AI Assistant Intellij

AI Assistant Intellij — independent reviews, comparisons, pricing and step-by-step guides on Aizhi.

  • Smartphone kill switch

    Smartphone kill switch

    A smartphone kill switch is a software-based security feature that allows a smartphone's owner to remotely render it inoperable if it is lost or stolen, thereby deterring theft. There have been a number of initiatives to legally require kill switches on smartphones. Smartphones have high resale value, and are therefore often the target of theft, with thieves selling them to cartels for resale. A kill switch can deter theft by making devices worthless. == Legal requirements == In the United States, Minnesota was the first state to pass a bill requiring smartphones to have such a feature, and California was the first to require that the feature be turned on by default. The California law requires the kill switch to be resistant to reinstallation of the phone's operating system. The CTIA initially resisted the legislation, fearing that it would make phones easier to hack, but later supported kill switches. There is evidence that this legislation has been effective, with smartphone theft declining by 50% between 2013 and 2017 in San Francisco. Secure Our Smartphones (S.O.S.), a New York State and San Francisco initiative started by New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón. The initiative is co-chaired by Schneiderman, Gascón and Boris Johnson, and has 105 members. == Examples == An Android phone signed into a Google account can be remotely locked and erased via Google's Find My Device service, as long as it is connected to the Internet. To prevent this, a thief must sign the device out of Google before the owner locks or erases it. iPhones have a similar service.

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  • Environmental informatics

    Environmental informatics

    Environmental informatics is the science of information applied to environmental science. As such, it provides the information processing and communication infrastructure to the interdisciplinary field of environmental sciences aiming at data, information and knowledge integration, the application of computational intelligence to environmental data as well as the identification of environmental impacts of information technology. Environmental informatics thus acts as a bridge, providing an interdisciplinary means of analysing, describing and understanding the complex interactions between humans, nature and technology. Since each field of applied computer science has its own subject matter, terminology and methods, specialised disciplines, such as environmental, bio- and geoinformatics have emerged, each of which combines computer science with a specific field of application such as environmental, bio- or geosciences. Environmental informatics, bioinformatics and geoinformatics all deal with computer-based processing of environmental phenomena. However, environmental informatics is the only field that pursues normative goals (e.g., political goals of environmental protection, environmental planning, and sustainability). This also influences the choice of methods. This also distinguishes it from application areas such as numerical weather prediction, which is considered an early and important example of computer simulation of environmental phenomena. The UK Natural Environment Research Council defines environmental informatics as the "research and system development focusing on the environmental sciences relating to the creation, collection, storage, processing, modelling, interpretation, display and dissemination of data and information." Kostas Karatzas defined environmental informatics as the "creation of a new 'knowledge-paradigm' towards serving environmental management needs." Karatzas argued further that environmental informatics "is an integrator of science, methods and techniques and not just the result of using information and software technology methods and tools for serving environmental engineering needs." Environmental informatics emerged in early 1990 in Central Europe. Current initiatives to effectively manage, share, and reuse environmental and ecological data are indicative of the increasing importance of fields like environmental informatics and ecoinformatics to develop the foundations for effectively managing ecological information. Examples of these initiatives are National Science Foundation Datanet projects, DataONE and Data Conservancy. == Subject matter and objectives == The subject of environmental informatics are environmental information systems (EIS). An EIS 'is a computer-based system that integrates and stores data collected about the natural environment and provides powerful methods for accessing and evaluating it.' This allows environmental data to be processed by computers for environmental protection, planning, research and technology. According to Jaeschke and Bossel, environmental informatics has three interrelated objectives: Environmental informatics serves to procure data and information for describing the state and development of the environment. Of particular importance is information that is needed to prevent or limit undesirable changes and to support desirable changes. Based on the evaluation and analysis of data, environmental informatics improves our understanding of the environment and the interactions between nature, technology and society. It thus supports environmentally relevant decisions. This enables the influence of development (system correction), the assessment of the effects and side effects of potential measures, and the creation of tools for the routine planning, implementation and monitoring of measures. == History == The simulation model World3, which formed the basis of the highly acclaimed study The Limits to Growth, is considered the starting point of environmental informatics. It incorporated environmental information, among other things, to calculate scenarios for global development. In the mid-1980s, interest grew in structuring environmental protection as an area of application for computer science. One of the first publications in German was the book Informatik im Umweltschutz. Anwendungen und Perspektiven (Computer science in environmental protection. Applications and perspectives) from 1986. The term 'environmental informatics' did not appear until around 1993, which is why the development of environmental informatics is usually referred to as having taken place in the 1990s. In 1993, the first university chair for environmental informatics was established in Cottbus. In 1994, the anthology Umweltinformatik. Informatikmethoden für Umweltschutz und Umweltforschung (Environmental Informatics: Informatics Methods for Environmental Protection and Environmental Research) was published. The development of environmental informatics was 'primarily initiated by German computer science.' In the English-speaking world, the volume Environmental Informatics was published in 1995, mainly based on the German anthology of 1994. An article in the conference proceedings of the World Computer Congress of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) in Hamburg in 1994 describes the initial situation of environmental informatics as follows: 'On the one hand, we suffer from the huge amount of available data – people sometimes speak of data graveyards – on the other hand, the really relevant data may still be missing.' This statement indicates the need that led to the emergence of environmental informatics as a specialised discipline of applied computer science. Furthermore, the specific characteristics and processing requirements of environmental data necessitated the emergence of environmental informatics. The special features of environmental data include: The data structures required are highly heterogeneous due to specific processes and differing perspectives on environmental aspects (e.g., water protection, emission control, hazardous substances). In addition to the heterogeneity of the data, heterogeneous databases also play a role, as environmental data is often obtained and presented in an interdisciplinary manner. Obligations change frequently as a result of new legislation, whether regional (e.g. state regulations on water protection), national (e.g. federal emission control regulations) or international (e.g. Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals|REACH). The objects represented are often multidimensional and, therefore, require complex geometric representation using curves or polygons. It is often necessary to process uncertain, imprecise or incomplete data, which is, for example, the result of extrapolations or forecasts. A new "knowledge paradigm" has emerged to meet the requirements of environmental management. Environmental informatics produces its own concepts, methods and techniques and is not merely the result of using information and communication technology methods and tools to meet environmental requirements. The development of environmental informatics since the 1990s has been significantly influenced by the newly established conferences EnviroInfo, ISESS and ITEE and is documented in the respective proceedings. Aspects of sustainability and sustainable development were increasingly integrated into environmental informatics after 2000, thereby expanding the field. In 2004, the Working Group on Sustainable Information Society of the Gesellschaft für Informatik e. V. (German Informatics Society, GI) published the Memorandum on a Sustainable Information Society, which formulates recommendations for an information society that is compatible with human, social and natural needs. Since 2007, environmental informatics has often been described in more detail as informatics for environmental protection, sustainable development and risk management. The increased focus on sustainability has also contributed to the formation of the research focus Information and Communications Technology for Sustainability (ICT4S) and to the emergence of the international conference ICT4S in 2013. ICT-ENSURE, the European Commission's funding measure for the establishment of a European research area on "ICT for Environmental Sustainability Research" (2008–2010), has also contributed to the structuring of environmental informatics. == Environmental informatics and sustainable development == Efforts to place environmental informatics within the context of sustainable development have been growing since 2000 and were significantly influenced by the Memorandum on a Sustainable Information Society. According to this Memorandum, the information society offers great but unevenly distributed opportunities for education, participation and intercultural understanding. In addition, the Memorandum highlighted the material and energy consumption of inf

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  • Dependency network (graphical model)

    Dependency network (graphical model)

