence-structure patterns. The Structator software is available at http://www.zbh.uni-hamburg.de/Structator. PMID:21619640

  20. Toward a metric for patterned injury analysis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Oliver, William R.; Fritsch, Daniel S.

    1997-02-01

    An intriguing question in the matching of objects with patterned injures in two and three dimensions is that of an appropriate metric for closeness -- is it possible to objectively measure how well an object 'fits' a patterned injury. Many investigators have suggested an energy-based metric, and have used such metrics to analyze craniofacial growth and anatomic variation. A strict dependence on homology is the primary disadvantage of this energy functional for generalized biological structures; many shapes do not have obvious landmarks. Some tentative solutions to the problem of landmark dependency for patterned injury analysis are presented. One intriguing approach comes from recent work in axiomatic vision. This approach has resulted in the development of a multiresolution medial axis for the extraction of shape primitives which can be used as the basis for registration. A scale-based description of this process can be captured in structures called cores, which can describe object shape and position in a highly compact manner. Cores may provide a scale- and shape-based method of determining correspondences necessary for determining the number and position of landmarks for some patterned injuries. Each of the approaches described are generalizable to higher dimensions, and can thus be used to analyze both two- and three- dimensional data. Together, they may represent a reasonable way of measuring shape distance for the purpose of matching objects and wounds, and can be combined with texture measures for a complete description.

  1. A portable low-cost 3D point cloud acquiring method based on structure light

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gui, Li; Zheng, Shunyi; Huang, Xia; Zhao, Like; Ma, Hao; Ge, Chao; Tang, Qiuxia

    2018-03-01

    A fast and low-cost method of acquiring 3D point cloud data is proposed in this paper, which can solve the problems of lack of texture information and low efficiency of acquiring point cloud data with only one pair of cheap cameras and projector. Firstly, we put forward a scene adaptive design method of random encoding pattern, that is, a coding pattern is projected onto the target surface in order to form texture information, which is favorable for image matching. Subsequently, we design an efficient dense matching algorithm that fits the projected texture. After the optimization of global algorithm and multi-kernel parallel development with the fusion of hardware and software, a fast acquisition system of point-cloud data is accomplished. Through the evaluation of point cloud accuracy, the results show that point cloud acquired by the method proposed in this paper has higher precision. What`s more, the scanning speed meets the demand of dynamic occasion and has better practical application value.

  2. Hardware Architectures for Data-Intensive Computing Problems: A Case Study for String Matching

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Tumeo, Antonino; Villa, Oreste; Chavarría-Miranda, Daniel

    DNA analysis is an emerging application of high performance bioinformatic. Modern sequencing machinery are able to provide, in few hours, large input streams of data, which needs to be matched against exponentially growing databases of known fragments. The ability to recognize these patterns effectively and fastly may allow extending the scale and the reach of the investigations performed by biology scientists. Aho-Corasick is an exact, multiple pattern matching algorithm often at the base of this application. High performance systems are a promising platform to accelerate this algorithm, which is computationally intensive but also inherently parallel. Nowadays, high performance systems alsomore » include heterogeneous processing elements, such as Graphic Processing Units (GPUs), to further accelerate parallel algorithms. Unfortunately, the Aho-Corasick algorithm exhibits large performance variability, depending on the size of the input streams, on the number of patterns to search and on the number of matches, and poses significant challenges on current high performance software and hardware implementations. An adequate mapping of the algorithm on the target architecture, coping with the limit of the underlining hardware, is required to reach the desired high throughputs. In this paper, we discuss the implementation of the Aho-Corasick algorithm for GPU-accelerated high performance systems. We present an optimized implementation of Aho-Corasick for GPUs and discuss its tradeoffs on the Tesla T10 and he new Tesla T20 (codename Fermi) GPUs. We then integrate the optimized GPU code, respectively, in a MPI-based and in a pthreads-based load balancer to enable execution of the algorithm on clusters and large sharedmemory multiprocessors (SMPs) accelerated with multiple GPUs.« less

  3. A path following algorithm for the graph matching problem.

    PubMed

    Zaslavskiy, Mikhail; Bach, Francis; Vert, Jean-Philippe

    2009-12-01

    We propose a convex-concave programming approach for the labeled weighted graph matching problem. The convex-concave programming formulation is obtained by rewriting the weighted graph matching problem as a least-square problem on the set of permutation matrices and relaxing it to two different optimization problems: a quadratic convex and a quadratic concave optimization problem on the set of doubly stochastic matrices. The concave relaxation has the same global minimum as the initial graph matching problem, but the search for its global minimum is also a hard combinatorial problem. We, therefore, construct an approximation of the concave problem solution by following a solution path of a convex-concave problem obtained by linear interpolation of the convex and concave formulations, starting from the convex relaxation. This method allows to easily integrate the information on graph label similarities into the optimization problem, and therefore, perform labeled weighted graph matching. The algorithm is compared with some of the best performing graph matching methods on four data sets: simulated graphs, QAPLib, retina vessel images, and handwritten Chinese characters. In all cases, the results are competitive with the state of the art.

  4. Rotation and scale change invariant point pattern relaxation matching by the Hopfield neural network

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sang, Nong; Zhang, Tianxu

    1997-12-01

    Relaxation matching is one of the most relevant methods for image matching. The original relaxation matching technique using point patterns is sensitive to rotations and scale changes. We improve the original point pattern relaxation matching technique to be invariant to rotations and scale changes. A method that makes the Hopfield neural network perform this matching process is discussed. An advantage of this is that the relaxation matching process can be performed in real time with the neural network's massively parallel capability to process information. Experimental results with large simulated images demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the method to perform point patten relaxation matching invariant to rotations and scale changes and the method to perform this matching by the Hopfield neural network. In addition, we show that the method presented can be tolerant to small random error.

  5. Optical and digital pattern recognition; Proceedings of the Meeting, Los Angeles, CA, Jan. 13-15, 1987

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Liu, Hua-Kuang (Editor); Schenker, Paul (Editor)

    1987-01-01

    The papers presented in this volume provide an overview of current research in both optical and digital pattern recognition, with a theme of identifying overlapping research problems and methodologies. Topics discussed include image analysis and low-level vision, optical system design, object analysis and recognition, real-time hybrid architectures and algorithms, high-level image understanding, and optical matched filter design. Papers are presented on synthetic estimation filters for a control system; white-light correlator character recognition; optical AI architectures for intelligent sensors; interpreting aerial photographs by segmentation and search; and optical information processing using a new photopolymer.

  6. Page Oriented Holographic Memories And Optical Pattern Recognition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Caulfield, H. J.

    1987-08-01

    In the twenty-two years since VanderLugt's introduction of holographic matched filtering, the intensive research carried out throughout the world has led to no applications in complex environment. This leads one to the suspicion that the VanderLugt filter technique is insufficiently complex to handle truly complex problems. Therefore, it is of great interest to increase the complexity of the VanderLugt filtering operation. We introduce here an approach to the real time filter assembly: use of page oriented holographic memories and optically addressed SLMs to achieve intelligent and fast reprogramming of the filters using a 10 4 to 10 6 stored pattern base.

  7. Dynamic pattern matcher using incomplete data

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Johnson, Gordon G. (Inventor); Wang, Lui (Inventor)

    1993-01-01

    This invention relates generally to pattern matching systems, and more particularly to a method for dynamically adapting the system to enhance the effectiveness of a pattern match. Apparatus and methods for calculating the similarity between patterns are known. There is considerable interest, however, in the storage and retrieval of data, particularly, when the search is called or initiated by incomplete information. For many search algorithms, a query initiating a data search requires exact information, and the data file is searched for an exact match. Inability to find an exact match thus results in a failure of the system or method.

  8. 2D-pattern matching image and video compression: theory, algorithms, and experiments.

    PubMed

    Alzina, Marc; Szpankowski, Wojciech; Grama, Ananth

    2002-01-01

    In this paper, we propose a lossy data compression framework based on an approximate two-dimensional (2D) pattern matching (2D-PMC) extension of the Lempel-Ziv (1977, 1978) lossless scheme. This framework forms the basis upon which higher level schemes relying on differential coding, frequency domain techniques, prediction, and other methods can be built. We apply our pattern matching framework to image and video compression and report on theoretical and experimental results. Theoretically, we show that the fixed database model used for video compression leads to suboptimal but computationally efficient performance. The compression ratio of this model is shown to tend to the generalized entropy. For image compression, we use a growing database model for which we provide an approximate analysis. The implementation of 2D-PMC is a challenging problem from the algorithmic point of view. We use a range of techniques and data structures such as k-d trees, generalized run length coding, adaptive arithmetic coding, and variable and adaptive maximum distortion level to achieve good compression ratios at high compression speeds. We demonstrate bit rates in the range of 0.25-0.5 bpp for high-quality images and data rates in the range of 0.15-0.5 Mbps for a baseline video compression scheme that does not use any prediction or interpolation. We also demonstrate that this asymmetric compression scheme is capable of extremely fast decompression making it particularly suitable for networked multimedia applications.

  9. Engineering neural systems for high-level problem solving.

    PubMed

    Sylvester, Jared; Reggia, James

    2016-07-01

    There is a long-standing, sometimes contentious debate in AI concerning the relative merits of a symbolic, top-down approach vs. a neural, bottom-up approach to engineering intelligent machine behaviors. While neurocomputational methods excel at lower-level cognitive tasks (incremental learning for pattern classification, low-level sensorimotor control, fault tolerance and processing of noisy data, etc.), they are largely non-competitive with top-down symbolic methods for tasks involving high-level cognitive problem solving (goal-directed reasoning, metacognition, planning, etc.). Here we take a step towards addressing this limitation by developing a purely neural framework named galis. Our goal in this work is to integrate top-down (non-symbolic) control of a neural network system with more traditional bottom-up neural computations. galis is based on attractor networks that can be "programmed" with temporal sequences of hand-crafted instructions that control problem solving by gating the activity retention of, communication between, and learning done by other neural networks. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach by showing that it can be applied successfully to solve sequential card matching problems, using both human performance and a top-down symbolic algorithm as experimental controls. Solving this kind of problem makes use of top-down attention control and the binding together of visual features in ways that are easy for symbolic AI systems but not for neural networks to achieve. Our model can not only be instructed on how to solve card matching problems successfully, but its performance also qualitatively (and sometimes quantitatively) matches the performance of both human subjects that we had perform the same task and the top-down symbolic algorithm that we used as an experimental control. We conclude that the core principles underlying the galis framework provide a promising approach to engineering purely neurocomputational systems for problem-solving tasks that in people require higher-level cognitive functions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Optimization of self-aligned double patterning (SADP)-compliant layout designs using pattern matching for sub-20nm metal routing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Lynn T.-N.; Schroeder, Uwe Paul; Madhavan, Sriram

    2017-03-01

    A pattern-based methodology for optimizing SADP-compliant layout designs is developed based on identifying cut mask patterns and replacing them with pre-characterized fixing solutions. A pattern-based library of difficult-tomanufacture cut patterns with pre-characterized fixing solutions is built. A pattern-based engine searches for matching patterns in the decomposed layouts. When a match is found, the engine opportunistically replaces the detected pattern with a pre-characterized fixing solution. The methodology was demonstrated on a 7nm routed metal2 block. A small library of 30 cut patterns increased the number of more manufacturable cuts by 38% and metal-via enclosure by 13% with a small parasitic capacitance impact of 0.3%.

  11. Predicting and Detecting Emerging Cyberattack Patterns Using StreamWorks

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Chin, George; Choudhury, Sutanay; Feo, John T.

    2014-06-30

    The number and sophistication of cyberattacks on industries and governments have dramatically grown in recent years. To counter this movement, new advanced tools and techniques are needed to detect cyberattacks in their early stages such that defensive actions may be taken to avert or mitigate potential damage. From a cybersecurity analysis perspective, detecting cyberattacks may be cast as a problem of identifying patterns in computer network traffic. Logically and intuitively, these patterns may take on the form of a directed graph that conveys how an attack or intrusion propagates through the computers of a network. Such cyberattack graphs could providemore » cybersecurity analysts with powerful conceptual representations that are natural to express and analyze. We have been researching and developing graph-centric approaches and algorithms for dynamic cyberattack detection. The advanced dynamic graph algorithms we are developing will be packaged into a streaming network analysis framework known as StreamWorks. With StreamWorks, a scientist or analyst may detect and identify precursor events and patterns as they emerge in complex networks. This analysis framework is intended to be used in a dynamic environment where network data is streamed in and is appended to a large-scale dynamic graph. Specific graphical query patterns are decomposed and collected into a graph query library. The individual decomposed subpatterns in the library are continuously and efficiently matched against the dynamic graph as it evolves to identify and detect early, partial subgraph patterns. The scalable emerging subgraph pattern algorithms will match on both structural and semantic network properties.« less

  12. Problems of integrated palliative care: a Dutch case study of routines and cooperation in the region of Arnhem.

    PubMed

    van Raak, Arno; Paulus, Aggie; Cuijpers, Rianne; Te Velde, Clary

    2008-12-01

    Cooperation in networks of providers of palliative care in Europe is problematic. Based on the concept of routines (patterns of behavior) and data about a Dutch network, we developed an explanation of this problem, in order to better understand the conditions for cooperation. Although more research is needed, the study suggests that disparate matches (divergence) between routines of the network members hampers cooperation. To promote cooperation, divergence, and legislation that stabilizes existing routines, must be identified. Divergence must be overcome and negotiations and transformational leadership, which require power sources, may be useful for this.

  13. Pattern-Recognition Algorithm for Locking Laser Frequency

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Karayan, Vahag; Klipstein, William; Enzer, Daphna; Yates, Philip; Thompson, Robert; Wells, George

    2006-01-01

    A computer program serves as part of a feedback control system that locks the frequency of a laser to one of the spectral peaks of cesium atoms in an optical absorption cell. The system analyzes a saturation absorption spectrum to find a target peak and commands a laser-frequency-control circuit to minimize an error signal representing the difference between the laser frequency and the target peak. The program implements an algorithm consisting of the following steps: Acquire a saturation absorption signal while scanning the laser through the frequency range of interest. Condition the signal by use of convolution filtering. Detect peaks. Match the peaks in the signal to a pattern of known spectral peaks by use of a pattern-recognition algorithm. Add missing peaks. Tune the laser to the desired peak and thereafter lock onto this peak. Finding and locking onto the desired peak is a challenging problem, given that the saturation absorption signal includes noise and other spurious signal components; the problem is further complicated by nonlinearity and shifting of the voltage-to-frequency correspondence. The pattern-recognition algorithm, which is based on Hausdorff distance, is what enables the program to meet these challenges.

  14. Betting on Illusory Patterns: Probability Matching in Habitual Gamblers.

    PubMed

    Gaissmaier, Wolfgang; Wilke, Andreas; Scheibehenne, Benjamin; McCanney, Paige; Barrett, H Clark

    2016-03-01

    Why do people gamble? A large body of research suggests that cognitive distortions play an important role in pathological gambling. Many of these distortions are specific cases of a more general misperception of randomness, specifically of an illusory perception of patterns in random sequences. In this article, we provide further evidence for the assumption that gamblers are particularly prone to perceiving illusory patterns. In particular, we compared habitual gamblers to a matched sample of community members with regard to how much they exhibit the choice anomaly 'probability matching'. Probability matching describes the tendency to match response proportions to outcome probabilities when predicting binary outcomes. It leads to a lower expected accuracy than the maximizing strategy of predicting the most likely event on each trial. Previous research has shown that an illusory perception of patterns in random sequences fuels probability matching. So does impulsivity, which is also reported to be higher in gamblers. We therefore hypothesized that gamblers will exhibit more probability matching than non-gamblers, which was confirmed in a controlled laboratory experiment. Additionally, gamblers scored much lower than community members on the cognitive reflection task, which indicates higher impulsivity. This difference could account for the difference in probability matching between the samples. These results suggest that gamblers are more willing to bet impulsively on perceived illusory patterns.

  15. Circadian-Related Sleep Disorders and Sleep Medication Use in the New Zealand Blind Population: An Observational Prevalence Survey

    PubMed Central

    Warman, Guy R.; Pawley, Matthew D. M.; Bolton, Catherine; Cheeseman, James F.; Fernando, Antonio T.; Arendt, Josephine; Wirz-Justice, Anna

    2011-01-01

    Study Objectives To determine the prevalence of self-reported circadian-related sleep disorders, sleep medication and melatonin use in the New Zealand blind population. Design A telephone survey incorporating 62 questions on sleep habits and medication together with validated questionnaires on sleep quality, chronotype and seasonality. Participants Participants were grouped into: (i) 157 with reduced conscious perception of light (RLP); (ii) 156 visually impaired with no reduction in light perception (LP) matched for age, sex and socioeconomic status, and (iii) 156 matched fully-sighted controls (FS). Sleep Habits and Disturbances The incidence of sleep disorders, daytime somnolence, insomnia and sleep timing problems was significantly higher in RLP and LP compared to the FS controls (p<0.001). The RLP group had the highest incidence (55%) of sleep timing problems, and 26% showed drifting sleep patterns (vs. 4% FS). Odds ratios for unconventional sleep timing were 2.41 (RLP) and 1.63 (LP) compared to FS controls. For drifting sleep patterns, they were 7.3 (RLP) and 6.0 (LP). Medication Use Zopiclone was the most frequently prescribed sleep medication. Melatonin was used by only 4% in the RLP group and 2% in the LP group. Conclusions Extrapolations from the current study suggest that 3,000 blind and visually impaired New Zealanders may suffer from circadian-related sleep problems, and that of these, fewer than 15% have been prescribed melatonin. This may represent a therapeutic gap in the treatment of circadian-related sleep disorders in New Zealand, findings that may generalize to other countries. PMID:21789214

  16. Computation of repetitions and regularities of biologically weighted sequences.

    PubMed

    Christodoulakis, M; Iliopoulos, C; Mouchard, L; Perdikuri, K; Tsakalidis, A; Tsichlas, K

    2006-01-01

    Biological weighted sequences are used extensively in molecular biology as profiles for protein families, in the representation of binding sites and often for the representation of sequences produced by a shotgun sequencing strategy. In this paper, we address three fundamental problems in the area of biologically weighted sequences: (i) computation of repetitions, (ii) pattern matching, and (iii) computation of regularities. Our algorithms can be used as basic building blocks for more sophisticated algorithms applied on weighted sequences.

  17. The gender specific mediational pathways between parenting styles, neuroticism, pathological reasons for drinking, and alcohol-related problems in emerging adulthood.

    PubMed

    Patock-Peckham, Julie A; Morgan-Lopez, Antonio A

    2009-03-01

    Mediational links between parenting styles, neuroticism, pathological reasons for drinking, alcohol use and alcohol-related problems were tested. A two-group SEM path model with 441 (216 female, 225 male) college students was examined. In general, pathological reasons for drinking mediated the impact of neuroticism on alcohol use and alcohol-related problems. A different pattern of relationships was found for each of the two genders. Perceptions of having an authoritarian father were positively linked to higher levels of neuroticism among males but this pattern was not found among females. For males, neuroticism mediated the impact of having an authoritarian father on pathological reasons for drinking with pathological reasons for drinking mediating the impact of neuroticism on alcohol-related problems. Perceptions of having a permissive father were linked to lower levels of neuroticism in females (but have been found as a consistent risk factor for other pathways to alcohol use elsewhere). Compared with other work in this area, these findings indicate parental influences regarding vulnerabilities for alcohol use may be specific to parent-child gender matches for some pathways and specific to one parent (irrespective of child gender) for other pathways.

  18. The Generalized Matching Law in Elite Sport Competition: Football Play Calling as Operant Choice

    PubMed Central

    Reed, Derek D; Critchfield, Thomas S; Martens, Brian K

    2006-01-01

    A mathematical model of operant choice, the generalized matching law was used to analyze play-calling data from the 2004 National Football League season. In all analyses, the relative ratio of passing to rushing plays was examined as a function of the relative ratio of reinforcement, defined as yards gained, from passing versus rushing. Different analyses focused on season-aggregate data for the league as a whole, game-by-game data for the league as a whole, and game-by-game data for individual teams. In all analyses except those for a few individual teams, the generalized matching law accounted for a majority of variance in play calling. The typical play-calling pattern reflected undermatching (suggesting imperfect sensitivity of play calling to yardage-gained reinforcers) and a bias for calling rushing plays. Bias was found to be a function of both the relative risk of turnovers and the relative variability in yards gained associated with passing versus rushing plays. The external validity of the matching analyses was supported by significant correlations between parameters of the generalized matching law and team success on offense and season winning percentage. These results illustrate the broad applicability of the generalized matching law to problems outside of the laboratory. PMID:17020210

  19. Selective memory generalization by spatial patterning of protein synthesis

    PubMed Central

    O’Donnell, Cian; Sejnowski, Terrence J.

    2014-01-01

    Summary Protein synthesis is crucial for both persistent synaptic plasticity and long-term memory. De novo protein expression can be restricted to specific neurons within a population, and to specific dendrites within a single neuron. Despite its ubiquity, the functional benefits of spatial protein regulation for learning are unknown. We used computational modeling to study this problem. We found that spatially patterned protein synthesis can enable selective consolidation of some memories but forgetting of others, even for simultaneous events that are represented by the same neural population. Key factors regulating selectivity include the functional clustering of synapses on dendrites, and the sparsity and overlap of neural activity patterns at the circuit level. Based on these findings we proposed a novel two-step model for selective memory generalization during REM and slow-wave sleep. The pattern-matching framework we propose may be broadly applicable to spatial protein signaling throughout cortex and hippocampus. PMID:24742462

  20. Selective memory generalization by spatial patterning of protein synthesis.

    PubMed

    O'Donnell, Cian; Sejnowski, Terrence J

    2014-04-16

    Protein synthesis is crucial for both persistent synaptic plasticity and long-term memory. De novo protein expression can be restricted to specific neurons within a population, and to specific dendrites within a single neuron. Despite its ubiquity, the functional benefits of spatial protein regulation for learning are unknown. We used computational modeling to study this problem. We found that spatially patterned protein synthesis can enable selective consolidation of some memories but forgetting of others, even for simultaneous events that are represented by the same neural population. Key factors regulating selectivity include the functional clustering of synapses on dendrites, and the sparsity and overlap of neural activity patterns at the circuit level. Based on these findings, we proposed a two-step model for selective memory generalization during REM and slow-wave sleep. The pattern-matching framework we propose may be broadly applicable to spatial protein signaling throughout cortex and hippocampus. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Fan fault diagnosis based on symmetrized dot pattern analysis and image matching

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xu, Xiaogang; Liu, Haixiao; Zhu, Hao; Wang, Songling

    2016-07-01

    To detect the mechanical failure of fans, a new diagnostic method based on the symmetrized dot pattern (SDP) analysis and image matching is proposed. Vibration signals of 13 kinds of running states are acquired on a centrifugal fan test bed and reconstructed by the SDP technique. The SDP pattern templates of each running state are established. An image matching method is performed to diagnose the fault. In order to improve the diagnostic accuracy, the single template, multiple templates and clustering fault templates are used to perform the image matching.

  2. Spatially Invariant Vector Quantization: A pattern matching algorithm for multiple classes of image subject matter including pathology.

    PubMed

    Hipp, Jason D; Cheng, Jerome Y; Toner, Mehmet; Tompkins, Ronald G; Balis, Ulysses J

    2011-02-26

    HISTORICALLY, EFFECTIVE CLINICAL UTILIZATION OF IMAGE ANALYSIS AND PATTERN RECOGNITION ALGORITHMS IN PATHOLOGY HAS BEEN HAMPERED BY TWO CRITICAL LIMITATIONS: 1) the availability of digital whole slide imagery data sets and 2) a relative domain knowledge deficit in terms of application of such algorithms, on the part of practicing pathologists. With the advent of the recent and rapid adoption of whole slide imaging solutions, the former limitation has been largely resolved. However, with the expectation that it is unlikely for the general cohort of contemporary pathologists to gain advanced image analysis skills in the short term, the latter problem remains, thus underscoring the need for a class of algorithm that has the concurrent properties of image domain (or organ system) independence and extreme ease of use, without the need for specialized training or expertise. In this report, we present a novel, general case pattern recognition algorithm, Spatially Invariant Vector Quantization (SIVQ), that overcomes the aforementioned knowledge deficit. Fundamentally based on conventional Vector Quantization (VQ) pattern recognition approaches, SIVQ gains its superior performance and essentially zero-training workflow model from its use of ring vectors, which exhibit continuous symmetry, as opposed to square or rectangular vectors, which do not. By use of the stochastic matching properties inherent in continuous symmetry, a single ring vector can exhibit as much as a millionfold improvement in matching possibilities, as opposed to conventional VQ vectors. SIVQ was utilized to demonstrate rapid and highly precise pattern recognition capability in a broad range of gross and microscopic use-case settings. With the performance of SIVQ observed thus far, we find evidence that indeed there exist classes of image analysis/pattern recognition algorithms suitable for deployment in settings where pathologists alone can effectively incorporate their use into clinical workflow, as a turnkey solution. We anticipate that SIVQ, and other related class-independent pattern recognition algorithms, will become part of the overall armamentarium of digital image analysis approaches that are immediately available to practicing pathologists, without the need for the immediate availability of an image analysis expert.

  3. Hyperspectral imaging of cuttlefish camouflage indicates good color match in the eyes of fish predators.

    PubMed

    Chiao, Chuan-Chin; Wickiser, J Kenneth; Allen, Justine J; Genter, Brock; Hanlon, Roger T

    2011-05-31

    Camouflage is a widespread phenomenon throughout nature and an important antipredator tactic in natural selection. Many visual predators have keen color perception, and thus camouflage patterns should provide some degree of color matching in addition to other visual factors such as pattern, contrast, and texture. Quantifying camouflage effectiveness in the eyes of the predator is a challenge from the perspectives of both biology and optical imaging technology. Here we take advantage of hyperspectral imaging (HSI), which records full-spectrum light data, to simultaneously visualize color match and pattern match in the spectral and the spatial domains, respectively. Cuttlefish can dynamically camouflage themselves on any natural substrate and, despite their colorblindness, produce body patterns that appear to have high-fidelity color matches to the substrate when viewed directly by humans or with RGB images. Live camouflaged cuttlefish on natural backgrounds were imaged using HSI, and subsequent spectral analysis revealed that most reflectance spectra of individual cuttlefish and substrates were similar, rendering the color match possible. Modeling color vision of potential di- and trichromatic fish predators of cuttlefish corroborated the spectral match analysis and demonstrated that camouflaged cuttlefish show good color match as well as pattern match in the eyes of fish predators. These findings (i) indicate the strong potential of HSI technology to enhance studies of biological coloration and (ii) provide supporting evidence that cuttlefish can produce color-coordinated camouflage on natural substrates despite lacking color vision.

  4. Context-Sensitive Grammar Transform: Compression and Pattern Matching

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Maruyama, Shirou; Tanaka, Youhei; Sakamoto, Hiroshi; Takeda, Masayuki

    A framework of context-sensitive grammar transform for speeding-up compressed pattern matching (CPM) is proposed. A greedy compression algorithm with the transform model is presented as well as a Knuth-Morris-Pratt (KMP)-type compressed pattern matching algorithm. The compression ratio is a match for gzip and Re-Pair, and the search speed of our CPM algorithm is almost twice faster than the KMP-type CPM algorithm on Byte-Pair-Encoding by Shibata et al.[18], and in the case of short patterns, faster than the Boyer-Moore-Horspool algorithm with the stopper encoding by Rautio et al.[14], which is regarded as one of the best combinations that allows a practically fast search.

  5. Anxiety, Stress and Coping Patterns in Children in Dental Settings.

    PubMed

    Pop-Jordanova, Nadica; Sarakinova, Olivera; Pop-Stefanova-Trposka, Maja; Zabokova-Bilbilova, Efka; Kostadinovska, Emilija

    2018-04-15

    Fear of the dentist and dental treatment is a common problem. It can cause treatment difficulties for the practitioner, as well as severe consequences for the patient. As is known, the level of stress can be evaluated thought electrodermal activity, cortisol measure in saliva, or indirectly by psychometric tests. The present study examined the psychological influence of dental interventions on the child as well as coping patterns used for stress diminution. We examined two matched groups of patients: a) children with orthodontic problems (anomalies in shape, position and function of dentomaxillofacial structures) (N = 31, mean age 10.3 ± 2.02) years; and b) children with ordinary dental problems (N = 31, mean age 10.3 ± 2.4 years). As psychometric instruments, we used: 45 items Sarason's scale for anxiety, 20 items simple Stress - test adapted for children, as well as A - cope test for evaluation coping patterns. Obtained scores confirmed the presence of moderate anxiety in both groups as well as moderate stress level. For Sarason's test obtained scores for the group with dental problems are 20.63 ± 8.37 (from max 45); and for Stress test 7.63 ± 3.45 (from max 20); for the orthodontic group obtained scores are 18.66 ± 6.85 for Sarason's test, while for the Stress test were 7.76 ± 3.78. One way ANOVA confirmed a significant difference in values of obtained scores related to the age and gender. Calculated Student t - test shows non-significant differences in obtained test results for both groups of examinees. Coping mechanisms evaluated by A - cope test shows that in both groups the most important patterns used for stress relief are: developing self-reliance and optimism; avoiding problems and engaging in demanding activity. This study confirmed that moderate stress level and anxiety are present in both groups of patients (orthodontic and dental). Obtained scores are depending on gender and age. As more used coping patterns in both groups are developing self-reliance and optimism; avoiding problems and engaging in demanding activity. Some strategies for managing this problem are discussed.

  6. The molecular matching problem

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kincaid, Rex K.

    1993-01-01

    Molecular chemistry contains many difficult optimization problems that have begun to attract the attention of optimizers in the Operations Research community. Problems including protein folding, molecular conformation, molecular similarity, and molecular matching have been addressed. Minimum energy conformations for simple molecular structures such as water clusters, Lennard-Jones microclusters, and short polypeptides have dominated the literature to date. However, a variety of interesting problems exist and we focus here on a molecular structure matching (MSM) problem.

  7. Composite multi-lobe descriptor for cross spectral face recognition: matching active IR to visible light images

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cao, Zhicheng; Schmid, Natalia A.

    2015-05-01

    Matching facial images across electromagnetic spectrum presents a challenging problem in the field of biometrics and identity management. An example of this problem includes cross spectral matching of active infrared (IR) face images or thermal IR face images against a dataset of visible light images. This paper describes a new operator named Composite Multi-Lobe Descriptor (CMLD) for facial feature extraction in cross spectral matching of near-infrared (NIR) or short-wave infrared (SWIR) against visible light images. The new operator is inspired by the design of ordinal measures. The operator combines Gaussian-based multi-lobe kernel functions, Local Binary Pattern (LBP), generalized LBP (GLBP) and Weber Local Descriptor (WLD) and modifies them into multi-lobe functions with smoothed neighborhoods. The new operator encodes both the magnitude and phase responses of Gabor filters. The combining of LBP and WLD utilizes both the orientation and intensity information of edges. Introduction of multi-lobe functions with smoothed neighborhoods further makes the proposed operator robust against noise and poor image quality. Output templates are transformed into histograms and then compared by means of a symmetric Kullback-Leibler metric resulting in a matching score. The performance of the multi-lobe descriptor is compared with that of other operators such as LBP, Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG), ordinal measures, and their combinations. The experimental results show that in many cases the proposed method, CMLD, outperforms the other operators and their combinations. In addition to different infrared spectra, various standoff distances from close-up (1.5 m) to intermediate (50 m) and long (106 m) are also investigated in this paper. Performance of CMLD is evaluated for of each of the three cases of distances.

  8. On Stable Marriages and Greedy Matchings

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Manne, Fredrik; Naim, Md; Lerring, Hakon

    2016-12-11

    Research on stable marriage problems has a long and mathematically rigorous history, while that of exploiting greedy matchings in combinatorial scientific computing is a younger and less developed research field. In this paper we consider the relationships between these two areas. In particular we show that several problems related to computing greedy matchings can be formulated as stable marriage problems and as a consequence several recently proposed algorithms for computing greedy matchings are in fact special cases of well known algorithms for the stable marriage problem. However, in terms of implementations and practical scalable solutions on modern hardware, the greedymore » matching community has made considerable progress. We show that due to the strong relationship between these two fields many of these results are also applicable for solving stable marriage problems.« less

  9. Depth map generation using a single image sensor with phase masks.

    PubMed

    Jang, Jinbeum; Park, Sangwoo; Jo, Jieun; Paik, Joonki

    2016-06-13

    Conventional stereo matching systems generate a depth map using two or more digital imaging sensors. It is difficult to use the small camera system because of their high costs and bulky sizes. In order to solve this problem, this paper presents a stereo matching system using a single image sensor with phase masks for the phase difference auto-focusing. A novel pattern of phase mask array is proposed to simultaneously acquire two pairs of stereo images. Furthermore, a noise-invariant depth map is generated from the raw format sensor output. The proposed method consists of four steps to compute the depth map: (i) acquisition of stereo images using the proposed mask array, (ii) variational segmentation using merging criteria to simplify the input image, (iii) disparity map generation using the hierarchical block matching for disparity measurement, and (iv) image matting to fill holes to generate the dense depth map. The proposed system can be used in small digital cameras without additional lenses or sensors.

  10. SPLASH: structural pattern localization analysis by sequential histograms.

    PubMed

    Califano, A

    2000-04-01

    The discovery of sparse amino acid patterns that match repeatedly in a set of protein sequences is an important problem in computational biology. Statistically significant patterns, that is patterns that occur more frequently than expected, may identify regions that have been preserved by evolution and which may therefore play a key functional or structural role. Sparseness can be important because a handful of non-contiguous residues may play a key role, while others, in between, may be changed without significant loss of function or structure. Similar arguments may be applied to conserved DNA patterns. Available sparse pattern discovery algorithms are either inefficient or impose limitations on the type of patterns that can be discovered. This paper introduces a deterministic pattern discovery algorithm, called Splash, which can find sparse amino or nucleic acid patterns matching identically or similarly in a set of protein or DNA sequences. Sparse patterns of any length, up to the size of the input sequence, can be discovered without significant loss in performances. Splash is extremely efficient and embarrassingly parallel by nature. Large databases, such as a complete genome or the non-redundant SWISS-PROT database can be processed in a few hours on a typical workstation. Alternatively, a protein family or superfamily, with low overall homology, can be analyzed to discover common functional or structural signatures. Some examples of biologically interesting motifs discovered by Splash are reported for the histone I and for the G-Protein Coupled Receptor families. Due to its efficiency, Splash can be used to systematically and exhaustively identify conserved regions in protein family sets. These can then be used to build accurate and sensitive PSSM or HMM models for sequence analysis. Splash is available to non-commercial research centers upon request, conditional on the signing of a test field agreement. acal@us.ibm.com, Splash main page http://www.research.ibm.com/splash

  11. rasbhari: Optimizing Spaced Seeds for Database Searching, Read Mapping and Alignment-Free Sequence Comparison.

    PubMed

    Hahn, Lars; Leimeister, Chris-André; Ounit, Rachid; Lonardi, Stefano; Morgenstern, Burkhard

    2016-10-01

    Many algorithms for sequence analysis rely on word matching or word statistics. Often, these approaches can be improved if binary patterns representing match and don't-care positions are used as a filter, such that only those positions of words are considered that correspond to the match positions of the patterns. The performance of these approaches, however, depends on the underlying patterns. Herein, we show that the overlap complexity of a pattern set that was introduced by Ilie and Ilie is closely related to the variance of the number of matches between two evolutionarily related sequences with respect to this pattern set. We propose a modified hill-climbing algorithm to optimize pattern sets for database searching, read mapping and alignment-free sequence comparison of nucleic-acid sequences; our implementation of this algorithm is called rasbhari. Depending on the application at hand, rasbhari can either minimize the overlap complexity of pattern sets, maximize their sensitivity in database searching or minimize the variance of the number of pattern-based matches in alignment-free sequence comparison. We show that, for database searching, rasbhari generates pattern sets with slightly higher sensitivity than existing approaches. In our Spaced Words approach to alignment-free sequence comparison, pattern sets calculated with rasbhari led to more accurate estimates of phylogenetic distances than the randomly generated pattern sets that we previously used. Finally, we used rasbhari to generate patterns for short read classification with CLARK-S. Here too, the sensitivity of the results could be improved, compared to the default patterns of the program. We integrated rasbhari into Spaced Words; the source code of rasbhari is freely available at http://rasbhari.gobics.de/.

  12. Sleep patterns and match performance in elite Australian basketball athletes.

    PubMed

    Staunton, Craig; Gordon, Brett; Custovic, Edhem; Stanger, Jonathan; Kingsley, Michael

    2017-08-01

    To assess sleep patterns and associations between sleep and match performance in elite Australian female basketball players. Prospective cohort study. Seventeen elite female basketball players were monitored across two consecutive in-season competitions (30 weeks). Total sleep time and sleep efficiency were determined using triaxial accelerometers for Baseline, Pre-match, Match-day and Post-match timings. Match performance was determined using the basketball efficiency statistic (EFF). The effects of match schedule (Regular versus Double-Header; Home versus Away) and sleep on EFF were assessed. The Double-Header condition changed the pattern of sleep when compared with the Regular condition (F (3,48) =3.763, P=0.017), where total sleep time Post-match was 11% less for Double-Header (mean±SD; 7.2±1.4h) compared with Regular (8.0±1.3h; P=0.007). Total sleep time for Double-Header was greater Pre-match (8.2±1.7h) compared with Baseline (7.1±1.6h; P=0.022) and Match-day (7.3±1.5h; P=0.007). Small correlations existed between sleep metrics at Pre-match and EFF for pooled data (r=-0.39 to -0.22; P≥0.238). Relationships between total sleep time and EFF ranged from moderate negative to large positive correlations for individual players (r=-0.37 to 0.62) and reached significance for one player (r=0.60; P=0.025). Match schedule can affect the sleep patterns of elite female basketball players. A large degree of inter-individual variability existed in the relationship between sleep and match performance; nevertheless, sleep monitoring might assist in the optimisation of performance for some athletes. Copyright © 2017 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Steady states and linear stability analysis of precipitation pattern formation at geothermal hot springs.

    PubMed

    Chan, Pak Yuen; Goldenfeld, Nigel

    2007-10-01

    A dynamical theory of geophysical precipitation pattern formation is presented and applied to irreversible calcium carbonate (travertine) deposition. Specific systems studied here are the terraces and domes observed at geothermal hot springs, such as those at Yellowstone National Park, and speleothems, particularly stalactites and stalagmites. The theory couples the precipitation front dynamics with shallow water flow, including corrections for turbulent drag and curvature effects. In the absence of capillarity and with a laminar flow profile, the theory predicts a one-parameter family of steady state solutions to the moving boundary problem describing the precipitation front. These shapes match the measured shapes near the vent at the top of observed travertine domes well. Closer to the base of the dome, the solutions deviate from observations and circular symmetry is broken by a fluting pattern, which we show is associated with capillary forces causing thin film break-up. We relate our model to that recently proposed for stalactite growth, and calculate the linear stability spectrum of both travertine domes and stalactites. Lastly, we apply the theory to the problem of precipitation pattern formation arising from turbulent flow down an inclined plane and identify a linear instability that underlies scale-invariant travertine terrace formation at geothermal hot springs.

  14. Steady states and linear stability analysis of precipitation pattern formation at geothermal hot springs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chan, Pak Yuen; Goldenfeld, Nigel

    2007-10-01

    A dynamical theory of geophysical precipitation pattern formation is presented and applied to irreversible calcium carbonate (travertine) deposition. Specific systems studied here are the terraces and domes observed at geothermal hot springs, such as those at Yellowstone National Park, and speleothems, particularly stalactites and stalagmites. The theory couples the precipitation front dynamics with shallow water flow, including corrections for turbulent drag and curvature effects. In the absence of capillarity and with a laminar flow profile, the theory predicts a one-parameter family of steady state solutions to the moving boundary problem describing the precipitation front. These shapes match the measured shapes near the vent at the top of observed travertine domes well. Closer to the base of the dome, the solutions deviate from observations and circular symmetry is broken by a fluting pattern, which we show is associated with capillary forces causing thin film break-up. We relate our model to that recently proposed for stalactite growth, and calculate the linear stability spectrum of both travertine domes and stalactites. Lastly, we apply the theory to the problem of precipitation pattern formation arising from turbulent flow down an inclined plane and identify a linear instability that underlies scale-invariant travertine terrace formation at geothermal hot springs.

  15. Traffic sign recognition based on a context-aware scale-invariant feature transform approach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yuan, Xue; Hao, Xiaoli; Chen, Houjin; Wei, Xueye

    2013-10-01

    A new context-aware scale-invariant feature transform (CASIFT) approach is proposed, which is designed for the use in traffic sign recognition (TSR) systems. The following issues remain in previous works in which SIFT is used for matching or recognition: (1) SIFT is unable to provide color information; (2) SIFT only focuses on local features while ignoring the distribution of global shapes; (3) the template with the maximum number of matching points selected as the final result is instable, especially for images with simple patterns; and (4) SIFT is liable to result in errors when different images share the same local features. In order to resolve these problems, a new CASIFT approach is proposed. The contributions of the work are as follows: (1) color angular patterns are used to provide the color distinguishing information; (2) a CASIFT which effectively combines local and global information is proposed; and (3) a method for computing the similarity between two images is proposed, which focuses on the distribution of the matching points, rather than using the traditional SIFT approach of selecting the template with maximum number of matching points as the final result. The proposed approach is particularly effective in dealing with traffic signs which have rich colors and varied global shape distribution. Experiments are performed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in TSR systems, and the experimental results are satisfying even for images containing traffic signs that have been rotated, damaged, altered in color, have undergone affine transformations, or images which were photographed under different weather or illumination conditions.

  16. How do gamblers end gambling: longitudinal analysis of Internet gambling behaviors prior to account closure due to gambling related problems.

    PubMed

    Xuan, Ziming; Shaffer, Howard

    2009-06-01

    To examine behavioral patterns of actual Internet gamblers who experienced gambling-related problems and voluntarily closed their accounts. A nested case-control design was used to compare gamblers who closed their accounts because of gambling problems to those who maintained open accounts. Actual play patterns of in vivo Internet gamblers who subscribed to an Internet gambling site. 226 gamblers who closed accounts due to gambling problems were selected from a cohort of 47,603 Internet gamblers who subscribed to an Internet gambling site during February 2005; 226 matched-case controls were selected from the group of gamblers who did not close their accounts. Daily aggregates of behavioral data were collected during an 18-month study period. Main outcomes of interest were daily aggregates of stake, odds, and net loss, which were standardized by the daily aggregate number of bets. We also examined the number of bets to measure trajectory of gambling frequency. Account closers due to gambling problems experienced increasing monetary loss as the time to closure approached; they also increased their stake per bet. Yet they did not chase longer odds; their choices of wagers were more probabilistically conservative (i.e., short odds) compared with the controls. The changes of monetary involvement and risk preference occurred concurrently during the last few days prior to voluntary closing. Our finding of an involvement-seeking yet risk-averse tendency among self-identified problem gamblers challenges the notion that problem gamblers seek "long odds" during "chasing."

  17. Precision of Fit of Titanium and Cast Implant Frameworks Using a New Matching Formula

    PubMed Central

    Sierraalta, Marianella; Vivas, Jose L.; Razzoog, Michael E.; Wang, Rui-Feng

    2012-01-01

    Statement of the Problem. Fit of prosthodontic frameworks is linked to the lifetime survival of dental implants and maintenance of surrounding bone. Purpose. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the precision of fit of milled one-piece Titanium fixed complete denture frameworks to that of conventional cast frameworks. Material and Methods. Fifteen casts fabricated from a single edentulous CAD/CAM surgical guide were separated in two groups and resin patterns simulating the framework for a fixed complete denture developed. Five casts were sent to dental laboratories to invest, cast in a Palladium-Gold alloy and fit the framework. Ten casts had the resin pattern scanned for fabrication of milled bars in Titanium. Using measuring software, positions of implant replicas in the definitive model were recorded. The three dimensional spatial orientation of each implant replica was matched to the implant replica. Results. Results demonstrated the mean vertical gap of the Cast framework was 0.021 (+0.004) mm and 0.012 (0.002) mm determined by fixed and unfixed best-fit matching coordinate system. For Titanium frameworks they were 0.0037 (+0.0028) mm and 0.0024 (+0.0005) mm, respectively. Conclusions. Milled one-piece Titanium fixed complete denture frameworks provided a more accurate precision of fit then traditional cast frameworks. PMID:22550486

  18. Automatic ground control point recognition with parallel associative memory

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Al-Tahir, Raid; Toth, Charles K.; Schenck, Anton F.

    1990-01-01

    The basic principle of the associative memory is to match the unknown input pattern against a stored training set, and responding with the 'closest match' and the corresponding label. Generally, an associative memory system requires two preparatory steps: selecting attributes of the pattern class, and training the system by associating patterns with labels. Experimental results gained from using Parallel Associative Memory are presented. The primary concern is an automatic search for ground control points in aerial photographs. Synthetic patterns are tested followed by real data. The results are encouraging as a relatively high level of correct matches is reached.

  19. The Villa Park experience: crowd consultations at an English Premiership football stadium, season 2007-8.

    PubMed

    Bhangu, Aneel; Agar, Catherine; Pickard, Lucy; Leary, Alison

    2010-06-01

    The Football Licensing Authority has expressed concern that crowd injury rates in British football stadiums may be increasing. This study aims to provide modern data regarding crowd consultation patterns from an English Premiership football stadium. Retrospective case mix analysis. 21 matches played by Aston Villa FC at Villa Park (season 2007-8; capacity 42 640 spectators). 78 patients produced a median consultation rate of four per match (incidence of 1.0 per 10 000 spectators). New conditions on match day formed 67% of contacts, including minor trauma (41%) and new general medical conditions (27%). The remaining 33% of presentations were unrelated to new injury or illness in spectators on match day, including exacerbations of pre-existing illness (17%), opportunistic presentations of existing stable problems (10%) and stadium staff injuries (6%). There were no critical illnesses or major incidents. Seven injuries were attributed to stadium infrastructure. Alcohol was deemed to be the causative factor in just two cases. Crowd consultation rates at a large modern sports stadium are low. Many spectators use medical services for conditions unrelated to new injury or illness on match day. More data are needed from British football stadiums to be able to plan event cover safely and efficiently.

  20. Optimal pattern distributions in Rete-based production systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Scott, Stephen L.

    1994-01-01

    Since its introduction into the AI community in the early 1980's, the Rete algorithm has been widely used. This algorithm has formed the basis for many AI tools, including NASA's CLIPS. One drawback of Rete-based implementation, however, is that the network structures used internally by the Rete algorithm make it sensitive to the arrangement of individual patterns within rules. Thus while rules may be more or less arbitrarily placed within source files, the distribution of individual patterns within these rules can significantly affect the overall system performance. Some heuristics have been proposed to optimize pattern placement, however, these suggestions can be conflicting. This paper describes a systematic effort to measure the effect of pattern distribution on production system performance. An overview of the Rete algorithm is presented to provide context. A description of the methods used to explore the pattern ordering problem area are presented, using internal production system metrics such as the number of partial matches, and coarse-grained operating system data such as memory usage and time. The results of this study should be of interest to those developing and optimizing software for Rete-based production systems.

  1. Mental additions and verbal-domain interference in children with developmental dyscalculia.

    PubMed

    Mammarella, Irene C; Caviola, Sara; Cornoldi, Cesare; Lucangeli, Daniela

    2013-09-01

    This study examined the involvement of verbal and visuo-spatial domains in solving addition problems with carrying in a sample of children diagnosed with developmental dyscalculia (DD) divided into two groups: (i) those with DD alone and (ii) those with DD and dyslexia. Age and stage matched typically developing (TD) children were also studied. The addition problems were presented horizontally or vertically and associated with verbal or visuo-spatial information. Study results showed that DD children's performance on mental calculation tasks was more impaired when they tackled horizontally presented addition problems compared to vertically presented ones that are associated to verbal domain involvement. The performance pattern in the two DD groups was found to be similar. The theoretical, clinical and educational implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Constant-Time Pattern Matching For Real-Time Production Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Parson, Dale E.; Blank, Glenn D.

    1989-03-01

    Many intelligent systems must respond to sensory data or critical environmental conditions in fixed, predictable time. Rule-based systems, including those based on the efficient Rete matching algorithm, cannot guarantee this result. Improvement in execution-time efficiency is not all that is needed here; it is important to ensure constant, 0(1) time limits for portions of the matching process. Our approach is inspired by two observations about human performance. First, cognitive psychologists distinguish between automatic and controlled processing. Analogously, we partition the matching process across two networks. The first is the automatic partition; it is characterized by predictable 0(1) time and space complexity, lack of persistent memory, and is reactive in nature. The second is the controlled partition; it includes the search-based goal-driven and data-driven processing typical of most production system programming. The former is responsible for recognition and response to critical environmental conditions. The latter is responsible for the more flexible problem-solving behaviors consistent with the notion of intelligence. Support for learning and refining the automatic partition can be placed in the controlled partition. Our second observation is that people are able to attend to more critical stimuli or requirements selectively. Our match algorithm uses priorities to focus matching. It compares priority of information during matching, rather than deferring this comparison until conflict resolution. Messages from the automatic partition are able to interrupt the controlled partition, enhancing system responsiveness. Our algorithm has numerous applications for systems that must exhibit time-constrained behavior.

  3. Where do field lines go in the quiet magnetosphere?

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Stern, David P.; Alekseev, Igor' I.

    1988-01-01

    The state of knowledge concerning the global pattern of geomagnetic field lines is reviewed. Sources of information on that pattern include (1) magnetic-field models, derived directly from magnetic data or indirectly from generally observed properties and from physics; (2) the tracing of magnetospheric features (e.g., polar cusps or the inner edge of the plasma sheet); (3) matching of magnetic flux; and (4) analysis of magnetic fields. Field-line structure inside about 8 earth radii is known fairly well, but beyond that, especially in the tail, the situation becomes rather uncertain and variable. Two particularly difficult problems are the linkage between open field lines and the interplanetary field and the field-line structure of the quiescent magnetosphere following periods of prolonged northward Bz.

  4. Seismic data classification and artificial neural networks: can software replace eyeballs?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Reusch, D. B.; Larson, A. M.

    2006-05-01

    Modern seismic datasets are providing many new opportunities for furthering our understanding of our planet, ranging from the deep earth to the sub-ice sheet interface. With many geophysical applications, the large volume of these datasets raises issues of manageability in areas such as quality control (QC) and event identification (EI). While not universally true, QC can be a labor intensive, subjective (and thus not entirely reproducible) and uninspiring task when such datasets are involved. The EI process shares many of these drawbacks but has the benefit of (usually) being closer to interesting science-based questions. Here we explore two techniques from the field of artificial neural networks (ANNs) that seek to reduce the time requirements and increase the objectivity of QC and EI on seismic datasets. In particular, we focus on QC of receiver functions from broadband seismic data collected by the 2000-2003 Transantarctic Mountains Seismic Experiment (TAMSEIS). Self-organizing maps (SOMs) enable unsupervised classification of large, complex geophysical data sets (e.g., time series of the atmospheric circulation) into a fixed number of distinct generalized patterns or modes representing the probability distribution function of the input data. These patterns are organized spatially as a two-dimensional grid such that distances represent similarity (adjacent patterns will be most similar). After training, input data are matched to their most similar generalized pattern to produce frequency maps, i.e., what fraction of the data is represented best by each individual SOM pattern. Given a priori information on data quality (from previous manual grading) or event type, a probabilistic classification can be developed that gives a likelihood for each category of interest for each SOM pattern. New data are classified by identifying the closest matching pattern (without retraining) and examining the associated probabilities. Feed-forward ANNs (FFNNs) are a supervised classification tool that has been successfully used in a number of seismic applications (e.g., Langer et al, 2003; Del Pezzo et al 2003). FFNNs require a correct answer for each training record so that the transfer functions between input predictors and output predictions can be developed during training. After training, applying new input data to the FFNNs classifies the input based on the existing transfer functions. Key to the success of both approaches is the selection of proper predictor variables that reflect, to varying degrees, the criteria humans use when doing these tasks manually. SOMs also have the potential to assist in this selection process. Because SOMs and FFNNs are used in different ways, they can address different aspects of the overall data classification problem in complementary ways. While not the first application of computers to these problems, ANN-based tools bring unique characteristics to the problem of capturing human decision-making processes.

  5. Termination Proofs for String Rewriting Systems via Inverse Match-Bounds

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Butler, Ricky (Technical Monitor); Geser, Alfons; Hofbauer, Dieter; Waldmann, Johannes

    2004-01-01

    Annotating a letter by a number, one can record information about its history during a reduction. A string rewriting system is called match-bounded if there is a global upper bound to these numbers. In earlier papers we established match-boundedness as a strong sufficient criterion for both termination and preservation of regular languages. We show now that the string rewriting system whose inverse (left and right hand sides exchanged) is match-bounded, also have exceptional properties, but slightly different ones. Inverse match-bounded systems effectively preserve context-free languages; their sets of normalized strings and their sets of immortal strings are effectively regular. These sets of strings can be used to decide the normalization, the termination and the uniform termination problems of inverse match-bounded systems. We also show that the termination problem is decidable in linear time, and that a certain strong reachability problem is deciable, thus solving two open problems of McNaughton's.

  6. Kangaroo – A pattern-matching program for biological sequences

    PubMed Central

    2002-01-01

    Background Biologists are often interested in performing a simple database search to identify proteins or genes that contain a well-defined sequence pattern. Many databases do not provide straightforward or readily available query tools to perform simple searches, such as identifying transcription binding sites, protein motifs, or repetitive DNA sequences. However, in many cases simple pattern-matching searches can reveal a wealth of information. We present in this paper a regular expression pattern-matching tool that was used to identify short repetitive DNA sequences in human coding regions for the purpose of identifying potential mutation sites in mismatch repair deficient cells. Results Kangaroo is a web-based regular expression pattern-matching program that can search for patterns in DNA, protein, or coding region sequences in ten different organisms. The program is implemented to facilitate a wide range of queries with no restriction on the length or complexity of the query expression. The program is accessible on the web at http://bioinfo.mshri.on.ca/kangaroo/ and the source code is freely distributed at http://sourceforge.net/projects/slritools/. Conclusion A low-level simple pattern-matching application can prove to be a useful tool in many research settings. For example, Kangaroo was used to identify potential genetic targets in a human colorectal cancer variant that is characterized by a high frequency of mutations in coding regions containing mononucleotide repeats. PMID:12150718

  7. A distributed-memory approximation algorithm for maximum weight perfect bipartite matching

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Azad, Ariful; Buluc, Aydin; Li, Xiaoye S.

    We design and implement an efficient parallel approximation algorithm for the problem of maximum weight perfect matching in bipartite graphs, i.e. the problem of finding a set of non-adjacent edges that covers all vertices and has maximum weight. This problem differs from the maximum weight matching problem, for which scalable approximation algorithms are known. It is primarily motivated by finding good pivots in scalable sparse direct solvers before factorization where sequential implementations of maximum weight perfect matching algorithms, such as those available in MC64, are widely used due to the lack of scalable alternatives. To overcome this limitation, we proposemore » a fully parallel distributed memory algorithm that first generates a perfect matching and then searches for weightaugmenting cycles of length four in parallel and iteratively augments the matching with a vertex disjoint set of such cycles. For most practical problems the weights of the perfect matchings generated by our algorithm are very close to the optimum. An efficient implementation of the algorithm scales up to 256 nodes (17,408 cores) on a Cray XC40 supercomputer and can solve instances that are too large to be handled by a single node using the sequential algorithm.« less

  8. A Large-Scale Study of Fingerprint Matching Systems for Sensor Interoperability Problem

    PubMed Central

    Hussain, Muhammad; AboAlSamh, Hatim; AlZuair, Mansour

    2018-01-01

    The fingerprint is a commonly used biometric modality that is widely employed for authentication by law enforcement agencies and commercial applications. The designs of existing fingerprint matching methods are based on the hypothesis that the same sensor is used to capture fingerprints during enrollment and verification. Advances in fingerprint sensor technology have raised the question about the usability of current methods when different sensors are employed for enrollment and verification; this is a fingerprint sensor interoperability problem. To provide insight into this problem and assess the status of state-of-the-art matching methods to tackle this problem, we first analyze the characteristics of fingerprints captured with different sensors, which makes cross-sensor matching a challenging problem. We demonstrate the importance of fingerprint enhancement methods for cross-sensor matching. Finally, we conduct a comparative study of state-of-the-art fingerprint recognition methods and provide insight into their abilities to address this problem. We performed experiments using a public database (FingerPass) that contains nine datasets captured with different sensors. We analyzed the effects of different sensors and found that cross-sensor matching performance deteriorates when different sensors are used for enrollment and verification. In view of our analysis, we propose future research directions for this problem. PMID:29597286

  9. A Large-Scale Study of Fingerprint Matching Systems for Sensor Interoperability Problem.

    PubMed

    AlShehri, Helala; Hussain, Muhammad; AboAlSamh, Hatim; AlZuair, Mansour

    2018-03-28

    The fingerprint is a commonly used biometric modality that is widely employed for authentication by law enforcement agencies and commercial applications. The designs of existing fingerprint matching methods are based on the hypothesis that the same sensor is used to capture fingerprints during enrollment and verification. Advances in fingerprint sensor technology have raised the question about the usability of current methods when different sensors are employed for enrollment and verification; this is a fingerprint sensor interoperability problem. To provide insight into this problem and assess the status of state-of-the-art matching methods to tackle this problem, we first analyze the characteristics of fingerprints captured with different sensors, which makes cross-sensor matching a challenging problem. We demonstrate the importance of fingerprint enhancement methods for cross-sensor matching. Finally, we conduct a comparative study of state-of-the-art fingerprint recognition methods and provide insight into their abilities to address this problem. We performed experiments using a public database (FingerPass) that contains nine datasets captured with different sensors. We analyzed the effects of different sensors and found that cross-sensor matching performance deteriorates when different sensors are used for enrollment and verification. In view of our analysis, we propose future research directions for this problem.

  10. Protein-ligand interfaces are polarized: discovery of a strong trend for intermolecular hydrogen bonds to favor donors on the protein side with implications for predicting and designing ligand complexes.

    PubMed

    Raschka, Sebastian; Wolf, Alex J; Bemister-Buffington, Joseph; Kuhn, Leslie A

    2018-04-01

    Understanding how proteins encode ligand specificity is fascinating and similar in importance to deciphering the genetic code. For protein-ligand recognition, the combination of an almost infinite variety of interfacial shapes and patterns of chemical groups makes the problem especially challenging. Here we analyze data across non-homologous proteins in complex with small biological ligands to address observations made in our inhibitor discovery projects: that proteins favor donating H-bonds to ligands and avoid using groups with both H-bond donor and acceptor capacity. The resulting clear and significant chemical group matching preferences elucidate the code for protein-native ligand binding, similar to the dominant patterns found in nucleic acid base-pairing. On average, 90% of the keto and carboxylate oxygens occurring in the biological ligands formed direct H-bonds to the protein. A two-fold preference was found for protein atoms to act as H-bond donors and ligand atoms to act as acceptors, and 76% of all intermolecular H-bonds involved an amine donor. Together, the tight chemical and geometric constraints associated with satisfying donor groups generate a hydrogen-bonding lock that can be matched only by ligands bearing the right acceptor-rich key. Measuring an index of H-bond preference based on the observed chemical trends proved sufficient to predict other protein-ligand complexes and can be used to guide molecular design. The resulting Hbind and Protein Recognition Index software packages are being made available for rigorously defining intermolecular H-bonds and measuring the extent to which H-bonding patterns in a given complex match the preference key.

  11. Protein-ligand interfaces are polarized: discovery of a strong trend for intermolecular hydrogen bonds to favor donors on the protein side with implications for predicting and designing ligand complexes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Raschka, Sebastian; Wolf, Alex J.; Bemister-Buffington, Joseph; Kuhn, Leslie A.

