Relaxation Labeling with Learning Automata

Relaxation labeling processes are a class of mechanisms that solve the problem of assigning labels to objects in a manner that is consistent with respect to some domain-specific constraints. We reformulate this using the model of a team of learning automata interacting with an environment or a high-level critic that gives noisy responses as to the consistency of a tentative labeling selected by the automata. This results in an iterative linear algorithm that is itself probabilistic. Using an explicit definition of consistency we give a complete analysis of this probabilistic relaxation process using weak convergence results for stochastic algorithms. Our model can accommodate a range of uncertainties in the compatibility functions. We prove a local convergence result and show that the point of convergence depends both on the initial labeling and the constraints. The algorithm is implementable in a highly parallel fashion.

Non-ohmic conduction and electrical switching under pressure of the charge transfer complexo-tolidine-iodine

The current voltage characteristics ofo-tolidine-iodine, with stoichiometry 1:1 grown from benzene, have been studied under high pressures upto 6 GPa atT=300 K andT=77 K. The characteristics show a pronounced deviation from ohmicity beyond a certain current for all pressures studied. At room temperature, beyond a threshold field the system switches from a low conductingOFF state to a high conductingON state with σON/σOFF ∼ 103. TheOFF state can be restored by the application of an a.c. pulse of low frequency. The temperature dependence of the two states studied indicates that theOFF state is semiconducting while theON state, beyond a certain applied pressure is metallic. The characteristics atT=77 K do not show any switching.

Effect of pressure on the electrical resistivity of bulk Ge20Te80 glass

An irreversible pressure induced semiconductor-to-metal transition in bulk Ge20Te80 glass is observed at about 5 GPa pressure. The high pressure phase has a face centered cubic structure with a lattice constant 6.42 A° as deduced by X-ray diffraction studies on the pressure quenched samples. The temperature and pressure dependence of the electrical resistivity confirms the observed transition to be a semiconductor-to-metal transition. The temperature dependence of thermo electric power is also reported.

A flexible hierarchical approach for facial age estimation based on multiple features

Age estimation from facial images is increasingly receiving attention to solve age-based access control, age-adaptive targeted marketing, amongst other applications. Since even humans can be induced in error due to the complex biological processes involved, finding a robust method remains a research challenge today. In this paper, we propose a new framework for the integration of Active Appearance Models (AAM), Local Binary Patterns (LBP), Gabor wavelets (GW) and Local Phase Quantization (LPQ) in order to obtain a highly discriminative feature representation which is able to model shape, appearance, wrinkles and skin spots. In addition, this paper proposes a novel flexible hierarchical age estimation approach consisting of a multi-class Support Vector Machine (SVM) to classify a subject into an age group followed by a Support Vector Regression (SVR) to estimate a specific age. The errors that may happen in the classification step, caused by the hard boundaries between age classes, are compensated in the specific age estimation by a flexible overlapping of the age ranges. The performance of the proposed approach was evaluated on FG-NET Aging and MORPH Album 2 datasets and a mean absolute error (MAE) of 4.50 and 5.86 years was achieved respectively. The robustness of the proposed approach was also evaluated on a merge of both datasets and a MAE of 5.20 years was achieved. Furthermore, we have also compared the age estimation made by humans with the proposed approach and it has shown that the machine outperforms humans. The proposed approach is competitive with current state-of-the-art and it provides an additional robustness to blur, lighting and expression variance brought about by the local phase features.

Inventory Management Performance in Indian Machine Tool SMEs: What factors do influence them

These instructions give on basic guidelines for preparing papers for the IEEM 2008 Proceedings. Inventory Management (IM) plays a decisive role in the enhancement of efficiency for manufacturing enterprise competitiveness. Therefore, major manufacturing industries are following inventory management practices as a strategy to improve efficiency and achieve competitiveness. However, the spread of inventory management culture among Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is limited due to lack of initiation, expertise and financial limitations in developed countries, leave alone developing countries.With this backdrop, this paper makes an attempt to ascertain the factors which influence the IM performance of SMEs in the machine tools industry of Bangalore, India. This issue is probed based on primary data gathered from 91 SMEs. The paper brings out that two sets of factors namely organizational support and external pressure have a positive impact on the inventory performance of SMEs.

