5,885 research outputs found
Environmental modeling and recognition for an autonomous land vehicle
An architecture for object modeling and recognition for an autonomous land vehicle is presented. Examples of objects of interest include terrain features, fields, roads, horizon features, trees, etc. The architecture is organized around a set of data bases for generic object models and perceptual structures, temporary memory for the instantiation of object and relational hypotheses, and a long term memory for storing stable hypotheses that are affixed to the terrain representation. Multiple inference processes operate over these databases. Researchers describe these particular components: the perceptual structure database, the grouping processes that operate over this, schemas, and the long term terrain database. A processing example that matches predictions from the long term terrain model to imagery, extracts significant perceptual structures for consideration as potential landmarks, and extracts a relational structure to update the long term terrain database is given
Evolution of Quantum Discord and its Stability in Two-Qubit NMR Systems
We investigate evolution of quantum correlations in ensembles of two-qubit
nuclear spin systems via nuclear magnetic resonance techniques. We use discord
as a measure of quantum correlations and the Werner state as an explicit
example. We first introduce different ways of measuring discord and geometric
discord in two-qubit systems and then describe the following experimental
studies: (a) We quantitatively measure discord for Werner-like states prepared
using an entangling pulse sequence. An initial thermal state with zero discord
is gradually and periodically transformed into a mixed state with maximum
discord. The experimental and simulated behavior of rise and fall of discord
agree fairly well. (b) We examine the efficiency of dynamical decoupling
sequences in preserving quantum correlations. In our experimental setup, the
dynamical decoupling sequences preserved the traceless parts of the density
matrices at high fidelity. But they could not maintain the purity of the
quantum states and so were unable to keep the discord from decaying. (c) We
observe the evolution of discord for a singlet-triplet mixed state during a
radio-frequency spin-lock. A simple relaxation model describes the evolution of
discord, and the accompanying evolution of fidelity of the long-lived singlet
state, reasonably well.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, Phys. Rev. A (in press
Quantum information processing using strongly-dipolar coupled nuclear spins
Dipolar coupled homonuclear spins present challenging, yet useful systems for
quantum information processing. In such systems, eigenbasis of the system
Hamiltonian is the appropriate computational basis and coherent control can be
achieved by specially designed strongly modulating pulses. In this letter we
describe the first experimental implementation of the quantum algorithm for
numerical gradient estimation on the eigenbasis of a four spin system.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, Accepted in PR
Storing entanglement of nuclear spins via Uhrig Dynamical Decoupling
Stroboscopic spin flips have already been shown to prolong the coherence
times of quantum systems under noisy environments. Uhrig's dynamical decoupling
scheme provides an optimal sequence for a quantum system interacting with a
dephasing bath. Several experimental demonstrations have already verified the
efficiency of such dynamical decoupling schemes in preserving single qubit
coherences. In this work we describe the experimental study of Uhrig's
dynamical decoupling in preserving two-qubit entangled states using an ensemble
of spin-1/2 nuclear pairs in solution state. We find that the performance of
odd-order Uhrig sequences in preserving entanglement is superior to both
even-order Uhrig sequences and periodic spin-flip sequences. We also find that
there exists an optimal length of the Uhrig sequence at which the decoherence
time gets boosted from a few seconds to about 30 seconds.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure
Rhetoric in the language of real estate marketing
“Des. Res.”, “rarely available”, “viewing essential” – these are all part of the peculiar parlance of housing advertisements which contain a heady mix of euphemism, hyperbole and superlative. Of interest is whether the selling agent’s penchant for rhetoric is spatially uniform or whether there are variations across the urban system. We are also interested in how the use of superlatives varies over the market cycle and over the selling season. For example, are estate agents more inclined to use hyperbole when the market is buoyant or when it is flat, and does it matter whether a house is marketed in the summer or winter? This paper attempts to answer these questions by applying textual analysis to a unique dataset of 49,926 records of real estate transactions in the Strathclyde conurbation over the period 1999 to 2006. The analysis opens up a new avenue of research into the use of real estate rhetoric and its interaction with agency behaviour and market dynamics
Federal tax policies, congressional voting and natural resources
Can abundance of natural resources affect legislators' voting behaviour over federal tax policies? We construct a political economy model of a federalized economy with district heterogeneity in natural resource abundance. The model shows that representatives of natural resource-rich districts are more (less) willing to vote in favour of federal tax increases (decreases). This occurs because resource-rich districts are less responsive to federal tax changes due to the immobile nature of their natural resources. We test the model's predictions using data on roll-call votes in the US House of Representatives over the major federal tax bills initiated during the period of 1945–2003, in conjunction with the presence of active giant oil fields in US congressional districts. Our identification strategy rests on plausibly exogenous giant oil field discoveries and exploitation and narrative-based aggregate federal tax shocks that are exogenous to individual congressional districts and legislators. We find that: (i) resource-rich congressional districts are less responsive to changes in federal taxes and (ii) representatives of resource-rich congressional districts are more (less) supportive of federal tax increases (decreases), controlling for legislator, congressional district and state indicators. Our results indicate that resource richness is approximately half as dominant as the main determinant, namely party affiliation, in driving legislators' voting behaviour over federal tax policies
Twisted Conjugacy Classes in Lattices in Semisimple Lie Groups
Given a group automorphism , one has an action of
on itself by -twisted conjugacy, namely, .
The orbits of this action are called -conjugacy classes. One says that
has the -property if there are infinitely many
-conjugacy classes for every automorphism of . In this
paper we show that any irreducible lattice in a connected semi simple Lie group
having finite centre and rank at least 2 has the -property.Comment: 6 page
Nanoscale Weibull Statistics
In this paper a modification of the classical Weibull Statistics is developed
for nanoscale applications. It is called Nanoscale Weibull Statistics. A
comparison between Nanoscale and classical Weibull Statistics applied to
experimental results on fracture strength of carbon nanotubes clearly shows the
effectiveness of the proposed modification. A Weibull's modulus around 3 is,
for the first time, deduced for nanotubes. The approach can treat (also) a
small number of structural defects, as required for nearly defect free
structures (e.g., nanotubes) as well as a quantized crack propagation (e.g., as
a consequence of the discrete nature of matter), allowing to remove the
paradoxes caused by the presence of stress-intensifications
Worm Epidemics in Wireless Adhoc Networks
A dramatic increase in the number of computing devices with wireless
communication capability has resulted in the emergence of a new class of
computer worms which specifically target such devices. The most striking
feature of these worms is that they do not require Internet connectivity for
their propagation but can spread directly from device to device using a
short-range radio communication technology, such as WiFi or Bluetooth. In this
paper, we develop a new model for epidemic spreading of these worms and
investigate their spreading in wireless ad hoc networks via extensive Monte
Carlo simulations. Our studies show that the threshold behaviour and dynamics
of worm epidemics in these networks are greatly affected by a combination of
spatial and temporal correlations which characterize these networks, and are
significantly different from the previously studied epidemics in the Internet
Information dynamics: patterns of expectation and surprise in the perception of music
This is a postprint of an article submitted for consideration in Connection Science © 2009 [copyright Taylor & Francis]; Connection Science is available online at:http://www.tandfonline.com/openurl?genre=article&issn=0954-0091&volume=21&issue=2-3&spage=8
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