There is currently high interest in developing automated methods to assist the updating of map databases. This study presents methods for automatic detection of buildings and changes in buildings from airborne laser scanner and digital aerial image data and shows the potential usefulness of the methods with thorough experiments in a 5 km 2 suburban study area. 96% of buildings larger than 60 m ...

Dynamic clock auctions with drop-out information typically yield outcomes closer to equilibrium predictions than do comparable sealed-bid auctions. However, clock auctions require congregating bidders for a fixed time interval, which has limited field applicability and introduces inefficiencies of its own given the time cost of congregating bidders. In this experiment we explore the effects of ...

The generation of aerosols and the contamination of surfaces arising from the use of a number of special purpose centrifuges have been measured. Except when sealed containers were used all the equipment tested generated airborne particles and contaminated surrounding surfaces. The magnitude of this contamination was shown to be associated with several factors, and it could be considerably reduc...

Estimation of the dynamic characteristics of buildings is a key issue in seismic design technology. Since 1957, the Building Research Institute (BRI), Japan, has been operating a network to monitor strong motion in buildings. In this study, dynamic characteristics of 25 actual buildings in the BRI network were estimated by using strong motion records. Acceleration records from two sensors respe...

Sealed-Bid auction is an efficient and rational method to establish the price in open market. However sealed-bid auctions are subject to bid-rigging attack. Receipt-free mechanisms were proposed to prevent bid-rigging. The prior receipt-free mechanisms are based on two assumptions; firstly, existence of untappable channel between bidders and auction authorities. Secondly, mechanisms assume the ...

Ensemble learning aims to improve generalization ability by using multiple base learners. It is well-known that to construct a good ensemble, the base learners should be accurate as well as diverse. In this paper, unlabeled data is exploited to facilitate ensemble learning by helping augment the diversity among the base learners. Specifically, a semi-supervised ensemble method named Sealed is p...

Compression molded composites were made from wood particles and a liquefied wood/phenol/formaldehyde co-condensed resin. Based on our previous research, a phenol to wood (P1W) ratio of 2/1 was chosen for this study. The two experimental variables selected were: 1) liquefaction temperature (1500 and 180°C) and 2) cooking method (atmospheric and sealed). Panels were tested in static bending for m...

We fabricate a simple, compact, and stable temperature sensor based on a liquid-sealed photonic crystal fiber (PCF) in-line nonpolarimetric modal interferometer. Different from other reported PCF devices, it does not need expensive polarimetric devices, and the liquid is sealed in one fiber. The device consists of a stub of isopropanol-filled PCF spliced between standard single-mode fibers. The...

We surveyed 470 Amazon.com merchants regarding their experience, knowledge and perceptions of digitally-signed email. Some of these merchants (93) had been receiving digitally-signed VAT invoices from Amazon for more than a year. Respondents attitudes were measured as to the role of signed and/or sealed mail in e-commerce. Among our findings: 25.2% of merchants thought that receipts sent by onl...

When autonomous agents decide on their bidding strategies in real world auctions, they have a number of concerns that go beyond the models that are normally analyzed in traditional auction theory. Oftentimes, the agents have budget constraints and the auctions have a reserve price, both of which restrict the bids the agents can place. In addition, their attitude need not be risk-neutral and the...