A clustering method for automatic biometric template selection

The problem addressed in this paper is the template selection and update in biometrics based on clustering. Template selection is a reliable method to reduce the number of templates used in a biometric system to account for variations observed in a person's biometric data. An efficient method based on clustering with automatic selection of the number of clusters is proposed in this work for finding subgroups of similar templates which are used for prototype selection.Experimental results confirm the advantage of the new method and the importance of adopting a procedure to perform template selection.     

Preface

Preface

Preface     

Uniqueness and reciprocity in the boundary-initial value problem for a mixture of two elastic solids occupying an unbounded domain

Summary In this paper two uniqueness theorems for an anisotropic mixture of two linear elastic solids are established: The former concerns the mixed boundary-value problem, the latter the displacement problem. These theorems are proved for unbounded domains in the absence of artificial restrictions upon the behaviour of the unknown fields at infinity. A reciprocity theorem is also given.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Melodie di pietra</Emphasis> by Adriana Rossi

In Melodie di pietre, Adriana Rossi has produced an in-depth analysis of the cloister of San Cugat on the basis of musical notions and symbolism. This provides us with an occasion for some brief reflections on the historic relationships between music and architecture.     

Mixture of KL subspaces for relevance feedback

Relevance feedback has recently emerged as a solution to the problem of improving the retrieval performance of an image retrieval system based on low-level information such as color, texture and shape features. Most of the relevance feedback approaches limit the utilization of the user’s feedback to a single search session, performing a short-term learning. In this paper we present a novel approach for short and long term learning, based on the definition of an adaptive similarity metric and of a high level representation of the images. For short-term learning, the relevant and non-relevant information given by the user during the feedback process is employed to create a positive and a negative subspace of the feature space. For long-term learning, the feedback history of all the users is exploited to create and update a representation of the images which is adopted for improving retrieval performance and progressively reducing the semantic gap between low-level features and high-level semantic concepts. The experimental results prove that the proposed method outperforms many other state of art methods in the short-term learning, and demonstrate the efficacy of the representation adopted for the long-term learning.

Use of native species and biodegradable chelating agents in the phytoremediation of abandoned mining areas

BACKGROUND: The application of phytostabilization and assisted phytoextraction to the remediation of abandoned mining areas can be a valuable method to reclaim these areas without modifying soil and landscape characteristics. An in situ application of a continuous phytoextraction technique was carried out in the area of Campo Pisano (Sardinia, Italy), followed by a laboratory assisted phytoextraction test using the biodegradable chelating agents methylglycine diacetic acid (MGDA) and iminodissuccinic acid (IDSA). The plants used were Scrophularia canina subsp. bicolor, Cistus salviifolius and Teucrium flavum subsp. glaucum. RESULTS: The plant that accumulated more Pb was T. glaucum (353 mg kg^?1) while C. salviifolius demonstrated better ability to accumulate Zn (1560 mg kg^?1). S. bicolor showed a better tolerance to metals but accumulated 119 mg kg^?1 of Pb. Accumulation of metals immediately after chelant application was up to 300 mg kg^?1 of Pb and 3000 mg kg^?1 of Zn which did not further increase during the assisted phytoextraction experiment. CONCLUSION: The plant that demonstrated to be most suitable for phytoremediation application was S. bicolor due to its higher biomass production and tolerance to metals. The low cation exchange capacity and the high concentration of Ca and Mg in soil determined a low chelant effectiveness. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry