The Cascading Haar Wavelet algorithm for computing the Walsh-Hadamard Transform

We propose a novel algorithm for computing the Walsh-Hadamard Transform (WHT) which consists entirely of Haar wavelet transforms. We prove that the algorithm, which we call the Cascading Haar Wavelet (CHW) algorithm, shares precisely the same serial complexity as the popular divide-and-conquer algorithm for the WHT. We also propose a natural way of parallelizing the algorithm which has a number of attractive features

Andrew I. Thompson - From Tragedy to Policy: Representations of Muslims and Islam in U.S. Mainstream Media

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11th came a flood of criticism of Islam and Muslims in the U.S. media. Many saw Islam as the root cause of the attacks, but failed to assess the political or social issues in the Middle East, or even the United States’ role in the region. An example of this is the New York Times’ section that ran immediately after the attacks entitled ‘A Nation Challenged,’ which included titles such as: “Yes, this is about Islam,” “This is a religious war,” “Barbarians at the gate,” and “The one true faith.” This project analyzes the mainstream print media’s—New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time, and USA Today—representation of Muslims and Islam from September 11, 2001 to December 31, 2001 and its relation to U.S. foreign policy. My assertion is that the mainstream media employed rhetorical emulating, and sometimes mimicking, of Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations theory when representing Muslims and Islam, which in turn supported aggressive military action in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. In support of my assertion, I find that Huntington’s clash of civilizations absolves the US of all guilt regarding the attacks. Once the theory is adopted it becomes a given, something intrinsic to politics, thus making the ‘clash’ seem inevitable. The Clash of Civilizations theory also supports aggressive military action because of the implicit and explicit denunciation of all ‘civilizations’ that are not ‘Western.’https://epublications.marquette.edu/mcnair_2013/1016/thumbnail.jp

Sparse Inverse Problems Over Measures: Equivalence of the Conditional Gradient and Exchange Methods

We study an optimization program over nonnegative Borel measures that encourages sparsity in its solution. Efficient solvers for this program are in increasing demand, as it arises when learning from data generated by a `continuum-of-subspaces' model, a recent trend with applications in signal processing, machine learning, and high-dimensional statistics. We prove that the conditional gradient method (CGM) applied to this infinite-dimensional program, as proposed recently in the literature, is equivalent to the exchange method (EM) applied to its Lagrangian dual, which is a semi-infinite program. In doing so, we formally connect such infinite-dimensional programs to the well-established field of semi-infinite programming. On the one hand, the equivalence established in this paper allows us to provide a rate of convergence for EM which is more general than those existing in the literature. On the other hand, this connection and the resulting geometric insights might in the future lead to the design of improved variants of CGM for infinite-dimensional programs, which has been an active research topic. CGM is also known as the Frank-Wolfe algorithm

A new and improved quantitative recovery analysis for iterative hard thresholding algorithms in compressed sensing

We present a new recovery analysis for a standard compressed sensing algorithm, Iterative Hard Thresholding (IHT) (Blumensath and Davies, 2008), which considers the fixed points of the algorithm. In the context of arbitrary measurement matrices, we derive a sufficient condition for convergence of IHT to a fixed point and a necessary condition for the existence of fixed points. These conditions allow us to perform a sparse signal recovery analysis in the deterministic noiseless case by implying that the original sparse signal is the unique fixed point and limit point of IHT, and in the case of Gaussian measurement matrices and noise by generating a bound on the approximation error of the IHT limit as a multiple of the noise level. By generalizing the notion of fixed points, we extend our analysis to the variable stepsize Normalised IHT (N-IHT) (Blumensath and Davies, 2010). For both stepsize schemes, we obtain asymptotic phase transitions in a proportional-dimensional framework, quantifying the sparsity/undersampling trade-off for which recovery is guaranteed. Exploiting the reasonable average-case assumption that the underlying signal and measurement matrix are independent, comparison with previous results within this framework shows a substantial quantitative improvement

Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) : a qualitative methodology of choice in healthcare research

This paper focuses on the teaching of the qualitative method, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), to healthcare professionals (HCPs). It introduces briefly the philosophical background of IPA and how it has been used within healthcare research, and then discusses the teaching of IPA to HCPs within received educational theory. Lastly, the paper describes how IPA has been taught to students/trainees in some specific healthcare professions (clinical psychology, medicine, nursing and related disciplines). In doing this, the paper demonstrates the essential simplicity, paradoxical complexity, and methodological rigour that IPA can offer as a research tool in understanding healthcare and illness from the patient or service user perspective