    2018-02-01

    Understanding how proteins encode ligand specificity is fascinating and similar in importance to deciphering the genetic code. For protein-ligand recognition, the combination of an almost infinite variety of interfacial shapes and patterns of chemical groups makes the problem especially challenging. Here we analyze data across non-homologous proteins in complex with small biological ligands to address observations made in our inhibitor discovery projects: that proteins favor donating H-bonds to ligands and avoid using groups with both H-bond donor and acceptor capacity. The resulting clear and significant chemical group matching preferences elucidate the code for protein-native ligand binding, similar to the dominant patterns found in nucleic acid base-pairing. On average, 90% of the keto and carboxylate oxygens occurring in the biological ligands formed direct H-bonds to the protein. A two-fold preference was found for protein atoms to act as H-bond donors and ligand atoms to act as acceptors, and 76% of all intermolecular H-bonds involved an amine donor. Together, the tight chemical and geometric constraints associated with satisfying donor groups generate a hydrogen-bonding lock that can be matched only by ligands bearing the right acceptor-rich key. Measuring an index of H-bond preference based on the observed chemical trends proved sufficient to predict other protein-ligand complexes and can be used to guide molecular design. The resulting Hbind and Protein Recognition Index software packages are being made available for rigorously defining intermolecular H-bonds and measuring the extent to which H-bonding patterns in a given complex match the preference key.

  12. Speech perception as an active cognitive process

    PubMed Central

    Heald, Shannon L. M.; Nusbaum, Howard C.

    2014-01-01

    One view of speech perception is that acoustic signals are transformed into representations for pattern matching to determine linguistic structure. This process can be taken as a statistical pattern-matching problem, assuming realtively stable linguistic categories are characterized by neural representations related to auditory properties of speech that can be compared to speech input. This kind of pattern matching can be termed a passive process which implies rigidity of processing with few demands on cognitive processing. An alternative view is that speech recognition, even in early stages, is an active process in which speech analysis is attentionally guided. Note that this does not mean consciously guided but that information-contingent changes in early auditory encoding can occur as a function of context and experience. Active processing assumes that attention, plasticity, and listening goals are important in considering how listeners cope with adverse circumstances that impair hearing by masking noise in the environment or hearing loss. Although theories of speech perception have begun to incorporate some active processing, they seldom treat early speech encoding as plastic and attentionally guided. Recent research has suggested that speech perception is the product of both feedforward and feedback interactions between a number of brain regions that include descending projections perhaps as far downstream as the cochlea. It is important to understand how the ambiguity of the speech signal and constraints of context dynamically determine cognitive resources recruited during perception including focused attention, learning, and working memory. Theories of speech perception need to go beyond the current corticocentric approach in order to account for the intrinsic dynamics of the auditory encoding of speech. In doing so, this may provide new insights into ways in which hearing disorders and loss may be treated either through augementation or therapy. PMID:24672438

  13. Carbon Nanotube Embedded Nanostructure for Biometrics.

    PubMed

    Park, Juhyuk; Youn, Jae Ryoun; Song, Young Seok

    2017-12-27

    Low electric energy loss is a very important problem to minimize the decay of transferred energy intensity due to impedance mismatch. This issue has been dealt with by adding an impedance matching layer at the interface between two media. A strategy was proposed to improve the charge transfer from the human body to a biometric device by using an impedance matching nanostructure. Nanocomposite pattern arrays were fabricated with shape memory polymer and carbon nanotubes. The shape recovery ability of the nanopatterns enhanced durability and sustainability of the structure. It was found that the composite nanopatterns improved the current transfer by two times compared with the nonpatterned composite sample. The underlying mechanism of the enhanced charge transport was understood by carrying out a numerical simulation. We anticipate that this study can provide a new pathway for developing advanced biometric devices with high sensitivity to biological information.

  14. Collocation and Pattern Recognition Effects on System Failure Remediation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Trujillo, Anna C.; Press, Hayes N.

    2007-01-01

    Previous research found that operators prefer to have status, alerts, and controls located on the same screen. Unfortunately, that research was done with displays that were not designed specifically for collocation. In this experiment, twelve subjects evaluated two displays specifically designed for collocating system information against a baseline that consisted of dial status displays, a separate alert area, and a controls panel. These displays differed in the amount of collocation, pattern matching, and parameter movement compared to display size. During the data runs, subjects kept a randomly moving target centered on a display using a left-handed joystick and they scanned system displays to find a problem in order to correct it using the provided checklist. Results indicate that large parameter movement aided detection and then pattern recognition is needed for diagnosis but the collocated displays centralized all the information subjects needed, which reduced workload. Therefore, the collocated display with large parameter movement may be an acceptable display after familiarization because of the possible pattern recognition developed with training and its use.

  15. Automated matching of corresponding seed images of three simulator radiographs to allow 3D triangulation of implanted seeds.

    PubMed

    Altschuler, M D; Kassaee, A

    1997-02-01

    To match corresponding seed images in different radiographs so that the 3D seed locations can be triangulated automatically and without ambiguity requires (at least) three radiographs taken from different perspectives, and an algorithm that finds the proper permutations of the seed-image indices. Matching corresponding images in only two radiographs introduces inherent ambiguities which can be resolved only with the use of non-positional information obtained with intensive human effort. Matching images in three or more radiographs is an 'NP (Non-determinant in Polynomial time)-complete' problem. Although the matching problem is fundamental, current methods for three-radiograph seed-image matching use 'local' (seed-by-seed) methods that may lead to incorrect matchings. We describe a permutation-sampling method which not only gives good 'global' (full permutation) matches for the NP-complete three-radiograph seed-matching problem, but also determines the reliability of the radiographic data themselves, namely, whether the patient moved in the interval between radiographic perspectives.

  16. Automated matching of corresponding seed images of three simulator radiographs to allow 3D triangulation of implanted seeds

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Altschuler, Martin D.; Kassaee, Alireza

    1997-02-01

    To match corresponding seed images in different radiographs so that the 3D seed locations can be triangulated automatically and without ambiguity requires (at least) three radiographs taken from different perspectives, and an algorithm that finds the proper permutations of the seed-image indices. Matching corresponding images in only two radiographs introduces inherent ambiguities which can be resolved only with the use of non-positional information obtained with intensive human effort. Matching images in three or more radiographs is an `NP (Non-determinant in Polynomial time)-complete' problem. Although the matching problem is fundamental, current methods for three-radiograph seed-image matching use `local' (seed-by-seed) methods that may lead to incorrect matchings. We describe a permutation-sampling method which not only gives good `global' (full permutation) matches for the NP-complete three-radiograph seed-matching problem, but also determines the reliability of the radiographic data themselves, namely, whether the patient moved in the interval between radiographic perspectives.

  17. Wafer-Fused Orientation-Patterned GaAs

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-02-13

    frequencies utilizing existing industrial foundries. 15. SUBJECT TERMS Orientation-patterned Gallium Arsenide, hydride vapor phase epitaxy, quasi-phase... Gallium Arsenide, hydride vapor phase epitaxy, quasi-phase-matching, nonlinear frequency conversion 1. INTRODUCTION Quasi-phase-matching (QPM)1...and E. Lallier, “Second harmonic generation of CO2 laser using thick quasi-phase-matched GaAs layer grown by hydride vapour phase epitaxy

  18. Microwave vision for robots

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lewandowski, Leon; Struckman, Keith

    1994-01-01

    Microwave Vision (MV), a concept originally developed in 1985, could play a significant role in the solution to robotic vision problems. Originally our Microwave Vision concept was based on a pattern matching approach employing computer based stored replica correlation processing. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) processor technology offers an attractive alternative to the correlation processing approach, namely the ability to learn and to adapt to changing environments. This paper describes the Microwave Vision concept, some initial ANN-MV experiments, and the design of an ANN-MV system that has led to a second patent disclosure in the robotic vision field.

  19. Improved peak detection in mass spectrum by incorporating continuous wavelet transform-based pattern matching.

    PubMed

    Du, Pan; Kibbe, Warren A; Lin, Simon M

    2006-09-01

    A major problem for current peak detection algorithms is that noise in mass spectrometry (MS) spectra gives rise to a high rate of false positives. The false positive rate is especially problematic in detecting peaks with low amplitudes. Usually, various baseline correction algorithms and smoothing methods are applied before attempting peak detection. This approach is very sensitive to the amount of smoothing and aggressiveness of the baseline correction, which contribute to making peak detection results inconsistent between runs, instrumentation and analysis methods. Most peak detection algorithms simply identify peaks based on amplitude, ignoring the additional information present in the shape of the peaks in a spectrum. In our experience, 'true' peaks have characteristic shapes, and providing a shape-matching function that provides a 'goodness of fit' coefficient should provide a more robust peak identification method. Based on these observations, a continuous wavelet transform (CWT)-based peak detection algorithm has been devised that identifies peaks with different scales and amplitudes. By transforming the spectrum into wavelet space, the pattern-matching problem is simplified and in addition provides a powerful technique for identifying and separating the signal from the spike noise and colored noise. This transformation, with the additional information provided by the 2D CWT coefficients can greatly enhance the effective signal-to-noise ratio. Furthermore, with this technique no baseline removal or peak smoothing preprocessing steps are required before peak detection, and this improves the robustness of peak detection under a variety of conditions. The algorithm was evaluated with SELDI-TOF spectra with known polypeptide positions. Comparisons with two other popular algorithms were performed. The results show the CWT-based algorithm can identify both strong and weak peaks while keeping false positive rate low. The algorithm is implemented in R and will be included as an open source module in the Bioconductor project.

  20. A smart way to identify and extract repeated patterns of a layout

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wei, Fang; Gu, Tingting; Chu, Zhihao; Zhang, Chenming; Chen, Han; Zhu, Jun; Hu, Xinyi; Du, Chunshan; Wan, Qijian; Liu, Zhengfang

    2018-03-01

    As integrated circuits (IC) technology moves forward, manufacturing process is facing more and more challenges. Optical proximity correction (OPC) has been playing an important role in the whole manufacturing process. In the deep sub-micron technology, OPC engineers not only need to guarantee the layout designs to be manufacturable but also take a more precise control of the critical patterns to ensure a high performance circuit. One of the tasks that would like to be performed is the consistency checking as the identical patterns under identical context should have identical OPC results in theory, like SRAM regions. Consistency checking is essentially a technique of repeated patterns identification, extraction and derived patterns (i.e. OPC results) comparison. The layout passing to the OPC team may not have enough design hierarchical information either because the original designs may have undergone several layout processing steps or some other unknown reasons. This paper presents a generic way to identify and extract repeated layout structures in SRAM regions purely based on layout pattern analysis through Calibre Pattern Matching and Calibre equation-based DRC (eqDRC). Without Pattern Matching and eqDRC, it will take lots of effort to manually get it done by trial and error, it is almost impossible to automate the pattern analysis process. Combining Pattern Matching and eqDRC opens a new way to implement this flow. The repeated patterns must have some fundamental features for measurement of pitches in the horizontal and vertical direction separately by Calibre eqDRC and meanwhile can be a helper to generate some anchor points which will be the starting points for Pattern Matching to capture patterns. The informative statistical report from the pattern search tells the match counts individually for each patterns captured. Experiment shows that this is a smart way of identifying and extracting repeated structures effectively. The OPC results are the derived layers on these repeated structures, by running pattern search using design layers as pattern layers and OPC results as marker layers, it is an easy job to compare the consistency.

  1. Automated selection of synthetic biology parts for genetic regulatory networks.

    PubMed

    Yaman, Fusun; Bhatia, Swapnil; Adler, Aaron; Densmore, Douglas; Beal, Jacob

    2012-08-17

    Raising the level of abstraction for synthetic biology design requires solving several challenging problems, including mapping abstract designs to DNA sequences. In this paper we present the first formalism and algorithms to address this problem. The key steps of this transformation are feature matching, signal matching, and part matching. Feature matching ensures that the mapping satisfies the regulatory relationships in the abstract design. Signal matching ensures that the expression levels of functional units are compatible. Finally, part matching finds a DNA part sequence that can implement the design. Our software tool MatchMaker implements these three steps.

  2. Practical relevance of pattern uniqueness in forensic science.

    PubMed

    Jayaprakash, Paul T

    2013-09-10

    Uniqueness being unprovable, it has recently been argued that individualization in forensic science is irrelevant and, probability, as applied for DNA profiles, should be applied for all identifications. Critiques against uniqueness have omitted physical matching, a realistic and tangible individualization that supports uniqueness. Describing case examples illustrating pattern matches including physical matching, it is indicated that individualizations are practically relevant for forensic science as they establish facts on a definitive basis providing firm leads benefitting criminal investigation. As a tenet of forensic identification, uniqueness forms a fundamental paradigm relevant for individualization. Evidence on the indeterministic and stochastic causal pathways of characteristics in patterns available in the related fields of science sufficiently supports the proposition of uniqueness. Characteristics involved in physical matching and matching achieved in patterned evidence existing in the state of nature are not events amenable for counting; instead these are ensemble of visible units occupying the entire pattern area stretching the probability of re-occurrence of a verisimilitude pattern into infinity offering epistemic support to uniqueness. Observational methods are as respectable as instrumental or statistical methods since they are capable of generating results that are tangible and obviously valid as in physical matching. Applying the probabilistic interpretation used for DNA profiles to the other patterns would be unbefitting since these two are disparate, the causal pathways of the events, the loci, in the manipulated DNA profiles being determinable. While uniqueness enables individualizations, it does not vouch for eliminating errors. Instead of dismissing uniqueness and individualization, accepting errors as human or system failures and seeking remedial measures would benefit forensic science practice and criminal investigation. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Facilitation of memory encoding in primate hippocampus by a neuroprosthesis that promotes task-specific neural firing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hampson, Robert E.; Song, Dong; Opris, Ioan; Santos, Lucas M.; Shin, Dae C.; Gerhardt, Greg A.; Marmarelis, Vasilis Z.; Berger, Theodore W.; Deadwyler, Sam A.

    2013-12-01

    Objective. Memory accuracy is a major problem in human disease and is the primary factor that defines Alzheimer’s, ageing and dementia resulting from impaired hippocampal function in the medial temporal lobe. Development of a hippocampal memory neuroprosthesis that facilitates normal memory encoding in nonhuman primates (NHPs) could provide the basis for improving memory in human disease states. Approach. NHPs trained to perform a short-term delayed match-to-sample (DMS) memory task were examined with multi-neuron recordings from synaptically connected hippocampal cell fields, CA1 and CA3. Recordings were analyzed utilizing a previously developed nonlinear multi-input multi-output (MIMO) neuroprosthetic model, capable of extracting CA3-to-CA1 spatiotemporal firing patterns during DMS performance. Main results. The MIMO model verified that specific CA3-to-CA1 firing patterns were critical for the successful encoding of sample phase information on more difficult DMS trials. This was validated by the delivery of successful MIMO-derived encoding patterns via electrical stimulation to the same CA1 recording locations during the sample phase which facilitated task performance in the subsequent, delayed match phase, on difficult trials that required more precise encoding of sample information. Significance. These findings provide the first successful application of a neuroprosthesis designed to enhance and/or repair memory encoding in primate brain.

  4. Facilitation of Memory Encoding in Primate Hippocampus by a Neuroprosthesis that Promotes Task Specific Neural Firing

    PubMed Central

    Hampson, Robert E.; Song, Dong; Opris, Ioan; Santos, Lucas M.; Shin, Dae C.; Gerhardt, Greg A.; Marmarelis, Vasilis Z.; Berger, Theodore W.; Deadwyler, Sam A.

    2014-01-01

    Objective Memory accuracy is a major problem in human disease and is the primary factor that defines Alzheimer’s’, aging and dementia resulting from impaired hippocampal function in medial temporal lobe. Development of a hippocampal memory neuroprosthesis that facilitates normal memory encoding in nonhuman primates (NHPs) could provide the basis for improving memory in human disease states. Approach NHPs trained to perform a short-term delayed match to sample (DMS) memory task were examined with multi-neuron recordings from synaptically connected hippocampal cell fields, CA1 and CA3. Recordings were analyzed utilizing a previously developed nonlinear multi-input multi-output (MIMO) neuroprosthetic model, capable of extracting CA3-to-CA1 spatiotemporal firing patterns during DMS performance. Main Results The MIMO model verified that specific CA3-to-CA1 firing patterns were critical for successful encoding of Sample phase information on more difficult DMS trials. This was validated by delivery of successful MIMO-derived encoding patterns via electrical stimulation to the same CA1 recording locations during the Sample phase which facilitated task performance in the subsequent delayed Match phase on difficult trials that required more precise encoding of Sample information. Significance These findings provide the first successful application of a neuroprosthesis designed to enhance and/or repair memory encoding in primate brain. PMID:24216292

  5. A 3D terrain reconstruction method of stereo vision based quadruped robot navigation system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ge, Zhuo; Zhu, Ying; Liang, Guanhao

    2017-01-01

    To provide 3D environment information for the quadruped robot autonomous navigation system during walking through rough terrain, based on the stereo vision, a novel 3D terrain reconstruction method is presented. In order to solve the problem that images collected by stereo sensors have large regions with similar grayscale and the problem that image matching is poor at real-time performance, watershed algorithm and fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm are combined for contour extraction. Aiming at the problem of error matching, duel constraint with region matching and pixel matching is established for matching optimization. Using the stereo matching edge pixel pairs, the 3D coordinate algorithm is estimated according to the binocular stereo vision imaging model. Experimental results show that the proposed method can yield high stereo matching ratio and reconstruct 3D scene quickly and efficiently.

  6. A new variable-resolution associative memory for high energy physics

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Annovi, A.; Amerio, S.; Beretta, M.

    2011-07-01

    We describe an important advancement for the Associative Memory device (AM). The AM is a VLSI processor for pattern recognition based on Content Addressable Memory (CAM) architecture. The AM is optimized for on-line track finding in high-energy physics experiments. Pattern matching is carried out by finding track candidates in coarse resolution 'roads'. A large AM bank stores all trajectories of interest, called 'patterns', for a given detector resolution. The AM extracts roads compatible with a given event during detector read-out. Two important variables characterize the quality of the AM bank: its 'coverage' and the level of fake roads. The coverage,more » which describes the geometric efficiency of a bank, is defined as the fraction of tracks that match at least one pattern in the bank. Given a certain road size, the coverage of the bank can be increased just adding patterns to the bank, while the number of fakes unfortunately is roughly proportional to the number of patterns in the bank. Moreover, as the luminosity increases, the fake rate increases rapidly because of the increased silicon occupancy. To counter that, we must reduce the width of our roads. If we decrease the road width using the current technology, the system will become very large and extremely expensive. We propose an elegant solution to this problem: the 'variable resolution patterns'. Each pattern and each detector layer within a pattern will be able to use the optimal width, but we will use a 'don't care' feature (inspired from ternary CAMs) to increase the width when that is more appropriate. In other words we can use patterns of variable shape. As a result we reduce the number of fake roads, while keeping the efficiency high and avoiding excessive bank size due to the reduced width. We describe the idea, the implementation in the new AM design and the implementation of the algorithm in the simulation. Finally we show the effectiveness of the 'variable resolution patterns' idea using simulated high occupancy events in the ATLAS detector. (authors)« less

  7. RNAPattMatch: a web server for RNA sequence/structure motif detection based on pattern matching with flexible gaps

    PubMed Central

    Drory Retwitzer, Matan; Polishchuk, Maya; Churkin, Elena; Kifer, Ilona; Yakhini, Zohar; Barash, Danny

    2015-01-01

    Searching for RNA sequence-structure patterns is becoming an essential tool for RNA practitioners. Novel discoveries of regulatory non-coding RNAs in targeted organisms and the motivation to find them across a wide range of organisms have prompted the use of computational RNA pattern matching as an enhancement to sequence similarity. State-of-the-art programs differ by the flexibility of patterns allowed as queries and by their simplicity of use. In particular—no existing method is available as a user-friendly web server. A general program that searches for RNA sequence-structure patterns is RNA Structator. However, it is not available as a web server and does not provide the option to allow flexible gap pattern representation with an upper bound of the gap length being specified at any position in the sequence. Here, we introduce RNAPattMatch, a web-based application that is user friendly and makes sequence/structure RNA queries accessible to practitioners of various background and proficiency. It also extends RNA Structator and allows a more flexible variable gaps representation, in addition to analysis of results using energy minimization methods. RNAPattMatch service is available at http://www.cs.bgu.ac.il/rnapattmatch. A standalone version of the search tool is also available to download at the site. PMID:25940619

  8. On the uniqueness of color patterns in raptor feathers

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Ellis, D.H.

    2009-01-01

    For this study, I compared sequentially molted feathers for a few captive raptors from year to year and symmetrically matched feathers (left/right pairs) for many raptors to see if color patterns of sequential feather pairs were identical or if symmetrical pairs were mirror-image identical. Feather pairs were found to be identical only when without color pattern (e.g., the all-white rectrices of Bald Eagles [Haliaeetus leucocephalus]). Complex patterns were not closely matched, but some simple patterns were sometimes closely matched, although not identical. Previous claims that complex color patterns in feather pairs are fingerprint-identical (and therefore that molted feathers from wild raptors can be used to identify breeding adults from year to year with certainty) were found to be untrue: each feather is unique. Although it is unwise to be certain of bird of origin using normal feathers, abnormal feathers can often be so used. ?? 2009 The Raptor Research Foundation, Inc.

  9. The LaueUtil toolkit for Laue photocrystallography. I. Rapid orientation matrix determination for intermediate-size-unit-cell Laue data

    PubMed Central

    Kalinowski, Jarosław A.; Makal, Anna; Coppens, Philip

    2011-01-01

    A new method for determination of the orientation matrix of Laue X-ray data is presented. The method is based on matching of the experimental patterns of central reciprocal lattice rows projected on a unit sphere centered on the origin of the reciprocal lattice with the corresponding pattern of a monochromatic data set on the same material. This technique is applied to the complete data set and thus eliminates problems often encountered when single frames with a limited number of peaks are to be used for orientation matrix determination. Application of the method to a series of Laue data sets on organometallic crystals is described. The corresponding program is available under a Mozilla Public License-like open-source license. PMID:22199400

  10. Optimized stereo matching in binocular three-dimensional measurement system using structured light.

    PubMed

    Liu, Kun; Zhou, Changhe; Wei, Shengbin; Wang, Shaoqing; Fan, Xin; Ma, Jianyong

    2014-09-10

    In this paper, we develop an optimized stereo-matching method used in an active binocular three-dimensional measurement system. A traditional dense stereo-matching algorithm is time consuming due to a long search range and the high complexity of a similarity evaluation. We project a binary fringe pattern in combination with a series of N binary band limited patterns. In order to prune the search range, we execute an initial matching before exhaustive matching and evaluate a similarity measure using logical comparison instead of a complicated floating-point operation. Finally, an accurate point cloud can be obtained by triangulation methods and subpixel interpolation. The experiment results verify the computational efficiency and matching accuracy of the method.

  11. Mining a database of single amplified genomes from Red Sea brine pool extremophiles—improving reliability of gene function prediction using a profile and pattern matching algorithm (PPMA)

    PubMed Central

    Grötzinger, Stefan W.; Alam, Intikhab; Ba Alawi, Wail; Bajic, Vladimir B.; Stingl, Ulrich; Eppinger, Jörg

    2014-01-01

    Reliable functional annotation of genomic data is the key-step in the discovery of novel enzymes. Intrinsic sequencing data quality problems of single amplified genomes (SAGs) and poor homology of novel extremophile's genomes pose significant challenges for the attribution of functions to the coding sequences identified. The anoxic deep-sea brine pools of the Red Sea are a promising source of novel enzymes with unique evolutionary adaptation. Sequencing data from Red Sea brine pool cultures and SAGs are annotated and stored in the Integrated Data Warehouse of Microbial Genomes (INDIGO) data warehouse. Low sequence homology of annotated genes (no similarity for 35% of these genes) may translate into false positives when searching for specific functions. The Profile and Pattern Matching (PPM) strategy described here was developed to eliminate false positive annotations of enzyme function before progressing to labor-intensive hyper-saline gene expression and characterization. It utilizes InterPro-derived Gene Ontology (GO)-terms (which represent enzyme function profiles) and annotated relevant PROSITE IDs (which are linked to an amino acid consensus pattern). The PPM algorithm was tested on 15 protein families, which were selected based on scientific and commercial potential. An initial list of 2577 enzyme commission (E.C.) numbers was translated into 171 GO-terms and 49 consensus patterns. A subset of INDIGO-sequences consisting of 58 SAGs from six different taxons of bacteria and archaea were selected from six different brine pool environments. Those SAGs code for 74,516 genes, which were independently scanned for the GO-terms (profile filter) and PROSITE IDs (pattern filter). Following stringent reliability filtering, the non-redundant hits (106 profile hits and 147 pattern hits) are classified as reliable, if at least two relevant descriptors (GO-terms and/or consensus patterns) are present. Scripts for annotation, as well as for the PPM algorithm, are available through the INDIGO website. PMID:24778629

  12. Asymptotic matching by the symbolic manipulator MACSYMA

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lo, L. L.

    1985-01-01

    The delegation of the labor of calculating higher-order terms in singular perturbation (SP) expansions to a computer by the use of MACSYMA is considered. The method of matched asymptotic expansions is studied in detail for two model SP problems: a model resembling the boundary layer equation with a small parameter multiplying the highest derivatives; and a turning-point problem. It is shown that MACSYMA has successfully performed the higher-order matching in both problems.

  13. Neural-network-based system for recognition of partially occluded shapes and patterns

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mital, Dinesh P.; Teoh, Eam-Khwang; Amarasinghe, S. K.; Suganthan, P. N.

    1996-10-01

    The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how a structural matching approach can be used to perfonn effective rotational invariant fingerprint identification. In this approach, each of the exiracted features is correlated with Live of its nearest neighbouring features to form a local feature gmup for a first-stage matching. After that, the feature with the highest match is used as a central feature whereby all the other features are correlated to form a global feature group for a second.stage matching. The correlation between the features is in terms of distance and relative angle. This approach actually make the matching method rotational invariant A substantial amount of testing was carried out and it shows that this matching technique is capable of matching the four basic fingerprint patterns with an average matching time of4 seconds on a 66Mhz, 486 DX personal computer.

  14. An Automatic Registration Algorithm for 3D Maxillofacial Model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Qiu, Luwen; Zhou, Zhongwei; Guo, Jixiang; Lv, Jiancheng

    2016-09-01

    3D image registration aims at aligning two 3D data sets in a common coordinate system, which has been widely used in computer vision, pattern recognition and computer assisted surgery. One challenging problem in 3D registration is that point-wise correspondences between two point sets are often unknown apriori. In this work, we develop an automatic algorithm for 3D maxillofacial models registration including facial surface model and skull model. Our proposed registration algorithm can achieve a good alignment result between partial and whole maxillofacial model in spite of ambiguous matching, which has a potential application in the oral and maxillofacial reparative and reconstructive surgery. The proposed algorithm includes three steps: (1) 3D-SIFT features extraction and FPFH descriptors construction; (2) feature matching using SAC-IA; (3) coarse rigid alignment and refinement by ICP. Experiments on facial surfaces and mandible skull models demonstrate the efficiency and robustness of our algorithm.

  15. Ta2O5-memristor synaptic array with winner-take-all method for neuromorphic pattern matching

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Truong, Son Ngoc; Van Pham, Khoa; Yang, Wonsun; Min, Kyeong-Sik; Abbas, Yawar; Kang, Chi Jung; Shin, Sangho; Pedrotti, Ken

    2016-08-01

    Pattern matching or pattern recognition is one of the elemental components that constitute the very complicated recalling and remembering process in human's brain. To realize this neuromorphic pattern matching, we fabricated and tested a 3 × 3 memristor synaptic array with the winner-take-all method in this research. In the measurement, first, the 3 × 3 Ta2O5 memristor array is programmed to store [LLL], [LHH], and [HLH], where L is a low-resistance state and H is a high-resistance state, at the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd columns, respectively. After the programming, three input patterns, [111], [100], and [010], are applied to the memristor synaptic array. From the measurement results, we confirm that all three input patterns can be recognized well by using a twin memristor crossbar with synaptic arrays. This measurement can be thought of as the first real verification of the twin memristor crossbar with memristive synaptic arrays for neuromorphic pattern recognition.

  16. UK Alcohol Treatment Trial: client-treatment matching effects.

    PubMed

    2008-02-01

    To test a priori hypotheses concerning client-treatment matching in the treatment of alcohol problems and to evaluate the more general hypothesis that client-treatment matching adds to the overall effectiveness of treatment. Pragmatic, multi-centre, randomized controlled trial (the UK Alcohol Treatment Trial: UKATT) with open follow-up at 3 months after entry and blind follow-up at 12 months. Five treatment centres, comprising seven treatment sites, including National Health Service (NHS), social services and joint NHS/non-statutory facilities. Motivational enhancement therapy and social behaviour and network therapy. Matching hypotheses were tested by examining interactions between client attributes and treatment types at both 3 and 12 months follow-up using the outcome variables of percentage days abstinent, drinks per drinking day and scores on the Alcohol Problems Questionnaire and Leeds Dependence Questionnaire. None of five matching hypotheses was confirmed at either follow-up point on any outcome variable. The findings strongly support the conclusion reached in Project MATCH in the United States that client-treatment matching, at least of the kind examined, is unlikely to result in substantial improvements to the effectiveness of treatment for alcohol problems. Possible reasons for this failure to support the general matching hypothesis are discussed, as are the implications of UKATT findings for the provision of treatment for alcohol problems in the United Kingdom.

  17. Information Compression, Multiple Alignment, and the Representation and Processing of Knowledge in the Brain.

    PubMed

    Wolff, J Gerard

    2016-01-01

    The SP theory of intelligence , with its realization in the SP computer model , aims to simplify and integrate observations and concepts across artificial intelligence, mainstream computing, mathematics, and human perception and cognition, with information compression as a unifying theme. This paper describes how abstract structures and processes in the theory may be realized in terms of neurons, their interconnections, and the transmission of signals between neurons. This part of the SP theory- SP-neural -is a tentative and partial model for the representation and processing of knowledge in the brain. Empirical support for the SP theory-outlined in the paper-provides indirect support for SP-neural. In the abstract part of the SP theory (SP-abstract), all kinds of knowledge are represented with patterns , where a pattern is an array of atomic symbols in one or two dimensions. In SP-neural, the concept of a "pattern" is realized as an array of neurons called a pattern assembly , similar to Hebb's concept of a "cell assembly" but with important differences. Central to the processing of information in SP-abstract is information compression via the matching and unification of patterns (ICMUP) and, more specifically, information compression via the powerful concept of multiple alignment , borrowed and adapted from bioinformatics. Processes such as pattern recognition, reasoning and problem solving are achieved via the building of multiple alignments, while unsupervised learning is achieved by creating patterns from sensory information and also by creating patterns from multiple alignments in which there is a partial match between one pattern and another. It is envisaged that, in SP-neural, short-lived neural structures equivalent to multiple alignments will be created via an inter-play of excitatory and inhibitory neural signals. It is also envisaged that unsupervised learning will be achieved by the creation of pattern assemblies from sensory information and from the neural equivalents of multiple alignments, much as in the non-neural SP theory-and significantly different from the "Hebbian" kinds of learning which are widely used in the kinds of artificial neural network that are popular in computer science. The paper discusses several associated issues, with relevant empirical evidence.

  18. X-ray Moiré deflectometry using synthetic reference images

    DOE PAGES

    Stutman, Dan; Valdivia, Maria Pia; Finkenthal, Michael

    2015-06-25

    Moiré fringe deflectometry with grating interferometers is a technique that enables refraction-based x-ray imaging using a single exposure of an object. To obtain the refraction image, the method requires a reference fringe pattern (without the object). Our study shows that, in order to avoid artifacts, the reference pattern must be exactly matched in phase with the object fringe pattern. In experiments, however, it is difficult to produce a perfectly matched reference pattern due to unavoidable interferometer drifts. We present a simple method to obtain matched reference patterns using a phase-scan procedure to generate synthetic Moiré images. As a result, themore » method will enable deflectometric diagnostics of transient phenomena such as laser-produced plasmas and could improve the sensitivity and accuracy of medical phase-contrast imaging.« less

  19. Goals and everyday problem solving: examining the link between age-related goals and problem-solving strategy use.

    PubMed

    Hoppmann, Christiane A; Coats, Abby Heckman; Blanchard-Fields, Fredda

    2008-07-01

    Qualitative interviews on family and financial problems from 332 adolescents, young, middle-aged, and older adults, demonstrated that developmentally relevant goals predicted problem-solving strategy use over and above problem domain. Four focal goals concerned autonomy, generativity, maintaining good relationships with others, and changing another person. We examined both self- and other-focused problem-solving strategies. Autonomy goals were associated with self-focused instrumental problem solving and generative goals were related to other-focused instrumental problem solving in family and financial problems. Goals of changing another person were related to other-focused instrumental problem solving in the family domain only. The match between goals and strategies, an indicator of problem-solving adaptiveness, showed that young individuals displayed the greatest match between autonomy goals and self-focused problem solving, whereas older adults showed a greater match between generative goals and other-focused problem solving. Findings speak to the importance of considering goals in investigations of age-related differences in everyday problem solving.

  20. Datagram: Results of the NRMP for 1983.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Graettinger, John S.

    1983-01-01

    Results of the National Resident Matching Program are discussed, including changes in enrollment, withdrawal, and matching patterns, data on foreign medical graduates, ratio of positions per applicant, specialization patterns, and program participation. Tabulations for each specialty are presented in numerical and percentage forms. (MSE)

  1. Perspectives of human verification via binary QRS template matching of single-lead and 12-lead electrocardiogram.

    PubMed

    Krasteva, Vessela; Jekova, Irena; Schmid, Ramun

    2018-01-01

    This study aims to validate the 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) as a biometric modality based on two straightforward binary QRS template matching characteristics. Different perspectives of the human verification problem are considered, regarding the optimal lead selection and stability over sample size, gender, age, heart rate (HR). A clinical 12-lead resting ECG database, including a population of 460 subjects with two-session recordings (>1 year apart) is used. Cost-effective strategies for extraction of personalized QRS patterns (100ms) and binary template matching estimate similarity in the time scale (matching time) and dissimilarity in the amplitude scale (mismatch area). The two-class person verification task, taking the decision to validate or to reject the subject identity is managed by linear discriminant analysis (LDA). Non-redundant LDA models for different lead configurations (I,II,III,aVF,aVL,aVF,V1-V6) are trained on the first half of 230 subjects by stepwise feature selection until maximization of the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC AUC). The operating point on the training ROC at equal error rate (EER) is tested on the independent dataset (second half of 230 subjects) to report unbiased validation of test-ROC AUC and true verification rate (TVR = 100-EER). The test results are further evaluated in groups by sample size, gender, age, HR. The optimal QRS pattern projection for single-lead ECG biometric modality is found in the frontal plane sector (60°-0°) with best (Test-AUC/TVR) for lead II (0.941/86.8%) and slight accuracy drop for -aVR (-0.017/-1.4%), I (-0.01/-1.5%). Chest ECG leads have degrading accuracy from V1 (0.885/80.6%) to V6 (0.799/71.8%). The multi-lead ECG improves verification: 6-chest (0.97/90.9%), 6-limb (0.986/94.3%), 12-leads (0.995/97.5%). The QRS pattern matching model shows stable performance for verification of 10 to 230 individuals; insignificant degradation of TVR in women by (1.2-3.6%), adults ≥70 years (3.7%), younger <40 years (1.9%), HR<60bpm (1.2%), HR>90bpm (3.9%), no degradation for HR change (0 to >20bpm).

  2. The effect of nightly nasal CPAP treatment on nocturnal hypoxemia and sleep disorders in mustard gas-injured patients.

    PubMed

    Vahedi, Ensieh; Fazeli Varzaneh, Ali Reza; Ghanei, Mostafa; Afsharpaiman, Shahla; Poursaleh, Zohre

    2014-12-01

    Sleep-related breathing disorders are associated with unusual respiratory pattern or an abnormal reduction in gas exchange during sleep that is common in sulfur mustard (SM) exposure. We compared 57 Iranian male patients injured with SM and had any complaints of sleep problems with an age-matched group of 21 Iranian male patients who had complaints of sleep problems and were not chemically injured; this group had Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) above 10 and whom referred for polysomnography. Split-night studies were performed for patients with diagnostic polysomnography for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and respiratory events. We then studied respiratory events including episodes of OSA, apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) and respiratory disturbance index (RDI). The mean age in mustard-exposed patients was 48.14±8.04 years and in age-matched group, 48.19±8.39 years. In mustard exposed patients, there were statistical differences for the episodes of OSA (p=0.001), AHI (p=0.001), and RDI (p=0.001) between two segments of split-night studies. In the age-matched group, there were statistically differences for each parameter (episodes of OSA (p=0.001), AHI (p=0.001), and RDI (p=0.001)). There were no significant differences between two groups. This study indicated that the incidence of respiratory events and nocturnal hypoxemia during sleep in mustard-exposed patients were high and treatment with CPAP significantly reduced all these events.

  3. On the tautology of the matching law in consumer behavior analysis.

    PubMed

    Curry, Bruce; Foxall, Gordon R; Sigurdsson, Valdimar

    2010-05-01

    Matching analysis has often attracted the criticism that it is formally tautological and hence empirically unfalsifiable, a problem that particularly affects translational attempts to extend behavior analysis into new areas. An example is consumer behavior analysis where application of matching in natural settings requires the inference of ratio-based relationships between amount purchased and amount spent. This gives rise to the argument that matching is an artifact of the way in which the alleged independent and dependent variables are defined and measured. We argue that the amount matching law would be tautological only in extreme circumstances (those in which prices or quantities move strictly in proportion); this is because of the presence of an error term in the matching function which arises from aggregation, particularly aggregation over brands. Cost matching is a viable complement of amount matching which avoids this tautology but a complete explanation of consumer choice requires a viable measure of amount matching also. This necessitates a more general solution to the problem of tautology in matching. In general, the fact that there remain doubts about the functional form of the matching equation itself implies the absence of a tautology. In proposing a general solution to the problem of assumed tautology in matching, the paper notes the experiences of matching researchers in another translation field, sports behavior. Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  4. The 3of5 web application for complex and comprehensive pattern matching in protein sequences.

    PubMed

    Seiler, Markus; Mehrle, Alexander; Poustka, Annemarie; Wiemann, Stefan

    2006-03-16

    The identification of patterns in biological sequences is a key challenge in genome analysis and in proteomics. Frequently such patterns are complex and highly variable, especially in protein sequences. They are frequently described using terms of regular expressions (RegEx) because of the user-friendly terminology. Limitations arise for queries with the increasing complexity of patterns and are accompanied by requirements for enhanced capabilities. This is especially true for patterns containing ambiguous characters and positions and/or length ambiguities. We have implemented the 3of5 web application in order to enable complex pattern matching in protein sequences. 3of5 is named after a special use of its main feature, the novel n-of-m pattern type. This feature allows for an extensive specification of variable patterns where the individual elements may vary in their position, order, and content within a defined stretch of sequence. The number of distinct elements can be constrained by operators, and individual characters may be excluded. The n-of-m pattern type can be combined with common regular expression terms and thus also allows for a comprehensive description of complex patterns. 3of5 increases the fidelity of pattern matching and finds ALL possible solutions in protein sequences in cases of length-ambiguous patterns instead of simply reporting the longest or shortest hits. Grouping and combined search for patterns provides a hierarchical arrangement of larger patterns sets. The algorithm is implemented as internet application and freely accessible. The application is available at http://dkfz.de/mga2/3of5/3of5.html. The 3of5 application offers an extended vocabulary for the definition of search patterns and thus allows the user to comprehensively specify and identify peptide patterns with variable elements. The n-of-m pattern type offers an improved accuracy for pattern matching in combination with the ability to find all solutions, without compromising the user friendliness of regular expression terms.

  5. Assessment of sleep in pediatric cancer patients.

    PubMed

    İnce, Dilek; Demirağ, Bengü; Karapınar, Tuba Hilkay; Oymak, Yeşim; Ay, Yılmaz; Kaygusuz, Arife; Töret, Ersin; Vergin, Canan

    2017-01-01

    İnce D, Demirağ B, Karapınar TH, Oymak Y, Ay Y, Kaygusuz A, Töret E, Vergin C. Assessment of sleep in pediatric cancer patients. Turk J Pediatr 2017; 59: 379-386. The purpose of the study is to describe sleep habits, assess the prevalence of sleep disturbances in pediatric cancer patients and healthy controls, and to compare sleep patterns, sleep problems. One hundred-thirty-five patients and 190 healthy controls were evaluated. Healthy children matched for age, sex, economic status, parental education and family structure constituted the control group. Sleep was evaluated by using the Children`s Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ). Sleep problems were detected in half of patients. There were no significant differences in total sleep score and subscale scores between patients and controls. Solely the wake-time was found significantly different between patients and controls. Although our results indicated that neither childhood cancer survivors nor patients with cancer during treatment period had more sleep problems than their healthy peers, sleep problems were not uncommon in whole study group. This study underlines the need to screen, assess and manage sleep problems in children with diagnosis of cancer.

  6. Document Image Parsing and Understanding using Neuromorphic Architecture

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2015-03-01

    processing speed at different layers. In the pattern matching layer, the computing power of multicore processors is explored to reduce the processing...developed to reduce the processing speed at different layers. In the pattern matching layer, the computing power of multicore processors is explored... cortex where the complex data is reduced to abstract representations. The abstract representation is compared to stored patterns in massively parallel

  7. Study and response time for the visual recognition of 'similarity' and identity

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Derks, P. L.; Bauer, T. M.

    1974-01-01

    Four subjects compared successively presented pairs of line patterns for a match between any lines in the pattern (similarity) and for a match between all lines (identity). The encoding or study times for pattern recognition from immediate memory and the latency in responses to comparison stimuli were examined. Qualitative differences within and between subjects were most evident in study times.

  8. Hypothesis Support Mechanism for Mid-Level Visual Pattern Recognition

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Amador, Jose J (Inventor)

    2007-01-01

    A method of mid-level pattern recognition provides for a pose invariant Hough Transform by parametrizing pairs of points in a pattern with respect to at least two reference points, thereby providing a parameter table that is scale- or rotation-invariant. A corresponding inverse transform may be applied to test hypothesized matches in an image and a distance transform utilized to quantify the level of match.

  9. Discovering gene annotations in biomedical text databases

    PubMed Central

    Cakmak, Ali; Ozsoyoglu, Gultekin

    2008-01-01

    Background Genes and gene products are frequently annotated with Gene Ontology concepts based on the evidence provided in genomics articles. Manually locating and curating information about a genomic entity from the biomedical literature requires vast amounts of human effort. Hence, there is clearly a need forautomated computational tools to annotate the genes and gene products with Gene Ontology concepts by computationally capturing the related knowledge embedded in textual data. Results In this article, we present an automated genomic entity annotation system, GEANN, which extracts information about the characteristics of genes and gene products in article abstracts from PubMed, and translates the discoveredknowledge into Gene Ontology (GO) concepts, a widely-used standardized vocabulary of genomic traits. GEANN utilizes textual "extraction patterns", and a semantic matching framework to locate phrases matching to a pattern and produce Gene Ontology annotations for genes and gene products. In our experiments, GEANN has reached to the precision level of 78% at therecall level of 61%. On a select set of Gene Ontology concepts, GEANN either outperforms or is comparable to two other automated annotation studies. Use of WordNet for semantic pattern matching improves the precision and recall by 24% and 15%, respectively, and the improvement due to semantic pattern matching becomes more apparent as the Gene Ontology terms become more general. Conclusion GEANN is useful for two distinct purposes: (i) automating the annotation of genomic entities with Gene Ontology concepts, and (ii) providing existing annotations with additional "evidence articles" from the literature. The use of textual extraction patterns that are constructed based on the existing annotations achieve high precision. The semantic pattern matching framework provides a more flexible pattern matching scheme with respect to "exactmatching" with the advantage of locating approximate pattern occurrences with similar semantics. Relatively low recall performance of our pattern-based approach may be enhanced either by employing a probabilistic annotation framework based on the annotation neighbourhoods in textual data, or, alternatively, the statistical enrichment threshold may be adjusted to lower values for applications that put more value on achieving higher recall values. PMID:18325104

  10. Discovering gene annotations in biomedical text databases.

    PubMed

    Cakmak, Ali; Ozsoyoglu, Gultekin

    2008-03-06

    Genes and gene products are frequently annotated with Gene Ontology concepts based on the evidence provided in genomics articles. Manually locating and curating information about a genomic entity from the biomedical literature requires vast amounts of human effort. Hence, there is clearly a need forautomated computational tools to annotate the genes and gene products with Gene Ontology concepts by computationally capturing the related knowledge embedded in textual data. In this article, we present an automated genomic entity annotation system, GEANN, which extracts information about the characteristics of genes and gene products in article abstracts from PubMed, and translates the discoveredknowledge into Gene Ontology (GO) concepts, a widely-used standardized vocabulary of genomic traits. GEANN utilizes textual "extraction patterns", and a semantic matching framework to locate phrases matching to a pattern and produce Gene Ontology annotations for genes and gene products. In our experiments, GEANN has reached to the precision level of 78% at therecall level of 61%. On a select set of Gene Ontology concepts, GEANN either outperforms or is comparable to two other automated annotation studies. Use of WordNet for semantic pattern matching improves the precision and recall by 24% and 15%, respectively, and the improvement due to semantic pattern matching becomes more apparent as the Gene Ontology terms become more general. GEANN is useful for two distinct purposes: (i) automating the annotation of genomic entities with Gene Ontology concepts, and (ii) providing existing annotations with additional "evidence articles" from the literature. The use of textual extraction patterns that are constructed based on the existing annotations achieve high precision. The semantic pattern matching framework provides a more flexible pattern matching scheme with respect to "exactmatching" with the advantage of locating approximate pattern occurrences with similar semantics. Relatively low recall performance of our pattern-based approach may be enhanced either by employing a probabilistic annotation framework based on the annotation neighbourhoods in textual data, or, alternatively, the statistical enrichment threshold may be adjusted to lower values for applications that put more value on achieving higher recall values.

  11. Matching by linear programming and successive convexification.

    PubMed

    Jiang, Hao; Drew, Mark S; Li, Ze-Nian

    2007-06-01

    We present a novel convex programming scheme to solve matching problems, focusing on the challenging problem of matching in a large search range and with cluttered background. Matching is formulated as metric labeling with L1 regularization terms, for which we propose a novel linear programming relaxation method and an efficient successive convexification implementation. The unique feature of the proposed relaxation scheme is that a much smaller set of basis labels is used to represent the original label space. This greatly reduces the size of the searching space. A successive convexification scheme solves the labeling problem in a coarse to fine manner. Importantly, the original cost function is reconvexified at each stage, in the new focus region only, and the focus region is updated so as to refine the searching result. This makes the method well-suited for large label set matching. Experiments demonstrate successful applications of the proposed matching scheme in object detection, motion estimation, and tracking.

  12. Information Compression, Multiple Alignment, and the Representation and Processing of Knowledge in the Brain

    PubMed Central

    Wolff, J. Gerard

    2016-01-01

    The SP theory of intelligence, with its realization in the SP computer model, aims to simplify and integrate observations and concepts across artificial intelligence, mainstream computing, mathematics, and human perception and cognition, with information compression as a unifying theme. This paper describes how abstract structures and processes in the theory may be realized in terms of neurons, their interconnections, and the transmission of signals between neurons. This part of the SP theory—SP-neural—is a tentative and partial model for the representation and processing of knowledge in the brain. Empirical support for the SP theory—outlined in the paper—provides indirect support for SP-neural. In the abstract part of the SP theory (SP-abstract), all kinds of knowledge are represented with patterns, where a pattern is an array of atomic symbols in one or two dimensions. In SP-neural, the concept of a “pattern” is realized as an array of neurons called a pattern assembly, similar to Hebb's concept of a “cell assembly” but with important differences. Central to the processing of information in SP-abstract is information compression via the matching and unification of patterns (ICMUP) and, more specifically, information compression via the powerful concept of multiple alignment, borrowed and adapted from bioinformatics. Processes such as pattern recognition, reasoning and problem solving are achieved via the building of multiple alignments, while unsupervised learning is achieved by creating patterns from sensory information and also by creating patterns from multiple alignments in which there is a partial match between one pattern and another. It is envisaged that, in SP-neural, short-lived neural structures equivalent to multiple alignments will be created via an inter-play of excitatory and inhibitory neural signals. It is also envisaged that unsupervised learning will be achieved by the creation of pattern assemblies from sensory information and from the neural equivalents of multiple alignments, much as in the non-neural SP theory—and significantly different from the “Hebbian” kinds of learning which are widely used in the kinds of artificial neural network that are popular in computer science. The paper discusses several associated issues, with relevant empirical evidence. PMID:27857695

  13. Research on IPv6 intrusion detection system Snort-based

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shen, Zihao; Wang, Hui

    2010-07-01

    This paper introduces the common intrusion detection technologies, discusses the work flow of Snort intrusion detection system, and analyzes IPv6 data packet encapsulation and protocol decoding technology. We propose the expanding Snort architecture to support IPv6 intrusion detection in accordance with CIDF standard combined with protocol analysis technology and pattern matching technology, and present its composition. The research indicates that the expanding Snort system can effectively detect various intrusion attacks; it is high in detection efficiency and detection accuracy and reduces false alarm and omission report, which effectively solves the problem of IPv6 intrusion detection.

  14. Implementation of Multipattern String Matching Accelerated with GPU for Intrusion Detection System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nehemia, Rangga; Lim, Charles; Galinium, Maulahikmah; Rinaldi Widianto, Ahmad

    2017-04-01

    As Internet-related security threats continue to increase in terms of volume and sophistication, existing Intrusion Detection System is also being challenged to cope with the current Internet development. Multi Pattern String Matching algorithm accelerated with Graphical Processing Unit is being utilized to improve the packet scanning performance of the IDS. This paper implements a Multi Pattern String Matching algorithm, also called Parallel Failureless Aho Corasick accelerated with GPU to improve the performance of IDS. OpenCL library is used to allow the IDS to support various GPU, including popular GPU such as NVIDIA and AMD, used in our research. The experiment result shows that the application of Multi Pattern String Matching using GPU accelerated platform provides a speed up, by up to 141% in term of throughput compared to the previous research.

  15. An Autonomous Star Identification Algorithm Based on One-Dimensional Vector Pattern for Star Sensors

    PubMed Central

    Luo, Liyan; Xu, Luping; Zhang, Hua

    2015-01-01

    In order to enhance the robustness and accelerate the recognition speed of star identification, an autonomous star identification algorithm for star sensors is proposed based on the one-dimensional vector pattern (one_DVP). In the proposed algorithm, the space geometry information of the observed stars is used to form the one-dimensional vector pattern of the observed star. The one-dimensional vector pattern of the same observed star remains unchanged when the stellar image rotates, so the problem of star identification is simplified as the comparison of the two feature vectors. The one-dimensional vector pattern is adopted to build the feature vector of the star pattern, which makes it possible to identify the observed stars robustly. The characteristics of the feature vector and the proposed search strategy for the matching pattern make it possible to achieve the recognition result as quickly as possible. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can effectively accelerate the star identification. Moreover, the recognition accuracy and robustness by the proposed algorithm are better than those by the pyramid algorithm, the modified grid algorithm, and the LPT algorithm. The theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the other three star identification algorithms. PMID:26198233

  16. An Autonomous Star Identification Algorithm Based on One-Dimensional Vector Pattern for Star Sensors.

    PubMed

    Luo, Liyan; Xu, Luping; Zhang, Hua

    2015-07-07

    In order to enhance the robustness and accelerate the recognition speed of star identification, an autonomous star identification algorithm for star sensors is proposed based on the one-dimensional vector pattern (one_DVP). In the proposed algorithm, the space geometry information of the observed stars is used to form the one-dimensional vector pattern of the observed star. The one-dimensional vector pattern of the same observed star remains unchanged when the stellar image rotates, so the problem of star identification is simplified as the comparison of the two feature vectors. The one-dimensional vector pattern is adopted to build the feature vector of the star pattern, which makes it possible to identify the observed stars robustly. The characteristics of the feature vector and the proposed search strategy for the matching pattern make it possible to achieve the recognition result as quickly as possible. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can effectively accelerate the star identification. Moreover, the recognition accuracy and robustness by the proposed algorithm are better than those by the pyramid algorithm, the modified grid algorithm, and the LPT algorithm. The theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the other three star identification algorithms.

  17. Diversity of Salmonella isolates from central Florida surface waters.

    PubMed

    McEgan, Rachel; Chandler, Jeffrey C; Goodridge, Lawrence D; Danyluk, Michelle D

    2014-11-01

    Identification of Salmonella serotypes is important for understanding the environmental diversity of the genus Salmonella. This study evaluates the diversity of Salmonella isolates recovered from 165 of 202 Central Florida surface water samples and investigates whether the serotype of the environmental Salmonella isolates can be predicted by a previously published multiplex PCR assay (S. Kim, J. G. Frye, J. Hu, P. J. Fedorka-Cray, R. Gautom, and D. S. Boyle, J. Clin. Microbiol. 44:3608-3615, 2006, http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/JCM.00701-06). Multiplex PCR was performed on 562 Salmonella isolates (as many as 36 isolates per water sample) to predict serotypes. Kauffmann-White serogrouping was used to confirm multiplex PCR pattern groupings before isolates were serotyped, analyzed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, and assayed for antimicrobial susceptibility. In 41.2% of the Salmonella-positive water samples, all Salmonella isolates had identical multiplex PCR patterns; in the remaining 58.8%, two or more multiplex PCR patterns were identified. Within each sample, isolates with matching multiplex PCR patterns had matching serogroups. The multiplex patterns of 495 isolates (88.1%) did not match any previously reported pattern. The remaining 68 isolates matched reported patterns but did not match the serotypes for those patterns. The use of the multiplex PCR allowed the number of isolates requiring further analysis to be reduced to 223. Thirty-three Salmonella enterica serotypes were identified; the most frequent included serotypes Muenchen, Rubislaw, Anatum, Gaminara, and IV_50:z4,z23:-. A majority (141/223) of Salmonella isolates clustered into one genotypic group. Salmonella isolates in Central Florida surface waters are serotypically, genotypically, and phenotypically (in terms of antimicrobial susceptibility) diverse. While isolates could be grouped as different or potentially the same using multiplex PCR, the multiplex PCR pattern did not predict the Salmonella serotype. Copyright © 2014, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

  18. Diversity of Salmonella Isolates from Central Florida Surface Waters

    PubMed Central

    McEgan, Rachel; Chandler, Jeffrey C.; Goodridge, Lawrence D.

    2014-01-01

    Identification of Salmonella serotypes is important for understanding the environmental diversity of the genus Salmonella. This study evaluates the diversity of Salmonella isolates recovered from 165 of 202 Central Florida surface water samples and investigates whether the serotype of the environmental Salmonella isolates can be predicted by a previously published multiplex PCR assay (S. Kim, J. G. Frye, J. Hu, P. J. Fedorka-Cray, R. Gautom, and D. S. Boyle, J. Clin. Microbiol. 44:3608–3615, 2006, http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/JCM.00701-06). Multiplex PCR was performed on 562 Salmonella isolates (as many as 36 isolates per water sample) to predict serotypes. Kauffmann-White serogrouping was used to confirm multiplex PCR pattern groupings before isolates were serotyped, analyzed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, and assayed for antimicrobial susceptibility. In 41.2% of the Salmonella-positive water samples, all Salmonella isolates had identical multiplex PCR patterns; in the remaining 58.8%, two or more multiplex PCR patterns were identified. Within each sample, isolates with matching multiplex PCR patterns had matching serogroups. The multiplex patterns of 495 isolates (88.1%) did not match any previously reported pattern. The remaining 68 isolates matched reported patterns but did not match the serotypes for those patterns. The use of the multiplex PCR allowed the number of isolates requiring further analysis to be reduced to 223. Thirty-three Salmonella enterica serotypes were identified; the most frequent included serotypes Muenchen, Rubislaw, Anatum, Gaminara, and IV_50:z4,z23:−. A majority (141/223) of Salmonella isolates clustered into one genotypic group. Salmonella isolates in Central Florida surface waters are serotypically, genotypically, and phenotypically (in terms of antimicrobial susceptibility) diverse. While isolates could be grouped as different or potentially the same using multiplex PCR, the multiplex PCR pattern did not predict the Salmonella serotype. PMID:25172861

  19. SPIRAL PATTERNS IN PLANETESIMAL CIRCUMBINARY DISKS

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Demidova, Tatiana V.; Shevchenko, Ivan I., E-mail: iis@gao.spb.ru

    Planet formation scenarios and the observed planetary dynamics in binaries pose a number of theoretical challenges, especially concerning circumbinary planetary systems. We explore the dynamical stirring of a planetesimal circumbinary disk in the epoch when the gas component disappears. For this purpose, following theoretical approaches by Heppenheimer and Moriwaki and Nakagawa, we develop a secular theory of the dynamics of planetesimals in circumbinary disks. If a binary is eccentric and its components have unequal masses, a spiral density wave is generated, engulfing the disk on a secular timescale, which may exceed 10{sup 7} yr, depending on the problem parameters. The spiralmore » pattern is transient; thus, its observed presence may betray a system’s young age. We explore the pattern both analytically and in numerical experiments. The derived analytical spiral is a modified lituus; it matches the numerical density wave in the gas-free case perfectly. Using the smoothed particle hydrodynamics scheme, we explore the effect of residual gas on the wave propagation.« less

  20. FraudMiner: A Novel Credit Card Fraud Detection Model Based on Frequent Itemset Mining

    PubMed Central

    Seeja, K. R.; Zareapoor, Masoumeh

    2014-01-01

    This paper proposes an intelligent credit card fraud detection model for detecting fraud from highly imbalanced and anonymous credit card transaction datasets. The class imbalance problem is handled by finding legal as well as fraud transaction patterns for each customer by using frequent itemset mining. A matching algorithm is also proposed to find to which pattern (legal or fraud) the incoming transaction of a particular customer is closer and a decision is made accordingly. In order to handle the anonymous nature of the data, no preference is given to any of the attributes and each attribute is considered equally for finding the patterns. The performance evaluation of the proposed model is done on UCSD Data Mining Contest 2009 Dataset (anonymous and imbalanced) and it is found that the proposed model has very high fraud detection rate, balanced classification rate, Matthews correlation coefficient, and very less false alarm rate than other state-of-the-art classifiers. PMID:25302317

  1. FraudMiner: a novel credit card fraud detection model based on frequent itemset mining.

    PubMed

    Seeja, K R; Zareapoor, Masoumeh

    2014-01-01

    This paper proposes an intelligent credit card fraud detection model for detecting fraud from highly imbalanced and anonymous credit card transaction datasets. The class imbalance problem is handled by finding legal as well as fraud transaction patterns for each customer by using frequent itemset mining. A matching algorithm is also proposed to find to which pattern (legal or fraud) the incoming transaction of a particular customer is closer and a decision is made accordingly. In order to handle the anonymous nature of the data, no preference is given to any of the attributes and each attribute is considered equally for finding the patterns. The performance evaluation of the proposed model is done on UCSD Data Mining Contest 2009 Dataset (anonymous and imbalanced) and it is found that the proposed model has very high fraud detection rate, balanced classification rate, Matthews correlation coefficient, and very less false alarm rate than other state-of-the-art classifiers.

  2. A Design Pattern for Decentralised Decision Making

    PubMed Central

    Valentini, Gabriele; Fernández-Oto, Cristian; Dorigo, Marco

    2015-01-01

    The engineering of large-scale decentralised systems requires sound methodologies to guarantee the attainment of the desired macroscopic system-level behaviour given the microscopic individual-level implementation. While a general-purpose methodology is currently out of reach, specific solutions can be given to broad classes of problems by means of well-conceived design patterns. We propose a design pattern for collective decision making grounded on experimental/theoretical studies of the nest-site selection behaviour observed in honeybee swarms (Apis mellifera). The way in which honeybee swarms arrive at consensus is fairly well-understood at the macroscopic level. We provide formal guidelines for the microscopic implementation of collective decisions to quantitatively match the macroscopic predictions. We discuss implementation strategies based on both homogeneous and heterogeneous multiagent systems, and we provide means to deal with spatial and topological factors that have a bearing on the micro-macro link. Finally, we exploit the design pattern in two case studies that showcase the viability of the approach. Besides engineering, such a design pattern can prove useful for a deeper understanding of decision making in natural systems thanks to the inclusion of individual heterogeneities and spatial factors, which are often disregarded in theoretical modelling. PMID:26496359

  3. An Indoor Pedestrian Positioning Method Using HMM with a Fuzzy Pattern Recognition Algorithm in a WLAN Fingerprint System

    PubMed Central

    Ni, Yepeng; Liu, Jianbo; Liu, Shan; Bai, Yaxin

    2016-01-01

    With the rapid development of smartphones and wireless networks, indoor location-based services have become more and more prevalent. Due to the sophisticated propagation of radio signals, the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) shows a significant variation during pedestrian walking, which introduces critical errors in deterministic indoor positioning. To solve this problem, we present a novel method to improve the indoor pedestrian positioning accuracy by embedding a fuzzy pattern recognition algorithm into a Hidden Markov Model. The fuzzy pattern recognition algorithm follows the rule that the RSSI fading has a positive correlation to the distance between the measuring point and the AP location even during a dynamic positioning measurement. Through this algorithm, we use the RSSI variation trend to replace the specific RSSI value to achieve a fuzzy positioning. The transition probability of the Hidden Markov Model is trained by the fuzzy pattern recognition algorithm with pedestrian trajectories. Using the Viterbi algorithm with the trained model, we can obtain a set of hidden location states. In our experiments, we demonstrate that, compared with the deterministic pattern matching algorithm, our method can greatly improve the positioning accuracy and shows robust environmental adaptability. PMID:27618053

  4. Image Correlation Pattern Optimization for Micro-Scale In-Situ Strain Measurements

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bomarito, G. F.; Hochhalter, J. D.; Cannon, A. H.

