Active Learning with Statistical Models

For many types of machine learning algorithms, one can compute the statistically `optimal' way to select training data. In this paper, we review how optimal data selection techniques have been used with feedforward neural networks. We then show how the same principles may be used to select data for two alternative, statistically-based learning architectures: mixtures of Gaussians and locally weighted regression. While the techniques for neural networks are computationally expensive and approximate, the techniques for mixtures of Gaussians and locally weighted regression are both efficient and accurate. Empirically, we observe that the optimality criterion sharply decreases the number of training examples the learner needs in order to achieve good performance.Comment: See http://www.jair.org/ for any accompanying file

Nongassing NiCd battery cell

Method of constructing nickel cadmium batteries prevents excessive gas buildup and allows hermetic sealing of battery for increased service life and reduced maintenance cost

The sphere packing problem in dimension 24

Building on Viazovska's recent solution of the sphere packing problem in eight dimensions, we prove that the Leech lattice is the densest packing of congruent spheres in twenty-four dimensions and that it is the unique optimal periodic packing. In particular, we find an optimal auxiliary function for the linear programming bounds, which is an analogue of Viazovska's function for the eight-dimensional case.Comment: 17 page

Characterisation and representation of non-dissipative electromagnetic medium with a double light cone

We study Maxwell's equations on a 4-manifold N with a medium that is non-dissipative and has a linear and pointwise response. In this setting, the medium can be represented by a suitable (2,2)-tensor on the 4-manifold N. Moreover, in each cotangent space on N, the medium defines a Fresnel surface. Essentially, the Fresnel surface is a tensorial analogue of the dispersion equation that describes the response of the medium for signals in the geometric optics limit. For example, in isotropic medium the Fresnel surface is at each point a Lorentz light cone. In a recent paper, I. Lindell, A. Favaro and L. Bergamin introduced a condition that constrains the polarisation for plane waves. In this paper we show (under suitable assumptions) that a slight strengthening of this condition gives a pointwise characterisation of all medium tensors for which the Fresnel surface is the union of two distinct Lorentz null cones. This is for example the behaviour of uniaxial medium like calcite. Moreover, using the representation formulas from Lindell et al. we obtain a closed form representation formula that pointwise parameterises all medium tensors for which the Fresnel surface is the union of two distinct Lorentz null cones. Both the characterisation and the representation formula are tensorial and do not depend on local coordinates

Intelligent GIS: Automatic generation of qualitative spatial information

This paper reports on an extension to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) that can intelligently analyse and record qualitative information of the surrounding area when adding a feature to a map. This recorded qualitative spatial information can be utilised to perform queries such as path generation using landmarks. Although, there is a lot of research on qualitative spatial reasoning, none of the currently available GIS do actually incorporate this kind of functionality. There have been systems developed that do have functions for adding new features, or generating paths; however they do not generally analyse and record, or use, qualitative information. We have implemented a prototype illustrating our approach. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006

Several new catalysts for reduction of oxygen in fuel cells

Test results prove nickel carbide or nitride, nickel-cobalt carbide, titanium carbide or nitride, and intermetallic compounds of the transition or noble metals to be efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction in alkaline electrolytes in low temperature fuel cells

Red Sequence Cluster Finding in the Millennium Simulation

We investigate halo mass selection properties of red-sequence cluster finders using galaxy populations of the Millennium Simulation (MS). A clear red sequence exists for MS galaxies in massive halos at redshifts z < 1, and we use this knowledge to inform a cluster-finding algorithm applied to 500 Mpc/h projections of the simulated volume. At low redshift (z=0.4), we find that 90% of the clusters found have galaxy membership dominated by a single, real-space halo, and that 10% are blended systems for which no single halo contributes a majority of a cluster's membership. At z=1, the fraction of blends increases to 22%, as weaker redshift evolution in observed color extends the comoving length probed by a fixed range of color. Other factors contributing to the increased blending at high-z include broadening of the red sequence and confusion from a larger number of intermediate mass halos hosting bright red galaxies of magnitude similar to those in higher mass halos. Our method produces catalogs of cluster candidates whose halo mass selection function, p(M|\Ngal,z), is characterized by a bimodal log-normal model with a dominant component that reproduces well the real-space distribution, and a redshift-dependent tail that is broader and displaced by a factor ~2 lower in mass. We discuss implications for X-ray properties of optically selected clusters and offer ideas for improving both mock catalogs and cluster-finding in future surveys.Comment: final version to appear in MNRAS. Appendix added on purity and completeness, small shift in red sequence due to correcting an error in finding i

Extreme thermopower anisotropy and interchain transport in the quasi-one-dimensional metal Li(0.9)Mo(6)O(17)

Thermopower and electrical resistivity measurements transverse to the conducting chains of the quasi-one-dimensional metal Li(0.9)Mo(6)O(17) are reported in the temperature range 5 K = 400 K the interchain transport is determined by thermal excitation of charge carriers from a valence band ~ 0.14 eV below the Fermi level, giving rise to a large, p-type thermopower that coincides with a small, n-type thermopower along the chains. This dichotomy -- semiconductor-like in one direction and metallic in a mutually perpendicular direction -- gives rise to substantial transverse thermoelectric (TE) effects and a transverse TE figure of merit among the largest known for a single compound.Comment: PRL in press, manuscript (5pp, 4 Fig.'s) and Supplementary Material (3pp, 3 Fig.'s