A systematic comparison of supervised classifiers

Pattern recognition techniques have been employed in a myriad of industrial, medical, commercial and academic applications. To tackle such a diversity of data, many techniques have been devised. However, despite the long tradition of pattern recognition research, there is no technique that yields the best classification in all scenarios. Therefore, the consideration of as many as possible techniques presents itself as an fundamental practice in applications aiming at high accuracy. Typical works comparing methods either emphasize the performance of a given algorithm in validation tests or systematically compare various algorithms, assuming that the practical use of these methods is done by experts. In many occasions, however, researchers have to deal with their practical classification tasks without an in-depth knowledge about the underlying mechanisms behind parameters. Actually, the adequate choice of classifiers and parameters alike in such practical circumstances constitutes a long-standing problem and is the subject of the current paper. We carried out a study on the performance of nine well-known classifiers implemented by the Weka framework and compared the dependence of the accuracy with their configuration parameter configurations. The analysis of performance with default parameters revealed that the k-nearest neighbors method exceeds by a large margin the other methods when high dimensional datasets are considered. When other configuration of parameters were allowed, we found that it is possible to improve the quality of SVM in more than 20% even if parameters are set randomly. Taken together, the investigation conducted in this paper suggests that, apart from the SVM implementation, Weka's default configuration of parameters provides an performance close the one achieved with the optimal configuration

Correlations between climate network and relief data

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Correlations between climate network and relief data

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Carbonatites from the southern Brazilian Platform: A review. II: Isotopic evidences

Early and Late Cretaceous alkaline and alkaline-carbonatitic complexes from southern Brazil are located along the main tectonic lineaments of the South America Platform. Calcium-, magnesium-, and ferrocarbonatites are well represented and frequently associated even in the same complex. Primary carbonates present significant variations in C-O isotopic compositions, which are mainly due to isotope exchange with H2O-CO2-rich hydrothermal fluids, whereas fractional crystallization or liquid immiscibility probably affects the δ18O and δ13C values by no more than 2δ‰. Our isotope exchange model implies that the most significant isotopic variations took place in a hydrothermal environment, e.g., in the range 400-80°C, involving fluids with the CO2/H2O ratio ranging from 0.8 to 1. Sr-Nd-Pb isotope systematics highlight heterogeneous mixtures between HIMU and EMI mantle components, similar to the associated alkaline rocks and the flood tholeiites from southern Brazil. In spite of the strong variation shown by C-O isotopes, Sr-Nd-Pb-Os isotopic systematics could be related to an isotopically enriched source where the chemical heterogeneities reflect a depleted mantle metasomatized by small-volume melts and fluids rich in incompatible elements. These fluids are expected to have promoted crystallization of K-rich phases in the mantle, which produced a veined network variously enriched in LILE and LREE. The newly formed veins (enriched component) and peridotite matrix (depleted component) underwent a different isotopic evolution with time as reflected by the carbonatites. These conclusions may be extended to the whole Paraná-Etendeka system, where isotopically distinct parent magmas were generated following two main enrichment events of the subcontinental lithospheric mantle at 2.0-1.4 and 1.0-0.5 Ga, respectively, as also supported by Re-Os systematics. The mantle sources preserved the isotopic heterogeneities over a long time, suggesting a nonconvective lithospheric mantle beneath different cratons or intercratonic regions. Overall, the data indicate that the alkaline-carbonatitic magmatism originated from a locally heterogeneous subcontinental mantle

The symmetry of charge order in cuprates

Charge-ordered ground states permeate the phenomenology of 3d-based transition metal oxides, and more generally represent a distinctive hallmark of strongly-correlated states of matter. The recent discovery of charge order in various cuprate families fueled new interest into the role played by this incipient broken symmetry within the complex phase diagram of high-Tc superconductors. Here we use resonant X-ray scattering to resolve the main characteristics of the charge-modulated state in two cuprate families: Bi2201 and YBCO. We detect no signatures of spatial modulations along the nodal direction in Bi2201, thus clarifying the inter-unit-cell momentum-structure of charge order. We also resolve the intra-unit-cell symmetry of the charge ordered state, which is revealed to be best represented by a bond-order with modulated charges on the O-2p orbitals and a prominent d-wave character. These results provide insights on the microscopic description of charge order in cuprates, and on its origin and interplay with superconductivity.Comment: A high-resolution version with supplementary material can be found at: http://www.phas.ubc.ca/~quantmat/ARPES/PUBLICATIONS/Articles/CDW_symmetry.pd

Casimir-Polder force between an atom and a dielectric plate: thermodynamics and experiment

The low-temperature behavior of the Casimir-Polder free energy and entropy for an atom near a dielectric plate are found on the basis of the Lifshitz theory. The obtained results are shown to be thermodynamically consistent if the dc conductivity of the plate material is disregarded. With inclusion of dc conductivity, both the standard Lifshitz theory (for all dielectrics) and its generalization taking into account screening effects (for a wide range of dielectrics) violate the Nernst heat theorem. The inclusion of the screening effects is also shown to be inconsistent with experimental data of Casimir force measurements. The physical reasons for this inconsistency are elucidated.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure; improved discussion; to appear in J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. (Fast Track Communications

Dispersive charge density wave excitations and temperature dependent commensuration in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+{\delta}

Experimental evidence on high-Tc cuprates reveals ubiquitous charge density wave (CDW) modulations, which coexist with superconductivity. Although the CDW had been predicted by theory, important questions remain about the extent to which the CDW influences lattice and charge degrees of freedom and its characteristics as functions of doping and temperature. These questions are intimately connected to the origin of the CDW and its relation to the mysterious cuprate pseudogap. Here, we use ultrahigh resolution resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) to reveal new CDW character in underdoped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+{\delta} (Bi2212). At low temperature, we observe dispersive excitations from an incommensurate CDW that induces anomalously enhanced phonon intensity, unseen using other techniques. Near the pseudogap temperature T*, the CDW persists, but the associated excitations significantly weaken and the CDW wavevector shifts, becoming nearly commensurate with a periodicity of four lattice constants. The dispersive CDW excitations, phonon anomaly, and temperature dependent commensuration provide a comprehensive momentum space picture of complex CDW behavior and point to a closer relationship with the pseudogap state