    2016-01-01

    The accuracy and precision of digital image correlation (DIC) is a function of three primary ingredients: image acquisition, image analysis, and the subject of the image. Development of the first two (i.e. image acquisition techniques and image correlation algorithms) has led to widespread use of DIC; however, fewer developments have been focused on the third ingredient. Typically, subjects of DIC images are mechanical specimens with either a natural surface pattern or a pattern applied to the surface. Research in the area of DIC patterns has primarily been aimed at identifying which surface patterns are best suited for DIC, by comparing patterns to each other. Because the easiest and most widespread methods of applying patterns have a high degree of randomness associated with them (e.g., airbrush, spray paint, particle decoration, etc.), less effort has been spent on exact construction of ideal patterns. With the development of patterning techniques such as microstamping and lithography, patterns can be applied to a specimen pixel by pixel from a patterned image. In these cases, especially because the patterns are reused many times, an optimal pattern is sought such that error introduced into DIC from the pattern is minimized. DIC consists of tracking the motion of an array of nodes from a reference image to a deformed image. Every pixel in the images has an associated intensity (grayscale) value, with discretization depending on the bit depth of the image. Because individual pixel matching by intensity value yields a non-unique scale-dependent problem, subsets around each node are used for identification. A correlation criteria is used to find the best match of a particular subset of a reference image within a deformed image. The reader is referred to references for enumerations of typical correlation criteria. As illustrated by Schreier and Sutton and Lu and Cary systematic errors can be introduced by representing the underlying deformation with under-matched shape functions. An important implication, as discussed by Sutton et al., is that in the presence of highly localized deformations (e.g., crack fronts), error can be reduced by minimizing the subset size. In other words, smaller subsets allow the more accurate resolution of localized deformations. Contrarily, the choice of optimal subset size has been widely studied and a general consensus is that larger subsets with more information content are less prone to random error. Thus, an optimal subset size balances the systematic error from under matched deformations with random error from measurement noise. The alternative approach pursued in the current work is to choose a small subset size and optimize the information content within (i.e., optimizing an applied DIC pattern), rather than finding an optimal subset size. In the literature, many pattern quality metrics have been proposed, e.g., sum of square intensity gradient (SSSIG), mean subset fluctuation, gray level co-occurrence, autocorrelation-based metrics, and speckle-based metrics. The majority of these metrics were developed to quantify the quality of common pseudo-random patterns after they have been applied, and were not created with the intent of pattern generation. As such, it is found that none of the metrics examined in this study are fit to be the objective function of a pattern generation optimization. In some cases, such as with speckle-based metrics, application to pixel by pixel patterns is ill-conditioned and requires somewhat arbitrary extensions. In other cases, such as with the SSSIG, it is shown that trivial solutions exist for the optimum of the metric which are ill-suited for DIC (such as a checkerboard pattern). In the current work, a multi-metric optimization method is proposed whereby quality is viewed as a combination of individual quality metrics. Specifically, SSSIG and two auto-correlation metrics are used which have generally competitive objectives. Thus, each metric could be viewed as a constraint imposed upon the others, thereby precluding the achievement of their trivial solutions. In this way, optimization produces a pattern which balances the benefits of multiple quality metrics. The resulting pattern, along with randomly generated patterns, is subjected to numerical deformations and analyzed with DIC software. The optimal pattern is shown to outperform randomly generated patterns.

  5. The Fears, Phobias and Anxieties of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Down Syndrome: Comparisons with Developmentally and Chronologically Age Matched Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Evans, David W.; Canavera, Kristin; Kleinpeter, F. Lee; Maccubbin, Elise; Taga, Ken

    2005-01-01

    This study compared the fears and behavior problems of 25 children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), 43 children with Down syndrome (DS), 45 mental age (MA) matched children, and 37 chronologically age (CA) matched children. Children's fears, phobias, anxieties and behavioral problems were assessed using parent reports. Significant…

  6. A PERFECT MATCH CONDITION FOR POINT-SET MATCHING PROBLEMS USING THE OPTIMAL MASS TRANSPORT APPROACH

    PubMed Central

    CHEN, PENGWEN; LIN, CHING-LONG; CHERN, I-LIANG

    2013-01-01

    We study the performance of optimal mass transport-based methods applied to point-set matching problems. The present study, which is based on the L2 mass transport cost, states that perfect matches always occur when the product of the point-set cardinality and the norm of the curl of the non-rigid deformation field does not exceed some constant. This analytic result is justified by a numerical study of matching two sets of pulmonary vascular tree branch points whose displacement is caused by the lung volume changes in the same human subject. The nearly perfect match performance verifies the effectiveness of this mass transport-based approach. PMID:23687536

  7. Regulatory sequence analysis tools.

    PubMed

    van Helden, Jacques

    2003-07-01

    The web resource Regulatory Sequence Analysis Tools (RSAT) (http://rsat.ulb.ac.be/rsat) offers a collection of software tools dedicated to the prediction of regulatory sites in non-coding DNA sequences. These tools include sequence retrieval, pattern discovery, pattern matching, genome-scale pattern matching, feature-map drawing, random sequence generation and other utilities. Alternative formats are supported for the representation of regulatory motifs (strings or position-specific scoring matrices) and several algorithms are proposed for pattern discovery. RSAT currently holds >100 fully sequenced genomes and these data are regularly updated from GenBank.

  8. A Dictionary Approach to Electron Backscatter Diffraction Indexing.

    PubMed

    Chen, Yu H; Park, Se Un; Wei, Dennis; Newstadt, Greg; Jackson, Michael A; Simmons, Jeff P; De Graef, Marc; Hero, Alfred O

    2015-06-01

    We propose a framework for indexing of grain and subgrain structures in electron backscatter diffraction patterns of polycrystalline materials. We discretize the domain of a dynamical forward model onto a dense grid of orientations, producing a dictionary of patterns. For each measured pattern, we identify the most similar patterns in the dictionary, and identify boundaries, detect anomalies, and index crystal orientations. The statistical distribution of these closest matches is used in an unsupervised binary decision tree (DT) classifier to identify grain boundaries and anomalous regions. The DT classifies a pattern as an anomaly if it has an abnormally low similarity to any pattern in the dictionary. It classifies a pixel as being near a grain boundary if the highly ranked patterns in the dictionary differ significantly over the pixel's neighborhood. Indexing is accomplished by computing the mean orientation of the closest matches to each pattern. The mean orientation is estimated using a maximum likelihood approach that models the orientation distribution as a mixture of Von Mises-Fisher distributions over the quaternionic three sphere. The proposed dictionary matching approach permits segmentation, anomaly detection, and indexing to be performed in a unified manner with the additional benefit of uncertainty quantification.

  9. Research on vehicles and cargos matching model based on virtual logistics platform

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhuang, Yufeng; Lu, Jiang; Su, Zhiyuan

    2018-04-01

    Highway less than truckload (LTL) transportation vehicles and cargos matching problem is a joint optimization problem of typical vehicle routing and loading, which is also a hot issue of operational research. This article based on the demand of virtual logistics platform, for the problem of the highway LTL transportation, the matching model of the idle vehicle and the transportation order is set up and the corresponding genetic algorithm is designed. Then the algorithm is implemented by Java. The simulation results show that the solution is satisfactory.

  10. Matching problem for primary and secondary signals in dual-phase TPC detectors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Radics, B.; Burjons, E.; Rubbia, A.

    2018-05-01

    The problem of matching primary and secondary light signals, belonging to the same event, is presented in the context of dual-phase time projection chambers. In large scale detectors the secondary light emission could be delayed up to order of milliseconds, which, combined with high signal rates, could make the matching of the signals challenging. A possible approach is offered in the framework of the Stable Marriage and the College Admission problem, for both of which solutions are given by the Gale-Shapley algorithm.

  11. Quantum algorithm for energy matching in hard optimization problems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baldwin, C. L.; Laumann, C. R.

    2018-06-01

    We consider the ability of local quantum dynamics to solve the "energy-matching" problem: given an instance of a classical optimization problem and a low-energy state, find another macroscopically distinct low-energy state. Energy matching is difficult in rugged optimization landscapes, as the given state provides little information about the distant topography. Here, we show that the introduction of quantum dynamics can provide a speedup over classical algorithms in a large class of hard optimization problems. Tunneling allows the system to explore the optimization landscape while approximately conserving the classical energy, even in the presence of large barriers. Specifically, we study energy matching in the random p -spin model of spin-glass theory. Using perturbation theory and exact diagonalization, we show that introducing a transverse field leads to three sharp dynamical phases, only one of which solves the matching problem: (1) a small-field "trapped" phase, in which tunneling is too weak for the system to escape the vicinity of the initial state; (2) a large-field "excited" phase, in which the field excites the system into high-energy states, effectively forgetting the initial energy; and (3) the intermediate "tunneling" phase, in which the system succeeds at energy matching. The rate at which distant states are found in the tunneling phase, although exponentially slow in system size, is exponentially faster than classical search algorithms.

  12. Sketch Matching on Topology Product Graph.

    PubMed

    Liang, Shuang; Luo, Jun; Liu, Wenyin; Wei, Yichen

    2015-08-01

    Sketch matching is the fundamental problem in sketch based interfaces. After years of study, it remains challenging when there exists large irregularity and variations in the hand drawn sketch shapes. While most existing works exploit topology relations and graph representations for this problem, they are usually limited by the coarse topology exploration and heuristic (thus suboptimal) similarity metrics between graphs. We present a new sketch matching method with two novel contributions. We introduce a comprehensive definition of topology relations, which results in a rich and informative graph representation of sketches. For graph matching, we propose topology product graph that retains the full correspondence for matching two graphs. Based on it, we derive an intuitive sketch similarity metric whose exact solution is easy to compute. In addition, the graph representation and new metric naturally support partial matching, an important practical problem that received less attention in the literature. Extensive experimental results on a real challenging dataset and the superior performance of our method show that it outperforms the state-of-the-art.

  13. Gait pathology subtypes are not associated with self-reported fall frequency in children with cerebral palsy.

    PubMed

    Boyer, Elizabeth R; Patterson, Aleksys

    2018-05-05

    Trips and falls are common concerns reported by parents of children with cerebral palsy. Specific gait pathologies (excessive internal hip rotation, intoeing, and stiff knee gait) are anecdotally associated with higher rates of falls. Is fall frequency higher for the aforementioned gait pathologies? Parent-reported fall frequency from 1063 children with cerebral palsy who also had a three-dimensional gait analysis was retrospectively reviewed. Frequency of 10 common gait pathologies was determined and fall frequency for the gait pathologies of interest were compared to matched control groups. Possible effects of Gross Motor Functional Classification System (GMFCS) level and age on fall frequency were also assessed and matched in the control group, as appropriate. In general, parent-reported fall frequency increased from GMFCS level I to II and then decreased until level IV. Moreover, younger children tended to report greater fall frequency, though children who reported never falling were of similar age as those who reported weekly falls, resulting in an inverted-U shaped relationship. Children with cerebral palsy who walked with excessive internal hip rotation, excessive intoeing, or stiff knee gait did not report increased fall frequencies compared to other children with cerebral palsy matched on GMFCS level and age that did not walk with those gait patterns. Approximately 35% of children reported never falling, 35% reported falling daily, and 30% reported falling monthly or weekly for each gait pattern. Therefore, elevated fall frequency appears to be a generic problem for most children with CP rather than a function of a specific gait pattern. Clinicians should be aware of these relationships, or lack thereof, when trying to decipher the cause of a child's falling and when determining appropriate interventions. Future studies may seek to more objectively quantify fall frequency, as self-report is the main limitation of this study. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. Post-decomposition optimizations using pattern matching and rule-based clustering for multi-patterning technology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Lynn T.-N.; Madhavan, Sriram

    2018-03-01

    A pattern matching and rule-based polygon clustering methodology with DFM scoring is proposed to detect decomposition-induced manufacturability detractors and fix the layout designs prior to manufacturing. A pattern matcher scans the layout for pre-characterized patterns from a library. If a pattern were detected, rule-based clustering identifies the neighboring polygons that interact with those captured by the pattern. Then, DFM scores are computed for the possible layout fixes: the fix with the best score is applied. The proposed methodology was applied to two 20nm products with a chip area of 11 mm2 on the metal 2 layer. All the hotspots were resolved. The number of DFM spacing violations decreased by 7-15%.

  15. Automated CD-SEM recipe creation technology for mass production using CAD data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kawahara, Toshikazu; Yoshida, Masamichi; Tanaka, Masashi; Ido, Sanyu; Nakano, Hiroyuki; Adachi, Naokaka; Abe, Yuichi; Nagatomo, Wataru

    2011-03-01

    Critical Dimension Scanning Electron Microscope (CD-SEM) recipe creation needs sample preparation necessary for matching pattern registration, and recipe creation on CD-SEM using the sample, which hinders the reduction in test production cost and time in semiconductor manufacturing factories. From the perspective of cost reduction and improvement of the test production efficiency, automated CD-SEM recipe creation without the sample preparation and the manual operation has been important in the production lines. For the automated CD-SEM recipe creation, we have introduced RecipeDirector (RD) that enables the recipe creation by using Computer-Aided Design (CAD) data and text data that includes measurement information. We have developed a system that automatically creates the CAD data and the text data necessary for the recipe creation on RD; and, for the elimination of the manual operation, we have enhanced RD so that all measurement information can be specified in the text data. As a result, we have established an automated CD-SEM recipe creation system without the sample preparation and the manual operation. For the introduction of the CD-SEM recipe creation system using RD to the production lines, the accuracy of the pattern matching was an issue. The shape of design templates for the matching created from the CAD data was different from that of SEM images in vision. Thus, a development of robust pattern matching algorithm that considers the shape difference was needed. The addition of image processing of the templates for the matching and shape processing of the CAD patterns in the lower layer has enabled the robust pattern matching. This paper describes the automated CD-SEM recipe creation technology for the production lines without the sample preparation and the manual operation using RD applied in Sony Semiconductor Kyusyu Corporation Kumamoto Technology Center (SCK Corporation Kumamoto TEC).

  16. Generating moment matching scenarios using optimization techniques

    DOE PAGES

    Mehrotra, Sanjay; Papp, Dávid

    2013-05-16

    An optimization based method is proposed to generate moment matching scenarios for numerical integration and its use in stochastic programming. The main advantage of the method is its flexibility: it can generate scenarios matching any prescribed set of moments of the underlying distribution rather than matching all moments up to a certain order, and the distribution can be defined over an arbitrary set. This allows for a reduction in the number of scenarios and allows the scenarios to be better tailored to the problem at hand. The method is based on a semi-infinite linear programming formulation of the problem thatmore » is shown to be solvable with polynomial iteration complexity. A practical column generation method is implemented. The column generation subproblems are polynomial optimization problems; however, they need not be solved to optimality. It is found that the columns in the column generation approach can be efficiently generated by random sampling. The number of scenarios generated matches a lower bound of Tchakaloff's. The rate of convergence of the approximation error is established for continuous integrands, and an improved bound is given for smooth integrands. Extensive numerical experiments are presented in which variants of the proposed method are compared to Monte Carlo and quasi-Monte Carlo methods on both numerical integration problems and stochastic optimization problems. The benefits of being able to match any prescribed set of moments, rather than all moments up to a certain order, is also demonstrated using optimization problems with 100-dimensional random vectors. Here, empirical results show that the proposed approach outperforms Monte Carlo and quasi-Monte Carlo based approaches on the tested problems.« less

  17. Nutritional Status and Daytime Pattern of Protein Intake on Match, Post-Match, Rest and Training Days in Senior Professional and Youth Elite Soccer Players.

    PubMed

    Bettonviel A, E O; Brinkmans N, Y J; Russcher, Kris; Wardenaar, Floris C; Witard, Oliver C

    2016-06-01

    The nutritional status of elite soccer players across match, postmatch, training and rest days has not been defined. Recent evidence suggests the pattern of dietary protein intake impacts the daytime turnover of muscle proteins and, as such, influences muscle recovery. We assessed the nutritional status and daytime pattern of protein intake in senior professional and elite youth soccer players and compared findings against published recommendations. Fourteen senior professional (SP) and 15 youth elite (YP) soccer players from the Dutch premier division completed nutritional assessments using a 24-hr web-based recall method. Recall days consisted of a match, postmatch, rest, and training day. Daily energy intake over the 4-day period was similar between SP (2988 ± 583 kcal/day) and YP (2938 ± 465 kcal/day; p = .800). Carbohydrate intake over the combined 4-day period was lower in SP (4.7 ± 0.7 g·kg-1 BM·day-1) vs. YP (6.0 ± 1.5 g·kg-1 BM·day-1, p = .006) and SP failed to meet recommended carbohydrate intakes on match and training days. Conversely, recommended protein intakes were met for SP (1.9 ± 0.3 g·kg-1 BM·day-1) and YP (1.7 ± 0.4 g·kg-1 BM·day-1), with no differences between groups (p = .286). Accordingly, both groups met or exceeded recommended daily protein intakes on individual match, postmatch, rest and training days. A similar "balanced" daytime pattern of protein intake was observed in SP and YP. To conclude, SP increased protein intake on match and training days to a greater extent than YP, however at the expense of carbohydrate intake. The daytime distribution of protein intake for YP and SP aligned with current recommendations of a balanced protein meal pattern.

  18. On matching the anode ring with the magnetic field in an ATON-type Hall effect thruster

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Jinwen; Li, Hong; Zhang, Xu; Ding, Yongjie; Wei, Liqiu; Li, Jianzhi; Yu, Daren; Wang, Xiaogang

    2018-06-01

    In an ATON-type Hall effect thruster, a ring-shaped anode and a cusped magnetic field intersect the match between the anode shape and the field topology thus must be clarified to optimize the electron transport to the anode and consequently the design of a high-efficiency thruster. By changing the match pattern with both the change in the length of the anode ring and the axial displacement of the cusp magnetic field, this study experimentally investigated the influence of the match pattern on the discharge characteristics of an ATON-type thruster—P100—under the condition of a moderate discharge voltage. The experimental results show that there is a match pattern that always optimizes the performance of the P100 thruster. At the rated operation parameters (300 V of discharge voltage and 5 mg/s of propellant mass flow rate) and the rated magnetic field strength, the observed improvements on thrust (˜79 mN to ˜85 mN) and anode efficiency (˜46% to ˜55%) are significant. Through further theoretical analysis, this study revealed that the change in the characteristics of electron momentum and energy transfer in the near-anode region, induced by the change of the match pattern, is the basic reason. The findings of this work are instructive for both understanding the electron motion in a cusp magnetic field and guiding the design of the anode ring intersecting with a cusp magnetic field in an ATON-type Hall effect thruster.

  19. Problem Solving in a Natural Language Environment.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1979-07-21

    another mapping that can map the "values" of those slots onto each other. 11.2 Kowledge Reoresentation Systems Several general knowledge...Hirach Frames The problem solving frames are general descriptions of problems (and solutions). Much more power could be milked from the concept of...general and powerful matching routines can be seen if the problem solving frames are going to work. The matcher must find matches between an element

  20. Advanced optical correlation and digital methods for pattern matching—50th anniversary of Vander Lugt matched filter

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Millán, María S.

    2012-10-01

    On the verge of the 50th anniversary of Vander Lugt’s formulation for pattern matching based on matched filtering and optical correlation, we acknowledge the very intense research activity developed in the field of correlation-based pattern recognition during this period of time. The paper reviews some domains that appeared as emerging fields in the last years of the 20th century and have been developed later on in the 21st century. Such is the case of three-dimensional (3D) object recognition, biometric pattern matching, optical security and hybrid optical-digital processors. 3D object recognition is a challenging case of multidimensional image recognition because of its implications in the recognition of real-world objects independent of their perspective. Biometric recognition is essentially pattern recognition for which the personal identification is based on the authentication of a specific physiological characteristic possessed by the subject (e.g. fingerprint, face, iris, retina, and multifactor combinations). Biometric recognition often appears combined with encryption-decryption processes to secure information. The optical implementations of correlation-based pattern recognition processes still rely on the 4f-correlator, the joint transform correlator, or some of their variants. But the many applications developed in the field have been pushing the systems for a continuous improvement of their architectures and algorithms, thus leading towards merged optical-digital solutions.

  1. Optimization of illuminating system to detect optical properties inside a finger

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sano, Emiko; Shikai, Masahiro; Shiratsuki, Akihide; Maeda, Takuji; Matsushita, Masahito; Sasakawa, Koichi

    2007-01-01

    Biometrics performs personal authentication using individual bodily features including fingerprints, faces, etc. These technologies have been studied and developed for many years. In particular, fingerprint authentication has evolved over many years, and fingerprinting is currently one of world's most established biometric authentication techniques. Not long ago this technique was only used for personal identification in criminal investigations and high-security facilities. In recent years, however, various biometric authentication techniques have appeared in everyday applications. Even though providing great convenience, they have also produced a number of technical issues concerning operation. Generally, fingerprint authentication is comprised of a number of component technologies: (1) sensing technology for detecting the fingerprint pattern; (2) image processing technology for converting the captured pattern into feature data that can be used for verification; (3) verification technology for comparing the feature data with a reference and determining whether it matches. Current fingerprint authentication issues, revealed in research results, originate with fingerprint sensing technology. Sensing methods for detecting a person's fingerprint pattern for image processing are particularly important because they impact overall fingerprint authentication performance. The following are the current problems concerning sensing methods that occur in some cases: Some fingers whose fingerprints used to be difficult to detect by conventional sensors. Fingerprint patterns are easily affected by the finger's surface condition, such noise as discontinuities and thin spots can appear in fingerprint patterns obtained from wrinkled finger, sweaty finger, and so on. To address these problems, we proposed a novel fingerprint sensor based on new scientific knowledge. A characteristic of this new method is that obtained fingerprint patterns are not easily affected by the finger's surface condition because it detects the fingerprint pattern inside the finger using transmitted light. We examined optimization of illumination system of this novel fingerprint sensor to detect contrasty fingerprint pattern from wide area and to improve image processing at (2).

  2. Optical implementation of the synthetic discriminant function

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Butler, S.; Riggins, J.

    1984-10-01

    Much attention is focused on the use of coherent optical pattern recognition (OPR) using matched spatial filters for robotics and intelligent systems. The OPR problem consists of three aspects -- information input, information processing, and information output. This paper discusses the information processing aspect which consists of choosing a filter to provide robust correlation with high efficiency. The filter should ideally be invariant to image shift, rotation and scale, provide a reasonable signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio and allow high throughput efficiency. The physical implementation of a spatial matched filter involves many choices. These include the use of conventional holograms or computer-generated holograms (CGH) and utilizing absorption or phase materials. Conventional holograms inherently modify the reference image by non-uniform emphasis of spatial frequencies. Proper use of film nonlinearity provides improved filter performance by emphasizing frequency ranges crucial to target discrimination. In the case of a CGH, the emphasis of the reference magnitude and phase can be controlled independently of the continuous tone or binary writing processes. This paper describes computer simulation and optical implementation of a geometrical shape and a Synthetic Discriminant Function (SDF) matched filter. The authors chose the binary Allebach-Keegan (AK) CGH algorithm to produce actual filters. The performances of these filters were measured to verify the simulation results. This paper provides a brief summary of the matched filter theory, the SDF, CGH algorithms, Phase-Only-Filtering, simulation procedures, and results.

  3. Manta Matcher: automated photographic identification of manta rays using keypoint features.

    PubMed

    Town, Christopher; Marshall, Andrea; Sethasathien, Nutthaporn

    2013-07-01

    For species which bear unique markings, such as natural spot patterning, field work has become increasingly more reliant on visual identification to recognize and catalog particular specimens or to monitor individuals within populations. While many species of interest exhibit characteristic markings that in principle allow individuals to be identified from photographs, scientists are often faced with the task of matching observations against databases of hundreds or thousands of images. We present a novel technique for automated identification of manta rays (Manta alfredi and Manta birostris) by means of a pattern-matching algorithm applied to images of their ventral surface area. Automated visual identification has recently been developed for several species. However, such methods are typically limited to animals that can be photographed above water, or whose markings exhibit high contrast and appear in regular constellations. While manta rays bear natural patterning across their ventral surface, these patterns vary greatly in their size, shape, contrast, and spatial distribution. Our method is the first to have proven successful at achieving high matching accuracies on a large corpus of manta ray images taken under challenging underwater conditions. Our method is based on automated extraction and matching of keypoint features using the Scale-Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) algorithm. In order to cope with the considerable variation in quality of underwater photographs, we also incorporate preprocessing and image enhancement steps. Furthermore, we use a novel pattern-matching approach that results in better accuracy than the standard SIFT approach and other alternative methods. We present quantitative evaluation results on a data set of 720 images of manta rays taken under widely different conditions. We describe a novel automated pattern representation and matching method that can be used to identify individual manta rays from photographs. The method has been incorporated into a website (mantamatcher.org) which will serve as a global resource for ecological and conservation research. It will allow researchers to manage and track sightings data to establish important life-history parameters as well as determine other ecological data such as abundance, range, movement patterns, and structure of manta ray populations across the world.

  4. Manta Matcher: automated photographic identification of manta rays using keypoint features

    PubMed Central

    Town, Christopher; Marshall, Andrea; Sethasathien, Nutthaporn

    2013-01-01

    For species which bear unique markings, such as natural spot patterning, field work has become increasingly more reliant on visual identification to recognize and catalog particular specimens or to monitor individuals within populations. While many species of interest exhibit characteristic markings that in principle allow individuals to be identified from photographs, scientists are often faced with the task of matching observations against databases of hundreds or thousands of images. We present a novel technique for automated identification of manta rays (Manta alfredi and Manta birostris) by means of a pattern-matching algorithm applied to images of their ventral surface area. Automated visual identification has recently been developed for several species. However, such methods are typically limited to animals that can be photographed above water, or whose markings exhibit high contrast and appear in regular constellations. While manta rays bear natural patterning across their ventral surface, these patterns vary greatly in their size, shape, contrast, and spatial distribution. Our method is the first to have proven successful at achieving high matching accuracies on a large corpus of manta ray images taken under challenging underwater conditions. Our method is based on automated extraction and matching of keypoint features using the Scale-Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) algorithm. In order to cope with the considerable variation in quality of underwater photographs, we also incorporate preprocessing and image enhancement steps. Furthermore, we use a novel pattern-matching approach that results in better accuracy than the standard SIFT approach and other alternative methods. We present quantitative evaluation results on a data set of 720 images of manta rays taken under widely different conditions. We describe a novel automated pattern representation and matching method that can be used to identify individual manta rays from photographs. The method has been incorporated into a website (mantamatcher.org) which will serve as a global resource for ecological and conservation research. It will allow researchers to manage and track sightings data to establish important life-history parameters as well as determine other ecological data such as abundance, range, movement patterns, and structure of manta ray populations across the world. PMID:23919138

  5. Radar transponder antenna pattern analysis for the space shuttle

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Radcliff, Roger

    1989-01-01

    In order to improve tracking capability, radar transponder antennas will soon be mounted on the Shuttle solid rocket boosters (SRB). These four antennas, each being identical cavity-backed helices operating at 5.765 GHz, will be mounted near the top of the SRB's, adjacent to the intertank portion of the external tank. The purpose is to calculate the roll-plane pattern (the plane perpendicular to the SRB axes and containing the antennas) in the presence of this complex electromagnetic environment. The large electrical size of this problem mandates an optical (asymptotic) approach. Development of a specific code for this application is beyond the scope of a summer fellowship; thus a general purpose code, the Numerical Electromagnetics Code - Basic Scattering Code, was chosen as the computational tool. This code is based on the modern Geometrical Theory of Diffraction, and allows computation of scattering of bodies composed of canonical problems such as plates and elliptic cylinders. Apertures mounted on a curved surface (the SRB) cannot be accomplished by the code, so an antenna model consisting of wires excited by a method of moments current input was devised that approximated the actual performance of the antennas. The improvised antenna model matched well with measurements taken at the MSFC range. The SRB's, the external tank, and the shuttle nose were modeled as circular cylinders, and the code was able to produce what is thought to be a reasonable roll-plane pattern.

  6. Efficient Aho-Corasick String Matching on Emerging Multicore Architectures

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Tumeo, Antonino; Villa, Oreste; Secchi, Simone

    String matching algorithms are critical to several scientific fields. Beside text processing and databases, emerging applications such as DNA protein sequence analysis, data mining, information security software, antivirus, ma- chine learning, all exploit string matching algorithms [3]. All these applica- tions usually process large quantity of textual data, require high performance and/or predictable execution times. Among all the string matching algorithms, one of the most studied, especially for text processing and security applica- tions, is the Aho-Corasick algorithm. 1 2 Book title goes here Aho-Corasick is an exact, multi-pattern string matching algorithm which performs the search in a time linearlymore » proportional to the length of the input text independently from pattern set size. However, depending on the imple- mentation, when the number of patterns increase, the memory occupation may raise drastically. In turn, this can lead to significant variability in the performance, due to the memory access times and the caching effects. This is a significant concern for many mission critical applications and modern high performance architectures. For example, security applications such as Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDS), must be able to scan network traffic against very large dictionaries in real time. Modern Ethernet links reach up to 10 Gbps, and malicious threats are already well over 1 million, and expo- nentially growing [28]. When performing the search, a NIDS should not slow down the network, or let network packets pass unchecked. Nevertheless, on the current state-of-the-art cache based processors, there may be a large per- formance variability when dealing with big dictionaries and inputs that have different frequencies of matching patterns. In particular, when few patterns are matched and they are all in the cache, the procedure is fast. Instead, when they are not in the cache, often because many patterns are matched and the caches are continuously thrashed, they should be retrieved from the system memory and the procedure is slowed down by the increased latency. Efficient implementations of string matching algorithms have been the fo- cus of several works, targeting Field Programmable Gate Arrays [4, 25, 15, 5], highly multi-threaded solutions like the Cray XMT [34], multicore proces- sors [19] or heterogeneous processors like the Cell Broadband Engine [35, 22]. Recently, several researchers have also started to investigate the use Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) for string matching algorithms in security applica- tions [20, 10, 32, 33]. Most of these approaches mainly focus on reaching high peak performance, or try to optimize the memory occupation, rather than looking at performance stability. However, hardware solutions supports only small dictionary sizes due to lack of memory and are difficult to customize, while platforms such as the Cell/B.E. are very complex to program.« less

  7. A weak pattern random creation and scoring method for lithography process tuning

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Meili; Deng, Guogui; Wang, Mudan; Yu, Shirui; Hu, Xinyi; Du, Chunshan; Wan, Qijian; Liu, Zhengfang; Gao, Gensheng; Kabeel, Aliaa; Madkour, Kareem; ElManhawy, Wael; Kwan, Joe

    2018-03-01

    As the IC technology node moves forward, critical dimension becomes smaller and smaller, which brings huge challenge to IC manufacturing. Lithography is one of the most important steps during the whole manufacturing process and litho hotspots become a big source of yield detractors. Thus tuning lithographic recipes to cover a big range of litho hotspots is very essential to yield enhancing. During early technology developing stage, foundries only have limited customer layout data for recipe tuning. So collecting enough patterns is significant for process optimization. After accumulating enough patterns, a general way to treat them is not precise and applicable. Instead, an approach to scoring these patterns could provide a priority and reference to address different patterns more effectively. For example, the weakest group of patterns could be applied the most limited specs to ensure process robustness. This paper presents a new method of creation of real design alike patterns of multiple layers based on design rules using Layout Schema Generator (LSG) utility and a pattern scoring flow using Litho-friendly Design (LFD) and Pattern Matching. Through LSG, plenty of new unknown patterns could be created for further exploration. Then, litho simulation through LFD and topological matches by using Pattern Matching is applied on the output patterns of LSG. Finally, lithographical severity, printability properties and topological distribution of every pattern are collected. After a statistical analysis of pattern data, every pattern is given a relative score representing the pattern's yield detracting level. By sorting the output pattern score tables, weak patterns could be filtered out for further research and process tuning. This pattern generation and scoring flow is demonstrated on 28nm logic technology node. A weak pattern library is created and scored to help improve recipe coverage of litho hotspots and enhance the reliability of process.

  8. Improved GART neural network model for pattern classification and rule extraction with application to power systems.

    PubMed

    Yap, Keem Siah; Lim, Chee Peng; Au, Mau Teng

    2011-12-01

    Generalized adaptive resonance theory (GART) is a neural network model that is capable of online learning and is effective in tackling pattern classification tasks. In this paper, we propose an improved GART model (IGART), and demonstrate its applicability to power systems. IGART enhances the dynamics of GART in several aspects, which include the use of the Laplacian likelihood function, a new vigilance function, a new match-tracking mechanism, an ordering algorithm for determining the sequence of training data, and a rule extraction capability to elicit if-then rules from the network. To assess the effectiveness of IGART and to compare its performances with those from other methods, three datasets that are related to power systems are employed. The experimental results demonstrate the usefulness of IGART with the rule extraction capability in undertaking classification problems in power systems engineering.

  9. Intelligent Systems For Aerospace Engineering: An Overview

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    KrishnaKumar, K.

    2003-01-01

    Intelligent systems are nature-inspired, mathematically sound, computationally intensive problem solving tools and methodologies that have become extremely important for advancing the current trends in information technology. Artificially intelligent systems currently utilize computers to emulate various faculties of human intelligence and biological metaphors. They use a combination of symbolic and sub-symbolic systems capable of evolving human cognitive skills and intelligence, not just systems capable of doing things humans do not do well. Intelligent systems are ideally suited for tasks such as search and optimization, pattern recognition and matching, planning, uncertainty management, control, and adaptation. In this paper, the intelligent system technologies and their application potential are highlighted via several examples.

  10. Automated location detection of injection site for preclinical stereotactic neurosurgery procedure

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abbaszadeh, Shiva; Wu, Hemmings C. H.

    2017-03-01

    Currently, during stereotactic neurosurgery procedures, the manual task of locating the proper area for needle insertion or implantation of electrode/cannula/optic fiber can be time consuming. The requirement of the task is to quickly and accurately find the location for insertion. In this study we investigate an automated method to locate the entry point of region of interest. This method leverages a digital image capture system, pattern recognition, and motorized stages. Template matching of known anatomical identifiable regions is used to find regions of interest (e.g. Bregma) in rodents. For our initial study, we tackle the problem of automatically detecting the entry point.

  11. Intelligent Systems for Aerospace Engineering: An Overview

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Krishnakumar, Kalmanje

    2002-01-01

    Intelligent systems are nature-inspired, mathematically sound, computationally intensive problem solving tools and methodologies that have become extremely important for advancing the current trends in information technology. Artificially intelligent systems currently utilize computers to emulate various faculties of human intelligence and biological metaphors. They use a combination of symbolic and sub-symbolic systems capable of evolving human cognitive skills and intelligence, not just systems capable of doing things humans do not do well. Intelligent systems are ideally suited for tasks such as search and optimization, pattern recognition and matching, planning, uncertainty management, control, and adaptation. In this paper, the intelligent system technologies and their application potential are highlighted via several examples.

  12. Testing the domain-specificity of a theory of mind deficit in brain-injured patients: evidence for consistent performance on non-verbal, "reality-unknown" false belief and false photograph tasks.

    PubMed

    Apperly, Ian A; Samson, Dana; Chiavarino, Claudia; Bickerton, Wai-Ling; Humphreys, Glyn W

    2007-05-01

    To test the domain-specificity of "theory of mind" abilities we compared the performance of a case-series of 11 brain-lesioned patients on a recently developed test of false belief reasoning () and on a matched false photograph task, which did not require belief reasoning and which addressed problems with existing false photograph methods. A strikingly similar pattern of performance was shown across the false belief and false photograph tests. Patients who were selectively impaired on false belief tasks were also impaired on false photograph tasks; patients spared on false belief tasks also showed preserved performance with false photographs. In some cases the impairment on false belief and false photograph tasks coincided with good performance on control tasks matched for executive demands. We discuss whether the patients have a domain-specific deficit in reasoning about representations common to both false belief and false photograph tasks.

  13. Data-driven cluster reinforcement and visualization in sparsely-matched self-organizing maps.

    PubMed

    Manukyan, Narine; Eppstein, Margaret J; Rizzo, Donna M

    2012-05-01

    A self-organizing map (SOM) is a self-organized projection of high-dimensional data onto a typically 2-dimensional (2-D) feature map, wherein vector similarity is implicitly translated into topological closeness in the 2-D projection. However, when there are more neurons than input patterns, it can be challenging to interpret the results, due to diffuse cluster boundaries and limitations of current methods for displaying interneuron distances. In this brief, we introduce a new cluster reinforcement (CR) phase for sparsely-matched SOMs. The CR phase amplifies within-cluster similarity in an unsupervised, data-driven manner. Discontinuities in the resulting map correspond to between-cluster distances and are stored in a boundary (B) matrix. We describe a new hierarchical visualization of cluster boundaries displayed directly on feature maps, which requires no further clustering beyond what was implicitly accomplished during self-organization in SOM training. We use a synthetic benchmark problem and previously published microbial community profile data to demonstrate the benefits of the proposed methods.

  14. Hand gesture recognition by analysis of codons

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ramachandra, Poornima; Shrikhande, Neelima

    2007-09-01

    The problem of recognizing gestures from images using computers can be approached by closely understanding how the human brain tackles it. A full fledged gesture recognition system will substitute mouse and keyboards completely. Humans can recognize most gestures by looking at the characteristic external shape or the silhouette of the fingers. Many previous techniques to recognize gestures dealt with motion and geometric features of hands. In this thesis gestures are recognized by the Codon-list pattern extracted from the object contour. All edges of an image are described in terms of sequence of Codons. The Codons are defined in terms of the relationship between maxima, minima and zeros of curvature encountered as one traverses the boundary of the object. We have concentrated on a catalog of 24 gesture images from the American Sign Language alphabet (Letter J and Z are ignored as they are represented using motion) [2]. The query image given as an input to the system is analyzed and tested against the Codon-lists, which are shape descriptors for external parts of a hand gesture. We have used the Weighted Frequency Indexing Transform (WFIT) approach which is used in DNA sequence matching for matching the Codon-lists. The matching algorithm consists of two steps: 1) the query sequences are converted to short sequences and are assigned weights and, 2) all the sequences of query gestures are pruned into match and mismatch subsequences by the frequency indexing tree based on the weights of the subsequences. The Codon sequences with the most weight are used to determine the most precise match. Once a match is found, the identified gesture and corresponding interpretation are shown as output.

  15. Searching social networks for subgraph patterns

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ogaard, Kirk; Kase, Sue; Roy, Heather; Nagi, Rakesh; Sambhoos, Kedar; Sudit, Moises

    2013-06-01

    Software tools for Social Network Analysis (SNA) are being developed which support various types of analysis of social networks extracted from social media websites (e.g., Twitter). Once extracted and stored in a database such social networks are amenable to analysis by SNA software. This data analysis often involves searching for occurrences of various subgraph patterns (i.e., graphical representations of entities and relationships). The authors have developed the Graph Matching Toolkit (GMT) which provides an intuitive Graphical User Interface (GUI) for a heuristic graph matching algorithm called the Truncated Search Tree (TruST) algorithm. GMT is a visual interface for graph matching algorithms processing large social networks. GMT enables an analyst to draw a subgraph pattern by using a mouse to select categories and labels for nodes and links from drop-down menus. GMT then executes the TruST algorithm to find the top five occurrences of the subgraph pattern within the social network stored in the database. GMT was tested using a simulated counter-insurgency dataset consisting of cellular phone communications within a populated area of operations in Iraq. The results indicated GMT (when executing the TruST graph matching algorithm) is a time-efficient approach to searching large social networks. GMT's visual interface to a graph matching algorithm enables intelligence analysts to quickly analyze and summarize the large amounts of data necessary to produce actionable intelligence.

  16. Mesopause Horizontal wind estimates based on AIM CIPS polar mesospheric cloud pattern matching

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rong, P.; Yue, J.; Russell, J. M.; Gong, J.; Wu, D. L.; Randall, C. E.

    2013-12-01

    A cloud pattern matching approach is used to estimate horizontal winds in the mesopause region using Polar Mesospheric Cloud (PMC) albedo data measured by the Cloud Imaging and Particle Size instrument on the AIM satellite. Measurements for all 15 orbits per day throughout July 2007 are used to achieve statistical significance. For each orbit, eighteen out of the twenty-seven scenes are used for the pattern matching operation. Some scenes at the lower latitudes are not included because there is barely any cloud coverage for these scenes. The frame-size chosen is about 12 degrees in longitude and 3 degrees in latitude. There is no strict criterion in choosing the frame size since PMCs are widespread in the polar region and most local patterns do not have a clearly defined boundary. The frame moves at a step of 1/6th of the frame size in both the longitudinal and latitudinal directions to achieve as many 'snap-shots' as possible. A 70% correlation is used as a criterion to define an acceptable match between two patterns at two time frames; in this case the time difference is about 3.6 minutes that spans every 5 'bowtie' scenes. A 70% criterion appears weak if the chosen pattern is expected to act like a tracer. It is known that PMC brightness varies rapidly with a changing temperature and water vapor environment or changing nucleation conditions, especially on smaller spatial scales; therefore PMC patterns are not ideal tracers. Nevertheless, within a short time span such as 3.6 minutes a 70% correlation is sufficient to identify two cloud patterns that come from the same source region, although the two patterns may exhibit a significant difference in the actual brightness. Analysis of a large number of matched cloud patterns indicates that over the 3.6-minute time span about 70% of the patterns remain in the same locations. Given the 25-km2 horizontal resolution of CIPS data, this suggests that the overall magnitude of horizontal wind at PMC altitudes (~80-87 km) in the polar summer cannot exceed 25 m/s. In other words, the wind detection resolution is no better than 25 m/s. There are about 10% of cases in which it appears that an easterly prevails, with a peak value at about 80-100m/s. In another 5% of cases a westerly appears to prevail. The remaining 15% cases are related to either invalid cloud features with poor background correction or the situation in which the matching occurs at the corners of the bowties. The AIM CIPS cloud pattern matching results overall suggest that higher wind speed (25-200 m/s) can be reached occasionally, while in a majority of cases the wind advection caused albedo change is much smaller than the in-situ albedo change. However, we must note that this analysis was a feasibility study and the short period analyzed may not be representative of the winds over a seasonal time scale or the multiple-year average.

  17. How Game Location Affects Soccer Performance: T-Pattern Analysis of Attack Actions in Home and Away Matches.

    PubMed

    Diana, Barbara; Zurloni, Valentino; Elia, Massimiliano; Cavalera, Cesare M; Jonsson, Gudberg K; Anguera, M Teresa

    2017-01-01

    The influence of game location on performance has been widely examined in sport contexts. Concerning soccer, game-location affects positively the secondary and tertiary level of performance; however, there are fewer evidences about its effect on game structure (primary level of performance). This study aimed to detect the effect of game location on a primary level of performance in soccer. In particular, the objective was to reveal the hidden structures underlying the attack actions, in both home and away matches played by a top club (Serie A 2012/2013-First Leg). The methodological approach was based on systematic observation, supported by digital recordings and T-pattern analysis. Data were analyzed with THEME 6.0 software. A quantitative analysis, with nonparametric Mann-Whitney test and descriptive statistics, was carried out to test the hypotheses. A qualitative analysis on complex patterns was performed to get in-depth information on the game structure. This study showed that game tactics were significantly different, with home matches characterized by a more structured and varied game than away matches. In particular, a higher number of different patterns, with a higher level of complexity and including more unique behaviors was detected in home matches than in the away ones. No significant differences were found in the number of events coded per game between the two conditions. THEME software, and the corresponding T-pattern detection algorithm, enhance research opportunities by going further than frequency-based analyses, making this method an effective tool in supporting sport performance analysis and training.

  18. How Game Location Affects Soccer Performance: T-Pattern Analysis of Attack Actions in Home and Away Matches

    PubMed Central

    Diana, Barbara; Zurloni, Valentino; Elia, Massimiliano; Cavalera, Cesare M.; Jonsson, Gudberg K.; Anguera, M. Teresa

    2017-01-01

    The influence of game location on performance has been widely examined in sport contexts. Concerning soccer, game-location affects positively the secondary and tertiary level of performance; however, there are fewer evidences about its effect on game structure (primary level of performance). This study aimed to detect the effect of game location on a primary level of performance in soccer. In particular, the objective was to reveal the hidden structures underlying the attack actions, in both home and away matches played by a top club (Serie A 2012/2013—First Leg). The methodological approach was based on systematic observation, supported by digital recordings and T-pattern analysis. Data were analyzed with THEME 6.0 software. A quantitative analysis, with nonparametric Mann–Whitney test and descriptive statistics, was carried out to test the hypotheses. A qualitative analysis on complex patterns was performed to get in-depth information on the game structure. This study showed that game tactics were significantly different, with home matches characterized by a more structured and varied game than away matches. In particular, a higher number of different patterns, with a higher level of complexity and including more unique behaviors was detected in home matches than in the away ones. No significant differences were found in the number of events coded per game between the two conditions. THEME software, and the corresponding T-pattern detection algorithm, enhance research opportunities by going further than frequency-based analyses, making this method an effective tool in supporting sport performance analysis and training. PMID:28878712

  19. Characteristics of the personal and environmental components of person-environment fit in very old age: a comparison between people with self-reported Parkinson's disease and matched controls.

    PubMed

    Slaug, Björn; Nilsson, Maria H; Iwarsson, Susanne

    2013-12-01

    To investigate differences and similarities in person-environment (P-E) fit problems between very old people with self-reported Parkinson's disease (PD) and matched controls. Data collected for the cross-national ENABLE-AGE Survey Study were used to identify people with self-reported PD (n = 20), and to select three matched controls per individual (n = 60). The matching criteria were age (mean = 82 years), sex, country, and type of housing. The data analysis targeted P-E fit (i.e. accessibility) problems, including studying the personal and environmental components separately. The personal component was analyzed in terms of functional limitations, and the environmental component in terms of physical environmental barriers. In comparison to the matched controls, the participants with PD had more functional limitations, used more mobility devices and were subjected to more P-E fit problems, though the number of environmental barriers did not differ from the controls. In the PD sample, P-E fit problems were significantly stronger associated with poor balance and incoordination, and the environmental barriers that generated the most severe P-E fit problems were more often located to the exterior surroundings of the housing compared to the controls. The novel contribution of this explorative study is the demonstration of the type of knowledge that can be generated by unfolding and comparing the composition of P-E fit (accessibility) problems among people with self-reported PD as compared with matched controls. The knowledge thereby generated can be used to develop more targeted rehabilitation approaches, efficient housing adaptation services and societal planning for people with neurodegenerative disorders.

  20. One-dimensional Euclidean matching problem: exact solutions, correlation functions, and universality.

    PubMed

    Caracciolo, Sergio; Sicuro, Gabriele

    2014-10-01

    We discuss the equivalence relation between the Euclidean bipartite matching problem on the line and on the circumference and the Brownian bridge process on the same domains. The equivalence allows us to compute the correlation function and the optimal cost of the original combinatorial problem in the thermodynamic limit; moreover, we solve also the minimax problem on the line and on the circumference. The properties of the average cost and correlation functions are discussed.

  1. The AMchip04 and the processing unit prototype for the FastTracker

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Andreani, A.; Annovi, A.; Beretta, M.; Bogdan, M.; Citterio, M.; Alberti, F.; Giannetti, P.; Lanza, A.; Magalotti, D.; Piendibene, M.; Shochet, M.; Stabile, A.; Tang, J.; Tompkins, L.; Volpi, G.

    2012-08-01

    Modern experiments search for extremely rare processes hidden in much larger background levels. As the experiment`s complexity, the accelerator backgrounds and luminosity increase we need increasingly complex and exclusive event selection. We present the first prototype of a new Processing Unit (PU), the core of the FastTracker processor (FTK). FTK is a real time tracking device for the ATLAS experiment`s trigger upgrade. The computing power of the PU is such that a few hundred of them will be able to reconstruct all the tracks with transverse momentum above 1 GeV/c in ATLAS events up to Phase II instantaneous luminosities (3 × 1034 cm-2 s-1) with an event input rate of 100 kHz and a latency below a hundred microseconds. The PU provides massive computing power to minimize the online execution time of complex tracking algorithms. The time consuming pattern recognition problem, generally referred to as the ``combinatorial challenge'', is solved by the Associative Memory (AM) technology exploiting parallelism to the maximum extent; it compares the event to all pre-calculated ``expectations'' or ``patterns'' (pattern matching) simultaneously, looking for candidate tracks called ``roads''. This approach reduces to a linear behavior the typical exponential complexity of the CPU based algorithms. Pattern recognition is completed by the time data are loaded into the AM devices. We report on the design of the first Processing Unit prototypes. The design had to address the most challenging aspects of this technology: a huge number of detector clusters (``hits'') must be distributed at high rate with very large fan-out to all patterns (10 Million patterns will be located on 128 chips placed on a single board) and a huge number of roads must be collected and sent back to the FTK post-pattern-recognition functions. A network of high speed serial links is used to solve the data distribution problem.

  2. Discovering biclusters in gene expression data based on high-dimensional linear geometries

    PubMed Central

    Gan, Xiangchao; Liew, Alan Wee-Chung; Yan, Hong

    2008-01-01

    Background In DNA microarray experiments, discovering groups of genes that share similar transcriptional characteristics is instrumental in functional annotation, tissue classification and motif identification. However, in many situations a subset of genes only exhibits consistent pattern over a subset of conditions. Conventional clustering algorithms that deal with the entire row or column in an expression matrix would therefore fail to detect these useful patterns in the data. Recently, biclustering has been proposed to detect a subset of genes exhibiting consistent pattern over a subset of conditions. However, most existing biclustering algorithms are based on searching for sub-matrices within a data matrix by optimizing certain heuristically defined merit functions. Moreover, most of these algorithms can only detect a restricted set of bicluster patterns. Results In this paper, we present a novel geometric perspective for the biclustering problem. The biclustering process is interpreted as the detection of linear geometries in a high dimensional data space. Such a new perspective views biclusters with different patterns as hyperplanes in a high dimensional space, and allows us to handle different types of linear patterns simultaneously by matching a specific set of linear geometries. This geometric viewpoint also inspires us to propose a generic bicluster pattern, i.e. the linear coherent model that unifies the seemingly incompatible additive and multiplicative bicluster models. As a particular realization of our framework, we have implemented a Hough transform-based hyperplane detection algorithm. The experimental results on human lymphoma gene expression dataset show that our algorithm can find biologically significant subsets of genes. Conclusion We have proposed a novel geometric interpretation of the biclustering problem. We have shown that many common types of bicluster are just different spatial arrangements of hyperplanes in a high dimensional data space. An implementation of the geometric framework using the Fast Hough transform for hyperplane detection can be used to discover biologically significant subsets of genes under subsets of conditions for microarray data analysis. PMID:18433477

  3. Analysis of ground state in random bipartite matching

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shi, Gui-Yuan; Kong, Yi-Xiu; Liao, Hao; Zhang, Yi-Cheng

    2016-02-01

    Bipartite matching problems emerge in many human social phenomena. In this paper, we study the ground state of the Gale-Shapley model, which is the most popular bipartite matching model. We apply the Kuhn-Munkres algorithm to compute the numerical ground state of the model. For the first time, we obtain the number of blocking pairs which is a measure of the system instability. We also show that the number of blocking pairs formed by each person follows a geometric distribution. Furthermore, we study how the connectivity in the bipartite matching problems influences the instability of the ground state.

  4. Ayahuasca in adolescence: a preliminary psychiatric assessment.

    PubMed

    Da Silveira, Dartiu Xavier; Grob, Charles S; de Rios, Marlene Dobkin; Lopez, Enrique; Alonso, Luisa K; Tacla, Cristiane; Doering-Silveira, Evelyn

    2005-06-01

    Ayahuasca is believed to be harmless for those (including adolescents) drinking it within a religious setting. Nevertheless controlled studies on the mental/ psychiatric status of ritual hallucinogenic ayahuasca concoction consumers are still lacking. In this study, 40 adolescents from a Brazilian ayahuasca sect were compared with 40 controls matched on sex, age, and educational background for psychiatric symptomatology. Screening scales for depression, anxiety, alcohol consumption patterns (abuse), attentional problems, and body dysmorphic disorders were used. It was found that, compared to controls, considerable lower frequencies of positive scoring for anxiety, body dismorphism, and attentional problems were detected among ayahuasca-using adolescents despite overall similar psychopathological profiles displayed by both study groups. Low frequencies of psychiatric symptoms detected among adolescents consuming ayahuasca within a religious context may reflect a protective effect due to their religious affiliation. However further studies on the possible interference of other variables in the outcome are necessary.

  5. Unconditional or Conditional Logistic Regression Model for Age-Matched Case-Control Data?

    PubMed

    Kuo, Chia-Ling; Duan, Yinghui; Grady, James

    2018-01-01

    Matching on demographic variables is commonly used in case-control studies to adjust for confounding at the design stage. There is a presumption that matched data need to be analyzed by matched methods. Conditional logistic regression has become a standard for matched case-control data to tackle the sparse data problem. The sparse data problem, however, may not be a concern for loose-matching data when the matching between cases and controls is not unique, and one case can be matched to other controls without substantially changing the association. Data matched on a few demographic variables are clearly loose-matching data, and we hypothesize that unconditional logistic regression is a proper method to perform. To address the hypothesis, we compare unconditional and conditional logistic regression models by precision in estimates and hypothesis testing using simulated matched case-control data. Our results support our hypothesis; however, the unconditional model is not as robust as the conditional model to the matching distortion that the matching process not only makes cases and controls similar for matching variables but also for the exposure status. When the study design involves other complex features or the computational burden is high, matching in loose-matching data can be ignored for negligible loss in testing and estimation if the distributions of matching variables are not extremely different between cases and controls.

  6. Unconditional or Conditional Logistic Regression Model for Age-Matched Case–Control Data?

    PubMed Central

    Kuo, Chia-Ling; Duan, Yinghui; Grady, James

    2018-01-01

    Matching on demographic variables is commonly used in case–control studies to adjust for confounding at the design stage. There is a presumption that matched data need to be analyzed by matched methods. Conditional logistic regression has become a standard for matched case–control data to tackle the sparse data problem. The sparse data problem, however, may not be a concern for loose-matching data when the matching between cases and controls is not unique, and one case can be matched to other controls without substantially changing the association. Data matched on a few demographic variables are clearly loose-matching data, and we hypothesize that unconditional logistic regression is a proper method to perform. To address the hypothesis, we compare unconditional and conditional logistic regression models by precision in estimates and hypothesis testing using simulated matched case–control data. Our results support our hypothesis; however, the unconditional model is not as robust as the conditional model to the matching distortion that the matching process not only makes cases and controls similar for matching variables but also for the exposure status. When the study design involves other complex features or the computational burden is high, matching in loose-matching data can be ignored for negligible loss in testing and estimation if the distributions of matching variables are not extremely different between cases and controls. PMID:29552553

  7. Congruence between nursing problems in nursing care plans and NANDA nursing diagnoses.

    PubMed

    Varsi, Cecilie; Ruland, Cornelia M

    2009-01-01

    This study abstracted nursing problems documented in cancer patients' nursing care plans to analyze (1) which nursing problems were documented and (2) the degree of congruence between the abstracted problems and NANDA nursing diagnoses. 236 unique nursing problems were identified and could be mapped to 32 NANDA nursing diagnoses. However, only 4.3% had a precise match with NANDA, Thirty-eight percent were classified as similar and the rest were broader, narrower or no match. Thus NANDA only partially covered problems written by nurses in the care plans for this group of patients.

  8. Deformed Palmprint Matching Based on Stable Regions.

    PubMed

    Wu, Xiangqian; Zhao, Qiushi

    2015-12-01

    Palmprint recognition (PR) is an effective technology for personal recognition. A main problem, which deteriorates the performance of PR, is the deformations of palmprint images. This problem becomes more severe on contactless occasions, in which images are acquired without any guiding mechanisms, and hence critically limits the applications of PR. To solve the deformation problems, in this paper, a model for non-linearly deformed palmprint matching is derived by approximating non-linear deformed palmprint images with piecewise-linear deformed stable regions. Based on this model, a novel approach for deformed palmprint matching, named key point-based block growing (KPBG), is proposed. In KPBG, an iterative M-estimator sample consensus algorithm based on scale invariant feature transform features is devised to compute piecewise-linear transformations to approximate the non-linear deformations of palmprints, and then, the stable regions complying with the linear transformations are decided using a block growing algorithm. Palmprint feature extraction and matching are performed over these stable regions to compute matching scores for decision. Experiments on several public palmprint databases show that the proposed models and the KPBG approach can effectively solve the deformation problem in palmprint verification and outperform the state-of-the-art methods.

  9. Escape Distance in Ground-Nesting Birds Differs with Individual Level of Camouflage.

    PubMed

    Wilson-Aggarwal, Jared K; Troscianko, Jolyon T; Stevens, Martin; Spottiswoode, Claire N

    2016-08-01

    Camouflage is one of the most widespread antipredator strategies in the animal kingdom, yet no animal can match its background perfectly in a complex environment. Therefore, selection should favor individuals that use information on how effective their camouflage is in their immediate habitat when responding to an approaching threat. In a field study of African ground-nesting birds (plovers, coursers, and nightjars), we tested the hypothesis that individuals adaptively modulate their escape behavior in relation to their degree of background matching. We used digital imaging and models of predator vision to quantify differences in color, luminance, and pattern between eggs and their background, as well as the plumage of incubating adult nightjars. We found that plovers and coursers showed greater escape distances when their eggs were a poorer pattern match to the background. Nightjars sit on their eggs until a potential threat is nearby, and, correspondingly, they showed greater escape distances when the pattern and color match of the incubating adult's plumage-rather than its eggs-was a poorer match to the background. Finally, escape distances were shorter in the middle of the day, suggesting that escape behavior is mediated by both camouflage and thermoregulation.

  10. The French 35-hour workweek: a wide-ranging social change.

    PubMed

    Prunier-Poulmaire, S; Gadbois, C

    2001-12-01

    The reduction of the legal working week to 35 hours in France has generated wide-ranging social change. We examine the resulting changes in working-time patterns as well as their repercussions on the use of the time gained and on the quality of life and health. To compensate the reduction in the length of the working week, companies have modified the working-time patterns, by extending operation time (shiftwork, atypical schedules) and by matching the on-site workforce to production requirements (flexible working hours). They have sought to make more efficient use of working time: job intensification or job compression. The effects on the off-the-job life and health are linked to the shiftwork and atypical schedules designed to increase the company's operating time, and adjustments to the company's need for flexibilization impose working time/free time patterns that are at odds with biological rhythms and social life patterns. Changes to working-time patterns have unexpected consequences for work organization: heightened difficulties for the individual and the crew. These changes may generate a range of health problems related to overwork and stress. The way some companies have adapted may call into question the usefulness of work done by employees, thus damaging their social identity and mental well-being.

  11. Matching games with partial information

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Laureti, Paolo; Zhang, Yi-Cheng

    2003-06-01

    We analyze different ways of pairing agents in a bipartite matching problem, with regard to its scaling properties and to the distribution of individual “satisfactions”. Then we explore the role of partial information and bounded rationality in a generalized Marriage Problem, comparing the benefits obtained by self-searching and by a matchmaker. Finally we propose a modified matching game intended to mimic the way consumers’ information makes firms to enhance the quality of their products in a competitive market.