Identification of novel stress-responsive biomarkers from gene expression datasets in tomato roots

Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is the Author Accepted Manuscript. This article may be used for personal use only.Abiotic stresses such as heat, drought or salinity have been widely studied individually. Nevertheless, in the nature and in the field, plants and crops are commonly exposed to a different combination of stresses, which often result in a synergistic response mediated by the activation of several molecular pathways that cannot be inferred from the response to each individual stress. By screening microarray data obtained from different plant species and under different stresses, we identified several conserved stress-responsive genes whose expression was differentially regulated in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) roots in response to one or several stresses. We validated 10 of these genes as reliable biomarkers whose expression levels are related to different signalling pathways involved in adaptive stress responses. In addition, the genes identified in this work could be used as general salt-stress biomarkers to rapidly evaluate the response of salt-tolerant cultivars and wild species for which sufficient genetic information is not yet available

Estimating the costs of crime in New Zealand in 2003/04

We estimate that the total costs of crime in New Zealand in 2003/04 amounted to $9.1 billion. Of this, the private sector incurred$7 billion in costs and the public sector $2.1 billion. Offences against private property are the most common crimes but offences against the person are the most costly, accounting for 45% of the total estimated costs of crime. Empirically-based measures like those presented here – the total and average costs of crime by category – are a useful aid to policy analysis around criminal justice operations and settings. However, care needs to be taken when interpreting these results because they rely considerably on assumptions, including the assumed volume of actual crime, and the costs that crime imposes on victims. This difficulty in constructing robust estimates also implies that care should be taken not to draw conclusions about whether the Government should be putting more or less resources into any specific categories of crime, based on their relative costs alone.crime; justice; costs; New Zealand

The Labour Market Mobility of Polish Migrants: A Comparative Study of Three Regions in South Wales, UK

Since Polish migrants began entering the UK labour market in the post-accession period, there has been a significant amount of case study research focusing on the impact of this large migrant group on the UK economy. However, ten years after enlargement, there is still insufficient information regarding the labour market mobility of Polish migrants residing in the UK for the longer term. The available research on this topic is largely concentrated in urban settings such as London or Birmingham, and does not necessarily capture the same patterns of labour market mobility as in non-urban settings. Using qualitative data collected in three case study locations – urban, semi-urban and rural – in the South Wales region from 2008–2012, this article has two main aims. First, given the proximity of the case study locations, the article highlights the diversity of the Polish migrant characteristics through the samples used. Second, using trajectories created from the data, this article compares the variations among the labour market movements of the Polish migrants in each sample to determine what characteristics influence labour market ascent. Through this comparative trajectory analysis, the findings from this article point to the relative English language competency of migrants as the primary catalyst for progression in the Welsh labour market across all three case study regions. The secondary catalyst, which is intertwined with the first, is the composition of the migrants’ social networks, which enable, or in some cases disable, labour market progression. These findings have significant implications in the national and in the supranational policy sphere regarding the employment of migrants as well as their potential for cultural integration in the future

Reform of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Courts: Procedural and Operational Changes

[Excerpt] The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 was the product of sweeping congressional investigation and deliberation prompted by perceived electronic surveillance abuses by the executive branch. Among other things, FISA established the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to review government applications to conduct electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review (FISA Court of Review) to review the decisions of the FISC. In the wake of revelations in June 2013 concerning the scope of orders issued by the FISC, many have questioned the efficacy of the current mechanisms for reviewing the executive branch’s intelligence gathering practices. While some have proposed altering the underlying substantive law that regulates such surveillance, other proposals address the practice and procedures of authorizing such surveillance activities. This report begins with an overview of both the FISC and the FISA Court of Review, including the jurisdiction of these courts, how the judges are appointed, and the FISC’s practices and procedures for reviewing and issuing surveillance orders. The report then discusses the scope and underlying legal principles behind congressional regulation of the procedures of the federal courts, and applies those principles with respect to the various proposals to reform the FISA judicial review process. These reforms include requiring the FISC to hear arguments from “friends of the court” or amici curiae, who would brief the court on the privacy or civil liberty interests implicated by a government application; mandating that in certain instances the FISC sit en banc—that is, with all 11 FISC judges; and altering the voting rules of the FISC and FISA Court of Review