Efficient Data Representation by Selecting Prototypes with Importance Weights

Prototypical examples that best summarizes and compactly represents an underlying complex data distribution communicate meaningful insights to humans in domains where simple explanations are hard to extract. In this paper we present algorithms with strong theoretical guarantees to mine these data sets and select prototypes a.k.a. representatives that optimally describes them. Our work notably generalizes the recent work by Kim et al. (2016) where in addition to selecting prototypes, we also associate non-negative weights which are indicative of their importance. This extension provides a single coherent framework under which both prototypes and criticisms (i.e. outliers) can be found. Furthermore, our framework works for any symmetric positive definite kernel thus addressing one of the key open questions laid out in Kim et al. (2016). By establishing that our objective function enjoys a key property of that of weak submodularity, we present a fast ProtoDash algorithm and also derive approximation guarantees for the same. We demonstrate the efficacy of our method on diverse domains such as retail, digit recognition (MNIST) and on publicly available 40 health questionnaires obtained from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) website maintained by the US Dept. of Health. We validate the results quantitatively as well as qualitatively based on expert feedback and recently published scientific studies on public health, thus showcasing the power of our technique in providing actionability (for retail), utility (for MNIST) and insight (on CDC datasets) which arguably are the hallmarks of an effective data mining method.Comment: Accepted for publication in International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM) 201

1.55 μm direct bandgap electroluminescence from strained n-Ge quantum wells grown on Si substrates

Electroluminescence from strained n-Ge quantum well light emitting diodes grown on a silicon substrate are demonstrated at room temperature. Electroluminescence characterisation demonstrates two peaks around 1.55 μm and 1.8 μm, which correspond to recombination between the direct and indirect transitions, respectively. The emission wavelength can be tuned by around 4% through changing the current density through the device. The devices have potential applications in the fields of optical interconnects, gas sensing, and healthcare

Spatio-temporal dynamics of population structure for macro invertebrates families in a continuum dam - effluent - river in irrigated system. Volta Basin (Burkina Faso)

A monthly sampling of benthic macro invertebrates was carried out at the hydro-agricultural dam of Boura in the Volta watershed basin (Burkina) during the period of February through July 2012 in order to describe the structuring of insect succession along with changes occurring in habitats of this irrigated dam farming system. The samples of insects were collected from 6 stations located inside the littoral (Station I), the sublittoral (Station II), the sewage channel or effluent (Stations III, IV, V) and the Mouhoun River (Station VI). The sampling method employed is a conventional method by the European Union named ” Directive Cadre sur l’Eau (DCE) ” recommended for the survey of benthic macro invertebrates. The survey reveals a community composed majorly of insects (more than 75%) variously distributed. On one hand at the shoreline and the coastal- adjoining zone in the dam, 23 families of macro invertebrates were identified; mostly belonging to the shoreline except for 10 families identified as endemic to the adjoining zone of the coastline. These two zones of the dam shelter the same malacological fauna consisting of the Unionidae, Lymneidae, Ampullariidae, Planorbidae, Valvatidae and Bulinidae families. The survey reveals otherwise that the differences between the Shannon biological diversity indices for these two zones were more pronounced during the month of July, the rainy period in the basin. On the other hand, concerning the dam-effluent-river continuum, a total of 35 families are sampled: 27 from dam water and stations near the irrigated zones; and 32 from the station of the sewage channel far from the irrigated zone and the river. The identification of individuals belonging to the family of the Baetidae and the Ephemerellidae (order of Ephemeroptera) in the river water highlights a subsequent reconstruction of the biodiversity in the river as the presence of both families is an indicator of fertile water. Further analysis on the spatial and temporal distribution involved 17 families out of the 35 sampled not common to all habitats. This lead to the conclusion that changes in natural habitats dictate the clustering patterns of macro invertebrates populations during the year long

Acute toxicity tests of two herbicides diuron and atrazine on the beetle Crenitis sp in Volta Basin, Burkina Faso

Acute toxicity tests were performed on Crenitis spp (Coleoptera; Hydrophilidae) using two herbicides, atrazine and diuron in the laboratory. The experiment was to investigate the effect of high doses of these pollutants in individually and together for 12 h each on Crenitis spp a species that abounds during the dry period in the shallow hydro-agricultural waters reservoirs of the Volta Basin. Individual macroinvertebrates were collected from puddle areas of the shoreline of Bama Reservoir in the Volta basin. The dry period is the period of rest for agricultural activities at the reservoir. Tests have shown that the toxic effects of the two herbicides on the species of beetles can be enhanced when the both products act synergistically. For diuron, the effective concentration that immobilizes 50% (EC50) of the insects is 44.96 g/l only, but drops to 11.72 g/l in the mixture; while in the same order, atrazine shows 11.75 g/l only and then drops to 7.33 g/l in synergy. It is concluded from this study that works on ecotoxicology should consider the additive or synergistic effects of herbicides to define the bio-ecological traits of macroinvertebrate species living in frequently polluted hydro-agricultural systems

Beam energy measurement at linear colliders using spin precession

Linear collider designs foresee some bends of about 5-10 mrad. The spin precession angle of one TeV electrons on 10 mrad bend is 23.2 rad and it changes proportional to the energy. Measurement of the spin direction using Compton scattering of laser light on electrons before and after the bend allows determining the beam energy with an accuracy about of 10^{-5}. In this paper the principle of the method, the procedure of the measurement and possible errors are discussed. Some remarks about importance of plasma focusing effects in the method of beam energy measurement using Moller scattering are given.Comment: 7 pages, Latex, 4 figures(.eps). In v.3 corresponds to journal publication. Talk at 26-th Advanced ICFA Beam Dynamic Workshop on Nanometre-Size Colliding Beams (Nanobeam2002), Lausanne, Switzerland, Sept 2-6, 200

Giant g factor tuning of long-lived electron spins in Ge

Control of electron spin coherence via external fields is fundamental in spintronics. Its implementation demands a host material that accommodates the highly desirable but contrasting requirements of spin robustness to relaxation mechanisms and sizeable coupling between spin and orbital motion of charge carriers. Here we focus on Ge, which, by matching those criteria, is rapidly emerging as a prominent candidate for shuttling spin quantum bits in the mature framework of Si electronics. So far, however, the intrinsic spin-dependent phenomena of free electrons in conventional Ge/Si heterojunctions have proved to be elusive because of epitaxy constraints and an unfavourable band alignment. We overcome such fundamental limitations by investigating a two dimensional electron gas (2DEG) confined in quantum wells of pure Ge grown on SiGe-buffered Si substrates. These epitaxial systems demonstrate exceptionally long spin relaxation and coherence times, eventually unveiling the potential of Ge in bridging the gap between spintronic concepts and semiconductor device physics. In particular, by tuning spin-orbit interaction via quantum confinement we demonstrate that the electron Land\'e g factor and its anisotropy can be engineered in our scalable and CMOS-compatible architectures over a range previously inaccessible for Si spintronics

Polarization squeezing with cold atoms

We study the interaction of a nearly resonant linearly polarized laser beam with a cloud of cold cesium atoms in a high finesse optical cavity. We show theoretically and experimentally that the cross-Kerr effect due to the saturation of the optical transition produces quadrature squeezing on both the mean field and the orthogonally polarized vacuum mode. An interpretation of this vacuum squeezing as polarization squeezing is given and a method for measuring quantum Stokes parameters for weak beams via a local oscillator is developed