  12. Prosody and alignment: a sequential perspective

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Szczepek Reed, Beatrice

    2010-12-01

    In their analysis of a corpus of classroom interactions in an inner city high school, Roth and Tobin describe how teachers and students accomplish interactional alignment by prosodically matching each other's turns. Prosodic matching, and specific prosodic patterns are interpreted as signs of, and contributions to successful interactional outcomes and positive emotions. Lack of prosodic matching, and other specific prosodic patterns are interpreted as features of unsuccessful interactions, and negative emotions. This forum focuses on the article's analysis of the relation between interpersonal alignment, emotion and prosody. It argues that prosodic matching, and other prosodic linking practices, play a primarily sequential role, i.e. one that displays the way in which participants place and design their turns in relation to other participants' turns. Prosodic matching, rather than being a conversational action in itself, is argued to be an interactional practice (Schegloff 1997), which is not always employed for the accomplishment of `positive', or aligning actions.

  13. Pitch Adaptation Patterns in Bimodal Cochlear Implant Users: Over Time and After Experience

    PubMed Central

    Reiss, Lina A.J.; Ito, Rindy A.; Eggleston, Jessica L.; Liao, Selena; Becker, Jillian J.; Lakin, Carrie E.; Warren, Frank M.; McMenomey, Sean O.

    2014-01-01

    Background Pitch plasticity has been observed in Hybrid cochlear implant (CI) users. Does pitch plasticity also occur in bimodal CI users with traditional long-electrode CIs, and is pitch adaptation pattern associated with electrode discrimination or speech recognition performance? Objective Characterize pitch adaptation patterns in long-electrode CI users, correlate these patterns with electrode discrimination and speech perception outcomes, and analyze which subject factors are associated with the different patterns. Methods Electric-to-acoustic pitch matches were obtained in 19 subjects over time from CI activation to at least 12 months after activation, and in a separate group of 18 subjects in a single visit after at least 24 months of CI experience. Audiometric thresholds, electrode discrimination performance, and speech perception scores were also measured. Results Subjects measured over time had pitch adaptation patterns that fit one of the following categories: 1) “Pitch-adapting”, i.e. the mismatch between perceived electrode pitch and the corresponding frequency-to-electrode allocations decreased; 2) “Pitch-dropping”, i.e. the pitches of multiple electrodes dropped and converged to a similar low pitch; 3) “Pitch-unchanging”, i.e. electrode pitches did not change. Subjects measured after CI experience had a parallel set of adaptation patterns: 1) “Matched-pitch”, i.e. the electrode pitch was matched to the frequency allocation; 2) “Low-pitch”, i.e. the pitches of multiple electrodes were all around the lowest frequency allocation; 3) “Nonmatched-pitch”, i.e. the pitch patterns were compressed relative to the frequency allocations and did not fit either the matched-pitch or low-pitch categories. Unlike Hybrid CI users which were mostly in the pitch-adapting/matched-pitch category, the majority of bimodal CI users were in the latter two categories, pitch-dropping/low-pitch or pitch-unchanging/nonmatched-pitch. Subjects with pitch-adapting or matched-pitch patterns tended to have better low-frequency thresholds than subjects in the latter categories. Changes in electrode discrimination over time were not associated with changes in pitch differences between electrodes. Reductions in speech perception scores over time showed a weak but nonsignificant association with dropping-pitch patterns. Conclusions Bimodal CI users with more residual hearing may have somewhat greater similarity to Hybrid CI users and be more likely to adapt pitch perception to reduce mismatch with the frequencies allocated to the electrodes and the acoustic hearing. In contrast, bimodal CI users with less residual hearing exhibit either no adaptation, or surprisingly, a third pattern in which the pitches of the basal electrodes drop to match the frequency range allocated to the most apical electrode. The lack of association of electrode discrimination changes with pitch changes suggests that electrode discrimination does not depend on perceived pitch differences between electrodes, but rather on some other characteristics such as timbre. In contrast, speech perception may depend more on pitch perception and the ability to distinguish pitch between electrodes, especially since during multi-electrode stimulation, cues such as timbre may be less useful for discrimination. PMID:25319401

  14. Fingering patterns in magnetic fluids: Perturbative solutions and the stability of exact stationary shapes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Anjos, Pedro H. A.; Lira, Sérgio A.; Miranda, José A.

    2018-04-01

    We examine the formation of interfacial patterns when a magnetic liquid droplet (ferrofluid, or a magnetorheological fluid), surrounded by a nonmagnetic fluid, is subjected to a radial magnetic field in a Hele-Shaw cell. By using a vortex-sheet formalism, we find exact stationary solutions for the fluid-fluid interface in the form of n -fold polygonal shapes. A weakly nonlinear, mode-coupling method is then utilized to find time-evolving perturbative solutions for the interfacial patterns. The stability of such nonzero surface tension exact solutions is checked and discussed, by trying to systematically approach the exact stationary shapes through perturbative solutions containing an increasingly larger number of participating Fourier modes. Our results indicate that the exact stationary solutions of the problem are stable, and that a good matching between exact and perturbative shape solutions is achieved just by using a few Fourier modes. The stability of such solutions is substantiated by a linearization process close to the stationary shape, where a system of mode-coupling equations is diagonalized, determining the eigenvalues which dictate the stability of a fixed point.

  15. A free interactive matching program

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    J.-F. Ostiguy

    1999-04-16

    For physicists and engineers involved in the design and analysis of beamlines (transfer lines or insertions) the lattice function matching problem is central and can be time-consuming because it involves constrained nonlinear optimization. For such problems convergence can be difficult to obtain in general without expert human intervention. Over the years, powerful codes have been developed to assist beamline designers. The canonical example is MAD (Methodical Accelerator Design) developed at CERN by Christophe Iselin. MAD, through a specialized command language, allows one to solve a wide variety of problems, including matching problems. Although in principle, the MAD command interpreter canmore » be run interactively, in practice the solution of a matching problem involves a sequence of independent trial runs. Unfortunately, but perhaps not surprisingly, there still exists relatively few tools exploiting the resources offered by modern environments to assist lattice designer with this routine and repetitive task. In this paper, we describe a fully interactive lattice matching program, written in C++ and assembled using freely available software components. An important feature of the code is that the evolution of the lattice functions during the nonlinear iterative process can be graphically monitored in real time; the user can dynamically interrupt the iterations at will to introduce new variables, freeze existing ones into their current state and/or modify constraints. The program runs under both UNIX and Windows NT.« less

  16. Integrating an object system into CLIPS: Language design and implementation issues

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Auburn, Mark

    1990-01-01

    This paper describes the reasons why an object system with integrated pattern-matching and object-oriented programming facilities is desirable for CLIPS and how it is possible to integrate such a system into CLIPS while maintaining the run-time performance and the low memory usage for which CLIPS is known. The requirements for an object system in CLIPS that includes object-oriented programming and integrated pattern-matching are discussed and various techniques for optimizing the object system and its integration with the pattern-matcher are presented.

  17. A Statistical Procedure for Testing Unusually Frequent Exactly Matching Responses and Nearly Matching Responses. Research Report. ETS RR-17-23

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Haberman, Shelby J.; Lee, Yi-Hsuan

    2017-01-01

    In investigations of unusual testing behavior, a common question is whether a specific pattern of responses occurs unusually often within a group of examinees. In many current tests, modern communication techniques can permit quite large numbers of examinees to share keys, or common response patterns, to the entire test. To address this issue,…

  18. Patterns of Somatic Diagnoses in Older People with Intellectual Disability: A Swedish Eleven Year Case-Control Study of Inpatient Data

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sandberg, Magnus; Ahlström, Gerd; Kristensson, Jimmie

    2017-01-01

    Background: Knowledge about diagnoses patterns in older people with intellectual disabilities is limited. Methods: The case group (n = 7936) comprised people with intellectual disabilities aged 55 years and older. The control group (n = 7936) was age matched and sex matched. Somatic inpatient diagnoses (2002-2012) were collected retrospectively.…

  19. Probabilistic arithmetic automata and their applications.

    PubMed

    Marschall, Tobias; Herms, Inke; Kaltenbach, Hans-Michael; Rahmann, Sven

    2012-01-01

    We present a comprehensive review on probabilistic arithmetic automata (PAAs), a general model to describe chains of operations whose operands depend on chance, along with two algorithms to numerically compute the distribution of the results of such probabilistic calculations. PAAs provide a unifying framework to approach many problems arising in computational biology and elsewhere. We present five different applications, namely 1) pattern matching statistics on random texts, including the computation of the distribution of occurrence counts, waiting times, and clump sizes under hidden Markov background models; 2) exact analysis of window-based pattern matching algorithms; 3) sensitivity of filtration seeds used to detect candidate sequence alignments; 4) length and mass statistics of peptide fragments resulting from enzymatic cleavage reactions; and 5) read length statistics of 454 and IonTorrent sequencing reads. The diversity of these applications indicates the flexibility and unifying character of the presented framework. While the construction of a PAA depends on the particular application, we single out a frequently applicable construction method: We introduce deterministic arithmetic automata (DAAs) to model deterministic calculations on sequences, and demonstrate how to construct a PAA from a given DAA and a finite-memory random text model. This procedure is used for all five discussed applications and greatly simplifies the construction of PAAs. Implementations are available as part of the MoSDi package. Its application programming interface facilitates the rapid development of new applications based on the PAA framework.

  20. Effective Association of SAR and AIS Data Using Non-Rigid Point Pattern Matching

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhao, Z.; Ji, K. F.; Xing, X. W.; Zou, H. X.

    2014-03-01

    Ship surveillance using multiple remote sensing sensors becomes more and more vital presently. Among the various sensors, space-borne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is optimal for its high resolution over wide swaths and all-weather working capabilities. Meanwhile, Automatic Identification System (AIS) is efficient to provide ship navigational information. Limited to the progress of ship surveillance using SAR image only, the integration of them significantly benefits more. Data association is the fundamental issue. Many algorithms have been developed including the Nearest-Neighbour (NN) algorithm, the Joint Probabilistic Data Association (JPDA) method, and the Multiple Hypothesis Testing (MHT) approach. Ship positions derived from SAR image can be associated with the ones provided by AIS. State-of-the-art method (NN algorithm) is proved to be feasible. But it faces more challenges under adverse circumstances, such as high-density-shipping condition. We investigate the non-rigid Point Pattern Matching (PPM) method to solve this problem. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to introduce non-rigid PPM to the data association of SAR and AIS. On the basis of introduction to the data association, Coherent Point Drift (CPD) algorithm is investigated. Experiments are carried out and the results illustrate that the CPD algorithm achieves higher accuracy and outperforms state-of-the-art method, especially under high-density-shipping condition.

  1. The Common Patterns of Nature

    PubMed Central

    Frank, Steven A.

    2010-01-01

    We typically observe large-scale outcomes that arise from the interactions of many hidden, small-scale processes. Examples include age of disease onset, rates of amino acid substitutions, and composition of ecological communities. The macroscopic patterns in each problem often vary around a characteristic shape that can be generated by neutral processes. A neutral generative model assumes that each microscopic process follows unbiased or random stochastic fluctuations: random connections of network nodes; amino acid substitutions with no effect on fitness; species that arise or disappear from communities randomly. These neutral generative models often match common patterns of nature. In this paper, I present the theoretical background by which we can understand why these neutral generative models are so successful. I show where the classic patterns come from, such as the Poisson pattern, the normal or Gaussian pattern, and many others. Each classic pattern was often discovered by a simple neutral generative model. The neutral patterns share a special characteristic: they describe the patterns of nature that follow from simple constraints on information. For example, any aggregation of processes that preserves information only about the mean and variance attracts to the Gaussian pattern; any aggregation that preserves information only about the mean attracts to the exponential pattern; any aggregation that preserves information only about the geometric mean attracts to the power law pattern. I present a simple and consistent informational framework of the common patterns of nature based on the method of maximum entropy. This framework shows that each neutral generative model is a special case that helps to discover a particular set of informational constraints; those informational constraints define a much wider domain of non-neutral generative processes that attract to the same neutral pattern. PMID:19538344

  2. Concurrent Reinforcement Schedules for Problem Behavior and Appropriate Behavior: Experimental Applications of the Matching Law

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Borrero, Carrie S. W.; Vollmer, Timothy R.; Borrero, John C.; Bourret, Jason C.; Sloman, Kimberly N.; Samaha, Andrew L.; Dallery, Jesse

    2010-01-01

    This study evaluated how children who exhibited functionally equivalent problem and appropriate behavior allocate responding to experimentally arranged reinforcer rates. Relative reinforcer rates were arranged on concurrent variable-interval schedules and effects on relative response rates were interpreted using the generalized matching equation.…

  3. Performance evaluation of the multiple root node approach to the Rete pattern matcher for production systems

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Sohn, A.; Gaudiot, J.-L.

    1991-12-31

    Much effort has been expanded on special architectures and algorithms dedicated to efficient processing of the pattern matching step of production systems. In this paper, the authors investigate the possible improvement on the Rete pattern matcher for production systems. Inefficiencies in the Rete match algorithm have been identified, based on which they introduce a pattern matcher with multiple root nodes. A complete implementation of the multiple root node-based production system interpreter is presented to investigate its relative algorithmic behavior over the Rete-based Ops5 production system interpreter. Benchmark production system programs are executed (not simulated) on a sequential machine Sun 4/490more » by using both interpreters and various experimental results are presented. Their investigation indicates that the multiple root node-based production system interpreter would give a maximum of up to 6-fold improvement over the Lisp implementation of the Rete-based Ops5 for the match step.« less

  4. Moving Object Detection Using a Parallax Shift Vector Algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gural, Peter S.; Otto, Paul R.; Tedesco, Edward F.

    2018-07-01

    There are various algorithms currently in use to detect asteroids from ground-based observatories, but they are generally restricted to linear or mildly curved movement of the target object across the field of view. Space-based sensors in high inclination, low Earth orbits can induce significant parallax in a collected sequence of images, especially for objects at the typical distances of asteroids in the inner solar system. This results in a highly nonlinear motion pattern of the asteroid across the sensor, which requires a more sophisticated search pattern for detection processing. Both the classical pattern matching used in ground-based asteroid search and the more sensitive matched filtering and synthetic tracking techniques, can be adapted to account for highly complex parallax motion. A new shift vector generation methodology is discussed along with its impacts on commonly used detection algorithms, processing load, and responsiveness to asteroid track reporting. The matched filter, template generator, and pattern matcher source code for the software described herein are available via GitHub.

  5. Customer and household matching: resolving entity identity in data warehouses

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Berndt, Donald J.; Satterfield, Ronald K.

    2000-04-01

    The data preparation and cleansing tasks necessary to ensure high quality data are among the most difficult challenges faced in data warehousing and data mining projects. The extraction of source data, transformation into new forms, and loading into a data warehouse environment are all time consuming tasks that can be supported by methodologies and tools. This paper focuses on the problem of record linkage or entity matching, tasks that can be very important in providing high quality data. Merging two or more large databases into a single integrated system is a difficult problem in many industries, especially in the wake of acquisitions. For example, managing customer lists can be challenging when duplicate entries, data entry problems, and changing information conspire to make data quality an elusive target. Common tasks with regard to customer lists include customer matching to reduce duplicate entries and household matching to group customers. These often O(n2) problems can consume significant resources, both in computing infrastructure and human oversight, and the goal of high accuracy in the final integrated database can be difficult to assure. This paper distinguishes between attribute corruption and entity corruption, discussing the various impacts on quality. A metajoin operator is proposed and used to organize past and current entity matching techniques. Finally, a logistic regression approach to implementing the metajoin operator is discussed and illustrated with an example. The metajoin can be used to determine whether two records match, don't match, or require further evaluation by human experts. Properly implemented, the metajoin operator could allow the integration of individual databases with greater accuracy and lower cost.

  6. Toward More Accurate Iris Recognition Using Cross-Spectral Matching.

    PubMed

    Nalla, Pattabhi Ramaiah; Kumar, Ajay

    2017-01-01

    Iris recognition systems are increasingly deployed for large-scale applications such as national ID programs, which continue to acquire millions of iris images to establish identity among billions. However, with the availability of variety of iris sensors that are deployed for the iris imaging under different illumination/environment, significant performance degradation is expected while matching such iris images acquired under two different domains (either sensor-specific or wavelength-specific). This paper develops a domain adaptation framework to address this problem and introduces a new algorithm using Markov random fields model to significantly improve cross-domain iris recognition. The proposed domain adaptation framework based on the naive Bayes nearest neighbor classification uses a real-valued feature representation, which is capable of learning domain knowledge. Our approach to estimate corresponding visible iris patterns from the synthesis of iris patches in the near infrared iris images achieves outperforming results for the cross-spectral iris recognition. In this paper, a new class of bi-spectral iris recognition system that can simultaneously acquire visible and near infra-red images with pixel-to-pixel correspondences is proposed and evaluated. This paper presents experimental results from three publicly available databases; PolyU cross-spectral iris image database, IIITD CLI and UND database, and achieve outperforming results for the cross-sensor and cross-spectral iris matching.

  7. Schema Knowledge Structures for Representing and Understanding Arithmetic Story Problems.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1987-03-01

    do so on a common unit of measure. Implicit in the CP relation is the concept of one-to- one matching of one element in the problem with the other. As...engages in one-to-one matching , removing one member from each set and setting them apart as a matched pair. The smaller of the two sets is the one...to be critical. As we pointed out earlier, some of the semantic * relations can be present in situations that demand any of * the four arithmetic

  8. The Effect of Timbre, Pitch, and Vibrato on Vocal Pitch-Matching Accuracy.

    PubMed

    Duvvuru, Sirisha; Erickson, Molly

    2016-05-01

    This study seeks to examine how target stimulus timbre, vibrato, pitch, and singer classification affect pitch-matching accuracy. This is a repeated-measures factorial design. Source signals were synthesized with a source slope of -12 dB/octave with and without vibrato at each of the pitches, C4, B4, and F5. These source signals were filtered using five formant patterns (A-E) constituting a total of 30 stimuli (5 formant patterns × 3 pitches × 2 vibrato conditions). Twelve sopranos and 11 mezzo-sopranos with at least 3 years of individual voice training were recruited from the University Of Tennessee, Knoxville, School of Music and the Knoxville Opera Company. Each singer attempted to match the pitch of all 30 stimuli presented twice in a random order. Results indicated that there was no significant effect of formant pattern on pitch-matching accuracy. With increasing pitch from C4 to F5, pitch-matching accuracy increased in midpoint of the vowel condition but not in prephonatory set condition. Mezzo-sopranos moved toward being in tune from prephonatory to midpoint of the vowel. However, sopranos at C4 sang closer to being in tune at prephonatory but lowered the pitch at the midpoint of the vowel. Presence or absence of vibrato did not affect the pitch-matching accuracy. However, the interesting finding of the study was that singers attempted to match the timbre of stimuli with vibrato. The results of this study show that pitch matching is a complex process affected by many parameters. Copyright © 2016 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Application of Approximate Pattern Matching in Two Dimensional Spaces to Grid Layout for Biochemical Network Maps

    PubMed Central

    Inoue, Kentaro; Shimozono, Shinichi; Yoshida, Hideaki; Kurata, Hiroyuki

    2012-01-01

    Background For visualizing large-scale biochemical network maps, it is important to calculate the coordinates of molecular nodes quickly and to enhance the understanding or traceability of them. The grid layout is effective in drawing compact, orderly, balanced network maps with node label spaces, but existing grid layout algorithms often require a high computational cost because they have to consider complicated positional constraints through the entire optimization process. Results We propose a hybrid grid layout algorithm that consists of a non-grid, fast layout (preprocessor) algorithm and an approximate pattern matching algorithm that distributes the resultant preprocessed nodes on square grid points. To demonstrate the feasibility of the hybrid layout algorithm, it is characterized in terms of the calculation time, numbers of edge-edge and node-edge crossings, relative edge lengths, and F-measures. The proposed algorithm achieves outstanding performances compared with other existing grid layouts. Conclusions Use of an approximate pattern matching algorithm quickly redistributes the laid-out nodes by fast, non-grid algorithms on the square grid points, while preserving the topological relationships among the nodes. The proposed algorithm is a novel use of the pattern matching, thereby providing a breakthrough for grid layout. This application program can be freely downloaded from http://www.cadlive.jp/hybridlayout/hybridlayout.html. PMID:22679486

  10. Three-dimensional particle tracking in concave structures made by ultraviolet nanoimprint via total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy and refractive-index-matching method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fujinami, Taku; Kigami, Hiroshi; Unno, Noriyuki; Taniguchi, Jun; Satake, Shin-ichi

    2018-06-01

    Total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM) is a promising method for measuring fluid flow close to a wall with nanoscale resolution in a process that is termed "multilayer nanoparticle image velocimetry" (MnPIV). TIRFM uses evanescent light that is generated on a substrate (typically a glass slide) by total internal reflection of light. Many researchers have previously studied x- y- z (3D) flows of water close to flat glass slides using MnPIV. On the other hand, a fluid flow close to a structured surface is also important. To measure flows of water near micro-patterns, we previously developed an MnPIV technique that uses a refractive-index-matching method. In previous study, the micropattern is made of a thermoplastic material with a refractive index that closely matches that of water. In this study, ultraviolet nanoimprint lithography was used for fabricating the appropriate micro-patterns because this technique can fabricate a pattern with a high resolution. As a result, we succeeded in performing MnPIV in water with a circular hole array pattern made by ultraviolet nanoimprint using a refractive-index-matching method. We believe that this technique will be helpful in elucidating fluid flows around microstructures.

  11. Application of approximate pattern matching in two dimensional spaces to grid layout for biochemical network maps.

    PubMed

    Inoue, Kentaro; Shimozono, Shinichi; Yoshida, Hideaki; Kurata, Hiroyuki

    2012-01-01

    For visualizing large-scale biochemical network maps, it is important to calculate the coordinates of molecular nodes quickly and to enhance the understanding or traceability of them. The grid layout is effective in drawing compact, orderly, balanced network maps with node label spaces, but existing grid layout algorithms often require a high computational cost because they have to consider complicated positional constraints through the entire optimization process. We propose a hybrid grid layout algorithm that consists of a non-grid, fast layout (preprocessor) algorithm and an approximate pattern matching algorithm that distributes the resultant preprocessed nodes on square grid points. To demonstrate the feasibility of the hybrid layout algorithm, it is characterized in terms of the calculation time, numbers of edge-edge and node-edge crossings, relative edge lengths, and F-measures. The proposed algorithm achieves outstanding performances compared with other existing grid layouts. Use of an approximate pattern matching algorithm quickly redistributes the laid-out nodes by fast, non-grid algorithms on the square grid points, while preserving the topological relationships among the nodes. The proposed algorithm is a novel use of the pattern matching, thereby providing a breakthrough for grid layout. This application program can be freely downloaded from http://www.cadlive.jp/hybridlayout/hybridlayout.html.

  12. Three-dimensional particle tracking in concave structures made by ultraviolet nanoimprint via total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy and refractive-index-matching method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fujinami, Taku; Kigami, Hiroshi; Unno, Noriyuki; Taniguchi, Jun; Satake, Shin-ichi

    2018-03-01

    Total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM) is a promising method for measuring fluid flow close to a wall with nanoscale resolution in a process that is termed "multilayer nanoparticle image velocimetry" (MnPIV). TIRFM uses evanescent light that is generated on a substrate (typically a glass slide) by total internal reflection of light. Many researchers have previously studied x-y-z (3D) flows of water close to flat glass slides using MnPIV. On the other hand, a fluid flow close to a structured surface is also important. To measure flows of water near micro-patterns, we previously developed an MnPIV technique that uses a refractive-index-matching method. In previous study, the micropattern is made of a thermoplastic material with a refractive index that closely matches that of water. In this study, ultraviolet nanoimprint lithography was used for fabricating the appropriate micro-patterns because this technique can fabricate a pattern with a high resolution. As a result, we succeeded in performing MnPIV in water with a circular hole array pattern made by ultraviolet nanoimprint using a refractive-index-matching method. We believe that this technique will be helpful in elucidating fluid flows around microstructures.

  13. Soft-assembled Multilevel Dynamics of Tactical Behaviors in Soccer

    PubMed Central

    Ric, Angel; Torrents, Carlota; Gonçalves, Bruno; Sampaio, Jaime; Hristovski, Robert

    2016-01-01

    This study aimed to identify the tactical patterns and the timescales of variables during a soccer match, allowing understanding the multilevel organization of tactical behaviors, and to determine the similarity of patterns performed by different groups of teammates during the first and second halves. Positional data from 20 professional male soccer players from the same team were collected using high frequency global positioning systems (5 Hz). Twenty-nine categories of tactical behaviors were determined from eight positioning-derived variables creating multivariate binary (Boolean) time-series matrices. Hierarchical principal component analysis (PCA) was used to identify the multilevel structure of tactical behaviors. The sequential reduction of each set level of principal components revealed a sole principal component as the slowest collective variable, forming the global basin of attraction of tactical patterns during each half of the match. In addition, the mean dwell time of each positioning-derived variable helped to understand the multilevel organization of collective tactical behavior during a soccer match. This approach warrants further investigations to analyze the influence of task constraints on the emergence of tactical behavior. Furthermore, PCA can help coaches to design representative training tasks according to those tactical patterns captured during match competitions and to compare them depending on situational variables. PMID:27761120

  14. Sleep Patterns in Adults with a Diagnosis of High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder

    PubMed Central

    Baker, Emma K.; Richdale, Amanda L.

    2015-01-01

    Study Objectives: To examine sleep patterns and sleep problems and their relationship with daytime functioning in adults with a diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder and no comorbid intellectual disability (high-functioning autism spectrum disorder [HFASD]) compared to neurotypical (NT) adults. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: Home-based study. Participants: 36 adults with HFASD and 36 age-, intelligence quotient- and sex-matched NT adults. Measurements: Participants completed an online questionnaire battery including the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), a 14-d sleep wake diary and 14-d actigraphy data collection. Results: Adults with HFASD had significantly more general sleep disturbances and higher scores on the PSQI, longer sleep onset latencies (actigraphy), and poorer sleep efficiency (diary) and these results remained significant after accounting for the False Discovery Rate. Those adults with HFASD who did not have a comorbid diagnosis of anxiety/depression had significantly shorter total sleep time (diary and actigraphy) compared to NT adults. Compared to NT adults, the HFASD group self-reported significantly poorer refreshment scores upon waking in the morning and higher scores on the daytime dysfunction due to sleepiness subscale of the PSQI. Conclusions: These findings support the notion that problems related to sleep, in particular insomnia, continue into adulthood in individuals with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder. Citation: Baker EK, Richdale AL. Sleep patterns in adults with a diagnosis of high-functioning autism spectrum disorder. SLEEP 2015;38(11):1765–1774. PMID:26237770

  15. Tuition and Memory: mental models and cognitive processing in Japanese children's work on d.c. electrical circuits

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Asami, Noriaki; King, Julien; Monk, Martin

    2000-02-01

    This paper looks at the familiar problem of students' understanding of elementary electrical circuits from a much neglected point of view. It is conjectured that the patterning commonly found in students' ideas might have its roots in the cognitive processing with which students operate their mental models of d.c. electrical circuits. The data are new and come from Japanese 10-11 year olds living in the UK. Progressive analysis of these students' answers to a six item test shows that the percentage of students operating particular mental models, following tuition, matches the percentages one might expect from a knowledge of their cognitive processing.

  16. Predictors of Premature Match Closure in Youth Mentoring Relationships.

    PubMed

    Kupersmidt, Janis B; Stump, Kathryn N; Stelter, Rebecca L; Rhodes, Jean E

    2017-03-01

    Although mentoring is a popular and effective means of intervention with youth, the positive effects of mentoring can be diminished by premature match closure of relationships. Program, mentor, and mentee characteristics were examined as predictors of premature match closure. Secondary data analyses were conducted on a large national database of mentoring programs consisting of match and youth risk information from 170 mentoring programs and 6468 matches from across the U.S. Premature closure was associated with mentee age at match inception and 19 individual mentee characteristics. The set of mentee characteristics were examined as part of a cumulative risk index encompassing seven conceptually combined categories including family background characteristics, school functioning problems, engagement in risky health behaviors, self-regulation difficulties, engagement in illegal or criminal activities, and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Both the age of mentees when matched and the cumulative risk index score significantly predicted premature closure. Results are discussed in terms of directions for future research and suggestions for enhancing mentoring program practices. © Society for Community Research and Action 2017.

  17. Lip movements affect infants' audiovisual speech perception.

    PubMed

    Yeung, H Henny; Werker, Janet F

    2013-05-01

    Speech is robustly audiovisual from early in infancy. Here we show that audiovisual speech perception in 4.5-month-old infants is influenced by sensorimotor information related to the lip movements they make while chewing or sucking. Experiment 1 consisted of a classic audiovisual matching procedure, in which two simultaneously displayed talking faces (visual [i] and [u]) were presented with a synchronous vowel sound (audio /i/ or /u/). Infants' looking patterns were selectively biased away from the audiovisual matching face when the infants were producing lip movements similar to those needed to produce the heard vowel. Infants' looking patterns returned to those of a baseline condition (no lip movements, looking longer at the audiovisual matching face) when they were producing lip movements that did not match the heard vowel. Experiment 2 confirmed that these sensorimotor effects interacted with the heard vowel, as looking patterns differed when infants produced these same lip movements while seeing and hearing a talking face producing an unrelated vowel (audio /a/). These findings suggest that the development of speech perception and speech production may be mutually informative.

  18. Signal-Detection Analyses of Conditional Discrimination and Delayed Matching-to-Sample Performance

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Alsop, Brent

    2004-01-01

    Quantitative analyses of stimulus control and reinforcer control in conditional discriminations and delayed matching-to-sample procedures often encounter a problem; it is not clear how to analyze data when subjects have not made errors. The present article examines two common methods for overcoming this problem. Monte Carlo simulations of…

  19. "Children-with-matches" fires in the Angeles National Forest area

    Treesearch

    William S. Folkman

    1966-01-01

    Forest fires started by children playing with matches pose a threat to the Angeles National Forest. An investigation of the problem has gathered some data on the characteristics of the offenders, appraised existing organizational structures and procedures for dealing with the problem, and recommended some action to improve the situation.

  20. The role of simulated small-scale ocean variability in inverse computations for ocean acoustic tomography.

    PubMed

    Dushaw, Brian D; Sagen, Hanne

    2017-12-01

    Ocean acoustic tomography depends on a suitable reference ocean environment with which to set the basic parameters of the inverse problem. Some inverse problems may require a reference ocean that includes the small-scale variations from internal waves, small mesoscale, or spice. Tomographic inversions that employ data of stable shadow zone arrivals, such as those that have been observed in the North Pacific and Canary Basin, are an example. Estimating temperature from the unique acoustic data that have been obtained in Fram Strait is another example. The addition of small-scale variability to augment a smooth reference ocean is essential to understanding the acoustic forward problem in these cases. Rather than a hindrance, the stochastic influences of the small scale can be exploited to obtain accurate inverse estimates. Inverse solutions are readily obtained, and they give computed arrival patterns that matched the observations. The approach is not ad hoc, but universal, and it has allowed inverse estimates for ocean temperature variations in Fram Strait to be readily computed on several acoustic paths for which tomographic data were obtained.

  1. Perceptual and academic patterns of learning-disabled/gifted students.

    PubMed

    Waldron, K A; Saphire, D G

    1992-04-01

    This research explored ways gifted children with learning disabilities perceive and recall auditory and visual input and apply this information to reading, mathematics, and spelling. 24 learning-disabled/gifted children and a matched control group of normally achieving gifted students were tested for oral reading, word recognition and analysis, listening comprehension, and spelling. In mathematics, they were tested for numeration, mental and written computation, word problems, and numerical reasoning. To explore perception and memory skills, students were administered formal tests of visual and auditory memory as well as auditory discrimination of sounds. Their responses to reading and to mathematical computations were further considered for evidence of problems in visual discrimination, visual sequencing, and visual spatial areas. Analyses indicated that these learning-disabled/gifted students were significantly weaker than controls in their decoding skills, in spelling, and in most areas of mathematics. They were also significantly weaker in auditory discrimination and memory, and in visual discrimination, sequencing, and spatial abilities. Conclusions are that these underlying perceptual and memory deficits may be related to students' academic problems.

  2. Weak task-related modulation and stimulus representations during arithmetic problem solving in children with developmental dyscalculia

    PubMed Central

    Ashkenazi, Sarit; Rosenberg-Lee, Miriam; Tenison, Caitlin; Menon, Vinod

    2015-01-01

    Developmental dyscalculia (DD) is a disability that impacts math learning and skill acquisition in school-age children. Here we investigate arithmetic problem solving deficits in young children with DD using univariate and multivariate analysis of fMRI data. During fMRI scanning, 17 children with DD (ages 7–9, grades 2 and 3) and 17 IQ- and reading ability-matched typically developing (TD) children performed complex and simple addition problems which differed only in arithmetic complexity. While the TD group showed strong modulation of brain responses with increasing arithmetic complexity, children with DD failed to show such modulation. Children with DD showed significantly reduced activation compared to TD children in the intraparietal sulcus, superior parietal lobule, supramarginal gyrus and bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in relation to arithmetic complexity. Critically, multivariate representational similarity revealed that brain response patterns to complex and simple problems were less differentiated in the DD group in bilateral anterior IPS, independent of overall differences in signal level. Taken together, these results show that children with DD not only under-activate key brain regions implicated in mathematical cognition, but they also fail to generate distinct neural responses and representations for different arithmetic problems. Our findings provide novel insights into the neural basis of DD. PMID:22682904

  3. Weak task-related modulation and stimulus representations during arithmetic problem solving in children with developmental dyscalculia.

    PubMed

    Ashkenazi, Sarit; Rosenberg-Lee, Miriam; Tenison, Caitlin; Menon, Vinod

    2012-02-15

    Developmental dyscalculia (DD) is a disability that impacts math learning and skill acquisition in school-age children. Here we investigate arithmetic problem solving deficits in young children with DD using univariate and multivariate analysis of fMRI data. During fMRI scanning, 17 children with DD (ages 7-9, grades 2 and 3) and 17 IQ- and reading ability-matched typically developing (TD) children performed complex and simple addition problems which differed only in arithmetic complexity. While the TD group showed strong modulation of brain responses with increasing arithmetic complexity, children with DD failed to show such modulation. Children with DD showed significantly reduced activation compared to TD children in the intraparietal sulcus, superior parietal lobule, supramarginal gyrus and bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in relation to arithmetic complexity. Critically, multivariate representational similarity revealed that brain response patterns to complex and simple problems were less differentiated in the DD group in bilateral anterior IPS, independent of overall differences in signal level. Taken together, these results show that children with DD not only under-activate key brain regions implicated in mathematical cognition, but they also fail to generate distinct neural responses and representations for different arithmetic problems. Our findings provide novel insights into the neural basis of DD. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Receptive fields of locust brain neurons are matched to polarization patterns of the sky.

    PubMed

    Bech, Miklós; Homberg, Uwe; Pfeiffer, Keram

    2014-09-22

    Many animals, including insects, are able to use celestial cues as a reference for spatial orientation and long-distance navigation [1]. In addition to direct sunlight, the chromatic gradient of the sky and its polarization pattern are suited to serve as orientation cues [2-5]. Atmospheric scattering of sunlight causes a regular pattern of E vectors in the sky, which are arranged along concentric circles around the sun [5, 6]. Although certain insects rely predominantly on sky polarization for spatial orientation [7], it has been argued that detection of celestial E vector orientation may not suffice to differentiate between solar and antisolar directions [8, 9]. We show here that polarization-sensitive (POL) neurons in the brain of the desert locust Schistocerca gregaria can overcome this ambiguity. Extracellular recordings from POL units in the central complex and lateral accessory lobes revealed E vector tunings arranged in concentric circles within large receptive fields, matching the sky polarization pattern at certain solar positions. Modeling of neuronal responses under an idealized sky polarization pattern (Rayleigh sky) suggests that these "matched filter" properties allow locusts to unambiguously determine the solar azimuth by relying solely on the sky polarization pattern for compass navigation. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Employee Turnover: Evidence from a Case Study.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Borland, Jeff

    1997-01-01

    Patterns of employee turnover from a medium-sized law firm in Australia were examined in regard to theories of worker mobility (matching, sectoral shift, and incentive). Results support a role for matching effects, but personnel practices affect the timing of turnover. Matching and incentive-based theories do not explain the high rates of turnover…

  6. Body Weight and Matching with a Physically Attractive Romantic Partner

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Carmalt, Julie H.; Cawley, John; Joyner, Kara; Sobal, Jeffery

    2008-01-01

    Matching and attribute trade are two perspectives used to explain mate selection. We investigated patterns of matching and trade, focusing on obesity, using Add Health Romantic Pair data (N = 1,405 couples). Obese individuals, relative to healthy weight individuals, were less likely to have physically attractive partners, with this disadvantage…

  7. Association between dietary patterns and metabolic syndrome in Chinese adults: a propensity score-matched case-control study.

    PubMed

    Xia, Yang; Gu, Yeqing; Yu, Fei; Zhang, Qing; Liu, Li; Meng, Ge; Wu, Hongmei; Du, Huanmin; Shi, Hongbin; Guo, Xiaoyan; Liu, Xing; Li, Chunlei; Han, Peipei; Dong, Renwei; Wang, Xiuyang; Bao, Xue; Su, Qian; Fang, Liyun; Liu, Fangfang; Yang, Huijun; Kang, Li; Ma, Yixuan; Yu, Bin; Sun, Shaomei; Wang, Xing; Zhou, Ming; Jia, Qiyu; Guo, Qi; Wu, Yuntang; Song, Kun; Huang, Guowei; Wang, Guolin; Niu, Kaijun

    2016-10-06

    Previous studies indicated that dietary patterns were associated with metabolic syndrome (MS), but little is known in Chinese. We design this case-control study to evaluate the associations between dietary patterns and MS in Chinese adults. In this study, 1492 participants with MS were matched with 1492 controls using the 1:1 ratio propensity score matching methods. Dietary intake was assessed using a valid self-administered food frequency questionnaire, and MS was defined in accordance with the criteria of the American Heart Association scientific statement of 2009. Higher scores for the high-protein/cholesterol pattern were associated with higher prevalence of MS. Compared with the participants in the lowest quartile, the odds ratio (OR) for the extreme quartile was 1.36 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.10-1.68) and the P for trend <0.01 after adjusted for the other two dietary pattern scores. We also found a moderate consumption of the balanced pattern was associated with the lowest prevalence of MS. The ORs across quartiles of the balanced pattern were 1 (reference), 0.83 (95% CI, 0.68-1.02), 0.69 (95% CI, 0.56-0.85), and 0.84 (95% CI, 0.68-1.04) after adjustment. Our study demonstrates that there is a strong association between a diet rich in animal offal, animal blood, meat, and sausage and a higher prevalence of MS.

  8. Escherichia coli O157:H7 infections associated with consumption of locally grown strawberries contaminated by deer.

    PubMed

    Laidler, Matthew R; Tourdjman, Mathieu; Buser, Genevieve L; Hostetler, Trevor; Repp, Kimberly K; Leman, Richard; Samadpour, Mansour; Keene, William E

    2013-10-01

    An outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 was identified in Oregon through an increase in Shiga toxin-producing E. coli cases with an indistinguishable, novel pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) subtyping pattern. We defined confirmed cases as persons from whom E. coli O157:H7 with the outbreak PFGE pattern was cultured during July-August 2011, and presumptive cases as persons having a household relationship with a case testing positive for E. coli O157:H7 and coincident diarrheal illness. We conducted an investigation that included structured hypothesis-generating interviews, a matched case-control study, and environmental and traceback investigations. We identified 15 cases. Six cases were hospitalized, including 4 with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). Two cases with HUS died. Illness was significantly associated with strawberry consumption from roadside stands or farmers' markets (matched odds ratio, 19.6; 95% confidence interval, 2.9-∞). A single farm was identified as the source of contaminated strawberries. Ten of 111 (9%) initial environmental samples from farm A were positive for E. coli O157:H7. All samples testing positive for E. coli O157:H7 contained deer feces, and 5 tested farm fields had ≥ 1 sample positive with the outbreak PFGE pattern. The investigation identified fresh strawberries as a novel vehicle for E. coli O157:H7 infection, implicated deer feces as the source of contamination, and highlights problems concerning produce contamination by wildlife and regulatory exemptions for locally grown produce. A comprehensive hypothesis-generating questionnaire enabled rapid identification of the implicated product. Good agricultural practices are key barriers to wildlife fecal contamination of produce.

  9. Optimizing countershading camouflage.

    PubMed

    Cuthill, Innes C; Sanghera, N Simon; Penacchio, Olivier; Lovell, Paul George; Ruxton, Graeme D; Harris, Julie M

    2016-11-15

    Countershading, the widespread tendency of animals to be darker on the side that receives strongest illumination, has classically been explained as an adaptation for camouflage: obliterating cues to 3D shape and enhancing background matching. However, there have only been two quantitative tests of whether the patterns observed in different species match the optimal shading to obliterate 3D cues, and no tests of whether optimal countershading actually improves concealment or survival. We use a mathematical model of the light field to predict the optimal countershading for concealment that is specific to the light environment and then test this prediction with correspondingly patterned model "caterpillars" exposed to avian predation in the field. We show that the optimal countershading is strongly illumination-dependent. A relatively sharp transition in surface patterning from dark to light is only optimal under direct solar illumination; if there is diffuse illumination from cloudy skies or shade, the pattern provides no advantage over homogeneous background-matching coloration. Conversely, a smoother gradation between dark and light is optimal under cloudy skies or shade. The demonstration of these illumination-dependent effects of different countershading patterns on predation risk strongly supports the comparative evidence showing that the type of countershading varies with light environment.

  10. MBR-SIFT: A mirror reflected invariant feature descriptor using a binary representation for image matching.

    PubMed

    Su, Mingzhe; Ma, Yan; Zhang, Xiangfen; Wang, Yan; Zhang, Yuping

    2017-01-01

    The traditional scale invariant feature transform (SIFT) method can extract distinctive features for image matching. However, it is extremely time-consuming in SIFT matching because of the use of the Euclidean distance measure. Recently, many binary SIFT (BSIFT) methods have been developed to improve matching efficiency; however, none of them is invariant to mirror reflection. To address these problems, in this paper, we present a horizontal or vertical mirror reflection invariant binary descriptor named MBR-SIFT, in addition to a novel image matching approach. First, 16 cells in the local region around the SIFT keypoint are reorganized, and then the 128-dimensional vector of the SIFT descriptor is transformed into a reconstructed vector according to eight directions. Finally, the MBR-SIFT descriptor is obtained after binarization and reverse coding. To improve the matching speed and accuracy, a fast matching algorithm that includes a coarse-to-fine two-step matching strategy in addition to two similarity measures for the MBR-SIFT descriptor are proposed. Experimental results on the UKBench dataset show that the proposed method not only solves the problem of mirror reflection, but also ensures desirable matching accuracy and speed.

  11. MBR-SIFT: A mirror reflected invariant feature descriptor using a binary representation for image matching

    PubMed Central

    Su, Mingzhe; Ma, Yan; Zhang, Xiangfen; Wang, Yan; Zhang, Yuping

    2017-01-01

    The traditional scale invariant feature transform (SIFT) method can extract distinctive features for image matching. However, it is extremely time-consuming in SIFT matching because of the use of the Euclidean distance measure. Recently, many binary SIFT (BSIFT) methods have been developed to improve matching efficiency; however, none of them is invariant to mirror reflection. To address these problems, in this paper, we present a horizontal or vertical mirror reflection invariant binary descriptor named MBR-SIFT, in addition to a novel image matching approach. First, 16 cells in the local region around the SIFT keypoint are reorganized, and then the 128-dimensional vector of the SIFT descriptor is transformed into a reconstructed vector according to eight directions. Finally, the MBR-SIFT descriptor is obtained after binarization and reverse coding. To improve the matching speed and accuracy, a fast matching algorithm that includes a coarse-to-fine two-step matching strategy in addition to two similarity measures for the MBR-SIFT descriptor are proposed. Experimental results on the UKBench dataset show that the proposed method not only solves the problem of mirror reflection, but also ensures desirable matching accuracy and speed. PMID:28542537

  12. A self-learning camera for the validation of highly variable and pseudorandom patterns

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kelley, Michael

    2004-05-01

    Reliable and productive manufacturing operations have depended on people to quickly detect and solve problems whenever they appear. Over the last 20 years, more and more manufacturing operations have embraced machine vision systems to increase productivity, reliability and cost-effectiveness, including reducing the number of human operators required. Although machine vision technology has long been capable of solving simple problems, it has still not been broadly implemented. The reason is that until now, no machine vision system has been designed to meet the unique demands of complicated pattern recognition. The ZiCAM family was specifically developed to be the first practical hardware to meet these needs. To be able to address non-traditional applications, the machine vision industry must include smart camera technology that meets its users" demands for lower costs, better performance and the ability to address applications of irregular lighting, patterns and color. The next-generation smart cameras will need to evolve as a fundamentally different kind of sensor, with new technology that behaves like a human but performs like a computer. Neural network based systems, coupled with self-taught, n-space, non-linear modeling, promises to be the enabler of the next generation of machine vision equipment. Image processing technology is now available that enables a system to match an operator"s subjectivity. A Zero-Instruction-Set-Computer (ZISC) powered smart camera allows high-speed fuzzy-logic processing, without the need for computer programming. This can address applications of validating highly variable and pseudo-random patterns. A hardware-based implementation of a neural network, Zero-Instruction-Set-Computer, enables a vision system to "think" and "inspect" like a human, with the speed and reliability of a machine.

  13. Patterns across multiple memories are identified over time.

    PubMed

    Richards, Blake A; Xia, Frances; Santoro, Adam; Husse, Jana; Woodin, Melanie A; Josselyn, Sheena A; Frankland, Paul W

    2014-07-01

    Memories are not static but continue to be processed after encoding. This is thought to allow the integration of related episodes via the identification of patterns. Although this idea lies at the heart of contemporary theories of systems consolidation, it has yet to be demonstrated experimentally. Using a modified water-maze paradigm in which platforms are drawn stochastically from a spatial distribution, we found that mice were better at matching platform distributions 30 d compared to 1 d after training. Post-training time-dependent improvements in pattern matching were associated with increased sensitivity to new platforms that conflicted with the pattern. Increased sensitivity to pattern conflict was reduced by pharmacogenetic inhibition of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). These results indicate that pattern identification occurs over time, which can lead to conflicts between new information and existing knowledge that must be resolved, in part, by computations carried out in the mPFC.

  14. Measuring the Rarity of Fingerprint Patterns in the Dutch Population Using an Extended Classification Set.

    PubMed

    de Jongh, Arent; Lubach, Anko R; Lie Kwie, Sheryl L; Alberink, Ivo

    2018-06-11

    Latent print examiners often use their experience and knowledge to reach a conclusion on the identity of the source. Their conclusion is primarily based on their personal opinion on the rarity of the matching fingerprint features. Fingerprint patterns, if present, can play a significant role in the final assessment of a match. The authors believe that statistical data on the rarity of fingerprint patterns strengthens the subjective evaluation of the corresponding information. In order to provide fingerprint examiners with additional numerical support, fingerprint patterns were manually classified in a set of 24,104 fingerprints. In this study the frequencies of occurrence of 35 different fingerprint patterns have been obtained. The frequency data presented in this study can be used in the ACE-V process applied in forensic casework, allowing for the assessment of the evidential strength related to a specific fingerprint pattern type. © 2018 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

  15. Diffusion approximation of the radiative-conductive heat transfer model with Fresnel matching conditions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chebotarev, Alexander Yu.; Grenkin, Gleb V.; Kovtanyuk, Andrey E.; Botkin, Nikolai D.; Hoffmann, Karl-Heinz

    2018-04-01

    The paper is concerned with a problem of diffraction type. The study starts with equations of complex (radiative and conductive) heat transfer in a multicomponent domain with Fresnel matching conditions at the interfaces. Applying the diffusion, P1, approximation yields a pair of coupled nonlinear PDEs describing the radiation intensity and temperature for each component of the domain. Matching conditions for these PDEs, imposed at the interfaces between the domain components, are derived. The unique solvability of the obtained problem is proven, and numerical experiments are conducted.

  16. Impact of Fatigue on Positional Movements During Professional Rugby Union Match Play.

    PubMed

    Tee, Jason C; Lambert, Mike I; Coopoo, Yoga

    2017-04-01

    In team sports, fatigue is manifested by a self-regulated decrease in movement distance and intensity. There is currently limited information on the effect of fatigue on movement patterns in rugby union match play, particularly for players in different position groups (backs vs forwards). This study investigated the effect of different match periods on movement patterns of professional rugby union players. Global positioning system (GPS) data were collected from 46 professional match participations to determine temporal effects on movement patterns. Total relative distance (m/min) was decreased in the 2nd half for both forwards (-13%, ±8%, ES = very likely large) and backs (-9%, ±7%, ES = very likely large). A larger reduction in high-intensity-running distance in the 2nd half was observed for forwards (-27%, ±16%, ES = very likely medium) than for backs (-10%, ±15%; ES = unclear). Similar patterns were observed for sprint (>6 m/s) frequency (forwards -29%, ±29%, ES = likely small vs backs -13% ±18%, ES = possibly small) and acceleration (>2.75 m/s 2 ) frequency (forwards -27%, ±24%, ES = likely medium vs backs -5%, ±46%, ES = unclear). Analysis of 1st- and 2nd-half quartiles revealed differing pacing strategies for forwards and backs. Forwards display a "slow-positive" pacing strategy, while the pacing strategy of backs is "flat." Forwards suffered progressively greater performance decrements over the course of the match, while backs were able to maintain performance intensity. These findings reflect differing physical demands, notably contact and running loads, of players in different positions.

  17. On Computing Breakpoint Distances for Genomes with Duplicate Genes.

    PubMed

    Shao, Mingfu; Moret, Bernard M E

    2017-06-01

    A fundamental problem in comparative genomics is to compute the distance between two genomes in terms of its higher level organization (given by genes or syntenic blocks). For two genomes without duplicate genes, we can easily define (and almost always efficiently compute) a variety of distance measures, but the problem is NP-hard under most models when genomes contain duplicate genes. To tackle duplicate genes, three formulations (exemplar, maximum matching, and any matching) have been proposed, all of which aim to build a matching between homologous genes so as to minimize some distance measure. Of the many distance measures, the breakpoint distance (the number of nonconserved adjacencies) was the first one to be studied and remains of significant interest because of its simplicity and model-free property. The three breakpoint distance problems corresponding to the three formulations have been widely studied. Although we provided last year a solution for the exemplar problem that runs very fast on full genomes, computing optimal solutions for the other two problems has remained challenging. In this article, we describe very fast, exact algorithms for these two problems. Our algorithms rely on a compact integer-linear program that we further simplify by developing an algorithm to remove variables, based on new results on the structure of adjacencies and matchings. Through extensive experiments using both simulations and biological data sets, we show that our algorithms run very fast (in seconds) on mammalian genomes and scale well beyond. We also apply these algorithms (as well as the classic orthology tool MSOAR) to create orthology assignment, then compare their quality in terms of both accuracy and coverage. We find that our algorithm for the "any matching" formulation significantly outperforms other methods in terms of accuracy while achieving nearly maximum coverage.

  18. Efficient Approximation Algorithms for Weighted $b$-Matching

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Khan, Arif; Pothen, Alex; Mostofa Ali Patwary, Md.

    2016-01-01

    We describe a half-approximation algorithm, b-Suitor, for computing a b-Matching of maximum weight in a graph with weights on the edges. b-Matching is a generalization of the well-known Matching problem in graphs, where the objective is to choose a subset of M edges in the graph such that at most a specified number b(v) of edges in M are incident on each vertex v. Subject to this restriction we maximize the sum of the weights of the edges in M. We prove that the b-Suitor algorithm computes the same b-Matching as the one obtained by the greedy algorithm for themore » problem. We implement the algorithm on serial and shared-memory parallel processors, and compare its performance against a collection of approximation algorithms that have been proposed for the Matching problem. Our results show that the b-Suitor algorithm outperforms the Greedy and Locally Dominant edge algorithms by one to two orders of magnitude on a serial processor. The b-Suitor algorithm has a high degree of concurrency, and it scales well up to 240 threads on a shared memory multiprocessor. The b-Suitor algorithm outperforms the Locally Dominant edge algorithm by a factor of fourteen on 16 cores of an Intel Xeon multiprocessor.« less

  19. Can genetic algorithms help virus writers reshape their creations and avoid detection?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abu Doush, Iyad; Al-Saleh, Mohammed I.

    2017-11-01

    Different attack and defence techniques have been evolved over time as actions and reactions between black-hat and white-hat communities. Encryption, polymorphism, metamorphism and obfuscation are among the techniques used by the attackers to bypass security controls. On the other hand, pattern matching, algorithmic scanning, emulation and heuristic are used by the defence team. The Antivirus (AV) is a vital security control that is used against a variety of threats. The AV mainly scans data against its database of virus signatures. Basically, it claims a virus if a match is found. This paper seeks to find the minimal possible changes that can be made on the virus so that it will appear normal when scanned by the AV. Brute-force search through all possible changes can be a computationally expensive task. Alternatively, this paper tries to apply a Genetic Algorithm in solving such a problem. Our proposed algorithm is tested on seven different malware instances. The results show that in all the tested malware instances only a small change in each instance was good enough to bypass the AV.

  20. Social cognition and social problem solving abilities in individuals with alcohol use disorder.

    PubMed

    Schmidt, Tobias; Roser, Patrik; Juckel, Georg; Brüne, Martin; Suchan, Boris; Thoma, Patrizia

    2016-11-01

    Up to now, little is known about higher order cognitive abilities like social cognition and social problem solving abilities in alcohol-dependent patients. However, impairments in these domains lead to an increased probability for relapse and are thus highly relevant in treatment contexts. This cross-sectional study assessed distinct aspects of social cognition and social problem solving in 31 hospitalized patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and 30 matched healthy controls (HC). Three ecologically valid scenario-based tests were used to gauge the ability to infer the mental state of story characters in complicated interpersonal situations, the capacity to select the best problem solving strategy among other less optimal alternatives, and the ability to freely generate appropriate strategies to handle difficult interpersonal conflicts. Standardized tests were used to assess executive function, attention, trait empathy, and memory, and correlations were computed between measures of executive function, attention, trait empathy, and tests of social problem solving. AUD patients generated significantly fewer socially sensitive and practically effective solutions for problematic interpersonal situations than the HC group. Furthermore, patients performed significantly worse when asked to select the best alternative among a list of presented alternatives for scenarios containing sarcastic remarks and had significantly more problems to interpret sarcastic remarks in difficult interpersonal situations. These specific patterns of impairments should be considered in treatment programs addressing impaired social skills in individuals with AUD.

  1. Graph rigidity, cyclic belief propagation, and point pattern matching.

    PubMed

    McAuley, Julian J; Caetano, Tibério S; Barbosa, Marconi S

    2008-11-01

    A recent paper [1] proposed a provably optimal polynomial time method for performing near-isometric point pattern matching by means of exact probabilistic inference in a chordal graphical model. Its fundamental result is that the chordal graph in question is shown to be globally rigid, implying that exact inference provides the same matching solution as exact inference in a complete graphical model. This implies that the algorithm is optimal when there is no noise in the point patterns. In this paper, we present a new graph that is also globally rigid but has an advantage over the graph proposed in [1]: Its maximal clique size is smaller, rendering inference significantly more efficient. However, this graph is not chordal, and thus, standard Junction Tree algorithms cannot be directly applied. Nevertheless, we show that loopy belief propagation in such a graph converges to the optimal solution. This allows us to retain the optimality guarantee in the noiseless case, while substantially reducing both memory requirements and processing time. Our experimental results show that the accuracy of the proposed solution is indistinguishable from that in [1] when there is noise in the point patterns.

  2. Specific Patterns of Emotion Recognition from Faces in Children with ASD: Results of a Cross-Modal Matching Paradigm

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Golan, Ofer; Gordon, Ilanit; Fichman, Keren; Keinan, Giora

    2018-01-01

    Children with ASD show emotion recognition difficulties, as part of their social communication deficits. We examined facial emotion recognition (FER) in intellectually disabled children with ASD and in younger typically developing (TD) controls, matched on mental age. Our emotion-matching paradigm employed three different modalities: facial, vocal…

  3. A graph theoretic approach to scene matching

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ranganath, Heggere S.; Chipman, Laure J.

    1991-01-01

    The ability to match two scenes is a fundamental requirement in a variety of computer vision tasks. A graph theoretic approach to inexact scene matching is presented which is useful in dealing with problems due to imperfect image segmentation. A scene is described by a set of graphs, with nodes representing objects and arcs representing relationships between objects. Each node has a set of values representing the relations between pairs of objects, such as angle, adjacency, or distance. With this method of scene representation, the task in scene matching is to match two sets of graphs. Because of segmentation errors, variations in camera angle, illumination, and other conditions, an exact match between the sets of observed and stored graphs is usually not possible. In the developed approach, the problem is represented as an association graph, in which each node represents a possible mapping of an observed region to a stored object, and each arc represents the compatibility of two mappings. Nodes and arcs have weights indicating the merit or a region-object mapping and the degree of compatibility between two mappings. A match between the two graphs corresponds to a clique, or fully connected subgraph, in the association graph. The task is to find the clique that represents the best match. Fuzzy relaxation is used to update the node weights using the contextual information contained in the arcs and neighboring nodes. This simplifies the evaluation of cliques. A method of handling oversegmentation and undersegmentation problems is also presented. The approach is tested with a set of realistic images which exhibit many types of sementation errors.

  4. Effects of musical training on sound pattern processing in high-school students.

    PubMed

    Wang, Wenjung; Staffaroni, Laura; Reid, Errold; Steinschneider, Mitchell; Sussman, Elyse

    2009-05-01

    Recognizing melody in music involves detection of both the pitch intervals and the silence between sequentially presented sounds. This study tested the hypothesis that active musical training in adolescents facilitates the ability to passively detect sequential sound patterns compared to musically non-trained age-matched peers. Twenty adolescents, aged 15-18 years, were divided into groups according to their musical training and current experience. A fixed order tone pattern was presented at various stimulus rates while electroencephalogram was recorded. The influence of musical training on passive auditory processing of the sound patterns was assessed using components of event-related brain potentials (ERPs). The mismatch negativity (MMN) ERP component was elicited in different stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) conditions in non-musicians than musicians, indicating that musically active adolescents were able to detect sound patterns across longer time intervals than age-matched peers. Musical training facilitates detection of auditory patterns, allowing the ability to automatically recognize sequential sound patterns over longer time periods than non-musical counterparts.

  5. A multilayer perceptron solution to the match phase problem in rule-based artificial intelligence systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Sartori, Michael A.; Passino, Kevin M.; Antsaklis, Panos J.

    1992-01-01

    In rule-based AI planning, expert, and learning systems, it is often the case that the left-hand-sides of the rules must be repeatedly compared to the contents of some 'working memory'. The traditional approach to solve such a 'match phase problem' for production systems is to use the Rete Match Algorithm. Here, a new technique using a multilayer perceptron, a particular artificial neural network model, is presented to solve the match phase problem for rule-based AI systems. A syntax for premise formulas (i.e., the left-hand-sides of the rules) is defined, and working memory is specified. From this, it is shown how to construct a multilayer perceptron that finds all of the rules which can be executed for the current situation in working memory. The complexity of the constructed multilayer perceptron is derived in terms of the maximum number of nodes and the required number of layers. A method for reducing the number of layers to at most three is also presented.

