Series Of Symbols Research Articles

Adaptive Subspace Symbolization for Content-Based Video Detection

Efficiently and effectively identifying similar videos is an important and nontrivial problem in content-based video retrieval. This paper proposes a subspace symbolization approach, namely SUDS, for content-based retrieval on very large video databases. The novelty of SUDS is that it explores the data distribution in subspaces to build a visual dictionary with which the videos are processed by deriving the string matching techniques with two-step data simplification. Specifically, we first propose an adaptive approach, called VLP, to extract a series of dominant subspaces of variable lengths from the whole visual feature space without the constraint of dimension consecutiveness. A stable visual dictionary is built by clustering the video keyframes over each dominant subspace. A compact video representation model is developed by transforming each keyframe into a word that is a series of symbols in the dominant subspaces, and further each video into a series of words. Then, we present an innovative similarity measure called CVE, which adopts a complementary information compensation scheme based on the visual features and sequence context of videos. Finally, an efficient two-layered index strategy with a number of query optimizations is proposed to facilitate video retrieval. The experimental results demonstrate the high effectiveness and efficiency of SUDS.

Consistere and Muoversi:The Meeting of Human Being and Statue in Henrik Ibsen’s Når vi døde vågner and Luigi Pirandello’s Diana e la Tuda

The compelling mystery of sculpture as an art form – the shaping of a three-dimensional body from a lifeless material – has exercised writers, philosophers, anthropologists, and dramatists, among them Henrik Ibsen and Luigi Pirandello. This article poses the question: what happens to the verisimilitude of the statue on stage? Is there potential for fruitful confusion, hybrids, blendings, between human being and statue in drama? To explore this question, the article considers Ibsen’s dramatic epilogue _Når vi døde vågner_ (1899, _When We Dead Awaken_), and Pirandello’s tragedy _Diana e la Tuda_ (1926, _Diana and Tuda_). The petrifaction of the human being and the animation of the statue do not happen explicitly in the two dramas, but we are induced to imagine them through a series of symbols and allegories: characters become stone-like but not of stone, and statues become life-like but not alive. Both plays use these illusory metamorphoses to examine ideas such as the pseudo-artist, the artist, the model, the statue and the ‘enemies’ of art. To frame the discussion, this article adopts the concepts of _consistere_, to stand, and _muoversi_, to move, terms defined by the Italian philosopher Adriano Tilgher, particularly in his _Studi critici sulla estetica contemporanea_ (1928). The analysis begins with a discussion of those artists in the two plays who strive to immobilise their own existence and that of the people around them; we then consider those characters who confront the artists and shift the balance in favour of movement. The article ends with a discussion of the complex balance achieved in each play between _consistere_ and _muoversi_.

Dilution of compatibility effects in Simon-type tasks depends on categorical similarity between distractors and diluters

The presence of a distracting stimulus during performance of the Stroop color-naming task leads to dilution of the Stroop effect. Because the automatic activation of word meaning may interfere with the task-relevant stimulus feature (text color; stimulus-stimulus [S-S] interference) and the response (saying the text color; stimulus-response [S-R] interference), it is unclear which of these types of interference is diluted. We introduce a new dilution paradigm using word- and arrow-based Simon tasks, in which only S-R interference is present. Participants made a left or right response to a central color target. A task-irrelevant location-word (Experiment 1) or arrow (Experiment 2) distractor adjacent to the target produced S-R compatibility effects. An additional neutral word or symbol series (diluter) was sometimes presented on the opposite side of the target from the distractor. The compatibility effect was smaller when the distractor and diluter category domains matched than when they mismatched. This result provides evidence that S-R compatibility effects are susceptible to the presence of diluters that are categorically similar to the distractors.

Symbols of State Ideology: The Samurai in Modern Japan

Between the Meiji period (1868-1912) and the end of the Pacific War in 1945, the Japanese state systematically created and propagated a nationalistic ideology in order to foster a coherent, unified identity among the newly nationalised population and mobilise support for its agenda. This ideology was represented by a series of discursive symbols, of which I examine the particular image of the samurai. Through the deliberate glorification and imbuement of this image with certain moral and behavioural values including the ideals of loyalty, obedience and self-sacrifice, the state elite deployed the samurai symbol to promote its ideology. This symbol was widely disseminated via official indoctrination efforts, but as I will demonstrate, this did not necessarily translate into a profound impact on the popular mindset. Drawing on a range of sources, I investigate the construction, projection and significance of the samurai image in the particular context of pre-war and wartime Japan, and in so doing shed some light on the function of symbols as tools of ideology.

