On Using Physical Analogies for Feature and Shape Extraction in Computer Vision

There is a rich literature of approaches to image feature extraction in computer vision. Many sophisticated approaches exist for low- and high-level feature extraction but can be complex to implement with parameter choice guided by experimentation, but impeded by speed of computation. We have developed new ways to extract features based on notional use of physical paradigms, with parameterisation that is more familiar to a scientifically-trained user, aiming to make best use of computational resource. We describe how analogies based on gravitational force can be used for low-level analysis, whilst analogies of water flow and heat can be deployed to achieve high-level smooth shape detection. These new approaches to arbitrary shape extraction are compared with standard state-of-art approaches by curve evolution. There is no comparator operator to our use of gravitational force. We also aim to show that the implementation is consistent with the original motivations for these techniques and so contend that the exploration of physical paradigms offers a promising new avenue for new approaches to feature extraction in computer vision

On Using Physical Analogies for Feature and Shape Extraction in Computer Vision

There is a rich literature of approaches to image feature extraction in computer vision. Many sophisticated approaches exist for low- and for high-level feature extraction but can be complex to implement with parameter choice guided by experimentation, but with performance analysis and optimization impeded by speed of computation. We have developed new feature extraction techniques on notional use of physical paradigms, with parametrization aimed to be more familiar to a scientifically trained user, aiming to make best use of computational resource. This paper is the first unified description of these new approaches, outlining the basis and results that can be achieved. We describe how gravitational force can be used for low-level analysis, while analogies of water flow and heat can be deployed to achieve high-level smooth shape detection, by determining features and shapes in a selection of images, comparing results with those by stock approaches from the literature. We also aim to show that the implementation is consistent with the original motivations for these techniques and so contend that the exploration of physical paradigms offers a promising new avenue for new approaches to feature extraction in computer vision

Force field feature extraction for ear biometrics

The overall objective in defining feature space is to reduce the dimensionality of the original pattern space, whilst maintaining discriminatory power for classification. To meet this objective in the context of ear biometrics a new force field transformation treats the image as an array of mutually attracting particles that act as the source of a Gaussian force field. Underlying the force field there is a scalar potential energy field, which in the case of an ear takes the form of a smooth surface that resembles a small mountain with a number of peaks joined by ridges. The peaks correspond to potential energy wells and to extend the analogy the ridges correspond to potential energy channels. Since the transform also turns out to be invertible, and since the surface is otherwise smooth, information theory suggests that much of the information is transferred to these features, thus confirming their efficacy. We previously described how field line feature extraction, using an algorithm similar to gradient descent, exploits the directional properties of the force field to automatically locate these channels and wells, which then form the basis of characteristic ear features. We now show how an analysis of the mechanism of this algorithmic approach leads to a closed analytical description based on the divergence of force direction, which reveals that channels and wells are really manifestations of the same phenomenon. We further show that this new operator, with its own distinct advantages, has a striking similarity to the Marr-Hildreth operator, but with the important difference that it is non-linear. As well as addressing faster implementation, invertibility, and brightness sensitivity, the technique is also validated by performing recognition on a database of ears selected from the XM2VTS face database, and by comparing the results with the more established technique of Principal Components Analysis. This confirms not only that ears do indeed appear to have potential as a biometric, but also that the new approach is well suited to their description, being robust especially in the presence of noise, and having the advantage that the ear does not need to be explicitly extracted from the background

