On the Multidimensional Extension of the Quincunx Subsampling Matrix

The dilation matrix associated with the three-dimensional (3-D) face-centered cubic (FCC) sublattice is often considered to be the natural 3-D extension of the two-dimensional (2-D) quincunx dilation matrix. However, we demonstrate that both dilation matrices are of different nature: while the 2-D quincunx matrix is a similarity transform, the 3-D FCC matrix is not. More generally, we show that is impossible to obtain a dilation matrix that is a similarity transform and performs downsampling of the Cartesian lattice by a factor of two in more than two dimensions. Furthermore, we observe that the popular 3-D FCC subsampling scheme alternates between three different lattices: Cartesian, FCC, and quincunx. The latter one provides a less isotropic sampling density, a property that should be taken into account to properly orient 3-D data before processing using such a subsampling matrix

Untangling hotel industry’s inefficiency: An SFA approach applied to a renowned Portuguese hotel chain

The present paper explores the technical efficiency of four hotels from Teixeira Duarte Group - a renowned Portuguese hotel chain. An efficiency ranking is established from these four hotel units located in Portugal using Stochastic Frontier Analysis. This methodology allows to discriminate between measurement error and systematic inefficiencies in the estimation process enabling to investigate the main inefficiency causes. Several suggestions concerning efficiency improvement are undertaken for each hotel studied.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Fast Visualization by Shear-Warp using Spline Models for Data Reconstruction

This work concerns oneself with the rendering of huge three-dimensional data sets. The target thereby is the development of fast algorithms by also applying recent and accurate volume reconstruction models to obtain at most artifact-free data visualizations. In part I a comprehensive overview on the state of the art in volume rendering is given. Part II is devoted to the recently developed trivariate (linear,) quadratic and cubic spline models defined on symmetric tetrahedral partitions directly obtained by slicing volumetric partitions of a three-dimensional domain. This spline models define piecewise polynomials of total degree (one,) two and three with respect to a tetrahedron, i.e. the local splines have the lowest possible total degree and are adequate for efficient and accurate volume visualization. The following part III depicts in a step by step manner a fast software-based rendering algorithm, called shear-warp. This algorithm is prominent for its ability to generate projections of volume data at real time. It attains the high rendering speed by using elaborate data structures and extensive pre-computation, but at the expense of data redundancy and visual quality of the finally obtained rendering results. However, to circumvent these disadvantages a further development is specified, where new techniques and sophisticated data structures allow combining the fast shear-warp with the accurate ray-casting approach. This strategy and the new data structures not only grant a unification of the benefits of both methods, they even easily admit for adjustments to trade-off between rendering speed and precision. With this further development also the 3-fold data redundancy known from the original shear-warp approach is removed, allowing the rendering of even larger three-dimensional data sets more quickly. Additionally, real trivariate data reconstruction models, as discussed in part II, are applied together with the new ideas to onward the precision of the new volume rendering method, which also lead to a one order of magnitude faster algorithm compared to traditional approaches using similar reconstruction models. In part IV, a hierarchy-based rendering method is developed which utilizes a wavelet decomposition of the volume data, an octree structure to represent the sparse data set, the splines from part II and a new shear-warp visualization algorithm similar to that presented in part III. This thesis is concluded by the results centralized in part V

Condition Classification in Underground Pipes Based on Acoustical Characteristics. Acoustical characteristics are used to classify the structural and operational conditions in underground pipes with advanced signal classification methods

This thesis is concerned with the development and study of a pattern recognition system for siphon and sewer condition/defect analysis based on acoustic characteristics. Pattern recognition has been studied and used widely in many fields including: identification and authentication; medical diagnosis and musical modelling. Audio based classification and research has been mainly focusing on speech recognition and music retrieval, but few applications have attempted to use acoustic characteristics for underground pipe condition classification. Traditional CCTV inspection methods are relatively expensive and subjective so remote techniques have been developed to overcome this concern and increase the inspection efficiency. The acoustic environment provides a rich source of information about the internal conditions of a pipe. This thesis reports on a classification system based on measuring the direct and reflected acoustic signals and describing the energy spectrum for each condition/pipe defect. A K-nearest neighbour classifier (KNN) and Support vector machines (SVMs) classifier have been adopted to train the classification system to identify sediment and pipe surface defects by comparing the measured acoustic signals with a database containing a range of typical conditions. Laboratory generated data and field collected data were used to train the proposed system and evaluate its ability. The overall accuracy of the system recognizing blockage and structural aspects in each of the series of experiments varies between 70% and 95%

Statistical Data Modeling and Machine Learning with Applications

The modeling and processing of empirical data is one of the main subjects and goals of statistics. Nowadays, with the development of computer science, the extraction of useful and often hidden information and patterns from data sets of different volumes and complex data sets in warehouses has been added to these goals. New and powerful statistical techniques with machine learning (ML) and data mining paradigms have been developed. To one degree or another, all of these techniques and algorithms originate from a rigorous mathematical basis, including probability theory and mathematical statistics, operational research, mathematical analysis, numerical methods, etc. Popular ML methods, such as artificial neural networks (ANN), support vector machines (SVM), decision trees, random forest (RF), among others, have generated models that can be considered as straightforward applications of optimization theory and statistical estimation. The wide arsenal of classical statistical approaches combined with powerful ML techniques allows many challenging and practical problems to be solved. This Special Issue belongs to the section “Mathematics and Computer Science”. Its aim is to establish a brief collection of carefully selected papers presenting new and original methods, data analyses, case studies, comparative studies, and other research on the topic of statistical data modeling and ML as well as their applications. Particular attention is given, but is not limited, to theories and applications in diverse areas such as computer science, medicine, engineering, banking, education, sociology, economics, among others. The resulting palette of methods, algorithms, and applications for statistical modeling and ML presented in this Special Issue is expected to contribute to the further development of research in this area. We also believe that the new knowledge acquired here as well as the applied results are attractive and useful for young scientists, doctoral students, and researchers from various scientific specialties

Bifurcation analysis of the Topp model

In this paper, we study the 3-dimensional Topp model for the dynamicsof diabetes. We show that for suitable parameter values an equilibrium of this modelbifurcates through a Hopf-saddle-node bifurcation. Numerical analysis suggests thatnear this point Shilnikov homoclinic orbits exist. In addition, chaotic attractors arisethrough period doubling cascades of limit cycles.Keywords Dynamics of diabetes · Topp model · Reduced planar quartic Toppsystem · Singular point · Limit cycle · Hopf-saddle-node bifurcation · Perioddoubling bifurcation · Shilnikov homoclinic orbit · Chao