  6. Reading problems and major mental disorders - co-occurrences and familial overlaps in a Swedish nationwide cohort.

    PubMed

    Cederlöf, Martin; Maughan, Barbara; Larsson, Henrik; D'Onofrio, Brian M; Plomin, Robert

    2017-08-01

    Reading problems often co-occur with ADHD and conduct disorder. However, the patterns of co-occurrence and familial overlap between reading problems and other psychiatric disorders have not been systematically explored. We conducted a register-based cohort study including 8719 individuals with reading problems and their siblings, along with matched comparison individuals. Conditional logistic regressions estimated risks for ADHD, autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anorexia nervosa, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, substance use disorder, and violent/non-violent criminality in individuals with reading problems and their siblings. Diagnoses of psychiatric disorders were physician-assigned and ascertained from the Swedish National Patient Register, and crime convictions from the Swedish National Crime Register. We found that individuals with reading problems had excess risks for all psychiatric disorders (except anorexia nervosa) and criminality, with risk ratios between 1.34 and 4.91. Siblings of individuals with reading problems showed excess risks for ADHD, autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, substance use disorder, and non-violent criminality, with risk ratios between 1.14 and 1.70. In summary, individuals with reading problems had increased risks of virtually all psychiatric disorders, and criminality. The origin of most of these overlaps was familial, in that siblings of individuals with reading problems also had elevated risks of ADHD, autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, substance use disorder, and non-violent criminality. These findings have implications for gene-searching efforts, and suggest that health care practitioners should be alert for signs of psychiatric disorders in families where reading problems exist. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Wide baseline stereo matching based on double topological relationship consistency

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zou, Xiaohong; Liu, Bin; Song, Xiaoxue; Liu, Yang

    2009-07-01

    Stereo matching is one of the most important branches in computer vision. In this paper, an algorithm is proposed for wide-baseline stereo vision matching. Here, a novel scheme is presented called double topological relationship consistency (DCTR). The combination of double topological configuration includes the consistency of first topological relationship (CFTR) and the consistency of second topological relationship (CSTR). It not only sets up a more advanced model on matching, but discards mismatches by iteratively computing the fitness of the feature matches and overcomes many problems of traditional methods depending on the powerful invariance to changes in the scale, rotation or illumination across large view changes and even occlusions. Experimental examples are shown where the two cameras have been located in very different orientations. Also, epipolar geometry can be recovered using RANSAC by far the most widely method adopted possibly. By the method, we can obtain correspondences with high precision on wide baseline matching problems. Finally, the effectiveness and reliability of this method are demonstrated in wide-baseline experiments on the image pairs.

  8. A Space Affine Matching Approach to fMRI Time Series Analysis.

    PubMed

    Chen, Liang; Zhang, Weishi; Liu, Hongbo; Feng, Shigang; Chen, C L Philip; Wang, Huili

    2016-07-01

    For fMRI time series analysis, an important challenge is to overcome the potential delay between hemodynamic response signal and cognitive stimuli signal, namely the same frequency but different phase (SFDP) problem. In this paper, a novel space affine matching feature is presented by introducing the time domain and frequency domain features. The time domain feature is used to discern different stimuli, while the frequency domain feature to eliminate the delay. And then we propose a space affine matching (SAM) algorithm to match fMRI time series by our affine feature, in which a normal vector is estimated using gradient descent to explore the time series matching optimally. The experimental results illustrate that the SAM algorithm is insensitive to the delay between the hemodynamic response signal and the cognitive stimuli signal. Our approach significantly outperforms GLM method while there exists the delay. The approach can help us solve the SFDP problem in fMRI time series matching and thus of great promise to reveal brain dynamics.

  9. Isotope pattern deconvolution for peptide mass spectrometry by non-negative least squares/least absolute deviation template matching

    PubMed Central

    2012-01-01

    Background The robust identification of isotope patterns originating from peptides being analyzed through mass spectrometry (MS) is often significantly hampered by noise artifacts and the interference of overlapping patterns arising e.g. from post-translational modifications. As the classification of the recorded data points into either ‘noise’ or ‘signal’ lies at the very root of essentially every proteomic application, the quality of the automated processing of mass spectra can significantly influence the way the data might be interpreted within a given biological context. Results We propose non-negative least squares/non-negative least absolute deviation regression to fit a raw spectrum by templates imitating isotope patterns. In a carefully designed validation scheme, we show that the method exhibits excellent performance in pattern picking. It is demonstrated that the method is able to disentangle complicated overlaps of patterns. Conclusions We find that regularization is not necessary to prevent overfitting and that thresholding is an effective and user-friendly way to perform feature selection. The proposed method avoids problems inherent in regularization-based approaches, comes with a set of well-interpretable parameters whose default configuration is shown to generalize well without the need for fine-tuning, and is applicable to spectra of different platforms. The R package IPPD implements the method and is available from the Bioconductor platform (http://bioconductor.fhcrc.org/help/bioc-views/devel/bioc/html/IPPD.html). PMID:23137144

  10. Positioning of the sensor cell on the sensing area using cell trapping pattern in incubation type planar patch clamp biosensor.

    PubMed

    Wang, Zhi-Hong; Takada, Noriko; Uno, Hidetaka; Ishizuka, Toru; Yawo, Hiromu; Urisu, Tsuneo

    2012-08-01

    Positioning the sensor cell on the micropore of the sensor chip and keeping it there during incubation are problematic tasks for incubation type planar patch clamp biosensors. To solve these problems, we formed on the Si sensor chip's surface a cell trapping pattern consisting of a lattice pattern with a round area 5 μm deep and with the micropore at the center of the round area. The surface of the sensor chip was coated with extra cellular matrix collagen IV, and HEK293 cells on which a chimera molecule of channel-rhodopsin-wide-receiver (ChR-WR) was expressed, were then seeded. We examined the effects of this cell trapping pattern on the biosensor's operation. In the case of a flat sensor chip without a cell trapping pattern, it took several days before the sensor cell covered the micropore and formed an almost confluent state. As a result, multi-cell layers easily formed and made channel current measurements impossible. On the other hand, the sensor chip with cell trapping pattern easily trapped cells in the round area, and formed the colony consisted of the cell monolayer covering the micropore. A laser (473 nm wavelength) induced channel current was observed from the whole cell arrangement formed using the nystatin perforation technique. The observed channel current characteristics matched measurements made by using a pipette patch clamp. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  11. Lattice-Matched Epitaxial Graphene Grown on Boron Nitride.

    PubMed

    Davies, Andrew; Albar, Juan D; Summerfield, Alex; Thomas, James C; Cheng, Tin S; Korolkov, Vladimir V; Stapleton, Emily; Wrigley, James; Goodey, Nathan L; Mellor, Christopher J; Khlobystov, Andrei N; Watanabe, Kenji; Taniguchi, Takashi; Foxon, C Thomas; Eaves, Laurence; Novikov, Sergei V; Beton, Peter H

    2018-01-10

    Lattice-matched graphene on hexagonal boron nitride is expected to lead to the formation of a band gap but requires the formation of highly strained material and has not hitherto been realized. We demonstrate that aligned, lattice-matched graphene can be grown by molecular beam epitaxy using substrate temperatures in the range 1600-1710 °C and coexists with a topologically modified moiré pattern with regions of strained graphene which have giant moiré periods up to ∼80 nm. Raman spectra reveal narrow red-shifted peaks due to isotropic strain, while the giant moiré patterns result in complex splitting of Raman peaks due to strain variations across the moiré unit cell. The lattice-matched graphene has a lower conductance than both the Frenkel-Kontorova-type domain walls and also the topological defects where they terminate. We relate these results to theoretical models of band gap formation in graphene/boron nitride heterostructures.

  12. An improved principal component analysis based region matching method for fringe direction estimation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    He, A.; Quan, C.

    2018-04-01

    The principal component analysis (PCA) and region matching combined method is effective for fringe direction estimation. However, its mask construction algorithm for region matching fails in some circumstances, and the algorithm for conversion of orientation to direction in mask areas is computationally-heavy and non-optimized. We propose an improved PCA based region matching method for the fringe direction estimation, which includes an improved and robust mask construction scheme, and a fast and optimized orientation-direction conversion algorithm for the mask areas. Along with the estimated fringe direction map, filtered fringe pattern by automatic selective reconstruction modification and enhanced fast empirical mode decomposition (ASRm-EFEMD) is used for Hilbert spiral transform (HST) to demodulate the phase. Subsequently, windowed Fourier ridge (WFR) method is used for the refinement of the phase. The robustness and effectiveness of proposed method are demonstrated by both simulated and experimental fringe patterns.

  13. A matching approach to communicate through the plasma sheath surrounding a hypersonic vehicle

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Gao, Xiaotian; Jiang, Binhao, E-mail: jiangbh@hit.edu.cn

    2015-06-21

    In order to overcome the communication blackout problem suffered by hypersonic vehicles, a matching approach has been proposed for the first time in this paper. It utilizes a double-positive (DPS) material layer surrounding a hypersonic vehicle antenna to match with the plasma sheath enclosing the vehicle. Analytical analysis and numerical results indicate a resonance between the matched layer and the plasma sheath will be formed to mitigate the blackout problem in some conditions. The calculated results present a perfect radiated performance of the antenna, when the match is exactly built between these two layers. The effects of the parameters ofmore » the plasma sheath have been researched by numerical methods. Based on these results, the proposed approach is easier to realize and more flexible to the varying radiated conditions in hypersonic flight comparing with other methods.« less

  14. What Performance Analysts Need to Know About Research Trends in Association Football (2012-2016): A Systematic Review.

    PubMed

    Sarmento, Hugo; Clemente, Filipe Manuel; Araújo, Duarte; Davids, Keith; McRobert, Allistair; Figueiredo, António

    2018-04-01

    Evolving patterns of match analysis research need to be systematically reviewed regularly since this area of work is burgeoning rapidly and studies can offer new insights to performance analysts if theoretically and coherently organized. The purpose of this paper was to conduct a systematic review of published articles on match analysis in adult male football, identify and organize common research topics, and synthesize the emerging patterns of work between 2012 and 2016, according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The Web of Science database was searched for relevant published studies using the following keywords: 'football' and 'soccer', each one associated with the terms 'match analysis', 'performance analysis', 'notational analysis', 'game analysis', 'tactical analysis' and 'patterns of play'. Of 483 studies initially identified, 77 were fully reviewed and their outcome measures extracted and analyzed. Results showed that research mainly focused on (1) performance at set pieces, i.e. corner kicks, free kicks, penalty kicks; (2) collective system behaviours, captured by established variables such as team centroid (geometrical centre of a set of players) and team dispersion (quantification of how far players are apart), as well as tendencies for team communication (establishing networks based on passing sequences), sequential patterns (predicting future passing sequences), and group outcomes (relationships between match-related statistics and final match scores); and (3) activity profile of players, i.e. playing roles, effects of fatigue, substitutions during matches, and the effects of environmental constraints on performance, such as heat and altitude. From the previous review, novel variables were identified that require new measurement techniques. It is evident that the complexity engendered during performance in competitive soccer requires an integrated approach that considers multiple aspects. A challenge for researchers is to align these new measures with the needs of the coaches through a more integrated relationship between coaches and researchers, to produce practical and usable information that improves player performance and coach activity.

  15. Neurolinguistic programming: a systematic approach to change.

    PubMed

    Steinbach, A M

    1984-01-01

    Neurolinguistic programming (NLP) integrates advances in cybernetics, psychophysiology, linguistics, and information services. It has been used in business, education, law, medicine and psychotherapy to alter people's responses to stimuli, so they are better able to regulate their environment and themselves. There are five steps to an effective NLP interaction. They include 1. establishing rapport; the therapist must match his verbal and non-verbal behaviors to the patient's, 2. gathering information about the patient's present problem and goals by noting his verbal patterns and non-verbal responses, 3. considering the impact that achieving the patient's goals will have on him, his work, family and friends, and retaining any positive aspects of his current situation, 4. helping the patient achieve his goals by using specific techniques to alter his responses to various stimuli, and 5. ensuring the altered responses achieved in therapy are integrated into the patient's daily life. NLP has been used to help patients with medical problems ranging from purely psychological to complex organic ones.

  16. Neurolinguistic Programming: A Systematic Approach to Change

    PubMed Central

    Steinbach, A. M.

    1984-01-01

    Neurolinguistic programming (NLP) integrates advances in cybernetics, psychophysiology, linguistics, and information services. It has been used in business, education, law, medicine and psychotherapy to alter people's responses to stimuli, so they are better able to regulate their environment and themselves. There are five steps to an effective NLP interaction. They include 1. establishing rapport; the therapist must match his verbal and non-verbal behaviors to the patient's, 2. gathering information about the patient's present problem and goals by noting his verbal patterns and non-verbal responses, 3. considering the impact that achieving the patient's goals will have on him, his work, family and friends, and retaining any positive aspects of his current situation, 4. helping the patient achieve his goals by using specific techniques to alter his responses to various stimuli, and 5. ensuring the altered responses achieved in therapy are integrated into the patient's daily life. NLP has been used to help patients with medical problems ranging from purely psychological to complex organic ones. PMID:21283502

  17. Controlling bridging and pinching with pixel-based mask for inverse lithography

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kobelkov, Sergey; Tritchkov, Alexander; Han, JiWan

    2016-03-01

    Inverse Lithography Technology (ILT) has become a viable computational lithography candidate in recent years as it can produce mask output that results in process latitude and CD control in the fab that is hard to match with conventional OPC/SRAF insertion approaches. An approach to solving the inverse lithography problem as a nonlinear, constrained minimization problem over a domain mask pixels was suggested in the paper by Y. Granik "Fast pixel-based mask optimization for inverse lithography" in 2006. The present paper extends this method to satisfy bridging and pinching constraints imposed on print contours. Namely, there are suggested objective functions expressing penalty for constraints violations, and their minimization with gradient descent methods is considered. This approach has been tested with an ILT-based Local Printability Enhancement (LPTM) tool in an automated flow to eliminate hotspots that can be present on the full chip after conventional SRAF placement/OPC and has been applied in 14nm, 10nm node production, single and multiple-patterning flows.

  18. Non-contact finger vein acquisition system using NIR laser

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, Jiman; Kong, Hyoun-Joong; Park, Sangyun; Noh, SeungWoo; Lee, Seung-Rae; Kim, Taejeong; Kim, Hee Chan

    2009-02-01

    Authentication using finger vein pattern has substantial advantage than other biometrics. Because human vein patterns are hidden inside the skin and tissue, it is hard to forge vein structure. But conventional system using NIR LED array has two drawbacks. First, direct contact with LED array raise sanitary problem. Second, because of discreteness of LEDs, non-uniform illumination exists. We propose non-contact finger vein acquisition system using NIR laser and Laser line generator lens. Laser line generator lens makes evenly distributed line laser from focused laser light. Line laser is aimed on the finger longitudinally. NIR camera was used for image acquisition. 200 index finger vein images from 20 candidates are collected. Same finger vein pattern extraction algorithm was used to evaluate two sets of images. Acquired images from proposed non-contact system do not show any non-uniform illumination in contrary with conventional system. Also results of matching are comparable to conventional system. We developed Non-contact finger vein acquisition system. It can prevent potential cross contamination of skin diseases. Also the system can produce uniformly illuminated images unlike conventional system. With the benefit of non-contact, proposed system shows almost equivalent performance compared with conventional system.

  19. Enhanced efficiency fertilisers: a review of formulation and nutrient release patterns.

    PubMed

    Timilsena, Yakindra Prasad; Adhikari, Raju; Casey, Phil; Muster, Tim; Gill, Harsharn; Adhikari, Benu

    2015-04-01

    Fertilisers are one of the most important elements of modern agriculture. The application of fertilisers in agricultural practices has markedly increased the production of food, feed, fuel, fibre and other plant products. However, a significant portion of nutrients applied in the field is not taken up by plants and is lost through leaching, volatilisation, nitrification, or other means. Such a loss increases the cost of fertiliser and severely pollutes the environment. To alleviate these problems, enhanced efficiency fertilisers (EEFs) are produced and used in the form of controlled release fertilisers and nitrification/urease inhibitors. The application of biopolymers for coating in EEFs, tailoring the release pattern of nutrients to closely match the growth requirement of plants and development of realistic models to predict the release pattern of common nutrients have been the foci of fertiliser research. In this context, this paper intends to review relevant aspects of new developments in fertiliser production and use, agronomic, economic and environmental drives for enhanced efficiency fertilisers and their formulation process and the nutrient release behaviour. Application of biopolymers and complex coacervation technique for nutrient encapsulation is also explored as a promising technology to produce EEFs. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry.

  20. Measurement of intervertebral motion using quantitative fluoroscopy: report of an international forum and proposal for use in the assessment of degenerative disc disease in the lumbar spine.

    PubMed

    Breen, Alan C; Teyhen, Deydre S; Mellor, Fiona E; Breen, Alexander C; Wong, Kris W N; Deitz, Adam

    2012-01-01

    Quantitative fluoroscopy (QF) is an emerging technology for measuring intervertebral motion patterns to investigate problem back pain and degenerative disc disease. This International Forum was a networking event of three research groups (UK, US, Hong Kong), over three days in San Francisco in August 2009. Its aim was to reach a consensus on how best to record, analyse, and communicate QF information for research and clinical purposes. The Forum recommended that images should be acquired during regular trunk motion that is controlled for velocity and range, in order to minimise externally imposed variability as well as to correlate intervertebral motion with trunk motion. This should be done in both the recumbent passive and weight bearing active patient configurations. The main recommended outputs from QF were the true ranges of intervertebral rotation and translation, neutral zone laxity and the consistency of shape of the motion patterns. The main clinical research priority should initially be to investigate the possibility of mechanical subgroups of patients with chronic, nonspecific low back pain by comparing their intervertebral motion patterns with those of matched healthy controls.

  1. Is a High Tone Pointy? Speakers of Different Languages Match Mandarin Chinese Tones to Visual Shapes Differently

    PubMed Central

    Shang, Nan; Styles, Suzy J.

    2017-01-01

    Studies investigating cross-modal correspondences between auditory pitch and visual shapes have shown children and adults consistently match high pitch to pointy shapes and low pitch to curvy shapes, yet no studies have investigated linguistic-uses of pitch. In the present study, we used a bouba/kiki style task to investigate the sound/shape mappings for Tones of Mandarin Chinese, for three groups of participants with different language backgrounds. We recorded the vowels [i] and [u] articulated in each of the four tones of Mandarin Chinese. In Study 1 a single auditory stimulus was presented with two images (one curvy, one spiky). In Study 2 a single image was presented with two auditory stimuli differing only in tone. Participants were asked to select the best match in an online ‘Quiz.’ Across both studies, we replicated the previously observed ‘u-curvy, i-pointy’ sound/shape cross-modal correspondence in all groups. However, Tones were mapped differently by people with different language backgrounds: speakers of Mandarin Chinese classified as Chinese-dominant systematically matched Tone 1 (high, steady) to the curvy shape and Tone 4 (falling) to the pointy shape, while English speakers with no knowledge of Chinese preferred to match Tone 1 (high, steady) to the pointy shape and Tone 3 (low, dipping) to the curvy shape. These effects were observed most clearly in Study 2 where tone-pairs were contrasted explicitly. These findings are in line with the dominant patterns of linguistic pitch perception for speakers of these languages (pitch-change, and pitch height, respectively). Chinese English balanced bilinguals showed a bivalent pattern, swapping between the Chinese pitch-change pattern and the English pitch-height pattern depending on the task. These findings show for that the supposedly universal pattern of mapping linguistic sounds to shape is modulated by the sensory properties of a speaker’s language system, and that people with high functioning in more than one language can dynamically shift between patterns. PMID:29270147

  2. Single-frequency oscillation of thin-disk lasers due to phase-matched pumping.

    PubMed

    Vorholt, Christian; Wittrock, Ulrich

    2017-09-04

    We present a novel pump concept that should lead to single-frequency operation of thin-disk lasers without the need for etalons or other spectral filters. The single-frequency operation is due to matching the standing wave pattern of partially coherent pump light to the standing wave pattern of the laser light inside the disk. The output power and the optical efficiency of our novel pump concept are compared with conventional pumping. The feasibility of our pump concept was shown in previous experiments.

  3. iTTVis: Interactive Visualization of Table Tennis Data.

    PubMed

    Wu, Yingcai; Lan, Ji; Shu, Xinhuan; Ji, Chenyang; Zhao, Kejian; Wang, Jiachen; Zhang, Hui

    2018-01-01

    The rapid development of information technology paved the way for the recording of fine-grained data, such as stroke techniques and stroke placements, during a table tennis match. This data recording creates opportunities to analyze and evaluate matches from new perspectives. Nevertheless, the increasingly complex data poses a significant challenge to make sense of and gain insights into. Analysts usually employ tedious and cumbersome methods which are limited to watching videos and reading statistical tables. However, existing sports visualization methods cannot be applied to visualizing table tennis competitions due to different competition rules and particular data attributes. In this work, we collaborate with data analysts to understand and characterize the sophisticated domain problem of analysis of table tennis data. We propose iTTVis, a novel interactive table tennis visualization system, which to our knowledge, is the first visual analysis system for analyzing and exploring table tennis data. iTTVis provides a holistic visualization of an entire match from three main perspectives, namely, time-oriented, statistical, and tactical analyses. The proposed system with several well-coordinated views not only supports correlation identification through statistics and pattern detection of tactics with a score timeline but also allows cross analysis to gain insights. Data analysts have obtained several new insights by using iTTVis. The effectiveness and usability of the proposed system are demonstrated with four case studies.

  4. Using pattern based layout comparison for a quick analysis of design changes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, Lucas; Yang, Legender; Kan, Huan; Zou, Elain; Wan, Qijian; Du, Chunshan; Hu, Xinyi; Liu, Zhengfang

    2018-03-01

    A design usually goes through several versions until achieving a most successful one. These changes between versions are not a complete substitution but a continual improvement, either fixing the known issues of its prior versions (engineering change order) or a more optimized design substitution of a portion of the design. On the manufacturing side, process engineers care more about the design pattern changes because any new pattern occurrence may be a killer of the yield. An effective and efficient way to narrow down the diagnosis scope appeals to the engineers. What is the best approach of comparing two layouts? A direct overlay of two layouts may not always work as even though most of the design instances will be kept in the layout from version to version, the actual placements may be different. An alternative way, pattern based layout comparison, comes to play. By expanding this application, it makes it possible to transfer the learning in one cycle to another and accelerate the process of failure analysis. This paper presents a solution to compare two layouts by using Calibre DRC and Pattern Matching. The key step in this flow is layout decomposition. In theory, with a fixed pattern size, a layout can always be decomposed into limited number of patterns by moving the pattern center around the layout, the number is limited but may be huge if the layout is not processed smartly! A mathematical answer is not what we are looking for but an engineering solution is more desired. Layouts must be decomposed into patterns with physical meaning in a smart way. When a layout is decomposed and patterns are classified, a pattern library with unique patterns inside is created for that layout. After individual pattern libraries for each layout are created, run pattern comparison utility provided by Calibre Pattern Matching to compare the pattern libraries, unique patterns will come out for each layout. This paper illustrates this flow in details and demonstrates the advantage of combining Calibre DRC and Calibre Pattern Matching.

  5. Transparent Electrochemical Gratings from a Patterned Bistable Silver Mirror.

    PubMed

    Park, Chihyun; Na, Jongbeom; Han, Minsu; Kim, Eunkyoung

    2017-07-25

    Silver mirror patterns were formed reversibly on a polystyrene (PS)-patterned electrode to produce gratings through the electrochemical reduction of silver ions. The electrochemical gratings exhibited high transparency (T > 95%), similar to a see-through window, by matching the refractive index of the grating pattern with the surrounding medium. The gratings switch to a diffractive state upon the formation of a mirror pattern (T < 5%) with a high diffraction efficiency up to 40%, providing reversible diffractive gratings. The diffraction state was maintained in the voltage-off state (V-off) for 40 min, which demonstrated bistable reversible electrochemical grating (BREG) behavior. By carefully combining the BREGs through period matching, dual-color switching was achieved within the full color region, which exhibited three distinct optical switching states between -2.5, 0, and +2.5 V. The wide range of light tenability using the metallic BREGs developed herein enabled IR modulation, NIR light reflection, and on-demand heat transfer.

  6. Mixed Pattern Matching-Based Traffic Abnormal Behavior Recognition

    PubMed Central

    Cui, Zhiming; Zhao, Pengpeng

    2014-01-01

    A motion trajectory is an intuitive representation form in time-space domain for a micromotion behavior of moving target. Trajectory analysis is an important approach to recognize abnormal behaviors of moving targets. Against the complexity of vehicle trajectories, this paper first proposed a trajectory pattern learning method based on dynamic time warping (DTW) and spectral clustering. It introduced the DTW distance to measure the distances between vehicle trajectories and determined the number of clusters automatically by a spectral clustering algorithm based on the distance matrix. Then, it clusters sample data points into different clusters. After the spatial patterns and direction patterns learned from the clusters, a recognition method for detecting vehicle abnormal behaviors based on mixed pattern matching was proposed. The experimental results show that the proposed technical scheme can recognize main types of traffic abnormal behaviors effectively and has good robustness. The real-world application verified its feasibility and the validity. PMID:24605045

  7. Delinquency and Recidivism: A Multicohort, Matched-Control Study of the Role of Early Adverse Experiences, Mental Health Problems, and Disabilities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Barrett, David E.; Katsiyannis, Antonis; Zhang, Dalun; Zhang, Dake

    2014-01-01

    The authors examined the role of early adverse experiences, mental health problems, and disabilities in the prediction of juvenile delinquency and recidivism, using a matched-control group design. The delinquent group comprised 99,602 youth, born between 1981 and 1988, whose cases had been processed by the South Carolina Department of Juvenile…

  8. Signal detection by means of orthogonal decomposition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hajdu, C. F.; Dabóczi, T.; Péceli, G.; Zamantzas, C.

    2018-03-01

    Matched filtering is a well-known method frequently used in digital signal processing to detect the presence of a pattern in a signal. In this paper, we suggest a time variant matched filter, which, unlike a regular matched filter, maintains a given alignment between the input signal and the template carrying the pattern, and can be realized recursively. We introduce a method to synchronize the two signals for presence detection, usable in case direct synchronization between the signal generator and the receiver is not possible or not practical. We then propose a way of realizing and extending the same filter by modifying a recursive spectral observer, which gives rise to orthogonal filter channels and also leads to another way to synchronize the two signals.

  9. The within-match patterns of locomotor efficiency during professional soccer match play: Implications for injury risk?

    PubMed

    Barrett, Steve; Midgley, Adrian; Reeves, Matt; Joel, Tom; Franklin, Ed; Heyworth, Rob; Garrett, Andrew; Lovell, Ric

    2016-10-01

    The principle aim of the current study was to examine within-match patterns of locomotor efficiency in professional soccer, determined as the ratio between tri-axial accelerometer data (PlayerLoad™) and locomotor activities. Between match variability and determinants of PlayerLoad™ during match play were also assessed. A single cohort, observational study. Tri-axial accelerometer data (PlayerLoad™) was recorded during 86 competitive soccer matches in 63 English championship players (574 match observations). Accelerometer data accumulated (PlayerLoad Vector Magnitude [PLVM]) from the individual-component planes of PlayerLoad™ (anterior-posterior PlayerLoad™ [PLAP], medial-lateral PlayerLoad™ [PLML] and vertical PlayerLoad™ [PLV]), together with locomotor activity (Total Distance Covered [TDC]) were determined in 15-min segments. Locomotor efficiency was calculated using the ratio of PLVM and TDC (PlayerLoad™ per metre). The proportion of variance explaining the within-match trends in PLVM, PLAP, APML, APv, and TDC was determined owing to matches, individual players, and positional role. PLVM, PLAP, APML, APv and TDC reduced after the initial 15-min match period (p=0.001; η(2)=0.22-0.43, large effects). PL:TDC increased in the last 15min of each half (p=0.001; η(2)=0.25, large effect). The variance in PLVM during soccer match-play was explained by individual players (63.9%; p=0.001) and between-match variation (21.6%; p=0.001), but not positional role (14.1%; p=0.364). Locomotor efficiency is lower during the latter stages of each half of competitive soccer match-play, a trend synonymous with observations of increased injury incidence and fatigue in these periods. Locomotor efficiency may be a valuable metric to identify fatigue and heightened injury risk during soccer training and match-play. Copyright © 2015 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Wheat gliadin: digital imaging and database construction using a 4-band reference system of agarose isoelectric focusing patterns.

    PubMed

    Black, J A; Waggamon, K A

    1992-01-01

    An isoelectric focusing method using thin-layer agarose gel has been developed for wheat gliadin. Using flat-bed units with a third electrode, up to 72 samples per gel may be analyzed. Advantages over traditional acid polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis methodology include: faster run times, nontoxic media, and greater sample capacity. The method is suitable for fingerprinting or purity testing of wheat varieties. Using digital images captured by a flat-bed scanner, a 4-band reference system using isoelectric points was devised. Software enables separated bands to be assigned pI values based upon reference tracks. Precision of assigned isoelectric points is shown to be on the order of 0.02 pH units. Captured images may be stored in a computer database and compared to unknown patterns to enable an identification. Parameters for a match with a stored pattern may be adjusted for pI interval required for a match, and number of best matches.

  11. Oscillatory neural network for pattern recognition: trajectory based classification and supervised learning.

    PubMed

    Miller, Vonda H; Jansen, Ben H

    2008-12-01

    Computer algorithms that match human performance in recognizing written text or spoken conversation remain elusive. The reasons why the human brain far exceeds any existing recognition scheme to date in the ability to generalize and to extract invariant characteristics relevant to category matching are not clear. However, it has been postulated that the dynamic distribution of brain activity (spatiotemporal activation patterns) is the mechanism by which stimuli are encoded and matched to categories. This research focuses on supervised learning using a trajectory based distance metric for category discrimination in an oscillatory neural network model. Classification is accomplished using a trajectory based distance metric. Since the distance metric is differentiable, a supervised learning algorithm based on gradient descent is demonstrated. Classification of spatiotemporal frequency transitions and their relation to a priori assessed categories is shown along with the improved classification results after supervised training. The results indicate that this spatiotemporal representation of stimuli and the associated distance metric is useful for simple pattern recognition tasks and that supervised learning improves classification results.

  12. Ideal Standards, Acceptance, and Relationship Satisfaction: Latitudes of Differential Effects

    PubMed Central

    Buyukcan-Tetik, Asuman; Campbell, Lorne; Finkenauer, Catrin; Karremans, Johan C.; Kappen, Gesa

    2017-01-01

    We examined whether the relations of consistency between ideal standards and perceptions of a current romantic partner with partner acceptance and relationship satisfaction level off, or decelerate, above a threshold. We tested our hypothesis using a 3-year longitudinal data set collected from heterosexual newlywed couples. We used two indicators of consistency: pattern correspondence (within-person correlation between ideal standards and perceived partner ratings) and mean-level match (difference between ideal standards score and perceived partner score). Our results revealed that pattern correspondence had no relation with partner acceptance, but a positive linear/exponential association with relationship satisfaction. Mean-level match had a significant positive association with actor’s acceptance and relationship satisfaction up to the point where perceived partner score equaled ideal standards score. Partner effects did not show a consistent pattern. The results suggest that the consistency between ideal standards and perceived partner attributes has a non-linear association with acceptance and relationship satisfaction, although the results were more conclusive for mean-level match. PMID:29033876

  13. A tiger cannot change its stripes: using a three-dimensional model to match images of living tigers and tiger skins.

    PubMed

    Hiby, Lex; Lovell, Phil; Patil, Narendra; Kumar, N Samba; Gopalaswamy, Arjun M; Karanth, K Ullas

    2009-06-23

    The tiger is one of many species in which individuals can be identified by surface patterns. Camera traps can be used to record individual tigers moving over an array of locations and provide data for monitoring and studying populations and devising conservation strategies. We suggest using a combination of algorithms to calculate similarity scores between pattern samples scanned from the images to automate the search for a match to a new image. We show how using a three-dimensional surface model of a tiger to scan the pattern samples allows comparison of images that differ widely in camera angles and body posture. The software, which is free to download, considerably reduces the effort required to maintain an image catalogue and we suggest it could be used to trace the origin of a tiger skin by searching a central database of living tigers' images for matches to an image of the skin.

  14. A tiger cannot change its stripes: using a three-dimensional model to match images of living tigers and tiger skins

    PubMed Central

    Hiby, Lex; Lovell, Phil; Patil, Narendra; Kumar, N. Samba; Gopalaswamy, Arjun M.; Karanth, K. Ullas

    2009-01-01

    The tiger is one of many species in which individuals can be identified by surface patterns. Camera traps can be used to record individual tigers moving over an array of locations and provide data for monitoring and studying populations and devising conservation strategies. We suggest using a combination of algorithms to calculate similarity scores between pattern samples scanned from the images to automate the search for a match to a new image. We show how using a three-dimensional surface model of a tiger to scan the pattern samples allows comparison of images that differ widely in camera angles and body posture. The software, which is free to download, considerably reduces the effort required to maintain an image catalogue and we suggest it could be used to trace the origin of a tiger skin by searching a central database of living tigers' images for matches to an image of the skin. PMID:19324633

  15. Can we match ultraviolet face images against their visible counterparts?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Narang, Neeru; Bourlai, Thirimachos; Hornak, Lawrence A.

    2015-05-01

    In law enforcement and security applications, the acquisition of face images is critical in producing key trace evidence for the successful identification of potential threats. However, face recognition (FR) for face images captured using different camera sensors, and under variable illumination conditions, and expressions is very challenging. In this paper, we investigate the advantages and limitations of the heterogeneous problem of matching ultra violet (from 100 nm to 400 nm in wavelength) or UV, face images against their visible (VIS) counterparts, when all face images are captured under controlled conditions. The contributions of our work are three-fold; (i) We used a camera sensor designed with the capability to acquire UV images at short-ranges, and generated a dual-band (VIS and UV) database that is composed of multiple, full frontal, face images of 50 subjects. Two sessions were collected that span over the period of 2 months. (ii) For each dataset, we determined which set of face image pre-processing algorithms are more suitable for face matching, and, finally, (iii) we determined which FR algorithm better matches cross-band face images, resulting in high rank-1 identification rates. Experimental results show that our cross spectral matching (the heterogeneous problem, where gallery and probe sets consist of face images acquired in different spectral bands) algorithms achieve sufficient identification performance. However, we also conclude that the problem under study, is very challenging, and it requires further investigation to address real-world law enforcement or military applications. To the best of our knowledge, this is first time in the open literature the problem of cross-spectral matching of UV against VIS band face images is being investigated.

  16. History matching by spline approximation and regularization in single-phase areal reservoirs

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lee, T. Y.; Kravaris, C.; Seinfeld, J.

    1986-01-01

    An automatic history matching algorithm is developed based on bi-cubic spline approximations of permeability and porosity distributions and on the theory of regularization to estimate permeability or porosity in a single-phase, two-dimensional real reservoir from well pressure data. The regularization feature of the algorithm is used to convert the ill-posed history matching problem into a well-posed problem. The algorithm employs the conjugate gradient method as its core minimization method. A number of numerical experiments are carried out to evaluate the performance of the algorithm. Comparisons with conventional (non-regularized) automatic history matching algorithms indicate the superiority of the new algorithm with respect to the parameter estimates obtained. A quasioptimal regularization parameter is determined without requiring a priori information on the statistical properties of the observations.

  17. PepPat, a pattern-based oligopeptide homology search method and the identification of a novel tachykinin-like peptide.

    PubMed

    Jiang, Ying; Gao, Ge; Fang, Gang; Gustafson, Eric L; Laverty, Maureen; Yin, Yanbin; Zhang, Yong; Luo, Jingchu; Greene, Jonathan R; Bayne, Marvin L; Hedrick, Joseph A; Murgolo, Nicholas J

    2003-05-01

    PepPat, a hybrid method that combines pattern matching with similarity scoring, is described. We also report PepPat's application in the identification of a novel tachykinin-like peptide. PepPat takes as input a query peptide and a user-specified regular expression pattern within the peptide. It first performs a database pattern match and then ranks candidates on the basis of their similarity to the query peptide. PepPat calculates similarity over the pattern spanning region, enhancing PepPat's sensitivity for short query peptides. PepPat can also search for a user-specified number of occurrences of a repeated pattern within the target sequence. We illustrate PepPat's application in short peptide ligand mining. As a validation example, we report the identification of a novel tachykinin-like peptide, C14TKL-1, and show it is an NK1 (neuokinin receptor 1) agonist whose message is widely expressed in human periphery. PepPat is offered online at: http://peppat.cbi.pku.edu.cn.

  18. The composite classification problem in optical information processing

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hall, Eric B.

    1995-01-01

    Optical pattern recognition allows objects to be recognized from their images and permits their positional parameters to be estimated accurately in real time. The guiding principle behind optical pattern recognition is that a lens focusing a beam of coherent light modulated with an image produces the two-dimensinal Fourier transform of that image. When the resulting output is further transformed by the matched filter corresponding to the original image, one obtains the autocorrelation function of the original image, which has a peak at the origin. Such a device is called an optical correlator and may be used to recognize the locate the image for which it is designed. (From a practical perspective, an approximation to the matched filter must be used since the spatial light modulator (SLM) on which the filter is implemented usually does not allow one to independently control both the magnitude and phase of the filter.) Generally, one is not just concerned with recognizing a single image but is interested in recognizing a variety of rotated and scaled views of a particular image. In order to recognize these different views using an optical correlator, one may select a subset of these views (whose elements are called training images) and then use a composite filter that is designed to produce a correlation peak for each training image. Presumably, these peaks should be sharp and easily distinguishable from the surrounding correlation plane values. In this report we consider two areas of research regarding composite optical correlators. First, we consider the question of how best to choose the training images that are used to design the composite filter. With regard to quantity, the number of training images should be large enough to adequately represent all possible views of the targeted object yet small enough to ensure that the resolution of the filter is not exhausted. As for the images themselves, they should be distinct enough to avoid numerical difficulties yet similar enough to avoid gaps in which certain views of the target will be unrecognized. One method that we introduce to study this problem is called probing and involves the creation of the artificial imagery. The second problem we consider involves the clasification of the composite filter's correlation plane data. In particular, we would like to determine not only whether or not we are viewing a training image, but, in the former case, we would like to determine which training image is being viewed. This second problem is investigated using traditional M-ary hypothesis testing techniques.

  19. Temporal-pattern similarity analysis reveals the beneficial and detrimental effects of context reinstatement on human memory.

    PubMed

    Staudigl, Tobias; Vollmar, Christian; Noachtar, Soheyl; Hanslmayr, Simon

    2015-04-01

    A powerful force in human memory is the context in which memories are encoded (Tulving and Thomson, 1973). Several studies suggest that the reinstatement of neural encoding patterns is beneficial for memory retrieval (Manning et al., 2011; Staresina et al., 2012; Jafarpour et al., 2014). However, reinstatement of the original encoding context is not always helpful, for instance, when retrieving a memory in a different contextual situation (Smith and Vela, 2001). It is an open question whether such context-dependent memory effects can be captured by the reinstatement of neural patterns. We investigated this question by applying temporal and spatial pattern similarity analysis in MEG and intracranial EEG in a context-match paradigm. Items (words) were tagged by individual dynamic context stimuli (movies). The results show that beta oscillatory phase in visual regions and the parahippocampal cortex tracks the incidental reinstatement of individual context trajectories on a single-trial level. Crucially, memory benefitted from reinstatement when the encoding and retrieval contexts matched but suffered from reinstatement when the contexts did not match. Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/355373-12$15.00/0.

  20. Meta-image navigation augmenters for GPS denied mountain navigation of small UAS

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Teng; ćelik, Koray; Somani, Arun K.

    2014-06-01

    We present a novel approach to use mountain drainage patterns for GPS-Denied navigation of small unmanned aerial systems (UAS) such as the ScanEagle, utilizing a down-looking fixed focus monocular imager. Our proposal allows extension of missions to GPS-denied mountain areas, with no assumption of human-made geographic objects. We leverage the analogy between mountain drainage patterns, human arteriograms, and human fingerprints, to match local drainage patterns to Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) rendered parallax occlusion maps of geo-registered radar returns (GRRR). Details of our actual GPU algorithm is beyond the subject of this paper, and is planned as a future paper. The matching occurs in real-time, while GRRR data is loaded on-board the aircraft pre-mission, so as not to require a scanning aperture radar during the mission. For recognition purposes, we represent a given mountain area with a set of spatially distributed mountain minutiae, i.e., details found in the drainage patterns, so that conventional minutiae-based fingerprint matching approaches can be used to match real-time camera image against template images in the training set. We use medical arteriography processing techniques to extract the patterns. The minutiae-based representation of mountains is achieved by first exposing mountain ridges and valleys with a series of filters and then extracting mountain minutiae from these ridges/valleys. Our results are experimentally validated on actual terrain data and show the effectiveness of minutiae-based mountain representation method. Furthermore, we study how to select landmarks for UAS navigation based on the proposed mountain representation and give a set of examples to show its feasibility. This research was in part funded by Rockwell Collins Inc.

  1. Efficient algorithms for analyzing the singularly perturbed boundary value problems of fractional order

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sayevand, K.; Pichaghchi, K.

    2018-04-01

    In this paper, we were concerned with the description of the singularly perturbed boundary value problems in the scope of fractional calculus. We should mention that, one of the main methods used to solve these problems in classical calculus is the so-called matched asymptotic expansion method. However we shall note that, this was not achievable via the existing classical definitions of fractional derivative, because they do not obey the chain rule which one of the key elements of the matched asymptotic expansion method. In order to accommodate this method to fractional derivative, we employ a relatively new derivative so-called the local fractional derivative. Using the properties of local fractional derivative, we extend the matched asymptotic expansion method to the scope of fractional calculus and introduce a reliable new algorithm to develop approximate solutions of the singularly perturbed boundary value problems of fractional order. In the new method, the original problem is partitioned into inner and outer solution equations. The reduced equation is solved with suitable boundary conditions which provide the terminal boundary conditions for the boundary layer correction. The inner solution problem is next solved as a solvable boundary value problem. The width of the boundary layer is approximated using appropriate resemblance function. Some theoretical results are established and proved. Some illustrating examples are solved and the results are compared with those of matched asymptotic expansion method and homotopy analysis method to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the method. It can be observed that, the proposed method approximates the exact solution very well not only in the boundary layer, but also away from the layer.

  2. Solving the Secondary Structure Matching Problem in Cryo-EM De Novo Modeling Using a Constrained K-Shortest Path Graph Algorithm.

    PubMed

    Al Nasr, Kamal; Ranjan, Desh; Zubair, Mohammad; Chen, Lin; He, Jing

    2014-01-01

    Electron cryomicroscopy is becoming a major experimental technique in solving the structures of large molecular assemblies. More and more three-dimensional images have been obtained at the medium resolutions between 5 and 10 Å. At this resolution range, major α-helices can be detected as cylindrical sticks and β-sheets can be detected as plain-like regions. A critical question in de novo modeling from cryo-EM images is to determine the match between the detected secondary structures from the image and those on the protein sequence. We formulate this matching problem into a constrained graph problem and present an O(Δ(2)N(2)2(N)) algorithm to this NP-Hard problem. The algorithm incorporates the dynamic programming approach into a constrained K-shortest path algorithm. Our method, DP-TOSS, has been tested using α-proteins with maximum 33 helices and α-β proteins up to five helices and 12 β-strands. The correct match was ranked within the top 35 for 19 of the 20 α-proteins and all nine α-β proteins tested. The results demonstrate that DP-TOSS improves accuracy, time and memory space in deriving the topologies of the secondary structure elements for proteins with a large number of secondary structures and a complex skeleton.

  3. Matching Extension and the Genus of a Graph,

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1986-04-01

    genus and the cardinality of the maximum matchings of a graph, Discrete Math . 25, 1979, 149-156. oQORE 1967. The Four-Color Problem, Academic Press...Press, New York, 1969, 287-293. M D PLUMMER 1980. On n-extendable graphs, Discrete Math . 31, 1980, 201-210. 1985. A theorem on matchings in the plane

  4. Behavioral and Temporal Pattern Detection Within Financial Data With Hidden Information

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2012-02-01

    probabilistic pattern detector to monitor the pattern. 15. SUBJECT TERMS Runtime verification, Hidden data, Hidden Markov models, Formal specifications...sequences in many other fields besides financial systems [L, TV, LC, LZ ]. Rather, the technique suggested in this paper is positioned as a hybrid...operation of the pattern detector . Section 7 describes the operation of the probabilistic pattern-matching monitor, and section 8 describes three

  5. Worker substance use, workplace problems and the risk of occupational injury: a matched case-control study.

    PubMed

    Spicer, Rebecca S; Miller, Ted R; Smith, Gordon S

    2003-07-01

    This study examines the tendency toward problem behavior as an explanation for the relationship between problem substance use and occupational injury. The authors used a matched case-control study nested in a cohort of 26,413 workers, in which cases (n = 3,994) were workers suffering an occupational injury. Five controls per case (n = 19,970) were selected from the cohort of workers active on the day of the injury and matched on job type. Conditional logistic regression modeled the association of problem substance use with occupational injury, controlling for problem behaviors and worker characteristics. Problem substance use was indicated indirectly if any of the following were alcohol/drug-involved during the comparison period: Employee Assistance Program visit, excused absence or disciplinary action. Discipline records identified minor (absenteeism) and serious (dishonesty, theft, assault, harassment, disrespect) problem behaviors during the comparison period. The odds of injury among workers with an indicator of problem substance use was 1.35 (p = .015) times greater than the odds among workers without an indicator, controlling for job type and demographics as well as adjusting for exposure. This ratio declined to 1.21 (p = .138) when problem behaviors were also controlled for. Minor and serious problem behaviors were significantly associated with occupational injury (odds ratio [OR] = 1.73, p < .001, and OR = 2.19, p < .001, respectively), controlling for demographics and substance use. The relationship of problem substance use with occupational injury was weak when problem behaviors were controlled for, suggesting that this relationship, observed in previous studies, may be explained by a workers tendency toward problem behaviors. Workplace injury prevention programs should address the expression of problem behaviors as a complement to drug and alcohol deterrent programs.

  6. Topological visual mapping in robotics.

    PubMed

    Romero, Anna; Cazorla, Miguel

    2012-08-01

    A key problem in robotics is the construction of a map from its environment. This map could be used in different tasks, like localization, recognition, obstacle avoidance, etc. Besides, the simultaneous location and mapping (SLAM) problem has had a lot of interest in the robotics community. This paper presents a new method for visual mapping, using topological instead of metric information. For that purpose, we propose prior image segmentation into regions in order to group the extracted invariant features in a graph so that each graph defines a single region of the image. Although others methods have been proposed for visual SLAM, our method is complete, in the sense that it makes all the process: it presents a new method for image matching; it defines a way to build the topological map; and it also defines a matching criterion for loop-closing. The matching process will take into account visual features and their structure using the graph transformation matching (GTM) algorithm, which allows us to process the matching and to remove out the outliers. Then, using this image comparison method, we propose an algorithm for constructing topological maps. During the experimentation phase, we will test the robustness of the method and its ability constructing topological maps. We have also introduced new hysteresis behavior in order to solve some problems found building the graph.

  7. Personalised news filtering and recommendation system using Chi-square statistics-based K-nearest neighbour (χ2SB-KNN) model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Adeniyi, D. A.; Wei, Z.; Yang, Y.

    2017-10-01

    Recommendation problem has been extensively studied by researchers in the field of data mining, database and information retrieval. This study presents the design and realisation of an automated, personalised news recommendations system based on Chi-square statistics-based K-nearest neighbour (χ2SB-KNN) model. The proposed χ2SB-KNN model has the potential to overcome computational complexity and information overloading problems, reduces runtime and speeds up execution process through the use of critical value of χ2 distribution. The proposed recommendation engine can alleviate scalability challenges through combined online pattern discovery and pattern matching for real-time recommendations. This work also showcases the development of a novel method of feature selection referred to as Data Discretisation-Based feature selection method. This is used for selecting the best features for the proposed χ2SB-KNN algorithm at the preprocessing stage of the classification procedures. The implementation of the proposed χ2SB-KNN model is achieved through the use of a developed in-house Java program on an experimental website called OUC newsreaders' website. Finally, we compared the performance of our system with two baseline methods which are traditional Euclidean distance K-nearest neighbour and Naive Bayesian techniques. The result shows a significant improvement of our method over the baseline methods studied.

  8. Empirical tests of the role of disruptive coloration in reducing detectability

    PubMed Central

    Fraser, Stewart; Callahan, Alison; Klassen, Dana; Sherratt, Thomas N

    2007-01-01

    Disruptive patterning is a potentially universal camouflage technique that is thought to enhance concealment by rendering the detection of body shapes more difficult. In a recent series of field experiments, artificial moths with markings that extended to the edges of their ‘wings’ survived at higher rates than moths with the same edge patterns inwardly displaced. While this result seemingly indicates a benefit to obscuring edges, it is possible that the higher density markings of the inwardly displaced patterns concomitantly reduced their extent of background matching. Likewise, it has been suggested that the mealworm baits placed on the artificial moths could have created differential contrasts with different moth patterns. To address these concerns, we conducted controlled trials in which human subjects searched for computer-generated moth images presented against images of oak trees. Moths with edge-extended disruptive markings survived at higher rates, and took longer to find, than all other moth types, whether presented sequentially or simultaneously. However, moths with no edge markings and reduced interior pattern density survived better than their high-density counterparts, indicating that background matching may have played a so-far unrecognized role in the earlier experiments. Our disruptively patterned non-background-matching moths also had the lowest overall survivorship, indicating that disruptive coloration alone may not provide significant protection from predators. Collectively, our results provide independent support for the survival value of disruptive markings and demonstrate that there are common features in human and avian perception of camouflage. PMID:17360282

  9. A spot-matching method using cumulative frequency matrix in 2D gel images

    PubMed Central

    Han, Chan-Myeong; Park, Joon-Ho; Chang, Chu-Seok; Ryoo, Myung-Chun

    2014-01-01

    A new method for spot matching in two-dimensional gel electrophoresis images using a cumulative frequency matrix is proposed. The method improves on the weak points of the previous method called ‘spot matching by topological patterns of neighbour spots’. It accumulates the frequencies of neighbour spot pairs produced through the entire matching process and determines spot pairs one by one in order of higher frequency. Spot matching by frequencies of neighbour spot pairs shows a fairly better performance. However, it can give researchers a hint for whether the matching results can be trustworthy or not, which can save researchers a lot of effort for verification of the results. PMID:26019609

  10. The successively temporal error concealment algorithm using error-adaptive block matching principle

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lee, Yu-Hsuan; Wu, Tsai-Hsing; Chen, Chao-Chyun

    2014-09-01

    Generally, the temporal error concealment (TEC) adopts the blocks around the corrupted block (CB) as the search pattern to find the best-match block in previous frame. Once the CB is recovered, it is referred to as the recovered block (RB). Although RB can be the search pattern to find the best-match block of another CB, RB is not the same as its original block (OB). The error between the RB and its OB limits the performance of TEC. The successively temporal error concealment (STEC) algorithm is proposed to alleviate this error. The STEC procedure consists of tier-1 and tier-2. The tier-1 divides a corrupted macroblock into four corrupted 8 × 8 blocks and generates a recovering order for them. The corrupted 8 × 8 block with the first place of recovering order is recovered in tier-1, and remaining 8 × 8 CBs are recovered in tier-2 along the recovering order. In tier-2, the error-adaptive block matching principle (EA-BMP) is proposed for the RB as the search pattern to recover remaining corrupted 8 × 8 blocks. The proposed STEC outperforms sophisticated TEC algorithms on average PSNR by 0.3 dB on the packet error rate of 20% at least.

  11. Changeable camouflage: how well can flounder resemble the colour and spatial scale of substrates in their natural habitats?

    PubMed Central

    Akkaynak, Derya; Siemann, Liese A.; Barbosa, Alexandra

    2017-01-01

    Flounder change colour and pattern for camouflage. We used a spectrometer to measure reflectance spectra and a digital camera to capture body patterns of two flounder species camouflaged on four natural backgrounds of different spatial scale (sand, small gravel, large gravel and rocks). We quantified the degree of spectral match between flounder and background relative to the situation of perfect camouflage in which flounder and background were assumed to have identical spectral distribution. Computations were carried out for three biologically relevant observers: monochromatic squid, dichromatic crab and trichromatic guitarfish. Our computations present a new approach to analysing datasets with multiple spectra that have large variance. Furthermore, to investigate the spatial match between flounder and background, images of flounder patterns were analysed using a custom program originally developed to study cuttlefish camouflage. Our results show that all flounder and background spectra fall within the same colour gamut and that, in terms of different observer visual systems, flounder matched most substrates in luminance and colour contrast. Flounder matched the spatial scales of all substrates except for rocks. We discuss findings in terms of flounder biology; furthermore, we discuss our methodology in light of hyperspectral technologies that combine high-resolution spectral and spatial imaging. PMID:28405370

  12. Changeable camouflage: how well can flounder resemble the colour and spatial scale of substrates in their natural habitats?

    PubMed

    Akkaynak, Derya; Siemann, Liese A; Barbosa, Alexandra; Mäthger, Lydia M

    2017-03-01

    Flounder change colour and pattern for camouflage. We used a spectrometer to measure reflectance spectra and a digital camera to capture body patterns of two flounder species camouflaged on four natural backgrounds of different spatial scale (sand, small gravel, large gravel and rocks). We quantified the degree of spectral match between flounder and background relative to the situation of perfect camouflage in which flounder and background were assumed to have identical spectral distribution. Computations were carried out for three biologically relevant observers: monochromatic squid, dichromatic crab and trichromatic guitarfish. Our computations present a new approach to analysing datasets with multiple spectra that have large variance. Furthermore, to investigate the spatial match between flounder and background, images of flounder patterns were analysed using a custom program originally developed to study cuttlefish camouflage. Our results show that all flounder and background spectra fall within the same colour gamut and that, in terms of different observer visual systems, flounder matched most substrates in luminance and colour contrast. Flounder matched the spatial scales of all substrates except for rocks. We discuss findings in terms of flounder biology; furthermore, we discuss our methodology in light of hyperspectral technologies that combine high-resolution spectral and spatial imaging.

  13. Object/rule integration in CLIPS. [C Language Integrated Production System

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Donnell, Brian L.

    1993-01-01

    This paper gives a brief overview of the C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) with a focus on the object-oriented features. The advantages of an object data representation over the traditional working memory element (WME), i.e., facts, are discussed, and the implementation of the Rete inference algorithm in CLIPS is presented in detail. A few methods for achieving pattern-matching on objects with the current inference engine are given, and finally, the paper examines the modifications necessary to the Rete algorithm to allow direct object pattern-matching.

  14. Learning new gait patterns: Exploratory muscle activity during motor learning is not predicted by motor modules

    PubMed Central

    Ranganathan, Rajiv; Krishnan, Chandramouli; Dhaher, Yasin Y.; Rymer, William Z.

    2018-01-01

    The motor module hypothesis in motor control proposes that the nervous system can simplify the problem of controlling a large number of muscles in human movement by grouping muscles into a smaller number of modules. Here, we tested one prediction of the modular organization hypothesis by examining whether there is preferential exploration along these motor modules during the learning of a new gait pattern. Healthy college-aged participants learned a new gait pattern which required increased hip and knee flexion during the swing phase while walking in a lower-extremity robot (Lokomat). The new gait pattern was displayed as a foot trajectory in the sagittal plane and participants attempted to match their foot trajectory to this template. We recorded EMG from 8 lower-extremity muscles and we extracted motor modules during both baseline walking and target-tracking using non-negative matrix factorization (NMF). Results showed increased trajectory variability in the first block of learning, indicating that participants were engaged in exploratory behavior. Critically, when we examined the muscle activity during this exploratory phase, we found that the composition of motor modules changed significantly within the first few strides of attempting the new gait pattern. The lack of persistence of the motor modules under even short time scales suggests that motor modules extracted during locomotion may be more indicative of correlated muscle activity induced by the task constraints of walking, rather than reflecting a modular control strategy. PMID:26916510

  15. Epidemiology of tennis injuries: An eight-year review of Davis Cup retirements.

    PubMed

    Maquirriain, Javier; Baglione, Roberto

    2016-01-01

    Tennis practice, especially at elite levels, may place players at risk for debilitating musculoskeletal injuries. The aim of this study was to analyse the epidemiological pattern of retirements due to medical conditions sustained by tennis players during Davis Cup matches in the 2006-2013 period. All uncompleted matches due to a medical condition (injuries and illnesses) occurred in the above-mentioned competition were collected from the official source, registered and analysed according to published guidelines. The overall incidence of match retirements was 1.66% (12/719). The injury rate was 6.05/1000 playing hours; and 6.64/1000 match exposures. Musculotendinous lesions were the most common type of injury (66.66%). The incidence of lower-limb injuries was higher than upper-limb and trunk lesions. The incidence of retired matches due to medical conditions was higher in hard courts than in clay courts (2.97% and 0.90%, respectively; p = 0.04), while the median value of inactivity of injuries was 32.0 days (range 3-297). In conclusion, the incidence of retirements due to medical conditions in Davis Cup matches was low supporting the assumption that elite tennis is a low-risk sport activity. Findings provided scientific evidences of injury patterns among male professional tennis players and may contribute to conduct better injury prevention strategies.

  16. Pipeline Processing with an Iterative, Context-based Detection Model

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-04-19

    stripping the incoming data stream of repeating and irrelevant signals prior to running primary detectors , adaptive beamforming and matched field processing...framework, pattern detectors , correlation detectors , subspace detectors , matched field detectors , nuclear explosion monitoring 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION...10 5. Teleseismic paths from earthquakes in

  17. Individual Biometric Identification Using Multi-Cycle Electrocardiographic Waveform Patterns.

    PubMed

    Lee, Wonki; Kim, Seulgee; Kim, Daeeun

    2018-03-28

    The electrocardiogram (ECG) waveform conveys information regarding the electrical property of the heart. The patterns vary depending on the individual heart characteristics. ECG features can be potentially used for biometric recognition. This study presents a new method using the entire ECG waveform pattern for matching and demonstrates that the approach can potentially be employed for individual biometric identification. Multi-cycle ECG signals were assessed using an ECG measuring circuit, and three electrodes can be patched on the wrists or fingers for considering various measurements. For biometric identification, our-fold cross validation was used in the experiments for assessing how the results of a statistical analysis will generalize to an independent data set. Four different pattern matching algorithms, i.e., cosine similarity, cross correlation, city block distance, and Euclidean distances, were tested to compare the individual identification performances with a single channel of ECG signal (3-wire ECG). To evaluate the pattern matching for biometric identification, the ECG recordings for each subject were partitioned into training and test set. The suggested method obtained a maximum performance of 89.9% accuracy with two heartbeats of ECG signals measured on the wrist and 93.3% accuracy with three heartbeats for 55 subjects. The performance rate with ECG signals measured on the fingers improved up to 99.3% with two heartbeats and 100% with three heartbeats of signals for 20 subjects.

  18. Overcoming the Problems of Inconsistent International Migration data: A New Method Applied to Flows in Europe

    PubMed Central

    Raymer, James; van der Erf, Rob; van Wissen, Leo

    2010-01-01

    Due to differences in definitions and measurement methods, cross-country comparisons of international migration patterns are difficult and confusing. Emigration numbers reported by sending countries tend to differ from the corresponding immigration numbers reported by receiving countries. In this paper, a methodology is presented to achieve harmonised estimates of migration flows benchmarked to a specific definition of duration. This methodology accounts for both differences in definitions and the effects of measurement error due to, for example, under reporting and sampling fluctuations. More specifically, the differences between the two sets of reported data are overcome by estimating a set of adjustment factors for each country’s immigration and emigration data. The adjusted data take into account any special cases where the origin–destination patterns do not match the overall patterns. The new method for harmonising migration flows that we present is based on earlier efforts by Poulain (European Journal of Population, 9(4): 353–381 1993, Working Paper 12, joint ECE-Eurostat Work Session on Migration Statistics, Geneva, Switzerland 1999) and is illustrated for movements between 19 European countries from 2002 to 2007. The results represent a reliable and consistent set of international migration flows that can be used for understanding recent changes in migration patterns, as inputs into population projections and for developing evidence-based migration policies. PMID:21124647

  19. Overcoming the Problems of Inconsistent International Migration data: A New Method Applied to Flows in Europe.

    PubMed

    de Beer, Joop; Raymer, James; van der Erf, Rob; van Wissen, Leo

    2010-11-01

    Due to differences in definitions and measurement methods, cross-country comparisons of international migration patterns are difficult and confusing. Emigration numbers reported by sending countries tend to differ from the corresponding immigration numbers reported by receiving countries. In this paper, a methodology is presented to achieve harmonised estimates of migration flows benchmarked to a specific definition of duration. This methodology accounts for both differences in definitions and the effects of measurement error due to, for example, under reporting and sampling fluctuations. More specifically, the differences between the two sets of reported data are overcome by estimating a set of adjustment factors for each country's immigration and emigration data. The adjusted data take into account any special cases where the origin-destination patterns do not match the overall patterns. The new method for harmonising migration flows that we present is based on earlier efforts by Poulain (European Journal of Population, 9(4): 353-381 1993, Working Paper 12, joint ECE-Eurostat Work Session on Migration Statistics, Geneva, Switzerland 1999) and is illustrated for movements between 19 European countries from 2002 to 2007. The results represent a reliable and consistent set of international migration flows that can be used for understanding recent changes in migration patterns, as inputs into population projections and for developing evidence-based migration policies.

