Learning to Detect Touches on Cluttered Tables

We present a novel self-contained camera-projector tabletop system with a lamp form-factor that brings digital intelligence to our tables. We propose a real-time, on-device, learning-based touch detection algorithm that makes any tabletop interactive. The top-down configuration and learning-based algorithm makes our method robust to the presence of clutter, a main limitation of existing camera-projector tabletop systems. Our research prototype enables a set of experiences that combine hand interactions and objects present on the table. A video can be found at https://youtu.be/hElC_c25Fg8

The Extended Solar Cycle: Muddying the Waters of Solar/Stellar Dynamo Modeling or Providing Crucial Observational Constraints?

In 1844 Schwabe discovered that the number of sunspots increased and decreased over a period of about 11 years, that variation became known as the sunspot cycle. Almost eighty years later, Hale described the nature of the Sun's magnetic field, identifying that it takes about 22 years for the Sun's magnetic polarity to cycle. It was also identified that the latitudinal distribution of sunspots resembles the wings of a butterfly—showing migration of sunspots in each hemisphere that abruptly start at mid-latitudes (about ±35o) toward the Sun's equator over the next 11 years. These sunspot patterns were shown to be asymmetric across the equator. In intervening years, it was deduced that the Sun (and sun-like stars) possess magnetic activity cycles that are assumed to be the physical manifestation of a dynamo process that results from complex circulatory transport processes in the star's interior. Understanding the Sun's magnetism, its origin and its variation, has become a fundamental scientific objective—the distribution of magnetism, and its interaction with convective processes, drives various plasma processes in the outer atmosphere that generate particulate, radiative, eruptive phenomena, and shape the heliosphere. In the past few decades, a range of diagnostic techniques have been employed to systematically study finer scale magnetized objects, and associated phenomena. The patterns discerned became known as the “Extended Solar Cycle” (ESC). The patterns of the ESC appeared to extend the wings of the activity butterfly back in time, nearly a decade before the formation of the sunspot pattern, and to much higher solar latitudes. In this short review, we describe their observational patterns of the ESC and discuss possible connections to the solar dynamo as we depart on a multi-national collaboration to investigate the origins of solar magnetism through a blend of archived and contemporary data analysis with the goal of improving solar dynamo understanding and modeling

On Small Area Estimation

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. October 2016. Major: Statistics. Advisor: Snigdhansu Chatterjee. 1 computer file (PDF); xi, 262 pages.Fay Herriot model is one of the most studied small area models. Three different extension of the Fay Herriot model are proposed. Relevant theoretical properties of the small area prediction are studied. Simulation results are obtained and different interesting applications are discussed

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHARMACY & LIFE SCIENCES Pterospermum acerifolium Linn. : A comprehensive review with significant pharmacological activities

Abstract Pterospermum acerifolium (Sterculiaceae) is an herb distributed throughout the world. The leaves of the plant are widely used for the treatment of diabetes and as a haemostatic in Indian proprietary medicines. The plant is documented to possess beneficial effects as antioxidant, antiulcer, anti inflammatory, analgesic, hypoglycaemic and antihelmentic. It is believed to be used in inflammation, abdominal pain, ascites, cures ulcers, leprosy, constipation, urinary discharges and tumours. A scrutiny of literature revealed some notable pharmacological activities of the plant such as antidiabetic (showed the leaves extract lower the glucose level, in type 2 diabetic models in rats), antimicrobial, haemostatic, free radical scavenging and anti-inflammatory. The present review is an attempt to highlight the various ethnobotanical and traditional uses as well as Phytochemical and pharmacological reports on Pterospermum acerifolium