Towards vision-based deep reinforcement learning for robotic motion control

This paper introduces a machine learning based system for controlling a robotic manipulator with visual perception only. The capability to autonomously learn robot controllers solely from raw-pixel images and without any prior knowledge of configuration is shown for the first time. We build upon the success of recent deep reinforcement learning and develop a system for learning target reaching with a three-joint robot manipulator using external visual observation. A Deep Q Network (DQN) was demonstrated to perform target reaching after training in simulation. Transferring the network to real hardware and real observation in a naive approach failed, but experiments show that the network works when replacing camera images with synthetic images.

Microbial life and deposits in paper machine circuits

Väitöskirjani käsittele mikrobien ja erilaisten kemikaalien rooleja saostumien ja biofilmien muodostumisessa paperi- ja kartonkikoneilla. "Saostuma" tässä työssä tarkoittaa kiinteän aineen kertymää konepinnoille tai rajapinnoille konekierroissa, jotka on tarkoitettu massasulppujen, lietteiden, vesien tai ilman kuljetukseen. Saostumasta tulee "biofilmi" silloin kun sen oleellinen rakennekomponentti on mikrobisolut tai niiden tuotteet. Väitöstyöni työhypoteesina oli, että i. tietämys saostumien koostumuksesta, sekä ii. niiden rakenteesta, biologisista, fysikaalis-kemiallisista ja teknisistä ominaisuuksista ohjaavat tutkijaa löytämään ympäristöä säästäviä keinoja estää epätoivottujen saostumien muodostus tai purkaa jo muodostuneita saostumia. Selvittääkseni saostumien koostumista ja rakennetta käytin monia erilaisia analytiikan työkaluja, kuten elektronimikroskopiaa, konfokaali-laser mikroskopiaa (CLSM), energiadispersiivistä röntgenanalyysiä (EDX), pyrolyysi kaasukromatografiaa yhdistettynä massaspektrometriaan (Py-GCMS), joninvaihtokromatografiaa, kaasukromatografiaa ja mikrobiologisia analyysejä. Osallistuin aktiivisesti innovatiivisen, valon takaisinsirontaan perustuvan sensorin kehittämistyöhön, käytettäväksi biofilmin kasvun mittaukseen suoraan koneen vesikierroista ja säiliöistä. Työni osoitti, että monet paperinvalmistuksessa käytetyistä kemikaaleista reagoivat keskenään tuottaen orgaanisia tahmakerroksia konekiertojen teräspinnoille. Löysin myös kerrostumia, jotka valomikroskooppisessa tarkastelussa oli tulkittu mikrobeiksi, mutta jotka elektronimikroskopia paljasti alunasta syntyneiksi, alumiinihydroksidiksi joka saostui pH:ssa 6,8 kiertokuitua käyttävän koneen viiravesistä. Monet paperintekijät käyttävät vieläkin alunaa kiinnitysaineena vaikka prosessiolot ovat muuttuneet happamista neutraaleiksi. Sitä pidetään paperitekijän "aspiriinina", mutta väitöstutkimukseni osoitti sen riskit. Löysin myös orgaanisia saostumia, joiden alkuperä oli aineiden, kuten pihkan, saippuoituminen (kalsium saippuat) niin että muodostui tahmankasvua ylläpitävä alusta monilla paperi- ja kartonkikoneilla. Näin solumuodoiltaan Deinococcus geothermalista muistuttavia bakteereita kasvamassa lujasti teräskoepalojen pintaan kiinnittyneinä pesäkkeinä, kun koepaloja upotettiin paperikoneiden vesikiertoihin. Nämä deinokokkimaiset pesäkkeet voivat toimia jalustana, tarttumisalustana muiden mikrobien massoille, joka selittäisi miksi saostumat yleisesti sisältävät deinokokkeja pienenä, muttei koskaan pääasiallisena rakenneosana. Kun paperikoneiden käyttämien vesien (raakavedet, lämminvesi, biologisesti puhdistettu jätevesi) laatua tutkitaan, mittausmenetelmällä on suuri merkitys. Koepalan upotusmenetelmällä todettu biofilmikasvu ja viljelmenetelmällä mitattu bakteerisaastuneisuus korreloivat toisiinsa huonosti etenkin silloin kun likaantumisessa oli mukana rihmamaiseti kasvavia bakteereja. Huoli ympäristöstä on pakottanut paperi- ja kartonkikoneiden vesikiertojen sulkemiseen. Vesien kierrätys ja prosessivesien uudelleenkäyttö nostavat prosessilämpötilaa ja lisäävät koneella kiertävien kolloidisten ja liuenneiden aineiden määriä. Tutkin kiertovesien pitoisuuksia kolmessa eriasteisesti suljetussa tehtaassa, joiden päästöt olivat 0 m3, 0,5 m3 ja 4 m3 jätevettä tuotetonnia kohden, perustuen puhdistetun jäteveden uudelleen käyttöön. Nollapäästöisellä tehtaalla kiertovesiin kertyi paljon orgaanisesti sidottua hiiltä (> 10 g L-1), etenkin haihtuvina happoina (maito-, etikka-, propioni- ja voi-). Myös sulfaatteja, klorideja, natriumia ja kalsiumia kertyi paljon, > 1 g L-1 kutakin. Pääosa (>40%) kaikista bakteereista oli 16S rRNA geenisekvenssianalyysien tulosten perusteella sukua, joskin etäistä (< 96%) ainoastaan Enterococcus cecorum bakteerille. 4 m3 päästävältä tehtaalta löytyi lisäksi Bacillus thermoamylovorans ja Bacillus coagulans. Tehtaiden saostumat sisälsivät arkkeja suurina pitoisuuksina, ≥ 108 g-1, mutta tunnistukseen riittävää sekvenssisamanlaisuutta löytyi vain yhteen arkkisukuun, Methanothrix. Tutkimustulokset osoittivat että tehtaan vesikiertojen sulkeminen vähensi rajusti mikrobiston monimuotoisuutta, muttei estänyt liuenneen aineen ja kiintoaineen mineralisoitumista.