  20. Why caution is recommended with post-hoc individual patient matching for estimation of treatment effect in parallel-group randomized controlled trials: the case of acute stroke trials.

    PubMed

    Jafari, Nahid; Hearne, John; Churilov, Leonid

    2013-11-10

    A post-hoc individual patient matching procedure was recently proposed within the context of parallel group randomized clinical trials (RCTs) as a method for estimating treatment effect. In this paper, we consider a post-hoc individual patient matching problem within a parallel group RCT as a multi-objective decision-making problem focussing on the trade-off between the quality of individual matches and the overall percentage of matching. Using acute stroke trials as a context, we utilize exact optimization and simulation techniques to investigate a complex relationship between the overall percentage of individual post-hoc matching, the size of the respective RCT, and the quality of matching on variables highly prognostic for a good functional outcome after stroke, as well as the dispersion in these variables. It is empirically confirmed that a high percentage of individual post-hoc matching can only be achieved when the differences in prognostic baseline variables between individually matched subjects within the same pair are sufficiently large and that the unmatched subjects are qualitatively different to the matched ones. It is concluded that the post-hoc individual matching as a technique for treatment effect estimation in parallel-group RCTs should be exercised with caution because of its propensity to introduce significant bias and reduce validity. If used with appropriate caution and thorough evaluation, this approach can complement other viable alternative approaches for estimating the treatment effect. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  1. Learning object correspondences with the observed transport shape measure.

    PubMed

    Pitiot, Alain; Delingette, Hervé; Toga, Arthur W; Thompson, Paul M

    2003-07-01

    We propose a learning method which introduces explicit knowledge to the object correspondence problem. Our approach uses an a priori learning set to compute a dense correspondence field between two objects, where the characteristics of the field bear close resemblance to those in the learning set. We introduce a new local shape measure we call the "observed transport measure", whose properties make it particularly amenable to the matching problem. From the values of our measure obtained at every point of the objects to be matched, we compute a distance matrix which embeds the correspondence problem in a highly expressive and redundant construct and facilitates its manipulation. We present two learning strategies that rely on the distance matrix and discuss their applications to the matching of a variety of 1-D, 2-D and 3-D objects, including the corpus callosum and ventricular surfaces.

  2. Women's Occupational Career Patterns over 27 Years: Relations to Family of Origin, Life Careers, and Wellness

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Huang, Qinghai; Sverke, Magnus

    2007-01-01

    This study aimed at identifying and describing occupational career patterns (OCPs) from age 16 to 43 by applying optimal matching techniques to sequence data obtained from a sample of Swedish women. Women's occupational trajectories were found to be diverse. Upward mobility (3 patterns) and stable careers (4 patterns) were prevalent, but there…

  3. Statistics of stable marriages

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dzierzawa, Michael; Oméro, Marie-José

    2000-11-01

    In the stable marriage problem N men and N women have to be matched by pairs under the constraint that the resulting matching is stable. We study the statistical properties of stable matchings in the large N limit using both numerical and analytical methods. Generalizations of the model including singles and unequal numbers of men and women are also investigated.

  4. Self-Similar Spin Images for Point Cloud Matching

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pulido, Daniel

    The rapid growth of Light Detection And Ranging (Lidar) technologies that collect, process, and disseminate 3D point clouds have allowed for increasingly accurate spatial modeling and analysis of the real world. Lidar sensors can generate massive 3D point clouds of a collection area that provide highly detailed spatial and radiometric information. However, a Lidar collection can be expensive and time consuming. Simultaneously, the growth of crowdsourced Web 2.0 data (e.g., Flickr, OpenStreetMap) have provided researchers with a wealth of freely available data sources that cover a variety of geographic areas. Crowdsourced data can be of varying quality and density. In addition, since it is typically not collected as part of a dedicated experiment but rather volunteered, when and where the data is collected is arbitrary. The integration of these two sources of geoinformation can provide researchers the ability to generate products and derive intelligence that mitigate their respective disadvantages and combine their advantages. Therefore, this research will address the problem of fusing two point clouds from potentially different sources. Specifically, we will consider two problems: scale matching and feature matching. Scale matching consists of computing feature metrics of each point cloud and analyzing their distributions to determine scale differences. Feature matching consists of defining local descriptors that are invariant to common dataset distortions (e.g., rotation and translation). Additionally, after matching the point clouds they can be registered and processed further (e.g., change detection). The objective of this research is to develop novel methods to fuse and enhance two point clouds from potentially disparate sources (e.g., Lidar and crowdsourced Web 2.0 datasets). The scope of this research is to investigate both scale and feature matching between two point clouds. The specific focus of this research will be in developing a novel local descriptor based on the concept of self-similarity to aid in the scale and feature matching steps. An open problem in fusion is how best to extract features from two point clouds and then perform feature-based matching. The proposed approach for this matching step is the use of local self-similarity as an invariant measure to match features. In particular, the proposed approach is to combine the concept of local self-similarity with a well-known feature descriptor, Spin Images, and thereby define "Self-Similar Spin Images". This approach is then extended to the case of matching two points clouds in very different coordinate systems (e.g., a geo-referenced Lidar point cloud and stereo-image derived point cloud without geo-referencing). The use of Self-Similar Spin Images is again applied to address this problem by introducing a "Self-Similar Keyscale" that matches the spatial scales of two point clouds. Another open problem is how best to detect changes in content between two point clouds. A method is proposed to find changes between two point clouds by analyzing the order statistics of the nearest neighbors between the two clouds, and thereby define the "Nearest Neighbor Order Statistic" method. Note that the well-known Hausdorff distance is a special case as being just the maximum order statistic. Therefore, by studying the entire histogram of these nearest neighbors it is expected to yield a more robust method to detect points that are present in one cloud but not the other. This approach is applied at multiple resolutions. Therefore, changes detected at the coarsest level will yield large missing targets and at finer levels will yield smaller targets.

  5. Finger Vein Recognition Based on a Personalized Best Bit Map

    PubMed Central

    Yang, Gongping; Xi, Xiaoming; Yin, Yilong

    2012-01-01

    Finger vein patterns have recently been recognized as an effective biometric identifier. In this paper, we propose a finger vein recognition method based on a personalized best bit map (PBBM). Our method is rooted in a local binary pattern based method and then inclined to use the best bits only for matching. We first present the concept of PBBM and the generating algorithm. Then we propose the finger vein recognition framework, which consists of preprocessing, feature extraction, and matching. Finally, we design extensive experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of our proposal. Experimental results show that PBBM achieves not only better performance, but also high robustness and reliability. In addition, PBBM can be used as a general framework for binary pattern based recognition. PMID:22438735

  6. Thalamus surface shape deformity in obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizophrenia.

    PubMed

    Kang, Do-Hyung; Kim, Sun Hyung; Kim, Chi-Won; Choi, Jung-Seok; Jang, Joon Hwan; Jung, Myung Hun; Lee, Jong-Min; Kim, Sun I; Kwon, Jun Soo

    2008-04-16

    The authors performed a three-dimensional shape deformation analysis to clarify the various patterns of specific thalamic nuclei abnormality using three age-matched and sex-matched groups of 22 patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), 22 patients with schizophrenia and 22 control participants. Compared with the healthy volunteers, the anterior, lateral outward surface deformities of the thalamus were significant in OCD patients, whereas the posterior, medial outward deformities of the thalamus were prominent in schizophrenia patients. In terms of thalamic asymmetry, both OCD and schizophrenia patients exhibited the loss of a leftward pattern of asymmetry on the posterior, medial surface of the thalamus. Different patterns of shape abnormality of specific thalamic nuclei may be related to the different phenomenology of OCD and schizophrenia.

  7. Finger vein recognition based on a personalized best bit map.

    PubMed

    Yang, Gongping; Xi, Xiaoming; Yin, Yilong

    2012-01-01

    Finger vein patterns have recently been recognized as an effective biometric identifier. In this paper, we propose a finger vein recognition method based on a personalized best bit map (PBBM). Our method is rooted in a local binary pattern based method and then inclined to use the best bits only for matching. We first present the concept of PBBM and the generating algorithm. Then we propose the finger vein recognition framework, which consists of preprocessing, feature extraction, and matching. Finally, we design extensive experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of our proposal. Experimental results show that PBBM achieves not only better performance, but also high robustness and reliability. In addition, PBBM can be used as a general framework for binary pattern based recognition.

  8. Large-memory real-time multichannel multiplexed pattern recognition

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gregory, D. A.; Liu, H. K.

    1984-01-01

    The principle and experimental design of a real-time multichannel multiplexed optical pattern recognition system via use of a 25-focus dichromated gelatin holographic lens (hololens) are described. Each of the 25 foci of the hololens may have a storage and matched filtering capability approaching that of a single-lens correlator. If the space-bandwidth product of an input image is limited, as is true in most practical cases, the 25-focus hololens system has 25 times the capability of a single lens. Experimental results have shown that the interfilter noise is not serious. The system has already demonstrated the storage and recognition of over 70 matched filters - which is a larger capacity than any optical pattern recognition system reported to date.

  9. A Simple Label Switching Algorithm for Semisupervised Structural SVMs.

    PubMed

    Balamurugan, P; Shevade, Shirish; Sundararajan, S

    2015-10-01

    In structured output learning, obtaining labeled data for real-world applications is usually costly, while unlabeled examples are available in abundance. Semisupervised structured classification deals with a small number of labeled examples and a large number of unlabeled structured data. In this work, we consider semisupervised structural support vector machines with domain constraints. The optimization problem, which in general is not convex, contains the loss terms associated with the labeled and unlabeled examples, along with the domain constraints. We propose a simple optimization approach that alternates between solving a supervised learning problem and a constraint matching problem. Solving the constraint matching problem is difficult for structured prediction, and we propose an efficient and effective label switching method to solve it. The alternating optimization is carried out within a deterministic annealing framework, which helps in effective constraint matching and avoiding poor local minima, which are not very useful. The algorithm is simple and easy to implement. Further, it is suitable for any structured output learning problem where exact inference is available. Experiments on benchmark sequence labeling data sets and a natural language parsing data set show that the proposed approach, though simple, achieves comparable generalization performance.

  10. Physiological Profile and Activity Pattern of Minor Gaelic Football Players.

    PubMed

    Cullen, Bryan D; Roantree, Mark T; McCarren, Andrew L; Kelly, David T; OʼConnor, Paul L; Hughes, Sarah M; Daly, Pat G; Moyna, Niall M

    2017-07-01

    Cullen, BD, Roantree, M, McCarren, A, Kelly, DT, O'Connor, PL, Hughes, SM, Daly, PG, and Moyna1, NM. Physiological profile and activity pattern of minor Gaelic football players. J Strength Cond Res 31(7): 1811-1820, 2017-The purpose of this study was to evaluate the physiological profile and activity pattern in club- and county-level under-18 (U-18) Gaelic football players relative to playing position. Participants (n = 85) were analyzed during 17 official 15-a-side matches using global positioning system technology (SPI Pro X II; GPSports Systems, Canberra, Australia) and heart rate (HR) telemetry. During the second part of this study, 63 participants underwent an incremental treadmill test to assess their maximal oxygen uptake (V[Combining Dot Above]o2max) and peak HR (HRmax). Players covered a mean distance of 5,774 ± 737 m during a full 60-minute match. The mean %HRmax and %V[Combining Dot Above]O2max observed during the match play were 81.6 ± 4.3% and 70.1 ± 7.75%, respectively. The playing level had no effect on the distance covered, player movement patterns, or %HRmax observed during match play. Midfield players covered significantly greater distance than defenders (p = 0.033). Playing position had no effect on %HRmax or the frequency of sprinting or high-intensity running during match play. The frequency of jogging, cruise running, striding (p = 0.000), and walking (p = 0.003) was greater in the midfield position than in the forward position. Time had a significant effect (F(1,39) = 33.512, p-value = 0.000, and (Equation is included in full-text article.)= 0.462) on distance covered and %HRmax, both of which showed a reduction between playing periods. Gaelic football is predominantly characterized by low-to-moderate intensity activity interspersed with periods of high-intensity running. The information provided may be used as a framework for coaches in the design and prescription of training strategies. Positional specific training may be warranted given the comparatively greater demands observed in the midfield playing position. Replicating the demands of match play in training may reduce the decline in distance covered and %HRmax observed during the second half of match play.

  11. Statistical significance of trace evidence matches using independent physicochemical measurements

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Almirall, Jose R.; Cole, Michael; Furton, Kenneth G.; Gettinby, George

    1997-02-01

    A statistical approach to the significance of glass evidence is proposed using independent physicochemical measurements and chemometrics. Traditional interpretation of the significance of trace evidence matches or exclusions relies on qualitative descriptors such as 'indistinguishable from,' 'consistent with,' 'similar to' etc. By performing physical and chemical measurements with are independent of one another, the significance of object exclusions or matches can be evaluated statistically. One of the problems with this approach is that the human brain is excellent at recognizing and classifying patterns and shapes but performs less well when that object is represented by a numerical list of attributes. Chemometrics can be employed to group similar objects using clustering algorithms and provide statistical significance in a quantitative manner. This approach is enhanced when population databases exist or can be created and the data in question can be evaluated given these databases. Since the selection of the variables used and their pre-processing can greatly influence the outcome, several different methods could be employed in order to obtain a more complete picture of the information contained in the data. Presently, we report on the analysis of glass samples using refractive index measurements and the quantitative analysis of the concentrations of the metals: Mg, Al, Ca, Fe, Mn, Ba, Sr, Ti and Zr. The extension of this general approach to fiber and paint comparisons also is discussed. This statistical approach should not replace the current interpretative approaches to trace evidence matches or exclusions but rather yields an additional quantitative measure. The lack of sufficient general population databases containing the needed physicochemical measurements and the potential for confusion arising from statistical analysis currently hamper this approach and ways of overcoming these obstacles are presented.

  12. Prosody and Alignment: A Sequential Perspective

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Reed, Beatrice Szczepek

    2010-01-01

    In their analysis of a corpus of classroom interactions in an inner city high school, Roth and Tobin describe how teachers and students accomplish interactional alignment by prosodically matching each other's turns. Prosodic matching, and specific prosodic patterns are interpreted as signs of, and contributions to successful interactional outcomes…

  13. Assessment of breathing patterns and respiratory muscle recruitment during singing and speech in quadriplegia.

    PubMed

    Tamplin, Jeanette; Brazzale, Danny J; Pretto, Jeffrey J; Ruehland, Warren R; Buttifant, Mary; Brown, Douglas J; Berlowitz, David J

    2011-02-01

    To explore how respiratory impairment after cervical spinal cord injury affects vocal function, and to explore muscle recruitment strategies used during vocal tasks after quadriplegia. It was hypothesized that to achieve the increased respiratory support required for singing and loud speech, people with quadriplegia use different patterns of muscle recruitment and control strategies compared with control subjects without spinal cord injury. Matched, parallel-group design. Large university-affiliated public hospital. Consenting participants with motor-complete C5-7 quadriplegia (n=6) and able-bodied age-matched controls (n=6) were assessed on physiologic and voice measures during vocal tasks. Not applicable. Standard respiratory function testing, surface electromyographic activity from accessory respiratory muscles, sound pressure levels during vocal tasks, the Voice Handicap Index, and the Perceptual Voice Profile. The group with quadriplegia had a reduced lung capacity (vital capacity, 71% vs 102% of predicted; P=.028), more perceived voice problems (Voice Handicap Index score, 22.5 vs 6.5; P=.046), and greater recruitment of accessory respiratory muscles during both loud and soft volumes (P=.028) than the able-bodied controls. The group with quadriplegia also demonstrated higher accessory muscle activation in changing from soft to loud speech (P=.028). People with quadriplegia have impaired vocal ability and use different muscle recruitment strategies during speech than the able-bodied. These findings will enable us to target specific measurements of respiratory physiology for assessing functional improvements in response to formal therapeutic singing training. Copyright © 2011 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. Small area estimation of obesity prevalence and dietary patterns: a model applied to Rio de Janeiro city, Brazil.

    PubMed

    Cataife, Guido

    2014-03-01

    We propose the use of previously developed small area estimation techniques to monitor obesity and dietary habits in developing countries and apply the model to Rio de Janeiro city. We estimate obesity prevalence rates at the Census Tract through a combinatorial optimization spatial microsimulation model that matches body mass index and socio-demographic data in Brazil's 2008-9 family expenditure survey with Census 2010 socio-demographic data. Obesity ranges from 8% to 25% in most areas and affects the poor almost as much as the rich. Male and female obesity rates are uncorrelated at the small area level. The model is an effective tool to understand the complexity of the problem and to aid in policy design. © 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  15. Fractional Programming for Communication Systems—Part II: Uplink Scheduling via Matching

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shen, Kaiming; Yu, Wei

    2018-05-01

    This two-part paper develops novel methodologies for using fractional programming (FP) techniques to design and optimize communication systems. Part I of this paper proposes a new quadratic transform for FP and treats its application for continuous optimization problems. In this Part II of the paper, we study discrete problems, such as those involving user scheduling, which are considerably more difficult to solve. Unlike the continuous problems, discrete or mixed discrete-continuous problems normally cannot be recast as convex problems. In contrast to the common heuristic of relaxing the discrete variables, this work reformulates the original problem in an FP form amenable to distributed combinatorial optimization. The paper illustrates this methodology by tackling the important and challenging problem of uplink coordinated multi-cell user scheduling in wireless cellular systems. Uplink scheduling is more challenging than downlink scheduling, because uplink user scheduling decisions significantly affect the interference pattern in nearby cells. Further, the discrete scheduling variable needs to be optimized jointly with continuous variables such as transmit power levels and beamformers. The main idea of the proposed FP approach is to decouple the interaction among the interfering links, thereby permitting a distributed and joint optimization of the discrete and continuous variables with provable convergence. The paper shows that the well-known weighted minimum mean-square-error (WMMSE) algorithm can also be derived from a particular use of FP; but our proposed FP-based method significantly outperforms WMMSE when discrete user scheduling variables are involved, both in term of run-time efficiency and optimizing results.

  16. The Effect of Timbre and Vibrato on Vocal Pitch Matching Accuracy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Duvvuru, Sirisha

    Research has shown that singers are better able to match pitch when the target stimulus has a timbre close to their own voice. This study seeks to answer the following questions: (1) Do classically trained female singers more accurately match pitch when the target stimulus is more similar to their own timbre? (2) Does the ability to match pitch vary with increasing pitch? (3) Does the ability to match pitch differ depending on whether the target stimulus is produced with or without vibrato? (4) Are mezzo sopranos less accurate than sopranos? Stimuli. Source signals were synthesized with a source slope of -12dB/octave using vibrato and without vibrato at each of the frequencies, C4, B4 and F5. These source signals were filtered using 5 formant patterns (A-E) of vowel /a/ constituting a total of 30 stimuli (5 formant patterns*3pitches*2 vibrato conditions). Procedure. Ten sopranos and 10 mezzo-sopranos with at least 3 years of individual voice training were recruited from the University Of Tennessee School Of Music and the Knoxville Opera Company. Each singer attempted to vocally match the pitch of all 30 stimuli presented twice in a random order. Analysis and results. Pitch matching accuracy was measured in terms of the difference in cents between the target and the experimental productions at two locations, (1) pre-phonatory set (2) mid-point of the vowel. Accuracy of pitch matching was compared across vibrato and non-vibrato conditions. Results indicated that there was no significant effect of formant pattern on pitch matching accuracy. With increasing pitch from C4 to F5, pitch matching accuracy increased in mid-point of the vowel condition but not in pre-phonatory set condition. Mezzo-sopranos moved towards being in tune from pre-phonatory to mid-point of the vowel. However, sopranos at C4, sang closer to being in tune at pre-phonatory, but lowered the pitch at the mid-point of the vowel. Presence or absence of vibrato did not affect the pitch matching accuracy. However, the interesting finding of the study was that singers attempted to match the timbre of stimuli with vibrato. Results are discussed in terms of interactions between pitch and timbre from auditory perceptual as well as physiological point of view and how current theories of pitch perception relate to this phenomenon. Neither physiological nor auditory perceptual mechanisms provide complete explanations for the results obtained in the study. From a perceptual point of view, an interaction between pitch and timbre seems to be more complex, for spectral and temporal theories are limited in explaining these interactions. Also, possible explanations for the phenomenon of timbre matching are provided.

  17. The Relationship between the JobMatchTalent Test and the NEO PI-R: Construct Validation of an Instrument Designed for Recruitment of Personnel

    PubMed Central

    Garcia, Danilo; Nima, Ali Al; Rappe, Catrin; Rapp Ricciardi, Max; Archer, Trevor

    2014-01-01

    Background Personality measures in recruitment situations need to (1) cover the Big-Five model of personality and (2) focus on interpersonal requirements of jobs. We investigated the relationship between the JobMatchTalent test and the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO PI-R). The JobMatchTalent consists of three areas (i.e., Stability Patterns, Action Patterns, and Relation Patterns) divided in 10 main scales providing a deeper picture of the employee (e.g., Work Structure, Tolerance). Method The participants (N = 390) were recruited from the professional network LinkedIn and completed online versions of both instruments. We used correlation analysis to investigate the construct validity of the JobMatchTalent test by identifying significant correlation coefficients no lower than ±.30 (i.e., convergent validity) and those with nonsignificant correlations (i.e., discriminant validity). Regression analyses were used to investigate the variance of the NEO PI-R dimensions that was explained by the JobMatchTalent test. Results Four of the NEO PI-R dimensions showed considerable overlap with the following JobMatchTalent main scales: (1) Work structure and Decision Characteristics, which both are measures of thoughtfulness, planning, and order (i.e., Conscientiousness); (2) Inner drive, Activity, Drive, Acting, and Communication, which represent different aspects of being outgoing and extrovert (i.e., Extraversion); (3) Tolerance and Social interest, which measure a person's interest and ability to create social relations (i.e., Agreeableness); and (4) Stress Index, a measure of emotional stability (i.e., the opposite of Neuroticism). All 5 NEO PI-R dimensions overlapped with the JobMatchTalent sub-scales. Conclusions The study suggests that 4 of the NEO PI-R dimensions are logically categorized along the JobMatchTalent main scales: (1) Order and Thoughtfulness, (2) Energy and Extraversion, (3) Social Adaptation and Interest, and (4) Emotion Control. Hence, it suggests substantial overlap between the instruments, but also that the two instruments cannot be considered as equivalent to assess individual differences in recruitment situations. PMID:24594872

  18. Pattern-set generation algorithm for the one-dimensional multiple stock sizes cutting stock problem

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cui, Yaodong; Cui, Yi-Ping; Zhao, Zhigang

    2015-09-01

    A pattern-set generation algorithm (PSG) for the one-dimensional multiple stock sizes cutting stock problem (1DMSSCSP) is presented. The solution process contains two stages. In the first stage, the PSG solves the residual problems repeatedly to generate the patterns in the pattern set, where each residual problem is solved by the column-generation approach, and each pattern is generated by solving a single large object placement problem. In the second stage, the integer linear programming model of the 1DMSSCSP is solved using a commercial solver, where only the patterns in the pattern set are considered. The computational results of benchmark instances indicate that the PSG outperforms existing heuristic algorithms and rivals the exact algorithm in solution quality.

  19. Pattern Matcher for Trees Constructed from Lists

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    James, Mark

    2007-01-01

    A software library has been developed that takes a high-level description of a pattern to be satisfied and applies it to a target. If the two match, it returns success; otherwise, it indicates a failure. The target is semantically a tree that is constructed from elements of terminal and non-terminal nodes represented through lists and symbols. Additionally, functionality is provided for finding the element in a set that satisfies a given pattern and doing a tree search, finding all occurrences of leaf nodes that match a given pattern. This process is valuable because it is a new algorithmic approach that significantly improves the productivity of the programmers and has the potential of making their resulting code more efficient by the introduction of a novel semantic representation language. This software has been used in many applications delivered to NASA and private industry, and the cost savings that have resulted from it are significant.

  20. Effects of Pattern Matching, Pattern Discrimination, and Experience in the Development of Diagnostic Expertise.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Papa, Frank; And Others

    1990-01-01

    In this study an artificial intelligence assessment tool used disease-by-feature frequency estimates to create disease prototypes for nine common causes of acute chest pain. The tool then used each subject's prototypes and a pattern-recognition-based decision-making mechanism to diagnose 18 myocardial infarction cases. (MLW)

  1. Stereo using monocular cues within the tensor voting framework.

    PubMed

    Mordohai, Philippos; Medioni, Gérard

    2006-06-01

    We address the fundamental problem of matching in two static images. The remaining challenges are related to occlusion and lack of texture. Our approach addresses these difficulties within a perceptual organization framework, considering both binocular and monocular cues. Initially, matching candidates for all pixels are generated by a combination of matching techniques. The matching candidates are then embedded in disparity space, where perceptual organization takes place in 3D neighborhoods and, thus, does not suffer from problems associated with scanline or image neighborhoods. The assumption is that correct matches produce salient, coherent surfaces, while wrong ones do not. Matching candidates that are consistent with the surfaces are kept and grouped into smooth layers. Thus, we achieve surface segmentation based on geometric and not photometric properties. Surface overextensions, which are due to occlusion, can be corrected by removing matches whose projections are not consistent in color with their neighbors of the same surface in both images. Finally, the projections of the refined surfaces on both images are used to obtain disparity hypotheses for unmatched pixels. The final disparities are selected after a second tensor voting stage, during which information is propagated from more reliable pixels to less reliable ones. We present results on widely used benchmark stereo pairs.

  2. Complex Event Recognition Architecture

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fitzgerald, William A.; Firby, R. James

    2009-01-01

    Complex Event Recognition Architecture (CERA) is the name of a computational architecture, and software that implements the architecture, for recognizing complex event patterns that may be spread across multiple streams of input data. One of the main components of CERA is an intuitive event pattern language that simplifies what would otherwise be the complex, difficult tasks of creating logical descriptions of combinations of temporal events and defining rules for combining information from different sources over time. In this language, recognition patterns are defined in simple, declarative statements that combine point events from given input streams with those from other streams, using conjunction, disjunction, and negation. Patterns can be built on one another recursively to describe very rich, temporally extended combinations of events. Thereafter, a run-time matching algorithm in CERA efficiently matches these patterns against input data and signals when patterns are recognized. CERA can be used to monitor complex systems and to signal operators or initiate corrective actions when anomalous conditions are recognized. CERA can be run as a stand-alone monitoring system, or it can be integrated into a larger system to automatically trigger responses to changing environments or problematic situations.

  3. Shape equivalence under perspective and projective transformations.

    PubMed

    Wagemans, J; Lamote, C; Van Gool, L

    1997-06-01

    When a planar shape is viewed obliquely, it is deformed by a perspective deformation. If the visual system were to pick up geometrical invariants from such projections, these would necessarily be invariant under the wider class of projective transformations. To what extent can the visual system tell the difference between perspective and nonperspective but still projective deformations of shapes? To investigate this, observers were asked to indicate which of two test patterns most resembled a standard pattern. The test patterns were related to the standard pattern by a perspective or projective transformation, or they were completely unrelated. Performance was slightly better in a matching task with perspective and unrelated test patterns (92.6%) than in a projective-random matching task (88.8%). In a direct comparison, participants had a small preference (58.5%) for the perspectively related patterns over the projectively related ones. Preferences were based on the values of the transformation parameters (slant and shear). Hence, perspective and projective transformations yielded perceptual differences, but they were not treated in a categorically different manner by the human visual system.

  4. Patterns of symmetry breaking in chiral QCD

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bolognesi, Stefano; Konishi, Kenichi; Shifman, Mikhail

    2018-05-01

    We consider S U (N ) Yang-Mills theory with massless chiral fermions in a complex representation of the gauge group. The main emphasis is on the so-called hybrid ψ χ η model. The possible patterns of realization of the continuous chiral flavor symmetry are discussed. We argue that the chiral symmetry is broken in conjunction with a dynamical Higgsing of the gauge group (complete or partial) by bifermion condensates. As a result a color-flavor locked symmetry is preserved. The 't Hooft anomaly matching proceeds via saturation of triangles by massless composite fermions or, in a mixed mode, i.e. also by the "weakly" coupled fermions associated with dynamical Abelianization, supplemented by a number of Nambu-Goldstone mesons. Gauge-singlet condensates are of the multifermion type and, though it cannot be excluded, the chiral symmetry realization via such gauge invariant condensates is more contrived (requires a number of four-fermion condensates simultaneously and, even so, problems remain) and less plausible. We conclude that in the model at hand, chiral flavor symmetry implies dynamical Higgsing by bifermion condensates.

  5. Methodology for balancing design and process tradeoffs for deep-subwavelength technologies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Graur, Ioana; Wagner, Tina; Ryan, Deborah; Chidambarrao, Dureseti; Kumaraswamy, Anand; Bickford, Jeanne; Styduhar, Mark; Wang, Lee

    2011-04-01

    For process development of deep-subwavelength technologies, it has become accepted practice to use model-based simulation to predict systematic and parametric failures. Increasingly, these techniques are being used by designers to ensure layout manufacturability, as an alternative to, or complement to, restrictive design rules. The benefit of model-based simulation tools in the design environment is that manufacturability problems are addressed in a design-aware way by making appropriate trade-offs, e.g., between overall chip density and manufacturing cost and yield. The paper shows how library elements and the full ASIC design flow benefit from eliminating hot spots and improving design robustness early in the design cycle. It demonstrates a path to yield optimization and first time right designs implemented in leading edge technologies. The approach described herein identifies those areas in the design that could benefit from being fixed early, leading to design updates and avoiding later design churn by careful selection of design sensitivities. This paper shows how to achieve this goal by using simulation tools incorporating various models from sparse to rigorously physical, pattern detection and pattern matching, checking and validating failure thresholds.

  6. Age-related impairments in active learning and strategic visual exploration.

    PubMed

    Brandstatt, Kelly L; Voss, Joel L

    2014-01-01

    Old age could impair memory by disrupting learning strategies used by younger individuals. We tested this possibility by manipulating the ability to use visual-exploration strategies during learning. Subjects controlled visual exploration during active learning, thus permitting the use of strategies, whereas strategies were limited during passive learning via predetermined exploration patterns. Performance on tests of object recognition and object-location recall was matched for younger and older subjects for objects studied passively, when learning strategies were restricted. Active learning improved object recognition similarly for younger and older subjects. However, active learning improved object-location recall for younger subjects, but not older subjects. Exploration patterns were used to identify a learning strategy involving repeat viewing. Older subjects used this strategy less frequently and it provided less memory benefit compared to younger subjects. In previous experiments, we linked hippocampal-prefrontal co-activation to improvements in object-location recall from active learning and to the exploration strategy. Collectively, these findings suggest that age-related memory problems result partly from impaired strategies during learning, potentially due to reduced hippocampal-prefrontal co-engagement.

  7. Patterns of exchange of forensic DNA data in the European Union through the Prüm system.

    PubMed

    Santos, Filipe; Machado, Helena

    2017-07-01

    This paper presents a study of the 5-year operation (2011-2015) of the transnational exchange of forensic DNA data between Member States of the European Union (EU) for the purpose of combating cross-border crime and terrorism within the so-called Prüm system. This first systematisation of the full official statistical dataset provides an overall assessment of the match figures and patterns of operation of the Prüm system for DNA exchange. These figures and patterns are analysed in terms of the differentiated contributions by participating EU Member States. The data suggest a trend for West and Central European countries to concentrate the majority of Prüm matches, while DNA databases of Eastern European countries tend to contribute with profiles of people that match stains in other countries. In view of the necessary transparency and accountability of the Prüm system, more extensive and informative statistics would be an important contribution to the assessment of its functioning and societal benefits. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  8. Electrocardiographic features of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy.

    PubMed

    Chyou, Janice Y; Friedman, Daniel; Cerrone, Marina; Slater, William; Guo, Yu; Taupin, Daniel; O'Rourke, Sean; Priori, Silvia G; Devinsky, Orrin

    2016-07-01

    Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) is the most common cause of epilepsy-related mortality. We hypothesized that electrocardiography (ECG) features may distinguish SUDEP cases from living subjects with epilepsy. Using a matched case-control design, we compared ECG studies of 12 consecutive cases of SUDEP over 10 years and 22 epilepsy controls matched for age, sex, epilepsy type (focal, generalized, or unknown/mixed type), concomitant antiepileptic, and psychotropic drug classes. Conduction intervals and prevalence of abnormal ventricular conduction diagnosis (QRS ≥110 msec), abnormal ventricular conduction pattern (QRS <110 msec, morphology of incomplete right or left bundle branch block or intraventricular conduction delay), early repolarization, and features of inherited cardiac channelopathies were assessed. Abnormal ventricular conduction diagnosis and pattern distinguished SUDEP cases from matched controls. Abnormal ventricular conduction diagnosis was present in two cases and no controls. Abnormal ventricular conduction pattern was more common in cases than controls (58% vs. 18%, p = 0.04). Early repolarization was similarly prevalent in cases and controls, but the overall prevalence exceeded that of published community-based cohorts. Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 International League Against Epilepsy.

  9. Projected power iteration for network alignment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Onaran, Efe; Villar, Soledad

    2017-08-01

    The network alignment problem asks for the best correspondence between two given graphs, so that the largest possible number of edges are matched. This problem appears in many scientific problems (like the study of protein-protein interactions) and it is very closely related to the quadratic assignment problem which has graph isomorphism, traveling salesman and minimum bisection problems as particular cases. The graph matching problem is NP-hard in general. However, under some restrictive models for the graphs, algorithms can approximate the alignment efficiently. In that spirit the recent work by Feizi and collaborators introduce EigenAlign, a fast spectral method with convergence guarantees for Erd-s-Renyí graphs. In this work we propose the algorithm Projected Power Alignment, which is a projected power iteration version of EigenAlign. We numerically show it improves the recovery rates of EigenAlign and we describe the theory that may be used to provide performance guarantees for Projected Power Alignment.

  10. Reduction of a grid moiré pattern by integrating a carbon-interspaced high precision x-ray grid with a digital radiographic detector.

    PubMed

    Yoon, Jai-Woong; Park, Young-Guk; Park, Chun-Joo; Kim, Do-Il; Lee, Jin-Ho; Chung, Nag-Kun; Choe, Bo-Young; Suh, Tae-Suk; Lee, Hyoung-Koo

    2007-11-01

    The stationary grid commonly used with a digital x-ray detector causes a moiré interference pattern due to the inadequate sampling of the grid shadows by the detector pixels. There are limitations with the previous methods used to remove the moiré such as imperfect electromagnetic interference shielding and the loss of image information. A new method is proposed for removing the moiré pattern by integrating a carbon-interspaced high precision x-ray grid with high grid line uniformity with the detector for frequency matching. The grid was aligned to the detector by translating and rotating the x-ray grid with respect to the detector using microcontrolled alignment mechanism. The gap between the grid and the detector surface was adjusted with micrometer precision to precisely match the projected grid line pitch to the detector pixel pitch. Considering the magnification of the grid shadows on the detector plane, the grids were manufactured such that the grid line frequency was slightly higher than the detector sampling frequency. This study examined the factors that affect the moiré pattern, particularly the line frequency and displacement. The frequency of the moiré pattern was found to be sensitive to the angular displacement of the grid with respect to the detector while the horizontal translation alters the phase but not the moiré frequency. The frequency of the moiré pattern also decreased with decreasing difference in frequency between the grid and the detector, and a moiré-free image was produced after complete matching for a given source to detector distance. The image quality factors including the contrast, signal-to-noise ratio and uniformity in the images with and without the moiré pattern were investigated.

  11. Statistically significant relational data mining :

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Berry, Jonathan W.; Leung, Vitus Joseph; Phillips, Cynthia Ann

    This report summarizes the work performed under the project (3z(BStatitically significant relational data mining.(3y (BThe goal of the project was to add more statistical rigor to the fairly ad hoc area of data mining on graphs. Our goal was to develop better algorithms and better ways to evaluate algorithm quality. We concetrated on algorithms for community detection, approximate pattern matching, and graph similarity measures. Approximate pattern matching involves finding an instance of a relatively small pattern, expressed with tolerance, in a large graph of data observed with uncertainty. This report gathers the abstracts and references for the eight refereed publicationsmore » that have appeared as part of this work. We then archive three pieces of research that have not yet been published. The first is theoretical and experimental evidence that a popular statistical measure for comparison of community assignments favors over-resolved communities over approximations to a ground truth. The second are statistically motivated methods for measuring the quality of an approximate match of a small pattern in a large graph. The third is a new probabilistic random graph model. Statisticians favor these models for graph analysis. The new local structure graph model overcomes some of the issues with popular models such as exponential random graph models and latent variable models.« less

  12. Camouflaging moving objects: crypsis and masquerade.

    PubMed

    Hall, Joanna R; Baddeley, Roland; Scott-Samuel, Nicholas E; Shohet, Adam J; Cuthill, Innes C

    2017-01-01

    Motion is generally assumed to "break" camouflage. However, although camouflage cannot conceal a group of moving animals, it may impair a predator's ability to single one out for attack, even if that discrimination is not based on a color difference. Here, we use a computer-based task in which humans had to detect the odd one out among moving objects, with "oddity" based on shape. All objects were either patterned or plain, and either matched the background or not. We show that there are advantages of matching both group-mates and the background. However, when patterned objects are on a plain background (i.e., no background matching), the advantage of being among similarly patterned distractors is only realized when the group size is larger (10 compared to 5). In a second experiment, we present a paradigm for testing how coloration interferes with target-distractor discrimination, based on an adaptive staircase procedure for establishing the threshold. We show that when the predator only has a short time for decision-making, displaying a similar pattern to the distractors and the background affords protection even when the difference in shape between target and distractors is large. We conclude that, even though motion breaks camouflage, being camouflaged could help group-living animals reduce the risk of being singled out for attack by predators.

  13. Camouflaging moving objects: crypsis and masquerade

    PubMed Central

    Hall, Joanna R; Baddeley, Roland; Scott-Samuel, Nicholas E; Shohet, Adam J; Cuthill, Innes C

    2017-01-01

    Abstract Motion is generally assumed to “break” camouflage. However, although camouflage cannot conceal a group of moving animals, it may impair a predator’s ability to single one out for attack, even if that discrimination is not based on a color difference. Here, we use a computer-based task in which humans had to detect the odd one out among moving objects, with “oddity” based on shape. All objects were either patterned or plain, and either matched the background or not. We show that there are advantages of matching both group-mates and the background. However, when patterned objects are on a plain background (i.e., no background matching), the advantage of being among similarly patterned distractors is only realized when the group size is larger (10 compared to 5). In a second experiment, we present a paradigm for testing how coloration interferes with target-distractor discrimination, based on an adaptive staircase procedure for establishing the threshold. We show that when the predator only has a short time for decision-making, displaying a similar pattern to the distractors and the background affords protection even when the difference in shape between target and distractors is large. We conclude that, even though motion breaks camouflage, being camouflaged could help group-living animals reduce the risk of being singled out for attack by predators. PMID:29622927

  14. A short feature vector for image matching: The Log-Polar Magnitude feature descriptor

    PubMed Central

    Hast, Anders; Wählby, Carolina; Sintorn, Ida-Maria

    2017-01-01

    The choice of an optimal feature detector-descriptor combination for image matching often depends on the application and the image type. In this paper, we propose the Log-Polar Magnitude feature descriptor—a rotation, scale, and illumination invariant descriptor that achieves comparable performance to SIFT on a large variety of image registration problems but with much shorter feature vectors. The descriptor is based on the Log-Polar Transform followed by a Fourier Transform and selection of the magnitude spectrum components. Selecting different frequency components allows optimizing for image patterns specific for a particular application. In addition, by relying only on coordinates of the found features and (optionally) feature sizes our descriptor is completely detector independent. We propose 48- or 56-long feature vectors that potentially can be shortened even further depending on the application. Shorter feature vectors result in better memory usage and faster matching. This combined with the fact that the descriptor does not require a time-consuming feature orientation estimation (the rotation invariance is achieved solely by using the magnitude spectrum of the Log-Polar Transform) makes it particularly attractive to applications with limited hardware capacity. Evaluation is performed on the standard Oxford dataset and two different microscopy datasets; one with fluorescence and one with transmission electron microscopy images. Our method performs better than SURF and comparable to SIFT on the Oxford dataset, and better than SIFT on both microscopy datasets indicating that it is particularly useful in applications with microscopy images. PMID:29190737

  15. Pigeons ("Columba Livia") Approach Nash Equilibrium in Experimental Matching Pennies Competitions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sanabria, Federico; Thrailkill, Eric

    2009-01-01

    The game of Matching Pennies (MP), a simplified version of the more popular Rock, Papers, Scissors, schematically represents competitions between organisms with incentives to predict each other's behavior. Optimal performance in iterated MP competitions involves the production of random choice patterns and the detection of nonrandomness in the…

  16. Mathematics skills in good readers with hydrocephalus.

    PubMed

    Barnes, Marcia A; Pengelly, Sarah; Dennis, Maureen; Wilkinson, Margaret; Rogers, Tracey; Faulkner, Heather

    2002-01-01

    Children with hydrocephalus have poor math skills. We investigated the nature of their arithmetic computation errors by comparing written subtraction errors in good readers with hydrocephalus, typically developing good readers of the same age, and younger children matched for math level to the children with hydrocephalus. Children with hydrocephalus made more procedural errors (although not more fact retrieval or visual-spatial errors) than age-matched controls; they made the same number of procedural errors as younger, math-level matched children. We also investigated a broad range of math abilities, and found that children with hydrocephalus performed more poorly than age-matched controls on tests of geometry and applied math skills such as estimation and problem solving. Computation deficits in children with hydrocephalus reflect delayed development of procedural knowledge. Problems in specific math domains such as geometry and applied math, were associated with deficits in constituent cognitive skills such as visual spatial competence, memory, and general knowledge.

  17. Conditional Random Field-Based Offline Map Matching for Indoor Environments

    PubMed Central

    Bataineh, Safaa; Bahillo, Alfonso; Díez, Luis Enrique; Onieva, Enrique; Bataineh, Ikram

    2016-01-01

    In this paper, we present an offline map matching technique designed for indoor localization systems based on conditional random fields (CRF). The proposed algorithm can refine the results of existing indoor localization systems and match them with the map, using loose coupling between the existing localization system and the proposed map matching technique. The purpose of this research is to investigate the efficiency of using the CRF technique in offline map matching problems for different scenarios and parameters. The algorithm was applied to several real and simulated trajectories of different lengths. The results were then refined and matched with the map using the CRF algorithm. PMID:27537892

  18. Conditional Random Field-Based Offline Map Matching for Indoor Environments.

    PubMed

    Bataineh, Safaa; Bahillo, Alfonso; Díez, Luis Enrique; Onieva, Enrique; Bataineh, Ikram

    2016-08-16

    In this paper, we present an offline map matching technique designed for indoor localization systems based on conditional random fields (CRF). The proposed algorithm can refine the results of existing indoor localization systems and match them with the map, using loose coupling between the existing localization system and the proposed map matching technique. The purpose of this research is to investigate the efficiency of using the CRF technique in offline map matching problems for different scenarios and parameters. The algorithm was applied to several real and simulated trajectories of different lengths. The results were then refined and matched with the map using the CRF algorithm.

  19. Attention Modulates Visual-Tactile Interaction in Spatial Pattern Matching

    PubMed Central

    Göschl, Florian; Engel, Andreas K.; Friese, Uwe

    2014-01-01

    Factors influencing crossmodal interactions are manifold and operate in a stimulus-driven, bottom-up fashion, as well as via top-down control. Here, we evaluate the interplay of stimulus congruence and attention in a visual-tactile task. To this end, we used a matching paradigm requiring the identification of spatial patterns that were concurrently presented visually on a computer screen and haptically to the fingertips by means of a Braille stimulator. Stimulation in our paradigm was always bimodal with only the allocation of attention being manipulated between conditions. In separate blocks of the experiment, participants were instructed to (a) focus on a single modality to detect a specific target pattern, (b) pay attention to both modalities to detect a specific target pattern, or (c) to explicitly evaluate if the patterns in both modalities were congruent or not. For visual as well as tactile targets, congruent stimulus pairs led to quicker and more accurate detection compared to incongruent stimulation. This congruence facilitation effect was more prominent under divided attention. Incongruent stimulation led to behavioral decrements under divided attention as compared to selectively attending a single sensory channel. Additionally, when participants were asked to evaluate congruence explicitly, congruent stimulation was associated with better performance than incongruent stimulation. Our results extend previous findings from audiovisual studies, showing that stimulus congruence also resulted in behavioral improvements in visuotactile pattern matching. The interplay of stimulus processing and attentional control seems to be organized in a highly flexible fashion, with the integration of signals depending on both bottom-up and top-down factors, rather than occurring in an ‘all-or-nothing’ manner. PMID:25203102

  20. Automatic Calibration of Stereo-Cameras Using Ordinary Chess-Board Patterns

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Prokos, A.; Kalisperakis, I.; Petsa, E.; Karras, G.

    2012-07-01

    Automation of camera calibration is facilitated by recording coded 2D patterns. Our toolbox for automatic camera calibration using images of simple chess-board patterns is freely available on the Internet. But it is unsuitable for stereo-cameras whose calibration implies recovering camera geometry and their true-to-scale relative orientation. In contrast to all reported methods requiring additional specific coding to establish an object space coordinate system, a toolbox for automatic stereo-camera calibration relying on ordinary chess-board patterns is presented here. First, the camera calibration algorithm is applied to all image pairs of the pattern to extract nodes of known spacing, order them in rows and columns, and estimate two independent camera parameter sets. The actual node correspondences on stereo-pairs remain unknown. Image pairs of a textured 3D scene are exploited for finding the fundamental matrix of the stereo-camera by applying RANSAC to point matches established with the SIFT algorithm. A node is then selected near the centre of the left image; its match on the right image is assumed as the node closest to the corresponding epipolar line. This yields matches for all nodes (since these have already been ordered), which should also satisfy the 2D epipolar geometry. Measures for avoiding mismatching are taken. With automatically estimated initial orientation values, a bundle adjustment is performed constraining all pairs on a common (scaled) relative orientation. Ambiguities regarding the actual exterior orientations of the stereo-camera with respect to the pattern are irrelevant. Results from this automatic method show typical precisions not above 1/4 pixels for 640×480 web cameras.

  1. Patch-test reaction patterns in patients with a predisposition to atopic dermatitis.

    PubMed

    Brasch, Jochen; Schnuch, Axel; Uter, Wolfgang

    2003-10-01

    Patients with a predisposition to atopic dermatitis often need to be patch tested in order to detect possible contact sensitization. However, it is unknown whether immunologic or other peculiarities of atopic skin are related to altered patch-test reaction patterns. Our study was aimed at answering this question, because patch-test reaction patterns are of considerable practical importance in the reading and interpretation of patch tests. Therefore, we compared patterns of patch-test reactions in patients with a predisposition to atopic dermatitis and in control patients matched for sex, age, reason for testing and test centre. Patch-test results from 9 centres (2322 patients with a disposition to atopic dermatitis and 2126 matched controls) were evaluated retrospectively. All patients were tested with nickel sulfate, fragrance mix, potassium dichromate, lanolin alcohol, formaldehyde and mercury ammonium chloride. Patch tests applied for 1 day with readings on days 1, 2 and 3 were evaluated in order to cover the early phase of the reactions. Not unexpectedly, we found that, compared to the matched controls, patients with a predisposition to atopic dermatitis tended to have more doubtful and irritant reactions on day 1. As a new observation, it turned out that they had less reactions of crescendo pattern and more strong reactions on day 3. All these differences were slight/insignificant. A higher skin irritability in patients with a predisposition to atopic dermatitis is a likely explanation. In conclusion, standard methods for patch testing can be applied in patients with a predisposition to atopic dermatitis, but minor differences in reaction patterns should be considered.

  2. Accuracy and robustness evaluation in stereo matching

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nguyen, Duc M.; Hanca, Jan; Lu, Shao-Ping; Schelkens, Peter; Munteanu, Adrian

    2016-09-01

    Stereo matching has received a lot of attention from the computer vision community, thanks to its wide range of applications. Despite of the large variety of algorithms that have been proposed so far, it is not trivial to select suitable algorithms for the construction of practical systems. One of the main problems is that many algorithms lack sufficient robustness when employed in various operational conditions. This problem is due to the fact that most of the proposed methods in the literature are usually tested and tuned to perform well on one specific dataset. To alleviate this problem, an extensive evaluation in terms of accuracy and robustness of state-of-the-art stereo matching algorithms is presented. Three datasets (Middlebury, KITTI, and MPEG FTV) representing different operational conditions are employed. Based on the analysis, improvements over existing algorithms have been proposed. The experimental results show that our improved versions of cross-based and cost volume filtering algorithms outperform the original versions with large margins on Middlebury and KITTI datasets. In addition, the latter of the two proposed algorithms ranks itself among the best local stereo matching approaches on the KITTI benchmark. Under evaluations using specific settings for depth-image-based-rendering applications, our improved belief propagation algorithm is less complex than MPEG's FTV depth estimation reference software (DERS), while yielding similar depth estimation performance. Finally, several conclusions on stereo matching algorithms are also presented.

  3. Patterns of Migration and Risks Associated with Leprosy among Migrants in Maranhão, Brazil

    PubMed Central

    Murto, Christine; Chammartin, Frédérique; Schwarz, Karolin; da Costa, Lea Marcia Melo; Kaplan, Charles; Heukelbach, Jorg

    2013-01-01

    Leprosy remains a public health problem in Brazil with new case incidence exceeding World Health Organization (WHO) goals in endemic clusters throughout the country. Migration can facilitate movement of disease between endemic and non-endemic areas, and has been considered a possible factor in continued leprosy incidence in Brazil. A study was conducted to investigate migration as a risk factor for leprosy. The study had three aims: (1) examine past five year migration as a risk factor for leprosy, (2) describe and compare geographic and temporal patterns of migration among past 5-year migrants with leprosy and a control group, and (3) examine social determinants of health associated with leprosy among past 5-year migrants. The study implemented a matched case-control design and analysis comparing individuals newly diagnosed with leprosy (n = 340) and a clinically unapparent control group (n = 340) without clinical signs of leprosy, matched for age, sex and location in four endemic municipalities in the state of Maranhão, northeastern Brazil. Fishers exact test was used to conduct bivariate analyses. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was employed to control for possible confounding variables. Eighty cases (23.5%) migrated 5-years prior to diagnosis, and 55 controls (16.2%) migrated 5-years prior to the corresponding case diagnosis. Past 5 year migration was found to be associated with leprosy (OR: 1.59; 95% CI 1.07–2.38; p = 0.02), and remained significantly associated with leprosy after controlling for leprosy contact in the family, household, and family/household contact. Poverty, as well as leprosy contact in the family, household and other leprosy contact, was associated with leprosy among past 5-year migrants in the bivariate analysis. Alcohol consumption was also associated with leprosy, a relevant risk factor in susceptibility to infection that should be explored in future research. Our findings provide insight into patterns of migration to localize focused control efforts in endemic areas with high population mobility. PMID:24040433

  4. Proceedings of the NASA Symposium on Mathematical Pattern Recognition and Image Analysis

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Guseman, L. F., Jr.

    1983-01-01

    The application of mathematical and statistical analyses techniques to imagery obtained by remote sensors is described by Principal Investigators. Scene-to-map registration, geometric rectification, and image matching are among the pattern recognition aspects discussed.

  5. A heuristic for efficient data distribution management in distributed simulation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gupta, Pankaj; Guha, Ratan K.

    2005-05-01

    In this paper, we propose an algorithm for reducing the complexity of region matching and efficient multicasting in data distribution management component of High Level Architecture (HLA) Run Time Infrastructure (RTI). The current data distribution management (DDM) techniques rely on computing the intersection between the subscription and update regions. When a subscription region and an update region of different federates overlap, RTI establishes communication between the publisher and the subscriber. It subsequently routes the updates from the publisher to the subscriber. The proposed algorithm computes the update/subscription regions matching for dynamic allocation of multicast group. It provides new multicast routines that exploit the connectivity of federation by communicating updates regarding interactions and routes information only to those federates that require them. The region-matching problem in DDM reduces to clique-covering problem using the connections graph abstraction where the federations represent the vertices and the update/subscribe relations represent the edges. We develop an abstract model based on connection graph for data distribution management. Using this abstract model, we propose a heuristic for solving the region-matching problem of DDM. We also provide complexity analysis of the proposed heuristics.

  6. Data Acquisition Based on Stable Matching of Bipartite Graph in Cooperative Vehicle–Infrastructure Systems †

    PubMed Central

    Tang, Xiaolan; Hong, Donghui; Chen, Wenlong

    2017-01-01

    Existing studies on data acquisition in vehicular networks often take the mobile vehicular nodes as data carriers. However, their autonomous movements, limited resources and security risks impact the quality of services. In this article, we propose a data acquisition model using stable matching of bipartite graph in cooperative vehicle-infrastructure systems, namely, DAS. Contents are distributed to roadside units, while vehicular nodes support supplementary storage. The original distribution problem is formulated as a stable matching problem of bipartite graph, where the data and the storage cells compose two sides of vertices. Regarding the factors relevant with the access ratio and delay, the preference rankings for contents and roadside units are calculated, respectively. With a multi-replica preprocessing algorithm to handle the potential one-to-many mapping, the matching problem is addressed in polynomial time. In addition, vehicular nodes carry and forward assistant contents to deliver the failed packets because of bandwidth competition. Furthermore, an incentive strategy is put forward to boost the vehicle cooperation and to achieve a fair bandwidth allocation at roadside units. Experiments show that DAS achieves a high access ratio and a small storage cost with an acceptable delay. PMID:28594359

  7. Colour helps to solve the binocular matching problem

    PubMed Central

    den Ouden, HEM; van Ee, R; de Haan, EHF

    2005-01-01

    The spatial differences between the two retinal images, called binocular disparities, can be used to recover the three-dimensional (3D) aspects of a scene. The computation of disparity depends upon the correct identification of corresponding features in the two images. Understanding what image features are used by the brain to solve this binocular matching problem is an important issue in research on stereoscopic vision. The role of colour in binocular vision is controversial and it has been argued that colour is ineffective in achieving binocular vision. In the current experiment subjects were required to indicate the amount of perceived depth. The stimulus consisted of an array of fronto-parallel bars uniformly distributed in a constant sized volume. We studied the perceived depth in those 3D stimuli by manipulating both colour (monochrome, trichrome) and luminance (congruent, incongruent). Our results demonstrate that the amount of perceived depth was influenced by colour, indicating that the visual system uses colour to achieve binocular matching. Physiological data have revealed cortical cells in macaque V2 that are tuned both to binocular disparity and to colour. We suggest that one of the functional roles of these cells may be to help solve the binocular matching problem. PMID:15975983

  8. Colour helps to solve the binocular matching problem.

    PubMed

    den Ouden, H E M; van Ee, R; de Haan, E H F

    2005-09-01

    The spatial differences between the two retinal images, called binocular disparities, can be used to recover the three-dimensional (3D) aspects of a scene. The computation of disparity depends upon the correct identification of corresponding features in the two images. Understanding what image features are used by the brain to solve this binocular matching problem is an important issue in research on stereoscopic vision. The role of colour in binocular vision is controversial and it has been argued that colour is ineffective in achieving binocular vision. In the current experiment subjects were required to indicate the amount of perceived depth. The stimulus consisted of an array of fronto-parallel bars uniformly distributed in a constant sized volume. We studied the perceived depth in those 3D stimuli by manipulating both colour (monochrome, trichrome) and luminance (congruent, incongruent). Our results demonstrate that the amount of perceived depth was influenced by colour, indicating that the visual system uses colour to achieve binocular matching. Physiological data have revealed cortical cells in macaque V2 that are tuned both to binocular disparity and to colour. We suggest that one of the functional roles of these cells may be to help solve the binocular matching problem.

  9. Parent characteristics linked with daughters' attachment styles.

    PubMed

    Kilmann, Peter R; Vendemia, Jennifer M C; Parnell, Michele M; Urbaniak, Geoffrey C

    2009-01-01

    This study investigated links between parent characteristics and daughters' attachment styles for 90 female undergraduates and their married biological parents. Parents with a secure attachment pattern were rated as more accepting, less controlling, more competent, and more consistent in showing love and affection to their daughter in contrast to parents with an insecure attachment pattern. Significant positive associations were found between mothers' fearful attachment scores and the fearful, preoccupied, and dismissive attachment scores of daughters. Daughters of matched secure parents were more likely to report a secure attachment style, while daughters of matched insecure parents were more likely to report an insecure attachment style.

  10. Star-Mapping Tools Enable Tracking of Endangered Animals

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    2009-01-01

    Software programmer Jason Holmberg of Portland, Oregon, partnered with a Goddard Space Flight Center astrophysicist to develop a method for tracking the elusive whale shark using the unique spot patterns on the fish s skin. Employing a star-mapping algorithm originally designed for the Hubble Space Telescope, Holmberg created the Shepherd Project, a photograph database and pattern-matching system that can identify whale sharks by their spots and match images contributed to the database by photographers from around the world. The system has been adapted for tracking other rare and endangered animals, including polar bears and ocean sunfish.

  11. Saptio-temporal complementarity of wind and solar power in India

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lolla, Savita; Baidya Roy, Somnath; Chowdhury, Sourangshu

    2015-04-01

    Wind and solar power are likely to be a part of the solution to the climate change problem. That is why they feature prominently in the energy policies of all industrial economies including India. One of the major hindrances that is preventing an explosive growth of wind and solar energy is the issue of intermittency. This is a major problem because in a rapidly moving economy, energy production must match the patterns of energy demand. Moreover, sudden increase and decrease in energy supply may destabilize the power grids leading to disruptions in power supply. In this work we explore if the patterns of variability in wind and solar energy availability can offset each other so that a constant supply can be guaranteed. As a first step, this work focuses on seasonal-scale variability for each of the 5 regional power transmission grids in India. Communication within each grid is better than communication between grids. Hence, it is assumed that the grids can switch sources relatively easily. Wind and solar resources are estimated using the MERRA Reanalysis data for the 1979-2013 period. Solar resources are calculated with a 20% conversion efficiency. Wind resources are estimated using a 2 MW turbine power curve. Total resources are obtained by optimizing location and number of wind/solar energy farms. Preliminary results show that the southern and western grids are more appropriate for cogeneration than the other grids. Many studies on wind-solar cogeneration have focused on temporal complementarity at local scale. However, this is one of the first studies to explore spatial complementarity over regional scales. This project may help accelerate renewable energy penetration in India by identifying regional grid(s) where the renewable energy intermittency problem can be minimized.

  12. Nonparametric Bayesian Modeling for Automated Database Schema Matching

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ferragut, Erik M; Laska, Jason A

    2015-01-01

    The problem of merging databases arises in many government and commercial applications. Schema matching, a common first step, identifies equivalent fields between databases. We introduce a schema matching framework that builds nonparametric Bayesian models for each field and compares them by computing the probability that a single model could have generated both fields. Our experiments show that our method is more accurate and faster than the existing instance-based matching algorithms in part because of the use of nonparametric Bayesian models.

  13. Indonesian couple’s pregnancy ambivalence and contraceptive use

    PubMed Central

    Barden-O'Fallon, Janine L.; Speizer, Ilene S.

    2013-01-01

    CONTEXT: Recognizing pregnancy ambivalence is important for family planning policy and programming efforts. Most studies on pregnancy ambivalence are based on data from women; using partner’s perceived pregnancy intentions whenever partners are considered. This study examines couple’s pregnancy ambivalence and the association with contraceptive use in Indonesia. METHOD: Matched couple data from the 2002-2003 Indonesia Demographic and Health Survey are used to examine contraceptive use, fertility desires, and responses to whether a pregnancy in the next few weeks would be a big problem, small problem or no problem. Inconsistent fertility desires and responses to the problem question are used to define ambivalence. Response patterns and concordance between partners is evaluated. Multivariate logistic regression analyses are used to assess whether couple’s pregnancy ambivalence is associated with contraceptive use. RESULTS: 71% of husbands and 54% of wives report that a pregnancy in the next few weeks would be “no problem.” Couple’s concordance on the problem question is 63% (kappa statistic = 0.26) among contraceptive users and 61% (0.24) among non-users. In the multivariate analysis, couples who were discordant on the problem question were 24% less likely to use contraception than were couples in which both partners agreed a pregnancy would be a big or small problem. Results were not statistically significant at p≥0.05 in a model with a disaggregated variable on couple’s discordance that identified which partner was ambivalent; this might be related to small cell sizes. Contraceptive use was also less likely for couples with discordant fertility desires. CONCLUSION: Husbands and wives influence each other’s fertility attitudes and family planning use. To improve effective contraceptive use and/or continuation, couple’s pregnancy attitudes should be taken into account at the time of screening and method selection. PMID:20403804

  14. Constraint-based stereo matching

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kuan, D. T.

