Towards a Scalable Hardware/Software Co-Design Platform for Real-time Pedestrian Tracking Based on a ZYNQ-7000 Device

Currently, most designers face a daunting task to research different design flows and learn the intricacies of specific software from various manufacturers in hardware/software co-design. An urgent need of creating a scalable hardware/software co-design platform has become a key strategic element for developing hardware/software integrated systems. In this paper, we propose a new design flow for building a scalable co-design platform on FPGA-based system-on-chip. We employ an integrated approach to implement a histogram oriented gradients (HOG) and a support vector machine (SVM) classification on a programmable device for pedestrian tracking. Not only was hardware resource analysis reported, but the precision and success rates of pedestrian tracking on nine open access image data sets are also analysed. Finally, our proposed design flow can be used for any real-time image processingrelated products on programmable ZYNQ-based embedded systems, which benefits from a reduced design time and provide a scalable solution for embedded image processing products

Warfare in New Guinea a comparative study: a comparative study

Nearly all anthropologists who work in New Guinea comment upon the importance of warfare in the life of the people. This thesis attempts to make a comparative study of primitive war in New Guinea and trace the significance of certain military characteristics in native society. The subject matter of the thesis is divided up into four chapters. The first chapter is a discussion of the comparative method and anthropological theory relating to a study of warfare. After Malinowski (1941), war is defined as organized hostility with the aim of political gain. Primitive war is distinguished from advanced war because in the former, political aims are implicit and war sometimes occurs for reasons which are not political, whereas in the latter, the political aim is always explicit. The second chapter is a discussion of ecological theories which relate to primitive war. The suggestions of "cultural ecologists" (Vayda 1961, 1971: Rappaport 1968), that people fight when their population density increases and they suffer a shortage of resources, are tested with ecological material, demographic information and ethnographic examples. The conclusion of this chapter is that few wars in New Guinea can be explained by ecological factors alone. The third chapter is a discussion of social organization and war. The argument of this chapter is divided up into three parts. Firstly, an outline of the concepts and a definition of the terms used in the survey. Secondly, a series of twenty seven ethnographic examples accompanied by diagrams of political and descent group organization, and the fields of war. Thirdly, a comparative analysis of war and social organization facilitated by a series of computer programmes. The argument of this chapter, following the political criteria stipulated for war in the first chapter, is that war in New Guinea is basically a struggle between small political factions led by big men. The fourth chapter is a discussion of primitive military organization. This analysis is based on a series of military principles suggested by Turney-High (1949) and concludes with a comparative study of military organization and the different types of war discussed in the previous chapter

Alegría rebelde and performance (c)art: A comparative (auto)ethnography of contemporary absurd performance practice amongst activists and socially committed artists in Buenos Aires and New York City

This is an interdisciplinary study of contemporary absurd performance practice amongst activists and socially committed artists in Buenos Aires and New York City primarily informed by sixteen months of comparative ethnographic fieldwork. It centrally seeks to identify the motivations that drive different absurd performance practices amongst activists and socially committed artists across different socio-political contexts. Following a brief, signposting introduction and outline of the key collectives worked with during fieldwork, this thesis begins with a consideration of how to define ‘the absurd’ and ‘absurd performance’. The new theoretical framework of pragmatic absurdo-anarchism is proposed via combined contemplation of absurdist metaphysical philosophy and anarchist political philosophy in continual conversation with both my personal autoethnographic performance experimentation and reflection upon my ethnographic observations of others in Buenos Aires and New York City. From here, a new definition of absurd performance is outlined centering upon exaggerated counter-normative transgression. Elaborating upon the insights of growing literature concerning direct ‘tactical performance’ (Bogad, 2016a; Shepard, 2011; Duncombe, 2016) in relation to my ethnographic data, the counterpoint of more oblique supra-tactical performance is conceptualized, as is a spectrum of (supra)tactical absurd performance possibilities between these two ideal types. An account of my comparative ethnographic methodology and how it contributes fresh insight to the study of this topic and to Performance Studies more broadly is followed by a distillation of the key cultural and political characteristics of Buenos Aires and New York City that were observed to be influential upon absurd performance practices. Reporting and analysis of ethnographic data is then split into two primary sections. The first substantiates earlier theoretical claims by exploring the ideological underpinnings of different (supra)tactical orientations of absurd performance between those defining as activists and those defining as artists in each fieldsite. The second illustrates how the particular socio-political histories and actualities of Buenos Aires and New York City differently restrict and enable different forms of absurd performance. Here the need is outlined for further cross-cultural research on this topic in order to continue to fill the gaps in knowledge left behind by the ethnocentric over-concentration on Western activist case studies within the currently dominant academic literature

After the 'affluent society' : cost of living in the Papua New Guinea highlands according to time and energy expenditure- income

What is the cost of living in the Papua New Guinea highlands? An answer is sought using a time and energy accounting approach. The subsistence regime of Wola-speaking highlanders, the subjects of this investigation, comprises three components. The principal one is horticulture: people clearing gardens from forest and grassland, with tuberous crops predominating, notably sweet potato. The second component comprises animal rearing, notably of domestic pigs. The third, and least important, is hunting and gathering for food in the forest. The calculated returns on investments in these subsistence domains vary considerably. Gardens return in their crops between ten and fifteen times the energy expended in cultivation. Pigs may also give a good return, of four to five times the energy invested in rearing them, if slaughtered when adult, but people regularly keep animals for years and may incur negative energy returns on their labour investments. This relates to the high cultural premium put on pigs. Foraging for food is also energetically costly, the Wola expending four times more energy on these activities than they gain in return from the food they secure. This analysis of energy gains and losses challenges the relative notion of affluence as applied to foragers, by reviewing it in the comparative context of subsistence horticulture