    Dependency networks (DNs) are graphical models, similar to Markov networks, wherein each vertex (node) corresponds to a random variable and each edge captures dependencies among variables. Unlike Bayesian networks, DNs may contain cycles. Each node is associated to a conditional probability table, which determines the realization of the random variable given its parents. == Markov blanket == In a Bayesian network, the Markov blanket of a node is the set of parents and children of that node, together with the children's parents. The values of the parents and children of a node evidently give information about that node. However, its children's parents also have to be included in the Markov blanket, because they can be used to explain away the node in question. In a Markov random field, the Markov blanket for a node is simply its adjacent (or neighboring) nodes. In a dependency network, the Markov blanket for a node is simply the set of its parents. == Dependency network versus Bayesian networks == Dependency networks have advantages and disadvantages with respect to Bayesian networks. In particular, they are easier to parameterize from data, as there are efficient algorithms for learning both the structure and probabilities of a dependency network from data. Such algorithms are not available for Bayesian networks, for which the problem of determining the optimal structure is NP-hard. Nonetheless, a dependency network may be more difficult to construct using a knowledge-based approach driven by expert-knowledge. == Dependency networks versus Markov networks == Consistent dependency networks and Markov networks have the same representational power. Nonetheless, it is possible to construct non-consistent dependency networks, i.e., dependency networks for which there is no compatible valid joint probability distribution. Markov networks, in contrast, are always consistent. == Definition == A consistent dependency network for a set of random variables X = ( X 1 , … , X n ) {\textstyle \mathbf {X} =(X_{1},\ldots ,X_{n})} with joint distribution p ( x ) {\displaystyle p(\mathbf {x} )} is a pair ( G , P ) {\displaystyle (G,P)} where G {\displaystyle G} is a cyclic directed graph, where each of its nodes corresponds to a variable in X {\displaystyle \mathbf {X} } , and P {\displaystyle P} is a set of conditional probability distributions. The parents of node X i {\displaystyle X_{i}} , denoted P a i {\displaystyle \mathbf {Pa_{i}} } , correspond to those variables P a i ⊆ ( X 1 , … , X i − 1 , X i + 1 , … , X n ) {\displaystyle \mathbf {Pa_{i}} \subseteq (X_{1},\ldots ,X_{i-1},X_{i+1},\ldots ,X_{n})} that satisfy the following independence relationships p ( x i ∣ p a i ) = p ( x i ∣ x 1 , … , x i − 1 , x i + 1 , … , x n ) = p ( x i ∣ x − x i ) . {\displaystyle p(x_{i}\mid \mathbf {pa_{i}} )=p(x_{i}\mid x_{1},\ldots ,x_{i-1},x_{i+1},\ldots ,x_{n})=p(x_{i}\mid \mathbf {x} -{x_{i}}).} The dependency network is consistent in the sense that each local distribution can be obtained from the joint distribution p ( x ) {\displaystyle p(\mathbf {x} )} . Dependency networks learned using large data sets with large sample sizes will almost always be consistent. A non-consistent network is a network for which there is no joint probability distribution compatible with the pair ( G , P ) {\displaystyle (G,P)} . In that case, there is no joint probability distribution that satisfies the independence relationships subsumed by that pair. == Structure and parameters learning == Two important tasks in a dependency network are to learn its structure and probabilities from data. Essentially, the learning algorithm consists of independently performing a probabilistic regression or classification for each variable in the domain. It comes from observation that the local distribution for variable X i {\displaystyle X_{i}} in a dependency network is the conditional distribution p ( x i | x − x i ) {\displaystyle p(x_{i}|\mathbf {x} -{x_{i}})} , which can be estimated by any number of classification or regression techniques, such as methods using a probabilistic decision tree, a neural network or a probabilistic support-vector machine. Hence, for each variable X i {\displaystyle X_{i}} in domain X {\displaystyle X} , we independently estimate its local distribution from data using a classification algorithm, even though it is a distinct method for each variable. Here, we will briefly show how probabilistic decision trees are used to estimate the local distributions. For each variable X i {\displaystyle X_{i}} in X {\displaystyle \mathbf {X} } , a probabilistic decision tree is learned where X i {\displaystyle X_{i}} is the target variable and X − X i {\displaystyle \mathbf {X} -X_{i}} are the input variables. To learn a decision tree structure for X i {\displaystyle X_{i}} , the search algorithm begins with a singleton root node without children. Then, each leaf node in the tree is replaced with a binary split on some variable X j {\displaystyle X_{j}} in X − X i {\displaystyle \mathbf {X} -X_{i}} , until no more replacements increase the score of the tree. == Probabilistic Inference == A probabilistic inference is the task in which we wish to answer probabilistic queries of the form p ( y ∣ z ) {\displaystyle p(\mathbf {y\mid z} )} , given a graphical model for X {\displaystyle \mathbf {X} } , where Y {\displaystyle \mathbf {Y} } (the 'target' variables) Z {\displaystyle \mathbf {Z} } (the 'input' variables) are disjoint subsets of X {\displaystyle \mathbf {X} } . One of the alternatives for performing probabilistic inference is using Gibbs sampling. A naive approach for this uses an ordered Gibbs sampler, an important difficulty of which is that if either p ( y ∣ z ) {\displaystyle p(\mathbf {y\mid z} )} or p ( z ) {\displaystyle p(\mathbf {z} )} is small, then many iterations are required for an accurate probability estimate. Another approach for estimating p ( y ∣ z ) {\displaystyle p(\mathbf {y\mid z} )} when p ( z ) {\displaystyle p(\mathbf {z} )} is small is to use modified ordered Gibbs sampler, where Z = z {\displaystyle \mathbf {Z=z} } is fixed during Gibbs sampling. It may also happen that y {\displaystyle \mathbf {y} } is rare, e.g. when Y {\displaystyle \mathbf {Y} } has many variables. So, the law of total probability along with the independencies encoded in a dependency network can be used to decompose the inference task into a set of inference tasks on single variables. This approach comes with the advantage that some terms may be obtained by direct lookup, thereby avoiding some Gibbs sampling. You can see below an algorithm that can be used for obtain p ( y | z ) {\displaystyle p(\mathbf {y|z} )} for a particular instance of y ∈ Y {\displaystyle \mathbf {y} \in \mathbf {Y} } and z ∈ Z {\displaystyle \mathbf {z} \in \mathbf {Z} } , where Y {\displaystyle \mathbf {Y} } and Z {\displaystyle \mathbf {Z} } are disjoint subsets. Algorithm 1: U := Y {\displaystyle \mathbf {U:=Y} } ( the unprocessed variables ) P := Z {\displaystyle \mathbf {P:=Z} } ( the processed and conditioning variables ) p := z {\displaystyle \mathbf {p:=z} } ( the values for P {\displaystyle \mathbf {P} } ) While U ≠ ∅ {\displaystyle \mathbf {U} \neq \emptyset } : Choose X i ∈ U {\displaystyle X_{i}\in \mathbf {U} } such that X i {\displaystyle X_{i}} has no more parents in U {\displaystyle U} than any variable in U {\displaystyle U} If all the parents of X {\displaystyle X} are in P {\displaystyle \mathbf {P} } p ( x i | p ) := p ( x i | p a i ) {\displaystyle p(x_{i}|\mathbf {p} ):=p(x_{i}|\mathbf {pa_{i}} )} Else Use a modified ordered Gibbs sampler to determine p ( x i | p ) {\displaystyle p(x_{i}|\mathbf {p} )} U := U − X i {\displaystyle \mathbf {U:=U} -X_{i}} P := P + X i {\displaystyle \mathbf {P:=P} +X_{i}} p := p + x i {\displaystyle \mathbf {p:=p} +x_{i}} Returns the product of the conditionals p ( x i | p ) {\displaystyle p(x_{i}|\mathbf {p} )} == Applications == In addition to the applications to probabilistic inference, the following applications are in the category of Collaborative Filtering (CF), which is the task of predicting preferences. Dependency networks are a natural model class on which to base CF predictions, once an algorithm for this task only needs estimation of p ( x i = 1 | x − x i = 0 ) {\displaystyle p(x_{i}=1|\mathbf {x} -{x_{i}}=0)} to produce recommendations. In particular, these estimates may be obtained by a direct lookup in a dependency network. Predicting what movies a person will like based on his or her ratings of movies seen; Predicting what web pages a person will access based on his or her history on the site; Predicting what news stories a person is interested in based on other stories he or she read; Predicting what product a person will buy based on products he or she has already purchased and/or dropped into his or her shopping basket. Another class of useful applications for dependency networks is related to data visualization, that is