Anomaly detection in complex system based on epsilon machine

Epsilon machine is a computational mechanics theory and its most effective reconstruction algorithm is causal state splitting reconstruction (CSSR). As CSSR can only be applied to symbol series, symbolising real series to symbol series is necessary in practice. Epsilon machine discovers the hidden pattern of a system. In reconstructed results, the hidden pattern is expressed as the set of causal states. Based on the variation of causal states, a novel anomaly detection algorithm, structure vector model, is presented. The vector is composed of the causal states, and the anomaly measure is defined with the distance of different vectors. An example of the crankshaft fatigue demonstrates the effectiveness of the model. The mechanism of the model is discussed in detail from three aspects, computational mechanics, symbolic dynamics and complex networks. The new idea defining anomaly measure based on the variation of hidden patterns can be interpreted reasonably with the hierarchical structure of complex networks. The jump in anomaly curves is a nature candidate for the threshold, which confirms the positive meaning of the model. Finally, the parameter choice and time complexity are briefly analysed.

Metallogenic Series Related to Permian Mafic Complex in North Xinjiang: Post‐collisional Stage or Mantle Plume Result?

AbstractThere are four deposit types related to a Permian mafic complex in northern Xinjiang, i.e., copper‐nickel sulfide deposit, vanadic titanomagnetite deposit, magnetite (‐cobalt) deposit and Cu‐Ni‐VTiFe composite deposit. The deposits are distributed spanning tectonic units with close and consecutive metallogenic ages. A transitional deposit type can occur among the end‐member deposits. Trace elements of host rocks show that they can derive from similar source area. Hence, they constitute a particular metallogenic series related to a mafic‐ultramafic complex that is also a symbol series of the post‐collisional stage of the Central Asia Metallogenic Province (CAMP). The metallogenic ages of the series are between 260 Ma and 300 Ma throughout the Permian. Unlike mineralization from a mantle plume, the metallogenic period of this series spans at least 40 Ma. Compared with related deposits of the Emeishan mantle plume, the North Xinjiang series has a similar ore‐forming element assemblage but has preferably developed Cu‐Ni sulfide deposits rather than vanadic titanomagnetite deposits. In concomitance with this series, North Xinjiang area has developed a set of syntectonic Au‐Cu‐Mo metallogenic series related to a felsic volcanic‐intrusive complex, which might indicate that there is no direct relationship with mantle plume activity. From early to late, i.e., the sequence of copper‐nickel sulfide to magnetite (‐cobalt) to vanadic titanomagnetite deposit, the host rock series evolves from mafic‐ultramafic and tholeiite series to mafic and alkalic series, the ΣREE content tends to increase with increasing of REE fractionation, and some of the trace elements (particularly LIL) also show an increasing tendency. The above evolutionary regularity possibly reflects a course where the magma source deepens and thermal interface moves down, energy gradually exhausts, and neo‐continental crust forming in the post‐collision stage tends to stabilize.

Generation of hierarchically correlated multivariate symbolic sequences

We introduce an algorithm to generate multivariate series of symbols from a finite alphabet with a given hierarchical structure of similarities. The target hierarchical structure of similarities is arbitrary, for instance the one obtained by some hierarchical clustering procedure as applied to an empirical matrix of Hamming distances. The algorithm can be interpreted as the finite alphabet equivalent of the recently introduced hierarchically nested factor model (M. Tumminello et al. EPL 78 (3) 30006 (2007)). The algorithm is based on a generating mechanism that is different from the one used in the mutation rate approach. We apply the proposed methodology for investigating the relationship between the bootstrap value associated with a node of a phylogeny and the probability of finding that node in the true phylogeny.

Canadian National Identity through the Prism of First and Second World War Propaganda Posters

War posters often call upon a series of symbols and personifications of the nation in order to spark the citizen’s sense of patriotic duty. In the case of Canada, the propaganda posters produced during the two world wars allow us to study the creation process for this common register of symbols. On one level, the posters illustrate the movement from the status of dominion within the Empire to that of independent nation. This change in status obliged the country to invent a series of national symbols, and to discard the First World War strategy of appealing to isolated groups of citizens according to their ethnic or cultural origins. The Second World War posters reveal the federal government’s plan to create a new pan-Canadian nationalism, a process that would continue into the 1960s.

