89,952 research outputs found
Estimating Semiparametric Panel Data Models by Marginal Integration
We propose a new methodology for estimating semiparametric panel data models, with a primary focus on the nonparametric component. We eliminate individual effects using first differencing transformation and estimate the unknown function by marginal integration. We extend our methodology to treat panel data models with both individual and time effects. And we characterize the asymptotic behavior of our estimators. Monte Carlo simulations show that our estimator behaves well in finite samples in both random effects and fixed effects settings.Semiparametric Panel Data Model, Partially Linear, First Differencing, Marginal Integration
The linear instability of the stratified plane Couette flow
We present the stability analysis of a plane Couette flow which is stably
stratified in the vertical direction orthogonally to the horizontal shear.
Interest in such a flow comes from geophysical and astrophysical applications
where background shear and vertical stable stratification commonly coexist. We
perform the linear stability analysis of the flow in a domain which is periodic
in the stream-wise and vertical directions and confined in the cross-stream
direction. The stability diagram is constructed as a function of the Reynolds
number Re and the Froude number Fr, which compares the importance of shear and
stratification. We find that the flow becomes unstable when shear and
stratification are of the same order (i.e. Fr 1) and above a moderate
value of the Reynolds number Re700. The instability results from a
resonance mechanism already known in the context of channel flows, for instance
the unstratified plane Couette flow in the shallow water approximation. The
result is confirmed by fully non linear direct numerical simulations and to the
best of our knowledge, constitutes the first evidence of linear instability in
a vertically stratified plane Couette flow. We also report the study of a
laboratory flow generated by a transparent belt entrained by two vertical
cylinders and immersed in a tank filled with salty water linearly stratified in
density. We observe the emergence of a robust spatio-temporal pattern close to
the threshold values of F r and Re indicated by linear analysis, and explore
the accessible part of the stability diagram. With the support of numerical
simulations we conclude that the observed pattern is a signature of the same
instability predicted by the linear theory, although slightly modified due to
streamwise confinement
Sketch-based 3D Shape Retrieval using Convolutional Neural Networks
Retrieving 3D models from 2D human sketches has received considerable
attention in the areas of graphics, image retrieval, and computer vision.
Almost always in state of the art approaches a large amount of "best views" are
computed for 3D models, with the hope that the query sketch matches one of
these 2D projections of 3D models using predefined features.
We argue that this two stage approach (view selection -- matching) is
pragmatic but also problematic because the "best views" are subjective and
ambiguous, which makes the matching inputs obscure. This imprecise nature of
matching further makes it challenging to choose features manually. Instead of
relying on the elusive concept of "best views" and the hand-crafted features,
we propose to define our views using a minimalism approach and learn features
for both sketches and views. Specifically, we drastically reduce the number of
views to only two predefined directions for the whole dataset. Then, we learn
two Siamese Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), one for the views and one for
the sketches. The loss function is defined on the within-domain as well as the
cross-domain similarities. Our experiments on three benchmark datasets
demonstrate that our method is significantly better than state of the art
approaches, and outperforms them in all conventional metrics.Comment: CVPR 201
Measuring information growth in fractal phase space
We look at chaotic systems evolving in fractal phase space. The entropy
change in time due to the fractal geometry is assimilated to the information
growth through the scale refinement. Due to the incompleteness, at any scale,
of the information calculation in fractal support, the incomplete normalization
is applied throughout the paper. It is shown that the
information growth is nonadditive and is proportional to the trace-form
so that it can be connected to several nonadditive
entropies. This information growth can be extremized to give, for
non-equilibrium systems, power law distributions of evolving stationary state
which may be called ``maximum entropic evolution''.Comment: 10 pages, 1 eps figure, TeX. Chaos, Solitons & Fractals (2004), in
pres
Spontaneous Formation of Stable Capillary Bridges for Firming Compact Colloidal Microstructures in Phase Separating Liquids: A Computational Study
Computer modeling and simulations are performed to investigate capillary
bridges spontaneously formed between closely packed colloidal particles in
phase separating liquids. The simulations reveal a self-stabilization mechanism
that operates through diffusive equilibrium of two-phase liquid morphologies.
Such mechanism renders desired microstructural stability and uniformity to the
capillary bridges that are spontaneously formed during liquid solution phase
separation. This self-stabilization behavior is in contrast to conventional
coarsening processes during phase separation. The volume fraction limit of the
separated liquid phases as well as the adhesion strength and thermodynamic
stability of the capillary bridges are discussed. Capillary bridge formations
in various compact colloid assemblies are considered. The study sheds light on
a promising route to in-situ (in-liquid) firming of fragile colloidal crystals
and other compact colloidal microstructures via capillary bridges
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