564 research outputs found

    Electronic transport through ballistic chaotic cavities: reflection symmetry, direct processes, and symmetry breaking

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    We extend previous studies on transport through ballistic chaotic cavities with spatial left-right (LR) reflection symmetry to include the presence of direct processes. We first analyze fully LR-symmetric systems in the presence of direct processes and compare the distribution w(T) of the transmission coefficient T with that for an asymmetric cavity with the same "optical" S matrix. We then study the problem of "external mixing" of the symmetry caused by an asymmetric coupling of the cavity to the outside. We first consider the case where symmetry breaking arises because two symmetrically positioned waveguides are coupled to the cavity by means of asymmetric tunnel barriers. Although this system is asymmetric with respect to the LR operation, it has a striking memory of the symmetry of the cavity it was constructed from. Secondly, we break LR symmetry in the absence of direct proceses by asymmetrically positioning the two waveguides and compare the results with those for the completely asymmetric case.Comment: 15 pages, 8 Postscript figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

    Memetic Pareto Evolutionary Artificial Neural Networks for the determination of growth limits of Listeria Monocytogenes

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    The main objective of this work is to automatically design neural network models with sigmoidal basis units for classification tasks, so that classifiers are obtained in the most balanced way possible in terms of CCR and Sensitivity (given by the lowest percentage of examples correctly predicted to belong to each class). We present a Memetic Pareto Evolutionary NSGA2 (MPENSGA2) approach based on the Pareto-NSGAII evolution (PNSGAII) algorithm. We propose to augmente it with a local search using the improved Rprop—IRprop algorithm for the prediction of growth/no growth of L. monocytogenes as a function of the storage temperature, pH, citric (CA) and ascorbic acid (AA). The results obtained show that the generalization ability can be more efficiently improved within a framework that is multi-objective instead of a within a single-objective one

    Salmonella in free-ranging quokkas (Setonix brachyurus) from Rottnest Island and the mainland of Western Australia

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    Salmonella is a genus of Gram-negative, motile, and facultative anaerobic bacteria with a worldwide distribution that contaminates multiple substrates (vegetation, food, soil, and water) and inhabits the gastrointestinal tract of birds, reptiles, and mammals, including humans. Rottnest Island is a popular tourist destination and is abundantly inhabited by quokkas (Setonix brachyurus), a charismatic small wallaby. Current data on the association between Salmonella and quokkas on Rottnest Island are outdated by approximately 30 years. Additionally, previous studies on quokkas on this island and mainland Western Australia did not perform physical examinations or any diagnostic tests. The aim of the project was to assess the prevalence of Salmonella spp. in quokkas from Rottnest Island and mainland Western Australia and correlate the presence of the bacterium with the health of the animal. Ninety-two quokkas from Rottnest Island (n = 71) and populations on the mainland (n = 21) were screened for Salmonella, and a prevalence of 47.9% and 4.8%, respectively, was determined. A total of 16 serovars were identified from 37 isolates; five of these serovars had previously not been described in the quokka. Salmonella appeared to have an effect on the haematology and blood chemistry of quokkas on Rottnest Island consistent with subclinical salmonellosis. The health of Rottnest Island quokkas, and their potential impact on the health of the visitors to the island, should continue to be monitored carefully

    A guided data projection technique for classi cation of sovereign ratings: the case of European Union 27

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    Sovereign rating has had an increasing importance since the beginning of the nancial crisis. However, credit rating agencies opacity has been criticised by several authors highlighting the suitability of designing more objective alternative methods. This paper tackles the sovereign credit rating classi cation problem within an ordinal classi cation perspective by employing a pairwise class distances projection to build a classi cation model based on standard regression techniques. In this work the -SVR is selected as the regressor tool. The quality of the projection is validated through the classi cation results obtained for four performance metrics when applied to Standard & Poors, Moody's and Fitch sovereign rating data of U27 countries during the period 2007-2010. This validated projection is later used for ranking visualization which might be suitable to build a decision support syste

