Do quantum states evolve? Apropos of Marchildon's remarks

Marchildon's (favorable) assessment (quant-ph/0303170, to appear in Found. Phys.) of the Pondicherry interpretation of quantum mechanics raises several issues, which are addressed. Proceeding from the assumption that quantum mechanics is fundamentally a probability algorithm, this interpretation determines the nature of a world that is irreducibly described by this probability algorithm. Such a world features an objective fuzziness, which implies that its spatiotemporal differentiation does not "go all the way down". This result is inconsistent with the existence of an evolving instantaneous state, quantum or otherwise.Comment: To appear in Foundations of Physics; 22 pages, LaTe

Land cover classification using fuzzy rules and aggregation of contextual information through evidence theory

Land cover classification using multispectral satellite image is a very challenging task with numerous practical applications. We propose a multi-stage classifier that involves fuzzy rule extraction from the training data and then generation of a possibilistic label vector for each pixel using the fuzzy rule base. To exploit the spatial correlation of land cover types we propose four different information aggregation methods which use the possibilistic class label of a pixel and those of its eight spatial neighbors for making the final classification decision. Three of the aggregation methods use Dempster-Shafer theory of evidence while the remaining one is modeled after the fuzzy k-NN rule. The proposed methods are tested with two benchmark seven channel satellite images and the results are found to be quite satisfactory. They are also compared with a Markov random field (MRF) model-based contextual classification method and found to perform consistently better.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figure

A Neural Network Method for Land Use Change Classification, with Application to the Nile River Delta

Detecting and monitoring changes in conditions at the Earth's surface are essential for understanding human impact on the environment and for assessing the sustainability of development. In the next decade, NASA will gather high-resolution multi-spectral and multi-temporal data, which could be used for analyzing long-term changes, provided that available methods can keep pace with the accelerating flow of information. This paper introduces an automated technique for change identification, based on the ARTMAP neural network. This system overcomes some of the limitations of traditional change detection methods, and also produces a measure of confidence in classification accuracy. Landsat thematic mapper (TM) imagery of the Nile River delta provides a testbed for land use change classification methods. This dataset consists of a sequence of ten images acquired between 1984 and 1993 at various times of year. Field observations and photo interpretations have identified 358 sites as belonging to eight classes, three of which represent changes in land use over the ten-year period. Aparticular challenge posed by this database is the unequal representation of various land use categories: three classes, urban, agriculture in delta, and other, comprise 95% of pixels in labeled sites. A two-step sampling method enables unbiased training of the neural network system across sites.National Science Foundation (SBR 95-13889); Office of Naval Research (N00014-95-1-409, N00014-95-0657); Air Force Office of Scientific Research (F49620-01-1-0397, F49620-01-1-042

Belief Revision with Uncertain Inputs in the Possibilistic Setting

This paper discusses belief revision under uncertain inputs in the framework of possibility theory. Revision can be based on two possible definitions of the conditioning operation, one based on min operator which requires a purely ordinal scale only, and another based on product, for which a richer structure is needed, and which is a particular case of Dempster's rule of conditioning. Besides, revision under uncertain inputs can be understood in two different ways depending on whether the input is viewed, or not, as a constraint to enforce. Moreover, it is shown that M.A. Williams' transmutations, originally defined in the setting of Spohn's functions, can be captured in this framework, as well as Boutilier's natural revision.Comment: Appears in Proceedings of the Twelfth Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI1996

Cloud cover determination in polar regions from satellite imagery

A definition is undertaken of the spectral and spatial characteristics of clouds and surface conditions in the polar regions, and to the creation of calibrated, geometrically correct data sets suitable for quantitative analysis. Ways are explored in which this information can be applied to cloud classifications as new methods or as extensions to existing classification schemes. A methodology is developed that uses automated techniques to merge Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) data, and to apply first-order calibration and zenith angle corrections to the AVHRR imagery. Cloud cover and surface types are manually interpreted, and manual methods are used to define relatively pure training areas to describe the textural and multispectral characteristics of clouds over several surface conditions. The effects of viewing angle and bidirectional reflectance differences are studied for several classes, and the effectiveness of some key components of existing classification schemes is tested

Classical Extensions, Classical Representations and Bayesian Updating in Quantum Mechanics

I review the formalism of classical extensions of quantum mechanics introduced by Beltrametti and Bugajski, and compare it to the classical representations discussed e.g. by Busch, Hellwig and Stulpe and recently used by Fuchs in his discussion of quantum mechanics in terms of standard quantum measurements. I treat the problem of finding Bayesian analogues of the state transition associated with measurement in the canonical classical extension as well as in the related 'uniform' classical representation. In the classical extension, the analogy is extremely good.Comment: 14 pages, presented at the conference 'Quantum Theory: Reconsideration of Foundations - 2', Vaexjoe, Sweden, June 200

Qualitative integrals and desintegrals as lower and upper possibilistic expectations

International audienceAny capacity (i.e., an increasing set function) has been proved to be a lower possibility measure and an upper necessity measure. Similarly, it is shown that any anti-capacity (i.e., a decreasing set function) can be viewed both as an upper guaranteed possibility measure and as a lower weak necessity measure. These results are the basis for establishing that qualitative integrals (including Sugeno integrals) are lower and /or upper possibilistic expectations wrt a possibility measure, while qualitative desintegrals are upper or lower possibilistic expectations wrt a guaranteed possibility measure. The results are presented in a qualitative finite setting, the one of multiple criteria aggregation

Subsethood Measures of Spatial Granules

Subsethood, which is to measure the degree of set inclusion relation, is predominant in fuzzy set theory. This paper introduces some basic concepts of spatial granules, coarse-fine relation, and operations like meet, join, quotient meet and quotient join. All the atomic granules can be hierarchized by set-inclusion relation and all the granules can be hierarchized by coarse-fine relation. Viewing an information system from the micro and the macro perspectives, we can get a micro knowledge space and a micro knowledge space, from which a rough set model and a spatial rough granule model are respectively obtained. The classical rough set model is the special case of the rough set model induced from the micro knowledge space, while the spatial rough granule model will be play a pivotal role in the problem-solving of structures. We discuss twelve axioms of monotone increasing subsethood and twelve corresponding axioms of monotone decreasing supsethood, and generalize subsethood and supsethood to conditional granularity and conditional fineness respectively. We develop five conditional granularity measures and five conditional fineness measures and prove that each conditional granularity or fineness measure satisfies its corresponding twelve axioms although its subsethood or supsethood measure only hold one of the two boundary conditions. We further define five conditional granularity entropies and five conditional fineness entropies respectively, and each entropy only satisfies part of the boundary conditions but all the ten monotone conditions