    1987-01-01

    The major difficulty in stereo vision is the correspondence problem that requires matching features in two stereo images. Researchers describe a constraint-based stereo matching technique using local geometric constraints among edge segments to limit the search space and to resolve matching ambiguity. Edge segments are used as image features for stereo matching. Epipolar constraint and individual edge properties are used to determine possible initial matches between edge segments in a stereo image pair. Local edge geometric attributes such as continuity, junction structure, and edge neighborhood relations are used as constraints to guide the stereo matching process. The result is a locally consistent set of edge segment correspondences between stereo images. These locally consistent matches are used to generate higher-level hypotheses on extended edge segments and junctions to form more global contexts to achieve global consistency.

  15. QPA-CLIPS: A language and representation for process control

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Freund, Thomas G.

    1994-01-01

    QPA-CLIPS is an extension of CLIPS oriented towards process control applications. Its constructs define a dependency network of process actions driven by sensor information. The language consists of three basic constructs: TASK, SENSOR, and FILTER. TASK's define the dependency network describing alternative state transitions for a process. SENSOR's and FILTER's define sensor information sources used to activate state transitions within the network. Deftemplate's define these constructs and their run-time environment is an interpreter knowledge base, performing pattern matching on sensor information and so activating TASK's in the dependency network. The pattern matching technique is based on the repeatable occurrence of a sensor data pattern. QPA-CIPS has been successfully tested on a SPARCStation providing supervisory control to an Allen-Bradley PLC 5 controller driving molding equipment.

  16. Enhanced iris recognition method based on multi-unit iris images

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shin, Kwang Yong; Kim, Yeong Gon; Park, Kang Ryoung

    2013-04-01

    For the purpose of biometric person identification, iris recognition uses the unique characteristics of the patterns of the iris; that is, the eye region between the pupil and the sclera. When obtaining an iris image, the iris's image is frequently rotated because of the user's head roll toward the left or right shoulder. As the rotation of the iris image leads to circular shifting of the iris features, the accuracy of iris recognition is degraded. To solve this problem, conventional iris recognition methods use shifting of the iris feature codes to perform the matching. However, this increases the computational complexity and level of false acceptance error. To solve these problems, we propose a novel iris recognition method based on multi-unit iris images. Our method is novel in the following five ways compared with previous methods. First, to detect both eyes, we use Adaboost and a rapid eye detector (RED) based on the iris shape feature and integral imaging. Both eyes are detected using RED in the approximate candidate region that consists of the binocular region, which is determined by the Adaboost detector. Second, we classify the detected eyes into the left and right eyes, because the iris patterns in the left and right eyes in the same person are different, and they are therefore considered as different classes. We can improve the accuracy of iris recognition using this pre-classification of the left and right eyes. Third, by measuring the angle of head roll using the two center positions of the left and right pupils, detected by two circular edge detectors, we obtain the information of the iris rotation angle. Fourth, in order to reduce the error and processing time of iris recognition, adaptive bit-shifting based on the measured iris rotation angle is used in feature matching. Fifth, the recognition accuracy is enhanced by the score fusion of the left and right irises. Experimental results on the iris open database of low-resolution images showed that the averaged equal error rate of iris recognition using the proposed method was 4.3006%, which is lower than that of other methods.

  17. A computer-vision-based rotating speed estimation method for motor bearing fault diagnosis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Xiaoxian; Guo, Jie; Lu, Siliang; Shen, Changqing; He, Qingbo

    2017-06-01

    Diagnosis of motor bearing faults under variable speed is a problem. In this study, a new computer-vision-based order tracking method is proposed to address this problem. First, a video recorded by a high-speed camera is analyzed with the speeded-up robust feature extraction and matching algorithm to obtain the instantaneous rotating speed (IRS) of the motor. Subsequently, an audio signal recorded by a microphone is equi-angle resampled for order tracking in accordance with the IRS curve, through which the frequency-domain signal is transferred to an angular-domain one. The envelope order spectrum is then calculated to determine the fault characteristic order, and finally the bearing fault pattern is determined. The effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method are verified with two brushless direct-current motor test rigs, in which two defective bearings and a healthy bearing are tested separately. This study provides a new noninvasive measurement approach that simultaneously avoids the installation of a tachometer and overcomes the disadvantages of tacholess order tracking methods for motor bearing fault diagnosis under variable speed.

  18. Concurrent Tumor Segmentation and Registration with Uncertainty-based Sparse non-Uniform Graphs

    PubMed Central

    Parisot, Sarah; Wells, William; Chemouny, Stéphane; Duffau, Hugues; Paragios, Nikos

    2014-01-01

    In this paper, we present a graph-based concurrent brain tumor segmentation and atlas to diseased patient registration framework. Both segmentation and registration problems are modeled using a unified pairwise discrete Markov Random Field model on a sparse grid superimposed to the image domain. Segmentation is addressed based on pattern classification techniques, while registration is performed by maximizing the similarity between volumes and is modular with respect to the matching criterion. The two problems are coupled by relaxing the registration term in the tumor area, corresponding to areas of high classification score and high dissimilarity between volumes. In order to overcome the main shortcomings of discrete approaches regarding appropriate sampling of the solution space as well as important memory requirements, content driven samplings of the discrete displacement set and the sparse grid are considered, based on the local segmentation and registration uncertainties recovered by the min marginal energies. State of the art results on a substantial low-grade glioma database demonstrate the potential of our method, while our proposed approach shows maintained performance and strongly reduced complexity of the model. PMID:24717540

  19. Genetic Diversity and Societally Important Disparities

    PubMed Central

    Rosenberg, Noah A.; Kang, Jonathan T. L.

    2015-01-01

    The magnitude of genetic diversity within human populations varies in a way that reflects the sequence of migrations by which people spread throughout the world. Beyond its use in human evolutionary genetics, worldwide variation in genetic diversity sometimes can interact with social processes to produce differences among populations in their relationship to modern societal problems. We review the consequences of genetic diversity differences in the settings of familial identification in forensic genetic testing, match probabilities in bone marrow transplantation, and representation in genome-wide association studies of disease. In each of these three cases, the contribution of genetic diversity to social differences follows from population-genetic principles. For a fourth setting that is not similarly grounded, we reanalyze with expanded genetic data a report that genetic diversity differences influence global patterns of human economic development, finding no support for the claim. The four examples describe a limit to the importance of genetic diversity for explaining societal differences while illustrating a distinction that certain biologically based scenarios do require consideration of genetic diversity for solving problems to which populations have been differentially predisposed by the unique history of human migrations. PMID:26354973

  20. Arithmetic Word-Problem-Solving in Huntington's Disease

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Allain, P.; Verny, C.; Aubin, G.; Pinon, K.; Bonneau, D.; Dubas, F.; Gall, D.L.

    2005-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine executive functioning in patients with Huntington's disease using an arithmetic word-problem-solving task including eight solvable problems of increasing complexity and four aberrant problems. Ten patients with Huntington's disease and 12 normal control subjects matched by age and education were tested.…

  1. Emergency Department Use for Dental Problems among Homeless Individuals: A Population-Based Cohort Study.

    PubMed

    Figueiredo, Rafael; Dempster, Laura; Quiñonez, Carlos; Hwang, Stephen W

    2016-01-01

    To evaluate emergency department (ED) visits for dental problems among Toronto's homeless population (Ontario, Canada). A random sample of 1,189 homeless was recruited from shelters and meal programs. Emergency department visits for non-traumatic dental problems (ICD-10-CA codes K00-K14) were identified using participants' health insurance number, during 2005-2009. Age- and sex-matched controls were selected from low-income neighborhoods. Homeless and matched controls had 182 and 10 ED visits for dental problems, respectively. Homeless people were more significantly more likely (OR=2.27, p=.007) to make ED visit for dental problems compared with controls. Over 80% of the ED visits by homeless people were for odontogenic infections, and 46% of homeless people had more than one such visit. The high rate of ED visits for dental problems by people who are homeless suggests that access to dental care is inadequate. The large number of repeat visits indicates that ED settings are ineffective for treatment of dental problems.

  2. Development of a stereo analysis algorithm for generating topographic maps using interactive techniques of the MPP

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Strong, James P.

    1987-01-01

    A local area matching algorithm was developed on the Massively Parallel Processor (MPP). It is an iterative technique that first matches coarse or low resolution areas and at each iteration performs matches of higher resolution. Results so far show that when good matches are possible in the two images, the MPP algorithm matches corresponding areas as well as a human observer. To aid in developing this algorithm, a control or shell program was developed for the MPP that allows interactive experimentation with various parameters and procedures to be used in the matching process. (This would not be possible without the high speed of the MPP). With the system, optimal techniques can be developed for different types of matching problems.

  3. On Parallel Push-Relabel based Algorithms for Bipartite Maximum Matching

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Langguth, Johannes; Azad, Md Ariful; Halappanavar, Mahantesh

    2014-07-01

    We study multithreaded push-relabel based algorithms for computing maximum cardinality matching in bipartite graphs. Matching is a fundamental combinatorial (graph) problem with applications in a wide variety of problems in science and engineering. We are motivated by its use in the context of sparse linear solvers for computing maximum transversal of a matrix. We implement and test our algorithms on several multi-socket multicore systems and compare their performance to state-of-the-art augmenting path-based serial and parallel algorithms using a testset comprised of a wide range of real-world instances. Building on several heuristics for enhancing performance, we demonstrate good scaling for themore » parallel push-relabel algorithm. We show that it is comparable to the best augmenting path-based algorithms for bipartite matching. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first extensive study of multithreaded push-relabel based algorithms. In addition to a direct impact on the applications using matching, the proposed algorithmic techniques can be extended to preflow-push based algorithms for computing maximum flow in graphs.« less

  4. An improved finger-vein recognition algorithm based on template matching

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Yueyue; Di, Si; Jin, Jian; Huang, Daoping

    2016-10-01

    Finger-vein recognition has became the most popular biometric identify methods. The investigation on the recognition algorithms always is the key point in this field. So far, there are many applicable algorithms have been developed. However, there are still some problems in practice, such as the variance of the finger position which may lead to the image distortion and shifting; during the identification process, some matching parameters determined according to experience may also reduce the adaptability of algorithm. Focus on above mentioned problems, this paper proposes an improved finger-vein recognition algorithm based on template matching. In order to enhance the robustness of the algorithm for the image distortion, the least squares error method is adopted to correct the oblique finger. During the feature extraction, local adaptive threshold method is adopted. As regard as the matching scores, we optimized the translation preferences as well as matching distance between the input images and register images on the basis of Naoto Miura algorithm. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method can improve the robustness effectively under the finger shifting and rotation conditions.

  5. Brainstem Circuits that Control Mastication: Do They Have Anything to Say during Speech?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lund, James P.; Kolta, Arlette

    2006-01-01

    Mastication results from the interaction of an intrinsic rhythmical neural pattern and sensory feedback from the mouth, muscles and joints. The pattern is matched to the physical characteristics of food, but also varies with age. There are large differences in masticatory movements among subjects. The intrinsic rhythmical pattern is generated by…

  6. The covariance matrix for the solution vector of an equality-constrained least-squares problem

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lawson, C. L.

    1976-01-01

    Methods are given for computing the covariance matrix for the solution vector of an equality-constrained least squares problem. The methods are matched to the solution algorithms given in the book, 'Solving Least Squares Problems.'

  7. Data matching for free-surface multiple attenuation by multidimensional deconvolution

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    van der Neut, Joost; Frijlink, Martijn; van Borselen, Roald

    2012-09-01

    A common strategy for surface-related multiple elimination of seismic data is to predict multiples by a convolutional model and subtract these adaptively from the input gathers. Problems can be posed by interfering multiples and primaries. Removing multiples by multidimensional deconvolution (MDD) (inversion) does not suffer from these problems. However, this approach requires data to be consistent, which is often not the case, especially not at interpolated near-offsets. A novel method is proposed to improve data consistency prior to inversion. This is done by backpropagating first-order multiples with a time-gated reference primary event and matching these with early primaries in the input gather. After data matching, multiple elimination by MDD can be applied with a deterministic inversion scheme.

  8. Individual Patient Diagnosis of AD and FTD via High-Dimensional Pattern Classification of MRI

    PubMed Central

    Davatzikos, C.; Resnick, S. M.; Wu, X.; Parmpi, P.; Clark, C. M.

    2008-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to determine the diagnostic accuracy of MRI-based high-dimensional pattern classification in differentiating between patients with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), and healthy controls, on an individual patient basis. MRI scans of 37 patients with AD and 37 age-matched cognitively normal elderly individuals, as well as 12 patients with FTD and 12 age-matched cognitively normal elderly individuals, were analyzed using voxel-based analysis and high-dimensional pattern classification. Diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of spatial patterns of regional brain atrophy found to be characteristic of AD and FTD were determined via cross-validation and via split-sample methods. Complex spatial patterns of relatively reduced brain volumes were identified, including temporal, orbitofrontal, parietal and cingulate regions, which were predominantly characteristic of either AD or FTD. These patterns provided 100% diagnostic accuracy, when used to separate AD or FTD from healthy controls. The ability to correctly distinguish AD from FTD averaged 84.3%. All estimates of diagnostic accuracy were determined via cross-validation. In conclusion, AD- and FTD-specific patterns of brain atrophy can be detected with high accuracy using high-dimensional pattern classification of MRI scans obtained in a typical clinical setting. PMID:18474436

  9. Match the Style of Instruction to the Style of Reading

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Carbo, Marie

    2009-01-01

    Many reading problems are caused by using the wrong teaching methods. This article advocates using a reading style inventory and matching the teaching method to the student's reading style. The author holds copyright to this article. (Contains 3 figures.)

  10. Dynamic ride-sharing: Theory and practice

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hall, R.W.; Qureshi, A.

    1997-08-01

    Dynamic Ride-sharing (DR) is envisioned as an automated process by which individuals find ride-matches on a trip by trip basis. This paper examines the DR concept on both a theoretical basis and on the basis of actual implementation in Los Angeles. Specifically, the paper investigates the likelihood that the user of a DR system would be successful in finding a ride-match. In a theoretical sense, this paper shows that dynamic ride-sharing is a viable concept. For a congested freeway corridor, the number of trips generated per unit time and space should be sufficient to yield a reasonably large population ofmore » potential ride-matches for a DR system. Unfortunately, as demonstrated in the experiment, theory and practice are not the same. Even when individuals share common trip patterns, consummating a ride-match is no easy task for logistical reasons. At best, one might expect a one in five change of someone offering a ride when trip patterns are similar. This probability would decline for casual trips, and when contacting individuals who have not expressed a prior willingness to carpool.« less

  11. Block-suffix shifting: fast, simultaneous medical concept set identification in large medical record corpora.

    PubMed

    Liu, Ying; Lita, Lucian Vlad; Niculescu, Radu Stefan; Mitra, Prasenjit; Giles, C Lee

    2008-11-06

    Owing to new advances in computer hardware, large text databases have become more prevalent than ever.Automatically mining information from these databases proves to be a challenge due to slow pattern/string matching techniques. In this paper we present a new, fast multi-string pattern matching method based on the well known Aho-Chorasick algorithm. Advantages of our algorithm include:the ability to exploit the natural structure of text, the ability to perform significant character shifting, avoiding backtracking jumps that are not useful, efficiency in terms of matching time and avoiding the typical "sub-string" false positive errors.Our algorithm is applicable to many fields with free text, such as the health care domain and the scientific document field. In this paper, we apply the BSS algorithm to health care data and mine hundreds of thousands of medical concepts from a large Electronic Medical Record (EMR) corpora simultaneously and efficiently. Experimental results show the superiority of our algorithm when compared with the top of the line multi-string matching algorithms.

  12. The backup is active in Alzheimer's disease: a hypothesis from problem theory.

    PubMed

    Burnand, Gordon

    2015-03-01

    Problem theory distinguishes between six general problems of everyday life, which people work through in turn during childhood, learning to switch between them. One of them requires the protection of a cut-out and an override. People who develop Alzheimer's disease (AD), and apolipoprotein allele epsilon 4 carriers, are preoccupied with this problem, or readily switch back to it. It is the freedom problem, of raising hope or confidence of freedom or power to control. Here people try to raise hope of success with any task on which attention happens to rest. This indiscriminateness means that there is no basis for giving up on a task, or for avoiding dangerous environments. Thus the cut-out is needed when someone becomes stuck on a mental task and the override is needed so as to help in avoiding danger. Activity relevant to the freedom problem is confined to the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere operates the cut-out and override. In providing these two forms of protection the right hemisphere can be said to act as a backup. Accordingly EEG, metabolism, and atrophy findings indicate that both cut-out and override are active in mild clinical impairment, especially among patients who later develop AD. The pattern of atrophy of AD matches what would be expected from disuse caused by an overactive cut-out followed by an overactive override. A parallel loss of testosterone might contribute to the weakening of resistance to infections leading to autoimmune effects. Copyright © 2015 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  13. Adenocarcinoma predominant pattern subtyping and nuclear grading in cytology: Is there a role in prognostication of advanced pulmonary adenocarcinomas?

    PubMed

    Nambirajan, A; Kaur, H; Jangra, K; Kaur, K; Madan, K; Mathur, S R; Iyer, V K; Jain, D

    2018-04-01

    Primary lung adenocarcinomas (ADs) show varied architectural patterns, and pattern-based subtyping of ADs is currently recommended due to prognostic implications. Predicting AD patterns on cytology is challenging; however, cytological nuclear features appear to correlate with histological grade and survival in early stage lung ADs. The feasibility and value of AD pattern prediction and nuclear grading on cytology in advanced lung ADs is not known. We aimed to predict patterns and analyse nuclear features on cytology and evaluate their role in prognostication. One-hundred patients of Stage III/IV lung AD with available matched cytology and histology samples were included. Cyto-patterns based on cell arrangement patterns (flat sheets vs three-dimensional clusters vs papillae) and cyto-nuclear score based on nuclear features (size, shape, contour), nucleoli (macronucleoli vs prominent vs inconspicuous), and nuclear chromatin were determined, and correlated with predominant histological-pattern observed on the matched small biopsy and outcome. Higher cyto-nuclear scores were observed with high-grade histo-patterns (solid, micropapillary and cribriform), while the predicted cyto-patterns did not correspond to the predominant pattern on histology in 77% cases. Highest cyto-histo agreement was observed for solid pattern (72%). High grade histo-patterns and cyto-nuclear scores > 3 showed a trend towards inferior survival (not significant). Nuclear grade scoring on cytology is simple to perform, and is predictive of high grade patterns. Its inclusion in routine reporting of cytology samples of lung ADs may be valuable. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  14. A study of applications scribe frame data verifications using design rule check

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Saito, Shoko; Miyazaki, Masaru; Sakurai, Mitsuo; Itoh, Takahisa; Doi, Kazumasa; Sakurai, Norioko; Okada, Tomoyuki

    2013-06-01

    In semiconductor manufacturing, scribe frame data generally is generated for each LSI product according to its specific process design. Scribe frame data is designed based on definition tables of scanner alignment, wafer inspection and customers specified marks. We check that scribe frame design is conforming to specification of alignment and inspection marks at the end. Recently, in COT (customer owned tooling) business or new technology development, there is no effective verification method for the scribe frame data, and we take a lot of time to work on verification. Therefore, we tried to establish new verification method of scribe frame data by applying pattern matching and DRC (Design Rule Check) which is used in device verification. We would like to show scheme of the scribe frame data verification using DRC which we tried to apply. First, verification rules are created based on specifications of scanner, inspection and others, and a mark library is also created for pattern matching. Next, DRC verification is performed to scribe frame data. Then the DRC verification includes pattern matching using mark library. As a result, our experiments demonstrated that by use of pattern matching and DRC verification our new method can yield speed improvements of more than 12 percent compared to the conventional mark checks by visual inspection and the inspection time can be reduced to less than 5 percent if multi-CPU processing is used. Our method delivers both short processing time and excellent accuracy when checking many marks. It is easy to maintain and provides an easy way for COT customers to use original marks. We believe that our new DRC verification method for scribe frame data is indispensable and mutually beneficial.

  15. Longitudinal medical records as a complement to routine drug safety signal analysis†

    PubMed Central

    Watson, Sarah; Sandberg, Lovisa; Johansson, Jeanette; Edwards, I. Ralph

    2015-01-01

    Abstract Purpose To explore whether and how longitudinal medical records could be used as a source of reference in the early phases of signal detection and analysis of novel adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in a global pharmacovigilance database. Methods Drug and ADR combinations from the routine signal detection process of VigiBase® in 2011 were matched to combinations in The Health Improvement Network (THIN). The number and type of drugs and ADRs from the data sets were investigated. For unlabelled combinations, graphical display of longitudinal event patterns (chronographs) in THIN was inspected to determine if the pattern supported the VigiBase combination. Results Of 458 combinations in the VigiBase data set, 190 matched to corresponding combinations in THIN (after excluding drugs with less than 100 prescriptions in THIN). Eighteen percent of the VigiBase and 9% of the matched THIN combinations referred to new drugs reported with serious reactions. Of the 112 unlabelled combinations matched to THIN, 52 chronographs were inconclusive mainly because of lack of data; 34 lacked any outstanding pattern around the time of prescription; 24 had an elevation of events in the pre‐prescription period, hence weakened the suspicion of a drug relationship; two had an elevated pattern of events exclusively in the post‐prescription period that, after review of individual patient histories, did not support an association. Conclusions Longitudinal medical records were useful in understanding the clinical context around a drug and suspected ADR combination and the probability of a causal relationship. A drawback was the paucity of data for newly marketed drugs with serious reactions. © 2015 The Authors. Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. PMID:25623045

  16. Extreme deconstruction supports niche conservatism driving New World bird diversity

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Diniz-Filho, José Alexandre Felizola; Rangel, Thiago Fernando; dos Santos, Mariana Rocha

    2012-08-01

    It is expected that if environment fully establishes the borders of species geographic distribution, then richness patterns will arise simple by changing parameters on how environment affect each of the species. However, if other mechanisms (i.e., non-equilibrium of species' distributions with climate and historical contingency, shifts in adaptive peaks or biotic interactions) are driving species geographic distribution, models for species distribution and richness will not entirely match. Here we used the extreme deconstruction principle to test how niche conservatism keeping species geographic distributions in certain parts of environmental space drives richness patterns in New World birds, under tropical niche conservatism. Eight environmental variables were used to model the geographic distribution of 2790 species within 28 bird families using a GLM. Spatial patterns in richness for each of these families were also modeled as a function of these same variables using a standard OLS regression. Fit of these two types of models (mean MacFadden's ρ2 for GLM and R2 of OLS) across families and the match between GLM and OLS standardized slopes within and among bird families were then compared. We found a positive and significant correlation between GLM and OLS model fit (r = 0.601; P < 0.01), indicating that when environment strongly determine richness of a family, it also explains its species geographic distributions. The match between GLM and OLS slopes is significantly correlated with families' phylogenetic root distance (r = -0.467; P = 0.012), so that more basal families tend to have a better match between environmental drivers of richness and geographic distribution models. This is expected under tropical niche conservatism model and provides an integrated explanation on how processes at a lower hierarchical level (species' geographic distribution) drive diversity patterns.

  17. Noticing relevant problem features: activating prior knowledge affects problem solving by guiding encoding

    PubMed Central

    Crooks, Noelle M.; Alibali, Martha W.

    2013-01-01

    This study investigated whether activating elements of prior knowledge can influence how problem solvers encode and solve simple mathematical equivalence problems (e.g., 3 + 4 + 5 = 3 + __). Past work has shown that such problems are difficult for elementary school students (McNeil and Alibali, 2000). One possible reason is that children's experiences in math classes may encourage them to think about equations in ways that are ultimately detrimental. Specifically, children learn a set of patterns that are potentially problematic (McNeil and Alibali, 2005a): the perceptual pattern that all equations follow an “operations = answer” format, the conceptual pattern that the equal sign means “calculate the total”, and the procedural pattern that the correct way to solve an equation is to perform all of the given operations on all of the given numbers. Upon viewing an equivalence problem, knowledge of these patterns may be reactivated, leading to incorrect problem solving. We hypothesized that these patterns may negatively affect problem solving by influencing what people encode about a problem. To test this hypothesis in children would require strengthening their misconceptions, and this could be detrimental to their mathematical development. Therefore, we tested this hypothesis in undergraduate participants. Participants completed either control tasks or tasks that activated their knowledge of the three patterns, and were then asked to reconstruct and solve a set of equivalence problems. Participants in the knowledge activation condition encoded the problems less well than control participants. They also made more errors in solving the problems, and their errors resembled the errors children make when solving equivalence problems. Moreover, encoding performance mediated the effect of knowledge activation on equivalence problem solving. Thus, one way in which experience may affect equivalence problem solving is by influencing what students encode about the equations. PMID:24324454

  18. Patterns of Home and School Behavior Problems in Rural and Urban Settings

    PubMed Central

    Hope, Timothy L; Bierman, Karen L

    2009-01-01

    This study examined the cross-situational patterns of behavior problems shown by children in rural and urban communities at school entry. Behavior problems exhibited in home settings were not expected to vary significantly across urban and rural settings. In contrast, it was anticipated that child behavior at school would be heavily influenced by the increased exposure to aggressive models and deviant peer support experienced by children in urban as compared to rural schools, leading to higher rates of school conduct problems for children in urban settings. Statistical comparisons of the patterns of behavior problems shown by representative samples of 89 rural and 221 urban children provided support for these hypotheses, as significant rural-urban differences emerged in school and not in home settings. Cross-situational patterns of behavior problems also varied across setting, with home-only patterns of problems characterizing more children at the rural site and school-only, patterns of behavior problems characterizing more children at the urban sites. In addition, whereas externalizing behavior was the primary school problem exhibited by urban children, rural children displayed significantly higher rates of internalizing problems at school. The implications of these results are discussed for developmental models of behavior problems and for preventive interventions. PMID:19834584

  19. Graph Matching: Relax at Your Own Risk.

    PubMed

    Lyzinski, Vince; Fishkind, Donniell E; Fiori, Marcelo; Vogelstein, Joshua T; Priebe, Carey E; Sapiro, Guillermo

    2016-01-01

    Graph matching-aligning a pair of graphs to minimize their edge disagreements-has received wide-spread attention from both theoretical and applied communities over the past several decades, including combinatorics, computer vision, and connectomics. Its attention can be partially attributed to its computational difficulty. Although many heuristics have previously been proposed in the literature to approximately solve graph matching, very few have any theoretical support for their performance. A common technique is to relax the discrete problem to a continuous problem, therefore enabling practitioners to bring gradient-descent-type algorithms to bear. We prove that an indefinite relaxation (when solved exactly) almost always discovers the optimal permutation, while a common convex relaxation almost always fails to discover the optimal permutation. These theoretical results suggest that initializing the indefinite algorithm with the convex optimum might yield improved practical performance. Indeed, experimental results illuminate and corroborate these theoretical findings, demonstrating that excellent results are achieved in both benchmark and real data problems by amalgamating the two approaches.

  20. Integer Linear Programming for Constrained Multi-Aspect Committee Review Assignment

    PubMed Central

    Karimzadehgan, Maryam; Zhai, ChengXiang

    2011-01-01

    Automatic review assignment can significantly improve the productivity of many people such as conference organizers, journal editors and grant administrators. A general setup of the review assignment problem involves assigning a set of reviewers on a committee to a set of documents to be reviewed under the constraint of review quota so that the reviewers assigned to a document can collectively cover multiple topic aspects of the document. No previous work has addressed such a setup of committee review assignments while also considering matching multiple aspects of topics and expertise. In this paper, we tackle the problem of committee review assignment with multi-aspect expertise matching by casting it as an integer linear programming problem. The proposed algorithm can naturally accommodate any probabilistic or deterministic method for modeling multiple aspects to automate committee review assignments. Evaluation using a multi-aspect review assignment test set constructed using ACM SIGIR publications shows that the proposed algorithm is effective and efficient for committee review assignments based on multi-aspect expertise matching. PMID:22711970

  1. A constrained registration problem based on Ciarlet-Geymonat stored energy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Derfoul, Ratiba; Le Guyader, Carole

    2014-03-01

    In this paper, we address the issue of designing a theoretically well-motivated registration model capable of handling large deformations and including geometrical constraints, namely landmark points to be matched, in a variational framework. The theory of linear elasticity being unsuitable in this case, since assuming small strains and the validity of Hooke's law, the introduced functional is based on nonlinear elasticity principles. More precisely, the shapes to be matched are viewed as Ciarlet-Geymonat materials. We demonstrate the existence of minimizers of the related functional minimization problem and prove a convergence result when the number of geometric constraints increases. We then describe and analyze a numerical method of resolution based on the introduction of an associated decoupled problem under inequality constraint in which an auxiliary variable simulates the Jacobian matrix of the deformation field. A theoretical result of 􀀀-convergence is established. We then provide preliminary 2D results of the proposed matching model for the registration of mouse brain gene expression data to a neuroanatomical mouse atlas.

  2. Fast Legendre moment computation for template matching

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Bing C.

    2017-05-01

    Normalized cross correlation (NCC) based template matching is insensitive to intensity changes and it has many applications in image processing, object detection, video tracking and pattern recognition. However, normalized cross correlation implementation is computationally expensive since it involves both correlation computation and normalization implementation. In this paper, we propose Legendre moment approach for fast normalized cross correlation implementation and show that the computational cost of this proposed approach is independent of template mask sizes which is significantly faster than traditional mask size dependent approaches, especially for large mask templates. Legendre polynomials have been widely used in solving Laplace equation in electrodynamics in spherical coordinate systems, and solving Schrodinger equation in quantum mechanics. In this paper, we extend Legendre polynomials from physics to computer vision and pattern recognition fields, and demonstrate that Legendre polynomials can help to reduce the computational cost of NCC based template matching significantly.

  3. Native conflict awared layout decomposition in triple patterning lithography using bin-based library matching method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ke, Xianhua; Jiang, Hao; Lv, Wen; Liu, Shiyuan

    2016-03-01

    Triple patterning (TP) lithography becomes a feasible technology for manufacturing as the feature size further scale down to sub 14/10 nm. In TP, a layout is decomposed into three masks followed with exposures and etches/freezing processes respectively. Previous works mostly focus on layout decomposition with minimal conflicts and stitches simultaneously. However, since any existence of native conflict will result in layout re-design/modification and reperforming the time-consuming decomposition, the effective method that can be aware of native conflicts (NCs) in layout is desirable. In this paper, a bin-based library matching method is proposed for NCs detection and layout decomposition. First, a layout is divided into bins and the corresponding conflict graph in each bin is constructed. Then, we match the conflict graph in a prebuilt colored library, and as a result the NCs can be located and highlighted quickly.

  4. Design and Measurement of Self-Matched, Dual-Frequency Coplanar-Waveguide-Fed Slot Antennas

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Omar, Amjad A.; Scardelletti, Maxmilian C.; Hejazi, Zuhair M.; Dib, Nihad

    2007-01-01

    This report presents two new designs of dual-frequency, coplanar-waveguide-fed, double-folded slot antennas. An important advantage of these antennas is that, because they are self-matched to the feeding coplanar waveguide, they do not need an external matching circuit. This reduces the antenna size and simplifies its design. To verify the designs, the authors measured and compared the return loss and radiation patterns with those obtained using available commercial software with good agreement. Dual-frequency slot antennas;

  5. Gender differences in game responses during badminton match play.

    PubMed

    Fernandez-Fernandez, Jaime; de la Aleja Tellez, Jose G; Moya-Ramon, Manuel; Cabello-Manrique, David; Mendez-Villanueva, Alberto

    2013-09-01

    The aim of this study was to evaluate possible gender differences in match play activity pattern [rally duration, rest time between rallies, effective playing time, and strokes performed during a rally] and exercise intensity (heart rate [HR], blood lactate [La], and subjective ratings of perceived exertion [RPE]) during 9 simulated badminton matches in male (n = 8) and female (n = 8) elite junior (16.0 ± 1.4 years) players. Results showed significant differences (all p < 0.05; effect size (ES) = 0.80-1.56) between male and female players in the activity pattern of match play, with male players engaged in longer rallies (6.8 ± 4.8 vs. 5.7 ± 3.1 seconds), executing more strokes per rally (6.4 ± 4.8 vs. 4.7 ± 2.8) and resting more between rallies (10.5 ± 8.8 vs. 8.8 ± 7.2 seconds) than female players. No clear differences (all p > 0.05; ES = -0.33 to 0.08) were observed between female or male players in average HR (174 ± 7 vs. 170 ± 9 b·min(-1)), %HRmax (89.2 ± 4.0% vs. 85.9 ± 4.3%), La (2.5 ± 1.3 vs. 3.2 ± 1.8 mmol·L(-1)), and RPE values (14.2 ± 1.9 vs. 14.6 ± 1.8) during match play, although male players spent more time (moderate effect sizes) at intensities between 81 and 90% HRmax (35.3 ± 17.9 vs. 25.3 ± 13.6; p < 0.05; ES = 0.64) in the second game. There seemed to be a trend toward an increased playing intensity (i.e., higher HR, La, and RPE) from the first to the second game, highlighting the higher exercise intensity experienced during the last part of the match. The clear between-gender differences in activity patterns induced only slightly different physiological responses.

  6. Geographic Mosaic of Plant Evolution: Extrafloral Nectary Variation Mediated by Ant and Herbivore Assemblages

    PubMed Central

    Nogueira, Anselmo; Rey, Pedro J.; Alcántara, Julio M.; Feitosa, Rodrigo M.; Lohmann, Lúcia G.

    2015-01-01

    Herbivory is an ecological process that is known to generate different patterns of selection on defensive plant traits across populations. Studies on this topic could greatly benefit from the general framework of the Geographic Mosaic Theory of Coevolution (GMT). Here, we hypothesize that herbivory represents a strong pressure for extrafloral nectary (EFN) bearing plants, with differences in herbivore and ant visitor assemblages leading to different evolutionary pressures among localities and ultimately to differences in EFN abundance and function. In this study, we investigate this hypothesis by analyzing 10 populations of Anemopaegma album (30 individuals per population) distributed through ca. 600 km of Neotropical savanna and covering most of the geographic range of this plant species. A common garden experiment revealed a phenotypic differentiation in EFN abundance, in which field and experimental plants showed a similar pattern of EFN variation among populations. We also did not find significant correlations between EFN traits and ant abundance, herbivory and plant performance across localities. Instead, a more complex pattern of ant–EFN variation, a geographic mosaic, emerged throughout the geographical range of A. album. We modeled the functional relationship between EFNs and ant traits across ant species and extended this phenotypic interface to characterize local situations of phenotypic matching and mismatching at the population level. Two distinct types of phenotypic matching emerged throughout populations: (1) a population with smaller ants (Crematogaster crinosa) matched with low abundance of EFNs; and (2) seven populations with bigger ants (Camponotus species) matched with higher EFN abundances. Three matched populations showed the highest plant performance and narrower variance of EFN abundance, representing potential plant evolutionary hotspots. Cases of mismatched and matched populations with the lowest performance were associated with abundant and highly detrimental herbivores. Our findings provide insights on the ecology and evolution of plant–ant guarding systems, and suggest new directions to research on facultative mutualistic interactions at wide geographic scales. PMID:25885221

  7. Predictor variable resolution governs modeled soil types

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Soil mapping identifies different soil types by compressing a unique suite of spatial patterns and processes across multiple spatial scales. It can be quite difficult to quantify spatial patterns of soil properties with remotely sensed predictor variables. More specifically, matching the right scale...

  8. Cognitive Inflexibility in Gamblers is Primarily Present in Reward-Related Decision Making

    PubMed Central

    Boog, Michiel; Höppener, Paul; v. d. Wetering, Ben J. M.; Goudriaan, Anna E.; Boog, Matthijs C.; Franken, Ingmar H. A.

    2014-01-01

    One hallmark of gambling disorder (GD) is the observation that gamblers have problems stopping their gambling behavior once it is initiated. On a neuropsychological level, it has been hypothesized that this is the result of a cognitive inflexibility. The present study investigated cognitive inflexibility in patients with GD using a task involving cognitive inflexibility with a reward element (i.e., reversal learning) and a task measuring general cognitive inflexibility without such a component (i.e., response perseveration). For this purpose, scores of a reward-based reversal learning task (probabilistic reversal learning task) and the Wisconsin card sorting task were compared between a group of treatment seeking patients with GD and a gender and age matched control group. The results show that pathological gamblers have impaired performance on the neurocognitive task measuring reward-based cognitive inflexibility. However, no difference between the groups is observed regarding non-reward-based cognitive inflexibility. This suggests that cognitive inflexibility in GD is the result of an aberrant reward-based learning, and not based on a more general problem with cognitive flexibility. The pattern of observed problems is suggestive of a dysfunction of the orbitofrontal cortex, the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, and the ventral regions of the striatum in gamblers. Relevance for the neurocognition of problematic gambling is discussed. PMID:25165438

  9. Incentive compatibility in kidney exchange problems.

    PubMed

    Villa, Silvia; Patrone, Fioravante

    2009-12-01

    The problem of kidney exchanges shares common features with the classical problem of exchange of indivisible goods studied in the mechanism design literature, while presenting additional constraints on the size of feasible exchanges. The solution of a kidney exchange problem can be summarized in a mapping from the relevant underlying characteristics of the players (patients and their donors) to the set of matchings. The goal is to select only matchings maximizing a chosen welfare function. Since the final outcome heavily depends on the private information in possess of the players, a basic requirement in order to reach efficiency is the truthful revelation of this information. We show that for the kidney exchange problem, a class of (in principle) efficient mechanisms does not enjoy the incentive compatibility property and therefore is subject to possible manipulations made by the players in order to profit of the misrepresentation of their private information.

  10. An adaptive clustering algorithm for image matching based on corner feature

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Zhe; Dong, Min; Mu, Xiaomin; Wang, Song

    2018-04-01

    The traditional image matching algorithm always can not balance the real-time and accuracy better, to solve the problem, an adaptive clustering algorithm for image matching based on corner feature is proposed in this paper. The method is based on the similarity of the matching pairs of vector pairs, and the adaptive clustering is performed on the matching point pairs. Harris corner detection is carried out first, the feature points of the reference image and the perceived image are extracted, and the feature points of the two images are first matched by Normalized Cross Correlation (NCC) function. Then, using the improved algorithm proposed in this paper, the matching results are clustered to reduce the ineffective operation and improve the matching speed and robustness. Finally, the Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC) algorithm is used to match the matching points after clustering. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively eliminate the most wrong matching points while the correct matching points are retained, and improve the accuracy of RANSAC matching, reduce the computation load of whole matching process at the same time.

  11. Fingerprinting of HLA class I genes for improved selection of unrelated bone marrow donors.

    PubMed

    Martinelli, G; Farabegoli, P; Buzzi, M; Panzica, G; Zaccaria, A; Bandini, G; Calori, E; Testoni, N; Rosti, G; Conte, R; Remiddi, C; Salvucci, M; De Vivo, A; Tura, S

    1996-02-01

    The degree of matching of HLA genes between the selected donor and recipient is an important aspect of the selection of unrelated donors for allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (UBMT). The most sensitive methods currently used are serological typing of HLA class I genes, mixed lymphocyte culture (MLC), IEF and molecular genotyping of HLA class II genes by direct sequencing of PCR products. Serological typing of class I antigenes (A, B and C) fails to detect minor differences demonstrated by direct sequencing of DNA polymorphic regions. Molecular genotyping of HLA class I genes by DNA analysis is costly and work-intensive. To improve compatibility between donor and recipient, we have set up a new rapid and non-radioisotopic application of the 'fingerprinting PCR' technique for the analysis of the polymorphic second exon of the HLA class I A, B and C genes. This technique is based on the formation of specific patterns (PCR fingerprints) of homoduplexes and heteroduplexes between heterologous amplified DNA sequences. After an electrophoretic run on non-denaturing polyacrylamide gel, different HLA class I types give allele-specific banding patterns. HLA class I matching is performed, after the gel has been soaked in ethidium bromide or silver-stained, by visual comparison of patients' fingerprints with those of donors. Identity can be confirmed by mixing donor and recipient DNAs in an amplification cross-match. To assess the technique, 10 normal samples, 22 related allogeneic bone marrow transplanted pairs and 10 unrelated HLA-A and HLA-B serologically matched patient-donor pairs were analysed for HLA class I polymorphic regions. In all the related pairs and in 1/10 unrelated pairs, matched donor-recipient patterns were identified. This new application of PCR fingerprinting may confirm the HLA class I serological selection of unrelated marrow donors.

  12. Color/Form Matching as Indicator of Cognitive Reorganization in Kindergarten Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Miller, Douglas

    1977-01-01

    It was hypothesized that Piaget's argument on behalf of the reorganization of cognitive processes would gain empirical support from a color/form, matching similar objects problem for 52 6-year-olds from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. (Author/MS)

  13. Apraxia, mechanical problem solving and semantic knowledge: contributions to object usage in corticobasal degeneration.

    PubMed

    Spatt, Josef; Bak, Thomas; Bozeat, Sasha; Patterson, Karalyn; Hodges, John R

    2002-05-01

    To investigate the nature of the apraxia in corticobasal degeneration (CBD) five patients with CBD and five matched controls were compared on tests of: i) meaningless and symbolic gesture production, ii) a battery of semantic tasks based on 20 everyday items (involving naming and picture-picture matching according to semantic attributes, matching gestures-to-objects, object usage from name and with the real object) and iii) a novel tool test of mechanical problem solving. All five patients showed severe impairment in the production of meaningless and symbolic gestures from command, and by imitation, and were also impaired when using real objects. Deficits were not, however, restricted to action production: four were unable to match gestures to objects and all five showed impairment in the selection and usage of novel tools in the mechanical problem solving task. Surprising was the finding of an additional semantic knowledge breakdown in three cases, two of whom were markedly anomic. The apraxia in CBD is, therefore, multifactorial. There is profound breakdown in the organisation and co-ordination of motor programming. In addition, patients show central deficits in action knowledge and mechanical problem solving, which has been linked to parietal lobe pathology. General semantic memory may also be affected in CBD in some cases and this may then contribute to impaired object usage. This combination of more than one deficit relevant for object use may explain why CBD patients are far more disabled by their dyspraxia in everyday life than any other patient group.

  14. Groin Problems in Male Soccer Players Are More Common Than Previously Reported.

    PubMed

    Harøy, Joar; Clarsen, Ben; Thorborg, Kristian; Hölmich, Per; Bahr, Roald; Andersen, Thor Einar

    2017-05-01

    The majority of surveillance studies in soccer have used a time-loss injury definition, and many groin problems result from overuse, leading to gradually increasing pain and/or reduced performance without necessarily causing an absence from soccer training or match play. Thus, the magnitude of groin problems in soccer has probably been underestimated in previous studies based on traditional injury surveillance methods. To investigate the prevalence of groin problems among soccer players of both sexes and among male soccer players at different levels of play through a new surveillance method developed to capture acute and overuse problems. Descriptive epidemiology study. We registered groin problems during a 6-week period of match congestion using the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center Overuse Injury Questionnaire. A total of 240 players from 15 teams across different levels of play and from both sexes were included, and they responded to the weekly questionnaire. We calculated the average weekly prevalence of all groin problems and substantial groin problems. Of the 240 players, 112 male players (59%) and 20 female players (45%) reported at least 1 episode of groin problems. The average weekly prevalence of any groin problem and substantial groin problem for all male players was 29% (range, 23%-32% across different levels) and 10% (7%-13%), respectively. Elite male players had an increased risk of experiencing groin problems (odds ratio: 3.1, 95% CI: 1.5-6.4, P = .03) compared with elite female players. There was no difference in the risk of experiencing groin problems among elite, subelite, and amateur male players. For substantial problems, there was no difference between elite male and elite female players or among levels of play for senior male soccer players. We found a high prevalence of groin problems among male soccer players during a period with match congestion. Time-loss definition as used in previous injury surveillance studies captured only one-third of the male groin problems registered with the new method. Elite male players had 3 times' higher risk of reporting groin problems as compared with elite female players, while playing level did not influence the risk of reporting a groin problem among males.

  15. Automated processing of shoeprint images based on the Fourier transform for use in forensic science.

    PubMed

    de Chazal, Philip; Flynn, John; Reilly, Richard B

    2005-03-01

    The development of a system for automatically sorting a database of shoeprint images based on the outsole pattern in response to a reference shoeprint image is presented. The database images are sorted so that those from the same pattern group as the reference shoeprint are likely to be at the start of the list. A database of 476 complete shoeprint images belonging to 140 pattern groups was established with each group containing two or more examples. A panel of human observers performed the grouping of the images into pattern categories. Tests of the system using the database showed that the first-ranked database image belongs to the same pattern category as the reference image 65 percent of the time and that a correct match appears within the first 5 percent of the sorted images 87 percent of the time. The system has translational and rotational invariance so that the spatial positioning of the reference shoeprint images does not have to correspond with the spatial positioning of the shoeprint images of the database. The performance of the system for matching partial-prints was also determined.

  16. The Spatial Vision Tree: A Generic Pattern Recognition Engine- Scientific Foundations, Design Principles, and Preliminary Tree Design

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rahman, Zia-ur; Jobson, Daniel J.; Woodell, Glenn A.

    2010-01-01

    New foundational ideas are used to define a novel approach to generic visual pattern recognition. These ideas proceed from the starting point of the intrinsic equivalence of noise reduction and pattern recognition when noise reduction is taken to its theoretical limit of explicit matched filtering. This led us to think of the logical extension of sparse coding using basis function transforms for both de-noising and pattern recognition to the full pattern specificity of a lexicon of matched filter pattern templates. A key hypothesis is that such a lexicon can be constructed and is, in fact, a generic visual alphabet of spatial vision. Hence it provides a tractable solution for the design of a generic pattern recognition engine. Here we present the key scientific ideas, the basic design principles which emerge from these ideas, and a preliminary design of the Spatial Vision Tree (SVT). The latter is based upon a cryptographic approach whereby we measure a large aggregate estimate of the frequency of occurrence (FOO) for each pattern. These distributions are employed together with Hamming distance criteria to design a two-tier tree. Then using information theory, these same FOO distributions are used to define a precise method for pattern representation. Finally the experimental performance of the preliminary SVT on computer generated test images and complex natural images is assessed.

  17. Energy Bounds for a Compressed Elastic Film on a Substrate

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bourne, David P.; Conti, Sergio; Müller, Stefan

    2017-04-01

    We study pattern formation in a compressed elastic film which delaminates from a substrate. Our key tool is the determination of rigorous upper and lower bounds on the minimum value of a suitable energy functional. The energy consists of two parts, describing the two main physical effects. The first part represents the elastic energy of the film, which is approximated using the von Kármán plate theory. The second part represents the fracture or delamination energy, which is approximated using the Griffith model of fracture. A simpler model containing the first term alone was previously studied with similar methods by several authors, assuming that the delaminated region is fixed. We include the fracture term, transforming the elastic minimisation into a free boundary problem, and opening the way for patterns which result from the interplay of elasticity and delamination. After rescaling, the energy depends on only two parameters: the rescaled film thickness, {σ }, and a measure of the bonding strength between the film and substrate, {γ }. We prove upper bounds on the minimum energy of the form {σ }^a {γ }^b and find that there are four different parameter regimes corresponding to different values of a and b and to different folding patterns of the film. In some cases, the upper bounds are attained by self-similar folding patterns as observed in experiments. Moreover, for two of the four parameter regimes we prove matching, optimal lower bounds.

  18. Functional discovery via a compendium of expression profiles.

    PubMed

    Hughes, T R; Marton, M J; Jones, A R; Roberts, C J; Stoughton, R; Armour, C D; Bennett, H A; Coffey, E; Dai, H; He, Y D; Kidd, M J; King, A M; Meyer, M R; Slade, D; Lum, P Y; Stepaniants, S B; Shoemaker, D D; Gachotte, D; Chakraburtty, K; Simon, J; Bard, M; Friend, S H

    2000-07-07

    Ascertaining the impact of uncharacterized perturbations on the cell is a fundamental problem in biology. Here, we describe how a single assay can be used to monitor hundreds of different cellular functions simultaneously. We constructed a reference database or "compendium" of expression profiles corresponding to 300 diverse mutations and chemical treatments in S. cerevisiae, and we show that the cellular pathways affected can be determined by pattern matching, even among very subtle profiles. The utility of this approach is validated by examining profiles caused by deletions of uncharacterized genes: we identify and experimentally confirm that eight uncharacterized open reading frames encode proteins required for sterol metabolism, cell wall function, mitochondrial respiration, or protein synthesis. We also show that the compendium can be used to characterize pharmacological perturbations by identifying a novel target of the commonly used drug dyclonine.

  19. Change in chromatogram patterns after volatilization of some Aroclors, and the associated quantitation problems

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Lin, J.M.; Hee, S.S.Q.

    1987-07-01

    PCBs with the highest vapor pressures (fewest chlorines) in Aroclors 1016, 1242, 1254, and 1268 were enriched in the vapor phase relative to the original Aroclor during volatilization from a glass surface for up to 8 hr. PCBs with the lowest vapor pressures (most highly chlorinated) were enriched in the corresponding residue. Thus, visual matching of gas chromatograms with those of Aroclor standards may not be sufficient to identify a specific Aroclor since the past history of a sample is often unknown. The enrichment also was detected using isomeric classes, but not using total chlorine content. The perchlorination method andmore » the Webb-McCall method using all chromatographic peaks agreed quantitatively; this was not always so for the NIOSH multiple peaks and the Webb-McCall methods.« less

  20. Strained-layer epitaxy of germanium-silicon alloys

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bean, J. C.

    1985-10-01

    Strained-layer epitaxy is presented as a developing technique for combining Si with other materials in order to obtain semiconductors with enhanced electronic properties. The method involves applying layers sufficiently thin so that the atoms deposited match the bonding configurations of the substrate crystal. When deposited on Si, a four-fold bonding pattern is retained, with a lowered interfacial energy and augmented stored strain energy in the epitaxial layer. The main problem which remains is building an epitaxial layer thick enough to yield desired epitaxial properties while avoiding a reversion to an unstrained structure. The application of a Ge layer to Si using MBE is described, along with the formation of heterojunction multi-layer superlattices, which can reduce the dislocation effects in some homojunctions. The technique shows promise for developing materials of use as bipolar transistors, optical detectors and fiber optic transmission devices.

  1. Adaptive rood pattern search for fast block-matching motion estimation.

    PubMed

    Nie, Yao; Ma, Kai-Kuang

    2002-01-01

    In this paper, we propose a novel and simple fast block-matching algorithm (BMA), called adaptive rood pattern search (ARPS), which consists of two sequential search stages: 1) initial search and 2) refined local search. For each macroblock (MB), the initial search is performed only once at the beginning in order to find a good starting point for the follow-up refined local search. By doing so, unnecessary intermediate search and the risk of being trapped into local minimum matching error points could be greatly reduced in long search case. For the initial search stage, an adaptive rood pattern (ARP) is proposed, and the ARP's size is dynamically determined for each MB, based on the available motion vectors (MVs) of the neighboring MBs. In the refined local search stage, a unit-size rood pattern (URP) is exploited repeatedly, and unrestrictedly, until the final MV is found. To further speed up the search, zero-motion prejudgment (ZMP) is incorporated in our method, which is particularly beneficial to those video sequences containing small motion contents. Extensive experiments conducted based on the MPEG-4 Verification Model (VM) encoding platform show that the search speed of our proposed ARPS-ZMP is about two to three times faster than that of the diamond search (DS), and our method even achieves higher peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) particularly for those video sequences containing large and/or complex motion contents.

  2. Evaluation of Existing Image Matching Methods for Deriving Glacier Surface Displacements Globally from Optical Satellite Imagery

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Heid, T.; Kääb, A.

    2011-12-01

    Automatic matching of images from two different times is a method that is often used to derive glacier surface velocity. Nearly global repeat coverage of the Earth's surface by optical satellite sensors now opens the possibility for global-scale mapping and monitoring of glacier flow with a number of applications in, for example, glacier physics, glacier-related climate change and impact assessment, and glacier hazard management. The purpose of this study is to compare and evaluate different existing image matching methods for glacier flow determination over large scales. The study compares six different matching methods: normalized cross-correlation (NCC), the phase correlation algorithm used in the COSI-Corr software, and four other Fourier methods with different normalizations. We compare the methods over five regions of the world with different representative glacier characteristics: Karakoram, the European Alps, Alaska, Pine Island (Antarctica) and southwest Greenland. Landsat images are chosen for matching because they expand back to 1972, they cover large areas, and at the same time their spatial resolution is as good as 15 m for images after 1999 (ETM+ pan). Cross-correlation on orientation images (CCF-O) outperforms the three similar Fourier methods, both in areas with high and low visual contrast. NCC experiences problems in areas with low visual contrast, areas with thin clouds or changing snow conditions between the images. CCF-O has problems on narrow outlet glaciers where small window sizes (about 16 pixels by 16 pixels or smaller) are needed, and it also obtains fewer correct matches than COSI-Corr in areas with low visual contrast. COSI-Corr has problems on narrow outlet glaciers and it obtains fewer correct matches compared to CCF-O when thin clouds cover the surface, or if one of the images contains snow dunes. In total, we consider CCF-O and COSI-Corr to be the two most robust matching methods for global-scale mapping and monitoring of glacier velocities. If combining CCF-O with locally adaptive template sizes and by filtering the matching results automatically by comparing the displacement matrix to its low pass filtered version, the matching process can be automated to a large degree. This allows the derivation of glacier velocities with minimal (but not without!) user interaction and hence also opens up the possibility of global-scale mapping and monitoring of glacier flow.

  3. Cross-matching: a modified cross-correlation underlying threshold energy model and match-based depth perception

    PubMed Central

    Doi, Takahiro; Fujita, Ichiro

    2014-01-01

    Three-dimensional visual perception requires correct matching of images projected to the left and right eyes. The matching process is faced with an ambiguity: part of one eye's image can be matched to multiple parts of the other eye's image. This stereo correspondence problem is complicated for random-dot stereograms (RDSs), because dots with an identical appearance produce numerous potential matches. Despite such complexity, human subjects can perceive a coherent depth structure. A coherent solution to the correspondence problem does not exist for anticorrelated RDSs (aRDSs), in which luminance contrast is reversed in one eye. Neurons in the visual cortex reduce disparity selectivity for aRDSs progressively along the visual processing hierarchy. A disparity-energy model followed by threshold nonlinearity (threshold energy model) can account for this reduction, providing a possible mechanism for the neural matching process. However, the essential computation underlying the threshold energy model is not clear. Here, we propose that a nonlinear modification of cross-correlation, which we term “cross-matching,” represents the essence of the threshold energy model. We placed half-wave rectification within the cross-correlation of the left-eye and right-eye images. The disparity tuning derived from cross-matching was attenuated for aRDSs. We simulated a psychometric curve as a function of graded anticorrelation (graded mixture of aRDS and normal RDS); this simulated curve reproduced the match-based psychometric function observed in human near/far discrimination. The dot density was 25% for both simulation and observation. We predicted that as the dot density increased, the performance for aRDSs should decrease below chance (i.e., reversed depth), and the level of anticorrelation that nullifies depth perception should also decrease. We suggest that cross-matching serves as a simple computation underlying the match-based disparity signals in stereoscopic depth perception. PMID:25360107

  4. Mother - Infant Interaction Patterns as a Function of Rearing Conditions.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ramey, Craig T.; Mills, Pamela J.

    This study examined the effect of a day care program on mother-child interaction patterns and attachment behaviors, and compared these patterns of behavior with those obtained from a matched sample of more advantaged home-reared infants. Subjects were 60 infants, ranging in age from 3 1/2 to 9 1/2 months, and their mothers. There were three groups…

  5. How convincing is a matching Y-chromosome profile?

    PubMed Central

    2017-01-01

    The introduction of forensic autosomal DNA profiles was controversial, but the problems were successfully addressed, and DNA profiling has gone on to revolutionise forensic science. Y-chromosome profiles are valuable when there is a mixture of male-source and female-source DNA, and interest centres on the identity of the male source(s) of the DNA. The problem of evaluating evidential weight is even more challenging for Y profiles than for autosomal profiles. Numerous approaches have been proposed, but they fail to deal adequately with the fact that men with matching Y-profiles are related in extended patrilineal clans, many of which may not be represented in available databases. The higher mutation rates of modern profiling kits have led to increased discriminatory power but they have also exacerbated the problem of fairly conveying evidential value. Because the relevant population is difficult to define, yet the number of matching relatives is fixed as population size varies, it is typically infeasible to derive population-based match probabilities relevant to a specific crime. We propose a conceptually simple solution, based on a simulation model and software to approximate the distribution of the number of males with a matching Y profile. We show that this distribution is robust to different values for the variance in reproductive success and the population growth rate. We also use importance sampling reweighting to derive the distribution of the number of matching males conditional on a database frequency, finding that this conditioning typically has only a modest impact. We illustrate the use of our approach to quantify the value of Y profile evidence for a court in a way that is both scientifically valid and easily comprehensible by a judge or juror. PMID:29099833

  6. Range pattern matching with layer operations and continuous refinements

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tseng, I.-Lun; Lee, Zhao Chuan; Li, Yongfu; Perez, Valerio; Tripathi, Vikas; Ong, Jonathan Yoong Seang

    2018-03-01

    At advanced and mainstream process nodes (e.g., 7nm, 14nm, 22nm, and 55nm process nodes), lithography hotspots can exist in layouts of integrated circuits even if the layouts pass design rule checking (DRC). Existence of lithography hotspots in a layout can cause manufacturability issues, which can result in yield losses of manufactured integrated circuits. In order to detect lithography hotspots existing in physical layouts, pattern matching (PM) algorithms and commercial PM tools have been developed. However, there are still needs to use DRC tools to perform PM operations. In this paper, we propose a PM synthesis methodology, which uses a continuous refinement technique, for the automatic synthesis of a given lithography hotspot pattern into a DRC deck, which consists of layer operation commands, so that an equivalent PM operation can be performed by executing the synthesized deck with the use of a DRC tool. Note that the proposed methodology can deal with not only exact patterns, but also range patterns. Also, lithography hotspot patterns containing multiple layers can be processed. Experimental results show that the proposed methodology can accurately and efficiently detect lithography hotspots in physical layouts.

  7. Palm Vein Verification Using Multiple Features and Locality Preserving Projections

    PubMed Central

    Bu, Wei; Wu, Xiangqian; Zhao, Qiushi

    2014-01-01

    Biometrics is defined as identifying people by their physiological characteristic, such as iris pattern, fingerprint, and face, or by some aspects of their behavior, such as voice, signature, and gesture. Considerable attention has been drawn on these issues during the last several decades. And many biometric systems for commercial applications have been successfully developed. Recently, the vein pattern biometric becomes increasingly attractive for its uniqueness, stability, and noninvasiveness. A vein pattern is the physical distribution structure of the blood vessels underneath a person's skin. The palm vein pattern is very ganglion and it shows a huge number of vessels. The attitude of the palm vein vessels stays in the same location for the whole life and its pattern is definitely unique. In our work, the matching filter method is proposed for the palm vein image enhancement. New palm vein features extraction methods, global feature extracted based on wavelet coefficients and locality preserving projections (WLPP), and local feature based on local binary pattern variance and locality preserving projections (LBPV_LPP) have been proposed. Finally, the nearest neighbour matching method has been proposed that verified the test palm vein images. The experimental result shows that the EER to the proposed method is 0.1378%. PMID:24693230

  8. Palm vein verification using multiple features and locality preserving projections.

    PubMed

    Al-Juboori, Ali Mohsin; Bu, Wei; Wu, Xiangqian; Zhao, Qiushi

    2014-01-01

    Biometrics is defined as identifying people by their physiological characteristic, such as iris pattern, fingerprint, and face, or by some aspects of their behavior, such as voice, signature, and gesture. Considerable attention has been drawn on these issues during the last several decades. And many biometric systems for commercial applications have been successfully developed. Recently, the vein pattern biometric becomes increasingly attractive for its uniqueness, stability, and noninvasiveness. A vein pattern is the physical distribution structure of the blood vessels underneath a person's skin. The palm vein pattern is very ganglion and it shows a huge number of vessels. The attitude of the palm vein vessels stays in the same location for the whole life and its pattern is definitely unique. In our work, the matching filter method is proposed for the palm vein image enhancement. New palm vein features extraction methods, global feature extracted based on wavelet coefficients and locality preserving projections (WLPP), and local feature based on local binary pattern variance and locality preserving projections (LBPV_LPP) have been proposed. Finally, the nearest neighbour matching method has been proposed that verified the test palm vein images. The experimental result shows that the EER to the proposed method is 0.1378%.