    A CMOS self-contained quadrature signal generator for soc impedance spectroscopy

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    This paper presents a low-power fully integrated quadrature signal generator for system-on-chip (SoC) impedance spectroscopy applications. It has been designed in a 0.18 µm-1.8 V CMOS technology as a self-contained oscillator, without the need for an external reference clock. The frequency can be digitally tuned from 10 to 345 kHz with 12-bit accuracy and a relative mean error below 1.7%, thus supporting a wide range of impedance sensing applications. The proposal is experimentally validated in two impedance spectrometry examples, achieving good magnitude and phase recovery results compared to the results obtained using a commercial LCR-meter. Besides the wide frequency tuning range, the proposed programmable oscillator features a total power consumption lower than 0.77 mW and an active area of 0.129 mm2, thus constituting a highly suitable choice as stimulation module for instrument-on-a-chip devices

    A weed monitoring system using UAV-imagery and the Hough transform

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    Usually, crops require the use of herbicides as a useful manner of controlling the quality and quantity of crop production. Although there are weed-free areas, the most common approach is to broadcast herbicides entirely over crop fields, resulting in a reduction of profits and increase in environmental risks. Recently, patch spraying has allowed the use of site-specific weed management, allowing precise and timely weed maps at very early phenological stage, either by ground sampling or remote analysis. Remote imagery from piloted planes and satellites are not suitable for this purpose given their low spatial and temporal resolutions, however, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) represent an excellent alternative. This paper presents a new classification framework for weed monitoring via UAV showing promising results and accurate generalisation in different scenariosLos cultivos precisan del uso de herbicidas para controlar la calidad y cantidad de producción. A pesar de que las malas hierbas se distribuyen en rodales, la práctica más extendida es la fumigación de herbicidas en todo el cultivo, resultando en un aumento del coste y de riesgos mediambientales. La pulvericación por parches ha dado lugar al auge de otras técnicas de manejo de malas hierbas, permitiendo su tratamiento en un estado fenológico temprano. Las imágenes remotas de aviones pilotados o satélites no son útiles en este caso debido a su baja resolución espacial y temporal. Sin embargo, este no es el caso de los vehículos aéreos no tripulados. Este artículo presenta un nuevo método para monitorización de malas hierbas usando este tipo de vehículos, mostrando resultados prometedore

    Ordinal and nominal classication of wind speed from synoptic pressure patterns

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    Wind speed reconstruction is a challenging problem in areas (mainly wind farms) where there are not direct wind measures available. Di erent approaches have been applied to this reconstruction, such as measure-correlatepredict algorithms, approaches based on physical models such as reanalysis methods, or more recently, indirect measures such as pressure, and its relation to wind speed. This paper adopts the latter method, and deals with wind speed estimation in wind farms from pressure measures, but including different novelties in the problem treatment. Existing synoptic pressure-based indirect approaches for wind speed estimation are based on considering the wind speed as a continuous target variable, estimating then the corresponding wind series of continuous values. However, the exact wind speed is not always needed by wind farms managers, and a general idea of the level of speed is, in the majority of cases, enough to set functional operations for the farm (such as wind turbines stop, for example). Moreover, the accuracy of the models obtained is usually improved for the classi cation task, given that the problem is simpli ed. Thus, this paper tackles the problem of wind speed prediction from synoptic pressure patterns by considering wind speed as a discrete variable and, consequently, wind speed prediction as a classi cation problem, with four wind level categories: low, moderate, high or very high. Moreover, taking into account that these four di erent classes are associated to four values in an ordinal scale, the problem can be considered as an ordinal regression problem. The performance of several ordinal and nominal classi- ers and the improvement achieved by considering the ordering information are evaluated. The results obtained in this paper present the Support Vector Machine as the best tested classi er for this task. In addition, the use of the intrinsic ordering information of the problem is shown to signi cantly improve ranks with respect to nominal classi cation, although di erences in accuracy are smal

    Spectral functions and pseudogap in the t-J model

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    We calculate spectral functions within the t-J model as relevant to cuprates in the regime from low to optimum doping. On the basis of equations of motion for projected operators an effective spin-fermion coupling is derived. The self energy due to short-wavelength transverse spin fluctuations is shown to lead to a modified selfconsistent Born approximation, which can explain strong asymmetry between hole and electron quasiparticles. The coupling to long-wavelength longitudinal spin fluctuations governs the low-frequency behavior and results in a pseudogap behavior, which at low doping effectively truncates the Fermi surface.Comment: Minor corrections; to appear in Phys. Rev. B (RC
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