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  • Ecoinformatics

    Ecoinformatics

    Ecoinformatics, or ecological informatics, is the science of information in ecology and environmental science. It integrates environmental and information sciences to define entities and natural processes with language common to both humans and computers. However, this is a rapidly developing area in ecology and there are alternative perspectives on what constitutes ecoinformatics. A few definitions have been circulating, mostly centered on the creation of tools to access and analyze natural system data. However, the scope and aims of ecoinformatics are certainly broader than the development of metadata standards to be used in documenting datasets. Ecoinformatics aims to facilitate environmental research and management by developing ways to access, integrate databases of environmental information, and develop new algorithms enabling different environmental datasets to be combined to test ecological hypotheses. Ecoinformatics is related to the concept of ecosystem services. Ecoinformatics characterize the semantics of natural system knowledge. For this reason, much of today's ecoinformatics research relates to the branch of computer science known as knowledge representation, and active ecoinformatics projects are developing links to activities such as the Semantic Web. Current initiatives to effectively manage, share, and reuse ecological data are indicative of the increasing importance of fields like ecoinformatics to develop the foundations for effectively managing ecological information. Examples of these initiatives are National Science Foundation Datanet projects, DataONE, Data Conservancy, and Artificial Intelligence for Environment & Sustainability. == Software Development Lifecycle == Central to the concept of ecoinformatics is the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), a systematic framework for writing, implementing, and maintaining software products. Typically in Ecoinformatics projects, the development pipeline includes data collection, usually from several different environmental data sources, then integrating these data sources together, and then analyzing the data. Here, each step of the SDLC is described in the context of ecoinformatics, per Michener et al. It is important to note that the plan, collect, assure, describes and preserve steps refer to the data collection entity, which can be individual researchers or large data-collection networks, while the discover, integrate, and analyze steps typically refer to the individual researcher. Plan: Ecoinformatics projects require data from several databases. Each database holds different data, and therefore researchers should identify what types of environmental or ecological data they will need to answer their research question. Collect: Data is collected in several different ways. In ecoinformatics, this is usually restricted to manually entering data into a spreadsheet, and parsing data from an existing database. The growth of relational databases has made it easier for ecologists to download relevant data and integrate datasets together Assure: Data entries should be checked thoroughly to validate their accuracy and usability, such as to check for outliers and erroneous points. The same principle applies to data downloaded from datasets. This responsibility falls on both the ecologist downloading the data, and the entity that sets up the data collection system. Describe: An accurate description of the metadata of a dataset that is used in a study should include enough information to deduce the data collection and processing methodology, when the data were collected, why the data were collected, and how the data were stored. This is important for reproducibility, especially for projects that build on each other and may recycle data Preserve: After data is collected by an institutional entity, it should be archived such that it is easily accessible. Ideally, this is in databases that are maintained and not at risk of deprecation Discover: While there are good practices for discovering data to start a research project, this process is often marred by a lack of usable, published data, as researchers may collect data specific to their study, but may not publish this data for wider use. On the data collection end, this can be addressed by better data-sharing practices, such as by linking datasets when publishing papers or studies. On the data procurement end, this can be addressed by more precise data searching, such as using key words to find relevant datasets. Integrate: Synthesizing datasets together can be difficult and labor-intensive, largely due to the methodological differences in data collection. There are several approaches to this, but the best practices typically involve computational approaches, namely using R or Python, to automate the processes and prevent errors Analyze: Data analysis can take several forms, and should be tailored to the specific ecological project. However, all data analysis methods should be well-documented, including the procedure for analysis, justification for analysis methods, and any shortcomings in a specific approach. == Applications of Ecoinformatics Across Ecology == === Ecosystem Ecology === Source: Ecosystem studies, by definition, encompass interactions across the entire life sciences spectrum, from microscopic biochemical reactions to large-scale geological phenomena. As a result, big databases may not be designed specifically for any particular research question, but should be inclusive enough to support most studies. Since ecosystem-level questions require a broad perspective, data-related ecosystem projects would likely incorporate data from several databases. A common framework for incorporating data into ecosystem-level studies is the network science model, in which data collection mechanisms and resources are treated like a large, interconnected network instead of individual entities. The network may include several data collection stations within one databases, or may span across multiple databases. Currently there are several large-scale networks, but they do not generate data on the scale to consider ecology as a big data science. A current challenge for ecoinformatics in ecosystem ecology is that most funding is prioritized for generating new data rather than maintaining existing data infrastructures. Integrating data across the different spatial scales can also be difficult, since each dataset may hold different types of data. === Urban Ecology === Source: The current push for smart cities, and sensor network integration into infrastructure, has positioned as a major source of data for ecological studies. Typical urban ecology questions address the effects of urbanization on the local ecosystem, and how to drive future development to promote urban biodiversity. While sensor networks in cities typically collect environmental data to optimize city processes, they may also be used for ecological initiatives, especially with respect to understanding the complex, multi-layered relationship between cities and their local ecosystem. It can also be used to better understand the current landscape of cities, and identify avenues for rewinding of cities. For example, analyzing mobility patterns can identify areas that may lend themselves well to building parks and green spaces. Bird watching data can also be used to identify the types of bird species in a local area. === Infectious Disease === Source: Like other disciplines of ecology, emerging infectious disease and epidemiology span multiple scales, from understanding the genetics that drive disease trends to large-scale spatiotemporal analyses. As a result, infectious disease studies can incorporate everything from bioinformatics, genetic sequences, amino acid sequences, and environmental observation data. On the micro-scale, these data can then be used to predict infectivity/transmissibility, drug resistance, drug candidates, and mutation sites. On the macro-scale, it can be used to identify societal trends or environmental factors that lend themselves to spillover, locations of infection, and practices that cause disease transmission. == Databases == Source: USGS National Streamflow sensor network GBIF Neotoma Paleobiology database European Vegetation Archive USDA Forest Inventory Analysis TRY BIEN AmeriFlux TEAM iNaturalist NEON GLEON LTER CZO TERN SAEON

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  • Quantum image processing

