Device for handling heavy loads

Device for handling heavy loads by distributing force

High quality graph-based similarity search

SimRank is an influential link-based similarity measure that has been used in many fields of Web search and sociometry. The best-of-breed method by Kusumoto et. al., however, does not always deliver high-quality results, since it fails to accurately obtain its diagonal correction matrix D. Besides, SimRank is also limited by an unwanted "connectivity trait": increasing the number of paths between nodes a and b often incurs a decrease in score s(a,b). The best-known solution, SimRank++, cannot resolve this problem, since a revised score will be zero if a and b have no common in-neighbors. In this paper, we consider high-quality similarity search. Our scheme, SR#, is efficient and semantically meaningful: (1) We first formulate the exact D, and devise a "varied-D" method to accurately compute SimRank in linear memory. Moreover, by grouping computation, we also reduce the time of from quadratic to linear in the number of iterations. (2) We design a "kernel-based" model to improve the quality of SimRank, and circumvent the "connectivity trait" issue. (3) We give mathematical insights to the semantic difference between SimRank and its variant, and correct an argument: "if D is replaced by a scaled identity matrix, top-K rankings will not be affected much". The experiments confirm that SR# can accurately extract high-quality scores, and is much faster than the state-of-the-art competitors

The intrinsic dynamics of optimal transport

The question of which costs admit unique optimizers in the Monge-Kantorovich problem of optimal transportation between arbitrary probability densities is investigated. For smooth costs and densities on compact manifolds, the only known examples for which the optimal solution is always unique require at least one of the two underlying spaces to be homeomorphic to a sphere. We introduce a (multivalued) dynamics which the transportation cost induces between the target and source space, for which the presence or absence of a sufficiently large set of periodic trajectories plays a role in determining whether or not optimal transport is necessarily unique. This insight allows us to construct smooth costs on a pair of compact manifolds with arbitrary topology, so that the optimal transportation between any pair of probility densities is unique.Comment: 33 pages, 4 figure

Surface decontamination of meat using thermal processes

The work presented here formed part of a European project entitled ‘BUGDEATH’ (EU QLK1-CT-2001-01415).End of project reportThis study investigated the effectiveness of a novel heat apparatus for decontamination of meat surfaces inoculated with important foodborne pathogens using either steam or dry air.European Unio

Winnicott, Bowlby and Rogers: the development of the self in relation to others

This thesis explores the subject of homelessness from a psychoanalytic perspective and suggests that the key causal factor in the lives of people who are homeless is trauma in the early environment. The theories of Winnicott, Bowlby and Rogers are critically analysed and compared due to their focus on the significance of the relationship in development and the influence of the external environment. The thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter explores the backgrounds and political views of Winnicott, Bowlby and Rogers, their beliefs on the optimal conditions for development, the relationship between the inner psyche and the external environment, and their work with delinquent youths. They contend that every individual has the potential for healthy growth if provided with a nurturing environment and advocate for care of the most vulnerable in society. The second chapter examines the theorists’ beliefs on the nature of trauma in the early environment and the impact of this on an individual’s mental health. They suggest that impingements and compliance are detrimental to development and lead to defensive exclusion, fragmentation and a lack of self agency. The third chapter looks at Winnicott’s, Bowlby’s and Rogers’ beliefs on the nature of the therapeutic relationship. They describe the ways that the therapist should provide a facilitating environment for the patient to enable them to establish an integrated sense of self. The fourth chapter considers the main themes in my therapeutic work with individuals who are homeless and whether the concepts of Winnicott, Bowlby and Rogers can be beneficially applied to this practical context. This thesis proposes that Rogers’ core conditions are crucial to therapeutic work with people who are homeless, but in conjunction with psychoanalytic developmental theories to understand primitive defense strategies and contain transferential enactments. The contribution of this research in the field of psychoanalysis includes the consideration of the traumatic roots of homelessness and the application of Winnicott’s, Bowlby’s and Rogers’ theories to therapeutic work with people who are homeless

Fundamental Properties of Intensity, Form, and Motion Perception in the Visual Nervous Systems of Calliphora phaenicia and Musca domestica

Several classes of interneurons in the optic lobes and brain of the insects, Musca domestica and Calliphora phaenicia, have been studied in detail. Visual stimuli have been categorized on the basis of the properties of intensity, form, and motion. Response characteristics of the classes of neural units are described with respect to these three classes of visual stimuli. While those units that detect motion in select directions have a tonic response, form detection units have a phasic response only. Through correlation of the responses of these classes with visual stimuli, it is shown that these units integrate the responses of other units which have very small visual fields. The small-field units are presumed to integrate the output of a small group of adjacent retinula cells and to respond differentially to intensity, form, and motion. It is shown that the response of both form and motion detection units is independent of the direction of pattern intensity gradation. As a consequence of this independence, it is further shown that failure to detect motion properly must start at a spatial wavelength four times the effective sampling station spacing rather than twice as has been predicted previously