On the Reliability Function of Distributed Hypothesis Testing Under Optimal Detection

The distributed hypothesis testing problem with full side-information is studied. The trade-off (reliability function) between the two types of error exponents under limited rate is studied in the following way. First, the problem is reduced to the problem of determining the reliability function of channel codes designed for detection (in analogy to a similar result which connects the reliability function of distributed lossless compression and ordinary channel codes). Second, a single-letter random-coding bound based on a hierarchical ensemble, as well as a single-letter expurgated bound, are derived for the reliability of channel-detection codes. Both bounds are derived for a system which employs the optimal detection rule. We conjecture that the resulting random-coding bound is ensemble-tight, and consequently optimal within the class of quantization-and-binning schemes

The Federal Writers\u27 Project\u27s Mirror to America: The Florida Reflection.

In the 1930s, the federal writers of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) plowed fertile new ground in American cultural scholarship. The writers were for the most part not professionals but white collar workers who had been dramatically rescued from unemployment by this government relief project. Like other New Deal relief agencies, the Writers\u27 Project had been created more to make work than to do work. But by the end of the program, it had charted a nation and documented American life more comprehensively than any earlier effort had done. In Florida the federal writers produced a state guide, pioneered African-American studies, broke new ground in oral history, and revolutionized the study of folklore. Their records unearthed the variety and texture of cultural life, leaving an incomparable record of localized America. The Florida Federal Writers\u27 Project demonstrates how the program operated on the state level. Its research beyond the state guide demonstrates the contributions these state programs made to American cultural studies. Florida was one of three Southern states which had an active African-American writers\u27 unit. Zora Neale Hurston, the only trained African-American folklorist in the South, worked on the Florida project for a year and a half. This study explores her contribution to the project and documents her contributions to the state\u27s folklore program. The work by the federal writers in Florida was but one part of the massive national inventory that had created in words a giant mirror of the American scene. Yet only a small portion of their work was published and held up for the nation to see

Classification of building design information

The more widely used classification/coding systems for building elements and components, such as CI /SfB and UDC, were developed to classify documents. A classification/coding system for use with computer aided design has to be able to convey detailed information about the features and properties of components. Previous studies of the use of information in the construction industry, in particular the CACCI Reports, have examined the logical structure of design operations and how this influences the structure of a corresponding information system. This Thesis examines also the traditional roles of the participants in the design team and demonstrates that these roles modify the ideal structure. A number of existing classification systems are analysed to provide, with an analysis of the theory of classification, the desirable features of a practical classification system. The CACCI Report proposed the development of a national commodity file. In the Section on an outline of a possible classification system it is argued that the function of a national commodity file could be replaced by a three-level classification/code with responsibility for information being divided between manufacturer, trade sector organisation and the design team, responsibility for information rests with the participant-most-concerned. Examples are provided of an individual participant's use of the proposed system and how the system would be used by several participants. In the absence of a national system, it is suggested that the proposed system would allow teams of designers to proceed with the development of a data base for computer aided design

Toward a Better Understanding of Cosmic Chronometers: Stellar Population Properties of Passive Galaxies at Intermediate Redshift

We take advantage of the publicly available LEGA-C spectroscopic survey to measure the stellar population properties of 140 individual massive and passive galaxies at z similar to 0.7. We develop and publicly release PyLick, a flexible Python code to measure UV to near-IR spectral indices. With PyLick we study the H/K ratio as a new diagnostic based on the pseudo-Lick Ca ii H and K indices and find that a cut in H/K < 1.1 can be used jointly with other criteria to select (or verify the purity of) samples of passive galaxies. By combining photometric and spectroscopic criteria, we select a reliable sample of passively evolving galaxies. We constrain single-burst stellar ages, metallicities [Z/H], and [alpha/Fe] with an optimized set of Lick indices, exploring in detail the robustness of our measurement against different combinations. Even without imposing cosmological priors, the derived ages follow a clear trend compatible with the expected cosmological aging of the universe. We observe no significant redshift evolution for the metal abundance with respect to the values derived at z = 0, with median [Z/H] = 0.08 +/- 0.18 and [alpha/Fe] = 0.13 +/- 0.11. Finally, we analyze the relations between log age, [Z/H], [alpha/Fe], and the stellar velocity dispersion, finding slopes of (0.5 +/- 0.1), (0.3 +/- 0.2), and (0.2 +/- 0.1), respectively; the small scatter of <0.2 dex points to rather homogeneous and short star formation histories. Overall, these results confirm and extend low-redshift findings of a mass-downsizing evolution. This work further strengthens the possibility of selecting pure samples of passive galaxies to be exploited reliably as cosmic chronometers to place independent cosmological constraints

The Deep Space Network: A Radio Communications Instrument for Deep Space Exploration

The primary purpose of the Deep Space Network (DSN) is to serve as a communications instrument for deep space exploration, providing communications between the spacecraft and the ground facilities. The uplink communications channel provides instructions or commands to the spacecraft. The downlink communications channel provides command verification and spacecraft engineering and science instrument payload data

Sparse Modeling for Image and Vision Processing

In recent years, a large amount of multi-disciplinary research has been conducted on sparse models and their applications. In statistics and machine learning, the sparsity principle is used to perform model selection---that is, automatically selecting a simple model among a large collection of them. In signal processing, sparse coding consists of representing data with linear combinations of a few dictionary elements. Subsequently, the corresponding tools have been widely adopted by several scientific communities such as neuroscience, bioinformatics, or computer vision. The goal of this monograph is to offer a self-contained view of sparse modeling for visual recognition and image processing. More specifically, we focus on applications where the dictionary is learned and adapted to data, yielding a compact representation that has been successful in various contexts.Comment: 205 pages, to appear in Foundations and Trends in Computer Graphics and Visio