    Quantum image processing

    Quantum image processing (QIMP) is using quantum computing or quantum information processing to create and work with quantum images. Due to some of the properties inherent to quantum computation, notably entanglement and parallelism, it is hoped that QIMP technologies will offer capabilities and performances that surpass their traditional equivalents, in terms of computing speed, security, and minimum storage requirements. == Background == A. Y. Vlasov's work in 1997 focused on using a quantum system to recognize orthogonal images. This was followed by efforts using quantum algorithms to search specific patterns in binary images and detect the posture of certain targets. Notably, more optics-based interpretations for quantum imaging were initially experimentally demonstrated in and formalized in after seven years. In 2003, Salvador Venegas-Andraca and S. Bose presented Qubit Lattice, the first published general model for storing, processing and retrieving images using quantum systems. Later on, in 2005, Latorre proposed another kind of representation, called the Real Ket, whose purpose was to encode quantum images as a basis for further applications in QIMP. Furthermore, in 2010 Venegas-Andraca and Ball presented a method for storing and retrieving binary geometrical shapes in quantum mechanical systems in which it is shown that maximally entangled qubits can be used to reconstruct images without using any additional information. Technically, these pioneering efforts with the subsequent studies related to them can be classified into three main groups: Quantum-assisted digital image processing (QDIP): These applications aim at improving digital or classical image processing tasks and applications. Optics-based quantum imaging (OQI) Classically inspired quantum image processing (QIMP) A survey of quantum image representation has been published in. Furthermore, the recently published book Quantum Image Processing provides a comprehensive introduction to quantum image processing, which focuses on extending conventional image processing tasks to the quantum computing frameworks. It summarizes the available quantum image representations and their operations, reviews the possible quantum image applications and their implementation, and discusses the open questions and future development trends. == Quantum image representations == There are various approaches for quantum image representation, that are usually based on the encoding of color information. A common representation is FRQI (Flexible Representation for Quantum Images), that captures the color and position at every pixel of the image, and defined as: | I ⟩ = 1 2 n ∑ i = 0 2 2 n − 1 | c i ⟩ ⊗ | i ⟩ {\displaystyle \vert I\rangle ={\frac {1}{2^{n}}}\sum _{i=0}^{2^{2n-1}}\vert c_{i}\rangle \otimes \vert i\rangle } where | i ⟩ {\textstyle |i\rangle } is the position and | c i ⟩ = c o s θ i | 0 ⟩ + s i n θ i | 1 ⟩ {\textstyle \vert c_{i}\rangle =cos\theta _{i}\vert 0\rangle +sin\theta _{i}\vert 1\rangle } the color with a vector of angles θ i ∈ [ 0 , π / 2 ] {\textstyle \theta _{i}\in \left[0,\pi /2\right]} . As it can be seen, | c i ⟩ {\textstyle \vert c_{i}\rangle } is a regular qubit state of the form | ψ ⟩ = α | 0 ⟩ + β | 1 ⟩ {\displaystyle \vert \psi \rangle =\alpha \vert 0\rangle +\beta \vert 1\rangle } , with basis states | 0 ⟩ = ( 1 0 ) {\textstyle \vert 0\rangle ={\begin{pmatrix}1\\0\end{pmatrix}}} and | 1 ⟩ = ( 0 1 ) {\textstyle \vert 1\rangle ={\begin{pmatrix}0\\1\end{pmatrix}}} , as well as amplitudes α {\textstyle \alpha } and β {\textstyle \beta } that satisfy | α | 2 + | β | 2 = 1 {\textstyle \left|\alpha \right|^{2}+\left|\beta \right|^{2}=1} . Another common representation is MCQI (Multi-Channel Representation for Quantum Images), that uses the RGB channels with quantum states and following FRQI definition: | I ⟩ = 1 2 n + 1 ∑ i = 0 2 2 n − 1 | C R G B i ⟩ ⊗ | i ⟩ {\displaystyle \vert I\rangle ={\frac {1}{2^{n+1}}}\sum _{i=0}^{2^{2n-1}}\vert C_{RGB}^{i}\rangle \otimes \vert i\rangle } | C R G B i ⟩ = cos ⁡ θ R i | 000 ⟩ + cos ⁡ θ G i | 001 ⟩ + cos ⁡ θ B i | 010 ⟩ + sin ⁡ θ R i | 100 ⟩ + sin ⁡ θ G i | 101 ⟩ + sin ⁡ θ B i | 110 ⟩ + cos ⁡ θ α | 011 ⟩ + sin ⁡ θ α | 111 ⟩ {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}{\begin{aligned}\vert C_{RGB}^{i}\rangle &={\cos \theta _{R}^{i}\vert 000\rangle }+{\cos \theta _{G}^{i}\vert 001\rangle }+{\cos \theta _{B}^{i}\vert 010\rangle }\\&\quad +{\sin \theta _{R}^{i}\vert 100\rangle }+{\sin \theta _{G}^{i}\vert 101\rangle }+{\sin \theta _{B}^{i}\vert 110\rangle }\\&\quad +{\cos {\theta _{\alpha }}\vert 011\rangle }+{\sin \theta _{\alpha }\vert 111\rangle }\end{aligned}}\end{aligned}}} Departing from the angle-based approach of FRQI and MCQI, and using a qubit sequence, NEQR (Novel Enhanced Representation for Quantum Images) is another representation approach, that uses a function f ( y , x ) = C y x q − 1 C y x q − 2 … C y x 1 C y x 0 {\textstyle f\left(y,x\right)=C_{yx}^{q-1}C_{yx}^{q-2}\ldots C_{yx}^{1}C_{yx}^{0}} to encode color values for a 2 n × 2 n {\displaystyle 2^{n}\times 2^{n}} image: | I ⟩ = 1 2 n ∑ y = 0 2 n − 1 ∑ x = 0 2 n − 1 | f ( y , x ) ⟩ | y x ⟩ {\displaystyle \vert I\rangle ={\frac {1}{2^{n}}}\sum _{y=0}^{2^{n}-1}\sum _{x=0}^{2^{n}-1}\vert f\left(y,x\right)\rangle \vert yx\rangle } == Quantum image manipulations == A lot of the effort in QIMP has been focused on designing algorithms to manipulate the position and color information encoded using flexible representation of quantum images (FRQI) and its many variants. For instance, FRQI-based fast geometric transformations including (two-point) swapping, flip, (orthogonal) rotations and restricted geometric transformations to constrain these operations to a specified area of an image were initially proposed. Recently, NEQR-based quantum image translation to map the position of each picture element in an input image into a new position in an output image and quantum image scaling to resize a quantum image were discussed. While FRQI-based general form of color transformations were first proposed by means of the single qubit gates such as X, Z, and H gates. Later, Multi-Channel Quantum Image-based channel of interest (CoI) operator to entail shifting the grayscale value of the preselected color channel and the channel swapping (CS) operator to swap the grayscale values between two channels have been fully discussed. To illustrate the feasibility and capability of QIMP algorithms and application, researchers always prefer to simulate the digital image processing tasks on the basis of the QIRs that we already have. By using the basic quantum gates and the aforementioned operations, so far, researchers have contributed to quantum image feature extraction, quantum image segmentation, quantum image morphology, quantum image comparison, quantum image filtering, quantum image classification, quantum image stabilization, among others. In particular, QIMP-based security technologies have attracted extensive interest of researchers as presented in the ensuing discussions. Similarly, these advancements have led to many applications in the areas of watermarking, encryption, and steganography etc., which form the core security technologies highlighted in this area. In general, the work pursued by the researchers in this area are focused on expanding the applicability of QIMP to realize more classical-like digital image processing algorithms; propose technologies to physically realize the QIMP hardware; or simply to note the likely challenges that could impede the realization of some QIMP protocols. == Quantum image transform == By encoding and processing the image information in quantum-mechanical systems, a framework of quantum image processing is presented, where a pure quantum state encodes the image information: to encode the pixel values in the probability amplitudes and the pixel positions in the computational basis states. Given an image F = ( F i , j ) M × L {\displaystyle F=(F_{i,j})_{M\times L}} , where F i , j {\displaystyle F_{i,j}} represents the pixel value at position ( i , j ) {\displaystyle (i,j)} with i = 1 , … , M {\displaystyle i=1,\dots ,M} and j = 1 , … , L {\displaystyle j=1,\dots ,L} , a vector f → {\displaystyle {\vec {f}}} with M L {\displaystyle ML} elements can be formed by letting the first M {\displaystyle M} elements of f → {\displaystyle {\vec {f}}} be the first column of F {\displaystyle F} , the next M {\displaystyle M} elements the second column, etc. A large class of image operations is linear, e.g., unitary transformations, convolutions, and linear filtering. In the quantum computing, the linear transformation can be represented as | g ⟩ = U ^ | f ⟩ {\displaystyle |g\rangle ={\hat {U}}|f\rangle } with the input image state | f ⟩ {\displaystyle |f\rangle } and the output image state | g ⟩ {\displaystyle |g\rangle } . A unitary transformation can be implemented as a unitary evolution. Some basic and commonly used image transforms (e.g., the Fourier, Hadamard, an