MULE DEER POPULATION DYNAMICS IN SPACE AND TIME: ECOLOGICAL MODELING TOOLS FOR MANAGING UNGULATES

Ecologists aim to understand and predict the effect of management actions on population dynamics of animals, a difficult task in highly variable environments. Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) occupy such variable environments and display volatile population dynamics, providing a challenging management scenario. I first investigate the ecological drivers of overwinter juvenile survival, the most variable life stage in this ungulate. I tested for both direct and indirect effects of spring and fall phenology on winter survival of 2,315 mule deer fawns from 1998 – 2011 across a wide range of environmental conditions in Idaho, USA. I showed that early winter precipitation and direct and indirect effects of spring and especially fall plant productivity (NDVI) accounted for 45% of observed variation in overwinter survival. I next develop predictive models of overwinter survival for 2,529 fawns within 11 Population Management Units in Idaho, 2003 – 2013. I used Bayesian hierarchical survival models to estimate survival from remotely-sensed measures of summer NDVI and winter snow conditions (MODIS snow and SNODAS). The multi-scale analysis produced well performing models, predicting out-of-sample data with a validation R2 of 0.66. Next, I ask how predation risk and deer density influences neonatal fawn survival. I developed a spatial coyote predation risk model and tested the effect on fawn mortality. I then regressed both total fawn mortality and coyote-caused mortality on mule deer density to test the predation-risk hypothesis that coyote predation risk increased as deer density increased as low predation risk habitats were filled, forcing maternal females to use high predation risk habitats. Fawn mortality did not increase with density, but coyote predation increased with increasing deer density, confirming density-dependence in fawn mortality was driven by coyote behavior, not density per se. Finally, I use integrated population models (IPM) to collate the previous findings into a model that simultaneously estimates all mule deer vital rates to test ecological questions concerning population drivers. I test whether density-dependence or environmental stochasticity (weather) drives mule deer population dynamics. The vital rate most influenced by density was recruitment, yet across most populations, weather was the predominant force affecting mule deer dynamics. These IPM’s will provide managers with a means to estimate population dynamics with precision and flexibility

COST OF ORGANIC PORK PRODUCTION: A SEASONAL ANALYSIS AND NEEDED PRICE PREMIUM FOR CONTINUOUS PRODUCTION

Niche markets of agricultural products are experiencing rapid growth. One such market is organic pork. Organic production typically demands specific production conditions that can be cost increasing. This study evaluates the cost of organic pork production, seasonal differences in costs, and premiums necessary to induce continuous organic pork production. In the past few years, niche marketing has been a rapidly growing phenomenon in agriculture. One area that has experienced dramatic growth is the production of organic products. Organic production typically brings with it specific conditions on how the product is produced. These can impact the cost structure of the business and in turn, needed premiums for economic production. One of these niche markets that are growing rapidly is the market for organic pork. A major issue in organic pork production is the differing cost structures across the seasons of the year which relates, in part, to the types of production systems allowed or disallowed. Studies have shown that consumers are very conscientious of product price, freshness, and availability. In the production of organic pork, we are able to demonstrate that there are cost savings to the producer by producing a seasonal product over a continuous product. While this allows for a lower cost for the producer, it causes an uneven pig flow problem throughout the vertical chain which affects packers, marketers, and consumers. The packers are affected by having their plants at full capacity only part of the year. For the consumer, there are certain times of the year when the product is in surplus and other times when it is in shortage causing prices to fluctuate greatly. This implies that both the consumer and the packer may have an incentive to induce the producer to provide a continuous supply of organic pork to the market. This study has two objectives. The first is to provide a detailed analysis of the producer's cost of producing organic pork in a seasonal and continuous production system. The second objective is to develop a premium structure that could induce a producer to adopt a continuous production system. The study addresses the issue by examining the increase of costs involved in expanding a seasonal (summer only farrowing) organic pork production system to continuous production of organic hogs. Production costs differ by production system and season of the year. Organic pork production cost per hundred pounds is projected to be $59.45 for the seasonal system. The seasonal system consists of farrowing in the summer time only. This cost can be compared to a continuous system of organic pork production with a cost of$63.88 per hundred pounds. The continuous system has farrowing occurring in both the winter and summer seasons. With the current premium structures for organic pork, there are more hogs being produced using summer farrowing than by winter farrowing. Consumers prefer a more uniform supply of fresh pork. To foster a more uniform supply of fresh organic pork throughout the year, premiums received by producers need to reflect the seasonal production costs differences. Our results show that if the producer is paid the continuous system's cost of production of $63.88, the producer would have an incentive to produce only seasonal hogs. To induce the producer to provide a continuous flow of hogs, a minimum premium of$7.47 beyond the seasonal price must be paid to the producer for producing hogs in the winter, and a premium of $1.66 must be paid in the summer. An alternative is that the producer would receive no premium for summer production and a premium of$9.13 per hundred pounds over the seasonal production costs to induce the producer to produce a continuous supply of hogs.Marketing,

A Tale of Two EMBAs

In this report, Cowan and Hurley review, and draw planning lessons from, two recent Tax Court opinions on the deductibility of Executive Master of Business Administration program tuition and related costs

