Database as a genre of new media

After the novel, and subsequently cinema privileged narrative as the key form of cultural expression of the modern age, the computer age introduces its correlate — database. Why does new media favour database form over others? Can we explain ist popularity by analysing the specificity of the digital medium and of computer programming? What is the relationship between database and another form, which has traditionally dominated human culture — narrative? In addressing these questions, I discuss the connection between computer's ontology — the way software represents the world — and the new cultural forms privileged by computer culture such as database. I propose that computerisation of culture involves projection of two fundamental parts of computer software — data structures and algorithms — onto the cultural sphere. Thus CD-ROMs and Web databases are cultural manifestations of one half of this ontology — data structures; while new media narratives are manifestations of the second part — algorithms. I conclude by proposing that in computer culture database and narrative do not have the same status. Given that on the level of data organisation most new media objects are databases, it is not surprising that on the level of form database also dominates new media culture.     

Structured learning with constrained conditional models

Making complex decisions in real world problems often involves assigning values to sets of interdependent variables where an expressive dependency structure among these can influence, or even dictate, what assignments are possible. Commonly used models typically ignore expressive dependencies since the traditional way of incorporating non-local dependencies is inefficient and hence leads to expensive training and inference. The contribution of this paper is two-fold. First, this paper presents Constrained Conditional Models (CCMs), a?framework that augments linear models with declarative constraints as a way to support decisions in an expressive output space while maintaining modularity and tractability of training. The paper develops, analyzes and compares novel algorithms for CCMs based on Hidden Markov Models and Structured Perceptron. The proposed CCM framework is also compared to task-tailored models, such as semi-CRFs. Second, we propose CoDL, a?constraint-driven learning algorithm, which makes use of constraints to guide semi-supervised learning. We provide theoretical justification for CoDL along with empirical results which show the advantage of using declarative constraints in the context of semi-supervised training of probabilistic models.     

An unsupervised data projection that preserves the cluster structure

In this paper we propose a new unsupervised dimensionality reduction algorithm that looks for a projection that optimally preserves the clustering data structure of the original space. Formally we attempt to find a projection that maximizes the mutual information between data points and clusters in the projected space. In order to compute the mutual information, we neither assume the data are given in terms of distributions nor impose any parametric model on the within-cluster distribution. Instead, we utilize a non-parametric estimation of the average cluster entropies and search for a linear projection and a clustering that maximizes the estimated mutual information between the projected data points and the clusters. The improved performance is demonstrated on both synthetic and real world examples.     

Continuous input nonlocal games

We present a family of nonlocal games in which the inputs the players receive are continuous. We study three representative members of the family. For the first two a team sharing quantum correlations (entanglement) has an advantage over any team restricted to classical correlations. We conjecture that this is true for the third member of the family as well.     

Phenomena at three-phase electroslag remelting

The electroslag remelting (ESR) process is widely used to produce high-quality ingots and billets for high-alloyed steels and alloys.Both the single-phase and three-phase alternating current diagram with bifilar and monofilar connection are in use for heavy ingot manufacturing.The numerical simulation of the three-phase bifilar circuit for the 120 t three-phase bifilar six-electrode ESR furnace at different variants of electric connection was presented and discussed.At the bifilar diagram of power supply,the geometrical location of electrodes in a mould holds critical importance for performances:the close location of bifilar pair electrodes provides the highest heat productivity,but the equidistant location of electrodes gives a much more uniform heat distribution.The monofilar mulit-electrode diagram of three-phase connection without phase shift shows the most uniform distribution of potential and heat generation as well as a favorable magnetic field that makes this kind the most promising for providing a high quality of heavy ingots.     

Titania and titania-silver nanoparticle deposits made by Liquid Flame Spray and their functionality as photocatalyst for organic- and biofilm removal

Titania and titania-silver nanoparticle deposits were made by Liquid Flame Spray technique, in which the liquid precursor is injected into a high temperature flame, where it will evaporate and nucleate to nanosize particles. One-step and two-step methods were used for preparation of titania-silver deposits. The amount of silver added was 1 wt%. The deposits were collected in the flame zone on steel and glass surfaces and were analyzed by TEM, EDS, XPS and SAXS. The titania deposits consisted of porous nanosized titania agglomerates of primary particles (~10 nm). With silver addition, small spherical silver metal particles (~2 nm) were detected on the agglomerates. An increase in the photocatalytic activity was verified by stearic acid decomposition and biofilm removal using Deinococcus geothermalis as the model organism.     

Fluorescent dye labeled bacteriophages--a new tracer for the investigation of viral transport in porous media: 1. Introduction and characterization

A new method for the study of pathogen transport in porous media is presented. The method is based on conjugation of fluorescent dyes to target bacteriophages and application of the modified bacteriophages for tracer studies. We demonstrate that the relevant transport determining properties of Rhodamine and several fluorescein-labeled phages are practically identical to those of the native bacteriophages. The advantages of the proposed method relative to direct enumeration of bacteriophages by plaque forming unit method, turbidity, fluorescent microspheres, and other alternative tracers are discussed. Notable advantages include simple quantitation by optical methods, unbiased signals even when virus aggregates are formed, and the ability to decouple inactivation kinetics from transport phenomena. Additionally, the signal reflects the removal and transport of the studied microorganism and not a surrogate.     

Organically modified silica sol-mediated capillary electrophoresis

We describe in this paper the use of ormosil (organically modified silica) sols as additives to the run buffer for selectivity manipulations between solutes in capillary electrophoresis. CE systems that contain sol additives in the run buffer can be thought of as pseudocapillary electrochromatography. Three sols based on different types of silanes were studied. Methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMOS)-based sol was found to improve selectivities between various aromatic acids. Aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (APS) sol interacts differently with structural isomers of aromatic acids than does MTMOS. At low pH with APS sol in the run buffer, neutral solutes can be separated, as well. The separation of the neutral solutes seems to be facilitated by the formation of hydrogen bonds between the solutes and the APS sol. APS and N-[3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl]-ethylenediamine (EDAS) affect the separation of the same compounds differently, thus indicating that even small changes of the functional groups of the sol have pronounced effect on the interactions between the sols and the solutes.