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  • Algorithmic transparency

    Algorithmic transparency

    Algorithmic transparency is the principle that the factors that influence the decisions made by algorithms should be visible, or transparent, to the people who use, regulate, and are affected by systems that employ those algorithms. Although the phrase was coined in 2016 by Nicholas Diakopoulos and Michael Koliska about the role of algorithms in deciding the content of digital journalism services, the underlying principle dates back to the 1970s and the rise of automated systems for scoring consumer credit. The phrases "algorithmic transparency" and "algorithmic accountability" are sometimes used interchangeably – especially since they were coined by the same people – but they have subtly different meanings. Specifically, "algorithmic transparency" states that the inputs to the algorithm and the algorithm's use itself must be known, but they need not be fair. "Algorithmic accountability" implies that the organizations that use algorithms must be accountable for the decisions made by those algorithms, even though the decisions are being made by a machine, and not by a human being. Current research around algorithmic transparency interested in both societal effects of accessing remote services running algorithms, as well as mathematical and computer science approaches that can be used to achieve algorithmic transparency. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection studies how algorithms are used by consumers by conducting its own research on algorithmic transparency and by funding external research. In the European Union, the data protection laws that came into effect in May 2018 include a "right to explanation" of decisions made by algorithms, though it is unclear what this means. Furthermore, the European Union founded The European Center for Algorithmic Transparency (ECAT).

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  • WCF Data Services

    WCF Data Services

    WCF Data Services (formerly ADO.NET Data Services, codename "Astoria") is a platform for what Microsoft calls Data Services. It is actually a combination of the runtime and a web service through which the services are exposed. It also includes the Data Services Toolkit which lets Astoria Data Services be created from within ASP.NET itself. The Astoria project was announced at MIX 2007, and the first developer preview was made available on April 30, 2007. The first CTP was made available as a part of the ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions Preview. The final version was released as part of Service Pack 1 of the .NET Framework 3.5 on August 11, 2008. The name change from ADO.NET Data Services to WCF data Services was announced at the 2009 PDC. == Overview == WCF Data Services exposes data, represented as Entity Data Model (EDM) objects, via web services accessed over HTTP. The data can be addressed using a REST-like URI. The data service, when accessed via the HTTP GET method with such a URI, will return the data. The web service can be configured to return the data in either plain XML, JSON or RDF+XML. In the initial release, formats like RSS and ATOM are not supported, though they may be in the future. In addition, using other HTTP methods like PUT, POST or DELETE, the data can be updated as well. POST can be used to create new entities, PUT for updating an entity, and DELETE for deleting an entity. == Description == Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) comes to the rescue when we find ourselves not able to achieve what we want to achieve using web services, i.e., other protocols support and even duplex communication. With WCF, we can define our service once and then configure it in such a way that it can be used via HTTP, TCP, IPC, and even Message Queues. We can consume Web Services using server side scripts (ASP.NET), JavaScript Object Notations (JSON), and even REST (Representational State Transfer). Understanding the basics When we say that a WCF service can be used to communicate using different protocols and from different kinds of applications, we will need to understand how we can achieve this. If we want to use a WCF service from an application, then we have three major questions: 1.Where is the WCF service located from a client's perspective? 2.How can a client access the service, i.e., protocols and message formats? 3.What is the functionality that a service is providing to the clients? Once we have the answer to these three questions, then creating and consuming the WCF service will be a lot easier for us. The WCF service has the concept of endpoints. A WCF service provides endpoints which client applications can use to communicate with the WCF service. The answer to these above questions is what is known as the ABC of WCF services and in fact are the main components of a WCF service. So let's tackle each question one by one. Address: Like a webservice, a WCF service also provides a URI which can be used by clients to get to the WCF service. This URI is called as the Address of the WCF service. This will solve the first problem of "where to locate the WCF service?" for us. Binding: Once we are able to locate the WCF service, one should think about how to communicate with the service (protocol wise). The binding is what defines how the WCF service handles the communication. It could also define other communication parameters like message encoding, etc. This will solve the second problem of "how to communicate with the WCF service?" for us. Contract: Now the only question one is left with is about the functionalities that a WCF service provides. The contract is what defines the public data and interfaces that WCF service provides to the clients. The URIs representing the data will contain the physical location of the service, as well as the service name. It will also need to specify an EDM Entity-Set or a specific entity instance, as in respectively http://dataserver/service.svc/MusicCollection or http://dataserver/service.svc/MusicCollection[SomeArtist] The former will list all entities in the Collection set whereas the latter will list only for the entity which is indexed by SomeArtist. The URIs can also specify a traversal of a relationship in the Entity Data Model. For example, http://dataserver/service.svc/MusicCollection[SomeSong]/Genre traverses the relationship Genre (in SQL parlance, joins with the Genre table) and retrieves all instances of Genre that are associated with the entity SomeSong. Simple predicates can also be specified in the URI, like http://dataserver/service.svc/MusicCollection[SomeArtist]/ReleaseDate[Year eq 2006] will fetch the items that are indexed by SomeArtist and had their release in 2006. Filtering and partition information can also be encoded in the URL as http://dataserver/service.svc/MusicCollection?$orderby=ReleaseDate&$skip=100&$top=50 Although the presence of skip and top keywords indicates paging support, in Data Services version 1 there is no method of determining the number of records available and thus impossible to determine how many pages there may be. The OData 2.0 spec adds support for the $count path segment (to return just a count of entities) and $inlineCount (to retrieve a page worth of entities and a total count without a separate round-trip....).

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  • Traité de Documentation

    Traité de Documentation

    Traité de documentation: le livre sur le livre, théorie et pratique is a landmark book by Belgian author Paul Otlet, first published in 1934. == Legacy == The book is considered a landmark in the history of information science, with concepts predicting the rise of the World Wide Web and search engines. In [Otlet's] most famous publication of 1934, Traité de Documentation, he wrote of a desk in the form of a wheel from which different projects (workspaces) could be switched as they rotated — foreshadowing the multiple desktops and tabs of contemporary computer interfaces. Inspired by the arrival of radio, phonograph, cinema, and television, Otlet also posited that there were as yet many “inventions to be discovered,” including the reading and annotation of remote documents and computer speech.

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  • Landmark point

    Landmark point

    In morphometrics, landmark point or shortly landmark is a point in a shape object in which correspondences between and within the populations of the object are preserved. In other disciplines, landmarks may be known as vertices, anchor points, control points, sites, profile points, 'sampling' points, nodes, markers, fiducial markers, etc. Landmarks can be defined either manually by experts or automatically by a computer program. There are three basic types of landmarks: anatomical landmarks, mathematical landmarks or pseudo-landmarks. An anatomical landmark is a biologically-meaningful point in an organism. Usually experts define anatomical points to ensure their correspondences within the same species. Examples of anatomical landmark in shape of a skull are the eye corner, tip of the nose, jaw, etc. Anatomical landmarks determine homologous parts of an organism, which share a common ancestry. Mathematical landmarks are points in a shape that are located according to some mathematical or geometrical property, for instance, a high curvature point or an extreme point. A computer program usually determines mathematical landmarks used for an automatic pattern recognition. Pseudo-landmarks are constructed points located between anatomical or mathematical landmarks. A typical example is an equally spaced set of points between two anatomical landmarks to get more sample points from a shape. Pseudo-landmarks are useful during shape matching, when the matching process requires a large number of points.

