This letter deals with the problem of fluctuating target detection in heavy-tailed -distributed clutter over a number of independent coherent intervals, e.g., in the case of a long observation interval (“stare mode”), or that of independent (range) resolution cells as per the track before detect techniques. The generalized likelihood ratio test for the problem at hand is derived, as well as an ...

In the recent past, tracking applications increasingly develop towards distributed sensor scenarios. In many cases, such schemes must cope with low observable targets in cluttered environments. Furthermore, such a setup suffers from communication delays and timely delayed sensor data. However, Track-before-Detect methodologies are not suitable for processing time delayed data yet. In this paper...

Advancements in information and communication technologies have enhanced our possibilities to communicate worldwide, eliminating borders and making it possible to interact with people coming from other cultures like never happened before. Such powerful tools have brought us to reconsider our concept of privacy and social involvement in order to make them fit into this wider environment. It is p...

Enrico Fermi had to cajole his friend Ettore Majorana into publishing his big idea: a modification of the Dirac equation that would have profound ramifications for particle physics. Shortly afterwards, in 1938, Majorana mysteriously disappeared, and for 70 years his modified equation remained a rather obscure footnote in theoretical physics (Box 1). Now suddenly, it seems, Majorana’s concept is...

A ccording to Apple, “ ... certain celebrity accounts were compromised by a very targeted attack on user names, passwords, and security questions.”1 Didn’t we cover defensive privacy tactics in my January column?2 Color me dazed and confused! Hacking in cyberspace? Nothing like that’s ever happened before. (I’ve got another heads-up for you iPhone users—Siri talks about you behind your back. I’...

Despite the prevalence of mentally ill probationers, and probation officers' (POs') central role in their supervision, this is the first reported study to investigate how POs implement mandates to participate in psychiatric treatment. Five focus groups were conducted in major cities with 32 POs and 20 probationers representing a mix of traditional and "specialty" probation agencies. Three key f...

The happened before model has been widely used to model distributed computations In particular it has been used to model the logical time and the potential causality aspects of a distributed computation Though it is a good model for logical time we argue that it is not a good model for potential causality We introduce a better model for potential causality that extends happened before to allow ...