  9. Winnowing sequences from a database search.

    PubMed

    Berman, P; Zhang, Z; Wolf, Y I; Koonin, E V; Miller, W

    2000-01-01

    In database searches for sequence similarity, matches to a distinct sequence region (e.g., protein domain) are frequently obscured by numerous matches to another region of the same sequence. In order to cope with this problem, algorithms are developed to discard redundant matches. One model for this problem begins with a list of intervals, each with an associated score; each interval gives the range of positions in the query sequence that align to a database sequence, and the score is that of the alignment. If interval I is contained in interval J, and I's score is less than J's, then I is said to be dominated by J. The problem is then to identify each interval that is dominated by at least K other intervals, where K is a given level of "tolerable redundancy." An algorithm is developed to solve the problem in O(N log N) time and O(N*) space, where N is the number of intervals and N* is a precisely defined value that never exceeds N and is frequently much smaller. This criterion for discarding database hits has been implemented in the Blast program, as illustrated herein with examples. Several variations and extensions of this approach are also described.

  10. Model-based conifer crown surface reconstruction from multi-ocular high-resolution aerial imagery

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sheng, Yongwei

    2000-12-01

    Tree crown parameters such as width, height, shape and crown closure are desirable in forestry and ecological studies, but they are time-consuming and labor intensive to measure in the field. The stereoscopic capability of high-resolution aerial imagery provides a way to crown surface reconstruction. Existing photogrammetric algorithms designed to map terrain surfaces, however, cannot adequately extract crown surfaces, especially for steep conifer crowns. Considering crown surface reconstruction in a broader context of tree characterization from aerial images, we develop a rigorous perspective tree image formation model to bridge image-based tree extraction and crown surface reconstruction, and an integrated model-based approach to conifer crown surface reconstruction. Based on the fact that most conifer crowns are in a solid geometric form, conifer crowns are modeled as a generalized hemi-ellipsoid. Both the automatic and semi-automatic approaches are investigated to optimal tree model development from multi-ocular images. The semi-automatic 3D tree interpreter developed in this thesis is able to efficiently extract reliable tree parameters and tree models in complicated tree stands. This thesis starts with a sophisticated stereo matching algorithm, and incorporates tree models to guide stereo matching. The following critical problems are addressed in the model-based surface reconstruction process: (1) the problem of surface model composition from tree models, (2) the occlusion problem in disparity prediction from tree models, (3) the problem of integrating the predicted disparities into image matching, (4) the tree model edge effect reduction on the disparity map, (5) the occlusion problem in orthophoto production, and (6) the foreshortening problem in image matching, which is very serious for conifer crown surfaces. Solutions to the above problems are necessary for successful crown surface reconstruction. The model-based approach was applied to recover the canopy surface of a dense redwood stand using tri-ocular high-resolution images scanned from 1:2,400 aerial photographs. The results demonstrate the approach's ability to reconstruct complicated stands. The model-based approach proposed in this thesis is potentially applicable to other surfaces recovering problems with a priori knowledge about objects.

  11. An approach to automated particle picking from electron micrographs based on reduced representation templates.

    PubMed

    Volkmann, Niels

    2004-01-01

    Reduced representation templates are used in a real-space pattern matching framework to facilitate automatic particle picking from electron micrographs. The procedure consists of five parts. First, reduced templates are constructed either from models or directly from the data. Second, a real-space pattern matching algorithm is applied using the reduced representations as templates. Third, peaks are selected from the resulting score map using peak-shape characteristics. Fourth, the surviving peaks are tested for distance constraints. Fifth, a correlation-based outlier screening is applied. Test applications to a data set of keyhole limpet hemocyanin particles indicate that the method is robust and reliable.

  12. Trends in Correlation-Based Pattern Recognition and Tracking in Forward-Looking Infrared Imagery

    PubMed Central

    Alam, Mohammad S.; Bhuiyan, Sharif M. A.

    2014-01-01

    In this paper, we review the recent trends and advancements on correlation-based pattern recognition and tracking in forward-looking infrared (FLIR) imagery. In particular, we discuss matched filter-based correlation techniques for target detection and tracking which are widely used for various real time applications. We analyze and present test results involving recently reported matched filters such as the maximum average correlation height (MACH) filter and its variants, and distance classifier correlation filter (DCCF) and its variants. Test results are presented for both single/multiple target detection and tracking using various real-life FLIR image sequences. PMID:25061840

  13. Systems, methods and apparatus for pattern matching in procedure development and verification

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hinchey, Michael G. (Inventor); Rouff, Christopher A. (Inventor); Rash, James L. (Inventor)

    2011-01-01

    Systems, methods and apparatus are provided through which, in some embodiments, a formal specification is pattern-matched from scenarios, the formal specification is analyzed, and flaws in the formal specification are corrected. The systems, methods and apparatus may include pattern-matching an equivalent formal model from an informal specification. Such a model can be analyzed for contradictions, conflicts, use of resources before the resources are available, competition for resources, and so forth. From such a formal model, an implementation can be automatically generated in a variety of notations. The approach can improve the resulting implementation, which, in some embodiments, is provably equivalent to the procedures described at the outset, which in turn can improve confidence that the system reflects the requirements, and in turn reduces system development time and reduces the amount of testing required of a new system. Moreover, in some embodiments, two or more implementations can be "reversed" to appropriate formal models, the models can be combined, and the resulting combination checked for conflicts. Then, the combined, error-free model can be used to generate a new (single) implementation that combines the functionality of the original separate implementations, and may be more likely to be correct.

  14. Sensitivity and bias under conditions of equal and unequal academic task difficulty.

    PubMed

    Reed, Derek D; Martens, Brian K

    2008-01-01

    We conducted an experimental analysis of children's relative problem-completion rates across two workstations under conditions of equal (Experiment 1) and unequal (Experiment 2) problem difficulty. Results were described using the generalized matching equation and were evaluated for degree of schedule versus stimulus control. Experiment 1 involved a symmetrical choice arrangement in which the children could earn points exchangeable for rewards contingent on correct math problem completion. Points were delivered according to signaled variable-interval schedules at each workstation. For 2 children, relative rates of problem completion appeared to have been controlled by the schedule requirements in effect and matched relative rates of reinforcement, with sensitivity values near 1 and bias values near 0. Experiment 2 involved increasing the difficulty of math problems at one of the workstations. Sensitivity values for all 3 participants were near 1, but a substantial increase in bias toward the easier math problems was observed. This bias was possibly associated with responding at the more difficult workstation coming under stimulus control rather than schedule control.

  15. The matching law: a tutorial for practitioners.

    PubMed

    Reed, Derek D; Kaplan, Brent A

    2011-01-01

    The application of the matching law has historically been limited to use as a quantitative measurement tool in the experimental analysis of behavior to describe temporally extended patterns of behavior-environment relations. In recent years, however, applications of the matching law have been translated to clinical settings and populations to gain a better understanding of how naturally-occurring events affect socially important behaviors. This tutorial provides a brief background of the conceptual foundations of matching, an overview of the various matching equations that have been used in research, and a description of how to interpret the data derived from these equations in the context of numerous examples of matching analyses conducted with socially important behavior. An appendix of resources is provided to direct readers to primary sources, as well as useful articles and books on the topic.

  16. The Matching Law: A Tutorial for Practitioners

    PubMed Central

    Kaplan, Brent A

    2011-01-01

    The application of the matching law has historically been limited to use as a quantitative measurement tool in the experimental analysis of behavior to describe temporally extended patterns of behavior-environment relations. In recent years, however, applications of the matching law have been translated to clinical settings and populations to gain a better understanding of how naturally-occurring events affect socially important behaviors. This tutorial provides a brief background of the conceptual foundations of matching, an overview of the various matching equations that have been used in research, and a description of how to interpret the data derived from these equations in the context of numerous examples of matching analyses conducted with socially important behavior. An appendix of resources is provided to direct readers to primary sources, as well as useful articles and books on the topic. PMID:22649575

  17. An E-plane analysis of aperture-matched horn antennas using the moment method and the uniform geometrical theory of diffraction

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Heedy, D. J.; Burnside, W. D.

    1984-01-01

    The moment method and the uniform geometrical theory of diffraction are utilized to obtain two separate solutions for the E-plane field pattern of an aperture-matched horn antenna. This particular horn antenna consists of a standard pyramidal horn with the following modifications: a rolled edge section attached to the aperture edges and a curved throat section. The resulting geometry provides significantly better performance in terms of the pattern, impedance, and frequency characteristics than normally obtainable. The moment method is used to calculate the E-plane pattern and BSWR of the antenna. However, at higher frequencies, large amounts of computation time are required. The uniform geometrical theory of diffraction provides a quick and efficient high frequency solution for the E-plane field pattern. In fact, the uniform geometrical theory of diffraction may be used to initially design the antenna; then, the moment method may be applied to fine tune the design. This procedure has been successfully applied to a compact range feed design.

  18. Cluster of Serogroup W135 Meningococci, Southeastern Florida, 2008–2009

    PubMed Central

    Mejia-Echeverry, Alvaro; Fiorella, Paul; Leguen, Fermin; Livengood, John; Kay, Robyn; Hopkins, Richard

    2010-01-01

    Recently, 14 persons in southeastern Florida were identified with Neisseria meningitidis serogroup W135 invasive infections. All isolates tested had matching or near-matching pulsed-field gel electrophoresis patterns and belonged to the multilocus sequence type 11 clonal complex. The epidemiologic investigation suggested recent endemic transmission of this clonal complex in southeastern Florida. PMID:20031054

  19. Familiarity and Recollection Produce Distinct Eye Movement, Pupil and Medial Temporal Lobe Responses when Memory Strength Is Matched

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kafkas, Alexandros; Montaldi, Daniela

    2012-01-01

    Two experiments explored eye measures (fixations and pupil response patterns) and brain responses (BOLD) accompanying the recognition of visual object stimuli based on familiarity and recollection. In both experiments, the use of a modified remember/know procedure led to high confidence and matched accuracy levels characterising strong familiarity…

  20. Same Same, but Different: Word and Sentence Reading in German and English

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rau, Anne K.; Moll, Kristina; Moeller, Korbinian; Huber, Stefan; Snowling, Margaret J.; Landerl, Karin

    2016-01-01

    The current study compared eye fixation patterns during word and sentence processing in a consistent and an inconsistent alphabetic orthography. German and English children as well as adults matched on word reading ability read matched sentences while their eye fixation behavior was recorded. Results indicated that German children read in a more…

  1. Action-based touch observation in adults with high functioning autism: Can compromised self-other distinction abilities link social and sensory everyday problems?

    PubMed Central

    Wiersema, Jan R.; Brass, Marcel

    2017-01-01

    Abstract Next to social problems, individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often report severe sensory difficulties. Altered processing of touch is however a stronger mediator of social symptoms’ severity than altered processing of for instance vision or audition. Why is this the case? We reasoned that sensory difficulties may be linked to social problems in ASD through insufficient self-other distinction centred on touch. We investigated by means of EEG whether the brain of adults with ASD adequately signals when a tactile consequence of an observed action does not match own touch, as compared to the brain of matched controls. We employed the action-based somatosensory congruency paradigm. Participants observed a human or wooden hand touching a surface, combined with a tap-like tactile sensation that either matched or mismatched the tactile consequence of the observed movement. The ASD group showed a diminished congruency effect for human hands only in the P3-complex, suggesting difficulties with signalling observed action-based touch of others that does not match own touch experiences. Crucially, this effect reliably correlated with self-reported social and sensory everyday difficulties in ASD. The findings might denote a novel theoretical link between sensory and social impairments in the autism spectrum. PMID:27613781

  2. Modular Approach to Therapy for Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, or Conduct Problems in outpatient child and adolescent mental health services in New Zealand: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

    PubMed

    Lucassen, Mathijs F G; Stasiak, Karolina; Crengle, Sue; Weisz, John R; Frampton, Christopher M A; Bearman, Sarah Kate; Ugueto, Ana M; Herren, Jennifer; Cribb-Su'a, Ainsleigh; Faleafa, Monique; Kingi-'Ulu'ave, Denise; Loy, Jik; Scott, Rebecca M; Hartdegen, Morgyn; Merry, Sally N

    2015-10-12

    Mental health disorders are common and disabling for young people because of the potential to disrupt key developmental tasks. Implementation of evidence-based psychosocial therapies in New Zealand is limited, owing to the inaccessibility, length, and cost of training in these therapies. Furthermore, most therapies address one problem area at a time, although comorbidity and changing clinical needs commonly occur in practice. A more flexible approach is needed. The Modular Approach to Therapy for Children with Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, or Conduct Problems (MATCH-ADTC) is designed to overcome these challenges; it provides a range of treatment modules addressing different problems, within a single training program. A clinical trial of MATCH-ADTC in the USA showed that MATCH-ADTC outperformed usual care and standard evidence-based treatment on several clinical measures. We aim to replicate these findings and evaluate the impact of providing training and supervision in MATCH-ADTC to: (1) improve clinical outcomes for youth attending mental health services; (2) increase the amount of evidence-based therapy content; (3) increase the efficiency of service delivery. This is an assessor-blinded multi-site effectiveness randomized controlled trial. Randomization occurs at two levels: (1) clinicians (≥60) are randomized to intervention or usual care; (2) youth participants (7-14 years old) accepted for treatment in child and adolescent mental health services (with a primary disorder that includes anxiety, depression, trauma-related symptoms, or disruptive behavior) are randomly allocated to receive MATCH-ADTC or usual care. Youth participants are recruited from 'mainstream', Māori-specific, and Pacific-specific child and adolescent mental health services. We originally planned to recruit 400 youth participants, but this has been revised to 200 participants. Centralized computer randomization ensures allocation concealment. The primary outcome measures are: (i) the difference in trajectory of change of clinical severity between groups (using the parent-rated Brief Problem Monitor); (ii) clinicians' use of evidence-based treatment procedures during therapy sessions; (iii) total time spent by clinicians delivering therapy. If MATCH-ADTC demonstrates effectiveness it could offer a practical efficient method to increase access to evidence-based therapies, and improve outcomes for youth attending secondary care services. Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12614000297628 .

  3. Metric learning with spectral graph convolutions on brain connectivity networks.

    PubMed

    Ktena, Sofia Ira; Parisot, Sarah; Ferrante, Enzo; Rajchl, Martin; Lee, Matthew; Glocker, Ben; Rueckert, Daniel

    2018-04-01

    Graph representations are often used to model structured data at an individual or population level and have numerous applications in pattern recognition problems. In the field of neuroscience, where such representations are commonly used to model structural or functional connectivity between a set of brain regions, graphs have proven to be of great importance. This is mainly due to the capability of revealing patterns related to brain development and disease, which were previously unknown. Evaluating similarity between these brain connectivity networks in a manner that accounts for the graph structure and is tailored for a particular application is, however, non-trivial. Most existing methods fail to accommodate the graph structure, discarding information that could be beneficial for further classification or regression analyses based on these similarities. We propose to learn a graph similarity metric using a siamese graph convolutional neural network (s-GCN) in a supervised setting. The proposed framework takes into consideration the graph structure for the evaluation of similarity between a pair of graphs, by employing spectral graph convolutions that allow the generalisation of traditional convolutions to irregular graphs and operates in the graph spectral domain. We apply the proposed model on two datasets: the challenging ABIDE database, which comprises functional MRI data of 403 patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 468 healthy controls aggregated from multiple acquisition sites, and a set of 2500 subjects from UK Biobank. We demonstrate the performance of the method for the tasks of classification between matching and non-matching graphs, as well as individual subject classification and manifold learning, showing that it leads to significantly improved results compared to traditional methods. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. Microorganism Identification Based On MALDI-TOF-MS Fingerprints

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Elssner, Thomas; Kostrzewa, Markus; Maier, Thomas; Kruppa, Gary

    Advances in MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry have enabled the ­development of a rapid, accurate and specific method for the identification of bacteria directly from colonies picked from culture plates, which we have named the MALDI Biotyper. The picked colonies are placed on a target plate, a drop of matrix solution is added, and a pattern of protein molecular weights and intensities, "the protein fingerprint" of the bacteria, is produced by the MALDI-TOF mass spectrometer. The obtained protein mass fingerprint representing a molecular signature of the microorganism is then matched against a database containing a library of previously measured protein mass fingerprints, and scores for the match to every library entry are produced. An ID is obtained if a score is returned over a pre-set threshold. The sensitivity of the techniques is such that only approximately 104 bacterial cells are needed, meaning that an overnight culture is sufficient, and the results are obtained in minutes after culture. The improvement in time to result over biochemical methods, and the capability to perform a non-targeted identification of bacteria and spores, potentially makes this method suitable for use in the detect-to-treat timeframe in a bioterrorism event. In the case of white-powder samples, the infectious spore is present in sufficient quantity in the powder so that the MALDI Biotyper result can be obtained directly from the white powder, without the need for culture. While spores produce very different patterns from the vegetative colonies of the corresponding bacteria, this problem is overcome by simply including protein fingerprints of the spores in the library. Results on spores can be returned within minutes, making the method suitable for use in the "detect-to-protect" timeframe.

  5. Localizing gray matter deficits in late-onset depression using computational cortical pattern matching methods.

    PubMed

    Ballmaier, Martina; Kumar, Anand; Thompson, Paul M; Narr, Katherine L; Lavretsky, Helen; Estanol, Laverne; Deluca, Heather; Toga, Arthur W

    2004-11-01

    The authors used magnetic resonance imaging and an image analysis technique known as cortical pattern matching to map cortical gray matter deficits in elderly depressed patients with an illness onset after age 60 (late-onset depression). Seventeen patients with late-onset depression (11 women and six men; mean age=75.24, SD=8.52) and 17 group-matched comparison subjects (11 women and six men; mean age=73.88, SD=7.61) were included. Detailed spatial analyses of gray matter were conducted across the entire cortex by measuring local proportions of gray matter at thousands of homologous cortical surface locations in each subject, and these patterns were matched across subjects by using elastic transformations to align sulcal topography. To visualize regional changes, statistical differences were mapped at each cortical surface location in three dimensions. The late-onset depression group exhibited significant gray matter deficits in the right lateral temporal cortex and the right parietal cortex, where decreases were most pronounced in sensorimotor regions. The statistical maps also showed gray matter deficits in the same regions of the left hemisphere that approached significance after permutation testing. No significant group differences were detected in frontal cortices or any other anatomical region. Regionally specific decreases of gray matter occur in late-onset depression, supporting the hypothesis that this subset of elderly patients with major depression presents with certain unique neuroanatomical abnormalities that may differ from patients with an earlier onset of illness.

  6. An Absorbing Boundary Condition for the Lattice Boltzmann Method Based on the Perfectly Matched Layer

    PubMed Central

    Najafi-Yazdi, A.; Mongeau, L.

    2012-01-01

    The Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) is a well established computational tool for fluid flow simulations. This method has been recently utilized for low Mach number computational aeroacoustics. Robust and nonreflective boundary conditions, similar to those used in Navier-Stokes solvers, are needed for LBM-based aeroacoustics simulations. The goal of the present study was to develop an absorbing boundary condition based on the perfectly matched layer (PML) concept for LBM. The derivation of formulations for both two and three dimensional problems are presented. The macroscopic behavior of the new formulation is discussed. The new formulation was tested using benchmark acoustic problems. The perfectly matched layer concept appears to be very well suited for LBM, and yielded very low acoustic reflection factor. PMID:23526050

  7. Dietary pattern analysis: a comparison between matched vegetarian and omnivorous subjects.

    PubMed

    Clarys, Peter; Deriemaeker, Peter; Huybrechts, Inge; Hebbelinck, Marcel; Mullie, Patrick

    2013-06-13

    Dietary pattern analysis, based on the concept that foods eaten together are as important as a reductive methodology characterized by a single food or nutrient analysis, has emerged as an alternative approach to study the relation between nutrition and disease. The aim of the present study was to compare nutritional intake and the results of dietary pattern analysis in properly matched vegetarian and omnivorous subjects. Vegetarians (n = 69) were recruited via purposeful sampling and matched non-vegetarians (n = 69) with same age, gender, health and lifestyle characteristics were searched for via convenience sampling. Two dietary pattern analysis methods, the Healthy Eating Index-2010 (HEI-2010) and the Mediterranean Diet Score (MDS) were calculated and analysed in function of the nutrient intake. Mean total energy intake was comparable between vegetarians and omnivorous subjects (p > 0.05). Macronutrient analysis revealed significant differences between the mean values for vegetarians and omnivorous subjects (absolute and relative protein and total fat intake were significantly lower in vegetarians, while carbohydrate and fibre intakes were significantly higher in vegetarians than in omnivorous subjects). The HEI and MDS were significantly higher for the vegetarians (HEI = 53.8.1 ± 11.2; MDS = 4.3 ± 1.3) compared to the omnivorous subjects (HEI = 46.4 ± 15.3; MDS = 3.8 ± 1.4). Our results indicate a more nutrient dense pattern, closer to the current dietary recommendations for the vegetarians compared to the omnivorous subjects. Both indexing systems were able to discriminate between the vegetarians and the non-vegetarians with higher scores for the vegetarian subjects.

  8. Results of Nailfold Capillaroscopy in Patients with Normal-Tension Glaucoma.

    PubMed

    Kosior-Jarecka, Ewa; Bartosińska, Joanna; Łukasik, Urszula; Wróbel-Dudzińska, Dominika; Krasowska, Dorota; Chodorowska, Grażyna; Żarnowski, Tomasz

    2018-06-01

    The aim of the study was to evaluate the results of nailfold videocapillaroscopic examination in patients with normal-tension glaucoma (NTG) in comparison to age-matched individuals without glaucoma and young healthy volunteers and to assess the relation between the results of this examination with clinical status in NTG group. The studied group consisted of 188 patients: 80 patients with NTG and 2 control groups (58 young healthy and 50 age-matched volunteers). The nailfold videocapillaroscopy (NVC) was performed in all participants. The results of every NVC were qualified as a normal or abnormal pattern. In the NTG group, ophthalmic examination was performed and medical history regarding glaucoma, chronic general disorders, and vascular risk factors was recorded. In the NTG group, an abnormal NVC pattern was more common than in young controls (p = 0.0008). Microbleedings were present more frequently in NTG patients (p = 0.0365). Enlargement of capillaries (p = 0.0006) and branching capillaries (p = 0.0221) were more frequent in the NTG group compared to age-matched controls. Maximal intraocular pressure was higher in NTG patients with abnormal NVC pattern than with normal NVC (p = 0.0000). Disc hemorrhages were more frequently observed in patients with abnormal NVC pattern (p = 0.0313). Presence of paracentral scotoma was associated with abnormal NVC pattern (p = 0.0054). Abnormalities in nailfold capillaroscopy are more frequent in NTG patients. The results of capillaroscopic examination differ in NTG patients according to the profile of ocular and general risk factor.

  9. Case-based medical informatics

    PubMed Central

    Pantazi, Stefan V; Arocha, José F; Moehr, Jochen R

    2004-01-01

    Background The "applied" nature distinguishes applied sciences from theoretical sciences. To emphasize this distinction, we begin with a general, meta-level overview of the scientific endeavor. We introduce the knowledge spectrum and four interconnected modalities of knowledge. In addition to the traditional differentiation between implicit and explicit knowledge we outline the concepts of general and individual knowledge. We connect general knowledge with the "frame problem," a fundamental issue of artificial intelligence, and individual knowledge with another important paradigm of artificial intelligence, case-based reasoning, a method of individual knowledge processing that aims at solving new problems based on the solutions to similar past problems. We outline the fundamental differences between Medical Informatics and theoretical sciences and propose that Medical Informatics research should advance individual knowledge processing (case-based reasoning) and that natural language processing research is an important step towards this goal that may have ethical implications for patient-centered health medicine. Discussion We focus on fundamental aspects of decision-making, which connect human expertise with individual knowledge processing. We continue with a knowledge spectrum perspective on biomedical knowledge and conclude that case-based reasoning is the paradigm that can advance towards personalized healthcare and that can enable the education of patients and providers. We center the discussion on formal methods of knowledge representation around the frame problem. We propose a context-dependent view on the notion of "meaning" and advocate the need for case-based reasoning research and natural language processing. In the context of memory based knowledge processing, pattern recognition, comparison and analogy-making, we conclude that while humans seem to naturally support the case-based reasoning paradigm (memory of past experiences of problem-solving and powerful case matching mechanisms), technical solutions are challenging. Finally, we discuss the major challenges for a technical solution: case record comprehensiveness, organization of information on similarity principles, development of pattern recognition and solving ethical issues. Summary Medical Informatics is an applied science that should be committed to advancing patient-centered medicine through individual knowledge processing. Case-based reasoning is the technical solution that enables a continuous individual knowledge processing and could be applied providing that challenges and ethical issues arising are addressed appropriately. PMID:15533257

  10. Improving the simple, complicated and complex realities of community-acquired pneumonia.

    PubMed

    Liu, S K; Homa, K; Butterly, J R; Kirkland, K B; Batalden, P B

    2009-04-01

    This paper first describes efforts to improve the care for patients hospitalised with community-acquired pneumonia and the associated changes in quality measures at a rural academic medical centre. The results of the improvement interventions and the associated clinical realities, expected outcomes, measures, improvement interventions and improvement aims are then re-examined using the Glouberman and Zimmerman typology of healthcare problems--simple, complicated and complex. The typology is then used to explore the future design and assessment of improvement interventions, which may allow better matching with the types of problem healthcare providers and organisations are confronted with. Matching improvement interventions with problem category has the possibility of improving the success of improvement efforts and the reliability of care while at the same time preserving needed provider autonomy and judgement to adapt care for more complex problems.

  11. Citation Matching in Sanskrit Corpora Using Local Alignment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Prasad, Abhinandan S.; Rao, Shrisha

    Citation matching is the problem of finding which citation occurs in a given textual corpus. Most existing citation matching work is done on scientific literature. The goal of this paper is to present methods for performing citation matching on Sanskrit texts. Exact matching and approximate matching are the two methods for performing citation matching. The exact matching method checks for exact occurrence of the citation with respect to the textual corpus. Approximate matching is a fuzzy string-matching method which computes a similarity score between an individual line of the textual corpus and the citation. The Smith-Waterman-Gotoh algorithm for local alignment, which is generally used in bioinformatics, is used here for calculating the similarity score. This similarity score is a measure of the closeness between the text and the citation. The exact- and approximate-matching methods are evaluated and compared. The methods presented can be easily applied to corpora in other Indic languages like Kannada, Tamil, etc. The approximate-matching method can in particular be used in the compilation of critical editions and plagiarism detection in a literary work.

  12. Doppler ultrasonography of the anterior knee tendons in elite badminton players: colour fraction before and after match.

    PubMed

    Koenig, M J; Torp-Pedersen, S; Boesen, M I; Holm, C C; Bliddal, H

    2010-02-01

    Anterior knee tendon problems are seldom reported in badminton players although the game is obviously stressful to the lower extremities. Painful anterior knee tendons are common among elite badminton players. The anterior knee tendons exhibit colour Doppler activity. This activity increases after a match. Painful tendons have more Doppler activity than tendons without pain. Cohort study. 72 elite badminton players were interviewed about training, pain and injuries. The participants were scanned with high-end ultrasound equipment. Colour Doppler was used to examine the tendons of 64 players before a match and 46 players after a match. Intratendinous colour Doppler flow was measured as colour fraction (CF). The tendon complex was divided into three loci: the quadriceps tendon, the proximal patellar tendon and the insertion on the tibial tuberosity. Interview: Of the 72 players, 62 players had problems with 86 tendons in the lower extremity. Of these 86 tendons, 48 were the anterior knee tendons. Ultrasound: At baseline, the majority of players (87%) had colour Doppler flow in at least one scanning position. After a match, the percentage of the knee complexes involved did not change. CF increased significantly in the dominant leg at the tibial tuberosity; single players had a significantly higher CF after a match at the tibial tuberosity and in the patellar tendon both before and after a match. Painful tendons had the highest colour Doppler activity. Most elite badminton players had pain in the anterior knee tendons and intratendinous Doppler activity both before and after match. High levels of Doppler activity were associated with self-reported ongoing pain.

  13. 'Putting your foot in it'! A window into clumsy behaviour.

    PubMed

    Sigmundsson, H; Whiting, H T; Ingvaldsen, R P

    1999-07-01

    Intra-modal matching by 7-year-old children diagnosed as having hand-eye co-ordination problems (HECP) and a control group of children without such problems was tested using a target location and matching task. The 'foot-hand' task required the children to locate a target pin with the 'big-toe' (felt target) and match the located target position with the hand, without vision. There were four conditions: location via right foot-matching the located target with the right hand (RfRh) and left hand (RfLh) and location via left foot-matching the located target with the left hand (LfLh) and right hand (LfRh). Both groups demonstrated better performance in the intra- as compared to the inter-hemispheric conditions, suggesting that the corpus callosum is not yet fully mature at this age. The HECP children showed inferior performance to the control children in three of the four conditions, the conditions where the right hemisphere was involved and/or information had to be transported across the corpus callosum (RfLh; LfLh; LfRh). Two possible explanations of these findings are put forward and discussed: right hemisphere insufficiency with or without dysfunctional corpus callosum.

  14. ReMatch: a web-based tool to construct, store and share stoichiometric metabolic models with carbon maps for metabolic flux analysis.

    PubMed

    Pitkänen, Esa; Akerlund, Arto; Rantanen, Ari; Jouhten, Paula; Ukkonen, Esko

    2008-08-25

    ReMatch is a web-based, user-friendly tool that constructs stoichiometric network models for metabolic flux analysis, integrating user-developed models into a database collected from several comprehensive metabolic data resources, including KEGG, MetaCyc and CheBI. Particularly, ReMatch augments the metabolic reactions of the model with carbon mappings to facilitate (13)C metabolic flux analysis. The construction of a network model consisting of biochemical reactions is the first step in most metabolic modelling tasks. This model construction can be a tedious task as the required information is usually scattered to many separate databases whose interoperability is suboptimal, due to the heterogeneous naming conventions of metabolites in different databases. Another, particularly severe data integration problem is faced in (13)C metabolic flux analysis, where the mappings of carbon atoms from substrates into products in the model are required. ReMatch has been developed to solve the above data integration problems. First, ReMatch matches the imported user-developed model against the internal ReMatch database while considering a comprehensive metabolite name thesaurus. This, together with wild card support, allows the user to specify the model quickly without having to look the names up manually. Second, ReMatch is able to augment reactions of the model with carbon mappings, obtained either from the internal database or given by the user with an easy-touse tool. The constructed models can be exported into 13C-FLUX and SBML file formats. Further, a stoichiometric matrix and visualizations of the network model can be generated. The constructed models of metabolic networks can be optionally made available to the other users of ReMatch. Thus, ReMatch provides a common repository for metabolic network models with carbon mappings for the needs of metabolic flux analysis community. ReMatch is freely available for academic use at http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/group/sysfys/software/rematch/.

  15. Physical, psychological, sexual, and systemic abuse of children with disabilities in East Africa: Mapping the evidence.

    PubMed

    Winters, Niall; Langer, Laurenz; Geniets, Anne

    2017-01-01

    Children with disabilities (CWDs) are at a higher risk of being maltreated than are typical children. The evidence base on the abuse of children with disabilities living in low- and middle-income countries is extremely limited but the problem is particularly acute in East Africa. We don't know the types of evidence that exist on this topic. This problem is compounded by the fact that key indicators of disability, such as reliable prevalence rates, are not available currently. This paper addresses this serious problem by mapping the existing evidence-base to document the coverage, patterns, and gaps in existing research on the abuse of children with disabilities in East Africa. An evidence map, following systematic review guidelines, was conducted and included a systematic search, transparent and structured data extraction, and critical appraisal. Health and social science databases (Medline, EMBASE, PsychInfo, Taylor&Francis, Web of Science, and SAGE) were systematically searched for relevant studies. A substantive grey literature search was also conducted. All empirical research on the abuse of CWDs in East Africa was eligible for inclusion: Data on abuse was systematically extracted and the research evidence, following critical appraisal, mapped according to the type of abuse and disability condition, highlighting gaps and patterns in the evidence-base. 6005 studies were identified and screened, of which 177 received a full-text assessment. Of these, 41 studies matched the inclusion criteria. By mapping the available data and reports and systematically assessing their trustworthiness and relevance, we highlight significant gaps in the available evidence base. Clear patterns emerge that show a major data gap and lack of research on sexual abuse of children with disabilities and an identifiable lack of methodological quality in many relevant studies. These make the development of a concerted and targeted research effort to tackle the abuse of children with disabilities in East Africa extremely difficult. This needs to be addressed urgently if the abuse of children with disabilities is to be prioritised by the global health community.

  16. Poor textural image tie point matching via graph theory

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yuan, Xiuxiao; Chen, Shiyu; Yuan, Wei; Cai, Yang

    2017-07-01

    Feature matching aims to find corresponding points to serve as tie points between images. Robust matching is still a challenging task when input images are characterized by low contrast or contain repetitive patterns, occlusions, or homogeneous textures. In this paper, a novel feature matching algorithm based on graph theory is proposed. This algorithm integrates both geometric and radiometric constraints into an edge-weighted (EW) affinity tensor. Tie points are then obtained by high-order graph matching. Four pairs of poor textural images covering forests, deserts, bare lands, and urban areas are tested. For comparison, three state-of-the-art matching techniques, namely, scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT), speeded up robust features (SURF), and features from accelerated segment test (FAST), are also used. The experimental results show that the matching recall obtained by SIFT, SURF, and FAST varies from 0 to 35% in different types of poor textures. However, through the integration of both geometry and radiometry and the EW strategy, the recall obtained by the proposed algorithm is better than 50% in all four image pairs. The better matching recall improves the number of correct matches, dispersion, and positional accuracy.

  17. Neural network-based multiple robot simultaneous localization and mapping.

    PubMed

    Saeedi, Sajad; Paull, Liam; Trentini, Michael; Li, Howard

    2011-12-01

    In this paper, a decentralized platform for simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) with multiple robots is developed. Each robot performs single robot view-based SLAM using an extended Kalman filter to fuse data from two encoders and a laser ranger. To extend this approach to multiple robot SLAM, a novel occupancy grid map fusion algorithm is proposed. Map fusion is achieved through a multistep process that includes image preprocessing, map learning (clustering) using neural networks, relative orientation extraction using norm histogram cross correlation and a Radon transform, relative translation extraction using matching norm vectors, and then verification of the results. The proposed map learning method is a process based on the self-organizing map. In the learning phase, the obstacles of the map are learned by clustering the occupied cells of the map into clusters. The learning is an unsupervised process which can be done on the fly without any need to have output training patterns. The clusters represent the spatial form of the map and make further analyses of the map easier and faster. Also, clusters can be interpreted as features extracted from the occupancy grid map so the map fusion problem becomes a task of matching features. Results of the experiments from tests performed on a real environment with multiple robots prove the effectiveness of the proposed solution.

  18. Biased ART: a neural architecture that shifts attention toward previously disregarded features following an incorrect prediction.

    PubMed

    Carpenter, Gail A; Gaddam, Sai Chaitanya

    2010-04-01

    Memories in Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) networks are based on matched patterns that focus attention on those portions of bottom-up inputs that match active top-down expectations. While this learning strategy has proved successful for both brain models and applications, computational examples show that attention to early critical features may later distort memory representations during online fast learning. For supervised learning, biased ARTMAP (bARTMAP) solves the problem of over-emphasis on early critical features by directing attention away from previously attended features after the system makes a predictive error. Small-scale, hand-computed analog and binary examples illustrate key model dynamics. Two-dimensional simulation examples demonstrate the evolution of bARTMAP memories as they are learned online. Benchmark simulations show that featural biasing also improves performance on large-scale examples. One example, which predicts movie genres and is based, in part, on the Netflix Prize database, was developed for this project. Both first principles and consistent performance improvements on all simulation studies suggest that featural biasing should be incorporated by default in all ARTMAP systems. Benchmark datasets and bARTMAP code are available from the CNS Technology Lab Website: http://techlab.bu.edu/bART/. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Salience network response to changes in emotional expressions of others is heightened during early adolescence: relevance for social functioning.

    PubMed

    Rosen, Maya L; Sheridan, Margaret A; Sambrook, Kelly A; Dennison, Meg J; Jenness, Jessica L; Askren, Mary K; Meltzoff, Andrew N; McLaughlin, Katie A

    2018-05-01

    Adolescence is a unique developmental period when the salience of social and emotional information becomes particularly pronounced. Although this increased sensitivity to social and emotional information has frequently been considered with respect to risk behaviors and psychopathology, evidence suggests that increased adolescent sensitivity to social and emotional cues may confer advantages. For example, greater sensitivity to shifts in the emotions of others is likely to promote flexible and adaptive social behavior. In this study, a sample of 54 children and adolescents (age 8-19 years) performed a delayed match-to-sample task for emotional faces while undergoing fMRI scanning. Recruitment of the anterior cingulate and anterior insula when the emotion of the probe face did not match the emotion held in memory followed a quadratic developmental pattern that peaked during early adolescence. These findings indicate meaningful developmental variation in the neural mechanisms underlying sensitivity to changes in the emotional expressions. Across all participants, greater activation of this network for changes in emotional expression was associated with less social anxiety and fewer social problems. These results suggest that the heightened salience of social and emotional information during adolescence may confer important advantages for social behavior, providing sensitivity to others' emotions that facilitates flexible social responding. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  20. A neuropsychological comparison of obsessive-compulsive disorder and trichotillomania.

    PubMed

    Chamberlain, Samuel R; Fineberg, Naomi A; Blackwell, Andrew D; Clark, Luke; Robbins, Trevor W; Sahakian, Barbara J

    2007-03-02

    Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and trichotillomania (compulsive hair-pulling) share overlapping co-morbidity, familial transmission, and phenomenology. However, the extent to which these disorders share a common cognitive phenotype has yet to be elucidated using patients without confounding co-morbidities. To compare neurocognitive functioning in co-morbidity-free patients with OCD and trichotillomania, focusing on domains of learning and memory, executive function, affective processing, reflection-impulsivity and decision-making. Twenty patients with OCD, 20 patients with trichotillomania, and 20 matched controls undertook neuropsychological assessment after meeting stringent inclusion criteria. Groups were matched for age, education, verbal IQ, and gender. The OCD and trichotillomania groups were impaired on spatial working memory. Only OCD patients showed additional impairments on executive planning and visual pattern recognition memory, and missed more responses to sad target words than other groups on an affective go/no-go task. Furthermore, OCD patients failed to modulate their behaviour between conditions on the reflection-impulsivity test, suggestive of cognitive inflexibility. Both clinical groups showed intact decision-making and probabilistic reversal learning. OCD and trichotillomania shared overlapping spatial working memory problems, but neuropsychological dysfunction in OCD spanned additional domains that were intact in trichotillomania. Findings are discussed in relation to likely fronto-striatal neural substrates and future research directions.

  1. A High-Speed Target-Free Vision-Based Sensor for Bus Rapid Transit Viaduct Vibration Measurements Using CMT and ORB Algorithms.

    PubMed

    Hu, Qijun; He, Songsheng; Wang, Shilong; Liu, Yugang; Zhang, Zutao; He, Leping; Wang, Fubin; Cai, Qijie; Shi, Rendan; Yang, Yuan

    2017-06-06

    Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) has become an increasing source of concern for public transportation of modern cities. Traditional contact sensing techniques during the process of health monitoring of BRT viaducts cannot overcome the deficiency that the normal free-flow of traffic would be blocked. Advances in computer vision technology provide a new line of thought for solving this problem. In this study, a high-speed target-free vision-based sensor is proposed to measure the vibration of structures without interrupting traffic. An improved keypoints matching algorithm based on consensus-based matching and tracking (CMT) object tracking algorithm is adopted and further developed together with oriented brief (ORB) keypoints detection algorithm for practicable and effective tracking of objects. Moreover, by synthesizing the existing scaling factor calculation methods, more rational approaches to reducing errors are implemented. The performance of the vision-based sensor is evaluated through a series of laboratory tests. Experimental tests with different target types, frequencies, amplitudes and motion patterns are conducted. The performance of the method is satisfactory, which indicates that the vision sensor can extract accurate structure vibration signals by tracking either artificial or natural targets. Field tests further demonstrate that the vision sensor is both practicable and reliable.

  2. A High-Speed Target-Free Vision-Based Sensor for Bus Rapid Transit Viaduct Vibration Measurements Using CMT and ORB Algorithms

    PubMed Central

    Hu, Qijun; He, Songsheng; Wang, Shilong; Liu, Yugang; Zhang, Zutao; He, Leping; Wang, Fubin; Cai, Qijie; Shi, Rendan; Yang, Yuan

    2017-01-01

    Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) has become an increasing source of concern for public transportation of modern cities. Traditional contact sensing techniques during the process of health monitoring of BRT viaducts cannot overcome the deficiency that the normal free-flow of traffic would be blocked. Advances in computer vision technology provide a new line of thought for solving this problem. In this study, a high-speed target-free vision-based sensor is proposed to measure the vibration of structures without interrupting traffic. An improved keypoints matching algorithm based on consensus-based matching and tracking (CMT) object tracking algorithm is adopted and further developed together with oriented brief (ORB) keypoints detection algorithm for practicable and effective tracking of objects. Moreover, by synthesizing the existing scaling factor calculation methods, more rational approaches to reducing errors are implemented. The performance of the vision-based sensor is evaluated through a series of laboratory tests. Experimental tests with different target types, frequencies, amplitudes and motion patterns are conducted. The performance of the method is satisfactory, which indicates that the vision sensor can extract accurate structure vibration signals by tracking either artificial or natural targets. Field tests further demonstrate that the vision sensor is both practicable and reliable. PMID:28587275

  3. A Surrogate-based Adaptive Sampling Approach for History Matching and Uncertainty Quantification

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Li, Weixuan; Zhang, Dongxiao; Lin, Guang

    A critical procedure in reservoir simulations is history matching (or data assimilation in a broader sense), which calibrates model parameters such that the simulation results are consistent with field measurements, and hence improves the credibility of the predictions given by the simulations. Often there exist non-unique combinations of parameter values that all yield the simulation results matching the measurements. For such ill-posed history matching problems, Bayesian theorem provides a theoretical foundation to represent different solutions and to quantify the uncertainty with the posterior PDF. Lacking an analytical solution in most situations, the posterior PDF may be characterized with a samplemore » of realizations, each representing a possible scenario. A novel sampling algorithm is presented here for the Bayesian solutions to history matching problems. We aim to deal with two commonly encountered issues: 1) as a result of the nonlinear input-output relationship in a reservoir model, the posterior distribution could be in a complex form, such as multimodal, which violates the Gaussian assumption required by most of the commonly used data assimilation approaches; 2) a typical sampling method requires intensive model evaluations and hence may cause unaffordable computational cost. In the developed algorithm, we use a Gaussian mixture model as the proposal distribution in the sampling process, which is simple but also flexible to approximate non-Gaussian distributions and is particularly efficient when the posterior is multimodal. Also, a Gaussian process is utilized as a surrogate model to speed up the sampling process. Furthermore, an iterative scheme of adaptive surrogate refinement and re-sampling ensures sampling accuracy while keeping the computational cost at a minimum level. The developed approach is demonstrated with an illustrative example and shows its capability in handling the above-mentioned issues. Multimodal posterior of the history matching problem is captured and are used to give a reliable production prediction with uncertainty quantification. The new algorithm reveals a great improvement in terms of computational efficiency comparing previously studied approaches for the sample problem.« less

  4. Increasing the effectiveness of messages promoting responsible undergraduate drinking: tailoring to personality and matching to context.

    PubMed

    York, Valerie K; Brannon, Laura A; Miller, Megan M

    2012-01-01

    This study addressed the serious problem of college student binge drinking by identifying factors that improve the effectiveness of messages encouraging responsible drinking presented through a website simulation. We tested schema matching (i.e., whether the message matches the person's self-schema type or not) and two types of context matching (i.e., whether the message matches the topic or values of the message context) to determine their relative influence on the effectiveness of the message. We expected that messages matched to any of these factors would be more effective than messages not matched. Schema matching reduced intentions to drink while staying in/home, but topic matching reduced intentions to drink when going out, suggesting that different factors are important for messages targeting drinking behavior in different locations. Significant interactions between topic matching and value matching on message evaluation variables indicated that the message should not match the message context too closely. That is, there appears to be a matching threshold: Increasing the number of factors the message matches does not increase message effectiveness, possibly because it makes the message too redundant with the surrounding content.

  5. Successful water quality monitoring: The right combination of intent, measurement, interpretation, and a cooperating ecosystem

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Soballe, D.M.

    1998-01-01

    Water quality monitoring is invaluable to ensure compliance with regulations, detect trends or patterns, and advance ecological understanding. However, monitoring typically measures only a few characteristics in a small fraction of a large and complex system, and thus the information contained in monitoring data depends upon which features of the ecosystem are actually captured by the measurements. Difficulties arise when these data contain something other than intended, but this can be minimized if the purpose of the sampling is clear, and the sampling design, measurements, and data interpretations are all compatible with this purpose. The monitoring program and data interpretation must also be properly matched to the structure and functioning of the system. Obtaining this match is sometimes an iterative process that demands a close link between research and monitoring. This paper focuses on water quality monitoring that is intended to track trends in aquatic resources and advance ecological understanding. It includes examples from three monitoring programs and a simulation exercise that illustrate problems that arise when the information content of monitoring data differs from expectation. The examples show (1) how inconsistencies among, or lack of information about, the basic elements of a monitoring program (intent, design, measurement, interpretation, and the monitored system) can produce a systematic difference (bias) between monitoring measurements and sampling intent or interpretation, and (2) that bias is not just a statistical consideration, but an insidious problem that can undermine the scientific integrity of a monitoring program. Some general suggestions are provided and hopefully these examples will help those engaged in water quality monitoring to enhance and protect the value of their monitoring investment.

  6. Discovering interesting molecular substructures for molecular classification.

    PubMed

    Lam, Winnie W M; Chan, Keith C C

    2010-06-01

    Given a set of molecular structure data preclassified into a number of classes, the molecular classification problem is concerned with the discovering of interesting structural patterns in the data so that "unseen" molecules not originally in the dataset can be accurately classified. To tackle the problem, interesting molecular substructures have to be discovered and this is done typically by first representing molecular structures in molecular graphs, and then, using graph-mining algorithms to discover frequently occurring subgraphs in them. These subgraphs are then used to characterize different classes for molecular classification. While such an approach can be very effective, it should be noted that a substructure that occurs frequently in one class may also does occur in another. The discovering of frequent subgraphs for molecular classification may, therefore, not always be the most effective. In this paper, we propose a novel technique called mining interesting substructures in molecular data for classification (MISMOC) that can discover interesting frequent subgraphs not just for the characterization of a molecular class but also for the distinguishing of it from the others. Using a test statistic, MISMOC screens each frequent subgraph to determine if they are interesting. For those that are interesting, their degrees of interestingness are determined using an information-theoretic measure. When classifying an unseen molecule, its structure is then matched against the interesting subgraphs in each class and a total interestingness measure for the unseen molecule to be classified into a particular class is determined, which is based on the interestingness of each matched subgraphs. The performance of MISMOC is evaluated using both artificial and real datasets, and the results show that it can be an effective approach for molecular classification.

  7. Counting in Lattices: Combinatorial Problems from Statistical Mechanics.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Randall, Dana Jill

    In this thesis we consider two classical combinatorial problems arising in statistical mechanics: counting matchings and self-avoiding walks in lattice graphs. The first problem arises in the study of the thermodynamical properties of monomers and dimers (diatomic molecules) in crystals. Fisher, Kasteleyn and Temperley discovered an elegant technique to exactly count the number of perfect matchings in two dimensional lattices, but it is not applicable for matchings of arbitrary size, or in higher dimensional lattices. We present the first efficient approximation algorithm for computing the number of matchings of any size in any periodic lattice in arbitrary dimension. The algorithm is based on Monte Carlo simulation of a suitable Markov chain and has rigorously derived performance guarantees that do not rely on any assumptions. In addition, we show that these results generalize to counting matchings in any graph which is the Cayley graph of a finite group. The second problem is counting self-avoiding walks in lattices. This problem arises in the study of the thermodynamics of long polymer chains in dilute solution. While there are a number of Monte Carlo algorithms used to count self -avoiding walks in practice, these are heuristic and their correctness relies on unproven conjectures. In contrast, we present an efficient algorithm which relies on a single, widely-believed conjecture that is simpler than preceding assumptions and, more importantly, is one which the algorithm itself can test. Thus our algorithm is reliable, in the sense that it either outputs answers that are guaranteed, with high probability, to be correct, or finds a counterexample to the conjecture. In either case we know we can trust our results and the algorithm is guaranteed to run in polynomial time. This is the first algorithm for counting self-avoiding walks in which the error bounds are rigorously controlled. This work was supported in part by an AT&T graduate fellowship, a University of California dissertation year fellowship and Esprit working group "RAND". Part of this work was done while visiting ICSI and the University of Edinburgh.

  8. Facilitation and Restoration of Cognitive Function in Primate Prefrontal Cortex by a Neuroprosthesis that Utilizes Minicolumn-Specific Neural Firing

    PubMed Central

    Hampson, Robert E.; Gerhardt, Greg A.; Marmarelis, Vasilis; Song, Dong; Opris, Ioan; Santos, Lucas; Berger, Theodore W.; Deadwyler, Sam A.

    2012-01-01

    Problem addressed Maintenance of cognitive control is a major concern for many human disease condition, therefore a major goal of human neuroprosthetics is to facilitate and/or recover cognitive function when such circumstances impair appropriate decision making. Methodology Nonhuman primates trained to perform a delayed match to sample (DMS) were employed to record mini-columnar activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) via custom designed conformal multielectrode arrays that provided inter-laminar recordings from neurons in PFC layer 2/3 and layer 5. Such recordings were analyzed via a previously demonstrated nonlinear multi-input multi-output (MIMO) neuroprosthesis in rodents, which extracted and characterized multi-columnar firing patterns during DMS performance. Results The MIMO model verified that the conformal recorded individual PFC minicolumns responded to entrained target selections in patterns critical for successful DMS performance. This allowed substitution of task-related layer 5 neuron firing patterns with electrical stimulation in the same recording regions during columnar transmission from layer 2/3 at the time of target selection. Such stimulation facilitated normal task performance, but more importantly, recovered performance when applied as a neuroprosthesis following pharmacological disruption of decision making in the same task. Significance and potential impact These findings provide the first successful application of a neuroprosthesis in primate brain designed specifically to restore or repair disrupted cognitive function. PMID:22976769

  9. Interconnect patterns for printed organic thermoelectric devices with large fill factors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gordiz, Kiarash; Menon, Akanksha K.; Yee, Shannon K.

    2017-09-01

    Organic materials can be printed into thermoelectric (TE) devices for low temperature energy harvesting applications. The output voltage of printed devices is often limited by (i) small temperature differences across the active materials attributed to small leg lengths and (ii) the lower Seebeck coefficient of organic materials compared to their inorganic counterparts. To increase the voltage, a large number of p- and n-type leg pairs is required for organic TEs; this, however, results in an increased interconnect resistance, which then limits the device output power. In this work, we discuss practical concepts to address this problem by positioning TE legs in a hexagonal closed-packed layout. This helps achieve higher fill factors (˜91%) than conventional inorganic devices (˜25%), which ultimately results in higher voltages and power densities due to lower interconnect resistances. In addition, wiring the legs following a Hilbert spacing-filling pattern allows for facile load matching to each application. This is made possible by leveraging the fractal nature of the Hilbert interconnect pattern, which results in identical sub-modules. Using the Hilbert design, sub-modules can better accommodate non-uniform temperature distributions because they naturally self-localize. These device design concepts open new avenues for roll-to-roll printing and custom TE module shapes, thereby enabling organic TE modules for self-powered sensors and wearable electronic applications.

  10. Separation of high-resolution samples of overlapping latent fingerprints using relaxation labeling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Qian, Kun; Schott, Maik; Schöne, Werner; Hildebrandt, Mario

    2012-06-01

    The analysis of latent fingerprint patterns generally requires clearly recognizable friction ridge patterns. Currently, overlapping latent fingerprints pose a major problem for traditional crime scene investigation. This is due to the fact that these fingerprints usually have very similar optical properties. Consequently, the distinction of two or more overlapping fingerprints from each other is not trivially possible. While it is possible to employ chemical imaging to separate overlapping fingerprints, the corresponding methods require sophisticated fingerprint acquisition methods and are not compatible with conventional forensic fingerprint data. A separation technique that is purely based on the local orientation of the ridge patterns of overlapping fingerprints is proposed by Chen et al. and quantitatively evaluated using off-the-shelf fingerprint matching software with mostly artificially composed overlapping fingerprint samples, which is motivated by the scarce availability of authentic test samples. The work described in this paper adapts the approach presented by Chen et al. for its application on authentic high resolution fingerprint samples acquired by a contactless measurement device based on a Chromatic White Light (CWL) sensor. An evaluation of the work is also given, with the analysis of all adapted parameters. Additionally, the separability requirement proposed by Chen et al. is also evaluated for practical feasibility. Our results show promising tendencies for the application of this approach on high-resolution data, yet the separability requirement still poses a further challenge.

  11. Personality-matching habitat choice, rather than behavioural plasticity, is a likely driver of a phenotype-environment covariance.

    PubMed

    Holtmann, Benedikt; Santos, Eduardo S A; Lara, Carlos E; Nakagawa, Shinichi

    2017-10-11

    An emerging hypothesis of animal personality posits that animals choose the habitat that best fits their personality, and that the match between habitat and personality can facilitate population differentiation, and eventually speciation. However, behavioural plasticity and the adjustment of behaviours to new environments have been a classical explanation for such matching patterns. Using a population of dunnocks ( Prunella modularis ), we empirically tested whether personality or behavioural plasticity is responsible for the non-random distribution of shy and bold individuals in a heterogeneous environment. We found evidence for bold individuals settling in areas with high human disturbance, but also that birds became bolder with increasing age. Importantly, personality primarily determines the distribution of individuals, and behavioural adjustment over time contributes very little to the observed patterns. We cannot, however, exclude a possibility of very early behavioural plasticity (a type of developmental plasticity) shaping what we refer to as 'personality'. Nonetheless, our findings highlight the role personality plays in shaping population structure, lending support to the theory of personality-mediated speciation. Moreover, personality-matching habitat choice has important implications for population management and conservation. © 2017 The Author(s).

  12. 12 CFR 906.5 - Monthly interest rate survey.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    .... The initial weights are based on lender type and lender size. The data also is weighted so that the pattern of weighted responses matches the actual pattern of mortgage originations by lender type and by region. The Finance Board tabulates the data and publishes standard data tables late in the following...

  13. 12 CFR 906.5 - Monthly interest rate survey.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    .... The initial weights are based on lender type and lender size. The data also is weighted so that the pattern of weighted responses matches the actual pattern of mortgage originations by lender type and by region. The Finance Board tabulates the data and publishes standard data tables late in the following...

  14. Patterns of Entrepreneurial Career Development: An Optimal Matching Analysis Approach

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zacher, Hannes; Biemann, Torsten; Gielnik, Michael M.; Frese, Michael

    2012-01-01

    Longitudinal studies of entrepreneurial career development are rare, and current knowledge of self-employment patterns and their relationships with individual difference characteristics is limited. In this study, the authors analyzed employment data from a subsample of 514 participants from the German Socio-Economic Panel study (1984-2008).…

  15. A Vector Space Model for Automatic Indexing.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Salton, G.; And Others

    In a document retrieval, or other pattern matching environment where stored entities (documents) are compared with each other, or with incoming patterns (search requests), it appears that the best indexing (property) space is one where each entity lies as far away from the others as possible; that is, retrieval performance correlates inversely…

  16. Patterns in American Literature.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Abair, Jacqueline M.; Cross, Alice

    1999-01-01

    Describes a high school elective English course that matches books of American Literature, at least one classic and one contemporary, so that students can begin to see the patterns. Discusses some of these pairings, such as Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" with Toni Morrison's "Beloved" and B. Mukherjee's "The Holder of the World." (SR)

  17. Predicting Rapid Relapse Following Treatment for Chemical Dependence: A Matched-Subjects Design.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Svanum, Soren; McAdoo, William George

    1989-01-01

    Persons who underwent residential treatment for chemical dependency were identified as three-month treatment failures (N=52) or successes (N=52). Subjects were matched on Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) scores. Found posttreatment depression, anxiety, and sleep problems strongly related to failure among psychiatric MMPI group;…

  18. Where Learners' Questions Meet Modes of Teaching: A Study of Cases

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    de Jesus, Helena Pedrosa; Almeida, Patricia; Teixeira-Dias, Jose J.; Watts, Mike

    2007-01-01

    This paper is concerned with "match-mismatch" problems. In particular it seeks to match students' questioning to different modes of teaching in undergraduate chemistry. Kolb's theory of experiential learning is used to bridge between learners' questioning and teaching formats. Three case studies illuminate both sets of characteristics, the…

  19. An efficient assisted history matching and uncertainty quantification workflow using Gaussian processes proxy models and variogram based sensitivity analysis: GP-VARS

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rana, Sachin; Ertekin, Turgay; King, Gregory R.

    2018-05-01

    Reservoir history matching is frequently viewed as an optimization problem which involves minimizing misfit between simulated and observed data. Many gradient and evolutionary strategy based optimization algorithms have been proposed to solve this problem which typically require a large number of numerical simulations to find feasible solutions. Therefore, a new methodology referred to as GP-VARS is proposed in this study which uses forward and inverse Gaussian processes (GP) based proxy models combined with a novel application of variogram analysis of response surface (VARS) based sensitivity analysis to efficiently solve high dimensional history matching problems. Empirical Bayes approach is proposed to optimally train GP proxy models for any given data. The history matching solutions are found via Bayesian optimization (BO) on forward GP models and via predictions of inverse GP model in an iterative manner. An uncertainty quantification method using MCMC sampling in conjunction with GP model is also presented to obtain a probabilistic estimate of reservoir properties and estimated ultimate recovery (EUR). An application of the proposed GP-VARS methodology on PUNQ-S3 reservoir is presented in which it is shown that GP-VARS provides history match solutions in approximately four times less numerical simulations as compared to the differential evolution (DE) algorithm. Furthermore, a comparison of uncertainty quantification results obtained by GP-VARS, EnKF and other previously published methods shows that the P50 estimate of oil EUR obtained by GP-VARS is in close agreement to the true values for the PUNQ-S3 reservoir.

  20. When and why do ideal partner preferences affect the process of initiating and maintaining romantic relationships?

    PubMed

    Eastwick, Paul W; Finkel, Eli J; Eagly, Alice H

    2011-11-01

    Three studies explored how the traits that people ideally desire in a romantic partner, or ideal partner preferences, intersect with the process of romantic relationship initiation and maintenance. Two attraction experiments in the laboratory found that, when participants evaluated a potential romantic partner's written profile, they expressed more romantic interest in a partner whose traits were manipulated to match (vs. mismatch) their idiosyncratic ideals. However, after a live interaction with the partner, the match vs. mismatch manipulation was no longer associated with romantic interest. This pattern appeared to have emerged because participants reinterpreted the meaning of the traits as they applied to the partner, a context effect predicted by classic models of person perception (S. E. Asch, 1946). Finally, a longitudinal study of middle-aged adults demonstrated that participants evaluated a current romantic partner (but not a partner who was merely desired) more positively to the extent that the partner matched their overall pattern of ideals across several traits; the match in level of ideals (i.e., high vs. low ratings) was not relevant to participants' evaluations. In general, the match between ideals and a partner's traits may predict relational outcomes when participants are learning about a partner in the abstract and when they are actually in a relationship with the partner, but not when considering potential dating partners they have met in person.

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