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  • Leiden algorithm

    Leiden algorithm

    The Leiden algorithm is a community detection algorithm developed by Traag et al at Leiden University. It was developed as a modification of the Louvain method. Like the Louvain method, the Leiden algorithm attempts to optimize modularity in extracting communities from networks; however, it addresses key issues present in the Louvain method, namely poorly connected communities and the resolution limit of modularity. == Improvement over Louvain method == Broadly, the Leiden algorithm uses the same two primary phases as the Louvain algorithm: a local node moving step (though, the method by which nodes are considered in Leiden is more efficient) and a graph aggregation step. However, to address the issues with poorly-connected communities and the merging of smaller communities into larger communities (the resolution limit of modularity), the Leiden algorithm employs an intermediate refinement phase in which communities may be split to guarantee that all communities are well-connected. Consider, for example, the following graph: Three communities are present in this graph (each color represents a community). Additionally, the center "bridge" node (represented with an extra circle) is a member of the community represented by blue nodes. Now consider the result of a node-moving step which merges the communities denoted by red and green nodes into a single community (as the two communities are highly connected): Notably, the center "bridge" node is now a member of the larger red community after node moving occurs (due to the greedy nature of the local node moving algorithm). In the Louvain method, such a merging would be followed immediately by the graph aggregation phase. However, this causes a disconnection between two different sections of the community represented by blue nodes. In the Leiden algorithm, the graph is instead refined: The Leiden algorithm's refinement step ensures that the center "bridge" node is kept in the blue community to ensure that it remains intact and connected, despite the potential improvement in modularity from adding the center "bridge" node to the red community. == Graph components == Before defining the Leiden algorithm, it will be helpful to define some of the components of a graph. === Vertices and edges === A graph is composed of vertices (nodes) and edges. Each edge is connected to two vertices, and each vertex may be connected to zero or more edges. Edges are typically represented by straight lines, while nodes are represented by circles or points. In set notation, let V {\displaystyle V} be the set of vertices, and E {\displaystyle E} be the set of edges: V := { v 1 , v 2 , … , v n } E := { e i j , e i k , … , e k l } {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}V&:=\{v_{1},v_{2},\dots ,v_{n}\}\\E&:=\{e_{ij},e_{ik},\dots ,e_{kl}\}\end{aligned}}} where e i j {\displaystyle e_{ij}} is the directed edge from vertex v i {\displaystyle v_{i}} to vertex v j {\displaystyle v_{j}} . We can also write this as an ordered pair: e i j := ( v i , v j ) {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}e_{ij}&:=(v_{i},v_{j})\end{aligned}}} === Community === A community is a unique set of nodes: C i ⊆ V C i ⋂ C j = ∅ ∀ i ≠ j {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}C_{i}&\subseteq V\\C_{i}&\bigcap C_{j}=\emptyset ~\forall ~i\neq j\end{aligned}}} and the union of all communities must be the total set of vertices: V = ⋃ i = 1 C i {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}V&=\bigcup _{i=1}C_{i}\end{aligned}}} === Partition === A partition is the set of all communities: P = { C 1 , C 2 , … , C n } {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}{\mathcal {P}}&=\{C_{1},C_{2},\dots ,C_{n}\}\end{aligned}}} == Partition quality == How communities are partitioned is an integral part on the Leiden algorithm. How partitions are decided can depend on how their quality is measured. Additionally, many of these metrics contain parameters of their own that can change the outcome of their communities. === Modularity === Modularity is a highly used quality metric for assessing how well a set of communities partition a graph. The equation for this metric is defined for an adjacency matrix, A, as: Q = 1 2 m ∑ i j ( A i j − k i k j 2 m ) δ ( c i , c j ) {\displaystyle Q={\frac {1}{2m}}\sum _{ij}(A_{ij}-{\frac {k_{i}k_{j}}{2m}})\delta (c_{i},c_{j})} where: A i j {\displaystyle A_{ij}} represents the edge weight between nodes i {\displaystyle i} and j {\displaystyle j} ; see Adjacency matrix; k i {\displaystyle k_{i}} and k j {\displaystyle k_{j}} are the sum of the weights of the edges attached to nodes i {\displaystyle i} and j {\displaystyle j} , respectively; m {\displaystyle m} is the sum of all of the edge weights in the graph; c i {\displaystyle c_{i}} and c j {\displaystyle c_{j}} are the communities to which the nodes i {\displaystyle i} and j {\displaystyle j} belong; and δ {\displaystyle \delta } is Kronecker delta function: δ ( c i , c j ) = { 1 if c i and c j are the same community 0 otherwise {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\delta (c_{i},c_{j})&={\begin{cases}1&{\text{if }}c_{i}{\text{ and }}c_{j}{\text{ are the same community}}\\0&{\text{otherwise}}\end{cases}}\end{aligned}}} === Reichardt Bornholdt Potts Model (RB) === One of the most well used metrics for the Leiden algorithm is the Reichardt Bornholdt Potts Model (RB). This model is used by default in most mainstream Leiden algorithm libraries under the name RBConfigurationVertexPartition. This model introduces a resolution parameter γ {\displaystyle \gamma } and is highly similar to the equation for modularity. This model is defined by the following quality function for an adjacency matrix, A, as: Q = ∑ i j ( A i j − γ k i k j 2 m ) δ ( c i , c j ) {\displaystyle Q=\sum _{ij}(A_{ij}-\gamma {\frac {k_{i}k_{j}}{2m}})\delta (c_{i},c_{j})} where: γ {\displaystyle \gamma } represents a linear resolution parameter === Constant Potts Model (CPM) === Another metric similar to RB is the Constant Potts Model (CPM). This metric also relies on a resolution parameter γ {\displaystyle \gamma } The quality function is defined as: H = − ∑ i j ( A i j w i j − γ ) δ ( c i , c j ) {\displaystyle H=-\sum _{ij}(A_{ij}w_{ij}-\gamma )\delta (c_{i},c_{j})} === Understanding Potts Model resolution parameters/Resolution limit === Typically Potts models such as RB or CPM include a resolution parameter in their calculation. Potts models are introduced as a response to the resolution limit problem that is present in modularity maximization based community detection. The resolution limit problem is that, for some graphs, maximizing modularity may cause substructures of a graph to merge and become a single community and thus smaller structures are lost. These resolution parameters allow modularity adjacent methods to be modified to suit the requirements of the user applying the Leiden algorithm to account for small substructures at a certain granularity. The figure on the right illustrates why resolution can be a helpful parameter when using modularity based quality metrics. In the first graph, modularity only captures the large scale structures of the graph; however, in the second example, a more granular quality metric could potentially detect all substructures in a graph. == Algorithm == The Leiden algorithm starts with a graph of disorganized nodes (a) and sorts it by partitioning them to maximize modularity (the difference in quality between the generated partition and a hypothetical randomized partition of communities). The method it uses is similar to the Louvain algorithm, except that after moving each node it also considers that node's neighbors that are not already in the community it was placed in. This process results in our first partition (b), also referred to as P {\displaystyle {\mathcal {P}}} . Then the algorithm refines this partition by first placing each node into its own individual community and then moving them from one community to another to maximize modularity. It does this iteratively until each node has been visited and moved, and each community has been refined - this creates partition (c), which is the initial partition of P refined {\displaystyle {\mathcal {P}}_{\text{refined}}} . Then an aggregate network (d) is created by turning each community into a node. P refined {\displaystyle {\mathcal {P}}_{\text{refined}}} is used as the basis for the aggregate network while P {\displaystyle {\mathcal {P}}} is used to create its initial partition. Because we use the original partition P {\displaystyle {\mathcal {P}}} in this step, we must retain it so that it can be used in future iterations. These steps together form the first iteration of the algorithm. In subsequent iterations, the nodes of the aggregate network (which each represent a community) are once again placed into their own individual communities and then sorted according to modularity to form a new P refined {\displaystyle {\mathcal {P}}_{\text{refined}}} , forming (e) in the above graphic. In the case depicted by the graph, the nodes were already sorted optimally, so no change too