Interactive slice visualization for exploring machine learning models

Machine learning models fit complex algorithms to arbitrarily large datasets. These algorithms are well-known to be high on performance and low on interpretability. We use interactive visualization of slices of predictor space to address the interpretability deficit; in effect opening up the black-box of machine learning algorithms, for the purpose of interrogating, explaining, validating and comparing model fits. Slices are specified directly through interaction, or using various touring algorithms designed to visit high-occupancy sections or regions where the model fits have interesting properties. The methods presented here are implemented in the R package \pkg{condvis2}.Comment: 35 pages, 14 figure

The experience of strengths based practice and reflexive practice with supervision at the family enrichment centre of Sudbury, Ontario

My Master of Social Work practicum took place in a non-­‐profit social service agency with the City of Greater Sudbury called The Family Enrichment Centre. This agency specialized in providing therapeutic mental health services to a cross section of people within the Greater City of Sudbury and surrounding communities.I had two primary goals. The first was to learn different treatment modalities in my clinical work with individuals that fit within the Strengths Perspective. The second was to utilize clinical supervision in its various forms to further develop a reflexive clinical orientation. I was able to build upon my existing experience with treatment modalities I had previously used and to practice some new treatment modalities by using the clinical structures and resources built into the agency. These clinical structures and resources included common intake, assessment and recording tools as well as training opportunities and information on a variety of clinical modalities. I was also able to develop a more reflexive practice through the use of one to one clinical supervision with a clinical psychologist, ad hoc individual supervision/consultation with other therapists and regular group consultation with other therapists. Participation within their anger management group and bi-­‐weekly individual spiritual presentations where each individual therapist shared their unique spirituality provided a work environment with reflection built into it and was in itself a primary tool in building reflexivity into my clinical practice within the Centre.Master of Social WorkPracticum paper

The Significance of the Person in Addiction.

Van Gordon et al. outline the classification of their Ontological Addiction Theory (OAT), including its aetiology and treatment. In this review article I will from an appreciative perspective question some of its fundamental assumptions by presenting an alternative view on the ontology of ‘the person’, as distinct from its presently assumed conventional conflation with a contracted separate egoic self. I will propose this view as structurally and ethically significant for the ‘embodied’ experience of a reconstructed “dynamic and non-dual self”, as cultivated in their treatment. Rather than this reconstructed self simply being socially desirable for functional purposes, I will underscore the meaning-generative case for ontological status, in the absence of which, a pervasive ‘sense of lack’ is evident, with all attendant individual, psychological, social, ecological and ethical implications. This article brings a developmental psychology perspective to bear in appreciating ‘personhood’ as an emergent, progressively realised and is thus similarly aligned with the intent of OAT in overcoming egoic addictive suffering. This mapping of the territory however populates a blind spot in OAT’s diagnosis by affirming unique personhood, a quality of ‘integrative presence’, meaningfully understood as a psycho-spiritual ontological reality. It offers, as with OAT’s stated intent, the merit of avoiding attendant mental health and developmental pitfalls, which can beset what we may discern as an implicit transcendental reductionist assumption operative in OAT, where ‘the many’ are reduced to ‘the One’ and there are, it is assumed, no real many. This framing is resonant with the lived experience of healthy ‘individuation’, a process distinct from the problematic phenomenon of ‘individualism’, evidenced by the empirical data on post-conventional human development, which potentially provides diagnostic markers for any optimal treatment discernment. It is also attuned to what many recognise as a contemporary Fourth Turning in Buddhism, in its conscious evolutionary recognition of the emergence in non-dual states of a ‘unique personal perspective’, and/or a relative individuation within the whole. This differentiation has formerly been interpreted through an ‘impersonal’ lens as an egoic holdover, and potentially inhibits ethical action in the world, as distinct from the ethical import and potential fruits stemming from the ontological affirmation of the person. Keywords: ego; unique personhood; ontology; epistemology; contemplative traditions; Western Enlightenment; developmental psychology; transcendental reductionism; Fourth Turning in Buddhis

Nonsolar astronomy with the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI)

The Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) is a NASA Small Explorer satellite designed to study hard x-ray and gamma-ray emission from solar flares. In addition, its high-resolution array of germanium detectors can see photons from high-energy sources throughout the Universe. Here we discuss the various algorithms necessary to extract spectra, lightcurves, and other information about cosmic gamma-ray bursts, pulsars, and other astrophysical phenomena using an unpointed, spinning array of detectors. We show some preliminary results and discuss our plans for future analyses. All RHESSI data are public, and scientists interested in participating should contact the principal author