Training for an agricultural discrimination task

Skeleton weed, centaurea juncea, is a declared weed in Western Australia because it competes with grain crops for nutrients and moisture. When it is found during harvesting, mechanised teams search and eradicate it. In an earlier report of field trials (Hartley et al, 1989) it was reported that search teams' detection rate was poor and since search teams had usually never seen skeleton weeds, visual discrimination learning was to be expected and observed during searches. The present study investigated the nature of this discrimination learning in a laboratory by developing a training programme of colour photographic slides of weeds in stubble. Subjects receiving specific training with feedback on their performance compared with those receiving pseudo-training showed a significant improvement in detections. Subsequently the benefit of the programme was validated in a field trial.     

Two-Stage Method for Grouping News with Similar Topics

Programming and Computer Software - This paper is devoted to event detection as part of news stream analysis. An event is regarded as a group of news texts dedicated to one real-world fact or...     

A Stream X-Machine Tool for Modelling and Generating Test Cases for Chronic Diseases Based on State-Counting Approach

Programming and Computer Software - In the biomedical domain, diagrammatical models have been extensively used to describe and understand the behaviour of biological organisms (biological agents)...     

Automated Creation of Cyber-Physical Museum Exhibits Using a Scientific Visualization System on a Chip

Programming and Computer Software - This paper is devoted to automating the development of standalone scientific visualization modules based on systems on chips with custom tangible user...     

An accumulating interpreter for cognitive vision production systems

Knowledge-based recognition and analysis of high dimensional data such as aerial images often has high computational complexity. For most applications time and computational resources such as memory are limited. Therefore approximately correct interpreters with any-time capability are proposed. In this contribution a special software architecture is published, which can handle the administration of complex knowledge-based recognition and analysis in a tractable manner.     

A novel dynamic pricing scheme for contributing peers in the VoD system

In this paper we have proposed a dynamic pricing scheme for the contributing peers in the Video on Demand (VoD) system. The scheme provides an effective mechanism to maximize the profit through the residual resources of the contributing peers. A utilization function is executed for each contributing peer to estimate the utility factor based on the parameters such as initial setup cost, holding cost, chaining cost and salvage cost. In this paper, we urge an effective dynamic pricing algorithm that efficiently utilizes a range of parameters with a varying degree of complexity. The key findings of the algorithm are (i) each contributing peers are benefitted by the monetary based on its resource contributions to the VoD system and (ii) a high degree of social optimum is established by proficiently aggregating the contributing peer’s resources with the overall resources of the VoD system. We validate our claim by simulating the proposed dynamic pricing scheme with other standard pricing schemes such as altruism, cost model and game theory perspective. The result of our dynamic pricing scheme shows the best utility factor than other standard pricing schemes.     

Scale-up and control of droplet production in coupled microfluidic flow-focusing geometries

A single microfluidic chip consisting of six microfluidic flow-focusing devices operating in parallel was developed to investigate the feasibility of scaling microfluidic droplet generation up to production rates of hundreds of milliliters per hour. The design utilizes a single inlet channel for both the dispersed aqueous phase and the continuous oil phase from which the fluids were distributed to all six flow-focusing devices. The exit tubing for each of the six flow-focusing devices is separate and individually plumbed to each device. Within each flow-focusing device, the droplet size was monodisperse, but some droplet size variations were observed across devices. We show that by modifying the flow resistance in the outlet channel of an individual flow-focusing device it is possible to control both the droplet size and frequency of droplet production. This can be achieved through the use of valves or, as is done in this study, by changing the length of the exit tubing plumbed to the outlet of the each device. Longer exit tubing and larger flow resistance is found to lead to larger droplets and higher production frequencies. The devices can thus be individually tuned to create a monodisperse emulsion or an emulsion with a specific drop size distribution.     

Coherency strains in compositionally modulated systems and superlattices: spinodal decomposition and magnetoelasticity

Systems with a coherently modulated composition are considered with regard to their elastic properties. The (stress-free) coherency strains are considered in a new frame where the standard state is redefined on the basis of the property under study. These strains are used in the study of the thermodynamics of spinodal decomposition in solids with a (generally) anisotropic distortion into a cubic matrix. Finally, the influence of these strains is considered in the study of magnetostrictive effects in such modulated systems or strained-layer superlattices.     

Phase diagram of the Co-VC-NbC system

Conclusions The eutectic in the Co-VC system corresponds to the composition with 14% VC and a temperature of 1340 ± 20°C and the maximum solubility of vanadium carbide in cobalt is 6%. The Co-VC section is not a quasibinary section of the Co-V-C phase diagram.The eutectic in the Co-NbC system melts at 1360°C and contains 11–12% NbC.The as-cast alloys of the Co-VC-NbC system are in the metastable two-phase condition and the only carbide phase is a carbide of complex composition which is a three-component solid solution of vanadium and niobium monocarbides.The fusibility diagram of the equilibrium phase diagram of the Co-VC-NbC system is characterized by the four-phase eutectic equilibrium L Co + VC + NbC with the point of the ternary eutectic at 1330 ± 20°C and a composition of 11% VC, 4% NbC, and 85% Co. The Co-VC-NbC equilibrium phase diagram does not contain ternary compounds and the equilibrium phases are cobalt- and vanadium- and niobium carbide-base solid solutions. The total volume share of the carbide constituents of the ternary eutectic somewhat exceeds the share of carbide phases in the boundary eutectics Co-VC and Co-NbC.The total solubility of the carbides in cobalt does not exceed 2–3%.Translated from Poroshkovaya Metallurgiya. No. 3(315), pp. 80–87, March, 1989.