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  • ISO 15926

    ISO 15926

    ISO 15926 is a standard for data integration, sharing, exchange, and hand-over between computer systems. The title, "Industrial automation systems and integration—Integration of life-cycle data for process plants including oil and gas production facilities", is regarded too narrow by the present ISO 15926 developers. Having developed a generic data model and reference data library for process plants, it turned out that this subject is already so wide, that actually any state information may be modelled with it. == History == In 1991 a European Union ESPRIT-, named ProcessBase, started. The focus of this research project was to develop a data model for lifecycle information of a facility that would suit the requirements of the process industries. At the time that the project duration had elapsed, a consortium of companies involved in the process industries had been established: EPISTLE (European Process Industries STEP Technical Liaison Executive). Initially individual companies were members, but later this changed into a situation where three national consortia were the only members: PISTEP (UK), POSC/Caesar (Norway), and USPI-NL (Netherlands). (later PISTEP merged into POSC/Caesar, and USPI-NL was renamed to USPI). EPISTLE took over the work of the ProcessBase project. Initially this work involved a standard called ISO 10303-221 (referred to as "STEP AP221"). In that AP221 we saw, for the first time, an Annex M with a list of standard instances of the AP221 data model, including types of objects. These standard instances would be for reference and would act as a knowledge base with knowledge about the types of objects. In the early nineties EPISTLE started an activity to extend Annex M to become a library of such object classes and their relationships: STEPlib. In the STEPlib activities a group of approx. 100 domain experts from all three member consortia, spread over the various expertises (e.g. Electrical, Piping, Rotating equipment, etc.), worked together to define the "core classes". The development of STEPlib was extended with many additional classes and relationships between classes and published as Open source data. Furthermore, the concepts and relation types from the AP221 and ISO 15926-2 data models were also added to the STEPlib dictionary. This resulted in the development of Gellish English, whereas STEPlib became the Gellish English dictionary. Gellish English is a structured subset of natural English and is a modeling language suitable for knowledge modeling, product modeling and data exchange. It differs from conventional modeling languages (meta languages) as used in information technology as it not only defines generic concepts, but also includes an English dictionary. The semantic expression capability of Gellish English was significantly increased by extending the number of relation types that can be used to express knowledge and information. For modelling-technical reasons POSC/Caesar proposed another standard than ISO 10303, called ISO 15926. EPISTLE (and ISO) supported that proposal, and continued the modelling work, thereby writing Part 2 of ISO 15926. This Part 2 has official ISO IS (International Standard) status since 2003. POSC/Caesar started to put together their own RDL (Reference Data Library). They added many specialized classes, for example for ANSI (American National Standards Institute) pipe and pipe fittings. Meanwhile, STEPlib continued its existence, mainly driven by some members of USPI. Since it was clear that it was not in the interest of the industry to have two libraries for, in essence, the same set of classes, the Management Board of EPISTLE decided that the core classes of the two libraries shall be merged into Part 4 of ISO 15926. This merging process has been finished. Part 4 should act as reference data for part 2 of ISO 15926 as well as for ISO 10303-221 and replaced its Annex M. On June 5, 2007 ISO 15926-4 was signed off as a TS (Technical Specification). In 1999 the work on an earlier version of Part 7 started. Initially this was based on XML Schema (the only useful W3C Recommendation available then), but when Web Ontology Language (OWL) became available it was clear that provided a far more suitable environment for Part 7. Part 7 passed the first ISO ballot by the end of 2005, and an implementation project started. A formal ballot for TS (Technical Specification) was planned for December 2007. However, it was decided then to split Part 7 into more than one part, because the scope was too wide. == Need for ISO15926 == In 2004, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released a report on the impact of the lack of digital interoperability in the capital projects industry. The report estimated the cost of inadequate interoperability in the U.S. capital facilities industry to be $15.8 billion per year. This was considered likely to be a conservative figure. == The standard == ISO 15926 has thirteen parts (as of February 2022): Part 1 - Overview and fundamental principles Part 2 - Data model Part 3 - Reference data for geometry and topology Part 4 - Reference Data, the terms used within facilities for the process industry Part 6 - Methodology for the development and validation of reference data (under development) Part 7 - Template methodology Part 8 - OWL/RDF implementation Part 9 - Implementation standards, with the focus on standard web servers, web services, and security (under development) Part 10 - Conformance testing Part 11 - Methodology for simplified industrial usage of reference data (under development) Part 12 - Life cycle integration ontology in Web Ontology Language (OWL2) Part 13 - Integrated lifecycle asset planning === Description === The model and the library are suitable for representing lifecycle information about technical installations and their components. They can also be used for defining the terms used in product catalogs in e-commerce. Another, more limited, use of the standard is as a reference classification for harmonization purposes between shared databases and product catalogues that are not based on ISO 15926. The purpose of ISO 15926 is to provide a Lingua Franca for computer systems, thereby integrating the information produced by them. Although set up for the process industries with large projects involving many parties, and involving plant operations and maintenance lasting decades, the technology can be used by anyone willing to set up a proper vocabulary of reference data in line with Part 4. In Part 7 the concept of Templates is introduced. These are semantic constructs, using Part 2 entities, that represent a small piece of information. These constructs then are mapped to more efficient classes of n-ary relations that interlink the Nodes that are involved in the represented information. In Part 8 the Part 7 Templates are defined in OWL and instantiated in RDF. For validation and reasoning purposes all are represented in First-Order Logic as well. In Part 9 these Node and Template instances are stored in an RDF triple store, set up to a standard schema and an API. Each participating computer system maps its data from its internal format to such ISO-standard Node and Template instances. Data can be "handed over" from one triple store to another in cases where data custodianship is handed over (e.g. from a contractor to a plant owner, or from a manufacturer to the owners of the manufactured goods). Hand-over can be for a part of all data, whilst maintaining full referential integrity. Documents are user-definable. They are defined in XML Schema and they are, in essence, only a structure containing cells that make reference to instances of Templates. This represents a view on all lifecycle data: since the data model is a 4D (space-time) model, it is possible to present the data that was valid at any given point in time, thus providing a true historical record. It is expected that this will be used for Knowledge Mining. Data can be queried by means of SPARQL. In any implementation a restricted number of triple stores can be involved, with different access rights. This is done by means of creating a CPF Server (= Confederation of Participating Façades). An Ontology Browser allows for access to one or more triple stores in a given CPF, depending on the access rights. == Projects and applications == There are a number of projects working on the extension of the ISO 15926 standard in different application areas. === Capital-intensive projects === Within the application of Capital Intensive projects, some cooperating implementation projects are running: The DEXPI project: The objective of DEXPI is to develop and promote a general standard for the process industry covering all phases of the lifecycle of a (petro-)chemical plant, ranging from specification of functional requirements to assets in operation. Finalised projects include: The EDRC Project of FIATECH Capturing Equipment Data Requirements Using ISO 15926 and Assessing Conforma

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  • Information flow

    Information flow

    In discourse-based grammatical theory, information flow is any tracking of referential information by speakers. Information may be new, i.e., just introduced into the conversation; given, i.e., already active in the speakers' consciousness; or old, i.e., no longer active. The various types of activation, and how these are defined, are model-dependent. Information flow affects grammatical structures such as: Word order (topic, focus, and afterthought constructions). Active, passive, or middle voice. Choice of deixis, such as articles; "medial" deictics such as Spanish ese and Japanese sore are generally determined by the familiarity of a referent rather than by physical distance. Overtness of information, such as whether an argument of a verb is indicated by a lexical noun phrase, a pronoun, or not mentioned at all. Clefting: Splitting a single clause into two clauses, each with its own verb, e.g. ‘The chicken turtles tasted like chicken.’ becomes ‘It was the chicken turtle | that tasted like chicken.’ In this case, clefting is used to shift the focus of the sentence to the subject, the chicken turtle. Front focus: Placing at the start (front) of a sentence information that would normally occur later in the sentence, to give it extra prominence. For example, in pop culture, Yoda's speech often utilizes such syntactic construction, such as when he says 'much to learn you still have' to Luke Skywalker. End focus (or end weight): Given or familiar information followed by new information. This gives prominence to the final part of the sentences and can enable suspense to build, e.g. ‘Through the door came a gigantic wolf’.(Umer Prince)

