Decision Problems for Subclasses of Rational Relations over Finite and Infinite Words

We consider decision problems for relations over finite and infinite words defined by finite automata. We prove that the equivalence problem for binary deterministic rational relations over infinite words is undecidable in contrast to the case of finite words, where the problem is decidable. Furthermore, we show that it is decidable in doubly exponential time for an automatic relation over infinite words whether it is a recognizable relation. We also revisit this problem in the context of finite words and improve the complexity of the decision procedure to single exponential time. The procedure is based on a polynomial time regularity test for deterministic visibly pushdown automata, which is a result of independent interest.Comment: v1: 31 pages, submitted to DMTCS, extended version of the paper with the same title published in the conference proceedings of FCT 2017; v2: 32 pages, minor revision of v1 (DMTCS review process), results unchanged; v3: 32 pages, enabled hyperref for Figure 1; v4: 32 pages, add reference for known complexity results for the slenderness problem; v5: 32 pages, added DMTCS metadat

Detecting palindromes, patterns, and borders in regular languages

Given a language L and a nondeterministic finite automaton M, we consider whether we can determine efficiently (in the size of M) if M accepts at least one word in L, or infinitely many words. Given that M accepts at least one word in L, we consider how long a shortest word can be. The languages L that we examine include the palindromes, the non-palindromes, the k-powers, the non-k-powers, the powers, the non-powers (also called primitive words), the words matching a general pattern, the bordered words, and the unbordered words.Comment: Full version of a paper submitted to LATA 2008. This is a new version with John Loftus added as a co-author and containing new results on unbordered word

ImageNet Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge

The ImageNet Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge is a benchmark in object category classification and detection on hundreds of object categories and millions of images. The challenge has been run annually from 2010 to present, attracting participation from more than fifty institutions. This paper describes the creation of this benchmark dataset and the advances in object recognition that have been possible as a result. We discuss the challenges of collecting large-scale ground truth annotation, highlight key breakthroughs in categorical object recognition, provide a detailed analysis of the current state of the field of large-scale image classification and object detection, and compare the state-of-the-art computer vision accuracy with human accuracy. We conclude with lessons learned in the five years of the challenge, and propose future directions and improvements.Comment: 43 pages, 16 figures. v3 includes additional comparisons with PASCAL VOC (per-category comparisons in Table 3, distribution of localization difficulty in Fig 16), a list of queries used for obtaining object detection images (Appendix C), and some additional reference

"The maniac bellowed" : queer affect and queer temporality in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre

textCharlotte Brontë's novel, Jane Eyre, is commonly read as a feminist bildungsroman in which a young woman claims her independence. In opposition to these readings, I instead choose to question the ways in which the novel's feminist potential is elided by its simultaneous imperial project. Using the figure of Bertha Mason, I trace the ways in which Jane Eyre's relationship with Edward Rochester is constructed through Bertha's dehumanization in order to reassert the dominance of the healthy Anglo-European family. I examine Jane Eyre's claims to subjectivity, alongside Bertha's very few textual interventions, through the lens of affect theory to show the way in which Bertha Mason, rather than Jane Eyre's mad double, represents nineteenth-century prejudices about creole bodies and undomesticated women. Finally, I engage with theories of queer temporality to read the novel in a way that makes Bertha Mason's agency legible while also evading the novel's troubled relationship to traditional feminist theory. I ultimately suggest that the climactic destruction of Thornfield Hall represents a repudiation of sympathetic feminine bonds in favor of the patriarchal institutions of marriage and respectability.Englis