Forced Oscillations of a Contained Rotating Stratified Fluid

The motion generated by forced oscillations in an incompressible inviscid rotating and/or stratified fluid is examined under linear theory taking the density variation on the inertia terms. The solution consists of numerous internal modes in addition to the mode which oscillates with forcing frequency. Resonance occurs when the forcing frequency is equal to one of the frequencies of the internal modes. Some of these modes grow linearly or exponentially with time rendering the motion unstable and eventually may lead to turbulence. Most of the results discussed here will be missed under Boussinesq approximation.

Linear description of electrical networks for computer analysis

A parentheses-free code is suggested for the description of two-terminal electrical networks for computer analysis.

Low-frequency electrical stimulation combined with a cooling vest improves recovery of elite kayakers following a simulated 1000-m race in a hot environment

This study compared the effects of a low-frequency electrical stimulation (LFES; Veinoplus® Sport, Ad Rem Technology, Paris, France), a low-frequency electrical stimulation combined with a cooling vest (LFESCR) and an active recovery combined with a cooling vest (ACTCR) as recovery strategies on performance (racing time and pacing strategies), physiologic and perceptual responses between two sprint kayak simulated races, in a hot environment (∼32 wet-bulb-globe temperature). Eight elite male kayakers performed two successive 1000-m kayak time trials (TT1 and TT2), separated by a short-term recovery period, including a 30-min of the respective recovery intervention protocol, in a randomized crossover design. Racing time, power output, and stroke rate were recorded for each time trial. Blood lactate concentration, pH, core, skin and body temperatures were measured before and after both TT1 and TT2 and at mid- and post-recovery intervention. Perceptual ratings of thermal sensation were also collected. LFESCR was associated with a very likely effect in performance restoration compared with ACTCR (99/0/1%) and LFES conditions (98/0/2%). LFESCR induced a significant decrease in body temperature and thermal sensation at post-recovery intervention, which is not observed in ACTCR condition. In conclusion, the combination of LFES and wearing a cooling vest (LFESCR) improves performance restoration between two 1000-m kayak time trials achieved by elite athletes, in the heat.

ac susceptibility and electrical resistivity in Fe80-xNixCr20 (21 \leq x \leq 30) alloys

ac susceptibility and electrical resistivity studies on polycrystalline Fe80-xNixCr20 (21 \leq x \leq 30) alloys, with x=21, 23, 26, and 30, between 4.2 and 80 K, are reported. A previous dc magnetization study indicated the presence of ferro-spin-glass mixed-phase behavior in x=23 and 26 alloys while the alloys with x=21 and 30 were found to be spin-glass and ferromagnetic, respectively. The present ac susceptibility results support the above picture. In the electrical resistivity study, a low-temperature minimum in the resistivity-temperature curve is observed in all the alloys except the ferromagnetic one.

Ruttenberg Electrical Plant

Digital image

Ruttenberg Electrical Plant

Digital image

Ruttenberg Electrical Plant

Digital image