Symbolic time series characterization and block entropy analysis of DC-DC converters

A method based on symbolic time series and entropy theory is proposed to analyse the nonlinear behaviours of DC-DC converters. Firstly, the nonlinear continuous system is described by a discrete time series, which is then transferred to a symbol series composed of simple characters; and the series' block entropy is calculated by means of informatics methodology; consequently, a new quantifiable statistical index is obtained. This study takes a one-order voltage feedback DCM and a two-order current feedback CCM Boost converter as examples, and the results illustrate that the coarse-grained statistical method of block entropy, which can quantify the period-doubling and chaos behaviours in DC-DC converters and precisely confirm the appearance of chaos, is a simple and practical analysis method which has not been used in DC-DC converters yet.

Las cofradías en el reino de Valencia. Análisis y claves interpretativas

Between 1329 and 1458 the kingdom of Valencia witnessed a development of an assocaitive movement parallel to other European regions, which gave rise to the appearence of a great number of associations divided in two main groups: religious and trade brotherhoods. Their objectives were to cover a series of spiritual and charity needs, and also to serve as a representation for the traditional handicrafts, looking for a great influence on the urban world by means of a series of symbols, which permited a high grade of social exhibition.

Variance estimators for the Lempel-Ziv entropy rate estimator

Lempel and Ziv's 1976 algorithm provides an easy-to-compute way to automatically estimate the entropy rate for symbolic time series, requiring no free parameters. Here we derive an analytical variance estimate for the Lempel-Ziv entropy rate estimator that is easily computable from observations with negligible extra effort beyond the entropy rate itself, and compare to another procedure, a time-series-based bootstrap method. These provide a justified "error bar" quantifying the size of expected fluctuations on the estimate itself, given by the single time series of symbols.

Organization of the state space of a simple recurrent network before and after training on recursive linguistic structures

Recurrent neural networks are often employed in the cognitive science community to process symbol sequences that represent various natural language structures. The aim is to study possible neural mechanisms of language processing and aid in development of artificial language processing systems. We used data sets containing recursive linguistic structures and trained the Elman simple recurrent network (SRN) for the next-symbol prediction task. Concentrating on neuron activation clusters in the recurrent layer of SRN we investigate the network state space organization before and after training. Given a SRN and a training stream, we construct predictive models, called neural prediction machines, that directly employ the state space dynamics of the network. We demonstrate two important properties of representations of recursive symbol series in the SRN. First, the clusters of recurrent activations emerging before training are meaningful and correspond to Markov prediction contexts. We show that prediction states that naturally arise in the SRN initialized with small random weights approximately correspond to states of Variable Memory Length Markov Models (VLMM) based on individual symbols (i.e. words). Second, we demonstrate that during training, the SRN reorganizes its state space according to word categories and their grammatical subcategories, and the next-symbol prediction is again based on the VLMM strategy. However, after training, the prediction is based on word categories and their grammatical subcategories rather than individual words. Our conclusion holds for small depths of recursions that are comparable to human performances. The methods of SRN training and analysis of its state space introduced in this paper are of a general nature and can be used for investigation of processing of any other symbol time series by means of SRN.

Chaotic time series prediction for the game, Rock-Paper-Scissors

Two players of Rock-Paper-Scissors are modeled as adaptive agents which use a reinforcement learning algorithm and exhibit chaotic behavior in terms of trajectories of probability in mixed strategies space. This paper demonstrates that an external super-agent can exploit the behavior of the other players to predict favorable moments to play against one of the other players the symbol suggested by a sub-optimal strategy. This third agent does not affect the learning process of the other two players, whose only goal is to beat each other. The choice of the best moment to play is based on a threshold associated with the Local Lyapunov Exponent or the Entropy, each computed by using the time series of symbols played by one of the other players. A method for automatically adapting such a threshold is presented and evaluated. The results show that these techniques can be used effectively by a super-agent in a game involving adaptive agents that exhibit collective chaotic behavior.

