Robust sparse principal component analysis.

A method for principal component analysis is proposed that is sparse and robust at the same time. The sparsity delivers principal components that have loadings on a small number of variables, making them easier to interpret. The robustness makes the analysis resistant to outlying observations. The principal components correspond to directions that maximize a robust measure of the variance, with an additional penalty term to take sparseness into account. We propose an algorithm to compute the sparse and robust principal components. The method is applied on several real data examples, and diagnostic plots for detecting outliers and for selecting the degree of sparsity are provided. A simulation experiment studies the loss in statistical efficiency by requiring both robustness and sparsity.Dispersion measure; Projection-pursuit; Outliers; Variable selection;

Solar Wind Neon from Genesis: Implications for the Lunar Noble Gas Record

Lunar soils have been thought to contain two solar noble gas components with distinct isotopic composition. One has been identified as implanted solar wind, the other as higher-energy solar particles. The latter was puzzling because its relative amounts were much too large compared with present-day fluxes, suggesting periodic, very high solar activity in the past. Here we show that the depth-dependent isotopic composition of neon in a metallic glass exposed on NASA's Genesis mission agrees with the expected depth profile for solar wind neon with uniform isotopic composition. Our results strongly indicate that no extra high-energy component is required and that the solar neon isotope composition of lunar samples can be explained as implantation-fractionated solar wind

Erwägungen zu Christophe Pons “Ocultismo e Protestantismo na Islândia: Tendências iconófilas de contextos não-icônicos”

Reação ao texto principal de Christophe Pon

Considerações sobre o texto de Christophe Pons: “Ocultismo e Protestantismo na Islândia: Tendências iconófilas de contextos não-icônicos”

Reação ao texto principal de Christophe Pons. [Tradução: Felipe Gustavo Koch Buttelli

CAST constraints on the axion-electron coupling

In non-hadronic axion models, which have a tree-level axion-electron interaction, the Sun produces a strong axion flux by bremsstrahlung, Compton scattering, and axiorecombination, the "BCA processes." Based on a new calculation of this flux, including for the first time axio-recombination, we derive limits on the axion-electron Yukawa coupling gae and axion-photon interaction strength ga using the CAST phase-I data (vacuum phase). For ma <~ 10 meV/c2 we find ga gae < 8.1 × 10−23 GeV−1 at 95% CL. We stress that a next-generation axion helioscope such as the proposed IAXO could push this sensitivity into a range beyond stellar energy-loss limits and test the hypothesis that white-dwarf cooling is dominated by axion emission

Dialogues and Dynamics – Interculturality in Theology and Religious Studies

This volume contains the texts from the symposium on the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the M.A. Programme Intercultural Theology. The contributions address the challenges and consequences of an intercultural approach in academics as well as in the churches and in society. Since globalisation has significantly changed the face of contemporary Christianity in the 21st century, the task of doing theology has become more complex. The cultural, geographic and denominational varieties of Christianity worldwide challenge the traditional Western face of academic Christian theology and demand new and global forms of theological thinking across lines. Intercultural Theology seeks to embrace these dynamics with a constructive dialogue, opening up new spaces of collaborative thinking and academic reflection

tclust: An R Package for a Trimming Approach to Cluster Analysis

Outlying data can heavily influence standard clustering methods. At the same time, clustering principles can be useful when robustifying statistical procedures. These two reasons motivate the development of feasible robust model-based clustering approaches. With this in mind, an R package for performing non-hierarchical robust clustering, called tclust, is presented here. Instead of trying to “fit” noisy data, a proportion α of the most outlying observations is trimmed. The tclust package efficiently handles different cluster scatter constraints. Graphical exploratory tools are also provided to help the user make sensible choices for the trimming proportion as well as the number of clusters to search for

Robust constrained fuzzy clustering

It is well-known that outliers and noisy data can be very harmful when applying clustering methods. Several fuzzy clustering methods which are able to handle the presence of noise have been proposed. In this work, we propose a robust clustering approach called F-TCLUST based on an “impartial” (i.e., self-determined by data) trimming. The proposed approach considers an eigenvalue ratio constraint that makes it a mathematically well-defined problem and serves to control the allowed differences among cluster scatters. A computationally feasible algorithm is proposed for its practical implementation. Some guidelines about how to choose the parameters controlling the performance of the fuzzy clustering procedure are also given.Estadística e I