Sequential Importance Sampling for Online Bayesian Changepoint Detection

Online detection of abrupt changes in the parameters of a generative model for a time series is useful when modelling data in areas of application such as finance, robotics, and biometrics. We present an algorithm based on Sequential Importance Sampling which allows this problem to be solved in an online setting without relying on conjugate priors. Our results are exact and unbiased as we avoid using posterior approximations, and only rely on Monte Carlo integration when computing predictive probabilities. We apply the proposed algorithm to three example data sets. In two of the examples we compare our results to previously published analyses which used conjugate priors. In the third example we demonstrate an application where conjugate priors are not available. Avoiding conjugate priors allows a wider range of models to be considered with Bayesian changepoint detection, and additionally allows the use of arbitrary informative priors to quantify the uncertainty more flexibly

Controllable linear π\pi-phase modulation in a thermal atom vapor without diffraction or absorption

A scheme is proposed to achieve substantial controllable phase modulation for a probe field propagating through a thermal atomic vapor in double-$\Lambda$ configuration. The phase modulation is based on the linear susceptibility of the probe field, paraxial diffraction is eliminated by exploiting the thermal motion of atoms, and residual absorption is compensated via an incoherent pump field. As a result, a strong controllable uniform phase modulation without paraxial diffraction is achieved essentially independent of the spatial profile or the intensity of the probe field. This phase shift can be controlled via the intensities of the control or the incoherent pump fields. A possible proof-of-principle experiment in alkali atoms is discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure

Wheat rusts never sleep but neither do sequencers: will pathogenomics transform the way plant diseases are managed?

Field pathogenomics adds highly informative data to surveillance surveys by enabling rapid evaluation of pathogen variability, population structure and host genotype

Friends at Mid-Century

The Isaac T. and Lida K. Johnson Lectureship, made possible by their gift, was created by the Executive Committee of the Five Years Meeting in its sessions of April, 1940. The creative minute of the Executive Committee is in part as follows: It is the duty of the Executive Committee to determine the use of this money and the Central Committee submits this recommendation: (1) that the gift be made a continuing memorial to these dear friends and (2) that the memorial be in the form of a lectureship for the Five Years Meeting, and, as it may direct, to be known as the Isaac T. and Lida K. Johnson Lectureship. It is further recommended that these lectures shall within the jurisdiction of the Executive Committee, be restricted to the field of Christian scholarship and the Christian message and its application to life. It is the confident expectation of the Executive Committee that not only the constituency of the Five Years Meeting, but all of Quakerism will be enriched by the successive messages made possible by this gift.https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/quakerbooks/1072/thumbnail.jp

ALBANIAN IMMOVABLE PROPERTY REGISTRATION SYSTEM: REVIEW OF LEGISLATION

The registration system of immovable property in Albania was chosen for four basic reasons: (1) it protects the right of immovable property owners by providing strong and reliable evidence about ownership and other interests in immovable properties; (2) it is simple and inexpensive to administer and maintain; (3) it provides the public with easily accessible information which they need to buy and sell, mortgage, and rent immovable property, thereby providing the basis for a market-oriented economy; and, (4) it permits the building of a Geographical Information System with property information as an integral and fundamental segment. The registration system is similar in concept to what is used in Nordic countries, Austria, the Netherlands, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Croatia, Macedonia, the United Kingdom, and the northern provinces of Italy. It is different from other European countries in that it is expressly "property" or "parcel" based and not simply a recording of transactions. It is an improvement over both types of European systems in that it combines property mapping with the recording of legal rights into a single administrative system. This paper describes Republic of Albania's Law on the Registration of Immovable Property and includes a copy of the law as an annex.Land titles -- Registration and transfer -- Albania, Land tenure -- Law and legislation -- Albania, Land Economics/Use,