Pigs in Rites: Rights in Pigs: Porcine Values in the Papua New Guinea Highlands

This paper discusses the place of pigs in the mountains of Papua New Guinea, particularly in the Was valley of the Southern Highlands Province. After a brief introduction to the pigs of the region and their herding arrangements, it gives an ethnographic account of their use in various rites, notably those that feature curing, sorcery and cult activities. They prompt consideration of the relevance of concepts used to understand these ritual activities, whether they are offerings or sacrifices or something else particular to pigs in rites. The cults also include large pig kill festivals that have notable socio-political implications. These relate to rights in pigs and their ownership, which are complex issues that impinge on all of the foregoing activities

FunTree: advances in a resource for exploring and contextualising protein function evolution.

FunTree is a resource that brings together protein sequence, structure and functional information, including overall chemical reaction and mechanistic data, for structurally defined domain superfamilies. Developed in tandem with the CATH database, the original FunTree contained just 276 superfamilies focused on enzymes. Here, we present an update of FunTree that has expanded to include 2340 superfamilies including both enzymes and proteins with non-enzymatic functions annotated by Gene Ontology (GO) terms. This allows the investigation of how novel functions have evolved within a structurally defined superfamily and provides a means to analyse trends across many superfamilies. This is done not only within the context of a protein's sequence and structure but also the relationships of their functions. New measures of functional similarity have been integrated, including for enzymes comparisons of overall reactions based on overall bond changes, reaction centres (the local environment atoms involved in the reaction) and the sub-structure similarities of the metabolites involved in the reaction and for non-enzymes semantic similarities based on the GO. To identify and highlight changes in function through evolution, ancestral character estimations are made and presented. All this is accessible through a new re-designed web interface that can be found at http://www.funtree.info

Hˉ+\bar{\textrm{H}}^{+} Sympathetic Cooling Simulations with a Variable Time Step

In this paper we present a new variable time step criterion for the velocity-Verlet algorithm allowing to correctly simulate the dynamics of charged particles exchanging energy via Coulomb collisions while minimising simulation time. We present physical arguments supporting the use of the criterion along with numerical results proving its validity. We numerically show that $\bar{\textrm{H}}^{+}$ ions with 18 meV initial energy can be captured and sympathetically cooled by a Coulomb crystal of $\textrm{Be}^{+}$ and $\textrm{HD}^{+}$ in less than 10 ms, an important result for the GBAR project.Comment: LEAP 2016 proceedin

Plethora : a framework for the intelligent control of robotic assembly systems

Plethora : a framework for the intelligent control of robotic assembly system

An intelligent, multi-transducer signal conditioning design for manufacturing applications

This paper describes a flexible, intelligent, high bandwidth, signal conditioning reference design and implementation, which is suitable for a wide range of force and displacement transducers in manufacturing applications. The flexibility inherent in the design has allowed more than 10 specialised transducer conditioning boards to be replaced by this single design, in a range of bespoke mechanical test equipment manufactured by the authors. The board is able to automatically reconfigure itself for a wide range of transducers and calibrate and balance the transducer. The range of transducers includes LVDT, AC/DC strain gauge and inductive bridges, and a range of standard industrial voltage current interface transducers. Further, with a minor lowcost addition to the transducer connector, the board is able to recognise the type of transducer, reconfigure itself and store the calibration data within the transducer, thereafter allowing a plugand-play operation as transducers are changed. The paper provides an example of the operation in typical manufacturing test application and illustrates the stability and noise performance of the design

Testing the plagioclase discriminator on the GEOROC database to identify porphyry-fertile magmatic systems in Japan

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via the DOI in this record.Despite showing favourable geology, there are no known porphyry-type deposits in Japan. This, therefore, provides an ideal porphyry-‘barren’ case area on which to test the recently developed plagioclase-based discriminator for porphyry‘fertile’ calc-alkaline systems. The discriminator was applied to plagioclase data for Japan in the online GEOROC database for convergent margin settings. Of the 3933 data points available, and considered reliable, 91% fall in the ‘barren’ field which compares with 73% for equivalent data worldwide. ‘Fertile’ signatures in certain parts of Kyushu and central Honshu should be further investigated, as well as areas where there are magnetite-series magmatic systems with elevated whole-rock Sr/Y, but for which there are currently little or no plagioclase data (SW-, N-central- and NE-Honshu). Why the Japanese arcs appear to show anomalously poor potential for porphyry deposits compared with other arcs worldwide, including Western Luzon, is as yet unclear, but possibly relates to tectonic factors or the nature of the magmatic source, or because melt PH2O in many of the magmatic systems was too low, as suggested from low average excess Al in plagioclase.The project would not have been possible without the financial and logistical support of the Daiwa Foundation and funding from the Natural Environment Research Council project “FAMOS” (NE/P017452/1)