A Binary Neural Shape Matcher using Johnson Counters and Chain Codes

In this paper, we introduce a neural network-based shape matching algorithm that uses Johnson Counter codes coupled with chain codes. Shape matching is a fundamental requirement in content-based image retrieval systems. Chain codes describe shapes using sequences of numbers. They are simple and flexible. We couple this power with the efficiency and flexibility of a binary associative-memory neural network. We focus on the implementation details of the algorithm when it is constructed using the neural network. We demonstrate how the binary associative-memory neural network can index and match chain codes where the chain code elements are represented by Johnson codes

Surface code implementation of block code state distillation

State distillation is the process of taking a number of imperfect copies of a particular quantum state and producing fewer better copies. Until recently, the lowest overhead method of distilling states |A>=(|0>+e^{i\pi/4}|1>)/\sqrt{2} produced a single improved |A> state given 15 input copies. New block code state distillation methods can produce k improved |A> states given 3k+8 input copies, potentially significantly reducing the overhead associated with state distillation. We construct an explicit surface code implementation of block code state distillation and quantitatively compare the overhead of this approach to the old. We find that, using the best available techniques, for parameters of practical interest, block code state distillation does not always lead to lower overhead, and, when it does, the overhead reduction is typically less than a factor of three.Comment: 26 pages, 28 figure

Urban design and social capital: lessons from a case study in Braunstone, Leicester, UK

A valuable asset in sustainable regeneration is the ‘community’ with their developed networks, bonds and ties or in other words its social capital which is a useful resource. Braunstone in Leicester is typical of many disadvantaged areas in the UK, with persistent socio-economic problems exacerbated by a poor physical setting. With a large regeneration programme funded by the New Deal for Communities coming to a close, we conducted a case study to explore the impact of improved local facilities and the effect of walkability on social capital. The lessons learnt suggests that responding to needs at a finer grain is vital in developing neighbourhoods for social capital such as responding to the needs of different user groups, responding to local patterns of use and needs of micro localities, and improving the perceptions of neighbourhoods. Local facilities and neighbourhood walkablity provides incentives for longer term residency, and facilitates interaction which helps social capital to grow. Accessing services by walking and using public transport proves vital to engage in social activities, while a poor physical environment, lack of accessible services and public transport negatively affects participation in social and leisure activities. Facilities and buildings provide a mediating role in developing social capital in a community, providing opportunity for social interaction which encourages people to reside in an area for longer. Improving connections beyond the neighbourhood is important to help retain people for longer term residency to develop social capital

Computer modelling of hydrogenation reactions in the organic solid state

1,4-bis(phenylethynyl)benzene, also known as DEB, is a hydrogen getter molecule that is used in industry to prevent the potential catastrophic build up of hydrogen by removing it from the system. This thesis aimed to computationally study the melting point of the DEB molecule along with its mobility after hydrogenation. Another aim was to compare the DEB molecule against a similar, previously well studied molecule – diphenylacetylene. The technique that was utilised to perform these solid state simulations was molecular dynamics (MD) based on interatomic potentials. The Consistent Valence Forcefield (also known as cvff) was shown to be the most appropriate force field to be used for the calculations in this study. The melting point ‘envelope’ for DEB was calculated to be 400.15 – 473.15 K which was in good agreement with previously published experimental data. Diffusion coefficients were calculated and used to illustrate that the fully hydrogenated DEB molecule (1,4-bis(phenylethyl)benzene) was faster than the virgin DEB molecule when the system consisted of varying concentrations of both molecules. The conclusions drawn from the diphenylacetylene study compared favourably with those drawn from the DEB study. The melting point ‘envelope’ of diphenylacetylene was in good agreement with the literature, whilst the hydrogenated molecule moved faster than its unhydrogenated counterpart. These results advocate cvff as an appropriate force field to be used in the molecular dynamic simulations of DEB for future research. The result of the faster hydrogenated DEB molecule provides a platform for further investigation into the mobility of the system

European developments in sprayed concrete

There have been considerable developments in sprayed concrete materials, specification, application technology and performance testing in recent years in Europe. Some of these reflect changes elsewhere, such as North America, but others are unique to Europe. This paper gives a brief history of sprayed concrete (shotcrete) development and describes some of the changes in practice that have occurred in recent years, as viewed from the perspectives of the construction process, materials, design, quality and standards. Obstacles to further development of the product and its more widespread use, are described together with some examples of attempts to address such issues in Europe, including the EFNARC specification and development of European (CEN) standards

Beyond Legal Realism?: Cultural Analysis, Cultural Studies, and the Situation of Legal Scholarship

Everywhere it seems that culture is in ascendance. More and more social groups are claiming to have distinctive cultures and are demanding recognition of their cultural distinctiveness. Identity politics has merged with cultural politics, so that to have an identity one must now also have a culture. Those who fail to establish their culture risk having their truth missed by the myriad of authorities--courts, admissions committees, draft boards-whose judgments help determine life fates. As a result, it sometimes seems as if almost every ethnic, religious, or social group seeks to have its culture recognized, and for precisely this reason the cultural itself has become a subject of political discourse to a much greater extent than in the past. Yet despite the growing sense that culture must be recognized, there is little consensus on what the boundaries of the cultural are, let alone how to read it in any particular instance. Moreover, the backlash against the proliferation of cultures and identities, and the politics of recognition, has been vehement. Politicians declare culture wars in an effort to reassert both the meaning and centrality of certain allegedly transcendent human values. Debates about the meaning and significance of culture become arguments about civilization itself, in which acknowledgment of cultural pluralism and its accompanying decanonization of the sacred Western texts are treated as undermining national unity, national purpose, and the meaning of being American. Political contests are increasingly fought over values and symbols, with different parties advancing competing cultural programs. With the decline of ideology as an organizing force in international relations, culture seems to provide another vantage point from which to understand new polarities.\u27 In addition, the cache of the cultural is increasingly resonant in public policy, where traditional goals like reducing crime and poverty are giving way to cultural goals like reducing the fear of crime, and eliminating the culture of dependency. The cultural is the implicit and explicit space of intervention for popular new strategies like community policing and workfare, which promise to address objective problems by altering the attitudes and experiences of the subjects of policing and welfare. Government and other formal organizations believe that it is essential to have cultural strategies in order to govern their employees and customers more effectively and manage their popular images