Analytical Approximations to Galaxy Clustering

We discuss some recent progress in constructing analytic approximations to the galaxy clustering. We show that successful models can be constructed for the clustering of both dark matter and dark matter haloes. Our understanding of galaxy clustering and galaxy biasing can be greatly enhanced by these models.Comment: 10 pages, Latex, crckapb.sty, figure included, to appear in the proceedings of Ringberg Workshop on Large-Scale Structure (ed. D. Hamilton; Kluwer Academic Publishers

Unsupervised Learning of Complex Articulated Kinematic Structures combining Motion and Skeleton Information

In this paper we present a novel framework for unsupervised kinematic structure learning of complex articulated objects from a single-view image sequence. In contrast to prior motion information based methods, which estimate relatively simple articulations, our method can generate arbitrarily complex kinematic structures with skeletal topology by a successive iterative merge process. The iterative merge process is guided by a skeleton distance function which is generated from a novel object boundary generation method from sparse points. Our main contributions can be summarised as follows: (i) Unsupervised complex articulated kinematic structure learning by combining motion and skeleton information. (ii) Iterative fine-to-coarse merging strategy for adaptive motion segmentation and structure smoothing. (iii) Skeleton estimation from sparse feature points. (iv) A new highly articulated object dataset containing multi-stage complexity with ground truth. Our experiments show that the proposed method out-performs state-of-the-art methods both quantitatively and qualitatively

A semi-staggered dilation-free finite volume method for the numerical solution of viscoelastic fluid flows on all-hexahedral elements

The dilation-free semi-staggered finite volume method presented in Sabin [M. Sahin, A preconditioned semi-staggered dilation-free finite volume method for the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations on all-hexahedral elements, Int. J. Numer. Methods Fluids 49 (2005) 959-974] has been extended for the numerical solution of viscoelastic fluid flows on all-quadrilateral (2D) / hexahedral (3D) meshes. The velocity components are defined at element node points, while the pressure term and the extra stress tensor are defined at element centroids. The continuity equation is satisfied exactly within each element. An upwind least square method is employed for the calculation of the extra stresses at control volume faces in order to maintain stability for hyperbolic constitutive equations. The time stepping algorithm used decouples the calculation of the extra stresses from the evaluation of the velocity and pressure fields by solving a generalised Stokes problem. The resulting linear systems are solved using the GMRES method provided by the PETSc library with an ILU(k) preconditioner obtained from the HYPRE library. We apply the method to both two- and three-dimensional flow of an Oldroyd-B fluid past a confined circular cylinder in a channel with blockage ratio 0.5. Crown Copyright (C) 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Pembangunan CD ROM interaktif bagi tajuk ECG library interactive

Pembangunan perisian pengajaran dan pembelajaran berkomputer merupakan era baru dalam penyediaan bahan pengajaran bagi sesuatu matapelajaran. Kajian pembangunan perisian interaktif ini adalah untuk menilai dan menguji kebolehan serta keupayaan di dalam membangunkan sesebuah perisian multimedia interaktif bagi mata pelajaran Sistem Klinikal Gunaan khusus untuk pelajar Diploma Elektronik Perubatan sesi 2003/2004 di Politeknik Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, Shah Alam Selangor. Kajian ini meliputi aspek mesra pengguna, kesesuaian paparan maklumat, kesesuaian unsur motivasi dan peningkatan daya kognitif. Metadologi kajian ini berdasarkan soal selidik yang diedarkan kepada 34 orang pelajar yang sedang mengambil matapelajaran ini. Penganalisan data menggunakan SPSS versi 11.5 dan dapatan kajian dianalisis dengan skor min. Hasil dapatan kajian merujuk kepada analisis data yang didapati. Perisian interaktif ini dapat diterima oleh pelajar dari segi mesra pengguna, kesesuaian paparan maklumat, kesesuaian unsur motivasi dan peningkatan daya kognitif di dalam proses pengajaran dan pembelajaran mereka. Diharap CD interaktif ini boleh dijadikan sebagai satu alternatif baru dalam meningkatkan proses pengajaran dan pembelajaran serta mendedahkan pelajar terhadap penggunaan komputer dan teknologi maklumat

Solving the detour problem in navigation: a model of prefrontal and hippocampal interactions.

Adapting behavior to accommodate changes in the environment is an important function of the nervous system. A universal problem for motile animals is the discovery that a learned route is blocked and a detour is required. Given the substantial neuroscience research on spatial navigation and decision-making it is surprising that so little is known about how the brain solves the detour problem. Here we review the limited number of relevant functional neuroimaging, single unit recording and lesion studies. We find that while the prefrontal cortex (PFC) consistently responds to detours, the hippocampus does not. Recent evidence suggests the hippocampus tracks information about the future path distance to the goal. Based on this evidence we postulate a conceptual model in which: Lateral PFC provides a prediction error signal about the change in the path, frontopolar and superior PFC support the re-formulation of the route plan as a novel subgoal and the hippocampus simulates the new path. More data will be required to validate this model and understand (1) how the system processes the different options; and (2) deals with situations where a new path becomes available (i.e., shortcuts)

Implementing RFID at Leeds Met

What benefits does the introduction of radio frequency identification bring to students, staff and university, and what should you be looking for in a supplier? Helen Loughran and Dilys Young take us through the Leeds Met experience

Meeting and greeting new students

The introduction of self- service, and new layouts in complex buildings, prompted the creation of a service to welcome new students at Leeds Met as they used the library for the first time

Prayer and psychological health: a study among sixth-form pupils attending Catholic and Protestant schools in Northern Ireland

Eysenck's dimensional model of personality includes two indicators of psychological health, defined as neuroticism and psychoticism. In order to examine the association between psychological health and prayer, two samples of sixth-form pupils in Northern Ireland (16- to 18-year-olds) attending Catholic (N = 1246) and Protestant (N = 1060) schools completed the abbreviated Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire alongside a simple measure of prayer frequency. The data demonstrated a positive association between prayer frequency and better levels of psychological health as assessed by Eysenck's notion of psychoticism. Among pupils attending both Catholic and Protestant schools, higher levels of prayer were associated with lower psychoticism scores. Among pupils attending Catholic schools, however, higher levels of prayer were also associated with higher neuroticism scores

Adaptive use of task assignment models in team-based mobile business processes

Most mobile business processes are executed under uncertain and dynamic working environments. This makes the traditional centralized approach for the management of mobile tasks inappropriate to respond to the changes in working environment quickly as collecting the changing information from geographically distributed workforces in real time is expensive if not impossible. This raises the need of a distributed approach in the management of mobile tasks. This paper proposes a distributed architecture for team-based coordination support for mobile task management. In this architecture, tasks are managed via peer-to-peer style coordination between team members who have better understanding on the changing working environment than a centralised system. The novelty of the design of the architecture is explained by applying it to a real business process in the UK