Steganography using multiple-base notational system and human vision sensitivity

This letter proposes a novel steganographic scheme that employs human vision sensitivity to hide a large amount of secret bits into a still image with a high imperceptibility. In this method, data to be embedded are converted into a series of symbols in a notation system with multiple bases. The specific bases used are determined by the degree of local variation of the pixel magnitudes in the host image so that pixels in busy areas can potentially carry more hidden data. Experimental results are given to show the advantage of this adaptive technique.

Treadmill Culture

Treadmill Culture

Being Indian in Northeast Oklahoma

Among Native American peoples the complex issue of social identity and community often arises in terms of asserting a tribal rather than an Indian identity. That pattern may not hold true, however; for the eight tribes now located in the northeast corner of Oklahoma (NEO). All of these tribes were removed to the area in the mid-nineteenth century; each suffered from the European American policies intended to disintegrate their culture and a similate the survivors into European American society. In the face of this acculturative pressure, people in the area retain a tribal identity but often express it in a more general Indian identity. Both structural and symbolic integration reinforce and create that identity for the Indian people of northeast Oklahoma. Structural integration takes the form of economic coordination and cooperation between the tribes. Symbolic integration is publicly evident in a series of symbols associated with powwow. These symbols include powwow regalia and cross the community along dimensions other than tribe (e.g., age, sex, and cultural heritage). Many other processes contribute to the Indian culture in northeast Oklahoma; some will emerge only through further research.

Polygonal figures and their form spaces II. Angle permutations in equilateral polygons

In a closed nonregular equilateral polygonal curve, angles cannot be permuted arbitrarily without opening the curve. Here we investigate the possible angle permutations that leave a polygonal curve closed. To this end we introduce angle sequences, i.e., symbol sequences describing the number and arrangement of like angle values in classes of forms. We find that there exist “ universal angle sequences” giving closed polygons for arbitrary angle values provided that the angle sum is kept constant at one of certain permissible values. The universal angle sequences are periodic: they consist of at least two identical series of symbols. Within a series, the symbols can be permuted freely on condition that in all other series the very same permutation is applied. All these correlated permutations, when applied to the angles of a corresponding polygonal curve, leave this curve closed. Polygons belonging to a given angle sequence (form class) constitute a submanifold of the manifold M I of equilateral polygons within the form space. These submanifolds structure M I in a hierarchical manner so that the form class concept gives a valuable complementary classification scheme for the forms of M I . Furthermore, we find that polygons with constant angle composition (the term “composition” is used here in its chemical sense) show a wide variety of possible shapes (from quasi-circular to wormlike and even self-intersecting ones) corresponding to different degrees of “segregation” of like angles within the polygonal curve.

Testing for general dynamical stationarity with a symbolic data compression technique

We construct a hypothesis test for examining the stationarity of the evolution law for a time series of discrete symbols: whether two data streams appear to originate from the same underlying, but unknown, dynamical system. Based on techniques from the theory of data compression, our method intelligently accounts for the substantial serial correlation and nonlinearity found in realistic dynamical data. We demonstrate the method on a number of realistic experimental datasets.

Changes in Probability of Sequences, Exit Time Distribution and Dynamical Entropy in the Potsdam Temperature Record

Investigations of the temporal change of the probability of defined sequences and dynamical entropy (Nicolis et al., 1997) are presented using the daily maximum and minimum of the air temperature of the Potsdam time series, which spans the 102 years from 1893–1994. To reduce the number of parameters a nonhierarchical cluster analysis algorithm (Steinhausen and Langer, 1977) was used. This algorithm assigns one of five clusters each day, classified as very cold, cold, temperate, warm or hot. According to the algorithm, each day is described by only one of the symbols vc, c, t, w or h. Subsequently a time series analysis on this series of symbols was performed. The basic analysis length was defined by a 30 year window, which was shifted over the entire time series thus yielding 73 analysis sections. The quantities vary from window to window. Their variations were used for the detection of climate change. One of the major findings was the increased persistence of typical temperature characteristics. Within the windows we investigate relatively long-term correlations which extend over many days. The results show the time series to be markedly non-Markov.

Application of Vector Space Techniques to DNA

We propose the application of a recent vector space technique for the analysis of DNA sequences. In this approach the similarity of two series of symbols is measured by the dot products of vectors corresponding to the given sequences. In this paper we demonstrate that this measure, depending on the short-range properties of the sequences, may be used for identifying different elements of the genome.