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  • Multi-focus image fusion

    Multi-focus image fusion

    Multi-focus image fusion is a multiple image compression technique using input images with different focus depths to make one output image that preserves all information. == Overview == The main idea of image fusion is gathering important and the essential information from the input images into one single image which ideally has all of the information of the input images. The research history of image fusion spans over 30 years and many scientific papers. Image fusion generally has two aspects: image fusion methods and objective evaluation metrics. In visual sensor networks (VSN), sensors are cameras which record images and video sequences. In many applications of VSN, a camera can't give a perfect illustration including all details of the scene. This is because of the limited depth of focus of the optical lens of cameras. Therefore, just the object located in the focal length of camera is focused and clear, and other parts of the image are blurred. VSN captures images with different depths of focus using several cameras. Due to the large amount of data generated by cameras compared to other sensors such as pressure and temperature sensors and some limitations of bandwidth, energy consumption and processing time, it is essential to process the local input images to decrease the amount of transmitted data. == Multi-Focus image fusion in the spatial domain == Huang and Jing have reviewed and applied several focus measurements in the spatial domain for the multi-focus image fusion process, suitable for real-time applications. They mentioned some focus measurements including variance, energy of image gradient (EOG), Tenenbaum's algorithm (Tenengrad), energy of Laplacian (EOL), sum-modified-Laplacian (SML), and spatial frequency (SF). Their experiments showed that EOL gave better results than other methods like variance and spatial frequency. == Multi-Focus image fusion in multi-scale transform and DCT domain == Image fusion based on the multi-scale transform is the most commonly used and promising technique. Laplacian pyramid transform, gradient pyramid-based transform, morphological pyramid transform and the premier ones, discrete wavelet transform, shift-invariant wavelet transform (SIDWT), and discrete cosine harmonic wavelet transform (DCHWT) are some examples of image fusion methods based on multi-scale transform. These methods are complex and have some limitations e.g. processing time and energy consumption. For example, multi-focus image fusion methods based on DWT require a lot of convolution operations, so they take more time and energy to process. Therefore, most methods in multi-scale transform are not suitable for real-time applications. Moreover, these methods are not very successful along edges, due to the wavelet transform process missing the edges of the image. They create ringing artefacts in the output image and reduce its quality. Due to the aforementioned problems in the multi-scale transform methods, researchers are interested in multi-focus image fusion in the DCT domain. DCT-based methods are more efficient in terms of transmission and archiving images coded in Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) standard to the upper node in the VSN agent. A JPEG system consists of a pair of an encoder and a decoder. In the encoder, images are divided into non-overlapping 8×8 blocks, and the DCT coefficients are calculated for each. Since the quantization of DCT coefficients is a lossy process, many of the small-valued DCT coefficients are quantized to zero, which corresponds to high frequencies. DCT-based image fusion algorithms work better when the multi-focus image fusion methods are applied in the compressed domain. In addition, in the spatial-based methods, the input images must be decoded and then transferred to the spatial domain. After implementation of the image fusion operations, the output fused images must again be encoded. DCT domain-based methods do not require complex and time-consuming consecutive decoding and encoding operations. Therefore, the image fusion methods based on DCT domain operate with much less energy and processing time. Recently, a lot of research has been carried out in the DCT domain. DCT+Variance, DCT+Corr_Eng, DCT+EOL, and DCT+VOL are some prominent examples of DCT based methods.

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  • Vinberg's algorithm

    Vinberg's algorithm

    In mathematics, Vinberg's algorithm is an algorithm, introduced by Ernest Borisovich Vinberg, for finding a fundamental domain of a hyperbolic reflection group. Conway (1983) used Vinberg's algorithm to describe the automorphism group of the 26-dimensional even unimodular Lorentzian lattice II25,1 in terms of the Leech lattice. == Description of the algorithm == Let Γ < I s o m ( H n ) {\displaystyle \Gamma <\mathrm {Isom} (\mathbb {H} ^{n})} be a hyperbolic reflection group. Choose any point v 0 ∈ H n {\displaystyle v_{0}\in \mathbb {H} ^{n}} ; we shall call it the basic (or initial) point. The fundamental domain P 0 {\displaystyle P_{0}} of its stabilizer Γ v 0 {\displaystyle \Gamma _{v_{0}}} is a polyhedral cone in H n {\displaystyle \mathbb {H} ^{n}} . Let H 1 , . . . , H m {\displaystyle H_{1},...,H_{m}} be the faces of this cone, and let a 1 , . . . , a m {\displaystyle a_{1},...,a_{m}} be outer normal vectors to it. Consider the half-spaces H k − = { x ∈ R n , 1 | ( x , a k ) ≤ 0 } . {\displaystyle H_{k}^{-}=\{x\in \mathbb {R} ^{n,1}|(x,a_{k})\leq 0\}.} There exists a unique fundamental polyhedron P {\displaystyle P} of Γ {\displaystyle \Gamma } contained in P 0 {\displaystyle P_{0}} and containing the point v 0 {\displaystyle v_{0}} . Its faces containing v 0 {\displaystyle v_{0}} are formed by faces H 1 , . . . , H m {\displaystyle H_{1},...,H_{m}} of the cone P 0 {\displaystyle P_{0}} . The other faces H m + 1 , . . . {\displaystyle H_{m+1},...} and the corresponding outward normals a m + 1 , . . . {\displaystyle a_{m+1},...} are constructed by induction. Namely, for H j {\displaystyle H_{j}} we take a mirror such that the root a j {\displaystyle a_{j}} orthogonal to it satisfies the conditions (1) ( v 0 , a j ) < 0 {\displaystyle (v_{0},a_{j})<0} ; (2) ( a i , a j ) ≤ 0 {\displaystyle (a_{i},a_{j})\leq 0} for all i < j {\displaystyle i Read more →

  • Information architecture

    Information architecture

    Information architecture is the structural design of shared information environments, in particular the organisation of websites and software to support usability and findability. The term information architecture was coined by Richard Saul Wurman. Since its inception, information architecture has become an emerging community of practice focused on applying principles of design, architecture and information science in digital spaces. Typically, a model or concept of information is used and applied to activities which require explicit details of complex information systems. These activities include library systems and database development. == Definition == The term information architecture has different meanings in different branches of information systems or information technology. === User experience === In user experience design, information architecture has been described as the structural design of shared information environments, comprising the study and practice of organising and labelling web sites, intranets, online communities, and software to support user experience, in particular, the findability and usability of information. It has also been described as an emerging community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape. === Information systems === Technically speaking, information architecture comprises the combination of organization, labeling, search and navigation systems within websites and intranets, serving as a navigational aid to the content of information-rich systems. === Data architecture === Information architecture can be described as a subset of data architecture where usable data is constructed, designed, and arranged in a fashion most useful to the users of data. === Systems design === In the field of systems design, for example, information architecture is a component of enterprise architecture that deals with the information component when describing the structure of an enterprise. Some system design practitioners regard information architecture as strictly the application of information science to web design, which considers such issues as classification and information retrieval, and not factors like user experience and information design. == Principles == Principles of information architecture include the following: The principle of objects The principle of choices The principle of disclosure The principle of exemplars The principle of front doors The principle of multiple classification The principle of focused navigation The principle of growth == History == Richard Saul Wurman is credited with coining the term information architecture in relation to the design of information. From 1998 to 2015, Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld were co-authors of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web. Other authors include Jesse James Garrett and Christina Wodtke.

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